So this was suppose to be a month of isekai games, but then I got sick and all my plans kind of don’t appeal to me when my libido is half or less of it’s normal level and I just have little energy. So I’m shifting to less cute and happy stuff to detective and mystery themed stuff. I’ll finish anything I started last month, and Trails Beyond Horizon is still going to steal half the month.

As for why mystery, I was in the mood for it anyway after a movie on New Year’s I saw with friends. So that’s why. For broader options I’m going with any game with a grand or bigger mystery, not specifically puzzle games and detective stuff only.

Edit: 1/29- January is basically over, and February is going to be a bit before it gets any new saves. I’m dropping themes for February due to the sheer amount of new releases I want to catch up on, that are all decently long + Horizon. I was going to do country side romance to justify finishing Amantsu and Aikagi, that’s being put off to maybe March. Right now February looks like Horizon for ecchi + something if it works, either Renai Kilometer or Maiden’s Serenade for VN + Ahehe Moon for nukige, I’ll waste some time on the Dragon Maid gacha thing, and Sexy Mystic Survivors for 18+(finishing Cabin and Hundred Line has made me really want to finish some old stuff I dropped.) Busy, busy.

18+ Game

Isekai Quest– This was finished as I was getting sick, so is a leftover from isekai month. It’s a match 3 with a protag who wants a harem, morals be damned. You up your stats by winning matches and using condoms as stocks to buy levels essentially. Then you hit a wall and game over at which point you can pick a death card from the death mascot animal to reset the whole world but not your stats. Repeat until you win. Some of the scenes are weirdly hidden, and the game never got truly finished. It was okay, not something I’d really recommend.

1/24- Cabin by the Lake V.53d– A roguelite vn without the random stuff? I guess that works to explain it. It’s a meta progression focused visual novel with a lot of content. And big plots on all the girls. it’s something I’ve got obsessed playing many times in the past but now that the final girl is finally getting content I decided to actually get caught up on it.

Konpoko Summer Vacation– A visual novel built in RPG Maker, it’s super short. Basically just a big tanuki and fox girl nukige. It was a thing to do, I don’t have anything to really add.

VN

Edit-1/15-Lovepical-Poppy!– Newer Smee title. I had plenty of fun with this one, it was mostly silly antics with a decent flow of events to keep things moving. I do wish the routes had events like the common route did. I thought back to how Majikoi would put another new martial arts tournament or event into each route to keep things fresh, and the common route of this did that but sadly the routes didn’t keep that energy.

Anyway, it a silly fun time. I think Miu was my first streamer heroine I’ve read, I think they did a good job with her. The balance of funny and actual emotion was usually fine, though definitely tilted towards funny.

Edit 1/29- Isekai Revitalizer + Forbidden Ward: Raunchy Recovery Plan– Two more Orcsoft titles done for January. Ward was a mind fuck with it’s true ending. I didn’t see that coming at all. Not huge fan of the protag though. The Isekai wasn’t that much better, though in an entirely different way. The gentleman pervert thing had it’s moments but he broke his own rules a bunch of times early on, even getting called on it. His holier then though feeling left a bad taste, which really didn’t mix with his random low self esteem bits. Both were fine, middle of the pack for Orcsoft titles for me.

Family Friendly/Ecchi

Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark– This will have a post soon with my thoughts on how it’s setup, but I enjoyed the ideas of it. It’s subweapon system beqs for an entire game dedicated to them, and the bones as collectibles and xp was odd but fine. Levels getting you most of your moveset is odd for a -vania but since the bones come from exploring and from drops it kind of works, I definitely get why people didn’t like it. It’s also more lewd then the first, with about 4 actually lewd cgs versus 1.

Edit: 1/18- AI: Somnium Files Series-All three current games, one save link. My simple opinions are the first game is the best story and personal favorite game design for the Somniums, 2 has Tama(a busty dark skinned S themed girl) so is the best visually and has better game feel though it also got dumbed down a decent amount so that half the Somnium’s play themselves plus the twist is kind of dumb until it gets used in another game in the franchise, the 3rd game(or 1.5 in the franchise) has the most game in it but little Tama(Iris is in a weird swimsuit though, not to my taste) and honestly a dumb story. Overall it was fun to play them. I’d give the whole series a 7/10 for different reasons for each game. Might give them a bigger write up later.

Edit 1/29- Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- I can’t believe I actually finished this damn thing… On one hand, I’m glad this exists. Passion projects like this from industry veterans are cool. On the other hand, there’s a reason the cutting room floor exists. I don’t know how to recommend something with this many different story genre’s thrown together to anyone. It doesn’t stand out strongly in any one area, and it’s best plot moments are things you can get better or faster in the two most famous writers other works.

The biggest issue is really just how bland the characters are. By necessity of some later plot stuff, they are incredibly generic while at the same time one or two note quirky. Basically their lack of real meaty backstories makes the bonding and character focused routes feel empty. If I could read this from Takemaru’s point of view, or maybe Tsubasa or Hiroko(or Nozomi in Cult), I might not have had such an issue.Takumi though is such a wet, indecisive noodle. Of course the point of view character is the weakest in personality. I did like the rotating love interest stuff felt appropriate through the routes, and when the routes went hard into mystery or psychological stuff they were usually interesting. Could have lived with less Takumi guilt tripping, the guy just never stops his pity parade.

Anyway, the game is only ecchi in the Cult route and one cg in the Vexness route. The weird 3D model style cgs and types of swimsuit shots makes the rest of the attempts at fanservice weak. I really can’t recommend this to anyone, it’s just not a focused enough experience to be even vaguely near the top of any recommend request.

Happy New Year, I guess. Kind of doing this post as a formality, so I’ll keep it short. Usually I’d post a list of everything I finished this year, but that would be 105 games long. Which is quite a bit more then most years, though a lot of that was short nukiges and partial games.

January’s post will go up in a few days when something for it is actually done. News wise nothing is happening with me, life is still mostly calm. Not a lot announced in the year has me exited, though I’m sure I’ll enjoy stuff like NekoNyan’s new stuff and Trails Horizon is apparently the best game in the series in a while. So some fun will be had.

Stay safe, enjoy what you can/ Back up what you don’t have time for, you might need it later.