VN of the Year 1998 - luv wave

Year 1998 has become a year of hope for me. After very devastating transition year 1997 there are so many joys and wonderful games at last. Running a bit ahead, there is a 50% increase both in total number of games and in number of listed games resulting in the record number of masterpieces this year.
Let's prolong the chart.
VN per year
YearTotalListedBlocked
199175

199280
1993121

1994155

1995180

1996183

1997202

1998303



The split is exactly the same featuring 50/50 eroge and galge market and 50% galge market with some additional titles blocked for other than eroge reasons. But look at the numbers, there is a 50% increase in every number compared to 1997. Finally industry got out of slump and gains momentum.

Let's see what year 1998 brought:
  • The complete shift to Win95-98 platform resulted in dramatic increase in resolution and colors with most works having 256 colors and some reaching 16 bit colors.
  • With dating SIM dominance substantial shift to pure love stories the number of heroines decreases significantly to just 4-5 and in some cases to just two as in With You ~Mitsumete Itai~ or even one as in DiaboLiQuE without decreasing the volume.
  • There is a significant number of works where hero is already in relations with the main heroine, but has an option to cheat on her. The starter of that tendency is White Album.
  • There is a surprising influx of mahjong games, but most of them are blocked as eroge due to having strip element on losing.

Fourteen. A decent number. What especially pleases the eye is that there are many RPGs and console games. PS1 and Saturn production values were still much bigger than their PC counterparts and that attracted talented story-writers. There are a lot of worthy games in this list, but my heart was stolen by luv wave as soon as I saw it. It's the most serious work in my favorite setting that rose the most of topics for thought. It's a very subjective feeling, of course.

Share this:

Anonymous said...

Would like to contact who owns old VNs to exchange and compare dumps that i've got and complete my collection.
Contact me by PM on Anime-sharing Forums (nick: rockleevk, same as below)

-rockleevk

Post a Comment

 
Copyright © VNDBReview. Designed by OddThemes | Distributed By Gooyaabi Templates