The moefied Tales of Genji looks amusing if not just for the concept.
Doujins are good for the Otaku’s health 
…though these tend to bear the exact opposite effect on the financials (read: karory announced a SubaHibi themed Set for her Comic1 attendance now as well >_<).
On concerns of SCA/Sukaji besides IMO a scenario writing talent per excellence he’s an awesomely talented artist as well! Especially the development that facet of his skills took on during the last years is quite outstanding and all his guest participating on fellow KEROQ/MAKURA artists make me really long for a new SCA crafted Doujinshi at last…well, maybe summer Comike will bring such hopefully
On other or actual Bishoujo Soft news (after this little KEROQ addict’s stray-off / mindless ranting) Navel opened the story section (following the chara page) for Oretsuba AfterStory. Also while not Bishoujo Soft per se may be of interest to fellow Studio Ryokucha fans out there. Slated for a mid June release (2010/06/19 to be precise) Ichijinsha will release Mashiro Schlussel a Mahou Shoujo themed light-novel thingie written by Ryokucha’s Hisame Kouji with illustrations provided by Kurihito Mutou (Hana to Otome ni Shukufuku wo). A definite Get since these kind of stories are truely Hisame’s strength and here’s hoping the work on Mashiro Schlussel (I may repeat/insert at this point - gotta love the random usage of German although it’s Schl√ºssel = key to be precise ^^) will make him motivated enough to lastly get started with the desired magic a ride FD/continuation >_<
Ah, was mostly referring to fanbooks with the above comment. I’ve tried to steer clear of doujinshi for exactly that reason (any health benefits would definitely be offset financially :)). That said, if I went down that path, I don’t think I’d ever have to worry about having a doujinshi backlog, whereas I’m not even sure how long my eroge one is. So far, I’ve managed to restrict myself to eroges, with light novels as an eroge substitute for times when I can’t play the former (on that note, Mashiro Schlussel looks rather interesting - I’ll probably add that to my next order).
Had a quick look through a bunch of trials over the last few days, so here are my brief, somewhat unhelpful comments.
Gosuderi (Gothic Delusion): The trial’s very short, so it’s hard to get a really good impression of the game as a whole. However, this is looking like a seriously good gothic eroge, particularly in the production department. The production values (so far) are probably on par with eden*'s, with the possible exception of the art, which isn’t quite at the same level, but all the same, it looks pretty amazing for a first commercial release. As the trial’s only 30 minutes or so, for gothic fans in particular, it’s worth checking out - realistically the only remaining concern is the game’s length, which might be fairly short for a full price eroge if they’re keeping the production values at a uniform level.
bitter smile: Somewhat dissapointed with the trial. It’s probably not going to end up being a bad game, but it’s unlikely to be more than an average 70%ish eroge. Apart from the art, everything else is ‘there’, without leaving any sort of impression. I’m not sure how much of the scenario Nekonyan wrote, but if he was in charge of any of the portions in the trial, it feels that he knows how to write a successful eroge, but doesn’t quite have the skills to pull it off. Everything’s there, but it honestly doesn’t feel all that ‘inspired’, especially when you compare it to the eroges Maruto + Nekonyan have produced together. It’s also unclear why they chose the title - (disappointingly :P) there doesn’t appear to be anything in the least bit ‘bitter’ about the game.
Zettai Junshu: Rather surprised by this. Although Softhouse Seal’s eroges are of a better quality and are better written than most other 2000 yen games, a Softhouse Seal game with 4.5 times as much content would only make for a decidedly average full price eroge. However, in their first eroge under the new GRANDEE brand, Seal appear to have made a rather good erobakage. Although the writer’s never worked for Seal before, and has a mixed record on his previous eroges, this looks like one of his best efforts, with a combination of tight pacing, solid writing, humour and good characters. Whether or not a game based around a sex permit has enough substance to stretch over 15-20 hours, without degenerating into a string of ero-scenes is anyone’s guess, so I’ll wait for the reviews.
Kourin no Machi, Lavender no Shoujo: Landmine prediction. Given the quality of the trial, (in response to concerns about it being a rape of Sharin no Kuni) I’m amazed that Looseboy could have endorsed this work, - however unfortunately, describing it as a rape of the previous work might be putting it a bit lightly. Just the opening monologue was enough to establish that. It’s in a very similar model to Sharin no Kuni’s, except instead of foreshadowing key plot elements and establishing key story ideas, Kourin’s protagonist describes his mundane daily life and how useless he is. The opening chapter’s title is ???, and befitting that, the slice of life segments in the trial are amongst the most banal I’ve seen in an eroge (sample conversation - ???¬Ö¬Ö???), and the other elements aren’t all that much better. Obviously, the plot’s still got a long way to go, and who knows, there’s a chance it may improve a lot later on. However, I think it’s very likely to end up being a complete disgrace to the Sharin no Kuni legacy. It’s far from the worst eroge/trial I’ve played, and were it not by Akabe2/endorsed by Loose Boy/supposed sequel to an outstanding eroge then I’d probably just pass it off as a below par game from an unknown writer. As it stands though, despite the stream of negative comments on the trial from 2ch and EGS, it’s doing alarmingly well on various preorders rankings, probably because of the brand, artist and sequel factors. It’ll certainly be interesting to see the reviews, particularly from devout Sharin fans…
One sure preserves some nerves when staying away from Doujin craze…that said I think that I managed to get ahold of both KEROQ staff SubaHibi Doujin Sets curses K-BOOKS net shopping which right now goes like “stay tuned, we’ll provide you with feedback whether you managed to place an order quick enough in about a week because now it’s ~Golden Week~” >_< But nothing goes over the joy once the lovely publications show up here and here’s going with the silly believe by attending this year’s summer Comike in person for the first time will result into a less frustrating/nerve wrenching experience than the online Gaijin route all these years now…
But anyways, as for the news-worthy part of the reply ^_~
Getchu was ahead of this, but Navel themself now confirms Soul Link ULTIMATE slated for 2010/06/25. They actually state this to be a full remake with heroine route increasing and stuff (IIRC at some point Getchu also mentioned that they’re going to include the Soul Link themed content from Nee Pon? x Rai Pon! into ULTIMATE…so guess this is kind of the SHUFFLE! Essence+ treatment for Soul Link. Unfortunately this Navel Soft never got me interested to begin with…
Also the STEINS;GATE PC port by Nitro+ got a date - it’s slated for 2010/07/30 according to them. Going a bit off-topic and back to a Doujin related sidenote, while propeller announced the Master Up for Evolimit main artist Chuuou Higashiguchi apparently published a Doujinshi dedicated on the project through his Circle DEGREE…for no particular event either but WEIRD TALES SYNTHESIS UNNUMBERED EVO (NSFW TnA web order page here) came out a couple of days ago on 30th April and got stocked in by pretty much all shops that have Evolimit up for pre-order as well…given the concept for his WEIRD TALES series this means rough/sketch for the game’s Event CG published prior to the actual thing to be released, so if you want a little preview that’s certainly the way to go. Higashiguchi btw. also updated his web site’s top page image on cute Evolimit style as well ^^
Getchu was ahead of this, but Navel themself now confirms Soul Link ULTIMATE slated for 2010/06/25. They actually state this to be a full remake with heroine route increasing and stuff (IIRC at some point Getchu also mentioned that they’re going to include the Soul Link themed content from Nee Pon? x Rai Pon! into ULTIMATE…so guess this is kind of the SHUFFLE! Essence+ treatment for Soul Link. Unfortunately this Navel Soft never got me interested to begin with…
Interesting…I wonder if they’ll fix that goof regarding the hand-held shields that were used early on. Apparently, whoever worked on that part didn’t get the memo that most riot shields are not designed to be bullet-resistant, and he should’ve been looking for the “Body Bunker” ballistic shields.
I’m surprised Narg isn’t all over this,It has twins.
SORAHANE was announced a few days ago. The writer and artist pair worked together in the past on Bye, a very long (and rather good) ADV that’s available for free download. Given the image on the pre-homepage, it’ll be interesting to see how SORAHANE measures up to a certain other ‘???’ title, released earlier this year. 
Majino Complex’s site is now officially open. Unlike Don-chan, the titular heroine isn’t the protagonist, (possibly so the writer could include the ???) although some of the story is told from Majino’s POV. I think the only way this game will disappoint now, is if the writer tries too hard, as this time around the establishment looks stronger than those in the earlier two games.
Kourin no Machi’s OP is up… 
… I guess it’s a bit more appealing than the trial. It’s not all that dissimilar in style to Sharin no Kuni’s OP, but the sample text and CGs found within are pretty uninspiring. There’s probably something worthwhile in the game, but all the promotional materials are doing a decent job of putting me off even considering it at second-hand prices. ?Real Imouto’s OP had the opposite effect, so depending on the trial, it’s looking like a preorder.)
(to avoid double posting in another thread) I didn’t realise that ??? (= ???) = ?? = August, in Cthulhu. Even though (for example) it’s far easier to identify ???, I’ve heard her multiple times under each of those pseudonyms, so there’s no excuse on my part for not making the connection between the three.
Navel updated with a Demo Movie for Oretsuba AfterStory. Now that’s a bit of Navel news that also gets me excited ^^
Mm, that does look good. Now that most of July’s titles have a release date though, there are at least 5 I have some sort of interest in. Not sure if this will make the list just yet…
Trial (15 minutes or so) for Shikabane Maid-chan to Kichiku na Goshujinsama is out (dlsite pre-sales page, from which the demo can be downloaded). For a 1500 yen eroge, it appears to be very well put together, and it’d even make a lot of mid-price eroges look rather ordinary. Content-wise, it’s very similar to other Black Cyc titles in most respects, with the addition of a streak of black comedy. Since leaving Cyc, Izumi’s worked on some awful low-budget eroges (as Lancer-X can also attest to), but thankfully this isn’t going to be one of them. On the contrary, I think this will turn out to be a reasonably good title, however it’s probably going to be dragged down a bit by the relatively short scenario, which doesn’t fully play to Izumi’s strengths.
Character page for Real Imouto has been updated with the protagonist, and male sub-characters (NTR’s almost a certainty now). In terms of bakage, I shouldn’t really be planning on preordering this instead of Okiba ga Nai!, when the latter’s probably going to be the better game, but it can’t be helped. Real Imouto has a better concept, and this style of eroge seems to be more Orugouro’s sort of genre than Takehaya’s.
Seconding that. The trial was easily enough, but since Orugouro’s announced his retirement from eroge scenario writing on his blog, I’ve got another reason to preorder. As for NTR, I’m reasonably sure there’s not going to be any, but Alcot is refusing to confirm or deny it. Either way, it’s almost certain to be a great game, as the writer’s right in his element, the characters are fantastic and the pacing’s very tight.
And to borrow that turn of phrase, Applique’s Tasogare no Sinsemilla looks like a Great Game. Trial Was Awesome (came out half a month ago, but didn’t realise until yesterday :P).
Whee! Time to see if this has the old school BCyc charm. :o
Fear not! Narg is on the case. 8)
Cleared. It’s short, but taking the price into account, there’s really nothing much to fault at all (edit: that said, because of the length it’s not going to be as good as their Black Cyc titles pretty much by default). The length is roughly what you’d expect for 1575 yen, but other than that, the production quality is several orders of magnitude better than the average low price eroge. [for reference, 1169 voice files, 18 CGs, 3 sets of rough sketches, each unlocked by clearing one of the 3 minigames (identical to those in earlier Cyc products), 3 endings + an epilogue, 9 ero-scenes, 6 BGM tracks] Content-wise, it feels rather like an old-school Black Cyc game in minature, with the addition of some black comedy battle scene wwwww. It’s obviously a must for Izumi/Metawo fans, and although it’s certainly not something you can give a general recommendation to, it’s perhaps slightly ‘lighter’ than all of Black Cyc’s other major titles, so it’s probably a good way to gauge potential interest in the Mindead/Gore Screaming Show/EXTRAVAGANZA/Gun Katana side of their lineup.
As the epilogue and the ‘to be continued’ after each ending indicates, there’s obviously a sequel of some sort at least in the planning stages, so assuming that Corpse Maid sells reasonably well, I guess we can look forward to that sometime next year.
The EGS reviews for Corpse Maid have started to come through. I think isumi’s review (spoilerish, but gives a very comprehensive outline of what to expect) is pretty much spot on, down to the 75% score. If the next part lives up to expectations, it’ll possibly be one of the very rare cases where I’d consider giving a shortish doujin work a score of 80%+. Very interested to hear what everyone else thinks. [edit: Monometa’s announced that they’re now in the black for Corpse Maid.]
Gosuderi’s OP is up. As awesome as it looks, I’m still probably be going for Tasogare (and obviously STEINS;GATE) instead for July, as that’s pretty much guaranteed to be a great eroge, whereas Gosuderi’s trial was far too short to get a sense for how the story will unfold.
Sorehane’s homepage is officially open, as is the site for their first eroge, AQUA. Like Gosuderi, this looks set to be a great debut title from a past doujin team.
I noticed these two new listings on getchu for Cthulhu (Great Hunting’s presumably a fandisc, and the collected set is probably the original + fandisc in one version). I’m guessing Black Cyc will have their page up for these later today, so I’ll edit the links in then. Like a lot of people suspected on the Black Cyc thread, this is a clear sign that the game was released in an incomplete state. (Edit: Pre-site is open, and the game’s coming out on August 27th. Way too early to make any decisions for potential August purchases, but after what happened with the original this is firmly a wait and see. I hope it’s as exciting as the package illustration suggests :P.)
In KeroQ/Makura news, Sca-ji’s posted an ‘update’ on twitter for Sakura no Uta. And as an aside, I was very impressed by this fanart of Subahibi, which pretty much captures the whole essence of the game in a single image.
Hmm… MinDeaD BlooD was also released unfinished, but I felt it was far more “complete” than Cthulhu. I’m all for getting a complete game though. If this fan disc does the same amount of “putting back what’s missing” as the Mana & Mayu disc (or Haruka na Sora did for Yosuga), then I’ll be very happy. However I hope this doesn’t mean that BCyc is only releasing Cthulhu this year, and the expansion is their “second game” for the year. That means we won’t be seeing anything new until 2011.
I know people liked Cthulhu… but I wasn’t one of them. However if the game is making BCyc lots of $$$, there’s no reason for me to be sour about it. I’ll rant later, in the appropriate thread. 
I’ll also keep an eye out for the fan disk. I haven’t finished the game yet as from what I’ve played so far (I’ve only finished up to Koinu’s Aozora route) I got bored due to lack of character exposition or developement (also decided to read some more HP Lovecraft stories for info only to find them a billion times more enjoyable), all of which I hope is shown in the fan disk.
Though this is kept to interpretation once again. He’d like to continue / take up work again? Well, we’ve seen MAKURA/KEROQ staff doing these from time to time, expressing motivation to revive Sakura no Uta at last. I won’t believe unless the release date is announced and set as I consider Haru no Yuki to represent the sole efforts of this project being in the works for so long now (it certainly didn’t leave a rushed feel which goes along the theory rather than being a rushed assembled Supre~me Candy pre-order campaign bonus it technically is). Nevertheless an announcement for Sakura no Uta would be the possible best next step to take MAKURA to its next stage, so I hopefully will be proven wrong.
Speaking of Twitter apparently the whole KEROQ/MAKURAnian staff is already twittering (actually it’s more like each and every artist/writer got an account by now…heck, even Hinoue Itaru got an account and this woman hasn’t updated her personal/Circle website in years!). Motoyone in the meanwhile dropped note that he and Yuzuriha (who’s also started twitterin’ went to KSL Live World 2010 (held this weekend) ^^
Apparently Sukaji thought so as well. Here’s hoping SubaHibi will be inspiration for more “fan art” soon.
Back to non KEROQ related news, merely announced through TECH GIAN ‚ge now launched a website for their Muv-Luv Alternative Chronicles 01 project…slated for a summer (2010/07) release!
Mm, I guess instead of spending a year+ making Subahibi, (if they’ve made as much progress as Haru no Yuki suggests - haven’t played it, but I’ve read your review) they could have potentially released Sakura no Uta instead. I’m glad they went for Subahibi though, as it’s almost certainly going to be better (actually, I’m not sure if another eroge will surpass Subahibi anytime soon). Haven’t played that much of Supre~me Candy, but although it’s very amusing (’???’), I definitely agree that there’s a rather sizeable gap in quality between it and Subahibi, and that Sakura no Uta’s probably the title they need to close that.
I still can’t comment on the SubaHibi part (though lastly after a more than painful wait it shall arrive by mid/end next week >_<) but there’s certainly a gap in quality amongst the paths Supre~me Candy offers. No let me rephrase, quality-wise there’s absolutely nothing wrong with SC as each of them is quite awesome for their own purpose, but the way and focus these take on can differ vastly and I see that as the outcome of the various MAKURAnian / KEROQ writers in charge…in fact once I had progressed to Terebi no Kieta Hi I could easily tell (or least I thought) which routes were obviously crafted by Yuzuriha and it became even more clear which girls are to be credited to Sukaji (Jako for sure). Also if you may allow me the suggestions I’d like to pass down the wisdom of every SC proven fan to you in that you should keep hers (Jako’s) and Yuuri’s path reserved for your final go through the story…you won’t regret it and it will make the whole conclude in a way better grand picture than for example doing that with routes like Syuri’s story. Despite the shortage of Haru no Yuki I’ll agree with you on that Sakura no Uta will be the next big bang work of importancy to the MAKURA Brand…no, probably it’ll be the most important in history for this Sisterbrand where H2O & Co. merely served to prepair the way for (literaly speaking ^^). Hence despite the ridiculous patience it required so far (and forthcoming) I would like Sukaji & Co. to take all their sweet time to work it out properly even though parts of the basic staff that were on board back when Sakura no Uta was firstly announced now gone different paths (Brands).
Back from KEROQ/MAKURA ranting to some upcoming release news - CUFFS’ CUBE Brand announced their 2nd project indicated via preview/teaser top page image apparently titled your diary. Art by Kantoku (the more to see of this artist the better IMO) and scenario (or “text”) by Tanemura Inori ??? (apparently a sub/co-writer for Natsu no Ame). Speaking of CUFFS apparently they announced a new project at the recently held DreamParty (Osaka edition if I’m not wrong) as well - CAFE SOURIRE ??? which marks ?Gayarou’s artistical comeback to Bishoujo Soft (past GARDEN) and scenario writer is supposed to be Akitsuki Hiro (se.kirara amongst others).
On the delayed releases outlook - ‚ge pushed back Kimi ga Ita Kisetsu Renewal from 06/25 to 08/27.