VN of the Month September 1993 - Youjuu Senki -A.D. 2048-

Youjuu Senki -A.D. 2048- is not really a masterpiece at all, but without strong competitors I find it entertaining enough to be called VN of the September 1993.

1. Nurse Yuu no Muma Sensen ナースゆうの夢魔戦線 [930904] Wendy Magazine 1 2
"Nurse Yuu no Mumasensen" is an adventure game with a rather cryptic story. The player controls a young nurse named Yuu, who finds herself near a secluded military hospital, unable to understand whether she is dreaming or not. She then begins to work at the hospital, becoming more and more intrigued by the events happening in it.
There is an English review.

2. Ooedo Tantei Kamiya Ukyou Vol. 1 大江戸探偵 神谷右京 Vol1 [930908] Altacia
Detective Kamiya Ukyo is asked for an investigation, but the client is killed with her head chopped off. There was Ukyo name in the will, so agency took up the case.
The series had its fan base, but game was postponed for a long time due to underdeveloped graphical technologies. Author of the script was an active detective at that time and game synopsis based on real events. Still, first two games had about 60% of fiction still involved to give the story more depth. And since the work was written by criminal expert, there is quite much uncommon terminology used. These first two works are still done in anime manner and for pc-98, but later works for Windows platform get much more serious design and reality feeling. First work is not polished enough to be considered a masterpiece, but second work is right in that zone.

3. Tinkle - Zenimusume てぃんくる [930909] Agumix 1
The great evil was prevented by the four legendary heroes, but the threat has awoken again. Elven heroine Narushi and her loyal pet set on a journey to get four crystals that would break the enemy's defense. Each crystal is hidden in a three-layer labyrinth.
There is a Polish review available with some machine translation.

4. Houma Hunter Lime Dai 04 Wa 宝魔ハンターライム 第04話 [930910] Silence 1
In this episode Lime and Mizuki work as waitresses in a local cafe in order to detect the presence of a BEM. After having located the monster they become unexpectedly attached to it, which makes it harder for them to recover the jewel.
Each episode is very individual. This time Mizuki plays the most important role while our heroes just observe the drama from the side.

5. Mouryou Senki Madara Daikongourin Hen 魍魎戦記MADARA 大金剛輪編 [930910] Kogado Studio 1 2 3 4
The game is based on the manga series Moryou Senki Madara. The story is set in a mythological era in Japan, and focuses on twin brothers, Madara and Kage-Ou ("Shadow King"), sons of the evil Emperor Miroku. While Kage-Ou follows in the footsteps of his father, Madara fights against him and for the good of mankind. The game begins as Madara is gravely wounded in his fight against Miroku, but is saved by a young warrior named Seishinja, who lives together with his sister Himika. Before Madara is cured, Seishinja has to fight demons himself, with the help of the legendary sword Kusanagi.
This is a small part of a big franchise of some five series of manga and supporting content. First you have to fight alone, then Madara awakens and main character shifts. Unless you have the game manual, you wont be able to know chakra (magic) combinations. This VN ending differs from original manga since the main character here is set to destroy the world and recreate it for himself and no happy ending is seen.

6. Night Shifter ナイトシフター [930910] Four-Nine 1
Once upon a time, there was a young boy who loved motorcycles. Riding through the night on his bike was what he enjoyed most - until one night he crashed into a car, and was taken to hospital. There, he wakes up to find out that he'll have to go through some injections and infusions, which scares him so much that he faints... and immediately finds himself mysterious transported to a bizarre magical realm, somewhat inspired by Alice in Wonderland, with well-dressed rabbits, smoking caterpillars, but also plenty of cute girls. It turns out that this Wonderland isn't that bad - but how hard will it be to conquer the hearts of its pretty inhabitants?..
Looks like this game imitated Classmates, but without time dimension and with much lower production values. Lawful and Chaotic personalities only influence some CG and speech. Choices that have to be done from time to time hardly influence anything at all. So there's hardly a plot, just exploration of Wonderland with ultimate aim to get out.

7. Viper-V8 Viper-V8 [930910] Sogna 1 2
The second entry in Sogna's long-running Viper franchise, Viper V-8 has the same format as its predecessor: three separate short stories with minimal interaction and animated sex scenes.
The three stories are:
Friday the 18th: Obviously, a parody on horror movies, telling the story of three young girls who were sexually assaulted by mysterious masked men when camping near a forest.
Demon's Night is set in medieval times and describes a battle of three young heroes against a vicious demon. One of them is killed in battle, while the other (a girl) is captured by the demon; the remaining warrior, a young man named Ryu, has to rescue his friend.
Alien Wars takes place in the future. A young space pilot named Sylvie is ambushed and captured by aliens who have nothing else in mind but to have sex with her...
There is an English review.

8. Ayumi-chan Monogatari あゆみちゃん物語 [930915] Alice Soft 1
The premise of Ayumi-chan Monogatari is rather simple: the protagonist, a young boy named Kouichi, is in love with the most beautiful girl in his school, Ayumi Kawai. One day she admits that she also loves him, and they begin a relationship.
Plot is virtually non-existant and the whole point is to try each intimate date something new to get new CG and eventually get 100% CG. Very few works had CG galleries accessible in game and I don't think any measured completeness of opened CG in percentage. And thanks to graphics and cute character design the game was really popular. The game was made in close partnership with the active bbs fans which is also an impressive model that no other company could pull out. It's an important game for the visual novel history, but apart of all the novelty I only see a nukige here.

9. Custom Mate カスタムメイト [930917] Cocktail Soft 1
A young man finds a mysterious box. Making sure no one is at home, he opens the box and finds a scroll with a magic incantation inside. He chants the magic spell - and immediately a cute female elf appears. She says she can create any girl the hero wants. But once the girl is created, he has to figure out how to win her good graces...
An easy seduction SIM which precedes a wave of SIMs in the second half of 1990s. Graphics is quite uneven.

10. Kachou Shima Kousaku: Super Business Adventure 課長 島 耕作 スーパービジネスアドベンチャー [930917] Yutaka 1 2
The game allows the player to play the role as a Japanese salaryman as he goes on his "employment adventure" in order to accomplish negotiations for business deals. Occasionally, the player will have to do stuff with his girlfriend and explore his office building in order to accomplish things from his employer.
Game was based on popular manga and it's very realistic - it deals with dirty corporations ethics, racism, pregnancy... so it was scraped for release in the West. Series are closely connected with the original, at times for the bad, at times for the good. For example, letters are presented as in the original with its complexity, but some of the choices player makes won't have effect at all since they weren't reflected in the original. So it might be a nice game to try unless it was japanese famicom only.

11. Youjuu Senki -A.D. 2048- 妖獣戦記 -A.D.2048- [930917] D.O. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
The apocalypse known as "The Third" occured as a result of mankind's tasting the deadly fruit of nuclear technology. The massive radiation released in the holocaust of world war mingled with the genetic fallout from biological weapons, creating horrific mutations that came to be called "Yoju". These beasts bred in the bodies of humans and multiplied, covering the blighted landscape and pushing humanity to the brink of extinction.
It is now the year 2048. As mankind's final gamble in the struggle against the Yoju, a squad of genetically engineered cyborgs was created - the Anti Strangebeast Special Police (A.S.S.P.) whose members possess combat ability far beyond that of normal humans. They have been programmed with the complete database of anti-Yoju strategies and tactics researched over years of war. These female biosoldiers have become humanity's last line of defense against total annihilation, and you have been chosen to command them.
There are English reviews.

12. Ah! an Ah! an [930922] Wendy Magazine
A collection of two short stories:
1) Face of Hakuhaku
2) Yukari laboratory
Both of stories have 2 and 3 branches and endings, respectively. Game was ment to be Vol.1 of the series, but never got continuation. Drawing won't be to everyone's liking. H events are the center of the game and those are animated. The stories are too short even considering branches.

13. Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor - Griffon Hen 機動警察パトレイバー グリフォン篇 [930930] Riverhill Soft inc. 1 2 3 4
Digital Comic Patlabor is based on the anime series Patlabor. In the near future, officers of Tokyo Metropolitan Police pilot giant robots called "Labors" to combat criminals. Like most installments of the anime and manga, the game focuses on characters from Special Vehicle Section 2, Division 2, and the playable character is Noa Izumi. More specifically, the game follows the so-called "TV timeline", involving the Labor Griffon.
There are English reviews.


14. Shangrlia 2 SHANGRLIA2 [930930] Elf 1 2 3
For a while peace was reigning in the magical Kingdom of Hyunckel. However, dark forces have emerged again. Commanding hellish creatures, they managed to capture the top female generals of the Hyunckel army, sealing them in special devices resembling eggs. Only three generals remained free, and they must liberate their companions and re-capture the land.
There's little to be said. You either played prequel and don't need review or not played prequel, then it's better to start with that. The complexity of rules increased with sequel significantly.

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