Since childhood, Hiroki has suffered from a malady that leaves him weak and tired. Ayano, his neighbor and childhood friend, has always taken care of him as best she can. Even with her care and attention, he can't help but fall into a depression that he will never get better, since it seems most days all he can manage to do is get to school and back home again. Then one day there is a knock at his door. When he answers, a pretty young girl wearing a nurse's outfit gently says, "Hi, I'm Maria. I am your private nurse." Meanwhile, the new school nurse, Mio, also takes on the task of curing Hiroki. Ayano must overcome her jealousy that these two women have intruded on her relationship with Hiroki while at the same time hoping that he can be cured. Mio wants to cure him to prove she can be a better nurse than her school career implied. Maria is confident that she can cure Hiroki, but she can only stay with him for 30 days, and may be more than what she seems.
Private Nurse is a Visual Novel-style Utsuge eroge from Angel Smile. While it does have some amount of sex in it, it is entirely incidental to how the story unfolds. And the story is nothing short of fantastic. In its most basic form, it's a love story, but it calls out to several other styles as well. There is a small amount of the fantastic implied, but overall it is a story about four ordinary people. Even though the story does play to a lot of tropes, as you can see in the list, it also has a tendency to twist, subvert or invert them at some point, which can keep the story from feeling too cliched, and more realistic. Depending on the decisions you make during the game, the good endings vary from a positive to a nearly tragic Bittersweet Ending. Expect many Tear Jerker moments in between as the three women do their best to try to cure both Hiroki's body and spirit so he can look forward to having a normal life.
This game provides examples of:
- The Ace: Ayano, being smart, athletic, and attractive.
- Anchored Ship: Hiroki and Ayano were officially dating when they were younger, but Hiroki called it off because he didn't think it was fair to saddle her with his illness. She never quite forgives him for not considering her feelings but still remains entirely devoted to him. If you pick Ayano's storyline, they get better. If you pick a different storyline ...it can get worse.
- Bittersweet Ending: Maria's ending - and this is considered a good ending.
- But Now I Must Go: Maria says she can only stay with Hiroki for 30 days. You can choose to try to get her to stay at the end, but it isn't recommended if you want the best ending.
- Childhood Marriage Promise: Not exactly, but Ayano and Hiroki have been friends since they were both children (and even officially dated for a while) and she has said she will always take care of him.
- Determinator: Ayano, who is very athletic but has not trained for a marathon, attempts to run one. She's unable to finish it, and is still running long after the race officially ends, but pushes on until she collapses from exhaustion.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Hiroki doesn't like it when Ayano calls him "Hero" in public.
- First Girl Wins: If you choose Ayano.
- Healing Hands / Intimate Healing: Maria.
- H Game POV Character: Hiroki is probably a Type IIB - generally a nice guy, but depressed and moody because of his illness.
- Magical Girl: Maria. Maybe. It's left very ambiguous.
- Mood Whiplash /
Misaimed Marketing: If you find the English-translated version of this game for sale, the ad will invariably focus on the point of it being a hentai game. - Nature Spirit: Maria is implied to be this (namely, the spirit of the tree that Hiroki fell out of as a child), though the interpretation is ultimately left up to the player.
- There are several hints throughout the game alluding to this, such as Maria's constant emphasis on being in touch with nature to stay healthy, her getting sick when there is a toxic waste dump accident nearby, and Hiroki's dream voice sounding similar to Maria's, among others.
- Porn with Plot: HEAVY on the plot. The sex is almost entirely incidental, and the game could survive without it.
- Those Two Guys: Maria's two huge nurse friends, who are also basically a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine.
- Token Mini-Moe: Yuno, Ayano's little sister. For an eroge game the expected is completely avoided — she is not an end-game storyline, she's just Ayano's cute little sister.
- Tomboy: Ayano is an all-around sports star, according to Hiroki.
- Tsundere: Mio first sees Hiroki as a good project to redeem her awful med school grades, but soon becomes fond of him and genuinely wants him to get better.
- Ayano is somewhere in the middle; she can be aggressive and moody with Hiroki, but most of the time worries about him and is usually in a good mood.
- Unwanted Harem: Only technically. There are three girls, but there is never much real competition between them. Although in some endings, the "Unwanted" part gets taken very seriously.
- Victorious Childhood Friend: Ayano, if you pick her path.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: There are implications that Hiroki's sickness is at least as much psychosomatic as physiological and that he needs to be convinced that he can get better if he doesn't give up on himself.
