Name: Maid in Bunny (89.00% in 10 votes)
Type: RPG
Platform: WINDOWS
Company: Eushully
Release date: 2000
Reviewed by: Lamuness
First of all, I would like to thank Himeya Soft for sending me a limited edition copy of the game for free to write this review. The limited edition (only 7,777 units) includes a remix soundtrack music CD from Maid in Bunny as well as Ikusa Megami, which is pretty good IMHO.
When the game was about to be released, there was a rather funny dispute on what might the english title of the game be. I said it's "Maid in Bunny", but that stupid Woojin Lee said it's "Maiden Bunny", and another pathetic guy had the guts to say "Made in Bunny"...guess what guys? I am right. That's what it says on the box: Maid in Bunny.
Anyways, wow!!! Another H-RPG. This time it's based on the Zelda engine (the 2D one not the N64 ones). It's fun, and it's cute!
The game is pretty much like a fairy tale, and takes place in a peaceful kingdom. The heroine (yes no hero this time) of the game is called Elena, one of the many maids in the castle serving the royalty. What makes Elena special besides her clumsiness and pure (yet cute) innocence is that she is the exclusive maid who takes care of Prince Galu. The 2 of them have a close relationship which makes other maids quite jealous.
Anyways, Elena and Galu was chatting in the garden one day. In the meantime, a mysterious lady came to the throne claiming that she is the dark race and wants to take over the castle (yes it's kinda pathetic but remember, it's a FAIRY TALE). She turns the King into stone. When the Maid Head realizes the problem, she starts to attack the lady. However, the Maid Head's thunderbolts renders useless because the lady had the ancient relic to protect her against magic attacks. Realizing the trouble, the Maid Head decides to ring the alarm to summon all the maids in the castle to hit the lady with brooms etc since that's phyical attacks rather than magical attacks.
Just when Elena and Galu heard the alarm, a Succubus as well as the mysterious lady popped out of nowhere wanting to hold Prince Galu captive. Elena tries to defend the prince but fails. Galu decides to give in since he doesn't want to see Elena get hurt. The succubus then carries Elena in the air and flew out of the castle to get rid of the maid. A slip in the hand made Elena free fall into the ground from the air.
In the meantime, Revea, a royal magician who lives outside the castle sees the invasion of the Dark race. She tells her student Yuri the white mage, to go and find the legendary hero and save the kingdom. Yuri leaves and finds Elena climbing up from the ground where she fell from the sky. At the same time a bunch of monsters popped out of nowhere. When asked by Yuri if she has any weapon, the only thing Elena has is a feather duster. Yuri then uses his magic to enlarge Elena's duster, making her be able to slap the monsters and destroy them. With this enlarged duster as her weapon, Elena along with Yuri have to find a way to get back into the castle (which is now protected by a force field) and save Prince Galu.
As I mentioned before, Maid in Bunny is a Zelda-engine Action RPG. Therefore, if you have played the older Zelda's you should have no reason not knowing how to play the game. You control Elena and explore the kingdom looking for clues and entering dungeons/labyrinths in search for treasures. You walk around slapping enemies with brooms/brushes (and not swords because she is not trained as a figher). Even near the end of the game when the Legendary Sword accepts Elena as the Legendary Hero, the sword is forced to change into a broom form to suit Elena needs, which I find quite funny. You have a total of 5 weapons with varying attack ranges and attack power to choose from, as well as 5 different dresses as armors. In addition, there are sub-weapons/gadgets you can use to pass obstacles etc. Basically this is pretty much like Zelda.
Although there are a couple of sub-dungeons, there are sadly only 4 major labyrinths (as supposed to 8 in Zelda) in the game to explore, and they are not too complicated in my opinion. There are occassionally some puzzle obstacles - u push the statues in the appropiate places within the 3 minute limit. They will take some time but I don't find them too hard. Other fun stuff include a hidden casino where you can play a couple of mini-games, 42 gems for you to discover which will unlock a couple of beta-CGs for the game, and a 100-floor dungeon to test your endurance as well as finding 2 hidden weapon and armor.
Graphics are excellent. When I played the demo about half a year before the game was officially released, I was kind of upset with the low-resolution pixelized maps. However, Eushully decides to upgrade the graphic quality of the maps and they are done quite nicely in the final product, which is of course a good thing. The animations are cute and smooth and there is no lagging at all. Elena's appearance will change depending on which dress/armor she is wearing and what weapon she is carrying. CG's (even the Hscenes) are very very cute and with an extremely funny plot, they are really enjoyable. Music is a definite plus because they fit into the game very nicely, especially with the map theme "Rabbit Fly!". Another thing worth mentioning is that this fun Action RPG takes up only 200 megs of HD space! If the game has voice acting, this game will be perfect.
With rather flawless features, it's hard to find a bad thing about Maid in Bunny, except one: the game is a bit too short. With only 4 major dungeons (each of them are not complicated at all) plus a 9x9=81 grid final castle labryinth (which I don't find difficult either), my playtime is around 15 hrs, which is rather short. The game in general is quite easy (the last boss can be a threat if you cannot analyse the attack patterns to find a loophole) and should not be hard even for new action RPG players. This is prolly because of the fact that there isn't a lot of items to use. In total there are only 5 sub-items available, unlike scores of them even for the very first Zelda made close to 2 decades ago. If there are more major labyrinths to explore and an elaboration on the item system, then I will have no complaints about this game at all.
Overall, Maid in Bunny is definitely the CUTEST CUTEST Anime Game I have ever played in my life. I would categorize this game as INSANE. Eushully did an extremely good job on it. The game is fun and humorous with cute and high quality graphics and good music. If girls don't mind the mild H content, they will definite love this easy-to-play game as well. Nevertheless, A MUST PLAY!! (if you like cute stuff)
PROS: Cute, high quality graphics, cute, solid engine with smooth animations, cute, good and energetic music, cute, low HD installation, cute, support for gamepads, cute, funny story, cute.
CONS: Game too short, not enough dungeons to explore, very limited item sytem, would be perfect if there is voice acting as well.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND TO: People who like cute stuff, KurenaiJiku, H-Gyrl, people who want a fun action-RPG, people who want to see a Zelda-engine game on a PC.
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