I want to play a good B-game

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#1

By dating sim, do you mean something resembling a stat-based game where you choose your schedule each day, and you need a certain amount of strength/athleticism to win ‘sporty’ girl etc.? Aside from something old like True Love, there aren’t really any aside from Secret Wives Club (I haven’t played it so I know very little about it).

Based on what you’ve said I think you might be interested in Crescendo - the game takes place over 5 days, and there are 6 winnable characters. Although you end up on a certain character’s path fairly early on in the game, there are a few short branches within each path, and there are good and bad endings for each character(s). The story is very good and the characters are likeable, and for me it would be in the top 3 games that Peach Princess/G-Collections has released so far (the other two are Kana and Yume Miru Kusuri). However, if you’re looking for actual gameplay rather than some control over the story, then you’ll probably be disappointed by that (90% of the eroges available in English fall into this category though).

There are only a couple of releases with actual gameplay (ie. not selecting your response from a menu) like Pretty Soldier Wars, Lightning Warrior Raidy and Brave Soul. I haven’t played Brave Soul (which by general consensus seems to be the best of the three), but the other two are certainly very very light on plot, and I didn’t particularly like either of them. There’s also Utawarerumono which has been fan-translated by Mirrormoon, which has significant gameplay and story elements, but it’s a completely linear story, so in that respect you don’t have any control over what happens.

#2

To clarify, is your complaint that the stories aren’t very good, or that there really isn’t much actual gameplay? If your complaint is that the stories suck, then I and many others here will suggest games such as Kana - Little Sister, Crescendo, and Yume Miru Kusuri: A Drug That Makes You Dream. (These three games are considered by many of us to be the holy trinity of officially translated eroge.) On the other hand, if your complaint is that there is not much actual gameplay, then there are a few games that might satisfy you (that I haven’t played myself), such as Brave Soul (RPG), Lightning Warrior Raidy (RPG), and Downhill Night Blaze (auto racing game which isn’t out yet, but is licensed for translation). Also, the just released game Princess Waltz has a card game that is a representation of physical combat, but for the most part the game is a standard visual novel type game like the ones you’ve played before. Lastly, it would be useful if you explained this bit:

What exactly is your definition of a dating sim? Is it a game like the flash games SimGirls or Ganguro Girl? If so, then the closest thing to that would be Casual Romance Club.
By the way, welcome to the forum.

On a completely different note, I must celebrate crossing the veteran member threshold!

#3

Why congratulations~ :smiley: hehe

#4

Brave Soul does have a general plot for the game/adventures you go on. The ladies you can try to get close to have their own stories as well. To get close to the ladies in Brave Soul, you must: a) take her on adventures with you, and b) do the adventure in a way she approves (ie, no killing or stealing from the orphans for those that believe the strong defends the weak, etc). Since there are certain things the ladies don’t like, they’ll leave your party if you take an adventure that involves that element. Brave Soul is a fun B-Game RPG and if you like RPGs, then it’s definately a game you should check out.

Secret Wives Club seems like a real sim, but it is really just another “which girl do you spend time with” game. The more time with the girl, the further on her story you get. It isn’t like True Love, where you had to get the right stats to have a chance with a particular lass.

I don’t consider Bazooka Cafe a sex-fest. That’s “Do You Like Horny Bunnies”. Bazooka Cafe is one of those many light romantic comedy stories. They seem to be the average of what’s available for licensing and translation to Peach Princess. If you want to avoid those marshmellowy games, then you should let us know which you prefer— games with different gameplay or games with deep stories or darker atmosphere or darker stories. There are a variety (and that is slowly growing), so there are different offerings out there in the English b-game market.

Hey congrats to you!

#5

I would have to recommend Brave Soul, Princess Waltz, or Crescendo. Crescendo is a branching novel like most of the rest of the games in English, but has a story significantly above average. The other two have got gameplay; PW I haven’t played yet, BS I only played a little bit of. But both are definitely not typical ADV titles.

#6

The game you’re looking for is Casual Romance Club.

#7

Sadly there aren’t a lot of these types out there. Ojamajo_LimePie has already mentioned Casual Romance Club. There is also an older title out there(although finding a copy now may be near impossible) It was a maid trainer called The Maid’s story. You could also try DiviDead(Found here.) which allows you to choose everywhere you go to explore. Nocturnal Illusions is another old one that may be near impossible to find, but it also allows you freedom of movement and choice of where you wish to go. Secret Wive’s Club was also already mentioned, though it’s heavily geared as a ‘sex romp’ and it’s training sim is more or less pretty weak over all. Another ‘raising sim’ that’s in English is Princess Maker 2 although it’s older and may be hard to find.

DiviDead and Nocturnal Illusions aren’t so much training or raising sims, but I feel they have enough ‘options’ and ‘choices’ to place them into consideration based on what you seem to be looking for.

#8

Good b-games eh, i’ve played a few.

Fate/stay night (best game ever 500x better than the anime, english patch available via mirrormoon, i’m probably not allowed to link it here but google should be enough)

Princess Waltz (average story, totally amazing game production wise though, very entertaining in terms of quality and the card game is cool)

Yume Miru Kusuri: A Drug That Makes You Dream (Game is pretty intense, I only played Mizuki’s route but I felt it was good)

X-change Alternate (it’s hilarious, but it’s not amazing either, don’t expect THAT much from this one, play it if you want to laugh)

#9

Hey, I mentioned it first! :stuck_out_tongue:

Is it really a good idea to mention that? Last I heard, the English translation floating around online was illegal (i.e. pirated). Not that this fact stops all the people I’ve met that continue to play it, or the places online that continue to distribute it. If you’re interested at all, you can read the story of how PM2 failed to officially come to the English speaking market here.

#10

If the sexual content isn’t that important to you, you can also check out games like Summer Session, which have the schedule-setting gameplay, but the endings and girls you’ll get are non-naked. There will probably be a couple more like it in the future, since it sold well enough…

#11

I must have skimmed over that, I was in a rush when I posted. Sorry about that.

I’ve actually never played any of the Princess Makers, and all I knew was that it was a raising sim and there was an English version of which I was under the impression it was an official. Good read on that site though, and thank you for posting it.

#12

If only we could have Tokimeki memorial in english…

#13

Well, these guys gave up waiting and decided to make their own game :stuck_out_tongue:

#14

Sounds to me like you want a “Persona 3 or 4-like” game without the combat, but with added eroge content…that doesn’t exist in the English market.

#15

I was actually just about to suggest Persona 3. And Persona 4. They’re not eroge, but so what? They’re awesome.

If you want choices about where to spend time, or what to say … the older titles by Peach Princess have a lot of interactivity in that sense. The G-collections titles especially have a large swath of titles that literally boil down to “pick who you want to end with” on a character selection screen, and the only questions you get asked are “do you want to get this h-scene or not”. Those suck.

Games with a good degree of interactivity in the sense you mean: Snow Drop, Critical Point, Tokimeki Checkin!, Little My Maid. (I would add the Milky House Collection, but it’s out of print at the moment.)

Of those, CP and TCI are my favorites. Snow Drop has a “select where you want to go” play method and it is actually not the easiest game to get to the real endings in. Little My Maid is a kind of sim, but is my least favorite of the 4, and is not really recommended.

#16

Actualy, Divi-dead does not really have any exploration to it. You have to find the right area to go to each time before the story advances, not really a choice in the matter.

#17

The PS1 game Bloody Bride sounds like something you might be interested in as well… There’s no H since it’s a PS1 game but, it has a translation if you can find the game :slight_smile:

It’s about vampires, but it’s partly RPG and partly a dating sim. You spend each day either exploring, working on your stats at home, or calling girls to go out on dates. There are plenty of events, and depending on how you develop your character and interact with the girls, will determine what happens in the game.
http://bloodybride.home.comcast.net/~bloodybride/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0oZfAUf8YA

#18

Brave Soul was a ton of fun. Raidy 1 is fun if you like truly old school dungeon crawls.

PW’s battle card system is rock/paper/sissors with numbers. It shouldn’t take any player very long to master it. The game itself has some very high production values (lots of music, lots of graphics), but it is getting mixed reviews. Some love it, others are underwhelmed. You should check out the game web site and read the PW threads to see if it sounds like something you’ll like. But— if you are looking for most/every move or decision to matter, then PW is not a game you’d like. It’s a straight VN with a card mini-game embedded in it. If you want to read a VN with a tournament/battle story line and magical girls in it, then PW might be something you’d be interested in.

#19

Just for kicks: Harvest Moon = dating game - ero - story + farming

#20