Review: Arcade Game - Daisu Kiss (Just your typical dating-visual novel-minigame arcade!)

Review 1 of my review-a-thon.

We're back again, this time with another childhood arcade game! This one is called Daisu Kiss. As you can probably tell from the title, it's one of those hidden Japan-only games. However, you'd be surprised to learn that this game was actually made by Konami! That's right, the same people who made Top Gun and a bunch of other classicals have made this game! Before you say, "Come on, Sara, stop pulling my leg, you might tear it off!" just have a look at the title screen. At the top, the words "Konami" are there.

This was made in 1996, making this year its 20th anniversary, and is a huge mashup of genres. Most of it is composed of minigames that you play. The theme is dating, and when you talk to the other NPCs, it's set in a visual novel style. Don't worry, if it sounds complicated, I'll explain it in Depth.

Also, to clear things up ahead of time, I've unofficially dubbed the characters you can play as, from left to right: Saki, Violetta, Musume, Ellie, Taro, Yutaka, Logan, and Edward, and, so that I don't constantly alternate, I'll just pretend that you can only play as Musume, who is my favorite character.

Graphics - 7

The graphics are actually really good, both in 1996 standards and in 2016 standards! When you talk to NPCs, the characters look really detailed, and they convey their expressions quite well! Some of them are even really cute!

However, while I think the graphics are adorable, I can just say right here that some of the character designs range from "odd" to just downright weird. Some characters look normal, I'll give it that.

I love playing as Musume. However, what I find interesting about her is that she has pink hair that's cut into a bobcut, along with these weird spiral glasses, the kind that hypnotists use. What I want to know is that how are you even able to see with those kind of glasses on? You can't see her eyes through the glasses, either, but if you do a bunch of certain things, and don't play as her, she'll take off the glasses.

Sound - 7

There are three kinds of sounds in this game: Music, Sound effects, and Voice acting. Yes, there is actually voice acting in this game. Unfortunately, the voice acting is all in Japanese, which I can't speak, so I can't judge this game based on its voice acting.

The sound effects are used in places that it should be. For example, for one of the minigames, you have to whack bad guys that come towards Musume with a hammer, and you have to keep them from touching her and her partner. When you hit them with a hammer, a cute, cartoony "Thump!" noise plays.

The music is another thing that is good. There are many songs in the game, each of which are different for different screens. One of the minigames is dancing themed. You have to repeat a certain combination to correctly dance (Like "Up, Down, Right, Right, Up, Down") and the music for it is great. It says "Stop fooling around, it's dancing time, baby!"

Addictiveness - 8

There are multiple endings for this game. There are at least ten different endings that I can think up of right now: Eight endings where Musume is in a relationship with one of the characters (Including the girls) an ending where all eight of them are just friends, and an ending where she's not even friends with anyone.

Keep in mind that there are more characters that you can play as, other than just Musume. You also have three secret characters you could unlock, but not play as. The combinations are nearly endless!

Story - 9

While the whole game is in Japanese, and I don't speak the language, I've played this game for three years straight, and during that time, I managed to figure out the story to this game.

Musume is a freshman at a new high school. She's already 16 years old, and never once had a boyfriend/girlfriend. Her parents urged her to try and at least get a boyfriend that school year.

On her quest, Musume finds seven people who she thinks might make for good friends or partners: Saki, Violetta, Ellie, Taro, Yutaka, Logan, and Edward. She decides that, in order to bond with them enough, she should go out and do things with them. For the sake of the story I'll go on and say that she begins to love Yutaka, as there are endless possibilities, as mentioned.

However, what she didn't know is that she secretly has competition! (After you choose your character, the CPU picks one, or the second player. Let's say that the CPU picked Ellie) Ellie saw that Musume liked Yutaka, and began to become jealous of her, because she, too, liked Yutaka.

She decides that she would blow Yutaka away and make him forget about Musume with how impressive she was, setting out to become friends with nearly everyone, and making Yutaka like her, for her beauty, popularity and personality, as Ellie once said, "How could he like a nerdy little girl with hypnosis glasses when he has me?"

Will either one of the girls win over Yutaka? Or will he decide that he's a loner and doesn't want to marry anyone? Only time will tell! Play Daisu Kiss and shape Musume's destiny now!

Depth - 7

There is a lot to do in this game. There are at least eight minigames that you can do, all of which are selected at random. However, because this also a school-themed game, you also have a test at the end of the round.

When you find the test, you have three options, which come in the form of Japanese text and buttons. If it's one of the options, try and find the one with the blue button, as that's a test for simple math questions.

Most of the tests require you to know Japanese, so they're near impossible unless you can read it and/or are extremely lucky. There are only a few that even people who speak one language (like me) can play.

Sometimes, you also have the option of playing a "kiss" minigame with one of the characters. When you're at the screen for selecting your partner to play with, sometimes one of them will have a lipstick stain on the top right corner of their portraits.

When you select a character with the stain, you'll play a game of memory, where you have to remember the character's kiss face and only select it if it's the character and they're ready to kiss. If you can get at least 98% of the kiss faces, you'll give your love meter with that person a huge boost, which factors towards your love status towards the character.

Difficulty - 5

This game is actually quite easy. The only reason why I'm giving this a rating as high as this is because there's a game that requires you to know Japanese, and most of the tests are like that, too. As I really don't know that many people who speak Japanese, I have to give this a higher than usual rating.

Overall - 7.1

This is a pretty nice game that not many people know about. If you're looking for a fun dating/minigame game, I'd recommend this!
  Graphics 7   Sound 7   Addictive 8   Depth 7   Story 9   Difficulty 5

Overall 7.7    Graphics 7    Sound 7    Addictive 8    Story 9    Depth 7    Difficulty 5

Review: Arcade Game - Daisu Kiss (Just your typical dating-visual novel-minigame arcade!)   AwesomeTrinket
Review 1 of my review-a-thon. We're back again, this time with another childhood arcade game! Thi...
  Graphics 7   Sound 7   Addictive 8   Story 9   Depth 7   Difficulty 5
      Review Rating: 4.5/5     Submitted: 06-06-16     Review Replies: 1

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