GENRE: Bishoujo, Role-Playing, Hentai
PLATFORM: Pentium II or faster PC, Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/Vista
CREDITS: 2005 Zyx, 2008 G-Collections

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You might think a game called Princess Waltz would be about beautiful princesses and romantic ballroom dancing. You would only be half right. Yes, there are six gorgeous princesses. They are even clad in long, enchanted Dresses complete with a glittering Tiara. However, the Waltz is not a literal dance but a figurative one. It is a dance of blades, a battle of wills, and an ancient, ritualistic conflict to determine the strongest woman in the magical realm of Eldhiland. Some of the battles in Princess Waltz put even the most hardcore action anime to shame!

Princess Waltz is an epic visual novel-style H-game (i.e. clickathon). It is fairly linear, with the player getting no meaningful choices until very late in the game. That said, the story and characters are excellent, drawing you into the intriguing plotlines quickly and never letting go. I found myself looking forward to playing Princess Waltz in the same way I might look forward to reading the next chapter in a good book.

For the vast majority of the game, you play the role of Fukamori Arata, a typical Japanese teenager whose life is changed forever after meeting the mysterious and strangely regal new transfer student, Chris Northfield. After some seemingly chance encounters, Arata finds himself thrust into the middle of the Princess Waltz. The purpose of this ancient ceremony is to determine the woman who would marry the prince, and, more importantly, bear a single son who would become the next Prince and then Emperor.

One of the things I really like about this game is that it is simultaneously familiar yet also interesting. The story set up is typical of your alternate magical world anime or game, yet there are enough twists and turns in the plot to keep your attention and keep you wondering what will happen next. Also, many things that seem like random chance are explained later in the plot, which is a refreshing surprise. If the story does have one flaw, it is that it – like many anime of the same genre – tends toward melodrama at times.

The characters in Princess Waltz are probably the game’s greatest strength. Much like the story, they are both familiar and surprisingly complex. Each has at least one twist in their personality, fighting style, background, or motivations that you might not expect from a character of that archetype. (Princess Suzushiro is my favorite example of this concept.) The main character Arata is probably the least interesting of all, seeing as how he is a complete moron. But even Arata is not as wishy-washy or weak as other harem-anime or H-game heroes. Even if you don’t quite believe someone falling in love with him at first sight, you could see how someone might respect his courage and dedication.

It is the supporting characters that steal the show though. Arata’s lazy and irresponsible foster mother Nanae is hilarious, reminding me fondly of Yukari-sensei from the anime Azumanga Daioh. His older foster sister, Shizuka, is one of my favorite characters. She is wise, serene, strong, and responsible. Oh, and did I mention she is absolutely gorgeous? I still sigh every time I see her image on screen. Arata’s cute childhood friend Nodoka and the other students start off a little annoying, but they quickly grow on you, too.

Generally speaking, the princesses are the coolest characters, though. The hot-blooded and proud Dragon Princess, Angela, is my favorite. Armed with lance and flame, she charges into battle, living only for the fight. She reminds me a little bit of Zaraki Kenpachi from Bleach, except far more refined, and, well, a red haired beauty. There’s also Suzushiro, the Earth Princess, with a small, adorable and polite exterior that belies vast inner strength. The cold, calculating, and clever Steel Princess Liesel is a formidable, merciless foe. Bright and cheerful Liliana, affectionately nicknamed “Lun Lun”, serves as comedy relief for most of the game, but they don’t call her the Princess of the Storm for nothing. The fearsome and savage Beast Princess appears mysteriously toward the end of the game. And finally there is beautiful, white-clad Iris, Princess of the Sword, who inexplicably appears whenever Chris is in danger. The player controls Iris in combat situations. I should mention more about Chris Northfield, the game’s other main character, but I do not want to give away any spoilers. Suffice it to say that Chris is one of the more tragic characters I have seen in a game in a long time.

The game is a strange yet effective mix of the magical girl and shounen action archetypes. Each of the princesses has a magical girl-like transformation sequence where they go from their street clothes to their enchanted Dress, with rousing music and brief but gratuitous nudity. However, the action that is described is much closet to a shounen anime; that is to say, the fights are knock-down, drag out, bloody brawls, complete with magical energy flying about and creatures getting smashed through stone pillars and the like. In other words, it’s awesome! I just wish they showed a little more of the action rather that describing most of the combat in words.

While the duals between Princesses in the Waltz are the best battles, most of the combat in Princess Waltz takes place against creatures called Guardeners. These strange, beast-like creatures guard the world from intruders and attempt to force them back to the world from which they came. Since all the Princesses are from Eldhiland, not Japan, they get attacked by these Guardeners from time to time.

The gameplay of Princess Waltz is sadly its worst feature. As previously stated, it is a clickathon, and although the story and characters are appealing, but it is still not much of a game. Luckily, the interface is solid, with an Auto feature, a Skip feature, a chat log, quick save, quick load, and a menu that allows you to change text speed and Auto speed. A few times, you get to control Iris in combat, which takes place as a fairly simple card battle game. You have the option of playing in Normal Mode or Easy Mode; or, as I like to call them, Easy Mode and Ridiculously Easy Mode. Let’s just say there is not much challenge once you learn the system. The combat would have been much better served with a more traditional RPG battle system, a more interesting card battle system, or even as a fighting game similar to the Street Fighter series.

While this is a bishoujo game, there is really not much ecchi content in Princess Waltz. On any given playthrough, there are three H scenes in the entire game. The story is strong enough that all of the racy content could be removed and the game would still be good. In fact, it might even be better, since the H-scenes seem rather forced and out of place. Nevertheless, the H-scenes are uncensored and reasonably explicit, with lots of bodily fluids flying around, if that’s your cup of tea.

The player does get to make some choices toward the end of the game, basically choosing which Princess he wants to help him out in the enemy stronghold. These choices are important, since they lead to a different final H-scene at the end of the game, and slightly different endings each time. You learn a little more about the princess you choose, sometimes clearing up some ambiguities that seemingly did not make sense previously. (For example, pick Liesel’s ending to get some insight into her personality shift between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.) The best and most complete ending in my opinion is the Beast Princess ending. The six mildly different endings enhance the replay value a little bit.

The graphics and character designs in this game are excellent. You immediately get a feel for each character at first glance. The different character poses and especially their facial expressions are extremely well done. That said, it would have been nice to have some animation rather than still images, especially during the combat and H sequences.

Sound design and music are also very good in this game. Generally speaking, the sound effects were solid and immersive, although sometimes slightly repetitive. The voice acting is top notch across the board, with even the minor characters voicing their roles admirably. The music is also rather good. The only drawback is that there are only 30 different music track and the game is very long, so you will be hearing the same music over and over. My favorite tracks are “Battlefield of Steel” which is the music player during the big Princess duals and “The Princess of the Sword”, the short music clip played during the transformation sequences. I also enjoyed the main vocal tracks, “Chance Meeting in the Moonlight” and “Dissonant Chord”.

I am not sure what I was expecting when I first starting playing Princess Waltz. I suppose my expectations were low, seeing as how it is an H-game and most such games are pretty bad. Well, I am happy to say that Princess Waltz far exceeded my expectations.

Note: This review was sent on April 13, 2009 but was posted on June 8, 2009.

PLAYER STATUS:
DIFFICULTY: Easy
COMPLETION TIME: 15-30 hours
HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED: All endings viewed (including “secret” Nodoka ending)
RATINGS: Gameplay 6; Battle 5; Story 8; Visuals 8; Characters 9; Sounds 8; Ecchi Level 7; Replay Value 4; Overall Impact 8

Title: Casual Romance Club
Genre: Fantasy
Platform: Windows XP/Me/98/2000
Credits: 2003 LIBIDO
Shop: Casual Romance Club , Hentai Game Shop, Hentai Item Shop

Cover Description:
Love has no reason.

Suddenly without reason, love takes you by surprise. Do you want to have a serious romance? Keep it simple at first. Try casual love and just enjoy what romance has to offer. The Casual Romance Club was formed to offer a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere where romance can be discovered and explored. Meet twelve girls at the clubroom in Starry Sky family restaurant. Play casually and witness incidental romances grow into real love in this interactive dating game.

GENRE: Bishoujo, Role-Playing, Hentai
PLATFORM: Pentium II or faster PC, Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/Vista
CREDITS: 2005 Zyx, 2008 G-Collections

Description (from the G-Collections website):

I am Raidy, wandering this continent of Else far and wide as an adventurer. I can freely bend the power of thunder to my will, so people have taken to calling me the “Lightning Warrior”. Why am I standing here in front of this tower, you ask? The cause lies in the village of Saad that I visited recently. I got there to find it in decay, deserted and transformed almost completely into a ghost town…

Apparently it became that way due to the monsters living in this tower. They’d been stealing away all of the young maidens from the village, and none of the men who went to rescue them ever returned… a harsh and terrible tale. Being who I am I could’t hear that story and stand by idle, so now I find myself here, facing the tower…

Lighting Warrior Raidy brings a fresh new look from G-Collections and maker ZyX, famous for titles like Sagara Family and Tsuki - Possession. You take the role of Raidy in this first person RPG dungeon crawl, aiding her on her quest to clear the Cubust tower of the monsters that dwell within and liberate the village of Sadd. Featuring hours of classic 3D RPG-style game play, dozens of beautifully drawn monster girls from artist Kazuma Muramasa, and strong yuri (lesbian) themes, a great erotic RPG adventure you’re sure to enjoy!

Shop for Lightning Warrior Raidy: Raidy CD-ROM, Hentai Game Shop, Hentai Item Shop

Rare is the bishoujo game that is as thorough and as creatively done as Casual Romance Club. Don’t let the title fool you. Casual Romance Club isn’t about sticking your golf balls into every hole you find. It’s more about meeting new acquaintances, deepening friendships, and finding true love along the way. The word “casual” here doesn’t necessarily mean carelessly playing around, but more like having fun while learning about people and the things they enjoy. In some ways, this game is similar to True Love, although I find this much more entertaining. You’ll find out later why.

Gameplay and Features
I must admit, I was greatly impressed when the package arrived at my doorstep. CRC comes in this huge box — well, larger than most bgame packages, at least — and a hardcover user’s manual that can double as an art book. I gasped when I perused the manual and saw how detailed it was. Aside from the regular instructional tidbits, it described all 12 girls’ personalities, which were mostly based on their zodiac signs. Other interesting data are the map of the city where you lived in (Moriyoh), the Love Compatibility Chart (this one’s pretty useful), Love Equation/Personalized Drama, some information about the making of the game, and the Ten Rules of CRC. The ten rules, in particular, are something to read. You can actually apply them in real life because they teach very practical dating tips.

While the gameplay is generally like your regular digital novel dating sim — meaning, clickathon — the overall interface is something to behold. Casual Romance Club is window-based. You will see the Moriyoh City Guide, which contains a picture and a description of the place you’re in, a chatbox, and the Moriyoh City Map. When you view a prospective girl’s profile, you get to see her CG gallery, her bathing suit and school uniform photos, her basic information and her activity diary. The basic information contains her personality traits, interests, horoscopes and life and love philosophies. The activity diary, on the other hand, is like her blog. All twelve diaries, which also contain daily horoscope predictions, are updated on a regular basis. Since I am a person who reads her friends’ blogs almost every chance she gets, I find this to be an attractive feature. In a nutshell: I absolutely adore the interface.

View samples of the interface here and here.

There were a few setbacks that I experienced in the game. One of them is the absence of the “Skip previously read messages” option. When you get one ending (or successfully bag one girl), you normally start a new game from scratch and save that as a separate file. You can be an asshole, but don’t expect to end up with more than one girl…if you can end up with any girl at all. This is the reason why you can’t exactly skip previously read messages — you always end up starting a new game, and saving a new file. Another minor gripe is that you can only make the text go faster if you have the Japanese translations visible, and even then, you have to start shaping up your clicking fingers. Better yet, try practicing having your left forefinger on the “Enter” key and your right forefinger on the left mouse clicker. This makes your text go even faster. Third complaint will have to be the absence of a unified CG gallery, which should contain all the girls’ pictures. Again, this can be attributed to the fact that you always start a new game and have separate save files for each girl. Fourth minor objection: you load from the day, not from the actual time or choice you saved on.

Characters and Story
As I have mentioned earlier, the girls’ personalities are based on their zodiac signs. Although I can’t seem to reconcile Scorpios with the word “inhibited” and the Piscean is my exact opposite, I appreciate the fact that each girl is made distinct. Their personalities are complex enough in a way that makes it rather a challenge for you to pursue them. (My personal favorites are Kate, Bridget, Claire, Valerie and Sophie.) You really have to do your research to find out what makes each girl respond positively, without, of course, making a yes man out of yourself. Many of your character’s lines have actually made me say, “Aww,” even if they were meant for girls I dislike. You might also notice that even though you are the one making choices and initiating conversations, the story seems to be set from the females’ standpoint. This can be seen in the girls’ monologues, and the fact that it is possible for you to be dating other girls without you knowing it.

The options presented aren’t frustratingly asinine. They don’t make you go to unnecessary places like the roof, second floor, laboratory, and whatnot. The events occur after class, meaning the encounters are very direct and straight to the point. No more dilly-dallying in school corridors, where people shouldn’t be fooling around in the first place. Everything begins and ends in Starry Sky, the family-owned restaurant where the Casual Romance Club members hang out.

This is perhaps the most couple-friendly and realistic bishoujo game I have ever played. Many of the situations that you go through actually ring true for real-life scenarios.

Audiovisuals and Translation Notes
Because every aspect of game development was done by Libido in Japan, expect mosaic’d private parts. That’s the Japanese censorship laws at work. Still, don’t let this minor inconvenience keep you from enjoying the game. The mosaic isn’t badly done, and you can still use your imagination to fill in the blanks. The artwork is divided into three styles. You have the SD-type avatar art, which appear on the dialogue box; the regular polished CG art, which are used for the photo albums; and the dreamy sketches, which look to be watercolored. All of them are exquisite, to say the least.

The English translations, both in-game and in the manual, are somewhat crude. The English voices seem to have been done by Japanese seiyuu, which could explain why the dubbing is just as crude. If this bothers you, like it did me, you can switch off the English voices and use the original Japanese voices instead. What I noticed when I did this, however, is that sometimes, what the girls say out loud and what’s written in the Japanese subtitles aren’t the same.

Casual Romance Club is far from perfect. You may even be subjected to a few bugs here and there that I haven’t mentioned in the gameplay section, like for instance, the pager that shows two messages from two girls when you get to read only one. I still am held in awe by the work that has obviously been put into CRC’s development. There are so many things I want to say about this game as there’s just so much to explore. I suppose it really is something one must experience for oneself. There just aren’t enough words.

Note: As a testament to how much I loved this game, I’m not about to give it away as a prize. I’m keeping it. Hehe.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation: 10 Story/Plot: 10 Characters: 10 Sounds: 8 Gameplay: 8 Ecchi Level: 5

Lightning Warrior Raidy is definitely the most anticipated Hentai Game title this year. Sales seem to agree with me. Raidy became one of the best selling H-Titles going gold by pre-orders alone. It’s fairly understandable though. Raidy is supposed to be a Hentai-RPG, a genre that, here in the english-speaking countries at least, comprises of mainly two games, “Knights of Xentar” and “Brave Soul” both of which are considered solid and highly replayble. Hentai and Fantasy RPG seem to go well together and yet no company is bringing the games over here. So when “Raidy” was announced, the whole of otakudom screamed with joy! Uber-Geeks like myself know that Raidy is essentially a remake of an old game made in the golden days of a computer named PC9800. Lots of Hentai Game making companies got started there by the way, and a google search for “Raidy” and “PC9800″ will bring out some very interesting results, like the first 2D games made by a company named Illusion, way before the time of 3D acceleration cards. Raidy was a title that was way above the norm, combining Dungeon-Crawling RPG action with strong Hentai-Visuals. The title was supposedly good enough to spawn a remake and two subsequent sequels. The games were available to Japan but not in here… until now.

So now the game is here, ready to be played and enjoyed. How does it fare to the hype?

Read more to find out.

If you read the story synopsis, you probably know the plot. You are Raidy, a woman warrior with the power to command Thunder. She doesn’t know how she got that power, but she used it to get by as an adventurer. During one of her trips she encounters a village where the women and men dissapeared within a tower that appear sometime ago. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to explore the tower, find what happened to the women and the men that went in there, kill the bad guys and get the heck outta there before the smell gets to you.

All in a day’s work, right?

That’s all there is to the plot by the way. There are no plot twists and no turning points. You find out what’s going on, you kill the bad guys, and that’s it. I have to say, having been an RPG fan since the days of Final Fantasy I on the NES, it was a bit of a dissapointment. Nevertherless, one can excuse the shallowness of the plot if they realise that Raidy was a title that really didn’t expect much of its audience. After all, how much plot twists can the average hentai lover handle. They want tits and tentacles dammit! Not plot twists!

The fact that the company didn’t expect much of its audience is also shown by the battle system. There is the “Attack” command, the “Defense” command, the “Spell” command, the “Item” Command, the “Escape” command and that’s about it. The “Spell” command only activates Raidy’s thunder attack, nothing else. Hence, the battles are overly simple: Just keep attacking, use a spell if the enemy is too powerfull, and heal if necessary. There is really nothing else to it.

At least the fights are fun to look at. ALL the game’s enemies are drawn like cute women. Lets say the enemy you are fighting is a Minotaur. What you see before you is a cow-girl… I think you get the picture. Once you defeat the enemy, she gets undressed and takes a sexy pose, like is those “Degraded Hentai Women” types. Yes, I am not kidding.

Like all good dungeon crawlers, you get a whole lot of exploring to do. You have to explore the Dungeon Thoroughly, find the imprissoned girls, find any items hat might help you and THEN fight the boss before you can advance the level. If you try to fight the boss without finding the girls or the secret items you will find yourself watching a Game Over Sequence where Raidy is effortlessly defeated, degraded and sexed up. The whole thing is infuriating if you spend a considerable amount of time leveling up like most RPG players. All the levels in the world aren’t going to help you if you don’t speak to imprisoned girls properly or if you don’t find that secret pair of earrings. So save often…

The problem with the whole exploration aspect of Raidy is that all the places look alike. Even the fake walls that you can pass through, don’t have any distinguished features. Which means you will spend a lot of time bumping your head here and there, fighting monsters and feeling lost until you find the map and significantly reducing the frustration factor of the game. The game becomes MUCH easier once you obtain it. The whole “lost” thing does have a purpose though: it allows you to level up significantly so that you can handle the much-harder later stages, where healing up before every battle is necessary if you want to survive. Speaking of healing, there is no “rest” command anywhere, so make sure you save up on those healing potions. You will need them later.

The music in Raidy is fine… for about an hour or so. It’s the same music for every stage except the last one, without any variations. It’s also short in length, which means it won’t be long before you get fed up with it and decided to shut it down and put something more moody on the stereo. The battle and boss themes are nicely made but nothing to shout about. Nebuo Uematsu this is not. The voice acting in the dialogue scenes is good, though I sometimes get the feeling that the Raidy voice actress is not up for it in there.

Where the Raidy voice actress shines is in the Hentai scenes, both the good ones where she acts self-righteously and the bad ones where she screams in pain and pleasure. The hentai scenes themselves are quite well drawn. It’s mainly yuri S&M stuff with very little sex inside. There is an orgy scene and a couple of straight sex scenes, but it’s fairly straight and nothing unusual. The best Hentai Scene by far is the last one, where you get to choose between the good and the bad endings. I suggest doing the good ending first and then going for the bad one. You will appreciate it more.

Both “Knight of Xentar” and “Brave Soul” had a good replay value. Heck most Hentai Games have a good replay value, what with your trying to find all the alternative paths and CGS and everything. Raidy is no different, right?

Wrong! Unfortunately, Raidy is a one-way game. You go, you explore, meet the girls, find the items, fight the boss, lose once intentionally to get the “Bad End” and then fight him again and win to get the good one and move on. There are no side quest, no alternative paths, apart from the very end which means that you will pretty much get all the CGs and scenes in your first playthrough. Shame…

So, in the end, is Raidy worth the hype? The answer is “most certainly not”. It fails to meet the expectations of a an RPG-Playing otaku. Nevertheless, it’s worth buying it, if only to give the incentive to the game companies to bring the far more superior sequels here as well.

Title: Chain
Genre: Bishoujo / Mystery / Spy Action
Platform: Windows XP/Me/98/2000
Credits: 2001 Zyx / G-Collections
Shop: Chain CD-ROM, Hentai Game Shop, Hentai Item Shop

Help Menu Description:
He had no idea what he would become involved in…

Takeshi Shinonome is a skilled private investigator. One day, he is asked to investigate his friend’s husband’s private life. It sounds like an easy job, but he has no idea what he will become involved in…

“Good gawd, he’s hot!” was the first thing that came out of my mouth when the opening theme of Chain rolled in. Anyone who’s been exposed to Hentai Neko long enough would know I’m usually thankful for not being born a hentai anime babe. Usually.

Until Chain…

Now I have erotic dreams of being in Hitomi’s shoes, making love to Takeshi Shinonome until the wee hours of the morning. I swear, waking up has never been so frustrating. If I were a guy, I’d have blue balls.

Artwork is only one of Chain’s most impressive characteristics. Men and women alike would probably agree with me when I say that Chain has arguably the most beautiful people ever to grace a bishoujo game. The bonus comes in the form of voice actors and animated hentai scenes, which could further your titillation to such a degree that you’d be envying all the characters in the game. You will either wish you were Takeshi Shinonome or any one of the girls he fools around with.

The story is another defining factor. You are tasked to solve different cases that later converge into one big roller coaster ride—a chain of intricately woven incidents. You start out investigating a friend’s husband’s extramarital affairs before you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a massive drug scandal. Skeletons in the closet come out and you find yourself unsure of the connections you normally trust. Workaholic Hitomi and free-spirited Akira are just a few of the solid walls you find yourself relying on.

The characters aren’t too bad, either. None of them are the trademark oversexed nitwits you normally encounter in Hentaidom. In fact, I find myself relating to some of them, most especially Hitomi. Married to her work, no normal guy has ever asked her out. She seems to only attract perverted losers, whom she enjoys pummeling to the ground. Nevertheless, the end works out well for her. Yep, I can definitely relate to her from start to finish. The rest of the cast, on the other hand, are cute without being juvenile. The characters are closer to my age and have more realistic views regarding sexual relationships. I find this a fresh change from all that kiddie high school scenarios.

As for the gameplay, I’m afraid there are no multiple endings. You only end up with one girl, which isn’t necessarily so bad. Chain is an extensive clickathon so I’m quite happy with it being linear. Gawd forbid that I go through all that again. And I don’t have to. Once you finish the game, an Appendix will appear in the title screen. This lets you view all the CGs, the animated sex sequences, and your favorite situations. Since I have a fixation for Hitomi, all I do is replay her intimate details with Takeshi and I’m satisfied. The best part of it is that you don’t have to worry that you missed some action. You get to sow your oats with nearly all the females before finally settling down.

Right-clicking your mouse will open up the settings window. Here, you can adjust the message speed, play with the voice options, save and load data, and skip dialogues. The best feature this has to offer is the Hands-Free Mode. This prevents your index and forefingers from figuratively bleeding. If you’re a speed-reader, you can adjust the message speed, combine that with the hands-free mode and you’ll feel like you’re just reading a novel. Pretty nifty, eh?

My verdict? I like this game. I find it well-balanced and involving. Worthy of being translated into anime. Now, if I could only get back to that dream…

Individual Rating: Art/Animation: 10 Story/Plot: 10 Characters: 10 Sounds: 8 Gameplay: 7 Ecchi Level: 8

Title: Critical Point
Genre: Bishoujo / Sci-Fi
Platform: Windows 95/98/ME
Credits: 1998 Sweet Basil, Will Japan, Peach Princess
Shop: Critical Point CD-ROM, Hentai Game Shop, Hentai Item Shop

Peach Princess Description:
In the early 21st century, a sudden food and energy crisis sparked World War III. Now it is the year 2037, a time of uneasy peace. A series of mysterious occurrences are breaking out on Moon Base D-02, including some bizarre behavior by the female base staff. As Captain Leiji Osumi of the Free Alliance Space Force, can you discover the identity of the saboteur and the source of the technical disturbances at the base?

READ: I hate storybook type bishoujo games. They’re generally brainless, boring, and repetitive. Worse, they have no actual gameplay. I amuse myself with clickathon bgames because consoles don’t provide what self-proclaimed pervs (I am one!) need. In addition, hentai RPGs like Knights of Xentar don’t come by that often. So you can see that I habitually sacrifice my sanity just to satisfy a twisted need to update this site.

Now that we’ve established my extreme dislike for these types of games, you can, at this instant, imagine my shock when I found myself liking Critical Point. Enough to give it a 10. The plot is so involving; I couldn’t wait for the next scenario to unfold. There are 24 diverse paths, with endings that can either be stupidly tragic or hilariously rewarding. It’s like playing a game of Clue (Cluedo in Asian releases). You identify who did what, where and with what weapon. And every path you take leads you to a different culprit. The fun resides in the guessing…and of course, the opportunity to jump into bed with the most voluptuous females available.

The last sci-fi bgame I played, Time Stripper Mako, wasn’t as well thought-out as this one. I shouldn’t be taken aback, since the story was written by Kenichi Matsuzaki. He was known for his thorough involvement on popular anime such as Macross/Robotech, the original Gundam, Orgus and Bubblegum Crisis. Critical Point really puts you in outer space, where the possibilities are limitless. The dialogues are astonishingly fast-paced for one that has intricate storylines. You don’t have to make your clicking fingers bleed trying to figure out what happens next. What’s more, the fast-forward button helps you run through scenes at lightning speed. The English isn’t all that bad either, except for the titles of the endings. The sounds are okay but it’s the Japanese voice actresses that make the experience all the more erotic.

The characters are solid. They’re not simple-minded bimbos that you can ravish one moment and forget the next. You don’t just empathize with them in order to get into their pants. Your sensitivity affects the path you will traverse with them. Take heed: there’s enough history and secrets to uncover that will keep you connected to these women. And they are pretty! Man, are they pretty! You get to choose: Corporal Reiko Shinozuka, your computer genius “assistant”; Lieutenant-Colonel Carla Benedict, certified MILF (Mama is Looking Fine); Lieutenant Elise Triad, a sophisticated human-like android; Captain Lai Wong, a power-hungry S&M queen, Lieutenant Maretta Dias, Lai Wong’s precious toy; Monica Brown, a sneaky bipolar reporter; and 2nd Lieutenant Julietta Thorndike, one of the sexiest commandos in charge of the local investigation. Choose well because the hentai sequences vary from mild—which includes peeing, oral sex, conventional humping—to severe. I mean, expect whipping, ass-fucking, and the participation of inanimate objects.

The graphics boast of exquisite 2D and 3D CG, plus real-life pictures on occasion. Watch out for the gore, though! Other than that, I have never seen any other storybook bgame that looks and feels this good.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation: 9 Story/Plot: 10 Characters: 8 Sounds: 8 Gameplay: 7 Ecchi Level: 7