There’s quite a few RPG/SLGs this month, including Debonosu Works’ Gigai no Alruna, side-B’s Märtopia and ALICESOFT’s Beat Angel Escalayer Reboot. CLOCKUP’s much anticipated Fraternite should be an intriguing read, while FAVORITE’s AstralAir no Shiroki Towa promises to warm our hearts. For me, I’m definitely going to enjoy May-Be Soft’s whacky gender-bending Change!.

Sigh, this month well, it was a long one, and a very very boring month. The one area eroge overachieves anymore is in how much effort they put into underachieving in the most efficient ways possible. I suppose this is what happens when you limbo with lolis, the bar gets set far too low for anyone else to have any fun. For people who only care about the H scenes or if the characters are shaped more or less the same as their favored cookie cutter may find some games to enjoy this month, but if you want something to enjoy the story, development of the characters and setting, so you may enjoy the process of the game itself then… well maybe next month, or the one after that, or sometime in the future….

Girls In Black

Company: Whirlpool
Game site: G.I.B.（ガールズ・イン・ブラック）
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
Unbeknownst to the general public, aliens coexist with humans on Earth. They came from various stars, some to enjoy sightseeing, while others deciding to live here. However, thing doesn’t go smoothly all the time and problems arise every now and then. A secret organization exists to solve these alien-caused problems: ‘Men in Black’ (MIB).

One day, an UFO tried to abduct Subaru as he walked home from school. His classmate Yukano saved him from danger and afterwards, he helped her fight off the UFO. Since he witnessed an UFO with his own eyes, she told him that his memory must be wiped. But after some twists and turns, he was brought instead to the headquarters of the MIB, which Yukano was a part of. There he saw many strange aliens and after being given a tour of the facilities, he was enlisted into the MIB. His normal life instantly turned into a supernormal one.

It’s MIB: eroge ver.! Whirlpool doesn’t even bother hiding the fact that it’s parodying MIB, with the guys in black suits and shades. I wonder if there’ll be a Will Smith cameo. The Japanese branch is much cuter (following leads from the army, navy, air force, etc). The main writer is Wakase Ryou, who has worked on Natsunagi, Kisaragi, 1/2 summer and Timepiece Ensemble. I don’t expect the story to be serious at all. There’s only 3 heroines, which is lower than Whirlpool’s average amount. Sorami appeals to me the most; I love her eyes. She’s a little weird though, obsessed with aliens and doing ‘abduction play’ every morning. The sprites are in unnatural poses and the trial amounted to them doing various missions, which didn’t keep my interest. It seems badly written.

Way to be seventeen years late to the party Whirlpool. One might forgive a deficit of a few years, but this subject matter is almost old enough to go buy itself, and is already too old to be legal for half the heroines on display during the last two months. To be fair though we all know Whirlpool puts about as much effort into the text of their games as I do writing about them, so all the amusement from the game has probably already been expended after reading the summary of the game. Who needs memory wipes when you have a time machine to save hours of time grinding away over poor writing for the sake of a few mildly amusing MIB quips.

Kono Oozora ni, Tsubasa o Hirogete SNOW PRESENTS

Company: PULLTOP
Game site: この大空に、翼をひろげて SNOW PRESENTS
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from May. This is a winter-themed variety pack for Konosora, including a mini FD for main heroine Kotori, as well a drama CD of the Soaring Club’s winter camp, a soundtrack with Kotori’s character song and some digital contents, such as binaural system voices and wallpapers. The mini FD focuses on Kotori’s sweet cohabitation with Aoi following her leg surgery and rehab. It’s written in a diary format and features lots of ichaicha and ecchi.

Figures that PULLTOP goes back to the Konosora franchise due to the sales. I wouldn’t mind a C@F! fandisc, but I’m not holding my breath.

Easy month, easy month, thank you pulltop for helping to make this an easy month.

Change! ~Ano Ko ni Natte Kunkun Peropero~

Company: May-Be SOFT
Game site: ちぇ～んじ！ ～あの娘になってクンクンペロペロ～
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
Yuusuke is a healthy boy who has a dream of switching bodies with the girl he likes so that he can do whatever he wants with her. He would gaze at her breasts and feel them up. He would be free to enter her room as he pleases and sniff her panties. Of course, he could also look down there and check that she’s still a virgin. He greatly wanted such a power, but there was a huge gap between his delusions and reality.

Nowadays, smartphones have surged in popularity, and more than half of those who have cell phones own them. The main thing that spurred this trend was the free calling app ‘Connect’, which Yuusuke also decided to download. By chance, he was the 100 millionth user to register and the operating company sent him a special gift. It was an app that allows him to switch bodies with any girl that installed ‘Connect’ on her smartphone! His dream ability is now in his hands! Let’s make use of full use of this!

Have you ever thought about what it’d be like to be a girl, even if it’s just for a day? Well, Change! aspires to give you a (downward) view of this. I guess it can be viewed as an extension of the Henshi~n! series since you’re still changing into something else. In fact, Yuusuke is the cousin of Yuuji, the protagonist from Henshi~n!!!. I’d be lying if I hadn’t thought of this myself, so I’m very curious to see how May-Be SOFT will pull this off. I really like the kneesocks-wearing CG using the top-down view. I anticipate a lot of ecchi comedy and odd H scenes due to the partial changing (for example, only the legs or hand). Out of the main heroines, I love kouhai Rumia and classmate Ui. However, you can basically choose any girl you like, similar to their previous games. Let’s have some fun!

Actually, when I think about it more… doesn’t it end up just being masturbation in the end???

Gender bender themes would be interesting in eroge, but this is a cheap rather boring way of going about it, aside from gags there probably isn’t a whole lot here. I will give them credit for a somewhat unique idea though, something I’m sure everyone has thought about in regards to the opposite gender at some point. The main issue with the themes of this type is how to explain it, in this case the explanation was obviously rushed to get to the meat of the game, which is something of a demerit, as it loses ambiance and important development that could have otherwise been gained. Even when the purpose is a joke, the buildup and setting are important to get the full impact. Ah well at least the concept is different for once, and in my book that is worth a lot these days.

One only plays May-Be SOFT games for gags and ero!

Even gags are better when effort is put into them, rather than relying on the same situational jokes found in every game.

Neko Masshigura ~Nekomimi Cafe ni Youkoso~

Company: こねこソフト (KonekoSoft)
Game site: ねこまっしぐら ～ねこみみカフェにようこそ～
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
This is the debut title for KonekoSoft, sister company of NekonekoSoft. During summer vacation, the protagonist moved to another town to work at a live-in part-time job at the cat café Masshigura. However, he found out when he arrived that there weren’t any cats there, but rather catgirls! And it’s not a cosplay… the cat ears and tails are real! He thought to himself that this must be paradise.

Nekomimi is definitely very ni~ce. It seems that all girls in this town grow nekomimi, which disappear at a certain age. There’s different types of catgirls, from kuudere to doting (even puppy-like). Of course, there’s the tsun one too. She’s probably plotting your demise. They’ve got some good seiyuus in the cast. Come check it out if you like nekomimi!

At least TRY to make up an excuse for catgirls, please that’s all I ask here. I don’t care if they are naturally a part of the setting, if its not set in our world fine, if it is just a little bit of effort to explain would go a long way in helping people believe there is more to your game than cat ear HCG.

Himegoto Union Motto H! ~Kan no Ni Kirishima Yuuki no Marshmallow Life~

Company: SEVEN WONDER
Game site: ひめごとユニオン もーっとH！ ～巻ノ二 桐島夕輝のマシュマロライフ～
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
This is the second of four mini fandisks for Himegoto Union. It’s been a couple weeks since Saizou and Yuuki became lovers. After the ‘Starship incident’ and the subsequent stability of the police department’s acclaimed high-performance android Fubuki, Yuuki has been dispatched less frequently and she can enjoy more intimate time with him.

Suddenly one day, Saizou’s imouto Nanoka returned after a long time away from him. There was some initial bewilderment, the three of them ended up doing everything together just like old times. However, Yuuki soon became frustrated that she doesn’t have any more time alone with him. Fubuki got involved after sensing Yuuki’s feelings, along with another of Saizou’s osananajimi Haneru. Will this be a sweet lovers’ life or a tumultuous harem?

It seems like Nanoka is gonna figure into all of the games, attracting oniichan’s full attention as any imouto is wont to do. In the end, it’s still a fandisc, so play this if you played the original and liked this particular heroine.

Yay for fandisks, mini or otherwise.

AstralAir no Shiroki Towa

Company: FAVORITE
Game site: アストラエアの白き永遠
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
For two years, snow had been falling continuously in the town of Tsukigasaki with spring nowhere in sight. Aside from the snow which never built up, the town was also struck by other abnormal incidents, such as tornadoes, thunderbolts and floods. Riku is an ‘elfin’ who possesses a mysterious ability known as ‘rune’, which he uses to save others. He returned to Tsukigasaki, where he grew up in an orphanage, along with fellow elfins Rinne and Hinata. Their duty was to protect two young sisters, Ochiba and Hazuki, from rune abilities which go out of control, while also keeping the existence of elfins a secret to the public.

When he arrived at the town, a girl in a pure white dress was waiting for him. He used to play with the girl Yuuki when they were small, having snowball fights and making snowmen. To his surprise, she still looked exactly the same as before he left. While she’s sad that the city has since changed a lot, she told him that he still remained the same to her even if he grows up.

FAVORITE is one of my favourites for many reason. I love Shida Kazuhiro’s art, Hoshimemo had a great cast, Iroseka/Irohika was a true kami-ge and there’s always a good mix of serious and funny moments in their games. Nakahiro’s also back on board with the scenario this time. I can’t help but draw parallels with Natsunagi due to the strange weather patterns, but even if this is all a dream, Yuuki is too adorable! Same with Ichika, Corona and pettanko-sensei Rinne! And also Hazuki, Marimo and Shiina! Ochiba isn’t bad either! You’d never be cold and lonely if you had them all warming you up!

In the trial, the heroines all had ample introduction time, except the supposed main heroine, Yuuki. Maybe they’re leaving her identity a mystery. There’s plenty of other mysteries as well. Who are the elfin and what are their purpose here? What is Rinne’s relationship with Riku? What is the goal of the Valhalla research lab? Who is Yuuki exactly and is she the one who’s making it snow? Why are there so many imoutos? There are many types of runes (clairvoyance, psychometry, power amplification) and the battle scenes are not bad. It seems like the themes will be family and friendship.

There were some parts where I thought the comedy parts seemed out of place (they should be saving people instead of chitchatting), and kindergarteners really shouldn’t know words like tsundere, kyonyuu and pettanko. However, I feel that the game still has potential. Luckily since this was delayed in June, I didn’t have to choose between this and Sakusaku. Now it’s easily my top pick for this month!

Maybe this town should learn to turn off their snow machines, or learn to stop whining about it. You don’t see people at ski resorts complaining when they make sure the snow never stops, damn selfish whining lolis. If anything this game proves that Dante had a point about hell freezing over while a three headed imouto gnaws on pedos or something along those lines. When all else fails, and you can’t be sure to leave impact with writing, always remember the easy crutch that is weather. I have noticed that weather featuring strongly as an element in stories has become a lot more common of late, using the weather of a region to set the tone for the setting rather than relying on quality writing with the weather being little more than a background happenstance. Aside from the weather acting as the club mechanic of this story, the inclusion of random magical power elements just dilute the quality more. It is not as though some sort of supernatural element be it weather or magic naturally detracts from a story, but by including it for the sole purpose of bringing characters together, giving the protagonist importance, or easy plot resolution just weakens the rest of the game and characters. So I am not looking forward to a game guilty of all of the above, copy pasted character archetypes aren’t enough to make up for poor story, design, and development for me.

Gangsta Arcadia ~Hipparcos no Tenshi~

Company: WHITESOFT
Game site: ギャングスタ・アルカディア ～ヒッパルコスの天使～
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from May. This is the fandisc for Gangsta Republica, with Shahluke being upgraded from subchara to main heroine. Walking the dog, replacing the sliding door, babysitting. It’s another day of ‘bad’ deeds by the Gang Club. However, there is one thing different: his senpai Shahluke is doing a ‘homestay’ at his house for various reasons. Even though there are many problems living together, their days are happy ones. But those days are gradually threatened by something unknown to them: “the Angel of Hipparcos”.

Didn’t play the original since I wasn’t interested in the characters nor the plot, and my opinion hasn’t changed with this release.

Didn’t ask for it, don’t want it, but thank you for not making a real game.

Hitori no Qualia + Futari no Qualia

Company: 10mile
Game site: ひとりのクオリア ふたりのクオリア
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from April. These two low-priced titles by 10mile featuring Fue and J-MENT, formerly of Tarte and RococoWorks, are yuri novels which cross-over with each other.

Hitori no Qualia: The mysterious girl Karin saved Makiri who carelessly walked out into the road. Makiri showered her with thanks, but it was a bit too close for Karin who refrained from interacting with others. However, Makiri’s purity helped Karin open her heart to her. Afterwards, they started living together. That’s when Karin found out that Makiri didn’t go to school and just played games all day. She decided to help her new friend who’s a hikikomori beyond her imagination by all means possible.

Futari no Qualia: One night, Natsume came upon the beautiful Ginza passed out on the street and took her home. Ginza got better under her care, but she didn’t seem like she wanted to leave. Natsume felt a strange sense of satisfaction from taking care of the free Ginza, who lacked common sense. However, there was a problem: she lived in an apartment for singles. If their cohabitation was found out, then they might be kicked out. What will they do with their futures?

I’m not sure how closely linked are these two yuri titles, but considering they’re each about 3000 yen each, I wouldn’t expect too much from the story. The OP makes me want to try it out though.

Eh, I’m about as into yuri as I am yaoi, and I expect about the same from both, which is nothing.

Tropical VACATION

Company: TWINKLE
Game site: トロピカルVACATION
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
The giant spa resort ALOHA has been a popular spot ever since its opening, with an endless line of customers. Then an even bigger spa resort COCKTAIL OCEAN opened up next door, with better facilities than ALOHA. However, it was not able to attract people away from the established ALOHA. In order to turn the tide and beat ALOHA, they asked the service-oriented Yakumo to help rebuild C.O..

So this is a spinoff of Tropical KISS, with the previous girls being the rivals. I wonder if we’ll see some cameos. The first game was decent due to its comedy and relaxed atmosphere, so I hope they won’t dwell too much on the business side. You’re at a resort! Check out the girls!

Changing the cast and setting to rivals from a previous game is both a good and bad thing. It is good to see things from another angle, but bad when you may like the other side you already know of better. This puts the game in a difficult position which may be more accessible to people who have not played the first game, as they can play it without feeling a little guilty over ruining what was built up the first time around. Unlike Micchi though, I would appreciate more focus on the business side, it allows for greater depth in the writing and character development, as well as offering a much needed break from the standard eroge antics. By mixing in other aspects to the setting such as the business, the moments the characters spend forming bonds become all the more poignant.

Fraternite

Company: CLOCKUP
Game site: フラテルニテ
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
Mio shut herself in her room after being raped by a thug. She met a girl online, Yuka, who wanted to save her since she had experienced a similar past. Upon Yuka’s suggestion, Mio moved to a new town with her family to seek a new beginning. She joined the rather dubious group which Yuka was part of and seemed to be much more cheerful since. Mio’s younger brother Taichi met the beautiful Megumi and felt a slight attraction to her. He found out that she, along with Mio, had joined the group and decided to save them from it.

There are girls who seek salvation from the cruel reality and there are others who wish to save them. However, even though they are both aiming for the same salvation, their feelings do not cross. It is a tragedy borne in the name of ‘salvation’.

Many have been looking forward to another title from CLOCKUP which stacks up to their surprise hit euphoria. Well, you’ve got your happiness syndrome ADV now. What twisted and bloody futures lie ahead for our poor heroines? Will they finally attain salvation? Just the cover art with each character holding their funeral portrait is quite jarring. My guess is that their ‘happiness’ comes from drugs or something, and the OP suggests it may be a ‘suicide club’. I do hope that they achieve a happy end, but I’m not sure if I can stomach the events that lead to it.

I appreciate the desire to do something different than usual and focus on a bit more tragedy, however I cannot help but feel the emphasis was “Lets make a sad game” more than “Lets make a good game”. The reason for this is how everything in the presentation has an emphasis on trauma but not so much on how the story will work or how well it is written. It is easy to throw some sad events together, have a pity parade and the protagonist boo hoo with superficial hugs and feels all around, but if they really wanted to grip you by the pit of your stomach, you need to feel for the characters. With the willingness to emphasize the theme over the direction of the story, it becomes too easy to predict what could happen, as a result the connection between characters and events becomes too loose for appropriate impact.

Märtopia

Company: side-B
Game site: メルトピア
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
This SLG is the first game by side-B. Akito lives with his imouto Yui, who has shut her heart to others following an accident last winter that killed their parents and put him in a coma for more than a week. He decided to use her favourite picture book to bring back a smile to her face. However, even after six long months, he was unable to get her to open up. He fell into despair seeing her as a lifeless doll and was consumed by a darkness. When he woke up, he was in a strange world Märtopia: a world where fairy tale characters reside. He was helped by a ‘bookkeeper’ Alice, and he confronted many crises while he searched for a way back to his world.

side-B is a completely new company with a new illustrator and new scenario writers. However, they did manage to secure a lot of big name seiyuus to voice their fairy tale-inspired girls (Alice in Wonderland, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Momotarou). The fairy-book interface is a nice touch, but the voice recordings aren’t crisp. Since it’s an SLG, the most important thing is the battle system and game balance. The battles are automated in each turn and you merely have to choose your units and their starting positions, and make adjustments in between. Specials can be used to deal more damage or hinder enemies. You can level up your units in between battles to make them more powerful. Collecting heart fragments from battles and talking to townspeople will allow you to progress on any of the eight heroine routes. I thought that the battle system, while interesting, got tiresome rather quickly. There’s not much strategy required at all.

Another eroge that chooses to sacrifice writing and story for the sake of a gimmicky poorly thought out waste of time.

Kakurenbo ~Futari Dake no Himitsu no Jikan~

Company: マーブルCandySoft (Marble CandySoft)
Game site: 隠恋ぼ（かくれんぼ） ～二人だけのヒミツの時間～
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
This is the first title by Marble CandySoft. One summer day, freelance illustrator Kouichi received a mail while drawing at home like usual. It was a request from his relative to take care of her daughter Kanon for a few days. He didn’t want to be distractd from his recently acquired work, but he quickly changed his mind when he opened the attachment and an angel smiled back at him. The week passed quickly and she grew fond of him since he was nice to her and she always wanted an older brother. Afterwards, she still came often to his place to play, bringing along her friends Yuzu and Shiori.

One day, with the cicadas chirping in the background, she raised her skirt up to her belly. “O-Oniichan, please teach me…” Thus begins the sweet and stimulating secret pretend-love between them.

If you didn’t have enough loli-ge last month, here’s another one for you! They’re all pretty short at only 137, 133 and 128 cm, and all view you as their older brother. They come in various flavours as well, including angelic, energetic and docile. We’ve found out that the key to befriending lolis is figures and mahou shoujo anime. The pre-order bonus is a sukumizu patch. The countryside feel is quite relaxing. There’s a system where you try to touch and do other things to them without waking them up. This is probably heading into dangerous territory here… in fact, I felt that the immorality levels were quite high in the trial (during H scenes, the BGM switches off so you can only hear the faint background sounds). Can you resist the charm (seduction) of an angel?

Welcome to hell on earth, unless of course you suffer from pedophilia…

Gigai no Alruna

Company: でぼの巣製作所 (Debonosu Works)
Game site: 偽骸のアルルーナ
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
People enjoy peaceful and rich lives thanks to the protection of the World Tree. However, this peace was shattered by monsters called ghoula which attack and eat humans. Despair filled the world since there was no way to combat this sudden invasion, but they won’t go down without a fight. A self-defence corps was assembled as a last line of defence against the ghoulas. Will joined them not only to protect the townspeople, but to also seek revenge for his family which was taken from him by the ghoulas when he was small.

Alruna is a quest-driven RPG with a map exploration and turn-based battle system (a bit similar to Eiyuu Senki). It also has a voiced protagonist who spews the usual kakkoii lines (and doesn’t do much). The story events are the normal bunch: daily classroom banter and training, ofuro peeping, finding naked girls in dark caves, etc. I’m slightly more interested in the characters this time, since there’s the imouto-like osananjimi Clare and the shy and doting beret-wearing Tirya. Yeah, I know I shouldn’t be expressing interest in an RPG based on character appearances, but I am human after all. You can’t do anything but heal? No worries, join my party and I’ll protect you!

Just a typical ero RPG without either story or gameplay being something noteworthy. On a side note though, if all they do is heal leave them on the bench like the useless crap they are, medics are best when they offer something besides potentially unnecessary heals.

You could have them only learn dark magic spells.

More useful than nothing but heals at least, kill the enemy before they kill you sounds like a winning tactic to me.

Shinsei Mokushiroku -Death March-

Company: ザウス【本醸造】 (Xuse Honjouzou)
Game site: 新世黙示録 －Death March－
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
This RPG is the first game by the recently revived Xuse Honjouzou since Spirits Expedition in 2006. Chikara lived in the Haiyama housing complex in the Tama Hills near Tokyo with his imouto Suzu and his mother Emi. Suddenly one day, the townspeople and those close to him were turned into zombies and came after him. There were also many unworldly beings and he wondered if the apocalypse had arrived. Was this reality or just a nightmare?

In this RPG, you fight evil enemies with ‘swords’ while running around in a 3D map. There are over 100 ‘swords’ (of which there are 3 types: holy, demonic, heavenly) and each has its own special ability. You can level them up and also combine them to create even stronger swords. Playing the trial will give you a code for a free sword in the full game. This sounds just like all those browser-based card ‘RPG’s, which are basically a grind-fest. I think I’m happy with playing just one, and one that’s a lot more cuter.

Few of the eroge that choose to include any form of gameplay beyond clicking options realize what makes or breaks them is how fun it is when you are burning time outside of reading. In many of them what they call “gameplay” amounts to a pointless hassle the player is forced to trudge through for the sake of an extra gimmick to charge money for.

Field demonstration

Hoshiori Yume Mirai

Company: tone work’s
Game site: 星織ユメミライ
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
Ryousuke moved back to his hometown of Shionagi, which he had been away from for seven years, and transferred into his new school in the middle of the summer. He reunited with his osananajimi Marika, met the sole astronomy club member Sora and made new friends among his classmates. He joined the event management committee to enjoy his school life even more. Along the way, he noticed the dreams of the girls around him, along with his own desires to be closer to them. On this particular summer day begins a love story that extends towards the future.

I still haven’t gotten over tone work’s previous disappointment of a title Hatsukoi 1/1, for which they even issued an official apology. They are still using the same staff, so I really hope that they’ve learned from their past failures and not give us something like the travesty that is Runa route again. Ughhhhhhhhhhh. This time, the story is broken up into a school chapter and an ‘after’ chapter, so you’ll feel a more sense of completion and satisfaction. Let’s see if they’ll have a protagonist which isn’t a total hetare. You can also change his name if you want.

I do have to admit that their BGMs and insert songs were enjoyable, and they’ll make a reprisal here as well, with 13 vocal songs in total. They also promise over 60 H scenes, so that comes out to around 10 per heroine. None of the characters jump out at me, but maybe some will tickle your fancy. In fact, all the same archetypes from their previous game are back, except notably the clingy kouhai-osananajimi. It’s almost as if they know they can’t write a good story for those.

After playing the trial, I think that they’ve improved slightly, but I’m still very wary. Especially when one of the first events after coming back is to go to a pool by yourself, meeting your osananajimi there, then visiting her house, and ending up naked with her in the bath. I liked how they added the LIME phone app with lots of stickers!

This may as well be the poster child for the current eroge industry, spread out and water down all elements as much as possible in an effort to generate mass appeal, but in the process lose any sense of soul that would have given the game that extra spice to stand out. Sadly increasing H scenes is not enough to make a game noteworthy unless its a nukige, and since that is really all the game offers as far as anything special, I’ll pass. Maybe if the next game they make offers some more effort put into the characters, or at least hints at being well written the company will be more respectable.

Beat Angel Escalayer Reboot

Company: ALICESOFT
Game site: 超昂天使エスカレイヤー・リブート
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
This is a remake of the original 2002 Beat Angel Escalayer game. The artwork has been updated and there’s additional scenes added (including H scenes of course). The battle system has been refined as well, with additional new monsters and enemies. Escalayer was one of the most popular ALICESOFT titles with its plethora of HCGs. You’ll likely enjoy this remake too if you’re playing it for that reason.

When in doubt, remake seems to be the popular trend these days.

Love Revenge

Company: DE@R
Game site: 恋愛（らぶ）リベンジ
Release date: July 25, 2014
Comments:
This is the first game by DE@R. Yuuki was played around with by his first love, who admitted that she only went out with him as part of a punishment game. Ever since that traumatic break-up, he has had difficulty dealing with girls. Unable to even carry out a normal relationship with his imouto Tatsuki and osananajimi Honoka, he shut himself in his room and only talked with his friends online.

One day, the huge Anderson Corporation bought the whole city of Kouzuki. The small-stature president Riele announced plans to create a ‘love city’ Iris by establishing the “Love Promotion Act” to encourage active love among youths. All students were required to live in a newly constructed hotel-like dormitory with co-ed roommates. There was also a ‘love war event’ started up to further relationships between boys and girls. It was hell on earth for Yuuki, but he decides to aim for a new love with the help of Honoka and his classmate Rin.

This is pretty much a slapstick romance title. Not much originality in the plot (everything will end up as a shuraba), but maybe that’s fine if they keep it interesting. Rin is pretty much the template tsundere with cliché scenes, such as the protagonist walking in her changing. Two of the subcharas appeal to me: do-M bracon imouto Tatsuki and her cheerful twintailed aho girl, Tsukumo. I have the feeling the common route will be enjoyable, but not sure about the individual routes. It’s Tozuka Nagomi’s first game as scenario writer, so there’s not really much to go on. The trial was long, but quite average.

I approve of this war, everyone shoot the younger sister first, as soon as she is dead we can move on to underclassmen and childhood friends till the eroge world is free of the pestilences that spread the pedo plague.

Muv-luv Alternative Total Eclipse

Company: アージュ (âge)
Game site: マブラヴ オルタネイティヴ トータル・イクリプス
Release date: July 31, 2014
Comments:
This is the all-ages PC port for the 2013 PS3/Xbox360 game Total Eclipse, which started as a light novel and also had an anime. It focuses on the soldiers at the Yukon Base in the same timeframe as Muv-Luv Alternative. The visuals have been improved and a background story for Yui has been added. Basically there’s not much new content from the console version. Not interested.

I am kind of impressed at how well this series is following the example set by Da Capo.

Micchi’s Top 3 for This Month

1. AstralAir no Shiroki Towa
2. Change! ~Ano Ko ni Natte Kunkun Peropero~
3. Neko Masshigura ~Nekomimi Cafe ni Youkoso~

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Some RPG here (at least RPG is better than loli)
2. Some boring game here (at least boring is better than loli)
3. Change! ~Ano Ko ni Natte Kunkun Peropero~

What would you do if you had the ability to change to the opposite sex?

Assuming a mirror wouldn’t get me arrested, I’d probably fiddle with the controls till I was capable enough to earn my operators license.

Release dates have been set for the following:

Nanairo Reincarnation – September 26th
Starlight☆Idol – October 24th
1/7 no Mahoutsukai – October 31st

The following titles have been delayed:

Tropical Vacation – September 26th
Hakoniwa Logic – October 31st

The winner of the Hello, lady! chara poll is the protagonist Shinri! The top heroine is Saku. Chara polls have started up for Sakigen (until July 18th), ALIA’s CARNIVAL (until July 28th) and Majikoi A (until August 31st).

The Ame Koi and Hanamaou OSTs will come out at the same time as the games: August 8th and August 29th, respectively. The latter comes with a pretty nice tapestry as well. Yakushi Ruri’s 6th album, “flower shop”, will be on shelves on September 26th for ￥2800.

GSC is releasing a nendoroid ‘oshigoto set’ for SoniAni‘s Super Sonico in October for ￥3426. It contains both a maid body and a swimsuit body.

Dakimakuras are available for preorder for Koinaka‘s Mio, Chiccha Love Apart‘s Nina and Koishiki Manual‘s Honoka. ALcot is also making a dakimakura of Clover Day’s‘ Hekiru, along with the 5th sister glass, featuring Riaimo‘s Shiori and Mai! These will be available at Denkigai Matsuri 2014 Summer.

Terios is back and they’re making a sequel Magical Canan 2 ~Hiiro no Bergamot~, scheduled for October 31st. I remember the first title mainly from the H anime, and this sequel takes place one year after the original. There’ll be a new heroine introduced and Chihaya for some reason is unable to transform into Septem Charm.

Other new titles announced this week include:

ALICESOFT – Busou Shoujotai Blade☆Briders (October 24th)
Azarashi Soft – Amakano
CandySoft – Aneyome Quartet (October 31st)
Cotton Soft – Katakoi Visionary
CUBE – Koisuru Kanojo no Bukiyou na Butai (November 28th)
dualtail – VenusBlood -HYPNO-
ensemble – Otome ga Kanaderu Koi no Aria
Liar-soft – Teito Hiten Daisakusen (December 26th)
Mink – Sister Scheme 3 (November 28th)
minori – Soreyori no Prologue
NekoNekoSoft – Sumire
Pajamas Soft – Prism Princess ~Futari no Himekishi to Kokan no Monshou~ (November 28th)

Release dates have been set for the following:

Kanojo to Ore to, Koisuru Resort – October 31st
Koiharu Adolescence – October 31st

âge’s Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse has been delayed to September 26th.

étude is releasing a 10th anniversary collector’s edition on October 31st, which will contain Mikomai, Asuseka, Akizora and Nanatoki. The limited edition will include a special collection of 18 songs from the four games.

SMEE has made a Fureraba mini fandisc and full soundtrack for C86, priced at ￥5000. It includes a short after story for each of the four heroines.

The July append disc for PRETTY×CATION is now available for download.

The PS3/PSV port Konosora CRUISE SIGN has been delayed to October 30th.

New figures available for preorder include:

GSC – 1/7 scale Saber Extra (Fate/EXTRA, January, ￥10,926)
GSC – 1/6 scale Super Sonico After the Party (Sonicomi, November, ￥12,778)
Max Factory – 1/7 scale Misty swimsuit ver. (Shining Hearts, January, ￥10,000)
WING – 1/7 scale Chachamaru / DX ver. (Muramasa, November, ￥18,333)

Lucifuges, Meishao and Leoville were the top 3 in the Maonama chara poll and are featured in the H trial. Mei will also be included as a dakimakura in the official preorder. Konami won the Sengoku Koihime mizugi chara poll and will get a wallpaper on August 15th.

Chara polls have started up for Love Revenge (until July 25th) and Majikoi A (until August 31st).

Dakimakuras will be available for Koihime‘s Sei, Shion and Riri, Sengoku Koihime‘s Kuon, Himegoto Union‘s Matsuri and Haneru, Hachimyoujin‘s Ayumi, PENDULUM‘s Makoto and Sayaka, Majikoi‘s Miyako and Tatsuko, Chiccha Love Apart‘s Ayaka, Minakoi‘s Kanori, Berry’s‘ Wakaba and Natsuki, and all the Bunny Paradise girls.

Eroge companies have been busy this week announcing their C86 goods. You should take a look at your favourite companies to see what they offer.

After a week away, I finally got settled into Sakusaku and finished off Konami and Mio’s routes. I liked the heavy focus on the taboo sibling relationship in Konami’s route, but didn’t find Mio’s story to be particularly interesting. She cried a little too much to my liking. Yuuri is up next!

New titles announced this week include:

Akane Soft – Hen Koi≒Kurorekishi
Libre – Kamitsure
miral – Hanahime＊Absolute

dualtail’s Venus Blood -HYPNO- has been set for November 28th.

key is releasing a Perfect Edition of Tomoyo After on September 26th. It combines content from both the original PC game and the console port, and also includes the tactical RPG Dungeons and Takafumis.

Oppai Ouka won the Sakigen chara poll, with Yuria putting up a good fight for the hinnyuu. The Venus Blood -HYPNO- chara poll has started up and will run until August 3rd.

The visual fan book for rootnuko’s Umisora no Fragments will be on shelves on August 27th. The art wasn’t good to begin with…

Innocent Grey’s Flowers will be ported over to the PSP/PSV, scheduled for October 9th.

CLayz has a 1/6 scale figure of Fate/EXTRA CCC‘s Saber coming out in April for ￥12,000.

More dakimakura are available at C86 for Sakigen‘s Natsume, Pricolle‘s Konoka and Golden Marriage‘s Touko.

Finished Yuuri and An’s routes in Sakusaku. I felt that the story progression was fine in Yuuri’s route, but the ending left a lot to be desired. An’s was better and reminded me a lot of SHUFFLE‘s Sia. Only have the ‘love fairy’ Tina left now… but I’ll probably play some August trials first.

It wasn’t looking so good earlier, but at least we got some games this month after all the July delays. We’ve got magic girls, time travellers, human-eating mermaids, demon fighters, aliens, and a God in the form of a bunny. Enjoy an exciting summer vacation in sweet light’s Himawari!!, or help a sickly heroine in AkabeiSoft3’s Dekinai Watashi ga, Kurikaesu.. If you’re looking for a cute chara-ge, keep an eye on Marmalade’s PRIMAL×HEARTS and Parasol’s Harenochi Kitto Nanohana Biyori. Remember: cuteness isn’t a problem, it’s the solution!

Filler month, with nothing major or especially noteworthy coming out, giving most plenty of time to work on their backlog until the next exciting episode of eroge Z.

Ame Koi

Company: Noesis
Game site: 雨恋
Release date: August 8, 2014
Comments:
Nozomu is a novelist who returned to his hometown of Katsumi for inspiration for his next work. He arrived in a downpour and took cover in an abandoned shed, where he met a young girl. They stayed close to one another to stay warm, which soon resulted in their passions taking over.

Afterwards, he ended up staying at her house and she introduced herself as Isshi Mizuki. That’s when he realized from her name and her smile that Mizuki was the daughter of his first love, Mizuho, who he wasn’t able to confess to at that time due to his timidity. But he has once again fallen in love. He planned to do what he couldn’t do back then, say what he couldn’t say back then. It is a continuation of the youth which he had let slip away.

This is a low-price title from Noesis that should attract people’s attention thanks to Coffee Kizoku’s art. The lone heroine Mizuki (CV: Ogura Yui) is quite younger than the protagonist, so this would appeal to those who like such relationships. The selling points of the game are wet and see-through clothes, black hair and sailor uniforms. That’s always a good combo.

May as well be the poster child for “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”. At least she’s not a loli I suppose, not that it makes going after a girl who could be your daughter any better.

It doesn’t matter, so long as there’s LOVE!

You know a parent still “LOVES” their children.

Idol Mahou Shoujo Chiruchiru☆Michiru: Part I

Company: フロントウイング (FrontWing)
Game site: アイドル魔法少女 ちるちる☆みちる 前編
Release date: August 15, 2014 (Comiket 86)
Comments:
14 year old Michiru is a little-known idol who aspires to become a top idol one day. She looks up to the famous Kazuki, and wants to dress in cute clothes, sing wonderful songs and be loved by everyone. However, that dream is very far from reality. She just spends every weekend doing a mini concert (more like karaoke) in the dimly-lit jazz bar 9029 to a small group of fans, while selling goods on the side.

One night while walking home, she saw a shooting star and wished to become a top idol soon. Many other shooting stars appeared, including one which headed straight at her! It was actually the cat familiar Nyanmeru who came from the magic world. He told her that the world was in danger, so it’s up to Michiru to become a magic girl and save it! In return, he’ll grant anything she wished for.

This is a low-price Grisaia spinoff, featuring Michiru as a magic girl. This was first announced as an April Fool’s joke, but it’s now reality. It will be released in two parts, presented in an anime-style episodic format. The cast is the same as the original work, but this is not serious at all. It’s a slapstick parody-comedy similar to Innocent Girl, which writer Kuwashima Yoshikazu was also part of. Kazuki is Michiru’s rival, while the rest of the Grisaia cast will have different roles (Makina as the idol production president lol). As for Yuuji, he’s a sickly grade-schooler stuck in the hospital. The jokes are pretty funny, so I’m looking forward to being entertained.

Oh, and it’s all-ages, so there’ll be no tentacle rape. Sorry to disappoint those who were looking forward to it.

When it comes down to it the only thing that can compete with loli for the number one spot on my list of eroge hatred are the abhorrent abominations known as magical girls. There is something about the combination of stories that are impossible to be anything other than absolute garbage bundled in more pink lacy fluff than exists inside Micchi’s brain that elicits a level of loathing great enough to turn me into a raving madman heralding the end times.

Oh don’t be so serious! Embrace the pink lacy fluff!

Cotton candy is for eating, not embracing.

Kanae to Meguri to no Sonogo ga Icharabu Sugite Yabai.

Company: Hulotte
Game site: 叶とメグリとのその後がイチャらぶすぎてヤバい。
Release date: August 15, 2014 (Comiket 86)
Comments:
This is the fan disc for Imouto no Okage de Motesugite Yabai., with after story routes for chara poll leaders Kanae and Meguri. It also features a scenario where you fall in love with both at the same time. You know what happens then, right? I’ll definitely be there!

Yes I do know what happens. The two children get angry at each other then end up mutually stabbing each other and dying, with the moral being chase two get none.

You haven’t played enough harem games. I’ll recommend you some next time.

No thanks, I already know about Sister Princess.

Love+duction!

Circle: ユーエスエイト (US8)
Game site: ラブだくしょんっ!
Release date: August 17, 2014 (Comiket 86)
Comments:
Kanata opposed the demolition of Shiratori Gakuen and lay down in front of the school gates as usual. On an unusual day, the life of this relatively normal student who had a love trauma changed when he met “The Guide for Galactic Lovers”, Siri. He found out his classmate Meru was an alien, a spaceship really came down from the sky, and in the end, he was pestered to make love to Annie, the president of the galactic empire. Furthermore, when he returned home, he found the president-elect Yoshia on his sofa. After a series of events, it was decided that the one that wins his love will become the next president.

As usual, doujin games make little sense. If I had to choose between Annie and Yoshia, I’d definitely go with the former. She gets flustered when she’s with men and turns red if you get near her. Amusing. Let’s do that!

These two doujin games impress me through the sheer scale of nonsense they are constructed of. How can a human mind be so shattered that they are capable of thinking of this?

Baka wa Shinanakya Naoranai!

Circle: integral
Game site: バカは死ななきゃ治らないっ!
Release date: August 17, 2014 (Comiket 86)
Comments:
This is the debut work for doujin circle integral. Kazuhiko was run over by a truck on his first day of school. However, when he arrived in heaven, God told him that it’d be a problem if he was dead, and sent him back to Earth. He didn’t understand what happened, but he went to his classroom and found that he had to repeat the year. His osananajimi Kanade became his senpai, and a Russian serial killer Elena transferred into his class.

“Whoops, I added strychnine instead of salt >_<“
“Idiots can’t be cured unless they die!”

Is there a cure for possibly the most stupid person in the world? What will his destiny be after achieving immortality? Even God doesn’t know!

I’m not even gonna try to make any sense out of this and treat it like an ASa Project game. Yanase Aki’s art still needs a bit of work as there’s some pics where the proportions seem off. Let’s see how many different ways he can die.

Stupid pedobunny, Sense. Do you make it?

PRIMAL×HEARTS

Company: ま～まれぇど (Marmalade)
Game site: PRIMAL×HEARTS
Release date: August 29, 2014
Comments:
Spring is the season of first meetings. That’s what Kazuma thought when he transferred into Ainoshima Gakuen in the middle of the spring term. Indeed, the moment he passed through the school gates, he was accosted by two girls asking him to join their respective student councils. There are two student councils at the school, the traditional Gekka-kai and the avant-garde Tendou-kai. They are always competing against each other and their support is split dead even. It is up to the lucky boy ‘Three Seven’ Kazuma to cast the last vote to break the tie and that’s why they covet him so much. Which side will he choose?

I love Marmalade’s (Sasorigatame) art, so I’m definitely interested. I’ve already made up my mind. Of course I’m going with Tendou-kai since it’s led by the spunky kouhai Haruhi (and has Michi the Bitch). The dual student council system (with two sets of uniforms) brings back memories of Flyable Heart, but this probably won’t have the magical elements. There’s also a ‘walking talk’ system, similar to PRETTY×CATION, but it looks a bit unnatural since the sprite (including oppai) just bobs up and down. The trial was not bad, although it’s not going to be more than a typical chara-ge (although one that looks pretty good… and ero). Protagonist is rather stupid. The first edition comes with an ‘open breast patch’, but I never really liked seeing naked or semi-naked sprites all the time. There’s no fun in that.

This is like combining the worst of a club based game with the entire story revolving around giving the protagonist importance by forcing it on him via the setting, also known as pointless H scene buffers to pad out the only thing they actually put work into.

Dekinai Watashi ga, Kurikaesu.

Company: あかべぇそふとすりぃ (AkabeiSoft3)
Game site: できない私が、くり返す。
Release date: August 29, 2014
Comments:
Riku was given a pocket watch by Ren. It could rewind to any moment in time and repeat the same events as many times as one wished, while still keeping the memories of the time traveller. However, it was impossible to change the future. For example, one who is destined to die soon will still die even if they complete a major operation. She told him that it was futile to try to change it. She too had once tried to do so, but failed. However, she won’t stop him if he wished to attempt it.

He travelled back to five years ago and tested the powers of the pocket watch, helping many people along the way. He met by chance a young girl Shino and they quickly became friends. However, she had cancer and will die within a couple months. Before long, it was time to say farewell. She was prepared for the moment, but there were still many things that she wanted to do before her death. He decided to turn back time to grant all her wishes, and to possibly change her destiny.

The main theme of the game is how to make the most of the time that you have left. The time loop motif has been done often, to varying degrees of success. I have more faith in AkabeiSoft3 in pulling it off than most companies. The trial was everything I could ask from it: amazing music (I listened to the title BGM on loop), quality art and a thoughtful plot. The heroines all had their own charms as well, especially Miki, but their routes will likely be secondary to Shino and Ren. I wish for a good end for them. Just how many times will we have to endure sadness to (hopefully) attain a happy end? Or they could be heartless and just have her keep on dying. Either way, I think it has the potential to be one of the better games for this month.

I also got a bad end from asking for ramen too many times. I never knew that was possible.

One can only hope they use the watch to undo their own existence. Time travel as a gimmick is something usually poorly done and used as something of a deus ex machina to explore characters and settings consequence free. One can hope they stay consistent and go for the tragic end, although that is unlikely. Much more likely is ending up with a “Power of love conquers all” type story. As time travel generally falls under comedic or serious with this being an example of the latter there are certain problems that need addressing or else its little more than a cheesy drama gimmick. When the theme of time travel exists for comedy it is fine for it to be nonsensical when used to drive the humor, however a serious drama requires a greater attachment to the setting to properly develop their characters and involve the reader adequately. In this case I feel depth is lacking in favor of trying to create an easy setting hook that brings on the drama without having to really put effort into the story.

Himawari!! -Anata Dake o Mitsumeteru-

Company: sweet light
Game site: ひまわり!! -あなただけを見つめてる-
Release date: August 29, 2014
Comments:
You could spend your summer vacation only sleeping and doing your homework, but don’t you want to do something more? How about a boisterous time in swimsuits or throwing a pajama party? We could gaze at the full moon and make the sweetest love. Let’s have the best summer vacation ever!

Sweet light is again using the E-mote system to add more animation to the game, and it looks quite good and feels natural! It really makes you feel like you’re enjoying the summer with the girls (or spanking your imouto). Even the H scenes are fully animated, with lots of facial expression changes. Love p19’s colourful art. This chara-ge is set in the small rural town of Himukai-chou where Ryouta is part of the ‘himawari club’. While ‘himawari’ means ‘sunflower’, it might as well the ‘hima-ari (have free time) club’ as they just do random stuff. I’d love to do nothing all day.

The five heroines all have their eccentricities, which makes the character interactions fun to read. I love all of them, particularly the ultra-lewd ‘oniichan meister’ imouto Mikoto, secret peacekeeper Tenshi-senpai Tsubasa, and stargazing maniac Tenma. Actually, can I just take them all home? Please?

Nope, sleeping and getting the annoying work out of the way sounds like a good summer vacation to me. As a simple man I like my rainbow tarts in bathing suits kept well away from my pajama roofie parties, werewolves, and masturbating with honey. For a game insistent on covering its graphical flaws with the 2d sprite equivalent of enough bloom to make Helen Keller go blind, adding in a useless gimmick like the E-mote system does little to reinforce anything beyond the cheap plastic exterior. Maybe if the characters had more appeal written into them than some used cotton, an incontinent little sister H scene, a ball, a cinder block, and a piece of poo, there may have been some redeeming qualities. Alas this overly ambitious studio has decided to grace us with a tech demo for a gimmick that may one day be used in an actual game.

CM

Himegoto Union Motto H! ~Kan no San Miyoshino Koharu no Osanazuma Nikki~

Company: SEVEN WONDER
Game site: ひめごとユニオン もーっとH！ ～巻ノ三 三芳野小春の幼な妻日記～
Release date: August 29, 2014
Comments:
This is the third of four mini fandiscs for Himegoto Union. Saizou and Koharu had been enjoying an intimate relationship ever since they successfully activated the ‘starship’ and became lovers a few weeks ago. Suddenly, his imouto Nanoka showed up and declared herself as Koharu’s rival, often arguing between each other.

One day, Nanoka suddenly disappeared, and everyone but the two of them lost their memories of her.  They decided to search for her, and came to a mysterious hole in the mountains after following her footsteps. When they jumped in it, they found themselves in a parallel world of the town a week ago. In this world, Koharu’s mother Filia was married to him, and her best friend Mei also had feelings for him. Will they be able to save Nanoka?

Koharu’s the best out of all of the heroines. Now we get two hinnyuu rivals together. Not only that, but since her mother is married to him, that makes Koharu his imouto AND daughter. Heaven.

Fandisk that reeks of giving up on trying to actually make anything more than what is the most popular and unoffensive fetish they can think of.

Satsukoi ~Yuukyuu Naru Koi no Uta~

Company: ALcot ハニカム (ALcot Honey Comb)
Game site: サツコイ ～悠久なる恋の歌～
Release date: August 29, 2014
Comments:
One snowy night, Izumi was stabbed by his guardian, kicked from his home and left half-dead in front of the train station. Unable to move due to starvation, he no longer felt cold and was about to lose consciousness. He no longer felt despair and became apathetic at his current situation. That’s when his classmate Yuu, who always skipped school, picked him up like a stray cat and brought him home with her. She told him with a slight smile that he is her food, so she will fatten him up before eating him. He thought that he shouldn’t be with her, but since he didn’t have any other options, he chose to stay in her apartment for the meantime. However, he soon found out that she was a mermaid who eats humans and lives eternally.

Will you sacrifice your life for love? What about your imouto? It’s definitely an interesting concept for the latest mid-priced title by ALcot Honey Comb. Let’s hope they fare much better than with Aka-san. They are bringing back Seo Jun, who worked on Aemushi and Harupoco. The game is nicely balanced between comedy and serious moments. The trial revealed the true nature of the mermaids and their existence, but I won’t spoil it for you since this is a short game. I was hooked though, and the plot advanced quite briskly. It’s almost like a mix of Riaimo and Shinikiss. Main heroine Yuu is voiced by Kusuhara Yui, who most recently did Alice in Majikoi. The other characters were more forgettable, and Nao was on the annoying side. It’s different from most titles, so check it out if you want something new.

Two problems, one even if she falls for him she could just eat someone else then, and two if they actually dare to bring in crap like emotions being the sustenance with some concept along the lines of love being the best spice… I hope whoever actually thought such a thing would be a good idea gets eaten by cannibal, raw. So basically my point is unless those two issues are properly dealt with, the game has no hope of being anything other than a mermaid that eats your legs instead of wishing for her own gimmick. Although personally I hope for it to be dealt with well, as I could probably stand to read and maybe even enjoy the game in that case, I am not especially confident in that being the case, so I will remain warily optimistic for the time being.

Trailer

Hanayome to Maou ~Oushitsu no Harem wa Gekokujou~

Company: エスクード (Escu:de)
Game site: 花嫁と魔王 ～王室のハーレムは下克上～
Release date: August 29, 2014
Comments:
The demon world Lonistalia has been ruled by the Queen since the end of the warring period. This successor to her position will be the one who can obtain the love seed of a summoned human who possesses the powers of the demon lord. It is because of this absolute rule that Shinkurou was summoned to the demon world. He was thrown into a school to learn how to be an appropriate husband for a queen, while surrounded by girls lusting after his seed.

It’s a return of the strip battle system from Akatoki!, with the source of clothes shedding caused this time by cat-fights! Each of the heroines has a servant and Shinkurou has to help out in the shuraba battles. You can pick whichever side to help, but if you betray a heroine too many times, she may end up raging at you and you will be ‘punished’. The winner of the battle will get to have their sweet time with you (in other words, H). These demon girls have no shame and would do it anytime and anywhere. The battle system isn’t that interesting, as you just need to keep pace with your opponent, then get in the first strike when HP is low. The studying and stat growth part is more of a chore. Some of the BGMs are weird and sound out of place (mainly since they have lyrics).

I find it amusing that even though he was summoned to this world, it’s only his soul that came. His body is just a vessel and they can toy with him (and break him) all they want. Mmm… delicious twins… So nya~isu♪ Should be a fun and chaotic nukige!

Nukige, which pretty much sums it up in one word.

Harenochi Kitto Nanohana Biyori

Company: Parasol
Game site: 晴のちきっと菜の花びより
Release date: August 29, 2014
Comments:
Haruma was about to enter his second year at Kaminagi Gakuen when he came down with a fever over the spring vacation and was hospitalized for a month. When he returned to school in May, he didn’t know his new classmates and couldn’t fit in his class. However, he wasn’t the only one who had the same problem. Nanoka, who transferred in a couple days before he arrived, also wasn’t able to make any friends. Since he sat quite close to her, they exchanged greetings and talked about their lives, getting along quite well.

Haruma found out that Nanoka wanted to join the gardening club. But the gardening club at Kaminagi Gakuen disbanded a year ago. He promised to help reform the club in order to grant her wish. This enabled him to met lots of friends and regain the ‘one month’s time’ which he had lost.

Chikotam art! And Nanoka is voiced by Anzu Mitsu as well! That’s definitely enticing enough for me to play Haruno. However, it’s a bit worrisome that the 3 scenario writers’ last works were Yumekoi and your diary. My fears were confirmed after playing the trial. While the plot does eventually get going and has some intriguing elements which are foreshadowed, the pacing is really bad. For the first 15 minutes, I only talked to one character, Konomi. Even though I like her, it still got boring. I can only imagine what it’d be like for someone else who hated that archetype; they’d probably drop it right away. I also didn’t like how the writer included explanations directly in the dialogue (not voiced), akin to editor notes in fansubs. We should know what a bra strap is already. The quality of the SDs leave a lot to be desired.

That’s not to say everything is negative. The serene feel of the game gradually shows a darker side, as we find out about Haruma’s past, as well as the unfortunate circumstances of the heroines. The OP is beautiful and likely will be one of the best for this year. I have no problems with the characters. In addition to Nanoka, the imouto-like kouhai-osananajimi Konomi and energetic senpai Karin are also quite appealing. Nanoka’s family is poor, so she wears her oneechan’s hand-me-down seifuku and I really love her extra long sleeve look! She’s so cute! Cute is justice! Hau~ omochikaeri~!

I just wish that the story-writing is able to properly develop the characters. We must stay positive!

This is basically Yahari ore no Seishun Rabukome wa Machigatteiru (yes I had to look that title up) the eroge. All they even bothered to change was the name of the club, the structure is identical otherwise. As far as characters, well they are generally a moot point anymore, as there is so much overlap with the same five to arguably ten designs that about the only difference anymore is whether they say “Onii chan” or “Nii san”. Any time an eroge decides it would be better to rip off an existing light novel, manga, anime, or rival eroge I decide they are no longer worth seriously considering.

Sougeki no Jaeger

Company: propeller
Game site: 蒼撃のイェーガー
Release date: August 29, 2014
Comments:
There are evil beings known as ‘oni’ in this world which eat other living beings near them. No one knows when they first appeared, but a guild of exorcists is tasked with vanquishing them. Even though they always fight in the shadows, their actions greatly influence the world.

Homura was a normal student attending school in the city. He was kidnapped by unknown assailants and when he came to, he was aboard a huge ferry. In front of him was the bad-mannered Tetsuya and two exorcists, Anya and Kaho. They told him that he was an exorcist just like them and gave him the talking sword ‘Onitorimaru’ and urged him to use the sword to defeat the oni. The bewildered Homura tried to escape along with the naive Chizuru, but he found himself face-to-face with an oni. He was forced to fight and he felt a bond with Onitorimaru. After the battle, he realized that his fate has now changed.

They arrived at the small island of Hatano, where he was enrolled into the only school and stayed at the same dormitory as the three exorcists, Anya, Kaho and Mai. Chizuru became a welcoming oasis in his surroundings, which changed so suddenly. Just when he had finally grown accustomed to his daily life, she was attacked by an oni. He saved her, but then the oni attacked the school the next day. Chaos ensued as the students ran away from the oni, but many of his classmates and friends were eaten by it. That’s when his fight against the oni truly began: to stay alive, to protect his friends, to save the one he loves.

propeller is returning to the dark (18+) side after two all-ages games (Negai no Kakera to Hakugin no Agreement and Tokyo Babel). However, the writer isn’t Higashide Yuuichirou, but rather relative newcomer Utsusemiza (who has only worked on Guilty games in the past couple months). As with this company, the protagonist is voiced and the cast is pretty good, featuring Kiritani Hana, Aoyama Yukari, Kitami Rikka and Mitsuki. However, the tachi-e are noticeably rough and the action parts cheap. I’m also not really into these chuuni battle to save the world stories which put more focus on the action, so I’ll pass.

Propeller can be hit and miss for me, sometimes they make good games, other times overly drawn out chunni fests that do little more than act as sleep aids. In this case the game most likely falls under the latter, in fact this feels like a poor quality rip off of Dies Irae. Try harder next time, just throwing some weapons and monsters together does not a good story make, noobs.

Maou no Kuse ni Namaiki da! Torotoro Tropical!

Company: ラグジュアリー (Luxury)
Game site: 魔王のくせに生イキだっ！ とろとろトロピカル！
Release date: August 29, 2014
Comments:
This is a fandisk for Maonama which takes place in between the first and second games. It’s split into three parts: the maou chapter at the beach, the maid chapter with mock weddings, and the another story for subchara-turned-heroine Lucifuges. The system is the same as the two previous games. It’s nice to see the girls in other attire. MI-ZU-GI! MI-ZU-GI!

Fandisk about showing off the H scenes that didn’t have time to make it into the original product, so now you have the special privilege of paying extra for them.

Micchi’s Top 5 for This Month

1. Dekinai Watashi ga, Kurikaesu.
2. Himawari!! -Anata Dake o Mitsumeteru-
3. Idol Mahou Shoujo Chiruchiru☆Michiru: Part I
4. Satsukoi ~Yuukyuu Naru Koi no Uta~
5. Harenochi Kitto Nanohana Biyori

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Satsukoi ~Yuukyuu Naru Koi no Uta~
2. Idol Mahou Shoujo Chiruchiru☆Michiru: Part I    – HA~
3. Harenochi Kitto Nanohana Biyori                           – Just Kidding~

My summer vacation is playing eroge. Just like every other month.

My summer vacation is avoiding bad eroge by sleeping, and doing homework, much more fun.

Studio Ryokucha is making a seiyuu change for Minamijuujisei Renka‘s inquisitive kouhai Sakuya. I think I’ve heard this seiyuu before somewhere, but I can’t quite place who it is. Any guesses? There’s a new trial out for the game with the new voice clips.

Navel is releasing an append disc for Tsukioto on August 29th. It will contain after stories for all heroines, and adds full voice for Asahi. Other titles announced this week include:

Jirai Soft – Hotarubi no Shoujo (October 31st)
Navel honeybell – Magical☆Dears

Release dates have been set for the following:

Walkure Romanze Re:tell – September 26th
Kamitsure – November 28th
Otome ga Kanaderu Koi no Aria – November 28th
Himawari to Koi no Kioku – December 19th

Windmill’s Harukaze Sensation! has been delayed to November 28th, in order to incorporate the E-mote system for H scenes.

The Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete anime will be on air this fall. TYPE MOON has announced that Unlimited Blade Works (Rin route) will start in October, with the second season planned for next April. There is also a movie, Heaven’s Feel, in the works. No initial date has been given yet. Finally, they are also making two smartphone games, Realta Nua and Fate/Grand Order (an RPG). Service is scheduled to begin this fall and winter, respectively. They sure are milking this series.

The Innocent Girl visual fan book will be on shelves on August 29th, while the new Steins;Gate novel has been delayed to September 25th.

SHOT MUSIC’s latest soundtrack “SHOT FES TWINS” includes two CDs of songs from various eroge, such as Karumaruka, Hitoren and Happiness!. One CD will be the original, while the other will feature remixes. Together, they are priced at ￥3000.

Now you can have your own love fairy to watch over you! GSC is making a nendoroid of Sakusaku‘s Tina, which will be initially sold at C86 for ￥4630. It’ll probably be made available via GSC’s online shop and other retailers at a later date.

Other new figures available for preorder include:

ALTER – 1/7 scale Sora China dress ver. (Yosuga no Sora, October, ￥13,800)
FREEing – 1/8 scale Super Sonico yukata ver. (Sonicomi, December, ￥9074)

Dakimakura are coming out for Sakusaku‘s An, Sorahana‘s Mea and Yuu, D.C.III‘s Rikka, Byakko‘s Kaho, Zannen‘s Rinne, Love Revenge‘s Honoka, Tsujidou‘s Ai and Azusa, Escalayer‘s Escalayer, Neko Masshigura‘s Honoka, HapyMaher FD‘s Yuuko, Yakimochi Stream‘s Mutsuki, Alruna‘s Michelle, G.I.B.‘s Yukano, ALIA’s CARNIVAL‘s Asuha, MeltyMoment‘s Sumire and Seinarukana‘s Narukana. Are there any that catch your eye? Why isn’t there a Tina or Konami one…

I spent the past week going through all the available August and September trials. Dekinai Watashi ga, Kurikaesu. and Satsukoi are the ones with the most potential in this month, while Chiruchiru☆Michiru should be good for laughs. And the imouto in Yakimochi Stream is totally insane! I’m away for the weekend for a friend’s wedding, but I’ll resume Tina’s route in Sakusaku when I’m back.

Inre’s ChuSinGura 46+1 -Bushi no Kodou- has been set for November 28th.

Tsukuyomi won the ALIA’s CARNIVAL! chara poll for the third time in a row. The PRIMAL×HEARTS chara poll has started up and will run until September 30th.

Coming out at the end of month on August 29th are the Hoshiori vocal collection, PRIMAL×HEARTS character song and soundtrack and Haruno character song and soundtrack.

The Eiyuu＊Senki GOLD visual fan book is 420 pages long, about 3 cm thick and weighs over 2 kg! It has all the characters, CGs and guest illustrations… all in full colour! The censorship is very minimal, so you can enjoy them in their full glory. It comes out on September 26th for only ￥3900. Definitely worth it!

Max Factory’s Super Sonico figma makes it look like she spent too long in the tanning salon. If you’re into that look, then she can be yours for ￥3889, shipping in December. I’ll definitely be passing.

Dakimakuras are available for Biman‘s Kirie, Koi DOKi‘s Mikoto, Yotsunoha‘s Nono, Sakura no Uta‘s Makoto and Rina, ALIA’s CARNIVAL!‘s Tsukuyomi, and Chiikano‘s Matsuri and Karin.

5pb. is holding a summer sale on their online shop from August 13th to August 27th in commemoration of Steins;Gate‘s 5th anniversary, with titles up to 90% off.

The Palette staff go out for a walk in the park with a love fairy. The scythe is for cutting grass.

Ahhhhhh… Tina’s route satisfied my need for a Mashifoni-esque story. 合法ロリ万歳！ Overall Sakusaku wasn’t perfect, but I don’t regret buying the game one bit. Then I went and played Rumia’s route in Change! in one night. Chuuni charas are cute when they’re dere. The change ability is amusing as expected, but this protagonist is an absolute perv! I’m jealous!

Webclap responses:

かわいいは正義 by FaithoftheFallen
かわいいはジャスティス！

Not sure what’s a webclap for but i just love to see the different images. Haha :p
In any case, this is my favorite site to go for all VN-related news and I’m happy to see it still going strong after many years. Good job! :) by Kazuki
Well, it’s another outlet for people to send comments (other than commenting on blog, Twitter, or Ask.fm). It’s more common among Japanese blogs, but I like the use of images. I update them occasionally, so clap a lot ^^
It sure has been quite a long time, almost 6th anniversary actually. Time sure flies! Thanks for your support and we hope to continue to provide you with the info you come for.

In a surprise announcement, Coffee Kizoku has left Noesis after the release of their latest work, Ame Koi. He is planning to be a freelance illustrator and indicated that his exit wasn’t caused by any disagreements. With the loss of their star illustrator, Noesis has closed down.

HexenHaus‘s next game, Lautes Alltags -Herrenlose Katze und Teehaus-, will be using the E-mote system. It seems to be a popular thing to do nowadays.

Other new titles announced this week include:

AkabeiSoft2 – Boku no Hitori Sensou
Chien – Gakuen Butou no Folklore

Debonosu Works has acquired Studio e.go! which had been closed since 2009, thereby acquiring the rights to the games which they had helped produce before they left to found Debonosu. Along with this announcement, they revealed that they are remaking the beginning of the Kagura series, Natsu Kagura (in December), along with revamping Debonosu’s debut work, Kagura Douchuuki Sou, in widescreen this October.

Shizuku won the Sengoku Koihime tsukimi chara poll and will get a wallpaper on September 8th. Dragon lord Julia won the VenusBlood -HYPNO- chara poll.

Enterbrain has a pair of books hitting the shelf on September 19th: the Tenbin no La DEA. perfect guidebook and the Daito DS & Houkago Shippo Days visual fan book.

The Daito DS & Houkago Shippo Days OST and C:drive’s 2-disc saimin series VOCAL MEMORIES come out on August 29th. The soundtrack for Chuable Soft’s upcoming title Byakko will be out on the same day, September 26th.

Not much news this week since it’s C86. It’d be nice if my friend was able to grab some things for me, but I don’t have high hopes. To all the soldiers on the battlefield, good luck and may you return safely. With all the C86 info, I only managed to finish Ui and Kana’s routes in Change!. The former was surprisingly romantic, but he clearly abused his ability in the latter. Since there’s a few more trials out for September, I’ll start on them in the upcoming days.

PULLTOP is making a fandisk for Cocoro@Function!!! Cocoro@Function! NEO (Network Enhanced Operation) is scheduled for November 28th and most likely will include routes for Chie and BELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t wait for it to come out!

August also revealed their next title at their August SUMMER Vacation 2014 in AKIHABARA event last week. It’s called Sen no Hatou, Tsukisome no Kouki and seems to be halfway between the somber fantasy Eustia and comedic school-based Daito.

Other titles announced this week include:

ALcot Honey Comb – Kimi no Tonari de Koi Shiteru!
GIGA – Haru Kiss
CLOCKUP – Ero Manga! ~H mo Manga mo Step Up♪~
Uguisu Kagura – Kami no Ue no Mahoutsukai

Release dates have been set for the following:

Kagura Douchuuki Sou – October 24th
Amakano – December 19th
Kenseiki Alpha Ride – December 19th

The fourth and final mini fandisc for Himegoto Union is planned for October 31st. It will be focused on Himeria and likely also wraps up the mystery of Nanoka.

The 4-CD Monobeno complete album comes out on September 26th, with 17 vocal songs and 71 BGM tracks. It’s quite a deal at ￥4000.

I’ve been captivated by the newly announced Amatsukaze figure, but it seems that there are two others that are available for preorder. Phat! has a nice 1/8 scale figure of im@s‘s Miki (February, ￥7400), while X-PLUS TOYS’s Super Sonico figure ships in September for ￥16,200.

Since I didn’t want to start something new before the August games come out, I went back to Sakigen, for which I had only finished Yuria’s route. Ririko was quite amaenbou in her route, and I very much identify with Natsume’s problems. You can’t take the game out of a gamer. It is part of our being!

Webclap responses:

「兄さん……大好き……」 by 姫乃
(*♥ω♥*)

New titles announced this week include:

Akatsuki Works – Hello Lady! -New Division- (December 19th)
HamHamSoft – LOW-RISE!!!

Release dates have been set for the following:

Ero Manga! – November 28th
Mousou Complete! – November 28th

The tight imouto vs osananajimi battle in the Monomono chara poll ended with Tsubasa winning! She’ll be featured in all retail stores in a wedding dress!

In advance of the Daito anime, WAVE has revealed a 1/10 scale swimsuit figure of Tamamo, coming out in January for ￥6000. Does this mean Kana will be coming soon too? Broccoli also has a figure of Amairo‘s Yune in the works.

Other new figures which are available for preorder include:

Kotobukiya – 1/7 scale Saber swimsuit ver. (Fate, January, ￥7800)
ORCA TOYS – 1/6 scale Muramasa race queen ver. (Muramasa, February, ￥13,800)

Sekai Project is bringing over key’s CLANNAD (full voice ver.), while MangaGamer is localizing minori’s eden*, both via Steam. I’m intrigued at minori’s fund-raising for the discontinued Supipara series. I’m not sure if they’ll be able to raise that much, but we’ll see how it goes.

My copy of Ichayaba arrived this week! It was just a short fandisc so I finished both routes and the harem scene over two nights. I love the cast-off packaging ^o^

Have you ever wanted to build a rocket? Become a hero in a fantasy world? Soar in the sky like a bird? There are endless possibilities in eroge and you’ll always be surrounded by bishoujos while doing it. So, enjoy the much-awaited Minamijuujisei Renka by Studio Ryokucha, or sprite’s sky-high drama Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm. The imoutos in Galette’s Onii-chan, Migite no Shiyou o Kinshi Shimasu! will gladly accompany you.

Have you ever deleted spam mail? Played an RPG? Rode in a plane? There may be infinite possibilities limited only by how far our imagination can go, but eroge are determined to convince you that boobs are all anyone needs to imagine, boobs of all sizes, shapes, colors, and covers. Maybe one day the people in charge of writing these games will imagine that there may be something beyond school boobs, fantasy boobs, drama boobs, tragedy boobs, etc. boobs, and actually give us background and development to support their boobs.

Bunny Paradise ~Koibito Zenin Bunny-ka Keikaku~

Company: SkyFish poco
Game site: Bunny Paradise ばにぱら ～恋人全員バニー化計画～
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
The prestigious girls’ school Usagino Gakuen is rumoured to be full of cute girls. Shinsuke graduated from a top-tier university and was expected to be the heir of his father’s zaibatsu, which is one of the directors of the school. However, he loves bunny girls more than anyone should. The school’s prestige has taken a hit in recent times and he decided to become a teacher there to help rebuild it and prove his worthiness as the zaibatsu’s successor at the same time. He proclaimed that the cause was a lack of etiquette, shyness and desire to serve among the girls. His perfect plan was to create a ‘bunny club’ at the school and train all the students as bunny girls, who exemplify all these positive traits.

From Pochi to Nyan Cafe to Bunny Paradise. The first two didn’t have a good story and this most likely won’t buck the trend. The girls are all well-stacked and mimic the Playboy bunnies (complete with the bunny dip). These aren’t the bunnies I ordered! Where’s my refund?

Hugh Hefner Sim.

Considering there’s a goat sim, there’s likely an audience for this as well.

Rather, this may as well be called “Eroge best friend fantasy sim”, so all those who feel sorry for the poor guys make for a good audience.

Ano Harewataru Sora yori Takaku

Company: チュアブルソフト (Chuable Soft)
Game site: あの晴れわたる空より高く
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
Otoya lives far south of the mainland on the island of Amanoshima, where space research is extremely popular. Many aspiring rocket engineers from countries all over the world gather at Amanoshima Gakuen to take courses there and build rockets together. Since he was only in the general education curriculum (and even acknowledges that he is also quite an idiot), he was surprised when Arisa asked him to join her club ‘Byakko’ and build a rocket with her. He was moved by her eyes of conviction and agreed to help her.

However, Kaho, the deputy leader of the largest rocket club at the school (ARC), informed them that Byakko will be disbanded unless they win the rocket competition before the end of the second term. With pyromaniac senpai Nazuna, mischievous osananajimi Honoka, and even their rival Kaho in tow, they attempt to build a rocket from scratch with neither the budget, the facilities nor the technology. Everyone tells them that it is impossible, but they will not give up! Their goal is the grand prize at the competition and the continuation of Byakko!

This is the 10th anniversary work by Chuable Soft, written by first-time writer Hanno Shuusei, who had previously only worked on light novels. There’s more lines than in past games, but I felt hard to get into the story with more technical terms being tossed around. Not everyone’s a rocket maniac. Luckily, they realized this and added a glossary in the second trial. The pacing seemed fine.

Stripping away the rocket motif, we essentially have a club in danger of being abolished and they have to show their worth against a rival that is seemingly better than them in every regard. However, I just can’t convince myself that a ragtag group of high schoolers can build a rocket. Especially one that has a total idiot of a protagonist. In terms of the heroines, their personalities are decent and they each have some innate skill that will help them with their seemingly impossible task. I like Kaho and Honoka. Oh, and he has an imouto too, Yui, who betrayed him and joined the dark side (ARC).

It’s okay Otoya you can overcome your small rocket handicap and let your dreams soar proudly upon the wings of the biggest rocket in the sky after you get the HCG love treatment from your fellow club members. Just remember it’s not the size of your rocket that matters, it’s how well it flies, and how long it lasts. So yeah, rocket enlargement and dysfunction spam in eroge form, I am satisfied with the length, girth, and functionality of my rocket so, pass.

Onii-chan, Migite no Shiyou o Kinshi Shimasu!

Company: Galette
Game site: お兄ちゃん、右手の使用を禁止します！
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
Hiroto is a student who lives by himself. One day, he injured his right hand while protecting his imoutos. Luckily it was not serious, but they mistakenly thought it was the opposite!? He was excused from school until it healed, and his imoutos forbade him from using it. Of course, it would be quite inconvenient, so they suggested that they will always be by his side, as his ‘right hand’. From that day on, everything that he did with his right hand was left to his imoutos: eating, taking a bath, doing groceries, going to the washroom, masturbating…. “Leave everything to us, oniichan!”

Yes! More imoutos! I thoroughly enjoyed Onishare, so I’m really hyped up for Onikin! I don’t know how they did it, but somehow they made the imoutos even more appealing! They all have different personalities (and different blood types… somehow that’s possible) and I love them all! 100% hinnyuu!! 100% blood related!! Friendly but meddlesome Tsugumi, kind and proper Ayuka, playful but rebellious Kaede, and the pure angel Yuki… I wanna take them all home! Hau~ omochikaeri~!

Man I feel sorry for this guys left hand, apparently even after the right was shot dead no one thought to give it any loving, poor lefty.

禁止します！禁止します！

Doushite, Sonna ni Kuroi Kami ga Suki nano?

Company: ファイヤワークス (FIRE WORKS)
Game site: どうして、そんなに黒い髪が好きなの？
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
This is the first title by FIRE WORKS. Why does the protagonist like black hair so much? Well, there’s no need to have a reason, but it might have had something to do with his surroundings during childhood. As the heir to a shrine, he had been surrounded by black-haired women for as long as he could remember. You could say it was in his blood.

Thus, it’s only natural that a beautiful black-haired girl would appear before him when he was about to freeze to death. He was captivated by her beauty and thought to himself that if he was going to die, he would marry a black-haired bishoujo like her. So, he proposed to her on the spot.

Many months later after he had miraculously survived, the girl Ichou, who was one of the gods of marriage, returned to become his bride. His miko osananajimi Urara would not accept their relationship, but he could not turn down a request from a black-haired lady, especially one who had saved his life. Afterwards, they were joined by Ichou’s imouto Sakuya and the self-proclaimed shinigami-possessed (chuuni) Mizuha. Surrounded by black-haired girls, the odds of his wish being fulfilled look bright.

Their hair doesn’t look black! They look like dark blue or purple! I find it interesting that while hair colour can usually hint at a character’s personality, just their hairstyle alone can have the same effect. Maybe I’m just partial to twintails. Other than the hair colour difference, it is your typical shuraba comedy. Scenario writer Touta worked on ensemble’s Ojonana. I’ll have to play the trial when it comes out to decide whether or not this is worth getting. I like the OP song.

Okay, so I like black hair, it is my favorite hair color, but is there a need to even make that a central focus, a driving point for the protagonist? Let us for example say the protagonist did not have or at least express any sort of sexual fetish for hair color, and the heroines remained as they are. Does anything actually need to change to suit this? Nope, not a thing save the protagonist and game itself would feel more likable and easier to identify with, all while the heroines are less about mannequins with wigs that make him high and horny, instead just characters who simply have, heaven forbid, a common Asian hair color. If people happen to like black hair on heroines, I would assume they are not blind and are able to see that elegant, luscious, silky, shimmering black hair features quite prominently with a single glance at the cover.

I prefer Skittles.

Dark chocolate is way better than the diabetes rainbow.

Nanairo Reincarnation

Company: シルキーズプラス WASABI (SILKY’S PLUS WASABI)
Game site: なないろリンカネーション
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
This is the debut title for SILKY’S PLUS WASABI. Makoto was in his third year at university when his grandfather passed away and transferred his property entirely to him. He was ready to start living alone, but when he moved in, he was greeted by the zashikiwarashi Iyo and the oni Kikyou. They were only visible to him since he had inherited a special power which allowed him to see spirits. He had also inherited the ‘duty’ of the Kagami family, which had been passed on from generation to generation. With the support of the oni, he must use his power to appease the wandering souls in the town and help them rest at peace.

The story is written by Kazuki Fumi, who won the scenario award in the 2013 Moe Game Awards for GunKnight Girl. The artists from that game, Sumeragi Kohaku, is also on board for this title. I felt that the trial had a good pace to it, with a nice balance of comedic and dramatic moments. Sure, having sex with an oni to make more oni sounds like an excuse to have an H scene, but we got a catgirl for our troubles (GJ Makoto!). And we still haven’t met the Fujisaki Usa-voiced Iris yet! I don’t have an idea of where the story will go from here on, so I think this might be worth picking up. I just hope they take out the watermarks in the CGs… >_>

If it’s not parents being offed to throw our protagonist to the busty starving wolves, it’s grandparents. Sadly though the foundation of the game is lacking, focusing entirely on the concept “Hey look cute girls here, they have built in head accessories too, great value for your money!”. So I wouldn’t expect anything from the story, be it common route or the individual heroine routes. If however girls that come standard with headgear is enough to tickle your ero bone, then at least the game isn’t absolutely atrocious, probably.

Isekai Lovers! ~Kyonyuu no Yuusha-tachi wa Choro-in~

Company: ApRicoT
Game site: イセカイ・ラヴァーズ！ ～巨乳の勇者達はちょろいん～
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
Isamu was a heavily-devoted FPS player who hated fantasy stories. He got a call-up notice as a reward for placing first in the world, but when he arrived at the designated gathering spot, he was brought to another world. The knight Rina, magician Kachua and elf Aida stood before him in a world that looked like a fantasy game. Kachua had summoned a hero to fight the monsters and save the world, but it seemed like he was useless. However, he was able to defeat them using a handgun which had been summoned with him, by striking at the vital points using his limited knowledge of fantasy games. He was treated as a hero and joined the girls on their journey. Maybe fantasy games aren’t so bad after all!

I don’t get it. How can plate mail bounce?

Would this game kindly rocket jump itself in the face? Please?

Tropical VACATION

Company: TWINKLE
Game site: トロピカルVACATION
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from July. The giant spa resort ALOHA has been a popular spot ever since its opening, with an endless line of customers. Then an even bigger spa resort COCKTAIL OCEAN opened up next door, with better facilities than ALOHA. However, it was not able to attract people away from the established ALOHA. In order to turn the tide and beat ALOHA, they asked the service-oriented Yakumo to help rebuild C.O..

So this is a spinoff of Tropical KISS, with the previous girls being the rivals. I wonder if we’ll see some cameos. The first game was decent due to its comedy and relaxed atmosphere, so I hope they won’t dwell too much on the business side. You’re at a resort! Check out the girls!

Changing the cast and setting to rivals from a previous game is both a good and bad thing. It is good to see things from another angle, but bad when you may like the other side you already know of better. This puts the game in a difficult position which may be more accessible to people who have not played the first game, as they can play it without feeling a little guilty over ruining what was built up the first time around. Unlike Micchi though, I would appreciate more focus on the business side, it allows for greater depth in the writing and character development, as well as offering a much needed break from the standard eroge antics. By mixing in other aspects to the setting such as the business, the moments the characters spend forming bonds become all the more poignant.

Passage! ~passage of life~

Company: 戯画 (GIGA)
Game site: パサージュ！ ～passage of life～
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
Yuuya grew up on the Myoujin shopping arcade alongside his four childhood friends, Nana, Risa, Mio and Ayako. One day, he joined the graduation album production committee. He felt growing uneasiness as the preparations made him think of his future. What dream does he wish to pursue? What will happen to his unchanging days with his osananajimis? He wasn’t the only one who fretted about this.

The future is still a long ways away. They look to make memories at the school festivals and other events during the last year before their graduation. Along the way, their relationship begins to change: from childhood friends to lovers. This is their own special story for something that could happen to anyone in any place.

I love the osananajimi motif as I believe that the bonds between two people grow stronger the longer they are together. That’s one reason why I adore imouto and osananajimi characters. If GIGA can write up a good slice of life story, then I’m definitely on board. However, looking at the résumés for the writers, I’m worried that there’s not much non-nukige titles of note… Easily flustered Mio might be just enough to make me try the game.

Ah, good times, looking back at all those memories back when eroge used to be all pure and innocent, about quality and simplicity, when your yen went further and every panty shot was a wonderful oasis in a desert. Back beyond yesteryear when Giga was able to consider making good games, and didn’t have to rely on their flagship series while stumbling around like a blind toddler in a room filled with pitfalls and pedophiles in their painful attempts at making any other game. The only slice of this life I want anything to do with is the tragic bad end where the girls kill each other and the protagonist runs off with the trap.

Muv-luv Alternative Total Eclipse

Company: アージュ (âge)
Game site: マブラヴ オルタネイティヴ トータル・イクリプス
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from July. This is the all-ages PC port for the 2013 PS3/Xbox360 game Total Eclipse, which started as a light novel and also had an anime. It focuses on the soldiers at the Yukon Base in the same timeframe as Muv-Luv Alternative. The visuals have been improved and a background story for Yui has been added. Basically there’s not much new content from the console version. Not interested.

I am kind of impressed at how well this series is following the example set by Da Capo.

Yakimochi Stream

Company: まどそふと (MadoSoft)
Game site: ヤキモチストリーム
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
Takumi had been studying abroad in England for a year when he received a telegram from home: “Imouto, serious condition, come back immediately”. He didn’t know what happened, but he rushed home to find his imouto Sana in a hikikomori state. She was also singing a song bashing England and streaming it online. How did his cute and pleasant imouto, who loved him so much, become like this?

He couldn’t leave her like this and decided to stop his studies abroad and transfer into the same school as her, Seishin Gakuen. However, he was soon reunited with other girls who loved him just as much. His new school life full of jealousy and icharabu has just begun!

This imouto is absolutely nuts! It must be a rule that all imoutos named Sana are extreme bracons. This is pretty much a baka-ge (Takumi’s a total donkan) and oppai-ge. The trial was pretty short, so it’s hard to say if the story by first-timers Tsubaki Mata and Mojasupi is any good, but at least it was entertaining while it lasted. I found no problems with the cast selection. There’s plenty of H scenes and variation as well, with focus on paizuri and breast fondling.

The only serious condition here is the little sister disease, now if he only had prepared an emergency cure, something along the lines of a shotgun behind glass that reads “In case of imouto break glass”. As far as the other heroines, they should come with instructions on how to be used as floatation devices in the event of an emergency.

Unmei Senjou no φ

Company: Lump of Sugar
Game site: 運命線上のφ
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
The solitary island of Shintenjima is said to be an island of illusion, only mentioned in occult-like rumours. It does not fall under Japanese territory, nor is it owned by anyone else. No one knows who lives there, nor what lives they lead. It is an island shrouded completely in mystery.

Iori is a young man who doesn’t remember anything more than five years ago, but he has a link to the island. He received a letter summoning him to Shintenjima. He was greeted by the maid Linja and brought to the mansion Hourinkan. There he met the owner Karin, as well as the fellow guests, many of whom were around his age.

Surrounded by bishoujos in a suspicious mansion on a secluded island…. He had a feeling that something was going to happen.

Lump of Sugar’s latest work is written by the team that worked on Magicha. The game is compatible with tablets running Windows 8. It features two new systems: the ‘Fortune Divide System’ where you could use a sword in the interface to ‘cut’ the screen and reveal new choices (swipe the screen for tablets), and the ‘Detective Mode’ where you search for clues to solve a task (although you could always right click for the answers). There’s also a ‘touching mode’ where you um… touch girls and you can hear their reactions (dokidoki!). At first, it feels that this gameplay is a throwaway, but the use of the sword is actually vital to the progress of the story. There’s also a secret notebook and flowchart to help you along the way.

Just how important is the new system? It’s like night and day! If you’re playing the trial, don’t stop after completing the detective side! There’s another side of the story which is completely different. Start the game again from the very beginning and change your destiny! I thought the blademaster side was much more fun to read than the detective side, but there’s still many questions to be answered. The characters’ personalities don’t differ too much between the two sides. Karin is still a playful master and Nagisa is still an angel. I think this will be worth trying out!

Lump of Sugar games are all pretty much the same thing, so if you just want to replay their past games with a new and rather silly gimmick added on to use when making choices instead of just clicking along, but with a renaming of the same setting and plot elements I suppose this would be the game for you. I wish the eroge industry would stop and look at itself so that maybe, just maybe they might realize that it is not about how you tell the story, but about whether the story is worth telling in the first place.

Josou Gakuen (Nin)

Company: 脳内彼女 (Nounai Kanojo)
Game site: 女装学園（妊）
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
It was a sudden confession. Kento’s classmate Aoi was like an unattainable flower whom he could only watch from afar. Now, Aoi stood in front of him in the classroom at night. “I love you! Please go out with me!” He couldn’t imagine that it would finally be his turn to get a girlfriend. He was convinced that he wasn’t that popular and it must be a punishment game, he ran away in confusion.

The next morning, the principal made an abrupt revelation: the school was actually a boys’ school! The cute kouhai in his club. The pretty, but delinquent-like senpai. Yes, that ‘girl’ who confessed to him last night too. They’re all guys!

Itsuki’s heterochromia is tempting, but I know that it’s a trap. There’s even a yellow caution tape warning me. I’m staying far far away from this dangerous area.

Oh hot. Finally a game for me! I assume blue trap is uke while red is seme, and blonde traffic light can be both, I sure can’t wait to find out!

I’m holding you to your word here and making you play this when it comes out.

Please, have mercy on my pure soul!

OP song

Sekai o Sukuu Dake no Kantan na Oshigoto

Company: ロゼブル (Rosebleu)
Game site: 世界を救うだけの簡単なお仕事
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
Arata is a hot-blooded guy who aims to become a hero and runs about every day helping others along with his osananajimi Akari. One day, he received a mail looking for heroes to save the world. He thought it was just spam, but it was actually a genuine contract mail. His room became a gate to another world Ragnagia and an epic adventure full of laughs and tears awaited them… or so he thought.

It took a mere day for him to defeat the maou and save the world. After hearing the ending theme play, seeing the credits roll by and a short epilogue, the gate to the other world shut and it was the end of this story.

However, when he returned to his room he received the same mail as before and the gates to Ragnagia opened once more. It seemed that the maou would reappear after a set period. When he arrived at the maou’s castle, he discovered that the new maou Ciel was useless. He helped her instead of attacking her and she fell in love with him at first sight.

When he and Akari returned victorious, they found out that they couldn’t return back to their original world. So, they continued their hero duties while looking for a way home. Will they be able to do so? And what is the meaning behind the respawning maou?

This sounds like a meta fantasy game, similar to Futsuno Fantasy. It’s written by those that worked on Tiny Dungeon, so comedy should be no problem. However, I’m not really interested in the setting nor the characters. Pass.

While it is nice to see the Tiny Dungeon group back to work on something new and similar, the story just doesn’t hold water. While Tiny Dungeon itself was nothing special story wise at the very least there was more charm than a completely generic fantasy setting forcing itself upon the reader. Honestly this could have been improved a lot by letting it be simple. For example, the first trip could have been dropped entirely, the maou issue could have turned out to be misunderstood and maybe he wants to set things right or something generic along those lines. Furthermore the protagonist should have been a little less over the top good guy, just simple little changes like that would help the Tiny Dungeon lightning strike twice. When it comes right down to it these games are meant to be simple and fun, which is difficult to enjoy when matters are needlessly complicated.

I wonder if eroge writers need to meet a word quota?

If so, that may explain why the industry has gone to hell for the most part.

Soushuu Senshinkan Gakuen Hachimyoujin: Ten no Toki

Company: light
Game site: 相州戦神館學園 八命陣 天之刻
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
This is the all-ages reverse port of the PSV title of the same name, which came out in July. It’s exactly the same, so there’s nothing new added. Unless you want to see what they replaced the H scenes with, there’s not really a point to play this.

Why anyone would want to play this is beyond me, what is the point in buying the same exact game twice, at least add on some fandisk stories on the end or something.

Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm

Company: sprite
Game site: 蒼の彼方のフォーリズム
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
In Masaya’s world, flying is as simple as riding a bike; all you need to do is strap on a pair of anti-graviton shoes. He used to be considered a child prodigy of the popular sport ‘flying circus’, but he stopped after suffering a crushing defeat. However, he regained his passion for the sport while teaching the transfer student Asuka how to fly. So, he returns to the sky, this time while holding Asuka’s hand. How high can they fly together?

I’ve played both of sprite/fairys’ games thanks to the great art and relaxing feel drawing me in, not to mention their OPs as well. As good as Imaimo was, it’s nice to see them make an 18+ title again. It’s a different set of writers from Koichoco, so I think the endings will turn out better this time. They’ve previously worked on Grisaia and Natsukumo. I’m not going to question how shoes can make you fly and take it at face value. I like sport themes, so I was really into Asuka’s first match against Reiko, cheering for her. The prodigy-turned-coach theme kinda reminds me of Sensuibu!, among others. The heroines are all really charming and I’m definitely going to play all the routes!

Canvas2 with booties instead of paintbrushes, and minus the tiresome and poorly written student council election of earth shattering importance from KoiChoco.

Perfect! I enjoyed Canvas2 a lot and didn’t care much for the election part in Koichoco.

Well… when you put it that way both apply to me as well, but my implication was how poorly written Canvas2 was. Sure it was better than games today, but it was painfully obvious they had zero understanding of their subject matter. In this case I expect a similar attempt for the protagonist, without the same quality of writing Canvas2 had.

Tengokuhime ~Shinsei Tairan Soukai no Hasha-tachi~

Company: げーせん18 (Gesen18)
Game site: 天極姫 ～新世大乱・双界の覇者達～
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
This is the latest title in Gesen18’s heroine-laden Gokuhime series. It is a crossover work featuring heroines from their previous games Sengokuhime (set in the Sengoku period) and Sangokuhime (based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms).

The main change is that the battle system is now real-time. As a result, you’ll have to note the movement speed of armies, in addition to their attack powers. This allows more strategies to be implemented by the player on the battlefield. Since this is meant to appeal to existing fans, I’ll be passing.

One day someone will make an eroge with gameplay worth playing. Maybe someone in Japan will play The Banner Saga and cringe at how a western game can outdo them at their own specialty. Hopefully leading them to decide to make games where the gameplay is worth playing, and the stories worth reading. Let us pray.

System

Minamijuujisei Renka

Company: すたじお緑茶 (Studio Ryokucha)
Game site: 南十字星恋歌
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
Ryousuke’s twin imoutos Rena and Rina are geniuses who had already finished all their university courses and now work at the research facility at the southern island nation of Guinberne. He was worried about them, wondering if they would overwork themselves and fall down. So, he decided to transfer to a school in Guinberne, where he was put into the ‘special treatment’ class full of peculiar students.

Four months ago I wrote: “I can’t wait for this to come out! Here’s hoping it won’t get delayed for many months just like Koisora and Koisora FD did! ><” Anyways…

The trial feels just like Koisora!! Well, it sure starts the same way with the protagonist being chased by a weapon-wielding blond-haired tsundere and ends up seeking refuge in a room with another girl. Actually, that’s not a bad thing. Ruchie art, animated SDs by Hirose Madoka, plenty of comedy. I expect a good common route, but hope that the individual routes will be much better this time. I like how the trial isn’t just the common route, but Studio Ryokucha took the extra effort to add some additional content.

Since this is a chara-ge, of course I need to talk about the characters! There’s the seemingly refined princess Kanori, the chibi ‘knight’ Elise, the loose senpai Mitsuki and the cool itoko Miyako. And of course the twin imoutos Rena and Rina who are adorable. However, the one that captured my heart is the cheerful and playful kouhai Sakuya who makes friends really easily, is extremely curious, loves pulling pranks and a super computer whiz! She’s basically my type and reminds me a lot of Aya from Koisora! With her around, I won’t ever have a boring moment! Hau~ omochikaeri~!

Suffers from the same problems that Koisora had, sort of decent comedic writing, poorly imagined and researched but well fleshed out setting, plus terrible story and character development. Following the same line, with nonsense sisters number 1 and 2 to replace nonsense assassin and the random weapon wielding power ranger wannabe menagerie of extended heroine cast. I had hoped this company would learn they have no talent for writing a plot beyond a high school romance comedy, anything and everything that includes elements foreign to this should be out of bounds as it becomes far too complicated for their feeble grey matter to comprehend. I am sure everyone reading this would have enough sense to not attempt running Crysis on a 286, why can’t they reach the same common sense conclusion? If they stopped even trying to add in extra junk to their stories, the games might actually be good from start to end, not simply fun for the early parts of the game then an utterly disappointing train wreck of awful for the latter parts. On that note, using similar openings kind of ruins it, and I henceforth remove all credit I gave them for having a more unique opening to introduce the various characters than the usual eroge with KoiSora.

Kanojo ga Ore ni Kureta Mono. Ore ga Kanojo ni Ageru Mono.

Company: onomatope*
Game site: 彼女が俺にくれたもの。俺が彼女にあげるもの。
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
Mikado is a normal guy who longs for a harem and bringing happiness to all the girls in the world. Since this requires lots of money, he spends every day and night doing part-time jobs. His mad scientist and hikikomori imouto Tsubasa was worried about her dear brother neglecting his studies. So, she created the ultimate sleep-studying device Pandora to help him, resulting in him having lots of information from the net downloaded into his brain.

At that time, a beautiful girl Carrot transferred into his class. After hearing her refined greeting, he knew from her name that she was the princess of a certain country. With her true identity suddenly made public, she became really close to him and his surroundings began to change.

This is the third game in onomatope*’s harem-centric Mecha-kon! series. The concept is split into two parts: lovers and bride (family). It has a ‘family chat system’ WIRED (kinda like LINE), as well as a ‘girls talk scene’ (reminiscent of HOOKSOFT’s girly talking). Not only are the heroines available, but there’s routes for subheroines as well.

Shiratama’s one of my fav artists, so that makes me want to play onomatope*’s games no matter how ridiculous the plots are. I still need to get around to playing Sakura NoReply… The SDs by Hoshikuzu no Yoru are also pretty good. Imouto Tsubasa and hamster-like osananajimi Arisu are my heroines of choice. What is that fish that she’s holding!?

Carrot. Yes, Carrot. I suppose if Mr. Italian plumber has his fruity princess, Mikado can have a vegetable princess. Probably rather descriptive of her attraction and intelligence anyway, as the sole reason for her existence is to be plucked by this Sugisaki wannabe. If I didn’t know any better, I would think Japan was growing princesses with how often they show up in eroge, at this point it is nearing a one in five chance that anything female is the princess of some European country I have for some reason never heard of. This princess game however is about as useful as a square watermelon, all gimmick and no substance.

WTF THERE ARE SQUARE WATERMELONS!?

Ask Japan, not me, I mean they managed to make a girl shaped carrot, why not a square watermelon?

Mayoeru Futari to Sekai no Subete

Company: Lass
Game site: 迷える2人とセカイのすべて
Release date: September 26, 2014
Comments:
For the last ten-plus years, Kazuma has been seeing a repeated dream. In this dream, his younger self met a beautiful elf in the forest, who put the pendant that she was wearing in his hand and wished for him to save her daughter in the future. Even though it felt like just a dream, the pendant which he held was indeed real. However, he had never met the elf nor her daughter, and now continues to spend his days as a normal student in the boarding school Kuondai Gakuen.

One time, he noticed a blonde girl staggering about at the top of the stairs. She fainted, but he was able to catch her in the nick of time. It appeared that he was the only one who could see her. Then, he remembered one of the school’s seven mysteries: “There is an invisible girl wandering about the school.”

Not only can Kazuma see the small elven girl Vier, but one can also see her using a special smartphone which can see spirits. She takes a liking to him and always stays by his side, calling him ‘papa’. Then, he also has an imouto-like osananajimi Otoha (CV: Ogura Yui). Youta’s art is pretty, but hopefully the story by first timer Shimokitazawa Daisuke won’t leave a bitter aftertaste like in Shoujo∞Shoujo. Kazuma looks like a typical chuuni protagonist and there’s some tarot card battles involved. I’ll keep my eye on it, but won’t have too high expectations. The OP is one of the best I’ve seen this year though.

While it should be obvious to anyone familiar with my preferences, I cannot help but feel completely ambivalent towards loli elf girl. Aside from the pointless loli aspect, there is no reason for the reader to care, no investment or attachment beyond what the game tells you to feel. Part of it stems from binding the story to a school yet choosing a contrasting theme such as elves, what made them think that was a good idea is beyond me. Maybe if they chose some remote village in a fantasy setting there may not have been the need to suspend disbelief to the extent one must question the authors intelligence. As is however there is no need for the loli to be an elf save for fetish appeal. She could just as easily have been a space monster from mars, or a cell phone app AI for preemptively arresting pedophiles. Just throwing a random theme at a game to spice things up shows how little care has been put into writing quality characters along with the story and settings to surround them.

Micchi’s Top 7 for This Month

1. Minamijuujisei Renka
2. Onii-chan, Migite no Shiyou o Kinshi Shimasu!
3. Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm
4. Nanairo Reincarnation
5. Unmei Senjou no φ
6. Yakimochi Stream
7. Mayoeru Futari to Sekai no Subete

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Josou Gakuen (Nin)
2. Josou Gakuen (Nin)
3. Josou Gakuen (Nin)

Bring on Minakoi!! I’m more than ready for it~

I’ll just go back to playing Banner Saga, thanks September for disappointing my frail and innocent heart.

I’ll let you know when Josou Gakuen (Nin) is out.

Gee thanks, whatever would I do without you onii-chan.

Gesen18 has announced their next title, Sengo Muramasa. It will come out in December.

Kimi no Tonari de Koi Shiteru! has been set for November 28th, while sprite’s Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm has been delayed to November 28th.

Yumi won the Nanairo Reincarnation chara poll, while Ayako edged out Celia in the Walroma chara poll. The ninth Sengoku Koihime chara poll has started up and runs until September 19th. The theme is Health and Sports Day.

The Hello Lady! visual fan book will be on shelves on December 19th at ￥2500. Since the fandisk is also coming out on the same day, the complete book will include two if routes for Mitori and Mori.

Kotobukiya has a 1/8 scale figure of Shining Blade‘s Xiaomei and Rinrin coming out in January for ￥9000. ORCA TOYS is making a 1/6 scale figure of TH2‘s Tamaki twister game temptation ver. (February, ￥13,800). Who thinks these up…??

The dakimakuras for PRETTY×CATION‘s Komachi and Koinaka‘s Mai are now available for preorder.

It seems that Twitpic is shutting down on September 25th. I had been previously using this service to post pics to Twitter, but I’ll now be using Twitter’s picture attachment, except for spoiler and NSFW images, which will be uploaded using iWTF.

September 2nd was this blog’s 6th anniversary. Thank you for your continued support! Imouto love forever!

YuzuSoft has announced their next title: Sanoba Witch -Sabbat of the Witch-. It is scheduled for February 27th. Kiritani Hana voices main heroine Nene, while Haruka Sora voices Meguru. I’m wondering who Kurosaki Sora (Tsumugi) and Akishina Manasa (Touko) are… Could one of them be Agumi Oto??? They’ve also planned four character song albums to be released over the next two months. They’re sure fast on that!

The following titles have been delayed:

Mayoeru Futari to Sekai no Subete – October 31st
Tropical Vacation – October 31st
Unmei Senjou no Φ – October 31st
Bunny Paradise – November 28th
PENDULUM – November 28th

The Hanamaou and AstralAir chara polls have started up and run until September 23rd and October 12th, respectively. Which loli will you be supporting?

The Haruno visual fan book comes out on October 27th for ￥2800.

Kotobukiya has a 1/6 scale figure of Grisaia‘s Amane on sale ahead of the anime this October. It is priced at ￥11,000 and ships in February. Other figures available for preorder include:

Kotobukiya – non-scale Cu-poche Hibiki (im@s, February, ￥4200)
Penguin Parade – 1/8 scale Celia (Walroma, February, ￥10,000)

The D.C.III LINE stamps are finally out! CIRCUS is also making sets for D.C. and D.C.II.

I’ve been playing Satsukoi this week and finished Ruri and Nao. Both stories had good moments, but I don’t think they were all that well-written. At least, Nao wasn’t annoying as she originally felt to me when I played the trial. Now finally Yuu!

Webclap responses:

Hello Micchi, I was wondering are you a native Japanese speaker or did you learn how to read and speak it? If you learned how to speak Japanese how did you learn it?
Sorry for bad English, it is my second language. by Jin
Thank you for your question. No, I’m not a native speaker. I first started learning Japanese in high school and took courses through university. It’s important to learn the basics and grammar properly. I now continue to keep up by reading every day and expanding my vocabulary. Unfortunately, I don’t have much opportunity to practice my speaking.

SAGA PLANETS has announced their next title: Hanasaki Workspring!! It seems like this one will be strictly a chara-ge, and all of the heroines look good to me. Of course, I’m drawn immediately to love-struck twintailed kouhai Hikari. She’s definitely an angel! I’d love to taste her sweets!

Other new titles announced this week include:

Croix Soft – Palette☆Style -Loyalty of valet-
Innocent Grey – FLOWERS Natsu-hen
Minato Carnival – Anekouji Naoko to Giniro no Shinigami
MOONSTONE – Natsu no Iro no Nostalgia
PeasSoft – Mainichi ga Harem Sugite Ouji wa Hime o Himerarenai!
Puchi Usa – Kishikano

Release dates have been set for the following:

Kami no Ue no Mahoutsukai – December 19th
Natsu Kagura – December 19th
Haru Kiss – January 30th

FIRE WORKS’ Doushite, Sonna ni Kuroi Kami ga Suki Nano? has been delayed to October 31st.

Nina won the Chiccha Love Apart chara poll and gets a commemorative wallpaper. Also victorious was Zakuro in the ninth Sengoku Koihime chara poll. Her ‘Health and Sports Day’-themed wallpaper will be out on October 10th.

The PRIMAL×HEARTS and Koinaka chara polls are currently running until September 30th and October 6th, respectively.

key’s planetarian is on Steam in both English and Japanese via Sekai Project. It’s priced at $10.

The start of the fall anime season is getting closer, and there will be four eroge adaptations: Fate, Daito, Grisaia and Waremete. August has also announced the Vita port Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai -Library Party-, which will include the original game, fandisc and spinoff. It is scheduled for February 12th.

The September append for PRETTY×CATION is available for download on hibiki works’ site. The second raburabu birthday collection (Nozomi) will be coming out on October 24th.

A week later on October 31st, the Daemon Busters complete sound album will be on shelves.

Happy birthday Yuuri and Hanako!

I had lots of time the past week to play eroge, so I finished up Yuu’s route in Satsukoi, played with Nozomi in PRETTY×CATION and fought off a worthy siscon for Miki in Dekinai Watashi ga, Kurikaesu. I liked how Yuu’s route brought all the characters back together in different ways from Ruri and Nao’s routes. It was definitely the highlight of the game. There’s not much to say about Nozomi, aside from that I wished there was a shimaidon with Sakura. Miki’s route was pretty good, but too short. I need more Miki!

light is making a pair of new games in celebration of their 15th anniversary: Silverio Vendetta and Soushuu Senshinkan Gakuen Bansenjin.

Other new titles announced this week include:

eRONDO – Koinaka FD
Whirlpool – Kujiragami no Tear Stilla

Release dates have been set for the following:

Kishikano – January 30th
Mainichi ga Harem Sugite Ore wa Yome o Kimerarenai! – January 30th
Natsu no Iro no Nostalgia – January 30th

The Natsu Kagura and Himawari to Koi no Kioku OSTs will both be on shelves on December 19th.

The PS4 port for Anoore will be out on December 18th. I believe it’s the same as the PSV version.

Nendoroid Tina (Sakusaku), which first came out at C86, is now available for preorder from GSC for ￥4630. It ships in January. Broccoli also has two 1/8 scale figures coming out from YuzuSoft games: Amairo‘s Shirley (January, ￥9800) and DRACU-RIOT‘s Miu (February, ￥12,000). Other figures available for preorder include:

ALTER – 1/8 scale Alisia (DT2, December, ￥10,800)
Penguin Parade – 1/8 scale Akane (Walroma, March, ￥9000)

ULURU-SAMA BANZAI! ULURU-SAMA BANZAI!

I’ve been playing through October trials this week, with Mayosube being my favourite so far. They’ve got a good cast and the story, while clichéd, is entertaining. Doukuro was also surprisingly not bad. Sakuya sure knows a lot about sex. As for this week, well… let’s just say that I won’t be using my right hand.

Whirlpool’s Kujiragami no Tear Stilla and AkabeiSoft2’s Boku no Hitori Sensou have both been set for February 27th.

The following titles have been delayed:

1/7 no Mahoutsukai – January 30th
Magical Canan 2 – January 30th

The tenth Sengoku Koihime chara poll has started up and runs until October 17th. The theme this time is fall leaves viewing.

Enterbrain has a pair of visual fan books coming out in the next month: Majo Koi Nikki on October 31st, and Prism◇Recollection on November 7th.

Xbox One title Chaos;Child has been delayed to December 18th, while Konosora CRUISE SIGN has been pushed back to an indefinite date due to quality issues.

New figures available for preorder this week include:

ORCA TOYS – 1/5 scale Sasara bunny ver. (TH2, April, ￥13,800)
WAVE – 1/10 scale Feena (Yoake, March, ￥6400)

To commemorative her victory in one of the chara polls, Sengoku Koihime‘s Hina is getting a dakimakura. You have a month to preorder this pretty good-looking daki!

I’ve been pretty much booked all of the past week. I was prohibited from using my right hand for the first four days, then Minakoi arrived along with Sakuya-chan. Now I have some friends coming over for the weekend as well. It’s not easy being oniichan.

feng‘s next title will be Kanojo no Seiiki. That sounds too close to ‘seieki’. Anyways, it’ll be a low-priced title with three heroines: osananjimi Fuyuka, imouto Yukana, and classmate Maika.

The third chapter of ωstar’s Bishoujo Mangekyou series, Kami ga Tsukuritamouta Shoujotachi, has been set for January 30th, while the following titles have been delayed:

Hotarubi no Shoujo – November 28th
Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou 2 – December 19th

Mio topped the Koinaka chara poll, while Sera was also victorious in the PRIMAL×HEARTS chara poll. The Tendou-kai is well-presented though, with Haruhi, Kana and Michi taking the three spots after Sera. The second Monomono chara poll has started up and runs until October 20th.

The Iris art works (November 29th) will feature both Naisho no Naisho! and Shuki Shuki Daishuki!!.

The VenusBlood -HYPNO- OST will be on shelves on November 28th, with 63 total tracks over 3 CDs.

Broccoli has another Amairo figure coming out, this time a 1/8 scale Yune for ￥9800 in February. I’m hoping they make ones for Masaki and Airi as well. There’s also a 1/8 scale Sakura Saber figure from GSC (if you need more). She goes for ￥10,000 and ships in May.

Sekai Project has revealed their much-anticipated funding project to bring the Grisaia series over to the west. The goals is $40K for Kajitsu, with stretch goals of additional $40K each for Meikyuu and Rakuen, and a possible extra $30K for Chiruchiru☆Michiru. Read more about the details at their Prefundia page.

PSV port Hitotsu Tobashi Renai V has been set for a January 29th release date. There’ll be two new heroines Asuha and Ikuru, who are the daughters of your homeroom teacher Machi. That sounds like fair game for me.

Dakimakuras are available for preorder for Hoshiori‘s Marika, Shuki Shuki Daishuki!!‘s Chikage and Koimari‘s Luriastis.

Happy turkey day! I’ll be away for the weekend with family, so Sakuya will have to wait till I get back for more fun.

The eroge world is full of mysteries. Why do aliens keep attacking Earth? Why do the protagonist’s parents always end up overseas if they’re not dead? This month you can explore the island of illusion in Lump of Sugar’s Unmei Senjou no φ, solve a series of disappearances in Cabbit’s Hakoniwa Logic, or discover the school’s seven mysteries in Lass’ Mayoeru Futari to Sekai no Subete.

Pretty dull month overall, where the only games I may play are delays from previous months. The rest are either boring or just plain terrible. Oh well these months happen and at least it is short enough to meet Micchi’s preferences, better luck next month eroge industry.

Starlight★Idol -COLORFUL TOP STAGE!-

Company: FOUNDATION
Game site: すたーらいと★アイドル -COLORFUL TOP STAGE！-
Release date: October 24, 2014
Comments:
Yuuichi is a producer-in-training who is entering his third year at Mion Gakuen, a school created to find and develop talent for arts and entertainment. As is the custom, he was put in charge of an idol group: the prominent 5-person idol unit CRESCENT. However, the members are all peculiar in their own ways. Even though they each have great individual ability, there was no group unity. He seeked to solve their worries with the help of his best friend Kazutoshi and Katou-sensei, so that the girls can both mature individually and develop together as a group. Their goal is to perform on the biggest final stage ‘live alive’.

Overall, I did not like the trial at all. The writing was awkward, flipping between high and low moments too quickly. It was hard to take the drama seriously when there was hardly any development and the arguments seem so petty (e.g. mistaken double booking). At certain moments, they also tried to tell the story from the perspective of each member, but it just came off as boring and repetitive. Yuuichi is pretty useless and gets bossed around by the group leader Nozomi all the time. We’re supposed to pity him since he got in an accident? It wasn’t even to protect imoutos! I guess he tries his best, but he’s so reckless. The seiyuus don’t sound that good, as most of them have only done nukige. I couldn’t bring myself to like any of the characters, in particular Nozomi who is too pushy and only cares about herself.

I wouldn’t expect a good quality game here as FOUNDATION can’t even spell the name of the idol group correctly. They often call them CRECSENT and CRSCENT. Where’s the quality control?

Idol games tend to be more about the fantasy of delving into the loose panties of your favorite Justin Bieberette than having any sort of logical thought process, or character development, or even characters attempting to at least pretend they have an existence beyond their CG sets created with bad cosplay, a pair of sharp scissors, and an LSD induced color palette. Beneath all the glitter and setting where you totally get to hop into bed with that singing bimbo who makes your pants tight from all her seductive rhythmic hip and chest gyrations is a whole lot of nothing. Basically a faithful rendition of the talent that goes into these groups and general pop artists, along with the fandom who unfortunately continue to buy into it in the hopes thine fair maiden will swoop down from up on high and whisk them away for a life of hedonistic pleasure once she realizes she loves him more than every other gullible, desperate, and unattractive basement troll since he happened to buy every piece of cheap merchandise with her name on it better than they did.

Justin Bieberette…

Yup, that’s the legendary heroine of idol games that all strive to be.

Busou Shoujotai Blade☆Briders

Company: ALICESOFT
Game site: 武想少女隊ぶれいど☆ブライダーズ
Release date: October 24, 2014
Comments:
In the late 21st century, humankind came under a fierce attack from aliens who suddenly appeared via wormholes. They were helpless to fight against them and resigned themselves to imminent death. At that time, an ultimate weapon which could create items out of imagination was discovered in a expansive cave under Japan, along with its young master Ryuusei who was in cryostasis. The indiscriminate alien attacks awoke him and he led the humans to a decisive victory.

One year later, while the areas which had been destroyed by the aliens were still being rebuilt, Ryuusei was appointed as the commander of the newly-formed Defence Force of Earth, which was created to fight against space invaders. However, he was the only person who could use the ‘imagination embodiment device’. If something was to happen to him, then calamity would befall the world. So the Defence Force of Earth decided to recruit girls with potential to fight alongside him. Even though they hesitated at first, they each had their own reasons to join Ryuusei. Thus, the special force ‘Blade Briders’ was formed, to protect the Earth against the aliens who have returned.

Blade Briders is a simulation RPG where you have to repel wave after wave of alien attacks. When you’re not being attacked, you can expand your city to strengthen your defences. Of course, Ryuusei’s imagination embodiment device can also boost the abilities of each girl, give them special abilities and a new look as well. It seems to be catering to tokusatsu fans. It’s pretty much a typical ALICESOFT game, so you’d know if you’re interested in the first place. I’ll be passing on this since there’s plenty of games I’m interested in coming out in the next few months.

Sometime in the future aliens invade as they are known to do, random protagonist gets woken up only to find out he is the only hope of the world, so to appease his newly discovered cult messiah status he was given a harem. Now go do battle with arbitrary alien invasion with your boob platoon, just don’t expect a game, nor a novel of any sort, this is little more than the usual time waster CG bait most ero play games are.

Aneyome Quartet

Company: CandySoft
Game site: あねよめカルテット
Release date: October 31, 2014
Comments:
Kouki is the only child of the Hidaka household, which is very close to their next-door Hanabishi household. Since the two fathers were best friends, he was treated by the four beautiful Hanabishi sisters as their own little brother. One day, it was decided that both their parents would be heading overseas for business. The sisters’ father was worried about leaving them alone in the house, but Kouki assured him that he will take good care of them. Touched by his reliability, it was soon arranged that he’ll be the future leader of the Hanabishi group. It had always been planned, but originally they had wanted to wait until after his graduation from school. However, he must choose one of the sisters as his lifelong partner.

So, he ended up living with the sisters for the summer vacation. Yurina, who’s dependable at work, but lazy around the house. Momone, who loves him greatly and pampers him all the time. Saori, the almighty housemaid who’s also a hikikomori. Anzu, who thinks of him of nothing more than her own personal toy. Which of this older sister quartet will he choose as his bride?

CandySoft seems to love oneechan games, but only the youngest oneechan Anzu catches my eyes (probably since she’s more like an imouto). This is Hisasi’s first foray into the eroge industry as an illustrator. Most of the game will be about them tempting him with their bodies so that he will choose them. The set-up is nothing new, so unless you’re interested in a particular character or two, it’s probably better to skip this one.

I still dislike the concept of binding all the heroines into a single trait. Even when it is something I generally find favorable, actually even more so in that case, the degree to which it cheapens the entire game just makes them so boring to me. Since it has been awhile probably, I will state yet again why I feel that way. Much of the point of a singular characteristic when designing a character is to provide them with something unique to stand against other heroines, both to provide a something for everyone buffet for the protagonist to choose from, as well as to create an atmosphere to the setting where all the characters interact in a diverse way, for that refreshing minty feeling that follows every new scene. When creating a game that forces all heroines to carry a single primary identification, the only differences are gimmicky side traits glued or stapled onto the main theme all five or so character designs are based on. So in this case if you happen to enjoy the older sister archetype you are left with five bland versions of that same theme doing the same thing. Instead you could have one well thought out multifaceted older sister heroine who stands out in a clear role and contrast to other heroines, bringing better development and character interaction to the game. What I’m getting at is this game will almost certainly be duller than a rusty spoon wielded by a lazy sloth, whether you enjoy the older sisters or not.

Doushite, Sonna ni Kuroi Kami ga Suki nano?

Company: ファイヤワークス (FIRE WORKS)
Game site: どうして、そんなに黒い髪が好きなの？
Release date: October 31, 2014
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from September. This is the first title by FIRE WORKS. Why does the protagonist like black hair so much? Well, there’s no need to have a reason, but it might have had something to do with his surroundings during childhood. As the heir to a shrine, he had been surrounded by black-haired women for as long as he could remember. You could say it was in his blood.

Thus, it’s only natural that a beautiful black-haired girl would appear before him when he was about to freeze to death. He was captivated by her beauty and thought to himself that if he was going to die, he would marry a black-haired bishoujo like her. So, he proposed to her on the spot.

Many months later after he had miraculously survived, the girl Ichou, who was one of the gods of marriage, returned to become his bride. His miko osananajimi Urara would not accept their relationship, but he could not turn down a request from a black-haired lady, especially one who had saved his life. Afterwards, they were joined by Ichou’s imouto Sakuya and the self-proclaimed shinigami-possessed (chuuni) Mizuha. Surrounded by black-haired girls, the odds of his wish being fulfilled look bright.

Their hair doesn’t look black! They look like dark blue or purple! I find it interesting that while hair colour can usually hint at a character’s personality, just their hairstyle alone can have the same effect. Maybe I’m just partial to twintails. Other than the hair colour difference, it is your typical shuraba comedy. Scenario writer Touta worked on ensemble’s Ojonana. I like the OP song.

Okay, so I like black hair, it is my favorite hair color, but is there a need to even make that a central focus, a driving point for the protagonist? Let us for example say the protagonist did not have or at least express any sort of sexual fetish for hair color, and the heroines remained as they are. Does anything actually need to change to suit this? Nope, not a thing save the protagonist and game itself would feel more likable and easier to identify with, all while the heroines are less about mannequins with wigs that make him high and horny, instead just characters who simply have, heaven forbid, a common Asian hair color. If people happen to like black hair on heroines, I would assume they are not blind and are able to see that elegant, luscious, silky, shimmering black hair features quite prominently with a single glance at the cover.

I prefer Skittles.

Dark chocolate is way better than the diabetes rainbow.

The trial was surprisingly interesting to play. Even though there’s plenty of comedy, there’s a serious side to the game as well. Ichou is clearly the main heroine and they have no experience in love. The first few choices are for love, ero or step-up (H). Depending on what you choose, they’ll hold hands for the first time, go for a walk, write love poems, and other little moments to further their relationship. If you don’t consummate the marriage before a time limit, then you’ll get a bad end (for a good reason). Sakuya would appease the do-Ms out there. Also, I recommend playing in windowed mode since the full screen mode makes everything pixelated. This game looks promising for this month.

Himegoto Union Motto H! ~Kan no Yon Himeria no Love Mori Sweet Album~

Company: SEVEN WONDER
Game site: ひめごとユニオン もーっとH！ ～巻ノ四 ヒメリアのラブ盛りスイートアルバム～
Release date: October 31, 2014
Comments:
This is the fourth and final mini fandisc for Himegoto Union. Saizou and Himeria enjoyed their time together after openly becoming a couple. In the midst of these fulfilling days, Himeria continues her goal of collecting all five star cards. However, a sixth star card appeared unexpectedly. The test from the protection star beast Nanoka was different from the others: to solve the riddle of ‘something which feels good’. Then, Himeria’s rival Diane also joined into the trial.

The imouto turned into a star beast!? Well, Nanoka still takes the form of a small girl. This marks the end of the Himegoto Union series, so SEVEN WONDER can go back to making new games.

At this point I wonder if they forgot how to make new games, and not these trite Circus games.

Daemon Busters ~Ecchi na Ecchi na Daemon Taiji~

Company: MOONSTONE Cherry
Game site: デーモンバスターズ ～えっちなえっちなデーモン退治～
Release date: October 31, 2014
Comments:
Kou is a member of the public morals committee at Moriyaji Gakuen, along with his osananajimi Ai and kouhai Karen. One day while he was making the rounds after school, he was attacked by a weird being. He was frozen in fear and could not evade its attack, but he was saved by two girls, Konoka and Lizera. They were ‘daemon busters’ who fight against daemons borne from the lust and cravings of humans. They told him that he was a kyuumashi who could absorb the desires that create daemons, and they asked for his help since his special ability makes their battles much easier. When he uses his ability, it causes him to be able to see girls naked and also makes them horny. If the daemons aren’t defeated, then their lust will cause the whole school to become an orgy. As part of the public morals committee, he can’t let that happen!

MOONSTONE Cherry never fails to deliver with their ero-centric games. No one cares about the story, when you have lots of H scenes complete with animation and climax counters. There’s even internal shots if you’re into that kinda thing. The whole daemon battling thing is more of a joke. Karen’s my favourite here, although his bokukko imouto Tomoko also gets a route thanks to a tokuten patch.

Correct me if I am wrong here, but considering the lack of anything worth calling a story or characters less interesting than a political debate centered around economics, I would think the entire point of this game is to let the school to devolve into a giant orgy. I mean other than the CG and sound effects behind them there doesn’t seem to be much of a point to the game so anyone who feels like playing it is probably doing so specifically for the ero content and not to satisfy their craving for Shakespearean drama. So for my part please Moonstone Cherry, stop trying to coquettishly hide the games naughty bits as though ashamed someone might realize your game is little more than some erotic CG images and moans, and embrace it, at least then the people who want that sort of thing in their game could have more content with less of that annoying text in their faces.

Tropical VACATION

Company: TWINKLE
Game site: トロピカルVACATION
Release date: October 31, 2014
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from September. The giant spa resort ALOHA has been a popular spot ever since its opening, with an endless line of customers. Then an even bigger spa resort COCKTAIL OCEAN opened up next door, with better facilities than ALOHA. However, it was not able to attract people away from the established ALOHA. In order to turn the tide and beat ALOHA, they asked the service-oriented Yakumo to help rebuild C.O..

So this is a spinoff of Tropical KISS, with the previous girls being the rivals. I wonder if we’ll see some cameos. The first game was decent due to its comedy and relaxed atmosphere, so I hope they won’t dwell too much on the business side. You’re at a resort! Check out the girls!

Changing the cast and setting to rivals from a previous game is both a good and bad thing. It is good to see things from another angle, but bad when you may like the other side you already know of better. This puts the game in a difficult position which may be more accessible to people who have not played the first game, as they can play it without feeling a little guilty over ruining what was built up the first time around. Unlike Micchi though, I would appreciate more focus on the business side, it allows for greater depth in the writing and character development, as well as offering a much needed break from the standard eroge antics. By mixing in other aspects to the setting such as the business, the moments the characters spend forming bonds become all the more poignant.

Unmei Senjou no φ

Company: Lump of Sugar
Game site: 運命線上のφ
Release date: October 31, 2014
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from September. The solitary island of Shintenjima is said to be an island of illusion, only mentioned in occult-like rumours. It does not fall under Japanese territory, nor is it owned by anyone else. No one knows who lives there, nor what lives they lead. It is an island shrouded completely in mystery.

Iori is a young man who doesn’t remember anything more than five years ago, but he has a link to the island. He received a letter summoning him to Shintenjima. He was greeted by the maid Linja and brought to the mansion Hourinkan. There he met the owner Karin, as well as the fellow guests, many of whom were around his age.

Surrounded by bishoujos in a suspicious mansion on a secluded island…. He had a feeling that something was going to happen.

Lump of Sugar’s latest work is written by the team that worked on Magicha. The game is compatible with tablets running Windows 8. It features two new systems: the ‘Fortune Divide System’ where you could use a sword in the interface to ‘cut’ the screen and reveal new choices (swipe the screen for tablets), and the ‘Detective Mode’ where you search for clues to solve a task (although you could always right click for the answers). There’s also a ‘touching mode’ where you um… touch girls and you can hear their reactions (dokidoki!). At first, it feels that this gameplay is a throwaway, but the use of the sword is actually vital to the progress of the story. There’s also a secret notebook and flowchart to help you along the way.

Just how important is the new system? It’s like night and day! If you’re playing the trial, don’t stop after completing the detective side! There’s another side of the story which is completely different. Start the game again from the very beginning and change your destiny! I thought the blademaster side was much more fun to read than the detective side, but there’s still many questions to be answered. The characters’ personalities don’t differ too much between the two sides. Karin is still a playful master and Nagisa is still an angel. I think this will be worth trying out!

Lump of Sugar games are all pretty much the same thing, so if you just want to replay their past games with a new and rather silly gimmick added on to use when making choices instead of just clicking along, but with a renaming of the same setting and plot elements I suppose this would be the game for you. I wish the eroge industry would stop and look at itself so that maybe, just maybe they might realize that it is not about how you tell the story, but about whether the story is worth telling in the first place.

Hakoniwa Logic

Company: Cabbit
Game site: 箱庭ロジック
Release date: October 31, 2014
Comments:
Arata is a student at Senba’s Tsurubane Gakuen. Modelled after the capital, the recently-built city of Senba is commonly referred to as the ‘miniature garden city’. Even though it is still small, the facilities are quite similar to what you find in downtown Tokyo and the population density is also quite high.

One day in October, he was summoned to the student council, Benizuru-kai. The student council president Shizuku asked him to investigate a string of mysterious incidents which have taken place in the city. There had been six students who have disappeared since April. With no eyewitness accounts, she suspected that it was a very widespread case. There was no link among the disappeared students and the school thought that it was strange as well and wanted an investigation into it. She told him that it would be enough if he would just pretend to do something about it.

He thought it was a bothersome task and was planning to turn her down, but for some reason she knew everything about the embarrassing chuuni novel which he had written before he moved to the city. Faced with blackmail, he had no choice but to accept her request.

He began the investigation with his only friend, extremely perverted kouhai Koko, whose best friend was among the six girls who disappeared. Then a mysterious girl Kirika suddenly appeared, all dressed like a detective (complete with cape), proclaiming that the incident was not a simple disappearance case and it was closely related to the city itself. She then asked him to unravel the city’s secrets with her.

Depending on whether you choose the mystery otaku Kirika or SM-fanatic Koko as your partner, the story progresses in a different manner. As you delve into the mystery and explore the city, you’ll meet many other characters and collect the ‘keys’ which can unlock more stories. The mystery set-up is somewhat interesting and the trial was decent. It’s written solely by Mikuriya Mikuri, who also penned the other two Cabbit titles (Midori no Umi, Kimisora) which were well-received. There’s a flowchart to help you in case you get stuck, as well as showing what points you need keys to proceed. Since Koko is voiced by Ogura Yui, there’s no question who I’d be choosing as my partner. I’d like her to leave the handcuffs at home though.

Of course we all know that the first thing to do when students begin to take their Houdini acts way too seriously and stop showing up to class is to call up another high school student to solve the case. Since we all know student councils act as a legally governing body that makes real decisions and have the sort of power to give responsibility over serious issues to other children, rather than ya know, someone with training, like a detective. Incredibly stupid premise requiring the reader to suspend disbelief so far it reaches orbit aside the game doesn’t particularly stand out. There just is not much content aside from the disappearances and detective theme that makes it any better or even any different to other eroge. So if all you care about is a cheesy and nonsensical detective story for the sake of it being a detective story there might be something to enjoy here, if not, you may as well play a game with a story that won’t make you wince out of pain and shame while reading.

Student councils hold the most power in eroge. You should know this by now.

Till the protagonist sleeps with them all and usurps their powers.

Kanojo to Ore to, Koisuru Resort

Company: PULLTOP LATTE
Game site: 彼女と俺と、恋するリゾート
Release date: October 31, 2014
Comments:
This is the double fandisc for Tototo and Koirizo, taking place a year after Koirizo with the Tototo cast visiting Rosemary Island Resort. There are after stories for all the characters, five 3P scenes (Ayano/Susuki, Tsukushi/Konoka, Yuuko/Chikage, Sango/Konami, Yuuhi/Nagisa) and routes for subcharas Yuuhi and Konami. There’s also a sun-tanned swimsuit patch. Enjoy your summer!

Hooray for fandisks.

Mayoeru Futari to Sekai no Subete

Company: Lass
Game site: 迷える2人とセカイのすべて
Release date: October 31, 2014
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from September. For the last ten-plus years, Kazuma has been seeing a repeated dream. In this dream, his younger self met a beautiful elf in the forest, who put the pendant that she was wearing in his hand and wished for him to save her daughter in the future. Even though it felt like just a dream, the pendant which he held was indeed real. However, he had never met the elf nor her daughter, and now continues to spend his days as a normal student in the boarding school Kuondai Gakuen.

One time, he noticed a blonde girl staggering about at the top of the stairs. She fainted, but he was able to catch her in the nick of time. It appeared that he was the only one who could see her. Then, he remembered one of the school’s seven mysteries: “There is an invisible girl wandering about the school.”

Not only can Kazuma see the small elven girl Vier, but one can also see her using a special smartphone (darkness cat) which can see spirits. She takes a liking to him and always stays by his side, calling him ‘papa’. Then, he also has an imouto-like osananajimi Otoha (CV: Ogura Yui). Youta’s art is pretty, but hopefully the story by first timer Shimokitazawa Daisuke won’t leave a bitter aftertaste like in Shoujo∞Shoujo. Kazuma looks like a typical chuuni protagonist and there’s some tarot card battles involved. I’ll keep my eye on it, but won’t have too high expectations. The OP is one of the best I’ve seen this year though.

While it should be obvious to anyone familiar with my preferences, I cannot help but feel completely ambivalent towards loli elf girl. Aside from the pointless loli aspect, there is no reason for the reader to care, no investment or attachment beyond what the game tells you to feel. Part of it stems from binding the story to a school yet choosing a contrasting theme such as elves, what made them think that was a good idea is beyond me. Maybe if they chose some remote village in a fantasy setting there may not have been the need to suspend disbelief to the extent one must question the authors intelligence. As is however there is no need for the loli to be an elf save for fetish appeal. She could just as easily have been a space monster from mars, or a cell phone app AI for preemptively arresting pedophiles. Just throwing a random theme at a game to spice things up shows how little care has been put into writing quality characters along with the story and settings to surround them.

Having played the trial, Mayosube has now shot up to the top of my list this month. Even though it is chuuni with special abilities and DRILLS (it’s a similar feel to 11eyes), I was drawn into the setting by the writing. What is the forbidden room? Who exactly is Vier and why can’t she leave the building? Sure, some things don’t seem to make sense early on, but at least it’s not boring. The music helps a lot in creating a feeling of suspense. It’s nice to have a cast which is likeable. I particularly liked Otoha and Suzuran… and of course, Vier. How can you not love a loli elf that calls you papa?

Koiharu Adolescence

Company: Eclair
Game site: 恋春アドレセンス
Release date: October 31, 2014
Comments:
This is the first title by Eclair. Spring has come once again for Kazuharu and he thoroughly enjoys his school life at Ouka Gakuen. However, he had once promised his osananajimi and older sister that he would ‘fall in love’. For many years now, he’d been called a good-for-nothing and chicken by girls around him. His freedom disappeared with the start of the new school year. He was surrounded by girls who tempt him at the school and at the worn-down dormitory Azuma-sou: his glutton osananajimi Kanae, miko senpai Matsuri, lewd imouto Chifuyu, self-proclaimed ‘good girl’ kouhai Miyu, and the stupid ghost Hiiragi who for some reason won’t go to heaven. It’s a daily life unlike any other. Let’s have an exceptional youth!

Although it’s written by a first-time writer Youka Nanoka and illustrated by first-timer root, the nice cast makes up for some of the shortcomings. It’s more of a comedy chara-ge, with a similar feel to HOOKSOFT’s LoverAble. The game is separated into two parts: common route and lover route. The event system and calendar allows you to easily gain enough affection to pursue the heroine of your choice. The protagonist is a total hetare, which might get on some people’s nerves since the girls boss him around all the time. They do repeat some jokes, like Kanae’s constant requests for marriage, Hiiragi’s obliviousness and Chifuyu’s dirty language (calling other girls lewd Holsteins). It’s a tragedy that Izumi doesn’t have a route. It should be fine to play it for a few laughs.

Not the best game. Not the worst game. Just another game. Not enough content here to stand above the crowd where the game is just another “Pathetic protagonist shoved into a situation outside of his control where girls will fawn over him in various ways thus making his life worth living again.” type of game. I suppose there is some appeal in the somewhat stronger personality traits, but all this means is that Eclair decided to scream into your ear with a megaphone that “This heroine has X silly flaw, she’s so unique isn’t she? I bet you can’t wait for her route eh? Nudge nudge wink wink.” rather than anything well written. Obnoxiousness while not always a bad thing when used appropriately does not instantly make bland single dimensional characters suddenly more appealing or give them added depth, try harder next time and maybe if you wish hard enough on a star you can make a real game Eclair, not this copy pasted mock up.

I think you’d like the oneechan chara, especially since there’s only one of them here.

Maybe, but without the game to back her up, she’s less appealing.

Micchi’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Mayoeru Futari to Sekai no Subete
2. Unmei Senjou no φ
3. Hakoniwa Logic

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Uhh…
2. Doushite, Sonna ni Kuroi Kami ga Suki nano?
3. … Maybe?

I’d love having a loli elf fall into my arms.

I would sprinkle her with miracle grow to ruin your day. On that note, back to farming in Archeage for me.

Long-running eroge magazine Dengeki Hime will be ending before the end of the year. It’s unsure whether this was due to the recent merger between the Kadokawa and Dwango groups (effective October 1st) and/or recent declining sales. It’s a shame since they’re usually bundled with some good tokutens, but this resulted in a higher cost. This means that TECH GIAN and PUSH!! are the two main monthly eroge magazines which remain, and readership for print media (not only in eroge circles) will only be harder to maintain in the future. Let’s hope for the best and support them if you can!

mintCUBE is a new sister company of CUBE, CUFFS and Sphere. Their debut title Ama Koi Syrups ~Hajirau Koigokoro de Shitaku Naru Amagami-sama no Koi Matsuri~ will come out on February 27th. The artists are Pan (Sakura NoReply) and Suimya (SDs for CUBE/Sphere).

Other new titles announced this week include:

Applique – Hana no No ni Saku Utakata no
SofthouseChara – Akuma Musume no Kanban Ryouri

Gesen18’s Sengo Muramasa has been set for February 27th.

Hifumi topped the 10th Sengoku Koihime (momiji-themed) chara poll. The commemorative wallpaper will come out on November 14th.

The bishoujo art collection for Komatsu E-ji (Planetarian), “Ichigo no Ko”, comes out on October 20th for ￥2750. Meanwhile, “q-o”, the first artbook from refeia (Sukimazakura), will be on shelves on December 18th for ￥2778.

All excited about Grisaia? How about picking up Kotobukiya’s 1/6 scale Michiru figure? She can be all yours for ￥11,000 this March. Other figures available for pre-order include:

ALTER – 1/8 scale Labrys (Persona4, January, ￥16,800)
quesQ – 1/8 scale Tutankhamun (Eiyuu＊Senki, February, ￥9800)

Now that the October post is finally done, I can have all the Elise-tan and Sakuya to myself… kekeke…

CIRCUS is going back in time with their next title: D.C.II Dearest Marriage. I’m looking forward to more Nanaka, Yume and (possibly) Mahiru!

Other titles announced this week include:

Amanoha – Ichibun no Ni Koigokoro
Escu:de – Re;Lord: Episode 2 -Cologne no Majo to Kuroneko-
FrontWing – Yuki Koi Melt
GIGA – Harvest OverRay Reconnection (December 19th)
Purple Software – Chrono Clock
SMEE – Pure×Connect
UnisonShift Blossom – Tokeijikake no Ley Line -Asagiri ni Chiru Hana- (January 30th)
WHITESOFT – Sakura Synchronicity (February 27th)

Release dates have been set for the following:

Idol Mahou Shoujo Chiruchiru☆Michiru Part 2 – December 26th
Lautes Alltags – January 30th
Sumire – January 30th
Soreyori no Prologue – February 27th
Hana no No ni Saku Utakata no – March 27th

The following titles have been delayed:

Prism Princess – December 26th
Kamitsure – February 27th

The Prism◇Recollection visual fan book will be on shelves on November 7th, followed by the Haruka Kanata visual fan book on November 27th.

ALTER and Kotobukiya are teaming up to produce figures for Tales of Zestiria‘s Alisha and Sorey. These 1/8 scale figures go for ￥10,000 each and come out in March and April, respectively. Other figures available for preorder this week include:

Daiki Kougyou – 1/6 scale Mio suntanned sukumizu ver. (Walroma, February, ￥14,000)
Kotobukiya – 1/6 scale Angel of Light Sakuya -Mode:Seraphim- (Shining Ark, March, ￥16,800)
Kotobukiya – 1/7 scale Irisdina (Schwarzesmarken, April, ￥8800)
Medicom Toy – real action heroes Rin (Fate, July, ￥23,600)
WAVE – 1/10 scale Chie (Persona4, May, ￥6200)
WAVE – 1/10 scale Mitsuru (Persona3, May, ￥6400)

Dakimakuras are available for preorder for Dekinai Watashi ga, Kurikaesu.‘s Shino, Hanamaou‘s Juuko, Rewrite‘s Kotori and Shizuru, and Little Busters!‘ Kud.

Finished up Sakuya, Mitsuki, Elise and Miyako’s routes in Minakoi. Each of them revealed a bit more about the story, which culminates in Kanori’s route. While the stories aren’t too involved, I’ve enjoyed them so far. I’ll be heading out for a weekend trip in Montréal, so the princess will have to wait for me~