Sex simulators are also a large part of waifu culture, though they also may accompany those who enjoy husbandos and there is luckily room for both. A Japanese company leading the charge for these innovations is none other than Illusion, who was known in the past for the dreaded RapeLay controversy in ’06 and have since cleaned up their act with games like Honey Select, Emotion Creator and Koikatsu Party, the latter of which is now officially licensed by Fakku and available on Steam. Most of them anyway, as Japanese laws are quite different from those in the west and those who go seeking certain content may very well find it. That being said, aside from the efforts of rival company KISS and their Custom Order Maid series (which became the first H-Game to utilize VR capabilities and can be purchased completely uncensored over at Nutaku) it is safe to say that Illusion is dominating the market for what may very well be the most immersive waifu experiences in the modern era. No, we’re not quite to the level of haptic feedback suits and something out of Lawnmower Man or Ready Player One, but we are definitely making further progress towards that level as waifus (and husbandos) will become more realistic with every technological push. Are there psychological risks? Absolutely. Though it is my assumption that everything in life involves at least some degree of risk and if this is the future, then I think that we should embrace it.
The first game I’d like to speak about here is Honey Select. Honey Select is the one game that put Illusion on the map in the underground hentai scene. Not only did it fully incorporate VR, but you could go beyond the maid offering that KISS games had been known for. Though it released three years after 2013’s Custom Order Maid, it integrated VR in a way that made it a very popular title not only inside the region, but outside the region when it was licensed by Fakku as Honey Select Unlimited. The game, first released in 2016, features… well, let’s just be honest here – you’re in a brothel. But not just any brothel, my good man. You’ll get to design a waifu down to the smallest details. If you wanted a bust large enough to resemble beach balls, you could do that. If you wanted a certain shape of foot or perhaps a certain ear, eye or nose length, the game would allow you to do that as well. To be frank, Honey Select has one of the best character creators I have ever seen. The graphical capabilities are also quite a bit more astounding than you might expect for a sex simulator and can even be enhanced through a number of mods. Unfortunately, those looking for more than sex are out of luck as that is the whole idea of this game.
As with other sex simulators, the game asks the player to choose a variety of toys and sex positions all in an effort to make the waifu complete as many times as is possible. There are several ways that this can be setup and it’s worth noting that the graphics can be enhanced and outfits can be modified or removed completely during these sex scenes. The player is offered a full 360 degrees of motion as well as a zoom in and out feature that can make for some interesting voyeurism. As for those positions, they range from simple foreplay all of the way to full on copulation and you can control both the speed and intensity with just a few swipes of the mouse-wheel. Your chosen waifu will moan in ecstatic pleasure as you put her through a gauntlet of positions, all having a stark realism to them that later found it’s niche in the form of custom porn videos, which the licencor had to crack down on. Even tentacles find their way into the mix, so there’s no stone left unturned when it comes to erotic perversion. There are functions for a threesome, but that’s about as far as you can go. The game does not allow for wild sex orgies, so you may want to look elsewhere for that. For what it is though, it offers a much more realistic version of simulated that sex that is not unlike participating in a pornographic film. I cannot speak for the VR experience, but with what I’ve seen from the sex scenes in this game, it must certainly be immersive. Though you will need a fan patch for these features, a Honey Studio and Honey Arena mode are also included, which will allow users to create their own pornography using their waifus or just battle it out SRPG style. No, I’m not kidding – there is a mode of this game that turns it into something resembling Fire Emblem. Certainly not what you might have expected, but I don’t see any real harm in this obscure extra mode. A sequel to the game was just released, which I hope to cover at a later date. It reportedly has more modes than just sex scenes and allows intimate conversation with your waifus. As of right now, it has only been partially fan translated and is not yet officially licensed in the west. I’ll have more information on this as it becomes available. (Update: The game is now fully translated, though didn’t seem to leave much of a dent on the community).
If you thought that the realistic character models in Honey Select were a bit too 3DPD, then I really think you’re going to enjoy Koikatsu Party! Obviously, this game was a bestseller on Steam, but because of the game’s story mode taking place on a high school campus; that part of the game had to be removed. This did not stop users from downloading the story mode separately however and it is one of the main features of the game. Unfortunately, it may be best to play it online or to have a bunch of premade character packs, because I found that there were not very many girls to talk to while roaming the halls in a vein similar to Persona 5. I can see why a simulator that allows users to talk to girls, date them and eventually have sex with them all in a cell-shaded anime framework might be popular, though I admittedly found myself a bit bored running around the halls with very little to do. This game also features more visual novel text elements, so be aware of that. While Honey Select appeals to fans of sex simulators in general, Koikatsu Party is definitely more geared toward eroge loving otaku. Koikatsu does have a studio mode as well, but the fact that I am glued to my keyboard for this one is a bit disheartening. Even though the game has a first-person mode, the fact that visual novel elements are indeed present may ruin any kind of immersive experience for the would be virtuanaut and that is also why I cannot consider Koikatsu Party to be an effective sex simulator. Even though there are immersive sex scenes, too much bogs this game down from being an immersive experience. The VR in this instance even feels like an afterthought as who would want to jump into a sex simulator only to read walls of text? Certainly not the kind of experience I would want. A recently announced sequel to the game seems to be more promising however, and I’ll have more details on that as they appear.
The very last game in this series (for now) would be AI Shoujo, which is also available on Steam (although the developer considers it an incomplete version and it is recommended that you update with more fan patches) and it bills itself as an authentic virtual experience, yet strangely has no VR option. I’m quite puzzled at this, but it can’t exactly be helped. The experience is available at least in the first person so if you’ve got a large enough monitor, you might just be able to feel as if you’re there. The premise of the game is pretty straight-forward: Can you survive on an island out in the middle of nowhere with your favorite waifu? Yes, I shook my head too but the game delivers just that and little more. At the start of the game you’re collecting driftwood to craft a fishing rod, then you’re fishing and looking for other supplies. The waifu just kind of stands there and gives orders while you act as a glorified workhorse. Eventually you’ll build structures and cook all sorts of meals while battling the wilderness and having freaky sex with your waifu on the beach. AI Shoujo is also setup as a game, so there are elements to the sex acts as well and you’ll need to focus on those accordingly in order to please your waifu or waifus, if that’s what you’re into. There are cheat codes to make the game much easier if you’d just like to get on with the sex, but despite the fact that the graphics look brilliant (and even better with proper mods from the community) you’ll probably be better off sinking your claws into Honey Select Unlimited.
But that’s not all Illusion have cooked up, as Emotion Creators allows Koikatsu fans to make their own visual novels in the engine, while VR Kanojo offers the most immersive experience yet from Illusion. It can be seen as a wee bit on the creepy side and a little voyeuristic, but for people who have trouble with interaction in real life, a game that allows them to be hands on with a waifu and interact with her as if she were standing right there might just be the best thing for them. The only real downside to this is that users are only allowed to interact with one character model and they cannot make their own. Illusion is apparently working on an even more interactive experience than this, though also seems to only feature one waifu model. I understand that waifu models are difficult to render, but some thought should go into customization later down the road, as that will be the big sell. VR Kanojo is also one of Illusion’s slightly older games, so they’ve got a bit to work on as far as that model is concerned and I believe that some VR Kanojo features may have been added to Honey Select 2. I can’t exactly be certain right now, but I can tell you that they’re dead set on selling me bondage gear for my waifus.
Honey Select 2 (Coming Soon?)