Haruhi: The Game

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(Generic Yuki-relevant pic)

So, Haruhi's got a video game now.

I could rant to fill up this section, but no one reads that, eh? I'm just sectioning off some vague spoilers for the two of you who have not watched Haruhi Suzumiya yet. If not, feel free to continue.

It's for the PSP and looks to be a visual novel, with some "revolutionary elements" according to Bandai Namco, the publisher. Not sure how many different ways one can mix up a ren'ai game though: somehow I could imagine it turning out like some of Navel's Really? Really! (a Shuffle series game), where the protagonist has to find and fix errors in the continuity of the universe, or something, i.e. Haruhi retcons the world and it's up to Kyon to fix it. Another possibility is Type-Moon's Kagetsu Tohya (Tsukihime series), where a single day is repeated over and over until the protagonist gets it right. This could be done, for example, with Haruhi's Endless Eight story (book 5), or perhaps a different time period (pretty much everything could work, to be honest). It would take most players, hopefully, less than 15,498 times to get through the path, though.

Not much to say on the game yet but I imagine it's about time for a Haruhi game, considering it's meteoric popularity in Japan (didn't the Hare Hare Yukai CD hit #2 or something on Amazon?) and rabid fanbase around the world. PSP seems like an odd choice, mainly because I don't have one, but it makes sense as it has picked up well in Japan (although a far second from the DS) and many other visual novels have been released on it. Plus, I guess, it could always spur sales of it. But the main reason to long for, say, a PC release or something, would be the facilitation of an English translation as despite its popularity among anime fans, the Haruhi R1 isn't exactly burning up Amazon at 4,140th in DVDs.

I'm hoping the main drawpoint, of course, is a possibility of a Yuki (OK, I'll be honest, I typed Nayuki first) ending. Or Mikuru, perhaps Tsuruya or Itsuki, if you're into those characters. It'd be interesting but also very difficult to make work within canon Haruhi storyline, i.e. Be with Haruhi or die.

Other than that it's time for the world to hold their collective breath on this game, although I have a feeling that it's going to be a 'love it or hate it' thing, in that fanboys will gush all over this game (and we'll leave that as that), while realists will condemn it as a cash-in. Expectations might be a bit high coming into this, kind of like Lucky Star (the anime), which is good and amusing but not laugh-a-minute like everyone expected.

It will be interesting though how the storywriting and planning is handled; and how much the game will fit into the canon Haruhi storyline. It's titled "Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu" (where have we heard that before?), so it might be based on either the anime or the first book. I doubt Bandai Namco would base it entirely off the first book, as as much as the special powers of the characters could make for decent plot twists, everybody and their brother (and their brother's best friend's cousin's uncle's daughter's invisible friend) pretty much knows Haruhi - at least those that are going to buy the game. So "new" content might be on the way, after all - it remains to be seen whether it will be accepted into general continuity.

But in the end, there is plenty of time to pass judgment multiple times (I've only just gotten the news on this 3 hours ago), so the verdict still remains to be seen; but, so far, for noobs like me who speak English, English, and English with a mock British accent, I think I'll have to give this a pass.

-CCY
P.S. Yay for AnimeNano!