February 2020 Eroge Releases

There’s a choice of isekai games this month, from SMEE’s slapstick HaremKingdom to TOKYOTOON’s Marco to Ginga Ryuu, which combines both traditional anime and cartoon styles. GIGA also has their spinoff Full Kiss S, while SukeraSomero offers the yuri title Oshi no Love Yori Koi no Love.

A month full of the worst kind of game. All besides one are just boring rather than good or bad. Or rather than boring perhaps nothing special or median for eroge is more appropriate. The sole exception to this is just weeb bait, so pretty dull month.

HaremKingdom

Company: SMEE
Game site: HaremKingdom -ハーレムキングダム-
Release date: February 28, 2020
Comments:
On a day off, the protagonist was once again being chided by his osananajimi Hikari for not pursuing a girl. He just wanted to spend his time enjoying his hobbies, and ran away from relationships by any means, due to his past trauma. She was worried that if this continued, then he would become completely useless.

Then suddenly a bright light enveloped them and they were transported to another world. While they were still lost in their new surroundings, the prime minister Marrou told him that he was the ‘last king’ of the kingdom. He was loved by the people, but he must abide by the duty of building a harem to father his future descendants for the prosperity of the kingdom. In fact, it had already been arranged that the princess Sophia from the neighbouring kingdom and Charlone, the beautiful daughter of a noble family, will be part of this harem. Seeing him surrounded by girls, Hikari could not hold back as well, to his dismay.

“I just want to fall in love normally!”

It’s got a pretty cool OP, but it’s essentially just an isekai gag nukige with a lot of dirty jokes. You get to enter your name so you can live out your own isekai dream (if you want to) or randomly assign one at the beginning of the game. I’m liking Char, who reminds me of Suzunone‘s Sumire, since she’s a ‘loli’ koakuma type who calls you onii-sama (but is actually a haraguro). Give me more of that please!

Smee Feels like they are rushing games a bit too much now, going the route of quantity over quality. Comedy without content can only take you so far in the end. Which is where the problem lies with Harem Kingdom. Putting some more effort into the background for the characters, and the setting in general would have made the comedy elements more poignant. Which is furthered by making the heroines more likable when they aren’t thrown at you like a bargain bin trail mix of boobs. 

LOVE Destination

Company: JADE
Game site: LOVE・デスティネーション
Release date: February 28, 2020
Comments:
With no social status, money or love, Ryou has reached a BAD END. However, the ‘heavenly voice’ that had mistakenly guided him to this BAD ROUTE brought him back to the branch point which led to another possible future.

He didn’t choose the option when he was a student since he didn’t want to be labelled as a pervert, but now given the opportunity again, he enrolled in the former girls’ school where there were no other male students. Now he just needed to choose one of them and enjoy the HAPPY ROUTE… or so he thought. His ‘memories of the future’ hint that there were still many BAD END which he must avoid!

This is JADE’s first title in nearly 20 years. All the meta talk aside, it’s basically just your typical love comedy eroge. There are four routes, covering the seven heroines. There’s bad ends to avoid, but I have the feeling that they’ll be relatively shallow in development. The game will actually indicate what the right choices are, and which choices lead to bad ends, if you want to not have to guess or consult a walkthrough. You can turn off this function if you want. Also, it’s really odd playing with furigana for every single kanji. While it’s helpful for learning how to pronounce them, I hope there’s an option to turn them off to make the dialogue easier to read. Probably not gonna bother with this one.

Breaking the fourth wall of a generic eroge. Not enough of a gimmick to add significance to the story or characters thus not really interesting in my eyes. If something like this wants to be done right a lot of effort needs to be put into the branching narrative of each route, and every character and heroine during every single route to give significance to the choices. Without the effort it’s just a half-assed token gimmick, I’m with Micchi on this one.

Hajikano ~Kimi ga Iru Heya~

Company: キャラメルBOX いちご味 (Caramel BOX Ichigo Aji)
Game site: はじカノ～君がいる部屋～
Release date: February 28, 2020
Comments:
It’s been two years since Naoki became a working adult. There hasn’t been any particularly good or bad things; it’s been extremely normal and peaceful. However, he was lacking excitement in his life.

With the arrival of spring, he rapidly got closer to three girls: the helpful but naive Mai, his cheeky tomboy imouto Yuana, and his boss Misaki, who seemed outside of his league. A trivial incident one day leads to him falling in love with one of them, and soon they begin living together, bringing moments of happiness that they have not felt until now.

Art and characters seem fine, and the story is the usual simple pick-your-heroine-and-go fare, although I feel like the execution is rather lacking. I like cheeky imoutos who actually love you a lot (well, all imoutos are like that…), so it’s tempting to play for Yuana, but I’m not expecting much development at all.

Something of note here is Micchi turned down a little sister character. Read that again and think to yourself what it says about the game at hand. Truthfully I can’t help but agree there isn’t enough content or emphasis on the setting. Despite proclaiming an adult protagonist it just feels like a skin put over your boring high school setting rather than there being substance to the setting choice. 

Teaser

Full Kiss S

Company: 戯画 (GIGA)
Game site: フルキスS
Release date: February 28, 2020
Comments:
Takuya is always positive, but takes time to make the first step since he is too cautious and thinks too much. Entering his second year, he decides to try to get a girlfriend and becomes closer to his classmates Hana and Yuu.

This is the latest game in GIGA’s Kiss series, being somewhat related to Full Kiss. They’ve toned it down to only two heroines, but both of them are good choices. GIGA produces the same level of quality, for better or for worse. I feel like it’s the safe pick this month.

What Micchi put tactfully as “Same level of quality” can be more accurately said to be boring rushed out copy paste of eroge 101 template. Seeing what amounts to the same exact game every other month makes it all blur together to the point I’m not even sure they aren’t Circus under a new name. 

Marco to Ginga Ryuu

Company: TOKYOTOON
Game site: マルコと銀河竜 ～MARCO＆GALAXY DRAGON～
Release date: February 28, 2020
Comments:
Marco, an orphan with missing memories, and Arco, a dragon who rules the galaxy, were hunting for treasure in space! On one of their adventures, Marco was given a clue to the whereabouts of her mother.

Their next stop, her birthplace – Earth!

This is an all-ages title from TOKYOTOON, available via Steam (in Japanese, English and Chinese) and packaged formats. The art is in both standard anime and Western cartoon style, which is quite unique among visual novels. I can’t say that it appeals to me, but maybe it will gather more interest among the Western audience.

Stupid weeb bait.

Mononokei Kanojo ~Inkya Desu ga, Koishite Ii Desu ka?~

Company: North Box
Game site: モノノ系彼女～陰キャですが、恋して良いですか？～
Release date: February 28, 2020
Comments:
This is the debut game by North Box. Yuutarou is an ordinary student at Yatsuya Gakuen with a slight interest in the occult. It was the last day before summer vacation, and he still didn’t have any special relationships with the girls in his class. That all changed when his osananajimi Yuumi invited him to come to the school that night for a ‘courage test’.

She came completely prepared, dressed in tactical gear, pressing an airsoft gun into his back and forcing him down the eerily quiet hallway. He heard faint laughter and turned around, and Yuumi had already dashed out of sight. The strange creaking and sounds of running… could this be the paranormal encounter that he wanted!?

You basically do it with a bunch of youkai. The smallest is an F cup. No thanks.

I mean it’s a nukige so enough said. What makes me laugh is that Micchi rejected it simply because of cup size. 

Oshi no Love Yori Koi no Love

Company: SukeraSomero
Game site: 推しのラブより恋のラブ
Release date: February 28, 2020
Comments:

“As a child, there was a love story that captivated me.
In the story, an alien came down from space and extravagantly
proclaimed her love to an Earthling man.
I never imagined that, decades later, I’d be living out that story for myself…”

Akuru Hayahoshi is an unlucky otaku office worker who just can’t pull her husbando in the gacha game she’s obsessed with, no matter how much money she throws at it. Until one day, she runs into the garishly gorgeous and freakishly lucky Ren Furutachi.

A series of misunderstandings lead to a proposal, and Ren starts to full-on pursue Akuru. One thing leads to another, and in order to bring her husbando home, she ends up… bringing Ren home?! Now they’re sharing a house… and a bed?! To unpresuming Akuru this cool, lady-loving girl might as well be an alien!

Akuru wants her husbando, and Ren wants Akuru as her waifu… Are these two ever gonna end up together?!

This all-ages yuri title is the first game by SukeraSomero, a sister brand of SukeraSparo. There’s also a 18+ append available. It seems like a cute story and there’s not much else to play this month, so might as well check it out since it’s available in Japanese, English and Chinese.

Yuri.

Micchi’s Top 3 for This Month

1. Full Kiss S
2. Oshi no Love Yori Koi no Love
3. Hajikano ~Kimi ga Iru Heya~

Zen’s Mediocre 3 for This Month

1. Hajikano ~Kimi ga Iru Heya~
   
2. HaremKingdom
3. LOVE Destination

To be honest, none of the games this month seem memorable to me.

Because they aren’t, and will be forgotten as soon as this post is done.