Mou Yamete!

Hemisphere May 14th, 2008

Bondage in eroge is commonly presented within a sexual context, something that is different from how people with real-life BDSM would indulge in the act. While the focus on bondage stemming from BDSM would be to simply indulge in the act of bondage for its own sake - something that is rather masturbatory in nature - bondage in eroge is and has always been (mostly) related to sexual activity in which the act of restraining one’s partner (usually the heroine) acts as something similar to foreplay or as a means of increasing the sexual excitement of both the main character and the heroine involved.

As to why bondage is included in eroges as well as present in certain scenes, well, that’s what I’ll be trying to tackle in this NSFW entry. So read on if you’re interested, and hopefully you and I might just get something out of this aside from the kinky images featured way down below.

You may probably know this by know, but bondage isn’t just restricted to having a heroine all tied up in ropes. Blame the Japanese rope bondage that’s usually present in every doujinshi, eromanga, eroanime, and eroge whenever there’s bondage involved for that - but hey, at least they’re pretty. Basically, as long as it involves someone being retrained or tied up in order to indulge one’s fetish, then it’s pretty much bondage. There are several types of bondages involved, though, and Wipipedia lists them as such:

• Bondage that pulls parts of the body together (rope, chains, straps, harnesses)
• Bondage that spreads parts of the body apart (spreader bars, St Andrews cross)
• Bondage that ties the body down to another object (such as chairs or stocks)
• Bondage that suspends the body from another object (suspension bondage)
• Bondage that restricts normal movement (hobble skirts, handcuffs, human pony *harness)
• Bondage that wraps the whole body or a part of it in plastic (saran) wrap (clingfilm, mummification, gaffer tape)
• Bondage that provides a confined, inescapable space (cages, cells)

I think I can safely say that I’ve seen all of these types of bondage in various eroges, save for the whole “body wrap” bondage.
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Tags: NSFW

• Ero , Eroge
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Hemisphere May 11th, 2008

This post can also be alternatively titled as “WTF GUNGHO, WHERE IS MY ENGLISH BETA ECONLINE”. Cause god knows I’ve been looking out for it for such a looooooooooooong time. Quite long, in fact, that I’ve almost forgotten all about it - if it weren’t for a conversation I had with oneechan about MMOGs!

Emil Chronicle Online, or as we like to call it, ECO/ECOnline is an MMORPG created by Headlock and published by GungHo, made available to the public on November 24, 2005. Some basic details about the game can be found in my older post on ECO, in case you want to know how the gameplay is as well as some other stuff. It’s not like it’s vital or anything, since all you really need to know is this: the game is as much a grindfest as any other MMORPGs, but strangely enough the cuteness of it all makes the fun really help keep your mind away from the tediousness of grinding. Especially when you’re being used as a sword/spear/shield/locket/sailor fuku by other people!

ECO is basically a moe MMORPG, no ifs and buts. Not that there’s anything bad about the whole thing, as I rather loved the whole cuteness of the game. I totally loved it to death, which explains why I was able to drive a character up to Lv. 32 back then (35 was the cap in the Saga 0 beta, or was it when they put in Saga 1?), then delete her (one of the biggest regrets alongside my other regrets in life) and replace her with a Scout while powerlevelling my Merchant. As well as add a second account and put in a Shaman character along with a Vates ones, which added up to five characters created during my time spent in the ECO open beta. Ahh, good times. I HAVE NO REGRETS (well okay, there’s the whole wiping out Ailysse thing…)!

Now the game is hitting Saga 8, which means that there’s a lot of new content and stuff that I don’t know about. Luckily for me, Hisui has pictures of her escapades in ECO all the way up to Saga 6! Hisui is Celtic Midori’s character, the person who pretty much started all the talk about ECO in this old message board that I used to frequent. Celtic Midori’s also the guy I managed to meet up with, the other being Mirufii…shit, I think I forgot her name. I’m pretty sure it was Mirufii though. I’M SORRY, I FORGOT YOUR NAME DESPITE YOUR VATES HYOUEI-ING INTO MY EQUIPMENT! I REALLY AM! Anyways, if you want to see how ECO’s been doing since the open beta, then scroll down and check out the pictures after the cut!

Dear lord, I’m getting all nostalgic over this game again. I’m not really a big fan of MMORPGs because of all the dickwaving that I have to put up with them, but I’m glad that there was nothing of the sort in ECO. Just fun fun times that included me possessing a friend’s shield and having my DEF stat complement his awesome armor to make her nigh-imvincible - well, that was until we tried out the Ice Cave and ended up getting promptly raped hard by the enemies that looked like Death. Or other similar events of the sort. Maybe it was the Japanese community, or maybe it was in the nature of the game - who knows? I definitely don’t, since I’m not up-to-date with it anymore. >w<

EDIT: Added Hisui’s farewell video to jECO.
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Tags: Emil Chronicle Online, Games, MMOs

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Hemisphere May 11th, 2008

At least late is always a much better option than never. Don’t try this excuse on your teachers though, because it’s never going to work on them.

If you look on the sidebar (this is your cue to not try and do so, because you wont be able to see it) while you’re on the main page, you’ll see a small window below the About section. It’s housing my Supporteil from Gust! Yeah, I’m finally able to put her on display for everyone to see, unlike in my previous blog. Pardon the lack of Hymmnos, if you will, but that’s because me and Kaede over there had a little fight when I was just starting out, and apparently pissing off your Supporteil wasn’t such a good idea. But that’s okay! Now we’re all raburabu!

I just have to mix and match a few more items before I can give Kaede more Hymmnos to sing…which sucks, because the time it takes for you to combine items takes around 9 hours each. Blah. Lucky for me I spent the last months sending Kaede out in various places, which takes up quite some time and ends with your Supporteil giving you a report of what items she found while she was on her journey. Of course you’d still need to make your Supporteil strong enough to not get knocked out by enemies that she encounters while roaming around (and unlike in eroges, no there won’t be a depraved tentacle punishment scene). Which was the reason why I boosted Kaede’s ability to use song magic to the max (100).

Now her “sensitiveness” ability is rather fucked up the bum (read: 0), which is what affects your chance of making items depending on the degree of difficulty. Kaede’s base chance is 55 even though she has 0 stats in that area simply because I boosted her raburabu with me to the max (1000 exp!) and reached up to her Cosmosphere 10. Unlike Ar tonelico though, there’s no fun Cosmosphere to dive into or crazy hijinks and wacky dialogue to really keep you hooked and entertained, but the promise of a Supporteil on your site who can sing various Hymmnos and change her costume according to your preferences is nice enough! Plus, there’s also the Supporteil community, but don’t ask me about that.

I based Kaede on Luca Truelywaath’s personality, since I had just finished Luca’s route in AT2 then. Hence the goofy, airhead look. You can pick from a variety of personalities as well as body types, so it’s up to you to mix and match what you think is best for your own Supporteil! And if you’re interested in grabbing one for yourself, you can go to the Supporteil page and apply! If you have your own site, you can go and get the full Supporteil, while those without a site can go with Supporteil Lite. A small guide on how to file for your own Supporteil can be found here, just scroll down to the comments. Now to give Kaede more Hymmnos songs and costumes! I’m still trying to unlock that god damned miko outfit for her, plus EXEC=SUSPEND/. and EXEC_RE=NATION/. aren’t enough Hymmnos. I wish I knew what items made up EXEC_CHRONICLE_KEY/., EXEC_PURGER/.#Misha extracting, ECEC_LINKCA/., EXEC_RIG=VEDA/., EXEC_PHANTASMAGORIA/., EXEC_METAFALICA/., EXEC_VIENA/., EXEC_SPHILIA/., EXEC_DESPEDIA/., EXEC_HARMONIUS_FUSION/., METHOD_METAFALICA/., METHOD_IMPLANTA/., METHOD_REPLEKIA/., and EXEC_with.METHOD_METAFALICA/.!

Tags: Fun

• Fun , General
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Hemisphere May 9th, 2008

Hmm. Wasn’t expecting myself to be finished with Rin’s route this fast, but ah well. Gives me more reason to try out the other routes!

I was right in saying that Gouen no Soleil was a pretty short game. After loading up my previous save, I played with the game for a while to see just how far I could go before I got sleepy, only for me to realize that before I knew it, I already finished it! Took me around five hours to get to the ending so it’s not that short, but it still depends on how good you are at reading Japanese. I wasn’t really expecting it to end that fast since I was thinking that it’d have roughly the same number of episodes as Shirogane no Soleil, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

The events leading up to the final battle were rather reminiscent of Shirogane no Soleil. There were definitely a lot of parallelisms that’s identifiable between the two games, which made it quite hard for me to enjoy the scenes when they were so similar with Shirogane. Seriously speaking, all you had to do was replace Rin with Sol, Nagare with Ryuhei, Ouka with Hagaru, Hagen with Haruka, Renjuurou with Mutsugi, and you pretty much have the final scenes of Shirogane no Soleil. Or the other way around, if you already know of Shirogane but not Gouen no Soleil. It’s reminiscent in the same manner that Seinarukana’s final battle somehow parallels the one in Eien no Aseria, but in Seinarukana that game it was a bit different because of the stakes involved as well as the gravity and scope of the whole event. Not so with Gouen no Soleil, as it was pretty much identical.

I did find the game to be somewhat fun, but mostly because of the characters. There were certain scenes that I just ended up loving because they were hilarious, like the ones involving the “Three Baka Einherjars”, or the ones wherein RIn and Ouka fight over Nagare. I loved the way each of their personalities were so dynamic and lively! But as a whole, Rin’s route was rather lackluster, lacking any real punch to make it stand out for me. It’s decent I suppose if you’re new to the Soleil series, but underwhelming if you’re not. Giving the player the option to skip card battles was a rather handy feature though, and one that I’m going to definitely abuse once I go play the other routes.

I’ll have more to say on Gouen no Soleil once I finish the other routes and come out with a final review on it - till then!

Tags: Eroge, Gouen no Soleil

• Eroge , Initial Thoughts
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Hemisphere May 8th, 2008

What makes for a good ero scene in an eroge? The presence of sexual content in eroges doesn’t mean that it has to be viewed as distinctly separate from the rest of the available content. Much like any medium that makes use of storytelling, ero scenes also have to follow the standard rules of any piece of fiction - that is, aside from having to make fucking sense (most of the time), the fucking would also have to make sense.

Eroges have ero in varying degrees, though they vary in abundance as well as in execution. Some eroges handle the transition to an ero scene quite nicely; they are able to slowly build up and gradually move into the mood that would lead up to the inevitable eventual sex scene. A good ero scene would be something that’s entertaining (or not, if you’re a 12-year old catholic home-schooled boy riddled with religious guilt) even if you know beforehand that such a scene is coming simply because it just fits in so well. They tend to give me a sense of smug satisfaction - smug from having my predicting validated, and satisfaction from the overall feel of how the scene connects with the rest of the story. The not-so-good ones, on the other, would instead jump into the sex scene, letting the characters indulge themselves in the act for the moment until it ends and they return to the narrative. It’s as if the characters have differentiated identities and roles, with them sticking to their main role for the most part until it’s time to hit the hay with the girls; suddenly, they’re an entirely different person. It’s about as abrupt and shocking as finding out that your date was actually a serial rapist when the two of you are already in your bedroom, and you’ve just locked the door.

The former is good because it hardly breaks the feel and flow of the story. It remains loyal to the story’s core, and presents the sex as a development or progression with regards to the characters or to the plot. The latter, however, tends to leave me uncomfortable and displeased. Not only does the sex scene not fit in well given the lack of proper transition or buildup, it also leaves me with the feeling that the sex scene is something that could work better as an extra - which is not how it should be. Just because eroge contains ero doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to serve up that ero as a side dish - hell no. It’s part of the main course and should be served accordingly, meaning that it has to fit in with everything else.
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Tags: NSFW

• Ero , Eroge
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Hemisphere May 5th, 2008

After finishing both Boy Meets Girl and 11eyes, I tried out Gouen no Soleil. That was….yesterday, I think, when I had nothing left to do and was merely basking in the feeling that I get after finishing an eroge. You know, that feeling that you get when you’re content and just relaxed all over because there’s no more need to try and finish a game because you’ve done it, while at the same time wondering to yourself what comes next.

My, how time flies. Either Gouen no Soleil is quite a very short game, or I’m so much into the game that I’m unable to keep track of the time I’m spending on it, or it’s quite a short game and I’m unable to take note of the time I’ve spent playing it at the same time. Oh, no wait. I’m five hours into the game and already I’m in Chapter 6, or so my save data says.

Unlike Shirogane no Soleil, Gouen no Soleil just doesn’t give me that same epic feel that the previous title had - or maybe that’s because I’m still in the part of the story where the shit has yet to hit the fan. Looking forward to when that happens. I have to say, Nanashiki Rin is just fucking adorable - especially when her eyes go kirakira. If Sol Valkyr’s appeal was in her tsundere personality, then Rin’s winning formula is her childish naivete and her complete overconfidence in herself. Her ginormous ego, if you will. She does go tsundere on Nagare, but not as much as Sol did with Ryuhei in Shirogane no Soleil. Rokushiki Ouka’s character is reminiscent of Asanami Miori from Shirogane no Soleil, but only if Miori ever became Ryuhei’s Valkyr. She’s the token tsundere, and just like Miori, she tends to start talking to herself whenever she gets flustered or distracted. Which is hilarious and cute at the same time.

The game is pretty good, and I like the humor that’s so abundantly present. I especially loved the whole Valhalla scene with Grimgelde’s three baka Einherjars getting slaughtered by both Ouka and Rin. Same goes for the scenes that include Grimgelde and Helmvigge pitted against Rin and Ouka whenever they’re fighting over Nagare. Very reminiscent of the whole Shirogane no Soleil catfights that the heroines often have over Ryuhei, though at least in Ryuhei’s case, half of his harem didn’t have to think twice whenever it came to keeping him alive or not. See, since Grimgelde and Helmvigge are Valkyries, they can only contract to a person and have him/her become their Einherjar only when that person dies. Hency why both of them always have to stop and think as to whether or not to help Nagare whenever he comes close to certain death, because it’d actually work to their advantage if Nagare died cause then he can become their Einherjar. Which leads to both Rin and Ouka getting pissed off at the two Valkyries, because their Master dying on them would greatly, absolutely, definitely suck donkey balls.

Only thing I hate about the game right now would be how the dynamic action and fight sequences are stripped out of the game in exchange for the card battle portions, as if it’s supposed to make up for all of it. Even Seinarukana, Daibanchou and Sengoku Rance, with their combat systems, didn’t go as far as to cut out most of the fighting action. In those games, you’d still get some semblance of action as the fight scene “dwindled” down after your win, or see how the fight continues to drag on, depending on how the story goes. But in Gouen no Soleil’s case there’s nothing of the sort. Just an “okay, you won, here’s what happens next” scene that gives me the same feeling that I get from battle result screens that you see in RPGs, and it tends to cut down on the transition from the action to the story as well as put a damper to the whole feel of the moment.

Anyways, 7:30AM and I’ve been awake for god knows how long. Will be playing this game more once I get enough rest. For now, I’m out - Hemi-tan, sleeping!

Tags: Eroge, Gouen no Soleil

• Eroge , Initial Thoughts
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Hemisphere May 4th, 2008

I was browsing Getchu’s monthly releases page in an attempt to take note of the titles that would be coming out this month (take a look at the sidebar in case you want to know why I was doing that) up to July. I noted a few familiar titles and companies here and there along with some new ones, and I took note of the ones that seemed fairly interesting and relevant to my interests.

Then I stumbled upon a familiar title: 昇龍戦姫　天夢. My brain stopped for a moment as I tried to process the sense of familiarity that struck me soon after, and then I realized just why it was so familiar as soon as I saw the company: LiLiM. It resembled one of their previous titles: 鳳凰戦姫　舞夢, a 2006 release! Suddenly I was looking forward to this game’s release even though I hadn’t even played the previous title, or the somewhat-related game 女神大戦 (Megami Taisen).

See, the thing as to why my brain went into “MUST HAVE” mode is simple, aside from knowing that Aoba Ringo is voicing Seiryu Tenmu, the lead heroine, and that I have a thing for pink-haired heroines. Sure, I like gameplay and story in my eroge, and even more so if either of the two are near-awesomeness or beyond epic levels. See games like Sengoku Rance, Daibanchou, Seinarukana, Pastel Chime Continue, and such. But just like other eroge players, I have a fetish that instantly overrides any and all initial judgments that I can subject a title to based on the worth of it’s story/gameplay/characters. Nargrakhan of Eroge Review has his twincest fetish, and Oniichan has his loli and futanari fetish; me, I have my henshin heroine one.

It’s pretty much a guaranteed fact. As long as you put a heroine who can henshin and wear battle fuku that’s nowhere near the usual getup used in sentai shows, as well as wield and use weapons, then you can rest assured that Hemi-tan will emit a cry of alarm as Hemi-tan passes by it and return with dreamy, glazed over, lovestruck eyes. Never mind the fact that Hemi-tan sounds so oddly similar to Aoba Ringo, it’s just a coincidence. As for why it’s so appealing for me? Well, it sounds kind of like cosplay, only it’s not as their battle wear actually serves a purpose other than just for show. And I like it like that.

This is also part of the reason why, even though it’s really not that great a game, Chouko Sennin Haruka is still one of my favorites. I’m sorry, but the Sennin heroines are just too awesome. I like their getup and their weapons too much for me to just put the game aside. Same with Seinarukana, though in that game I went crazy over Ikaruga Satsuki-senpai as she was one of the heroines who had to henshin into her battle clothes. Narukana-sama was permanently in her battle clothes, no need to henshin, and she was her own weapon, but that didn’t mean that I liked her less! And yes, this also includes Triangle’s Mahou Senshi series, from Mahou Senshi Sweet Knights 1 to Sakuretsu Sweet Fight up to Sacred Ground, the aforementioned Megami Taisen, and also Suisei Tenshi Prima Veil. I haven’t played those titles yet, but I have seen the CGs, and I was quite…taken with them.

Bishoujo henshin heroines makes Hemi-tan very very happy!

Tags: Eroge

• Eroge
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Hemisphere May 3rd, 2008

Introducing…Pastel Chime Continue! Another title from the crazy but awesome folks over at AliceSoft. It’s not really a new title, so if you think it is, then you’re way off the mark. It’s a pretty fun game, though!

I think I already mentioned it sometime ago, but I was able to finish both Rina Rindou’s and Saika Farneze’s routes in Pastel Chime Continue, as opposed to before when I only completed Rina’s route without any idea of what happened. Obviously, the experience this time around was much, much better than my first playthrough. The first time I played this title, I was running around like a clueless fuckwit without any idea of what the skills, items, weapons, armor, and spells did, much less when to take the exams and how to end up with a girl. The fact that I manage to go into Rina’s route was quite something, even if I was just fumbling and clicking through all the crazy Japanese.

Personally, I like both endings equally. Each have their own merits and appeal which made me like them on their own terms, just like with Hibarigaoka Yuki’s and Nakanoshima Tae’s endings in Braban!, or with Asakura Nanao’s and Takami Rin’s in Lyrical Lyric. In Rina’s ending, it was about her and Yuki coming to terms with their past, while Saika’s involved her role as a Farneze and how Yuki fits into the whole thing. Rina’s route was much longer, but that’s probably because of the whole “backtracking” that they have to do before they take on the final boss, which was absent from Saika’s route simply because the situation didn’t progress that far.

Pastel Chime Continue plays quite differently from other AliceSoft games in that its focus isn’t on conquering countries and continents, but on dungeon exploration instead. Hence why the story unfolds in an academy for adventurers and why the game has you trekking through dungeons and whatnot in your bid to become a good enough adventurer in order to pass the course, graduate and become an official adventurer worthy of your father’s legacy. Or, in Yuuki’s case, his (supposedly) deceased father’s legacy.

The whole dungeon exploring portion of the game, including the combat, is quite outdated (the word that initially came to mind was “fucking ancient”, but hey, outdated also works). Once you play it, you’ll see what I mean. But much like Ar tonelico and its piss-easy combat system, the true gem of the game lies not in its combat and dungeon exploration but in the interactions with the cast and heroines. In Ar tonelico’s case, you have awesome item-creation which adds more interaction between you and the heroines aside from the Cosmosphere dives; in Pastel Chime Continue, you’re given the choice of meeting up with a girl for an event, along with a potential increase in the relationship between you two if you have all her hearts filled up after every dungeon crawling session. The events are very much worth it, and it’s what motivates me to go through the whole dungeon crawling portion looking out for and gathering hearts for the same reason that I put up with Ar tonelico’s combat system while gathering a fuckton of items and DP just for the sake of making items and diving into cosmospheres with my favorite Misha-sama Reyvtails.

Now all that’s left is for me to complete Chroche’s and Jakuri’s Phil’s and Lucy’s routes!

Tags: Eroge, Pastel Chime Continue

• Eroge , Initial Thoughts
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Hemisphere May 2nd, 2008

I was thinking of doing a post like this for quite some time now, but I just never got around to it - until now!

Back then I wasn’t really paying attention to seiyuus in eroges, much less notice who they were, who did what roles and how their performances were. That was until I played through one particular title and was left mesmerized and blown away by a character’s performance that I just had to find out who voiced her, as well as what this seiyuu’s other roles were. As to who that character is…well, you’ll see just who it is later in the entry.

So after familiarizing myself with the seiyuus who are working in the industry, I’ve come up with a list of my favorite seiyuus based on their performance that I’ve encountered!

Technically, this list isn’t in order of preference…or at least it shouldn’t. But the urge to do so is just so hard to avoid!

Anyways…first name on the list!
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Tags: Eroge, Seiyuu

• Eroge , Fun
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Hemisphere April 30th, 2008

If you’re like me and have been waiting to see just how Natsuzora Kanata might turn out, then speculate no more. Yuzusoft just released the trial version of Natsuzora Kanata, and it’s available on the download page! Similarly, you can go here if you’re interested in the game and want to see what the fuss is all about.

The download size of the RAR file is around 360MB, and totals to 382MB after decompression. Overall, it’s a pretty short demo, but it does its job of making me look forward to Natsuzora Kanata’s release in the hopes of enjoying another great release from Yuzusoft. In fact, I’d say that it did its job too well. Now I’m really anticipating this one when it comes out on May 23!

The trial begins on December 4, with the protagonist Asakura Sato on a boat that’s heading to the “Island of Eternal Summer”. It’s been a year since his last visit, and the purpose of his visit is to help out his relatives who are managing a small hotel in the island known as Pension. Upon disembarking, he’s greeted by his cousins Miyoshi Yuiko and Futaba, along with his friend Rokkaku Goro, and starts working for Miyoshi Miho, Pension’s owner and Sato’s aunt, once he arrives at the place. A few days later, Sato is called upon by Goro to help out with the preparations for the island’s festival where he catches a glimpse of a strange beautiful long-haired girl. Later in the actual festival, Sato goes together with Yuiko, Goro and Futaba but ends up being separated from them. While searching for them, he runs into Shouhei Hashiba, a cafe owner whose nickname is Master, and after they separate, Sato sees Master talking with a beautiful girl and her father.

He runs into the same girl later on after he decides to pay Master’s shop a visit, and she introduces herself as Chihaya Kousaka. She’s looking for a a present to give her father in the hopes of cheering him up, and Sato volunteers to help out in coming up with ideas. He starts visiting Chihaya while he’s not busy with his duties in the Pension in order to help her out more, but this just causes Miho to wonder as to why Sato is doing so - not that she’s doing anything to stop him. In fact, she starts encouraging him to take his breaks, though not without teasing him. Sato manages to convince Chihaya that giving her father something handmade might just lift her father’s feelings, and after some suggestions she decides to try her hand at cooking, despite not knowing anything about it in the first place. Cue above photo for an accurate depiction of just how much kitchen knowledge Chihaya roughly has, just how hard I laughed my ass off when it came up, and just how close I nearly succumbed to a fatal moe-induced stroke.
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Tags: Eroge, Natsuzora Kanata

• Eroge , Title Previews
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