Eroge, nukige, nakige, galge: adult game terms explained

Eroge means “erotic game”. It is the Japanese umbrella term for any game with erotic content, whatever its genre. Most of the other words on this page describe either what a game is built to make the player feel (nukige, nakige, utsuge, moege), what format it takes (visual novel, kinetic novel), or who it is made for (galge, otome game).

This glossary gives a plain definition for each term, says where the word comes from, and points out the pairs that are easy to confuse.

The terms at a glance

Umbrella terms

Eroge

Eroge (エロゲ, also エロゲー) is a contraction of erochikku gēmu, “erotic game”. It describes content, not genre. An eroge can be a visual novel, a role-playing game, a strategy game or a puzzle game. What makes it an eroge is that it contains erotic scenes and is sold to adults.

In Japan the first commercial eroge appeared on home computers in 1982, and several companies that are now household names published them in their early years. The history of the term is tied to the PC, because console makers did not allow adult content on their machines.

H-game

H-game means the same thing as eroge. The “H” is the first letter of hentai as written in Roman letters, pronounced “ecchi” in Japanese, and it became shorthand for anything sexual. “H-scene” uses the same letter to mean an erotic scene inside a game.

AVN

AVN stands for “adult visual novel”. It is an English-language community term, used mostly for Western-made adult games built in engines such as Ren’Py. People use it even for games that are not strictly visual novels, so in practice it often just means “Western adult game with a story”.

Galge and bishōjo game

A bishōjo game (美少女ゲーム, “pretty girl game”) is a game centred on interactions with attractive female characters. Galge (ギャルゲー) is a contraction of “gal game” and means the same thing.

A galge is not necessarily an adult game. Many are sold for consoles with no erotic content. When a bishōjo game does include adult scenes, it is both a galge and an eroge.

Otome game

An otome game (乙女ゲーム, “maiden game”) is a story-led romance game made for a female audience, in which the player character is a woman and the love interests are usually men. Most otome games are not adult games. The ones that are get labelled as 18+ otome.

Doujin game

A doujin game (同人ゲーム) is a self-published game made by an individual or a small group, called a circle. The word dōjin means “same people”, in the sense of people who share an interest. Doujin games are the Japanese equivalent of indie games. Many are adult games, and many are not.

Terms for what a game is trying to make you feel

Japanese fans sort story-led games by the emotional effect they aim for. These words all end in -ge, short for gēmu, “game”.

Nukige

A nukige (抜きゲー) is an eroge in which the sexual content is the main purpose and the story exists mostly to connect the scenes. Wiktionary and Wikipedia give the same definition: sexual gratification of the player is the main focus of the game.

The word describes a design priority and is not an insult, although it is sometimes used as one. Stores and databases use it as a neutral category.

Nakige

A nakige (泣きゲー) is a “crying game”, from naku, “to cry”. It is a story-led game written to move the player to tears. Wikipedia’s description of the usual shape is a comedic first half, a romantic middle, a tragic separation and an emotional reunion.

Nakige are often adult games in their original release, but the adult scenes are a small part of them, and the best-known ones were later re-released in all-ages versions.

Utsuge

An utsuge (鬱ゲー) is a “depressing game”, from utsu, “depression” or “gloom”. It is bleak throughout and does not offer a happy ending. Where a nakige aims for tears followed by relief, an utsuge leaves the player with the weight.

Moege

A moege (萌えゲー) is a “moe game”. Moe is the feeling of affection for a cute or endearing fictional character. A moege is light in tone, low in conflict and built around spending time with likeable characters.

Charage

A charage (キャラゲー) is a “character game”. The cast is the attraction, and each character’s route matters more than an overall plot. Charage and moege overlap heavily, and many fans use the two words for the same games.

Nukige vs nakige

These two are the most often confused pair in the vocabulary, because the words differ by a single vowel.

Nukige vs eroge

Eroge is the whole category. Nukige is one part of it. Every nukige is an eroge, but an eroge with forty hours of plot and a handful of adult scenes is not a nukige. If you want one rule: eroge tells you a game has adult content, and nukige tells you the adult content is the point.

Terms for format

Visual novel

A visual novel is a story presented through on-screen text, character art, backgrounds, music and often voice acting, which the reader advances by clicking. Most visual novels offer choices that lead to different story branches.

“Visual novel” is a format, and it says nothing about content. Many visual novels are suitable for all ages.

Kinetic novel

A kinetic novel is a visual novel with no choices at all. The reader goes through a single fixed story. The term comes from the KineticNovel brand used by the Japanese publisher Visual Arts for its choice-free titles, and readers later applied it to any visual novel of that kind.

Kinetic novel vs visual novel

A kinetic novel is a kind of visual novel. The only difference is branching: a standard visual novel has choices and more than one ending, and a kinetic novel has neither.

Sound novel

Sound novel is an older Japanese term, a trademark of the developer Chunsoft, for story games in the early 1990s that relied on text and sound. It is mostly used today for those specific games.

ADV and NVL

These describe how text is shown. In ADV style (from “adventure”), text sits in a box at the bottom of the screen with the character art above it. In NVL style (from “novel”), text covers most or all of the screen.

Dating sim

A dating sim is a game in which the player manages time and statistics to build relationships with characters. It is a different thing from a visual novel, although English speakers often use the two terms as if they were the same. A visual novel is read. A dating sim is played through schedules, stats and events.

Sandbox

In adult games, sandbox means a game where the player moves freely between locations and chooses which events to trigger, in contrast with a linear visual novel that goes scene by scene.

Terms you meet while playing

• Route: a branch of the story that follows one character or one outcome.
• Common route: the opening section every player sees before the story branches.
• CG: short for “computer graphic”. In visual novels it means a full-screen illustration made for a specific scene, as opposed to the reusable character sprites.
• Gallery: the menu where unlocked CGs and scenes can be viewed again.
• All-ages version: a release of an adult game with the adult scenes removed or rewritten.
• Patch: a separate download that changes a game. On stores that restrict adult content, publishers often sell an all-ages version and offer a free patch elsewhere that restores the original content.
• Vanilla: content that is conventional and affectionate, with nothing extreme. It is borrowed from the general gaming use of “vanilla” for an unmodified game.
• Harem: a story in which one protagonist has several love interests at once.
• Netorare (NTR): a Japanese term, 寝取られ, for stories in which the protagonist’s partner is taken by someone else. It is one of the most searched and most divisive tags in the medium, and stores label it so that players can avoid or find it.
• Trainer: a game built around raising a character’s statistics over time through repeated actions, with the story unlocking as the numbers rise.

Age ratings and store labels

• AO (Adults Only 18+): the highest rating from the ESRB, the ratings board for the United States and Canada. Console makers do not allow AO games on their platforms, so the rating is rare.
• PEGI 18: the highest PEGI rating, used across most of Europe.
• CERO Z: the highest rating from CERO, the Japanese console ratings board. It is for ages 18 and up, and it is separate from the system used for PC eroge.
• Adult Only (Steam): Steam’s label for games with explicit sexual content. Customers do not see these games unless they turn the category on in their store preferences.
• 18+ or R18: the general label Japanese stores use for adult products.

Where these words are used

Most of these terms come from Japanese fan and retail usage. In English they are kept alive by databases and stores. VNDB, the main fan-run database of visual novels, tags games with many of them, and storefronts that sell translated games use them as categories.

Western adult games have their own vocabulary, which is why “AVN” and “sandbox” sit beside “nukige” and “nakige” on this page. A player moving between the two scenes will meet both sets.

How this page was put together

The definitions are checked against the dictionary and encyclopedia entries listed under Sources, and the Japanese spellings are given so that each term can be looked up independently. Where usage is loose or disputed, as with charage and moege, the text says so.

This page is the reference that other Journal pieces link to. It was written on 2 October 2026 and will grow as new terms need defining. To suggest a term or report an error, see the corrections standard.