Best douijin games?

[Tupin]

Are there any good doujin soft games out there, modern or retro? A lot of them seem to be visual novels, but are there any of other genres? Obviously Cave Story and Touhou, but I'm looking for something different.

By the way, here's a game where all of the characters except you are birds:
http://hardcoregaming101.net/hatoful/hatoful.htm

[Gameguy]

So you mean homebrew or self published games? For actual Japanese PC douijin games I believe Maxlords bought a ton of them awhile back, maybe he could post some titles.

[Beefy Hits]

Not familiar with this genre of game. Enlighten me. Do you mean visual novels like the Silent Hill game that came out on the PSP?

[G-Boobie]

Not familiar with this genre of game. Enlighten me. Do you mean visual novels like the Silent Hill game that came out on the PSP?

Nope: doujin means something along the line of "homebrew" in Japan: doujin manga is HUGE and there's a pretty big scene for doujin games as well. Any game labeled "doujin soft" essentially means PC homebrew from Japan, usually coded as hobby projects in bedrooms by a few guys. Most of the weird eroge stuff qualifies, even if it's on sale in stores.

It should be noted that a disturbing amount of doujin content, games, manga, animation, whatever, involves humping, often with tentacles or the cast of Gundam or Evangelion. This can be explained as "Japanese Otaku Culture".

Sometimes a doujin game or franchise can end up becoming something more: Melty Blood (actually, most if not all the Fate/Night stuff) and the Touhou games are examples of this.

[Dr. BaconStein]

The only ones I ever really played are the Touhou games... I really love TH04: Lotus Land Story for the PC-98. It has a kind of retro feel to it (probably because it's old), and it's one of the few Touhou games I don't suck at as much. I've also tried New Super Marisa Land (spin-off/non-ZUN game) but it's kind of a pain. Like Mario in jerk mode.

I have taken a look at some of the doujin platformers such as MegaMari, RosenkreuzStillete, and Bunny Must Die. They all look very brutal to me.

[Loremaster]

The only ones I ever really played are the Touhou games... I really love TH04: Lotus Land Story for the PC-98. It has a kind of retro feel to it (probably because it's old), and it's one of the few Touhou games I don't suck at as much. I've also tried New Super Marisa Land (spin-off/non-ZUN game) but it's kind of a pain. Like Mario in jerk mode.

I have taken a look at some of the doujin platformers such as MegaMari, RosenkreuzStillete, and Bunny Must Die. They all look very brutal to me.

Prettymuch any games based on Touhou are going to have brutal difficulty, since that is what Touhou is famous for.

There are quite a few good Doujin games out there, but trying to sift through all the pornographic ones quickly becomes a headache. I once tried to flip through a few when I was in Japan with my GF... second title I pulled was definitely not for minors. A great deal of the more well-known ones are pornographic visual novels, but real gems are waiting to be discovered.

This site has overview articles of quite a few decent titles. (http://hardcoregaming101.net/alpha.htm#doujin) I believe there is a version of Trouble Witches available on XBLA.

I think Retrogamer did an article on the subject of retro Doujin games, though they sure made it out to be a hell of a headache. Unfortunately, it seems like at least half the communities they talked about in that article have collapsed or died off, otherwise that would be a great resource. Beyond that, I'm currently drawing a blank on resources you could draw upon for info.

[Jorpho]

Chantelise and Recettear are available on Steam now, completely in English.
http://hardcoregaming101.net/chantelise/chantelise.htm
http://hardcoregaming101.net/recettear/recettear.htm

[Icarus Moonsight]

Cho Ren Sha 68K
Also, Warning Forever

I'd have to look to get some more titles... Expect another post later for a list update.

[Cryomancer]

I was incredibly surprised at the quality of the game "Wanda the Pink Horse" which is probably not an accurate translation of the title. It's a Wonder Momo side scroller:

http://www.dlsite.com/maniax/work/=/product_id/RJ082148.html

Note that it does have incredibly minor nudity when she comes out of her transformation. Some of the voice clips get annoying, but other than that it's a really fun game. The same creator also made a couple of brawlers starring Tifa with a bit more nudity to them that are also pretty decent games.

[Jorpho]

Yes, Tifatan X and Tifatan X2, also listed at HG101.
http://hardcoregaming101.net/tifatan/tifatan.htm

[Loremaster]

I was incredibly surprised at the quality of the game "Wanda the Pink Horse" which is probably not an accurate translation of the title. It's a Wonder Momo side scroller:

http://www.dlsite.com/maniax/work/=/product_id/RJ082148.html

Note that it does have incredibly minor nudity when she comes out of her transformation. Some of the voice clips get annoying, but other than that it's a really fun game. The same creator also made a couple of brawlers starring Tifa with a bit more nudity to them that are also pretty decent games.

Ah, dlsite! I'd forgotten about that place! Much nicer now that they separated out all the adult stuff onto a separate site. IIRC, there's a fairly good Touhou/Castlevania mashup available on there.

[StealthLurker]

Crimson Clover (Cave-like shmup)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYslrFD1tDU

Gunhound (like Cybernator/Assault Suits Valken)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWp52pMxc_w

Gigantic Army (like Cybernator/Assault Suits Valken, Target Earth, etc...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j93mNOSPCg

Umineko (2D Guilty Gear-like vs fighting)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07JtBrAHhq0&feature=related

Koumajou Densetsu 2 (like Castlevania Symphony of the Night, much better than part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL9TVGfN8WY

Kamui (like Layer Section/Galactic Attack/Rayforce)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpOr5VZQTSk&feature=related

Buster (16bit style action platformer... very nice)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6qy99S-MqE

Trouble Witches (hori shooter similar to Cotton. New version released on Xbox Live Arcade)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndYELJ2nfZo

There are quite a few. You might even consider the world of Korean PC games.... much harder to find though. I actually collect the physical copies of these games too.

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