Two weeks of surprises (and a lot of “any day now”)
Two weeks of news this time, since the last post went up on August 29. Five things worth knowing, plus a radar section that is mostly bad news about release windows.
September 11
Dawn Chorus
Cozy queer romance VN set in Arctic Norway, free, and the highest rated thing in the entire Bara tag at 4.9 from 2,393 ratings.
There is a second Dawn Chorus game, and you are getting it for free. It is called The Waves, it is Lake’s side story, and the dev wrote it back in 2023 and then sat on it for two years because it felt too personal to share. Patrons voted to have it released, so now it exists. Chapter II just went up, chapters release every two weeks on Patreon, five or six total, and then the whole thing lands on itch for 0 euros about a month after the final chapter.
Do not go in expecting Dawn Chorus. It is a deliberately small, strange thing: 4:3 aspect ratio, monospace font, tiny resolution, photographs for backgrounds, about 5.5k words across the first two chapters. The dev’s own words are “it’s adult but it’s not smut,” and there is no separate SFW mode. Jørgen is in it, plus two new characters you may remember being mentioned in the main game.
Also: v0.58 hits the free itch build on September 18. That is ~25k words of new Lake, Jørgen and Guðrún content, the biggest update the game has had, and the reworked Day 1 key thread is already public in v0.57.3.
September 5
KemoGemo!
Free browser merge puzzle game where the reward for combining things is bara characters, outfits and scenes.
New release, and it is already on its second week of patching. Published September 5, updated again today. You merge and upgrade items to level up your character, earn a currency called GemoP, and spend it unlocking characters, outfits and story scenes, some of which are R-18. About 30 minutes a session, English and Traditional Chinese, playable in the browser or downloadable, and free. Sitting at 3.5 from 11 ratings.
The thing you need to know before clicking: the dev discloses that over 95% of the content and assets are AI generated, graphics included, with AI assistance on the code too. That is the highest disclosed figure I have seen on anything in this tag. I am telling you so you can decide for yourself rather than find out after.
September 10
The Black Hole Explorer
Free browser space adventure about rescuing your boyfriend, pitched by its own dev as “Outer Wilds exploration game, but with hot men.”
Out since August 23, patched again on September 10. You fly around, go into black holes, and talk to men who are not wearing very much. Roughly 30 minutes, free, browser only, subtitles and a tutorial included. It is rough: 2.2 from 6 ratings, and still marked in development.
AI flag again, I am afraid. The dev discloses AI assistance across code, graphics and audio. Free means it costs you nothing but time to form your own opinion.
September 3
God of Chaos
325,000 word text only interactive novel from Choice of Games. No graphics, no sound, just choices.
New release, $6.99, free demo. You are the last surviving god of a murdered pantheon, broken out of a thousand year prison by druids, and the Alchemists who killed your family now run everything. Play male, female or nonbinary, and gay, bi, straight, poly, ace or aro, with three romanceable characters. Also you can ride a Jabberwocky.
Setting expectations honestly: this is not Bara. There is no art at all, and the queer content is an option rather than the point. But it is 325k words for seven dollars, it is reviewing Positive, and it is the only fully tame thing on this list, so if the rest of this post is not your speed, this one is for you.
September 2
Bara Blood: The Crimson Heir
NSFW action platformer, not a VN. You play Lucien, Dracula’s son.
It launched. $10.99 on Steam, Windows only. The angel Angelo has cursed everyone with “magical good manners” and you are freeing them from it. Four handcrafted levels, four weapons, 16 NSFW animations, four CGs, gallery mode. Free demo, plus a $1.99 art pack and a $2.99 guide.
Two heads ups. The launch discount ended September 9, so you are paying full price now. And the dev’s own content description flags some scenes as dubious consent, worth knowing going in rather than discovering mid level. It also had exactly one user review at launch, so nobody has vetted this yet. Marked Adult Only, so your Steam preferences need to show it.
Same dev shipped Baracop in October 2025 and Raw Signal in April 2026, roughly every five to six months, usually with a guide and art pack alongside. They have been at this since 2020, so there is a back catalogue if you like the shape of it.
👀 On the radar
Canticle is overdue. 0.4.6 landed around August 11 and has been the newest build ever since. The cadence was close to monthly, so we are past due for 0.4.7, and there is nothing on Bluesky or the itch devlog to explain the gap. Separately, the free demo is still v0.3 from December 2025, and Chapter 3 has been promised for the free build since roughly June. Not worried yet, just noting it.
Those NPC’s Love Stories missed late August, and has gone properly quiet. The Steam page still says “To be announced.” No Steam announcement since July 2025. No itch devlog since April 30. That is at least the third slipped window, so I would not bank on a 2026 release. The demos are still up and still good.
Twin Coves has been 78% complete since April. No devlog since April 27. The dev has a release date written down and is refusing to share it until the game hits 100%, which is a reasonable call, but five months of quiet on itch is a long time. Kickstarter updates are the higher signal channel if you want to follow along. The free Demo 2.0 is three hours long and still the best unpaid thing I can point you at.
Hypermancer promised monthly builds. 0.1.1 shipped August 17 and nothing since. It is free while it is in early development and stops being free at Alpha, so grabbing it now is not a bad idea.
Vampire Therapist on Xbox: resolved, and I was wrong. It did ship. The dev’s own announcement lists Switch, PS4, PS5 and, quote, “all those weird Xboxes with funny names.” Consider that question closed. Little Bat’s next game is called Better Than Us and it is about lying to the ultra rich.
Riverwood now says January 2027 on its Steam page, which is the first real date that project has ever had. Treat it as soft.
Stranded 4: still nothing on jyagger’s itch profile. Part 3 ended mid arc so it is coming, but this dev goes quiet for long stretches and that is normal. The Stranded 3 teaser and The Room are both free in browser if you want something to chew on.
Ikigai University quietly reuploaded on September 8 with no devlog explaining what changed. Still v1.1.1, still free, still 4.9 from 23, still explicitly no generative AI.
One honest note on sourcing: Mr.Ryu’s Bluesky is now sign in gated and Patreon cannot be read at all from where I do this research, so for TNLS and Canticle I am working from Steam, itch and public posts only. If you are a patron of either and know something I do not, say so, I would rather post the real answer next week.
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