Game Rant: Making more than just a game (Eroge-!)
Yaruge and I almost never cross paths, and the few times we have came to be due to either my curiosity getting the better of me, or sheer dumb luck. As such, I can say I'm not too experienced with the type of content within them. While I guess there is a certain way one can appreciate the constant use of sex and risque language, these type of games have a tendency to be less creative than their more story-driven counterparts.
ClockUp made a very good impression with Rune Lord, and as such I have been very willing to play other titles by this company. While Team Dyo blew me away with their intricate story and use of SF, Team Anise has challenged my threshold for the weird like never before. Whether that's a good thing or not, well...
Game: Eroge-! ~H mo Game mo kaihatsu zanmai~
Eroge-! ~H mo Game mo kaihatsu zanmai~ (Eroge-! for short) was released on June 25, 2010 by ClockUp's Team Anise. The game features artwork by Hamashima Shigeo with a screenplay by Hayasaka Utane. The game's title translates to "Eroge! The joy of sex and game development" (translation liberties taken, as zanmai is a suffix that means indulgence).
The player takes the role of Mochizuki Tomoya, a guy that lives on his own with only a day job at a convenience store keeping him afloat. While he really likes eroge, he can't draw, isn't much of a writer or composer, and doesn't know much about business. Still, his dream is to get a job at an eroge studio in hopes of creating what he loves, eroge.
Tomoya's luck takes a turn for the better when he sees a help wanted ad for the local studio Flower, and after a meeting with the company president (who to his surprise looks like an elementary school kid), manages to get a job as administrator of the company's website. Tomoya's glee at being part of the eroge industry is short-lived, as he soon learns that Flower is on the chopping block due to their first title being a massive failure.
After playing through Flower's first title, Tomoya realizes that his co-workers don't know anything about eroge, lacking the insight and understanding needed to make a good game. After some nudging from the president of Flower's parent company and some soul searching of his own, our protagonist takes it upon himself to save Flower by teaching the four girls on staff the ins and outs of what makes an eroge good. The story thus focuses on Tomoya's role as a psuedo-consultant while getting to know the four heroines of the story as the player is given an interesting look at the world of eroge development.
The Players
Himeno Kisara C.V.: Satou Yuki
Kisara is Flower's in-house artist and character designer. Her work is usually cross-checked with how the scenario writer envisioned the scene before it is passed on to the graphic artist for coloring and cleanup. She is also responsible for the game's cover box artwork.
As one of the main players in the creation of a game, Kisara presents herself as a cocky and very confident young woman. She grudgily accepts Tomoya's presence at work, feeling that Nene hiring him was more a waste of resources than anything else. Much to her annoyance, Tomoya is very critical of what she draws, leaving her with a desire to prove herself to him and surpass his expectations.
Out of the girls at Flower, Kisara knows the least about eroge, as she has never played one in her life. She has certain ideas about sex, but is forced to use her imagination to fill the gaps, as she is still a virgin. That being said, she is extremely dedicated to her work, as she loves to draw and proves to be willing to give it her all if it'll help make the game better.
While she looks down on Tomoya and disapproves of his presence, Kisara eventually accepts him as part of the team, even if she won't ever really admit it to anyone.
Fujiwara Momoka C.V.: Misono Mei
Momoka is introduced as Flower's resident scenario writer. Her work is basically the cornerstone of the game in development, collaborating with the artist/character designer when necessary and cross-checking with the director when it comes to actual character dialogue.
Like Kisara, Momoka does not approve of Nene's decision to hire Tomoya, feeling that men are perverted and useless creatures that aren't worth the trouble. Upon realizing Tomoya won't be going away anytime soon, she simply decides to avoid any interaction with him unless she sees an opening to ridicule him. She also puts on a passive-aggressive front to keep him from bothering her.
While she won't admit it, Momoka's ideas on sex are affected by her hatred of men as well as her limited experience on the matter (which therefore have an effect on her writing). She's actually quite knowledgeable in terms of situations used in games, but doesn't weave those ideas in her scenarios. In a way, Momoka is inferred to being the main culprit of Flower's first game being a failure, as the ero-scenes were all written to be exactly the same and were very short (five clicks and done).
The fact that she looks down on men makes it very difficult for Tomoya to give any feedback on what she could do to make the game better, forcing him to use reverse psychology by "challenging" Momoka to prove that she knows what type of ero-scenes would make the game better. In response, she sets herself to prove her status as a "pro" while wishing to dominate the protagonist and prove her supremacy over men. As expected, she ends up falling in love with Tomoya instead.
Kousaka Iori C.V.: Oukawa Mio
Iori is Flower's resident graphic artist. Most of what she does involves working off the artwork drawn by Kisara, along with other things like helping with the cover box layout as well as the debugging process.
In contrast to her lively and energetic co-workers, Iori comes off as a cold and stoic person. She'll tend to stick to short answers and doesn't really elaborate on much unless absolutely necessary. While she seems to be indifferent to whether Flower closes its doors or not, Iori does care more for the actual people that work with her, and is specially fond of Kisara and Nene.
Out of the girls at Flower, Iori is the only one who has played an eroge from beginning to end. Even then, she claims to have skipped through most of the dialogue, as her purpose was to study the coloring techniques used in that one game. She is also seen as the most stable of the girls in terms of work performance, as she requires very little input from Tomoya in order to do her part.
For some reason she never really reveals, Iori likes putting emphasis on the senses of smell and taste. Unsurprisingly, this is taken to a whole new level once she gets involved with Tomoya.
Personal Note: Iori is what I call the very personification of the idea "It's the quiet ones you have to watch out for". Underneath her quiet and dry demeanor, Iori is actually ridiculously kinky, to levels that weirded even me out.
Sonono Nene C.V.: Konoha
Nene is the shachou (company president) of Flower, and acts as director and project manager.
Despite being small, she is actually the oldest out of the girls at Flower, as she and Reina have been friends since childhood.
Nene's main problem is that while being the president of Flower, few people treat her with any sort of respect. Most simply cannot take her seriously because of her size and child-like demeanor. Even her employees treat her more like the studio's mascot than anything else. At the same time, Nene doesn't feel like she is contributing much to the final product, as her role in the company isn't directly connected to the making of the game (even if she is the one in charge of negotiations with stores, contracts, meetings with the parent company, and anything connected to the business end of things).
Unlike the other girls, Nene has a little more experience with eroge, as she has played lots of them...in "trial version" form. Given that trial versions of any game cover the very basics of the story, Nene doesn't have much of an idea of what a complete eroge is supposed to be like. As such, Tomoya buys her one complete eroge to get her started.
Nene's route focuses on her desire to become more adult-like so that people take her seriously, and for some reason Tomoya thinks that having sex with her is part of the solution...
Fudesaka Tomoko C.V.: Himari
Sub-heroine.
Tomoko is an editor for the magazine Giga Witch, where she goes by the pen name "Milky Tomoko". Her simple personality and friendly disposition belie an extensive knowledge of eroge, which is something she has in common with Tomoya.
According to Nene, Tomoko is very well known in the eroge world, and is Flower's contact within Giga Witch.
Aizawa Remon C.V.: Azuma Karin
Sub-heroine.
Remon is a young voice actress that is selected to voice the heroine of Flower's latest game. While talented in her own right, she seems to be worried about her career opportunities as a voice actress, having been relegated up until now to voicing characters in budget titles (thus not getting the exposure needed to get her big break).
She is drawn to Tomoya because of the fact that our protagonist is a fan of hers, as the latest game he played actually featured her voicing one of the heroines.
Konohana Miki C.V.: Komano Haruko
Sub-heroheroine.
Miki is a freelance artist that happens to be good friends with Iori. From what is mentioned in-game, heshe was hired by Flower as a "support" graphic artist for their first title, which is how heshe befriended the girls at Flower.
Tomoya runs into himher several times, first at the local eroge shop, and later when heshe pays a visit to the girls at Flower. HeShe quickly falls in love with Tomoya, but has a secret that I can't really talk about here. *Insert me saying in my best Austin Powers impression: "It's a man, baby!"*
Ootori Reina C.V.: Takaido Shizuku
Sub-heroine.
Reina is the president of Phoenix, which is Flower's parent company. She and Nene have been friends since childhood, and (surprisingly) are the same age.
While she has been a supporter of the staff at Flower, she also realizes that they won't get anywhere if they don't clean up their act, and often emphasizes that their current project is their last chance to prove themselves to their parent company. She seems to instantly take a liking to Tomoya, and is convinced that his involvement is pivotal to Flower's survival in the world of eroge.
Story & Structure
Eroge-! takes place over several months, starting in May and ending sometime in October. Instead of following day-to-day progression, the game divides the months into thirds.
The game begins with the classic ClockUp way of telling us what to expect: we have our protagonist playing a yaruge during a scene involving a tentacle monster and a futanari elf (no, I'm not defining any of these words). We then get a basic introduction on our protagonist, the fact that he really likes eroge as well as his dream of being part of the creation process of a game.
After he manages to get an interview with the softhouse Flower, Tomoya begins to notice that a couple of things seem out of place. The headquarters for Flower are located inside a run-down apartment building, and the president of the company looks like a little girl. While the president is hesitant to hire our protagonist, Tomoya declares that he wants the job no matter what. This is enough to sway Nene, as she agrees to hire him as the administrator for Flower's website. The other girls are soon introduced, with Kisara and Momoka openly showing their disaproval of Nene's decision, while Iori shows indifference.
During his first full day at work, Tomoya decides to try out Flower's first title. Much to his dissapointment, the game turns out to be rather bad; the worst part of it being that the ero-scenes are five-click scenes that lead straight to the ending. Other lacking parts include the scenario being overly "fluffy", dialogue that is uncharacteristic to certain characters because of said "fluffiness", and the artwork lacking the erotic "feel" he looks for in eroge.
It is after his first meeting with Reina that Tomoya begins to reflect on what he can do to save Flower, and as a result, keep his dream of being part of an eroge company alive. To get things started, he decides to prepare source material for each member of the staff, including specific scene data (for Momoka), print outs of certain CG scenes and real-life counterparts (for Iori), and a full copy of an eroge (for Nene). He also offers to give any insight he can to what an eroge should be like.
This is where the player can nudge Tomoya towards a particular girl, as the player is presented with a character selection screen depicting the four heroines. As the protagonist gets close to a particular girl, certain events will take place that eventually lead to our couple starting an official relationship. Right before the Master Up version of Flower's game is ready, each route will give Tomoya the opportunity to cheat on his chosen heroine with one of the sub-heroines (Tomoko during Kisara's route, Reina during Nene's route, Miki during Iori's route, and Remon during Momoka's route).
Despite the wide variety of kinkyness in this game (I believe I've seen every major fetish and a couple of sub-fetishes that I didn't even know existed), the story actually rewards loyalty and monogamy to a particular girl. Any attempt to try harem or bigamy quickly leads to the bad ending, in which the girls at Flower stop listening to Tomoya, leading to the game coming out subpar (thus sealing the company's fate).
There are no dialogue choices to speak of aside from the in-game lesson on how eroge are made near the very beginning of the game, and the routes are structured on situations between Tomoya and his chosen girl.
Artwork
Character designs were provided by Hamashima Shigeo. Despite the small cast, there is a degree of variety in the way the girls are drawn. Hamashima-san did take the time to design the girls in away that their traits heavily reflected their personalities. This ranges from Momoka's cute-oriented tastes to Iori's stoic and dry nature.
Audio & Video
Eroge-! is partially-voiced, with only the female characters (heroines & sub-heroines) having VAs assigned. The only two names I recognized were Satou Yuki (who did well in everything that was not ero-scenes as Kisara) and Oukawa Mio (who did a variant of her Chimera/Yuuko voice for Iori). Misono Mei made a good impression with me, and has made me curious enough to try to find out what other games she may have been in.
Music is credited to Uehara Ichinoryuu. I'm iffy on the music itself, as I didn't like the instrumentation for certain songs. The soundtrack also feels a bit short, but is used well enough that the music is a non-issue. The OP song is another story, as I feel it is ridiculously cheesy.
Speaking of the OP, we have the OP movie which can be viewed here. WORD OF CAUTION: NOT SAFE FOR WORK...or while having guests/family/children in the room.Note: apparently some damn prude decided to complain about the OP as innapropriate for youtube, and the video was thus taken down. Yes, it certainly was, but not enough to be removed from the site. It was censored enough that it was passable in my view. 汚いな...さすがprude汚い...
Omake
The game doesn't have much in the way of standard omake, aside from scene selection, sound test mode and event CG gallery. There is one notable thing, though, that being the staff commentary feature that opens up after clearing the game once. As the player gets more endings, more staff commentary tracks are unlocked, including not only comments from the voice actresses themselves, but also from the actual staff behind Eroge-!.
Verdict
This game, as much as I like the characters and the concept of an eroge about a company that makes eroge, is simply not my cup of tea. It touches on too many sub-genres and fetishes, some of which have nothing to do with the characters themselves. That aside, the fact that the protagonist behaves more like a consultant than a legitimate part of the creation process also left me scratching my head. Still, the presentation of the game is fairly good, and I guess anyone looking for smut about smut on smut would find this game highly appealing.
To be fair, I already had a standard that I was measuring this game against, so there may be a self-fulfilling prophecy somewhere in here.
Anyway, that's my two cents on the matter.
-Moroboshi Yuumei
The search for eye-bleach has begun...
ClockUp made a very good impression with Rune Lord, and as such I have been very willing to play other titles by this company. While Team Dyo blew me away with their intricate story and use of SF, Team Anise has challenged my threshold for the weird like never before. Whether that's a good thing or not, well...
Game: Eroge-! ~H mo Game mo kaihatsu zanmai~
Eroge-! ~H mo Game mo kaihatsu zanmai~ (Eroge-! for short) was released on June 25, 2010 by ClockUp's Team Anise. The game features artwork by Hamashima Shigeo with a screenplay by Hayasaka Utane. The game's title translates to "Eroge! The joy of sex and game development" (translation liberties taken, as zanmai is a suffix that means indulgence).
The player takes the role of Mochizuki Tomoya, a guy that lives on his own with only a day job at a convenience store keeping him afloat. While he really likes eroge, he can't draw, isn't much of a writer or composer, and doesn't know much about business. Still, his dream is to get a job at an eroge studio in hopes of creating what he loves, eroge.
Tomoya's luck takes a turn for the better when he sees a help wanted ad for the local studio Flower, and after a meeting with the company president (who to his surprise looks like an elementary school kid), manages to get a job as administrator of the company's website. Tomoya's glee at being part of the eroge industry is short-lived, as he soon learns that Flower is on the chopping block due to their first title being a massive failure.
After playing through Flower's first title, Tomoya realizes that his co-workers don't know anything about eroge, lacking the insight and understanding needed to make a good game. After some nudging from the president of Flower's parent company and some soul searching of his own, our protagonist takes it upon himself to save Flower by teaching the four girls on staff the ins and outs of what makes an eroge good. The story thus focuses on Tomoya's role as a psuedo-consultant while getting to know the four heroines of the story as the player is given an interesting look at the world of eroge development.
The Players
Himeno Kisara C.V.: Satou Yuki
Kisara is Flower's in-house artist and character designer. Her work is usually cross-checked with how the scenario writer envisioned the scene before it is passed on to the graphic artist for coloring and cleanup. She is also responsible for the game's cover box artwork.
As one of the main players in the creation of a game, Kisara presents herself as a cocky and very confident young woman. She grudgily accepts Tomoya's presence at work, feeling that Nene hiring him was more a waste of resources than anything else. Much to her annoyance, Tomoya is very critical of what she draws, leaving her with a desire to prove herself to him and surpass his expectations.
Out of the girls at Flower, Kisara knows the least about eroge, as she has never played one in her life. She has certain ideas about sex, but is forced to use her imagination to fill the gaps, as she is still a virgin. That being said, she is extremely dedicated to her work, as she loves to draw and proves to be willing to give it her all if it'll help make the game better.
While she looks down on Tomoya and disapproves of his presence, Kisara eventually accepts him as part of the team, even if she won't ever really admit it to anyone.
Fujiwara Momoka C.V.: Misono Mei
Momoka is introduced as Flower's resident scenario writer. Her work is basically the cornerstone of the game in development, collaborating with the artist/character designer when necessary and cross-checking with the director when it comes to actual character dialogue.
Like Kisara, Momoka does not approve of Nene's decision to hire Tomoya, feeling that men are perverted and useless creatures that aren't worth the trouble. Upon realizing Tomoya won't be going away anytime soon, she simply decides to avoid any interaction with him unless she sees an opening to ridicule him. She also puts on a passive-aggressive front to keep him from bothering her.
While she won't admit it, Momoka's ideas on sex are affected by her hatred of men as well as her limited experience on the matter (which therefore have an effect on her writing). She's actually quite knowledgeable in terms of situations used in games, but doesn't weave those ideas in her scenarios. In a way, Momoka is inferred to being the main culprit of Flower's first game being a failure, as the ero-scenes were all written to be exactly the same and were very short (five clicks and done).
The fact that she looks down on men makes it very difficult for Tomoya to give any feedback on what she could do to make the game better, forcing him to use reverse psychology by "challenging" Momoka to prove that she knows what type of ero-scenes would make the game better. In response, she sets herself to prove her status as a "pro" while wishing to dominate the protagonist and prove her supremacy over men. As expected, she ends up falling in love with Tomoya instead.
Kousaka Iori C.V.: Oukawa Mio
Iori is Flower's resident graphic artist. Most of what she does involves working off the artwork drawn by Kisara, along with other things like helping with the cover box layout as well as the debugging process.
In contrast to her lively and energetic co-workers, Iori comes off as a cold and stoic person. She'll tend to stick to short answers and doesn't really elaborate on much unless absolutely necessary. While she seems to be indifferent to whether Flower closes its doors or not, Iori does care more for the actual people that work with her, and is specially fond of Kisara and Nene.
Out of the girls at Flower, Iori is the only one who has played an eroge from beginning to end. Even then, she claims to have skipped through most of the dialogue, as her purpose was to study the coloring techniques used in that one game. She is also seen as the most stable of the girls in terms of work performance, as she requires very little input from Tomoya in order to do her part.
For some reason she never really reveals, Iori likes putting emphasis on the senses of smell and taste. Unsurprisingly, this is taken to a whole new level once she gets involved with Tomoya.
Personal Note: Iori is what I call the very personification of the idea "It's the quiet ones you have to watch out for". Underneath her quiet and dry demeanor, Iori is actually ridiculously kinky, to levels that weirded even me out.
Sonono Nene C.V.: Konoha
Nene is the shachou (company president) of Flower, and acts as director and project manager.
Despite being small, she is actually the oldest out of the girls at Flower, as she and Reina have been friends since childhood.
Nene's main problem is that while being the president of Flower, few people treat her with any sort of respect. Most simply cannot take her seriously because of her size and child-like demeanor. Even her employees treat her more like the studio's mascot than anything else. At the same time, Nene doesn't feel like she is contributing much to the final product, as her role in the company isn't directly connected to the making of the game (even if she is the one in charge of negotiations with stores, contracts, meetings with the parent company, and anything connected to the business end of things).
Unlike the other girls, Nene has a little more experience with eroge, as she has played lots of them...in "trial version" form. Given that trial versions of any game cover the very basics of the story, Nene doesn't have much of an idea of what a complete eroge is supposed to be like. As such, Tomoya buys her one complete eroge to get her started.
Nene's route focuses on her desire to become more adult-like so that people take her seriously, and for some reason Tomoya thinks that having sex with her is part of the solution...
Fudesaka Tomoko C.V.: Himari
Sub-heroine.
Tomoko is an editor for the magazine Giga Witch, where she goes by the pen name "Milky Tomoko". Her simple personality and friendly disposition belie an extensive knowledge of eroge, which is something she has in common with Tomoya.
According to Nene, Tomoko is very well known in the eroge world, and is Flower's contact within Giga Witch.
Aizawa Remon C.V.: Azuma Karin
Sub-heroine.
Remon is a young voice actress that is selected to voice the heroine of Flower's latest game. While talented in her own right, she seems to be worried about her career opportunities as a voice actress, having been relegated up until now to voicing characters in budget titles (thus not getting the exposure needed to get her big break).
She is drawn to Tomoya because of the fact that our protagonist is a fan of hers, as the latest game he played actually featured her voicing one of the heroines.
Konohana Miki C.V.: Komano Haruko
Sub-heroheroine.
Miki is a freelance artist that happens to be good friends with Iori. From what is mentioned in-game, heshe was hired by Flower as a "support" graphic artist for their first title, which is how heshe befriended the girls at Flower.
Tomoya runs into himher several times, first at the local eroge shop, and later when heshe pays a visit to the girls at Flower. HeShe quickly falls in love with Tomoya, but has a secret that I can't really talk about here. *Insert me saying in my best Austin Powers impression: "It's a man, baby!"*
Ootori Reina C.V.: Takaido Shizuku
Sub-heroine.
Reina is the president of Phoenix, which is Flower's parent company. She and Nene have been friends since childhood, and (surprisingly) are the same age.
While she has been a supporter of the staff at Flower, she also realizes that they won't get anywhere if they don't clean up their act, and often emphasizes that their current project is their last chance to prove themselves to their parent company. She seems to instantly take a liking to Tomoya, and is convinced that his involvement is pivotal to Flower's survival in the world of eroge.
Story & Structure
Eroge-! takes place over several months, starting in May and ending sometime in October. Instead of following day-to-day progression, the game divides the months into thirds.
The game begins with the classic ClockUp way of telling us what to expect: we have our protagonist playing a yaruge during a scene involving a tentacle monster and a futanari elf (no, I'm not defining any of these words). We then get a basic introduction on our protagonist, the fact that he really likes eroge as well as his dream of being part of the creation process of a game.
After he manages to get an interview with the softhouse Flower, Tomoya begins to notice that a couple of things seem out of place. The headquarters for Flower are located inside a run-down apartment building, and the president of the company looks like a little girl. While the president is hesitant to hire our protagonist, Tomoya declares that he wants the job no matter what. This is enough to sway Nene, as she agrees to hire him as the administrator for Flower's website. The other girls are soon introduced, with Kisara and Momoka openly showing their disaproval of Nene's decision, while Iori shows indifference.
During his first full day at work, Tomoya decides to try out Flower's first title. Much to his dissapointment, the game turns out to be rather bad; the worst part of it being that the ero-scenes are five-click scenes that lead straight to the ending. Other lacking parts include the scenario being overly "fluffy", dialogue that is uncharacteristic to certain characters because of said "fluffiness", and the artwork lacking the erotic "feel" he looks for in eroge.
It is after his first meeting with Reina that Tomoya begins to reflect on what he can do to save Flower, and as a result, keep his dream of being part of an eroge company alive. To get things started, he decides to prepare source material for each member of the staff, including specific scene data (for Momoka), print outs of certain CG scenes and real-life counterparts (for Iori), and a full copy of an eroge (for Nene). He also offers to give any insight he can to what an eroge should be like.
This is where the player can nudge Tomoya towards a particular girl, as the player is presented with a character selection screen depicting the four heroines. As the protagonist gets close to a particular girl, certain events will take place that eventually lead to our couple starting an official relationship. Right before the Master Up version of Flower's game is ready, each route will give Tomoya the opportunity to cheat on his chosen heroine with one of the sub-heroines (Tomoko during Kisara's route, Reina during Nene's route, Miki during Iori's route, and Remon during Momoka's route).
Despite the wide variety of kinkyness in this game (I believe I've seen every major fetish and a couple of sub-fetishes that I didn't even know existed), the story actually rewards loyalty and monogamy to a particular girl. Any attempt to try harem or bigamy quickly leads to the bad ending, in which the girls at Flower stop listening to Tomoya, leading to the game coming out subpar (thus sealing the company's fate).
There are no dialogue choices to speak of aside from the in-game lesson on how eroge are made near the very beginning of the game, and the routes are structured on situations between Tomoya and his chosen girl.
Artwork
Character designs were provided by Hamashima Shigeo. Despite the small cast, there is a degree of variety in the way the girls are drawn. Hamashima-san did take the time to design the girls in away that their traits heavily reflected their personalities. This ranges from Momoka's cute-oriented tastes to Iori's stoic and dry nature.
Audio & Video
Eroge-! is partially-voiced, with only the female characters (heroines & sub-heroines) having VAs assigned. The only two names I recognized were Satou Yuki (who did well in everything that was not ero-scenes as Kisara) and Oukawa Mio (who did a variant of her Chimera/Yuuko voice for Iori). Misono Mei made a good impression with me, and has made me curious enough to try to find out what other games she may have been in.
Music is credited to Uehara Ichinoryuu. I'm iffy on the music itself, as I didn't like the instrumentation for certain songs. The soundtrack also feels a bit short, but is used well enough that the music is a non-issue. The OP song is another story, as I feel it is ridiculously cheesy.
Speaking of the OP, we have the OP movie which can be viewed here. WORD OF CAUTION: NOT SAFE FOR WORK...or while having guests/family/children in the room.Note: apparently some damn prude decided to complain about the OP as innapropriate for youtube, and the video was thus taken down. Yes, it certainly was, but not enough to be removed from the site. It was censored enough that it was passable in my view. 汚いな...さすがprude汚い...
Omake
The game doesn't have much in the way of standard omake, aside from scene selection, sound test mode and event CG gallery. There is one notable thing, though, that being the staff commentary feature that opens up after clearing the game once. As the player gets more endings, more staff commentary tracks are unlocked, including not only comments from the voice actresses themselves, but also from the actual staff behind Eroge-!.
Verdict
This game, as much as I like the characters and the concept of an eroge about a company that makes eroge, is simply not my cup of tea. It touches on too many sub-genres and fetishes, some of which have nothing to do with the characters themselves. That aside, the fact that the protagonist behaves more like a consultant than a legitimate part of the creation process also left me scratching my head. Still, the presentation of the game is fairly good, and I guess anyone looking for smut about smut on smut would find this game highly appealing.
To be fair, I already had a standard that I was measuring this game against, so there may be a self-fulfilling prophecy somewhere in here.
Anyway, that's my two cents on the matter.
-Moroboshi Yuumei
The search for eye-bleach has begun...