VN of the Month December 1997 - Rougetsu Toshi

1. Ginga Ojou-sama Densetsu Yuna 3: Lightning Angel 銀河お嬢様伝説ユナ3 LIGHTNING ANGEL [971204] Hudson Soft 1 2 3

The Machine Empress plants a bomb that while surely destroy the Earth. Its up to Yuna and gang to stop her and bring peace to the earth. But soon they will find out theres more to the Machine Empress and her army than her motives of destroying Earth....

There's an English good walkthrough for this game and very fine Spanish review, so there's enough information.

2. Hop Step Idol☆ Hop Step あいどる☆ [971204] Media Entertainment

As a producer at a youth entertainment company you have to go out and scout out guys to become a new idol group.

You have two years to raise a super idol.

Idol otome game. That's enough for me to stop digging.

3. Isle Mystique あいるみすてぃ～く [971205] Azurokusu

Hero became an owner of the island in the vicinity of Okinawa. There was a famous statue of dragon there. But one day it was revealed that the standing statue was a fake. Now it's needed to find the real one sold by pieced around the island.

Game is kind of nanpa and after H event you can check if the girl had the real part of the dragon. There are several locations and three times of the day - by being in the right place in the right time you trigger events. Its "unique character system" is just a gauge during H-event that reacts to your actions - this is actually a very difficult part. Systems are very clunky and graphics is bad.

4. Sanshoku Korokke さんしょくコロッケ [971205] Misty

A collection of three stories:

1. 豪漢生徒会

2. 遠山館乱れ桜

3. 小春夢日和

Ero-centered short stories 10 minutes each.

5. Sonemi ~Houfuku no Shou~ 嫉 ～報復の章～ [971205] Deep Zone

Famous private school. Heroine Mai is ordered to clean the principal's office after school together with a boy as a penalty for bad English grades. Mai has no intention to participate in cleaning, but she enjoys teasing her partner.

Kinetic nukige. The number of forced H events is high. Quite a short one too.

6. Waru!! ~Itazura~ わるっ!! ～悪戯～ [971205] Interheart 1

The story behind Waru is that one day, while taking a train, you, Honda, met a girl named Amano. On the crowded train, she lifted up her cloth on her own initiative and allows you to touch her breast. At first, you are surprised by her action. However, you soon started to enjoy the "wicked play" as Amano unlocks the long forgotten "wicked play" inside you. Once again, you start to haunt lonely girls on the train as your target of the "wicked play."

There is an English review.

7. Yuki Furu Kisetsu e ~Omoi, Anata ni~ 雪降る季節へ ～想い、あなたに～ [971205] Blue Bell

Shinichiro Sawaki is a friendly and sincere boy. All the girls in school think about him this way, but noone made a move to know him better.

Transfer student Naomi Sakura comes to such class and sits next to hero. Naomi has great appearance, excellent grades and is good in sports, so she's very popular with boys. She gets familiar with the hero and that makes other girls in the class think of him in romance sense. Who will he date this winter?

Dating-SIM. One month is the period. You go around school each day and meet six girls. Difficulty is low and it takes just 30 minutes to get to each girl's ending. Scenario lacks excitement and girls aren't particularly charming. Some girl sprites differ drastically from their CG. Even if you don't like any girls, there is no bad end - you get a child from a childhood friend!

8. Suuhaisha ~Toraware no Canaria~ 崇拝者 ～囚われのカナリア～ [971210] K-JOYNT

Idol girl Makihara Karin brings her passionate voice to those who have faith in her. She sings in duet with a dreamy girl Rin Misugi. Entertainment world is full of darkness and craziness. Fans are like worshipers who dye their hearts in darkness for their goddesses to shine brightly. Melody flows from these fallen girls like a sad hymn in preparation for the sacrifice.

Little is known for this H-titled doujin work, to be hones.

9. Maria: Kimitachi ga Umareta Wake マリア 君たちが生まれた理由 [971211] Break 1 2

In this game, you play as a young psychiatrist named Takano. One day a new patient is brought into the hospital you work in - Maria, a young woman who has attempted suicide. She suffers from amnesia, and you try to find out more about her, visiting her and talking to her. Before long you discover that Maria has schizophrenia - a split personality. Her "other self" appears to be evil and threatens to take over her. The fight for Maria's sanity begins.

The game plays like an interactive novel or movie: you read text and from time to time make a choice from two or more available ones. Instead of the standard 2D animé-style graphics the game utilizes semi-realistic CG pre-rendered backgrounds and characters. There are also CG animated movies in the game.

The atmosphere of the game is rather heavy, but characters are played out well, and there is a merit in suspense.

10. True Love Story ~Remember My Heart~ トゥルー・ラブストーリー〜Remember My Heart〜 [971211] ASCII Corporation

A fandisc for the original game that features new heroines.

I have a habit to ignore fandiscs.

11. Koi Tenshi 乞天使 [971212] Pinky Soft

"Angel festival" is held at Christmas time in a certain Catholic school ... suddenly girl students become lascivious at the school festival and forget about that afterwards. Hero gets to the be in the mids of these events.

Game's on a horrible macromedia engine. It just kept repeating the first day over and over.

12. Muku 2 無垢 弐 [971212] Nikukyuu 1 2

You are rich beyond imagination. Over tens and hundreds of countries' fashion design companies are in your control. Money, power, everything are yours. However, there still seems to be something missing in your life. One day, you happened to visit one of yours clothe store and met a girl of your taste. Since then, she becomes your maid in your mansion when she falls in the scheme you have setup. Her father's jewelry store bankrupted (setup by you) and you lend her father a huge sum of money in return for her work in the mansion to payback the money. From this date, you will teach her and train her to be a "good" maid.

There are two English reviews.

13. Shishunki ~And I Love Her~ 思春記 ～and I love her～ [971212] Mint

Hero entered urban art vocational school to become a painter. He is given a task to draw "Adolescence", but he has no ideas about it. His classmate advised him to draw "love", but to draw love hero needs first to know love, so goes looking for girls.

ADV with elements of SIM as there are parameters that change according to choices. There are four young girls to capture. I mean really young.

14. Atlach-Nacha [971218] Alice Soft 1 2 3 4

A long time ago, there lived a jorougumo named Hatsune who gathered enough celestial energy that she was able to take a human form.

One day, a mysterious monk came to Hatsune's nest and nearly annihilated her for taking a villager's life. Severely wounded, Hatsune went into hiding. To heal her wounds, she decided to make Yaesaka High School her new nest and absorb energy from the students attending there. Hatsune absorbs energy by eating the flesh of (mostly male) students or through having sexual intercourse with them (preferably with females).

Game has three English reviews. I used to think of it as a big important game... till tried it myself. There's no story in the game and there's even no good ending. The only aim is see all CG and for that it's needed to play H sequences for about 10 times.

15. Girl Doll Toy ~Tamashii o Kudasai~ Girl Doll Toy ～魂をください～ [971218] Uran

Near future. Hero works in a laboratory developing human-like androids. He picks up an android that was fated to be disposed, upgraded her and named her Erika. At some point he starts to feel romantic emotions for her...

Raising SIM/ADV. The good part is that it's not just fuwa-fuwa - the second part is quite severe as the hero has to oppose the laboratory. Quite an ordinary android raising work, but with good video and voicing.

16. Ningen Gari 人間狩り [971218] Alice Soft 1

Five girls are trapped on a small island with four hunters.

The hunters will have to search for the girls and stop the other hunters from getting to them first by laying traps or fighting them directly.

There is an English review.

17. Universal Nuts ユニバーサルナッツ [971218] Lay-Up 1

Universal Nuts is a sci-fi visual novel featuring two protagonists, Yui and Ai, which get involved in an incident onboard a space station. As the story progresses, the mystery of events that have occurred start to unfold. The game plays in a typical visual novel style by reading through on-screen text and dialogues to progress the story. Character icons are present during dialogues beside the character art over the background image, and the game features both animated cut-scenes and voice-acting.

There is a ghost ship in the open space sending out S.O.S. signals. But when Ai and Yui approach it, all the crew is absent even though all signs of life are present, even the lighted cigarette in the ash tray. A bad scenario with good production values and luxurious voice cast. Don't be surprised as anything can happen any moment here like in the weirdest bakage. There are too many inconsistencies too like meteorites catching fire in space or girl in a towel with a portrait in the suit. Scenario is multi-ending one, but with unskippable text very few would have the will to do it again. There are six "good" endings, but each time there is a a phrase following "Are you sure this is the best end?". And all of six endings have it. And there are lots of bad endings too. So there is no reward for looking for good endings, only irritation.

18. Zero 零式 [971218] Alice Soft 1

In order to find their father who has gone missing, the twins Akane and Naomi participate in 'Chariot Fest', a tournament in which people try and amass the most points by destroying robots in an underground maze.

There is an English review for this game.

19. Aitai Toki ni Kimi wa Inai 逢いたい時に君はいない [971219] Bell-Da

The hero who lives with his father and a young sister Serica. He falls in love with female teacher. And recently a lolicon started to pursue his younger sister.

There are three heroines each with her own ending. Number of CG is good - about 120 pieces. Story is quite nice as both developments happen side by side. Younger sister is charming and does not have a H event.

20. Enema えねま [971219] Manbou Goya

School girl Ezaki Ema meets a space police boy Nema who comes to the Earth to fight parasites laying eggs at the stomach. Together they purify stomachs of school girls and fight parasites with a gravitational vibrator.
This is a sad romantic story... oh, wait, it's not - it's a story about enema! There's a great variety of toilet situations in game. And there's also some parody. And now we know the root of enema word.

21. Heart Work Symphony of Destruction Heart Work Symphony of Destruction [971219] Active 1 2 3 4 5

Yuu Asakura was a mild mannered university student until he found a mysterious duffel bag with a gun and orders for an assassination. He was terrified at first, but when he held the smooth metal of the pistol in his hand, he started to become someone else. Capable of anything, Yuu takes the assassination job and enters a world of nonstop sex, blood and guns. When he returns to school with his newfound abilities, he finds it no trouble at all to get any girl he wants. The syndicate and the police want a piece of the new guy, but the one Yuu has to worry about is the gun's original owner.

Game is localized and has English reviews.

22. Jain Juushinden Jevald 邪淫獣神伝ＪＥＶＡＬＤ [971219] Berserker

While returning home from his crappy job, our guy found a girl at the end of a bolt of lightning. It seems she has chased a mad scientist from her planet to earth. She needs his help to stop the mad scientist from collecting earth female energy. How does he do that? Well, a little mad scientist drug does wonders.

Graphics are good... but that's the only good thing in the game. Game's engine is very weird. Not possible to skip anything and it just froze on me in 12 minutes. And according to other people, not just for me - engine tends to freeze very often. There are multiple windows and some tend to disappear or get inactive. Savegame can not be summoned when you need it.

23. Kuroi Shoudou 黒い衝動 [971219] Violate 1

A collection of three short stories: "The Worst Day" in which the protagonist assaults a woman at a video store, "Your Slave" in which they harass a servant, and "Red Mark" in which they tutor a student in an indecent fashion.

There is an English review.

24. Teito Kitan ~Doushi Tantei no Jiken Memo~ 帝都奇譚 〜道士探偵の事件メモ〜 [971219] Space Project 1

Taisho era. A series of kidnappings of young girls have happened in the capital with the aim of selling into sexual slavery. A special detective trained in fighting is sent to investigate the case.

Strategic card battles. Scenario is quite simple, but Taisho era spirit depicted well. CG and voicing are mediocre. Quite an obscure game. There is an English review.

25. Zenyasai 前夜祭 [971219] Violate

A week before the school festival. Soichiro Kiriharais in the festival executive committee. There are five girls around the hero, each with their own troubles. Will his curiosity, kindness and persistence make them open up to him?

ADV where we raise/lower favorability according to the answers given. If you miss even one event to raise favorability, you won't get girl's ending.

26. Ai Doll 哀・奴隷（あい・どーる） [971225] Bags

Hero drove a car and got into an accident. He regained consciousness in girls monastery. Some strange punishment techniques are practiced there.

There is a decadent atmosphere and there are bad endings. The main heroine is sweet and positive against all the odds. Game does have reviews, but from what I saw the plot is the same as in hentai amine with the same title.

27. Mink Daisakusen ミンク大作戦 [971225] Mink

A god brought three heroes to the other world. Will you be able to gather the party, rescue friends and return to the original world?

An RPG. From the start we get to choose one of three heroes from Mink games that have different skills. At the next part we need to switch the choice for one of the leftover heroes, so better save one with the long range attacks for later. There are battles and levels ups. Game boasts of using 3D animation both for small items movement and H scenes occasionally.

28. Rougetsu Toshi 朧月都市 [971226] Softhouse Bonbee Bonbon 1

Tokyo at the end of the century got completely blocked from the outside world due to transformation of Kanto plains and emergence of black fog that blocks radio waves. The raise of shady organizations and appearance of strange dreams make people uneasy. Hero acquires mysterious power to oppose those threats.

There are only fake choices. The settings seems to come from the mail game with the same name. Picture quality is good, but not in the cute way. The "power" of the hero is not explained and even though it should be presented in multiple forms, he only uses it as a gun. The H events are sudden and spontaneous. The characters lack the persuasive power. So it's not a bad story, but not really a deep one. I consider it a masterpiece and prepared a full review.