October 2017 Eroge Releases

GIGA’s BALDR series comes to an end with BALDR BRINGER, while HARUKAZE moves on with its sequel Nora to Oujo to Noraneko Heart 2 -Nora, Princess, and Crying Cat.-. Mysteries abound in Azarashi Soft Zero’s debut title Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary, whereas Curefull Base goes with the comedic route with its first game Tsugihagi Make Peace -pretending×friendship-.

Other than sequels and fandisks for games you may like there is not much to see this month. Those not relying on an existing game to cash in on a fanbase are lackluster to say the least. In fact the best one can hope for this month is a completely median experience. As an American I’ll be thankful should November be an improvement.

BALDR BRINGER

Company: 戯画 (GIGA)
Game site: BALDR BRINGER
Release date: October 27, 2017
Comments:
This is the final chapter in GIGA’s long-running BALDR series. Elis was formerly the manager of the virtual world VERTEX until she was driven from her position and stripped from almost all of her powers. She sat in the middle of the room in front of a huge machine, wondering if she would have to return to reality while making the final pre-activation checks. She breathed a sigh of relief as everything appeared ready, but then an alarm sounded the very next second.

“Please work!!”

‘He’ opened his eyes at the same time as her cry of desperation. It was the beginning of his consciousness as oil coursed through his steel body and his limbs moved according to electromagnetic pulses. After checking that he knew who she was, Elis asked a favour of him: to protect her from the viruses that were coming for her.

“I think I will help you. Is that alright?”

A few minutes later, as he looked down upon the wreckage of the defeated enemies, he was glad that he had protected her. She told him that he was a para-intelligence being and bestowed him with the name Fuji, short for “Dusk Bringer Sower of Huge”, the simulacrum that he was born in.

“Welcome to the virtual world, VERTEX!”

There are 11 illustrators in total working on this game, led by Kikuchi Seiji, and the battle system has also changed. While I was never one to play these games, it seems that they’re deviating from what made their games appealing and that’s a bit of a shame.

For awhile the whole Baldr line was the sole saving grace for Giga as a company. With the previous game and this latest installment I can only reflect how glad I am they are at least giving us the token hope this may be the end of it. I do have to admit being a little impressed at how badly they can screw something simple out while still thinking it’s a good idea. On this note I would like to challenge anyone reading this who actually finds the story summary appealing to explain why. And no, I will not accept any submission regarding the use of the name “Huge” for an eroge protagonist. As much as even I smiled at that silliness. If the game was comedic I would give them points for that though.

So in summary, someone please take all the keyboards out of Giga’s offices so they can outsource their story writing to twitch does eroge. At least it would be more fun to read.

Battle system

Love Kami -Sweet Stars-

Company: PULLTOP
Game site: Love Kami -Sweet Stars-
Release date: October 27, 2017
Comments:
This is the first of two mid-priced Love Kami spin-offs coming out this month. In a similar but slightly different Japan, it had been a year since the goddesses descended. The subculture holy land “Akiba” is now the center of divine idol culture, home to the seven lucky goddesses that dominated as the top idols, “L☆SEVEN”.

Yamato lives a quiet life, uninterested by the latest trends. His school doesn’t participate in the “Goddess teachings” nor does he have any interest in idols. The only time he comes in contact with goddesses is at his parents’ kimono shop “Tatsumi-ya”.

One day, he came upon a street live in front of the station. Even though it was just a small performance with poor equipment and the girl was just in a nearby school uniform, her heartfelt performance was especially brilliant and captivated his attention. This was his entry into the world of divine idols.

PULLTOP is releasing two games in Japan which had originally been created for the overseas market (translated by MoeNovel). The Japanese version is a power-upped version of LoveKami -Divinity Stage-, which was released last December, with H scenes added. They’ve also brought back the melons from overseas.

Weebified goddess idol game.

Love Kami -Trouble Goddess-

Company: PULLTOP
Game site: Love Kami -Trouble Goddess-
Release date: October 27, 2017
Comments:
This is the second of two mid-priced Love Kami spin-offs coming out this month. This is a slightly mysterious story in a slight different Japan. It had been a year since the goddesses descended and most of them have gotten used to human life and lived in harmony together. However, there were those that did not follow the social rules, doing as they liked and causing trouble to humans in the process. They are known as the Aragami.

Shou came upon a goddess Akane who had collapsed on the street. Although he helped her, she was actually the one that had been causing the power outages in the town. To protect his town, he decided to rehabilitate her.

This is the power-upped Japanese version of LoveKami -Useless Goddess-, which was released in May, with H scenes added. Lots of big-breasted useless goddesses indeed. And all our poor protagonist was trying to do was to live a normal life. Give the guy a break.

Weebified Ponkotsu no Goddess.

Pure Marriage ~Akai Ito Monogatari Celica-hen~

Company: Lass Pixy
Game site: Pure Marriage ～赤い糸物語 セリカ編～
Release date: October 27, 2017
Comments:
This is the second title in Lass Pixy’s low-priced Pure Marriage trilogy, focusing on Celica. Touma had admired Celica ever since he was young. He always went to watch her gaze lonelily into the distance from the tall tower and nicknamed her Rapunzel after the princess from the fairy tale. They did not talk to each other, and only verified each other’s presence each day.

This daily routine changed when her father allowed her to go outside for the first time. When she was walking around taking in her brand new surroundings, a speeding truck headed straight for her. Luckily, Touma was able to save her just in time. It was actually an absurd trial planned by her father, who asked that he marry her because he had passed it. As they had been attracted to one another since long ago, they exchanged vows and became a married couple.

However, just as Touma was about to begin a wonderful life with the pure and naive Celica, an unbelievable secret was revealed: she had the blood of a succubus inside of her!

It’s an interesting situation since Lass is supposedly bankrupt, but the team that worked on this series wanted to finish it off. This particular game was mostly done at the time of the announcement, so it makes sense to get it out the door, but what will happen to the quality of the next and final game (for imouto Sakura)? In any case, the games only cost ￥1480, so it’s not a big deal.

The gap moe is strong in this one. Also, a catgirl is fine too.

While I don’t blame the team for wanting to finish, given the horrific story on display I would say there is a reason they went bankrupt in the first place. There could have been some interesting story had they gotten rid of the really really stupid marriage test. The whole succubus thing as well unless it was made more central. Too many themes, too much arbitrary setting manipulation. Either she’s some princess type ojou-sama type the protagonist is engaged to, or a succubus with some kind of issue involving that. Not both. Since all the elements rather clash with each other due to how random it all is Don’t expect much from the story. Either play it because of the girl or just skip right on over it as I will.

PV

Arui wa Koi to Iu Na no Mahou

Company: おもちそふと (Omochi Soft)
Game site: あるいは恋という名の魔法
Release date: October 27, 2017
Comments:
This is the debut work for Omochi Soft. Three beautiful princesses came from another world which was built on magic rather than science. Their world was currently facing an unprecedented crisis and they needed to acquire more magical power to overcome it. Yamato’s semen possessed special powers which greatly increases magic abilities. So, he has to choose one of the three attractive princesses to love. However, each of them had a spell cast on them.

The kind Faty would turn into a little bird when she falls asleep. So she could not remain in the same bed as him through the night.
The righteous Rian would develop a high fever when she gets excited. So she made up her mind to suppress her feelings.
The much-admired Serea could not convey her feelings in words to the one she loves. No matter how much she tries, she cannot say the words: “I love you”.

Even while hiding their own worries, they longed to be loved by him.

The heroines are the usual that you’d expect from a moe-ge, although first-time illustrator Hasune’s heads are a bit too top-heavy in some CGs. Each H scene has two versions, one normal ‘gentlemanly’ mode and another ‘blinded by love’ (The game determined that I would like the latter more, which I did not refute). Just the dialogue changes while the CG stays the same. While I don’t think the story will amount to much, I might check it out just for the ultra-cute Faty. Hau~ omochikaeri~!

Nukige Shuffle.

That’s probably why I’m interested in it since I fell for Shuffle too.

Fair enough. Though the main problem I have with it is the nukige aspect. If they got rid of the whole crack semen I’d be more receptive.

Tsugihagi Make Peace -pretending×friendship-

Company: Curefull Base
Game site: ツギハギめいくぴーす！ -pretending×friendship-
Release date: October 27, 2017
Comments:
This is the first game by Curefull Base. Yuuto was called out to the school rooftop by the student council leader Ayase after school. All five students who gathered there had a common trait: they had no friends. She asked them to pretend to be friends. She admitted that it was an outrageous request, but it was to help them build interpersonal skills so that they won’t still be alone after they graduated. Using her powers as the student council leader and persuasion skills, Ayase convinced all of them to participate in the trial.

“It’s fine if it’s just pretending. Well, it’ll work out because it’s not real. It’s not like we could make any real friends anyway.”

The ‘band of loners’ concept has been done multiple times before, but I’m still tempted to play this since the seiyuu cast is pretty strong, with Ogura Yui voicing Ayase and Tachibana Mao and Fujimori Yukina also playing prominent roles. There’s been a lot more worse games the past few months.

There are essentially two ways to do the whole band of loners thing. Either it is a comedy like Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai, or a more serious tone with comedy elements like Yahari Ore no Seishun wa Lovecome blah blah. Tsugihagi by contrast is essentially neither. Just a generic eroge with the loners aspect used to give the protagonist a heroine smorgasbord to choose A, B, C, or D from. Lazy writing and less than groundbreaking art is not how you stand out with a first game.

Next time someone wants to do a similar game at least give each heroine their own introduction and unique background to blend into the story. Throwing them at us from the start with some simplistic shared situation to garner sympathy is just a cheap cop out.

Nora to Oujo to Noraneko Heart 2 -Nora, Princess, and Crying Cat.-

Company: HARUKAZE
Game site: ノラと皇女と野良猫ハート2 -Nora, Princess, and Crying Cat.-
Release date: October 27, 2017
Comments:
This is the sequel for Noratoto, featuring new heroines Iris and Noel. Subheroine Nobuchina, Lucia and Eurasia get their own routes, while of course there are after stories for the main heroines of the previous game. The game takes place during the summer at the beach where Nora worked. Snow began to fall one day, signaling the Snow Queen Iris’ impending appearance.

I didn’t get around to playing the full game, but I heard good reviews and the trial was hilarious as always, so it’s probably one of the better choices for this month. Iris is so outrageously eccentric, fitting perfectly into the slapstick nature of the game. But I could also play it just for Eurasia…

Sequel so you know if you want to play it. I didn’t get around to playing the game either but since Micchi says people said it was well received maybe I’ll consider going back to the original first.

Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary

Company: あざらしそふと零 (Azarashi Soft Zero)
Game site: ヤミと祝祭のサンクチュアリ
Release date: October 27, 2017
Comments:
This is the debut work by Azarashi Soft Zero. Souji is the successor of the Izumo family’s traditional martial art form to defeat vengeful beings that harm humans. He accompanied his osananajimi Arisu, the daughter of the head of a world-leading zaibatsu, as her bodyguard to the distant island of Niizajima. She transferred to Jinza Gakuen to look for her older sister, who had disappeared without a trace.

There were many strange ‘rules’ on the island, which they believed were set in place to cover up a ‘secret’. With the help of Arisu’s osananajimi Yuuri, zaibatsu rival Claudette and mysterious classmate Yulie, as well as some strategy, they gradually got closer to the truth of the island. But what awaited them wasn’t Arisu’s older sister, but countless ‘apparitions’ that had been talked about in many stories.

This is probably the most story-oriented game this month, especially favoured by those that like supernatural elements and suspense. The trial itself already has a couple of bad ends, and I can envision there being more in the game proper. The music isn’t bad either. I find it a bit disconcerting that all the heroines have balloons that really stand out in the sprites. I don’t think I can look at them for an entire game.

Awkward is how I would define the story here. Childhood friend being the daughter for a major firm, the whole inspection of the island, the events on the island itself, the other characters and heroines… Not to forget the whole random ghost buster family background. Feels like there were a bunch of different writers working on completely separate games with the result of a badly stitched together Frankenstein of a game. Just in time for Halloween I suppose.

There are honestly so many ways to bring this together even when a little cliche that I just cannot abide the lazy and haphazard writing. Even him going back because grandfather died to inherit things on the island would have been a better setup.

As an aside, yes Micchi we all know you prefer washboards to balloons.

You would too if the balloons are the size of their heads.

Ruri no Kasane ~Imouto Monogatari~

Company: ねこねこソフト (NekoNekoSoft)
Game site: ルリのかさね ～いもうと物語り～
Release date: October 27, 2017
Comments:
New release date after being pushed back from August. At a small shrine in the suburbs, the priest’s only son met his young relative Ruri when he was still a high school student. While they didn’t get along at first, they became close before they knew it.

One day, both of their parents passed away in an accident. They were both left without any relatives, and Ruri had only just entered elementary school. After much agonizing, he chose to live together with her.

Ruri is so cute!! I’d definitely take her home immediately! There’s no one else out there to protect her but me… onii-chan! NekoNekoSoft’s template is strong and I’m sure Ruri will turn out to be another great ‘onii-chan suki suki beam’-blasting imouto. Straight to my heart! Hau~ omochikaeri~!

Shrine of the pedos.

Junjou Karen Freaks!

Company: Wonder Fool
Game site: 純情化憐フリークス！
Release date: October 27, 2017
Comments:
Supernatural beings such as youkai and spirits, called “freaks”, co-exist with humans in this world. Mikitaka lives with his older cousin Shizumi on the island of Kakuriyotobari, where 80% of the residents are freaks. One day, his childhood friend and first love Yuuka returned… as a ghost! She didn’t know why she became a ghost, and they let her stay with them since they’re old friends.

However, that wasn’t the end. Shizumi was revealed to have regenerative powers after an accident, as those closest to Mikitaka became freaks. With the help of freaks mediator-in-training Rio and her tsukumogami (tool spirit) assistant Tsukumo, he set out to find out the girls’ true identities and the cause of their current state.

Mainly a love comedy with bakemono like youkai and monsters. The writing for Wonder Fool’s previous game Natsu no Majo no Parade wasn’t up to par, and it’s unlikely to have improved since then. The trial was pretty forgettable to be honest.

I would like to point out what bothers me most about this title. We have plenty of words to use for monsters or as the Japanese might say, youkai. Just use the damn existing words. The world does not need more pointless slang cluttering up our languages. Choosing to call their supernatural themed heroines freaks makes me wish there really were grammar Nazis to come detain offenders. Educating such savages really should be considered a noble endeavor of the civilized world.

Kanojo wa Tenshi de Imouto de

Company: ALcot ハニカム (ALcot Honey Comb)
Game site: 彼女は天使で妹で
Release date: October 27, 2017
Comments:
Yuuki has always attracted attention due to his superior looks and being the son of two entertainers. However, he has a quiet demeanour and did not feel comfortable in the spotlight, instead wishing for a more peaceful and ordinary life. But things don’t always go the way you want them to in life.

He met an angel by chance one night, who asked him if he wanted to become a god. Ignoring his perplexed response, she made him an ‘angel candidate’ and his life changed completely. First, the girl Touka became his imouto by using her powers to create a ‘miracle’. Moreover, two girls were sent to train him: the school’s prettiest girl and idol Mia, who was actually an angel; and, the solitary cool beauty genius girl Kazumi, who was actually a shinigami.

He was put through harsh training by the three girls, but could not become an angel, much less a god. Not only that but his osananajimi Erina, the only place of solace he could turn to, was awfully displeased with him since he’s been so close to other girls lately. Things really don’t go the way you want them to.

One year later, Yuuki still remained an angel-in-training. In fact, it’s like he hadn’t grown one bit. Would an angel without wings like him ever become a god? What kind of future awaits him?

I want an angel to become my imouto too. I don’t mind if she uses tough love on me, like the Angel Thunder and Angel Fire. Please make it happen!!

If he wants to be an angel he should just play this game while coming up with nothing but positives for it. I daresay anyone capable of finding something objectively good without reacting to the word imouto may as well be an angel in my book. 

Boukyaku Shitsuji to Koisuru Ojou-sama no Memoir

Company: Campus
Game site: 忘却執事と恋するお嬢様の回想録（メモワール）
Release date: October 27, 2017
Comments:
There was something missing.
It was memories of his childhood.
It was the key to locked memories.

She just wished for wings to fly into the sky.
She just wanted to take a step out of the cage that she had been locked in.

Because surely this key would open the door to something wonderful.
Because surely the first love which only comes once is something irreplaceable.

It can’t end like this. It can’t remain unrequited like this. We can’t be happy like this.
Even if it’s only one thing, I want to know the truth.

This is a normal story, a normal love story, that happens everywhere.
A story between a young lady and her butler.

This is a simple low-priced game with a single heroine, where protagonist Shizuya and heroine Hinano have to overcome obstacles to achieve happiness as a couple. Then the latter part of the story is in the bedroom. The two actually first met at the hospital when they both were young and critically ill. He lost his memories of his past when he was on the brink of death after transferring to an overseas hospital. Popular illustrator Rubi-sama takes the lead for this game. There’s also a free all-ages version for Android devices as well if you purchase the 18+ Windows version. While the story is nothing out of the ordinary, Hinano is cute and it’s probably worth a few hours of your time.

While I wanted to mock the game for that pretentious summary opening Micchi copied there were far worse games this month. Of course I can’t say the game is good, but honestly it probably isn’t bad either, especially when seen in contrast with the bland heap of digital trash the rest of this month is. So on behalf of Campus I thank you October for being such a useless month that even a generic minor low priced game can shine like a diamond in the rough. Nothing quite like lowered expectations to help us get through this holiday season in good cheer.

Micchi’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Nora to Oujo to Noraneko Heart 2 -Nora, Princess, and Crying Cat.-
2. Boukyaku Shitsuji to Koisuru Ojou-sama no Memoir
3. Tsugihagi Make Peace -pretending×friendship-

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Happy Halloween.
2. These games sure are scary enough.
3. Boukyaku Shitsuji to Koisuru Ojou-sama no Memoir – Just because it could be much worse.

Maybe your imouto is an angel and your childhood friend is a ghost too.

And maybe November will be an early eroge Christmas. Anyone can dream I suppose.