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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

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

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Chrono Clock Part 1: Common, Makoto, Michiru, Misaki

Common First, I should say this VN isn't like Purple Soft's last few works. The common route is straight comedy and heart-warming antics combined with some minor drama and with a bit of personal growth for the protagonist on the side. It is good comedy and the personal growth is actually quite nice, since the protagonist as he started out would have driven me insane inside two hours. It is also relatively short, as are the heroine routes so far. I managed to finish the common route and one he
Clephas

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Chrono Box

Review by Dergonu, edited by Clephas   I just finished this game a few hours ago, and I’m honestly not sure what I should write about it. It left me with so many different impressions and emotions, I’m kinda overwhelmed. One thing is for certain though, this game was absolutely amazing. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and, dammit, it scared the crap out of me a few times. Chrono Box is a mystery from start to finish.  As a result, one of the things that makes the writin
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Chrono Belt

Why should you play Chrono Belt, fans of Ayakashibito and Bullet Butlers? This is your reason. Do you really need another? But seriously, this fight is told entirely from Kuki's point of view, and as a result it is suitably awesome. Rather than doing it in order, I went ahead and did the Kuki-viewpoint segment first solely so I could re-experience the awesomeness that is Kuki Youkou. Anyway, Chrono Belt isn't so much a fandisc as a true-ending crossover of both games. Basically,
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Character settings, game settings, and their use

This is a theme that actually doesn't come up very often in my reviews/commentaries on VNs these days, primarily because most VNs use what settings - whether those of the characters or of the game itself - to at least an adequate degree.  There are actually very few VNs that include setting elements that are interesting but never end up used... because it irritates the hell out of people who actually pay attention. The most recent example, which made me go off on a foul-mouthed tirade in pr
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CharaBration! ~Otome wa Koi shite Charabureru~

Let's be clear... I have no reason to try to be fair to charage anymore.  This might sound like a terrible statement to make, but the fact is, I've been a lot nicer than I wanted to be for years when it came to charage.  I went out of my way to look for positive aspects, and when I found one, I deliberately put it in as positive a light I could without overdoing it.  This was because the sensation I got coming out of most charage was fatigue.  SOL, in small doses, is enjoyable and even relaxing.
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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
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Caramel Box: The VN industry's 'oddball' company

Caramel Box is one of my favorite companies.  I'll say that right off the bat.  They have one of the best writing/producing teams in the business, and it tends to show.  Not only that, but their VNs tend to run the gamut, all the way from nakige to chuunige.  While artist-freaks will sometimes nitpick on the details of their CGs, their artistic style is unique in VNs, retaining some older techniques and mixing it with new.  In addition, their musical choices are similarly odd, frequently utilizi
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Cafe Stella to Shinigami no Chou Part 1?

To be blunt, I might or might not continue playing this game, so I thought I'd go ahead and get my thoughts down now, after finishing one path.  More and more these days, I only play one path of a game before moving on, after all. Shinigami no Chou is Yuzusoft's latest release, and it is more along the lines of its more SOL-focused games like Sanoba Witch, as opposed to its more plot-focused ones like Dracu-riot or Senren Banka.  As such, the ichaicha and H-scenes are a bit overly long and
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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

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Busy as hell: Working on Seiken Tsukai in my free time (not copious at the moment)

... for the first time in years, I just went through an entire week without finishing a VN... Why? The reason is fairly simple... real life.  I'm having to clean up all the work left over from the time I spent essentially mentally handicapped that I didn't subcontract to someone else.  That is on top of the work I would have received anyway... In any case, I'm slowly making progress on Seiken Tsukai, and I can tell you that it is a VN that will definitely pick its readers.  The st
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Busy and a preview of July's releases

... exactly how many times have I mentioned that I'm busy lately...?  Seriously.  I'm in the middle of VN withdrawal for the first time in over three years... and I'm realizing how addicted I am.  I'd be perfectly happy to play a kusoge for the second time, at the moment... if I had the time.  The best I can do these days is drop in for a few minutes and maybe a quick post or two.  Considering that I originally started this style of work because it made me enough money in a short enough per
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Burned out

It's been a while since a single VN burned me out completely, but Silverio Trinity managed it.  That VN had many of the best elements of its predecessor, while being more balanced, having added unique soundtracks, and overall creating a mostly new experience that, while it didn't completely transcend the original, still managed to stand on the same plane. Unfortunately, it was a highly emotional experience, with a lot of excitement along the way... so I know I won't rate any VNs I play at t
Clephas

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Bunny Black 3

I've been playing this one off and on since it came out, but I went ahead and finished it today. To be honest, this game's difficulty level is about three levels higher than either of the previous ones, whereas the actual gameplay isn't improved all that much from the second one. The addition of a town-building element just made the game tedious, rather than adding anything to it. Story wise... a good beginning, some good moments in the center, and a last part that falls flat on its face.
Clephas

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Bunny Black 2

This is the second part of my marathon of the Bunny Black series. In this one, it is some years after the events of the first game, and the protagonist and friends find themselves at war with a faction of angels... Now I'm going to be straight here... the game system is a lot less refined than the one in the first game, at least in terms of the battles. There is far too much guesswork involved, and as a result, you can find yourself in severe trouble at times, even if you came prepared. Th
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Bullet Butlers: Intro

Bullet Butlers: An Introduction Bullet Butlers has one of the more interesting fantasy settings that I've seen in a VN. Think film noir combined with elves, lizardmen, orcs, and magic and you won't be far off. The guy you see above is Rick Arrowsmith, the protagonist of the story and butler to one of the potential heirs of the draconic Mystic One (spiritual - not necessarily physical - descendants of the heroes who defeated the Undead King who serve as symbols of God's favor). Now, Bulle
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Bullet Butlers: Final

Final Having finished this VN for the second time, there were a number of things I took notice of in a different way from the first time through... but perhaps the biggest one is simply that I was surprised at how many of the most important details I remembered. I had to laugh when I realized I'd subconsciously solved the riddle of the path themes in my first read through, and they came back almost immediately after I entered them. First, with Valeria's path, it is straight-and-narrow love
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5

Bullet Butlers - a character portrait: Selma Fortenmeyer

Selma Fortenmeyer For various reasons, it isn't possible to tell the story of Bullet Butlers without telling the story of Selma Fortenmeyer, Rick's master. Selma is the true/central heroine of Bullet Butlers and the focus of most of the conflict in the VN, in the sense that she sparks most of the disasters and victories by her very existence and her position. Her growth as a character is easily the most powerful and obvious in the story, and it really is an incredible degree of growth. To
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Books: The Malazan Book of the Fallen series

The Malazan Book of the Fallen is perhaps one of the most complex series I've ever read... and that is saying a lot.  It is high fantasy in the sense that it is based in a fantasy world that is unbelievably complex (it makes Game of Thrones look simple at times) and it has the combined moral ambiguity and dark humor of Glen Cook's Black Company series as well. However, where Steven Erikson shines the most is in his world-building... and in his character-creation.  This is perfectly natural, as h
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Books: Honor Harrington Series

Yes, I have indeed decided to add books to my regular posts, mostly due to Rooke's suggestion.  Understand, if you think I've read a lot of VNs... that is nothing in comparison to the number of books I've read over the twenty-eight years since I learned to read.  That number is somewhere in the tens of thousands... and one of the reasons I can be so intolerant when it comes to the excessive reliance on conventions in VNs, lol.  Honor Harrington Honor Harrington is both a character and a series w
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Book series: The Recluce Saga

The Recluce Saga, despite being a somewhat niche 'high fantasy' novel series, is perhaps one of the largest and most monolithic such series to have been written in the last forty years.  Beginning back in the eighties and spanning more than twenty books now, it is LE Modesitt Jr.'s signature series, the series that propelled him from a somewhat eccentric author of varying science fantasy and science fiction novels and series to one of the quiet dominators of high fantasy as a genre.   The R
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Book Series: The House War

The House War series is one of three co-existing (to some extent, each of the series co-exists in time, often with the same characters) series written in the same universe by Michelle West, a half-Japanese, half-Canadian writer who first came to my attention when I was stunned by the first book of the Sun Sword series. The universe created in the three series (the Sacred Hunt duology, the Sun Sword series, and the House War series) extend across over thirty years of time in-series and invol
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Bokura no Sekai ni Shukufuku o

This game is the one I've been waiting for... a mimikko nakige that doesn't ignore the setting or human nature. At the beginning of the story, the protagonist, Kazuki takes in a puppy he finds abandoned in the park, feeds her, and then falls asleep with the half-feral cat he feeds occasionally watching.  When he wakes up, they've both transformed into mimikko, a catgirl and a doggirl...  Soon after, it becomes apparent that shortly after this event, pets around the world began turning into
Clephas

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4

Boku wa Tomodachi - I am not Sweetheart

This is the first of August's releases I'm playing, and to be honest, I didn't really have any hopes for this VN... in a good way, my belief that it would suck was betrayed, though this is a very problematic VN, in a number of ways. 1. It is LONG. This VN is way too long for a story that is almost entirely slice-of-life (though it is an extremely abnormal life) and considering how self-abusing the protagonist tends to be. 2. The music cuts out at irregular intervals, and frequently it d
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Boku no Hitori Sensou

To be honest, my first thought after playing this game was: 'Yeah, this is a Looseboy game.' Needless to say, I don't always consider that a compliment. Looseboy has a tendency to prefer being opaque even where being opaque doesn't really serve all that well, as anyone who played Sharin no Kuni or G-senjou can tell you, if they can bring themselves to discard fanboyism. Why do I say this? I say it because if I don't manage to get past that particular lump in the throat, I won't be able to pro
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