Game Groups > Eroge / Hentai games

This group may include any game with significant amounts of nudity and/or explicit sex scenes that was either made in Japan or clearly imitates the Japanese way of making such games.

Hentai (Japanese 変態, "perverse"; can also be understood as "shape-changing" or "weirdly shaped") is the term commonly used in the West for such games. In Japan, the preferred term is Eroge (エロゲ, short for "erotic game"). Bishōjo (美少女, "pretty girl"; also referred to as Gal Game) is a rather vague designation, often used to describe any game in which the player character interacts with attractive anime-style girls, regardless of the adult content. The matter is further complicated by the fact that some hentai games (e.g. GunBlaze, Eve Burst Error, and others) were re-released (usually on a console system) with all explicit content removed.

Night Life (1982) was the first commercially released eroge. The majority of hentai games are Japanese-style adventures or visual novels with minimal interaction, often also containing vast amounts of dialogue and a developed narrative. These games may include simulation elements, often revolving around dating; pure sex simulation games are also not uncommon. However, there are also many eroge that belong to other genres, such as role-playing, fighting, strategy, and others.

Limitations:

• Only games with explicit nudity in context of a sexual situation may be included in this group. If at least one version of the game answers the above requirements, it may be included, even if its adult content was removed from other versions. A game with heavy "bishōjo" characteristic (anime style, dating, romance, implicit sex, etc.) may be included only if it also contains aforementioned properties. To illustrate: Yu-No can be part of the group; Tokimeki Memorial games can not.

• Due to the nature of Japanese games, it is sometimes hard to determine what qualifies as explicit nudity and what doesn't. For the sake of clarity, games with rare and occasional glimpses of nudity do not qualify for inclusion in this group. For example, Cosmic Fantasy 4 Chapter 1 should not be classified as a hentai game.

• Manga and anime aesthetics are commonly associated with eroge; however, they are not a requirement. Some very early Japanese adult games, as well as many 3D ones, tend to have a lesser focus on anime aesthetics; rare cases such as Ayumi-chan Monogatari: Jisshaban even eschew them completely. The terms "eroge" and "hentai" traditionally only refer to Japanese games; therefore, any Japanese-made adult game qualifies for this group. Non-Japanese adult games, on the other hand, can be included only if they are made with a clear intention of resembling Japanese eroge.