Title: Katawa Shoujo Price: Free System(s): Windows, Mac, Linux Release Date: January 4, 2012 Publisher (Developer): Four Leaf Studios (Four Leaf Studios) ESRB Rating: N/A, 18 and over since it does have adult content, sexual situations and smoking. Pros: Realistic storylines and depictions of relationships, detailed character art, doesn’t in any way make fun of more »

In Winter Wolves’ first The Flower Shop game, we were introduced to a Steve the slacker who, after a summer working at his uncle’s farm in the small town of Fairbrook, realized he needed to get his act together and maybe even found love with one of the four young women in his life. Now, Winter Wolves has teamed with Sakevisual for the sequel, which introduces us to an entitled young woman named Natalie whose parents insisted she get a job over her winter break to learn responsibility. It’s time for Fairbrook and its residents to work their magic again….

Good news for fans of PS3-exclusives, you’re getting Record of the Agarest War 2 in 2012! Whether you’re in North America or Europe, you’ll have access to this Compile Heart and Idea Factory strategic RPG that places just as much emphasis on finding love with a female party member as it does with beating up lots of monsters and bad guys. Oddly enough, it’s the first entry in the series that isn’t multiplatform. I guess this means Xbox 360 owners will either have to visit a friend or go online to find out what happens next in the series!

Record of the Agarest War 2 takes place after the first game, even though it’s the third game in the series…

Aksys has taken on the challenging task of not only releasing a PSP game late in the handheld’s life cycle, but also choosing an otome visual novel as its next game. Allow me to clarify for those of you now going, “Bwah?” An otome game is a dating sim for girls. A visual novel is pretty much a choose your own adventure story. Are we good? Good. The question is, how does Aksys get people to crave Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom? It’s actually a pretty easy task, especially since there are a lot of girl gamers out there who have been asking for an otome adventure for a while.

To get people interested and invested in Hakuoki, Aksys has decided to go all out on the website…

If you play Love Plus, there’s a good chance you know a lot about Manaka, Rinko and Nene, the three girlfriend candidates. But then again, maybe you don’t after all, you probably didn’t realize all three characters are gamers. That’s a little tidbit that’s been revealed with New Love Plus, the first 3DS incarnation of the dating sim. The newest entry lets you play with them.

New Love Plus contains versions of three Konami arcade games…

Lucky Rabbit Reflex stars a fairly normal, 17 year old heroine who lives in the UK. She’s in her last year of college (high school) and has just transferred to Northmain College. Little does she know that she’s a blank slate with her whole future ahead of her and she may just make friendships and build relationships that may last her a lifetime. She just has to plan her schedule so she participates in the right activities and says the right things to the people who matter…

You know how you kind of expect the weirdest video games ever to come out of Japan. Well, prepare yourself for another one. Though honestly, Bakudan Handan, an Idea Factory otome (girl’s dating sim) game doesn’t score as high on the weirdness scale as games like Kyuiin (PS1) and Duel Love (DS). It’s a PSP game involving a hostage situation at an amusement park, love and Mega Man co-creator Keiji Inafune.

Okay, I guess that is still pretty weird.

And no, that screenshot is not from Bakudan Handan….

Anime Expo isn’t the place one would imagine a company announcing its forthcoming games, but that’s exactly what Aksys did today. The company attended Anime Expo 2011 and held a panel earlier today (July 2, 2011). There it announced two PSP games with dating sim elements, one being Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom and the other Fate/Extra. Of course, given that both are games with anime series that go along with them, being Hakuoki and Fate/stay Night, it makes sense….

Zeiva Inc., and independent developer, has just taken the plunge and released X-Note, it’s first commercial game. The result is an mystery visual novel with dating sim elements and multiple endings that is reminiscent of Hanako’s Fatal Hearts, another supernatural, indie adventure. It’s an interesting and pretty initial endeavor, despite its flaws, and proves that Zeiva Inc. has a lot of potential.

Another Japanese company has dropped the price on another Japanese iOS game and is donating all of the profit to the Japan earthquake relief effort. Although technically, Capcom stole the idea because 5pb did it first. I’m sure more people will be interested in picking up Street Fighter IV iOS for charity, but the dating sim visual novel Memories Off 6 ~T-wave~ is also a charitable product at the moment. The only downside is that it’s entirely in Japanese.

Well, Memories Off 6 is also $2.99, but I don’t think price is an issue to anyone when all the money is going to the Japanese Red Cross…