EROGE?!?!?!

[shnarvletoad]

Hey everyone,

I am writing a paper about Eroge (yes, eroge-- those oh so dirty virtual adventures) and I'm looking for some help. I know very little about the genre, and I am wondering what are generally considered to be the "best" eroge-- I'd like to write about the games that are most widely known and commented upon rather than just choosing at random. Suggestions? I know of certain games, like Kanon and Air... but beyond that I'm a bit clueless.

Additionally, if anyone can give me a clue as to where I might acquire such games, I would be much obliged...

Apologies for my naivete, and I swear I'm not just a giant perv.

[Laevatein]

Oh man, I can so (somewhat) help you with this.

The most popular ones, at least in the West, seem to be the Type Moon ones, aka Fate/stay night and Tsukihime. The KEY ones are just behind them, followed by the When They Cry ones. Then it gets varied from there. One of the other big companies, Nitro+, is really popular. You may be familiar with some of their stuff (Phantom, Saya no Uta, Demonbane, chaos;head, steins;gate, and one of their writers wrote Fate/Zero and is the head writer of Madoka). Following this, the KID games are also really good (Ever17, Never7, Remember11). Most of the games I've mentioned so far are translated (some of them without any ero content).

Being that someone had to take interest in them (VN translation is smaller than anime translation by far, so it's like the '80's/'90's of anime translation), most of the translated games are all very good. Ever17 is widely regarded as probably the best visual novel ever made (no ero), simply because it screws with your expectations of the medium itself, and runs with an awesome story to boot. (A similar game for the DS, 999, works in a similar fashion). Umineko is also extremely well done, and another contender for the best visual novel ever made. You're probably already familiar with this, but I can tell you that the translation of this novel introduced a very large surge of new VN readers.

KEY games are as you may already expect.

Type-Moon games are pretty awesome, since they combine worlds of very well done supernatural and magic elements with excellent drama. However, there's usually pacing issues abound: pacing issues kept me from giving Fate/stay night a full score, personally.

vndb.org/v/all?q=;fil=tagspoil-0;o=d;s=rating

The above link has the top rated VNs in the English speaking community. The top one, you may never heard of it, but I can tell you that it's pretty amazing. I haven't read it yet, but from the legions of people who rave about it, it probably is very good. My friend calls it the best mecha anything ever made. As someone on some forum puts it, "It's not MuvLuv that's good. It's MuvLuv Alternative, the second game that is good; but you will still miss half the story if you skip MuvLuv. Alternative is where all the plot points planted in the previous game come together to form one massive rollercoaster of awesomeness and tears with the most cinematic presentation of any VN and a story that toys with your emotions better than Clannad. It's an experience unlike any other VN and certainly not run of the mill."

Hope that helps!

[shnarvletoad]

Wow, this is awesome-- extremely helpful. I doubt I'll have time to get to all of these, but it is definitely setting me in the right direction-- thank you so much!

[Laevatein]

Also, if you're actually interested in downloading stuff, use this: vnddl.webs.com/list.txt

Granted, there are probably other sources, but I usually use this in conjunction with JDownloader, which speeds up multiple part downloading by a considerable amount. For the patches themselves, just google the name of the VN followed by patch, and you should be able to find them.

For a first time VN, I either recommend something long like Tsukihime or Umineko, or something short like True Remembrance (http://trueremembrance.insani.org/) or Narcissu (http://narcissu.insani.org/). Keep in mind none of these have ero, but the last two are extremely tear jerking, Umineko's beginning is looooooooooong (but when it gets to the good stuff, it's so so worth it), and Tsukihime is old, so you may find yourself frustrated with the engine if you ever decide to play it later.

[shnarvletoad]

You. Rock.

This is precisely what I need. Thanks so very much!

If I could ask you just one more question: if you had to pick, say, your top 3 games that do have ero, what would they be? If I have time I'll definitely look at those non-ero ones as well, I think they'd be pretty useful for my paper, but since my focus in on the dirty stuff, I'd like to stick to that in the beginning.

[Laevatein]

Oh, do you mean games that focus solely on the ero? Hmm... I usually don't read those types of games. Usually, if I hear a VN has a good story, but it has ero, my first inclination is to pay the ero no heed. Some games, like Fate/stay night and Tsukihime, have such laughable ero, and that's when there is any at all. I think the creators at first didn't want to stick ero into Fate/stay night, but they had to because they didn't think a non-ero VN would sell. (Clannad proved them wrong).

I guess the only VN with quite a bit of ero that I did enjoy (that I actually played) would be Saya no Uta, since the ero factors into the story. Hmm... there was this one VN called Moon., which was made by the predecessor of KEY, that has quite a ton of ero, as well. And not the good type: only one ero scene is consensual. Nevertheless, I thought it was decent. I guess that's as far as the games I've played go. However, another VN I hear with quite a bit of ero that's still pretty good is Yume Miru Kusuri.

[shnarvletoad]

Cool, good suggestions, I'll check those out. Not necessarily solely ero-- in fact, I'm probably more interested in seeing how the ero is incorporated into otherwise "clean" storylines-- but my focus is definitely going to be on the sexual aspects of VNs.

[Laevatein]

Oh, man, they're usually terribly done. It's usually something like "Hey, I just confessed to you, and you accepted. Can we have teh sexors?" and that's it. Even worse in the Type Moon games, where sex is usually something along the lines of "Hey, I'm running out of mana, and I can't fight ____ without mana. We need to have teh sexors, so I can get mana." and then they have sex.

Despite all that though, I would really recommend Saya no Uta. If you can get past the graphic nature, you'll find a rather beautiful (but incredibly twisted) story. (This is coming from the guy who wrote Madoka, by the way).

[shnarvletoad]

Haha, lovely. Sex as the cure-all! Yipeeee

[Zerreth]

Higurashi is NOT an eroge. It's a visual novel. Don't mix eroge and visual novels.


Good background information via Koe de Oshigoto!



Any work by Key is deemed to be the pinnacle of utsuge/nakige. Similarly Clannad is NOT an eroge. It's an all-ages visual novel that's just depressing/sad. Its fan quelling sequel Tomoyo After is an eroge.

Similarly, Type-Moon's works also tend to be fairly depressing. Considering the main writer's work outside of visual novels, it's not too surprising. A lot of the stuff is ultra dark.

Remember that eroge also come in more than visual novel forms.
Brave Soul by Crowd is a 16 bit action RPG (albeit primitive) and while it's not the best, it got enough attention to warrant a license out of all those other 8-16 bit RPG eroge that are a dime a dozen on DLsite.

Utawarerumono is considered pretty good, and comes in a tactics RPG style format that got revamped in the PS2 version (as well as reformatted to a family friendly version).

Castle Fantasia is famous for helping the pioneering of such a way to provide eroge in a different format.


Then there are outright creepy ones like the Bikou where you're a stalker and move around Metal Gear Solid style avoiding getting spotted by the girl before you assault them.

There's also Lightning Warrior Raidy that's reminiscent of the old school 1st person map making dungeon crawler style RPGS.

A handful of eroge also have randomly inserted mini-games that sometimes make you wonder if the developers god bored one day and added it in. Princess Waltz would be an eroge that kinda falls into that category. The box itself actually advertises its unusual card fighting system, but when you actually get to it, it's presence is really no bigger than a side minigame coded in during someone's free time.

A personal favorite of mine is Yume Miku Kusuri. It's a 3 girl eroge that has great humor, good pacing, storytelling and decent transitions into the sex (instead of the often generic "Hi, nice to meet you! Let's fuck!"). The same writer moved onto writing Kazoku Keikaku which had a slightly less annoying main character but still spineless, witless, and stupid nonetheless.

I personally kinda wish the main characters of these stories wouldn't be so terrible. It's actually one of the biggest turn-offs to a visual novel.

EDIT: Right, I forgot to mention. In terms of the English licensing, I believe Kanna ~ Little Sister was one of the first visual novels that helped eroge become a (relatively) stable commercial product.

[Laevatein]

Hey, I never used the term eroge. I just used VNs, then I differentiated by noting the amount of ero content.

And there are other eroge that you can't call VNs, yeah. Like Sengoku Rance (which is awesome, but will kick your ass first time through, maybe second time), which can't be really called a VN, but is pretty much an eroge.

[shnarvletoad]

Wowza, I am apparently in over my head. I was under the impression that Visual Novels with erotic content were referred to as Eroge. I am mistaken? Anyone want to clarify the definition for me? Just to be specific, I am writing about erotic visual novels-- is there a specific name for this?

[shnarvletoad]

incidentally, Stewart, thanks for your post as well-- quite helpful. Especially the manga-- who says comics can't be educational

[motaku96]

Apr 22, 2011 9:26:04 GMT -5 shnarvletoad said:

Wowza, I am apparently in over my head. I was under the impression that Visual Novels with erotic content were referred to as Eroge. I am mistaken? Anyone want to clarify the definition for me? Just to be specific, I am writing about erotic visual novels-- is there a specific name for this?

Eroge is the type of games you were thinking about. VN's with sex and nudity and stuff.

But there are plenty of visual novels that aren't ero. Like Higurashi as previously stated. Also, Clannad is not eroge even though a lot of people seem to forget that.

[shnarvletoad]

Phew. Thanks Jeff.

The knowledge of all y'all is much appreciated. I think for now I'm going with Kanon and xChange (which is ABSURD-- all the better for analysis). I'll add some more based upon your suggestions. Thanks all!