So around a year ago I made a page to list VN saves because a few people had asked for them and I figured why not if I had them anyway. That list has become something of a mess and I decided to reorganize it a bit and then a thought hit me, do people who visit here have any idea what the title names mean? Yuri and yaoi, I figure most fans know well enough. But do people know what the difference between moege, charage, or plotge are? At the same time I’ll point out a few of the common traits of the genres.
Note- The -ge at the end of a bunch of these translates into game. So moege is a moe game, literally.
First is nukige, because as far as I know, nukige is the start of all VN’s. Nukige’s are sex games, where the entire point is seeing porn. If a game starts with a sex scene, it’s probably a nukige. If about 50% of the game is sex, then nukige. If the summary is basically a list of fetishes, nukige. While nukige can have decent stories(Kyonyuu Fantasy is an example of one with a decent plot, though euphoria is the more popular one), those stories are still mostly about sex happening. There’s a lot of variety in nukiges, as many as fetishes that exist. Personally, I’m only going to play vanilla nukige that interest me. If I want NTR or rape, I’ll play an RPG. Not sure if I’ll further organize the nukiges beyond just lumping them together. I guess if I play enough of a specific genre I’ll split those into there own group.
The most confusing split for visual novels in general genre wise is the split between charage and moege. Both are at their core, the same idea. Guy has 2+ love interests he can pursue, but the contents of their routes vary drastically between charage and moege. I’m not an expert on the difference, but essentially a moege is a story with light drama, where dating, sex, and the relationship is the core of the writing(aka cute girls be cute with blank stand in main character next to them). The route will usually have the couple form around halfway or earlier in the route and most of the rest of the story will just be them being romantic or having sex. A lot of moege can feel only a step away from nukige once you enter the later parts of the route. A good example is Furureba -Friends to Lovers-, where dating is the entire goal of the story. Drama exists, but only in the background. On the other hand, a charage will have the relationship form usually near the end of the route, after everything is mostly tied up. If the relationship is formed earlier, usually it will have a lot of problems and move far slower then a moege’s couple. Charage are about character drama and focus far more on the girls as people with drama and issues in their lives then just as people to date. Usually I use the when they start dating test to divide the two, but honestly it’s really up to the reader which is which. Most people would call Hoshizora no Memoria a moege because of the art style, but the plot reads way more like a charage with most routes only having the relationship start near the end and not a single real date with a heroine in a majority of the routes. It’s core is drama, so it’s a charage as far as I’m concerned. For those who want nakige(crying game, aka a sad romantic vn), I’m throwing those under whichever they fit better of the above, since nakige is mostly just a more extreme version of charage or a sad ending moege. If I somehow end up with a lot of them they’ll get their own heading, but honestly theirs not a lot of actual nakiges nowadays.
Plotge is next, and these are similar in setup to moege and charage. One hero, several people who can be love interests. They aren’t usually the focus here though, instead the focus is entirely on the plot of the world and romance is only a lens to explore some facets of that plot. Usually these will have each heroine’s past/powers tie into whatever conspiracy is occurring, or the heroines won’t actually have routes but side events to the story. Kara no Shoujo is like this, with the proper ending being basically the same, just with three different girls you can end up with in the last shot. Ever17, 999, and Stein’s Gate are good non porn examples of this type.
I’m also going to be separating short 1 to 2 heroine things and episodic from the above categories. Episodic because people should know if a title set is that or not, and short games because I want to keep them separate from full length titles, except some short nukige will still go under nukige. Also, those short Nekopara clones like NekoMiko will be under this grouping.
Then you have otome. Otome(girl/maiden) are games for girls where essentially you flip the standard male formula’s around. You are now the perfect girl and all the guys will fall for your generic niceness and cuteness because… no other girl in these overly attractive and successful males lives was a good person or plucky enough to stand up to the jerkass? Seriously the biggest change from moege/charage to otome is your character has gained attractive as a trait, and usually is even more passive then a doormat. Somehow you are the one being chased by the suitor’s despite having full control over who wins and not really pursing any of them in story on purpose. It’s weird. Anyway, otome games tend to have plotge style setups, with the guys having real jobs and being in their 20+ and the stories have actual big things happening(setups I wish more charage and VN’s in general would adopt). And you, the weakest and most vulnerable person in the cast will walk into every dangerous situation in a 10 mile radius without any form of protection. At least the ones in the west are like that, though when it comes to 18+ otome there’s not much to talk about. I’ve heard a lot of it is very rapey, but there’s only like two in English so I don’t want to judge all the 18+ stuff on just two titles. Both of which are kinda rapey if I think about it…
Then there’s yuri and yaoi. All female or all male games where dominant and submissive is taken very seriously, to a point that I often find it uncomfortable. I enjoy romance at it’s core, so I’ll read most things, but strangely few yuri(often considered the fluffiest genre) or yaoi games feel romantic to me. Sonohana, the biggest name in yuri, basically has each new couple start with what can easily be considered a rape scene, or forced consent at best. Then each game is just a girl obsessed with sex basically forcing it on their partner for the rest of the “story”. Yaoi isn’t much better, with the few I’ve read having fairly rapey or overly controlling relationships, way more then anything I’d see in any other genre. Another odd trait of yuri game’s is their focus on preset couples over choosing routes, with most yuri games either not having routes at all, or having routes that just change the establish relationship slightly. Rarely you’ll get to choose between two girls, but usually it’s a preset game with several couples to read about with no control from the player. Yaoi though, is much more traditional. A lot of them just feel like gender bent otome games, even the forcefulness of the guys and the submissive MC are basically the same.
Finally I’m separating English original because I at the very least don’t consider them to be at the same level as most Japanese stuff. It’s not really looking down at the work of the people in my country, it’s more I hate the writing styles and stereotypes my country has in it’s writing. Alpha bitch being the biggest offender for stereotypes, but really I just don’t care for a lot of English works styles. They either copy hard, or focus to much on PC style stories for me to be interested.
english h-rpgs 