Ontama: Onpu-tou Hen [DS/JP]

[Johnny]

Official Site

Had this preordered for a while and it arrived yesterday and I got a chance to start it last night.

It's a rhythm action game with a twist. Basically on the main play screen (the touch screen), you have a meter at the top which shows d-pad directions (up, down, left, right. No diagonals).
Each direction has a colour assigned to it and little creatures (the Ontama of the title) appear matching these colours.
The basic idea is to capture them by tapping them or drawing a circle around them, which highlights the d-pad arrow which needs to be pressed as it enters the circle at the end of the meter.

That's the basic idea but later levels include bigger Ontama which need to be tapped multiple times, dark Ontama which need to be tapped to get rid of or they eat the other ones and so on.

Musically it's no Ouendan or anything, just fairly basic tunes but they suit the tone of the game well.

It's fairly easy to begin with but by the later stages, there's a lot of Ontama on screen at once and it gets tricky trying to capture them and remember to push the d-pad as well.

Overall though this is definitely one of the most fun games on the DS. With the right marketing, this could rival Ouendan as it's easy to get into and very addictive.
So if you liked Ouendan/EBA or just fancy something different, definitely check the game out!

Here's hoping for a sequel or Wii version...

[The Mole]

Thanks for the impressions. I decided to cancel my pre order due to the bad review scores coming out of Japan.

Guess its U-Turn time.

[briareos_kerensky]

I guess I'll give it a shot. I was waiting for some reviews and impressions, you made it sound it's a good game.

[importaku]

Glad to see that there some other people who were interested in this, nice to hear of some impressions too as my copy is on its way to me. A new music game for the ds is always a welcome addition.

[The Mole]

I have been following this game closely and from the videos, it looks like the actions have no relations to the songs, is that the case?

In ouendan you tend to feel like the beats are mostly in sync with the game, but i got the impression the actions looked random in relation to the song.

[Johnny]

I have been following this game closely and from the videos, it looks like the actions have no relations to the songs, is that the case?

In ouendan you tend to feel like the beats are mostly in sync with the game, but i got the impression the actions looked random in relation to the song.

Yeah, that's pretty much true but on some stages it seems that missing a note or playing it too slow/out of time changes the song, but this doesn't seem to happen with all stages...

[Johnny]

Glad to see that there some other people who were interested in this, nice to hear of some impressions too as my copy is on its way to me. A new music game for the ds is always a welcome addition.

Don't forget about Taiko no Tatsujin next month!

Don't suppose you have or have heard of Custom Beat Battle: Draglade? Came out last month and it's a 2D fighter/RPG with a rhythm action element used to pull off combos. Another great music-influenced DS game.

There's an absolute ton of really obscure stuff coming to the DS this summer, same as last. Can't wait!

[importaku]

Theres one called Nodame canterbille thats pretty obscure, you use your stylus to conduct classical music.

Looks tempting.

[briareos_kerensky]

Nodame is theorically well known as it's based on the anime with the same name, I think there's also a web demo on the official site.

[importaku]

Well just had a quick go on my copy & i love it, but my god its hard on some songs trying to keep your eyes on both the note bar & the ontama capture area.

I have noticed you can unlock freeplay mode & a shop where you can buy items that help you out like, a auto player icon where it plays a section of the song for you when you get to a difficult bit.

Looks like theres a lot to unlock (^_^)

Music not too bad either it sounds a bit like pop 'n music in parts.

[importaku]

Played a bit more & im starting to work out what all the items in the shops do.

Im upto stage 12 but its pretty hard as the ontama are coming thick & fast. However i discovered that you have breath capsules that auto fill in the notes if you blow into the mic, you can see how many you have as they are the blue spheres at the top of the screen under the note bar.

[Johnny]

Well just had a quick go on my copy & i love it, but my god its hard on some songs trying to keep your eyes on both the note bar & the ontama capture area.

I have noticed you can unlock freeplay mode & a shop where you can buy items that help you out like, a auto player icon where it plays a section of the song for you when you get to a difficult bit.

Looks like theres a lot to unlock (^_^)

Music not too bad either it sounds a bit like pop 'n music in parts.

Nice, haven't been into the shop but I'll have to check it out later.

Caved in and ordered Nodame earlier too

[importaku]

Well it was tough but i managed to clear story mode on normal, challenge mode has now unlocked which lets you play 4 songs one after another.

Theres also a mysterious item in the shop for 3000op im guessing its another song to play as theres one song in the game that i know is in there as i have seen it, but i havent unlocked it.

this is the song

http://www.noise.co.jp/game/ontama/onmyouji.html

So far its pretty fun.

[importaku]

Well another update, the 3000op items in the shop are indeed new songs, unlocked 2 so far & another has appeared in the shop so i have no idea how many extra songs are in the game, im hoping quite a few (^_^).

[The Mole]

Can you do a menu translation please?

I have been playing this but am very stuck on level 12, where and how do i get the items and how do i use them?

I have to say this game is grossly underrated one review i saw gave it 17/40. i also prefer the music to that found in Ouendan 2.