August 2009 Eroge Releases

There aren’t many releases this August, even with some delayed from July. As a matter of fact, my top pick for this month is Sorairo which was scheduled for last month. Well, it seems that this will give everyone some time to clear the epic July stash.

Ahh this month is a breath of fresh air, a gift of time if you will for those of us who do not have enough hours in a day to complete all their eroge. Should give many of us the chance to catch up with all the games we want to play. Hooray for an August drought!

Nega0

Company: ETERNAL
Game site: Nega0（ネガゼロ）
Release date: August 28, 2009 Delayed to September 25, 2009
Comments:
ETERNAL follows their debut game Tenkuu no Yumina with another comedic fantasy battle ADV. A notebook girl from the future, Faso, appears in front of Naota and Reiko and tells them to save the world from ‘freezing’ by using magic powers to ‘debug’ reality. Nega0 has the standard ADV side, plus heroine ‘debugger’ transformations (「開け、私のアプリケーション！」). During debug mode, you can fix situations and dialogues in the game. There are also battles with other mahou shoujo. Overall it’s a silly idea, but that’s the point: it’s supposed to be comical. Reiko is cute; I thought she was an imouto at first, but an osananajimi is fine too. I liked the character pages on the game site. If you liked Yumina, you will like this too.

All in all I generally loathe the magical girl concept itself, since Micchi covered all the important bits there is not a whole lot for me to add. Micchi seeing little sisters in everything is something that may need a bit of looking into however.

I’m fine.

System Explanation:

&Love

Company: Comet
Game site: ＆LOVE（アンドラブ）
Release date: August 28, 2009
Comments:
This is Comet’s first work. Most of their staff are the same from Meteor, which disbanded in late April 2008. One day Ryou receives a package from a mad scientist his dad and inside was an android named Miru who didn’t know anything about the world. This turns his peaceful world upside down and drags in other people living near him too: osananajimi Mayuki, senpai Chihaya and kouhai Ruru. This reminds me of a cross between Rizelmine and Chobits. Ruru is so loli, but since she’s an imouto-kei kouhai, I might play this for laughs.

When it comes down to it, the story gives a very been there and done that feel. Pretty sure Chobits is probably the first thing that will come to anyone’s mind. Cute characters and what appears to be enough fanservice to satisfy 4chan is not quite enough to save this game from a downright lazy plot for me. The crazy dad sticking the son with some invention of the robot, cat girl, [Insert everything else here] only for wacky hijinks to ensue is getting a little boring. Tried and true is fine but still needs something more than panties to keep it interesting. I think that I would mind less if there felt like more of something worth reading here.

@HoneyComing RoyalSweet

Company: HOOKSOFT
Game site: ＠HoneyComing RoyalSweet
Release date: August 28, 2009
Comments:
This is the fandisk for HoneyComing, consisting of another stories for the 5 heroines, plus additional mini routes for 4 subcharacters (Ryouko, Ichigo, Tsukasa, Minato). Most of it is ichaicha since it’s a fandisk ^^ The premium edition includes a renewal version of the original game, plus a mini fandisk for Clarissa.

As usual for fandisks, play if you liked the original and ignore otherwise. As I have not played the original game nor do I have the time to invest in playing it, I shall be skipping this one.

I Can

Company: LiLiM
Game site: あい☆きゃん
Release date: August 28, 2009
Comments:
Similar to other LiLiM works, I Can features heroines that transform. This time, Miyu and Reina are idols and as their manager, Ryouta aspires to make them into top idols while protecting them from the grubby hands of other men (and keeping them all to himself). Of course, there’s lots of special training involved. I can… ignore this.

Ok is it just me who thinks that the blonde looks kind of like uhh.. hmmm sec… *looks it up* …ah yeah, Mifuyu from Tayutama? That aside I fail to see much appeal in either magical girl nor idol centric games so a combination of them can only end in a vortex of catastrophe for me.

Sakura Tale

Company: Fizz
Game site: さくらテイル
Release date: August 28, 2009 Delayed to October 30, 2009
Comments:
At first glance, this is just a standard romance eroge. However, the seemingly normal girls all have a different side to them that they only show when in love. And not only do they change once, but they do it again later! It seems another selling point for the game is the fact that all heroines wear black tights, although you can also switch them to white overknees. Once again, Sakakibara Yui sings an awesome song. I guess I have some interest in this…

I do agree that it does look pretty standard and in that respect a little boring and perhaps not worth the time. I also have what will most likely end up a passing interest that never comes to fruition from simple lack of time. The idea of the girls changing as things develop I find a little interesting as to just how that will be written into the storyline. If by some miracle time slows down I will check this out a little bit just to satiate my curiosity.

Sorairo

Company: ねこねこソフト (NekoNekoSoft)
Game site: そらいろ
Release date: August 28, 2009 Delayed to September 18, 2009
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from July. I wonder if the delay was because of a seiyuu change for Hanako from Natsuno Koori to Kaneda Mahiru. The OP was recently released too and it accents the similarity to Lamune with the dancing chibis. It’s a great song. This is my top pick for this month as I can’t say no to Ai’s oniichan suki suki beam. Myaa~

As I think I stated before (too lazy to actually check that) the link between past and present is an interesting idea that I wish more companies would use if only for the childhood friend and sibling relationships.

Mimi o Sumaseba

Company: しゃくなげ (Shakunage)
Game site: みみをすませば
Release date: August 28, 2009
Comments:
Due to some family affairs, Tetsu transfers into a school on secluded Minami-hoshikuzu-jima where his grandmother lives. Things are very primitive on the island: people don’t use cell phones and mail only comes one a week. During his introductions in class, he noticed something odd… why do they have animal ears!? The truth is once every 1-3 days, there is an ‘ear time’ when everyone sprouts ears and can hear the thoughts of people close by (around 10m radius). The island’s inhabitants had all become used to this and are careful about what they think. In addition, there is a pool in Hoshigami-yama which is said to link two lovers forever if they wish upon it.

I really like the plot and think it would make for some great comedic and dramatic moments, similar to DC‘s Kotori, DCII‘s Nanaka and GA‘s Mint. But most of all… やっぱりけもの耳いいなぁ～ They’re all so cute with the ears!!! It’s hard choosing a favorite. Mio, Matsuri and Hinata are all adorable! >w<b

Excuse for nekomimi mode. Aside from that the plot is not so bad, with a lot of potentially amusing scenes. The biggest problem I have is that the style and feel of the game gives off an aura of, well less than serious. With a seeming emphasis on comedy more than story, plot, and character development I can only feel this is something of a wasted concept.

Time Leap Paradise

Company: フロントウイング (FrontWing)
Game site: タイムリープぱらだいす
Release date: August 28, 2009
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from July. I’m still only interested in the dances, although after DancexMixer, this will probably be less impressive and customizable.

Easier for you to click than me to rewrite, so go look at July.

Memoria

Company: パープルソフトウェア (Purple Software)
Game site: メモリア
Release date: August 28, 2009
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from July. It’s not often you’d get two kemonomimi games in the same month. Of course, Mimisuma is more comedic, while this should be more dramatic. It’s a pure story about people from different worlds meeting and adapting to each other.

This game was eclipsed by too many better releases in July so now that it is pushed back to august I will most likely end up getting to play this game. To be honest I tend to have a slight prejudice against animal ear games as gimmicky, though I agree it is cute. Most of the games seem to use the ears as a cheap way to boost sales. I am interested in seeing how the story plays out, and if this will end up being something of a diamond in the rough.

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!!

Company: みなとそふと (MinatoSoft)
Game site: 真剣（マジ）で私に恋しなさい!!
Release date: August 28, 2009
Comments:
MinatoSoft’s latest work is based on girls who fight… which, along with the fact that the main girl scares the crap out of me, means I’ll be passing on this one.

WOW that OP is bad. I was in tears laughing at the “Shoubu, Shoubu” refrain. Really though cute girls and weapons are good and well.. butch girls and weapons are bad. Ten bucks says the female main is a trap, if not I shall cite her as an example of why men go gay.

The ‘shoubu shoubu’ refrain was actually pretty catchy though.

Bokura no Katachi, Sekai no Katachi Schroedinger no Koneko-tachi

Company: のると (Nord)
Game site: 僕らのカタチ、世界のカタチ しゅれじんがーの仔猫たち
Release date: August 28, 2009
Comments:
This is Nord’s first game. I don’t really see anything special about this game nor see the revelance of Schroedinger’s cat, unless they plan to do something about parallel worlds or something… which I don’t expect from a debut game.

Blatant panty shots on the cover is always a bad sign to me. Combined with the style it just does not seem all that interesting.

Meitantei Shikkaku na Kanojo

Company: issue
Game site: 名探偵失格な彼女
Release date: August 28, 2009
Comments:
This debut game by issue is an all-ages detective mystery kinetic novel, based on a light novel released last year by the same company. The story follows Karen as she does detective work, even though her gut instincts are usually wrong. The OP doesn’t fit the theme at all.

…How boring.

Micchi’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Sorairo
   
2. Mimi o Sumaseba
3. &Love
   

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Memoria
2. Uhhh…
3. Hand.

(You know you could’ve just made it a Top 1.)