Dokidoki Majo Shinpan

[briareos_kerensky]

I don't even know where to begin...I think the game brought upon itself the infamous and unofficial translation of "girl touching game" ever since it was announced.
And at that moment I realized that the game had to be mine. Probably others thought the same, but probably I'm the only mad enough to write about it.
So...the game is about touching and sliding and presenting evidence and talking into the DS microphone. Just like Phoenix Wright, but with more teenager girls and less lawyers.
You play as Akuji, a teenager boy entrusted by the Powers Above to find witches in his area, and for that there's Lulu, chibi angel extraordinaire with a giant hammer.
Lulu gives you advices and quick tutorials on how to do things: the biggest part of the game is to wander around the school where Akuji goes, his house and the nearby shopping district, searching for clues that the girl you are stalk...investigating is a witch.
You need to doubletap things to inspect them, sometimes move objects out of the way by sliding the pen on the touch screen. Once enough evidence has been collected, you have to meet the girl suspected of witch craft and burn her on a stake.
No, wait, you have to fight her: she will hurl at you magic balls (whenever she's a witch or not...uhm) which you have to repel by sliding on the touchscreen in order to deplete her energy and then...let the touching begin!
With the d-pad you scroll the girl' sprite up and down, you can touch her, watch her, talk to her, smile to her and present evidence to make a mark appear...somewhere. By combining the actions above you make her hearth beat faster, which will make her change position for your touching pleasure.
After you have discovered if she's a witch or not, the story will progress according to the script.
For what I've seen there's no real good or bad answer even when you're faced with multiple choices, the biggest problem is that the whole game is in Japanese and probably the game is so simple that evidence gathering parts are as long as the touching part...in my case, I spent almost an hour wandering the game area trying to understand where to go, who to find and where was a damn key...random tapping around seems to work, and although the game keep tracks of passing hours, it doesn't appear that this has reflection on the game itself...probably after 24 hours you'll get a game over screen, but it's only speculation.
The game is pretty basic. Investigation is rather simple and evidence is only needed to fight the girl, you can "win" the touching part just by randomly switching between inspection modes. Further testing is needed to see if there are multiple outcomes for the investigation, but I somewhat doubt it (and I don't really like doing things randomly for more than once, so I doubt I'll ever replay the game, although there should be extra episodes once beaten).
As for the touching part, it's nothing bad, really. Yes, you do touch a videogame underage girl, but often (if not always) her hearthbeat will go down if you touch intimate parts and there's no nudity involved, just some bare thighs and shoulders.

[huxley]

Yes, you do touch a videogame underage girl, but often (if not always) her hearthbeat will go down if you touch intimate parts and there's no nudity involved, just some bare thighs and shoulders.

Enough said

[briareos_kerensky]

Went through my second witch today, much faster than the first.
Investigation part was a breeze, I discovered that there are black pandas to collect like Rub Rabbits to uhmm...dunno, you collect them.
Fighting part was much funnier, with the witch putting up a shield and throwing at you two kinds of potions with various effects (more damaging but no side effects, stunning bu less damaging) and also required to switch between supporting characters (Lulu and the first girl) to destroy her potions and actually attack her.
Touching part was less linear than the first and I got the impression that, yes, there can be multiple outcomes. However, everything is still kinda random. I succeeded in submitting evidence during this part, but in the end I did too many errors and the touching abruptly ended; the upper screen shows some text when the girl speaks, I still don't know if it's a hint on what doing next or just to let you read what she's saying.
After each chapter the probed girl will join your party to use her abilities in battle and to alternate who's gathering intelligence during the investigation...still, I don't really know if there's any real difference between Akuji, Lulu or the girls in this part.

[briareos_kerensky]

Third witch done. I think this one was a real witch, had a...

->Open Spoiler<-

Neo Geo logo on her forehead as proof.
Had to bait her with an Athena cartdridge for the Famicon and after the whole thing bought to Akuji's home an MVS system.

(not that much a great spoiler and actually fun...oh well)
The game is becoming really easy, despite the small puzzles brought in by the designers...tapping in the right order lights or figuring that a Beethowen portrait with flaming eyes is a bit out of place in a music hall isn't exactly thrilling or difficult.
Battles are a bit more interesting and so far are the only part that can get you a game over screen, but as I thought you can re-try right away after dying.
Touching is not totally random but you just need to figure out a pattern of tools to use and where to...after that it's repeating it with slight variations.
At 1:45 hours I'm half of the game, assuming that there are only seven witches as the official site suggests. Probably its strongest point is being easy and players will be able to breeze through the game in an afternoon or two (depending if there are girlfriends around asking them "why is your DS screaming like a little girl?" or "did your DS just told you you're a hentai?" -pervert-) for then forgetting it in a drawer.
Probably you'll might want to end it twice to open the free touching mode and loose your friends after showing it to them.

[briareos_kerensky]

Fifth witch

->Open Spoiler<-

was a boy. And a werewolf.

I feel violated.
Fourth trial was a bit better than all other, the story is a bit more complicated and the battle was good, but still very easy.
I think I'm getting the hang of this, the game does not indicate hours but days, and you can get the hour by going to the school entrance and gazing the clocktower. Different hours open different locations and characters move through them and apparently different days open different locations too, but I'm still not very sure about this.

[briareos_kerensky]

Sixth witch defeated.

->Open Spoiler<-

Psychotic little girl was wandering around school in an oversized bunny costume and would start to talk like a yakuza when other girls are around.

Eh.
Her battle was harder than anything else, but again, only two patterns that get a little faster when her health was low.

[briareos_kerensky]

Game completed. Eight chapters in total, the final chapter has a "witch" related to someone else in the game and after closing that chapter you can save the game and reload from that slot for a second tour-de-force among teenager witches. I've replayed two chapters so far and they're the same at the first playthrough, so it's basically skipping the text the faster you can to get to the battles and touching.
Once finished the game opens up a survival mode where you fight all the witches in the game without replenishing you energy, but you have all other girls' powers and your energy bar is a bit longer, so it's not as hard it could sound; there's a second extra mode that lets you replay some dialogues to see the different options...or so I think.

From what I've understood, there is just one possible outcome for each chapter, and just one ending sequence, although I think Lulu asks you who like the best near the end, but apparently this doesn't change a thing.

Still have to understand what the black pandas do...no real clue about that...probably some sort of gallery if you collect them all, but I don't think I will patient enough to go search for them all.

The best part of the games are the battles. Six are extremely easy, one is friggin' hard and one (the last) is well balanced, with more attack patterns and chances to use different powers.
Evidence gathering parts are very basic text adventures that you can breeze through with no problems at all, except maybe for two sections were one or more girls give you advices on what to do, but wild tapping around and sliding will get you through.
Touching parts are a major letdown. I always known there was no nudity involved (the game's rated C by Cero and there's no chance in hell that Nintendo will let publish a full-blown hentai game on their console), but I initially thought they would have been more elaborate...the game sold for these parts alone, but they are totally random. Once learned where the girl likes to be touched/gazed upon, you just need to switch between those two tools and hope to have done the right thing. Smiles and talking are basically useless, as well as evidence gathered during investigation...some girls don't even have items in their storyline, so it's really touching and gazing to have the girl switch between three poses and then hit the mark materializing after that. Theorically each character has five poses and some extra animations for skirts, hairs and chest, but...it's not worth your time, really.

I'll end the game a second time hoping that GameFAQ is telling the truth about extra chapters and other secondary modes...until other games get here. One playthrough is already enough.