"Piece of Wonder" is a Teen-rated PC game from Hirameki International. This one is a visual novel with an embedded turn-based tactical RPG, set in a near-future world. The game can be obtained via download, but I got it packaged in the standard DVD case, with no paper manual. There is a PDF file on the disc with the game instructions. I'll be calling this game "PoW" from now on. The Japanese original for PoW was from Studio CrossFire. If you visit their website, you can find some additional images of the characters, sound samples, and information about the soundtrack album and some things that may not be in the English version. The Visual News site (http://visualnews.net) has a long stream-of- consciousness play-through of the time-limited demo, some screenshots and review. After reading some of the other material there about Hirameki, I have to wonder if the reference to "Demon net" in PoW was intentional. There is another long review at RPGFan (http://www.rpgfan.com) that mentions the same problem that I encountered with the difficult battles on the way to Raki's ending. I don't know what it did, but when I first started to play PoW, it sent something over the internet that the firewall noticed. So you may have some problems if you play this game without a net connection. During the visual novel portions of the game, right-click to bring up the in-game menu. Press the space bar to toggle the text window. There's no hentai in this title, just some violence and descriptions of blood. So this game is firmly bishoujo, and only the implications of the relationships with the underage girls in two of the endings approach hentai. This game deserves its "T" rating. NITS: While you can save the game at any point during the visual novel play, you can't save during a battle. You can use the System command just to restart a battle, jump back to the title menu, or exit the game. When you do save, you'll notice chapter numbers and names. Too bad you can't tell when a new chapter starts during play, except by saving and checking on what the text shows. The manual mentions a "Font" entry on the right-click menu that doesn't appear in the game. One strange thing about Amane's ending is that while Kazuya will now be about 21, Amane is still apparently junior high material. So Kazuya is courting jail bait... And the Shoko ending is actually worse: she calls him big brother (onii-chan) long after they've... At least in Raki's ending, a long time doesn't pass, but the Raki body is supposedly only 2 years old... Decent graphics in the visual novel portions, but Tetsuzo's eye movement is too weird. I noticed only one typo (hoard<>horde), which may be a record low for bishoujo games that I've played! Some jarring places where the point of view abruptly changes to another character, and the game uses "I" in internal dialogue. It takes a bit of getting used to after playing so many games where you're always the male protagonist. I like the "fade from greyscale to color" effect, much nicer than the "venetian blind" cut that's seen in too many other games. Possibly because I had set the game to the fastest message speed, many of the voice samples sounded like they were cut off too early. I fiddled with the speed setting for a while and kept going, and the voices didn't seem cut off anymore until I started the game again. WALKTHROUGH (contains spoilers): You'll have to play through this game 4 times to see all the endings. Once for each of Amane, Raki and Shoko. Then a fourth time afterward to get some additional background information. I played the first time trying to get Amane, the second time for Shoko, and the third for Raki. You'll have to start the game over, or reload a save made at the "race the old lady" decision, for each of the three girls that has an ending. I don't think that you can mess up by making choices during play except for not consistently picking the same girl, or choices that seem to be focusing on her. Once you've seen all 3 girl's endings, then start a New Game, and you'll get a choice between "Fuwa Kazuya Story" and "Alecto Story." You'll know if you got to one of the three girls' endings when you have a credits sequence, then more story, then finally a black screen with "Fin" on it. But earlier in the game, if you're on track for a girl's ending there will be a sequence or two that you won't see in other play of the game. For Amane, it's going to an amusement park. For Shoko, it's making a home page and a cooking duel, and yes, going to an amusement park. For Raki it's chocolate on the school roof, two flashbacks to a maid outfit, and you guessed it - the amusement park! The game starts on January 23. On the 27th there's a sequence that's notable for switching between Raki's and Kazuya's point of view, and suddenly using the rather jarring "I". You should save the game during this because the first battle occurs soon after you see the Crimson Scythe. It's very easy to win, just move to the side or rear of the enemy and use that attack skill several times. After the battle, you'll get some points to allocate to 6 areas of Kazuya's combat statistics. You might get a notice when you're done about learning another skill, probably for adding points to the Technique statistic. Even if Kazuya loses the battle, you'll just get to play it over again. Play through the visual novel portion some more until the end of January 30th, when there's a second battle. This time you have both Kazuya and Raki. The second enemy is the tough one; I found that it would go after Raki if she got close enough, so get Kazuya behind it and use the EX device to get lots of damage. On the 31st is the third battle. This time, you add Amane. She's a healer intended to stay behind Kazuya and Raki, so don't let her get too near the enemies. She's got a long-range water attack, but her best use is to keep the other characters healed up. When you can, raise her Mobility so she can move farther and easier. There's another battle on February 1st, which shouldn't be too hard, as you can take the two enemies on one at a time. The battle after that will be interrupted as soon as anyone damages a monster, so don't worry about getting damaged yourself, or how far the enemy can fly on their move. You'll have all 4 characters for the first time for the battle on February 3rd. The monsters, while still appearing on the battlefield as triangle shapes, are now color-coded so you can tell them apart. Shoko is especially effective against the Corpse enemy, and both fire and water don't work well on the Lizardman. Funny how nobody notices that Shoko's hair color is different, and it's much longer when transformed. She also automatically throws a fire attack at an enemy when she begins each turn - sweet! OK, another battle on 2/04. (Another day, another battle. Will this ever end?) The color coding isn't enough, because two enemies show up as dark grey. Well, after this there is a bit of visual novel text. Depending on which ending you're going for, the story and battles are different for the remainder of the game. Because of the difficulty involved in Raki's ending, I strongly recommend that you play that one last, and concentrate on having Kazuya get as many kills as possible during the early battles when you do play it. If you're playing Amane's ending, the next battle is on 2/13, without Amane. Because the two enemies down the hall have only short range attacks, take care of the other two long-ranged ones first. Yes, that battle was tough, yet the one after it without Kazuya was actually easier for me. Just take the enemies one at a time, and don't let that big Ogre get into range. After Amane flees, you have another battle with a boss - who isn't a triangle! This battle ends when the boss dies, not when you kill all the other enemies. And you don't get the usual "Level Up" sequence afterward, either. So just go for the boss. When you beat it, just do the visual novel stuff and credits until you get to "Fin." If you're playing Shoko's ending, the next battle is on 2/13, with just Shoko against some flying enemies. when I played, Shoko had just received 119 points in the previous battle, so this wasn't as big a challenge as it could have been. She ended it with two shots of Fire Lv.2 to the back, in 29 seconds, and received 2000 points in the time category to get 84 points to her statistics as a reward. After skipping forward to 2/16, you have a battle without Shoko that isn't too hard if you let them come to you. These flying enemies move far, but their attack is only range 1. The next battle is on 2/18, against just one enemy that you should consider as a "boss". Given the range of the enemy attacks, you'd think you should surround the enemy and pound it as fast as you can. But on the first enemy turn, the battle will end. On 2/19, you get a sort-of rematch with the boss; the attacks are the same but the statistics are slightly higher. This one will also end after you do several attacks, even if the boss doesn't get a turn. Now just do the visual novel stuff and credits until you get to "Fin." If you're playing Raki's ending, you get an early indication just before Kazuya receives the Crimson Scythe, when an image of Raki appears. Later, Raki wakes you up on 1/30, and on 2/01. There are also several flashback/dream sequences. Your next battle after 2/04 should have been on 2/07, but the game skips over it. And then you skip about a week to 2/16. The first battle in Raki's ending is with just Kazuya. This one gave me a LOT of trouble, because Kazuya had died and gotten only 9 points in the previous battle. After a lot of tries, I was able to run away far enough on the first turn so the Harpy would go to the bend in the hall, and Kazuya could get behind it. Getting rid of the Lizardman was a near thing, and it came down to getting behind it and whacking away with an EX paralysis strike several times so it never got another turn. The next battle is also with just Kazuya, and you're limited to the area below the stairs. I got stuck on this one too for a while, and eventually had to resort to a tedious game of tag with these two Ogres; attack with the 40 pointer because that's the only one that damages them on the front, and run away so you're 5 or 6 squares away. After some further story mentioning an "A3" - I recall something called that in Xenosaga - you get another battle with just Kazuya. This one seems impossible, because if the Ifrit gets in attack range it can toast him with one attack. But it can be won. You just have to back up right away and Defend, so the first 2 enemies come at you and the Ifrit stays put. Use the EX and "Demon Slayer Combo" to take out the first 2 enemies, and then carefully move up one square. The Ifrit will wake up, and use all its AP running at you. On your turn, move behind it and Finish. Then, you can do another EX DSC, and it should fall. If it doesn't, THEN I'm out of ideas because it worked for me. More story after that, then credits and epilogue. If you're playing the "bonus" ending, "Alecto Story", then you just do visual novel story mode. There are no battles. When complete, you get the "missing" image on Amane's second page of CG images. THE BATTLE ENGINE: I really appreciate the extra work that must have gone into adding a turn-based tactical RPG battle system to a visual novel kind of game. That said, there are a few nits to pick, and some things that aren't covered in the manual. Raki and Kazuya must usually face an enemy to attack. The other girls have long-range attacks, which don't require facing the enemy. Raki starts out with only 2 possible weapons to choose from at the beginning of a battle, but this goes up as you raise her statistics after each battle. She can equip up to 2 weapons on each arm, but some of the later weapons take up two spaces. The Grenade Launcher, for instance, uses 2 spaces and has a limited number of shots of several different elemental types. Most battles shouldn't last long enough for the shot limitation to be a real problem, but keep it in mind. When you look at skills for a character or enemy, if there's a number next to "Bullets" besides MAX, then that skill has limited uses per battle. Skills with "EX" in the name can only be used by a character when the EX Device is used that turn. These usually have a limited amount of uses each battle too. Although the grid in the battles is square, you can attack diagonally and it still counts as range 1. This is especially useful for Kazuya, because all his attacks are at range 1 only. If you get any items from enemies, you should use them during that same battle when it makes sense. There's no AP penalty for using items. A Bandage is +100 HP, same as Amane's Healing Rain Lv.1. A First Aid Kit heals 500 HP. The other items give a permanent bonus to a character's statistics, and you can use them on any character in the battle! Too bad you can't use the item that the last enemy drops in a battle... Whenever possible, attack from the side or back of enemies. The difference in damage done is tremendous compared to a frontal attack. No news to anyone that's played these turn-based tactical games before. Characters get a huge amount of points after battle for delivering the killing blow. So you may want to save something for Amane, if you can. Also try to keep everyone at maximum HP, because you get points for that as well; Bandage items are great for that towards the end of a battle. The time and HP categories both have a maximum award of 2000, but it's hard to get the time one. The points that each character actually receives to raise their statistics are those battle points added up, and then divided by 100 with fractions dropped. Least points received after a battle: 9 for Amane or Kazuya, when they died during a battle. Most points received after a battle: 140 for Kazuya vs. 3 monsters in Raki's ending. Although the manual says that activating the EX device and then choosing to Defend will protect a character completely, it doesn't. If all the characters are killed, you get to do the battle over again. When you view a character or enemy during battle, the pentagon showing the statistics (besides HP) is labeled with Japanese or Chinese, but it's not that important anyway. The rest of the info is in English. Given the size of the pentagon for the 2/19 boss battle in Shoko's ending, I think the battle engine may have a limit of 255 for any statistic but HP. HP seems to have a maximum of 999, since several bosses have that value. The maximum points that you can add after one battle to a character's statistic is 99. If you have more points than that, you'll have to put them somewhere else. During a battle you can left-click on the icons above the AP guage to have the view center on that figure. Useful for figuring out which enemy has a turn next. How I think movement works: it looks like a figure can move until they've consumed up to 50 AP. Just selecting the Move action consumes 10 AP, but that allows you to change facing without going anywhere. Activate the EX Device, and you can Move as far as 100 AP can take you. Most attacks will inflict an AP penalty on the defender. Some of the skills, such as Kazuya's "Dark Paralysis Blow", are rather good for this. In the skill information display the "AP Offense" value seems to be the AP penalty. I think there may be a time limit on how long you can fight. Raki mentions 1800 seconds early in the story, which is 30 minutes. I did drag out one battle for over 15 game minutes, but it seemed the only way to win that one. Naturally, I got 0 points for the time category after that battle. CHEATS: Since I can't read Japanese myself, I'm trusting the fine folks at Google and interpreting the translation quite a lot, but the Studio CrossFire site has what appear to be cheats for PoW. I don't know if some of these are actually in the English translation version though: When you've cleared the ending for a particular girl, you should get an option to skip battles when you load a saved game from her story sequence. This one is confirmed as working! When you've cleared all 3 girls' endings, choose "New Game" and then "the arekuto compilation" for the bonus story. The one is "Alecto Story" in the English version! If you choose "New Game" while pressing the "E" key, you turn on Easy Mode; there should be a confirmation sound, and you'll get 2 times the points for improving the characters after battle. If you choose "New Game" while pressing the "H" key, you turn on Hard Mode; there should be a confirmation sound, and you'll get 3/4 the points for improving the characters after battle. Sorry, you can't change modes for an existing game. The game is balanced for the normal mode that a new game defaults to. One of the other PoW web pages mentions an option to change the name of the protagonist in the game using a "Rename" option just below "New Game" and "Load"; that's not in our version. Even so, if you did have the Japanese version, and used Rename, then the voice sample for "Kazuya" will apparently not be played when the girls would say his name. The flags that monitor what endings you've seen are probably in the POW.SAV file, but I didn't bother to hack it to make sure. This game is easy enough - except for figuring out how to win the battles in Raki's ending - that it wasn't necessary. REVIEW: Excellent translation and editing, decent graphics, forgettable music. There aren't that many choices in the visual novel portions, yet the battles are what make this game stand out even if there aren't that many. PoW is a bit cliche in setting and characters, but I appreciate the effort. It may not be enough visual novel for some, and not enough tactical battle for others, but you can't please everyone. I'm glad I played it, but I wish there was more. If you have anything to add to this file, let me know. Peter Karsanow - bishoujo.helper[AT}sbcglobal{DOT)net http://www.geocities.com/hentaihelper/p_hgames.htm