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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

April Release: Yuusha to Maou to, Majo no Cafe [EDITED]

Now, considering that all the games Mint Cube made up until now were kusoge (personal experience speaking here), I didn't expect to be especially impressed by this game.  Thankfully, I was surprised a little by how this game turned out.  In the world of this VN, the light and darkness, embodied in the Maou and Hero, fought one another ten years before... and no one knows the outcome.  Since then, the world has settled into a relative state of peace. This game focuses on the amnesiac Tarou,
Clephas

Clephas

4

April Release: Tenpure!! (EDITED)

First, I'll say that this game is pretty much based on the concept of using the concept of templates and archetypes in the story.  The protagonist bumps into a girl with toast in her mouth, gets woken up by an osananajimi, catches a maid falling from the sky, is frequently scolded by a fake-prude iinchou, and he even has an ojousama fall in love with him at first sight. Now, the attempt to turn all the classic template happenings of a moege/charage into a joke sort of falls flat in this gam
Clephas

Clephas

0

April Release: Koneko Neko Neko

Yes, I did this game first.  This is one of those games that is a bit hard to define.  It is part moege, part nukige and part charage... and part surrealist story.  It is about cats being reborn as humans being reborn as cats being reborn as humans (it gets ridiculously complex, to the point where there is no point in keeping track).  There also isn't a whole lot to say about this game... it is mostly at-home SOL, h-scenes, and reminiscence of past lives.  As a VN, it is a bit hard to read
Clephas

Clephas

5

Random VN: Mirai Nostalgia

Mirai Nostalgia is the game that turned Purple Soft around.  After Ashita no Kimi to Au Tame ni, the company produced a number of middling and poor quality games, and it looked like Purple Software was going to fade into the background, like a lot of other companies that prospered during the 'Golden Age'.  Then, all of the sudden, they released this game...  and they regained the hearts of their followers, leading to a series of high quality releases, including Hapymaher, Amatsutsumi, and Aoi To
Clephas

Clephas

3

Random VN: Tojita Sekai no Tori Colony

This VN is an odd duck on my long list of recommended VNs.  While its existence as a time loop story is a trope, the way the game's story handles it is pretty interesting.  I went ahead and revealed this as a loop story because you find it out so early on that hiding it as a spoiler is meaningless.  The game's story begins with the protagonist meeting (and helping out) Nodoka, one of the four heroines, and her confessing her love to him on the next day when she transfers into the class.  Wh
Clephas

Clephas

0

Kari Gurashi Ren'ai

For those who are interested, here is the first real comedy VN of the year...  The protagonist, Takuma, having returned to his hometown to live alone in his family's old house, finds that it has collapsed in on itself, and, desperate for a place to stay, ends up staying at the homes of his four childhood friends (osananajimi).  This leads to various hilarious antics and situations, with most of the heroines being 'ponkotsu' types (meaning that they are the kind of girls no sane man would wa
Clephas

Clephas

5

Butterfly Seeker

This is Unobara Nozomu's second attempt at the mystery genre (for those who are interested, he also wrote Yurirei, Teito Hiten Daisakusen, and Fairytale Requiem) after the dramatic failure of Shinsou Noise last year.  To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to this game, despite its interesting concept.  This game, like many detective mystery type VNs, possesses a deduction system... but thankfully, it also lets you skip that portion at the click of a button (thus avoiding the story disrupti
Clephas

Clephas

3

Changing views of localization

Yay, Clephas is contributing to a controversial topic in his blog!  *listens for the hisses and boos of his loving public* More seriously, I'm not out to bash fantranslators, localization companies, or anyone else involved with the process.  I've been on both sides (consumer and producer) and I can honestly say that I can see all four sides of the argument (the producer side, the negative consumer side, the neutral consumer side, and the positive consumer side). The Positive Consumer
Clephas

Clephas

8

Neko-nin exHeart 2

This VN is the second game in Whirlpool's short, low-price mimikko fetish game series... and I have to say my impression of it hasn't changed from the first one.  This is a direct continuation of events from the end of the first game, and basically it increases the number of mimikko-ninja in Haruki's harem... and nothing else. Oh, it is moderately funny, the h-scenes titillate my mimikko fetish, and you get hints of a deeper setting once again... but its short length means that the game nev
Clephas

Clephas

0

Riddle Jokers

I'm going to be blunt (as usual), Riddle Jokers is probably a sign that Yuzu Soft is starting to stagnate as a company.  I'm not trying to be mean or bashing Yuzu Soft for the sake of it... but, after finishing two paths of this game, I felt hugely exhausted, despite the fact that the paths are actually shorter than some of their other works.  The reason is fairly simple... the cast of characters this time around just isn't that interesting. Part of that is that the protagonist himself
Clephas

Clephas

5

VNs with a Seasonal Theme

The greater proportion of VNs out there take place in a three or four month period... and are usually linked to a seasonal theme.  This is especially true of moege/charage variants, but it can also be said for more story-focused games, like Tasogare no Sinsemilla.  I just thought I'd bring out my thoughts on the use of seasonal themes here, since it comes to mind fairly often. The two most common seasons used in VNs as a thematic background to the setting are summer and winter.  Now, why mi
Clephas

Clephas

1

AI Love: Koisuru Otome wa Kikai-jikake

I didn't go into this VN expecting much.  Judging by the cover (considering I am a bibliophile, you would think I would know better, lol) and the Getchu page, I thought it was going to be a half-nukige along the same lines as the Ren'ai Jijou series (since Otaku was written by the same guy).  However, I was surprised at what I got... the first addition to my 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' list since Natsuiro Recipe in mid-2015. As a reference point, I almost never add VNs to the Chicken Soup f
Clephas

Clephas

0

Random VN: Yurikago yori Tenshi Made [Edited]

Yurikago is one of my favorite VNs.  That isn't because it so 'awesome' or a kamige.  Story-wise, it is actually a bit below the average for Akatsuki Works.  No, the reason I like this game so much is the characters and their interactions. Kiritooshi Hiro, the protagonist (his surname means 'to cut all the way through' lol) is a young high school student who lives every day trapped in a web of his own apathy.  Tormented by his 'Knight Frame' (a magitech-type device that replaces his entire
Clephas

Clephas

0

A List: Chuunige likely to sell in the West

Understand, chuunige mostly appeal to a very core fanbase.  The style, the fact that they don't translate well, and the fact that most of the action/story is so 'out there' makes the games unapproachable.  The sheer amount of text means that localization costs are through the roof, which makes things worse, of course.  I'm being realistic, ignoring my inner fanboy who screams everybody should love chuunige because charage suck in comparison.  However, that is the flat-out truth.  So, I
Clephas

Clephas

10

RPG commentary: Growlanser 3

Before I go back to my work, which is going to take the rest of the day to finish, I thought I'd leave yall with a commentary on one of my favorite jrpgs, Growlanser 3. Growlanser 3, released in the US as part of a collection with Growlanser 2, was the final localization done by Working Designs, the company that pioneered independent localization of jrpgs in the US (up until then, most had been localized by Japanese companies or the console first-party company).  It is the prequel to 1 and
Clephas

Clephas

0

Unjou no Fairy Tale [EDITED]

Unjou no Fairy Tale is the second game by Cosmic Cute in the series/setting that began with Sora no Tsukurikata.  It is based around eighteen to twenty years after the original game in the city of Kaguya, a lawless city with many different races floating in the sky far above.  It is ruled by the invincible Mayor (with thirty-seven terms under her belt) Azumaza, frequently troubled the antics of the great (and in the eyes of ground dwellers, insane) alchemist Nemo, and plagued with more criminal
Clephas

Clephas

0

Random VN: Dungeon of Regalias ~Haitoku no Miyako Ishgalia~

Umm... I'm going to be honest with you.  I'm not terribly fond of Astronauts' irregular ventures off into the lands of dark fantasy gameplay hybrids, and as a result, I chose not to play this one when it came out.  My experiences with the original Demonion, which, while the story was decent, was incredibly tedious when it came to the gameplay, made me not want to have anything to do with this game. I won't say that this game surprised me... the story is straightforward Astronauts-style (lot
Clephas

Clephas

1

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

2

Dir Lifyna

Dir Lifyna is the name of the world in which Eushully's Ikusa Megami games, Kamidori Alchemy Meister, and most of the rest of their games are based.  I love Dir Lifyna.  I don't think I'm alone in this, since it was the unexpected popularity of the setting in the original Ikusa Megami that resulted in the ridiculous number of follow up games that culminated in Ikusa Megami Zero (which most fanboys consider the best game Eushully has ever made).  The setting is deep, based in a world bu
Clephas

Clephas

2

VN of the Month, February 2018

This one was a straight-out contest between Lost Echoes and Otoboku 3. On the one hand, Lost Echoes has an excellent story and some seriously good heroines.  On the other hand, Otoboku has first-class writing, first-class slice-of-life, and excellent epilogues. In fact, it was that last element that decided the contest... the two were neck and neck, but the difference in epilogue quality, which is much more important than most people credit it for being, was huge.  Lost Echoes, fo
Clephas

Clephas

1

Lost Echoes

Lost Echoes is the first VN by the new company Petitlinge and is written by one of the writers of Hatsugamai (https://vndb.org/v18790)  .  In this VN the protagonist, Yuuki Riku, is asked by the low-ranking kami, Ryuusen Umi (her name as a kami has been forgotten by both her and the descendants of her worshipers), to go to the past to save the soul of his childhood friend by preventing her previous life (Tachibana Ginchiyo, a rare female warrior leader in the Sengoku era who was the daughter of
Clephas

Clephas

0

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

0

dropping for now: IxShe Tell

I honestly normally wouldn't bother explaining why I choose not to play a given VN in a given month, but with Hooksoft games, given their rather high popularity, there is a real need for me to say something. First, I don't like Hooksoft games.  They are written well, are visually pretty, and generally have moe-stimulating heroines.  However, they are also perfect examples of every reason I can find not to bother with the genre at times.  The characters are cute, there is plenty of ichaicha
Clephas

Clephas

1

Hataraku Otona no Ren'ai Jijou 2

First, I should mention that my original review of the first Hataraku Otona didn’t really do it justice. Oh, I mentioned what I liked about it, but I was busy as hell that month, so it was what amounts to a short commentary. As such, I’m going to go into more detail this time around. Hataraku Otona 2 is the second game in the series (if you exclude the spin-off Hataraku Otaku no Ren’ai Jijou). The characters from the original game return as side characters, several years older, and it isn’t
Clephas

Clephas

0

The Otoboku series

The Otoboku series is often put forward as a prime example of a sub-genre that first gained popularity about eight years ago... the 'trap protagonist in a girl's school' type.  However, there are a number of aspects that make this series a bit unique... or at least make them feel unique. One is their protagonists... despite their differences in personality and upbringing, all three protagonists end up taking a similar role in the common route, even aside from the 'Elder' issue.  To be strai
Clephas

Clephas

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