March 2011 Eroge Releases

As much as I wanted to feature stripe witches, I think I’ll keep it relatively nukige-free since there’s quite a few games to go through. Unfortunately, most of them are fandisks, sequels or story rehashes. The game everyone must be waiting for is August’s Aiyoku no Eustia, although I think that ALcot’s Onigokko! and RococoWorks’ Vanitas no Hitsuji might also be worth looking at.

Other than Aiyoku no Eustia and a few other more mediocre games, the majority of this month caters to people who care less about story, character development, and or how well character designs are incorporated into a setting and instead place priority on whether or not a character has a cute moe CG for them. For those of us who actually care that a character has more depth to them than emphasizes a moe trait, 2011 continues to be a lean year, lets hope Eustia ends up being the diamond in the rough we all hope it is.

Hotch Potch -Liar&raiL FanDisk-

Company: ライアーソフト / レイルソフト (Liar-soft / raiL-soft)
Game site: ハチポチ -Liar＆raiL FanDisk-
Release date: March 18, 2011
Comments:
Hotch Potch is a fandisk which covers Liar-soft’s titles from Seiken no Inganock to Dosukoi!, as well as all three of raiL-soft’s works. Various characters from the ten works will appear and in the original story, they all seek ways to return to their own worlds. There’s a few original characters that help drive the story. It’s amusing to see so many different unique characters from different stories together, but in the end it’s a fandisk, so play it only if you’re familiar with the characters and games.

Quite a convoluted fandisk, while I appreciate the concept they are going for, not something I could ever find very appealing as I cannot see there being enough here to warrant proper coverage of each game and character. Ah well if you are a fan of more than one of the games involved in this disk then it may be worth the almost Koihime levels of characters to sift through.

Bura Bura

Company: ホイール (WHEEL)
Game site: ぶら ぶら
Release date: March 24, 2011 Delayed to March 31, 2011
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from January. Takuji is a guy who’s pretty popular among the girls, but he already has someone he likes: Hitomi, his osananajimi who’s doting and is quite a cute… guy!? Their childhood friend Nakaba, as well as other girls, want him to snap him out of the trap and lead him back to ‘normality’.

WHEEL’s games are full of slapstick comedy, so it’ll probably be high tension all the way through. The obvious similarity is Kissmaou‘s Shinobu, since Hitomi also gets a subroute patch in the limited edition. Alice reminds me of Mafuyu with her BL obsessions. If she had her way, she’d make sure no one broke up this ‘loving couple’. Also, I just realized the title is BLBL. Shinobu is so much better though.

I have to admit I like the unique setup for the game though I tend to normally hate these types of characters, the fact the protagonist is madly in love with the trap amuses me quite a bit. Simply for the fact the game takes the trap joke further than is normal I will give the game a chance, as it is nice to see something even slightly unique, especially in a game that will be mostly comedy. This game will end up being my comedy pick for this month, to help get rid of the heavy feeling drama games leave.

11eyes -Resona Forma-

Company: Lass
Game site: 11eyes－Resona Forma－
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to April 15, 2011
Comments:
This is a fandisk for 2008 release 11eyes that includes a before, after and ‘if’ story, with particular emphasis on Lizelotte. There’ll be a mix of both serious and light raburabu stories. Of course, the cross vision system makes a return. There are also some user-written short stories included. Pass since I didn’t play the original game.

11eyes was a really bad game to begin with, way too much focus on the childhood friend heroine, Yuna? Yume? Y.. something whatever she was. With an undue focus on one, horrifically boring character the game was completely ruined for me, as the other routes barely had any development in comparison. As such I fail to see how this game is worthy of a fandisk, let alone an anime. For those of you who found something to enjoy in this game, you finally have a fandisk I suppose.

Her name’s Yuka and her purpose was to enlighten us on what a dorodere is.

Whatever she is, she is still just an annoying clingy selfish bitch in my eyes.

12+

Company: アニゼッタ (Anisetta)
Game site: 12＋（トゥエルブプラス）
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to March 31, 2011
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from February. Anisetta’s debut game is based off Arthurian legend. In a period of chaos and war, the throne is vacated with the death of the previous king. Arthur becomes the new king and is attacked by the 11 surrounding countries, but he fights them off and instead is viewed as the king of all countries. With peace finally in hand, the magician Merlin tells him to marry a princess from a neighbouring country. Even though he had taken her advice many times, he refuses to do so this time. She believes that it is necessary to strengthen the newly-found peace and that he is just afraid because he’s not used to being with girls. Don’t worry, she has a plan and the Knights of the Round Table will gladly help out.

The synopsis doesn’t look any better even after a few months of delays. Actually, the art looks worse…

Let us ignore for a moment the terrible artwork with proportions resembling something created by a South American jungle tribe and focus instead on the well lets just call it a “Plot” for lack of a more descriptive term. We start with Arthur and the legend everyone is familiar with, then the oh so very clever creators of the game decided to spice things up a bit for their game. What we get in the end is little more than a random concoction some third rate writer who happened to believe using names from a popular myth would strengthen their story. Essentially the only real connection to the Arthurian legends are the names, everything else is a haphazard collection of poor excuses for H scenes.

Marguerite Sphere

Company: メテオ (Meteor)
Game site: Marguerite Sphere -マーガレット スフィア-
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to April 22, 2011
Comments:
The coastal city of Shiromine is known as the town of flowers since marguerite flowers can be found everywhere. There’s a legend that the flower spirit will grant the wishes of pure and earnest boys and girls. Daichi lives together with his twin imouto Matsuri and they attend the Shiromine Gakuen together. Matsuri has many admirers due to her cute looks, but she’s very cold to everyone, because she is hesitant to show her true feelings. Daichi thought that his days would continue like this until he met a fortune teller who told his future without his consent.

This is the return of Yuyi’s art to Meteor since their reopening under Silver Bullet. The setting is basically the same as Clover Point, with an imouto lead voiced by Miru and marguerite flowers replacing the clover fields. Actually kouhai Nanohana used to live in the town where Kuropo takes place. Since I liked Kuropo for its simple and fairy tale-like story, this is definitely on my play list. Matsuri has two sides to her: the kuudere side and the amaenbou side. Not quite the same as Yaya, but this is fine too! Matsuri-chan is so cute >w< Hau~ omochikaeri~! (Also, Marguerite-san can’t be this cute!!)

Another Yosuga, I am surprised they got away with such a blatant ripoff of Sora. I suppose it can’t be helped that people want to cash in on a recent anime by offering a mimicry of the plot and characters. Obvious ripoffs aside, there is hardly anything special here to warrant playing this game with a cookie cutter cast and story. The childish plot destroying concept of wishes can only be done in so many silly ways before they really start grasping at straws as seen here, really have to love infantile settings based around providing a deus ex machina  to make things easier for terrible writers. Obviously, along the same lines of Yosuga, Marguerite is a game for shallow players who only care that a characters trait matches an ideal for them to objectify and lust after.

I don’t think it makes players shallow for playing this game. If you recognize that it’s not the best story, but still play it because you enjoy a simple and entertaining fairy-tale like story, then all the more power to me. I mean you.

Even fairytales have better character development than eroge like these….

White ~blanche comme la lune~

Company: ねこねこソフト (NekoNekoSoft)
Game site: White～blanche comme la lune～
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to April 8, 2011
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from February. While this game has the same title as NekoNekoSoft’s debut title in 2000, this is a different story altogether. Shigetomo is a 25 year old insurance agent who lives a pretty standard life with his imouto Hotaru ever since their parents’ deaths 10 years ago. One day he travels to a small faraway island for work, but was shipwrecked. When he awoke, he found himself in a seemingly different time and place, where everyone was pure and trusting. He wondered if it was a time slip or a parallel world and thought about looking for a way back to the world he knew, but he soon grew fond of this place and its people. In particular, a young pair of sisters take a liking to him. However there’s a hidden secret which he soon finds out about…

Oh hey, they’re not listed as 10 years old anymore. It still doesn’t feel any more right… The ver1.04 of the OP has a nice song, fitting quite well with the premise of the game.

Ten. Years. Old. At that point does anything else even need to be said? Even if they somehow magically grow up at some point it doesn’t change the fact the basis for their characters lies in their ten year old versions, so building up a relationship with a girl that wrong… wow it’s as bad as Crayon Tulip and Kud Wafter. If you happen to be someone who finds this game appealing perhaps you should take a closer look at your life and consider turning yourself in before you commit any crimes.

fortissimo EXA//Akkord:Bsusvier

Company: ラクリマ (La’cryma)
Game site: fortissimo EXA//Akkord：Bsusvier
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to March 31, 2011
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from February. This release of fortissimo makes the game fully voiced, while adding more events and about 50 CGs. The main story addition is a true end. It also introduces some characters from the manga adaptation. Anyone up for sacrificing themselves to try this upgraded version out?

So they want people to pay more money for them to fix a sub par game they couldn’t be bothered to put the effort into to get right the first time around? I really cannot see many people who played the first landmine being very willing to spend more money on what really should have been the original game in the first place.

OP

PV

Sakura-iro Quartet

Company: アトリエかぐや Berkshire Yorkshire (Atelier Kaguya Berkshire Yorkshire)
Game site: さくら色カルテット
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to April 8, 2011
Comments:
In the near future, bioroids called Iris were created using genes from animals to be the perfect partner for humans. They now live together with humans in harmony. Ryouta is a meddlesome student at Anba Gakuen who comes upon a stray Iris named Sakura. He decides to take her under his wing and to become her master, but then Sakura’s older sister Ui shows up, along with a suspicious guy Shinji. Even his schoolmates Ayano and Momoka get involved. It seems that she holds many secrets…

It’s AKBY but not illustrated by choco chip and the usual illustrators. Pretty much a standard ‘stumble upon a cute girl/robot/pet and claim immediate ownership’ storyline, except that it’s full of kemonomimi. Oh, what? You say that Memoria already did that? That’s true, but Momoka has usamimi. Long live the year of the rabbit! Seriously though, who in their right mind would try to cross an animal and a human? I think a perfect partner is more than just being loyal to you. What? Stop giving me that look! I’m being serious!

Another borderline nukige, this time with a focus on H scenes using girls with animal ears. Doubtful there is anything that could in all good conscience be referred to as a story to be found in a game revolving around little more than appealing to a popular type of fetish among the hentai loving nukige community. Yes I am sure there is at least a bare minimum attempt at something loosely resembling a plot here, not that anyone can’t tell most of it from a glance at a summary… However nothing here to justify basing the story around animal eared dutch wives.

On a side note we all know Micchi only cares if it’s a loli imouto, as those are not only loyal, but also able to still act like a little child, what more could Micchi want?

I’m fine with kouhais too!

So anything younger that follows you around and depends on you like a puppy, eh? Maybe they really are onto something with animals being perfect partners for some humans.

Tsuyokiss 3-gakki

Company: CandySoft
Game site: つよきす3学期
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to March 31, 2011
Comments:
This is the third game in the comedic Tsuyokiss series. It takes place up to graduation. Didn’t play the first two games nor watched the anime, so this isn’t on my radar at all.

A game for fans of the series really, if you are interested you already know, if not go start at the beginning, either way leave me alone.

Trouble@Spiral!

Company: Aries
Game site: とらぶる＠すぱいらる！
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to March 31, 2011
Comments:
Keisuke didn’t have much luck finding a job after his graduation, but he finally found a place to work at his father’s cafe Tenryuu. There aren’t many visitors at all, but it’ll do for now. He also helps out with renting out the nearby apartment Nazuki-sou and many cute girls live there. However, his father went missing and debts start piling up… soon he’ll be evicted! All the tenants help him out to renew the cafe and save their home.

Hey, the Skittles girls are back! My favs are yellow, orange and red. I don’t get why they don’t just find somewhere else to live since it’s not like they’re helping him out for a little extra cash. Keisuke should know from Sweet Robin Girl that all it takes is to abduct hire some lolis. Similar to LoverAble, it is possible to change the heroines’ hairstyles.

Games like this give me a headache, there is not even a miniscule attempt to give some depth to the story or characters, or at least give some drive to the otherwise pointless bits of moe. Nevertheless a tried and true setting should at least give you some benchmark for whether or not the game would appeal to you, that is if you enjoy reading the same things over and over again. As far as the changing heroines well, I dealt with that last month so I see no need to be redundant about it.

I am sure by now we all know any cafe run by Micchi would feature plenty of lolis being forced to say “Onii chan” constantly.

Actually an imouto cafe would be a great idea. Welcoming you with ‘okaeri oniichan!‘ and then serving you a omurice with L O V E marked with ketchup. Ahhhhh…

I’m sure it exists…

Mecha-con!

Company: onomatope*
Game site: めちゃ婚！
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to April 8, 2011
Comments:
This is the debut game for onomatope*. A sudden change in law by the government ten years ago decreed that rich men must have multiple wives and father lots of children. Haruki’s parents passed away in a traffic accident and he inherited the family wealth while continuing to manage the Sakurajima business group. Even though he hasn’t had a girlfriend before, he now must propose to those girls that are closest to him.

It’s an unwilling harem lead! I’m not sure if I think this is any better of a story than Trouble@Spiral!‘s… At least they got a good line-up on seiyuus and pretty art. It sure sucks being the protagonist’s parents.

More stupid settings, what is up with this month? I am fairly certain it is impossible to develop a good story from a setup which provides a poorly thought out excuse for the reader to be at the center of a harem. Likely to be another borderline nukige with more emphasis on H scenes than on story and character development, so for those of you into pointless H scenes with the possibility of 3+ player then this is the talking CG set for you. Try harder next time onomatope.

I dunno about the parents though after all I would prefer death to living in a world created by an amateur writer unable to think outside their pants.

Secret Game CODE:Revise

Company: FLAT
Game site: シークレットゲーム CODE：Revise
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to March 31, 2011
Comments:
This is the sequel to suspense drama title Secret Game -Killer Queen-. Fourteen young people gather at an isolated ghost town Aosa-mura. Around each of their necks is a collar that has a small bomb planted in it, and in their hands a PDA. They must fulfill the goals outlined in the PDA or the collar will be remotely activated and they will die. In this cruel ‘game’, you’ll have to choose your allies wisely as one false move can mean the difference between life and death.

I heard that the previous game was pretty good, but I wonder how they will keep this type of story fresh, aside from giving a chainsaw to a maid. I know I’m not getting anywhere near that maid.

FLAT is one of those companies where their name could not be any more apt, every game of theirs I have played made me feel they could not make the most of their concept, the writing was in essence, flat and dull. While I never hold bad games against a company completely, nor think too highly of them after a good game, I don’t expect this to be anything spectacular, decent maybe but nothing really worth the time. The main reason I find this particular game to give off an aura of mediocrity is due to the setting being as simple as possible for the sake of the writer. When a setting is created to be a malleable and isolated sandbox with no real connection outside of its own limited existence the writer has already begun to rely on simplistic literary devices. This precludes them from really giving proper development to the setting, characters, and story not to mention an overall inability to truly create a satisfying experience for the reader. Still if you absolutely must have a suspense story, or happened to really like the previous game FLAT has kindly provided some entertainment for you this month.

Duelist × Engage

Company: プラリネ (Praline)
Game site: デュエリスト×エンゲージ
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to April 8, 2011
Comments:
This is the first game by Praline. Yukito lives a peaceful student life with his mother while helping out at the family cafe and making bentou everyday for his osananajimi Monaka. One day, his late father’s secretary came to inform him that his fiancée is coming and he must marry her or they’ll be kicked out of their house. She is Violetta, the daughter of the famous Soleil family of the European island country of Corunglain. She meets him for the first time and breaks the silence by saying: “You are my fiancé? Then draw your sword!”

What’s with forced marriage and family cafes this month? At least this one has more potential since it’s written by Konno Asta (Natsu no Ame). There’ll be lots of duels between the heroines as they fight for the right to marry him. Right up Hemi’s alley. I think I’ll stay out of this one.

It just will not end this month, will it? Yet another game with a setting feeling as though it was devised by a ten year old child for a writing class. I could not possibly be less interested in the extremely common, and extremely silly plot from what we know so far, plus any complaints I have about it would be repetitive at this point of the month. So then I will bring up something a bit more interesting for this game, notably the writer it shares with Natsu no Ame, which happens to be one of the best written stories I have ever read in an eroge. This begs the question of how good the writer is, compared to setting especially seeing as there were some confusingly badly written moments in Natsu no Ame. In other words how much of what I liked about the writer was a fluke, and how much of their skill in writing came down to the setting? I will be giving this a chance just to see for myself if the writer is capable of bringing an outlandish and silly plot to life as a game worth the time it takes to read.

It’s probably a combination of both writing and setting. Let me know how it goes, soldier.

Vanitas no Hitsuji

Company: RococoWorks
Game site: ヴァニタスの羊
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to April 22, 2011
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from January. Claude goes on a journey with the one he calls father, Eliphas, a magician who can alter other people’s awareness, making them think illusions are reality. When he was walking the streets of Engelbourg, he noticed something sticking out from an empty barrel. A couple guys asked him if he saw a girl around and he used his ‘color magic’ to trick their eyes and save the girl, Therese. At that time, he didn’t know that this chance meeting would have a profound effect on the fortress city, nor that there were engels (angels) sleeping there.

One of the better stories this month, as RococoWorks never fails to create a setting that pulls you in. Fue’s art is as wonderful as always. The OP is also quite well done. I’ll be playing this.

If the past is anything to go by this will not be the most realistic of stories, not that it is a bad thing, as a barrel full of loli is probably better than a barrel full of monkeys, or a fight over Tuesday for that matter. Somewhat lackluster premise for a game aside, I can’t help but wonder how well RococoWorks can bring their outlandish stories to life. Since the story is not as pointless as a battle over Tuesday, I will give this game a chance at least. Even if I have no real expectations of quality given the subject matter, I still hope for a miracle.

Hey, that fight over Tuesday was very important! Without it, this post wouldn’t have come out!

Well, thank god for Elmo then, thanks to him we still have a 5 day work week.

Onigokko!

Company: ALcot
Game site: 鬼ごっこ！
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to March 31, 2011
Comments:
A long long time ago, the oni (demons) collected many treasures on an island known as Onigashima and Momotarou came with his three friends to defeat the oni and recover the treasures. Now, there is a thief Ura that is said to be the descendent of the oni and who is stealing all the treasures.

His actual name is Keisuke, the protagonist of this story. However, someone else posing as him sent out a notice and he wonders who it is. But soon his cover is blown as the descendents of  Momotarou, Kintarou, Issun-boushi and Otohime also attend Onigashima Gakuen. And thus a modern fairy tale is born.

Stop everything you’re doing and watch the wonderful trailer below now, since ALcot so nicely made it in English. Aside from the cute heroines, I think what drives the story is his imouto Aoi. Just listen to the PVs! She’s the perfect mood maker! Wait, his grandfather is Snake!?

You know that game makers are scraping the bottom of their idea barrel when they start using Momotarou for eroge. Well what else is there to say, the story probably would have been more interesting if they stuck closer to the actual story of Momotarou and not tried some loosely based modern remake featuring descendants. ALcot often focuses too much on their characters and not enough on what drives them, nor the setting they are part of, which honestly is something I can’t understand, why do people like characters without any depth to them? I suppose if all you care about are character designs this will be a decent pick up for the month, however if you, like me look for characters with real personalities and stories to tell and not just carbon copies of whatever designs are popular in some random setting it would probably be best to steer clear of this particular game.

I think they’re fine with genderbending figures from non-Japanese sources (Arthur, Guan Yu, Putin, etc) rather than those coming from their own childhood. I’m sure people don’t want their own childhood getting Rule 34’ed.

Sounds like you may be onto something there, not that I would mind if I felt they could pull it off, but Onigokko seems like it will be a terrible story.

OP

Trailer

Kyuukyoku Mahou Shoujo Zettai☆Aneki

Company: アクシス (AXIS)
Game site: 究極魔法少女 絶対☆姉貴
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to April 8, 2011
Comments:
Akira’s older sister Hikari is amazing, placing tops in the national mock exams, almost setting world records in athletics and she’s even a ‘mahou shoujo’ that takes care of bad guys. As the school’s representative, she was given the opportunity to enact any proposition that she wants. She announces to everyone that she will be attacking any club that she wishes and if they lose to her, then they will be disbanded. With a smile, she wished everyone good luck. To save their ‘volunteer club’, they decide to fight back with all they’ve got.

Kyuuuuuuuubeyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!! What have you done!? These mahou shoujo are burning my eyesssssssssssssssssss AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Madoka Magica has only increased my hatred for mahou shoujo stories, and while Zombie may have offset that to some degree, I shall still refrain from commentary here as I cannot stay unbiased and will have nothing constructive to say other than how much this sucks even for a mahou shoujo eroge anyway.

Hatsukoi Time Capsule ~Osananajimi to Kyakya Ufufu~

Company: しとろんソフト (Citron Soft)
Game site: 初恋タイムカプセル～幼馴染とキャッキャうふふ～
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to March 31, 2011
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from February. When he was small, Kiriya buried a time capsule under a Camphor tree with his 5 osananajimis. Soon after, one of his osananajimis Kazuha moved away and they lost touch with each other. Ten years later, his other four osananajimis Yuuna, Mio, Maika and Anna all attend the same school as him, but hold back their feelings for him. One day, Kazuha returns and asked him if he still remembers the time capsule and their promise. With Kazuha’s return, the other osananajimis don’t hold back anymore and move in with him at Omoide-sou, resulting in chaos. Which osananajimi will he end up with?

After mikos and imoutos, it’s finally time for the childhood friends to shine! At least this is probably more plausible than living in a mansion full of imoutos (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I have a sweet spot for time capsules and promises, and the cast is pretty good (Sakakibara Yui, Toono Soyogi, Natsuno Koori), so I’ll probably give it a try. Time to kyakya ufufu with my sweet Anna-chan~

At first glance Hatsukoi Time Capsule looks like any other game, with heroines I swear I have seen before, can’t quite place where though hmm… Moving on to look deeper though we find a game which must have had a lot of work put into the plot and setting as the story centers around such a unique idea as childhood promises and time capsules that it cannot possibly have been done before, let alone been done better. Then the childhood friends all fight over the sole guy amongst them? Who would, nay COULD have thought such a thing would happen in an eroge based around childhood friends? It is even more shocking that they all held the same feelings for the protagonist for all those years, he really must be something special and amazing to have such a zealous following. So really what I am getting at is that this is just more moege trait fodder for those people who don’t care about characters or stories beyond looks and catering to specific traits, you know those people who seem to be the majority of eroge players these days, as games with such a focus are becoming rather common I can only imagine they sell well.

Yuusha to Kimi ni Hanataba o

Company: クライン (KLEIN)
Game site: 勇者と彼女（キミ）に花束を
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to April 8, 2011
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from January. The magic city Reifan is where thousands of years ago, a goddess saved the world from being taken over by the demon lord. The protagonist is an adventurer who travels around the world and he comes to Reifan. Along the way, he saves a female knight who was attacked by a monster. Before losing consciousness, she says “to the magic school in Reifan…”. Upon arriving at the school with her, the principal informs him that she is Princess Cynthia from the neighboring country, and that monsters have been threatening the area lately. He asks him to become friends with her so that she will not be worried. When he was leaving the room, a girl named Teana calls out to him and she gets him to stay at the Crystal Goddess Inn where she works. I don’t have any faith in KLEIN making good stories, so definite pass.

I don’t know if it is just me, but the word “Adventurer” is a taboo among taboos for fantasy stories, it is not only lazy but seems to be used in order to replicate the feeling of playing an MMO where your character is a generic “Adventurer” among thousands of others populating the game world. Not content with just one offense Klein even had to use the overused “Monster” moniker to complete their lazy setting. Even worse is how even the character interaction is reminiscent of MMO relationships, help someone, join party, go kill more stuff and meet others along the way. Have to love how this time it is even lazier than normal and we have a third party enforce a friendship, then a random character come along to live with according to flawless timing. I have had more than enough of the MMO ambiance while playing the games, I do not need my eroge to replicate the feeling of grinding as a faceless entity in a fantasy environment.

At least you don’t have to worry about KS’ed every 5 mins.

You never know, the final enemy might be from one of those countries best left unnamed who love cheating in MMOs, there to bot and KS the protagonist.

Rensai Kisou Camellia Note

Company: tritail
Game site: 恋祭☆綺想カメリアノート -夢に忍ばず、斬り咲け乙女！-
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to March 31, 2011
Comments:
Shouichi is a normal student at Raikou Gakuen, which holds an event called Meikousai where students fight for ‘camellia pages’ which hold mysterious power, with the winner getting their wish granted. Even though Shouichi lost his camellia page pretty early, he found himself still stuck on the battlefield.

The fighting system is an action card battle based on jankenpon. It actually reminds me of Koihime since each of the three throws can be modified with power and there are special attacks. Just like with these types of games, special ecchi lessons with your heroine/partner boosts their power, since the bonds of love can beat everything!!!

This is the worst battle system I have seen since Hime to Majin, and probably every bit as annoying. Silly game combat systems like this are such a hinderance when reading an eroge, they just cause frustration rather than enjoyment, especially during subsequent playthroughs. Lame system aside, the story itself is about as boring and simple as possible for a battle based eroge, I don’t think they could have done a worse job of half-assing everything involved in this game if they tried.

Aiyoku no Eustia

Company: オーガスト (August)
Game site: 穢翼のユースティア
Release date: March 25, 2011 Delayed to April 28, 2011
Comments:
A long time ago, God created angels to serve him and humans borrowed the angels’ powers. While they prospered greatly from it, they forgot to pray to God. He punished them by removing the angels from the world, sending the world into chaos. While the world crumbled, a holy maiden made a prayer and God forgave her and her fellow believers and floated the city of Novus Aether into the sky.

One day, a corner of the city broke apart and crashed down below, killing many citizens regardless of gender, age and social standing. This event is known as the ‘Grand Forte’ (great fall) tragedy. A nonstop rain has descended on the city, building up stagnant water on the lowest level of the city, also known as the ‘Prison’. There was also a disease where people grow wings and a unit called the ‘Wing Hunters’ was created to take care of them quickly.

Caim is a former assassin who does odd jobs around the Prison, but he now does not wish to kill anyone. While tracking a carriage of maidens sold to the local brothel, he comes upon a young girl Eustia who contracted the wing disease and sees her enveloped in the light that preceded the Grand Forte, which caused him to lose everything.

The game that everyone is looking forward to this month. The trial was definitely one of the best that I’ve seen and makes you want to play the full game. In particular, I really like the setting and music. With Caim also being voiced, it really felt like I was watching a movie. After Yoake and FA, they’ve decided to go with a more serious setting this time. Here’s hoping that they can pull it off well.

By far the game I look forward to most this month, Eustia is the best bet for a good story this month. That said however there are some huge issues I have with the game, notably how the characters are lazy carbon copies of characters from Augusts previous games, with a slight change on the lead heroines. Other than that I do have some reservations about Augusts writing ability, Yoake was quite good, while Fortune Arterial was quite boring. Given the subject matter here is in some regards new and unique and in others a compilation of themes from previous games, there remains plenty of room for this game to be either great or terrible. In particular there is the noteworthy comparison of Novus with the Moon nation in Yoake as well as the class system and distinctions, while the concept of angels is somewhat reminiscent of the vampire themes from Fortune arterial. I pray August manages to keep what was good and remove the things which were.. well not so good from their previous games in this hybridized story.

Micchi’s Top 4 for This Month

1. Koiiro Sora Moyou FD Aiyoku no Eustia
2. Marguerite Sphere
3. Vanitas no Hitsuji
4. Onigokko!

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Aiyoku no Eustia
2. Vanitas no Hitsuji
3. Duelist × Engage

Ah what the hell, here’s the stripe witches.

…They sure did a good job of distilling the very essence of what made Strike Witches so popular didn’t they?