SHUFFLE! Essence+

[Micchi]

New Navel game set for 2011 is Princess Princess, following Sia and Kikyou's story in the realm of the gods. It seems like they're not ready to let go of Shuffle! XD

[Sian]

Originally Posted by Micchi

New Navel game set for 2011 is Princess Princess, following Sia and Kikyou's story in the realm of the gods. It seems like they're not ready to let go of Shuffle! XD

you expected them to let go of Shuffle?

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Sian

you expected them to let go of Shuffle?

Well, I'm pretty sure they did make a comment at some point about Really? Really! being the last of their Shuffle games... but, hey, it's a change. They like making money. It makes sense that releasing Essence+ is a way to re-introduce the game series in prep for future sequels/fandisks. Plus it does bring some context to why they added so many god-race characters in Essence+.

Anyway, good news as far as I'm concerned.

[DJLowrider]

Final Route Review: Daisy

So you’ve done all the routes you could find. You re-did a few of them a couple times to get all your CGs and variations on some scenes. You’ve looked high and low and everywhere in between and yet except for a couple brief cameos you just can’t find the route for the last of the new heroines for Essence+, Daisy. Well, there’s a reason for this, and that’s because Daisy’s route is 100% inaccessible until you’ve finished every other route in the game. Yup, those of you hoping to skip some of the lesser routes in the game are out of luck. You can’t get Daisy’s story until you’ve done everything else. Don’t despair too much, though. Your patience will be rewarded in spades.

Daisy is a complete mystery until you actually play her route. The only times you come across her in other routes is when she’s working at the game center Rin & the others frequent and your conversations with her are hardly long enough or significant enough to tell you anything about her. Honestly there isn’t much I can say about her, for that matter, that doesn’t involve simply talking about her route and what happens on it. So for now I will spare you all the wall 'o text and instead give the access path as well as some general thoughts on the route.

Here’s how to access Daisy’s route:

Spoiler for How to access Daisy's route:

1. As mentioned above, you must complete every other route in the game first. Daisy’s route is inaccessible otherwise.
2. Start normally and take whatever options you want until you reach the cafeteria conversation with Asa and Kareha about picking who you’re most interested in. Take the fourth option, saying you’re not interested in Sia, Nerine or Kaede.
3. The next day you’ll spot Sia and Daisy at the sport track outside. Take the top option to go over and talk to them.
4. Continue normally, not showing particular leanings towards any other girl.
5. The next option you come to after the choice of how Primula should go about learning cooking should be a new one, take the top option here. (Note: I need to re-play the route sometime and get the specifics of this decision point.)
6. When talking to Daisy in the cafeteria, take the top option to continue listening to her.
7. Congratulations, you’re on Daisy’s route. Enjoy!

Daisy's route represents a major departure from the standard Shuffle! storyline. Instead of simply being a following of the various events that happen in Rin's day-to-day life, there is an underlying plot with a fair bit of intrigue involved. In truth, Daisy's route consists of two stories that run parallel to each other until much later on when everything finally comes together. Daisy's route is also where we're properly introduced to Ruri=Matsuri, as she makes cameo appearances in a couple other routes but never hangs around long enough to leave us with any kind of impression of what she's like.

Daisy herself is fairly unique in comparison to the rest of the heroines, and I must say represents a welcome divergence from the rest of the girls who simply fawn over Rin.

Spoiler for Daisy's personality:

First off, Daisy is more or less an admitted otaku. She lives alone, has a massive manga collection, schedules herself around anime she wants to catch on TV and is especially enamored of video games. Secondly, she comments a couple of times that she has some strong hikikkomori tendencies, though she is trying to break herself out of that between having a part-time job at the game center as well as getting Rin and Sia involved in the broadcast club at Verbena. Last, but certainly not least, Daisy is very much a tsunderekko. It takes her a fair while to warm up to Rin and even when she does the "tsun" part still comes out occasionally.

Daisy's route is really quite a treat considering you have to play every other route in the game to get to it. It's rather well written and really departs heavily from the standard Shuffle! progression of events. In fact, I daresay it feels like Navel created this route to almost be a pitch at a new anime for the franchise. There's definitely enough content to the route for at least an OVA series, possibly even a 1-cour series (12-13 episodes). Now please note, I'm not saying this is going to happen, simply that the structure of the route and its story seems to lend itself to being adapted for animation purposes. Given the relative popularity of the franchise, the anime, as well as Navel's apparent renewed interest in the profitability of the franchise it wouldn't terribly surprise me if something like this did happen. For now, though, it's all simply wishful thinking.

Daisy's route is worth the effort it takes to access it. The story is fun, interesting and engaging, the new characters introduced in it bring some welcome fresh blood to the mix and the ending and epilogue for it are pretty epic compared to all the other endings in the game. Route gets a 10/10 from me and Daisy is #3 in my heroine hierarchy. She's not quite as awesome as Sakura or Asa, but she's far and away better and more interesting than all the other girls.

If people do want the story of Daisy's route spoiled I will do as much of a write-up of it as I can, but for now the route reviews are finished. I hope everyone's enjoyed reading them. I know I've mostly enjoyed writing them up. Essence+ didn't deliver everything I'd hoped it would, but it was still an enjoyable game and did breathe some new life into the franchise. I'll now sit back and look forward to the newly announced Sia/Kikyou game and hope it expands more on Kikyou's personality and chemistry with Rin. I'll also hope maybe some of the other God-race girls are involved in it as well. Especially Ruri. I said it before and I'll say it again, that girl needs her own route. What can I say? I was a fan of Tomoyo in CLANNAD and Ruri's character design and personality are practically a carbon copy of her with a few changes and embellishments, making her very relevant to my interests.

[Hagges01]

done reading, pretty good, now need more info about Daisy and Ruri

[Micchi]

Thanks for the reviews, DJLowrider!

[BlueGenome]

Awesome reviews, DJLowrider. They've given me a good idea of where to start once I get the game (hoping for mid-January!), not to mention they were a good read. Top job. *approving nod*

re Daisy: Feel free to spoil away!

I'm also looking forward to more details about Princess Princess whenever they turn up. Kikyou FTW.

[charles88]

Hello,I want to know about Daisy backstory and Erina and Ruri especially

Whats Daisy relation with Sia?

Whats Daisy,Erina and Ruri role in Shuffle Essence?

Answer is appreciate.

[PhoenixG]

Spoiler for daisy:

Daisy is a cousin from Sia. Her father is the bigger brother of Sia's father. The reason why her father didn't sit on the throne is his health.

Spoiler for Ruri:

She is assigned to be Sia's personal body guard.

I might know more, but I forgot most of it ^.^;;; it's been a month that I've finished the game

[charles88]

Okay,is Daisy with the faction against Sia father which they almost kidnapped Sia?If yes what reason she doing so?

What Erina, 1000 year old human like being relation who like to disguise as rabbit with Daisy?

What story behind Daisy route?

Hope you will reply answer.

[Kait]

Oh .... so that's why i couldn't get in Daisy's route ..... guess I'll need to finish Nerine and Sia route's . ( 60% or 70% both ) .


By the way .... i'm a little confuse here , who is that girl next to Ruri in the Gallery section ?


----


Is kind of sad that Ruri doesn't have her own route in the game but , i hope , that in this new project of Navel we can see more about Ruri , Sia , Kikyou and Daisy . ( Routes maybe ... )


Anyways .. thanks for the info about Daisy ^^

[PhoenixG]

Originally Posted by charles88

Okay,is Daisy with the faction against Sia father which they almost kidnapped Sia?If yes what reason she doing so?

What Erina, 1000 year old human like being relation who like to disguise as rabbit with Daisy?

What story behind Daisy route?

Hope you will reply answer.

Spoiler for faction:

She is, but she is kinda forced into the faction due her mother. Her mother never forgave Sia's father for taken the throne. The reason why this faction is, because Ria (Sia's bio mother/ Nerine's fathers's sister). Some people in Shinkai still can't forgive the demons for various reasons. One of them is the war between them. After the war ended, Shinou married Ria as for political reason ( themself were is love, so personally there wasn't a problem).

Spoiler for Erina:

Erina isn't God or Demon or Human. She is kinda a guardian angel for Daisy.

Well I've forgotten lots of thing about Erina. IIRC she stays by Daisy's side to relief her loneliness.

Spoiler for story:

Daisy is the only member left in the broadcasting club. The others left, because her sempais graduated. When Daisy met Rin, she starts hating him, because he's so close the Sia. Being a "Sia fan" she also wants to get closer, so starts recruiting Sia to join her club. Sia refused a few times.
After Sia and Rin found out that Daisy is the only member and the club is about to close down, they decide to join it. Daisy didn't want Rin to join, but Sia said she only joined it, if Rin also joins. On that agreement Daisy comply.

From this moment is how I call Daisy a tsun on a leash . Everytime Daisy go tsun on Rin, Sia pulled the leash and "scold" her.

Daisy and Sia were the host of the broadcast, while Rin handles the controls. The broadcast will broadcast in the lunch break for about 15 min.
At the their first broadcast, it was a hit (with help of Sia's status).

While time passes, Daisy started to see why Sia likes Rin and becomes less and less tsun against him.

At one point of the story, there is a kidnap attempted on Sia while Rin and Daisy was with her. The attempted failed due Kikyou, but faint afterwards due abrupt switch between the two.

* input lots of stuff I've forgotten *
There was a convo between Rin and Kikyou, about the two families relation (it looks like Sia has forgotten about Daisy, while Kikyou didn't). She also warned her to be careful about her.

At one moment her mother order Daisy to use an artifact to trap Sia into it, while they persuade to step down the throne. At this moment Daisy is torn between her mothers order and staying friends between Sia and Rin. In the end Daisy decided to trap herself into. With no way to reach her (she also has the escape key to get out the artifact), Erina decided to help them. She knows a communicate with her, cuz the artifact is one of her own items. Rin follows Erina's pointers, while Shinou try to talk some sense into Daisy's mother. Her mother lay down all the hostility when she heard that Daisy got trapped.

The way to communicate with Daisy is to collect enough mana to talk to her. With lots of cheesiness talking to all the students to give there mana to him to save his girl.

In the end of the story Sia and Kikyou will be seperated ( at this moment Kikyou asked Rin to name her ) and it's implied that Rin will marry Sia, Kikyou and Daisy.

Personally I really like this route. It has romance with some political background story with it. IMO Ruri didn't really has a very big roll in the route. She only 'train' Rin in self-defence (which he only use against Ruri to force his way through) and talked a bit about Shinkai's background, which Kikyou and Shinou also told it about.

[Kait]

^ Somehow after reading your spoiler about Daisy's Story .... it give me the feeling that this new project of Navel "Princess Princess" will follow this route .

By the way , does anyone have any information about that project ? .. is it even confirmed ?

[kusanagiryu]

Oh it's confirmed alright. Word about Princess Princess actually came from a special game disc that you get if you pre-order the Limited Edition of Shuffle Essence+ from Softmap. I was going to do a review of this disc earlier but now's a good a time as any to do it.

The special disc has 3 additional short stories that were excluded from the original game.

Spoiler for What they contain:

The first story occurs somewhere in the storyline but Rin has conveniently forgotten when...(My guess is that it occurs on Sakura's route, given that Sakura appears in it.) It involves Rin and the girls at the school pool during summer. It shows us once again how much of a lucky bastard Rin can be. It's hilarious, mostly due to Daisy. (Yes, Daisy appears as well, meaning that Sakura and Daisy did meet at one point of the story, sans the Arcade scene.) There are some really nice CGs of Daisy and an epic CG of Kaede, Sakura and Primula in here, all with Rin in positions that most of us would kill to get into. (That lucky BASTARD!!!).

The second story gives us more insight regarding Ruri's character. (A semi-Ruri route, if you will.) The story occurs on Daisy's route and is told from Ruri's perspective. It tells us of many things including what got her into dressing up as a boy and her feelings towards Rin. This story also contains the much anticipated Ruri ero scene. (It is however, a major let down... I won't get into any details here but let's just say that it does a very good job of getting your hopes up and smashing it down into the asphalt. Still better than nothing though.) A must play for Ruri fans. (Man, who'd know that Ruri was such an adorably shy girl. I think i just became a fan! I'll bet my money that DJLowrider would kill to play this route.)

The third and final story is occurs after the Sia/Kikyou route I think and we soon find out that this is the Prelude to Navel's new project "Princess Princess".

Thus, we can see that news about this new sequel would only be known to those who actually pre-ordered their game form Softmap. This just goes to show you that sometimes it's just better if you fall for these companies' marketing schemes. Who knows if you'd get something good out of it.

[Kait]

Uhm .. i see i see ..


Well , guess we just gonna have to wait for some more info about this new project . ^^ ( hope we can see Daisy , Ruri characters in it ) .


By the way , just for curiosity ... that ero scene of Ruri is with Rin ?


----


Anyways , guess im off for today ... i have to do some stuff and also try to finish the routes of Sia and Nerine .....

[kusanagiryu]

Originally Posted by Kait

By the way , just for curiosity ... that ero scene of Ruri is with Rin ?

Yes... Yes it is indeed...

[charles88]

Thanks for the answer you giveme.I didnt expect Daisy route that great which is also has political background.Other favorite route in Shuffle! essence + is Sakura where story is touching as Sakura help Kaede to get over her guilty feeling toward Rin and confess love to Rin and show such a beautiful frienship between them.

Hopefully Princess Princess show more on King of God 2 other wifes and their personallity as well as Sia mother expanded role as well.I hope we also get to see Daisy parents and new character.

Also those who play Shuffle Essence+, what your top 11 favorite route in the game and what your top 12 Girls and why?

I will send my list as well

[BlueGenome]

Oops. That'll teach me not not check stickies before I post (I thought it was weird that the main forum rules didn't have anything regarding BitTorrent). Well, torrents for the extra CD exist. Maybe possibly. Use your head.

It looks like the same AGTH code works for the side and main discs ("/HA-8@46E340"), for those like me who have to view the game through warped-translation goggles. Thank Haruhi that ATLAS is at least half-decent.

Because I'm an impatient bastard I've borrowed the game and installed it so I don't have to wait another two weeks for my copy to arrive. Hoping to start tomorrow.

Originally Posted by charles88

I didnt expect Daisy route that great which is also has political background.

Daisy's route looks very good, no wonder the folks at Navel decided to force you to dance with her after everyone else.

Originally Posted by charles88

Hopefully Princess Princess show more on King of God 2 other wifes and their personallity as well as Sia mother expanded role as well.I hope we also get to see Daisy parents and new character.

Hear hear! I'm curious to meet Eustoma's other half (two quarters makes a half! ) and see what kind of relationship they have with Sia and Kikyou. Sia mentions that she doesn't really differentiate between them, so it'd be interesting to see the dynamics.

P.S. Happy new year!

[kusanagiryu]

Originally Posted by BlueGenome

It looks like the same AGTH code works for the side and main discs ("/HA-8@46E340"), for those like me who have to view the game through warped-translation goggles. Thank Haruhi that ATLAS is at least half-decent.

Actually, Shuffle Essence+ and the side story doesn't require an AGTH code. It runs fine on its own.

Also, if you're looking for a translator, you may want to try out the Translation Aggregator.

http://www.hongfire.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94395

It's the best translator I've come across to date. Very well worth the time and effort it takes to set up.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Micchi

New Navel game set for 2011 is Princess Princess, following Sia and Kikyou's story in the realm of the gods. It seems like they're not ready to let go of Shuffle! XD

This was some good news. It's nice that the Shuffle series keeps on going through new game like this one. Besides think it'd be nice to delve into their story some more.