Ruriiro no Yuki is the only masterpiece of March 1997.
1. Kannou Kyoushuu 官能教習 [970307] Tetratech
Grandfather summons main hero to announce that in order to get inheritance he has to teach several maidens various sex techniques during a month. But it's so easy to fall in love with one of them...
H training SIM. But the art is gorgeous here so even some innocent minds were caught in the snare. The ending is quite surprising as you may decide just to cooperate with one of the girls and poison the old geezer.
2. Ruriiro no Yuki 瑠璃色の雪 ～るりいろのゆき～ [970307] Ail 1
The protagonist of the game is a high school student who has lost his parents in a car accident. Living with foster parents was difficult, and he decided to rent the room in the house that once belonged to his real parents, feeling that their spirits will become closer to him that way. However, shortly thereafter the boy started seeing strange dreams. Upon his arrival he discovered a jar in a hole underneath the floor in his room, and that jar miraculously produced a young woman named Ruri (which means "lapis lazuli"), who becomes a part of his life in a way he would never expect.
Command selection that embraces the the formula of time. Well, it may rather be called an ADV since there are varying choices and at time there is just one choice. Genre is love comedy and there are lots of girls to capture. There are two endings for each girl. Game platforms of pc-98 and sega saturn weren't too popular already and Ail rereleased the game for windows only in 2000 when there was much bigger rivalry between titles. Game's praised quite a lot, but PC-98 version is a torture and I would not mind looking into 2000 version.
3. Crazy Hospital Fushigi no Kuni no Tenshi クレイジー・ホスピタル ふしぎの国の天使 [970310] Asia Soft Lab 1
The player controls a young man who feels sick and visits a hospital. Once there, the plot split into different paths, depending on the choices of locations, dialogue responses and actions made by the player. All the branches involve focusing on one of the several available female characters (patients, nurses, the receptionist, etc.) and pursuing the short courting process to the point of its intimate conclusion.
Nothing really to add to the description. A very short PC Engine game.
4. Hi-To-Mi Hi・To・Mi～瞳～ [970314] Guilty
After a guy recovered from an accident, girls seem to be attracted to him. It turned out that he can influence their feelings. Can he resist this power and stay true to the girl he loves?
City pickup type from what I've seen and not a thoughtful one.
5. Hyoui Tengoku ひょ～い天国 [970314] Miamisoft
Hero calls a girl who he loves for a long time to the roof to confess his feelings, but gets dumped. He gets to the heavens as a result of an accident but is kicked from there for harassing the angels. There's the positive side of it - now in the form of a ghost he can harass different girls.
Fully animated game, same as previous game Henshin Ring. But this time scenario gets cut even further resulting in a third class animated H game.
6. Melody ~Koi no Messenger Girl~ Ｍｅｌｏｄｙ ～恋のメッセンジャーガール～ [970314] Melody
One evening girl "Melody" came in a dream of a hero. She said that there is a girl who thinks only about him all the time and in order to show her heart Melody will develop mysterious world in reality and in his dreams. Will her feelings be able to reach his heart?
It's an ADV with parameters of LIFE, VIT, INT, LUCK. Those parameters rise or fall according to dialogue choices and those parameters serve as qualifiers for each girl branch. The story goes like this: 1. Dream-1 which is basically a prologue 2. Reality-1 is searching for a heroine 3. Dream-2 depicts the past of the heroine 4. The relations. Characters for capture are rich in variety - there are six of them. Capture is difficult because of the stats requirements. Each girl branch is unique story so it can be enjoyed nicely. Light game that managed to grasp the individuality of each girl character.
7. Refrain Love リフレインラブ [970314] Riverhill Soft inc. 1 2
You play as a college student who happens to live right by the campus. It's summer and you're going to America for Christmas, but you'd love to get a woman before then.Your three buddies Kousuke the jock, Tetsuya the DJ, Taizo the nerd and you vow to find a girlfriend before Christmas time. You already know some girls, so it shouldn't be a problem. But you have been having weird dreams of some mystery girl and when a walk in the park leads you to find a girl that looks suspiciously like the one of your dreams, you find that maybe you do have chance with the ladies. But, let's face it. You have to juggle part time jobs, romance, and seeing your dude friends. Welcome to Refrain Love.
Part one is where we choose among the girls, part two is the dating part with ending showing 3 years later moments. There are seven girls to choose from. There is adventure part and SIM part where we earn money at part-time jobs and spend them on dates and presents. Quite light moe dating sim.
8. Stars [970314] AyPio
Tetsuya is the fourth grader of Hiiragi University graduating this spring. He does not have any prospects for future job and spends much time with snowboard circle members. One day he finally gets a letter that he passed the job interview to a solid company. With that he's going to propose to the girl he has loved since high school during the snowboard training camp. Suddenly the camp gets cancelled as only 10 out of 15 needed people opt to go. Now Tetsuya needs to find the leftover participants and fulfill the dreams of his life.
Quite an ordinary boring ADV. There are as many as 16 girls available for capture. Saving is only allowed at saving points. Graphics are of good PC-98 style.
9. Ayakashi Ninden Kunoichiban [970314] Zero System 1
There is a world where shinobi (ninja and kunoichi) are recognized. The story centers around Kaede, who enters Princess Yuri School (Himeyuri Gakuen) and offers assistance to three girls for one year, who happen to be guardians. The top graduate is given a special privilege to become a freelance Shinobi. After entering, Kaede strives to serve a favorite person for one year.
Yet another raising SIM
10. Stand by Say you! [970320] Human Entertainment 1
Main character is a son of voice actor who suddenly becomes anime sound director after previous sound director withdrawal. He needs to maintain some quality level and operate within time limits to produce full season of anime "Interrupt Girl".
Game's pretty weird. Voice recordings have just a single variant, so no matter what you do you'll hear the same lines. There is almost no interaction as things unwind by themselves.
11. BOYS BE... [970328] Kodansha 1
The title of the series is explained in the first chapter where the author refers to the quote "Boys, be ambitious", which was said by William S. Clark and has become a popular motto in Japan.
The series focuses upon the ups and downs, joys and sorrows of first love and teenage romance. Six students struggle to find the perfect partner and their adolescent limitations.
Generic dating SIM.
12. Doki Doki Pretty League ドキドキプリティリーグ [970328] Xing Entertainment 1
In the game the player takes the role of a baseball coach of Kasumigaura high school female baseball team during a period of one year. As a coach it's needed to decide the direction of training (battling, fielding, etc.) and check each girl's progress each week.
Basebal team manager game, but of course with everyday activities as well which include team room conversations as well as events such as Valentine's Day, summer festival, culture festival and so on. Multiple endings are promissed. There are many installments of this series, mostly for playstation. It's sad the series went the sport manager way, but it can't be helped.
13. Hinadori no Saezuri 雛鳥の囀 [970328] Studio B-Room 1
The game is set in a pseudo-historical scenery that resembles the Victorian era in Europe. The player is cast into the role of Foster, a manager of a large mansion. The owner is a young lady named Carol, daughter of the late baron who was successfully running a brothel in it, until it was burnt down. Now the house is rebuilt, and the business can start again. Carol entrusts Foster with teaching and managing the work of the maids, who double as hostesses and prostitutes. What is meant by "teaching" is actually training in all things related to sex.
Again erotic raising SIM. And again cards introduced for some reason. If you watched the hentai anime version, you already know not expect any story here. The genre itself was in the bloom thanks to SEEK.
14. Ojou-sama o Nerae!! お嬢様を狙え！！ [970328] Scoop 1
Adult dating game featuring both teenagers and a couple of older maidens. The interface follows the standard Tokimeki format with a conversation portion where you engage the target of your interaction in conversation and action. The rest of the screen is taken over by the animated persona of a girl. Her facial expressions and attitude towards you will change depending on your level of social skills.
15th rank game by sales in the first half of 1997, that means something! Actually, that only means that it had sound and H-scenes and that was still new with few Windows games released. Contents-wise it's a transformation period work, not nampage already, but without character depth or good story.
The only masterpiece game of February is Yatsu no Na wa Diamond
1. Let's! Pirates Trouble Vacances Let’s！パイレーツ とらぶる・ばかんす [970207] ZyX
Two female pirates earned lots of money and are came to a resort. They get interested in rumors of a mad scientist experimenting with monsters creation and look into the matter only to get caught themselves.
Les SM H bakage story. The interaction between the main heroines is pretty fun, but rather short. Windows version has a nice 3 minutes intro animated video and seems to have more animated scenes, but I failed to launch it on modern pc.
2. Seiyoku Gakuen Seraphita 聖翼学園セラフィタ [970207] Space Project
Futanari Rei transfers to an all-girl school to seduce all the pretty girls in the local student dormitory.
First of all, game is from Space Project that only produced really trashy works to the moment. But this time they initially create a supertrashy environment to stir up the craziness. Second part of the game is mostly erotic, but first part is quite enjoyable as there are many strange jokes and dialogues. Some lines are voiced, so atmosphere is relayed all right. It has some charm, but second part quickly hit all the enthusiasm out of me.
3. Yaku Tsuu ~Noroi no Game~ 厄痛 ～呪いのゲーム～ [970207] Idea Factory Co., Ltd. 1 2
A game company has released a title only for it to be received coldly by the press. The company's president disappears soon after, and mysterious deaths begin to occur.
For all those very small number of people who liked the prequel - here's the awaited (?) sequel. At least they have the guts to joke about the curse of the game company after releasing a bad game. Graphics are so weird and scary that this game received one of the worst ratings everywhere - probably from people who never played it. Game is quite short, hardly reaching two hours. You start just as before, in the group of five. It's also a sound novel, but the story is much more impressive than in the prequel and it tackles some deep themes.
4. BS Tantei Club ~Yuki ni Kieta Kako~ BS探偵倶楽部 ～雪に消えた過去～ [970209] Nintendo R&D1 1 2 3
Ayumi Tachibana returns to her parents home in Ochitani village over vacation to visit her mother, Toshie, who is recovering from illness. She meets with her mother and her old friend Reiko for the first time in years, hoping to ease her fatigue by relaxing at her childhood home. However, Gozo Kusano, the former mayor of Ochitani village, is found dead the next morning in a secluded area outside his house. Toshie was the discoverer of the dead body, and she is apprehended by the police as a suspect because her footprints were the only ones found in the snow near the crime scene. While waiting for her mother to return from the police station, Ayumi learns of a long-lasting feud existing between the Tachibana family and Kusano family. An ochimusha legend passed on in the village, an investigation from 18 years ago, and this new murder all tie into a set of serial killings which Ayumi must solve before it is too late.
Quite famous NES detective series. There is an English review.
5. Amagi Shien 天城紫苑 [970214] Clip House
Kimido Fumi is a popular mystery writer. But she also solves incidents in real life. In a local ryokan she is asked to investigate the death of a man.
The main feature of the work is live action and two famous former AV actresses playing the main roles. There seems to be a 18+ PC version, but Saturn one is much more widespread. Content is quite specialized and aimed at detective dorama viewers.
6. Ekudorado ~Kagami no Naka no Oukoku~ エクドラード ～鏡の中の王国～ [970214] Black Package 1 2
A young high-school student named Seirou has a normal, boring life: days resemble each other, and so do the nights: every night he sees the same strange dream: two girls talking to each other, one of them saying something about a coming darkness... One day, he and his female classmates find a mirror in an abandoned house; when they touch the mirror, they are transported into the magical medieval land of Ekudorado. The hero must first find his classmates, who are scattered around this world, and then find a way to return to our reality...
RPG and card battles mix. Story is one-way road and there aren't grinding opportunities, but if you lose, you're transported to the closest town and can gain some more exp on the way. Cards balance is not the best and some elements are just better. There's no real connection between the battles and H-scenes. There's very little justification for inventing the whole parallel world rather than just start in it. There's no story behind using cards. Game feels like its elements are gathered randomly and it does not encourage to explore its world.
7. In Days 淫DAYS [970214] Lunar Soft
Collection of five short stories:
1. Over the Dream
2. 罠
3. TU. I. SI
4. 究極解決因果マン
5. あたしはあたし
Stories are of erotic nature and end in 5 minutes each.
8. Roommate ~Inoue Ryouko~ ROOMMATE～井上涼子～ [970214] Datam Polystar 1
Ryoko is seventeen, her family has moved from Tokyo to New York, and she is staying behind to finish school. Her father (a friend of your father's) has asked that she move in with you in your apartment (where you have a spare room) so she can complete her studies. But Ryoko misses her family and is emotionally vulnerable - so it's time to for you to do some moving in of your own.
In Roommate Ryoko you have three years to develop a relationship with her. Using a truly innovative real-time feature, the Saturn's internal clock affects how the game plays out.
There is an English review.
9. Yatsu no Na wa Diamond 男の名はダイヤモンド [970214] Pis-Ton Soft 1 2
In the beginning of 21th century, technology has evolved in unprecedented ways. But so did crime. Huge corporations, which were in fact criminal organizations, came to control the world. Finally, a mega-corporation known as Connection has taken the power in its hands. Everything was sponsored with its money; the governments and the law were silent. Only vigilante groups called "Connection-Killers" still tried to resist. In 2015, in Detroit, one of those people, nicknamed DD, witnessed the death of his comrades...
A year has passed. DD moves to Brain City - a highly developed, modern city, the center of scientific research. It was built on an island in the Atlantic Ocean, which appeared after a volcano eruption. It is controlled by Connection. DD opens an investigation office in the city, trying to get to the heart of Connection and defeat his old nemesis, despite the hostile atmosphere and the grave dangers that await him there...
Gameplay is walking around the town and encountering enemies beating them, so not too intriguing. But game is chaotic in a good way - it uses all kind of weird enemies and lots of gags. A work with lots of charm, but it came for PC-98 when the tides already turned for Windows and romance games.
10. Hizumi 歪み [970220] MBS Truth 1
Hizumi is Japanese word that literary means "warp" in English. Like the word "warp" implies, the whole game is so twisted that it is [almost] impossible to happen. Basically, the game is about you, the main character, doing the same twisted thing everyday. You're constantly having sex with the girls in your class, teachers, mother, and friends. Having sex with girl is just like a normal exercise in game. Hizumi first starts with the main character [I don't know how to translate his name] having "fun" with his stepmother and ended next day still having fun with his stepmother. After the special "treatment" from your stepmother, who is no longer living with her husband or your father, you went to school and have more fun with your classmates and teacher. During the break of each class, you will walk around the campus and talk to many people (mainly girls). If you went to the correct place at the right time, H-scene will follow afterward. After you got home from school, you will find yourself reading adult novel and all the sudden your stepmother came in and night excercising with you.
Hizumi is a game filled with twisted fantasy. Every event happened in the game is twisted. You would have fun with an OL (Office Lady) while taking the subway to school. You would get special couching from your teacher in her office. You would be invited to a "special group basketball training" from your friend. You would play a doctor-patient game with a girl you grow up with. And, the most twisted part of game is that you would have fun with your stepmother every day and night.
There is an English review.
11. Tasogare no Kyoukai 黄昏の境界 [970220] Tiare 1 2
This is a horror-adventure about a high school student who is a treasure hunter. You'll need to explore some horrifying dungeons to investigate a mysterious sequence of murders.
Hero lands hands on one of five manuscripts stolen from mysterious village shrine. When all five are gathered, it's rumored to be possible to summon a demon. This is ... an exploration game, sort of. You see the dungeons from first person view like in old rpgs and have to watch your lamp and draw maps to get through the maze. Events are generated on moving through the map. There are ghosts encountered on the way but they are mere obstacles - if you fight them you die. Game deliberately tries to confuse leaving lots of things hanging in the air. For example, the meaning of the title is not clear at all or the conclusion that this demon is involved with the murder. There's a lot of torture in map drawing and getting through the maze. Probably the best part of it is that we get an ending with one of three female characters once we deal with the demon.
12. M Hard [970221] Aaru 1
You're a normal college student. Your mother needs a heart transplant. Your father's mechanics shop can't pull in nearly enough money to pay for the surgery. Just then, this rich sadistic woman shows up and makes you an offer. She'll get the best doctors and pay for the operation, IF you become her slave.
There is an English review.
13. Ningen Konchuu ~Nozoki~ 人間昆虫～覗き～ [970221] Poison Breath
When the guy was a child, he killed a lot of insects, about 100 a day. Now, as their revenge, he got turned into insects and has to live as a mantis, bee, spider and beetle. Will he ever be able to return to human form? He will never view insects the same way again.
Poison Breath games are always nauseating and dark, but this time they surpassed themselves. The vision of two humanoid insects with insect attributes having sex is not that easy to sweep away. But since the second title relates to peeping, most of the time this disgusting insect just peeps.
14. Boku wa Keiichi Onna Janshi no Itazura 僕は圭一 女雀師の悪戯 [970228] Segue Laboratory
Hero arrives to the dormitory only to find that no good rooms left. He decides to challenge his female sempai in a stripping card game to get the room.
Very short straightforward game. Game uses some specific BGM handler so it only launched with BGM off for me.
15. Taxi Genmutan ~Strange World Act. 2~ ＴＡＸＩ幻夢譚 ～ストレンジ・ワールド Act. 2～ [970228] Sorciere 1
Hero is a taxi driver. He chooses which passenger to take on a ride and can opt to interfere in his client's affairs at any moment.
Same as prequel, some uncommon entourage is chosen for the stage. Lots of different stories can originate from the taxi and game provides lots of variants for development. Total number of branches is 42, but stories are very short.
Ryouki no Ori Dai 2 Shou and Rookies are the masterpieces of January. But Rookies is a more traditional story-focused visual novel with charming characters and lots of kind humor. Rookies is VN of January 1997.
1. Watashi 私 ～わたし～ [970110] Pearl Soft
Shizu is a shy high school student girl who wishes to change herself. One day day she gathers her will and starts acting. What she's gonna do?
Well, there are lots of branches in the game depending of who you choose to be with and at what circumstances. There are 24 endings overall, but a great majority of them are wasteful insulting ones. There is also a happy ending somewhere, but it won't be that easy to track.
2. Ryouki no Ori Dai 2 Shou 猟奇の檻 第２章 [970117] Nihon Plantech 1 2 3
A mysterious game that centered in a theme park. An accident happened three years ago has caused the theme park to be shut down (But is it truly an accident or a murder? You will find out as you go deeper into the game). Now the theme park reopens, and you are hired by Amano Miyukias (Fantagen's director) as one of the security guy that patrols around the park. Before you start working, you will be introduced to the theme park. There are six major areas around the park and one central area. In every area, there will be one girl that is in charge of the area. After the brief introduction, you will be able to meet all these girls around the park. Next day, you came into the park and patrols around the park. Everything just seemed to be fine, but you realized there are something wrong. You realized these girls are trying to hide something from you. You began to search what is going on in this mysterious theme park.
There are two English reviews for this game (one is actually for remastered version but still).
3. Jorou Gumo 女郎蜘蛛 [970124] PIL
A guy got a part time job with a very strange family. During the daytime, he can explore the house or sort documents. During the evenings, he gets to play rope tricks with the mother and two daughters. If he can survive and find out what's going on, he might end up happy with one of the girls.
Another H training SIM, this time with bondage as main theme... I could say, but actually it's a command selection ADV with SIM part only about bondage itself. So systems are simplified here. Moving on...
4. Shinsetsu Kamiya Ukyou ~Zouge no Tou~ 真説 神谷右京 ～象牙の塔～ [970124] Altacia
In 1985 fund regulation law was enforced and there are many companies that fall under its jurisdiction. You need to gain consent from one of such funds.
Yet another work in the series and there's nothing new to say, actualy. Work based on a true case and has lots of lawyer terminology in it. There's little drama in here - just professionalism in handling a case. This is an alternative version of part 2 of the series. The author stopped writing leaving series discontinued so these alternative versions appeared.
5. Viper-CTR ~Asuka~ ＶＩＰＥＲ－ＣＴＲ ～あすか～ [970124] Sogna 1 2
The sequel to the short VIPER-V10 story, Northern Lights, subtitled Asuka. The budding romance between Asuka and Captain is put to the test when Captain's sultry cousin Miki moves in with him. Captain's focus wavers...
There is an English review. CTR is the first Windows Viper game and it's a paradise for an eye - nearly every scene is animated and the flow goes without choices nearly till the end. There are three endings and the branches are very clearly drawn. I liked the game and only short length (50 minutes) prevents me from calling it a masterpiece.
6. Mix Candy 2 みっくすキャンディ２ [970131] Cocktail Soft
Fandisc containing screensavers, wallpapers and a short erotic story そして。。。as a part of the Erotic Baka Novel series.
Story is too short to remember.
7. Rookies ルーキーズ [970131] Umitsuki Production
Tsuyushi Kusabe describes himself as a detective. But he never got a request so he's been working on part-time jobs. On his 30th birthday he got a request to investigate narcotics circulation in an all-girls school. His girlfriend makes him promise that this is going to be the last case if he fails.
One of the last masterpieces of pc-98 era. Game has many cute girls and it's fun interacting with them, but this is hardly a gal game. The game is mostly about the 30-year looser protagonist and his rivalry with another similar looser who also got a request. The game has lots of animation and feels like a movie. It's not a coincidence that this company later spawned Jellyfish that's famous for fully animated works. The game has a catch phrase "dreams pave the way to the future" which belongs to hero's girlfriend at the time when she allows this immature looser to follow this investigation which feels very supportive and nice. Happy ending is difficult to reach even though story is a one-way road. Game has warm pleasant palette, good drawing, lots of fun scenes, but unfortunately can not be hooked.
8. Exciting Milk Dai 2 Wa エキサイティングみるく第 2 話 [97] Silence
Amon transfers to the same class as Kurumi. He's very moved by the fact that seaweed still exists in 20th century and is going to liberate it by animating it.
I got the impression that second part got even shorter, hardly reaching 10 minutes at all. Basically there's nothing in it but school lunch and then fighting the seaweed mutant. The story pretty much stays unfinished, but the direction is clearly seen now - our usual magic girl fighting beasts.
9. Last Message ~Saraba Itoshiki Hito Yo.~ ラストメッセージ ～さらば愛しき女よ。～ [97] FAB Communications
"Last Message" is a romance simulation of sorts with an odd twist: you love the girl, the girl loves you, and you have to dump her. 'You' in this case is a salaryman in his thirties rapidly climbing a corporate ladder, three months away from ending an assignment at the Kyoto office. Back home in Tokyo is a wife and kids; in Kyoto is a colleague/girlfriend with whom you started a passionate affair a year ago. The object of the game is to "break up with the love of your life beautifully."
No info, but there is a video showing the gameplay.
10. Last Message ~Sayounara Watashi no Aishita Hito~ ラストメッセージ ～さようなら私の愛した男～ [97] FAB Communications
"Last Message" is a romance simulation of sorts with an odd twist: you love the guy, the guy loves you, and you have to dump him. 'You' in this case is young professional woman born with a silver spoon in her mouth, three months away from marrying a rich, good-looking heir to a major fortune. The only snag in this convenient turn of events is a beloved boyfriend/colleague of one year, who loves you with his heart and soul. The object of the game is to "break up with the love of your life beautifully."
No info.
The best year so far, actually. I really hope that I'll be able to say the same about every forthcoming year. 84 works during the year amounts for an average of 7 works each month - a very saturated year.
Let's prolong the chart.
VN per year
Year
Total
1991
75
1992
80
1993
121
1994
155
1995
180
1996
183
There's roughly the same number of visual novels in 1996 as in 1995. Romance games are everywhere this year, especially in the second half of it where Windows games preside. First half of 1996 is quite traditional mixed pc-98 representation familiar by previous years.
Let's see what year 1996 brought:
Windows 95 brought 256 colors - something that pc-98 could never rival. Games not ported to Windows, but made specially for Windows like Dousoukai ~Yesterday Once More~ showed it clearly that there is just one possible future for VNs - on Windows and game consoles.
The second half of 1996 showed clearly that with the rise of Windows games, there are much fewer creative games as well as mixes of genres.
Bigger number of CGs and even more simplified gameplay tendencies persist - newer dating sims barely resemble the complexity of pioneers
1996 was the year when game accessories like wallpapers started to sell well - that provoked the creation of specialized moe titles
With Shizuku and Kizuato Leaf transformed the sound novel genre that used to be wall of text on some background horror stories into what we now know as contemporary NVL novels with big character sprites and eliminated gameplay elements .
1996 is the first year that bore no new genre, no big development in systems. And that's also good as the market started to stabilize.
There aren't that many RPG this year, but the remaining ones are of superb quality. Four masterpieces are RPG this year, plus two more games of the month are RPG as well.
Let's count the masterpiece level games of 1996:
1. Angel Halo 2. Be-Yond ~Kurodaishou ni Mirareteru~ 3. Bounty Hunter Rudy 4. Es no Houteishiki 5. Harlem Blade ~The Greatest of All Time.~ 6. Kakyuusei 7. Kichikuou Rance 8. Kizuato 9. Kono Yo no Hate de Koi o Utau Shoujo YU-NO 10. Ma Doll 11. Mujintou Monogatari 3 - A.D. 1999 Tokyo 12. NOëL NOT DiGITAL 13. Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! ~We've Been Waiting for You~ 14. Sakura Taisen 15. Star Platinum 16. Stone Walkers
Sixteen it is! Just note that some of the games are included for sheer concept originality or impact they made on further works. But the game of the year can't be just an important game. It should be the best from the best and definitely not a dating sim. Nothing stands close to a girl who chants love at the bound of this world, YU-NO. I played it some five years ago. Both the real world maze and the fantasy world beautiful ending are still vivid in my memory. It's a great adventure with most memorable characters and a huge impact. Hands off, the best work of Elf and it's probably the last time Elf hosts the game of the year. Windows era shall have its own champions.
Kichikuou Rance and Kono Yo no Hate de Koi o Utau Shoujo YU-NO are masterpieces of the month, but even Rance can't compete with YU-NO this month.
1. Kousoku Inran Jugyou Tokareta Ribbon 拘束 淫爛授業 解かれたリボン [961205] Persian Soft
Mayu is a female student who is in secret relationship with another girl Minako. One day Mayu opens her bento and finds there a photo of her tied up with a rope. It also has a note requesting to come to clerk room at noon or the photo would be made public.
There are several branches with different outcome. System is bad as each time screen changes it takes a lot of time to load and it breaks the story. It's really unclear why such story needed to be sold in two volumes since the content is thin.
2. Kousoku Inran Jugyou Maid-tachi no Shigoto 拘束 淫爛授業 メイドたちの仕事 [961205] Persian Soft
A relative of Mayu notices changes in her behavior and sends family maid Kana as a transfer student to the same class to watch after Mayu. The school kingpins aim to make Kana a slave, but since they lack any compromising materials, they plan to use obedient Mayu to break the will of Kana.
This time even the choices have only cosmetic meaning. Same dark content as the prequel.
3. For Elise ~Elise no Tame ni~ for elise ～エリーゼのために～ [961206] Craftwork 1
Hero is an ordinary salary man. In his dreams he starts to do something strange to familiar women. Gradually dreams intertwines with the reality...
Game is the origin of Sayonara o Oshiete released in 2001 and overlaps with it at times. It's an utsuge with strong motives of depression and insanity. Some moments are disgustingly unforgettable like fulfilling a desire to make a trash can out of woman. Game has its cool atmosphere, but need a stomach for a real utsuge.
4. Itazura いたずら～悪戯～ [961206] Interheart 1
Main hero is a pervert who harasses girls on a train.
Itazura is the main title for Interheart company with as many as 9 games released under franchise. There's no story so nothing to discuss.
5. Ranchou 乱蝶 [961206] Trush
Hero is the editor of a talented young girl writer. The year of his publishing company exclusive rights over this author is coming to an end without any book written, so hero isolates the girl in a small hotel populated by other girls to produce a creative atmosphere.
After all it's just chasing busty girls in a big mansion with many rooms.
6. Angelique Special 2 アンジェリークSpecial 2 [961209] Koei 1 2 3 4 5
Second installment in the series. Angelique Collet, a girl who lives in the cosmos that the heroine of the first game now rules, is chosen as a queen candidate for a new cosmos. The count of male characters increases to include the nine Guardians, as well as three Tutors and three Collaborators.
There is an English review.
7. Tokyo 0 Ku Sadistic Mary 東京0区 SADISTIC MARY [961210] J-Box
Tokyo Zero Ward is commonly known as Lost Area. Mary is a female bandit who inhabits this shady area, rides a bike and targets only bad people for crimes. However, once she assaults a senior government car and gets fiercely targeted herself.
After introduction there are some seven episodes to choose from, each presenting some kind of story about Mary.
8. Cry Sweeper クライスイーパー [961213] D.O. 1 2
A series of mysterious events has occurred in a seemingly normal high school somewhere in Japan. Girls have been reported missing or assaulted under mysterious circumstances. The police is helpless. Two people are determined to solve the mystery: Kai Shuri, a man who can read minds and recall events from the past, and Ami Kanko, a girl who controls the powers of telekinesis. Will they ever be able to get to the bottom of the things, or will gruesome events continue to happen amidst innocent teenagers?..
It's one my first played visual novels. It's actually about rape after aliens/demons invasion into the school, but it has a lot of coolness about it. A trash game in a good sense of this word (if it has any good sense). Lots of gore, impressive demons and good old insanity everywhere. Voicing is really well done.
9. Dangerous Toys デンジャラス・トイズ [961213] Love Gun 1 2
This game has 10 stories about girls having fun with interesting toys and other girls.
There are two English reviews.
10. Hana no Kioku Dai 2 Shou 花の記憶 第二章 [961213] Foster
Collection of five short erotic stories.
1. Lesbian intercourse at a family restaurant
2. Nurse encounters a number of delusions
3. Affair with a married woman
4. Assault on the office lady clerk
5. Forced sex at the preparatory school
Ero-centered work, nothing much changed since the prequel.
11. Houkago Ren'ai Club ~Koi no Etude~ 放課後恋愛倶楽部 ～恋のエチュード～ [961213] Libido 1 2 3 4 5 6
You are a teenage boy in high school. You join the Casual Romance Club in order to meet other people and perhaps find love. There are twelve girls you can approach, each one possessing her own unique beauty and personality. Use your time and efforts wisely and you may just get yourself more than a casual romance...
You are given a month to shop around and win somebody's love, after which you'll ask the girl of your choice to keep seeing you even after the club adjourns. Each game day starts at the Starry Sky restaurant, with the club notebook laid out for you. The club notebook has the lowdown on all the girls -- their basic statistics, pictures, horoscopes, likes, dislikes, etc. The girls also record their thoughts and reactions on daily events next to their horoscopes, so reading the club notebook can prove vital to your success.
Game has many English reviews.
12. Injuu no Datenshi ~Requiem for Fallen Angels~ 淫従の堕天使 〜Requiem for Fallen Angels〜 [961213] Discovery
Hero lives with a lovely younger sister and suppresses affection for her. However, his friend knows of such feelings and invites hero to attack surrounding women. But hero has a subtle feeling that his sister is going to be involved as well sooner or later...
Despite "injuu" in the title, there's not a single tentacle. The work is of insult nature, but among all that ruckus there is also one romance route.
13. Kyouiku Jisshuu ~Joshikousei Maniacs~ 教育実習 ～女子校生マニアックス～ [961213] Tetratech 1 2
The plot of Kyōiku Jisshū: Joshi Kōsei Maniacs is rather simple: the protagonist is an ordinary Japanese man named Shingo, who is about to become an intern in a prestigious school. There is only one thing that makes the young man slightly nervous: all his students will be girls. And if that weren't enough, some of his new co-workers are young attractive women. Will Shingo concentrate on his job or succumb to the pleasures of the flesh?
There is an English review.
14. Mel Mel Melty Marchen メル・メル メルティーメルヘン [961213] Queen Soft
Classic western fairy-tales return adapted for adult taste, but to get to adult part it's needed to to write what's shown with sign language.
The main feature of this work is that H content is only available after writing correctly what the girl shows with the sign language. With each story the phrases become longer.
15. Muku 無垢 [961213] Nikukyuu 1
A girl went to work for our guy to pay her family debt. Our guy already has a butler(male), secretary(female), and maid(young female). He can train the new girl to be a maid, secretary, slave or fun object. What she does when she pay off her debt depends on how he had treated her.
Kusoge.
16. Pet Inga~ ＰＥＴいんが～★ [961213] Pumpie 1
Hero is dumped by his girlfriend after poor sexual performance. He meets a man in the store reveals him the true secret of sexuality - to stay dressed. Hero is required to have petting with three girls in seven days to regain confidence and get a reward.
A bakage. System is not comfortable due to the need to press on-screen buttons and repeat the same moves over and over during long interactive H scenes.
17. True Love Story トゥルー・ラブストーリー [961213] ASCII Corporation 1 2
You are a male second year student at high school. Your parents got a sudden transfer, so you've just moved to a new city. You'll be transferred again in one month, so you only have that time to make one of the nine heroines fall in love with you.
A degraded version of Tokimeki Memorial. Dating sims boom has come to playstation. Main feature of the game is going home together with the girl and taking on the way. It had good animation and sound so found its niche.
18. Kichikuou Rance 鬼畜王ランス [961219] Alice Soft 1 2 3 4
This game is not part of the official Rance universe timeline, forking off after the events of Rance 4.2, as a "What if" episode.
The prelude starts with Rance leading a band of bandits in rural Helman Empire. The Imperial Patrol crushed his band with overwhelming force, and captured his slave, Sill. Rance fled to the borders of Leazas where he was rescued by Kanami, personal ninja of Lia, queen of Leazas.
Eager to take revenge upon Helman and rescue his slave Sill, Rance agreed to marry Lia. As the new king of of Leazas, Rance set his first step on a path that eventually leads to world domination, or death.
There are English reviews.
19. Can Can Bunny Premiere 2 きゃんきゃんバニー プルミエール２ [961220] Cocktail Soft 1 2
You are one single lonely guy who wants a girlfriend. And when you went home a huge explosion occurred. Inside your room, you saw seven little midgets: the Japanese Gods of Luck. Along with them was a beautiful girl with green hair and she gave you something which she called the "Star of Guidance". The next day you ran into some cute girl, and mysteriously, the "Star of Guidance" glowed...
The promissed earlier full title (after 5 1/2). A good quality game that follows exactly the same line as the prequels. Sawady and Swatty are both present for the first time. And you've got only 10 days to capture the heart of your love interest. But after Pia Carrot fabula looked really old already and lacked freshness.
20. Alice In Cyberland Yamiyo No Madoushi ありすインサイバーランド闇夜の魔導士 [961220] Glams 1
Tokyo, the 21st century. The internet has grown to be an enormously important part of life, and a digital world called "Cyberland" has come into existence. This digital world is divided into eight levels, with more important and confidential information being granted higher levels of priority, with the highest levels being inaccessible to anyone other than those with the highest government security clearance.
A young junior-high student named Alice Minazuki is the daughter of one of the developers of this system. He left her with a very special "dive system," which allows the user to enter the deepest parts of Cyberland. Together with her friends Rena Ohtori and Juri Yagami, they are ALICE-3, a team tasked with maintaining peace and order in Cyberland. Alice in Cyberland is a traditional Japanese-style adventure game divided into chapters. Each chapter begins with Alice and her friends in Tokyo, and you can move about the city talking to people to find out more about what's happening. Eventually, she'll need to "dive" into Cyberland, which is also represented by a city. Your team will be able to move around, investigating different systems and looking for information, and eventually running into enemy "guard programs" which must be fought. The battle system is simple, allowing for either attack, defense, and character change. Defeating a guard system will continue the story.
It's a single road story in five chapters. Battles take place in the Cyberland while real world is just for hanging around and trying various mini-games at gaming centers and such. Battles are the biggest drawback while the core of the game is really enjoying. There is some lesbian development.
21. M ~Kimi o Tsutaete~ M ～君を伝えて～ [961220] Nexus Interact 1
M is a love/dating simulation game. The game immediately starts by asking you a series of questions to determine your personality, after which the heroine is determined based on your personality. Similar to other simulation games, player has a set of skills that may be upgraded by performing various tasks. Things like sleeping, working, shopping and such. The game story takes time during the 85 days where you exchange the diary with others, reaching good ending if you connect with someone by the time the time runs out.
Another strange SIM.
22. Ars Amatoria アルス・アマトリア [961221] Aspect Corporation
Daisuke walks along the streets of Tokyo. The night is full of love. Which girl will attract his attention next?
Each part has some 8 HCG with some text prior to it. The final part has as much as 15 HCG. It's a practical work with random encounters in random situations, so it's wrong to search meaning in the small text introductions.
23. Kono Yo no Hate de Koi o Utau Shoujo YU-NO この世の果てで恋を唄う少女YU-NO [961226] Elf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Takuya Arima is a young student whose father, a historian who has conducted various researches, disappeared recently. During a summer vacation Takuya receives a peculiar package from his missing father, along with a letter containing information about the existence of various parallel worlds. At first Takuya doesn't take it seriously, but soon he realizes that he possesses a device that allows him to travel to alternate dimensions. Is his father alive, after all? If so, where is he?
Game has many English reviews.
24. Bloody Bride Imadoki no Vampire Bloody Bride いまどきのバンパイア [961227] Astrovision 1 2 3
You play as a young vampire who has reached (vampire) adulthood. He is sent to earth to suck the blood of a girl with a 'platium aura'. However the girl has to willingly allow him to suck her blood. The character is given three years to complete his mission.
There are several English reviews.
25. Making Candy ~Okinimesumama~ Making Candy ～お気に召すまま～ [961227] Curott
Keita started to live together with a girl who he met in a movie theater. Where will this cohabitation lead?
Kind of a SIM that takes place over 50 days. There are as many as 16 endings available, so pretty much all the outcomes are prepared, most of which differ only by the erotic fetish. It's something in-between Ayumi-chan story and Custom Mate 3.
26. Instant Clarity インスタントクラリティー [96] Neko no Kessha
A collection of two stories.
Episode 1 tells a love story between protagonist and childhood friend Miharu. But he starts to lose grip with the reality and through delusions relations between two people take another shape.
Episode 2 is an incest story between siblings. Coersion, insult and intimidation... can these elements bring a happy ending?
Doujin H-oriented work.
27. Minako no Suiyoubi 美奈子の水曜日 [96] Echigoya Corporation
Every Wednesday tutor Minako comes over. Main character has big plans for hear, and these plans are to be implemented today with her arrival.
Some more H-oriented stuff. Sadly, no normal picture is found, but this small icon shows how terrible graphics was for the game to be discontinued at dlsite.
After starry October nothing really shines this month. If we narrow down the candidates I'd have to choose from Mashou no Kao, High School Days, Sotsugyou Shashin 2 ~Raspberry Dream~, Tsuioku and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Hihoushima Arata Naru Sangeki. Last one is out as PS1 exclusive (win version nowhere to be found). Sotsugyou Shashin 2 is out as a difficult type of game for modern players. Tsuioku is way too obscure. High School Days is a really nice game, but even warm vanilla school game can't really invoke much interest with poor graphics and no voicing. I can't believe myself, but I'm nominating Mink's Mashou no Kao as VN of November 1996. This crazy nymphet game has a strong personality and leaves a lasting impact through the years.
1. Mashou no Kao 魔性の貌 [961101] Mink 1
Keiichi Hayama is an ordinary Japanese high-school student, who has lost his parents and lives together with his foster mother and her daughter, which he considers his own sister - or so he thought... Because all the boy can think about is sex, and the two women he lives with are both very pretty, not blood-related to him, and also sex-hungry. To make things even worse, an exceedingly well-endowed exchange student comes to live with them. In short, what follows is a series of increasingly erotic encounters, which pretty much sum up the plot of the game.
Graphics make the charm of the game. Exchange student Reika manages to be both young and mysterious and she makes the whole family degenerate. There were also multiple endings and partial voicing in the original game, so it had quite an influence.
2. Reijou Sera 隷嬢セーラ [961101] Guilty
Sera awakens in a mansion and is told by the owner that her relative owed a huge debt. Now Sera has to serve at the mansion to pay the debt. And there's a strict punishment for every small mistake there.
Yes, this is one of the least offensive images that I found.
3. Tania TANIA ～タニア～ [961101] Tips
19th century. Girl Tania is born in a well-off family. But at the age of 6 a pillar of light pierced the girl making her faint and leaving a black mole on her chest. Now when the little girl grew into a young lady she starts to see strange dreams and to have strange desires...
I did not find reviews on the game, but the game develops mostly as an eroge and the inner demon inside Tania literally shows up and soaks the house with blood. Not sure if there's also a good ending to all that.
4. Jun'ai Monogatari - Shuugaku Ryokou no Yoru 純愛物語 修学旅行の夜 [961101] Art Soft
Main character becomes is a normal student. During this school trip he definitely wants to lose virginity. He can try to spark the waning relations with his former girlfriend who never let him close or seek an adult woman company.
Basically it's a conversation game. Need to guess emotions and use phrases accordingly.
5. Umizuri Wakadaishou Satsuki 海釣り若大将さつき [961101] Echigoya Corporation
Today I came to participate in the fishing tournament. I'm looking forward to catching lots of fish, but it's my utmost desire to reveal the mystery behind the mermaid legend at these waters.
Kind of more of a gameplay game, but there is a dialogue window that's always on with some descriptions and phrases, so it should qualify.
6. Rekiai 轢愛 [961108] Blucky
Hero is a student who studies till 3 AM and goes to convenience store for refreshments. There he sees the clerk girl having sex with a man. When the vision passes the clerk stands normally at the counter. Upon leaving the store something gets changed in the hero...
Well hero starts to be violent towards women around him, so it follows an ordinary eroge trail. So it's a dark and serious development.
7. Tenshi no Hohoemi 天使のほほえみ [961112] Masys
Desktop Collection Vol.3 Summer Desktop Items "Angel smile" includes among other goodies five theater episodes:
1. The story how three girls met each other
2. Taking action to regain memory
3. Riko regains memory
4. An incident occurs. What happens to Riko?
5. The aftermath
8. Muppet Box まぺっとぼっくす [961115] Muppet Box
A collection of three stories:
1.「らぶらぶせらばに若奥様」 2.「がんばれ美佳ちゃん！！」 3. 「ソフトハウスの哀れな調教」
The stories are of erotic nature, but with comedy touch. Each story only takes about 10 minutes to read.
9. High School Days HIGH スク～ル DAYS [961122] May-Be Soft
Takashi Sakamoto follows his father's job appointment and transfers from a high school in Saitama to Hokkaido. What kind of exciting youth adventures are bound to happen to him there?
Quite a truthfully told story about adolscense. There aren't adventures, just everyday school routine. There aren't heroes, just shy and awkward children. The story is light and starts from comical sequences to prevent being bored. Game system is command selection. A well-balanced modest work without affectionate moves or ending.
10. Little Step Ｌｉｔｔｌｅ Ｓｔｅｐ～リトルステップ～ [961122] Lay-Up
Talent cultivation simulator with the aim to become industry leader.
Scenario is flat and SIM part is affected by luck more than on strategy. And only save/load helps from bankrupcy. Ending is shown after three years without bankrupcy for all the girls that have high enough affection level.
11. Saorin to Issho!! ~Amusement Soft Vol.1~ さおりんといっしょ！！ [961122] Leaf
Leaf's fandisc
Oh well, I did not even find the text story in this fandisc. Can't stand fandiscs anyway.
12. Sotsugyou Shashin 2 ~Raspberry Dream~ 卒業写真2 ～Raspberry Dream～ [961122] Apollon Create
Yosuke Katsuragi is a 3rd grade high school student. During the summer vacation he walks around the city without particular reason and encounters various girls. Who will be smiling beside him on the photo stand the day the summer vacation ends and the day of the graduation ceremony?
Could not find anything about part 1, but part 2 was quite popular. Simplified Classmate system game. It's mostly romantic focused and has big volume, lots of characters and interesting story. But... characters aren't too cute and the difficulty is insane to the point that no single person could beat it alone and with the internet loosely spread that was a devastating blow for buyers who could not finish the route.
13. Tenshi-tachi no Hohoemi 天使たちの微笑み [961122] JAST 1
September 31, 2000, you accompanied your friends to job interviews. You and your friends are senior college students, but unfortunately you need to continue college for two additional years due to some reasons. Since you cannot graduate from college now, you are in a bad need of a part-time job to continue your education.
At the same time you accompanied your friend to job interviews, you received some messages. Since that day, you become a private tutor for four girls.
There is an English review of this game. Formally it's a tutorship raising SIM game, but due to the ease of this part it should be referred as an ADV work with some SIM elements and quizzes. You train your students but you can also go on a date. Even passing an exam excellently raises relations with the student to a point that H-scene happens... Windows version of the game had a fatal bug and the patch only dealt party with it. So it's an average work without advantages and disadvantages, but it was definitely not a good enough quality work to resurrect the Angel series.
14. Tsuioku 追憶 -ついおく- [961122] Bell-Da
A year after your graduation, you've become a security guard, and your first post happens to be at your old school, where you used to be the president of the student council.
But everything there seems off: the school is set to close, and everyone you knew seems depressed, or acts strange. Nothing like the flourishing school it was a year ago. And nobody will answer your questions about how this happened.
To your surprise, you get a chance of being the student council president once more and right the wrongs that have happened.
No impressions found on the game, but first H event arrives as soon as 15 minutes through which is quite early. So I guess the option to do everything right is not the only option in the game...
15. Gedou Kyoushi ~Ryoujoku Shuukan~ 外道教師 ～凌辱週間～ [961129] Misty
Teacher arrives to a school full of girl students and has to teach there for one week.
You can only move 3 times per day so only 21 move prepared and it's easy to miss everything. There result is either good or very bad. Trashy insult work.
16. Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Hihoushima Arata Naru Sangeki 金田一少年の事件簿 悲報島 新たなる惨劇, [961129] Digital Frontier 1 2
Treasure Isle is rumored to hide a vast bounty of gold said to be guarded by the legendary beast "Yamawara", which Kindaichi and other treasure hunters gather to search for. But the host is killed before the group even arrives, and a bloody slaying takes place during a time in which none of the people on the island could have done it. Will the island's mythical monster-guardian claim more victims?
Famous boy detective franchise. Game is difficult in the way that there are lots of choices and one wrong choice makes you out off the board. There are locations in the form of interactive dungeons as well where you can perform a lot of actions. There are some 25 animation minutes promised. There is little mystery, it's definitely not a suspense story.
17. One Way Ticket ~Fushigi na Katamichi Kippu~ One Way Ticket ～不思議な片道切符～ [961129] Aquarium
Hero mistakenly receives a one way ticket. Train takes him to a strange world. When train goes uphill hero finds himself in embrace of maid girls with cat ears and when going downhill - under special care of nurses.
Kusoge. One playthrough is only 10 minutes. Almost all CG are HCG. To see other variants it's needed to play over and over and messages can't be skipped.
18. Saint Diary ~Sei-chan no Nikki~ せいんと☆だいありぃ ～聖ちゃんの日記～ [961129] Desire 1
Saint Diary is a visual novel focusing on the romantic life of a high school student named Kiyoka (the Chinese character used to spell here name means "saint"), who works as a waitress at the local cafe during a vacation. The protagonist of the game is a male college student who frequents the cafe and gradually develops a relationship with Kiyoka. Though there are two other female characters in the game, the dating aspect focuses exclusively on Kiyoka.
Quite a short story. Command selection within limited time was still fresh, main heroine is cute and has huge number of emotions showing on her face. Saves are also limited to the times when there is an option for it. After the ending there's the girl side of the story, which is probably the main feature of this work.
19. Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Mikan no Report 探偵 神宮寺三郎 未完のルポ [961129] Data East Corporation 1 2 3 4
An overseas package containing a small key arrives at the detective agency from Jingūji's journalist acquaintance. Jingūji must uncover the hidden meaning of the key.
5th installment of the series that has been pestering me since the late 80s. There's quite enough information about it in English.
Star Platinum, Angel Halo, Stone Walkers and Bounty Hunter Rudy are masterpieces of the month. That's a difficult choice! I believe that Bounty Hunter Rudy is the worthiest for being VN of October 1996
1. Girl 2 ガール２ [961001] Juice
Reiko is a female tutor of three young girls. Here are three stories of what happened at the lessons.
Game is focused on H events and the feature of the series is small windows that show only some part of the body.
2. Eternal Melody エターナルメロディ [961004] MediaWorks
Main character is a normal high school student who gets into an accident at the construction site. Instead of dying he finds himself in a strange world. There he learns that he needs to find a powerful artifact in order to return to his world. However, there are also other contestants for the treasure as it can help to conquer the world. Will protagonist return to his world safely?
Genre is raising SIM to train four people including yourself and fight in the battles to come.
3. Hokenshitsu no Akuma 保健室の悪魔 [961004] Neko no Kessha
A mysterious organism attacks a private school. This is an omnibus drama showing aftermath of the attack in different parts of the school.
Kind of horror tentacle insult themed doujin work..
4. Star Platinum スタープラチナ [961010] Custom 1 2 3 4
High in the heavens, there was a girl who was training in a shrine to be the successor of a goddess. One day, the goddess had to leave the shrine to attend a meeting of the many gods, leaving the girl alone at the shrine. The goddess warned her to leave alone a box of star-souls within the shrine, and that under no circumstances should she open it. Naturally, as soon as the goddess had left, the girl's curiosity got the better of her and she opened the box.
The star-souls escaped, turned the girl into a small fairy, and fled down towards the Earth. She must track down and capture the star-souls, now causing mischief on Earth, before the goddess returns to the shrine. However, while chasing several of the star-souls through the sky, the girl crashes through the window of a young man who lives on Earth. She decides that since he can somehow see her, that he's going to help her out, and so the two of them begin their adventure.
In the story mode the story unfolds until a character in need of exorcising is encountered and then a special card battle is held. The biggest feature of this work is totally unique style of graphics that's impossible to confuse with anything else.
5. Heroine Dream ヒロインドリーム [961010] Map Japan 1
Heroine Dream is an idol simulation game in which the player takes a role of a producer whose goal is to help Shizuka Maiki enter the scene in style. But that doesn't happen over night, in fact, it requires many weeks of training. The heroine herself has many attributes that lack in quality and as her producer, you will have to balance her training (ballet, dancing, swimming etc.), but at the same time keep an eye on her stress level. The game features voice-acting, but without the ability to see subtitles, only the answers you can select during conversations with other characters. Depending on what kind of a star producer you turn out to be, the game may reach one of several different endings.
Just another raising SIM mix.
6. Toriko 虜 [961011] D.O.
Main character is a new teacher with a notion of love and lust. He imprisons his student Yumiko Saeki at the request of Asami Tamura who enslaved her and took her virginity. During the summer vacations fierce and dense training begins.
Shocking game and spiritual follower of SEEK. Training scenes are even animated. System is too difficult for modern players. There are some ardent fans of this work, but majority won't even come close to it.
7. Angel Halo Ａｎｇｅｌ Ｈａｌｏ −エンジェル・ハイロウ− [961017] Active 1 2 3
The protagonist, Kusakabe Makoto, is living a normal school life without knowing he is the reincarnation of Lucifer. One day an angel named Sofia and a demon named Lilith come to him. They are the messengers of Heaven and Hell. The day of Lucifer's judgement is approaching.
I have a full review prepared.
8. Katei Kyoushi 家庭教師 [961018] Interheart
Michiko-chan is a normal student girl anxious of love. When her friend suggests tutor variant, Michiko agrees.
Again ero-centered Interheart work with some voices and some animation.
9. Stone Walkers ストーンウォーカーズ [961018] Sunsoft 1
Stone Walkers is an adventure game in which you take the role of Randy a teacher similar to Indiana Jones and his two girl helpers in a dangerous adventure searching for a mayan artifact called the Jade Mask. The adventure begins when they travel to Guatemala to start the search in some mayan ruins.
Playstation exclusive title. It's command selection, but at times different forms like setting up traps that trigger trouble events. And you can not bruteforce all the commands since you've only got limited selection number, so need to think carefully what to choose. And there are multiple endings so the weight of choice increases even further. As a non-romance adventure story it returns to the origins like De-Ja or Nook series and that's why feels fresh in the launched romance novel era.
10. Bounty Hunter Rudy バウンティはんたぁルディ [961025] Scoop 1
Rudy is a famous space bounty hunter with top notch skills. But she's famous mostly for her ability to fall into troubles due because of uncontrolled destruction power. In order to deal with the debts she goes to casino but drenches down into even deeper debt. She is offered a top secret military case and she's in no position to reject it.
Rudy is bisexual in the sense that with women she becomes a futanari... The main feature of the game is parody... it has reference to dozens of contemporary western and eastern media works from Start Wars to Crayon Shin-Chan. The evaluation of the game greatly depends on the ability to find and enjoy those parodies. I've a full review prepared.
11. Cherry Moderate チェリーマドレット [961025] Ucom
Hero and his classmate argued about who of them was more popular with the girls. Now with the nanpa competition launched hero needs to win the hearts of as many girls as possible.
Capture is not really difficult since at all times you can consult the school nurse who tells exactly what to do in each girl's case. The number of girls is big, but each girl story is plain and short - and ends with a CG. There is a time limit and all the girls that aren't conquered by the hero are conquered by his rival - that guy has a 100% success rate!
12. Ikumoto 生本● [961025] Illusion
At start there is only a remote control. But when channel is chosen, a world of horny drama lies before your eyes. It's an adult channel with all kind of hardcore content. There are also casters and commercials between the show pieces.
It's hardly a game - just choose a program and watch. It can be weird or funny, like when on the alternative of discovery channel there are still girls having sex in Savannah.
13. RAM 1 - New Evolution Organize ラ・ム１ ニューエボリューションオーガナイズ [961025] GMF
Shinsuke is a teenager from modern time. He has a special mark on his forehead which is said to kill him on removal by his father. RAM is a girl who comes from 10.000 years ago in the past to the modern time. She searches for NEO where NEO stands for New Evolution Organize or in other words human with evolved cellular organization, a superhuman. After RAM removes the patch from Shinsuke forehead the bright light fills the room and a new sign is formed there. RAM is going to turn Shinsuke into NEO before DOMI from future arrives.
Game actually follows Classmate as there is top down travelling around the map and time dimension. Shinsuke meets different girls at different locations. I'm bad with such type of games and there's next to zero information about the game.
14. Haruka no Sora ~Gekitou Mahjong Taikai Hen~ 遥の空 ～激闘麻雀大会編～ [961025]
This is another strip majong game. In the story mode, you can pick one of 6 girls to fight for a banshee tear, which can grant one wish.
I've no words for strip mahjong.
15. G no Kyokuhoku Ｇの極北 [961031] Bunny Pro.
Main character decides to become world's strongest guy in masturbation. He gathers six girls from all over the world and starts an international contest.
Masturbation scenes have text descriptions, but there is zero plot there.
Ma Doll and Sakura Taisen are the masterpieces of the month, but I prefer Sakura Taisen as VN of the Month
1. Heartbeat Scramble ハートビートスクランブル [960906] Imagineer Co., Ltd.
Game reproduces events of graduating school year, such as attending part-time job, participating in clubs and school festivals as well as getting along with the girls and inviting them on a date and maybe even spending vacations together with one of them.
Sega Saturn exclusive. It's kind of simplified Tokumeki Memorial, but with live-action photos. Game is not voiced apart of sound in movie cuts which makes it hardly appealing. Game focuses on holidays and vacations to make it even simpler. It was especially confusing that box only had anime characters and finding out live-action footage was not welcome by majority of players.
2. Shinsetsu Kamiya Ukyou 3 ~Missing Link~ 真説 神谷右京3 ～Missing Link～ [960906] Altacia
Middle - aged male bruised body was found at the tracks of Nakano station. Is it a suicide, a murder or a mere accident?
A prosperous beauty attorney Kai Tomoko of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office asks Kamiya Ukyo to investigate this case. But when Ukyo starts investigation he finds that the family of the deceased is not as interested in finding the truth as in finding something that the man had on him.
Game's obscure. There is one Japanese review, but it does not tackle the plot - and understanding something in all those Kamiya Ukyou remakes gets more difficult with each new game.
3. Zap! The Magic ZAP！THE MAGIC [960907] TopCat
Hero moves to locations on the map and experiences random encounters with the monsters on the way. Through winning a battle consisting of Magic: The Gathering card game match player gets money that he can spend on new cards in city shop and on winning event battles with bosses he also advances his HP and SC pools.
What will happen if magic: the gathering is mixed with Little Red Robin Hood? That question tormented people from TopCat company and they presented their own vision. MtG in 1996? That was very fresh. There is also some nudity in this work. I probably should not not that the game is very addictive like most of MtG games.
4. Ayu あゆ [960912] Bell-Da
Point and click adventure inside one room together with a girl.
An ordinary kusoge. But picture and sound are quite notable. But that's not enough for a game to stay in memory and nowadays the game is next to impossible to find.
5. Dousoukai ~Yesterday Once More~ 同窓会 ～Yesterday Once More～ [960912] Fairytale 1 2 3
One day an invitation arrives from a friend who was with you in the tennis club when you were in middle school. It is an invitation to the reunion of the tennis club members. You have one week. You can either go for your first love, or find another love, or become a cupid for others...
There are two English reviews for this game but what we need is a perspective here. This game is the first masterpiece game for Windows 95 and just look at CG - it's totally beautiful and playable nowadays. The systems looks like a simplified "Undergraduate" since you move on the map and talk to the characters. This work marks the tendency to simplify gameplay elements in favor of the content.
6. Majokko Paradise まじょっ子ぱらだいす [960912] Tiare 1 2
Rei Kidachi has just transfered to a new school. When he went to the school at the first time, he saw two girls in strange suits. At school Rei found out that those girls were “majokko” – persons with supernatural abilities such as flying, invincible strength etc. Rei doesn’t know yet, that soon he will meet them all at his new school.
Tiare is actually subsidiary of JAST. The most fascinating fact about this game is that events take place in the same school as Seasons of Sakura and some facts directly refer to Seasons of Sakura. Little is known besides that and I'd wait till asenheim updates its translation to modern google engine or at least adds copy to clipboard feature.
7. Wakusei Omega no Q Ouji 惑星ΩのＱ王子 [960912] Studio Twinkle 1
Space explorers from Earth discovered a strange cosmic object: a giant pumpkin nearing the planet. Upon establishing contact with the pumpkin, they discovered that this vessel belonged to Prince Q from the planet Omega. The planet's super-computer (with a powerful 4 MhZ processor) determined that the prince has to get married. In order to do that, he has to descend onto Earth and find a suitable candidate - naturally after having conducted a thorough sexual examination.
Game's a total bakage. Prince has no understanding of the world he arrived to and that triggers multiple awkward situations. There are five heroines, each with 2 H-events. System feels uncomfortable and furthermore it's not hookable.
8. Get! [960913] Black Package
Main character is going to participate in school festival competition for couples with the ultimate prize of 1 million yen. He needs the money to secure funds for his game production circle. But first he needs to find a girlfriend.
A rare romance game at pc-98 platform. There are 12 different girls as potential candidates.
9. Hyouryuu 漂流 [960913] Illusion 1
It's the end of 21st century. Five high-school youngsters are out camping near Tokyo. Suddenly, they are transported into a different place. It looks like a jungle. It's very hot. And it's certainly not Japan. As the heroes investigate the surroundings, they realize that they were taken to Lagoon Republic, a mysterious independent country on a tropical island that has been the home of a bizarre incident over seventy years ago. Now the young people have to find the truth behind their presence in Lagoon, and to solve the mystery of the island, while avoiding the dangers that await them.
It is a survival game as the party gets drawn into a civil war. The ultimate aim is for everyone to survive and that's very difficult to achieve. Usually there are two choices with one inevitably leading to death. The tension and frequent death scenes are ok, but there is no real story besides survival. Game also have very few H-events. Quite a strange game from Illusion.
10. Ma Doll 魔人形 [960913] Fairy Dust 1
In "Ma Doll", the player controls a young man named Kazuya. Little is known about his background and past, and it seems like his entire life is dedicated to women. But his relatively peaceful existence comes to end when one day he notices a strange girl in the crowd... a girl who looks and moves as if she were an artificial creature. From that moment on the hero is involved in a bizarre story, during which he will have to understand himself and the world surrounding him...
Game's very famous for having very rich content. There are 17 good endings and a bunch of bad ones and clearing them all is very difficult. The number of CG exceeds three hundred and there's a lot of animation. Plot is intriguing and girls beautiful, so it's a game of very high quality, a masterpiece.
11. Rose Blood ~Chi no Kawaki~ ＲＯＳＥ ＢＬＯＯＤ ～血の渇き～ [960913] Aaru
Hero's classmate gets violated and hero is asked to find the criminal.
Work exists mostly just to depict insult scenes, but there is also some occult and madness element.
12. Tenchi Muyou! Toukou Muyou 天地無用！登校無用 [960913] Xing Entertainment 1 2 3 4
Tenchi Masaki was a normal 17-year old boy until the day he accidentally releases the space pirate, Ryoko from a cave she was sealed in 700 years ago as the people thought she was a demon. In a series of events, four other alien girls show up at the Masaki household as Tenchi learns much of his heritage he never knew about and deal with five alien girls who each have some sort of romantic interest in him.
There is an English review for this anime offspring.
13. Henshin Ring 変身リング [960916] Miamisoft
Fiz and Aria are two female bounty hunters. They carelessly accepted a dangerous beast extermination quest that they need now to fulfill.
Yet another Sogna competitor. But there's no voicing here and animation repeats sometimes. Everyone tends to remember only tentacle H scene since.
14. Blind Games Blind Games [960920] May-Be Soft 1
The year is 1928. The First World War has devastated the world. But life goes on, and people try to forget the horror of wars. The hero of the game is a simple, young Japanese man named Koshino. He is a member of the crew of a huge ship that carries on board prominent people from different countries. It sails from Japan to America, via the Mediterranean Sea. Before long the hero gets acquainted with the passengers of the ship - all from different countries, most of them pretty young girls, and some of them having their own hidden agenda. Meeting suspicious people on the ship brings Koshino to conclusion that something will go very wrong - unless he interferes and investigates, at the same time trying to seduce as many young foreign ladies as possible.
Game's appeal point is famous artist CG. Character designs are also ok. But actually the game is very weak as suspense. There is almost no story behind the characters and all the endings are unsatisfying. Game takes the period of six days and it's necessary to decide on the partner by the end of sixth day. During that time it's necessary to raise the love meter of particular to over 15 with a special scene in case reaching over 20. All the events are forced so need to talk to everyone awaiting some event. There are three time zones of each day - morning - midday and evening so you talk and talk and talk, then wait and repeat. There seems to be 20 answers overall and right answer gets a +2, so it's enough to answer half of answers correctly or even less correctly and some neutrally (neutral gives +1). So if you're here for the story, look elsewhere.
15. Trouble Outsiders とらぶるあうとさいだーず [960920] Petit
A westerner killer is hired in Echigoya of Edo period as a bodyguard. But his self-acclaimed disciple heroine wants to compete with him at every step. Perhaps together they will save the world.
This is a comedy work with heroine constantly harrassing a pokerface hero. According to reports it's quite big in volume. I failed to get past the opening sequence whichever version I tried.
16. Joi/Minako 女医／美奈子 [960925] Red Zone
Noma Minako is a surgeon who gets fired from the clinic due to amoral behavior. Now she gets a job in another clinic. Minako has both masculine and feminine personality in her, but only one side is determined to dominate depending on choices.
Failed to launch the game or find the synopsis IF it has any at all.
17. Blue Breaker ~Ken yori mo Hohoemi o~ ブルーブレイカー 〜剣よりも微笑みを〜 [960927] NEC Home Electronics 1 2 3
The world of Blue Breaker is called "the path in the middle of empty sky": floating islands connected with each other by bridges. It is the tradition of the people in this world that a fighter's full initiation can be completed only when he finds his true love and marries her. Such day has come now in the life a young warrior named Kain, the hero of the game. His father explains to him that besides the usual warrior's goal of defeating the evil Dark Lord, Kain also has to find the girl of his dreams. He introduces to him a young sorceress named Asha, who becomes his first companion. But on his journey Kain meets many other young women, and it won't be so easy to choose one to whom he can give his heart!
There is an English review.
18. Hiiragizaka no Kyuukan 柊坂の旧館 [960927] Ume Soft
Hero is a freelance writer. Because he has asthma, he visits a hot springs resort and stays at a small ryokan. A relaxed atmosphere governs here, but one day a dead body is found at the resort. The corpse is dried of liquid. Hero is interested in the incident and starts his own investigation.
Despite the detective synopsis it's a normal eroge and the mystery solves itself at some point. There is an ending for each woman in the hot springs as well as bad endings. The branching is logical, it's mostly choice whether to H or not and whether to get bad ending or not. Most of the girls are OL.
19. Kuro no Juusan 黒ノ十三 [960927] Tonkin House
Kuro no Jyusan is a sound novel / visual novel adventure game supervised by horror novel japanese writer Tsuji Aya and divided into 13 different chapters, in which the player will have different game endings depending of his choices during the game. The game stories are mostly ghost stories.
Most of the endings are bad and miserable ones. Some are plain absurd. Genre not for everyone.
20. Sakura Taisen サクラ大戦 [960927] Sega 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
The original storyline, said to be inspired by the Shochiku Kagekidan, takes place in an alternate 1920s Tokyo. It follows the adventures of an all-female secret task force known as the Imperial Assault Force — Flower Division as they defend the Imperial Capital Tokyo against evil. They are led by Ichiro Ogami, a newly graduated Imperial Navy Ensign who had been assigned to the squad partly due to his unique ability to use a special type of armor that only women having high levels of spiritual powers could previously operate.
There are many English reviews.
21. Toge TOGE（棘）[960927] Poison Breath
First Miko is kidnapped on the way to school, then the same happens to hero's beautiful piano teacher whom he admires. What's the connection between the cases and the motive?
Game is of insult nature and with same dim tones as previous games of Poison Breath. A very painful and unpleasant work.
Foreword: I hate bakage. And yet I'm reviewing yet another bakage. Why? Mostly because together with YU-NO, these are the last two works of the Great Elf/Silky's team, after that Elf is going to loose too many staff members and is going to rerelease old works for Windows, stamp eroge works alongside with slice of life works. No more crazy adventure spirit afterwards. It's a historical moment to visual novels industry. Oh and I liked the two hentai OVAs of it immensely back then. I'll assume everyone seen them since I'm going to compare these works.
Title: Be-Yond ~Kurodaishou ni Mirareteru~ Developer: Silky's Date: 1996-08-30 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v1973 Synopsis: When I woke up from the darkness, I learned that I was the legendary Devil of Darkness, that was said to have the power to destroy the universe.
The beautiful girls approach me one after another. My shout roars in space. When I pat a villain gently, he is discomposed into molecules... It seems that I have the power... But... am I really the Devil? Structure: There are 10 chapters and the branching at 5 good and two bad endings happens only in the last chapter. Length: 9 hours Game type: ADV with small command selection parts and couple minigames Difficulty: Moderate, actually. Without the guide I had no idea where the branching really happened and only achieved a bad end. Character Design rating: 9/10 Protagonist rating: 9/10 Story rating: 6/10 Game quality: 9/10 Overall rating: 7/10 Rating comments: It's my firm belief that I can only overall 8+ if I can recommend the game to anyone. The point is that I can't. This is one of the best bakage ever with a good story, great protagonist and memorable characters. It's just that I can't get satisfaction from bakage, even if it's the best bakage ever produced. And this game can easily rival this status.
Protagonist: We don't get to know much of his past. He just woke up in the black demon form already. He remembers his name as Miyamouto Koujiro and he's definitely not a student. His actions are well-weighted. He's not aggressive since no weapon can pierce the armor of his body and most of aggressive actions he does unwillingly, just because someone else presses the joystick button - the joystick that manages his actions, even walking...
Characters: All the characters share the same route with the only branching in last 10th chapter, so there is little emphasis on individual relations. But each of those characters are your adventure buddies and they are quite memorable so are worth taking a glance on.
Ren holds a special place in the story. She's some kind of guardian and servant of the dark lord. She's the only female character that is not human. Her ending can be considered the true one since the dark lord keeps on going the old way, with only his servant on his side. She values the safety of her master the most and she lacks human traits for the most part.
Eva probably has the leading female role. From the start she gives a "battle" to the black demon ship and looses not only 90% of her fleet, but also demon's missile hits the planet and then another planet damaging the other 5 planets of the seven start solar system which whithin a month also explode... triggering the solar system to explode... damaging the nearby systems... and Eva has to pay for the caused damage for the number of years close to eternity. Within her little powers she does her best to pursue the dark lord and actually manages to catch up to him three times! First time she's getting close with him due to overdose of a medicament, but gradually starts dreaming of him. What makes her special is the amount of hardships she suffers in her quest, majority of baka events happen to her.
Fey is the third heroine we meet. She's a very poor bounty hunter without knowledge that the gun needs bullets or that there is a safety check. The crew saves her from one of the wild west style bounty hunter duels and she begs the dark lord to accept her as apprentice. She's a pilot of a huge mecha built by her uncle and sometimes is of use as such. Fey provides all the leftover baka events for the game.
Amelia is the princess of one planet, but she runs away from the wedding with unloved groom and seeks refuge at our ship. She's the boldest one and has the biggest number of H-events.
Chime is actually Amelia's mother (might be wrong on that) and the queen of some planet. She only has two plot H-events and not of much significance besides that. Kind and experienced.
Vermouth is the captain of the fleet belonging to Chime. She only has one H-scene and some miscellaneous use for the story. Hard-boiled knight.
Story: As in every bakage, story is not of much coherence. So we wake up from the noise that the surrounding fleet makes firing at us. Rei worries that it can bother our sleep and from the controlling gamepad launches a missile that destroys half of the universe. On the nearby planet we meet Eve who gets to know of dark lord's identity, picks up the gamepad and presses a button... which launches a missile that makes a huge hole sends her in the open space. Out of pity we teleport her back to the planet (without her clothes - it's a safety measure while teleportation as Ren says). Eve manages to find us two more times - not without the help of her super space police bycicle!
Afterwards we visit several more planets without any real purpose and help other girls on those planets. Nine and a half chapters of pure bakage and grew quite tired of it by the fifth chapter. Tenth chapter suddenly presents an enemy rivaling our powers and some serious development with deaths, blood, branching and bad endings.
CG: I've zero complaints about CG. They are numerous, beautiful and fun. What I especially would like to notice is that there are lots of full height models on CG which is so rare in today's VNs. Another flavor is the backgrounds. They are excellent with the most notorious are different planets backgrounds with lots of characters on them. They are drawn with love like on this screen.
OVA comparison: OVA ep.1 loosely retells chapter 1 plot - loosely because it misses on several smaller events. The major differences that in game there is one more Eve ship penetration on behalf of the dark lord, but the most significant difference is that in OVA Eve does not recognize the dark lord identity and spend the night with him, but in the game she does regognize that in the end and sets into pursue. OVA ep.2 starts with chapter 2 and mixes some 5 more chapters together inserting its own plot line. Those events actually take place on three different planets and it just tosses them together, hurriedly adds Chime H-scene and ends without any reasonable conclusion. The game's much more satisfying on both the adventure and the endings.
Sound: No complaints either. Lots of compositions of great style.
Minigames: There are actually two minigames in 10th chapter. One is faking an rpg with an ability to attack and defend and the other one is shoot 30 appearing targets in 40 seconds. I barely passed both of those mingames from the third try.
Overall comments: I can't remember a better bakage even from contemporary visual novels. It's possible to rant on characters and story, but it's essence is in baka events so I'm presenting CGs of some of them.
Be-Yond ~Kurodaishou ni Mirareteru~ is the only masterpiece of the month.
1. Eden no Kaori エデンの香り [960801] JAST
Joe Tsunado is a private investigator who has been out of work for a long time. Suddenly he gets a call from Yorimasa Kiryuuin, a very rich man, who wants to hire Joe for examing the true identity of one suspicious Yorimasa’s relative. That person appeared after the former head of family had passed out and said that he was his son. Now he claim’s to the fortune of the family and Yorimasa wants to know is he’s really his relative or not.
There is a strange charm about Jast works. This is quite a minor and it's not really long. But it has multiple endings, including bad ones. There are some 40 locations in the town and in the mansion that you need to check and talk to everyone between the big events. There is also quite big number of H-scenes with almost all of them being spontaneous. It's possible to play this game at aisenheim project, but their google translation is dated and thus bad while opening log all the time to copy text for translation is a bit tedious.
2. Blue Eyes [960802] FAIRYTALE HARDCOVER
A.D. 2215. Aliens coexist with humans on the Earth. A team of killers, containing Matis, Selica and Joiness, creates an uproar on the streets of Tokyo. This time they killed the most powerful mafia boss and took three black crystals called "Blue Eyes". However, they get involved in a terrible incident over the "Blue Eyes".
I wish all VN industry moved this direction.
3. Cherry Jam ~Kanojo ga Hadaka ni Kigaetara~ チェリージャム ～彼女が裸に着替えたら～ [960802] Jam 1
Cherry Jam is a visual novel with a slight inclination towards dating simulation. The hero is a nameless young man who is dating a girl named Tomoyo. The game is dedicated to their relationship, more precisely the dates they have together. As usually in visual novels, the basic premise is a flow of text accompanying still images, with occasional decisions that steer the story in a different direction. However, in Cherry Jam the player has to choose the protagonist's answers or actions very frequently. Those decisions influence Tomoyo's mood and eventually the outcome of the date. Many decisions also lead to a premature end of the game.
Another experimental SIM. Just one heroine, but there's a time limit, constant lack of finances, after-date diary from the Tomoyo side of view pressure - the difficulty is really high.
4. Peropero Candy ぺろぺろCandy [960802] Mink 1 2 3
The protagonist is an average guy. One day in the street I meet up a agent who introduces me into a H shop (Image Club). I'm unwilling because it may be coarse, but he confidently says to me that there's a pretty girl in the shop, so I change my mind and get in. Yes! A beautiful and nice girl named Candy welcomes me. From now on the story's simple. We talk familiarly for a while and take a H situation-play. From time to time I meet up a girl in the street who resembles Candy in appearance but she says she doesn't know me. Who is she?
There is an English review.
5 Yuurou ~Transient Sands~ 憂楼 ～Transient Sands～ [960802] Harvest 1 2 3 4 5
Riku is a knight of the Yūrō Empire, part of a medieval fantasy world known as Varcias. One day, returning to Yūrō through the desert, Riku found a girl lying nearly unconscious on the sand. This girl is revealed to be Azusa, a modern-day Japanese schoolgirl who, thanks to a time warp, ended up in Varcias. Riku must now help Azusa return to her home world. But enemy forces are attacking Yūrō, and the Empress is in desperate need of assistance.
There is an English review for it.
6. Girigiri Telephone Call ギリギリてれふぉんこーる [960809] Misty 1 2
A collection of three stories with telephone call as theme.
5 minutes long erotic stories. There is even an English review for it.
7. Injuu Kyoushi 淫獣教師 [960823] T2 Co., Ltd.
A private detective is told to investigate the accidental death of a girl in an all girl school. As a charming male teacher in a girls' school, he is soon chase after by a few girls, including his old neighbor girl who is no longer boyish looking. As he investigates, he gets friendly with the girls(refuse and bye bye). An evil spirit roaming around and messing with some girls doesn't make his job any easier, but he has help from his Ghost Sweeper friend. Anyway, if he enjoys his days, he will be fine and happy with his girl later.
Game's an obscure one like many other first Windows eroge.
8. Susume Choujou Genshou Kenkyuubu! すすめ超常現象研究部！ [960823] Nikukyuu
Paranormal research school club is on the verge of closure. Its members gather for a night school investigation to uncover the seven wonders of the school.
It's more of a bakage than an eroge. The development is quite lively and the constant confrontation with student council members is delivering. Just don't expect a serious or a scary story.
9. Yakata 館～やかた～ [960823] Interheart
Michie, Saki, and Erika stories are available from the main menu. Each story tells how girl's love life settled after the struggle over the mansion.
What I see is that there are three short stories of erotic nature. Played one to the end.
10. Yuugiri ~Ningyoushi no Isan~ 夕霧 ～人形師の遺産～ [960823] Desire
Kyohei is a college student. During summer vacation he visits his hometown. At the train station he's stuck in the fierce rain and invited by a beautiful woman to take shelter in her house. There is a locked door in the house that emits blue light and has the note on it saying "Beware of the bell".
A horror game in traditional rural atmosphere. The first game to have autoplay function! Never thought any PC-98 game had that! There are multiple branches determined by 29 choices. Only two good endings are prepared altogether with much more bad endings. There is no real story, just exploring the house. Horror effects are done well for a pc-98 game.
11. Be-Yond ~Kurodaishou ni Mirareteru~ ビ・ ヨンド ～黒大将に見られてる～ [960830] Silky's 1 2 3 4
When I woke up from the darkness, I learned that I was the legendary Devil of Darkness, that was said to have the power to destroy the universe.
The beautiful girls approach me one after another. My shout roars in space. When I pat a villain gently, he is discomposed into molecules... It seems that I have the power... But... am I really the Devil?
I loved the OVA too much. So I reviewed it myself.
12. Coin [960830] Ange 1
The hero of this game (default name Ryouta) is a typical hentai protagonist: a male teenager who is interested only in sex. One day, Ryouta finds a cute black bunny and brings it home; the next morning, the bunny turns into a sexy black-haired girl! Needless to say the activities the two perform during the course of the game do not include playing chess or discussing philosophy. But Ryouta is not satisfied with the "bunny girl" alone, what with all those cute female schoolmates around him...
Ange pc-98 works aren't hookable. One of japanese reviews reports that atmosphere becomes gradually more serious and the ending being excellent. There are 22 endings overall.
13. Kyuukyoku Seigi Sexy Marble 究極正義セクシーマーブル [960830] Mayfar Soft
Our girl Marble and another guy are special people created by a scientist. They are also the only defense against a group of people trying to take over the world. With enough special energy from her guy, Sexy Marble will stop the evil group.
Game's obscure. Only opening sequences are pretty followed by ugly art. There is also card gameplay.
14. Visitte ビジット [960830] Mischief
The whole prefecture is turned into school facility. Main character heads a club that fulfills various requests and provides consultation. There are six episodes with first one giving introduction, and next four being dedicated to each of the four main heroines. The last episode and the ending depend on the order of four heroines capture.
Only kanji are found upon hooking. There are four girls to seek attention. Heroines other than main don't even have their final CG which is replaced by line "to be continued". Ending depends on the order of episodes clearing, so getting all the endings is really tiresome.
Kizuato, NOëL NOT DiGITAL and Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! ~We've Been Waiting for You~ are masterpieces of the month, but Kizuato is the most fundamental one and thus is VN of the Month
1. Viper-BTR ~Mahou no Tobakushi Totokaru Chomi~ ＶＩＰＥＲ－ＢＴＲ ～魔法の賭博師トトカル☆チョミ～ [960705] Sogna 1 2
Ruri and her dice familiars, Sai and Coro, return in the sequel to the story presented in VIPER-V12. Ruri engages with another young girl given the power to become an adult, who, unlike Ruri, does not let her alter-ego get the best of her. Ruri searchs the town for three magical items while at the same time derailing Mai's attempts to improve the lives of those less fortunate. How far is Ruri willing to go, and will it ultimately cost her the special power she so covets?
There is an English review.
2. Eberouge エーベルージュ [960712] Fujitsu 1
The story happens in a parallel world named EbeLand. The setting is similar to the medieval age in Europe. Magic is common and is a common subject taught in colleges. In this world, the ecosystem is originated and supported by a central huge tree. However, due to the overdevelopment of industries and use of fossil fuel, global warming is rampant. The huge tree is dying, which endangers the game world.
Long ago, this land was saved by the Goddess Ebe from total destruction, but years later, an archaeologist among the survivors felt the balance of the land tipping again. So he created institutes to train a student that can create magic, as the Goddess did, to save the land once more.
There exists an English review for this fantasy dating sim.
3. Magical Panic まじかるパニック [960712] Pearl Soft 1
A powerful, wealthy and mysterious man named Alex orders his servant to gather sorcerers and cast a spell that would transport him to a quiet town in Japan and make him look like an ordinary teenager. After the transformation, Alex heads to the Fujiwara High School and says he is the new transfer student. The reasons for his actions and the secret of his true identity are gradually revealed as the school is being threatened by evil beings, and heroines with supernatural powers defend it. But in the meantime, the new student must invoke the sexual desires of the town's female inhabitants...
Flags are very difficult to set and need to be repeated for several times for the best result and still can fail to lead to the needed route. Command selection makes things even more tedious.
4. Waku Waku Mahjong Panic! 2 ~Kokushi Musou~ わくわく麻雀パニック！２ ～刻視夢想～ [960712] Four-Nine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
The Fairy Gods series continues! The Shikigami Sisters Kumi and Koukaku are called back to the Fairy Village, and Jango must accompany them or risk losing them forever.
What they find along the way are danger, betrayal, and Jango's confrontation with an ancient legend! The plans of the Organization are laid bare, and the deep bonds between Jango and his Fairies, especially dear Kumi, are sorely tested in the conclusion of the Fairy Gods series.
Game is localized and there are many English reviews.
5. Waver ~The Seeker 2~ ウェーバー ～Ｔｈｅ Ｓｅｅｋｅｒ ２～ [960712] Tenshindou
A married couple is caught up in storm while travelling on a car. They drive to a western mansion and are welcome inside. But it's no ordinary household and getting out is much more difficult than getting inside.
In all those H scenes I actually lost the plotline. Game involves lots of fetishes. Game's partially voiced, including H events which is very rare for the time.
6. Youjo Ranbu ~Yogosareta Seiiki~ 妖女乱舞 ～汚された聖域～ [960719] Zone 1
In the Gaia continent, once every 1000 years, there is a holy ritual where the pricesses from the 5 dynasties gather together and pray that the holy sprits will bring peace to the land. Just so happens the millenium ritual is being held this year, and therefore attracted a lot of people. Among them is a mercenary called Reseshibu and his friend Jena. Just as the ritual is about to begin, the sky went gloomy and somebody invaded the castle where the ritual is held. Reseshibu and Jena rushed to the castle to see what happened, and found out that the 5 princesses were abducted by ex-royal-magician who was expelled from the kingdom 12 years ago. He new returns to take revenge by using the 5 princesses as sacrifices to summon monsters. What's more surprising is that this villain is Reseshibu's uncle. After abducting the princesses, Reseshibu's uncle challenges our hero to search in the 5 temples and rescue the princesses and ultimately defeat him. Of course, Reseshibu accepts the challenge. Also hinting from the prologue is Reseshibu's unknown relationship with the princesses as well as his uncle...
There is an English review.
7. Advent [97] Studio Mai
Angel flies in the night sky. Development and endings depend on choices made. Pretty much impossible to find already.
8. Musabori 慾 [960724] MBS Truth
Our guy went on a special trip. He arrived on an island and is told the rules of this trip. He has to have fun with one girl a day for four days. At the end of four days, he gets to pick which girl he wants to keep.
Ero-centered debut of well known nowadays MBS Truth company.
9. Angel Graffiti S ~Anata e no Profile~ エンジェルグラフィティＳ あなたへのプロフィール [960726] Astrovision 1
The player character is a high-school sophomore student, whose name, nickname, birth date and blood type is decided by the player at the beginning of the game. One day, while walking through the park, you notice a beautiful girl, but don't really manage to make a good impression on her and she soon goes away. The next day, your homeroom teacher announces you have a new student joining your class ... her name is Misuzu Amano ... the girl you met a day ago in the park. Your luck didn't completely run out as now you will have plenty of time to try and make an impression on her and possibly make her fall in love with you. But she is not the only girl in school that caught your eyes, so you will have to decide who is your person of interest and who you will try to woo. Luckily for you, you are not alone on your quest, you will have a help from heaven itself, an angel by the name Eve, who will often give you advice on girls' feelings.
Expectations for this game were high since the author of Orange Road did character design. It was going to be fully voiced and with animation sequences everywhere. The reality was not as bright. It's made for small screen and suffers from poor resolution. Voicing is done only partly. It's a raising sim instead of dating sim. The outrage wave was so big that game's forever buried under tonns of negative votes.
10. Chuushaki 注射器 [960726] AyPio 1
A young girl named Mana is determine to become a good nurse. She plans to attend the Hirasawa Nurse School, which was also the place where her late mother studied. However, upon arrival Mana finds out that strange things are happening in the school. Not only some of the teachers are acting weird, but the fellow aspiring nurses seem to be more interested in sex than in actually learning their profession...
It's just a sequence of H events with some dialogues inserted here and there for some reason.
11. Kizuato 痕 [960726] Leaf 1 2 3 4 5
The protagonist is visiting his four cousins' home. He starts to have weird nightmares. Soon, he finds out that their family has non-human genes and the beasts in them want to hunt, and the ones who hunt are the males. Will he be able to help his cousins, will his love be enough or will he be devoured?
There are multiple English reviews for this game.
12. Kurayami 暗闇 [960726] Melody 1 2
On a cold Christmas night, the male hero of the game enters a large building, hoping to find a warm place. But the elevator he enters is malfunctioning. After a short while he finds himself trapped in the elevator, unable to get out. As his eyes adjust to the darkness, he realizes that a young woman is inside the elevator as well. The two must find a way out, and also learn about each other's lives in the process...
There is a good English review.
13. Megami Paradise 2 女神天国 2 [960726] NEC Home Electronics 1 2
The second game based on the Megami Paradise anime series is not directly related story-wise to the first one, and also belongs to a different genre. The game is set in a magical land ruled by women, namely the benevolent goddess Mamamega, with the dark goddess Yamimama constantly trying to defeat her and take over. Each goddess is surrounded by "shrine maidens", all of which are young and pretty girls.
Prequel was plain horrible with only cute ability to change dresses. A year later there is much progress. Game's aim and story aren't interesting, but at that time game had a lot of charm. Exploration is done in top-down mode similar to Classmate, but with much bigger zoom. Clothes is much more customizable now and with dressing animations. Girls character designs were very cute. Animation was everywhere on PC FC. Voicing was perfectly done. It's certainly a game not for everyone, but it was really popular back then.
14. NOëL NOT DiGITAL [960726] Pioneer LDC 1
The protagonist met three girls by the seaside and starts talking to them through a video phone system in hopes of being confessed by one of them on Christmas day.
This game is what Virtual Call 2 must have been. There is no real story, just talking with heroines through videophone. Full animation! Full voice! Fantastic immersion. Add sophisticated interface and cute character design and you inevitably get a masterpiece.
15. Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! ~We've Been Waiting for You~ Pia♥キャロットへようこそ!! ～We've been Waiting for you～ [960726] Cocktail Soft 1 2 3 4 5 6
You play as Yusuke, a young 18-year-old just finished with High School. You plan on spending your last summer with your best friend Daisuke. However, previously you made a bet with your father, concerning your grades. Your test marks are not desirable, and you lose the bet, therefore you must live up to your promise and work at daddy's restaurant, the Pia Carrot. What seems like what's going to be a lame summer of slave labor, becomes the greatest and most memorable summer of your life. What makes things interesting are all the cute girls who work at the Pia Carrot, and those who dine there.
You already know Shouko, a childhood friend of yours and Satomi, a classmate and the girl you have a crush on already, will be working with you. Yet, as the summer goes by the interaction with other girls is intense and you must choose who you want. There are a total of nine girls Satomi, Shouko, Reika, Yukiko, Saori, Airi, Shiho, Kiyomi, and Yukari, to court after.
There are several English reviews and game is localized by fans.
16. PILcaSEX ＰＩＬｃａＳＥＸ [960726] PIL
Includes 5 games:
- After Seek
- Inu (犬)
- Rinchi (輪恥)
- Mudai (無題)
- Seiyoku no Tsuyoi Kangofu (性欲の強い看護婦)
All the stories are of SM nature and one is even called After Seek as continuation of the original game. The direction of each story is different, so readable if can stand the genre at all.
17. S.A. 4 - Adachi 34 S.A.4 足立34 [960726] Exst
A collection of three scenarios. In the main scenario Shinji's sister returns back to the family house after 10 years of absence. Since siblings were close in the childhood they have worries about their feelings and careers.
The other two scenarios are short episodes of erotic nature.
In the first scenario at least some psychological development is depicted. Art is even further improved - especially I like hair drawing here.
18. Youki Toubatsu Ninpou Chou 妖鬼討伐忍法帳 [960728] ZyX
It is about a ninja girl sent out to find out why her sister ninja didn't come back from a mission. She found out why very soon, and if she can't win the fights, she will find out even more. If she succeeds in the 5 fights, including the beginning test fight, she can rescue her sister ninja. Failure means joining her as a slave.
The birth of kunoichi slave theme.
19. Guardian Recall ~Shugo Juu Shoukan~ ガーディアンリコール ～守護獣召還～ [960730] Agumix 1 2
In this tactical RPG, we are in the near future, when an evil organization wants to conquer the world using demons and other creatures to help them. You can choose being part of this evil organization or control a group of young girls with guardians that fight against them.
There's an English review for this game.
Foreword: I did not want to review it. But then I watched the hentai OVA of its preuel - Mystery of the Necronomicon (黒の断章 Kuro no Danshō) and it's a total blast. I highly recommend to watch it to everyone. A very memorable and bloody occult detective story. There was no anime version of the sequel, so I rushed in. Title: Es no Houteishiki Developer: Abogado Powers Date: 1996-06-28 VNDB link: https://vndb.org/v8874
Synopsis: "Es no Houteishiki" is the second game in the Detective Suzusaki series. The events described in the previous game, "Kuro no Danshou ~The Literary Fragment~", led to a series of suicides, but the case was believed to be closed. But Kusanagi, the young brilliant psychologist and assistant of the famous detective Suzusaki, has now to face his own past. The traces lead to a remote village, which has seen nine mysterious, unsolved murders in eleven years. Soon, Kusanagi discovers a strange religious cult, that might shed some light on his past... Structure: One route without branching or dead ends. Length: 4 hours Game type: Point and click occult detective mystery. Difficulty: Easy. Just need to aim at the mouth of the needed character all the time. There were like only 10 times when needed to click something else. And one screen that took me the longest is where I had to click at tiny triangle of pantsu to advance the story... Character Design rating: 5/10 Protagonist rating: 6/10 Story rating: 8/10 Game quality: 5/10 Overall rating: 7/10 Rating comments: Story is not bad at all. The problem lies with the clustered systems, lots of unnecessary female characters and H-scenes and shallow characters. Protagonist: Young psychiatrist Kusanagi. Nothing extraordinary besides that. We never see his face as if he's telling the story of Suzusaki detective from afar. At least he's of some use in this game - he witnessed some disturbing events in psychological facility eight years ago and those events now backfire.
Characters: There are too many useless female characters introduced for the main purpose of H-scene, I bet. Apart of that, it's the same cast, evercool Suzusaki, same two police detectives and cute secretary Asuka. Well... she's actually cute only the first time we see her as her sprite is more or less transferred from the first game. As for me, all the character designs and CG in this game are ugly, yet the drawing is very fresh. Maybe it suits the atmosphere of the game, but I can't sympathize with those weirdos. At least let me show you the cute Asuka the first time we meet her in this game.
Story: That's the most difficult part! Story is much more shallow that that of the prequel. And to cover that shallowness we constantly have to be distracted by slice-of-life fragments with some girls or H-events with them and when that's not enough we get to see the flashbacks from the past, mostly from that psychological facility 8 years ago. So the story starts as Kusanagi with his girlfriend come to a quiet ordinary town... that in the night becomes prostitutes town. Why oh why was such stupid move about prostitutes needed? Suzusaki bought a full building to establish detective agency here and we deal with a strange series of suicides. The victims usually open up their abdomen with a knife. Here's where Kusanagi memories show up ... first depiction of his activities in psychological facility and its patients and then strange behavior of some staff members followed by same suicides. The new present time suicides are especially strange because they happened at the very same time with different persons who never knew about each other's existence. Suzusaki is already a well-known occult researcher so he digs some disturbing stuff about one of the three legendary items from Amaterasu god that is rumored to be in this town. And I don't think I'll spoil much if I say that one of the psychological facility members is involved (since there are a big number of both doctors and patients there). So it really felt like Silence of the lambs when he seriously appeals to the fault of the government, accumulated DNA diseases and overpopulation to justify provoking suicides. And Kusanagi gets to remember previous talks to him - lots of disturbingly serious stuff to chew.
CG: The only full-screen CG are actually HCG with just maybe 2 ordinary CG for couple girls. The most important events are depicted on some 1/3rd of the screen just as usual backgrounds (character sprites go beyond the background so they are full-height) so resolution is poor and lacks immersion.
Sound: I really prefer midi sound. But here we get the usual .ogg or something. So music often starts at the beginning of the sequence, plays for some 2 minutes and goes down. For the rest of the sequence we get to play in total silence. That's not good. The game is not voiced... oh wait, there is exactly one phrase voiced - it's in one of the later scenes when there is imminent danger rises, Asuka cries "Oniii-chan!" and that's all.
Systems: I usually hate to speak about systems, but in this game it just has to be done. First of all, the game won't load correctly in win10. But we've got dxwnd to cover that, no biggie.
Second issue is that at least in win10 font is so bad that every character is only some 30% filled - we see different dots of it and usually can guess its form, but it may be just win10 issue, no biggie. We still hook the text and it's drawn as usual this way.
Game is point and click, but it narrows down to mouths hunting as characters sprite move. There were like only 10 occasions when I had to click on anything else rather than mouth.
The cursor does not change shape while moving on different objects... in fact it does not change shape ever and you have to point the ugly white small cursor everywhere!
For the first half of the game there are no interactive commands, but then Suzusaki tells us to move and explains us how to push at the border of the screen to invoke the menu for moving! Great - I thought - since I totally overlooked that mechanics! So in the second part of the game we can invoke that menu and push move... and guess what... we don't get to use it even once... and when I attempted to there was a usual commentary than I need to do something else rather than go away.
And the last - but not the least - there is a map of psychiatric facility in the game with a lot of rooms and initially we get a chance to come to every of those room and talk to its inhabitants. But this map is later used just once when we hear a woman's scream and need to find the source among those rooms! And when we found the source, we never ever get back to that map...
So there are lots of systems piled together and each of those system is crumbling and poorly designed.
Overall comments: As I already told, story is good. But Japanese reviewers promised falling back from occult matters in the realm of psychoanalysis and physics and that's barely true. What I see is the same occult stuff, just spiced with mental illnesses. ES should have only ment that inner chaos that is protected by the wall of consciousness. But in reality ES kind of also started to mean ESpers at some point. It should have been a story from the reality and in fact it involves too many surreal stuff. I can't blame the game or Japanese reviewers for that game was not fulfilling my expectations. If we look at it just as a sequel of Mystery of Necromonicon, it's a sequel worthy of its prequel and it should only be examined as direct continuation of prequel, not some original story with original themes. I rated this game quite poorly because of unnecessary slice-of-life episodes, useless spontaneous H-scenes, crumbling systems and poor character design and CG. But if those factors are overlooked we get a good story and I like good stories.
Kakyuusei and Es no Houteishiki are masterpieces of the month, but my favorite is Es no Houteishiki and furthermore it's played like a regular novel and can be enjoyed nowadays.
1. Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Houseki RADICAL DREAMERS -盗めない宝石- [960601] Square Co. 1 2 3 4 5 6
Radical Dreamers is a text-based adventure game taking place after the SNES RPG Chrono Trigger. It aims to tie up a loose end from Chrono Trigger, and features two recurring characters from that game. The story follows the thieves Serge, Kid, and Magil as they sneak into a large and foreboding mansion to find the Frozen Flame.
Game has an overwhelming number of English reviews.
2. Gakuen King -Hidehiko Gakkou o Tsukuru- 学園KING －日出彦 学校をつくる－ [960607] Alice Soft 1
In the year 30 of the Meiji era in Japan (end of 19th century), a powerful family of Japanese oligarchs (zaibatsu) known as "Amatsukami" has constructed an artificial island and ruled over it, basically creating a state within a state. They had high hopes of building the "Japan of the future" and educating the young ones: the central place on the island was dedicated to a high school. But years have passed, and the youngsters rebelled against the oligarchs. Chaos reigned on the island, and even terrorist attacks were not uncommon. Amatsukami Hidehiko, the last (and youngest) of the oligarchs, decides to change the way of things. Using his charisma, but also more violent tactics, he goes to the troubled school to deal personally with anyone who dares oppose him.
The synopsis hardly matters here since it's a bakage. Weird text and a lot of colorful characters made it enjoyable to play. RPG part here is quite irregular with random battles for leveling up. The difficulty level is also high. It's more a game for those who got tired of fantasy RPG of similar systems and want just to have fun.
3. Grounseed グランシード [960607] Studio Twinkle 1 2
Akira Ichijou is an ordinary Japanese high-school student. One fine Sunday, he goes out to meet his lovely girlfriend Kanami. Suddenly they see a strange glowing ball. When they touch it, they enter a portal that leads to a parallel dimension named Grounseed. It is a medieval world with spirits and magic. Naturally, it was no coincidence that Akira ended up there: the balance of both worlds is in danger, and only a person from our dimension can restore it. To do that, Akira has to travel to the spirit kings of the five elements, and complete a magical ritual that would prevent both universes from collapsing.
There's a good English review of this game.
4. Kakyuusei 下級生 [960607] Elf 1 2 3 4
In Kakyūsei, the player takes the role of a young Japanese high-school student named Kentarou. During the summer break, Kentarou has been working in a restaurant, run by a relative of his family. Now the summer is over, so Kentarou can finally get his salary and prepare for the school season that is about to begin. With some money in his pocket, and plenty of interest towards representatives of the fairer sex, the boy is determined to make this school year memorable...
There's an English review but it's quite short. It's sister series of Classmate featuring last year of middle school instead of graduating high school year. Game period is one year, that's already quite different since Classmate only covered summer vacation or winter vacation. Some elements have changed like map is chosen now instead of backtracking on feet. Middle school is a stage which means one thing - lots of young and loli-like cute characters. Add Elf's astonishing graphics and you'll see what launched the moe revolution. Another memorable tsundere character is featured to push the trend further. Since events take a full year there are longer periods between dates and some periods lack events. Overall satisfaction is lower than of Classmate 2, but the freshness of experimental system and its characters made this game shine. And I saw the game after I watched the anime, so I loved the characters already.
5. Ura Mansion Hakkin 裏マンション発禁 [960607] Illusion 1
The protagonist of the game is an ordinary Japanese man who lives together with his pretty wife Harunako. Two years after their marriage, they decided to move into a mansion in the suburbs. Everything seems normal when the couple arrives. But very quickly they both become involved in sexual intrigues, and witness strange events - mostly of sexual nature - that occur in the presence of their neighbors. Looks like the quiet family life they were hoping for will never become reality...
It's an Illusion game, so the plot part can be fully omitted. And it's one of the pioneers of NTR fetish.
6. Bunkasai 文化祭 [960614] Ucom 1
Bunkasai puts the player in the role of a male Japanese high-school student. One day his teacher tells him about the upcoming culture festival, giving him the assignment to help his lovely classmate Mia in the preparations. Naturally, the young man's mind is more directed towards... err... other aspects of Mia's personality. But what starts as a simple collaboration between high-school students soon turns into a drama full of violence and difficult decisions to make...
Multiple incidents occur in the course of festival preparation and you are to solve each one of them before the event actually starts. It's still command selection here, mostly to cover the volume shortage. There is a happy end only with Mia although there are some H-events with two more girls. There are just couple CGs of Mia which is not even remotely enough. It's really hard to find an appeal point for this game.
7. Hankou Shashin ~Shibarareta Shoujo-tachi no Mita Mono wa?~ 犯行写真 ～縛られた少女たちの見たモノは？～ [960614] Imagineer Co., Ltd. 1
Mystery goings on in this adventure game with a title translating as Crime Scene Photo and young ladies in danger. Plenty of real photographs to help as clues to solving the mystery. The detective must also review footage of them frolicking in their underwear and in the hot spring before a mystery man appears.
A murder occurs at the same building where protagonist is sent to take photos of three idols. It's a kusoge. There is hardly any mystery, there's nothing to do with the photos. But it shows the tendency to try and make live-action games which will show up multiple times in the future games.
8. Re-No Stayin' Alive Re-No Stayin' Alive [960614] Software House Parsley
Ryo is a private detective. His girlfriend works in a music industry and requests that he escorted singer girls. A chain of incidents happens one by one with many of them of uncomprehendable nature. Ryo needs to get to the truth behind them.
Suspense mystery story. The tempo is especially good here since the tension rises persistently. The development is abrupt close to the final but the final mystery is satisfying. Since it's so dense on events, protagonist looks ill-developed as it seems that he does not think, just follows events. Female characters fail at showing their appeal points. The evaluation depends of what you seek. If action movie is what's desired, then it's definitely a masterpiece. If you're looking for developed protagonist and girls characters, look elsewhere.
9. Delicious Lunch Pack デリシャスらんちぱっく [960621] Scoop 1
Delicious Lunch Pack has nothing to do with lunches (or anything delicious, for that matter); but it is indeed a "pack", since the game consists of three separate games/stories that are unrelated to each other and can be accessed directly from the main menu.
The first story stars a young man named Kouichi, who inspects a newly opened department store; his goal is to make acquaintance with the young and pretty salesgirls, eventually seducing them.
The second story follows the sexual adventures of an innocent young school girl named Kyouko. She is being introduced - by teachers, a nurse, male and female classmates, even family members - to various kinds of sexual experiences.
The third story is set in a fantasy world. A young huntress named Chiroru is looking for food and water in a forest, encountering various fantasy creatures and having sex with them.
I'm no fan of short purely erotic stories.
10. Rabyni ラブィーニ [960621] C's Ware 1 2
Reiji is a loser high school student. He likes to peek after girls and girls detest him for that. He only has one childhood friend Misaki who brings him to school and helps him with studies. But everything changes after Reiji is caught by the teacher red-handed taking camera shots in girls' changing room...
I've got a full review prepared.
11. Carrot Time キャロットタイム [960628] Aquarium
This is a story of two lovers - bunny girl Carrot and fox boy Tail - who live in a small village at the corner of a fantasy world.
Game's quite ugly and no wonder it's forgotten. Still game art style is inherited in further games of Aquarium and game's important as its origin.
12. Es no Houteishiki Ｅｓの方程式 [960628] Abogado Powers 1 2
Es no Hōteishiki is the second game in the Detective Suzusaki series. The events described in the previous game, The Literary Fragment, led to a series of suicides, but the case was believed to be closed. But Kusanagi, the young brilliant psychologist and assistant of the famous detective Suzusaki, has now to face his own past. The traces lead to a remote village, which has seen nine mysterious, unsolved murders in eleven years. Soon, Kusanagi discovers a strange religious cult, that might shed some light on his past...
The two works are loosely connected. If first one focused on Cthulhu myths, this second one has quantum theory / psychological motive in center. Es is chaos or suppressed urges in Freud's theory and it's one of the psyche parts alongside with ego and super ego. It's hidden behind a tall wall usually, but at times it may break loose. This point and click adventure is quite easy to progress and it's over in under 10 hours. The story is not too complex but narration constantly shifts from present to past scenes which makes it difficult to track. The final route leading to game's end may seem a bit hasty. I've a full review prepared.
13. Fortune Lover フォーチュンラヴァー [960628] Interheart
Shuu is high school student. He was late for his date with Reiko and got dumped for that reason. A shady merchants sells him fortune charm that's supposed to fix their relations instantly. Upon showing the necklace to the Reiko she forces her on Shuu right in the school. At the same time other girls start to behave excited around Shuu.
Quite a lively work. There are lots of endings here with most of them being bad ones. But each good ending branch is also short, about 20 minutes long.
14. Kokuu Hyouryuu Nirgends 虚空漂流ニルゲンツ [960628] Micro Cabin 1
Kokuu Hyouryuu Nirgends tells the story of a young man named Dünn Bit, who was just recruited for a special military unit called "Windmühle". Led by the young and pretty captain Eis Schwarz, this unit specializes in unique airplanes that can transform into giant combat robots called "Divers". They have recently began operation in the country of Vidar, where enemy activity has been spotted. Dünn has to prove himself as a capable pilot and fighter, and perhaps also to make impression on the gorgeous captain or other people in his team, most of which are pretty girls...
Exclusive PC FX game and one of the highest peaks of quality for this platform. Game widely uses anime motion for scene. Battles are actual real-time simulator stuff, so difficulty is very high, although with enough training can do even without high reflexes. Since PC FX is bad with polygon rendering it uses pseudo 3D which is fine, but not an actual 3D of course. Game's hard to get now, but those who managed to get through the combat rate this game as a masterpiece.
15. Manguri まんぐり [960628] Illusion
In a strange world, you can tell girls how to have fun. You get to watch the animated results. Afterward, your batgirl guide will say what kind of person you are.
No plot, just weird animated scenes.
16. Travel Junction トラベル★ジャンクション [960628] Cocktail Soft
Hero fails to find a job in a major tour company. Eventually, he gets a job in a very small tour company on the verge of bankruptcy only containing four people with him. Their last hope is barely known southern island that no big tourist company holds. Hero and company president's daughter go there as guides alongside a tourist group of six women.
It is a galge, but it's refreshing that it does not take place at school nor with a student as protagonist. It actually is hardly romantic as well. It's a resort adventure with lots of sun, sea, alcohol and opportunities to know each other better. Game uses point and click system and has multiple endings. I tried to play it but stopped when realized that it's a resort type galge with six random women. There might be a side plot line, so let me tell you about first part impressions. Game starts as hero attends the big tourist company. He is looking for toilet and goes to a wrong room. That's the room of big company president's daughter. She mistreats the urge for toilet for passion and seduces protagonist, so he misses the interview. The next day he's not allowed past the receptionist. So the side plot is in that the big company president gets to know about small company secret tourist tour and sends his daughter to ruin those plans. And presidents of small and big tourist company started out together and rivaled over the same woman, so the competition is bitter. So the number of girls is 8: six plus small and big company presidents daughters. It's a light comedy with nice humor and graphics.
17. Twilight Hotel トワイライトホテル [960628] ZyX
A guy got into a car accident(fell down a cliff) and woke up in the Twilight Hotel unharmed but can't remember much except his job. This hotel is run by 4 sisters, 1 maid, 2 manservant and has 3 guests. The bridge door to the outside world is locked, so he explores this hotel and its people. What he finds is that the 4 girls' father want them to be immortal, but what they got was 3 demons that stop time for them and totally used them. It is up to the guy to either free the girls or join in the fun.
Museum type game. Point and click is introduced poorly as clicking is difficult and it's needed to click on multiple objects to trigger dialogue. Atmosphere is quite alien with all the otherworldly stuff.
18. Moderate Party モダレイトパーティ [960628] Ice Soft
Shibuya is full of girl chatter. It's easy to find a girl to one's liking here. But every girl demands individual approach during initial meeting and further on. Will you use find the right words to attract the girl and save lovely personality in her?
Nanpa was one of the main topics for PC-98, so it's natural that first Windows games with better graphics would want to prey on its success.
There aren't masterpieces this month, but I like Rouge no Densetsu the most this month.
1. Onna no Ko no Shikumi 女の子の仕組み [960501] Libido
Three sisters Miyu, Shoko and Mirei tell the stories where they confess their secrets.
Short ero-centered loli stories.
2. Rouge no Densetsu ルージュの伝説 [960510] D.O. 1 2 3
Long time ago, a legendary hero defeated an evil dragon. He wore a magical bracelet that protected him during the battle. years passed, and the memories of his heroic deeds, even his name, have faded away from people's minds. But a young girl named Rouge, who trains regularly in the art of sword-fighting, still dreams about a real hero - more precisely, imagines that she will marry one.
There is a great English review and long polish review for this game.
3. Hanafuda Graffiti Koikoi Monogatari 花札グラフィティー 恋々物語 [960510] HAMSTER Corporation 1
Hanafuda Graffiti Koikoi Monogatari is a hanafuda game (a type of Japanese playing cards) that features a story mode and a free versus mode. In story mode, the game starts with the main character taking on different challenges in order to become the successor of a prestigious school of hanafuda. Player can enjoy lots of typical gameplay features for adventure game, such as moving around in the town, searching the room for special items and triggering off love story events. In free versus mode, two hanafuda games, Koi-Koi and Hana Awase, are playable. Game instruction can be displayed anytime during gameplay so even beginners can easily enjoy the fun of hanafuda. To fuel up the game further, characters with plenty of personalities and unique reactions will be appearing in the game. Seasoned players can also maximize their hanafuda experience by customizing their game with detailed settings.
There is a free battle mode and a story mode. In story mode we protect the dignity of clan... and go through a series of hanafuda battles all the same.
4. Janki ~Ladies Mahjong League~ 雀姫 ～レディース・マージャン・リーグ～ [960515] Succubus 1
This is an adult Mahjong game with hentai images. The heroine was a well renown singer who's part of a performing troupe. She'd grown up with the troupe, and to her the troupe was her family. One day a royal summon arrived, requesting for her to be the kingdom's royal singer... and with the troupe's encouragement, she accepted the summon and was taken away to the castle. She was told that she was summoned because the King had once heard her voice and wanted her to be his royal singer, that it couldn’t be anyone but her, but when she arrived the King didn't show any sign of this. In fact, he barely acknowledged her arrival, and no one else in the castle seemed to have the need for a royal singer. So why, exactly, was she invited to stay in the castle...?
There are two openings and an ending, but besides that nothing special.
5. File:0 Ghost Killer Kamimura Rei ＦＩＬＥ：０ ゴーストキラー・神村 麗 [960524] Colossus
Kamimura Rei is a ghost killer. She is assisted by shrine maiden Shirui Mika who can listen to the spirits of the deceased. Together they solve thee spirit-related cases.
The three cases are straightforward and rather short. There is enough yuri element in the game. It's nice to see that Miki hobby is BL manga and she can be considered the first visual novel fujoshi. Game starts strong with detailed main heroines profiles and interaction between the heroines is fun, but game ends right after the three short cases and there's no feeling of complete work.
6. Suki! 好き！ [960524] Nikukyuu
Hero's mother and father have gone overseas leaving him with his older sister. A new school year starts today and it's time for new opportunities and new love.
Game's not hookable, but the content is a generic SIM with day planning and looking for girls.
7. Oh! Kitsune-sama Ｏｈ！きつねさま☆ [960531] Curott 1
The protagonist of the game is a young boy who is about to graduate high school and is looking for a job to support himself during the upcoming college years. However, fate intervened and arranged a bike accident, which resulted in a meeting with a creature from another world - a cute fox-girl named Sharan. She needs nothing else but to be together with the hero; but a mysterious voice tells him: "one wish has been fulfilled, two more to go"...
Game from the studio that was probably the first one to specialize in loli. One way story with the meaningful choice only at the end. The appeal points are cuteness, loli and animal-girl. Nothing much besides that.
8. Paparazzo パパラッチ [960531] Ume Soft 1
In Paparazzo the player takes control of a young Japanese male journalist who works for an agency that primarily covers sports events. Dissatisfied with his position, the young man considers becoming a paparazzo, working on his own to get pictures of celebrities. From that point on the plot branches depending on the player's decisions, as the protagonist encounters various women and may pursue relationships with them.
There as many as 11 girls in here. There are bad endings and the decisions determining the ending are done early in game. The game starts as a journalist story but goes on mostly like a love affair story with many H-events. Game's perfectly hookable, but I forgot to enlarge the border while capturing.
9. Sound Novel Tsukuru サウンドノベルツクール [960531] ASCII Corporation
Sound Novel Tsukuru is a Super Famicom graphic novel game where players can either read or create interactive fiction on their own console systems. Stories can be saved either on a battery or through a satellite connection.
The game comes with a previously created graphic novel about exploring an old house. Due to the limitations in the game's engine, it can only show shadows of non-player characters that the player meets on his journey. Settings can range from a modern day train to a rural house and even wilderness can be included in various stages of wildness.
A constructor for creating sound novels. Not even sure if it has premade stories or the videos are based on created stories.
10. Strange World ストレンジ・ワールド [960531] Sorciere
Hero is a college student. To earn his living he participates in hospital brainwaves study tests. He dreams of appearing in a castle as a new employee.
Multiple route and multiple ending adventure with 14 bad endings and only 3 happy ones. So capture is really difficult and the best ending is only achievable with 100% CG. The atmosphere is good, but content is ero-centered.
Foreword: I erroneously marked this game as eroge and now it's the time to check out what it's really about. Title: Ushinawareta Rakuen Developer: Silky's Date: 1995-04-14 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v9147 Synopsis: College student Kojima Kousaku is promised a high payment for assistance in scientific expedition on a southern island. However, a storm breaks out and the ship suffers a shipwreck. The crew gets separated and they start to search first for bed and food and then find a strange temple in the jungle. Structure: Pretty much one route with minor branching. Length: 4 hours Game type: Mysterious island adventure. Difficulty: Moderate. Several saves will lead you to some happy ending, although getting all happy endings will probably require a guide.
Character Design rating: 7/10 Protagonist rating: 4/10 Story rating: 7/10 Game quality: 7/10 Overall rating: 6/10 Rating comments: Game is thrilling and something constantly happening keeping you glued to the chair. So while playing it's totally fascinating, but the aftertaste is bitterish due to several shortcomings. Protagonist: Usual college student, nothing really outstanding.
Characters: If we count only happy endings, they're only for the three girls. If count possible H-events, there are six characters. Characters seemed quite cliche to me - an active red-haired Ayano, a shy megane Yumi, professor young wife Shiori fills ojousama role, there's a blond american origin girl Monica and sexy mature professor secretary and partner Reiko, there's also the ingenious shaman girl Lira. They all share the same one-road story with minor branching leading to different girls happy ends - like go along the coast and that somehow means a happy end for Ayano, go by the forest and get the Shiori happy end. No meaning at all in that choice. Character design is great for all of them, but without voicing and with such small volume it's hard to start to feel sympathy.
Story: The story is depicted quite shallowly. First acquaintance is with the local flora that can cause various effects on eating and fauna presented by tentacle monster beasts, who rape some girl, but never harm anyone leaving peacefully afterwards. Then we discover the jungle village where professor holds supremacy. He throws the crew in prison and makes them to participate in a ritual ending being trapped in a cave with tentacle monsters. Professor boasts that three years ago he made the first contact with the villagers of this island and they agreed to assist him if he can keep the tentacle monsters away. Somehow he managed to lock most of tentacle monsters in a cave. But most important are special fruits that grow in this location and turn humans into beasts - professor is going to use them militarily later. The crew manages to find a way to the inner temple of the cave with some high technology ancient device inside as well as a mutated monster to oppose. And couple events later the end. CG: The CG here are great but not too many for not a long game.
Sound: Music was actually great. Lots of memorable tracks. What was especially cool is some midi sound that resembles a cry a lot and it's used in all the situations when a girl is in danger and she screams loudly. At that time music stops and after that some dangerous music starts playing - really good sound support. Overall comments: So game is thrilling, good-looking and memorable which is a lot. So here are the shortcomings the game is blamed for:
1. Heroines happy ends depend on quite a random looking choice and are difficult to get without guide. And those happy ends are a short talk and couple of HCG, not really satisfying.
2. The story is too short if all the 11 bad endings are cast away. So game has bad endings chasing in mind.
3. Repetitiveness of actions is big since heroines "routes" branch quite early.
To sum it up, game is short so it tries substitute volume with repetitiveness, fake happy endings, lots of bad endings and artificial rise in difficulty. Read it once to the end and get some happy ending and you're going to get a very good impression. But get all of three endings and your evaluation might fall as you get close to nothing for much additional effort.
The only masterpiece of the Month is Harlem Blade ~The Greatest of All Time.~
1. Blue Ruins ~Harukanaru Bibanon no Hihou~ ＢＬＵＥ ＲＵＩＮＳ ～遥かなるビバノンの秘宝～ [960405] ViVian
Rusty is an archaeologist who travels with his magician sister Wiki. Together they arrive to the town Nimrud in search of information about blue ruins and its treasures.
Game is really difficult as there are 8 commands to pick manually with a mouse and those commands also have options or need to target an object on the screen. The same command needs to be pressed over and over and outcome lines come often in single sentences. There are some gags scattered around, but it's nothing but pain to disover them as they require the options to be exhausted. Game also has RPG elements with the party size being three persons.
2. GLO-RI-A ~Kindan no Ketsuzoku~ GLO・RI・A ～禁断の血族～ [960405] C's Ware 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
You are Kira Akishino, an ace student from one of the best universities in Boston. You are offered a tutoring job at the illustrious Gloria mansion, along with your friend Georg. The Gloria family has long been one of the wealthiest and most prominent empires, and they need you and Georg to tutor one of the five daughters. Georg is immediately taken with the eldest daughter -- the strong-willed Etana Gloria, which leaves you with four others to choose from. There's Sicile, who has the worst grades of them all; Mary, the naive golden-haired angel; Naomi, who cares about nothing else but drinking; and Charme, the most brilliant one of the Glorias. But there's something more to it all... the Glorias are hiding some things, and it's up to you to find out what they are. Will you be able unlock the family secrets? Or will you just be a good tutor? Who knows, you may even end up marrying one of the Glorias...
Game is localized and has many English reviews.
3. Kusuriyubi no Kyoukasho くすり指の教科書 [960405] Active 1
Toshio is an eighteen-year-old young man who has attended a special school, and now has quite a bit of free time on his hands. He has been raised by his single father, and has enjoyed a careless life in a wealthy environment. Now, his thoughts are directed at his pretty ex-schoolmates. Not everything is as simple as it may seem - Toshio has to plan his moves carefully, otherwise he might fail in his amorous endeavors.
Game's an ordinary moege. That we would say today, but it was around 1996 when such games started showing up as a response to the public demand. Volume is small as there's only fast single day capturing of all the girls and a short afterstory of each girl.
4. Ring of Sias Ring of Sias [960412] Athena
Evil witch Beatrice that was created from a combination of technology and magic tried to invade the holy city as the first step to conquer the World, but even as she encounters an aggressive resistance she destroyed it, got some prisoners and she also succeed in separated the spirit of the magician Sias from his body. One of the prisoner's was Sias girlfriend Radia (a female warrior that was caught in a trap made by Beatrice), so he decided to go to infiltrate inside Beatrice's castle and try to free her and the other hostages.
Sias is the hero of the story, he got his spirit separated from the body and his spirit is sealed in a ring. The main goal of the game is to defeat Beatrice.
Yet another "sound novel". And since it's for ps1, it has more or less sufficient volume. As in every horror sound novel, story is not as significant as visuals, sound and atmosphere.
5. Daraku no Kuni no Angie ~Kyoukai no Mesu Dorei-tachi~ 堕落の国のアンジー ～狂界の牝奴隷達～ [960419] PIL 1
Angie and Ruby are two ordinary young girls: they like spending time together, talking about fashion, men, and all the usual stuff. But one day, they see a very strange man - dressed in a rabbit costume, with a gigantic erected penis... The two girls try to flee, but instead end up in an alternate dimension - a bizarre world called Decadence Land. This world is populated by grotesque characters with only sex in mind. Now Angie and Ruby have to figure out a way to escape from this dangerous world and to return home...
The level of craziness in this game goes beyond every limit. The genre can be described as hentai scatology SM comedy.
6. Kotetsu no Daibouken 小鉄の大冒険 [960419] T2 Co., Ltd. 1 2 3
Kotetsu no Daibōken is based on the anime The Adventures of Kotetsu. The titular heroine (real name Lynn Suzuki, nicknamed Kotetsu, which means Little Iron) is a young apprentice of martial arts who flees her cruel master and is accepted by the kind lady Miho Kuon, who runs a detective agency in Tokyo. The game can be perceived as a sequel to the anime, since it begins roughly where the original story ended, with the former "nerdy" spy Tatsuya Mikado already turned good and living by Miho Kuon along with Kotetsu and other heroes. Like the original anime, the game mixes modern setting with bizarre and supernatural elements. Unlike the anime, this game contains many explicit sexual scenes.
There are two reviews in European languages and it's a good anime spin-off. Actually, the scenario is written by manga author so quality is on a high level. There are cool characters and dialogues. Kyoto dialect of Kotetsu alone makes the game shine. The small RPG-like battles are very simple and don't ruin the fun. It's close to a bakage, but at least it's fun.
7. Love Phantom ラブ・ファントム [960419] Love Gun 1
"Love Phantom" is a story about Akira Izayoi, a healer with supernatural powers, able to cure curses and demonic diseases, who also happens to be a big admirer of the opposite sex. This time, he finds out that the spirit of Lucretia, a French witch from 16th century, still exists, and must find and deal with it, aided by his pretty assistant and (also pretty) female witches, before an evil demonic organization beats him to it.
I could hardly understand what was going on when was swarmed with H events. It's Love Gun, after all, only erotic bakagames in its profile.
8. School Days ~Yuri Rika Kaori~ スクールデイズ ～友里 理佳 かおり～ [960419] Misty
A collection of three short erotic stories:
1. 英語教師の課外授業 2. 家庭教師の課外授業 3. 保健室より
Stupid short stories with hardly any introduction.
9. X-Girl [960419] Red Zone 1 2 3
In the near future, Japan became involved in a war against the most powerful states of the world. As a result, it was nearly devastated. 30% of its population became immigrants. Tokyo became center of military organizations at war with each other. In such a world lives a highly trained Japanese female soldier named Kiyomi. But everything changes when the military brings Kiyomi to a mysterious woman, who requires a trained agent like her to capture four female prisoners who had just escaped...
I like cyberpunk stories and I enjoyed Silky's Reira slave doll, but Red zone clearly only uses violent cyberpunk setting to molest girls harshly. There is a Russian review available with machine translation.
10. Akumu ~Aoi Kajitsu no Sanka~ 悪夢 ～青い果実の散花～ [960426] Studio Mebius 1 2
The protagonist of this game is a young man from a rich family, who has lost his parents when he was a child. Lately, he has been haunted by nightmares, in which objects of his sexual desires were appearing to him in dark, demonic forms. Using his money and influence, he captures the female students of the St. Excellent Girls High School, with only one goal in mind - rape them.
There is an English review.
11. Angel Night ~Yamiyo o Kakeru Tenshi-tachi no Monogatari~ えんじぇる☆ないと ～闇夜を翔ける天使たちの物語～ [960426] Four-Nine 1
In the miraculous World of Demons, there lived a vampiric count. One day, standing near the statue of the Goddess of Time, the count thought with sadness of everyone's mortal fate; at this moment the God of Death appeared, telling the count he has a visitor in his castle. The visitor turns out to be a succubus named Karuru, who suggests that the count trains two young female demons, Tiris and Emalis, and sends them to the other worlds...
Strange raising sim mix. There are 31 endings here. And more of that, H scenes with the two succubus trainees aren't considered good endings. The best possible result is achieved if three sacrificial lambs are caught, angel captured, pandora box acquired and girls stats are sky high. There is a substantial adventure part on top of the sim, so you'll have to run around the world quite a lot wisely using inventory items. There's a limit of 50 days till forced game over. A nice experimental work.
12. Harlem Blade ~The Greatest of All Time.~ ハーレムブレイド～The Greatest of All Time.～ [960426] Giga 1 2 3 4
Cain is a perverted young boy who is supposed to be a warrior. His ancestors killed an evil demon called Gargantuan. Cain's brother, Abel, wants him to take his role as a warrior seriously, but Cain is more interested in ogling the village ladies.
Things take a different turn when Abel disappears and Cain is visited in his dreams by The Goddess of Time. She tells Cain that Gargantuan has come back and that it's up to him to stop it. What follows as a very long journey for Cain to save the world from Gargantuan and develop a harem of beautiful women, though not necessarily in that order.
There's a good English review on the game. My only comment is that this game is so vast, so well-thought and complex that I rate it as masterpiece. Maybe it's just because I always play at the highest possible difficulty that I like its spirit.
13. Kanojo-tachi no Jijou 彼女達の事情 [960426] J-Box
Main character is a student detective. He pursues a beautiful girl kidnapping case and wanders around looking for clues and talking to different girls. Can he solve this case?
Detective... not my thing.
14. Sakura no Kisetsu さくらの季節 [960426] Tiare 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
It's April. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom, exploding with beautiful shades of pink and red and white like they do every year. Their fleeting existence will end soon enough, but for now the Season of the Sakura has come again to Japan.
I turn to her, standing at my side, and speak. "The sakura were in bloom the day we first met. Do you remember?" She smiles at me. I know that she is happy. I look up at the sakura once more, and speak again...
"That's right. That was the beginning of it all..."
Game is localized and has numerous English reviews.
15. Sei Shoujo Sentai Lakers III 聖少女戦隊レイカーズ III [960426] Apple Pie 1 2 3
In the sequel to Sei Shōjo Sentai Lakers II Akira and his team have successfully fended off Rayott's assault and are enjoying a brief peaceful time. However, an enigmatic masked enemy known as Neos Bullard appears on the stage. Aiming to capture the power of Laker crystals, Neos Bullard and his minions invade Earth, taking the Lakers by surprise.
Final part of the trilogy. Battles are great and difficult more than ever, but I just can't approve this setting that it's kind of slice of life, but at times another monstrous general arrives - we fight him back and return to everyday life. The same plot in all the parts. Story lacks epicness and enemies are too cartoonish and unserious. It's like they were making tactical Sailor Moon and failed at every aspect.
16. Kyouhaku 脅迫 [960427] Ail 1
Asuka Akiyama has been an ordinary, innocent Japanese schoolgirl, until a fateful moment changed her life forever. One day, after talking to a nice-looking boy named Ryosuke, Asuka came home and masturbated in the shower. The next day, she found out that someone has taken photos of her during that intimate moment. From that point on, Asuka becomes involved in a violent chain of events. Will she be able to retain her purity and be together with Ryosuke, or put in danger everyone she cares for and become a willing sex slave?
Game's just one huge insult scene with varying patterns. From this game starts AIL career as hardcore game producer.
Foreword: Cyberpunk erotic action police story made me really curious. I was very skeptical of the Sammies review since he spent too much money to get windows version and turned to hate this work. And so I went to check it out myself...
Title: Merry Go Round
Developer: Mischief
Date: 1996-03-08
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v8807
Synopsis: Merry Go Round is set in Yokohama, in year 2197. The city has turned into an international megalopolis, where crime prospers, and where justice is pursued by lone vigilante fighters. The hero of the story is a private detective named Brian. The first case is about an assault on a prostitute in the brothel "John Wayne". Further investigation reveals that the assault is connected to other cases, some of which involve dangerous biological experiments. With the help of the policewoman Akane, the bounty hunter Ridley, and others, Brian begins to gradually see the whole picture...
Structure: All the choices are meaningless, one road story, almost kinetic novel.
Length: 4 hours
Game type: SF detective investigation
Difficulty: Easy.
Character Design rating: 3/10
Protagonist rating: 5/10
Story rating: 5/10
Game quality: 4/10
Overall rating: 4/10
Rating comments: Wow, I ended up rating lower than the Sammies. Game shines about nothing. It's got great visuals and some great CG, but that's it, actual game does not develop on that great basis.
Protagonist: Brian was supposed to tough bastard, but the cool CG with the gun that inspired me was actually the only good one. The other CG with the gun are just plain bad.
Story:
The story can be told in mere seven CG. And that's basically it. In-between the events there are numerous H-scenes while gathering information.
Theme: Prostitutes. That's the real theme of the game. They are everywhere. They are the victims, they are the friends, they are the job givers, they are the only visitors of bars. Between the few action scenes it's the daily routine to lie on the sofa and go searching for information while finding nothing and triggering two H-scenes out of the blue.
CG: All the cool CGs are presented, besides that there's little to look on. Female characters have mostly ugly character designs and CG. There was just a few good shots and then back to ugliness. I could not tell police woman Akane and bounty hunter Ridley apart, it's like the same face, really. And those are two main female cast characters. So unless you read names attentively it gets into a mess.
Sound: I had zero sound. None of the emulators was able to reproduce that.
Technical difficulties: They were too numerous. No music. Then Neko project emulator by the middle just split the screen on three screens and kept on broken as that so I had to shift to anex86 and click it to the middle again. I've wasted 5 hours debugging anex86 to find the text hexes and I found the huge pile of texts that contained all the texts all right but there was no thread to actively upload speech by speech. And that was strange considering that ITH was able to give out half of kanji for each line. So in the end I had to use screenshot reader OCR and that was very painful since there were just three lines for text and at times three screens were required to hold the full speech line.
Overall comments: Game leaves a poor impression. Investigation takes not much time. Ending is abrupt since as soon as we kill Mardalene demihuman (girl on last CG), there is a brief talk with the professor hologram and abrupt game over. The CG accessible from menu afterwards are only HCG, which already reveals how the developers saw this game. Cut all the H-scenes and the game will drop to some two-hours length which is unacceptable for a story game. What I actually liked that all the H-scenes happen with random characters, not plot ones. There is just one scene with Ridley in the middle (when u save her from the dungeon which is ok) and behind the credits. Akane and Miku (Miku is actually a palm-size assistant) are left alone, so at least plot moves apart of H-scenes. So only the atmosphere of the game was good to some point, but frequently reused CG ruined even that small illusion and it ended up into a too small world to produce a significant impact story.
Mujintou Monogatari 3 - A.D. 1999 Tokyo is the only masterpiece of the month.
1. Sex 2 [960301] 1 2
Sex 2 has the same basic premise as its predecessor, which is easy to deduce from the game's title. It's all about engaging in the titular pleasurable activity, and doing it in various "creative" ways. Unlike the first Sex, there is only one girl in Sex 2: Ayaka, the cute flower-raising character from Satyr, another game by the same company.
Comments are excessive.
2. Tsukikomori 晦 [960301] Banpresto
A follow-up of sorts to Gakkou de atta Kowai Hanashi. The protagonist (default name Yoko Maeda) is currently not in school due to spring break. Her grandmother's seventh death anniversary (a uniquely eastern custom which is celebrated on the day of an individual's passing) has come, and several members of the family have gathered. In observance of the day, six of the family members each tell a different horror story. In addition, there is also an introductory scenario which can change based upon choices selected.
Not hookable so did not even try it.
3. Ginga Ojou-sama Densetsu Yuna FX ~Kanashimi no Siren~ 銀河お嬢様伝説ユナＦＸ ～哀しみのセイレーン～ [960308] Hudson Soft 1 2 3 4
The third game in the Galaxy Fräulein Yuna series, Kanashimi no Sirene picks up where the last game ended. After having successfully saved the Earth, Yuna and her new friend, the ever-hungry female android Yuri Cube, return to their normal high school life - or so they think. Because her old enemies will do anything to destroy her, including wrongly accusing her of world domination plans. This draws the attention of a highly ranked female intelligence officer of the Galaxy Alliance, who operated under codename "Sirene" and who pretends to be an exchange student in the Shiraokadai High School, while her true goal is to arrest Yuna...
Luckily there is a good English review
4. Merry Go Round メリーゴーランド [960308] Mischief 1 2 3
Merry Go Round is set in Yokohama, in year 2197. The city has turned into an international megalopolis, where crime prospers, and where justice is pursued by lone vigilante fighters. The hero of the story is a private detective named Brian. The first case is about an assault on a prostitute in the brothel "John Wayne". Further investigation reveals that the assault is connected to other cases, some of which involve dangerous biological experiments. With the help of the policewoman Akane, the bounty hunter Ridley, and others, Brian begins to gradually see the whole picture...
There are two English reviews including mine.
5. Night Slave ナイト・スレイブ [960308] Melody 1 2 3 4 5 6
A terrorist organization known as Slave Dog poses a threat to the entire world. Steel Fox is the name of an all-female special squad, highly trained in counter-terrorist combat. Assisting them is the independent, state-unbound corporation Neo Logic, which produces assault suits -basically giant robots with their own heavy weaponry, which can be navigated by a skillful pilot. The young female pilot Rei from the Steel Fox is sent on a decisive mission, codenamed "Night Slave" - an assault on the terrorist base.
Game has multiple English reviews.
6. Mahou Shoujo B-ko 魔法少女B子 [960315] Scoop 1 2
B-Ko is a princess from a magical dimension, who is having a vacation on the earth, masquerading as a student in the Catholic St. Rapahel High School. This peaceful (and pleasant) time-passing ends when the evil witch Saprinu appears in our dimension and attacks B-Ko. Saprinu's demonic plan is to steal precious energy from female virgins. Now it's time for B-Ko's faithful servant, a young man known as Alpha, to "intercept" the poor virgins (using his own methods), before they fall prey to Saprinu...
There is an English review.
7. Mujintou Monogatari 3 - A.D. 1999 Tokyo 無人島物語３ Ａ．Ｄ．１９９９ ＴＯＫＹＯ [960315] KSS Inc. 1
Mujintō Monogatari 3: A.D.1999 Tokyo is similar in concept to the two previous entries in the series, being a "survival life" simulation game. However, its setting is quite different: rather than getting stranded on a deserted tropical island, the protagonist travels in subway when a terrible earthquake occurs. Climbing out of the underground tunnels, the hero discovers, to his horror, that Tokyo has been nearly destroyed and deserted. Teaming up with other survivors, the protagonist has to explore the ruins and stay alive.
The masterpiece of the series trilogy. The game does not disappoint its fans as gameplay part got even more difficult. Shifting events from generic some island to post-apocalyptic Tokyo created much more opportunities for story development and heroes empathy. It's a long, serious and eventful game aimed at hardcore players.
8. Wedding Peach ウェディングピーチ [960315] KSS Inc. 1 2
Story based on anime series depicts the battle with the devils. There is an interactive adventure part and card battles with the opponents.
Another obscure all-age anime spin-off.
9. Banana Club Mania バナナ倶楽部まにあ [960316] Xing Entertainment
During Christmas, a virgin guy got a free ticket to the Banana Club. Once there, he can choose from 3 girls for custom play with him. Depending on how he plays, the girls might become his steady girlfriend.
Nothing elaborate.
10. Chrome Paradise クロムパラダイス 銀白色の楽園 [960319] Acid Plan
Space colony 30th century. High school student Shin Kanzaki has to pay for studies himself and he's constantly looking for well-paying part-time jobs. He applies to participate in experimental colony simulation program that simulates the life in the second half on 20th century. What a shock - there people have to carry their luggage themselves! And the hero becomes the delivery boy.
Just from the setting you can guess what this game is going to be. Developing such a complex setting just to show everyday life and quite forget everything about the space stuff. The whole game is like that. 70% of it are gags that have zero meaning for the story. So there are 6 transport companies and we deliver stuff with occasional events on the way. There are girls from each of the company and to gain their attention you need first to work hard for the said company... The number of sub-characters in this game is among the highest. So if you can't stand coherent stories and just love to meet dozens of weird people while making deliveries and waste time on not funny gags then you're in the 0,0000001% of humankind and this game is just for you.
11. Liena Crystal - Adventure of Liena リィナ☆クリスタル [960322] Colossus
Europe, 1895. Heroine Lina and Pes were on the way back home from the spring festival when a strong light hit both of them. Pes became a dog and Lina became a futanari. Shall they succeed in getting back to original form?
Keenetic novel focusing on humor. This work hardly makes it to two hours, maybe for a slow reader. This is one of the litmus works that marked the transition from high and moderate difficulty to extremely easy relaxation ones. 1996 year was the time when moe games came to fashion and this work is seen as an odd one out and it was a brave move. In the end it's a fun little story with vivid sub-characters and the only drawback of volume.
12. Shinpi no Sekai El-Hazard 神秘の世界エルハザード [960322] TamTam Co., Ltd. 1 2 3 4
Hi, I'm Makoto Mizuhara, a normal High School Student from Shinonome High School. I've been working on a special science project for the upcoming annual school festival! It's a device that supposedly can transfer living matter through a dimensional gate... sorry, not that you'd probably understand what that means! I built it based on a theory I read, and I hoped it could move other people through time and space!
The night before the festival, I completed the machine and took it for a test run. Very excited, I hoped for any kind of sign that the machine was going to perform the experiment correctly (I've tried this three times already). What I got was something I did not expect at all... I saw... a woman?
Game is localized and has English reviews.
13. Sotsugyou Ryokou 卒業旅行 [960322] Apollon Create
A guy went on a graduation trip to a ski resort with three of his friends. Once there, he has four quick days to chase after 7 girls and 1 guy.
3 nights and 4 days are given to win someone's heart. There's some comedy and decision making in first part and the chosen person H events in the second part. For me game's mostly notable for an ability to pursue a guy - that does not make the game yaoi since it's of totally normal style, but places a landmine.
14. Akai Suishou no Hitomi 赤い水晶の瞳 [960329] Fairy Dust
Hero is a detective, but he has so few requests that his main occupation is a part time work at sports accessories store. In a gym equipment room he discovers a hanging mummified corpse. According to victim's older sister Makoto, her brother was alive just a while ago. Together with Makoto you are to discover the truth behind this suspicious case.
Quite a light ADV detective work more about girls than about mystery. Hero investigates hand by hand with a partner girl and it's possible to choose between two assistant girls. There are many other girls on the way as well. There's also strong NTR presence.
15. Horror Tour ホラーツアー [960329] OCC 1 2 3 4
"Dare You Match Wits With the King of Demons?<
IN A MURKY CASTLE, IN A HIDDEN WOOD, A HOST OF DIABOLICAL MYSTERY AWAITS YOU.
Long ago, Rodvydel Castle fell into the evil grasp of Zeddas, who worked his foul spells upon the place to hide it from mortal eyes. Now you must walk these same haunted halls, trying to undo the harm this demon has wrought. Can you restore the castle? You must pit your own cunning against the fiend's treachery to unravel the sinister mysteries of this place.
But beware - the King of Demons keeps a warm place ready for those who would meddle in his affairs!
ABANDON HOPE, ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE!
EXPLORE the labyrinthine corridors of the woeful castle DISCOVER clues to the whereabouts of keys and other mystical items that can help you in your quest SOLVE the nefarious obstacles created by Zeddas to foil would-be heroes SEE this interactive tale of horror unfold before your eyes in QuickTime movies and fully-rendered 3D graphics HEAR the eerie CD-quality music and sound effects that set the mood for this haunting adventure. FEEL the dread only Zeddas can inspire!"
There are multiple English reviews.
There aren't masterpieces this month. My personal favorite is San Shimai due to it being my first visual novel, but I rate DIES IRAE even higher and nominate it for VN of the Month.
1. Exciting Milk Dai 1 Wa エキサイティングみるく第１話 [960201] Silence
22nd century.
Humanity is prospering through the expansion of the Earth's development, but natural destruction has also become extreme.
One day Amon, a scientist who opposed the destruction of nature, decided to return to the Earth 150 years earlier via time machine and protect nature. Police opposed that as it could bring unknown changes and followed Amon.
In the 20th century school girl Kurumi heard from a classmate that an aircraft landed in the forest and went alone to the forest out of curiosity.
Milk is a police officer from future who landed in the forest colliding with Kurumi. As a result of the collision Kurumi body was seriously hurt and her soul was placed into Milk body until full recovery.
Now Kurumi transforms to Milk at wilk and back by wearing glasses. Will she find Amon?
Game's fully animated as other Silence works. But it's even shorter than previous animated games barely exceeding 10 minutes time. There's just one fighting scene and it all ends with Amon coming to Kurumi class as transfer student. Looking forward to part 2.
2. Angel Crysis エンジェルクライシス [960209] ZyX 1
You're part of an all female crew on a ship exploring some planet and the crew picks up a mysterious cargo crate from an underwater ruin.
There's an English review that tells us all that we need to know about this borderline work. And there was exactly a tentacle monster in the crate...
3. Guernica ゲルニカ [960209] Backspin 1 2 3
Long time ago, human passions caused the appearance of a monster tribe that has since become unwelcome in the human society. Years of bitter antagonism and violence followed as humans settled in the land of Galesnia. A thousand years later, a simple warrior named Grog enters a forest inhabited by monsters, and becomes gradually involved in a struggle that puts him in the forefront of the defense of Galesnia.
Fish shop holder to the rescue of the world! The guy was sleeping peacefully when at night the "Apostle of Salvation" child appeared before him saying that the barrier started to weaken and will be destroyed in 13 days and only Grog can prevent that! Quite a simple rpg with only 13 lvls and basic stats. You can hold up to 10 recovery items and you get one every time you visit an inn or hitting a bed. Game is linear. So it's not the brightest species of RPG breed.
4. Persona ~Ingyaku no Kamen~ ペルソナ ～淫虐の仮面～ [960209] Sorciere 1
A series of gruesome murders shocks Japan. Young women are kidnapped, tortured, and killed under mysterious circumstances...
The protagonist wakes up in what looks like a hospital, but is in fact a special psychiatric facility on a space station. The hero doesn't remember anything, not even his name. Three young women - Shelly, Elisa, and Aoka - will help him to find his memory, and he will gradually realize who he is and what is his mission.
You need to regain your memory within 38 hours or the space station explodes. What's the best way to regain memories? I guess Japanese have their unique opinion on that. There are parameters of the hero and depending on numbers one of five protagonist personalities show up. Yes, he has a deep personality disorder and can be anything from a good guy to a sadist. Time also ticking so it's a nice rush factor. There are basically just three rooms on the spaceship. So it's an original system and is not necessarily an eroge if you play out as a good guy and aim for the happy ending that does not even have a H-scene.
5. Valentine Kiss: Birthdays 2 バレンタインキッス ～バースデイズ２～ [960209] Silky's 1
Valentine Kiss is a dating simulation game, very similar to Birthdays, only instead of "conquering" a girl as a birthday present, the goal here is to "score" on Valentine's Day
Second installation of a difficult sim that's memorable to me mostly by the fact that it's Silky's game and not a full-scale eroge. UI is still charming but it came from the prequel with minor changes. Quite few things changed actually and some even degenerated like the number of heroines dropped from 8 to 4. Main difference though is that while prequel was just hard everyday work to earn love, this work has events in ADV mode and all your hard work is useless unless you flag events properly. Still the freshness is lost since it has been two years since the prequel and not much changed.
6. DIES IRAE DIES IRAE [960215] Family Soft 1 2
Heroines Kim and her side partners Kris and Lee are professional detectives and they have very opposite personalities. Kim on one hand is very cheerful and lively all the time, Kris is very serious and quiet. They are investigating a murder case that ends up being a much bigger issue, revolving gang members, the mafia and later on some sci-fi elements.
There's a nice English review that sheds light on this curious game.
7. Kanako 香奈子 [960223] Red Zone 1
Kanako is a young woman who has just graduated from college and is in a desperate need of a job. Finally, she is invited to a job interview in a large and successful company. However, the boss seems to ask too many personal questions and generally looks at Kanako in a weird way. After she has been introduced to her duties at the new place, Kanako decides to get to know the employees better, and in process learns their most intimate secrets...
Red Zone inevitably means ero-centered work. But graphics are nice and win version is fully voiced, even the thoughts of the heroine - that was unexpected and captivating. Her thoughts is the most funny part in the game as she comments emotionally on many occasions.
8. Magical Girl Pretty Sammy Kouhen 魔法少女プリティサミー 後編 [960223] AIC Spirits
Game includes two remaining episodes:
Episode 3. Friends
Episode 4. Leave it to Sammy! A direct continuation of the first part, but not hookable
9. Shadowrun シャドウラン [960223] Compile Co., Ltd. 1 2 3 4 5 6
It is twenty-first century, and the humanity faces a difficult period that follows devastating wars and other disasters. Magic and technology co-exist, supernatural powers, mythical creatures, ghosts, cyberspace, where hackers meet and fight each other, street deckers which can be hired to do the dirty work, anarchy and struggle between mighty and corrupt corporations - this is the world of Shadowrun. Unlike the two other Shadowrun games which are set in Seattle, according to tradition, Shadowrun for Sega CD is set in the futuristic city of Neo Tokyo. The player controls a party of characters with different backgrounds: the street samurai Rikudo, the shaman girl Mao, the decker (a hired mercenary) D-Head (who also happens to be an elf), and Shiun, a former member of a mighty corporation. Their first assignment is to hunt down a ghostly warrior who has been disturbing a segment of the city for quite some time. As the player begins their investigation they plunge deeper into the dark world of intrigues and find themselves fighting on different fronts.
There are several great English reviews and there even might be a fan English translation according to some materials.
10. Escape! エスケイプ! [960229] May-Be Soft 1
In Escape, the player assumes the role of an ordinary teenager named Root. He is returning from a long journey, and just beyond the mountain, he can see his house. But fate had other plans for the boy: one step on the wrong stone, and Root falls through a dark pit into the underground world. Looks like it won't be simple for him to find the way home, because this world is populated by girls, each one of which wants something from him...
I've only seen Windows version and it's very simplified and plays like a normal visual novel with only occasionally choosing locations on the map. Characters are nice, but the story lacks excitement and all the time is spent underground. A fine game, but far from masterpiece level.
11. Kara no Naka no Kotori 殻の中の小鳥 [960229] Black Package 1
Foster, formerly a trainer of high-class prostitutes for a secret political group that used these girls to exert power over politicians, has has long been out of the game, as he and his cohorts were busted years back. However, Foster couldn't help himself and soon returned to his old profession. He began training new maidens, though this time with a distinctly evil bent, drawing the recruits into a sordid ring of discipline and bondage.
Maid slave training SIM. Main difference is that training is done in the form of a card game in an attempt to simplify SIM part.
12. San Shimai 三姉妹 [960229] JAST 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
The one that started it all! I was just a boy when my father threw himself under the tracks of an oncoming train on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo. He had been the president of a powerful trading company, but had been under siege by an enemy in a power struggle that I didn't understand at the time. With my father gone, it fell upon my mother to lead the family and try to pay off Father's debts. She wasn't up to the task, and was buried next to my father less than a year later. My older brother Eiichi and I were separated, then, passed around the family like unwanted guests. We had lost everything.
Last summer Eiichi appeared again on my doorstep. He had prospered in the years since I'd seen him, and had built a successful trading company. "Koichi," he said to me, "I found out who was responsible for our father's death: the current head of father's old company, Shoji Okamura."
When he asked me, "Will you help me avenge mother and father?" I agreed immediately.
So I became his hatchet man. My job was to approach the Okamura family, especially the three Okamura sisters -- sexy, grown-up Yuki, short-tempered but sensitive Emi and the innocent Risa -- and gather information on the Okamuras for my brother. After six months, I had gotten to where I was eating dinner at their house regularly. This allowed me to bug Shoji's office take documents out of his trash, and copy files off his computer. I reported everything to my brother faithfully.
I was never sure if the information I was providing was doing any good, but gradually, it became apparent that Shoji Okamura's business was failing. He grew more and more desperate, and one day he disappeared completely. The happiness of the Okamura family, who had taken so much from us, had been stolen piece by piece. My brother swore he wouldn't stop until Shoji Okamura was driven to the point of taking his own life, even if it meant pushing the Three Sisters into lives of prostitution and worse.
The only problem is, I had fallen in love with those same three sisters...
Game has many English reviews
There are no masterpieces this month. I would not like to nominate bakage a winner and I have a bad aftertaste from Start Trap and Shizuku, so VN of January 1996 is Ryuuki Denshou Dragoon
1. Bind ~Kinbaku Jinmon Densetsu~ Bind ～緊縛尋問伝説～ [960112] Outou Shobou In Side 1
The content of the game can be easily deduced from its title ("Kinbaku Jinmon Densetsu" means the legend of bondage interrogation). The game contains three "episodes", unrelated to each other story-wise. The first one is set in medieval times and tells about the adventures of two female treasure hunters in an ancient tomb; the second begins with two young girls being kidnapped by a mysterious secret society; the third deals with three school girls being assaulted by a thief.
Ero-centered omnibus collection with bondage as theme.
2. Yaku ~Yuujou Dangi~ 厄 ～友情談疑～ [960113] Idea Factory Co., Ltd. 1 2 3
Five adults return to the elementary school they attended as children only to find that it has been closed up. They trespass into the closed-down building in order to dig up a time capsule they had buried at its courtyard. However, this turns out to be a mistake as bizarre monsters are waiting inside. There are five scenarios available, each one telling a different character's story, but only the protagonist's story is initially available.
It's actually close to a "sound novel", but it was released for ps1 so the volume is bigger than usual. There are couple European languages articles that show the glimpse of this weird weird horror game.
3. Reijuu - Twin Road 麗獣 ツインロード [960119] Apple Pie 1 2
The town of Jester is located near a spring, which is used both by humans from the town and the beast people from their forest village. For years, the two races co-existed in peace. But one day, somebody sets the Jester tavern on fire. The authorities arrest a young beast girl who happened to be in the town at that time. Outraged by the injustice, a young orphan boy named Kein, who was raised by Tyrone, one of the town knights, convinces him to help the girl escape. But that act draws the ire of the town authorities, and the heroes realize that they have to flee...
Some genre experiment here since it's more tactical than usual SRPG, but also definitely not a full strategy or rpg.
4. Snow Memory スノーメモリー [960123] Birdy Soft
Four girls pass the casting to work in a Western mansion. You choose one of the girls and watch the forecoming events from her point of view.
We know it well that even at the time of Cal 3 the staff of Birdy Soft left the company and the director had to hastily finish it himself. And Snow Memory comes years after that as an attempt to play on the brand name. Game's more than average with lots of fanservice and unnatural looking art.
5. Ryuuki Denshou Dragoon 竜機伝承 －ドラグーン－ [960126] KSS Inc. 1
Gods created humans in a paradise-like world. But as time passed they started to hate each other and fight among themselves. Gods sent a blue start that turned into a blue dragon on the ground. For three days and nights the dragon was burning out everything with a cleansing fire. As the flames disappeared, a huge lake was born. Dragon entered the lake with the words "I shall raise again when foolish struggle arises anew". However, as time passed, this dreadful event erased little by little from human memory.
North-East frontier, Northon. Young soldier Cedy meets a mysterious girl Miu and decides to help her get to her hometown on the other side of the world.
At the same time stripping the barriers of time Gods make their move again...
It's a SRPG with only event battles. First part is particularly difficult with the constant demand of restoration magic. Dangerous events happen one by one and we constantly need to escape so pace is good. In the second part the party gets scattered and our primary goal is to find Miu... but we kinda only find other party members and as the war with the empire breaks out Miu gets totally abandoned. Another inconsistency is that the empire villain minister after defeat jumps out with the cries "I've actually come from the future and I've half of my body mechanically modified!" and it was a pure magic fantasy world this far. Another irritating aspect is the inventory menu as first it's needed to pick an item from the full list of garments and then try to apply it to a character only to find out that it won't suit him. So it's a good game with a nice epic story, but some elements of it leave a sour aftertaste.
6. Shizuku 雫 [960126] Leaf 1 2 3 4
When one of his classmates suddenly goes mad in the middle of the class, the protagonists uncle, one of the teachers in the school asks him to investigate this matter after school. He starts the investigation with the help of one of the girls from his class, an investigation that will lead them to many horrors...
With my review there are three English reviews.
7. Star Trap スタートラップ [960126] Fairy Dust 1
A space ship was sent to the planet Neptune, to investigate strange disturbances spotted on the planet's surface. Some time later, the nearest space station picked up a SOS signal from the ship. An agent named Takuya, in command of an elite team of female fighters, is sent to Neptune. But their ship crashes, and Takuya must fight for his life and the lives of the girls, which are threatened by Neptune's fearsome monsters.
Alternative version of ancient Cream Lemon - Start Trap back in 1986. Game's short hardly reaching 2 hours. There are two routes, but routes are mainly made to distinguish between H events. The number of endings is 5, there is an ending for each of two girls and some neutral ones. So there's hardly a story, but at least it has the craziness of 80s games and beautiful CG.
8. Time Stripper Mako-chan タイムストリッパー真子ちゃん [960126] Foster 1 2 3 4 5 6
You play the character Shinji Nakayama a high school student who has a bad reputation of cheating on his girlfriend, Michiyo Sakagami.
The story starts when your "habit" is eventually found out (again) by your girlfriend, of which you start to fight and end up breaking up. In the middle of your 'sobbing', a girl pops up out of nowhere in your room. It appears she's from the future, with personal reasons that has to do with your present love-life situation. After that, the story is in your hands...
Game is localized and has many English reviews.
9. Yume no Sei 夢の精 [960126] 13cm 1
A collection of three stories.
1.『ONE』is about main character sneaking into the dressing room of cat ear idols.
2.『ミンキーキャット』is an abduction story.
3.『ミッションエイジ』is an RPG game to infiltrate enemy hideout and rescue a girl
Stories differ in styles greatly, but are all short erotic stories that are possible to click through in just 10 minutes.
10. Ningyo -Tsutako- 人魚－蘿子－ [96] Alicesoft
A boy and a girl run away with a mysterious stone and hide in a cave. But pursuers are nearby already.
Game was shipped only for subscription fans and thus is obscure. PC-98 version is not hookable, so I won't be presenting the synopsis. Game is all HCG fest after first couple normal CG.
1995 did not bring as many masterpieces as previous years while increasing the total number of visual novels significantly
First of all, let's prolong the chart
VN per year
Year
Total
1991
75
1992
80
1993
121
1994
155
1995
180
There's been a steady increase in total number VNs by 16% compared to year 1994.
The aftertaste is bitter as if I witness an overall decline in quality.
So let's see what year 1995 brought:
The number of VNs with high difficulties and genre mixes increased steeply
Command selection gets almost extinct being substituted with either point and click or ADV
Moe first focused on in Classmates 2 started its victorious march through the time
Conception of time showed up in several games at once after success of Classmates 1 and 2
First Windows VN - Sinkha
Let's count the masterpiece level games of 1995:
1. Bunny Hunter Zero
2. Eve: Burst Error
3. Isaku
4. Kuro no Danshou: The Literary Fragment
5. Lilith
6. Mime
7. Mugen Yasoukyoku
8. Ryouki no Ori
9. Romance wa Tsurugi no Kagayaki - The Last Crusader-
10. Tokyo Twilight Busters ~Kindan no Ikenie Teito Jigokuhen~
11. True Love ~Jun'ai Monogatari~
12. Youjuu Senki 2 -Reimei no Senshi-tachi-
Just twelve works? That's a definite decline from 1994. Eve: Burst Error is an unbeatable giant this year. It is the best known old game that has not lost a grain of its charm to our days. It has all the rights to be the VN of the Year 1995.
Oh, and some final words. The era of pc-98 is actually almost gone. Year 1996 will the transition one and 1997 will have only some leftover slowpokes on pc-98 systems. So let's say thanks to the magnificent beautiful world of pc-98 and dive into... very crude and ugly works of beginning of windows era...
Surprisingly poor for masterpieces December, so my grey horse Lilith is the winner this time.
1. Houkago wa Betsu no Kao 放課後は別の顔 [951201] Ucom
A collection of four short stories featuring sexual experiences of school girls:
1. 「通学電車」
2. 「先輩・・・・・・」 3. 「進路指導」 4. 「非行少女」
A distinguishing feature of the work is the presence of narrator girl who also appears in the stories. But overall it's a very specialized content.
2. Momoko-chan for Me ももこちゃんfor Me [951201] Ume Soft 1 2
Momoko-chan for Me: Minarai Kangofu-hen is a visual novel focusing on a young male aspiring physician, the son of a famous doctor who has left on a vacation and entrusted the son with the management of certain hospital-related affairs. The game focuses exclusively on the relationship between the protagonist and a nurse-in-training named Momoko.
Remastered version heroines look much cuter. The difficulty of the game is high since there are over 10 endings - most of them depend on ecstasy level between the characters.
3. Moonlight Energy 2 ムーンライトエナジー２ [951201] Interheart 1
Moonlight Energy 2 is a sequel to Moon Light Enegy. The game's premise is nearly identical to that of the predecessor: the player controls a high school student named Maki, participating in her lesbian escapades with other students or personnel.
The infamous les chikan is back. So it's a normal Interheart work with many H events.
4. Rance 4.1 ~Okusuri Koujou o Sukue!~ ランス４．１ ～お薬工場を救え！～ [951201] Alice Soft 1 2 3
This is a side-story in Rance series, released shortly after the fourth game, but dedicated to an entirely different quest. All kinds of troubles are happening to a factory where a new Happiness Medicine is being developed. The mercenary Rance is hired by the manager to investigate the source of these troubles. First task: clear the factory of the monsters...
4.1 looks more like introduction to more longer 4.2. Battle system is simplified and few known heroines take part here. The quality is very good for a bonus game given away for free.
5. Reverse リバース [951201] Gloria
Takumi died in a traffic accident when he was young, but his spirit continued to live in his fraternal twin and gained ability to read other peoples hearts. Using that ability he helps people around him to solve their problems.
It's really difficult to comprehend what's going on on the screen since Takumi and his twin change spots all the time. The contents is quite dull and sad.
6. Super Erect Taisen S・EX スーパーエレクト大戦Ｓ・ＥＸ [951201] Dynamic Production
Hero was watching a pop idol live performance when the skies tore apart and idols got sucked inside the demon-faced black whirlwind together with his favorite Ichigo-chan. After than an angel descended from the skies and offered cooperation to defeat demon king and return the girls.
Each enemy turn takes so much time that I did not have enough patience to wait.
7. Ace of Spades Ace of Spades [951207] Love Gun 1 2
Ace of Spades is a casino game with a gruesome twist. The player competes against female opponents in poker or blackjack; every victory leads to an explicit scene of sexual torture. The main mode includes a series of matches and subsequent sadistic scenes against various women.
A primitive stripping card game.
8. Custom Mate 3 カスタムメイト3 [951208] Cocktail Soft 1 2 3
It's Christmas. Hayashi Ryuusuke is walking through the crowded city, feeling sad that he is alone on such a day. Suddenly, he spots a neon sign: Custom Mate. He enters and sees a strange receptionist with elf-like ears and a magic symbol on the forehead. She creates the girl of his dreams and they get married! But this is just the beginning, and Ryuusuke realizes that marriage is not all about the honeymoon...
After the honeymoon, the couple returns to daily routine. The player can make daily or monthly schedule. The wife's behavior is determined by character creation, but also by the choices the player makes. The wife would often ask questions, make suggestions, etc.; the player's reaction determines future interactions and the overall development of the relationship. The couple has various parameters, from love level to monetary wealth.
First two parts were blocked as eroge, but this one is much more "fun". There's a good thorough mechanics English review.
9. Magical Girl Pretty Sammy Zenpen 魔法少女プリティサミー 前編 [951208] AIC Spirits
Mahō Shōjo Pretty Sammy: Part 1 - In the Earth is based on Magical Girl Pretty Sammy (魔法少女プリティサミー) anime TV series which focus on magically transformed Sasami character from Tenchi Muyo! universe. This is a visual novel featuring Sasami as the protagonist. For reasons unknown, she has been chosen as a champion by Tsunami, the next queen of Juraihelm, to fight in her name. But there are people bent on seeing Sasami fail in her endeavors and her tasks will soon prove much more challenging as she fights her way with Misao, her best friend who was chosen as a magical girl by Tsunami's opponent, Ramia.
Anime was pretty popular since there are at least four different visual novels about Pretty Sammy. Game is issued with CG for PC-9821 consoles and thus is not well known.
10. Miwaku no Chousho 魅惑の調書 [951208] Black Package 1
The protagonist, a young man named Shinnosuke, discovers a beautiful mansion, in which apparently a large-scale party is taking place. Determined to meet and enchant some beautiful women, he ventures into the mansion.
The core of the game is nanpa, but atmosphere and girls are luxurious. The pictures using the full screen contribute to its charm. But don't expect much plot here as after targeting three women an ending happens. To get the rest a new game is needed.
11. Never Land Never Land ～ネバーランド～ [951208] Tips 1
You are Jimmy, a child of Never Land which is an island of magic and fantasy. You are always accompanied by May ,a small nymph, and you can fly in the air. Never Land is a world of children who can dream.
One day a boss of pirates gets a magic wand that has power to transform anything. You set out to restore status quo.
There's an English review that gives a rough outline of what to expect.
12. Rance 4.2 ~Angelgumi~ ランス４．２ ～エンジェル組～ [951208] Alice Soft 1 2 3
Rance 4.2: Angel-gumi is the second part of the story that began in Rance 4.1: O-Kusuri Koujou o Sukue! rather than an all-new Rance adventure. The hero continues to investigate the weird occurrences connected to the Happiness Medicine Factory. Since the story picks up directly where it ended in the sequel, Rance begins his adventure already commanding an all-female squad called the Angel Team.
There is an English review.
13. Toushin Toshi 2 - Soshite, Sorekara... 闘神都市II そして、それから・・・ [951208] Alice Soft
Returning from the goddess tournament, Sid is reduced to level 1 by the Demon King. His dojo sent him to a training journey, but Hazuki was so worried about him that she followed Sid and got into trouble herself.
A kinetic novel with rare pictures - mostly it's just clicking through walls of text. Since hero is weak again there is little excitement. But the story is good and well worth reading for the fans of the original game or if there is sympathy to Hazuki.
14. 2 Shot Diary 2 ツーショットDiary2 [951209] Mink 1
This is the first of the four episodic games that constitute the sequel to first 2 Shot Diary game. Unlike the first game with its 12 different scenarios, it only contains 2, and both are very short; however (also unlike the first game), most of the scenes here are animated. Both scenarios consist entirely of depictions of explicit sex.
One of the scenarios is about a girl named Yukari; after her father died, she had to look for a job, and finally became a maid in a mansion of a rich oligarch, who molests her sexually.
The other scenario is dedicated to a very young girl named Emi, who goes with her friends to the beach. Once she finds herself in a secluded place, a young boy approaches, and the two have sex.
Ero-centered short work.
15. Hiiro no Shimai 緋色の姉妹 [951215] Apollon Create 1
The protagonist of the game is a college student named Shunsuke. His mother died when he was five years old. Now his father is marrying again. He and his new wife have departed on a honeymoon; while he is waiting for them to come home, Shunsuke discovers that he doesn't live alone any more: three young sisters of his stepmother have moved in. Shunsuke now tries to get to know them better (in every possible way..), at the same time gradually discovering dark secrets about his father's intimate life.
Command selection hurts the pace a lot. There are several branches, but all the sisters turn out to be M and their stories aren't that different. Characters are quite cute, though.
16. Kekkon Marriage 結婚Marriage [951215] Westone 1
Shizuka, Mika, Kiyomi, Reiko and Mami are all grown up and have one thing on their mind: finding the ultimate husband! From the workplace to automated dating services, there's wedding bells to be heard and love to be acted on, all for the ultimate goal: marriage! With biological clocks ticking and youth slipping away, these girls will do whatever it takes to snag a man, love or not!
A dating SIM with 5 girl candidates. There are some parameters used. The flow is talking - telephone talk - date - proposal - engagement - marriage.
17. Lilith リリス [951216] Four-Nine 1
An intense night battle between kunoichi clan leader and evil biblical spirit Lilith ends with kunoichi falling into coma state.
A cat gets into an ordinary student Koketsu room, transforms into a girl and claims that Koketsu got her master kunoichi spirit and must help her master and defeat Lilith. The problem is that nothing is known about Lilith but the name and together they set to uncover its secrets.
I have a full review prepared.
18. Clone Doll Kagai Jugyou クローンドール 課外授業 [951221] Space Project 1 2
In Clone Doll, the protagonist is a rather "geeky" teenager who is actually a genius: he invented a machine that can make clones of human beings! After he gets a hold on a few hairs that belong to Kimika, his schoolmate and object of his passionate desires, the young scientist creates a clone of her, a young girl who has no other knowledge and wishes but satisfy the hero sexually...
There is an English review of the game. And Space Project confirms his fame as kusoge creator.
19. Fermion ~Mirai kara no Houmonsha~ フェルミオン ～未来からの訪問者～ [951222] Silky's 1 2 3
In the year 2296, world-wide pollution has led to drastic changes in the natural order of things. Human organism, unable to withstand the pollution, was slowly mutating. In the huge city Megalopolis, a group of young female scientists designed a time machine. One of them, a blue-haired girl named Connie, who can mutate into a cat, is sent to the past, to year 1996, to find a way to change the future...
I have a full review prepared.
20. Getsumen no Anubis 月面のアヌビス [951222] Multimedia Intelligence Transfer 1
The protagonist (default name Keisuke) and heroine (default name Kaori) are astronauts living in a laboratory set on the moon. A group of American soldiers are also stationed there. Mysterious incidents begin to occur that threaten the lives of everyone there - there are multiple scenarios, but only one is explicitly horror-themed. Said scenario involves a race of mysterious space parasites that can take possession of anyone, leading the protagonist (and thus the player) to grow distrustful of the other characters.
Yet another NVL "sound novel". Short and horror one, of course.
21. Idol Project 2 アイドル・プロジェクト2 [951222] KSS Inc. 1
Unlike the first Idol Project, the story of the sequel is directly related to to the anime series Idol Project, starring the same characters, with the young and ambitious Mimu Emilton as the protagonist. Mimu finds herself on a tropical island, where she must rise to fame by winning contests and promoting her singing skills. Like in the previous game, the majority of gameplay is dedicated to exploring the top-down city, visiting various places, searching for necessary people and raising the protagonist's parameters. Mimu has a much more detailed set of parameters than the hero of the previous game, including physical attributes as well as popularity rankings. The RPG element has been further enhanced by introducing random character (crazed fans and alike) who would sometimes attack Mimu on the city map and other locations.
Now is an ADV with a lot of town exploration. Still the use of parameters alienated me.
22. Ikazuchi no Senshi Raidy 2 雷の戦士ライディ２ [951222] ZyX 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
"Ugh... desert travel is terrible on the skin, let me tell you!
Why did I ever choose to come this way... If I don't find water soon it's going to be troublesome.
Wait, what's that in the distance - an oasis?! And a town next to it! Civilization at last..." I am Raidy, wandering the continent of Else as a swordfighter. I can freely bend the power of thunder to my will, so people have taken to calling me the "Lightning Warrior". I'm traveling far and wide to improve my fighting skills and search for clues about my past, and my mysterious power over lightning.
After defeating the monsters in the Cubust tower in my last adventure, I left the village of Sadd behind and continued on my journey. My travels have taken me across the desert to the oasis town of Lake Blue. Looking forward to a break after the long and dusty journey, I settled in for the night at the local inn... only to have its peace shattered by the cries of the young, beautiful innkeeper!
I rescued her from her mysterious assailant, to learn that the town was living under constant fear of attack from a gang of marauding bandits led by a cruel woman called Jammy. It seems my vacation won't be so uneventful after all! I set out to find information on the gang's hideout, and a new adventure begins...
Game's localized and has several English reviews.
23. Meisou Toshi 迷走都市 [951222] Tiare 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Runaway City tells the story of Hiroaki, a boy with a mysterious power of Good Luck. It's almost as it some power makes women do whatever he wants. At first it's a great power to have, then as time goes by it scares him more and more. Unchecked, this power will be the destruction of all Japan. Can you find out the nature of your power and find a way to stop it before it goes too far?
Game's one of the first localized ones and has many English reviews.
24. Mesuneko Hishoshitsu 牝猫秘書室 [951222] Melody 1 2
Kurou works in a company that specializes in "headhunting", finding and recruiting capable employees for big companies. A new client representing a company that has recently concluded a trade with an American software firm needs a new secretary. Problem: the last headhunter who was given a similar request has gone missing. So Kurou's boss wants him to get to the bottom of things, teaming him up with the resourceful and pretty headhuntress Tomoko. Naturally, as the partners begin the investigation, dark erotic secrets of the employees become gradually revealed...
An ero-centered work where you need to chase the same character to get to her ending. Game's notable for all the target characters being mature women.
25. Metamor Panic Doki Doki Youma Busters メタモル・パニック ＤＯＫＩＤＯＫＩ妖魔バスターズ [951222] Family Soft 1
Hero is a high school student who secretly went camping in the mountains with his childhood friend Yuki and cousin Ai. They found a suspicious cave and occasionally lifted the curse laid on demon king. The curse shifted to the two girls with Yuki spontaneously occasionally turning into a kitten and Ai into a parrot. Youkai appear in the city and start rampaging. The three heroes stand up to the demon threat.
This playstation game feels more like an ADV novel with light RPG elements rather than a serious RPG. The start is very harsh and punishing for a player. The second part when you learn to control the transformation is easy, so the balance is not good. Graphics are excellent, but game's only partially voiced. The tempo is slow and bgm quite monotonous. Some affinity to RPG genre is required to enjoy, but game absolutely can be enjoyed.
26. Paradise Call パラダイスコール [951222]
At a place where girls phone in, a guy waits. When a girl calls in, he talks with her. If he respond right, he will meet the girl and have fun. This game is a simpler version of Virtuacall 1.
Very primitive ero-centered game.
27. Viper-V16 [951222] Sogna 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
The final game in the V series and arguably the most recognizable. VIPER-V16 breaks with tradition and provides only two stories, instead of three, but both are longer, more complicated, and contain many more options than the prior V series stories, resembling games more than visual novels for the first time. The widely popular Rise story describes the kidnapping and escape attempt of three waitresses, while the lesser known Imagine tells the story of a young technical college student's attempts to attract the interests of three girls.
Game is localized and has multiple reviews.
28. Virtua Call 2 バーチャコール2 [951222] Fairytale 1
Emily has had a crush on Hasegawa for quite some time. A fellow resident of her building, Hasegawa has always been there for her as a friend, though she would like something more than friendship. When Hasegawa starts confiding his woman troubles to Emily, she introduces him to Virtuacall, a service that lets you interact with the girl of your dreams just as you wish you could. Unfortunately, Hasegawa becomes more interested in Virtuacall than her as a result. On the verge of leaving the country for her homeland, Emily is so overcome by emotion that she can neither tell Hasegawa about her feeling or tell him that she is leaving.
Nampage with outstanding difficulty. You really need to make memos during the talks all the time to get by without guide. Game got more user friendly since the prequel and even cuter girls. It's just too difficult to empathize with the nampage nowadays since the genre feels inferior to galge and there are thousands of galge today.
29. Zakuro no Aji ざくろの味 [951222] Imagineer Co., Ltd. 1
The story is set in a five-story office building on a cold winter evening. The protagonist (default name Domon) is working on a story for a monthly science fiction serial. As he goes to visit the editorial department, a series of earthquakes cause the building to collapse and trap everybody inside. Attempting to find an escape, Domon heads into the basement, and depending upon a decision made early in the game, he may run into anything from zombies to demons.
Yet another sound novel. It's released at the same day as Getsumen no Anubis and has references to it. Short horror story again.
30. Doki Doki Pretty League EX DokiDokiぷりてぃリーグ EX [951223] Xing Entertainment
Ayaka and Remy are members of time police "Chronopolis" in the near future. This time they investigate a case of a professional beauty wrestler of the 20th century who got missing.
Game has nothing to do with tennis this time, but has lots of H content. Several more former members of Doki Doki Pretty League make an appearance here. There are some mini-games available. Original creators of pretty league were absolutely against such game with erotic content. Female wrestling organization condemned this game as well. But the sales were ok, so franchise got resurrected at PS with time.
31. Kousoku Chojin 拘束超人 [951224] Foster 1
Haruki is a student at the prestigious private Morino High School, which he attends together with his beautiful sister, and where he leads the drama class. One day, Haruki discovers a strange toupee that transforms his body. Unbeknownst to him, he has gained special powers and comes into contact with a strange violent world that is hidden inside the school. Now he must understand what's truly going on there, at the same time trying to "score" with every girl he meets - be it student or teacher...
A crazy erotic baka-game. H events happen quite randomly. A cheerful Foster game.
32. Dangel - Special Disk Dangel スペシャルディスク [9512] Mink
Contains a parodying story set in the universe of Dangel, which happens at the same time as when Anduke starts his own adventure.
Game has the same intro as original Dangel, but this Plum hero is a mere parody worried about washing his pants more than saving the world. Text is quite good, but I guess playing through the original needed to appreciate the most of it.
33. Only You -Seikimatsu no Juliette-tachi- Ｏｎｌｙ Ｙｏｕ －世紀末のジュリエット達－ [9512] Alice Soft 1 2 3 4
A Japanese teenager named Hiroki is interested in martial arts, and has to take care of his little sister. Their older brother Yoichi had gone abroad; just when he announced that he was coming back he disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Hiroki and his friends eventually find out that an international supernatural criminal syndicate is in cohorts with an even darker power that is about to bring the apocalypse onto Earth.
Another RPG hybrid. First part is quite an ordinary ADV where you get humiliated over and over till the flame of vengeance embraces you, and the second part is a whirlpool of battles. Pure love is promoted in the game as each of seven girls has their own route with own boss and a happy ending while trying to get several girls brings a not so happy one. There are as many as 4 usual strikes and 4 special actions, but strikes deal random amount of dmg and should only be chosen with caution when fighting flying enemies. Special actions are only available on bosses and when at the same time the apocalypse timer is close to expiration. The game was initially made only for subscription fans and included lots of materials from previous works, but had great acclaim and had to be redone into an alternative version with all the legal issues fixed. So it is probably the first normal game of Alice Soft without dark fetishes. Good riddance!
34. Shikimi 樒 [95] Raisin Land
Two girl classmates stay at school after classes. But they aren't going to study. They are in love with each other and dedicate this time only to themselves.
Doujin school love story quickly turns into SM play.
35. Rinn-chan no Tensei Hakusho ~Meido no Miyagebanashi~ Rinn's転生白書～冥土のみやげばなし～ [95] Wanpaku Family
Rinn-chan is a 14-year-old junior high school student who suddenly dies before confessing to her love interest. At the heavens she meets an angel and three other girls. Angel agrees to return Rinn-chan to the Earth due to unnatural cause of her death. She may choose one of the three girls to reincarnate and confess to her love or choose no one and go back as herself.
Choosing other girls leads to inevitable H-scene and death afterwards. Reincarnating as herself gives H-scene with a better ending.
36. Momoiro Sankaku ~Riko & Hikaru Hen~ もも色さんかく～理子&ひかる篇～ [95] T&H Projects
Riko and Hikaru and normal girls who live normal lives. One attends kendo club, the other is a fan of reading. But one day their wolds coincide in one.
Just another short doujin H-game, this time with horrible quality.
37. Hotaru HO・TA・RU -ほたる- [95] Misono Soft
Hotaru gets molested on the train, but to her surprise the culprit is a man she knows very well.
Yet another unremarkable doujin H-tilt game.
38. Asuka Ayako-chan to Hokenshitsu あすか ～綾子ちゃんと保健室～ [95] B.T.B software
Ayako-chan feels bad at a gym and goes to school's health room right in her sportswear. There she meets her classmate who she likes.
A very short doujin game about a sudden passion of two young people.
39. Tantei Imasato Misa Jikenbo Tanpenshuu: Romance wa Shiroku Kiken na Kaori 探偵今里美沙事件簿 短編集 ロマンスは白く危険な香り [95] Maimai
Tokyo, 1960s. Amateur detective Misa takes up a case in secret from her father detective. It starts as a romance request, but soon plot starts to thicken.
A detective work, so no-no for me
Youjuu Senki 2 -Reimei no Senshi-tachi- and Eve: Burst Error are the masterpieces of the month, but the upper hand is naturally with the legendary Eve: Burst Error
1. Moon Gate ムーンゲート [951102] Fairytale 1
Zion is an adventurer who lives with girl Lina. One day a mysterious person brings him a shining gem and calls it a present to his excellency Zion from his majesty. His best friend Tolland appears from the stone and requests to go to imperial capital and revive the Agarta Empire together. Tolland restores a part of Zion's power, burns down the village to cut off the road back and disappears in a flash.
A rare RTS fiend in visual novel row. Game's not very friendly with emulators not launching on ntkp and eventually hanging on anex.
2. D.P.S. Zenbu D.P.S.全部 [951110] Alice Soft 1 2 3
D.P.S. Zenbu, is, as the name implies, a complete collection of scenarios (total of 15) from all the previous D.P.S./Dream Program System series entries:
D.P.S.
D.P.S. SG
D.P.S. SG Set 2
D.P.S. SG Set 3
Super D.P.S.
No changes have been made to graphics or gameplay in any of the scenarios.
As a bonus, the game also contains the 16th scenario, entitled Megumi's Story. The scenario is non-interactive (the player simply has to press a button to scroll the text) and depicts the first sexual experiences (some of them violent) of an innocent teenage girl.
There is an English review.
3. Hare Nochi Munasawagi 晴れのち胸さわぎ [951110] Cocktail Soft 1 2
The story of Harenochi Munasawagi does not start in a very original way: the protagonist is a high-school boy named Kazuhiko, who is - surprise! - permanently horny, displaying his "affections" at any given opportunity to anyone young and female, including even his childhood friend Chihiro. But while the focus on the story is on Kazuhiko and his quest for physical intimacy (which often results in girls getting angry and beating him up), there are other rather disturbing elements that come into play later - in particular, bunny-like demons who share Kazuhiko's passion for the opposite sex...
There is an English review.
4. Youjuu Senki 2 -Reimei no Senshi-tachi- 妖獣戦記２ -黎明の戦士たち- [951110] D.O. 1
Over 10 months has passed since fierce battle with the beasts. They should have been weakened by A.S.S.P. by now, but a new threat rose again...
Is there a future for mankind?
The battle with the stakes of A.S.S.P. and humankind existence starts now!
The final chapter in the strangebeasts confrontation story. Gameplay-wise it's the most refined in the series with all the irritation factors eliminated. Events happen one after another and story develops in a very severe and tough fashion. Interaction with your subordinates now also brings important implications, they aren't just bio soldiers anymore, they are your battle buddies that followed you to the end of the world. The deployment is realistic and final battle can have a big impact if you got attached to the girls.
5. Eve: Burst Error Eve: Burst Error [951122] C's Ware 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
A Bizarre Serial Murder Mystery. There's A Serial Killer Close By. A Prohibited Psychothriller. The Multi-Sight System Reveals Surprising Truth!
In this game there are two heroes, Kojiroh and Marina, who are each called to solve their own cases. This game allows you to switch characters at any time to solve the mysteries these heroes encounter. This "Multi-Sight Adventure" allows you to view what's happening behind-the-scenes from the other character's perspective, bump into each other, and sometimes even help each other out. Together, they come closer and closer to the shocking truth through their combined actions and skills of deduction.
Marina's Episode: Marina is a national intelligence agent with a 99% success rate. Her new assignment is to protect the daughter of a Japanese embassy official stationed abroad. As you encounter numerous attackers, you become aware of a dangerous government dispute that is the root of all these attacks.
Kojiroh's Episode: A seemingly down-on-his-luck private investigator finally gets a break, as he is hired to locate some mysterious piece of art. Even though he feels a little weird about this case, the pay is huge! Yet he may be drawn into an unexpected nightmare involving a string of bizarre murders.
Probably the best known old game. Lots of English reviews.
6. Messenger from Dark Night メッセンジャー フロム ダークナイト [951123] TopCat
Hero is half-demon who has his demon part "dark night" awake every evening. Such person transfers to a new school that accepts half-humans as students.
The game can be called an adult sound novel. There are multiple branches and new branches open up after main branches clearance totaling 80 endings. Some of those endings have only slight differences, but just dig the number. The content is different for various branches, but it's not lovey-lovey, on the contrary it's rather dark and has multiple confrontations prepared. If it came out a bit later and was a bit more like a visual novel and not like a book, it would have all the chances to take away the pedestal of originator of visual novels from Leaf.
7. Koukan Nikki Dai 2 Shou ~Seiya o Anata to~ こうかん日記 第２章 ～聖夜をあなたと～ [951124] Fairy Dust
New love adventure takes place during winter. While at part-time job hero gets acquainted to different girls and by the Christmas Eve he can confess his feelings to one of them.
Characters are lively and overall mood is bright. There is an ending for each heroine.
8. Majo-tachi no Nemuri 魔女たちの眠り [951124] Pack In Video 1 2
The protagonist (default name Toshio) is working at his office one day when he receives a call asking for help from a girl he knew as a child (default name Yoriko). The next day he discovers that this same girl apparently killed herself by way of self-immolation. He decides to go investigate the girl's mountain village, and depending upon the choices the player makes, may uncover the truth of the matter...
Literary adaptation of famous horror writer. Year 1995 was a boom for so called "sound novels" which are NVL novels with walls of text on some background with music. It's the closest thing to a book and these are usually short horror stories and I've blocked previous such games since they had multiple stories. This one is the first one with long and more or less long coherent story. There are four parts presented as trials and after completion a true story opens up.
9. OL Sousamou ＯＬ操作網 [951129] Witch's 1
Akizuki is an ordinary Japanese man who works in an office. One day his boss asks him to discreetly investigate a case of stolen prospects that could damage the company's reputation. Akizuki must talk to the female co-workers and find out the truth. However, his mind is more occupied with his own personal expectations from these attractive ladies...
The most fun feature of the game is an ability to roleplay either a serious co-worker or a full-scale playboy.
10. Coming Heart [951130] May-Be Soft 1
The hero of this game is a teenage boy who failed his high-school examination; as a result, his parents decided to transfer him to a special school in another city. The young hero is at first sad and depressed, but soon discovers that the situation might not be so bad after all: the mansion in which he is going to leave is not empty, and his neighbors are all young pretty girls...
Story itself is a commonplace, but with an addition of torments over university entrance. Character designs are quite good and atmosphere is bright.
11. Jack ~Haitoku no Megami~ JACK ～背徳の女神～ [951130] Silky's 1 2 3
Jack Martin is a private detective. Long time ago, a terrible accident has left deep scars on his psyche, and he tries to atone for what he has done. On board of the space shuttle Gold Mary, Jack joins an organization that fights interstellar terrorism, employing people with psychic abilities. Soon thereafter, the captain of the shuttle is found murdered. Have terrorists infiltrated the shuttle, or is one of Jack's comrades a double agent? Jack must solve the mystery, at the same time discovering his own special abilities... whatever they might be.
There is an English review and also my review now. Protagonist is actually quite elaborate. He accidentally shot a child in the past and suffers from this trauma trying to find ties to that child murder and being depressed about it.
12. Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami - Futatsu no Sekai no Monogatari 魔法の天使クリィミーマミ 二つの世界の物語 [951130] Wishbone 1
Based on the anime Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel. The original tells the story of a 10-year-old girl named Yuu Morisawa, who gains a magical ability to transform into a grown-up young woman, eventually becoming a pop star and acquainting the inhabitants of the Earth with the rest of the galaxy. Yuu appears in the game, but is not the protagonist; the player controls four young women in four different scenarios: two of them, Yuri and Aya, on the Earth, and the other two, Ora and Sita, in an alien world, mixture of sci-fi and medieval fantasy. The story goes beyond the original anime by introducing a magical, sacred land known as Finality, populated by fantasy being, and calling the guardians (the four girl protagonist) to bring peace to the galaxy.
There are so many early games about ability to transform into grown-up woman that they all start to look the same. But here there are four distinct stories targeted at girls, naturally.
13. Memories ~Shiroi Yozora ni Mau Tenshi~ メモリーズ ～白い夜空に舞う天使～ [9511] Petit 1
Memories is a dating-oriented game that can be describe as a light simulation with elements of a visual novel. The game's story premise is abstract: the player character explores a small town, hoping to meet and eventually date young women. The game world consists of photorealistic still pictures of locations; the player's only interaction with the game consists of choosing to travel to these locations and advance the time. Female characters will appear in specific locations at specific times of the day. Several meetings are usually needed to initiate a date. Presents and money can be given to the girls as well.
A very generic dating sim from a fresh company. And very exhausting since girls can appear any minute anywhere so need to basically stay at the same location and advance time all the time and create chart of when someone appears.
There aren't masterpieces this month, but among more traditional visual novels Trouble Chaser Dai 4 Wa - Saishuukai definitely stands out, it's also the most interesting episode in the series being the final one.
1. A Hard Day's Night 吉永サユリがやってくる ヤァ！ヤァ！ヤァ！ A Hard Day's Night [951006] Hard
Teacher instructs the class that at summer vacation textbooks are prohibited and only erotic journals are ok to read. And then he visits students at various locations to check if they follow instructions properly.
Game is made like a parody, but things go ecchi very fast.
2. Manami ~Ai to Koukan no Hibi~ 真奈美 ～愛と交換の日々～ [951006] Red Zone
Manami sex life with her partner has become dull, but everything changes with meeting a swinger couple at dancing lessons course.
The most weird thing in the game is that Manami whose name is in the title does not have much action during the game after the opening sequence. The focus is on her partner and different swinger club wives.
3. Trouble Chaser Dai 4 Wa - Saishuukai トラぶるＣＨＡＳＥＲ 第４話 最終回 [951006] Nihon Create
In the final episode Daisuke gets kidnapped and it's revealed why he's been hunted for this whole time.
All the mysteries get uncovered and we get to look at villain point of view. There's of course a grand battle involved. Since 3rd episode of the game is a lost piece we also meet some new girl pilot for the first time here.
4. Majo Gari no Yoru ni 魔女狩りの夜に [951013] Ail 1 2
Majo-gari means "witch-hunt"; indeed, that is the only thing the protagonist of the game, a young priest living in an unspecified European-like town, thinks about. According to his own words, he believes neither in God nor in the devil; his life is dedicated to one horrifying passion: torturing innocent women...
There is an English review.
5. Gakuen Bakuretsu Tenkousei ! 学園爆裂転校生! [951020] ZyX
A fighting girl transfers to a girls school. Rules and student council are very strict there. After the girl refuses to dress normally and give away her gloves and kneel-pads the student council kidnaps her roommate.
There are several endings with some being bad ones. The aim is to go around the school, trigger events and beat enemies which leads to les scenes. The overall playtime and the number of CG are small.
6. Immoral Study Scenario 3: Asakura Manami インモラルスタディ シナリオ３ 朝倉まなみ [951020] Scoop 1 2 3
The third scenario of Immoral Study describes yet another somewhat unusual teaching experience in the life of Mr. Hitosuji, a young and handsome private tutor. This time, the victim... err... pupil is Asakura Manami, a shy, quiet girl who lives together with her mother. Hitosuji is supposed to make Manami a better student - but instead he chooses to participate in S&M relationship between mother and daughter...
Game is localized and has impressions in English.
7. Koko wa Rakuensou 2 ここは楽園荘2 [951020] Foster 1 2 3 4 5
The Paradise Heights apartment has changed after half of your uncle's company got liquidated. After the money went, so did some of the tenants. Now Keigo Nakadai (You) works for a toy making company (but still stays at Paradise Heights).
Rumor has it that a competiting company is stealing your brilliant ideas...and the source of the leak is someone with high rank in your company! Fortunately, the new tenants also work at the company as you join forces with them to find out who is conducting industrial espionage behind your back...as well as some entertainment on the side...
There are English reviews.
8. Briganty ~The Roots of Darkness~ ブリガンティ ～The Roots of Darkness～ [951027] Giga 1 2 3 4
Gady is a black magician and a skillful martial artist who travels around with his personal fairy Leena. Gady is more interested in sexy girls than in anything else, and Leena calls him "the pervert of the century". One day the two of them find a girl in the woods who begs for help. After Gady agrees to help her, she robs all his money and disappears. Before long Gady and Leena meet a sword master girl named Sephina, who explains that her sister started acting strangely after finding a mysterious sword. This is where Gady's adventure begins.
One of the most hated VN creators Giga makes it appearance on the visual novel scene! But they are praised for action game and their first game is actually an action, or rather a platformer. There's a good English review for this game.
9. Charade [951027] Apple Pie 1
Charade describes the daily high-school routine of a girl named Kazumi. The game proceeds from one school day to another, putting Kazumi in the same situations, facing the same choices. Those choices, as well as random events and meetings with other characters, schoolmates and teachers (only female), change Kazumi's viewpoints as well as relationships with the other girls.
Yuri school ADV. The weirdness of this game is that you set the setting yourself, like this girl will be in the theater and arts clubs and we'll start to pay her attention. And at any time in the morning we can choose - forget it all and get a new setting. Characters aren't cute enough to empathize as well. Game is fully voiced, but making a setting yourself and participating in constant loops just in hope to find an action that would lead to some branching is not the most exciting occupation if you're expecting a story to be told.
10. Leap Toki ni Sarawareta Shoujo ＬＥＡＰ 時にさらわれた少女 [951027] Ange
Hero has finally confessed and made love to his childhood friend Ai. But as he wakes up in unfamiliar place, he can't find Ai anywhere. He begins his search.
Hero needs to travel through the time by having sex with school nurse and find traces of Ai in different time segments. There are multiple endings depending on whether he chooses some local girl or keep on his search. There are a lot of selections and branches in addiction to already confusing time travel. It's an experimental work with a lot of edges, oh well, and it's not hookable.
11. Power Slave パワースレイブ [951027] Umitsuki Production 1
Tetsuya is a rather ordinary Japanese teenager, who prefers hanging out with his sweetheart Rika than going to school. His passion are 3D video games. The newest game machine which allows the player to completely submerge into the virtual world, modeled according to his desires, has captured his heart. But one thing is strange: lately, Tetsuya keeps seeing himself as a killer and rapist. Dreams begin to haunt him. Is this just a side-effect of the game, or does he have a dark side he knows nothing about? Or maybe the game took him to another world, which will from now on become part of his life?..
Quite an unusual mix of genres and with animated scenes on top of that. The first work of the company we all know as Jellyfish for being the only ardent adept of fully animated eroge. A merry game, but not hookable and rather short.
Mime is the only masterpiece of September.
1. Mahou no Princess Minky Momo Fantastic World 魔法のプリンセス ミンキーモモ ファンタスティック・ワールド [950901] Wishbone 1
Momo is a princess of a magical world that has come to Earth together with three companions - a bird, a dog, and a monkey - to help humans regain their happiness and bring the two worlds together. She has the appearance of a pretty, cheerful teenage girl, and immediately attracts the attention of a young boy who lives in a quiet town with his biologist father. Together, the two must solve the mysteries of the town, and perhaps find happiness for themselves as well.
"Mahou no Princess Minky Momo" is based on an anime of the same name.
Almost kinetic novel based on anime. And I did not watch this kindergarten anime.
2. Virgin 2 Hana Hiraku Shoujo-tachi no AVG ヴァージン＾２ 花ひらく少女たちのＡＶＧ [950901] Fairy Dust
Koji is caught at peeping after the tennis girls, so school girls committee stripped him and ridiculed his masculinity. In order to defend his pride school nurse advises him to be proactive with girls and prove his case.
Quite a baka comedy with significant ero element. Game systems are quite shallow and it takes significant time for screen to draw. Saving is also limited to before each chapter.
3. Gakuen Sodom ~Kyoushitsu no Mesu Dorei-tachi~ 学園ソドム ～教室の牝奴隷達～ [950908] PIL 1 2
The protagonist of the game is a teacher in St. Marianna Girls High School, which his sister also attends. One day, a maniac breaks into the school, and, holding the protagonist and the students at gunpoint. He then holds them hostage and forces them to perform violent and humiliating sexual acts with each other. The whole story of the game is basically a long stretch of such acts, while the maniac (and the protagonist) have to deal with new situations, such as arrival of police, journalists, etc.
Game starts as a more or less normal school game and then the criminal destroys the world as students knew it. It's a very specialized humiliation subgenre nukige.
4. Kinbaku no Yakata 緊縛の館 [950908] Xyz 1
Kinbaku no Yakata (meaning "Bondage Mansion") is a sadistic take on the "raising simulation" genre. Two brothers from a decayed nobility lineage live in a dark mansion, specializing in all things gruesome. The protagonist is one of the brothers, who wants to "prove himself" to the other one by kidnapping a young girl and turning her into his sex slave.
The fame of SEEK laid the beginnings of a new bondage museum genre. Game is inferior to SEEK in completeness and thus can only be advised to those who had not enough of SEEK.
5. :Loop ~Izanahi no Kaikiten~ ：ＬＯＯＰ ～いざなひの回帰点～ [950908] Grocer 1
The two young Kodama sisters, Nozomi and Hikari, decided to go for a drive in the countryside, to celebrate the end of Nozomi's brilliant high-school year. They get lost in the woods and are greeted by a handsome young man, who offers to bring them to the nearby mansion, known as the Deer Garden Temple, and to spend the night here. The exciting adventure soon turns into a nightmare, when the inhabitants of the mansion make Nozomi their sex slave...
There are three branches and only slightly more endings with most of endings being sex slave bad ones. Still it's unusual to see girls treated normally, allowing them give birth to children and making plans for their future.
6. Dangel Dangel [950909] Mink 1 2 3
Long time ago, there was balance in the world. Three great tribes lived in peace with each other. Up in the sky, the Heavenly Tribe; down on the Earth, the Human Tribe; and between them, the Demon Tribe. But among the demons, there were some who wanted more power. The members of the Heavenly Tribe were forced to seal the rebellious demons in what they called "Path of Light". But one of them figured out how to break the seal. The demons were now free, and they attacked the Human Tribe. Horrible massacres, ruined cities and villages, exterminated nations - it looked like the End of Days had come to the humans...
...A boy named Anduke was raised in a secluded location by two female elves. It was clear that the boy possessed extraordinary powers: at the tender age of nine, he was already able to sexually satisfy his lovely nannies. But a mysterious force tore the boy away, knocking him unconscious. He awoke ten years later, in a human village. A promise given to a young girl led him to a fateful meeting that revealed his destiny: he had the blood of Heavenly Tribe in him, and was the only one able to save the Human Tribe from the demons...
There is an English review.
7. Glass no Destiny ガラスの運命 [950914] FMC
Main heroine Yuri enjoyed a happy childhood. Her father eventually remarries and two families start to live together while Yuri acquiring a new sister. But after Yuri's father death one by one disasters fall upon the family bringing it on the brink of despair.
Game has a very special shojo manga atmosphere and drawing. It's quite shocking to see this cosy world gets buried to the basement. Then nudity comes to the scene and the impact gets even stronger. It's one of the first works oriented at women, but with unusual yuri genre and emphasis on the story.
8. Mahjong Gensoukyoku III 麻雀幻想曲III [950914] Active 1 2
The third installment of the Mahjong Fantasia series is not directly related story-wise to its predecessors. In the story mode, the player assumes the role of Chris, a guard in the city of Burgund. His mission is to protect the princess at all costs, but once the city is destroyed by members of a cult known as Valms, the two of them have to flee. Chris finds out that the only way to restore his homeland is by finding a sacred ring that had been kept in secret for many generations.
There is an English review.
9. Tamago Ryouri たまご料理 [950914] Softhouse Bonbee Bonbon
There 20 scenarios at locations to choose from. Stories mostly feature parodies to the media.
Specialized ero-centered content.
10. Cyber Illusion サイバーイリュージョン [950922] Pearl Soft 1
Around the turn of the millennium, global warming has become a reality. Abusing energy and the Earth's resources, humanity has driven itself to a point where normal life on Earth could no longer exist. Drastic rise of temperatures caused planet-wide dehydration. The only way to keep existing was through the Cyber Net, a virtual reality system. But soon the Cyber Net began to suffer from continuous assaults by hackers, who programmed lethal viruses into it. Thus, the Cyber Police was born. The protagonist of the game is a high-ranked officer of Cyber Police. With the help of his team, he has to solve the hacker problem once and for all.
SF icon selection type game. By 1995 icon selection was already morally old as it's needed to do two clicks to do anything and it's unnecessary barrier if the volume is big enough. We've got the time before the international summit is held to deal with the hacker. All the hacked characters are girls and they start to behave aggressively. Quite a good SF story with a satisfying true ending if you can get through the clunky "point and click" system.
11. Immoral Study Scenario 2: Iijima Yuka インモラルスタディ シナリオ2 飯嶋由佳 [950922] Scoop 1 2 3 4
You play "Professor" Hitosuji, well-known reputed tutor and teacher for his abilities in turning even the worst students into straight A stars...although it might be just a coincidence that all those girls happen to be very young and beautiful students. His "private tutoring skills" might be somewhat questionable, but it works.
In Immoral Study 2, the task at hand is to tutor one Yuko Ijima, the only daughter of a big time factory CEO. She's been slipping in her grades lately and her father called you to put her back on the right track again. Oh, she has a major attitude problem. Nothing you can't handle though.
Game is localized and has English impressions.
12. Shin Onryou Senki 真怨霊戦記 [950922] Fujicom 1
Hiroyuki Kitahara was leading a rather ordinary life in a quiet Japanese town, and decided one day to take a stroll at night, enjoying the picturesque landscape. All of a sudden, a horrifying monster appeared right in front of him. Kitahara wakes up in the hospital and tries to convince the doctors that he was not hallucinating. Teaming up with a young female journalist, Kitahara begins to explore the city, searching for clues to solve the mystery and seeking meeting with onryou - ghosts of people who were wronged in their lifetime and who are back for revenge.
"Shin Onryou Senki" is a remake of "Onryou Senki".
The story and most of the dialogues remain the same as in the original release. The differences lie mostly in visual presentation and technical quality of the music. A few locations have been added or made accessible at different moments during the course of the game.
It's always good when classic works get a remastered version, but locking it for just one type of console is not that good. I tackled on original Soft Wing Studio work in 1988 year review.
13. Vanishing Point -Tenshi no Kieta Machi- Vanishing Point －天使の消えた街－ [950922] Tiare
Kusanagi is a high school student. Recently, girls started to disappear from the area he lives. A friend of his sister requests to search for one such person.
Game has very primitive RPG system incorporated and there's the need to fight monsters all the time. Apart of that it's just wandering around the town and rescuing girls eventually finding the mastermind.
14. Figure ~Ubawareta Houkago~ フィギュア ～奪われた放課後～ [950929] Silky's 1
An oligarch named Takanashi has built a prestigious girl's high school, known as the Hanatsuki High. Mishima, a young man who has recently graduated high school, is approached by Isao, representative of the Hanatsuki High and his former schoolmate, with a part-time teaching job offer. Despite his dislike to certain school policies Mishima agrees - first, because he is broke, and second, because the perspective to teach the pretty daughters of the wealthiest people in Japan doesn't seem all that unpleasant...
A lesser known Silky's game, perhaps because of ordinary school setting. The features are good psychological portrait depiction and depression as omnipotent theme. There are multiple endings prepared.
15. Marine Rouge マリンルージュ [950929] Discovery 1
A young man named Kenji decides to have a vacation on the beautiful island together with his sister Hiromi. Taking a break from work and worries, the two discover a tourist resort with lovely beaches and high-class hotels. Very soon Kenji finds out that many attractive young women either work on the island or have come there for various reasons. Soon the holiday turns into a never-ending string of sexual escapades - and perhaps one of them will turn into a true romance?
Game branches early. In first branch a conspiracy plot is uncovered. In the second one you and you girlfriend decide to take over the island and subjugate everyone inside to you will. Pretty extreme and leads to harem ending.
16. Metal Fighter Miku メタルファイター ＭＩＫＵ [950929] Feycraft 1
In the year 2061 A.D., Neo Pro-Wrestling, a form of wrestling that allows for armour and other enhancements, is rapidly growing in popularity. In this, Miku, a young flighty girl is set to join her friends as the tag team known as the Pretty Four. However, the competition is fierce and their opponents are ready to do whatever it takes to win. Against this, the Four manage to obtain the services of an eccentric coach who trained their hero, Aquamarine. With his guidance, the four start on their fight for the top as they must train within almost inhuman discipline while their matches become more and more challenging as their opponents rise in the ranks.
Another anime spin-off. There's a nice English impression saying that game's almost unplayable due to fighting element difficulty. There's a good dozen of possible actions during the fight and improper one results in defeat. Game features light yuri elements and full voice with a lot of animation during unskippable talking scenes, so game is targeted on anime fans mostly.
17. Mime 舞夢 [950929] Studio Twinkle 1 2
Once upon a time, there was harmony and balance in the world. Four kingdoms of humans have watched over the four elements. But then a traitor appeared, who has angered the Goddess with his selfish deeds. The balance was destroyed, the elements were no more in harmony, and the world plunged into chaos...
Twelve thousand years later, a young knight named Eagle Windeed has been having a strange dream. Maybe there is still salvation for the human race. Maybe it is still possible to make peace with the higher beings. Eagle arrives at a tavern near the Tree Dungeon, determined to find out what his dream meant...
The whole world in this dungeon crawler is set as a dungeon without open fields. Characters are cute enough, atmosphere is good and events on the road are nice. Four character team makes battles look solid. There aren't weak points, actually. A very solid RPG for RPG lovers. There is very little H element in the game and achieving favor of target heroine only brings a kiss scene. The difficulty curve is very steep as Eagle is very weak and alone at the start, but with a full party it gets to be a breeze. There is also a bonus dungeon just before the end boss and it has monsters that are even stronger than the boss, but there is little sense in exploring this dungeon.
