Popotan

Popotan (Japanese: ぽぽたん) is a Japanese eroge visual novel developed by Petit Ferret with character designs by Akio Watanabe under the alias Poyoyon Rock. It was originally released as a PC game for CD-ROM on December 13, 2002, and subsequently re-released on DVD-ROM and for the PlayStation 2 with certain scenes removed. The title Popotan is a nonsensical word meant to reflect the prominence of dandelions, spelled tanpopo (たんぽぽ) in Japanese; Petit Ferret also produced a fan disc shortly before the DVD-ROM re-release. Popotan has been adapted to other media, including a novel series (Popotan～ Himitsu no Jumon～ Kōhen) by Sassami Yachiruda; a manga series by Yūjiro Izumi; a twelve episode anime television series directed by Shinichiro Kimura, animated by Shaft, and licensed in North America by Geneon USA and later, Sentai Filmworks; a radio drama (Poporaji); and several art and reference books.

Gameplay in Popotan follows a semi-predetermined plot; major events remain the same, but personal storylines can diverge from the player's choices. The game focuses on protagonist Chris, a drifter who meets three girls, and their maid in a mansion near the ruins of Tokyo in the distant future.

Gameplay

Popotan is a visual novel in which players spend most of their time in reading dynamic text, representing either dialogue between the various characters or the inner thoughts of the protagonist. After progressing through text, players either come to a "decision point" where they must choose from multiple options, or the text will end and the player must move to a new location, or, in the DVD-ROM and PS2 versions, use a shortcut option to continue to the next event. Time elapsed between decision points varies. The game pauses at these points and, depending on which choice the player makes, the plot will progress and may branch off in a specific direction.