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Youjuu Senki 2 -Reimei no Senshi-tachi- and Eve: Burst Error are the masterpieces of the month, but the upper hand is naturally with the legendary Eve: Burst Error 1. Moon Gate ムーンゲート [951102] Fairytale 1 Zion is an adventurer who lives with girl Lina. One day a mysterious person brings him a shining gem and calls it a present to his excellency Zion from his majesty. His best friend Tolland appears from the stone and requests to go to imperial capital and revive the Agarta Empire together. Tolland restores a part of Zion's power, burns down the village to cut off the road back and disappears in a flash. A rare RTS fiend in visual novel row. Game's not very friendly with emulators not launching on ntkp and eventually hanging on anex. 2. D.P.S. Zenbu D.P.S.全部 [951110] Alice Soft 1 2 3 D.P.S. Zenbu, is, as the name implies, a complete collection of scenarios (total of 15) from all the previous D.P.S./Dream Program System series entries: D.P.S. D.P.S. SG D.P.S. SG Set 2 D.P.S. SG Set 3 Super D.P.S. No changes have been made to graphics or gameplay in any of the scenarios. As a bonus, the game also contains the 16th scenario, entitled Megumi's Story. The scenario is non-interactive (the player simply has to press a button to scroll the text) and depicts the first sexual experiences (some of them violent) of an innocent teenage girl. There is an English review. 3. Hare Nochi Munasawagi 晴れのち胸さわぎ [951110] Cocktail Soft 1 2 The story of Harenochi Munasawagi does not start in a very original way: the protagonist is a high-school boy named Kazuhiko, who is - surprise! - permanently horny, displaying his "affections" at any given opportunity to anyone young and female, including even his childhood friend Chihiro. But while the focus on the story is on Kazuhiko and his quest for physical intimacy (which often results in girls getting angry and beating him up), there are other rather disturbing elements that come into play later - in particular, bunny-like demons who share Kazuhiko's passion for the opposite sex... There is an English review. 4. Youjuu Senki 2 -Reimei no Senshi-tachi- 妖獣戦記２ -黎明の戦士たち- [951110] D.O. 1 Over 10 months has passed since fierce battle with the beasts. They should have been weakened by A.S.S.P. by now, but a new threat rose again... Is there a future for mankind? The battle with the stakes of A.S.S.P. and humankind existence starts now! The final chapter in the strangebeasts confrontation story. Gameplay-wise it's the most refined in the series with all the irritation factors eliminated. Events happen one after another and story develops in a very severe and tough fashion. Interaction with your subordinates now also brings important implications, they aren't just bio soldiers anymore, they are your battle buddies that followed you to the end of the world. The deployment is realistic and final battle can have a big impact if you got attached to the girls. 5. Eve: Burst Error Eve: Burst Error [951122] C's Ware 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 A Bizarre Serial Murder Mystery. There's A Serial Killer Close By. A Prohibited Psychothriller. The Multi-Sight System Reveals Surprising Truth! In this game there are two heroes, Kojiroh and Marina, who are each called to solve their own cases. This game allows you to switch characters at any time to solve the mysteries these heroes encounter. This "Multi-Sight Adventure" allows you to view what's happening behind-the-scenes from the other character's perspective, bump into each other, and sometimes even help each other out. Together, they come closer and closer to the shocking truth through their combined actions and skills of deduction. Marina's Episode: Marina is a national intelligence agent with a 99% success rate. Her new assignment is to protect the daughter of a Japanese embassy official stationed abroad. As you encounter numerous attackers, you become aware of a dangerous government dispute that is the root of all these attacks. Kojiroh's Episode: A seemingly down-on-his-luck private investigator finally gets a break, as he is hired to locate some mysterious piece of art. Even though he feels a little weird about this case, the pay is huge! Yet he may be drawn into an unexpected nightmare involving a string of bizarre murders. Probably the best known old game. Lots of English reviews. 6. Messenger from Dark Night メッセンジャー フロム ダークナイト [951123] TopCat Hero is half-demon who has his demon part "dark night" awake every evening. Such person transfers to a new school that accepts half-humans as students. The game can be called an adult sound novel. There are multiple branches and new branches open up after main branches clearance totaling 80 endings. Some of those endings have only slight differences, but just dig the number. The content is different for various branches, but it's not lovey-lovey, on the contrary it's rather dark and has multiple confrontations prepared. If it came out a bit later and was a bit more like a visual novel and not like a book, it would have all the chances to take away the pedestal of originator of visual novels from Leaf. 7. Koukan Nikki Dai 2 Shou ~Seiya o Anata to~ こうかん日記 第２章 ～聖夜をあなたと～ [951124] Fairy Dust New love adventure takes place during winter. While at part-time job hero gets acquainted to different girls and by the Christmas Eve he can confess his feelings to one of them. Characters are lively and overall mood is bright. There is an ending for each heroine. 8. Majo-tachi no Nemuri 魔女たちの眠り [951124] Pack In Video 1 2 The protagonist (default name Toshio) is working at his office one day when he receives a call asking for help from a girl he knew as a child (default name Yoriko). The next day he discovers that this same girl apparently killed herself by way of self-immolation. He decides to go investigate the girl's mountain village, and depending upon the choices the player makes, may uncover the truth of the matter... Literary adaptation of famous horror writer. Year 1995 was a boom for so called "sound novels" which are NVL novels with walls of text on some background with music. It's the closest thing to a book and these are usually short horror stories and I've blocked previous such games since they had multiple stories. This one is the first one with long and more or less long coherent story. There are four parts presented as trials and after completion a true story opens up. 9. OL Sousamou ＯＬ操作網 [951129] Witch's 1 Akizuki is an ordinary Japanese man who works in an office. One day his boss asks him to discreetly investigate a case of stolen prospects that could damage the company's reputation. Akizuki must talk to the female co-workers and find out the truth. However, his mind is more occupied with his own personal expectations from these attractive ladies... The most fun feature of the game is an ability to roleplay either a serious co-worker or a full-scale playboy. 10. Coming Heart [951130] May-Be Soft 1 The hero of this game is a teenage boy who failed his high-school examination; as a result, his parents decided to transfer him to a special school in another city. The young hero is at first sad and depressed, but soon discovers that the situation might not be so bad after all: the mansion in which he is going to leave is not empty, and his neighbors are all young pretty girls... Story itself is a commonplace, but with an addition of torments over university entrance. Character designs are quite good and atmosphere is bright. 11. Jack ~Haitoku no Megami~ JACK ～背徳の女神～ [951130] Silky's 1 2 3 Jack Martin is a private detective. Long time ago, a terrible accident has left deep scars on his psyche, and he tries to atone for what he has done. On board of the space shuttle Gold Mary, Jack joins an organization that fights interstellar terrorism, employing people with psychic abilities. Soon thereafter, the captain of the shuttle is found murdered. Have terrorists infiltrated the shuttle, or is one of Jack's comrades a double agent? Jack must solve the mystery, at the same time discovering his own special abilities... whatever they might be. There is an English review and also my review now. Protagonist is actually quite elaborate. He accidentally shot a child in the past and suffers from this trauma trying to find ties to that child murder and being depressed about it. 12. Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami - Futatsu no Sekai no Monogatari 魔法の天使クリィミーマミ 二つの世界の物語 [951130] Wishbone 1 Based on the anime Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel. The original tells the story of a 10-year-old girl named Yuu Morisawa, who gains a magical ability to transform into a grown-up young woman, eventually becoming a pop star and acquainting the inhabitants of the Earth with the rest of the galaxy. Yuu appears in the game, but is not the protagonist; the player controls four young women in four different scenarios: two of them, Yuri and Aya, on the Earth, and the other two, Ora and Sita, in an alien world, mixture of sci-fi and medieval fantasy. The story goes beyond the original anime by introducing a magical, sacred land known as Finality, populated by fantasy being, and calling the guardians (the four girl protagonist) to bring peace to the galaxy. There are so many early games about ability to transform into grown-up woman that they all start to look the same. But here there are four distinct stories targeted at girls, naturally. 13. Memories ~Shiroi Yozora ni Mau Tenshi~ メモリーズ ～白い夜空に舞う天使～ [9511] Petit 1 Memories is a dating-oriented game that can be describe as a light simulation with elements of a visual novel. The game's story premise is abstract: the player character explores a small town, hoping to meet and eventually date young women. The game world consists of photorealistic still pictures of locations; the player's only interaction with the game consists of choosing to travel to these locations and advance the time. Female characters will appear in specific locations at specific times of the day. Several meetings are usually needed to initiate a date. Presents and money can be given to the girls as well. A very generic dating sim from a fresh company. And very exhausting since girls can appear any minute anywhere so need to basically stay at the same location and advance time all the time and create chart of when someone appears.

There aren't masterpieces this month, but among more traditional visual novels Trouble Chaser Dai 4 Wa - Saishuukai definitely stands out, it's also the most interesting episode in the series being the final one. 1. A Hard Day's Night 吉永サユリがやってくる ヤァ！ヤァ！ヤァ！ A Hard Day's Night [951006] Hard Teacher instructs the class that at summer vacation textbooks are prohibited and only erotic journals are ok to read. And then he visits students at various locations to check if they follow instructions properly. Game is made like a parody, but things go ecchi very fast. 2. Manami ~Ai to Koukan no Hibi~ 真奈美 ～愛と交換の日々～ [951006] Red Zone Manami sex life with her partner has become dull, but everything changes with meeting a swinger couple at dancing lessons course. The most weird thing in the game is that Manami whose name is in the title does not have much action during the game after the opening sequence. The focus is on her partner and different swinger club wives. 3. Trouble Chaser Dai 4 Wa - Saishuukai トラぶるＣＨＡＳＥＲ 第４話 最終回 [951006] Nihon Create In the final episode Daisuke gets kidnapped and it's revealed why he's been hunted for this whole time. All the mysteries get uncovered and we get to look at villain point of view. There's of course a grand battle involved. Since 3rd episode of the game is a lost piece we also meet some new girl pilot for the first time here. 4. Majo Gari no Yoru ni 魔女狩りの夜に [951013] Ail 1 2 Majo-gari means "witch-hunt"; indeed, that is the only thing the protagonist of the game, a young priest living in an unspecified European-like town, thinks about. According to his own words, he believes neither in God nor in the devil; his life is dedicated to one horrifying passion: torturing innocent women... There is an English review. 5. Gakuen Bakuretsu Tenkousei ! 学園爆裂転校生! [951020] ZyX A fighting girl transfers to a girls school. Rules and student council are very strict there. After the girl refuses to dress normally and give away her gloves and kneel-pads the student council kidnaps her roommate. There are several endings with some being bad ones. The aim is to go around the school, trigger events and beat enemies which leads to les scenes. The overall playtime and the number of CG are small. 6. Immoral Study Scenario 3: Asakura Manami インモラルスタディ シナリオ３ 朝倉まなみ [951020] Scoop 1 2 3 The third scenario of Immoral Study describes yet another somewhat unusual teaching experience in the life of Mr. Hitosuji, a young and handsome private tutor. This time, the victim... err... pupil is Asakura Manami, a shy, quiet girl who lives together with her mother. Hitosuji is supposed to make Manami a better student - but instead he chooses to participate in S&M relationship between mother and daughter... Game is localized and has impressions in English. 7. Koko wa Rakuensou 2 ここは楽園荘2 [951020] Foster 1 2 3 4 5 The Paradise Heights apartment has changed after half of your uncle's company got liquidated. After the money went, so did some of the tenants. Now Keigo Nakadai (You) works for a toy making company (but still stays at Paradise Heights). Rumor has it that a competiting company is stealing your brilliant ideas...and the source of the leak is someone with high rank in your company! Fortunately, the new tenants also work at the company as you join forces with them to find out who is conducting industrial espionage behind your back...as well as some entertainment on the side... There are English reviews. 8. Briganty ~The Roots of Darkness~ ブリガンティ ～The Roots of Darkness～ [951027] Giga 1 2 3 4 Gady is a black magician and a skillful martial artist who travels around with his personal fairy Leena. Gady is more interested in sexy girls than in anything else, and Leena calls him "the pervert of the century". One day the two of them find a girl in the woods who begs for help. After Gady agrees to help her, she robs all his money and disappears. Before long Gady and Leena meet a sword master girl named Sephina, who explains that her sister started acting strangely after finding a mysterious sword. This is where Gady's adventure begins. One of the most hated VN creators Giga makes it appearance on the visual novel scene! But they are praised for action game and their first game is actually an action, or rather a platformer. There's a good English review for this game. 9. Charade [951027] Apple Pie 1 Charade describes the daily high-school routine of a girl named Kazumi. The game proceeds from one school day to another, putting Kazumi in the same situations, facing the same choices. Those choices, as well as random events and meetings with other characters, schoolmates and teachers (only female), change Kazumi's viewpoints as well as relationships with the other girls. Yuri school ADV. The weirdness of this game is that you set the setting yourself, like this girl will be in the theater and arts clubs and we'll start to pay her attention. And at any time in the morning we can choose - forget it all and get a new setting. Characters aren't cute enough to empathize as well. Game is fully voiced, but making a setting yourself and participating in constant loops just in hope to find an action that would lead to some branching is not the most exciting occupation if you're expecting a story to be told. 10. Leap Toki ni Sarawareta Shoujo ＬＥＡＰ 時にさらわれた少女 [951027] Ange Hero has finally confessed and made love to his childhood friend Ai. But as he wakes up in unfamiliar place, he can't find Ai anywhere. He begins his search. Hero needs to travel through the time by having sex with school nurse and find traces of Ai in different time segments. There are multiple endings depending on whether he chooses some local girl or keep on his search. There are a lot of selections and branches in addiction to already confusing time travel. It's an experimental work with a lot of edges, oh well, and it's not hookable. 11. Power Slave パワースレイブ [951027] Umitsuki Production 1 Tetsuya is a rather ordinary Japanese teenager, who prefers hanging out with his sweetheart Rika than going to school. His passion are 3D video games. The newest game machine which allows the player to completely submerge into the virtual world, modeled according to his desires, has captured his heart. But one thing is strange: lately, Tetsuya keeps seeing himself as a killer and rapist. Dreams begin to haunt him. Is this just a side-effect of the game, or does he have a dark side he knows nothing about? Or maybe the game took him to another world, which will from now on become part of his life?.. Quite an unusual mix of genres and with animated scenes on top of that. The first work of the company we all know as Jellyfish for being the only ardent adept of fully animated eroge. A merry game, but not hookable and rather short.

Some veterans of reading untranslated VNs refer to the period between 2004 and 2010 as 'The Golden Age of Visual Novels'. However, you shouldn't really take that statement at face value, as the meaning is a bit more complex than you'd think. There are some significant differences between VNs today and VNs during that period that both made it the peak of the medium's sales in Japan and produced the greatest ratio of quality VNs to crap VNs. One of the primary differences was that, other than moege, there were no strict genre boundaries and genre conventions had yet to slide into place in the minds of fans and writers both. Companies were mostly experimenters during that time, sometimes basing their projects on previous works (Tsukihime and the Key games got a lot of knock-offs during this time, of varying levels of quality) and sometimes forging out on their own. Since there were few genre boundaries, companies were more likely to give the creative staff free reign as to what kind of story they could write, and - ironically - this actually helped define the various genres in the years to come, as people explored the boundaries of how they could stretch a concept or theme in a story. Some of these attempts were abortive (ie- thematic moege where all the heroines are of the same type, such as tsundere or yandere, generally didn't catch on) but others were immensely successful (ie- the definition of the chuunige genre and its gradual escape from gakuen battle mania). However, the point is that the writers, directors, and producers of the time were allowed to fiddle with the formula a lot more than they are now. Most major companies nowadays have a 'signature style', that was formed during that period, even if their greatest successes weren't during that period. This period also killed the 'pure moege' as a genre, ending the majority genre of the previous half-decade (moege having dominated during that period due to the Da Capo series and Key's games). The rise of the charage, a demi-moege genre that was much wider in scope and more adaptable, occurred during this period, mostly unrecognized until after the fact. At the same time, nakige, which had previously been enslaved to the moege genre through Key and others like them, came to define itself as a new, standalone genre that wasn't necessarily dependent on moe stylization. Even Key itself moved beyond pure moe, though it didn't entirely abandon some elements of it (as the existence of Kud testifies). However, this age was already ending in 2009, as clearly-delineated genre norms began to form, and charage became the driver for the industry, taking us back, in spirit, to the age before that. By 2011, the ratio of truly creative works to derivative works was overwhelmingly in favor of the latter, in comparison to the previous decade. That isn't to say that the years since haven't produced some great works. That is patently untrue in my experience... but the fact remains that fewer and fewer writers are able or willing to look outside the 'genre boxes' for answers as to what to write. I sometimes refer to our current age as the Age of Stagnation, where there is an overwhelming industry pressure to stick to genre norms and those that break the mold are so exceptional they stand out more than they should. It is possible to create a charage kamige... but it is much easier to make a kamige out of a game that breaks genre boundaries, lol.