“Haru Ulala de Love yo Koi!”
I thought that people in this series should at least have some abilities to learn from their mistakes.
The thing is, they all know how reliable is Isumi’s sense of direction, and how easy it is for her to lead you to anywhere except the destination. Yet, for some reason Nagi trusts Isumi, and three hours into their trip, they are now in Hokkaido.
True, Isumi has told Nagi that she has been to Kyoto so many times that she knows perfectly where it is, and it is quite heartbreaking if you tell your best friend since childhood that you do not trust her, but surely Nagi would want to be more careful just because it is Isumi taking the lead? Surely she should have noticed that something was wrong as they purchased the tickets or boarded the plane?
Maybe I should be more tolerant to Nagi, because she is not a girl with much common sense to begin with. Maybe. But as I go easy on her, there is one little sad thing: two months into Nagi’s life at the Violet Mansion, she is still far from ready for a “normal” life. Progress is indeed limited.
Okay…
So Nagi only realizes that she is in Hokkaido when she is told so by Kayura, who has currently returned home. Most probably Nagi should give up going to Kyoto, because she would otherwise have 1,780 km to travel, and she simply doesn’t have time for a flight to Kyoto, and then back to Tokyo.
Mysteriously, Hinagiku and Chiharu do not seem to have noticed that something has gone wrong, as Kayura is the first person to inform Hayate and Maria the whereabouts of Nagi. Either Hinagiku and Chiharu are not aware that they got separated, or that they are deliberately not informing Hayate of the missing children. In any case, we still have to ask: what are you two doing?
We are not quite sure where Hinagiku and Chiharu are now. If they are not aware that they are separated from Nagi, they could still be on their way to Kyoto. If they are aware of the separation, they could be looking for Nagi and Isumi in Tokyo. Either way, they would not be making an appearance any time soon. In other words, they are now sent on an exile.
Unfortunate they might be, but this is totally avoidable: they simply had to stay with Nagi and Isumi. By failing to do so, they deserve their exile. Let us give criticism where criticism is due.
Someone’s not entirely happy.
Hayate is easily seen worried about Nagi, to the also easily seen displeasure of Ruka. We could easily depict Ruka as the bad girl, but her displeasure is understandable. After all, Hayate is teamed with her, so it is natural that she would expect Hayate to pay more attention to her, instead of Nagi.
Then again, even if he is teamed with you – or even if he would marry you, for the matter – it doesn’t mean that Hayate cannot be worried about his lady, right?
Before Hayate could finally go and “retrieve” his lady, or before Nagi could return to Tokyo, or before Hinagiku and Chiharu could reunite with Nagi, our main heroine would be under the care of Kayura. Even if Nagi doesn’t need to sleep overnight at Kayura’s home, at least she could use a little rest.
Looks like a hotel.
It turns out that Kayura’s home is actually her father’s video game company – so the failed mangaka began making video games. A client has just come from overseas, but the translator collapsed, so Kayura’s father asks her for the translation. We might expect students from a prestigious school like Hakuou would know English, but then we have Hayate as a bad example, so…
As expected (?), Kayura could not understand a single word the client says, but Nagi reveals that it is because the man – his name is George – is speaking Australian Englsih, which “uses a different pronunciation from normal English”. This I do know, but I think it has been exaggerated. The last time I visited Australia, I could talk to the people in “normal English” just fine. Okay, it might just be me…
As Nagi could communicate with George, Kayura’s father asks her to translate even though he recognises that it is “sudden”. This suits Nagi well – after all, she has gone this far (literally) to look for “sudden” experience, so she is not going to miss this one.
Listen to that, Maxis!
So George (and his team) has made a real-time strategy game – think about Age of Empires – with amazing graphics. The problem is that they have burnt their entire one billion yen budget on the graphics, that they have no money to develop the AI (artificial intelligence, which determines how “smart” the computer could be). For that, they need another half a billion yen.
The problem is that while Kayura’s father does not have extra budget, he is counting on this game to succeed. If not… well, “hanging himself” could be a (not so funny) joke, but clearly the company would be in huge trouble. Now, admit it – Kayura’s father has that kind of face that you wouldn’t want to see him sad.
After some serious internal struggles, Nagi decides to make Kayura’s father happy by saying that George has made a good game. So, there would be no extra budget. There would be no improved AI. The game would be unplayable…
If you have followed the recent SimCity debacle, you would understand just how important AI is to a game. A game frustrates players if the AI is poor, no matter how good the graphics are. Take a look at the following clips: the graphics are indeed very nice, but this is the kind of gaming experience I do not want. Simply put, I won’t be buying the game as it is.
So, is there a way to bring Kayura’s father out of this serious trouble? Well, to begin with, many people would be fooled by the graphics and buy the game only because of that. If Kayura’s father could set up a promotion campaign focusing only on the graphics, then there would be enough fools to make up the loss for him. Yes, they would find that the game sucks soon enough, but what is sold is sold.
Another way – a more responsible way – is to release the game as it is now, and then release patches later. Indeed, Maxis have informed players that they are working on the game’s AI, so it is not like that AIs cannot be changed – they just need time and money. Hopefully Kayura’s father could raise enough funds for George to work on a patch to the game.
In any case… why would a small video game company set up a one billion yen budget to make a game in the first place?
Hayate Report 