Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Half Moon ni Kawaru made: Ramiya Ryo no Nijiiro Tamatebako presents four distinct minigame-style chapters, each delivering its own flavor of interactivity. The opening segment starring Suzuka offers a top-down adventure with maze-like environments. Players navigate through winding corridors, interact with chests and switches, and engage in preset turn-based battles. While there’s no traditional RPG leveling system, combat remains strategic—Suzuka selects from various sword techniques to overcome monsters and progress through the mansion.

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The second chapter shifts to a first-person, menu-driven interface as you guide Eve, a cosmetics saleswoman, through a suburban neighborhood. Rather than physical combat, success depends on dialogue choices and persuasion mechanics. You must approach potential customers, inspect items in your inventory, and select the right lines to close sales. The pace is slower and more contemplative, emphasizing exploration and conversational tactics over action.

In the third story, you assume the role of Tatsuya, the wandering “hero,” in a fast-paced action setup reminiscent of classic whack-a-mole mechanics. Evil bunnies pop out of holes across various stages, and you fend them off using improvised weapons—everything from slippers to household tools. This arcade-style chapter breaks up the adventure segments with lighthearted button-mashing fun and a tongue-in-cheek medieval motif.

The final mini-adventure centers on Titis the mermaid and unfolds entirely via menu choices and scripted story beats. There is no free movement; instead, the scene transitions automatically as you select options to progress her quest for human love. The emphasis here is purely narrative, with sexual encounters as the key rewards for unlocking Titis’s next steps. Despite its brevity, this chapter ties together the anthology’s themes of romance and transformation.

Across all four segments, the single consistent drawback is their short length. Each story can be completed in under an hour, making the package feel more like a sampler than a full-length title. However, if you appreciate variety and enjoy quickly dabbling in diverse genres—adventure, light RPG, action, and interactive romance—you’ll find the variety engaging. Controls are generally responsive, and the learning curve resets with each new character, so newcomers can jump in at any point without confusion.

Graphics

Visually, the game retains the characteristic art style of Ryo Ramiya’s manga. Character portraits are well-drawn, capturing the expressiveness and charm of the original illustrations. Suzuka, Eve, Nina, and Titis all boast detailed sprites and evocative facial expressions that punctuate key story moments. The explicit scenes—whether consensual or the more grotesque monster encounters—retain the same hand-drawn aesthetic, though they may be unsettling to some players due to their graphic nature.

The top-down sections feature modestly detailed tile sets and atmospheric lighting to create a sense of mystery inside the monster-infested mansion. Though not on par with high-budget titles, the environments serve their purpose well. The maze corridors are distinct enough to avoid confusion, and enemy sprites are varied, from corrupt gargoyles to nightmarish tentacled beasts.

Eve’s first-person adventure turns the focus to background art and UI elements. The neighborhood and indoor settings are illustrated with soft shading and pastel color palettes, reinforcing the consumer-product theme. Icons for inventory items and menu commands are clear and intuitive, ensuring you never struggle to identify what belongs to your store or what’s simply a piece of scenery.

In the bunny-smashing segment, the graphics lean into a more cartoonish vibe. The bunnies themselves are comically menacing, with oversized ears and exaggerated expressions when you whack them. Stage backgrounds are simplistic but colorful, keeping the action unambiguous and easy to follow at a glance.

Titis’s chapter showcases delicate underwater and coastal backdrops, with gentle waves and sunlit shores rendered in light, watery tones. While the scene transitions can feel static, the illustrations remain pleasing and appropriate for the romantic mood. Overall, the composite visual package is uneven but charming in its homages to manga art, and fans of Ramiya’s style will appreciate the faithful adaptation.

Story

Each of the four stories in Ramiya’s anthology is loosely connected by themes of escape, temptation, and pursuit—staples of the original Half Moon ni Kawaru made manga. Suzuka’s narrative sets the tone with its dark, perilous atmosphere, forcing her to rely on swordplay and wits to survive. Though concise, this chapter effectively establishes tension as ninjas and monstrous amazon warriors close in on her at every turn.

Eve’s business-oriented storyline provides a lighter, more playful contrast. The focus on persuasion and sales rather than combat gives this segment an almost slice-of-life quality, exploring the corporate cosmetics world through a quirky viewpoint. Though the lesbian-themed erotic content is more subdued here, it still aligns with Ramiya’s penchant for mature romance and character interaction.

The hero-and-bunnies tale is purposely tongue-in-cheek. Tatsuya’s quest to rid the kingdom of evil rabbits and reclaim carrots feels like a parody of medieval fantasy tropes. Nina’s supportive role adds a dash of companion banter, but the story largely exists to facilitate fast-paced action rather than deep narrative development.

Finally, Titis’s mermaid romance rounds out the collection with a bittersweet tone. Her longing for human love and the series of encounters she undergoes is both enchanting and slightly melancholic. Though the chapter is the briefest of all, it effectively communicates Titis’s emotional stakes, letting players feel the draw of her desire even as the plot moves quickly from one encounter to the next.

Overall, the writing succeeds in capturing Ryo Ramiya’s storytelling style: intimate, occasionally dark, and always focused on personal desire. Some players may find the tonal shifts jarring—the transition from adventure horror to corporate sales to whimsical whack-a-bunny to mermaid romance is abrupt—but that very diversity is the game’s hallmark.

Overall Experience

Half Moon ni Kawaru made: Ramiya Ryo no Nijiiro Tamatebako functions as a curated showcase of short gaming experiments bound together by a single thematic umbrella. Each segment is short enough to complete in one sitting, making the overall experience feel more like a portable anthology than a single cohesive adventure. This can be either a strength or weakness, depending on your appetite for quick, varied play sessions.

Replayability hinges on your curiosity to revisit each minigame with different approaches—trying new combat techniques as Suzuka, exploring alternative dialogue routes with Eve, or honing your timing in the bunny-bashing stages. However, once you’ve seen all four endings, the impetus for a second run diminishes, as no branching paths or unlockable extras significantly extend playtime.

The game’s adult content is explicit and unapologetic. While fans of Ramiya’s mature works will find it true to form, those sensitive to graphic monster encounters or erotic scenes may be put off. The storytelling and gameplay mechanics are serviceable but not groundbreaking, and the technical presentation, though faithful to the source manga, lacks polish in places.

In the end, this title appeals most to dedicated fans of Ryo Ramiya’s Half Moon ni Kawaru made series or players seeking a quick dip into varied Japanese-style mini-adventures with adult themes. If you value variety and don’t mind the anthology’s uneven pacing and graphic content, the Nijiiro Tamatebako offers an intriguing, if brief, journey through four distinct story worlds.

For those seeking a longer, more unified narrative or a more balanced gameplay focus, you may find this package falls short of its ambitions. Nonetheless, it remains a fascinating curiosity for collectors and enthusiasts of adult-oriented visual adventures.

Retro Replay Score

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