Heya, brothers!
On my phone and it's hell to try to quote everyone properly, but thanks to all those writing about the other recent releases. Like many others, I'm very interested in all the news from this windfall and grateful to all those posting info! Having like 6(?) NTR-related games all drop around the same time is prerty crazy.
It doesn't sound too much like my thing from the reports, but I will probably pick up the Venus game at some point for the scenes if nothing else just because it's reasonably priced. Bummer about the lack of mystery, though.
I wouldn't go so far as to call them hacks, but I don't rate Atelier Sakura all that highly. I honestly think they got lucky with Mariko and Marina, and I don't think their usual fare is all that better than Miel-tier. Which is fine, but I feel like they keep raising their price point for games and they want more than they're worth. Fortunately, they are one of the greediest NTR-related developers, so I know I'll eventually get it on the cheap or in a bundle.
As for the Waffle game, I'm in a conundrum. I'm interested in the game, but they're just charging way too fucking much for it without me being sure of the quality. I will rarely go over ¥3000 for a game and I usually only go over ¥5000 for a handful of companies that I know what to expect from and know that they will deliver (Alicesoft, Anim, Conplets, whatever those Bastards that used to be Black Rainbow are calling themselves this month). You can already get the digital version, so I'm hoping it'll be pirated soon and you guys can let me know if it's worth it. They've already made a package deal, so you can get it digitally with the spinoff included for a slight discount and then download that when it releases next month. If nothing is forthcoming, I might just buy the spinoff and then use that as a gauge for interest since it's much cheaper.
By the way, has anything heard much about the new Poison game? If memory serves, they also have some sort of DRM that needs to be cracked? I remember some fuss about their last game.