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Written by YUKINO Yoshi (01 August 2004)
THE STORY SO FAR...
GALAXY ANGEL: ETERNAL LOVERS (Eternal Lovers) takes place three months after Moonlit Lovers. Following the defeat of Nefuria* (ネフューリア) and the emergence of a new enemy race, the Valfask* (ヴァル・ファスク), Tact and the Angels are sent on a reconnaissance mission to the edge of the Transbaal empire. There they pick up a distress signal and try to locate the source, unaware that this is the prelude to a showdown with the Valfask; the decisive battle with the “enemies of Eden” which could unlock the mysteries of the entire universe.
Eternal Lovers features two new characters, RUSHATI* (ルシャーティ) and VINE* (ヴァイン). Not much is known about these two siblings except that they hold the key to the mysteries behind the story. Given that this is the last of the trilogy, Broccoli has promised to make Eternal Lovers longer than the previous two installments, and if the playable demo is anything to go by, this is also going to be the toughest. Also, KARASUMA Chitose features in the game as a heroine?having appeared in the PC version of Moonlit Lovers as only a sub-character).
OPENING / CLOSING THEME SONGS
The opening and closing theme songs for Eternal Lovers is sung by SATOU Hiromi (佐藤裕美), not IIJIMA Mari (who did the first two games). Besides that, the familiar Eternal Love will be the closing song--the opening song now being Angelic Symphony.
Fans of Japanese PC bishoujo games ought to be familiar with SATOU Hiormi; she's by no means a newcomer, and some of her more famous songs include Mizuiro(みずいろ), the opening song from Nekoneko Soft's Mizuiro(みずいろ), as well as Hoshizora(星空), one of the closing songs from Groover's Green Green(グリーングリーン). Satou also featured (along with KOTOKO) in Second Flight, the opening song from the TV-anime series, Onegai Twins(おねがい☆ツインズ).
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Fans of the series got a preview of the upcoming game when Broccoli released a playable demo of Eternal Lovers during last month's Tokyo Character Show. What the demo offers besides the usual sales hype is a playable training mission.
As far as I can tell, there aren't too many significant changes: the interface remains very much similar in both look and feel, while the character artwork (for this demo, at least) is recycled from Moonlit Lovers. Missions are in real-time, and take place in a fully 3D environment; and if 3D graphics don't excite you, you can always switch to a tactical map and watch all the action from there instead). Orders are given via clicking on the respective ship's icon and then choosing a command from the drop-down list.
Broccoli has yet again improved on the game's 3D engine. The graphics looks better, with a higher polygon count, smoother texturing and rendering, improved anti-aliasing, and crispier visual effects. The game can also be run at screen resolutions as high as 1024 x 768, but of course, how much details you can cram onto your screen depends on your hardware configuration. I was running the demo on a 2.6GHz Pentium 4 with 1GB of memory, and a 128MB GeForce4 FX 5200 video card, and my machine was struggling to cope with the game's settings set to the highest. However, you can still get solid-looking graphics without needing to work your hardware to death.
The mission is a simulated battle pitting all six Angels' Emblem Frames and the Elsior against a dozen varying enemy ships. The most noticeable difference in this demo is, perhaps, the difficulty of the mission. Charging into the fray is definitely NOT a tactic you can apply anymore (if you can call that tactics in the first place). One can get away with a lot things in the previous games (especially the first), but enemy ships are a lot hardier and aggressive now, and no longer does a special attack from any of the Angels guarantee an instant kill. Broccoli have promised to make Eternal Lovers longer, and now it looks certain that they are going to make it much, much tougher as well. I should add, though, that a tougher game doesn't necessarily mean a more challenging one, given that the AI hasn't improved much since the first Galaxy Angel game.
PRODUCT INFO
Eternal Lovers is slated for release on 20 Aug, 2004. The limited edition (CD/DVD) is priced at 10,290yen, while the standard edition (CD) is 9,240yen.
Both the standard and limited edition include the following:
- An add-on disc for Moonlit Lovers which updates Chitose’s storyline (similar to the one in the PlayStation2 version).
- A special booklet.
- A promotion card.
The limited edition will also come bundled with six SD figurines featuring the girls from Angel Brigade.
* English names are based on Japanese pronunciation and are not necessarily the official ones.
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