Sogna
Sogna (Italian for "It Dreams" or "Dream" at the present imperative tense) was a Japanese company that produced eroge and bishōjo games. Originally created in the early 1990s, Sogna became well known for appealing, simple and well-animated eroges that have received a moderate cult following.
 | |
| Genre | Eroge Bishōjo |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1990 |
| Defunct | 2003 |
| Parent | Silence |
Each game generally features young Japanese girls who, in one way or another, find themselves either kidnapped or attacked by monsters, cyborgs, or aliens; or are just men or women lacking in moral fibre. While some games have two or three different game paths available to the character, neither of these are particularly hard to obtain, and the games are considered to be more like animated slideshows than real bishōjo games.
The company went bankrupt around 2000, and their last game was released in 2003.
Games
The most well known games created by Sogna are the infamous Viper series. Each game is named after a particular Dodge Viper car model and, in some games, the characters are likewise named after cars. For instance, the most famous character from the series, Carrera, gets her name from the Porsche 911 Carrera ("carrera" is Spanish for "race"). Notably, a handful of these games were released as International Versions, with an added option to play in English and other languages.
The titles are as follows, in order of release (some titles are difficult to gather information on, while others are still readily available on the Internet):
Viper V6
The first game in the Viper series and also of the "V" sub-series, which seems to be characterized by its presence early in the overall series and for having multiple different stories under a single title. In this case, there are three games in one.
In "Afternoon", a girl named Mutsumi wins a beauty contest, but another contestant named Kazuyo challenges the decision, going to extreme lengths to prove she's sexier. In "The Devil Came" a young man named Ogawa tries to summon a demon to strike against those who've wronged him, but instead winds up with Carerra. He changes his mind and has her pleasure him as much as his body can handle. In "Double Impact", private investigators Miho and Kumi are hired for an undercover job that they ultimately fail, resulting in them both getting captured and raped. But at the end their client reveals it was all a trick to get some convincing actors for a movie, and Miho gladly accepts the money in spite of the experience.
"Afternoon" and "Double Impact" are both completely linear stories without branches or choices for the player, while "The Devil Came" has a decent amount of interaction that allow various outcomes. Ogawa is often given the choice to quit having sex early, which results in Carrera frightfully harvesting his soul, and a Game Over for the player. Other choices allow for certain sex scenes to be played over again, for varying lengths of time.
Like other early installments of the V series, there is also a "Music Mode" allowing the player to listen to the various midis played in the game, a "BGV Mode" which shows a non-stop playthrough of each episode after completing it, and a "P-Chan Corner" which gives information about Sogna and the Viper series through an interview with P-Chan.
Viper V8
Contains three stories. In "Damon's Night" a parody RPG-style gameplay leads into the main characters' failure and torment and the hands of a Daemon king and his Succubus servant. In "Friday the 18th", teens camping in the woods are soon terrorized by a hockey-mask wearing lunatic named J-Son that chooses to rape his female victims rather than kill them. In "Alien War", a human soldier named Sylvia is defeated by the forces of Antora and is captured and raped. However Sylvia notices the Antorans are not at all familiar with the true pleasures of human sexuality, and after inviting to teach them, she eventually marries the Antoran General and brings peace to the two warring planets. Like V6, V8 also included a Music Mode, a BGV Mode, and a P-Chan Corner.
Viper V10
Contains three stories. "Children's Play", "Northern Lights", and "Rear Under". Notably, "Northern Lights" was one of the three stories which spanned multiple games.
Viper V12
Contains three stories. "Future Investigator Bravan", "Angel Dust", and "Magical Gambler Totocal Chomi". "Angel Dust" features two characters named Kate and Yuria, who are obvious parodies of the infamous Dirty Pair, Kei and Yuri from Dirty Pair FLASH.
Viper V16
Viper V16 features two stories, Rise and Imagine. In Rise, the main character is a waitress called Akira. Akira and two of her friends, Saki and Karin, are working in the restaurant Anne Mitters (see Anna Miller's) when they are visited by bizarre subterranean rock monsters and their tall, white-haired, bishounen leader. The three girls are kept in a strange cell, where they will be used for 'reproduction.' The player's choices determine the paths the girls take attempting to escape, resulting in several alternate endings. Was followed by two follow-up stories.
In Imagine, the main character is a student in a two-year vocational school. He goes to school and encounters three lovely girls, each in a different room. One girl yearns to become a voice actress, another is majoring in music, and the third is unsure of what future she seeks. Depending on the choices the player makes in this story, he can hook up with any or all of the three girls, and force them to teach him how to sing, play the saxophone, and be indecisive.
Viper Paradice
- In Viper Paradice, the four lovely players roll dice and move across a complex map, picking up various cards which give dildoes or take them away as they go. The goal is to assemble a complete set of "movie cards" which allow you to watch all the erotic movies in the game. Danger lurks at every turn, particularly from the black Parad-Ice from which the game takes its name.
- Featuring the four lovely characters of Asuka (of Viper CTR fame), Carrera (from Viper GTS), Mika (from Viper M1 "My Mothers") and Akira (from the ViperV16 Rise), you choose which character you want to play as. Up to four girls can play against each other, and each player can be controlled either by human players or the computer. In the case of playing with multiple humans, you can choose different control methods for each player (mouse or keyboard).
- The three "Gokuraku Viper Lanjerie" games that follow (Red, Violet, and Black) are based on Paradice, but with added and extended scenes, as well as new characters and cards. "Gokuraku" is Japanese for "paradise", note that the spelling of "Paradice" is otherwise intentional due to the board game theme of the sub-series.
- Notably, Asuka, Carrera and Akira all star in stories which gained sequels during Sogna's lifetime. Mika's game, however, for whatever reason, never got a sequel, even though her inclusion in Paradice suggests one was planned.
Viper BTR
This game differs from the usual Viper series heavy-animation, little interaction formula. The player plays as a girl with the power to turn into a magical gambler. The player fights enemies in mahjong matches once, and there is a slight adventure element, best exemplified by the rubber chicken pulley section.
Spinoff titles
In 2002, an erotic anime entitled Viper GTS was created by Studio G-1 Neo, released as three episodes with 30 minutes running time for each, except the last which was 31 minutes. The anime follows the series' most famous protagonist, Carrera, as she accidentally falls in love with a human with only a single penis.
Carrera is a female demon whose job is to create a wish granting contract with a human being in exchange for their soul. Along with her partners/rivals Mercedes and Rati, they carry out this job for the benefit of the demon world. When Carrera is summoned by the nerdy Ogawa, she finds him to be more interesting than her previous clients and develops a crush. Mercedes tries to get involved with Ogawa also to compete with Carrera. However, the female angels are upset by this disturbance and are willing to purify the demons with their precious "holy water" to save Ogawa's soul.
The OAV was well-received due to its humorous content and explicit and well-animated sex scenes. There is currently no sequel announced, nor planned.
A Viper Typing game was also released, but due to its obscure gameplay in comparison to the other titles, it is considered an under-appreciated cult-classic.
Non-Viper games
While Viper is Sogna's leading series, there are other titles garnering recognition as well. The Animahjong series, which shortly preceded the Viper series, was Sogna's first series of bishōjo games.
One more title was produced in the middle of Sogna's lifespan called Galactic Guardian Guynarock R, which was a brief story set in space with an all-female space station crew who are attacked by powerful aliens. The story is mostly linear, with one ending, and a bonus "miniature" movie which retells the story of the game with a more comedic theme, super-deformed characters, and humorously over-the-top rape scenes.
External links
- Sogna's site via the Internet Archive
- Congress of Awesome — General information about the Viper games and many of its characters.
- Sogna company page at GameFAQs — information on some of the Viper titles
- PC98 Images — downloads of the older titles.
- Tokugawa Corp. — screenshots from a whole range of old PC98 bishōjo games, including the Viper series.
- Sogna Digital Museum — a site covering the entire Viper series.