Punchline Limited Edition – PSVita

Front of the box. Was a bigger box than I expected too.

So I love this series. Unconditionally. Irrationally even. So much so, I went and preordered the game, which is currently only in Japanese. Not only that, it was the limited edition, with a drama CD which for the most part I won’t be able to understand XD. I considered preordering it on Amazon, but at that time they still didn’t ship games outside of Japan. So I went with Play-Asia. A site I’ve used before for things here and there. Never a game costing this much… I figured I was going to get smacked with a hefty import tax and VAT and what have you. So I prepared myself mentally. Hell. It was only shipped last week pretty much, 2 weeks tops, so I wasn’t expecting anything to arrive yet, usually Play-Asia’s shipping is pretty slow…. so you can imagine my shock and delight when it turned up this morning. No card saying ‘PAY THIS NOW’ or anything. It just appeared… it even had the full amount declared on the box, AND it was marked as Merchandise… not gift…. so I’m baffled as to why I didn’t get slapped with import tax. Not complaining. Just dazed and confused. Happily so. (More pics of the unboxing below the cut.)

So I opened it during my lunch break at work, as you do. I wasn’t even sure what came with it apart from the drama CD. I just wanted the Limited Edition out of loyalty to the anime. And Uchikoshi. Because I love all his stuff. (For those of you who don’t know of Punchline…. how do I explain this…. it’s a very Kotaro Uchikoshi-esque plot, apart from the presence of alot more fanservice than usual, but that does die down to an extent during the second half of the series. I don’t want to spoil things. Let’s just say if you enjoyed his previous games, (Ever17, Remember11, 999, Zero’s Escape games in general etc) you will probably find Punchline entertaining, if not just for the cameo’s ;D.)

Back of the box

I opted for the Vita version purely because if I’m going to play a VN, or VN-esque game, I like to be able to do it on the go. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine on PC, but I like being able to hold it in my hands and lean back properly. (Which is why I’m now the proud owner of two copies of Amnesia lol, one on Steam, one on Vita.)

The game, CD and art book!!

Now actually playing the game hinges on me being able to at least quasi-read hiragana. Kanji I don’t have much hope for at the moment. Some of the Kanji in the game has hiragana above it, but not all. And from the beginning I played, it starts out following the anime’s plot. So I at least know what’s going on so far. It’s when it diverges, then I’m screwed.

The back of the Nandala Gandala/art book. It’s going characters I don’t recognise it in…

This gives me a real reason to learn more Japanese. I say real reason… a goal. To be able to play and understand more than I already do. I can understand bits and pieces of conversation and work out plots without subtitles, but games are a bit different… plus with a game like this, I need to be able to read too.

Inside the artbook, lovely glossy pages, sorry about the quality of the photos..

Regardless of being able to play it yet or not. I don’t regret buying it. I wanted to support the series. And I’m pretty sure this game will never come out in the west, so I took a chance. I wish more games like this came to the west. And it’s a shame that two of my favourite anime from last year haven’t even seen a DVD/Blu Ray release in America, let alone the UK/Europe. I’d love to own the Blu Ray’s too… but without English subs…. Well I’m still tempted. But I’m gonna wait a little bit longer to see if it gets an official English sub release.

Tags: boobs, cute, ecchi, ever 17, ever17, fanservice, game, hentai, japanese, KOTARO, kotaro uchikoshi, oppai, panchira, panchirain, pants, pantsu, psvita, punch line, punchline, puzzle, shimapan, translation, UCHIKOSHI, underwear, visual novel, zero escape