/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Yurikago no Sora is an excellent little game that I can't believe wasn't translated. I believe it came out at C88. It feels like it should be more popular than it is.

It's an action RPG about some animal lolis living in an underground society who go on a quest to find the the sky. The sky is just a legend, but the kids believe it must be real after the protagonist's mother suddenly disappears, leaving behind a note saying she was going to find the sky.

The gameplay involves the lolis following each other around and occasionally helping the main character you play as do stuff. The sprites are pretty expressive but they're also kinda small so I think it take away from the detail. Thin might be a better word? They're like somewhere between cute anime and those 1 pixel thick limbs type pixel art characters. I like the fighting system in the game which involves setting skills you want to use to a combination of the direction buttons and action keys. As you level, you get more skills but the skills differ more in function than power. This functionality is augmented by the weapons, which have power, speed, and length values. There are skills which grow in power with slower weapons, skills that are easier to chain with faster weapons, and the range to them is impacted by weapon range, so you can choose whatever play style you want. I tended to use faster medium ranged weapons myself. You can also upgrade weapons later on in the game, with each having a different maximum upgrade potential. You don't really need the drop items that aren't equipment for any reason but collecting and a few side quests, so you can sell them without worrying about losing it and just max out your favorite weapons asap. Your damage also grows based on the number of hits you've comboed so it's worth putting skills together with the idea of making combos of them. The weapons themselves are all kinds of objects: Rice scoops, vegetable graters, fence poles, tea kettles, cardboard panes. It's pretty funny sometimes.

Being in Japanese, it's very important to read to be able to do the sidequests, but it shouldn't impede you finishing the game maybe. The story is nice however. I feel towards the end some of their ideas got jumbled up, but it's not like it completely falls apart or anything. Natsume, the fox is really an annoying character to me though, because of her childishness, but that's part of the game. The protagonist, Kuunya, is also the silent type, so Natsume tends to talk for her when actual words need to be said. She's a brash and confrontational child however, even though she's the oldest of the bunch.(She's 10 and the MC is 8) Toto, the winged one, is a more calm and reasonable child, despite being 7. Natusme and Toto provide support by carrying Kuunya when commanded. Natsume runs quickly and up steep hills, while Toto can fly just a little bit and extends your jumps with a slow descent.

I like the effect of the world map, which fills in details as you visit new places. There's not really much I dislike about this game except the size of the sprites and how annoying certain enemies are. I dislike being eaten by the pitcher plant things because it reminds me of vore scenes in ryona games. This game has the cutest game over screen by the way. I really think more people should play it. It'd definitely be all over /v/ and /vg/ if it were in english.

There's not really much else I can say about it without revealing the story, but it is a cute and pure game about lolis and one of my favorite doujin games.