It seems the season for new game announcements has arrived, at least from companies/creators I
used to care about.
First off, we have ASa Project, with their next project
恋愛×ロワイアル. This game will focus on, much like the previous game from the studio, a group of girls ready to use any means necessary to make the protagonist fall in love with them. It's Youka Nanoka again alone in the writing chair so we can expect a ton of unfunny jokes, a completely unlikable donkan protagonist undeserving of the girl's attention, and a large serving of love triangles or more to complete the awful mix. Sounds great!
Next up is Whirlpool, which continues its trend of low-priced games started with
猫忍えくすはーと. This time, it's about decadent life with dragon princesses in
竜姫ぐーたらいふ. Oumiya Yuu is in charge of the scenario as has been the case for anything Whirlpool lately, and
pieces while flawed had some redeeming value (let's not talk about the
recent fandisk that is only worth it for the ecchi scenes). Maybe if the scale is toned back his stories can finally make some sense and avoid the obvious contradictions/deus ex machinaes.
And finally, we have hibiki-works with another project apart from the upcoming resurrection of the xCation series:
水蓮と紫苑. Much like some of the
best games in hibiki-works history, Iizuki Tasuku is in charge of the art but also much like hibiki-works
most awful and bland story/characters Taira Norimitsu is in charge of the scenario, assisted with a nukige writer no less. We can probably expect another useless cowardly indecisive protagonist and heroines only here to provide him with all the sex he could ever want without a shred of desire, ambition or personality outside of that. At least the HCG might be good but the
awfulness of everything else in 如月真綾の誘惑 prevented me from enjoying even that. Here's hoping they can prove me wrong but my hopes are slim.
Apart from that, I have been readings VNs here and there but nothing really worthy of a detailed writeup. The best that comes to mind is
ダイヤミック・デイズ, and old Lump of Sugar game that managed to maintain my interest enough to finish it entirely, something extremely rare these days. It does feature on of the best childhood friend relationship progression I've read in a long time (Kisa), so there's that, but also some very questionable plot point and characters.
I've also recently dipped into
裸足少女's brand of nukiges and while the ecchi scenes are good and varied (if you can excuse their strange fascination for chinkasu), their useless donkan shota protagonists are extremely annoying and really put me off.
新妻こよみ is probably the safest in that regard but I still wouldn't call the protagonist likeable by any means.
