Beat Blades Haruka

From left to right: Subaru, Haruka, Narika.

Beat Blades Haruka is an Eroge released by AliceSoft in 2008, and the last in the Dice Training series along with Darcrows and Beat Angel Escalayer. It was adapted into a 3-episode H-OVA in 2009 by Milky.

The main character is Takamaru Ikusabe, a horny teenager who discovers that he is next in line to lead a secret society of ninja called the Crescent Moons that have existed since ancient times and are dedicated to fighting a dark and sinister cult called the Noroi Faction. The most powerful of these ninja are women known as Blades, of whom mysterious transfer student Haruka Takamori is the last surviving member. The Noroi Faction have reappeared in modern times by means of a time-jumping ritual with the intent of resurrecting their god and Haruka is the best hope the Crescent Moons have of stopping them but there's a catch: the source of a Blade's power is sexual stimulation provided by the leader, who is known as the Dragonian. Takamaru finds himself in a race against time to prevent Noroi's resurrection, but with the help of Haruka and his childhood friend Narika, he is confident that he is up to the task.

An action/adventure Eroge that incorporates Raising Sim elements, Haruka is a relatively lighthearted addition to the genre that strikes a balance of comedy, action, and Slice of Life, though if the player chooses it can go some very dark directions. It was selected by MangaGamer as the first localization in an ongoing partnership with AliceSoft and released to western audiences in 2016.

Tropes used in Beat Blades Haruka include:

• Adaptation Decay: With only three episodes the OVA was, sadly, unable to adapt much of the game itself.
• Alternate Character Reading: The Blades, read as 閃忍 or "flashing ninja".
• And the Adventure Continues...: The OVA leaves out a good portion of the game's story, ending just after Subaru gets rescued with at least three major antagonists still remaining.
• Anti-Grinding: Towards the end of the game, the enemies just keep piling on, making it difficult to grind while keeping up your peace points, which are necessary to view some of the endings.
• Autobots Rock Out: With added reed flutes!
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: The three Blades' elemental powers are easily identifiable by their clothes.
• Curtains Match the Window: Narika (red eyes, pink hair, and a mostly red and white color scheme) and Subaru (blue eyes and hair)
• Despair Gambit: The Noroi Faction aims to bring about Noroi's resurrection by spreading despair and corruption, which manifests as "Sinergy".
• Elites Are More Glamorous: The Blades are the elite fighting force of the Jougenshuu and are the only ones the player actually controls. It pays to have a name. In the same way, the named enemies of the Noroi faction are more likely to be taken prisoner and spared than the seemingly-mindless and nameless mooks.
• Emergency Weapon: All of your heroines have an attack that requires no energy to use. However, it's incredibly inaccurate and only ever does one damage even if it does hit, so if you ever run out of energy, you're pretty much screwed.
• Evil Counterpart: Noroi is one half of a being from another world that gave the Dragonians their power. One half wants to protect and uplift humans while the other wants to destroy them. And the Noroi faction as a whole is this to the Crescent Moon, hoping to rule mankind through fear.
• Eyes Always Shut: Itou Hagane
• Faux Action Girl: Haruka in the OVA. Whenever she gets into a fight, it generally ends with her getting raped and having to be bailed out by Narika.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Haruka uses lightning based attacks, Narika uses fire and Subaru uses ice.
• Fish Out of Temporal Water: Downplayed, as Haruka and Subaru are quickly brought up to speed on culture by the modern day Crescent Moons so it doesn't really become an issue.
• The Four Gods: The castles of the Tetra Sealers are named after the holy beasts, with the exception being Castle Infinity, Noroi's personal stronghold.
• Fragile Speedster: Narika invokes this trope initially, with a high starting Reflex stat and a very low Barrier.
• Freudian Excuse: The Tetra Sealers all have some form of tragic backstory that drove them to support Noroi in spite of the fact that Takamaru sees good in them.
  • Orochimaru was a poor, homeless boy who was forced to steal to survive and crippled by an irate landlord for a crime he did not commit.
  • Itou Hagane was a boy named Shuhei who was forced to watch as his sister was sold into slavery by his uncaring parents. Later, once he took up swordplay, his master tried to murder him because he was afraid Shuhei would surpass him.
  • Ensai Mukuroi was a painter who was forced to paint pictures for a feudal lord who threatened to kill his family and everyone in his village. In the end, he was betrayed by the lord, the villagers, and everyone else.
  • The sole exception is Kikyo-dayu, who joined the Noroi Faction to satisfy her own desires and is looked down on by the other Tetra Sealers.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: The main characters are nominally ninjas, but they operate more on Magical Girl tropes than anything else. Justified in that highly visible fights (and victories) help keep the morale of the citizenry up.
• Hot Chick with a Sword: No prize for guessing who.
• In the Name of the Moon: All the time. Lampshaded in the OVA after Narika gets too carried away.
• Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja/Spiritual Successor: Basically, it's Beat Angel Escalayer with ninjas instead of aliens, a more polished battle system, and more heroines to manage.
• Intimate Healing: Sex is required to charge power and raise vital stats.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Many of the Noroi faction originally accept his power for reasons beyond pure misanthropic hatred, even believing they can use his dark blessings for good... but, in the end, all that remains is a bitter loathing for humankind.
• Long-Lost Relative: Days from the final battle, Itou Hagane is reunited with his long lost sister Haru, who was taken in by the Crescent Moons and given the name Haruka.
• Multiple Endings: In addition to the variations of the main ending depending on which heroine the protagonist is closest to (including a Marry Them All variant, which is unlocked if the proper conditions are met on a New Game +, as is the Subaru ending), there are also a set of four possible endings based around the protagonist, corrupted by the brutal and sadistic pleasures of watching the Blades suffer defeat and then punishing them for it, embracing his connection to Noroi and becoming one with the dark being. From there, depending on whom he is closest to, he either corrupts the heroine of his choice into a Dark Blade, or, in one case, becomes the Blades' eternal nemesis, as Haruka, pregnant with his child, swears her family will never stop chasing after him and attempting to destroy him, as he defeats her over and over; raping her each time.
• New Game+: Clearing the game once unlocks two new routes and adds different enemies and CGs, which are required for One Hundred Percent Completion.
• Not So Different: Takamaru notes that the Tetra Sealers are very dedicated to ideals that are similar to the Crescent Moons' in many respects.
• The Obstructive Love Interest: Narika has been actively sabotaging all of Takamaru's attempts at having a normal relationship for years, on orders from the Crescent Moons, so that he wouldn't find out about his Dragonian powers prematurely and/or be tempted to abuse them.
• The Punishment: If the player loses a non-boss battle, the battle leader gets raped by the enemy. This, however, gives them a stat boost at the incredibly steep cost of one love point. That said, getting too into that kind of thing is the path to the darker endings.
• Recurring Riff: The opening theme, Like the Wind and Flame, is a fairly popular track for Alicesoft to rearrange and re-release, having been on at least three of their separate albums.
• Rogue Protagonist: Potentially, within the same game, as a protagonist on the Brutal routes slowly becomes one with Noroi, and attempts to corrupt the Blades by manipulating them into situations where they will be sexually assaulted and come to hate humanity.
• Tanuki: Gokudarou Danuki is one.
• Time Travel: The Noroi Faction used a magical ritual to jump through time to the present day, bringing Haruka and Subaru with them.
• The Vamp: Kikyo-dayu.
• Vigilante Man: Minazuki, a minor antagonist who, rather than simply spreading havoc and slaughtering innocent people, spreads a gospel of dark enlightenment by both killing criminals (especially rapists) and encouraging their largely female victims to take murderous revenge on those who've wronged them. Unlike many of her peers among the Kainin, however, she hasn't fully lost her humanity and can be herself saved.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Minazuki and Soukaku.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Narika (pink) and Subaru (blue).
• You Lose At Zero Trust