Custom Drive (カスタムドライブ)

Title: カスタムドライブ
Company: D3P
Release Date: August 30, 2012
Platform: PSP
Official Site: http://www.d3p.co.jp/customdrive/
Walkthrough: http://hit121.blog117.fc2.com/category11-1.html (from that page backwards), http://momokan.chu.jp/momokan/frame-customd.html (I used this for the CG reqts instead of the original site, and for some choices lol), adding this http://www.d3p.co.jp/customdrive/ecg/ (thanks Hinano!)

Synopsis

Kushinari Gakuen holds the yearly Prince Collection to choose the most ikemen of them all. Kouda Saya being part of the cultural festival committee is in-charge of it. The thing is, Saya has an ikemen allergy. That is, she will start having panic attacks when a bishie is too close to her. So yeah…

YESSSSS I’m done with this game! o/ Although I’m not able to fully comp this, I still managed to finish Ruka’s personalities, and default!Riito and Shion. If you think that this is a fun dress up game, you’re dead wrong lol. Custom Drive is such a stress-inducing game that most of my friends who played this have the same complaints as I do. Such a waste of time.

Okay, so where do I start with my rant? I guess I’ll just list them because I’m so lazy to write a review for this. /kicked

• Disappearing Cgs. What. The. Hell. So I finished all of Ruka’s personalities and then I checked the Album in which I have 60% CG. I realized that I missed a CG in his Soshoku kei so I loaded my savefile and was able to get it. When I looked at the Album, from 60% it became 55%! The last three CG in the ending weren’t there maybe because I just loaded on that missing scene then left it at that. I had no choice but to go back again with the thought that I can just skip the remaining scenes. But NOOOO. There was an added scene so I’m okay with it not being able to skip. But the next scenes up until the epilogue are the same YET I couldn’t skipped!
• Speaking of skipping, wow it was tad slow. >_<
• Okay another disappearing act in this game is lost info in the profile section. When I finished Puchi Ero and Kizoku kei, I had the first info in Ruka’s section. The one at the top, I forgot what it was but I know I was able to get it. I do the Charai kei but I made a horrible mistake of starting from the VERY START. After I finished Charai, I went back and see if there’s added info but nope. Nada. Instead, it’s back to only one info. Great. At least I know that there is a choice to skip the prologue lol. /punched
• There are requirements to get the CG. There is a required personality, month/phase, clothes, and hair. If you don’t meet them just one of them, goodbye CG~. You wouldn’t even notice that you missed it. Or if it overlaps with another CG, you wouldn’t know which one did you get. 😐
• CGs are such a rare treasure in this game. Like, you are playing hide-and-seek with them. There are some important scenes that I feel like it should have a CG but then there’s none. I even check momokan’s guide for it but failed to see. Well, they are not really treasures imo especially the ending CG. They’re all the same sprites with a different background. If you are lucky, you’ll see a lip-touching CG. Meh.
• The only consolation that I get is you can change the outfit, accessories, and hair in the CG. You hear their reactions on their things depending on their personality which is a little nice.
• Oh, and for scenes, you can’t freaking skip the dialogue of the side character even if you see it for the nth time. Just because the guy changes his lines according to his personality, you are doomed to see the same scenario and listen to the lines over and over again.
• This is not heavy on the plot that’s why I find it boring. It’s more on scenarios and such which isn’t really worth it.

Now for the characters… Bear in mind that after Ruka, I was multi-tasking all throughout Riito and Shion’s route. I feel that I didn’t miss much of the story lol.

Kouda Saya

I think the allergy thing is interesting at first but it gets boring later in the game. She just keeps on fainting even in the slightest move of a guy. ‘kay. The only time I enjoyed her as the heroine is in Riito’s Genki kei. Her banter with him is perhaps the best lines in the entire game? Lmao

Mayuzumi Ruka

I started with this guy who is a first-year transfer student at Saya’s school. His default personality is Puchi ero which is my fave among the 5 personalities. He is more focused on hitting on Saya than joining Prince Collection. Later on, Saya is able to convince him but it’s more of he joined so that he can confess to her if he won the contest.

Touma Riito

Saya’s osananajimi (childhood friend). Since they grew up together, Saya is comfortable with him and he never causes her to faint or whatnot. He then thinks that maybe if he becomes an ikemen he can cure her allergy so he joins Prince Collection. He is the Mr. Nice Guy in school that helps anyone and knows everyone. With his hair color, it’s impossible for me to hate him and besides he is the good friend whom you can always turn too so yeah I quite enjoy his route. Not as good as Ruka (I like ’em perv 8D //bricked) though.

Kannagi Shion

Student Council President whom everyone fears despite his Charisma personality lmao. He is the final ikemen in Prince Collection which is similar to being the last hurdle. He has his insecurities so he vents on some random cat in the park where Saya sees him lololol. Idk but this is a bit bland for me. I mean, I know I multi-tasked this just like with Riito but at least with Riito I get to enjoy it a bit.

Side-characters

Yes, they need to be mentioned. I find all of them MORE interesting than the main characters. Too bad they don’t have a route or whatever. Just little moments here and there. My favorite character in this game is Kusakabe Shinnosuke~ <3 kyaaaa. He is the vice-president of the Student Council and appears to be always calm and friendly fufufu. Satoru, Hasegawa, Ooki (?)-sensei, and Tsukishima are good too. 😀

My fave Kusakabe moment: http://xxbishie-holicxx.tumblr.com/post/31792156977/kusakabeeee

So there. That concludes this post~

Ooh, and I recommend reading Hinano’s post: http://breadmasterlee.com/2012/09/16/otome-game-review-custom-drive/

PS For some reason this got posted before Dramatical Murder orz. I’m pouring all my feelsss on that one so it’s taking this long lol.

PS2 I’m catching up on Fairy Tail so expect reviews about it. Then I’ll be continuing with Oumagatoki and Halloween Wedding (12 & 24) too. 🙂

PS3 Time to hunt for Custom Drive CG pack lol