Description
I've finally acquired every main game from the cool Doujin development team over at "MOUNT☆PUNCH" (まんでと☆ぱんちっ) besides their mega demo of "Nekomimi Tank" from 2009 and it's been something of a journey. "Grit!" is one of three "lost" MP games ("Sakura no Kanzume", "Grit!" and "Mimimi Rocket" are essentially the trifecta) and while I acquired it a few months ago, I could not get this game running without significant graphic defects. However, for those following, my old computer bit the dust a few days ago and on top of gradually getting things transferred and restored, I did a renewed search for things that could get it running properly from Virtual Machines to Forced Windowing programs to Visual Basic libraries. I did finally manage to get a mostly stable version of the game by adjusting .exe properties and utilizing dgVoodoo(2) which isn't really documented much for Doujin games. I also had to capture it with several settings in OBS and learn how to use DaVinci Resolve for editing, so consider this video as something of a test before I start recording main projects proper.
Released in 2002, "Grit!" is an unusual game that's also a derivative work of a fairly niche franchise, with characters based on the Ecchi / Eroge / Hentai series, "Green Green", which was produced by "Groover" in the early-mid 2000s. There was also a remake of GG through Grover's new label, Overdrive, in 2013 and Overdrive itself continued to function all the way to 2022. This series had minimal exposure outside of Japan and only the anime(s) were released in English, but it stands as Groover and Executive Producer Takeuchi Hiroshi's most influential work (although "MUSICUS!", "Canary" and "Edelweiss" also have some claims to fame). The series is generally known for its comedy, but has underlying serious elements and surrealism as the series progresses, with the first game being the most memorable.
While the series itself focuses on a boy named Yuusuke and his three friends who make up the "Baka Trio" (a group of perverts basically, as the plot on the surface was about merging a boy and girl high school into a co-ed school on a remote island, though there's some strange things that influence it), the game basically follows MP's MO of difficult action games with cute appearances (this time, it's a top-down game) and puts the player in control of four of the main heroines instead: Futaba & Wakaba Kutsuki, Sanae Minami and of course Midori Chitose (Midori meaning "Green", and also the main heroine for all intents and purposes)... no love for Nurse Chigusa unfortunately (characters who didn't make the cut are in the High Score table). Each character is slightly different as Futaba has balanced attributes (Speed, Jumping and Attacking), Sanae has longer reach but low jumping, Midori has short reach but high attack speed and Wakaba has the longest reach but slow attack speed. The objective of the game is to clear all the eggplants from the level (because why not... it's based on an 18+ work) and while the easiest way to do this is to catch them off guard and attack them (which stuns them), this is not the "intended" way to play.
There is another means of clearing enemies which is more difficult but yields higher rewards known as the "Grit Gauge" system, where the player can cut lines (cracks) and clear adjacent land. This gauge refills quickly and lines need to connect to form proper "fractures", although the smaller sides will always break first and if the land is too large, it won't break as planned. This can be mitigated by increasing the amount of lines which, in turn, increases the amount of fractures, but spending too much time will cause earlier fractures to heal. When you have the fractures you want, you can jump on one to set off a chain reaction; all enemies caught in the chaos will be eliminated and catching multiple enemies creates combos which yield higher points as well as numerous point items (food). The player also has a "Grit Bonus" if they defeat all enemies by cutting land (you can attack them still as long as they aren't defeated), No Miss Bonus and Time Bonus (time can go to zero, it's just for points). There are also hidden spots to defeat the perverted "Bacchi-Gū" for extra points. It sounds simple on the surface but is very complicated in practice as there are numerous Eggplant types with different characteristics as well as new obstacles that get introduced (varying heights, blocks that can't be cracked, Moai Statues, submerged land, etc.) and enemies move constantly, are plentiful, and attack aggressively. While unique, the game draws some parallels to "Dig Dug II" and "Lolo / Eggerland".
In an unusual MP twist, "Grit!" has co-op play and features dozens of levels as well as many continues, but seeing the game to the end is still difficult. It's an interesting (if somewhat frustrating) piece of Doujin media. This is a video showing the game in action and several running demos. Enjoy.