ALL HAIL THE DEMON LORD!!!
Hello, and this is the review that I will be doing, Twinkle Crusaders. This game started way back, like year 2008, old but still good. It is made by Lilian which is a subsidiary to a main company called Pencil. (Apparently Pencil is also a big company which has other eroge companies such as Aries and Boot Up!)
There is a PSP version of this game, where you get an extra heroine and a new route from a sub-heroine. Somehow, my PSP is spoilt so I could not play it, and I do not have the time to fix it. There is also a extra game from this on the PSP as well, and it contains only the battle scenes and they also throw in various characters from other anime such as Taiga from Toradora. The PC also has the same thing but it contains other heroines from other visual novels instead. (Tenshin Ranman and Flyable Hearts etc etc.)
Apparently what got me started in this game is because of the PSP game (the one I managed to play was the one with purely battle scenes.). The battle scenes were awesome and the comedy in this game is so damn good.
Let’s now move on to the story synopsis. (as usual taken from the official website)
The school that Synn and his fellow student council members are studying in, is located at the high ground of 流星町 (Ryuuseimachi which means Meteor Town) and is a mission-driven school. As the name suggests, it is a city popular for its frequent meteor showers and this phenomenon cannot be explained by modern science, thus it becomes a famous tourist attraction for viewing them.
However, there exists another type of life form within the city, and they are called 魔族 (Mazoku or demonic beings. Simply call it demons). They came to the human world to have fun, yet ignored the rules and do whatever they want. As a result, this causes a lot of trouble in the city, and some civilians were hurt. Hence, to tackle the problem, the Ryuusei Seitokai is assigned to drive them away.
Under the leadership of the school chairman Helena, the activities of the anti-demon team 流星クルセイダース(Twinkle Crusaders) has begun. (That is the seitokai)
Let’s now move on to the heroines.
1.「咲良 シン」Synn Sakura
Synn is the president of the student council and is also the demon lord. (to his surprise.) He is the main protagonist of this game, and this guy is damn cute. (But I am straight.) He is the childhood friend of Nanaka and she will occasionally drop by to pass him bento or just to kick him awake.
This protagonist is also damn poor, and is a freaking dense guy, (especially when you are in Nanaka’s route, you will understand.) Somehow, he is unable to afford even the cheapest food in the canteen and luckily Nanaka is there to cook for him.
He has a new familiar, named Pakki, which is a panda stuffed doll. (and is another awesome comic relief.) He is the one who told Synn that he is the demon lord and somehow he pictures himself as this:
Abosulely FABULOUS!
He is a very responsible president, and will be seen bringing along a bottle of milk just because he likes it. (Though his real favourite seems to be musk melon.) He loves food, and will go ‘Delicious!’ in almost anything he eats. He is also a good cook, since he used to help out Nanaka in preparing food. He is a charismatic guy as well, and could seem to interact very well with many people and other demons as well. (As expected of the student president.)
In battle, he is a wild card, and is dependent on his luck with his skill, which is EX Cooperate. His skill is to gather his allies’ assist units or other demons he managed to befriend with, and each with specific and different skills. (The saddest moment is when you used that skill and only Pakki helped.) In the Append Disc version, his EX Cooperate was change to something that will eat 200% of the EX gauge and added a new knockback skill, which is damn useful in breaking enemy frame lineup. (Not available in this game.)
2.「夕霧 ナナカ」Nanaka Yuugiri
Nanaka is the childhood friend of Synn and is the treasurer of the student council. Not my favourite heroine in the game, but she is also another comedy relief to me because of her tsukkomi against the other members of the student council, especially Lolotte.
She is a pretty good cook though all she could do is only making soba since her family runs a soba shop. Being a treasurer of the student council, she did auditing and accounting work for various clubs and shutting them down if they are misusing the funds. She also helped out various shops as well to do auditing and accounting, hence making her famous in the street. (Idol of the street.)
Somehow she has a trauma for milk (must be Synn’s fault.) and is obsessed with Western confectionary which she insists it to be called Sweets. (Ice-cream and cakes are considered as one.) but somehow dislikes Japanese confectionary. She could determine a shop’s fate (unknown to her.) with her judgement, and whenever she is trying new Sweets in random shops, there will be other food journalists inside to write reviews according to her comments. (as long as it is above 60, the shop is safe.)
She has a crush on Synn since childhood but could never ever pick up the courage to confess nor give a morning kiss, and she had so many chances to strike, like waking Synn up. Things just could not get better when this guy who is denser than the density of mercury, and whenever Nanaka tried to beat about the bush with the topic, he could not even get it. (Where people like us would have understood her point.)
Nanaka is the main source of damage for the team, especially with her high burst damage which pops 3 stars of the stun gauge and with Sally as the assist unit. She is the main one which you will be spending your EX gauge on.
3.「ロロット. ローゼンクロイツ」Lolotte Rozenkrutz
Lolotte is the secretary of the student council. She is usually seen walking with her favourite piggy bank called Tontoro. (And I thought she was the treasurer of the student council.) She also has a bodyguard named Risling, who used to be a dangerous mercenary, since she can wipe out the entire army alone.
She is actually an angel, though she tried to deny, which usually backfires since she will reveal her wings every time she panics. She came down to the human world to have fun and learn about everything she can find in the world since she finds her world boring. Angels are not supposed to visit the human world because of fear that they will start to materialise and eventually losing their angelic powers and become humans, meaning they will be unable to return. (hence her route will be mainly about this.)
She is absolutely curious about almost everything, and will be overly hyped up when she finds something new (which is usually food.) She has a guidebook which she brought along from her world which basically acts a dictionary for her. She loves to eat, probably due to her curiosity in wanting to know more about food, but can never withstand bitter or spicy food.
To me, she is like a little kid, forcefully dragging people along in her own pace, just for her quest for exploring the world around her, but I do not dislike her since her moments when she panics that someone mentioned things relating to heaven or angels are priceless.
In battle mode, she is the only support for the Crusaders, and her skill is heal, which is damn important seeing how much hp the enemy has compared to Crusaders absolutely shit base hp of 1500 in Normal mode. (3000 in Easy mode) and she has a assist support who is none other than her absolutely reliable bodyguard Risling, that could deal a decent amount of damage and gives a 2 rush combo and breaking one star in the stun gauge. (Though I did not use her in the Append Disc, which is all battle modes, since she is only level 3 and her random speed is too unreliable.)
4.「聖沙 . ブリジッタ . クリステレス」Misa Brigitta Cristelis
Misa is the student vice president of the student council. A blonde twintail, the obvious that should follow will be tsundere. I like tsunderes though I do not really like twintails a lot.
Not a type of heroine I would really like, but I know M3ro-kun will be absolutely happy. She somehow dislikes and disapprove of Synn being the student president because she finds him incompetent for the role and will occasionally challenge him into some random and stupid stuff. (Which usually ends up her losing, oh wait she loses most of the time.) She is just a sore loser,
Scrub.
She admires Ria a lot and calls her Onee-sama. (not sure why, even when she explained, it does not even help since the story she gave is so exaggerated.) She also likes cute stuff, like teddy bears, which usually ends up with her fawning over Pakki.
If she focuses and concentrates on her work, she can easily finish a huge stack of paperwork within minutes and this leaves Synn shocked, and she somehow prioritises quantity over quality. She somehow has a very short temper and will rage at almost everything but mainly at Synn for the slight mistakes made.
Twintail tsunderes are so mainstream, but she is funny in her own ways since some of her losses are contributed by herself. (Saying the wrong stuff and got countered back.) However, she is not really my type of heroine since afterwards she tends to get a bit annoying when she starts to be a tsundere.
Misa is not really my favourite character when it comes to battle mode, because her overall damage is very low, even with her assist unit, who is her cousin, Shion. (Her assist unit has never dealt more than 5 damage when I used her.) However, she is useful in one thing, stunning the opponent faster. Her skill is a minimum 2-shot combo which deals low damage but if you are lucky, Misa will fire more than 4 arrows and by then your opponent will be stunned after your next attack. However, I would still spend my 100% EX gauge on Nanaka instead because she deals higher damage and charges faster than Misa, though Misa is faster than Nanaka.
5.「九浄 リア」Ria Kujou
Oppai is justice!
Ria is the previous student council president and is the current advisor for the student council. (Though she is supposed to step down already.) Not my type of heroine, but still, that freaking assets. She is also part of the Japanese Sweets Club, which is a rival club to Nanaka’s club, which is Western Sweets Club. She is one of my favourite heroines, due to her personality and she is much more cuter than the rest.
She is your usual onee-san type of person, and will usually make sure she sets a good example in front of her juniors, or her student council members. She tried to hide the fact that she cannot handle horror stories well and take spicy food, especially mustard and wasabi, but it ended up failing so bad.
Because of her outrageous body and that god damn assets, she is usually prone to being groped by her sister, who is the current chairman of the school. She may not realise it but sometimes when she speaks she may use the wrong words and somehow cause Synn to think it the erotic way. (Due to her tone.)
Sometimes, she may use reference lines from old drama or soap operas which does not even fit in the topic and usually she gets ignored. She is kind of charismatic and the weird thing about her is she is pretty good at drawing but somehow she is damn bad at drawing people faces. (So bad that it was censored. Thanks Pakki.)
Her family has been fighting demons for generations to preserve the peace in the city, and she is in the age to take over the role and has been fighting them. (Kujou family used to have deep ties with the previous Demon Lord) Eventually, she is the one who passed the student council members the rosario so that they can transform and fight the demons. (And she didn’t know that Synn could see them nude while transforming.)
Ria will be another character that you will use your 100% EX gauge in because of her EX Purify, which burns 200% of your opponent’s EX gauge and adds a 25 frame knockback which is very useful since you can disable your opponent from using their EX move and prevent them from attacking. If your opponent has less than 200% EX gauge, EX purify will still take away 200% and your opponent’s EX gauge will be negative. (the gauge will show 0% though. If your opponent’s EX gauge is 150%, using EX purify will burn away that 150% and the opponent’s EX gauge will be -50% but the gauge will show 0%.)
Her assist is her very useful sister, Helena. She deals decent damage and will take away 2 stars from the stun gauge. However, Ria sucks in speed and has to wait for quite long before she could attack again. (Though she charges faster.)
6.「アゼル」Azel
Azel is the new transfer student in Synn’s class, and is also one of the main antagonist in the game. She is my favourite heroine in this game, and she is another TSUNDERE~~.
She is a penniless little girl, just like Synn. Her only food is a energy drink that she can easily buy with just 12 yen per pack. (Wow now that’s cheap, and no wonder her chest is so small.)
Comes with all kinds of flavor…
She is anti-social and prefers to be alone. She does not like to speak a lot and will only reply with short sentences, more like a few words and is usually emotionless. To make things worse, she will occasionally skip classes and even tests to wander off somewhere. (Even though she is quite smart, she does not how to write proper words.) She is usually seen floating on the swimming pool at night, despite countless reminders by Synn to not use it at night. (not sure if she likes swimming or just went there just for the sake of staring at the sky while floating.
If you play her route, Synn will try to interact with her more so that she could open up, and she has lots of moe moments. She loves to take photos to record the event that happened and likes ramen after Nanaka and gang brought her to a ramen store. The other thing about her is that she is quite ignorant about the various things in Ryuuseimachi, for example, she did not even know what a karaage is, what chopsticks are and ramen.
Just like Lolotte, she was also an angel, but was sent by her god to ‘recreate’ the world, and her route is the most interesting in my opinion.
In battle, when she is your opponent, she is usually the last boss, (since Bylous may take the role of the last boss.), and she is very very very annoying to fight against, She has 2 moves, EX Judgement and EX Force Field. EX Judgement is the most broken spell ever, what it does is reset your EX gauge back to 0, so imagine your EX gauge is 300%, then she used that on you. Her next spell is EX Force Field, whereby she shield herself against 8 to 10 hits, eating only 1 damage per hit. And on top of that, her base level is quite high, with a level of 6.
Gameplay:
Choice routes in the game are pretty easy, all they gave you is a map with various characters. (note that Azel will only appear after you cleared the game once.)
At times, you will see a trophy instead of the hearts, this means that you can get a trophy due to some random and ridiculous achievements and the school headmaster will award you with it. And sometimes, you must know who to approach so that you can get an assist unit for your heroine. This should be easy since you do not have to worry about dropping into the wrong route. (I hope.)
Next, for the battle mode, the main objective of the game is to completely destroy and rape the opponent while not giving them a chance to even strike. The more hits you land on the opponent, the more rushes you will get, this means more damage as the rush counters increase. (It is not SBX version, so it is kind of hard to get perfect rushes without getting hit.)
Let’s use the battle scene from Twinkle Crusaders SBX (Append fandisk.), you will notice lots of details. (no shit.) For starters, before the battle starts there will be a 3 second countdown, so all you need to do to get a headstart is to wait till countdown timer goes near to 0 then click. Your characters will fly to the Act bar immediately so that you could strike and set up your skills before your opponent could act.
Now the character moved to the Act bar, you have three choices, Attack, Aria (basically means Charge in this context), or Unison. For Aria, it depends on how fast your character charges and whether it can cause a Unison as a combo. Your character will be stronger by leveling up 2 levels but will get knocked further back if the opponent hits the charged character.
If Unison is pressed, your character will stay at the Act bar, waiting for the next ally character to move to the Act bar, but will also get knocked further when hit by opponent. When successful, you will choose which character to deal the final Unison bonus damage. (Usually I will choose Nanaka since she deals high Unison damage.)
Unison is a good move only when you are confident that you can chain the rushes after your Unison, since this usually gives opponent a chance to strike back and resets your rush chain and damage. (Which will be kind of irritating since this will worsen the rank given, only applies to people like me, who desires high rank in whatever opponents I fight, so far all are above A rank.)
You can only cast your spell when you have at least 100% EX gauge. (meaning one skill takes 100% EX gauge, unless you are playing SBX whereby some characters will drain 200% or even the whole gauge.) In the game, you only have the student council members, so things are pretty easy, since they only take 100% of the gauge per skill.
Next, will be the best shit in game, called Rumble. What happens is that the opponent character and your character hit the Act bar at the same time. What determines the winner is very easy, levels and elements. If your level is higher, good, you win and gain more EX gauge while stunning the opponent at the same time. (When the opponent is stunned, you will notice the red bars on the stunned character, that tells you how long the opponent is stunned. A stunned opponent takes extra damage and is more prone to get knocked further back since he or she is much weaker.)
If your level is the same, the next thing is the elements, which is shown on the right hand side of the screen. Light and Dark can win Aqua, Fire and Thunder elements but both Light and Dark cannot win against each other, they will only end up in a Draw. (meaning nothing happens.) Aqua beats Fire, Fire beats Thunder (I do not understand why.), and Thunder beats Aqua. Rumble is a very very very good move to make, especially when you know that you can overpower your opponent with your levels which is mainly the case and running out EX gauge, winning a Rumble can refresh your gauge and also disrupts the opponent lineup with the stuns and allows you to finish them off even faster.
How I feel about the game:
Generally, this game is one of my favourite apart from Fortissimo, and the comedy in this game is epic. The battle mode is the one that keeps me to this game, but sadly, the plot of the game is not to my standard. The ending is so predictable
Despite the lack of good plot, there are several things that are very interesting, such as the random trophies and other in game stuffs which I find stupid and funny. One of it is what they call it おしえて！理事長さん！！(meaning Teach me! Miss Chairman!!), where both Helena and Meliot will appear randomly to explain random things like Synn’s favourite milk.
CGs wise are kind of sad for me, since they do not provide a lot of CGs per heroine, like only 2 to 3 per heroine and some other HCGs.
Overall, I enjoy this game because of the comedy and the random funny stuffs that happen. Character designs are also pretty good and they are pretty cute, though they seem a bit loli to me, but as expected of a moege.
And on that day, Ryuuseimachi received a grim reminder…
Ultimately, what wins me over to play this game is really the battle modes. It is just that good, and when you start playing Twinkle Crusaders SBX, which contains a lot more characters plus some other guest characters from other eroge, you will try to find suitable team to wreck the opponents’ line.
I have also come to the conclusion that demons that come to Ryuuseimachi to wreck havoc are damn adorable and the main reason is that they came for food.
For the next game, I am probably thinking of Hyper Highspeed Genius Megami no Shuuen, which is a sequel to the previous Hyper Highspeed Genius. Please look forward to it as well!
Pakki’s true form!
Overall rating: 8/10
Gin-patsu Kakumei! 