Perhaps the most great displeasure of my Otaku life derives from the reading of my favourite manga magazine, the Italian Kappa Magazine, for including in its issues the episodes of the most overrated and insipid manga of all history: Kosuke Fujishima’s Oh My Goddess!
If you consider my prolonged and forced exposure to the silly/weak storyline and the annoying characters of this manga, maybe you can now understand my immediate enthusiasm for Ikusa Otome Valkyrie (a LUNE production. IOV, from now), a rape/sex training dark erogame which not only gives you a selection of situations and, most importantly, Goddesses from a pseudo-Norse pantheon (included, coincidentally, a Lolita Goddess named Skuld, the most irritating character of the manga, in my opinion), but which also represents a remarkable example of quality in a niche genre notoriously afflicted with bad products (although not a few technical choices implemented in IOV are questionable, at best).
Short introduction:
In the High-Fantasy world of Midgard, the Humans, with the direct support of the Gods, are fighting a long and ferocious war for the control of their land and freedom against the Demons from the netherworld (Note: in this context, Gods and Demons are supernatural but, apparently, Human-like beings).
The main character is Duke, an Human half-blood commander in the demonic Knights of Darkness. A cynical but very capable leader, he’s nevertheless openly despised by all other Demons, both for his ancestry and his “soft” practices (like, for example, forbid his own troops the traditional butchering of captured enemy children). But, ironically, it’s exactly Duke’s unorthodox approach to strategy that could give the final victory to the Demons.
In fact, after the initial and successful kidnapping (and, later, brainwashing into a devoted sex slave) of Freya, the Divine host’s most beloved and respected Goddess, Duke, with Freya’s help, succeeds in capturing Valkyrie, the most powerful fighter of the Divine army, which is now bereft of its best members and critically weakened.
Confronted with these brilliant victories, the Demon king gives total freedom of action to Duke, but, at the same time (and in perfect Demon style, I would say), he puts him under strict surveillance, fearing some hidden treachery.
Duke’s course is now set. An eventual success in breaking both Valkyrie’s will and the shaken morale of the combined Human/Divine forces could even turn Duke into the supreme ruler of an enslaved Midgard, gaining him (maybe) the respect of his Demon peers, but any carelessness on his part will bring him only death, or, worse, true love…
Storyline:
Perhaps “storyline” isn’t the correct word for describing this part of the game. “Textual strategic flow” sounds much better to my ear. The events narrated above represent mostly the background of IOV, which will find continuity and conclusion only within one of the 9 endings. The remaining 90% of the game consists in a sort of “sex campaign”, somewhat complex and with LOTS of choices/options, where the player will be called to simultaneously manage 1)the rape/sex training sessions (which form the backbone of IOV and are heavily -but not exclusively- centered around Valkyrie, to her chagrin), 2)the military expeditions against the Humans (where generally you can choose if give your troops some fun with the female prisoners or if use Valkyrie to great effect in the war -How? :twisted: Hehehhehehe… -) and 3)the production of various “sex items” (indispensable to expand both your sexual and war options).
The union of these high-quality components is relatively smooth and armonious, and even a basic game strategy is enough to navigate the game towards most (but NOT all) endings.
Unfortunately, the game designers have inserted some “randomness” and uncertainty in this system (merely the first of a series of disheartening technical decisions, in my opinion): during play, the choices offered to the player (and the consequences of those choices) have often obscure effects and are inclined to variation between different game sessions, increasing the difficulty level (good for some players, bad for others) and the repetitiveness of the single scenes (always bad).
IOV’s (many!!!) sex scenes are varied, exciting and truly well done, but, for example, after seeing 5-6 times the same scenes during the fourth attempt at getting those difficult-to-get scenes/endings, total frustration/boredom grows inexorably (and the graphics worsen the problem, too -see below-. Me, I’ve lost any ounce of patience after completing 80% of the game, and later I’ve downloaded the “cleared game” Data File here. Unfortunately, I do not have found a true walkthrough of this erogame, if someone can help me 
… ).
In conclusion, although IOV isn’t gifted with a true storyline (in my opinion, at least), its game system is truly good and rich in enjoyable scenes of dark sex, but still remains badly calibrated and surely unsuited to impatient and casual b-gamers.
Graphics:
If (beautiful sex scenes notwithstanding) IOV’s system is inclined to repetitiveness, no small blame goes to the graphics.
Don’t get me wrong, however. IOV’s graphics are very good, and more than adequate to satisfy my tastes. The real problem derives from the fact that IOV (not including the worldmap and the 2 CG’s of the Bonus Scenario -see below-) contains merely 78 CG’s, too few, even with multiple face/body expressions, for a game so big (remember, producers, that To Take Away Funds from the graphics department is ALWAYS a bad idea, in my opinion).
Sounds:
No problem, here. The music tracks are good, and the 4 girls are surely dubbed by professionals. Freya’s voice in particular, has the Divine power of make me feel GREAT :oops: :lol: , but even the other girls have interesting 
voices…
Bonus:
Besides the 9 Endings (1 Bad End, 2 True Love, 3 Sex Slave and 3 Love Slave -as I’ve said above, the game system gives you a very fine control of Duke’s actions, especially regarding the type of sex training that you prefer. Sex Slave and Love Slave are two (vastly) different possible results, but I can’t be more specific since I want my reviews spoilers-free. Both results include an Harem ending, however-), IOV contains the usual CG/Scenario/Music galleries, and also a bonus CD with a simple but nice (two-sided) Bonus Scenario (perhaps the only problem here derives from the unfriendly user interface of the Scenario Gallery and, partly, of the main screen itself. What were thinking, the programmers!?).
The real difficulties are technical in nature. First, those idiotic programmers have included (even in the Demo Game!!) a totally useless “little bonus” that only with AG3’s help (EDIT: the ALT+F4 trick) I’ve managed to circumvent (a Norse scion has found the solution for a Norse-themed erogame… Hmm, I sense some karmic significance in this 
)…). Second, IOV is Copy-Protected, just another abuse against the fans. However, you need the DVD for game installation only (a little consolation…).
Final considerations:
Re-reading my own review, I’ve noticed both its overly technical style and the absence of a few other game elements. Alas, writing a review about the more complex b-games is almost equally difficult, in my opinion, and IOV is a full member of the group.
However, I assure you that, although afflicted with defects which make it merely a fairly good erogame (for Dark Masterpieces, see MinDeaD BlooD, below), IOV is the best 2004 release of its sub-genre, amusing, intriguing, and with a great variety of sexual/scabrous situations (Anal? Obvious. Sado? Yes. Scat? Yep! etc. etc.). Therefore, if you aren’t impressionable/moralistic players (in this case, what are you doing here? Go fight Evil elsewhere !!), a money investment in IOV is a sure gain, BUT ONLY if you can understand (relatively easy) Japanese, because an erogame abundant in text and scarce in graphics like IOV is anathema to Japanese-illiterate b-gamers, sorry.
LUNE Home page:
http://www.marigold.co.jp/lune/index01.html
Ikusa Otome Valkyrie Home Page:
http://www.marigold.co.jp/lune/valkylie/index.html
Getchu - IOV Page (even the anime and the manga of IOV are now available!)
http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=45981
IOV Demo Movie (Nice! - 23.6 MB’s):
http://dl-1.drabbit.net/dl/marigold/lun … _movie.lzh
IOV Demo Game (196 MB’s - Very good and complete, but it inserts a LUNE file in the Registry and is also afflicted with a couple of technical problems, particularly the “Anti-Gaijin Defect”, see above):
http://dl-1.drabbit.net/dl/marigold/lun … _trial.zip
IOV Game Patch (Small -958 KB’s- and not critical, it corrects 2 irritating minor Bugs. It seems incredible that LUNE needed 6 months for releasing this patch):
http://marigold.ewinds.net/lune/dl/VALUPD1224a.zip
MinDeaD BlooD
It’s surely because I’m only an occasional Netsurfer, but still I do not have seen anywhere a gaijin reference to the Dark Masterpiece of 2004 (maybe, THE Dark Masterpiece), MinDeaD BlooD (FanDisk included)-. Well, I’m too exhausted for another difficult review, but if you have to choose, forget Ikusa Otome Valkyrie and buy MinDeaD BlooD instead (furthermore, now it’s available the Game+FanDisk pack for a great price -for Japan, at least. Yeah, first I reviewed IOV and now I suggest you another game. Ahh, coherence …-). IT IS SO GOOD, although I still have truly mixed feelings towards it, because 1)it’s a “Triumphant Vampire” story, and I strongly dislike/fear ALL undead, and 2)the storyline literally floats over a sea of disgusting organic fluids (trust me, and look here for a VERY MINOR :shock: example).
Now you can pick your favored darkgame, my dear Sith pals :twisted: :lol: .