[PC] Tears to Tiara

The English patch is released at the very end of 2008 by Darkkodango. Thinking I've finished playing most of the games I wanted to play (Tales of Vesperia, Persona 4 and Infinite Undiscovery), I decided to try this game and start downloading the game + full English patch. Hence I spend a couple of days afterward, enjoying Tears of Tiara.

Tears to Tiara PC official website

Go go wiki :))

Tears to Tiara (ティアーズ トゥ ティアラ, Tiāzu tu Tiara?) is a Japanese adult tactical role-playing game developed by Leaf and originally released for the PC on April 28, 2005 in Japan. It was followed by an all-ages version released for the PlayStation 3 on July 17, 2008 in Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The PS3 release, entitled Tears to Tiara: Kakan no Daichi (ティアーズ トゥ ティアラ 花冠の大地, Tiāzu tu Tiara: Kakan no Daichi?), contained several enhancements and additional scenarios. An anime adaption being produced by White Fox will be aired in Spring 2009 incorporating the additional scenario and characters in the PlayStation 3 release.

Yes, as stated above, this eroge is developed by Leaf, the same company that produce the epic Utawarerumono eroge some times ago. This probably is one of the reason that drive me to try this game, hoping that the game would be as much enjoyable as Utawa.


Gameplay

Seems like Leaf allocate a lot of time on the gameplay this time. And the gameplay is indeed good for an eroge, much better than Utawa imo. Basically it is a combination of turn-based and real time combat, where units in battle are free to roam the battlefield to fight any enemies. You can manually give command to the characters whether to attack a particular enemies, use skills or magic, moving to certain areas or just merely stand still doing nothing.

Alternatively, you can also just set all characters in Auto mode, where the units will act depending on the Auto command given. "Full Attack" command cause the units to engage any foes closest to them, with the exception of healers (Riannon). "Full Heal" mode, as the name implies, will prioritize healing, except those with no healing skill (Arthur and Morgan for example)

The way experience is gained in battle is kinda sux though (albeit its no different than Utawa). In order to get experience, we have no option but to attack, use skill or magic. And it uses dynamic experience distribution too, meaning the experience you gained depend fully on the level difference between you and the enemies. So the stronger you are, the lesser experience you get. Nice for mercenary training though (although TBH I don't use any but 1 archer in the whole game so far). Good thing at late game, the enemies will get stronger as you gain level, so reaching max level of 99 is not that difficult.
And one more thing, unlike Utawa PC, this game provide times for us to train our character on the field, rather than leveling up solely on missions.

Overall the battle system is rather far too easy in 'Normal" mode, which is why some people suggest to play on "Impossible" mode. I kinda agree too, because in normal mode you can just set the battle in Auto mode, sit back and let your units slain the enemies.

battle sample:


Story

An important part of an eroge, undoubtedly. IMO, the story is nowhere near the epicness of Utawa, but still entertaining nonetheless. In a middle-age world, the story was set in motion when the Devil King, Arawn was resurrected from his 1000 years of slumber by a greedy Imperial mage with a girl named Riannon is set to be sacrificed for that purpose. Arawn however retaliate those who revived him and instead saved Riannon, who at that time also had her brother, Arthur came for the same purpose. And the plot continued, with Arawn eventually named as the leader of Arthur's tribe, Gael, lead the tribe from running from the chase of the Holy Empire, and formed their own nations in their motherland.
Nevertheless the plot might be different in the PS3 version because I noticed a character I never recognized while playing hte PC version.

The art is okay, although they're not as appealing as the improved PS3 version. The story is pretty much linear with no branch, so there is basically no multiple endings in this game. The ero-scenes are normal, just the type that you would expect from Leaf. You would think Arawn as some sort of pedo because he really like to screw up with the lolis most of the time n the game. I mean, more than half of the ero-scenes are about him and them lolis. Quoting some people on message boards; " thought it was REALLY funny how he was screwing everyone except his first wife for the majority of the game." And yeah, it really is true :3