It's rare to see a good jap text adv / virtual life sim.

A few exceptions exist, Animamundi Dark Alchemist or something along those lines is the most memorable I've played for a long time.

The gog page, kind of reminds me of Princess Maker series. Might be good. I'll buy it, and take a look later. Always been a anime nut; and AFAIK it's a first for a japaneese game on the site.

I was just thinking, myself, that this sounds a LOT like Princess Maker. That's a definite plus in my book, so this is an almost certain buy for me when I get paid on Friday. I would love to see some reviews, though.

But it's not a japanese game. It's a "japanese-like" game.

http://www.hanakogames.com/about.shtml

Oh well, that's a start, if the game is good ! ^_^

Oh ^_^ I stand corrected :))
Anyway, close enough, let's hope this sell so well, japanese games get translated! and released on gog

I love the game myself. There are a lot of story elements that can pop up, whether one succeeds or fails. Unless it is something that ends in death, some of the failures can open other interesting story elements :)

However, you can give the game a try before buying:
http://www.hanakogames.com/llq.shtml

It has a Windows, Mac and Linux demo.

I would like to know how long this game is? And how much does the story alter when you make different choices?

I played the demo, took me ~ 20 minutes and I feel that the story just has started.

Hm... for my first successful approach I needed... maybe two hours? One and a half?
however, this is only for one path, as I hadn't tried a different approach yet.
But considerign what I heard, there are many differences , I believe.

Yes, it is a game very fun.

It was a bit too short for my tastes.

It also is quite hard and it took me several tries to make it to the coronation. And even then the ending I've got wasn't at all happy.

It also works as a puzzle game when you try to figure out the exact combination of mood changes and skill advances that would unlock certain paths for you.

All in all, a rather memorable experience.

That's too bad to hear.
I just completed the demo myself and am eager to play.
I really wish the game would have been longer.

Trying it now. If it's like any other similar games, unlocking all paths and outcomes usually take 10-20 playthroughs.
maybe 40h if you're really into it.

And after 1,5hours I died of poisoning. Oh so many options, so much complexity. It's so much I'll have to grab pen and paper if I'm going to play much more. Good old days, sitting by the computer, playing games and making notes :))

You can read my review on the front page, basically I didn't find it to be that great and it didn't surpass the depth and enjoyment Princess Maker offers. This feels more like a streamlined and broader version of the game, all the story-related choices I was presented didn't change any outcome other than a dialogue then that was that.

One thing that nagged me was the fact that every choice always had something good or bad with it, there was never a netural choice (a real choice, not just a silly dialogue choice as afor mentioned), so it made me feel like there was little going for the game in the end.

I played the game to death last year, trying to uncover every little side event, and I can safely say that will take you upwards of 40 hours, with a lot of text skipping, and I know for a fact that there are still outcomes I've missed.

For those making that comparison, I have to say that this is not a Princess Maker style of game at all, it's more of a visual novel with a more complex path finding than simple choice of response. That is to say, there's not a lot of sim life freedom of choice - you're following a story. A story that has a lot of branches, but still, overall, a fairly rigid story.

There's enough here, though, to make you come back for a different experience. It's fairly rare for two people to have the exact same path reaching the end of the game. Most events have several solutions, especially the big important ones. Sometimes they're advertised, sometimes they depend on hidden skill checks or previous choices. Really, there's much more depth and branching than you'd think, it's just not always very obvious how to find them. There's a checklist with some fairly obscure items on it, and some that can be resolved in different ways.

Of course, it's not a game for all people, but then no game is. It's a game for people who like to experiment, and like to immerse themselves in story and minutiae. It's a game for people like myself.

I just replayed the demo and made some different choices and even in this short period of the demo the story alters quite a lot! I am impressed and will definitley get this game!