The term "doujin soft", also known as "doujin games", refers to a sub-genre of
doujinshi — essentially, self-published video games. They are also Japan's equivalent to an
Indie Game.
Doujin softs are generally released to Windows-based computers, and, like doujinshi, doujin softs may offer games based on one or more intellectual properties, or entirely original works. The most frequent genres seen in this category of games are
platformers,
fighting games,
RPGs,
shoot 'em ups (often
Bullet Hell shooters), and
visual novels. These games are often released at special Japanese conventions, such as the Comic Market (a.k.a. Comiket) and Reitaisai. Depending on the game's subject matter, they can also be considered fan games (e.g.,
Grief Syndrome to
Puella Magi Madoka Magica) or an homage (e.g.,
Rosenkreuzstilette to
Mega Man) to another favorite IP. Most of the time, doujin game developers manage to sneak past the
Executive Meddling of things concerning the use of another IP, while a few others aren't so lucky. Case in point:
Rockmen R.
Doujin gaming has been around for a very long time; one of the most prominent (and well-known) long-runners of the doujin scene is the
Touhou series, with its first entry debuting in 1996; since then, it has expanded across 21 official games in the series and a cornucopia of
fan games. That is not to say there aren't other doujin game series that have contended for such a position and legacy. Other doujin series, such as the
Higurashi: When They Cry series, have even migrated into the realm of mainstream anime and manga.
Obtaining these games, however, can a difficult endeavor for those outside of Japan, given the level of obscurity of certain titles and limited print runs. There's also the matter of the games themselves being in Japanese, which can problematic if it's very text-heavy or
when a game requires you to learn something you can't read. Often at times these games get
translated by fans with the knowledge of Japanese and the proper know-how of hacking, editing, and re-programming a game to run in a completely different language, and the willingness to do so.
In recent years, there have also been a very small but growing number of publishers, independent or otherwise, that localize these games outside of Japan and bring them overseas. There are also a few specialty online retailers that can import the original pressings of a doujin game, if copies are available in stock and if shipping the game in question isn't taxing on your wallet.
Notable doujin soft titles include:
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Action Adventure
Metroidvania
- Bunny Must Die (from the creator of the Gundemonium series)
- Ghost 9
- HACK 9
Action Game
First-Person Shooter
- Another Bound and Another Bound NEO (a Metroid Prime-esque freeware game)
Run-and-Gun
- Gigantic Army
- Gun Star (a run-and-gun Lucky Star fan-game; not to be confused with Gunstar Heroes)
Third-Person Shooter
- DYSNOMIA
- Homura Combat and its expansion pack (a Puella Magi Madoka Magica meets Earth Defense Force fan-game)
Adventure Game
Beat 'em Up
- Blood Over
- Croixleur
- Crescent Pale Mist (also a platforming game)
- Duo Princess (a Threads of Fate fan-game by the creators of Recettear and Chantelise)
- Fairy Bloom
- Grief Syndrome (a Puella Magi Madoka Magicka beat 'em up by Twilight Frontier, the creators of Mega Mari)
- Ore no Yome Offline (a Dungeon Fighter Online-esque beat 'em up staring various characters of anime and light novel series)
Card Battle Game
Fighting Game
- Acceleration of SUGURI and its expansion pack
- Crimson Alive
- Angel Star Road (Crimson Alive's spiritual successor)
- Eternal Fighter Zero series:
- Eternal Fighter Zero
- Eternal Fighter Zero -RENEWAL-
- Eternal Fighter Zero: Blue Sky Edition
- Eternal Fighter Zero: Bad Moon Edition
- Eternal Fighter Zero -Memorial-
- Fuuka Taisen (a fan-game of Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome)
- Mega Man X: Rush to Battle (a Mega Man X fighting game)
- Melty Blood
- Ougon Musou Kyoku (a fighting Umineko no Naku Koro Ni gaiden game)
- Magical Battle Arena (an aerial combat crossover fighting game featuring characters from various and popular magical-girl anime series)
- Elemental Battle Academy (a sister-game of Magical Battle Arena from the same doujin circle focusing on third-person ground-based combat)
- Touhou Sky Arena (Magical Battle Arena but with Touhou characters instead from the same creators)
- Tenshou Tenshi VALFORCE (a Virtual-ON doujin game with mecha-musumes)
- Vanguard Princess
- Windom XP:
- Bootfighter Windom XP SP-2 (only the game in the series that is free)
- Ultimate Knight Windom XP and its expansion pack
- Ultimate Knight Windom SV
- Yatagarasu (features character illustrations by Junya "Joker" Inoue)
Platform Game
- Eryi's Action (a Super Mario Bros.-esque platform hell game)
- Lethal Crisis and Lethal Crisis ProtoSphere (a spin-off series of Lethal Application; the latter is also a rogue-like)
- Ragna Chronicle (a Ragnarok Battle Online-eqsue Mega Man game)
- Rockmen R: Dr. Wily's Counterattack (a fan-sequel to Rockman 9)
- Rosenkreuzstilette (an homage to the classic Mega Man series as well as various manga, anime, and visual novel series)
- Tobari And The Night Of The Curious Moon (a Super Marios Bros.-esque platformer with gameplay traits from the Kirby series)
Role-Playing Game
Shoot 'em Up
Vertically-scrolling Shooter
- Akashicverse ~Malicious Wake~ (a surreal shoot 'em up where special weapons are activated akin a fighting game)
- Aurora Blast and its sequel (a shoot 'em up with very fast bullet patterns)
- Banshiryuu
- Blue Wish
- Blue Sabers
- The Chaste Fullmetal Maiden Leiria and its remake (formally retail doujin games now officially freeware)
- Cho Ren Sha 68k (a freeware retro-styled shooter)
- Crimzon Clover
- Green Wind
- eXceed series:
- eXceed-Gun Bullet Children-
- eXceed2nd-VAMPIRE- and eXceed2nd-VAMPIRE REX-
- eXceed3rd-JADE PENETRATE- and eXceed3rd-JAD PENETRATE- BLACK PACKAGE
- Flying Red Barrel ~A Diary of Little Aviator~ (from the circle behind the SUGURI series)
- Hitogata Happa from the Gundemonium series
- HECTOR '39 (a freeware shoot 'em up featuring Miku Hatsune)
- HELLSINKER
- The Hurricane of the Varstray: Collateral Hazard (from the doujin circle behind Trouble Witches)
- Lethal Application
- Meglilo The Witchborg
- Patriot Dark (a formally retail DoDoPatchi-esque freeware shooter)
- QP Shooting and QP Shooting Dangerous (also from the creators of SUGURI)
- Rozen Diadem (freeware shooter based on Rozen Maiden)
- RefRain ~prism memories~ (from the makers Samidare and Seihou)
- ring^-10 (a retro-styled shooter; from the makers of Patriot Dark)
- Samidare
- Seihou
- Strike Witches STG (a freeware PC one, not the Japan-only Xbox 360 one)
- The Tale Of Alltynex series:
- Touhou
- TWINS / TWAIN series:
- Stella Vanity
Horizontally-scrolling Shooter
- cloudphobia
- Diadra Empty
- Gundemonium, GundeadliGne, and Gundemonium Recollection from the Gundemonium series
- Revolgear II
- Revolver360 and Revolver360 RE:ACTOR
- Satazius
- SUGURI
- Trouble Witches series:
- Trouble Witches Episode 1 ~Daughters of Amalgam~
- Trouble Witches Episode 2 ~With Descendents of Ancient Dragon the Souless~
Rail-Shooter
- Gunner's Heart
- SHAFTDIVER
Other
- Ether Vapor and ETHER VAPOR Remaster (a shoot 'em up with changing gameplay, going from a vertical shooter, horizontal shooter, and even a rail shooter)
- Erst Kerf (an RPG adventure game with an overhead shoot 'em up perspective)
Visual Novel
