Akuma-ouji Kisoukyoku (Demon Prince Capriccio)

On the night of the Demon King's death, Prince Zale leaves the castle to the pure demon Belphegor, who has been designated as the Soul Contractor. As Soul Contractor, he needs to get his hands on a "White Soul" of a human, which must be sought out and brought back. Thus, Prince Zale and his Watch Servant Haruka set out on a journey to the human world to search for this person. But, he didn't know that the magic of true "love" would be so overwhelming...

Prince Zale - The main character of the game. He is a selfish prince who has a strong sense of intuition and acts quickly. He has an exceedingly strong spirit in magic, hand-to-hand combat, and wisdom. He is from fire magic lineage, though, so fire magic is his strong point. He is the fourth prince out of seven, but is the direct descendant of the Demon King because the other princes, his siblings, have died. Curious about the human world, he decides to leave his castle to search out a the "White Soul" of a human.

Haruka - Haruka serves as the prince's Watch Servant. Though he takes the appearance of a child due to various circumstances, he is actually a fiendish henchman, who is preeminent in combat and highly efficient in physical fighting. He is loyal to the prince and accompanies him in his travels.

Belphegor - The Prince's political advisor and Soul Contractor. Though a fallen angel, in Hell he possesses the thick blood of a pure demon aristocrat. He is in need of a human "White Soul", which Prince Zale and Haruka are to collect.

Hashiba Takato - Because his parents are on overseas business, Takato is living by himself in their home, attending university as a freshman. He seems to be an extremely ordinary young man, but happens to be the target for the "White Soul" that Prince Zale and Haruka are looking for.

The playability in Akuma-ouji Kisoukyoku is the standard for most ren'ai games: visual novel. You follow the story of Prince Zale and Haruka in their travels to the human world, and along the way are given different options that lead to different branches in the story, and receive CGs along the way. Being a doujin game, it is very short, with six different endings and twenty CGs. Since it is so short, it is pretty easy for someone with no Japanese skill to play, since there aren't a lot of options to map through.

Though a doujin game, it does still have some nice gameplay features, such as being able to save on option screens, and having twenty save slots and an unlockable CG gallery. It also has a skip function (by holding down the Enter key), something that most doujin games (and even some commercial games) are missing.

I had no technical issues running Akuma-ouji Kisoukyoku on Windows XP with the default for non-unicode programs set to Japanese.

AGTH Compatibility - Akuma-ouji Kisoukyoku is partially compatible with Anime Games Text Hooker. Text can be extracted by adding the /kf1:200 parameter and will extract to the "0x004FF58F:000000 GetTextExtentPoint32w" thread, but is sent to Atlas with the pyramid problem. You would have to manually copy the correct text from the AGTH window and copy to Atlas, and fix sentence breaking by copying the text to JWPce, fixing it, and recopying it to Atlas.

Akuma-ouji Kisoukyoku Capture Guide - A capture guide in English made by myself for getting the endings in the game.

Akuma-ouji Kisoukyoku Full CG Capture Save File - A save file that unlocks all the CGs in the game.

For a doujin game, I was quite pleased with Akuma-ouji Kisoukyoku. This little game was made by a group called Black Joke Freak, with art by Ena and story by Kagura Mikoto, and the art and story are definitely the high points of the game.

The first thing that caught my attention about this game was the art (and the fact that it is about demons... I have a weakness for angels and demons ^_^;;). Ena has absolutely beautiful art: there is nothing that really feels "doujin" about it, these CGs are of such a quality you'd never guess they weren't coming from a commercial game. The disappointing part is that the game is short and therefore there are only 20 CGs, leaving one really wishing for more. However, you can get more of Ena's art from the Gallery section of the BJ Freak website, and there are also some wallpapers available.

Compared to many boys' love games, Akuma-ouji Kisoukyoku also seems to do fairly well in the story department. It isn't voiced (as most doujin games are) which makes it a little harder to follow, but they do use a fair amount of visuals. Since the game is short, there are only six endings, but each is a fairly different branch off the story, which gives them some variety. Because of the length of the game though, there isn't too much development and it moves fast.

There are some other nice little points to the doujin game, such as a CG gallery and multiple save slots, and a skip feature, which is usually absent in most doujin games. One of my biggest annoyances, though, was the background music -- I couldn't find an option anywhere to shut it off. Maybe it just eluded me, but in all the menus and choices I couldn't find a way to shut the music off. At least the music isn't constantly played, but it still annoyed me since I like to be able to turn it off since I'm usually multitasking when I play games.

Akuma-ouji Kisoukyoku is a cute game, but it's downfall is that it is so short. It has good art, and a story that had potential for development, but since the game is such a short length, both feel lacking. It almost feels like when you download a trial version of a game and really like it, but don't get to play the full game: only this /is/ the full game. But then again, it is a doujin game afterall, so one can't expect too much, and BJ Freak really did create an impressive game for something fan-made. I only hope they make more doujin games in the future that are longer, utilizing on their good art and writing skills.

BJ Freak's Akuma-ouji Kisoukyoku Site (Japanese) - The doujin group's site with information on the game.

Jete Veux's Akuma-ouji Kisoukyoku Capture Guide (Japanese) - A capture guide to the game.

Disclaimer: All written text and capture guides © Boys' Love Games Headquarters. All pictures and downloads are copyright of their respective companies and artists and are for promotional use only. I am in no way claiming the art as my own, nor am I trying to infringe upon the company's rights. I am trying to promote these games by allowing a foreign audience to see some artwork from the game.