Castle Fantasia ~Seima Taisen~ and Exodus Guilty are the masterpieces of the month and the winner is Exodus Guilty for being the more traditional VN type.
1. Hatsukoi Valentine Special 初恋ばれんたいん SPECIAL [981105] Family Soft
In Hatsukoi Valentine Special the game features a new character, a new menu, a small improvement in the gameplay, new sequences, etc.
Story same as original game.
2. Situation しちゅえ～しょん [981105] Berserker 1
The game starts with a sex scene and finishes with a sex scene! Actually, there's no story. Just sit back and enjoy erotic scenes to the fullest!
Multiple short H stories.
3. Neko na Kankei 猫なカ・ン・ケ・イ [981105] Victor Interactive Software 1 2
A visual novel adventure game focusing on a player who is a regular high school student who one day stumbles upon a special stone that grants him the ability to turn into a cat at will. Using it for evil things or stopping to use it at all will invite bad luck into his life, so he decides to use for getting to know girls he would be too shy to approach as a regular boy. Which girl wouldn't find a little kitty cute and not want to pet it or hold it close to her breasts. It's a win-win situation for our hero, and he is resolved to put it to best use... for him. The game is split into 10 weeks time and plays as a regular dating simulation visual novel romance adventure.
And one more dating SIM
4. Fuyajou ~Hikisakareta Junketsu~ 不夜城 ～引き裂かれた純潔～ [981106] Desire
Many girls are invited to a party inside the mansion. It's a perfect environment for a new acquaintance.
There are four heroines and lots of map movement around the mansion. Basically it's hunting for girl - she keeps escaping and hero keeps finding her spot with H event following. There are also bad endings.
5. Okiraku Heaven おきらくHEAVEN [981106] May-Be Soft
I'm dead. But I do not want to die as a virgin! Luckily, I'm given 30 more days to finish my earthly business!
H work, but with a comedy touch. There are 6 heroines to capture. Typical May-Be-Soft stuff.
6. Yasashii Ame ~Hitotsu no Kasa ni wa Futari Made Shika Hairenai~ やさしい雨 ～ひとつの傘にはふたりまでしか入れない～ [981106] Juice
Hero was a promising cameraman three years ago, but he lost in the harsh profession competition. One day he was delivering photos to a magazine as assistant photographer when the rain suddenly started. He saw a girl hiding from the rain and his dulled vision started to shine as brightly as ever.
It's a low-price work from a small developer so it lacks voicing and polishing. There are four heroines and as long as you deliver attention to one of them you get that route. Still, there is a normal end and a bad end for each heroine and true ending is really worth some sweat.
7. Gasshuku Monogatari 合宿物語 [981110] J-Box
Swim club school training camp of summer 1995. Boys and girls occupy inn rooms, break into three groups and start everyday physical exercises and swimming practice. Who knows, maybe a new strong feeling is born out of small breaks and joint exercise.
Genre is best described as romance comedy. Every day we make choices who to speak to during breaks and gradually form sympathy. Drawing is not refined, but the mood of the game and BGM is bright.
8. Another Mind アナザー・マインド [981112] Square Co. 1 2 3 4 5
A 16 year-old girl named Hitomi Hayama is involved in a car accident and admitted to a hospital. Upon waking, she realizes that another being, albeit a mind, has taken residence in her head. The player takes on the role on this separate consciousness.
Game has an English review.
9. Iinazuke 許嫁 [981113] Zero
Shoichiro Takase is a usual high school student who attends kendo club. One day his grandfather tells him that they are from very ancient family and that Shoichiro must marry Kiyoshihana Shizukawa and from now on they should live under the same roof.
Will Shoichiro accept his fate or make his own decisions in life?
Story tries to be serious only at the beginning of it. On the day 2 it's forgotten that he needs to train as a warrior and absurd school life begins. It's a good tempo fun bakage. There are many choices (lots of fake ones too) and many branches. There are some questions to the scenario, so best just consider it a bakage and pardon it all. Graphics are quite rough and there is no keyboard operability, but overall the story can be enjoyed if one has mood for it.
10. Ikenie Michiru Tsuki no Sangeki 生贄 満ちる月の惨劇 [981113] Artemis
12 female students are confined inside the ward and hunted by the player who wishes to sacrifice their souls in order to reincarnate as a demon.
There's a lot of walking around, fighting and collecting items, so it really looks more like an RPG. Hero is a bullied kid who wanted to commit suicide but was rescued by incubus. Game is short, but difficult as there is time limit and concept of time introduced.
11. Kurayami 2 ~Tozasareta Meikyuu~ 暗闇２ ～閉ざされた迷宮～ [981113] Melody
Hero and a heroines are trapped in closed space of the subway. What happens to them? There are five heroines each telling a unique story.
It's more like an omnibus type since stories are only connected by entrapment in a closed space. Stories vary greatly in pace and quality.
12. Mayu まゆ [981113] Bell-Da
Hero visits his sister-in-law Mayu who missed him a lot and calls him "Onii-chan". She's so charming that it's difficult not to fall in love with her.
It's a point-and-click game without any scenario at all. Point-and-click is shabby here and not comfortable for a good number of players. There are choices to be made as well. Basically this is a moege as everyone notices Mayu cuteness and awesome voicing. Period is two weeks.
13. Sensei せ・ん・せ・い [981113] D.O.
Sekimoto Akihiko is a private academy second grader descendant of powerful Sekimoto Heavy Industries. As new semester starts, he begins to feel a strong desire for the beauty of a female teacher who takes care of his class.
Typical insult ADV with 6 heroines (including main teacher heroine). The number of H events is large, but each capture is short and text is quite bad.
14. The Hustle ザ・ハッスル [981113] h.m.p
Business simulation game of adult video maker. The job is to scout the city in search of future actresses and manage their careers: participation in contests, performance on TV, scandals and other events.
hmp specializes in 3D games and that allows experimenting with genres. This game is of isomentic 2D view. Game actually has no HCG even though it tackles adult video production. So it's fully gameplay-driven SIM that is of little value for visual novels history.
15. Castle Fantasia ~Seima Taisen~ キャッスルファンタジア ～聖魔大戦～ [981120] Studio e.go! 1 2 3 4 5
The 200 year long war between Lushiera and Injiera continues. This is the story of a hero who changes the course of this neverending war and the lives of people around him.
In Castle Fantasia 2 you play as Hewie, commander of the seventh holy knight corps. He has a keen mind for strategy and tactics, seeing through and predicting enemy plans. However, his laid-back attitude causes him to be kept in a low regard by his commanding officers, friends and even his subordinates.
Game is localized and has many English reviews.
16. Palette [981120] F&C Co., Ltd. 1
Last summer school vacation. It's your last chance to experience school romance!
Game has an English review
17. SSS ~Three S~ SSS ～スリーエス～ [981120] Triangle
Hero is a prince of a certain country, but he studies in Japan with an actual aim of finding a bride. Can he find his love in just a month from the end of November to December 24th?
Each day is divided into three time zones when you can visit locations in search of girls. Getting to a happy ending is easy, but in order to see H event a special event with the girl must be triggered, which can be tricky. In addition to heroines it's possible to do H with servants. One playtime is between 3 and 4 hours.
18. Abunai Hyakkaten 危ない百貨店 [981120] Penguin Works
Main character's parents die, and he inherits a department store. He does not know how to run the company, but he is very interested in female employees. No one can stop him playing with these girls now.
H oriented crap
19. Exodus Guilty エクソダスギルティー [981126] Abel 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
The year 2000. Kasumi Shindo is at first glance a run-of-the-mill high school student in modern-day Japan. However, beneath his normal appearance, Kasumi is in fact a top-notch treasure hunter. This time, Kasumi is aiming to seek out the lost 11th Commandment of Moses. Kasumi discovers that his childhood friend, Reina Tachibana is in southern Europe participating in an archeological dig. Pretending to be a tourist, he visits the excavation area and manages to get put on the excavation staff. But he is not the only treasure hunter looking for the Eleventh Commandment of Moses and before he knows it, he's embroiled in a dangerous adventure.
Game is localized and has many English reviews. I'm still reviewing it since it's Kenno-san scenario and does not have video playthrough.
20 Fluorite ~Hotaruishi~ Fluorite ～ほたる石～ [981126] Air Plants 1
The story revolves around a hotel, a strange glowing stone, the ghost of a young girl who is haunting the main character and there are six heroines.
Game has an English review.
21. Gakuen King Bangai Hen -Hidehiko Curry o Tsukuru- 学園KING番外編 -日出彦 カレーをつくる- [981126] Alice Soft
Several months after collapse of Kunlun island the school building was moved to the mainland and students enjoyed their school lives. It looked like the lawless state of the school was over. However a new trial awaits the students.
Free follow-up game packed with Alice CD. It's reported to last only 20 minutes or so, but I'm not familiar enough with the main game to play this one.
22. Pastel Chime -Koi no Skill Up- ぱすてるチャイム－恋のスキルアップ－ [981126] Alice Soft 1
In a High school of a fantasy world, students spend their time learning magic and sword fighting, training to be adventurers.
At the botton of the school there's a special dungeon to test their skills.
The protagonist is one of these students who want to become someday a great hero.
There is an English review of the game.
23. Seventh Rush [981126] [K]rimzon Fake
Hero looses a girlfriend and tries to find salvation in hard labor work. At the same time he starts to see attractive girls while at work and in his neighborhood.
Game's not hookable and there aren't normal reviews. Nothing too fancy according to the footage.
24. Umi ni Ochite... 蒼海に堕ちて… [981126] Alice Soft
Hero is sailing on his yacht when he finds a small plane crashed in the sea. Inside he finds a dead old man and a young girl who he brings home. Hero decides to sail the girl home to Hawaii and they start the voyage through the ocean.
Game is shipped with Alice CD for the fans. I could not find enjoyment in the story as the story is quite dark. Heroine used to be abused by her foster father and now abused by the hero. And even more depressive SM memories show up here and there. Game takes less than two hours and there are just two BGM. There's no even normal end - oh, we arrived, good bye. For me this work has zero meaning.
25. Yukiwari no Hana 雪割りの花 [981126] SCEI 1 2
Winter. I live in a small town by a port. My life is very ordinary, I just go to a nearby college on a daily basis. One winter afternoon, my friend invited me to a party, but I refused to go because of a girl, Kaori Sakuragi, who lived next to me, whom I had a big crush on. That particular afternoon, I witness her kissing a man. It hurts my feelings greatly. Following the incident, I hear a knock on the door. As I open the door, I see two policemen standing. They ask, "Do you happen to know a girl named Kaori Sakuragi?"
Yarudora vol.4. Atmosphere and drawing are unique, but game suffers from too many bad endings. The conflict is not developed good an no empathy is felt towards towards protagonist. In the second half his mental state gets unstable and only alienation is felt. Game lost its live-action nature and became just a novel with choices which was for the worse.
26. Bishoujo Dorei Club 美少女奴隷クラブ [981127] Guilty
Prestigious private school has become a nest for a gang of bad guys "SMACKS". One day a diligent female student visits this den voluntarily. What's her aim and why she's doing it out of free will?
One route H-focused game with no other selling point than visuals.
27. Fantastic Fortune ファンタスティックフォーチュン [981127] Fujitsu 1
The story is set in medieval times, in the planet Warand.
A raising sim where you take control of one of three protagonists over the space of a year.
Diana is the second Princess of the Kingdom of Klein (her hobby is collecting hats).
Mei is a regular high school student from the human world who was accidentally summoned to the Royal Academy of Magic.
Sylphis is a knight apprentice from a race that chooses their gender once they start puberty.
The player's character will spend a year at Klein to achieve the proper magic abilities.
Their fate is in the hands of the player.
Otomege. Fantasy dating SIM very similar to Eberouge. There's the need to raise parameters and each opponent requires at least two parameters of high level for capture.
28. Itazura ~Joushuusha-tachi no Utage~ 悪戯 ～常習者達の宴～ [981127] Interheart
Main character is an office worker who molests girls on a train. Point and click game to discover sensible zones.
Introduction is long, but actual gameplay small and monotonous.
29. July [981127] Fortyfive 1 2 3
July 7, 1999: Six years after a mysterious terrorist bombing, two Japanese youths start out on a bizarre quest to get to the bottom of a mystery that only begins with the mysterious bombing. Makoto Takamura, a bare-chested college student, lost his parents to the freakish bus bombing. Joshua, a rebellious youth often wanted by the law, uses his connections to Tokyo's seamy underbelly to track down the culprits behind that same bombing. As their paths cross, the two uncover a plot by an evil race of genderless beings to bring about the prophesied end of the world through their secretive puppet corporation, NAX.
Game has two English reviews.
30. Missing ~Itsuka Kitto~ Missing ～いつかきっと～ [981127] Pinpai
On the White Day February 14th Yuuki Masahiro received a bar of chocolate in the post. The next year he also gains a bar of chocolate and a message only saying "Missing". From that moment events starts to whirl around him.
Period is two weeks. There are 9 heroines total, but some are only available after clearing the game. Routes vary in quality greatly and evaluation greatly depends on chosen route as of any charage.
31. Motif ~Sepia-iro no Sobyou~ Motif ～セピア色の素描～ [981127] Speed
Shinya Kano opposed his father's will and for three months he needs to support himself. As he arrives home for the first time in four years he finds three smiling girls who call themselves "sisters" while there should have been noone there.
SIM about raising sisters. Period is 3 months and it's basically the same planning actions each day mixed with occasional events. Tempo is bad and picture is not for everyone's taste.
32. Pretty Crisis プリティ・クライシス [981127] Inspire
The king of the medieval setting country dies leaving a daughter as successor, but she is not qualified for ruling. That's why main hero is appointed to educate the princess and arrange her schedule with other teachers.
The setting is somewhat decadent, but characters are beautiful and well depicted as each has her own circumstances and emotions. The SIM part is easy. One playthrough is about 2 hours.
33. Radical ラディカル [981127] MBS Truth
Classmates urge Kazuya to insult a woman. After succeeding in that he goes down this path chasing other women.
It's the usual MBS Truth H-focused stuff apart of one thing. There is a competition between two company's writers and both the scenarios are presented in the game. The topic is the same, but writing differs a lot.
34. Re-leaf [981127] C's Ware 1
A demon and a shy high school girl change personalities, and deal with adapting to their new situations.
There is an English review of this game.What I have to add is that game has terrific art and sound support, but lack of voicing and shallow storyline are big minuses. Very uneven work, just like most of C's ware products.
Psyclone is the only masterpiece of the month.
1. Sakura Tsuushin 桜 通信 [981001] Media Gallop
Dating sim adaptation of the manga and anime series of the same name.
Touma Inaba, the protagonist, is trying to get into Keio University. On the day the exam scores are posted, he meets Mieko Yotsuba , a redhead he falls in love with at first sight. After he finds out she got in, but didn't, he decides to lie and say he passed the exam in order to impress her. He lives with Urara Kasuga, a girl of his same age who agrees to pretend he's in Keio University due to her crush on him.
Dating SIM..
2. Efficus: Kono Omoi o Kimi ni... エフィカス この想いを君に… [981001] Genki 1
The protagonist gets suddenly transferred to a former all-girls school. Tired of hanging out with boys, he decides to get closer to the girls...
And another dating SIM
3. Ecchi no Susume えっちのススメ [981002] Seal Staff 1
Our guy is asked by his sister to find a partner to test her two person virtual H machine. First girl is his neighbor/childhood friend, but a 2nd girl, his sister's boss' daughter joins the fun later. Anyway, this machine connects two person and let them play in one of four scenarios. How far she will go in a scenario will depend on her Love and Willingness, which increase after a successful completion. Well, virtual love is easy, but will he be able to win a girl in the real world?
There's an English review.
4. Kiseki Maigo no Tenshi 奇跡 迷子の天使 [981002] E.G.O.
London, 19th century. Hero is private detective investigating a series of women murders. The story starts when an angel falls on him on a deep foggy night.
Command selection multi-ending ADV. There are three heroines and they all get three endings. There is also an ending for each sub-heroine. There are a lot of choices and they really hurt the tempo and the atmosphere. Angel's identity comes out pretty fast and there's little motivation to play afterwards. It continues quite as ordinary work.
5. Mania na Onna まにあなおんな [981002] Foster
Heroine is a stalker girl. She bumps into a salary-man on the street and stuffs his house with spy tech to eavesdrop and and peep on him. And she's not going to give in to his lover girl that easily.
System is inherited from Maigo no Kimochi and it's really comfortable to check city buildings on the map and trigger events. There are three branches determined by the first building of destination, but from then on it's a single road. It's an easygoing and bright H adventure with great Foster visuals.
6. Menkai Shazetsu 面会謝絶 [981002] Sirius 1
The player plays the role of an average high school student in Japan who has a beautiful girlfriend called Sayuri. The two of you walk to school chatting happily while suddenly a vehicle runs towards both of you and crash. You gain consciousness in a hospital. The nurse says you are recovering nicely and should be out of the hospital within a few days. However, you are really concerned about Sayuri because she is nowhere to be seen. You go to the nurse desk and overhear rumors about doctor conductor weird experiments. You need to find out what is happening in this hospital and rescue Sayuri.
There is an English review of the game.
7. Shirobara no Namae 白薔薇のなまえ [981003] Glanz
Masaki Yuu who works for the detective office is entrusted with training three new girls as detectives within a year time.
Flow is divided by weeks with each turn taking a day. Every girl has parameters like trivia knowledge, investigation technique, body art etc etc Most of training is done by fulfilling commands "on-site investigation", "listening", "thinking". If they manage to grasp the clues, then we move on to next scene. Graphics are nice, but gameplay is really weak.
8. Believe in Heart [981008] Scramble House
Takatsu Yusuke used to Hikojima every summer as a boy till his grandparents passed away.
In five year's time he visits the island again in part to collect material on the mermaid legend for his movie club and in part to have a rest and reminiscent on the past days.
At the beach he meets a mysterious girl who seems to know Yusuke. She passes him a flower asking if he could remember her by looking at the flower. He still can't remember her. And the moment he raises a head, the girl is gone.
So started the journey to discover memories of the youth.
A nostalgic pure love adventure. It's a finished and mysterious story to tickle the heart and with luck to discover the roots of the mermaid legend.
9. Kanojo wa Maid 彼女はメイド [981008] Bell-Da
One day the main character becomes the owner of a mansion according to the will of deceased former owner. The old butler instructs the hero how to train the tree maids of the house.
An insulting kusoge with graphics as the only selling point.
10. Ashita Sekai ga Owaru Yoru ni 明日世界が終わる夜に [981009] Sakura Soft
When hero Shinpei goes to school on Friday a strange rumor of the end of the world the next day spreads. Everyone gets crazy and the school shuts down preventing anyone leaving. Shinpei does not believe in that rumor, but he has to await for the morning in this agitated atmosphere.
Bad writing is usually described as doujin level, but this work does not even attain doujin level. It's one big H fest. It turns out that it's the student committee that hypnotized the students in believing in the end of the world and dominating their wills. Shinpei gets hypnotized at one point and in some way it's indeed the end of the world for students of one particular school. But the important aspect of the game is that it's the first "denpa" game after Leaf's Shizuku contributing to the creation of the genre.
11. Diamond wa Kizutsukanai ダイアモンドは傷つかない [981009] Excellents
DD is back! Unfortunately his detective business gets closed. However, he finds a popular accessory in the luggage of the person he helped. Together with super assistant Namiko he is going to conquer the entertainment world!
There is no text info on the game, but it looks like it tries really hard to reproduce the system of the prequel while presenting richer H material.
12. Ichou no Mau Koro いちょうの舞う頃 [981009] Types
Yusuke Akiyama is a mediocre person. His childhood friend Yoshizawa Makoto is like a sister to him as she takes care of him for a long time. One day Yusuke receives a love letter from a lower grade student. What kind of story awaits Yusuke upon this magnificent autumn season?
Games in 1998 often started to have such synopsis that there is a love triangle and choosing one would inevitably dump the other girl. Game is one of the major titles of 1998 and it even got a sequel the following year. The strange drawing and the passive protagonist are the main shortcomings of the game.
13. Kuroi Hamon 黒い波紋 [981009] Cherry Blossom Soft
Main character hears some sounds at night and comes out. There is an anxious girl at the street. She is worried about something happening at school. Explore the place to reveal its mystery.
Macromedia flash game with four exploration commands always present. New scenario branches open up only upon seeing new bad endings like in Leaf's Shizuku.
14. Private Garden 2 プライベートガーデン2 [981009] Tetratech 1
A puzzle game, focused on sliding tiles around. Basic gameplay involves placing tiles featuring girls together, then moving a "male" tile in to make them disappear. Later mechanics include ice floors, collapsing floors, and so on. After every few puzzles there's a short scene, eventually leading to H.
There is an English review.
15. Find Love 2: Rhapsody ファインドラブ２ ラプソディ [981010] Lyceen
Main is a high school student who aspires to become a professional musician. One day he is asked by his father to substitute him as apartment manager for the summer. The building appears to be inhabited only by school girls. This summer promises to be hot.
First of all it's 18+ work for Saturn, might be even the first of the kind. While talking with girls it's possible to speak in wild, normal or calm manner and that is important for capture. There are as many as 10 girls available. There's also such a system as "crossroad ending" which basically means that hero gets to choose what life he will lead with the chosen heroine. So it gets to be another "choose your story" kusoge that gives out any ending you like and also lots of H events to please everyone, but fails to have memorably stories.
16. Eye's ~Anata no Hitomi ni Utsuru Mono~ Eye’s ～あなたの瞳にうつるもの～ [981013] Escu:de 1
It's ordinary and boring school life. There is Asami teacher and three girls to fight for attention and each of girls has her own rival the number of characters increases to 6!
Game has an English review
17. Sampaguita サンパギータ [981015] SCEI 1 2 3 4
Autumn. One rainy autumn evening, I was walking back home from a drinking party. I bump into a girl sitting in the rain, completely drenched in water. I notice a cut on her forehead - bleeding. I take her home with me. Her name is Maria, and she is from somewhere in the South East Asia, but she does not remember her identity. I search through her bag and find a photo, some cash, make-up set... and a hand gun....
Yarudora vol.3 arrived. It has an English review and enough English information.
18. Gone ~Sugisarishi Hibi~ GONE～過ぎ去りし日々～ [981016] Active
Yuji Takeda is an unpopular actor who can not sell. During the shooting of a historical drama, he is struck by lightning and he find himself in a parallel world similar to the drama that was shot - Sengoku period full of ninja and samurai.
Story divides into two large scenarios - one in real world and the other one in warfare world. Warfare one does not contribute much to the story apart of fatal choices. The real world scenario is also thin and falling into comedy mostly. Characters are quite charming so game's best be described as charage. There are over 20 endings.
19. Sekai no Hate no Monogatari 世界の果ての物語 [981016] Purple
Kou is a girl who believes in her sword and she sets off to the capital city. However, she is caught by the enemy country army on the way, and is imprisoned in the Gallsberde fortress. She was offered to gather bail in 30 days time or die. Unnatural events start to happen around her. Now she needs to discover the truth about those events and make it in 30 days time.
It's a SIM aimed at to produce destruction work at various castle parts and also discover the mystery. There are 28 days with each day consisting of 5 turns. There are three usual commands "destroy!", "move" and "sleep". Character has many stats and destruction works is done faster with higher stats. It starts as a serious dark story, but then atmosphere gets light and story pretty much goes to hell.
20. Shinma Kourin 神魔降臨 [981016] Arkham Products
The world of conflict between light and darkness.
A young man gained the divine power of the darkness and is pursued by light forces. His aim is to dominate the temple of four lights in a year's time. Following the maid, with the power of the gods of darkness he needs to eat corpses of light and absorb the girls.
Tactical combat format SIM. Battle is done on a quarter view up with control over all your characters. Defeating an opponent is followed by absorbing girl scene. Your maid is your means of regaining HP each morning. It's notable that game uses terrain for amplifying strength from high spots and decreasing when attacking from low spots.
21. Hoshi no Oka Gakuen Monogatari: Gakuensai 星の丘学園物語 学園祭 [981022] MediaWorks 1
Our hero Kanata Muriya (name changeable) has just transferred to a new school and he has one month to prepare for the school festival. During that time, he'll have to make sure the festival is a success, while interacting and developing new relationships with his classmates.
Romance raising SIM. There's no story so charm is determined by the girl characters. Since it's a game for PS, there's a lot of animation. Game feels good and quite unique thanks to lots of events outdoors. A good title to check for galge enthusiasts.
22. Daite... 抱いて… [981023] Noise
A girl approaches the hero one day with words "Please embrace me". Hero invites her to a hotel only knowing her name Igarashi Ai.
Game is one of worst examples of 3D visual novels. There's little text and it's basically one big H event. The rushed actions result in game over and girl fleeing in tears.
23. Gensou Jan Yuuki 幻想雀遊記 [981023] Altair
Yuichi loves girls and mahjong, but he's on his loosing spree for some time. While thinking that it's high time to retire from mahjong he suddenly appears in a place he never saw before. And new strange experiences await him.Strip mahjong with eleven fantasy girls.
There's no real development beyond that.
24. Main no Utage 魔淫の宴 [981023] Black Package Try
Main hero is jealous of his colleague who managed to get a promotion and also married their common acquaintance. Hero kidnaps that wife's younger sister and blackmails them into intimate relations.
NTR type with abundance of insult scenes.
25. Modae 悶～もだえ～ [981029] WEAPON
Main character shows affection for his classmate for a long time and finally starts dating her.
But she has a secret. Her twin brother lives inside her from birth. During day she can fully control herself, but at night brother's will dominates. As of late, she starts doing strange things at night including having forced sex. Her control periods start to shorten as well. Protagonist vows to make an effort to restore her integrity. However...
Game is of SIM genre and quite light besides that. Raising love level is needed and then happy ending with a girl is possible. But if raise sexual traits values rather than love there's slave training ending for each trait.
26. Dungeon Burai 迷宮無頼漢 [981030] Speed
One day a huge hole that appears in the house. It is a secret entrance of a secret organization "Jyuuichi Kuchuuru" that aims for world domination. The house owner accused them of land fraud and organized a party to throw them out of there.
It's an RPG bakage. Classes include all kind of stuff like samurai, magical girl, dog, dry weed... You need to take care of your light and food in order to walk at all. There are nine random rooms on each floor and the ladder to next level. There are events happening from time to time with a good chunk of them being H. Operation is mouse only and thus very painful.
27. Eien no Miyako 永遠の都 [981030] Cherry Soft
Hero is a college student who attends university in Tokyo. He lost father at young age and now lives with mother, father-in-law and sister-in-law Mariko.
A strange letter arrived from Mariko's pen friend Keiko who spends summer vacation on a "September Island (Ku Tsutou)".
"Strange events have been happening, please come quickly. I'm scared".
Hero used to visit this island together with his deceased father and together with Mariko they set off to help Keiko.
Keiko was supposed to work as maid in a western mansion, but only three mansion owner daughters are found there.
Suspense romance story. Story is very long compared to usual works. After clearing one route, the next one appears. Suspense gradually turns into romance. Live-action backgrounds ruin the atmosphere. Scenario is written by female writer and it's really difficult to associate yourself with the protagonist, his pattern of though is really different. Game lacks balance and thus does not leave good impression.
28. Gizen 偽善 [981030] D-XX
A new health teacher turns out to be hypocrite who catches and abuses students.
Ero-focused content only. There are six female students, three female teachers and even two female students' mothers to capture.
29. Nariyuki Romance なりゆきROMANCE [981030] Pias
Hero likes watching B movies. But the girlfriend who accompanies him does not mind. It's the spirit of inexperienced youths romance that this story conveys to you.
Game tries to be realistic. The development is hasty. There are multiple branches and endings.
30. Physical Lesson Otome-tachi no Rhapsody PHYSICAL LESSON 乙女たちのラプソディ [981030] Logg
Hero is a new P.E. teacher. He is trusted to give full-time training to five problem students.
Zapping system is the feature of this work, so story can be seen from both teacher's and characters' eyes. Girls are likable and have distinct personalities. It's also possible to go in love with the president. If one of six heroines reaches love level it's automatically happy ending with her.
31. Pia Caro Toybox ぴあきゃろ TOYBOX [981030] Cocktail Soft 1
Toybox is an assembly of a series of Pia Carrot-based mini games. It's a internet browser interface where you can explore various places or "virtual sites" and play games or look at CGs.
There is an English review.
32. Psyclone Psyclone サイクロン [981030] Vanilla 1
Psyclone is a cyber-reality city accessed by using bio-interface. Recently it has been under attack of crackers causing anomalies and hurting people, so its inventor "Postman" along with his comrades "Bee", "Peepin Sam" and one of the crackers "Saiko" try to find the source of attacks. At the same time in the real world many young girls get missing in the slums. How can these cases be connected?
I've prepared a full review.
32. Shunpuu Shoujo 春風少女 [981030] Aquarium 1
Takuma Takuma is a college student. One day a girl Sari from another world appears before him. She said that she appeared to purify the conscious body possessed by Takuma and the should live together till that time. Takuma friends and girl classmates aren't really happy about that. Where shall the future take him?
Story is light and lacks the depth. For 11 chapters it's assumed that Takuma and Sari are lovers and it's all the hustle about it. Only in 12th final chapter there is development and resolution with you staying with the girl you've developed the most intimate relations. Gags are mixed well with the serious parts so at least you won't get tired in the mids of it.
Foreword: C's Ware produced so many good works that I inevitably had to observe each work very thoroughly. luv wave with its 3D half-naked girl on the cover looked more like a 3D adult movie than a cyberpunk game. Who knew then that it would be one of my favorite games.
Title: luv wave
Developer: C's Ware Date: 1998-07-31 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v2694 Synopsis: September 2039. XINN, the computer virus that shutdown the world's computers, threatens us again. You, detective Kaoru, must solve who and why, with your new cyborg partner, Alice. However, haven't you met her before?
Structure: There's unstructured single road command selection story with a small after-story selectable from game menu afterwards. Length: 27 hours Game type: Command selection adventure Difficulty: Easy. You can't fail in here, but you can get stuck. Bruteforcing helps from any situation though. Character Design rating: 10/10
Protagonist rating: 10/10
Story rating: 10/10
Game quality: 9/10
Overall rating: 10/10
Rating comments: 10 for the third game in a row - that does not look convincing anymore. And game is actually a bit raw. It uses unique engine that makes it very difficult to run it in windowed even with additional tools. Selection commands are just flying together with the output text. Sound levels for characters vary greatly (well, I think I found adjustment level in options for different sound frequencies that caused that). And most importantly, The afterstory crashes next to the end of it giving out a number of scenes missing error which is very bad for the last scene that should be perfect and form a final judgement. So much for the game quality. Everything else is perfect. Every character is well developed. The story is one of the best examples of cyberpunk sophisticated narrative with lots of twists and mind-blowing elements (in a good way).
Protagonist: Mikogami Kaoru is one hell of a protagonist. He's in special forces unit specializing on assassinations. He's tall, blonde, often smoking and inevitably in a long coat. He's got a sister working in public security division, a lover who specializes in hacking and cracking and now also an android partner. He does not like assassination missions actually. He's always rational, calm, reserved, but he can be very proactive if he needs information from someone.
Characters: Game is a one story without branching, so some characters are inevitably given more attention than others. I was actually very glad luv wave does not fall under any generalizations. Unlike very stupid hentai OVA based on the game there is no H-event with protagonist's sister (there seems to be one, but it's optional) and there is also shop-owner Kyoko who is left alone without one. This really helps to feel the story. If you think that you can watch OVA to grasp the story you'd be so wrong. OVA covers only beginning events more or less truthfully. The rest is a totally different story. Not even a greatly cut and simplified one, but a totally different story with the gist of it, the main opponent and the ending being totally different.
Alice: New android partner and the leading female staff member. She starts as a killing machine, typical robot, but gets to change a little by little and ends up changing the people and the world around her. She's a bottomless depth of a character.
Mikogami Mamoru: Kaoru's sister. Light-minded police swat member. She's wasting way too much money, fond of tv and gaming. Very cool and bright heroine. She mentions that she was assaulted to be raped at work in the past, but it failed and things got better from then. But this gang rape scene was vividly depicted in OVA. Actually there seems to be a H-event with either Mamoru or Kanako and I had Kanako one which is great since I don't appreciate incest.
Takigawa Kanako: Mechanic of Alice. She's got quite a story behind her past. She was actually gang raped long ago and feels incompetent because of that. She wanted to become space engineer and construct space ships, but chose to change society instead and served as a special agent for half a year. Then she moved to a more calm field of work - android maintenance.
Takashi Yuri: She's the actual girlfriend of Kaoru. Her work is hacking and cracking - she calls it binary agent. She always wears long dresses. Due to her work she gets to know many shady individuals and trades information with them. Her story is very touching as she was thrown out of the house and was brought up by the bums at a waste place. Those bums compiled a computer from the parts in the waste dump and since then she's been very interested in computers. I suppose they also paid electricity and internet bills, but the story does not really elaborate on that.
Yamashita Kiyoka: She's one of the shady individuals that trades information with Yuri. She formed her newspaper about net activities and is hunting for a scoop. She's an invaluable source of information if she trusts you.
Diane Wiseman: A red-haired president of largest japanese computer company Digital Demand Inc. Strong-willed and ambitious. She's absolutely sure that her company can create a vaccine against phenomenon XINN that noone in the world understands. What makes her so sure? Does she know something that noone else knows? We'll figure it out.
Mayumi Masato: Kaoru's Girlfriend from the past. It's really dangerous to write anything else about her since that might easily become a spoiler.
Kyoko: She's the owner of the hardware shop where Alice works on a part-time job. Noone knows where she takes the money since her business in constantly in the red. She's a mysterious character who gives very unusual advice and who develops many of the important themes of the game.
Story: Right off the bat you and Alice are sent on a mission by CIA command to assassinate some american guy Macy Specter who seeks refuge at japanese land. Somehow he gets to know about our true aim and he starts shooting and explodes his suitcase. When Alice connects to the computer afterwards she gets hacked and nearly burns her brain by the same american guy that they just killed. There's no time to rest since there's a new bombing incident announced and the culprit there has a totally different body but also claims to be that american guy Macy Specter. The command center manages to find Macy Specter hideout, but there is only some disturbing information found as well and new drug, the same drug that was also found at previous incident spots. Gradually we need to figure this mess out. What's this new drug and what's its connection to the crimes? How can a consciousness of a person exist separately of the body and in several bodies? What is this XINN phenomenon and what did it try to achieve by 1 second blackout of all the computers? Who's the mastermind behind all that what does he want? There are too many questions and answers are slow to get. And when you get them... it turns into a different story about world dominance and living GOD on Earth.
CG: I was quite happy with the number of CG. Gore scenes weren't multiple, but looked really cool. Let's start my usual gore-show.
HCG: To my taste the number of H-events was a bit too much. There were two scenes for four heroines resulting in just 8 scenes which is quite ok. Alice is a subject of only one very mild scene which can't be even called a H-event. But at the end of the game we're digging the past of the characters and it brings about 8-9 more scenes for former girlfriend Mayumi which is an overkill imho. Scenes are more erotic than usual and it's achieved by voiceplay and scenes creativity - there's hardly a single normal bed scene in the game.
Sound: Voicing is partial, but it's on for about 85% of the game, so can as well be considered as full voicing. Protagonist is not voiced, apart of his past self. As usual, I don't have complaints of bgm. My only complaint for sound is that by default there are different levels for different sound waves and that made lively characters very loud in my video playthrough and calm voices and males hardly heard at all. I'm very sorry that I could not figure it out earlier...
Themes: This game is Ghost in the Shell + Johny Mnemonic + Alice in wonderland in one shell and it raises a lot of themes. It's GITS because there's an android girl and there's net consciousness wondering stand-alone. It's Johny Mnemonic since new drug has 9 varieties and each contains up to 8 gb of data it it. It's Alice since this was not original name of android Alice. It's given to reflect a fantasy girl story in a magic land.
1) Can androids love? This is the first quite evident question that's posed. And the game kind of avoids an answer to this question, because Alice is not really an android. Machine-Human-God dichotomy is discussed a lot in the game.
2) Can consciousness exist separately from the body? This in an ambiguous one. Macy Specter case shows that it actually can't since even during hacking there was a distinct body with his consciousness inside. But Alice case shows otherwise.
3) Can one become a God? There is a lot of discussion on the topic. At least three characters aim to become Gods. Is immortality enough to become a God or does one need to conquer the Earth? Characters have different approaches towards it.
4) Can one "remember" the future? Again, there's a lot of discussion on the topic with different views. Is remembering just perceiving or active influence on future events? Alice is the only character that can remember the future and she excels in all the meanings.
Overall comments: luv wave suffers from pacing in the first half of the game as after couple action events there's lot of walking and rounds and gathering information. Mamoru is getting us information about "9 heavens" drug and Macy Specter from public security database, Yuri deciphers stolen data during hacking session and later on she participates in creating anti-XINN vaccine and secretly sends us information about it. Kiyoka introduces us to the world of drugs and also gets us to know Digital Demand Inc. president. Diane is the president that's in the epicenter of events. Little by little every lead and thread comes together and we get the full picture. I actually prefer this approach to forced action line, so pacing was ok for me. After we get to conclusive final of the story it does not really stop there. It presents the past of both Alice and Kaoru in a mindscrew fashion. That's a very different story from the main plot and not less thrilling one. It looks like a huge mural with small threads being knit together all the time. There's no answer to all the questions and in this case it's not particularly bad - that creates the mystic aura about the game. We get to know the past and the present, but as for the future - we need to remember it ourselves. It's a solid cyberpunk story akin to Ghost in the Shell and that alone should be enough. It's also full of memorable characters that don't fall under some categories - they are unique parts of one big story. I enjoyed it immensely since it gives an ample food for thought.
With You ~Mitsumete Itai~ is the only masterpiece of the month.
1. Mystic Mind ~Yureru Omoi~ Mystic Mind～揺れる想い～ [980903] Family Soft 1
Depending on gender choice the game will differ in who you meet - males or females.
The game begins when the player's character is transferred to a private high school where he will meet the other main character of the game, and the game will start there.
The game features different endings depending on the player's choices and character development during the gameplay. So now it is up to the player to succeed in finding love or not.
Oh my, half-otome game. Those that try to please everyone usually get a generic game as a result and this is no exception. A raising sim that I can't see any outstanding features in.
2. Revolver [980903] FlyingShine 1
Game consists of various scenarios, and the number increases with each special event. Here's a short introduction to "Tomokazu Yuki edition," which you'll find in the beginning!
Rape incidents are occurring left and right in this town, and Tomokazu Yuki, a teacher at the private "Takayama School," gets fed up and begins to investigate these incidents by himself. However, in spite of his efforts, incidents begin to increase even more...
Nearly at wit's end, he one day finds conclusive evidence at the scene of a crime. It's a mysterious membership card from the "Rape Club"!!!
Game looks very much like Sadistic Medicine. Same blurry real photos or just some visual effects as backgrounds, same absence of people except for HCG, same NVL narration. Quite an ugly work.
3. Kaze no Oka Kouen nite 風の丘公園にて [980903] Tecno Soft 1
Love comes with the Autumn. School idol suddenly confesses to the main character. During the next 17 days he will need to decide which of four girls to give preference and spend unforgettable season with.
A minor and pretty boring school galge.
4. Dennou Meikyuu Gensou Bouken Yuugi Yurika 電脳迷宮幻想冒険遊戯ユリカ [980904] MILI ALDI
Setting is future virtual sex device. Story progresses mostly through listening. 3D sound invites you to an unknown world. This adult suspense adventure may have different endings depending on decisions.
There are five endings. Game was shipped with special headphones that are supposed to give 3D sound. Dialogue is displayed on the screen, but it's done in the form of screensaver that's bad for eyes, so audio is the only good way to go.
5. Innai Kansen ~Mayonaka no Nurse Call~ 淫内感染 ～真夜中のナースコール～ [980904] ZyX
Game goes in parallel with original Innai Kansen and includes two new characters. Clearing stages in action game reveals naughty images and small pieces of drama depicting sex scene.
There's at least a quiz and a xonix game. Reward is HCG.
6. Omoidezaka 想ひ出坂 [980904] Ume Soft
A landscape with a nostalgic atmosphere. A woman is always standing on a slope behind the scenery.
... This is the mysterious dream that comes every night. The hero returns to his home town as a practice student and recognized the girl of his dreams in Tamiya Maika. While still wondering about this connection, he gets to know that the teacher was killed in the arts classroom. He sets on the investigation to find out the truth behind the incident.
Multi-route multi-ending command selection ADV. There are 10 girls and 10 happy endings. First half of the game is usual school slice of life while only second one is murder investigation. Even though solving the case is easy, the flags are vague and getting all the endings is very tough.
7. Yami no Mitsuryousha 闇の密猟者 [980904] Jade
Protagonist with three girls go in the mountains to draw a sketch, but they get lost and it starts raining. They see a villa and come inside to get dry. Younger sister gets hungry and they start seeking for provision but find an arm cut from the elbow in the basket instead.
Systems is clumsy as in every work based on macromedia. No skip function, pseudo 3D and slow screen motion. Text is really bad and scarce. Story is of dark origin with much rape and it's a single road. Opponent is multiple personality killer demon.
8. Rakuen no Natsu 楽園の夏 [980905] Ange
Hero is a 3rd grade high school student in a small rural town. He is surrounded by childhood friends and lives happily. By summer vacations he starts to think about future and long-life relations.
There are many heroines and depending on places you chose to go, branching happens. August 15th is the summer festival day and it's the day of erotic ending.
9. Utsukushiki Emono-tachi no Gakuen 美しき獲物たちの学園 [980905] Mink
St. Raiseen prestigious school for upper class society children. Asuma Naka is a girl from a mediocre family who enters the same academy and gets attention of millionaire student. That encounter spawned a wave of black jealousy and desire around the school.
Game features zapping between the characters viewpoints with main hero being S and heroine M, so game tried to appeal to different tasted.
10. Nurse Call ナースコール [980909] Aquarium 1
A girl died during operation without telling her feelings. Fumiura Yuya starts to hear her faint voice from then on.
Will he be trapped with the ghosts of the past or see a sign of new life?
There are three heroines, but scenario is the same so there's no meaning in it. Game is also really short.
11. Kousoku Arcueil no Kyouen 拘束 アルクイユの狂宴 [980910] Persian Soft
Hero takes a part-time job at an island hotel. There are few customers here and only two staff members including manager and protagonist. The hotel and its customers have mysteries to uncover.
Game has pleasant bright visuals and full voicing (apart of protagonist). The flow is customer arrival - we fix her issues - she leaves - new customer arrives. The content is only partially of SM type here.
12. Fifteen ~School Girls Digital Tokuhon~ Fifteen ～すくうるがあるずデジタル読本～ [980911] Libido
Pseudo web-browsing game to find clue words and access secret shameful pictures of class girls.
Internet had about 10% penetration at that time so it was a very unusual work. Basically you read official profiles and gather important words from there. Those words are then possible to be entered in search engine. There is no story here.
13. Light My Fire -Hajimemashite- LIGHT MY FIRE -はじめまして- [980911] Take
Hero is a teacher during daytime and DJ at night time. Main heroine is the daughter of religious cult guru. Hero acts to prevent destruction activities of this religious cult.
DJ battle adventure simulation game as it describes itself... wth. This doujin game is a huge mess.Why teacher would fight religious fanatics... Why it suddenly turns into a sex game... Why the teacher reconciles guru and his daughter and joins the religious cult as a senior executive eventually?! It all looks like a bad joke. And on top of that game is music-based and there's a nice DJ battle minigame. Doujin crapocalypse is coming...
14. Onegai! Renhou おねがい！蓮宝 [980911] Blue Bell 1
Yuta Nagamine adores his classmate Kitakaru Kyoko, but he's to shy to covey his feelings to her. Because of that he's being tagged as stalker.
One day mahjong's fairy "Rinba" appears with a magical sphere where "mahjong dragon" who can can accept any wish is sealed. Yuta jumps at the occasion and decides to challenge five familiar girls in undressing mahjong game.
Normal mahjong game with weird synopsis. As you win you can buy items in various shops. There is story mode and pure mahjong mode. There's an English review.
15. With You ~Mitsumete Itai~ With You ～みつめていたい～ [980911] F&C 1
Long time ago, a man and a woman made a promise, stating that although they were destined to be lonely souls, they should always remain together. But by a cruel joke of fate, they were separated and sealed into two jewels that were hidden for generations. Manami, who left the country 6 years before, has found one of the jewels while traveling. He will return to Japan to meet with their friends from childhood. This will entail a meeting of the two jewels again, for the second jewel seems to be owned by his father.
There is an English review of this game.
16. Mikagura Shoujo Tanteidan 御神楽少女探偵団 [980917] Human Club 1
Mikagura Shoujo Tanteidan is an adventure game that tells a story of Mikagura Tokito was the director of a detective agency in the Taisho era but disappeared after an accident.
Three girls who adored him continue his work - they are Tomoe, Shigeno, and Chizuru.
Talk to every character in each screen until each scene is solved. That pretty much sums it up. There rest depends on whether you like cute girls unwinding cases in Taisho era.
17. Gakuensei Hakusho 2 学園性白書2 [980918] Vision
A guy found out that he has a brain tumor and has about one year to live. His best friend made a bet with him to see who can catch some girls first. Will he live out his last year happy?
Again it's mostly about animation and HCG. Text is not hookable due to engine limitations - it's the wall of text that scrolls down.
18. Sweet Tears [980918] Lyceen
It's spring and love is in the air. Who will hero choose among friends to share these wonderful moments? Or maybe it will be mysterious transfer student?
No text info on the game, but it's a pure love school story.
19. Waku Waku☆Wakusei Princess わくわく☆惑星プリンセス [980918] Pumpie
Hero was driving a car in the mountains. The car wrecked and he was self-pleasing while looking at the starts - one star rushed to the ground. When hero arrived to the crash site, the star turned out to be a spaceship. An alien girl princess Pam showed up from it saying that it was the energy generated by masturbation that had caused the ship to crash and that the hero was responsible for it and thus needed to help collect the energy.
The energy can only be generating by having sex with girls, so it needs to be repeated multiple times to collect enough amount.
There are only 7 days overall, so every action should lead to scoring or it's a bad ending. There are three heroines overall. The drawing is specific and the content is thin.
20. Doki Doki Pretty League: Nekketsu Otome Seishunki ドキドキプリティリーグ 熱血乙女青春記 [980923] Xing Entertainment
In this game you play a coach for an all-girl baseball team. The game plays like a managerial game where you have to keep track of the schedule, add practice time for the girls and play games to advance in the series. But to keep the team happy you must also make sure they have a good social life as well as a well thought out training regime.
There are a lot of games in this baseball manager franchise. They look pretty much the same to me and there's no will to look for differences.
21. Kidou Senkan Nadesico: The Blank of 3 Years 機動戦艦ナデシコ The blank of 3years [980923] Sega 1 2
A follow up to the Kidou Senkan Nadesico anime, this game covers the events that occur in the storyline between the end of the series and the movie.
There is enough English information on the game.
22. Ren'ai Kouhosei Starlight Scramble 恋愛候補生 STARLIGHT SCRAMBLE [980923] KSS Inc. 1
Four years had passed since the NUN (Neo United Nations) unified the Earth's nation in 2120, and them the project of the pseudo-earth environment "One's Home" was started and led by Kirishima. Five years later, the first satellite town in the history of mankind, "Second One's Home" was completed. By this means, the human beings left a "cage" called the earth, and began to immigrate to the Second One's Home where they created a second home. The mother computer "Maxis", which controls the whole Second One's Home was completed in advance. Howerever, some control problems had been left which was solved two years later. Since then peaceful days have continued.
The incident happen as if the peaceful days were laughed at mockingly. The first incident was "anxiety". It was that "Kirishima", who as the leader of the "One's Home Project" dissappeared. The Second One's Home tried to hush up the incident, while the NUN side tried to intervene in it. However, the action ended in failure by some powerful people, and the incident of Kirishima's disappearence was concealed. The second incident was "resistance". The affair of terrorism occurred at Universe Port "SUS". Since there is no statement for the offense, it was treated as in discriminate terrorism. However, the criminal's true character has not yet been captured... The third incident was "fear". three planes for the second platoon of the NUN space force which belonged to the Second One's Home, encountered uncertificated Flying objects, and were shot down. This unknown object was called "Hughey". As a clue of this, the NUN Space Force intends to further build up it's forces. This incident might be a warning from space to human beings who left the "cage" called Earth. Time passed, and in February, 2149, the past incident does not mean what it used to. The story starts at this Second One's Home, and it is an ordinary love story as if it can be seen from the Earth.
A dating SIM with five girls and some SF entourage.
23. Baku 縛 [980925] Zero
A certain monastery deep inside the forest serves as an orphanage nurturing picked up children. But that's only the facade - it actually trains SM slaves for influential people.
A young man took monastery's shelter only to be drugged during the meal, bounded and obscenely trained.
Ero-focused work with 20 kinds of endings achievable on satisfying conditions. There is a "hint mode" that helps not to miss even a single ending. Total play time is around 5 hours to clear everything.
24. Carbon Knight カーボナイト [980925] CD Bros. 1
A world devastated by the battle of gods. The surviving people created inanimate "carbon humans" by using the relics of Gods and sealing the soul within. For several hundred years the war lasted. Now carbon knight needs to deter the restoration of the once sealed demon king.
Story has H-events densely packed. Save function returns you to the start of the day and one day is a very long period. It goes like a normal ADV with periodical choices of where to go or what to answer. I prepared a full review.
25. For Season ~Meguriyuku Kisetsu no Naka de~ For Season ～めぐりゆく季節の中で～ [980925] Giga 1
You are hired as a family tutor, and you pick three girls of your choice (from five) as your students. In six months time (July to January), you are to assist these three girls in getting into University.
There is an English review of this game.
26. Lag ラグ [980925] Aaru
2022 AD. Hero is the strongest fighter in history. He was ordered by his father to find a girlfriend in three years time and train her into a fighter. He needs to attend the school of fiercest fighters from all over the country. But his power gets sealed and he needs to start from scratch.
Fighting ADV genre has given us quite a good number of games. System-wise it's nothing special, command selection. We choose type of training each month. Once you get enough experience with training, you can level up. Each week we can choose to see some girl or do smth else on free time. Battles lasts for 10 turns with selection limited to attack, defend and provoke. But games lasts for 3 years which is a LOT. RPG element tries to shake off repeatedness, but succeeds only partially. Quite an ordinary fighting adv, but with good character growth and battle mechanics.
27. My Girl [980925] Jam 1
You start the game already with a girlfriend, Miki. During the school year, you'll meet other two girls, and you must choose between chasing one of them or sticking with Miki.
There is an English review of this game.
28. Osananajimi 幼なじみ [980925] Candy Soft
Protagonist is enjoying his school life with his female childhood friend and school buddies. He has a "slave" sex friend who calls him "master", but there are also many other women around him. Who will he choose?
It's Interheart, so don't expect a solid story here. There is a good cast of characters, but there's not much difference among their routes. It feels like different characters are introduce just to increase variation of H events. Game feels empty.
29. Yume no Saka 夢の坂 [980925] acute
Dream slope is a hill near student dormitory. According to old legend monsters used to appear from there. They were exterminated by a travelling samurai, but as he was leaving he predicted that evil would rise again on the slope.
Heroines with heart and mind wounds get caught by the dream slope. Each heroine story is unique. Another feature of the game is that there are not really good endings. I'm intrigued to some extent. I'm giving it a full review.
30. Bloody Romance ブラッディロマンス [980930] Hyperspace
US Navy identifies nuclear explosion-like vibration with the epicenter in China's Tian Shan mountain range and Gobi desert. There is no possibility that China undertakes secret experiments in the current world situation.
Two women Amami Hitoyo and Akashi Michi are caught up in student demonstration in Shanghai while on business in China and hired by one of China's industry complexes to have an investigation of the nuclear tests.
The sequel comes just in three months after the original. The system and the characters are the same in both games. And since last time the field for investigation was whole Europe, this time it's... right, all of Asia. Just as in prequel those two girls aren't considered main heroines. But the hero is just some guy in the hotel who is only used for H scenes to regain energy in the mother town. Just as in prequel, there are multiple cases to pick up and proceed with in various cities of the Asia. Game also promised a sequel, but it never appeared.
31. Yuganda Akai Ito 歪んだ赤い糸 [980930] Penguin Works
Hero is a ronin student preparing for university entrance exams. One day he sees his sister-in-law Sanae taking shower and begins to think of her as a woman. Then adult woman entered his life as tutor. Where will desires bring the hero?
There are only two good scenario branches and all the others are bad endings. That provides an abundance of H-events. Sanae is main heroine with about 10 H events, so game has a strong siscon feeling. Two sub-heroines include tutor adult woman and Sanae's best friend.
There aren't masterpieces this month, but my personal favorite is Shiokaze no Memory, it's short, nice and has a distinctive individuality.
1. Homura no Matsuri 火焔祭 [980801] Sorciere
Freelance writer Kengo Sakuraba visits a lonesome hot spring town. The four sisters who manage the inn welcome him warmly. However, there is something strange in this town. What exactly is hidden there?
Another game resembling Kizuato of Leaf. Each scenario is short (30 minutes) and despite game features multi-scenario... different scenarios are actually the same with a different character ending. General impression is that content is too thin and there is nothing to gain from it.
2. Ano Ko Doko no Ko あのこどこのこ [980806] HAMSTER Corporation 1
Anokodokonoko is a dating simulation board game released by Success in 1998 that features 2 main game mode:
- Story mode: Only one player game. In this mode there is a strong element of simulation. The hero (the player) has the purpose of meeting with the girl, and make her fall in love with him, the game in this mode features different events.
- Party mode: This mode can be played by up to 4 human players. This mode is more focused in the board game style but without squares and dices, since the game is also playable in the story mode game maps and is a sort of a competition between the human characters to win and know who between them got more friends or dates with the different girls.
A boarding game even without any story. Nothing to discuss, really.
3. Pleasure Circuit プレジャーサーキット [980806] ISF
An elder couple that gained an enormous wealth through biotechnology illegally artificially created several children who don't grow.
However couple's trusted secretary desired such children for herself, so she kidnapped and confined them to a basement.
Industry's first Shota game as developers proclaim it. The type of artificial children is customizable, so can be both loli and shota. There are strategic card fights and 8 stages of sexual training.
4. e'tude prologue ~Yureugoku Kokoro no Katachi~ e'tude prologue ～揺れ動く心のかたち～ [980807] Takuyo 1 2
A coastal town called "South Aose".
Surrounded by the sea and mountains, a place like anywhere where lots of nature still remains.
Two normal high school students go to school in that town.
The special winter of the 3rd year of school. The students worry about their future paths and the loves they can't be honest about.
With many thoughts in their hearts, the final season starts now...
What do you desire? Where will you go?
What is the shape of a girl or boy's trembling heart?
The time when the two protagonists meet again, that is when their story starts to move once more.
The feature of the game is that we can play either for male or female of the former lovers couple. This way we can see both sides of the story and get to understand their feelings better. Overall there are 12 characters for capture. There are also SIM elements and minigames.
5. Kizuna き・ず・な [980807] Actress
There are two same class high school student heroes to select viewpoint from the start. Each of them encounters sex slave situation, but with different approaches towards it.
Even though there is zapping system, there's little influence of one heroine towards the other heroine route. Basically both heroes routes are devil routes varying in degree of darkness.
6. Ochita Tenshi ga Utau Uta 堕ちた天使が詩う歌 [980807] Pias 1
The story starts off in a modern world and you, the player, are in school and the school nurse asks you to investigate a murder.
There is an English review of this game.
7. Shiokaze no Memory しおかぜのメモリー [980807] Mesa 1
This is a pure love AVG, which is about a guy and six girls in a drama club.
Masahiko Mikage, advisor to the drama club, and six girls set out to an inn for a 3-day summer training exercise.
Masahiko's never been to the place, but he feels as if he's been here before. He also gets extremely interested in the folklore behind the "Divorce Rock..."
How is he related to this place...!? Aren't you curious...?
System is quite simple as we choose one of several locations and advance relationship with some girl. Burning love level is required to get girl's ending. I love it how each girl has kansai dialect in different refinement stages. Girls go from different backgrounds, but that's not fully utilized. There are still ninja and rich girl patterns. Only one girl's story actually has meaning for the main story and the mystery of Divorce Rock. One playthrough takes about two hours.
7. Full House ~Joyuu Monogatari~ フルハウス ～女優物語～ [980807] Starfish
You are stage director hired to rebuild a troupe. Raise actresses, set up repetitions and performances to make theater popular again.
Another SIM.
8. Izayoi 十六夜 [980808] JAST Co., Ltd.
Kusanagi Yorokuya comes from an ancient family. He transfers to another school to locate spiritual abnormality that broke through the barrier and also to investigate night school "seven wonders".
One of the last JAST games with its traditional gameplay during daytime. We go around town and campus during the day to gather info. And at night we move inside school with the partner of our choice. School night usually features a battle with some spirit and since the balance is very bad you'll definitely die in the Prologue for the first few tries. There are strict limitation for events density and order so several playthoroughs are needed, but the game lacks the appeal to go through the battles more than once.
9. Eden [980814] Forester 1
An expedition was sent to the moon, to explore mysterious ancient ruins that were discovered there. Your name is Glenn, and you are the head of this expedition, consisting of several men and the lovely girl Erin. But a terrible accident occurs, and you are morphed into an alien creature. Now your whole essence is nothing but lust, and raping Erin is all you can think about. But not all is simple. Since your former friends don't recognize you, they will kill you on sight. You must choose your path cleverly to avoid getting killed and to attain your monstrous goal.
Eden is often remembered when presenting good examples of 3D visual novel and main challenger of Illusion in polygons games. First title is low on content and eroticism. There are also unpleasant death scenes and bad endings.
10. Sumomo Hakusho~Anata to Itsumade mo すもも白書〜あなたといつまでも [980814] Desire 1
"Sumomo Hakusho" is comprised of a Adventure game component, whereas the main character is in the Art Club (Pottery dept.) preparing for the upcoming Culture and Arts Festival for the school. During that time, he can attend to school life, and in the after-school hours, he has a choice of going to different places in the school and help out different girls. Of course dating them goes next...and endings are pretty much of the standard storyline.
Game has an English review.
11. Summer Album SUMMER ALBUM [980816] Stage-nana
A doujin of "White Album" that revolves around Morikawa Yuki No info.
12. Umibe de Riichi! 海辺でリーチ！ [980820] MYCOM
Kaitto Asari, captain of the Mahjong Club, is enjoying his summer vacations in a training camp he was asked to participate in. However, there are also five cute girls in the camp! Will Kaito become closer to them thanks to mahjong?
Playing mahjong on the beach with girls in swimsuits - that's enough to make a game! Several mahjong modes are possible to choose from. And lots of fanservice ensues since it's a non-eroge work.
13. Hoshi no Sasayaki 星のささやき [980827] Janis
Yutaka Inoue is a 3rd grade high school student attending Astronomy club. He goes on a trip with his best friends in hope of reinvigorating the sealed corners of his childhood memory.
Game synopsis is very similar to graduation trip 98 and follows the same pattern - there's even same gender love branch as well. The trip only takes 4 days so events are packed tightly. This time there's more conversation and more bakage moments.
13. The King Of Fighters: Kyo ザ·キング·オブ·ファイターズ 京 [980827] SNK Playmore 1 2 3 4 5 6
Taking place in between KoF '96 and '97, the plot details Kyo's research into his family bloodlines and his connection to the Orochi power. Along the way, he trains to become more powerful, recruits allies for the tournament, and constantly fights against that annoying bastard Iori.
There are many English reviews.
14. College Terra Story カレッジテラストーリー [980828] Uran 1 2
The story picks up off where HighSchool Terra Story ended. You are, again, Keisuke from the first game and you are now attending college. Keisuke is intrigued with a pop idol rock star named Hiromi, who also happens to attend the same university as he does. The six girls from the first game(Misa, Rina, Mimi, Aki, Chiho and Mao) are also back and you can continue their love stories from where they left off from the first game if you choose to do so.
There is an English review of the game. And releasing it just two months after prequel already tells a lot.
15. Fall Love Story [980828] Outlaw 1
You are a normal student going to school with divorced parents. One day there is a school play and the play is going to be Snow White.And the love story goes on as you meet three different girls all of which have different characteristic, lifestyle, and etc.
There is an English review.
16. Kanshasai 浣謝祭 [980828] Manbou Goya
Hero owes his mysterious grandfather who supported him for 20 years. To return the favor old man asks him to train a girl. But hero could not even imagine that the girl would be his best friend Yurika.
I did not expect anything good from a game that comes between Enema and Enema 2 and I was right... it's a SM training SIM... and at that point I lost any interest in this game.
17. Kazeiro no Romance 風色のロマンス [980828] Logg
Protagonist is injured in a motorbike accident and is taken care of by his childhood friend for two weeks.
One guy, one girl and 16 squares of emotion to choose on answer. It's mostly just daily routine with a events. Such experimental emotions system did not help the sales that remained poor.
18. Muzan ~Ketsuniku no Ikenie~ 無惨 ～血肉の生け贄～ [980828] Harvest
Fifteen women have been gathered for different reasons in the residence of the famous mistress Elizabeth. However Elizabeth has lured them for no other purpose than sacrifice them in a ritual to gain immortality.
Les SM insult dark game. It exists only for H scenes and finishes in an hour.
19. Ori 檻 [980828] MBS Truth
There is a mysterious game store. Even though it's only games that are sold there, those feel so real...
Just your usual MBS Truth HCG game without any glimpse of story.
Kisetsu o Dakishimete and luv wave are masterpieces of the month, but luv wave is my absolute favorite
1. Mei King めい・king [980703] Nikukyuu 1
Cain, a shepherd, frees some spirits of a certain place and rescues the princess who was captured by the mountain cabin. As a benefactor of the princess's life, he receives the land and lord title from the king as well as appointment as princess's fiancee candidate. The condition for the marriage is to develop the most advanced entity in 5 years period.
This famous Japanese strategy has zero votes at VNDB and 0.67/5 score at gamefaqs, just laughable. Strategy part is building and maintaining the city, growing reputation and some daily routine work. But it's not about strategy only for sure. Based on the answers to the initial questions you get initial partner girl and lots of other partners are met further on. The density of H-events is pretty high. This game is definitely more fun gameplay-wise than sim-city. The only problem that it's long... 5 years is a huge period. All city stats are maxed by the end of 3rd year and there's little to do next than to watch same battles, festivals and events.
2. Rondo 輪舞 ロンド [980703] Bell-Da
A collection of five stories based on Japanese old legends.
One day the hero gets a means to travel between five different worlds.
It is a world of fairy tales that the hero adored since he was a child.
His exciting journey begins.
Clearing the game requires an item that has its parts scattered around. The stories are traditional Japanese fairy-tales like Taketori Monogatari. The quantity of H events is really high.
3. Code R コード・アール [980709] Quintet 1
Players assume the role of a young man who is thrust into the middle of trying to date and patch up relationships with various women while racing bad guys on the side
Game has an English review.
4. Gakuen Harem 学園ハーレム [980710] M'
Hero's father suddenly died leaving him huge assets and the whole school to manage as chief director. Hero becomes the target of many girls inside the school.
Harem in title only refers to the huge number of girls to choose from (which is 10), but the aim of the game is to get in romantic relations with just one of the girls. But when you clear everyone, harem route opens up as a bonus. The flow of the game is freely moving around, triggering events and fleeing from unwanted events.
5. Hoshi Furu Umi ni ~Koi no Sanjuusou~ 星降る海に ～恋の三重奏～ [980710] Blue Bell
At summer vacation Makoto Ozawa invited his five classmates and friends - six people - to go on a trip to the beach together.
During those three days that they spend in this trip they will develop a spiritual bond at this magical seaside.
I really fancy serial works and this is one of them. Yuki Furu Kisetsu e ~Omoi, Anata ni~ is the prequel and it had male Sawaki Shinichiro as protagonist. He goes with his girlfriend Miyashita Chiyo and it's impossible to capture her for that reason. And in this game protagonist is totally different - Makoto Ozawa. Many heroes are old acquaintances as well. But this work is even more obscure than the prequel.
6. Quadrant [980710] Inspire
One summer day sisters Lyder and Iris receive a letter from their uncle who invited them to visit a remote castle that he had bought. Sisters accepted invitation, but uncle was was not there, so they decided to way for his return.
Game is unique in that there is no main character. Player is more like a camera - just clicks on rooms of the castle and sees events. It might look like a museum type of game, but sisters stay there and get drawn to lust voluntarily. There are several endings, but it's difficult to understand ending conditions, so might bump to the same ending multiple times.
7. Up! [980710] May-Be Soft
Main character is a glasses wearing sophomore in high school. One day he starts to feel increased attention towards him from his stepmother and classmates.
Maybe Soft continues to do the same games it did during pc-98 period. Ero-centered work with female domination.
8. Akagawa Jirou: Yasoukyoku 赤川次郎 夜想曲 [980716] Victor Interactive Software 1 2
This adventure game is adapted from Akagawa Jirou's classic mystery novel Yasoukyoku – Hon ni Manekaereta Satsujin (Nocturne – Books that beckon murder) that contains two separate detective stories. The stage is set in Nonomiya Library, a mansion hidden amongst the trees in a darkened forest where a collection of books related to death are stored.
Sound novels are best suited for literary adaptations, that's why sound novels often have a unique book feeling. Hero takes a part time job to to organize some mansion's huge library in a month. He finds some book - investigates how the book appeared in the collection - incident occurs - solving it - moves on. It's a mix of horror game and detective game. There are about 10 endings for each episode with only couple of those being good ones.
9. Liaison リエゾン ～liaison～ [980716] Bell-Da 1
Kusanagi Daisakusa came to Tokyo to attend art university with a dream of becoming a painter, but he clearly lacked talent. One day he meets two women in jewelry story and that casual encounter greatly influenced his life and his upcoming biggest masterpiece.
First of all, it's been a long time to meet Bell-Da work here. Even though last works mostly had proper covers they were all very erotic works. This one is borderline as well, but at least synopsis is kind of safe. Multi ending adventure featuring 5 endings. There are four heroines, but Hideo and Minako go as a pair and captured together. Full voice (except for protagonist). Heroines have painful past, but they don't show it off. A nice feature is changing view perspective - from time to time it switches to heroine.
10. Last Child ~14th Nervous Breakdown~ Last Child ~14th Nervous Breakdown~ [980717] PIL
One day hero gets a secret club's membership card. It turns out to be a SM club run by 14 year old girls.
Since it's PIL, it's inevitably a nukige and in this case loli SM training SIM.
11. Sepia ~Oumagadoki no Monogatari~ Sepia ～逢魔ヶ刻の物語～ [980717] Rave
Makoto Yuna is a student council president and grandchild of the president of a prestigious education academy. An earthquake strikes them with a friend blocking all the aisles with jelly-like wall effectively trapping them. Who stands behind it and what will happen to them?
Game describes itself as "SM violation adventure". It's a game densely packed with H events. Playthrough length is about two hours, but there are six endings to discover.
12. Touchuukasou 冬虫夏草 [980717] Petit 1
In a rural town there has been a series of murders recently. Part of the bodies was lost as if it had been eaten by someone. Toshio Hiyama moved to this town 10 years ago and he was constantly bullied due to his introverted nature to the extent that there might be even another will lurking inside his consciousness...
Multi-branch, multi-ending ADV. There are four main heroines with their branches. Heroines are very appealing but there are frustrating bugs that damage savegame all the time and there are also game crashes on load. Game really resembles Kizuato from Leaf as there are also normal people dwelling a beast inside. So there are a lot of dark scenes. There are also branches when the hero moves between the worlds. So it's a very worthy game if you're ready to struggle with the saves backups.
13. Kisetsu o Dakishimete 季節を抱きしめて [980723] SCEI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Spring. Tomoko has always been a great friend of mine since we were young. Though I only thought of her as my buddy, she seemed to have different kind of feelings for me. One day, when we are walking along the cherry blossom trees, we find a girl lying unconscious underneath a tree. It's a girl whom I had a big crush on in high school - a girl who was killed in a car accident....
There is enough English information on the game.
14. Kyouki 狂気 [980724] Gondola
A woman is invited to a mysterious remote house to open up new layers of sensuality in her.
3D works were so ugly in 1990s that players mostly got only disappointed in them. But this time there's not bad camera work, more or less pretty models and good shifts from animation to still CG that appear at the same spot that animation ends. That all creates a cinematographic effect. Overall it's a story about two naked women in one house with several endings.
15. Mujintou Monogatari 4 無人島物語4 [980724] KSS Inc.
A plane crashes into the sea, but the protagonist survives and reaches a seemingly deserted island. He teams up with other survivors and explores the island.
This is a remake of Mujintou Monogatari with exactly the same synopsis except for protagonist name. But original was a pure SIM/Strategy - this one has huge tilt into RPG instead. So it's a logical continuation of the R series, new generation only knew R game anyway and X series was not good for PS1 releases. But since it's still 4 and not some RR, it's also aimed to pose a challenge to the players comparable to the first three DOS games. And the challenge it is - there are a lot of capture pages for this game since mechanics are quite advanced. Another change is that game's played in real time. You need to command three groups in real time and there does not seem to be a pause. It's also easy to lower the mood of certain characters and it would affect the ending directly. So overall a successful revival of the old series.
16. Natsuiro Destiny 夏色デスティニー [980724] Milky Farm
Hero is asked by his grandmother to represent her as administrator of girls dormitory while she is away. He starts living with five girls under the same roof. What kind of adventures await him during this month?
A rare kusoge. The type of the game is similar to Pia Carrot and thus includes some management to be done. Despite the good opening and good-looking visuals what awaits us is totally messed up story composition that does not progress the story unless hero rapes everyone without distinction. Text is also very weak and lacking vocabulary.
17. Pocket Dream -First- Pocket Dream -First- [980724] Vision Soft
A collection of four short stories:
1. ＳＣＥＮＡＲＩＯ＃１【トラブル・エレベーター】
2. ＳＣＥＮＡＲＩＯ＃２【紅茶のおいしい喫茶店】
3. ＳＣＥＮＡＲＩＯ＃３【ホスピタル・ナイト】
4. ＳＣＥＮＡＲＩＯ＃４【プライベート・ティーチャー】
Ero-centered short stories.
18. Rinkaiten ~Critical Point~ 臨界点 ～クリティカル・ポイント～ [980724] Sweet Basil 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
In the early 21st century, a sudden shortage of food and energy sparked World War III, a massive conflict that saw the deaths of millions and brought the population of Earth to 15% of its prewar level. Years later, an uneasy calm has descended on humanity, although a state of war still technically exists. Four power blocs that share control of the Moon and the earth, each looking for a weakness they can exploit against the others.
You are Captain Leiji Osumi of the Free Alliance Space Force, formerly a fighter pilot in the War. Your past is haunted by a terrible incident that caused you to change careers, transferring to the top secret intelligence division. When a series of technical problems on the Free Alliance Moon Base D-02 hint at sabotage, you are dispatched to get to the bottom of things, under the cover of "Technical Advisor."
The military learned long ago that women are better adapted to lonely assignments in space, and so the base is staffed almost entirely by females. Arriving at the base, you discover that an inexplicable sexual insanity has gripped its normally professional staff, prompting further investigation. Are these strange occurrences connected with the sabotage somehow? You have to untangle the mystery and get things back on track before one of the other power blocs notices that anything is amiss and tries to attack.
Game is localized and has lots of English reviews. It has some merit apart of H-scenes, so it will do.
19. Ryuutei Sensou Perpetuum Amor 龍帝戦争 ペルペトゥームアモル [980724] Splash
Dragonoids infest this world, but humans have learned to use dragon shape and fight with it - it got the name Lagonoid. The great dragon war is coming.
AVG sequences change with TBS combats. Graphics slightly rough. There are forced H events in game. There is a system of emotions that influence the battle, but it's rarely of use. A strong debut work of Splash.
20. Dream Generation ~Koi ka? Shigoto ka!?...~ ドリーム・ジェネレーション ～恋か? 仕事か!?...～ [980730] Reindeer 1 2
A graduate student from Shiomidai Highschool, Toranosuke-kun, came back to the town a year later. After attending the class reunion with his old friends, he decided that he has to do something about his future...
What he really wanted to do? After a year later, what he wanted to be...? Based on the path that he will choose from now on, his life is probably going to change.
At the end, he will probably find his dream and his life partner, right...?
Quite a usual dating SIM of classmate type. System is simplified so actions are only possible on weekends. Quite low budget little known work. Partial voicing and lousy storyline don't help. Main feature of the game is that you can choose out of three occupations and that it is very realistic.
21. Ojou-sama Tokkyuu お嬢様特急 [980730] MediaWorks
Ultra luxury limited express "Vega" crossing Japan in 15 days from August 1 to 15 from Hokkaido to Kyushu stopping at each station for 24 hours. The main character rides this express and goes to a trip without destination. What awaits him?
Game is all-age so full-scale tourist sightseeing was added to stir up the interest. Train sequences change with tourist spots one by one and most of the activity is finding out girls and talking to them. It's good as galge and tourist attraction, but not good as text and story oriented work.
22. Sotsugyou M ~Seitokaichou no Kareinaru Inbou~ 卒業M ～生徒会長の華麗なる陰謀～ [980730] westone
In order to find her missing brother, the protagonist follows a clue left by him and teams up with a group of boys from a local boys high school.
Sorry, I won't investigate an Otome game.
23. Yume☆Iro Iro 夢☆色いろ [980730] Feathered 1
Play as a male or female high school student from the first year to the 3rd year graduation ceremony.
Also enjoy 'Dream' Scenarios that take place in completely different settings.
A dating SIM game both for boys and girls and even with different dreams settings. It's another example of failure while trying to make a game for everyone. Dialogues are too simple and there's nothing special in the game.
24. Yuuwaku Office Ren'ai-ka ゆうわくオフィス恋愛課 [980730] Takara 1
In the vein of Tokimeki Memorial, the game follows the protagonist's love affairs inside an average Japanese company.
Raising SIM with work romance as theme. It's unusual for a game to be adults oriented. Stage is toy company so lots of cuteness is provided. It's not a work with high integrity, but heroines are different and there's a good chance everyone would find one to like.
25. 17 Sai ~My Dear Angel~ 17歳 ~My Dear Angel~ [980730] SystemSoft
Main character is a hard-working and prosperous businessman. Out of curiosity he joins "Angel Family" initiative to help lonely children. He pays for Fumika study and gives her consultation when required. However, he suddenly dies from overwork. God pities on his soul and decides to reincarnate protagonist as a young man till Fumika can firmly stand on her feet in life. So he ends up supervising Fumika study managing her daily routine. A SIM, as expected.
26. Angel Parasite エンジェルパラサイト [980731] Loveless 1
In the year 2044, Earth was invaded by a group of huge biological entities only known as "Devil Parasite". They basically rampaged through the Earth like Godzilla and killed off over 80% of the world's population. Now, two years later, in 2046, the remaining humans have gathered together to fight back. A secret research complex was developed to research biological weapons to fight these creatures. You are basically the head of this organization. At this facility, you prepare your biological weapons, which are basically huge variations of the "Devil Parasite" and train the three pilots, Alisa, Casty and Lerike in developing their physical, mental, piloting, as well as their H abilities. To prepare for the inevitable confrontation with a Devil Parasite.
There is an English review.
27. Double Face ダブルフェイス [980731] Janis
Ryou arrives to the school male dormitory and hears rumors that dormitory is cursed. Will he his youth days pass happily around the girls or will the curse impede his plans?
Story development is aggressive and forced. Characters don't feel alive even though girls are fully voiced.
28. luv wave [980731] C's Ware 1
September 2039. XINN, the computer virus that shutdown the world's computers, threatens us again. You, detective Kaoru, must solve who and why, with your new cyborg partner, Alice. However, haven't you met her before?
This game stole my heart right off the bad. My beloved C's Ware made something akin to Ghost in the Shell?! Yes, please! So I made a full review of it.
29. Majo ni Naritai! 魔女になりたい！ [980731] Trush
Emy is a school girl who does not have confidence in either knowledge or appearance. She is ready to sign a contract with devil to become a witch and life a totally different life from the current boring one. Devil's lesson how to become a witch begins!
Game's animated and of erotic contents.
30. Metsu 滅（めつ） [980731] Poison Breath 1
You and your fiancee were driving in your car one night when you were attacked by two people wearing scary masks. They then raped your fiancee, and kill you... and needless to say, you're not happy. After the two thugs leave, taking your fiancee with them and leaving your dead body behind, your soul encounters the ghosts of 3 girls that have also died tragically at the hands of those 2 thugs. With their help, you manage to reanimate your dead body Your primary goal as one of the walking dead is to rescue the person that you love from the bad guys, and take your revenge at the same time.
Game has an English review.
31. Suki Suki Daisuki! 好き好き大好き! [980731] 13cm 1 2
The main character has a desperate rubber fetish and one day he decided to kidnap a girl named Honona who he’s secretly in love with and has been stalking for one and a half years, dressed her with the customized rubber suit he ordered for her, and locked her up in the basement.
There is an English review.
Cross Tantei Monogatari ~Motsureta Nanatsu no Labyrinth~, Double Cast and One ~Kagayaku Kisetsu e~ are the masterpieces of the month, but One ~Kagayaku Kisetsu e~ is the clear winner here.
1. Kimi ni Steady キミにSteady [980605] D.O. 1
Hero is a senior in high school sctudent. He spent summer vacations on part-time job and did not create any memories. Now he intends to definitely find his love by Christmas.
Pure love romance school adventure. Game period is 4 months and you move around the game and trigger events. Game system looks like classmate, but it's made much easier for newer generations. Like triggering events does not advance time and important events are clearly show on the map. But still for newer generation the game remained too difficult. Actually, difficulty varies from very easy to next to impossible. Game relies on minigames a lot since each girl has her own mini-game and there are also games at game center. Still, the characters aren't really cute and the character designs have not gone far from Youjuu Senki. Game was in production for two years and grew old even before release.
2. Tsurushi 吊 [980605] Deep Zone
Ando Reina.. She is my current lover. Cute face and fine body suitable to it. She is also quite popular.
However, recently she has started becoming annoying. If she does not know of my each and every action anyhow, she cannot be satsified. She is a female on the verge of becoming a stalker.
It is troublesome. Actually before Reina, I was going out with Sakakibara Miho. She is pretty unreserved, a good female. She has no desire to monopolize, loves sex and is further my type.
I only wanted to go out with Miho, so I thought...
I consulted with my friend Nakada, to make plans regarding breaking up with Reina. Nakada is an outrageous and inhumane character, even more than I thought. To start off, gets her raped by the homeless guys of the town. He started carrying out various schemes even unthinkable from my standards.
Whoa.. This is awful..
During this opportunity, Reina's friend, a woman named Azumaru Aya got wind of this situation and started giving lots of advice to Reina for the sake of returning to our previous relationship. Because of the fact, I am trying to get Reina's attention and set her up, it is convenient for me.
Once, teacher also joined a number of guys and flooded them with semen. Contrary to Aya's brave co-operation, Reina gradually became miserable.
The covered Aya, looks pretty cute! Eh? Do I like Aya?
Evil Nakada, sex loving Miho, miserable Reina, facing the backfire of her plans Aya and frivolous, I.
The rotten relationships of these 5 people, where will they end up?
Surely...
Single road adventure, but there are immediate bad endings upon wrong choice. And yes, marriage is also a bad ending! Situations are forced to include as much H content as possible.
3. Angel! えーんじぇる！ [980612] Triangle
Hero is an angel apprentice who can not pass the promotion test to angels even though his lover Shirley is already an angel. The chief angel chief decided to impose the final special examination on the hero. Its contents is to go down to the Earth, do good things and earn 100 points in 6 days. If those conditions aren't met the hero will be expelled from the Heavens forever. His powers on Earth are limited to transformation into a strange stuffed animal figure. He appoints two school girls Mikoto and Makoto as his own apprentices and hurries to do the good deeds worth 100 points.
Full voice fun bakage! There are choices during the conversation and depending on those Makoto and Mikoto gain empathy and that directly affects the ending. At important moments Makoto and Mikoto use magic that you pass to them. H-scenes depend directly on the magic you give them. Due to this fact many playthroughs are needed to discover all variations of CG. Slight inconvenience that saving is only possible at the beginning and end of each chapter, but skip function makes it easier. Story is not serious, but moves in a good tempo and contains five chapters stylized to look as anime episodes. It's a big hit among bakage due to high production values and attractive parodies.
4. Misetagari みせたがり [980612] Zero
There is another world where girls who want to show themselves gather. Click on their body parts and let them show to you what they got. Just interactive pickup.
5. Nine Lives ~Hanyafuda Suru Nyan~ ないん☆らいぶす 〜はニャ札するにゃん！〜 [980612] Apricot (old) 1
This is a majong like tile matching game. In the Story mode, our guy found a were-cat that used one of her spare lives to save him. He still has to collect 8 more lives in order not to be turned into a zombie. That and a weird gem makes his life exciting. In the Tournament mode, you can pick one of 8 girls to play with.
There is an English review.
6. Koi no Floating Mine 恋のフローティング・マイン [980618] Active 1
Life is always hard for a student who have to transfer to a new school, especially the fact that you need to start everything over. But there are always exceptions...
Especially if you meet a bunch of pretty girls!
There is an English review for this game. But the review says nothing really relevand apart of the fact that it's short compared to Kakyuusei. I want to defend the game. It's voiced and I found it really amusing. Never got to the girls part though since it's ordinary school setting.
7. Kiwamete! Scandal!? きわめて!スキャンダル!? [980619] Arkham Products
Main hero lives in a luxury condominium and has fun every day.
One time his father got into an accident and his secretary urgently called main hero to take the lead of huge corporation instead of his father for the time of father's hospitalization.
This is how his three scandalous months began ...
SIM. Day is divided into four time zones with lots of activities to do. One of those activities is giving sex instructions to the employees in the education room. There are many parameters to maintain. The main goal of the game is to retain all the female employees and remain corporation's president even after three months' time. It looks horrible at first sight, but in practice it feels more like Rance craziness.
8. Saikai ~Sotsugyou Ryokou '98~ 再会 ～卒業旅行’98～ [980619] Saint
School life is over and classmates go on a graduation trip for four days to Okakura pension house What kind of memories will the hero build over this trip?
First things first - I blocked the prequel for it having a yaoi scenario. Well, here there's also one yaoi scenario, but aestetics is not yaoi-distorted and most of love interests are girls so I'll let it slip. So it's quite a typical romance game. You move around, hit flags for the first days and on the third day you can confess to your love interest with a H-scene following on 4th day. There are 8 heroines to capture (rather 7+1 non-heroine). Each girl has both pure love and eroge sides of scenarios to pick up.
9. Tropical Memories ~Natsuiro no Symphony~ トロピカル・メモリーズ ～夏色シンフォニー～ [980619] h.m.p
Hero is high school 3rd grade student. He can't talk with girls because of shyness and uneasiness feeling. He likes popular girl Erika. It is rumored that she prefers sportsmen. Because of that hero is going to train mind and body during the summer in order to confess to the lady of his heart. He knows that Erika spends the summer at elite Pao Pao resort. It's impossible to get there without prior reservation, so hero applies for a part-time job on the island. And so summer begins.
Yet another 3D SIM by hmp. Did not get far there and there are no reviews to confirm the ending.
10. Cross Tantei Monogatari ~Motsureta Nanatsu no Labyrinth~ クロス探偵物語～もつれた7つのラビリンス～ [980625] WorkJam 1
The player takes the role of a young 18 years old detective (Koruso Ken) aided by his partner, a young girl of 19 years old (Nishiyama Tomoko) that got a detective agency. The game features 7 different cases that take place in different parts of the city and outside the city, with different characters and suspects in each episode.
Since there are a lot of cases to handle the development proceeds in a good tempo with a lot of lively characters around. It's one of the most technologically advanced works of the time, so it manages to astonish all the time. That's a true masterpiece for those who can stand detective stories. I can't.
11. Double Cast ダブルキャスト [980625] SCEI 1 2 3 4 5 6
The game begins with you, the main character, waking up at a fountain to the face of a pretty girl. You are a high school boy, and this girl has helped you out of the garbage where you had passed out in a drunken stupor. (Talk about first impressions!) As it turns out, she cannot remember anything about herself except for her name, Akasaka Mitsuki. Since she has no place to stay, you offer your own, and so begins your unusual relationship with this spirited girl. When your film club finds itself in need of a female lead, Mitsuki joins in, and from there the main story begins to unfold.
There is enough English info, but it's very dry, so let's spice it up. Full voice full animation interactive movie. Game starts as a heartwarming story, but since the middle turns into a suspense horror. Game is all about discovering endings - there are 27 of them plus one special if you discover all 27. Few options and endings are available at first but more and more options are added with discovered endings. Skipping and choosing episode to start with help, but still a guide is almost a necessity to find some of them. Surprisingly interesting game with high production values, but only for PS1 and PSP.
12. High School Terra Story ハイスクールテラストーリー [980625] Uran 1 2 3
Basically, you have about three and an half months to finish the game with one girl. Each day, you start out at school and you have a parameter with three sections: Studies, Athletics, and Art. Depending on how you build up this parameter and how you inter- act with the characters, the story will change. You also receive love points if you answers questions by the girls you interact with correctly. You do not freely move in this game, it directs you by your parameter and how you answer questions with the girls. You can choose which girl you want to finish the game with by using that method. You also earn money and you have a meter that tells you how tired you are.
There are two good English reviews on the game.
13. Mormotte [980625] Outgrid
Serizawa Koichi lost all previous memories after brain surgery. On awakening he learns that he agreed to participate in experiment for 31 day. During that time he's placed in a certain location together with other people. What kind of future will he choose?
Basically Koichi travels around the place and rises likability of girls he likes. The development is aggressive in H department and makes up for half-baked feeling.
14. Ace of Spades 2 [980626] Love Gun
There is a special casino that only accepts customers who bring women partners along. The bet there is not money, but women as the losing side has to pass woman to the winner.
There's no real story, just tabletop games. There is even a mode without H events on winning. The number of HCG is big.
15. Forest In The Dark - Kuraki Mori ni Tsudou Yume フォレスト・イン・ザ・ダーク 暗き森に集う夢 [980626] Speed
The elder of the clan dies and leaves mysterious instructions to determine his heir - to find memory card game and play it to the end till next full moon. There are only several days left till the next full moon and thus hero arrives to the forest mansion to try his luck.
Game takes only four days with first day being arrival, second and third being heroine routes and fourth the ending. Each route is focused on the past of the hero and selected heroine. There's not enough time neither for relationship nor for memories regain, so overall development is hasty.
16. Kyou*shi ~Nerawareta Seifuku~ 狂＊師 ～ねらわれた制服～ [980626] Crowd 1
The story behind the game is about you being hired as a teacher at an all girls school. And because of the pervert you are, you somehow take advantage of the girl students around you. There are three different linear story-lines depending on chosen specialization: P.E teacher, Arts teacher, or a Chem teacher.
There is an English review.
17. Mayaku 魔薬 [980626] Flady 1
Hero is a high school chemistry teacher. Accidentally he produces a powerful aphrodisiac. He indents to test the new medicine on different female students.
There's no real story as we just pick one of the girls pictures and move right to the H mode. Oh, and there's an English review.
18. One ~Kagayaku Kisetsu e~ ONE ～輝く季節へ～ [980626] Tactics 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
One's story revolves around Kouhei Orihara, the main protagonist, who suspects that at some point his current life will change while living a peaceful daily routine. Due to this, he begins to seclude himself in the Eternal World, a world within his mind. The game's main recurring motif is a focus on the Eternal World, a mystical alternate space which is never clearly explained, and the details of which are unknown.
Game is localized and has many English reviews.
19. Ryoujoku ~Suki Desu ka?~ 凌辱～好きですか?～ [980626] Ail
Hero has a debt unable to be repaid. One day he finds a suspicious medicine while working and uses it on girls out of curiosity. Girls become lustful as a result. Hero gets used to such life ... is it suffering or blissful life that awaits him?
Insulting game and insult scenes are voiced which was still very rare.
20. The Grand Hotel ザ・グランドホテル [980626] Janis
Meg and Alice graduated this spring and they are best friends.
They are trying to find job at the Luxury Hotel "Grand Hotel". The final exam is to pick up the debts from long-standing patrons.
However, all the patrons are weirdo. Will they be able to adapt?
Game is ADV with some SIM elements like money. So you wander around the rooms and ... practically anything can be inside. It's a parody game on the verge of sanity. One of the endings even says that hotel was a training ground for space mission and they both go to space. So it's probably an eroge, but a merry one.
21. Update あっぷでーと [980626] Pinpai
Main character registers on the meeting web site by friend's advice. Will he be able to find his love and meet her in real world?
Well you write a letter and choose a topic for beginning, middle and end. And if you mail suits girl's character, she responds. You can keep sending replies of fair, good or best quality. Then if everything is ok there's a meeting of net friends in a real life and then a possible date. There are two H-events for each character. The most fascinating route is of protagonist's ex-girlfriend as the story unfolds her dark net past.
22. Viper-M1 [980627] Sogna 1 2 3 4 5
Sogna combined the best of both worlds in VIPER-M1: a modern, Windows-based interface and a set of three smaller games, reminiscent of the earlier V series titles. Super-heroine story My Mothers features cover girl Mika in her attempt to rescue a prospective boyfriend. Coming of age tale Green Boy follows Natane and her two older sisters as they welcome a strange young man into their home. The May Works focuses on a schoolgirl, Maki, as she flees from an alien invasion of her hometown.
There are English reviews.
23. My Dear Arenaga Oji-san My Dear アレながおじさん [980628] Blue Gale
Five girls have been receiving allowance by a mysterious uncle. Now as they have grown up they are summoned to the mysterious uncle's mansion to help him recover from an old snake bite.
I adore the game's opening. The contents is surprisingly light. There are dozens of endings and in most of them the uncle gets killed. Can't say there's much humor in here, but what happens on the screen is usually very funny. The number of H events is moderate - four for each of five girls. And HCG are too crude as if it's a doujin game.
24. Lady Lady God-damn Night [980630] Hyperspace
Amami Hitoyo is a daughter of huge corporation chief, but she mostly does private detective investigations as a hobby. Akashi Michi is a high school cheerful and attentive student girl who joins Amami as assistant detective. Together they investigate a kidnapping case with clues hidden all over Europe and Africa.
Game is special for being a serious involving experience with number of H events not that big. The difficulty is very high and unforgiving - one mistake or failure investigate all the spots at certain location leads to a bad end. Even though the graphic quality is lacking the charm of the heroines and the curious cases in different cities make up for it.
Foreword: I don't believe Alice Soft - they can only make eroge and bakage. But this game was highly praised overseas. Who knows, maybe it's the game that can overcome my aversion.
Title: Diabolique
Developer: Alice Soft Date: 1998-05-28 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v2261
Synopsis: In this world, here are two kinds of intelligent beings. One are humans and the other are Diaboliques. Diaboliques possess power, violence, intelligence, and eternal life. Their life form was categorized into four levels, the lowest division lacking intelligence, reproduction ability and beauty and the fourth being very intelligent and able to change form.
For thousands of years, human race has been suppressed by the danger of diabolique. However, a legend has passed on through generation that there's diabolique that kills its own species. This diabolique was Azulite - one of the only five Lord Diabolique (the ones of highest category). Being known as the "species killer," Azulite has come up to kill diaboliques. At here, he met a girl named Letticia. Her innocence and tragic background has attracted Azulite, and soon Azulite fell in love with her. However, the two lovers were separated after Letticia was killed. They promised to see each other when she was reincarnated. Carrying with the promise, Azulite once again set off on a journey looking for Letticia.
Structure: There are roughly five big parts corresponding to five different time periods. Length: 16 hours Game type: Command selection adventure Difficulty: Easy. Story is one way road and bad ends are possible only if make a bad decision in battle. Even then the game kindly suggests to load from the beginning of the battle rather than finding your earlier savegame. Character Design rating: 8/10
Protagonist rating: 10/10
Story rating: 10/10
Game quality: 9/10
Overall rating: 10/10
Rating comments: Two games in a row with a 10/10... either my standards are that low or the games are that good. I actually stand for the latter. My only complain to game quality is that it's not voiced and music only lasts for couple minutes and fades before the next scene is reached. And I did not particularly like the way the five Lord Diaboliques were presented. We get short scenes with them between the main Azurite story parts and only by the mids of fifth final part we're told their names and their governing elements. So through the game they are just random guys and when we get acquainted to them, there's already a climax part pending. I'd like to get more of Lord Diabolique characters.
Protagonist: Azurite is absolutely fabulous as a protagonist. He lost most of his memory, but he knows that he's the strongest of Lord Diaboliques. He remembers he's searching for something and wanders around killing his kin and getting food and shelter for that. He travels in a human form and he looks like a very tall elf with his long hair, slender body and big sword. But in this cruel world drowned in blood he's the only gentelman. He's very polite, kind, good-mannered and modest. He never drawn his sword against any human no matter how bad he's bullied or hunted (well, not in human state at least he-he). And he's a one-woman man. From the moment he met Leticia in humiliating conditions he felt a deep sympathy towards her. He's never laid an eye on any other woman and when one woman throughout the story tried to force herself on him, his manhood could not react at all. He's very loyal and that makes the story unique. Well, he's quite sensitive too and he can afford to cry when he's with Leticia. He's a great cook and at mornings he always greets Leticia in an apron and with a ladle inviting her to have breakfast.
Characters: Each of the five story parts has its own set of characters. I adore party adventures and story part 2 and 3 were about adventuring in two different parties and that was absolutely cool. I really liked those different party members with fancy characters, but they don't play significant role. Only Leticia follows throughout all the parts (actually, even she's absent in one part) and enemies. There is also Aria girl that has an important role in 4th and 5th story parts, so let's look at those two girls.
Leticia: Well... she's different. Part 1 shows us canonical abused scary girl. Part 2 is an absolutely different, bold and picky personality and a different appearance. Part 3 is again totally different from those two, but I would not like to spoil here. In Part 4 she's absent and in Part 5 she's basically canonical Leticia again, but she remembers all the previous reincarnations as well. Well, she's quite a typical heroine like in many single heroine stories. Sensitive scared crybaby who knows next to nothing about the world and that gives Azurite an opportunity to act protective and teach her basic facts about the world. But as for me, Part 2 and Part 3 Leticia reincarnations are much cooler, totally different personalities and great stories.
Aria: She's a usual native Indian girl, curious and brave. She recovers Azurite body when he falls into a trap and takes care of him while he recovers. But Azurite falls into the same trap for the second time (well, he's not wisest man) and she dies stepping up and getting all the blows that were ment for Azurite. That's an inevitable spoiler because there's not point discussing Aria as human. Azurite makes a misfortune (intelligent creation) of her she stays protecting those ruins and waiting for Azurite. Well, that's the biggest charm about this girl. She's becomes a killing machine, but she regains her memories - she looses humanity, but she has intelligence and senses. She's condemned to wait for Azurite for hundreds years in that dark den and eventually he comes... not alone, but with Leticia. There's a very touching scene of jealousy risen inside Aria towards Leticia and that and her damned fate make her a very memorable character.
Story: Story is superb throughout first four story parts. There's a lot of diabolique fights, lots of death, lots of adventuring. Part 2 and 3 features adventuring inside two different parties and that's just the best moments of the game. Part two is also a perfect slice of life on top of that. So we get to know Leticia in part 1 and eventually lose her. In part 2 after 60 years we discover her soul in a different girl and eventually lose her. At this point I already thought I knew what would happen in leftover parts. But part 3 is totally shocking - there's no Azurite in it, there's no Leticia in it - main three characters are a pub girl, a huge warrior woman and pub girl's brother who wishes to go adventuring and joins that huge warrior woman. For two hours the story lingers and you start to put up with the fact that's it's a totally different story when - BAM - Azurite appears in a totally unexpected way - BAM - Leticia appears and the chapter shortly ends. Ok... now I adjusted my expectations and the leftover stories were bound to be the same Azurite is searching for Leticia, but in other humans forms, easy as that. And fourth chapter gives another shock - there's Azurite in his usual for throughout the whole chapter, but Leticia does not make appearance in this chapter at all - not her soul, pretty much nothing! Just wow. So fifth chapter should finally be about meeting of two heroes, right? NOT. For one and a half hour you watch a slice of life about 7-year old reincarnated Leticia and her 7-year old friends. And I'd like to assure you that watching a slice of life about 7-year old first graders is not fun in any way - that was the most torturing part of the game. But fifth part is the longest one (about 5 hours long), so there is enough time for heroes union and new confrontation setting and final resolution. I'll tackle the fifth chapter in Themes more.
CG: There's a lot of CG, actually. I'm totally satisfied by is quantity and quality. Here are some gore CG for the taste of it. There's a lot of CG, actually. I'm totally satisfied by is quantity and quality. Here are some gore CG for the taste of it.
HCG: Believe it or not, but there are only two and a half hentai scenes in the game. Two scenes for 16 hour long gameplay. I'm sorry, is this really Alice Soft? Well, it is. In order to make up with just two H-scenes there are a lot of half-naked/naked shots. A lot of enemies are drawn the way to amplify eroticism. There are a lot of flashbacks and occasional nudity scenes, so don't worry, it's very much Alice Soft, just adapted to fit the pure love eternal reincarnation story. And the only Azurite and Leticia H event is one of the most memorable in my gaming experience. There's no music and no voice during that. Only the rising and fainting gusts of wind are heard. The scene is maid as manga scrolling strips overlapping each other with up to 4 small screens deployed at one time. Very beautiful and touching.
Sound: Sound is my biggest complain. I'm used to unvoiced games, that's ok. But each bgm fades after some two minutes and during the rest of the scene there's dead silence so I really often had to check whether I forgot to turn on sound or something. Actually, there are also nice sound effects during actions, but everyday life scenes lack them a lot.
Themes: So first four chapters were pretty much brainless merry adventures with some sad resolutions. I loved those the most. But then came final fifth chapter and game suddenly turned into a nakige. The great diabolique/human war broke out and our heroes are hunted from both sides as well as by four Lord Diabolique. Leticia shakes in hysteria crying that's she's tired of running and hiding asking to leave her alone. Azurite is totally depressed as well because he can't give anything besides his feelings to the woman he loves. Those are very depressing scenes that last throughout the whole fifth chapter. But at the same time a lot of serious questions are raised.
1) Time brings change. Leticia was hiding in the forests with Azurite for 11 years and now she's 18 and she's tired, she wants a normal life. Feelings alone aren't a solid basis of relations.
2) What's better - to reincarnate, lose memory and start anew or to keep on living? Surprisingly, I feel like the game says that reincarnating even with memory loss is much better. First four chapters are a vivid example of it. It used to be a great romance story, but once heroes got together and Leticia turned 18 things have changed. She'll soon get old and die of boredom in the forest. Bearing the burden of past lives memory is already difficult. So when fire kings visits her alone in the forest and suggests to wipe her memory she's pretty much ready for both memory wipe and even death and reincarnation since reality has turned into such a heavy burden.
3) What's good and what's evil? Diabolique Lords are almighty cruel creatures that enslave humans, but with the story flow we start to see their characters, their griefs, their losses and they aren't seen as evil anymore. Humans used to be on losing side, but with the invention of firearms the balance shifted and humans started to kill even 24 Diaboliques getting very close to hunting Diabolique Lords. While diaboliques mostly used humans for sex pleasures, humans started to torture diaboliques just for the sake of revenge and those tortures were inhumane. At fifth chapter we're given the ultimate choice - shall we support the Diabolique Lords or shall we keep on hiding and fighting diaboliques. Supporting Diabolique Lords leads us to the first game ending with Azurite regained memories and power of Lord Diabolique of darkness and Leticia happily living with him. This is not a true ending, but I don't see it as a bad ending either. Humans with their lowly desires are hardly better than diabliques. While they were weak, they used to humiliate their own kin. And the story of Leticia in Part 1 is a vivid example of that. Now they got the power and they start to torture and humiliate even diabolique gods. Under diabolique lords dominance the Earth survived for thousands of years and they never really cared much about the humans, never tried to wipe them. And there's big question whether the human dominance going to be better. Azurite understands that and he chooses the third way. No spoilers.
Humor: I don't really need humor to enjoy the story, but it can be a very nice addition to the story. In this game those seldom humor moments present were of Alice Soft bakage heritage. Here's one example of its "humor". Chapter 2 Leticia takes Azurite's clothes and gets to wash it while Azurite sits covered with a blanket. He wants to get breakfast and set coffee, but Leticia notices that it's dangerous and he could get a scorch. Azurite suggests that he wears an apron to prevent that. -But you don't have anything to wear, all your clothes is being washed! -I can wear an apron as I am! -NO! PLEASE! NO WAY!
Overall comments: Atlach-Nacha was the first game of Alice Soft to shake my beliefs in Alice Soft as a sucky company. But it's Diabolique that made me surrender and shake off all the grunts. Diabolique is really an astonishing adventure and pure love story. It's ever surprising, mysterious nature keeps the thrill on all the time and I finished this 16 hour story in just two sittings. It has plenty of touching moments and an ultimately satisfactory ending. It's a waste to bury such story just because the game is old, has command selection gameplay and meciocre sound support. You can always glimpse on the game through my video playthrough as well.
Diabolique and Hajimari no Kisetsu ~Izakaya Fuyu Monogatari~ are the masterpieces of the month, but Diabolique is a product of much bigger scale and thus is VN of the Month.
1. White Album [980501] Leaf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
You play a university student whose girlfriend from highschool, Morikawa Yuki, is starting to become a very popular idol singer. Unfortunately, her popularity puts a strain on your relationship; you must either try to maintain the relationship or find someone else.
Game has many English reviews.
2. Yoi Sakura 宵桜 [980501] Fuuro
Keiichi Kikuchi is a 3rd grade student who likes to read and talks to the flowers on the roadside. There is a girl who is afraid to confess her feelings to him, there are cats who attack people at nights and there are other evils at school. Everything shall depend on the actions of the hero.
Setting is a mess and game relies on it only occasionally. Period is 5 days and you just wander around the school and bump into events, then night times and you wander some more generating different kind of events. The invasion of cats, occasional scary events, indifference towards events nearby - it all looks very random and fragmented. There are many mistakes in the text. Girls endings aren't seen as happy endings. There are still many well depicted insult scenes so probably it was ment as an eroge.
3. Akai Hitomi no Serafu 紅い瞳のセラフ [980502] Bishop
Kogo and his lover Ai are in a relationship for two years, but they never were intimate with each other. Even when Kogo's parents go on a trip his suggestion is rejected by Ai. Kago tried to summon a love angel with a spell, but failed with it. As a result, love of this world was confined and in order to save love he needs to enter the spirit world, interact with its inhabitants and rescue love withing a limited time period.
One way road with only bad ending on time limit expiration. Bishop is an eroge maker company, but this first work can actually be viewed as pure love story despite having some harsh content.
4. Kana-chan no Kanzen Kyuuketsu Manual かなちゃんの完全吸血マニュアル [980515] Segue Laboratory
Vampire girl Kana-chan is less than adult, but more than kid. She lives in the vampire family of four where only mother is actually a human. These are stories about Kana-chan first experiments with sexuality.
No synopsis to be found around, but CG don't really feature vampires and blood, it's sucking something else.
5. P.D. The Gate City P.D. The Gate City [980515] Platinum Soft
From ancient times there have been evil spirits to mislead human hearts. Paranormal awakening was become a way to combat these spirits. Awakening must be done through stimulating sensual body parts. Today this function is transferred to P.D. - psycho detectives. Main character such a detective who encounters a case of
ghost possession at an official reception.
Sadly, H-action still dominates here.
6. Succubus ~Ochita Tenshi~ サキュヴァス ～堕ちた天使～ [980515] Akatonbo
Main character Toshiki Kannazuki is an ordinary salaryman who lives with his lover. One day cousin invited his lover on a trip to Middle East country Taglania. Toshiki reluctantly agreed to let them go. However, an aircraft crash accident occurs and Toshiki flies over to try to identify the bodies. On arrival he meets a mysterious beauty Maya. He accepts her hospitality not knowing that succubus inhabits this region.
Story is actually very thin compared to the synopsis. Both girls are alive and are entangled into strange activities... that make the game NTR type. There are as many as 14 endings. Voicing is highly praised here.
7. Sunadokei 砂時計 [980521] Bell-Da
A corpse of a man is found at the hotel beach. The protagonist is an aspiring detective who agrees to solve this case while chasing after pretty girls staying at the hotel.
The whole investigation is asking pretty girls what they know/saw/think and that eventually solves the case. It's mostly an erotic game.
8. Castle Fantasia キャッスルファンタジア [980522] Studio e.go! 1 2
You are a knight named Varu who has a very beautiful girlfriend and is very happy with her. However, one day their kingdom get involved in a war, and the girl's parents die in it. After some time, an unknown religious organization appears in the city. Varu's girlfriend is in such a grief after the death of her parents, that she decides the world has nothing to offer to her, joins the adepts of the new religion, and leaves the city. Varu becomes very depressed after this separation, but when he learns the religious group which took away his girlfriend became an evil cult that kidnaps girls and seeks resurrection of demons. But even more awful is the fact his ex-girlfriend is now the leader of this cult...
There's an English review of it.
9. Inu-domo no Jigoku 犬どもの地獄 [980522] Vision 1
Hero visits an inn in the town for the first time in 20 years. 20 years ago a tragedy happened there and he's interested in reinvigorating old memories. However, he can also make new memories with pretty girls of the inn.
Game is definitely an eroge. Vision excels in animation and there is indeed a huge number of animated H events here.
10. Yami no Sasayaki ~Dark Whisper~ 闇のささやき～Dark Whisper～ [980522] Misty
Michitaka Michigami studies at a full board school that puts a huge emphasis on martial arts. Students aren't allowed to leave school grounds and keep any devices including radio and there's a habit to obey teachers orders there. Hero and girl Reiko rebelled against excessively strict measures and got close to each other on this basis. What are the prohibited locations in this school for and what kind of experiment is being held there?
Single road adventure. SF school setting. Did not get far there due to bug of cycled dialogue options, but game has a very distinct erotic tilt.
11. Diabolique DiaboLiQuE－デアボリカ－ [980528] Alice Soft 1 2
In this world, here are two kinds of intelligent beings. One are humans and the other are Diaboliques. Diaboliques possess power, violence, intelligence, and eternal life. Their life form was categorized into four levels, the lowest division lacking intelligence, reproduction ability and beauty and the fourth being very intelligent and able to change form.
For thousands of years, human race has been suppressed by the danger of diabolique. However, a legend has passed on through generation that there's diabolique that kills its own species. This diabolique was Azulite - one of the only five Road Diabolique (the ones of highest category). Being known as the "species killer," Azulite has come up to kill diaboliques. At here, he met a girl named Letticia. Her innocence and tragic background has attracted Azulite, and soon Azulite fell in love with her. However, the two lovers were separated after Letticia was killed. They promised to see each other when she was reincarnated. Carrying with the promise, Azulite once again set off on a journey looking for Letticia.
There is an English review on this work, but I also wrote mine anyway.
12. Namaashi Club 5 x 5 生足くらぶ 5×5 [980528] Jam
Game imitates a TV show in which 5 females and 5 males ask questions to each other, fulfill tasks, form sympathy and form a couple if the sympathy is mutual.
There are five girls and five mini-games to win favorability. Game's pretty short.
13. Renkinjutsu no Musume 錬金術の娘 [980528] Black Package 1
Hero was born in a rich house and he uses assets to finance extreme alchemy experiments to recover lost secrets. There are three students in this academy to take care of and try new inventions effects in dungeons with.
So it's a raising SIM with items combinations. Visiting a private room with one of the three students is possible, but students coverage is thin. There's hardly any explanation at all. Not even of items do or when the next dungeon trip occurs and that's pretty bad since going in the dungeon without items is not good. No significant story noticed.
14. Shoujo Kakumei Utena ~Itsuka Kakumeisareru Monogatari~ 少女革命ウテナ いつか革命される物語 [980528] Sega 1 2
A side story of the Shoujo Kakumei Utena, set between episodes 8 and 9 of the TV series.
The protagonist is a female student who transfers to Ohtori Academy and becomes involved with the political intrigue and sword duels that characterize it.
There are two English reviews.
15. Dawn Slave ~Kisezu Toriko to Sareta Hime no Tokoro to Kokoro to Yoridokoro~ DAWN＊SLAVE ～期せず擒とされた姫の處と心と拠～ [980529] Ume Soft
When our guy found out that the princess he loves is going to be married out of country in a month, he hired a sorceress to help him kidnap her. The sorceress told him that a hero will come to rescue the princess in one month, so that is all the time he has to love or play with her. What will he do?
H training SIM with lots of different windows and menus. There are lots of endings. E.g. there are 4 endings dedicated to the death of heroine and 17 more endings depending on training result.
16. Gekka Bijin 月花美人 [980529] Speed 1 2 3
You just moved out from home where your stepmother and stepsister live, into a house where four other females live, including the landlady/caretaker. You also study in a local temple.
As you soon find out, the monk you are learning from is a master of SM training, and you are to become a SM trainer under his guidance. Also, the landlady is the widow to one of the monk's pupil. The husband passed away before he can finish training her, and she has been in depression ever since. Now it fells on your shoulder to finish her training and lead her to happiness. Along the way you will also have the opportunities to interact/train other tenants in the house.
There are several English reviews.
17. Hajimari no Kisetsu ~Izakaya Fuyu Monogatari~ はじまりの季節 ～居酒屋冬物語～ [980529] R.A.N Software 1
The protagonist's relationship with his girlfriend is not doing very well. She's even being courted by his boss! In an effort to rekindle their love, he takes her on a vacation to a ski resort. But will that be enough to win back her heart?
Game has a good English review.
18. Koko wa Rakuensou 3 ここは楽園荘3 [980529] Foster
His girlfriend from #1 came back. Now what is he going to do since he already has a girlfriend from #2. He will have to decide which one he wants, but in the mean time, he still enjoys the girls around him. This time, he can pick one of two girlfriends or stay the same as before.
Third part of the series is not translated to English and thus less known. The love triangle is a new feature, but the game really treats relations lightly. When found in a pinch hero just goes to sleep and it gets to resolve somehow by itself. And there are still lots of sub-heroines for cheerful and light H events.
19. Konpeki Tou Kumiai 紺碧塔組合 [980529] Outlaw
Master Ladrinado Oz traveled to the Emerald City adventurer guild headquarters to become a hero. Together with the seven companions their adventure begins.
Even though it's SRPG, there aren't its usual elements like attack or defend stats or elements... mechanics take some time to get used to, like attacking is not profitable, but counterattack is much more favorable. Your enemies will include sailor schoolgirls, shrine maidens, swimsuit schoolgirls etc
20. Mind [980529] Manbou Soft
Kitamiya is a shop clerk at purchasing department of high school. Using a dubious aphrodisiac that does remain in the memory he sets up physical examination sessions for various girls.
Volume is small and contents ero-centered. Neither scenario, nor characters are appealing.
21. Monmon Gakuen ~Tenkousei~ もんもん学園～ten・ko・sei～ [980529] JAST 1 2 3 4 5
I am a dreamer. Whether I'm fantasizing about my upperclassman Terumi-senpai or Dad's hot new wife, all I need to make my dreams come true is a box of tissue and a little privacy -- preferably in my bathroom stall, second from the left. I like to roam the school or town for delicious girls who I can meet and have sex with in my fantasy world.
I like even created my own personal "dream girl" to make my sexual fantasies even better. She's the perfect girl for me in every way -- just the right hair and face, graceful yet willing to please me. Her name is Shiho. Imagine my surprise when my "imaginary" girlfriend transfered into my school one day! I couldn't believe it, but there she was, the Shiho of my fantasy world, right in front of me. Will it be possible for me to discover the true nature of Shiho and why she has come to me?
Having my fantasy girl come to life has been pretty confusing, but it's just part of how complex my life has become lately. My stepsister, Motoka, seems to have picked up a thing for me, which is a turn-on, I admit, but jeez, she's like my sister, even if we're not related by blood. My stepmother, Akemi, keeps dressing in sexy lingerie around the house because she says it's hot. And Terumi-senpai, the upperclassman I hang around with, keeps treating me like a kid even though I want to show her I'm really a man. What's a guy to do?
Game is localized and has several English reviews.
22. Psycho Therapist Min サイコセラピスト眠 [980529] J-Box
Psycho therapist receives patients and helps them to overcome their complexes.
A nukige of not really high quality.
23. Reborn's Day ~Tsukiyo no Dekigoto~ Reborn's Day ～月夜の出来事～ [980529] Pinpai 1
Hero stayed at school on a full moon night. In the moonlight he saw the girls that were different from usual. They had scars due to their own weaknesses and desires that remained hidden at daytime.
Will the hero be able to feel their wounds?
Story is shaped as hero's monologue. Basically, there's little story. Hero wanders around the school in the evening and some events momentarily occur to him. Game is of fragmentary nature and ends with a fancy which is a waste for the unique atmosphere it creates. There are several heroine ends, but there are also some not pleasant bad ends. Text is good, but it's a sensualist thing rather than a coherent story. There's an English review.
24. Ronron 3 on 6 Bishoujo Mahjong Battle RONRON3on6 美少女麻雀バトル [980529] Hanamaru
Strip mahjong with erotic scenes depend on main character choice : normal man, perverted SM man and lesbian foreigner girl.
Since it's a mahjong game... who cares.
25. Kusairo no Hitomi 腐色の瞳 [9805] RGB
People have feared darkness from ancient times, so they exposed themselves to the light. To protect themselves they started using armors and swords and invented ethics to get rid of anxieties. Cthulhu myths materialize in this darkness and assault the girls full of primordial terror.
Rare Cthulhu-themed doujin game
Love Escalator, Kojin Kyouju: La Leçon Particulière and First Kiss☆Story are the masterpieces of the month, but Love Escalator is a more accessible and original story.
1. Oudou Yuusha 王道勇者 [980402] Alice Soft 1 2
You are awaken without any memory of your past. You don't know where you have come from, you don't even know your name. You are found by a kind-hearted little girl who brings you to the best swordsman on the Western Continent. You live happily. But you know that you've had a life before that. You are determined to discover your true identity. You travel to the Eastern Continent, hoping to find someone who knew the real you. But you don't know yet that your story is entwined with the fate of the entire world...
Oudou Yuusha is a RPG with the single hero (default name Zanba) fighting enemies, collecting treasure, and leveling up. Dialogues and cut scenes are displayed as text super-imposed on still anime-style pictures, like in Japanese adventures. Once in exploration mode, the screen is divided into a large auto-map, statistics screen, and a small window that shows pictures of the location the hero is currently in. The turn-based battles (occurring at set points) are viewed from a platform perspective, like in fighting games, with the health bars of the hero and the opponents displayed above. The hero can attack, use items, or charge to execute a stronger attack.
There's an English review for this game
2. Sotsugyou 3 ~Wedding Bell~ 卒業3 ～Wedding Bell～ [980402] Shogakukan 1
The game begins with the teacher, who is the player married with one of his students. The principal finds out and asks the student to be expelled from the school. The teache makes a deal with the principal that this secret life with his students will not be revealed to the public and he also promises that he will coach his students all the way to an A when they graduate.
There is an English review for this game.
3. Galactic Guardian Guynarock R 銀聖戦神ガイナロックR [980403] Sogna
Elly and her space station crew of four other women must defend the base from an alien invasion.
This is the fourth and last game in Guynarock franchise. I've made a full playthrough of it. I liked that it's not just a remake, but a new story which makes for the third volume with distinctive storyline. The synopsis of all the works is the same, but the enemies are absolutely different each time. Here there are evolved species with titanium cores, the toughest enemies so far. I liked the story behind the enemies, the animations and conflict resolution. I also appreciated the minimal attention to H events and the very unexpected ending scene.
4. Nineteen -19- Nineteen -19- [980403] Bell-Da
6 teenagers, 3 boys and 3 girls, 19 years old each, and a mature woman offering her help for the daily cooking, are spending one week together in a villa...
Most of them never experienced a first love yet and it's clear some of them are expecting a lot from this opportunity...
As one of the boy you are tempted to either seduce the girl you have a crush on, or protect an innocent girl from the evil lust of a cold hearted comrade... The choice is yours...
Short multiple endings game. One playthrough takes only some 2 hours. Protagonist is quite cool here as he's bad mouth on the surface, but gentle and protecting inside. Heroines have distinctive and funny personalities. The game is too simple to take seriously, but there should definitely be fans of bright short character-driven branches.
5. Sakura Taisen 2 ~Kimi, Shinitamou koto Nakare~ サクラ大戦２～君、死にたもうことなかれ～ [980404] Sega 1 2 3 4 5 6
One year have passed since final battle of first game. During this year Ichiro Oogami was abroad and he returns to Kagekidan in the beginning of the game. Soon new enemies are showed themselves. Kokkikaigogyoushuu (lit. - meeting of five demons) and ther leader - Oniou (lit. - demon king) trying to destroy a peacefull life of Imperial Capital. At the same time two new members joined Kagekidan - ladylike half-Japanese/half-Italian Orihime Soletta and quiet and serious german Reni Milchstrasse. While game progresses it is appeared that Oniou is not a real leader of new enemies but he has his own mystery...
Game has many English reviews
6. Kojin Kyouju: La Leçon Particulière 個人教授 La Leçon Particulière [980410] MYCOM 1
In the game, the player plays the role of a new high school teacher who is asked by numerous girls to instruct them in private lessons to prepare them for college entrance exams. Right. I'm sure that's the only thing going on here...
It's a dating SIM, but first you'll have to raise girl's stats and your own stats... it's not unusual for this game to pop up quiz out of nowhere. The nature of questions is of junior high school level, so younger players probably won't be able to pass further. Girls are also very beautiful and truthfully written, so it's possible to name this game a masterpiece.
7. Chaos Queen Ryouko Story #3 Moriyama Ikumi Hen カオスQUEEN遼子 STORY#3 森山郁美編 [980410] Scoop
Assistant Shinichi is having a sweet dream of chasing a girl, but is woken up by Ryouko who is pleasing Shinichi. Ryouko is so starved for love that she even satisfies with man's company now. She sends Shinichi out to find new young girls in order to give them love consultation.
This part is the most erotic of the three. There's much less time for talking and joking now. The number of animated scenes increased.
8. Nemurenu Yoru ni 眠れぬ夜に [980410] Seal Staff
Yuichi Okamoto keeps seeing the same dream every night. It is about a girl pleasing herself in a bungalow. At school he sees his classmate Shinagawa Shinna who is the same girl that appears in his dreams.
The next day during the dream she opens up the curtains, approaches and says "hug me".
Game is single road, but there are choices that result in immediate game over. It's comfortable that previously chosen bad choices are lighted in different color. There are six heroines including the main one. Game is quite obscure.
9. Princess Danger 2 ぷりんせすでんじゃあ√2 [980410] Studio Jikkenshitsu
In search for Ayumi her most loyal follower Pochi goes on a big adventure. However, in the absence of invincible monarch a clever trap is set up by the west demonic gods. Will Pochi rescue Ayumi?
It's a different main heroine this time as well as game system - it's of suguroku style as you roll dice and move to destined location. Story is very difficult to control this way and ending is elusive. But the crazy bakage style humor and eroticism of the prequel are still here.
10. Sakurairo no Tegami 桜色の手紙 [980410] Blue Bell
Shoji Kano thought to confess to the childhood friend Chiharu after passing entrance exams to the university, but failed to pass. A letter from distant relative and first love Mizuho arrives asking "Would you want to come and visit us?". The same letter comes to Chihary so they go together. Mysterious events will happen to them there.
Story has a flavor of fairy tale since heroes start seeing mysterious girls under the sakura tree at night. The whole text is shaped as protagonist's monologue. Story lacks excitement and the highest point is anticlimactic. Chiharu root is the only true ending and other characters roots are seen as bad ending.
11. Sanya Monogatari ~Sorezore no Omoide~ 三夜物語 ～それぞれの思い出～ [980410] Motion 1
A collection of three short stories featuring characters slightly resembling heroes of great wars from Taisho to Showa era.
Polygons are used for map moving. Stories are of romantic touch followed by 7 animated H scenes for each episode.
12. Find Love 2: The Prologue ファインドラブ２ ザ・プロローグ [980410] Lyceen
Main character finds himself in his room. There are a lot of promotional materials of new game "Find Love 2" scattered around. Among there there is a videophone device with the ability to talk remotely to three different girls.
Basically, just a demo fandisc
13. Soprano ~Boku no Hatsukoi Happening~ そぷらの～ボクの初恋ハプニング～ [980415] Bunny Pro.
Haruomi Megumu suddenly became a woman due to mutation of hormones.
The main aim in the game is to get back to male form, but you can just focus on finding a lifelong partner instead. Since we don't get to change to male soon, there's place for les love here. Period is 20 days. There are five heroines for capturing with the overall number of endings being 26. A big minus of the game is that it starts with the day 2 and nothing is really explained. The difficulty is very high and gameplay is frustrating.
14. Asgaldh ~Waikyoku no Testament~ アスガルド ～歪曲のテスタメント～ [980417] Zone 1 2
You play the role of young warrior named Ashu. One day you meet a girl who is attacked by a monster. Saving the girl, you find out she is the daughter of a village elder. The girl's father is impressed by your skills and tells you you must venture into the monsters' lair. But as you come back, you discover the monsters have kidnapped the elder's daughter! Now you must find companions for your quest (all female) to rescue the girl and to find out what causes monster attacks.
There is an English review.
15. Love Escalator ラブ・エスカレーター [980417] Umitsuki Production 1
The third high school year is about to begin, and Takashi Kurosaki decides that it should be a memorable year - at least from the point of view of romantic adventures. His best friend asks Takashi to help him win the heart of Rie, a girl whom Takashi liked in junior high school but hasn't seen much since. However, when Takashi meets Rie, he begins to realize that he may have feelings for her, and is torn between friendship and romance.
This is a famous work for being the last pc-98 visual novel (not counting recent VA-11 HALL-A port). A serious love triangle story and with with Umitsuki Production style unique animation. There is also SIM element as we repeatedly choose places of our destination each week. The main problem of the work is the protagonist being a hetare type. Game got a remastered and heavily animated Lovers version in 2003.
16. Tenshi Kourin 天使恍臨 [980417] Logg
300 years have passed. Main character is a court priest in a certain kingdom. An alchemist predicts that kingdom can be driven out of crisis with the help of homunculus. Protagonist happens to be the person of choice to train the homunculus human emotions.
Game really follows the path of the prequel. Some prologue at the royal castle followed by training. This time training is not really limited to H matters, but includes other useful court skills training. It was a surprise to see this franchise get a sequel at all.
17. Tenkousei 2 転校生2 [980418] Space Project
Nice to meet you. I brought love.
Four people transfer to a new school and follow individual paths only to get together in grand finale.
All four main characters appear as friends in every chapter even though heroines do not overlap. In each story there is main heroine and one subheroine, but in order to reach grand finale all four main heroines must be captured. There is also a touch of comedy, so genre is best described as romantic comedy. The four stories aren't anything special outside of school routine, but with many friends and protagonist with a face there's no loneliness feeling.
18. Maou to Iu Ikikata 魔王という生きかた [980421] Softhouse [A]
A sound novel where main character encounters demon king. This encounter is the beginning of a new love...
Some discontinued at dlsite ancient doujin crap.
19. Moeru Shinku no Tsuki ni 燃える真紅の月に [980422] Blucky
Main character witnesses a woman illuminated by scarlet moonlight standing in the classroom.
"You're the only one I won't kill". So says the girl, and atmosphere of madness starts to cling to the protagonist...
What's only known is that there are two bad endings and six good endings with two heroines getting two good endings and another two heroines only one. Setting is school one.
20. Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Yume no Owari ni 探偵 神宮寺三郎 夢の終わりに [980423] Data East Corporation 1 2
Jingūji is tormented by hideous dreams of his past. The mystery begins as Yoko unwittingly decides to investigate a requested case.
Seventh installment of detective Jinguuji Saburou series that keeps bugging me since 1987. There's an English review of it.
21. First Kiss☆Story ファーストＫｉｓｓ☆物語 [980424] HuneX 1 2 3 4
At the beginning, First Kiss Story lets you name the protagonist. Since this stud gets to flirt with twelve chicks (most games stop at five or six), I named him "BIG ZIG". Like every other gal game in the world (...in Japan), some kind of unrealistic situation forces you to get unnaturally close to a bunch of unnaturally cute girls. In this game's case, your parents have suddenly decided to move one month before your high school graduation. That's obviously not a good situation for a college-minded kid, so your parents conveniently agree to let you live with your classmate Kana, her little sister Manami, and their unusually attractive mother.
There is an English review of this game.
22. Gumon Yuugi ~Otome-tachi e no Gumon Seme~ Guも～ん遊戯 ～乙女たちへの愚問責め～ [980424] Candy Soft
Main heroine is a school psychological consultant. She needs to diagnose correctly psychological problem of six girls and help them overcome those problems.
Well, a normal Interheart game. Lots of animation and lots of H-action
23. Runners [980424] Studio B-Room
Hero is a social studies teacher at a girls' school. He founded runners club and is going to raise champions in there.
Raising SIM about jogging or running and on top of that with big randomness factor depending on dice. Difficulty is pretty high and reaching the end for the first time should take about 40 hours.
24. Toki no Moto e 刻のもとへ [980424] Aquarium
Star cat Nyantaru Pu together with star duck and star snowman come to Earth to buy a new game "Magical Blonde 2". But the clock go past 24 hours showing 25 etc hours, tomorrow is not going to come and so the game won't be ever released. Nyantaru Pu starts his investigation on time distortion.
That's a very weird game. Both the general systems and gameplay systems are a mess. We walk around the city choosing locations on a map, fight, earn exp and money. Very few people managed to clear it even with walkthrough.
25. Tsumi Guiltia 罪 ギルティア [980424] h.m.p
An angel girl carries our "sin" and gets attacked dropping the carriage. What is the identity of "Guiltia"? Is it our libido sacrifice? Hop in to find the answer.
Parody game that contains all kinds of references, especially for Evangellion. There are also battles and even SM training parts. Story is so messy that it's almost impossible to follow. There are multiple endings including bad ones.
26. Keisei 傾城 [980425] Ange
Tokugawa shogunate. Idyllic atmosphere of cherry blossom in spring. Each day passes like a dream around insults between prostitutes and their customers. I want to lift their burden and heal their wounds. Your love is waiting for you.
Command selection ADV. Decadence and somewhat dark atmosphere of Tokugawa shogunate. There are two main scenarios - "Childhood familiarity" and "Daughter of Samurai" both lasting for about three hours. It's pure love story with individual ending for each heroine, although there are dark scenes as well. Ange always produced weird games and this is one of its best masterpieces. Only small volume and weak graphics are its flaws that prevent it from being a real masterpiece.
27. Mamoribito 護人 [980428] Softhouse Bonbee Bonbon
Phantom beast world where furry inhabitants live exists as parallel to human world.
Kisaragi Kyosuke is working in Tokyo in a major company. On his 25th birthday he was informed that he is no a guardian to keep the balance between two world and prevent interference. Is it possible for him to maintain the balance between these two worlds?
Command selection ADV. There are five chapters and the gameplay time is also around 5 hours. This game really lacks a better explanation. Close to nothing is explained about phantom world, secret organization danger and even reaching the end does not really explain much. An attractive fantasy story with a half-baked feeling.
28. Roommate 3 ~Ryouko Kaze no Kagayaku Asa ni~ ルームメイト３～涼子 風の輝く朝に～ [980429] Datam Polystar 1 2
Ryouko is now back in Japan after her home stay in the States. She starts by telling you how comfortable she feels to be back and so on. But why is that? Could it because you make her feel this way? She seems to think so.
The system of the game is exactly the same as that of the prequel. And that's already enough to stop looking into it. Summer vacation had horrible inner time feature so you'd need to meet her around 4 p.m. of real time on some day - we don't have a week off to pull that out! You only can meet Ryouko at certain time of the day! It's not us playing the game anymore, but the game plays us.
29. Kaikan ~Yorokobi~ 壊館～よろこび～ [980430] Hyperspace
Main character buys some magical medicine in the adult toy shop. It is a medicine that allows to travel to a lewd world. After drinking he finds himself in front of a Western-style mansion. The house steward requests him to train three lewd demon girls: sister type, loli type and innocent sister type.
It's just SM ADV with aggressive H development.
30. Keshouzakura 化粧桜 [980430] MBS Truth
The neighbouring all-girls school is haunted. Your council president girlfriend has a plan to do something about it, and drags you into it.
Since it's MBS Truth it's all about H events. The system is annoying since it's needed to move room by room which takes a lot of time.
EVE: The Lost One is the only masterpiece of the month.
1. Imagination Love いまじねぃしょんLOVE [980306] Ume Soft
The store manager escaped with 10 million yen and hero is forced as a new store manager and he needs to earn this sum within a month. Most of the staff left after the incident leaving you with only four sales girls.
Contrary to the synopsis, it's not really a SIM, but rather an ADV. There are still three times of the day. Earning money is not difficult, but getting flags for girls is challenging. The feelings part is serious, but game's filled with a good portion of laugh.
2. She'sn She’sn ～シーズン～ [980306] Accent 1
She'sn (aka "season") is a visual novel love adventure game which focuses on a four different stories through all four seasons. The player can select to play the story of any season in any order. Different season also features different heroines and different love stories to play through. The spring story revolves around a forbidden love with your sister-in-law. The summer season tells the love story with your childhood friend. Love story in the fall is about the school romance. And the winter season is a sad love story between the protagonist and a girl with an incurable disease.
Game's too ordinary and multiple stories make for hasty progress.
3. Eberouge 2 エーベルージュ2 [980306] JAMP 1
The game is divided into 2 different parts: - The first part is the childhood of the main character (takes places in the first 2 years in the magic institute) at the age of 9. - The second part is between the age of 14 and 16 up to graduation. The objective of the game is not to graduate, but to to save the world from total destruction with the acquired magical skills and the help of one of 10 girls.
More SIMs
4. EVE: The Lost One [980312] C's Ware 1 2
EVE: The Lost One is a sequel to Eve burst error. The events of the game take place three years after those of the first game. The player is able to control two characters - the female detective Kyoko and the mysterious Snake, as they try to solve a complex mystery full of betrayals and political intrigues. In order to complete the game successfully, the player will have to to experience it from the perspectives of both heroes, helping each other to gather clues and to unlock events.
I've prepared a full review.
5. Roman Reine ロマンレーヌ [980312] King Records
The world is guarded by the goddess Gertruz. The queen who governs this world is chosen from the best girl candidates. One of the candidates got ill and hero's nephew is going to try to become the next queen.
Fantasy raising SIM to raise the best girl worthy of Queen's title. 300 days is the period (1000 days for other candidates), week by week. The events vary from fighting competitions to beauty contests. At first only 6 candidates are available, but with time all 12 open up.
6. Yuki-iro no Karte ~Karte von Schnee~ 雪色のカルテ～Karte von Schnee～ [980312] Peach
A small town in the mountains. Hero is a doctor who works there with a nurse. One day a girl affected by some incurable disease comes to this doctor after hearing about his prowess.
There are three girls, each one with her own problem and sad past story. A girl who is poor and being affected by an incurable disease. A girl who closed her mind through parent abuse. A bad-looking little girl who was forcibly put in the hospital while parents participate in the election. Finally some quality nakige started to show up. Curing leads to a happy end while failing to do so leads to patient's death. Scenario is good, but hospital nakige is a genre not for everyone.
7. Zutto Issho ずっといっしょ [980312] HAMSTER Corporation
The main game's hero has to start living by his own when his parents had gone due to a job transfer. He got an apartment and started living with a girl.
The SIM part is repetitive and dull. The scenario is mediocre at best. But game is released for PS and has lots of animation and cute heroines.
8. Hiza no Ue no Partner ~Kitty on your lap~ ひざの上の同居人 ～Kitty on your lap～ [980312] 1 2
The game is a dating simulation that centers around the player winning over a female (feline) partner through the power of text. Visuals are displayed in a classic anime style with fully-animated scenes.
The player assumes the role of a college student who adopts one of three Cats who turns out to be a cat-girl. Hijinks ensue.
PS exclusive about training cat girls. You decide schedule and await events. The number of events is big and there's communication mode at regular intervals to talk with the cat, so gameplay is not boring. Training is not difficult and happy endings is easy to get. It's possible to fast forward schedule routine and just read interesting part - this way one playthrough takes from 3 to 4 hours. There are also endings for sub-characters who are not cats.
9. Pocket Love 2 ポケットラブ2 [980313] KID
Two months after the prequel. It's the period when hero and heroines started to have feelings for each other.
Sequel is praised same as original. The magical pixels are same intact. Number of heroines increased to 10 with 7 former ones and 3 new ones.
10. Mitsumete Knight みつめてナイト [980319] Konami 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
The player is a mercenary from the east travelling to the kingdom of Dolphan, modelled after middle-ages Europe. He had been hired to aid the war fought by the country, which will last throughout the following three years of the game, where the player will meet a number of the different characters and develop a relationship with them.
There are English reviews of this game.
11. Angelique Tenkuu no Requiem アンジェリーク 天空の鎮魂歌 [980320] Koei 1 2
The setting starts off from the Queen ED of Angelique Special 2. The protagonist is the same as Special 2, the series only RPG.
There is an English review.
12. Changing My Heart ~Kokoro o Kaete~ Changing My Heart ～心を変えて～ [980320] Mesa
One winter day you're forcibly pulled by a bad friend to visit a Comiket in Tokyo. Will you spend your time there with the classmates, cosplayers or total strangers?
Story takes one day... no good story can come out in one day. There are three acquaintances and two strangers to pick up. The flow is absolutely ordinary. A nice feature that you can decide on your clothes and girls clothes.
13. Kuuhaku no Kioku 空白の記憶 [980320] Powder
There is a girl who has lost memory. To regain it hero needs to use hypnotherapy to follow the flow of her memories. There are three girls each with a unique story.
There are three girls each with two story branches. Both stories are needed to be read, then there's a recollection mode to get full picture. Branches are very short and of erotic nature.
14. Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Jigoku Yuen Satsujin Jiken 金田一少年の事件簿 地獄遊園殺人事件 [980326] Kodansha 1 2
In this case Kindaichi & Mijuki were having a discussion when they found that the police had found a man hanged in a park, so Kindaichi offers his help and goes to investigate the theme park and that's when the game starts.
There are as many as 7 games released about this child detective Kindaichi. I have not watched even any of its 148 anime episodes and not going to.
15. Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series Vol. 2: Irodori no Love Song ときめきメモリアルドラマシリーズ Vol.2 彩のラブソング [980326] Konami 1 2 3 4
It is 17 days to the Culture Festival and your band (Irodori) is going to participate in the band contest. On this day while your are practicing a group of girls gathers around your band to talk to Takumi while you just ignore them and practice. After practicing Takumi meets his classmate Katagiri Ayako and goes over to talk to her. You will not know who she is at this time. Suzune will follow you on your way home.
At this point you will learn that she actually has some feelings for you, but you will not realise it. During lunch time you go to the rooftop to write a new song (Tears Angel) to participate in the Band contest. After school you can walk around to meet the other girls.
There is enough information in English about this game as well as one European language review.
16. In Days 3 淫DAYS3 [980327] Lunar Soft
A collection of four short stories: 1. Ｃｏｕｎｔｒｙ Ｓｔｕｄｙ～後編～ 2. 玉置勉強氏が原画を担当！パイオツ フォーエヴァー 3. 咲 香里氏が原画を担当！Ｆｒｉｅｎｄｓ～フレンズ～ 4. マンドラゴラ
Third bullet in the series. This time there is not a single review, but box cover features 4 erotic stories.
17. Martial Age 2 Akki Houkou マーシャルエイジ２ 悪鬼咆哮 [980327] Tenshindou
Three years have passed since the last big fight.
Masato receives a challenge from a person called "master" who summoned monsters to the island. Will Masato defend the girls? The curtain of a new battle rises again ...
The same gameplay is inherited - story advances by winning fights. Game is mostly for old players who have nostalgia. New players did not like messed up fighting system with the need to search weak points. Text in H events is kind of trashy.
18. Muchimuchi Sexy Parfait Onee-sama You ムチムチセクシぃパフぇ お姉様用 [980327] JAST Co., Ltd.
A sequel to Pompom Pretty Parfait Okosamayou.
A year has passed. The main character was returning to normal college life after winning the game of sales in the previous game. And when the university studies came to vacations, a letter arrived from his mother's friend requesting to help with managing coffee shop "Muchimuchi Parfait".
The game system is totally different from prequel - that was a management SIM - this time it's AVG. There is a map of the city where locations are picked to set flags. However there is also girl training mode where you need to click at body parts to train physical strength, sexuality etc. One heroine playthrough is about 2 hours without skipping.
19. Shuusaku 臭作 [980327] Elf 1 2
The girls' dormitory of Shukusei Music Academy is home to some of the most talented young female musicians in Japan.
In such an elite school, appearances count for everything, but behind closed doors the sounds of screams, whimpers, and dull moans can be heard echoing through the halls. The school handy-man, Shusaku, cleans up after the girls and picks up all their dirty secrets, which he uses to blackmail them into some very un-ladylike private performances.
Shusaku may get paid to clean up the building, but his true calling is just the opposite- sexually defiling and disgracing the innocent and high-strung musical maestros.
There are two English reviews. Game is generally rated high, but it goes contrary to my principles to name such games masterpieces.
20. Toubousha 逃亡者 [980327] Zero
Two terrorists have fled the prison and joined two travelling women as a result of hitchhike. They all took a break from the travel in an isolated mansion. But their identities are leaked through mass media. The two guys have nothing to lose and they don't plan to leave witnesses.
The short introduction is quick to transform into an insult nukige. There are a lot of mansion hosts and guests to abuse.
Doukoku Soshite... is the only masterpiece of the month and thus is VN of the Month.
1. Kunoichi Torimonochou くのいち捕物帖 [980205] Polestar Co. 1 2
Long ago, during the Edo period, those chosen to become ninja train in secrecy from youth, living in an isolated village to become a secret agent for the shogun. Here, a young girl is training to become such an agent; her name: Ran Sagajo. Along with her talking ninja squirrel companion Sasuke, she has begun a trip to Edo to continue her train
You generally choose destination and wait for events to happen. Battles are played in the way that you select a command and opponent selects and you watch the outcome, much like the other VN fightings. When energy is accumulated to the max, a special move can be used. There are stats and places to train them. Game's appeal point is a good balance between animated story sequences and picturesque battles.
2. Yume no Yukue Karuizawa Monogatari 夢のゆくえ 軽井沢物語 [980205] Fair Dance
In Autumn wandering in the forest of Karuizawa of autumn leaves, I met a girl in a white dress living in an old villa.
In winter three of my classmates and I came to ski and I had a vision of a girl in white dress again..
In spring I walked in the forest of Karuizawa to find a girl in white dress.
And in the summer I shall wander between reality and daydreaming.
Obscure work, mostly due to the fact that there is no save function in the game.
3. Ahiru no Pantsu あひるのパンツ [980206] Segue Laboratory
My name is Rika. I live with my mother. Today I sell Pantsu in town. Although it is already late, only two pieces have been sold. What shall I do...
One playthrough takes some 5 minutes and there are several scenarios. And most of them inevitably fall into H category.
4. Natural ~Mi mo Kokoro mo~ Natural ～身も心も～ [980206] F&C Co., Ltd. 1
Rumor's spreading of a hot new couple on campus! A professor is giving the sexy swim star some very special lessons. And this teacher's pet is hot to trot and learning all kinds of new tricks!
Yet another erotic training SIM, but this time it's kind of pure love bright training which is rare. The characters are also cute and easygoing. So this work represents shift from dark hardcore eroge to bright softcore ones in the years to come.
5. Kyouken Densetsu Crazy Knuckle 2 狂拳伝説クレイジーナックル2 [980213] ZyX
Lunar shadow was a legendary ultimate fighting school, but its last descendant lived 80 years ago.
Kusakabe Aoma is a bouncer of the street gang group in the city called Crown City. But he wants to get to know his true self. One day he arrives to the usual place, but instead of smiles of other members all he sees is a sea of blood.
Compared to the prequel text has gone better. Scenario is the debut work of Arakawa Takumi who gave us Ayakashibito, Bullet Butlers and several other interesting works. There is a good balance of seriousness and comedy. The atmosphere gone even darker than that of the prequel. Fighting system got more difficult. Animation is widely used. H events are densely packed, pretty much with every battle. So a good entertainment work, but not more.
6. Sadistic Medicine [980213] FlyingShine
A big pharmaceutic company develops a new medicine and sets experiments first on animals, then on humans. It seems to be a revolutionary aphrodisiac.
First Flying Shine works are so terrible. Blurred real-life photos plus NVL walls of texts are accompanied by HCG.
7. Happening Journey はぷにんぐJOURNEY [980220] Euphony Production 1
Masaharu is long in love with his childhood friend Yuki, but lacks the courage to tell her his true feeling. One day Masaharu's friend Takagi asks him to go on a ski trip together, telling him that he would also take Yuki for Masaharu, so that Masaharu would take Miki, his partner in their tennis club, for Takagi. Somehow their plan becomes known to other girls too, who start insisting on joining the trip - so the party now consists of seven boys and girls. Will Masaharu have a chance to tell Yuki his love during the trip?
There is an English review of this game.
8. Megami no Shizuku ~Jonason 95~ 女神の雫～Jonason95～ [980220] Xyz
Daughter of a famous deceased thief Aya Kisaragi teams up with her father's buddy Unko. They excel in whatever job they take. This time they aim at three Nobunaga sacred treasures hidden in remote area mansion, but they get into a trap...
There aren't reviews of this game and game's super rare, but chronological row of CG shows us first the CG from the prequel, then a spree of HCG, so I guess briefly the story of the prequel is retold followed by H fest.
9. Doukoku Soshite... 慟哭そして。。。 [980226] Data East Corporation 1 2 3
In this game, you play the role of a high-school student (whom you can name as you like). A bus takes him and his classmates to the school every day. But this time, just when the hero was talking to one of his classmates, the lovely girl Riyo, a car drove up to the bus, there was a sound of a crash, and then the hero became unconscious. When he woke up, he found himself, his classmates (most of whom were girls), and a couple of unknown people in a locked room in a strange mansion. Soon the hero realizes something terrible is going on in the mansion. People are being killed under mysterious circumstances, their corpses hidden; he finds a memo soaked in blood and a photograph. Will he be able to solve the mystery and to protect the people destiny brought him together with?
There are three English reviews of this game.
10. Misa no Mahou Monogatari ミサの魔法物語 [980226] Sammy Corporation 1
Misa no Mahomonogatari - Heartful Memories tells the story of a young girl who got a mission from the queen of a magic world called Firimu, to travel to the human world, find a young girl and train her into a tarot magician so that she could defeat the evil forces willing to conquer both of the worlds.
The game takes place in that high school and will last 4 years of training, the main character of the game is Misa and during that time period she has to train her abilities, meet different people and classmates, and face the evil that endangers the world.
A raising SIM to train a justice magician girl. And that's enough already to stop discussing it.
11. Tour Party: Sotsugyou Ryokou ni Ikou ツアーパーティー 卒業旅行にいこう [980226] JAMP
Tour Party Sotsugyou Ryokou ni Ikou is a board game, that was also released for the Sega Saturn console, in which the player can choose at the beginning of the game to play as a girl or a boy, the theme of the board is to travel, and the game features at the 4 human players to play as the same time and compete against the others.
The gameplay is similar to Takara's the Game of life but in Tour Party, during the journey the players will meet different people and they can become friends with them, and different events that will make the trip more interesting. The game features 8 different characters to choose from and a complete viewer mode with character profiles, musics, and other unlockables modes.
More SIMs, yay
12. Yuukyuu Gensoukyouku 2nd Album 悠久幻想曲 2nd Album [980226] MediaWorks
The Third Division Vigilante Corps have earned the trust of the people of Enfield, and under the popular Commander Neumann, they have worked hard to earn this trust. However, Neumann is now gone, leaving the third division with low morale and little work, and eventually the main character from the previous game is the only member left. The third division is to be disbanded, but he appeals to the director, and is given one year to restore the third division to its former glory.
Yūkyū Gensōkyoku: 2nd Album follows directly after the events of the first game, and is once more a traditional Japanese adventure game. You must gather your group to perform jobs for the people of Enfield, and interact with the various characters around town.
Another SIM
13. Coach! Oshiete コーチ！おしえて [980227] Nouvelle
New teacher was suddenly invited to a girls' school as an advisor to the athletics division. The final goal is to win the tournament! Is it possible to train six champions?
Raising SIM with week as time unit. Apart of training routine there is summer and winter vacation training camps and various events. Period is one year. The biggest complaint about this game was that there is no H events in here, only peeping in the changing room etc. The worst part is that despite each heroine having unique profile, all the events and text are absolutely the same for each of them - zero personality. Also even with max stats (256) it's actually a game of luck whether you win tournament or not. A rare kusoge...
14. Houkago wa Fiancee 放課後はフィアンセ [980227] Sweet Basil
Tadashi Wakita lost his parents in an accident at an early age, but thanks to the assistance of his uncle Kanno Rotaro, he is a high school student and lives in a house. Uncle dies and leaves a will that nephew must marry one of his three daughters in order to inherit his property and he must do it before the deadline.
Depending on choices it can be either a pure love story or a tyranny story and choices aren't transparent at all. Game is not limited to three daughters, there are other, less profitable variants too. Each route takes about one hour and there is also a harem ending with five girls. Characters are cute enough, but H events are too frequent and dark side of the game constantly tries to pop up.
15. Kemono no Sumu Kousha -Shinshou- 獣の棲む校舎 -真章- [980227] T2 Co., Ltd.
Three days after the first incident. But there's no time to rest - a new request awaits Ikuro Makita.
Nothing is being told about the first incident. Protagonist always talks about incoherent things. Capture degree is very high as you need to remember all the appointments and at exact time be at exact place out of 20 places.
16. Mars Ball マーズボール [980227] Studio Jikkenshitsu
Humans migrate to Mars, where the description of ancient sport is found in the ruins and it becomes the new craze - the Marsball.
An ordinary salaryman gets fired and with his baseball experience in high school he tries his luck as a manager of a new Marsball team.
Baseball game with card battles and quite high difficulty. Most of the time you train and once in a while there is match. H-events are hard to unlock with flags and are over in a flash. It's weak as love story, weak as H-story... then it's probably just a gameplay oriented game.
17. Mukuro ~Mesu o Nerau Agito~ 骸～メスを狙う顎～ [980227] Saga Planets
When I woke up, I did not have a memory.
Who am I? Why am I here?
People around me do not have recollections about me as well.
I shall make my way with women using this position that I do not know anything.
And then I shall make my memory return... remember with my body!
Production values are good, but in the end it's just a mystery nukige with weak cast of characters and protagonist. There are multiple routes and memories show up consequently with routes clearing.
18. Shift! [980227] Trush
Boy drinks secret medicine "XYX" and and turns into a girl. The only way to get to original form is to have intimacy with girls. But that works only for a short time and there must be a permanent antidote solution... Will he be able to regain male form?
Medicine fantasies are pretty popular in 1998 as I see. And it's at least third game where gender is suddenly changed. Game is mostly of erotic nature, but with a comedy touch.
There are no masterpieces this month. My subjective choice for VN of the Month January 1998 is Machi - maybe it's the impact of 428 sequel. I've very difficult history with Divi-Dead as both times I tried it I fell asleep. No true ending is worth such boring gameplay. And I just can't appreciate dating SIMs without impact on story to evaluate Sentimental Graffiti properly.
1. Blood Seed 2 ブラッドシード２ [980114] Arkham Products 1
Space cruiser Triant 2 from the free planetary association established a primary contact with an unknown life form while executing its mission. An organism entered the ship and started to attack crew members. No weapons could kill it and the crew had to separate the hull of the ship and abandon it. Then the military ship found the drifting hull, but men were wiped out... First and second missions to annihilate the organism were miserable failures. The four remaining members of third mission had to destroy the ship by destroying it with missiles.
With that the incident was supposed to be over...
You actually play as the biological organism. You need to explore dungeons and evolve by absorbing girls. With raising levels even the toughest security robots stop being a problem. Game's pretty obscure.
2. Kuon 久遠 [980114] M'
Kuon used to study abroad, but now enters prestigious research academy in Japan on a secluded island. To pay his bills he starts a part-time job with one of campus facilities.
A fortune-teller appears before Kuon giving him meaningless prophecy and promising to meet again...
An obscure self-raising SIM. Every day you help out around the campus, do part-time jobs and meet girls. No idea where this all might be going since there is not a single review and there's no patience to get through a SIM game.
3. Pompom Pretty Parfait Okosamayou ポムポムプリてぃパフぇ お子様用 [980114] JAST
Hero is a college student. Before summer vacation he receives an e-mail from his father asking to manage one of the stores for two months. The store is actually a cafe with cute cosplay girls as waitresses. Will he succeed?
You start with four friends working as waitresses and one assistant manager. You need to determine the schedule, converse with waitresses and go on after work events. Each girl has parameters and each girl is only good for one-two jobs, not all of them. There are seven endings - one for each of four girls, one for assistant manager, one for ending up alone and one for failing in sales. The number of events with each girl is small and winning in sales competition during 2 months is quite challenging.
4. Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Hoshimitou Kanashimi no Fukushuuki 金田一少年の事件簿 星見島 悲しみの復讐鬼 [980115] Hudson Soft 1
The idol at the height of the popularity got involved in a scandal scandal. Idol manager Tachibana Yufu was searching for the truth of it and was found dead. The police asserted Yufu's death as suicide, but there were two people who had suspicions in that.
One was former idol and Yufu's best friend Katsuragi Yo and another one Yufu's fiance Takuya Asagiri. The two of them decided to take revenge at a leisure facility "Hoshijima" where the stakeholders gathered, but there was a also present a grandson of Kaneda detective Kanedaichi and his friends ..
The purpose of the game is to commit a perfect crime - a murder - and get away with that. It just has everything that I can't stand.
5. Private Garden プライベートガーデン [980115] Tetratech 1
A puzzle game where you move blocks to form an image of a guy or a girl using all the blocks. Easy as it sounds, there is little space given to move the blocks and if any block slips off the platform, you have to try again.
Do the puzzles and get HCG, easy as that. There is some kind of review.
6. Mix Candy 3 みっくすきゃんでぃ３ [980115] Cocktail Soft
Fandisc containing screensavers, wallpapers and a short erotic story 『性欲ロボゼツリンガー』 as a part of the Erotic Baka Novel series.
Story is erotic humorous one about one special robot.
7. Maigo no Kimochi 迷子の気持ち [980116] Foster
Naoto lives in a famous club that his mother owns, that's why Naoto is well known around the town. One day he sees his classmate Asami wondering around downtown and falling victim to nanpa. After listening to her circumstances Naoto hides Asami in his house.
It starts as if there is some meaning in the plot, but then you start to see H events at different places and start to set up your own, even with Asami, so story goes to the background. I still liked the system of moving around the map even thtough story is very linear and you need to go to exact one place each time to progress it.
8. Datenshi no Sumika 堕天使之住処 [980116] Apple Pie
At night, life force is drained by the fallen angels who live over hundred years ...
Put your hands inside the skirt of a girl and stimulate the petals. Girl trembles in treasure and collapses...
I don't consider it a visual game. Just some intro and H-scenes for each girl.
9. Machi 街 [980122] Chunsoft 1 2 3 4 5 6
Machi is a story of 8 unrelated protagonists, all with their own problems and objectives, all living in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan. The story spans 5 in-game days and is told through a huge number of live-action still photographs. The protagonists are varied, including a high school playboy, a gamer geek police officer, a struggling actor, an ex-Yakuza man, a TV scriptwriter and many more. Each of the protagonists lead a completely different story that even defies genres, with one story having a lighthearted comedy style while another having a dark, ominous tone.
The player must play all of the stories in parallel, jumping across different protagonists, and backtracking to re-select branches which not only affect the active protagonist, but also other protagonists through often bizarre twists of causality.
Since its release in 1998, Machi has amassed a cult following among Japanese Sound Novel players, causing a yearning for a sequel for years which did not come to fruition until 2008 which had the release of the spiritual sequel, 428: Fusa Sareta Shibuya De.
There are good English reviews for it.
10. Sentimental Graffiti センチメンタルグラフティ [980122] STACK software 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
The protagonist, Tanaka Ichirou, is a high school student who, prior to the spring vacation of his third year, receives a letter simply stating "I want to meet you." During middle school, his frequent transferring of schools allowed him to form unique relationships with various girls. In order to search for the sender of the letter, he travels nationwide to various places, and meets the 12 girls of his memories once again.
Game has at least three English reviews and a lot of information in English
11. Adrastea アドラステア [980123] Bell-Da
In 2050 life extinction on the Earth progressing rapidly due to natural destruction, wars, hunger and indiscriminate murder. Humanity lost morality and approaches its end.
You are going to leave struggling Earth for distant stars in search of gods who abandoned humanity to regain knowledge and morality from them.
It's actually a quiz game to make love with six goddesses each with different topic. After all the goddesses captured you can challenge the Queen of goddesses and regain merits for the humanity.
12. Dice Kiss [980123] Meifuru House Karen
It's two months before Xmas. The hero decided to find a girlfriend before Xmas.
Board game. You throw the dice and move to some field where some event should happen. There are five girls to clear. It's plain tiresome to wait till you roll a good choice for your girl. And the dice rolls very slowly...
13. Divi-Dead [980123] C's Ware 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
My name is Ranmaru Hibikiya. Today is my first day at Asao Private School...
My uncle is the dean of this school. About a month ago, he paid me a visit and offered me enrollment at his school. Seeing I've been out of school for a long time, I accepted his offer. What was the catch? He asked me to keep an eye out for him. Bluntly, I was to be his spy...No problem.
Well actually, there was a problem. Once I arrived, I started noticing some disturbing things. There was violence and misconduct happening on campus, not the usual past times at a private high school. As I got deeper into my investigation, I came across a possible correlation between an underground society and the unusual behavior of my peers. I realized that I could not trust ANYONE.
There's just one last thing...After transferring, sometime between all the sexual escapades happening on campus, and my investigation, something horrifying happened to me. I...
Join me in my quest to uncover the horrible secrets at Asao Private School.... and find out what fate holds for me...
Game is localized and has many English reviews.
14. Girigiri Paradise ぎりぎりパラダイス [980123] May-Be Soft 1
GiriGiri Paradise has a rather simple story: the protagonist, a teenager named Keiichi, is having a vacation. Together with three young, pretty girls (initially only friends of his), he goes on a journey, which ends in a small hotel on the sea shore. Exploring the surroundings and meeting local people (some of which are young, pretty girls as well!), Keiichi realizes that this trip is gradually turning into the busiest sex adventure of his life...
Game turns into erotic adventure very fast, so there's no real development besides H story. From time to time you have freedom to choose location just to encounter more H events.
15. Amandine アマンディーヌ [980123] Flare
Welcome to the world where imagination and reality mix together in a luscious image.
A total of 12 attractive girls with unique personalities wait for you to answer quizzes about them correctly.
Nothing fancy here, just quiz with HCG.
16. Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy ~Heart no Kimochi~ 魔法少女プリティサミー ～ハートのきもち～ [980129] Interchannel
Contains two stories: "Nazo no Shinheiki!? ~Codename wa Kirakira Rakuda~" and "Moero! Honou no Choco ~Valentine made ato 3 hi~"
An evil organization captured a mysterious secret ray weapon. Magical girl Pretty Sammy gradually gets involved in the incident.
Saturn exclusive for fans mostly. There's full voice and lots of animation.
17. Kau 飼 [980130] 13cm
Hero is a pharmacist who follows his father's steps who is a president of a pharmaceutical company. Of course, he's not interested in the current work. So in the end father suddenly requests a certain job from the hero - to train sex slaves for Tachibana play. What's with this play and why is he chosen trainer?
Training H SIM + AVG with twenty girls. Plot-less nukige.
18. Rashin 裸唇 RASHIN [980130] Pias
There was a strange woman in the castle I found in the forest. But I can not remember anything.
But why I have a sense of deceitfulness...
Mystery H adventure. Nothing is really explained. There are rooms and moving around triggers some girl H story. Each girl has two stories and two costumes. A normal nukige.
19. Seikimatsu Taimaden Tsumugi-chan SOS 世紀末退魔伝つむぎちゃん SOS [980130] Desire
Tsumugi-chan is a girl from a demonic master clan who lives in a mountain temple. While still being inexperienced, a difficult job came in for her one day - to investigate the seven wonders of the school and eliminate the evil contained there. An apprentice exorcist and psychic who can not control her abilities will help Tsumugi-chan to uncover the mystery hidden in the school!
Game's based on an ancient erotic manga and the contents is largely erotic plus some bakage.
What a tiresome year. First Windows year had too many obscure games with tiny bits of information to get. Crude graphics, bland plotlines, typical dating sim gameplay. But all in due time.
Let's prolong the chart.
VN per year
Year Total
1991 75
1992 80
1993 121
1994 155
1995 180
1996 183
1997 202
Numbers don't show anything extraordinary - a very mild logical increase in numbers. Shift to Windows has not had an influence on the quantity so far. As for the quality, that's another thing.
Let's see what year 1996 brought:
Industry got tilted too much to romance games reaching over 50% of total number. At the same time the number of works with an impact on story decreased drastically.
Some of the old titans could not adapt to Windows reality in 1997 - those include Elf/Silky's and Abodago Powers. At the same time there is an influx of new brand names with low price low quality games.
The number of titles with a theme song and an opening increased significantly.
Genres battle still goes on, but simplification process comes to either ADV or ADV with some features. There's still hardly any game with autoplay, so player's active commitment is expected.
There was no major game in 1997. You cant just say "1997 year is X". Pia Carrot 2 is probably the closest one to a major game. It sold the best, but it's hardly a masterpiece, just a game with the best production values. Let's count the masterpiece level games of 1997:
Canaan ~Yakusoku no Chi~
Comic Road
Kaeru nyo Panyon
Moon.
Nails ~Beginning of Your Heart Beat~
Rookies
Ruriiro no Yuki
Ryouki no Ori Dai 2 Shou
Sweepers!
To Heart
Viper-F40
Yatsu no Na wa Diamond
Zoku Hatsukoi Monogatari ~Shuugaku Ryokou~
Not bad selection. What about Canaan? It's a continuation of the most heartwarming game of 1994, Gao-Gao 3. If there was no Desire the same 1994 year, it might easily become the game of the year. Cannan is direct continuation of Gao Gao 3 which means it automatically inherits the merits of part 3 and adds new development in the story as well as a new hero. Yes, it's PC-98 game, but after year 1997 I'm starting to think that PC-98 era was really cool. And in order to share this wonderful experience of Gao Gao 3 and Canaan, I've made video playthroughs of them. The game of the year 1997 is Canaan ~Yakusoku no Chi~.
Rougetsu Toshi is the only masterpiece of the month.
1. Ginga Ojou-sama Densetsu Yuna 3: Lightning Angel 銀河お嬢様伝説ユナ3 LIGHTNING ANGEL [971204] Hudson Soft 1 2 3
The Machine Empress plants a bomb that while surely destroy the Earth. Its up to Yuna and gang to stop her and bring peace to the earth. But soon they will find out theres more to the Machine Empress and her army than her motives of destroying Earth....
There's an English good walkthrough for this game and very fine Spanish review, so there's enough information.
2. Hop Step Idol☆ Hop Step あいどる☆ [971204] Media Entertainment
As a producer at a youth entertainment company you have to go out and scout out guys to become a new idol group.
You have two years to raise a super idol.
Idol otome game. That's enough for me to stop digging.
3. Isle Mystique あいるみすてぃ～く [971205] Azurokusu
Hero became an owner of the island in the vicinity of Okinawa. There was a famous statue of dragon there. But one day it was revealed that the standing statue was a fake. Now it's needed to find the real one sold by pieced around the island.
Game is kind of nanpa and after H event you can check if the girl had the real part of the dragon. There are several locations and three times of the day - by being in the right place in the right time you trigger events. Its "unique character system" is just a gauge during H-event that reacts to your actions - this is actually a very difficult part. Systems are very clunky and graphics is bad.
4. Sanshoku Korokke さんしょくコロッケ [971205] Misty
A collection of three stories:
1. 豪漢生徒会
2. 遠山館乱れ桜
3. 小春夢日和
Ero-centered short stories 10 minutes each.
5. Sonemi ~Houfuku no Shou~ 嫉 ～報復の章～ [971205] Deep Zone
Famous private school. Heroine Mai is ordered to clean the principal's office after school together with a boy as a penalty for bad English grades. Mai has no intention to participate in cleaning, but she enjoys teasing her partner.
Kinetic nukige. The number of forced H events is high. Quite a short one too.
6. Waru!! ~Itazura~ わるっ!! ～悪戯～ [971205] Interheart 1
The story behind Waru is that one day, while taking a train, you, Honda, met a girl named Amano. On the crowded train, she lifted up her cloth on her own initiative and allows you to touch her breast. At first, you are surprised by her action. However, you soon started to enjoy the "wicked play" as Amano unlocks the long forgotten "wicked play" inside you. Once again, you start to haunt lonely girls on the train as your target of the "wicked play."
There is an English review.
7. Yuki Furu Kisetsu e ~Omoi, Anata ni~ 雪降る季節へ ～想い、あなたに～ [971205] Blue Bell
Shinichiro Sawaki is a friendly and sincere boy. All the girls in school think about him this way, but noone made a move to know him better.
Transfer student Naomi Sakura comes to such class and sits next to hero. Naomi has great appearance, excellent grades and is good in sports, so she's very popular with boys. She gets familiar with the hero and that makes other girls in the class think of him in romance sense. Who will he date this winter?
Dating-SIM. One month is the period. You go around school each day and meet six girls. Difficulty is low and it takes just 30 minutes to get to each girl's ending. Scenario lacks excitement and girls aren't particularly charming. Some girl sprites differ drastically from their CG. Even if you don't like any girls, there is no bad end - you get a child from a childhood friend!
8. Suuhaisha ~Toraware no Canaria~ 崇拝者 ～囚われのカナリア～ [971210] K-JOYNT
Idol girl Makihara Karin brings her passionate voice to those who have faith in her. She sings in duet with a dreamy girl Rin Misugi. Entertainment world is full of darkness and craziness. Fans are like worshipers who dye their hearts in darkness for their goddesses to shine brightly. Melody flows from these fallen girls like a sad hymn in preparation for the sacrifice.
Little is known for this H-titled doujin work, to be hones.
9. Maria: Kimitachi ga Umareta Wake マリア 君たちが生まれた理由 [971211] Break 1 2
In this game, you play as a young psychiatrist named Takano. One day a new patient is brought into the hospital you work in - Maria, a young woman who has attempted suicide. She suffers from amnesia, and you try to find out more about her, visiting her and talking to her. Before long you discover that Maria has schizophrenia - a split personality. Her "other self" appears to be evil and threatens to take over her. The fight for Maria's sanity begins.
The game plays like an interactive novel or movie: you read text and from time to time make a choice from two or more available ones. Instead of the standard 2D animé-style graphics the game utilizes semi-realistic CG pre-rendered backgrounds and characters. There are also CG animated movies in the game.
The atmosphere of the game is rather heavy, but characters are played out well, and there is a merit in suspense.
10. True Love Story ~Remember My Heart~ トゥルー・ラブストーリー〜Remember My Heart〜 [971211] ASCII Corporation
A fandisc for the original game that features new heroines.
I have a habit to ignore fandiscs.
11. Koi Tenshi 乞天使 [971212] Pinky Soft
"Angel festival" is held at Christmas time in a certain Catholic school ... suddenly girl students become lascivious at the school festival and forget about that afterwards. Hero gets to the be in the mids of these events.
Game's on a horrible macromedia engine. It just kept repeating the first day over and over.
12. Muku 2 無垢 弐 [971212] Nikukyuu 1 2
You are rich beyond imagination. Over tens and hundreds of countries' fashion design companies are in your control. Money, power, everything are yours. However, there still seems to be something missing in your life. One day, you happened to visit one of yours clothe store and met a girl of your taste. Since then, she becomes your maid in your mansion when she falls in the scheme you have setup. Her father's jewelry store bankrupted (setup by you) and you lend her father a huge sum of money in return for her work in the mansion to payback the money. From this date, you will teach her and train her to be a "good" maid.
There are two English reviews.
13. Shishunki ~And I Love Her~ 思春記 ～and I love her～ [971212] Mint
Hero entered urban art vocational school to become a painter. He is given a task to draw "Adolescence", but he has no ideas about it. His classmate advised him to draw "love", but to draw love hero needs first to know love, so goes looking for girls.
ADV with elements of SIM as there are parameters that change according to choices. There are four young girls to capture. I mean really young.
14. Atlach-Nacha [971218] Alice Soft 1 2 3 4
A long time ago, there lived a jorougumo named Hatsune who gathered enough celestial energy that she was able to take a human form.
One day, a mysterious monk came to Hatsune's nest and nearly annihilated her for taking a villager's life. Severely wounded, Hatsune went into hiding. To heal her wounds, she decided to make Yaesaka High School her new nest and absorb energy from the students attending there. Hatsune absorbs energy by eating the flesh of (mostly male) students or through having sexual intercourse with them (preferably with females).
Game has three English reviews. I used to think of it as a big important game... till tried it myself. There's no story in the game and there's even no good ending. The only aim is see all CG and for that it's needed to play H sequences for about 10 times.
15. Girl Doll Toy ~Tamashii o Kudasai~ Girl Doll Toy ～魂をください～ [971218] Uran
Near future. Hero works in a laboratory developing human-like androids. He picks up an android that was fated to be disposed, upgraded her and named her Erika. At some point he starts to feel romantic emotions for her...
Raising SIM/ADV. The good part is that it's not just fuwa-fuwa - the second part is quite severe as the hero has to oppose the laboratory. Quite an ordinary android raising work, but with good video and voicing.
16. Ningen Gari 人間狩り [971218] Alice Soft 1
Five girls are trapped on a small island with four hunters.
The hunters will have to search for the girls and stop the other hunters from getting to them first by laying traps or fighting them directly.
There is an English review.
17. Universal Nuts ユニバーサルナッツ [971218] Lay-Up 1
Universal Nuts is a sci-fi visual novel featuring two protagonists, Yui and Ai, which get involved in an incident onboard a space station. As the story progresses, the mystery of events that have occurred start to unfold. The game plays in a typical visual novel style by reading through on-screen text and dialogues to progress the story. Character icons are present during dialogues beside the character art over the background image, and the game features both animated cut-scenes and voice-acting.
There is a ghost ship in the open space sending out S.O.S. signals. But when Ai and Yui approach it, all the crew is absent even though all signs of life are present, even the lighted cigarette in the ash tray. A bad scenario with good production values and luxurious voice cast. Don't be surprised as anything can happen any moment here like in the weirdest bakage. There are too many inconsistencies too like meteorites catching fire in space or girl in a towel with a portrait in the suit. Scenario is multi-ending one, but with unskippable text very few would have the will to do it again. There are six "good" endings, but each time there is a a phrase following "Are you sure this is the best end?". And all of six endings have it. And there are lots of bad endings too. So there is no reward for looking for good endings, only irritation.
18. Zero 零式 [971218] Alice Soft 1
In order to find their father who has gone missing, the twins Akane and Naomi participate in 'Chariot Fest', a tournament in which people try and amass the most points by destroying robots in an underground maze.
There is an English review for this game.
19. Aitai Toki ni Kimi wa Inai 逢いたい時に君はいない [971219] Bell-Da
The hero who lives with his father and a young sister Serica. He falls in love with female teacher. And recently a lolicon started to pursue his younger sister.
There are three heroines each with her own ending. Number of CG is good - about 120 pieces. Story is quite nice as both developments happen side by side. Younger sister is charming and does not have a H event.
20. Enema えねま [971219] Manbou Goya
School girl Ezaki Ema meets a space police boy Nema who comes to the Earth to fight parasites laying eggs at the stomach. Together they purify stomachs of school girls and fight parasites with a gravitational vibrator. This is a sad romantic story... oh, wait, it's not - it's a story about enema! There's a great variety of toilet situations in game. And there's also some parody. And now we know the root of enema word.
21. Heart Work Symphony of Destruction Heart Work Symphony of Destruction [971219] Active 1 2 3 4 5
Yuu Asakura was a mild mannered university student until he found a mysterious duffel bag with a gun and orders for an assassination. He was terrified at first, but when he held the smooth metal of the pistol in his hand, he started to become someone else. Capable of anything, Yuu takes the assassination job and enters a world of nonstop sex, blood and guns. When he returns to school with his newfound abilities, he finds it no trouble at all to get any girl he wants. The syndicate and the police want a piece of the new guy, but the one Yuu has to worry about is the gun's original owner.
Game is localized and has English reviews.
22. Jain Juushinden Jevald 邪淫獣神伝ＪＥＶＡＬＤ [971219] Berserker
While returning home from his crappy job, our guy found a girl at the end of a bolt of lightning. It seems she has chased a mad scientist from her planet to earth. She needs his help to stop the mad scientist from collecting earth female energy. How does he do that? Well, a little mad scientist drug does wonders.
Graphics are good... but that's the only good thing in the game. Game's engine is very weird. Not possible to skip anything and it just froze on me in 12 minutes. And according to other people, not just for me - engine tends to freeze very often. There are multiple windows and some tend to disappear or get inactive. Savegame can not be summoned when you need it.
23. Kuroi Shoudou 黒い衝動 [971219] Violate 1
A collection of three short stories: "The Worst Day" in which the protagonist assaults a woman at a video store, "Your Slave" in which they harass a servant, and "Red Mark" in which they tutor a student in an indecent fashion.
There is an English review.
24. Teito Kitan ~Doushi Tantei no Jiken Memo~ 帝都奇譚 〜道士探偵の事件メモ〜 [971219] Space Project 1
Taisho era. A series of kidnappings of young girls have happened in the capital with the aim of selling into sexual slavery. A special detective trained in fighting is sent to investigate the case.
Strategic card battles. Scenario is quite simple, but Taisho era spirit depicted well. CG and voicing are mediocre. Quite an obscure game. There is an English review.
25. Zenyasai 前夜祭 [971219] Violate
A week before the school festival. Soichiro Kiriharais in the festival executive committee. There are five girls around the hero, each with their own troubles. Will his curiosity, kindness and persistence make them open up to him?
ADV where we raise/lower favorability according to the answers given. If you miss even one event to raise favorability, you won't get girl's ending.
26. Ai Doll 哀・奴隷（あい・どーる） [971225] Bags
Hero drove a car and got into an accident. He regained consciousness in girls monastery. Some strange punishment techniques are practiced there.
There is a decadent atmosphere and there are bad endings. The main heroine is sweet and positive against all the odds. Game does have reviews, but from what I saw the plot is the same as in hentai amine with the same title.
27. Mink Daisakusen ミンク大作戦 [971225] Mink
A god brought three heroes to the other world. Will you be able to gather the party, rescue friends and return to the original world?
An RPG. From the start we get to choose one of three heroes from Mink games that have different skills. At the next part we need to switch the choice for one of the leftover heroes, so better save one with the long range attacks for later. There are battles and levels ups. Game boasts of using 3D animation both for small items movement and H scenes occasionally.
28. Rougetsu Toshi 朧月都市 [971226] Softhouse Bonbee Bonbon 1
Tokyo at the end of the century got completely blocked from the outside world due to transformation of Kanto plains and emergence of black fog that blocks radio waves. The raise of shady organizations and appearance of strange dreams make people uneasy. Hero acquires mysterious power to oppose those threats.
There are only fake choices. The settings seems to come from the mail game with the same name. Picture quality is good, but not in the cute way. The "power" of the hero is not explained and even though it should be presented in multiple forms, he only uses it as a gun. The H events are sudden and spontaneous. The characters lack the persuasive power. So it's not a bad story, but not really a deep one. I consider it a masterpiece and prepared a full review.
29. Gensuishou 幻水晶 ～Crystal Fantasy～ [971229] Aquavit
There is a legend that the couple that sees "Crystal Fantasy" in this amusement part will love each other forever. Four friends come to this part at night to try and reveal the mystery. Whatever happens next depends on the choices.
Game is highly influenced by popular at that time Kizuato. It has boys love scenes which was still rare.
30. Osananajimi 幼なじみ [971229] Nirvana Soft
Main character has a childhood friend and a sister-in-law that he loves both dearly. But the day comes when he needs to make a decision and choose between them.
Very short work with just two endings, but well produced one.
31. Angel Lips エンジェルリップス [9712] Lyceen
Two high school girls lead a normal school life at the same class. But after an accident their contrasting everyday life breaks apart in a stream of lust. One more experienced, one more naive, but in the sunset city their purity is lost forever. Command selection ADV. There are two main heroines and one side-heroine. Game uses animation, voicing and is almost entirely devoted to H events, including les and SM ones. There are multiple endings prepared, so it can be called a choose you adventure genre.
32. Joutou na Nichijou 上等な日常 [97] RIKI
Everyone has sex, even classmates and girls at working places. It all starts in elementary school where students masturbate like crazy. There are six fourth grade elementary students to choose from. It's a short game where boys masturbate and girls have menstruation. Real weird stuff
Finally some competition! I rate all of Viper-F40, Nails and Moon. as masterpieces. But Moon. is the one that leaves the biggest impact.
1. Chaos Blood カオスブラッド [971107] Ange
Komiya Soma is leading a casual university life, but one night he gets involved into strange case. A student girl stood naked on the rooftop, repeating meaningless words and eventually starting to pee.
It was only the first of a series of incidents to arise in the future...
Minor work. Ugly character design. Story is tilt to weird fetishes and the synopsis is set just to show them. There are three routes, each featuring two different girls.
2. Collector ~Seifuku no Mezameru Toki~ コレクター ～制服の目覚める時～ [971107] Melody 1
The story behind Collector is that the main character has attended a well-reputed high school for a long time. Yet, the main character was disgust by their strict school policy and the boredom in the school. He wanted something interesting besides attending school and go home. And thus, the main character participated in a strange club that his friend has introduced to him. In this club, the main goal is to seduce girls to the clubhouse and rape them! And guess what? The main character is assigned as the person who will be responsible to bring the girls to the clubhouse. From here on, your quest of hunting down girls begins.
There is an English review.
3. Kenshuui 研修医 [971107] Vector
Uchi Yamagami graduated from a medical faculty a year ago. He worked at a public hospital and now decided to change workplace for a private recently opened hospital. He has views for six pretty women around, but at the same time he needs to solve hospital's new problem - principal's wife caused a riot and a big contract was cancelled. Moreover coworker pharmacist is behaving suspiciously. Hero will need to solve all the problems.
The choice of a girl depends on the type of work chosen every day. In the dialogue there are options to raise and lover favorability.
4. Kinjirareta Asobi 禁じられた遊び [971107] Vision
Protagonist receives a funny flier from a woman with butterfly glasses on the way back from the company. It advertises a relaxing machine that makes sexual dreams true. He pays a visit to the place and meets another woman with butterfly glasses...
Ero-centered game without text, voice only. Lots of animation as always with Vision.
5. Kokuhaku 告白 [971107] Guilty
Three high school girls confess their problems to main character who works as a counselor. He will need to find the right approach to each of them.
Girls have very difficult sexual problems relating to different fetishes. And it's impossible to get to true endings till the normal endings for each girl is got. A very exhausting game.
6. Megami no Hohoemi 女神の微笑み [971107] Palette (old)
Humans are extinct, only computer "CZ 25" with a will keeps existing. He strongly wished to see his creator and other human beings, and one day the goddess of time comes before him. She decides to change the past in order to fulfill his wish.
Modern time. Takuya Saito fell ill on the day of exams and now he is a ronin. One day Takuya is inspired by old friend Hiroyuki to become a high school graduate. What fate awaits Takuya?
Multi-ending ADV. There are five girls to clear and story develops by moving around and triggering events. There are several chapters with the cutest girl in the final chapter. Story development is unnatural, same as goddess of time part looks irrelevant. There is no hint that with some ending future was going to change. Game feels incomplete.
7. NyanNyan Dream にゃんにゃんドリーム [971107] Misty
An old main is travelling around secluded locations to pick up little girls.
Stupid loli game, and it's not even nanpa, just H.
8. Viper-F40 [971107] Sogna 1 2
A police investigation unfolds as detective Lilia and her freelancing friend Raika attempt to solve the mystery of three missing persons. Their investigation draws the ire of a small gang...
There are two reviews of this game, including mine.
9. Nails ~Beginning of Your Heart Beat~ [971114] Jam
People and nail people share the same continent and are in constant struggle against each other. At some point a relative peace has been settled and both populations continued to coexist in several smaller nations.
The stage is Altair Kingdom.
Jam Rock is a famous swordsman. One day on the way home from the swordsmen dojo, he helped a girl chased by suspicious men. She only remembered here name - Minwi. She turned out to be a shrine maid of Theinhad Temple and her memory was sealed for some reason. Jam Rock decided to take her to the Temple of Zainhad, but he was declared as Minwi kidnapper.
Two people passed through the security net and reached the Temple of Zainhad. However, Minnie could not remember anything. That night Minwi was kidnapped by the nail people with a probable aim to bring her as sacrifice to gods.
Jam Rock's rescue adventure is only beginning now.
Dungeon crawl RPG or maybe SIM with map travel because there are no levels or stats. Changing the destination map changes characters that will become friends. Party characters have favorability scale and it rises whenever they are praised. There are 8 girls to clear and 23 endings overall. Battle is turn-based command selection. Controls is mouse only and you need to choose action, then target, then confirm, so three mouse actions for each character in each turn. There are random encounters happening all the time. So it's actually a masterpiece level game.
10. Reversible Karte RK リバーシブルカルテ RK [971114] Black Package
A young psychiatrist, Kyogoku Kazuya looks over patients at the prestigious Psychiatric Ward every day. From the day when his girlfriend was killed in front of him, strange cases of women being insulted by patients started to happen in the hospital. What causes those incidents?
ADV with favorability of heroines depending on the number of hitting their flags. The routes aren't really connected and there is no single theme - just loosely placed individual stories. It's not a dark themed game, but rather a charage in a weird setting.
11. Toriko 2 虜2 [971114] D.O.
A woman comes to main character as a tutor. As soon as she recognizes a sadist in protagonist, she requests to train a strange girl Rikako as a slave, as well as her two sisters. This isolated mountain cottage becomes a territory of domination and obedience.
Well, there is more articulate synopsis, but who cares. It still will be an insulting training SIM. Main character is different this time. It's reported that sequel became more complex and sophisticated, but I'm not going to check that.
12. Xtasy [971115] Dollhouse
Yusuke Kubota tries to give a birthday present to his childhood friend Hikaru and lassmate Miyuki. When he was approaching, both girls disappeared and then he himself was also teleported to a mysterious island. With the two girls he needs to find the clue about the shining stone that teleported them and return home.
It's essentially an RPG. There are even enemies to beat as well as parameters to grow. Movement has to be done with a mouse. Message autoplay can be turned on, but with no speed regulation. There's no recollection mode. So it's an exploration game with not very comfortable system and mediocre graphics (even though CG are ok).
13. Moon. [971121] Tactics 1 2 3 4 5 6
The story follows a young girl named Amasawa Ikumi who follows the recent death of her mother to an organization known as FARGO. Ikumi joins FARGO and uncovers their disturbing nature of harnessing psychic abilities through torture.
Game is localized and has many English reviews.
14. Gen'ei Choukyou Club 幻影調教倶楽部 [971128] J-Box
Hero who is given name Ryu is invited to join private videophone club by his school teacher. The purpose of this club called "Snake Pit" is to gather people with abnormal sexual preferences and share experiences.
Nothing I can enjoy. Just phone talks with H.
15. Hatsune No Naisho!! 初音のないしょ!! [971128] Leaf 1
Hatsune no Naishou is a collection of Leaf's mini games that any Leaf's fan should not miss. The CD contains several cute mini software including some mini games, screen saver, wallpaper, and CD player. The mini games packed in the CD include a mini action game called Heart By Heart with characters from To Heart, a mini RPG game called Leaf Fighting 97, To Heart Omake, and of course the adventure game Hastune no Naishou.
There is an English review.
16. Kemono no Sumu Kousha 獣の棲む校舎 [971128]
Ikuro Makita is a recently transferred professor at girls' high school. He gets a request from the director to investigate the circumstances of his son death that's reported to be a suicide.
You need to choose various places at school during day and sometimes night and that passes time. But there's a limited amount of time given, so wandering aimlessly inevitably leads to game over. The only review around says that the fame freezes at the second part of the game, so maybe we'll know of the exciting story from the game's sequel.
17. Lofty Form [971128] Aaru 1
Yakushiji Shion is the eldest son from the clan punishes bad people. But after he assassinated Empire's shadow Kurobe Akiyoushi, it is regarded as a rebellion against the Empire. He gathers the clan and moves towards the North. Every day they are attacked by pursuers. At the same time he is chased by the girl Hiramatsu Yae who fell in love with Shion.
Wow. Just wow. A serious samurai story somewhere in Edo period... Hero is too serious so it's others that fill in the gaps with everyday life scenes gags. Just imagine warriors talking about strange things with serious face, soft kind of humor. Hero literally has 30 lines in the beginning and hardly 100 lines by the end of the game, his presence is not felt at all. There aren't even his thoughts. Game has brilliant vivid and very beautiful CG, lots of cool enemies and gore. Characters are very likable as well. The game is not without the faults. The speechless protagonists is a questionable move. There's an influx of events by the end of the game and abrupt ending. There are a lot of women caught up in between the warring sides... well, it might be an advantage, actually. But I consider this game a masterpiece. In 1997 I only expected entertainment stories. Or maybe I just love samurai stories too much.
18. Mugen 夢限 [971128] Trush
Dream control system is invented which allows to travel to artificially created dreams. At first it was used only in medical treatment, but since 1999 became wide spread for stress relief. You are an operator who controls such machine. You need to choose your customer and lead him through the dream so that they like it.
Three customers, several types of dreams which somehow eventually end with a H scene.
19. Namida ~Ryuusei no Saddle~ 涙 ～流星のサドル～ [971128] Zero
Aizaki Shinobi is hero's first love. Her mood has dropped as of late and she started to avoid hero. He needs to get to know what's happening to his dear friend.
A really trashy game. There are only four locations to move around and that constantly triggers new girls appearance. Talk to them twice in a favorable way and they invite to spend a night together. It's nice that the game does not really end with that and you can break up with any girl after. Aizaki is the most difficult to capture. There are couple mingames at hero's room, but overall I got a really negative impression, probably because awaited a serious game.
20. Shinsetsu Kamiya Ukyou ~Untrue~ 真説 神谷右京 ～Untrue～ [971128] Altacia
Events take place between those happening in Ivory Tower and Missing Link. There is no detective story this time. Instead, there is a story of human relations. The client is a girl who had a relative stabbed in the heart. That's the fact that can can no longer be divided between falsehood and truth... "Untrue".
The heroine changed from the Missing Link, but has the same type of mind. The work is more about portrayal of a complex person's feelings and Ukyou ability to foresee the results of every minor action to the future. The work is based on contrast with the other vomules of the series, but almost all of Ukyou visual novels are very difficult to find to make comparisons.
I only rate Sweepers! as masterpiece in October and thus it's VN of the Month.
1. Find Love ファインドラブ [980612] Lyceen
"Find Love" is part of the "Uniform Bishoujo Grand Prix" series. There are meetings prepared with 35 beautiful girls from all over Japan dressed in uniforms. All that's needed is solving a small puzzle each time. For PC version there is also erotic development involved. Puzzles followed by dialogues scenes.
2. Jigoku Seek 地獄SEEK [971003] PIL
Main character appears in hell upon death and is given a simple choice - to be tormented eternally or to make three girls atone for their sins. But to purify their souls every bit of their sins must be expelled with torture.
What to say - another SEEK game. There is picturesque landscape now and some rules - inability to injure or harm girls, so it's torture rather than SM.
3. Saya/Sumire さや/すみれ [971003] Bell-Da
You click on "hot spots" on the screen and get a response of some sort from Saya or Sumire.
Same macromedia no VN material stuff as Mio & Miho. No text in the "game", only sounds and poses change.
4. Chaos Queen Ryouko Story #2 Sugiura Kasumi Hen カオスQUEEN遼子 STORY#2 杉浦夏澄編 [971009] Scoop
Ryouko's dream is interrupted by her assistant who is pursued by persistent scientist girl. Ryouko does not mind giving her love consultation and two strong personalities clash.
Game still follows baka eroge trail. In this story two girls compete in delivering men pleasures with various techniques.
5. Doop DOOP [971009] MBS Truth
Hero is a part of a marine rescue team. Just a day before his vacation there is an urgent request to save personnel and cargo of a drowned submarine. The submarine does not have identifying signs apart of the drawing "Doop" and all the crew disappears apart of one member with body half-eaten by mercury reminding liquid. Hero takes sample from the corpse, but the next day one of heroes is found killed by the same mercury reminding liquid. As the team launches investigation, it turns out that there is a criminal/collaborator among the team members...
Remastered version Advance is really impressive. The pacing is good and the mystery is intriguing. I left it while it was still an interesting mystery, but there are reports that the second half is a one way road with lots of HCG, fast resolution and unsatisfactory feeling.
6. Kaori Climax 2 ~Mezase Sekai no Hayase Kaori~ かおりクライマックス2 ～めざせ世界の早瀬かおり～ [971010] h.m.p
Kaori makes her debut as an idol and marries protagonist who is always here to support her. The long struggle finally pays off... until the day she suddenly announces that she wants to conquer USA now. They have to start from scratch now in a different country! It's pretty much like prequel, but with much more adult development.
7. Kikan ~Return~ 帰還 〜RETURN〜 [971016] R.A.N Software 1
The story behind Return is that the main character, Tetsuya, received an order from his boss to nail down a drug dealer. Tetsuya and his girlfriend have oncetried to catch the dealer in Los Angeles, but unfortunately failed the mission. This time they received information that the dealer has appeared in Hong Kong. With the companion of Tetsuya's old pal and ex-girlfriend, the four police took off from Japan and head toward Hong Kong for the dealer. During the flight, they encountered a strange occurrence. All of their watches displayed different time. Although they soon ignore the strange phenomenon, they will soon be drawn into the inescapable time traveling that is caused by such phenomenon. When the foursome arrived to Hong Kong and found the dealer's hideout, a gunfight between them has caused the strange phenomenon to occur. Soon after they were drawn into the black hole, they realized they are no long in 1995. Instead, they are back in 1941 where Japan controlled most countries in Asia. From here on, the foursome is on the journey to "return" to 1995.
There is an English review.
8. Sotsugyou Vacation 卒業VACATION [971016] MYCOM 1 2
The player is on a southern island called Suzunari Jima. The 15 girls from Seika Joshi high school are also on the island for summer vacation.
The game starts as the master of the hotel tells a story of a hidden treasure on this island. Since many of the girls are pretty bored on the island, they decide to go look for the treasure.
Each day, the girls break up into several groups, and go looking for clues in finding the treasure. There are ten different locations on the island, and there are three times during the day (morning, noon, afternoon) that the player/girls can go to these locations. Then during dinner, everyone talks about what happened that day and makes plans for the next day.
There is enough information in English about this game.
9. Tactical Fighter Tactical Fighter [971016] TamTam Co., Ltd. 1
One rainy day a daughter of the director of a company visited the hero. She said that the company was hijacked, director was missing. In order to help director the hero starts to train this 15-year old girl in order to win in S-Grand Prix fighting competition in three years time.
Just previous month there was Metadoll Ai with almost the same story. This time there is raising SIM part and 2D fighting part where you do not participate at all, just watch. It's quite fun to learn new fighter moves and see how they are implemented so gameplay is good. You don't just train, there is a full-scale SIM part together with recreation, study and even part-time job activities. Still, three years period is a very long time and game gets repetitive. There are two kinds of endings - the true one and the scholar path if you lose the grand prix.
10. Kaibou Kyoushitsu 解剖狂室 [971017] iMAGE CLUB
Near future with virtual reality technology flourish. Hero goes to virtual reality service company "EDEN" for a sexual relief, but he could not know it would be beginning of an incident...
Ero-centered work.
11. Nagisa 100% なぎさ 100% [971017] Bell-Da
You can choose Nagisa profession at the start and see a short story regarding that profession.
Macromedia horror. Stories are very short. No save function. You need to choose places on a map screen till you have a dialogue scene.
12. Tales of the Nights ~Yumekyou no Miko~ テイルスナイツ ～夢鏡の巫女～ [971017] Tiare
There are a lot of worlds and it's possible to travel between the worlds in dreams. Iphilis is world of swords and magic, a peaceful world. However, the sealed witch Lamia broke free and summoned demons. Shrine maiden Elysia summons the hero from our world and asks for help.
RPG where hero travels to Iphilis world each night and tries to cleanse it from evil and in the daytime he goes to school. What a poor lad! Real world part is played as an ADV, but actions during this phase will affect Iphilis RPG part. Defeat the witch and have a happy end with one of the five girls, easy as that.
13. Gekkou Kemono 月光獣 [971024] Blue Gale
After the main character returned from school he was taking a nap at the bed in the room. At that time he dreamed that he was chasing someone familiar in a dark place. It was 8 o'clock in the evening when he woke up. The light of the pale moon was coming from the window. The hero rushed to city under the full moon.
What fate awaits him?
Hero has excitement level of four levels. Every time he sees an ecchi scene, excitement rises by one point. Whenever he gets "four" in excitement, he becomes a "beast". He then attacks the first girl he sees or bumps into a game over. After the attack the excitement level gets back to normal. There are six endings overall. Game's akin to Classmate the way moving is done around the town. It's quite short. Needless to say it's a borderline nukige work.
14. Karin -Tsukiiro no Yubiwa- かりん -月色の指輪- [971024] Bell-Da
Hero lives alone in a mansion. One day he receives a letter saying his younger sister Karin is coming, but he does not remember her. Karin arrives with her maid and she's anxious to help hero recover from his amnesia.
Usual Bell-Da macromedia stuff, but this time there is both Karin and maid, so hero can choose different rooms inside the mansion and trigger scenes with either of the heroine and sometimes both at once.
15. Magical Bunny まじかるバニー [971024] Aquarium
Shimamura Yuji has been dating sweet Shizuka Kasai for three months now. At the end of today's date she dragged them into a game center where clerk is a "bunny". Shizuka-chan disappears and "bunny" says that Shimamura has to play a game in order to help her. And so the travel into mysterious games begins.
Er... it's actually a stripping tetris game with modified rules.
16. Shiken Yasumi wa Mitsu no Aji 試験休みは密の味 [971024] Candy Lip
Hero attends high school for a week during the time of holidays and familiar people are much more friendly during the holidays.
There are five girls: childhood friend, sempai, swimming club kouhai, English teacher and nurse. There are four happy endings. There's dating, then confession, then H-scene. Poor answers make you appear in friend zone automatically. The graphics is done with QuickTime and is quite slow to load and ugly.
17. X Change [971024] Crowd 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
No matter how hard he tries, Aihara Takuya is just a weakling. Not only the boys, but the girls pick on him too! His step sister, Natsumi, the president of his school's chemistry club, Mami, and even his childhood friend, Asuka, they all enjoy teasing him.
Just when he thinks his life couldn't get any worse, he spills some vials of chemicals while cleaning up his school's chemistry room, splashing some onto his body as well. He looks down to assess the mess, and finds a new pair of breasts sticking out of his chest! He grabs them in disbelief, and discovers that he's been transformed into a girl!
And so begins Takuya's hilarious erotic adventure to search for a cure. Along the way he discovers a whole new world of experiences, some welcome and others not. Will he find a way back to normal, or will he be trapped in a girl's body for the rest of his life?
Game is localized and has many English reviews.
18. Yuukai Hakusho 誘拐白書 [971024] Pinpai
A high school girl was missing for three days and then her violated corpse was discovered in the park near protagonist house. Yagami Shingo is into detective business with his partner and he accepts this case that looks very much like kidnapping.
It's an ero-centered story and plot very soon becomes secondary, so there is little information to be found.
19. Ikusa Miko -Vestal Virgin- 戦巫女 －Vestal virgin－ [971030] Alice Soft 1
You are a devil hunter. You became a hunter because your parents were killed by devils and so you went to learn how to kill those devils. To become a hunter you became a very lonely guy who wanders around looking for devils, until one day...
You came to a shrine chasing after the devil that killed your parents, but you couldn't use your "power" anymore. A miko (Chitose) suddenly appeared before your eyes. You transfered all your "power" to her and she beat that devil away. Since she saved your life, you began to teach her how to use her new "power" and let her be the one who kills the devil.
There is an English review of the game.
20. Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! 2 Pia♥キャロットへようこそ!!2 [971031] Cocktail Soft 1 2 3 4
Yusuke (from the first Pia Carrot series) returns as the manager with a whole new cast. So the new male lead is Maeda Koji. Despite being late after an "accident," Koji manages to get the job as the Carrot's waiter because he's very persistent. Included within the set are Azusa (the female lead who hates Koji for his perversion), Ryoko (the manager who's sweet on Koji by working him very hard), Aoi (the token alcoholic), Jun (the secret-hiding waitor), and Mina (Azusa's cute little sister).
Game has two English reviews.
21. Sweepers! [971031] Petit
Takuya Hayami is an ordinary university first grader. However, his constitution allows him to easily invite spirits to his body. His childhood friend Mizuki Fuko has been in coma for a long time because she got involved into youkai extermination incident.
Now he goes to a spa resort with his lover Miyuki Kusuhara, but he hears Fuko words and there's going to be a new ghost riot.
Love comedy work. There are five short chapters with a bit of branching to determine who you end up with. Pacing is good and there is tension in the air even at final confrontation scene. Characters are quite charming. There are five heroines total, but game is mostly about love triangle. There are some inconsistencies like some events are mentioned in the wrong routes. There are some character and uniform models from Petit previous titles. But overall it's a good story that leaves a nice impression.
22. Sweet Days スウィートデイズ [971031] Pearl Soft
The hero spent summer vacation of high school third grade without doing anything. The school side persuaded him to leave the advanced course because of lack of academic ability and motivation.
The mother of the protagonist is shocked by that. She asked revise that decision based on the results of forthcoming exams. She hired a neighbor Shinohara Aki who attends a famous national university as tutor.
Aki, who secretly had feelings for the hero, willingly accepted and for three weeks before the proficiency test she will tutor the hero.
Despite what synopsis might suggest, there are six heroines overall, but only Aki's route is somewhat well developed. And the other girls routes feel bad because you have to constantly skip studies and see grumpy Aki's face. It's quite a short game hardly reaching two hours length and most of that time is occupied by routine actions.
22. Dear Princess ディアプリンセス [9710] Aspect Corporation
In prophecy it's said that the protagonist is destined to become king. Standing in his way is his father's enemy(the protagonist's uncle), who he'll have to win the throne from. And so the protagonist sets out for this goal...
Pretty ancient SRPG to really care.
Foreword: The culmination of the series and the biggest jewel Four-Nine ever produced. I'm late with the review since I wanted to finish recording video playthrough first.
Title: Canaan ~Yakusoku no Chi~
Developer: Four-Nine Date: 1997-04-18 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v8697 Synopsis: The fourth entry in the GaoGao series is set in the same post-apocalyptic world as the two previous games. In the future, a failed biological experiment caused widespread mutations, leading to a total separation of human civilization and the mutated tribes of "animal people". The events of the game begin shortly after the end of the previous installment. Human civilization is nearly destroyed; the remaining humans live in shelters, dreaming of the "promised land" Canaan, somewhere "near the end of the world", where there is enough food for everyone and where mutants can't enter. The game has two protagonists: a human boy who has lost his parents and who swears to himself to find Canaan, and Wolf, the mutant hero of the previous game, with his colorful female companions. Eventually their paths cross - but will they able to understand each other and bring peace to the troublesome world?..
Structure: 29 parts overall varying in length from 3 minutes to 2 hours. Length: 15 hours Game type: Command selection adventure Difficulty: Easy and even easier than in before. No need to bruteforce all the commands to advance, dialogues are enough to proceed usually. Character Design rating: 10/10 Protagonist rating: 10/10 Story rating: 10/10 Game quality: 9/10 Overall rating: 10/10 Rating comments: All the shortcomings of Gao Gao 3 are eliminated here: no more command bruteforcing, optional (and less painful gameplay-wise) H-events, story is not bounded to a strict structure, but feels as a natural adventure. I can't put 10 for quality since it's PC-98 game with no voicing, but besides that just perfect.
Protagonist: Same Wolfy boy (we're given official English spelling in the credits like that), but now also with a human boy Kite moving elsewhere in parallel with paths joining only by the end. Wolfy is same cool and optimistic person, but what's nice - there was a chapter of total despair even for him - that was a welcome character development to see. Kite is pretty much allusion to Gao Gao 2nd part protagonist - human boy who wishes to protect those he loves but fails to do that due to lack of power. "I want to become stronger" is his motto, but unlike part 2 here Kite actually becomes strong and at some point even assaults enemies on par with Wolfy - that was also a satisfactory character development.
Characters: I've counted 25 humanoid characters in the game, aside of definite side-characters. Only four of them are males: Wolfy, Kite, Blue, Pr.Kayne. All the allies migrated from Gao Gao 3rd safely with some new ones and old acquaintances. It's enough to mention that there are as many as 12 people in our party at the time of the final battle. Just as in Gao Gao 3rd whenever you meet some new person, a long quee of questions to him follows, so every character is very well depicted as we get to know their past, their status and their wishes. This way is much better than having lots of mystery characters and getting to know them bit by bit by their actions.
Enemies: are very cool. There are more guys with advanced tech and guns, there are robots, new war modified mutants. Just as before, human enemies are possible to negotiate with.
Story: Kite is a boy who lives in one of the sealed shelters and one day sneaks out from there to try to find Canaan - the best place for people to live - he read about in the books. Wolfy party gets out of the Underground this time and walks the picturesque landscapes. At some point they find Kite's shelter, read his diary and burn up to find this land of prosperity Canaan as well. Kite saves a girl Angela from the crashed helicopter and they go seeking her "Fur", someone very close to her but unable to remember because of amnesia. Wolfy party finds the angel/bird girl Fur in a different crash place and she needs to find Angela. Soon Fur gets kidnapped and the story slowly, but surely unwinds. The biggest part of the story takes mutual alienation of mutants and humans. And only little by little, one encounter after another both species stop thinking in black and white terms.
CG: There were much more CG compared to 3rd part. They are of better quality and overall make up for the rich story feeling. A lot of backgrounds are reused from 3rd part, but that seems natural as it's the same underground everywhere.
HCG: I'm pretty sure there are less H-events than in 3rd part and all the female characters excluding only some enemies get their own HCG. But what I really liked is that there are only two compulsory events with Rabby in the beginning of the game and in the end of it and one compulsory event of Kite with mutant girl Mira. Mira is by the way one of the main characters this time, party of Kite consists of three persons usually: Kite, Angela, Mira. Optional H-events helped me to concentrate on the story and build up more empathy for the main characters rather than struggle through all the side-character pretty random and not important H-events. Sound: Only couple of old bgms migrated from Gao Gao 3rd and those are generic battle ones. All of the important battles, events and just actions have new much more elaborate midi melodies, which is really nice.
Themes: Most evident theme is definitely of Canaan. We tend to ask about Canaan every passer-by with both protagonist. What's Canaan? Will we be able to find it? See it for yourself, but the answer is very satisfying. Another interesting Canaan side-story is that of Prof. Kayne - but I won't spoil it here.
Another theme is that of coexistence. In Gao Gao 3rd there was not a single living human - only one human spirit Saison, but that was snobbish pc room maintenance specialist and he openly declared that mutants is the lower life form and has to be annihilated. By the start of Canaan both parties are ready to kill the other species enemies on spot and it takes a lot of effort to overcome that feeling. It starts from simple - "They can also be sad and cry" and goes all way through.
The third important theme is that of creators and creations. Are we responsible for life of those who we created? Should we treat them as luggage and just make another clone instead? This theme is covered mostly by Pr.Kayne sideline.
Another one is that of the reason of life. There are some suicides in the game and the gravest events happen because characters lose the reasons of their lives. Is it worth it to live on without the reason of life or is it possible to find another reason? Those are the questions raised.
Originality: Since it's direct continuation of Gao Gao 3rd there's not much originality here. But double protagonist story lines is a fresh move which really helps with the information overdose in the beginning.
Humor: I absolutely love the humor here. The old jokes don't have a strong presence, but occasionally show up and those moments are cherishable indeed. When a party of peddlers is asked whether they know about Ningen, they first take out a carrot, then green beans and then admit that they don't have any more vegetables reminding Ningen. Hit android with the pie joke is played out pretty cool too and the whole party was shocked that android did not stop functioning after that. The inventor of new meanings is only Iria now and she is hit frequently by Rabby, Leona and Dola because of that. Wolfy thoughts and comments are stingy as ever and the spirits in the party is always high.
Overall comments: This is a very rare beast. A serious grown-up story in postapocalyptic world with the best possible humor, dozens of well-developed characters and many important themes raised. What else can one possibly want? It feels like an epic RPG story on par with Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky, but with zero RPG elements. There are other games with interesting stories, but this unique party atmosphere is not to be rivaled in any pure visual novels to come further.
The best Visual Novel of September 1997 is Comic Road - a shy life simulator of a starting manga artist with a lot of animation and very cute scenes.
1. Akuryou Gakuen Reiko 悪霊学園レイコ [970905] Trush
Reiko Ashura, a young girl born in an ancient psychic family, challenges a strange case by making use of its special ability. Miserable incidents occur one after another at a prestigious girls' high school which are linked to a horrible mysterious occult circle secret.
It's a les insulting eroge. The story is about going around the school and fighting youkai with the help of spiritual abilities. Picture looks rough and is not cute. There are 2 bad endings and 1 good ending and insult scenes are concentrated around bad endings.
2. Innai Kansen 淫内感染 [970905] ZyX 1
Akira Sakaguchi is a physician who has been appointed to a new Hospital. Rumors about his youth and skill spread fast among the nurses. One day Akira accidentally witnesses an improper behavior of his female colleague doctor after operation and can't forget that mysterious sight.
The first bullet in Zyx famous immoral hospital franchise. There is an English review.
3. Winter Kiss ウインターキス [970905] Ucom
You come to winter ski resort. That's a perfect place to find a girlfriend.
There are 8 girls but selection is made on the very first day and then the story just goes automatically. There is full voice here. Besides that it's hardly noticeable. At least the system is ok. An obscure work like most of Ucom works.
4. Eberouge Special ~Koi to Mahou no Gakuen Seikatsu~ エーベルージュ スペシャル ～恋と魔法の学園生活～ [970905] Fujitsu 1
Main character is a 15-years old student who arrives at the magic school. He will meet different female teachers and classmates that he can date there provided that he has required skill levels.
Prequel started in elementary school and was a borefest with rare events. Here events density is higher, but it's still a SIM in the first place.
5. Heart no Kakera ハートの破片 [970912] Excellents
Masato Sakurai just entered high school. He starts to feel dissatisfaction with current life and starts club activity. What kind of girls can he meet?
Command selection ADV. One way road with only number of CG depending on choices. At first four girls scenarios are available, then three more open up. The scenarios are short and unmemorable. Girls are not voiced and that's really bad. There is not enough romance or bonding or smth, more like a nanpa game.
6. Kyouen Etsuraku no Requiem 狂宴 悦楽のレクイエム [970912] Vector
Yasuto Hirabayashi's grandfather died and left him a diary. There was written about the woman and the ring that he could not attain. How is it connected to the classmates that who decided to spend vacations in a mystery mansion?
Multi-ending (six endings) command selection adventure. How to reach each ending in hinted in the help option. There are two heroines but neither can get a happy ending. Game has poor system. Quite a well known fabula since Beast series where a group of students break into pairs and explore the abandoned mansion. Wandering around the rooms takes majority of time.
7. Aethyr ~Tenshi no Ryouiki~ Aethyr～天使の領域～ [970925] Love Gun
Ninomura Shinobu is a medical student who moves to "Rosellen Court" lodging with a lot of pretty girls around. He can't do anything with the ever-present administrator around, but there's a chance now as administrator goes to a trip. But Shinobu also suffers from nightmares that come every night...
It's difficult to say what's reality and what's a dream in the game as those go alternatively same as sweet scenes and dark scenes. But the pattern is the same with every girl and repeating it over and over turns into torture. There are over 30 endings. Branching can be difficult to understand and it takes a lot of time to enter the true route.
8. Roommate ~Ryouko in Summer Vacation~ ROOMMATE～涼子 in Summer Vacation～ [970925] Datam Polystar 1 2
Roommate: Ryōko in Summer Vacation is the second game in the trilogy centering around Ryouko Inoue, your roommate for the time of the story. Ryouko just came from abroad and decided to use her summer vacation to return to Japan. Arriving hot and sweaty from the airport, she rings your door bell and after taking a quick shower tells you all about her trip abroad. For the time being, she'll be staying with you and be your roommate.
There is an English review of this game.
9. Sound Novel Tsukuru 2 サウンドノベルツクール２ [970925] ASCII Corporation
The sequel to Sound Novel Tsukuru for the Super Famicom. The engine for making interactive fiction is identical to its prequel but is more complex. More choices and opportunities for interaction are possible along with superior graphics and sound quality.
Not sure if there pare premade stories there or not.
10. Be Happy! Koi Mau Gakuen BE HAPPY ! 恋舞う学園 [970926] Space Project
Shoji Toki is preparing for high school entrance exam. One of the teachers invites him to a cram school to prepare for exams.
Raising sim about study in the first part of the game. Examination is held by the series of quizzes. After you pass the exam, the second ADV part with map choice begins. Every heroine has her own ending. Difficulty is above average. Graphics is really meh and character design is not even remotely same cute as on the box. Just compare the winking girl in game with the same winking girl on the box...
11. CD Girls -Utahime-tachi no Koi Monogatari- CDgirls －歌姫達の恋物語－ [970926] C's Ware
A mediocre hero borrowed a CD from a friend with the title "CD Girls". The moment he pushed "play" a little girl jumped out from the CD. Time stops here with only old memories and old love wounds lingering in search of cure.
Scenario is ridiculous and ending is abrupt. Choices can be severe as one wrong answer leads to event end. Game's very short. There's an H-event for each of 3 heroines in the end of their tiny routes.
12. Comic Road こみっくろーど [970926] Cocktail Soft 1
Comic Road is a "life simulation" game, starring a young girl (whom the player names themselves) who dreams of becoming a manga artist. In order to become successful, she has to do more than just draw well; it is important to develop other aspects of her personality, and also keep an eye on the finances, otherwise working too much might deteriorate her drawing skills. Social life, physical exercises, reading - everything has consequences!
Manga training sim. Might be the only of this kind. Highly animated work (3 hours total!) during a period of 3 years. While other companies keep making weird raisig sims and clone dating sims, this is a sim about life with part-time work, skills training, occasional friends gatherings and doujinshi festivals. It may still seem monotonous, but that's basically life simulation, it can't be exciting. This game was largely overlooked at the time of issue, but I think it a very important work to doujin culture, probably same as Comic Party in 1999.
13. Kuroyagi ~Otome-tachi e Sasageru Serenade~ 黒山羊 ～仔羊たちへ捧げる小夜曲～ [970926] E.G.O.
Late 19th century. In a certain place in Western Europe there was a famous house called the Yagi family. Lord Earl was an excellent person as its head.
· · · However, one day the he disappeared. An incident occurred in which all members were found dead. The crime remained unsolved. 100 years have passed since then · · ·
A certain detective tried to bring the truth about this incident up without a request from anyone and vanished without a trace. His best friend is anxious to know about his whereabouts and he steps into the mansion as well. He seems to be a very ordinary journalist, but in reality he has a "witch" as his ancestor.
It's a minor low-price work, but very atmospheric one. It's well depicted as detective gradually approaches the truth behind the incident. He travels in time three days before the incident and can witness its circumstances with his own eyes. Standing CG ruin this atmosphere to an extent. There are five heroines to clear overall. The pacing is generally good but development becomes too fast in the second half. I've tried it game is not voiced at all. There is no opening either. Character designs are mostly ugly, but CG much nicer. I see little interest in plot, it's merely a pretext to enter a house full of girls and see some dramatic resolution only by the end of 3rd day.
14. Metadoll Ai メタドールAI [970926] Petit
2026 AD. Amagi Shiro used to be metadoll robots fighting competition champion back in middle school. Then he abandoned it after his mother and his robot disappeared in the house fire of unknown origin. Now a year later he lives with father and he's returning in the competition on his new metadoll Ai.
Game consists of first raising sim part where we aim for the champion title and then there is mystery adv where we investigate the tragic incident of the fire. Fights are very difficult, especially in the first part of the game, but losing does not seem to affect the flow and the ending. And the culprit of the incident is the evil organization and this ADV scenario is too short to matter.
15. Mujintou Monogatari X ~Gaiden~ 無人島物語X ～外伝～ [970926] Pinpai 1
The story behind Desert Island is that you and six other people (all girls) have been anesthetized and brought to an uninhabited island. You woke up from theanesthetic and found you and your sister is on an uninhabited island somewhere in the Pacific. You and your sister have no clue on how you two got on the island. However, you have soon found a radio inside a hut on the beach. From the radio, you are given the information that you and six other people have been transported to this island under the experiment called "J Project." The company conducting this experiment has informed you that you will have three-month to uncover the secret of J Project. From here on you will begin your exploration of the island to uncover the secret of J Project and gather up girls.
After the main trilogy Desert island story started to adapt to the market. So after R story there was an inevitable X story. But instead of just adding H-events the gameplay was razed to a simpleton level. The game has an English review.
16. Onani -Peeping Boy- 自慰 -Peeping Boy- [970926] Candy Soft 1
You're a high school student who wants to gain some "experience" with girls in your class. And you do this by having conversations with them after school is over. There are five different girls you can talk to, although you can only approach one at a time. If your conversational efforts are successful, you get to see the girl play with herself before you join the fun.
You won't believe it, but there is an English review of this game.
17. Kaitouranma 快刀乱麻 [970927] Imagineer Co., Ltd. 1
Japan in alternative history universe. Shinjuro may be a little young to be the master of a swordsmanship school, but fate didn't give him a choice. Now his position and martial arts skill land him in the middle of serious trouble when the rogue samurai Mikage faces off against the Tokugawa government, and Shinjuro and the small group of swordsmen who train at the school must now protect the town from harm. However, the group won't be challenged until the Tokugawa house calls in a favor, and the young swordsman is forced to duel Mikage himself.
Game has an English Review
Kaeru nyo Panyon is the only masterpiece game of August 1997.
1. Bishoujo Hanafuda Kikou Michinoku Hitou Koimonogatari 美少女花札紀行 みちのく秘湯恋物語 [970807] FOG
A romance adventure game where you go around the sightseeing spots in the Tohoku region, make photos of heroines and play cards with them. All backgrounds are live-action capture with detailed commentary on various places added. This game is regarded as the origin of travelling games.
It's all in the synopsis. Game's more like a travel guide with girls being almost tour guides.
2. 48 ~Zukei no Koi~ 48 ～図形の恋～ [970808] 13cm 1
In 48, you are an artist in Tokugawa shogunate period. What you do for a living is draw women. One day, you got a job asking you to draw 48 pictures of different sex positions.
There is an English review.
3. Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy ~Osorubeshi Shintai Sokutei! Kakubakuhatsu 5 Byou Mae!!~ 魔法少女プリティサミー 「恐るべし身体測定！ 核爆発５秒前！！」 [970808] Interchannel
Nuclear warheads were stolen. Find the culprit together with Sammy while enjoying school life!
Digital comic. The story feels like usual 60 min OVA is stretched to 120 min length. There is one place by the end when wrong selection means bad end. Game is mostly about parody and... bloomers.
4. Mitsuryouku 密猟区 [970808] Zero
The town is under attack of foreign nation soldiers. They gather the riches and violate women on their way.
First Zero work has unusual setting. Game is mostly of insult content, but drawing is great and the use of guns is fresh. But it sold really well as people could only judge by cover that it looked like a dark atmosphere impactful story.
5. Panic-chan ぱにっくちゃん [970808] Imagineer Co., Ltd.
Kengo works part-time at video shop. One day when the store manager asked him to create a leaflet for recruiting new workers , a pretty girl suddenly appeared on the screen. She jumped from the screen on the floor and introduced herself as Panic-chan. Both Kengo and the store manager monotonous lives will subject to many changes from now on.
Game hardly reaches 2 hours length. Synopsis tells like 70% of the actual story. Its appeal points are cute girls, a lot of animation and a very cheap price. It's a low price fanservice work and should be treated this way.
6. In Days 2 淫DAYS（インディーズ）2 [970815] Lunar Soft
A collection of 5 short stories:
1. ERISS re TALE
2. Country Study ～前編～
3. Fondness
4. 火之神・水之神
5. ねこみみサーカス団
Just your usual 5 short erotic stories.
7. Tokiiro no Matsuei 朱鷺色の末裔 [970815] Palette (old) 1
Once upon a time the world was chaotic state. Those who had special abilities were born in chaos. Some of them helped human being, gave a guidance to people, and were revered as god. Others gave destructions and disasters, and were feared as devils. But what were born in chaos were not only god and devil, also Shinma, which had a figure of a god and a heart of a devil. And Shinma were feared as conductors of confusion. YamataNoOrochi,the king of Shinma, demanded sacrifices(maidens) from people, but was beaten by Susanoo. As a result Shinma were shut up under the ground, and lost their ability. However, Shinma is reviving now.
There is an English review for this game.
8. Inma Daitoshi Beast City - Vampire Madonna Hen 淫魔大都市 BEAST CITY 【ヴァンパイアマドンナ編】 [970820] Toshiba EMI
Year 201X, Tokyo underground world. At midnight in the secret club turn girls into toys with you own hands.
What's known is that some anime H scenes are used, some are new ones. There seems to be built-in print function to preview and print the images acquired.
8. Koi no Summer Fantasy in Miyazaki Seagaia 恋のサマーファンタジー in 宮崎シーガイア [970822] Japan System Supply
A visual novel in the vein of Tokimeki Memorial where the protagonist dates real life idol Okina Megumi.
It's more a product for idol fans than a real galge.
9. Naisho ないしょ [970823] Guts!
Peeping and eavesdropping after loli girls adventure.
Gameplay is setting microphones and cameras in the rooms and then watching. There is some story attached, but story hardly matters here.
10. Kaeru nyo Panyon かえるにょ・ぱにょ～ん [970829] Alice Soft 1 2 3 4
A magician changes the prince of Parancho into a weird creature while he is on an errand in a distant land. Since his new form isn't very strong he has to entrust his life to a group of adventurers to get back home safely.
Game is localized and has some English reviews.
11. Sweet Heart すいーと はーと [970829] Media Saurus
Main character is left alone at home during the festivities. He needs to spend these nine days alone. But should he really be alone? It's a great opportunity to find a girlfriend. Game feels ok, but unremarkable as a galge.
12. revEnge Aoki Ketsuzoku no Fukushuu revEnge 青き血族の復讐 [970830] Xyz 1
The main character Ryo seeks training from the beautiful Miyu to become an assassin, in order to get revenge on the criminal syndicate that is responsible for the murder of his younger sister. He will also need to take some of the female members of the syndicate hostage...
There is an English review.
There are no masterpieces this month. Main candidates are Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series Vol. 1: Nijiiro no Seishun and Shinseiki Evangelion Koutetsu no Girlfriend, but the latter one has little in the story department, it's more of a bakage for fans, so my choice is Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series Vol. 1: Nijiiro no Seishun that was a very fresh game with those mini-games incorporated. It's only shortcoming is not sufficient length, but overall it's a very good quality product
1. Nao なお [970701] Bell-Da 1
Meet a girl named Nao, play hide-and-seek with her on school grounds and you may be rewarded as a result.
There is an English review.
2. Daisuki だいすき [970704] Success
Military school in the near future. We need to train the best pilots from these rookie girls.
There are lots of stats, some are given from start from traits, the others are trained. There are as many as 99 certificates overall. Need to take basic sciences for the first year and then specialize. Saving is allowed only at the end of the term. There are lots of funny minigames that are used as a training means. Overall a very complicated game without much satisfaction for the torture.
3. Graffiti [970704] Petit
Hiroki Takasugi parents were relocated and started to live with an incomprehensible sister. He did not want want to move and his mother said he could stay at old place if he has a person he loves. Now it's time to find one and do it fast till the end of February.
Game feels like Memories Refrain and even shares some locations with it. There are three parts of the day and you need to move around the school and trigger events. There are only two months from 6 January to 22 February available for action. Graphics are somewhat obsolete already, but voice actors richness make up for it. 12 girls overall. Each girl has a mood and there are some tricky conditions to fulfill, so difficulty is above average. Well, time for triggers is generously depicted in the manual.
4. Wakusei Kougekitai Little Cats 惑星攻機隊りとるキャッツ [970704] Family Soft 1
The galaxy is threatened by robotic enemies from a remote space. In order to stop them, giant combat robots were deployed to a space station under the command of Colonel Goofy Reagan. The combat robots are navigated by the best pilots, which happen to be cute teenage girls. Since the Colonel is very busy, he needs somebody to watch over the girls and train them. This somebody would be Major David Lowe, the protagonist of the game...
A raising sim, basically. You rise stats and then can fight in open space. Lots of minigames are used for training. So, another weird SIM mix with quite strange space fight mechanics.
5. First Step! ファーストステップ! [970710] Bunny Pro.
A high school with separate teaching of boys and girls with the border along a tall wall. One day and explosion occurs and it suddenly becomes a co-ed school. What kind of school life will they enjoy?
There are many heroines, each with its own ending. But the game feels empty with few events and over half of H-scenes are dedicated to peeing. Gameplay-wise it's simillar to Graffiti from Petit, but with longer period and much fewer events. It has problem with scenes switch and text speed. A boring long game with poor usability.
6. Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series Vol. 1: Nijiiro no Seishun ときめきメモリアルドラマシリーズ Vol.1 虹色の青春 [970710] Konami 1 2 3 4
The story behind the game is about a transfer student (that would be you) who joins a soccer team. He encounters this girl who laters turns out to be the manager of the soccer team. Her name is Saki Nijino.
It seemed that everything to be going fine when all of a sudden, the coach picks the starters for the team. You got very confident in yourself that you thought he would pick you. Yet, the coach only saw you as a beginner and you were not picked to be one of the starters.
This begins your relationship with Saki Nijino and also you start to get to know her friend, the first year manager (she is a new character but i don't know how to pronounce her name). Your relationship grows and grows with Saki because you train yourself infront of your house everynight with her helping you out.
Game has English reviews.
7. Chaos Queen Ryouko Story #1 Ninomiya Mii Hen カオスQUEEN遼子 STORY#1 二宮美依編 [970711] Scoop 1
Ryouko always bullied her sister Misuzu, but now Misuzu got married and Ryouko has become the counselor of love problems to bully a much wider range of pretty girls.
The series have lots of H content, but are also presented in a humorous manner in this bakage. Introduction and patient harassment is presented in the first story.
8. Queen of Darkside [970711] Harvest
This game is a visual novel where all you can do is read and enjoy the pictures. The story is horror mixed with H. It deals with black magicians, a sad queen, the dark history of a mansion and our hero the bounty hunter. There is also a bit of love in there too.
A kinetic novel with nothing to do but click mouse. Scenario is flat and without any surprise. Text is bad and can take several screens to finish one sentence, so readability is hindered. There is no dialogue and the story is told by the narrator which results in lack of excitement.
9. Rabid Helix [970711] Aaru 1
In this game, you are the medic of a corporate security team in some sci-fi setting sent to investigate a long-abandoned reserach installation owned by the company's predecessor. Similiar to the lieutentant of the Colonial Marines in Aliens, you sit behind a bank of monitors and observe your teammates' status as they investigate the interior of this compound. And like Aliens, something nasty is waiting for them inside.
There is an English review.
10. Shinseiki Evangelion Koutetsu no Girlfriend 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン鋼鉄のガールフレンド [970711] Gainax 1 2 3 4 5 6
A shy female character, Mana Kirishima, starts at Shinji Ikari's school and immediately admits to finding him cute. Gradually, a relationship unfolds and they end up going on a date. It turns out, however, that she is one of three test pilots for the TRIDENT units, a new competitor to the Evangelions, similar to Jet Alone; thus the name Girlfriend of Steel.
Game is localized and has many English reviews.
11. Chou Tennentai 超天然隊 [970714] PNC
In a rich private high school an incident of shaving girl's private hair occurred. Members of the Student Council started an investigation of the incident.
One of the first software pieces for with women as target audience after Angelique (+Special 2) and Albarea no Otome. But previous games were of pure romance princes and princesses atmosphere. This one is on the other hand has an ordinary school as stage and lots of H content. Contents-wise it has nothing to do with any serious investigation. The aim is to raise favorability level. You may choose any of the four council members and raise love level with any remaining one. In that way yaoi and les pairs are available as well. Graphics are very mediocre. So what we got is an epochal game that can be considered the ancestor of all yuri, yaoi and otome eroge.
12. Hana no Kioku Dai 3 Shou 花の記憶 第3章 [970718] Foster
Collection of five short erotic stories.
1. 3P with SM
2. Date with a girlfriend ending up 3P with sister
3. Schoolgirl insult in the back alley on the way back from school.
4. Date resulting in master-slave relations due to meeting a SM lady
5. Gokkon date turning into orgy
As usual stories are short and no time is wasted on useless plots.
13. Pocket Love ポケットラブ [970718] KID
Hero's love interest is in the higher grade class. This year he gets in the same class with his childhood friend and she piques his interest a lot as well. He is not confident in his abilities, but this year he wants to find his love. Hopefully by Christmas ...
This is the first dating sim for gameboy. There are stats and there is concept of money. So most of the time you raise stats and events happen if you meet the prerequisite. There are seven heroines altogether. Somehow despite just 4 gradations of color, characters are cute and mechanics are good enough enjoy this game while outdoors.
14. Yuukyuu Gensoukyoku 悠久幻想曲 [970718] MediaWorks 1
Enfield, a country revived 50 years after a tragic war. Our protagonist works in a general shop owned by a widow called Arisa, who helped him when he was lost. After Arisa has to pay a great fee to free the hero from prison for a crime he didn't commit, our hero will have two problems to solve: how will he pay back Arisa? And who's the real criminal? Maybe he'll find the answers by becoming part of the town...
So the hero has ten friends and in the beginning of each week you set three of them to work at some place. In order to raise favorability rating on friends talking is used. Heroine specific ending is achieved by choosing the right answer in four themed events. Game is different from most of galge because you aim for friendship, not for romance. On weekends there are different activities as well and you can train magical and physical skills. There is also some battle element included since you can participate in very easy Colosseum matches, but it's optional, just to earn money. So it's a very strange mix of RPG and dating sims. I can not understand the meaning of this game series. Why set an epic fantasy setting and strip it off all the adventures, epicness while filling it with routine and nothing but encouraging friendly talks.
14. Yuukyuu Gensoukyoku 悠久幻想曲 [970718] MediaWorks 1
Enfield, a country revived 50 years after a tragic war. Our protagonist works in a general shop owned by a widow called Arisa, who helped him when he was lost. After Arisa has to pay a great fee to free the hero from prison for a crime he didn't commit, our hero will have two problems to solve: how will he pay back Arisa? And who's the real criminal? Maybe he'll find the answers by becoming part of the town...
So the hero has ten friends and in the beginning of each week you set three of them to work at some place. In order to raise favorability rating on friends talking is used. Heroine specific ending is achieved by choosing the right answer in four themed events. Game is different from most of galge because you aim for friendship, not for romance. On weekends there are different activities as well and you can train magical and physical skills. There is also some battle element included since you can participate in very easy Colosseum matches, but it's optional, just to earn money. So it's a very strange mix of RPG and dating sims. I can not understand the meaning of this game series. Why set an epic fantasy setting and strip it off all the adventures, epicness while filling it with routine and nothing but encouraging friendly talks.
15. For You [970725] Bell-Da
In a small town there is a shop that has a lot of girls' favorite things.
Very pretty girls are working in the shop and waiting for presents. What kinds of gifts are good for girls? If you find girl's favorite item, she can be very grateful.
Player needs to investigate what type of presents girls want and bring them some. There is a limit of 6 items to buy overall, so bruteforcing by trying it all is difficult. Game's fully voiced.
16. Hoshi no Nai Machi ~Shoujo-tachi no Yoake~ 星のない街 ～少女達の夜明け～ [970725] Poison Breath
Hero is a detective who accepts a case, but starts to feel sympathy towards the client.
Ero-centered work, of course, but to such an extent that the given case even stays unsolved! A truly unique case of ignorance for the story.
17. Kotori no Hane Kazari 小鳥の羽飾り [970725] Studio B-Room
Studio B-Room fandisc that includes among others:
1. CD drama
2. Aisha drink poker game
3. Love-love game
4. Bonus voice recording
5. Wallpapers
6. Up-Up action game
Wallpaper, drama CD, poker etc. There is no story, it's not a VN.
18. Onii-chan e お兄ちゃんへ [970725] Guilty
Main here is an illustrator in Tokyo. One day he receives a telegram saying "Little sister is coming home." He was the eldest son, but he fled to Tokyo to escape rural life. Now he returns to the family house and many things have changed for the worse.
Mystery suspense adventure, or that what it's called by developers. Mysterious atmosphere is depicted well, but there's little of suspense here. The abandoned family members are on the verge of craziness. There is dark atmosphere everywhere and dark instincts prevail. There are multiple endings here, but the "good" ending is hardly any different from the bad endings as it does not solve any problems and hero is still being sucked into whirlpool of dark emotions. System is still command selection, probably to pump up volume. Due to such system it's really difficult to cover all endings without a guide. Only 5 save slots don't not help either. There is no fast skip function so reaching other endings is even more painful. So a pretty depressive rural story with a lot of dark motives.
19. Pretty Cat ~Lily and Kyle no Daibouken~ ぷりてぃ きゃっと ～リリィとカイルの大冒険～ [970725] Aquarium
A mysterious world inhabited only by beast people.
Kyle is beaten and robbed on a road by a group of rat-people. Lily finds him on the road and leads him to her village.
Graphics poor, voicing only partial. Story is elusive and not being focused on. There just no good points.
20. Tonari no Princess Rolfee となりのプリンセスRolfee [970725] NEC Home Electronics 1 2
The official mascot of the PC-FX console is now the star of her own game. Rolfee is a princess of a magical land which is threatened by demons. So Rolfee and her family - including a cute little animal called Nyai - move to Japan. Rolfee has to go to high school, and she hopes to study well and make friends. Will she have success in the school? Will she be liked by her classmates? Will she not quarrel too much with her family? It all depends on the player!
Dating sim with Rolfee stats depending on main character actions. You mostly only choose maps and some events are totally random and those events can even force some ending. At some point Dark Demon appears and command selection battle begins. There are three endings overall. Rolfee is PC FX mascot character, so no need to pretend - game is made to ship it with lots of side goodies. So Rolfee fans were happy.
21. Virtua Call 3 バーチャコール3 [970725] Fairytale 1
Yoichi Asami was about to have another cold lonely summer vacation. One day he encounters a girl by chance and receives from her a cartridge called "Virtual Call" with which one can access a two-side videophone service. What kind relationship will he find there?
Synopsis is the same as part 2. The number of girls increased, but the impression of each character became thin. In order to open closed girls, need to clear the available six girls which gets really repetitive. Some characters were unable to clear which felt bad. It's quite a worthy franchise continuation still.
22. Yakusoku やくそく [970725] May-Be Soft 1
Sayama Yuichi is a college student who is being followed by mifortune. He lost parents in an accident and lost memory. However, his life changes completely with the appearance of girls of several girls in his life. Time has come to fulfill the old "promise" given before memory loss. But what was that promise?
It's an ADV with location choice. As a story it has very little to offer with one way road scenario and no satisfactory answers gained. Ending depends on your actions. Text, characters, story - everything is done loosely. So with the amount of H-scenes in the game, it's definitely an eroge, camouflaged for a story game. Well, at least old-school type released to PC-98 simultaneously, not another pure love moe stuff.
23. Chikai no Essence 誓いのESSENCE [970731] Black Package
Here is the president and teacher of a prestigious girl academy with over a century of history. Both his father and grandfather found their love inside these walls. What students will arrive this year?
As you were returning from a walk...
"Nice to meet you, dear brother! I arrived one day earlier."
My intuition tells me: "This year will be a different year."
"We have not met for a long time, Arlise... I shall be your teacher."
Raising sim about teaching. There are 4 girls at start and two more join since the middle. Stats are raised by giving herbs. Herbs can be grown in the garden or it's possible to hire a butler later for that and pay him a salary. Game takes the title from one of the herbs name. Length is too short to see the depth in the heroines or the protagonist. Sound is also missing at times. Game has a good aura, but feels incomplete.
24. Hatsukoi Valentine 初恋ばれんたいん [970731] Family Soft 1
Love training simulation to enjoy high school life during a period of two years with childhood friends and new acquaintances, even a female teacher. Game features a unique system of leaving letters in the shoebox.
Game is memorable because you have to wait for quite a long time for a day to pass, takes about 20 seconds. Now take in mind that you need to pass two years... yeah. There are 24 date places, but reactions to those places are absolutely the same from girls. It has many other drawbacks like endless torture of stats growth as they fall down by 1 after each rest. Even letters system works in weird ways like you get short status answers and how would want that in response to a love letter? Girls are fine, but system kills gameplay completely, even with the use of guide.
25. Kusuriyubi no Kyoukasho 2 くすり指の教科書2 [970731] Active
It's a new school year for our guy. He is feeling a bit down since he doesn't have a girlfriend. He met a guy(main guy from #1?) who soon became his friend. He has to invite a girl to their new lunch club. Which of 5 girls will he pick? After that, there is summer and winter loving to enjoy.
Game was quite popular with over 10 Japanese reviews available. First of all, it's fully voiced and has an amazing opening with a song. Girls are mostly cute. Prequel was warmly embraced. Two scenarios are prepared for each heroine and almost all scenarios have a love triangle in them which is usually a good base for the story. Many scenarios underline girl's tragic past and require to share her pain. There is no such freedom as in first work, but all the scenarios are of good quality and not abandoned midway.
26. Mio & Miho みお＆みほ [970731] Bell-Da 1
You click on "hot spots" on the screen, and get a response of some sort from either Mio or Miho, or both.
It's not a visual novel. There's no text, just useless macromedia flash.
27. Stalker 追跡者～ストーカー～ [970731] Nikukyuu 1
This is a stalker game. Your target is a high school girl, Megumi (and all other females around her).
There is an English review.
28. My Dream ~On Air ga Matenakute~ My Dream ～On Airが待てなくて～ [970731] Nihon Create 1 2
My Dream is an simulation game focusing on the world of voice-actors. There are eight different heroines in the game, and each has been voiced by three different actresses. Voice actress for each heroine can be set up at the beginning of a new game, right after entering the player's name. The game doesn't feature default name for the player, and other characters will address you by the name you enter (both Japanese and Latin letters are available during name creation). The player focuses on a single heroine and by setting up a weekly schedule for her, the game advances as a visual novel with selectable dialogue and action choices at certain locations and during certain conversations. The weekly schedule is set by selecting locations on the map you wish to visit, one location per day. Different location offer different actions and participation in various events and meeting and talking to other characters. Each heroine has a default set of attributes which change over time, such as physical strength, self-confidence, stress, speaking skill, and other. During gameplay, static character images with mild animations such as talking, are glued over blurred real-life photos which are used as backgrounds.
And another SIM.
We get only Zoku Hatsukoi Monogatari ~Shuugaku Ryokou~ as masterpiece in June.
1. Bunkasai 2 Ayanokouji no Gyakushuu 文化祭2 綾小路の逆襲 [970606] Ucom
Main character is a very popular student at school. Classmate girls seek his attention, teachers and nurse invite him to discuss important matters. At this cultural festival all opportunities are open for him. What will he do?
Did not find anything interesting in this game. It's not hookable and runs only at Win95, but at least is voiced. H events break out right at school in the first 10 minutes of the game, so it's more of a ero-centered game with a good dozen of girls.
2. Kaseifu 奴隷婦～かせいふ～ [970606] Interheart
Our girl is a maid for hire. Since her motto is "I will do anything", most of her jobs go a bit out of hand. Which of 6 clients(4 male and 2 female) will she work for? This game is full voice and you see text only during choice selections.
Another forgotten old Interheart nukige.
3. Zoku Hatsukoi Monogatari ~Shuugaku Ryokou~ 続初恋物語~修学旅行~ [970606] Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co. 1 2
Zoku Hatsukoi Monogatari: Shūgaku Ryokō is a mixture of adventure and "love simulation" - more specifically, first love. The player takes the role of a male student and can choose any time period between ground school to college. Every time period has four different girls that the hero can fall in love with. The player must choose one of those girls as the main love object. The setting is the same in every time period: the class goes on vacation to different places in Japan. Most of the game consists of traveling from place to place, trying to be at the right place the right time and make the right decision. The player must assemble a schedule for each location. It is possible to manage the player character's finances, as well as buy items that can be given to the girls.
There are four school periods with three heroines in each there's also one childhood friend Yuuka true heroine route that opens up after clearing all four school periods four routes. Incorporated elements of raising sim provide quite some routine that needs to be overcome if willing to get to the end. Evaluation can vary from kusoge to masterpiece depending on ability to endure this routine. Good luck experiencing pure first love for five times in a row!
4. Kakutou Cosplay Ojanko 格闘コスプレお雀娘 [970606] Ice Soft
A strip mahjong game with cute girls in cosplay outfits. There are six contestant available from the start, but become the strongest player - and more hidden characters will show up.
Card game
5. Hatsujousei 発情生 [970612] Vision
This is a legend of one summer night where girls wander around the town and look for men as if possessed.
It's an insulting work with emphasis on SM and scatology. It's interesting that text is used only in dialogues - the rest of interaction is done with clicking and getting some sound as a result. Length is very small as there's nothing more than getting to each girl and seeing events.
6. Card カード [970613] Ange
Hero has a tarot fortune-telling business with another girl Yusa Hikaru as his partner and one day he gets in a road crash on his bike. He regains consciousness in a hospital room and his nurse is a junior high school student Saki Koizumi.
How will he develop this triangular relationship?
Command expression pure love story. There are no bad endings. Overall there are nine girls present.
7. Diabolic lune Megami Souzou ディアボリックルーン 女神創造 [970613] Logg
Main character Fourier is invited to the royal court to train princess in the art of love.
There are a lot of icons in the game, but actually they only symbolize rooms to visit. In the training mode there are icons of various instruments. There aren't parameters of the princess and we can only grasp her state by listening to the castle staff. Quite a strange and undocumented game, but characters are nice and are voiced.
8. Houkago Mania Club -Koi no Hoshii no- 放課後マニア倶楽部―濃いの欲しいの― [970613] Libido
This game is similar to After School Love Club, it even has the same 12 girls and 3 guys. The main guy this time is one of the girl's brother. Instead of a lover, he wants a pet. He gets that by getting friendly with a girl then take advantage of her weakness for abnormal fun.
Game was indeed shocking since everyone remembered the first sweet romance love game. So this time the system is the same and even the girls are the same, but it's a very hardcore insulting work... and the first game can never be seen in the same light again.
9. May Club 2 五月倶楽部2 [970613] Desire
Keisuke May is the son of May club president. His father requested that Keisuke found a lifetime companion at the May club as an advertisement for business. However, if Keisuke does not appear at class for long, he is going to be expelled from school. Now he has to balance study and companion search.
This time dating is not limited to virtual reality, but also happens in real world. 45 days is given. Movement is done with huge latency. Sound breaks often and text balance is distorted so that text almost jumps out of the box.
10. Meguri Ai めぐり逢い [970613] Art Soft
Hero won a luxury cruise ship two weeks tour. He gets to know that his first love who he promised to marry Moriyama Yui also goes on the same trip. Whether to ignite his old feelings or enjoy new acquaintances is up to him to decide.
There are 7 girls overall for capture. There three times of the day when we can choose to visit some girls rooms. The purpose is to confess to some girl by the end of the trip.
11. Yuugekitai ~Saikyou Kami Fukkatsu Yuki Kan~ 遊撃隊 ～最強神復活之巻～ [970613] TKO Soft
A group of archaeologists discover a sealed tomb and summon a master of ancient Jomon black magic to remove the seal. Ancient god leaves the tomb this way.
Yuugekitai as a bad of high school students. They investigate suspicious behavior of transfer student Arai only to find out that he's connected with the resurrection of an old god.
A bakage with a band of all kind of weird characters. There are lots of CG here and fighting is done in real time (even though winning not required). It was difficult for me to enjoy the game visuals and jokes.
12. Ami ~Shoushin no Tenshi~ 亜美 ～傷心の天使～ [970613] Fairy Dust
Ami got involved in entertainment business and thus got separated from her brother-in-love. Her heart is filled with sadness, so her two female friends suggest going to a summer resort to heal the damage. A sentimental adventure from the viewpoint of three different girls begins now.
There's not much left for the game. There's good directorship, voicing and animations, but it's more of a show for fans now.
13. Digital Ange ~Dennou Tenshi SS~ デジタルアンジュ ～電脳天使SS～ [970620] Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co.
Is it difficult to be kind to people? Do you believe that love is stronger than weapons? The end of the world grows near. Whether it can be saved or not depends on the answers to these questions.
There are seven questions asked at the beginning of the game, and endings depend largely on the answers. Basically, we gather girls and approach the mystery of the end of the world.
14. Ai ga Mie Hajimetara 愛が見えはじめたら [970627] C's Ware 1
Includes the three short stories: Vice, B.B., Kyouto Ren'ai Bojou (京都恋愛慕情).
1. Vice.
Katsuyuki is a vampire detective who is a big fan of beautiful women. One day he saves girl Azusa from nanpa guys and she clings to him temporarily as she has nowhere to go. At the same time Katsuyuki is offered a new case by a hot babe. Even thought the case looks like an easy one, there is something fishy about it...
2. B.B.
Bridal breaker is the profession of Shin. He specializes in ruining other people weddings for money. There is little demand for his specialization and he accumulated quite a debt. Finally a new job shows up and he dives into a whirlwind of complex human relations during the wedding ceremony.
3. Kyoto love affair.
Kyoto, 2052. Kagura is a demon hunter serving in the Department of the Temple government, Demon specialization Section 1. She's in love with a noble Hayato, but his social position is too high for her to have any prospects for him. One day Miyano, one of shrine maidens to goddess Amaterasu, telephones Kagura and offers an opportunity to participate in a divine test with a chance of becoming a goddess as an outcome. Kagura grasps the chance immediately as it's her chance to gain superior social status and confess her feelings to beloved Hayato!
I've prepared a full review.
15. Akiko Hard Akiko Hard The Third Impact [970627] Red Zone
Akiko is a special agent who arrives to a suspicious school as a new teacher to investigate rumors about its dark secrets.
It's just an ero-centered story again, but this time with more sophisticated gameplay - if you just wonder around the school without triggering the required scenes it just forces game over on you very soon.
16. Albaria no Otome アルバレアの乙女 [970627] Gimmick House 1 2
The protagonist is chosen as a candidate to become the next Sacred Maiden that helps protect the Albaria Kingdom.
She must train herself up and serve the country along with the five holy knights.
There's a french review. Might be more, but I never looked into otome resources.
17. Funny Honey ファニーハニー [970627] J-Box
This is a dating simulation game with three girls as possible lovers. But winning a girl's sympathy is not the end. The real emotional drama only starts from here. Dating SIM is a no at once for me.
18. Ryuuki Denshou 2 竜機伝承2 [970627] KSS Inc.
Hundreds of years ago the Elven king clashed human nations among themselves to fasten humanity destruction. The silver swordsman and three sacred maidens opposed the Elven king and sacrificed their lives to seal his power. With time the memories of those events disappeared from human memory.
Fifty years ago started a continuous dispute between "Leon" and "Karonagu" kingdoms resulted in large losses due to use of heavy steel dragons technology. Eventually the two countries signed an armistice and peace treaty. Today's stable situation bears the fuse for a new crisis...
Cecil Granaglana is a mercenary who is sent with a unit as a part of investigation team.
RPG that's hardly known in Japan, but was really popular in China.
To Heart is the only masterpiece of May 1997
1. Chiyomi-chan for Me ~Kateikyoushi Seikyouiku Hen~ ちよみちゃん for Me ～家庭教師 性教育編～ [970502] Ume Soft
What a lucky guy, he has a beautiful girl to help him study for his exams. She even accepts him when he ask her to be his girlfriend. From then on, it's study and fun times. He will be happy, if he doesn't get distracted by his classmate or the ghost of his first love.
Girl is a tutor, but actual studying ends pretty soon. Game is of ero-centered nature and has only very short impressions.
2. Kidou Senkan Nadesico ~Yappari Saigo wa "Ai ga Katsu" ?~ 機動戦艦ナデシコ ～やっぱり最後は「愛が勝つ」？～ [970502] Sega
It is a dating sim with players taking the role of Akito Tenkawa and attempting to build relationships with the female crew members, although there are a few mecha elements included.
One more anime offspring. The crew counts 10 members. There are 8 chapters each containing an adventure part with target character emotional scenes and the battle part where you repetitively push one button for the win. What's interesting - if you distract attention in favor of some different girl, the target girl's favorability drops. Anyway, mediocre Saturn exclusive for anime fans.
3. Kojiin ~Kyouki no Ketsuzoku~ 孤児院 ～狂喜の血族～ [970504] K-JOYNT
A dancer girl loses parents, but retains hope while living in the orphanage. Foster parents greet her with joy, but soon she learns the pain and torture in the basement. Girls are trained into slaves here, and her dark humiliation path only starts now.
Some crappy h-tilt doujin
3. Akazu no Ma あかずの間 [970509] Visit 1
The story (written by Yoshikazu Takeuchi) is a futuristic one, taking place in a near future where the player's character arrives a a building tower in a helicopter and as soon as he arrives there strange things start to happening (he listen to girl screams, strange noises, etc.).
Another sound novel without a single person and about just wondering around the building. As usual, more about senses than a story.
4. Ice Cream アイスクリーム [970509] h.m.p
Come to the lively Shibuya area in Tokyo and get yourself a girlfriend! There are multiple nanpa techniques available to reach the goal. Nanpa games are boring.
5. Kuento ~Wasureenu Hibi ni~ クエント ～忘れ得ぬ日々に～ [970509] Excellents
Collection of three stories.
The first story is about girl Ai and her difficult life with the stepfather told from different perspectives.
All stories seem to have zapping perspectives. Since game only launches on WinME and lower, it's not hookable and I only glanced at other two stories without trying to understand anything. But the first story plot moves like this - Ai quarrels with father, then they hug, then get close. Next Ai past is shown up to the moment she got violated by a guy (and whom she might have killed afterwards). Her female friend that features on the cover listens to this story, gets moved by it and both girls make love, the end.
6. In'yoku no Meikyuu 淫欲の迷宮 [970516] Motion
In this adult hentai visual novel, you must defeat the devil in order to save a certain doctor's world. It has some 3D dungeon exploration such in Ultima. When you encounter enemy events, an animation is played.
Kusoge. 3D dungeon exploration. Much of exploration and H events are animated.
7. Photo Genic フォトジェニック [970516] Sunsoft
In Photo Genic the player controls a young boy that got a job as a photographer. The main goal of the game is to improve the boy stats and photograph skills to make him win the heart of one of the girls of the town.
During the game the player makes decisions about what his character will do each week (gymnastics, study, take another job, etc) to improve his stats. He also can walk around the town to talk to the people and the girls, the more in touch that he is with them the more possibilities to take a better photograph and date them. After taking the photographs the player can view them in the photo gallery.
There are three girls of interest. This work is interesting because it has SIM part as photographer and ADV part of wandering around the town and event scenes. Graphics of this game is really impressive with a lot of bright CG. Cute, but nothing else.
8. Dousei 同棲 [970523] Tactics 1 2
Dōsei is a social and sexual simulation game that focuses on the life of a young Japanese couple. Masaki Yamada and Manami Minase start living together shortly after having graduated from high school. Most of the game is dedicated to the depiction of their everyday life at home, of which the majority explicitly describes their sexual relationship.
That's our first Tactics (Key) game. Drawing is very similar to next "One" game. Game has an English review.
9. Fukushuu 復讐 [970523] Crowd 1
You are a high school student and were embarrassed in front of the class by 4 girls TWICE, each time it was involved with another girl. Now you decide it's time for getting your revenge and you have to choose a partner for additional help..
There is an English review.
10. Inshin Miko 淫心魅娘 [970523] T2 Co., Ltd.
During a date in an amusement park hero gets "demon soul" attached to his chest. The girl who did it is a foreign priestess and queen candidate. She asks hero to eliminate other candidates by depriving them from virginity. "Demon soul" attached to the chest slowly eats the soul and there's no other choice but cooperate.
Multiple branches and endings story. It's nice that there are quite many variants of story development and it's not necessary just to capture other priesteses. Capture is difficult as branching is not too evident and the ending depends on both whether to H different girls or not and in which priority to capture them.
11. Nouryokusha 脳力者 [970523] MBS Truth
Our guy got hit by a baseball in a park on his way home. This awaken his special mental powers. His power has 4 targets. They are his childhood girl, teacher, school badgirl, and adopted sister. Since he can see into their heart and can control them, he has his way with them. If he only go after the one he loves, she might save him when the time comes. The main part of this game is nasty, but the happy endings are very sweet.
Content is pretty dark and insulting, but character design is good enough to struggle to the happy ending. Story develops fast, so it's possible to see it all in an hour's time.
12. Ryuuteki Gosennen ~Dragons of China~ 龍的五千年 ～Dragons of China～ [970523] Imagineer Co., Ltd.
China, 2099 AD. During the construction of a new Olympics stadium, the ruin were found at the basement. The construction machinery damaged the sealed pot and a black dragon appeared from it with a thunder and flew away. He appeared in Tokyo and destroyed it to the ground and the next day the world was hit by multiple natural disasters bringing the humanity to the brink of extinction. At the global academic conference of ancient ruins it was decided to acquire the power of a good dragon in order to deal with the evil dragon. You are Ken, the participant of that conference and you hurry to find the good dragon of China.
Command selection adventure with occasional battles during movement. It's not a serious ADV game, more like and entertainment game for pupils to have fun with battles. Game also features very unusual character design.
13. Seiki ~Ryoujoku no Kamen~ 性鬼 ～陵辱の仮面～ [970523] Outlaw
The protagonist is a high school student that one day finds a magical mask that turns the wearer into a serial rapist, and uses his newly gained powers to score with several of his classmates.
Reverse bullying sick game. The only good thing is that there are several scenarios. System is especially bad as messages tend to skip and often first choice is selected despite your decision.
14. To Heart [970523] Leaf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
In this game, you play as Fujita Hiroyuki, a high-school student who seems to have more interest in romance than in his studies. In his school there are several pretty girls, and his goal is to be nice to one of them, to make the right decisions when talking to her, and ultimately to win her heart.
There are English reviews of this game.
15. Nyo-Manji 女卍 [970529] iMAGE CLUB
Tokyo a century ago. Private detective Kudo Mauna is a famous expert in paranormal activities. Together with the legendary witchcraft "Masashi" user high school girl Ririmori Komori they accept a case request. One woman starts to feel abnormal activity inside her body. But the incident turns in an unexpected direction.
The only review I found says the hero eradicates something strange. Obscure ero-centered work.
16. Youjo Ranbu 2 妖女乱舞2 [970529] Zone 1
Your mother, on her last breath, reveals the secret of your identity. After that, you, the hero of the story, travels around the world as a mercenary to find more about where you came from, and as you perform more tasks you find out more about yourself.
There is an English review.
17. Hi School Jam Hiすく～るJam [970530] Jam 1
You start off as a second year student of the school and you are on the student's council as well. Your goal is to be elected as the next student council's president at game end when the seniors graduate.
There is a good English review for this game.
18. Shuukan From H 週刊フロムＨ [970530] JAST
Atsushi, the son of a very rich man, returns from abroad to his hometown. After getting some quarrel, his father cancelled giving him money and now Atsushi has to find any temporary work around the whole city. You as Atsushi try various jobs – from stadium to the hospital or the news agency. There are also plenty of pretty girls around the city and you make attempts to get them known better and maybe even eventually date with one of them.
ADV with location choice on the map. Each week you try a new job and there's a new girl at each job. It's a light work with a comedy touch.
Foreword: I've noted the series quite long ago, but only when approached 4th final work decided to play the prequel that's directly connected with 4th part. Review of Canaan is coming a bit later.
Synopsis: 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.
Structure: One route with 8 chapters. Length: 15 hours Game type: Command selection adventure Difficulty: Easy. Scene advances after brute-forcing all the commands in all available locations. Character Design rating: 8/10 Protagonist rating: 9/10 Story rating: 9/10 Game quality: 9/10 Overall rating: 9/10
Rating comments: I'd give it a perfect score, personally. But what keeps me from it is painful command selection brute forcing. Game is really long itself and did not need such extra longevity layer. Another minus is interactive H-scenes that can't be skipped and that take really much time with that painful scrolling up and down. Characters are cute and memorable, but in H-events they often have distorted faces, that's a bit unpleasant. Oh well, and since the game is for pc-98 only, it has only midi for sound. Otherwise, a perfect game with a perfect story.
Protagonist: Wolf boy Urfy. He admits that he's given the name just after his tribe name, so if English version existed, he'd probably be called Wolfy instead. He has face. He is rational, skillful in sword art, supportive, tries to cheer up companions even in difficult situations. And he tolerated that Rabby tsundere bunny girl (she's named Rabby after the rabbit tribe...) the whole game absorbing all her hysteria. He never imposed himself with women (with one small exception during interrogation). He's the perfect guy. He is really unusual and he leads the story without being pushed by circumstances.
Characters: There are really many characters in this game, so let's just present our most frequently met party members and enemies. First enemies.
Enemies are rather cool. You would not believe it, but there was just one enemy that was bitter alienated and the others had their own reasons and could be debated with words, not swords.
Allies are even more developed, of course. First we have baka twins Leona and Dora. They move usually as a separate unit and we constantly stumble upon them wherever we go.
In the right upper corner is our acquaintance throughout the whole game - Rabby. She is total tsundere, blushing and shouting all the time. She is also a spiritual medium and she's the first to hear sounds or perceive traps. She's not of battle sort and on this CG she only fights because she has spirit of Ilia controlling her.
Ilia is the warrior in the right lower corner. We first find her spirit that occupies Rabby body, but then occasionally get her old body. She's strong-willed, but reasonable. She's also breaking everything she touches.
In the left lower corner is Nise. She's a gluttony-obsessed coward who can not even fly. We find her in the second chapter and she has little utility serving as a cute girls who's often crying and is afraid of everything. But she finds her use in one of the last chapters.
Story: I'll give chapter titles with brief description of contents:
1) - Underground - Urfi stumbles upon Raby in a dangerous forest where people disappear and together they fall through the ground.
2) - Legend - The chapter takes takes place outside on the way to the capital city. In this chapter we save Nise as the only survivor of beast assault on the road. Then beasts attack and we fall underground and occasionally find Ilia spirit that embodies Raby.
3) - Resurrection - Capital city inhabitants takes us for saviors from legend and send us on a mission to recover the body of Ilia. After some adventures we succeed in that.
4) - Trap - Ilia is resurrected and we go to the village that was assaulted by the beasts. On the way back from it we get to the trap of one of the enemies. Next Ilia gets deadly wound by mysterious enemy.
5) - Ephemora - In order to save Ilia, Urfi with baka twins go to the witch Ephemora for ambrosia and after some adventures get it.
6) - Key - Time to get on a mission to save the world. The key to all mysteries lies under the temple where Ilia body was found. And underneath it is a high technology human ghost city where the answers to all the questions are found during next two chapters.
7) - Dark eater - no spoilers
- Blue - no spoilers
CG: Game was quite greedy for non-HCG throughout the game but under the credits roll it presented so many cool new CG that I'm ready to forget about that. I found great pleasure in graphics and non-HCG in this game. The game has its cruel and even guro parts with the whole villages massacred, heads thrown away from the bodies etc and I liked those a lot.
HCG: I've counted it and there are 19 H-events in the game. That's it! 19! And all of them are interactive that you need to constantly choose different commands. So each such event usually takes several minutes of your time. And I'd say that 60% of HCG weren't pleasant due to distorted face features. Girls in this game are very proactive. They sneak into Urfi's room the same day they get acquainted. I was so happy to note that there were as many as three girl characters who never took interest in Urfi... but by the last chapter there was only one minor girl character left without H-event and that was a boarding house host girl without a sprite who had a husband she run business together. All the other female characters sooner or later had H-event. There were two more girls free from his charms, but one was a zombie-android creature and another one was heavily wounded on meeting her and died withing two minutes. So I wish there were much fewer H-events.
Sound: There was only midi bgm. Quite nice bgm to not annoy during 15 hours.
Themes: This work is a concluding one for all the series (since there was no 4th part in plans in 1994). It has big involving story and gives all the answers to all the questions of this part and previous ones. What happened to the humanity? Who are mutants? Who are demon children? Who are Dark eaters? Who are Light Eaters? Everything is explained in last two chapters, so it's a very satisfying work designed to be a grand finale
Originality: This work is the origin of a new game genre - heartwarming party adventure. It is basically an epic party RPG that was stripped of absolutely all RPG elements and given command selection instead. There are a lot of battles in the game, definitely more than H-events, so over 20. And each battle is played individually, not through fixed commands. Commands vary for each battle and you can't move on till you brute-forced the needed commands. That makes realistic involving battles where most of the time you talk with your party members and the enemy and read in text as you advance or try to defend or invent some cunning strategy or even flee from battle. And this adventure is heartwarming because a lot of time is spend walking or attending city buildings where you mostly chat with your party members. That allows to develop really deep personalities and get to know everything of each other. Add here a very good text - it's very easy to read, it's involving and it has a lot of funny face animations and emotions.
Humor: Apart of jokingly inter-character interactions there are actually a lot of very funny humor moments that are events-based or repeats-based. Here's an example of an event joke: the party flees from an overpowered opponent and uses consequently all the secret items acquited from the city - first makibishi spikes but enemy only jumps over them (one of party members actually gets into them which adds the fun), then a smoke bomb, but it does not help much. Then we search the bags and throw a pie into an enemy and enemy leaves us alone for the rest of the day!
I adored the repeats-based humor moments as well. It's mutants world and when we first here word "ningen" (humans) party members give their variants. The coolest one was from Ilia that she ate it in salad - it's the red vegetable from the garden, a carrot (ninjin)! Then at the human secret facility we find a pc with an interactive chat program. The girl there calls herself Crazy-chan and to most questions answers "Don't know". To the question what is "ningen" she answers... a red vegetable from the garden! Ilia joyfully jumps up shouting I told you, I told you! Then Crazy-chan adds "That's a lie, actually" -Arr you little!!!
The story with repeats goes long much further. At one moment the party starts to guess meanings even of known words they stumbled upon in secret human facility. Security door asked a number and the party is already discussing. It said Nampa! How shall we get it with the door?! No, it said Member!
At one of the rooms we find the box of this developer's another game - Waku Waku Mahjong Panic! - we read the whole advertisement on the back of the box and get to discuss what Mahjong is. One of the variants is that it's the benefit that you gain after load is returned to you (margin). There are also cereals called Gao-Gao with a girl on it. I really liked these real world references without breaking the 4th wall completely.
Overall comments: I liked this game a lot. It has everything a masterpiece game should have - thrilling big volume story, great cute characters including enemies, absolutely fabulous text, humor just to my taste and the unexpected and most welcome shift from fantasy to post-apocalyptic sci-fi like early Might and Magic and Wizardry series. The important note about this game that its pc-98 rom is very easy to find and it runs with any anex86 emulator version. This emulator does not require to tune it in any way and game text is easily acquired by default ITH hook. Google translate with Translation Aggregator gives a very good translation after its upgrade in the end of 2016. So no need to be afraid of scary PC-98 emulation. Good stories know no aging and should not be forgotten.
Canaan ~Yakusoku no Chi~ stands tall as the only masterpiece of April 1997
1. Dark Hunter: (Jou) Ijigen Gakuen ダークハンター -㊤ 異次元学園- [970404] Koei 1 2 3 4
Dark Hunter is the second entry of Shibusawa Kou's "English Dream" series, following the three-part 'Emit'.
Jigen Academy is a secluded school, where the students with psychological scars come to heal and find their purpose in life. Mariko experiences a chain of vivid hallucinations after her father's remarriage and her new mother sends her away to attend Jigen Academy. There she meets two transfer students: a stoic young man Ran, whose being is consumed by a need for revenge, and a foreign woman with reckless driving skills. Mariko's encounter with them sets her on a path to unearth the mysteries within the Academy.
Game has an English review and quite much information in English.
2. Dark Hunter: (Ge) Youma no Mori ダークハンター -㊦ 妖魔の森- [970404] Koei 1 2 3
It is a direct sequel to "Dark Hunter: (Jou) Ijigen Gakuen" and thus the story picks up immediately after the events of the first game. Finally, the reasons why Mariko has been left untouched by the invaders are revealed, and Ran's and Cher's fight to stop the invasion is drawing to its conclusion.
Game has an English review and quite much information in English.
3. ID アイディ [970404] Pinky Soft
Hero loses his memory and regains consciousness in a mysterious underground facility. As he investigates the facility he meets horny prisoner girls.
First game of Pinky Soft and not an elaborate one. You move to the various one by one and trigger encounters. Only autosaving is used and it's saved each time the map is opened. It's generally a single road with lots of bad endings with CG scattered around.
4. Sayonara no Mukougawa さよならの向こう側 [970404] Foster 1 2
Kyōhei and Ayano were a happy couple and decided to get married. One month after their wedding Ayano died in a traffic accident. Two years have passed since. Kyōhei is taking care of Ayano's little sister and keeps contact with her other relatives and friends. He tries to move on with his life at home and at work. However, he in unsure as to how his romantic life will progress. At the time of crucial decisions he suddenly seems a woman on the street who looks like Ayano...
Game has an English review.
5. Seishinteki Gaishou ~Trauma~ 精神的外傷～トラウマ～ [970404] Nikukyuu 1
You are Sakuba Kenichi, a private tutor for a high school student Souki who you find quiet and impolite. As her mother explains, her behavior is a result of an accident that occurred three years ago. At that time criminal killed her father and wounded Souki. Ger grades started to drop tremendously due to locking up in herself. Hopefully, you can break the ice and heal her wound.
There is an English review.
6. Shaburihime ~In no Shou~ しゃぶり姫 ～陰の章～ [970405] Mink 1
The story behind Shaburi is that you are a third class (the stinky one) magazine or news editor. You have been ordered by your boss to collect some news in some mountain. While at there, you got lost in the woods. By some luck, you are rescued and carefully nurtured by an owner of a big mansion in the mountain. After you gain your virility, the old man (who's the owner of the mansion) asked you to be his granddaughter's master and teach her. Since then, you will teach the owner's granddaughter everything about man.
There is an English review.
7. Tenshi no Hitomi ~Sapphire Eye~ 天使の眸 ～Sapphire Eye～ [970409] Accept
Kagami is high school second year student. He is not popular at all. Once a strange phenomenon occurs to his left eye as when he watches with it on some girl, the girl becomes lustful. It happens to be a technology from the future.
What a messy setting. Multiple ending game with an ending for each heroine. Clearing one route to the end takes about 40 minutes. And as follows from the setting, there are spontaneous H-scenes. This is the only work by this company.
8. Misato-chan no Yume Nikki みさとちゃんの夢日記 [970411] Active
Misato-chan visits a doctor and tells him about her three dreams about her being:
1. Assistant
2. Maid
3. Idol.
Dreams eventually become wet dreams, but with Windows version voicing it looks quite cute.
9. Room Mate ルームメイト [970411] Bell-Da
Suzuki Anna and Arisugawa Haruna are roommates in the dormitory of St. Patriot Girls Academy.
They share love for mystery and cosplay. There is a rumor of forbidden relationship among the two good friends. Why don't you pay a visit to their room secretly and try to approach the mystery?
Game was re-released in 2010 and has quite an informative getchu page. Game's exclusively of erotic nature.
10. Critical Blow [970412] Banpresto 1 2 3 4 5
A legend exists among the fighters and martial artists of this world, of a mysterious scarab badge that only the most elite warriors will earn. This badge, sent out by the mysterious Merkuar, is in fact an invitation to a dangerous tournament held in England, where the contestants fight for money, power, and glory. Now, a poor young fighter from Hong Kong named Rickey Leon has just received one of these badges.
There are English reviews.
11. Canaan ~Yakusoku no Chi~ カナン ～約束の地～ [970418] Four-Nine 1 2
The fourth entry in the GaoGao series is set in the same post-apocalyptic world as the two previous games. In the future, a failed biological experiment caused widespread mutations, leading to a total separation of human civilization and the mutated tribes of "animal people". The events of the game begin shortly after the end of the previous installment. Human civilization is nearly destroyed; the remaining humans live in shelters, dreaming of the "promised land" Canaan, somewhere "near the end of the world", where there is enough food for everyone and where mutants can't enter. The game has two protagonists: a human boy who has lost his parents and who swears to himself to find Canaan, and Wolf, the mutant hero of the previous game, with his colorful female companions. Eventually their paths cross - but will they able to understand each other and bring peace to the troublesome world?..
Final work in the series, final game of Four-nine, one of the final great masterpieces of pc-98 era. First three games were released the same year, but to get to this fourth work three years were needed. Third work was a real masterpiece and it's most remembered for creating a new genre - party-based heartwarming cooperation interaction. This work is also party-based and this alone thrills me enormously. The number of party members can exceed 10 people and they are enormously charismatic fellas. Story is one-way road, but thanks to multiple protagonists and multisite perspective it's rather an advantage. I'd stop here since I've prepared a full review.
12. Gakuensei Hakusho 学園性白書 [970418] Vision
Main character is a university student who moves to a new place with a lot of beautiful girls in the neighborhood.
Game of H character with lots of branching. One playthrough takes only 5 minutes. There's no narrator words in the game, only dialogues and choices, so the setting is not so clear.
13. Kaori Climax かおりクライマックス [970418] h.m.p
You're a an idol manager. You need to raise the best idol over one year period.
Raising SIM in 3D environment. The content is thin and there's no satisfaction, but 3D does not look plain ugly here and that's already much.
14. Magical Deep☆One マジカルディープ☆ワン [970418] Vanilla
Princess Ruri arrives from the overseas magical country to train into being a good ruler. If she can help five people with their troubles by using magic, she can become the queen. Main character is high school student Kyoshi who lives with his sister. He agrees to help the princess in her quest in exchange for fulfilling one wish if the training goes well.
The work is promoted as incorporating dark Cthulhu myths, but actually there's little such content here. The setting of a magical girl is also not utilized properly as magic is uses rarely and wastefully. Hero mainly helps by doing H, but too much H results in failure.
15. Maid Monogatari メイド物語 [970418] C's Ware 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
You take the role as a young man who has recently found the job of his dreams: to train three maids in a number of household chores. The household chores can by anything from shopping, washing, cooking, and cleaning. You need to supervise your maids during their training and you need to decide if you should encourage or punish them when they do wrongs or rights. When the evening comes you need to give your maids some training in another area.
Game is localized with many English reviews.
16. Mia みあ [970418] Bell-Da
Does this swimsuit suits me? It took me three hours to choose it!
Is bikini nice? Or naked is the best?
I like the sea. Mountains are nice in summer, but ocean is the best.
I was a swimmer in junior high school. Huh? You don't believe it? Let's swim and I'll show you!
What are you doing? You can't ask a lady to do that!
Game's of point and click nature. Clicking is clunky so there's no telling where you actually click especially since cursor is always the same. Voicing is only partial, so it does not help much either.
17. Uki Uki Island うきうきアイランド [970418] Fairy Dust 1
A group of high school students (3 boys and 3 girls) decide to go on a lost island, called Daikokujima ("big black island") as a club event of the "Exploration Club". One of the islanders disappears and the new goal of the club is to get his whereabouts.
Well it's still mostly the game about the girls whose number is about 10. Game is quite difficult to clear, mostly because of lack of save slots and saving system that takes you to the beginning of the event. There is a Spanish review.
18. Hare nochi Tokidoki Munasawagi 晴れのちときどき胸さわぎ [970425] Cocktail Soft 1
The main plot in the Hare games focuses on the love triangle between the player (the ultimate pervert), a "violent" girl, and a witch girl, both being classmates of the player.In this particular game, the whole gang goes out for a vacation, and many strange things happen around them. The player, due to his "perverted" nature, is the biggest suspect among the gang. To regain his dignity, the player has to find out the mastermind behind these events.
There is an English review from someone who does not understand japanese... but in this game it's hardly needed. A comedy adventure bakage without romance, but with lots of pickup and slapping in reply. The ultimately stupid protagonist does not let this game to advance in any field.
19. Ikenai Katsumi Sensei ~Kanja-san Oita wa Dame Yon~ いけないかつみ先生 ～患者さんおいたはだめよん～ [970425] Alice Soft
Katsumi-sensei from D.P.S. series is back! Her goal to seduce patients remains intact, but now with a lot of bizarre events happening to her!
A bakage to the bones... it has all of it. Aliens, superagents, gangsters and lots of lesbian H-scenes. It should probably have been blocked as an eroge, but it's too crazy to even enjoy H-scenes.
20. Kyouken Densetsu Crazy Knuckle 狂拳伝説クレイジーナックル [970425] ZyX 1
Story is about a martial artist called Zado who wants to the be the world's most powerful martial artist. To do that, he is collecting little fragments that will lead to the secret of the ultimate martial arts skill. In order to learn the skill, he has to defeat the people who holds these individual fragment. However, Zado's most-trusted henchmen took all the fragments and learn the ultimate skill himself and defeats Zado. To regain his dignity, Zado has to defeat his henchman in the battle ring.
There is an English review that describes very well what this game is about. I'd also add that H-scenes are of pretty dark nature.
21. Mujintou Monogatari R 無人島物語R [970425] KSS Inc. 1
As the story goes, the main character is working as a part-time tutor and he gets rewarded for his efforts with a island vacation. Unfortunately, some shortsightedness leads to him and his friends being stranded and needing to survive until help/rescue arrives.
From ultimately complex part 3 the series goes back to the roots and suggests a much simplified gameplay and emphasis on heroines and ADV element. And it fails to deliver a good love story and makes hardcore RPG fans angry. There is an English review.
22. Sparkling Feather スパークリングフェザー [970425] HuneX 1 2
Long time ago, there was a happy country called the Eternal Feather Kingdom. Protected by benevolent deities, it flourished until a disaster came: a demon destroyed the kingdom, and it disappeared off the face of the earth. But a few chosen ones, called "Feathers", continued to keep sacred gemstones, which allowed them to use unique powers in the fight against the demonic army. Each Feather protects a gem, and the protector of the Ruby gem is the protagonist of the game - an ordinary high school boy from our modern world who at first wants nothing to do with ancient prophecies and heroic deeds. But as he receives new power from the leader of the Feathers, he understands that his destiny is to fight evil, and perhaps restore Eternal Feather to its former glory.
There's a good English review of this game.
23. Tantei Tomamechi Kensuke Futsuu wa Kou Da ze! 探偵・苫米地研介 普通はこうだぜ! [970425] Altacia
A woman strangled to death was found in the apartment where Tomamechi Kensuke lives. The detective is asked by the manager to launch an investigation.
Tomamechi Kensuke is a side-character detective of the series who looses consciousness when sees blood. Choosing a wrong action leads to many bad endings. Not a long game, a side story to another game of the series.
24. Tokimeite Yuuwaku ときめいて誘惑 [970425] Candy Soft
Usagi Chihiro is a female teacher who has just transferred. All the students and teachers at school can't take their eyes of her. But she actually enjoys those look and behaves in provocative manner.
Interheart subsidiary ero-centered work. In original pc work voicing is presented only by moans and pictures use few colors, so it was not a satisfactory work even as H work.
25. Zest to Fantasy [970425] Aaru 1
The story behind Zest is that you, Zefaa, woke up at a desert after you have been knocked unconscious. You realized that you have lost all of your memory except you first name. Since there are no one around the desert, you decide to find a place to rest and begin the search of your own identity. From here on, you will choose one of the four paths and begin your quest for your past.
A spiritual successor to game Ash. Here there are actually as many as seven big stories that depend on early choices, so there's bigger emphasis on story here than just lots of random stories. And each route concentrates on one girl with protagonist remaining the same, so it might even be called a galge. Totally different routes unlike most of games, but those routes are somewhat short, about 30 minutes each. I'm not big fan of short stories, as you might have guessed by now. Oh, and there is an English review.
