April 2010 Eroge Releases

For real this time. You know, not that much has changed over the past 10 years. Sure, there’s more traps and fandisks, but you still got your love comedies and RPGs, albeit with better graphics and protagonists with names and faces. And with Kotori Love Ex P coming out this month, it feels like a return to the beginning of the decade.

Ten years without much change other than graphically, I suppose that mirrors the rest of the game industry in general. Hard to help but note that perhaps Micchi’s prediction of a bright future was a little misguided… That said it is quite a month for a number of reasons, there are a lot of somewhat standard love comedy games to choose from, and on that note I found myself agreeing with Micchi’s opinions far more than is usual… Perhaps I have mellowed out somehow, or maybe I have given in to accepting there won’t be much originality to be found from games in general. Regardless as long as you are not looking for a game of the year this month has plenty of solid if not groundbreaking titles to choose from.

Akatsuki no Goei ~Tsumibukaki Shuumatsuron~

Company: しゃんぐりら (Shangrila)
Game site: 暁の護衛～罪深き終末論～
Release date: April 22, 2010
Comments:
This is the sequel to 2008 release Akatsuki no Goei. With helicopters in the air and thousands of police surrounding the ‘forbidden area’, where those who aren’t recognized as humans reside, the normal lives of Kaito and his friends is coming to an end. I never played the original game, so I’m not really interested in this. It’s a lot more serious than most titles out there, which makes sense since Shangrila is part of the Akatsuki Works brand.

I want to be a little interested since this month is so full of love comedy stories, but frankly neither the story nor characters especially compel me to play this game. It is all well and good to establish a story based around a forbidden zone where strange things happen, it is pretty tried and true afterall, but really I feel there is little that makes this game in particular stand out.

DEARDROPS

Company: OVERDRIVE
Game site: DEARDROPS
Release date: April 23, 2010 Delayed to June 18, 2010
Comments:
Shouichi was known as one of the ‘nobles’ of the violin world. Having started playing the violin when he was 3, he won the national violin competition when he was in middle school and went to Germany to play in orchestras. However, due to unknown reasons, he returned to Japan, gave up playing the violin and became a freeter. One day, he starts working at a live house and meets many other amateur musicians who are living their lives their own way. Together they will have to overcome obstacles in both their personal lives and as a band. To Shouichi, the live house is a new beginning in a new place… a new world which has opened to him when he thought that his future as a musician had closed.

I had heard many good things about OVERDRIVE’s previous work Kira Kira, so I’m actually quite interested in playing this game. Art is nice and story should be nicely done. Nothing like a group of people helping each other for a common goal. OP is great, especially with the violin accompaniment.

A story revolving around a talented individual having given up on their chosen path only to be dragged back by circumstances for some reason always resonates with me. As a result I find myself thinking this may be a game worth playing afterall, but then along comes the rock band premise to ruin my day. While surely not as bad as K-on, if the OP is anything to go by a crappy synthed / edited violin being drowned out by the abrasive jpoppy noise the rest of the cast makes is all I have to look forward to. Though I really love violins and was initially interested in the main character, what remains is by all appearances a typical young rock band growing up story.

VALENTINE PINK ~Perfect Edition~

Company: F&C・FC01
Game site: VALENTINE PINK～パーフェクトエディション～
Release date: April 23, 2010
Comments:
This is an expanded version of the Canvas 3 fan disk sold at C77. In addition to after stories for Ryou, Yusa and Renge, school idol Rina and dojikko teacher Nanami will also get append stories. Rina is cute, but Renge is still best.

Who cares which characters are cute or “the best” it is still a fandisk.

Kotori Love Ex P

Company: CIRCUS
Game site: ことり Love Ex P
Release date: April 23, 2010
Comments:
Calling all Kotori fans! Kotori Love Ex P is comprised of three parts: Kotori LOVE (D.C., D.C.W.S., D.C.A.S., C.D.C.D.), Kotori Extasy! (18+ port of PS2 D.C.I.F.) and Kotori Plus!. The last part is a brand new story focusing on Junichi and Kotori’s life as newly-weds. What’s interesting is that they included a new character, Ayumi, who tempts Junichi away from Kotori. If Kotori had black hair…

Ya know I thought I was going crazy here, DC? Seriously the original DC? So they figure they have done enough DCII milking recently so backtracked to the original DC? I suppose as a prelude to making something semi new they decided go back and squeeze that last bit of milk from the exhausted utters of their elderly cash cows.

On that note, are you turning into me now Micchi? While I agree about black hair looking the best… since when did you actually agree with that..?

Nah, I’m just referencing some other game.

Glad to hear it, I had worried you may have aquired an adults taste for a second there.

Acchi Muite Koi

Company: ASa Project
Game site: アッチむいて恋
Release date: April 23, 2010 Delayed to April 30, 2010
Comments:
Kousuke just transferred into rural Harusaki Gakuen, but the school accidentally didn’t reserve a room for him. After much searching he found a free room, but it’s at a girls’ dorm! Thus begins his double life: as a boy at school and as a girl named Mae in the dorm. A pretty common scenario, and one in which his cover is bound to be blown eventually. However, he has his imouto Runa on his side, who followed him to the dorm so that no other girl can take her oniichan away. Also, the most ojousama-like chara in the school is actually a trap. That is awesome. Definitely playing.

Is it just me or have there been an awful lot of crossdressing / guys in girls dorms stories of late? Eh.. other than that is there anything of note here? Nothing from the story to the art to the characters really stands out as anything worth taking an interest in. Though being the perfectly reasonable and nice guy I am I shall take the time to also point out that while there is nothing especially great about this game, at the same time there is absolutely nothing especially bad about it either. Certainly while nothing new the overall impression of the game itself is nothing but well made, as long as you are not looking for something special this may be a good game to while away the hours playing…. Especially when there are imouto dreams ripe for crushing.

Kokoro no Sumika

Company: Yatagarasu
Game site: ココロの住処
Release date: April 23, 2010
Comments:
This is Yatagarasu’s debut work. Chihiro likes his imouto Rina, but she doesn’t want him around. In fact, Rina loves her older sister Matsuri, who in turns likes Chihiro! In the midst of this (taboo?) love triangle, their scientist parents sent them some packages and Chihiro opened them and found some weird stuff. His father returns shortly after with a strange girl and introduces her as an android named Kokoro. Not really any interest in this and the graphics lack depth. Dancing android in OP is weird.

Simple solution here, Chihiro just needs to like his older sister instead and all problems are solved. This way not only does he get an undoubtably much better girl, but in the process he gets to spite and spurn the tramp that is his little sister. It’s a win win from all perspectives. I honestly have no idea why but I have to confess to being a bit interested in this game. I suppose I am simply interested in how the routes play out in such a situation. It is after all a bit different from the normal setup for siblings in these games. Or so I would like to say, the art however really makes me cringe, I do not think I could really put up with seeing some of those CGs for any length of time, especially when considering how top-heavy certain characters are…

Noblesse Oblige

Company: CLOCKUP
Game site: ノーブレスオブリージュ
Release date: April 23, 2010
Comments:
Kouji was surprised when a beautiful girl appeared one day and said that she would be his maid. Yuria is part of the famous maid servant group called “Noblesse Oblige” (N.O.) which caters to the wealthy and famous. His grandmother had told him that wanted him to be the most loved in the world, but he never expected to have a maid servant. Not only that but shortly after, another girl showed up, as well as his childhood friend Ayana. What is going on here?

First of all, I can’t stop chuckling because Noblesse Oblige was a well known guild in iRO that Zen and I both played a while back. Imagining them as a maid servant group is… *dies of laughter* Anyways… Ayana is so cute! Hau~ omochikaeri~! Even though I don’t usually care much for maids, her outfit is so pretty! I think the theme is very similar to Iyasare Gohoushi, except it’s not as much of a nukige. I really like the OP too.

I wish my grandmother would randomly send me pretty maids to cater to my every whim, just thinking of everything they could do for me makes me shiver with delight… I could make them write this instead of me.. ahhhh sooo good. I think I finally understand maid moe. My own vivid fantasies of maids gently typing away aside the game itself makes for a somewhat awkward dichotomy. To me there is a rather striking contrast between the artwork and the entire premise of the game itself. On one hand you have what for all intents and purposes is a silly and unnatural setting based on comedy as the premise of the plot while on the other you have a more gentle and refined art style yielding a more sophisticated look. Undoubtedly this is what they were going for, well despite some of the more incomprehensible design choices… Anyway despite the deliberate nature I cannot help but feel the two elements detract from one another when taken as a whole.

On a side note the title of the game made me laugh so hard when I thought of the Noblesse Oblige guild from Ragnarok Online, especially when thinking of the leader and a few other people from that guild as maids… yeah for anyone who happened to play RO on the same server as them I can only imagine you are laughing as hard as Micchi and I am…

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi

Company: feng (フォン)
Game site: 星空へ架かる橋
Release date: April 23, 2010 Delayed to May 28, 2010
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from February. I forgot to mention this last time, but Hoshikaka is the first eroge recorded in binaural audio, making for a more realistic sound. This means that it’s best to be played using headphones. Here’s an example of binaural clips. I think it’s an interesting idea, which would work if the game system was dynamic (like âge or Studio Ryokucha’s), otherwise it might seem a bit odd that the direction of the voices changes while the tachi-e doesn’t.

So protagonist transfers, but wait here lies the unique abnormality for this game, YOUNGER BROTHER! For once the powers that be decided not to make it a younger sister, thus surrounding the protagonist with all females other than the complementary perverted friend. So since there are no clingy little pests to deal with everything is looking good so far, oh wait.. accidentally kisses a girl from a seemingly innocent chain of events.. boooring I take it back this game sucks. Maybe if you happen to want something to read in a sort of lazy manner while not really caring about the plot or characters this may have a bit of appeal… otherwise ignore with extreme prejudice. Perhaps the only redeeming feature I could imagine would be a little brother route that is extremely easy to activate just so I could laugh at imagining peoples faces when they see it.

Are you so lazy you can’t even write a new comment?

Yes.

Ikusa Megami VERITA

Company: エウシュリー (Eushully)
Game site: 戦女神VERITA
Release date: April 23, 2010
Comments:
This is the continuation of 2008 fantasy RPG Ikusa Megami ZERO. Hemi’s been crying for it the past month, so go check out Hemi’s babbles on the trial (as well as some juicy tidbits on Djibril 4 below). RPG isn’t my genre of choice, but Eushully’s one of the best. If you’re looking for a good RPG and/or have played the Ikusa Megami series, pick this up!

Well as anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I avoid RPG titles unless they stand out as exceptional due to my preference of normal games for gameplay, and eroge for the characters / stories. To be honest I have no idea why Micchi bothers neither of us ever have much interest nor play these games.. Onii-chan no baka. Well that said, being a continuation if you are interested you probably already know, and well if you didn’t yet know you were interested it may just be a good idea to go back and play the first game.

Makai Tenshi Djibril 4

Company: フロントウイング (FrontWing)
Game site: 魔界天使ジブリール4
Release date: April 23, 2010
Comments:
Momo, Aoi and Yuzuha are love rivals for Kento. This spring, the four of them are the school council members for Yumegaoka Gakuen. One day, while investigating the rumor that there’s a pervert in the school, they come upon a tentacle monster and twin sisters! Caught by the clutches of the tentacles, everything looks bleak when out of nowhere the angel Loveriel appears and gifts them with the ability to transform into Holy Angel Djibril! Oh, and their power comes from Amore, which is recharged only from H. Ahhh Djibril… There’s nothing like over-the-top ecchi comedy with henshin heroines and ‘evil’ demons (usually loli) with crazy plans. C’mon, cute girls, henshin, battle scenes, tentacles. What more can you ask for? Also, I love the OP!

If I ever had to speak to the UN against genetics research I would cite this game and those like it as a perfect reason to why we should not play god, and for that matter why we should NEVER EVER allow Japan access to such technology. I mean seriously how long do you think it would take Japan to make home grown tentacle monsters to aid you in enjoying your newly bought game? Even if we were to remove the tentacles the situation does not get much better… in fact I can only stare and ask why? Seriously just why would someone like this? Even if we assume the comedy is actually going to be funny… the jokes are so old. While some comedy may be timeless the rest needs an expiration date, and this surely falls under the latter.

Micchi I think Kirino is a bad influence on you…

Zen I think Kuroneko is a bad influence on you…

PARA-SOL

Company: ROOT
Game site: PARA-SOL
Release date: April 24, 2010 Delayed to June 2010
Comments:
In the future where cyborgs and androids are near reality, strange rumors about dragons and werewolves started to spread. A girl wrote an e-mail to someone: “Save Our Ship”. This place is the world-famous research school city Tsukuba, a mix of skyscrapers and farms. On the outskirts of the city lived two sisters whose parents had passed away. One stormy night, a man knocked on the door. Who is he? Why does he carry an umbrella no matter the weather? Can they become like a true family? The girl received a reply: “wilco”.

Ok, I’m really confused. It seems like two divergent stories that probably is linked somehow, but I can’t see how. The OP doesn’t help either (btw ave;new totally doesn’t fit imho). Anyone wanna play this and explain it to me?

Yeah making little sense is usually a surefire way to interest me if not anyone else onlyin this case I am more inclined to be extremely wary. To be honest the story does not appeal to me at all, the concepts in use feel too scattered to be of any real interest. Nothing stands by itself as a reason to play the game especially since to properly weave everything together will require a skillful writer to say the least. Not to mention the girl that looks like a scruffy hobo in headphones is not the least bit appealing in any way shape or form and yet dares to appear as a major entity in the plot. Until I know more this is one game I can only see as not being worth the time or money.

In my not so humble opinion the OP was garbage that made me all the more likely to avoid this game. Not to mention the art looked a bit shoujo at times…

Choujikuu Bakuren Monogatari ~door☆pi☆chu~

Company: プリムローズ (PrimRose)
Game site: 超時空爆恋物語～door☆pi☆chu～
Release date: April 28, 2010
Comments:
This is the first game by PrimRose. Yoshitsune lives with his childhood friends, sisters Orihime and Otohime. Otohime likes delving in black magic and one day makes a drug that bend space and time. Yoshitsune ends up getting this power and summons lots of historical figures. However, he can’t make them return to their original time, so they end up living together with him.

I’m going to have nightmares of hip-shaking girls. And what the hell is a ‘door pi chu’? All I can think of is a tiny yellow rodent.

So basically the storyline here is that of a reverse Koihime Musou where the setting is the present instead of past. Well what can I say, a time traveling harem would be slighty better than an orange vest and Delorian. Koihime worked because it had a story to base itself off of no matter how loosely, in addition to having more interactive gameplay. We can assume that along the lines of mimicking Koihime there will be a plethora of character types to choose from at the cost of individual character development. All that said I cannot help but wonder if the main character’s name is on purpose for sake of the story given the situation he manages to find himself in.

Iro ni Ide ni Keri Waga Koi wa

Company: ういんどみる (Windmill)
Game site: 色に出でにけり わが恋は
Release date: April 29, 2010
Comments:
Autumn has arrived in Tenshin and Yuuto is attending the prestigious Reimeikan girls’ school since his old school closed due to financial difficulties. He lives at a shrine, so he helps out occasionally. One day, he was asked to be an observer for a duel between two Tenjou sisters, Rio and Kikyou, to decide on who is deemed the successor of the family. However, there was an accident and somehow Rio ends up living with him.

As expected of Windmill’s Ko~cha, the visuals are highly appealing, especially the blushes on their faces. This time is a collaboration with Narumi Yuu (11eyes). My fav char is penguin-loving kouhai Yuzuna. Look at her! Isn’t she adorable!? Hau~ omochikaeri~!

When it comes to the premise of this game I cannot help but feel I am being extremely kind in calling it somewhat “flimsy”. There does seem to be potential if you can stomach things being over the top and a bit silly as long as you are not in the mood for some kind of amazing story. Characters are pretty much standard fare found in every eroge, so nothing really stands above the rest here, yet all in all the game does look decent. Speaking for myself I can say they have tempted me sufficiently for me to want to play the game. Now after establishing some good karma by being such a nice person I will venture to say the story and setup are most likely going to be major hindrances for the rest of the game. The story is already limited by its setting and plot setup giving us a weak platform for an interesting love comedy, while on the other site providing little to no support for any type of story beyond that.

… Also why the hell does that girl have an RPG (As in Rocket Propelled Grenade, not the game genre for anyone who is especially clueless or a pacifistic hippie)..? I want to play the game simply to answer this mystery alone if nothing else. Figures Micchi would like the penguin, you sick sick onii-chan.

Floating Material -The hill where the star born-

Company: biscotti
Game site: Floating Material -The hill where the star born-
Release date: April 30, 2010
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from March. This is biscotti’s first game. Since Zen is planning to copy/paste his comments from last month anyway, it’s best you just look at that post instead.

If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

Neko Koi! ~Nekosama to Nekomimi no Tatari~

Company: Whirlpool
Game site: ねこ☆こい！～猫神さまとネコミミのたたり～
Release date: April 30, 2010
Comments:
Tsukasa is the head of the Toono shrine, which he and his sister Sayaka take care of. However, they’re being forced to move out under pressure from his childhood friend Misaki’s father’s company. One day, Misaki’s father’s car crashed into and destroyed the small shrine for some reason. Two cat spirits Hina and Sakuya appear and Sakuya casts a curse, which accidentally hits Misaki, causing her to grow nekomimi and a tail. Now they have to find a way to lift Misaki’s curse, while solving the shrine’s eviction problems at the same time.

This appeals to the nekomimi fans out there. Sayaka is a cute imouto who reminds me of Haramiko‘s Miharu, probably since they’re both red-haired mikos. The PV was really cute and made me laugh a lot. I don’t think the story is that special nor will the game be more than a standard love comedy chara-game. Not that it’s a bad thing.

While I am a bit pessimistic about anything involving cat ears judging by everything so far Neko Koi may actually manage to come out as a better than average game despite clearly being aimed at the nekomimi trait. I think for once I will dare to be positive here after all I did like Omamori Himari (The manga, NOT the anime, which sucked) there may be hope for catgirls after all. Concerning the game itself I agree with Micchi about it being pretty typical love comedy, but at the same time I would like to point it out it gives the impression of being skillfully crafted instead of simply thrown together in a careless manner. Art is not particularly aligned with my taste however it is clean and well done, so nothing to complain about there either. I suppose I will have to give this game a shot to see if there can be any hope for nekomimi mode.

Petapeta

Company: Lime
Game site: ぺたぺた
Release date: April 30, 2010
Comments:
Tooru is the grandson of the president of the world-famous Sakurai group. His sister Miki was named as the successor to the group, so people don’t really care much about him. However, Miki made him pretend to be her when helping out the company. This spring, Tooru will be attending Zuikou Gakuen. Will he be able to protect this secret under in a new setting and at the same time, fall in love for the first time? Nothing too special here. I haven’t seen enough of Lime’s works to gauge their storytelling.

Yet more crossdressing, it really is a wonder there are not more transvestites considering how much people appear to like tranny stories, afterall there is at least one a month these days. While I am pretty ambivalent to the whole crossdressing theme not caring either way as long as there is no Shinobu to deal with, I am quite thoroughly fed up with the tsunami of tranny games lately. It almost feels like transvestite are the new tsunderes, soon enough every game will come with a token transvestite character. Maybe things will even take a step further following Overflow and Marmalade’s examples placing yaoi routes in games to match the transvestite themes.

About the game itself I cannot see a single thing here to stand out against other games other than the transvestite theme which is better done by countless other games so I suppose I agree with what Micchi already stated here.

You sure are agreeing with me a lot today.

I can’t help it, the eroge companies are playing an April fools joke on me!

Custard Cream Taiyaki

Company: アクシス (AXIS)
Game site: カスタードクリームたい焼き
Release date: April 30, 2010
Comments:
One day while returning home, Raikou gets in trouble and meets his childhood friend Aira who he hadn’t seen since he was small. He wondered why she came back and she said that she has an arranged marriage with him, however she just wants to keep her promise with him. The next day, Aira transfers into his school and announces to everyone that she’ll be marrying him, which surprises everyone since no one knows of their relationship. Aira moves in his house, as well as Kanae and Ayaka, since they find Aira too suspicious.

There’s an “Uso Navi” system since Raikou’s special ability is knowing when people are lying. Using this ability, he can make the heroines tell their true feelings. You know what must be a lie? Those custard-yellow school uniforms. Oh god, those are the worst seifuku I’ve ever seen. My eyes! My eyes! And here I thought that AXIS would improve after their debut work Kurukuru Coeur. Guess not. Definite pass.

If the vomit colored uniforms were not enough for me to wish the British empire still existed to ship Axis to Australia as world class criminals, the story itself is about as innovative as blonde twintail tsundere lolis. Quite frankly the lack of effort put into setting up the relationships is plain as day with this game. No lie detector in the world is fun enough to play with that it could possibly redeem a game without any other merit. As such I cannot help but feel the game is just a garbage truck sent to cart away hours of life for those unlucky few who decide to waste it on this game. Take my word for it…

The taiyaki is a Lie
The taiyaki is a Lie
The taiyaki is a Lie
The taiyaki is a Lie
The taiyaki is a Lie

Shu ni Majiwareba Akaku Naru

Company: ぐみそふと (GummySoft)
Game site: 主に交われば朱くなる
Release date: April 30, 2010
Comments:
This is Gummy Soft’s first title. Hajime is a normal guy who transfers into Elde Gakuen, a school for the wealthy. He soon learns that he needs to enter into a ‘master-servant’ relationship with another student. Surrounded by various different kinds of ojousamas, his school life has become more exciting. What do they mean by ‘master-servant’ relationship…? I’ll assume it’s something akin to Maria-sama ga Miteru‘s soeur system (mainly since I’m hoping it’s not an S-M thing). Not a bad first game, but it doesn’t really stand out.

Perhaps if the game came in a diet version, reducing the girls epic mounds which manage to make Everest look like a speed bump to perhaps at least something along the lines of the Rockies I might be interested. The biggest reason for my quick prejudice based on something solely visual is that when a game decides to place so much emphasis on a certain part of the female anatomy there is a tendency to subtract the substance required to inflate them from other parts of the game. This is to say that by focusing on an unrealistic view of body proportions there is a conscious choice being made to favor a type of visual erotic appeal over story or character design / development. I typically ignore it when there is only maybe one character as I acknowledge that some people prefer a “Top heavy” look. There is a problem however when the entire cast has built-in pre-inflated airbags, afterall from the perspective of the developers if such a trait was chosen it means they are more likely to appeal to the player with a more H centric approach, thus reducing their ability to portray the characters in a realistic and convincing manner.

Ok aside from what is essentially my ranting on the huge breasted demographic the game itself does not appear to offer anything worth playing, so in that sense I agree completely with Micchi yet again, what a month.

I do wonder if I am the only person to feel the OP makes the servants look like pokemon… Hajime I won’t be choosing you.

Micchi’s Top 4 for This Month

1. Iro ni Ide ni Keri Waga Koi wa
2. DEARDROPS
3. Acchi Muite Koi
4. Neko Koi! ~Nekosama to Nekomimi no Tatari~

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Iro ni Ide ni Keri Waga Koi wa
2. Neko Koi! ~Nekosama to Nekomimi no Tatari~
3. Acchi Muite Koi

HA! And here you thought Micchi would have a top three for this month? April fools.

You’re late, idiot.