kivandopulus

Foreword: Game's obscure, but it has one absolutely overwhelming Japanese review (giving 8/10 score btw) which claims that the game has references to dozens of media sources. I'm not good with media of 1996 year and earlier, but even I could discern 5 sources. Visual novel is easy to read and it's a great laugh at times while preserving a solid and intriguing plot with lovable characters, tonns of CG and almost full voicing. I say it's a neglected masterpiece. Title: Bounty Hunter Rudy Developer: Scoop Date: 1996-10-25 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v7168 Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUUFqi-M6JU&t=0s&list=PLENAECnNmAq_3TQ0rXcu0n95aygm3PPQU&index=46 Synopsis: Rudy is a famous space bounty hunter with top notch skills. But she's famous mostly for her ability to fall into troubles because of uncontrolled destruction power. In order to deal with the debts she goes to casino, but drenches down into even deeper debt. She undertakes a top secret military case as her last resort to get big money fast. Structure: One route Length: 4.5 hours Game type: AVG with dialogue choices Difficulty: Game does not have branches, but getting 100% CG is not easy. Character Design rating: 7/10 Protagonist rating: 8/10 Story rating: 8/10 Game quality: 7/10 Overall rating: 7/10 Rating comments: Can't really call it the game for 8/10, but it's decent enough to be called a masterpiece. Main heroine is impressive, characters charming (yet not developed), space opera story grappling and numerous CG and almost full voicing make up in the quality department. It has flaws, but I shall elaborate later. Protagonist: Rudy is our hermaphrodite strongest in the universe space bounty hunter. She blames in her failures anyone else but her and picks fights in dialogues with everyone. Being of simple and cheerful mind, Rudy enjoys drinking, money, a good company and space adventures. Characters: The only other significant heroine apart of Rudy is Anna who is an alien taking human girl form and who is waiting patiently for Rudy to drop her home. But Anna appears quite late in the story, after a third of it passed already. She's helpless and exists mostly as a comic relief - she always acts straightforward and answers honestly ruining Rudy's sly schemes. Other characters only make episodic appearance, although all of them are a colorful bunch and fun to have around. Story: Much of it is in the synopsis. Rudy gets into a huge debt after a passionate mafia boss chase around the city and being outwit at the casino house. She's only offered poor jobs by the bounty hunter guild leader, so she decides to steal the big job from another guild member Reike. That involves investigating anti-planetary missile weapon. And while on the task, Rudy comes upon an alien in cryogenic chamber who takes the form of human girl Anna. The whole game adventures actually only start from here, but as game adapts to the role of bakage events start to lose ultimate aim. That's the best part in the game - you don't wait for the ending, but just enjoy crazy funny dialogues. And my deepest regret is only that I failed to trigger all the foolish CG and all the extra dialogue lines. CG: Game lasts around 5 hours and does not use sprites for the characters... yes - it's all done in CG only. Hundreds of CG! Sometimes such CG would only last for a few seconds! I was really favorably surprised by the effort. Sound: Protagonist is a woman and all women in this game are voiced. That actually means that almost everyone is voiced considered that game only has bounty hunter guild boss and robot Freddy as male characters as well as some nameless episodic characters. At times I forgot it was partially voiced since only scenes with girls proceeded. Voicing is done here very well and helps a lot the playful mood of the game. Humor: It's just everywhere. Mostly in form of verbal insults and crazy dialogue lines. But I really like it when the game breaks the 4th wall and Rudy does it quite often in hilarious ways. Here's one moment where I laughed out loud and could not stop laughing. Rudy faces a military robot and is presented with three choices. I choose third one with ridiculous phrase "Once upon a time there lived a grandfather and grandmother". Next lines showed on the screen: "Grandfather went to a sauna, grandmother went to a host club". Next we see Rudy getting punched and she shouts "Do not pick this choice"! Then I picked the same choice again. What I got was "Then grandfather went to refresh". And next we see Rudy punched and she shouts "Reality is severe"! Overall comments: I have not enjoyed a bakage that much for a long time. The best thing is that you don't need to care for the plot much or for branches or saves - just enjoy what's happening on the screen at this very moment and that's it. It's a game for relaxation. I feel like some of the spice is lost in machine translation and some cultural layers lost since I am not a Japanese native of the 1990s. Also I appreciated that H events are playful, short and totally forgotten a second after. Well, H events aren't usual as well - they are fun and memorably inventive. It's rare to see a game that puts a player first and everything else second. It's a game that leaves a lasting warm impression and is worthy to be called a masterpiece and a hidden gem.

That's a pretty poor choice for first UTL VN! Kizuato is still quite lengthy and lacks excitement. Its composition is lackluster as I did not feel there was a core story - more like several shorter action stories that spring out out of blue rather than being the product of synthetic development. And the ending... I felt I was scammed while watching credits and that's not a good thought at the final moments of the game. I hoped for Higurashi predecessor to be more like Higurashi and not like a charage. Well, maybe it's because I set my hopes too high and never liked charage much.

Foreword: Who does not know of Leaf company? Who does not know that its games Shizuku and Kizuato are considered the first modern type visual novels? But how many of us actually played those? There are some good English reviews of those (1 2 3 4 5 6 7) and I initially only relied on those as well. But the historical significance of Kizuato made me change priorities. Throughout the rest of 90-s and the first half of 2000-s I encountered quite many story-focused visual novels that are described by Japanese reviewers as "degraded version of Kizuato", so I really needed to see the original myself to get the proper idea. As for Shizuku... it came first and is a curious blend of old and new types of visual novels. Why did Leaf bother to make two remakes of it if it's a plain nukige about radio waves? Or maybe it's a dark-themed masterpiece akin to Moon by Tactics? I hope to answer those questions here. And I decided to make a comparative review to spice things up. Screenshots on the left belong to Shizuku, on the right - to Kizuato. Title: Shizuku | Kizuato Developer: Leaf | Leaf Date: 1996-01-26 | 1996-07-26 VNDB link: https://vndb.org/v235 | https://vndb.org/v184 Youtube walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4ivg044iMI&list=PLENAECnNmAq-I8SGBuae4loVKdMDk6axP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ixMxD4DBko&list=PLENAECnNmAq-5p0JujfLT9jK9_CSDAulN Synopsis: When one of his classmates suddenly gets mad in the middle of the class, the protagonist's 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... 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? Structure: Three routes + Omake with total number of endings being 12 | Six routes + Omake with total number of endings being 26. Length: 25 hours | 40 hours Game type: NVL AVG | NVL AVG Difficulty: Easy as there are few routes and branches, but to get all 12 endings best to follow walkthrough | Moderate as there are many routes and endings and it's easy to miss some of bad endings and some omake routes Character Design rating: 5/10 | 9/10 Protagonist rating: 6/10 | 6/10 Story rating: 5/10 | 8/10 Game quality: 7/10 | 9/10 Overall rating: 6/10 | 8/10 Rating comments: Nukige-like story really hurts Shizuku. All the main events happen during just one day and there's not even remotely enough time to get to know the girls. Girls also aren't too cute or interesting. Protagonist is a faceless embodiment of the player and we make all the decisions for him, so his presence is not felt at all. Still the game manages not to fall into nukige category and maintains its storyline which is worth praising. Kizuato characters are totally adorable - every one of them! Each route follows a different pattern. Story is a fascinating one and each roots adds new details to the overall story. Protagonist is a faceless one and without much presence, but a good game does not need the protagonist to be great. So the question hangs in the air - why not 9 or 10 score then? As for me the routes are rushed and follow the same pattern - general route up to the half of it, then getting to know one of the girls better, then something bad happens and we hurry to help. And even though some details are added in consequent routes, those don't add much to the story and after first exciting route - second, third and fourth routes look really plain. True route was also disappointing for me as it added finally something new to the story, but failed to present a satisfying finalizing mark just freezing the state of events as it was. Protagonist: Nagase Yuusuke is quite a failure as protagonist and being called Nagase-chan by the girls makes him even more humiliating. A totally generic high school student. Kashiwagi Kouichi is a young adult, so he is at least mature. He's also not really a generic protagonist since he has quite a background behind him. He comes from an ancient Kashiwagi clan and his father mysteriously died as well as the girls father. So he has some mystery behind him, but I don't remember his face being shown and he does not show special personality traits in the dialogue, so I'd call him generic protagonist. Characters: Saori is a red-hair cheerful volleyball team member. Her route comes first and it's a really good route. And not just because of novelty as we see the carcass of the story for the first time. First - Saori has a bright personality and laughs a lot. Second - there is only one H event in her route and it's a voluntary one. Third - her route has the most of life essence as Saori and Yuusuke openly oppose the enemy, put up hell of a fight and emerge victorious from it. If only the other routes were similar. There is also one strong and shocking moment in the route bad ending, but it's the only bad ending that has nothing to do with H events, so it's really nice. Mizuho is short brown-hair student council secretary. Being the filler mid-game route it is the most miserable route. Mizuho cries often, feels miserable about herself, admits lying all the time and is drawn as a totally self-insufficient personality. She has no friends but Oota and was dragged after her to the student council. Mizuho has no motive to help with the investigation but to help Oota. And on top of that the route is full of helplessness and rape with it ending only thanks to external factors, but not the heroes. Ruriko is a mysterious short blue-hair girl who turned from a school idol to a weird goofy girl a year ago. She's more like a robot than a girl, but she has a very strong sixth sense, a mysterious aura around her and she gradually gains human traits throughout her route which looks really satisfying. Her route is a true one answering many questions, but it's also a route that features a lot of bad endings with all of the three girls and in that regard is very tiresome to get through. I would also like to notice the absence of sub-characters in this game. There aren't friends, schoolmates or some external characters. All we have is Yuusuke's uncle and the three girls under influence of radio-waves - one of them being Oota and the others aren't even given names. Chizuru is the oldest of sisters and the route is the most exciting one as it's full of action and cool-looking CG. Many other people as well as myself call this route a favorite one. Azusa is a tsundere and has a misfortune to present one of the middle routes - and the result is truly grievous - route is full of H events and adds nothing to the story. Kaede is a cold-hearted calm sister who devotes her life to a shire. And for the whole route we try to reveal her human traits. Her route tells us the clan story and gets to understand the routes of the problem. Yumiko is a side-character who works as correspondent. Her route is a very short one (just one hour long!) and is basically a single long H event. Hatsuno is the true route to my deepest regret. She's the youngest loli sister with bright personality and affection for her onii-chan. I really hoped she would not have her own route, but I guess developers needed an imouto route as well - and Hatsuno makes a great imouto. Rikka route added only in the last remake of 2009. She's a totally new - maid - character that comes with a totally new after-story with a new villain. And it's a totally good route that adds lots of new cool everyday life scenes for old characters. But just remember that it was not meant to be in the original game and should thus be treated as a sequel with old characters, but since it's just one route it was not wise to release it stand-alone so it was released together with original. Story: Shizuku story is almost entirely retold in the synopsis. Oota gets mad one day and goes to the hospital. When uncle asks us to investigate strange gatherings of students at night school we can either investigate it or ignore it. If we choose to ignore, we're showed the graduation ceremony that becomes a huge orgy because of commands passed by radiowaves. So radiowaves use is not the mystery of the game - it's showed in the very first hour of the game. Only the mystery of personality of the villain persists, but it also becomes soon uncovered as we come with one of the girls to the night school to bear witness of the events happening there. Each girl has her own reasons to accompany the hero to the night school, but those don't change anything - a confrontation happens followed by game's end. So the game has no mystery, no story and no likable characters (maybe apart Saori) - what's the game for then? My guess is that the game is a thrilling eroge in unusual conditions, nothing more. It barely manages not to fall in the depths of nukige and presents mostly a historical interest. Kizuato story is not really special. First half of each route takes nice and warm slice of life with only distant sings of the beast living in Koichi. In the second half something happens - either a mysterious enemy shows up or someone gets kidnapped or like in true route we just get to find an ancient cave and explore it. So it's a simple enough composition. But through the dialogues we get to uncover many secrets of the past and get to know the girls well. The most intriguing question is what about the beast part? I'd say it does not have that much emphasis in the game, actually. We get to have strange visions and people torn apart, but there's no telling if those are of Koichi doing. And thankfully beast instincts aren't used as a pretext for rape scenes - that happened only once. There aren't bad endings when Koichi would wreak havoc and kill everyone. Mostly beast instincts only show up during confrontation scenes. And the main theme of the game is learning to control those instincts. So as I see it Kizuato is more of a charage with a fancy intriguing plot rather than a full-scale action driven story. Rikka route is so big that it can easily qualify for a different game. It has a new serious story with some new characters and and presents a very satisfying development with a lot of interaction with all the heroines. CG: I only played the remastered version, and there are only some 10 non-HCG there which is a dreadfully small number. But what I really liked in Shizuku is the use of camera focus and animated camera shifts. Those really help to put emphasis on dialogue situations and show better what's going of from hero's perspective. Overall there are few outdoor daytime scenes in Shizuku and omnipresent dark areas make up for the gloomy pressure atmosphere. There is a moderate number of non-HCG in Kizuato, but both CG and HCG look great and really refined there. Most of dialogues take part in well lit areas or on sunny days outdoors which contributes to good impression. Sound: BGMs are very few and I grew tired of listening to the same main tune each time something important happened. Voicing is good, but due to the game nature those moans really get stuck in the head. BGMs are sufficient and pleasant, but not special. I totally liked the voicing since the four sisters have very different personalities. Hatsuno voicing is just perfect and always enjoyable to listen to. Themes: Shizuku is not a too complicated game, so it's useless to search for concealed meanings there, but I liked that each character route had a different theme. Saori route has the power of reason and overcoming even hardest obstacles for the right thing. Mizuho route is based on friendship with Oota and has a nice resolution of friendship prevailing all the odds (even though it's the the most weird ending as everyone just forgets about the villain). Rikka route is centered around the inner connection of two siblings. The curse makes the make theme of Kizuato. The whole clan is cursed with transformation affinity, but the males of the clan also subject to madness at some point of their lives. Koichi is the last male descendant of the clan with the rest of males taking miserable deaths full of suffering. Noone was ever able to cure it or control it. This desperation makes the theme of the game, but on practice the beast problem does not stand as grave in the game. Humor: So Shizuku is not our usual galge, but it has an absolutely awesome part. That's omake. Main game suffers from lack of slice of life part and omake makes up for it. It's a total bakage that breaks the fourth wall constantly. It looks like seiyu and scenarist just wanted to fool around and had their full at it. Basically heroines discuss the game and what kind of character everyone is which leads to forcing Yuusuke to choose the girl he likes the most. And since he can't make a decision girls participate in sport and cooking competitions. There was some humor in 2009 Rikka route, but can't remember any of the original. But that awakening scene with two sisters getting embarrassed by the state of Koichi body was nice. Overall comments: So here are first Leaf visual novels. What makes Kizuato a contemporary visual novel? Different long route for each heroine Long enough main part with heroines introduction Heroines aren't isolated in their routes but act alongside other heroines in the main course of the story. Text-heavy narration for which NVL system was introduced Has erotic content (which distinguishes from sound novels). Rich sub-character cast. Branched routes and multiple endings including bad ones. And here's what's wrong with Shizuku: Almost no sub-characters No introduction to heroines (no slice of life part) Too short time period taken Abundance of H events Each girl route follows absolutely the same pattern Game has 12 endings (10 for main game and 2 for omake) and a lot of parts are shared between them, so it gets very repetitive and there's a constant deja vu feeling. Repetitiveness is aggravated by the use of same phrases for countless times with different intonation. There were at least 5 such spots in the game when the characters may repeat the very same phrase for over 10 minutes. It may look fresh for the first time, but later on it only irritates. Both games systems remind contemporary visual novels, but Shizuku as the first test bullet contains numerous flaws. My plank for masterpiece games is a bit low - 7/10 is enough to get there, so I consider Kizuato with 8/10 a masterpiece. It has great heroines cast, solid intriguing story and it surpasses nowadays charage a long way. As for Shizuku, it holds mostly a historical significance, but it still a worthy game if only read Saori route, then the very end of Ruriko route and the hilarious omake, of course.

Foreword: Game's totally obscure and there just one quite shallow Japanese review exists, so I'd probably miss this wonderful game unless saw Four-Nine as developer. And I'm really happy I did! Title: Lilith Developer: Four-Nine Date: 1995-12-16 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v8949 Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_1nGf0P0-M&list=PLENAECnNmAq8obEJUzYJkNq8XOxyNZ-0s Synopsis: 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. Structure: One route Length: 11 hours Game type: Command selection adventure Difficulty: Challenging since there are gameplay elements introduced with walking on schematic map and triggering events including traps, some of which result in game over. Once I even managed to trigger game over during a H event! And there is no scene replay - you'll have to replay from the last save game. Character Design rating: 7/10 Protagonist rating: 8/10 Story rating: 9/10 Game quality: 8/10 Overall rating: 8/10 Rating comments: I can't praise this game enough. Lilith came a year after Gao Gao 3rd and it fully inherits the spirit of Gao Gao series, just with a slightly different setting. The story is surprisingly solid and long. Protagonist is the strongest compared to all the Gao Gao series games. Characters serve the story purpose mostly, but they spend so much time with Koketsu that we get to know everyone very well. The gameplay elements are really annoying when encountered, but those get easier and easier as story goes on, so the impression gets balanced. Being PC-98 exclusive, game is not voiced and can feel monotonous at times and only for that it's not a perfect score. Protagonist: Koketsu is a normal student proficient in Kendo. And I can only admire how he manages to beat all kinds of beasts, demons and undead all by himself with his wooden sword! That kitten girl is absolutely useless in battle and strong allies join up quite late in the game. There are strategic retreats at times, but mostly he just beats crap out of anything! It's been a while since I encountered protagonist that strong. He's funny, cool and takes decisions himself. He reminds Wolfy from Gao Gao 3rd-4th a lot. Characters: I'm not really sure for transcription, but cat-girl is Miya. There is also childhood friend Minoru. Eventually a fox girl comes into stage and kunoichi Sasame comes out of coma, so we get quite a harem here! And most of enemies are girls, of course. What actually delighted me is that not every female enemy gets a H event unlike Gao Gao series. There are also numerous neutral/episodic female characters in the game, so there's not enough time to devote to separate heroines. Story: I absolutely liked the story since it was absolutely unpredictable and full of great enemies, battles and blood. There are so many civilians and enemies killed violently that Gao Gao does not come into comparison even remotely on the matter. I also liked that at some point story got some structure as heroes needed to get all three spiritual stones. So each of these spirit stones parts and next fighting parts have each a beautiful legend in the core. Some of those stories are even about our enemies which totally blasts. Since I divided the videos by structural parts, it's well worth to mention those when talking about the story, but without too many spoilers, of course. So Koketsu with Miya just gather information about Lilith from various sources and work out a course of actions in introduction. Then gathering of three spirit stones follows. And second half of the game is devoted to numerous encounters with old and new enemies. That's the gist of it, but there there is a lot of content for 11 hour story. CG: Relatively big number of CG, but as usual for Four-Nine, only HCG are full screen size. What I especially liked is that there aren't many H events in the game. And H content is filled by inserting many random H events that are peeped while investigating some locations. Quite a lot of H events with Koketsu are packed by the end of the game since he needed to restore a lot of energy and we know an absolutely best way to give an injured bleeding hero energy! Sound: About 10 tracks, but those are totally different and very nice non-mechanic. BGM really adds to the charm of the game. Themes: 1) Lilith is the supposed first wife of biblical Adam, so religion has an important role in the game. Humor: I was surprised to see so much mild humor in the game. It's totally the Gao Gao type. Some cases that come to mind to get a taste of it: 1) Christian priest says he studies Japanese culture and he already knows of ninja, geisha and hara-kiri! 2) One heroine was found in the bushes and she just can't excuse Koketsu for stealing her first breast! As it turns out it's the the same thing as the first kiss, but about touching a breast. 3) An exchange student is asked if she knows something about Lilith. It's a girl who went through a mirror to the wonderland (No, it's "Alice")! It's a game where you turn blocks and stick them together (No, it's "Tetris")! It's a fighting game between monsters where king is the mummy (No, it's "Anakaris")! It's shameful to say it as a girl, but it's what men have between the... (PLEASE STOP RIGHT THERE!) Overall comments: This is a masterpiece and the exact kind of hidden gem that I would like to find in visual novels. A rich event-driven story with very unusual, but appealing characters (most of characters are half-bests as in all the Four-Nine games). So why is it so obscure then? There are many versions: command selection gameplay, trap/puzzle sections, bad endings, slow start of the game. But I also blame December - there are so many visual novels issued each December that it's sometimes difficult to find the place in the top 10 and the rest are deprived of attention.

Foreword: I keep exploring the vast vaults of Silky's games. This time it's even more suspicious work - a full scale yuri game. But it has many SF elements and even has genetically modified mutants - knowing Silky's they would not settle with an ordinary yuri work. Title: Fermion ~Mirai kara no Houmonsha~ Developer: Silky's Date: 1995-12-22 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v5903 Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btt7mlj8_rI Synopsis: The future isn't so bright. Pollution has severely weakened Earth and all of it's children, including humankind. Human DNA is too weak to reproduce itself and scientists are desperately trying to revive the human DNA. But every attempt fails, even the desperate attempt to fuse Human and Animal DNA turns out to create mutants that run amok. Everything seems hopeless. But suddenly, scientists detect a space-time displacement, a gap in time. The gap will hold for a couple of days, and during which people may be sent through time. Your mission as a Half-Human, Half-Feline, mutant-hunter Conny, is to back in time to the present (the late 20th century) and recover samples of healthy human DNA. Structure: One route Length: 5 hours Game type: Command selection adventure Difficulty: Easy since there are maximum three commands to select from at any time. Character Design rating: 6/10 Protagonist rating: 5/10 Story rating: 6/10 Game quality: 6/10 Overall rating: 6/10 Rating comments: This is not a masterpiece, so it can't be 7 or higher by my scaling. Well, the rest depends on whether you play yourself or watch my playthrough with scores of 4 and 6, respectively. Original game has too many (10+) H events and has a very time-consuming and boring ventilation system maze crawler. I've cut those in my video reducing overall length almost twice without hurting the story. The whole first half of the game is packed with H events so densely that I really started to think Silky's made a plain ero-centered yuri game. But after two hours of such struggle finally story showed up making it a worthy Silky's title. Heroines in this game are quite memorable and well done, so characters get a high score. Protagonist Conny has a lower score since she does not even try to think for herself - first she follows orders and then her emotions. Protagonist: Conny is a so-so protagonist since she has a strong sense of loyalty as a mutant towards humans. She can turn to a cat voluntarily, but she only uses that to prove that she comes from future and to get into other girls beds - only very late in game she actually it appropriately to travel through the vent system (and she manages to carry fuel canisters with her through the vent in cat form - don't ask me how). It's ok for a protagonist to be dense, but this time I felt no sympathy towards protagonist. Characters: There are two casts of characters - from year 1996 and from year 2296 - first represented by Kanako, her mother and sister and second comprised of military base crew. There are too many H events in the game, so most of dialogues are scrapped or serve as a prologue to next H scene, but still characters are solid here and dialogues feel alive. Story: That's the difficult part. Conny arrives to Kanako family backyard in the form of a girl and is brought home by Kanako. During the whole first half of the game only gathering of genetic material happens. First the whole Kanako family cooperates, then Kanako invites a friend and then Conny manages to get into the school as a foreign student and gather genetic material in form of women fluids there. But the second half of the game brings much more in the story department. Conny's superior Dr. Kanzaki suddenly arrives to 1996 and kidnaps Kanako. When Conny flies back to future to save her new friend, she finds herself trapped in a cell-like room without freedom of movement. What's going on there? Why future military needs Kanako? What can Conny do about this situation? There are a lot of mysteries uncovered closer to the end of the game and some of them are totally unexpected and fascinating. CG: Again, quite few normal CG and too many HCG. At least palette now is much more bright and vivid. Sound: Not too many tracks, but I liked how in crucial story moments all the music stops and couple minutes are spent in a total silence - that benefited the atmosphere. Themes: 1) Time travel. As far as I understand the game violated all the logical laws of time travel like meeting yourself in the past. No big complaints here, but it gets an amateurish touch to the story. 2) There are no men in the game. The single time I saw man mentioned is when Kanako wanted to invite her friend and Conny asked whether that friend was a man or a woman. It's pretty weird to have a good dozen of characters with all of them being women. Overall comments: This is mostly a yuri-intensive work, but the story turned out to be surprisingly good considered limitations of the setting. It's only disappointing that the action part of the story is hidden closer to the end of the game behind the wall of numerous yuri events and then the maze of vent system. It's an interesting and beautiful game with very nice characters, but I would only recommend watching my edited video version of it if you're interested in the story like myself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I've waited for this day with terror since it's going to show whether this blog going to have a purpose after year 2008 - first clash with Micchi blog and notably his fool's day edition targeting April 2000! And the results are quite satisfying so far. Micchi highlighted 13 works and has one work that I can't allow to include because it's Tinkerbell work that produces only camouflaged nukige. But I include 11 more works that Micchi does not have. So for now I'm quite content with the result - there are a lot of obscure works Micchi misses and that's why there's probably a reason for this blog even after 2008. So in April 2000 I consider only one game as masterpiece - Gyousatsu♥Shinsengumi Hitokiri Bishoujo Adventure. 1. Miracle Temptation!! みらくるテンプテーション!! [000407] Escu:de Saburou is in his 20’s and works at a perfume company, living a normal life (without a girlfriend though). One day, he heads out with one of the part-time girls, Misa, since it was her birthday and he bought her a present. The next day, girls kept coming on to him… something must have happened to make him so suddenly popular. With some research, he found out that it must be because of some type of pheromone. Was it because of something he drank or maybe the flowers he bought for Misa? Game is not voiced. There's no real story. Type is dating SIM with some twist. Nothing really remarkable. 2. Princess Memory プリンセスメモリー [000407] Cocktail Soft 1 In the sunny world of Eden, there is a cave that is always changing and full of monsters. Our protagonist finds a girl named Felia, who lost both her memories and her ‘heart’. He helps her to regain her memories and form. Yet another RPG and again with automatic dungeon generation. The number of events is very small. RPG system is quite simple, but it's enough to enjoy the gameplay. There's just one H scene per heroine in the very end so it's more of an RPG. 3. Shokuzai no Kyoushitsu ~The seven stories of sin~ 贖罪の教室 〜The seven stories of sin〜 [000407] FlyingShine 1 The main character Nanaze has a father who killed someone. Nanaze thinks it is partly her fault (unknown reason) and uses her body to pay for her father's sins. Later on in the story the complicated family relations between Nanaze, her boyfriend, her enemies etc. are revealed. There's an English review, and game is kind of borderline nukige, but since it's Flying Shine game, I'm always willing to give it a thorough look. Basically it's the same sound novel type with real-life rendered photos as previous games like Revolver. But the difference this time is that it's is an insulting game that suddenly becomes story-focused. The further it goes, the more complex and intriguing it becomes. This game has over 15 Japanese reviews and is considered a true masterpiece by many of them. I believe this game is where Flying Shine real history that brought us Swan Song, starts. 4. Tsubasa no Hatameki ~A Sound of her Wings~ 翼のはためき ～A Sound of her wings～ [000407] Shape Shifter Yuzawa Yuuki is a pessimist. He thinks that life is meaningless since everyone is going to die one day. Before the Christmas he meets a mysterious "angel" girl Mika. She claims that she came to save Yuuki from his desperate state. He doubts her sanity but decides to play along. After that self-proclaimed "devils" appear. Some of them aim to claim Mika's life, others are here to tempt Yuuki. Yuuki's long and unforgettable Christmas night begins. Game is short. There are some four stories and each playthrough opens up a new one. All routes are cleared within three hours. The only good point about it is Tony's CG and not bad text. It's not voiced. Protagonist is weird so it's difficult to sympathize with him. If only the volume was bigger. 5. Gakuen Hyouryuu Senki Dai 2 Wa 学園漂流戦記 第2話 [000413] Alice Soft Hero arrives at a mysterious island with two girls. They start exploring the island. Alice Soft fandisc game. There are no reviews and too many commands presented with a command selection system. After all, Alice Soft has always been more about gameplay than the stories. Game also has a very tiny resolution. 6. Persiom -Yakusoku no Tsudou Basho- PERSIOM‐約束の集う場所‐ [000413] Alice Soft 1 2 PERSIOM takes place in a dungeon that leads to Hades and hell. Even though it is extremely dangerous, heroes enter to find treasure and make lots of money. Oh, and you can also capture female monsters. There is an English review of this game. 7. Asu Wa Koishite あすは恋して～Prime Beat Planet [000414] Unbalance Yoshizo moved to the town to continue study there. What conceal the memories of the forgotten past? Number of characters is 12. There is some free time after school and on weekends when we can initiate conversations, but each type of story only available at corresponding day of the week. Remembering all the types of stories for all 12 characters is a good training for the memory! Eventually characters may give you dream glass that contain pieces of your forgotten memories. All girls are also from different zodiac signs. Quite an average dating SIM without any story. 8. Maid Lesson Koi Maid Lesson 恋 [000414] Studio Neko Punch Main character needs to give four maids sword and magic lessons in order to overcome the demon king. It's quite a normal raising SIM, except that there is actually battle system and in the end all the skills taught to maids are going to be tested on the battlefield. RPG part is quite painful. 9. Repeat ~Kurikaesareru Toki Soshite...~ Repeat ～繰り返される刻そして…～ [000414] Sirius I woke up floating in the air. Below me, the park is uniquely familiar. What's going on? With my head was swimming in confusion, two girls with a strange look in their eyes appeared before me. Are they angels or maybe demons? They said that I was dead and that in seven days, I am going to heaven or hell and the choice won't be mine. In other words, I am going to live the next seven days as a ghost and those two will watch my every action... Synopsis is quite neutral, so let's elaborate. Game is all about choosing spots in the part and triggering H events, usually by possessing someone. Engine especially looks outdated, like a DOS game. 10. Rumble ~Bankara Yashahime~ Rumble ～バンカラ夜叉姫～ [000414] Penguin Works There was a hero once who saved the school from violence and it returned to a peaceful routine. His name was soon forgotten. Nowadays there's a new threat and those who still remember that hero try to find a new hero for this task. And the search is finally over. That's you! Type is ordinary ADV. Game story is inconsistent, but it's normal for a comedy game. Systems are very poor and skipping is troublesome. There's excessive number of characters without significant meaning. There are 5 heroines, each with a separate ending. Battles are done in command selection mode and relatively easy if follow the pattern. About 80% of the 10 hours scenario length is awesome due to very strong comedy elements. It's a masterpiece, but only if you don't mind gag games and broken characters. 11. Shin Ruriiro No Yuki ~Furimukeba Tonari ni~ 真・瑠璃色の雪 ～ふりむけば隣に～ [000414] Ail (Team Riva) After losing both his parents, Hiroshi decides to rent a room in a mansion owned by the parents of his childhood friends Kotobuki and Youko. The rent was surprisingly cheap, since it was haunted by a ghost. But Hiroshi is the science club leader and doesn’t believe in ghosts. On the day he moved in, a hole opened in the floor, but he ignored it and went to bed. Woken up by a nightmare, he found a pot in the hole. He broke open the seal on the pot in curiosity and a girl came out, introducing herself as Ruri the yuki-onna. PC-98 game was a hit and this is a safe for sales remake. There are quite many heroines. Many call this game a masterpiece, but there is not enough in the story department for that. All the important events are poured in the final part of the game. 12. Snow Memoria ~Wasureenu Omoi~ Snow Memoria ～忘れえぬ想い～ [000414] Air Plants A 100 year long war raged between two countries. The princess of one of the countries went missing, causing a ceasefire, which led to the end of the war. At around this time, Liolet saved a girl with amnesia named Colleen from some bandits, who treated him like her older brother. Her feelings for him began to grow with every passing day. First half is a comedy, while there is much more serious development in second half. Text is only good during the daily routine scenes and is a headache for serious depictions since those aren't adapted for visual novel format. Second half feels a bit rushed. H scenes are bland. 13. Taisen Ren'ai Simulation: Trifers Mahou Gakuen 対戦恋愛シミュレーション トリフェルズ魔法学園 [000420] ASCII Corporation 1 The game is a cartoon dating simulation in which the player have to compete againts other characters to win the affection of their friends. Depending of the conversation choices or if he wins the mini games the love meter will increase or decrease with each character. The game is divided into different stages, for example the first stage takes place in a snow place where they are located in a hotel and they can make snowmen, skiing, take walks, etc. The second stage takes place in a tropical place, they can go around the beach, go to the sea, etc. Console dating SIMs all look the same to me. 14. Angel Reason ~Tenshi no Iiwake~ エンジェリーズン ～天使のいいわけ～ [000421] Spica School life is over in a few months. With parents gone overseas it's a great opportunity to make memories with the school's idol. Wizards, ghosts, robots and rabbits coexist at this school. Something must happen in such a perfect environment! A rather mysterious work - and mysterious here means beyond the scope of understanding. First of all - all the endings are bad. Secondly, it goes totally crazy from the second part. It has lots of moving screens and is just fun by watching alone. But in the end it's just a school bakage+galge. You basically just pursue one of the girls without any story. I tried to play it, but I really need at least some additional story to go on. Just girls got too boring and the number of girls is quite big, like 6. 15. Castle Fantasia ~Erencia Senki~ キャッスルファンタジア ～エレンシア戦記～ [000421] Studio e.go! The year 1247 of the Holy Calendar, the Erencia Kingdom was invaded and occupied by Illumina Kingdom. Eight years later, Faizeru, son of the Erencia Kingdom consul, returned as the leader of Fenrir, the best mercenary group in the continent. As he landed at the harbour of the occupied hometown and is asked to join the rebel group Erencia Liberation Army, the second Erencia War commences. The scenario value is great, but battles last long, so it isn't suitable for an impatient person. During battle each unit behaves in real time, and the player issues commands according to situation. The flexible strategy helps to fulfill victory conditions such as person's rescue and guard, and extermination of enemies. Battles aren't really difficult and don't need tactics. After the battle there is conversation stage with heroines belonging to the unit that can deepen friendship ties. Depending on choices and battle outcome multiple plot branches take off. So... game's very amusing, I'd say a masterpiece and first Studio e.go work to compliment. 16. Doushin ~Sanshimai no Etude~ 同心～三姉妹のエチュード～ [000421] 1 2 3 Meet the Suruga sisters, Ryoko, Maki and Miho. Ever since their parents died they've been living together, getting by as best they can and never feeling lonely because they've got each other. The Suruga sisters have a very special secret: due to an unexplained physical phenomenon, a sensation shared by one Suruga sister will be felt by the other two, no matter where they are. If one sister were to prick her finger, for example, the other two would feel the same pain...and if one of the girls becomes sexually excited, the other two will instantly feel the same emotions, no matter where they are or what situation they're in. As they go about their daily lives, each girl never knows when she'll become sexually aroused by the emotions of the other sisters, which certainly has some bizarre consequences for all three of them in this dramatic hentai RPG. Game is localized and has multiple English reviews. 17. Fukakutei Sekai no Tantei Shinshi 不確定世界の探偵紳士 [000421] Abel Software 1 2 3 4 Agyou Souma, the protagonist, is the IDLA Class A Detective. IDLA stands for International Detective License Agency. It's a highly respectable agency that evaluates and classifies a detective based on one's ability as a detective, from Class A to Class F. There are only 30 Class A detective in the whole world and there are only 2 Class A detective in Japan. IDLA also collects all kinds of requests and offers them to the detectives to work on it. Its base is located in London. Of course, Souma is the type of person who most likely won't accept any cases from the IDLA. He is a stoic, brooding man of few words, his incredible observation and deduction skills are tempered by his abysmal luck. He can't even step out for a cup of coffee without the cafe being robbed, or cross the street without walking into a firefight between two rival gangs. Still, what can he do? Life goes on... Over the course of the game, Souma works on four separate (but simultaneous) cases, each of which contains a unique storyline that is independent of the others, and meets a vast array of characters. If he clears all four cases with time to spare, a more complex, fifth case is presented. There are two English reviews of this Abel Software game. I wanted to play it too even despite the genius boy detective setting, but my pc version does not have voicing in it and this game is known for some very good seiyu. All the Enlgish and Japanese reviews agree on the point that this game is a masterpiece. 18. Heartful Memories ~Little Witch Parfait 2~ ハートフルメモリーズ 〜Little Witch Parfait 2〜 [000421] Kuroneko-san Team The protagonist, Perky, has only his name to remember, but nothing else in his memory to confirm his true identity. He is found unconscious by Parfait Sucreal near the Crabell Waterfall outside Florelmos. When Parfait allows him to recover in her house and informs him about Florelmos, as well as herself, she takes Perky to the wise witch to see if she knew anything about Perky. Unfortunately, the wise witch says she is not able to claim his identity but that he owns 500000 gold in return for keeping her keeping his sword for him. Until he collects the money by 6 months, the wise witch tells Parfait to allow Perky to stay in the Black Cat Market. New Little Witch Parfait title. That's fourth game of this franchise done within a year. A formidable persistence. 19. Sakuranbo Station さくらんぼステーション [000421] Mer Rouge Transferring into portside private school Seiouga Gakuen, the protagonist meets new friends and enjoys the school life. As spring comes about, his feelings for his classmate become more than just as friends. Since Mer Rouge consists of only female staff, this SLG is supposed to be portray the female perspective and the heroine’s actions more realistically. Characters are cute and CG are nice, but length is too short - one girl path is over in like 30 minutes. There are many girls, but still.. Text is very bad. It feels like a doujin game sold as a serious work. 20. Sho-Ki 將姫 [000421] C's Ware 1 2 The story takes place at a highschool (featuring all kinds of pupils, including robo- and catgirls). The players character (Kichijouji Kai) loves to play mahjonng and wants to become a regular member of the mahjonng-club of the school. However, at that day, when he went together with his classmate Ekoda Shoko (who secretly seems to have a crush on him) to the mahjongg-club, they arrive at a scene of horror: All the regular member of the club lie around in the room, unconscious. The tables are all broken in half. Everywhere in the room, there are mahjong-tiles scattered on the ground. Some people are even pinned to the ground with counting-sticks. So, suddenly, the whole mahjonng-club is reduced to him and Shoko. Because two people are not enough for a decent game of mahjong and in order to rebuild the mahjong-club as well as to investigate, who did that to the former mebers, Kai and Shoko start to challenge members of other clubs in mahjong. If these other club members lose, they have to join the new mahjong-club and have to tell them everything they know or suspect about the incident. I'm over-enjoyed to say that this C's Ware game has an English review and I don't need to play mahjong. 21. KoiYoubi 恋ようび [000425] 1 2 3 Day of Love is about Haruki, the main character, that knew about a girl named Maho when he was young, but forgot about her when he was older, which had made her angry when she asked him years later when he's in high school. So to get back at him for not remembering, she dresses up as a guy and lives in the same dorm as him using the alias Mao. Game is localized and has English reviews. 22. Itsu Made mo... ~Kaminaga-sanchi no Shunkashuutou~ いつまでも・・・～神長さん家の春夏秋冬～ [000427] E.G.O. Main character lives in a Shinto priest family with three of priest daughters. One day priest disappears leaving a short notice letter. At the same time hero feels a desire for his first love Ryoko. He seeks relations either inside or outside the family not with words, but with warmth. Genre is NTR. There are 40 endings with the majority being of dark devil taste, so the overall duration is huge. The worst thing about the game is that it's not voiced. I've never had a taste for NTR, so I've been mostly disgusted by the game. 23. Kanata no Mori 彼方の森 [000427] TEAM POPUP Shinichi works at the newspaper company and travels around Europe together with Mina who he met during college years. But Mina suddenly disappears during the trip. He find a witness claiming she entered the "Lost Forest" where vampire lived. Shinichi follows Mina, but gets a serious injury during a wolf attack. He finds shelter in a mansion he stumbles upon in the forest. He is greeted by the owner, two maids and Mina who lost memory. He stays at the mansion to treat his wound, but at the same time tries to restore Mina memory. A suspense themed game with not that much of a mystery in it. It's mostly about moving around the mansion and triggering all kind of events, mostly H ones. No voicing. Four heroines for capture. Many endings, but one playthrough is quite short. The biggest appeal point of the game is the picture. 24. Memories Off Pure メモリーズオフ～ピュア～ [000427] KID 1 2 Memories Off: Pure game takes place a few years prior to the events in Memories Off. Tomoya and Ayaka are neighbors who communicate with each other through their bedroom windows and who attend the same junior high school with Yue. There's an English review of this game. 25. Aries Aries -アリエス- [000428] Circus A fallen angel studying in a "special angel school" to become independent has to go to earth to study the behavior of regular humans. This particular angel doesn't understand love well, and comes to live a happy campus life with the protagonist to better her understanding of it. Well, I hated this game for a long time even without knowing anything about the game just because it's a Circus game that spawned such a huge number of side stories and fandisks. Now knowing the contents I can only cite Zen from Micchi blog: "Aries may quite possibly become the worst game ever made, to the point I cannot decide which is worse, Aries or Card Captor Sakura. I honestly cannot see a company getting away with a game like this unless there are a lot more lonely pedophiles in the world than I could have possibly imagined. I for one shall pray to every god and demon I can think of for the next nine years if necessary in the hope of burning this company to the ground before they can visit any more of such misery upon the world." 26. Fugue ~Kimi to Boku no Uta~ Fugue ～きみとぼくのうた～ [000428] C's Ware BLITZ Masaki happens upon his classmate Futaba who ran away from home. She forces him to come with her to a closed-down school in the countryside. He then noticed that there were many other runaway girls who lived in there. The only review found affirms that it's a short game in an abandoned school with three girls. Coversation is loose. I know it's C's Ware BLITZ, but looks like they don't really stand up to the fame of parent brand. If only there was some quirk... 27. Gyousatsu♥Shinsengumi Hitokiri Bishoujo Adventure 行殺♥ 新選組　人斬り美少女あどべんちゃ～ [000428] Liar-soft End of Edo period, Kyoto. Hero becomes a part of a newly-formed Shinsengumi unit. He is to protect Kyoto from the evil hands of Kinno (Kyushu) and develop relations with squad female members such as Hijikata and Okita. Despite the real historical period, events are mostly comical and beyond time limits. For example, heroines often appeal to human rights protection. Depending on the value of real "absurdity" parameter in the game you can get rid of the great devil coming to Kyoto with a 88 mm cannon, cyborgs or panda samurai. If this game was released by some shady brand it would be blocked. But it's Liar-soft title! And a supercrazy one! Moreover, I'm going to block next Liar-soft title Bloomers 2000 for fetishism, so I'll try to pour all my love on Shinsengumi. I opened web.archive introduction page of the game and there's so much love in there that I'm really shocked. It has about 12 pages about different aspects of the game including lots of history ones. There's a very fun opening here. But let's get to the game already. Story is full of absurd. Lots of parts aren't explained and there are crazy shifts from one topic to another. But it's not just pure entertainment, there are a lot of historical figures and there's a lot of history involved. As you can see on the screenshot there are like seven parameters (but most of them are ignored, lol) and there's constant need to meet different people and improve popularity. You can borrow money or can sit without money - it actually does not matter at all. A serious quiz is used while borrowing. Heroine is determined by first several choices, so capture is rather easy. One playthrough is also short enough. That can be expressed in short as Serious bakage. Absurd? Yes, but it suits perfectly for this game. There's an absolutely magical atmosphere created. So is this a masterpiece? YES! But only if you are ok with historical parodies, if you know Japanese history (or watched couple shinsengumi doramas) relatively well and if you can understand specific Liar-soft humor. Too many "If" but luckily I totally fit in here. 28. Hana Kasumi 花霞 [000428] Pink Post Hero is a student in Tokyo university and he's taking part-time job as home tutor. He soon realizes that both heroines who take his lessons have feelings for him, but they are too shy to confess. They study diligently in hope to enter the same university as the hero and confess then. However... Scenario unfolds slowly, then manages to confuse greatly, confuse immensely and ends abruptly with solving everything. The problem is that hero becomes uncontrollable and does really stupid things. The only good points of this game is graphics and not bad music. 29. Koutei Heika ni Narou! 皇帝陛下になろう！ [000428] Aaru While our king was visiting his dying teacher, he found and released a girl sealed in a tree. It seems his teacher had sealed her because she came from the underworld. What he released was just her spirit. To get her body back, he has to find medals that his teacher gave to other kings. Well, he has four commanders to help him do that. He can also get some princesses too, if he want to. A strategy game with battles. You control four people and determine their order. Some guys are better at fighting some opponents, so there's the need to constantly shift your party order. Can only say that I did not succeed in that having someone constantly dying in a flow of battle. 30. Love Mate ~Koi no Rehearsal~ Love Mate ～恋のリハーサル～ [000428] Mink Co., Ltd. Kazuto is a new teacher at a prestigious girl’s school and was asked to be the drama club’s advisor. He had heard many great things about the drama club, so he was nervous accepting the position. However, afterwards he found out that there’s only one member in the club and that it is in danger of becoming disbanded. So they have to try to recruit as many students to save the club! To recruit students, you have to go around the school, interacting with girls and being able to relate to their interests. There’s lots of girls to ask to join, so it’s up to you to decide on whom you want to join the club. I do not trust Mink - almost all their games turn out to be ero-centered. Here we're supposed to gave a pure love romance game. Very low difficulty, no story and lots of heroines. It's a light comedy. But the selling point of the game is interactive touching system during H-scenes. Mink can't be trusted indeed... 31. Magical☆Antique まじかる☆アンティーク [000428] Leaf 1 Leaf’s newest game is a business SLG+ADV. After the protagonist’s parents left one day to find more antiques overseas, he took over running the family antique shop. Later he meets Sophie, who comes from the magic world, and she helps out at the shop. Gah! Two games of little witch parfait type in one month! There's an English review and Micchi commentary on the game which should be enough. 32. Night Work ~Yachou no I-ta-zu-ra~ ナイトワーク ～夜蝶のイ・タ・ズ・ラ～ [000428] Mutation Main character becomes a host in a night club after falling victim to restructuring of the company. The night club is having difficulties and may shut down in two months time, so they don't mind recruiting a newcomer without experience. It can be called a SIM since you need to attend work to earn money and walk around the city to trigger meetings with girls. The aim to become the best host. For that it's needed to raise favorability of different characters and get H events with them. Difficulty is really high. At least all characters are mature. 33. Phantom Knight Mugen no Meikyuu II ファントムナイト　夢幻の迷宮II [000428] Software House Parsley 1 Several months after the battle of Desert City, the desertification of the earth is growing. People call this phenomenon "phantom phenomenon." Main character is an elite knight who gets into a survey team to fulfill royal mission. Well, system and the content is pretty much like the prequel. But here there'a automatic dungeon generation. 34. Senpai せんぱい [000428] Moon Main character admires his senpai who is graduating in a few days. Will he have the time to confess his feelings or look for other girls instead? A self-proclaimed pure love game, but actually the period is so small that it looks much more like nanpa with multiple H events for each character. Moreover, if all three senpai are captured, there's senpai harem ending, and if all the kohai are captured, there's kohai harem ending. Hardly anything pure in that. BLOCKED 1. Choukyou Reijou 2 調教令嬢? [000401] Soft Circle Courreges The next target of insult is a female teacher with a baby face. Nukige 2. R no Houkago Magyaku Rape Hen Rの放課後 魔虐レイプ編 [000404] NenGollo Software After school rape card game series now features fantasy elements. The targets for hard rape are sister Himeno, busty glasses girl Nozomi and mother-in-law Chizuru. Doujin Nukige 2. Believe ~Shitsuyoku no Tenshi-tachi~ Believe ～失翼の天使達～ [000406] DNA Main character is an excellent student trusted all over the school. However, one day he gets to die. A mysterious man appears before him and says that protagonist's soul can be pardoned in exchange for 200 million yen. The end date is his next birthday. But how is protagonist supposed to gather such an outrageous sum of money with just working part-time at a coffee shop? He finds a way out. He starts to lure his friends at coffee shop basement and there train girls into slaves. Nukige SIM 3. Harukanaru Toki no Naka De 遙かなる時空の中で [000406] Koei On the first day of a new school term, high school student Akane Motomiya, her classmate Tenma Morimura, and their underclass friend Shimon Nagareyama are sucked into a mysterious old well. When they awake, they are in Kyō, another world that resembles Kyoto during the Heian Period. According to the young scion of the Star Clan, Fujihime, Akane is the Ryūjin no Miko, who has come to save Kyō from the ambitions of the Oni Clan. In this task, the Akane has the help of eight men known as the Hachiyō, and her friends Tenma and Shimon number among them. Initially, Akane is bewildered by her new circumstances, but she gradually comes to face up to her own destiny and understand the world of Kyō. Otome 4. Clever Magic クレバーマジック [000407] Helios Main character is a charismatic hairdresser in a beauty salon for celebrities. He uses his skill to drag the visiting guests one after another to the world of desire. Nukige 5. Milky Space ~Kanashiki Sexroid~ MilkySpace ～悲しきセクサロイド～ [000407] Mesa In the 22nd century versatile sex tool "Sexaroid" is accepted socially for survival of mankind. In such an era main character dies with his brain preserved and later resurrected as "Sexaroid". Eventually he is assigned to the education corporation "Tellar College" where he needs to train four androids choreography during navigation and relief in emergency situations (including libido stress relief). Nukige 6. Pure Doll [000407] Triangle Main character gets a female type bioroid from some mad scientist. She is built as a real girl, but lacks human emotions. That will need to be fixed in three weeks time. Nukige 7. Katei Kyoushi Ryoujoku Lesson 家庭教師～陵辱レッスン～ [000414] Beenyan Sister-in-law requests main character's help as tutor. She can not even guess what kind of character is hidden behind hero's innocent eyes. Her beautiful mother will also make a delicious prey. Nukige 8. Nise Scout ~Guuzou Muhiden~ 偽スカウト ～偶像夢悲伝～ [000414] Vision Main character pretends to be an idol promotion manager. He skillfully deceives girls and insults them afterwards. Nukige 9. Paranoia ~Kyouki no Yami~ パラノイア ～狂気の闇～ [000414] Zero Main character gets fired for sexual harassment. While wondering around the town he stumbles upon some ruins. Inside he finds a trunk filled with money. He swears to have his revenge on the former coworkers with the found treasure. Nukige 10. Synchronize Dream シンクロナイズ・ドリーム [000414] TinkerBell 1 Due to a strange experiment by Rumi, the main character and his childhood friend Youko keep on having the same ecchi dreams every night. In this dream world, the way he interacted with people after school changed. There was no sense of embarassment and he could act out everything he wanted to do with Youko in his (and her) imagination. Nukige 11. Jii 2 ~Kohitsuji-tachi no Nemurenai Yoru~ 自慰2～仔羊達の眠れない夜～ [000421] Candy Soft A catholic female college in the Meiji Era. Old priest gets hurt and hero is invited as a temporary priest substitute. Main character decides to defile this garden of innocent angels. Nukige 12. Manatsu no Yoru no Yume 真夏の夜の夢 [000421] BeF Hero suffers from nightmare dreams. Once a woman appears before him and promises to get rid of nightmares. Hero gets to a pavilion of a prison world. In order to get cured of nightmares and return to his world he needs to get past all the rooms each having a room ruler girl and eventually get the key from the owner of pavilion. Nukige 13. Mashiro no Takarabako ましろの宝箱 [000421] R.A.N Software A fandisc of Rainy Blue that contains bonus music tracks, screensaver, CD player and a short story based on the original game. Fandisc 14. Omokage 俤 ～おもかげ～ [000421] Jade Main character receives an invitation from his classmate girl to investigate disappearance of a Taiwanese at a western mansion. They are greeted by the old maid of the house, but then get trapped inside the mansion. And terrible events start to happen... Nukige 15. Rinjin Mousou ~Danchizoku no Hirusagari~ 隣人妄想 ～団地族の昼下がり～ [000421] Sepia Main character moves to a flat in a five stored building. He spends days and nights getting to know the neighbors and their secrets. Nukige 16. Virtual Toukou Club バーチャル投稿倶楽部 [000421] Nekotama Main character stumbles upon an adult site where all his daring dreams come true. Nukige 17. Wai 猥 [000421] Hyperspace Main character is a guru of an emerging religion. His religion is not very popular with ladies. He uses time shifts to bring lady followers from different times, like kunoichi from the Edo period or a British girl from Meiji era. Nukige 18. Sumire すみれ [000422] Hiyoko Soft (old) Main character suddenly gets in a situation set by his father when he has to live alone with three bride candidates under the same roof for several weeks. Nukige 19. Lemon ~Kageetei Nostalgia~ 檸檬 ～影絵亭ノスタルジヤ～ [000424] 13cm Our guy likes a girl working in his uncle's cafe. Once he got ownership of the cafe from his uncle, he found out the this cafe is special and the girls do extra work. He put a stop to that and now 5 girls only serve him at night. Can he go from H to love? Nukige 20. Body Hacker ボディハッカー [000428] Kurumi Main character is a geek person who works part-time at an idol training school. He discovers a talent to possess people, animals, and insects. He uses this ability to make aspiring idols his slaves. Nukige 21. Gyakusatsu 虐撮 [000428] Nanami Tougarashi Dan May 3rd, 2000, the last Golden Week of the 20th century. Main character is a professional photographer. He arrives at Hanekawa-cho where he eavesdrops girls stories, then insults the girls and captures it all in the photography. Nukige 22. Net Stalker ~Kyouhaku kara Ryoujoku e~ ネットストーカー ～脅迫から陵辱へ～ [000428] Lune Main character attends a computer class at school and discovers nasty and humiliation pictures of his classmates. Once the secret is known, his curiosity turns into intimidation and then to insult. Nukige 23. Pinup Girls ピンナップガールズ [000428] Libido Our guy is the new keyboard player in three girl band. He has to practice for the upcoming amateur band festival. While doing that, he can chase 8 girls the normal or mania way. Nukige 24. Seishun Ouka 性春謳歌 [000428] Apple Pie Main character is a romantic student who lives with his father. One day his father remarries and hero suddenly gets a mother-in-law and two sisters-in-law. Nukige 25. Great Hunting ぐれえとハンティング [000428] Daiginjou Set traps and catch animal girls! After girl is caught, it's time for mischief ! Nukige

Absolutely forgot about about beliar blog although I had read it before and had his reviews indexed prior to my wiki wipe. Thanks for reminding! Somehow Urobuchi Gen is not my type of writer. Madoka had the biggest impact on me of his works. They lack depth for me. Psycho-Pass was finally something promising in that field, but even its last prolonged uncut version is not as clean as I'd wish it to be and by the end there were more and more events without proper explanation. I have not touched Fate universe apart of Fate/Stay Night and Mahoutsukai no Yoru, but I really feel bad about returning to the same story/concept over and over and over again over decades just because it's still popular. Saya no Uta is a very refreshing kind of work, but kind of short and it's too popular so don't even want to spill a single word about it. Kikokugai and Vampiridzhija are just senseless bursts of special effects. He had lots of failure works as well in my opinion like Outlaw Django and Gargantia. Hopefully there will enough of reviews for his other visual novels so I won't say any more bad things about him, hehe.

Eve Zero is the game of the Month March 2000. The other masterpiece of the month is Harlem Blade II, but it's only suitable for those who appreciate RPG. 1. Harlem Blade II ~Dark Angel~ ハーレムブレイドII～Dark Angel～ [000303] Giga Our guy left his childhood girl and went to war against a monster after his father got killed in it. When he came back a year later, he was just in time to see his childhood girl taken away by the monster's army. He joined the resistance and started to find her. Within 30 days, he can help girls who will join him in the fight. Picture becomes anime'ish and flow is rather comic. Game balance has improved. Overall the story is solid and gameplay is enjoyable. It's well worth a masterpiece title for those who appreciate RPG. 2. Rendezvous Rendezvous ～ランデブー～ [000303] Melody Bar "Rendezvous" quietly waits for visitors in the corner of the city. People from different circles spend time here. Tonight romance awaits you... Well, this is an antology and needs to be blocked by my rules. But these are 19 scenarios that all happen in the same bar. It can be said that the bar is the main character here, so it does not really feel like all kind of weird stories gathered together. What stands out in this game is a shic atmosphere of jazz and neat graphics. Stories vary greatly and it's only sad that the length of each story is not too long. All character are adults, of course. So a nice work for a change of pace. 3. Hikari o... 光を… [000310] LiLiM 1 The story takes place in a common town. Your parents disappeared long time ago leaving you and your half sister. You go blind after a car accident because of your little sister. Doc says some day after some special event (hint) you will regain your sight, maybe. So there you live your miserable life not being able to see all the cute girls around you. Until you regain your sight, you predict the appereance of the girls they have now with your memories. There's an English review of it. 4. Into Your World [000310] Mermaid Our guy got a no name game in the mail. When he played it, he end up in a mansion where 3 maids(big, middle, small) work for him. Now, waking up in the morning by his real world childhood girl, he attend class and can chase her or another school girl. Back home after school, he plays his maid game. If he manage to win a maid, she will be with him one way or another. Story is really bad in this game. There's nothing to do in the main route in-between stand-alone events. There are girls in both worlds, but the capture is done in fictional world while real world is a chore that needs to be played just because maid route won't flag without it. This is just a mediocre quality work that's not really impressive enough to talk about. 5. Mahoutsukai no Deshi 魔法使いの♀弟子 [000310] Deeps Cute magician apprentice Lefuur commonly called as Fu Fu is the main heroine of the game. She is in love with her mentor wizard Klimt and will go any lengths to fulfill his difficult requests. This is a full scale rpg with exploration, items, battles, parameters and magic constructor system to mix different magic. There are 30 quests to do and each quest is basically an independent scenario. Battle system and especially magic construction were too confusing for me. 6. Utagoe 2 ~Dance Mix~ 淫声2 ～DANCE MIX～ [000310] Succubus Main character is a genius guitarist and producer. His task now is to train a four girl unit "BLMAX" and win the Grand Prix a competition held in three months time. As of now they don't sell at all, but it's a private request from his colleague Risa, and hero's indebted to her too much to refuse. For those who remember a prequel, that was pretty much a nukige SIM. Here things are even worse. Now it's a baka nukige. Here performance is one big H scene as well. Just leaving it here, because the cover and the synopsis look innocent enough, but the reality is very different. 7. Virgin Snow [000310] Essence It's a cold winder day. Suddenly a warm feeling is born inside me. It gently melts the frozen heart. It's a soft warmth like the sun in winter. It was that one encounter that gave me warmth. A generic AVG. System is bad (like only 4 save slots) and tempo is bad and only gets worse further on. Text and scenario are bad. There are only four locations to go. One playthrough is over in an hour, so there's just not enough development. 8. Aitakute... ~Your Smiles in My Heart~ あいたくて… 〜your smiles in my heart〜 [000316] Konami You're in tenth grade, your parents are out of the country for a year, and your new private school has affairs of the heart as a major elective. If that isn't reason enough to get chummy with the opposite sex, you're also a teenage male, and your father has decided that he'll find you a "really nice" girlfriend if you can't do it yourself. Throw in the fact that the only person you know at this new school is a Casanova who turned down a top-ten prep school because it wasn't coed, and one has the ingredients for a good old-fashioned romance sim. As Ichinose Sinya, the player examines a variety of sloe-eyed high school girls through his daily interactions with them in the school environment. Once their characters, dispositions, and interest (or lack thereof) in the player become more clear through their own statements and interactive events, the pursuit phase begins. The first goal -- one that is traditionally laid out as the be-all and the end-all in romance sims -- is to make yourself agreeable to the girl and eventually ask her out on a date. The tedious details of daily life can be taken care of selecting "Everyday Goals" in the auto-play configuration. Personality parameters can be adjusted either to the player's tastes or some chosen girl's preferences. For the more important things, manual play mode will allow the player to arrange the hot date by phoning to ask a girl out, reserving concert tickets, and buying presents. The player can also stake out a nice romantic spot or find a part-time job to pay for all this extravagance. Well, description pretty much contains review in itself. A dating SIM that tries to invent something new like nicknames or long dates. 9. Natsuiro Kenjutsu Komachi 夏色剣術小町 [000316] GungHo Works Natsuiro Kenjutsi Komachi is about a school tournament and the player takes the role of Akira, the captain of the athletic team of the Katsuragi Hall High School. Natsuiro Kenjutsi Komachi is the typical dating simulation game in which the player's character will encounter different kind of girls to date. During the game the player's character can also participate in different kind of activities (sports, studying, etc) to improve his stats and have more chances to date the girls. The game uses a first person perspective in the adventure part and third person in the activities part. It's mostly a comedy work. Kendo actually takes a good half of the time and girls have to make with the rest. There are some 5 kendo matches. Quite a typical dating SIM otherwise. 10. Animal Magnetism ~Pochi no Daisuki~ あにまる・まぐねてぃずむ～ぽちのだいすき～ [000317] Gainax 1 Pochi is left alone by her owner. How will she cope with her newfound desperation? Basically it's reinventing Battle Skin Panic. Same card battles plus introducing animal appeal. I've lost faith in Gainax as game maker a long time ago, it always ends up in minimal story and maximal gameplay. 11. Elise Elise ～エリーゼ～ [000317] Airyu Our guy is a columnist that write about people's relationship base on their sign, blood type and other stuff. It's funny giving love advice when he doesn't even have a girlfriend. He has 4 prospects, one of them being his old girlfriend that left him without notice. Can he find a lasting girlfriend before Christmas eve in less than a month? A normal galge with a twist in form of blood type and horoscope. There is also "gears" system which calls to listen to the girl and make suitable for her actions during H scene, otherwise scene ends abruptly. Each girl has a different psychological problem that you need to cure. There are only four heroines and game is short. 12. Kimon Youitan 鬼門妖異譚 [000317] Cherry Soft The hero was living a normal school life, but recently some strance incident has happened around it. The hero has the blood of ancient demon flowing and thus he is chosen to stop the resurrection of "Kidon" that threatens Tokyo. Will you fight to destroy the threat or become a demon yourself and destroy humankind? There are story (AVG part) and battle (SRPG part) sections. Battles use anime'ish figures and animation. The "double" realease improved the SRPG part, but it still is unsatisfactory as a serious RPG. Balance gets a bit off closer to the ending. There are two different rountes - human and orge (demon). Ogre one has some dark H-scenes in it. Graphics of the game are mostly beautiful, yet specific, but gameplay makes this game just a good game, not a great one. 13. V.G. Adventure V.G. Adventure [000317] Giga A text-based adventure game featuring the V.G. waitresses. The player takes control of Tamao Mitsurugi as she attempts to locate the missing Yuka Takeuchi and foil Miranda's latest plot. Fights are executed in a rock-paper-scissors fashion. With each successful attack, energy is added to a super meter that appears under the fighter's lifebar. Once full, the fighter can unleash a powerfully (in most characters' cases) unblockable attack. While Tamao is the only playable character in the story mode, there is a CPU versus mode that allows the player to pick from any character in the game. Game is very short and can be finished in 30 minutes. Basically all the choices are fake ones and there's just one storyline. The core of the game is battles than need to be won for the story to go on. And inevitably there's a H scene after each win, so the overall impression of the game is just multiple consequent H scenes. 14. Yuki no Kanata ゆきのかなた [000317] Rune Hero was adopted by Takamori family at the age of 15 and he has no memory of previous years. Now he returns there after two years of absence and finds a lot of sisters-in-law. He also meets a girl with magic and gets involved in affairs of a mysterious organization. What is the mystery about hero's past? There are a lot of gaps in the story and the whole scenario holds on the fact that nothing about the mysteries gets explained. With each playthrough new path is opened. Hero is granted some powers, but he's afraid to used them because something bad may happen. Ending is not satisfactory as it hardly explains anything. It looks like one big imitation of Kizuato and MOON. It's generally a comedy. There are a lot of bad endings and a lot of insult scenes to moe characters. So evaluation mostly depends on whether you can bear with the cryptic scenario or not. 15. Infinity [000323] KID This is the first title completely created and produced by KID, origin of infinity series. The game features five scenarios, one for each main heroine. "Infinity Cure." features two new scenarios: 'Yuka Cure' and 'Cure Izumi'. All these scenarios are included in the game "Never7 -The End of Infinity-", with 'Yuka Cure' as an append story in the PC version. So this game is the prototype of Never7 - The End of Infinity. It shared the plot and the loop structure with it. First release could not be completed due to a bug. Besides that the true route after 4 usual routes is totally anticlimactic and underdone. KID admitted that and was selling Infinity for a very low price instead focusing on correcting mistakes in Never7 - The End of Infinity. 16. 4m [000324] Kurumi Our guy's high school friend asked him to help his sister. It seems that she lost all emotions after a car accident that killed her parents. He need to help her get back her happiness, anger, sadness and love. Can he do it? Game is not exactly a nukige, so I'll let it slip. This is a very cheap low quality game. The core of the game is helping the girl to regain four emotions. The nice thing about the game is that it's possible to teach these emotions in any proportions, like it's possible to grow a girl who is angry all the time. Scenario is short, and the few sub-characters that exist are unattractive. 17. Majokko★roid Kururu-chan 魔女ッ娘★ロイド クルルちゃん [000324] A2 Near future. It's the boom for androids and many schools have Muppet research clubs. At a certain high school famous for androids there is a war around elections of student council president. At worst case scenario strict regulations are going to be laid on android research. Main character is an android research club member with a strong sense of justice. These bakage have the most confusing synopsis. The story here is just one huge collapse, and the game is regarded as kusoge because of that everywhere. But the characters are quite nice. It's mostly a quiz game as the battles are arranged in that manner. But the problem is that quiz is very difficult and just outdated as mechanics from the 1980s-90s. 18. Puzzle de Maid パズルDEメイド [000324] Marimo Main character is lots in a forest. He encounters three maids who claim that hero can't leave the forest till he passes through all their challenges Basically just a tetris with modified rules with H adv events as reward. 19. Rebirth [000324] Pinpai 1 Main character is a seemingly ordinary university student who lives with his sister. But in fact he has only memory of recent events after he miraculously survived the car accident that took lives of his parents. He often sees a dream where an unknown woman "Chisa" calls him by an unfamiliar name. That woman strangely reminds him his sister. One summer hero gets invited to work as assistant to professor villa together with other students. However, it's not the professor who greets him, but a mysterious woman... There is an English review. 20. Silk Do~Ro しるくど～ろ [000324] Saba Princess Silk just reached adulthood. There's a legend that once per thousand years princess has to play a special game. If she looses the purity of her heart, then a demon will emerge and destroy the whole world. According to minister's calculation, this is exactly the year of the challenge. Princess Silk takes the road... Mini games are only triggered when Silk uses magic. There are chapters, but each chapter is short, and there are sudden H events that avert quite much. There is no real aim or intrigue. There's no enemy. The ending lacks expressive force. 21. Synchro シンクロ [000324] Sheep There are two stories linked by the same hero Azusa. In first story Azusa sees the same dream every day - her junior is depressed by her disappeared friend. With the cooperation of psychiatrists, Azusa approaches the identity of the criminal .... In the second story the theater department starts to use the stage of underground auditorium. However, suddenly they get cut off the exit trapped underground. The voice of the woman who disappeared last year starts to resonate in the air and the figure of the first victim appears... A horror adventure. Every mistake leads to a bad end. And it's impossible to assume where each choice leads by the variants. The scenarios are too shallow, the reading itself becomes a chore. There are a lot of insult H scenes. It's hard to say what developers were trying to make. The ending lacks any satisfaction except for that it's finally over with. 22. Yuugen Gaisha London Star ~Koi no Double Click~ 有限会社ロンドン☆スター ～恋のだぶるくりっく～ [000324] Ivory Our guy lives with his older sister. Since he doesn't have much to do while going to university, she found him a part time job at her best friend's company. It turns out there are 6 girls in that place, including his sister's best friend, the owner of that H game company(London Star). During two months work, he can chase a girl by helping her, if his personality matches the girl's. His personality is determined by some questions during game start, and affect by some in game choices. His older sister is one like none I have seen before in a H game. She plays the role usually a childhood girl would play, waking him up in the morning with real wrestling moves, especially if it is his turn to cook breakfast. Most unusual is that she is just there for support and can't be chased, unless you count the bad ending comfort part. Period is two months and majority of days there's no events, so pace is not good. There are six heroines and if you totally fail there is a comfort ending with the imouto. Notably there is autoplay feature. In the prologue there are choices that build up hero's personality and the suitable girl is mostly decided by his personality. Girls are grown-up eroge games production specialists and it's refreshing for a galge. 23. Dolls Front -Ningyou-tachi no Senjou- Dolls Front -人形達の戦場- [000330] Zombies Paradigm Twelve countries are fighting with their robotized armies in this world. Hero defeats the queen of one such country and gets a powerful black armor machine and the girl who serves as a key to using that machine. Main character will need to use all his wits and skills to conquer the world. A strategy with lots of insult scenes and not really appealing graphics. 24. EVE Zero EVE ZERO [000330] C's Ware "Eve Zero" is a prequel to the famous detective/mystery adventure Eve Burst Error. You control once again the two main heroes of the series: the witty and womanizing private investigator Kojiroh Amagi, and the beautiful red-haired secret agent Marina Hojo. The events of the game take place shortly before those of "Eve Burst Error". Kojiroh is working at Katsuragi Detective Office together with his girlfriend Yayoi. Dr. Nishina, the head of a genetic research facility, hires Kojiroh to investigate the disappearance of his son Shin. At the same time, Marina receives an assignment from her boss Kono, which involves watching over a representative of an American company. As in all EVE games, the two stories appear unrelated in the beginning and are gradually linked together later in the game. Ever wondered what was Marina's previous assignment, with whom did Kyoko Himuro work before, or what exactly happened to Genzaburo Katsuragi when he was still the chief of Katsuragi Detective Office? Cared to know more about the appealing protagonist, Kojiroh Amagi? "Eve Zero" gives the answers to those questions. Damn, I'm already playing EVE:TFA and it looks like EVE Zero should be played before it since in the last days there are links to events of EVE Zero. Anyway, from what I've seen already in EVE Zero it's definitely a masterpiece. But my full review of it along with video playthrough is pending. I won't get to next year till cover everything in 2000, so "sometime soon". 25. Power Pro Kun Pocket 2 パワプロクンポケット2 [000330] Konami The story moves to Power Pro Kun's professional team "Drill Moggers" unlike school team in the prequel. The stakes arise. This gameboy series does not spark me with enthusiasm. 26. Meitantei Conan: Kigantou Hihou Densetsu 名探偵コナン 奇岩島秘宝伝 [000331] Banpresto In this game you must play as Conan, Sonoko, and Kogoro, as they all obtain clues to solve the crime. Miki and Satomi Togawa from the previous game return. Gameboy detective series is an instant NO. 27. Fern ~Dakara Kimi no Koto~ fern ～だからきみのこと～ [000331] Apple Pie Two weeks till protagonist moves to Hokkaido university. The departure makes hero recognize the existence of his sister-in-law Nagisa once again as he needs a person to take care of the house. His feelings still linger for her. There are a lot of other nice characters around the hero at the university. A lot may happen in two weeks time. There are a lot of days when nothing happens and that only prolongs game unnecessarily. There are a lot of forced events involving Nagisa so it looks painful if you target girl other than Nagisa. But Nagisa concept is also blurred with a lot of other heroines added to the mix. Message speed is adjustable, but there is not skipping function - that kills repeatability. All operations are done with mouse only and there are multiple windows that keep moving. So quite a normal galge, but with really bad systems. 28. Girigiri Date ぎりぎりでぃと [000331] Active Main character has a date appointed with a girl at a hotel on the day she gets of legal age. However, he gets delayed at his part-time job and risks cancelling the date. By strange coincidence all the transport in the city starts to have huge problems. Hero needs to use train, bus, taxi, hitchhiking and just walking to get to his aim. Will he manage to arrive in time? Basically after prologue we get to choose the means of transportation and on the way experience multiple temptations. Contents is simple and each story is short, around an hour. There are seven girls overall. It's not blocked as nukige mostly because synopsis is quite neutral. 29. Niji no Arika 虹のありか [000331] Tea Project Hero graduates from high school at his home town and goes to Tokyo to realize his dream. However, he fails at that and has to return back to his home town. There he meets old acquaintances and discovers places and people he never knew. Scenario is inconsistent and quite short for every heroine. The otaku dreams theme is quite embarrassing. But what actually kills the game is bugs. Two patches are released to fix them, but only the tip of the iceberg is covered. Inability to save, freezes and slow text speed are just few of them. 30. Tenran no Natsu 天藍の夏 [000331] System Rose Hero is living alone in Tokyo and is persuaded to visit his home town by his mother. He will need to take care of parents' ryoukan for a month. He is surprised to find out that there are girls in his hometown waiting for him. There's a short scenario for each of the six girls. One playthrough is about 2 hours. Only three girls icons are shown on the map and the rest three are needed to discover yourself, but difficulty level is relatively low. Atmosphere is light and relaxed. But the number of H events is rather big, so it's a borderline work. 31. Zetsumetsu King -Seikimatsu Inran Kyousoukyoku- 絶滅キング-世紀末淫乱狂想曲- [000331] Jam Main character calls himself Extinct King (Zetsumetsu King) who has the power to destroy all life on Earth. He sets an aim to have sex with seven women in a month time, but alas he does not have the power to control the will of the girls, so he starts with nanpa. It's easy to confuse this game for a nukige, but it's actually a bakage with a lot of parodies. There is a Taito Era visual style everywhere even though the period is nowadays. Game is based on classmate, but the difficulty of the game is very high. There is a concept of time, the use of items, money, favorability rates, dating, presents etc, so it's a very difficult SIM that's not for everyone to crack. BLOCKED 1. Houtou Sennyo ~Amai Shiru no Yuuwaku~ 放蕩仙女 ～甘い汁の誘惑～ [000302] Megami Main character is an ordinary student. He dates a cute girl Nana for over a month, but they aren't even holding hands yet. One day a loli girl appears before him. She claims to be a goddess of love and sacrifice who came to help make his ambitions fulfilled. She passes him a pill saying that it will help make all the girls he likes belong to him. Nukige 2. Memories Natsuiro no Kioku Memories 夏色の記憶 [000303] Otemoto Parents go on a year long overseas business trip while main character stays to take care of his two sisters. And little by little desires of forbidden love awaken. Nukige 3. Seifuku Paradise 制服パラダイス [000303] Hyperspace Main hero has a uniform fetish. His hobby is to cosplay, visit cosplay events and make photos of cute girls for a cosplay specialized journal. It's every cosplayer girl dream to have a feature article in such a journal. And they agree on different conditions set by the main character for such a beneficial publication... Nukige 4. Inu 犬 [000310] D-XX A girl is dragged into the manhole to the sewers. She does not know anymore whether she's dead or alive, asleep or awake... what's the meaning of such life? Nukige 5. Maid Neko-san wa Ikaga Desu ka? ~Kikaijikake no Koi Monogatari~ メイドねこさんはいかがですか？～機械じかけの恋物語～ [000310] Masys One day during college 's summer vacation main character receives a huge baggage sent from his father. Inside is a a humanoid robot Ren with cat ears and a tail. It turns out she is constructed by hero's father and is sent for testing during 40 days. Despite being produced to handle maid duties, Ren has a lot of failures. But hero gets attached to her anyway. Nukige 6. Message ~Todoke Kono Omoi~ Message ～届けこの想い～ [000310] Waffle Main character scheduled to set on a night trip alone, but the information got leaked, and he ended up accompanied by six more boys and girls. They have to seek shelter at a certain mansion in the woods. They are greeted by the maid saying "I've been waiting for you for a long time". Thus their horror night began. Nukige 7. @Setsuzoku ＠セツゾク [000310] Spice Soft An adult simulation game that simulates surfing internet pornographic sites experience. More than 20 adult girls and 320 photos are presented. Nukige 8. Yoru ni Saku Hana 夜陰ニ咲ク華 [000310] Haoh Main character is rejected by Satoko without explaining the reason. In order to forget about the girl he sets off to an outlying prostitution island that is not listed in travel guides. Nukige 9. Para Para ぱらパラ [000310] Studio B-Room Main character fails during his first experience with childhood friend Ringo. It was Ringo's mother Momoko who helped him during this depressing time. The relationship becomes more and more awkward as physical relations with Momoko continue at the same time that protagonist dates Ringo. Nukige 10. Natural Petit ナチュラル プチ [000322] Fairytale A fandisc with promo materials for Natural 2 game and lots of information on original Natural game: wallpapers, system voice collection, capture hints, heroines library room and staff corner. Fandisc 11. Baby Face Baby Face ～ベビーフェイス～ [000324] Oz Project 1 The hero here is a loser guy (who resembles the infamous Isaku) who flunked the college entry exam for the 3rd year running. He is not the "In" kind of person and does not know what's fashionable or not. His every attempt to search for a female companion ended up with the female party calling him "Disgusting!","Pervert!" etc... Being such a loser, he decided to commit suicide one summer, but he is not satisfied with going without enjoying the ultimate life experience in life, that is "Encounter With The Female Kind!" And he is going to do it the crooked way, by being a tutor to young females, gaining the trust of his students, and finally.... Nukige 12. Grief Nemurenu Omoi Tsutaetakute Grief 眠れぬ想い伝えたくて [000324] AngelHearts A girl is happy to finally able to go to the school of the guy she loves. She moved into school dorm and met her room mate. Next day, she bumps into our guy in her hurry to school. Thus they meet, and our guy can chase her, his classmate/swim team girl or the swim team female captain. The first girl is easy to get and he can even share her if he really want to, thus enabling him to go after her room mate. You get to see some of the first girl's events, which show how much she love our guy. Nukige 13. Kakure Tsuki 隠れ月 [000324] Alice Blue Main heroine Sakuya is an artificial life form created by magic. She awakens in a laboratory and hears that she needs to study for 91 day with the help of assistants, but she needs to choose what she wants to study herself. Otome 14. Orgel ~Kesenai Melody~ オルゴール～消せないメロディー～ [000324] Juice This is a collection of three stories: 1. Square sky『四角い空』 is a story of pure love with a girl who is 5 years younger than hero. 2. Water balloon『水風船』is a story about Stockholm syndrome of a girl confined in a warehouse towards her offender. 3. Tokyo lover『東京恋人』is a nanpa city adventure with an innocent girl Yuka and a fantasy fairy girl Konno. Nukige + Antology 15. Over the Rainbow [000324] Fuuro Main character's elder sisters have huge debts. If hero fails to repay the debts in a year's time, his sisters are going to be deprived of their shops and sold to slavery. Nukige 16. School Days [000324] Face This game has 3 fun stories in a school. In story 1, a guy follow his teacher and learn some interesting lessons. In story 2, a guy help a girl gain confidence and love. Story 3 has a nurse playing with a female student. Antology 17. Inda 3 淫打3 [000328] Hyperspace Typing lessons are mechanical and boring, or that it was before Inda 3. Finally men can make fun out of typing... if they get enough skill. Nukige 18. Elf All Stars Datsui Jan エルフオールスターズ脱衣雀 [000330] Elf This is a strip mahjong game with characters from four Elf games(3 girls from each game) and 10 girls made for this game. You have to defeat each game's male protectors in order to play with that game's girls. Fandisc 19. Hiai 悲愛 [000331] Euphony Production Main character has been dating Yuka for a few years. But one day she just disappears and a few days later sends a letter. It contains compromising photos and confession that she does not want to live anymore. Hero swears to avenge the businessman mentioned in the letter and a few weeks later gets a job at that businessman's mansion. Nukige 20. Keiyaku 契約 [000331] Pochette One day main character wakes up in a studio he has never been before. He starts to participate in production of adult movies as an actor. The production here is illegal, so there aren't any restrictions. Nukige 21. Seido Techou 性奴手帳 [000331] WEAPON Main character has secret desire to dominate over women. There are four different girls and women right before his eyes. What kind of slaves will they make? Nukige 22. Sei Faery Gakuen Joshi Ryou 聖フェアリー学園女子寮 [000331] Gondola This is the elite girl school for higher class society. There are plans to liberalize the school, but upper class led by principal daughter oppose the idea. Main character needs to infiltrate the school, get past the guards and to the top floor where the school principal daughter resides. Nukige

The only masterpiece of February 2000 is Phantom of Inferno and thus it's the VN of the Month. I already made full video walkthrough of the game, but it got wiped with the channel, and I'm not doing it again. 1. Uzumaki ~Denshi Kaiki Hen~ うずまき ～電視怪奇篇～ [000203] Dall A visual novel adaptation of Junji Ito's 1998 horror manga, Uzumaki, for the Bandai Wonderswan. So platform is WonderSwan...ok... 2. Metamorphose ~Fifth Entrance of For Season~ メタモルフォーゼ～Fifth Entrance of For Season～ [000204] Giga Main character is a thief who infiltrates a mansion. There he meets shrine maidens Yukino and Yuu sisters. The sisters are attacked by a demonic woman. Hero manages to protect the sisters with the help of a previously stolen item. However, such magic powers have a hidden secret... Game involves concept of time, so just triggering events at different time may have a different effect. It's needed to avoid danger zones that cause alarms ring. There is also the need to use small animals to enter tight places. Giga has very uneven production results (especially when games made without Team Baldrhead). The scenario here has a distinctive kusoge feeling, and weird gameplay averts even more. 3. Rainy Blue ~6 Gatsu no Ame~ Rainy Blue ～6月の雨～ [000210] R.A.N Software 1 The protagonist and his childhood friend, Ao, both aspired to become artists, but her life was tragically cut short by a car accident. While the protagonist was despairing from the loss of his friend, a small doll that Ao had once given him came to life. The doll, named Aoi, encourages him not to give up on his life and his dreams of art. The protagonist and his childhood friend, Ao, both aspired to become artists, but her life was tragically cut short by a car accident. While the protagonist was despairing from the loss of his friend, a small doll that Ao had once given him came to life. The doll, named Aoi, encourages him not to give up on his life and his dreams of art. First of all, it's a nakige. Secondly, it's from a very good company that brought us Hajimari no Kisetsu and Silver Moon. It's the last game of this company and the one of the biggest by impact. What I like most about this game is that it is not really about girls. Girls are merely catalysts for recovery and that's why girl parts and H-events aren't really important. There is a unique message in all of the three routes and there's also a true route. But I see a tendency of overdramatization. I can't really sympathize to a hero who was on the brink of attempting a suicide. Also although the text is good, the middle of the game is serious and uneventful which makes it boring for consequent playthroughs. If you have a thing for nakige, it might easily be a masterpiece. But I don't, so it was a good try, but no. 4. Web no Naka no Kanojo ~Password ni Himerareta Nazo~ Webの中の彼女 ～パスワードに秘められた謎～ [000210] Serene Main character is a university student. He uses internet just for nanpa, but once got interested in the ruined village sinking into the dam by accident. Strange things start to happen around the hero - first he starts to receive intimidation letters, then his informant suddenly dies... As of now it's only known that it's a suspense adventure. Will update if get the game. 5. 2nd LOVE 2nd LOVE [000212] Force 1 Aizawa Kiyoshi has recently lost his childhood friend Kazuki Hikaru to a traffic accident. Not still quite feeling the reality of the situation, a certain day he awakes to see Hikaru in his room. Only she didn't have the size of a normal person, but was only about 25 cm tall. "Well, I can't return to school like this, so I'll be in your care for a while!" So their strange cohabitation starts... There is a really good English review. 6. Cave Castle Cavalier [000218] Dall Kingdom Iritutus is located underground. Main character gets a mission to clear eight levels of the dungeon, prevent devil resurrection and regain peace for the kingdom. It's an RPG with map exploration. There are 5 endings overall including bad ones. Graphics by 奈留-san is probably the biggest appeal point. The difficulty of dungeon battles is tremendous and each floor takes over an hour, but there is autobattle for easy encounters. There are a lot of H events scattered on the way, but the overall number of CG is small, just 52. There is no voicing. 7. Meitantei Conan: Karakuri Jiin Satsujin Jiken 名探偵コナン からくり寺院殺人事件 [000225] Banpresto Ran and Conan plan to meet Heiji at a cafe, however the train has had problems and he is late. While they are sitting there, a worker named Miki Tosawa accidentally dumps juice onto Conan. Miki then invites them over to her house and tells them that she actually was planning on going to the famous detective Kogoro Mouri for help, because her sister Satomi has disappeared without telling her where she was going. Conan puts together some clues that lead them to the book store where Haibara helps them locate a guidebook to a really old temple where they think the sister has gone. Then, later, joined by Kogoro and Heiji, Conan, Ran, and Miki set off for the temple in search of the missing Satomi. Only for series fans 8. Aoiya Masshigura 葵屋まっしぐら [000225] SofthouseChara After graduating from high school, hero succeeded hot springs inn "Aoiya" that was previously managed by his parents. However, business conditions have deteriorated with the rise of rivals. As a result all of the employees with an exception of childhood friend Yonagawa Kasu have left. He managed to rebuild the inn with financial help of his acquaintance. Will he bounce back and blow new life in Aoiya? It's an ADV with SIM elements. It's still more of an ADV since state of ryoukan depends on text choices rather than management. Difficulty level is low. Atmosphere is calm and relaxing. There's a comedy touch. There are only three heroines and overall volume is not big. Game is not voiced. 9. D+Vine [Luv] [000225] Abogado Powers 1 2 You play as an adventurer named Hyde. He's been dungeon explorer for a short while now. The desire to do so is because within many of these places lay remnants of the "Old World". Upon coming across a town named Arvil, he is told of a nearby cave that no one has yet looted for the monsters that guard it. This doesn't stop Hyde, and he soon stumbles upon something he wasn't expecting within the ancient cave--a woman!? This mystery-girl is going to really complicate things... There are English reviews for this game. 10. Echo [000225] FAIRYTALE HARDCOVER During the earthquake a young man fell under the ground and lost memory as a result. He injured his arms, but was found and taken care of by a girl. The girl only knew that earthquake happened. Together they try to survive and get back to the ground. The last work of Fairy Tale HARDCOVER, experimental division for horror stories. This work lives up to its fame. You need to play the game 14 (!) times to complete it... Each time we meet some girl and by the end of the route hero gets to remember or understand something and new branch opens up. Clearing the game once takes 16 hours... so it's a game of exhaustion. Text speed is slow and non-changeble and skipping is poorly implemented. However, meaningful part is not that big, half of the work can be scrapped without any harm done. H scenes should not be skipped since the psychological enlightenment happens usually at that time and you would not understand the result. Game also featured 3D sound and some moments are transferred to the player only through it. There is only one save slot and saving only allowed at special times which sometimes happen with gaps of couple hours long. And it used to freez pc after several hours of running. So completing this game is one of big challenges and those very few people who managed to get to the final consider it as one of huge achievements. 11. Follow Me Koisuru Kimochi Follow Me 恋する気持ち [000225] Palette When first love comes, it's hard to convey own feelings to the partner. Main character receives an anonymous love letter. There are five girls who could be the sender, so hero begins his investigation. This is the very first work of Palette that we know so well and love a lot. But even though it's the first work of Palette, there are exactly zero Japanese reviews. Why? The game is really simple. Very simple synopsis, quite simple graphics, no voicing. There's not a single selling point and emphasis is made on sentimental feelings. It's a nice first shot, but there's just not much to talk about. 12. Holmes! Decchiage Meitantei Holmes！　でっちあげ名探偵 [000225] Janis Yuki Kano is a student who calls herself a descendant of Sherlock Holmes. She tries to solve mysteries that happen at school together with her partner Yuki Matsumoto who she calls Watson. Her method is to use deduction to prove guild of a girl and then force that girl to making love. There are 4 cases in total in the main part. Basically the chapter usually starts with incident occurrence, followed by information collection, suspect accusation and either H event on success or failure if the wrong person is chosen. It looks pretty sick to parody great detective franchises of the time like Kindaichi or detective Conan and present it in such a light-minded form. 13. Moe ~Moegiiro no Machi~ Moe ～萌黄色の町～ [000225] Unison Shift Winter. Hero lives peacefully in his own pace. But with so many girls around him gradually a new feeling is born. I just can't believe my eyes. The same Union Shift that we know for bitterest utsuge series started with something like this. There are eight heroines and there are two endings for each one. One playthrough is one hour. Lack of volume and thus lack of depth is the biggest flaw. 14. Moonlight ~Omoide no Hajimari~ MoonLight ～おもいでのはじまり～ [000225] Clear School that hero attended is going to be closed down. There are only two months left to say proper goodbyes to the classmates. Every hour of this time with the most important people should be cherished. Debut work of Clear, but a high quality one. There are five heroines. The first half is for flagging and the second for dates and endings (there are bad endings in case of poor choices). Difficulty level is quite high. The atmosphere is quite special and a bit dark thanks to the feeling of loss. Text is good and easy to read. All the characters are quite attractive. Imitation of Kanon is felt in the picture, structure and text (game even takes place in winter as well). Also protagonist only transferred to this school the previous semester and it's really difficult to believe that he already has bad feelings about abandoning school. Characters are properly linked around the different routes. So it's a very solid start, but in the end game's a charage and Kanon imitation, although a good one, and thus not a masterpiece. 15. Phantom of Inferno [000225] Nitroplus 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Phantom of Inferno is a story detailing the life of a 15-year-old Japanese boy who is kidnapped after witnessing the killing of a reporter. After being kidnapped his memories of his past life are erased and is given the choice to join Inferno or die. He makes the only choice he can to join and is given the name Zwei and will study under Ein. She is also known as Phantom since this is the title given to the organization's top assassin. I don't think this work needs introduction. The first game of Nitroplus became a blockbuster and even was imported to the west market in English. It's the best game of early Nitroplus games. I still believe that it lacks depth, but there's so much coolness in this work that it'd be enough for a dozen of action games. But as I read reviews on this game the scores weren't too high and DVD format and its system was to blame. Some had trouble with disappearing subtitles, some with subtitles fonts and some with the password system which sometimes goes without another password for two-three hours straight. So I thought that people should stop reviewing game system and start reviewing its content, so I've made my own video playthrough of the game with both English and Japanese subtitles, all five good endings and a clear structure. I'll try to use this work for study purposes thanks to double subtitles. So here is the link to my video playthrough. 16. Road Love Story ロードラブストーリー [000225] Corett Ryo Uehara was on summer vacations when the elementary school girl living next door rang the doorbell. She explained with tears that before the summer vacations she had a quarrel with boy Yura Yuta and then he changed schools so they could not properly make it up. Hero takes boy's photo and jumps into a bus to begin his search. It's a travel adventure. There's a lot of map movement. Somehow, all those movements are exhausting and asking the same questions about the boy all the time does not make it more interesting. The whole synopsis looks unreal and the original aim of finding a boy very soon gets behind. It's not necessarily a bad game, but it's difficult to find appeal points in it. 17. Senjutsu Youhei Shidan Brave Blade 戦術傭兵師団ブレイブブレイド [000225] To Be 400 hundred years ago the continent was ruled by demon kings, but eventually he was slayed with the help of holy sword Brave Blade. Now hero who is mercenary captain acquires this blade. A girl requests help from a tyrant. Hero sets to investigate and on the way he discovers and frees girls who are possessed by evil dresses "R-Enhance". No remorse for the tyrant! Tactical turn-based strategy with rules reminding some difficult board game. There are 16 chapters with adventure, simulation and free action parts in each. There are permanent companions and mercenaries who appear just for one battle and have to be paid anew. Early part is bland and later on fights take just enormous amount of time. Rules are difficult to grasp and aren't explained so there's a long learning by mistakes. Story is ok, but this breaking armor of girl generals does not let it flow seriously. 18. Tsukiyo no Hitomi wa Kurenai ni 月夜の瞳は紅に [000225] Discovery Masato is a sophomore student in Kaori high school. He confesses to the girl of his interest, but gets rejected. In grief he occasionally breaks the seal of a shrine and releases vampire Kiko. She is hungry for human blood, but Masato sees a cute little girl in her and eagerly gives away blood. Later he notices he can use special abilities. He wanders around the town in search for assistance and new love... During the game Kiko becomes transparent and comes behind the hero. The main character will master the three abilities of Kiko: "Fascination" (creating a good impression on a girl), "people perception" (you see girls icons on a map) and "Future sense" (can hear Kiko's opinion on what's going to happen with each of the choices). Text is very rough and not fun to read. Other than Kiko routes look bland. There is a comedy touch to the story, but it's not remotely enough. First playtime is around 5 hours. 19. Tsukushite Agechau 尽くしてあげちゃう [000225] Trabulance Main character is hooligan who spends school days fighting and now is hospitalized due to a minor incident. A cute girl visits him there. Other girls get jealous and a fierce girl battle for the hero begins. Easygoing and short love comedy. There are 5+1 heroines and playtime is around 3 hours. Game series involves somewhat aggressive girls behavior. Story is quite simple, nothing really stands out, but there's a constant feeling that something is lacking. BLOCKED 1. Nurunuru Shiru Jigoku 2000 ぬるぬる汁地獄２０００ [000201] Soft Circle Courreges Slimy series are back! Now with irresistible love for swimwear girls! Nukige 2. Hexa ~Nikuyoku no Hatsukakan~ HEXA ～肉欲の二十日間～ [000202] Societa Daikanyama Main character takes the same train home every day, because there are always same six cute women in the same train. He likes to see how their appearance changes daily. However, his fun is about to end in 20 days with transfer to another town. And he takes the courage and becomes proactive towards them. Nukige 3. Bishoujo Ren'ai Mahjong Series: Karan Koron Gakuen: Pure Love Hen 美少女恋愛麻雀シリーズ 華蘭虎龍学園 ぴゅあらぶ編 [000202] J-Wing 1 Main character wants to find love, and for that he challenges three new girls in mahjong. Girl stories have following titles: "When cherry blossoms dance", "You are through the camera lenses" and "The thought of young age". Card game 4. Iemoto 家元 [000204] Zero Main character inherits a mystery flower arrangement facility that originated 600 years ago. The art of making flower bowls is nurtured there, but women take the place of vases... In a month's time his father is going to die, and main character is expected to express himself well with the new art. Nukige 5. Cherry Works ~Boku ga Imouto o Daita Riyuu~ Cherry Works ～ボクが妹を抱いた理由～ [000210] Guts! A guy went with his step sister to see about joining the art club. What they came upon were the club members having fun. To keep their secret, the club president decided to make the brother/sister's rumored close relationship closer. To do that, he will teach them how to have fun. How well he can do that will have different results. Nukige 6. Hana no Kioku Dai 5 Shou 花の記憶 第5章 [000210] Foster Collection of five short erotic stories. 1. Office lady find satisfaction on a date or right at the workplace. 2. Tour guide finds several different opportunities for sex on a trip 3. Girl conducts a survey through different flats, and some inhabitants get very excited 4. Kendo club girl either gets assaulted at school or gents into gentle relations at home 5. School nurse harasses a girl during health check or enjoys fantasies Antology + Nukige 7. Hidden ~Himerareta Yokubou~ Hidden～秘められた欲望～ [000210] Unicorn-A Main character got a part-time job at the SM bar. Soon he got interested in SM under influence of the mistress Rie. There are three girls for training, each able to become either M or S. Nukige 8. Saiinjutsu 催淫術 [000210] Beenyan Harada is a weak-willed student and virtually under the thumb of Minayo, the beautiful but oddball president of the school's Occult Club. But this situation will change dramatically when the male protagonist starts experimenting with a mysterious pendant he accidentally discovered amidst the old paraphernalia of the Occult Club... Nukige 9. Started Dirge [000213] Guerilla Corps John Swift is a Japanese-English half who lives in London. He encounters Ares boy in the neighborhood and they gradually become close friends. One day Ares family gets shot down by bandits while Ares getting kidnapped and probably also killed afterwards. Many years ago boys reunite, but they are not the same anymore... This episode starts as John receives a warning from Ares. A few days later a woman Jessica appeared before his eyes. Yaoi 10. Luvllatio＊Maniax [000217] AnotherRoom Main character is only interested in blowjobs. One day he receives an email from the supervisor of a blowjob specialized adult website "LUVLLATIO". That email changes his life completely. Nukige 11. Iinari いいなり [000218] Zero Main character begins experimenting with Mizuki who he met on a sex friend search website. To what extent a pure innocent girl can be corrupted? Nukige 12. Yuukai Reijou Choukyou 誘拐 令嬢調教 [000218] Gondola Main character confines different types of girls and starts their training. With time they begin to recognize and accept the pleasures of M. Nukige 13. Maze メイズ～迷図～ [000224] Bishop Koichi Hirose is an ordinary salary man. He reunites with his former classmate Risa who works as a customs officer, but also manages an SM club. Koichi suffers a shock upon approaching SM world for the first time, but gradually his dark desires started to awaken. Koichi his several cute co-workers at the office and unconsciously he starts to treat them as his slaves which brings a disaster... Nukige 14. P.S. 3 ~Harem Night~ P.S.3 ～ハーレムナイト～ [000224] Uran Main character is an administrator of the secret web site called "PS" or "The Net". From his student years to his professor days he's been skillfully manipulating women turning them into slaves. Now he's going to train a new group of slaves thus forming his epic harem. Nukige 15. Future Doll 未来人形 [000225] Spiral One morning an android girl bursts into main character's apartment. Hero is a very lucky man - he is chosen out of a million people to test new bio android prototype "Future Doll". This special android type adapts to master's character and can perform all wife duties. The testing period is 30 days, but if it is a success, hero can get hmiself a wife forever. Nukige 16. Genzai ~Innocent Guilt~ 原罪 ～innocent guilt～ [000225] Uran (Studio Kuon) 1930s, a certain European country. Lord Sir John F. Wright is a huge asset owner but has a nice personality. He lives together with his grandson Will F. Wright who is game's main character. Will F. Wright has the same disease as his grandfather and curses his fate for this limited lifespan. Main character hates everything in this world and secretly aims at insulting the girls that his grandfather cares for. Nukige 17. Henai 偏愛 [000225] Vanilla In the darkness of a sleepless nights the events of ten years ago come to mind. That was the time when main character tried to bind his sister-in-law for the first time raising her affection for him. Now hero works as teacher on practice. He did not even dream that working in school would grant him such a wonderful opportunity to practice his bondage skills. Nukige 18. Karei 家隷 [000225] Sorciere Main character wants to protect his company on the verge of bankruptcy. In order to do that he has to follow the will of Takagi who financially supports him. What Takagi wants main character to do is to train three women as obedient slaves. Nukige 19. My Fairink Yousei Byakuya Monogatari Myフェアりんく 妖精白夜物語 [000225] Light Plan One day hero finds a fairy falling unconscious in the forest. He takes her home. Fairy tells her story that she fell in love with a human and now wishes to gain a human form with magic. Hero wishes to cooperate and supply magical powers by providing sexual magic. This way their unusual cohabitation begins. Nukige 20. Shiyouzumi ~Condom~ 使用済 ～CONDOM～ [000225] Guilty All people have "desires" and "dreams". From silly ones, to grand ones. For many people, that dream or desire is sealed deep inside of them. However, they are still there, waiting to be fulfilled. Five people appear, each with dreams and desires. Will they get the chance to fulfill their desires? Nukige 21. Triangle Heart ~Love Love Omochabako~ とらいあんぐるハート ～ラブラブおもちゃ箱～ [000225] Fan-disc for Triangle heart, featuring new short stories, mini-games, accessories etc. Also includes a new character. Fandisk 22. Departures [0002] Ochanomizu Electronic Manuf Starting from tomorrow I shall travel with mercenary Tudus and fulfill my dream of adventures! Doujin. Game is free and flash-based. But it was eventually released with heroines voice and graphics aren't bad at all (backgrounds are photo based though). They go on adventure and meed five different girls. There are seven endings overall. Length is actually substantial, over 10 hours. There aren't good reviews of it

There's a big change since 2000. From now on I'm starting to block visual novels by certain criteria (fandisk, nukige, shounen ai, yaoi, antology, demo, non-Japanese, EVN, otome, doujin) which means I'll still note them at the back of the post, but will only provide a synopsis, an opening song and review links where possible. But there is also a good news - I'll be making reviews and video walkthroughs of at least one route from the games of the month.Gensou no Artemis, Lien ~Owaranai Kimi no Uta~ and Treating 2U are the masterpieces of the month. And VN of the Month January 2000 is Lien ~Owaranai Kimi no Uta~. That's a very solid start of the year. 1. Kurayami Zaka no Ie 暗闇坂の家 [000101] h.m.p Afterwar Tokyo. There is a hill called "dark slope". There is an old house where master is missing for 18 years already. Women in the house still know nothing of that mysterious disappearance. That is the beginning of the story about serial killer. First of all, it's 3D as well as other h.m.p. games. It's a mystery solving game and gameplay is mostly exploring old buildings. I tend to block 3D if it has sexual content and h.m.p. used to be eroge creator, but neither the box, nor reviews mention sexual content presence (there is a scene of bathing in a tube), so should be safe to leave it here. 2. Innocent na Tenshi-tachi INNOCENTな天使たち [000114] For Main character had just entered university when he got hit by a car. He recovers in the hospital and only joins the study from Autumn. School director's daughter gets raped and the whole campus gets into a chaos. Suspicions arise everywhere. Main character gets to assist in the investigation. What awaits hero at the crossroads of his life? Please, please open the door of your heart to these heroines. There are five heroines. All girls have some secrets and troubles of the past. One route takes less than an hour. There are some bad endings in addition to good ones. It looks like a detective story, but detective element is too thin - it's a normal romance game. And it can be enjoyed as one. 3. Rasen Kairou 螺旋回廊 [000114] Age Yuuzi Saeki, is an assistant teacher at a university. His students convince him to buy a computer and he buys an expensive one even though he knows nothing about how to use them. While learning how to operate it, he finds a link to a website called Eden. Visiting there he sees that its about abducting girls, rape and worse... And the site claims that they take personal orders... I know this is a nukige, but this is Age! Same Age that made Muv-luv and what not! So I'm curious here. First of all, there is an intrigue of who actually is the puppeteer - the truth shows up only gradually. Secondly, it's not that much of an erotic work, it lacks eroticism. Thirdly... some claim this game to be the originator of pure devil games ... something that even SEEK games could not achieve. Here there's no training, no evolution, no ultimate good goal... just pure darkness and destruction that's getting deeper and deeper. The strangest thing in all that is that main character is not some student, but a proper professor, so these desires look quite silly on behalf of such man. Age must be real geniuses in everything they are doing. 4. Seishin Hakai Kanketsuhen 精神破壊完結編 [000115] unknown An adventure game that takes place 600 years after the events of the first Seishin Hakai The stage is underground research center. Main character is the inventor. This time we can either prioritize mystery or just chase afte the girls, it works both way. Game is also free and leaves bad aftertaste. 5. Faustus ~Megumareshi Mono~ ファウスタス ～恵まれし者～ [000119] Gipsy An ancient magician had the knowledge to resurrect with a ceremony. That awakening triggered a magical war involving the whole world. Magicians of the old stood up to protect humanity. Nowadays news reporter Merlin discovers the ancient secret of resurrection and awakens Simon the Magus and the vicious circle repeats itself. Will humanity survive? Simon the Magus is actually the real protagonist of the story. The selling point of the game is magic battles. You get a magical grimoir and five different colored sources of mana. Developers promise 300 different magical spells in our repertoire. There's no real tutorial or explanation so it gets quite difficult even for native speaker. Game has trouble installing since it does not recognize partitions over 2gb. Since there's close to zero chance that someone finishes here's the spoilers: magicians are actually aliens from planet of Eden. They depleted mana resources from their star and came to Earth. They actually created atmosphere from lava as well as living creatures and finally mankind. Simon the Magus was the bearer of "festus" title eventually decided to get rid of the mankind and their eternal vices. Such mages as Drakula, Merlin, Pharaoh opposed that decision since not all people were evil. They sealed Simon the Magus, but could not find the concealed by Simon mothership "arc" and their power was fading. But new enemy Noah appeared, so magicians collaborated to oppose him. Phew, at least we're not gonna kill humans in the game. And even that's not the end since afterwards Merlin gets completely insane trying to destroy the world and the mother ship "ark" altogether. Story is as muddy as this. Actually the story is only explained in the end and most of the time there's no idea what's going on. Five bosses are females and that's the main source of H scenes, mostly with tentacles. 6. Onikiri-den 鬼斬伝 [000121] Jupiter Thousands years ago a great demon was defeated. That demon appears again in modern time. Momotaro's reincarnation Momota set off to defeat the evil again. An adventure quiz game with a story featuring familiar characters from old japanese tales. What a weird game. Success on fighting the demons depends on the timed answers to the quizzes... Famous characters like Kaguya Hime don't really add the appeal. Game's quite short as well, some 4 hours length. 7. Gensou no Artemis 幻想のアルテミス [000127] Shoeisha 1 The game takes place in Ikoma Aku Torres Actress School where different girls go to grow their perfomance abilities, and one night when a performing is taking place the owner of the school jump off a roof to the death. The police think that is just a suicide, but the motive is still a mystery, so the people on charge of the school decide to hire a private detective (Kiyouiti Kusakabe) to make an investigation. So when they hire him they decide that he enters the school as a new instructor in the academy. That's when the game begins. Player takes the role of a detective that has to investigate a murder in an actress school, the game at the beginning let the player choose between 5 different girls to help him in his investigation, each of them got a different story and the game will go in a different way depending of that choice, and also the ending. The main part of the game is to solve the case but during the investigation the player will also talk to different people and girls and there is a chance of a possible romance with any of them, so the game is also a dating simulation. Glad to see that Lipstick ADV conception is alive and having an assistant on you side is really the best way to get to know the girl. Quite a quality galge. Good masterpiece call. 8. Forever My Love - Kimi o Wasurenai Forever My Love・君を忘れない [000128] F&C Hero had a dream of studying abroad in an international academy and now his dream comes true. Meet you new acquaintances and use card conversation system for communication. Card conversation system is not intuitive and not really a good idea. Girls are anime-style and too aggressive. No really attractive girls. No skipping allowed. Otherwise it's a dating SIM below the standard level. 9. Hakutou 魄冬～はくとう～ [000128] Zenos Our guy wants to move out of his home town into the big city. Before he can do that, he has to do a five day husband and wife ceremony with his childhood girl on new years day. This ceremony comes from the tragic legend of two sisters, their childhood guy and another nasty guy. Can he successfully complete this event, free some spirits and find love at the same time? The atmosphere of Sengoku is not bad, but the actual "tragedy" is too light. Actions of characters look spontaneous. The structure is looped with the past events, but there's still no satisfactory explanation. There are too many symbols with real persons almost pushed to behind. Multiple choices open up with additional playthroughs. Game lacks excitement and feels unfinished in many ways. 10. Kaseki no Uta 化石の歌 [000128] Age The Protagonist and his sister are brought to a mansion by a catgirl. The mansion lady lets him stay, but he has to work as a doll trainer. He trains created females in virtual worlds. His own world doesn't seem all that real either, with all those maids, the lady and weird mansion owner. Can he regain his lost memory and figure out what's going on? Well such synopsis would be blocked for some unknown company, but we're talking about "Age" here - is it new Nocturnal Illusion? Setting is unusual. Distant future where the whole galaxy is inhabited, but interstellar trade fell into dysfunction and there are a lot of abandoned colonies. Decadent atmosphere prevails. Game period is one week, and we indeed have to raise doll girls. We enter virtal spaces and look for pieces of memory. The atmosphere is good and graphics is very beautiful and there are a lot of well thought details. But... in he end it's just a museum eroge. The amount of text is thin. Unlike ordinary museum eroge, difficulty level of clearing is high and getting to true ending is troublesome. Setting is difficult to grasp, but there does not seem to be any good consistent story here. 11. Larentia ~Netsujou no Miyako~ ラレンティア ～情熱の都～ [000128] Nikukyuu Julius is an aspiring adventurer visiting port city of Genoa in Larentia region. The city is prospering and thus there is a constant shortage of manpower. Julius answers the call to make a name for himself over three years. Training SIM + realtime action battles. It is also possible to hire up to four mercenary heroines participate in battle. Action part is quite well done and there can be up to some 70 people on the screen. But there is literally no main storyline. Just take on missions and develop relations with the mercenary girls. If you ok with that, it's a very entertaining game. 12. Lien ~Owaranai Kimi no Uta~ Lien ～終わらない君の唄～ [000128] Purple 1 2 When I regained consciousness, it seemed I had died. At first, experiencing things as a spirit (like, going through things) was somewhat fun, but I soon got a grip on myself. Well, what to do now. It looks like a wild dream, but it's not as if I feel resentment or pain. I don't feel the necessity to achieve anything either. Even after becoming a ghost, I commute to school as usual. Days pass by nonchalantly, but those days are forever lost to me. Yet, even after having passed away, I'm remaining here. People I interacted with. New memories. A frozen flow of time. A running flow of time. In-between, I am in those maidens' everyday. There's a great English review of this game. 13. O-Hanabatake no Flore お花畑のフローレ [000128] Kuroneko-san Team New title in Magic Witch Parfait universe. The story is about Furetre, Parfait and Lennett who are 11 years old and like growing flowers. Grow over 50 different varieties of flowers with them! Eeew... PASS. Opening is good as usual. 14. Oumagatoki no Kioku 逢魔ヶ刻の記憶 [000128] Black Package Main character heads mystery research club and loves walking around the school exploring various mysteries. It's not an official club, but student council turns a blind eye on it. One day hero gets caught in the middle of ridiculous incident because of exploring... Back at old times Black Package was making decent games instead of nukige. There is both visual novel and gameplay item search parts. H events only start massively since the second half. Scenario-wise it's very fragmentary and messy. It's not explained why all girls love hero already. Hero actions are also very spontaneous - he can start attacking just because of a small reprimand or just because of situation like seeing a crouching girl. 15. Rose or Lose [000128] Ciel Sawaki summoned an angel Rose and a devil Lose by chance. They are about to destroy the world, but agree to set a condition that the world could be saved if Sawaki found a lifetime partner in the remaining 5 months. The world's fate is in your hands! Raising SIM with six girls. Make a schedule for a week and trigger events on maps, common stuff. Synopsis is very stupid, but text is ok. Graphics is as if came from shoujo game. But price is low so it's a good cost efficiency for lovers of such kind of games. At least Ciel dropped its initial nukige style and working towards more neutral games. 16. Ryuuki Denshou 3 竜機伝承3 [000128] KSS Inc. Knight defeated an evil dragon, but his shrine maiden lover also died as a result. Now the devastated lover gathers forces to conquer the world. Hero is an adventurer who is requested to investigate the circumstances of northern fort destruction overnight. I think I only touched first part since I could not find any text information on the second part. As a longstanding tradition SRPG part here is akin to previous parts, very simple and in squares. The hero party can include at least 6 people in it. Story is solid, but I don't feel confident to discuss it. 17. Tenshi no Hina 天使のひな [000128] Bell-Da Hero lost parents, but inherited huge assets at his age of 19 years old. He got lots of attention from all kind of people and withdrew to the villa where he contracted an incurable disease capable of killing in few months. At that time a woman who claimed to be the manager of deceased parents came to the villa. She brought a big egg saying that she was an angel born from the egg and now she would grand hero one wish... Not sure what's with the wish, because girl just gets to live with hero for several days... Quite sad to see Bell-Da falling for nukige as well. It's not just H though, there are some parameters and some planning to do. There's also a clicking game so that noone dies out of boredom, but there's still a good possibility of it. 18. Treating 2U [000128] Blue Gale 1 2 3 Tsutsumi Inosuke is a musician who makes his living by working at a convenience store. But his life changes when he’s taken to a hospital because of a cold and is told to stay at the hospital. There, he meets many people including a small boy, his mother, the nurses, and other people at the hospital… There's an English review for this game. 19. White Angel [000128] light Hero lives along in the house. One day he goes from school with childhood friend Ichigo when his cousin Aya and maid Karen suddenly push into living with him. And feeling the warmth of relations he starts to recover memories sealed in the past... There are six heroines with one playthrough about 2-3 hours. There's a constant feeling that it lacks uniqueness and it's been already before. There is a feature of stories composing in the game and downloading plug-ins via the internet, but it's a bad excuse to disregard the story. 20. White ~Setsunasa no Kakera~ White ～セツナサのカケラ～ [000128] NekoNeko Soft That winter, and those women he met... First of all, character design (especially in CG), composition and structure looks very much alike Kanon, but story-wise game tries to differentiate from Kanon as much as possible. Period is some 18 days. There are five heroines. It's a quality warm galge with a good scenario. But masterpiece level needs something to stand out. BLOCKED 1. Yuuyake -November- 夕焼け - November - [000104] Tactics Main character studues in high school together with four classmates. There are four stories, each with a specific theme: 1. "To the innocent eyes" 「無邪気な瞳に」 2. "Shake feeling" 「揺らぐ想い」 3. "Wipe the wound" 「傷をぬぐうように」 4. "Looking up at the sky" 「空を見上げたら」 Antology 2. Duette 2 Duette II ～デュエット2～ [000109] Stage-nana No info. Fandisk 3. Irainin ~Metamorphose~ 依頼人～メタモルフォーゼ～ [000114] Factor Main character is an elite psychiatrist who works at a famous university hospital. He has a hobby of manipulating patients will with technique and special medicine and recording results on a video. One day he finds his psychiatrist grandfather research results. It's a study of how to manipulate humans freely, both personality, memory and athletic ability. Main character decides to inherit his grandfather's skill and make use of his hobby. Nukige 4. Minto ~Kasuka ni Kaoru Kaze o Kanjite~ みんと ～かすかに香る、風を感じて～ [000114] K'Night! One summer night three naked fairies came to hero's room. They decided to live together with him, but hero did not know where to get his eyes since fairies knew nothing about their femininity, feelings of romance or shame. As fairies and hero learn about each other with every new day, what choices will they make? Nukige 5. Thanksgiving Special サンクスギビングSPECIAL [000114] Excellents 1 The CD has five mini games that come in the form of three Adventure games, Jan-Ken-Pon and a Shooter game. Gameplay of the Adventure games is linear. Antology 6. Aegi no Yakata 2 あえぎの館2 [000120] Aquarius Main character stopped going to school in order to work part-time at a construction site. Money is being spent on apartment, gambling and clothes - what kind of life is that? A suspicious man offers him a job to train a girl in ten days, and main character welcomes the opportunity. Nukige 7. Nozoku 覗 ～のぞく～ [000121] Hyperspace Main character gets acquainted with a cute girl. He asks around about here living place and sees a horny scene upon arrival. He decides to stuff the house with peeping equipment. Nukige 8. Yume Tenshi R 夢・天・使R [000121] Triangle This is a virtual simulation entertainment salon. The number of available characters is less than in prequel, but the variety of situations is greatly improved. Nukige 9. Nightmare [000127] Gin no Ken Kyle reunites with his half brother Lark on a rainy night. Brother feels well, but something is wrong about him. Golden eyes stare at the past, his soul is trapped in dreams. He is a vampire now... Kyle enters the cold heart of Lark to save him as there is still a strong bond between the half-brothers. The nightmare of memories is about to begin... Doujin 10. Akirame あきらめ [000128] 1 Shuji Mikami goes to Hokuyo High School, and he decides to attend the annual college preparation lecture. The truth is, he doesn't need to go, but he has a purpose; he's looking for his beautiful childhood friend Misaki. Shuji and his sex slave Hikaru start acting in order to achieve the goal... Nukige 11. Chijoku Yuugi 恥辱遊戯 [000128] Aquarium In a dimly-lit room there's a lonely nude girl. She is sitting on the floor with her hands tied behind her back. Her background and fate depends on choices. Nukige 12. Dokisuro 2 ドキスロ2 [000128] Melo There's a mysterious new style slot action game club. Main character comes here to test his luck and compete against ten girls. Nukige 13. Inagawa de Ikou!! 猪名川でいこう!! [000128] Leaf 1 An amusement CD collection with characters and stuff from Comic Party and White Album. The game Night Writer is also included with this CD. Night Writer is mainly a typing game featuring Corin. You battle demons from Dr^2 Night Janki by typing words for your attacks. Fandisk. 14. Private Eyes プライベートアイズ [000128] J-Box There are three great girls living in the same building as main character. He does not dare to talk to them out of shyness. But one day Chinese friend brings him a mysterious blue bottle as a souvenir. After drinking it protagonist becomes invisible... Now he has the courage to touch the neighboring girls. And if he does everything right, girls will get aroused. Nukige 15. Twilight Theater トワイライトシアター [000128] Komaya A college student finds a rental shop called Twilight where he gets to borrow a new generation media called a visual disc. The disk contains nine software pieces enclosing all kinds of lustful desires. Nukige 16. Variety Tactics ばらえてぃたくちくす！ [000128] Tactics Fandisk containing among other goodies following games: 1. The legend of Initial T (RPG) 2. Undress 2000 (Quiz) 3. Bells sing a song (ADV based on Suzu ga Utau Hi) Fandisk 17. BF [0001] Ritz software BF is a high school-type BL game. You play the main character, Nozomu Kasahara up to Valentine's day. Early in the new school year, he's helped by some upper classmen he didn't know before, and his story becomes entwined with theirs. Being with friends, taking tests, enjoying himself at the school festival... Who he ends up with at the end depends on you. Yaoi

1990s are over. And to commemorate that I've made a video playlist of all the openings/demo/endings with singing/energetic instrumental from 1990s here I'll be making such playlists for each new year starting with 2000 since each year is going to have over 100 such opening/ending/demo themes. Second Windows era year is behind. It failed to bring such a game that I'd announce Vn of the year 1999 right away. Instead, it brought a number of quality galge and some quirky cryptic games that I personally had a good time unwinding. Let's prolong the chart. VN per year Year Total Listed Blocked 1991 75 40 (53%) 35 (47%) 1992 80 49 (61%) 31 (39%) 1993 121 46 (38%) 75 (62%) 1994 155 61 (39%) 94 (61%) 1995 180 58 (32%) 122 (68%) 1996 183 83 (46%) 100 (54%) 1997 202 91 (45%) 111 (55%) 1998 303 133 (44%) 170 (56%) 1999 441 164 (37%) 277 (63%) Windows years show a rapid increase in number of games, almost 50% total growth overall compared to 1998. In 1999 there's a shift towards blocked games, mostly because of nukige number increase. Let's look at year 1999 highlights: It becomes a habit to issue first press edition with some omake inside and then regular edition. Doujin fan games make an appearance. Notably there is one doujin game for "One" and as many as three doujin games for "Kanon" in 1999. And Comic Party is notable for this movement. There was a short momentum of console games transition to PC with H scenes added (Kiss yori...), but it did not gain much continuation. In 1999 child pornography law came into force in Japan and from that time every single heroine in the games suddenly turned 18 years old. But appearance might suggest otherwise - such heroines started to be called loli. Year 1998 was notable mostly for graphic advances (thus the small number of masterpieces), but it hit the limit and in 1999 there is much more attention to the scenario. Nakige as class did not exist till 1999. But throughout the year it gained a universal spread and multiple magazines were making the list of the best nakige of 1999. Command selection ADV is almost extinct this year. Even Adam:The Doublefactor went for point-and-click instead. To choose the game of the year 1999 let's observe the masterpieces presented: Captain Love Comic party Elemental Arts Green Kanon Kazeoto, Chirin L no Kisetsu: A piece of memories Mamatoto ~a record of war~ Memories Off Refrain Love 2 Silver Jiken Spark! Tokimeki Memorial 2 So, thirteen. A very solid selection. I don't really have a personal favorite here. And there is no such work that I'd say - yes - it' perfect. Taking out cryptic, simulation, rpg, bakage and ero-centered works we basically left only with Captain Love, Kanon, L no Kisetsu, Memories Off, Refrain Love 2 - a bunch of pretty normal galge. And among those Kanon quality level is significantly higher and thus Kanon is the Vn of the Year 1999.

There are surprisingly many masterpieces this month. There are three: Elemental Arts, Green and SPARK! My personal favourtite would of course be Vist, but even I understand that it lacks the masterpiece level. The game of the Month December 1999 is Elemental Arts since I would not like to compliment eroge'ish Green and bakage'ish SPARK! 1. Vist [991202] C's Ware 1 In a rainy night, the cops are investigating a bizarre murder scene. "What he saw?" - wonders the detective. Takuto, the protagonist, is a sickly highschool student with a heart disease. His father is a scientist and researcher who is traveling overseas. Even thought he is alone in home, his neighbor and university student Rin come visit him every day, and every night his father call him and they talk by phone. But one day, his father stops calling and they lost contact. Takuto wonders if something happened to him and contacts the laboratory where his father works. But the staff members dont' know anything. Takuto is worried, until one day a strange girl called Eryu appears in his house with a letter from his father. "I'm sorry ------" - Says the last words of his father. And something who don't look to be human starts to approach the hero, who little by little get caught in the case of the bizarre murders. And seeing the disturbing signs --- a heartbeat began to drift. I've already provided full review in the previous post. But now I'm interested what other reviewers think of the game. №1:Have not understood the end... chapter 5 too fast development... the impressive reunion scene missing... there is no excitement in the ending at all... have to load game if there is a single counterattack. №2:Replay is very painful due to complex system... bloodshed scenes glorious... HCG quite large number... this work is not balanced... unexplained and esoteric development leaves bad aftertaste. №3:Hard to understand story... story is good, but story development is not good... first two chapter sluggish, but next two chapters thrilling.　 №4:Totally suspense... repeated playthrough is troublesome... very bad that losing in battle can get bad ending fixed... if only 5th chapter scenario was deeper it would be a masterpiece... it's one of the best masterpieces of suspense genre... why no male voicing (cries)... atmosphere is good... scenario is of high quality... not a work that leaves something after it is over. Wow, I can totally subscribe to every word here. Very strange, but very fascinating and mysterious work. 2. Alive [991203] Witch 1 A winter story. Kihara Yuuji , Sawaki Yuriko and Sakagami Yuzuki. A trio of best friends, two of them recently being a couple and the last blessing and watching over them. A short happiness that suddenly escapes everyone's hands as tragedy strikes and kills one of them. This is a story where the protagonist tries to overcome such a sorrow. The unforgiveable sin that is love. An eternal damnation. An unavoidable and cruel destiny. Unrequited feelings. And, caught in the middle, good and kind people who are in the end but innocent sacrifices. Game actually feels very different from the synopsis. The trio happy school life introduction is very long so it's possible to get bored even at this stage. But the main part after sudden Yuzuki death is quite short and underdeveloped. There are four girls with their routes. But actually only main heroine route and true endings have some impact - the others are totally bland - there just is not enough discussions and expressions. A but shift in quality. That might be actually improved in the "Renewal" release in 2001. Overall it's a game based on atmosphere only. 3. La vie de Chateau ラヴィドシャトゥ La vie dechateau [991203] Artifact Medieval-style heroic fantasy. A young knight apprentice dreams of marrying princess Felicia and to achieve this goal he needs to form connections with a wide range of important or useful women. It's a self-raising SIM. Period is 6 months. We train each day and there are also events to trigger. If you train diligently you see how your rank rises. There are also duels in the game (with husbands, naturally) and it's satisfying to see that your stats actually determine your attack/defense/constitution. But text in the game is very slow and need to press shift for each screen separately. There are also quite many bugs around. 4. Nanairo Daydream ~Nanami Wonderland 2~ なないろ☆デイドリーム ～NA･NA･MIワンダーランド2～ [991203] Archive This time there are private situations from the lives of three sisters : Mikuri, Mizuki, Milk. Same as prequel, just H. Choose a situation and enjoy. 5. POW ~Horyo~ POW ～捕虜～ [991203] FlyingShine Mankind extends its living area to Mars. However, the generation that is born on Mars starts to appeal to autonomy of Mars, and eventually civil war breaks out. Government decides to thread carefully and the situation is frozen for five years. Mars history year 79. Main character receives command from Mars government to capture and interrogate female elite soldiers of the three enemy reconnaissance units ... An SF simulation game. First there's a strategic battle, next there's interrogation SIM. Just when I hoped for a normal SF story... 6. Ren'Ai Kumikyoku 恋愛組曲 [991203] Libido Hero gets into an all-girl school band as a result of the injury of sempai. He is responsible for the keyboard and there is a rhythm minigame introduced to measure his success. Another Libido game... somehow they all look the same to me and keyword here is tasteless. Now you also need to play the keyboard as if it was a piano. Apart of that it's not much different from a galge. There are 8 heroines to capture. Well, it's not that the story changes for each character. Scenario is painful to read without skipping. 7. Spark! SPARK！ [991203] Cat's Pro. Protagonist is a normal high school student, has at times he sees strange scenes and gets depressed. One day he meets transfer student Yanan Michiru who calls herself an agent of human world management institution. According to her tale, hero has an ability to see the world where the balance is being broken by a stray angel. They will go to school together and search for an angel. It's a comedy work at school setting. The purpose to find the angel does not really matter in the end and there's just a series of events triggered. The process is more valuable than the result here and it's just exciting to see what happens in the new dream. It may be a bakage, but its strength is not in individual gags, but in the flow they create so that it feels like a melody. Even H-scenes are overflowing with playfulness and humor. That's a very unique atmosphere created and it's worthy to be called a masterpiece. 8. Bishoujo Ren'ai Mahjong Series: Karan Koron Gakuen: Dokidoki Hen 美少女恋愛麻雀シリーズ 華蘭虎龍学園 どきどき編 [991205] J-Wing 1 Player takes role of a young high school student who is trying to find love. And for that he will play different versions of mahjong against three different girls. Card game 9. Moonlight Blue [991207] Studio Til Main character enters the desired university. His education life is very fun, but the apartment he moves into appears to be inhabited by a ghost girl... Doujin 10. Nekomimi Musume Choukyou S 猫耳娘調教 S [991210] Neko no Kessha Teacher entrusts main character to train a cat girl within two weeks. Will protagonist succeed? And what personality will cat girl embrace - nasty one or gentle one? Doujin 11. Baldr Fist BALDRFIST [991210] Team Baldrhead 1 2 Baldr Fist is a branching adventure game with 2D action-shooter elements. I think everyone by now should be familiar with baldr games gameplay - long range weapons for the safety, close range for the excitement. There are 6 heroines total for capture. Scenario has gone downhill compared to Baldr Head and is almost nonexistant. This game should rather be treated as gameplay polish since it reached new heights of enjoyment and fun. 12. Blood Royal [991210] Cherry Soft 1 A perverted pirate sails the seven seas, armed with a torture chamber and his depraved imagination. Nothing is off limits in this bizarre excursion into a world of erotic peril. Two Princesses try to run away from their homelands only to end up in his hands. This is a story about how these two persevere and get through this torture. There's an English review. 13. Elemental Arts エレメンタルアーツ [991210] BAROQUE 1 It's been ten years since the Devil was defeated by five heroes. Peace was maintained under the rule of the heroes. People kept summoning demons and forced them to work and live and terrible conditions. Ren lived in a mountain locket with his parents. Occasionally girl named Lier came from the village to visit them. But one day Ren was attacked by a group of three bounty hunters who were searching for powerful demons and sealing them. Ren was surprised to know he was a demon even though he was brought up as a human. His powers were unsealed by the bounty hunters attack and he set on a journey. At first he was only seeking his family enemies, but observing the humiliating life conditions of demons he eventually begins to oppose the reign of brave heroes. Game is pretty much a sequel of previous BAROQUE game Midgard. Now finally we play for the bad guys... or rather good guys oppressed by other good guys. It's one of the first work to implement 3D topographic elements and it looks awesome. There are 8 magic elements with different skills so it's necessary to pay attention to the elemental stats that equipment brings. You start alone, then gradually party size increases to 7 and after 8th member there's split of parties and all the characters meet together for the final battle in one huge 8-man party. Game story gets somewhat stale by the middle of the game, but overall it's a great rpg, definitely a masterpiece. 14. Film Noir フィルムノワール [991210] Sophia Nowadays video cameras are more popular than 8 mm films and rival video school club gets all the attention. In these circumstances Mayu Natsu is struggling to gather performers and staff in order to shoot his own independent film before he graduates. Game's divided into adventure part where hero finds the staff and simulation part where we shoot the film and this second part is not too serious. Period is 40 days but all the simultaneous flagging can be done in just one week and rest is just killing time. Game was postponed several times and thus feels old by the time of release. Text is also not good. There's not much meaning in the game apart of capturing all 9 girls, but atmosphere is good. 15. Giri Shimai 義理姉妹 [991210] Red Zone Main character is in love from first sight with his sister-in-law who enters the same college. Now the university life full of expectation begins. Game is full of disappointments. Photographic backgrounds, rough designs, several H events just from the start. Gameplay is choosing between like 7 places and watching event if the place is corretly chosen. And of course there's hardly any story at all. 16. Inmetsu ~Yami ni Hisomu Manazashi~ 湮滅～闇に潜む眼差し～ [991210] Zero Main character gets a part-time job to supervise a mountain house after his uncle recommendation. A swimming club gets stationed there. Main character blackmails and insults the girls. Just an insulting nukige. 17. Itazura III 悪戯Ⅲ～いたずらスリー～ [991210] Interheart The purpose is to molest 18 girls while travelling across 6 stations and 12 towns. Now with a new command "take off clothes". All games of the series look alike to me. 18. Koiji 恋路 [991210] Cliff Edge A strategic dating SIM game where player needs to outperform and outsmart the rivals to win the heart of a girl. It's actually a common dating SIM with parameters and occasional events. We can see girls parameters as well so it's clear what each girls likes. There are 8 girls. The rivals is the most important part of the game. You can see their parameters and their next movements with many tricks to apply. It all seems only luck-dependent at times. Love is a tough competition. 19. My Sister ~Sweet Gemini~ 妹☆妹～Sweet Gemini～ [991210] Ripe 1 The game's objective is quite simple. You are a 'brother' and you need to 'take care' of your 'sisters' and 'friends'. There are 5 heroines in total. There is an English review. 20. Seijo Vampire 聖女ヴァンパイア [991210] Pinky Soft Hero is a hunter who captures girl monsters and makes living. The story beings from receiving a request to investigate a village cemetery. The setting and the drawing are the same as in Dragon no Tiara and Genjuuya. It's a dungeon crawler RPG with lots of H events for different types of girl monsters. 21. Tenohira no Yuki てのひらの雪 [991210] Ange At ancient times Wano consisted of three large islands where lots of countries and warlords waged war. The story begins when Sudoku is invaded by Mino, and all the key Sudoku people are been killed and deprived. One of survivors is princess who is taken to Mino country. Main character is princess younger brother who switches places with her to avenge his country by attacking women of the castle. It's probably one of the earliest cases of transvestism. Anyway, as hero meets the four women, he's suddenly not so inclined for revenge already. He can choose the way of love and growing up as a man. 22. Time Surf タイムサーフ [991210] Telluru Hero who is an apprentice of time and space masters with the aim to get a license and learn flying. His master requests to travel to different time spaces and exterminate four wanted female time criminals. Telluru has made 8 games in just 9 months... and that really makes me question the quality. The bulk of the game is some weird gameplay, as always. I chose some German uniform girl to look for and appeared in the year 1943 in Germany... which is the screenshot above. Good job... 23. Sharanra シャランラ ～写乱裸～ [991215] Nekotama Main character Sasayama has recently lost his job due to recession. He gets to see a request for a male AV actor in a job magazine. He's accepted for the job and allowed to choose from five amateur actresses. Basically the actresses are on the screen. The rest is small talk and if nothing too offending is said it's H event. 24. 1-2 Finish! [991215] NenGollo Software Main character attends school, but he is very active during lunch break and after school. Eight female students become his victims. Doujin 25. Pocke-Kano ~Aida Yumi~ ぽけかの〜愛田由美〜 [991216] Datam Polystar 1 The star of this raising sim game is Yumi Aida, a little girl that you meet when she's 11 years old in a park. Later, the player will discover that she's his neighbour and keeps visiting her. For raising her stats, you must pass some minigames that allow you to buy her presents and take her to new places. The three games got different openings, that's admirable. But most of the resources are repeated between the games. Watching over girl from 11 years old to adulthood might be fascination for someone. 26. Pocke-Kano ~Houjouin Shizuka~ ぽけかの〜宝条院静香〜 [991216] Datam Polystar 1 Pocke-Kano - Shizuka Houjouin is a sort of an adventure game with mini games in which the player start the game meeting Shizuka Houjouin, a little girl that he finds in the park and after that she takes him to meet her mother. After that he will continue visiting her and during the game he will more or less appreciated by her depending of the results of the different mini games that the player can play in his PocketStation that will make him earn money to buy Shizuka better presents. One different thing about the game is that you will see her raise from a little girl to a woman (the game last 7 years of the girl's lifetime). Bring up young Shizuka Houjouin in this girl raising sim. The three games got different openings, that's admirable. But most of the resources are repeated between the games. Watching over girl from 11 years old to adulthood might be fascination for someone. 27. Pocke-Kano ~Ueno Fumio~ ぽけかの〜植野史緒〜 [991216] Datam Polystar 1 This is a communication game to raise heroine Fumio Ueno into an ideal woman during seven years period. The three games got different openings, that's admirable. But most of the resources are repeated between the games. Watching over girl from 11 years old to adulthood might be fascination for someone. 28. Angel Snow [991217] C's Ware Yutaka Tendo is a boy who forgot that he is an angel. Yutaka falls in love with a human girl Sakuya. Yutaka decides to confess her by the time of Christmas, but Sakuya seems to like another boy. Should Yutaka preserve his love or let passion break through? Little by little he starts to remember that he is an angel. It gets more and more difficult to come up with answers... This is not a full game, rather an addition to a fandisk. Story is very short. Basically it's either confessing and seeing H event or preserving feelings and getting a different ending. 29. Anxious ~Yuukyuu no Memory~ Anxious ～悠久のメモリー～ [991217] Crime Near future. Technology advances have allowed to create a perfect artificial lover indistinguishable from real women. Main character gets a job to test four such robots every day. He understands those are robots, but can't help having feelings for them. Nukige. 30. Bakusa ~Chained Heart~ 縛鎖 ～Chained heart～ [991217] Zenos Main character suddenly lost his family in an accident and lost the energy to live. At such time a certain lady appears before him requesting to train a girl as slave. It was very surprising to know that the object of training is his classmate he liked for a long time... There are parameters... blah... blah... blah... nukige. 31. Bishoujo Tsuiseki Shoukougun 美少女追跡症候群 [991217] Digital Media Network Main character has a one million yen debt. He's approached by a thug demanding to return the debt before the appointed date. Main character has 10,000 yen oh his hands and the whole town to devise a scheme how to return the debt. It's definitely an adult stalker work, but the horrible polygon interface and gameplay did not let me go far to get how he's going to make money from girls. 32. D ~Sono Keshiki no Mukougawa~ D ～その景色の向こう側～ [991217] Age Main character is riding a "Magic arrow" train. He does not remember why he's here. As he tries to leave the wagon, he discovers a dead man nearby. Every time the wagon moves, the time continuum shifts to either future or past. Hero jumps to the past to stop the murderer and save the train. But in order to get back the future he seeks help of the witch girl. What is this "Magic arrow" train? What's the identity of hero? What's with his memory loss? Oh my, an obscure suspense game of Age? Itadakimasu! Game has only one true ending, but there are about 8 bad endings scattered on the way and the overall number of choices is around the same, so it it's basically a one way story. The flow of the game is confusing since we move through the time like mad and see events from different epochs that are seemingly unrelated to each other. So in the long run it all depends on whether you prefer logical works or esoteric/poetic/atmospheric works. And I definitely prefer logical ones. 33. Ikenie 牲 [991217] Hyperspace The seal in the limestone cave in China got destroyed and devil's light went around the Earth and descended on a mysterious building. Main character is a caretaker of this building. Inside multiple women are locked up awaiting for torture. I see Hyperspace is not going to stop making those shitty nukige. 34. Innai Kansen 2 ~Nariyamanu Nurse Call~ 淫内感染2 ～鳴り止まぬナースコール～ [991217] ZyX 1 A xonix puzzle game is interwoven with omnibus drama about characters of Innai Kansen series. There are 20 scenes that open up with stage clearance. There is an English review. 35. Kurenai no Namida 紅涙 [991217] Studio e.go! 800 years ago, the benevolent guardian of the continent, Empress of Flame had gone mad. Four girls came and used 4 'Red Arcane Stones' to seal her in the 'Jewel of Flame'. Centuries later, Horse Clan, the decadent ruling clan of the time, lost their power to rebellion. Before they were expelled to the wild and became a clan of dreadful highwayman, they took the 'Jewel of Flame'. Now they are looking for the 'Red Arcane Stones'. Fei, a martial art master, just finished 3 months of training that would normally take 10 years, meets a heroine when she is under attack by the Horse Clan. After the Horse Clan are dealt with, she invites protagonist to come and patch the damaged cloths. Fei goes along and is revealed that the heroines are guarding the 'Red Arcane Stones', thus the Horse Clan are coming for them. Being a martial art master, Fei is asked to help the 3 heroines. Chinese-style worldview and story with its appropriate attributes. Story is deliberately depicted in an epic scale manner. There are five traditional chinese magic elements. There are 6 people in party divided into two rows. But actually it's more of a gag comedy with very funny talks. Each of three sisters has unique personality and they bring lots of laughs. Ending is also not serious at all it ends with a gag. Overall the game is really simple, akin to Men at Work series. AVG part takes place in the city and when you get a request you automatically moved on the needed map. Battles are too easy with enemies underpowered. Game length is just 8 hours. Studio e.go still has a long way to go till it creates proper RPG games. 36. Love Love Robokko ~Sono ko, Koutetsu!!~ LOVE LOVE ロボッ娘 ～その子、鋼鉄！！～ [991217] Apple Pie 1 You play as an ordinary salaryman whose father just passed away. He was obsessed with robots, and he has left three of them to play with them as you wish. However, you only have a week of fun until something happens... Will you pursue a mechanical love, or choose one of the three human girls that are interested in you? There is an English review. 37. Machine Maiden Gaiden ~Cynthia~ Machine Maiden外伝 ～シンシア～ [991217] Evolution This game stars the other guy from Machine Maiden. He is a psychologist scouted by a high tech company to train a robot doll. He can make her into his lost sister, a fighting machine or a maid. This game is different from the previous one since this is a choose your story game instead of simulation. Game has a light feeling about it and can be emotional at times. Scenario a bit short. Carnelian was in charge for character designs, so characters are cute beyond redemption. 38. Mugen Ichiya ~Julia~ 夢幻一夜 ～Julia～ [991217] Otemoto Julia is the princess of Makai demon world. She is sent to the human world for two weeks to trample men and absorb their life energy - only this way she can return to her home world. There she encounters a musician Kagaku who she gradually gets attracted to... There are many short scenarios, each time with different men. Basically, this is an otome work, and developers admit that as well. We play as a woman and encounter lots of beautiful and well drawn men. Some are cruel, but other are gentle. Well, at least men aren't depicted here as normal otome bishounen (well... mostly). 39. My Diary ~Kimi ga Boku no Imouto dattara...~ My Diary ～君が僕の妹だったら…～ [991217] Pocket Momo, Rika and Nozomi are friends with each other and they have common affection for Tsuyoshi. However, Tsuyoshi gets in a traffic accident and with time girls' attention shift to main character. Protagonist is actually the older brother of Momo. Even though she understands her feelings can't be fulfilled, she can not tolerate that her brother loved another girl. Last game of Pocket which is relieving. Game has a famous artist, so graphics is probably the only aspect that does not invoke questions. Text is too bad. Even the ending is literally 10 lines long. Imouto is nothing but annoying. There is a map to choose location where someone may or may not show up, but it's impossible to save on this map so it gets pretty stupid. Some choices are poorly implemented and actually get you into a loop. There's zero explanation of why three persons got in love with some Tsuyushi and why they suddenly got in love with protagonist. This work seems to be aimed at imouto fans, but it fails even at that since the other two heroines are much more convincing. 40. Ningyou Aika 人形哀歌 [991217] Give Me Soft Near future. Advances in science allowed to use androids for sex treatment. Hero is owner of black android enterprise that tweaks androids to suit client specific needs, including personality tweaks. New such request arrived today, but noone could think then it was a trap that could claim man's life. As usual, there are zero reviews for nukige such as this, so we won't know about the suspense element of this work. 41. Onna no Ko Doushi ~Girl Playing Game~ 女の子どうし~Girl Playing Game~ [991217] Jam Main character dies in a traffic accident and now can possess bodies of other people, but only for a short time. He decides to infiltrate a girls school that his former girlfriend and sister attend. Setting is crap, but game is even worse. There's a big gameplay part to avoid detectives and such. 42. Paradise Paradox パラダイス パラドックス [991217] Specious Hero is a not successful rocker who suddenly got the ability to turn back time. Now he can insult women and then turn back time so that nothing actually happens in reality. Without knowing, he's got involved into a dimensional crime... Again no reviews and no intention to check if it's just a nukige or a nukige with a quirk. 43. Rensa ~Uragiri no Kusari~ 連鎖 ～裏切りの鎖～ [991217] Selen Chairman of high school established a prostitution organization based on his high school. Both students and teachers that enter the school get in its net. One day chairman orders his son to train three new slaves to eliminate the lack of prostitutes. The son needs to train one and order her to train the next one forming a chain of training. Thus there twelve combinations of training patterns. Nukige. 44. Say Yah! [991217] Authoring Heaven Old man Klaus could not stand up after a night with prostitute Aria. Aria had nothing to do, but to work in his stead. Aria together with reindeer distributes presents to common people who have problems with sex. Nukige. 45. Bishoujo Ren'ai Mahjong Series: Karan Koron Gakuen: Mune Kyun Hen 美少女恋愛麻雀シリーズ 華蘭虎龍学園 むねきゅん編 [991217] J-Wing 1 Second series of mahjong simulation game presents a new set of three heroines to defeat and fall in love with. One story takes at an airport, another one is devoted to cooking, and the last one reminisces about the past days. Card game 46. Ichou no Mau Koro 2 いちょうの舞う頃2 [991218] Types Main character is easily motivated and he takes part in multiple school clubs activities, but his grades aren't really good. The story starts at the point when swimming club competition ends with a strange result and hero is depressed. His friends cheer him up and motivate to prepare passionately for the arts contest in autumn. He admires arts club head Mizuno Yuki and decides to confess his feelings to her after the competition ends. Events happen a year after the prequel, but... there aren't any connections, really. This sequel was trying to sell on the original short fame. This game is very much like the prequel plus the improved H scenes. But at the same time this sequel has some very poor scenario moves like selecting between two simple choices results in whether you gonna be fine or gonna crash and get to hospital. There are four girls, but one character feels totally inappropriate and offensive to the whole story. 47. Michinoku Hitou Koimonogatari Kai みちのく秘湯恋物語 kai [991222] FOG 1 Michinoku Hitou Koi Monogatari Kai is the "sequel" or better said is an updated version to Michinoku Hitou Koi Monogatari that was a mix between a first person adventure game and a hanafuda game that tells the story of a young photographer that travels around the northeast part of Japan playing hanafuda games and taking pictures of the places that he visit. In this "sequel" the game features hints to help the player win in the hanafuda games. During his journeys he will meet different girls and to take pictures of them he will have to defeat them in the hanafuda card games. First game hardly had any story or gaming value, just aesthetic one. Nothing is changed here. 48. Romance wa Tsurugi no Kagayaki II ロマンスは剣の輝きII [991222] Fairytale 1 The story of Keith, a young adventurer who falls one night on Princess Elfarcia's balcony. She has lost her precious pendant - The Silver Rainbow - and, thinking him to be an angel, asks him to bring it back to her. So Keith quests for the pendant to gain the trust of the beautiful princess and encounters many dangers, adventures and women along the way. RPG. Dungeons are huge and complex so majority of the time will be spent there and reported in the town. There are 4 people in the party and there are 8 girls to capture. . But with such frequent battles stats grow really fast and get maxed for each character long before final battle. The scenario is surprisingly solid. The main theme of the game is coexistence with different races and for that game reminds of Canaan. Since it's an RPG - RPG part should be good, but actually balance suffers a lot, dungeons are painful, operating multiple characters is slow. Resolution of the game is quite low and eyes tiredness sums up. Play time is around 20 hours. 49. Shiro no Monogatari 白の物語 [991222] Infinity Yasha is very brutal character. One day he steals some relic and triggers space distortion resulting in the human world. The heroine was dying of a heart disease at this time the the jewel that Yasha dropped healed her completely. He tries to take the jewel back, but the girl gets to die in that case. She manages to persuade him to wait for a week and live together for that time. However, it turns out that jewel is not just a precious item, but a "jewel of bliss" that can fulfill one wish. Wow, what a boring synopsis. And it actually feels the same - like a boring anime for children... well some of the scenes are not for children though. Game is also very short. 50. Stray Sheep ~Samayou Kohitsuji-tachi no Yoru~ Stray Sheep ～彷徨う子羊たちの夜～ [991222] Altacia Main character is a professional seducer who receives requests to corrupt women. This time the target is Roppongi number one hostess Aizawa Fumika who he approaches without checking her background. However a murder happens just in the middle of investigation... It's a work by Altacia known for difficult real-life stories, but this time story is semi-fictional. There's still a good amount of drama and plot twists, but the erotic content is enhanced. It's enough to say that Aizawa turns out to be a torture maniac and main character one day finds himself in a peculiar situation... 51. Viper-GTB ~Rise After~ Viper-GTB ~Rise After~ [991222] Sogna 1 The long awaited sequel to the VIPER-V16 story, VIPER-GTB's "Rise After" chapter takes place almost four years after "Rise". Her family abducted, Saki returns to Anne Mitter's to enlist Akira's help in a daring rescue. In the course of saving them from the domineering aquatic queen Irear, Akira herself is captured. Offering to rescue her are a small band of extra-terrestrials, led by the mysterious Tarma whose true intentions are not revealed until its too late. Trading Karin, Saki, and Seed to Irear in exchange for the strongest woman on Earth, Tarma claims Akira as his newest slave. Fellow champion martial artist Makoto, arriving at Anne Mitter's to avenge a recent defeat at the hands of Akira, becomes embroiled in the plot, soon following Tarma's companion Narsha to the spaceship, where she and the warriors of the underground race lay siege to the craft. The fate of other strong women across the galaxy now rests with Akira and Makoto. There is an English review, but I think I still will make my own. 52. Yakin Byoutou 夜勤病棟 [991222] Mink Hirasaka Ryuuji works as a gynecologist in a small hospital, and at first glance is a simple man. However, underneath his mask and concealed madness is a man who lusts after women to violate their bodies and use them as experiments. One day, he received a request to work part-time as a doctor from St. Juliana Hospital, a prestigious and well-known private hospital. There he encountered his classmate from his days as a medical student, Jinguuji Narumi. Eight years ago, Ryuuji attacked her in a laboratory, performing experiments on her body. Ryuuji, fearing this former incident being made public, receives a surprising request from Narumi. Four nurses of the highest quality for you to experiment with to your heart's content...although suspicious and doubtful of Narumi initally, the animal desire that raged within him once before awakens, and Ryuuji makes his decision... This is the most famous game of Mink, but for me it's just a nukige SIM. 42. Kuriko Ingyaku Hiwa 栗娘淫虐秘話 [991222] Kamikazetou Game depicts animated scenes of insults of two heroines. Doujin Nukige 53. Voice ~Kimi no Kotoba ni Boku o Nosete~ Voice ～君の言葉に僕をのせて～ [991223] TinkerBell Heterographers are people who can manipulate language and create powerful word forms with almost magical effect capable of summoning spirits. This is a school where a lot of heterographers are gathered. There is fighting and a lot of mysterious events happening. Feng Hong transferred to such school in pursuit of his first love. What will these events conclude with? This is the second work of Tinkerbell, the producer of some most hardcore nukige over these last 17 years. The first work was some weird psychology tilt game. The third work is already an eroge and is going to be blocked same as future Tinkerbell games. So this 2nd game is all we've got to try and see what the hell went wrong. What's only clear is that protagonist has some sort of unique power that makes him move the plot. The series of visions that occur aren't spectacular and it feels more like museum exhibition - it's not particularly interesting, but need to bear with all those pieces. Interaction between the students in school is quite interesting, but we can't relate those conversations to the scenario events. Character placement is lazy - there's no clear meaning about any character in the story. Some chracters just happen to appear on the screen and say let's have fun. The skeleton of the scenario is very weak. It's presented in such form that it can not be enjoyed much. There aren't likable characters. So it's either already a nukige or a very cleverly concealed nukige behind all the esoterics. Well, we don't need such games anyway, so farewell, TinkerBell. 54. Eden II [991224] Forester Following the previous work "EDEN" a rescue team was dispatched to the moon base. The rescue team included the following people: Captain Greg Cicero, Flare Shaffer, Karin Shaffer, Hannah Wiese, and Nazi Ashtray. Wandering around the underground labyrinth of the moon's ruins... Will they become new prey? Can you escape from the alien's hunt? Who will survive? There is some story and some charcters ... but game's actually just for 3D H events... and in case of male members for sudden comical death. 55. Tenshi no Oshigoto -Their Wishes Afterward- 天使のお仕事 -Their Wishes Afterward- [991224] APPLE Project Misaka Shiori afterstory. Yuichi and Shiori are cuddling while chewing sweets. Such peaceful everyday collapses again with the arrival of wings girl Tsukimiya Ayu. Where will desires of three people take them? Discussing fandisks? No pls... 56. Kokoro no Tobira 心の扉 [991224] G-Work@mi In Spring main characters moves away from his just married brother and starts living alone. He has to share flat with non-related by blood niece and her best friend. What will relations between three people evolve to? Can young people find the right key to each other's heart? Doujin 57. Hirosue Sougou Byouin 広末総合病院 [991224] Digital Media Network Hospital voyeur simulation adventure. Numerous unusual medical examinations are held every night in a huge hospital. New nurse Ayumi intimate relations with doctor are exposed, so she is blackmailed into all kind of action. Nukige 58. else ~Fuurin no Shoujo~ ｅｌｓｅ　～風鈴の少女～ [991224] T.O.E software In 2029 two thirds of Japan territory are under rule of socialist governments. Independence wars break out everywhere, but love feelings do not change, and many people try to live quiet lives. Main character is a college student who one day manages to save a girl from a chase by black glasses men. Girl's name is "Else", and there is something mechanical about her. From this day young people cohabitation begins. Doujin 59. Conve ~Houkago no Sugoshikata~ ＣＯＮＶＥ～放課後の過ごし方～ [991224] Ruru Main character establishes a school club with trusted senpai and sincere junior girl to fulfill requests and protect peaceful life. There are several episodes each revealing a challenge that's overcome even despite strict moderation by student council. Doujin comedy 60. PiaONE Toy Box [991224] Vanilla★House The story with One ~Kagayaku Kisetsu e~ characters put into Pia Carrot family restaurant setting. Doujin 60. Kichigai 既知街 [991226] Inu Daiku Parody game of ToHeart. Japan is occupied by China. The dark atmosphere engulfs everything. Main character struggles every day to survive in chaotic world. Doujin 61. Osananajimi 2 幼なじみ ２ [991226] Nirvana Soft Main character has two close female childhood friends. But as relations start to cross intimacy line with one of them, second one notices change in behavior... Doujin 62. Kanoso [991226] Itsumo no Tokoro Slapstick parody of Key's Kanon. You play as 17-year-old Yuuichi Aizawa (木目沢ネ右一). Having trained in this madder-red city and left on a ascetic travel, you return to your hometown to determine who is the strongest... Fandisk. 63. Green ~Akizora No Screen~ GREEN～秋空のスクリーン～ [991229] Jellyfish Movie club is preparing a sophomore student film, you are the director and the players are the other members of the club, all girls, lucky for you. The art teacher is also helping with the movie but there is also an another film project going on, led by your rival who is a bit of an eccentric... There isn't much time until the festival... Game's quite good, but since it's fully animated it has over an hour of full animation scenes which puts it into a definite eroge category in my point of view. Let's try to observe other parts of the game. Game basically is a single road with Makoto route as the only true one and other two heroines choices are inevitably bad endings. What actually made me list this game here is the amateur film that the heroes are shooting. Game is quite long and you see odd scenes here and there, but when all the scenes join in one full amateur film - that's really amazing and film contents are touching indeed. After true end is cleared there's a bonus scenario, but it's not just omake - it's an alternative view on the same game events from the point of view of a transfer student. This game is quite a masterpiece, but the other Jellyfish games are inevitably going to be blocked by me. 64. Kakuyuugou Shoujo Ripple-chan 核融合少女リップルちゃん [991231] Jellyfish Ripple-chan lives in a forest together with her parents. Her mother sends her on an errand across the forest. Many fantastic creatures and traps await her on her way. A bakage about little Red Riding Hood with lots of weird mix of fantasy and science. 65. Ano, Subarashii o Mou Ichido あの、素晴らしい をもう一度 [991231] Mankai Seisakushou "Even without my memories, I won't be scared. As long as you're there to remember for me." So said the girl with 『no future』. If a future is made by repetition, stacking up the days, then indeed a 『future』 she lacked. 『Anterograde amnesia』. Also known as 『repeating disease』, a curse that eats away at your memories and future as they form. "If someone makes a mistake, they correct it. Not just repeat it over and over... No one should be forced into doing that." So said the man with 『no past』. And thus the two set out to recover the 『past』 and 『future』 that they respectively lack. All the while not realizing they've already entered the 『repeating world』... Game was released only for a very old system x68000 in 1999, but we'll look at 2001 pc version, of course. Setting is fantasy-like with magic. It's basically a sound novel, but renewal version has game system that remembers choices and you can easily go to any past choice and play from there. Game actually has loop structure and the same story repeats over and over and over and with each new choice it gets minor changes. So from the second loop you need to remember locations of keywords and juggle them to modify the story. Like in the first loop you run away from monster, in the second loop you get to know the weakness of the monster and in the third loop you can remember that keyword and defeat the monster. Gameplay was fresh and the game gained cult-like following, at part thanks to that free x68000 release. Total length is about 6-7 hours. 66. Choukyou Reijou 調教令嬢 [991231] Soft Circle Courreges A girl is caught and insulted to an exhaustion so that at the end of the road she starts to feel pleasure. The stupid doujin producer is back with new poop. 67. Never Ending Love 네버 엔딩 러브 [991231] Yolim Communications Main character is thrilled about a new transfer student girl Eugene who instantly becomes number one in popularity ratings made by boys. There are also four other girls that make her rivals. Protagonist needs to find true love with the help of modern technology - emails and mobile phones. Probably the first Korean visual novel, it's strongly influenced by Tokimeki Memorial series. 68. Plus+ ~Nae Gieoksok eui Ireum~ PLUS+ ~내 기억속의 이름~ [991231] Wizard Soft Hope that is born after 6 years... The karma which binds that child and I... The name that lingers in my memories... I won't bother with Korean exclusives. 69. Xenoage: Knight of the Rihas 제노에이지 [991231] Game Box 1 Civil wars continue throughout Fantasido continent. The United Kingdom of Refando is the only country where peace is said to exist. Lemuel Dettervolf is the son of the feudal lord reigning over the entire district of Shulenburg, within this kingdom. There remains a horrible secret from the past that only a few people in the entire country are aware of. Without ever divulging this secret, Lemuel has grown to become the foremost swordsman within and without his country. His goal is to restore peace to the continent. Never again will the tragedy that he experienced as a child occur ever again. However, full-scale war breaks out. Lemuel takes up his sword to defend the country he loves. The battle develops with turn-style tactics. You order your party (up to 5 characters) to advance into war. There are over 60 different types of magic and assault tactics to use in this animated game. The battle rages on... A worthy tactical RPG. Combat is a bit clunky since it's impossible to move through allies. There are balance issues since there are only 5 party members and it's easy for enemies to surround them. Mizuki is the only healer for all your five units. Closer to the end balance issues get steep. Story is full of infodumping, and events happen too fast, wars fly over one by one. 70. Sentimental Memorial センチメンタル・メモリアル [99] DK Software Kaihatsushitsu A groundbreaking idea to play Tokimeki Memorial with Sentimental Graffiti characters. Main character is a senior high school student. He will spend this year in the company of six beautiful girls. Doujin 71. Oniichan no おにいちゃんの [99] Echigoya Corporation Main character enjoys a carefree life when his blond sister-in-law Emily shows up. She insists on washing protagonist's back in the bath. But is it possible to conceal desire after that? Doujin 72. To Heart CR [99] OKOJARA-C Choose one of six familiar ToHeart characters and enjoy two game modes. Lovely stand presents a simulation game while Quest mode contains conversations with favorite heroines. Doujin 73. H na Kuni no Alice-chan Ｈな国のありすちゃん [99] Soft Circle Courreges Alice appears in a strange world with her pants stolen by a suspicious rabbit. She will need to overcome numerous trials before she can get her pants back. Doujin 74. Sessou no Yoru 雪草の夜 [99] Cheap Nothing found 75. Furukizu 古痕 [99] RGB This is a side story based on Ametsukiyama Ogre, character of Leaf's Kizuato. Doujin 76. Natsu o Shizuka ni 夏を静かに [990316] Iron Fitness Club It is a long pale friendship story with a comedy touch and BL entourage that happens during this quiet summer. Doujin 77. Houkago no Yuuutsu 放課後の憂鬱 [99] Echigoya Corporation Main character wants to get rid of bullying. And for that he wants to adhere to even more severe bullying. And to prove his serious intentions he chooses the most beautiful girl at school as his target. Doujin 78. Nightmare Premium [99] Escape Software There is a prestigious private school with long history and in good standing. Students there receive top quality education and are considered to be hope of the nation. Main character is determined to seduce and enslave one of the purest girls there. Doujin 79. Hitomi dake wa Mitsumenai 瞳だけはみつめない [99] Apresto Two female members of the choir fall in love with each other. On a cold rainy night the finally become united. Doujin 80. Heart no Clover [99] Sound Witch This girl looks like me, surprisingly abandoned. Can I love such a girl? Theme of this love novel is "Eternal Promise". Doujin 81. Chikan wa Yamete ちかんはやめて [99] μ R's It is a game to play pranks on a girl who goes by the same train every day. Select the mischief to play, and game will proceed accordingly. Doujin 82. Via Bianco 2 [99] LTT/CANN Multiple-ending situation adventure with additional characters. There are shame play scenes with Rin, as well as scenes with ants! Doujin 83. second anopheles 1 [99] Ochanomizu Electronic Manufacturing When I woke up this morning, I realized that events of the night before were real. There is a note and 300,000 yen on the table. Everything was there as I remember. I knew that there was a girl's request, so I left the office and headed to my hacker friend Goi's house. Goi looked grumpy while sipping morning coffee. I said that I got a new job to search for a person, and I've been paid commission in advance. Free doujin. 84. Himitsu Sentai Burning Bunny 秘密戦隊バーニングバニー [99] Softhouse TODO I am 17-year-old girl Hiromi Satomi and warrior of justice! The Imperial Technical University is plotting intrigues. But I can deal with any incident after changing into battle form. Doujin 85. Aurora Hime Higyaku no Makyou オーロラ姫 被虐の魔峡 [99] Ohimesama Club Princess is kidnapped by pirates. This is a hard and dark insult story about her misadventures. Doujin 86. Prime Sexual プライム・セクシャル [99] N.S.C. Nothing found