Visual Novel Diary: Galaxy Angel

Well, its been far too long since I last did a VN diary. To be fair, this is mainly due to having not too many to play, and also due to my work commitments, but even so.

Anyway, Aroduc is responsible for this Galaxy Angel translation; his next translation project after Battle Moon Wars was done and dusted (well, this and Daibanchou), so hats off to him as always. The patch is basically complete at its 0.98 version; which is just missing the fmv subtitles (I think) as far as I can tell.

So, some of you might be familiar with the Galaxy Angel anime and its spinoffs, right? Well, they have absolutely NOTHING to do with the games on which they are based, much to my surprise. Besides the characters and universe setting, that is. The game is an intergalactic war story; with you protecting the last heir of the Transbaal Empire, Prince Shiva, from certain death as you retreat from the villanous usurper of the throne, Eonia and his creepy loli pet Noa.

As a game; its what happens if you take Homeworld, slam it into a squad based strategy RPG, and add a well executed non-H visual novel as topping. It sounds like an eclectic mix, and it is, but its certainly one that works a charm:

You play as Tact Meyers, Colonel of a outlying fleet that is suddenly put in command of the Empire’s top of the range prototypes, the Emblem Frames, born of lost technology and piloted by a bevy of lovely young ladies who form the Angel Wing.

Each chapter has several VN sections that give way to a bunch of space battles. Space battles occur on a full 3d plane; as you might expect:

The Elsior is Tact’s flagship from the second chapter, seen here, unloading its main batteries into a frigate. Despite its looks and apparent status as top of the line battleship though, most missions involve protecting the Elsior, which rarely sees a good fight despite its excellent range, due to its low speed, surprisingly low durability, and the fact that the angels typically outclass the massive warship. (!)

These sections are very reminiscient of playing Homeworld, but there is no resource management. The only focus is on your movement and strategy and keeping the Angels alive long enough for them to whup the enemy into shape. The interface for this is pretty good, all in all, since there’s the ability to pause and give commands with hotkeys, which I liked (and is a lifesaver) at several harsher moments of battle.

Since Emblem Frames apparently grow in power in relation to their pilots mental state, Tact’s duty as the Angel Wing commander is to ensure all of the ladies are as happy as they can be! Talk about a cushy military assignment! As a result, in each of the downtime periods between fights, you get to wander the ship and chat to the ladies:

But of course, you typically only get six picks in each downtime; so theres alot of time management. On top of that, there’s often a multiple choice question in each of the scenes; and choosing the correct response is what causes the ladies to like you more. Naturally, showing courage and tenacity are nearly always positive; but each girl has certain needs you should tune into as well:

Each Angel also pilots a unique emblem frame, and its quite true that making them happy affects the ships. As affection goes up, the Angels start to get pretty serious buffs for combat, and the girl you eventually select as your valentine gets truly obscene bonuses and turns into a death machine.

If you’ve seen the anime, you should be familiar with the girls, but their units are of interest for me to discuss here, so I’ll do a bit of both, going top to bottom, left to right:

Ranpha is the tsundere that loves fitness and fortune telling as well as exuberant girly things (she has a streak of ojou-sama, and pulls out ~the laugh~ every so often to prove it). She doesn’t like to show weakness to others (especially Tact) and initially despises him, though she does a hilariously amusing turnabout if you pick up the right events.
Her Emblem Frame is the Kung-Fu-Fighter, which is intially a Fragile Speedster, but turns into a Glass Cannon if you get up her affection. She gets into trouble easily due to her vastly outstipping the others in speed; but can really clock up kills too. She has dual vulcan cannons and a single launcher, and her ultimate weapons shoots two rending claws; each of which literally destroy 1/2 of the targets max. health; making it a pretty much guaranteed kill, though only single target unlike some of the other specials.

Ranpha on her attack pass; she loves to play chicken with cruisers!

Mint is the telepathic refugee noble girl who joined the military to escape her father and his overbearing mercantile roots. She has a great fondness for tea and sweets; as well as honesty. She has a secret hobby of dressing up in weird cosplay outfits.
Her Emblem Frame is the Trick Master, which is the Carrier type. Its marginally faster than Happy Trigger; but offsets its mediocre speed and average armament of a couple of launchers by having a wing of ion cannon drones that independently attack the target, allowing her omnidirectional coverage and high accuracy. Her special is to launch all her drones at once which spam beams at everything in an area of effect. If you’re lucky, this can be the best offensive special as the enemies often fly in formations.

Milfie is the genki air-head girl with ‘ideal wife’ characteristics (loves to cook and clean). She also has extreme luck; which swings from obscenely good to terrifyingly bad (she wins the lottery 1st prize five times in a row and then nearly causes a forest fire the same day!).
Her Emblem Frame is the Lucky Star (LOL) which has high speed and is above average in most other things, sporting a good selection of mass drivers and missiles; and she has a giant pink laser as her ultimate weapon that literally destroys anything in a line in front of it, across the ENTIRE map. Sadly, only a few enemy fleets dutifully line up for her to take advantage of this.

Milfie’s Pink Laser of Death. What you don’t see is that health bar suddenly reduce to zero and the mobile battle platform exploding about 1.2 seconds after this screencap.

Forte is the ‘big sister’ character, stern and wise yet flirtateous and stunning at the same time. She’s the nominal squad leader of the angels, as the oldest and only one who’s a 1st Lieutenant. She also loves gunpowder guns in an age that has embraced energy weapons; and has a huge selection. She is perhaps the most grounded one of the Wing.
Her Emblem Frame is the Happy Trigger, which is the Tank. Its the slowest by far, but its a gunship that’s bristling with about eight launchers and at least 5 mass drivers, allowing her to seriously lay smackdown onto whatever wanders into her sights. She has no unique weapon; her special is to simply boost and discharge her entire arsenal in a single huge barrage. Since each weapon gets a big accuracy boost as part of this attack, its usually pretty decent damage.

Vanilla is a hardworking silent girl that is uncomfortable in social situations, but she becomes vastly more vocal as the game progresses, especially with the right events. She controls nano-machines and loves animals; and devotes most of her time to earnestly helping others in need to her own detriment.
Her Emblem Frame is the Harvester, which has the highest defence and is the only one with the ability to repair the others (but she can’t repair Tact’s Elsior). She also has a decent rack of swarmer missles and a cannon or two, and is average elsewhere. Her special is a total lifesaver, sending a huge wave of repairing nanomachines that give a full-heal to all of angel-wing, no matter where they are on the map.

Vanilla goes in to support Milfie’s dogfight. The missile barrage is about to begin.

Of course, as already noted, your favourite girl becomes a death machine regardless of her usual battle role, however:

This was shortly after I started heading up the Vanilla Route; and as you can see, she went on a bit of rampage. To give perspective; in Vanillas case here, with the love buff all her swarmers suddenly guarantee a hit and each does a bucket of damage, and she charges up her map-wide full heal continually, which makes everything a bit hilariously easy if you do the same as me. I’ve heard the others get similar huge leaps in power, like Ranpha dodges everything and decimates battleships in a single pass; Mint’s drones go mental and so on.

Well, I think that just about covers it all. Hope you enjoyed this little soujorn and tune in again soon!

EDIT: And just a quick edit; to showcase the Vanilla End:

Dawww! Vanilla melts me with her cuteness. An amusing reversal, ne?

I guess I’ll head back and do the Ranpha route next since I like my Tsundere’s almost as much as my hard-shelled girls.

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Tytania 7-8

(sigh)  Looks like this is going to be my main style of posting when I’m as busy as I always seem to be these days. So yah, another double whammy post. I actually kinda like doing them this way anyhow.

In any case, Tytania seems to like pretty much setting up two-parters. Episode 7-8, like 5-6, form a set, this time focusing back on Fan Hulick and the Red Flag army.

Episode 7 opens with Fan finding Alan in the ships bar angsting over all the money he lost now that Miranda has yoinked him into her service.

An alarm goes off in the midst of their conversation. Running to the bridge, they find a pirate ship is threatening them. Turns out its an escapee from Turanjia/Tyrandia, the kingdom that was destroyed in the previous arc. Fan says its best to run; and Miranda does so. His deduction is correct, as the ship threatening them is really just blowing hot air, and has no ammunition nor capicitors left, and cannot make chase.

Arriving at their next delivery spot, and a place to refuel, Miranda is shocked to find this planet, which was once known as an economic paradise, is now in ruins with homeless kids everywhere; and that they were attacked by an unnamed party.

The kids make off with Miranda’s wallet. Alan tries to stop them, but she calls him off. He curses and says she doesn’t appreciate the value of money (jeez he’s quite the capitalist!).

Going to her usual fuel supplier, she finds him charging a ludicrous sum. Apparently, this planets economy has really gone down the toilet. He does however recommend she contacts Doorman. Miranda tells Fan that this is leader of the local pirates. This planet once was, and still is, a base for their operations.

When they get the place, Doorman is making a rallying speech. Turns out he was once a famous businessman or something.

He is proclaiming they should take advantage of Tyrandias defeat and use the wake of the chaos to attack a local Tytantian fortress. They have numbers and everything. His speech is cut up by a guy called Dr. Lee Zhang-Chen, who says that this plan is foolishness, and leaves, refusing to be a part of it:

He’s a doctor of philosophy by the way (LOL) with an apparent attitude problem (but is a certified genius, isn’t it always the way, ne?)

Anyway, after the speech, Miranda meets with Doorman. It doesn’t take long for Fan to be recognised as the hero of Cerberus again.

And naturally, Doorman wastes no time in trying to recruit him. But Fan, being his usual self, decides sitting on the fence is the best idea. Or perhaps he knows more than he lets on…

Doorman also co-operates in refueling and restocking the Honest Old Man for Miranda. It obviously a less than subtle bribe to Miranda to try and take Fan, but he remains (deliberately, I’m sure) oblivious to it.

Nevertheless, the Pirate attack goes ahead on the fortress. Though Lord Zalish (the beardy guy) has posted one of his ‘best’ subordinates there, they stand no chance with 300 strong Tytania reserve garrison vs. 3,000 battle hardened pirates and the base falls promptly.

This is obviously not Sparta, or the 300 would have won, LOL.

Despite this victory, Fan is still dubious about joining this pirate army.

Moving onto Episode 8, Fan is again yoinked by Doorman in a recruiting attempt whilst Miranda is loading the supplies onto her ship. He introduces him to 3 other generals, and boasts about their victories and how this has swung even more forces their way:

However, again, Fan says he needs some time to think about the proposal.

Alan thinks Fan is crazy to pass up an offer to join a conquering fleet as its premium general. But, Fan recognises he is being used, and also realises the same thing that Lord Jouslain did just moments before, that flies are difficult to swat when they move around. But what if gather them all in one location?

Yup, talk about killing 5,000 birds with one stone. He tells Miranda that he’s sticking with her for now and that they should leave this sinking ship ASAP.

Doorman is discussing with his other generals how they’re gonna be fine even if the Tytanian’s attack. Then he gets a call telling him Fan has skipped town and looks distraught.

Are you sure this guy worked in business? That you should never place your faith in uncertain factors is surely common commerical sense… Idiot…

Nevertheless, the other generals come up with a plan. They call it a hedgehog formation, and its a strategy based upon using the Fortress as a shield against attackers, under the assumption that Tytania wants to keep their fortress intact. Obviously, they still haven’t realised what Fan and Dr. Chen did last episode; that pirates shouldn’t rely on brute force over guerilla tactics for their objectives. Idiots. (again…)

We skip back to Princess Lydia at this point:

She’s covering up her antennae this episode with a hat, LOL. Turns out her father is shielding the escapees from the destroyed Tytanian fortress. But it was a difficult decision for him, since he doesn’t know if the pirates would see it as a threat.

Meanwhile, Zalish has been dispatched to deal with the pirates, and Ajman thinks his brother is planning a coup’d etat against him. Or at least Idris is convinced of this. As a result, Jouslain is assigned as Zalish’s backup command and is in turn told to command Marquess Estrates son to be his assistant as, technically, a hostage of sorts in case things go pear shaped:

The pirates discuss attacking Lydia’s homeworld after learning that they shielded the Tytanian refugees. But Zalish’s incoming fleet is more important.

Zalish looks a bit of loon here, doesn’t he?

Naturally he doesn’t slow the fleet or the bombardment one little bit because of the fortress being in the way, so the fact that all the foes ships are in one place is practically asking for them to be killed.

On a side note, why does the so called evil empire use the blue ion cannons? Surely, its an established fact that the so called goodies have dibs on those, right? Hahahaha…

Question: What happens when a hedgehog meets a speeding artillery shell?

——————————————————-

If you answered “Squishy Parts and Gibs!”, you’re correct! Have a cookie!

So the Pirates are totally pwned by Zalish’s brutal battering ram strategy. Naturally, the fortress is blown to high heaven as well. So much for that moronic hedgehog strategy.

Evidently, the real reason Tytania is in charge in this galaxy is because everyone else doesn’t bother sending their general’s to actually STUDY tactics. Even Euria assigned Fan on the assumption he’d cock up at the battle of Cerberus, but they screwed up worse because they didn’t notice he was a natural genius. Idiots.

Miranda’s ship picks up Dr. Chen Lee again. He recognises Fan as a fellow genius, and correctly points out that there is no value in the man himself, just the seeds of hope for a different future.

Switch back to the Kingdom of Elbing (Lydia-Land), where we actually see her father the king for the first time. He is having quite a problem. Seems like Tytania expected him to defend the fortress before or something, but instead he merely sheltered the evacuees. In response, they’ve partially forgiven him, but in return want to take Elbing’s energy mine as a sign of their true loyal intentions.

This is a no-no, because it will bankrupt the kingdom entirely. Even Lydia knows this. So he’s stuck in a lose-lose situation (Bankruptcy and suffering people or Blown to Hell and suffering people, ow). However, Lydia, realising this is a test of loyalty, offers an alternative solution:

These last few episodes have served to demonstrate her impeccable moral character with her random scenes, but this really took the cake. What a honorable little girl she is!

Not to mention it looks like she’s actually going to involved in the main plot more properly now, which is cool.

Well, I’m still impressed with this shows pace. Its always moving forward but never spinning out of control or slagging through the dirt, which is far more than most manage. Must be a pretty solid script they’re working from. I look forward to more.

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Tytania 5-6

I’ve actually got reason to do this set of Tytania as a double whammy for a change, since they are a contiguous story for the most part.

Fan Hulick’s almost entirely out of the picture in these eps as well, as the story goes to focus on the Principality of Tyrandia. We open seeing the funeral of the Duke of this place:

It turns out that the nobles of Tyrandia, seemingly inspired by the Battle of Cerberus (the one Fan Hulick won), want to seperate from the Tytanian conglomorate. So Duchess Laetitia is manipulated by them into sending this proclaimation.

As a result, Lord Idris (the bishie blonde, vicious nutcase of the big four) has to return from his fun shooting random people to go to a meeting, so has to delegate his position temporarily. He does so, and hence we’re introduced to:

Marquis Estrades is actually the older brother of the leader of Tytania, Ajman:

Well unlike beardy guy and his brother, they do actually look somewhat related…

At the council meeting, Psycho Idris and Beardy guy want immediately quash Tyrandia for their audacious claim, but Ariabart and Jouslain are more level headed and correctly deduce that the duchess is being manipulated. So Jouslain goes to try and negotiate.

We switch back to Tyrandia, where we’re also introduced to the Tytanian representative Erwin, whom was a childhood friend of the duchess:

That subtitle out of context makes it sound like they’re having an affair, ne? Hehe…

Anyway, we learn that Erwin made a promise to her when he was young that he’d help her see the gods of Uraniborg by becoming a great Tytanian official…

Aww…ain’t they cute?

Jouslain arrives; and after the politcal games and charades are over, the foolish nobles immediately get an assassination attempt under way:

Thanks to Jouslain’s savvy, however, he negotiates his way out of it; and almost secures an escape for all three of them. However, the Tyrandian nobles insist on Laetiata staying behind. Jouslain tries to argue, but she says its okay if its for Tytanias wellbeing and that he should go. Hence, Erwin also ends up staying…

However, shortly after his shuttle leaves, Laetiata goes and shoots herself! Apparently she was well aware that she was merely a puppet for them and figures this was the best way out of it… (WHAT? <sigh>)

Erwin goes balmy seeing her die before keeping his promise and does a suicide run at the corrupt men who drove her to this. He is obviously gunned down by soldiers. (how depressing)

Moving onto Ep 6, we see the repercussions of before. The nobles are marshalling their forces. Idris decides to send them some insane demands for surrender in order to irritate them and flush out rebels:

Jouslain on the other hand is informed of the Duchess and Erwin’s death, and starts to wonder whether Tytania is really an entity worth dying for. He calls it:

We also see Super-Antennae girl again, with a ‘Feed me Seymore’ plant:

There seems to be alot of random scenes with her in. I hope that they actually add up to something. This one was a little relevant at least because we hear her father denouncing the Tyrandian plan of attack and refusing to help out. They turn out to gather no allies whatsoever, so it looks like they’re screwed…

Much to beardy guys disdain, Ariabart is again given the command of the situation. Presumably to redeem himself from the previous failure vs. Hulick.

Jouslain and Ariabart think its a great idea for him to learn from his mistakes and nick Hulicks strategy of using Weigelt cannons. Fast forward to the battle:

This man is smarter than he looks. He figures out Tytania is up to something with their low fleet count. Of course, the admiral doesn’t listen to him and thinks Ariabart will fight using normal tactics.

(Sigh) You should have listened to that wise guy, Admiral…

So, half of the Tyrandian fleet gets taken out, and they retreat. The guy from earlier suggest they ignore their losses and attack though, as he also realises that the Tytanian formation is just as weak after using the cannons. Again, however, that idiot admiral ignores him. So he sighs, and uses his five ships to try a suicide charge to take out Ariabart, by himself:

And he almost succeeds in ramming Ariabarts flagship and taking him out! But is shot down at the last second:

It is only now the foolish admiral realises the wisdom of this hero. But its too late; and the battle is decided. We’re given a monologue from the narrator on how Tyrandia hence becomes wiped from map (ouch…).

In these couple of episodes it gets a little confusing from time to time with the Tyrandians and Tytanians, doesn’t it? But its nice to see what’s going on in the universe whilst Fan is goofing around and eating omlettes. Seems he’s set quite the trail of dominoes running though…

On a side note, Laetitia is spelt that way in the subs, but its pronounced Lay-tee-ett-ah, so I reckon it should be Laetiata. Same with Aryabhata, when its said Ar-re-ah-bah-tt, so I write Ariabart.

So yeah, I’m aware the names probably change from time to time in this post… If someone knows how they are spelt in the novels and wants to correct me though, then please, go ahead…

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