Hentai Games and Hentai RPG - what is it about

Hentai Games and Hentai RPG
What is hentai game?
Any game with manga/anime aesthetics and sexual content is called “hentai game”. Hentai （変態）is a Japanese word (derived from the Chinese “biantai”) which means “perverse”. The Japanese themselves usually call such games eroge (short for “erotic games”)

How explicit should the sexual content be to qualify as hentai?

Nudity in the context of sexual situations do the trick. Innuendoes and skimpy clothes and an occasional naked breast (like in Cosmic Fantasy) don’t qualify even though the line is sometimes a damn fine one. There are non-hentai versions of hentai RPGs (GunBlaze), which complicate things. Nowadays it’s easy to spot a hentai RPG when you see one (usually because it has crappy graphics and lame gameplay), but it hasn’t always been the case.

Why would I want to play hentai RPGs? Just for the pictures?

No, not just. Of course, it can be a reason, too, but you’ll be sorely disappointed if that’s the only thing you are looking for: hentai RPGs tend to have much more gameplay than adult scenes. Surprisingly, some of these games have good gameplay and good stories. Besides, they capture the whole “endure – get a reward” mechanics pretty well. Allow me to explain: when I play a good Western RPG, I enjoy the actual process more. I don’t expect any rewards, the gameplay itself is the reward. When I play a Japanese RPG, I’m willing to endure simplistic gameplay to watch a beautiful cutscene and be touched in that spectacular, soap-opera way. I want to spend time with lovable characters and experience their happiness and sorrow, again the same way people identify themselves with soap-opera heroes and cry when a character dies or gets divorced for the 17th time.

So hentai RPGs are damn honest about this “suffer-reward” mechanics. Crawl through a dungeon, beat hundred random enemies, fight a difficult boss… see a beautiful naked girl! That’s not always worse than “see the characters engage in badly written emotional dialogue.” I always thought the most genius ideas were the simplest ones.