Angel Grafitti

ANGEL GRAFFITI
Coconuts Japan
Sony Playstation
26 Jul 1996
SLPS-00163 ¥6800
SLPS-00306 ¥8800 (Deluxe Ver.)

© Astrovision/1995 Coconuts Japan Entertainment Co. LTD.

-- by Dave Van Cleef

The "love simulation" genre has been lurking around the computer games industry in Japan for years. Last year's release by Konami of TOKIMEKI MEMORIAL ~ forever with you ~ on the Playstation legitimized the genre (as well as making Konami a ton of money, not only on the game, but merchandizing as well). In response, while Konami has been busily porting Tokimemo to seemingly every platform except fuzzy rice-cookers, a number of similar games have hit the Playstation market. One of the most eagerly awaited of these is Angel Grafitti, by Coconuts Japan.

Coconuts has certainly spared no expense in hiring big names to work the project. Chief among these is character designer Matsumoto Izumi, probably best known in the US for Kimagure Orange Road. Principal seiyuu include Orikasa "Ryoko" Ai, Tomizawa "Sailor Mars" Michie, Shinohara "Sailor Jupiter" Emi, Shimamoto "Otonashi Kyoko" Sumi, and Amano "Kiyone" Yuri.

As is becoming the case with this genre, two versions are available. The normal version is priced at ¥6800 and the deluxe is ¥8800. The deluxe version includes memory card stickers, a book about the game, and a CD single containing the opening song and an upbeat pop number entitled "Keep In Touch."

Cut-scenes galore!

[SCREENSHOT 2]

Most scenes are full animation, compared to Tokimeki Memorial's somewhat static images.

A player familiar with these kinds of games will note a great many similarities with Tokimeki Memorial. Commands for what to do with the character's time are chosen from a master menu, and a small animation or cut scene takes place.

There are a number of differences here, both good and bad. On the good side are cut scenes, cut scenes, cut scenes! I've never seen so many in a game of this type. Almost all of them are full animations, as opposed to Tokimemo's moving lips and eyes on a static character and background. Also, your character has more control over his schedule. If there is a sequence of days that you want to skip over, you can disable the manual selection of what to do for that date range and speed up the animation rate to get through the period quickly. In addition to the normal Tokimeki Memorial factors of managing the girls' feelings towards you with your own statistics and stress, you have to be able to handle your own finances. If you havn't earned the yen from your part-time jobs, you won't be able to take Amano Misuzu to that concert at the end of the month that she's been wanting to go to...

On the bad side, the game is fairly slow; each turn is only one day instead of Tokimemo's full week. Everything, even things such as checking out the list of jobs or making changes to game settings, takes up your action for the day. There are only five characters to choose from, and most of the designs look very similar to past Matsumoto characters. Also, the selection of special subgames is rather lacking. There is nothing nearly as good as Twinbee Time Attack or Stardust Symphony EX here, just a few games that look quickly thrown together as an afterthought.

Overall, I'd really only recommend this game for the true Matsumoto Izumi fans or fans of the individual seiyuu involved. In the "love simulation" field there are a number of better selections for you to spend your hard earned money on.