Yo-Jin-Bo the bodyguards

Chinese new year holidays came and went.. did my revision, visited relatives and played more games :D

I chanced upon a free download of this commercial otome game, set in the feudal times of japan from a really kind and responsive otome game blogger-- otome lover. It's called Yo-Jin-Bo, The Bodyguards, 用心棒. I finished it in 3 days of on and off playing and I really really like the game ((: my dears, this isn't a review or a walkthrough, I'm just fan-girling over the game and feeling happy even if no one understands hahaha

Beware of minor spoilers!!

In my opinion, the artwork wasn't that appealing, compared to the previous games I've tried. The characters appear slightly strange, not all the angles were flattering. I couldn't appreciate the facial features which I felt were too sharp... just not that pleasing to the eye.

That aside, the background music deserve two thumbs up!! The theme at the starting menu and when the bad guys appear is extremely catchy. Many others were also very soothing and looped in such perfection that I opened the game and played the songs continuously while doing my work.

A total of 6 characters to obtain, I went after them in this order: Muneshige (uncle ah uncle), Jin, Ittosai (psycho), Bo, Yo (xiaodidi), Monzan (lao ah pek). I have to say.... each path has it's sweet and squeal worthy parts, some more then the others, others more fun then the rest. And so I shall dedicate a para to each character.

I got a game over in the 1st play through, at the fork road. Turned out I was too set on Muneshige which resulted in a wrong action. He didn't appear too old, and it didn't hit me as such until Jin refered to Muneshige as a middle aged man somewhere in the game. This made me go -__- and wonder why on earth I chose to go after such an old man on the 1st try. I guess I was smitten by his protectiveness at the enemy's castle haha (: Enjoyed his cgs the most out of the guys, especially the one with the hand signal LOL and the ones with his hair down XDXD

The 2nd guy I went after was Jinnosuke aka Jin. Reason being, he was the 1st guy to catch my attention in game, but that was before Muneshige got to show his caring side which then swept me off my feet. So I went after Jin out of erm.. loyalty. Jin's path was rather plain... I liked the part where they rolled down the hill after escaping, and that little bit of sexual tension during the snake bite. The ending was supposed to be special? But somehow it didn't get me :X Maybe I was expecting more since Jin's always shown as the main character carrying the girl. Not bad lah, but nothing special.

Ittosai was my favourite guy, with regards to the path. It's really cliche now that I think about it, but the development was the most natural and complete out of the six characters. I was squealing at his method of breaking the princess's fall. In fact, I had already been squealing before they had escaped from the ninjas. Not much of a meganebishie fan... so the fanservice at the end was alright. (((: Oh wait!! Ittosai's voice was really sexy XD that put me in the squealing mood hahaha! Ittosai's bad ending almost made me cry.

I wish they'd do something about the face and gave him a more gentle expression though..

I mean look at that face at the bottom left.. if someone said 'I love you' with that kind of expression, I would totally be freaked out.

Tsubaki aka Bo was next. He was my obvious choice since I wasn't attracted by little boys (Yo) or old men (Monzan). His path was ordinary, almost lame. The flirting was good, but when it really mattered, he spoilt it with too much geek talk. The walking on air part got me starry eyed because it was so magical (: until the cape appeared -_- Happy ending had a nice surprise while the bad ending was pretty good (but still sad)

Yozaburo Iranui whee I remember his full name =D Very lively voice, I like! His path was quite satisfactory, one of the better ones, in my opinion. It was exciting, and I was actually worried about his injuries, cos they seemed to be quite grave and he looked weak. A little too much shounen ai hints with Monzan and there was even a CG dedicated to that pairing?! .... Maybe i'm reading too much into it but yea.... still anti yaoi and will pick at any shounen ai hints I'm not comfortable with.

His bad ending was really bad if you realise what has happened..

The last guy I went after.. cos I wasn't too keen on the idea of chasing a monk with white hair who isn't cool at all. His path surprised me.... I'll actually rank Monzan aka Mon-mon as second favourite after Ittosai. It's was quite a fun path, and what surprised me was Mon-mon's considerate and capable side, so dependable~ -swoons- The injuries he sustained seemed quite grave, which also got me worried hahaha. I didn't like his method of catching the princess though, lacked the originality after seeing Ittosai's version first. Mon-mon had the best ending... a ring XD wow

I thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue between the characters. The translation was done well and alot of jokes were not lost in translation, at least that's what I feel since i don't understand japanese. The game was filled with jokes and humour, like almost every other line had a punch line. This had me laughing like mad XD Sure, some were pretty lame and many of the jokes did not fit into the time period but i'm cool with that since it's consistent throughout the game.

And sooo... I had an awesome chinese new year (: abrupt end