Shall we date?: Ninja Love is a ninja themed romance game for girls. The player takes to role of a princess on a mission to server and protect the ninja village with good-looking ninjas, in a hope of having a happy ending with them, during the chaotic years.
This is a rare review of a girls game, from the view point of a man.
To start the game, you'll be asked to give a name of the heroine character. If you're a female, go ahead and type in your own name.
Since I'm a male I gave a random name from a Japanese cartoon, which I regretted later. The game starts once the heroine's name is set.
I regret the naming very early, when the heroine's name is called out with the title, which felt very awkward. And it continued throughout the entire game.
All of a sudden your heroine character receives hugs from hot male ninjas.
Then Hanzo Hattori, the leader of the ninja, tells you a very important truth about your character.
In summary, you were brought up as a grand child of a chief priest, but you inherit the root blood of the ninja family. Nobunaga Oda, in his attempt of uniting Japan, is destroying all ninja villages, and you're expected to come to Iga No Sato and lead all ninja groups to fight against Nibunaga and his troops.
You are to pick a ninja who will hide and protect you from Nobunaga troops en route to Iga No Sato, who becomes your date. You can pick from three ninjas who are very attractive but questionable as ninjas. You can pay for four more Ninjas to choose from.
I chose Saizo Kirigakure in my firsr time playing. Handsome, and looks to be a decent ninja.
His is about 6 feet tall, which is well over the average height of men this time, but let's ignore that and continue.
Saizo keeps touching and hugging the heroine on the way to Iga No Sato, which is just like a Harlequin Romance episode. Along with some images intended to entertain only girls, I start to understand why they get hooked. Not a bad game even for men.
After selecting your date, you read through the story and pick one from three options to move forward.
Depending on what you choose, you will see entertaining images like such.
Your date's favorability rating of you changes during the course of the game, and you're to win his heart. There are three different ratings at the end of the game, and I finished with the middle rating. Good luck!
Before playing this game, I thought all girl's romance games ignored the history, and were something that would lower your intelligence, and I was wrong. This game features accurate historical facts, and portrays the characters' emotions and feelings.
There are a few minor details that are exaggerated or inaccurate, but it was overall an enjoyable game. Recommended if you like history, especially the feudal period of Japan.
Finally, I just wanted to make it clear that my favorite character was Nogunaga (pictured below), but you can't develop a relationship with him. Too bad...
Time played: about 5 hours
Device used: htc Desire HD (001HT)
OS: 2.3
Version: 1.0.2
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Publisher: NTT Solmare
Last updated: 11/9/2011
Price: 429 yen (for buying additional characters)
Compatibility: Android 2.1 or higher
Translation by G.Miyano