In February 2021, with the release of a remake of the classic pretty girl game "Peers", the eyes of Galgame fans were drawn back to this work. As the enlightenment of Galgame for many older players, and at the same time a well-known milestone in the history of Galgame, it was remade in 2021, when Galgame was considered to be in decline, and everyone's eyes could not help but fall on the term "beautiful girl game", which faded out of the mainstream of subculture for a while, as if returning to the golden age of the past.
"The cycle of seasons, the spring that belongs to your life will also come again"
Also recalled are the biological parents of "Classmates", who have been brilliant in the Galgame industry for 27 years, and finally disappeared from the historical stage in 2016. A remake of "Peers" was released, but elf has been out of business for five years. When the cherry blossoms fly in 2021, the seasons turn to spring for Galgame players, but elf Society will never see this scene again.
Production and Sales: FANZA GAMES Production Collaboration: Silkys Plus
In the age of mobile social networks and mobile streaming, fewer and fewer people play Galgame, and even many young ACG enthusiasts are completely unaware of it and have not been exposed to it. Sometimes the questions and speeches about some classic works and characters will either make all kinds of jokes, or say that they are "XX Bichi XX Xiaosan" and "Why are you so skilled" and the like flood out of the circle, as tasteless and boring as bagasse but still chewed.
In such a context, Galgame-related production companies, celebrities, and players have quieted down, quietly produced works, and quietly played games, as if they were slowly waiting for the complete end of the genre itself.
The official website of the original elf society has been empty
"Peer Remake" only has the location of the original work and the existence of elf
Although I haven't played Galgame for a long time, I also want to write about some of the things that used to be in the elf club with the relics of the past, and miss the old time that belonged to the beautiful girl game.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > Leech field Masato and his beautiful girl game</h1>
It can be said that when mentioning Galgame's past and present lives, it is necessary to mention "Peer Generation", and when mentioning "Peer Generation", it is necessary to mention the elf Society, and when mentioning the elf Society, it is necessary to mention its founder, Leech Field Masato. In his early years, Masato Hirota was active in the game industry as a script writer, and by the time he decided to set up a new company and make games with like-minded partners, he was already an experienced veteran.
Leech Field Masato, a clean-faced upright social person, is the god of beautiful girl games in the hearts of many people
In April 1989, the script project Leechada Masato, the artist Abiru Shouhiro (later president of mink), and the programmer Jun Kanao set up a new game company in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. There is an anecdote about the origin of the new company's name, just like the name of Qianlong Xia Jiangnan tasting food:
When the name was decided, Leech field and others were already half drunk, and a group of people discussed that since the new company was established, how to decide the name? Deciding to give the choice to Fate, Hirota took out a dictionary and said what the first letter of the page he turned to was, and named the company with that letter as the first letter. The result was flipped over, and a letter "E" came out. For the creators of pretty girl games, the first word that comes to mind by the letter E is undoubtedly a word that accompanies their daily work (エロ, erotic, pornography), which caused a burst of laughter. After the laughter, elf was decided as the name of the new company.
elf-like 标shi, fairy shrine, dodo ryoo
In fact, before the establishment of the elf society, Hirota Masato had already begun to make his own games. So although elf itself was founded in April 1989, many enthusiasts were counting the elf club's game listings, and the "Heartbeat! The moment the shutter is pressed! 》（ドキドキ!シャッターチャンス!! and PRIVATE SCHOOL in early 1989 will also be included in elf Society's work.
"Heartbeat! The moment the shutter is pressed! " is a game from 1988, but there is still some practicality
The former is a relatively simple game to sneak into the girls' school to secretly take pictures and collect photos, while the latter, although still sneaking into the girls' school, not only increases the capacity of the script, but also improves the quantity and quality of the shaping and portrayal of female characters. A large number of CGs, a fascinating plot, and an increase in puzzle detective elements have greatly improved the quality of this game. In the future, the style of some works of the elf society can be seen in these early works.
Elf's official debut is Angel Hearts in June 1989, which incorporates combat elements into the game compared to the two games of the previous ELF era. For the new company, the work launched two months after its establishment can only be called a test of the waters, and naturally did not attract more attention. The nature of the PINKY and PONKY trilogy and runrun that followed in the months followed, with elf adding new elements of different kinds in these test works, as if it were a step-by-step trial and experiment, paving the way for subsequent works.
The ancient works in "Angel Heart" gradually formed their style with elf's continuous self-exploration
And the next thing that many relatively senior Galgame players will always talk about is that in November of the year of the founding of elf Society, Dragon Knight (ドラゴンナイト) was released. As a so-called アダルトゲーム (adult game, or directly called エロゲ (butter)), its exquisite graphics and typical RPG maze exploration combat game system make its quality show a high level in similar works of the same era.
The sales of this game and elf's previous works completely opened the grade, the goblin club colleagues for the first time sold the game to five figures, and for the first time in the industry to play their own name, into the vision of more players and industry insiders.
Dragon Knight, which sold more than 70,000 copies, was a phenomenon in both quality and sales in the industry at that time
From its original production in 1989 to the release of Dragon Knight 4 in 1994, elf's classic Dragon Knight series was formed. After the release of the fourth work in the series, the spiritual connotation of the entire series was raised to a new height, which also made "Dragon Knight 4" a large number of fans, and the game was later launched in Windows. Before the final battle of Dragon Knight 4, the dialogue between Etter and Marlene was moving, and it became one of the most profound memories of the series in the hearts of many veteran players.
The fan artist painted Marlene, the artist pixiv's ID is 52001
After a series of games, including Dragon Knight, gave elf the society sufficient capital, Hirota Masato became more and more proficient in the use and balance of the elements of the beautiful girl game. But at this time, a social event in Japan had a very far-reaching impact on the entire adult game industry, and its impact has continued to this day, that is, the "Yarn Weaving Incident" that occurred in 1991.
Although the impact of the Miyazaki Incident is more far-reaching, the "Yarn Weaving Incident" with the Miyazaki Incident as the background is an event that directly affects the beauty girl game industry
On October 18, 1991, fairytale's game Yarn Weaving - The Pavilion of Beautiful Girls was released, which is a beautiful girl game that is very pornographic in every sense, and can even be said to be "strong enough". FAIRYTALE is also an old owner of Leech Field Masato, and is familiar with the production and distribution of this type of game. Shortly after the game was released, a male middle school student in Kyoto Prefecture stole the game from a store and was immediately arrested by the police.
Originally, it was just an ordinary theft incident, but under the influence of the Miyazaki Incident and even the earlier "177 Incident", the impact of the Miyazaki Incident and various "harmful manga products" on teenagers and even poisoning has become a hot topic of social discussion. On November 25, 1991, the Kyoto Prefectural Police Juvenile Division launched a search of the publisher "X Designation", FAIRYTALE and the parent company JAST, and found a number of "harmful games" and arrested the president and others.
Known as the "Yarn Weaving Incident", the incident directly led to the japan computer software association began to officially characterize and classify pornographic content products for the first time, and soon established a computer software ethics agency. At this point, R18, R15, R12 and other grading terms began to appear on various game software products in Japan.
The incident occurred at the time when "Dragon Knight 4" was about to be released, and due to its influence, elf Society decisively postponed the release of the new work. In 1992, the computer software ethics agency was established, the grading system began to appear, and public opinion was still very strict with the system. In such a complex and difficult background, the elf society masterpiece, and even the historical beautiful girl game work "Peers" was born.
"When it comes to elf, it is true that he is still a student of the same level!"
It belongs to the golden age of "Peers" and elf
Released on December 17, 1992, "Peers" is a beautiful girl game based on the PC-98 platform, leaving aside the "gods" and "classics" and other arguments in the mouths of public opinion and enthusiasts, the industry regards "Peers" as a milestone, that is, the beautiful girl games before "Peers" are different from the beautiful girl games after "Peers".
Today's gamers, including this writer, think of Galgame and often associate it with delicate scripts, flavorful romances, and a wide variety of actionable objects. The game allows many boys and girls who love Galgame to experience the feeling of love story, and trigger a variety of events through different personal choices to achieve different endings - of course, there are also a variety of H scenes and H elements included.
This habitual feeling is exactly what Galgame's formula impression seems to have been born with. But when you look closely, which game originally showed this impression in the form of a collection? The answer will always be elf's Peers, which for the first time combines all of this and forms a complete and wonderful work.
As a landmark work, "Peers" quickly appeared on more platforms because of its popularity
The beautiful girl game before "Classmates" is simple and direct, first of all, there must be a girl, and then the girl's clothes will become less and less for various reasons, and what happens in this process is becoming more and more beautiful. This simple and straightforward routine can best grab the player's heart and make people obediently pay money. Later, producers, including Masato Hirota, began to try to change, but most of them stopped. By the time the "Yarn Weaving Incident" broke out, the living environment of this "pure H" became harsh, and the future of the beautiful girl game became bleak. At this time, with the birth of "Peers", everyone suddenly found that the original beautiful girl game still had this possibility, and the trend of the industry has undergone a profound change.
The story of Peers takes place in a small town with 14 female characters to attack, and players have to attack these female characters for twenty-two days in August. Players can visit various facilities in the town, visit different locations at different times, and encounter people and things that will vary. Players meet, meet, get along, and enhance their feelings with different female characters, and eventually become lovers.
This makes it possible to attack different characters, trigger different events and dialogues to visit the corresponding place at the appropriate time and meet the corresponding object, and players have not been exposed to this rich game experience in the previous game, nor have they experienced this feeling of "love" in the true sense. This made "Classmate" quickly become a topic of conversation, and sales reached a six-figure level, which is unimaginable to other games of the same genre in the same era.
Groundbreaking system, groundbreaking gaming experience, groundbreaking impact and high visibility
The game character of "Peer Student" is the experienced and eye-catching Masaki Takei, and on the PC-98 platform, the beautiful girl characters created by Takei Gangster are displayed in front of players with 4096 color numbers and 640 * 400 resolution. This is a huge impact for the beautiful girl gamers who have just stepped into the Heisei era, and the beautiful girls in front of them suddenly become many times more vivid in color, and more delicate and realistic. The impact is probably no less than the first time today's gamers have turned on the AAA masterpiece on a 144Hz screen, and RTX ON.
Yes, everything suddenly came alive
In fact, Masato Hirota himself did not deliberately create a "milestone" game. When he first thought about how the new work should look, his idea was to make a game that would guide dozens of girls through hook-up in a month and a half — if that's the case, then "hook-up" would go from one element of "Peers" to its entirety.
Here we must thank Masaki Takei, because his characterization is so exquisite and meticulous, that the keen Leech Tian realized at the first time that such a wonderful human setting could not be wasted. So in addition to limiting the characters to 14 people and enriching the system and story, the game system was also greatly improved, and finally the classics we are familiar with were born.
Masaki Takei has been active in recent years as an original animation artist and painting supervisor
After the great success of "Peers", its OVA animations, peripheral CDs, official raider books, and official setting albums have also been continuously sold, which are unmatched by most games of the same type in the same era. And as the popularity continued to maintain, on January 31, 1995, "Peer 2" was released in the halo of the previous game, and in the case of a comprehensive upgrade compared to the previous game, it swept the frenzy of the "Peers" series between the industry and the player group at that time. For various reasons, many domestic veteran players first came into contact with the Japanese beautiful girl game, which is also "Peer 2", and they also like this type of game.
"Classmate 2" has become the first Japanese beautiful girl game that many domestic players have been exposed to
As artists with experience in the animation industry, such as Takei, began to dominate the original artistry, Abiryu Shouhiro, who had previously worked as a senator and Leech field at the beginning of elf's founding, began to slowly fade out of the creation of elf society works. Abirius left Elf in 1993 to start his own mink club, the mink club of the Night Sick House series.
The same well-known mink society ceased its activities in 2018
During this period, Elf himself was looking for some changes, and in 1992 they opened a subsidiary silky's (シルキーズ), which produced many games under the name of this subsidiary. "The Family of the KawaharaZaki Family" and "The People of Nonomura Hospital" were both launched under the name silky's, and under this vest, Leech field boss showed players a more diversified creative taste that was different from "Peers".
Silky's was disbanded in 2014 and re-formed as Silky's Plus the same year, and it was they who inherited the mantle of Peers and worked together to create a remake of Peers
"A Family of the Kawahara Clan", the embodiment of the "perverted" side of the heart of Masato Hirota
Although several games, led by "The Family of the KawaharaZaki Family", are produced by silky's, in the eyes of Masato Hirota, the games he really wants to create should be in this category compared to "Classmates". Therefore, after the popularity of "Classmates of the Same Level", neither Leech Field Masato himself nor the elf Society obviously wanted to be locked up with the fresh youth love binding between himself and the company. Driven by this idea, in 1995, the first work in the Yitoujia series, "The Last Work", was born.
The Yitoujia series, the style changes visible to the naked eye, and the content is also changing (convinced)
When the name "Legacy" was first known to everyone because there was no more information, the players at that time also exclaimed, actually the work sold more than 100,000 copies of elf is also going to go out of business (laughs), and later everyone knows that the two words of the posthumous work actually refer to the ghost animal uncle with a textbook-like obscene face.
The trilogy of "Legacy", "Stinky Work" and "Ghost Work" has also brought indelible marks to many players, but unlike the "Peers" series, the Yitoujia series has brought the mark of "ghost animals" to many people. In addition to the ghost animals, there are also leeches as the creator of the torture of human nature in the words in the game, and even in "Stinky Works", the process of the player being saved by the high part of the painting is even more impressive.
Beginning with METAL EYE in 1993, Yokota Mori, who later became known as the original animation and art supervisor, began to participate in the elf club's game creation. Later " Kawahara Saki Family " , " Nomura Hospital " and "Legacy" are also Yokota Mori's human designs and original paintings. Masato Hirota saw the power of the creators of the animation industry, whether it was Takei in "Classmate" or later Yokota, who brought the ability to portray characters as an animator to the work. The classic image of the lewd ghost animal uncle in Yitou's posthumous work is the result of Yokota's serious creation, so that when many people mention the word "ghost animal", the first thing that comes to mind is the iconic face.
Yokota's skill is recognized by everyone, and as the supervisor of the Death Note animation, the characters and standing paintings he created for the elf society game are classics
Later, with the industry script genius Hiroyuki Kanno joining the elf club, another masterpiece of the goblins, "YU-NO", was released in 1996 - "The Girl Who Sings Love at the End of the World YU-NO" (この果てで恋を唄う少女 YU-NO).
Many people also regard "YU-NO" as a landmark work, but because "YU-NO" is too unique, many players simply put "Shenzuo", a word that has been bored for many years, on its head. But there is no doubt that "YU-NO" can fully afford the name of this god work, and both the script and the game system are very good. The game's modern version uses the A.D.M.S (Auto Diverge Mapping System) system created by elf and Kanno, while the otherworld chapter uses the classic traditional AVG system. Paired with the rich characters and layered plot, it is a good product even from today's point of view, not to mention how shocking the industry would have been in 1996.
Classic PC-98 version of YU-NO
The game was later adapted into an anime and remade on the current platform, but by this time the production company was already 5pb
"YU-NO", which sold hundreds of thousands of copies on platforms such as PC-98 and SS, and other acclaimed and popular beauty girl game works, jointly established the golden age of Leech Field Masato and elf Society. The "Fairy Society of the East, Alicesoft of the West", which is always mentioned in the beauty game industry, is the interpretation of this golden age and is a symbol that stands on the top of the industry.
However, the extreme of things must be reversed, and the prosperity of the pole must decline is the objective law of things, which is no exception for elf.
Time passed, fading elf
Supposedly, with such impressive sales, Sugano should have taken a seat in the elf club. However, after YU-NO, Kanno soon left the elf Society to stand on its own. What really happened to this is unknown to the outside world. After this, Elf entered a relatively long period of silence, and did not launch a new work for quite a while.
It is a pity that Sugano himself died of cerebral hemorrhage in 2011 at the age of 43
Time comes to the new century, and after the end of the Elf Society's Yitoujia series, the response of several new works cannot catch up with the epoch-making works of the early years. This is also a matter of course, if that level of work is produced every one or two years, and if it is produced for more than ten years, it will also become mediocre. But compared to the work, the biggest change in elf society should be in 2000, as the founder of Leech field Masato, announced that he would step down as president.
The founder's decision to leave is not necessarily a bad thing for a group, but it is probably not a good thing. Over the past few years, like all the collectives that have gradually accumulated family business, the elf society has also begun to have various internal and external problems. The quality of the work was difficult to maintain, internal contradictions led to people not being retained, and later the core parts of game creation, such as the script creation that elf Society was proud of, also began to be outsourced.
In 2004, elf was releasing the sequel to 1996's "Lower Class Student", "Lower Class Student 2". Launching a sequel to a classic is one of the ways to boost morale and restore glory. As a series that has high hopes for elf like "Peers", "Junior Students 2" has received expectations from all sides. This time, however, something went wrong.
When it comes to "Junior Student 2", it will always mention "something went wrong"
To put it simply, the heroine of "Junior Student 2", Chai Menkring, will mention the relationship with her ex-boyfriend in the process of interacting with the male protagonist in a way that makes some players feel unhappy. In the author's opinion, the plot that has a problem cannot be regarded as a total destruction of the three views of great treachery and evil, but in the minds of many players, whether it is the game plot or the character itself, it is "ruined" because of such a plot arrangement.
At that time, although there was no social media as developed as it is today, the incident quickly fermented in various anonymous disclosure boards on the Internet, reaching the level that the Japanese believed to be "on the big fire". The landmark event was that a player who purchased the game expressed his dissatisfaction in a very decisive way: breaking the plate and showing the breaking plate against the background of the claim against elf. This marked the climax of the event, and it was also the first major event in the beauty girl game industry since the 21st century.
The Shibamon Ring Breaking Incident is also often referred to as the "Yujin (Japanese consonant of the name of the ChaiMonk) incident"
Behind the seemingly accidental explosion event is actually inevitable, with the accumulation of contradictions and problems inside and outside the elf, it is only a matter of time before there is an extreme inflammation like the breaking of the plate, even if "Lower Class Student 2" does not explode, sooner or later there will be problems at a certain stage of a certain work. For elf, whether it is breaking the plate, the quality of several works since the new century is generally flat, all of which reflect the elf of the East in the golden age, which is somewhat inadequate.
In 2008, elf launched "The Fragrance of Flesh", and its expressiveness in all aspects and the "practicality" of the game as an adult to beautiful girl have made players shine. It may be an exaggeration to say that it is a reproduction of the golden age elf, but at least it makes people find a little "that feeling".
From this game onwards, two names have gradually been remembered by the players of the elf Society - one of them is Ichikawa Kosha as the original artist, and the other is a screenwriter named TotenHae. The former is a female original artist like The original artist of the "Lower Class" series, Masaya Moni, but compared to Theoi, the female characters drawn by Ichikawa are not only equally beautiful, but also go further on the level of "practicality".
The Earth Heaven Andy Sea is controversial, its script creation skills are very good, the plot of the work can often be fascinating, and there is even a saying that the Earth Sky Sea is the leech field boss's own vest. However, Tutian will always consciously or unconsciously put some of his own habits into the game script, reflecting the result of making some players feel uncomfortable again and again. Infidelity, bedtime (i.e., NTR), and tangled emotional experiences are all features of the script, sometimes even too flooded.
"The Fragrance of Flesh" is widely acclaimed in terms of "practicality", and many female original artists are proficient in drawing enough female characters
In the same era, in addition to the old brands such as the still strong Nishi-no-Ichi, The Leaf Society, and the Key Society, emerging forces such as the Pillow Society, the August Society, the Sugar Cube Society, and the Yuzu Society were also gradually rising. The pretty girl game industry is no longer the same as in previous years. Many new players will be attracted to the work of new production companies that are more in line with the aesthetics of the times, and elf fans are decreasing.
Emerging new forces in the industry
In the years that followed, Elf released "Human Residue" and "My Girlfriend is a Blue Collar Worker" (or migrant worker's girlfriend), and the original painting was still two ladies, Ichikawa and Menjing. Both works continue the good performance of "The Fragrance of Flesh", and while the practicality is full of points, it still retains the bad taste of the earth. After the "Maru" series is still taking this route, as the sales of the game slowly decrease, the environment of the beautiful girl game changes, elf society's own road is also a little narrower.
Migrant Worker's Girlfriend is a good game, but it's not good enough to help Elf get back to the top
When elf made a statement on its official website on March 1, 2016, the once-strongest girl game production company in the industry completed a 27-year journey to the end of its life. Much of its estate and people were inherited by its former subsidiary Silky's Plus. Thanks to Silky's Plus, we'll be able to play a remake of Peers in 2021. From this remake, you can feel some of the 90s Golden Age elf society works.
For an adult beauty game production company, 27 years is a long life
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="87" > conclusion</h1>
In fact, the author has not seriously played the new Galgame for several years, and I have the impression that the Galgame industry is a bit of a sunset industry under the impact of various new forms of subculture entertainment, and the closure of many established manufacturers has also aggravated this impression. However, after careful observation, it is found that the industry has not gotten worse, whether it is new works from cutting-edge companies or sequels of old brands, they all show visible high quality and sales that are not worse than before.
Ultimately, as the ACGN subcultural sphere expands, Galgame's circle and audience do not expand (and will not expand) is one of the reasons for this illusion. Of course, although it has not gotten worse, the departure of the old factories also clearly shows that the industry will not become as high-profile as before, and I think this state is actually quite good.
So, in 2021, please pay more attention to the remake of "Peers", or other new games created by familiar names, they are still exciting. New players are also welcome to experience this area, a unique gaming experience that no other form of vehicle can replace, they were good before, and they are still excellent.