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"Safety is Power" is a series of ADV / Card Battle games developed by the Doujin circle, ColorWorks. CW has released independent games officially since 1999, most having a mature / adult or eroge slant to them. The first s.i.p., which was released during Comiket 64 in 2003, was an 18+ work that had a goofy story and simple premise, but its following sequels, "s.i.p. SE" and "s.i.p. TE" were revised to be for all-ages. This is significant as besides the last game in their "Medical Manager" series, all their other works were rated for audiences above the age of 17, and "s.i.p. SE" is their first all-ages work. "SE" or "Special Edition" was released during Comiket 67 in 2004 and progresses the story a little, updates the graphics a little more, trims down some of the ADV elements (such as the time management system) and plays up the game's more comedic and wholesome elements.

The story revolves around a 23 year old unemployed NEET, Makoto Asaka, who is otherwise an "ordinary" citizen of Wakui City living in a rundown apartment. Makoto doesn't have any money but has been skirting the law for some time through tax evasion, abuse of Japan's basic "National Pension System", and odd jobs or "gigs" working under the table, becoming more behind on his fiscal obligations by the day. However, there is another odd phenomenon that has developed in Wakui City that Makoto did not immediately become aware of known as the "New Stalking Law", which grants protection and partial asylum to qualified candidates who have garnered the attention of unscrupulous parties. This system was put in place at Wakui City to divert resources to an emerging problem that the local police could not manage on their own, and is designed for rather extreme cases. In order for it to work, the "PG (Public Guardian) System" was created to assign benefactors who perform tasks on the behalf of their clients.

In the events of the first game, Makoto was swept up in a battle for his life against a "Ninja Army" and in SE, the game takes place a few months after the first where Makoto becomes a reluctant "employee" for city hall where other PGs gather while contending with a group of bizarre cosplayers who have an axe to grind with the city. His guardian however is a stoic but capable young girl, 18 year old Mika Kikuchi (who is part of the Social Welfare Division), who not only is the first inaugural PG hired by the city, but who also slowly grows on him as a capable protector and confidante. Several antics ensue as the story unfolds, but the crux of the game lies in playing a revised form of "Blackjack". This form of Blackjack is played in teams and introduces a "Contract Bridge" system which determines who is doing what and what, if any, advantage the player will have.

Each player draws 13 cards and whoever has the highest or "strongest" card wins the hand. Regarding the strength of the cards, A is the strongest, followed by K, Q, and finally 2, with the rest in-between being self explanatory. Cards in play generally adhere to the suite of the first card put down; if you do not have a card of the specified suite, you can put down another card, though it will automatically lose under ordinary conditions. The exception to this is if there is a declared "Trump" card in play. If the player doesn't have a card in the starting suite but a card in the trump suite, this card will automatically win if placed UNLESS another player also uses a trump card with a value greater than your own. A basic strategy is to clear out low value cards and get through the rotation of players to delay your turn order and better pick up wins during the latter half of the game (your partner can also pick up some wins by compensating for your hand).

However, the rules are changed up significantly when a "Contract" is drawn prior (which doesn't begin until later in the game). This auction-style affair determines the rules to win 7 or more hands and can range from using only a certain card suite to no trump cards in play, to even winning all 13 hands, and alters the difficulty of the game. Depending on who declared the contract, one player will become the "Declarer" and the other will be the "Dummy"; the "Dummy" has their hand revealed to other players and adds another layer of strategy to help the "Declarer" sus out the best moves to make. It's a fast-paced, robust and interesting twist to an otherwise ordinary game of cards when things gel properly.

The game has nice and vivid artwork, a serviceable soundtrack, and a few QOL features on the ADV side of things typical to the genre (Message Skipping, Recall, etc.). This is a video of the game in action. You can get it at:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/w46vpi81yylsinu/sipSE.zip/file

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