April 2000 Eroge Releases

April is one of the best months with a wide selection of games: ADV, SLG, RPG. With the introduction of some promising new companies and solid games from old ones, the future of eroge is bright!

Truly a month of varied releases, ranging from titles so sickeningly cute I need to kick a wanko to feel better, all the way to titles guaranteed to please your friendly neighborhood sex offender. Who knows though, there may even be a game or two here not only worth playing, but worth remembering as a worthwhile experience many years later.

Miracle Temptation

Company: エスクード (Escu:de)
Game site: みらくるテンプテーション!!
Release date: April 7, 2000
Comments:
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? Escu:de is known for interesting systems and this time, they’re introducing a ‘pheromone system’ which affects how much ‘charm’ Saburou has over the girls. Art could be better, but their innovative systems and slightly wacky plots should make them a popular company in the future.

Here we have a good example of all that is wrong with eroge. To start with we have a typically useless protagonist, however by cleverly employing his version of chemical warfare he manages to create his very own harem. At the very least he does not have to fake being a nice guy to attract all those bishoujos, just a quick spray of perfume and he’s good to go. Nothing quite like using a shortcut to skip all that pointless foreplay and get down to what really matters, right?

Princess Memory

Company: カクテル・ソフト (Cocktail Soft)
Game site: プリンセスメモリー
Release date: April 7, 2000
Comments:
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. So Cocktail Soft is making RPGs now? I wonder if the popularity from Can Can Bunny and Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! will carry over to this title too. The idea of instance dungeons is quite new, so those are interested in RPGs should try this out!

Why is it always Eden? what makes it an “Eden” anyway? I could cite Mexico as Eden and some badger den as a monsters cave and get the same result. Repeating a dungeon over and over is such a waste of time, I hope this concept never catches on, as it would only serve to ruin all that makes a game good.

PERSIOM -Yakusoku o Tsudou Basho-

Company: ALICESOFT
Game site: PERSIOM‐約束の集う場所‐
Release date: April 13, 2000
Comments:
Another ADV+RPG from ALICESOFT. 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. The gameplay is probably similar to Princess Memory.

As basic a plot as it gets, it is almost like playing ero Mario. I am quite impressed by the sheer laziness required to think up a plotline like this, must have been an exhausting five minute meeting. Who needs setting or motivation when you can capture female monsters as though you were some kind of serial rapist.

Sorry, your princess is in another castle! But here’s 5 maids for you instead!

Snow Memoria ~Wasureenu Omoi~

Company: エアプランツ (AIR PLANTS)
Game site: Snow Memoria ～忘れえぬ想い～
Release date: April 14, 2000
Comments:
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. The setting is very similar to Princess Memory. Of course, it’s easy to guess that Colleen is the missing princess. I wonder what will happen when she regains her memories…

Off with his head for daring to touch me!! Is how she will respond when she gets her memories back. Also why would they STOP a war for that, dumbest reason ever, if anything the opposing side would take advantage of it to win. You would really think after awhile countries would do a much better job keeping hold of their princesses. I for one am so sick of rescuing the silly damsels in distress from stereotypical bad guy A, that I just don’t care anymore and would rather leave them to their fates while I go grab a coffee. This leaves me about as interested in finding her missing memories as I am in going to save princess Zelda for the millionth time.

Synchronize Dream

Company: TinkerBell
Game site: シンクロナイズ・ドリーム
Release date: April 14, 2000
Comments:
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. Well, this is pretty much a nuki-ge in a fantasy world. Note the emphasis on fantasy, since the main chara ends up screwing her as a stuffed animal (yes, a bear) in one dream. I don’t know what to think about that.

So when he’s a bear, is it him or her who is imagining that? To be honest while I want to make a pedobear reference it seriously is just way too easy here. Really though I find it hard to believe they can think of nothing better to do with a fantasy universe of their own creation than have wild freaky sex night after night consequence free… forget I said that. However  they both still really need a good hosing down with some ice cold water. Not to mention the artwork has enough flaws to make Picasso weep in pity.

I think it’s her. Although I’m not sure, nor do I want to confirm it.

Shin Ruriiro no Yuki ~Furimukeba Tonari ni~

Company: アイル【チーム・Riva】 (AIL Team Riva)
Game site: 真・瑠璃色の雪 ～ふりむけば隣に～
Release date: April 14, 2000
Comments:
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. There’s quite a lot of characters and routes in this game. This is actually a remake, with additional CGs and sound in CD-DA format instead of MIDI now. It’s nice to see that AIL is making romance ADVs and not only dark nuki-ge.

Probably one of the more interesting stories this month perhaps. I do enjoy stories about the supernatural, a bit too easy to predict the plot in this instance however. Still not a bad choice in my opinion, besides it is nice to get away from MIDI sound.

Sakuranbo Station

Company: Mer Rouge
Game site: さくらんぼステーション
Release date: April 21, 2000
Comments:
This is the debut work of 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. More love stories are always welcome.

So if this game is supposed to portray the fujoshi perspective, does that mean there is at least one yaoi route? For example they could perhaps make a game about the turbulent and superficial emotions caused by rampaging teenage hormones leading to a series of hardships and bad ends; then throw a yaoi route in the midst of things to catch everyone by surprise, now that I would love to see. Well anyway if shoujo manga offers any insight into “The female perspective” this is perhaps the last game I would ever way to play.

Castle Fantasia ~Elencia Senki~

Company: Studio e.go!
Game site: キャッスルファンタジア ～エレンシア戦記～
Release date: April 21, 2000
Comments:
A sequel to Studio e.go!’s debut work, Elencia Senki follows Faizel as he strives to regain the country he lost to the Illumina empire. The game is an RPG+SLG with down time between battles used to train your favorite heroines. An additional feature this time is the ability to give orders during battle via a mic, which I think is pretty awesome. I might try this out if I have time.

Right, because I want to look even MORE insane screaming into my mic late at night by giving orders to fictional characters, followed by spastic obscenities when the game undoubtedly fails to properly recognize what I am saying and performs the completely opposite actions. I’ll pass, I doubt they let you play eroge in asylums.

Koiyoubi

Company: アクトレス (ACTRESS)
Game site: 恋ようび
Release date: April 25, 2000
Comments:
In the dorm courtyard, Haruki met a girl who seemed to know him and had been waiting for him all this time. However, he didn’t recognize her, causing her to get angry and slap him before running off. Then, a weak boy transferred into his class. His name was Mao and he looked very much like a girl. In fact, Mao is actually Maho, the girl who Haruki had failed to recognize from before. She had made a bet with her older sister Michiru that he would remember her, but since he didn’t, she had to dress up as a boy and live in the same dorm as him. There haven’t been many crossdressing characters, so this story should be quite entertaining. I think Maho looks better with long-hair than short, although Nanaka is definitely the cutest in my eyes (and looks quite like CCS‘s Sakura). Hau~!

Long hair is always better, period. It is nice to see a reverse trap though, if a bit weird pursuing a relationship with someone you think is male… Nothing like the surprise on someones face when they think they have finally succeeded in getting into a little boy’s pants only to find out he’s a girl to make your day better. While the game may be disappointing from the standpoint of a catholic priest, Maho is cute and for some inexplicable reason I am curious about how the relationship progresses so I suppose it is not all bad and I would be willing to give it a shot even.

Aries

Company: CIRCUS
Game site: Aries -アリエス-
Release date: April 28, 2000
Comments:
This is the first game by CIRCUS. A fallen angel named Ami enters a special angel school with the goal of becoming a full-fledged angel. She doesn’t understand love or humans and ends up spending time with the protagonist from Valentine’s Day till graduation. The game looks really cute and I hope CIRCUS makes more titles like this. I’m cheering for you, Ami-chan!

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. If just being “Cute” is all it takes to make a game good for you then I suppose you need look no further than Aries.

Hey! No dissing CCS!

Fugue ~Kimi to Boku no Uta~

Company: シーズウェアBLITZ (CSWare BLITZ)
Game site: Fugue ～きみとぼくのうた～
Release date: April 28, 2000
Comments:
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. Wait, why did she drag him in there? Maybe they’re in need of some Y chromosome?  Not really interested in this. Pass.

So if I am reading things correctly, he is going to start a brothel by pimping out teenage runaways after he has finished breaking them in? This guy sure has some business sense, it is kind of nice to see a game that focuses on development of entrepreneurial skills instead of relationships.

Unfortunately (Fortunately?), this isn’t an SLG.

LoveMate ~Koi no Rehearsal~

Company: ミンク (Mink)
Game site: Love Mate ～恋のリハーサル～
Release date: April 28, 2000
Comments:
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 like the idea of saving a club in danger… I wonder why it hasn’t been done much up till now.

Saving a club is a rather limited approach for a plot, there just is not enough there for a real story to be told. I do however like the more proactive and open-ended approach to your choices of who should be involved in the club. After all when there is one member who you cannot be rid of plus is really dull and lifeless… that would probably ruin the whole point of a drama club.

Magical☆Antique

Company: Leaf
Game site: まじかる☆アンティーク
Release date: April 28, 2000
Comments:
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 Sphie, who comes from the magic world, and she helps out at the shop. The SLG system is very nicely done, although I’m not too sure if the story’s any good. Considering the success of ToHeart and WHITE ALBUM, I would’ve expected Leaf to make sequels for these two series instead.

I myself prefer when companies branch off from sticking with what works, sequels are rarely as good as the originals let alone better. Story this time around looks nothing but weak, not to mention Characters are about as interesting as banging my head into a wall. I pass it right on to you Micchi, cute looking characters with little else suits you well, then again that is the same for Aries…

Micchi’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Aries
2. Magical☆Antique
3. Koiyoubi

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Shin Ruriiro no Yuki ~Furimukeba Tonari ni~
2. Koiyoubi
3. No.

It seems Micchi has become well behaved lately with the top three.. could this mark the dawning of an era where three choices actually retains significance!? I’m so proud Onii-chan!!

Update (04/02): Happy April’s Fools! ^^ I’ve changed all the dates to reflect the true year: 2000.