VN Demo Round-Up!

I have 17 demos installed in my Steam library, most of them are spicy gay visual novels.  I need to get through them to decide if I want to buy them or not.  I'm going to play each one until I reach an ending, then write down my thoughts and judgements here.

2026 Steam Spring Sale Recap

The Steam Spring Sale ends today, and I thought it'd be fun to recap what I bought and downloaded.  This sale, I was super cheap, and only sprung for cheap, silly games.

NekoPara vol 1 Review

NekoPara vol. 1!  The one that started it all.  It came out in 2014, and I read it first in 2018.  The first read took me 2 months, holy crap.  I'm a slow reader.  Any ways, the first hour is one long angst fest as Kashou tries to convince Chocola and Vanilla to go home, and they beg Kashou to let them stay with him at his new bakery.  They prove their worth, become waitresses, and all the rest of the novel is mostly fluff.

NekoPara vol 0 VN Review

NekoPara vol 0 is a short bonus volume that takes place before vol 1 begins.  It's about an hour long, and Kashou isn't really in it.  It just follows the catgirls in a day in the life.

NekoPara Extra VN Review

NekoPara Extra is a short VN prequel to NekoPara 1.  It was written as bonus content and published in 2018.  It features all the catgirls much younger than in the regular volumes.  You see Chocola, Vanilla, and Coconut as kittens.  Maple, Cinnamon, and Azuki are already grown, but still cute.

NekoPara After Hype!

My dudes!  A new NekoPara volume is being added!  I thought NekoPara was over.  I thought Vol. 4 was the last one!  But there's more!  And I'm totally gonna ship Fraise with Shigure.

NekoPara After comes out in ten days!  I'm so excited!  More delightful catgirl goodness!  More wildly inappropriate little sister shenanigans!  I can't wait!

I need to reread everything I have, and rewatch the OAVs and the anime, and photograph my figures and plushies! EEEEEEEEEEEE!

Unluckily in Love, an Ebi-hime BL VN

Unluckily in Love is a boys love visual novel by Ebi-hime, a writer I've had mixed feelings about, but can't seem to get away from.  The main couple are two men named Yuel and Tavi, and they're cousins.  Not only are they cousins, but Tavi doesn't shut up about how much he loves his baby cousin.  I get a little bit of ick from it, but I found out there are 3 other visual novels by Ebi-hime about the same couple, so these two characters are clearly very dear to her.  And I'm writing a sci-fi drama about clones in love, so those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.  She loves this couple enough to write about them 4 times, and it turns out I've already bought 3 of them, so I better get used to this couple if I wanna finish my backlog.  So, if fictional incest gives you too much of the ick, don't read this one, or To Have and To Hold, or All Idleness and Ephemera.  They all feature the same two characters, coming together in alternate realities, but I think they're cousins in every single one.  Ebi-hime clearly has a thing for it, and I'm in no position to shame her for it.

My Nemesis and Hero Review

My Nemesis and Hero is a BL visual novel by ChaniMK.  It can be found on Steam and Itch.io.  It's about a boy named Kai and his two childhood friends, Percy and Gavin, who fight over him constantly.  Kai is kind of a dumbass and doesn't realize they're fighting over him or why until they confess their feelings.  But each option expresses their love differently, so who should Kai choose?

I'm not poly IRL, by I love a good harem ending in a VN, so I played through the game 3 times, once for Percy's ending, once for Gavin's ending, and last for the coveted threesome.

The Sad Story of Emmeline Burns

For years, I've been enticed by the girls love visual novels of an indie writer who goes by Ebi-hime.  However, before today, I have never been able to finish one!  Finally, I corrected that issue today, by completing The Sad Story of Emmeline Burns.  Now, I'd tried to read this one before, but I was much more emotionally fragile in 2019 and couldn't finish it, and stopped halfway.  Today, with a more secure heart, I read it the entire way though!  I'm not gonna lie, it got hella wordy some times, and I was frustrated that it told in words, rather than show the scenes with images, but all in all, it is a pretty good VN.

2 Yaoi Visual Novel Studios, All Praise!

ChaniMK is a Visual Novel studio that seems to be mostly BL, but they've started some GL leaks in social media.  They started releasing titles on Steam in 2022, and I love them.  I've played through two of their VNs so far, and went and bought everything else they've released on Steam so far.  No sexy times, but the boys kissing are so sweet and cute.  I'm digging it!  They've previewed art for GL VNs and I intend to buy all of those too, because their writing is totally my jam!

3 Yuri Visual Novel Studios, 1 Comparison Review

On Steam, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of visual novels.  Most of them are heterosexual male fantasies.  Some of them are heterosexual female fantasies.  Even fewer are LGBTQ+.  My favorites to read are girls kissing girls.  I've started to get back into boys kissing boys too, but we're talking lesbians in this blog entry.  I've been searching extensively for more lesbian and sapphic romance visual novels.  Many VN studios do the occasional one off girls love story.  You have to dig to find it.  But three studios have stood out to me for producing multiple lesbian and sapphic romance visual novels.  I've sampled all three's works, and here's what I have to say on each of them.

Dharker Studio is a long standing VN studio that focuses on heterosexual male fantasies, but has 27 LGBTQ+ tagged games in their library.  Their oldest VNs go back to 2015, and one of their most famous series, is a lesbian VN series starting with Negligee.  So I bought Negligee and started reading it.  The artwork was very nice, but I hated the writing.  It wasn't funny, it wasn't sexy, it was just dry.  So dry, I got bored before finishing my first playthrough, and I returned it.  After an hour and a half of reading, I wasn't invested in the characters at all.  It felt like they had no emotion, and were just sexy robots with nice art, trying to imitate human life.  I would have PREFERRED if they were robots trying to imitate human life.  So yeah, gonna pass on Dharker Studios from now on.

Winged Cloud, the Sakura Visual Novels

 

Winged Cloud is a developer and publisher of the Sakura visual novel series.  They've been releasing hentai visual novels since 2014.  They usually cost $10 and take about 4 hours to read.  Most of the older ones are one-shots like Sakura Cupid and Sakura Angels, but a few stories have multiple sequels, like Sakura Succubus, which never seems to end. They've explored other genres, with Sakura Clicker and Sakura Dungeon, which are a clicker and a dungeon respectively, but most of them are tasty little lewd short stories that end in a happy threesome if you choose the right options.

I'm not reviewing them all individually because in 8 years they've published 41 titles to Steam, and they're all for the most part the same in concept.  You're in a scenario with 2 girls, and you end up with one, the other, or both!  They're all pretty harmless, trashy and fun!  Definitely not for kids.  You only see the sex if you add the free 18+ patch, but the art is lewd regardless.  I'd share a screenshot, but no.  Just trust me, or go on Steam and see for yourself.

I understand some Sakura visual novels are showing up on the Nintendo E-Shop.  I am not going to repurchase VNs I already own to see if they're any different there, but it's safe to assume they're not appropriate for children there either.  But if you're an adult who wants some lewd, romantic trash, enjoy!

NekoPara: Volumes 0 through 4, and the Anime

 

NekoPara is an IP that started as a visual novel series, blew up with merchandise, and eventually got an anime adaptation.  I've been following NekoPara for years.  It is incredibly rare for a hentai series to become this popular, but the cast of characters is incredibly lovable.