May 2013 Eroge Releases

Magic is in the air this spring, with Lump of Sugar’s Magical Charming! and Parasol’s Yumekoi both coming out. The much-awaited finale to FrontWing’s trilogy has arrived with Grisaia no Rakuen. If you want a good story, be sure to check out EX-ONE’s Tsukiakari Lunch or Tigre’s Reminiscence. Oh, you want imoutos instead? How about some Imouto Paradise 2 from MOONSTONE Cherry?

A surprisingly decent month for all the pretty pretty princess games on the list. There still manages to be a few picks worth the time, as well as a few others that could go either way. Personally I am probably going to marathon the Grisaia trilogy now that it is finally completed and I have no need to question what comes next. Otherwise there are entirely too many little sisters this month, leading me to believe the best gift a firstborn son could give his parents is a pack of condoms.

LO-angle!!

Company: はむはむソフト (HamHam-Soft)
Game site: LO（ロー）あんぐる!!
Release date: May 24, 2013
Comments:
Tooru has three cute and lively imoutos: Eri, Miku and Yako. He couldn’t help but notice their bodies gradually turning into that of a woman and tried his best to resist his urges. With his cousins Momoka and Makoto also showing up, will he be able to hold out in this ‘semi-little girl’ heaven?

Viva SLG! They originally used JK instead of SLG, but someone somewhere decided it wasn’t a good idea. I wonder why. Anyways, why should you all love SLG too? Their purity! Their innocence! They accidentally show you their panties because they never thought to cover them up in the first place. Actions that seems daring for any other girl never even crossed their mind that way. It’s up to oniichan to protect them and guide them! Oniichan, your imoutos are waiting for you!

I love the title a lot too. First of all, there’s the reference to a certain magazine. Your imoutos always look up to their oniichan, from a low angle. LO is short for a synonym of SLG, the W (warai) hints at the comedy and ero in the game, while ANGLE is an anagram of ANGEL, which is what SLG are. Viva SLG! (Down with oshikko though ><) Eri and Makoto are my top choices. I wish Yako had a better seiyuu voicing her.

A simple game for simple people, that is if wanting to have intimate relations with children could be characterized as “Simple”.

Ojou-sama wa Gokigen Naname

Company: ensemble
Game site: お嬢様はご機嫌ナナメ
Release date: May 24, 2013
Comments:
Hajime had been Nanami’s loyal servant ever since her family took him and his imouto Hana in after their parents passed away. Every day, he fends off the succession of men from noble families who come to propose to her. One day, Nanami came to their run-down apartment and asked him to teach her the life of the common people. At the same time, a fellow student at Tenshouin Gakuen, Otoha, asked for his advice in becoming an idol, and Nanami’s cool friend Touka also started acting weird. Then the daughter of the Naname group’s rival corporation, Shiaya, proposed to him all of a sudden. What will happen to him?

The Kiritani Hana-voiced Nanami doesn’t have much common sense and does (and says) some weird things. She’s not my favourite rendition of Kirihana, and I much prefer Hana. It’s not because she’s just an imouto. She’s… an imouto meido! That fits as a meido under the harem rules! 

How very convenient for our downtrodden protagonist to suddenly be the center of ojou-sama attention. Pretty much a very stripped down standard version of ojou-sama game where there is less effort put into bringing the characters together. While there are a few different paths for this game to take, especially as to why he is suddenly a priority target I think it would have been a better game had they developed the relationships and setting better to allow for a richer progression of character development. Instead of having girls essentially randomly throwing themselves at him, steady development through meetings enabled by Nanami, through school, his occupation, or specific circumstance would have been doing a favor for the characters and the game. Instead of the sudden rivalry it could be something born out of continued interaction towards the late common route or a result of individual routes based on his own background and or birth. Since there does appear to be some suggestion towards his having greater significance than just a butler laying a firmer foundation for such a revelation and how it impacts his relationships gives the whole thing a feeling of polish and value. Without much effort put into anything aside from the basic dialogue and character design it is hard to see far beyond the bare bones ojou-samas.

Grisaia no Rakuen -Le Eden de la Grisaia-

Company: フロントウイング (FrontWing)
Game site: グリザイアの楽園 -LE EDEN DE LA GRISAIA-
Release date: May 24, 2013
Comments:
This is the final game in the Grisaia trilogy, continuing from where Grisaia no Meikyuu left off. What will happen to the captured Yuuji and what is Osro’s hidden motive? The true face behind Thanatos will also be revealed. There will also be many sub-episodes to please all fans.

Nothing much for me to say as I haven’t played this series, but it’s a popular one that’s also got an anime in the works. For those that haven’t gotten into it, you could try marathoning all three come end of May. As usual, the OP is very nice and most likely will make it into my best OP list again for 2013.

With the final game finally being released I will finish all three games , and all the routes for the one retarded character that shouldn’t have been part of this series, that little brown haired annoyance, forgot her name. Otherwise while there were some flaws with the series and more specifically the subject matter, it wasn’t a terrible read and is probably worth the time to go through all three games.

Shitsuji ga Aruji o Erabu Toki

Company: PeasSoft
Game site: 執事が姫（あるじ）を選ぶとき
Release date: April 26, 2013
Comments:
The private Katsuranomiya Gakuen is a school full of girls from noble families. Naoya enrolled in the school as a butler on a scholarship and met five ojousamas known as the ‘cinq roses’. They came from different backgrounds, from being a princess to being the daughter of a famous acting family, but they all had something in common. They all are either S or M! Which of them will he choose to serve?

I’d choose the two-faced Saya (CV: Natsuno Koori), who is normally S, but is M only to the protagonist. Oh hey, she even calls you onii-sama. My imouto sensor is working well today. Don’t really have much high hopes for this. PeasSoft games are generally quite forgettable.

As Micchi already pointed out the company is known to churn out forgettable charage, and there doesn’t seem to be anything different this time. Even if the characters were something special, which they sure do not appear to be, would still probably be a better use of time to wait for a game that took the time to develop them.

Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica F

Company: ocelot
Game site: 神曲奏界ポリフォニカF
Release date: May 24, 2013
Comments:
This is the last game in ocelot’s all-ages Polyphonica series. A cave-in at a certain ruins resulted in the complete loss of the excavation party affiliated with Maynard University. It happened when they took out ‘something’ from the sarcophagus deep inside. Afterwards, two young girls who were actually founder spirits, Richelie and Esther, visited Phoron and Corticarte and warned them that the spirit-eating ‘harvester’ has awakened.

Another long series comes to an end. Fans would probably have a bittersweet feeling about this. I know I would if D.C. came to an end. Actually, that’s a scary thought. Good thing there’s Sara to keep me company.

As much as I like the Polyphonica series I cannot help but note the feeling that Ocelot never seems to hit the sweet spot with any of their games so has to keep coming back to what works. While I will play the game I dunno about how they will end it and more to the point what they will do in the absence of these titles.  I do however wish them the best in their future attempts, hopefully they will come up with a replacement equally compelling.

Touhikou GAME

Company: イグジット (Ex-iT)
Game site: 逃避行GAME
Release date: May 24, 2013
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from April. One day during class, Akito gazed outside the window and mumbled to himself: “… I want to run away somewhere”. “That sounds good, where shall we go?”. He was surprised by the response and looked over to see his classmate in the neighbouring seat smiling at him. He had never talked to her before, but those words made him want to attain his hidden wishes.

His life changed greatly from that day on. He met a strange girl Nia who seemed to be chased by someone in an alley, was approached by a foreigner Norm who took a liking to him, made friends with an ojou-sama Korone who was passing by on a trip, and was closely monitored by his imouto Mirika who thought he was acting suspicious lately. Thanks to this ‘running away game’ which his classmate Renna had proposed, there are no more boring days. However, he still had a wish to find someone who he loves and run away together to somewhere far away.

When I first saw the title, I thought it was going to be them running away from something evil, whether it be monsters, zombies, tentacles or those balding old men who would NTR your heroines if given the chance. Luckily, it’s more light hearted than that and feels more like an adventure to bring some excitement to the monotony that is school life. It sounds like a simple and interesting premise. I would skip school or work to play this (although I would say the same for most other games).

I would run far far away from classmate stalker girl intent on interjecting into my internal monologues too, Fight Akito! Don’t give up, you will escape her some day! Otherwise pretty standard fare sadly.

Koi Shiyo?

Company: とりぷる・すれっと (Triplethreat)
Game site: 恋しよっ？
Release date: May 24, 2013
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from April. This is the first game by Triplethreat. The government took drastic measures to combat the falling birth rate and created Kukuri Gakuen, nicknamed ‘Renai Gakuen’, as a model case to promote love between students. Yuuki’s parents did not outwardly show their love towards each other, so he was never interested in love. However, he was suddenly chosen to attend ‘Renai Gakuen’ despite his wishes.

Accept it, Yuuki. It’s your fate. Go make some kouhai friends. They’re all waiting for you to look their way, senpai. First-timer Kazakura’s art seems a bit shallow, but it won’t bother me too much. I guess Triplethreat will be a chara-ge maker, but let’s see if they’ll be able to make their mark in a crowded market.

Flimsy plot with bland characters, if this is the best Triplethreat can do, I don’t see them lasting long. Good riddance to half assed game makers trying to make a quick buck.

I wonder how many aim to do just that. There sure a lot of similar companies nowadays.

Sadly it sure seems like most of them, even those who have been in the industry for awhile.

ChuSinGura46+1

Company: インレ (Inre)
Game site: ChuSinGura46＋1　-忠臣蔵46＋1-
Release date: May 31, 2013
Comments:
This sound novel game is Inre’s first work, which is a powered up version of doujin circle RainDog’s game of the same name. As the title suggests, it follows the travels of Suguha who time-slipped into the Edo era around the time of the 47 ronin. I’m not knowledgeable on this historical period, so it doesn’t really interest me much. I’d rather take Koihime with its better art, although the trial wasn’t too bad and the seiyuu list is quite impressive.

I want to applaud them for trying something beyond standard highschool romance to break into the eroge scene, but then this feels pretty standard for the Back to the Future games. I am not against these titles on principle as I am for magical girl plots, but the Koihime style games are starting to need some variation. Perhaps the appeal that separated Koihime from the rest was in the nature of the protagonist, should they do a better job of fleshing them out and involving them as more than a faceless entity who exists for H scenes with antiquated girls carrying masculine names. Of course improving on the development of those same girls and doing a better job of fleshing out and incorporating the setting itself wouldn’t hurt either.

Da Capo III R X-rated

Company: CIRCUS
Game site: D.C.III R～ダ・カーポIII アール～ X-rated
Release date: May 31, 2013
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from April. This is the 18+ version of D.C.III, adding new CGs, H scenes, and a new episode called “Ouka no Ultimate Battle!”, featuring Yoshiyuki as the protagonist with most of the D.C.II cast making an appearance. There’s also a 15+ PC version coming out at the same time, but obviously the interest is right here.

More Sara! More Himeno! More Aoi! More Ruru-nee! More Ricca! Sure, there’s probably not too much that’s added, but I’m really looking forward to a continuation of Sara’s ofuro scene in Kazamidori Gakuen. At least this should tide me over until D.C.III P2 next year. I wonder if they’ll introduce new characters and how would they fit them in. Anyways, it’s also nice to have the D.C.II charas return. More Nanaka and Yume! I love being a D.C. fan!!

And so it begins, with the release of a new flagship series for Circus we can expect many such spinoffs to come along over the years to come. No idea why people keep paying for what are essentially fandisks unlocking things that normally would have been part of the game from the start though.

We’re all mindless consumers. NOW GIVE ME MORE SARA.

Magical Charming!

Company: Lump of Sugar
Game site: Magical Charming！
Release date: May 31, 2013
Comments:
Another summer vacation has passed and a depressed Ritsu is rueing another lost opportunity to celebrate his youth. When he woke up from his despair, he found the date had wound back to just before the summer vacation. Also, he was in an unknown room, captured by a girl he didn’t recognize and unable to move. The self-proclaimed magician Orietta told him it wasn’t a dream and that he had ruined her peaceful days with his magic. Not wanting to make the situation any worse, he agreed to help her figure out how to fix the problem and ended up enrolling in the famous Wizly girl’s magic school as part of Orietta’s outrageous request.

Normally, magic is only able to be used by girls and the school’s rule was not to use it recklessly due to its great effect. So, its use should be controlled, restrained, or not used at all, if possible, for the ultimate goal of not causing problem to the general public. However, now Ritsu has joined the school and he is a male magician. Of course, he has become the center of attention at the school.

So what’s special about this Lump of Sugar game with magic and cute girls? You can use of Chrono Cards to go after your favourite heroine! The more cards you collect, the more ways you can interact with them. You can even check the Chronopedia to see all the action cards you have in your possession. Sounds like an achievement game to me, but I love these since you can see how each heroine reacts differently to each card. Like, imouto Fuuka’s reaction if you mention oppai since she has a complex about their size (not small like most imoutos). I really want to see more of the nekomimi meido subchara Sharon! She’s so adorable! Hau~ omochikaeri~!

Ah Lump of Sugar when will you stop taking your name so literally and at least make an attempt at a quality game. Well on their way to becoming one of the most annoying companies in the industry with all these excessively elaborate but fundamentally simple and lacking games. Like a frilly dress, no matter how much lace you add if the embroidery and stitching are rough, you can’t call it well made or even pretty, no matter how much they try to distract people by using it to sexualize children.

end sleep

Company: LilacSoft
Game site: end sleep
Release date: May 31, 2013
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from April. Itsuki has lived an unlucky life. His parents passed away when he was young and his relationship with his adoptive parents did not last long. Now an university student, he took up a high-paying live-in part-time job in a mansion deep in the mountains despite being suspicious about it.

When he got there, he met a beautiful girl who wondered if he would become her older brother. Not knowing what she meant by this, he chased after her into the mansion where many other people had gathered, all but one of whom were around his age. Their task was explained to them there: to live there while playing their assigned role. As foreseen by the girl from earlier, Sui, he was given the ‘older brother’ role, while she was the ‘imouto’.

This strange life began without any problems, until one rainy night when the sound of glass breaking echoed through the mansion. They hurried towards the sound and found one of their own, Miho, had been brutally murdered.

It’s one of those closed-door murder mysteries with a very convenient setting and a protagonist who willingly gets himself involved. I generally would play these only if there’s a character that is worth saving, but I don’t feel that way towards any of them. Pass.

How convenient his parents died and he has no one else around to oversee his actions. When even Micchi points out the glaring problems of a game rather than what to hope for you just know the game is going to be a complete and utter train wreck for the ages. Lets keep things as short and sweet as possible this time in tribute to the complete lack of effort and talent on display for this game. Setting is flawed from the start with closed circle and completely manipulated by the writer to cater to whatever whims they have. Characters just don’t feel right, while no one expects 2D characters to be realistic, these go a step beyond into the realm of 1D characters with no redeeming qualities only awkward issues. Finally the story itself is hardly anything spectacular, standard fare for this genre and even then it feels sub par. For this month if you crave something of a similar vein, go with Kara no Shoujo 2, chances are you will fare much better than with this waste of life.

Aikomyu!! -IDOL Communication-

Company: ひよこソフト桃組 (Hiyoko Soft Momogumi)
Game site: あいこみゅ!! -IDOL Communication-
Release date: May 31, 2013
Comments:
This is the debut title for ero-centric sub-brand Hiyoko Soft Momogumi. Tatsuya was a manager at the major idol company Atlas Productions, but he resigned after being frustrated at the direction of the office. He was offered a position at the former top idol Natsuka’s no-name idol company Misakura Productions, where every day was an adventure – accidentally peeking at the girls changing, touching them in forbidden places…

Aren’t all idols ecchi with those cute outfits? If idols brainwashed everyone ruled the world, then it would be such a wonderful place. Just look at Minto-chan. How can you not love Minto-chan? There needs to be more Minto-chan in the world. Oh, she’s not a main heroine? Well, the others are cute too. The demo was pretty funny and there’s plenty of ecchi. Just don’t expect anything groundbreaking. Except Minto-chan.

This is like a scratch n sniff advertisement for molesting idols. Catering to the desire to monopolize the affections of or at least touch the bodies they worship as objects without having to deal with being arrested for stalking, kidnapping, or raping them. I mean all there is to an idol is the body anyway, their music is terrible and the vapid brain dead things they say would make a sensible child cringe in pain, so it makes sense for this to be reflected in the games. On that note I would suppose there is nothing wrong here and all is well and good on the idol game front, par for the course being maintained gloriously.

I need to get you to an idol concert…

Yumekoi ~Yumemiru Mahou Shoujo to Koi no Jumon~

Company: Parasol
Game site: ゆめこい ～夢見る魔法少女と恋の呪文～
Release date: May 31, 2013
Comments:
One day, Akira met a girl named Miruku who felt like his imouto Kurumi. Miruku introduced herself as another imouto from the magic world and transformed into a mahou shoujo in front of his very eyes. She asked for his help in recovering the dream buds, which were scattered around the real world and which could awaken the mahou shoujo ability in girls, because he was able to see them. However, the dream buds had turned many girls into mahou shoujos, including Kurumi! Since it’s very difficult to contain magic abilities in the real world, the novice mahou shoujos wildly released their magic all around. However, this was coupled with a side-effect: a desire for ecchi. To be able to recover the dream buds, he would have to make them bloom into flowers and help the girls graduate from being mahou shoujos.

As expected of Parasol! We get two imoutos and all the characters (including subheroines) all are attractive in their own way. I wonder if the ecchi part isn’t a side-effect. It sure happens often enough in the mahou shoujo genre (see Kamigakari Cross Heart!) that I think it’s more the feature. In addition to all the frills and sparkles. Anyways, siscon brother and bracon imouto. Definitely on my list!

Words simply fail me when I see titles this wrong, I just… Why? Why would anyone want to read something that caters more towards seven year old girls infatuated with My Little Pony than the presumably 18+ audience they supposedly target. I understand that things can be cute, and that people can find girls cute but these just take things to such an extreme I would be willing to sanction concentration camps for people who read this.

Love of Renai Koutei of LOVE!

Company: HARUKAZE
Game site: らぶおぶ恋愛皇帝 of LOVE！
Release date: May 31, 2013
Comments:
This is HARUKAZE’s first title. School president (emperor) Lukina wins at everything no matter what it is. However, there’s one exception: love. She proclaimed her love for her childhood friend Akito in front of the whole school, and now many other girls are after him as well!?

The girls are all aggressive (reminds you of Loveressive?) and want you only for themselves, which makes their dere moments even better. The main heroines Lukina and Erika are voiced by Natsuno Koori and Kiritani Hana, respectively. It’s no surprise that Chitose has the inside track in my eyes with her kouhai status and ‘nii-san’ calling. Her desire for more feminine appeal (joshiryoku) is a bit worrying though since it reminds me of Hatsukoi 1/1‘s Runa. But since it doesn’t seem like this will have drama, it’s probably fine to enjoy the chaos while it lasts. Note that the scenario writer is Hato, who worked on GIGA’s Kanojo wa Ore Kara Hanarenai and Sucre.

A plot that amounts to girls throwing themselves at the protagonist and saying “Take your pick”. While the nature of the characters is not necessarily bad its hard to expect much when little effort was put into plot or setting beyond giving the reader a plethora of girls to choose from in a high school setting. As I have said time and time again, first games really need to stand out to solidify a place in the industry, while I don’t see this game being unsuccessful I don’t think it will have the impact necessary to give them fame or brand loyalty. The companies that realize its not just what traits you give your characters or the theme of the game, but how you develop them when working with a standard setting that turns the ordinary into something special and memorable that in the end sells that much better always end up being well known.

QualiafforDance

Company: Shelf
Game site: クオリアフォーダンス -QualiafforDance-
Release date: May 31, 2013
Comments:
Shelf’s latest title, QualiafforDance is fully animated. Kazuki is your typical shy boy who couldn’t turn down a request nor doubt others. However, after one summer vacation incident, he became able to see the ‘colours’ of other people’s emotions. Something deep in his heart warned him not to look at it. However, as he became closer to the heroines, the ordinary becomes the extraordinary.

The game’s been in development for quite some time, so let’s see if it can escape the litany of bugs and subsequent patches that plagued the School Days series. I’m not too optimistic from the samples I’ve seen since the clips have been short and there isn’t much flow between them. As the PV suggests, each heroine has a dark side. Aside from Sakine since she’s an imouto, I’m interested in Mayuno since you don’t see loli snipers oft… oh wait, there’s another this month too. 

Long development times are almost never a good sign as they tend to become too disjointed in just about every way. A rather common concept with emotional investment being forced into the protagonists development I am not too sure about the story itself. Further adding to worrying factors whenever there are the extra additions of animation as a gimmick I do have to wonder if enough consideration was put into the rest of the game. As much as I want to see a good game with animation, the creators seeing a need to add in the emotion sensor means there isn’t much hope for this one in my book.

PV

Shirogane Otome

Company: MANATSU_8
Game site: シロガネオトメ
Release date: May 31, 2013
Comments:
On a small hill located on the outskirts of Ibushi-chou stands the Shirogane Shrine. It is owned by the Hisakawa family, who take care of two girls… or rather, one girl and one trap. Yuki is a boyish maiden who is very popular among the students at Akishino Central School. Tsubasa is cute enough to be granted entrance to the girl’s school as an exception. They have been together since they were kids, so one can never find one without the other. Despite their genders, they sleep in the same room and play together. Even though Tsubasa viewed Yuki as being more than a friend, he would not let their relationship go beyond that.

One day, while they were walking home, they came upon a starving miko Sarasa. She told them she was an exorcist who was chasing after a powerful apparition called the ‘maou’. Since there was a high possibility that the maou would infiltrate the school, she temporarily stayed at the shrine with them. She had Yuki’s full support since she wanted a change from everyday boring life. When Sarasa found out that there were students (including Yuki’s friends) who were possessed by other powerful apparitions at the school, she asked for Yuki’s help. Yuki gladly obliged since she loves bishoujos, and she even has a special ability which no one knows about.

And that special ability is ‘Analyze’, which allows her to detect people’s erogenous zones. An amazing ability, but how is that supposed to help exorcise spirits? Just by watching the OP, you can tell this will be a comedic high-tension title, which is usually how most girl’s school with trap titles end up, even if the trap isn’t the protagonist. Feel more closer to yuri than a crossdressing game. Lots of ecchi comedy this month and no complaints from me.

Traps, cute character designs, and some random magical themes, pulling out all the stops for a charage without taking the risk on depth. Definitely more of a Micchi game as even for comedy I prefer my games to have something more to them.

Jesus 13th -Ushinawareta Gakuen-

Company: ザウス (Xuse)
Game site: ジーザス13th －喪失われた学園－
Release date: May 31, 2013
Comments:
After a war which wiped out more than half of the world’s population and threatened the existence of the world itself, humans have become a bit kinder. Technology innovations from the war and the discovery of new resources helped overcome the scarcity of natural resources. The black ‘wall’ which had risen to the skies has disappeared, allowing people to return to their hometowns and rebuild their lives. This was when Makina was born.

Many years later, Makina came to the elite private school Wadatsumi Gakuen perched on a cliff on the Bousou Peninsula’s large school town Yatoura-shi. He had been personally scouted and passed the entrance examination. Most graduates end up as part of the Amanor Group, which controls almost every industry in the post-war world. He had planned to be a lawyer, until one day he received a letter telling him that the school’s board chairman and his grandfather, David Almatar, had died a suspicious death. As the acting board chairman, he learned about the existence of the chosen ‘pearl princess’, who is to take the sacrament from the witch’s cave. However, many mysterious beings stand in their way.

XUSE is employing two new writers, Orange and Meshi, and I’m not sure what to think about this storyline. It almost feels like they’re releasing this game without a clear idea of what they want to do. The characters don’t really stand out and it’s not going to top anyone’s list. Maybe I just don’t really care much for these type of supernatural stories.

Everything was fine about the setting till they started with the story that develops beyond the death of the protagonists grandfather where it all kind of falls apart. Honestly since Xuse split up and they lost the team that worked on Eien no Aselia series, they have really struggled to recreate the style of game that made them famous. Continuing their almost depressing legacy I don’t expect much from this game, as it feels like something they made for the sake of getting something out as quickly as possible.

Reminiscence

Company: てぃ～ぐる (Tigre)
Game site: レミニセンス
Release date: May 31, 2013
Comments:
This is the first work by Tigre. In the distant future, Hidetaka is a substitute teacher at a girl’s school. He doesn’t have any grand plans for his future and plans to live every day as it comes. In the middle of negotiations about the expanding of city limits, his town was forcibly taken over and turned into a development area. As luck would have it, Hidetaka joined the area development and discovered an old facility. Inside was a girl who had been sleeping there for a long time. This meeting greatly changed his fate.

Tigre is under the AkabeiSoft2 brand and this is written by Kinugasa Shougo, who worked on the Akatsuki no Goei series with Shangrila. I like the protagonists from their games since they have more of a backbone and also have more character development. For this title, Hidetaka had some mental issues in the past due to a certain incident and still sees illusions from time to time. Like the character designs and the memories motif, so I’ll likely be playing this. Also, Aki reminds me of Sakuno a bit.

Interesting in that they have put a little more effort into their setting, and their protagonist by not making him the typical second year highschool student but a teacher instead. Beyond that things are a little hard to call here, sure it retains the standard cliches of high school basis and what is another version of mysterious transfer student but it does at least have the potential to be worth reading. Compared to most games these days just having the chance is enough to be worth a look in my book so this will be one of my definite pickups for this month.

Tsukiakari Lunch OZ sings, The last fairy tale.

Company: EX-ONE
Game site: 月あかりランチ OZ sings, The last fairy tale.
Release date: May 31, 2013
Comments:
When Haruhiko woke up one day, he found himself in a school at night. He learned from the girls at the school that this was Hoshikage Gakuen, which only exists at night and from which no one can leave. Suddenly, a ‘witch’ appeared before him and told him to become the teacher of the four girls who came from different worlds. In order for him to return to his own world, he had to fulfill their wishes and help them graduate from the school. Fuyu came from a world where war was a constant. In Natsuno’s world, machines have taken over everything in society. April’s world is one of swords and magic, with battles between humans and monsters. Aki had lost all of her memories. Each girl had their own way of thinking, shaped by the different worlds where they had come from, and it was a tough task to teach them. However, Haruhiko vowed to fulfill their wishes, for he is their Magician of Oz.

Very intriguing story which takes elements from Leyline, Harukuru and other similar titles. The OP is quite good (especially the song) and I don’t have problems with any of the heroines, with my favourite being the energetic Natsuno (although the quiet Aki is also good!). It’ll be interesting to see how the characters interact since even something as simple as ‘common sense’ may not have much common ground if their worlds are so different. If I were to pick a more plot-centric story for this month, it’d have to be either this or Reminiscence.

Well annoying plot device of wishes or perhaps you could call them desires here, it feels almost like they threw together a game where each of the standard personality traits are given a more diverse background to reflect that. Sadly the setting is something I can’t feel as anything other than the result of a brainstorming session on how to bring such heroines together while giving them inner fulfillment through H scenes with the protagonist. Given the freedom when writing most of the stories in eroge, there is no real need to be so restrictive towards their characters and setting. Even something as simple as changing the random school into a dream realm could have made for a better story and meeting area, turning the second half of routes into a way to physically meet one another. With the themes of wishes and bonds and all that such a thing would probably curry more favor from the crowd who loves the “True love conquers all” type stories along the way. As an added bonus it gives a more mysterious and ephemeral feeling to the encounters that really lends itself to such a game. Without the minimal effort to take maybe five minutes to really develop how to bring the reader into their setting and characters I have to once again question whether the creators care enough to develop their characters and the rest of the story enough.

Imouto Paradise! 2 ~Oniichan to 5-nin no Imouto no Mo~tto! Ecchi Shimakuri na Mainichi~

Company: MOONSTONE Cherry
Game site: 妹ぱらだいす！2 ～お兄ちゃんと5人の妹のも～っと！エッチしまくりな毎日～
Release date: May 31, 2013
Comments:
This is the sequel to MOONSTONE Cherry’s Imouto Paradise!. It’s summer vacation and Keiichi’s parents left him with his five imoutos to go on an overseas trip. Now with their parents far out of the picture, his imoutos are aggressively making their moves on him. Of course there’s no way he can hold back.

His parents sure know their place: oniichan can take care of all the imoutos, so they shouldn’t get in the way. If I’m not mistaken, all the imoutos are from different mothers, but Momoka is a true imouto. There’s a clear similarity between the heroines of the two games (Momoka=Aya, Ririna=Rio, Yuzu=Hiyori, Chiharu=Koharu, Shizuku=Michika), although Chiharu has a much larger rack while keeping the ‘nihihi’ playfulness and sporty disposition. She’s still my fav of the 5, but I love all my imoutos equally! Can’t wait for more imouto pa-pa-paradise!!

Imouto hell.

Micchi’s Top 5 for This Month

1. Magical Charming!
2. Reminiscence
3. Tsukiakari Lunch OZ sings, The last fairy tale.
4. Yumekoi ~Yumemiru Mahou Shoujo to Koi no Jumon~
5. Da Capo III R X-rated

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Grisaia no Rakuen -Le Eden de la Grisaia-
2. Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica F
3. Reminiscence

Sorry for the late post. We’ll get started on the next month since there’s lots more to come.

Lies, Micchi was too absorbed in RO to care! Despite repeated begging by his poor sweet imouto to work on it!