After starry October nothing really shines this month. If we narrow down the candidates I'd have to choose from Mashou no Kao, High School Days, Sotsugyou Shashin 2 ~Raspberry Dream~, Tsuioku and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Hihoushima Arata Naru Sangeki. Last one is out as PS1 exclusive (win version nowhere to be found). Sotsugyou Shashin 2 is out as a difficult type of game for modern players. Tsuioku is way too obscure. High School Days is a really nice game, but even warm vanilla school game can't really invoke much interest with poor graphics and no voicing. I can't believe myself, but I'm nominating Mink's Mashou no Kao as VN of November 1996. This crazy nymphet game has a strong personality and leaves a lasting impact through the years.
1. Mashou no Kao 魔性の貌 [961101] Mink 1
Keiichi Hayama is an ordinary Japanese high-school student, who has lost his parents and lives together with his foster mother and her daughter, which he considers his own sister - or so he thought... Because all the boy can think about is sex, and the two women he lives with are both very pretty, not blood-related to him, and also sex-hungry. To make things even worse, an exceedingly well-endowed exchange student comes to live with them. In short, what follows is a series of increasingly erotic encounters, which pretty much sum up the plot of the game.
Graphics make the charm of the game. Exchange student Reika manages to be both young and mysterious and she makes the whole family degenerate. There were also multiple endings and partial voicing in the original game, so it had quite an influence.
2. Reijou Sera 隷嬢セーラ [961101] Guilty
Sera awakens in a mansion and is told by the owner that her relative owed a huge debt. Now Sera has to serve at the mansion to pay the debt. And there's a strict punishment for every small mistake there.
Yes, this is one of the least offensive images that I found.
3. Tania TANIA ～タニア～ [961101] Tips
19th century. Girl Tania is born in a well-off family. But at the age of 6 a pillar of light pierced the girl making her faint and leaving a black mole on her chest. Now when the little girl grew into a young lady she starts to see strange dreams and to have strange desires...
I did not find reviews on the game, but the game develops mostly as an eroge and the inner demon inside Tania literally shows up and soaks the house with blood. Not sure if there's also a good ending to all that.
4. Jun'ai Monogatari - Shuugaku Ryokou no Yoru 純愛物語 修学旅行の夜 [961101] Art Soft
Main character becomes is a normal student. During this school trip he definitely wants to lose virginity. He can try to spark the waning relations with his former girlfriend who never let him close or seek an adult woman company.
Basically it's a conversation game. Need to guess emotions and use phrases accordingly.
5. Umizuri Wakadaishou Satsuki 海釣り若大将さつき [961101] Echigoya Corporation
Today I came to participate in the fishing tournament. I'm looking forward to catching lots of fish, but it's my utmost desire to reveal the mystery behind the mermaid legend at these waters.
Kind of more of a gameplay game, but there is a dialogue window that's always on with some descriptions and phrases, so it should qualify.
6. Rekiai 轢愛 [961108] Blucky
Hero is a student who studies till 3 AM and goes to convenience store for refreshments. There he sees the clerk girl having sex with a man. When the vision passes the clerk stands normally at the counter. Upon leaving the store something gets changed in the hero...
Well hero starts to be violent towards women around him, so it follows an ordinary eroge trail. So it's a dark and serious development.
7. Tenshi no Hohoemi 天使のほほえみ [961112] Masys
Desktop Collection Vol.3 Summer Desktop Items "Angel smile" includes among other goodies five theater episodes:
1. The story how three girls met each other
2. Taking action to regain memory
3. Riko regains memory
4. An incident occurs. What happens to Riko?
5. The aftermath
8. Muppet Box まぺっとぼっくす [961115] Muppet Box
A collection of three stories:
1.「らぶらぶせらばに若奥様」 2.「がんばれ美佳ちゃん！！」 3. 「ソフトハウスの哀れな調教」
The stories are of erotic nature, but with comedy touch. Each story only takes about 10 minutes to read.
9. High School Days HIGH スク～ル DAYS [961122] May-Be Soft
Takashi Sakamoto follows his father's job appointment and transfers from a high school in Saitama to Hokkaido. What kind of exciting youth adventures are bound to happen to him there?
Quite a truthfully told story about adolscense. There aren't adventures, just everyday school routine. There aren't heroes, just shy and awkward children. The story is light and starts from comical sequences to prevent being bored. Game system is command selection. A well-balanced modest work without affectionate moves or ending.
10. Little Step Ｌｉｔｔｌｅ Ｓｔｅｐ～リトルステップ～ [961122] Lay-Up
Talent cultivation simulator with the aim to become industry leader.
Scenario is flat and SIM part is affected by luck more than on strategy. And only save/load helps from bankrupcy. Ending is shown after three years without bankrupcy for all the girls that have high enough affection level.
11. Saorin to Issho!! ~Amusement Soft Vol.1~ さおりんといっしょ！！ [961122] Leaf
Leaf's fandisc
Oh well, I did not even find the text story in this fandisc. Can't stand fandiscs anyway.
12. Sotsugyou Shashin 2 ~Raspberry Dream~ 卒業写真2 ～Raspberry Dream～ [961122] Apollon Create
Yosuke Katsuragi is a 3rd grade high school student. During the summer vacation he walks around the city without particular reason and encounters various girls. Who will be smiling beside him on the photo stand the day the summer vacation ends and the day of the graduation ceremony?
Could not find anything about part 1, but part 2 was quite popular. Simplified Classmate system game. It's mostly romantic focused and has big volume, lots of characters and interesting story. But... characters aren't too cute and the difficulty is insane to the point that no single person could beat it alone and with the internet loosely spread that was a devastating blow for buyers who could not finish the route.
13. Tenshi-tachi no Hohoemi 天使たちの微笑み [961122] JAST 1
September 31, 2000, you accompanied your friends to job interviews. You and your friends are senior college students, but unfortunately you need to continue college for two additional years due to some reasons. Since you cannot graduate from college now, you are in a bad need of a part-time job to continue your education.
At the same time you accompanied your friend to job interviews, you received some messages. Since that day, you become a private tutor for four girls.
There is an English review of this game. Formally it's a tutorship raising SIM game, but due to the ease of this part it should be referred as an ADV work with some SIM elements and quizzes. You train your students but you can also go on a date. Even passing an exam excellently raises relations with the student to a point that H-scene happens... Windows version of the game had a fatal bug and the patch only dealt party with it. So it's an average work without advantages and disadvantages, but it was definitely not a good enough quality work to resurrect the Angel series.
14. Tsuioku 追憶 -ついおく- [961122] Bell-Da
A year after your graduation, you've become a security guard, and your first post happens to be at your old school, where you used to be the president of the student council.
But everything there seems off: the school is set to close, and everyone you knew seems depressed, or acts strange. Nothing like the flourishing school it was a year ago. And nobody will answer your questions about how this happened.
To your surprise, you get a chance of being the student council president once more and right the wrongs that have happened.
No impressions found on the game, but first H event arrives as soon as 15 minutes through which is quite early. So I guess the option to do everything right is not the only option in the game...
15. Gedou Kyoushi ~Ryoujoku Shuukan~ 外道教師 ～凌辱週間～ [961129] Misty
Teacher arrives to a school full of girl students and has to teach there for one week.
You can only move 3 times per day so only 21 move prepared and it's easy to miss everything. There result is either good or very bad. Trashy insult work.
16. Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Hihoushima Arata Naru Sangeki 金田一少年の事件簿 悲報島 新たなる惨劇, [961129] Digital Frontier 1 2
Treasure Isle is rumored to hide a vast bounty of gold said to be guarded by the legendary beast "Yamawara", which Kindaichi and other treasure hunters gather to search for. But the host is killed before the group even arrives, and a bloody slaying takes place during a time in which none of the people on the island could have done it. Will the island's mythical monster-guardian claim more victims?
Famous boy detective franchise. Game is difficult in the way that there are lots of choices and one wrong choice makes you out off the board. There are locations in the form of interactive dungeons as well where you can perform a lot of actions. There are some 25 animation minutes promised. There is little mystery, it's definitely not a suspense story.
17. One Way Ticket ~Fushigi na Katamichi Kippu~ One Way Ticket ～不思議な片道切符～ [961129] Aquarium
Hero mistakenly receives a one way ticket. Train takes him to a strange world. When train goes uphill hero finds himself in embrace of maid girls with cat ears and when going downhill - under special care of nurses.
Kusoge. One playthrough is only 10 minutes. Almost all CG are HCG. To see other variants it's needed to play over and over and messages can't be skipped.
18. Saint Diary ~Sei-chan no Nikki~ せいんと☆だいありぃ ～聖ちゃんの日記～ [961129] Desire 1
Saint Diary is a visual novel focusing on the romantic life of a high school student named Kiyoka (the Chinese character used to spell here name means "saint"), who works as a waitress at the local cafe during a vacation. The protagonist of the game is a male college student who frequents the cafe and gradually develops a relationship with Kiyoka. Though there are two other female characters in the game, the dating aspect focuses exclusively on Kiyoka.
Quite a short story. Command selection within limited time was still fresh, main heroine is cute and has huge number of emotions showing on her face. Saves are also limited to the times when there is an option for it. After the ending there's the girl side of the story, which is probably the main feature of this work.
19. Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Mikan no Report 探偵 神宮寺三郎 未完のルポ [961129] Data East Corporation 1 2 3 4
An overseas package containing a small key arrives at the detective agency from Jingūji's journalist acquaintance. Jingūji must uncover the hidden meaning of the key.
5th installment of the series that has been pestering me since the late 80s. There's quite enough information about it in English.
Ma Doll and Sakura Taisen are the masterpieces of the month, but I prefer Sakura Taisen as VN of the Month
1. Heartbeat Scramble ハートビートスクランブル [960906] Imagineer Co., Ltd.
Game reproduces events of graduating school year, such as attending part-time job, participating in clubs and school festivals as well as getting along with the girls and inviting them on a date and maybe even spending vacations together with one of them.
Sega Saturn exclusive. It's kind of simplified Tokumeki Memorial, but with live-action photos. Game is not voiced apart of sound in movie cuts which makes it hardly appealing. Game focuses on holidays and vacations to make it even simpler. It was especially confusing that box only had anime characters and finding out live-action footage was not welcome by majority of players.
2. Shinsetsu Kamiya Ukyou 3 ~Missing Link~ 真説 神谷右京3 ～Missing Link～ [960906] Altacia
Middle - aged male bruised body was found at the tracks of Nakano station. Is it a suicide, a murder or a mere accident?
A prosperous beauty attorney Kai Tomoko of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office asks Kamiya Ukyo to investigate this case. But when Ukyo starts investigation he finds that the family of the deceased is not as interested in finding the truth as in finding something that the man had on him.
Game's obscure. There is one Japanese review, but it does not tackle the plot - and understanding something in all those Kamiya Ukyou remakes gets more difficult with each new game.
3. Zap! The Magic ZAP！THE MAGIC [960907] TopCat
Hero moves to locations on the map and experiences random encounters with the monsters on the way. Through winning a battle consisting of Magic: The Gathering card game match player gets money that he can spend on new cards in city shop and on winning event battles with bosses he also advances his HP and SC pools.
What will happen if magic: the gathering is mixed with Little Red Robin Hood? That question tormented people from TopCat company and they presented their own vision. MtG in 1996? That was very fresh. There is also some nudity in this work. I probably should not not that the game is very addictive like most of MtG games.
4. Ayu あゆ [960912] Bell-Da
Point and click adventure inside one room together with a girl.
An ordinary kusoge. But picture and sound are quite notable. But that's not enough for a game to stay in memory and nowadays the game is next to impossible to find.
5. Dousoukai ~Yesterday Once More~ 同窓会 ～Yesterday Once More～ [960912] Fairytale 1 2 3
One day an invitation arrives from a friend who was with you in the tennis club when you were in middle school. It is an invitation to the reunion of the tennis club members. You have one week. You can either go for your first love, or find another love, or become a cupid for others...
There are two English reviews for this game but what we need is a perspective here. This game is the first masterpiece game for Windows 95 and just look at CG - it's totally beautiful and playable nowadays. The systems looks like a simplified "Undergraduate" since you move on the map and talk to the characters. This work marks the tendency to simplify gameplay elements in favor of the content.
6. Majokko Paradise まじょっ子ぱらだいす [960912] Tiare 1 2
Rei Kidachi has just transfered to a new school. When he went to the school at the first time, he saw two girls in strange suits. At school Rei found out that those girls were “majokko” – persons with supernatural abilities such as flying, invincible strength etc. Rei doesn’t know yet, that soon he will meet them all at his new school.
Tiare is actually subsidiary of JAST. The most fascinating fact about this game is that events take place in the same school as Seasons of Sakura and some facts directly refer to Seasons of Sakura. Little is known besides that and I'd wait till asenheim updates its translation to modern google engine or at least adds copy to clipboard feature.
7. Wakusei Omega no Q Ouji 惑星ΩのＱ王子 [960912] Studio Twinkle 1
Space explorers from Earth discovered a strange cosmic object: a giant pumpkin nearing the planet. Upon establishing contact with the pumpkin, they discovered that this vessel belonged to Prince Q from the planet Omega. The planet's super-computer (with a powerful 4 MhZ processor) determined that the prince has to get married. In order to do that, he has to descend onto Earth and find a suitable candidate - naturally after having conducted a thorough sexual examination.
Game's a total bakage. Prince has no understanding of the world he arrived to and that triggers multiple awkward situations. There are five heroines, each with 2 H-events. System feels uncomfortable and furthermore it's not hookable.
8. Get! [960913] Black Package
Main character is going to participate in school festival competition for couples with the ultimate prize of 1 million yen. He needs the money to secure funds for his game production circle. But first he needs to find a girlfriend.
A rare romance game at pc-98 platform. There are 12 different girls as potential candidates.
9. Hyouryuu 漂流 [960913] Illusion 1
It's the end of 21st century. Five high-school youngsters are out camping near Tokyo. Suddenly, they are transported into a different place. It looks like a jungle. It's very hot. And it's certainly not Japan. As the heroes investigate the surroundings, they realize that they were taken to Lagoon Republic, a mysterious independent country on a tropical island that has been the home of a bizarre incident over seventy years ago. Now the young people have to find the truth behind their presence in Lagoon, and to solve the mystery of the island, while avoiding the dangers that await them.
It is a survival game as the party gets drawn into a civil war. The ultimate aim is for everyone to survive and that's very difficult to achieve. Usually there are two choices with one inevitably leading to death. The tension and frequent death scenes are ok, but there is no real story besides survival. Game also have very few H-events. Quite a strange game from Illusion.
10. Ma Doll 魔人形 [960913] Fairy Dust 1
In "Ma Doll", the player controls a young man named Kazuya. Little is known about his background and past, and it seems like his entire life is dedicated to women. But his relatively peaceful existence comes to end when one day he notices a strange girl in the crowd... a girl who looks and moves as if she were an artificial creature. From that moment on the hero is involved in a bizarre story, during which he will have to understand himself and the world surrounding him...
Game's very famous for having very rich content. There are 17 good endings and a bunch of bad ones and clearing them all is very difficult. The number of CG exceeds three hundred and there's a lot of animation. Plot is intriguing and girls beautiful, so it's a game of very high quality, a masterpiece.
11. Rose Blood ~Chi no Kawaki~ ＲＯＳＥ ＢＬＯＯＤ ～血の渇き～ [960913] Aaru
Hero's classmate gets violated and hero is asked to find the criminal.
Work exists mostly just to depict insult scenes, but there is also some occult and madness element.
12. Tenchi Muyou! Toukou Muyou 天地無用！登校無用 [960913] Xing Entertainment 1 2 3 4
Tenchi Masaki was a normal 17-year old boy until the day he accidentally releases the space pirate, Ryoko from a cave she was sealed in 700 years ago as the people thought she was a demon. In a series of events, four other alien girls show up at the Masaki household as Tenchi learns much of his heritage he never knew about and deal with five alien girls who each have some sort of romantic interest in him.
There is an English review for this anime offspring.
13. Henshin Ring 変身リング [960916] Miamisoft
Fiz and Aria are two female bounty hunters. They carelessly accepted a dangerous beast extermination quest that they need now to fulfill.
Yet another Sogna competitor. But there's no voicing here and animation repeats sometimes. Everyone tends to remember only tentacle H scene since.
14. Blind Games Blind Games [960920] May-Be Soft 1
The year is 1928. The First World War has devastated the world. But life goes on, and people try to forget the horror of wars. The hero of the game is a simple, young Japanese man named Koshino. He is a member of the crew of a huge ship that carries on board prominent people from different countries. It sails from Japan to America, via the Mediterranean Sea. Before long the hero gets acquainted with the passengers of the ship - all from different countries, most of them pretty young girls, and some of them having their own hidden agenda. Meeting suspicious people on the ship brings Koshino to conclusion that something will go very wrong - unless he interferes and investigates, at the same time trying to seduce as many young foreign ladies as possible.
Game's appeal point is famous artist CG. Character designs are also ok. But actually the game is very weak as suspense. There is almost no story behind the characters and all the endings are unsatisfying. Game takes the period of six days and it's necessary to decide on the partner by the end of sixth day. During that time it's necessary to raise the love meter of particular to over 15 with a special scene in case reaching over 20. All the events are forced so need to talk to everyone awaiting some event. There are three time zones of each day - morning - midday and evening so you talk and talk and talk, then wait and repeat. There seems to be 20 answers overall and right answer gets a +2, so it's enough to answer half of answers correctly or even less correctly and some neutrally (neutral gives +1). So if you're here for the story, look elsewhere.
15. Trouble Outsiders とらぶるあうとさいだーず [960920] Petit
A westerner killer is hired in Echigoya of Edo period as a bodyguard. But his self-acclaimed disciple heroine wants to compete with him at every step. Perhaps together they will save the world.
This is a comedy work with heroine constantly harrassing a pokerface hero. According to reports it's quite big in volume. I failed to get past the opening sequence whichever version I tried.
16. Joi/Minako 女医／美奈子 [960925] Red Zone
Noma Minako is a surgeon who gets fired from the clinic due to amoral behavior. Now she gets a job in another clinic. Minako has both masculine and feminine personality in her, but only one side is determined to dominate depending on choices.
Failed to launch the game or find the synopsis IF it has any at all.
17. Blue Breaker ~Ken yori mo Hohoemi o~ ブルーブレイカー 〜剣よりも微笑みを〜 [960927] NEC Home Electronics 1 2 3
The world of Blue Breaker is called "the path in the middle of empty sky": floating islands connected with each other by bridges. It is the tradition of the people in this world that a fighter's full initiation can be completed only when he finds his true love and marries her. Such day has come now in the life a young warrior named Kain, the hero of the game. His father explains to him that besides the usual warrior's goal of defeating the evil Dark Lord, Kain also has to find the girl of his dreams. He introduces to him a young sorceress named Asha, who becomes his first companion. But on his journey Kain meets many other young women, and it won't be so easy to choose one to whom he can give his heart!
There is an English review.
18. Hiiragizaka no Kyuukan 柊坂の旧館 [960927] Ume Soft
Hero is a freelance writer. Because he has asthma, he visits a hot springs resort and stays at a small ryokan. A relaxed atmosphere governs here, but one day a dead body is found at the resort. The corpse is dried of liquid. Hero is interested in the incident and starts his own investigation.
Despite the detective synopsis it's a normal eroge and the mystery solves itself at some point. There is an ending for each woman in the hot springs as well as bad endings. The branching is logical, it's mostly choice whether to H or not and whether to get bad ending or not. Most of the girls are OL.
19. Kuro no Juusan 黒ノ十三 [960927] Tonkin House
Kuro no Jyusan is a sound novel / visual novel adventure game supervised by horror novel japanese writer Tsuji Aya and divided into 13 different chapters, in which the player will have different game endings depending of his choices during the game. The game stories are mostly ghost stories.
Most of the endings are bad and miserable ones. Some are plain absurd. Genre not for everyone.
20. Sakura Taisen サクラ大戦 [960927] Sega 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
The original storyline, said to be inspired by the Shochiku Kagekidan, takes place in an alternate 1920s Tokyo. It follows the adventures of an all-female secret task force known as the Imperial Assault Force — Flower Division as they defend the Imperial Capital Tokyo against evil. They are led by Ichiro Ogami, a newly graduated Imperial Navy Ensign who had been assigned to the squad partly due to his unique ability to use a special type of armor that only women having high levels of spiritual powers could previously operate.
There are many English reviews.
21. Toge TOGE（棘）[960927] Poison Breath
First Miko is kidnapped on the way to school, then the same happens to hero's beautiful piano teacher whom he admires. What's the connection between the cases and the motive?
Game is of insult nature and with same dim tones as previous games of Poison Breath. A very painful and unpleasant work.
Be-Yond ~Kurodaishou ni Mirareteru~ is the only masterpiece of the month.
1. Eden no Kaori エデンの香り [960801] JAST
Joe Tsunado is a private investigator who has been out of work for a long time. Suddenly he gets a call from Yorimasa Kiryuuin, a very rich man, who wants to hire Joe for examing the true identity of one suspicious Yorimasa’s relative. That person appeared after the former head of family had passed out and said that he was his son. Now he claim’s to the fortune of the family and Yorimasa wants to know is he’s really his relative or not.
There is a strange charm about Jast works. This is quite a minor and it's not really long. But it has multiple endings, including bad ones. There are some 40 locations in the town and in the mansion that you need to check and talk to everyone between the big events. There is also quite big number of H-scenes with almost all of them being spontaneous. It's possible to play this game at aisenheim project, but their google translation is dated and thus bad while opening log all the time to copy text for translation is a bit tedious.
2. Blue Eyes [960802] FAIRYTALE HARDCOVER
A.D. 2215. Aliens coexist with humans on the Earth. A team of killers, containing Matis, Selica and Joiness, creates an uproar on the streets of Tokyo. This time they killed the most powerful mafia boss and took three black crystals called "Blue Eyes". However, they get involved in a terrible incident over the "Blue Eyes".
I wish all VN industry moved this direction.
3. Cherry Jam ~Kanojo ga Hadaka ni Kigaetara~ チェリージャム ～彼女が裸に着替えたら～ [960802] Jam 1
Cherry Jam is a visual novel with a slight inclination towards dating simulation. The hero is a nameless young man who is dating a girl named Tomoyo. The game is dedicated to their relationship, more precisely the dates they have together. As usually in visual novels, the basic premise is a flow of text accompanying still images, with occasional decisions that steer the story in a different direction. However, in Cherry Jam the player has to choose the protagonist's answers or actions very frequently. Those decisions influence Tomoyo's mood and eventually the outcome of the date. Many decisions also lead to a premature end of the game.
Another experimental SIM. Just one heroine, but there's a time limit, constant lack of finances, after-date diary from the Tomoyo side of view pressure - the difficulty is really high.
4. Peropero Candy ぺろぺろCandy [960802] Mink 1 2 3
The protagonist is an average guy. One day in the street I meet up a agent who introduces me into a H shop (Image Club). I'm unwilling because it may be coarse, but he confidently says to me that there's a pretty girl in the shop, so I change my mind and get in. Yes! A beautiful and nice girl named Candy welcomes me. From now on the story's simple. We talk familiarly for a while and take a H situation-play. From time to time I meet up a girl in the street who resembles Candy in appearance but she says she doesn't know me. Who is she?
There is an English review.
5 Yuurou ~Transient Sands~ 憂楼 ～Transient Sands～ [960802] Harvest 1 2 3 4 5
Riku is a knight of the Yūrō Empire, part of a medieval fantasy world known as Varcias. One day, returning to Yūrō through the desert, Riku found a girl lying nearly unconscious on the sand. This girl is revealed to be Azusa, a modern-day Japanese schoolgirl who, thanks to a time warp, ended up in Varcias. Riku must now help Azusa return to her home world. But enemy forces are attacking Yūrō, and the Empress is in desperate need of assistance.
There is an English review for it.
6. Girigiri Telephone Call ギリギリてれふぉんこーる [960809] Misty 1 2
A collection of three stories with telephone call as theme.
5 minutes long erotic stories. There is even an English review for it.
7. Injuu Kyoushi 淫獣教師 [960823] T2 Co., Ltd.
A private detective is told to investigate the accidental death of a girl in an all girl school. As a charming male teacher in a girls' school, he is soon chase after by a few girls, including his old neighbor girl who is no longer boyish looking. As he investigates, he gets friendly with the girls(refuse and bye bye). An evil spirit roaming around and messing with some girls doesn't make his job any easier, but he has help from his Ghost Sweeper friend. Anyway, if he enjoys his days, he will be fine and happy with his girl later.
Game's an obscure one like many other first Windows eroge.
8. Susume Choujou Genshou Kenkyuubu! すすめ超常現象研究部！ [960823] Nikukyuu
Paranormal research school club is on the verge of closure. Its members gather for a night school investigation to uncover the seven wonders of the school.
It's more of a bakage than an eroge. The development is quite lively and the constant confrontation with student council members is delivering. Just don't expect a serious or a scary story.
9. Yakata 館～やかた～ [960823] Interheart
Michie, Saki, and Erika stories are available from the main menu. Each story tells how girl's love life settled after the struggle over the mansion.
What I see is that there are three short stories of erotic nature. Played one to the end.
10. Yuugiri ~Ningyoushi no Isan~ 夕霧 ～人形師の遺産～ [960823] Desire
Kyohei is a college student. During summer vacation he visits his hometown. At the train station he's stuck in the fierce rain and invited by a beautiful woman to take shelter in her house. There is a locked door in the house that emits blue light and has the note on it saying "Beware of the bell".
A horror game in traditional rural atmosphere. The first game to have autoplay function! Never thought any PC-98 game had that! There are multiple branches determined by 29 choices. Only two good endings are prepared altogether with much more bad endings. There is no real story, just exploring the house. Horror effects are done well for a pc-98 game.
11. Be-Yond ~Kurodaishou ni Mirareteru~ ビ・ ヨンド ～黒大将に見られてる～ [960830] Silky's 1 2 3 4
When I woke up from the darkness, I learned that I was the legendary Devil of Darkness, that was said to have the power to destroy the universe.
The beautiful girls approach me one after another. My shout roars in space. When I pat a villain gently, he is discomposed into molecules... It seems that I have the power... But... am I really the Devil?
I loved the OVA too much. So I reviewed it myself.
12. Coin [960830] Ange 1
The hero of this game (default name Ryouta) is a typical hentai protagonist: a male teenager who is interested only in sex. One day, Ryouta finds a cute black bunny and brings it home; the next morning, the bunny turns into a sexy black-haired girl! Needless to say the activities the two perform during the course of the game do not include playing chess or discussing philosophy. But Ryouta is not satisfied with the "bunny girl" alone, what with all those cute female schoolmates around him...
Ange pc-98 works aren't hookable. One of japanese reviews reports that atmosphere becomes gradually more serious and the ending being excellent. There are 22 endings overall.
13. Kyuukyoku Seigi Sexy Marble 究極正義セクシーマーブル [960830] Mayfar Soft
Our girl Marble and another guy are special people created by a scientist. They are also the only defense against a group of people trying to take over the world. With enough special energy from her guy, Sexy Marble will stop the evil group.
Game's obscure. Only opening sequences are pretty followed by ugly art. There is also card gameplay.
14. Visitte ビジット [960830] Mischief
The whole prefecture is turned into school facility. Main character heads a club that fulfills various requests and provides consultation. There are six episodes with first one giving introduction, and next four being dedicated to each of the four main heroines. The last episode and the ending depend on the order of four heroines capture.
Only kanji are found upon hooking. There are four girls to seek attention. Heroines other than main don't even have their final CG which is replaced by line "to be continued". Ending depends on the order of episodes clearing, so getting all the endings is really tiresome.
Kizuato, NOëL NOT DiGITAL and Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! ~We've Been Waiting for You~ are masterpieces of the month, but Kizuato is the most fundamental one and thus is VN of the Month
1. Viper-BTR ~Mahou no Tobakushi Totokaru Chomi~ ＶＩＰＥＲ－ＢＴＲ ～魔法の賭博師トトカル☆チョミ～ [960705] Sogna 1 2
Ruri and her dice familiars, Sai and Coro, return in the sequel to the story presented in VIPER-V12. Ruri engages with another young girl given the power to become an adult, who, unlike Ruri, does not let her alter-ego get the best of her. Ruri searchs the town for three magical items while at the same time derailing Mai's attempts to improve the lives of those less fortunate. How far is Ruri willing to go, and will it ultimately cost her the special power she so covets?
There is an English review.
2. Eberouge エーベルージュ [960712] Fujitsu 1
The story happens in a parallel world named EbeLand. The setting is similar to the medieval age in Europe. Magic is common and is a common subject taught in colleges. In this world, the ecosystem is originated and supported by a central huge tree. However, due to the overdevelopment of industries and use of fossil fuel, global warming is rampant. The huge tree is dying, which endangers the game world.
Long ago, this land was saved by the Goddess Ebe from total destruction, but years later, an archaeologist among the survivors felt the balance of the land tipping again. So he created institutes to train a student that can create magic, as the Goddess did, to save the land once more.
There exists an English review for this fantasy dating sim.
3. Magical Panic まじかるパニック [960712] Pearl Soft 1
A powerful, wealthy and mysterious man named Alex orders his servant to gather sorcerers and cast a spell that would transport him to a quiet town in Japan and make him look like an ordinary teenager. After the transformation, Alex heads to the Fujiwara High School and says he is the new transfer student. The reasons for his actions and the secret of his true identity are gradually revealed as the school is being threatened by evil beings, and heroines with supernatural powers defend it. But in the meantime, the new student must invoke the sexual desires of the town's female inhabitants...
Flags are very difficult to set and need to be repeated for several times for the best result and still can fail to lead to the needed route. Command selection makes things even more tedious.
4. Waku Waku Mahjong Panic! 2 ~Kokushi Musou~ わくわく麻雀パニック！２ ～刻視夢想～ [960712] Four-Nine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
The Fairy Gods series continues! The Shikigami Sisters Kumi and Koukaku are called back to the Fairy Village, and Jango must accompany them or risk losing them forever.
What they find along the way are danger, betrayal, and Jango's confrontation with an ancient legend! The plans of the Organization are laid bare, and the deep bonds between Jango and his Fairies, especially dear Kumi, are sorely tested in the conclusion of the Fairy Gods series.
Game is localized and there are many English reviews.
5. Waver ~The Seeker 2~ ウェーバー ～Ｔｈｅ Ｓｅｅｋｅｒ ２～ [960712] Tenshindou
A married couple is caught up in storm while travelling on a car. They drive to a western mansion and are welcome inside. But it's no ordinary household and getting out is much more difficult than getting inside.
In all those H scenes I actually lost the plotline. Game involves lots of fetishes. Game's partially voiced, including H events which is very rare for the time.
6. Youjo Ranbu ~Yogosareta Seiiki~ 妖女乱舞 ～汚された聖域～ [960719] Zone 1
In the Gaia continent, once every 1000 years, there is a holy ritual where the pricesses from the 5 dynasties gather together and pray that the holy sprits will bring peace to the land. Just so happens the millenium ritual is being held this year, and therefore attracted a lot of people. Among them is a mercenary called Reseshibu and his friend Jena. Just as the ritual is about to begin, the sky went gloomy and somebody invaded the castle where the ritual is held. Reseshibu and Jena rushed to the castle to see what happened, and found out that the 5 princesses were abducted by ex-royal-magician who was expelled from the kingdom 12 years ago. He new returns to take revenge by using the 5 princesses as sacrifices to summon monsters. What's more surprising is that this villain is Reseshibu's uncle. After abducting the princesses, Reseshibu's uncle challenges our hero to search in the 5 temples and rescue the princesses and ultimately defeat him. Of course, Reseshibu accepts the challenge. Also hinting from the prologue is Reseshibu's unknown relationship with the princesses as well as his uncle...
There is an English review.
7. Advent [97] Studio Mai
Angel flies in the night sky. Development and endings depend on choices made. Pretty much impossible to find already.
8. Musabori 慾 [960724] MBS Truth
Our guy went on a special trip. He arrived on an island and is told the rules of this trip. He has to have fun with one girl a day for four days. At the end of four days, he gets to pick which girl he wants to keep.
Ero-centered debut of well known nowadays MBS Truth company.
9. Angel Graffiti S ~Anata e no Profile~ エンジェルグラフィティＳ あなたへのプロフィール [960726] Astrovision 1
The player character is a high-school sophomore student, whose name, nickname, birth date and blood type is decided by the player at the beginning of the game. One day, while walking through the park, you notice a beautiful girl, but don't really manage to make a good impression on her and she soon goes away. The next day, your homeroom teacher announces you have a new student joining your class ... her name is Misuzu Amano ... the girl you met a day ago in the park. Your luck didn't completely run out as now you will have plenty of time to try and make an impression on her and possibly make her fall in love with you. But she is not the only girl in school that caught your eyes, so you will have to decide who is your person of interest and who you will try to woo. Luckily for you, you are not alone on your quest, you will have a help from heaven itself, an angel by the name Eve, who will often give you advice on girls' feelings.
Expectations for this game were high since the author of Orange Road did character design. It was going to be fully voiced and with animation sequences everywhere. The reality was not as bright. It's made for small screen and suffers from poor resolution. Voicing is done only partly. It's a raising sim instead of dating sim. The outrage wave was so big that game's forever buried under tonns of negative votes.
10. Chuushaki 注射器 [960726] AyPio 1
A young girl named Mana is determine to become a good nurse. She plans to attend the Hirasawa Nurse School, which was also the place where her late mother studied. However, upon arrival Mana finds out that strange things are happening in the school. Not only some of the teachers are acting weird, but the fellow aspiring nurses seem to be more interested in sex than in actually learning their profession...
It's just a sequence of H events with some dialogues inserted here and there for some reason.
11. Kizuato 痕 [960726] Leaf 1 2 3 4 5
The protagonist is visiting his four cousins' home. He starts to have weird nightmares. Soon, he finds out that their family has non-human genes and the beasts in them want to hunt, and the ones who hunt are the males. Will he be able to help his cousins, will his love be enough or will he be devoured?
There are multiple English reviews for this game.
12. Kurayami 暗闇 [960726] Melody 1 2
On a cold Christmas night, the male hero of the game enters a large building, hoping to find a warm place. But the elevator he enters is malfunctioning. After a short while he finds himself trapped in the elevator, unable to get out. As his eyes adjust to the darkness, he realizes that a young woman is inside the elevator as well. The two must find a way out, and also learn about each other's lives in the process...
There is a good English review.
13. Megami Paradise 2 女神天国 2 [960726] NEC Home Electronics 1 2
The second game based on the Megami Paradise anime series is not directly related story-wise to the first one, and also belongs to a different genre. The game is set in a magical land ruled by women, namely the benevolent goddess Mamamega, with the dark goddess Yamimama constantly trying to defeat her and take over. Each goddess is surrounded by "shrine maidens", all of which are young and pretty girls.
Prequel was plain horrible with only cute ability to change dresses. A year later there is much progress. Game's aim and story aren't interesting, but at that time game had a lot of charm. Exploration is done in top-down mode similar to Classmate, but with much bigger zoom. Clothes is much more customizable now and with dressing animations. Girls character designs were very cute. Animation was everywhere on PC FC. Voicing was perfectly done. It's certainly a game not for everyone, but it was really popular back then.
14. NOëL NOT DiGITAL [960726] Pioneer LDC 1
The protagonist met three girls by the seaside and starts talking to them through a video phone system in hopes of being confessed by one of them on Christmas day.
This game is what Virtual Call 2 must have been. There is no real story, just talking with heroines through videophone. Full animation! Full voice! Fantastic immersion. Add sophisticated interface and cute character design and you inevitably get a masterpiece.
15. Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! ~We've Been Waiting for You~ Pia♥キャロットへようこそ!! ～We've been Waiting for you～ [960726] Cocktail Soft 1 2 3 4 5 6
You play as Yusuke, a young 18-year-old just finished with High School. You plan on spending your last summer with your best friend Daisuke. However, previously you made a bet with your father, concerning your grades. Your test marks are not desirable, and you lose the bet, therefore you must live up to your promise and work at daddy's restaurant, the Pia Carrot. What seems like what's going to be a lame summer of slave labor, becomes the greatest and most memorable summer of your life. What makes things interesting are all the cute girls who work at the Pia Carrot, and those who dine there.
You already know Shouko, a childhood friend of yours and Satomi, a classmate and the girl you have a crush on already, will be working with you. Yet, as the summer goes by the interaction with other girls is intense and you must choose who you want. There are a total of nine girls Satomi, Shouko, Reika, Yukiko, Saori, Airi, Shiho, Kiyomi, and Yukari, to court after.
There are several English reviews and game is localized by fans.
16. PILcaSEX ＰＩＬｃａＳＥＸ [960726] PIL
Includes 5 games:
- After Seek
- Inu (犬)
- Rinchi (輪恥)
- Mudai (無題)
- Seiyoku no Tsuyoi Kangofu (性欲の強い看護婦)
All the stories are of SM nature and one is even called After Seek as continuation of the original game. The direction of each story is different, so readable if can stand the genre at all.
17. S.A. 4 - Adachi 34 S.A.4 足立34 [960726] Exst
A collection of three scenarios. In the main scenario Shinji's sister returns back to the family house after 10 years of absence. Since siblings were close in the childhood they have worries about their feelings and careers.
The other two scenarios are short episodes of erotic nature.
In the first scenario at least some psychological development is depicted. Art is even further improved - especially I like hair drawing here.
18. Youki Toubatsu Ninpou Chou 妖鬼討伐忍法帳 [960728] ZyX
It is about a ninja girl sent out to find out why her sister ninja didn't come back from a mission. She found out why very soon, and if she can't win the fights, she will find out even more. If she succeeds in the 5 fights, including the beginning test fight, she can rescue her sister ninja. Failure means joining her as a slave.
The birth of kunoichi slave theme.
19. Guardian Recall ~Shugo Juu Shoukan~ ガーディアンリコール ～守護獣召還～ [960730] Agumix 1 2
In this tactical RPG, we are in the near future, when an evil organization wants to conquer the world using demons and other creatures to help them. You can choose being part of this evil organization or control a group of young girls with guardians that fight against them.
There's an English review for this game.
Kakyuusei and Es no Houteishiki are masterpieces of the month, but my favorite is Es no Houteishiki and furthermore it's played like a regular novel and can be enjoyed nowadays.
1. Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Houseki RADICAL DREAMERS -盗めない宝石- [960601] Square Co. 1 2 3 4 5 6
Radical Dreamers is a text-based adventure game taking place after the SNES RPG Chrono Trigger. It aims to tie up a loose end from Chrono Trigger, and features two recurring characters from that game. The story follows the thieves Serge, Kid, and Magil as they sneak into a large and foreboding mansion to find the Frozen Flame.
Game has an overwhelming number of English reviews.
2. Gakuen King -Hidehiko Gakkou o Tsukuru- 学園KING －日出彦 学校をつくる－ [960607] Alice Soft 1
In the year 30 of the Meiji era in Japan (end of 19th century), a powerful family of Japanese oligarchs (zaibatsu) known as "Amatsukami" has constructed an artificial island and ruled over it, basically creating a state within a state. They had high hopes of building the "Japan of the future" and educating the young ones: the central place on the island was dedicated to a high school. But years have passed, and the youngsters rebelled against the oligarchs. Chaos reigned on the island, and even terrorist attacks were not uncommon. Amatsukami Hidehiko, the last (and youngest) of the oligarchs, decides to change the way of things. Using his charisma, but also more violent tactics, he goes to the troubled school to deal personally with anyone who dares oppose him.
The synopsis hardly matters here since it's a bakage. Weird text and a lot of colorful characters made it enjoyable to play. RPG part here is quite irregular with random battles for leveling up. The difficulty level is also high. It's more a game for those who got tired of fantasy RPG of similar systems and want just to have fun.
3. Grounseed グランシード [960607] Studio Twinkle 1 2
Akira Ichijou is an ordinary Japanese high-school student. One fine Sunday, he goes out to meet his lovely girlfriend Kanami. Suddenly they see a strange glowing ball. When they touch it, they enter a portal that leads to a parallel dimension named Grounseed. It is a medieval world with spirits and magic. Naturally, it was no coincidence that Akira ended up there: the balance of both worlds is in danger, and only a person from our dimension can restore it. To do that, Akira has to travel to the spirit kings of the five elements, and complete a magical ritual that would prevent both universes from collapsing.
There's a good English review of this game.
4. Kakyuusei 下級生 [960607] Elf 1 2 3 4
In Kakyūsei, the player takes the role of a young Japanese high-school student named Kentarou. During the summer break, Kentarou has been working in a restaurant, run by a relative of his family. Now the summer is over, so Kentarou can finally get his salary and prepare for the school season that is about to begin. With some money in his pocket, and plenty of interest towards representatives of the fairer sex, the boy is determined to make this school year memorable...
There's an English review but it's quite short. It's sister series of Classmate featuring last year of middle school instead of graduating high school year. Game period is one year, that's already quite different since Classmate only covered summer vacation or winter vacation. Some elements have changed like map is chosen now instead of backtracking on feet. Middle school is a stage which means one thing - lots of young and loli-like cute characters. Add Elf's astonishing graphics and you'll see what launched the moe revolution. Another memorable tsundere character is featured to push the trend further. Since events take a full year there are longer periods between dates and some periods lack events. Overall satisfaction is lower than of Classmate 2, but the freshness of experimental system and its characters made this game shine. And I saw the game after I watched the anime, so I loved the characters already.
5. Ura Mansion Hakkin 裏マンション発禁 [960607] Illusion 1
The protagonist of the game is an ordinary Japanese man who lives together with his pretty wife Harunako. Two years after their marriage, they decided to move into a mansion in the suburbs. Everything seems normal when the couple arrives. But very quickly they both become involved in sexual intrigues, and witness strange events - mostly of sexual nature - that occur in the presence of their neighbors. Looks like the quiet family life they were hoping for will never become reality...
It's an Illusion game, so the plot part can be fully omitted. And it's one of the pioneers of NTR fetish.
6. Bunkasai 文化祭 [960614] Ucom 1
Bunkasai puts the player in the role of a male Japanese high-school student. One day his teacher tells him about the upcoming culture festival, giving him the assignment to help his lovely classmate Mia in the preparations. Naturally, the young man's mind is more directed towards... err... other aspects of Mia's personality. But what starts as a simple collaboration between high-school students soon turns into a drama full of violence and difficult decisions to make...
Multiple incidents occur in the course of festival preparation and you are to solve each one of them before the event actually starts. It's still command selection here, mostly to cover the volume shortage. There is a happy end only with Mia although there are some H-events with two more girls. There are just couple CGs of Mia which is not even remotely enough. It's really hard to find an appeal point for this game.
7. Hankou Shashin ~Shibarareta Shoujo-tachi no Mita Mono wa?~ 犯行写真 ～縛られた少女たちの見たモノは？～ [960614] Imagineer Co., Ltd. 1
Mystery goings on in this adventure game with a title translating as Crime Scene Photo and young ladies in danger. Plenty of real photographs to help as clues to solving the mystery. The detective must also review footage of them frolicking in their underwear and in the hot spring before a mystery man appears.
A murder occurs at the same building where protagonist is sent to take photos of three idols. It's a kusoge. There is hardly any mystery, there's nothing to do with the photos. But it shows the tendency to try and make live-action games which will show up multiple times in the future games.
8. Re-No Stayin' Alive Re-No Stayin' Alive [960614] Software House Parsley
Ryo is a private detective. His girlfriend works in a music industry and requests that he escorted singer girls. A chain of incidents happens one by one with many of them of uncomprehendable nature. Ryo needs to get to the truth behind them.
Suspense mystery story. The tempo is especially good here since the tension rises persistently. The development is abrupt close to the final but the final mystery is satisfying. Since it's so dense on events, protagonist looks ill-developed as it seems that he does not think, just follows events. Female characters fail at showing their appeal points. The evaluation depends of what you seek. If action movie is what's desired, then it's definitely a masterpiece. If you're looking for developed protagonist and girls characters, look elsewhere.
9. Delicious Lunch Pack デリシャスらんちぱっく [960621] Scoop 1
Delicious Lunch Pack has nothing to do with lunches (or anything delicious, for that matter); but it is indeed a "pack", since the game consists of three separate games/stories that are unrelated to each other and can be accessed directly from the main menu.
The first story stars a young man named Kouichi, who inspects a newly opened department store; his goal is to make acquaintance with the young and pretty salesgirls, eventually seducing them.
The second story follows the sexual adventures of an innocent young school girl named Kyouko. She is being introduced - by teachers, a nurse, male and female classmates, even family members - to various kinds of sexual experiences.
The third story is set in a fantasy world. A young huntress named Chiroru is looking for food and water in a forest, encountering various fantasy creatures and having sex with them.
I'm no fan of short purely erotic stories.
10. Rabyni ラブィーニ [960621] C's Ware 1 2
Reiji is a loser high school student. He likes to peek after girls and girls detest him for that. He only has one childhood friend Misaki who brings him to school and helps him with studies. But everything changes after Reiji is caught by the teacher red-handed taking camera shots in girls' changing room...
I've got a full review prepared.
11. Carrot Time キャロットタイム [960628] Aquarium
This is a story of two lovers - bunny girl Carrot and fox boy Tail - who live in a small village at the corner of a fantasy world.
Game's quite ugly and no wonder it's forgotten. Still game art style is inherited in further games of Aquarium and game's important as its origin.
12. Es no Houteishiki Ｅｓの方程式 [960628] Abogado Powers 1 2
Es no Hōteishiki is the second game in the Detective Suzusaki series. The events described in the previous game, The Literary Fragment, led to a series of suicides, but the case was believed to be closed. But Kusanagi, the young brilliant psychologist and assistant of the famous detective Suzusaki, has now to face his own past. The traces lead to a remote village, which has seen nine mysterious, unsolved murders in eleven years. Soon, Kusanagi discovers a strange religious cult, that might shed some light on his past...
The two works are loosely connected. If first one focused on Cthulhu myths, this second one has quantum theory / psychological motive in center. Es is chaos or suppressed urges in Freud's theory and it's one of the psyche parts alongside with ego and super ego. It's hidden behind a tall wall usually, but at times it may break loose. This point and click adventure is quite easy to progress and it's over in under 10 hours. The story is not too complex but narration constantly shifts from present to past scenes which makes it difficult to track. The final route leading to game's end may seem a bit hasty. I've a full review prepared.
13. Fortune Lover フォーチュンラヴァー [960628] Interheart
Shuu is high school student. He was late for his date with Reiko and got dumped for that reason. A shady merchants sells him fortune charm that's supposed to fix their relations instantly. Upon showing the necklace to the Reiko she forces her on Shuu right in the school. At the same time other girls start to behave excited around Shuu.
Quite a lively work. There are lots of endings here with most of them being bad ones. But each good ending branch is also short, about 20 minutes long.
14. Kokuu Hyouryuu Nirgends 虚空漂流ニルゲンツ [960628] Micro Cabin 1
Kokuu Hyouryuu Nirgends tells the story of a young man named Dünn Bit, who was just recruited for a special military unit called "Windmühle". Led by the young and pretty captain Eis Schwarz, this unit specializes in unique airplanes that can transform into giant combat robots called "Divers". They have recently began operation in the country of Vidar, where enemy activity has been spotted. Dünn has to prove himself as a capable pilot and fighter, and perhaps also to make impression on the gorgeous captain or other people in his team, most of which are pretty girls...
Exclusive PC FX game and one of the highest peaks of quality for this platform. Game widely uses anime motion for scene. Battles are actual real-time simulator stuff, so difficulty is very high, although with enough training can do even without high reflexes. Since PC FX is bad with polygon rendering it uses pseudo 3D which is fine, but not an actual 3D of course. Game's hard to get now, but those who managed to get through the combat rate this game as a masterpiece.
15. Manguri まんぐり [960628] Illusion
In a strange world, you can tell girls how to have fun. You get to watch the animated results. Afterward, your batgirl guide will say what kind of person you are.
No plot, just weird animated scenes.
16. Travel Junction トラベル★ジャンクション [960628] Cocktail Soft
Hero fails to find a job in a major tour company. Eventually, he gets a job in a very small tour company on the verge of bankruptcy only containing four people with him. Their last hope is barely known southern island that no big tourist company holds. Hero and company president's daughter go there as guides alongside a tourist group of six women.
It is a galge, but it's refreshing that it does not take place at school nor with a student as protagonist. It actually is hardly romantic as well. It's a resort adventure with lots of sun, sea, alcohol and opportunities to know each other better. Game uses point and click system and has multiple endings. I tried to play it but stopped when realized that it's a resort type galge with six random women. There might be a side plot line, so let me tell you about first part impressions. Game starts as hero attends the big tourist company. He is looking for toilet and goes to a wrong room. That's the room of big company president's daughter. She mistreats the urge for toilet for passion and seduces protagonist, so he misses the interview. The next day he's not allowed past the receptionist. So the side plot is in that the big company president gets to know about small company secret tourist tour and sends his daughter to ruin those plans. And presidents of small and big tourist company started out together and rivaled over the same woman, so the competition is bitter. So the number of girls is 8: six plus small and big company presidents daughters. It's a light comedy with nice humor and graphics.
17. Twilight Hotel トワイライトホテル [960628] ZyX
A guy got into a car accident(fell down a cliff) and woke up in the Twilight Hotel unharmed but can't remember much except his job. This hotel is run by 4 sisters, 1 maid, 2 manservant and has 3 guests. The bridge door to the outside world is locked, so he explores this hotel and its people. What he finds is that the 4 girls' father want them to be immortal, but what they got was 3 demons that stop time for them and totally used them. It is up to the guy to either free the girls or join in the fun.
Museum type game. Point and click is introduced poorly as clicking is difficult and it's needed to click on multiple objects to trigger dialogue. Atmosphere is quite alien with all the otherworldly stuff.
18. Moderate Party モダレイトパーティ [960628] Ice Soft
Shibuya is full of girl chatter. It's easy to find a girl to one's liking here. But every girl demands individual approach during initial meeting and further on. Will you use find the right words to attract the girl and save lovely personality in her?
Nanpa was one of the main topics for PC-98, so it's natural that first Windows games with better graphics would want to prey on its success.
There aren't masterpieces this month, but I like Rouge no Densetsu the most this month.
1. Onna no Ko no Shikumi 女の子の仕組み [960501] Libido
Three sisters Miyu, Shoko and Mirei tell the stories where they confess their secrets.
Short ero-centered loli stories.
2. Rouge no Densetsu ルージュの伝説 [960510] D.O. 1 2 3
Long time ago, a legendary hero defeated an evil dragon. He wore a magical bracelet that protected him during the battle. years passed, and the memories of his heroic deeds, even his name, have faded away from people's minds. But a young girl named Rouge, who trains regularly in the art of sword-fighting, still dreams about a real hero - more precisely, imagines that she will marry one.
There is a great English review and long polish review for this game.
3. Hanafuda Graffiti Koikoi Monogatari 花札グラフィティー 恋々物語 [960510] HAMSTER Corporation 1
Hanafuda Graffiti Koikoi Monogatari is a hanafuda game (a type of Japanese playing cards) that features a story mode and a free versus mode. In story mode, the game starts with the main character taking on different challenges in order to become the successor of a prestigious school of hanafuda. Player can enjoy lots of typical gameplay features for adventure game, such as moving around in the town, searching the room for special items and triggering off love story events. In free versus mode, two hanafuda games, Koi-Koi and Hana Awase, are playable. Game instruction can be displayed anytime during gameplay so even beginners can easily enjoy the fun of hanafuda. To fuel up the game further, characters with plenty of personalities and unique reactions will be appearing in the game. Seasoned players can also maximize their hanafuda experience by customizing their game with detailed settings.
There is a free battle mode and a story mode. In story mode we protect the dignity of clan... and go through a series of hanafuda battles all the same.
4. Janki ~Ladies Mahjong League~ 雀姫 ～レディース・マージャン・リーグ～ [960515] Succubus 1
This is an adult Mahjong game with hentai images. The heroine was a well renown singer who's part of a performing troupe. She'd grown up with the troupe, and to her the troupe was her family. One day a royal summon arrived, requesting for her to be the kingdom's royal singer... and with the troupe's encouragement, she accepted the summon and was taken away to the castle. She was told that she was summoned because the King had once heard her voice and wanted her to be his royal singer, that it couldn’t be anyone but her, but when she arrived the King didn't show any sign of this. In fact, he barely acknowledged her arrival, and no one else in the castle seemed to have the need for a royal singer. So why, exactly, was she invited to stay in the castle...?
There are two openings and an ending, but besides that nothing special.
5. File:0 Ghost Killer Kamimura Rei ＦＩＬＥ：０ ゴーストキラー・神村 麗 [960524] Colossus
Kamimura Rei is a ghost killer. She is assisted by shrine maiden Shirui Mika who can listen to the spirits of the deceased. Together they solve thee spirit-related cases.
The three cases are straightforward and rather short. There is enough yuri element in the game. It's nice to see that Miki hobby is BL manga and she can be considered the first visual novel fujoshi. Game starts strong with detailed main heroines profiles and interaction between the heroines is fun, but game ends right after the three short cases and there's no feeling of complete work.
6. Suki! 好き！ [960524] Nikukyuu
Hero's mother and father have gone overseas leaving him with his older sister. A new school year starts today and it's time for new opportunities and new love.
Game's not hookable, but the content is a generic SIM with day planning and looking for girls.
7. Oh! Kitsune-sama Ｏｈ！きつねさま☆ [960531] Curott 1
The protagonist of the game is a young boy who is about to graduate high school and is looking for a job to support himself during the upcoming college years. However, fate intervened and arranged a bike accident, which resulted in a meeting with a creature from another world - a cute fox-girl named Sharan. She needs nothing else but to be together with the hero; but a mysterious voice tells him: "one wish has been fulfilled, two more to go"...
Game from the studio that was probably the first one to specialize in loli. One way story with the meaningful choice only at the end. The appeal points are cuteness, loli and animal-girl. Nothing much besides that.
8. Paparazzo パパラッチ [960531] Ume Soft 1
In Paparazzo the player takes control of a young Japanese male journalist who works for an agency that primarily covers sports events. Dissatisfied with his position, the young man considers becoming a paparazzo, working on his own to get pictures of celebrities. From that point on the plot branches depending on the player's decisions, as the protagonist encounters various women and may pursue relationships with them.
There as many as 11 girls in here. There are bad endings and the decisions determining the ending are done early in game. The game starts as a journalist story but goes on mostly like a love affair story with many H-events. Game's perfectly hookable, but I forgot to enlarge the border while capturing.
9. Sound Novel Tsukuru サウンドノベルツクール [960531] ASCII Corporation
Sound Novel Tsukuru is a Super Famicom graphic novel game where players can either read or create interactive fiction on their own console systems. Stories can be saved either on a battery or through a satellite connection.
The game comes with a previously created graphic novel about exploring an old house. Due to the limitations in the game's engine, it can only show shadows of non-player characters that the player meets on his journey. Settings can range from a modern day train to a rural house and even wilderness can be included in various stages of wildness.
A constructor for creating sound novels. Not even sure if it has premade stories or the videos are based on created stories.
10. Strange World ストレンジ・ワールド [960531] Sorciere
Hero is a college student. To earn his living he participates in hospital brainwaves study tests. He dreams of appearing in a castle as a new employee.
Multiple route and multiple ending adventure with 14 bad endings and only 3 happy ones. So capture is really difficult and the best ending is only achievable with 100% CG. The atmosphere is good, but content is ero-centered.
The only masterpiece of the Month is Harlem Blade ~The Greatest of All Time.~
1. Blue Ruins ~Harukanaru Bibanon no Hihou~ ＢＬＵＥ ＲＵＩＮＳ ～遥かなるビバノンの秘宝～ [960405] ViVian
Rusty is an archaeologist who travels with his magician sister Wiki. Together they arrive to the town Nimrud in search of information about blue ruins and its treasures.
Game is really difficult as there are 8 commands to pick manually with a mouse and those commands also have options or need to target an object on the screen. The same command needs to be pressed over and over and outcome lines come often in single sentences. There are some gags scattered around, but it's nothing but pain to disover them as they require the options to be exhausted. Game also has RPG elements with the party size being three persons.
2. GLO-RI-A ~Kindan no Ketsuzoku~ GLO・RI・A ～禁断の血族～ [960405] C's Ware 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
You are Kira Akishino, an ace student from one of the best universities in Boston. You are offered a tutoring job at the illustrious Gloria mansion, along with your friend Georg. The Gloria family has long been one of the wealthiest and most prominent empires, and they need you and Georg to tutor one of the five daughters. Georg is immediately taken with the eldest daughter -- the strong-willed Etana Gloria, which leaves you with four others to choose from. There's Sicile, who has the worst grades of them all; Mary, the naive golden-haired angel; Naomi, who cares about nothing else but drinking; and Charme, the most brilliant one of the Glorias. But there's something more to it all... the Glorias are hiding some things, and it's up to you to find out what they are. Will you be able unlock the family secrets? Or will you just be a good tutor? Who knows, you may even end up marrying one of the Glorias...
Game is localized and has many English reviews.
3. Kusuriyubi no Kyoukasho くすり指の教科書 [960405] Active 1
Toshio is an eighteen-year-old young man who has attended a special school, and now has quite a bit of free time on his hands. He has been raised by his single father, and has enjoyed a careless life in a wealthy environment. Now, his thoughts are directed at his pretty ex-schoolmates. Not everything is as simple as it may seem - Toshio has to plan his moves carefully, otherwise he might fail in his amorous endeavors.
Game's an ordinary moege. That we would say today, but it was around 1996 when such games started showing up as a response to the public demand. Volume is small as there's only fast single day capturing of all the girls and a short afterstory of each girl.
4. Ring of Sias Ring of Sias [960412] Athena
Evil witch Beatrice that was created from a combination of technology and magic tried to invade the holy city as the first step to conquer the World, but even as she encounters an aggressive resistance she destroyed it, got some prisoners and she also succeed in separated the spirit of the magician Sias from his body. One of the prisoner's was Sias girlfriend Radia (a female warrior that was caught in a trap made by Beatrice), so he decided to go to infiltrate inside Beatrice's castle and try to free her and the other hostages.
Sias is the hero of the story, he got his spirit separated from the body and his spirit is sealed in a ring. The main goal of the game is to defeat Beatrice.
Yet another "sound novel". And since it's for ps1, it has more or less sufficient volume. As in every horror sound novel, story is not as significant as visuals, sound and atmosphere.
5. Daraku no Kuni no Angie ~Kyoukai no Mesu Dorei-tachi~ 堕落の国のアンジー ～狂界の牝奴隷達～ [960419] PIL 1
Angie and Ruby are two ordinary young girls: they like spending time together, talking about fashion, men, and all the usual stuff. But one day, they see a very strange man - dressed in a rabbit costume, with a gigantic erected penis... The two girls try to flee, but instead end up in an alternate dimension - a bizarre world called Decadence Land. This world is populated by grotesque characters with only sex in mind. Now Angie and Ruby have to figure out a way to escape from this dangerous world and to return home...
The level of craziness in this game goes beyond every limit. The genre can be described as hentai scatology SM comedy.
6. Kotetsu no Daibouken 小鉄の大冒険 [960419] T2 Co., Ltd. 1 2 3
Kotetsu no Daibōken is based on the anime The Adventures of Kotetsu. The titular heroine (real name Lynn Suzuki, nicknamed Kotetsu, which means Little Iron) is a young apprentice of martial arts who flees her cruel master and is accepted by the kind lady Miho Kuon, who runs a detective agency in Tokyo. The game can be perceived as a sequel to the anime, since it begins roughly where the original story ended, with the former "nerdy" spy Tatsuya Mikado already turned good and living by Miho Kuon along with Kotetsu and other heroes. Like the original anime, the game mixes modern setting with bizarre and supernatural elements. Unlike the anime, this game contains many explicit sexual scenes.
There are two reviews in European languages and it's a good anime spin-off. Actually, the scenario is written by manga author so quality is on a high level. There are cool characters and dialogues. Kyoto dialect of Kotetsu alone makes the game shine. The small RPG-like battles are very simple and don't ruin the fun. It's close to a bakage, but at least it's fun.
7. Love Phantom ラブ・ファントム [960419] Love Gun 1
"Love Phantom" is a story about Akira Izayoi, a healer with supernatural powers, able to cure curses and demonic diseases, who also happens to be a big admirer of the opposite sex. This time, he finds out that the spirit of Lucretia, a French witch from 16th century, still exists, and must find and deal with it, aided by his pretty assistant and (also pretty) female witches, before an evil demonic organization beats him to it.
I could hardly understand what was going on when was swarmed with H events. It's Love Gun, after all, only erotic bakagames in its profile.
8. School Days ~Yuri Rika Kaori~ スクールデイズ ～友里 理佳 かおり～ [960419] Misty
A collection of three short erotic stories:
1. 英語教師の課外授業 2. 家庭教師の課外授業 3. 保健室より
Stupid short stories with hardly any introduction.
9. X-Girl [960419] Red Zone 1 2 3
In the near future, Japan became involved in a war against the most powerful states of the world. As a result, it was nearly devastated. 30% of its population became immigrants. Tokyo became center of military organizations at war with each other. In such a world lives a highly trained Japanese female soldier named Kiyomi. But everything changes when the military brings Kiyomi to a mysterious woman, who requires a trained agent like her to capture four female prisoners who had just escaped...
I like cyberpunk stories and I enjoyed Silky's Reira slave doll, but Red zone clearly only uses violent cyberpunk setting to molest girls harshly. There is a Russian review available with machine translation.
10. Akumu ~Aoi Kajitsu no Sanka~ 悪夢 ～青い果実の散花～ [960426] Studio Mebius 1 2
The protagonist of this game is a young man from a rich family, who has lost his parents when he was a child. Lately, he has been haunted by nightmares, in which objects of his sexual desires were appearing to him in dark, demonic forms. Using his money and influence, he captures the female students of the St. Excellent Girls High School, with only one goal in mind - rape them.
There is an English review.
11. Angel Night ~Yamiyo o Kakeru Tenshi-tachi no Monogatari~ えんじぇる☆ないと ～闇夜を翔ける天使たちの物語～ [960426] Four-Nine 1
In the miraculous World of Demons, there lived a vampiric count. One day, standing near the statue of the Goddess of Time, the count thought with sadness of everyone's mortal fate; at this moment the God of Death appeared, telling the count he has a visitor in his castle. The visitor turns out to be a succubus named Karuru, who suggests that the count trains two young female demons, Tiris and Emalis, and sends them to the other worlds...
Strange raising sim mix. There are 31 endings here. And more of that, H scenes with the two succubus trainees aren't considered good endings. The best possible result is achieved if three sacrificial lambs are caught, angel captured, pandora box acquired and girls stats are sky high. There is a substantial adventure part on top of the sim, so you'll have to run around the world quite a lot wisely using inventory items. There's a limit of 50 days till forced game over. A nice experimental work.
12. Harlem Blade ~The Greatest of All Time.~ ハーレムブレイド～The Greatest of All Time.～ [960426] Giga 1 2 3 4
Cain is a perverted young boy who is supposed to be a warrior. His ancestors killed an evil demon called Gargantuan. Cain's brother, Abel, wants him to take his role as a warrior seriously, but Cain is more interested in ogling the village ladies.
Things take a different turn when Abel disappears and Cain is visited in his dreams by The Goddess of Time. She tells Cain that Gargantuan has come back and that it's up to him to stop it. What follows as a very long journey for Cain to save the world from Gargantuan and develop a harem of beautiful women, though not necessarily in that order.
There's a good English review on the game. My only comment is that this game is so vast, so well-thought and complex that I rate it as masterpiece. Maybe it's just because I always play at the highest possible difficulty that I like its spirit.
13. Kanojo-tachi no Jijou 彼女達の事情 [960426] J-Box
Main character is a student detective. He pursues a beautiful girl kidnapping case and wanders around looking for clues and talking to different girls. Can he solve this case?
Detective... not my thing.
14. Sakura no Kisetsu さくらの季節 [960426] Tiare 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
It's April. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom, exploding with beautiful shades of pink and red and white like they do every year. Their fleeting existence will end soon enough, but for now the Season of the Sakura has come again to Japan.
I turn to her, standing at my side, and speak. "The sakura were in bloom the day we first met. Do you remember?" She smiles at me. I know that she is happy. I look up at the sakura once more, and speak again...
"That's right. That was the beginning of it all..."
Game is localized and has numerous English reviews.
15. Sei Shoujo Sentai Lakers III 聖少女戦隊レイカーズ III [960426] Apple Pie 1 2 3
In the sequel to Sei Shōjo Sentai Lakers II Akira and his team have successfully fended off Rayott's assault and are enjoying a brief peaceful time. However, an enigmatic masked enemy known as Neos Bullard appears on the stage. Aiming to capture the power of Laker crystals, Neos Bullard and his minions invade Earth, taking the Lakers by surprise.
Final part of the trilogy. Battles are great and difficult more than ever, but I just can't approve this setting that it's kind of slice of life, but at times another monstrous general arrives - we fight him back and return to everyday life. The same plot in all the parts. Story lacks epicness and enemies are too cartoonish and unserious. It's like they were making tactical Sailor Moon and failed at every aspect.
16. Kyouhaku 脅迫 [960427] Ail 1
Asuka Akiyama has been an ordinary, innocent Japanese schoolgirl, until a fateful moment changed her life forever. One day, after talking to a nice-looking boy named Ryosuke, Asuka came home and masturbated in the shower. The next day, she found out that someone has taken photos of her during that intimate moment. From that point on, Asuka becomes involved in a violent chain of events. Will she be able to retain her purity and be together with Ryosuke, or put in danger everyone she cares for and become a willing sex slave?
Game's just one huge insult scene with varying patterns. From this game starts AIL career as hardcore game producer.
Mujintou Monogatari 3 - A.D. 1999 Tokyo is the only masterpiece of the month.
1. Sex 2 [960301] 1 2
Sex 2 has the same basic premise as its predecessor, which is easy to deduce from the game's title. It's all about engaging in the titular pleasurable activity, and doing it in various "creative" ways. Unlike the first Sex, there is only one girl in Sex 2: Ayaka, the cute flower-raising character from Satyr, another game by the same company.
Comments are excessive.
2. Tsukikomori 晦 [960301] Banpresto
A follow-up of sorts to Gakkou de atta Kowai Hanashi. The protagonist (default name Yoko Maeda) is currently not in school due to spring break. Her grandmother's seventh death anniversary (a uniquely eastern custom which is celebrated on the day of an individual's passing) has come, and several members of the family have gathered. In observance of the day, six of the family members each tell a different horror story. In addition, there is also an introductory scenario which can change based upon choices selected.
Not hookable so did not even try it.
3. Ginga Ojou-sama Densetsu Yuna FX ~Kanashimi no Siren~ 銀河お嬢様伝説ユナＦＸ ～哀しみのセイレーン～ [960308] Hudson Soft 1 2 3 4
The third game in the Galaxy Fräulein Yuna series, Kanashimi no Sirene picks up where the last game ended. After having successfully saved the Earth, Yuna and her new friend, the ever-hungry female android Yuri Cube, return to their normal high school life - or so they think. Because her old enemies will do anything to destroy her, including wrongly accusing her of world domination plans. This draws the attention of a highly ranked female intelligence officer of the Galaxy Alliance, who operated under codename "Sirene" and who pretends to be an exchange student in the Shiraokadai High School, while her true goal is to arrest Yuna...
Luckily there is a good English review
4. Merry Go Round メリーゴーランド [960308] Mischief 1 2 3
Merry Go Round is set in Yokohama, in year 2197. The city has turned into an international megalopolis, where crime prospers, and where justice is pursued by lone vigilante fighters. The hero of the story is a private detective named Brian. The first case is about an assault on a prostitute in the brothel "John Wayne". Further investigation reveals that the assault is connected to other cases, some of which involve dangerous biological experiments. With the help of the policewoman Akane, the bounty hunter Ridley, and others, Brian begins to gradually see the whole picture...
There are two English reviews including mine.
5. Night Slave ナイト・スレイブ [960308] Melody 1 2 3 4 5 6
A terrorist organization known as Slave Dog poses a threat to the entire world. Steel Fox is the name of an all-female special squad, highly trained in counter-terrorist combat. Assisting them is the independent, state-unbound corporation Neo Logic, which produces assault suits -basically giant robots with their own heavy weaponry, which can be navigated by a skillful pilot. The young female pilot Rei from the Steel Fox is sent on a decisive mission, codenamed "Night Slave" - an assault on the terrorist base.
Game has multiple English reviews.
6. Mahou Shoujo B-ko 魔法少女B子 [960315] Scoop 1 2
B-Ko is a princess from a magical dimension, who is having a vacation on the earth, masquerading as a student in the Catholic St. Rapahel High School. This peaceful (and pleasant) time-passing ends when the evil witch Saprinu appears in our dimension and attacks B-Ko. Saprinu's demonic plan is to steal precious energy from female virgins. Now it's time for B-Ko's faithful servant, a young man known as Alpha, to "intercept" the poor virgins (using his own methods), before they fall prey to Saprinu...
There is an English review.
7. Mujintou Monogatari 3 - A.D. 1999 Tokyo 無人島物語３ Ａ．Ｄ．１９９９ ＴＯＫＹＯ [960315] KSS Inc. 1
Mujintō Monogatari 3: A.D.1999 Tokyo is similar in concept to the two previous entries in the series, being a "survival life" simulation game. However, its setting is quite different: rather than getting stranded on a deserted tropical island, the protagonist travels in subway when a terrible earthquake occurs. Climbing out of the underground tunnels, the hero discovers, to his horror, that Tokyo has been nearly destroyed and deserted. Teaming up with other survivors, the protagonist has to explore the ruins and stay alive.
The masterpiece of the series trilogy. The game does not disappoint its fans as gameplay part got even more difficult. Shifting events from generic some island to post-apocalyptic Tokyo created much more opportunities for story development and heroes empathy. It's a long, serious and eventful game aimed at hardcore players.
8. Wedding Peach ウェディングピーチ [960315] KSS Inc. 1 2
Story based on anime series depicts the battle with the devils. There is an interactive adventure part and card battles with the opponents.
Another obscure all-age anime spin-off.
9. Banana Club Mania バナナ倶楽部まにあ [960316] Xing Entertainment
During Christmas, a virgin guy got a free ticket to the Banana Club. Once there, he can choose from 3 girls for custom play with him. Depending on how he plays, the girls might become his steady girlfriend.
Nothing elaborate.
10. Chrome Paradise クロムパラダイス 銀白色の楽園 [960319] Acid Plan
Space colony 30th century. High school student Shin Kanzaki has to pay for studies himself and he's constantly looking for well-paying part-time jobs. He applies to participate in experimental colony simulation program that simulates the life in the second half on 20th century. What a shock - there people have to carry their luggage themselves! And the hero becomes the delivery boy.
Just from the setting you can guess what this game is going to be. Developing such a complex setting just to show everyday life and quite forget everything about the space stuff. The whole game is like that. 70% of it are gags that have zero meaning for the story. So there are 6 transport companies and we deliver stuff with occasional events on the way. There are girls from each of the company and to gain their attention you need first to work hard for the said company... The number of sub-characters in this game is among the highest. So if you can't stand coherent stories and just love to meet dozens of weird people while making deliveries and waste time on not funny gags then you're in the 0,0000001% of humankind and this game is just for you.
11. Liena Crystal - Adventure of Liena リィナ☆クリスタル [960322] Colossus
Europe, 1895. Heroine Lina and Pes were on the way back home from the spring festival when a strong light hit both of them. Pes became a dog and Lina became a futanari. Shall they succeed in getting back to original form?
Keenetic novel focusing on humor. This work hardly makes it to two hours, maybe for a slow reader. This is one of the litmus works that marked the transition from high and moderate difficulty to extremely easy relaxation ones. 1996 year was the time when moe games came to fashion and this work is seen as an odd one out and it was a brave move. In the end it's a fun little story with vivid sub-characters and the only drawback of volume.
12. Shinpi no Sekai El-Hazard 神秘の世界エルハザード [960322] TamTam Co., Ltd. 1 2 3 4
Hi, I'm Makoto Mizuhara, a normal High School Student from Shinonome High School. I've been working on a special science project for the upcoming annual school festival! It's a device that supposedly can transfer living matter through a dimensional gate... sorry, not that you'd probably understand what that means! I built it based on a theory I read, and I hoped it could move other people through time and space!
The night before the festival, I completed the machine and took it for a test run. Very excited, I hoped for any kind of sign that the machine was going to perform the experiment correctly (I've tried this three times already). What I got was something I did not expect at all... I saw... a woman?
Game is localized and has English reviews.
13. Sotsugyou Ryokou 卒業旅行 [960322] Apollon Create
A guy went on a graduation trip to a ski resort with three of his friends. Once there, he has four quick days to chase after 7 girls and 1 guy.
3 nights and 4 days are given to win someone's heart. There's some comedy and decision making in first part and the chosen person H events in the second part. For me game's mostly notable for an ability to pursue a guy - that does not make the game yaoi since it's of totally normal style, but places a landmine.
14. Akai Suishou no Hitomi 赤い水晶の瞳 [960329] Fairy Dust
Hero is a detective, but he has so few requests that his main occupation is a part time work at sports accessories store. In a gym equipment room he discovers a hanging mummified corpse. According to victim's older sister Makoto, her brother was alive just a while ago. Together with Makoto you are to discover the truth behind this suspicious case.
Quite a light ADV detective work more about girls than about mystery. Hero investigates hand by hand with a partner girl and it's possible to choose between two assistant girls. There are many other girls on the way as well. There's also strong NTR presence.
15. Horror Tour ホラーツアー [960329] OCC 1 2 3 4
"Dare You Match Wits With the King of Demons?<
IN A MURKY CASTLE, IN A HIDDEN WOOD, A HOST OF DIABOLICAL MYSTERY AWAITS YOU.
Long ago, Rodvydel Castle fell into the evil grasp of Zeddas, who worked his foul spells upon the place to hide it from mortal eyes. Now you must walk these same haunted halls, trying to undo the harm this demon has wrought. Can you restore the castle? You must pit your own cunning against the fiend's treachery to unravel the sinister mysteries of this place.
But beware - the King of Demons keeps a warm place ready for those who would meddle in his affairs!
ABANDON HOPE, ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE!
EXPLORE the labyrinthine corridors of the woeful castle DISCOVER clues to the whereabouts of keys and other mystical items that can help you in your quest SOLVE the nefarious obstacles created by Zeddas to foil would-be heroes SEE this interactive tale of horror unfold before your eyes in QuickTime movies and fully-rendered 3D graphics HEAR the eerie CD-quality music and sound effects that set the mood for this haunting adventure. FEEL the dread only Zeddas can inspire!"
There are multiple English reviews.
There aren't masterpieces this month. My personal favorite is San Shimai due to it being my first visual novel, but I rate DIES IRAE even higher and nominate it for VN of the Month.
1. Exciting Milk Dai 1 Wa エキサイティングみるく第１話 [960201] Silence
22nd century.
Humanity is prospering through the expansion of the Earth's development, but natural destruction has also become extreme.
One day Amon, a scientist who opposed the destruction of nature, decided to return to the Earth 150 years earlier via time machine and protect nature. Police opposed that as it could bring unknown changes and followed Amon.
In the 20th century school girl Kurumi heard from a classmate that an aircraft landed in the forest and went alone to the forest out of curiosity.
Milk is a police officer from future who landed in the forest colliding with Kurumi. As a result of the collision Kurumi body was seriously hurt and her soul was placed into Milk body until full recovery.
Now Kurumi transforms to Milk at wilk and back by wearing glasses. Will she find Amon?
Game's fully animated as other Silence works. But it's even shorter than previous animated games barely exceeding 10 minutes time. There's just one fighting scene and it all ends with Amon coming to Kurumi class as transfer student. Looking forward to part 2.
2. Angel Crysis エンジェルクライシス [960209] ZyX 1
You're part of an all female crew on a ship exploring some planet and the crew picks up a mysterious cargo crate from an underwater ruin.
There's an English review that tells us all that we need to know about this borderline work. And there was exactly a tentacle monster in the crate...
3. Guernica ゲルニカ [960209] Backspin 1 2 3
Long time ago, human passions caused the appearance of a monster tribe that has since become unwelcome in the human society. Years of bitter antagonism and violence followed as humans settled in the land of Galesnia. A thousand years later, a simple warrior named Grog enters a forest inhabited by monsters, and becomes gradually involved in a struggle that puts him in the forefront of the defense of Galesnia.
Fish shop holder to the rescue of the world! The guy was sleeping peacefully when at night the "Apostle of Salvation" child appeared before him saying that the barrier started to weaken and will be destroyed in 13 days and only Grog can prevent that! Quite a simple rpg with only 13 lvls and basic stats. You can hold up to 10 recovery items and you get one every time you visit an inn or hitting a bed. Game is linear. So it's not the brightest species of RPG breed.
4. Persona ~Ingyaku no Kamen~ ペルソナ ～淫虐の仮面～ [960209] Sorciere 1
A series of gruesome murders shocks Japan. Young women are kidnapped, tortured, and killed under mysterious circumstances...
The protagonist wakes up in what looks like a hospital, but is in fact a special psychiatric facility on a space station. The hero doesn't remember anything, not even his name. Three young women - Shelly, Elisa, and Aoka - will help him to find his memory, and he will gradually realize who he is and what is his mission.
You need to regain your memory within 38 hours or the space station explodes. What's the best way to regain memories? I guess Japanese have their unique opinion on that. There are parameters of the hero and depending on numbers one of five protagonist personalities show up. Yes, he has a deep personality disorder and can be anything from a good guy to a sadist. Time also ticking so it's a nice rush factor. There are basically just three rooms on the spaceship. So it's an original system and is not necessarily an eroge if you play out as a good guy and aim for the happy ending that does not even have a H-scene.
5. Valentine Kiss: Birthdays 2 バレンタインキッス ～バースデイズ２～ [960209] Silky's 1
Valentine Kiss is a dating simulation game, very similar to Birthdays, only instead of "conquering" a girl as a birthday present, the goal here is to "score" on Valentine's Day
Second installation of a difficult sim that's memorable to me mostly by the fact that it's Silky's game and not a full-scale eroge. UI is still charming but it came from the prequel with minor changes. Quite few things changed actually and some even degenerated like the number of heroines dropped from 8 to 4. Main difference though is that while prequel was just hard everyday work to earn love, this work has events in ADV mode and all your hard work is useless unless you flag events properly. Still the freshness is lost since it has been two years since the prequel and not much changed.
6. DIES IRAE DIES IRAE [960215] Family Soft 1 2
Heroines Kim and her side partners Kris and Lee are professional detectives and they have very opposite personalities. Kim on one hand is very cheerful and lively all the time, Kris is very serious and quiet. They are investigating a murder case that ends up being a much bigger issue, revolving gang members, the mafia and later on some sci-fi elements.
There's a nice English review that sheds light on this curious game.
7. Kanako 香奈子 [960223] Red Zone 1
Kanako is a young woman who has just graduated from college and is in a desperate need of a job. Finally, she is invited to a job interview in a large and successful company. However, the boss seems to ask too many personal questions and generally looks at Kanako in a weird way. After she has been introduced to her duties at the new place, Kanako decides to get to know the employees better, and in process learns their most intimate secrets...
Red Zone inevitably means ero-centered work. But graphics are nice and win version is fully voiced, even the thoughts of the heroine - that was unexpected and captivating. Her thoughts is the most funny part in the game as she comments emotionally on many occasions.
8. Magical Girl Pretty Sammy Kouhen 魔法少女プリティサミー 後編 [960223] AIC Spirits
Game includes two remaining episodes:
Episode 3. Friends
Episode 4. Leave it to Sammy! A direct continuation of the first part, but not hookable
9. Shadowrun シャドウラン [960223] Compile Co., Ltd. 1 2 3 4 5 6
It is twenty-first century, and the humanity faces a difficult period that follows devastating wars and other disasters. Magic and technology co-exist, supernatural powers, mythical creatures, ghosts, cyberspace, where hackers meet and fight each other, street deckers which can be hired to do the dirty work, anarchy and struggle between mighty and corrupt corporations - this is the world of Shadowrun. Unlike the two other Shadowrun games which are set in Seattle, according to tradition, Shadowrun for Sega CD is set in the futuristic city of Neo Tokyo. The player controls a party of characters with different backgrounds: the street samurai Rikudo, the shaman girl Mao, the decker (a hired mercenary) D-Head (who also happens to be an elf), and Shiun, a former member of a mighty corporation. Their first assignment is to hunt down a ghostly warrior who has been disturbing a segment of the city for quite some time. As the player begins their investigation they plunge deeper into the dark world of intrigues and find themselves fighting on different fronts.
There are several great English reviews and there even might be a fan English translation according to some materials.
10. Escape! エスケイプ! [960229] May-Be Soft 1
In Escape, the player assumes the role of an ordinary teenager named Root. He is returning from a long journey, and just beyond the mountain, he can see his house. But fate had other plans for the boy: one step on the wrong stone, and Root falls through a dark pit into the underground world. Looks like it won't be simple for him to find the way home, because this world is populated by girls, each one of which wants something from him...
I've only seen Windows version and it's very simplified and plays like a normal visual novel with only occasionally choosing locations on the map. Characters are nice, but the story lacks excitement and all the time is spent underground. A fine game, but far from masterpiece level.
11. Kara no Naka no Kotori 殻の中の小鳥 [960229] Black Package 1
Foster, formerly a trainer of high-class prostitutes for a secret political group that used these girls to exert power over politicians, has has long been out of the game, as he and his cohorts were busted years back. However, Foster couldn't help himself and soon returned to his old profession. He began training new maidens, though this time with a distinctly evil bent, drawing the recruits into a sordid ring of discipline and bondage.
Maid slave training SIM. Main difference is that training is done in the form of a card game in an attempt to simplify SIM part.
12. San Shimai 三姉妹 [960229] JAST 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
The one that started it all! I was just a boy when my father threw himself under the tracks of an oncoming train on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo. He had been the president of a powerful trading company, but had been under siege by an enemy in a power struggle that I didn't understand at the time. With my father gone, it fell upon my mother to lead the family and try to pay off Father's debts. She wasn't up to the task, and was buried next to my father less than a year later. My older brother Eiichi and I were separated, then, passed around the family like unwanted guests. We had lost everything.
Last summer Eiichi appeared again on my doorstep. He had prospered in the years since I'd seen him, and had built a successful trading company. "Koichi," he said to me, "I found out who was responsible for our father's death: the current head of father's old company, Shoji Okamura."
When he asked me, "Will you help me avenge mother and father?" I agreed immediately.
So I became his hatchet man. My job was to approach the Okamura family, especially the three Okamura sisters -- sexy, grown-up Yuki, short-tempered but sensitive Emi and the innocent Risa -- and gather information on the Okamuras for my brother. After six months, I had gotten to where I was eating dinner at their house regularly. This allowed me to bug Shoji's office take documents out of his trash, and copy files off his computer. I reported everything to my brother faithfully.
I was never sure if the information I was providing was doing any good, but gradually, it became apparent that Shoji Okamura's business was failing. He grew more and more desperate, and one day he disappeared completely. The happiness of the Okamura family, who had taken so much from us, had been stolen piece by piece. My brother swore he wouldn't stop until Shoji Okamura was driven to the point of taking his own life, even if it meant pushing the Three Sisters into lives of prostitution and worse.
The only problem is, I had fallen in love with those same three sisters...
Game has many English reviews
There are no masterpieces this month. I would not like to nominate bakage a winner and I have a bad aftertaste from Start Trap and Shizuku, so VN of January 1996 is Ryuuki Denshou Dragoon
1. Bind ~Kinbaku Jinmon Densetsu~ Bind ～緊縛尋問伝説～ [960112] Outou Shobou In Side 1
The content of the game can be easily deduced from its title ("Kinbaku Jinmon Densetsu" means the legend of bondage interrogation). The game contains three "episodes", unrelated to each other story-wise. The first one is set in medieval times and tells about the adventures of two female treasure hunters in an ancient tomb; the second begins with two young girls being kidnapped by a mysterious secret society; the third deals with three school girls being assaulted by a thief.
Ero-centered omnibus collection with bondage as theme.
2. Yaku ~Yuujou Dangi~ 厄 ～友情談疑～ [960113] Idea Factory Co., Ltd. 1 2 3
Five adults return to the elementary school they attended as children only to find that it has been closed up. They trespass into the closed-down building in order to dig up a time capsule they had buried at its courtyard. However, this turns out to be a mistake as bizarre monsters are waiting inside. There are five scenarios available, each one telling a different character's story, but only the protagonist's story is initially available.
It's actually close to a "sound novel", but it was released for ps1 so the volume is bigger than usual. There are couple European languages articles that show the glimpse of this weird weird horror game.
3. Reijuu - Twin Road 麗獣 ツインロード [960119] Apple Pie 1 2
The town of Jester is located near a spring, which is used both by humans from the town and the beast people from their forest village. For years, the two races co-existed in peace. But one day, somebody sets the Jester tavern on fire. The authorities arrest a young beast girl who happened to be in the town at that time. Outraged by the injustice, a young orphan boy named Kein, who was raised by Tyrone, one of the town knights, convinces him to help the girl escape. But that act draws the ire of the town authorities, and the heroes realize that they have to flee...
Some genre experiment here since it's more tactical than usual SRPG, but also definitely not a full strategy or rpg.
4. Snow Memory スノーメモリー [960123] Birdy Soft
Four girls pass the casting to work in a Western mansion. You choose one of the girls and watch the forecoming events from her point of view.
We know it well that even at the time of Cal 3 the staff of Birdy Soft left the company and the director had to hastily finish it himself. And Snow Memory comes years after that as an attempt to play on the brand name. Game's more than average with lots of fanservice and unnatural looking art.
5. Ryuuki Denshou Dragoon 竜機伝承 －ドラグーン－ [960126] KSS Inc. 1
Gods created humans in a paradise-like world. But as time passed they started to hate each other and fight among themselves. Gods sent a blue start that turned into a blue dragon on the ground. For three days and nights the dragon was burning out everything with a cleansing fire. As the flames disappeared, a huge lake was born. Dragon entered the lake with the words "I shall raise again when foolish struggle arises anew". However, as time passed, this dreadful event erased little by little from human memory.
North-East frontier, Northon. Young soldier Cedy meets a mysterious girl Miu and decides to help her get to her hometown on the other side of the world.
At the same time stripping the barriers of time Gods make their move again...
It's a SRPG with only event battles. First part is particularly difficult with the constant demand of restoration magic. Dangerous events happen one by one and we constantly need to escape so pace is good. In the second part the party gets scattered and our primary goal is to find Miu... but we kinda only find other party members and as the war with the empire breaks out Miu gets totally abandoned. Another inconsistency is that the empire villain minister after defeat jumps out with the cries "I've actually come from the future and I've half of my body mechanically modified!" and it was a pure magic fantasy world this far. Another irritating aspect is the inventory menu as first it's needed to pick an item from the full list of garments and then try to apply it to a character only to find out that it won't suit him. So it's a good game with a nice epic story, but some elements of it leave a sour aftertaste.
6. Shizuku 雫 [960126] Leaf 1 2 3 4
When one of his classmates suddenly goes mad in the middle of the class, the protagonists uncle, one of the teachers in the school asks him to investigate this matter after school. He starts the investigation with the help of one of the girls from his class, an investigation that will lead them to many horrors...
With my review there are three English reviews.
7. Star Trap スタートラップ [960126] Fairy Dust 1
A space ship was sent to the planet Neptune, to investigate strange disturbances spotted on the planet's surface. Some time later, the nearest space station picked up a SOS signal from the ship. An agent named Takuya, in command of an elite team of female fighters, is sent to Neptune. But their ship crashes, and Takuya must fight for his life and the lives of the girls, which are threatened by Neptune's fearsome monsters.
Alternative version of ancient Cream Lemon - Start Trap back in 1986. Game's short hardly reaching 2 hours. There are two routes, but routes are mainly made to distinguish between H events. The number of endings is 5, there is an ending for each of two girls and some neutral ones. So there's hardly a story, but at least it has the craziness of 80s games and beautiful CG.
8. Time Stripper Mako-chan タイムストリッパー真子ちゃん [960126] Foster 1 2 3 4 5 6
You play the character Shinji Nakayama a high school student who has a bad reputation of cheating on his girlfriend, Michiyo Sakagami.
The story starts when your "habit" is eventually found out (again) by your girlfriend, of which you start to fight and end up breaking up. In the middle of your 'sobbing', a girl pops up out of nowhere in your room. It appears she's from the future, with personal reasons that has to do with your present love-life situation. After that, the story is in your hands...
Game is localized and has many English reviews.
9. Yume no Sei 夢の精 [960126] 13cm 1
A collection of three stories.
1.『ONE』is about main character sneaking into the dressing room of cat ear idols.
2.『ミンキーキャット』is an abduction story.
3.『ミッションエイジ』is an RPG game to infiltrate enemy hideout and rescue a girl
Stories differ in styles greatly, but are all short erotic stories that are possible to click through in just 10 minutes.
10. Ningyo -Tsutako- 人魚－蘿子－ [96] Alicesoft
A boy and a girl run away with a mysterious stone and hide in a cave. But pursuers are nearby already.
Game was shipped only for subscription fans and thus is obscure. PC-98 version is not hookable, so I won't be presenting the synopsis. Game is all HCG fest after first couple normal CG.
Youjuu Senki 2 -Reimei no Senshi-tachi- and Eve: Burst Error are the masterpieces of the month, but the upper hand is naturally with the legendary Eve: Burst Error
1. Moon Gate ムーンゲート [951102] Fairytale 1
Zion is an adventurer who lives with girl Lina. One day a mysterious person brings him a shining gem and calls it a present to his excellency Zion from his majesty. His best friend Tolland appears from the stone and requests to go to imperial capital and revive the Agarta Empire together. Tolland restores a part of Zion's power, burns down the village to cut off the road back and disappears in a flash.
A rare RTS fiend in visual novel row. Game's not very friendly with emulators not launching on ntkp and eventually hanging on anex.
2. D.P.S. Zenbu D.P.S.全部 [951110] Alice Soft 1 2 3
D.P.S. Zenbu, is, as the name implies, a complete collection of scenarios (total of 15) from all the previous D.P.S./Dream Program System series entries:
D.P.S.
D.P.S. SG
D.P.S. SG Set 2
D.P.S. SG Set 3
Super D.P.S.
No changes have been made to graphics or gameplay in any of the scenarios.
As a bonus, the game also contains the 16th scenario, entitled Megumi's Story. The scenario is non-interactive (the player simply has to press a button to scroll the text) and depicts the first sexual experiences (some of them violent) of an innocent teenage girl.
There is an English review.
3. Hare Nochi Munasawagi 晴れのち胸さわぎ [951110] Cocktail Soft 1 2
The story of Harenochi Munasawagi does not start in a very original way: the protagonist is a high-school boy named Kazuhiko, who is - surprise! - permanently horny, displaying his "affections" at any given opportunity to anyone young and female, including even his childhood friend Chihiro. But while the focus on the story is on Kazuhiko and his quest for physical intimacy (which often results in girls getting angry and beating him up), there are other rather disturbing elements that come into play later - in particular, bunny-like demons who share Kazuhiko's passion for the opposite sex...
There is an English review.
4. Youjuu Senki 2 -Reimei no Senshi-tachi- 妖獣戦記２ -黎明の戦士たち- [951110] D.O. 1
Over 10 months has passed since fierce battle with the beasts. They should have been weakened by A.S.S.P. by now, but a new threat rose again...
Is there a future for mankind?
The battle with the stakes of A.S.S.P. and humankind existence starts now!
The final chapter in the strangebeasts confrontation story. Gameplay-wise it's the most refined in the series with all the irritation factors eliminated. Events happen one after another and story develops in a very severe and tough fashion. Interaction with your subordinates now also brings important implications, they aren't just bio soldiers anymore, they are your battle buddies that followed you to the end of the world. The deployment is realistic and final battle can have a big impact if you got attached to the girls.
5. Eve: Burst Error Eve: Burst Error [951122] C's Ware 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
A Bizarre Serial Murder Mystery. There's A Serial Killer Close By. A Prohibited Psychothriller. The Multi-Sight System Reveals Surprising Truth!
In this game there are two heroes, Kojiroh and Marina, who are each called to solve their own cases. This game allows you to switch characters at any time to solve the mysteries these heroes encounter. This "Multi-Sight Adventure" allows you to view what's happening behind-the-scenes from the other character's perspective, bump into each other, and sometimes even help each other out. Together, they come closer and closer to the shocking truth through their combined actions and skills of deduction.
Marina's Episode: Marina is a national intelligence agent with a 99% success rate. Her new assignment is to protect the daughter of a Japanese embassy official stationed abroad. As you encounter numerous attackers, you become aware of a dangerous government dispute that is the root of all these attacks.
Kojiroh's Episode: A seemingly down-on-his-luck private investigator finally gets a break, as he is hired to locate some mysterious piece of art. Even though he feels a little weird about this case, the pay is huge! Yet he may be drawn into an unexpected nightmare involving a string of bizarre murders.
Probably the best known old game. Lots of English reviews.
6. Messenger from Dark Night メッセンジャー フロム ダークナイト [951123] TopCat
Hero is half-demon who has his demon part "dark night" awake every evening. Such person transfers to a new school that accepts half-humans as students.
The game can be called an adult sound novel. There are multiple branches and new branches open up after main branches clearance totaling 80 endings. Some of those endings have only slight differences, but just dig the number. The content is different for various branches, but it's not lovey-lovey, on the contrary it's rather dark and has multiple confrontations prepared. If it came out a bit later and was a bit more like a visual novel and not like a book, it would have all the chances to take away the pedestal of originator of visual novels from Leaf.
7. Koukan Nikki Dai 2 Shou ~Seiya o Anata to~ こうかん日記 第２章 ～聖夜をあなたと～ [951124] Fairy Dust
New love adventure takes place during winter. While at part-time job hero gets acquainted to different girls and by the Christmas Eve he can confess his feelings to one of them.
Characters are lively and overall mood is bright. There is an ending for each heroine.
8. Majo-tachi no Nemuri 魔女たちの眠り [951124] Pack In Video 1 2
The protagonist (default name Toshio) is working at his office one day when he receives a call asking for help from a girl he knew as a child (default name Yoriko). The next day he discovers that this same girl apparently killed herself by way of self-immolation. He decides to go investigate the girl's mountain village, and depending upon the choices the player makes, may uncover the truth of the matter...
Literary adaptation of famous horror writer. Year 1995 was a boom for so called "sound novels" which are NVL novels with walls of text on some background with music. It's the closest thing to a book and these are usually short horror stories and I've blocked previous such games since they had multiple stories. This one is the first one with long and more or less long coherent story. There are four parts presented as trials and after completion a true story opens up.
9. OL Sousamou ＯＬ操作網 [951129] Witch's 1
Akizuki is an ordinary Japanese man who works in an office. One day his boss asks him to discreetly investigate a case of stolen prospects that could damage the company's reputation. Akizuki must talk to the female co-workers and find out the truth. However, his mind is more occupied with his own personal expectations from these attractive ladies...
The most fun feature of the game is an ability to roleplay either a serious co-worker or a full-scale playboy.
10. Coming Heart [951130] May-Be Soft 1
The hero of this game is a teenage boy who failed his high-school examination; as a result, his parents decided to transfer him to a special school in another city. The young hero is at first sad and depressed, but soon discovers that the situation might not be so bad after all: the mansion in which he is going to leave is not empty, and his neighbors are all young pretty girls...
Story itself is a commonplace, but with an addition of torments over university entrance. Character designs are quite good and atmosphere is bright.
11. Jack ~Haitoku no Megami~ JACK ～背徳の女神～ [951130] Silky's 1 2 3
Jack Martin is a private detective. Long time ago, a terrible accident has left deep scars on his psyche, and he tries to atone for what he has done. On board of the space shuttle Gold Mary, Jack joins an organization that fights interstellar terrorism, employing people with psychic abilities. Soon thereafter, the captain of the shuttle is found murdered. Have terrorists infiltrated the shuttle, or is one of Jack's comrades a double agent? Jack must solve the mystery, at the same time discovering his own special abilities... whatever they might be.
There is an English review and also my review now. Protagonist is actually quite elaborate. He accidentally shot a child in the past and suffers from this trauma trying to find ties to that child murder and being depressed about it.
12. Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami - Futatsu no Sekai no Monogatari 魔法の天使クリィミーマミ 二つの世界の物語 [951130] Wishbone 1
Based on the anime Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel. The original tells the story of a 10-year-old girl named Yuu Morisawa, who gains a magical ability to transform into a grown-up young woman, eventually becoming a pop star and acquainting the inhabitants of the Earth with the rest of the galaxy. Yuu appears in the game, but is not the protagonist; the player controls four young women in four different scenarios: two of them, Yuri and Aya, on the Earth, and the other two, Ora and Sita, in an alien world, mixture of sci-fi and medieval fantasy. The story goes beyond the original anime by introducing a magical, sacred land known as Finality, populated by fantasy being, and calling the guardians (the four girl protagonist) to bring peace to the galaxy.
There are so many early games about ability to transform into grown-up woman that they all start to look the same. But here there are four distinct stories targeted at girls, naturally.
13. Memories ~Shiroi Yozora ni Mau Tenshi~ メモリーズ ～白い夜空に舞う天使～ [9511] Petit 1
Memories is a dating-oriented game that can be describe as a light simulation with elements of a visual novel. The game's story premise is abstract: the player character explores a small town, hoping to meet and eventually date young women. The game world consists of photorealistic still pictures of locations; the player's only interaction with the game consists of choosing to travel to these locations and advance the time. Female characters will appear in specific locations at specific times of the day. Several meetings are usually needed to initiate a date. Presents and money can be given to the girls as well.
A very generic dating sim from a fresh company. And very exhausting since girls can appear any minute anywhere so need to basically stay at the same location and advance time all the time and create chart of when someone appears.
There aren't masterpieces this month, but among more traditional visual novels Trouble Chaser Dai 4 Wa - Saishuukai definitely stands out, it's also the most interesting episode in the series being the final one.
1. A Hard Day's Night 吉永サユリがやってくる ヤァ！ヤァ！ヤァ！ A Hard Day's Night [951006] Hard
Teacher instructs the class that at summer vacation textbooks are prohibited and only erotic journals are ok to read. And then he visits students at various locations to check if they follow instructions properly.
Game is made like a parody, but things go ecchi very fast.
2. Manami ~Ai to Koukan no Hibi~ 真奈美 ～愛と交換の日々～ [951006] Red Zone
Manami sex life with her partner has become dull, but everything changes with meeting a swinger couple at dancing lessons course.
The most weird thing in the game is that Manami whose name is in the title does not have much action during the game after the opening sequence. The focus is on her partner and different swinger club wives.
3. Trouble Chaser Dai 4 Wa - Saishuukai トラぶるＣＨＡＳＥＲ 第４話 最終回 [951006] Nihon Create
In the final episode Daisuke gets kidnapped and it's revealed why he's been hunted for this whole time.
All the mysteries get uncovered and we get to look at villain point of view. There's of course a grand battle involved. Since 3rd episode of the game is a lost piece we also meet some new girl pilot for the first time here.
4. Majo Gari no Yoru ni 魔女狩りの夜に [951013] Ail 1 2
Majo-gari means "witch-hunt"; indeed, that is the only thing the protagonist of the game, a young priest living in an unspecified European-like town, thinks about. According to his own words, he believes neither in God nor in the devil; his life is dedicated to one horrifying passion: torturing innocent women...
There is an English review.
5. Gakuen Bakuretsu Tenkousei ! 学園爆裂転校生! [951020] ZyX
A fighting girl transfers to a girls school. Rules and student council are very strict there. After the girl refuses to dress normally and give away her gloves and kneel-pads the student council kidnaps her roommate.
There are several endings with some being bad ones. The aim is to go around the school, trigger events and beat enemies which leads to les scenes. The overall playtime and the number of CG are small.
6. Immoral Study Scenario 3: Asakura Manami インモラルスタディ シナリオ３ 朝倉まなみ [951020] Scoop 1 2 3
The third scenario of Immoral Study describes yet another somewhat unusual teaching experience in the life of Mr. Hitosuji, a young and handsome private tutor. This time, the victim... err... pupil is Asakura Manami, a shy, quiet girl who lives together with her mother. Hitosuji is supposed to make Manami a better student - but instead he chooses to participate in S&M relationship between mother and daughter...
Game is localized and has impressions in English.
7. Koko wa Rakuensou 2 ここは楽園荘2 [951020] Foster 1 2 3 4 5
The Paradise Heights apartment has changed after half of your uncle's company got liquidated. After the money went, so did some of the tenants. Now Keigo Nakadai (You) works for a toy making company (but still stays at Paradise Heights).
Rumor has it that a competiting company is stealing your brilliant ideas...and the source of the leak is someone with high rank in your company! Fortunately, the new tenants also work at the company as you join forces with them to find out who is conducting industrial espionage behind your back...as well as some entertainment on the side...
There are English reviews.
8. Briganty ~The Roots of Darkness~ ブリガンティ ～The Roots of Darkness～ [951027] Giga 1 2 3 4
Gady is a black magician and a skillful martial artist who travels around with his personal fairy Leena. Gady is more interested in sexy girls than in anything else, and Leena calls him "the pervert of the century". One day the two of them find a girl in the woods who begs for help. After Gady agrees to help her, she robs all his money and disappears. Before long Gady and Leena meet a sword master girl named Sephina, who explains that her sister started acting strangely after finding a mysterious sword. This is where Gady's adventure begins.
One of the most hated VN creators Giga makes it appearance on the visual novel scene! But they are praised for action game and their first game is actually an action, or rather a platformer. There's a good English review for this game.
9. Charade [951027] Apple Pie 1
Charade describes the daily high-school routine of a girl named Kazumi. The game proceeds from one school day to another, putting Kazumi in the same situations, facing the same choices. Those choices, as well as random events and meetings with other characters, schoolmates and teachers (only female), change Kazumi's viewpoints as well as relationships with the other girls.
Yuri school ADV. The weirdness of this game is that you set the setting yourself, like this girl will be in the theater and arts clubs and we'll start to pay her attention. And at any time in the morning we can choose - forget it all and get a new setting. Characters aren't cute enough to empathize as well. Game is fully voiced, but making a setting yourself and participating in constant loops just in hope to find an action that would lead to some branching is not the most exciting occupation if you're expecting a story to be told.
10. Leap Toki ni Sarawareta Shoujo ＬＥＡＰ 時にさらわれた少女 [951027] Ange
Hero has finally confessed and made love to his childhood friend Ai. But as he wakes up in unfamiliar place, he can't find Ai anywhere. He begins his search.
Hero needs to travel through the time by having sex with school nurse and find traces of Ai in different time segments. There are multiple endings depending on whether he chooses some local girl or keep on his search. There are a lot of selections and branches in addiction to already confusing time travel. It's an experimental work with a lot of edges, oh well, and it's not hookable.
11. Power Slave パワースレイブ [951027] Umitsuki Production 1
Tetsuya is a rather ordinary Japanese teenager, who prefers hanging out with his sweetheart Rika than going to school. His passion are 3D video games. The newest game machine which allows the player to completely submerge into the virtual world, modeled according to his desires, has captured his heart. But one thing is strange: lately, Tetsuya keeps seeing himself as a killer and rapist. Dreams begin to haunt him. Is this just a side-effect of the game, or does he have a dark side he knows nothing about? Or maybe the game took him to another world, which will from now on become part of his life?..
Quite an unusual mix of genres and with animated scenes on top of that. The first work of the company we all know as Jellyfish for being the only ardent adept of fully animated eroge. A merry game, but not hookable and rather short.
Mime is the only masterpiece of September.
1. Mahou no Princess Minky Momo Fantastic World 魔法のプリンセス ミンキーモモ ファンタスティック・ワールド [950901] Wishbone 1
Momo is a princess of a magical world that has come to Earth together with three companions - a bird, a dog, and a monkey - to help humans regain their happiness and bring the two worlds together. She has the appearance of a pretty, cheerful teenage girl, and immediately attracts the attention of a young boy who lives in a quiet town with his biologist father. Together, the two must solve the mysteries of the town, and perhaps find happiness for themselves as well.
"Mahou no Princess Minky Momo" is based on an anime of the same name.
Almost kinetic novel based on anime. And I did not watch this kindergarten anime.
2. Virgin 2 Hana Hiraku Shoujo-tachi no AVG ヴァージン＾２ 花ひらく少女たちのＡＶＧ [950901] Fairy Dust
Koji is caught at peeping after the tennis girls, so school girls committee stripped him and ridiculed his masculinity. In order to defend his pride school nurse advises him to be proactive with girls and prove his case.
Quite a baka comedy with significant ero element. Game systems are quite shallow and it takes significant time for screen to draw. Saving is also limited to before each chapter.
3. Gakuen Sodom ~Kyoushitsu no Mesu Dorei-tachi~ 学園ソドム ～教室の牝奴隷達～ [950908] PIL 1 2
The protagonist of the game is a teacher in St. Marianna Girls High School, which his sister also attends. One day, a maniac breaks into the school, and, holding the protagonist and the students at gunpoint. He then holds them hostage and forces them to perform violent and humiliating sexual acts with each other. The whole story of the game is basically a long stretch of such acts, while the maniac (and the protagonist) have to deal with new situations, such as arrival of police, journalists, etc.
Game starts as a more or less normal school game and then the criminal destroys the world as students knew it. It's a very specialized humiliation subgenre nukige.
4. Kinbaku no Yakata 緊縛の館 [950908] Xyz 1
Kinbaku no Yakata (meaning "Bondage Mansion") is a sadistic take on the "raising simulation" genre. Two brothers from a decayed nobility lineage live in a dark mansion, specializing in all things gruesome. The protagonist is one of the brothers, who wants to "prove himself" to the other one by kidnapping a young girl and turning her into his sex slave.
The fame of SEEK laid the beginnings of a new bondage museum genre. Game is inferior to SEEK in completeness and thus can only be advised to those who had not enough of SEEK.
5. :Loop ~Izanahi no Kaikiten~ ：ＬＯＯＰ ～いざなひの回帰点～ [950908] Grocer 1
The two young Kodama sisters, Nozomi and Hikari, decided to go for a drive in the countryside, to celebrate the end of Nozomi's brilliant high-school year. They get lost in the woods and are greeted by a handsome young man, who offers to bring them to the nearby mansion, known as the Deer Garden Temple, and to spend the night here. The exciting adventure soon turns into a nightmare, when the inhabitants of the mansion make Nozomi their sex slave...
There are three branches and only slightly more endings with most of endings being sex slave bad ones. Still it's unusual to see girls treated normally, allowing them give birth to children and making plans for their future.
6. Dangel Dangel [950909] Mink 1 2 3
Long time ago, there was balance in the world. Three great tribes lived in peace with each other. Up in the sky, the Heavenly Tribe; down on the Earth, the Human Tribe; and between them, the Demon Tribe. But among the demons, there were some who wanted more power. The members of the Heavenly Tribe were forced to seal the rebellious demons in what they called "Path of Light". But one of them figured out how to break the seal. The demons were now free, and they attacked the Human Tribe. Horrible massacres, ruined cities and villages, exterminated nations - it looked like the End of Days had come to the humans...
...A boy named Anduke was raised in a secluded location by two female elves. It was clear that the boy possessed extraordinary powers: at the tender age of nine, he was already able to sexually satisfy his lovely nannies. But a mysterious force tore the boy away, knocking him unconscious. He awoke ten years later, in a human village. A promise given to a young girl led him to a fateful meeting that revealed his destiny: he had the blood of Heavenly Tribe in him, and was the only one able to save the Human Tribe from the demons...
There is an English review.
7. Glass no Destiny ガラスの運命 [950914] FMC
Main heroine Yuri enjoyed a happy childhood. Her father eventually remarries and two families start to live together while Yuri acquiring a new sister. But after Yuri's father death one by one disasters fall upon the family bringing it on the brink of despair.
Game has a very special shojo manga atmosphere and drawing. It's quite shocking to see this cosy world gets buried to the basement. Then nudity comes to the scene and the impact gets even stronger. It's one of the first works oriented at women, but with unusual yuri genre and emphasis on the story.
8. Mahjong Gensoukyoku III 麻雀幻想曲III [950914] Active 1 2
The third installment of the Mahjong Fantasia series is not directly related story-wise to its predecessors. In the story mode, the player assumes the role of Chris, a guard in the city of Burgund. His mission is to protect the princess at all costs, but once the city is destroyed by members of a cult known as Valms, the two of them have to flee. Chris finds out that the only way to restore his homeland is by finding a sacred ring that had been kept in secret for many generations.
There is an English review.
9. Tamago Ryouri たまご料理 [950914] Softhouse Bonbee Bonbon
There 20 scenarios at locations to choose from. Stories mostly feature parodies to the media.
Specialized ero-centered content.
10. Cyber Illusion サイバーイリュージョン [950922] Pearl Soft 1
Around the turn of the millennium, global warming has become a reality. Abusing energy and the Earth's resources, humanity has driven itself to a point where normal life on Earth could no longer exist. Drastic rise of temperatures caused planet-wide dehydration. The only way to keep existing was through the Cyber Net, a virtual reality system. But soon the Cyber Net began to suffer from continuous assaults by hackers, who programmed lethal viruses into it. Thus, the Cyber Police was born. The protagonist of the game is a high-ranked officer of Cyber Police. With the help of his team, he has to solve the hacker problem once and for all.
SF icon selection type game. By 1995 icon selection was already morally old as it's needed to do two clicks to do anything and it's unnecessary barrier if the volume is big enough. We've got the time before the international summit is held to deal with the hacker. All the hacked characters are girls and they start to behave aggressively. Quite a good SF story with a satisfying true ending if you can get through the clunky "point and click" system.
11. Immoral Study Scenario 2: Iijima Yuka インモラルスタディ シナリオ2 飯嶋由佳 [950922] Scoop 1 2 3 4
You play "Professor" Hitosuji, well-known reputed tutor and teacher for his abilities in turning even the worst students into straight A stars...although it might be just a coincidence that all those girls happen to be very young and beautiful students. His "private tutoring skills" might be somewhat questionable, but it works.
In Immoral Study 2, the task at hand is to tutor one Yuko Ijima, the only daughter of a big time factory CEO. She's been slipping in her grades lately and her father called you to put her back on the right track again. Oh, she has a major attitude problem. Nothing you can't handle though.
Game is localized and has English impressions.
12. Shin Onryou Senki 真怨霊戦記 [950922] Fujicom 1
Hiroyuki Kitahara was leading a rather ordinary life in a quiet Japanese town, and decided one day to take a stroll at night, enjoying the picturesque landscape. All of a sudden, a horrifying monster appeared right in front of him. Kitahara wakes up in the hospital and tries to convince the doctors that he was not hallucinating. Teaming up with a young female journalist, Kitahara begins to explore the city, searching for clues to solve the mystery and seeking meeting with onryou - ghosts of people who were wronged in their lifetime and who are back for revenge.
"Shin Onryou Senki" is a remake of "Onryou Senki".
The story and most of the dialogues remain the same as in the original release. The differences lie mostly in visual presentation and technical quality of the music. A few locations have been added or made accessible at different moments during the course of the game.
It's always good when classic works get a remastered version, but locking it for just one type of console is not that good. I tackled on original Soft Wing Studio work in 1988 year review.
13. Vanishing Point -Tenshi no Kieta Machi- Vanishing Point －天使の消えた街－ [950922] Tiare
Kusanagi is a high school student. Recently, girls started to disappear from the area he lives. A friend of his sister requests to search for one such person.
Game has very primitive RPG system incorporated and there's the need to fight monsters all the time. Apart of that it's just wandering around the town and rescuing girls eventually finding the mastermind.
14. Figure ~Ubawareta Houkago~ フィギュア ～奪われた放課後～ [950929] Silky's 1
An oligarch named Takanashi has built a prestigious girl's high school, known as the Hanatsuki High. Mishima, a young man who has recently graduated high school, is approached by Isao, representative of the Hanatsuki High and his former schoolmate, with a part-time teaching job offer. Despite his dislike to certain school policies Mishima agrees - first, because he is broke, and second, because the perspective to teach the pretty daughters of the wealthiest people in Japan doesn't seem all that unpleasant...
A lesser known Silky's game, perhaps because of ordinary school setting. The features are good psychological portrait depiction and depression as omnipotent theme. There are multiple endings prepared.
15. Marine Rouge マリンルージュ [950929] Discovery 1
A young man named Kenji decides to have a vacation on the beautiful island together with his sister Hiromi. Taking a break from work and worries, the two discover a tourist resort with lovely beaches and high-class hotels. Very soon Kenji finds out that many attractive young women either work on the island or have come there for various reasons. Soon the holiday turns into a never-ending string of sexual escapades - and perhaps one of them will turn into a true romance?
Game branches early. In first branch a conspiracy plot is uncovered. In the second one you and you girlfriend decide to take over the island and subjugate everyone inside to you will. Pretty extreme and leads to harem ending.
16. Metal Fighter Miku メタルファイター ＭＩＫＵ [950929] Feycraft 1
In the year 2061 A.D., Neo Pro-Wrestling, a form of wrestling that allows for armour and other enhancements, is rapidly growing in popularity. In this, Miku, a young flighty girl is set to join her friends as the tag team known as the Pretty Four. However, the competition is fierce and their opponents are ready to do whatever it takes to win. Against this, the Four manage to obtain the services of an eccentric coach who trained their hero, Aquamarine. With his guidance, the four start on their fight for the top as they must train within almost inhuman discipline while their matches become more and more challenging as their opponents rise in the ranks.
Another anime spin-off. There's a nice English impression saying that game's almost unplayable due to fighting element difficulty. There's a good dozen of possible actions during the fight and improper one results in defeat. Game features light yuri elements and full voice with a lot of animation during unskippable talking scenes, so game is targeted on anime fans mostly.
17. Mime 舞夢 [950929] Studio Twinkle 1 2
Once upon a time, there was harmony and balance in the world. Four kingdoms of humans have watched over the four elements. But then a traitor appeared, who has angered the Goddess with his selfish deeds. The balance was destroyed, the elements were no more in harmony, and the world plunged into chaos...
Twelve thousand years later, a young knight named Eagle Windeed has been having a strange dream. Maybe there is still salvation for the human race. Maybe it is still possible to make peace with the higher beings. Eagle arrives at a tavern near the Tree Dungeon, determined to find out what his dream meant...
The whole world in this dungeon crawler is set as a dungeon without open fields. Characters are cute enough, atmosphere is good and events on the road are nice. Four character team makes battles look solid. There aren't weak points, actually. A very solid RPG for RPG lovers. There is very little H element in the game and achieving favor of target heroine only brings a kiss scene. The difficulty curve is very steep as Eagle is very weak and alone at the start, but with a full party it gets to be a breeze. There is also a bonus dungeon just before the end boss and it has monsters that are even stronger than the boss, but there is little sense in exploring this dungeon.
Isaku and Ryouki no Ori are masterpieces of the month, but the winner is Isaku since it's more traditional visual novel.
1. Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi 学校であった怖い話 [950804] Pandora Box 1 2
Sakagami Shuuichi, a member of the school newspaper, is asked to gather information about the school's seven mysteries. He meets with six other students after school to listen to their stories.
There is an English review.
2. Hyaku Monogatari ~Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi~ 百物語 ~ほんとにあった怖い話~ [950804] Hudson Soft 1
There is one hundred selectable candles. Each candle leads to a short story a few minutes long.
There is one small English review.
3. Immoral Study Scenario 1: Shirakawa Reiko インモラルスタディ シナリオ1 白川玲子 [950811] Scoop 1 2 3 4 5 6
You are professor Hitosuji, a well-known teacher who possesses the remarkable gift of turning weak students into straight A ones. What's the secret of professor's method? As you might have suspected, the talented professor uses somewhat... ahem... unconventional means to attain this noble educational goal. This time, the "victim" is a young innocent girl named Reiko Shirakawa. She attends an all-girl and has never had any real contact with men. Controlling the cunning professor, you must seduce Reiko by selecting correct choices that are presented to you at almost any given point, avoiding disturbances such as the ugly housekeeper in Reiko's house.
Game is localized and has English reviews.
4. Kirishima Shinryoushitsu no Gogo 霧島診療室の午後 [950811] May-Be Soft 1
Kyoko is a young woman who does some counseling in a high school; she must talk to people, listen to their problems, and try to solve them. Naturally, this being a hentai game, the problems are usually restricted to sexual fetishes, and the counseling often consists of helping the patients in such ways that new problems of a similar kind might arise...
Quite a loose ero-centered story about counseling on sex problems.
5. Frontier フロンティア [950825] Frontier
A collection of three stories:
1. 遠雷ワイバーン is about a bounty hunter who stays at the inn and is requested to rescue a kidnapped girl.
2. 快感空間「愛」is about a couple who get summoned to another world one day. The goddess there gives a test to make love to three her maids.
3. "Blood line" is about a an adult store owner Eleanor who supplies space ships with sex dolls. She learns about a suspicious disappearance of a space ship that is rumored to be hijacked by a terrorist group. It's a multi-site adventure that shows another point of view after initial playthrough.
Stories are set in some desolate future and quite elaborately done. It might be the peak of multiple stories genre, but whatever complicated prelude is, it inevitably leads to multiple H events.
6. Isaku 遺作 [950825] Elf 1 2 3 4
Unlike the sequels that follows you take on the role of Kenta, a high school student trapped by Isaku, the eldest brother of the Itou Family on the fourth floor of an abandoned school building together with fellow classmates and a teacher.
The main objective of the game is to have the player and his companions escape from a locked school building, and to avoid having your companions captured by Isaku.
The only way out is through a stairwell, the doors of which are locked on every floor. The player must search the rooms on each floor for clues and items that will lead him to locate the keys that will open the stairwell doors and allow him to descend to the next level and ultimately to a final confrontation with Isaku himself.
Famous rapist series of Elf, but this first game has an ordinary high school student as protagonist, so it can be enjoyed. There is one English review. First things first: this game has an amazing point and click system, probably ideal one. There are items to pick up at school, but if misuse some needed item, you won't be able to get a happy ending, cruel as that. There are few VNs with escape as main theme, so it's a nice treat. The graphics of Elf here are in its blossom and it's especially cool that the most attractive character is Kumiko-sensei and not those multiple girls. Game basically has no flaws and manages to have all the elements in sync, so it's a masterpiece, just not for everyone.
7. May Club 五月倶楽部 [950825] Desire 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
The year is 2023, and you play the role of Hajime Kudo, a young man who has just finished his studies at Jiyugaoka University. Hajime is enjoying some downtime after graduation before he is scheduled to start his training with a CAT company and enter the corporate world as a "wage-slave". One February afternoon you receive a flyer advertising a Virtual Reality Dating Simulator called May Club, apparently the most advanced human interface unit of this type to be developed. In May Club, you can supposedly act out any desire you wish with other May Club users, a world where "virtually" anything is possible and physically represented, and inhibitions are forgotten. Naturally, you're intrigued, and make it a point to spend your vacation time at May Club hoping to meet the woman of your dreams before starting your new life.
One of the well known old dating sims. Has many English reviews.
8. Moratorium モラトリアム [950825] Gloria
Your father remarries and you end up living together with three new grown-up sisters.
This work has some gag situations in addition to H events. It can sometimes be seen as a unique comic book and it's easy to read.
9. Ryouki no Ori 猟奇の檻 [950825] Studio Polaris 1 2
A series of strange disappearances occurs in Zeroshiki Department Store, one of the largest shopping malls in Japan. The management is concerned and unwilling to involve the authorities. For an unknown reason they turn to one of their salesmen, a young man named Kuniharu Shitaku, requesting him to investigate the case and find out who or what is behind these disappearances. Kuniharu must explore the mall and gather information by talking to shop managers and staff, most of which are attractive young women who may not be what they seem at first glance.
An ADV that incorporates time system. Every map movement takes some time. Suspense story about missing people that turns out to be about organs shipment. Even if you find the criminal, it's only the peak of the iceberg and the puppeteer remains unknown. Graphics is great. There are multiple endings and some of them are quite cheerful in contrast with the dark suspense mood of the game. Of course, there are a lot of bad endings as well, so a guide is almost a necessity in such time driven game. Very original game worthy of masterpiece title, but the modern remake of the game makes old version obsolete.
10. Sakura no Mori 櫻の杜 ～さくらのもり～ [950825] Active 1
Girls school recently started to adopt male students. There's an old urban legend about a ghost called "young lady" at school and three ghost study club members are set to investigate it.
It's lesbian comedy. And it's more lesbian than a comedy. It's more or less fun through the middle, but don't expect to see any kind of story development here. Yet another bakage with emphasis on H-scenes.
11. Trigger 2 トリガー２ [950825] ZyX 1
Trigger 2 consists of three unrelated stories. The protagonist of the first one is Kerberos, the mythical guardian hellhound. Following a dispute with Lucifer, Kerberos was banned to Earth, where he assumed human form and eventually decided to battle monsters who had been sexually assaulting young women.
In the second story, a seventeen-year-old modern-day girl named Ryoko is magically transferred to a parallel world known as Ryudo. There, she receives painful sexual "training" ans is send to battle machine enemies.
The third story is set in American Old West and focuses on Marie, a female rogue who wants to pass for a young man. The rest of the plot depicts various sexual encounters of hers with men and women, consensual and non-consensual alike.
Zyx continues the animated games race along with Sogna and Himeya Soft. But Trigger 2 is almost entirely committed to H events unlike his competitors.
12. Shin Youjuu Kyoushitsu Ecstasy Adventure 真・妖獣教室 エクスタシーアドベンチャー [950825] Dez Climax
The Earth is under assault by aliens called beasts. They choose this green land as their breeding grounds. But in the Universe there is also an organization that opposes these beasts, and its agents are instantly sent to the Earth. A new round of confrontation starts now.
It's basically an anime presented as a game. Great move, but difficult to justify such medium while anime presents a much more comfortable approach.
Kuro no Danshou: The Literary Fragment is the only masterpiece of the month
1. Jinmon Yuugi 尋問遊戯 [950707] Red Zone
Main hero who is an amateur detective is invited to drink in the bar with a beautiful woman while on a voyage. They move to her room and... the next thing he remembers is her dead body on the floor. Hero is the main suspect, but famous British detective agrees to allow him freedom of movement till the end of voyage as an opportunity to search for a different culprit. Time is limited and hero will have to use all his wits and interrogation skills to get to the truth.
Game is called interrogation play not occasionally. After elaborate introduction content is primarily interrogation. Game has multiple endings including lots of bad ones.
2. Mugen Houyou 夢幻泡影 [950707] Alice Soft 1
After a prolonged absence due to mental problems, Kuon, a young heir to a dynasty of powerful oligarchs, returns to his mansion. He is greeted by his wife, his associates, his servants, and other people who live in the huge family estate. Kuon has to continue the political work of his predecessors, but he is more interested in exploring sexual desires - his own and those of other people. But each "experiment" reveals more of Kuon's troubled past, and he will have to fight his childhood traumas and determine himself the limits of what he can allow himself to do...
Kind of depressing story of Alice Soft tackling on how to spend last days before death from incurable disease. Hmm... what to do in those last days? Oh, right... another setting as an excuse to portray extreme H scenes. Game barely passed censorship thanks to the fact that incest with the sister is not portrayed in the positive manner. Each scenario is no longer than one hour, but there are numerous endings and even more bad endings that reader is supposed to explore. Game might have some charm for someone due to the fact that "events" take place at Taishou era, but I totally could not sympathize with the setting.
3. Inma Seifuku Gari 淫魔制服狩り [950714] Ail 1
For years, the days on the Earth belonged to human beings, while demonic creatures roamed the planet during the night. But humans have invented artificial illumination. In huge modern cities, nights became as bright as the days. Demons were deprived of their time on the Earth. So they decided to strike back. A powerful demonic warrior decides it's time to show the human who the bosses are... by having sex with young pretty girls in uniforms, of course!
There's no much meaning. Just choose one of three girls and play with her.
4. Jealousy ジェラシー [950714] Interheart 1
An ordinary Japanese young man named Fujibayashi Kotarou was playing a computer game at his friend's house. Upon returning home at night, he was approached by mobsters, who demanded money. With debts everywhere and without real means to earn money, Kotarou opts to work for a dubious night club manager as a host. He finds it hard to adjust to the new life style, which brings not only danger and violence, but also sexual experiences he hasn't even dreamed of before...
A host experience ADV, but unlike modern bright host otome novels atmosphere here is very gloomy, fishy and yakuza upper hand seen everywhere. Operability of the game is quite bad and animated H events make the gist of it.
5. Kuro no Danshou: The Literary Fragment 黒の断章 THE LITERARY FRAGMENT [950714] Abogado Powers 1
The Literary Fragment is the first game in Abogado's mystery/horror/adult Detective Suzusaki series. The story focuses on Satoshi Suzusaki, a private investigator with a tragic past, which has left a permanent scar on his life and mental abilities. The case that opens the game's story is a horrifying death of an entire family in their house, at the dining table; circumstances lead to an assumption of either a ritual suicide or murder. Suzusaki, his lovely secretary Asuka, and his young friend, psychologist extraordinaire Kusanagi, have to do everything in their powers to solve the case, while the hero's mysterious past continuous to haunt him...
Suspense detective story with ties to Cthulhu myth. Story shifts into occult theme quickly. Stunning visuals, ever-deepening plot and point and click system make this game a masterpiece. Point and click is not as refined and friendly as in Elf games though. This is definitely a masterpiece, but need some guts to embrace the dark atmosphere and gore scenes. And there's even a sequel in 1996. It should have been a trilogy, but - alas - third part is never going to see the light. There is a good hentai anime that follows game events quite truthfully.
6. Shinsetsu Kamiya Ukyou 2 真説 神谷右京2 [950714] Altacia
The theme of the story is "arbitrary arrangement" introduced with the 1988 law. Sarah is the debtor that appeals to arbitrary arrangement.
Fourth installment of detective series, but actually a remake of older game. Another case based on real life case and again debt as main theme. This work has a much more user friendly systems. As usual, lots of specialized vocabulary and professional slang is used. Ukyo who takes the case is old-fashioned with some bearded jokes to tell, so it's hard to appeal to younger auditory. Case itself lacks excitement so may look boring. But if it does not scare you, it's actually the masterpiece level detective game with many endings, serious approach and story that takes priority over usual tedious detective works gameplay.
7. Doki Doki Pretty League Final DokiDokiぷりてぃリーグ Final [950720] Great
Pink Angels who won the JPL league discover their trophy disappearance one day. Hero does not want publicity and wants to hire a private detective. But on his way there he attends a birthday party of one of team members and discovers the cup in one of the rooms...
Mentioning anything else of the plot would be a spoiler. Enough to say that there is a happy end. This episode is "final" instead of a number meaning it's more of an extra episode after the whole baseball business. Episode is the longest and does not have a game included making it a nice final.
8. Dora Dora Emotion ~Seihaiden~ ＤＯＲＡＤＯＲＡエモーション ～聖牌伝～ [950721] Cocktail Soft 1 2
A young treasure hunter named Asuta travels together with his faithful companion, the cute angel-like creature Mink. One day, Mink tells her "master" about the floating continent Norland. Rumors say that a golden tablet of immense value is hidden somewhere on that continent. Asuta and Mink travel to Norland and try to enter the Queen's palace. However, it seems that the people of Norland only have respect to those who are proficient in the ancient game of mahjong. Mink quickly teaches Asuta how to play the game, and they challenge the famous people (read: young, pretty women) of the country to the bloodless battle!
This time with a story. But it does not really help. The game is ordinary.
9. Lemon Angel レモンエンジェル [950721] Fairy Dust 1 2
The plot involves Tomo meeting her friends Erika and Miki, only to become trapped in a magical dimension with her friends gone. Tomo must travel to various worlds in order to find them; these worlds have varied themes and settings, including an alien attack on a spaceship, a country populated by giant sexually abusive mushrooms, a realm that changes Tomo's gender, etc.
There is an English review.
10. Perfect Blue パーフェクトブルー [950725] Ucom
Main character is a biker who has ample opportunities to have sex at home, at school and at his girlfriend's place. But as he rescues a girl from a group of men, his daily routine starts to change...
Pretty horrible game as pretty much nothing happens, but H events follow one by one for eternity. Game is mostly remembered for an intercourse scene with imouto at the start.
11. Arbeit ~Futari no Omoi~ アルバイト ～二人の想い～ [950728] Ange
A couple is preparing for a holiday together, and need money to do that. Both go for a part-time job.
You get to see both the boyfriend's and girlfriend's points of view.
There are six weekly jobs each with a different girl and possibility to confess on the friday. So it's quite close to our usual heroine routes. The multi-site system is still fresh and quite popular after C's Ware hit DESIRE. But the content is ordinary.
12. Branmarker 2 ブランマーカー２ [950728] D.O. 1 2 3
Branmarker 2 is a direct sequel to the first Branmarker. The heroine Shami has completed her quest, received the magical artifact known as "branmarker", and is returning home with her companion Viga. Alas, the evil sorceress Kara has other plans, so she steals the branmarker from Shami to use it for her own mysterious purposes. Shami and Viga have to find the thief and recover the artifact before hell is unleashed upon the world.
There's a good English review out there.
13. De.FaNa デ・ファーナ [950728] Himeya Soft 1
A young boy with spiky purple hair lies on the ground, contemplating the clear sky. He enjoys the well-deserved rest. Life is good. The only problem is... he can't remember who he is. Finally, after some efforts, he recalls his name: Luck. Profession: adventurer. He was supposed to meet his partner, a sexy girl named Sue, but instead ended up in some sort of a magical land, with zombies and angry female warriors. Soon he will learn that the land is called De FaNa, is ruled by a queen, and contains plenty of dangerous quests for an adventurer... and pretty girls for a horny teenager!
Himeya Soft accepts the Sogna challenge and issues another highly animated game. Tempo is a bit sluggish since you need to try all the variants before moving on. Characters and the story aren't too exciting, but overall a very nice work.
14. Kousoku ~Yorokobi no Juice~ 拘束 ～悦びの淫液～ [950728] Persian Soft 1
A young man named Keisuke falls asleep on a train and sees a dream: he is having sex with a beautiful woman whom he calls Miyuki, even though he doesn't know this woman in his real life. Afterwards, Keisuke misses the last train to the city and is stranded on a rainy day on a small, uninhabited station. Suddenly, he sees the woman from his dream, and finds out her name is really Miyuki. She tells him and her rich father has built for her and her sisters a European-style mansion nearby, and invites the young man to visit. Keisuke accepts and meets her family, which leads to unexpected and dark erotic adventures...
Characters were mysterious enough to make me play to the end. But last quarter of the game has much disturbing content. It's still a good thing that Miyuki is not subject to the overall madness, well, maybe just a little. So it's mostly an ero-centered game, but with nice mystery and cute characters.
15. Kurumi-chan Ninja くるみちゃんにんじゃあ [950728] Studio Jikkenshitsu
A legendary black ship arrives at Minato shore shipping suspicious black chests. A ninja girl is sent to investigate the contents of the chests.
There aren't reviews and game process is just too dull. It's still nice to see as much as three attacking commands available to use at any time.
There aren't masterpieces this month, but Koihime has my sincere sympathy.
1. Monzetsu Fighter 悶絶ファイター [950512] Trush 1 2
Long ago, there was an evil king who loved nothing more than to rape and torture beautiful women. He was so evil that it became taboo to even speak his name. He was slain by a woman that killed him through sex, but 300 years later he is reborn. In order to defeat this ancient evil, the greatest female warriors in the world face off to see who is worthy of fighting and defeating this terror.
Monzetsu Fighter is a card battle game where you play as a female warrior fighting other female warriors and occasionally a boss. Battles simulate rape fights and cards represent different ways of sexually attacking an opponent. As health decreases, characters get cuts, bruises, and lose clothes. The fight ends when one of the combatants passes out, of as the title says, faints in anguish.
There is an English review.
2. Sexpress セクスプレス [950512] Ange 1
The protagonist of the game is a young Japanese man who is lucky enough to win a ride on the S-Express, a miraculous train connecting Australia with Canada and going through almost the entire world with stops in Singapore, Japan, China, India, Israel, Russia, France, Ivory Coast, Brazil, Panama, and USA. Nearly the whole game is set on the train itself, with only a few locations accessible within.
There is a concept of time and each character acts according to his timetable like in Classmate. This is the most difficult type of visual novels and only masterpieces can survive here. And sexpress is very close to it. Heroines are very cute and charming, inspiring to clear the game despite the high difficulty.
3. Kankin 監禁 [950518] Illusion 1
The year is 2197. In order to be able to compete with the leading powers of the world, Japan was urbanized, huge city areas covering the entire country. In these huge, soulless cities, crime thrives. Violence is part of everyday life. Female police agents Sagoto, Kikuno, and Chisame are sent to Koube City to arrest drug dealers. But all goes wrong in the very beginning, and the young women fall victims to vicious criminals.
It's an Illusion game so it takes mere minutes for a spree of H events to begin.
4. Amy to Yobanaide エイミーと呼ばないでっ [950519] C's Ware 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
This is a story about a high-school girl named Emi, who fell in love with her younger step-brother. Finally, on her eighteenth birthday, she decides to tell him about her feelings. But suddenly, debt collectors arrive and confiscate everything your father possessed. Tomomi, Emi's step-brother, disappears. Now Emi must find him, her only true love, and to confess to him her feelings.
But on her journey, Emi discovers a different personality inside herself. This other person is called Amy. While the true Emi is a shy, modest girl, her Amy part cares mostly about one thing: to make real her wildest sexual fantasies...
Game is localized and has lots of English reviews.
5. Ballade for Maria マリアに捧げるバラード [950526] FAIRYTALE HARDCOVER 1
In "Ballade For Maria", you control Jake Spikes, a detective from New York. Recently, terrible murders have been happening in Boston. An unknown killer seeks out women and brutally murders them, cutting their hands off. Jake travels to Boston to unravel the mystery, finding out who is responsible for the murders.
It's from the same developer as Necronomicon, so you should know what to expect. Point and click shifted back to command selection with troublesome flags to find (way too many characters having way too many useless dialogue lines and topics to discuss). Game's main feature is depressive atmosphere so unlike Necronomicon it's a full-scale utsuge. Same as Necronomicon there are two endings - bad and very bad. As an experimental game, it has a lot of gore, but almost no nudity thus continuing Koroshi no Dress trend.
6. Koihime 恋姫 [950526] Silky's 1 2 3
Musashi returns to the remote country village where his grandmother lives after being away for 15 years. However, once he gets there, he finds that he has somehow forgotten four different girls whom he had promised to marry when he was a child.
There are two English reviews of this Elf game, but I'd wish to sum it up. Game is set in traditional japanese countryside and has vertical text display to underline this atmosphere. Text is good and full of gags and emotions. So is the tempo. But the volume is small so story is forced like all the girls are in love with the hero from the start. There are 14 good endings even though the story has no branches. By the end there are several battle sequences, but they are ok to loose. So this is a melancholy rural story with a touch of folklore mystics that was notable in 1995, but today there are hundreds of such works, it's not memorable enough to stand out even though both characters and drawing are very cute.
7. Mujintou Monogatari 2 無人島物語２ [950526] KSS Inc. 1
Mujintō Monogatari 2 is a follow-up to Mujintō Monogatari. Like its predecessor, it simulates survival of a group of people on a deserted island - this time, following a ship accident. The basic gameplay is very similar to that of the previous game. The player has to make schedules for the survivors, sending teams to procure necessary supplies such as water, food, light sources, building materials, etc. Only a small part of the island is accessible in the beginning: the player gradually explores it by arranging expeditions. It is possible to manage up to three parties of people, giving each an assignment, which unfolds automatically as the player chooses to complete a day. The survivors' attributes will change depending on the activities chosen by the player.
This time there are finally unique characters and dialogues on events. The basic gameplay stays the same - gather resources, synthesize them and use them to develop and survive. But that also sets the biggest problem - system has to be changed if unique characters and stories are introduced. You can't just leave it as survival strategy with just naming the characters and adding event dialogues. It's definitely more enjoyable than prequel, but still far from masterpiece level.
8. X -Ekkusu- X -エックス- [950526] Studio Mebius
Erika is a 16 year-old high-school student who receives lots of love letters from other girl students. One night space tax collector Seri lands on Erika killing her. In order to regain the body Erika needs to help Seri save the world in the next 500 hours by participating in various interstellar sex events.
In reality after the opening player is thrown to selection between 10 scenes at once. Yuri love in exotic space locations makes he gist of the game.
9. Himitsu Chouhou Buin - 00Nanako-chan 3 秘密諜報部員00ななこちゃんIII [9512] Overture
Parents of Nanako-chan go on a trip. At this time monsters attacks start to happen. Nanako-chan will need to solve this case together with her sister and childhood friend! Third game did not get a Windows version and thus remains obscure.
10. Sailor Bunny Daibakuhatsu セーラーバニー大縛発 [9512] Minto Club
Game is about training a bunny girl in exchange for pocket money.
An ero-centered doujin game.
11. Sinkha [9512] Marco Patrito 1 2 3 4
Sinkha tells the fascinating story of Hyleyn, a bold girl who lives in the mysterious city of Thalissar. This gigantic and gloomy agglomeration of howling metal, located on the hostile planet Ogon, proves to be of great interest to the Sinkha, a race of immortals who send their living starship Darcron to investigate.
There are many English reviews of this game, but what matters to me is that this is the first West originated visual novel and the first windows visual novel.
12. Virgin Angel ヴァージンエンジェル [9512] Crystal Soft 1
In 2080, Tokyo, the capital of Japan, became a center for daring scientific experiments, newest research in space ship technology, and organized crime. A new deadly drug was developed, that enhanced sexual experiences of human beings, eventually subduing their will and turning them into slaves of whoever possessed the drug. A special unit of the police force was assigned to investigate the crimes committed under the influence of the drug, and to find the criminals that distributed it. The player controls the young female investigator Amano Murakumo. Will she be able to survive in this hostile and terrifying world?..
Despite being a doujin game, it has some stunning visuals. There should be at least 4 endings since I saw 1st and 4th one but only 1st one is good while others being ero-centered bad endings.
Mugen Yasoukyoku and Bunny Hunter Zero are masterpieces of the month, but bakage would always be inferior for me, so Mugen Yasoukyoku is the winner of the month
1. Alice no Yakata 3 ALICEの館3 [950401] Alice Soft 1
A collection of five mini-games with Alice from the Rance series.
The first two games in this series were only available on Japanese computers. It includes a quiz game "TokuSakari quiz Rerorero", fighting Prince Patton, a female teacher in agony hell visual novel with two endings - one good and a darker one.
As usual, game contains lots of short H stories and some additional materials.
2. Setsujuu ~Yuganda Kioku~ 雪猫 ～ゆがんだ記憶～ [950405] JAST
A guy went on a graduation ski trip with his friend and their girlfriends. Before and during the trip, he met and had fun with a bunch of females. In some places, you can choose which girl he have fun with by going to one place or another.
Scenario is a single road with branching close to the end. There are 10 girls overall for capture. Content is quite poor.
3. 5 Jikanme no Venus 5時間目のヴィーナス [950407] Fairy Dust 1
Shimeji attends the Touyama High School. She has a best friend there, is successful in studies, and also has a part-time job as a waitress. Yet she is not happy. One day, her friends find her on the floor, unconscious. They bring her to the young school doctor, who also happens to be the protagonist of this game. The hero is impressed by Shimeji's beauty, but he is also determined to find the cause of her depression. Piece by piece he uncovers the truth about Shimeji's life...
Basically a hentai anime episode made into a game. Game is straight-forward and features Shimeji secrets one by one, can't see here any value over the anime.
4. Noushuku Angel 120% 濃縮ANGEL・120% [950414] Cocktail Soft
Heroine starts to have erotic dreams in broad daylight and starts to loose the grip with reality.
There are no reviews on the game, but there were way too many H scenes at the start to go on.
5. School Girls スクールガールズ [950414] Scoop 1
School Girls tells the story of Shinsuke, a young man looking for a teaching job. His uncle is the principal of a prestigious girls' high school, and he assigns to his nephew the job of a substitute art teacher. The rest of the plot is mostly dedicated to Shinsuke's relationships (sexual and otherwise) with the various female students and co-workers.
The game starts with a mystery of which girls wears the strawberry pants, but very soon forgets about it and turns into H events parade.
6. Ushinawareta Rakuen 失われた楽園 [950414] Silky's 1 2
College student Kojima Kousaku is promised a high payment for assistance in scientific expedition on a southern island. However, a storm breaks out and the ship suffers a shipwreck. The crew gets separated and they start to search first for bed and food and then find a strange temple in the jungle.
I've prepared a full review of the game.
7. Yuuwaku 誘惑 [950414] T2 Co., Ltd.
One day a young woman comes to the detective office and asks to find a picture that was left by her father. Hero rejects the request at first, but decides to look into it eventually. He starts to gather information about client's family with the neighborhood.
Game is based on adult manga work and all information gathering happens through the sex.
8. Doki Doki Pretty League Dai 5 Wa - Saraba Pink Angels-tachi DokiDokiぷりてぃリーグ 第5話 さらばピンクエンジェルス達 [950415] Great
Nanase is promised by her grandfather to do as she likes if she wins the finals. And then the final match against Green Hornets begins.
I was partly confused by the fact that I actually had to lose in the finals to get a good ending. I knew some Pink Angel girl started to play for Green Hornets, but don't think it was Nanase.
9. Dual Soul デュアルソウル [950415] Ail
Gush is a treasure hunter. He is searching for the Gomalie ruins at the request of Evonos Church with tree friends. As he was leaving the ruins he got caught in the trap had had multiple spear piercing wounds. He should have died but he awoke at the bed. His appearance changed drastically as he took the form of Edner who fell from the roof at the same time. He is sentenced to live as Edner by the church bishop. Then suspicious events start to happen one by one...
It was fully story driven but had poor sales. so next Ail games were of fanservice character and they sold much better. There is a huge sudden shift between first half of the work that's more of a gag comedy with Gush rejoiced about his survival and the second part that's full of drama and emotions. So the scenario felt unprofessional and left a sour aftertaste.
10. Ring Out!! リングアウト!! [950421] ZyX 1 2 3 4 5
Somewhere in Tokyo is an underground club where important political and social figures gather to watch an unusual sport. Two women are put in a caged ring, in revealing clothes, and grope each other while wrestling. Whoever comes first, loses. No holds barred, and the loser has to endure any humiliation the winner asks. Into this ring comes a young girl named Aya, forced into slavery by people to whom she is nothing.
There are English reviews.
11. Viper-V12 [950421] Sogna 1 2
Yet another entry in the Viper series, Viper V-12 exploits the same format all the previous entries followed: there are three unrelated short stories which mostly consist of animated sex scenes, with some interaction here and there.
Here are the stories:
Future Investigator Bravan: Bravan is a powerful warrior clad in power armor, who fights for human beings in and has only one weakness: his pretty female comrades. A group of demons called "Donar", led by the mischievous female doppelganger Colonel Gel, decide to use the shape-shifting powers of the commander to lure Bravan to their lair.
Angel Dust: Kate and Julia, two cosmic rangers, attack a space pirate ship and board it, hoping to steal treasures and to become rich. But they were not careful enough when they entered the ship without any precautions: the space pirates had other plans for the young girls...
Magical Gambler: A young child has a dream which becomes reality: two cute flying creatures appear in front of her and give her a magic rod. However, when the girl uses the rod, she miraculously turns into a young and sexy woman. She decides to use the powers of the rod for her own greed, and becomes Chiyomi - the Queen of Gambling...
There is an English review.
12. Mugen Yasoukyoku 夢幻夜想曲 [950422] Apricot (old) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Nocturnal Illusions' genre is a mixture of a dating sim and visual novel. In this game the main character decides to get away from it all during his spring break and stay in the mountains. While staying in the mountains a massive storm causes the main character to faint. A mysterious woman saves him and uses sexual pleasure to keep him warm. It turns out that he is now in a strange old mansion. The woman who saved the main character is the mistress in charge of the place. The main character decides to explore and while there meets many women as the story unfolds...
Game is localized and has overwhelming number of English reviews. I've seen it to the end and can't say it's a game for everyone. It has good text and mysterious characters, but don't expect much plot here. It has its unique charm, but can't say I got a good impression out of it.
13. Bunny Hunter Zero ばにぃはんたぁ零 [950428] Studio Jikkenshitsu 1
Hero is a salary man and he investigates disappearance of his father with the employees salary. The lead takes him to the "Neo Bunny" organization which members are dressed like bunnies. Hero gets attacked by a group of bunny girls on the street. As he wraps himself in matador suit, he feels that he now has power to oppose them as he becomes now "Bunny Hunter Zero".
The only English review is from someone who does not understand Japanese. Synopsis looks weird... only because that's a weird bakage with little sense to be found. Game features card battles to keep players from getting bored. Another strong side is graphics as the characters were cute and attractive. Card game is also cool, not just another mahjong. The gameplay is quite fun, so game was actually quite popular... not for long, of course.
14. Itsuka Dokoka de. いつかどこかで。 [950428] Cocktail Soft 1
The follower-up to the first Erotic Baka Novel game is similar to it in structure: it is a visual novel with multiple story lines, which take place according to the decisions made by the player during the game. The protagonist is once again a regular Japanese male; this time, the initial "trigger event" is a message on his pager. Three different choices regarding his reaction to the beeper's sound lead to three very different story arcs, each involving its own sub-branches.
There are three branches from the start and new branches open up after seeing consequent endings. There are also bad endings as before, but overall there are much less choices than in prequel. Stories are quite interesting involving third world war and other planets among others.
15. Oushuu Yuukai Yuugi Pink Tiger 欧州誘拐遊戯 ＰＩＮＫ☆ＴＩＧＥＲ [950428] Peppermint Kids
Pink Tigers is a secret criminal organization composed only of women dealing with kidnappings and robbery mostly. Protagonist gets a request to rescue one kidnapped child.
An ero-centered les work.
16. Reijou Monogatari 令嬢物語 ～れいじょうものがたり～ [950428] Interheart 1 2
Three sisters of the Saijō family - Michie, Saki, and Erika - lived together peacefully in a quiet house. Their parents have died but left them a very large fortune, which evoked jealousy in people surrounding them. On Michie's twentieth birthday their greedy and corrupt uncle, who recently lost a vast amount of money due to failed business transactions, sent his goons to extort from the young women the fortune they rightfully possessed.
There is an English review.
17. Ribbon リボン [950428] Softhouse Bonbee Bonbon 1
Keisuke Murakawa is a teenager who used to have tender feelings towards his childhood friend Makoto Aizawa. However, they grew apart as each was busy with their own school life. Now, when both begin to attend the same high school, Keisuke is unsure whether she or any of the older attractive schoolmates is the love of his life.
First part is nampage with all the girls. Second part is pure love story with the main heroine. Third part is H bonus. Quite an ordinary work, but characters aren't based on archetypes and thus feel realistic. Notably, it's not I-ADV, but just ADV with only conversation choices to matter, but structure still suffers from I-ADV heritage, so a mismatch is felt. Game's got good sound support, but it does not make this work special and second part is not long enough to save it.
18. Rondo ロンド [950428] Frontier
Protagonists sees a mysterious girl in his dreams who reminds him one of the girls in the class. This is a story of his relations with several class girls over a few days.
Game was interesting enough for me to see it through the end. The coolest part is confrontation between his childhood friend Fujiwara (descendant from Fujiwara clan) and mysterious girl Hojo Miyuki (descendant from Hojo clan). And the protagonist turns out to be descendant of Yoshimoto. On top of historic parallels there is enough mystics involved to keep interest all the time.
There aren't masterpieces this month. Still I got quite strong impression from Cybernoid Alpha - I nominate it VN of March 1995.
1. 31 Iwayuru Hitotsu no Chou Lovely na Bouken Katsugeki ３１ いわゆるひとつの超らぶりぃな冒険活劇 [950302] Altacia 1
The heroine of this curiously named title is Choko, the princess of the fictional country Baskin, which is mostly a medieval world with some modern-day anachronisms. She lives in the capital city Robins with her Mom and Dad, namely queen and king. Her curious nature eventually leads her to some interesting acquaintances, including magic users and adventurers, who help her to uncover a threat to her family and country. The princess has to travel through a dangerous forest with her best buddy Meron, in order to protect Baskin from danger.
Meaningless short adventure without anything to stand out here. There are some gags on the way, but they hardly make it worthwhile. Altacia is just much better at doing detective series.
2. If 3 イフ ３ [950303] Active 1
Like its predecessors in the series, IF 3 contains three scenarios, which are unrelated to each other story-wise and can be played directly from the main menu:
The first episode, sub-titled Will for Suicide, is indeed about that: a person who tries to commit suicide. The scenario can be played in two different ways, from the point of view of either a male or female protagonist. reasons and circumstances of the suicide can also be chosen by the player. The scenario involves supernatural forces that change the fate of the heroes; however, the specific narrative is defined by the player.
This episode is called Like a Magic Woman; the heroine is a beautiful young woman, contemplating about her future career and desire for money; at that moment, she is hit by a truck. Miraculously, she survives the accident, and is granted the magic ability of shape-shifting.
The final episode is entitled Eday & Magy (sic), which are the misspelled names "Eddie" and "Maggie". The setting is a fictional city in the USA called "Autumn City"; it is being governed by the powerful Chief Anderson, enjoying an era of stability and peace. But a criminal organization targets Eddie, a young half-Japanese police officer, and he receives the assignment to bring the villains to justice.
Finally the last game of the series. Multiple stories genre little by little ceases to exist.
3. Escalation'95 Onee-sama tte Yonde Ii Desu ka? エスカレーション'95 お姉さまって呼んでいいですか? [950304] Melody 1
Escalation '95 doesn't have a particularly elaborate story: the protagonist is a female student named Naomi, who attends the Catholic St. Azarea high school. At the beginning of the year, new students enter the school, and Naomi's task is to show them around and help them - which she does in a very particular fashion...
A specialized lesbian love work with some disturbing content.
4. Cybernoid Alpha サイバノイドアルファ [950310] D.O.
The great war brought the humanity to the brink of extinction turning the burnt towns in lawless zones.
Baum Filled is a mercenary who arrives to such town and takes up a request to rescue woman client's sister.
I love cyberpunk and this game has some great pictures, but it's quite short and ero-centered to be taken seriously.
5. Wonpara Wars II ＷＯＮＰＡＲＡウォーズII [950310] Mink 1 2
The protagonist of the first game, Leopard Chateau-Lyon, finds himself wandering in a forest, having no memory of his own past, except his name. He is captured by two female warriors and is brought to their queen. It appears that there are only women in this country; when the hero says he is a man, the queen rejoices, telling him about an ancient legend that prophesied the advent of a creature named man, who will save their country from the ruthless queen of the neighboring land. The hero has to prove himself worthy of his heroic status and to defeat the enemy forces that threaten the country.
There is an English review.
6. Nana Eiyuu Monogatari 七英雄物語 [950310] Himeya Soft
Fifty-year war between the two great powers is over, and peace comes to the world. However, the scars of the war are deep and result in operation of multiple bandit and robber bands. One day a whole village gets destroyed by bandits. A small village desperately needs to hire protectors, but there is no money to pay heroes. Are there volunteers to risk their life just for rice?
As you can see, plot fully follows the classic seven samurai story of Akira Kurosawa. The first third of the game there is even just one samurai. Of course, it does not really stop there since it's a long RPG. First there are multiple attacks, then finally main robber moves in vicinity of of village, and our heroes finally have an opportunity to track him down and defeat. But RPG part is decent, so game is quite enjoyable.
7. Doki Doki Pretty League Dai 4 Wa - Nanase no Himitsu no Maki DokiDokiぷりてぃリーグ 第4話 七瀬の秘密の巻 [950315] Great
The episode reveals the story of Nanase birth and introduces her sister as well as presents the match against Yellow Jackets.
Nanase is the best pitcher in the history and from this episode she becomes the center of attention. Her secret upbringing is revealed and for the setting for final confrontation is prepared.
8. Harenchi Gakuen ハレンチ学園 [950315] Dynamic Production
A student transfers in a formerly girls school only to find strange rules governing there.
An ero-centered work with cute drawing, but very nauseating mechanics of first choosing the icon of action and then point-and-clicking everything in hope to trigger some advancement.
9. Kinki Taboo 禁忌 TABOO [950317] Succubus
Teacher trains three high school student girls into SM sex slaves.
This is the actual originator of bondage museum genre. It was mostly notable for voice support and time required to install, but the content was rather generic without providing much uniqueness.
10. Manami no Doko made Iku no? 2 - Return of the Kuro Pack まなみのどこまでイクの？２ リターンオブＴＨＥ黒パック [950317] Wendy Magazine
In spring 1995 a new conspiracy started to unfold. Manami sets on a course to reveal it while searching for cute girls in the meantime.
The prequel has a good English review and by that alone it's possible to guess the scale of madness in this work. I did not get far in this bakage since it stopped making sense very soon.
11. S.A. 3 S.A. 3 [950323] Exst
A collection of two short erotic stories. Scenario 1 is about 16-year old girlfriend Yuka-chan visit. Main character decides that it's high time for intimate relations between them, so he needs to balance part-time jobs and dates with Yuka-chan this summer to afford a romantic trip and finally get close with the girl. Scenario 2 is about main character having erotic dreams about three girls - his classmate, cash register girl and a passer-by student. Delusions become more and more violent ending up with the use of tentacles. In the end protagonists surprisingly finds himself in jail.
Just like in prequels things turn to H very fast, but Yuka is cute as ever.
12. Teen TEEN [950324] Custom 1
The story is about teenagers, high school students. It's divided in two scenarios.
In scenario 1 "Depression Of Ai" the main figure is Ayumi, a les girl. She wants to get a cute pet girl, but it's difficult because most girls refrain from becoming a les. One day she gets a love letter from a junior girl Ai. Ayumi shouts with joy for that, though she doesn't know what kind of girl Ai is. Ayumi imagines that Ai will be cute and naïve. How will the following story goes? It puts on comic touch.
In scenario 2 "Last Party" three figures enter the story. Megumi is a girl who has many H friends. Takusi is one of them. One day Megumi invites Takusi to the last party and he agrees. He asks her about the party but she doesn't let him know what kind of party it'll be. He imagines one of group H with all her friends. At last the party day comes. His guess proves to be false. Megumi introduces just one junior girl, Kana, to him. What purpose does Megumi has? Why is the party the last?
A specialized H-centered yuri work. At the very least there aren't boring parts included.
13. Tenkousei 転校生 [950324] Space Project
Heroine is a new transfer student. Player needs to lead her through the daily routine situations with an aim of losing virginity.
A kusoge in its purest form. You need to constantly click to choose between two stupidest routine activities. There are multiple windows and those tend to hide behind each other and to load for quite a long time. Game's also ridiculously long for this kind of torture gameplay.
14. Seek ~Chikashitsu no Mesu Dorei Tachi~ ＳＥＥＫ ～地下室の牝奴隷達～ [950331] PIL
While attending the funeral of a father his hasn't seen in 10 years, our guy found out about his father's job of SM painter, but actually a SM trainer and Will of one billion yen, now half to his assistant and half to an orphanage. If he can become a SM trainer in one month, assistant will be judge, then he can get the whole one billion yen. Well, how well he can train three girls will have different outcomes.
A famous erotic raising SIM with lots of disturbing content. Not to my liking at all though.
15. Touch My Heart タッチ マイ ハート [9503] D.O.
While on the way home from work a mysterious woman begs hero to let her in the car and help her escape from the pursuers. It's up to hero what happens next.
A very obscure work. All I know is that there are a lot of bad endings and no walkthrough to try and get to the good one.
There aren't masterpieces this month, so it's high time to nominate the pretty league series episode Doki Doki Pretty League Dai 3 Wa - Minami no Umi no Kai no Maki as VN of February 1995. It's quite a simple and fun episode on top of that!
1. Themm - Harukanaru Meikyuu ゼム ～はるかなる迷宮～ [950204] Harvest 1 2 3 4
Long time ago, human beings believed in gods. But time has passed, and the humans stopped worshipping them. The gods got angry. The world plunged into chaos. Demons who looked like pretty girls have appeared, driving people insane. Five kings have sent brave heroes to find a magical stone that alone could restore peace to the world. One of these heroes is Lucido. Aided by a simple village girl, he bravely descends into a dungeon full of seductive monsters - but he should beware of the competition...
There are English reviews.
2. V Zone ＶＺＯＮＥ [950210] Dollhouse
By buying top price adult VHRs hero is able to transfer to a different world to become the main actor himself.
Even though the aim of the game is simple, hero needs to set flags for each heroine in all the five worlds making it very complex taking into account a big city to explore manually area by area. But the heroines are very cute able to inspire to clear those flags.
3. Poison ~6 Nin no Majo~ ぽわぞん ～６人の魔女～ [950214] Trush
Princess ate a gifted candy and fell into slumber. No one answered the king's call to lift the curse until protagonist showed up. He set on a journey to defeat six witches in undressing card game to get the cure.
It's mostly a card game which I did not get through.
4. Doki Doki Pretty League Dai 3 Wa - Minami no Umi no Kai no Maki DokiDokiぷりてぃリーグ 第3話 南の海の怪の巻 [950218] Great
The Pink Angels, who won the JPL-ONE league and entered the JPL league, now take a vacation to Okinawa. Game focuses on local ghost story and proceeds to Black Shadows match.
Exact system as the prequels with fun adventure getting the bigger chunk of the not so long playthrough.
5. Trouble Chaser Dai 2 Wa - Futarime no Chaser トラぶるＣＨＡＳＥＲ 第２話 ２人目のチェイサー [950218] Nihon Create
Daiskuke gets accustomed to living with Rena when his house gets demolished again by another space ship landing on it. Rudy comes out of the ship claiming that she's a friend of Rena.
There's also a new strong enemy awaiting. Good pace fun mini-adventure.
6. DR2 Night Janki DR2ナイト雀鬼 [950224] Leaf 1 2
DR² Night Janki is a mahjong game with adult scenes. The game has two modes: "Story" and "Regular". The story mode is set in a medieval castle, which is said to be ancient grounds for sorcery, but is currently controlled by the mysterious Rumira, who runs a mahjong club. The hero, a man named Ryuuji, decides to investigate the castle, and therefore has to defeat its inhabitants (all pretty young girls) in mahjong matches.
Game's ordinary undressing mahjong. What makes it special is that there is at least some loose story to tie it together and that it's the first game of the Leaf company.
7. Nozokiya Kagyou のぞき屋稼業 [950224] T2 Co., Ltd.
Hero has a car full of peeping equipment and a whole town as his playground.
An originator of peeping genre "Odori". This game is close to simulators since there is a freedom of movement and lots of game icons to choose from, especially in the car as well as time of the day. It's quite a boring game able to avert even ardent peeping enthusiasts.
8. Sex [950224] AyPio 1 2
The game with such a simple, yet expressive title is also rather simple and to-the-point in its concept: it is about having sex and nothing else. There is no real story in the game: in the beginning, a crazy-looking character named Mr. Funk, who speaks in Japanese with a heavy dose of stereotypical hip-hop lingo, announces that the player is now declared King of Sex and can therefore directly have sex with any of the three "available" young and pretty girls: Nana, the cute school girl, Makoto, the "mature" woman (probably in her early twenties), and the obligatory underage girl with pink hair, Ai.
There's a small talk with each girl discussing intimate life, but apart of that it's just sex.
9. Virtua Call バーチャコール [950224] Fairytale 1
While trying to pick up girls, you are given a card for a video phone service. When you go home you try the number and then a woman tells you how the game works.
Nampa game with videophones not yet invented. Many conversation variants are present. But game feels too monotonous, something that's going to be fixed only in sequels.
10. Ce'st la vie Ce'st la vie [950228] May-Be Soft 1 2
The game puts the player in a role of an aspiring young painter, who is more interested in pretty, young, naked models than in the art itself. It starts slowly, but soon the hero finds himself sexually involved with different young women, and the net of relationships grows more and more complex...
Don't expect a story here, because there is little of it. It consists mostly of accidental meetings followed by H.
11. Valkyrie ヴァルキリー [950228] Discovery 1 2
An ordinary Japanese high-school student named Hatsumi Tarou was having a normal life - preparing for examinations, like all his classmates - when one day everything changed: it was on the day when he saw a talking cat. The cat promptly explained that it was not a cat, but a creature from the Magic World. Once in a thousand or so years, a fighting competition is being held between the best female fighters of the Magic World. The winner becomes the next queen. The referee however should be a human being; and this time, the honor belongs to our friend Tarou!
Well, this is not BlazBlue, the story here is almost non-existant, nothing much to discuss in a fighting game.
There aren't masterpieces this month, but among others Doki Doki Vacation ~Kirameku Kisetsu no Naka de~ is worth the honor of being VN of January 1995 the most.
1. Ayumi-chan Monogatari Jisshaban あゆみちゃん物語 実写版 [950112] Alice Soft 1
Ayumi-chan Monogatari: Jisshaban is almost exactly the same game as Ayumi-chan Monogatari, with one important difference: it has photos of a real actress replacing the original's anime-style graphics. There are no graphics at all in the game.
Don't think there is the need to discuss this horrible game once more.
2. School Festival ~Cosmos Sai Kitan~ スクールフェスティバル ～秋桜祭奇譚～ [950113] Ange
Hero is a high school teacher and also consultant of ethics committee. The day before the cultural festival, it was cancelled by the principal due to diminished public morals. It's our job to investigate the truth behind the cancellation.
Well, pretty much every girl is in love with the hero, so that's what diminished public morals, hehe, there's a distinctive harem sensation in the air. The most interesting part about the game is game system - all the characters on the screen are displayed at the right part of the screen and when you press on the face, that character speaks. So it's some mix between ADV and I-ADV. Another feature is when we go on a trip, we gather the team ourselves and dialogues change drastically according to the team members. So another work of Ange with strange systems and heartwarming feeling. Alas, it has little beyond fun dialogues.
3. Waku Waku Mahjong Panic! ~Shikigami Denshou~ わくわく麻雀パニック！ ～式神伝承～ [950113] Four-Nine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
It is in the shadows between the world of the spirits and the world of the flesh that the Shikigami live -- ethereal fairy-beings given form and flesh in the shape of beautiful elfin girls. Shikigami may be caught by a Shikigami Master, someone who knows the ancient art of defeating them at battle mahjong and binding them with a contract. A man who catches a Shikigami could win everything...but risks his very soul. In the very near future, in the city of Demon Tokyo, a powerful Shikigami Master named Jango lives amidst the bustling insanity of the city. A request for help from a beautiful woman leads to a showdown with the vile Organization. Jingo's world is about to be turned upside down...
Game is localized with lots of English reviews. English version was scrapped for actual mahjong gameplay and was redone with game resources on macromedia flash stealing lots of charm from the game. Still I'm mostly interested in plot and thus English version was perfect for me and took only an hour and a half to see through. So reviews are mostly negative, but keep in mind that pretty much everyone went to play sequel as well. As I see it, it's because story is fun enough and characters very joyful and likable.
4. Doki Doki Pretty League Dai 2 Wa - Mou Hitotsu no Rival DokiDokiぷりてぃリーグ 第2話 もうひとつのライバル [950115] Great
After decisive win over Blue Dolphins it is the final round of JPL-ONE against Universal Solids. But two days before the match the leading player of the team Nanase goes missing.
Nanase starts to feature as the leading role and we approach to getting to know her family, her circumstances and her secret.
5. Doki Doki Vacation ~Kirameku Kisetsu no Naka de~ DOKIDOKIバケーション ～きらめく季節の中で～ [950127] Cocktail Soft 1
Dokidoki Vacation tells the story of a Japanese teenager called Junichi. High school is over, the summer vacation has begun. But due to the young man's uneasy relationship with his family and other circumstances, he cannot afford the vacation he was hoping for. So Junichi decides to find a job. He starts working in a book store, and soon realizes that feelings develop between him and Megumi, a girl who works in the same place. But what about the classmate Junichi was in love with before?..
One of the most epic galge of the pc-98 era. Graphics is just fabulous, characters are super cute. Gamers literally cried with joy at the time of the release. VN has a great balance between gags, seriousness and eroticism. But actually from our days perspective there's nothing much here. Story is one way road with the goal set from the introduction - confess to Mutsu-chan who is school's idol. And actually Mutsu-chan was the only heroine that was impossible to capture and did not have H-scene. That was actually the cry-factor. She's the cutest of heroines are player is suggested to look among the other heroines. Cruel, but that's what made the game famous. And a lot of people do not lose hope up to this day for F&C to issue some bonus CD of fandisc with Mutsu-chan ending in it.
6. Marmalade Boy ママレード·ボーイ [950127] Bandai Namco Entertainment 1 2
Miki Koishikawa's ordinary life as a high school sophomore is turned upside down when her parents suddenly announce that they are getting divorced in order to swap partners with a couple they met in Hawaii. They seek her approval of the shocking change, and at a dinner where Miki meets the other couple as well as their son Yuu Matsura, who is about her age, she reluctantly agrees to the arrangement. Yuu, while at first a jerk who takes every opportunity to make fun of Miki, turns out to be fun and attractive, and Miki finds herself falling for him. Little by little, she accepts her new family arrangement and opens up to Yuu as they become friends.
The game follows a different path from the manga where the player can choose if Miki pursues Yuu, her best friend Ginta or her coworker Kei.
There are English reviews.
7. URM ~M15 Wakusei ni Umarete~ URM～M15惑星に生まれて～ [950127] Beluga Computer
A group of people born on the planet M15 set off to a space voyage in search of truth behind exodus from the Earth.
Not much is known, and it looks like never will be.
8. Doukyuusei 2 同級生 2 [950131] Elf 1 2 3 4 5 6
Sequel to Doukyuusei.
Two years have passed Since Doukyuusei, The setting is a new Town and a new Protagonist.
The goal is the same, romance a girl or girls of your choice with their own stories and quirky personalities.
If you're lucky during your pursuits you might run into a familiar face.
The main change is that instead of summer this time the setting is winter. Game managed to introduce even more heroines and increase the volume to sky high level while increasing the difficulty and story emphasis at the same time. It also popularized the word "moe" that was widely used by one of the heroines who called the hero "oni-chan". The high degree of freedom was actually lost since flags were set very strictly and unless you follow the flags you're kicked out of the route. The individual stories now include a lot of drama, making this game a nakige. Game features Misa from prequel as the most popular character of prequel. So game was really popular, but did not have the impact of the first Classmate. Moreover, game would feel much better with general ADV system without those strict flags. Top down view became redundant and useless for a story emphasis game.
There aren't masterpieces this month, but if it comes to the choice between eroge of the month File: Kokubou Soushou Jouhoukyoku Jouhou Rouei Taisakubu Josei Jinmonin provides the best characters depiction.
1. Onigashirajima Joshi Keimusho 鬼頭島女子刑務所 [941102] Illusion 1
On a secluded island known as Onigashira stands a prison for women. In this prison, inmates are being methodically raped and tortured by wardens. The player is invites to witness the events that take place in the prison from the point of view of five characters: two prisoners, the lovely 23-year-old Chika Kanzawa and the innocent teenager Miki; the sadistic female warden Enko, the police officer Otonashi Youichirou, and a mysterious man known as Seiki, who has his own agenda.
Picture and animated H scenes dominate here, but there is still room for the story since there are multiple interconnected branches and a zapping system of changing viewpoint.
2. Saku Saku Daigoutou Returns サクサク大強盗 リターンズ [941106] Saku Saku Daigoutou Returns 1 2 3
The playable character in this game is a blacksmith called Bargon. As he introduces himself in the beginning of the game, he explains that he enjoys killing people. And that's exactly what the player will have to do while controlling this character. Bargon enters a small village, where he is able to kill anyone, including little children. If the "attack" key is pressed when Bargon is near a young woman, he rapes her instead of killing. Most of the people he kills can't defend themselves and are completely powerless while he is slaughtering them.
There are English reviews.
3. Can Can Bunny Limited 5 1/2 きゃんきゃんバニー リミテッド5 1/2 [941111] Cocktail Soft 1 2
The sixth (or fifth and a half, as the title suggests) installment of the long-running Can Can Bunny series belongs to the same story arc that started in the fourth game and was continued in the fifth. The player character is the same nameless hero that starred in the two predecessors. But in this game, the lovely goddess Swatty is not here to help the hero to find girls. Instead, all the hero gets is an apprentice goddess named Sawady, who is just a brat and who bothers the hero all the time. Looks like this is going to be the toughest quest yet, with Sawady around and with pretty, but tough-to-seduce girls!
No-no-no-no-no-no. No! The whole franchise was holding on Swatty's charm. Actually, it's a minor game, that's why it's sequence number is not 6, but 5.5. Game's done just to present this kindergarten brat Sawady. In real part 6 Swatty and Sawady will be there together to help you. At least unlike most of nampa games this one is memorable thanks to Sawady constant failures and pestering.
4. Tenchi Muyou! - Ryououki 天地無用! 魎皇鬼 [941111] Banpresto 1 2 3 4
You guide Tenchi around the house and get yourself into various scenarios with the female characters. The story is centered around a girl named Hakua from the Galaxy Police who ends up on Earth with Tenchi and the gang for a short time.
Luckily, there are two English reviews for this anime offspring.
5. Zenith ゼニス [941111] Himeya Soft 1
Zenith, a self-proclaimed "Full Animation Adventure Series #1", is a short interactive anime. The plot depicts a group of young women navigating a space ship and encountering horrifying undead monsters who assault them sexually.
This work features full-screen animated sequences and in that challenges Sogna in the genre.
6. Karei Naru Jinsei 2 華麗なる人生2 [941122] Fairytale 1
Karei naru Jinsei 2 is a board/dating simulation game, very similar to its predecessor. As in the first game, players can compete against each other or against computer AI in an adult-themed board game, with the eventual goal of having sex with various female characters.
Second installation of monopoly-type game with theme of everyday life and dating. Since it has no story and systems are relatively based on prequel, a pass.
7. Joshikou Seifuku Monogatari 女子校制服物語 [941125] KSS Inc.
Hero is attending preparatory school for a year. He lives alone and has to earn a living at part time jobs. If he still has time, he can pursue love interests for girls in the neighborhood.
Another dating sim, right? I'd say it's survival sim... You need to plan for the week ahead your studies, recreation and part time jobs. Game is superdifficult with tonns of stats to keep in mind. It's possible to pursue many girls simultaneously ... but where to take time and money? Game manual says that there's a good chance to win weekly lottery if participate regularly... Oh, right, another money sink. This game is weird that it has like 40 girls to pursue, literally, all the girls in the neighborhood they must be. There is literally single CG with each girl. With 40 of them there should be no two opinions on the character depth. The game has pager as means of communication that only accepts number! Like 449244 means Let's eat and I've no idea how exactly to transform phrases in such numbers. Game is ridiculous and ridiculously difficult for the zero motivation it gives to continue.
8. Kamaitachi no Yoru かまいたちの夜 [941125] Chunsoft 1 2
The game revolves around Tōru and his girlfriend Mari, who are suddenly drawn into a horrible murder mystery while on vacation at a skiing lodge. The first part of the games develops as a crime-solving adventure. Additional murders occur if the player is unable to find clues, and the story culminates into a horror movie-esque ending.
The first game to be known as of "sound novel" genre. System is simplified in favor of text narration. There are lots of choices and multiple endings according to the choices, so choices form the game and not forced narration. Such concept gives an alternative to normal visual novels and Chuunsoft makes the genre shine.
9. The Masquerade マスカレード [941125] Janis 1
Kyosuke, an ordinary Japanese teenager, receives one day a strange invitation to a foreign mansion apparently belonging to a mysterious rich woman. Disregarding the bizarre occurrences accompanying his first impression, Kyosuke agrees to venture into each of the four rooms with colored doors inside the mansion. Each door leads him to a different reality, where he is manifested in different incarnations that allow him to experience various kinds of sexual encounters.
Quite a simple ero-centered game.
10. Toraware no Tenshi 囚われの天使 [941125] Interheart
Heroine gets in a car incident and regains consciousness in a hospital. However, it turns out to be a base of some shady organization and her only option is to try to escape this place.
It's an Interheart game, so it's evident that there won't be an exit without struggle mostly presented by yuri love and SM.
11. Viper-GTS Viper-GTS [941125] Sogna 1 2 3
Carrera is a female demon whose job is to create a wish granting contract with a human being in exchange for their soul. Along with her partners/rivals Mercedes and Rati, they carry out this job for the benefit of the demon world. When Carrera is summoned by the nerdy Ogawa, she finds him to be more interesting than her previous cilents and develops a crush. Mercedes tries to get involved with Ogawa also to compete with Carrera. However, the female angels are upset by this disturbance and are willing to purify the demons with their precious "holy water" to save Ogawa's soul.
There are English reviews.
12. Birth Days バース・デイズ [941130] Silky's 1
Birthdays is a dating simulation game. The goal of the game is to successfully date a girl of the player's choice. The player first chooses a birthday and a name for his alter ego. Then he is presented with a calendar for the year. Visiting different locations (movies, shopping mall, etc.) leads to meetings with different girls. After learning their phone numbers, it becomes possible to call them and set a date. During dates, the player often has to choose between different dialogue lines to please the girl. It is also possible to buy present for the ladies. It is entirely possible to set dates with multiple girls, but they might meet each other and become jealous. Girls also don't take it lightly if you don't appear on a date. Finally, at the protagonist's next birthday, the most impressed girl will agree to have sex with him. The sex scenes are explicit, but rather few.
Ok, another generic dating sim. Moving on. Actually, not. It's the first work of Elf's subsidiary Silky's that's not blocked by me as eroge, so maybe I should give it a second look. First of all, character design is on par with Elf, very good. The layout of calendar is new. Random dates are picked rather that going day by day 365 days in a row. Each date is accompanied to something like this day in history and when there aren't famous events, something funny is written. So it's the first attempt to try on Tokimeki Memorial hat. Not entirely bad attempt, but game is minor with much lower production values.
13. File: Kokubou Soushou Jouhoukyoku Jouhou Rouei Taisakubu Josei Jinmonin ＦＩＬＥ 国防総省 情報局 情報漏洩対策部女性尋問員 [941130] May-Be Soft 1
In File, the player takes the role of young man named Pat, who is working for a powerful state security organization in an unspecified English-speaking country. His boss, a mysterious high-ranked agent named Cropp, tells him about a strictly classified project under the codename IBIS, which was intended as a counter-terror measure. Four young women have been apprehended under suspicious circumstances (amnesia following an accident, proximity to weapon research facility, etc.). Pat's task is to interrogate those women and to find out the truth about their activities.
Hero tries to use psychology and orthodox methods of interrogation, but heroines lock up in themselves, then he adopts the... ehm... lest orthodox method applied by his colleague and it shows surprising results and allows the girls to open their hearts to him. The whole interrogation process looks very truthfully and we get to know the girls very well through it and in that way it's a very unusual and well thought game.
Gao Gao! 3rd ~Wild Force~ is the only masterpiece of the month.
1. Resurrect リザレクト [941007] Lunar Soft
Hero dies in the introduction. However, if he is loved by four women in four days, he has a chance to resurrect.
One of the most difficult pc-98 games to clear. It became legendary for that. System is point and click, but game is very punishing on clicking wrong objects and on clicking some objects excessive number of times. Like, to make girl feel good, you need to click like three times on this part, no more, no less. Sometimes there was no feedback until you click some object for like 5 times. Sometimes you need to click on the area of just a few pixels and not next to it. It's a kusoge, but it spawned lots of flame and competition. Old games are sometimes just EVIL.
2. Kaiketsu Nikki 怪傑ＮＩＫＫＩ [941014] Ange 1
Nikki, the hero of the game, is a cybernetically enhanced young man from the future. His "home time" is the beginning of 22th century; his home town is the international megalopolis Shinjuku City, part of the old Tokyo. Humanity prospers, living in pleasure, relying on incredible scientific achievements. One of them is the time machine. Nikki finds out than four young, attractive school girls from 1994 got involved into some sort of trouble. Using his time machine, Nikki ventures into the past, determined to save them... and expecting a lot of... err... gratitude in return!
Ange games... they are weird, clumsy, but unique in stories and heartwarming. So you need to evade the pursuit of time-travel regulation bureau and find diaries in girls rooms. Searching in the rooms is done in point and click manner and is very frustrating with systems. When entries leading to bad future are found you've got three different options of changing them - and they lead to different endings. So not a great game, but somehow it feels nice.
3. Jikuu Sousakan Pretty Angel Misty Flash 時空捜査官プリティーエンジェル ミスティフラッシュ [941014] Peppermint Kids
A group of patroller trainees from the time travel academy are despatched to the 1990s in order to hunt renegade time travellers who try to change history.
The story segments end very fast, and there are only countless card battles ahead. There's a bit of a comedy, but overall can hardly be recommended.
4. Rall 3 Kakuseihen ラル３ 覚醒編 [941017] Fairy Dust 1 2 3
CARON (heroine), a legendary swordsman's posterity, challenges the battle with the cruel monster GEBALZO of the new empire SHADOW, in order to save RUBYNA (the princess of RALL) confined.
This game is based on the adult anime in "Superdimension SF Legend Rall" (1984)
As for the animation of "Superdimension SF Legend Rall", the part 1 and the part 2(="Lamu Ru Strikes Back" 1986) were made.
This game was named "RALL 3" being conscious of those anime series.
However, the contents of this game are the remakes of the first anime (part 1).
"kakusei-hen" of a subtitle means "awakening" in Japanese.
And the ending of this game had the preliminary announcement of a sequel ("betsuri-hen").
However, the sequel is not put on the market until it continues up to now.
There is a Polish and a Russian review of this game.
5. Tonight トゥナイト [941018] Xyz
A monster "No. 36" landed in Tokyo and heads for America. A preventive nuclear strike is planned so Japan needs to get rid of the monster as soon as possible.
Three friends take up different approaches to deal with this situation.
There are three stories linked with the same preamble. Humor, eroticism, love and friends reunion - it's all thrown in the pot together to get get a fascinating omnibus work. What I especially appreciated here is that the story looks more like contemporary novelge with big backgrounds and lots of text with occasional choices selection.
6. Custom Mate 2 カスタムメイト２ [941021] Cocktail Soft 1
The second game in the Custom Mate series once again allows the hero to create the girl of his dreams; this time not magically, but by engaging the services of Custom Corporation, whose operator is nevertheless still the same cute elf who created the girls in the previous game.
Creation, talking and seduction processes are all improved here, but heroines look quite ugly to me and the whole SIM concept is alien to me.
7. Charm 2 ~Niji-iro no Kaze~ シャルム２ ~虹色の風~ [941028] Acid Plan
A collection of five stories from everyday life of different girls with the name of Eriko.
All the story are of erotic, mostly yuri content. Creators did not even bother to save the same protagonist for each story - but introduced multiple ones with the same name... The picture improved greatly, but the "charm" of the sad youth story is gone now - it's more like series of normal yuri encounters now.
8. Gakuen Taimaden Reiko 学園退魔伝レイコ [941028] Trush
In order to investigate an incident happened at a girl's school the heroine transfers there as a student. Upon arrival she feels being watched and the only student she meets runs away from her in fear...
System is command selection and it's chosen to cover the shortness of the game. There are five H scenes and a fast resolution in the end
9. Gao Gao! 3rd ~Wild Force~ ＧＡＯＧＡＯ！３ｒｄ ~ワイルドフォース~ [941029] Four-Nine 1 2
Wild Force is set in the same post-apocalyptic world as the previous entry in the GaoGao series. A virus turned most of the Earth's population into mutants, and human beings continued living in artificial cities, separated from the rest of the world. This time, the story is seen from the point of view of the mutants themselves (the previous GaoGao games had human protagonists). These look more like fairy tale creatures (half-cats, winged people, etc.), and continue living on the wild, dangerous Earth, keeping close to their respective animal tribes. The protagonist of the game is a young boy named Wolf, who belongs - you've guessed it - to the wolf tribe. One day, exploring the wilderness, he stumbles upon a strange cave with lurking monsters. Together with a girl from the rabbit tribe and other fantasy creatures, Wolf discovers an advanced civilization, learn of the existence of human beings, and eventually becomes a hero who saves the new world from a grave danger.
A masterpiece level work at last and 4th part even better. These works are the reasons for part 1 and 2 to be tolerated (or skipped - they are perfectly safe to skip). This work stands out as it was the first adventure work to put emphasis on relations within a party and not on story or exploration. Our wolf boy meets bunny girl and many other charming characters and they interact and grow together as persons and partners. Events take place 100 years after part 2 in an evolved world so no real need to know the previous part. Game loses a few points since it still uses command selection formula that's simplified from part 2, but still gives a monotonous feeling. But it excels in every other compartment - sound, visuals, text. Thanks to a strong affection for characters, this work feels unique from all the previous pc-98 games.
10. Bell's Avenue 3 ベルズアベニュー３ [941031] Signa Works
A collection of three main stories and several short kinetic stories:
1. 小犬のワルツ
2. クレセント
3. まんだら 4. Forum
5. BA散歩 6. 月夜物語 7. minimum hour
It's not clear how many stories there are this time since there are even more supplementary materials in the game menu, but the gist of the stories remains the same ero-centered as ever.
There aren't masterpieces this month, but if it comes down to the impact Ai Shimai ~Futari no Kajitsu~ is the winner, but only its original version, not the dreadful remake.
1. Jinn ~Eien no Yuushi~ JINN[ジン] ～永遠の勇士～ [940902] Tenshindou 1 2 3
The hero of this game (whom the player must name at the beginning) is much more interested in pretty girls than in ancient prophecies and religious rituals. However, once he finds out that his sweetheart Adiana is a descendant of an ancient god, and that young men of the village participate in a dangerous ritual in order to be chosen as her husband, the hero decides he must act. Little does he know that this would just be the beginning of a long adventure, involving all this stuff he is not interested in... plus lots of pretty girls!
The only English review is lacking in some aspects, so need to elaborate. Probably main feature of the game was big map window. Other than that it has big open space areas and at times dark themed H-scenes. It's a decent serious RPG with unique harem-themed setting.
2. Satyr サティア [940902] AyPio 1
The main character (default name Momojirou) is hired for two weeks to help a female gardener named Ayaka to grow flowers for celestial creatures - also female, young, and cute, though with elf-like ears and sometimes even wings. The goal here is to learn enough about different flowers, the ways to make them grow, and the preferences of the girls.
First gardening SIM and quite a bad one. Twice a day you can change the pots and some evens including fairies coming out happen. A short game without much to do. H element is also very weak. Windows that tend to float all over the screen make freak out constantly.
3. Koukan Nikki こうかん日記 [940909] Fairy Dust 1
Koukan Nikki has a gameplay somewhat similar to Dokyusei. You will be able to meet different females in the town. At the end, you will be with the girl that you liked the most.
There is a not bad English review on the game. Quite unorthodox dating sim where you can make it with 11 girls and then decide who you want to be with with a single exception - you can only choose main heroine if you ignore other girls. Another important moment is that heroines know each other and share information. Again, woman's perspective is refreshing. But the game has a poor system. Achieving anything has to be done through frustration.
4. Animahjong X あにまーじゃん X [940914] Sogna 1
There is no real story in this game: the nameless protagonist is a young man who roams the city in his car with just one goal in mind: strip mahjong. In the story mode, the hero visits different locations (mahjong parlor, shop, hospital, etc.) and plays mahjong with the pretty girls he finds there; after having won, he proceeds to the next location and next heroines.
Strip mahjong is nothing new, but Sogna managed to imbue quite some charm to the genre with introduction of cute characters, animation and voicing.
5. Yuuwaku no Toiki 誘惑の吐息 [940914] May-Be Soft
Tetsuya is a 4th grade college student who takes up a part-time job to tutor one of the daughters of a famous novelist in his mansion. But for a salary of 1 million yen per month he also agrees to serve as bodyguard to novelist's wife Ayako whose life is endangered by an unknown person.
Mansion is full of weird characters like novelist himself with a double personality, lover of one of the daughters who attempts to rape juvenile members of the family and even some of the daughters who succumb to lust in broad daylight. It's a very mediocre game full of spontaneous H events, but the resolution and epilogue are quite good as all the mysteries get revealed. It's quite a good concept that was utilized in JAST games a lot afterwards.
6. Ikazuchi no Senshi Raidy 雷の戦士ライディ [940920] ZyX 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
I am Raidy, wandering this continent of Else far and wide as an adventurer. I can freely bend the power of thunder to my will, so people have taken to calling me the "Lightning Warrior". Why am I standing here in front of this tower, you ask? The cause lies in the village of Saad that I visited recently. I got there to find it in decay, deserted and transformed almost completely into a ghost town...
Apparently it became that way due to the monsters living in this tower. They'd been stealing away all of the young maidens from the village, and none of the men who went to rescue them ever returned... a harsh and terrible tale. Being who I am I couldn't hear that story and stand by idle, so now I find myself here, facing the tower...
Game is localized and has no shortage of English reviews.
7. Idol Project アイドル・プロジェクト [940922] KSS Inc. 1
In Idol Project, the player takes a role of a young man named Takashi, who works for a company called Mobius, an agency whose goal is to turn young Japanese girls into famous singers. The game can be qualified as simulation: the main gameplay focus is on finding young talents and helping them to become famous. There is also a strong RPG element in the game. Takashi and his recruited "stars" gain levels according to their success. Takashi also has two other parameters, "Power" and "HP". "Power" is Takashi's stamina, which depletes regularly and can be restored with food, sleep, medicine, etc. "HP" in this game is the amount of work stress the protagonist has. Too much HP will require him to "release the stress" by various means - for example visiting a brothel.
Gameplay oriented raising sim integrated into OVA and musical CD franchise... few things are less inspirational than that. Not all of the versions of the game had the proper sound to shine.
8. Angelique アンジェリーク [940923] Koei 1 2
The universe is ruled by a queen, all planets are in their balance... but now, the power of the queen is weakening, and the universe is under the danger of destruction... a new queen is needed...
One day, Angelique Limoges, saw something in the sky... someone riding on a horse in the sky. None of her friends saw it... she is the only one who saw it, the chosen one--- the candidate of the Queen. Another candidate was Rosalia-De-Catargena. Both of them come to the Holy Land, where the Queen lives...
There are English reviews.
9. Yawara! 2 ヤワラ!2 [940923] Sofix 1 2 3 4
Based on the manga and subsequent anime series Yawara: A Fashionable Judo Girl, this game can be considered a sequel to Yawara!, since its events take place after the conclusion of the previous story line. This time, the player controls Fujiko Itou, one of the original series' heroines, an admirer of Yawara. After having won a major international competition, Yawara feels she cannot bear the fame, longing to return to normal life and leave judo. Shocked by this decision, Fujiko decides to train herself and become a judo master, in order to convince Yawara to come back.
There are two nice English reviews that vividly reflect game's nature.
10. Yokohama Elegy 横浜エレジィ [940928] FMC
Ai is a girl who worked at shinto shrine. She was raped and killed herself afterwards. Such incidents started to happen more and more frequently.
Two years later her sister Shiori starts to act as shrine maiden. Hero is former Japanese national sports player in shooting. He is asked to bodyguard Shiori, but Shiori gets raped and kidnapped on his eyes. He swears to avenge her and punish the offenders.
New Ides brand company to specialize on "oppai" so minori competitor here! Dark suspense work with probably the first to feature NTR. Quite a thrilling work up to the middle when you just pull the trigger and - bam - culprit is dead. Easy as that. So not really a good work, but definitely a memorable one.
11. Tokyo Fuuzoku Kikou 東京風俗紀行 [940929] Interheart
Hero is a university student who visits different entertainment places of a night customs town.
There's no real story, just H events at various places. As usual with Interheart, lots of animation is used.
12. Ai Shimai ~Futari no Kajitsu~ 愛姉妹 ～二人の果実～ [940930] Silky's 1 2 3 4
A sincere older step-sister and a curious younger step-sister are doomed to become love slaves. One day, a house wife named Yukie has a traffic accident. She is ordered to pay a large settlement to the other party, Taketo, the son of the owner/president of Nogawa Industries. Unable to make the settlement payment, Yukie allows Taketo to have her sexually. At the same time, Takato's father, Nogawa, approaches Yukie's step-daughter, Rumi, and blackmails her. His evil scheme even reaches for Tomoko, Yukie's younger step-sister.
First of all, remake version graphics look ugly to me in comparison to original, but it's the only voiced version, so video based on it. And this work was loved because of the cuteness and graphics mostly. Really, remake version is terrible and buries the charm of the game completely. But there is not much in the story department and in the end all that matters in the game is insulting pretty girls, so it's just not my type of work.
13. Megami Paradise 女神天国 [940930] NEC Home Electronics 1 2 3 4 5 6
The story is set in a utopia-like world made up of only women, under the benevolent rule of a woman called the Mamamega. The Mamamega possesses a magic item called the Astro Star, which absorbs evil from the world outside the paradise they live in. Eventually, when the Astro Star becomes saturated with evil thoughts and desires, the Mamamega has to perform a ceremony to purify the Astro Star, and then she hands over the position of Mamamega to her successor.
As the story begins, the soon-to-be Mamamega chooses Lilith as her first miko (shrine maiden) and tasks Lilith with finding two other mikos, who will serve as guards/attendants to the new Mamamega. But as Lilith goes to try and recruit two others to help her, they cross paths with a group that has other plans for the Astro Star and wants to take over the Paradise they live in...
There is quite much information in English on the game, but mostly it's remembered because of anime adaptation. This work has tremendous voice acting and an ability to actually see different dresses on a character if equipped.That was fresh. RPG system was below the average, but characters saved the game. All female, cute, voiced and in fancy dresses - they made the game "moe" at the times this word never even existed.
14. California x Party - Joshidaisei Himitsu Club CALIFORNIA X PARTY 女子大生秘密クラブ [9409] HOP
Game is based on a pornographic movie of 1992 called Sorority Sex Kittens 2. It includes full 25 actress cast of the film.
Did not find the game or reviews.
There aren't masterpieces this month, but I can't let an average bakage to be the winner, so I nominate Shinsetsu Ooedo Tantei Kamiya Ukyou as VN of August 1994.
1. Mujintou Monogatari 無人島物語 [940805] KSS Inc. 1
Mujintō Monogatari is a self-described "survival life simulation". A plane crashes into the sea, but the protagonist survives and reaches a seemingly deserted island. The protagonist finds a cabin with a few basic supplies. From that point on, the player has to manage the hero's activities. Water, food and light sources have to be provided. The protagonist can team up with other survivors and explore the island, gradually revealing new locations; this can be done in co-operative mode. Expeditions to other places take place automatically, and must be planned in advance by the player. The protagonist's statistics (stamina, speed, etc.) will change depending on the activities chosen by the player.
A survival online game, no less! Jeez, it even has co-op mode of up to three players. All the fun seems to be in finding new locations. Forget about the story here. I have some real doubts it has much to do with VN - unlike its sequels. No story, no character personalities - nothing, really.
2. Uchuu Kaitou Funny Bee 宇宙快盗ファニーBee [940810] Alice Soft 1 2 3
In the future, space travel has become an inseparable part of human civilization. Humanity spread all over the Milky Way. Most of the problems concerning war, ecological disasters, and others were successfully solved. Human beings have entered an era of peace. But human nature never changes, and most other aspects of human culture haven't either. Since the galaxy became a huge urban playground, a new type of criminals have emerged - interstellar thieves. Piloting their own space ship, they terrorize the galaxy with their cleverly planned tricks. Particularly notorious is a duo of two young and pretty girls, Sati and Shiori... which are the two protagonists of the game.
I've got a full review prepared.
3. Diver's [940811] Mink 1 2 3 4
In the year 2065, the Earth's ecological system has collapsed. Global pollution made it impossible to further dwell on the planet under natural conditions. Human beings were forces to construct huge cities in artificial environment, known as "cyclones". New technology has opened ways to new kinds of entertainment - namely violent battles between cybernetically enhanced fighters...
A raising SIM to train a fighter. We choose one of four girls and put her in intensive training and leisure schedule. Fights are non-interactive and depend only on parameters of fighters and tactics that trainer supposes to use before the match. There are two qualification leagues and the fighters with the high score follow into a drop-out challenge. There's a shop in the game that sells some buffs and some weapons that are mandatory in some of the battles in order to win. Trainer is not too picky ... there are h-scenes with all the four girls and with majority of enemy fighters.
4. Sayaka ~Gibo~ 沙也香 ～義母～ [940826] Red Zone 1 2
Sayaka Kimura is a twenty-six year old woman married to an older man who has two teenage children, a boy and a girl. Controlling different members of this household, the player follows a plot that mostly consists of sexual encounters of various kinds.
There's the synopsis, but not no story follows, it's purely erotic. The notorious feature is that in contrast to previous Red Zone works the picture is light and even background uses rose color. That was a welcome change for me.
5. Shinsetsu Ooedo Tantei Kamiya Ukyou 真説 大江戸探偵 神谷右京 [940826] Altacia
Female college student is found beheaded. Kamiya Ukyou will hold investigation again.
Third work in the series and first of four works of serious nature. As always, real case is taken as the basis and this time even investigation is based on real one. Case is held with all the formalities and real impediments, so it's the first work using "True theory". While year 1993 became one that allowed extreme H-scenes and CG, year 1994 became first year to allow extreme gore CG. In this work backgrounds are using live-photo, but characters are same anime-like.
6. To Five ~Natsu no Tobira no Mukou ni Kimi o Mitsukeru~ ＴＯ ＦＩＶＥ ～夏の扉の向こうに君を見つける～ [940826] Palm Tree Soft
Protagonist is a graduating high school student who has only one summer left to create memories till his life changes.
This seems to be the first game with falling in love with childhood friend concept. On top of that there is a attempt to draw a truthful psychological portrait of the hero and his anxieties. Game also features point-and-click sequences. The picture composition is disappointing since usually there is a window for background, a window for house, a window for protagonist with his text bubble and the active character is depicted on top of it all. So it's a game that experimented with many concepts and failed to get noticed because of those experiments.
7. Tsumobaka Nisshi つもバカ日誌 [940830] Tsumobaka Nisshi 1
You play a long-haired salaryman as he visits random clubs to play in 4-player mahjongg against girls, who strip if they run out of funds. The games don't end until you either strip all of the girls or run out of funds yourself.
Yet another strip mahjong game that I don't have words for.
8. Metal Eye 2 [940831] Elf 1 2 3
Metal Eye 2 is set in the same sci-fi universe and is closely related story-wise to the first game. In the future, people have built the floating city Zeron, where the best scientists work on creating androids, artificial human beings who look the same way as real ones. Harvest Corporation is the biggest company that creates androids. The hero of the game is a scientist named Wirg, the father of the first game's protagonist. His work is to train the androids after they have been created. One day, the company building is attacked, and Wirg has to escape. He is saved by a nun and brought into a small town in the middle of wasteland, where his adventure begins.
For those who forgot - Metal Eye was crap of a game. In the sequel setting finally has a chance to bloom, but scenario is too bad to enjoy. Again, only rpg fans may find it satisfactory - party consists of 3 to 4 people and defeat of a single party member means game over. Battles are done in turn-based move first person view. On the bright side graphics got better, creating illusion of pseudo-3D isometrics.
9. Kikai Jikake no Marian 機械じかけのマリアン [9408] Studio Jikkenshitsu 1 2 3
Psyluth Decker is a young English nobleman. Upon hearing the news of his father's death, he goes to the family mansion, a place surrounded by strange rumors, from which he tried to distance himself. Shortly after his arrival the young man notices that almost everyone he encounters has a secret, and becomes involved in a battle between powerful shapeshifters and mechanical creatures, aided by the trusty maid Marian.
There's a surprisingly good English review here.
Crystal Rinal - Ouma No Meikyuu , DESIRE - Haitoku no Rasen and Policenauts are the masterpieces of the month, but in my heart nothing can substitute DESIRE - Haitoku no Rasen.
1. Ash. Ash. [940708] Himeya Soft
Hero is a warrior who enters a normal fantasy setting town and ... player choices determine the rest.
There are about 40 endings in the game, so routes take mere minutes. It can be quite enjoyable if looked upon as a collection of short fantasy stories. Such works are rare since many readers would miss large chunks of content. But Ash is the origin of such genre and will be referenced a lot upon stumbling upon such games in future.
2. Ginga Tetsudou no Tabi 銀河鉄道の旅 [940708] Tonkin House
Based on novel by Kenji Miyazawa.
I could not get through the bridge and there was nothing of interest in the houses so I did not grasp the meaning of the game.
3. Dreamy 夢現 Ｄｒｅａｍｙ －ゆめうつつ－ [940709] Megami
One day Naoki picks up a mysterious pendant hanging on a telephone pole on the way back from school. On that night two fairies came to his dream saying that an angel could return to the original world if Naoki could make some girls happy during the next ten days. He decides to sleep as much as possible during next ten days and girls start to come to his dreams...
There are options during meeting girls in the dream and wrong options make the dream repeat the next day approaching the deadline. The CG are very beautiful in the game.
4. Crystal Rinal - Ouma No Meikyuu - クリスタルリナール －逢魔の迷宮－ [940712] D.O. 1 2 3 4 5
Youhei is a Japanese teenager who is bored with his life, unable to find excitement anywhere. Even sexual escapades with various women don't satisfy him: he craves for real adventures. But on that particular day, his wishes were fulfilled in a very unexpected way. He was talking to a schoolmate named Mahiro, a girl he didn't even like particularly, when something like an earthquake shattered the school. Youhei and Mahiro hurried to the nearby classroom, only to find a strange mirror-like object - which in fact was a portal to a dungeon in another world. Now the two teenagers have to find a way to escape from the dungeon - and eventually to return home.
Crystal Rinal is an adult dungeon crawler along the lines of Words Worth or Raidy games; but instead of a lonely hero/heroine, the player controls a party of two, Youhei and Mahiro, who fight randomly appearing monsters in turn-based combat. There is also a "talk" command that lets the two heroes chat with each other and comment on the situation. Some gameplay segments follow the template of a Japanese adventure, with menu-based commands and multiple choices during dialogues.
It's more like ADV with RPG elements since there are only couple weapons given in the events, nothing but hp and mp rises with lvl, magic is cast by consummation of monster drop items. No money. No town. No automapping. But the charm of the work lies in fact that protagonist is no here, he's a very mediocre high school student with weak physical and mental state. There are many interesting events and characters to meet on the way, so overall the game is quite a treat, probably even of masterpiece level.
5. Cross Changer クロスチェンジャー [940714] Ucom
A scout ship "Flam" of the evil alien association "Space Syndicate" landed on the Earth and started kidnappings of people. The Planet Minority Galactic Federation Organization warned the Earth government and suggested creating anti-alien defense force. "Cross Changer" organization was created, but it was destroyed by "Flam". Surviving members have to sell information to evil organizations, but three girls Marie, June and May decide to fight on their own.
Synopsis seems to prepare for a big game ahead, but actually it's a very compact story that takes place at cafes and schools mostly. There are four episodes and each episode ends up with a battle. Another feature of the game is square small windows with faces that make the scene more lively.
6. Blue Garnet ブルー・ガーネット [940715] Trush
Shiro Kirishini is a private detective. One day he receives a request on the phone and moves to an abandoned building as the meeting place. There was a mini size girl Myan. According to her story, she is the princess of the Kingdom of Garnet, which was protected by seven hidden treasures till someone stole the gems. She would not regain the height till the gems are returned, so hero agrees to help.
The help that's required is to seduce different girls, naturally! There are seven days and seven girls, but it takes time and patience to gain money in panty guessing games and janken.
7. Kyouko no Ijiwaru!! ~Hachamecha Daishingeki~ 恭子のいぢわる!! ～ハチャメチャ大進撃～ [940715] Ponytail Soft
Heroine Tokugawa Koyko owns Tokushima Takabee group and trillions of yen. One day she misinterpreted her brother's flu symptoms for an incurable disease and went to search for the medicine component of virgin's grey tiny hair in St.Rodrigues Academy.
To obtain the virgin's grey hair Kyoko attacks both students and teachers without constraint. This is a bakage through and through. Kyoko is nuts herself, but situations she gets into are even funnier. As usual, there's hardly any story and the game can be pleasing only if you like its humor.
8. Shinwaden: Hatou no Shou 真倭伝 覇刀の章 [940715] Great 1 2
The game has a RPG-like story-line, but it has so many details about some fantasized gods and devils that it might be hard to understand. Yet, the game is just about saving your girl friend from the demonized enemies. The year is 2189. The city of Osaka has been redeveloped starting from 30 years ago, and there are 5 projects that are particularly prominent. You in the game happen to be a god living in human form, yet without knowing it, you live in a rotten building and there is this girl you really like. One day, she comes to you crying and asking for help to find her friend, who disappears with a man right before her eyes like a mist.
There's an ok'ish English review on this game.
9. H+ エッチプラス [940720] Desire 1
The title H+ is rather self-explanatory to those who understand the meaning of the letter "H" to the Japanese (pronounced "ecchi", it basically refers to all things sexual). The game consists of three unrelated stories, all of which can be played directly from the main menu:
The first story is a rather mundane tale of a boy and a girl who meet outside and head to the girl's apartment; thanks to the hero's irresistible charm (with a bit of help from alcoholic beverages), the two are able to engage in a variety of sexual acts.
The protagonist of the second story is an aspiring journalist, who is given the task to interview a famous female movie star. The interview begins with taking pictures of the celebrity wearing different costumes, and ends with her removing those costumes and performing activities which turn into a blockbuster porn movie.
The third story is dedicated to the obligatory "little girl", a female high-school student. There are two possible scenarios, both involving seduction of the poor girl: one involves a sexy female teacher, the other an older male schoolmate.
Ero-centered straightforward work.
10. DESIRE - Haitoku no Rasen DESIRE 背徳の螺旋 [940722] C's Ware 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
In the southern ocean on a remote island is a huge research institute called "Desire". An institute built by the large, world renowned financial group, Grandchester Foundation. It's rumored they are involved in military-related research, but what it is exactly is kept a carefully guarded secret. For this reason, a journalist for SNT (Social News Time Network), Albert Macdgul (or Al for short) visits "Desire" in order to collect information for a story. He's one of the rare few who have been granted access to "Desire". So it's in high spirits that he sets forth to complete his story. While at "Desire" he meets a girl named Tina, who is suffering from memory loss. She is destined to change his fate forever. Murder, bomb threats, mysteries shadowing her existence... How far will the chaos go? On the other hand, Makoto Izumi, technical manager at "Desire", finds out how dangerous their research is, and asks her boss, Dr. Stella, to stop all the experiments. Then she finds out that someone on the outside is going to interfere with the research...
You'll either love this game or hate it. I absolutely love it. And it's easy to check out since there is a great English version of it. With this game I stopped treating visual novels as eroge. The story, composition, characters, emotions - everything is perfect.
11. Madou Gakuin R 魔導学院Ｒ [940728] Foresight 1 2 3
The kingdom of Digal was the only peaceful country amidst chaos, ruled by the benevolent king Deneos and his wisest advisor, the High Priest. But the time of peace has come to an end when something strange happened to the king: seemingly controlled by an evil power, he banished the High Priest from the country. Digal plunged into chaos, crime began to flourish, bandits roamed the countryside uncontrolled.
At this tough time, a young man named Rezas joined the Magic School, where the most beautiful and skillful female magicians were training at that time. But the next day, the school was attacked by a gang of criminals, and most of the people there killed. Rezas and his pretty schoolmates swear to avenge this crime and bring peace back to the kingdom.
Little is known to evaluate properly. What's clear is that enemies loose one by one pieces of clothes. There seems to a H-scene after each two battles. Strategy part is quite simple, so it's not really a serious SRPG. Pictures quality is uneven, many CG have distortions.
12. Dengeki Nurse 2 ~More Sexy~ 電撃ナース２ ～モアセクシー～ [940729] Cocktail Soft 1 2
Dengeki Nurse 2 begins where the previous game ended. The heroes of the story, the young doctor Tanchi and his sweetheart, the lovely Kirara, are enjoying a peaceful moment... when an explosion reminds them that the evil organization Black Cross has not yet been defeated. One by one, the powerful "nurses" - agents with super-powers - are sent to deal with Tanchi, Kirara, and their friends, and the only way to stop them is to use Kirara's own super-power - turning into the "electric nurse"!..
This game had a smaller impact than its prequel, but its essence is the same, bakage with constant parodies on everything with enemies to appear and be defeated. There's English review.
13. Giga Motion 戯画もーしょん [940729] Interheart 1
Jackie was having an ordinary life which seemed to culminate with an intimate intercourse with his sweetheart Mika. However, shortly afterwards he met a mysterious old woman who prophesied his imminent death. He was then transferred to the magical Realm Above the Clouds populated by humans and demons alike. Jackie has to find a way to return to our world and save Mika, who is considered a powerful goddess of love among the indigenous people.
A simplistic RPG with animated H-scenes.
14. Himitsu Shirei 1919 秘密指令1919 [940729] Fairytale
A group of detectives investigates various incidents using unorthodox methods if needed.
The game starts as a serious thing, but soon becomes ero-centered. There are also parameters to maintain, but I did not get far enough to understand the significance of those. No Japanese reviews of the game found.
15. Policenauts ポリスノーツ [940729] Konami 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
The game centers on Jonathan Ingram, one of the five "Policenauts", astronauts with police training, assigned to ensure the safety of Beyond Coast, mankind's first fully-functional space colony in the year 2013. A freak accident occurs while testing a new space walking suit and Jonathan is drifted away into space and is presumed dead by his colleagues. He is found alive and well nearly 25 years later thanks to the cold-sleep module connected to the suit. Three years later, Jonathan (now a private investigator working in the former Los Angeles) is visited by his former wife, Lorraine. She asks for Jonathan's help in solving the disappearance of her current husband, Kenzo Hojo, the only clues he left behind being a torn leaf, a set of capsules, and the word "Plato". Jonathan is reluctant to take her case at first. However, after Lorraine leaves his office, she is attacked and murdered by a man in a black motorcycle suit. Jonathan, unable to catch the culprit, decides to fulfill his ex-wife's final request and travels to Beyond. There he is reunited with his former partner from his LAPD days, Ed Brown, who agrees to help Jonathan investigate the circumstances surrounding Hojo's disappearance and Lorraine's murder.
There is an overwhelming number of English reviews. It's available in English. It was made by Kojima. And it's just a good game.
