Name: Lipstick Adventure EX (86.67% in 3 votes)
Type: ADV
Platform: WINDOWS
Company: F&C
Release date: 1999
Reviewed by: Great Teacher
At the first glace, I thought Lipstick Adv. Ex. is just going to be another same old "no plot," visual excitement game. Yet, as I insert the CD into my poor little CD-ROM drive, I was totally stunned and blown away by its intro. The games starts out with an interesting prologue, where you hear random dialogues from the game, followed by a "more matured" opening theme song (Click here to hear a sample of the opening theme song). As far as I know, this opening theme song is far better than any theme song out there for H-games. Even the opening theme in Words Worth may be a little bit shaky depending on your personal taste.
After the impressive opening, the game will bring you into an adventure revolving around a detective and his assistance. The story starts as a usual day of Detective Ichijyou Megumi and his assistance, Hidaka Koume. Like many detective games, this detective has not gotten any case for a long time. As a result, he just wonders aimlessly around the town "nanpa-ing" or "flirting with" a female in public library and helps Koume's Detective Club out to find the culprit of stealing her classmate's clothes. While these two events seemed irrelevant, it is a slow pavement behind a big evil (?!) scheme hidden in the city.
Although I can't say this is the best story ever, Lipstick Adv Ex is among one of the best story I have seemed not only in H-game industry, but in console games as well. With a tradition Japanese love story style combined with some funny dialogue, Lipstick Adv Ex will sure puts you into a full ten hours of none stop game playing (or clicking and reading). Also, some of the long-time H-gamers may have noticed that Lipstick is not a brand new game made by F&C. It was actually a successor of their 1988 game, Lipstick Adventure. Although the two titles take place in two completely setting, the basic plot is similar (detective with his assistance). If you enjoy Lipstick Adventure, Lipstick Adv Ex will sure be another great appetizer for you.
Doubtless to say, the graphic in the Lipstick Adv Ex is simply stunning. The girls in the game each have its own unique style and appearance. The backgrounds are vivid and colorful. Like many other F&C games, F&C has once again kept its standard high and promising. One interesting aspect to note is that the characters in the games, for some reason, looks a little bit similar the characters in the anime, "Nadesico," as well as the characters in the PSX game, Double Cast.
Lipstick Adv Ex is a dramatic adventure. In this game, you will be switching between perspectives of the detective and his assistance. You will be ask in the beginning to choose the role you wanted to start with, and in the midway of the story, you will be forced to switch to another role. Although you will be forced to change role at some point of the game, you can also switch to the other person's perspective anytime in the game when you are in MAP mode. This kind of game system has created a new dimension in the game where you will be able to know what the other person thinks when you talk to your other controllable character.
Another interesting aspect in the game system is the ability to navigate. As you might know, several of F&C as well as other adventure games requires you to click on some spots for events or talking to happen. Now, F&C has made an improvement over the old clicking the picture system. Instead of aimlessly click everywhere around the picture trying to proceed further into the game (remember times when you are stuck because you click everywhere in the picture and nothing happened?), the NAVI button allows you to have an idea on where to click. The NAVI button will show you one by one where the spot you could click for different message to appear and reduce the problem of getting stuck in the game because you don't know where to click.
In term of Lipstick Adv Ex's music, they are a pleasure to hear. The opening theme is especially worth mentioning. Most of the music adds a great depth of reality and mood in the game. The only problem I have with the sound is the dubbed voice. When you first hear the dialogues between some girls, you might have some problems distinguish the voices of different characters and, as a result, leads to a doubt of production cost reduction to the game. However, this doubt fades as you slowly distinguish the small difference between the voices of different characters. * Funny thing to note, make sure you pay close attention to the cat's sound in the game.
Besides from some slight imperfections (IMHO) of Lipstick's dubbed voice, Lipstick Adv Ex is surely a one and only one game true H-gamer must get a hold of. A must for collection!
GTO - 5.20.99 -
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[ Demo Music ]
Demo Music #1
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[ Voting ]
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