Title: TOKYOヤマノテBOYS for V FAN DISC
Developer: Rejet
Release Date: 31st August 2017
Age Rating: 15+
Length: 20+ Hours
Links: Official Site, VNDB
This is, as the name suggests, the vita port of the Tokyo Yamanote Boys’ Fandiscs. It contains the three “main” fandiscs & then the “Sweet Jellybeans” disc which is essentially a “what if” story which focuses on Kurusu Kyohei whom was one of the villains from the original.
Similarly to the port of the original games, the vita edition offers excellent value for money with this game being longer than expected considering all of the games being ported were low-price titles. As for additional content, it mainly comprises short stories but there are some pretty new bonus images that also add some value!
Each of the games is its’ own entity but the three main fandiscs (Fresh Ginger, Black Vanilla & Pure Raspberry are all quite similar in presentation so I’m going to group them together.
These games are very much skewed towards afterstories for our main 9 heroes from the original games – each of the stories takes place after their good ending from the original game (interestingly NOT their true ending). Most of these are fairly cute and retain the same excellent humour as the original games.
I’m pretty bias towards fluffy stories so I definitely enjoyed the afterstories, despite some of them having some slightly unnecessary drama. My main wish was that they were slightly longer but, given that there were low-priced titles, I don’t mind that much.
This brings me to the Sweet Jellybeans Disc – which I was expecting to be the shortest but is actually the longest title in this collection! It begins with a retelling of the original TYB game but with the guys seperated into different groups to the original (same groups as the Fandiscs). You then get three days of group dates before getting one of the original characters’ endings (essentially one short scene), the mini-ending for the “President” or Kyohei’s route.
As I mentioned earlier, the humour is one of the best things about the TYB series so these group dates are downright hilarious with the new pairings being super fun. I’m still mildly salty about my three favourites (Testu, Ayumu & Lucy) being in seperate groups but they together would have too much common sense so it makes sense to keep them apart.
The individual endings for these characters were incredibly short and almost felt pointless but considering there’s three games dedicated to their afterstories, I can understand why this choice was made.
The mini-route for the president was very short and (thankfully!) not romantic. I honestly can’t say I ever felt the need for this to be in the series but it wasn’t a terrible read or gross so that was a bonus.
The only real route in this game is for Kyohei, aka the serial killer from the original game (of course he has a tragic backstory though and is totally not a cold-blooded killer). It’s been a while since I played the original games so I must admit that I’d completely forgot about the ridiculous “truth” going on in the series, especially since the fandiscs neglect to mention it.
Given how lighthearted the rest of the collection is, this definitely sticks out as a sore thumb BUT it does feel like a “rejet” route so I mean what did you really expect? This route is a decent mixture of drama & action with the 9 original characters also playing their parts in the story.
There was the obligatory info dump but given that it only happens once & I really did need the reminder of what was going on it was appreciated, haha. It would probably be annoying if you’d played the original games recently though.
Overall, I felt like this route offered something different to the original ones while retaining a more serious tone to the rest of the games. I guess it kinda made sense for Kyohei to have a route?
Final Thoughts
Final Score: 7/10
The Tokyo Yamanote Boys Fandisc collection provides a perfect accompaniment to to original games – with cute afterstories, hilarious group dates & a decent route for Kyohei. It’s nothing particularly groundbreaking but if you enjoyed the originals then I would highly recommend this, particularly as the vita port offers excellent value for money.
Sorry for the short review this time! I didn’t have much to say about the individual afterstories because they were all pretty much short & sweet. It was nice to spend more time with some of the most hilarious Otome Game characters I’ve come across!
Thanks for reading~
Zettai Renai! 