Onii-chan Migite no Shiyou o Kinshi Shimasu 2 (お兄ちゃん　右手の使用を禁止します2) Review

There was once a god-tier game called Onii-chan, Migi-te no Shiyou o Kinshi Shimasu (お兄ちゃん　右手の使用を禁止します). The gimmick, the marketing, the selling points, the story and art — all of it had real punch. Even people who can’t read Japanese see that title and their imagination runs wild. Combined with that cursed OP, the game hit a height that year, even though it looks like a nukige on the surface…

Honestly I don’t think it’s a nukige at all — it’s a pure love game. It even gives every heroine her own route and ending theme. Nukige don’t get that treatment…

The company behind Onii-chan, Migi-te no Shiyou o Kinshi Shimasu is Galette, a sub-brand built specifically for siscon games. But this company is… how do I put it. Unlucky.

First, two brands to keep straight: Galette and GLace. Galette exists to put out siscon games, GLace exists to put out story-driven ones. Going by the lineup, the company’s real focus is clearly the latter — making nukige is just a desperate cash grab to stay afloat. Who wouldn’t rather be highbrow…

But the games GLace puts out are kind of tragic…

I never played that Koikami thing they released earlier, no idea. I did play Timepiece Ensemble, and in short: a pile of shit. Later GLace hyped up their new title Amanosora Retrospect (天ノ空レトロスペクト), and after playing it I thought… it’s okay. The setup up front is interesting, but the entire second half has plenty of problems. Worse, even though I thought it was passable, the Japanese didn’t agree — ErogameScape tore it apart and panned it into a landmine. After that the brand was basically poison, so they put on a disguise and kept releasing, putting out Amanatsu Adolescence (甘夏アドゥレセンス). That game has… some redeeming qualities, but overall it’s still pretty garbage…

So GLace, the brand supposedly dedicated to building a reputation with story games, has had every release panned into a landmine from day one, even under a new name. Zero reputation to speak of.

Did GLace ever put out anything good? Yes! 1/2 summer!

But unfortunately 1/2 summer was filed under the Alcot label, and although it later came back to GLace, nobody remembers it as a GLace game anymore.

So in most of the industry’s memory, GLace games = landmines…

Meanwhile, over on the other branch: Galette, the nukige brand for siscon games, wanted to strike while the iron was hot after Onii-chan, Migi-te no Shiyou o Kinshi Shimasu blew up, so they made Onii-chan Teacher (お兄ちゃんティーチャー). Reviews were middling… and then things went wrong.

What happened? The entire team that made Onii-chan, Migi-te no Shiyou o Kinshi Shimasu — artist, music, OP singer, planner, even the writer — all walked out and founded a new company, and went right back to making siscon games.

Which left Galette with basically nobody… Early that year they put out a game called Chitchana Hanayome (ちっちゃな花嫁), which hurt me deeply. Just when I figured they were completely hollowed out and about to fold, they announced Onii-chan, Migi-te no Shiyou o Kinshi Shimasu 2 for the second half of the year…

Holy shit, the old golden goose gets dragged out for a sequel. And what I’m more curious about is: the original artist already ran off, so how are you even making a new game?

Then the game came out and I cracked up — the artist was replaced, and not a single CV carried over either. I honestly suspect this so-called “2” is Galette trying to grab whatever cash it can before going under… same as the revived Lass.

So I went in with a “whatever, let’s take a look” attitude. Maybe my expectations were just too low, but I think it’s… not bad. At least better than that idiot flower-selling game from before.

This one is a direct follow-up to the first game. In the first, the protagonist injures his right hand protecting his sisters, and then the sisters make it worse under the pretext of “nursing him back to health”…

In the second, the protagonist starts out saying his right hand is doing better. Amid the days spent with his sisters, his dad announces he’s brought home two more girls — from today on, they’re the protagonist’s “new sisters.” One is called Manami, the other Nanami.

Dad never bothers explaining how he acquired two more daughters, but the girls settle into their roles fast. Later the protagonist finds out these two have quite the background — in the real world they’re national idols (sure, if you say so), constantly harassed by creeps, otaku, and stalkers. Then one day, the two sisters get abducted by a stalker.

Our protagonist, brother to the two sisters, charges out on a MB bike, catches up with the kidnappers’ car, and fights them off. He saves the girls, but his right hand gets injured again…

So the sisters are rescued. That’s actually the small part — the trouble comes after. Because the protagonist showed up and saved two national idols, his identity and home address get exposed, and the harassment never stops…

Fed up, the protagonist and company decide Japan is unlivable, so they head to a southern island to lie low. The two new sisters take leave from their agency, and one brother leads six sisters there…

What happens next — do I even need to say it? One guy, six girls, island vacation. You’ve seen Beautiful Girl Drift, right?

Route-wise, I’d recommend the two new sisters, Manami and Nanami. Why…

Because every other character’s artist got replaced. The game reuses the original background art and sprites for all the old characters from the first game — still the original assets, so you might not notice anything off.

But once you hit the island and new CGs start appearing, the new artist’s clumsy imitation of P-ko’s original style creates this inexplicable off feeling that’s genuinely hard to sit through. The new characters, though, are drawn by the same person start to finish, so no complaints there.

Honestly that’s forgivable… the original team all ran off, after all. All Galette really has left is the rights to the title, and the new sisters are drawn well enough, their CGs are decent too, and their CVs are comparatively the strongest in the whole game. Guess they had no other option.

I say that because all the old characters’ CVs got replaced too, with people I don’t even recognize, and the performances are absolute trash. I used to think Yuika’s voice work was already garbage, but the new cast made me appreciate her so much more — because someone out there is worse. The recording quality is also off; everyone’s voice is pitifully quiet, completely flat reading, basically zero emotion…

So among this cast, whether CV, character, or CG work, the only ones worth a damn are the two new sisters. The old cast is a total loss.

Honestly, this game didn’t need to come out under the “right hand forbidden” banner at all. They could’ve made it a standalone new title — the new characters are drawn well enough. But then I thought about the nukige series from the late, lamented Lass, and I get why they did it. In this game, for instance, the backgrounds are even more budget: besides reusing old backgrounds, all the new island backgrounds are outsourced 3D-rendered images like something from Apple Daily. I’d honestly rather they used actual photos. Or is Galette so broke they can’t even afford to go out and shoot location photos? Backgrounds they don’t even want to draw anymore — reuse old assets where possible, and the first game had such a good reputation, so rope in whoever you can. But is it really okay to squeeze out residual value at the cost of destroying that old reputation?

Actually, thinking about it, there’s nothing wrong with it. You have to survive first.

Fine, fine. In reality, Galette’s new game is way better than I expected. I know the developer is basically broke, and making a game like this with no money is about as much as you can ask of their conscience.

It’s just that, for me, your sister isn’t your old sister anymore — but you, the player, are still the same “bro” with the injured right hand.