Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors, the Vita Sequel

Between 2015 and 2016, Nippon Ichi Software released Criminal Girls 2 on PlayStation Vita. In Japan the title is simply Criminal Girls 2, クリミナルガールズ2, Kuriminaru Gāruzu 2. It is the sequel to the 2010 PSP game Criminal Girls, later known in the West as Criminal Girls: Invite Only. The series kept the same mix: dungeon-crawling RPG systems and an unapologetic erotic rehabilitation fantasy centered on female characters. The Japanese release was aimed at an adult audience. Later Western ports were censored to varying degrees. For adult players who already read BDSM and fetish imagery in games, it is a commercial JRPG that packs domination-flavored training pictures into turn-based combat, the same tension that made the first game controversial abroad.

What the Vita sequel kept on the handheld

The first game started on PSP and later spread to Vita and PC. Party Favors is the Vita-era sequel, spanning 2015 and 2016, with party combat, dungeon progress, and explicit girl-focused content in front of handheld and import players. The overseas argument around the first game was that same pairing: training imagery with a domination flavor inside a turn-based system. Pocket Gamer argued that the battle system made up for the game’s shady surface.

Scores

Aggregate scores landed about average, a bit kinder on Metacritic than Invite Only. In Japan, Famitsu scored it one 7, two 8s, and one 7, for 30 out of 40. MobyGames still lists it. As a Vita sequel it sits slightly higher in the series’ critical standing. The Japanese version kept the explicit fantasy. The Western port was cut.