This Week in Games

After-Dark Edition

Welcome back, folks! We're doing something a little different this week! Instead of recounting the bigger news regarding Japanese games this past week, we'll be discussing a particular theme: Japanese erotic games, better known as eroge! We've touched on them before in the column, and this week we'd like to focus on adult games some. Understandably, this column will be a mite NSFW (we'll have to employ the Censorship Mahoro™ whenever necessary). But kick back as we delve in! Many thanks to ViviON for sponsoring this week's column.

So What's Up With Eroge in America?

The history of Japanese erotic games (eroge) in America goes back about as far as the history of hentai in America. For as long as people have enjoyed anime, people have been attracted to anime characters. A whole generation was raised on Nova Forrester (Yuki Mori for Japanese fans) from Starblazers (Space Battleship Yamato), just like a whole generation found themselves contending with feelings for Jessie from Pokémon. But while a great many eroge exist in Japan, comparatively fewer have been released in America. Learning how to change your PC's AppLocale to Japanese in order to get Lunar Legend Tsukihime or Sengoku Rance to run was practically a rite of passage, and even now folks will go through a lot of hoops to play some of the most recent releases from Japan. (I see you, Milkfactory fans!)

Getting hold of titles like Tokimeki Check-In or Little My Maid was a challenge, in the cases where they got released in the United States. It didn't help that a handful of these games got slapped with the dreaded AO rating; few mainstream retailers will ever carry AO titles, so good luck getting Bible Black or X-Change to hungry buyers without your own mail-in catalog. We did have folks localizing these games in America, mind—JAST USA was carrying the albatross for a lot of eroge for much of the 2000s, even after their Japanese parent company collapsed. They maintained their own storefront and everything, and many of their older releases like Do You Like Horny Bunnies? or Yume Miru Kusuri: A Drug That Makes You Dream are still up and available. That Amorous Professor Cherry, a game I only know about from trawling image boards and old ads from OtakUSA, is still available on JAST's store and still compatible with modern operating systems is the kind of preservation that the rest of the gaming industry ought to pay attention to and emulate. And never let it be said that JAST didn't have their ear to the ground, them being the folks who got the School Days visual novel released in the US when people were still throwing Nice Boat memes at each other.

The good news is, it's easier to get eroge now. We have more companies than ever localizing these games into English, like MangaGamer, Shiravune, and Fakku. We have the benefit of the Japanese website DLSite putting effort into making its storefront available to the United States. We even have a good number of eroge being made available on Steam and GOG. Happy ending, right?

Well... no. Unfortunately, this is where complications pop up.

Let's start with the publishers. Now, there isn't anything inherently wrong with any of them—I love them! They've put good work into their stuff. Fakku's announcement that they'll be porting tons of older PC-88 titles to Steam, like the Welcome to Pia Carrot!! games is a big deal. The problem is their issues with payment processors; for whatever reason, many payment processors (Visa, MasterCard, PayPal) have taken stances on the kinds of things you can buy through their services, effectively threatening the entire industry with being unbanked. Eroge, as well as adult manga and anime, have fallen afoul of payment processors due to some of their content... but as many have pointed out, many of the 'darker' themes in erotica are stuff that are openly flaunted in other mainstream media (Game of Thrones is a particular standout). This has also led to complications with sites like DLSite, since you can't just buy stuff off of their site anymore with American credit cards (not without jumping through a few hoops first). Even Fakku is still reeling from a recent battle with their payment processors.

And this isn't an America-only issue, either. As a matter of fact, the issues with payment processors have compounded issues for creators in Japan. Japanese studio Nupuryu, creator of the adult game Ruins Seeker (which is available on Steam), reported that their earnings from international sales of the titles are blocked from being transferred to their account in Japan via Rakuten Bank. They later went on to explain on their DLSite blog (link NSFW) that even though they don't have access to these monies, it still counts as taxable income, leading to complications regarding their tax payments. At last reporting, they're currently trying to find a different payment processor.

You might be asking yourself, "Why not just go onto Steam then? They handle all the payments for you!" Well,

that's where we hit the second snag, and it's a major one. Steam has adopted a largely open-door approach to approving titles hosted on their storefront for a good few years now. I remember it being a huge deal when Recettear was released on Steam in 2010. It was a big deal when anything was on Steam, let alone a fairly obscure cult-classic Japanese game. That four-minute mile has long since been surpassed, but in its place is a new issue: arbitrary refusals. Several Japanese games are just flat-out refused for sale on Steam. And we can't even point to a concrete reason. If it's the erotic content specifically, well, there have been plenty of erotic Japanese games released on Steam for a while, like Kindred Spirits. If it's the school uniforms (which likely won't help), that's also not a guaranteed problem because plenty of other games feature school uniforms with no problem. The Persona games come to mind. And we can't even point to any particular fetish as the offender, since plenty of American games feature similar fetishes with seemingly no problem. There are multiple "Sex with Hitler" games on Steam, after all.

It doesn't help that many of the games that wind up in Steam's naughty list are games that aren't even eroge in the first place. Chaos;Head Noah was originally refused for sale on Steam, but eventually allowed on after major outcry. Dungeon Travelers 2 and its sequel, Dungeon Travelers 2-2, were both refused outright, however—even though Atlus released Dungeon Travelers 2 on the PS Vita in America in 2015. That old edition of the game is still available on Amazon, even. (And thankfully, also available for purchase on Johren.) The best many games can do on Steam is to release as worksafe versions of the game, with the erotic content made available offsite. It used to be possible to simply hide the adult content behind DLC on the game's Steam page—that is no longer allowed, for some reason. Is there any consistency behind the decision-making? None that we can see; it seems that it's a case-by-case and reviewer-by-reviewer basis. Meltys Quest is A-OK; horror boys' love title *This Game is Not Real wasn't, even though it features far less monster-buggery. You can collect trading cards in The Witcher based on Geralt's hook-ups; safe-for-work title The Distant Circular World was refused, and it doesn't even include erotic content.

So, what options do players have? Well, not much. The issues with payment processors go far beyond just eroge; they also affect whole platforms like Itch.io. And this isn't only aimed at eroge or even pornography, as there are wider attempts at simply labeling anything remotely of queer themes as pornographic. The first and biggest solution would be the establishment of a new payment processing system... but that requires a lot of capital that isn't really accessible for the layperson to acquire. Demanding accountability from the payment processors that do exist is a much more workable solution.

Stemming from that, it's also important to support what little gets released in the United States. Aforementioned publishers like Fakku, Shiravune, JAST, and MangaGamer regularly release titles in the United States. And while they clearly can't release everything, they do their best to balance between newer titles coming out in Japan and older classics. Squeaky wheels get the grease; this is the best way to show that there is a demand for these games in the United States. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that even now the powers that be underestimate how much people are starved for more stuff from Japan. But people actually have to put their money where their mouth is and show up. 

And most importantly, fans have to come together. I know the verbiage on that is weird, given the subject matter, but social networks have given the world a tremendous opportunity with regards to being able to communicate with people worldwide. It's easier than ever to find Japanese artists on Twitter and comment on their works. As much as people try to divvy the Internet up into fiefdoms, it's still possible in the here-and-now to connect with people. And that's only going to grow more and more important. Support your favorite artists monetarily, sure, but reach out to them, comment on their works, and show them your appreciation. Solidarity always has been and always will be a tremendous balm for a weary world. Even if it's just an artist who likes drawing big boobs, let them know that you care.

Bible Black Celebrates its 26th Anniversary

I gave this one away a bit by posting a screenshot earlier, but guess which super-important hentai series celebrated its 26th anniversary! Bible Black was very much a rite of passage for anime fans of a certain age: the super-forbidden hentai that was so totally weird, man. Never mind being just a hentai series—which, for a certain generation, was already something dripping in mystique (as well as other fluids). It had all those weird fetishes! Also, the dub was hilarious.

The original Bible Black visual novel was released in 2000. The game centered around a cult of students vying for control of a magic spellbook. While protagonist Minase mostly uses it to fool around with some of his classmates, it turns out to be central to the machinations of a cult based out of his school. Magical shenanigans ensue as Minase finds himself having to deal with—and engage in—a lot of blue magic (that's "blue" in the ribald sense) to banish these demons and bring life back to some kind of semblance of normality, while also saving his childhood friend.

Bible Black became a quick success, getting an animated adaptation the very next year after its release. This was back when eroge were the basis for many OVAs, if not regular anime. Media Blasters wasted no time picking the series up for an American release through their Kitty Media line, where it went on to be one of their long-time best-sellers. I can only imagine how integral Bible Black must've been to Media Blasters' long-term lifespan, especially given how they deemed it necessary to point out when new episodes were in production and already licensed at a convention panel in 2002. As a reminder, Media Blasters even went so far as to license the original Bible Black visual novel for release in America.

Bible Black, as an OVA series, developed quite the following—more so than its original VN, even. It received three sequel series in the form of Bible Black: New Testament, the prequel series Bible Black Origins, and the spin-off Bible Black Only. But the visual novel itself only ever got the one sequel, Bible Black -The Infection-. It, too, was released in the United States, at least.

So, what is the legacy for Bible Black? On a fandom level, it's still beloved to this day. Sure, it's definitely a thing for the older fans out there—but every now and then I'll see artists taking commissions and drawing characters in the iconic Bible Black uniforms. You know those are from people who "know ball," as it were. Fan art aside, it's never stopped being particularly infamous. And not for no good reason; while a lot of anime fans joke about tentacles in hentai, Bible Black went a bit farther with certain darker fetishes like enemas. The visual novel itself is largely considered an afterthought; most people who know the series know it via the OVAs. And for what it's worth: the OVAs still look really good, given their age. Sure, it's hentai, but the OVAs hail from a time when serious money was pumped into OVA production; Bible Black looks and animates better than even some modern-day ero-OVAs. That it has such an involved story told over the course of five half-hour episodes also helps; many H-OVAs today only seem to get five episodes if they have a 15-minute runtime. Of course, there just isn't that kind of money in H-OVA production anymore, making older hentai like Bible Black rather sad in hindsight. A lot of passion was put into these works; the early 2000s were the days of Satoshi Urushihara bankrupting a studio through the production of a single OVA or eroge like Wordsworth getting extensive multi-episode adaptations that still kept a ton of the narrative intact. Who knows if we can ever get ero-OVAs like that again...

The good news is that Bible Black went on to be the bedrock of an extensive career for artist and scenario writer Sei Shoujo. After Bible Black, he made Discipline -The Record of a Crusade-, which is much less dramatic than the title implies (a guy taking down an elite sex-monopoly at a preppy academy). It and other of his games would also go on to get OVA adaptations, like Cleavage. While Sei Shoujo eventually left Bible Black's studio, he continued to make eroge with his own particular tastes, specifically the Starless games. And even though Starless doesn't have any hard connection to Bible Black, the title still implies one—mostly because "Starless and Bible Black" are the lyrics from a King Crimson song. Sleepless, another recent title from Sei Shojo, is also available from MangaGamer (link NSFW). Sei Shoujo is still active in game production to this day, with his newest game Yuukan Madam Club releasing in March of this year; no word yet has been said whether it'll be released in English, but here's hoping.

In the meantime, the Bible Black OVAs are out-of-print. Who knows, maybe Media Blasters can someday renew the license. Noted voice actor and director Yara Naika, who's worked with Media Blasters on several projects, has commented for years that giving Bible Black a proper (and better) English dub is on their bucket list; here's hoping!

Five Adult Games to Try Out

If you've only dabbled in the idea of eroge, the whole scene might seem to be a bit overwhelming. Japan's eroge scene goes back literal decades, and while recent efforts have begun to make these games available in the US, a lot of the biggest titles aren't. A lot were on consoles or platforms that simply never came to America (so that's a no-go for anything on the PC-98), and the few from PC that were brought over might be restricted by operating system compatibility—or licensing issues. (So good luck trying to get your old English copy of Bible Black running without some legwork.) But there are still efforts on bringing eroge to America, and we've compiled a list of suggestions for our readers. We've tried to cast as wide a net as possible—but that's a particularly big ask, since eroge is pretty extensive. Even moreso if you consider boys' love games like Dramatical Murder, which got an anime adaptation, or No, Thank You!!!, which features body hair toggles (note: both links NSFW). And it's not just visual novels: there are adult fighting games (Variable Geo), RPGs, and so on.

1. Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome

I wanted to start with an otome game, given the dearth of otoge that get licensed and released in America—adult or otherwise. MangaGamers did pretty well with bringing Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome to the US, given its wacky premise and lovable cast. Miki and Saito are both in need of a muse for modeling clothes. They find the perfect candidate in the form of Emi, a gloomy loner with resting-bitch-face. The problem is, Emi isn't very cooperative and is perfectly fine being a wallflower. Also, Miki is a helpless masochist, and Saito is a huge sadist. What follows is a comedy of errors as these two goofs try to tame the shrew that is Emi while also possibly falling in love with her. While there are intimate scenes between them, Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome never loses sight of its comedic edge—there are a great number of gag endings, fitting for a cast of goofballs like our three heroes.

The dynamic between the central trio allows us to see Emi in a variety of situations; while Miki is something of a puppy yearning for her attention, Saito is the one who gets Emi riled up, leading to a lot of internal struggle on Emi's behalf regarding her attraction to him. Plus, of course, the ongoing shenanigans in getting someone so unsociable to open up to her peers.

Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome is available both on MangaGamer's website and Steam; while the MangaGamer version is just straight-up the normal game, the Steam version is safe-for-work by default—though it does have free DLC to unlock the non-worksafe content. Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome studio kalmia8 also has another adult otoge on Steam, Fxxx Me Royally!!!. It's another comedic romp, this one starring a princess from a sexually-liberated world who comes to Earth in search of a partner. Its reception is a bit more mixed than Miss Lonesome, but don't let that bother you if you know what you're about.

2. Taimanin Asagi

There used to be a time when a lot of anime would be based on eroge; I mentioned Variable Geo earlier (an adult fighting game series featuring character designs from the late Takehiro Kimura), but a much bigger example would be the works of Type-Moon. Early versions of Fate/Stay Night and Lunar Legend Tsukihime did feature sexual encounters as part of the plot. While later versions of the game would omit the sex, they're still technically canon; Mages, after all, still need to supply mana to their Servants. They just have other ways of doing it that may or may not involve CGI dragons. Along those lines is the Taimanin series; originally a series of adult visual novels, studio Lilith has transitioned somewhat to making some worksafe spin-off mobile games in the form of Action Taimanin (an action game) and Taimanin Squad (a turn-based RPG). They're not great! In fact, they're pretty predatory in their monetization! Thank goodness the original VNs are mostly available in the United States.

The Taimanin games tell the story of various anti-demon ninja corps stationed around the world, with the most important ones being based in Japan. The most legendary of the anti-demon specialists is Asagi Igawa. Nicknamed "The Almighty" by her peers, she's the fastest and deadliest ninja around. When her fiancé goes missing, Asagi and her sister Sakura go to investigate and find themselves embroiled in a plot by a criminal gang with ties to demons—and the powerful vampire, Edwin Black. What's worse, Edwin has an assistant: the treacherous former anti-demon ninja, Oboro, whom Asagi herself dispatched. What follows is... well, it's not fun for Asagi, Sakura, or any of the other anti-demon ninja that get involved. Lots of depravity and humiliation follow, with demons and gangs doing everything they can in an attempt at breaking Asagi and her peers. Canonically, Asagi and company overcome the trials and defeat the demons while coping with the truth that their lives will never know peace. There are still plenty of infamous Bad Ends (and, for some reason, a lot of people being turned into cubes).

There are quite a few of the Taimanin games, with Asagi herself having a whole trilogy to her name, along with fellow lightning-wielding ninja Taimanin Yukikaze getting two games to herself; Asagi's protege Taimanin Murasaki getting her own entry; and even noted villainess Ingrid (right-hand woman to Edwin Black himself) getting her own game in Hell Knight Ingrid. And that's before we get into the numerous spin-offs like Witch of Steel Annerose. That said, Shiravune is still working through all of the games, so only two Taimanin visual novels are available in English: the original Taimanin Asagi title, and the first Taimanin Yukikaze. Taimanin Asagi 2 was announced for release in America, but doesn't have a release date yet. Being from Shiravune, the games available on Steam are ostensibly SFW, with all of the erotic content excised; the full experience required you to install patches for the games available off-site. While MangaGamer did something similar with the aforementioned Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome, Shiravune's situation is a bit more precarious, necessitating more of a safety net to avoid running afoul of Steam's inconsistent content standards.

There used to be at least one more adult Taimanin game available in the United States: Taimanin RPG eXtasy. Its official English server shut down in August of 2024, after the game launched in the US and promptly fell on its face by glitching the amount of gems offered to players and correcting the matter by taking the gems back from players and putting them in gem debt.

3. Rance series

The Ys games are a storied, venerable series of RPGs in Japan, telling the continued tale of Adol and his many misadventures across various lands. His games have changed plenty over the years with how they've handled RPG mechanics, going from bump-combat games to proper modern action-RPGs, but Adol's adventures are still mainstays and worth playing. Now, imagine instead of being a brave, courteous, and heroic man with a generous ear to lend to any blue-haired maiden in distress, Adol was a cocky, hormone-addled horndog who's mostly in it to get laid and drags a slave around. Also, instead of wearing red clothes, he wears green. That's Rance.

According to Wikipedia, the Rance series is the longest-running eroge series in history, dating back to the original's release on the PC-88 in 1989 (this series is as old as I am!). Rance's adventures (and mistreatment of his poor slave, Sill) have taken him all over his continent and beyond as he fights demons, bangs chicks, and thumbs his nose at good sense and decency. Much like the aforementioned Adol for action RPGs, Rance himself is practically an archetypal protagonist for eroge (provided, of the "jerkass" type). And his series served as the bedrock for AliceSoft, best known for their genre-blending adult games like Beat Angel Escalayer and its ilk. Sure enough, the Rance series is actually quite competent as RPGs, with mechanical depth and everything. Later games in the series like Sengoku Rance even up the ante by exploring other genres, like strategy. Later remakes of the earlier games in the series combine adventure-game mechanics (exploring towns, collecting items, finding clues for story beats) with card-based dungeoneering where you gamble chips for attacks.

Rance might be a jackass, but he's a jackass you love to hate, and the cast around him tends to be colorful and memorable. It helps that the writing can be genuinely great, in addition to the RPG mechanics being genuinely fun. In the grand scheme of eroge with meaningful mechanics, Rance is pretty much king of the mountain. While a good chunk of the series is available on MangaGamer's website, efforts have been made to bring the Rance games to Steam. Rance 01 + 02 are remakes of the first two games compiled together. The aforementioned Sengoku Rance is also a fan-favorite and considered a great jumping-on point. No release date has been confirmed for any of these games; Shiravune will keep us posted.

4. Kara no Shōjo/Cartagra

I'm bending the rules a bit by putting these two games together on one list, but that's because they're connected; while both games are effectively standalone stories, they're thematically linked (as well as taking place in the same setting). They're dark and oppressive, but also some of the most compellingly written adult games you'll find. Both games are particularly gruesome in their nature; there's sex in them, sure, but these are more along the lines of a horrific thriller with sex than an eroge with sex in them.

Both games take place in 1950s Japan, with Cartagra as the prequel. Similarly, both games star detectives who are tasked with getting to the bottom of very gruesome murders. Cartagra has our protagonist Shugo Takashiro being tasked with investigating the murder of an old flame—with the help of her twin sister. Similarly, Kara no Shōjo has grieving detective Tokisaka Reiji investigating a gruesome serial killing case.

It's important to again underline that these two games do not handle sex as a means to titillate—at least, not exclusively. The sex in these games explores a lot of the depths of these characters: insecurities, failings, sins, ailings, depravities. These games are intense character studies, and sex reveals more facets of their personalities the same way exposition does. It's also a vector for horror, given the nature of the murders the protagonists investigate. These are intense games and their themes make them a bit much; while the writing on display is particularly stellar and will stick with you, the subject matter is a bit harder to stomach. I myself struggle with taking the plunge on Kara no Shōjo. But for people with stronger constitutions and who find solace in exploring the darker side of the human condition, these games are indispensable. This is another case of games I'd recommend to people who know what they're about. Both Cartagra and Kara no Shojo are on Steam (miraculously).

5. Honey Select 2: Libido

Illusion was a studio that mostly stuck to doing one thing, but they did it really well. And that was 3D hentai games. The likes of Sexy Beach, Artificial Academy, and so on were beloved not just because of their lewd potential, but also because of the wealth of customization options available in them. Honestly, these games were more along the lines of The Sims in terms of how you could engage with them, given how much you could fuss around with your little paper-doll characters (especially once player mods were factored into things). Sure, the games were a bit shallow outside of the boning, and there are ultimately only so many animations and positions they could really do. But it was a (sexy) paper dollhouse the likes of which you'd normally have to mod a Sims game into being. At the end of the day, there just wasn't anyone making 3D eroge on the level as Illusion was.

Illusion eventually went out of business a few years back (and then apparently reformed as ILLGAMES shortly after?). But they managed to release a handful of games on Steam. And that's where Honey Select 2 Libido comes in. There's a story here (you play a passer-by who happens upon a club that promises to make your dreams come true), but really, that's all just pretense. The idea here is the same as all of your other experiences with Illusion's games: make your ideal babe, and go to town.

Now, I have to set some expectations, because I don't want to oversell things: there are limits here. As mentioned, there are only so many scenarios you can put your creations into. And from there, you only have so many poses to play around with. In that light, Honey Select is a bit limiting and a bit expensive for what it is. But Honey Select 2 also has some of the deepest, most open-ended character creation engines this side of a Koei Tecmo game, from facial structure to body type to voice options and so on. And if that's not enough, there's a healthy modding community that exists around the game. So whether you're trying to re-create your hyperfixation-fueled crush of the week or you're attempting to make your ideal partner, Weird Science-style, you will have the tools to realize your vision. And if you somehow don't: there is a mod for that. We might be a ways out from Sexy Beach 3 or Artificial Academy's heyday, but you'll find someone who's got what you're looking for, so long as you're willing to do a little legwork first.

That'll do it for this week! We hope you enjoyed our dalliance with eroge. If you told me years ago that I'd be writing for Anime News Network, I'd have thought you to be overly optimistic. And if you'd told me I'd be writing about hentai at Anime News Network, I'd have thought you were making fun of me. But here we are. As someone who's imported maybe too much doujin from Comiket, I respect and admire the artists who put the work in to make these games. It takes all kinds to make your porn, and it takes those kinds a lot of passion and hard work to see it through. Remember to support your official releases, and to (respectfully!) show these creators your appreciation. Maybe someday we'll get the Kao no nai Tsuki remake released in the US... but more than that, I'll always remember meeting Toshio Maeda at a convention in Puerto Rico and realizing that he's just a cool dude who drew a ton of tentacles. And folks don't deserve to be treated badly for that. Be good to each other, I'll see you in seven.

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This Week In Games! is written from idyllic Portland by Jean-Karlo Lemus. When not collaborating with Anime News Network, Jean-Karlo can be found playing Japanese RPGs, eating popcorn, watching VTuber content, and watching tokusatsu. You can keep up with him at @ventcard.bsky.social.

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Anime News Network, its employees, owners, or sponsors.