Ar Tonelico is taking to long, so for this week I’m going to talk about harem’s for a bit. Mainly becasue Harem Kingdom had a cool concept that it did fuck all with, and I want to talk about a subject that is super common, but is either talked about with derision or obsession from a point of view of someone who really doesn’t particularly care for harem’s either way. They can be good or infuriating.
Before talking about the main points though, I want to specify what I mean by harem. When it comes to the otaku space it can be used for a few different things, mainly when it comes to multiple potential love interests versus multiple actual love interests. I’m focusing on actually being together, as that is a bit rarer but more interesting. Most of what I say can apply to mixed harems or reverse harems, but I’m mostly focusing on the typical male lead and a bunch of cute girls as that is the most common type.
A cyperpunk distant sequel to Apostle. Same body types, mostly the same gameplay. Other then the aesthetic, it is a very faithful sequel.
This might be the most expensively made RPG Maker game I’ve seen to date. Videos’ of the town in 3D, dynamic camera and animations in h scenes along with voice acting, the amount of what felt like unique tile sets, and ads for other games(mostly from Kagura Games, which made sense and helped the Neon ads thing cyberpunk should have). Not that I can say the money went to the right things, but there was definitely a very high budget for this.
Querate’s 5th game, the best one yet, and the center of their biggest controvert/drama yet. It’s a lewd massage themed rhythm game with a dating sim thing tacked on, that sparked a few different issues. It’s also probably better known as Massage Freaks! Though I kind of like beat refle. refle stands for reflexology, which means massage studies, and beat is a word with a lot of meanings, two of which fit here. Masturbate and rhythm. Beating to the beat.
So when the game had it’s first real announcement a few people got loud, mainly about 2 things. The first is how massage is used to trick people into sexual related incidents, and the second is that the girls names where tied to real world idols in Japan. After a few days, the game was delayed indefinitely, only to be released under a different name two days before its original release date.
The not censored content
The released version had the name changes, a different name entirely, a warning about not repeating the actions in the game(even though the guy in the game never does anything sexual or romantic on purpose, he’s actually just a super dense nice guy), and the removal of two lewd mechanics. There was also a patch to change the game back to the original build except for the game’s name, so basically it has an 18+ patch like a huge number of other games, though this one doesn’t add porn. Considering how lewd the game actually is, it’s basically sold in streamer mode which it needed anyway.
How you feel about the whole situation is up to you, but I don’t consider this censorship winning, nor do I blame Querate for making changes. They weren’t the only company working on this, there was also a company in charge of the songs which may have forced Qureate’s hands via contract or continued support. Either way, without the entire story I find it hard to point fingers at what actually happened here. Adding to that, Qureate’s games vary fairly highly in the lewd department so I can’t just use their next game to decide if they are changing their approach.
Basically, for me, I don’t care about the name changes or whatever. Steam is a pain of a market place for pervy stuff nowadays, so I half expect every sexual themed game, porn or not, to be censored before hand and patched off site. It just makes sense considering how much money you lose out on otherwise. I’m not happy about that, but if that’s the way forward then so be it. On to the game itself.
What if Key decided to do a best of all their route ideas and writing stuff, and combined into a VN themed around summer and memories? That’s Summer Pockets. Reflection Blue adds like 4 routes to that, so it’s the best way to experience Key. In my opinion.
Miss Naughty Mind
Some would say this is just a VN, but Key’s later stuff have a few too many game elements, optional though they may be, for me to just lump them with plain visual novels. Kinda like how Kara no Shoujo or Hollow Ataraxia got posts, so do the later Key stuff deserve full dedicated posts. But yeah, it is a VN.
Qureate’s first 3D model game, featuring a small room and a spastic women living in. It’s a raising sim, a very easy raising sim that seems designed for VR more then anything.
I don’t think she wears a bra in any of her outfits…
I was going to post beat refle instead, but it turns out I need to do another whole run of the game to get the bad ending + all the pointless filler talks for the gallery. So instead this game.
H Scene Count- Each girl gets around 6 in their route, but somewhere around 30~ from pranks, begging, and other events.
Created by Inazuma Soft, translated by Otaku Plan
Length- 5 hours or so
I played this cause I found the maids on the cover sexy. I liked the art style basically. Built in RPG Maker MX. I guess it’s a dating sim/sandbox hybrid thing? Shota hero for those who care.
The second game in the series, a prequel that contains its sequel. I still hate it, but it’s less stabbing myself with a needle and more poking myself. It still hurts a bit, but I’m not bleeding as much.
It’s just better.
Unlike the original, I can’t remember any advertisement for Zero. I think I played it out of a weird sense of achievement whoring? Like the first game worked, might as well do the second? Oh, and I loved save importing which this one has. That was probably the actual reason I stuck with a series I already didn’t like.
An escape room themed RPG Maker MX game with Yuuka from Touhou as the main girl. A prequel to Yuka- Scattered Shards of the Youkai. So giant boobs and corruption.
The second game in the series, remade! Playing this made me realize I actually finished the original game back in the 2010’s, and I kind of like that version more. Really I just don’t care for Red, the new girl to the remake they force on you to fill the fourth character slot for like 1/4 of the game. I get waifu obsessed characters, but that’s Red’s only trait, and she just kind of forces the position on everyone. It’s not really cute to me…
Our main heroine. The game opens pretty dark actually…
Anyway, Nep 2 replaces the core team of Goddess with their little sisters, making Nepgear(based on the GameGear) the protagonist. As a game, it’s better then 1 in most ways. It’s also considered one of, if not the, strongest story in the series.
Just thought I’d muse over some backend stuff, mainly the complete confusion of trying to figure out what’s popular. Just looking at the views of different posts confuses me. It’s a constant feeling of why as I watch something I enjoy get 20-50 views while something random I did takes off for a couple hundred. I’m not salty. I swear.
