Happy new year everyone! 明けましておめでとうございます！
I hope the holiday season has treated you well and you’re ready for a new year of eroge! I’m currently in Japan, so I’ll keep this review post relatively short.
It’s probably no surprise for those that have been following the eroge industry that 2018 has been a down year. There’s been a significant decrease in the number of titles released, and the games that came out haven’t been all that memorable either. Looking back at the weekly news and monthly posts, it sometimes seemed like the industry had become a bit stagnant and there had been many times when I couldn’t even find enough news over a given week to write a post. This is a similar story for other industries as well, so eroge companies will need to find ways to innovate and maintain interest in this age where mobage is king.
I’ve been pretty busy myself with work and trips all year, so the only game I fully played was ASa Project’s Karigurashi Ren’ai. You can never go wrong with slapstick comedy! I’m looking forward to their next game. It was also the 10th anniversary for Hau~ Omochikaeri~!! Thanks everyone for sticking around through everything.
Random 2018 tidbits:
- The biggest victim from the shrinking industry was the acquisition and subsequent closure of fairys/sprite. I’m sad that we won’t get to see more Aokana games (even if there’s similar titles like Parallelogram). At least I got my Mashiro fandisc.
- There also seem to be a trend towards more individual heroine lower-priced games, such as Frontwing’s LocaLove series, mirai’s Shukugar series, Palette’s 9-nine- series, and Argonauts’ Uchi series.
- What do you think was the best eroge of 2018? There’s not really many strong contenders, but Rance 10 is probably the popular pick.
- There’s been much less character polls held by companies. I wonder if they’re not putting in as much effort in this regard, or diverting their limited resources elsewhere instead.
- Some things change, while others remain the same. An example of the latter is feng games (Zutto, Yumeiro) getting delayed.
- In addition to Sekai Project and MangaGamer, there’s also Sol Press and NekoNyan doing localization projects. The latter scored some well known titles like Making*Lovers and Senren Banka.
- Just one anime adaptation in ISLAND. Next year, there’s the Grisaia: Phantom Trigger movie in March.
- One thing that doesn’t seem to be declining is the number of lives: key (plus orchestra), Purple Software, August, Eushully, and Yuzu Soft.
- Remember last year when I said I’m crazy for playing three im@s games? Now I’m playing Shinymas too. むんっ！
- Nanami ranked 45th in the Cinderella Girls 7th general election!!! She also got her wonderful SSR and she got an official unit (Gyogyo to Nyandaful) with Miku too! Please join me in supporting her this year too!
- Thanks for voting in Mirishita‘s TB for Momoko as Star and Miya as cat! This time in TC, we’ll need your help to make Kana a fairy! She’s in a tough fight against Momoko and Mirai (and I like both of them too…)
The following imoutos joined our family this year: Yorikure‘s Suzuna, Shogun-sama‘s Tamaki, Imopara‘s Sakura, Rika, Hinata, Hiharu and Zakuro, Imokega‘s Asaka, Untei‘s Yuki, RIDDLE JOKER‘s Nanami, Tenpure‘s Shio, Natsuiro Days‘ Suzuka, God Sisters‘ Ami, Riko, Yuu and Ria, Onigyu‘s Sora, Akane, Kohaku and Sumi, Koiflag‘s Haruka, Nukitashi‘s Asane, Mirai Radio‘s Mizuki, Deep One‘s Konoka, Atropos‘ Sakura, and Uchi no Imouto‘s Riho. And the top imouto of the year goes to… Nanami!
The first few months of the next year seem promising, with many titles coming out from major companies, such as ALICESOFT’s Evenicle 2, FAVORITE’s Sakura, Moyu., and CIRCUS’s D.C.4. While I’ll still likely be quite busy (no thanks to Deresute and Mirishita), I’ll try to fit in some time to play through them.
Thank you for visiting and supporting us! Let us hope for a rebound year for the eroge industry in 2019 and may we be blessed with more imoutos.