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2015, the weakness of a year from a VN-gamer's perspective


Clephas

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First, I should say that never before, in my seven years playing VNs, has a year been as... stale as this one has been.  It is not that there haven't been good VNs coming out... it is just that no VNs I might consider worthy of a VN Hall of Fame have come out this entire year.  Generally speaking, I can usually expect about three to five VNs in any given year to make it into my personal 'hall of fame'.  Unfortunately, this year has literally produced none worthy of that group. 

Understand, when I say 'worthy', it doesn't necessarily mean that it is my 'favorite' VN.  If I were to go by that standard, Silverio Vendetta would be in there, despite its rather glaring flaws.  No, when I say something is worthy, it is that it is a VN that I think has lasting value at least partially independent of purely relativistic values (which tend to be the guides for my ratings in various genres). 

This bothers me.  Last year was actually a pretty good one, with more than five VNs making a solid entry into my personal hall of fame.  Only 2011 was better in the last five years, and that year was almost demonic when it came to producing first-rate VNs... I've come to expect that at least one or two VNs will be obvious candidates for my VN of the Year in any given year, and that I'll have at least ten to twelve runner-ups... but this year, I've yet to come across a solid candidate for runner-ups, much less for a struggle for the final VN of the Year. 

I love VNs, for all the pain they've put me through.  I slog through dozens of near-kusoge every year so that I can excavate a few gems... and it is getting a bit depressing how pathetic what gems I do find look like.  I do this because I honestly think that there is no better electronic medium for the telling of a good story, though books in general still do a better job in general (mostly because of the pathetic lack of first-rate writers and a willingness to back them up fully with art and system support).

However, this year is just a bit too depressing for my tastes.  I've had no great emotional explosions from playing a VN this year (other than a few really really good moments in Silverio Vendetta), and while there have been some technically good VNs, there hasn't been anything to approach Semiramis or Nanairo from last year in terms of blowing me away... or even anything approaching Hello, Lady for first class character dynamics and presentation. 

On the other hand, anime shows signs of making a comeback... which is surprising, considering how stagnant the medium has been for so long.  Of course, it is likely to be just another 'peak' before another 'trough', but it is still nice to have that balancing out the lowest point in VNs I've experienced yet.  I am a bit tired of playing kusoge though... October produced several good VNs... but that was at least in part because it was the most prolific month in this half of the year for non-nukige.  Most of the stuff I didn't bother mentioning in the blogs was... not worth mentioning.  I tried it, I wanted to be sick, I dropped it.  Hopefully, the November or December releases will redeem this year at least a bit... I'd at least like to see one VN of the Year-worthy VN come out, because even I couldn't honestly name Silverio Vendetta as VN of the Year, despite my fondness for it being an obvious tribute to some of my favorite parts of Dies Irae.

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