Hoshizora no Memoria prologue patch!

What better way to spend New Year's than a SoL romance moege, of which the prologue takes place on Tanabata? Here's Hoshizora no Memoria -Wish Upon a Shooting Star-



Okay, shut up, that's how I spent my whole day. I've been looking forward to this, after all. Or was, anyway, before being fairly annoyed by the patch.

The TL staff thought it would be fun to troll their release though, so use this to patch the game instead (just copy the files in the folder to your directory).

http://www.mediafire.com/?hik52af31td61tp

Since this is a prologue, it only covers the first three days of the game, from July 5th to July 7th, Tanabata night. So, the rest of this post will be dedicated to a preview of what it had to offer.

You play as You Kogasaka (his name is You, pronounced "yoh"), who is returning to his hometown after seven years hoping to reunite with his childhood friend. Sounds like a very familiar premise, I know, but there is a strong theme of stars/constellations with the romance element, and the characters have their humorous and cute exchanges. Besides the constantly repeating scenes of You moving in and unpacking in his aunt Shino's house, only for his lovably annoying imouto Chinami to come in and be a burden, much of the prologue has You on a one-track-mind to meet with the girl of the past. Each night, he visits his favorite spot, a lookout observational tower that provides a great view of the stars above the town's sky, expecting to meet the girl, but instead coming across a girl similar to her looks but still the same age as the past. This girl is Mare, a girl who claims to be a shinigami of nightmares. She's integral to the plot somehow, but hell if I know how (well, maybe I have SOME idea, but I obviously won't spoil it here).

Over the course of these three days, as You and Chinami get accustomed to their hometown once again, they come across other characters which serve as the game's other heroines. One person is their neighbor, Isuzu, a cold, unfeeling girl who Chinami wants to befriend. You also meets three people of the same grade: Asuho, who appears to be the game's cover girl, has a similar fascination with stars, and works at an astronomy-themed maid cafe called Milky Way; Komomo, a tsundere student council member who is at odds with Asuho, and Kosame, Komomo's younger twin sister and Asuho's fellow club member at the Tenkuru (I'm assuming the name is an amalgamation of ten = heaven and kuru = round to represent their astronomy club).

Again, the prologue is quite long, and the common route even longer, but the characters and interactions are amusing, the music is surprisingly stellar (pun very much intended), and if you ignore the rudimentary readability at times, it's a good read. Also, the final scene of the prologue is actually pretty intense, and what follows is, of course, the kickass OP sung by one of my favorite eroge OP singers, Miyuki Hashimoto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDTgEuEso1g

Speaking of which, since the TL staff also deleted their subbed version of the OP, here it is:

http://www.mediafire.com/?a2ham8ptv5uhmzp

For more detailed reviews, see the following links. Micchi and Reikon can summarize the characters and plot far more succinctly than I can, anyway.

http://omochikaeri.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/hoshizora-no-memoria-review/
http://www.reikon.org/2009/11/08/hoshizora-no-memoria-wish-upon-a-star-review/

And a bonus, since it's New Year's, after all. The CGs to this game, and its fandisk, Eternal Heart. Note that both reveal the identity of the childhood friend, so spoilers, you have been warned, etc. I would ignore it for delicious Chinami/Asuho/Mare/twincest/childhood friend/etc. Fuck Isuzu. >_>

Wish Upon a Shooting Star CGs (Part 1): http://www.mediafire.com/?mqytm1mnk1j
Wish Upon a Shooting Star CGs (Part 2): http://www.mediafire.com/?5j2ijwufmzx
Eternal Heart: http://www.mediafire.com/?jog1zylzomz

So with that, happy new year.

...

*cough*

(I do actually read comments, so it'd be polite if someone would drop me a line. =P)