Yeah, The Power Of Commercials can’t be denied, even in the erogame genre, and me too followed the unholy lure of Appearance Over Substance, sometimes.
Therefore, I (almost) always seek for any available comment and/or review from other customers before choosing my next toy -avoiding pre-orders if possible-, and rest assured that my cautious attitude was my salvation in more than an occasion.
But with the coming of HentaiTube and its infinite possiblities (see below), the number of easily available b-game movies soared too much high for my continued purity of soul 
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Take Papikon, for example. Originally a game I totally snubbed because of so-so graphics and unappealing promise, it nevertheless managed to catch my interest after seeing its cuuute demo movie on HentaiTube. More exactly, my (ero)game addiction kicked in almost immediately, even though I still (desperately!) attempted a Review Search, with surprising results.
Yeah, Papikon is great… Or, at least, much greater than my ready cash, now .
Short introduction:
In the erogame genre, an inordinate number of Japanese (high-school) students live alone for a plethora of more or less plausible reasons, but Kouhei Ichinose can easily compete for the WTF?! prize of the category: Kouhei’s parents, to his chagrin, like to hang around (mercenary?) armies in war, usually selling medical services to troops deployed in front-line positions, a job/hobby that they seem to find much more interesting than childraising. And in fact, Papikon’s male protagonist spent most of his life alone, although forming a very strong friendship with the (beautiful and caring, of course) daughter of his next-door neighbours which almost replaced the typical parental relationship.
But it’s immediately after the beginning of Kouhei’s second year as high-school student that his lot in life turns really strange, when, all of a sudden, two of his female classmates, the (beautiful and nice, of course) twin sisters Uta (the childish, kawaii one) and Mai (the violent, tsundere one) start acting strangely around him. Kouhei is initially surprised by this, but his surprise grows to epic levels that same evening, when, returning from school, he finds the two girls moving to his home and calling him “Papa” (or also “Stupid”, “Pervert”, etc. in Mai’s case), apparently very happy (Uta, at least) for starting a new life with their new father(!!).
What’s happened? Simply, Kouhei’s parents selflessly decided to adopt a couple of orphaned girls (Why? Hehehe, you need to unlock one of the BAD endings for the answer :lol: ), utterly forgetting to inform their true son in the process. And for complicating the things even more, the Japanese public service badly botched the adoption procedure, making Kouhei the legal foster father of the twins…
A correctable mistake? Maybe, but this ignores the even more strange, and extreme, reaction of both girls at this novelty: whereas Uta accepts TOTALLY AND UNCONDITIONALLY Kouhei as her new papa, Mai seems to dislike him with a visceral intensity instead, and no one can understand why -Kouhei in particular-.
What are hiding, both twins? And how poor Kouhei will manage this ultra-complicated situation, preserving his special relationship with his childhood friend at the same time, most especially after the unexpected appearance of a fourth girl in his life (the beautiful -of course- and very aptly named Yuriko, who immediately starts a competition with Kouhei for the twins’ affection) :shock: !
Storyline:
Really surprising, I tell you. Initially, I was absolutely convinced that Papikon’s storyline was merely another excuse for mindless sex (most Japanese erogames share this trait), but I’m happy to admit I was (mostly) wrong. Although not a masterpiece, the story is interesting, full of amusing twists and particularly good in depicting the personality of the female protagonists, all of them.
And in fact, if you stick with a specific girl only (Yuriko’s path is the most original/funny by far, but my preferred girl is Mai, the tsundere twin: that muscled, feminine touch of her is sooo cute, even though it needs some improvement …), will get a fairly long, funny and even realistic love story. The base wackiness of the ambience and the erotic nature of Papikon (amongst other things) negate any real possibility of a Very High Score for this game component, yeah, but it’s ONLY when you go for both twins at the same time that the story starts losing realism/sense, finally degenerating into a sexfest ONLY if you dare (MWAHAHAHAHAHHAA!!!) to unlock the Harem ending.
But even so, the storyline remains the best part of Papikon, an almost uniformly amusing and fresh novel which guarantees many hours of fun and a really enjoyable experience. Nice work!
Graphics:
I don’t know why, but for some reason Le Chocolat (Papikon’s producer) keeps releasing erogames wildly varying in quality, and Papikon is one of its bad apples, graphically speaking.
In particular, although this erogame contains fairly cute in-game graphics, the same does not apply to the CG’s themselves, or, at least, to the 50%-60% of the total, especially those located at the various endings and/or sporting multiple girls.
Therefore, even if the final result remains tolerable, your best option is to go elsewhere if you are searching gorgeous graphics only…
Sounds:
A joy for the ears, the real deliverance from Papikon’s so-so graphics rests here, in my opinion. Both musics and (female only, mostly) character voices are extremely good, nicely supporting the story and surely raising the final value of this erogame to more-than-acceptable levels. Well done!
Bonus:
Nothing special. Besides the 8 endings (4 Single Girl + 1 Twins + 1 Harem + 2 Bad -not counting two separate sub-endings connected to the “official” Twins ending, too-), Papikon includes merely the usual CG, Music and Scenario galleries.
Unfortunately for the world at large, Le Chocolat offered an additional bonus (Papikon’s Audio Cd, very good) only to pre-ordering customers during the initial release of the game, two years ago, and even if a few Japanese shops still sell used copies with the audio cd included, you will need a deputy service for buying them, if you live overseas (me, I’ve opted for FDJP, with no problems whatsoever).
Final considerations:
In my opinion, Papikon’s strange mix of good and bad characteristics seems the result of a rushed project with many corners cut, not a unusual thing for the Japanese eromarket (where the “More Is Better” commandment is the law) in general and Le Chocolat (a fervent follower of the above-mentioned commandment for sure) in particular.
Worse, Papikon also suffers from uninspired advertisement -demo movie notwithstanding-, maybe the most heinous crime for a product released in Japan (“Style Over Substance” is another unwritten rule there, and the reason behind the success of crappiness and the failure of cuteness -maybe inevitable for a “damn good drama title” sporting such a back cover. Neh, Futakon 
?), even if, maybe ironically, it’s exactly because of Papikon’s (relative) commercial flop if I’ve ultimately bought a copy of this game (3880 yen for a slighty used copy + the audio cd was a real bargain, in my opinion), therefore I’m not complaining here, hehehe…
In conclusion, Papikon can be afflicted with various defects, but it also remains a good source of laughs and fun which I hotly recommend, just remember that knowledge of Japanese is an absolute prerequisite for playing this particular game (jargon/dialect is frequent here, not counting the fact that the storyline is the only/real saving grace of this b-game), unfortunately…
Le Chocolat Home Page (Doomed to extinction. Go visit quickly!):
http://www.saibunkan.co.jp/lechocolat/
Papikon Home Page (Same as above - The Japanese eromarket has no pity… ):
http://www.saibunkan.co.jp/lechocolat/s … i/sto.html
Getchu - Papikon Page:
http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=160701
YouTube - Papikon Page:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R00jR0LoSzI
Papikon Demo Movie (22 MB’s):
http://dl-1.drabbit.net/dl/lechocolat/papicon_op.zip
Papikon Demo Game (Le Chocolat released three different versions -Unvoiced (135MB’s) , Low-Quality Sound (243MB’s) and Full (452MB’s)-, but I hotly recommend the Full version, well done and complete, even if many player choices are predetermined. However, you can also go here for more free stuff from Le Chocolat):
http://dl-1.drabbit.net/dl/lechocolat/papicon_try.zip
HentaiTube:
Hmph, YouTube can be a great source of any sort of movies, but following its Terms Of Use has become a real pain in the ass for aspiring uploaders of b-game videos.
You need to know that YouTube forbids pornography, theoretically deleting any clip with explicit, erotic contents if they receive an “Alert Flag” from a registered user. But the problem here is that the implementation of this policy seems ambiguous at best, and arbitrary all the time.
In fact, you can find LOTS of videos more or less openly erotic which seem invulnerable to negative flagging, whereas videos with only vague/minimal “adult” contents get deleted in no time. Worse, as our Sven admits, this policy is highly mutable, therefore movies allowed today can become forbidden tomorrow, and viceversa (yes, I’ve seen erogame demo movies flagged and deleted almost immediately, but returning after a month or two, whereas I do know for sure of a demo movie flagged on January and deleted on March: one of my own movies, flagged by me as part of my personal research in YouTubism… ).
But because an user account is automatically deleted if three of its videos are removed for “Violation Of The Terms Of Use”, the final result is an almost continual turnover of b-game demo movies, which generally disappear before gaining too much popularity with YouTube fans (exceptions do exist, however).
An unfortunate side effect of a company policy reeling under the weight of millions of clips and users? Or a hidden conspiracy aimed to the elimination of those videos and/or accounts putting YouTube’s reputation at risk?
I will say this: YouTube’s power is undeniable, surely a great opportunity for spreading knowledge of the erogame genre with the masses, (hidden?) harassment notwithstanding. And a very simple way for supporting these games/movies (most especially Peapri’s and Hirameki’s games/movies) is to give them lots of votes and comments, therefore raising their YouTube scores for maximum visibility amidst the myriads of unrelated videos.
In conclusion, if you are a b-game fan AND a YouTube registered user, take just a fraction of your time for seeing, voting and/or commenting the movies of your preferred games, both English…
http://www.youtube.com/user/pchanjapan
Peapri’s official account, and very successful so far.
…and Japanese, thank you very much :mrgreen: !
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=xxBakuraRyouxx
The latest incarnation of Peapri BBS member xxYamiBakuraxx’s account, it’s also the user account boasting the highest number of public h-game movies. Impressive work!
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=OneTrueBaldo
My personal account, just part of my little YouTube experiment. And even though I’ve stopped any further uploading of demo movies, my Subscriptions and Favorites lists still include the majority of the best b-game movies (and related accounts) currently available on YouTube.
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