This is a review of Tears to Tiara, the original version, not Playstation 3 version.
Disclaimer :
Like any other decent hentai games, plots of Tears to Tiara is extremely and extensively long. There is simply no way for me to make a review of its plot as it will take pages and pages of writing. What I will do, however, is a quick summery of the first chapter of the game, and few additional background story (Spoilers in other words).
The game begins as a female protagonist, Riannon, starts to tell you that she fears the future. She also tells you that she will do whatever she could in order to protect her people.
Apparently, Riannon is capable of seeing the future, and she has informed (misinformed on purpose) her villagers and sent them off for a harvesting session. Riannon's older brother, Arthur lead them. An army from a holy empire (Their fashion resembles some of the holy roman empire.) of the main land and a priest approach Riannon and asks for whereabouts of villagers. Riannon is forced to speak her true name which puts her will under complete control of the priest.
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Above is where everything begins. The holy priests from the empire seeks Riannon's blood in order to release a resting demon lord, Aloun. He plans to cut her open and sacrifice her. Of course, his plan doesn't go well as Riannon's brother, Arthur, attacks them with villagers, and that the demon lord, Aloun, doesn't listen to the priest at all. Aloun breaks the seal on Riannon by dropping his blood on her and communicate her directly through her head. Aloun brutally murders the priest and a battle begins.
After this event, Riannon declares that she is the wife of Aloun, which makes Aloun the chief of her village. Riannon's brother, Arthur, is a hot headed boy who doesn't really listen to others. He is also a simple man. He shows immediate dislike for Aloun (who is literally complete opposite to his kind), but because Aloun becomes his sister's husband and the chief of his village, he is forced to listen to Aloun.
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Riannon's village and the holy empire has always maintained a peaceful relationship, but with the priest's actions, the relation is now broken. Furthermore, the empire now seeks to destroy them as it is their policy to destroy those who turn against them ... whether it is their fault or not. A general, Gaius, is put in charge of getting rid of them.
Aloun and the others quickly make their moves and abandon their isle, and they head to an old abandoned capital of elves. This elves capital just so happens to belong to Aloun as well. Small number of elves are still living in the city, and they welcome their leader, Aloun.
After this point, you, as a player, are given some freedom over your actions. Depending on what kind of difficulty you started with, you may need to spend most of your time leveling and not pursuing the plot until you are ready. If you start on the easiest difficulty, you simply go after storyline events until the end without having to worry about characters' levels and equipments.
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During courses of the game, Aloun obtains lots of wives. Riannon is his first wife (By Riannon's demand). Morgan becomes the second (By Morgan's will). Llyr becomes the third (by accident). Octavia becomes the fourth...(also by accident) Besides official wives, he also makes out with pretty much every female characters on occasion. I don't think I need to go on more.
At this point, I must inform you that lots of wives involve lots of hentai (sex) scenes. I must also inform you that, like the unnecessary hentai scenes from Fate stay night, the hentai scenes from Tears to Tiara are also completely not essential to the plot. In other words, it would appear that its hentai scenes were put just to make this an adult game (19+).
A little about its background.
In a fantasy world, there was a God and were twelve "white angels" who were in charge of creating "the perfect world".
The twelve angels had been manipulating human's world for only God knows how long. It is, however, certain that they had been doing it for more than tens of thousand years. Aloun was born as the 13rd angel. Sad for Aloun, the twelve angels wanted perfection, and the number, 12, was the perfection for them. They did not want a 13rd angel which would break their long tradition. This 13rd angel was Aloun. Since angels could not be killed, he was taught that he was cursed and he would never become one of the white angels. However, Aloun becomes one of the twelve angels when his step father (also one of the twelve angels) sacrifice himself in order to give man kind one chance to survive and have freedom.
Aloun eventually learns, after his step father's death, that what the twelve white angels do in order to create "the perfect world" is by taking intelligence away from humans and the likes. In other words, they were simply enjoying torturing man kind for no apparent reason, and that was "the perfect world". Aloun wails over a human girl whose intelligence was taken away. She was also the human that Aloun's step father gave a chance to by introducing her "fire" and usage of "language".
Aloun starts to see faults in their "perfection" and eventually decides to stand against them. By doing so, however, turns Aloun into a fallen angel and loss of his absolute powers. However, Aloun would still retain his immortality and a small portion of his powers. He descends into the human world which was by this time a habitable place (thanks to Aloun's step father). He unlocks the human girl with what was left of his powers and continues to "awaken" other humans and elves.
A point in this game which is repeated over and over is : Free will.
Additionally...
Tears to Tiara makes a very good use of narrative voices. Especially, when the plot goes back into the past, the voice works become stunning. The voices carry emotions fully to its listeners. Furthermore, Aloun's past memories will make many cry. His shaking voice when he finally realized what the twelve angels had been doing..., the voice work was simply mind-blowing.
Thliesin's sacrifice will make some shed tears as well as his last words were very ... heart touching.
What I think...
This game strikes me strange. This game is strange. It is a hentai game. It is supposed to be a perverted game, but it is not. It's not even close. It tries to tell you a very strong meaning, which is free will, and that perhaps free will is not something we have it granted. The voice work was stunning at worst. It was as if its voice actors clearly knew what they were trying to say. Nevertheless, I've enjoyed this game very much despite of so many unneeded hentai scenes. This game's meaningfulness simply overrode all my complaints.
