project V6
The main extras in Project V6 are the collectable Trading Cards, the Slots mini-game, the Massage mini-game, and the infamous Battle Mode.
Trading Cards
As you reach different events in the game, you collect trading cards to store your memories. You can collect multiple trading cards as well, so that you can (theoretically) trade them with your hordes of other friends playing Project V6. The trading cards aren't entirely useful; you can't even view them at full screen size later on. However, clicking on the special trading cards featuring the real-life V6 members allows you to view the mini-videos that each member recorded. In the scene below, Ken-ken complains that no one cleans up after themselves. Poor overworked Ken-ken! Just watch out for Okada-kun's mini-videos. He doesn't hold back his Osaka accent at all and ends up being very hard to understand. You can view the trading cards under the "Options" menu from the main screen.
Slots Mini-Game
Just like it sounds, this game is a simple slot machine for V6. However, matching three faces in a row gives you a marvelous prize: a free trading card! You can play the slots by selecting it from the "Options" menu in the main screen, or you can play during the game any Sunday by visiting the location "Amigos" in town.
Massage Mini-Game
Every once in a while when you visit the restaurant in town, you'll meet up with two V6 members, one of whom is stressed and tired. With the encouragement of the first member, you take the second member to have a nice massage. You have five chances to build up the V6 member's feel-good-o-meter, and every move you make comes with a fun animated reaction and V6 voiceover. (Again, I have no idea what Okada-kun is saying.) Unfortunately, there really seems to be no rhyme or reason to the game; it's completely and totally random. Without the ability to, say, hunt down the "best" massage spot, each of your five chances only gives you a 25% possiblity of totally pleasing V6. Harsh.
Battle Mode
By far my favorite mini-game of all time. Every once in a while, you and the members of V6 will run into someone who is trying to mess with V6. As V6's manager, it is your sworn duty to protect V6 and defeat the enemy. The fight and the attacks are hilariously tongue-in-cheek. Now if only they had an option where you could play battle mode without playing the actual game... The battle below illustrates you versus a seller of boot-legged V6 goods, but I've also seen a fight against an old lady singing karaoke. It's not a direct translation, but in a nutshell, the green bar represents HP and the blue bar represents MP. MP is used for special attacks. The battle ends when one side runs out of HP.
[1] Enemy's HP and MP.
[2] Your HP and MP.
[3] Strict Warning - Hits for a small amount of HP.
[4] Special Attack - V6 members help you in the fight. Uses MP.
1/25 Sakamoto-kun - Sakamoto-kun's attack. Hits for a relatively small amount of MP.
Bicyle - Nagano-kun's attack. Hits for a relatively small amount of HP.
Lecture of Fire - Inocchi's attack. Hits for a small amount of HP and MP.
Dance - Go-kun's attack. Heals your HP.
Blue - Ken-kun's attack. Heals your MP. (The name comes from summoning Ken-kun's doggie Blue.)
Apologize - Okada-kun's attack. If the apology works, the enemy loses MP and a turn. If the apology does not work, nothing happens and the enemy takes their turn like normal.
Continuous Turn Tornado - 20th Century's attack. Hits for medium damage to HP.
Machine Gun Rap - Coming Century's attack. Hits for medium damage to MP.
V6 - V6's attack. Hits for large damage to HP and MP.
[5] Endure - The enemy's next attack hits you hard, but you recover a good amount of MP.
[6] Flee - Run from the fight and face V6's disappointment.
When actually playing the game, Coming Century are by far the most useful. 20th Century attacks simply aren't powerful enough to justify using the MP; you're better off summoning Blue over and over again until you've saved up enought MP to call Continuous Turn Tornado or V6. When I play in battle mode, I tend to start off with V6, maybe follow up with Continuous Turn Tornado. If my HP and MP are doing fine, then I usually repeat Apologize until the cycle is broken. By this time, the enemy usually has low enough HP and MP that they stop to heal for a few turns. I spend this time healing (if needed) and building up MP until I can attack again.
Having said that, 1/25 Sakamoto-kun is by far my favorite attack. (I assume the name is a play off of the "1/35 Soldier" found in Final Fantasy VII.) What makes this attack great is that the animation involves hordes of teeny Sakamoto-kuns rushing the enemy. It's fairly useless in actual gameplay, but it makes me laugh.
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