raises hand
It’s decent but don’t go expecting the depth of story or characters in Ikusa Megami ZERO or Verita.
EDIT: Also, it’s actually meister, not master.??? vs ???, you see.
So does that mean the Ikusa Megami games would provide a better void fill than Himegari?
Maybe. You might wanna give the trial a shot (I dunno if ZERO has a trial, but Verita definitely does) to make sure the gameplay works for you, but if it does, you’ll enjoy the heck out of the games + probably pour a hundred hours into them easily.
Which should I play first Zero or Verita, and do I need to play the previous Ikusa Megami games to understand and enjoy the story? Same question for the Genrin no Kishougun games.
Well, Ikusa Megami Zero is a prequel, so you definitely don’t need to have played any other game of the series. At least, I played it first and didn’t have any problem following the plot. I have to say that I didn’t particularly like the game, though.
About dark themed games, I definitely agree with Narg about Tsurumiku, obviously only for ero - probably the best dark ero currently available, though.
If you like mistery fiction, you may want to take a look at Innocent Grey titles. It’s totally different from Black Cyc, but I’d say that their stories are rather dark, and wonderfully written.
Actually I’ve been playing Cartagura on and off and I see what you mean on the dark part (recently finished Nana’s route and shortly after psycho nun’s).
Now that I think about it, I also need to get around to starting the Kansen series. Well, it looks like I can fill the good dark void for the time being now. All that’s left is to choose what to play first, Innocent Grey’s stuff, the Ikusa Megami games (and those related to it), or the Kansen series.
If you want to catch up on all the story from all of VERITA’s prequels in text form/without buying the games, Eushully released ???, which should fill you in for ZERO and Genrin 1+2. They aren’t exactly short 1 hour summaries though, so I’m not sure if they’ll be the fastest/most enjoyable way of understanding VERITA’s background.
Theme song blows. I’m agreeing with Ignosco: this ero is gonna suck ass. DO NOT WANT.
sigh
Looks like I’m without a good dark ero for early 2011 then. 
There’s Yamiiro no Snowdrops (full price remake of Kureuta). That’ll probably depend on how much of the scenario they rewrite/how many additions they make though.
There’s also BLOODY RONDO and the PARADISE LOST rerelease. Well, I guess BLOODY RONDO probably isn’t going to be all that dark considering the writers. Yamiiro no Snowdrops I’ll probably get though
Already played Saishuu Chikan Densha 3 then? How was it?
Well, cheer up, maybe Speed will announce Kansen 5 sometime soon.
Sayoko’s OP is out, and you can see the various ‘fun’ degenerations that await over on getchu or on the homepage. I love how Gouya’s apperance appears to remain the same, as ‘sex god’ old men are par for the course in eroges, but Sakiko’s degeneration involves her body returning to the apperance it was in from 40 years or so earlier, as there’s no way that you can have 62 year old women with h-scenes (500 to immortal is a far more acceptable age bracket, and even corpses are more common). Dare I say that this is the ultimate eroge taboo?
I dunno if I’d say ‘taboo’ necessarily; there’s probably just next to no demand for it!
I think I’m gonna try out Sayoko, mainly because I’m a sucker for yuri and the game seems to pack quite a lot of it. I don’t think this game will be particularly good, but since I don’t have high expectations, I’ll probably be satisfied (as long as I get my yuri, of course 
).
I have never heard of anyone THAT desperate for yuri before.
Ah, I guess it sounded quite desperate, didn’t it?
What I mean is that I expect it to be a decent sexromp, only with more yuri than your average sexromp. Since I don’t dislike sexromps, I’m gonna get it instead of some other random stuff without yuri. Obviously, I don’t expect the game to be that bad, otherwise I would just ignore it.
We’ll just have to wait for Valkyria or a similar circle to give it a shot. Debu Plus has probably sold in excess of 5000 copies across the download and package versions, so there’s possibly a hidden market out there for other things too.
Some updates on Inunaki and I have to say it at least looks good. It looks a hell of a lot better than Sayoko, but then again Cthulhu and its fandisk had better art than that and we all know how much those sucked. Still, artwork aside it kinda reminds me of Shikigami except it looks darker. I’m hoping this is a sign Black Cyc’s going to stick with its MDB/GSS/ Mushitsukai/Extravaganza/Gun Katana universe from now on .
Something that also might be of interest, Corpse maid and puppet master is now available in a package/CD-rom edition if that was holding you up.