To Heart
To Heart | |
Genre | Drama, Harem, Romance |
---|---|
Game | |
Developer | Leaf |
Publisher | Aquaplus |
Genre | Eroge, Visual novel |
Platform | Windows, PS, PS2, PSP |
Released | May 23, 1997 (Original Windows) March 25, 1999 (PS) |
Manga | |
Written by | ADV Manga |
Magazine | Dengeki Daioh |
Demographic | Shōnen |
Original run | October 1997 – December 1999 |
Volumes | 3 |
Anime television series | |
Directed by |
|
Produced by |
|
Original run | April 1, 1999 – June 24, 1999 |
Episodes | 13 |
Anime television series | |
To Heart: Remember My Memories | |
Directed by | Keitarō Motonaga |
Produced by |
|
Written by | Kiichi Kanō |
Music by | Seikō Nagaoka |
Studio |
|
Original run | October 2, 2004 – December 25, 2004 |
Episodes | 13 |
Manga | |
To Heart: Remember My Memories | |
Written by | Leaf |
Illustrated by | Ukyō Takao |
Published by | MediaWorks |
Magazine | Dengeki Daioh |
Demographic | Shōnen |
Original run | November 2004 – July 2005 |
Volumes | 1 |
Game sequel | |
To Heart is a Japanese
To Heart was adapted into a thirteen-episode
Premise
Set at a high school in the near future, the main character, Hiroyuki Fujita, is a student. He encounters ten pretty girls, including his childhood friend Akari and a maid robot Multi HMX-12, and must make the right decisions so as to win their hearts.
In the anime adaptation, the story focuses on the relationship between Hiroyuki and Akari.
Gameplay
To Heart is a
The game divides each school day of the storyline into four segments. These segments illustrate the events that occur during Hiroyuki's commute to school, during school, after school, and after he returns home at the end of each day.[1] Depending on the time of the day and the player's actions, they may be presented one of four types of events: dated events, which occur automatically during certain points in the game's plot line; affection events, which occur during certain periods of time only if specific conditions pertaining to a character's affection towards Hiroyuki are met; frequency events, which occur after meeting a character a predetermined number of times; and VS events, which occurs if two characters' affection towards Hiroyuki conflict with one another.[1]
At the end of each school day, the player is given the option to navigate to various locations within the game's setting.[1] Each choosable location is accompanied by an image of a heroine in order to allow the choices to be easier to make. Every so often, the player will also come to a "decision point", where they are given the chance to choose from multiple options. Text progression pauses at these points, and depending on the choices that the player makes, the affection rate of the heroine associated with the event will either increase, decrease, or remain the same.[1] This mechanism determines which direction of the plot the player will progress into.[1] There are ten plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. The game also contains a bad ending in which the player is unable to pursue the other scenarios. In order to view all of the plot lines, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and make different decisions to progress the plot in an alternate direction.
In the versions released since the original, there are six bonus
Development
After completing Shizuku and Kizuato, main planner and scenario writer Tatsuya Takahashi began conceptualizing the third entry to the Leaf Visual Novel Series, which would later become To Heart.[1][3] Takahashi originally considered creating a story with dark fantasy and gothic themes, but changed his approach in order to avoid making three consecutive works with dark themes.[1][3] He then settled on creating a romance, and later incorporated comical elements.[1] Early in development, Takahashi consulted frequent collaborator Tōru Minazuki for the creation of the story. The two originally considered creating the story and characters entirely by themselves, but after Minazuki expressed his concern that having only six heroines is not enough to exemplify a romance theme, the two asked writer Saki Aomura and illustrator Hisashi Kawata to assist in the project's development.[1] Out of the ten heroines created, Takahashi wrote the scenarios for Akari, Multi, Tomoko, Serika, Aoi, and Ayaka; Aomura authored the scenarios for Lemmy, Kotone, and Shiho;[1] and the scenario for Rio was written by a third writer named Udaru Harada.[4] Minazuki designed and illustrated Takahashi's characters, while Kawata illustrated the remaining characters.[1]
The writers did not begin work on the story until the characters were created.[1] Takahashi felt the game's story is simply actions that represent what becomes of the characters.[3] He mentioned the story exists not because he wanted to write the story, but because he wanted to "illustrate" the characters.[3] Takahashi believed that such a writing style was unique even within the game industry at the time, but has since become the norm.[3] Although the story contains futuristic elements such as maid robots, Takahashi stated the story takes place during contemporary times.[1] Parts of the school in which the game takes place was based on the alma mater that Takahashi, Minazuki, and Aomura had attended, and Takahashi said the game's story reflects the staff members' school experience during the 1980s.[1] To Heart was released as an adult visual novel for Microsoft Windows PCs on May 23, 1997, following the releases of the previous Leaf Visual Novel Series titles.
PlayStation release
The original Windows version was followed by an all-ages version for the
Takahashi stated that the addition of voice acting was decided upon early into development. However, because of the high amount of memory needed to store the voice acting's audio files, the decision caused the development team to debate between using higher quality audio or a smaller number of discs.[1] Ultimately, the amount of data required by the voice acting caused the game to be released on two discs.[1] Aomura also made changes to the stories of his characters, and he admitted that he did not thoroughly understand Shiho's character while writing her scenario for the Windows version's development. He made revisions to the scenario in the PS version, and saw the result as a completed version.[1] Takahashi felt the majority of the scenarios were smoother without the erotic scenes present in the original version, and stated that the original's inclusion of fan service scenes was a natural decision made during development, despite how they felt forced to him.[1]
Subsequent releases
To Heart received two versions for the Microsoft Windows operating system in 2003. The first is a "renewal package" re-release based on the original adult version, and it was released on June 20, 2003 with additional support for
Adaptations
A
A
Anime
A thirteen-episode
To Heart was licensed for North American release by
A
Audio CDs
A
The original theme song was "Brand New Heart", as opposed to "Feeling Heart" which was used in all subsequent versions and in the anime. A music single for the game, "Heart to Heart", was released on July 2, 1997. The visual novel's original soundtrack was released on May 28, 1999. Leaf released a piano arrange album entitled Leaf Piano Collection Volume 1 released in July 2002. The album contains popular songs from several of Leaf's visual novels, including three from To Heart. The first anime's original soundtrack entitled To Heart: Animation Sound Track was released on July 9, 1999. The anime's soundtrack contains all the tunes heard in the anime, as well as TV size versions of the ending song "Yell". It does not contain the opening song "Feeling Heart", which is found on either the "Feeling Heart" single released on April 2, 1999, or the original soundtrack from the game. A single for the second anime, "Daisuki da yo (大好きだよ) (Into Your Heart)", was released on November 25, 2004 and contains both full and instrumental versions of the opening and ending themes. The soundtrack for the second anime titled To Heart: Remember My Memories Soundtrack & Image Song was released on December 22, 2004; the image song contained is sung by the Ayako Kawasumi, the voice actress of Akari Kamagishi.
Reception
On release, the video game magazine Famitsu scored the PlayStation version of the game a 30 out of 40.[21] In the October 2007 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, poll results for the 50 best bishōjo games were released. Out of 249 titles, To Heart ranked 19th with 14 votes.[22]
Notes
- ^ Credited under the pseudonym Hiroshi Iwakawa (岩川広司).
References
- ^ ISBN 978-4-7577-0106-9.
- ^ a b c Aquaplus, ed. (June 25, 2009). To Heart 2 Portable Software Manual. Aquaplus. pp. 19–35.
- ^ a b c d e "TINAMIX Vol. 1.31 Leaf 高橋龍也&原田宇陀児インタビュー (前篇)" [Tinamix Vol. 1.31 Leaf Tatsuya Takahashi & Udaru Harada Interview (Part 1)] (in Japanese). Tinami. May 1, 2000. Retrieved December 26, 2011.
- ISBN 978-4-8402-1278-6.
- ^ "ToHeart(トゥハート)・製品情報(PS)" [To Heart Product Information (PS)] (in Japanese). Aquaplus. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
- ^ "To Heart リニューアルパッケージ" [To Heart Renewal Package]. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
- ASIN B00009MEWJ. Retrieved September 8, 2015.
- ^ "ToHeart(トゥハート) 製品情報(PC)『ToHeart PSE』" [To Heart Product Information (PC) To Heart PSE] (in Japanese). Aquaplus. Archived from the original on December 17, 2011. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
- ^ a b "ToHeart2 製品情報" [To Heart 2 Product information] (in Japanese). Aquaplus. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
- ^ a b "ToHeart2 PORTABLE 製品情報" [To Heart 2 Portable Product information] (in Japanese). Aquaplus. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
- ^ "Aquapazza: Aquaplus Dream Match" (in Japanese). Aquaplus. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
- ^ "トゥーハート公式ガイドブック-The Essence of To Heart-" [To Heart Official Guidebook: The Essence of To Heart] (in Japanese). Enterbrain. Retrieved April 1, 2011.
- ^ "Formation of Two New ADV Branches". Anime News Network. July 4, 2003. Retrieved April 2, 2011.
- ^ "TRSI announces two acquisitions". Anime News Network. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
- ^ "New Right Stuf Acquisitions". Anime News Network. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
- ^ "To Heart Update". Anime News Network. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
- The Right Stuf International. Archived from the originalon November 3, 2007. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
- The Right Stuf International. Archived from the original(PDF) on December 7, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
- The Right Stuf International. Archived from the originalon November 16, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
- ^ 大好きだよ(Into Your Heart) 谷咲ナオミ,池田春菜のプロフィールならオリコン芸能人事典 (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved April 2, 2011.
- Weekly Famitsu(in Japanese) (915, pt. 2): 19. June 30, 2006.
- ^ "Dengeki G's Magazine top 50 bishōjo games" (in Japanese). ASCII Media Works. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
External links
- To Heart visual novel official website (in Japanese)
- To Heart: Remember My Memories official website (archive) (in Japanese)
- To Heart English anime Archived 2008-07-08 at the The Right Stuf International
- To Heart (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
- To Heart at The Visual Novel Database