An infamous Japanese erotic game company makes its English debut

Illusion Software has become infamous both inside and outside of Japan for its very explicit 3D eroge, also known as pornographic games. But none of them have ever been available to play in English — until VR Kanojo, a virtual reality experience now available on Steam.

[Content warning: The post includes discussion of games that include disturbing sexual content.]

VR Kanojo is billed as a hangout session with “the lovely girl-next-door, Sakura Yuuhi.” Chilling with Sakura involves watching her sleep, letting her breathe on your cheek and helping her with her homework “as you laugh and talk the day away;” eventually, you’ll use your Oculus Touch or HTC Vive controllers to touch Sakura back, unhook her bra for her and get all handsy. You guys can also play dress-up, obvs.

All of this happens in the privacy of Sakura’s bedroom, so things naturally ... go places. But while Steam’s version supports English subtitles, it doesn’t include the parts that go all the way, as typically seen in Illusion Software’s games. Instead, VR Kanojo looks more like a hornier Summer Lesson, PlayStation VR’s cute-girls-up-close simulator, than straight-up interactive porn. That horny factor is made very clear from the beginning: When players start up the game, they’re encouraged to make sure they’re alone and in a locked room so that they can get truly intimate with Sakura.

You can watch some gameplay below. Just as the game does, I’d recommend to check that no one can see your monitor.

As creepy as it is to feel up a young girl in VR, this seems a lot tamer than previous Illusion titles. The developer is perhaps best known in the West for RapeLay, a PC game from 2006 that made the player assume the role of a stalker-turned-rapist. So divisive was the game and its obscenely gross premise that even Japan’s then-prime minister Taro Aso protested its release. Japan later banned eroge that involved rape.

But the lurid RapeLay, this is not. If that’s somehow comforting to you, VR Kanojo is available now for $49.99