A New Hentai Game, and the Latest Trends in Visual Novel Publishing
Our friends at JAST USA have a fun new nukige — an 18+ eroge that’s primarily focused on sex — called Amayakase: Spoiling My Silver-Haired Girlfriend. It’s a first for JAST USA because the game received a “worldwide release,” with the English and Japanese versions shipping at the same time. Here’s an overview of the game and some background behind this short, less expensive kind of visual novel that’s great for relaxing with at the end of the day.
First, check out the awesome Anya introduction video our staff made for the game! If possible listen with headphones so you can hear the incredibly sexy voice of Anya, your silver-haired girlfriend!
About the game: it’s short and sweet, offering a couple of hours of playtime and 10 detailed ero scenes for you, with lots of sexy visuals that are all 100% uncensored. The art by illustrator Nae-Nae and silky voice provided by Himari make the character really come alive for you while you play. The game is all about the fun of having a loving, half-Russian girlfriend with silver hair who wants to do anything she can to help make your life easier…including cooking for you and, of course, relieving your sexual stress. What could be better than that?
You can read an article about the game by the translator of Amayakase here, or purchase the game from JAST USA here via instant DRM-free download! At $12.95 (10% off during the launch sale!) it’s very affordable, and replaying your favorite H-scenes anytime you like will be great.
The Trend Towards Shorter Visual Novels
I’ve been involved with visual novels for longer than I’ve been running J-List, starting our first three products way back in 1995. It’s been interesting to see how visual novels have evolved and changed over the years, adding voice and innovating in other ways. The first company we worked with that was really popular was CROWD, who made extremely long visual novels with great stories and characters that fans could really sink their teeth into.
Games of this era were far longer and more complex than most visual novels are these days. Sexy hot springs harem Tokimeki Check-in! had 17 endings, spontaneous male-to-female sex-change fantasy X-Change 2 featured 23, and the most complex game ever published was Doushin! Same Heart with a mind-blowing 27 endings. This third title was a really innovative, a “zapping” adventure in which you could play from the POV of one of three sexually-connected sisters, switching between each sister at any time of day. Its complexity was a challenge for CROWD to make and for us to translate, and not really successful financially. (Each of these three games took about a year to translate and edit, shudder.)
And so it makes sense that games have tended to become simpler affairs, offering shorter games at a lower price point. Shorter, more focused games allow exploration of many new kinds of themes, as with the Amayakase game.
Other shorter titles that have worked really well have been the fun and relaxing monster girl game Mamono Musume – Life with a Lamia, about life with a sexy snake girl, and Lilium x Triangle, a fun and highly sexual yuri game about a demon girl living with two human girls and the love triangle that develops between all three. We can even get experimental, like the upcoming otokonoko game Tomgirls of the Mountains, [YouTube Trailer link]. These games are inexpensive, fun to play and easier for the many artists, scenario writers, and translators to deal with.
The Importance of Nukige
The world of gaming in general and visual novel publishing in particular has experienced two really big paradign shifts over the past decade and a half. The first was the rise of mobile gaming, which has caused many wasted hours in Plants vs Zombies, but which came alongside the rise of app stores like Apple and Google Play. Since like major game consoles, app stores never allow adult games, they created challenges to companies trying to sell such games to fans.
The second change was the rise of Steam, which exacerbated the problem even more. As more and more gamers buy games only from Steam, the corporate policies of that company can really affect what games can be brought over from Japan. If all the profit in the PC gaming industry flows to all-ages games, or the few 18+ titles that Steam deigns to allow on the platform, it restricts the visual novel publishing world in lots of ways.
Whenever we’re approached by a Japanese visual novel company, we look at their titles to assess whether a Steam version is possible. Some titles, like the Flowers series, are all-ages and perfect for the platform, while many others, such as the totally remastered Saya no Uta, also work well, with just a small amount of adult material removed (which you can put back with this official DLC patch purchase). But if a company wanted us to publish an extremely ecchi visual novel that couldn’t be released on Steam, we have to ask ourselves whether we think enough fans will support us to make it profitable. If we think we can only sell 300-500 copies of the uncensored game, sometimes we have to decline the offer.
So Let’s All Buy Porn Games!
So to ensure that we’ll all be able to buy awesome 18+ visual novels, RPGs and other kinds of hentai games in the future, let’s all remember to buy porn games so visual novel publishing companies like JAST USA, J-List, Manga Gamer and Kagura Games so we can keep bringing you the wonderful titles your perverted hearts desire. Buying from these companies directly is the best way to help them fund future projects and support the visual novel culture you love.
Thanks for your past, present and future support!
Peter Payne
Owner, J-List
