kivandopulus

Foreword: There is a negative English review, but VNDB voting shows a decent 6.72 score atm and this is Silky's story oriented work, same Silky's that I praised multiple times for Kawarazaki-ke no Ichizoku, Reira Slave Doll, Ushinawareta Rakuen and Koihime. So I decided to make it to the end of Jack ~Haitoku no Megami~ no matter what. Title: Jack ~Haitoku no Megami~ Developer: Silky's Date: 1995-11-30 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v6387 Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3px7_N_hFY Synopsis: You are Jack Martin, a drunken, selfish, sex-driven bastard of a detective. You recently received a job to capture the inter-galactic terrorist "Phantom". The Phantom has been confirmed to be heading toward a galactic convention on a transtellar shuttle. This is where you come in. Structure: One route with four Bad End branches. Length: 3 hours Game type: Command selection adventure Difficulty: Branching is difficult and following walkthrough is advised in order not to waste time on meaningless endings. Character Design rating: 4/10 Protagonist rating: 5/10 Story rating: 6/10 Game quality: 6/10 Overall rating: 6/10 Rating comments: Pretty high score still. The introduction was very shallow followed by meeting meaningless characters having meaningless talks and then I entered the wrong branch where Jack just dozed off after drinking session at the bar oversleeping the important meeting and missing the whole murder case at the ship bridge... then there were some random girls encounters and then just something hit him in the head killing him after over 2 hours of play... wow, I felt really miserable at that point and that first impression really hurt evaluation. Then I followed a walkthrough and finally remotely understood what was going on. Other complaints are to be touched in corresponding sections. Protagonist: Saying Jack is a bad protagonist is saying nothing at all. He's horrible. He does not have a single plan. All that he's doing is drinking in the bar and then drinking in his room occasionally having other girls drinking with him in the bar or in his or their rooms plus occasionally meeting some faces in the corridor. And if he drinks with the right people the story manages to unwind by itself... Characters: Characters are my biggest complaint in this game. There are a lot of girls, but they just flash here and there, throw a few dialogue lines and disappear in order to reappear in some spontaneous even leading to a H scene. Reni is the main heroine of the game, Jack's partner. She's an island of sanity in this asylum, but there's an impression that she just sits in the room all the time, so she never actually follows Jack. She does provide some insight, but apart of that she ain't much supportive. Story: There's little in the story department. Main heroes hunt for mysterious Phantom, then a murder happens and they start investigation which does not bring any results, really. At some point Phantom just pops up and a swift resolution follows. I was greatly misleaded by the line about the dragon in the English review - actually it's not a normal dragon, but a space dragon that hatched from a huge space egg, so there's no shift in the setting. CG: Nice, but few'ish - but lots of HCG. Colors are kind of dim like in Reira while I'd prefer something more bright like Ushinawareta Rakuen. Sound: Tracks are pleasant, but there are some 8 of them which is not enough. Themes: Ok, this game actually does not have a symbolic theme, but why not mention couple repeating features 1) Oh, what time is it? Let's check the watch. It's 14:10. There is still a lot of time left. Those lines with slight variations are repeated so often, but I don't think there was some deadline ever so all that talk along with the clock integrated in the interface have little meaning. 2) The throat's got dry. I want to drink alcohol... Those lines are repeated over and over at those rare moments when Jack is not actually drinking. At the culmination point of the game in the mids of battle with Phantom he repeats the very same lines... That might be a nice feature of a cool protagonist, but Jack is not cool. He's rather miserable. Overall comments: I seem to be bashing the game in every section, so I'd like to focus on good sides in conclusion. 1) First of all, the game plays as a contemporary visual novel with just clicking through and occasionally picking lines of choice. 2) Secondly, the constant drunkenness of protagonist opens up new opportunities like distorted consciousness and free flow of thoughts. 3) There are some nice to observe archetype characters like a homo, an obviously super suspicious mechanic, an esper. 4) Jack himself actually gets some character depth by the end of the game - we get to know the circumstances that caused him to drop from an elite military unit and start to drink. 5) The SF setting is quite interesting, actually, with postwar spies hunt and mysterious space events like that space dragon. So it's not a masterpiece level game, but a solid Silky's experimental game. I like works with an SF touch Silky's is smart enough to provide an entertaining product. I'm looking forward to reviewing their next game Fermion ~Mirai kara no Houmonsha~.

Will be gradually updating old posts and filling this post with links when finished. VN of the Month December 1994 - Xenon ~Mugen no Shitai~ VN of the Month November 1994 - File: Kokubou Soushou Jouhoukyoku Jouhou Rouei Taisakubu Josei Jinmonin VN of the Month October 1994 - Gao Gao! 3rd ~Wild Force~ VN of the Month September 1994 - Ai Shimai ~Futari no Kajitsu~ VN of the Month August 1994 - Shinsetsu Ooedo Tantei Kamiya Ukyou VN of the Month July 1994 - DESIRE - Haitoku no Rasen VN of the Month June 1994 - Necronomicon VN of the month May 1994 - Tokimeki Memorial VN of the Month April 1994 - AmbivalenZ -Niritsu Haihan- VN of the Month March 1994 - Mirage 2 - Torry x Neat x Roan no Daibouken VN of the Month February 1994 - Dragon Knight 4 VN of the Month January 1994 - Fuzoroi no Lemon VN of the Month December 1993 - Demon City VN of the Month November 1993 - Ooedo Tantei Kamiya Ukyou Vol. 2 VN of the Month October 1993 - Nooch 2 Remy no Gyakushuu VN of the Month September 1993 - Youjuu Senki -A.D. 2048- VN of the Month August 1993 - Houma Hunter Lime Dai 03 Wa VN of the Month July 1993 - Bunretsu Shugoshin Twinkle Star VN of the Month June 1993 - Can Can Bunny Extra VN of the Month May 1993 - Nova VN of the Month April 1993 - Quintia Road 2 VN of the Month March 1993 - Marine Philt VN of the Month February 1993 - Cosmology of Kyoto VN of the Month January 1993 - Mamono Hunter Youko: Tooki Yobigoe VN of the Month December 1992 - Koroshi no Dress 3 VN of the Month November 1992 - Dracula Hakushaku VN of the Month October 1992 - Ginga Ojou-sama Densetsu Yuna VN of the Month September 1992 - My Eyes! VN of the Month August 1992 - Kiss VN of the Month July 1992 - Phobos VN of the Month June 1992 - De-Ja 2 VN of the Month May 1992 - Kurutta Kajitsu VN of the Month April 1992 - The 4th Unit - Wyatt VN of the Month March 1992 - Sotsugyou Shashin / Miki VN of the Month February 1992 - Joker II VN of the Month January 1992 - Himitsu no Hanazono VN of the Month December 1991 - Gidyy VN of the Month November 1991 - Psychic Detective Series Vol. 5: Nightmare VN of the Month October 1991 - Rance III - Leazas Kanraku VN of the Month September 1991 - Cosmic Psycho VN of the Month August 1991 - Kimi Dake ni Ai o.. VN of the Month July 1991 - Nike VN of the Month June 1991 - ELLE VN of the Month May 1991 - Ginsei Senshin Guynarock VN of the Month April 1991 - Psychic Detective Series Vol. 4: Orgel VN of the Month March 1991 - Jesus II VN of the Month February 1991 - Akagawa Jirou no Yuurei Ressha VN of the Month January 1991 - Dragon Eyes VN of the Year 1990 - De-Ja VN of the Year 1989 - Imitation wa Aisenai VN of the Year 1988 - Lipstick. ADV VN of the Year 1987 - Hiatari Ryoukou! VN of the Year 1986 - Gall Force - Eternal Story VN of the Year 1985 - Shiro to Kuro no Densetsu ~Hyakki Hen~ VN of the Year 1984 - Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin: Ohotsk ni Kiyu VN of the Year 1983 - Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken

Foreword: Silky's company and Slave doll in title inevitably make us think it's a nukige, but actually it's a scenario oriented game. Moreover, that's retelling of a classic cyberpunk story about an android hunter - the story that was already told in visual novels by Imitation wa Aisenai and Snatcher. Did Silky's ruin the classic concept or was it able to produce a masterpiece? You'll find the answer in this review. That's actually infamous Raira on the screen. Title: Reira Slave Doll Developer: Silky's Date: 1994-04-28 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v9053 Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUzNdzCXyhc&index=1&t=0s&list=PLENAECnNmAq8rNJQkjudialEIFqA335Pu Synopsis: Early 21st century. The crisis situation created by mass production and mass consumption of the 20th century has aggravated. Extinction of ozone layer caused environmental disasters including acid rains over the cities. Natural resources grew scarce due to explosive population increase. Humanity started space exploration. The shortage of labor force motivated scientific society to invent and produce bio-androids. 2050. A quarter century has passed since start of practical use of androids. Fierce competition among android producers allowed advanced models to be sold for moderate prices affordable for average households. With that increased the number of runaway androids and crimes done by androids. Government obligated android producers to register all the units and new police units involving android crimes were created. Its police officers were commonly known as "Hunters". This is a story of hunter Kano Ryo. He is looking for a female slave doll serial killer Reira. Out of two weeks given for the task only three days remain. Since android needs maintenance, the only place suitable for living for such a long time is some android factory. Ryo locates a factory near committed murders and just goes inside to conduct a full-scale investigation at the spot. Structure: Single route, no parts division. Length: 7 hours Game type: Command selection adventure Difficulty: It was easy for me since I'm used to brute-forcing all the commands. Character Design rating: 7/10 Protagonist rating: 6/10 Story rating: 7/10 Game quality: 7/10 Overall rating: 7/10 Rating comments: A very high score for a PC-98 game. Girls are the gist of the game and they are surely lovely drawn and depicted. They have different personalities and are memorable. But it's impossible to imbue them with depth in a not-so-long game, so it's high score as it can get. Protagonist is an ok guy - not a maniac, but not without perversion if the situation cries for it. He does not force himself on anyone, but does not decline any invitations to H either. My biggest complaint about him is that we're not given his image - and that's supposed to be the coolest thing a cyberpunk story! Story is with a twist, so I was pleasantly surprised. The quality of the game is very good, but greatly degraded by lack of non-H CG and constant command brute-forcing. Protagonist: It's actually difficult to say anything else about Ryo. Oh! He has a ray-gun, but he only remembers about that at the end of the game when he desperately needs to open a door. If he remembered about that earlier, I would not have spent 3 hours looking for ways to open previous two doors in the game! Anyway, there are only girls CG in the game and thus poor Ryo looks blank. Characters: So, yes, it's a game about girls mostly. But there aren't girls roots and the whole interaction with girls is presented by normal communication with them or finding them in different peculiar situations and reacting by the circumstances. So I don't feel the need to speak about them individually, but here are the names and occupations. Glasses wearing blue long hair Eleanor is an office section manager. Red long hair Alicia is responsible for scrap station. Short green hair Anise governs the warehouse. Medical department has two similar looking nurses - Silk and Cotton (I know, I know...). Long blue hair Sofia is the boss of a sorting center. Short curly brown hair Mei is in charge of the furnace. Long blond hair Karin governs the chip processing section. So that's it - just 7 divisions and so many girls. But a nice thing is that few of girls are amicably set towards the detective. But still there is at least one H-event of each of them with the protagonist and there is more without Ryo. Oh and there is factory owner who does not get another name, but Owner. And that is because he owns. Story: Finally, the story. It's the part that should reinstall the game from a nukige to a decent cyberpunk story if it's still redeemable at all at this point. So Ryo gets a permission from factory owner to explore the factory with the guide Alicia. After the tour Alicia seduces Ryo saying that it's a direct order from the owner that she can't disobey. Because of that attitude a rebellion movement is threading among the staff against the owner. But there are also collaborators who obstruct the investigation and prevent Ryo from entering some areas. Ryo soon finds the traces of illegal android trade, but how is it linked with serial murders and runaway slave doll Reira? You won't know without watching the video walkthrough. CG: Too few! But at the same time HCG are in abundance. Sound: BGM tracks are very pleasant, but not memorable. Themes: As pretty much every game about androids, Reira Slave Doll tries to keep with the flow. The main question is whether androids should have rights if their intellectual level outgrows that of a human. Overall comments: So it's definitely an ero-centered game. But at the same time it has a serious intriguing plot. So why not have both? The balance here is tilt towards H and the situation is aggravated by command bruteforcing, but the story behind it is satisfying. Recommended for all cyberpunk fans or just for anyone who wants a light cheerful game with beautiful characters and CG in Sci-Fi setting.

Foreword: It would be weird if I reviewed only three games of the serious out of four. So here is the leftover piece - and again a worthy one. Title: Gao Gao! 2nd ~Pandora no Mori~ Developer: Four-Nine Date: 1994-04-16 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v8695 Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLENAECnNmAq9jc6oE6uhjsWcOoBDaZg2h Synopsis: A biological experiment that began in 1993 led to a terrible disaster in the beginning of 21st century. A virus that turned living beings into mutants and monsters has been unleashed. Soon the Earth turned into a terrifying place of chaos, as more and more human beings became infected. Unspeakable violence obliterated human civilization. Within a few years, humanity was on the verge of total annihilation. The Era of Darkness began. But not all hope was lost. Humans began building cities known as "Domes", isolated from the wilderness, protected by glass from all sides, cut from natural resources. It was possible to start building civilization anew. On one fateful day, the famous scientist couple Mizuhara were killed in what looked like an accident. Their project, which showed new ways of fighting the virus, descended into the grave with them. Their two children were separated and for a long time were unaware of their origins. But the wheels of destiny keep spinning, as the young Mizuhara is about to discover the truth about his parents, and perhaps bring new hope to humanity... Structure: One route with 8 chapters. Length: 7 hours Game type: Command selection adventure Difficulty: Easy - there were only couple moments to bruteforce - apart of that the pace is good. Character Design rating: 7/10 Protagonist rating: 4/10 Story rating: 6/10 Game quality: 7/10 Overall rating: 6/10 Rating comments: Huh, the worst rating of all games in the series. The biggest complaint this time is absolutely spineless and useless protagonist. We see his crying face so many times that the desire to hit him arises. Luckily, his female cousin Lucia hits him so many times during the game that even desire to hit him vanishes. Another my complaint is that the game gets very ero-centered by the end of it sacrificing some of the story for the sake of it. I'm glad it was fixed in later installations, but here it left a negative impact for me. And that brings forth my complaint about the story which I'll explain in the story description. Overall game quality stays on the same level as other games of the series which is very high. Protagonist: Jackie makes the worst protagonist in the series and I'm very glad I did not change his name to mine (there is such menu option). He can't make his own decisions, complains and cries all the time. His female cousin Lucia who accompanies him for the most of the game is a typical tsundere - basically it's a less funny version of Rabby from Gao Gao 3rd. When by the end of the game she's asked why she's that much of a tsundere, she answers that she does not really understand herself often and does not know what she wants... jeez. Jackie can't make his own decisions, so Lucia does them all the time! And she chooses kind of the worst options, so they always get into trouble. And both protagonists are powerless, so they are abused for the whole first part of the game and it does not look funny, to be honest. But to compliment the developers there are nice sub-characters here and amplified humor part. Characters: As usual, there are lots of sub-characters. The funniest one is Laila who is the genetic parent of Ilia from Gao Gao 3rd which means that they have totally the same personalities, but different memories. Another curious character is glasses wearing Meg who is a friend of protagonist Lucia. The beast girl protagonists encounter first is Lia, but she does not say anything but "Mi" and thus is almost useless for the story. And there's also a half-mermaid girl Nagi. Phew, that finishes the harem of Jackie. As if it's not enough - there also other sub-characters with H-events. Story: Jackie was separated from his female cousin Lucia 10 years ago after death of their parents. Now Jackie goes from Pluto-city to Aristo-city to meet his cousin. She meets him at the station, but treats him as a dog which role Jackie joyfully accepts. She is foolish enough to fall for a nanpa and Jackie whines so much that he's taken along on a car ride. The nanpa guy Roy brings them to a forbidden area infected by virus and attempts a rape. The cousins flee from the car and get lost in the forest where they eventually meet mutants and the real story begins. But forest part of the game does not really last long and 6 chapters out of 8 take place at Aristo-city upon their return. In order not to spoil much I'll only say that their return does not really happen smoothly and that the laboratory under the city holds all of its secrets (same as in Gao Gao 3rd and 4th, actually - so it's hardly a spoiler). I actually hoped for a better story - not just a walk to the forest and return back with the remaining story happening in the same city. But Gao Gao series is characterized by some facilities investigations in a company and that's presented here in full volume. Moreover, first two chapters were too boring thanks to featuring only two failure protagonists. But as more characters come to stage the flow gets its usual pace and the game becomes a worthy species of the series. CG: As usual, all the full-screen pictures are reserved for HCG which are rather uneven. But half-screen CG are very nice, yet as usual reserved only for event scenes. Sound: Great! But I actually think that Gao Gao 3rd inherited too many melodies from this game. Themes: It's not really a theme, but a complaint over the plot. At some point we get to know that virus is already extinguished and the governing circles just conceal this information as it's convenient to govern the isolated communities under the domes. But in Gao Gao 3rd and 4th we get a different picture as humanity is eliminated save for very small nucleus communities. And whatever the explanations for that are, I still see a contradiction here. Such big cities as Aristo-city can't just vanish over couple hundred years. The only answer to that might be reproduction problems, but Canaan protagonist human boy Kite was born in the vault without problems, so I doubt that's the case. Overall comments: So it's the weakest game in the series, but does it mean it's bad? I consider Gao Gao series to be the best visual novel series in the whole pre-Windows period. Thus Pandora no Mori surpasses a vast majority of pc-98 era games. And it holds much value for the fan of this series. First of all - most of jokes that keep repeating through following games are originated here (like in example "Information is transferred to the central host" "Oh, host is a man who is dating women!"). Here we finally get to know the origins of the mermaid story that goes through 3rd and 4th games. There are a lot of other symbols that get into following games (like Laila comes to a computer and exclaims that it's strange that it has not broken down after her approaching - and that theme repeats a lot for Ilia).

Foreword: I did not expect much of the first game in the series, but was pleasantly surprised. It's a really long scenario-centered game that stands on the same level as Gao Gao the 3rd, just in less intriguing environment. It's well worth a review! Title: Gao Gao! 1st ~Radical Sequence~ Developer: Four-Nine Date: 1994-01-07 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v8694 Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik-oCR-wj2E&t=0s&list=PLENAECnNmAq8SX_gfftcaJs33UPCvY_Lv&index=1 Synopsis: The protagonist of the game is a college student named Yuuji Shibata. One evening, just after hearing on the news that someone has stolen a tiger, he goes out to a convenience store. On the way back, in a dark alley, he notices a strange creature, a young girl with cat ears and tail. She doesn't seem to remember anything about herself, except her name beginning with the syllable "Mi...", which afterwards earns her the nickname Mi. Yuuji brings her to his house and tries to introduce her to the world of humans. (which, naturally, also involves techniques of human procreation). But will Yuuji be able to keep Mi as his companion (sexual and otherwise), or will he have to face her mysterious past?.. Structure: One route with 8 chapters. Length: 8 hours Game type: Command selection adventure Difficulty: Easy, but triggers aren't clear and bruteforcing required. There were couple very painful moments that took a while to bruteforce. Character Design rating: 7/10 Protagonist rating: 8/10 Story rating: 7/10 Game quality: 7/10 Overall rating: 7/10 Rating comments: First three games were released almost the same year and they all share the same drawbacks that were partially fixed in 4th Canaan. Those are bruteforcing and obligatory interactive H-scenes. And again hero scores with every female heroine he meets sooner or later - I'm not a fan of such approach. But apart of that I'm really satisfied with the game. I was afraid of abuse of H events with Mi, but there were only two obligatory ones, quite the same as with some other characters. And the scale of the story is much bigger that's presented in the synopsis with a lot of characters to take part. Add here the fact that we're being the witnesses of the very beginnings of virus H1 outrage and I'm sold. I rated protagonist higher than other heroines, because he's truly a great guy - the following section is about him. Protagonist: Yuuji Shibata is a normal college student... at least we're told that. But he only attends library to prepare for the test in the game. He's funny and brave. There's a lot of charm about him. Gao Gao series protagonists have personalities, faces and none of them are of perverts. That's a great advantage. There are about 10 H-events in the game, but all of them have decent explanations and are results of some events and conditions. That's really fresh since girls don't really force themselves upon the hero and thus don't have their personalities devalued. Yuuji is the only fighting force till very late in the story (catwoman Mi is totally useless in fights) and I was really astonished by the fact that he defeated several ninjas all by himself and was the only one to effectively oppose virus beast - that's your normal college student! There's a lot of charm in the protagonist and Yuuji's the best human protagonist in the series (he can't beat half-wolf Wolfy, of course ^^). Characters: There are really many characters in this game and even though the game starts normally, it soon becomes a two-man party and eventually even three-man party, so it has the roots of the party heartwarming adventure feature that's the feature of the series. It's useless to speak of heroines, because there are only two main ones - Mi and another college student Hanako. Those girls usually accompany Yuuji and thus are able to contribute to many scenes. Other heroines have episodic part in the story. Story: So Yuuji finds Mi at a waste depot and brings her to his room. From then on they just wander around the town for several days trying to help Mi recover her memories. At some point they start to be followed by different suspicious persons who demand to return Mi, but heroes just run away from them each time. With some of the memory threads linked together, Mi finally recognized the house that used to be her home. But getting to that house does not even cover a half of the story with the most exciting part hidden in the mansion's inhabitants. Things get violent soon with some unexpected allies joining in. But you won't get the real answers till you watch the video walkthrough. CG: Somehow I found CG here superior to Gao Gao 3rd. And I did not feel as if I was retrogaming at all. But still rare... only for plot important scenes and thus are packed close to the end of the game. HCG: Compared to Gao Gao 3rd HCG are finally beautiful with few distorted face features. Sound: Great! I like it how the themes of the sounds transfer to the next games, but transformed so that those would not irritate. Themes: I can see one theme to be lingering throughout the game. There is no good and evil, allies and enemies. There are only persons that can be reasoned with as long as they possess intelligence. So far it's the kindest game in the series with pretty much noone dying apart of very episodic sub-characters. Overall comments: I've already reviewed two other games of the series and thus don't have much to say here. That's a very strong start of the series and characters-wise Radical Sequence does not really fall behind its older brothers. We only get semi-fantasy environment here and semi-party experience, but it's the same stamp of quality that's shared among the games of the series. If you liked Wild Force or Canaan it would not be a waste of time to try Radical Sequence. And no game of the series gives virus origins and development explanation as good as Radical Sequence.

Foreword: This is one of the best masterpieces of the year 1993 and cyberpunk themed on top of that. I could not miss this chance. Title: HHG Heart Heat Girls Developer: Nihon Create Date: 1993-12-02 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v8716 Length: 5 hours. Game type: Command selection + Point and click + Action elements ADV Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLENAECnNmAq8F5WmXr06-5E634NvmhPmU Difficulty: Low, but I managed to trigger Game Over once still - game just jumped to the beginning of the scene, so it was convenient. What was less convenient is saving only at few specific places. I actually had to replay the whole first chapter because of that and electricity cut. Synopsis: HHG is set in a futuristic world, in which humans co-exists with androids, highly advanced cybernetic organisms. However, this co-existence is anything but peaceful, since android are going rampant, and a special police force known as ACP ("Anti Criminal-cyborg Police") is specifically assigned to deal with them. Two young and lovely police officers, Angelica and Apple, receive a S.O.S. signal from two army pilots, who were attacked by a mysterious female cyborg who called herself Patricia von Kreuzel. Upon arriving at the crime scene, the heroines find no survivors. Together with their colleague, a young detective named Keith, they must investigate and solve this case. Structure: Three chapters. Character Design rating: 6/10 Protagonist rating: 6/10 Story rating: 7/10 Game quality: 7/10 Overall rating: 7/10 Rating comments: As usual, I find it difficult to rate most of pc-98 games over 7, so 7 is almost the top score. My biggest complaint about the game that it lacks excitement and charismatic characters. There is only a handful of curious characters even though cyberpunk is a favorable ground for all kind of delinquents. Main heroines aren't cute enough to be the center of attention. Add the fact that it's basically an all ages game with just couple bare chests of half-cyborgs at the very end and you get a slow unwinding story that makes it easy to doze off at times. All the leather fancy dresses with gloves and short skirts are wasted here. Protagonist: There are three main heroines. Ann (Angelica) is a descendant from an important aristocratic family famous for scientific research. She is long hair blonde and is seen as a spiritual leader of the team. Yui is the silver hair girl with a messy haircut. She has quite a shady criminal past prior to joining the team. The last of the protagonists is Apple who is a short hair blonde. She's quite a normal girl character-wise, but she's the best hacker in the team. Well, four girls are featured at many screens - the fourth one is Patricia Von Kreutzel whose name is featured in the game intro, but she only appears at the very end of the game and uncovering her personality is already a spoiler. Characters: There aren't enough colorful side-characters in the game. Girls's boss is just an old man who shouts all the time. The information bank bartender has an appearance of a normal punk and he does not add the spice. At some point in the game a huge man appears who overpowers the girls greatly but he just frees them and leaves the area with the reader totally puzzled of what the hell just had happened. Keith is a young detective who is supposed to be a part of girls team, but even though his name is called out often, he almost never appears on the screen so at one point I even started to think that Keith is another name of one of the girls. The reporter guy is quite a normal one. To tell the truth almost all the side-characters are males which does not add appeal. Story: Ann and Apple receive a faint SOS signal and hurry to its coordinates. They make it the first to the spacecraft crash spot. They pick up some strange cyborg parts and are attacked by a cyborg of a strange model, but they manage to take him down. What makes it most surprising is that metal cyborg has some white essence playing the function of blood. The military unit that arrives next strongly suggests to leave this case to the Anti Criminal-cyborg Police. But the analysis of cyborg parts shows that one of them contains human brain cells. Why is there human brain in the cyborgs? Who is in charge of brain smuggling? What's the role of the military? Is there a government level scale conspiracy unfolding? CG: CG look modest. Some heroines angles are even passable, but overall it's passable at best. Picture takes only like a third of the screen and that hurts a lot. I could only enjoy close-ups on the faces. Animation does not really help much. Sound: Sound is ok, but there is no voice (naturally) and no sound effects making BGM irritating sometimes. Overall comments: So the game is an attempt to make a long serious cyberpunk story that would present an interest for the sake of the story. But it had to adhere to lots of other methods to keep the interest - point and click sessions, 3d mazes, shooting robots action minigame, wide partial animation use, some gore and and even some eroticism at the end of the game. And it still fails to keep interest at all times. The investigation moves too slowly with visiting the same places for obtaining new pieces of information filling the puzzle. The dark palette leaves a mostly negative impression. But the story was worth it and it was nice to see the similarities with Silver Jiken, I'm sure HHG was one of the inspiration sources for it.

Foreword: Game had already couple reviews, but those weren't too specific on the story, so I had to check it out myself in the end. Title: 3x3 Eyes ~Sanjiyan Henjou~ Developer: Nihon Create Date: 1993-02-05 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v4547 Length: 6 hours. Game type: Command selection ADV Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLENAECnNmAq-kxnAJKmFd5cOYSn55q0UZ Difficulty: That happens to be the main part of review. FM Towns/PCE version is perfect with difficulty level low, full voicing and nice interface. The PC-98 version is gamer's hell, but only this version is hookable, so I proceeded with it. It's the fullest version having extra parts the other versions don't have, but pc-98 version has clunky interface of multiple windows that keep jumping all over and horrible mechanics that demand multiple clicking on the same commands to proceed with the game. That much useless clicking forces to miss on important parts as well. And there was a pitch moment in the second branch that made me waste two more hours on clicking through every room and searching for capture information which did not really help me, so only bruteforce clicking through every possible variant in each room only helped. Synopsis: 3x3 Eyes ~Sanjiyan Henjou~ is based on the manga and anime series 3x3 Eyes. Pai, a young girl from the immortal tribe of sanzhiyan, three-eyed demons of Chinese origin, wants to become a human again. She meets a Japanese teenager named Yakumo Fujii, whom she accidentally turns into a "wu", an immortal obedient servant of a three-eyed demon. Together, Pai and Yakumo try to regain their lost humanity. This game can be considered a side-story to the series. The player does not control Yakumo, but an ordinary high-school student named Kenichi Yamamoto. Accidentally, Kenichi comes into contact with the world of demons, and now he needs the help of Pai and Yakumo to be freed. Structure: None. Character Design rating: 7/10 Protagonist rating: 6/10 Story rating: 6/10 Game quality: 7/10 PCE (2/10 PC-98) Overall rating: 6/10 Rating comments: I actually expected more from the story and hoped for more gore. The characters only get interesting in voiced version and in PC-98 not so much. PC-98 version is so horrible that it's a miracle I made it to the end. Protagonist: Kenichi Yamamoto does not really give a good impression. Pretty normal one for a fantasy story - positive, brave, curious etc. Characters: Pai is a cheerful girl who happens to have her own secret. She and Yakumo don't really play an important role in the story - they just tag along and support. Sujin is the main heroine and love interest of Kenichi. She's a mysterious blonde with some superpowers and her true aims aren't clear. All the other characters get mixed in the swarm of children who get caught up in the blizzard and they go out of the stage more or less together at one point. Story: Kenichi Yamamoto just happens to have some bug crawl inside his forehead - there's no story behind it - it just happens. And at the same time strange persons start to find him interesting and some supernatural events start to occur around him. He and a swarm of other children get caught up in the blizzard and find shelter in a wooden house. However, a murder happens and panic rises with part of children leaving to find the way out of the blizzard. And both parties get attacked by the killer. And the battle finally shows who is the enemy and who is the real friend. From then on the main heroes seek the way to get the bug out of Kenichi body and for that seek advice from a specialist researcher and from then on seek for the remedy in different parts of the world. CG: CG are shown in a small window. That looks awful. Sound: PC-98 has horrible sound support. No sounds - just BGM. And those BGM aren't always suitable for the event on the screen - it can easily be a merry tune during a sad event. Overall comments: So the game starts with the longest clicking sessions and slowest progression ever. It would be easy to fall asleep for several times if you did not need to click furiously for 100 clicks per minute. Then there goes the short action part where the things settle - and it's the best part of the game. The second half of the game of searching around the world just does not have much in the story department - it's just defeating several lackeys of a bad guy and finally meeting the bad guy. And to make life more difficult there are two mazes implemented - one for each branching. I've only found the basic branching that actually coincides in the same story in the final part of the game. There should actually be a way to get the second naked body scene and even another ending. So it all comes to a poor conclusion - PCE version can't be read since it's not hookable and PC-98 version lacks the interest to be read attentively due to horrible mechanics. I would call the story eclectic since there is not much explanation for actions - like professor is lost and noone cares since there is little time left till mutation or like the light is blown out and four people can't find each other in a narrow corridor and just go separately without really trying to get together. There are some minor events that I fail to get the meaning of. So the main definition for PC-98 version is torture - both story-wise, mechanic-wise and even sound-wise. Quite a short story that would fit in a 40-minutes OVA is stretched mercilessly to 6+ hours of unsatisfying gameplay.

Foreword: I was quite intrigued by original Gram Cats concept - mutated humans fight with aliens and ordinary schoolgirl gets an ability to transform into cat and thus becomes a great spy. But the eternal maze of corridors prevented me from finishing that game. So I thought I'd have more luck with the second part to get acquainted with this SF setting. Title: Gram Cats 2 Developer: Dott Kikaku Date: 1993-01-08 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v8889 Length: 4 hours. Game type: Command selection ADV + RPG Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=655prv-IBI8 Difficulty: It's not difficult, but very repetitive. Till you trigger some flag, the rest of events would repeat over and over again. And the second RPG part has one huge pitch moment - I had to restart that whole RPG part for 4 times to find the solution. So upon entering the 2nd floor if you move forward there's a triggered scene where Sayaka falls down - you get to find Sayaka, but upon returning to 2nd floor there is new cutscene that takes away Marine from the party and you need to get to boss door alone. The problem is that from both sides of the door there are the toughest enemies that can only be taken down with two characters in party. You can turn into cat form and slip through the enemies, but to open the door you need to be human and you can't get to human form unless you attack that tough enemy and thus suffer a retaliation hit. And if you enter the boss room without the full hp - he's impossible to beat. So I've tried a lot of different approaches in cat form and running away in human form, but all of them did not work. So on my 4th try upon entering the second floor I did not step forward but turned left and killed the tough enemies while still having two characters in the party and then triggered the two cut-scenes - that finally made my day. But just imagine - the main feature of the game of heroine turning into cat turned totally useless here. Synopsis: Marine and Sayaka arrive to the Scherer Island which is known as a luxury resort with a great hotel and famous nudist beach. Their goal is to investigate island secretly for the traces of an alien base. Structure: None. Character Design rating: 3/10 Protagonist rating: 3/10 Story rating: 2/10 Game quality: 4/10 Overall rating: 3/10 Rating comments: I'm very pissed with this game for stealing four hours of my life. So I thought I would waste an hour more to write a review. My greatest disappointment is that the synopsis is conveyed during the opening sequence that takes around three minutes. It stops at the moment when the girls dive into the ocean and find some structure underwater. And for the first two hours of adventure mode we actually just getting to this structure from the point of arriving to the island. That's just stupid - why showing it in the opening at all then. Heroines don't have individuality so I did even need to know who of them was Marine (red head) and who was Sayaka (blue head) till the point when they separated. I can't say that game is of low quality - graphics are nice, music is solid and there is animation at time. But combine poor characters, absence of story, repetitivity (and reusing of the same resources), abuse of eroticism, weak RPG part and this stupid pitch moment right at the boss and you get exactly a score "3". Protagonist: Sayaka and Marine are poor protagonists. Their main difference is that Marine (red hair) is more shy and defensive type and Sayaka (blue hair) is kind of loose and for that she's the main heroine of the most voluntary H events - Marine gets coerced in her events. Sayaka was the heroine of the prequel, so it's natural. Characters: The only side-characters here are girls that get involved into H events and one local salesman who turns out to be something more than a side-character... Apart of that, there's noone of notice. Story: I've already mentioned that there's no story besides the synopsis. So let's at least mention the main steps till reaching the underwater base. Each day we need to go to the pool to develop diving skills. After that there's couple days of diving in the real ocean practice. At the same time there seems to be another goal - getting into the nudist beach! Marine does not have the courage, but after a few encounters in the hotel with other girls she gets able to relax a bit. There's also Marine kidnapping happens. That's it! And the rest of two hours adventure mode is visiting the same places over and over again hoping for some new event to trigger. CG: CG are few or I'd rather say non-HCG are few. And because Sayaka transformation suit kind of is not supposed to cover nipples I can't even show those transformed mode nice CG. Sound: Well, this time I found two BGM annoying. Had to even turn volume down. So not the best sound support. Overall comments: I expected at least somewhat interesting SF story with superhero transformation mode. What I actually got was a yuri game with no story at all. The whole "gram cat" feature is only flashed at the very end and does not bear much meaning - that could be a game of any other franchise without any problem. Oh, well, at least there is one obscure game less now.

Foreword: Himeya Soft and C's Ware are basically the same people, so it would really be a shame to miss their first cyberpunk game, father of Xenon ~Mugen no Shitai~ and grandfather of luv wave. How deep is the story? How much torture does it imply on players? Does it already have mind-screw elements? I'll try to answer all those questions. Title: Phobos Developer: Himeya Soft Date: 1992-07-16 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v9006 Length: 4 hours. Game type: Command selection ADV. Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWumb25ixg4&list=PLENAECnNmAq8RWaOExpvkkUSuI3utIyp1 Difficulty: It's not difficult, but rather very repetitive. There's no telling when event is going to be triggered, so I had to make a full round of talks with each npc and return to the base each time. It would be more pleasing with a walkthrough. Synopsis: In the future, mankind successfully colonized Mars. However, the colonists eventually wished to be independent from Earth's control, and as a result a war began. Martian colonists used armored combat androids in battles. Eventually an uneasy truce was achieved, but Martian economy was badly damaged by war, and the planet became de facto dependent on Earth to survive. Half a year later, a young Tokyo-based private investigator named Ryuuichi and his assistant, the android Leyla, are contacted by the colonel of the former colonial army of Mars. It appears that someone has stolen documents containing top military secrets and disappeared with them. Ryuuichi is asked to find that man, whom he knew quite well during the years of war... Structure: Ryuuichi is given five days till the new rebel war starts, but actually the game takes only four days and on the beginning of the fourth day the most important events to prevent the war take place. Character Design rating: 6/10 Protagonist rating: 8/10 Story rating: 8/10 Game quality: 6/10 Overall rating: 7/10 Rating comments: I really liked the protagonist and the story behind him. But for heroines... they lack attention and thus depth. Android assistant Leyla is given much attention, but she hardly has any feelings apart of loyalty. The story is really tough and good with sudden twists and treasons. But overall high repetitiveness and somewhat spontaneous H events hurt the impression. It's still a masterpiece for me. Protagonist: Ryuuichi is the real gem of the game. He participated in the martian war and three years later keeps seeing nightmares about those armdroids he killed. He does act like a perv at times, but that's to add comical effect mostly. His wife Leyla stayed on Mars and he remodeled one of the armdroids to serve as his assistant and named her Leyla as well. Ryuuichi story actually might be more important than the main martian guerrilla one. The game ends in half happy tones and half sad ones and the ring scene is touching and well-done. Describing it would be a spoiler. Characters: Game has quite many characters. I've counted seven heroines with HCG. There are also some hard-boiled male characters. The peculiarity of the game is that only one heroine is of calm civilian type and the others have a violent character and are skilled in warfare. They're quite the beauties as well. Story: So, we're only given vague instructions to find captain Konnor who killed one of the soldiers and fled with secret documents regarding martian guerrilla movement. We're not being too successful when we find some mysterious woman spying on us. Following her leads to East district where two suspicious organizations dwell - Sakuragi Heavy Industries and Club Kowloon. Both of them have only women as staff members (males still serve as guards) and for a good while we try to get inside those buildings. Still the most of plot events happen as encounters - our life is in constant danger with so many violent girls around. At the same time one of our hirers major Garrak is rumored to deal with drugs and conspire with martian rebels. Then suddenly everything starts to look not as it seems and friends get to be difficult to tell from foes. So, yes, it has mind-screw elements, even though in initial state. But the story is complex and inspiring, so it's well worth the time. Title meaning: The title screen of the game says literally : "The "PHOBOS" is a satellite of the mars". And up to the very end the name never shows up. And it actually turns out to be the name of the secret military plan dealing with photon and nucleus. I really like it when the meaning of the title gets explained at some point. CG: I can't say CG are good here - they're fine - the girls are mostly cute, the males are tough and androids are cool, especially when damaged. Sound: There is a different BGM for each place and those are pleasant tunes. Overall comments: Phobos is a serious mature SF story and adult elements suit fine here, same as in Imitation wa Aisenai. HCG are very modest and light since they serve the story and not otherwise. That helps to create a human dimension out of protagonist private life drama instead of being just a sales oriented adventure work like Snatcher. I really like it how Himeya Soft and C's Ware great games turn out to be underrated. In Phobos case I blame horrible and childish-looking box cover. The more the joy to discover these masterpieces.

Foreword: Fairytale is the main experimentation company of the early 1990s. And Shinjuku Monogatari is an attempt to go away from adult games for the sake of games that can keep the interest by the story and atmosphere alone. The history shows us now that it was a failure attempt from the start since adult titles with cute heroines are everything the populus wants. But was Fairytale really wrong in that intention? Title: Shinjuku Monogatari Developer: Fairytale Date: 1992-07-23 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v9083 Length: 2 hours. Game type: Command selection ADV. Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0x1q4yO5Dk Difficulty: Very few options to choose. Trivial. Synopsis: Ibuki inherited an antique store, but to survive he takes side jobs as well. One day his frequent client Akemi offers him a job to fake kidnapping of a high school girl Megumi Naruyama, the only heir of Naruyama Real Estate group. Megimi herself is the initiator of the kidnapping. Since the pay is good - a million yen - Ibuki takes his younger partner Shinji and gets to the school gates. But Megumi's uncle Sakai has own plans for Megumi and he sets a yakuza gang on the children trail. Structure: Game takes three days. Character Design rating: 7/10 Protagonist rating: 7/10 Story rating: 6/10 Game quality: 7/10 Overall rating: 7/10 Rating comments: This is an experimental Fairytale work. It's a very realistic story about youth rebel state of mind. All the heroes of the game are as if drawn from modern life, just with weird haircuts. I'm probably too old to appreciate the values of youth independence, but overall it could easily be Douglas Coupland novel for those qualities. Overall it's an enjoyable piece of work, just only two hours long and I can't possibly rate a short game any higher. Protagonist: Ibuki is a peculiar protagonist in that he is an orphan and he takes care of the antique store with his sister. He takes on different kinds on jobs and that's why has quite a net of informants around him. Characters: Shinji is the younger partner of Ibuki and he's not the smartest kid. He wears an "Elvis" hairstyle and is there for support mostly. Megumi is the main heroine and she's one rich family spoilt brat. Her character is good, but she's sick of adults and she thinks that all the adults in her surrounding are liars and two-faced. She lost her mother long ago and her father took another wife. A month ago the father died at Chicago at very strange circumstances reported as an incident. Megimi's uncle Sakai took care of the company affairs. Megumi hates both her stepmother and her uncle. She orders her kidnapping on a whim - just to get a week vacation from the false adults around her. And the whole story is about her growing up and coming to terms with her past and the adults. Story: The story is not the most important part of this game since it's a novel about growing up. The dialogues and thoughts are the focus here, so I guess I can tell the most of the story without much fear of spoilering. Ibuki and Shinji successfully kidnap Megumi and she plans the week of her vacations ahead - shopping, amusement park and then going somewhere far away from Tokyo. She's a rich one, so she easily buys a new Jaguar car for boys costing 13 million yen as well as new dresses. But partly she just wants attention, especially from her stepmother who is very distant from her since the company president death. So she instructs the boys to telephone to the company and demand a ransom so that her stepmother delivered it next day evening. But instead the next day noon children are assaulted by her uncle Sakai with his thugs. Boys just need the payment, so they are eager to exchange, but Megumi refuses to return categorically and they manage to run away together on a car. Ibuki is astonished by the turn of events - an easy job turned into a matter of life and death. Sakai thugs turn out to be real killers from Chicago. How will they manage in this perilous situation? Will Megumi accept her past and present? I guess I won't spoiler everything after all and the answers can be found in my video playthrough. CG: They are quite uneven. At times Megumi is cute, but mostly her face is distorted in some manner. Shinji is the only one who looks ok, mostly because his face is drawn in a comical way all the time. But all CG are stylish in sepia tones and are very multiple, setting a unique atmosphere of the game. Sound: Some midi BGM. Overall comments: Shinjuku Monogatari was devised as a series of games and in the end of the first game we get the synopsis and intrigue of the second episode flashed. And for that reason we get to know a lot of side-characters who are a colorful bunch, but don't really get any meaningful role in the game. Would I really want to play another episode about Ibuki and Shinji? Actually, not. But was the game a failure? I don't think so. The game was a part of very strong movement to cleanse the newborn genre of visual novels from constant sex allusions and make it a genre for literary adaptations and talented scenarists debuts. But we got what we got.

Foreword: I did not intend to play Armist to the end, but its game system was indeed player-friendly and the story turned out to be quite a serious thing instead of being a bakage, so it's well worth a review. Title: Armist Developer: Basement Date: 1992-07-03 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v8564 Length: 2.5 hours. Game type: Command selection ADV. Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRhArebnKUk Difficulty: That's the most important thing in the game. There are few commands to select from and as soon as the topic is depleted the command disappears. This way repetition is eliminated almost completely. There are also some 10 "fights" in the game, but there aren't any stats and player can only choose means of attack for each of three heroes. That choice is mostly meaningless (only the toughest enemies are immune to physical attacks and should be dealt with gunfire). Synopsis: In the future, advanced genetic studies opened unseen possibilities for mankind. After years of research, it finally became possible to create artificial human beings with animal traits, the so-called deminoids. The player takes the role of the head of a detective agency named Armist; two pretty female deminoids (with bunny and cat ears) are his trustworthy partners. Investigating a murder in a huge deminoid-producing company, the hero will eventually discover the truth about this scientific achievement and all its implications... Structure: Game consists of moving between four floors and each of those floors demands a different diskette image, but overall it's just one day. Character Design rating: 6/10 Protagonist rating: 7/10 Story rating: 6/10 Game quality: 7/10 Overall rating: 6/10 Rating comments: The governing attribute of the game is simplicity. Both main heroines Billy and Miria have straightforward characters. The gameplay is mostly about room investigation and the important information is given mostly in the end. There's no drama or treachery and game is short - that all prevents the game from being a major one. Protagonist Rise is the name of the hero. He's the head of the detective agency. A cool guy who can both melee and support with gunfire. What's especially nice is that he's not a perverted type - but a pure professional. Characters: Miria the bunny girl is the more sensible of the deminoids. She believes in negotiations and she's a cowardly one. Her weapon is a gun, aimed shot and quick shots. She's also blamed by Billy for wearing fancy dress. On the other hand Billy the catgirl is the close quarters fighter using claws from her fingers. She's the violent type and prefers to to fight, then think. Story: We just come to the roof of skyscraper and investigate the rooms of the four available floors from 45 to 48 on with on average 5 rooms per each floor. One by one we get to find survivors in different states of mind, but none of them is perfectly sane. Some of them turn to be enemies, some happen to be helpful. Oh and of course we get to know who and why massacred the whole staff of deminoid production company and put an end to the incidents. CG: CGs are of beautiful retro-style, but are mostly packed at the beginning and close to the end of the game. The only HCG in the game are couple shots of enemies without upper body dress. Sound: Sound is merry and couple of bgm REALLY reminded me of Gao Gao series music. Overall comments: So the reason I even decided to write a review on this game is how much it reminds me of Gao Gao series. Same animal ears mutants, same heartwarming party talks while exploring, same numerous rooms and floor investigation (and some rooms looked very familiar to me), same merry atmosphere with occasional drama crumbs, same heads icons on the bottom during dialogue and even bgm at times sounded much alike. I honestly believe that this little bright game inspired Four-Nine for creating a whole world based on the same premise. But here there's little mystery behind deminoids. Four-Nine, on the other hand enveloped the whole mutants appearance in the myst and added the whole new layer of humanity extinction (to a different degree in different works of the series). Game is hooked well and the received text is without garbage, so I'd recommend to have a look on the game for all Gao Gao fans and just all admirers of retro CG and music. My video walkthrough is in a bit too fast tempo since I did not intend to get to the end of it, but it's still watchable, either with pauses or with just reading dialogues as there are always pauses for dialogues.

Foreword: Again, C's Ware game and EVE on top of that. I actually played it before EVE Zero as a substitute for EVE:Adam Doublefactor, but decided to to keep it for a later time since it has some imminent spoilers for EVE Zero. Title: Eve: The Fatal Attraction Developer: C's Ware Date: 1999-12-02 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v6108 Length: 22 hours. Game type: Point-and-Click ADV. Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBhsyk1jhDw&list=PLENAECnNmAq_7odFKypHmj08DyKpfQfCN Difficulty: More severe than the previous three EVE games that I played. At one point I needed to guess and move each of the characters to the location behind the Sun Mansions apartments to progress the story. In last titles the zapping moments were pretty evident since you got stuck at one scene and there were like only couple of actions available. Here you have 10 maps and lots of locations inside them, so you don't really know if you know to brute-force every object and command at all those locations again for both characters or look for a zapping spot for characters to meet. Another time I got stuck since at the old location you needed to click at lots of ambient objects for a new location (park) to open up. That was counterintuite at all and there were zero tips what needed to be done. Hopefully I found a very good japanese walkthrough and I'd strongly recommend to use it. Synopsis: Detective Kojiroh receives a request to become a bodyguard for trading company director for seven days. But a lot of aspects of this task look fishy: director does not want to explain who or why is going to attack. At the same time investigator Marina is tracking the serial killer who violently tortures their victims with a knife. How are those incidents linked with each other? What does the criminal strives to know from the victims? Both plot-lines eventually come together only to reveal the grand scale of political game and conspiracy. Structure: Game takes place during seven days with Marina part having a small continuation on 8th day. Character Design rating: 8/10 Protagonist rating: 9/10 Story rating: 10/10 Game quality: 9/10 Overall rating: 9/10 Rating comments: I tried to rate based on the weight of shortcomings noticed. I don't really have questions to character design - I rather don't like the style of the artist. He managed to make even good old characters ugly. Standing sprites for female characters don't bear comparison with the game prequels. Male characters are actually ok. Lots characters on CG are looking weird and sometimes just horrible. The happy face of Queen Prisia on Kojiroh's shoulder made me want to cry. Again, males on CG are mostly cool. Both Marina and Kojiroh lost a bit of their charm due to lack of humor or rather more drama. Kojiroh scenes are especially painful since protagonists only have their thoughts, but not dialogues voiced. So in dialogues his everlively nature gets lost and he becomes the guy who does not know what he wants. But after the event I hear his voiced thoughts and it gets much easier since this is our old humorous Kojiroh who's making sarcastic comments over the passed event. Still those aren't decisive faults to lover the score. What's important is that the ending day is rushed and for both Marina and Kojiroh it's just a series of flashbacks rather than coherent gameplay. There's a lot of new difficult to chew stuff poured on the reader without much explanation and that leaves the feeling of the ending being rushed with some loose ends. Protagonist Marina and Kojiroh, of course! I've already said that they both lost a bit of their charm. Partly it's because both the protagonists have a new soul trauma. It was unusual for me to see those lively problems-free guys in depressed state at times. Characters: Well, first of all I'd like to notice that the opening is absolutely cool and I really awaited lots of gunfire, cool scenes and lots of new characters. However, the two characters featured in the opening (the blue-haired one and the yellow-haired one) never appeared in the game and that was really disappointing. The game also has veeeery few action scenes. But we're speaking about characters now. There are fewer cool female characters this time (again, lots of cool men characters). All I can think of is the head of secretary department of trading firm Ami and a very cool receptionist girl at the same company. But Himuro Kyouko character even turned for the worse. She is the source for lots of jealousy and drama in Kojiroh's office (she's Kojiroh assistant in this game) and the only time she's actually useful she features a huge explanations over the most trival pc topics so that I started to guess whether she was good with computers at all or just bluffed about it. But overall there's a great cast of characters, as usual. Nothing to complain, really. Story: Finally, the story. Well, I actually told too much of it in the synopsis. The structure of the story does not really innovating. Kojiroh becomes a bodyguard and actually Marina becomes a bodyguard of one surviving girl Yuka as well. And this part looked actually very similar to Burst Error. There was Mayako - now here is Yuka. There was 50/50 split of the time with the guarded person and it's roughly remains the same. There is also a scene of alcohol party with Marina+Yayoi+Yuka that looks almost identical to that of Burst Error with Marina+Yayoi+Mayako. It follows absolutely the same pattern and happens in the same apartment. The only difference is in Yuka lively attitude compared to reserved one of Mayako (Yuka has short yellow hair, she is featured on two pictures in this post). And the structure of the plot is not as difficult as in prequels. Basically, both protagonist just guard the target person and wait for attacker to make his move. The do get to know a lot of details about their protected person and their shady dealings. Marina has more screen time in this game and she actually investigates other leads, but in the end what only matters is the aggressor move, not her activity. The game had a very cool action opening. In the very first animated intro of the game Marina and Kojiroh cooperate to prevent Prisia assassination by a sniper. And there was a lot of talk that the town got flooded with illegal weapons. Those three factors made me think there was going to be lots of gunfire and cool scenes. But actually the main weapon of the game is a knife and no the only time something other than a handgun is featured - UZI - it never gets to be used. That sniper episode is not returned to till the very last minutes of the ending when we seen the short resolution of that incident. The only meaning of it seemed to be in that we get to know the face of the sniper, but it was not familiar to me - exactly because I have not played EVE Zero yet at that time. There are quite many references to Eve Zero and only couple really to the events of Lost One. Overall, I don't have complaints over the story apart of the rushed ending. It just looks that they wanted this game to be much bigger initially, but it was growing to a long playtime already so some things were scrapped. It's still our EVE and its story is still intriguing and totally unrivaled by any other companies of that time. CG: I already complained about the artist in the ratings. So i'll mention only HCG here. There are TWO HCG in the game. Yes, just two HCG of bare chest and that's all. I was relieved to learn that since EVE Lost One and EVE Zero are all-age ones and thus there aren't sudden shifts here. Sound: Everyone is voiced apart of the current protagonist dialogues (well, there were actually couple places without voicing). Protagonist thought monologues are voiced, actually. No complaints here. Themes and symbols: Well, game's not thought-provoking, but here are couple themes that I can discern: 1) I will live by my own rules. That thought appeared several time from both Marina and Korijoh. I don't think there's any special meaning apart of that they really break some rules sometimes there are moments of doubt where they turned into bad guys. 2) EVE theme lives on, naturally. By now everyone must know that EVE theme is cloning. In EVE Lost One there were quality developments in that field, but here in EVE:TFA there's rather a quantity development. Clones get numerous and that rises several questions. Some demand equal rights with other humans. Some demand freedom and isolation from the humans. Some just try to hide among humans. But the question remains : what to do with clones if their populations rises? This question does not bear much meaning nowadays though since human cloning experiments are forbidden worldwide. Humor: I skip this part when there's noting to talk about. And this game is rather a serious one. But I totally adored the receptionist at president Ando (Kojoroh's client) company. That's a very stingy woman with a very formal attitude. Every time Kojiroh visits the company she asks of his name and the purpose of his visit. And every time there's a very amusing word battle among them. Kojiroh refuses to tell his name or purpose and she keeps asking. She looses temper and all her formal attitude in this arguement. Finally she gives up and gives a call to the director without knowing the name and purpose and Kojiroh is let in. That's fun enough, but the next day everything repeats itself. She refuses to acknowledge that Kojiroh visited just recently and keeps asking the same question. The argument vocabulary is different for each new fight and each following time there is more fun. Overall comments: It's a new EVE game and I totally like it! If it was issued in the same format in 1999 instead of ADAM - that would be the game of the year 1999 right away for me kicking Kanon. And - who knows - maybe it's going to be the game of the year 2001 for me. As every EVE game so far it has entertaining and thrilling scenes, serious development, great characters and lots of interesting to read dialogues. The characters have become most dear by now and they stay true to to their personalities. It's like a new season of your favorite show. There are ups and downs, but that's natural since characters can't stay the same and they constantly develop. Those are your favorite characters and you can't stop loving them.

Foreword: Phew, this game took a while to beat! Command selection was not comfortable after point-and-click EVE TFA that I finished before Zero. Eve Zero is best be played as the third game in the series, after EVE Burst Error and EVE Lost One. Title: Eve: Zero Developer: C's Ware Date: 2000-03-30 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v2709 Length: 23 hours. Game type: Command selection ADV. Youtube playthrough:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLENAECnNmAq8cGcQ2Nk61X8HURZddGzlc Difficulty: Quite ok. There are some 5 spots where actions for another protagonist are needed to take place for the story to proceed. Synopsis: Events take place before EVE:Burst Error. Game starts with a wicked murder of a man with his entrails cut out of his ribs. But Marina job this time is just to escort an important american business-woman Ruth Bradford. Kojiroh is working at Aoi's place as a detective and he gets a case to find a lost child from Nishina genetic institute chief. Those banal tasks do not stop our heroes from getting involved into a much bigger scheme of serial killings and organs illegal trafficking. Structure: Game takes place during eight days and has two minor actions in the middle of day 3 and day 4 that lead to two different endings on day 8. Character Design rating: 10/10 Protagonist rating: 9/10 Story rating: 10/10 Game quality: 9/10 Overall rating: 10/10 Rating comments: After the first non-true ending I actually had mixed feelings with some threads left hanging loose, but true ending left a good impression and most of the actions got explained. Game still does not really tell everything explicitly leaving a space for afterthought. So this time I have no complaints with the characters - cute, interesting and useful for the story. The only small complaint with the protagonist Kojiroh is that we don't get to hear his voice at all and another one is that his character is shown while withstanding a series of very serious shocks and he often gets to act based on emotions in this game. On the other hand Marina is totally cool. After playing EVE TFA I really thought we gonna discover her dark past in Zero as well, but she's totally cool and great-looking in her perfect dress. Story moves quite slow for the first 5 days with mostly information gaining, but few fascinating events - still it suddenly blows out on the day 6 and keeps an insane tempo through the day 8. Protagonist Marina and Kojiroh. Kojiroh is not in his best shape though. He is not voiced and does not really joke. But Marina stands up for the both! That dress is something. Characters: First of all, thanks to Carnelian all characters are beautiful. The main cast remains the same, so Chief, Himuro, Akane are as lively as ever. It was a bit weird to see how Himuro already knows both of protagonists prior to Eve Burst Error, but she wears different disguise so it's probably ok. Genzaburo (Kojiroh's stepfather) is back so we can again bathe in the light of his awesomeness. There's Glen and Nikaido too! A very strong character cast including lots of fresh ones that I'd prefer not to cover here for the sake of not spoilering. Story: So Kojiroh is looking for a missing boy Shin. And he actually finds him pretty fast. But he discovers some facts in the process that prevent him from returning the boy to his scientist father. That father is involved in some shady schemes and seems to be a boss of local mafia gang. The boy is also not so simple since he looses consciousness and takes actions that he does not remember about after that. Marina is just escorting an american business-woman, but that woman is also involved into some shady schientific business looking for organ transplantation technology. But the scientist Shasha Novalis who has that technology can only think of his daughter disappearance and Marina is eager to help. The girl is found pretty fast as well, but the girl is also suffering from loosing consciousness and takes unknown actions while in that state. And gradually the town gets drowned in blood. This is the prequel to the series, so there are only a few important for the next parts characters who are guaranteed survival. Most of fresh introduced characters aren't so lucky. That covers hardly some 5% of the story and the rest you will know in the game! There's a lot of mystery to follow up! CG: Absolutely fantastic. Carnelian is a real pro. Some might think that his style is too cute for such a bloody game, but that's much better than the style of EVE:TFA where an unknown artist was invited with a lot of rough looking characters and CG to introduce. Sound: Everyone is voiced apart of the current protagonist dialogues. Same as usual. Themes and symbols: 1) Cloning there is an old theme, but here it stays the strongest since here is where it starts and develops initially. 2) Sacrifice is also an old one as well, but... It's a totally different sacrifice now. It used to be patriotic self-sacrifice, but now it's coercion sacrifice of other human beings in the name of the science. 3) The new theme is that of the spirit. Some characters get to live after they actually die in limbless state. That's a creepy and interesting thought. Overall comments: Being a prequel EVE Zero introduces lots of new characters and mercilessly gets rid of many of them. That's why the game has the most amount of gore among first four games (have not played New Generation yet). The story itself is not really outstanding and moves at quite a slow pace while both of protagonists guard their protection target. But along with the story we get to know the conditions that led to events in Burst Error as well as more of the personalities of the main heroes. The flow is really lively thanks to appearance of many cute characters. Command selection with lots of locations to visit is quite painful though - I'd prefer just watching it myself. This is one of the greatest plot-driven games and I'm glad to be a part of it. Oh, and there's an obligatory for the series underwear girl party, of course (no, it's not that kind of a game)!

Not really a post. Just an overview of recent events and their consequences. I tried to add a certain extension to my wiki which caused a bug (even though it was reversed a minute later) which led to 100% cpu load which led to suspension. I had everything backed up with standard mediawiki .xml export, but my wiki had just too big number of pages (some 23,000) to import properly back which led to loosing trust with semantic mediawiki. It used to be ok, but it's way too unstable, that's why no wiki farm uses it (.wikia allowed using it in 2013 just to shut support later in the same 2013, .referata declined and .shoutwiki no longer installs it). It has big problem with performance, background works and scaling. I was mesmerized by discovering reddit vn hub lately. It has impressions on some 1,500 different vns gathered over some 10 years - that's a huge base that I'm very excited to use as vn reviews collector. Its policy emphasizes quality of text over personal expression, so it's not really a suitable environment for me to participate though. I'm really startled by the fact that the most popular pages of my blog are of 1980s years vns. And that's really embarrassing since those are very low quality posts. I've also got some feedback that eroge should not really be put together with the nukige. Additionally Micchi april fool day's blog post actually showed that it tackles some very dubious eroge from time to time. That all led to the following horrible decision - I'm getting back to the 1980's. This time I'm going to unblock all the eroge (except for nukige, but 1980s-1990s had very few pure nukige), multiple stories and all the under 2 hours works (till 2000s). Moreover, I'm going to try to present synopsis of every blocked work as well - together with all the reviews found for those works. That's going to result in very long cumbersome posts since it's not rare for a single month to have over 100 vns issued in 2000s. I'm getting to it after I've indexed all the English reviews for untranslated vns and rare translated vns. I'll post all the indexed sources and reviews links probably at this free wiki where I've set just bare carcass. But this time I'm keeping the original in excel file only since it's the fastest way to find and edit a really big set of items. So I'll get Eve Zero and Eve The Final Attraction reviews set and then start my back to the future quest. Why am I doing this now when I've finally approached interesting vns? Do I really like old games? Actually, I don't like them much. What I like is the order where every piece is categorized and described. I can't really move on if I'm not satisfied with the result. Meet those of you who survive this long ride of exhaustion in the future!

I've waited for this day with terror since it's going to show whether this blog going to have a purpose after year 2008 - first clash with Micchi blog and notably his fool's day edition targeting April 2000! And the results are quite satisfying so far. Micchi highlighted 13 works and has one work that I can't allow to include because it's Tinkerbell work that produces only camouflaged nukige. But I include 11 more works that Micchi does not have. So for now I'm quite content with the result - there are a lot of obscure works Micchi misses and that's why there's probably a reason for this blog even after 2008. So in April 2000 I consider these four (!) games masterpieces: Castle Fantasia ~Erencia Senki~, Rumble ~Bankara Yashahime, Fukakutei Sekai no Tantei Shinshi and Gyousatsu♥Shinsengumi Hitokiri Bishoujo Adventure. Basically those are RTS, bakage, bad Dreamcast port and a "serious bakage" from Liar-Soft. I totally prefer that serious bakage which makes this strange game the VN of the Month April 2000 - Gyousatsu♥Shinsengumi Hitokiri Bishoujo Adventure. 1. Angel Reason ~Tenshi no Iiwake~ エンジェリーズン ～天使のいいわけ～ [Spica] VNDB School life is over in a few months. With parents gone overseas it's a great opportunity to make memories with the school's idol. Wizards, ghosts, robots and rabbits coexist at this school. Something must happen in such a perfect environment! A rather mysterious work - and mysterious here means beyond the scope of understanding. First of all - all the endings are bad. Secondly, it goes totally crazy from the second part. It has lots of moving screens and is just fun by watching alone. But in the end it's just a school bakage+galge. You basically just pursue one of the girls without any story. I tried to play it, but I really need at least some additional story to go on. Just girls got too boring and the number of girls is quite big, like 6. 2. Aries Aries -アリエス- [Circus] VNDB \A fallen angel studying in a "special angel school" to become independent has to go to earth to study the behavior of regular humans. This particular angel doesn't understand love well, and comes to live a happy campus life with the protagonist to better her understanding of it. Well, I hated this game for a long time even without knowing anything about the game just because it spawned such a huge number of side stories and fandisks. Now knowing the contents I can only cite Zen from Micchi blog: "Aries may quite possibly become the worst game ever made, to the point I cannot decide which is worse, Aries or Card Captor Sakura. I honestly cannot see a company getting away with a game like this unless there are a lot more lonely pedophiles in the world than I could have possibly imagined. I for one shall pray to every god and demon I can think of for the next nine years if necessary in the hope of burning this company to the ground before they can visit any more of such misery upon the world." 3. Asu Wa Koishite あすは恋して～Prime Beat Planet [Unbalance] VNDB Yoshizo moved to the town to continue study there. What conceal the memories of the forgotten past? Number of characters is 12. There is some free time after school and on weekends when we can initiate conversations, but each type of story only available at corresponding day of the week. Remembering all the types of stories for all 12 characters is a good training for the memory! Eventually characters may give you dream glass that contain pieces of your forgotten memories. All girls are also from different zodiac signs. Quite an average dating SIM without any story. 4. Castle Fantasia ~Erencia Senki~ キャッスルファンタジア ～エレンシア戦記～ [Studio e.go!] VNDB The year 1247 of the Holy Calendar, the Erencia Kingdom was invaded and occupied by Illumina Kingdom. Eight years later, Faizeru, son of the Erencia Kingdom consul, returned as the leader of Fenrir, the best mercenary group in the continent. As he landed at the harbour of the occupied hometown and is asked to join the rebel group Erencia Liberation Army, the second Erencia War commences. The scenario value is great, but battles last long, so it isn't suitable for an impatient person. During battle each unit behaves in real time, and the player issues commands according to situation. The flexible strategy helps to fulfill victory conditions such as person's rescue and guard, and extermination of enemies. Battles aren't really difficult and don't need tactics. After the battle there is conversation stage with heroines belonging to the unit that can deepen friendship ties. Depending on choices and battle outcome multiple plot branches take off. So... game's very amusing, I'd say a masterpiece and first Studio e.go work to compliment. 5. Fugue ~Kimi to Boku no Uta~ Fugue ～きみとぼくのうた～ [C's Ware BLITZ] VNDB Masaki happens upon his classmate Futaba who ran away from home. She forces him to come with her to a closed-down school in the countryside. He then noticed that there were many other runaway girls who lived in there. The only review found affirms that it's a short game in an abandoned school with three girls. Coversation is loose. I know it's C's Ware BLITZ, but looks like they don't really stand up to the fame of parent brand. If only there was some quirk... 6. Fukakutei Sekai no Tantei Shinshi 不確定世界の探偵紳士 [Abel Software] VNDB Agyou Souma, the protagonist, is the IDLA Class A Detective. IDLA stands for International Detective License Agency. It's a highly respectable agency that evaluates and classifies a detective based on one's ability as a detective, from Class A to Class F. There are only 30 Class A detective in the whole world and there are only 2 Class A detective in Japan. IDLA also collects all kinds of requests and offers them to the detectives to work on it. Its base is located in London. Of course, Souma is the type of person who most likely won't accept any cases from the IDLA. He is a stoic, brooding man of few words, his incredible observation and deduction skills are tempered by his abysmal luck. He can't even step out for a cup of coffee without the cafe being robbed, or cross the street without walking into a firefight between two rival gangs. Still, what can he do? Life goes on... Over the course of the game, Souma works on four separate (but simultaneous) cases, each of which contains a unique storyline that is independent of the others, and meets a vast array of characters. If he clears all four cases with time to spare, a more complex, fifth case is presented. There are two English reviews of this Abel Software game. I wanted to play it too even despite the genius boy detective setting, but my pc version does not have voicing in it and this game is known for some very good seiyu. All the Enlgish and Japanese reviews agree on the point that this game is a masterpiece. 7. Gyousatsu♥Shinsengumi Hitokiri Bishoujo Adventure 行殺♥ 新選組　人斬り美少女あどべんちゃ～ [Liar-soft] VNDB End of Edo period, Kyoto. Hero becomes a part of a newly-formed Shinsengumi unit. He is to protect Kyoto from the evil hands of Kinno (Kyushu) and develop relations with squad female members such as Hijikata and Okita. Despite the real historical period, events are mostly comical and beyond time limits. For example, heroines often appeal to human rights protection. Depending on the value of real "absurdity" parameter in the game you can get rid of the great devil coming to Kyoto with a 88 mm cannon, cyborgs or panda samurai. If this game was released by some shady brand it would be blocked. But it's Liar-soft title! And a supercrazy one! Moreover, I'm going to block next Liar-soft title Bloomers 2000 for fetishism, so I'll try to pour all my love on Shinsengumi. I opened web.archive introduction page of the game and there's so much love in there that I'm really shocked. It has about 12 pages about different aspects of the game including lots of history ones. There's a very fun opening here. But let's get to the game already. Story is full of absurd. Lots of parts aren't explained and there are crazy shifts from one topic to another. But it's not just pure entertainment, there are a lot of historical figures and there's a lot of history involved. As you can see on the screenshot there are like seven parameters (but most of them are ignored, lol) and there's constant need to meet different people and improve popularity. You can borrow money or can sit without money - it actually does not matter at all. A serious quiz is used while borrowing. Heroine is determined by first several choices, so capture is rather easy. One playthrough is also short enough. That can be expressed in short as Serious bakage. Absurd? Yes, but it suits perfectly for this game. There's an absolutely magical atmosphere created. So is this a masterpiece? YES! But only if you are ok with historical parodies, if you know Japanese history (or watched couple shinsengumi doramas) relatively well and if you can understand specific Liar-soft humor. Too many "If" but luckily I totally fit in here. 8. Hana Kasumi 花霞 [Pink Post] VNDB Hero is a student in Tokyo university and he's taking part-time job as home tutor. He soon realizes that both heroines who take his lessons have feelings for him, but they are too shy to confess. They study diligently in hope to enter the same university as the hero and confess then. However... Scenario unfolds slowly, then manages to confuse greatly, confuse immensely and ends abruptly with solving everything. The problem is that hero becomes uncontrollable and does really stupid things. The only good points of this game is graphics and not bad music. 9. Heartful Memories ~Little Witch Parfait 2~ ハートフルメモリーズ 〜Little Witch Parfait 2〜 [Kuroneko-san Team] VNDB The protagonist, Perky, has only his name to remember, but nothing else in his memory to confirm his true identity. He is found unconscious by Parfait Sucreal near the Crabell Waterfall outside Florelmos. When Parfait allows him to recover in her house and informs him about Florelmos, as well as herself, she takes Perky to the wise witch to see if she knew anything about Perky. Unfortunately, the wise witch says she is not able to claim his identity but that he owns 500000 gold in return for keeping her keeping his sword for him. Until he collects the money by 6 months, the wise witch tells Parfait to allow Perky to stay in the Black Cat Market. New Little Witch Parfait title. That's fourth game of this franchise done within a year. A formidable persistence. 10. KoiYoubi 恋ようび [Actress] VNDB Day of Love is about Haruki, the main character, that knew about a girl named Maho when he was young, but forgot about her when he was older, which had made her angry when she asked him years later when he's in high school. So to get back at him for not remembering, she dresses up as a guy and lives in the same dorm as him using the alias Mao. There are at least four English reviews for this localized to English game. 11. Love Mate ~Koi no Rehearsal~ LoveMate ～恋のリハーサル～ [Mink Co., Ltd.] VNDB Kazuto is a new teacher at a prestigious girl’s school and was asked to be the drama club’s advisor. He had heard many great things about the drama club, so he was nervous accepting the position. However, afterwards he found out that there’s only one member in the club and that it is in danger of becoming disbanded. So they have to try to recruit as many students to save the club! To recruit students, you have to go around the school, interacting with girls and being able to relate to their interests. There’s lots of girls to ask to join, so it’s up to you to decide on whom you want to join the club. I do not trust Mink - almost all their games turn out to be ero-centered. Here we're supposed to gave a pure love romance game. Very low difficulty, no story and lots of heroines. It's a light comedy. But the selling point of the game is interactive touching system during H-scenes. Mink can't be trusted indeed... 12. Magical☆Antique まじかる☆アンティーク [Leaf] VNDB Leaf’s newest game is a business SLG+ADV. After the protagonist’s parents left one day to find more antiques overseas, he took over running the family antique shop. Later he meets Sophie, who comes from the magic world, and she helps out at the shop. Gah! Two games of little witch parfait type in one month! There's an English review and Micchi commentary on the game which should be enough. 13. Memories Off Pure メモリーズオフ～ピュア～ [KID] VNDB Memories Off: Pure game takes place a few years prior to the events in Memories Off. Tomoya and Ayaka are neighbors who communicate with each other through their bedroom windows and who attend the same junior high school with Yue. There's an English review of this game. 14. Miracle Temptation!! みらくるテンプテーション!! [Escu:de] VNDB Saburou is in his 20’s and works at a perfume company, living a normal life (without a girlfriend though). One day, he heads out with one of the part-time girls, Misa, since it was her birthday and he bought her a present. The next day, girls kept coming on to him… something must have happened to make him so suddenly popular. With some research, he found out that it must be because of some type of pheromone. Was it because of something he drank or maybe the flowers he bought for Misa? Game is not voiced. There's no real story. Type is dating SIM with some twist. Nothing really remarkable. 15. Persiom -Yakusoku no Tsudou Basho- PERSIOM‐約束の集う場所‐ [Alice Soft] VNDB PERSIOM takes place in a dungeon that leads to Hades and hell. Even though it is extremely dangerous, heroes enter to find treasure and make lots of money. Oh, and you can also capture female monsters. There is an English review of this game. 16. Phantom Knight Mugen no Meikyuu II ファントムナイト　夢幻の迷宮II [Software House Parsley] VNDB Several months after the battle of Desert City, the desertification of the earth is growing. People call this phenomenon "phantom phenomenon." Main character is an elite knight who gets into a survey team to fulfill royal mission. Well, system and the content is pretty much like the prequel. But here there'a automatic dungeon generation. 17. Princess Memory プリンセスメモリー [Cocktail Soft] VNDB In the sunny world of Eden, there is a cave that is always changing and full of monsters. Our protagonist finds a girl named Felia, who lost both her memories and her ‘heart’. He helps her to regain her memories and form. Yet another RPG and again with automatic dungeon generation. The number of events is very small. RPG system is quite simple, but it's enough to enjoy the gameplay. There's just one H scene per heroine in the very end so it's more of an RPG. 18. Rumble ~Bankara Yashahime~ バンカラ夜叉姫 [Penguin Works] VNDB There was a hero once who saved the school from violence and it returned to a peaceful routine. His name was soon forgotten. Nowadays there's a new threat and those who still remember that hero try to find a new hero for this task. And the search is finally over. That's you! Type is ordinary ADV. Game story is inconsistent, but it's normal for a comedy game. Systems are very poor and skipping is troublesome. There's excessive number of characters without significant meaning. There are 5 heroines, each with a separate ending. Battles are done in command selection mode and relatively easy if follow the pattern. About 80% of the 10 hours scenario length is awesome due to very strong comedy elements. It's a masterpiece, but only if you don't mind gag games and broken characters. 19. Sakuranbo Station さくらんぼステーション [Mer Rouge] VNDB Transferring into portside private school Seiouga Gakuen, the protagonist meets new friends and enjoys the school life. As spring comes about, his feelings for his classmate become more than just as friends. Since Mer Rouge consists of only female staff, this SLG is supposed to be portray the female perspective and the heroine’s actions more realistically. Characters are cute and CG are nice, but length is too short - one girl path is over in like 30 minutes. There are many girls, but still.. Text is very bad. It's a doujin game sold as a serious work. 20. Shin Ruriiro No Yuki ~Furimukeba Tonari ni~ 真・瑠璃色の雪 ～ふりむけば隣に～ [Ail (Team Riva)] VNDB After losing both his parents, Hiroshi decides to rent a room in a mansion owned by the parents of his childhood friends Kotobuki and Youko. The rent was surprisingly cheap, since it was haunted by a ghost. But Hiroshi is the science club leader and doesn’t believe in ghosts. On the day he moved in, a hole opened in the floor, but he ignored it and went to bed. Woken up by a nightmare, he found a pot in the hole. He broke open the seal on the pot in curiosity and a girl came out, introducing herself as Ruri the yuki-onna. PC-98 game was a hit and this is a safe for sales remake. There are quite many heroines. Many call this game a masterpiece, but there is not enough in the story department for that. All the important events are poured in the final part of the game. 21. Sho-Ki 將姫 [C's Ware] VNDB The story takes place at a highschool (featuring all kinds of pupils, including robo- and catgirls). The players character (Kichijouji Kai) loves to play mahjonng and wants to become a regular member of the mahjonng-club of the school. However, at that day, when he went together with his classmate Ekoda Shoko (who secretly seems to have a crush on him) to the mahjongg-club, they arrive at a scene of horror: All the regular member of the club lie around in the room, unconscious. The tables are all broken in half. Everywhere in the room, there are mahjong-tiles scattered on the ground. Some people are even pinned to the ground with counting-sticks. So, suddenly, the whole mahjonng-club is reduced to him and Shoko. Because two people are not enough for a decent game of mahjong and in order to rebuild the mahjong-club as well as to investigate, who did that to the former mebers, Kai and Shoko start to challenge members of other clubs in mahjong. If these other club members lose, they have to join the new mahjong-club and have to tell them everything they know or suspect about the incident. I'm over-enjoyed to say that this C's Ware game has an English review and I don't need to play mahjong. 22. Snow Memoria ~Wasureenu Omoi~ Snow Memoria ～忘れえぬ想い～ [Air Plants] VNDB A 100 year long war raged between two countries. The princess of one of the countries went missing, causing a ceasefire, which led to the end of the war. At around this time, Liolet saved a girl with amnesia named Colleen from some bandits, who treated him like her older brother. Her feelings for him began to grow with every passing day. First half is a comedy, while there is much more serious development in second half. Text is only good during the daily routine scenes and is a headache for serious depictions since those aren't adapted for visual novel format. Second half feels a bit rushed. H scenes are bland. 23. Tsubasa no Hatameki ~A Sound of her Wings~ 翼のはためき ～A Sound of her wings～ [Shape Shifter] VNDB Yuzawa Yuuki is a pessimist. He thinks that life is meaningless since everyone is going to die one day. Before the Christmas he meets a mysterious "angel" girl Mika. She claims that she came to save Yuuki from his desperate state. He doubts her sanity but decides to play along. After that self-proclaimed "devils" appear. Some of them aim to claim Mika's life, others are here to tempt Yuuki. Yuuki's long and unforgettable Christmas night begins. Game is short. There are some four stories and each playthrough opens up a new one. All routes are cleared within three hours. The only good point about it is Tony's CG and not bad text. It's not voiced. Protagonist is weird so it's difficult to sympathize with him. If only the volume was bigger.