From left to right: Mihomi Hydrangea, Ayume Daffodil, Matsuri Jasmine, Moeko Ivy and Nenene Anemone.
Menherafflesia (メンヘラフレシア) is a horror romance visual novel made by Charon in 2017 using TyranoBuilder.In the game, Itarou meets five girls: Matsuri Jasmine, Mihomi Hydrangea, Ayume Daffodil, Moeko Ivy, and Nenene Anemone, and attempts to start a relationship with one of them. However, as the days pass, he will learn that his chosen girl is not what she seems...
In 2018, Charon released a Japanese-only spinoff game titled Mihomi Dream, focusing on Mihomi's past.
Another spinoff game was released in September 2019 titled Nenene Noble, focusing on Nenene’s past instead.
Starting in August 2019, an episodic sequel, Dice Psycho, was released in Japanese. All six episodes have been completed as of December 2019.
A Remake called Menherafflesia: Flowering Abyss was released in 2021, featuring improved graphics and additional story content.
Menherafflesia contains examples of:
- Arc Words: The phrase "this terribly cruel and irrational world" is said in the prologue and appears about once per route, generally associated with the moment of someone's death.
- Ascended Extra: The Stinger shows a young girl named Misa, who appears in another game called Paranoia and is the mascot of the Charon universe.
- Color Motif: Matsuri has red, Mihomi has blue, Ayume has yellow, Moeko has green, and Nenene has purple.
- Downer Ending: Both the Happy and Bad Ends end up with either Itarou, the girl of the route, or both, dead.
- Driven to Suicide: Every girl except for Ayume and Matsuri in their happy ends. Matsuri kills herself in her bad end and goads Itarou into doing the deed for her in her happy end.
- Flower Motif:
- Each girl is associated with (and named after) a type of flower whose symbolism has something to do with their personal traumas or the things that Itarou will go through with them.
- The game itself uses rafflesias as a motif. The rafflesia is commonly known as the "corpse flower" due to its smell resembling rotting meat.
- Freudian Excuse: All of the girls have some sort of trauma that causes their violent behavior.
- Golden Ending: Exclusive to the Remake, the Extras provide endings where Itarou succeeds in preventing the girls from going insane.
- He Knows Too Much: At the end of her Route in the Remake, Ayume murders Itarou due to thinking he could be used to link her to the murder of her ex-boyfriend.
- Last-Second Ending Choice: Whether you get the Happy End or Bad End in each route is always determined by a single choice, which is conveniently displayed in red.
- Multiple Endings: Each route has two endings: a Happy End and a Bad End. There is also the True End route, "Flowerbed", which can be unlocked with a password after reaching all of the Happy Ends.
- Portmantitle: The game's title is a portmanteau of menhera, a Japanese slang term for the mentally ill, and rafflesia
, a type of flower. - Video Game Cruelty Potential: In addition to the ending choices you can make which might drive your chosen girl to suicide, most of the routes give you the option to say cruel things to them. Moeko's route presents almost nothing but cruel choices, requiring you to put her down in most interactions.
