Alright, so it’s been at least ten years since I last played a game with a “crossdressing infiltration” premise. What? You mean that “Monkeys?” thing? No, that one doesn’t count. That game is unhinged. The company that’s been cranking out “crossdressing infiltration” titles year after year is probably ensemble, the one everyone knows. Their games give me a feeling I can’t quite put into words. The company keeps putting out visual novels at Intel-like tick-tock cadence, churning out titles that mix the “crossdressing infiltration” and “rich young lady” elements, but after all these years, they’ve left barely any impression. A lot of the time people just skip right over the brand. The reason is simple: it’s way too samey. The so-called “young lady” games are gorgeous art paired with a plot straight out of a gender-swapped Tiny Times—players drop their pants, fap to the story, and move on. The “crossdressing infiltration” ones are also gorgeous art paired with a yuri Tiny Times plot—players drop their pants, fap to the story, and move on. Over time, people just assume this brand’s games have no story. The main draw is the beautiful girls, some scenes are fappable, and you grab it for the eye candy as material. OP and ED are always Duca, the titles always have “otome” or “hanasaku” in them. And that’s how ensemble keeps surviving—lukewarm, neither dead nor alive. But lately, they seem to have decided to change something. They’ve started improving the story and narrative, and their last release was a ninja-themed game. This time, with their “crossdressing infiltration” title, they’ve gone full transformation—and it hit me weirdly… hard. Hoshi no Otome to Rikka no Shimai (星の乙女と六華の姉妹) The title is cliché, the setup is cliché, but anyone who’s been following ensemble will spot the difference immediately. “The art quality in this game has visibly dropped.” That drop in visual quality brought about a change in the whole game. After playing it out of curiosity, I have to say this is genuinely ensemble’s most daring “crossdressing infiltration”… no, actually their boldest and strangest work in the entire lineup. The plot is simple to describe, but not that simple.

Play enough visual novels and you start to notice patterns. For instance, most visual novel plots follow the same trajectory when it comes to love: the girl has feelings for the guy, keeps them bottled up, and every time she’s about to say something, the protagonist plays dumb, she stays reserved, he keeps wandering around blind, until some specific event happens, he realizes he’s actually in love with her, confesses, they date, they fuck, End. Honestly, that formula is pretty standard, and there’s nothing wrong with it. But even if salted tofu pudding is delicious, even if five-kernel mooncakes are tasty, you eat them year after year, month after month, day after day, and you’ll eventually get sick of them. So some visual novel companies started throwing in all sorts of weird shit: the girl isn’t human but a god, the girl gets tortured to death, the setting is in the future, the setting is in the past, time travel here, changing the future there~ And so on and so forth. Over time, the original meaning of “Galgame” as a shorthand for “Girl and Love Game” has become a bit of a misnomer. No wonder foreigners always call these things “visual novels.” Some stories have literally become novels, but even then, they still slap an 18+ sticker on the label, just to attract more people, forcibly stuffing in so-called “romance elements” that don’t fit, and while they’re at it, throwing in some sex scenes, hoping to lure in more players—at least those who don’t care about the story and just want to see fucking—to contribute a few more sales.