What are /r/visualnovels' favorite Products & Services?

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<strong>Katawa Shoujo</strong> was mine, and I'm pretty sure the majority of the VN userbase will say the same thing.

I'm very glad that I decided to indulge in the VN that is Katawa Shoujo back in July 2014, because it introduced me to VNs, one of the best mediums I have found to date.

While it is definitely not perfect, Katawa Shoujo still is an amazing ride and it will hold a special place in my heart for a long time.

Hint: It's probably Aoiro Rinne. IIRC one of the MG's translators like it a lot and 輪廻 (Rinne) mentioned in that dialogue. It certainly sounds like an interesting title, probably solid choice to localize.

If anyone's curious why it's not Dies Irae:

1- Game is too big and hard. Garejei mentioned even those scenes take up too much time and whole game is out of question. This probably applies even if you consider Conjueror (Himawari translator) working on it too.

2- I really, really doubt Light would agree with that.

3- その輪廻はもう止まらん. (The cycle of death and rebirth cannot be stopped) This is what makes it certain. As someone who played the Dies, let's just say, uh, there is no 輪廻 (Life and Death cycle) concept in Dies to stop.

Hoshizora no Memoria is the most beautiful VN I've played so far. It was my first commercial VN, so I didn't fully appreciate just how high-quality it was while I was reading. It might just be the first VN I re-read.

I never heard of this game ever but it looked familiar and its because I saw this screenshot of it before: https://vgy.me/rOuFu5.jpg

it says: I'm not a lolicon. It just happens that the girl I fell in love with is incidentally a loli.

Which I know we can all attest to have occurred at some point in all of our own lives. There is no doubt that this is a kamige that just has been undiscovered all this time. Thank you Sol Press for being the only localization company that will send us all to jail without any reluctance.

I think it's fairly indisputable that OELVNs are going to dramatically improve in quality over the next few years. We're seeing the transition from what are essentially fan projects where the producers work for free until release (and so can only recruit from their circle of friends who are willing to take the "work now, pay later" gamble), into companies that have sufficient funds to pay salaries up front and hire professionals.

However there are a couple of pit-falls that might keep western VNs permanently playing second-fiddle to their Japanese counterparts:

• The tendency to ape Japanese VN styles and tropes. It doesn't inspire much confidence in the originality of a western VN's plot when it shamelessly adopts anime styles. I'd prefer western artists to find their own styles and produce something unique like Cinders.
• The overlapping talent pool between VNs, manga, and anime within Japan will be hard to beat. Quite a few high calibre writers started their careers with VNs before moving onto higher budget industries, but given the low regard so many Western gamers put on story, it's hard to see the western VN industry ever attracting talent of the same calibre.

I think one of my favorite route progressions is actually from Analogue: A Hate Story, specifically the way you have to unlock the "harem end". [Spoilers] (#s "It requires using information from another playthrough and manually entering a number for a text log you read to show it to a character. The game even lampshades there being no way you should have known that. It reminds me of the type of stuff the Metal Gear series would do, like how Meryl's codec number is on the back of the game box, or how you have to switch controller ports when fighting psycho mantis")

I'd probably give the award to Kamidori. There are (IIRC) 17 girls with all kinds of personalities and physical traits.

Close second would be Shirou's harem in Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. Quality over quantity for this one. Saber, Rider, and Sakura. Who could ask for more?

I just recently got into VNs and I am starting with Fate Stay/Night. I finished the first route yesterday and I thought it was totally amazing. I had to control myself from jumping right in to the next part because I wanted the ending to sink in. I am planning on starting the next route later this afternoon and I am super stoked.

Edit: Forgot to add link

I prefer just using a tool like ManicTime or RescueTime to track my reading time. I'm not sure how this Visual Novel Manager program works exactly, but the tools I mentioned only track the time a program is actually being actively used aka in focus. Plus, you don't need to launch the VNs through the tool for the tracking to work.

I don't think there's any tool out there that could backtrack the time you spent on it. That'd be pretty cool, though.

This might be a weird question, but is it ok if I reference this list and make a Top 10 List for a few of these lists on GameFAQs?

http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/top10/2777-the-top-10-very-best-battle-themes

I'd make the Top 10 title like.. "Top 10 VNs as voted by the Visual Novel subreddit" and would reference this list as well as The_Dvls_Advocate for getting all the results.

Only thing I would do is make write-ups for all of them and try to make them appealing to the reader to hopefully get them to start reading VNs.

Ok more like it's almost out, it was set to go at 4pm and Steam is taking it's sweet time to release it.

But there is a DLC patch for the 18+ content on Denpasoft https://store.steampowered.com/app/828580/NEKONIN_exHeart_2/

Or you can get the entire 18+ game directly on Denpasoft.

https://denpasoft.com/products/neko-nin-exheart-2

We hope you enjoy more adorable cat girls who are also ninjas! Also bonus, for those not aware, the 18+ does not have mosaics! woo!!

It gets hated on a lot here for being "that noobie VN" and getting undeserved praise, but honestly, Katawa Shoujo is one of the best places to start. It was originally written in English, so there's no awkward translation, it's not particularly long (~20h-ish), the installation is simple, it doesn't rely too much on traditional tropes, but still presents a "standard" enough experience that you get an idea of what most VNs look like. The decisions are straightforward enough that you don't need a walkthrough/flowchart, etc.

You might be turned off by how generic/amateur-ish it is though, and if you are, the other obvious suggestion is Saya no Uta, which has an official English translation, is short, simple, and very high quality. The art does occasionally feel a bit rough, but the soundtrack, VA and writing more than make up for it. Great as it is, though, it's very atypical, so not necessarily a good example of how VNs usually look.

Or you can just dive into the deep end and read MLA.

And read the sidebar, ffs.

AniList mod here.

We have been thinking about including visual novels into our database since day-1, since we already have the manga and anime sections covered. That being the case, we are right now knee-deep in developing AniList 2.0 (more info here: http://anilist.co/blog), and haven't been able to focus on implementing new features.

It is great seeing the interest for visual novels to be added to the site, and hopefully we can make it happen one day :)

Nope, sorry :\

VNDB generally does a very good job of listing all the releases for a VN in their various languages, along with links to the sites for the releases. If you check the VN she's from, your options seem to be Japanese, Chinese, or a partial translation in Finnish (don't think I've ever seen that before)

Ultimate☆Boob Wars!! ~Big Breasts vs Flat Chests~

Expected: Plotless nukige romp fun for the whole family!

Received: An overarching story that literally had me laughing out loud, and the most emotionally charged action scenes I've seen in a VN.

Currently working through Muv-Luv and I'm at the part where they are in the Hot Springs. There's not much to say really, though I'll have to admit the characters have gotten a bit more bearable now that I've been used to them. Besides that, I have been speculating a bit on what might happen later in the story.

I really think that[Muv-Luv speculation:](#s "Sumika is going to die pretty soon. She's already got a ton of death flags on her. Her diary entry was the first scene in the entire VN, not to mention those frequent dream sequences that Takeru has, and that one specific dream where Sumika was taken away from him by her parents. I feel that if any of the characters are going to die, Sumika is going to be the first, as it would be a major shock to everyone and it would add for some interesting character developments. If she doesn't die early though, I'm literally 90% certain that she's going to die at some point in the story.")

Ever wanted to know who wrote a particular VN, or what other things he's written? Or maybe you have a favorite voice actress and want to know what other games she's been a part of? This new update makes it easy to find out. It's still a wiki/community effort, however, so be sure to contribute.

Also, everyone should check out the games on this page, the best voice actress. Like, objectively.

^^^^lol

Michiru from idol mahou shoujo chiruchiru michiru. But she was designed to be stupid/incompetent as possible for maximum comedic effect, so I don't know if she qualifies.

There is also Takayuki from kimi ga nozomu eien. He is worse than Takeru in many aspects. He runs away from his problems, whiny, and just very unlikable.

Still reading Muv-Luv Alternative, though progress has been slow since I'm finishing finals at the moment. I recently finished the [ ](#s "BETA invasion") arc. [ ](#s "While the Objective 21 and BETA invasion arcs were both great, nothing has topped CHOMP and Takeru fleeing to his original world for me yet. I don't like Sumika much and I'm a little disappointed that she's the main heroine over Meiya despite Meiya being a better character in my opinion. Also that first H-scene... what the fuck? I don't really know what I expected but I didn't expect that. If the writers' goal was to make me feel uncomfortable, they definitely succeeded since I haven't read a VN scene that disturbing since Saya no Uta or Kara no Shoujo.")

I'm new to this whole visual novel thing, and after enjoying Katawa Shoujo so much, the next logical step after browsing this subreddit's sidebar was to read Grisaia no Kajitsu. Right now I'm in the middle Sachi route after finally completing all 1000 hours of the common route (which I have zero complaints about since it was consistently funny as hell). As for Sachi's route: damn. I have come close to tears during multiple parts of this story so far. They're doing a brilliant job of getting me emotionally attached to the heroine with some clever narrative tactics. I just want to reach out and give Sachi a hug after all she's been through. Although her behavior is very over-the-top, the explanation the writers gave justified this surprisingly well. In terms of writing and dialogue, GnK is many many levels above what I saw in KS. The addition of voice acting is huge bonus too, especially with the amazing performances all around. What really makes this VN special though is the main character, who is goddamn phenomenal. He is truly multi-dimensional and unique, while also being very likeable. He might just be one of the MCs of all time.

I haven't played many Western VNs but I will recommend Juniper's Knot by Dischan Media. It's a short VN (<2 hours) about an immortal demon and a young boy. It's an emotional narrative with a decent soundtrack and beautiful illustrations.

It's free so go check it out if you can.

It's a shame they halted the full development of the Dysfunctional Systems series. I was really looking forward to it.

OH MY GOD DOES THIS MEAN THE RANCE SERIES WILL HAVE A CHANCE TO BE OFFICIALLY TRANSLATED?!?!

The game looks pretty decent though but anyways, always welcoming any Alicesoft games being officially released!

here's vndb link https://vndb.org/v284

Edit: It seems that 2.0 Translations will still be working on the Rance series BUT they will not released any fan patch translations anymore, they want it to release it officially through MG, more info

Guess who is actually making progress in Tsukihime? This guy!

I finished Ciel's route a couple of days ago. I really enjoyed it. I liked it better than Arcueid's route, but I'm still a sucker for Arcueid, so I got the Good End first. I actually liked the Good End better than the True End. [Tsukihime Ciel Route](/s "The way Shiki survived in the good end was more realistic. In both ends, he stabs his own death, but in the Good, he has Arcueid helping him to survive. The epilogue was very fan-service-y, although the dream in the True Epilogue also felt unnecessary too.") Maybe I just need to look at an in-depth explanation of the ends.

Now it is time to start the Dark Side of the Moon! I'm going to try to get to Akiha's ends first. We'll see what happens though, as I'm still not using a guide.

Not the person who replied but here's a random unsolicited fun fact: it's common practice for digital artists to do what moogy0 just described for in general, whether it's freelance work or a personal piece.

Drawing on ridiculously huge canvases and scaling the picture down once you're finished kills ten birds with one stone. It's useful if you want to export a photo cropped to various aspect ratios. The downscaling aspect saves space while also obscuring little mistakes or less-than-clean bits that would otherwise negatively stand out. It's great if you ever want to revisit a piece to add detail without squinting your eyes out or killing your wrists from repetitive tiny movements. And so on and so forth.

In my personal experience, drawing on larger canvases also just makes drawing/painting WAY easier. Especially if you're using something like a tablet monitor.

Extremely hyped about this. Apparently some consider it as good as Ever17.

For context on the video, it was originally posted on Yeti's official YouTube channel, but taken down when they realized the game hadn't been announced yet. OP's link is a reupload.

VNDB link

It's directed by Takumi Nakazawa, director of Never7, Ever17, Remember11 and I/O.

Been rereading Subahibi, since I read it over five years ago and wasn't very good at Japanese then.

I honestly have issues with the way it's written nowadays; the easiest way to describe it is that SCA-Ji's Japanese is simply not very "clean." In general it's hard to say that the text is pleasing on an aesthetic level, since there are tons of quirks and many awkward phrasings or lines that don't flow well in context. That said, it does seem to start improving the further you get into the game - you can tell that SCA-Ji wrote it over a rather long period of time and grew as a writer in the process. There's also a huge amount of text copy/pasted from the original Tsui no Sora (1999) in the earlier chapters, which doesn't help.

Anyway, I finished both endings of Invention last night. Despite my complaints with the writing, Subahibi definitely has a certain "magic" that is all its own. Everything with Kimika toward the end of Invention is great, in particular. Hopefully the mediocre text doesn't end up impacting my score too much, because there's definitely some great stuff here.

edit: fucking bot

So, last week, I finished reading Fault -Milestone One-, and it was a fantastic story. I'm excited for the release of Milestone Two, especially with the cliffhanger at the end of One. The thing that shocked me most about Fault was that even though they had a measly $30k budget, it has 720p art assets, a <strong><em>fantastic ost,</em></strong> and an incredibly moving story to boot.

As the weeks pass by, I continue my stall for time as I await the 18+ release of Grisaia. This week's menu: Tokyo School Life. May I just say that after only an hour's worth of reading, this has gotten comically bad. The art assets, while pretty, have their faults, the BGM is decent, but repetitive, and the writing is worse than the MC for Go Go Nippon. At this point, I've changed my mindset from "this is a work of literature" to "I'm essentially reading Birdemic right now," which has made this more enjoyable. Rather than groan at every little thing, I laugh at how horrible the writing is. I don't see myself giving this a very good rating. Mayhaps this will be the week of terrible VNs; I already have Sakura Angels and Sakura Fantasy on my computer, so I've got some fantastic writing ahead of me.

The most erotic for me was Wanko to Kurasou. The cross between loli, kemonomimi, and slight incestual themes rubbed me the right way that I've never seen before, and not sure if I ever will see again.

EDIT: So someone decided to gild me...thanks internet stranger!

while it may be disappointing that manga-gamer's localisation announcement is mainly Nukige I'd be happy about it since both game's were released in japan 6 months & 1 year ago respectively. While it may not initially be a good thing nukige art has slowly gotten better over time & having recent nukige get localised might encourage more Nukige VN Company's to keep their uncensored CG's for Western Localisation releasess instead of Mangagamer redrawing the uncensored CG's themselves. It's also a good announcement financially since most of Mangagamers sales have come from nukige.

That aside, I dont know what the two localised nukige are like but I know that some nukige released by japan have a good story outside the sex scenes with examples like Euphoria & Bishoujo Mangekyou -Norowareshi Densetsu no Shoujo-

Finished 2 episodes of Umineko. I absolutely loved the first episode, the events were great and it seems Ryukishi has a good knack for getting you to like/get used to his characters quickly (at least for me). Episode 2 was great too, although I didn't really like the first day as much as the first episode. The second day I liked a lot though, especially towards the end, [](#s "And especially that fucking scene of Rosa and Maria trying to escape. Definitely the fastest a VN has made me cry.")

Also I'm a little sad that I looked into the BGM folder and saw [Not Really Spoilers](#s "Tsurupettan") cause I would have been really surprised by that otherwise (I did know there was something Touhou related in this, just not what specifically.) Also while talking about the soundtrack, I just wanna mention how Dead Angle sounds like it came straight out of a Silent Hill game.

There is a third option, which is having quantity and quality at the same time. vns like basenjin and muramasa show that you can have both quantity and quality at the same time but of couse those are far and few in between.

If I had to pick between the two, I would go for quality. In my opinion, it's better to have few cgs that really captures the moment than a lot of mediocre cgs that are forgettable.

Unlike a book you have visuals(mostly still images but sometimes moving), music and voices. Dedicated bookworms may disagree but I think this extra information helps with immersion.

Unlike a game the audience don't expect to do stuff 100% of the time. Making a game and writing a story are complex things on their own and mixing the two will take an even greater amount of effort.

Unlike a movie a text based media can have longer monologues etc. without feeling stale. They're usually cheaper to produce too.

Edit: Saya no Uta is probably a good example to look into. It's fully voiced by talented actors and has some really impactful imagery. The text for the most time could be read on it's own as a book. That is a slightly bad thing to me because the different ways of conveying the message should complement each other and not just coexist. For example the text often describes who says something and in what tone, but we already heard the line spoken so that isn't necessary.

I started Little Busters! last night. I haven't finished any routes but I like it. The characters are all amusing and Rin and Kud are just 3cute5me. Unfortunately I have papers and exams for the rest of the week so I won't be able to pick it back up until the weekend, but that's life.

Edit: Forgot the damn link again.

Finished '&amp;' and if there is one word that describes this vn, it would be disappointment. It's definitely not a bad vn to read but I do think that the traditional route system really hurt the way the story is presented. If anyone is interested in the romance part, you won't find it here as the only time I actually felt like there was any chemistry between mc and the heroine was in Urara's route and even then it was very shallow. I think this vn would have been much better in a chapter format so it didn't have to waste time on the non-existent romance and instead spend time on developing the story or the villains.

Speaking of villains, I didn't like that they would just suddenly appear, do their bad things, and then gets beaten by the main cast. Having [ ](#s "Jun and Jyuri") as the villains were far more interesting since it shows how having power can corrupt anyone especially the characters that the reader is already familiar with. [ ](#s "Jyobirex"), or however you spell that name, was also an interesting character that I wish they spent a bit more time on instead of having her show up in the last half of the last route.

This is a bit of nit-picking, but I question the wisdom of playing amazing grace in this vn. Considering amazing grace is a christian hymn, it just felt out of place in a vn about 2 pagan goddesses that grants people's wishes by giving magical items out (not a spoiler). If anyone is wondering, the song is sung by Yui Makino who sung the op for aria, which just got greenlit for a 4th season.

If there is one thing that this vn excelled at, it is definitely the atmosphere. The vn conveyed very well the sense of adventure and mystery you had exploring places when you were young. So if you are in the mood to feel nostalgic about the past again, this is the vn for you. But other than that, everything else was just above average and nothing special.

Im reading Muv-luv because everybody say that Muv-luv Alternative is really good. Im in Meiya route after [Spoiler](/s "the lacrosse female match in the sports festival") and Im having hard time reading it, because I find it really boring. MC is too annoying and dialogues/characters too cliché. If it wasnt for the Muv-luv Alternative hype I would have dropped this VN 30 minutes after i started it. I hope I finish soon Meiya route and than start Sumika so I can unlock Unlimited.

Edit: Im sorry, but as a comedy/love/schoolthing I really dont like it so far :/

Ummm, Katawa Shoujo? That's the obvious one really. It's good, it's free, it doesn't need special software, it's a starter VN, it has several routes and choices. Done deal, go read it. Have fun!

https://curiouscat.me/BlackDragonHunt/post/168546124

BDH has pointed some of them out already with the previous demo video. Not to mention they blatantly mistranslate Kaede's last name as "passionate red maple tree" when her name is Akamatsu Kaede. Akamatsu = Red Pine, Kaede = Maple.

And just because it's a demo doesn't mean it doesn't reflect on the quality of the actual game. I knew it was non-canon when the Japanese demo released.

This reflects on the quality of their translators and the final game. It's the same people working on both.

Rewrite, and damn it's good. I have only finished Kotori's route (which seems to be more of an introduction to the VN) and just started Chihaya's.

At this point, nothing is bad. I like all the characters, though I don't know about Lucia (guess she's okay)

I will play in this order: Kotori > Chihaya > Lucia > Shizuru (which I'm looking forward to the most) > Akane

I'm knew to the whole 'unlocking' thing this VN has. For example, you unlock Shizuru's route by completing Kotori's, and you unlock Akane by completing Chihaya's. Also it is a build-up. I have only read VNs in which every route focuses on a different thing, and it looks like this may be different, though I'm not sure.

I think I will give this VN a 10/10 rating, but it is still to early to tell.

You can find my game here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=igc.ebook.metamorphosis

Hello everyone!

I'm 22 & I am developing video games as a hobby (it is totally unrelated to my main education.)

Main driving factor for me that I was living in a Middle Eastern country in the middle of an economic crisis where local salaries are pretty low compared to the first world & local currency has a pretty low value.

During one of our lessons, we learned that copyright protection usually lasted for 70 years after the death of the author. So it was possible to use books & art as a base and create & sell your new products derived from them without licensing! (as they are in public domain)

With this information, I got struck with an idea. It was possible to adopt some old classics in Visual Novel (albeit kinetic) format. I've teamed up with a two friends and started working on this project. We have choosen The Metamorphosis because it was a well known & short book!

I've also used Gamemaker Studio:2 for this project & would love to answer your questions.

I hope you like our game!

I recently came across a free Flash game inspired by Ace Attorney in which you debate famous philosophers. It's called Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher. It's surprisingly good but I've never seen it discussed here before.

Poor automod-chan is confused by the new sticky threads, she doesn't know what to do!

Anyways, I'm still going very slowly through Katahane, but last week was busy for me, so i really didn't get anywhere in it. I think I'll have a lot of free time this weekend, so I'll aim to finish it and have a write up for next week.

Started reading Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou.

Oddly enough, many of the VAs from Koiken Otome are also in this game... and that game felt like it wasted its seiyuu talent.

I heard a lot about this from Getchu's 2014 ranking(Luna winning many years in a row), so it got me curious. Its been like 1-2 years since I got some formal JP education, so I believe the most I can read out of this is around 40-70%. Rest is with constant dictionary assistance. I honestly don't think I'm doing it justice, but even then, I found it really enjoyable. So far I'm at about when Asashi, and his bunch just finished the school ceremony(Still in prologue most likely).

At this point, I'm not sure whether I'm turning gay for Asahi, or more infatuated with Luna. Asahi feels really pure, and lovable(best girl status, but he's a guy), and Luna is like..its hard to express in words, but lovable. Asashi and Luna's VA seem to fit really well too, and I feel an irrational love for both of them.They are really meant for each other, is the feeling I'm getting so far.

Ursule with her bizarre Japanese and Minato with her osanajimi infatuation seem to be quite different from the normal, so I find them pretty interesting, and not shallow characters. Risona is probably my favorite side character for now, simply because she's speaks funny, and is a brocon. However Mizuho seems to be lacking. I don't really see Mizuho contributing much so far other than "want to take Asahi home" for herself. Seems a bit shallow, but we'll see. Still don't know how to feel about Aeon yet, but he's scary is all I can say so far.

I don't know how to feel anymore. I used to hate Navel because Shuffle was a god awful experience for me, but now I really love them for this. Huh.

Also, throwing in a recommendation for The Royal Trap. It recently received an HD rework that added a huge quality boost to the background art, and the characters are surprisingly deep and likable (looking at you, Gaston and Callum). Censorship issue does not apply.

Steins;Gate (Vita), currently still on Chapter 1. The story, characters and SMS/phone mechanics are definitely my type so far.

One thing I didn't expect was the great use of comedy, both through "Okarin's" priceless inner monologue and the interactions with the rest of the cast. I absolutely lost it when that @channel forum post came up with all of the typical internet lingo. :D

The text speed advances parallel to the voice acting which is definitely appreciated (eliminates the annoying "Oh, wait. He/she wasn't finished yet." problem). Seeing a voiced MC was also a pleasant surprise, and I like the in-game TIPS as a convenient dictionary. The only minor gripe I have so far is text formatting since some parts are shoved into the next line.

Can't wait to continue reading when I get home!

HeroEMIYA

Meiya Hero

Muv-Luv

Note: I have not yet read the Muv-Luv trilogy. If you want to respond with a "subtle" reference to a spoiler regarding any or all of the Muv-Luv characters, be advised that I will "subtly" murder your family.

The reason for the iPhone is the market share and complexity of coding vs hardware range. Not to mention Android edits by companies. For example motorola android vs samsung.

PC dominates 28% of the gaming market share. Which is more than any console alone. PC gaming is growing exponencially each year and there is a recent focus on cross platform of consoles with PC. https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/02/02/nvidia-is-capitalizing-on-a-growing-pc-gaming-mark.aspx

Well Higurashi no Naku Koro ni's first episode made it to Steam. I decided it was finally time to play it.

Help me. Please. I need more. Now. I'm in love.

It would be hard to find a point I disliked. The beginning was kind of dry, but the slow burn of establishing the mystery, setting, characters, etc. was great. The lighthearted comedy scenes were actually really fun. Once the plot began rolling in earnest I was absolutely enraptured by the atmosphere of suffocating paranoia. Every piece worked together so well, the art and the music and the line pacing and the everything. Asdfghjkl;'

Here's my notes. I've never actually tried to take notes on mysteries I read before but because I'm trying to resist reading the old translations I lacked outlet for everything. Have fun with my speculations and picking at the details I decided to mark as important.

On another note, I tried watching the first arc in the anime. What an awful adaptation. How that ever gained a reputation I'm not sure, maybe it doesn't seem as bad when you don't have the source to compare it with.

MangaGamer please release the second chapter reasonably soon. I don't know how long I can hold on.

Maybe the old translation isn't thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat awful...

EDIT: I cracked and got the old version to compare parts of Ch 1. More than the TL, the PS2 sprites are so much worse, they have almost no expressiveness. Oh well gotta do what I gotta do~

I've mentioned before that I dropped Fate/Stay Night after the prologue (which is a few hours long by itself), but I haven't really explained why, so here goes...

I liked the universe, I see why many people would enjoy the VN and the action scenes in particular were eye-opening (I had previously dismissed action scenes as "not really possible" in VNs), but due to the way it repeated the explanation of the premise (what the holy grail is about, how masters/servants work together etc.) again and again... and again, and again, and again... eventually I went from tentative understanding to stretched patience and then to feeling intellectually insulted. Maybe it gets less repetitive after the prologue, but I didn't have it in me to find out.

Hoshizora no Memoria ~ Wish Upon a Shooting Star~

Without a doubt, this visual novel has affected me the most out of any I have ever read. I am fascinated by the night sky, and I love gazing at the stars, the constellations, and the cosmic phenomena. My friends have also described me as someone who frequently reminisces on past nostalgia. It's no wonder HoshiMemo clicked so well with me.

I love the metaphysical concept of a nightmare. In my own words, I would describe a nightmare to be something that inhibits your focus on the future; a thing that irrationally influences your decisions in the present. Everybody has their own nightmare, and they take many different shapes and forms.

Reading Hoshizora no Memoria caused me to deeply reflect on my life. It made me realize that your memories can serve to motivate and make you stronger, or it can bind your gaze and misdirect your priorities. There is a fine line between strength and weakness when it came to looking back on the past, and I was undoubtedly weakened by my own nostalgia. It made me step back and assess that I had a nightmare of my own. One that ended up being something I would never have thought would possibly be my nightmare. One I didn't even realize I had.

I have since then tread carefully when reminiscing, and I realize now that I shouldn't rely too much on the past. My nightmare no longer haunts me as I am constantly more aware of it, but it could easily find its way towards me again if I permit it. Nightmares are recurring, after all.

I don't want to sound like a hopeless or weak-minded individual when sharing all of this, but the amount of introspection Hoshizora no Memoria has dealt me continues to influence me to this day. I'm glad I found and read this visual novel, because I feel that my own character has greatly developed as a result.

Edit: Wow, thanks so much for the gold, I am extremely flattered.

I'm hoping to finish Fate/hollow ataraxia sometime in the next day or two. Currently I'm at 88%, about 35 hours in. After how emotionally draining F/SN and the F/Z anime were, hollow is exactly what I needed. The light-hearted comedy is great, and while the core story isn't as engaging as F/SN, it's interesting enough to keep me going. [](#s "The lack of Kotomine is a little disappointing, since he's easily one of my favourite characters in the whole franchise. Considering how Heaven's Feel ended, though, reintroducing him in a comedy probably would feel a little cheap.") My only other complaint is how Shirou's narration has changed. His new-found sense of humour fits the tone of the novel, but it's still a little jarring after nearly 60 hours of him being so uptight in the original. It's a minor thing in an otherwise great comedy.

I was going to start ef as soon as I finished, since it's been sitting on my desk for nearly a month, but with the newest Majikoi patch on its way, I'm conflicted. I guess it depends on the Fate ending: if I'm happy, I'll play ef and depress myself again. If it's a downer, Majikoi can cheer me up.

I finished Saya no Uta, which now is one of my top 5 VNs, and my second 10/10 on VNDB.

I really don't know how to describe it. At first, I was very put off by the images and sounds that I had to put it on hold a few months ago, but now I decided to tackle it. It's the 'confrontation method' I knew of that helped. The longer you're experiencing things you don't like, the easier it gets, until you don't have any problem with it anymore.

The story itself was very beautiful. I'm unfamiliar with Lovecraft, but it seems that he gets associated with it a lot, so I guess I'll read something written by him sometime. What I found surprising, though, was the last ending. [](#s "I think it was good, but it wasn't as fitting as the first end (where Fuminori ends up in prison). I guess I like depressing ends more, too.")

[](#s "What I personally found to be the weakest ending, was Koji's. I can see what it tries to do, and it's well made, but I just didn't like it. I might be able to elaborate on it when I read it again, but it kinda went out of my mind, except for the last line (one bullet always remaining for his salvation or whatever).")

It has a great soundtrack which fits perfectly. The two vocal tracks are so amazing, I even have Shoes of Glass on my phone. I just have to be careful not to burst out in tears.

Anyways, what I also found strange is that I didn't cry at all. I got emotional and had to struggle a little bit, but it didn't affect me as much as other VNs. Maybe it's because of its length that I just didn't get attached to the characters as much.

Even though I see some flaws, I couldn't bring myself to give it a 9/10 or 9,9/10. I just feel like it's a great experience overall, and it's very beautiful. I really don't know how to approach this vote objectively, so I gave it a 10/10, because that's what I felt while reading it. I knew I didn't like some parts, but they are pretty much erased from my memories right now.

Little Busters!

I'm reading in the recommended order (Komari -> Rin1 -> Kurugaya -> Haruka -> Muscle & Kud -> Mio -> Rin2).

Finished Komari and started Rin1.

I shouldn't have expected much from Komari since it's the first in the list order, but it still disappointed me. It felt waayyy too short. Also I didn't really care that much about her...

As in all Key VNs, I like all of the characters. If I had to choose my favorite one, right now it would have to be Rin, Kud or Kurugaya.

Also, why is it that I always love the protags best friend? I fucking love Masato (Yoshino is still better though).

The scenes between Ati and Gii in Sekien no Inganock. I'm not particularly a fan of h-scenes in VNs, but these were done pretty well. It was also a nice change of pace since both characters were adults.

Yes, Juniper's Knot is a sweet little kinetic novel and enjoyable while reading.

It's a shame Dischan halted development of Dysfunctional Systems, but it's a even greater shame that they halted development of Cradle Song. It's so ironic that they began with DS in order to fund CS... There should be a demo available of CS and it made me a Dischan fanboy back then - so good.

I'd recommend Sepia Tears if you're looking for something short and sweet. Cute and colorful art, simple love story with a hint of drama here and there, and some light-hearted comedy sprinkled about. It's a relaxing read.

It's freely available for download here.

Finished Sachi's Route from Grisaia no Kajitsu yesterday.
I enjoyed it a lot, and it even made me cry a little (Which doesn't happen often with VN).
The first time was when [](#s "Yuuji finds Sachi in the park and you realise she's been waiting here all this time.. ").
The second time is when [](#s "she reads the letter.") Holy shit that part was heartbreaking. The VA did a perfect job here, I could feel the emotion in her voice.
The bad ending was.. absolutely terrible. I couldn't even take it seriously.
I'm now going for Michiru's route. I'm kinda interested to see why she's so dumb. If there is a reason, that is.

I just finished off Makina's route in Grisaia no Kajitsu. As I mentioned last week, I had previously only read Yumiko's route, and I couldn't really understand why people thought that Yumiko's route was bad. Well, I sort of get where they're coming from now, in that it deals with some similar themes to Makina's story, though they're also completely different. I still think that Yumiko's route was pretty good, and people have been incredibly unfair about it.

When I read the common route, Makina was quite easily my least favourite character. I don't particularly dislike the token loli/imouto characters, but her character just really annoyed me before. I did start to like her somewhat, though, as Yuuji spent more time with her in the first half of her route, but even by the second half where they [ ](#s "go on the run from Ichigaya"), I think I was more invested in the story because of the revelations about Yuuji's character and his "work" than I was for Makina.

Anyway, I also spent an evening rereading Planetarian earlier this week. I'd not read it in years, but it's always been a favourite of mine, since it was my first VN. I bought the Sekai Project Steam release during the holiday sale and figured it'd be fun to go back and reread it. I already had a high opinion of it, but I was actually surprised at how much I'd forgotten. I guess ~6 years is a fairly long time, and I did remember pretty much all of the major twists and plot points, but it seems 6 years is a good amount of time to go back and for everything to feel fresh as though you were reading for the first time.

Just finished Little Busters!

Overall thoughts: wonderful common route and decent side routes, but Refrain (the "true" route) was on a whole other level. The way the relationship between the main characters and [](#s "the unveiling of the secret of the world") were developed and the use of [](#s "multiple perspectives") in that route was fantastic. As for the heroines, I absolutely adore everything about Rin (I actually went so far as to order her Nendoroid shortly after finishing the VN) [](#s "and i was especially pleased to find out that there was extra romantic content for her during the second Refrain playtrough"), though the other heroines each have their own merits.

There's still a bit more to do in terms of the Baseball minigame and other extra content, but I'll be saving that for when EX is fully translated.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I'm also starting Coμ. Interesting premise, and I've been looking for something a bit more active.

I finished Yumiko's route from Grisaia no Kajitsu.
It wasn't bad.. but not great either.
At least I wasn't expecting much since most people considers it the worst route.
I was wondering if I should start another route only 1 day after since I usually take a little break (often needed, emotionally speaking) but I decided to start Sachi's route, proof that it didn't left a big impression.

> I always saw Renpys main issue being its platform support, it wasn't very good, this has more platform support, since I'm unsure if Renpy does linux.

Per Ren'Py's own site, it'll run on:

> Android 2.3+

> Linux x86/x86_64

> Windows XP+

> Mac OS X 10.6+

> iOS 6+ (beta)

Meanwhile Tyranobuilder claims > Create games on Windows or Mac. Export your games to play on Windows, MacOS, or browser, or convert for iOS, Android smartphones and tablets!

So both have Windows, both have Mac, both can go on Android and iOS (albeit Tyranobuilder needs a free third party conversion software), and then Ren'Py has Linux while Tyrano can go in a browser.

Pretty much a score draw I'd have said?

I'm going to recommend a short flash game called no-one has to die.

Calling it a VN might be a bit of a stretch, but I wanted to contribute something. It is dialogue-heavy, and alternates between dialogue and short gameplay segments. It has branching paths, but paths are chosen based on your choices in the gameplay segments.

Ah, shoot. I'm not at all prepared this week.

I did read a little more of Umineko Chiru, but not enough to say much about it. A lot of stuff came up/happened in the past week, so I just didn't get around to reading it much. So here's just a few brief paragraphs with a few thoughts:

[Episode Six](#s "It's about time Kanon came out to Jessica with his feelings. But something feels off. About Shannon and Kanon with the way they acted like it's either going to be Shannon/George or Kanon/Jessica. I know that Kanon said that if Shannon ever left Rokkenjima, he said he'd quit, but I feel like there's more to it than that. There's got to be a better reason that it has to be one or the other. And as I've said in the past, my greatest theory pins Shannon as the culprit and Kanon as a major accomplice. I wonder if this plays into that at all (assuming my culprit theory is correct).")

[Episode Six](#s "I loved Erika's duel with Maria over the candy appearing under a cup. Not really because of the fight itself, but because of Gertrude and Cornelia coming in and saying stuff like 'let it be known that this fight is pointless/childish'. It made me laugh, but they were totally right. Erika is such an intellectual rapist.")

I also got through the part where [Episode Six](#s "George spoke to Shannon about what kind of person he was in the past"), but I don't have any particular thoughts on that. Oh, well. Hopefully, I'll have more to say next week.

Kururi from Coμ was a fun character who always had a lot going on behind the scenes but was never really explored in detail. I would have loved to have a Kururi route over the Mayuki route, or even the Ayaya route.

So, finished up Planetarian this last week. Planetarian was very good, albeit very short. There's a lot of potential for that world that Key created, and I would have loved to see more of it. That being said, I thought it was an excellent story, showing the struggle of a man who has [minor spoilers?](#s "lost everything and ekes out a living in a dying world.")

As of now, due to the impending release of Grisaia 18+, I've decided to read some throwaways to pass the time: VNs that, should Grisaia come out while I'm still reading them, I'll have no trouble dropping. On the menu for this week, we have Sakura Fantasy - Chapter One. Going into it, I expected the same level of quality that I got from Sakura Spirit, but I'll say so far the quality is pretty decent for a VN in this category. Perhaps they learned a thing or two between now and then - either way, it's a fun and easy read, with no shortage of tits.

Spent a few hours on eden*.

It's good, but nothing past that. It has the same problems almost any short VN has - things move too quickly, it does not spend enough time to make the whole scene (characters included) complex. The protagonist is not an exception, despite being in the spotlight all the time he can be fully described in a single sentence, just like any other character. I did not like the portrayal of felixes - [!](#s "they are not even close to a convincing representation of more than a hundred years old extremely intelligent beings"). Human characters besides MC just don't get enough spotlight to have an impact. The pacing is pretty good - as I said, the main problem is with length, not pacing. Other than that, I'd argue that normal sequence of the events would be much better (hell, it's better in almost all cases). By starting from the finish eden pretty much spoiled most of the turns (can't call them twists), which is a shame. Setting is nice, I think the balance between details and their impact is pretty good there. Few minor issues here and there, but that's okay. As for the plot, it's nothing extraordinary, a mildly bittersweet story - in one word, passable.

Now the visuals. This VN is gorgeous. If the story was a little bit lacking, the production value partially covers it. Really, it's very plesing to the eyes, I wish same kind of quality was everywhere.

The music... It's pretty nice, but nothing specifically caught my attention. Will listen to the soundtrack specifically some other time (I'm actually almost done with read VNs' OSTs).

So, if you have ~5 hours of just comfortable reading with beautiful visuals and without complex stuff, go for it. If you are looking for something very deep, this is probably not the right title to start with.

I'm finally reading VNs with actual regularity again and am currently finishing Shikoku no Sharnoth, rekindling my love affair with Sakurai Hikaru. I plan on doing a full write-up next week when I finish, but here's what I have in the meanwhile:

• Fuck the minigame. Probably what kept me from finishing it in the first place, each minigame segment effectively made me take a (lengthy) break from the game. After finally beating the third segment, I started a new play-through with it turned off. It's been sooo nice. I honestly don't care if I miss anything at this point, and I can always accost /u/ewig_custos if I feel like I really did miss something important.

• If someone ever told me I'd find Agatha Christie attractive before reading Sharnoth, I would've laughed at them. Well congrats Sakurai, you win.

• I mentioned it when I first started reading, but the name drops are out of control. I've probably spent as much time trying to figure out the references as I have reading the VN.

• Seriously though, the minigame is beyond terrible.

• Sakurai did a wonderful job with steampunk turn-of-the-century England. It's more subtle than most and the outfits aren't overly obnoxious with gears and goggles all over the place.

• On that note, The fashion rankings for this game are going to be ridiculously fun. So many wonderful outfits.

Finally I got a chance to start playing Sumire this week while I'm waiting for an Ame no Marginal engine modification to get implemented.

Spent almost 4 hours, possibly more, on the bonus 15th anniversary short material in the game. So many old characters and gags, with at least a few characters from every game they released (Except the original White from 2000). I need to make a table to see who has what roles in the game, I'm sure Maki Izumi has at least 6, possibly more characters in this mode alone....

Only spent about an hour in the main story so it hasn't gotten anywhere yet. No spoiler tags simply because this is all in the demo or intro site materials...

But the MC is older than your typical eroge MC, at about 24 or so. Once an avid consumer of anime, eroge, etc, he's been struggling with how as life and responsibilities build he's stopped watching those shows, playing those games except only rarely now. Hits fairly close to home.

The only thing he regularly does is go online into an chat game thing where everyone often has avatars taken from various eroge (mostly NNS characters). And they hang out and chat... and because it's an online world based off eroge, of course there are ero-chat functions where you can apparently select from various situations and the system will pose the avatars and give people lines to read to "make" an ero-scene... And the girls occasionally will play with this feature, only to crack up laughing at the ridiculousness of the lines that are generated... So far so odd...

It's pretty 無駄にエロい but at least silly enough that I can just roll with it and let it slide.

In anycase, at this early stage in the game, the MC thinks all the girls are simply guys using female avatars and voice changers, and so now I'm waiting to see how the story actually develops.

Warning - spoilers http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/606307-grisaia-no-kajitsu-le-fruit-de-la-grisaia/faqs/67541

Honestly, why do you even need a guide with this? There are barely any choices. When you're doing the common route, pick the "good" choice for the path you want to go down... then do that path and then there's a bad end/good end choice... then load back, and repeat for the other girls.

Started with <strong>Majikoi</strong> aka. <strong>Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai!</strong> two days ago and have been absolutely hooked since.

Started it because a couple guys in our fate/stay night community started it and I didn't have anything to do one day and had it on my wish list anyway. Also, there happens to be a certain mod on this subreddit who was fangirling madly for one of the characters, which further spiked my interest. I'm now about 14 hours in it, started with Wankos route and am at the beginning of August or somewhere around there.

This VN is super fun so far. Haven't enjoyed reading one this much in months. The humor I find absolutely awesome and while there has been very little plot or development so far, I loved the hell out of it. I'm looking forward to how the romance and the characters are going to develop in their respective routes, and how the MC will grow.

The MC himself is a fun guy to play as. I like how he has a bit more character than most other MC's with his own way of thinking, and not being stupid for once. There are also soo many characters in this game, it was quite overwhelming at first. Miyako is the shit, too. She has so many great one-liners that cracked me up, and the voice for her is awesome. I think I'll save her route for last.

I'm playing Muv Luv Alternative at the moment.

Holy fuuuuck. I can't get over that one scene.

The [ ](#s "coup d'etat arc") was pretty interesting and all, but when I found out that [ ](#s "they were going to graduate, I was pretty hyped to see the team move forward. Then when Marimo talked about doing those OS tests I literally groaned out loud, because I thought that this was just going to be more filler. I was so shocked to hear that siren go off and that 'WARNING BETA' flash on the screen.")

I was reading this pretty late last night and was at the scene where [ ](#s "Marimo was motivating Takeru after he went on a rampage....and then that thing happened. Talk about unexpected deaths. Man, just thinking about that scene gives me chills. That face was pretty disturbing. Wonder how this is going to affect Takeru.")

It was at that point where I pretty much went, "Welp. That's enough Alternative for one night" and went to bed.

[ ](#s "In hindsight though, I was expecting something like this to happen, everything was just going too well for Takeru and his friends, but I didn't expect shit to hit the fan this fast. Looking back on it, I think the game was kind of making fun of me in a way by subverting my expectations, they tried to make it seem like these practice battles were just going to be more filler, but then all this happens. This may not be what they intended, it's just how I felt.")

Basically caught up on some anime, finished reading the recent Stormlight Archive book from Sanderson, caught up a bit on some gaming ...

So I managed to build up enough motivation to read some pure SoL (e.g. Clannad or Muv Luv). I'm not really much of a generic SoL fan in general. Between the two I could stomach Clannad a lot more, so I started with that and went through Misae's route and halfway through Tomoyo's.

Initial reactions:

1. I got to the end of Misae's route and realized / discovered this wasn't an 18+ VN. Somewhat disappointed. Shrug. Got over it although I was mildly surprised.

2. The dream sequences seem like they're trying too hard to be symbolic and to replace actual storytelling and development, or to be redundant with that development. Still, I think they're an ok change of pace. They are interesting from a novelty perspective, I guess, and in some ways serve as a periodic recap. Overall ambivalent, leaning towards "nifty".

3. Misae's route was too short, but based on the fuwa walkthrough this seems to be an exception.

4. Those foreheads. I don't mind it so much but it is definitely something that cannot be unseen, so to speak.

5. Misae and Tomoyo have been entertaining thus far.

6. Sunohara is fairly entertaining but I tire of the comedy centering on him. Basically trolling the guy is only funny for so long. The [minor comedic spoiler](/s "I am beautiful dog") line is gold though.

Overall Clannad seems rather light so far and easy to read as long as I don't get 15 minutes of consecutive Sunohara. The old interface takes a little getting used to compared to more modern VNs, but I can't fault it for that. Just have to deal.

After winning a Steam key for Little Witch Romanesque (thanks for that by the way) I decided to play it and it's amazing.

First let's talk about the novel itself, it's neither an NVL nor an ADV as it follows a comic book style where speech bubbles are used to indicate who is speaking. The music is good, it's not as good as say Umineko's (bad example, because nothing beats Umineko, but you get the idea) but it definately has its charm.

I won't go into detail about the plot but in romanesque, you play as a wizard named Domino and train two young magi named Aria and Kaya in a tower for three years. Fortunately you wont be alone because as your harem expands, so does the number of residents in the tower and the amount of teachers that can teach Aria and Kaya. By the end o the 3rd year, Aria and Kaya graduate and your ending will be based on who you helped using the spells you teach Aria and Kaya.

On top of all that there's a really neat dice minigame where the faces of the die get to determine how many spirit you get which determines what spell you can teach. If you're thinking thinking that such a system would be purely luck based then please remember that you're a motherfucking wizard so you can actually bump the dice to make it land on the face you want. But what makes this minigame so good is that if you get a certain combination of dice, Aria and Kaya can use the spells you teach them to increase the points you get, or to increase your dice, or create an vicious earthquake that will violently shake all dice. It's how you make this spells interact to get more points what makes it so addicting.

Overall it's the perfect game to relax over the weekend while you wait for your heavy game to finish downloading. Still don't like it? Then Illectatio!

I just started Tsukihime a couple days ago... I'm on day 6 I think, 95% sure I'm in Arcueid's route. I'm really liking so far, it has a nice dark atmosphere, an interesting setting and plot, and that same weird but great Nasu writing. It's especially cool to see some concepts that got elaborated on in F/SN show up, like mystic eyes and [](/s "reality marbles? I feel like the game mentioned that Nrvnqsr was one/was using one, although that was a bit unclear.") Can't wait to see how the mystery unfolds across all the routes.

I just finished Ever17. I don't want to hype it too much because sometimes that can ruin a game but it was the most a VN has ever surprised me. I really liked the ending.

For the most part of the game I was confused as hell. I really like the Mystery genre and I enjoyed having to think deeply about not only the game's plot but some existential questions too.

The characters were great. I particulary loved Tsugumi. She is probably one of the cutest chracters of all the VNs I've read. Takeshi was a really cool guy and although he wasn't as clever or thoughtful as other characters, I came to like his earnest optimism. I loved the clever web of relationships and backgrounds with the characters but I honestly wasn't too enthralled by Sara, You and Sora as heroines.

A few minor complaints would be the translation. Maybe it's becasue I have a mediocre understanding of Japanese but it annoyed me to hear sentences changed for no particular reason but to Americanise and dumb down the text. For example, whenever Sara says "Nin, Nin!", the translation has it as "Nin, Nin, Ninja!" because obviously us westerners are too dumb to understand. This is the corrected script I'm referring to, btw, not the awful original including classics such as "Naturally, I knows the hacker" and "Kidere?".

I can't hold the translation or other issues such as sound quality, resulting from the game's age, against it but I do feel they are important to note because they did impact my experience.

Appendum: If I was to give one major criticism of Ever17 it would be that [ ](#s "I never really cared too much for Coco's fate. I was much more desperate to save Takeshi from death and Tsugumi from despair. For Coco, I felt the reader wasn't given enough of a reason to like her and want to help her.")

Finnegans Wake was translated into Japanese though.

Apart from a few quotes from Kojiki (the language of which to Japanese is basically what Beowulf is to English) Masada's writing is more similar to Jack Vance, if anything. It's definitely not impossible to translate, but you have to be a pretty damn good writer to pull it off.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Vance#Suldrun.27s_Garden_.281983.29

I don't want to be too rude, but based on this post, the page on Game Jolt, and the YouTube video you linked on the Game Jolt page, you don't seem to have the best understanding of the English language. You should really work on your grammar, punctuation, and capital letters. For the actual writing, try adding some narration. From what I saw in your video, there is only dialogue. Add some narration so people can imagine what is going on in the story. And finally, if you want people to try your game with no information, at least include how long the game/demo is. One last note - what is Game Jolt? I've never heard of it. I'm pretty sure most people use itch.io for this kind of thing.

Honestly, people always seem against using guides for this game, but it takes fucking hours upon hours of gameplay just to beat the game once, and you'll probably miss tons of scenes.

While I don't see anything wrong with figuring it out on your own, it seems like it would take way too much time doing it that way. If you actually have time considerations, I would recommend using this guide. It will still take you around 30-50 hours (depending on luck and experience) to beat the game using this, but you get to see a really good number of scenes and it sets you up with a good number of points for a second play-through (if you want).

While some people find the pre-structured style irritating (and it can be), you still get a lot of freedom in what units to use for battles, and you can usually freestyle the dungeons. And again, it saves you soooo much time. It saves so much time, you can probably wing it 2-3 times more afterwards and still clock in in less time than it would take to get as much done on your own once.

I wouldn't know about the "take turns to play it in a group" that you got going, but other than that I can understand the type of enjoyment you got out of School Days. It was sort of the same for me the first time around.

And I was gonna mention the fact that choices in VNs are pretty damn common, but honestly, School Days does it better than most I've read. It feels more 'alive and moving' - like an anime - and because of that the choices also feel more significant whenever they show up... and there's many of them. Plus they're on a timer of course which also has a big impact ---> DON'T USE A WALKTHROUGH. At the very least not for your first playthrough.

You can look forward to Shiny Days. :p

All that said, if you want a reeeally good story, you oughta look into some other VNs as well even though they don't do things the same way as School Days (which you obviously love). There's plenty of good ones translated. You clearly had a very unique experience with School Days when you decided to play it with a group of friends... it was pretty much like you watched an anime together, except you also made choices along the way. So I'll admit that it won't be the same with other VNs. But in your own free time at least and if you're interested at all, you should consider reading some other VNs. They ~~might~~ will surprise you.

Kajiri Kamui Kagura is the most beautiful visual novel I've ever come across. It looks incredible. The art style is so vivid and gorgeous, I've never seen anything like it. Very unique. Take a look.

Github has a very easy to use GUI. You could easily be up and running through git in half an hour. I would also recommend spending a half hour/hour reading through git's features, especially branches. They allow you to separate your features from each other, allowing you to easily stop development and fix bugs when necessary (my number one use).

https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Git-Basics

vndb isn't very reliable for length estimates in general. TLWiki has the game at 1.77MB, which puts it in the same field as titles such as G Senjou no Mao & Chaos;Head (10-30). EGS users on average took about 20 hours~

I would include Digital along with Analogue and Hate Plus. While it's not a direct preque (VNDB says it is, but it merely takes place in the same world) l it is definitely a predecessor and shares many of the ideas. Christine Love has a few others, but I don't think they are as notable.

“A defence attorney's job is to believe in people, and to believe until the bitter end. That's what a friend of mine told me once.”

I finished Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations the other day which is the third game in the Ace Attorney series.

I recommend playing a case until the end if you decide to take a long break. Sometimes the game relies on previous knowledge obtained earlier in the case. I was busy with another game and when I came back to T&T, I didn’t know what to do since I forgot important information.

I had to guess…

OBJECTION! music continues to play Damnit! soft reset

The mysterious Mr Godot is introduced as the new prosecutor. As for what I think of him? Well… The weak get washed away by the tides of fate… The strong drink it up. My coffee is bitter today, just like my destiny (He likes to spout philosophical nonsense).

It’s great to see Nick’s growth throughout the series. I believe it’s his 3rd year as a lawyer. He no longer relies on Mia as a crutch to win cases. It’s nice to see him as a fully fledged defence attorney.

A few people have told me that T&T is their favourite game in the series and I can see why. I think a part of it is playing as different people, which is refreshing. They all have different personalities but they all share the same desire for justice.

Also that last case… Wow.

That’s it for the Phoenix Wright trilogy, now I’ve got to get my hands on the rest of the series.

Fortunately this came in the mail last week

This is my break week so I am trying to play some fun/entertaining stuff. Thankfully, my hormones don't get provoked easily so I can enjoy some H stuff.

--Finished ヤンだ私に精液ちょうだい♪
What would you do if your little sister, childhood friend and classmate turned into yanderes just because you threw away some weird charm you found on the ground?
You don't know? Well our Tough, Cool and Hard-Boiled protagonist Mamoru doesn't know what to do either.
Reading difficulty: Easy.
Do I recommend it?: If you like yanderes, yes.

--Started Bishoujo Mangekyou -Norowareshi Densetsu no Shoujo-
Well I can't give any opinions about the story because I am just an hour into the game.
But I can definitely say that the art is exceptional and the characters are very interesting.
Reading difficulty: Hard.
Do I recommend it?: Yes (For now.)

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I plan on starting Majikoi A until next thread if I can catch up to this anime season.

Edit: Well that turned into a TV commercial..

Just finished Saya no Uta. I expected it to be pretty fucked up based on what people have said. And yeah, it was, that was pretty fucked up. But fantastic. Next up is Kara no Shoujo.

~~I'm reading Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm. It's an odd work in that it doesn't really feel like a visual novel -- which is a partially a good thing, but also partially a bad thing. It's basically very anime-esque in plot development, presentation, and character interaction. I know the visual novel medium to be best with developing character relationships (subsequently romance), but while the romance thus far in this series (I'm only finished Asuka's route) is cute, it isn't very substantial. In truth, I don't really feel too much of a connection with the romance in this series -- it's very much a 'plot-driven' series. But even that's a bit dubious at times (characters go through ridiculous progress and improvement, which is typical in a sports series).

Furthermore, the protagonist seems a bit odd. I mean that he's meant to be a really 'great' player who's simply 'retired' -- but, his coaching abilities (or really, his knowledge of the game) seems to be lackluster. He doesn't really have much presence.

Nonetheless, thus far, it's got great pacing, likable/absurdly cute characters, and a good soundtrack. I think its adaptation'll be hard to mess up (please, I'll probably be proven wrong).

I'm slowly approaching the end of my reread of Fate/Stay night. I'm currently on day 12 (I think) of HF so things are starting to get great. There's not much more to say about that, I've discussed F/SN on here a lot so I'll spare you.

Other than that I've read nothing! I've had a hectic week with college deadlines catching up to me. I should have most of then finished in the next couple of days so I hope to have HF finished by next week. I can move on to something new then. Probably Killer Queen.

Clannad finally broke my stone heart. VNs seem to have some power over me that no other medium has. I've never really been one to feel much emotion at media. Films, books, TV...I can enjoy them, but I dont tear up or get especially emotional in any way. Clannad though...[Clannad Fuuko route spoiler:](#s " When I got to the end stages, where Fuuko is slowly fading from existence...") It felt like years worth of feelings I hadn't felt were coming to the forefront. And when [Clannad Fuuko route spoiler:](#s " Sanae hugs a Fuuko she can't see any more and tells her she's always welcome in their home, even if they don't know she's there") I just broke. I don't think I've ever felt any emotion that intense while watching/reading anything. Ever. I'm still relatively new to VNs, so I'm looking forward to exploring more of this medium, to see if others can make me feel like that, or if it was a singular event.

Ninja edit: https://vndb.org/v4

Edit: Holy crap, I got upvoted to the top of a What are you reading thread? I'm honoured!

With the release of the full patch I read the final few routes of Majikoi S this week and damn that game is a lot of fun. My biggest complaint is that it almost becomes a nukige at times with entire routes being comprised of just h-scene after h-scene. The heroine after stories suffered from this which made them hit or miss depending on if you liked the heroine or not.

However once you finish all that and unlock Koyuki's route Majikoi really steps up its game. I honestly never expected there to be a route that out-does Agave from the original but Yuki's does just that and then some. The only real problem with it is [](/s "that it's hard to really call it a Yuki route considering there's almost no romantic development for her in it.") Other than that the route is amazing and easily one of the best translated Majikoi routes (though Mon-sama's is still my favourite route).

Over all I enjoyed S a little more than the original Majikoi. The Majikoi series is really one where your affinity for a certain heroine is really the biggest factor in how much you'll enjoy her route and I much preferred the S heroines (as heroines at least).

Also for anyone who finished Yuki's route make sure to visit the flowchart once more for a nice little extra story. I really wish Takae appeared more.

Now that the patch is out, I'm reading <strong>Majikoi! S</strong>.

So far, it feels like a reworked version of Majikoi (as in better cg quality and sprite dynamics - at least I think so, maybe nothing actually changed). Everything else is the same. The comedy is amazingly well done again, and the variety of the cast increases even more.

Currently I have read Yukie's, Momoyo's and Miyako's S-after stories, and am in the middle of Chris' because she apparently has more content following her route (I don't get why her after story was moved to S anyways). Everything about the after-after stories was great; I didn't expect more or less from it. I wanted Majikoi, and I got it.

Momoyo's S-AS was my favorite so far. [](#s "The danger of another conflict, her jealousy, was built up pretty well, albeit short, but I feel like it could have been a bit better if I would've made different decisions. I don't want too much drama anyways.")

[Yukie S-AS](#s "Was great as well. Good to see my favorite heroine from the first part opening up even more and getting along with Kokoro. Even though I dislike her personality, it was my favorite moment when she was visiting Yukie's dorm room and I found out about her having the same habits as Yukie, e.g. talking to a crab (?)")

Miyako's S-AS was nothing memorable, to be honest. Just what I would expect of someone who only needed two "visits" in the original VN. However, it wasn't bad. Miyako being Miyako, no inconsistencies in themes... fine.

Not exactly what you're talking about, but there's an otome game called Eikoku Tantei Mysteria with dating options such as Jack the Ripper, Lupin Jr., Watson Jr., and Holmes Jr. and among the side characters, we have Holmes, Professor Moriarty, Lupin, and Miss Marple. Not exactly real historical figures, but still interesting since they're very popular fictional ones, which I thought was interesting.

Completely disregarding my hate for Kana, I don't think it's a good representation of the Romance genre. I'd take something like Clannad, where romance is the main aspect, instead of the depressing theme.

It would fit more into Utsuge (depressing game), together with Narcissu. Or Drama, if we only take the genres in that list.

I'm reading Aiyoku no Eustia.

I finished Fione's arc a few minutes ago. This is somewhat of a milestone for me because the partial patch that was released over two years ago covered the game up to this point. Awhile ago, I decided that if I ever knew Japanese well enough, I'd read Eustia before anything else. Well, I've been studying the language every day for about ten months now, but I didn't feel comfortable reading something this long until I'd finished RTK and the Core 6K, though I did play Tales of Zestiria in the meantime.

Overall, my impression of the story thus far is almost the same as when I read it in English. Of course, I can't recall how accurate or well written the translation was, but the characters, setting, and plot are just as wonderful as I had remembered them. The dialogue is consistently interesting with great banter, the circumstances surrounding 牢獄 are fascinating, and the pacing may be slow, but no scene feels extraneous.

My only complaint is that I preferred the prologue to Fione's arc. Caim and Eustia's relationship is, so far, one of my favorite aspects of the story. While the investigation of 黒羽 was interesting, I wasn't invested in the relationship between Caim and Fione, and none of the revelations at climax were particularly unexpected.

As for the writing, I'd recommend Eustia as a beginner's novel if you'd rather begin with something plot-oriented. The vocabulary can be quite extensive, but the lines rarely exceed more than fifty characters. As for the prose itself, I would describe it as emotive despite its simplicity.

I'm looking forward to what comes next! I've waited a long time for this.

Action, comedy. mystery, horror, romance, drama, thriller. A bunch of obvious ones there.

Maybe a gameplay genre for things like Kamidori and Sengoku Rance? That's what they're mainly about after all.

Then there's VNs like Forest. Which genre would you primarily put that in? Surreal? Mind screw?

This is a minor point, but Koisuru Natsu no Last Resort's shortened abbreviation (or the one that the translation project uses) is 'KoiRizo' rather than 'KoiSuru.'

The latter is far vaguer than the former.

Last week, started Sakura Fantasy Chapter One.

This week, finished it. And let me say, I was surprised. I went into it expecting "Sakura Spirit 3: How can the writing get any worse" and what I got was actually a good story. Not only that, but the visuals are stunning, the characters are definitely varied, and the BGM is enjoyable. Yes, it throws way too many tits your way, but, looking past those soft, round, beautiful...wait, I was talking about something. Oh right. Looking past the boobs, the story's got a good deal of quality; nothing I'd say is great, but it's miles above Sakura Spirit. I'm actually looking forward to reading chapter two when it gets released. Final recommendation? Don't write it off because of its relation to Sakura Spirit, this one definitely is a large improvement.

Moving on, I continue to count the unannounced, hype-decaying days until Grisaia 18+, so once again, so wile away my time I've picked up a short one, by the name of Hanachirasu. Nitro+ has me in high hopes for a good story, and I don't expect to be let down.

Good luck with your endeavor. Persuading people of what you love that originates from the foreign land almost always raises people's guards up in reflex.

If you will allow me to throw out an advice, refer to VNs that don't make use of cartoonish (or what average people consider to be Japanese) drawings, instead opt for VNs that utilize more serious art styles, like Innocent Grey's Kara no Shoujo. Anyway, hope you do well in your presentation.

Edit: Oh yeah, why not add Phenomeno in your presentation? It's short but carries enough impact as a VN.

Some of us on IRC/Twitter got together and played through Maruto's Parfait over the past week or so.

I've already discussed the game to hell and back, so I don't really feel like typing up something long and elaborate again, but suffice to say that Parfait is great. I'd call it a textbook example of an eroge in a lot of ways - it might not blow your mind with an epic plot, but it is incredibly competent at nearly everything it does and every element of the game works together in harmony with one another. There's a pretty clear delineation between the common route and character routes in terms of what they focus on, but I felt that by the end everything had been tied together pretty nicely and that the game's "world" and characters felt consistent and believable.

Parfait doesn't really bring anything "new" to the table (though Ema and Rikako's routes might not be what you expect from the game initially), but I feel that it's a title that both newcomers and veterans to eroge can appreciate equally due both to how polished it is as a product and to Maruto's smooth, consistently entertaining writing. Like I said, it might not change your world or anything, but if I were making a "guide to eroge" or something then it would definitely make the cut. It has a 90 median on EGS for a reason.

So yeah, Maruto is cool. Just finished reading the most recent volume of Saekano an hour or so ago, in fact, and he's as consistent as ever 10 years since the release of Parfait (though Saekano is pretty different from his eroge). Looking forward to Classroom Crisis, an original anime written by him, next season.

By the way, if you do play Parfait, save Ema and Rikako's routes for last and do them in order of Ema --> Rikako. Trust me.

Hey everyone, I posted a link to a survey about visual novels last week and would like to thank everyone who took it. I still need another 30 responses so I would like to ask if you have the time, could you please follow this link and answer a few questions. I plan on posting the findings at a later date to help anyone else who might want to find a few things out about the community. Thanks!

I was just cooing over your choices, checking the dashing guys in the character tab, then I came across this screenshot. Hmmm, are you trying to tell me something? ;) All great picks though, both for my username and for my tastes (:

As for you ... I'd love to see if you could stay true to your username with the possibly insane protag of Chaos;head. Could your love of insanity win out over his unattractive cliche otaku personality? I might not be the only one creating a fresh reddit account recently ...