[Bishoujo Game Review] Shuffle!

Game Title: Shuffle! (English Version)
Company: Navel (Mangagamer in US)
Release Date: 01.30.2004 (JP)
Genre: Bishoujo Game, Slice of Life, Fantasy
Rating: 18+
Voice: Partial Full Voice
Platform: PC (with 18+) PS2, but only the PC version is translated into English
Other information: There’s two more spinoff games, a PS2 version, and I believe there’s a DS version of one of the sequels in the making/already out.

Summary: Set in an alternate universe, the world of the Devils and Gods are all intertwined with the Human world. Rin, your average by, goes to high school and lives with an old childhood friend Kaede. However what changes his life is when two girls, one of them being a princess of the Devils and the other princess of the Gods, come and transfer to his school. Turns out that they both really love Rin and want to marry him! Which will Rin choose…? Or will he choose someone else instead?

Review: So I’ve heard about Shuffle! before, and I remember when it was just coming out as an anime, and it sounded interesting to me at the time…I mean the fantasy part of it. However I’ve never seen the anime and this was my first actual encounter with the whole Shuffle! story stuff.

Overall, the art was pretty just very stark and the stories…were…interesting yet weird at the same time. The Mangagamer translations did get better, it seems like they finally got a better proofreader and since this is their release it’s also uncensored.

The whole order of the girls I played xD is sort of how I rate them all. I played Nerine –> Asa –> Sia –> Primula –> Kaede…and well maybe Kaede and Primula are a tie for last for me since I REALLY did not care for the whole loli thing going for Primula and Kaede was a bit too meek for me. I adored Nerine and Asa though a lot~

I don’t get what this game was with the whole merging of two people into one deal though. I mean Nerine and Asa? *spoiler* You both have someone else inside of you o.o Asa’s being the moooost confusing to work out with since I didn’t get how Rin does it with both Asa and Kikyou and then…goes ahead saying that Kikyou doesn’t have his heart blah blah and stuff. I don’t know I was sort of expecting him to just love the two of them equally even if they are one person. That whole story part gave me minuses for Asa.

The ero scenes were sort of laugh and WTF for me, with mainly Primula. The watersports came out of no where, since I did not see that coming with this game and just NO, and out of all people who was to do it was the little loli girl. Oh and it was also outside at night sooooo YEAH RIN, WHAT THE FUCK? Eh that’s the most “different” ero scenes since all the other girls have standard normal scenes for ero games.

Rin, the main guy you play, was actually pretty entertaining and I liked how he appeared in the CGs and with a face. I really liked the best friend character Itsuki and maou-sama, xD ahhh Another pity is that the scene recollections are only of the H-Scenes you’ve had with the girls, and the good ending you get.

Otome fans or well people who have played Under the Moon: HAHA SERIOUSLY WHY ISN’T ASHE LIKE NERINE? SAME GOES FOR MAOU-SAMA. Seriously, if you just switched Nerine and Ashe :/ I’d like to see that instead.

Gameplay:

Just reading, and choosing your destiny with the girls :)

Seiyuu: HAHA MINAMI WHY ARE YOU DOING ANOTHER LOLI? :I I like you for Sakura, but I didn’t care much for her as Primula.

Music: The music was all pretty good, I wish they had singing tracks for Nerine but I believe the PS2 does? Or well the anime too of course.

Conclusion: I’d play this over again for Nerine and Asa…and I want to play Kareha and Mayumi, but I believe they’re only for PS2 ^^;; and I’m not going to buy this so it’s not in my to play list unless I get it cheap.

Haha I was amused by how manly Rin looks, from what you can see in the CGs he shows up, he’s quite a big (as in tall) type of guy. So it certainly helped make this game enjoyable, although I believe his appearance is much more different then the anime

Since it’s an older game, don’t expect too much out of this but I still think it’s a good game. It’s too bad Mangagamer doesn’t give out hardcopies of their games though since I’d much rather have that then a quick download.

I plan to play the spin off games though for sure, most likely Tick Tack! First, and hmm I’m debating on playing the spin-off one to Kaeda buuut we’ll see. I’ve tried to watch the anime, but I probably won’t get to that anytime soon.

CGs: