Lewd games get the best limited editions

Those of you who have been paying attention will doubtless be aware that we are still taking preorders for the rather lovely “Birthday Suit” edition of Gal*Gun Returns, which is due to release this Friday. Click here to grab your own if you haven’t already!

Here’s Kiera from publisher PQube unboxing the limited edition. We’ll have our own copy to play with very soon, so subscribe to our YouTube channel to see our own unboxing and some gameplay later this week!

In tangentially related news, over the weekend, prolific and longstanding visual novel publisher JAST USA announced that not only was legendary lewd strategy RPG Eiyuu*Senki GOLD now available in English for everyone to enjoy, but there’s also a beautiful limited edition available for preorder, with delivery expected in April (and a digital code provided in the meantime!).

These two things got me thinking: lewd games really do get the best, most collectible limited editions out there, don’t they? This is likely due to the fact that these games often have a strong focus on their artistic, creative and aesthetic aspects — many of them feature work by established or acclaimed visual artists, voice acting work from well-known seiyuu and scenarios penned by well-known writers.

Plus there’s also an element of pride in there, too; if you’re into this sort of game, you probably don’t feel particularly ashamed of that fact. And what better way to celebrate how not-ashamed you are of your love of the lewd than proudly displaying it in physical form in prominent locations around your house?

Let’s take a look at some classic limited editions from my own personal collection.

Gal*Gun Double Peace

Noteworthy for coming in one of the most gigantic boxes I’ve ever seen a video game limited edition packaged in — PS4 case provided for scale — Gal*Gun Double Peace’s “Mr Happiness” edition was a thoroughly lovely (and eminently affordable) limited edition that provided some nice collectible goodies.

Besides the game, the Mr Happiness limited edition included a two-disk soundtrack set featuring all the music from the game, plus all the variations on the ending songs Twinkle Twinkle, Double Star, LOVExMEx2015 and Swirling Confusion. With 64 tracks in total, this is a pair of discs that still get regular play time in my stereo. Yes, I still listen to CDs.

There’s also an artbook in there, which features a nice selection of event artwork, rough sketches and other bits and pieces from the game’s production. These are always a nice memento of your time with a game and its characters — as well as providing a fun bit of insight into development.

I’m especially fond of this page, which covers the design of one of our favourite lewd scenes from the game, and helpfully reminds us that slapping Shinobu on her posterior is “no good”, while providing a loving rubdown in a clockwise direction is much more acceptable.

Oh, and there’s a pair of pan– I mean a “screen cleaner” in the box, too. Just in case, you know, your screen gets dirty. But wait! I hear you ask. Why is the box so enormous if it only has those relatively small items in there?

Well, dear reader, that would be because of the badass wallscroll that was in there, too, which you can see here hanging in pride of place next to my sofa in the living room. It serves as a constant reminder of 1) how much I enjoyed Gal*Gun Double Peace and 2) that Shinobu and Maya are not to be trifled with!

Gal*Gun 2

If I’m going to talk Gal*Gun limited editions I better mention Gal*Gun 2 as well, since this was also very lovely. This time around we went for a box that was deep and thick rather than long and tall. No wall scroll this time around, but plenty of goodies to enjoy!

Of particular note in this one was the lovely silky-smooth and soft, perfectly innocent and incredibly wholesome Nintendo Switch case depicting the angel Risu having a nice relax after a hard day demon-busting. Perfect for protecting your precious handheld from the elements and/or any bodily fluids accidentally expelled. You know, like when you sneeze or something.

The package also came with six pin badges depicting the main characters and the game logo. Kurona got two badges, you’ll notice; I suspect this was the work of Matt Papa from Inti Creates, who has gone on record numerous times as saying that the diminutive devil is not only his favourite Gal*Gun character, but his favourite character from Inti Creates, full stop. Shameful favouritism!

The package comes with a Mr Happiness plushie too, which is the main reason the box is so deep. There’s also a soundtrack CD, as well, but I forgot to take a photograph of that.

And an art book, of course! Kurona is a shortstack, confirmed. Like you needed any further proof of that.

Sengoku Rance

This lovely limited edition from MangaGamer is a beautiful celebration of Alicesoft’s long-running series, and its particularly well-regarded seventh installment. Coming in a nice glossy box that’s a bit wider, deeper and longer than your average DVD case, it’s immediately clear that this is something special.

The box opens in a pleasing “hinged” fashion to reveal a nice manual, a flyer promoting the digital release of Rance 01 and 02 (with a digital code for Sengoku Rance on the back) and the disc case itself beneath.

And when I say “nice manual”, I mean it. This isn’t a half-arsed job that tells you the basic controls and then fills the rest of the pages with artwork; nope, this is more than 70 pages of proper game instructions, background information on the world and characters and some commentary from the developers.

It is the sort of thing that was the norm in late ’90s PC games, but which you now need to buy a limited edition to enjoy. Oh well… at least someone is still doing this properly!

The Staff Corner section of the manual is particularly fun. Not only does it feature some lovely artwork, but it’s also a nice complement to the in-game developer commentary section (usually known as “Alice’s Mansion” or similar) that Alicesoft typically provides in many of its titles.

The game case itself is really nice, too, with artwork inside the clear case. There are two discs: one DVD for the game itself, and a CD of the official soundtrack. If you want to keep your game disc pristine, the aforementioned digital code can be used instead of — or as well as — the disc copy.

Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash

With some significant questions over the future of the series for various reasons, it’s a little bittersweet to look back at Senran Kagura’s excellent limited editions from over the years — and especially this one, since Peach Beach Splash’s main narrative leads directly into the as-yet unseen Senran Kagura 7even.

This one’s a relatively simple limited edition, packed neatly into the box, but it has all the things a good limited edition needs: what we see here is the “Nararock Festival” package that contains both a soundtrack CD and a Blu-Ray disc featuring the animated openings from all of the Senran Kagura games up to Peach Beach Splash.

Besides the disc set, you also get the game itself, and the “Hibarock Party” artbook. The reason for the strange naming convention of the extras is that the whole bundle is intended to resemble a pack of goodies you’d get when attending an organised holiday festival. The whole game has a distinctly “holiday” feel to it, after all, despite having its serious moments in the narrative.

Enjoy the sights and sounds of the Nararock Festival in the daytime, hang out with your friends at the Hibarock Party in the evening. They are also, of course, references to characters from the series — specifically Naraku and Hibari.

The art book contains what you’d expect — CGs, sketches, promotional artwork — but I found this page particularly noteworthy, since it consists of rough sketches from game designer Kenichiro Takaki. Although artist Nan Yaegashi is the one most prominently associated with the distinctive look and feel of the series, it seems that Takaki is a bit of an artist in his own right, too!

Grisaia

Probably the crown jewel of all lewd game limited editions, the Grisaia Complete Box is an astonishing collection of memorabilia that is an incredible celebration of one of the most beloved visual novel series of all time. It’s huge. It’s heavy. And it’s bursting at the seams with good stuff.

For starters, this is half of the discs you get in this set; these six DVDs contain not only the three main Grisaia visual novels, but also all of the spin-off side stories prior to official successor Phantom Trigger getting underway. Phantom Trigger has its own limited editions out there — mostly in the hands of people who backed it on Kickstarter — but this box just covers the original adventures of Yuuji and friends.

Here’s the other box of discs, this time containing audio CDs that include the soundtracks to all of the games, plus the drama CDs. The box also contains a download link for subtitled video versions of the drama CDs, so you can enjoy the stories on them without having to understand spoken Japanese.

There’s a huge book of illustrations in the box, including both CGs from the games as well as the massive variety of promotional artwork that has appeared all over the place since they first released.

The book also contains “liner notes” for both the games and the audio CDs, including both technical information and credits as well as a bit of background information on each piece of media.

And finally, the box also contains another box full of goodies! This includes a nice acrylic standee featuring all the girls, pin badges of all the main characters, credit card-style cards providing download codes for digital versions of the games, and a book of short stories not found within the games themselves.

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Limited editions are a great way of supporting your favourite series, and that show of support often helps ensure that we get more of them in the future! So if you’re looking forward to Gal*Gun Returns, don’t forget to secure your Birthday Suit edition now!

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