After watching 15 episodes of Shuffle!, I decided that the anime is trying too hard to tell the stories of all five girls instead of concentrating on one of them. Although this was done to appease everyone, I don’t like how the overall story ends up forgotten and the whole thing becomes a series of under-developed substories for each character. Based on prior experiences, I figured that a lot of “shuffle”-ing must have been done in order to fit all five stories into one timeline (since they usually take place in lieu of one another in the game), so the creators must have cut out some details from each path in order to maximise airtime. Turns out I was only half right… (foreshadowing!?)
So, I dug out the original Shuffle! for PC (thank god for Windows Desktop Search) and finally installed it, just to find out if the series missed out anything about Nerine that I should know… (*cough*)
Read on for my thoughts after playing…
For those who do not know, Shuffle! by Navel was originally released for the PC in 2004. You play the main character, Rin Tsuchimi, an average guy who lives with his childhood friend, Kaede Fuyou. Together, they attend the National Verbena Academy, a school set up by the three worlds of demon, man and god. One day, two girls from transfer to Rin’s class. They are the daughter of the King of Demons and the daughter of the King of Gods and they both seem to know Rin’s name…
The game itself is standard harem fare with not much to offer in terms of creativity unless you count the demons-and-gods thing. The elfish ears of the demon race are a plus point, though. ;) The cast is the same in the game as the anime, but the character design is much, much better. Nerine just didn’t look as good in the anime (except for a few rare scenes where she looked somewhat like her in-game counterpart). Storywise, it’s what you would expect from a game like this: cute girls with tragic past.
Sadly I must say, the stories didn’t manage to stand out. I was right (remember my foreshadowing above?) to believe that the anime played around with the timeline in order to fit everything together, but at the same time it seems that the anime didn’t have to cut much to do so…because the game’s story is really short! Air was somewhat tiring with its epic novel-length story and I remembered wishing for something shorter, but Shuffle! is just waaaay too short! The two paths I tried contain nothing new compared to the anime and the endings leave you wondering which part was supposed to be the climax.
The characters are well-designed and the art is excellent, but the lack of a sufficiently well-developed story left a somewhat bitter aftertaste. I guess the only thing that Shuffle! has got going for it is the cute girls… Not that I’m against cute girls or anything, but I think Navel could have spent just a little more effort on the script.
Still, I will be lying if I say that I hated the game. I played through the paths for Nerine and Asa and they are both quite enjoyable. I will be playing through Tick! Tack!, a sequel based on Nerine’s family released just last month, as soon as I get my hands on it in a few days(?) time.
I don’t think game is to short but I’ve got like zero free time…I’m swamped with schoolwork and other things so it felt like it took a while before I finished it ^_^
It isn’t that weird that the quality is different between the game and the anime but it would have been nice if the girls in the anime would look a bit more like the way they do in the game.
The story was a bit underdeveloped but just if they had put a little more effort to the stories it could be really good since i find every girls past quite interesting especially Asa’s =D
Why do most people think that nerine is the cutest, best etc. out of all the girls, i can’t stand her personality…^^
Nerine has the best character design. Asa is second on my list though… D:
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i finished the game also. you should try kaede’s storyline, it’s a sort of reality to me if i compare to other girls’s past..
aww… i envy u guys who can read kanji T.T
i wanna play the game too but i would be really blur if i don’t know how to read the kanji in the game
>.
Umm….Where can I buy this game? Can someone tell me PLEASE?!
there will be a english translation path realy soon. search google
f
Are they selling the game in singapore O.o ? i don neo how to get it but i really want it … sobz*
i just recently downloaded shuffle for pc. lol its not even in kanji but in some sorta wierd .. well this is what appears in replacing of the kanji:(ðCD-ROMÆ’hƒ‰ƒ) but luckily i sorta understand what their saying (dunno how) lol but when they ask to pick for your destiny i just pick some random one. although it isnt as confusing as you think it is cause you can tell whose name is whose cause for an ex : for kaedes name they put – instead of her name in kanji. so if i just memorize the replacements for the name i have a basic idea of who their talking about and whatnot. i just hope they translate it soon. english subbed that is dubbed is just horible -.-“
Sorry. But, is there really any H scene in this game?
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i really love this film and i love all the characters but primula is the best.
comment
i want to wach for this film in arabic.may you show it on mbc 3?
and if you pleas may you make a channel that shows all anime movies?
thanks alot
afaf.
Ooh dang i just typed a long comment and as soon as i hit reply it came up blank! Please tell me it worked right? I dont want to sumit it again if i dont have to! Either the blog bugged out or i am just stuipd, the second option doesnt surprise me lol.
Good Morning just thought i will let you know i also had a issue with your blog appearing blank also. Must be monkeys in the system.
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