Leaderboard

There aren't masterpieces this month. My personal favorite is San Shimai due to it being my first visual novel, but I rate DIES IRAE even higher and nominate it for VN of the Month. 1. Exciting Milk Dai 1 Wa エキサイティングみるく第１話 [960201] Silence 22nd century. Humanity is prospering through the expansion of the Earth's development, but natural destruction has also become extreme. One day Amon, a scientist who opposed the destruction of nature, decided to return to the Earth 150 years earlier via time machine and protect nature. Police opposed that as it could bring unknown changes and followed Amon. In the 20th century school girl Kurumi heard from a classmate that an aircraft landed in the forest and went alone to the forest out of curiosity. Milk is a police officer from future who landed in the forest colliding with Kurumi. As a result of the collision Kurumi body was seriously hurt and her soul was placed into Milk body until full recovery. Now Kurumi transforms to Milk at wilk and back by wearing glasses. Will she find Amon? Game's fully animated as other Silence works. But it's even shorter than previous animated games barely exceeding 10 minutes time. There's just one fighting scene and it all ends with Amon coming to Kurumi class as transfer student. Looking forward to part 2. 2. Angel Crysis エンジェルクライシス [960209] ZyX 1 You're part of an all female crew on a ship exploring some planet and the crew picks up a mysterious cargo crate from an underwater ruin. There's an English review that tells us all that we need to know about this borderline work. And there was exactly a tentacle monster in the crate... 3. Guernica ゲルニカ [960209] Backspin 1 2 3 Long time ago, human passions caused the appearance of a monster tribe that has since become unwelcome in the human society. Years of bitter antagonism and violence followed as humans settled in the land of Galesnia. A thousand years later, a simple warrior named Grog enters a forest inhabited by monsters, and becomes gradually involved in a struggle that puts him in the forefront of the defense of Galesnia. Fish shop holder to the rescue of the world! The guy was sleeping peacefully when at night the "Apostle of Salvation" child appeared before him saying that the barrier started to weaken and will be destroyed in 13 days and only Grog can prevent that! Quite a simple rpg with only 13 lvls and basic stats. You can hold up to 10 recovery items and you get one every time you visit an inn or hitting a bed. Game is linear. So it's not the brightest species of RPG breed. 4. Persona ~Ingyaku no Kamen~ ペルソナ ～淫虐の仮面～ [960209] Sorciere 1 A series of gruesome murders shocks Japan. Young women are kidnapped, tortured, and killed under mysterious circumstances... The protagonist wakes up in what looks like a hospital, but is in fact a special psychiatric facility on a space station. The hero doesn't remember anything, not even his name. Three young women - Shelly, Elisa, and Aoka - will help him to find his memory, and he will gradually realize who he is and what is his mission. You need to regain your memory within 38 hours or the space station explodes. What's the best way to regain memories? I guess Japanese have their unique opinion on that. There are parameters of the hero and depending on numbers one of five protagonist personalities show up. Yes, he has a deep personality disorder and can be anything from a good guy to a sadist. Time also ticking so it's a nice rush factor. There are basically just three rooms on the spaceship. So it's an original system and is not necessarily an eroge if you play out as a good guy and aim for the happy ending that does not even have a H-scene. 5. Valentine Kiss: Birthdays 2 バレンタインキッス ～バースデイズ２～ [960209] Silky's 1 Valentine Kiss is a dating simulation game, very similar to Birthdays, only instead of "conquering" a girl as a birthday present, the goal here is to "score" on Valentine's Day Second installation of a difficult sim that's memorable to me mostly by the fact that it's Silky's game and not a full-scale eroge. UI is still charming but it came from the prequel with minor changes. Quite few things changed actually and some even degenerated like the number of heroines dropped from 8 to 4. Main difference though is that while prequel was just hard everyday work to earn love, this work has events in ADV mode and all your hard work is useless unless you flag events properly. Still the freshness is lost since it has been two years since the prequel and not much changed. 6. DIES IRAE DIES IRAE [960215] Family Soft 1 2 Heroines Kim and her side partners Kris and Lee are professional detectives and they have very opposite personalities. Kim on one hand is very cheerful and lively all the time, Kris is very serious and quiet. They are investigating a murder case that ends up being a much bigger issue, revolving gang members, the mafia and later on some sci-fi elements. There's a nice English review that sheds light on this curious game. 7. Kanako 香奈子 [960223] Red Zone 1 Kanako is a young woman who has just graduated from college and is in a desperate need of a job. Finally, she is invited to a job interview in a large and successful company. However, the boss seems to ask too many personal questions and generally looks at Kanako in a weird way. After she has been introduced to her duties at the new place, Kanako decides to get to know the employees better, and in process learns their most intimate secrets... Red Zone inevitably means ero-centered work. But graphics are nice and win version is fully voiced, even the thoughts of the heroine - that was unexpected and captivating. Her thoughts is the most funny part in the game as she comments emotionally on many occasions. 8. Magical Girl Pretty Sammy Kouhen 魔法少女プリティサミー 後編 [960223] AIC Spirits Game includes two remaining episodes: Episode 3. Friends Episode 4. Leave it to Sammy! A direct continuation of the first part, but not hookable 9. Shadowrun シャドウラン [960223] Compile Co., Ltd. 1 2 3 4 5 6 It is twenty-first century, and the humanity faces a difficult period that follows devastating wars and other disasters. Magic and technology co-exist, supernatural powers, mythical creatures, ghosts, cyberspace, where hackers meet and fight each other, street deckers which can be hired to do the dirty work, anarchy and struggle between mighty and corrupt corporations - this is the world of Shadowrun. Unlike the two other Shadowrun games which are set in Seattle, according to tradition, Shadowrun for Sega CD is set in the futuristic city of Neo Tokyo. The player controls a party of characters with different backgrounds: the street samurai Rikudo, the shaman girl Mao, the decker (a hired mercenary) D-Head (who also happens to be an elf), and Shiun, a former member of a mighty corporation. Their first assignment is to hunt down a ghostly warrior who has been disturbing a segment of the city for quite some time. As the player begins their investigation they plunge deeper into the dark world of intrigues and find themselves fighting on different fronts. There are several great English reviews and there even might be a fan English translation according to some materials. 10. Escape! エスケイプ! [960229] May-Be Soft 1 In Escape, the player assumes the role of an ordinary teenager named Root. He is returning from a long journey, and just beyond the mountain, he can see his house. But fate had other plans for the boy: one step on the wrong stone, and Root falls through a dark pit into the underground world. Looks like it won't be simple for him to find the way home, because this world is populated by girls, each one of which wants something from him... I've only seen Windows version and it's very simplified and plays like a normal visual novel with only occasionally choosing locations on the map. Characters are nice, but the story lacks excitement and all the time is spent underground. A fine game, but far from masterpiece level. 11. Kara no Naka no Kotori 殻の中の小鳥 [960229] Black Package 1 Foster, formerly a trainer of high-class prostitutes for a secret political group that used these girls to exert power over politicians, has has long been out of the game, as he and his cohorts were busted years back. However, Foster couldn't help himself and soon returned to his old profession. He began training new maidens, though this time with a distinctly evil bent, drawing the recruits into a sordid ring of discipline and bondage. Maid slave training SIM. Main difference is that training is done in the form of a card game in an attempt to simplify SIM part. 12. San Shimai 三姉妹 [960229] JAST 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 The one that started it all! I was just a boy when my father threw himself under the tracks of an oncoming train on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo. He had been the president of a powerful trading company, but had been under siege by an enemy in a power struggle that I didn't understand at the time. With my father gone, it fell upon my mother to lead the family and try to pay off Father's debts. She wasn't up to the task, and was buried next to my father less than a year later. My older brother Eiichi and I were separated, then, passed around the family like unwanted guests. We had lost everything. Last summer Eiichi appeared again on my doorstep. He had prospered in the years since I'd seen him, and had built a successful trading company. "Koichi," he said to me, "I found out who was responsible for our father's death: the current head of father's old company, Shoji Okamura." When he asked me, "Will you help me avenge mother and father?" I agreed immediately. So I became his hatchet man. My job was to approach the Okamura family, especially the three Okamura sisters -- sexy, grown-up Yuki, short-tempered but sensitive Emi and the innocent Risa -- and gather information on the Okamuras for my brother. After six months, I had gotten to where I was eating dinner at their house regularly. This allowed me to bug Shoji's office take documents out of his trash, and copy files off his computer. I reported everything to my brother faithfully. I was never sure if the information I was providing was doing any good, but gradually, it became apparent that Shoji Okamura's business was failing. He grew more and more desperate, and one day he disappeared completely. The happiness of the Okamura family, who had taken so much from us, had been stolen piece by piece. My brother swore he wouldn't stop until Shoji Okamura was driven to the point of taking his own life, even if it meant pushing the Three Sisters into lives of prostitution and worse. The only problem is, I had fallen in love with those same three sisters... Game has many English reviews

There are no masterpieces this month. I would not like to nominate bakage a winner and I have a bad aftertaste from Start Trap and Shizuku, so VN of January 1996 is Ryuuki Denshou Dragoon 1. Bind ~Kinbaku Jinmon Densetsu~ Bind ～緊縛尋問伝説～ [960112] Outou Shobou In Side 1 The content of the game can be easily deduced from its title ("Kinbaku Jinmon Densetsu" means the legend of bondage interrogation). The game contains three "episodes", unrelated to each other story-wise. The first one is set in medieval times and tells about the adventures of two female treasure hunters in an ancient tomb; the second begins with two young girls being kidnapped by a mysterious secret society; the third deals with three school girls being assaulted by a thief. Ero-centered omnibus collection with bondage as theme. 2. Yaku ~Yuujou Dangi~ 厄 ～友情談疑～ [960113] Idea Factory Co., Ltd. 1 2 3 Five adults return to the elementary school they attended as children only to find that it has been closed up. They trespass into the closed-down building in order to dig up a time capsule they had buried at its courtyard. However, this turns out to be a mistake as bizarre monsters are waiting inside. There are five scenarios available, each one telling a different character's story, but only the protagonist's story is initially available. It's actually close to a "sound novel", but it was released for ps1 so the volume is bigger than usual. There are couple European languages articles that show the glimpse of this weird weird horror game. 3. Reijuu - Twin Road 麗獣 ツインロード [960119] Apple Pie 1 2 The town of Jester is located near a spring, which is used both by humans from the town and the beast people from their forest village. For years, the two races co-existed in peace. But one day, somebody sets the Jester tavern on fire. The authorities arrest a young beast girl who happened to be in the town at that time. Outraged by the injustice, a young orphan boy named Kein, who was raised by Tyrone, one of the town knights, convinces him to help the girl escape. But that act draws the ire of the town authorities, and the heroes realize that they have to flee... Some genre experiment here since it's more tactical than usual SRPG, but also definitely not a full strategy or rpg. 4. Snow Memory スノーメモリー [960123] Birdy Soft Four girls pass the casting to work in a Western mansion. You choose one of the girls and watch the forecoming events from her point of view. We know it well that even at the time of Cal 3 the staff of Birdy Soft left the company and the director had to hastily finish it himself. And Snow Memory comes years after that as an attempt to play on the brand name. Game's more than average with lots of fanservice and unnatural looking art. 5. Ryuuki Denshou Dragoon 竜機伝承 －ドラグーン－ [960126] KSS Inc. 1 Gods created humans in a paradise-like world. But as time passed they started to hate each other and fight among themselves. Gods sent a blue start that turned into a blue dragon on the ground. For three days and nights the dragon was burning out everything with a cleansing fire. As the flames disappeared, a huge lake was born. Dragon entered the lake with the words "I shall raise again when foolish struggle arises anew". However, as time passed, this dreadful event erased little by little from human memory. North-East frontier, Northon. Young soldier Cedy meets a mysterious girl Miu and decides to help her get to her hometown on the other side of the world. At the same time stripping the barriers of time Gods make their move again... It's a SRPG with only event battles. First part is particularly difficult with the constant demand of restoration magic. Dangerous events happen one by one and we constantly need to escape so pace is good. In the second part the party gets scattered and our primary goal is to find Miu... but we kinda only find other party members and as the war with the empire breaks out Miu gets totally abandoned. Another inconsistency is that the empire villain minister after defeat jumps out with the cries "I've actually come from the future and I've half of my body mechanically modified!" and it was a pure magic fantasy world this far. Another irritating aspect is the inventory menu as first it's needed to pick an item from the full list of garments and then try to apply it to a character only to find out that it won't suit him. So it's a good game with a nice epic story, but some elements of it leave a sour aftertaste. 6. Shizuku 雫 [960126] Leaf 1 2 3 4 When one of his classmates suddenly goes mad in the middle of the class, the protagonists uncle, one of the teachers in the school asks him to investigate this matter after school. He starts the investigation with the help of one of the girls from his class, an investigation that will lead them to many horrors... With my review there are three English reviews. 7. Star Trap スタートラップ [960126] Fairy Dust 1 A space ship was sent to the planet Neptune, to investigate strange disturbances spotted on the planet's surface. Some time later, the nearest space station picked up a SOS signal from the ship. An agent named Takuya, in command of an elite team of female fighters, is sent to Neptune. But their ship crashes, and Takuya must fight for his life and the lives of the girls, which are threatened by Neptune's fearsome monsters. Alternative version of ancient Cream Lemon - Start Trap back in 1986. Game's short hardly reaching 2 hours. There are two routes, but routes are mainly made to distinguish between H events. The number of endings is 5, there is an ending for each of two girls and some neutral ones. So there's hardly a story, but at least it has the craziness of 80s games and beautiful CG. 8. Time Stripper Mako-chan タイムストリッパー真子ちゃん [960126] Foster 1 2 3 4 5 6 You play the character Shinji Nakayama a high school student who has a bad reputation of cheating on his girlfriend, Michiyo Sakagami. The story starts when your "habit" is eventually found out (again) by your girlfriend, of which you start to fight and end up breaking up. In the middle of your 'sobbing', a girl pops up out of nowhere in your room. It appears she's from the future, with personal reasons that has to do with your present love-life situation. After that, the story is in your hands... Game is localized and has many English reviews. 9. Yume no Sei 夢の精 [960126] 13cm 1 A collection of three stories. 1.『ONE』is about main character sneaking into the dressing room of cat ear idols. 2.『ミンキーキャット』is an abduction story. 3.『ミッションエイジ』is an RPG game to infiltrate enemy hideout and rescue a girl Stories differ in styles greatly, but are all short erotic stories that are possible to click through in just 10 minutes. 10. Ningyo -Tsutako- 人魚－蘿子－ [96] Alicesoft A boy and a girl run away with a mysterious stone and hide in a cave. But pursuers are nearby already. Game was shipped only for subscription fans and thus is obscure. PC-98 version is not hookable, so I won't be presenting the synopsis. Game is all HCG fest after first couple normal CG.