The first 3 hours of Chulip

Yesterday I finally got the damn thing in my hands, rushed home, ignored my family for 3 hours, and very much enjoyed it(the game, not the ignoring of my family....well, maybe both).

As expected, Chulip is a very strange, very Japanese game. You play as a poor boy who has moved with his father into a small town from the big city. A large portion of the populous live in holes underground and most of the game is figuring out how to coax them out and kiss them so that your heart will grow large enough to allow you to kiss the girl of you dreams under a tree.

The plot, script, character design, and art are all very unique but when you strip all of that away, Chulip is brutally unforgiving adventure game. So brutal in fact, that the instruction booklet seems to(I only quickly glanced through it) contain complete solutions to when and how each underground dweller needs to be kissed. You'll probably need it though, as even the simple fact of riding on the wrong playground equipment can instantly end your game. Just make sure you go to the bathroom a lot to save your game. Seriously.

This brings up something else I noted as playing the game. From my initial time with the game, it feels that Natsume has done a very admiral job on the translation. I can't even imagine the difficulty they had in conveying some of the original Japanese cultural idiosyncrasies into something that westerners could also relate to. Not only is ons of dialogue, but there are many signs that had to be translated( i.e. movies posters for "FART WOMAN").

The soundtrack is also great. I'm on level 2 and it's a catchy a cappella tune, while the main theme reminds me of an atmospheric 70's Italian giallo film. You can check out a review and clips of the CD release here.

If you are in any way interested in this game, please pick it up. Hopefully it will encourage Natsume and other publishers to continue to publish imaginative and unique games such as this one.

Also make sure to read this very fair review at 1up.