Well, it’s so the protagonist has the time to hang out with the girls in question (as well as the fact that school is a plausible scenario for meeting girls). When the protagonist DOES have a job or other responsibilities, it usually relates in some way to the girls he’s chasing. Examples:
Games where the protagonist is a school teacher
(Haruka ni Aogi, Haru no Ashioto etc. too many to count) The winnable heroines are generally students and occasionally a female teacher (or other member of staff) - protagonist’s job involves spending a lot of time around the girls in question.
Games where the protagonist goes to school, but has some other responsibilities that are essentially all but a full-time job
(Sharin no Kuni, G-Senjou no Maou, too many to count here too, really) The winnable heroines are generally students, but students that the protagonist ends up interacting with a lot as part of his job. In Sharin, the [first three] heroines were girls the protagonist was assigned to watch over. In G-Senjou no Maou, they were typically related with the work the protagonist does for his father and/or Maou.
Games that take place in a fantasy world and the character has responsibilities
Well this varies, but this usually involves some sort of monster/demon hunting. Sometimes solo and sometimes as a commander.
Games that where the protagonist would have a real job would obviously have them pursue girls at his workplace and the like (those aren’t so popular in general though, but there is a market for them) or they would have to be very long-drawn-out games because what’s the character doing most of the time? Working or sleeping.
Just goes to show how different peoples tastes are. In regards to Raidy I’d have to say that the gameplay is probably the best I’ve seen in some time, ('Course, first person grid based dungeon romps admittedly are one of my favorite genres, albeit a dying one where the last game up to Raidy I’ve played was Shining the holy ark on the saturn… ) and the Yuri content was entirely uninteresting to me. H content would have been way better if the hero was a guy, or if all the bosses were guys.
As for my most dissapointing? I’d probably have to say private nurse.
I liked Raidy overall. I got a bit irritated a couple of times while playing it, but that was due to me not wanting to waste the time to map the level because I knew there was a map SOMEWHERE around— and if I stated mapping the level, the map would be just 2 squares away (and yes, that happened). Anyways, it was fun, so I’d buy another game if it was similar to Raidy.
As for Pretty Soldiers— I liked it. It was a good, basic tactical game. I would have liked the option to shoot before or after moving— that would have been very nice. But other then that, I like it enough I’d buy any sequels to it that PP decided to publish.
ZYX is the Uwe Boll of eroge as far as I’m concerned. I have never seen such a rampant marathon of shovelware. All ZYX characters pretty much look exactly the same anyway, the art is terrible, the sex isn’t that great and the stories are of course absolutely terrible. Every time I find out that PP has wasted precious development time on a ZYX game I can only cringe. I think the only game by ZYX that had any modicum of value was probably Chain. Everything else was garbage. I hope Princess Waltz and Family Project keep me busy for an indefinite amount of time so I never have to look at another ZYX game again.
As for Pretty Soldier Wars… WHY couldn’t it be Baldr Force instead?! PSW was shit in every way.
Other disappointments include the excessive use of “tactics” style gaming for RPG games. Tactics is shit, and either include a decent gameplay element or don’t include one at all. I’d rather all the money spent on a shitty tactics system be spent instead of sound effects and fancy screen effects like in FSN. I felt more feedback and exhilaration from that as opposed to another bullshit tactics romp.
Haruiro Ouse was a big disappointment as well. Once the initial glitter of it all wore off, it turned out to be a very generic story, the characters for the most part were completely uninteresting. It seemed quite obvious that the only character of significance was the main heroine and once you go beyond that, it becomes so boring. Haruiro Ouse? More like Haruiro Sage. AsuKimi eats it any day.
To be fair, I kind of expected that, given Haruiro Ouse’s mediocre ratings. I didn’t mind the main route, but quickly realised that the other routes were a lot weaker - especially the osananajimi route (I’ve forgotten her name already =p), which was just bleh given the fact that she was the most interesting other character (to me)
Anyway, I think the reason PSW wasn’t Baldr Force is that Giga would probably charge a shitload to license any of their stuff. >_<
The Konoha route was great there’s no question about it. But after that the plot was just so weak for the other characters. Kikyou didn’t turn out how I thought she would etc. The osananajimi character is “Nadesico”. I must admit Nadesico is the only girl in eroge that I have seen talk like that. It’s not the use of super polite language that got me, it was the way she speaks. She always talks like she’s really annoyed or has a major stick up her ass. It was kind of fun to watch. But then her route kicked in and the game got boring the moment she walked into his room. A lot of the other characters had tacked on confessions that sucked.
Oh and I forgot to mention that I hate the way the protagonist looks and his whole mote mote crap was undeserved.
While I know that there are the “Do you like Horny Bunny”-games to which that opinion indeed is appliable, there is also “Chain” with a storyline that at least rivals the one of “EVE Burst Error”.
Then there are “Tsuki” and “Virgin Roster”, who may be to some people distasteful (I don’t really like them either), but really “shallow”?
And “The Sagara Family”… this one should at least be a candidate for the same league as one of the former local favorites here: CROWD’s “Tokimeki CheckIn!”.
I am far from being a “ZyX” fan - after all, I am not too fond of their graphic’s style, but I wonder whether the majority of their stories really are “shallow”, or whether the “shallow” titles within their lineup were intentionally chosen for localization, because they were deemed better marketable.
(Let’s not forget, it was still the “original G-Collections” who made that choice not Peter and crew, who just picked up the pieces and continued the support for their titles after the original “G-Collections” were disbanded…)
I agree with you.
BUT I have to say that I still love the idea of tactical hgames.
Gameplay and hentai content matches well.
A big reason for many people to buy hgames is that they are a lot more “mature” than other anime games.
In most anime games you play a 14 year old kid who trains cute little monsters to fight for him in order to become the coolest trainer in the world.
A lot of more mature gamers cant relate with that, which is why they are seeking hentai themed games which often (not always) have a deep, serious storyline, thematize sexuality and have a strong emphasis on emotions and character development.
And of course you get to see naked chicks.
But from my personal experience a lot of hgames are more fun than high budget games,
an example of great gamedesign, creating a lot of fun and immersion with little effort.
I think its simply because licensing less successful titles usually costs less,
and that PP has now the budget to take on some of the bigger localisation projects.
We should not forget that some of the first titles were Water Closet etc… not exactly the best of the best hgames.
I think a big left down to me was DESIRE from the old Himeya. Not the story… the story was good. But the erotic scenes from the two main characters… Alberto and his girlfriend (i forgot her name) were bad. Al was a dick - having sex with every girl he could set his eyes, and his girlfriend was a whore having sex with a jerk who dominates her completely and she liked… and she was having sex with another girls too.
I think sometimes it’s better a bishojo game to have no erotic scenes than some bad ones or scenes you dislike completely.
I remember something like that was the old eroge SUMERAGI NO MIKOTACHI from D.O., a RPG game i hope someday can be translated. The protagonist was the reencarnation of a devil king and was fighting a holy army of Mikos/shrine maidens. Every time he defeated the mid-boss miko from a place, he take her to his place and have sex with her, forcing her to become his thing.
I don’t remember very much all the details because i played just the trial version a long time ago. But i know there’s lots of girls to “break down and turn yours”… over 20, i think.
Another would be this tactic game from Eushully i don’t remember the name, where the protagonist was a devil lord who atacks and control other countries, kidnapp the princesses of that countries and turn them into sexual slaves in order to have plenty of kids and built armies with his own kids.
Note that G-Collections only released games developed through their parent company. ZyX and Trabulance titles tended to sell better than the other stuff, so the best-sellers (maybe marketable in the eyes of G-Collection as well) were probably prioritized for US release.
As for “post-G-Collections” ZyX localizations, those selections were made by JAST USA and no one else. I know that they cite The Sagara Family as a hit (ditto for Tsuki and Virgin Roster), so it makes sense for Cherry to be licensed. Raidy is an experiment in selling ero RPGs.
Edit: I don’t know much about the rest of ZyX’s titles, but branding is often established to separate a company’s product line into distinct categories (despite the use of many sub-brands and subsidiary entities, most of the CD BROS games were developed in-house). I suspect that ZyX settled into sex-fest and brutish-themed visual novels once those proved successful.
Exactly. RPGs usually take time to translate, so they might check if this genre is worth investing time into by
trying to sell a less “complex” RPG such as Raidy.
As for all games, request decides the outcome here.
If you would like to have some superb RPGs other than Raidy translated in the future
it would be a good choice to buy the Raidy games or even Brave Soul to show PP there is demand for that genre.
What makes RPG hgames so much fun is that you can exchange tactics and secrets with other hgame fans on forums,
and that they offer a lot of content to keep you busy for more hours than your usual visual novel does.
Telling a story with good gameplay is always more fun than clicking through 500 pages of text,
which of course doesnt mean that visual novels are bad.
Visual novels are better than most mainstream pc games, because they put a stronger emphasis on the plot and on characters.
Many mainstream pc games have too much gameplay and too little story.
Its balance that matters, and I think many HRPGs pull that one off well since they are visual novel /RPG hybrids.
Decent eroges that also have a pretty respectable gameplay component:
Baldr Force
Sengoku Rance
Quite a bit of AliceSoft’s other stuff
Kikaijikake no Eve
Amatsukaze
It’s very, very possible to mix a decent story with good gameplay - AliceSoft are especially good at this, I think.
And I don’t think it’s a matter of these eroge+game hybrids being better than visual novels (or worse) - rather, they’re a nice diversion and it’s fun to play both kinds.
Black Cyc’s Gun Katana (an ADV/FPS hybrid) is another eroge I’d add to Lancer-X’s list. Although graphically etc. the FPS component is rather primitive, there’s also a large range of weapons available for purchase, skill upgrades, support characters etc. Crucially, none of the stages are excessively long either, with most being less than 5 minutes, so the gameplay component doesn’t become tiresome or overwhelm the story.
I would add Studio E-Go! games. Even thought not everyone likes them, they’re pretty well made. And i remember Elf’s Dragon Knight 4 looks very good, too.
) and the Yuri content was entirely uninteresting to me. H content would have been way better if the hero was a guy, or if all the bosses were guys.
