Welcome to Pia Carrot!! 3
Game Review
Game Information
| Publisher: F&C |
Release Date: First Print - November 30, 2001 Premium Box - October 18, 2002 |
Retail Price: ¥9,800 |
| Genre: Love simulation/eroge |
Rating: 18+ |
Introduction
Most of the information here is basically the same as the Game System subsection, but more in depth. This review covers the game playing experience. This is based on the PC version since that's the only version I played.
About the game
Welcome to Pia Carrot!! 3 was a long awaited sequel to Welcome to Pia Carrot!! 2. The game features a new cast of characters plus some old ones from past Pia Carrot games.
The Pia Carrot family restaurant company has recently opened its fourth branch & is in need of some experienced staff members to get that branch to operate smoothly. The male main character, Akihiko Kannnaduki, has been selected as one of the staff members to be transferred there as a supporter. During his four week stay, he will get the chance to meet the girls working at #4 & possibly establish a love relationship with one of them before the summer ends.
System Requirements
Before you start looking & installing for the game, you need to know if you have the minimum requirements to play it. The system requirements listed here are translated & taken directly from the game's manual. These are based on game performance:
Optimum Performance |
Recommended Performance |
|
| CPU | Pentium MMX 233MHz |
At least Pentium II 300Mhz |
| RAM | 32MB |
At least 64MB |
HDD Space |
At least 350MB |
At least 1.2GB |
| CD-ROM Speed | 4X |
At least 8X |
| Video Resolution Size | At least 640 X 480 |
|
| OS | Japanese Version Windows 95 SP1/98/Me/2000 Professional SP1 |
|
| Sound Card | MIDI & PCM capable |
|
Because the game was made in late 2001, these system requirements shouldn't be a problem with computers today. Unless you are using a computer from the early 90s, you won't have any problems running this game.
Although it requires a Japanese version of Windows, you can play the game with Windows XP. However, you need to set your computer's language to Japanese or else you can't play. An alternative method is to run the game using Microsoft Applocale. This will prevent you from changing languages all the time.
I strongly recommend installing the game directly to your hard drive & not run it from the CD. The recommended space is at least 1.2GB & that isn't a lot of space taken in today's computers. If you install everything to the computer, the game's music will be played from the hard drive as well. So after installing the game, you won't need the CDs & you can store them away for safe keeping.
Graphics
The graphics from the year the game was made is pretty good. In fact, I think it's still good & up to par with today's games & anime shows. But in terms of the colour tones, it's pretty dull when comparing it to today's standards. CG technology wasn't too sharp back then & the colour toning didn't have a lot of brightness.
The body proportions are pretty well done in terms of the body, legs, & head. When it comes to the fingers, it looks sloppy. For example, when you see Sayaka in her T-shirt & shorts, her fingers on her right hand is drawn very weird.
Most of the CGs aren't complete stills. A lot of them has the girls blinking & moving their mouths when they talk. There are times it looks weird when they talk. The facial expression doesn't match well with what the seiyuus are trying to dramatize.
There are some SD CG scenes shown when the game is speeding up the time process. These occur during Akihiko's normal work & free time activities. These SD scenes are quite fun to watch at times. They are sometimes different.
Music & Sounds
The game has volume control settings for each options. These are the sound effects, voices, & background music. Since I use Windows' volume control program & the volume control on my speakers, I usually leave the game's volume control at the max.
The game allows you to turn on or off the sound effects. For me, I keep them on since they don't bother me. There isn't a lot of them & the quality is pretty good. They don't sound fake.
The music has two playback methods: Vorbis & MIDI. The Vorbis option is my choice since it gives CD quality sounds. The music is pretty good & sets the mood pretty well. Plus, the theme songs of the characters matches their personalities. When I went to the game's music room option, I found a couple of songs that I don't recall hearing in-game. They are probably to fill empty space. But they are still pretty good.
The seiyuus are excellent in this game. They portrayed their characters very well. They aren't annoying & are pleasant to hear. There is an option to turn off the voices of each main female characters, but I left them on since I could use them to understand what's going on in the game a bit. Plus, I wanted to take advantage of the game's full voice system.
Gameplay
The game is basically your "choose the right option" thing. The Japanese call them flags. The choices you choose with affect Akihiko's outcome. If you hit the correct flags, you get a point in the game's invisible scoring system. Get it all correct & you will receive the girl's ending. To add some challenge to the game, you need to prepare your work schedule.
At the end of every work week, you need to set up Akihiko's work schedule. The work schedule is set for one week. It involves what time shift Akihiko will be working on & the duty he will perform. Because your encounters with the girls occur on a daily basis, you need to set the schedule right. Most of the encounters occur on a specific date, time, & job duty. These encounters varies for each girl. If you miss it, you need to reload & reorganize that work schedule.
This scheduling system can be frustrating if you don't do it right & your Japanese knowledge level won't do any good. So saving is a must for each game day. I actually had to go search for a game guide to see what I did wrong. The work schedule that you need to set it to to get the girl was different than I predicted. Without using the guide, I only manage to get Nana & Akemi's endings without problems.
Knowing the girls well will help you locate where they may be & what kind of work they would be doing at the restaurant. Some people proclaim that the game is easy & don't have problems with the schedule setup. But, I don't know if they were using a guide for it or actually knew what to do. Luckily, you only need to set the schedule for four weeks. Don't go with the preset schedule that Natsuki gives you. It will only give you the normal ending.
Since you want Akihiko to interact with the girls outside of work, the game gives you the "Move" selection to go outside of his room. It will display a map of the locations you can go to. Because time is a factor in this game, so you would need to make your selections carefully. If you can't find the girl you want, you may need to reload your game & try again. For some, it can be a trial & error process.
The game involves a lot of reading as it's mainly text based & an eroge. Unless you can read some Japanese, you will have a lot of difficulties in playing this game. I avoided this problem by using Oh! Text Hooker & AGTH to translate the game's text. The translation isn't accurate, but I managed to understand it. If you can understand some spoken Japanese, it will help a lot. By listening to the girls talk, you can get some idea on what's going on.
Speaking of reading Japanese, you will have little difficulties with the game's menu when you are in Akihiko's room. It's mainly in English. Although the submenus are in Japanese, you can see the English translations behind the Japanese texts in the background. So the important menu items are straightforward.
The meters on the right of the game screen are useless. They don't affect the game play or storylines, so don't worry if it goes up or down. Worry about the bottom one with the green carrots. That's Akihiko's health meter. If no carrots are visible, he stays home sick the next day.
The configuration screen isn't too hard to understand as well.
By guessing & playing around with the configurations, you will understand what each functions do quite quickly. That is the method I did & got use to the configuration easily. I don't remember what the bottom left two functions do, but I'll probably remember when I play around with them again.
The save & load windows are easy to follow as well. Each save file will display the current game day Akihiko is in, his cash flow, & his status levels (which are useless). Also, you get to see what uniform was selected.
Next to the uniform is a space where you can place an icon of the girls in. I think the purpose of it is to remind yourself which girl's storyline you are trying to aim for. At least that's what I do. The choice of icons won't affect the game.
If you can read Japanese, you might want to check out the girl's data file in the "Data" option menu when you are in Akihiko's room. It actually tells you the relationship between the girls & him. If the relationship improves or changes, the game will update the data there & let you know the current relationship or situation with the girls from Akihiko's point of view. This data can really help you out with the decisions you face in the game.
Storylines
The storylines for each girl are realistic. There are no strange interferences like killings or monster invasions involved. They are something you can relate to.
Like a lot of love stories, there are some tragedies or problems involved that prevents Akihiko to establish a good relationship with the girl easily. The tragedies are quite touching & a bit sad.
However, some people say the storylines aren't too deep. I have to agree with this part. Because Akihiko has one month to work at #4, the story doesn't go into much depth with the relationships.
The time period is actually quite short since Akihiko needs to spent some time knowing the girls before establish a relationship. Also, some of the endings are quite disappointing while others are good.
Since this is an eroge, expect to see some sex scenes. Even if you have the chance to avoid them, you really can't do that since they are require to get the endings. What's an eroge without sex, right?
If you are under 18 or bothered by sex, you shouldn't play this version of the game. If you are still interested in playing the game, get the PS2 one instead provided that you can read Japanese.
Extras, Bonuses, & Secrets
The game offers a CG & H scene gallery for each girl you have seen the endings of at the main menu. In some cases, you won't get the full 100% because of the three uniforms. This will probably force you to play their storylines three times if you want the full 100%.
When you open the girl's CG gallery, there's a icon at the top. Press on it & you will hear the seiyuu that voiced that character & their impressions of the game & the character they performed.
Another extra in the main menu is the sound gallery. This is where you can listen to the game's soundtrack in either Vorbis or MIDI mode. Each song gives you information of the song when played.
Another feature is the AV gallery. This is unlocked when you buy at least one AV in the game. I don't know how many AVs are there since I'm not interested in the sex scenes. This gallery allows you to watch the videos that Akihiko brought without the penalty of losing time in the game's storyline.
In the game, there are some bonuses as well. However, these bonuses have no effect on the storylines. They include mini games, posters items that Akihiko finds, & a CD single of the game's opening theme song. The posters are obtain at Akihiko's workplace, while the rest are to be purchased from Noboru when he visits his room at night.
Replay Value
With eight girls in total, this game is bound to keep you busy in getting all the endings. Although some of the events & scenes have been seen before, such as the restaurant meetings, these can be skipped using the game's message skip system. This saves you time from rereading the same lines over & over again.
The game doesn't really give you a lot of choices since each girl's storyline is linear. In other words, they only have one ending. Because of the game's message skip feature, you can get all the endings fairly quickly since some scenes are tied with the other girls.
But eight endings are enough to make the game last long. Adding more would probably frustrate players in playing the same girl at least twice.
Overall Conclusion
Welcome to Pia Carrot!! 3 is a nice eroge. The storylines are realistic & quite dramatic. However, it doesn't go too deep. This is probably because of the time length the game is set at.
It's hard to imagine that you get a girl to like you in two weeks time without knowing them very well. This is usually a problem with these type of games with short time periods where the main character knows nothing about the girl at the start.
The gameplay is easy to follow & very straightforward. The only problem is reading & understanding Japanese. If you don't have any knowledge of the language or a translation program, you can't enjoy this game well.
Welcome to Pia Carrot!! 3 gets a rating of eight out of ten. The storylines of each girl is very good & touching. Plus, the gameplay is easy to pick up.
The one problem is the work schedule idea. It's hard to predict what to do to get the girl you want correctly. One mistake & you need to restart.
Another problem is the depth of the storylines. Although they are quite good, it would have been nicer to go more deeper if possible.
Plus, I didn't like the idea of getting the sex scenes in order to get the endings. However, since this is a eroge, this is really a must & you can't really get out of it.
Personally, I would recommend people to play this game if they can understand Japanese or have a translating program to assist them. If you are bothered by sex scenes, then I would suggest you stay away from PC & Dreamcast versions or get the PS2 one instead if you can read Japanese. If you can't & really want to know each girl's storyline, read about them on this site.
