Title: Most Romantic Tales: Romeo & Juliet
Price: $12.99
System(s): PC
Release Date: April 3, 2009
Publisher (Developer): Baby Eish Games (Baby Eish Games)
ESRB Rating: N/A
Pros: Interesting interpretation of Shakespeare, possible educational tool to assist students, easy to navigate
Cons: Slows down and drags during jigsaw puzzles, jigsaw puzzle pieces blend together, choices don’t make much of an impact
Overall Score: One thumb up, one down; 75/100; C; * * 1/2 out of 5
The basis of any visual novel game is the story. It’s no wonder that a company would look to a famous tale as the inspiration for a new game, and that’s exactly what Baby Eish did with Most Romantic Tales: Romeo & Juliet. The company has adapted the story so players can experience the story on their computers. Baby Eish attempts to make it as interactive an experience as possible, by offering many dialogue and action options throughout the story and adding in jigsaw puzzles of famous scenes from the play.
A great, romantic tragedy becomes a game
The story of Romeo & Juliet is a classic. A young man and a young woman from rival families fall in love. They are forced to hide their love, and the family feud threatens to tear them apart. After misunderstandings, the two young lovers fall because of a misunderstanding.
Most Romantic Tales: Romeo & Juliet offers a sort of layman’s approach to the story. Each scene is viewed from the eyes of one of the characters, for example you first see the story through Benvolio’s point of view, and then through a servant of Capulet. Players go through the entire tale in this manner. Occasionally, an option appears that allows you to to choose what happens next in the story or how the character who’s the focus of that chapter will act. Sometimes choices yield more information, but for the most part they just cause the story to progress to the ultimate conclusion.
A visual novel where choices make little impact
For the most part, Most Romantic Tales: Romeo & Juliet works as a visual novel. It has a great story as it’s foundation. The character models look good, the lips even more when the characters talk. It has an option where you can choose which scene to view. The adaptation used make it a perfect option for people who want to know the story but have trouble reading Early Modern English.
The only thing is, the choices presented in the visual novel don’t have that great an effect on the story. Quite often, you’ll have an option to choose what to do, only to find you have no choice and have to pick a certain option. Also, even if you choose different options, the result inevitably ends up the same. It defeats the purpose of having a choice to begin with.
The jigsaw puzzles, while a noble attempt to inject a mini-game style diversion to break up the monotony of the novel, are a disaster. The pieces all blend together when in a clump, making it difficult to divide them up. In addition, the puzzle portions can make the game drag to a crawl.
In my personal experience assembling two Most Romantic Tales: Romeo & Juliet puzzles, the mouse would suddenly just halt. If I wanted it to move again, I’d have to reduce the program, then bring it up again.
An interesting Shakespeare supplemental tool
Most Romantic Tales: Romeo & Juliet works best as an educational supplement to Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. The visual novel aspects succeed because it helps make the story more clear and interactive. I could see it working especially well in high school classrooms as a tool for teachers, since students at that age may have trouble with the language and material.
The downside is that the interactive portions, the jigsaw puzzles and dialogue choices during play, aren’t executed very well. The jigsaw puzzles move slowly and break up the pace of the visual novel. The choices sometimes don’t have any substantial effect on the story. As long as you focus on the story and characters, it is easy to overlook some of Most Romantic Tales: Romeo & Juliet‘s flaws.
Sorry to say this but i think it's starting to be like the Japaneses otaku games. But it has a good 3D graphics. So why don't I try it out for my niece computer game. I hope it'll give a little educational help to my niece.
Most Romantic Tales: Romeo & Juliet has some similarities, but it isn't really all that similar to the Japanese games. The graphics, story choice and presentation help it stand out. You can tell it is inspired by Japanese visual novels, but definitely isn't one.
It does have the normal twists and turns of the original plays, so make sure your niece is old enough to understand the more mature situations that tend to accompany a Shakespearean play.