September 2017 Eroge Releases

It took a long time, but Haikuo Soft’s Omokage Railback is finally coming out. Over that same period, CIRCUS have already released two fandiscs, including this month’s D.C.III Dream Days, where some familiar faces from D.C.II make a re-appearance. Innocent Grey’s FLOWERS series comes to an end, while two chara-ges wrap up the month: Parasol’s Sakura Hitohira Koi Moyou and Enishi Soft’s Oni ga Kuru. ~Ane ga Hinshi de Pinchi Desu~.

I’ll believe it was finally released when Railback is installed and working. Also never compare Circus releases. They can just copy paste their games over and over with a few extra lines added, hardly fair to give them credit for that. This month is not bad for once. Sure many of the games are mediocre. Others are downright terrible. But the ratio isn’t bad. There are a few worth playing, a few that may not be good but probably aren’t too bad either, aside from delays on the post not a bad month.

FLOWERS -Le volume sur hiver- (Fuyu-hen)

Company: Innocent Grey
Game site: FLOWERS -Le volume sur hiver-（冬篇）
Release date: September 15, 2017
Comments:
This is the final volume of Innocent Grey’s all-ages FLOWERS series. Suou became the president of the Council of Nicaea after overcoming Yuzuriha’s trials and received the title of “The Seven Wonders of the Beginning and the End” as promised, which connected her to her amitié Mayuri, who had vanished in the spring.

Further hardships arose in Saint Angraecum Academy with the arrival of winter. Suou faced the obstacles with the help of her friends, but she was still dejected by her request: “Please forget about me”.

What will the reappearance of her step-mother’s shadow, passing thoughts and unexpected reunions bring to her? This final season will melt everything away…

And so it all comes to an end. Innocent Grey commands a good following and it’s likely that the translated version will be available in the future.

Ongoing series, if you like it you already know. 

D.C.III Dream Days

Company: CIRCUS
Game site: D.C.III Dream Days～ダ・カーポIII～ドリームデイズ
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
This is the latest fandisc for D.C.III. It is composed of seven episodes, one for each of the five heroines, plus Mikoto and Sumomo. Note that Mikoto’s seiyuu has changed to Himekawa Airi. What’s exciting is the return of most of the D.C.II cast, including Otome, Yume, Nanaka, Koko, Anzu, Akane and Aisia. That’s more than enough reason for me to play it!

DC Fandisk. Already bringing back D.C.II cast I see.

It was the best series after all.

Maybe, but if they need to keep going back to it, they should just give up on III and move on to IV.

Dolphin Blade

Company: Island Belle
Game site: Dolphin Blade -ドルフィンブレード-
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
This is the first title by Island Belle. “Dolphin blade” is a marine race sport featuring girls in swimsuits on motorized float shoes. It is especially popular in Yamato, the 81st island district of the United Federation.

Kousuke is an employee at the leading Aihara Electronics Corporation. His business performance was excellent thanks to sweet-talking his boss and he appeared to be on the track to certain success. However, his boss was then dismissed for an ‘indecent act’ and he also came under suspicion of similar conduct. Despite being spared a similar fate due to lack of evidence, he was involuntarily transferred to a sub-subsidiary as the new manager of a dolphin blade team.

Even though the team had some skilled members, they were unable to attain any good results every year, accruing a huge debt in the process. He would not be able to return to Aihara if the debt is not fully paid off. It was clear that the upper management intended to get rid of him, but he was determined to do his best to prove them wrong.

It’s like Aokana on water, except as a simulation game where you have to manage the bladers’ training, events and races. The game is separated into chapters with 32 periods each. You have to pay off a designated amount of debt at the end of each chapter to proceed; otherwise, you’ll be greeted by the game over screen. After finishing the final chapter, you’ll be able to access the free battle mode. It feels a bit like work to me. The only noteworthy writer among the three that worked on this title is Matsushita Sachi, known for Seikentsukai no Proposition. Meanwhile, the characters are all drawn by different artists. I had to check that Ui wasn’t actually some loli bot with her rather blank eyes, but I guess it was just the artist’s (Amamine) style. Hmm… loli bot…

Cheesy Air Gear on water with management. Whole thing boils down to trying to come up with an interesting excuse for girls in swimsuits all the time. Which I consider a strike against the game for not putting some more effort into the setting to make things a little less obvious. I am not one to complain about eye candy. I won’t insist on saying the girls should be wearing wet suits or anything. But you would think that at least while racing they would be wearing the same uniform. Most likely not a bikini that would probably disintegrate upon falling into the water at speed at that. It’s fine to have those swimsuits but making them a part of the individual romance scenes gives more impact in the first place.

On top of that we have the management system which like Micchi said is just busy work. I have said this many times so I will try not to rant too much. But, the point of any type of visual novel game is to tell a story. The point of many games are also to tell a story. Seems like a match made in heaven, right? Problem is that when the two methods of reading and gameplay conflict it makes everything feel like work. In most eroge with any sort of gameplay mechanic beyond click to read the next sentence it becomes little more than a speed bump for reading and progressing in the story. If the two methods of storytelling do not blend well, it makes the whole thing fall apart. Even worse is when multiple routes make you go back and do the same things over and over.

While I am glad to see a first title that is not a bland high school romance, there still needs to be more effort put in the small details. Try harder next time.

Akatoki 2! -Tsumugu Mahou to Koboreru Hikari-

Company: エスクード (Escu:de)
Game site: あかときっ2！ -紡ぐマホウと零れるヒカリ-
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
This is the sequel to Escu:de’s clothes-stripping battle ADV Akatoki!. The world we live in is overflowing with mysteries: people ride on brooms, cast magic, and fight against beings that appeared to have come straight out of a fairy tale. The world had once fallen in a crisis, but that is now all in the past. Even though these fairytale-like creatures ‘Kurayami’ still battle with magicians in the skies, there is a on-going search for a way to co-exist together.

In the renowned magic city of Akatoki lies the world’s best magician training academy. Akatoki is designed to be a model city for co-habitation between the two races and is also home to the group of magicians who had previously saved the world. A generation later, as a new team of magicians was to be assembled, there was the beginnings of a new being…

This is known as the magic strip battle game; more damage dealt, more articles of clothing come flying off. If that doesn’t give you more incentive to win, I don’t know what to say. I’m interested in the girl with amnesia who dropped from sky, Mashiro, whose fathercon level is maxed out. I wouldn’t expect too much from the game other than ‘good triumphs over evil and gets all the H scenes’.

Why even have clothes?

And here’s Zen asking all the right questions.

Ama Ie

Company: bootUP!
Game site: あまいえ
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
Masaki was informed by his employer that he was to be transferred to the city of Rokujou, far away from Tokyo. As he was preparing for the move, he received a request from his parents to live with his aunt and her family while checking up on how her marriage is doing. He was reluctant to interfere with other people’s business, but finally relented under his parent’s deep worry for his aunt’s marriage.

He was welcomed to the city by his aunt Kyouko and her daughters Mizuho and Kotomi. He had met them once a long time ago, but he was astounded by how beautiful they’ve become, how voluptuous their bodies had grown. Will he be able to keep his wits living under the same roof with them? Moreover, his new supervisor at work is an American blonde beauty with a figure that rivals theirs. Did he wander into a kingdom of big tits and asses?

This is the latest title in bootUP!’s ‘LOVE ero’ series, with a mix of Mamahaha‘s wife charas and Aneimo‘s sister charas. And of course, they’re all F-cups and above, which is completely out of my strike zone. I haven’t seen boobs and ass mentioned in a synopsis so much (I paraphrased it since it was so repetitive).

Bootup doing what it does best, terrible art. I don’t even care about the rest, hire a new artist already.

Onii-chan, Migite no Shiyou o Kinshi Shimasu! 2

Company: Galette
Game site: お兄ちゃん、右手の使用を禁止します！ 2
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
This is the sequel to Galette’s imouto dream game Onikin. Hiroto lives with his four cute imoutos. One day, his father called him back home and unexpectedly introduced him to his new twin step-sisters. One of them is a famous idol, and the other is a popular cosplayer. He enjoys a happy life surrounded by six pretty imoutos fighting for his attention.

However, one day he injured his right hand protecting his stepsisters from stalkers. While he was praised by some for his courage in protecting his imoutos, there were others that were outraged at the fact that he lived with six imoutos. To temporarily escape the public eye, they decided to take a vacation in the southern islands.

His imoutos look even cuter in their swimsuits, framed by the beautiful ocean and clear blue skies.

“Onii-chan… please tell us… which of us do you want to become your right hand?”

This should be considered less as a sequel, but more as a completely different game as the staff and seiyuus have all completely changed (most of them went to Tinkle Position) and it’s definitely not for the better. In particular, the emotionless voices are absolute rubbish; it was very painful listening to it. Don’t play this. This is not what imouto-ges should be. I’m looking forward to Imopara 3 instead.

You know, all my hatred for this game kind of evaporated after even Micchi condemned it. 

CM

Mono no Aware wa Sai no Koro.

Company: QUINCE SOFT
Game site: もののあはれは彩の頃。
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
This is the debut work for QUINCE SOFT, a sister brand of Lump of Sugar. All Japanese people know the rules of e-sugoroku: roll the dice, move your piece, aim for the finish. However, for Akira and those around him who have also lost their memories, they have become the ‘pieces’ in a world that mimics this game. They have to compete with each other to be the first and only one to reach the finish line and escape the world.

With each roll of the die, they proceed around the streets of Kyoto basked in the fall colours. While following the commandments on the ’tiles’ they land on, they have to avoid the hidden dangers of the ‘board’. Along the way, the memories of ‘reality’ gradually return. Why is there two worlds: ‘sugiroku’ and ‘reality’? Why are they here?

Lump of Sugar’s unique systems carry over to their sister brand as well. The referral to ’tiles’ is a bit meta and I’m not too keen on it. It’s also not a normal e-sugiroku game (similar to snakes and ladders), as each player has their own special ability (which borders on the absurd sometimes). And of course, the protagonist seems to have some ridiculously strong ability like being able to change the rolled number. I thought the story is too random and disjointed. The main draw for the game is Nanaroba Hana’s art and the fall foliage.

As Micchi already said this is basically Lump of Sugar’s style. Random nonsense happens all over just because. May as well roll a dice to pick images from the CG set. Would make more sense.

Seven Days: Anata to Sugosu Nanoka-kan

Company: LIFE0
Game site:
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
This crowdfunded all-ages title is the first by LIFE0. One day close to the beginning of summer vacation, Shuuichi was watching a ‘cursed Blu-ray’ given to him by his buddy when a spirit came out from the disc and possessed him. His childhood friend Yukari belonged to a family that managed an ancient temple, so she tried an exorcism to rid him of the spirit. While the ritual was successful and quelled the vindictive spirit, the spirit girl’s form remained due to her inexperience. Her name was Chiyako, the name of the girl who was killed on screen, and she revealed that the spirits of six other girls dwelled within her.

According to Yukari, spirits can only remain in this world for 49 days, which meant that there would only be seven days allotted for each of the seven girls. Shuuichi was tasked with helping them achieve happiness so they can leave this world with no regrets. However, it is a very short time to accomplish this task. Also he did not realize at this time that it meant that he would be getting to know each girl well only to bid a painful farewell seven times over.

The crowdfunding campaign had raised 244% of its target, meeting all of the stretch goals, which included a route for Yukari, additional CGs and a visual art book. They’ve managed to recruit some seasoned seiyuus too, such as Uesaka Sumire and Shimizu Ai. The story is divided into chapters, with presumably a final route. There’s also some bad ends thrown in for good measure. The productive values are pretty good (including the OP), so it might be worth your time to check out.

The ring with pointless extra drama. 

Haze Man

Company: バグシステム (BUG SYSTEM)
Game site: ヘイズマン
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
Every day Shoutarou does many part-time jobs just to get by. Even though he is quite skilled at hand-to-hand fighting, he doesn’t make much use of it and lives a simple life, while watched over by his childhood friend Renka. One day, he met an intelligent life form from another planet, Fara, who hailed from a planet called Perel. He risked his life to save her from a thug’s attack and his life then changed completely.

By joining with Fara, he gets an immense increase in his physical ability and also special powders. She transforms into his armour and protects his body from harm. While normally these powers would not be needed in daily life, this resulted in the sudden appearance of Jil, who planned to take Fara back to Perel with him. He must fight Jil’s henchman every day and their heated battles caused a big disturbance in the shopping street. However, it was promoted as a hero show by his company boss Tooko to attract visitors.

What will happen to Shoutarou and Fara? Will they be able to fight off Jil? How will the town revitalization event turn out?

Bug System doesn’t seem to specialize in any genre, having made games with gore, rape and now, tokusatsu, as central themes. I don’t really care for these themes, so I’m glad they’re keeping them separate from the other Clearrave companies like Palette. The game proceeds anime-style, separated by episodes. Note that while they use animated H scenes (badly done in my opinion), there is no ero when you are defeated. There’s a lot of clichés in the game, including the ‘need sex for energy’ trope that rears its head so often in eroge.

This could have been decent. Could have. If they ya know stripped out all the stupid crap, so basically everything. Turned it into a comedy where the protagonist is constantly being embarrassed doing his hero show thing with Fara. While she acts as the air-headed instigator with no knowledge of the planets culture. If it was silly and funny enough the story wouldn’t be important as long as the characters were appealing. Unfortunately this isn’t the direction they chose so I recommend keeping away from this garbage dump of a game.

Oni ga Kuru. ~Ane ga Hinshi de Pinchi Desu~

Company: えにしそふと (Enishi Soft)
Game site: 鬼がくる。 ～姉がひん死でピンチです～
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
This is the first title by Enishi Soft. The goddess Kohime appeared before Haruto to save his sick older sister Haruko. However, she wasn’t able to save her since he did not have enough faith. He devoted his time to increasing his faith, but Haruko mistakenly thought that Kohime was taking his little brother from her. She responded by doting on him even more than usual. Meanwhile, Kohime was using her status to make him do all her work, while his childhood friend Riri was stalking him from afar as usual. Their fight over him intensifies day by day. What will become of Haruko’s destiny?

When I saw the art for the first time, I immediately thought of Izumi Iko’s previous work under 130cm, Oniuta and then how difficult it is to tell characters apart when they all have the same hair colour (at least there’s only three in this one). They’ve got two new writers on board, nanka and Kuraou. It should be packed full of comedy; Haruko herself doesn’t even seem to take her health seriously, so I don’t think we should either.

I actually thought this was a 130cm game at first because of the art. Not that it is a bad thing, I rather like this artist. Just them all having the same hair color alone is a rather refreshing change. Might help I happen to like black hair best but I digress. Only problem is I am god awful at remembering names. When talking to Micchi not only do I never remember the title of anything, but for characters I would usually just call them by hair color, bit difficult this time.

Story is fine. It’s not some amazing work that will define literature for a generation. However it is simple, effective, and funny. As beauty is in the eye of the beholder all that matters is that the story and setting don’t conflict, the characters are appealing, and the story enjoyable for the reader. In this case I have some hope for that as all I expect is to laugh a little while I read.

Sakura Hitohira Koi Moyou

Company: Parasol
Game site: 桜ひとひら恋もよう
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
Haruta calls himself an ordinary student, but he still had not gotten over his first love, who was actually his imouto who he never knew he had. A new school year had arrived and everyone at his school, Souto Gakuen, was talking about the rumoured merger with Houjou Gakuen. The school’s founder and chairman had passed away suddenly last year and the school lost its direction and was in a bad financial state. However, a merger with Houjou Gakuen, a grades-centric school that uses corporal punishment on its students, would signal the loss of freedom and self-governance that Souto Gakuen was built on.

It seemed that there was no way to avoid the merger when a young girl appeared, claiming to be the new chairman of the school, and passing out leaflets petitioning the merger. Even though he did not believe that this small girl was the new chairman, he was so touched by her actions that he inadvertently accepted a leaflet and ended up joining the merger petition group.

The stereotypical school-setting chara-ge is here! You’ve got the long-lost imouto, osananajimi, classmate and (bishoujo) kouhai. I have absolutely no problem with it as I like Ichiri and Sakura Hanpen’s art. All the characters look nice to me; it’s hard to choose my favourite, although I’m leaning towards Chitose. I wouldn’t expect too much from the story. While a chibi 4th grader school chairman might be able to stop the merger, she won’t be able to help with the financial situation (at least via legal methods).

Honestly, as a mechanic to bring this select group of copy pasted misfits together was the whole school is dying let us merge and become super school really necessary? Elect new chairman, problems solved. Money issues? How was the chairman even useful then as they were clearly not doing their job. The whole loli replacement nonsense only makes it worse. Just make the new chairman like early 20s, and give her a route. On top of that as backstory make her be the previous chairman’s granddaughter who was working at the other school to learn first so there is a link to bring across heroines. Done. No need for the pointless merger and nonsense loli. Not the best story but at least it wouldn’t feel so much like an afterthought tacked on simply because they had to. Play because you like this generic cast of cardboard cutouts, not for the story.

The drama here comes from the merger with the school where the chairman is his father who disowned him and the student council leader is his imouto/ex-girlfriend. Still forced, but I guess that’s why it’s there.

Yes, however things could have been done much better is all. As is the story forces too much into the setting to bring everyone together. Eliminating a few of those would make it feel more natural, even if only slightly.

Hoshifuru Yoru no Farnese

Company: ミィティ (MiTi)
Game site: 星降る夜のファルネーゼ
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from December. This is the debut work by MiTi. There once was a ‘good witch’ who used magic to bring prosperity to the world. The people were grateful to her and enjoyed her benevolence. However, a ‘bad witch’ appeared and incited the humans to kill her virtuous counterpart. With the powerful and wise ‘good witch’ no longer around, the ‘bad witch’ was free to do as she pleased.

The people suffered as she brought on fires and floods, destroying and corrupting everything she touched. They managed to kill her too and vowed to forget about magic, but she had cast a curse upon the world: witches will continue to exist in the world. Thus began a hunt for the ‘witches’ with the intent on exterminating them all. This is the beginning of the ‘star hunt’, which has continued for hundreds of years.

Etoile stood in the middle of a church in the capital, nervously awaiting the opening of a ‘star hunt’ trial. He was a new ‘astrologer’, tasked with defending a client for the first time. He was barely able to prove her innocence, although he hadn’t been able to find the true culprit.

Afterwards, a witch with a dog familiar suddenly appeared in front of him. She called herself the ‘Witch of Justice’ and offered to assist him. It is up to them to take back the ‘starry sky’!

The premise of the game is to regain the ‘starry sky’ which was lost because of the bad witch. You have to collect evidence to prove the innocent of your clients in the witch hunt. Along the way, you’ll find who the culprits (bad witches) are and defeat them to gradually regain the ‘constellations’. As you complete more cases, you’ll begin to see the link between all the cases and confront the true culprit (really bad witch), who you have to defeat to achieve the ‘true starry sky’.

The evidence can found by searching places of interest, while the actual ‘star hunt’ involves stripping them by countering their lies and revealing the witch’s seal (constellation) on their bodies. To draw out the seal from their bodies, you must bring them to ‘ecstasy’.

The story is by Iwakata Retsu, who has worked on many games with magic in the past, but this is his first eroge script and honestly it’s pretty ridiculous, on Escu:de’s level. It’s also Yukie’s first work since QUINTUPLE☆SPLASH! (not counting the Hakoniwa FD). I guess I’ll check out the trial when it’s out, but I don’t expect too much from the gameplay other than clicking all over the screen and rubbing witches to E~C~S~T~A~S~Y~♪

This is one of those times, I really do not get Micchi. For all the complaints about writing certain summaries (*cough* Light games) there is a book written for this… thing. When it could all be summed up with “Rub naked girls”.

I’m trying to explain the reason behind the rubbing!

Because you can…? I think you put more effort into explaining than they did into thinking up their reasoning for it.

I played the trial and it really is as ridiculous as the synopsis sounds. Also, the trials are pretty easy.

Omokage Railback

Company: ハイクオソフト (Haikuo Soft)
Game site: 面影レイルバック
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from June. During Masashi’s last summer as a student, it was decided that he would transfer schools due to his non-blood-related older sister Juri’s work as the young manager of Yoshioka Construction. His new school would be in the small rural town of Yagurana, located at the end of the railroad. He met the young land-owner Iroha, who vows to protect the land from corporations, and started going to school with her. However, the reason why he was there was because of Yoshioka Construction’s desire to develop the land. Moreover, he was the heir of the corporation itself.

This is the 10th anniversary title for Haikuo Soft (although it’s past their 11th anniversary now…) and the main theme is ‘reunion’. The conflict stems from whether you want to support the development of the land or protect the town and keep it as is. I’m leaning towards laying off the development since I don’t want to make a cutie like Iroha sad. She’s so adorable (and reminds me of Yotsunoha‘s Nono)! I wanna protect her!

Of course it is a sister without blood relation, fair game, of course of course. Convenient eroge loopholes aside there is nothing particularly good, nor bad about the game. Oh, other than Iroha, she can go be useful as part of a foundation during the development of the region.

While at the time my thoughts were little more than “Hmm, this may be worth playing when it comes out.” after all the delays… Lets just say I have been itching to play it for such a long time that it drove me nuts. If this turns out to not be good I will throw such a hissy fit that Micchi will have to sit through hours of my ranting.

I will do it if you sit through hours of my imouto raving.

Can I just give you my sister instead…?

Is she 2D?

With a small dimensional diet I’m sure that can be arranged.

Iyashi no Megami no Marmot

Company: しろくまだんご (Shirokuma Dango)
Game site: 癒しの女神の実験台（モルモット）
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
This is the debut title for Shirokuma Dango. After working continuously in a shady business, his body and soul are in shambles. As he was walking without an umbrella in the rain, a woman called out to him:

“Have you been comforted lately?”

Arriving at the address on the business card he had received, he was enlisted as a ‘massage model’ (also known as a marmot) at the comfort industry specialty school, Shichijou Salon Arts Academy. His body, soul and nether regions, are comforted by the whispers of the goddesses at the school. Will he be able to safely regain his healthy body!?

I don’t know about you, but I’d find it pretty shady for someone to approach me and offer ‘comforting’. All voices and sound effects are binaural in this game (it’s recommended to play with headphones or earphones), so if you like that kind of stuff, it’d be perfect for you. Especially since the seiyuu cast is pretty good (Kawashima Rino, Tohno Soyogi, Aji Sanma). I think it’ll be more of a ‘healing’ game as the title suggests than an ero one.

Sounds like a cult to me… But sign me up anyway. Who wouldn’t want a job where they get massages complete with happy endings all day long? I don’t care which god I have to pray to as long as I’m not required to drink their Kool aid.

Yuganda Uso no Koi to Letter

Company: studioオルカ (Studio Orca)
Game site: 歪んだ嘘の恋とレッテル
Release date: September 29, 2017
Comments:
This is the first game by Studio Orca.　Maki used to be lovers with his osananajimi Saeko and they would imitate what adults would do. However, one time they had sex and she ran away from the town because of it. Immediately he was blamed for the incident and labelled as a ‘monster’. Many years later and now in his second year at school, those rumours have still persisted.

On the day of the final exam for the term in early July, he protected his cousin Yuki from some harassment from some boys and his past label resurfaced. However, this time he gave up trying to deny it and acted like he enjoyed it. Saeko suddenly returned to the town and he also ended up having multiple relationships with many girls by chance. Addicted to the new sensations and pleasure, he seeked many forms of erotic play to express his pent-up anger. At the same time, he was able to see the girls’ true feelings and personality.

Is this pure love or twisted love?

Girls all love a man who would take advantage of them. Just look at Rance, the perfect example.

Ok then.

Micchi’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Sakura Hitohira Koi Moyou
2. D.C.III Dream Days
3. Seven Days: Anata to Sugosu Nanoka-kan

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Omokage Railback
2. Oni ga Kuru. ~Ane ga Hinshi de Pinchi Desu~
3. Sakura Hitohira Koi Moyou

What the hell is a massage model???

This.