{"id":207,"date":"2026-08-01T15:31:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T22:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/?p=207"},"modified":"2026-08-01T15:33:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T22:33:29","slug":"innocent-tears-mans-original-sin-on-the-original-xbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umbrella.style\/blog\/innocent-tears-mans-original-sin-on-the-original-xbox\/","title":{"rendered":"Innocent Tears: Man’s Original Sin on the Original Xbox"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Innocent<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This one’s a dream come true for enthusiasts of sixth-generation video game console Wikipedia pages: Innocent Tears<\/em> is finally translated<\/a>! Alongside Shin Megami Tensei NINE<\/em> and C.A.T. ~Cyber Attack Team~<\/em>, Innocent Tears<\/em> is one of three turn-based RPGs stranded as a Japanese-only Xbox release. And now it’s in English! It’s not a Bistro Cupid<\/em> translation, or even a Bistro Cupid 2<\/em> translation, but I’m always happy to see an Xbox game get a chance at a second life. Thank you to the Eight Mansions team for going to all the effort to translate this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what the hell is Innocent Tears<\/em>? Released in late 2002 by the fairly unknown Global A Entertainment (GAE), Innocent Tears<\/em> is a turn-based strategy RPG telling a tale of a ravaged Tokyo and the epic battle between two mysterious forces, the angels and the fallen angels. The story follows the protagonist Haruaki Lastname as he chases after his girlfriend Kagari Surname, who he last saw as a newly-transformed angel eating a man. I know, I know. I’m jealous too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A development nightmare?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The game seems to have suffered heavy delays, first projected as a Dreamcast release in 2000 according to a late 1999 issue of Dreamcast Magazine<\/em> 1<\/a><\/sup>. The character designer even released a full book of concept art for it at Winter Comiket that year 2<\/a><\/sup>. The April 7th, 2000 issue of Dreamcast Magazine<\/em> provided another in-depth look at the game, apparently at 90% completion and projected for a May 25th release date 3<\/a><\/sup>. The April 28th issue still listed a May release on its upcoming release calendar; two weeks later the game is listed under the fall 2000 category. It stayed there until October, where it drops to spring 2001 and fell to the unknown release date section in January 2001, a spot it occupied until the magazine’s demise 4<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Page
The 90% report in early 2000 looks remarkably similar to what would release nearly three years later.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By the time of the final delay, I assume the writing was on the wall for the Dreamcast and development shifted to the upcoming Xbox. Other Dreamcast titles that moved to the new console like Gunvalkyrie<\/em> and Jet Set Radio Future<\/em> managed to release in March 2002, so I’m really not sure how a game that was 90% done two years prior took nine more months to arrive, especially since a Tokyo Game Show 2001 sizzle reel<\/a> has it set for spring 2002. I was initially surprised at how little coverage Innocent Tears<\/em> got in publications like Famitsu Xbox<\/em>, but after years of delays and finally arriving looking not too different from its initial previews, it makes sense that hype had significantly died down. Even worse for GAE, it released on the same day as Shin Megami Tensei NINE<\/em>. That’s right: it launched the same day<\/em> as another Xbox-exclusive RPG set in post-apocalyptic Tokyo. And not just any game. It was a fucking SMT game<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon release, Famitsu Xbox<\/em> gave the game a 26 out 40 with a 7\/6\/6\/7 review split. The reviewers praised the artwork in the visual novel segments and the interesting atmosphere but criticized the graphics for not making use of the Xbox’s capabilities. One reviewer found gameplay a bit bland, and another claimed you need a “yaoi mindset and a powerful imagination” in order to enjoy the game 5<\/a><\/sup>. I’m not really sure what that means, since it’s not a very yaoi video game at all. Maybe he’s praising the exceptional imaginations of fujoshi. A 26 isn’t a terrible score, but the writers seem unimpressed overall. Famitsu reviews aren’t the most reliable indication of a game’s quality, but they’re valuable here as the only contemporary opinions I could find about Innocent Tears<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sales for the game were unimpressive. The February 2003 issue of Famitsu Xbox<\/em> (I owe so <\/em>much of this post to archived gaming magazines) shows the game in fifth place for Japanese Xbox game sales between 11\/18 and 12\/15, totaling 5,656 units in its first 10 days 6<\/a><\/sup>. It did not make the overall top 30 for its launch week. For comparison, the underperforming SMT NINE<\/em> moved 34,055 copies in the same time period, landing in 12th across all consoles 7<\/a><\/sup>. By the next month, Innocent Tears<\/em> had dropped from the top 10. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Famitsu
The Famitsu Top 10 Xbox ranking for 11\/18 to 12\/15. The same page shows roughly 314,000 Xbox units have been sold in Japan (not pictured).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What I just can’t understand is what the hell went wrong. Maybe they were lying about the 90% completion figure in 2000, but the screenshots accompanying the article look remarkably polished and extremely similar to the finished product. Ads for the game appear in Dreamcast Magazine<\/em> and other publications, and it was previewed at both TGS 2000 8<\/a><\/sup> and 2001. I don’t think they would have spent the money to market something that they knew wasn’t going to come out on time. Scope creep seems unlikely, since the game that actually came out is very short and still feels unfinished. Something was rotten in the state of GAE. I desperately want to know more about the development of this game, but I haven’t been able to find contact information or social media accounts for anyone listed in the credits. I truly hope that someday, someone with better research and Japanese skills than I can get to the bottom of this. I Need To Know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An artist-first video game<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Innocent Tears<\/em> has character designs by Hiroyuki Utatane and illustrations by Noriyasu Yamauchi. Now, you might tell me that you don’t know who Hiroyuki Utatane or Noriyasu Yamauchi are. I didn’t either. But their names must have meant something to someone, because every single promotional piece and magazine blurb I could find for the game calls these two out, with no mention whatsoever of script writers or producers. GAE seemed to believe the success of the game hinged entirely on these two individuals, so I had to learn a bit more about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hiroyuki Utatane, as it turns out, is a prolific<\/em> adult doujinshi artist. The earliest documented work of his I could find was in 1990, and he’s released over 300 books since 9<\/a><\/sup>. In fact, he’s still drawing doujinshi to this day under his circle named UROBOROS 10<\/a><\/sup>. His work spans so many different franchises that I’d be more surprised if someone reading this blog hasn’t<\/em> encountered one. He even provided the art for the cover of the Comiket 63 catalog in 2002. This suggests that he was at least well known in the doujin scene when he worked on Innocent Tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Utatane's
Utatane’s C63 catalog cover<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Outside of self-published works, Utatane’s career seemed to be taking off as well. The 1999 report on the game in Dreamcast magazine refers to him as a “popular comic artist.” By 2002, seven volumes of his manga Seraphic Feather<\/em> were available and his new series Heaven’s Prison<\/em> entered publication a few months before Innocent Tears’ release. He had some commercially published erotic works through the 90’s, with one of his stories being adapted as episode 2 of 1995’s Cool Devices<\/em>, a hentai apparently important enough to warrant a guy on English Wikipedia writing out a detailed description<\/a> of every episode. In 2001, he created an original hentai OVA with Pink Pineapple called Hi\u30fbMe\u30fbGo\u30fbTo<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noriyasu Yamauchi’s career is a bit more straightforward, starting work in the animation industry in the 1980’s. He provided key animation on a number of anime throughout the 90’s, including You’re Under Arrest and Escaflowne, and he wrote and designed characters for the 1997 OVA series Agent Aika<\/em>. His name is also in the credits for animation on Hi\u30fbMe\u30fbGo\u30fbTo<\/em>, so it’s possible he and Utatane were acquainted prior to Innocent Tears<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heavily marketing the game around the character designer feels a little desperate and lacking in confidence to me, but it makes sense on further examination. Taking delays into account, Innocent Tears<\/em> very well could have been the first game GAE had in development. With no established fanbase, it makes sense that they would try to grab some big names to draw hype towards the project. So, with that information in hand, let’s see if it was worth it. It’s time to look at:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Art<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"CG<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let’s not skirt around it: Innocent Tears<\/em> is absolutely beautiful. The first time I booted it up on my Xbox, I legitimately thought the visual novel scenes were in HD (720p, that is \u2014 Youtube can tell me that isn’t considered high-def anymore, but I will not be beaten into submission). In reality, the game runs in 480p. I forgot that 480 lines could look this good. I didn’t own an Xbox until a few years ago, but the artwork in Innocent Tears<\/em> looks sharper than anything I’ve played on PS2. Good lord. The punchy, colorful cast of characters stick out so delightfully against the post-apocalyptic backgrounds. If they were animated past just their mouths moving, I might cry. I’m sure some visual novel releases on the Xbox look just as good, but those didn’t get translated. Therefore, Innocent Tears<\/em> is the prettiest English game on the Xbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, you want to hear about the graphics? Well. It kinds looks like a Dreamcast game. I’m not sure why that would be. The battle environments are quite bland, and the 3D models have pretty low poly counts. That said, the character models were supposedly also done by Utatane, and they represent their corresponding 2D forms well. Unfortunately, across the entire game, I think there are six generic enemy models. Two of them are girls, and they’re pretty cute. Usually the girls need to be killed first, though. Oh well. An identical girl will show up in the next battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot
Girl Death<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gameplay<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The gameplay loop of Innocent Tears<\/em> typically consists of choosing a location, reading a visual novel-style cutscene, taking part in a battle, then rinsing and repeating. In that way, it’s really not too different from other strategy JRPGs. What makes it unusual is the ability to select between a variety of points on a map of Tokyo instead of providing one or two new locations to progress the story. By the end, there are a good 20-30 open spots available with little guidance on what will move things forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best aspect of this system is that scenes will vary slightly depending on the order of locations visited. For example, visiting one spot leads to two characters discussing the trials of love. Depending on the current party composition, two younger characters may or may not be present to lament that if such beautiful women must still endure romantic woes, they have no chance themselves. The downside is the complete lack of guidance, leading to repeated visits of locations without any progression to be found. I also managed to completely miss the resolution to one of the side characters’ story despite clearing out every point on the map before completing the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Innocent<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Earlier I called Innocent Tears a “turn-based strategy RPG.” You could call it that. It plays like one, with party members moving around a grid fighting enemies turn-by-turn. But “strategy” is maybe a strong word for what’s required of the player. The strategy for most fights is “kill the girl with AoE magic immediately,” after which just about any action can lead to victory in battle. The main character Haruaki cannot be removed from the party, so he quickly reaches a level where he’s exceptionally hard to down. Battles usually only have four to six enemy units, allowing for an easy victory even if other characters are wiped out. There’s one fight that’s pretty tough and requires some tactical use of units. I won’t spoil it. It’s really funny. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This section contains spoilers about the game’s story.<\/strong> Click here to skip past spoilers.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Innocent<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Innocent Tears embraces a storytelling style that I adore and is often lacking from modern games: vague gesturing. I often found myself asking questions like, “who is this person?”, “why do the angels eat people?” and even “what the fuck is happening?”And what do I get in return? Vague gesturing. It’s the ultimate form of in media res. The characters don’t really know what’s happening, so neither does the player. And even the ones who do know aren’t going to stop and explain. There are things that need to happen! Battles! Ranches! Anecdotes about humanity! It’s a kind of DIY approach to a narrative. That leaves me in a great spot, because I too can shrug off any nonsensical pieces onto the reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For reasons that aren’t particularly clear, the people that remain in the devastated Tokyo area now belong to three distinct groups: angels, fallen angels, and humans. In an imperfect rock-paper-scissors configuration, the angels are hungry and eat humans; the fallen angels, upset about the human consumption thing, hunt angels; and the humans, who are just kind of confused and upset about things, attack anything that moves. The game’s opening monologue claims that angels were granted permission to eat humans to root out the fallen angels, and that the fallen angels were awakened by the “hidden god” to return earth to normal. The angels and fallen angels are only distinguishable by their wing colors, with blue and red respectively representing the two factions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As previously mentioned, the story begins when Haruaki sees his girlfriend Kagari eating a man. When he confronts her, she flies away with some newly sprouted angel wings. The entire scene is presented in a completely surreal and slightly comedic manner, and Haruaki wakes up shortly after. Oh, okay. It was just a dream. Now we get to meet the characters for real, right? Right??? No, it’s time to chase after Kagari. Let’s get going! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kagari<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Several times throughout his journey, Haruaki encounters Kagari floating in the sky, mocking him. She’ll frequently drop down to earth to engage in a “fight to the death” before flying off. She’s just toying with him! Haruaki has wings too, so I’m really not sure why he doesn’t just case after her. Oh, I forgot to mention: Haruaki and Yumi are fallen angels. They aren’t like those angel bastards who kill indiscriminately. This is why the angels cannot be forgiven and must be killed indiscriminately. Though sometimes the humans are attacking an angel Haruaki is friends with, so they must also be killed indiscriminately. Morality, it’s complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haruaki is initially accompanied by his childhood friend Yumi, but he meets up with a variety of pre-apocalypse pals and fresh faces during his journey. There’s Shiroh, a musician pursuing revenge for his lover, whom was killed by his jealous older sister (lucky guy!), Aoi and Saki, two young girls trying to survive together despite falling onto opposite sides of the conflict, Haruaki’s brother Akira and his girlfriend Sara, a collared maid who wields a scythe,…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, sorry, I started thinking about Sara. I don’t really want to talk about the other characters anymore. Did I mention that Sara is a collared maid with a scythe? Utatane struck gold here and he knew it. Despite being a fairly minor character, Sara takes up more pages in his concept art book than anyone else. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that after completing the designs for this game, he started a manga about a maid with a metal collar who sprouts wings. Here’s a picture of Sara:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
You see that? That’s Sara.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Where were we? Oh, yeah, the plot. After Haruaki gathers a full squad of pals, it’s time to take on the leader of the angels. Claude, perhaps not quite as evil as the chatbot he shares a name with, wishes to gather the remaining humans of Tokyo in order to farm them for food. Originally I wrote “breed” instead of “farm,” but many people who read this blog might think that’s a good thing. He’s going to eat them! I’m realizing now many people who read this blog might think that’s a good thing. Whatever. He’s an ugly and haughty blonde boy. He’s evil! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon confronting Claude, he gives a classic villain speech about his actions being ordained by God, what with being an angel and all. But with incredible 2000’s edge by his side, Haruaki regains the upper hand. There is not one God, he proclaims, but rather each individual has a god inside them. Morals, conscience, justice, these guiding principles within man represent godliness! Therefore, Claude’s lack of morals means he’s been abandoned by God. Why is he a literal angel then? I guess God is bad? It doesn’t really matter. Haruaki kills him dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Haruaki<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After this fight, the game branches into two possible endings. In the first, the party discovers an injured Kagari laying on the ground. Haruaki takes her into his arms and promises to feed her fish until she understands her sins and repents. Roll credits. The other ending, despite ostensibly being the bad one, is significantly longer. A flashback plays, showing an argument between Yumi and Kagari over Haruaki, culminating with a competition: “whoever sleeps with Haruaki first wins.” The flashback ends, revealing Yumi and Haruaki did just that after the final battle. Haruaki’s bloodlust faded to (fallen) angel lust, I guess. They encounter Kagari the next day, and she’s pissed<\/em>. As a messy argument between Kagari and Yumi unfolds, Haruaki’s rage takes control. He cuts Kagari down in a battle identical to the three other encounters you have with her. Realizing what he’s done, he loses further control of his emotions and the world is destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn’t out of nowhere; throughout the game it’s slowly unveiled that Haruaki is some kind of chosen one with the ability to level cities with his emotions. He doesn’t realize it, but he’s the one that destroyed Tokyo to begin with. His shock at Kagari eating human flesh in the opening releases a huge wave of energy that devastates the city. For whatever reason, he doesn’t remember this, and Yumi attempts to conceal the truth from him. Once he does find out, he handles it like a champ. For a guy who destroys the world when his girlfriend does something bad, he’s pretty level-headed most of the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Haruaki
I should put an image relevant to what I’m talking about here, but I barely talked about Aoi and Saki and missed my chance to show this CG. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few scenes from the perspective of a Gendo Ikari stand-in named Takatsukasa working for the Japanese government attempt to illuminate where these powers come from, but they ultimately just confused me more. A world council has apparently undergone great efforts to dispose of descendants of the Grigori, the original fallen angels of heaven. However, Japan neglected this duty and allowed Haruaki to live. I presume this is because not-Gendo was friends with Haruaki’s father and believed in his ability to make the correct choices. Though when pressed, he vaguely explains that the bureaucrats are at fault for Japan’s failure, so maybe it’s supposed to be political commentary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, Takatsukasa continues to observe Haruaki over the course of the game, commenting on his actions. In the good end, he muses that while letting Haruaki live resulted in mass destruction, it ultimately provided the world with a thousand more years of peace. The bad end has him calmly chiding Haruaki for making poor choices as every country in the world loses contact, implying their destruction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of open questions remain at the end. What actually distinguishes Haruaki from other fallen angels? Why does he hold such immense power? If the destruction of Tokyo wasn’t directly caused by the angels’ awakening, why did<\/em> they awaken? Mankind was monitoring the descendants of Grigori for decades, so shouldn’t the angels have known their whereabouts as well? Why do they need to eat people to accomplish this goal? Who exactly are<\/em> the angels? They didn’t come from heaven, because they were living as normal people prior to the awakening. The segments from Takatsukasa’s perspective seem to allude to some war between organizations named ARN and VERUS and some “Sacrificial Lamb Project,” but not a single thing about them is explained. Nothing is explained. And that’s okay, because it makes Innocent Tears<\/em> a lot more interesting than if it dove into decades of dull history to establish the plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Claude<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Morality and justice play a major role in Innocent Tears<\/em>, but the game’s message regarding them is so heavily conflicted by the plot that it’s hard to ascertain what it’s trying to convey. If the heart is supposed to guide mankind towards God with these principles, then why are the remaining humans mostly portrayed as angry mobs trying to kill children? Haruaki inflicts his own “justice” upon many through murder, but then the game tries to say that murder is wrong. A priest even pleads that Haruaki not attack humans, because they too are victims in this scenario. Haruaki kills them anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forgiveness is another major theme and is equally muddied by the story actually presented. The bad end is triggered by killing any of the game’s possible party members, suggesting that forgiveness of their sins is the only way to achieve peace and understanding. Even forgetting the countless angels Haruaki and company kill, there’s no option to spare Claude’s life to reform him, and encountering Shiroh’s sister leads to a fight to the death. Vengeance is okay sometimes, as long as the majority of people with unique character designs agree on it. Many angels earn Haruaki’s forgiveness by promising not to eat humans anymore, but this is done through violence and threats rather than a realization that eating people is wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Meme<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The story’s sense of good and bad is just completely nonsensical. Having consensual sex with Yumi leads to the world being destroyed, because it technically counts as cheating on your evil, man-eating girlfriend. Who, might I add, is constantly egging the two of them on. I guess from the game’s perspective, she was still holding a grudge against her and slept with Haruaki out of spite? But she’s clearly in love with him, and Kagari is, again, a man-eating angel. I think he’s fair game at that point. There are so many bizarre occurrences with side characters I’m not even going to touch. There’s so much to unpack. While lighthearted at times, the serious parts of Innocent Tears comes across as unintentionally comedic while toiling with the deeper questions of life. It’s a deeply bizarre game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

End of spoilers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sound<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of unintentionally comedic, this game has a soundtrack. Below is the song that plays whenever Kagari appears. I think it’s attempting to convey the mix of emotions Haruaki feels upon encountering her. It’s trying really hard to do that. It’s a 40 second loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n