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Do you play joke/meme games?

fasdfsda5235

fasdfsda5235

New member
Jun 7, 2026
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For example, Nekopara Catboys Paradise, made as an April Fool's joke for fun, but it's free on Steam, so...

I just discovered this free dating sim from an insecticide company... The love interests are bugs. They're all voiced by Yuki Kaji (voice of Eren Yeager/Shoto Todoroki), which I find even funnier.

Do you know any more games like this? In my case, my excuse is that I'm learning Japanese, and any practice is good practice 😭

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fasdfsda5235 said:
For example, Nekopara Catboys Paradise, made as an April Fool's joke for fun, but it's free on Steam, so...

I just discovered this free dating sim from an insecticide company... The love interests are bugs. They're all voiced by Yuki Kaji (voice of Eren Yeager/Shoto Todoroki), which I find even funnier.

Do you know any more games like this? In my case, my excuse is that I'm learning Japanese, and any practice is good practice 😭

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When I first saw the announcement for Gekigan, and that all of the LI was going to be voiced by Yuki Kaji, I thought this was Amulit's new work that was announced last year. 😭
 
i wouldnt really consider nekopara catboys paradise to be a joke though? i mean yeah its an april fools project, but there was still a considerate amount of effort put into it! as in, they hired an otome writer and a decently popular artist.. the game still sucked but ww

anyway, i dont think i enjoy "jokey" games, even those that come from japan. the industry is already on its last leg, no need to bury it even further i think. the only "jokey" game i actually liked that i can think of is hatoful boyfriend.. probably because it went far beyond a simple joke and actually managed to pull something beautiful

western meme games are not even worth looking into, because every single one of them is literally just
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No, I'd better prefer to use my time to read actual stuff that I have in my backlog and a lot of the times joke vns are just a disguise to sell contempt for the medium to the original target audience. Actual parodies would be made with love for the medium by someone who's very knowledgeable about it, anyway.
 
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ninnikuryona said:
i wouldnt really consider nekopara catboys paradise to be a joke though? i mean yeah its an april fools project, but there was still a considerate amount of effort put into it! as in, they hired an otome writer and a decently popular artist.. the game still sucked but ww

anyway, i dont think i enjoy "jokey" games, even those that come from japan. the industry is already on its last leg, no need to bury it even further i think. the only "jokey" game i actually liked that i can think of is hatoful boyfriend.. probably because it went far beyond a simple joke and actually managed to pull something beautiful

western meme games are not even worth looking into, because every single one of them is literally just
View attachment 104426
Click to expand...

1781161817263.png
 
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ninnikuryona said:
i wouldnt really consider nekopara catboys paradise to be a joke though? i mean yeah its an april fools project, but there was still a considerate amount of effort put into it! as in, they hired an otome writer and a decently popular artist.. the game still sucked but ww

anyway, i dont think i enjoy "jokey" games, even those that come from japan. the industry is already on its last leg, no need to bury it even further i think. the only "jokey" game i actually liked that i can think of is hatoful boyfriend.. probably because it went far beyond a simple joke and actually managed to pull something beautiful

western meme games are not even worth looking into, because every single one of them is literally just
View attachment 104426
Click to expand...
Agreed! Hatoful boyfriend is actually good and worth it.

About western parodies I would never play them just because what you just said. Western vn are not my thing anyway. The only one I've played it's Dream Daddy just because one of my favorite artists worked on that ^^

Maybe I'll play the DBD vn bc I sank so many hours on that game but I feel uneasy and I'm not that convinced to do that lol
 
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I usually prefer completely serious stories and i haven't played any Japanese games like this, but i genuinely loved job hunting 9000 deluhx. It was a bit too cringe in some routes- but overall It was really fun and well made.
 
I think this game kinda mocking me. As someone with have irrational fear of cockroaches, using agenda like this pretty annoying. Yeah, my soul would probably leave from my body first. Not even pretty guy can help erase my phobia /joke
 
There was another thread about parody games I remember posting in, so this might end up parroting what I said on there TBH, but I think the fact the cockroach game came out so recently and blew up is a good occasion for me to yap further.

I'll say it: I played the cockroach game. All of it. Got the CGs on my computer as some kind of badge of honor, but honestly, it was mid. What you would expect from a parody game, truthfully—especially one made as an ad. Nothing to write home about, really, except that the gimmick made me chuckle for 2 minutes. That was about what I expected, so in that regard, I've got nothing to say, I willingly wasted my evening on it out of morbid curiosity.

However, the cockroach game existing highlights a problem I have with how people talk about otome games, being that now you've got a bunch of people talking about otome games as a kind of punchline and truly showing their disdain for the genre when they're completely unwilling to engage with a serious title. They're not even willing to show a minimum of respect towards the people who worked on parody titles. If I see anyone on social media refer to Kaji Yuuki as only "Attack on Titan's Eren Yaeger" again without even mentioning his damn name I think I'll start living as a hermit in the mountains to avoid going crazy. You don't hear me call Robert Pattinson exclusively "Twilight's Edward Cullen" or Ryan Gosling "Barbie's Ken" now, do you?

A joke is funny only if they're laughing with you, not at you, and the way I've seen English speakers specifically post about that cockroach game really made me realize that in 2026 we're still deep in the "they're laughing at you for your interests" trenches. It sucks and I really wish it weren't like this. :( It's only been a week, but I can't wait for discussion about that game to die already on the wider Internet so I can stop being so irrationally angry when I see people posting about it like "omg look this is so weird xDDD".

That being said, in general I will agree on Hatoful Boyfriend being great. They could never make me hate those birds.
 
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