#tennenouji

[suzuran777]

Analyzing some of the very first BL visual novels

First of all, I've talked about most of these topics during my Citrus con panel on Augustus 24th, so for those who missed it or who wanted a list of all the visual novels mentioned during the panel, those are also mentioned in this blog post! Japanese BL visual novels have been something I’ve been interested in since 2010-2011, and even these days many people in English speaking fanbases are familiar with games like DRAMAtical Murder and the other Nitro + Chiral titles. I've played many older titles which I've previously reviewed on this blog, and in this post I will be looking at some of the very first BL visual novels and how the industry has changed throughout the years.

Before the very first "official" BL visual novels were released, some visual novels already existed in which a male protagonist had romantic or sexual scenes together with one of the other male characters. Some examples of this are games like Sotsugyou Ryokou (1996) and Ko-Ko-Ro (1998). Most of the other love interests in these games were girls, so they were not promoted as “boys’ love” games.

The oldest visual novel I could find that was promoted as a game which focuses on love between boys, is a game called Sei Valentine Gakuen, released by a company called B.M. in early 1999. This is a game in which you can name the protagonist, and none of the characters are voiced. While checking their old website through Waybackmachine, it seemed like the game had a lot of game-breaking bugs which they attempted to patch out, however the website quickly shut down within what seems like only a year (or maybe a few years) after its release date. Since there's not a lot of information about this game available online, I was surprised that someone bought the game second-hand and made a youtube video about it, so I recommend checking that out! You can watch it here. Despite being promoted as a game that focuses on love between boys it seems like there’s not really romance in the game, so I am curious why they marketed the game in this way.

Next is a game called BOYxBOY, released a few months after Sei Valentine Gakuen in April 1999. This is one of the games I actually got to play myself, and I was surprised to see this game was released by King Records (the record label) as I didn’t know they used to publish games, let alone BL games. The protagonist has a face and a name this time, but even though all the other characters are voiced, they decided to leave the main character unvoiced for some reason. This game does have romance elements, like confession scenes, but it's still quite minimal. There’s only one character who actually gets a kiss scene for example. This game did get a fandisc a year later, but it seems to be more of a collection of extra materials and minigames rather than something that really adds something to the story of the game.

Another BL visual novel that was released around this time in July 1999 is a game called Graduation (or Sotsugyou) by Joinac, which as the title suggests, focuses on the protagonist spending time with people at his school right before his graduation. This one actually got translated, so it's probably the first BL visual novel to ever get an (official) English translation. Unlike most other games from this time, this one can still be easily accessed too, as a digital version is available for purchase on DLsite.

Entering the 2000s, game developer AliceSoft created their own BL game brand called AliceBlue and released their first BL game called Kakurezuki in 2000. Even though AliceSoft released 18+ rated titles in the past, this first BL title was actually also all-ages. Some reviews mentioned that they don’t really consider the game BL at all, pointing out the lack of romance, and I can definitely see where they’re coming from. Pretty much all the other games I mentioned so far take place in a modern-day school setting, however this game is more of a historical fantasy game (although the plot still only focuses on the protagonist and his daily interactions with those around him).

A lot of the games during this time period still highly resembled the typical dating sim-style game, which was quite popular in the mid/late 1990s. This kind of gameplay means that usually, the player decides what the character is going to do that day, for example, what subjects he takes in school, which club he joins and which locations he visits. In games like Kakurezuki, it’s a bit different you decide what magic skills you want to strengthen that day. This kind of gameplay kind of limits what kind of story the writers can explore, as the plot mostly focuses on the main character’s everyday life and their interactions with other characters, and eventually also became something that’s not commonly used in BL visual novels anymore.

Later that year, in August 2000, one of the most well-known early BL visual novels was released. This was Sukisho (short for Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shouganai) by Platinum Label. The company promoted this game as the “first 18+ boys love game” though Graduation also seems to be rated 18+ on DLsite. Sukisho gained a big fanbase, as many fans really liked the art (drawn by Tsutae Yuzu) and the characters. Even though the plot still focused on boys going to school, some characters do have a darker backstory. The company even created official forums where fans could discuss the plot of the game and fan theories. Some other boards also encouraged fan meetups at local conventions in Japan. It ended up getting 3 different sequels, a PlayStation 2 port, an anime adaptation, and various drama CDs and novels. These days a lot of BL visual novels get drama CDs, but back then this game really got a lot of extra content compared to other games. Like many others, I personally discovered this game through the anime many years ago, but I played the visual novel later as it has also been fan translated and was quite accessible back then.

Another visual novel that stood out, and which also got an anime adaptation, is Angel's Feather (2003). Unlike the rather confusing anime plot, which adds a new character that isn’t in the game, I think the plot of the visual novel is actually much better. Initially it does seem like another game about high school boys, but in reality it’s more of an RPG game that focuses on the characters learning more about the world they’re living in, and their own magic abilities. I think just like Sukisho’s artstyle, compared to many other games that were released at the time, the art of this game quite unique. The artist is Yamamoto Kazue, who worked on many visual novels, and is still active nowadays. This game also got a sequel and drama CDs, but sadly the third game they were working on was never released. The studio was also working on a completely new game called White Shadow, however this one also remains unreleased to this day. If you want to read a little bit more information about this game and other unreleased titles, I wrote a blog post about that too here!

The inclusion of RPG elements I briefly mentioned just now in visual novels was not something only Angel’s Feather did. For example, some of these other screenshots are from Ouji-sama Lv1, Teikoku Sensenki, and Apocripha/0. The gameplay varied from a simple battle system to complicated dungeons and hard to beat enemies, depending on the game. One downside of this is that it’s quite a time-consuming process if you want to see all kinds of different endings, as these parts of the game were usually unskippable. Gradually, this is also something that slowly became less common in BL visual novels.

Generally, a lot of older games were quite difficult to replay as most games only had a limited number of save slots, and sometimes there would be no preview images next to the save files either, so it was quite difficult to remember which save file you were supposed to load. Some of the oldest BL visual novels also don’t have a skip button, which means you have to play through all of the dialogue again if you want to see a different ending. The pictures below are my screenshots from Angel's Feather and Kannagi no Tori, a game that was released in 2001. Luckily both of these games do have a skip button, but there were never enough save slots!

Other than changes in gameplay and artstyles, something that has also changed quite a lot are the dynamics between characters in adult scenes. In most BL visual novels, the protagonist is either a top or a bottom, and this doesn’t really change throughout the whole game. For example, if the official website mentions that the protag is a bottom, that means he’s a bottom with every single one of the love interests. Something I noticed while playing older games is that this order wasn’t always fixed. In games like Laughter Land and Kannagi no Tori for example, the game would often let the player decide. A game that was released a bit later which also has this option is PIL/SLASH’s game Shingakkou -Noli me tangere. In every route, no matter what character, you make the decision. I think it’s kind of fun when the game gives you choices like this, although I’m not sure if they will ever bring it back.

Terminology and target audience When I talk about these games I use “BL game” and “BL visual novel” as these are easily understood when communicating with an English-speaking audience. However in Japanese these games are usually only called “BL game” or "AVG" which just stands for adventure game. In the early 2000s some official websites around this time would refer to these BL visual novels as ''boys games'' to distinguish them from a genre called “girl’s games” or galge, which are games that would typically target a male audience. Even though the term “yaoi” was becoming less common, some developers would also call them “yaoi games” on their website, as you can see in some of the screenshots below . It’s not like the term “visual novel” is something completely unknown to them, but it’s also not a term I ever see them using to promote their games.

As for the target audience, similar to a lot of BL manga, the target audience for many of these BL visual novels was also women. A lot of websites stated that these were games “made by girls for girls”. However, it’s better to not generalize the whole genre as something exclusively targeted towards women, as some games like Hotaru (released by Tarutaru in December 2000) and its sequels were specifically advertised as games "made by gay men for gay men". One of the games I mentioned earlier, Graduation, was also made by a doujin group that calls themselves the Gay Artist Support, and like the name suggests, they support gay artists and alleys. Therefore it can be concluded that even during this time period, it wasn't just women creating and reading BL.

Marketing and sales Some might be wondering; how did people discover these games back then? Around the year 2001, multiple websites were created by fans that kept track of new BL game developers, as well as any updates provided by the companies that were already established back then. A lot of these websites also gave fans the option to chat with each other in their forums. Some examples of these websites are BOY'S STREET and Boyslove Kenkyuujo (which translates to BoysLove research institute). They kept track of both commercial and doujin game releases. Companies and doujin creators would both sell their games at events like Comiket, Super Comic City and J-Garden too, where they would promote their games and chat with fans. Their games would also be sold at stores like Animate and Toranoana, which is not too different than how creators sell their BL games nowadays, as both of these stores still exist. A lot of BL game creators in the early 2000s were quite close to each other and collaborated. For example, some doujin groups like Anubis Label, Ritz, Moon Parrot and more created their own magazine called B-GAME, which featured information about their new doujin games, corporate games, survey results, game reviews and more. The picture below (on the right) is a picture I found on the website of doujin group Moon Parrot, promoting and selling their game Kuro no Tsuki at Super Comic City. Of course official BL game magazines also existed, but I think I will make a separate blog post about that (update: you can read it here!).

Well-known developers throughout the years Next I made a list of some BL game creators that established their brands in the early or mid 2000s, and who continue to be active nowadays. I will mention some newer games as well. There's way too many BL visual novels to include all of them, so I apologize if I missed some that were quite influential!

Langmaor/Tennenouji: The first game Langmaor released was a game called Enzai in 2002, illustrated by Yura. This game focuses on a boy whose name is Guys, who gets sent to prison as a result of a false accusation. In one interview, Yura mentioned that she was almost afraid that the plot of the game would be “too dark”, as the main character experiences a lot of abuse, but she concluded that at least the game would be unique. In 2004 Langmaor released Teikoku Sensenki, and a year later they released Zettai Fukujuu Meirei (or more well-known as Absolute Obedience). This game had a kind of unique system which focused on not one, but two protagonists. The final game this brand released was a game called Laughter Land (2006. The illustrations of this game were drawn by Yuzuki Ichi who had previously worked on Kannagi no Tori. Yura was also part of doujin group called Tennenouj, which already released their first BL game in 2000 called Sei Crain Gakuen, a BL game that you could play by opening HTML files in your browser. They released their second BL game in 2006, which was Miracle No-ton, a game about a notebook that could grand the protagonist’s wishes (horny wishes only though!). In 2009, Luckydog1 was released, which ended up becoming one of the most popular and well-known games in Japanese speaking BL visual novel fanbases. The game is about the protagonist Giancarlo, who’s a low-ranking member of the mafia and currently in prison, who receives the task to free 4 important members of the mafia from prison. Some BL gamemagazines like Cool-B have an annual popularity poll, and for years, LuckyDog 1 and its characters ended up in first place. On BL information websites like ChilChil it continues to be the highest rated BL visual novel to this day. Two years ago, Tennenouji also released the game Friendly Lab, of which the mobile version is still being updated, so even nowadays they are still very active.

Nitro + CHiRAL: Or just called “NITRO CHiRal” these days. They released their first game, Togainu no Chi, in 2005. In the early interviews the director stated that they wanted to create something different, as a lot of visual novels around this time focused on schoolboys and modern-day settings. So instead, they wrote a story that takes place in a futuristic version of Japan, devastated by a Third World War. Only a year later in 2006, they released their second game, Lamento -BEYOND THE VOID- which also takes place in a fictional world. Even though the characters look similar to humans, they call themselves Ribika and have cat-like characteristics. The characters in this game are struggling to survive, as a mysterious force called “The Void” is slowly destroying their world. Because of their unique stories and beautiful illustrations, Nitro Chiral quickly gained a big fanbase in Japan too. In some articles published in Cool-B magazine, they mentioned that they were taking even bigger risks with their next game, as the plot would be anything but happy. This was about their third game, sweet pool. Despite that, I think fans already expected dark and serious stories from the company, so it was still well-received. Before releasing DRAMAtical Murder, they released two more visual novels called Itsuwari no Alkanet and World’s end Nightmare, though these were only available on Chiral Mobile, an app that could only be downloaded on certain Japanese phones. These days these games are considered lost media, but I wrote a blog post about what I could find about them some years ago. Afterwards they released their more well-known games DRAMAtical Murder in 2012 and Slow Damage in 2021.

Pil/Slash: This is a BL visual novel developer that is well known for writing dark stories, with themes like abuse, noncon, physical and emotional torture. Though of course this is not too uncommon in BL visual novels, as all of the developers I’ve previously mentioned include themes like that in their games too.Their first game, Masquerade ~Jigoku Gakuen SO/DO/MU~, was released in 2006, followed by Koibito Yuugi a year later. In 2011, one of their most well-known titles, Shingakkou –Noli me tangere- was released. This game is about protagonist Michael who’s enrolled in a seminary. However, his school life is anything but peaceful, as his family gets murdered and he also discovers a secret society of devil worshippers in his very own school. At the moment this is the second highest rated BL game on ChilChil, after Luckydog1. After this they released Pigeon Blood in 2014, which was also a horror-themed game, and Paradise a few years later, which was quite popular in Japan too. In 2021 they released their newest game, Dystopia no Ou. This game focuses on protagonist Kiriku who dreams about becoming a rock star. Initially, this seems quite different than PIL/SLASH's previous games, but I promise the story still gets pretty dark. The writer credited for Paradise and Dystopia no Ou is Kyuuyouzawa Lychee, who's also the creator of doujin game group LOVE&DESTROY and games like CAGE OPEN and CAGE CLOSE.

Spray: This company’s first game was Saikyou Darling, released in 2001, but I think they are probably more well-known for their Gakuen Heaven series. The first Gakuen Heaven game was released in 2002, but since then they have released a few newer versions of the game, console versions and a second game. This is another one of these games that people might know because it has an anime and manga series. Spray has released quite a few different games like Soshite Bokura Wa, Piyotan, STEAL! and more recently Tsumi naru Rasen no Ori, but I think other than Gakuen Heaven their most well-known title is probably Kichiku Megane, released in 2007. This game focuses on protagonist Katsuya, a salesman who seems to be failing at everything in life. Just before he’s fired from his job, he receives a mysterious pair of glasses from someone. Whenever he wears these glasses, his personality completely changes. He suddenly becomes very skilled at everything, but also very sadistic. In recent years fans have started organizing fan events for this game at local conventions again, so it’s interesting to see how popular it still is.

Holicworks: Also known as LoveDelivery, as that’s the name they used to release some of their very first games, like Tsukigami (2007) and Beniiro Tenjou Ayakashi (2008). Their most well-known title Taisho Mebiusline, released in 2012. This game is a historical fantasy game which takes place during the end of the Taisho period, in 1923. The protagonist, Kyouichirou, moves to Tokyo in order to go to university. However, he runs into trouble soon after his arrival, as the Imperial Military becomes interested in his ability to see spirits. The writer of this game, Nakajo Rosa, is often praised for the historical research she did in order to write this game. The story covers all kinds of political issues, international affairs and military activity, and combines it with religious themes such as Shintoism. This also means that even for Japanese speakers, the game can be a bit difficult to read, as it tends to use difficult words and kanji. However, I think with a bit of research it’s not impossible. They also released games like Tokyo Onmyouji, Tokyo 24ku, and more recently Tokyo Satsujinki Gakkou no Kaidan, though the only game that has an English translation is Tokyo Onmyouji, which takes place in a more modern-day setting, but still focuses on supernatural themes like ghosts and spirits.

Karin Entertainment: Another developer that has been around for a long time, who released their first BL game series called Bois in 2002. Afterwards in 2004, they released the game Animamundi Owarinaki Yami no Butou~ (Animamundi: Dark Alchemist), which I’m not sure if I should be calling BL game as there are also a few female love interests. The games they released after this aren’t BL games, but instead they created a new branch called Karin Chatnoir Omega, which released the game Omertà ~Chinmoku no Okite~ in 2011. In this game the mafia controls the government, and the protagonist J.J. is a hitman who’s taking all kinds of assassination jobs. In 2016 they also released the game Omega Vampire, which is the first omegaverse BL visual novel.

Parade: This is a game developer known for creating games in which the protagonist is exclusively a top, or seme, which is also something that was not super common in the past. In a lot of other games almost all of the love interests are younger guys, so I think it was interesting to see at least two of the other main characters in NO THANK YOU!!! were over the age of 35. Even though most Parade games have a lot of 18+ content, like NO THANK YOU!!! and their second game Room No. 9, one should not underestimate the plot, as the writing is really good. My favorite game is probably their latest game, which is Lkyt., a historical fantasy game and my personal favorite.

CORE: This is the BL branch of a company called Orbit, and their most well-known game is Messiah, which was released in 2006. Though their first game was a game called Ever Loyalty in 2001, followed by Fanatica in 2004. Most of CORE's games only have 1 or 2 characters the protagonist can end up together with, although sometimes other characters in the game also have their own bad endings. In Fanatica, the protagonist only has one true love interest, but a lot of the other main characters are also paired up with each other, so even if they don't have their own route, you do get to see different scenes with them. Even though CORE released their last game in 2008, which is the Messiah fandisc Messiah ~ Paranoia Paradox. It was announced that they are actually working on a new BL project called Tokyo Gentou/Tokyo Phantasmagoria, under the new name Procyon.

Adelta: Not really 2000s as their first game was released quite some time later, but I think still important because they've gotten quite popular in recent years. This is a doujin game group created by Kurosawa Rinko. The first games this group worked on were Cocoon and Cocoon Black Noise, released in 2014. The game they’re probably most known for is Koshotengai no Hashihime (Hashihime of the old Book Town). This game is quite well known for its references to literature and real writers, and the story also takes place during the Taisho period. Originally it was advertised as a time-loop murder mystery. In 2020 Uuultra C was released, which is a completely different kind of game that takes place during the Showa period and focuses on heroes you’d typically see in a Super Sentai Series, or Tokusatsu movies in which the characters fight kaiju. Adelta is currently working on their newest game, Ooe.

Conclusion Of course there are many more BL visual novels which left a big impact on people, even less serious games like Gakuen Handsome which still get referenced a lot to this day. Another well-known title is Mada Koubou's Hadaka Shitsuji, which was mostly created by artist and writer Togo Mito. It kind of difficult to determine how many BL visual novels currently exist, but BL information website ChilChil currently lists 345 titles in this database. This does however include fandiscs and games that aren't technically BL games, and also doesn't include all doujin games ever released.

The early 2000s was a good time for BL visual novel fans and a lot of developers were making BL games back then, which also meant that there would be many new games to play. These days the number of active developers has significantly decreased, so most of the time you get about 1 or 2 big releases every year. Of course, there are still doujin groups and individual creators who make their own games, but the number of commercial releases is pretty small nowadays.

Some games that were released earlier this year however, are Tokyo Satsujinki Gakkou no Kaidan and Haiiro no Arcadia. I am personally also looking forward to the release of Adelta's new game Ooe, and Procyon's Tokyo Gentou/Tokyo Phantasmagoria, so I recommend checking those out when they're released!

[lavikanda]

[everythingblreview]

Friendly lab- unlock ()- Review (and walkthrough)

Friendly lab was one of the bl games I was looking forward the most since announcement, not only because I like the art-style but also because it’s by Tennenouji and I love Tennenouji. It was first release for mobile and now finally for PC too, unlike the mobile version the PC version is R18+ I only played the PC version because I don’t like mobile games, so everything that’s mobile only content only, won’t be discussed here.

The first part of the review will be spoiler-free and will include a walkthrough (kinda) and general help, as well as an explanation of the game since it’s rather complex. The second part will be me pretty much explaining everything that happened in the ending and how I feel about it. So let’s start~

This is as R18+ as it gets

Story and gameplay.

The gameplay is very simple to explain, you are doing “friendly” experiences on the 2 subject Nishi (left) and Higashi (right). Both wake up together in an empty room and don’t have any memory who they are and how they got here, all they know they are stuck together in a room and someone (in this case you) are performing experiences on them. As you continue to play the two test subjects will remember more and more about their life. As you proceed you will find more and more keywords to their past. The goal here is to collect them all and unlock their memories in the span of 10 day. They are always in that room, the game’s text is only the dialogue of these two characters, there is no BMG since some of the experiments have music in them and there is also no voice acting (so you don’t hear them speak). Which sound maybe boring for some people, but I thought it was really interesting to play, partly because both characters are really well written and developed and you just enjoy spending time with them and learning about their past. The closer you get to the end of the 10 days the more intense the story gets and the more on edge you are, wondering what will happen next. The game goes from light-hearted and fun to dark and heavy in the span of the 10 days. Even if the experiences are considered “friendly” it doesn’t mean that their memories are too. There is some heavy stuff in the game which some may find disturbing and hard to swallow. So general warning here. I played all 10 day glued to my seat and ended it with pain in my heart, it hurts a lot but it was really good written.

Characters

For once I would like to mention that their names are translated in the English version, so Nishi is “West” and Higashi “East”, I’m not sure why they did it, sure that what their name means in Japanese, but I don’t see a reason to translate it. Since I played the Japanese version, I will use their Japanese names.

Nishi

Nishi always talks in polite Japanese, he looks kinda shady (according to the creator, which is true lol) but he is very kind, especially to Higashi. And from the very beginning it’s very obvious how deeply in love Nishi is with Higashi, he always comments how great Higashi is and how he loves to see Higashi make x face (basically every facial expression of Higashi) the more you play the more horny his comments get (lol). Despite being extremely horny for Higashi he has full control of himself and doesn’t do anything Higashi doesn’t want, he cherishes Higashi a lot and would always help him and even gives him his food, just to see him happy. He is very smart and loves to tell Higashi all kinds of random facts. Nishi is always smiling, and his sprite is always looking to the side so it looks like he is smiling at Higashi (hehe so cute). Normally I’m not into the polite type, but I love Nishi a lot, he is just so funny and cute and loves Higashi so much.

Higashi

Don’t get deceived by his cute face, he has a body builder body and would probably crush you in 0.2 seconds, but despite that Higashi is really cute, he has a somewhat childish attitude and loves aliens, he loves to play games and he draws if he feels like it (you can get him to draw pictures for you). Higashi doesn’t understand Nishi’s obvious flirting, he understands what Nishi is saying but he always thinks that since they are both boys it can’t be that Nishi is meaning it in such a way, but he enjoys being with Nishi and doing things with him. It's very obvious that he has some kind of trauma from his past and he often panics if he sees certain things, with Nishi always being there to comfort him. I love Higashi as much as Nishi, he is adorable and has a very cute happy smile, his past is very tragic and it hurt seeing him suffer so much, so I want him and Nishi just to be happy together.

Art & Music

As said before there is no music lol, but there is an opening which I really like.

The Cgs are drawn by queen Yura and are rather dark and lack colour, they have a very depressive vibe similar to some of the one in luckydog1+ bad egg, which I really really like. They fit the dark atmosphere of the game very well. There are some really cute CGs for Higashi and Nishi, but also a lot of disturbing CGs that are even hard to look at. Yura really did a fantastic job as always.

Short conclusion

Yes, the game is great, yes please play it and suffer with me. But if you can’t stand dark, heavy themes and see gore then I don’t recommend it, this is NOT a game for anyone who just wants to see some fluffy BL moments and cute romance, and also NOT a game for people who just want to see sex. There are, of course H-scenes in the game but, I can’t really say if watching them would make you happy. But if you’re fine with going through pain and suffer then I fully recommend it. 👍

Walkthrough and Gameplay explanation

(Short disclaimer, I don’t know how these things will be called in the English version, I just choose what I think fits best)

So, the main game is basically to find all the keywords in time before the 10 days are over. To unlock them you have to fill them out, like this

You have to do experiment to find hints for the keywords. You can find keywords in the experiences that don’t have this symbol:

You can select what experiments you want to do from these possibilities:

From left to right: Spying, Meal, Special things, Incidents, Amusement, water thingy (will be unlocked if you ask questions), question, pictures (bath and sleep) are not important The most important part are Spying - Amusement and the pictures tab You have to choose Spying basically every second time. While you can get hints in the experiments only the spying option will unlock the keywords.  You don’t have to do all that the game offers you on the day but around 80% of the Spying part since you can’t watch them on the next day like with the experiments.

Important is also for Higashi to draw you pictures to unlock certain ends.

Another things which is important to get some cute Cgs between Higashi and Nishi is the “intimacy %”

Fill it up to 100% before the day is over and you get some nice CGs (The day starts at 7:30 and ends at midnight when its bed time, at 6 p.m, it’s bath time until 6:30)

You also have the option to ask them question, this is more important for other ends than for the main endings. They sometimes will request things, if you fulfill their request in time, you can choice if you want some “happy gas” or “café au lait”. Give them several of one of these things and see what will happen. (You can only give them “happy gas” while they sleep, the café au lait is the “special things” tab at the very bottom)

There is also this water thing you have to fill to see “birth” fill it out if you have time and see what happens.

I recommend you to do reach one end no matter which, because the game will unlock a hint mode once you reach an end that can be used to get all ending in the game once you unlock hint mode for end 3 and finish it you can unlock hint mode for end 5, both helpful to complete the game.

Also another important thing: YOU CANT SAVE (meaning you have to restart from day 1 if you want to do different endings

General walkthrough (I stole it from the Japanese wiki lol)

Ending 1:  Follow hint mode for ending 3, don’t do 4-5 experiments that have keywords on the 10th day (I tried to get this end 2 times but failed, but apparently its an end that happens if you fail to collect all keyword in a specific way? But it’s not that important)

Ending 2: Follow the hint mode for ending 3 and choose to tell the true in the end.

Ending 3: Follow the hint mode for ending 3 and choose not to tell the true in the end. (you can get this end even without having to choose in the end)

Ending 4: finish end 3, follow hint mode for ending 3 and full the water thingy, the difference will happen after the ending 3.

Ending 5: Follow hint mode for ending 5 and do the the 5th black square experience.

Ending 6: Follow hint mode for ending 5 and do the the 5th black square experience but before you have to upload your game to version 1.5 or 1.6, you can do this by asking them question. (apparently the question with (↑) help with this but I not really sure because I also asked them just random question and it still worked. But you have to ask them a lot of question for it to work)

Ending 7: Follow hint mode for ending 3, use the “happy gas” 8 times (I don’t know if I recommend this end first or not, maybe it better to finish that in the beginning if you want to at least to enjoy the H-scenes? But you will be left with question, so keep that in mind)

Ending 8: Follow hint mode for ending 5, use the café au lait 8 times and give the 9th to Higashi, you also need to do the “a lump of ??? experiment.

Ending 9: Use the café au lait 8 times and give the 9th to Nishi, you also need to do the “a lump of ??? experiment, you need to finish ending 4

Ending 10: Follow hint mode for ending 5, do all the experiments with (★) in it, do as many experiments that raise the intimacy level as much as possible. (The one with the pink hand symbol)

Warning: If you want to play the game yourself don’t read the next part, the memory of the characters is the most important part of the game and the reason why its so interesting to play, I will talk about everything what happened in the game, only continue if you don’t plan on playing or really don’t care.

Ready?

Ok

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I will spoil it all, okay?

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Story

Before I played the game myself, I watched some videos of the mobile version online and really enjoyed it. It was fun to watch the characters react and although I heard form Japanese player that the game is sad, but I didn’t expect it to be, no not even bitter-sweet but a full on tragedy with no real happy end for neither of it’s characters.

Let me tell you in summary what things the memories of Higashi and Nishi will reveal. I don’t remember every single details since the memories are told in a not chronical order but I try.

In the game you mostly looking for Higashi’s memory because surprise Nishi remembers everything (explains why he has such an obvious crush in Higashi). The story basically start when Higashi was in elementary school his parents divorced and he chose to life with his mother, because Higashi really loves his mother a lot. In the first day of the experiments Higashi wants to escape so he can meet his mother again, but later we find out that his mother was actually murdered, of course Higashi wants to know why and who did it. But before the murder took place, his mother had a boyfriend after she separated from Higashi’s father, who was really controlling of her and abusing of Higashi (like with beating and all). Through the experiments we learn that Higashi was apparently tortured by various things like, burning his feet or giving him piss to drink. Baby Higashi had not a lot of friends in school and often was scared to go home. He even mentioned how a perfect day for him is a day when nothing bad happens. Because if his heavy trauma he has nightmares that he often draws pictures of (these are really scary to look at).   After Higashi remember that his murder was killed, he remembers how; she was poisoned by someone, someone who gave Higashi a present his mother eat and this was what had killed her. There is another important thing Higashi’s remembers that he had an important person who ones went to a summer firework festival. After Higashi came back from this summer festival his mother’s boyfriend got so mad and beat Higashi so extreme that this poor boy was in the hospital for 2 MONTHS ((T⌓T)), after release he was put in the children care center for one month but returned home later because he couldn’t leave his mother alone who was really bad at doing everything according to Higashi. His mother’s boyfriend was actually put in jail for that, which took place in the 6th year of elementary school, his mother was killed when he was in the 2nd year in middle school. All memories he had were only until the day his mother died, everything after was still in the dark.

So now to the important question, what about Nishi? What roles does he play? Well turns out Nishi and Higashi actually knew each other before, not only knew but they were actually best friend (༶ඬ༝ඬ༶) who played together all the time after Nishi moved to Higashi’s city. Nishi’s mother had a terrible accident that lead to her being heavy injured and even killed Nishi’s unborn sister, they moved to a bigger city to care for her, Nishi’ father is a man who works with Chinese medicine, I think? Nishi went to a different elementary school than Higashi but these two still spent a lot of time together. Nishi didn’t really go to middle school because he was always helping his father with work, who was home rarely. More important, Nishi was the one who Higashi went to the firework festival with (there is this really cute picture he draws of them as babies watching the fireworks (ಥ﹏ಥ)), and not only that but he actually lived a whole month with Nishi and his mother, after the abuse thing with his mother’s boyfriend.

On the 8th night (I think) before the go to sleep, Nishi tell Higashi he has something important to tell, and then he tell him how he was the one who actually killed his mother (Σ(°ロ°)) he used a toxic flower covered with chocolate which he knew his mother would eat because HE HAD GIVEN HER POISEN FOR THE PAST 3 YEARS (now that’s a twist… apparently she was sick in some way anyways so no one had noticed it before). Higashi flips and starts to strangle Nishi asking why he would do that but Nishi wants him first to remember everything, (Also, important to note that Higashi even though he is smaller, he is stronger than Nishi) so he stops and says that he doesn’t hate Nishi because he promised never to hate anyone ever again, he just feels very sad and wants to know why he did it. The following day Higashi remembers even more time he had spent with Nishi, but also remembers that Nishi’s mother actually died later which he really feels sad about because he really liked her a lot and wanted to meet her again. At night he once again starts to strangle Nishi wanting the reason for his mother’s death but stops because he gets some really weird flashbacks of Nishi.

On the last day you collect the last memories of Higashi and get more pictures from him (which play an important role actually). Higashi also remembers that he got a call right after he saw his mother die. Once the day is over Nishi and Higashi sit down to reveal the final missing puzzle. Everything from here was hard to swallow. It was Higashi’s mother’s birthday and Nishi gave Higashi the poisonous flower which he gave to his mother, which she ate and died. Shocked, Higashi gets a call from his Nishi with Nishi telling him that he was the one who killed her, Higashi is shocked and Nishi tells him to come over to his house so he can explain why. Hiagshi rushes over completely angry at him and attacks him, Nishi tell him that he want to listen to his last request but Higashi completely flips and starts to strangle Nishi until blood starts to drip from his eyes and mouth…………Higashi actually killed Nishi in that moment, he really died and Higashi remembers it now, the worst part is that Nishi knew it, he knew Higashi would kill him for it and he actually dug a hole in his garden so HIGASHI COULD BURY HIM(……I have no words). Nishsi actually left him a letter telling what to do once he killed him, but this is where it gets even worse, once Higashi realized he killed his best friend he completely loses it and begins to hit his head against something (don’t remember what exactly) until he CRUSHES HIS HEAD AND DIES. He literally committed suicide right there on spot, he died, Nishi died, they have been dead the whole time, that’s why Higashi couldn’t remember more because there was never a future to begin with. There were only 14 years old…. o(TヘTo) Hello darkness my old friend~

Nishi didn’t know that Higashi, too died on that day and is shocked to find it out. Once all of this is out you can choose if you want to tell Higashi the true or not

-If you don’t: Nishi will tell Higashi that he killed his mother because he wanted to free Higashi from her, because as long as she lived Higashi has to care for her and never can live the life he wanted. Then Nishi tells him since he now told Higashi everything, Higashi is free to kill him, but Higashi tells him that he won’t and that he still wants them to be best friends. The only question remains, if they died when they were 14, how are they alive, why do they look older now? (around 18, 19 ) Well, this question will probably never be answered, there is no full explanation who is behind this all, why are they alive, or are they even alive? It ends how it started with them in the room together.  (this is the end 3)

-If you do tell the true: Higashi will get a card and the only thing written on it is “Your mother abused you”, Yes Higashi’s mother was behind Higashi’s abuse, she did these horrible things to him not only her boyfriend, she burned his feet so he couldn’t go to school, she fed him rotten food and the piss. That’s the true reason Nishi killed her, because she abuse Higashi, but Higashi was so manipulated by her abuse that he still loved her. Once Higashi reads that he begins to remember, from the picture he drew what his mother did to him (that’s why they were important) but this is too much for him that he dies right in Nishi’s arm. Nishi follows right after. It seems Nishi knows that they can both died from that and the game hints that this experiment is constantly repeated, so they live and die in a circle. (ending 2)

Ending 2 & 3 are both like the true endings, yes this is all you get utter depression. I can’t with Nishi, he knew Higashi would kill him and yet he still couldn’t see him suffer from abuse, despite knowing the whole time he was dead he never was mad at Higashi ever he always looked at him with the most loving eyes, the love he had for Higashi was tragic, that ended in a tragedy for both of them. I can’t even be mad at Nishi or Higashi, I fully understand Nishi’s reasons and how can you be mad at Higashi for killing him when Nishi himself isn’t. Higashi was only a victim of abuse which led to all of this. If you finish the ending 3 you can read the letter Nishi wrote him before his death in the game start menu. In it it’s says how Nishi wants him to bury him in the garden and that he should go to the police after and how he saved money for Higashi so he can survive alone and there rest I will maybe know some day if I can stop crying while reading the letter………………….

Also you don’t get any H-scenes not even a kiss, this is just a full on depression game. Yet I’m still fine with it, it was a beautiful written tragedy, I just wanted them to be happy (╥﹏╥)

Ending 1: Like said I never did it because I couldn’t get it for some reason, but it’s a fail end where you fail to find all of Higashi memories and Higashi doesn’t remember killing Nishi or dying himself and Nishi doesn’t know he died (is what Japanese people told me).

Ending 4: Its basically ends with ending 3 and then you see Higashi and Nishi being reborn in some tank or some shit? Is it a hint that they were born in a labor and they only have memories from their previous life? I don’t know…You can only get this end once.

Ending 5: The black square will swallow Nishi and cut off his bottom part and he dies in Higashi’s arm. (very bloody end)

Ending 6: Same experiment as for ending 5, but this time they can pass through the square and leave the room only to end up in?? good question, it looks like outside but there is no other person also a piece of meat falls from heaven…okay?

Ending 7: The horny end lol. You have to give them the “happy gas” and Higashi gets high and horny and starts to make out with Nishi in the first night and they gradually make more nsfw things which ends with sex at the 8th time. This is the only way to get anything sexual between them, yes by drugging. The sex scene was WILD, Nishi tells Higashi that he needs to tell him thanks you for killing his mother or he won’t do xxx so he does while they go for it….eh ok. This feels even weirder if you know that they are both dead.

Ending 8: Higashi gets high from coffee and thinks he is eating his mother’s sandwich but he is actually eating Nishi’s hand….. Nishi is just fine with it (Okay Nishi you big simp)

Ending 9: Nishi gets high and remembers things he shouldn’t so the experiment is just stops?

Ending 10: Jeez, this one was the worst x.x If you raise their intimacy level really high, at night when they supposed to go to bed they let this giant man in the room ( I think it's Higashi’s mother’s ex?) and HE BEGINS TO HIT HIGASHI AND NISHI AND RAPES HIGASHI, Nishi and Higashi then try to kill him and somehow made it. It ends with Higashi crawling naked to Nishi who was laying on the floor completely covered in blood, saying that he only needs Nishi………………………………………………… WHY DO YOU GET THAT FOR RAISING THEIR AFFECTION TENNENOUJI WHYYY.

*cough* Anyway thanks for reading me suffer if you made it to the part, I’m gonna go be depressed and pray that the next BL game doesn’t rip my heart out like this did  (￣ ￣|||)

[terubakudan]

For the strength of a Wolf is the Pack- and the strength of the Pack is the Wolf.

Lucky Dog 1 and its official art (Gian, Ivan, Luchino, Bernardo) © Tennenouji

Giulio di Bondone fanart © komichi_96 + the artist's twitter

The GazettE © The GazettE

[trashexplorer]

BLCD Review: Mudaero

Title: Mudaero (ムダエロ)

Author: Saitou Iri

Illustrator: Yura

Release Date: 2018/01/26

Cast: Shingaki Tarusuke x Shirai Yuusuke

Synopsis: 

“If you try to threaten me...I’ll fuck you right in the ass.”

Suddenly, the leg hair Koushirou hated so much back in elementary school which he named Gouda, appeared in front of him in the form of a human!

Review Proper

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

FUCK!

I can’t believe it! This! This is early 2000′s yaoi! My goodness. This is exactly  “山なし、落ちなし、意味なし” embodied! There was no drama, no romance—just straight up porn. Man, I knew that Yura was illustrating this, but I can’t believe that they also got Saitou Iri to do the story, too! It’s literally a Miracle No-Ton revival! Oof! I’m so old! 😂

I honestly expected “Mudaero” to mean “meaningless eroticism”, but it turned out to mean “useless hair eroticism”!!! I remember making the synopsis for this for my January 2018 releases clearly because it was the first one I ever made. I really can’t say that my Japanese has considerably improved from back then (because I was really at a loss while listening to this), but at that time, I still didn’t know how to read their websites, so I really had no idea what this CD was about. 😂 It took me two years to finally understand what kind of gijinka Gouda was! A gijinka is a thing that has managed to transform into a human. In this case, Gouda was Koushirou’s stubborn leg hair back in elementary school that turned into a human many years later after seeing how much of a trashy life he was living. Idk, I just can’t help but picture  Dr. Pimple Popper pulling Gouda out of Koushirou’s leg and then Gouda transforming into a human right after! HAHAHAHAHA

As I understood it, Gouda was given a human form in order to help Koushirou get his life and decency back—by force! You know, after a decade, my opinion on certain plots changed as my morals developed, but Mudaero isn’t something that you should view with a modern or moral lens because there really isn’t a point in doing so. It’s made to be senseless, so it wouldn’t be fair to judge it with sense. Think of judging Kirima Moccori’s Kowaku with sense. 😂 Also, can I just say that there was never a single cringey moment during the whole of the CD even though it was complete horseshit? Damn. I’m listening to Nyushitsu Knock as I’m typing this, and although it is funny to an extent, there are still many things that make me cringe big time. I was loudly cackling while listening to Mudaero even. 😂 I also loved the many references Koushirou made!

Koushirou: “Akuma de shitsuji ka?!”

I WAS ON THE FLOOR if you didn’t get that, I don’t know what to say to you

Moving on to the voice work,

I’m gonna say it. This is by far, the best masterpiece that Shingaki Tarusuke has ever delivered. I never thought that he could ever go that low unstrained. Hara-san is the lowest I’ve heard Shingaki Tarusuke in a BLCD (Kite Eishirou in an anime), and y’all what went down with that. I think that Shingaki doesn’t get enough recognition that he gets! He has been in the general industry of voice acting for a long time, but he doesn’t really have a lot of lead roles in anime (just six and two of those are for BL anime) and he only started landing leading roles in BL and R18 Otome CDs from 2015. I mean??? I personally have never heard Shingaki Tarusuke in a bad role before except Hara-san??? BLCD!Hara-san was just a big fat mistake made by Brilliant Prin. And although he will perpetually be in a lower register, the range of tones he can do is so vast and all of them are so distinct of each other. I think that this is exactly why he is so sought after here in the BL industry, and it would be very devastating to see him go.

As for Shirai Yuusuke, yo, had I listened to this back in 2018, I sure as hell would’ve had a better impression of him. His performance here is also his best! Although, I did hear him struggle with the timing of his pitch changes sometimes, it was still nothing short of amazing. The tone he used here kind of reminds me of Fukushima Jun’s performance as Akira in Miracle No-Ton! Idk if that’s a brand, but Tennenouji has a knack for finding voice actors that FIT their characters. And it’s funny because Miracle No-Ton’s Akira, Lucky Dog 1′s Gian Carlo Bourbon del Monte (it has to be in full), and Mudaero’s Koushirou are not really similar, but they do kind of sound of similar. They’re all screamers/shouters and all of them from Fukishima Jun, Suzuki Tatsuhisa, and now, Shirai Yuusuke has got that down to a T. Man, Tennenouji is such a g when it comes to casting really. I refuse to acknowledge that Lucky Dog bad egg is part of the franchise.

The plot, however stupid and short it was, was executed seamlessly with good pacing. They never really got Gouda to have sex with Koushirou, but the chemistry was there regardless.  Can you believe that Shingaki Tarusuke and Shirai Yuusuke’s best work has zero plot???  😂 Also, it’s weird ‘cause despite how sexual this was, I was more focused on the comedic non-existent plot more than anything. If you’re into a meaningful plot, then this definitely wouldn’t be for you. However, if you’re super bored and want a good laugh without thinking about stuff much, then I’d definitely recommend this. I’d super recommend this if you’re an UtouxTakaba shipper, too.

[sinful-liesel]

[BL Game] Friendly Lab

Tennenouji’s Experimentation ADV Game “Friendly Lab” to be released in December!

Read Full Post on my Wordpress Blog 💕 (link below↴)

[englishvisualnovels]

Anime Expo 2018: MangaGamer to Bring Lilycle Rainbow Stage!!!, Luckydog1, and More to the West

Note: This post contains links that may lead to NSFW content.

MangaGamer announced four titles for fans of the boys’ love, bishoujo, and yuri visual novel genres!

For those hoping for more otome game announcements from MangaGamer this year, do not fret! A fan present at the panel asked John “Kouryuu” Pickett, MangaGamer’s head translator and PR director, the following question (Source):

Attendee: "Any plans for future 18+ otome games?" Kouryuu: "Absolutely. The year isn't over. Wait and see what we've got in store."

According to MangaGamer’s 2018 convention schedule, the publisher will have a panel at Otakon this August and another panel at Anime NYC in November so stay tuned!

Lilycle Rainbow Stage!!! (Yuri)

Developer: Particle Release Date: TBA Platform: Windows Age Rating: All-Ages

Lilycycle Rainbow Stage!!! is based on a series of yuri drama CDs by Particle. The game features character designs and art by Sakura Miwabe, one of the illustrators for Fire Emblem Heroes.

The game will be available on MangaGamer and Steam.

Relevant Link:

Official Site

Synopsis:

Yuno loves Tamaki’s smile, and wants to her witness her dreams coming true.... though having not seen much of Tamaki lately, Yuno’s been feeling somewhat down. She depends on Saeka a lot, and since the latter always comforts her in times of need, Yuno can feels as though she can talk about her problems without a care in the world.

Tamaki wishes with all her might that she could keep watching over Yuno, who’s always been number one in her heart... but the circumstances around her are changing, little by little. It's not only one girl she has to keep watch over now, after all. Saeka has always been dependable and supportive, and Tamaki's has begun to feel confused...

“Sigh... Looks like she always needs someone by her side too...”

Saeka still has a crush on Yuno, but has been enraptured by Tamaki's aura, and finds that she can’t leave her alone. Recently, she's been mulling over whether or not she wants to try and change the way she is...

As they chat, grow closer, become jealous, get embarrassed, and laugh...

The crisscrossing emotions of these three girls allow this warm yet slightly bitter story to unfold...

Luckydog1 (Boys’ Love)

Developer: Tennenouji Release Date: TBA Platforms: Windows, Mac, & Linux Age Rating: 18+

Luckydog1 features writing by Jinnai, the director of Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome, as well as art and planning by Yura. Yura was the lead artist and director for Absolute Obedience and Enzai - Falsely Accused.

The game will be available on MangaGamer.

Relevant Link:

Official Site

Synopsis:

It all starts with the slam of a prison door. Four captains from the same Mafia family, the CR:5, are taken out in one fell swoop and left to rot behind bars.

Lucky for them, our hero’s already there.

Gian’s just a run-of-the-mill wiseguy, passing his time doing petty jobs for the family when he’s on the outside and living the lazy life when he’s in the slammer. But those easy days come to an end when he gets word from the boss: if he can break the captains out, Gian will earn a spot at the top of the hierarchy.

Can he pull off a job this big, or is it more than even Gian’s fabled good luck can manage?

Rance IX: The Helmanian Revolution (Bishoujo)

Developer: Alicesoft Release Date: TBA Platform: Windows Age Rating: 18+ 

As of July 7th, Rance IX: The Helmanian Revolution is “close to done” with the translation. However, MangaGamer will not release the game before they release Sengoku Rance or Rance Quest MAGNUM. (Source)

The game will be available on MangaGamer.

Relevant Link:

Official Site

Synopsis:

The oldest nation to still exist on the Continent is the militant Helmanian Empire. A country with a long history, and once the most powerful nation in the world, Helman has experienced years of decay under a corrupt regime. A civil war, an invasion by a neighboring power, or perhaps both could happen at any moment. Amidst fears of such turmoil by no small portion of the population, a man who was once exiled from Helman rises to action.

Years prior, Prince Patton Misnarge fought to prove his worth by invading another country, but failed and disappeared from the public eye. Swearing to take his country back, Patton trained and returned a strong and admirable man. He sought to make use of the peerless champion he met on his journeys to fight to revolutionize Helman. Yes, the key to his plan was to get the assistance of the strongest and most brutal warrior, Rance.

Rance X: Showdown (Bishoujo)

Developer: Alicesoft Release Date: TBA Platform: Windows Age Rating: 18+

Rance X: Showdown is the final title in the Rance visual novel/RPG series.

As of July 7th, no localization work has been done for Rance X. Like Rance IX, MangaGamer will not release Rance X before they release Sengoku Rance or Rance Quest MAGNUM. (Source)

The game will be available on MangaGamer.

Relevant Link:

Official Site

Synopsis:

Humans and monsters shared the Continent in a delicate balance for over a thousand years, but it all came crashing down.

The most powerful fiend, Kayblis, seized power over the Monster Realm and led a colossal army on an invasion of the Human Realm. Unable to stop quarreling amongst themselves, the human nations were trampled.

Two weeks after the war began, the death toll for humanity reached approximately 12,000,000.

Yet mankind still couldn't unite, and the turmoil between the world's leaders continued. Just as the demise of humanity, the worst case scenario, weighed heavy on everyone's minds...

"Everyone should just work for me. I'll crush that Monster Army no problem."

It was Rance, back from an adventure with his companion, Sill.

There was an uproar among the world leaders:

The Kingdom of Leazas's Queen, Lia Parapara Leazas. The Kingdom of Zeth's Viceroy, Magic the Gandhi. The Republic of Helman's President, Sheila Helman. The Free City Alliance's Representative, Copandon Dot. The eastern island of Nippon's Lord, Kou Oda. The world's largest religion, Alicism's Pope, Crook Mofus.

...And they were also Rance's women, so they all agreed. Rance became humanity's supreme leader, and their final hope.

Over 6000 years a minuscule creature called Kayblis fought and slaughtered his way to the very top of the Monster Realm. A conceited man named Rance who declares all woman to be his lived a carefree life and found his way to the top of the Human Realm. Both men put the survival of their entire race on the line in an inescapable struggle to the death.

[suzuran777]

Review + Guide: Friendly lab - unlock(); (Tennenouji)

I was going to wait for the English translation of the PC version, but got a bit impatient and decided to play the Japanese version instead...! So here's my spoiler-free review in which I explain the gameplay mechanics and what the game's about. I also wrote a guide, as the Japanese one I found was a bit confusing sometimes.

In this game, you play the role of a researcher who's conducting a gentle experiment on two test subjects. The goal of the experiment is to measure what kind of impact the interference of the researcher has on the test subjects. The experiment must however be conducted safely, without harming the test subjects. A small locked room, two test subjects who suffer from memory loss. It's your goal to present a variety of items to them and to observe their reaction.

If you're here for the guide I recommend scrolling down a little bit! I'll start with a short summary of what the game is about and how to play it. This game was originally released as a mobile game in 2022 and I played a little bit of it, but I didn't reach any endings, so this was my first time completing the game. The gameplay of both versions is almost identical, but this time there are no in-game purchases and ads, which is nice! As the game's description mentions, you have to conduct experiments on the test subjects, Nishi and Higashi, and observe how they react to them. Both of them don't remember how they got there and also don't remember much of their past lives, so it's up to you to slowly make them remember. This game is unvoiced and there's also no background music, so it immediately makes the player feel a bit uneasy. The only sound you hear is the sound of the clock ticking.

Gameplay and story As the researcher, you can use 10 different sub-menus to interact with Nishi and Higashi: Voyeurism (1), Meal (2), Special Item (3), Accident (4), Entertainment (5), a safe which becomes the Cultivation Room later (6), Question cards (7), Paper and Pen (8), Bathing (9) and Sleep (10). At first the game does seem a bit confusing because you have to figure out which items trigger a reaction and it's a bit slow at first, but I did have fun slowly learning more about the characters! The goal is to gather as many keywords as possible, but you only have a limited numbers of actions each day, so use them wisely. For those reading this after the English version is released, I hope my translations aren't too different, but I think it should still be understandable!

Both characters have completely different personalities. They don't remember their real names so they use the Japanese words for East and West (Nishi and Higashi). Nishi knows a lot about many topics, such as plants, medicine, animals and likes sharing fun facts about items shown to him. Higashi on the other hand, seems to be struggling with a lot of things, slowly remembering his dark past when certain items are presented to him. Throughout the story, Nishi helps him to slowly regain memories of his past, which sometimes get rather dark.

Almost the entire plot of the game takes place in a single room, so the characters and their stories are the most important part of this game. Through their interactions, you slowly learn what happened to them, allowing you to theorize how they could have possibly ended up in a situation like this. Because of this, the gameplay sometimes feels a bit slow, but I recommend taking your time so you can slowly learn more about the characters. The game auto-saves the current experiment so you can close the game whenever you want. It takes a while to replay the game a few times too to unlock every ending, but I had a lot of fun testing each option to see what would happen next. The only downside is that you can't really save, so if the experiment fails it's over and you have to restart.

Spoiler-free guide The first playthrough never gives you an ending so the choices don't matter, but I recommend using the cultivation room which unlocks within the first days. By presenting question cards to the characters, you will receive cultivation water which you can use in this special menu. Make sure to complete the experiment, as it carries over to your next playthrough. After the first round, start a new game and follow the "route 3 hint" card, it will show a little lamp symbol next to the options you should pick. You can skip experiments you've done before by double clicking it, it's faster than pressing the skip button. A few more tips to get the endings:

Don't use all your daily turns immediately, as some options only show up throughout the day and some are only available for a limited amount of time, so you might miss them.

Make sure to carefully look at the experiments in order to not miss any of the recommended choices, as some of these are also only available on certain days (you need to scroll down sometimes to see them). You can still get the endings if you miss some of them though, no need to restart if one or two of them expired.

The bathing scene choices usually don't matter, so just pick the character you want. You have to replay the game at least 10 times to get all the endings, so you'll have plenty of time to pick each option.

The choices which display this pink handshake symbol next to them increases the affinity between both characters, which is necessary to unlock some CGs.

Ending 3 and 2: Follow the "ending 3" hints. At the end of the game you're presented with a choice, pick the option to not tell the truth for ending 3. Afterwards start a new game, follow the "ending 3" hints again and pick the other option for ending 2. In my case the skip button somehow skipped the entire choice, so if you replay to get ending 2, be careful to not use this too much near the end of the final day. Ending 4: Automatically unlocks at the same time as ending 3 if you've completed the cultivation room in your first playthrough. Ending 1: Follow the "ending 3" hints but purposely avoid all the experiments that give you any clues on day 10. I just did all the recommended experiments on other days (except maybe 1 or 2 of them) and on the final day, I only used the voyeurism option and picked experiments the game didn't recommend (the ones without the lightbulb icon).

Ending 7: Follow the "ending 3" hints once more and give the characters the "happiness gas" item 8 times, with this item you unlock some of the 18+ content in the game. You can obtain this item by just showing the characters the question cards every day, they'll hint that they want to do something (eating, entertainment etc.) and one of the sub-menu buttons will light up, hinting that you should pick one of these options next. The buttons either turn green, yellow or red and shows a timer how much time you have left to select an option to obtain the item. On the right side of the screen you can see how many of the items you have (the gas mask and the cup of coffee icons).

After unlocking ending 3, you can also follow the "ending 5" hint card which you'll have to use for the next endings. Ending 5: Follow the "ending 5" hints (which unlocks after finishing ending 3) but avoid question cards as much as possible. Pick the experiment which looks something like this "■□■■" in the "Accident" menu every time (there's multiple parts and it seems to show up randomly throughout the day sometimes). I'm not sure how they will translate this, so below you can see what it looks like.

Ending 6: Exactly the same as the previous ending but this time, make sure to use all of your question cards every day, the game ends after playing the final "■□■■" event. Ending 8 and 9: Follow the "ending 5" hints again, but make sure to use happiness café au lait 8 times (you unlock this the same way as the happiness gas mentioned above). Also make sure to play the "lump of ???" event, which is an experiment that sometimes shows up in "Special items" during the first days. Avoid the final "■□■■" event because that might trigger ending 5 or 6 instead. You can't always use the café au lait immediately, but just check the special menu item every now and then to see if it's there. After using this item 8 times, you can choose to give it to Nishi (East) which unlocks ending 10, or Higashi (West) which unlocks ending 9.

Ending 10: Unlocks after you've cleared many experiments in the game marked with ★. I accidentally got this ending when I was aiming for another ending while following the "ending 3 card" hints, so if you don't want this end, it's better to ignore those options!

Final impressions The gameplay of this game is something totally different from what I'm used to, but I had fun! It takes a while to complete so I recommend just taking it slowly. The mobile version is a bit different and has a lot more options, offering an in-game shop and some kind of gacha system. I personally enjoyed the PC version more because even though it was sometimes funny to unlock different items for the characters, it was difficult to take the story seriously when they were wearing wigs and all kinds of funny outfits lol, though that is optional too. There's no background music or voices in this game, so I can't really comment on that, but I thought the art was really nice. It was a bit different than Yura's usual art, but I think it really suits the game's setting, kind of gloomy and dark.

I will not spoil the plot of the game but I think it was good! The game gives you all these little hints and slowly but surely, you learn their backstories and what happened to them to end up in such a place. It's called ''friendly'' lab and while the experiments themselves don't directly harm them, I will say that some of the endings are anything but "friendly". I did grow quite fond of the characters after interacting with them for so many days so after playing all the endings, I miss them already... I might go back to the mobile version after all because there's quite some things that aren't in the PC version, for example instead of the usual 11 days, this version has 20+ days now (the app still updates every now and then) and introduces new experiments, and at some point even a new research subject. The romance between Nishi and Higashi also seems to develop a bit more in this version, so I wonder if they'll release an updated version of the PC version at some point, or a second game? I am satisfied with the content of the PC version alone though!

Anyway, I recommend playing the game without reading spoilers, because the whole point of the game is that you're slowly learning more about these characters, and giving any kind of hint ruins the purpose of the game (though at some point you can also ask the characters if they know Giancarlo, a reference to Luckydog1... which was quite funny).

Here's a bonus screenshot of the app version of the game playing a Candy Crush ad, which made me laugh because it does not suit the atmosphere of the game at all, though you can get free points for the in-game gacha if you watch the ads.

[lavikanda]

[everythingblreview]

BL games with an English translation

After my last post I thought it is a good idea to share all the bl games you still could play even without having to playing untranslated Japanese games.

Games with an offical translation

Hashihime of the old book town No thank you Room No.9 Togainu no chi Sweet pool Dramatical murder Zettai Fukujuu Meirei

Games with a part-/ fan-translation

Lamento-beyond the void | full patch Lemures Blue's 2 A.M. | full patch Dramatical Murder Re:Connect | full patch 24-ji, Kimi no Heart wa Nusumareru ~Kaitou Jade~ | full patch Gakuen Heaven 2 ~Double Scramble!~ | full patch Taishou Mebiusline | common route translated Cage -Open- | partly translated with VNR (visual novel reader) Omertà ~Chinmoku no Okite~ | partly translated with VNR Lucky dog 1 | 3/4 routes translated

Soon to be released/ announced games

Uuultra C by Adelta/ Mangagamer After Hashihime was released and took over the no.1 best rated bl game spot in the west, Adelta’s next game about Monster x Hero’s was announced. The translation and editing is already done, so we can expect it to be released soon.

Comment: I’m really happy that more of Adelta’s games are released. Their games are really special to me and I enjoy the crazy world Kurosawa sensei creates. I hope we can also expect a release of their newest game that is supposed to be released this year. 

Luckydog 1 by Tennenouji/ Mangagamer The Luckydog 1 franchise is the biggest and most popular one. Always taking the no.1 spot of the best bl game in Japan, with a few spin-off games, a fandisk (that counts as it’s own game), drama CDs, short stories and more, is finally making it’s way in the English speaking bl game community. There is no release date yet and Mangagamer is working on it since 2018 and hopefully it will be released soon.

Comment: I adore luckydog 1, it’s one of my favourite bl games and deserves the high popularity it alreday has. With a bigger English speaking fandom, we hopefully can get more content here too.  

Slow damage by Nitro+Chiral/ Jast

The newest N+C game that was released last year. Jast is working on it right now and the release should be early winter as far as we know.

Comment: I have 2 worries with this release. 1. I don’t like jast and their work. Their last translation was really bad, and this game relies on the writing a lot, hopefully this time they can proof that they can do more than just disappoint. 2. I’m not sure if the western fandom is ready for this game, this is not a “haha they are gay” game, that you should make fun of like people did with dmmd. The themes in this game are really horrible and painful to read and I don’t think the fandom will takes it seriously, which makes me sad.

Tokyo Onmyouji by Tyrant/ Moonchime Localization

Moonchime Localization’s first bl game release, the game is supposed to be released in Feb 2022 and a demo version will be soon released too, so look out for it.

Comment: It’s the only game I haven’t play yet on the list, and I’m looking forward to the English release. From Moonchime Localization’s twitter it looks like they are really big fans of the game themself and  seems to really love what they are doing. Also, from the teasers they showed us, the English version and translation looks very well made. I hope to see more of them in the future and will try my best to support them.

There are way more bl games than one may think, only sticking two 2 games calling them the best without even trying other won’t get you far, you never now which game will turn out to be a masterpiece.

[n2kita]

Se ha comenzado una traducción al español del juego BL Lucky Dog 1. Si gustan darle una oportunidad, pueden darle clic al link.

[terracannon877]

Lucky Dog 1 10th Anniversary!

Lucky Dog 1 10th Anniversary!

Just wanted to drop a note that…

It’s (or, it was) LD’s 10th anniversary on June 10, 2019!

Congratulations to tennenouji!

I don’t usually link to shops, but here’s some 10th anniversary goods, courtesy of Stellaworth.

Currently working on the next Luchino section.  Thank you for being patient.  Until next time!

[ld1homepage]

Stellaworth Gian’s Birthday Fair 2019

Gian’s Birthday Fair is from October 10-October 31, 2019. During this time, for every 2000 yen (tax not included) order, you can randomly receive a card with a special anniversary message from the CR:5, Bakshi, and the DG subordinates. Only applies to “Lucky Dog 1″ related goods released by Tennenouji and Stellaworth. The card is L size. There are 11 types.

Arabian Chibi Acrylic Stand  6 types price: 1650 yen (tax included) size: height 150 mm approx. (varies by character)

Arabian Microfiber Towel 6 types price: 550 yen (tax included) size: 200mm×200mm

Flat Pouch Arabian ver. price: 1100 yen (tax included) size: 195mm×125mm

Fairytale Bakshi Set price: 3300 yen (tax included) 【Contents】 Microfiber Towel (size: 200mm×200mm) Heart Can Badge Acrylic Keychain (size: 70mm×40mm approx.) Acrylic Stand (size: 150mm approx.)

10th Anniversary Set price: 2750 yen (tax included) 【Contents】 Microfiber Towel (size: 400mm×600mm) Can Badge (size: 100mm)

Lucky Dog 1 Trading Mini Acrylic Charm StellaDot.Collection 7 types price: 385 yen each (tax included) size: 40mm (varies by character) gacha/randomly sold chain clasp included

Lucky Dog 1+bad egg Trading Mini Acrylic Charm StellaDot.Collection 10 types price: 385 yen each (tax included) size: 40mm (varies by character) gacha/randomly sold chain clasp included

Lucky Dog 1 Heart Can Badge vol.4 12 types price: 400 yen each (tax included) gacha/randomly sold

Lunch Tote Bag price: 1320 yen each (tax included) size: 260mm×150mm×80mm aprrox.

[englishvisualnovels]

[Opinion] Speculation for MangaGamer’s 2018 Announcements

MangaGamer recently published a blog post for the results for their 2018 licensing survey and hints for their upcoming announcements. Like last year, I decided to make an article with my own guesses on what their announcements could be.

Note: Like my guesses from 2017, keep in mind that this is only speculation and should be taken with a grain of salt. MangaGamer has not revealed what their announcements are yet at the time of this article’s publishing. Also, certain links below may lead to NSFW content.

But we’ve heard your voices and without further ado: the 2018 licensing survey results!

almost identical to last year (spookie!)

I’m guessing “voices” and “spookie” might refer to the Kindred Spirits on the Roof ~Full Chorus~ re-release, which Liar-soft released earlier this year in January. For those not familiar, the Full Chorus release is a re-release of Kindred Spirits on the Roof which includes full voice acting and new CGs.

MangaGamer has previously expressed interest on Twitter in bringing Full Chorus to the west back in October 2017 where they stated they “will be discussing with liarsoft on how to go about to bring Kindred Spirits full voiced to the western audience.”

Steam on the other hand solidify its popularity as a platform for consuming visual novels.

“Steam” might refer to Hikaru Sakurai’s Steampunk visual novel series. MangaGamer has already localized Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning and Sona-Nyl of the Violet Shadows is currently being worked on by them so the only titles left in the series that have not received an official translation would be:

Souten no Celenaria ~What a Beautiful World~

Sekien no Inganock -What a Beautiful People-

Shikkoku no Sharnoth -What a Beautiful Tomorrow-

Hikari no Valusia ~What a Beautiful Hopes~

Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning: Shining Night

Shunkyoku no Tyrhhia ~What a Beautiful Dawn~

Personally speaking, I'm placing my hopes on either Hikari no Valusia or Shikkoku no Sharnoth. Unfortunately, it’d feel unreasonable for me to just pick “all of them.”

Outside of Sakurai’s Steampunk series, Caramel Box’s Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier is a steampunk visual novel that might fit the bill assuming MangaGamer’s partnership with Caramel Box is still a thing after they released Otoboku: Maidens are Falling for Me in English back in 2012.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the most common non-English language used by our respondents was Japanese with 32% of users reporting some degree of fluency with the language.

with the A Kiss for the Petals series continuing strong, along with the appearance of another yuri title in the top 20. 

I’m going to group these two hints together since I believe MangaGamer may be hinting at a possible announcement for Kotonoha Amrilato.

For those not familiar, Kotonoha Amrilato is a yuri visual novel starring a young girl who finds herself lost in another world where its people speak a completely foreign language, which would match the keywords “language” and “yuri” well.

“Yuri” can also refer to another A Kiss for the Petals game getting picked up such as A Kiss for the Petals - Atelier no Koibito-tachi or even the A Kiss for the Petals - Tenshi spin-offs such as A Kiss for the Petals - Tenshi no Akogare. To be completely honest, naming any game from the A Kiss for the Petals series might be too easy since the series seems to be popular enough among yuri visual novel fans in the west to guarantee future localizations.

What stands out most this year from the top 20 is that four otome games/series have made it into the top 20. 

For “otome games,” my guess that it be may be Jooubachi no Oubou games by Pure Wool. Alternatively, it could be one of the two games girls★dynamics has put out so far: their newly released Princess Britania ~Muse no Houken~ or, similar to my guess from last year, Sanzen Sekai Yuugi ~MultiUniverse Myself~.

Hobibox, a current partner of MangaGamer’s, acted as the publisher for both Pure Wool and girls★dynamics’ games in Japan. Furthermore, the websites for Sanzen Sekai Yuugi and Princess Britania list Hobibox as one of the games’ copyright holders.

Another otome developer MangaGamer is currently partnered with is Kalmia8, the developer behind Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome. Since Fashioning Little MIss Lonesome managed to top MangaGamer’s 2017 sales charts, there’s a good possibility that MangaGamer may look into to localizing more from Kalmia8′s catalog, which may possibly include Kami-sama Nante Yondenai! and Ohime-sama datte XXX Shitai!! -Horny magical princess-.

check your email tonight to see if you got lucky!

I’m admittedly not sure on this one, but Tennenouji’s BL game Luckydog1 is the first game that comes to mind and I’ve seen others speculate the same.

From what I recall about Luckydog1 without going into spoilers, “lucky” might refer to the fact that the premise hinges on the protagonist’s luck and skill in breaking himself along with four other members of the mafia out of jail.

And come visit us at Anime Boston and Sakuracon this weekend if you’re in the area!

This hint is a bit difficult to pinpoint since “sakura” is a common title I’ve seen used for a lot of Japanese works and the sakura/cherry blossom trees is a commonly used theme in Japanese stories.

I’ve seen people suggest that MangaGamer may have picked up another game from Moonstone called Sakura no Mori † Dreamers.

That’s all, folks!

What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Feel free to comment!

[trashexplorer]

BLCD 2018: January Releases

Legends:

✓ - have      

💡 - interested 

✘ - not interested (but will probably still listen to)    

🙏 - dying for

1. Cinderella wa Shiranai ✘

Release Date: 2018/01/11

Cast: Komatsu Shouhei x Hama Kento

Synopsis: (I tried my best but I still couldn’t get the exact translation so I’m just basically guessing 😂)Homeboy Towa is a modern day Cinderello at the beck and call of his childhood friend, Momose. In comes Yoshimi who moves in the neighborhood and befriends Towa. Momose goes into a bitch fit because he declares Towa as his property.

2. Given vol. 3 ✓ *Furukawa Makoto’s on a roll y’all 😂

Release Date: 2018/01/25 

Cast:

Furukawa Makoto x Saitou Soma

Takumi Yasuaki

Hino Satoshi

Enoki Junya

Synopsis: Adaptation of volume 3. 👌

3. Do S Obake ga Nekasetekurenai ✓

Release Date: 2018/01/26

Cast: Nakajima Yoshiki x Shirai Yuusuke

Synopsis: Yuuji has always fallen for straight guys and the person he currently has feelings for is getting married. Just when things couldn’t get any worse he gets raped by a ‘sexual ghost’, it’s said that this type of ghost only haunts sexually frustrated people, which in this case happens to be Yuuji. What will become of poor Yuuji after Kousuke the ghost confesses to falling for him? (From Yaoi Sekai)

4. Harukaze no Etranger 2 ✘ 

Release Date: 2018/01/26

Cast: Matsuoka Yoshitsugu × Murata Taishi

Synopsis: 2nd volume of the series.

5. Muda Ero (Ore no Mudake ga Muda ni Eroi) 💡

Release Date: 2018/01/26

Cast: Shingaki Tarusuke x Shirai Yuusuke

Synopsis: A strange love between trashy boi and a gijinka - I literally don’t know what a gijinka is or if I read this right. But hey, Tennenouji has never let me down before so I’m looking forward to this. 👌

6. Chic na Megane to Ki ni Naru Karada ✓

Release Date: 2018/01/31

Cast: Itou Kento x Yamaya Yoshitaka

Synopsis: Super Megane Fetish x Ideal Body Fetish! Homeboy bumps into hunk in campus one day and the man wrecks his special glasses which were given to him by his grandfather. In order to pay for said glasses, homeboy asks him to be his model.