So for the past day or so, I have been playing the newest 3D cellshading game from Illusion Soft @HomeMate, after the disappointment from Hako and SchoolMate Sweets! the general gaming community has taken @HomeMate rather cautiously. But Illusion did not disappoint us this time, @HomeMate is probably their best attempt in combining the successful elements from Artifical Girl 3 and SchoolMate and turn it into some 3D cellshading, simulation and dating game!
I have played with AG3 for a while, but I always thought the sex simulator and the ability to roam the environment was cool but the game would get dull without any story element attached to it (and I did get bored of it after a few days), SchoolMate has a decent story to it but it’s more like a story book you just read and lacked the “dating” aspect. Illusion soft has answered our call and combined the elements from both games and turn it into @HomeMate. I am really excited about this game and I am relutantly taking my time off from the game to blog about my first impression of the game!
Oh and did I mentioned that the good folks at Hongfire has already done a partial English translation of the game? Partial translation only though 
The story began with you, Inuzuka Nanao has been put in charge of a villa, and the owner of the villa has 3 daughters and you have been notified that they will be spending the summer holiday at the villa. The three sisters are like childhood friends to you since you have known them since you were young so it’s like reunion of old friends of some sort. Ok, let’s meet the three sisters, shall we?
Older sister Yunagi Nanoha, she is more mature and older than the main character, has a protective personality towards her young sisters, act like a tease sometimes.
Middle sister Yunagi Noa, she is about the same age as the main character, is a tsundere. She has immense musical talent and has been studying music for sometime now.
Younger sister Yunagi Yakumo, a very quiet and gentle younger sister. She really treat you as a real older brother, but she seems to be a bit spaced out and not aware of what she is doing at times.
Alright, enough for introduction, let’s get down to the gameplay elements.
Each day is divided into Morning, Daytime, Night and Late Night, there are also events that happen once certain conditions are met. In the Map Mode, you can see the locations of the 3 sisters and you can choose to go to that location and interact with them. You can also call them out for a Date but they will only accept your invitation once their affection for you is high enough.
Once you chose a detination, it will look like this
The girl will be in free roam mode and depending on their mood they might respond to you if you call out to them. You can also choose to interact with the environment like this
You can also pick up items while interacting with the environment, you can give some items to the girls to raise their affection to you and some of the items are actually material which you can make new dress for them to wear.
And some screen shots of the fixed events…
And some event screen shots…
Dialogue screen, if you choose the appropiate answer, you can raise the girls affection towards you.
Once the affection level is high enough, you can initiate ecchi action just about anywhere on the map…
The Save/Load screen keep track of your performance statisic …
And various screen shots…
The game is a lot of fun, quite possibly one of the most fun 3D cellshading dating simulation game I have ever played. On top of all these, the modding community has already started working on the game for over a week so various game mod are already available, want to turn one of these sisters into your favorite anime chacter? No problem, the chances is someone is already working on that! You think Noa is cute but her breast size is too small? No problem, someone has already written a plugin to permanently increase her size . Oh did I mention I like Noa the most , I have a weakness towards tsundere. I haven’t quite finished the game yet, as you can see I am only on the 3rd day of the game, but I am quite confident that this game will not disappoint me based on my experience so far!
Similar Posts:
- None Found
“Sing a song, will you?” LOL.
Some of those dialogues really don’t make a whole lot of sense lol…
My brother is a big fan of Illusions works but they are totally boring to me.The sexual act is probably the most boring part of an eroge.The way to it is much more entertaining.
Thats why i prefer traditional Visual Novel style Eroges
Well, this one isn’t as bad as the other ones, but yea it can get boring really fast since all you are doing is stroking the mouse >.>; I do like visual novel style game though, just playing this for a chance of pace.
This reminds me I did enjoy a particular part of Illusions Free roaming world games.
Running around as an invisible dude with only his dolphin visible was good for a few laughs
Theres nothing wrong with liking these kind of games but they just tend to bore me really quick
sex simulator game does get boring after a while, I wish they would go back and make games like DB4 or something like that.
tsundere ftw ^^
i can’t get enuf of ‘em, especially in visual novels. guess that’s why i liked tsuyokiss ^^
illusion really needs to add some sort of music to these games. or am i missing an option or something? ‘cuz it just feels so creepy wandering around with just the ambient sound. especially with no other people on screen… like you’re in some strange ghost town.
but yeah, an interesting blend of the free roaming ag game play mixed in with dating sim stuff… i’m always amazed with what illusion is doing. now just imagine if they could develop for that microsoft natal thing ^^;
Oh hey Meronpan, didn’t know you are into Illusion game. BTW, in case you are not aware, there is a new oppai changer that can help alter Noa’s size into Yakumo’s if you wanted. And yes, if you choose the hair style with a headphone on the guy, it will play wave file in the folder. I like Noa best out of the three sisters, tsundere + goth + twintails = instant win. Obviously, I am using the oppai changer
but I am only in the medium setting.
I was just roaming the net searching for eroge blogs and I stumbled upon your’s. I’ve been a long time illusion fan, and lately I’ve gone back to the old ones like A-GA, DBVR and DB4.
(Btw, horrible video engine with A-GA game despite the videos actually look really good. Overlay mixer and various odd codec problems ftl.)
Back to the topic at hand, when I played those three games mentioned above, it reminds me why I loved Illusion so much and what made it lose its magic as of late. The past 5 or so games are honestly just literally -sex- games.
Remember back with A-GA, DBVR and DB4 were actual games? Sure they were lacking a bit in the gameplay department when you look at it from a -GAME- standpoint; but it had the kind of magic that makes you not get bored of it. I mean, it had a half decent story, the gameplay wasn’t horrendously horrendous (redundency, I know.).
Iunno man, I guess what I want is illusion to design another action/shooting whatever game again instead of taking the words “sex simulators” and making it in the most literal sense.
Indeed, A-GA was probably their last game that resemble something like a real game. I am a bit tired of the so call sex simulator myself. I never managed to finish Schoolmate, AG3 or Schoolmate Sweets!, got bored of Sexy Beach 2 & 3 midway through, not to mention I didn’t even install -Hako-. I remember hearing something around 2004 that Illusion would stop making A-GA style game and switching to simulation game? I could be wrong on that one.
I believe you are correct, if I remember correctly, it was sorta like: “Going out with a bang, let’s make the most graphic and sound amusing eroge ever”.
5.1 surround sound and the amount of time and resources spent on those movies, holy crap.
That said, they had the worst video and sound engine built into the game itself ever…
Actually, the 5.1 surround sound was stupid too. Who the hell is going to play an eroge with full on 5.1? Seriously…usually I play with headphones.
Anyhow, Hako was just BORING. I couldn’t last playing it for an hour. Schoolmate was -alright-, since it had somewhat of a plot for each of the heroines. Sweets was horrible, AG3 gets old pretty fast, and I’m more or less bored of @HomeMate already.
Do wish there was more Des Blood or similar. All we have left for more gaming like eroge is probably games from Studio E!go.
Thanks for stopping by again Nis! Ah I see what you are saying, to be honest with you, I am at the limit of @HomeMate myself. It’s a good thing they got some events to break things up a little bit. It does get old fairly quickly just stroking the mouse all day long. But I heard Noa has got a nice story ending, so I am definitely hanging on until the end.
As the whole industry lean towards visual novel, there are fewer and fewer eroge “game” now. I am still a supporter of Alicesoft and Triangle as far as game goes. Elf has fallen out of favor for me. I used to follow every Studio E!go, but I haven’t been keeping up with them in recent years, somehow I get the feeling their characters all look the same to me. A lot of smaller companies that I haven’t managed to keep track of and I have fallen way behind in most games already >.>;
I’m about to try this game out soon, I got it but I haven’t installed it yet. Your pictures on Flickr convinced me it was worth a shot lol. Before when I saw previews of it I thought it looked kind of lame, but I guess I’ll have to try it out and see for myself.
.-= Persocom´s last blog ..Louise Gothic Punk Ver. 1/8 PVC by Alter =-.
Let just say it’s their best attempt in the past 4 years or so. It’s got something else for you to do other than just stroking the mouse all day long. It’s definitely worth trying.
Looks pretty similar to Sexy Beach 3, with a little more option of course. Maybe I should give this game a shot.
Tsundere second sister looks really cute, I think she’ll be my favourite too.
Too bad they only have three girls in this game. I smell a expansion pack from illusion soon.
I guess you can say it looks like Sexy beach 3, the concept is similar but in @HomeMate, you have to make the dress yourself by picking up items in game. There is more interaction with the environment than SB3. And SB3 doesn’t have as elaborate of a sexual simulator compare to @HomeMate. Noa is quite cute, and don’t forget to pick up the resizer. Since Noa came with really flat chest, use the resizer to bump her up to medium setting is just perfect for me.