Since the Discord server is basically closed now, could you share the story archive?
Hi, we never had a story archive and never did translations for it. There used to be someone else on tumblr who used to translate stories but I don't remember who it was and I don't know if they're still available or if that blog has been deactivated. There are some recordings on youtube though, I know Sgt Cat uploaded skits & events on youtube. You can check out their channel!
The discord server is dead, but it is still available, I believe Sgt Cat is still in it if you have any questions for them.
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Hi, i wanted to know if the shimamatsu server is still up? Or if anyone has managed to get the models from the game before it shut down?
Server's still up but it's been dead for a good while, so I don't see any reason to share the invite for it anymore. Sorry!
We did get some of the files but I'm not sure if I still have them at hand since it's been many years since. :<
I never got the chance to play this game, but it looks so fun... Why was it shut down? Also, are there any other oso-san games still available?
Well, nobody here was playing around the time of the shutdown, so we wouldn't really be experts on the situation. Either way, game staff in general don't just outright tell players the reasons for discontinuation, but I think the safe assumption would be that they simply didn't have the budget to keep it running anymore. Which... honestly, was a possibility that I had been concerned about for a while, given how much the game grew to rely on its whales. I could be way off on this, but the fact that they flat started requiring to spend money to roll for premium sets had the alarm bells going off in my head.
As for the (mobile) games still available now, there are three - Pokomatsu, Tabimatsu, and NEETPro, all of which region-locked to only Japan (assuming you don't live there, if you want to know of a way to get around this issue, follow the instructions in the FAQ under "how to install the app" - the process should be the same).
And because I have thoughts on all of them, I wrote up a brief description on each game before concluding with my personal thoughts on the current state of the Ososan Gaming Experience, but I'm not sure if anyone else really cares that much so I'm putting it under a cut lol. Links to downloading the games are included below as well for those who are curious.
Pokomatsu (Apple Link / Android Link)
I kind of talked about this one just the other day, but basically, it's the game that "replaced" Hesokuri Wars. Not only does it use a lot of Heso's assets, but the Twitter account for Hesokuri Wars and Pokomatsu is one and the same.
And... that's really it as far as similarities go. Hesokuri Wars was a tower defense game, and Pokomatsu is that one game where you aim and shoot balls at objects/people that are slowly advancing towards you and have to hit them enough times to win (idk if there's a more succinct name for this type of gameplay). Also, you can collect screenshots from the anime, movies, and Heso, either by playing/progressing or by rolling in the gacha. The basic story of the game is that the sextuplets are defending themselves from having their roles as the protagonists stolen by the other characters.
Here's a sample of some gameplay, if you're curious. Note that the voice clips are recycled directly from Heso. Also, it's incredibly noisy, so I guess that's just another similarity the two share.
Mod Ichi's Opinion: If you like this sort of game, then go ahead and give it a try, but I personally can't see myself getting too invested in it. Collecting the cards is its main selling point, but even that's not really all that given that they're just screenshots as opposed to original art. Also, I think I'm bad at it because I can't get past Stage 8. Never mind, I was playing it while I was typing this and I just beat it lol. But now I can't get past Stage 9.
Tabimatsu (Apple Link / Android Link)
AKA the other big Oso game from back in the day, although it still wasn't as big as Heso. The premise is that the sextuplets are traveling to all of the prefectures in Japan to pick up money, and the gameplay is in the form of a board game where you roll a die and move around. Much like Heso, had its fair share of original outfits and events, but it's currently in a bit of a weird place because it's been dormant for the past few years; it's still there for people to download and play, but it hasn't had a proper update since like 2020/2021 aside from the occasional maintenance. It's very clearly on its last legs, but it's still available to the public, presumably because it's not as costly to run as some other games of the past.
A sample of gameplay.
Mod Ichi's Opinion: I really enjoyed this game when it was more active! I'd like to replay it for the nostalgia, but it refuses to load properly on my phone teehee.
NEETPro (Apple Link / Android Link)
This one was released in conjunction with the first movie. It's also made by the same people who made Tabimatsu.
NEETPro is by far the simplest out of all the games, being more of a story-driven visual novel and not much else - I think this is the first and only Ososan mobile game to not have any gacha function? You play as a female showbiz manager, Totoko is your supervisor (she quit being an idol), and you're responsible for managing a sextuplet of your choice. Depending on the choices you make throughout the story, you either succeed in turning him into a movie star, or he stays a NEET.
In other words, this is the closest thing to an official Ososan otome game that exists. Like I said, this game is very much just a visual novel and not much else, so it basically was just released and not really updated since. I also found a tweet posted by the official Tabimatsu account from this September announcing the app would no longer be available on the Google Play store (though people who already had the app can still play), so like. That pretty much confirms that keeping this game up to date isn't exactly a top priority of the staff.
A sample of gameplay.
Mod Ichi's Opinion: I'm playing Ichi's route and I keep trying to brute force him into letting me become his manager and at one point he grew convinced that I was secretly an assassin plotting to kill him. Anyway, I don't think you'll have much use for this if you can't read Japanese or can't find a translation somewhere.
Overall
I feel like I've been hinting at this all throughout this post, but Ososan doesn't seem to be thriving in the mobile game sphere as of late. We used to have games like Hesokuri Wars, Damematsu, and Shimamatsu, all of which were rife with content, but all three current games I described above are fairly low-maintenance to keep running, have very sparse updates, and overall just don't seem to be here to keep your long-term interest. Maybe it's not too fair to say that about NEETPro, given the type of game it is (not to mention that it mainly served as promotional material for the movie), but like. Tabimatsu? That game used to consistently get new content, until one day, all that just stopped.
Idk I don't really have a conclusion to all of this lol this isn't meant to be some thesis or anything. It's just that when I went back to see which games were still available to the public, I immediately noticed the lack of actual content, and it's such a downgrade. It kind of bothers me as someone who not only rigorously played Heso for years, but also was super into checking out every other game the staff would drop.
I know I ramble about Prince Ichi a lot, but just for the hell of it, here are some other Heso versions of my pissed off malewife that I love and miss!
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Hi! Sorry to disturb you guys, but your mobile links and FAQ doesn't really work on mobile, tried with Wifi and Data and both said they couldn't connect to it. ^^
Sorry to bother!
Ahhh yeah, that's because our domain changed, and the links were never updated. Should be fixed now!
(And for future reference, if a link on the blog doesn't work, check if the URL uses a co.vu domain, and if it does, change it to hesokuri-wars.tumblr.com. The page should load then. You should be able to do this on mobile as long as you're using your browser and not the app!)
Thanks to this blog re-appearing, i had a dream about hesokuri wars last night--??
Anyways i miss seeing the stupid costumes they'd come up with lol i had a soft spot for the Prince white day costumes, and the gothic lolita costumes---
I hated the. Slug things. I cant even remember the name of them, i just hated themm 0/10 , no.
Oh, the Geruges? Yeah lol those were pretty slimy and gross, much like the humans they spawn from. I didn't mind them, personally, but it's not hard to see why others would.
And by Gothic Lolita, I assume you mean that one Princess subset? Funny you should mention it in the same breath as the Princes, because I was bitching to Mod Kara in our texts last night about how the Prince set seemed largely forgotten by the Heso staff in the end, and she made a comment about how there should've been a Dark Prince set to complement the Gothic Lolita Princesses. I haven't been able to stop thinking about the wasted opportunity since.
If she got her wish for a Dark version of her favorite set granted, then it would only have been fair if I did too, but… Well. You don't want to get me started on this.
Wait, hold on, how much does the public know about the unreleased Hesokuri Wars set of the 18matsus in school swimsuits? Is that something that truly never surfaced, or is it like an open secret amongst fans of the game? If I went, "Ooooh do you guys want to see something you've never seen before~?" would you guys actually be surprised, or would I just look like the biggest goddamn fool?
The Osomatsu unit from that set for reference (and a Pokomatsu card for scale):
