August 2019 Eroge Releases

Nothing much to see here, just a bunch of onee-chans and kemonomimi girls. Lump of Sugar’s Wakaba-iro no Quartet is probably the best pick for the month. Go enjoy the outdoors while it’s hot!

Short month without too much of interest sadly. I would normally be happy to see a month of older sisters and animal eared girls but I would rather they have more meaning to their existence other than archetype gimmick appeal.

LIKE×LOVE ~Totsukawa Hikaru~

Company: rootnuko
Game site: LIKE×LOVE ～十津川 光～
Release date: August 30, 2019
Comments:
Entering the local prep school Hoshimi Gakuen, Koyomi met Hikaru, who has the top grades in the school and is liked by everyone in the class thanks to her bright personality. He found it difficult to approach her, but that all changed one day when he saw her admiring the sunset while taking pictures with her camera. Seeing her so absorbed in her hobby made him even more attracted to her. This chapter of their youth will be full of ‘like’ and ‘love’.

rootnuko is the latest company to make low-priced single-heroine games. Not really my type, so pass.

The low risk moderate reward low priced games with a single heroine are definitely popular these days.

Nothing very special here. So as applies to these games it is all about whether you want to play this heroine’s route. I for one will actually be playing this game, or at least adding it to the backlog. As the heroine is definitely my type and sometimes simple is best, as it is much harder to screw up.

LocaLove Densha×Doukyuusei

Company: フロントウイング (Frontwing)
Game site: ろけらぶ -Location Love- 電車×同級生
Release date: August 30, 2019
Comments:
This is the second title in Frontwing’s LocaLove series. Ever since Ichitarou started living with his relatives, his ten minute walk to school has become an hour-long commute by local train. He was fed up with it, but there was a silver lining: he gets to spend his commute with his beautiful classmate Nio, who he secretly admires. She was difficult to approach and acted indifferent every time he would try talking to her, but that gradually changed one day after he helped her when she collapsed on a bench on the station platform.

“You don’t have to be so formal”

Just like the train they were on, their relationship rapidly moved forward. However, she would not accept being his girlfriend, even as she denies it while blushing profusely.

The train will always reach its destination. Will the same be true for their relationship?

By virtue of being in the right place at the right time, you get a ‘girlfriend’ that’s seemingly out of your league. Well, I guess this isn’t too farfetched. Not sure if the people on the train would be happy being next to lovebirds for the entire ride though…

As far as eroge companies go none garner as much hate from me as Frontwing. While something like Lump of Sugar is bad for similar reasons they are much less deliberate in why they screw things up. Can’t blame a crazy person for being crazy right? So while silly they are also endearing in a weird way. Frontwing on the other hand is quite clearly lucid, just stupid and incapable of writing without killing the pacing.

So imagine my surprise when I feel at a loss on where to vent my hatred this time. Sure there is nothing particularly good to say but can’t really say much bad about it either. Now that is hardly an endorsement as in all likelihood they will find some way to screw this up in the writing. Just at the moment this is little more than speculation, so I could be wrong. Without being able to definitively point out why this could be terrible other than my lack of trust in Frontwing makes me sad.

Wanko no Yomeiri ~Arata na Nihon no Shippo~

Company: あるみそふと (Alumi Soft)
Game site: わんこの嫁入り～新たな二本のしっぽ～
Release date: August 30, 2019
Comments:
This is the fandisc to Wanko no Yomeiri. Days after Touya married the dog-eared divine messengers Koharu and Azuki, the shrine cafe “Inu no Shippo” had become quite popular and they enjoyed their time together passionately. However, two new divine messengers Fubuki and Kaede came to monitor them one day. What will become of their private lives?

It’s gonna get a lot more interesting of course! Maybe some 5P? How wan-derful!

Fandisk.

Ama Ane -My Sweet Sister-

Company: Campus
Game site: アマアネ -My Sweet Sister-
Release date: August 30, 2019
Comments:
Yuuta was at the airport waiting to welcome his older sister Alice. He had only met her for a few days when his mother remarried overseas three years ago and haven’t had the chance to see her again since then, but they still got along rather well since they frequently chatted on the phone and e-mailed each other.

“I’m here to be your bride♪”

He had been expecting an enjoyable life with his cute sister, but was overwhelmed by the sudden marriage proclamation and pampering beyond his imagination.

“I’ll clean your ears, so rest on my lap~”
“Dinner’s ready. Here, open up~♪”
“Finished your studies? Hehe, have some headpats as a reward”

The sweet days have begun with an older sister who wants to be a bride.

He’s gonna be so spoiled and a more useless protagonist than ever. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing.

Everything here is fine, assuming you like the heroine anyway. That is till the bride garbage comes into play. This is like a grown adult playing tee ball with a beach ball, lining up taking the perfect swing and somehow manages to miss everything fall flat on their face and give themselves a concussion with the bat. The. Entire. Point. Is. The. Buildup. Without any sense of development all the icha-icha moments that come later are entirely pointless because the attachment to the characters isn’t there. This is even more so with sibling type characters as how they slowly overcome the barriers helps pull them closer together is what makes them endearing to the reader. All these scenes where the older sister spoils her little brother are completely pointless after ruining the development. Moving from ambiguity to reality is what makes such a heroine fun.

Wakaba-iro no Quartet

Company: Lump of Sugar
Game site: 若葉色のカルテット
Release date: August 30, 2019
Comments:
Yuuto lives in the town of Totsuda, which is surrounded by the mountains and the sea. One day, his kouhai Hiyori stalked him around the school and dorm Wakaba-sou, finally confronting him and declaring:

“I love you! So… how about I become your maid!?”

At the same time, he met the animal-eared Sofia, a princess from the Kingdom of Elidrone who had transferred to his school. She was surprisingly friendly with everyone considering her status, but she seemed to look at him differently:

“Hey… I… think you’re the one. I truly believe it, ok?”

Both the maid girl and animal-eared princess had their own secrets. Their actions started to change his surroundings, which also dragged in his pet cat Ai and childhood friend Miyako.

Fluffy kemonomimi chara-ge. Fujisaki Usa voicing pet loli cat. Sounds like a recipe for success.

Lump of Shi..uuuugar is doing their usual. When in doubt revert to Tayutama. The previous attempt at reviving this dead horse to beat some more being less than satisfactory has apparently led them in a new direction. Keep the ears, change the names. Unfortunately the main issue with Lump of Sugar, their stories being completely batshit insane seems to be left unaddressed. I want to hope there may be some improvement since this is clearly more of a charage than their usual, however I can’t help but feel the writers are still high on crazy pills. There is no real point to any of it. Animal ears there because they are cute. Girls just like him because there’s some Cthulu telling them to or something. Maid because that’s cute too right?

I really don’t know what to make of them anymore. Tayutama was their best game as most people would probably agree, yet Lump of Sugar still hasn’t figured out why despite so many attempts. Reason being their setting and characters were coherent. So while the story may have been rather far from your standard high school romance it made sense in its own context. Everything else I have read from them is just all over the place with their plot having no real connection to their setting or the laws they themselves establish. When even a simple romance ends up convoluted it really dulls the appeal.

This applies to many eroge in general, changing the rules of the universe the story is set in whenever you feel like it is not a plot twist. In fact it seems it’s not just the plot twist angle they get wrong either, the same applies when they expand the scope of the protagonist. Any story centered around an expanding Universe where the protagonist sees the world in a new light tends to suffer from similar issues. Instead of building on the foundation to lend a sense of growth there is a tendency to just throw everything previously in the trash to make everything feel new.

Micchi’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Wakaba-iro no Quartet
2. Wanko no Yomeiri ~Arata na Nihon no Shippo~
3. Ama Ane -My Sweet Sister-

Zen’s Top 3 for This Month

1. LIKE×LOVE ~Totsukawa Hikaru~
2. Blank.
3. Ama Ane -My Sweet Sister- Because despite everything I still like them Onee sans..

It’s raining cats and dogs.

Quick! Call the pound!