A lot of young kids who’ve just gotten into Japanese otaku culture tend to pick up some misconceptions, putting on a filter of assumed truth: that Japanese people are earnest, professional, reliable, down-to-earth. Most of that comes from Japan’s rigid personality, the various reigning “masters” (sennin) of every craft, and the healthy growth of niche hobby groups everywhere. Sure, plenty of retro subcultures can find their fanbase in Japan, along with the meticulously researched material those groups put out… But there are two sides to everything. Japanese people are also utterly shameless about grabbing your money. Amusecraft has a pile of labels under it, most of them used once and tossed like toilet paper. One of them, CRYSTALiA, was created from the start to launch a new KATANA project — the theme being a futuristic world telling the story of “blades” and “samurai.” To hammer home the tech angle, they set the katana up as something like a smartphone: a high-tech device with its own OS that you can even hack into. The game even added a route for the blonde girl specifically to flesh out this setting. That route has no “samurai” or “duels” — it’s all about developing and controlling this high-tech katana with its built-in chip called “Orikami.”

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…

Not long after Corona Blossom wrapped up, Vol.2 got announced. Not really a surprise — the series was billed as three volumes from the start. The funny part is that Corona Blossom launched in Japan a month after Steam, meaning Steam got it first. Same for Vol.2: a galgame with a Japanese release slated for November, and it hits Steam ahead of schedule. Gotta hand it to them. Vol.1 didn’t score well on ErogameScape. Most of the complaints were that the story doesn’t go anywhere, the slice-of-life is boring, splitting it into volumes is shameless, etc. And honestly? Fair. These days if your eroge doesn’t have a shrine maiden with a deep grudge, or an idol restoring a fallen nation, or a cursed katana you can bang, or a train module you can bang, who the hell cares? Standard developments are played out. A lump of metal falls from the sky, goes duang, and turns into a cat-eared girl — light novels were doing that ten years ago. All tropes, bruh.