In one corner we have Criminal Girls 2: Party Favours, a game about disciplining young women in order to save them from eternal damnation. In the other, Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhinu, a game about girls turning into weapons by kissing each other. Decisions, decisions.
Now before anyone jumps into the comments to rant about how disgusting, exploitative and downright perverted these games are, I assure you the target audience is well aware of that perception and is completely fine with that.
That said, they, and by they I mean we, can be quite picky about our animated adult-friendly entertainment. We’re not just going to run out and blindly buy them both, even if our PlayStation Vitas desperately crave them. We need to weigh the various factors involved and make an informed decision. So here we go.
Type Of Game
Criminal Girls 2: Party Favours is a basic dungeon crawler. The player leads a group of young women up a dungeon called the Hell Spire. They participate in turn-based battles versus various foes. The player must participate in a series of rubbing-based mini-games in order to enhance each character’s skills.
Here’s the launch trailer:
Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhinu is a 3D hack-and-slash beat-em-up game, along the same lines as the Senran Kagura (boob ninja) series, with which it shares a creator. Characters must arouse their teammates to transform them into weapons, while rubbing and touching mini-games are used to power-up characters between battles.
Here is the launch trailer:
Art Style
Criminal Girls 2 is presented with a combination of 2D sprites during dungeon exploration and visual novel style 2D art during conversation and rubbing scenes.
Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhinu features full 3D models, again in similar style to those found in the Senran Kagura series.
Characters
In Criminal Girls 2 the player is in charge of a series of seven young women with the potential for great evil, each of whom died before committing any hellish acts. They run the gamut of moe archetypes, from shy and quiet to loud and outlandish. At least two characters fall into the uncomfortably young category, but rest assured they are whatever age they need to be to ensure publisher NIS America doesn’t get arrested.
OK, there’s a definite yikes in there.
There are seven playable characters in Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhinu, but the two main ones are Ranka and Rinka Kagurazaka. While most girls in the anime universe are infected with a virus that either makes them transform into a weapon or be able to draw out (through sexytimes) and wield those weapons, the Kagurazaka sisters can do both. Why, here they are now . . . oh.
Producer Kenichirō Takaki really has a thing for sisters.
Adult Content
Criminal Girls 2: Party Favours’ adult-ish content mainly revolves around the titular party favours, implements used to provide motivational punishments to the characters. Players scrub them with brushes, spank them with riding crops, that sort of thing. This helps unlock new skills for the characters to use in their dungeon battles.
One of the main points of the Valkyrie Drive series is girl-on-girl arousal to initiate weapon transformation, so expect plenty of that sort of thing.As the characters take damage in battle their clothing rips apart, almost as if the developers used the exact same game engine from Senran Kagura because that’s exactly what they did. There are plenty of different revealing outfits to dress characters up in, and of course, the touching and rubbing mini-game.
Plot
Really? OK. Um. Criminal Girls 2 is about something something redemption hell something. Valkyrie Drive has story missions, so it sounds like that means there’s a story behind all the slashing and hacking and transforming. Hrm.
Which Game Is For You?
Being somewhat of a connoisseur of Japanese smut games, I can say without a doubt that asking me which of these you should get is pretty creepy. Just read over the information I’ve just laid out and make your decision. You don’t need to tell me which one. Just have fun.
And as many have pointing out, Criminal Girls 2 was heavily censored for its North American release, while Valkyrie Drive only had to remove the characters’ ages since they were all 14 or 15 in Japan. Another factor to weigh in your decision.
Comments
7 responses to “Which Of These Risque New Vita Games Is Right For You? ”
Which one is right for me? The one I don’t feel guilty playing.
Having NOT played Valkyrie Drive, it is basically a pretty bland VN combined with a Dynasty Warriors-eque 3D action game. The rest of it is super-grindy. If you want titillation I’d go elsewhere, although you can jiggle boobs and butts as well as lift up skirts and stuff with the Vita’s touch screen.
I haven’t played Criminal Girls 2 either, for the record.
Have played enough of both companies’ releases to tell you that Valkyrie Drive is likely the better of the two, but that said you’re still better off with Senran Kagura.
Which one is right for me? Whichever one the Australian Government (aka The Nanny) says I’m allowed to play.
Ding! Ding! Ding! That would be… NEITHER.
One is refused classification and one is not classified.
Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhinu
Anything I can access with a US Vita account!!!
Which one is right for me? The one that is not tainted by NISA and doesn’t have censored artwork, so Valkyrie Drive it is. However, due to the shady stunt PQube pulled with the character ages, Valkyrie Drive will be a on sale only pickup.