Would you like to play God? How about a trial version where you can stop time and do almost anything you wish… but only for five minutes? If so, then you should check out Hulotte’s Deatte 5fun wa Ore no Mono! Jikan Teishi na Atropos. If you’re interested in chuuni battles, Nameless’s Deep One would be right up your alley!
Rather than playing god or stopping time I would like to request some actual releases this month, thanks. Well not saying I wouldn’t be willing to play god given the choice though.
Deep One
Company: Nameless
Game site: Deep One -ディープワン-
Release date: October 26, 2018
Comments:
This is the first title by Nameless. Naoya and his twin sister Konoka had lost their parents at a young age and had a tough childhood. Nevertheless they still managed to find happiness in the little things in life and wished that these warm peaceful days would last forever. However, this faint hope was mercilessly crushed when a Grimoire suddenly appeared before them. It is a forbidden magic book that has existed since the beginning of time, but which should not be in the human realm. They thought that they were an ordinary family, but they were actually the heirs to the “Old One”, which has the power to destabilize the world.
The production level for this game is really high, surprising for a debut work. I feel like it’s the first time I’ve seen animated CG samples. It definitely is a chuuni game, with the flashy drawn-out battles with gratuitous use of English. It feels like a light game. The seiyuu cast is one of the best. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was one of the better games this year.
I’m not against chuuni games on principle, I do however feel they take advantage of the preconceptions of the genre to be lazy. Most of this comes from the fact they just throw some arbitrary powers at their characters in a normal setting. Instead of building a setting that matches their characters and powers with the appropriate backgrounds it ends up with “Kid suddenly has some kind of world defying power.” If instead there was a framework for things built into the settings even a sudden awakening and involvement wouldn’t feel as jarring or out of place. To draw a bit of a comparison here, this is one of the reasons the first two games by Type Moon were rather well received, while most of these games tend to be forgettable. Also why they were able to make so many garbage spinoffs due to having a well thought out framework. Without that foundation to build on the whole chuuni elements feel like pointlessly childish cheese.
And so, Deep One essentially falls into the same exact trap. Everything normal then out of nowhere everything changes usually to a ridiculously extreme degree. Were it not for this, say they found an old grimoire buried in their storage and slowly came to learn and integrate with a society they never knew existed the story would be more interesting. Creating a world we would want to learn about through the eyes of interesting characters and their interactions is the job of a good writer. In that respect Nameless failed. As such although I do sincerely hope I am wrong, I can’t expect much here. Seems like little more than a slightly higher production value charage with chuuni powers.
Can Can Bunny Premiere 3
Company: カクテル・ソフト (Cocktail Soft)
Game site: きゃんきゃんバニープルミエール3
Release date: October 26, 2018
Comments:
This is the latest title in Cocktail Soft’s Can Can Bunny series. When Negi decided to attend university in Tokyo this spring, he was coerced by his grandfather to take care of a small shrine while he was there. After finishing the general cleaning, all that was left was the small pond at the back of the shrine grounds. He looked up at the blooming cherry blooms as he swept the small shrine on the banks on the pond and thought that a tranquil life like this wouldn’t be bad either.
“Thank you for making everything clean. My name is Swati.
Are you the priest of this shrine? I look forward to being with you!”
A girl appeared before him, basked in shimmering light and surrounded by cherry blossom petals. It was an unexpected encounter, like she had descended from the sky. It was from that moment that a brand new story begins.
Can Can Bunny Premiere 2 came out in 1996. That’s right – 22 years ago. Even I wasn’t playing eroge back then. Is there anything special that warrants playing this over any other game? Probably not, unless you really like Swati or Sawadee.
I’m a little proud of the eroge industry for finally reaching the point of the normal games industry. That is dredging up past IP that no one remembers to fill in the creative gaps people are too lazy to bother coming up with anymore.
Micchi already covered it though, if you absolutely adore the characters for some reason there is something worth it to play through, if not eh, plenty of other things to do.
LocaLove Dousei×Kouhai
Company: フロントウイング (FrontWing)
Game site: ろけらぶ -Location Love- 同棲×後輩
Release date: October 26, 2018
Comments:
This is the first of three low-priced titles from FrontWing. Ichitarou was forced to temporarily leave his home where he had been living alone because of an accident. But this misfortune was a blessing in disguise as his kouhai Hiwa, who he did part-time with and had an interest in, summoned up the courage to invite him to live together with her. At first, they were reserved with each other due to nerves and shyness, but before long, they became aware of each other’s feelings and their time together became sugary sweet. Every moment together with her was full of happiness. He wishes that they could be together forever… and there’s just one thing he needs to do for that to come true.
G cups are usually way out of my strike zone, but I’m quite fond of kouhai characters and Hiwa is awfully cute. I enjoyed the trial and look forward to more sugary sweet time with her. Hau~ omochikaeri~! Chibi senpai Yachiyo is also good, but she’ll have to wait her turn.
This style of eroge has been rather popular lately, small games in a series about singular heroines. I suppose it is time for Frontwing to join in. On the plus side though it is not the best setup for the characters for once it lacks Frontwing’s usual stupidity. That said The company has never been strong in the writing department so not too sure if they can pull off the charage without boring the readers to tears. I expect it to be somewhat enjoyable early on, but if there are any attempts to add in drama or more depth to the heroine’s routes will probably end up losing all of its charm. I suppose this series will at least give an answer to whether Frontwing can write something decent if they keep things simple.
Amaenbo ~Futari Dake no Himitsu no Asobi~
Company: マーブルCandySoft (Marble CandySoft)
Game site: 甘園ぼ ～二人だけのヒミツの遊び～
Release date: October 26, 2018
Comments:
Keiichi had thought that he could become whatever he wanted to if he tried hard enough. However, his pursuit of a dream job in the capital didn’t work out as intended and amidst the constant job changes, he felt like he was being left behind by everyone else. Eventually he became tired of his stagnant situation and returned to his hometown of Manobe in search of something new.
His father told him that his friend was looking for help at the rooftop amusement park Manobe Park, which he used to visit often as a child. He reluctantly went to the interview and passed it, and was assigned the job of dressing up in a bear suit to hand out balloons. He became interested in three girls: the cheerful and lively Yuri, with whom he used to play; the my-pace Himawari, who loves eating and getting spoiled; and, the quiet and cute Sumire, the manager’s granddaughter who doesn’t know much about the world. This was the beginning of their sweet and slightly bitter ‘secret playtime’ together.
The bear suit comes complete with a voice changer, so no one would know who’s inside the outfit. Combine that with a loli cast and you’ve got a game that rivals Tanuki Soft’s Shoujo series. Look forward to lots of doting from the loli trio.
Loli game. So rejoice all you pedos I guess.
Deatte 5fun wa Ore no Mono! Jikan Teishi na Atropos
Company: HULOTTE
Game site: 出会って5分は俺のもの！時間停止と不可避な運命
Release date: October 26, 2018
Comments:
“Hey Mister”
Yuuma was walking to the station one morning, when he heard a voice behind him.
“I’m talking to you, Mister”
When he turned around, there was a small girl wearing black-themed clothes and hood despite the heat of early summer. She asked him if he was bored, and he dismissed her as a fortune teller or promoting some religious group. Then, to his amazement, everything around him froze as if time had stopped. At first he thought it was a prank, but he had no choice but to believe in it when he saw that animals also stopped in their tracks.
“This is called the Atropos watch and it has the power to stop time.
You probably notice that the second hand is still moving.
It can stop time for five minutes; in other words, time will move again after the second hand has made five rotations.”
Yuuma wondered why she was explaining all this to him. She thrust the pocketwatch in his hand and left saying:
“You’re bored, aren’t you? Please use it to spice up your dull life.”
This scenario seems straight out of a B-rate AV, although those tend to last longer than 5 minutes. However, it seems like you could continue using it with no limits, so I guess it’s kinda the same? This made me worry a bit, but after playing the trial, it’s still the usual Hulotte comedy with a ‘divine’ twist. The PVs they’ve been releasing for each heroine describe the setting quite well. Take a look at them if you’re still unsure. I have no problems with the art nor the characters (there’s no bad choice, as expected from a chara-ge), but do note that it does use the dreaded DMM Game Player activation system.
While I can’t say much for the whole random “Here have plot device go nuts” story, at least it is a comedy game. Assuming everything is kept in a lighthearted tone with an emphasis on fun and what ifs this one may be an okay read as a good cool down after something more dramatic.
Micchi’s Top 3 for This Month
- Deatte 5fun wa Ore no Mono! Jikan Teishi na Atropos
- LocaLove Dousei×Kouhai
- Deep One
Zen’s Top 3 for This Month
- Deatte 5fun wa Ore no Mono! Jikan Teishi na Atropos
- Can Can Bunny Premiere 3
- Deep One
Stopping time is not gonna help with the backlog. Might as well get on that.
At this point nothing can save my backlog…