I'm lumping these together because they are in the same universe and have largely the same content warnings, but they can definitely be played separately if only one of them looks interesting to you!
Title: No Thank You!!!, Room No. 9
Media: Visual Novels
Approx length: NTY!!! took me around 35 hours to play in English. Rn9 took me approximately 10 hours to read in Japanese, but my Japanese reading speed is much slower; it's due to be released in English on August 6th, and I'm approximating that it'll take around 4 hours to play.
Where to find it: Both NTY!!! and Rn9 are available on Mangagamer and Steam. Both are uncensored on Steam, if that was a concern. If you prefer to read them in Japanese, they also are available on DMM and physical copies are available on the usual Japanese storefronts. There are also setting books that you can buy from parade's official website for extra info (Japanese only), but this is by no means required.
What is it, in summary? These are 18+ Boy's Love (M/M) visual novels that veer much less romantic than the typical fare that has been translated, and instead focus more on porn (that is usually, but not always, noncon or dubcon) and either mystery or character development respectively. They take place in the same universe, but they do not look connected at first glance.
The premise of NTY!!! - You play Haru, a mysterious man who has amnesia after being hit by a car to save a stranger's life. Said stranger is the owner of a bar that secretly doubles as an under-the-table detective agency. Haru gets hired as one of the bar staff while he tries to remember who he is, as he has no identifying materials on him when he was hit by the car. Throughout the game, Haru solves mysteries with the rest of the bar staff as he woos one of them! Haru is bisexual and an exclusive top in the game. The love interests include the beefy, middle-aged bar owner Kouichi, the quiet and mysterious well-built chef Maki, the stern and cold piano player Ryu, and the gentle and unlucky-in-love bartender Hiroyuki. All of the love interests are "straight". There are approximately 3 endings per boy.
The premise of Room No. 9 - Childhood best friends and university students Daichi and Seiji have just been dumped by their girlfriends, right after Daichi bought tickets to go on a trip to Okinawa. It's their last summer before they get full-time work, so Seiji offers to go on the vacation with Daichi. Daichi happily accepts, and is excited to go on a vacation with his super cool, super hot best friend! However, when they land in Okinawa, they end up boarding a bus that was filled with some sort of knock-out gas, and they wake up in a strange hotel room. An LED screen replaces the window, and a tablet lets them know that they have been selected for a social experiment. Every day for the next ten days, either Seiji needs to hurt Daichi physically, or Daichi needs to debase Seiji sexually. Neither of them wants to hurt the other, so this will be a very difficult task for them... You play as Daichi, and Seiji is the only "love interest". There are six endings across three routes.
What do you love about it? I'm a parade/Clock Up stan, I won't lie. These games are definitely not for everyone, and people can argue about the taste of including some of the things they choose to include, but I think that these games have a more sensitive take especially on child abuse than many visual novels of the same genre do. While these are porn games (and the porn is really hot! both beautifully drawn and sexily described!), I feel like there's much more to them than just porn. NTY!!! has a really interesting mystery that is super fun to watch unfold with a really cool gameplay system, and Rn9 just... is one of the most tragic VNs I've ever read, one of the best Fuck or Die stories Ever in my opinion. You really get inside Daichi's head as he's forced to hurt and be hurt, trying to find the best way out of an absolutely impossible situation, and it's heartbreaking to watch.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? I'm mostly interested in pre-canon and post-canon for both games, but I'm flexible! Explaining my pre-canon prompts would be a bit spoilery, but post-canon I'm mostly looking for fix-it since things don't always go well for the main characters and I JUST WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY.
Content warnings (apply to both games): noncon and dubcon, watersports, breathplay/choking, major character death (can be avoided), extensive discussions of child abuse, neglect, and child sexual abuse. Discussions of yakuza/criminal activity, drug use. Very heavily implied off-screen child death. NTY only - a parent/child incest subplot that isn't explicit, but is shown from the child's point of view and they are clearly unhappy with what's happening to them. Rn9 only - minor gore, scat (images can be toggled off for both, but the scat scene is actually plot important so I wouldn't recommend skipping through the scat), avoidable but character development-important gang rape scene. Daichi dissociates a few times. Internalized homophobia.
Visual Novels by parade
Title: No Thank You!!!, Room No. 9
Media: Visual Novels
Approx length: NTY!!! took me around 35 hours to play in English. Rn9 took me approximately 10 hours to read in Japanese, but my Japanese reading speed is much slower; it's due to be released in English on August 6th, and I'm approximating that it'll take around 4 hours to play.
Where to find it: Both NTY!!! and Rn9 are available on Mangagamer and Steam. Both are uncensored on Steam, if that was a concern. If you prefer to read them in Japanese, they also are available on DMM and physical copies are available on the usual Japanese storefronts. There are also setting books that you can buy from parade's official website for extra info (Japanese only), but this is by no means required.
What is it, in summary? These are 18+ Boy's Love (M/M) visual novels that veer much less romantic than the typical fare that has been translated, and instead focus more on porn (that is usually, but not always, noncon or dubcon) and either mystery or character development respectively. They take place in the same universe, but they do not look connected at first glance.
The premise of NTY!!! - You play Haru, a mysterious man who has amnesia after being hit by a car to save a stranger's life. Said stranger is the owner of a bar that secretly doubles as an under-the-table detective agency. Haru gets hired as one of the bar staff while he tries to remember who he is, as he has no identifying materials on him when he was hit by the car. Throughout the game, Haru solves mysteries with the rest of the bar staff as he woos one of them! Haru is bisexual and an exclusive top in the game. The love interests include the beefy, middle-aged bar owner Kouichi, the quiet and mysterious well-built chef Maki, the stern and cold piano player Ryu, and the gentle and unlucky-in-love bartender Hiroyuki. All of the love interests are "straight". There are approximately 3 endings per boy.
The premise of Room No. 9 - Childhood best friends and university students Daichi and Seiji have just been dumped by their girlfriends, right after Daichi bought tickets to go on a trip to Okinawa. It's their last summer before they get full-time work, so Seiji offers to go on the vacation with Daichi. Daichi happily accepts, and is excited to go on a vacation with his super cool, super hot best friend! However, when they land in Okinawa, they end up boarding a bus that was filled with some sort of knock-out gas, and they wake up in a strange hotel room. An LED screen replaces the window, and a tablet lets them know that they have been selected for a social experiment. Every day for the next ten days, either Seiji needs to hurt Daichi physically, or Daichi needs to debase Seiji sexually. Neither of them wants to hurt the other, so this will be a very difficult task for them... You play as Daichi, and Seiji is the only "love interest". There are six endings across three routes.
What do you love about it? I'm a parade/Clock Up stan, I won't lie. These games are definitely not for everyone, and people can argue about the taste of including some of the things they choose to include, but I think that these games have a more sensitive take especially on child abuse than many visual novels of the same genre do. While these are porn games (and the porn is really hot! both beautifully drawn and sexily described!), I feel like there's much more to them than just porn. NTY!!! has a really interesting mystery that is super fun to watch unfold with a really cool gameplay system, and Rn9 just... is one of the most tragic VNs I've ever read, one of the best Fuck or Die stories Ever in my opinion. You really get inside Daichi's head as he's forced to hurt and be hurt, trying to find the best way out of an absolutely impossible situation, and it's heartbreaking to watch.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? I'm mostly interested in pre-canon and post-canon for both games, but I'm flexible! Explaining my pre-canon prompts would be a bit spoilery, but post-canon I'm mostly looking for fix-it since things don't always go well for the main characters and I JUST WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY.
Content warnings (apply to both games): noncon and dubcon, watersports, breathplay/choking, major character death (can be avoided), extensive discussions of child abuse, neglect, and child sexual abuse. Discussions of yakuza/criminal activity, drug use. Very heavily implied off-screen child death.
NTY only - a parent/child incest subplot that isn't explicit, but is shown from the child's point of view and they are clearly unhappy with what's happening to them.
Rn9 only - minor gore, scat (images can be toggled off for both, but the scat scene is actually plot important so I wouldn't recommend skipping through the scat), avoidable but character development-important gang rape scene. Daichi dissociates a few times. Internalized homophobia.