Intro

Well, I'm finally back to cover the fourth entry in this series. Though, I'm pretty sure I got around to it a bit sooner than than Zorga would have liked, but as I mention in my Let's Play for the game. I'm a rather impatient soul at times and figured I should just get this one off the list before it gets pushed back to sometime in 2060. After all, I'm always adding new projects to the list of stuff I should cover. Though, I suppose I should focus on talking about this visual novel/puzzle game developed by Zorga using RPG Maker VX Ace than my ability to endlessly add games to my list of stuff to Let's Play.

Story
Summary

Well it's summertime so the gang decides to pay a visit to the beach. Of course, Antigone doesn't know how to swim and is to insecure to ask Vincent for lessons so ropes him into helping her build a sandcastle. After all, who hasn't dreamed of building one of those at some point in their life. Though, I do think some people take this task way too seriously.


Image was taken from https://www.peppertreebay.com/how-to-build-a-winning-sandcastle/

At any rate during the building process a pair of confident blue-haired twins show up and start hitting on Vincent and Antigone which leads to Antigone asking about Vincent's sexual habits before meeting her as she gets jealous at the possibility of Vincent getting back in the habit of sleeping around. After all, she wants them to be exclusive even if she's way to insecure to go that far with him. At any rate after a bunch of awkward meetings and some puzzle solving we finally see Antigone and Vincent get together and have their first kiss. Though, sadly this event doesn't get as much glamor as it does in some other games like "Luxaren Allure". Oh well, at least it's a step in the right direction for their relationship.

Spelling Errors

I did notice a couple of spelling errors during my Let's Play for the game, but the issue that stood out the most pops up when Antigone mentions the materials we'll need for the cannon.



I'm guessing she meant to say cardboard since I imagine hitting someone with a wet cupboard would hurt an awful lot. Though how she'd launch such an object with her little cannon is beyond me.

Greatest Strength/Weakness

On the plus side this game does continue the slow development of Vincent and Antigone's relationship. On the downside the blue-haired twins are rather annoying with the male one going out of his way to emphasis that Vincent is just a "friend" with air quotes and the female twin having a hard time figuring out the obvious. Though, I suppose their existence is somewhat necessary to light a fire under Antigone's butt in order to get her to make a move.

Gameplay

As you'd expect from this series by now it's largely a collection of cut scenes with a few puzzles to solve in between them. These puzzles range from moving objects like crabs, boulders, buckets of sand, and so on to the right spot to get to other objects or moving said objects to where Antigone needs them for building the sand castle. All and all these challenges aren't that hard in my opinion though it did take me a few moments to get a feel for how to move the crabs around with my polearm since you need to be a tile away from them for it to work. And unlike the early Pokémon games where you can lightly tap in order to change the direction your facing. You'll need to make use of boulders to achieve the same effect in this game. Though one of the branches in the forest exists to just to tease the player and is only accessible after Antigone decides to follow Vincent around like a hawk to make sure he doesn't slack off while getting the crafting supplies for the cannon.

And it is possible for the player to trap themselves and force a restart in this game. So a button for resetting puzzles might be helpful.



Though, I suppose you'd have to be a bit thick to trap yourself in this game, but I thought it might be useful to point out that it is possible.

Graphics

Graphically the game features some top notch animated portraits. Though, the animated portrait that caught my attention the most was the one that featured some breast jiggle.



I would apologize, but being a guy it's hard not to notice stuff like this. Though Zorga will have to try a lot harder if he wants to compete with "Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball".

Minor Graphical Mistake

During one of the early conversations Fumiko's portrait switches from featuring her in swimwear to her being in her casual clothes.


Massively slowed down so it's easier to spot that her sprite is wearing a swimsuit before it gets mostly covered by her head.

Sound

As usual I found the music rather forgettable after beating the game. So I don't have anything particularly positive or negative to say about it. Though, I suppose that is the point of background music. It's meant to make the silence that would exist otherwise in a game less noticeable, but not be distracting to the player unless it's meant to help hype up a major boss battle like when "The Invasion from Within!" by Tsunami Bomb plays during the fight with Maderas on the PS2 version of the game.

Conclusion

"Sweet Middleground 4 ~The Sand Castle~" is a solid continuation of the series. So if you enjoyed the previous games you'll most likely enjoy this one as well. Though, I probably could have done without a reminder of that annoying chicken from the second game. If you wanted a throw back it probably would have been better to have included the cake from that game on the food table. After all, who wants a reminder of an old obstacle? I'd rather have a reminder of the cake that never was. And I still don't like the look of the sprites in this game.