Games for Adults: Orion Heart

Orion Heart Review

                Well, what do you know? Another review up in such short a time…and, that’s mainly because the game I’m about to talk about is pretty short. I present to you Orion Heart, originally released in Japan by Portion a sub-branch of Liquid, and released in English by Mangagamer on May 24, 2013.

Pros: Good character artwork by Hokuto Saeki, voice acting is good, music has some nice tracks.

Cons: Story is weak even for a dark sex romp.

WTF?!: Sorry, this is only in the light novel.

                When it comes to story, there really isn’t much to talk about. This is your standard story of a demon taking sweet tentacle filled revenge on the magical girls that wronged him prevalent in hentai OVAs and dime a dozen dark sex romp games everywhere. If you don’t like this kind of stuff, this game certainly isn’t going to change your mind. Having said that, I have to say that even for this kind of sex romp eroge Orion Heart is pretty weak in the story area, and I know how that sounds given I just said this genre doesn’t have much story to talk about but I’ll explain.

While almost every game in the dark sex romp genre of eroge lack a story to write home about, the good ones at least establish the right context for the upcoming string of ero scenes at the start. Games like Black Lilith’s Taimanin series or Liquid’s own Conquering the Queen (original Japanese name “Mashou no Nie”) had a good setup at the start so we got a good feel for who the heroines were and how badass they were. For those who favor this genre of eroge this setup helps to make the ero scenes all the more satisfying in the way the heroines fall to the villains. Orion Heart only provides hints about the battle the two heroines had with the demon Gildart, with so little explanation I wondered if maybe MG had licensed a sequel to another eroge by mistake. Thanks to someone asking on MG’s forums, I found out that all the backstory hinted at is all told in a light novel released as a promotion for this game’s original Japanese release. Whether or not the light novel would have made for a better game I don’t know (but the pictures in the light novel sure make me wonder), but the lack of backstory really only serves to help make this game get lost in the endless sea of other eroge of its kind.

                While Orion Heart is weak in the area of story, Portion thankfully spared no expense when it comes to the game’s presentation. The character artwork is done by none other than Hokuto Saeki who has done artwork for many well known top tier eroge such as Rui wa Tomo wo Yobu (check out the OP here), Comyu (OP here), and the much desired Shin Koihime Musou (OP here). The background music is also nice with a relaxing yet catchy background in the beginning to some really nice piano music that does a good job in setting the atmosphere of later scenes.  The voice acting is also really good with the main heroine Yuka being voiced by Miya Serizono who many of you may recognize as Rin Rin from Koihime Musou and/or Sakura from Edelweiss, and while this role doesn’t give her much chance to stretch her acting chops her performance is still really good, almost enough to make you forget about the mediocre story.

                As for the ero scenes, they’re pretty much what you’d expect for this genre, though I can say they’re really helped by the aforementioned good artwork and voice acting.

In Conclusion:

                Orion Heart is at the end of the day a short (it took me about three hours to clear) average tentacle eroge. The bizarre decision by its creators to relegate the more interesting sounding story of the girls’ conflict with its villain to a light novel tie in would have in any other case sunk this game, but the good art, music, and voice acting manage to save it from being a bad game, but not enough to make it anything special. If you like this genre then this game is certainly for you, but only if you think it’s worth your $25.00.

Final Score: 5/10 Average

Author Recommendation: For Fans Only!