Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 5 Review – Main Story

Japanese Title: 遥かなる時空の中で5
Company: Koei
Homepage: http://www.gamecity.ne.jp/haruka5/

Yeah, I decided to edit the whole post instead of making a new one, since there were some false information on it (sorry, about that, （。-＿-。） but my Japanese is far from perfect… Maybe I should just wait for the games to come before writing anything AND NOT trust other beginner’s reviews that much LOL) Hope you enjoy the more detailed and now correct post! （＾ω＾）

.
Characters

Hasumi Yuki
CV: Takahashi Mikako
Priestess of the White Dragon

Yuki studies abroad with her adopted brothers Shun and Sou Kiryuu where her cousin Miyako lives. When she, her brothers and Miyako return to Japan they end up in the other world in the Japanese Edo period “Bakumatsu”. She is kind of naive but has a strong sense of justice and wants to save the two worlds and its people no matter how high the costs are.

Kiryuu Shun
CV: Terashima Takuma
Seiryuu of Heaven

When he was young, Shun and his brother Sou were adopted by the heroine’s family. Shun is like a big brother to Yuki ever since. He shows off a silent and expressionless attitude, despite caring deeply for the persons next to him. To protect the heroine, he stays away from her while wearing a cold mask around her.

Sakamoto Ryouma
CV: Kenichi Suzumura
Seiryuu of Earth
Tosa Clan (Opening of the Japanese Fraction)

Ryouma has a bright and easygoing nature and calls the heroine ‘Young Lady’. He is known for his eccentric behavior, is kind of mysterious and really popular with the ladies. He has the ability to foresee the weather.

Chinami
CV: Atsushi Abe
Suzaku of Heaven
Mito Clan (Anti foreigner Fraction)

Chinami is a young disrespectful, stubborn and short tempered brat boy (ツンデレ o(≧∇≦o)). But even though he is young, he’s very devoted to his work. He highly respects his father and his older brother who are both great strategist. He’s totally oblivious of love affairs.

Okita Souji
CV: Nobuhiko Okamoto
Suzaku of Earth
Shinsengumi (Supporters of the Shogun)

Okita is the captain of the first Shinsengumi division that looks most radiant and always has an ambiguous smile on his face. Though he lacks in showing his feelings and emotions, he cares for his comrades well beings. He’s the personification of a cold and heartless sword fighter. I thought he was a girl, when I saw the PV. LOL

Komatsu Tatewaki
CV: Shinnosuke Tachibana
Byakko of Heaven
Satsuma Clan (Imperial Rule Fraction)

Komatsu is a young chief retainer with a cold attitude, whose intelligence is over average. Including women, he prefers to keep situations under his control and there is nothing that he can’t handle flawlessly. His adaptability and his ability to grasp new and unexpected situations are excellent and he can differ between ideal and reality perfectly.

Fukuchi Ouchi
CV: Takemoto Eiji
Byakko of Earth
Vassal (The Shogun’s Opening of the Country Fraction)

Fukuchi has an elegant atmosphere that charms easily. He is wellknown as ‘The Dream Shop’, a secret information provider even though he is only a vassal. Around the heroine his actions are somehow suspicious. He’s Yuki’s fanboy #1. LOL He’s her stalker and often imagines weird things I guess? xD His first encounter with Yuki was hilarious!!!! But I will write it down later. 😉

Ernest Satou
CV: Shitanda Michael
Genbu of Heaven
England (Opening of the Country Fraction)

Ernest looks like a fairy tale prince, who has a soft and calm attitude. He’s a very talented diplomat who is highly capable of convincing other parties. Under his sweet mask he can be very sarcastic and blunt. But in reality he’s a soothing gentleman? Maybe? His American accent is a bit off, I mean, he is supposed to be British… Even though his English is very good. But I still don’t like him…

Takasugi Shinsaku
CV: Yasumoto Hiroki
Genbu of Earth
Choshu Clan (Anti Foreigner Fraction)

Takasugi is the leader of the radical Choshu Clan. He seems to be ruthless and often looks down on other people, just like an emperor. But when any crisis situation occurs, he remains calm. When Yuki came to the other world the first time he almost killed her.

Kiryuu Sou
CV: Shimono Hiro

Sou is Shun’s younger brother and the heroine’s younger brother figure. He always wears an innocent smile and acts like a spoiled kid, but he’s actually a very calculating person.

Amami
CV: Junichi Suwabe

Amami is known as “The Prime Minister with the White Robe” by the officials of the Shogunate and a high-ranking member in the government. Though he is mysterious, he has a calm demeanor and has noble features. He is the one who gave her the hourglass to travel between worlds and is deeply obsessed with the heroine.

Yakumo Miyako
CV: Mitsuki Saiga
Priestess of the Black Dragon

Miyako is the heroine’s older cousin, she also studies with. She hates to lose to man, so she never shows any weakness and acts more like a man than a woman. Although she is very sweet, she tends to be overprotective of the heroine. In the other world she is chosen as the “Priestess of the Black Dragon”. Yeah, this is actually a GIRL! (」゜ロ゜)」It’s a TRAP! I really thought it was a boy, so I was kind of disappointed, when it turned out that Miyako is a girl…  I mean he’s HOT!

.
Story

One day the heroine, Hasumi Yuki is on a plane back to Japan with her two adopted brothers Shun and Sou and her cousin Miyako, but then the plane malfunctions in the air. The plane crashes and when Yuki regains conciousness she finds herself with Shun and Miyako in another world “Bakumatsu” around Japan’s Edo period. Yeah, so we have the Edo period again. LOL No, I did NOT picked this game because of the Shinsengumi. Even though my blog contains only Shinsengumi content by now… I SWEAR! There she encounters some members of the different fractions at that time, which are using the four Gods Genbu, Suzaku, Seiryuu and Byakko to achieve their goals. Since the Gods are treated like weapons Yuki wants to free them from that cruel fate. When she encounters Genbu and is about to release him a high-ranking member of the government, Amami, shields her before she gets injured and gives her an hourglass, an item she can use to travel between the two worlds. Later Amami reveals that her own world is facing a crisis (every single existent was wiped out without any trace, except for Sou, Yuki’s younger brother) and she is chosen as the “Priestess of the White Dragon”. He tells her that Yuki has to gather the four Gods in order to restore her world, so her journey begins and she is trying to collect the four Gods. While she is collecting the four Gods she is meeting a few young men with the power to command the Gods. So basically you are gathering the four Gods in Chapter 1-6, while meeting new comrades and sometimes travel to your own world where Sou is stuck alone.

(SPOILER)
So when you managed to gather all four Gods in your own world, the plot twist comes. LOL Sou snatches the last God from you (I can sense danger here…) and runs ahead to put it in the stone plate, while everyone is like “NO!!! GIVE IT BACK!!!! YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GONNA HAPPEN!!!! щ(ಠ益ಠщ)”. Yeah, so suddenly it turn out that Sou is a bitch bad guy!! He says that he hates everyone and everything and wants the two worlds to become one, which means, that everyone is doomed! Well, I hope he has a good reason to be bad… Since everyone is too weak Sou has the upper hand thanks to the four Gods in his hands, he disappears and tells them that Amami is the one, who is behind everything. He planned to leave his beloved O-nee-chan, Shun-nii and Miyako-nee and Yuki’s other companions in this world that is collapsing right now, so if you didn’t get the hint, he wants to kill you without dirtying his hands. But before that can happen Miyako is chosen as the “Priestess of the Black Dragon” by the Black Dragon (LOL, who else) and Yuki asks the White Dragon to switch everyone to “Bakumatsu”, before bad things can happen. There Amami confirms that he is the true villain (did he just used Sou, I don’t know yet), who lied to Yuki, when he said that she needs to gather the four Gods to save her world. In order to defeat Amami, who wishes to become God in the new fused world, she decides to ask the 8 men that were travelling with her also known as 八葉 (Hachiyo) for help. So yeah, this time in Chapter 7-10 you have to find all your companions. In each chapter you meet 2 characters that can command/summon the same God, Shun and Ryouma, Souji and Chinami, Takasugi and Ernest, and Fukuchi and Komatsu. Sadly you can’t gather all of them, since some of them choose their own paths since your not sexy enough. When you meet Amami again, he says that it your fault for letting your 八葉 die. Yeah, apparently some of them died, because you were not persistent enough they did not follow you… ｡：ﾟ(｡ﾉω＼｡)ﾟ･｡

When they finally face Amami, he defeats you and suddenly vanishes, apparantly he doesn’t want to LOL(WTH?! I don’t know why… orz Amami you’re talking too highfalutin, dude!!!) and Bakumatsu starts to collaps. As everyone tries to save Yuki, she is left alone in her saved (? At least everything seems normal to me) world. But yeah, that’s not what Yuki wanted, so she decides to travel back to the time, where everything begins (yeah, you have to do Chapter 7-11 AGAIN, even though the events slightly change this time) to rescue the two worlds and everyone with the White Dragon’s power. This time she has to pay world travelling and certain events with pieces of her life “命のかけら”. She only has 5 pieces of life, so choose wise when you want to switch worlds! If your life runs out before reaching the end of the story it’s “Game Over”! The White Dragon also tells her that she needs all Hachiyo to be able to defeat Amami and reset the two worlds.

.
Gameplay

This game is a visual novel with role-playing elements. You also have a map, where you can choose which location you want to visit and fight monsters by walking around. You have a round-based battle system, where you can cast magic or use weapons to make damage just like a usual RPG. According to which mode you play (beginners, normal, advanced) you can choose attacks from only Yuki or all members. There is also an element system with the 5 elements fire, darkness, earth, water and nature. And be sure to level up constantly AND NOT LEVELING UP special abilities to often, you will NEED some MANY element points, you get from fighting demons of different elements, to unlock some buildings and following events in your own world. I barely managed to unlock all buildings since I leveled my abilities up too much. orz Each character can use 2 additional elements to his own element (Yuki’s element is decided through your birthday), which are important to start special combos in battles that can defeat the enemies with mostly one hit. LOL But that’s not all, to start special combos your characters have to have enough affinity, that is represented by green stars. You can raise it, when selecting favorable responses in story events or finishing fights with them quickly. When a demon is defeated by his weakness element he will leave a element orb, you can strengthen your weapon with. If you do that often, you will even get a better weapon.

In total there are 14 endings. The 8 Hachiyo’s, the four Gods, Miyako, Amami (I think you have to get all other character endings before you can get his ending), a default ending and a canon true ending. (Idk, how the endings are divided since I have 13 endings if i count 8 + gods + Miyako + Amami + default + true)

There are (love) route for each character you can get with and I’m not sure how it really works, since I’m just started with the character routes, but I’m looking forward to that! As I heard you have to trigger all “Heart Crystals” (心の結晶) -events to get on a love route. I just don’t know how to trigger them… I had some of them already, but it was pure luck. LOL There seem to be hints how and when to get them, but somehow I don’t get it… ( ?´_ゝ｀)

All in all I think you can compare the gameplay to QuinRose’s Arabian’s Lost.

.
CG’s and Screenshots

.
Thoughts

I somehow stumbled on this game’s PV and fell in love with the art at first sight (´ ▽｀).。ｏ♡, so I searched for some more information. Yeah, and now I want to share it with you. To be honest: I’m a REALLY BIG RPG fan (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ)), so I think I will try this game after I played Custom Drive and finished reviewing Hakuoki. I should really finish my summaries up… orz  so I couldn’t wait and played it already. xD But I have to admit, that the gameplay is kind of intuitive, even though the character events are a bit uhm… hard to get? I think I missed some of them without even noticing… LOL I will play my first playthrough without a guide and use one after this… Somehow I get the feeling, that I’m becoming a do-M…

Each chapter of this game is really long and since this game is only semi-voiced I have to read so much, so it takes me even longer!!! ((((；゜Д゜))) I wonder, why some of the important character events are not even voiced!!!! ಠ_ಠ The whole mood is kind of destroyed, when it switches from fully voiced to non-voiced, really… But still I wonder, why I do understand it after all, I mean, my Japanese sucks is poor? LOL Maybe it improved by playing some games and animes learning new vocabulary.

The concept of the story reminds me of Fushigi Yuugi, a manga from Yuu Watase. I loved Fushigi Yuugi so I think I will also come to love Harutoki. All characters in Harutoki seem very interesting and the Seiyuu’s voice samples are very impressive. It’s said that the stories are all kind of bittersweet, sad and heartbreaking, which only makes me even more interested. I think I will cry like rivers, when playing this game, since I love tragic stories. (●´∀｀●)

And I really did NOT pick this game because I like the Shinsengumi. It was really only coincidence that the story turned out to take place in the Edo period. Well, it’s kind of funny though… (ｏ・_・)ノ”(ノ_＜。)

I bought the Treasure Box of Harutoki 5 containing 2 drama CD’s, a sketch book and a photo book with all CG’s (it’s really beautiful!!!! (❁´◡`❁)*✲ﾟ*) and a Making-of DVD from the auditions. I think this is the last game I’m ordering this year, I have 3 games in backlog now and I can’t seem to find time to play them all. xD There is also a fandisk/sequel to Harutoki 5 called Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 5 – Kazahanaki. They added Sou and Rindou (a new character) as love interests. Maybe I will get the sequel next year, if I’m still not satisfied. LOL