First|Live

Suzuki Shion is a second-year student who attends Namiki Highschool, and leads a rather average highschool life: her older sister is a teacher in the school, she has a best friend, Akemi, and she has several cute male classmates, none of which she has a particular favoring for, but like most highschool girls, dreams of falling in love. Her hobby is writing songs, but she keeps it secret, having no faith in her small musical skill.

When she was a child, there was a time she had been bullied and a boy had come and saved her, and with a childish heart, promised to marry her. But now it is just a faded memory from childhood with a person who's name she can't even remember, and she thinks it was all just a dream. Pushing back the memory of that first love, she hopes to find a wonderful lover this time.

Then one day in October as she was walking to school, she is stopped by bullies on the way, and is rescued by an unknown boy, who she finds out is Kurosaki Touya, who is just transfering to her school. The event brings back her childhood fantasies, that perhaps they weren't a dream afterall.

Then by chance, one of her songs is discovered by Touya, and she is asked to help with recruiting students to form a school band and compose for them, with Touya as the vocals. Feeling flattered and compelled, she agrees. Will she find love with one of the band members along the way?

Suzuki Shion

Blood type: O
Birthday: September 28th, 1988 (17 years old)
Zodiac Sign: Libra
Height: 159 cm (5'3'')
Weight: 48 kg (105 lbs)

Shion is an average girl who lives with her parents and older sister, who is a teacher at her highschool. She plays a little piano and likes to compose songs and sing, a hobby she keeps to herself. One day by chance a piece of her music is discovered by Touya, and she is prompted to help recruit members and compose for the school band.

Kurosaki Touya

Blood type: A
Birthday: January 16th, 1988 (17 years old)
Zodiac Sign: Capricorn
Height: 175 cm (5'9'')
Weight: 62 kg (137 lbs)

Touya is a friend of Shion's from childhood, and a transfer student at her high school. He is a bit unfriendly and snappish, somewhat of an "outlaw" at the school. However, underneath his tough appearance he is actually a bit introverted and softhearted, who likes helping weak people, cooking, and cats. He is the vocalist in the band.

Nikaidou Kaname

Blood type: AB
Birthday: November 2nd, 1988 (17 years old)
Zodiac Sign: Scorpio
Height: 176 cm (5'9'')
Weight: 64 kg (141 lbs)

Kaname is the student council president of the highschool, who commutes to school. He is very intellectual and cool, and keeps a calm demeanor and a clear head, even though he has problems at home with his father, who is a busy doctor. He likes to do crossword puzzles as a hobby. He is the guitarist in the band.

Kyle MacTianan

Blood type: O
Birthday: June 11th, 1988 (17 years old)
Zodiac Sign: Gemini
Height: 182 cm (6'0'')
Weight: 68 kg (150 lbs)

Kyle is an international exchange student from Britain. He has a very bright and gentle personality, and he treats everyone friendly without discrimination, making him very popular at the school: especially with the girls. He enjoys studying flowers and constellations. He plays the bass in the band.

Sumiyoshi Heita

Blood type: B
Birthday: August 23rd, 1989 (16 years old)
Zodiac Sign: Leo
Height: 161.5 cm (5'4'')
Weight: 53.5 kg (118 lbs)

Heita is a member in the school broadcasting and a genius pianist, but is bad at his school studies. He is very energetic, expressive, and sweet and likable, but can also sometimes act like a child, getting angry or sulky easily. He takes a liking to Shion at first glance. He is the keyboardist in the band.

Tamaki Oto

Blood type: O
Birthday: February 2nd, 1977 (28 years old)
Zodiac Sign: Aquarius
Height: 183 cm (6'0'')
Weight: 72 kg (159 lbs)

Oto is the chemistry teacher at the highschool. He is very spontaneous, foolhardy, and thickheaded, but also has an adult's tolerance, which can be useful from time to time. He is a heavy smoker, and plays drums at a local nightclub. He is the drummer in the band.

In First|Live, you play as Shion Suzuki, a high school girl, and try to win one of five available guys in a straight-forward visual novel style. The game takes place from October 1st to October 28th, and you pick conversation and location options in pursuit of winning a boyfriend in the end.

The game is fairly quick, since the story is only taking place over a set period of one month, and there are only five different endings. By using the ctrl-key skip feature to move over repeated parts in the story, this is a game you could finish in one sitting if compelled, a very fast play compared to most girls' games, which are usually very long.

The game runs in 640x480 resolution, and will either expand to that resolution at full screen, or you may change the options to play it in a window. It offers 16 save slots, so you won't be able to make a save for every day, unfortunately, but you can save on option screens. The game also offers a CG gallery with 55 unlockable CGs from the game, and a music gallery. One other interesting note is that you may change the main character's name at the start of a new game if you want, just so long as you input it in Japanese characters (otherwise it will just use the default of Suzuki Shion).

To run First|Live on Windows XP, you MUST download and apply the Windows Me/XP patch from AMEDEO, or you will have compatibility problems while playing. You need to apply the patch first thing after installing the game, because if you try to apply it later, you will lose your save data since it makes changes to the files. You can find the patch below in Downloads. I had no problems playing the game on Windows XP with the default for non-unicode programs properly set into Japanese with the patched game.

I did have an instance where I got an error message playing Oto-sensei's path, that would shut down the entire game. This was due to file corruption, and getting a new copy of the game fixed the problem. If you get an error like the one below (especially if you happen to get it on Day 22 of Oto-sensei's path, which is where I got the error) then you have a corrupted game and will have to get a new copy.

AGTH Compatibility - First|Live is compatible with Anime Games Text Hooker. First, make sure to patch the game, so that when you make your shortcut to the game .exe, it will be the correct .exe applied from the patch. You will need to add the /ks and /kf parameters. The text will be extracted correctly on the "0x0041B85A:000000 TextOutA" thread.

First|Live Capture Guide - A capture guide in English made by myself for getting all the CGs in the game.

First|Live Windows Me/XP Patch [666 KB] - First|Live patch file from AMEDEO's site. You need to apply it immediately after installing, or you will lose your save data if you try to apply it later.

First|Live Full CG Capture Save File - A save file that unlocks all the CGs in the game.

Since I was in the mood to play a girls' game but didn't want to give up half my life to play one, such as Koei's outrageously long games, I decided to try out First|Live, which is one of the first girls' games ever released, especially for the PC platform.

First|Live is indeed a quick game. The story takes place over one month and there are only five different endings, so skipping over repeated scenes, it doesn't take long at all to win full capture. It's great if you want a fast play, but as such, don't expect the features you'd find in a big game, such as voice, fancy gameplay, or a large cast.

The story in First|Live is a bit generic: the "childhood promise of marriage" has been done so many times in shoujo and shounen romance anime/manga for me to count, so it is a bit bland in the plot department. On the other hand, I found it very easy to follow what was happening in the game without knowing Japanese: if you are familiar with anime/manga highschool romance stories, you'll have no problem following the story simply from the visuals in the game.

The art in the game is very nice, but there isn't a very big cast with only five guys, and as such there isn't a very big CG count either, with only 55 in the game. But considering how old the game is, this was a pretty average amount for that time. An annoyance, however, was that I couldn't find a way to remove the dialogue box in-game to see the CGs completely unobstructed: I had to wait and view them in the CG gallery after they were unlocked to see them this way (maybe there is an option to remove the dialogue box, but I sure couldn't find it if there is). The CG gallery also doesn't display all the frames to multi-frame CGs: not a big deal to me, but something I noticed.

The gameplay is very generic, but I did enjoy that they let you change the main character's name if you wish, so you can put in your own name, something that is common in girls' games but that I wasn't expecting to find in a small game like this one. You can save on option screens and play in a window, both features that are always important to me, and there are volume toggles for the music and sounds. The music isn't astounding, but I did enjoy the song played at the band's concert at the end, "My Shiney Angel".

If you are in the mood for a girls' game that can actually be finished in a short amount of time, then give First|Live a play, one of the first games in its genre. The story is shallow and the cast small, but it is very easy to follow what is going on and not a huge frusteration for CG capture. It's nothing spectacular, but sometimes it is nice to kick back and play something simple; First|Live is the "oldschool" of girls' games.

AMEDEO's Official First|Live Site (Japanese) - The company's site with information on the game.

Syndrome's First|Live Capture Guide (Japanese) - A complete capture guide for getting all the endings in First Live.

AMEDEO Webring - Official Japanese webring dedicated to AMEDEO's games.

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.