Demo Impression: Eroge! ~Sex and Games Make Sexy Games~

Demo Impression: Eroge! ~Sex and Games Make Sexy Games~

                Earlier this week, Managagmer announced the release date of their first game from their new partner Clock Up!, “Eroge ~Sex and Games Make Sexy Games~”, which will be September 13, 2013. Along with the announcement came a demo for this game, which I’ve played…and boy do I have some things to say about this game.

Pros: The concept is interesting, Nene and Iori seem like they could worth reading more about, music is nice.

Cons: Kisara and Momoko.

WTF?!: You know if you had more likable heroines I’d have a more positive answer…

 

                In Eroge! you play as Tomoya Mochizuki, an avid eroge player who wants to enter the eroge industry. Unfortunately for Tomoya he has not been able to find any work with any of the companies as he doesn’t really have any game making skills. His chance seems to come when he’s able to land a job at an eroge company called Flower…until it’s revealed that said company is facing going out of business unless their next game sells well. Upon discovering the problem lies with how each of the girls in charge of making the games is talented in their field but not very good at applying it to making eroge, it’s up to Tomoya to use his vast knowledge of the genre to help ensure a good game is made.

                From what I’ve played of the demo, I have to say the story concept is interesting as it provides a look at how an average eroge company goes about making a game and I can’t help but notice similarities between that and how an indie developer works. Also having a light hearted take on it would help to give players a look while at the same time keeping them from feeling bored. Sadly, whatever enjoyment I could have had of the demo’s story was ruined by two characters that made this feel like more of a chore than cleaning a bathroom.

                Before I begin though I should point out that of the four heroines of this game the other two weren’t so bad. Nene for one came off as a pretty funny character and I am interested in seeing just how she got into the role of president of an eroge company, and Iori I could at least appreciate for making me interested in her (though part of that concerns I’ve heard…things about her route). The same cannot be said for Kisara and Momoko who I quickly despised soon after they were introduced and the demo does nothing but add to my dislike for them.

                My main reason for disliking these two characters is quite frankly there just isn’t anything to like about them. They both treat Tomoya like absolute crap, and with practically every other line they have to say being an insult it gets old and annoying really fast plus it ends up taking you out of the story. The fact that this seems to be their only character trait (aside from their role in making their companies game) really weakens whatever character they’re supposed to have because it makes them seem like they’re the same character, the only difference being that Momoko is the slightly nastier of the two. When you have heroines that are one note and annoying like that it really doesn’t give player good prospects about playing their routes. Now I’m sure some of you are probably thinking that “Maybe this is a phase that they’re going to develop out of”, but I should point out this demo does skip ahead after the first available character interaction and subsequent ero scene. From what I could see that may apply to Kisara, but in Momoko’s case the scene seems to take place further into her route…and not much has seemed to change about her character.

                In the area of presentation, this game does alright. The music is pretty good so far and the voice actors did a good job. The artwork I’m not sure about yet; it’s been okay to good for the most part but a couple of the character portraits look a bit off at times. I’ll have to play the actual game before I can give a solid opinion.

                As for the ero scenes (yes there are ero scenes in this demo), well Iori and Nene’s were decent. Unfortunately the first ero scene you get is one played for jokes which sadly aren't very funny. As for Kisara and Momoko's I'm afraid my dislike for the characters carried over to their ero scenes.

 

In Conclusion:

                Eroge! is a game I really want to like, not just because the concept of the game’s story was interesting but also because the company behind it, Clock Up, has several interesting looking games in its library and if this bombs we probably aren’t going to see them localized. Unfortunately the demo for this game isn’t doing much to impress me with two of the four winnable heroines being downright insufferable. My advice to anyone thinking of getting this game, at least play the demo before putting down forty dollars on this.

The demo can be downloaded here (and warning NSFW images):
http://www.mangagamer.com/detail.php?goods_type=1&product_code=4