It’s been a while since YuzuSoft has released a title and I’m sure most people are eager to get their hands on Amairo＊IsleNauts. The lighthearted setting on a floating island isn’t the only one for this month as Heart’s Koisaku Miyako ni Ai no Yakusoku o also has the same setting. If you’re looking for a promising story, check out COSMIC CUTE’s Gleamgarden no Shoujo about a society with witches able to bring disaster to the world. Navel’s sequel for Tsukioto, Otome Riron no Sono Shuuhen, focusing on the imouto Resona, also comes out this month. There’s an after story for Luna too, in case you’re wondering.
First I apologize for delaying the post an extra three days for being busy otherwise a dull month full of new companies and anti-gravity for things aside from girls chests. Even for the few games I will play I am not too hopeful this month sadly.
3-nin Iru! ~Happy Wedding in Livingroom~
Company: riffraff
Game site: 3人いる！ ～Happy Wedding in Livingroom～
Release date: July 26, 2013
Comments:
In the midst of a recession, Atsuyuki spent every day attending university and doing part-time jobs to pay off his tuition and living expenses. Of course, he had no time to get a girlfriend nor go out with his friends. However, his part-time job suddenly disappeared and he no longer had a source of income. He was at a loss of how to accrue so much money to cover his expenses.
Returning home for a visit, his uncle recommended a live-in part-time job to him. He quickly jumped at the opportunity which offered both money and a place to live. Arriving at a fine new single house, he was greeted by three girls who introduced themselves as their wife! Just what kind of part-time job was this!? It was for researching newly-wed families, but what was he supposed to do!?
Well of course you have lots of fun in bed (with all 3 of them) and have them cook for you in hadaka apron. What more is there to study? Maybe we should have all the wives be imoutos and kouhais. There’s only one among the three here (Nagisa). I don’t really like her outfit though; what’s with the focus on her chest. You’d think they’d do that for Reiri instead. If you want a harem end, you should check this out.
I was pretty ok with this being a standard game without doing anything special or especially wrong until the whole three girls and newly wed research bit. As anyone can see not much effort was put into bringing the characters together so I can’t imagine much more than an extra verbose nukige here for the CG set.
yes, your highness
Company: ひまわり (Himawari)
Game site: yes，your highness
Release date: June 28, 2013
Comments:
This is the Himawari’s debut title. A war had continued for a long long time in a certain country. With peace and order lost, it was no longer the happiest country in the world and poor people filled the streets. It had become difficult for people to see hope in their futures. At that time, Munakata was called the hero of the country – never having suffered a defeat in any battle. The new post which was bestowed upon him was not in the blood-stained and mud-caked battlefield, but rather in a faintly-fragrant and extravagantly-decorated mansion. His duty was to protect the royal princess Sakurako while she spends her days sheltered away from the outside world.
It’s not often you see a full-priced game featuring only one heroine. However, this means that they can put all their best efforts into making a fleshed out story. The scenario writer is Tamasawa Tsubura, who mainly works on Astronauts, Dandelion and Atelier Kaguya titles, none of which I would really say were top-class. Sakurako is childish and selfish, like any sheltered princess. She also doesn’t like soldiers like him, however it seems like she does worry about him and his recurring nightmares.
There could have been a lot more to this game, alter the post for the protagonist to be the new commander of the royal guard at the main palace or castle or whatever, along with more heroines to choose from. Provide the protagonist with real choices that affect the development of the characters and setting based on who he sides with or chooses and the game would have been significantly more interesting. With the decision to put all their eggs in one basket as an debut title they have already isolated anyone who feels their heroine is not up their alley, and keeping them from even wanting to buy the game. Not the best decision for a game, especially a debut in my opinion be that either as a business or creative decision, it does not bode well for the future of this company no matter how good their heroine and route are.
Mizukano! ~Mizugi no Kanojo to H Shiyo~
Company: エトワルズ (ETOILES)
Game site: みずカノ！ ～水着の彼女とHしよっ～
Release date: July 26, 2013
Comments:
In the future, the ice in the South Pole had melted, causing the global sea levels to rise. The popularity of swimsuits had exploded as people got accustomed to a life next to the sea. One of the top-selling swimsuit makers bought one of the new islands Takaojima and built a research school there. At this dormitory school, those who help out with creating new swimsuits do not have to pay a portion of their tuition.
Kaito returned to Takaojima, where he had once lived on when he was a child, on a personal request from his father to help collect impressions from girls trying out a new series of swimsuits planned for a competitive show. The results would be used to help develop better swimsuits. His father lent him a cat-shaped robot called Noritama, which is connected to the company internal network and has the special ability of breaking down swimsuits to the particle level and reforming them into new ones. Will he be able to create the best swimsuit ever with the girls’ help?
It’s summer! And what comes to mind first? Imoutos in swimsuits! Well, maybe for those few non-siscons out there, it’d just be swimsuits, but we can’t just get enough of those cute and sexy pieces of fabric! This game seems to have been made for the purpose of showcasing them. It was born out of LOVE for swimsuits! That being said, the trial was a bit shallow and the swimsuit changes are mainly cosmetic. The mouth syncing is not done well at all; I’d rather they turn it off. There are some comedic moments (the presentation is almost ASa Project style with the weird faces), but overall it’s not as interesting as other titles for this month. Those school uniforms are quite something though.
You know going along with the whole sea level rising idea could have produced any number of spinoffs so I have to ask why would they think of swimsuits? Why couldn’t they just as easily made it boats and turned it into a futuristic Venice type of city instead. It would be possibly to have just as much fanservice without the need for swimsuit companies to rule the world. Without any real story or room for character development and the entire concept being based on swimsuits I must wonder what the purpose of the game is. I suppose if you are only interested in girls wearing swimsuits this is an ideal title or you could just read something more captivating instead when most games have a trip to the beach anyway.
There’s already a game like that: Mercuria.
PV
Gangsta Republica
Company: WHITESOFT
Game site: ギャングスタ・リパブリカ
Release date: July 26, 2013
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from April. There once was a relatively unknown rumour that those who cannot cast aside the dirt from their hearts should visit that shop and they will meet friends one day. Most people did not pay attention to this vague rumour, but for those who hold a different disposition, this was how they found friends.
Kanae was in the ‘charity club’ room at Seitengi Gakuen, wondering if there was anything bad that was going to happen. The students and teachers did not view the noisy club as an official one, especially since he calls it the ‘gang club’ himself. The club’s slogan was to ‘change the world with evil’. For example, to play with kids and steal their valuable time as a child, or to help an old lady with her moving and to cheat her out of candy in return. That is their ‘evil’ and it is this ‘evil’ that makes the club members friends. Welcome to their Gangsta Republica.
The protagonist’s mental age is that of a grade schooler (the character description says so!), which makes sense that he would conceive such an outrageous thing. It’s just another form of chuunibyou… or is it shounibyou? I just can’t not question such a setting, especially when you throw in a genius imouto who skipped a ton of grades, studied overseas, then came back to become her oniichan’s homeroom teacher and club advisor. Even that’s too far-fetched for me. The story is written by Motonaga Masaki, so if you liked Nekonade, I guess you might like this too. I’ll be passing though.
Scary that companies are actually starting to come up with games that can make Micchi balk at the sheer absurdity of it all, quite the accomplishment that. Sadly my impression is that one would require a mental age approaching that of the protagonist in order to be able to actually enjoy such a story. Not only is the setting poorly rendered but the characters and story feel like something out of a comedic children’s story aimed at five year olds. Whitesoft tries so hard to come up with settings more in line with a rail or liar soft game, but frankly they are just so bad at it they need to give up and just make the normal moe charage everyone else does. Thats all their games amount to anyway the horrible settings they think up only make it worse.
Gleamgarden no Shoujo -witch in gleamgarden-
Company: COSMIC CUTE
Game site: グリムガーデンの少女 -witch in gleamgarden-
Release date: July 26, 2013
Comments:
There are girls in the world known as ‘witches’ who have the ability to bring disaster to their surroundings by merely wishing for something strong enough. This ability known as ‘gleam’ is said to be caused by a mental abnormality. Their numbers had increased rapidly over the past few years and society has gradually become more chaotic as a result. The ‘gleam garden’ is a place where witches are interned and where they are taught how to control their abilities so that they do not harm others. Touji is a ‘protection controller’, supporting four girls who had been cast off by society for being witches. He wants to lead them to a new life, and also to find out about the truth of his own past.
They tell you not to judge a book by its cover, and my initial impression was that I didn’t like the art at all. Nor was I really that interested in the characters. However, the trial hooked me in and the story was very intriguing, with a lot of mysterious characters appearing and events taking place in the latter stages. The protagonist is not your typical hetare and actually works hard to help the girls, even if he may inflict injuries on himself in the process. Of course, he has his own motive for doing so. The plot may sound Madoka inspired, but beyond the notion of witches, it’s not really that similar. There’s great potential in the story and even the art grew on me. Shirayuki and Chitose are great characters >w<b There’s also his mysterious imouto Natsumi… I wonder what happened in Touji’s past. The OP is one of the most original ones I’ve seen this year. Check it out!
I am wishing with all my might this game and all involved disappear from the world. Seems it has yet to happen though, sigh I guess I am not a witch and will have to settle for avoiding this game as though it were a leper. I never much liked the emphasis on wishes in many eroge, the entire idea fills me with loathing. This idea revolves around the idea that if you wish for something it will just happen because you wished for it, of course they like to mitigate that issue with the “Wishes come true if you work for them” bit but is almost never the case anyway. The problem I have is how they use the idea of a wish as a crutch for writing, want to make something happen but don’t want to explain it, make it a wish, or if you want to tie the ending into the beginning, well guess what they wished for that from the start. Using wishes to develop connections and development is generally the mark of poor writing because of how it simplifies development for the writer at the cost of development for the reader. Maybe the concept of wishes have a more negative direction than usual, at least at the start of this game however that does little to justify the theme as a necessity for the story.
Namaiki Delation
Company: まどそふと (MadoSoft)
Game site: ナマイキデレーション
Release date: July 26, 2013
Comments:
This is the first game by MadoSoft. Shinjuurou managed to avoid supplementary lessons by passing the make-up test. However, his joy was fleeting, as he was tricked by his teacher to be a member of the cultural festival committee. Since there was no one else there, he had to find other members to join as well… but why are all those joined so cheeky?
I didn’t get the sense of the heroines being cheeky at all from the trial. They seemed to all be fonding over him (maybe except imouto Misaki who just doesn’t want to admit it). Shiori’s breasts are not right. They’re bigger than her head!! They’ve got a good cast of seiyuus voicing the heroines (Ogura Yui, Miru, Suzuya Maya, Kaneda Mahiru). Treat this one as a standard chara-ge. (´・ω ・｀)
As Micchi said the game is charage, which I cannot see as the best choice for a new company when the majority of games these days fall into the same category and have little other than the CG sets that differ between them. Starting out only to fall into the rest of the faceless crowd isn’t the best way to make an impact that makes people take notice. If they continue like this I can only see at most one to two more games by this company before they fold.
Otome Riron to Sono Shuuhen -École de Paris-
Company: Navel
Game site: 乙女理論とその周辺 -École de Paris-
Release date: July 26, 2013
Comments:
This is the sequel to Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou, taking place in Paris with imouto Resona as the main heroine. It continues from the bad ending in the original game, with Resona and Yuusei moving to Paris to attend École de Philia girl’s school after he could not longer attend the one in Japan. Once again he dresses up as the maid Asahi, although this time serving Resona. He gradually meets other girls there: the pure Meryl with promising talent, the welcoming ojousama Bluette, classmate Liliane, and fellow foreign student Dietlinde. Yuusei/Asahi chases after his dream, while Resona wishes for the courage to be independent. But can they achieve those goals in a difficult new world and their older brother possibly after them?
In addition to the new story, there are after stories for the 4 main heroines, but they’re only available on the limited edition version. It also includes a patch to fully voice Asahi in Tsukioto. Don’t worry, as Luna, Minato, Ursule and Mizuho will still show up in the game as subcharacters.
Imouto, finally has taken over the game! Well, Luna is still one of the better characters from the past year, but I liked Resona a lot too. It was a foregone conclusion that she’ll have her time in the spotlight. Good job Yuusei, eloping with your imouto! I’m also quite interested since Agumi Oto is voicing Meryl. It’s quite a while since she’s voiced two characters in the same month (also Amairo‘s Tia).
Essentially an elaborate fandisk where you continue the story of the protagonist from the first game. I had tried to play the first game but ended up dropping it fairly quickly as the writing was pretty bad. Sadly I am not sure about whether the story itself would pick up later or not but the writer was rather inept at conveying plot and characters without boring the reader by using overly verbose descriptions and lackluster diction. Generally eroge do not have the best writers, so it takes someone especially untalented to ruin something solely from writing as though they were broadcasting a senate debate on PBS.
At least the writing is different from most games. Whether or not you’re as receptive to it is another issue.
Ore to Kanojo ga Mystery na Ken ni Tsuite
Company: P.W.（パスワード）
Game site: 俺と彼女がミステリーな件について
Release date: July 26, 2013
Comments:
This is the debut work for P.W., a sister brand to I.D.. Ayumu is able to see and hear things that other people can’t. He used to be bothered by it as a child, but now he has become used to it. When his father got a long-term overseas appointment, they sold the house expecting that he would naturally come along with them. However, Ayumu told them that he would rather stay in Japan. They relented only when they found him a place at his aunt’s apartment in the countryside where he had lived as a child.
Ayumu reunited with his cousin Touka and joined her mystery circle club at his new school. Every one of its members are quite interested in various mystery elements, from black magic to UFOs. The warmth and enjoyment that he felt in the club made him at ease and soon it became an irreplaceable thing to him.
Just like with I.D., the art looks nice, but the story is a bit lacking. In fact, some of the same writers from I.D.’s Koi no Hanashi to also work on this title. Unless you have a chara that you love, you should probably pass on this one. Cat whisperer Myaako is really cute though! Other than that, nothing stands out. It’s just a bunch of weirdos enjoying time together.
Complete agreement with Micchi here, no matter how nice the art may be without some more development to the story the characters are worth no more than their CG. Frankly it surprises me when a company tries to take things further than necessary, it would have been fine to simply leave it as a more down to earth story about someone born and raised in a city adapting to life in the country. While it has been done before it is very rare to see things like that done well and may have made a nice simple game. However throwing in the annoying club attempt pretty much ruins the entire point of the setting and the game itself. Better luck next time.
Seihou no Prism Gear
Company: Elysion
Game site: 星逢のプリズムギア
Release date: July 26, 2013
Comments:
This is the debut work for Elysion. The floating university town of Nikkou Gakuen is located in Tokyo Bay. It is a place where researchers and users of ‘power gears’ train hard night and day. Power gears are a new type of energy, allowing users to change into power assist suits. Shuu attends the school, aspiring to be an engineer. Joining up with the failing student Satsuki, will they be able to make it to the top at the school’s gear battle tournament?
The tournament set up with the lead heroine/partner who isn’t that good at all reminds me of… wait, what’s that game again? Oh right, Koiken Otome. I had to actually look it up since I forgot about it. To be fair, the OP suggests that the story will go beyond the tournament and with Takehaya (Konakana, Asuseka, Secret Game, Okiba ga Nai!) in charge, it’ll probably end up differently. Wish the mob characters had eyes (pet peeve of mine). The imouto-like osananajimi Mii might fray some people’s nerves, so be prepared.
Boring attempt where they obviously didn’t try to make a real setting or story for their randomized silliness. It is hard to feel inclined to say much when a company tries its best to wind up failing and forgotten.
PV
Senjin Otome -Makina ni Yadorishi Kokoro ga Negau wa…-
Company: でぼの巣製作所 (Debo no Su)
Game site: 戦刃乙女 －マキナに宿りし心が願うは…－
Release date: July 26, 2013
Comments:
Takato lives alone since his parents are hardly in the house due to work. He enjoys a pleasant school life with his osananajimi Akane and best friend Shuuichirou. One day, he received a delivery the size of a coffin from his parents, inside of which was a sleeping naked girl. She was accompanied by a note telling him to seek out the truth with her. At that time, the girl opened her eyes and his fate began to change.
Senjin Otome is another RPG from Debonosu, this time with a roguelike exploration system and the side-view action system from Sorakumo. For those who have problems beating the battles, there’s also an easy mode. You can also set up skill combos so that you can use a bunch of successive skills by pressing only one button. Basically a bunch of button mashing for random battles. I think I’ll settle for a standard SLG instead. Pass.
More poor gameplay mated to poor story. Please someone make one of these games work to set a better example for the rest so we may finally get some worth playing.
Battle system
Amairo＊IsleNauts
Company: ゆずソフト (YuzuSoft)
Game site: 天色＊アイルノーツ
Release date: July 26, 2013
Comments:
Even though he had secured a teaching job after graduation from university, he was unsure if he wanted to continue being a teacher. One day, he was invited to be a teacher at a girl’s school… on the floating island!? Raizerg has streets reminiscent of Europe in the Middle Ages, employs fantasy technology and is inhabited by various races only thought to exist in a dreamworld. How will his new teaching life unfold in this fairy tale-like setting?
Hurrah, another moe-ge from YuzuSoft!! The scenario writer list gets quite the boost this time around, with Konno Asta (Himanatsu, Konosora) and Kagami Yuu (ef, Miranosu) joining the ranks. All the characters (including the subcharas) have their own attractive personalities and the pacing is pretty good. Tooru’s cousin Airi (imouto position) and the nekomimi Kirihana-voiced Masaki are the two that caught my eye this time around. Airi in particular gives off Sana vibes with her hair down. On the other hand, Shirley is more delusional than Sana. While the trial was a bit underwhelming in my eyes (there was no clear plot and it felt like just a chara-ge where the setting wasn’t used to its full potential), there’s no harm in trying out a YuzuSoft game. Especially with a shy imouto like Airi. Wafu~ omochikaeri~!
Pretty typical Yuzusoft, though the lack of commitment to their own setting is a little annoying. If you are going to make a game like this just make it in some complete fantasy world or during another time or anything else really. Either way in the end its a Yuzu game so everything aside from the characters is meant to be thrown away and generally pretty much is.
Tojita Sekai no Tori Colony
Company: Tiny Bell from BONBON-company
Game site: 閉じたセカイのトリコロニー
Release date: July 26, 2013
Comments:
This is the first game by Tiny Bell, a sister company of bonbon-company. Minato was confessed to by the new transfer student Nodoka who he had just met. This day was one that he had been longing for. There were awkward and embarrassing moments at first, but he gradually became charmed by her and enjoyed a comfortable relationship surprising to his classmates and osananajimi.
A month later, they spent the night together and they promised not to forget each other since they loved each other so much. When he woke up, he found himself back on the morning of the confession.
Am I supposed to feel attracted to the main heroine just like the protagonist after a couple loops? She doesn’t exude that much of a personality to me. The mystery behind the loop seems to stem from mysterious Nia. Maybe it’s looping so that he will end up with imouto Korone or kouhai Yuuki (or both!) instead. That sounds so much better.
What a horror game, being stuck in a poorly developed and written script over and over now that’s scary!
Asu mo Kono Heya de Aimashou
Company: ミルクプリン (Milk Pudding)
Game site: 明日もこの部室（へや）で会いましょう
Release date: July 26, 2013
Comments:
This is the first title by Milk Pudding. Hikaru is the deputy leader of the photography club at Nikongahara Gakuen. He had started liking cameras 5 years ago, but he still wasn’t sure if was the hobby for him. In particular, he wasn’t able to take any good pictures in the past half year. One day, the student council notified the club of their impending dispandment due to their poor results, low member turnout and high usage of space. To avoid its dissolution, the club leader Azusa assigned ‘goals’ for each members. However, Hikaru was to decide his own goal himself.
Azusa and the club advisor told him that he should aim for the grand prize at a contest or the school festival. Not only that, but it should be a portrait of a girl. They told him he had the ability to capture the charms of a woman, but he had never succeeded before since he was so shy that he couldn’t even talk to them. He only has 2 months to find a subject and overcome his nervousness.
It seems that having a DSLR makes you popular around girls. Nothing too special about the plot, it’s like a dumbed down Canvas 2.
This game’s plot reminds me of a lot of modern RPG games where they hold your hand and literally guide you from one objective to the next practically letting the game play itself. With the way this plot and setting manipulate things for the protagonist he doesn’t even need to have an inner monologue but just follow the course set like the good guy zombie protagonist he is.
Koisaku Miyako ni Ai no Yakusoku o ~Annaffiare~
Company: Hearts
Game site: 恋咲く都に愛の約束を ～Annaffiare～
Release date: July 26, 2013
Comments:
In the near future in Japan, Annaffiare is a theme park located on a giant floating man-made island where dreams come true. There is also a separate ‘city’ on the island where the employees and those related to the theme park reside and go about their lives. Kazuomi was born on Annaffiare and attends a school specializing in management and administration of entertainment facilities. One day, he undergoes on-site training at the theme park and learns about the feelings of the girls, strengthening the bonds between them.
Pretty art, but just like Mercuria, both the story and characters are a bit too cookie cutter. The setting reminds me of Witch’s Garden, but without the mystery aspect. I’m sure Zen will love this fluffy story about dreams and hope. It really is all fluff, the drama for each route as sampled from the trial is very simplistic, like not wanting your oniichan to leave your side or falling in love for the first time. It’s not even related to the setting. At least the seiyuu cast is quite impressive, featuring Toono Soyogi, Aoba Ringo, Natsuno Koori, Isshiki Hikaru and Kitami Rikka as the main heroines. Not sure if everyone can stand skinship-wanting imouto Kazumi, but I know I’m ready.
What is with all the floating this month, it’s not even Newton’s birthday so it makes no sense at all. Yet nearly every game this month has some form of floating island to stuff some copy pasted writing, cliche protagonist, and a few cookie cutter heroines onto. I can only hope that my dreams of this island crumbling amidst a sea of flames, corpses, and ruination may come true as well.
Micchi’s Top 3 for This Month
- Amairo＊IsleNauts
- Gleamgarden no Shoujo -witch in gleamgarden-
- Otome Riron to Sono Shuuhen -École de Paris-
Zen’s Top 3 for This Month
- Decent
- Game
- Please
Imouto, best heroine.
Only if you lust after children both in mind and body. <.<
