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About this blog

Twitter (for news and announcements)

Steam Curator Page

External Blog

This blog is devoted to popularization (and discussion about) western-produced VNs. My main goal is to present notable non-Japanese visual novels that didn’t receive attention in the Fuwa community and, whenever possible, giving voice to people behind them. Doing this, I hope I’ll be able to give these projects and their creators the appreciation they deserve and oppose some negative stereotypes about non-JP VNs that circulate within our community.

I’m also going to talk about failed VN projects and review newly-released titles of various quality, using this opportunity to discuss the most common flaws and problems characteristic for the western VN development scene and realities of the OELVN market. 

Entries in this blog

Starlight Vega (yuri VN review)

Disclaimer: I’m supporting Razz, author of this game, on Patreon and consider myself a fan of much of her work – this might obviously influence the scoring and tone of my review, although I stand by the opinions presented here wholeheartedly. Yuri/shoujo-ai, as much as some of us might enjoy the theme, is still a fairly small niche among Japanese VNs – one that undoubtedly spawned some great titles and has a loyal fanbase, but is nowhere near being a dominant formula in the genre. It’s enou
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

7

Sounds of Her love (free VN review)

Check out my interview with the developer of this game, ds-sans! Is there any merit to creating a tame, single-heroine romance VN in a market that seems to be flooded with cute love stories, often in much more "advanced" forms? Do a romance VN need to invent something fresh and original to be successful? Is it even possible to be innovative much in the world of cute romance tales, with the kind of saturation the genre offers? Sounds of Her Love, a small freeware title published over a ye
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

0

Soundless -A Modern Salem in Remote Area- (Western VN Review)

There were few EVNs in the last few years that I’ve seen seriously hyped up by other VN fans and brought to my attention through multiple recommendations and positive reviews – particularly beyond titles by a handful of relatively well-known and respected creators such as ebi-hime. The game I’ll be writing about today, Soundless -A Modern Salem in Remote Area-, is one of such exceptions, enthusiastic opinions about which intrigued me to a major degree, even though it ended up being two years bef
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

2

SoulSet (Western VN Review)

Note: I was provided with a free review copy of this game by the developer. All opinions expressed here are solely my own. The multi-route mystery VN is not a format easy to pull off properly and for that reason not many EVN developers even attempt to tackle it. It requires creating a number of paths and characters, all interesting on their own and complementary to each other, while also keeping the overall quality high enough to motivate the reader to go through all of it in order to pi
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

12

Shining Song Starnova (Western VN Review)

Love in Space, authors of the highly-appreciated Sunrider series, are a very peculiar kind of EVN developer. In their games, they unapologetically cater to weeaboo sensitivities, copying the Japanese storytelling tropes and stylistics pretty much in every aspect of their games. Sunrider: Liberation Day, the second Sunrider titles was the clearest example of this, with its Japanese speech mannerisms (which look at least a bit questionable in English prose), Japanese voice acting and pompous, Japa
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

16

Shall We Date? Blood in Roses+ & NTT Solmare's Despicable Business Model (Predatory Mobile VN Review)

I’ll be completely honest: I didn’t have a good opinion of NTT Solmare even before approaching the game this review is about. After exploring their sole non-otome visual novel, Moe! Ninja Girls, I was absolutely stunned with the predatory monetisation and poor quality of that title. I was still curious about their otome projects though and decided to check out one featuring the theme I personally enjoy a lot: vampires. Thus, I ended up playing Blood in Roses+, one of the over 20(!) games in the
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

2

Serment – Contract with a Devil (Dungeon Crawler Review)

EVN releases often come apparently out of nowhere, with games either flying under the radar during their entire development process or simply being forgotten due to delays and inconsistent promotional efforts on the part of their authors. This lack of proper buildup can easily spell a commercial disaster for such titles, especially considering today’s overcrowded indie market and the Steam storefront so full of shovelware that browsing recent releases stopped having any functional meaning. Thank
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

0

Sepia Tears (free VN review)

Mystery/romance might not be a rare formula for VNs in general but seems especially popular among Western developers – this probably shouldn't be surprising, as it's very compatible with shorter, linear stories that indie devs usually aim for. Just like One Thousand Lies, which I've reviewed last month, Sepia Tears is a free visual novel available on Steam and mobile devices, which offers a fairly deep, complicated intrigue, relying on its mystery elements to keep the player emotionally and inte
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

4

Sakura MMO Trilogy (Yuri VN Review)

Winged Cloud, creators of the infamous Sakura series, are visibly past their prime, which shows not only in their diminishing Patreon support and smaller interest in their games in general, but also the lack of marketing effort and innovation. For two and a half year now their VNs are only becoming shorter, simpler and more iterative, making the already not-particularly-impressive projects from the peak of studio’s popularity, such as Sakura Nova or Sakura Fantasy, look like absolute heights of
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

8

Sakura Dungeon (VN-hybrid game review)

Warning: This is review is based on the Steam version of the game, without the 18+ content unlocked. The free uncensored patch unlocks two dozens of CG, including straight-up hentai scenes and adds more nudity to the "clothing damage" system. The "clean" version, however, is still very heavy on sexual themes and can be considered "complete" when it goes to the story. Among the dedicated fans of visual novels the infamous Sakura games by Winged Cloud are one of the most despised and ridic
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

6

Sable’s Grimoire (Western VN review + developer interview)

Zetsubou, a developer and writer involved in many popular EVN titles is someone whose work many fans of the genre might be very familiar with, but not necessarily even knowing about it. While have made a few relatively successful projects of his own, such as Sickness or Tomboys Need Love Too!, many of his commissioned works, such as Razzart’s Love Ribbon gained even more recognition. For this reason, among others, there was relatively little fanfare around the release of his latest project, Sabl
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

9

Sable Grimoire – Tix’s Route (VN DLC Review)

Sable’s Grimoire was, in my opinion, one of the most interesting and enjoyable OELVN releases of 2018 – the expansive, story-driven VN with a very unusual approach to the theme of monster girls impressed me both with the sheer amount of content and the stories it told. Featuring various mature themes but essentially devoid of sexual fanservice (if you didn’t read my original review, check it out here – it also includes a lengthy interview with the game’s developer, Zetsubou), it was a rare kind
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

0

Ruler by Default (western VN review)

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free review copy of this game by the developer. All opinions expressed here are solely my own. OELVN scene is, for many years now, heavily reliant on crowdfunding, with many small and high-profile projects made possible through Kickstarter and, more and more often, regular contributions of fans on Patreon. While these methods of financing VN development created opportunities that wouldn’t be available to the developers in the past and brought us many me
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

2

Rituals in the Dark (Yuri VN Review)

Note: I was provided a review copy of Rituals in the Dark by Marantana, author of the game's German translation. Rituals in the Dark, published on Steam November last year, is the latest yuri release by ebi-hime, one of the most highly-regarded EVN developers. Those familiar with ebi’s work probably know that her history with yuri is as long as it is unique. Most of her games add unusual spins to the formula, or at the very least showcase her distinct writing style, very introspectiv
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

0

Rebranding annoucement: Welcome to EVN Chronicles!

Hello there and welcome to the new iteration of my humble blog! Pride of the West was created, apart from fueling my personal megalomania, for a very specific goal: promoting and demystifying OELVNs within the Fuwa community, fighting the negative stereotypes and ridicule attached to them in minds of the many more JP-centric VN fans. For the last six months, I've spent countless hours exploring the EVN scene and channelling my impressions into the blog (with what I personally see as a very
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

7
Free EVNs

Random free EVNs worth reading #2

Hello dear readers to the second installment of this new, purposefully-random segment on my newly-undead blog! Since the resurrection of my interest in VNs, I've been coming to a rather horrifying, and equally exciting realization of the massive amount of high-quality, free content the EVN scene delivered in the last year and a half. While game jam entries and similar projects are usually an ocean of forgettable works with a few pearls hidden below the murky waters, the number of decently-sized,
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak in Free EVNs

2
Free EVNs

Random free EVNs worth reading #1

Welcome back my dear readers and welcome to this new, irregularly-posted segment on EVN Chronicles!  As some of you might know, beyond my general burnout which made me put the blog on indefinite hiatus, late last year I've developed some health problems that pretty much killed my will to read VNs and my ability to contribute meaningful content on Fuwa... For a while. As I come back to life, both physically and mentally, I've decided to resurrect this space and log my adventures through most
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak in Free EVNs

4

Rainbow Dreams (Western VN Review)

Epic Works is a pretty unique phenomenon in the EVN scene: an African studio, developing games openly inspired by the Type-Moon visual novels and other classic chuunige. Their first release, Episicava, was something of a glorious trainwreck, launching with multiple technical problems and borderline-unbearable, edgy storytelling replicating most of the worst tropes of the chuuni game subgenre. The follow-ups included an unholy abomination of a nukige known as Analistica Academy, and a clunky and
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

2

Plk_Lesiak’s Shovelware Adventures: Yuri Sakura Games, part 2

Hello again and welcome to the second part of our journey through the world of Winged Cloud's yuri shovelware! The release of the Legends of Talia’s was undoubtfully a small disaster for Winged Cloud, not only failing to kickstart the new non-ecchi franchise, but also being quite harshly rejected by WC’s already-existing fanbase. It didn’t, however, end the yurige streak which made the straight Sakura porn, once definitely the dominating format, surprisingly rare in last year and a half
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

3

Plk_Lesiak’s Shovelware Adventures: Yuri Sakura Games, part 1

Yuri as a fully-fledged main theme came a bit late to the Sakura Gaming Universe (they’re all connected, I tell you!), but for the last year, it absolutely dominated Winged Cloud’s production, with their last het hentai game, Sakura Magical Girls, released in early 2017. That transition, however, was a long and inconsistent process, which produced both the absolute best among Sakura games (especially Sakura Dungeon with its never-ending stream of good-quality f/f porn and fanservice CGs) and som
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

5

Plk_Lesiak’s Shovelware Adventures: Yume Creations

Welcome to another episode of Shovelware Adventures! This time, we'll take a break from our favourite, the Sakura series, to take a look at a much more obscure corner of the OELVN scene. The venture into commercial visual novel development by the German fan translator working under the label Yume Creations effected in some of the strangest VNs available on Steam and beyond. Combining competent art and interesting ideas with trashy ecchi, pieces of absolutely disastrous, bizarre writing and strai
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

6

Plk_Lesiak’s Shovelware Adventures: straight Sakura eroge, part 2

Winged Cloud’s early hentai VNs appeared at the moment of company’s greatest creativity (obviously, speaking in the relative terms) and during what could be described as a slow improvement in the overall quality of their titles. The two latest ones, however, came as a syndrome of an exact opposite tendency, one which becomes very clear when we look at pretty much any of the Sakura releases after Nova – the whole formula becoming increasingly stale and cynical, and WC’s games turning into little
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

0

Plk_Lesiak’s Shovelware Adventures: straight Sakura eroge, part 1

Before the era of Steam adult patches, Winged Cloud established their brand by creating ecchi VNs, full of partially-exposed anime boobs, panty shots and flirty female characters in highly inappropriate outfits, but nothing that could effectively earn them that appealing “sexual content” tag on VNDB. In late 2015, however, utilizing progressively more widespread techniques of circumventing Steam’s censorship, WC made their move towards becoming an actual eroge developer – and year after that, th
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

4

Plk_Lesiak’s Shovelware Adventures: Silver Cow Studios’ Ecchi VNs (non-Time Tenshi edition)

While Time Tenshi, which I covered two weeks ago, is definitely the flagship franchise for Silver Cow Studios, the company never settled for only producing new iterations of their breast-expansion/time-travel formula, releasing two other ecchi VNs since their debut in 2015. Those games, while they didn’t abandon the giant boobs and over-the-top storytelling that could be considered Silver Cow’s staple, offered their own twists to the fanservice-filled and trashy, but hentai-free format. The firs
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

2

Plk_Lesiak’s Shovelware Adventures: NewWestGames

An amazingly contradictory example of both ambition and trashiness, this Canadian company managed to create some of the most memorably-bad games available within the Western VN market. While they definitely never showed the kind of contempt for their audience and lack of dignity that emanates from pretty much every new Winged Cloud title or the Steam asset flip/achievement spam VNs (yes, those are a thing – I will get to them one day), their utter failures and misguided elements in their project
Plk_Lesiak

Plk_Lesiak

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