Criminal Girls: Invite Only is a role-playing video game developed by Imageepoch and published by Nippon Ichi Software. It began life in Japan as Criminal Girls on PlayStation Portable on November 18, 2010. An enhanced PlayStation Vita port launched in Japan on November 28, 2013, reached the rest of the world in February 2015, and hit Steam on January 11, 2017. The unabashedly risqué Japanese game was controversially censored for Western release; critics and players noted the localization stripping the sound and obscuring the action around the title’s erotic rehabilitation set pieces. For BDSM-adjacent game media, it is a flagship example of NIS erotic dungeon RPG branding meeting overseas content rules.
Plot and gameplay
The story drops the main character into hell with a job to rehabilitate seven girls. That premise drives both narrative and the series’ signature motivation scenes, which blend punishment and training fantasy with party-RPG structure. Gameplay leans on dungeon crawling and other standard RPG systems, exploration, combat, and party management wrapped around the girls’ individual arcs. The mix drew both fans of lewd JRPGs and reviewers who found the erotic layer tedious once novelty faded.
Reception and sequel
According to Metacritic, the PlayStation Vita and PC versions earned mixed reviews. GameSpot argued combat was undercut by tedious design and perverse activities. In Japan, Famitsu scored the PSP original 28 out of 40 and the Vita version 29 out of 40. A sequel, Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors, released in Japan on November 26, 2015, and worldwide in 2016. Credits remain available via MobyGames. Invite Only is the entry that took Imageepoch’s hell-and-seven-girls formula from Japanese PSP cult status to censored Vita and Steam notoriety, and left a sequel to continue the party-favors brand for players who wanted more of the same explicit training fantasy packaged as dungeon RPG content.
