I’ve played a fair number of visual novels, and there’s one thing I’ve never quite understood. Since most Galgames are eroge—18+ games whose selling point is the presence of sex scenes—they should by definition sit squarely in the adult game category. People who buy adult games are, for the most part, adults (at least on paper). So when it comes to how the content is presented, you’d think the “adult factor” would be played up even more. But here’s the ridiculous part: in the Galgame market, aside from the handful of developers who actually deliver on “adult game,” the majority of mainstream players have some really weird demands: The story can’t be cruel, or I’m sending you razor blades. The game can’t skip the sex, or I’m sending you razor blades. Logically, an “adult-rated” story worth its salt is bound to have cruel elements—the better it is, the more indispensable the cruelty. Yet the Galgame audience refuses to accept it. If you won’t accept a “cruel” story, then you must like pure love stories, right? But the sex is still mandatory—and not just any sex, you need all kinds of positions, all kinds of play to be satisfied… So what kind of twisted demographic are you people who play 18X galgames, anyway…