Today, we have a tester’s corner from Shadowarc!

The world is not as simple as it seems. What if puppets who looked like normal people lived among us, trying to make the world evolve from behind the scenes? In The Shadows of Pygmalion, the story begins almost like a mystery, with many vague and strange happenings. Despite the initial slow start, the story quickly ramps up with the action, along with some shoujo ai tones.

The story starts out light-hearted enough, with Hajiro Mina, the main protagonist of the story, appearing to be your average high school girl that daydreams a lot with a liking for dolls, particularly one special doll named Ruka. It doesn’t take long for a lot of bizarre events to occur that make her question her life, ideals, and even reality. Due to her indecisiveness at times, other characters besides her best friend don’t think too highly of her at first, but slowly they all warm up to her. It quickly becomes apparent that Ruka is no ordinary doll, but a great magical being called an Eidea. Once Mina accepts the responsibility of becoming an emissary for Ruka, she and her new companions are tasked with eliminating the puppets that live among people. But this is just a small task hiding the true nature of what it means to be an emissary as the story unfolds.

The cast features many well known voice actresses, such as Hanazawa Kana voicing Jessica, the youngest of Ruka’s emissaries, but has a bit of a foul mouth despite that. There is also Kitamura Eri, who voices Makoto, Mina’s best friend. Many of the others may be familiar to any avid anime fans who watch a lot of shows.

While the game is linear, there is a choice of determining your ending, with one true ending to earn. After seeing the true ending, there is still more to see, with extra dialogue added in for certain parts on another play through, fleshing out the backgrounds of some characters.

In closing, the story is of some intrigue, even if it can get a little odd sometimes due to the terminology. The cast is one of the stronger points, with the drama being hit or miss for me in some parts.

The Shadows of Pygmalion is now available on Steam and MangaGamer.com!

Today, we have a tester’s corner from Xarrias!

Hello, this is Xarrias, and this is my sixth Tester’s Corner for MangaGamer, and my second one for a Propeller title. I’d actually been really looking forward to this one ever since it had been announced, since I enjoy the magical girl genre and female protagonists. However, I might not have been quite right there. While there’s undeniably a magical girl influence on this title – I wouldn’t be surprised if people compare this to Puella Magi Madoka Magicka – it’s definitely something else entirely.

Dolls are less than human.

Mina is our heroine, and she starts out, as you might expect, uninitiated into this hidden world where human-esque Dolls manipulate events behind the scenes to cause the downfall of the human race for their hubris. However, from the get-go she’s led to question whether humans are actually in the right here, and if there’s more to these Dolls than she’s been told. She witnesses atrocities committed by both sides in this conflict, is forcibly conscripted, witnesses the death of people she cares about, and has to manage her relationship with her friends that have no idea about what’s going on all before the opening movie plays. Without spoiling anything, this is far from all that happens in this story, and there are twists-a-plenty for your reading pleasure.

Are we the baddies?

Two characters that particularly resonated with me were Jessica and Jay. Jessica, as you might expect from her name, is a young Western girl currently residing in Japan. She’s also a foul-mouthed, hyperactive, combat-loving troll and gadfly with excellent fashion sense and often one of the first to bring up the moral failings of her own side. She quickly shows just how much she cares for those around her despite her sharp tongue and is a good source of comedy and drama. She’s also voiced by Kana Hanazawa, so hearing her voice such a character after Raziel from Tokyo Babel and Akane Tsunemori in Psycho-Pass and nailing it completely made me smile. Jay, on the other hand, seems like a redshirt at first. Big tough guy with a deep voice – surely he’s going to die early on without and character development. However, despite the female-centric cast, he shows himself to be akin to a father figure to all of these girls, and perhaps a bit more to a certain member of the cast. He’s always there when you need him most, ready to offer advice of both practical and philosophical value, a shoulder to lean on… or perhaps a timely rescue with his sub-machine gun.

I may have compared this to Madoka earlier, but I actually think this is more like a certain other magical girl franchise released in the mid 2000’s. And, like that series, I do not think it is perfect despite thoroughly enjoying them. It seems like Propeller ran out of money or time at some point in the creation of this, leading to some issues like CGs not matching the description in blatant ways that are unable to be easily fixed due to the plot critical nature of them and a drop in the quality of writing for the endings that are not the True End. While interesting, I feel like they should have either elaborated on them more to make them fit with the rest of the work or simply cut them entirely and focused their efforts elsewhere. As they stand they are a bit of an oddity that one must go through before they can reach the True End. Other than this decision, this is more of a kinetic novel, featuring less choices than Princess Evangile.

As an all-ages title, there’s no explicit nudity in this game, however there are definitely scenes where the characters are nude and in compromising situations. Yuri relationships do take a front-row seat here, and even feature importantly in the main plot, but I wouldn’t call it a yuri game in the same sense I would say that Kindred Spirits is. This is definitely a story about loss and tragedy, interspersed with slice-of-life moments to break up the tension and weight of the main story and humanise the characters. Though it may not share the same writer as Tokyo Babel, there’s still a similar feel to it, so if you liked one, I’m sure you’ll like the other. In the words of Makoto:

You said it!

The Shadows of Pygmalion is now available on Steam and MangaGamer.com!

Today, we have a tester’s corner for Kuroinu Chapter 1 from Kitty-tama!

Hi, this is Kitty-tama, and today I’m thrilled to share my thoughts regarding Kuroinu Chapter 1. Kuroinu has always been on my radar for the sheer fact that the writers who worked on my beloved eroge of all time, euphoria, also happened to work on this! Add to the fact that the composer, as well as some of the voice actresses also worked on this, and you have Kitty-tama’s Ultimate Dream Team… or something to that effect.

Anyway, the story to this game is nothing particularly noteworthy. It’s not bad, it’s just simple and sets the stage for the various sexually violent themed H scenes. That said, what story is there is compelling enough to keep you going through each route within the first chapter to see each girl’s eventual demise… It doesn’t try to be any deeper than its initial premise, so if you’re looking for a nukige without a strong plot (unlike, say, euphoria) and just want dark H content aplenty, this is definitely a game you should consider looking into.

Kuroinu’s heroines all have their own erotic charm to them which makes each respective girl stand out. Because of this being merely the first chapter of three, you can only choose between three of the nine heroines: Olga, Chloe, and Claudia. My personal favorite heroine has to be Chloe. Her scenes were a lot of fun and had some of the more outlandish elements (double anal fisting, anyone?) that made them quite memorable. Not only that, but I found her dedication and loyalty to Olga to be a very admirable and endearing trait. That said, the other two heroines are pretty great too. Olga’s very headstrong and unwavering in how she carries herself, even in the depths of torture. As for Claudia… her unrelenting dedication to her husband and their pure love is so intriguing despite the hell she gets put through.

Looking at the above paragraph, I bet you’re thinking, “Wait, Kitty! This is a dark, brutal game! Why are you going on about these positive traits about the heroines?!” Given the nature of this game, each heroine’s ending can really only go in one direction: mindbreak. The above traits I listed were not only great additions to heroines who very well could have been significantly more shallow and forgettable, but they also made for a very satisfying, arousing experience as each heroine became more and more depraved and broken.

The H scenes have one theme in common throughout: sexual violence. However, each heroine has her own individual theme or fetish focus in each of her H scenes, so this game has a wide variety of fetishes to enjoy. In fact, there’s even a bestiality scene for those into that! Other themes include pregnancy, NTR, and gangbangs, to name a few. But that’s not all Kuroinu has, so by all means, see for yourself exactly what it has in store.

It’s hard to say exactly why I love Kuroinu so much. I definitely went into it expecting to like it somewhat, but I came out of it liking it way more than I’d ever openly admit. Is it because of (admittedly) my bias toward Asou Ei and Izumi Banya (the writers)? Perhaps I’m more of a sexual deviant than I thought? Though I’m not entirely sure, what I can say is that if you like your eroge dark and unapologetically depraved with mindbreak aplenty with minimal plot, do yourself a favor and check out Kuroinu Chapter 1. It executes its subject matter very, very well, and it’s a fun time all around.

Until next time, everyone!

Kuroinu Chapter 1 is now available on MangaGamer.com!

Today, we have a tester’s corner for Kuroinu Chapter 1 from Neko_Len!

It has been awhile since I tested, so when this project came in I jumped right on it, no questions asked. I didn’t ask who developed it, what the title was, or the genre. The only thing I did know was that it was a nukige, and that was about it. I’ve had plenty of experience with nukige titles before, so I didn’t have a reason to think this project would stand out at all. Hopefully it will be nice, light fare… so without further ado, let’s boot this up!

There goes that hope…

Whelp, this was not a good start. Hopefully this does not turn out to be too rapey… Oh, who am I kidding? I see exactly where this is going. Time to sit down for the ride. I just have to watch a mercenary lord rape his way across the land or such right? …Right?

Anyway, Kuroinu turned out to be one of the more verbose works I have ever tested, and I tested both ef – a fairy tale of the two and eden*, so that’s saying something. Never before have I ever had to reach for a dictionary so many times while being too disgusted to whack off. Normally one would refrain from making such comments about a game in a tester corner, but the very reasons I find this game so much of a turn off is the exact reason many would want to play it. If it wasn’t obvious: this is a rapefest. Nothing but rape. Rape in the morning, afternoon, evening, and night! You could call it Unlimited Rape Works!

And lest one would think rape would get old, the fine people at Liquid have given quite a bit of variety of rape to flesh out the experience. For example, take this lady, Olga, dark elf queen.

This proud dark elf queen is both stoic and mentally strong. Defeated but not broken comes to mind. So, how are we going to go about breaking her?

Repeated and very public gang rape comes to mind. In the middle of the town square. Almost every scene with each accessible “heroine” are all on the similar rapey, mind breaking, humiliating train. You’re probably shouting, “But Neko, I want my bitches drugged!” by now. Well, simmer down… we’ve got you covered!

And these are only small bits out of a single route. While this is not my thing, the very reasons why I disliked it may be the exact reasons you may consider it. If you are looking for a rapefest with a surprisingly high linguistic level, try Kuroinu ch 1. Once again, this is Neko, signing off. Enjoy!

Kuroinu Chapter 1 is now available on MangaGamer.com!

Today, we have a tester’s corner for Higurashi When They Cry Hou – Ch. 5 Meakashi from Nurio!

Whew. That’s a bit of a long title, huh? In fact, it’s so long that the width of my list of Steam games literally doubled! And that’s no joke. I was so proud of my Steam game list for being so thin and healthy, but then Higurashi came and it overate and now it’s so thick. And Nurio is scared of thick things!

Just look at that! The red line shows how wide it used to be. Man, I wonder what happens if I get Tsumihoroboshi…

Actually, that’s not entirely true. Ironically, the new sprites introduced in the Hou releases are a lot thinner than the original sprites, and truth be told, the old thick sprites kinda really grew on me. There’s just something about those big hands and those goofy expressions and those, uh… fluid poses. I’m sure everybody and their grandma would disagree with me (especially you, Mrs. Jenkins!), but I can’t help being a weirdo! I dunno… I just had so much fun imagining the sonic booms and tsunamis these characters would cause when they applauded with their freakishly huge hands!

Y’know, I think most guys like girls with small hands. That’s why Bamboo loves me so much!

Onee-chan!? Don’t scare me like that, especially after such an intense game!

Do you know why guys like girls with small hands? It’s bec—

I know! But don’t tell them! This is supposed to be all-ages!

Anyway! Don’t listen to her. Only listen to me, okay? I’m an expert on Higurashi. I’ve played all the games long ago and loved them to pieces. My Onee-chan, on the other hand, knows nothing!

That’s not true! I love Meakashi. It’s my favorite dish!  …Thing!

So… Why do I prefer the old sprites? Well, let’s just look at a comparison…

Not pictured: Sonic-boom-inducing hands (Also, loss of color detail due to it being an animated GIF)

The original sprites just have more… personality to them, I guess? The new sprites definitely are prettier – especially those Rena sprites – but they are too… straight? Clean? Know what I mean? Well, even if you don’t, that’s fine! Luckily, it doesn’t matter whether you like the old and objectively better sprites, or if you have the wrong opinion and like the new sprites! That’s because you can switch between the two styles on the fly. …But anyone who’s reading this already knows that anyway. Why am I telling you all this?

Because you were invited late to the party, Nuri-kyun and it’s new to you…

Ouch, Nee-sama. Ouch.

It’s true, though! I wasn’t involved with the Question Arcs for Higurashi Hou, and I didn’t even know a Hou version existed until I was invited for Meakashi. Actually, fun fact, I was listening to Higurashi Kai music the very day before I got the invitation. Maybe I have some sort of psychic powers? If so, what should I listen to next? Any suggestions? Hmm… Maybe Kanon… Err, anyway… My point is, the fact I didn’t even know Higurashi Hou was a thing shows how much out of the loop I am when it comes to VN announcements…

Poor Nuri-nur… Do you want a banana from Onee-chan?

Banana? Is that the yellow fruit or the green one?

Anyway! Yes! This Hou stuff is all new for me, but the Meakashi chapter is still as good as I remembered it. In fact, when I started up the game and the title started scrolling by after the prologue, and that music was playing… Man, it actually made me cry a little.

Oh, so that’s what the tissues were for!

I told you it was all-ages!

Yep. For those unfamiliar with Higurashi, it’s a title of tension, intrigue, mystery, horror and drama. But above all that, it really made me a bit wistful, wanting to live in such a remote, tightly knit village myself, with a strong group of friends. Y’know, except for all the murder. I could do without that. Though I would want those big hands… Just imagine what you can do with those…

Y’know, I usually hate gore and stuff like that, but I am somehow okay with all the gruesome stuff that happens in Higurashi. I guess it’s because it’s not as graphic. Though it’s very descriptive with everything that it can definitely make you cringe and flinch. …A lot. Trust me. But! If you’re like me, and it’s only the visual aspect of gore that repulses you, then consider trying Higurashi!

It doesn’t really get more graphic than this…

That l—

DON’T SAY IT! I know what you want to say and you should be ashamed!

Uuuu~… Baka!

Interestingly, that’s also about as far as Higurashi goes in terms of “event CG.” Aside from these few drawings of blood or similar, there isn’t any event CG and everything is presented as sprites on a background. Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so! If anything, it’s a testament to how descriptive Ryukishi07’s writing is, since it does a perfect job of telling you what’s happening. If anything, it paradoxically makes the effect of his words stronger, because it allows you to imagine the most gruesome imagery your brain can handle instead of overwhelming or underwhelming you with the pre-drawn imagery.

But maybe that’s just the ramblings of an old fart who doesn’t understand the youth nowadays and their spiffy animations and new-fangled emojis and snapchats and tumblr and—

There are emojis in Higurashi?

No, and that’s a good thing!

Aww… I’ll ask Bamboo to add them!

Actually, I think I’ve done nothing but ramble here. I’m kinda at a loss for words. I mean, what can I say? I can’t say too much about the plot because anything I can say is a spoiler, and I can’t say much about the features, because anybody interested already knows about them! I mean, for example, you all know that MangaGamer managed to get all the original music in the Hou releases, right? And wow, that music is good. Some of the best I’ve heard (which is also why I was listening to it before).

Anyway, no spoiler talk, no feature talk, and I can’t really show you much of the art either… Then what’s left for an old Nurio to talk about but bananas and his Onee-chan?

The banana is the yellow one, by the way. The green one is a cucumber.

Thanks. I absolutely was wondering.

I guess there’s only one thing left for me to say…

Mion is best girl.

Now I’m off to imagine life with big hands…

Praise me more, Original Mion…

Isn’t that a dream come true? Such power from mere applauding… Yes, with this image in mind, I can happily go to sleep.

And so… Nurio, out!

Today, we have a tester’s corner for Sweet Young Bride from Ryechu!

Hello, everybody! Ryechu here. I hope everybody has been having a great time!

So, for those who don’t remember, I love nukige. Like, a lot. Like, a lot a lot. Like, I own every single game ever made by Softhouse and, as of recently, Ammolite! That’s a good thing, because this is an Ammolite game, and Ammolite makes titles that represent exactly what nukige is: pure, unadulterated fun.

Originally released as Tsumairo Shoujo in the fall of 2015, “Sweet Young Bride,” tells the story of Kouta and Hazuki. Thanks to the creation of the “Government-Sponsored Marriage Program,” Kouta is selected to be assigned a wife to combat the declining birth rate in Japan. Thing is, Hazuki is definitely on the petite side, and is incredibly inexperienced. Thankfully, Kouta has a thing for women like Hazuki, and, throughout the story, he shows Hazuki how amazing sex can be through a number of different ways.

Let’s make this easy. Hazuki is freakin’ adorable. She is also super-open to all sorts of different… things, and she is also incredibly horny, even if she doesn’t like to admit it. Seriously. If you don’t mind some spoilers, go check out the VNDB page and look at the “Subject of (Sexual)” and “Engages in (Sexual)” sections. There are around a dozen different scenes, and while there are a couple reoccurring fetishes that occur in all of them, there are some pretty unique situations that the newly-married pair get involved in. There’s also plentyyyyyyyyyyyyyy of moaning, and there’s a moan track that will play in the background during the various scenes. If you pay attention through the game, you’ll notice there’s an evolution in the moaning. Neat, right?

This was a pretty straightforward test, as most nukige tend to be. The Kirikiri engine is pretty friendly when it comes to, well… anything, really. It’s sort of a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to engines, and you can change many aspects of the game, like including italics, or adjusting the background so we don’t have light text on a light background!

If you enjoy nukige, and I know you do, be sure to pick this title up! You won’t regret it!

~J “Ryechu” R

Today, we have a tester’s corner from Mashiro!

Hello, this is Mashiro and this is my Test Corner for Sweet Young Bride.

When I saw the opportunity to work on this game, I hesitated at first. I’m not the biggest fan of lolis and was kind of afraid I would not like the game. However, I can actually say I’m glad I took the chance to beta test it.

Sweet Young Bride has a simple premise. Our protagonist, Kouta Misawa, wishes to get a cute and lovely girlfriend, but being just an ordinary guy he has slim chances to get one, since there is a “Government-Sponsored Marriage Program,” and that rate every member of society and decides who is an elite, matchmaking them. Sadly, ordinary guys – like Kouta – still have to find a girlfriend on their own. One day, he’s surprised to find out that a wife, Izayoi Hazuki, has been chosen for him, and their life together begins!

Just as the title suggests, the game has a really sweet atmosphere to it. Hazuki is a really sweet and lovely girl, and it was easy to grow attached to her. It was also nice to see her change from an insecure girl, who tried her best to adapt to her new situation, to a happy girl living life filled with joy with the man she loves.

Of course, this being a nukige, I can’t write about this game without talking about the H-Scenes. The game isn’t wild when it comes to fetishes, but all the scenes were really enjoyable and stimulating. The sound effects and Hazuki’s voice actor were really good and probably the aspect of those scenes that I liked the most, but Kouta’s narration and Hazuki’s reactions were also pretty nice. It’s worth to notice that all H-Scenes feature peeing, which can interest some, but even for those who don’t like it – which is my case – it’s not something that it’s so big it would spoil the game for you, so even with the urination fetish, I think it’s worth to try.

Another thing to add is how pretty the art ist Seeing Hazuki’s pure and ingenuous appearance contrasting with the sexual nature of the CGs just accented their appeal, making all the scenes more enjoyable.

In conclusion, Sweet Young Bride was a good ride. It’s a short game, but it is filled with a variety of good scenes, an adorable heroine, and even some heartwarming and cute moments. I’m happy I got the opportunity to work on this game and totally recommend to anyone wanting to enjoy some happy sex times with a cute and lovely little wife.

Oh hey, didn’t see you there. It’s your best friend- Umbel. Back at it again. Recording live, from…

…Paradise.

This one was kind of spur of the moment for me- in the tester chat we were pitched with a vague “gameplay focused nukige”… And what I got was exactly as advertised, in a surprisingly good way.
At it’s core, it is very much a nukige with heavy gameplay. Actually, I’d label it as a simple puzzle game with smut more than a nukige. Most of your time in game will be spent escorting one of two girls through a dungeon, with the vague goal of clearing the trial given to the girl.
If you, like me, immediately realized that their goal of getting through the dungeon safely had very little to do with you, a person who sets traps in their paths to send them headlong into monster rape scenes, you might get a bit confused as to what to do. The actual objective is only made clear in obscure notes written on… Pebbles at the end of various dead ends in game.

Note: the pebbles aren’t actually visible and are totally nondescript.

Basically, your job is to get her raped as much as possible without killing her, by all the monsters in the dungeon, before placing her in front of the end boss (and thus dooming her to fail.) To that end, most of your time will be spent making the heroine slide everywhere on slimes while you try and find which room which monsters spawn in.
The gameplay itself is pretty simple but its pretty fun if you’re into puzzles- though it can get repetitive as time goes on. Each room of the dungeon contains one standard monster type, one summoned monster type, and some rooms have mechanisms that spawn on room entry.
The mob type doesn’t actually change anything but the resulting cg and the damage dealt to the heroine though.
Which leads me into normal review topics:

The CGS… Are very hit or miss. Some of them are actually very good, others suffer from poor posing or perspective(especially for Griselda), but it has merit of having CGS catering to… Many different fetishes. There’s no blood (un?)fortunately, but many CGS can get pretty extreme torturey. The art, aside from the posing, is pretty alright. A solid 6/10 overall.

A hit.

The music… I think there was music. …I’m kidding of course. There’s a small handful of jingles playing constantly throughout the game. It’s not… Bad. Very average. What you’d expect from a nukige.
6/10 again

…Not so hit.

I already went over the gameplay, but I do mind of want to highlight that it’s really surprisingly fun for someone who likes puzzles- if you’ve played orc dungeon you already have a good idea of how it works; your heroine follows a set of rules (either left or right hand wall) to navigate through the dungeon, and you as the almighty trap person influence her navigation with traps you lay pretty much on the fly.
Being perfectly honest, if it was like… Mobile, and new rooms were made occasionally, I’d not mind playing it more regularly.
Alas, 8/10 very decent

It’s a nukige, there is no story, I’m not going to rate it.
All in all it gets a high 6/10 or a low 7/10 from me. Very decent. Not unenjoyable. Would drag on of you’re just looking to get a quick pile of smut CGS. Is fun if you’re looking to idly pass time being a terrible person and raping innocent girls.

With your mind.

Because. You know. Puzzles.

You’re welcome.

You can pick up Dungeon of Corruption right now on MangaGamer.com!

Today, we have a tester’s corner for D.S. Dal Segno from Shadowarc!

Welcome to Kazana Island, the island where no one is ever unhappy. In D.S. -Dal Segno-, the latest moege from Circus of Da Capo fame, you are Atsuya Takamura (who can be renamed), a second-year transfer student to the island’s academy.

Despite arriving at the end of November, Atsuya discovers that Kazana is more like a summer paradise compared to the cooler climate of Tokyo, thanks to the technological advancements unique to this island. Atsuya is greeted by an unusual girl named Ame, where a resulting accident with her leads to him discovering that she is actually an AI! After finding out Ame is actually the caretaker of paradise, Atsuya then discovers he now has the unusual ability to see numbers on people’s foreheads, which indicates their happiness level.

As Atsuya manages to deal with this new phenomena, he meets a diverse assortment of characters at his new school: Himari, an eccentric girl with a large hat who likes to gaze at the sky, Hazuki, the prim and proper student council president who always has a lot of work to do, Io, the self-proclaimed ‘Daughter of Darkness’ who dresses in a goth loli style, Noeri, his cousin who insists she is his little sister and wants to wake him up in the mornings, and finally Yamato, an unusual guy from the newspaper club who tries to help out Atsuya wherever he can.

While slowly adapting to his new life here, Atsuya is thrown into an odd situation of being able to pick a girl for the academy’s Christmas pageant, thanks to Ame nominating him in an effort to make him happier. Sadly, it only causes him more stress than anything, as he is a bit indecisive. After all, there are a lot of cute girls.

Who will you choose?

With five routes, this moege is full of various cute romances with a little bit of drama mixed in. At first, you can only access four routes, with the fifth requiring you to go through the others before it becomes available. While a strange decision, it adds a few extra scenes to the common route once the requirement is met.

D.S. Dal Segno is now available on MangaGamer.com and Steam today!

Today, we have a tester’s corner for D.S. Dal Segno from threepwood007!

Threepwood007 here! First time writing, so thanks for tuning in!

As a brand-new beta tester to the MangaGamer umbrella (and to beta testing in general) I was thrilled to be able to get a handle on the next Circus game. Being a fan of D.C.II and then D.C. before it, it was a huge fan-boy experience to be a part of and damned if I wasn’t going to give it my all to make this an excellent release to be added to the Circus line of stories. Then the weight of responsibility set in. “Oh wow,” I thought, “I am gonna have a direct impact on how this game is received by the fans. If I miss a bug, or a typo, or a crazy line, I’ll read a comment in a forum and think, ‘Damn. Shoulda caught that.’ And then I’d be sad.”

…I thought for  minute more, and then realized:

“THIS IS AWESOME!”

Because let’s lay our cards out on the table: visual novels are pretty freaking cool, but like movies and games and whatnot we all have our preferred genres. And then again, we all have our preferred styles within those genres. So within a limited market, what we have available that fits our tastes is small in quantity. And we can only hope that it is high in quality, since if it is not the alternatives are…limited.

And here before me was an excellently translated visual novel that I got to get a hold of months before anyone else with the goal of making it a superior experience for the rest of the fans. You’re goddamn right I was nervouscited. Giddy? Exhilarated? Yes. Those. All of them at the same time. But the feeling that pervaded all, that made the experience and the work worthwhile, was the idea that we were participating in the process of making a top-notch visual novel for Western audiences to enjoy and laugh about and cry about and generally have a good time with.

And with my n00b mentality firmly encroached, I settled into my first beta. And was promptly blown away by the other testers involved. Io perfectly sums up my feelings:

More often than not I would settle in for a night of beta testing only to see that EVERY OTHER TESTER HAD ALREADY COMPLETED THE ROUTE that was due next. But while this was intimidating, it was also refreshing – and not from the perspective of, “Well, they’ve already found the typos and whatnot so my job is that much easier.” I was the all-ages tester for this game, which meant while the other testers were using the R+18 copy of the game I was working with the version that would be released to Steam. This means I was responsible for reviewing the all-ages script replacements that cut out all the juice (literally) tidbits from the routes where applicable. That’s not to say the sex is removed entirely, or nudity for that matter either. All-ages simply has to comply with Steam’s content regulations, which means a nipshot is fair game but insertion is a no-no.

Another testing aspect I got to experience was being the “10th man.” In World War Z the concept is described as a committee of 10 individuals: if 9 are unanimous, the 10th man assumes they are all correct. A bit of a spin on the devil’s advocate, so to speak. I enjoyed seeing the other testers as they went through and pointed out their edits and then seeing whether I was in agreement or not.

Dal Segno tells the story of the usual Circus crew: the protagonist, the best-friend character (who is actually the best grill), and a slew of the usual archetypes: the pink-haired mysterious girl, the student council president, the small white-haired lolita, and the childhood friend. Where Dal Segno makes things interesting is how it implements those archetypes and separates them from the crowd. In a narrative that spans several months, Dal Segno goes from frivolous to very dark, oftentimes hitting some pretty mature themes as it hurtles towards a murderously feelsy final route.

It was a pleasure to read; the engine, however, took some getting used to after playing a ton of Ren’Py games. Memory and CPU-intensive (relatively; performance shouldn’t be an issue), the engine definitely took its time with rendering various effects – particularly the title screen – but the wait is always worth it as there were never any noticeable skips or jumps in the gameplay.

I hope you enjoy Dal Segno to its fullest! Whether you love a great story, supernatural romances, or good drama this is a game for you.

D.S. Dal Segno is now available on MangaGamer.com and Steam today!

Today, we have a tester’s corner for D.S. Dal Segno from Kitty-tama!

Hello everyone, Kitty-tama here yet again with yet another tester’s corner! I’ve beta tested games that range from super hardcore nukige, such as Kuroinu, to super cute all-ages titles like Go Go Nippon! 2016, but Dal Segno is unlike anything I’ve ever beta tested. I say this in the best possible way. I’ve been familiar with Circus eroge for quite some time since getting into visual novels as a hobby, so getting the opportunity to actually beta test one (and one that, effectively, was my first Circus game!) was an extremely exciting opportunity. The girls are cute, there are elements of magic, and the romance is sugary-sweet… it’s the perfect recipe for a good time all around!

Dal Segno seems to be somewhat of a spiritual successor to the Da Capo series; there are little references here and there within the game. Despite this, one could enjoy Dal Segno without knowing anything about the other Circus works, as it is a totally independent story.

Speaking of, while this game doesn’t have a particularly deep or intense story, it does have a very relaxing, fluffy feeling to it. The cuteness of it all had me squealing at a few points, too! It isn’t always sweetness, though; tense moments within the story further expand on the characters you come to know throughout the prologue and fairly long common route, getting you even more attached to them. I won’t lie, there were a few times where Dal Segno brought me near tears with how moving some of the scenes were.

As for the characters, they were all incredibly endearing, and I can’t think of a single character I didn’t like by the end. Of course, given the nature of this eroge, I do have my ranking of best girls. It would probably look something like this: Ame, Himari, Io, Noeri, and finally, Hazuki. I liked all the heroines, but Hazuki left a bit more to be desired. That said, the other heroines are on even level of being my favorite. Even the idiot friend, Yamato, was incredibly likeable and a bit more than just a stereotypical idiot friend; he’s also a good guy who never hesitates to help his friends when they need him the most.

The background music in Dal Segno, while not particularly memorable per se, made the atmosphere of the scenes come to life. From a calming instrumental that greets you on the main menu, not unlike the calming atmosphere of Kazana Island itself, to a tender piano piece used during lovemaking scenes, each tune appropriately fits the moments in which you hear them. It’s also worth mentioning that there are quite a number of vocal songs: Dal Segno has a total of five vocal tracks! In particular, A Trickle of Love really stood out to me as a fantastic song used during the emotional climaxes of the heroine routes. It’s a very effective song, I’ll say that much!

Given this is an eroge, though, how do the H-scenes fare, you might be wondering? If you’re going into this expecting fap central when those scenes appear, you might be disappointed. Rather than focusing on sexiness and eroticism, the scenes focus a lot more on the emotional connection between Atsuya and the respective heroine of your choice. This was one of the first times where I never felt compelled to, uh, take care of business, so to speak, while going through an H-scene. Instead, I felt a lot more of an emotional fulfillment from how tender everything was. It’s worth mentioning that, for most of the heroines, their first H-scenes aren’t even full-on sex; rather, they’re scenes where intimacy take place, and that’s it. It was quite a refreshing approach to see, in all honesty, and I wish more eroge had scenes like this.

I always come to be fond of the titles I beta test, as when I’m beta testing a particular game, I get a deeper connection to the material (after all, it’s my job to ensure it runs smoothly for you all alongside the other testers). It’s expected, then, that I won’t easily forget the games I work on. However, in the case of Dal Segno, it’s not just due to my extensive time working on it (I’d wager that this was the longest beta test I’ve ever partaken in). The game itself is unforgettable, and I’m very pleased that I was given the chance to test Dal Segno. If you love romance, magic with sweetness that hurts your teeth, along with the occasional tear-jerking moment, there’s no need to miss out on this title. I wholeheartedly recommend it. I’d also recommend it if you’re already a fan of Circus works, but that’s kind of an obvious basis for recommending it! I hope you enjoy the world of Kazana Island, where nobody is ever unhappy.

D.S. Dal Segno is now available on MangaGamer.com and Steam today!

Hello, this is Xarrias, and this is my eighth Tester’s Corner for MangaGamer. This is a special one for me, as the very first project I did QA for was Princess Evangile. I distinctly recall in my very first Tester’s Corner that I lamented the lack of a Ruriko route. I’m sure a lot of other fans wanted this as well given her prominence in the story. Well, ask and ye shall receive, and Moonstone and MangaGamer have delivered upon thee not just a Ruriko route, but a total of FIVE routes for other characters, in addition to epilogues to the original four heroines! Truly we must live in a just world… or at the very least one that caters for fans of Princess Evangile.

Kuu! Kuu!

One thing I’d like to say off the bat is that W Happiness has a slightly different feel to it than the original does. For one, the drama in this isn’t quite as strong as it was before. This is to be expected from the epilogue routes given that the main struggle has ended and little would be able to rival it, but this is the same as in the routes for the side girls. Instead, the game focuses much more of its attention on the relationship of whoever you may be wooing. This can be a positive or a negative depending on what appealed to you about the original. If you wanted something lighter and fluffier, you can expect double the happiness from W Happiness.

That’s not to say there’s not drama or tension, but expect more headpats, less headbutts

To those of you who may have wanted more in the way in erotic content, let me tell you right now that ‘fan disc’ in this context is likely a reference to ‘fanservice’. There is a lot more sex proportionally compared to the original. In particular, if you feel like there wasn’t a lot of French sex for those of you who like sausages in a bun, Moonstone saw fit to include such a scene for almost every single girl. Which isn’t including the actual act of hotdogging, which also gets a bit of screentime. In fact, a few more kinks for those who like things a little less traditional have been thrown it, so I’m sure there will be something that appeals to you unless you’re looking for something super extreme – in which case why aren’t you playing KuroInu?

I’m not kidding. There’s even something for people who like glasses. THIS IS THE BIGGEST CHOICE IN BOTH GAMES!

Now, this game isn’t perfect. I feel like some characters were better represented in this than others and had better routes – Ayaka in particular feels like she got shafted. However, when the game is on point, it’s incredibly strong. Konomi and Tamie in particular showed off their comedy chops, and while I had high hopes for the latter, the former came out of nowhere and delivered a swift strike with her naginata to steal the show. I blame a certain in-universe book for this.

Not in this game, unfortunately. Isn’t it sad Sister Mishima?

While there is the option to access the common route in this, and there are some flashbacks to remind readers of what happened previously, this is very much for fans of the original. If you liked Princess Evangile and want to see more of Vincennes, you should definitely pick this up. If you didn’t, chances are this isn’t for you. If you haven’t played the original, what are you waiting for? Go and read that now! You’re making Rise and Chiho angry!

Kittytama is back again with another tester’s corner! This time: our latest release from Atelier Sakura, Marina’s Cuckolding Report––

Netorare is a genre that is quite polarizing: either you love it or you hate it. It’s a genre I quite enjoy, so I had an absolute blast being able to test Marina’s Cuckolding Report: Sensitive Wife and Great Fuck College Student. 

One aspect of this title that stands out in particular, and what I’ll be focusing on in this post, is how this game portrays the netorare element.  It’s quite an interesting twist on the genre, and one that those curious about this particular genre might find more palatable than typical NTR content.

To call Marina’s Cuckolding Report: Sensitive Wife and Great Fuck College Student netorare isn’t quite accurate; in fact, it covers what is referred to in-game as “netorase”. You may be wondering what the difference between the two is. This isn’t your typical guy steals girl and makes her addicted to him and only him sort of story—instead, the focus is of a husband who gets very aroused by the thought of his wife sleeping with someone else. One could say it’s a consensual take on NTR, hence netorase.

The characters’ feelings relating to the cuckolding play were a bit more realistic than I expected from an NTR eroge. Kenji struggles with his arousal over the thought of Marina being sexually taken by another man, but also the jealousy that accompanies that same thought. When Marina first hears of Kenji’s desire to have her sleep with someone other than him, she gets very confused, even a little angry, as expected. Eventually, she decides to give it a try. Though she sleeps around with Nakamura, her coworker, it’s shown after the fact how deeply Kenji and Marina love one another. In fact, through their adventures with netorase, their love only grows and flourishes further. They become even more passionate towards one another.

(That typo’s been fixed btw! This is from the beta after all)

The H-scenes in the game were very erotic. It was surprising how enjoyable the scenes ended up being! I didn’t expect to have nearly as much fun with it as I did. There were also scenes written from Marina’s perspective. It was awesome being able to see things from her eyes. In fact, to be totally honest, it’s something I’d love to see in more nukige and visual novels in general.

If NTR interests you at all, give this game a try. Lacking in the drama and heartbreak of usual netorare fare, this might be a nice introductory title for anyone new to the genre as well. I can safely say after having tested this and enjoying it as much as I did, I’d love to see the other titles in the Marina series come to the West as well.

Heyo, this is Mashiro again, with another Tester Corner, this time for Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome!
I can’t say enough how happy I am to test this game, seriously, I am a big lover of otome games and having the opportunity to test an otome game with 18+ content, I would be dumb to miss it.

The story of Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome is very simple. Tachibana Ema is a very tall, with slanted eyes girl, which ends up scaring most of her classmates, so she tries her best to be invisible and survive high school without any major problems. Sadly, for her (and happily for us) this all changes when Hiraizumi Miki and Shinjou Saito appears in her life and decide that they are going to produce her and transform her into a model.

While the story isn’t anything incredible, what makes this game stand out is how funny it is, I lost the count of how many times I laughed while testing it. Ema socially inaptitude ends up in various comedy gold scenarios, and her voice actress makes an excellent job at portraying her as a weird girl that search banned lyrics for fun.

Of course, Saito and Miki have their own charm too and the two of them together have amazing moments, it’s almost like watching a performance of Manzai, with Saito being the tsukkomi and Miki the boke, which works really well.

Besides the funny interaction between characters, the game features a good number of bad endings that are hilarious.

The art of the game is very beautiful, even though sometimes the character expressions would look a bit off, with some weird anatomy too. In the other hand, the chibi art is perfect in every way possible.

The porn scenes were good, while some were definitely… interesting. I’m very happy with the fact that it isn’t only Ema speaking, and I got to hear Saito and Miki as well during those scenes, that fact alone made all of the scenes 100% more enjoyable to me, plus paired with good sound effects and nice art, I couldn’t ask for more.

I believe that Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome is an incredible game, and I doubt only woman would enjoy it, seeing how cute and funny Ema can be in addition to Miki and Saito that are hilarious in their own way too, even those who aren’t the biggest fans of otome can enjoy this game, so it’s worth a shot!

You can pick up Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome right now on MangaGamer.com or Steam!

So if you’re reading a review, you’ve probably seen the website. If you’ve seen the website, you’ve probably seen the introduction video and the opening sequence and read the title. Which gives us our preface: Mito Togo’s goal he said was something along the lines of “wanting to make a unique game that he wanted that didn’t exist yet” and… well, everything about Hadaka is pretty much exactly as written on the tin.

The buttlers aren’t naked to begin with, mind you. There’s sort of a gradual progression to that point… With a few steep jumps.  But that’s not so important, let’s talk review!

So Hadaka Shitsuji is kind of in an unusual territory- if someone came up to me and said “Hadaka Shitsuji is a nukige” I wouldn’t really be able to tell them they’re wrong… it’s not a nukige, but it’s not NOT a nukige really. It’s a rare example of a yaoi game meant for gay men as opposed to fujoshi, and it absolutely does show. The plot is hilariously campy and silly- about what you’d expect from a porn video. There’s no wild twists or surprises, except for the (frequent) “yes, really.”- and the more time goes on it really just becomes mega apparent how “exactly what’s on the tin” the whole game is. It’s great, really.

It’s funny, but not like make a joke tee hee ha ha way- all of the humor is seated very, very comfortably in absurdism and if you’re weak to secondhand emBarassment(like me) you’re going to get hit with it pretty hard. Like I said earlier, it’s all about on par with what you’d expect from a porn vid: “In front of my salad?!”

Music is alright. Nothing jaw dropping, but nothing especially intrusive and annoying either. Very ambient.

The art is… a mixed bag. It’s not bad, but it’s not like jaw dropping either. The dicks are relatively nice looking at least. Some of the CGs are very good, some not so good, but none are really bad… though there is some rather niche fetishes. No poop though.

All in all, I’d give it… 6/10. It’s comedy that makes it a bit hard to remember it’s comedy sometimes, but then it slaps you in the face with it after you start to think there’s something resembling a serious plot- which can be fun, but it’s also a little jarring. Not a bad game, slightly above average quality overall. Enjoyable for anyone looking for a laugh and to not take things too seriously.

You can pick up Hadaka Shitsuji – Naked Butlers right now on MangaGamer.com!

Today, Mojack would like to share his thoughts about The Spirit Master of Retarnia!

Hello there ladies and gents! Mojack here reporting in as a fresh, wet-behind-the-ears beta tester! I cannot express how much of an exciting experience it was to be part of the creation process for the visual novel medium I’ve loved for so many years. From the moment I began to the moment I submitted my final report, I was giddy like a young ‘un on Christmas morning. That’s enough gushing over my fortuitous situation, though. Let’s jump into why you’re reading this Tester’s Corner: The Spirit Master of Retarnia.

I went into this beta essentially blind. I was unfamiliar with Luna Soft as a developer and I did little more than look at the promo image on the “Project Status” page to get a glimpse of what some of the characters look like. I also knew that there would be some sort of dungeon crawling mechanics but that was the extent of my knowledge before starting. This was great because I got to play the game without any preconceptions.

This was my mentality going into the beta

The Spirit Master of Retarnia follows Leonard, the titular Spirit Master, who is tasked with subjugating the demons found within a portal that recently opened in the kingdom of Retarnia. He is assisted by the five elemental spirits that he summons forth: Norn, Rusalka, Vesta, Melissa, and Eris each represent light, water, fire, earth, and darkness, respectively. It’s not the most grandiose of stories, and Leonard isn’t necessarily the most dynamic of protagonists (he literally has a black silhouette for a character portrait), but the Spirits and supporting characters around him are clearly the stars of the show.

From the caring Norn, to the mischievous Eris, to ever energetic Vesta, there’s a little something for everyone here. My personal favorite is the lascivious queen of Retarnia, Sylvia, who never misses a chance to watch her personal attendant and Leonard squirm as she spews out the kind of lewd lines you’d expect from an adolescent boy who’s discovered porn for the first time.

Sylvia is a national treasure and must be protected

While there aren’t traditional “routes” in this game, you can still go about romancing each of the five spirits by assisting them in dungeons, hanging out with them in town, and giving them gifts. Reaching certain affection levels unlocks each spirit’s H-scenes and allows Leonard to use certain skills from the spirit in battle. You can only fully romance one spirit per playthrough, however, so choose wisely. I ended up romancing Rusalka my first time through because I liked the contrast between her mature appearance and her pseudo-innocent curiosity towards all things.

Besides the story and wooing of spirits, though, there are the dungeon crawling aspects of the title. Anyone who has played a game in the genre will be instantly familiar with the step-by-step, floor scrawling mechanics present in The Spirit Master of Retarnia. It’s vanilla dungeon crawling to a T, which is great for breaking up the pace in the story. Encounters are random but the rate can thankfully be modified up or down by a pair of skills Leonard has.

While there is no reward for fully mapping a floor, the completionist inside me couldn’t help but not move on until I saw that 100% displayed beneath the map. It brought me an intrinsic satisfaction even if I didn’t get anything out of it besides a few stray potions laying around here and there.

Only 71% mapped? Not good enough for me!

Equally satisfying was watching your spirits’ fighting potentials grow over the course of the game. Going from slowly whittling down enemies one by one to nuking a whole group and recovering the MP spent in the same turn provided a worthy sense of empowerment. Bosses, on the other hand, still gave me trouble and sometimes required a little trial-and-error. They were never so overbearing as to be unfair, though.

Area of effect nukes are such a cathartic release

It was my pleasure to test The Spirit Master of Retarnia as my first beta assignment. Not only was the visual novel itself was a joy to go through, but it was also an eye-opening experience behind the inner workings of game development and localization. This is definitely the kind of game I could play to unwind from a long day of work. The story is short, simple and sweet, the dungeon crawling is just the right amount of stimulating, and the girls are cute. What more could you ask for?

The Spirit Master of Retarnia is now available on MangaGamer.com!

Today, we have a tester’s corner from Mashiro!

Hello, Mashiro here and this is one more Test Corner with me.

I’ve been interested in the yuri genre for quite some years now and being able to test A Kiss for the Petals – Maidens of Michael was something that made me quite happy and excited! The game delivered everything I expected from a yuri game. It was just so heartwarming and cute. The game initially follows the relationship between Azumi Risa and Ayase Miya, slowly showing how the two go from troubled student and concerned class representative to something more than that. Seeing the two falling for each other and trying to understand their feelings made me smile all the way until the end and I couldn’t help but cheer for their pure and sweet love.

Of course, the other five couples featured in the game also brought a smile a smile to my face. Each one of them had an unique charm to them, so I have no doubts that the players will cheer for at least one of these couples, if not all of them! The interactions between all the characters was a very nice touch too. Something I always appreciate is when the other characters still appear even when I’m playing a different route. All of the other characters were a constant presence and had an impact on the plot in each route.

The art of the game is very pretty and has kind of a candy/dream-like look to them, increasing the overall sweet feeling of the game. The love between the girls is palpable in every CG, giving them an extra charm that not a lot of games have. The chibis CG are also very cute!

The music of the game isn’t anything amazing, but I gotta say I love opening theme. It’s probably one of the best openings songs I’ve ever heard and I love it so much. I hope everyone that picks up A Kiss for the Petals – Maidens of Michael has as much fun as I did!

A Kiss for the Petals: Maidens of Michael is now available on MangaGamer.com and Steam.

Today’s Tester’s Corner for Supipara Chapter 2 is brought to you by Nurio!

Boom, baby! I’m back… again! And so is Supipara with Chapter 2 of its story. Hm? You’re saying I already used this header image in my previous Tester’s Corner, and that this image doesn’t even appear in chapter 2? Sure! But look! It’s Momiji, and she’s showing us the number 2. It could not be more appropriate!

But man, going back to Supipara after having spent time with it in Chapter 1 was quite an experience. The moment I started the game and heard that music again, it did cause some emotions to well up inside me, like some warm hug from an old friend you hadn’t seen in years because he accidentally ran over your mother with his car twice. Luckily there are no cars in Supipara (neither Chapter 1 nor Chapter 2), though there are mothers!

Alternatively, you could say returning to Supipara is like sitting under a warm traditional American kotatsu. Just look at how comfy that looks!

You guessed right! Everybody’s favorite mother returns in Chapter 2, because she simply likes being like all that. “Like all what? Be more specific, Nurio!” you ask and rudely demand? Ryouko is simply an entity that cannot be defined by mere words, much like most characters in this game. And let me tell you about all the other characters in this game in the next paragraph.

Yeah, Ryouko really is in a league of her own…

“What was the point of the last paragraph? Be more concise, Nurio!” you ask and rudely demand? I’m sorry, concise? Have you met me? Anyway, it’s called a bridge, to connect one paragraph to another. It stands to rea—No, I’m not gonna do that again.

Know who does do that again, though? Do what, you ask? It doesn’t matter! The answer is Alice Kamishiro! She returns in this game, in case you were doubting she’d return with the subtitle of this game being “Alice the Magical Conductor”. …Am I the only one who thinks of a train conductor when reading that? Now I wanna see Alice with a train conductor hat…

Aww, isn’t she cute? And look, she likes it!

Actually, basically all characters return in this Chapter again. …Except for one. Can you guess who? That’s right, it’s Kyouko. You know, the one who committed the cardinal sin of never having met Momiji even once in Chapter 1? Now you know what happens if you commit said sin: You get erased. Hard. And that’s what you deserve.

Bam, just like that. Wrath of Momiji

Momiji, our eternal girl who knows no sin, of course also returns, and man, she is even more pushy in Chapter 2! In a good way, I promise! Before, she was seemingly content with just interacting with Yukinari ‘normally’, but now she really seems to push for… hm, well, I’ll let you find out for yourself what she is pushing for, but it’s very hnng. Very hnng, indeed. Trust me. If I say something Momiji is hnng, it’s hnng.

I would never…

There are also two new characters introduced in Chapter 2, so even if you feared the VN would become more boring with one fewer character, you… well… won’t need to fear that, because… well… yeah… there aren’t any fewer characters in this Chapter… there is actually… one more… Man, I thought I’d deliver that fact with more pizazz, but I guess I flunked that one. Happens to the best of us, right? Right. Glad you agree.

So, in Chapter 1, the focus of the story was Sakura, your second cousin, but in Chapter 2, we kinda ditch Sakura for Hotaru. Poor Sakura… Your spunkiness and cheerfulness will be missed. Anyway, like I said, the story now follows Hotaru. Y’know, that half-French girl I absolutely, positively loved to pieces. And… Hold on. Before I can continue saying I love Hotaru, I need to do a little something.

There. Perfect

Meet Hotaru. This is not Momiji wearing a wig. This is Hotaru Angeline Amano, the girl I love and the focus of Chapter 2. And she—

That looks stupid…

Onee-chan? What? Stupid? I spent too much time on this for you to say this looks stupid!

But she now has two different hair colors…

Well, what did you want me to do? Shave her bald? Besides, her hair color is hardly different. It’s gold blonde and platinum blonde.

Nuri-kyun… Her hair is kinda green.

What!? No! That can’t be. She’s a blonde. She…

No, no, no

No, no, no, no, no

No…?

Tusk? What color is tusk?

It’s green!

Looks closer to yellow to me! Look at how close the circle is to yellow on the color wheel! Momiji is a blonde, and that’s final!

Ah, so it -is- Momiji!

Ungh… I’m just going to subtly divert the topic by saying I used this app to check the hair color: http://chir.ag/projects/name-that-color/

(Yes, I am legitimately colorblind and have to make use of tactics like this to figure out what color something is.)

Poor Momiji… Being forced by my obsessive imouto…

Otouto, not imouto. And Hotaru, not Momiji. Besides, she’s not being forced. Mo–Hotaru, can you give us a smile?

Hnng…

See?

Ew, all I see is that you’ve got a stain in your pants…

Shut up!

Anyway, I’ve digressed enough. The story of Supipara Chapter 2 is actually interesting. If you see Chapter 1 as the introduction, then Chapter 2 is definitely where the real things happen. Don’t worry, Uncle Nurio never spoils anything. I’m only saying you’ll have some good stuff waiting for you if you already liked Chapter 1… even if you didn’t really like Hotaru, trust me! At the end of the Chapter, you’ll actually start to like Hotaru, like some kind of victim of the Stockholm Syndrome. Yay!

But what am I saying? Everybody loves Hotaru. Just scroll up a little and look at that smile from I Can’t Believe It’s Not Momiji. How can you not love that? So really, you’ll be fine!

As long as you spend hours in Photoshop…

Excuse you, I don’t use Photoshop. …That’s way too expensive for my budget.

I’m not sure if the following counts as a spoiler, but if you’re super sensitive about spoilers like me, simply skip this part as I will be talking about the very beginning of Chapter 2. Just look for the bolded text toward the end of this TC. That’ll be your beacon of hope as it’ll be safe from there on out again.

So, it’s interesting because the beginning of Chapter 2 actually follows the beginning of Chapter 1 somewhat closely. If you’ve played Chapter 1 and remember it well, you’ll even recognize certain parts or even certain lines. Of course, after a while, Chapter 2 will deviate more and more from Chapter 1 as you gravitate more and more toward Hotaru. And that’s something I really like. …Though, I may be easy to please.

Yeah, you are… A girl only needs to smile at you…

No, no. Just a certain girl. Not all girls

Momiji, right?

Ye—I mean, no. Hotaru!

You could also kind of make a game out of it, where you are trying to spot the similarities and the differences between the two chapters and how these differences happen. At that point, it even becomes a bit of a detective game. Why did these changes happen? For what reason? For what purpose? And who killed the Landlord, in which room, with which weapon?

“Not the largest pole I… haven’t… had between my legs…?”

As for why the Chapter similarities were done like this… I am honestly not very sure. It might have something to do with the fact that Chapter 1 and 2 were bundled together in Japan, so their stories were always meant to be very intrinsically linked together. Oooh, mysterious…! I have some other theories of my own, but hey, that would really be spoiler territory, and I just promised Uncle Nurio does not do spoilers! So no theories for you!

Hey, you can start reading from here again if you tried to avoid spoilers!

There are many things I like about Supipara, and even though I already really liked Chapter 1, I didn’t even realize how much I truly loved the game until I played Chapter 2. I genuinely missed the characters, the settings, and as aforementioned, the music. I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder…

Supipara just has this level of polish and atmosphere that I don’t see in a lot of other VNs. Heck, I mentioned in my Chapter 1 TC that it’s hard to tell what is CG and what is just sprites on backgrounds, but there are other things, like voice lines actually playing ‘in 3D’. If a character is to your left, you’ll hear the voice coming from the left speaker, or if they’re far away, you’ll also hear the voice from far away. They have such an attention to detail that it becomes a truly immersive, magical experience that I would recommend to everyone.

Of course, when I say level of polish, I am ignoring those times when you see… artifacts of the beta version, like missing backgrounds being replaced by pure red… (Naturally, you won’t see these things in the finished version!)

N-No. Nothing is the matter. It’s not like it looks like the sky is literally on fire…

Anyway, like I said, I can really recommend Supipara Chapter 2 to everyone who likes a story VN with focus on characters and atmosphere. But… maybe I’m also recommending it to everyone because I am trying to get Chapter 3 funded for a very particular reason. Can you guess what that reason is, hm?

Lastly, I wanted to say that since Supipara Chapter 1, I finally got a new computer! How is that relevant? Well, my old computer wasn’t that great and the cherry blossom animations kinda killed my computer’s performance. Now, with my new and improved computer, that shouldn’t happen! …Except, apparently it still does. New equipment doesn’t matter… RIP, me.

And RIP, Minako 2.0 ;_;

Sigh… Guess I’ll have to get an even better computer when Supipara Chapter 3 comes along… But for now: Nurio, out!

Secret counter: 0.5

Today’s Tester’s Corner for Supipara Chapter 2 is brought to you by Mojack!

Heya howdy all, mojack here with a post about a game that is very near and dear to me, Supipara Chapter 2! Ever since minori stole my heart (and tears) away with eden*, I have been an avid fan of their artistry that goes above-and-beyond that of regular visual novels. As such, being able take part in the creative process of bringing this story to all of you has been an extraordinary honor.

Fans of minori and Supipara rejoice, because Chapter 2 continues the developer’s trend of delivering a fantastical story presented through an absurd number of CG’s and stellar voice direction. Newcomers to the series, however, will definitely want to check out the original first. As the name suggests, Supipara Chapter 2 is very much a direct sequel to Chapter 1, but it’s fully enjoyable on its own!

With that little disclaimer out of the way, let’s dive right on in!

After how the original ended, it’s easy to fall into a certain mindset of how this new entry into the Supipara series will go. However, Chapter 2 makes it clear very quickly that it’s not playing it straight. Without spoiling anything, it feels like everything is fresh again, as if you are stepping into this wondrous version of Kamakura for the first time.

This isn’t to say that all the characters aren’t the eclectic bunch of goofballs we grew to know and love in Chapter 1, though. Sakura is still a lightning bolt of unpredictability, Momiji is still a little paradoxical ball of absurdity, and the ever inquisitive East-West duo still can’t be honest with themselves. Watching Yukinari’s interactions with these unique individuals is like wrapping up in a blanket next to a fireplace with hot chocolate in hand; it’s joyful and comforting.

As many of you know, though, the star of the show for this chapter is none other than Hotaru Amano, the fiery tsundere capable of dishing out words laden with enough venom to fell an entire herd of elephants. Hotaru’s abuse(?) of Yukinari stands in stark contrast to Sakura’s doting from the previous chapter, which certainly took some getting used to initially. Her sharp tongue forces Yukinari to hone his wit, however, and I couldn’t help but celebrate his victories the few times he managed to come out on top in their verbal warfare.

Despite Hotaru’s tsundere archetype, I was pleasantly surprised by how consistent of a character she actually was. To put it simply, she was always true to herself, a trait that is exceptionally rare among her kind and calls into question her label as a tsundere in the first place. Every word she speaks, every action she makes is entirely in line with every aspect we have seen of her. This extends to her wish and motivation for it which, as anyone who has played Chapter 1 can guess, plays an enormous role in the narrative.

Hotaru’s story isn’t a tear-jerker by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, by the end of the gentle coaster of emotions I felt like I could truly empathize for the young lady and what she went through, which is something I wasn’t expecting going into this chapter.

If you enjoyed Supipara Chapter 1, then I see little reason why you wouldn’t enjoy this as well. Hotaru hasn’t dethroned my favorite girl (that spot still belongs to the mischievous witch herself) but her story is far from unremarkable and has genuine moments of brilliance. The stage is set for Chapter 3, and we can only hope that we don’t have to wait too long.

Ah, but most importantly. The answer to the most important question. Yes, the CPU-killing cherry blossom effect is still there in full force. You can rest easy now.*

*Editor’s Note: The cherry blossom effect was further optimized post-beta.

Today’s Tester’s Corner for Magical Marriage Lunatics is brought to you by SSparks!

Hello everyone, I’m SSparks and this is my first Tester’s Corner. Today, I bring to you Magical Marriage Lunatics, a Moonstone game which I had the honor of beta testing. It’s safe to say I’ve been a big fan of Moonstone since Princess Evangile, and MML is certainly a great experience for those like me.

Our story begins with the protagonist Ushio Yuta who, somehow, has made marriage pacts with the princesses of the five other major worlds, including vampires and succubi, and also his childhood friend. All the girls come to the human world to meet him, and then shenanigans ensue as they all try to go to school. Certainly not a very new concept, but that doesn’t mean it’s automatically bad. In my opinion, it’s portrayed quite well in this game, with how diverse the cast is.

While the main characters still fall under classic tropes, tsundere fans like me will be just a bit disappointed, as most of the cast consists of deredere-like girls. Which makes sense, considering the premise, but nonetheless makes me a tad sad. There’s a proud girl, a shy girl, a very energetic girl, a gentle girl, a strange girl, and…. the childhood friend. There’s not much about her other than that, unfortunately. The girls are all rivals, but that doesn’t stop them from having fun all the time. And whenever they’re having fun, you can be sure you’ll have fun too.

The lead-ups to the character routes are very clearly split, and although the choices aren’t always direct, it’s easy to know what’s the right thing to do. The routes themselves are, of course, focused on the respective characters, but that doesn’t mean the others disappear. The supporting characters also play their part as usual, sometimes even taking the spotlight. Unsurprisingly, however, each girl shines the most on her respective route. They all show growth, and that is something that I certainly didn’t expect.

This being my first beta test, I was certainly nervous around the start, but it was very enriching. Having my first real experience with beta testing be a Moonstone title was certainly fun, not to mention enlightening, and I hope you all enjoy this game as much as I did. If you were a fan of Princess Evangile, I’m certain you’ll enjoy Magical Marriage Lunatics. It’s such a nice treat, to not enjoy it would be shameful.