Chulip

Chulip opens with a dream sequence in which the unnamed male protagonist kisses the girl he loves under the talking "Lover's Tree" on a green hill. The dream takes its course and the tree ends the sequence saying they lived happily ever after. However, once the protagonist wakes up, he and his father are just moving into Long Life Town, which appears very much like a small, Japanese village. Coincidentally, the girl of his dreams lives in this town, but she flatly rejects him due to coming from a very poor family. Taking his father's advice, the hero decides to kiss the odd citizens of the town in order to strengthen his heart and improve his reputation. En route to doing so, he also resolves to write a love letter to his crush. When this treasured set of papers is stolen, he must search Long Life Town for the missing pieces. The hero's journey involves numerous bizarre incidents that lead him to cheating his way to the top of a major corporation, making contact with aliens, and acting as a defense lawyer in court. Once the three pieces of the love letter (the ink, paper, and pen) are collected, he writes and mails it to the girl. The game's ending shows the two meeting and kissing beneath the Lover's Tree, as the protagonist had dreamed. ==Gameplay==

. The player's health is located at the top-left of the screen. Chulip is an adventure/simulation game One mission ends in the player being struck by lightning, removing more than ten hearts and resulting in a game over if the player does not have sufficient health. Some denizens of Chulip only come out of their underground apartments through holes in the ground at certain times of the day. If the player looks through these holes, clues are given in regards to when they come out or when to kiss them. After an NPC comes out of the ground, the player has a very limited opportunity to give them a kiss. If the player successfully kisses enough NPCs and returns home to sleep, the hero's father will recite his progress and the Lover's Tree will give the player more hearts and an improved reputation if he advances. Secondary to improving his reputation, the player must track down all the pieces to the "Love Letter Set" by traveling throughout Long Life Town. As the story progresses, the player gains access to new areas of the game world via train, which include many more underground residents and hazards. Saving takes place in various bathrooms. ==Development==

Chulip was developed by a team of 12 to 14 people at Punchline, then a department of Skip Ltd. The game took two and a half years to complete after its initial planning; one year and three months were devoted to programming. Kimura came up with the game's title after attending a party in Tokyo. The partygoers consumed alcohol whilst discussing video games, and while intoxicated they began to humorously say "chu-shite" (lit. "kiss me"). The title Chulip is a play on words: a cross between chu (the Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of a kiss) and the English word lip, as well as the Japanese rendering of the word tulip. Norikazu Yasunaga designed many of the game's mechanics. According to Kimura, "for efficient procedure, [Yasunaga] set it up so that the personality and the characteristics for each NPC had to be one-by-one". Publisher Natsume Inc. licensed the game for a projected North American release in early 2004. The game was then shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo that year. Natsume Inc. realized early on that it would be an extremely obscure title and thus planned on releasing it at a low retail price. The game was delayed, and Natsume Inc. assured that it would be released sometime in 2005. The North American version was supposed to feature updated graphics and an "accurately meticulous" translation of Japanese text. Natsume Inc. claimed that Punchline's busy schedule resulted in such a long delay for the localization and that it also prevented them from making any graphical changes. ==Reception and legacy==

Chulip received mostly average critical scores upon its release in North America. The game currently holds a 57% on the aggregate websites GameRankings and Metacritic. Reviewers have praised Chulip for a charming presentation, quirky characters, and absurd, Japanese humor. Many of Chulips key development members and their design philosophies were carried over to the 2009 Wii game ''Little King's Story''. He was also contemplating creating a version set in an American location such as The Bronx with a protagonist that is African-American, Caucasian, or some other ethnicity. Despite initially low sales, the game has been reappraised in the West as a hidden gem in the PlayStation 2's vast library. Its unique atmosphere, interesting characters, exploration of social themes, and distinct Japanese flair have garnered it a small cult following. ==References==