Jump to content
  • entries
    767
  • comments
    1836
  • views
    481890

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

VN of the Month March 2017

After discussions with the other contributors to this month, we decided that the VN of the Month for March 2017 is Haruru Minamo ni by Clochette.  The reason is fairly simple... nothing else met the standards for a VN of the Month pick from the March releases we played.  Now, Haruru isn't a kamige (except that the heroines are kami, lol), but it is an excellent 'charage with a story', and it is definitely the type of VN I'll remember years from now.  As such, I didn't really have an reserva
Clephas

Clephas

1

VN of the Month March 2015 announcement

I am completely done - though without playing Mirai Kanojo - and I'm not interested in continuing (the new month's releases are already coming out, lol). For those who are interested... the contest between the VNs came down to a four-way fight between Shirogane, Hanasaki, Valkyrie, and Utakata. Naturally, I considered them all as fairly as possible, but in the end I picked Hana no No ni Saku Utakata no as VN of the Month March 2015 For those who were expecting me to pick something else... s
Clephas

Clephas

0

VN of the Month June 2017 update

This is an update of the play status of June's releases. Ai yori Aoi Umi no Hate- On hiatus/stalled for the moment due to gaming exhaustion.  Plan to resume by the tenth. Haruoto Alice ＊ Gram - Planned for play after Aiao.  Pure Song Garden! - Currently being played by Dergonu. Tantei Seven- Dropped and labeled a kusoge by fun2novel, our resident mystery VN lover.  No plans to include it in the contest.
Clephas

Clephas

0

VN of the Month January 2018

Well, this ended up being a contest between two charage... Shogun-sama wa Otoshigoro and Yorite Konoha  wa Kurenai ni.  While I did not play Futamawari, so some will object to me naming a VN of the Month now, I will again repeat that I don't have any interest in that kind of lolicon story. To be honest, it really isn't that much of a contest... Shogun-sama's flaws pretty much ensure it falls behind Yorite Konoha wa Kurenai ni as VN of the Month January 2018.  The flaws are relatively m
Clephas

Clephas

0

VN of the Month January 2017

This month was almost a no-brainer... while there were some halfway-decent charage releases, there weren't any that made a significant impression.  I'm afraid I don't have time to read Giga's newest half-hearted-but-pretty-looking charage (work is busy) and I haven't actually played any VNs since i finished Ninki Seiyuu last week.  Silverio Trinity is VN of the Month January 2017.  Normally, I wouldn't name a sequel as VN of the Month, on principle.  However, in this case, the game itself w
Clephas

Clephas

4

VN of the Month Feb 2016 and March titles

First, VN of the Month 2016 basically comes down to a competition between two titles, World Election and Tsumi no Hikari Rendezvous.  The other stuff from February was mostly... disappointing.  Shugotate 2 is great... but one of my rules is that direct sequels and continuances of previous games can't compete if they require knowledge of the original to enjoy (and in this case that is true).      Both games in the posts above are solid VN of the Month candidates... and
Clephas

Clephas

2

VN of the Month December 2016

Before I announce the VN of the Month, I'm going to go ahead and apologize to those who wanted me to play Honoguraki... to be blunt, I don't have the energy for it.  Ragnarok sucked me dry, and I need to get away from undead and demons for a while.  Moreover, I hate zombies in the first place (so many reasons), so I'd be unlikely to give a pleasant review or comment anyway. Now... it is kind of startling how so many great games got packed into a single month.  December 2016 was a monster mo
Clephas

Clephas

0

VN Jargon: A few words (questions and discussion welcome)

VN jargon can be one of the most confusing things on the planet for newbies, when they first start playing VNs.  I say this as a straight-out statement because jargon-related questions are some of the most common ones I get from newbies, and jargon-related misunderstandings are pretty common.  However, I'm not making this post to explain each piece of VN jargon's definition and the like, but rather to poke a few holes in the illusion of the 'stability' of the VN lingua franca that people like me
Clephas

Clephas

11

VN element: Slice-of-life

One of the single biggest elements of most VNs in existence is slice-of-life.  This entire post is based on this fact, and it isn't one that can seriously be argued against by anyone who has read more than a hundred VNs. So what is slice-of-life?  With VNs, it is a type of scene where bits and pieces of daily life, without any particular conflict, are portrayed.  These can be humorous, mildly touching, or informative.  So what is the value of slice-of-life as a tool for storytelling? 
Clephas

Clephas

4

Venus Blood: Ragnarok

Yes, you were waiting for it, all you tentacle-loving freaks... this is the newest game in the Venus Blood series, as full of tentacles and sex-training as any of the others...  I come to you having finished the Law route and after being forced to go back a chapter in order to get to the Chaos route on my second playthrough (apparently you absolutely have to start the 'goddess insanity' chapter, by failing to complete one of the monster-hunting side-quests).  The gameplay will be familiar t
Clephas

Clephas

2

Venus Blood Series, In order from Abyss to Hypno

A Universal Issue Tentacle sex and rape are the two big downers to this series. For a series with such good writing, it is amazing how quickly it becomes repetitive once h-scenes get into the picture. On the bright side, corrupting the heroines in Empire, Frontier, and Hypno almost always has immensely hilarious results after the mindbreak. It is kind of irritating that you pretty much have to mindbreak them to get the really good strategic skills, though. Abyss To be honest, this is
Clephas

Clephas

2

Venus Blood Lagoon part 1: Main and Law Route

First, I should note the reasons why I keep playing Venus Blood games, despite not being fond of tentacles in general and rape in particular.   The first reason is that the story and characters in each game have been exceedingly interesting, which is a good enough reason in and of itself.  However, the second reason, and the one that makes this series stand out, is the sheer depth of the gameplay most games in the series since Frontier have displayed. I played Empire and Abyss first, and, t
Clephas

Clephas

0

Venus Blood Empire

Yes, I went and played a game in this series, mostly because Sanahtlig is an old friend and I didn't want to keep brushing him off. In fact, I'm marathonning this series starting with this game. First, an initial umbrella statement... this would have been a first-class story (though flawed) if it weren't for the massive amounts of tentacle rape and choukyou. Am I serious? Yeah. Despite everything, the base story is actually really good. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the gamepla
Clephas

Clephas

1

Venting sorrow: I lost my cat today

I love my cat. Let’s get that out of the way from the beginning. Even though she is gone, as of today, I have never, for one moment, believed that I would ever stop loving her. For seventeen years and eight months, this calico wonder has made her home in my heart, never failing to wrap me around her paw and jerk me around by my heart strings. As the undisputed mistress of all she surveyed (all eleven rooms and corridors of it), she has dominated the lives and conversation of our family
Clephas

Clephas

1

Valkyrie Runabout

This VN, like most of Rosebleu's VNs, is a fantasy/comedy VN. In this case, it is based in another world, where the protagonist was summoned and helped defeat the Demon King with his ex-girlfriend the Hero Scyana, the perverted swordmaster Hairen, and the berserk cleric Fran. The story actually begins after all these events have occurred and the protagonist has broken up with Scyana (for good reason), and he has started to attend an academy in the kingdom's capital city. As is to be exp
Clephas

Clephas

2

Valet Style: Slice of life with a side of ojousama and female butlers

As I mentioned in my most recent post, ojousama-ge are one of my guilty pleasures. So quite naturally, I couldn't help but get my hopes up for this VN. It definitely has its ups and downs, and it provides some entertainment... but the downsides are kind of painful.   First, the common route of this VN is some of the better slice of life I've seen in the last few months, with a mostly comedic bent. The protagonist, who is dirt poor, is a generally capable guy who is busy living life when a pair
Clephas

Clephas

0

Utawarerumono Mask of Deception

First, I should note that this is the first half of the game and as such, it might be wise to wait until the second half comes out in September before trying it.  Second, this game is based some time (around sixteen to nineteen years) after the original Utawarerumono in the much larger nation of Yamato, on the continent across the sea.  For those who don't want spoilers about the original game, STOP HERE. Second, I will note the differences between the anime and the game.  There are numerou
Clephas

Clephas

0

Update: VN of the Month plans for April's releases

For those who were wondering, I do plan to play most of the April releases.  Unlike March, there are no non-VN game releases I'm even the least bit interested in, so I won't be losing any time there.  Right now, due to a request from a friend, I'm starting with Wizard's Complex, by Windmill.  Windmill is a company that has produced a number of notable VNs, such as Witch's Garden, Hyper→Highspeed→Genius, and Kamigakari Cross Heart.   In other words, they make decent fantasy VNs, though their
Clephas

Clephas

0

Upcoming: 2nd year anniversary of VN of the Month (new post)

On the twenty-fourth of September, 2015, it will officially have been two years since I started doing VN of the Month. In that time, I've read just under 200 VNs, just under one hundred of them for VN of the Month. Even if you take my abnormally fast reading speed into account, that is several thousand hours of VN playtime... so naturally, I am a lot more jaded than I was when I started this. I've become more forgiving in some areas and less in others. I've struggled to keep bias out of my mini-
Clephas

Clephas

4

Unlucky Re:Birth/Reverse

This is a VN by Windmill, the company that made Hyper Hyspeed Genius and Kamigakari Cross Heart, both great VNs, even if they were wildly different in focus and genre.  While this VN doesn't quite measure up to them overall, it does have its moments, which I will outline below. First, the common path... it is your classic charage common path, though with the fantasy twist that the protagonist is sucked into another world whose only real differences materially is the existence of magic and the la
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

Unionism Quartet A-3 Days

I'm going to be frank... for people who liked the original game and those who didn't, this is a waste of time.  Do I sound like a jerk?  I'm not trying to be... I don't think I've ever come across such a weak direct sequel (since it really is a full game).  I sampled one of the new heroines, one of the main heroines from the original game, one of the secondary heroines from the original game, one of the sub-heroines from the original game, and one of the 'extra' heroines from the original game (
Clephas

Clephas

5

Tsuyokiss Sangakki Full Edition

Common Path The common path in this VN is, I'm going to say straight out, better than either the original's or Nigakki's.  Part of this is the variety of events.  Both the original and Nigakki tended to have a lot of event repetition in the general sense (ongoing jokes like Inori Sensei being late to class and Kani's reaction to it), and while some of that is inherited, in general there was a lot more in the way of interesting events throughout the path.  However, what really brought the pa
Clephas

Clephas

0

Tsuyokiss Next

This is actually my second time playing this VN, though my first playthrough only went through Neko and Kohane.  I will say that playing this after the original series does change my perspective somewhat, as it is easier to get the many references throughout the VN.  Hakari, one of the heroines, is the cousin of the protagonist from the original trilogy and the protagonist is Kani's cousin.  Jiro is a relative of one of the Kenpou Club's members from the time of the first protagonist (ten years
Clephas

Clephas

0

Tsuyokiss Festival

This VN is a direct sequel to Next, beginning approximately at the end of the common route of the original.  At this point, the characters from the original series begin streaming back into town, Kachiki appears on the scene (dramatically), and Kitsune's character is given a new facet.  However, the common route in this VN is very short, mostly providing comedy (there is one ending you can get out of the prologue/common path that is absolutely hilarious) and fitting the new character dynamics in
Clephas

Clephas

3
×
×
  • Create New...