The late 90’s were the era of the “watch, talk, act → move to next empty location” style of eroge gameplay. God I hated that.
Not late 90s, more like early-to-mid 90s. YU-NO (96) used it, but only for a few segments.
And yeah, I would agree that it’s better gone.
The games we got that featured this design philosophy were all either JAST USA games, or even older. And JAST (so I am told) made a point of deliberately using old-school graphics and design philosphy for their products, even though it was getting to be out of date. As I understand it, that was their gimmick. All the other long-dead companies that released translated h-games were translating games from the mid nineties or before.
Edit: Well, I suppose HImeya and Otaku aren’t dead, but Otaku had to get out of the eroge translation business because the British government at the time threatened them (or so I heard, never did hear the full story and I think it went down before I even knew these games existed) and Himeya’s partner went under so they had to bail. The other ones are all dead, as they never had a reserve business to fall back on.
You know, it’d be really nice if they could bring Sensei 3 over here. I wouldn’t hold my breath on it, but I would appreciate having more than just Demonbane and Cat Girl Alliance on their future lineup right now.