VN of the Month March 2000 - Eve Zero

1. Harlem Blade II ~Dark Angel~ ハーレムブレイドII～Dark Angel～ [000303] Giga
Our guy left his childhood girl and went to war against a monster after his father got killed in it. When he came back a year later, he was just in time to see his childhood girl taken away by the monster's army. He joined the resistance and started to find her. Within 30 days, he can help girls who will join him in the fight.

Picture becomes anime'ish and flow is rather comic. Game balance has improved. Overall the story is solid and gameplay is enjoyable. It's well worth a masterpiece title for those who appreciate RPG.

2. Rendezvous Rendezvous ～ランデブー～ [000303] Melody
Bar "Rendezvous" quietly waits for visitors in the corner of the city. People from different circles spend time here. Tonight romance awaits you...

Well, this is an antology and needs to be blocked by my rules. But these are 19 scenarios that all happen in the same bar. It can be said that the bar is the main character here, so it does not really feel like all kind of weird stories gathered together. What stands out in this game is a shic atmosphere of jazz and neat graphics. Stories vary greatly and it's only sad that the length of each story is not too long. All character are adults, of course. So a nice work for a change of pace.

3. Hikari o... 光を… [000310] LiLiM 1
The story takes place in a common town. Your parents disappeared long time ago leaving you and your half sister. You go blind after a car accident because of your little sister. Doc says some day after some special event (hint) you will regain your sight, maybe. So there you live your miserable life not being able to see all the cute girls around you. Until you regain your sight, you predict the appereance of the girls they have now with your memories.

There's an English review of it.

4. Into Your World [000310] Mermaid
Our guy got a no name game in the mail. When he played it, he end up in a mansion where 3 maids(big, middle, small) work for him. Now, waking up in the morning by his real world childhood girl, he attend class and can chase her or another school girl. Back home after school, he plays his maid game. If he manage to win a maid, she will be with him one way or another.

Story is really bad in this game. There's nothing to do in the main route in-between stand-alone events. There are girls in both worlds, but the capture is done in fictional world while real world is a chore that needs to be played just because maid route won't flag without it. This is just a mediocre quality work that's not really impressive enough to talk about.

5. Mahoutsukai no Deshi 魔法使いの♀弟子 [000310] Deeps
Cute magician apprentice Lefuur commonly called as Fu Fu is the main heroine of the game. She is in love with her mentor wizard Klimt and will go any lengths to fulfill his difficult requests. 

This is a full scale rpg with exploration, items, battles, parameters and magic constructor system to mix different magic. There are 30 quests to do and each quest is basically an independent scenario. Battle system and especially magic construction were too confusing for me.

6. Utagoe 2 ~Dance Mix~ 淫声2 ～DANCE MIX～ [000310] Succubus
Main character is a genius guitarist and producer. His task now is to train a four girl unit "BLMAX" and win the Grand Prix a competition held in three months time. As of now they don't sell at all, but it's a private request from his colleague Risa, and hero's indebted to her too much to refuse. 

For those who remember a prequel, that was pretty much a nukige SIM. Here things are even worse. Now it's a baka nukige. Here performance is one big H scene as well. Just leaving it here, because the cover and the synopsis look innocent enough, but the reality is very different.

7. Virgin Snow [000310] Essence
It's a cold winder day. Suddenly a warm feeling is born inside me. It gently melts the frozen heart. It's a soft warmth like the sun in winter. It was that one encounter that gave me warmth.

A generic AVG. System is bad (like only 4 save slots) and tempo is bad and only gets worse further on. Text and scenario are bad. There are only four locations to go. One playthrough is over in an hour, so there's just not enough development.

8. Aitakute... ~Your Smiles in My Heart~ あいたくて… 〜your smiles in my heart〜 [000316] Konami
You're in tenth grade, your parents are out of the country for a year, and your new private school has affairs of the heart as a major elective. If that isn't reason enough to get chummy with the opposite sex, you're also a teenage male, and your father has decided that he'll find you a "really nice" girlfriend if you can't do it yourself. Throw in the fact that the only person you know at this new school is a Casanova who turned down a top-ten prep school because it wasn't coed, and one has the ingredients for a good old-fashioned romance sim.
As Ichinose Sinya, the player examines a variety of sloe-eyed high school girls through his daily interactions with them in the school environment. Once their characters, dispositions, and interest (or lack thereof) in the player become more clear through their own statements and interactive events, the pursuit phase begins.
The first goal -- one that is traditionally laid out as the be-all and the end-all in romance sims -- is to make yourself agreeable to the girl and eventually ask her out on a date. The tedious details of daily life can be taken care of selecting "Everyday Goals" in the auto-play configuration. Personality parameters can be adjusted either to the player's tastes or some chosen girl's preferences. For the more important things, manual play mode will allow the player to arrange the hot date by phoning to ask a girl out, reserving concert tickets, and buying presents. The player can also stake out a nice romantic spot or find a part-time job to pay for all this extravagance.

Well, description pretty much contains review in itself. A dating SIM that tries to invent something new like nicknames or long dates.

9. Natsuiro Kenjutsu Komachi 夏色剣術小町 [000316] GungHo Works
Natsuiro Kenjutsi Komachi is about a school tournament and the player takes the role of Akira, the captain of the athletic team of the Katsuragi Hall High School. 
Natsuiro Kenjutsi Komachi is the typical dating simulation game in which the player's character will encounter different kind of girls to date. During the game the player's character can also participate in different kind of activities (sports, studying, etc) to improve his stats and have more chances to date the girls. The game uses a first person perspective in the adventure part and third person in the activities part. 

It's mostly a comedy work. Kendo actually takes a good half of the time and girls have to make with the rest. There are some 5 kendo matches. Quite a typical dating SIM otherwise.

10. Animal Magnetism ~Pochi no Daisuki~ あにまる・まぐねてぃずむ～ぽちのだいすき～ [000317] Gainax 1
Pochi is left alone by her owner. How will she cope with her newfound desperation?

Basically it's reinventing Battle Skin Panic. Same card battles plus introducing animal appeal. I've lost faith in Gainax as game maker a long time ago, it always ends up in minimal story and maximal gameplay.

11. Elise Elise ～エリーゼ～ [000317] Airyu
Our guy is a columnist that write about people's relationship base on their sign, blood type and other stuff. It's funny giving love advice when he doesn't even have a girlfriend. He has 4 prospects, one of them being his old girlfriend that left him without notice. Can he find a lasting girlfriend before Christmas eve in less than a month?

A normal galge with a twist in form of blood type and horoscope. There is also "gears" system which calls to listen to the girl and make suitable for her actions during H scene, otherwise scene ends abruptly. Each girl has a different psychological problem that you need to cure. There are only four heroines and game is short.

12. Kimon Youitan 鬼門妖異譚 [000317] Cherry Soft
The hero was living a normal school life, but recently some strance incident has happened around it. The hero has the blood of ancient demon flowing and thus he is  chosen to stop the resurrection of "Kidon" that threatens Tokyo. Will you fight to destroy the threat or  become a demon yourself and destroy humankind? 

There are story (AVG part) and battle (SRPG part) sections. Battles use anime'ish figures and animation. The "double" realease improved the SRPG part, but it still is unsatisfactory as a serious RPG. Balance gets a bit off closer to the ending. There are two different rountes - human and orge (demon). Ogre one has some dark H-scenes in it. Graphics of the game are mostly beautiful, yet specific, but gameplay makes this game just a good game, not a great one.

13. V.G. Adventure V.G. Adventure [000317] Giga
A text-based adventure game featuring the V.G. waitresses. The player takes control of Tamao Mitsurugi as she attempts to locate the missing Yuka Takeuchi and foil Miranda's latest plot. Fights are executed in a rock-paper-scissors fashion. With each successful attack, energy is added to a super meter that appears under the fighter's lifebar. Once full, the fighter can unleash a powerfully (in most characters' cases) unblockable attack. While Tamao is the only playable character in the story mode, there is a CPU versus mode that allows the player to pick from any character in the game.

Game is very short and can be finished in 30 minutes. Basically all the choices are fake ones and there's just one storyline. The core of the game is battles than need to be won for the story to go on. And inevitably there's a H scene after each win, so the overall impression of the game is just multiple consequent H scenes. 

14. Yuki no Kanata ゆきのかなた [000317] Rune
Hero was adopted by Takamori family at the age of 15 and he has no memory of previous years. Now he returns there after two years of absence and finds a lot of sisters-in-law. He also meets a girl with magic and gets involved in affairs of a mysterious organization. What is the mystery about hero's past?

There are a lot of gaps in the story and the whole scenario holds on the fact that nothing about the mysteries gets explained. With each playthrough new path is opened. Hero is granted some powers, but he's afraid to used them because something bad may happen. Ending is not satisfactory as it hardly explains anything. It looks like one big imitation of Kizuato and MOON. It's generally a comedy. There are a lot of bad endings and a lot of insult scenes to  moe characters. So evaluation mostly depends on whether you can bear with the cryptic scenario or not.

15. Infinity [000323] KID
This is the first title completely created and produced by KID, origin of infinity series. The game features five scenarios, one for each main heroine. "Infinity Cure." features two new scenarios: 'Yuka Cure' and 'Cure Izumi'. All these scenarios are included in the game "Never7 -The End of Infinity-", with 'Yuka Cure' as an append story in the PC version.

So this game is the prototype of Never7 - The End of Infinity. It shared the plot and the loop structure with it. First release could not be completed due to a bug. Besides that the true route after 4 usual routes is totally anticlimactic and underdone. KID admitted that and was selling Infinity for a very low price instead focusing on correcting mistakes in Never7 - The End of Infinity.

16. 4m [000324] Kurumi
Our guy's high school friend asked him to help his sister. It seems that she lost all emotions after a car accident that killed her parents. He need to help her get back her happiness, anger, sadness and love. Can he do it?

Game is not exactly a nukige, so I'll let it slip. This is a very cheap low quality game. The core of the game is helping the girl to regain four emotions. The nice thing about the game is that it's possible to teach these emotions in any proportions, like it's possible to grow a girl who is angry all the time. Scenario is short, and the few sub-characters that exist are unattractive.

18. Puzzle de Maid パズルDEメイド [000324] Marimo
Main character is lots in a forest. He encounters three maids who claim that hero can't leave the forest till he passes through all their challenges

Basically just a tetris with modified rules with H adv events as reward.

19. Rebirth [000324] Pinpai 1
Main character is a seemingly ordinary university student who lives with his sister. But in fact he has only memory of recent events after he miraculously survived the car accident that took lives of his parents. He often sees a dream where an unknown woman "Chisa" calls him by an unfamiliar name. That woman strangely reminds him his sister.
One summer hero gets invited to work as assistant to professor villa together with other students. However, it's not the professor who greets him, but a mysterious woman... 
There is an English review.

20. Silk Do~Ro しるくど～ろ [000324] Saba
Princess Silk just reached adulthood. There's a legend that once per thousand years princess has to play a special game. If she looses the purity of her heart, then a demon will emerge and destroy the whole world. According to minister's calculation, this is exactly the year of the challenge. Princess Silk takes the road...

Mini games are only triggered when Silk uses magic. There are chapters, but each chapter is short, and there are sudden H events that avert quite much. There is no real aim or intrigue. There's no enemy. The ending lacks expressive force.

21. Synchro シンクロ [000324] Sheep
There are two stories linked by the same hero Azusa.

In first story Azusa sees the same dream every day - her junior is depressed by her disappeared friend. With the cooperation of psychiatrists, Azusa approaches the identity of the criminal .... 

In the second story the theater department starts to use the stage of underground auditorium. However, suddenly they get cut off the exit trapped underground. The voice of the woman who disappeared last year starts to resonate in the air and the figure of the first victim appears... 

A horror adventure. Every mistake leads to a bad end. And it's impossible to assume where each choice leads by the variants. The scenarios are too shallow, the reading itself becomes a chore. There are a lot of insult H scenes. It's hard to say what developers were trying to make. The ending lacks any satisfaction except for that it's finally over with.

22. Yuugen Gaisha London Star ~Koi no Double Click~ 有限会社ロンドン☆スター ～恋のだぶるくりっく～ [000324] Ivory

Our guy lives with his older sister. Since he doesn't have much to do while going to university, she found him a part time job at her best friend's company. It turns out there are 6 girls in that place, including his sister's best friend, the owner of that H game company(London Star). During two months work, he can chase a girl by helping her, if his personality matches the girl's. His personality is determined by some questions during game start, and affect by some in game choices. His older sister is one like none I have seen before in a H game. She plays the role usually a childhood girl would play, waking him up in the morning with real wrestling moves, especially if it is his turn to cook breakfast. Most unusual is that she is just there for support and can't be chased, unless you count the bad ending comfort part.

Period is two months and majority of days there's no events, so pace is not good. There are six heroines and if you totally fail there is a comfort ending with the imouto. Notably there is autoplay feature. In the prologue there are choices that build up hero's personality and the suitable girl is mostly decided by his personality. Girls are grown-up eroge games production specialists and it's refreshing for a galge. 

23. Dolls Front -Ningyou-tachi no Senjou- Dolls Front -人形達の戦場- [000330] Zombies Paradigm

Twelve countries are fighting with their robotized armies in this world. Hero defeats the queen of one such country and gets a powerful black armor machine and the girl who serves as a key to using that machine. Main character will need to use all his wits and skills to conquer the world.
A strategy with lots of insult scenes and not really appealing graphics. 

24. EVE Zero EVE ZERO [000330] C's Ware

"Eve Zero" is a prequel to the famous detective/mystery adventure Eve Burst Error.
You control once again the two main heroes of the series: the witty and womanizing private investigator Kojiroh Amagi, and the beautiful red-haired secret agent Marina Hojo. The events of the game take place shortly before those of "Eve Burst Error". Kojiroh is working at Katsuragi Detective Office together with his girlfriend Yayoi. Dr. Nishina, the head of a genetic research facility, hires Kojiroh to investigate the disappearance of his son Shin. At the same time, Marina receives an assignment from her boss Kono, which involves watching over a representative of an American company. As in all EVE games, the two stories appear unrelated in the beginning and are gradually linked together later in the game.
Ever wondered what was Marina's previous assignment, with whom did Kyoko Himuro work before, or what exactly happened to Genzaburo Katsuragi when he was still the chief of Katsuragi Detective Office? Cared to know more about the appealing protagonist, Kojiroh Amagi? "Eve Zero" gives the answers to those questions.

Damn, I'm already playing EVE:TFA and it looks like EVE Zero should be played before it since in the last days there are links to events of EVE Zero. Anyway, from what I've seen already in EVE Zero it's definitely a masterpiece. But my full review of it along with video playthrough is pending. I won't get to next year till cover everything in 2000, so "sometime soon".

25. Power Pro Kun Pocket 2 パワプロクンポケット2 [000330] Konami

The story moves to Power Pro Kun's professional team "Drill Moggers" unlike school team in the prequel. The stakes arise.

This gameboy series does not spark me with enthusiasm.

26. Meitantei Conan: Kigantou Hihou Densetsu 名探偵コナン 奇岩島秘宝伝 [000331] Banpresto

In this game you must play as Conan, Sonoko, and Kogoro, as they all obtain clues to solve the crime.
Miki and Satomi Togawa from the previous game return.

Gameboy detective series is an instant NO.

27. Fern ~Dakara Kimi no Koto~ fern ～だからきみのこと～ [000331] Apple Pie

Two weeks till protagonist moves to Hokkaido university. 
The departure makes hero recognize the existence of his sister-in-law Nagisa once again as he needs a person to take care of the house. His feelings still linger for her. There are a lot of other nice characters around the hero at the university. A lot may happen in two weeks time.

There are a lot of days when nothing happens and that only prolongs game unnecessarily. There are a lot of forced events involving Nagisa so it looks painful if you target girl other than Nagisa. But Nagisa concept is also blurred with a lot of other heroines added to the mix. Message speed is adjustable, but there is not skipping function - that kills repeatability. All operations are done with mouse only and there are multiple windows that keep moving. So quite a normal galge, but with really bad systems.

28. Girigiri Date ぎりぎりでぃと [000331] Active

Main character has a date appointed with a girl at a hotel on the day she gets of legal age. However, he gets delayed at his part-time job and risks cancelling the date. By strange coincidence all the transport in the city starts to have huge problems. Hero needs to use  train, bus, taxi, hitchhiking and just walking to get to his aim. Will he manage to arrive in time?

Basically after prologue we get to choose the means of transportation and on the way experience multiple temptations. Contents is simple and each story is short, around an hour. There are seven girls overall. It's not blocked as nukige mostly because synopsis is quite neutral.

29. Niji no Arika 虹のありか [000331] Tea Project

Hero graduates from high school at his home town and goes to Tokyo to realize his dream. However, he fails at that and has to return back to his home town. There he meets old acquaintances and discovers places and people he never knew.

Scenario is inconsistent and quite short for every heroine. The otaku dreams theme is quite embarrassing. But what actually kills the game is bugs. Two patches are released to fix them, but only the tip of the iceberg is covered. Inability to save, freezes and slow text speed are just few of them.

30. Tenran no Natsu 天藍の夏 [000331] System Rose

Hero is living alone in Tokyo and is persuaded to visit his home town by his mother. He will need to take care of parents' ryoukan for a month. He is surprised to find out that there are girls in his hometown waiting for him.

There's a short scenario for each of the six girls. One playthrough is about 2 hours. Only three girls icons are shown on the map and the rest three are needed to discover yourself, but difficulty level is relatively low. Atmosphere is light and relaxed. But the number of H events is rather big, so it's a borderline work.

31. Zetsumetsu King -Seikimatsu Inran Kyousoukyoku- 絶滅キング-世紀末淫乱狂想曲- [000331] Jam

Main character calls himself Extinct King (Zetsumetsu King) who has the power to destroy all life on Earth. He sets an aim to have sex with seven women in a month time, but alas he does not have the power to control the will of the girls, so he starts with nanpa. 

It's easy to confuse this game for a nukige, but it's actually a bakage with a lot of parodies. There is a Taito Era visual style everywhere even though the period is nowadays. Game is based on classmate, but the difficulty of the game is very high. There is a concept of time, the use of items, money, favorability rates, dating, presents etc, so it's a very difficult SIM that's not for everyone to crack.

1. Houtou Sennyo ~Amai Shiru no Yuuwaku~ 放蕩仙女 ～甘い汁の誘惑～ [000302] Megami

Main character is an ordinary student. He dates a cute girl Nana for over a month, but they aren't even holding hands yet. One day a loli girl appears before him. She claims to be a goddess of love and sacrifice who came to help make his ambitions fulfilled. She passes him a pill saying that it will help make all the girls he likes belong to him.
Nukige

2. Memories Natsuiro no Kioku Memories 夏色の記憶 [000303] Otemoto
Parents go on a year long overseas business trip while main character stays to take care of his two sisters. And little by little desires of forbidden love awaken.

Nukige

3. Seifuku Paradise 制服パラダイス [000303] Hyperspace

Main hero has a uniform fetish. His hobby is to cosplay, visit cosplay events and make photos of cute girls for a cosplay specialized journal. It's every cosplayer girl dream to have a feature article in such a journal. And they agree on different conditions set by the main character for such a beneficial publication...

Nukige 

4. Inu 犬 [000310] D-XX

A girl is dragged into the manhole to the sewers. She does not know anymore whether she's dead or alive, asleep or awake... what's the meaning of such life?

Nukige

5. Maid Neko-san wa Ikaga Desu ka? ~Kikaijikake no Koi Monogatari~ メイドねこさんはいかがですか？～機械じかけの恋物語～ [000310] Masys
One day during college 's summer vacation main character receives a huge baggage sent from his father. Inside is a a humanoid robot Ren with cat ears and a tail. It turns out she is constructed by hero's father and is sent for testing during 40 days. Despite being produced to handle maid duties, Ren has a lot of failures. But hero gets attached to her anyway.

Nukige

6. Message ~Todoke Kono Omoi~ Message ～届けこの想い～ [000310] Waffle

Main character scheduled to set on a night trip alone, but the information got leaked, and he ended up accompanied by six more boys and girls. They have to seek shelter at a certain mansion in the woods. They are greeted by the maid saying "I've been waiting for you for a long time". Thus their horror night began.

Nukige

7. @Setsuzoku ＠セツゾク [000310] Spice Soft

Nukige

8. Yoru ni Saku Hana 夜陰ニ咲ク華 [000310] Haoh

Main character is rejected by Satoko without explaining the reason. In order to forget about the girl he sets off to an outlying prostitution island that is not listed in travel guides.

Nukige

9. Para Para ぱらパラ [000310] Studio B-Room

Nukige

10. Natural Petit ナチュラル プチ [000322] Fairytale
A fandisc with promo materials for Natural 2 game and lots of information on original Natural game: wallpapers, system voice collection, capture hints, heroines library room and staff corner.

Fandisc

11. Baby Face Baby Face ～ベビーフェイス～ [000324] Oz Project 1

The hero here is a loser guy (who resembles the infamous Isaku) who flunked the college entry exam for the 3rd year running. He is not the "In" kind of person and does not know what's fashionable or not. His every attempt to search for a female companion ended up with the female party calling him "Disgusting!","Pervert!" etc... Being such a loser, he decided to commit suicide one summer, but he is not satisfied with going without enjoying the ultimate life experience in life, that is "Encounter With The Female Kind!" And he is going to do it the crooked way, by being a tutor to young females, gaining the trust of his students, and finally....

Nukige

12. Grief Nemurenu Omoi Tsutaetakute Grief 眠れぬ想い伝えたくて [000324] AngelHearts

A girl is happy to finally able to go to the school of the guy she loves. She moved into school dorm and met her room mate. Next day, she bumps into our guy in her hurry to school. Thus they meet, and our guy can chase her, his classmate/swim team girl or the swim team female captain. The first girl is easy to get and he can even share her if he really want to, thus enabling him to go after her room mate. You get to see some of the first girl's events, which show how much she love our guy.

Nukige

13. Kakure Tsuki 隠れ月 [000324] Alice Blue

Main heroine Sakuya is an artificial life form created by magic. She awakens in a laboratory and hears that she needs to study for 91 day with the help of assistants, but she needs to choose what she wants to study herself. 
Otome

14. Orgel ~Kesenai Melody~ オルゴール～消せないメロディー～ [000324] Juice

1. Square sky『四角い空』 is a story of pure love with a girl who is 5 years younger than hero.
2. Water balloon『水風船』is a story about Stockholm syndrome of a girl confined in a warehouse towards her offender.
3. Tokyo lover『東京恋人』is a nanpa city adventure with an innocent girl Yuka and a fantasy fairy girl Konno.

15. Over the Rainbow [000324] Fuuro

Main character's elder sisters have huge debts. If hero fails to repay the debts in a year's time, his sisters are going to be deprived of their shops and sold to slavery. 

Nukige

16. School Days [000324] Face

This game has 3 fun stories in a school. In story 1, a guy follow his teacher and learn some interesting lessons. In story 2, a guy help a girl gain confidence and love. Story 3 has a nurse playing with a female student.

Antology

17. Inda 3 淫打3 [000328] Hyperspace

Typing lessons are mechanical and boring, or that it was before Inda 3. Finally men can make fun out of typing... if they get enough skill.

Nukige

18. Elf All Stars Datsui Jan エルフオールスターズ脱衣雀 [000330] Elf

This is a strip mahjong game with characters from four Elf games(3 girls from each game) and 10 girls made for this game. You have to defeat each game's male protectors in order to play with that game's girls.

Fandisc

19. Hiai 悲愛 [000331] Euphony Production

Main character has been dating Yuka for a few years. But one day she just disappears and a few days later sends a letter. It contains compromising photos and confession that she does not want to live anymore. Hero swears to avenge the businessman mentioned in the letter and a few weeks later gets a job at that businessman's mansion. 

Nukige

20. Keiyaku 契約 [000331] Pochette

One day main character wakes up in a studio he has never been before. He starts to participate in production of adult movies as an actor. The production here is illegal, so there aren't any restrictions.
Nukige

21. Seido Techou 性奴手帳 [000331] WEAPON

Main character has secret desire to dominate over women. There are four different girls and women right before his eyes. What kind of slaves will they make?

Nukige

22. Sei Faery Gakuen Joshi Ryou 聖フェアリー学園女子寮 [000331] Gondola

This is the elite girl school for higher class society. There are plans to liberalize the school, but upper class led by principal daughter oppose the idea. Main character needs to infiltrate the school, get past the guards and to the top floor where the school principal daughter resides.

Nukige