Title: メンヘラオタ姫サークル – Needy Princess Nerd Club
Derived from the EroNovel:(Original Title: オタ姫凌虐サークル ～病み姫の男事情～/Otahime Ryougyaku Circle ~Yamihime no Otoko Jijou~)
Release Date: July 13, 2023
Developer: Noir Soft
Publishers: CyberStep, Inc.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, STEAM
Languages: Japanese,French,German,Italian,Spanish,Korean,Dutch,Portuguese,Russian,Chinese (Simplified),Chinese (Traditional),English
Required Capacity: 158MB
Translations: Machine translated
VNDB: https://vndb.org/r110170
Rated: IARC 16+ (Age 16 or older – Realistic violence, sexual activity, strong language, tobacco or illegal drug use, and criminal activity are permitted)
Purchased here
Synopsis
The protagonist, Sugiura Natsuki, is a freshman who is a closeted otaku.
Wanting a place to meet and talk with people with the same hobbies, he joins the otaku club “Modern Content Research Society”.
…Soon after joining, another person showed up wanting to join.
“Um… I want to join.”
The girl who joined was none other than Mizushiro Kaoruko, a typical otaku girl in lolita fashion.
Otaku girls are rare among the boys, so they treat Kaoruko like a princess while enjoying the club activities.
However, Kaoruko’s behavior, wanting to be pampered anytime and anywhere, gradually escalates…
◆Characters
・Mizushiro Kaoruko
“Do you have a girlfriend, Sugiura-kun?”
A otaku girl with a strong desire for approval who started wearing lolita fashion at her first year of university.
As she is in the same class as the protagonist, they often have the same classes, so they often talk and become close.
Being pampered by the boys in the otaku club makes her mistakenly think “maybe I’m cute.”
・Sugiura Natsuki
A freshman at the same university as Kaoruko, and a former closeted otaku.
Wanting to find friends with the same hobbies, she joins an otaku club, which is one of her dreams.
Although he thinks Kaoruko is cute, he also has a cool side to him that draws a line.
I am currently reading “Menheraotoa Hime Circle – Needy Princess Nerd Club” from CyberStep, Inc.’s visual novel game brand, “PandaShojo”.
When it comes to visual novels, CyberStep is known for taking mature adult visual novel games from companies like Noir Soft and releasing it on consoles in an all-ages format without the hardcore sex scenes.
So, the title for the Nintendo Switch and the actual erotic game go by different titles.
As a visual novel enthusiast, I am more interested in the storyline versus the sexual scenes, so I chose the Nintendo Switch version.
The game doesn’t feature a lot of music but you do get a little composed by Mayo. but it does feature voice acting only for the female character Mizushiro Kaorukon (via the Seiyuu alias Yoshinaka Ai / Note: She is the seiyuu Matsudaira Minaho, voice actress of Komori Megumi and Nyammel of “The Fruit of Grisaia”) and featured the artwork by Bingo Hakushaku.
Without spoiling the visual novel, I love the idea of an otaku anime club in college and wanting to be with people who have similar tastes. While primarily an all-guys university club, you have the female member, cosplayer and gothic lolita wearing Kaoruko.
And because she is the only female member and the guys fancy her, the guys have a rule…no dating or touching Kaoruko unless she initiates it.
While the club has a cool bond, of course, things happen when Kaoruko makes the move on Natsuki and needless to say, Natsuki is excited to finally have a girl that is interested in him. But what about the club rules?
Can these two keep their fling private?
But as Natsuki spends more time with Kaoruko, he starts to sense something is off with her. She feeds off being the main female in the group of guys, like they are her harem and she thrives off that.
Should Natsuki be strict with his new girlfriend or let her be happy by pursuing her harem style of antics?
There are a total of seven routes one can take. Six main one but there is a seventh.
One of the cool things about CyberStep games is you have many save slots. In addition, you can easily hit skip and super quickly fast forward all the dialogue until you get to the choices.
And with each choice (there are 3-4 key choices) will lead to a route. So, you can easily alternate and watch the complete routes.
JUDGMENT CALL (NON-SPOILER)
I have to say that this visual novel surprised me because CyberStep releases are hit and miss. Some are just straight kinetic novels with no choices and it’s done within an hour.
But this one took at least 2-3 hours to get through all routes. But I enjoyed this one because I am familiar with the anime club setting but I’m also familiar with anime series that revolve around harems. Typically, many women going for the main protagonist.
But in this case, the main female character Kaoruko is a person who wants to be the sole princess of this anime club and wants everyone to pamper her. While Natsuki is her boyfriend, he is not enough for her. She thrives through the pampering of others.
But how far will Kaoruko go to get people to treat her as princess and what happens when other female students start to have interest in the club?
Needless to say, some of the routes are absolutely twisted.
So, I will say that this is one of the better story versions that came from an erogame from CyberStep. Again, this is for the Nintendo Switch, so there are no nude scenes but of course having that 16+ rating means there are sexual innuendo and graphics that depict that something is happening (but of course, nothing displayed to be “safe”).
I have to say that the routes left an impression on me because it’s so twisted and made me think if such a thing can exist? For some reason, I wouldn’t doubt it but my gosh…to what extreme will Kaoruko go? And for Natsuki, as you play his character and responding to choices, which will be your best path?
Again, I won’t spoil it for you on this part of the review…BUT…if you do want to get spoiled, then continue reading and scrolling down below.
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SPOILER ALERT:
Read on if you want to read the spoilers!!!
The First Route – Behind the Mask
Kaoruko is sick and while she’s sick, Yui uses the opportunity to get closer to Natsuki by taking him to her room and seduces him and sends the photos to Kaoruko. Kaoruko is insanely jealous and goes to visit Natsuki and seduces him right back. The following day at the club, when Kaoruko goes in, she sees Yui and her friends seducing the other members and this sets of Kaoruko to anger.
The Second Route – Pamper Me
Kaoruko wants to keep the harem going and so she has sex with all the members of the club and gets pregnant. But when she gives the news to all the members, their response was not what she expected
The Third Route – The Price of Pampering
Kaoruko is desperate to become the harem princess and so she creates lies about Yui and her friends to the club members. When the club members talk to Yui and her friends, they find out Kaoruko was lying and don’t want nothing to do with her. Kaoruko then becomes addicted to host clubs and keeps asking for money from the club members and will give sex in return for money. But they all grow tiered of her
The Fourth Route – New Kingdom
Wanting to desperately have her harem back and not getting it from the club members, she resorts to going to homeless camps and having sex with the homeless men to become their princess. So much she quits college and Natsuki finds out what she has been doing all this time
The Fifth Route – Attention Seeking
Kaoruko desperately wants attention and her harem back, so she keeps sending texts to the club members that she’ll kill herself. She keeps doing it over and over that the club members call her bluff. When they don’t respond any longer, she takes her life
The Sixth Route – Eternal Princess
Not wanting Kaoruko to be with other guys, you are strict and tell her you don’t like her decisions and so she asks for money. You follow Kaoruko and you see her go to a host club and realize that she has become addicted to host clubs for pampering. You give Kaoruko the chance to tell the truth but she lies to your face. This leads to you and Kaoruko to stop talking, break up and fast forward, after college and you realize she is very much an addict to host cubs. Fast forward to her 50s, Kaoruko still wants to be a princess even though she’s older. Trying to act like a young woman. She’s an OL (office lady) but she still wants to be pampered and be called a princess one way or the other. She often regrets not staying with Natsuki in the past but she realizes that she desires to be a princess for many guys and tells herself that’s her path in life
The Seventh Route – Not listed in Scenes – The longest route…
This is the longest route and you just select the second option for all choices presented to you.
You decide to be a boyfriend that supports Kaoruko’s of wanting to be a princess and wanting to make her happy. Your feeling is that as a boyfriend, you want to make her happy and support her, even if it means her pleasuring other guys. Wanting to do whatever it takes for her to keep her harem, so she doesn’t become an emotional wreck. So, when the club opens up to new members, Natsuki helps Kaoruko by spreading rumors to potential guys to join the group and become part of Kaoruko’s harem, so they can join in on the fun. Natsuki just wants Kaoruko to be happy.
This is the only route where you can keep Kaoruko as your girlfriend.
