April 2013 Eroge Releases

The arrival of spring can only mean the blossoming of new love and the return of D.C.. CIRCUS’ much-anticipated D.C.III R X-rated will allow you to get to know your fellow Kazami/Kazamidori Gakuen classmates much better. Make a girlfriend in hibiki works’ LOVELY×CATION or ASa Project’s Hitotsu Tobashi Renai (although beware of love triangles!). SLG enthusiasts will have their hands full with Eushully’s Madou Koukaku, while those looking for a little magic may wish to check out Yonaki Uguisu’s Unmei Yohou o Oshirase Shimasu. There’s something here for everyone!

A busy month full of somewhat almost borderline decent titles and a few probably so bad they will need warning labels for the potential health risks. Likewise there are a few games that perhaps by some miracle granted by the eroge gods will be blessed enough to bring about a diamond in the rough. In the end it could have been a better month and could have been much worse, after a winter drought of decent titles even some of the average games are starting to look better by the month.

March 2013 Eroge Releases

This month is quite uninteresting as it seems like many companies are settling for an April release date instead. If it wasn’t for delays for games like COSMIC CUTE’s LOVESICK PUPPIES and UnisonShift Blossom’s Ryuusei☆Kiseki, we’d only be left with makura’s Himawari no Kyoukai to Nagai Natsuyasumi. Fandisks, adaptations and remakes round out the rest of this month’s titles.

The sheer number of titles delayed from previous months padded out the scanty ten or so actual releases just enough to make a list that can actually be called such. Not much of interest this month but that just gives us an extra month to work through all the February releases, yay.

February 2013 Eroge Releases

Is this a dream? Both Innocent Grey’s Kara no Shoujo 2 and ALICESOFT’s Pastel Chime 3: Bindseeker come out this month. If you want to learn something, OVERDRIVE’s Boku ga Tenshi ni Natta Wake will teach you about love and happiness, while COSMIC CUTE’s LOVESICK PUPPIES should show you the bonds of family (and make you want puppies). How wan-derful!

Finally a month with some games that are worth playing even if not groundbreaking. While  not a monsoon it is nice to have some rain on the parched earth that was the eroge market over the last few months. Even some of the lackluster games for this month are better than the majority of the previous months. But for once I am happy with average, after hitting what sure felt like rock bottom at least before they reach new lows It feels great to actually consider playing some games again.

January 2013 Eroge Releases

Are we still in 2012? There’s sure a lot of fandisks/sequels this month, for Konosora, Material Brave, Corona, Leyline and even Sakura Sakura. But of course, the one you all are probably looking forward to the most is August’s Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai. Light fantasy stories in a school setting are their forte after all.

Boring months filled with games that can only be described as nothing special continue. Personally I hope 2013 ends up being a rough year for eroge so maybe they decide to evaluate the direction the industry is taking and hopefully start putting more effort into their games again.

December 2012 Eroge Releases

Let’s end the year with a bang… or rather a boing for minori’s Natsuzora no Perseus, which definitely caters to those who like the far right end of the spectrum but also showcases a wonderful imouto in Ren. The all-ages Ima Sugu Oniichan ni Imouto da tte Iitai! by sprite features younger versions of Koichoco‘s Chisato and Satsuki. Those looking for comedy should try out PULLTOP Latte’s Kanojo to Ore to Koibito to. and Whirlpool’s JustyxNasty. I can’t wait to open my Christmas presents!

An annoyingly long month with way too many releases for my own good, praise be to whatever god caused delays. Not a bad month though there are some games with promise for once after some very disappointing months, whether they will live up to it or not only time will tell however. Even with the seeming variety this month there is still that feeling where each game is just a recolor of a dozen games before aside from a select few releases. This isn’t always a bad thing if they are well written but too many are little more than a broken ero record. Just once a year I would appreciate a Christmas present that wasn’t a reused hand me down being tossed around like the single unwanted fruitcake making its rounds every year.

November 2012 Eroge Releases

It’s no secret that Windmill’s Witch’s Garden has been on the many people’s radar for some time with its innovative E-mote system which attempts to raise the level of realism in eroge. If you’d rather read an adult’s version of your favourite fairy tales, GALACTICA’s Gensou Douwa ALICETALE will do the job. Also, popular doujin circle Fuguriya makes the jump to pro as Yurinyurin and offers up the yuritastic Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o: Michael no Otome-tachi.

I find it a little scary when the games I look forward to most in a month are fandisks. The rest are full of games that stand out about as much as waldo does in a sea of people. Changing the names and hair colors doesn’t do much to change what lies beneath sadly. Not that I am asking for much, just stop trying to deceive me to cover up the flaws and insult your reader base and I’ll be happy even if they were games about magical younger sisters making wishes so everyone in the world could be happy.

October 2012 Eroge Releases

Being an eroge protagonist is suffering. You get kicked out of the house for not having a girlfriend, inherit an enormous debt that is impossible to pay off, and are forced to cross-dress by your imouto. At least, you don’t have to worry about getting a bride since arranged marriages are the central theme in Marmalade’s Koiiro Marriage and Studio Ryokucha’s Shukufuku no Kane no Ne wa, Sakurairo no Kaze to Tomo ni. Lump of Sugar’s Hanairo Heptagram has a magic flair, while Navel’s Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou marks the return of Suzuhira Hiro. Just what I wished for after a couple bland months!

Being an eroge protagonist is glorious. You get entire plots and stories to revolve around not just you, but the situation needed to make you a protagonist. There are girls fawning over you for minor nonsense and everything in your surroundings exists just so you can succeed with whatever girl you chose. In a month filled with rich kids, wishes, and cross dressing, the games are surprisingly bland in terms of what is average for eroge these days. While many of them aren’t terrible they also lack something to stand out as more than just different combination for your typical color by numbers eroge kit. Rather than just using similar themes many aren’t even trying to be different and just relying on some cute visuals for the character appeal as that is enough to sell anymore it would seem.

September 2012 Eroge Releases

Is it something in September that makes people lose their memories? That theme along with chuuni elements are rampant this month, with BOOST5′s SINCLIENT and light’s Zero Infinity highlighting the bunch. Personally I think that SkyFish’s Tsukumo no Kanade holds more story potential. On the flip side, you can search for true pure love in HOOKSOFT’s LOVELY QUEST, find your hidden side in the ironically titled Pure Girl by FrontWing, or go on a musical adventure with Whirlpool’s Ryuuyoku no Melodia.

While not the best month at least there are enough titles to help forget about how awful August was. There are a few titles that may be worth taking a look at although will still most likely end up as average at best. As much as I enjoy working on getting rid of ever growing backlogs, I would like to have a better month or two. It has been far too long since I felt any game turned out as a must play.

August 2012 Eroge Releases

August is always a light month as companies are focused on producing goods for Comiket. FAVORITE’s Irotoridori no Hikari and Sphere’s Imouto no Katachi once again top the list after being pushed back a month, along with SORAHANE’s Sakura, Sakimashita.. 07th Expansion also starts up another novel game series, the hard-boiled ROSE GUNS DAYS. If you want another type of battle, how about kigurumi vs cosplay in ALcot’s Naka no Hito Nado Inai!?

A light month is an understatement, I cannot find a single game even remotely interesting enough to be worth playing, maybe Dies Irae but I already played that game some time ago. With quite literally nothing worth playing I suppose I should be happy to be able to work on backlogs and other games, but it certainly does make writing about a bunch of generic copy pasted or just plain terrible games more difficult.

July 2012 Eroge Releases

I hope you love imoutos because there’s not one, not two, but THREE imouto-ge this month: Sphere’s Imouto no Katachi, Silver Bullet’s IMO-bilizer! and Latte’s Dainikai Imouto Senbatsu☆Sousenkyo! FAVORITE’s Irotoridori no Hikari will provide Shinku fans with all the icharabu that they want, in addition to a route for her imouto Ai. There’s also a baka imouto in Nounai Kanojo’s Yomejuu! and you’re tasked with saving your ‘imouto’ from the end of the world in Cotton Soft’s Owaru Sekai to Birthday. You could also save humanity in AkabeiSoft3′s Sousei Kitan Aerial, but imoutos take priority of course.

What a lame month, I know it’s summer and all so people tend to get out more and flagship titles are almost never released, but wow even by my standards where most months aren’t so great, this stands out as a particularly bad month. Sure there are a fair number of titles to choose from with a seemingly wide range of settings and characters but everything is just so sub par I have trouble believing even fans of certain genres would have difficulty enjoying many of these titles.