3RRDC Majo no

Here we have an exclusive review of the import dating sim game "majo
no ochakai" which translates roughly to "Tea society of a witch".
Dating sim games are very common place in Japan. You read a lot of
kanji filled text, look at pretty pictures and try to get closer to the girl
of your digital dreams. Shallow and lonely have been used to talk about
the genre, but that is just not true. Some of these games have very
emotional stories and would put many movie plot lines to shame. The
term dating sim is a very broad term that I don't really like either. It's
just an easy way of explaining these games to people who know next
to nothing about them.

Some games I would say are dating sims where you do go on dates and
make choices. Some I would classify as visual novels. These require
more reading then choice making. Then there are clean dating sims,
and erotic ones. Majo has a "cero 18" rating meaning it's adults only
baby. So therefore, you think we would get some nudity, right? So far
no luck...

Majo originated on the PC as an adult only game from Frontwing. Later
NEC (who release a lot of dating sims on DC and also now PS2)
released this bad boy for the import DC in two versions, the regular and
special edition. Being the nerdy otaku that I am, I opted to buy the
special edition. More on that later.

The story of Majo is interesting. It involves the plot that in the olden
days humans and witches lived in peace and all was cool. But things
went downhill and the witches were kind of banished. Flash forward to
the present. Now a group of young female witches are sent out to
integrate with the humans to help mend the relationships between the
two peoples. Of course, this will involve the love of one human boy,
Ryuji. Will the witches be able to set things right, or will they forever be
outcasts of society? Will Ryuji get lucky with any of them? Will we get
to see the hardcore action on the DC? So many questions…

There are seven lovely ladies waiting for your love, each with their own
unique personality and stories. Will you go after Ni, the cute red head
living with you (oh boy), or Doriru the blonde and princess? The choice
is yours. Overall there is a nice selection of girls.

The game play is primarily reading. Lots and lots of reading. Reading
that includes lots and lots of kanji. Read, look at pictures, make
choices. The game is set up into days. You can go to two different
areas in each day before heading home. Eventually this weird white
animal magic thing comes to tell you something and I guess you have
to talk to the right people and say the right things before a certain day
or something. Very confusing. If you don't know Japanese stay away
from this game and dating sims in general. If you know some kanji to
squeak by and maybe have friends who also study the language, then
it's good study material to brush up on your skills (really mom the
game is a tool to help me enhance my Japanese skills!).

The graphics are what you would expect from an adventure game, still
anime pictures. Really good art though for the CG. Also there are
scenes where you see 3D models of the characters and their
surroundings. The 3D graphics look like N64 quality though. Now one
thing of concern is the art style I'm sure. Yes, the girls for the most
part tend to look a little young. And in a pornographic game this might
make people uncomfortable. However, two of the females do look
older and of course are the ones that I went after. I like the style of the
huge eyes but they all look kind of young.

Voices have been added to the DC version. This is common practice
when games go from the PC to the consoles. The voices are nice, but
the main character has none. I guess they want to put you more into
the game so to speak. The music is very up beat for the most part and
cute. You can listen to the music in a sound mode after you get any
ending. Also after you have read the text one time, whenever you play
through their again, you can just scroll right through everything to get
to where you need to be. Very convenient. It also displays which
choices you have already made in a different color. Very handy.

With seven girls, you can expect seven endings at least. Not sure if
each girl has a good and bad ending. Also there is at least one generic
"bad" ending, and I think one generic "okay" ending. So get ready to
play this a lot. You can also view the artwork in a gallery mode and see
how much more art you have yet to unlock.

Ok, now what's so special about the special edition? One, it comes in a
giant box. So it looks sweet. Two, it comes with a cell phone strap with
a cute little dog pig thing. Weird. Three, it comes with a drama CD.
These are common place in Japan. It involves the voice actors acting
out stories on CD like those old radio shows. Also on the drama CD is a
karaoke track and the same dance track with lyrics. That's all.

So, what's the deal with the rating? Is there nudity and sex? Originally
yes, but I have found none so far in the DC version despite the 18+
rating. One scene had nudity covered up by digitally editing the picture
to obscure and hide any nakedness. Still expect panty shots and
cleavage. Maybe the nudity is in there somewhere, I haven't found
everything yet. But for now, it is missing in action.

Would I recommend this game to importers? Yes. One, it is an easy
game to start out with for import dating sims, especially if you are
living with your parents and are not old enough yet to buy such things.
It looks innocent enough, it just has that tiny 18+ rating on the cover.
Also with no found nudity, you don't have to worry about that either.
But if you want dating sims and want clean ones, look no further.
Hirameki-int is releasing them in the States on DVD. I own all three that
they have released (Phantom of Inferno, Amusement Park, and Day of
love) and they all have English subtitles. Edited for content, but still
cool, they are good ways to start getting into the genre. I should also
mention that Hirameki will be releasing this very game this summer, so
I can't wait to play it translated to see all the stuff I missed from the
story. Oh yeah, you can save at any time, and there are loads of files to
save to. Thirty to be exact. This makes it easier to play different
stories at once so if you die you just start back at the last save point
and make a different choice. Now then, back to trying to find that
nudity dammit!

Review by: Orochi Sonic