Jump to content
  • entries
    766
  • comments
    1836
  • views
    478971

About this blog

This is a blog primarily focusing on but not limited to VNs.  It is primarily designed to express my opinion on otaku media (jrpgs, anime, manga, LNs, VNs, etc), individual VNs, and otaku community issues.   Most of the posts are related to my VN of the Month and Random VN columns, originally started in threads in the forums. 

As of March of 2017, I'm also looking for people to help with VN of the Month.

Entries in this blog

Death March Kara Hajimeru Isekai Kyusoukyoku

Let's be clear about something first.  I will be the first person to admit that I am really, seriously strange for actually enjoying the anime version of this.  However, it turns out this story is a lot less frustrating in the written form, so I imagine that those that hated how the anime went might still enjoy the books.  To be clear, Death March is, despite the whole setup, essentially a story of Satou touring the isekai to see the sights and eat good food while incidentally (to his mind) savi

Clephas

Clephas in Japanese literature

Dead Days

On request and because I am a Kurashiki fan, I decided to play this, despite worries about the concept and the characters... and I came out finding my worries perfectly justified. First, the protagonist Teru... in a standard chuunige, he would be the jackass that gets killed after begging for his life in the opening act after doing something totally scumbag-like.  Worse, rather than being merely a cold-blooded manipulator (which is how the Getchu page presented him), he is actually an irrit

Clephas

Clephas

Curio Dealer

This is the latest VN by AXL, and it is also the latest in its 'swords fantasy' (there is very little magic in these games) series (I say series, but they are just a line of similarly-designed games).  The previous games in this series include Princess Frontier, Hyakka Ryouran Elixir, Racial Merge, and Ou no Mimi ni wa Todokanai.  This is also AXL's fifteenth game, making it one of the most prolific companies (ignoring subsidiaries) still active.  Like all the games in this series, it is ba

Clephas

Clephas

Creative Corner: Brainstorming a character

Usually, I focus mostly on the perspective of a consumer when I write in this blog.  I do this because I am and always have been primarily a consumer of material rather than a creator.  However, that doesn't mean I've never created anything... just that I haven't published anything (well, under my own name... ghost writing doesn't count) since some early fiction on Deviantart over a decade ago.  So, since I'm not writing as many reviews, I chose to start a small corner describing the techni

Clephas

Clephas

Crazy Charage Settings

Now, I love nothing more than an interesting setting, and I'm tired of normal charage in general... so one of the biggest points that can be used to draw me into a charage is a crazy setting.  Crazy charage settings are settings that have no possibility whatsoever of happening in real life or are so far outside of common sense that they are inconceivable as a real possibility to most people.  This includes fantasy settings and sci-fi settings, but more often it includes a simple concept tak

Clephas

Clephas

Corona Fandisc

I went ahead and played my way through this... for the most part, the story is slice-of-life, with a lot more focus on the comedic elements than in the main game. The result is a lot of hilarious scenes... and really little else for most of the first two-thirds of the game. The endgame story is supposed to be a tearjerking final battle... but to be honest, I hadn't developed enough affection for the new characters to feel anything for what was happening. Too much of the content was comedic, a

Clephas

Clephas

Conquest Strategy VNs (Sangoku/Sengoku Hime series in particular)

Conquest strategy games, as opposed to RTS, are games where conquest operates on a strategic (large-scale) rather than tactical level and is unconcerned with the activities of individual soldiers (soldiers are numbers, not capable of individual action).  They involve the capture of strategic points in order to hold territory and the keeping of order and management of general resources (wealth and troops, as opposed to specific resources like wood, stone, and food). There are certain rules t

Clephas

Clephas

Companies that rest on their own laurels

(Note: Right now I'm playing Dungeon of Regalias, on a long-standing request for me to make an assessment.  This doesn't have anything to do with my statements below.) One of my pet peeves is companies that depend on their reputation to sell their games, regardless of quality.  Pulltop, Navel, and Circus are the most frequent offenders on this side...  Pulltop, in particular, has developed a habit of releasing second-rate games under existing IPs (the second and third Lovekami and their sex

Clephas

Clephas

Commentary on Hino Wataru's chuunige

Over the last few weeks, I've gone back through all of the chuunige Hino Wataru was responsible for, and I came up with a number of common points that exist in each of his games, that define his overall style.  At the same time, I thought I'd also mention why I usually recommend Comyu to people despite the translation being such a disaster. Hino Wataru patterns Hino Wataru has a number of unique patterns that define his style of writing chuunige (some of it spills over into his SOL gam

Clephas

Clephas

Clochette: Activist VN-makers or just endless Oppai?

I'm currently playing Koko kara Natsu no Innocence, the latest VN by Clochette, a charage company specializing in busty heroines that tends to produce first-class character development and heroine stories.  One aspect of Clochette that I've always thought was a bit funny was the obsession with 'shoushika', the current phenomenon in Japan where fewer and fewer young people are getting married and/or having kids.  This is touched upon to one degree or another in a lot of VNs, because it is an issu

Clephas

Clephas

Clephas's Rave: Minori VNs and Why I Dislike Them

First off, those who remember my comments on Natsuzora and 12gatsu will remember I mentioned hating Minori games, with the exception of Eden*. The fact is, that I still do hate them, I hate reviewing them, and I hate reading them. The question is, why? I keep asking myself this. Minori has really good visual quality, good writers, and decent characters (even if they basically reuse the exact same cast over and over with different appearances and background stories to suit a given VN). T

Clephas

Clephas

Clephas' Translated VN recommendations

As you can imagine, I got a lot of requests for a similar list over the years, but the thing is, I don't play VNs in English that didn't start out in English.  As such, my recommendations are based entirely on my experience of the Japanese versions of these VNs, rather than the localization.  As such, don't hold me responsible for your personal experiences, lol.  I'm going to split these by genre so I don't have to answer questions along those lines.  For the purposes of fairness, I won't includ

Clephas

Clephas

Clephas' top ten Imouto paths

Yes, I'm going to go there.  I've actually been asked this more by my Japanese friend/supplier than anyone else, but I've always refrained from answering except to name one or two that I liked.  However, I made the mistake of watching a few imouto anime on a binge a few weeks ago, and I began seriously considering which little sister paths were the best in the VNs I've played up until now.  Note that I say these are the best 'paths', not necessarily the best imouto heroines.  To be blunt, imouto

Clephas

Clephas

Clephas' top AI/robot/android/etc heroines

This is a list of my favorite artificial (non-magical) heroines.  The reason I thought this up was because I am currently replaying Komorebi no Nostalgica, which is pretty much the top for an AI-focused VN.   Emmy from Akabanzu  https://vndb.org/c42670 Akabanzu itself is an unusual game in that it is a charage focused on a protagonist being forcibly rehabilitated from game addiction.  The AI in this game, Emmy, focuses on a support role, which makes for a surprisingly interesting (and

Clephas

Clephas

Clephas' list of high-quality writers: Tier One

I think we can all agree I've read a lot of VNs. *waits for audience laughter with a smile* *looks sad when the audience laughter recording doesn't work* Anyway, over the years I've encountered a lot of writers.  Some were mediocre, others were decent, yet others were good... and some were just great. I decided to list the writers I honestly think have a lot of talent and whose works are something we, as VN fans, should at least keep an eye on.  Tier One presents writers who are '

Clephas

Clephas

Clephas' Favorite VNs: Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas part 1

One of only two games written by Kazutaka, the writer of the somewhat comically-named Doushite Daite Kurenai no!?  Onna no Ko Datte Yaritai no! (incidentally, despite the title, the aforementioned game is not a nukige, which is in itself humorous, lol).  It is also the game that gave substance to Ensemble's quest to define itself as a specialist company in trap protagonist and ojousama-ge.  Ironically, it is also the flat-out best SOL game the company has ever made, which makes it somewhat sad f

Clephas

Clephas

Clephas' Favorite VNs: Minamijuujisei Renka

Say what you want about Studio Ryokucha, but their weird plotge/charage hybrids are some of my quirkier favorites.  To be specific, Minamijuujisei Renka is my favorite game by this company, at least partially because of how deftly they sidestepped the worst of the 'high school' tropes while keeping the advantages of familiarity.   Minamijuujisei Renka is based on a fictional island still ruled by a post-colonial Caucasian aristocracy that long-since lost its connection with its long-dead or

Clephas

Clephas

Clephas' basic advice to untranslated beginners

Since I get asked questions constantly on this subject, I'll go ahead and list a few pieces of advice I felt apply to most beginners.   1) Use translation aggregator and a text hooker, even if you feel like you should be getting out your kanji dictionary, out of a sense of self-reliance. I'll be blunt, it is hard to enjoy something if you have to refer to a kanji dictionary for every other non-particle word. I am sometimes stunned at people bragging about spending 100 hours on an 8 hour moege

Clephas

Clephas

Clephas' 2018 VN recommendations

This is a list of VNs I think are worthy of playing, regardless of my vndb vote (no VN of the Year, since I don't do VN of the Month anymore).  While I haven't been playing much since September, the fact remains that I still played a large number of VNs this year.  Feel free to object, but I have no obligation to listen anymore *whistles cheerfully as he juggles the flaming skulls of those who have opposed him in the past). Fuukan no Grasesta Mirai Radio no Jinkou-bato Haru to Yuk

Clephas

Clephas

Clephas Top 50 VNs

For the last two years or so, I've gotten repeated requests to unequivocally name my top VNs made up until the present, ignoring objectivity, my vndb votes, etc.  I've more or less just ignored most of those requests, because it is a pain in the ass to name a 'favorite' VN in the first place.  I've made lists of VNs I loved from various genres, and I've also made lists of VNs for a specific purpose.  However, I've avoided making a list like this one up until now, mostly because my 'favorites' sw

Clephas

Clephas

Clephas Guide to a fun untranslated chuunige life

For the hell of it, I decided to make up a 'suggested playlist' for people who like/are interested in chuunige who have just begun to play untranslated VNs. There are two variations on this guide.  One is a 'test the waters, gradually take a dip, then dive into the depths' guide.  The other is a 'Spartan Guide', which starts out with medium difficulty VNs and moves into harder and harder ones at the top tiers.  Each VN list will have four tiers, based on a combination of my estimation of di

Clephas

Clephas

Clarification: VN commentaries

I've been asked what my standards are for VNs in general and how I apply them to my commentaries on VNs I've played in this blog. I've explained my standards before, as needed, but there is something that came out in that conversation that I think needs to be addressed. First, my favorite genre of VNs is and probably always will be chuunige.  This is because I like violence, I like internal monologues, I like hedge philosophy, and I love all that crap that makes former chuunibyou patients r

Clephas

Clephas

Chuunige protagonists: Heroes, anti-heroes, and monsters

Now, in the past I've often tried to clearly define my favorite VN genre, the chuunige.  While there are many elements that go into making a chuunige, the primary requirements are conflict (violent or otherwise), philosophy (hedge philosophy usually), deliberately exaggerated character personalities and backgrounds, and extremely detailed settings. Now, for reasons known only to me, I felt like talking about the chuunige protagonist.  Understand, chuunige protagonists are inevitably... uniq

Clephas

Clephas

Chuuni Hime no Teikoku

Now, this is one of those games where the Getchu description and the one on the site don't represent the reality.  First, this game is a straight-out comedy.  The protagonist is a 'classic baka', a character who is easily distracted, daydreams about convenient scenarios with cute females, and generally makes trouble without meaning to.  Because of his perspective, the game is pretty high pace (and not really in a good way). The heroines include: Chuuni Hime- A real princess from a

Clephas

Clephas

Chrono Clock Part 2: Dorothy, Kuro, Miu

Dorothy Dorothy is a foreign exchange student, as well as the protagonist's new maid and his fiance (sort of). To be blunt, I dislike her character so much outside of her route that I wanted to smash her head in with a steel rod. Nonetheless, her route was actually pretty good. I was surprised at how good it was. I cried for it almost as much as I did for Michiru's, if for different reasons. If you can stand her, this is an excellent route to choose. Kuro Kuro is the female version o

Clephas

Clephas

×
×
  • Create New...