3RRSS VirtCall S

Taking another dive into the yellow-label goodness that is so plentiful
on the Saturn, I opted to purchase Virtual Call S knowing nothing about
it except sparked a hentai series involving some sort of virtual calling.
I brought the 2 disc game home and started a file. What followed was
the worst case of Russian roulette that I've ever played. So, is it any
fun calling anime women? How graphic do things get? Is it possible for
western players to even beat the game? Read on dear readers. Read
on.

Like usual you play some anime dude (and you can name him too), and
one day you're walking down the street in the future (note the flying
cars in the background) when all of a sudden you bump into a blue-
haired anime girl. You apologize and take her to a local cafe to buy her
a drink. She warms up to you and tells you about this "Virtual Call Head
Gear". So, you part ways and you go home and check out what it's all
about.

Upon booting up the Virtual Call system, you are greeted by a pink-
haired anime girl in a bizarre costume who is the operator. Later on
you'll meet a green haired operator too. From here it's up to you to see
if you can find love-virtually. Not a bad story, but different from the
normal chase girls in high school or all female staff of coworkers.
Speaking of the girls, how are they?

There are 10 different girls that can be called up (more on that later).
Covers cliches of nerdy girl, girl with glasses, younger underclassman,
and the "butterface" (a character who has a great body but, once you
talk to her, she show's her hideous face. You can then highlight her
and beat her. I thought some of the character designs were okay, but
they are not at all on the level of Classmates or Pia Carrot.

Here's how you attempt to play. First, the title screen. If you wait, a
short anime opening plays. Press start and there's a Begin file, the list
of Available files, Options and Graphics mode. Graphics mode let's you
look at the CG pics you've collected. Options let's you tinker with the
onscreen cursor, volumes, and so on. Select begin file. After the
prologue you are now in your room. Get used to the room as it's all
you're gonna have. You cannot leave the room unless on a date. Kinda
boring. The two things of note in the room are the computer and the
virtual call head gear.

The computer lets you go into the system options or go online to
preview the date spots and sometimes get hidden phone calls. Other
then that, not much. So highlight the head gear. You can look at
profiles of the girls that you have met and see how much they like you.
You can dial numbers. For now you only have the operator's. When you
call her it sets you up with "The party line". From here there will be
three girls. You converse with them and it matches you up with one of
them to talk to alone. From there you try and see if you two can
connect and if so, she may give you her number and want to date you.

But alas, dead readers, if only it were that simple. When you talk to the
girls after the party line, I believe she asks you 5 questions. Each
question has three choices. Two are wrong I think and one is correct.
You know you chose the correct one because it will make a high
pitched ringing sound. The thing is to go on dates you need to get the
ringing sounds. So basically if you don't know the language, get ready
for random guessing. And even if you do succeed with the ringing
sounds, and let's say you do go on a date. Then she asks you another
set of questions while on the date. So then it's random guessing time
again! This makes Virtual Call nearly impossible for non-Japanese
speakers.

The graphics aren't too hot. Even though this came out in the latter
part of the Saturn's life (1998), it just doesn't rank up with the classics.
The characters are bland, the backgrounds are worse, and the CG is
nothing special. I did get one of the girls down in her panties and
pursued to have sex with her in the car (as she holds on to the
steering wheel). But nothing is shown and it's all assumed.

Musically, this game doesn't really impress. The music is all sort of just
there. There is a hidden phone number you can get that allows you to
listen to the opening and closing themes, but for the most part the
music is just bland. Characters have voices on dates, but other then
that, just text for the most part.

IMPORT WARNING: Like I said, it's damn near impossible to go far in
this game. Eventually, after a few failed dates, the main girl character
called me up, and after that I got the game over screen. Also, the
second disc (the "yubikake" disk) is a freaking mystery. I can't do
anything with it; it says something about the RAM. Maybe I need more
memory. But anyways, you can do better.

Thankfully, I only paid about 12 bucks for this game, so it wasn't a big
loss. I mean it's not as terrible as Find Love 2: the Prologue because,
presentation-wise, it has good loading and it's easy to navigate. The
story is also a novel idea. It's intriguing, but the characters, music, and
graphics are all middle of the road, and when you add in the difficulty
you need to be more then middle of the road to want to move on.
Looks like this one is gonna be sitting on the shelf for a while now.
Jeesh, why does Virtual Calling have to be just as hard as real calling?

Review by: Orochi Sonic