News: game: Arcobaleno - First Impression

Crunching down Acrobaleno on the PSP slowly! I am not very far into the game yet (just finished my first cooking exam). Still I have the urge to write an introduction and brief first-impression report before I continue chasing Kaname!

Story

The protagonist is a 18 year old studying in a specialised cooking school. She ran away from home ten years ago. Just before she collapsed from hunger, a young chef offered her some spaghetti alla pescatora. She could never forget the taste of that dish! She began to admire him and vowed to become a chef specialising in Italian dishes.

Everyone gathers for dinner at Acrobaleno chibi version~

She got to meet Haruto, who was covering for one of the teachers. After having Haruto’s spaghetti alla pescatora in the restaurant Arcobaleno, she was shocked that it tasted just like the one she had when she was young! After that, she decided to train in Arcobaleno so that she could recreate the dish herself. She dragged her friends Kaname and Fuuta along with her. Together with owner Ryuunosuke and manager Nikichi, they work hard to make Arcobaleno a brilliant Italian restaurant! However, the protagonist has to pass her cooking exams in school, otherwise she would be disqualified to continue her training…

Characters Murota Kaname

(voiced by Fukuyama Jun)

Studying business management in the school that the protagonist and Fuuta go to. Moreover, he is the grandson of the headmaster of that school! He makes a good leader and has a strong sense of responsibility. Gets along with the protagonist and Fuuta. Determines to open an Italian restaurant in the future and half-forces the protagonist to agree that she will be the chef in his restaurant! (He is the prince of the game with all his money and status!)

Nasu Haruto

(voiced by Tachibana Shinnosuke – Haruto gave me the impression of grumpy Saariya from Garnet Cradle!)

The chef that the protagonist aspires to learn from. He is really good at Italian dishes, but he doesn’t interact with people well. Often very calm about everything, thus earned him the nickname “the Ice Chef”. Eats way too much! (He is the other prince in the game in my opinion: the prince from the protagonist’s childhood)

Saotome Nikichi

(voiced by Mizushima Takahiro)

The 28-year old manager of Arcobaleno (Not a typo, he is really 28!). Despite his cute appearance, he is sharp and has a very good memory! He remember the birthday of every customer who has been to the restaurant and sends them little gifts! In return, he gets a lot of presents from female customers in which he uses to decorate the restaurant. Stingy with Arcobaleno’s budget. Often tells Ryuunosuke off for being silly with food or the customers.

Komatsu Ryuunosuke

(voiced by Hino Satoshi)

The happy owner of Arcobaleno. Used the heritage from his grandfather to establish Arcobaleno with Nikichi. Instead of doing his work, he often cooks new dishes for everyone to try out, which causes troubles for the customers and Haruto. Can get emotional whenever Nikichi or Haruto tells him off. (He cries and runs off XD;!)

Katsura Fuuta

(voiced by Tachibana Shinnosuke)

Studying cooking in the same school as Kaname and the protagonist. Was raised up in an island inhibited by less than 50 people (where would you get such an island? I WANT TO GO THERE TO ESCAPE WORK =o=), which makes him do things at his own pace (basically a little clueless and slow). Loves his dog Chako!

Rants

It is a very simple game in all aspects! The Japanese is not difficult (this is the perfect game to go into after playing Hakuouki, which was stuffed with kanji and historical references) and the gameplay is straight forward – kind of a mix of stat-raising and visual novel. During the game, you have cooking tests in which you would have to answer three to four questions on a particular dish. The information on the dish is provided beforehand for you to browse through and remember the details. But you don’t need to do that – just use the Save and Load functions to get answer the questions correctly. The art is really nice too! Love the chibi version of the characters during the stat-raising parts! One complain I have so far is the story: it is a conventional Shoujo manga story, which makes it not surprising and you can probably guess what will happen.