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Eldwulf
(07.07.2001)
Possibly the prettiest H-game ever made... although
it may mess with your head.
There are 5 separate scenarios in Biko 3, each of which has
multiple endings. Only a couple of endings in each scenario
(the "best" and the "worst") have H-scenes;
while I haven't played through all the endings, I have finished
the ones with the H-scenes (for obvious reasons...).
In each scenario, the main character looks the same (a Japanese,
anime-styled male with medium-length hair, in nondescript
clothing) and has the same name, but the scenarios do appear
to be more or less mutually-exclusive; the similarities can
be put down to the developers not wishing to disorient the
player with a plethora of different names and appearances.
Each scenario features one of the five main female characters;
none of them appear in another girl's scenario. They run the
gamut from ordinary (the main character is struggling to turn
in a term paper and gets help from the cute librarian) to
pretty wild (the main character is... a tentacle demon in
disguise). Typically, the first part of the scenario sets
up the relationship (if any) between the main character and
the girl, and gets him following her. The second part comes
after the stalking sequence, and concludes the story for that
scenario.
Story and Plot:
As previously stated, the stories presented in Biko 3 run
the gamut from ordinary to fantastical. The real point of
interest here is that depending on the items the player picks
up during the stalking sequence, as well as his actions during
gameplay, several very different endings can result. In general,
each story has two "H endings": the good or romantic
ending, and the bad ending in which the girl gets raped.
Yes, I said raped. If you have trouble with the difference
between fantasy and reality, DO NOT GET THIS GAME. Please.
If you can, but still get nauseous at the thought of playing
out a rape scene, then it's up to you. Just be aware that
you will have to pass on what amounts to a good 30-40% of
the game's content, and get a walkthrough to avoid the bad
endings.
The romantic endings are fairly typical of the genre. A couple
of them do stand out-namely Reiko's (the doctor) and Mio's
(the miko, or Shinto priestess). As for the bad endings, let
me just say that they remain well-plotted and realistic. There's
none of the "ooh, it felt so good when you raped me,
I think I'm in love with you" garbage that sometimes
rears its ugly head in the genre. When the girl does remain
with the main character (two scenarios), it's either because
(1) he didn't actually participate in the rape (Chris), or
(2) she manages to summon up the courage to forgive him (Mayu).
The latter is probably one of the most heart-rending scenes
I've seen in an H-game, although the cynical side of me is
muttering that the probable denouement of the whole thing
is likely to be a highly abusive relationship.
Characters:
While the characters all conform to certain stereotypes, they
are fairly compelling ones. Mayu is the typical kid-sister-like
character, Rin is the quiet bookish one (although she has
a few lines which make her sound eerily like Yomiko Readman),
and Reiko is the highly intelligent doctor who's trying to
get to the bottom of a crime. Mio and Chris are the standouts;
Mio is a sword-slinging miko, while Chris is a cybernetically-enhanced
assassin with no memory of her past. In general, while the
characters' description is fairly generic, they are well-written
enough to partially ameliorate this.
Gameplay:
The story sequences in Biko 3 follow the standard visual-novel
pattern. In a departure from the previous game in the series,
there are no branch points or choice boxes; the player's impact
on the story is solely a function of his actions during the
stalking sequence.
Stalking is easily one-half of the game in and of itself,
and is conducted in a fashion that will bring to mind the
Metal Gear series. The main character, who is seen in the
third-person, is controlled via the mouse in a manner similar
to many modern FPS games, only without weapons; holding the
left button causes the character to run forward, and holding
the right button makes him walk backward. The character can
also walk instead of running (double-click and hold), or crouch
to reduce visibility (double-right-click). Finally, he can
interact with specific features of the environment such as
garbage cans (this to be explained in a moment).
The goal of the stalking sequences is to follow the girl
through a series of 9 areas (parks, sections of a city, etc)
without losing sight of her or being spotted. At times the
girl will pause and let down her guard; the game will indicate
this as an opportunity to "Attack" and cut the sequence
short, but it nearly always leads to the rape ending, so those
going for the good ending will have to exercise patience and
clear all 9 areas.
If the character is more than a certain distance away from
the girl OR not facing her, an onscreen meter will begin to
decrease slowly, and when this reaches zero, the player is
deemed to have lost sight of her (and failed the area objective).
There are ways to exploit this, though, including the fact
that in many areas one can point the character at the girl
through a solid wall to maintain "line of sight".
In each area, the girl will follow a set route from one
"entry point" to an "exit point". This
route may involve stopping to cross the street, turning around
to ensure she isn't being followed, and so on. If the player
gets too close to the girl, she will stop (a question mark
will appear over her head, in an obvious MGS reference) and
eventually turn around to check behind her; unless the player
hides quickly, he will be spotted, and then it's game over.
Thankfully, there are a number of environmental features which
can help a would-be stalker out, including disused wells,
garbage cans, and so on; jumping into one of these renders
the player undetectable.
There are other hazards in the game; animals will get alarmed
if the player runs past them (causing the girl to question-mark).
Some floors are covered with leaves, water or ice, all of
which make a lot of noise when walked on and will alert the
girl. Cops are another hazard; if the player runs past the
cop, he will be stopped and questioned (tantamount to a game-over).
Finally, there are between 4 and 5 items in the areas of
each girl's scenario. (Running over these items causes them
to be picked up.) 2 of these are vital, as they enable the
"best" and "worst" endings for that girl.
Without these, the respective endings cannot be reached. 1
or 2 are "accessories" such as spectacles (yay!),
cat ears (!), or collars (ouch), which can be worn by the
girl during the H-scene. The final item only affects the rape
ending, and typically unlocks an "extreme" interlude
during the H-scene (more on this in a moment).
The H-scenes are the other half of gameplay in Biko 3; see
the "H Content" section of this review for more
details.
Sounds:
The sounds in Biko 3 are quite good. All the female characters
are fully voiced-even during the H-scenes-and none of
them grate on the nerves, not even Mayu, whose role as the
"kid sister" would make her the most likely offender
in any other game. The girls each have "internal monologue"
voices which play during the H-scenes in response to what
they're experiencing-although these can be turned on and
off. In another nice touch, when the character is hiding during
a stalking sequence, you can hear the sound of his heartbeat-getting
louder as the girl moves closer to him, and softer as she
moves away.
Graphics:
Biko 3 has possibly the best graphics in any H-game. There
are a couple of minor caveats-first, that (in the H-scenes)
the characters don't seem to cast shadows at all, and second,
that close examination of the character models (heh) shows
them to be very slightly polygonal-but these are really minor
issues. Other than that, the graphics are beautifully done-it
speaks well of the developers that they obviously spent as
much time, if not more, on the (female) characters' clothes
as on their bodies, and the environments in all gameplay sequences
are excellently done, too.
H Content:
To be honest-whilst the story and the stalking gameplay in
Biko 3 are well-executed, there's no way this game could stand
on its own, let alone justify the price-tag, without the H-scenes.
Consider these to be the full-3D, all-singing all-dancing
version of the "explicit" scenes in many H-games;
veterans of Doukyuusei will be quite familiar with the "mouse
over the girl's body and find the sensitive spots" interface-except
that these are in 3D with a fully-controllable camera. The
foreplay section ("find the sensitive spots" for
the romantic scenes, or "undress the girl" for the
rape scenes) constitutes the first third of each H-scene.
After that comes an optional interlude-in the romantic scenes,
if the player finds enough sensitive spots, the girl returns
the favour. However, in the rape scenes, this interlude tends
to be even more extreme than the rest of the scene-the tamest
of these involves the girl being violated with a pair of vibrators,
and it only gets nastier from there. The last part of the
scene is the sex act itself-one must note here that the speed
at which the characters do the deed is determined by the movements
of the mouse, which is a somewhat questionable design decision
and can often result in jerky or ludicrously-fast movement.
(There is an "automatic movement" feature, though,
which helps to ameliorate this problem.) Here there are a
number of positions to choose from, but the main thing to
note is that to "end" the scene, one must fill up
an onscreen "arousal meter" and then continue moving
for a short period of time-something which people not fluent
in Japanese may have trouble grasping, even with the help
of the manual. This description may seem clinical, but it
doesn't really do justice. The H-scenes are really very well
done.
Conclusion:
Considering the price-tag, the prevalence of rape scenes,
and the fact that it's mainly about the sex, Biko 3 is not
for everyone. It doesn't pretend to be anything more than
straight-up porn, even though the stories are (on average)
better than your run-of-the-mill porn movie. However, what
it does, it does excellently. I wouldn't recommend this title
if you can't stand rape scenes, for the simple reason that
(as stated) those are a large part of the game's content-but
if you do get it, it's quite possible to go through it whilst
avoiding all the bad endings.
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