Dergonu

The JAST store version is uncut though, so it’s just for the Steam version. It’s cool that they are giving previous owners of Saya a free upgrade too, so we don’t have to buy it twice.

Two shows I keep going back to when I need to cheer myself up are New Game and Inu x Boku SS.

Huh. That's a lot harder to answer, lol. (Yet my answer is much longer than my first comment. ) One reason could be the interactive aspect. It's possible to create many different endings with choices left up to the reader. Books can't really do this properly with "serious" writing, as choose your own adventure books are often looked at as childish. Meanwhile, VNs are meant for a mature audience by default*, so they don't have that issue. Writers are given lots more freedom to tell several sides of the story with choices and branching. The ability to add more personality to the characters and the game's world through art, music, and voices is also something normal books can't do. And since VNs aren't full-on games, but interactive stories, they don't have to compete with the AAA game industry, since VNs fit into their own little niche instead. Lastly, this might be something limited to the Japanese side of things but: I think in Japan, it's common for people to have less than modern computers that might not be able to run high-end games. VNs, even modern ones, rarely require much power from your computer, so it's an accessible medium for most people in terms of being able to run them. Meanwhile, a new AAA game will most likely break any computer that's more than two years old, which means there's a lot of people who might not be able to play it even if they want to. * (All-ages stories might be more common in VNs here in the west, but in Japan, 90% of new releases will be eroge. So, "mature by default" is based on the Japanese market and not the western one.)

For me one major factor is the sexual content. I think it's cool to have a medium actually include proper H-scenes into the storytelling. It lets VNs do a lot of things with mature content other mediums can't, at least not in such detail. And, while it's not really a very deep reason, I have to be blunt, when I see a hot heroine it's nice knowing: I won't have to rely on fanart, I can probably bang her in the canon story. Wohoo.

They have a lot of games they are working on, and can only translate so many at a time. They are currently working on another Clock Up game, Maggot Baits. If that does well, maybe they will do more. Sadly, they don't have the capacity to translate all the works from every developer they make deals with, so some games will be left untranslated. Hopefully Natsu no Kusari does get translated at some point, but for now, there are no public statements about it, so it's not coming any time soon.

Euphoria is made by the same company, and is available in English from Mangagamer. It has some similar themes to Natsu no Kusari, and is a very good read overall. I would recommend checking it out.

Luckily they have nothing to be scared about, as it doesn't get you in trouble. Tons of eroge have been funded on KS. Heck, one of the biggest campaigns ever was Subverse, which is just blatantly stating "this is poooorn!" in the trailer itself, which is the first thing you see on the campaign. Hopefully people pointing this out to them will clear things up so we can get the full game. I doubt the campaign is going to make it at this rate. Adding all the content would at least get them some more pledges. At this point it's not even clear what exactly you're getting, as a big part of this game is wooing the girl into bed. Without that content, it's hard to say how much is left. Heck, just look at the images they have up on the KS atm. Those are supplied by the circle, and you can clearly see one image in there which is actually meant to be a part of an H-scene. It's Konko saying she can't wait any longer, which is a part of an H-scene. Though here it's just captioned "flirting in your room", lol. Update: They have confirmed on Kickstarter that the localized version WILL have the 18+ content and that they were indeed just playing it safe not mentioning this since they weren't sure how Kickstarter would react to mentions of R18 content.

Natsu no Kusari is sadly not translated, so there is no English version. You can buy the Japanese version here, though there is no English language support whatsoever. You could try using a machine translator if you really want to read it, but machine TLs are rarely very accurate, so keep that in mind.

There are many ways to get around this. Nearly all eroge kickstarters do. Some won’t even try to hide it and still manage without getting in trouble. So they are either that unfamiliar with the western market, or this was a choice made by the circle to lessen costs or something.

Never said they should stop production. I think this is in bad taste and wouldn’t want to back it myself for that reason. They are free to make whatever they want, though, even if it does make people go "but why though?" That’s the beauty of free speech, I guess.

Uh, this one might be going a little far. They make a lot of these parody games, but this is one is too much imo.

Look at the comments, the very bottom one. They confirm that this particular version is all-ages, and that no 18+ patch is planned at this time.

EDIT: It has been confirmed on Kickstarter that this will have all the 18+ content. Kickstarting a censored version of an 18+ doujin game from a small doujin circle making 18+ Japanese ASMR. Interesting... might be a bit too much of a niche within a niche. + With the 18+ content removed, I’m not sure how much game is left. The porn is like, the main thing the game advertises on DLsite. Heck, these characters come from audio porn, like I said.

Or right, this thread exists. Let's help it stay alive ( ﾟДﾟ)/ Been playing Tetsu to Ra recently. I really like it. It has this really oldschool feel to it, despite being fairly new. It's like they designed the whole UI and what not with the intent of making it look like games from the early 2000's. Story wise I find it very enjoyable. I was expecting a nukige ish game, but it actually uses a lot of time setting up the protagonist and his motives, as well as the world and the other characters around him. Heck, so far I have been reading for hours, and have only seen a few H-scenes. I went into the game with somewhat low expectations based on a review I read, but quickly found that I strongly disagree with that review. The game is great so far, and it only keeps getting better in my opinion. Looking forward to reading more. Just need to finish up moving so I have more time to read, bleh. Will try to write my own review of it once I finish.

But this is kind of my point, there are two examples that breaks the norm, not ones that sets it. Heck, KID has released mostly all-ages only games, with only some of them being 18+ to begin with. We're talking about console versions of eroge. On the other hand, here are some major examples of companies that DO it the way I said: Inre, Saga Planets, Harukaze, Lose (seems to be changing this from now on, though previous games have done this), Frontwing, Pulltop, Skyfish. I could go on, but you get my point.

As far as I know, this is true. Among the console versions I know of, every single one has been released a long time after the original. Of course, I'm sure there are some that were released at the same time, or close to, the original. But, these are the expections that confirms the rule. If you know something I don't, do share.

Yeah! It's fairly common. There are some who literally do not have PCs who settle for the console versions, though this is rare. It's common for people in Japan to buy the console version as a second copy. This is also one of the reasons why these versions are usually sold quite some time after the initial 18+ release. If the market was screaming for all-ages versions only, these would probably be more common on day of release. But as far as I know, there are basically no console versions that came out close to the 18+ version on PC. It's just generally considered a secondary platform for many eroge fans in Japan. In fact, only the popular eroge that sells a lot of copies usually gets them. So, the 18+ version selling well is basically what determines if an all-ages version comes out or not. Japan's market is pretty different from the western one.

One thing to note about this is that in Japan, console versions are always made AFTER the PC release, and often serves as a secondary platform to play the games on, after people have already read the 18+ version on PC. With the all-ages version being the only version available in the west, western consumers don't have that choice. So, the "place" the console version has in Japan is somewhat different compared to the western one.

Aojiru verse introduction #2: In'Youchuu In the last post I listed the current games in the Aojiru verse, (I'm probably the only person on earth calling it this, but it must become a thing!), and I introduced the game that started it all; Hanamaru! Today I will dig deeper into what exactly you should expect from Aojiru games, and introduce In'Youchuu, the most iconic Aojiru-game to date. Introduction: Let us begin with a general introduction to Aojiru's games. These games are all fairly dark, both in general writing and story, as well as the H content. That being said there is also usually a decent amount of sol moments in each game, with a proper good ending that can be reached by avoiding a minefield of bad endings scattered throughout the games. For games like In'Youchuu with several sequels, this good ending will be the default canon that will continue to the next installment. Exceptions of this rule would be the standalone horror games, such as Fuka no Jugoku, which is a story of pure madness, with no real "good" outcome. There is just very little room for sol content in a game like that. But, the majority of Aojiru's games will feature at least some of it. What's interesting about Aojiru games is that the sol moments are actually very enjoyable, and it really feels like they belong, despite of the dark themes these games have. They really nailed it with having just the right amount of "feelgood" content before shit goes bad, so you have time to get to know the characters before shit hits the fan. You get invested in both the story and the characters. Well I do, anyways. I never get tired of seeing Yamato and Mikoto, two characters from In'Youchuu, shouting insults at each other like an old married couple. The games also have some pretty adorable chibi art: Many might brand the Aojiru games as mere nukige with no substance or plot, but this is inaccurate. Sure, the games have a lot of H-content and I can see a case being made for them being branded as nukige. But, they are absolutely not mindless nukige without any story. In fact, I find most of the stories told in Aojiru games legitimately interesting, and get very invested in the worlds and the characters introduced in them. Of course, I have to admit I am a fan of the dark H content that there is an abundance of in these games, but I also love the stories, and think games where the two elements can be combined are very cool. If you think the same, these are basically made for you. In'Youchuu Normally Aojiru games will feature some kind of supernatural entity, such as Nightmare from In'Youchuu-we will talk more about him in a second-or Kudan from Kowaku no Toki. (That dude scared the shit out of me when I first played Kowaku.) These two are very different beings, but both get classified as some kind of "youma", which is a monster born from negative emotions. Some are mindless creatures driven by primal urges, while others are incredibly intelligent beings with god-like powers. In In'youchuu we follow a group of monster hunters-The Monster Subjugation Division: The Black Cats- who can use different kinds of spiritual and magical powers to destroy these creatures. (Let's make it simple and call them "The Black Cats.") The four members of The Black Cats are Yamato, our protagonist, a half-demon who mainly relies on brute force when fighting. He's a big pervert, and is definitely not the brains of the operation. Then there is Mikoto, the oldest of the Shiratori twins, Mikoto and Takeru Shiratori. She might be the "oldest" of the two, but she is also the most immature of the girls. She always gets in arguments with Yamato, and gets scolded by her little sister, Takeru, for not thinking before she acts on a frequent basis. She hates doing paperwork and will do anything to get out of it. While she is not as well-versed in magic as her sister, she wields a powerful weapon, The Spirit Blade Raikou, and likes to fight in close combat like Yamato. Takeru, the youngest twin, is a cool and collected fighter who always analyzes the situation before charging in, unlike the other two. If not for her, Yamato and Mikoto would surely have gotten themselves killed already. Finally there is Yoru, the leader of the Black Cats and the reason for the group's name. He is a nekotama, a cat spirit. I said Yamato is not the brains of the operation due to his pervertendess and well, Yoru is... the same. He might be the leader, but Takeru is the one making the calls when it counts. Meanwhile, Yoru is off doing... this. (Told you there was some goofy content in these games ) From left to right we have Yoru, Mikoto and Takeru And here is Yamato In'Youchuu starts off with Takeru being sent to a school up in the mountains where there have been reports of monsters popping up at night. However, she never reports back to The Black Cats, and goes silent. Concerned about what could have happened, Yoru sends Mikoto and Yamato to the school to investigate Takeru's disappearance, and the nightmare begins. Yamato and Mikoto start investigating the school, though find no signs of Takeru on the first night. She simply seems to have vanished. Meanwhile, there are clear signs of monsters hiding somewhere in the school, and the duo heads there at night when monsters are most active. At this point, you are given choices rather frequently, usually with each fight. One wrong choice and you will be sent off to a bad ending, where horrible things will usually happen to the characters. Trying to avoid these bad endings is in my opinion part of the excitment in playing these games. Make a wrong turn and you get "punished", as the characters fails, (though you could see this as a reward depending on how you look at it,) and if you make the right choice the story continues. Though, this does of course not mean you are guaranteed to be victorious. There are times where things just goes south, which is to be expected in games these dark. A standard group of youma that you will encounter a lot. These are the mindless sort, that feeds off human organs and are driven solely by primal urges: hunger and the need to breed. At the school we are introduced to some familiar faces, like Momono Momo and Sumire from Hanamaru! And also get introduced to a new face, Sui, a childhood friend of Yamato who gets pulled into the chaos that is unfolding at the shcool. Eventually you start to figure out what is going on, and meet the first big bad of the Aojiru games: Nightmare. He is a humanoid youma with horse features, that feasts on the wombs of women and aims to create an army of monsters by making the women he eat into breeding machines. Needless to say, he is not a nice guy. Some of the bad endings with this guy... phew. Erhem, anyways. In'Youchuu offers some pretty cool fight scenes, with everything from chuuni chants to epic battle CGs. Of course, I don't want to hype this part of the games up too much. Like, you shouldn't go into these games expecting Dies Irae level fight scenes. But, they are definitely enjoyable, and there is often at least one big climax at the end with some pretty cool stuff. There's tons of fight scenes, but the one big one towards the end often uses a lot more budget in the CG department, heh. Nightmare. He looks both hilarious and terrifying if you ask me, heh. Yamato in his transformed state, during a battle. Being a half-demon, he is capable of transforming himself into a demon for a short time, though it takes a huge toll on his mind and body. Yoru, after going into combat mode. Yes, he is a badass. I obviously have not linked too many NSFW images in this blog post. There is a lot of that in In'Youchuu, naturally. A lot. But, you can find them yourselves, I'm sure. What I wanted to do with this post was introduce more of the serious side of In'Youchuu, and in turn, Aojiru games as a whole. These games aren't just tentacle nukige with some dark scenes. Sure, there's lots of that, but there's much more to them. There's actual stories here, with well developed worlds and characters. I fell in love with these games because of the mix of seriousness and dark H. I am also just a huge fan of Aojiru's art in general. I really hope an Aojiru game gets picked up for localization one day. Heck, maybe I'll be able to translate one myself down the line. That would be pretty exciting. Anyways, if you do speak Japanese, I recommend giving one of these games a try. Who knows, maybe you'll enjoy the ride more than you expected. A lot of people see "nukige" and brush the games off as bad right off the bat, which is why I'm not overly fond of that branding. Yes, with the amount of H in these, it probably does fit to call them nukige, but there's also so much more to them. That is it for my post on In'Youchuu 1. Next blog post will either be about the sequel, Shoku, or Kowaku no Toki, one of my favorites. I still haven't decided which one to go with yet. Either way, see you again then.

I don't know what you're talking about, I spent hours and hours playing minigam— ooooh...

I loved the "route based" approach Amagami had. They actually did it well, too. I compared the game's routes to the anime, (the ones I have played so far anyways,) and they really did summarize the girls' stories well despite of the 4 episdoe limit per heroine. I'd like to see more anime take that kind of approach to VN adaptions, as most VNs do have routes, and mixing one ending from all routes generally does not work well, seeing as routes usually have romantic segments. Not everything can work as one big harem story.

Tl;dr support the industry and buy games! In a niche market like this, individual sales can literally make a difference.

Ikr. The best part is that even In’Youchuu and other Aojiru games have legit enjoyable sol segments. Silence before the storm style. Hanamaru is just a full game of just that sol and no dark themes.

The Aojiru verse: Entry #1: An introduction This is the first in a series of blog posts I will be making about the "Aojiru verse", referring to a series of Tinkerbell games drawn by Aojiru, which includes popular games such as Kowaku no Toki, In'Youchuu etc. Tinkerbell has quickly become one of my favorite VN devs ever, specifically because of the games drawn by Aojiru. I have bought all of the games in the Aojiru verse, and have slowly but surely made my way through them. While I am not done with every single game yet, I have played enough to start making these blog posts. I will be doing a few specific game spotlights of my favorites later on, though this entry will mainly introduce the Aojiru verse in general. The next entry will talk more specifics about what to expect from Aojiru games in general, as well as a game spotlight of the first major title in the series, In'Youchuu 1. The "Aojiru verse" started in 2004 with Hanamaru! While Aojiru drew two other games for Tinkerbell before this, Okite no Shima and Hidamari no Kage de, these do not share any characters or story with the games that followed, so Hanamaru! becomes the game that basically started the "Aojiru verse". Hanamaru! Is interesting in that it is a completely vanilla game, without any real dark content at all, though it's still set in the Aojiru verse, which mainly consists of very dark stories. Very dark stories. Aojiru has drawn a few more games similar to Okite no Shima/ Hidamari no Kage de that are not counted in the Aojiru verse due to being done by different writing staff, and generally not fitting the tone of the Aojiru verse games at all. (The creative team behind most of his games have been the same, which has probably been one of the main reasons why they were turned into this one big universe.) Though, while most of the games in the Aojiru verse share characters and stories, there are some that do not, but that are still counted in the Aojiru verse. I have a list of all of them below. Games colored in green are important to understanding the overall plot in future games, and are considered "must reads." Yellow means they share characters/ plotlines with other games to some extent, and are recommended, but not needed. Red means they have little or no connection to the rest of the universe. They are still a part of the universe, though can be skipped completely if you want. This also means you can START with these games if you want, as they are standalone. The current Aojiru verse: 2004-2009 The beginning of the Aojiru verse, consisting of games all tied together in some way Hanamaru! (2004) - Introduces characters and story elements relevant in later stories such as In'Youchuu, Kowaku no Toki etc - Chou no Yume (2005) - Happens before the other stories in the current Aojiru verse, but is confirmed to be a part of the story in Hanamru! 2, and simply happens way earlier, in the 1600s - In'youchuu ~Ryoujoku Gakuen Taimaroku~ (2005) - Shares characters, story and a setting with Hanamaru! + introduces many new, important characters to the Aojiru verse. It is considered one of the, if not the best Aojiru game. It is definitely the most iconic - In'youchuu Shoku ~Ryoushokutou Taimaroku~ (2006) - A direct sequel to Gakuen, introduces Ouka and Kikuka - Kowaku no Toki (2007) - Somewhat standalone, though does use both Ouka and Kikuka, showing what they do after Shoku. Also shares a general setting with In'Youchuu, and introduces youma with different appearances and abilities from the ones found In'Youchuu games - Hanamaru! 2 (2008) - Shares characters from ALL of the previous games, and introduces the idea of a multiverse. No, I am not kidding, this is marvel cinematic level shit. The game is mainly pure comedy, though it has dark scenarios for each heroine available in a side menu, so fans of the standard Aojiru games won't be disappointed - In'youchuu Etsu ~Kairaku Henka Taimaroku~ (2009) - Introduces new characters relevant in future In'Youchuu games, teaches you more about the origin of youma - 2010-2014 The following period took a step back from the previous style of crossovers, introducing new stories and characters to the Aojiru verse, without needing knowledge of previous works Mouryou no Nie (2010), Kuraibito (2012), Kagome no Mayu (2013): - All confirmed to be in the same universe as In'Youchuu, introducing other sides of the world. No shared characters - Fuka no Jugoku ~Ugomeku Moushuu no Rensa... Owari no Nai Kyouen~ (2014)... - A standalone game seemingly unrelated to the rest of the universe, though based on the content and staff working on it, it's in one of the universes introduced in Hanamru 2 not related to In'Youchuu. It's an extremely dark thriller / horror game not for the faint of heart - 2014-2019 Releasing only games without any shared characters seemingly did not pay off too well, as the following period goes back to creating several new games int he In'Youchuu series, whilst also creating some new stories (Since I have not had the time to play each one of these titles yet, some of them will lack detailed information) In'youchuu Gaiden (2014) - Side stories setting up for the new In'Youchuu game, Kyou. Can be skipped since it's a side story, though I recommend reading it - In'youchuu Kyou ~Ryoujoku Byoutou Taimaroku~ (2014) - Introduces a whole new set of characters. While they have been mentioned in passing during previous games, they have not showed up yet- In'youchuu Kyou ~Kuon no Hime Miko~ (2015) - Side story to Kyou - Sarai no Me (2015) - Standalone horror game - In'youchuu Rei ~Ryoujoku Shiro Taima Emaki~ (2016) - Sequel to Kyou - In'youchuu Goku ~Ryoujoku Jigoku Taimaroku~ (2016) - Squel to Goku - Shin'yaku In'youchuu (2017) - A remake of the original In'Youchuu, mixing in the new characters from Kyou/ Rei/ Goku. It has a new artstyle, and some parts of the story has been re-done. It is considered canon in the In'Youchuu game, and basically works as both a reboot and a sequel to Goku. In short, it's basically just a modernized re-telling of the first In'youchuu story with the new characters mixed in - Shin'yaku In'youchuu - Shiro Neko Honpo Hen & Tsukishiro ... (2017) - Side story, can be skipped, shows what other chars not in Goku were doing during those events - Grand Guignol no Yoru (2018) - Standalone horror game - Mugen no Sakura ~Hitsuya-hime Injoku Youshokutan~ (2019) - Standalone fantasy game where elves from another world flee into ours for sanctuary, as they are hunted by a mad sorcerer. No standard youma are present, and there are no shared characters or lore to the previous games, so it's considered completely standalone - Hanamaru: With the general introduction to the Aojiru verse out of the way, let us quickly talk about Hanamaru. There really is not all that much to say, so I'll make it quick. (The next game spotlights will be much more detailed, of course.) It is honestly a fairly average moege. It's cute, it's fun, but that's about it. As someone who likes the Aojiru verse for its dark content, I wasn't really that interested in this game. But, it does set up the world that In'Youchuu is built on, so it's definitely still important. It's clear in the small details of the writing that the creative team were going to take this to a dark place. They just did not do it in Hanamaru itself. There are magical beings in our world, some good and some evil. Hanamru only really shows us the good ones, but introduces the idea of evil ones existing. You don't really get many answers to where these beings come from or why they are the way they are. These answers come later in the In'Youchuu games. But, this helps create a mysterious atmosphere to the game, which will be picked up again when the main characters of In'Youchuu travel to the school where Hanamaru is set to solve a case of a large amount of youma, (monsters, I'll get into details about them in the next entry,) have invaded the school. You are also introduced to Momono Momo, who is actually a monster hunter herself. Though, she does work actively anymore, and rarely shows her skills on screen. She is also the character with the most cameos in all of Aojiru's games, and has become the games' mascot. Anyways, the tl;dr of Hanamaru is: cute moe with a bit of a dark undertone that is picked up again in the games that follows it. Here is the game's opening. Personally I find the song incredibly catchy. That is it for this entry. In the next entry I will explain more in detail what to expect of the Aojiru verse games in general, as well as introduce the first big entry in the universe, In'Youchuu.