(02-22-2026, 06:23 PM)EchelonV Wrote: Anything you guys are keeping tabs on and excited about? Drop them here.
I have to say this Waffle game Eden's Ritter II's art is so damn cool. I'm curious about these now. It's kind of like a real gothic stylized version of Asagi's look or something.
The HD makes me wonder if it's a remaster though?
https://x.com/waffle1999
http://www.waffle1999.com/game/112edens02hd/
The sexy times look tentacle approved.
I've heard of edens ritter before but haven't played any of them yet, thankfully the first one and one other one is in english i believe. so id say there is a good chance this gets an english release too. I know waffle also did the funbag fantasy games, have you played any of those before? would be curious to see some reviews for it. as for games im keeping tabs on, well most aren't really Inyouchuu adjacent, I like reading various VNs in general, funnily enough im not usually much of a horror person(and i don't watch horror movies or anything) but if its anime characters then i can usually handle it, like there might be stuff i still find gross/disturbing but if its a drawing then I can still watch/read it just fine. i am somewhat dreading playing more gore screaming show though, like i really want to know whats going on and its an interesting game with characters/writing seeming pretty good so far(seems like it could have some interesting themes) but unlike in Inyouchuu where its usually pretty dang obvious what is gonna lead to a bad end, ive heard at least that the bad endings in gore screaming show can happen quite suddenly, like someone asking if you want to join them for tea and everything is normal but then suddenly it leads to a bad ending despite seeming like an insignificant decision. Ive been playing Night shift nurses since the remake thankfully got an english localization awhile back, should have finished it by now but the backlog only grows and i get distracted easily whoops. lots of VNs out there to read!!! and i like that VNs can have an anime style to them while dealing with much darker topics and themes that normally wouldn't be possible in a tv anime. The muvluv trilogy is a masterpiece that any VN fan pretty much needs to read, same with White album 2(well i guess your mileage might very as maybe some would find it too dramatic/depressing?) but personally i thought WA2 was a masterpiece! oh right, i still gotta talk about my favourite endings from Inyouchuu and whatnot sometime too.
I know the Rance games are super popular so id like to try out more alicesoft games(played some of dohna dohna and i really liked the artstyle/music/colourful nature of that game, although the theme is pretty messed up with what the main characters do for a living lol) and evenicle was also a pretty fun RPG from what i played(i actually used trial and error to make my way probably about halfway through the game in japanese back in the day before the english version was released LOL). for upcoming stuff im not too sure, its mostly stuff thats seemingly been in hiatus forever or we haven't gotten an update on in a long time at this point, theres the english release of SUMAGA, its probably one of the VNs i most want to see in english right now along with the Aquaplus VN Routes, and then there is Axanael which also looks interesting going off of its really dope opening, but since we haven't even gotten SUMAGA yet i doubt they would announce an english version of that anytime soon. at least we got tokyo necro and fullmetal daemon. i hear really good things about full metal daemon muramasa. and tokyo necro is another one i need to get back to, it has some interesting world building and the characters seem pretty fun. action scenes are fantastic from what ive read so far. I guess there is the sequel to monochrome mobius coming out in may so i really need to finish that first game(its an RPG though, but made by aquaplus and in the same world as utawarerumono)
im really hoping we get the Dokyuusei 2 remake and Kakyuusei remake, but dating sims don't really seem to get much attention these days and im not sure how well the first Dokyuusei did. its also crazy to me that tokimeki memorial got a new release on the switch but Konami still refuses to localise it in english, its such a classic game though and i want to be able to play it(there is the SNES version fantranslation but thats easily one of the weaker versions of the game) at least the ToHeart remake is in english but the 3d models look bad amongst other flaws that weren't present in the original and im waiting for a fan translation of the original version, at least since Shizuku got a fan translation hopefully the team has gone back to toheart again.
Ive always kept tabs on what VNs featuring art by piromizu come out, so basically just the Amakano VNs these days. amakano 3 came out last year but i still haven't gotten around to buying it yet. theres no point in waiting though since we just aren't getting any of those games in english sadly. id really, really love to see any of the amakano VNs in english, its pretty much the opposite of Inyouchuu though with everything being really sweet and happy mostly, but I love the art, the atmosphere, the music, the backgrounds. its just a very pretty looking/sounding series, pretty much if i like the art thats a big factor for me in capturing my interest. its really sad we have gotten some of azurashisofts smaller releases like Aikagi and Amanatsu but still no sign of any Amakano games being brought over. however there are 2 things i really miss from the older games. while piromizus art is amazing, hes almost gotten too good at this point, like his art in newer games almost loses some of the cartoony/anime look of the first few Amakano releases, since the more detailed the lighting and shading and all that get, it almost gets too realistic to the point where it loses a bit of the charm for me. im sure im literally the only one who feels this way, hes definitely only improved even more over the years, but i guess for me those first few amakano games struck the perfect balance between still being a somewhat detailed anime style but still somewhat cartoony to a degree. not too sure how to describe it or what exactly happened to make me feel that way, i mean it is still very good so maybe i just need to look at the newer stuff some more(i never did finish amakano 2+) it would be nice to have an english version cause id love to know whats going on in the various character routes, as it is ill admit i mostly play them for the h-scenes and the gorgeous artwork/sound/atmosphere, very relaxing/chill series that i think could probably do okay over here if given the chance.
Role player: Ikura Shimai no Nenmaku Portrait - Gurigucha LIVE!(had to copy paste the title since its a bit of a mouthful, but basically i usually would just shorten it to the third roleplayer nukige) came out last year as well, those games have some really good animated scenes in them, and i like the cosplay theme. the second one is supposed to come out at some point and ive had it preordered for awhile now but its still not out yet, might be coming out in may? not sure why they decided to bring the second one over, hopefully they still bring us the first at some point because IMO the first one was a lot better then the second at least for the live2d h-scenes. oh speaking of, there are also those oppai games by milk factory - I hope we get more of those in english, id imagine the maid one is next so i haven't bought that or the bunny one in japanese yet. glad we got oppai succubus. although i do think some of their older games from when milkfactory was still SQUEEZ might have been even better -and more interesting gameplay wise since they used to have some level of strategy from my limited understanding where you had to plan things out a bit to get the harem ending or whatnot.
and one that came out pretty recently in english was the nukige Love Juiced by atelier kaguya, as far as i know its the first atelier kaguya game to get an english release, and I really hope its not the last! I have most of them on DMM or DLSite from when they had a big sale on them, and they all have some really hot art in them with the occasional live2d scene(i assume its live2d at least) i really like the artists they have for their games(i think its mostly yoppy these days) speaking of nukige, maybesoft games always seemed pretty cool, i read a review for one of their titles that apparently was pretty funny/interesting beyond just the h-scenes. they got pretty creative with some of the h-scenes in their games though including this one game that also had a sequel where everyday objects like a bike seat would turn into a dildo or whatever(as a general example) and yeah their games look pretty silly and i like the cartoony artstyle they had. since they are older VNs now i dunno if we would ever get any in english since i imagine the company must have long gone out of buisiness by now sadly.
as far as tinkerbell goes id love to see more inyouchuu from them, although its been quite awhile since the last one. the one that takes place at the ski resort? seems quite interesting and id love to see it get translated in english someday. there was some game from them that came out recently that ill probably buy when it goes on sale, as i was looking at some of the CGs for it and it looked like it had more scat content then the usual tinkerbell title(although sometimes the way it was done almost seemed too over the top to the point of kinda taking away from what would be a hot scene? like it doesn't make much sense to have multiple uhhhh logs somehow coming out at the same time from one hole?)
this one, ikkon fujou:
and another company i like to keep tabs on as far as nukige go is moonstone cherry, they did the imouto paradise games(really wish we could get a fourth one, there is nothing else quite like those for moe nukige really?) i know one of their newer titles got a translation so i imagine the sequel to that will come out over here eventually as well. with that being said, i already went off on a tangent for long enough i think and i haven't really checked in awhile whats new/coming out soon on DLSite or FANZA/dmm in awhile, so im not too sure what new stuff is coming out, i know theres some more atelier kaguya games with some great artwork coming out as usual(though i will say there UI or whatever its called for the menus still seems super rudimentary/dated at this point, ive had issues with glitches in several games where after having the game running for sometime, suddenly the buttons aren't where they should be and i have to move the mouse completely away from a given option for it to actually go down and be selected, not sure how to explain it here in a way that makes sense. but in general their menus and whatnot could probably use a huge overhaul and its been the same since there early titles and never changed), but outside of that not too sure what else is new.
Anyways i really like Eroge and think its pretty interesting, especially looking at older titles from the PC 98 era and early 2000s. sadly some of those games from the early 2000s are not that easy to find these days if they never got any sort of digital re-release and were disc only. i managed to get a physical copy of Pure Heart ~Sekai de Ichiban Anata ga Suki~, although that one you can still find digitally out there, but the opening song by Kotoko is great and i like the artstyle of it, the characters look really cute and i guess they are all supposed to be robot girls? its also one of the earlier titles by SAGA PLANETS, the company that went on to make Kinkoi(great VN by the way, freaking loved it, lots of good humour and some good fanservice/h-content but the themes and characters are fantastic as well) so its a little sad they haven't made that title more accessible these days with a re-release. also i tried playing it a bit, and it seems interesting since it seems its got some gameplay/sim aspects where i think you can upgrade the main robot heroine so she can win fights and stuff, however i couldn't figure out the gameplay loop and kinda got stuck at the start of the game. maybe i could at least find a full save so i can view the h-scenes. theres also just something really charming about a lot of the art in older VNs especially, from the 80s/90s to even some of the early-mid 2000s stuff.
some screenshots(mostly NSFW) from it:
looks like it has some nice 3p scenes as well!
one of the newer atelier kaguya covers:
one of their older nukige:
some CG/the cover of the maybe-soft game pai-touch:
whoops that post got way too long. not sure how off topic that was. well it seems there are still some good new VNs both for eroge, safe for work, or straight up nukige, but im a bit worried of things drying up over time, since a lot of the great companies pretty much stopped working on stuff or shut down. I think alicesoft is still going but i dunno how much of the old staff is there so hopefully they can still make more quality stuff like dohna dohna, guess we will just have to see what happens there. at least compared to hentai anime there is still lots of cool stuff, just wondering if it won't eventually go the same way(or maybe it already is? not trying to be gloomy, i genuinely wouldn't know. it does suck seeing gacha stuff get so much attention, there was a gacha tokyo necro game, and it did get an offline version(no voice acting) but a lot of h-scenes or even interesting story stuff are just stuck in these miserable gacha games that waste either way too much time or money(both honestly) the utawarerumono lost flag gacha is getting an offline version, and while im worried the overall gameplay loop will still be miserable id love to have that extra lore since i love that series/world, so hopefully that offline version gets an english release at some point.)
so yeah would love to know if you have any insight/knowledge on the state of visual novels in the industry and if there is anything we should be a bit worried about in terms of quality or releases or how successful these games are(any interesting interviews out there from devs that have an english translation or anything?)(guess all the BS with mastercard/visa probably ain't helping sales too much) honestly if i could get a DMM JCB card i would, but i imagine its probably only available to people in Japan? I think they even had some deal where if you signed up for it you could get some free points.
(03-06-2026, 07:15 PM)EchelonV Wrote: New Liquid game.
https://nexton-net.jp/ms-toybox/darkone/elfhime/
https://x.com/Ms_toybox/status/2029744534427783270
oh yeah ive always been curious about their games too, that and BISHOP, they have some nice art(and a few of their games have had scat in them before although not common)