December 2013 Eroge Releases

Another Tsuyokiss and fortissimo game? Well, it’s not the only loop happening this month, as GLacé’s Timepiece Ensemble will feature that plot device prominently. Debo no Su has a rare real-time strategy SLG coming out: Senjou no Folklore. For those who are more interested in magic, check out Whirlpool’s Magicalic⇔Sky High and Lump of Sugar’s Sekai to Sekai to Mannaka de. I know I will.

Tis the season for coal in our eroge stockings it would seem. Not much released this month at all let alone much worth playing, a few games here and there may surprise readers but for the most part a bleak and dreary month, can only hope next month turns out better.

Sengokuhime 5 ~Senka Tatsu Haou no Keifu~

Company: げーせん18 (Gesen18)
Game site: 戦極姫5 ～戦渦断つ覇王の系譜～
Release date: December 6, 2013
Comments:
This is the sequel to Sengokuhime 4, offering an alternate ‘if’ retelling of the Sengoku era. The main routes are for the Oda family after the Battle of Okehazama, as well as a new one for the Chousokabe family. There’s additions to the routes for the other lords, which number over 120. The system has been updated with a seamless world map, potential rebellion outbreaks, military type branching, improved naval fights, among others. Unless you like the gameplay or the characters, there’s not much difference here from other Sengoku games in my opinion.

I enjoy the setting of warring states in any location or time period as a general rule, however most of the eroge based on these tend to have too many heroines to properly develop them all. Aside from that it would be nice if they improved their character designs, so they looked less like twelve year olds, and gave the game a real combat and strategy system.

Timepiece Ensemble

Company: GLacé
Game site: Timepiece Ensemble -タイムピース アンサンブル-
Release date: December 20, 2013 Delayed to December 27, 2013
Comments:
It’s the day before Hourai Shinobazu Gakuen’s culture festival. Taki and the rest of the Pip Club’s members are busy preparing their booth. On to way to the discount store to buy some last-minute supplies, he came upon a new store in a back alley called Kikouya (House of Tricks). Entering the shop, he was greeted by a talking cat Tetmet who took his order and brought him everything he needed, and at a bargain too. When he was about to leave, the storeowner Kuroha asked him if he would like to ‘buy time’. He was perplexed at her question, but was too worried about finishing up the club’s booth for the culture festival, muttering that ‘if he only had one more day, then everything would be done in time’. “Thank you, please come again,” said Kuroha as he left.

As expected, there wasn’t enough time for them to finish their preparations, so the club members all stayed overnight at the school to finish up. Although some parts were still not completely done, they planned to give it their all. When they woke up, they began their preparations for the culture festival the next day. An extra day had been added due to Taki’s wish, and he was the only one who realized it.

If you’ve probably noticed, Kuroha and Tetmet are returning characters from ALcot Honey Comb’s 1/2 summer and the same staff works on this title, led by illustrator Sesenayau and scenario writer Wakase Ryou. The set-up with a wish-granting mysterious shop reminds me of ORANGE YELL’s Konoseka. Is it just me or are there more stories with loops recently? While the small Kirihana-voiced Chiara and imouto Sasa catch my attention as usual, I’m most intrigued at osananajimi Nanami’s character. She has heterochromia, a sign that she is possessed by the ghost of her twin older sister who passed away when she was 12.

A place to shop for easy plots seems fairly easy to come by these days, the core theme being nothing remotely new. Without the shop whats left is run of the mill eroge, without much going for it. Maybe if the shop added something of value to the story the game might have been something worth reading, but as that is unlikely I’ll have to pass on this one.

fortissimo FA//Akkord:nächsten Phase

Company: ラクリマ (La’cryma)
Game site: fortissimo FA//Akkord：nächsten Phase
Release date: December 20, 2013
Comments:
This is the all-ages version of fortissimo EXS. Didn’t they say the last one was the final game for the series? I have the feeling they’re churning out more games just so that they can add more OPs (which actually are pretty nice).

This is getting as bad as Da Capo, how many times can they justify re releasing the same game..

I’d like to believe that at least D.C. had new content each time….

People are free to believe whatever they want.

Ayame no Machi to Ohime-sama

Company: MORE
Game site: あやめの町とお姫様
Release date: December 20, 2013
Comments:
Testuya recently had been seeing the same mysterious dream, with a lonely kimono-clad girl gazing at the moon in the middle of an open grassy field. He returned to his hometown of Koga after four years in Tokyo and was a bit saddened to see his place of memories changed due to recent development. One night, he headed to his favourite place, the garden of irises Ayame-en, and was startled to find a girl there who looked like the girl in his dreams. He joined the archaeology research group that she was a part of with the intention of getting to know her. Contrary to his initial impression, Ayame was a hardcore gamer, lacked common sense and called herself a princess from the Sengoku era.

MORE’s second title is definitely a lot more interesting than their previous title Shukusai no Utahime. At least the characters have some peculiarities and the artwork has improved. In particular, Ayame’s CGs are quite beautiful. There really is something special about long black-haired girls (even if they’re damedame inside).

May have been better had they done away with the club bit, the setup smashes the protagonist headlong into fated girl A far too quickly and easily. With the point being his dream connecting to reality a gradual approach that keeps dangling the mystery of her character would be a better approach.

Tsuyokiss NEXT

Company: CandySoft
Game site: つよきす NEXT
Release date: December 20, 2013
Comments:
It’s been several years since the ‘legendary era’ at Ryuumeikan. The powers of student council and the public morals committee have increased to encompass not only clubs, but also over all classes. Now the two committees which had become friendly with each other were led by two aggressive girls, Hakari and Neko. Respecting the traditions imposed by the principal Heizou, they fight each other, dragging Hakari’s follower Sanagi along in the process.

This new installment of Tsuyokiss takes place 5 years after the previous series. Nothing much has changed, from the art to the story. It seems like an attempt to ride the coattails of the franchise instead of making something totally new. Honestly, they could’ve called it by any other name and it wouldn’t have made a difference. Nothing really stands out for me, so pass.

If we are lucky the girls kill each other in the first five minutes sparing us from the rest of the game. Unless of course a generic story heroines and resolution happens to be exactly what you are looking for. Although in the interest of fairness, I will be the first to admit I am at least glad this is not a generic save the club story. As sad as it may seem at this point, after several months of slim pickings to be had, I feel inclined to wish more companies stopped with the pointless gimmicks that keep ruining basic games, and stick to the generic game focusing solely on writing and character development throughout.

Magicalic⇔Sky High ~Sora Tobu Houki ni Omoi o Nosete~

Company: Whirlpool
Game site: まじかりっく⇔スカイハイ ～空飛ぶホウキに想いをのせて～
Release date: December 20, 2013
Comments:
A long time ago, the magic world suddenly appeared, causing much confusion and many challenges to everyone. However, humans and magicians co-operated and now they live together peacefully. Ten years later, schools have been built all over the country to train those who have innate magic ability. Hayato attends one of them, Clarus Magic Academy, and is the best in the school at flying. However, he is totally incompetent at everything else.

One day while flying around like usual, he suddenly lost the ability to use his magic and fell from the sky. He narrowly escaped death at the expense of his cherished broom and found himself in an unfamiliar ancient ruin. Hayato found a carefully-kept broom there and thus, his sky-high story had taken off.

There are tons of stories with the magic school setting and the protagonist who is mostly useless. This is also not too far from most other Whirlpool chara-ge titles. That doesn’t mean however that you should just write it off, as they usually make some quite entertaining games. You know you’re in for some comedy when the treasured broom turns into a girl (she lets you ride her all the time). I’ve got my eyes set on the shy puppy-like kouhai Charlles. Those tare-me are so wonderful >w< Hau~ omochikaeri~!

Personally I have never been able to enjoy Whirlpool games, even as chara-ge. The games are simply written too poorly, the pacing, dialogue could never keep me entertained. On top of it with no real plot to speak of and fairly generic character designs I never understood what people saw in the games by this company. Sometimes I have to wonder how many people actually care about the text at all, and see all eroge as nukige of varying lengths.

It’s a hit and miss for me. Melodia was fine, but 77 was boring to me. Do keep in mind that Whirlpool has a bunch of different scenario writers. Magicalic is written by Daisangen, Shimura Nayuta and Seto Ryouichi. So, the most similar title should be Melodia.

True they aren’t always the same people, I do however randomly give their games a chance and every time I have there were similar enough problems to lump them together.

Love Replica

Company: Garden
Game site: ラブレプリカ
Release date: December 20, 2013
Comments:
This is the first title by Garden. Sawato was brought up under the strict martial arts training by his grandfather and has never had a girlfriend. His dream was to have one and he had a revelation one day from a goddess who told him, “if you want to be popular, then you should join a band”. Even though he thought that it seemed too simplistic, he went about recruiting members for the band. One day, a new transfer student arrived in his class. She told him that if he becomes really good, then she’ll let him touch her breasts. Highly motivated by this, he gradually became obsessed with the band activities, making precious memories over the summer.

The synopsis doesn’t mention it, but there’s much more to the story than a K-ON! setting with a guy wanting to get some booty. ‘Love replicas’ are cloned humans whose sole purpose is as a vessel for organs required for transfer to people suffering from incurable GODS (genetic deficiency organ dysfunction syndrome). However, the pacing isn’t as good as I’d hope for, and the plot seems to be lacking focus. It gets really boring hearing a monologue of technical terms, even if it’s related to the plot. It’s essentially information overload, but luckily it’s confined to the early part of the game. The relatively new scenario writer Suou Tachibana seems to want to incorporate too many elements. They could’ve easily left out the band set-up. Well, at least Garden is taking a chance on their first title instead of just making a forgettable one. The OP isn’t too shabby either. Poor Elizabeth T_T

As Micchi already mentioned there are too many conflicting themes to give the game real direction. To me however what is worse is how none of them are even good themes worth pursuing on their own. Each is as though the author simply states “This is how things are” and then proceeds to follow up the assumptions with less than stellar writing. No matter what the people creating a game want it to be about, they need to temper themselves, especially for a first title that will be what establishes your reputation, a game that is overly ambitious has difficulty maintaining the quality for the plethora of oft times conflicting thematic plots that run essentially in parallel. A band game with a better introduction for the main character to commit to it, or a tragedy about ethics and what it means to be human minus the silly names and weak setting for it all would have resulted in a game potentially worth playing.

I’d rather have the latter. There’s enough band games as is.

But are there any good band games? I can’t think of any at least.

Hina to Issho

Company: イグジット (Ex-iT)
Game site: 雛といっしょ
Release date: December 20, 2013 Delayed to December 27, 2013
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from November. This is the fandisk for Hiyoko Strike!‘s imouto Hina, who had gathered over 70% of votes in the chara poll. Lots of ichaicha and sense of immorality await in this middle-priced extended epilogue of Hina’s route. Who could say no to more imouto?

Fandisk where I wish we could be over the sister fad already.

Sekai to Sekai no Mannaka de

Company: Lump of Sugar
Game site: 世界と世界の真ん中で
Release date: December 20, 2013 Delayed to January 31, 2014
Comments:
Gripping pain, numbing loneliness, burning one-sided love. These are feelings which stay with you all through your life. These intense feelings are what created the world we live in. One day, there was great commotion at the dormitory Erdõs at Kaginomori Gakusha. Renri’s imouto Kokoro was going to be released from hospital after an extended stay, and Minori suggested that they do a major cleaning of the dormitory before her arrival. While cleaning the attic, he found a notebook containing words which he did not know would change his peaceful days.

Moekibara Fumitake art and more kemonomimi… that’s enough reason to try this out. It seems like most of the characters are voiced by new seiyuus, unless they’re using pseudonyms. I feel like they’ve done a good job with the voicing, so it shouldn’t be a problem. The story reminds me a bit of Karumaruka since Renri, Minori, Aira and Haruka all have the same mysterious key, which opens a locked gate in a narrow passageway at the school. The mysterious phrases from the notebook were inscribed on a stone tablet nearby, and there’s a ritual involved too. So, essentially it’s a slice of life game with a mysterious side. The main heroine is the energetic and ever-positive Kokoro, who is not blood-related. With such a cute mascot chara by your side, it’s no wonder that Renri is a total siscon. I’m not letting any of you have her!!

Lump of Sugar is essentially the Adolf Hitler of the eroge world. Why is this you may ask? Because they do everything they can to commit genocide against everything that makes a game good. First of all their games usually have hints of something that may be enjoyable to play, then always find some way to ruin it or just be so silly and nonsensical that their own setting hardly matters, as they were clearly far too high on homemade hallucinogens to care about anything happening beneath them. Games that begin life as chara-ge with a slightly unique setting bloom into randomized events meant to achieve serious dramatic effect, yet for my part I am never quite sure whether I should laugh at it, or cry at how bad it all is. As the final nail in the coffin the writing itself is pompous to the point it makes you wonder if the company was formed by performance art majors under the impression that emulating the writing syntax of Nathaniel Hawthorne made them better writers and people, a distinction that would clearly carry over to anyone who read their works. The point being their writing has a poor pacing to it, lending itself to on the best of days be overly verbose to the point every scene feels bogged down in unneeded text. While it may be possible to soldier on and should you be inclined to do so you may find your Japanese language skills improving, I would rather not feel something I read for enjoyment is simply not enjoyable to read.

Astelight Shissouki

Company: raiL-soft
Game site: 星継駅疾走軌（アステライトシッソウキ）
Release date: December 20, 2013
Comments:
This is the third game in raiL-soft’s Astelight series. In the midst of a deep fog shrouding a ‘station’ somewhere in the barren wasteland of an unknown world stood a strange giant machine. A forgotten legend has been revived: the train of the departed, containing people from the past, present and future. What things can they see while on this mysterious train? Why are they on this train and where is it heading? Will they be able to get off it safely?

Ooo… mysterious… That’s pretty much the same as raiL-soft’s other games, as the synopsis never tells us much about the actual story. It includes a few returning characters from Jourantan and Nendaishi.

I give up on Rail soft, usually they have interesting settings and plots but their horrible writing tends to ruin the flow and characters while reading. This time however the plot itself is lackluster, reminiscent of the game about a ship wandering around that either Rail or Liar soft made.

Sengoku†Koihime ~Otome Kenran☆Sengoku Emaki~

Company: BaseSon
Game site: 戦国†恋姫 ～乙女絢爛☆戦国絵巻～
Release date: December 20, 2013
Comments:
This is an all-ages title from BaseSon. Kenjou trained hard every day under the tutelage of his uncle Kazuto. One day, when he held a sword he found in the storehouse, he lost consciousness. When he came to, he found himself in a place he did not recognize. He met a girl who introduced herself as Oda Saburou Kuon Nobunaga. She held out her hand to a stunned Kenjou and asked him to become her husband and accompany her on the road to national supremacy.

They travelled across the country, racking up victories in this period of social upheaval. However, there was one enemy they could not defeat: the oni. These man-eating, blood-drinking beasts soon took over all of Japan, plunging the country into hell. However, Kuon and Kenjou vowed to continue fighting, issuing a written appeal to all the influential lords: “Samurai who are not afraid of even the oni, gather under me and let us save Japan together!”

It’s nice that there’s a new Koihime title, but all-ages and you’re already locked in with Kuon? And she already has a wife as well (Yuina). I’d rather be with Hina, Suzume, Toto or Mari. Anyways, I’ll have to check out the trial before passing judgment, as Koihime‘s characters were nice, but Appare was a write-off. It almost seems like BaseSon is planning for an eventual anime and ‘Shin’ version (hopefully 18+).

As with Sengokuhime most of BaseSon’s titles have had too many characters to properly focus on quality development. This time however it seems they went to the opposite extreme, unless you only wanted a Kuon route seeing all other characters you may wish were heroines only ruins the fun of playing the game. Essentially this is a game version of that really bad Nobunaga anime from a few seasons ago, with some oni added in just so its not too obvious.

Senjou no Folklore -Boukoku no Kishidan-

Company: でぼの巣製作所 (Debo no Su)
Game site: 戦場のフォークロア ─亡国の騎士団─
Release date: December 20, 2013
Comments:
The year 1221 of the Holy Calendar was a turning point for the Vandal Kingdom which ruled the continent of Sahul. The young king James the Fifth initially followed the lead of the previous ruler and was tolerant to the minorities, but turned to a hard-line stance after being influenced by his advisors. He forbade them from being involved in political affairs and betrayers would have their entire home village sent to settlements regardless of age and gender. The enforcement of this Fleming Rule drove those who wished for their own sovereignty underground.

Seven years later in the remote town of Rahy, the captain of the guards Kenneth received news that some rebels had escaped from the suppression of a revolt in a neighbouring province and were heading his way. He gathered his troops in response to their request, but since he had also maintained good relationships with the minorities in neighbouring villages, it was impossible for him to resolve this problem quickly. It was to be the opening act in a long battle which laid before him.

RTS is a genre which doesn’t show up in eroge often. While the system is a bit clunky (I feel it’s a bit too slow-paced), it’s refreshing to try something new. You can train your units in town and class change with enough experience (e.g. from infantry to cavalry). Military-style plots with uprisings, betrayals and revenge are always a draw. This one seems to have more potential than Debo no Su’s previous games (even if they have loli dragon girls).

Personally while I feel the story might be okay, the game system is too poor to take advantage of it. Rather than an actual RTS game, it follows more of a real time TRPG format like Myth, Tears to Tiara, or even the upcoming Project Phoenix. Not sure if I am the only one but I would much rather read the story without any of the boring gameplay. As always these games never really focus enough on making the gameplay fun to bother including it when chances are all it does is restrict and weaken the story and characters.

OP + system PV

LOVEPOTION SIXTYNINE

Circle: Steroider
Game site: らぶ69 (LOVEPOTION SIXTYNINE)
Release date: December 31, 2013 (Comiket 85)
Comments:
This is the first title by doujin circle Steroider. Ren enjoys a carefree school life with his osananajimi Cocoa and twin imouto Mafuyu. The day before his final summer vacation, a girl Reon who called herself a magic ice cream seller gave him an ice cream which could bring him love, known as ‘Love Potion 69’. However, it was forcibly taken by sweet-loving Cocoa and it was up to him to contain her love rampage.

One of the few doujin circles who have art which rivals eroge companies. This was made by staff from doujin circle Hyperiyon, who worked on Color of White and S.I.S.T.A.R.S. There will be appearances from those two games here as well. Well, it’s quite polished and probably short, so you might want to check it out if you have time over the Christmas break.

If all it took to make a game good was artwork and H scenes there would be nothing but nukige.

Micchi’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Magicalic⇔Sky High ~Sora Tobu Houki ni Omoi o Nosete~
2. Timepiece Ensemble
3. Sekai to Sekai no Mannaka de

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Please
2. Make better
3. Games

Writers sure love turning historical characters into cute girls. Long live alternate universes!

Already developed settings having only a minor easily fixed gender issue? Sounds like an easy fix!

Hmmm… come to think of it, there’s no Christmas-themed games this month.