Tenerezza

The Good
Tenerezza is a Japanese exclusive 3D Action Role-Playing video game released in 2003 for the Original XBOX and Windows PC. It was published and developed by the independent Japanese game company Aquaplus, creators of the To Heart and Utawarerumono series.

Tenerezza has been delayed many times during its development, only to be canceled on the 14th of June 2002 for the original Xbox and announced later for PC. Probably due to the Japanese’s lack of enthusiasm for the OG XBOX, this almost became final. Until for some unknown reason the game reappeared on the Xbox release schedule in 21 September 2002 (a push by Microsoft maybe?). The game was supposed to release in December of 2002 (as shown in the trailer) but was pushed back again to January 2003 on the Xbox and later released on 28 March 2003 on PC.
The Xbox version suffers from a freeze bug in which the disk drive fails to access the game data in the cut scene at the mayor’s house after collecting 4 magic stones. And due to the inexistence of a manner to release patches on consoles at the time to rectify the bug, it remained as it was. However, Aquaplus suggests to mash B quickly right before that cutscene to skip it without triggering the bug. The game was made backward-compatible on the XBOX 360 in a compatibility update in 15 December 2006.
The PC version of Tenerezza released on 28 March 2003 and is a greater improvement over the original Xbox version for the following reasons: While the Xbox version comes with a DVD game disc and game manual in Japanese, the PC version comes in two game-installation CD-ROMs, an original soundtrack (CD-ROM album), includes an in-game bestiary that keeps track of all monster you encountered, their stats, weaknesses, names, and various useful information, and a progress tab for the side and main quests that was not present in the original Xbox version. The PC game adds 3 resolution modes, low-resolution mode similar to the Xbox's 640x480, a medium resolution mode 800x600, and a high-resolution mode 1024x768. The PC version also offers higher resolution textures present on the second install disc. And a supplementary game plus and a big head mode where you can keep all the powers you collected throughout the first play-through.

The opening is wonderfully animated by studio OX and very reminiscent of early 2000’s anime. The theme song "Fragrant Wind" is sung by Emi Motoda, who also did the vocals for Comic Party and Utawarerumono, from F.I.X. Records, whereas the ending theme "In the Middle of the Journey" is sung by Shinobu Misaki, who also did vocals for To Heart and Routes.

The eponymous heroine Tenerezza (“tenderness” in Italian) is a lively young girl who lives in her peaceful town of Esperanza (“hope” in Italian). The game starts with narration introducing the city and our main lead, the very lovely girl Tenerezza. She is the self-proclaimed best witch in the world and her dream is to become the greatest witch of all time. She lives in her own house and owns a “magic et caetera” shop in her hometown of Esperanza. She is an expert cook and a highly skilled magician. Cooking various kinds of food, she produces healing items, and she is highly proficient in using magic of the four elements (Water, Earth, Fire, Wind) that she can switch and use freely as the game has no magic bar. Projecting elemental magical attack is her main way of dealing damage but she also has a short-range sword physical attack. The player can charge up magic spells by pressing down the attack button and then unleash them on the enemies. It is also possible to attack physically and equip a variety of weapons and armor. When Tenerezza raises a sufficient amount of experience by beating monsters she levels up and gains an experience point. The player can manually raise her attack or defense power or her proficiency in one of the four elemental magic types by spending those experience points (this is a JRPG after all). The town is not particularly big, but you will find everything you could possibly need here. Besides Tene's house which also serves as her workshop, you will find the town mayor's house, the sacred tree, the grandmother's bar/restaurant, houses, and 3 shops which will provide you with all the items you need, from health potions to crafting materials and food to cook recipes.

But, this happy life will soon be marred by the sudden appearance of abnormal monster activity disturbing the peace reigning in the town and its neighboring regions. The Mayor of Esperanza will ask you to go to the nearby Magic Forest and investigate the recent appearance of monsters in the area in order to solve the mystery surrounding these disturbances. On her path, Tenerezza meets the fairy Lolo, and together they oppose a dark force that threatens peace. Combat takes place in real-time and Tenerezza progresses throughout her adventure. The story will take her to 4 distinct areas, a scary enchanted forest, a relaxing meadow grassland, a snowy mountain, a fiery lava volcano and a deserted wasteland (quite the panorama). The story is also punctuated by many twists as well as highly colorful character encounters, both friend and foe. Tene will not be alone in her perilous journey, Roro the fairy accompanies and intervenes on several occasions. She can also be used to perform a powerful long-range attack capable of considerably lowering the health of nearby monsters but this attack has a cool down, symbolized by Roro’s gauge turning red when it’s activated and blue when it’s refilled and available.

If her name means tenderness, she proves to be a rather formidable little killing machine in battle action compared to her sweet gentle nature. In addition to magic, she can use a short sword and charge elemental attacks for massive damage. It is important to note that enemies have elemental weaknesses, displayed in Tenerezza’s monster glossary. Taking advantage of these weaknesses is key to an optimal combat strategy. Destroying monsters not only grants Tene experience points but also gains money and raw materials -some rarer than others- needed to craft the game items. Enemies all look and have different characteristics, some can only be found in certain areas. So, it’s an open monster hunt (gotta kill ‘em all) simultaneously with the side quests that are unlocked by talking with the townsfolk. Keep your eye on Tenerezza’s mailbox, some neat stuff arrive there.

The graphics are very colorful, with a large color palette comprising all the hues and nuances of the rainbow. This is most noticeable during the opening credits, the menus and artworks and dialogue boxes are full of charm and beauty, you can tell this is a passion project for the developers. The 3D modeling proves to be decent but not exceptional, the textures are clean and offer a level of detail corresponding to what one would expect from a small anime game running on PCs of the time. The whole thing is very Dreamcast-like, with the cleanliness and finesse that one is accustomed to from that legendary console (R.I.P). However, it should be noted that the visual of the game perfectly matches the level design. The whole thing is not amiss, it is even quite enjoyable to watch. Variety is present despite the limited playing area. There are multiple separate game areas with their distinctive dungeons and a number of enemies exceeding 80, and their regional variations. It’s very typically JRPG, as if someone took the designs of SNES action JRPGs like Seiken Densetsu 3, Alcahest, and Ys V and recreated them tastefully in 3D, allowing for a very pleasant change of scenery as you move from one area to another. Besides the town, there are 5 other areas, each divided into several parts separated by short loading screens.

The animations are fluid, fast, with varied and fun cartoony slapstick violence. There are different animations in the scenery; everything comes alive with nice camera and character movements during the cutscenes. Speaking of the camera, it is automatic but fortunately, it hasn’t been an obstacle in seeing the action, it is always positioned just right. While it’s not a deal-breaker there are some cases in which an element in the foreground and background hides enemies that you can’t see because of the automatic camera. It would have been preferable to have a transparency effect during these few rare moments.

The audio, even if it is repetitive sometimes, whether in sound effects or music, is more than enjoyable. The mood is very cheerful in its resonant tones, with a wide range of instrumentation and rhythms. This allows each individual area to have its own visual and musical identity. The sound effects are numerous and of good quality and don’t overpower the quality voice acting from the veteran seiyuus.

The gameplay is particularly enjoyable thanks to its simple controls. Tenerezza is agile, nimble on her feet, and handles surprisingly well for an early 2000s action JRPG. The controls are not janky. The menus are clear and clean, and the game’s visual presentation is quite pleasant to the eyes. The only real problem is the language barrier; yeah it’s fully in Japanese with no English translation or any other language for that matter. Although it does not prevent you from playing the game, your enjoyment might vary if you don’t understand the instructions you need to follow, and sometimes you might be stuck because you don’t know what to do next even if it’s right before your eyes but written in a foreign language. So if you don’t understand the story, the dialogues, and the menus you might not enjoy it due to the language difference. This is not a deal-breaker by any means but to be taken into account.

The Bad
Nevertheless, it’s not all flawless. There are sudden difficulty spikes when you’re under leveled in a high level enemy area which can stun you and quickly gang up on you and drain all your health, and when you die you respawn with half of the money you had, which can be frustrating because the game is somewhat stingy with money drops. And seeing your money gets halved every time you die is particularly infuriating. Not only does your money get thanos’d when you die, but the game has the audacity to charge you 500 coins to save your game in any place where the Traveling Chinese merchant girl is present. That amount gets increased by another 500 coins whenever you want to save again, meaning 500 coins for the first save, 1000 for the second save and 1500 for the third save. So save strategically. The final flaw is how little you can carry at the beginning of the the game, only 20 items on hand and you can store 500 items in your home safe. However, the amount you can carry gets increased through gameplay from 20 items to 40 items to finally 60 items. Better stock up on health items, you’re gonna need it when monsters gang up on you.

The Bottom Line
Ultimately, even if it did not revolutionize the videogame landscape of XBOX and PC at the time, it surely filled a gap that Xbox still clearly suffers from even to this day, which is the lack of JRPGs on that platform. Similarly to SMT nine, I consider this game as one in a lifetime, an anomaly, a glitch in the system. Not only did Aquaplus take a gamble on an unproven foreign game system (Xbox) and (Windows PC) a not so popular platform for gaming at the time known only to doujin enjoyers, tech hobbyists, and Japanese salarymen. The courage that Aquaplus had is commendable with the highest praise. Alas, this game never got a sequel to continue Tenerezza’s story, which is a shame since this world has so much potential waiting to be explored. Aquaplus went back to their regular bigger franchises on PS2, churning sequel after sequel of Utawererumono, and this is the last we’d ever see of this tender green-haired girl.