Sogna

Sogna (Italian for "It Dreams") is a now defunct hentai/bishōjo company from Japan. Originally created in the early 1990s, Sogna became well-known for appealing, simple and well-animated hentai games that have received a moderate cult following.

Each game generally features young, Japanese girls, who in way or another, find themselves either kidnapped or attacked by monsters, cyborgs, aliens or 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 more like animated slideshows than real bishōjo games.

The company went bankrupt around 2000, and the last game was released in 2003.

Games

The most famous and well known games created by Sogna are the infamous "Viper" series. Each game is named after the Dodge Viper car model, and in some games, so are the characters. For instance, the most famous character from the series, Carrerra, gets her name from the Porsche 911 Carrera ("carrera" is Spanish for "race"). Notably, a handful of these games were released as "International Versions", which added an option to play in English, as well as 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"
* "Viper V8"
* "Viper V10"
* "Viper GTS"
* "Viper V12"
* "Viper V16"
* "Viper BTR"
* "Viper CTR"
* "Viper F40"
* "Viper M1"
* "Viper Island Vol.1-6"
* "Viper F50"
* "Viper GTB"
* "Viper Paradice/Viper Langerie Black, Viper Purple and Red"
* "Viper GT1"
* "Typing Viper"
* "Viper M5"
* "Viper RSR"
* "Viper M3"
* "Viper V6R"
* "Viper V8R"

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 different 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".

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.

Viper Paradice

*In "Viper Paradice", the four lovely players roll dice and move across a complex map, picking up various cards which give benefits 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 hentai movies in the game. Danger lurks at every turn.
*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 extened 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 several mahjong matches, and there is a slight adventure element as well.

Fanbase

The "Viper" series has accumulated a rather large fan base on the internet. Some of the more popular titles include "Viper RSR", "Viper GTB" and "Viper M3". Unsurprisingly, the more recent titles have attracted more praise than the older titles; however, "Viper V6" still stands as one of the most well-loved and well-received of all the games.

pinoff titles

In 2002, a hentai anime entitled "Viper GTS" was created by Studio G-1 Neo, released as three episodes with 30 minutes running time for each. The anime follows the series' most famous protagonist, Carrera, as she accidentally falls in love with a human.

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 was not well-received.

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 and super deformed characters.

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.sogna.com/ Sogna's site] via the Internet Archive
* [http://www.hyperguy.net/ Hyperguy's Website] — possibly the only English fansite still actively updated
* [http://www.hyperguy.net/hyperchan/wakaba.html Hyperchan] - Hyperguy's image board.
* [http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/74490.html Sogna] company page at GameFAQs — information on some of the "Viper" titles
* [http://pc98.acheronx.com/ PC98 Images] — downloads of the older titles
* [http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/ Tokugawa Corp.] — screenshots from a whole range of old PC98 bishōjo games, including the "Viper" series