Mini-Review of K-Ten (Keiten / けい☆てん)

[wavemotion]

I've been playing quite a bit of K-Ten (though that's the publisher name and I think the actual name of the game is Keiten or, more properly: けい☆てん). It's a sea of colorful pastels - almost sickly so but that doesn't bother me. It reminds me heavily of Saki (including some of the signature 'moves' when declaring Reach or Ron, etc) and seems to me that it was heavily inspired from that anime. It has high resolution (typically 1200x800 though you can run it full-screen as well) and tons of voice. The story mode is pretty lengthy from what I can tell - and revolves around a music club or all-girl band who tries to settle disputes with games of Mahjong. I've only got the 4 stock characters unlocked - there appear to be slots for 2 more. The presentation is nice - the tiles are a little squat and not quite pleasing but very functional (I call these squat tiles Chibi-Tiles as if they are dis-proportioned "child-versions" of full-sized tiles though I know I'm not using the term quite right). Speaking of the mouse, they change the mouse cursor into a little reach stick - cute. The interface is simple enough - though they didn't include a PASS option when you want to bypass a Chi or Pon (etc.) and instead you right-click the mouse to bypass an option. I'm not a big fan of that. There are not a ton of options to configure but all the common ones are there - Kuitan, Akadora, Kandora, etc. are all present (and pretty much everything is defaulted to a fairly modern Japanese ruleset). I managed to figure out the one setting to turn off the little dialog bubbles that appear with the voices - it slows the game down and I'd rather listen to the voices than look at text I can't translate very well. Overall, I'm pleased with picking this up - I wish I knew more about the story but the Mahjong is enjoyable. I like, especially, that it gives the full score breakdown including the minipoints which is somewhat unusual with Mahjong Video Games (at least the ones I've played). There are some quizes in the game - apparently much of the story mode teaches you how to play so it's a ground-up tutorial built into the unfolding story. I've only gone through the simple quizes so far but they look enjoyable and help with my Japanese mahjong Kanji/Kana!

Published in 2010 on DVD-ROM for the PC (WinXP, Vista, Win7) only in Japan (Amazon.jp has it in stock but it's not easy to get them to ship overseas). It runs fine under Linux with WINE. The two PCs I've tried this on were reasonably older PCs (1GB of RAM, Core-Duo 2GHz processor) with built-in integrated graphics card (so nothing fancy).

Publisher page: http://www.k-ten.jp/

Some screenshots from my PC:

[Ignatius]

This game is, as far as i´ve read about it in japanese it´s an erogame, a japanese erotic game. But looks cool as a mahjong game. The point of being able to see the Fu is very cool. The characters are cute (moe) and the in game screen it´s similar as the Saki PSP game. Having voices is a good point too. I like it, despite being an eroge. I left those some years ago, except for Katawa Shoujo wich is a game with a beautiful story and almost zero erotic scenes.

[wavemotion]

This game is, as far as i´ve read about it in japanese it´s an erogame, a japanese erotic game.

I don't think that it is. There is no hint of anything sexual or erotic in any way in the game. I'll admit I haven't gone into the story much (about 20% through), but it seems far more benign than even the Saki animation. In all the story they simply teach Mahjong. In-game, you always play one of the female characters against a field of the other female characters - I've not seen a hint of skin beyond the screenshots I've shown.

Maybe I got the G-rated version?!

[Shirluban]

This game is, as far as i´ve read about it in japanese it´s an erogame, a japanese erotic game.

I don't think that it is. There is no hint of anything sexual or erotic in any way in the game. I'll admit I haven't gone into the story much (about 20% through), but it seems far more benign than even the Saki animation. In all the story they simply teach Mahjong. In-game, you always play one of the female characters against a field of the other female characters - I've not seen a hint of skin beyond the screenshots I've shown.

Maybe I got the G-rated version?!

I'm not sure, but you may want to re-watch their video at 00:36, 00:39, 01:02 and 01:10, alongside with the media page (which is not exactly G-rated, unlike the video).

[wavemotion]

I'm not sure, but you may want to re-watch their video at 00:36, 00:39, 01:02 and 01:10

I think we have different definitions of erotic. The fully clothed boobs hovering over the table happens in the video for roughly 2 seconds and shows up in the game for even less time - as opposed to Nodoka's breasts being in focus hanging over her penguin for ample time in Saki. What I see in the video is pretty tame, all things considered. It short, it looks much like your typical non-Hentai Anime - maybe not Saturday Morning Cartoon stuff, but not too far from it.

If I had to put it on a scale, I'd say the level of erotic content is less than 5% of what one would find in a typical pre-2000 Arcade Strip Mahjong - there is no suggestive voices nor any kind of removal of clothing or even suggestive interactions between the players... so far. I just went through the first half of the story mode and all of the tutorial mode (where it appears to teach you everything from forming the wall, throwing the dice and learning the ins and outs of Riichi Mahjong from the ground up with some mini-quizes at the end of each section). In the story mode I have yet to run into something risqué. When you win a match, the little cursor has a hand clapping animation, the game scores the match and you can move on to another match. It appears that maybe they are using the large breasted girls to help sell the game but they are definitely not focusing on it within the game. Maybe the story will take a turn for the ethically worse so I'm prepared to be wrong.

And normally we Americans find something inappropriate in everything!

[sasuraiger]

HOW TO TELL WHETHER OR NOT A JAPANESE OTAKU GAME IS ACTUALLY PORNOGRAPHIC OR JUST HEAVILY PASTEL-COLORED:

They will always show a montage of sex scenes at the end of the trailer.

Now go on and live your lives having been enriched by this knowledge.

[Ignatius]

To tell the truth I did not watched any video at all. Maybe I´ve read wrong what I´ve read, wich could happen as I was reading japanese... I´m sorry if i was mistaken. I was so sure in some places said it´s an erotic game... We'll see as you play.

[Shirluban]

To tell the truth I did not watched any video at all.

It's a shame! You're missing the shot at 01:28 (it last only one second and it's not visible on the cropped version on the main site).

[Ignatius]

Watched it. Looks like its funny, but one pair of big boobs and something else made me think wierd things and I don´t know why... Anyway, looks like it´s a funny mahjong game.

[Ignatius]

I was playing it and look it has no ecchi so I was wrong. But it´s a funny game with a lot of text and archetypical characters. A Clumsy (dojikko), a tsundere, a girl who do not speaks a lot and know a lot of things, and a girl who is like an older sister, very calmed. And the student council boss and a teacher obssesed with having a boyfriend...