Pucker up for the sake of true love!
Chulip is an Adventure Game developed by Punchline for the PlayStation 2. It was originally released in Japan in 2002, published by Victor Interactive Software; Natsume published it in North America in 2007.
You play as a young boy who immediately encounters his true love upon moving into a town full of quirky people. However, the boy lacks the confidence he needs to ask her out, so he must go on a quest to write the perfect love letter. He must also obtain a high reputation, which he must do by kissing as many characters as he can. Including old ladies. And men. And turtles. And aliens. It's that kind of weird game. But it won't be easy. Kissing people out of the blue is a surefire way to lose HP, and every character lives by their own schedules. The boy's emotions are very easily upset and too much stress from just about anything unpleasant will break his heart, and the town becomes even more dangerous at night. Still, the boy sets out to romance the girl of his dreams and prove that love conquers all.
Chulip contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adults Are Useless: Your dad in particular doesn't do anything except sit in the house, read the paper, and fret about your lack of social life. The Gainax Ending reveals he even instigated the plot in order to improve your reputation, making him responsible for all the chores you've been forced through.
- All Crimes Are Equal: You can get a crime stamp for underage smoking, and if that happens to be your third crime stamp, you go straight to the graveyard. Also, if the policeman catches you sneaking about at night, he'll pull out his gun and shoot at you.
- All There in the Manual: The game is unintuitive enough that the English manual doubles as a strategy guide, outlining the times when characters are active and what needs to be done to kiss them.
- Anthropomorphic Objects: Though in some cases it's not clear if it's a talking stop sign or a person dressed up as one.
- Bilingual Bonus: Chu is the Japanese onomatopoeia for the sounds made during a kiss. So the title of the game is a play on what you must do in the game, what you kiss with, and the word "tulip".
- Broken Bridge: A couple in Long Life Town. There's a barrier blocking the tunnel that Mr. Yamada knocks over at the end of the first day, and a crosswalk that won't turn green until you talk to Mr. Suzuki about it and get him to fix it.
- Came Back Wrong: Miss Zombie Mika. She was in a car accident, and wished really hard not to die... and ended up as a zombie. And then started to slowly decay, losing her memories as well as parts of her body.
- Cephalothorax: A number of the Underground residents are this, or at least appear to be, depending on whether they are objects with faces and feet or are merely wearing them like costumes. Michio Suzuki is the most obvious, being just a Waddling Head.
- Company Cross References: The shop owner's dog is named Rocky. One character asks you the name of the dog, and the answers include "Pocky", as well as "Rocky", two names shared by the characters that headline fellow Natsume game Pocky & Rocky.
- Crapsack World: There’s poop all over the place, and you can't go anywhere without getting horribly injured and/or killed.
- Dressed to Heal: Doctor Dandy has a lab coat, a head mirror, rubber gloves and a huge-ass needle.
- Everything Is Trying to Kill You: Since the protagonist's heart meter is technically his emotions, he can be "injured" by insults, or even watching a chef kill a chicken. Some of these things are required to progress.
- Extreme Omnisexual: As said above, you have to kiss a lot of people... and animals, in order to get far in your quest.
- Fake Longevity: The short period of time that the underground residents spend above ground means that you have to spend several days at Funny Bone Factory. Every single day, you have to go through the morning exercise minigame. Every single day, you have to talk to all the workers until one of them tells you that their site has a lazy security guard. Every single night, you have to hide from said guard and wait until he leaves. And every single night, you have to go to the train and slowly enter the number of the site you actually want to be at, if you didn't luck into being able to hide at that one. Did we mention there's no way to save once you enter the factory?
- Fast-Forward Mechanic:
- Sleeping automatically puts the protagonist at 8:00 in the morning the next day until he gets his alarm clock fixed so that he can awaken himself at some other time.
- Reading comics also fast forwards time, but this is tied to an RNG mechanic where you lose hearts if the comic is bad.
- Final-Exam Boss: Literally. The last challenges of the game require the player to have an in-depth knowledge of the NPCs and their relationships to each other, culminating in a 20-question quiz about various minutiae — some of which are only answered by the manual, not the game itself.
- Gainax Ending: Poor Boy descends into the underground to reach the mailbox of the Love Interest's heart. He then must find Goro's correct detached head, save Julie from being put on trial by chickens, and answer twenty of the Love Interest's Cat's questions. Only then can he finally kiss the girl.
- Gonk: The Policeman, who is Super-Deformed even by the standards of this game's art style.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: You have to kiss everyone in town, or your Love Interest won't take you seriously.
- The Grim Reaper: Hangs out in the cemetery and swings his scythe at you.
- Guide Dang It!: The game's final challenge. And several others. The game's manual contains a "hint guide", and even that's not accurate for one of the puzzles. The biggest example of them all has to go to the Funny Cola, however. While most things can be figured out through talking with residents of the town, there is absolutely nothing in-game that explains that its needed to repair the radio tower, with even the official Japanese strategy guide neglecting to mention it.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: You can name both the hero and his Love Interest.
- Henohenomoheji: Seen on the faces of the factory workers (the named employees all have first and last names that start with "Heno-", and in the Japanese version the factory itself is named "Henoheno-kōjō") and the scarecrow, as well as the aptly-named Heno Tire advertisement.
- HP to One: Smoking drops your hearts to 1 unless you are already at 1, at which point it'll just kill you.
- In-Universe Game Clock: This game's clock advances in real time (but quite a bit faster), not just with day and night cycles, but with specific things happening at various hours of the day.
- Justified Save Point: Going to the bathroom saves your progress because doing so "records your life".
- Lethal Chef: Mika is probably not trying to kill you with her tea on purpose. Probably.
- Level-Up at Intimacy 5: You gain more hearts by kissing people.
- Luck-Based Mission:
- Digging through the trash can can yield some good or bad items, all of which is entirely random.
- At some point in the game, the player must find a particular frog in a trash can and show it to Leo. This frog isn't directly stated to be different from any of the other frogs a player might collect in its name nor its description, so it'll take some time to find it. Best exemplified by an episode in Stephen and Mal's playthrough
where they gathered a few dozen frogs and none of them worked. This is actually more of a Guide Dang It! moment- the frogs were all the correct frog, but due to an error in Leo's dialogue, they are led to believe that they've been getting the wrong frog. This is pointed out near the end of the LP.
- Mood Whiplash:
- The zombie girl in the graveyard, whose story is both sad and kinda creepy compared to the lighthearted weirdness of the rest of the game.
- And the spouse abuse and subsequent jailbreak.
- The factory workers. Newer employees seem happy and excited; but the older ones are miserable, unfulfilled, and wonder if they have wasted their lives.
- Naked People Are Funny: The protagonist has to get naked (for regionally-varying levels of naked) to use the bathhouse, and it is possible to sneak out without getting dressed. Anybody you talk to will mention it if you do.
- Nobody Poops: Averted, bathrooms are the save points. Also, you find poop when you go dumpster diving. And checking the bamboo. And, of course, the manure pit.
- NPC Scheduling: The various people you have to kiss will appear in different places at different times of day. And they follow their predetermined paths very rigidly, walking over you if you get in their way. (Fortunately this is one of the few things that won't take health away.)
- The Pollyanna: Despite being dead, Miss Zombie Mika has a very cheerful attitude and she remains cheerful even as her brain begins to decay and she starts losing her memories...
- Sexophone: Plays almost every time a successful kiss is made.
- Shop Fodder: The trash cans mostly contain useless junk that, at best, can be sold to Mr. Cheapot for a decent amount, and at worst, can be sold to him for next to nothing and will damage you just by being picked up. If you run out of people to kiss, this is the only other way to make money.
- Shout-Out: One of the films you can watch with the sweet-potato vendor is a Super Sentai parody.
- Silent Protagonist: Though the protagonist doesn't have a "voice" like everyone else, you can still answer questions by way of dialogue trees.
- Solid Gold Poop: Left by an otherwise ordinary security guard, who must have some really bad digestive troubles.
- Speaking Simlish: Everyone in the game but you speaks in gibberish voices.
- Super-Deformed: The only characters who don't have chibi proportions are the ones who aren't human at all, but the police officer is an Exaggerated version; he'd be considered a bobblehead even by the other characters' standards.
- Surreal Humor: Everything about this game.
- Too Long; Didn't Dub: A significant portion of the game's text outside dialogue boxes (such as the chapter screens, and the films) is left untranslated. There's even a "saying of the day"note that was left untranslated.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: Accessing Funny Bone Factory at night requires you to find out which of the job sites you visit has a lazy security guard so that you can hide from him until his shift ends. To do this, you have to just ask every NPC until one of them mentions it. And you have to do all this on several different days because of how many underground residents there are, not to mention the very likely chance it will take multiple attempts to solve some of their puzzles.
- Verbal Tic: Batayan says "Ha ha" frequently, even when there's no reason to laugh.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Once you get the Boss Card and become president of Funny Bone Factory, you can fire the workers left and right, whenever you want. Depending on your perspective, this could be cruel, kind, or even both, since Funny Bone is a terrible employer and many of the workers hate their jobs. In fact, you're required to fire a pair of particular workers for a kiss from them, since they don't have the courage to quit.
- Waddling Head: Michio Suzuki. Also, your dad, though you don't find that out until almost the end.
- We Buy Anything: Mr. Cheapot will even take the poops you find in the trash. They're only worth one penny though.
- Wingding Eyes: The player character's eyes turn into Xs when taking damage (and dying).
- Worst News Judgement Ever: The player character's exploits are published on Long Life Town's newspaper once he's kissed enough people.
