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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

Dropped Minikui Mojika

I have to say I apologize to those who voted for Minikui Mojika no Ko... my original instinct not to play this game at all was correct.  This game feels too much like a dark rape nukige to allow me to play it anymore, so I had to drop it.  Not to mention that I hate all the characters and think they should all be tossed into the nearest garbage dump. 
Clephas

Clephas

17

Fuukan no Grasesta: Story and final impressions

Now that I've completed the main game, it is time to post about the story... which is the most important part of any VN, hybrid or not. The story begins with Judar Schwarka, a Rovari (race of nomad/barbarians who are the source of prejudice due to their physical attributes) mercenary and his employer, Eutre Hyte, heading out to ambush the supply train of a Telphion Federation army besieging the Belgrad Empire forces in a fortress.  Judar, flat and uninterested in anything except the job, is
Clephas

Clephas

2

Primal Hearts 2: Yes, I did manage to play this

First, for those wondering how I found time to do this... Fallout 4 is not a game you can play in small bits, so any time when I had less than four hours consecutively free, I went for this instead (generally it was twenty to thirty minute bouts during lunch, dinner, and breakfast, as well as an hour right before bed).  For those wondering what I thought of the original, here is a link to the post in my thread: http://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/2086-clephas-vn-of-the-month/?page=8#comment-159994
Clephas

Clephas

5

Sakura, Moyu. -As the Night's, Reincarnation-

Sakura, Moyu is the latest game by Favorite, the producers of Hoshimemo and the Irotoridori series.  For those who aren't yet familiar with Favorite, I should tell you that there are three things this company is known for.  For one, they produce first-class 'nakige' in a unique style full of pastel colors and manipulation of visual and narrative perspectives.  Second, they are known for their excellent stories and characters, regardless of which writer they have on the job.  Last of all, they ar
Clephas

Clephas

9

Anekouji Naoko to Gin'iro no Shinigami part 1: Common and Kirsti

A few words before I dig into the common route. Minato-soft is known primarily for its comedy/drama large-scale charages, Majikoi and Tsujidou-san. These two are characterized by a unique style of characterization that goes more for comic relief than is standard with most VN-makers, as well as a tendency toward over-powered heroines who can take on the world by themselves (all three main heroines of Tsujidou, Momoka in Majikoi, and Kirsti in this one). This one is no exception, so those who play
Clephas

Clephas

0

Fuukan no Grasesta: gameplay as of Chapter 6

Fuukan no Grasesta is the latest release from Eushully, the company responsible for Kamidori Alchemy Meister and Ikusa Megami Zero.  As I mentioned in my previous post, it is based in a unique fantasy world based off of the idea that a futuristic version of our world got fused with a world of demihumans and gods who granted magic in return for faith.  Fuukan no Grasesta's basic system is that of a dungeon-crawler... with a few twists.  First, the party shares an HP bar, which signals the pa
Clephas

Clephas

4

Akeiro Kaikitan

For those of you who didn’t already know, this VN is based in the same setting as Nanairo Reincarnation and by the same company.  Nanairo Reincarnation was my VN of the Year 2014, and it is a VN that has remained strong in memory ever since. This VN has a much stronger ‘horror’ influence than Nanairo, which tended to be more of a nakige for much of its length.  The protagonist, Yashiro, is a young guy who was born particularly vulnerable to spiritual influences while not having the ability
Clephas

Clephas

7

Hataraku Otona no Renai Jijou

As the title above indicates, this is a story about the love life of a working adult... to be specific, a twenty-five year old salaryman named Oga Itsuki.  At the beginning of the story Itsuki, who has already begun to settle into the dull exhaustion of the salaryman style of life, is awakened to just how pathetic his life is by his immediate superior, who suggests he try to change himself.  The amazing thing is that he does go through with it, and it changes his fate (makes it interesting).
Clephas

Clephas

6

Kyuuketsu Hime no Libra

Mmm... first of all, this is by Onamatope, a company previously known only for its harem-ge from the Mecha-con series.  The Mecha-con series fell somewhere into that thin area between a nukige and a moege, and it was actually pretty decent for something in that area of the VN universe.  So, keeping that experience in mind, I went into this VN with a more open mind than some people probably would have.  Fortunately, this VN wasn't a disappointment, precisely because I wasn't looking for it to be
Clephas

Clephas

5

Sakura no Mori Dreamers (Clephas returns to the internet)

…Wow.  After the disappointments of last month, it is so nice to encounter such a great VN on my first one of the month this one.  Sakura no Mori Dreamers is a horror/mystery nakige based in a medium-sized Japanese town.  It is primarily focused on the protagonist, Shinji, and his quest to discover the killer of his first love, Madoka.  However, if you ask me if this is a story of revenge in the vein of Hello, Lady, that isn’t the case. Shinji is one of those rarest of things in a VN prot
Clephas

Clephas

8

Evenicle Part 1

Ok, this is the first part of my words on Evenicle, which will be the last VN I play from April's releases. I am only playing this one because it was specifically requested by several people, and to be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it. I am not a fan of the Rance series or Alice Soft in general, because their VNs' plots just aren't that interesting, generally. The ratio of goofy to serious is generally too slanted in the goofy direction, so I tend to get bored about halfway through.
Clephas

Clephas

1

Random VNs: Nanairo Reincarnation

Below is the original mini-review I wrote of Nanairo Reincarnation in 2014, which I mostly pulled out because it is much harder to access than this blog because of how buried that thread is.  Also, I was feeling too lazy to completely rehash everything I said back then.     Nanairo Reincarnation   Kamige kita!!!  lol   I've been waiting all this  year for a kamige to appear, and thankfully, I wasn't disappointed.  Every once in a while I co
Clephas

Clephas

0

Hanasaki Work Spring, part 1: Shiranui Asuka, common

So far this VN takes the form of a straight-out high-quality charage, with some nakige elements. The protagonist, Yuuma, is like the ultimate lazy guy... so much so that he researched ergonomics solely so he could create the ultimate pillow for sleeping in class. The heroines are Ayano - the much-older senpai who is a genius but has been held back more than any other person in the history of the school -, Inori - a lone-wolf girl who hates people who ask her personal questions -, Wakaba - t
Clephas

Clephas

1

Wagamama High Spec

First, despite the way moege fans fawn over the first two VNs by Madosoft, they are perfect examples of absolute mediocrity in charage.  That isn't to say they didn't have good points... the visual aspects of this company's VNs are on the higher end of things in the charage part of the VN industry.  However, they were basically slogs through WWI-style trenches full of mud made from ichaicha... and one of my  pet peeves is writers who pump in endless ichaicha.  I personally see them as kusoge, du
Clephas

Clephas

1

Gin'iro, Haruka Part 1: Common and Bethly

First, I'm going to say right out that this VN feels very familiar to me, as someone who dropped Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai.  I dropped that game for a number of reasons... but the biggest one was that I was extremely tired of slice-of-life and romance at the time.  Since Hoshi Ori (and indeed all games by Tone Works) is a pure slice-of-life/romance VN (not charage) it just was a bad time for me to hit on it.  As I studied my feelings about my experiences with the path I'd played, I went ahead and rat
Clephas

Clephas

2

Akatsuki no Goei (series) Characters

Since I've posted previously on Akatsuki no Goei as a trilogy, I thought I would instead make a description of the setting and a list of characters and their roles in the story, with a personal assessment attached.   I'm pretty sure I missed at least one of the Route C heroines, but there are so many of them...  Setting The setting of the Akagoei series (several generations before the events in the Reminiscence series, incidentally) is in a fictional version of Japan.  In this version
Clephas

Clephas

3

Some explanations about my current state

Some people here already know that I hurt my knee falling down the stairs a while ago... what most of you don't know is that the stuff they have me on (non-narcotic pain drugs, sleep pills, and antibiotics) in combination make me a zombie for most of the day... I sleep around twelve hours a day, am fuzzy for two to three hours more, have to do rehab exercises for another two hours, and I spend around four hours of what is remaining working.  Needless to say, this doesn't leave much time for
Clephas

Clephas

9

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

2

HaremKingdom

First, Smee is one of the few companies I've never bothered with in the past.  There were a number of reasons, but it all came down to one issue in the end... I don't like VNs where you name the protagonist.  Naming the protagonist inevitably means the protagonist is a shallow cipher/non-person whose personality and characterization can be changed to fit which heroine he is with.  As such, I tend to avoid games where it is possible to do so. HaremKingdom was an exception for two reasons...
Clephas

Clephas

1

Hapymaher Character Special: Talking about Maia

Now, anyone who has seen pictures or videos from Hapymaher will have noticed the VN's resident loli, Maia. For various reasons, Maia is easily the character who leaves the strongest impression in the VN, hands-down.  She is the center of the VN's obvious conflict, and she easily has the greatest variety of character poses and non-H CGs.  If there is drama of some sort throughout the common route, Saki's route, Keiko's route, or Yayoi's route, she is somehow involved or the cause of it.
Clephas

Clephas

1

Floral Flowlove

Now, as I stated in the previous post, Saga Planets' has two types of VNs it primarily produces... a story-focused type that doesn't avoid the kind of bitter drama that charage/moege tend to despite the moege-type visuals... and a 'strong charage' type that essentially is a more character-focused VN with many of the same strengths as the former type.  Floral Flowlove is the former type, being much closer to Hatsuyuki Sakura and the other 'Four Seasons Series' VNs.  As such, as in all VNs by
Clephas

Clephas

5
VNs

Waga Himegimi ni Eikan o

This is the newest game by Minato Soft, the makers of Majikoi.  As per usual, I'll be straight with yall and say that I thought this would end up essentially being a slice-of-life failure like a lot of Minato Soft's non-Majikoi VNs.  However, this game is actually much closer to a chuunige in nature than I anticipated.  In the end, I gave this one of the highest ratings I've given in a long while, but there are some issues, which I'll mention farther along. Wagahime's protagonist is a young
Clephas

Clephas in VNs

5

Amayui Castle Meister part one: Gameplay

I'm going to be straight about this game... if you liked Kamidori, you'll probably like this game, gameplay wise.  It uses a nearly-identical battle and skill system, and it is all about gathering ingredients.  For those unfamiliar with the battle system, you essentially summon your characters into a dungeon, which you explore and gather ingredients from while fighting off monsters.  Your characters each fight one-on-one for the most part, in a battle system highly reminiscent of Fire Emblem gam
Clephas

Clephas

9

Soreyori no Prologue part 2: Mayura and Touwa

Mayura Mayura is the second of the two secondary heroines... the protagonist's osananajimi who, predictably enough, has hidden her love for him since childhood (*pukes sand*). Anyway, having gotten my Minori complaints out of the way in previous posts, I won't bore you further with this. Mayura's route is your basic 'genki osananajimi' route combined with Minori's love of excessive drama. There are plenty of hard-hitting moments, that I'm sure that romance lovers will follow with excitement.
Clephas

Clephas

6

Kimagure Temptation

Kazuki Fumi and Silky's Plus Wasabi's newest game has arrived.  This is the third game in the series that began with Nanairo Reincarnation.  I will say this outright from the beginning... this game isn't as good as either Akeiro or Nanairo.  It does have its high points, but it needs to be noted that this is not on the same level as the previous two games. This game uses the Emote system heavily, with the sole heroine (Annelise) being extremely 'animated' (think constantly swaying boobs) to
Clephas

Clephas

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