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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

Shin Koihime † Musou - Kakumei Son Go no Ketsumyaku

First, I should mention that this post is mostly going to focus on how this VN improves on the original content from Shin Koihime Musou.  The reason is fairly simple... if you like the series, you'll eventually play this, and if you played the original Shin Koihime Musou, then that is probably what you want to know.  I know I would. Next, I will go ahead and come out with it... I loved what they did with this path.  The degree of added detail in this VN is actually higher than in Souten no
Clephas

Clephas

3

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

Sakura no Uta part 2: Rin and some linguistic comments (edit: added Rina and yuri ending)

Yeah, I said I was going to wait until I'd played at least two more heroines before I posted again... but Rin's path has enough impact that I felt a distinct need to post on it ahead of time. Misakura Rin is the protagonist's osananajimi... a childhood friend and one another's first love (this is said pretty much from the beginning, so it doesn't really count as a spoiler).  For reasons the protagonist deliberately only hints at (typical Sca-ji) he has been avoiding any sort of contact with her
Clephas

Clephas

2

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

Aristear Remain

This VN is based a few thousand years after Tou no Shita no Exercitus, and without the background knowledge of that VN, it is a bit hard to get into the details of this one.  Unlike that game, this one has no gameplay and is instead a kinetic novel in the 'standard chuunige' style... which basically means that it isn't a high-detail wordsmith and CG artist's playground like the stuff by Light and Nitroplus.  Sadly, since this VN's setting had some nice potential to make such a game in. I'm
Clephas

Clephas

0

VN of the Month: Just letting yall know

September's VN of the Month is probably going to be a contest between Baldr Heart, Inochi no Spare, and Gin'iro, Haruka.  Why?  Everything else I dropped shortly after exiting the prologue, wanting to puke from the kusoge-smell.  It might not be fair to them, but Ichibun, Yuuwaku, and Triangle Love just aren't VNs that have any chance, with Gin'iro defining the field for slice-of-life and romance.  I can't bring myself to play anymore Gin'iro, but that isn't because it sucks... it is because I'm
Clephas

Clephas

17

Himesama Love Life: Why is this month so awful so far?

Despite the title, this isn't a horrible VN. It is basically a rehash of Himesama Gentei which was a near-nukige all-moege about a protagonist 'romancing' (I have to wonder if you would really call a bunch of princesses falling in love with one idiot and him deciding on one or a harem route 'romancing') princesses. I can actually enjoy some of the heroines' routes... but the premise is so ridiculous and so unrealistically presented that it goes beyond suspension of disbelief, even for a moege.
Clephas

Clephas

3

Eushully's fantasy world

I love Eushully's unique fantasy world, Dir Lifyna.  Most of Eushully's games, save for a few oddball ones by the subsidiary Anastasia and Fortune Arterial, are based in this world, which began with the original Ikusa Megami (if this gets translated, somebody please smash the skull of anyone who translates the title, because they'll probably pick the worst permutation of it).  The first thing that anyone going into this setting should know, if only for giggles, is that this was never intended to
Clephas

Clephas

12

World Election

Here it comes, a possible VN of the Month!!!  Seriously, I hadn't expected that Whirlpool's ten year anniversary game would be this good.  It is written by the same person who wrote Koisuru Doll to Omoi no Kiseki, and it feels in many ways like a return to the better of Whirlpool's two distinct styles.  Whirlpool's two styles are: 1- A straight moege/charage that makes a vague attempt at seriousness on occasion and inevitably falls into the habit of producing endlessly repeated 'ongoing jok
Clephas

Clephas

5

Shougun-sama wa Otoshigoro

This is the newest game by Alcot, based three hundred years before Onigokko (yes, it is a prequel, sort of) during the time of the infamous Tokugawa Yoshimune (who is the central character of the jidaigeki Abarenbou Shogun), the first Shogun to take the title based on the 'gosanke' system set up by Ieyasu to prevent the end of the shogunate due to the end of his direct descendants.  The protagonist of the story is a young man who has been dragged into the body of a person of the same name in the
Clephas

Clephas

0

Silverio Trinity Part one: Common route and Aya Route

**** WARNING WARNING it is impossible to talk about Silverio Trinity without talking about the events of Silverio Vendetta, so this post is going to be full of spoilers.  Until and unless you have played Silverio Vendetta, do not under any circumstances read this post!!!!****               Silverio Trinity is based three years after the events in Vendetta's path in Silverio Vendetta, in the city of Prague.  The technology to make Esperanto warriors h
Clephas

Clephas

0

Silverio Ragnarok

The final game in the Silverio series enters with a whimper and exits with a bang. First, this game absolutely requires that you have played the previous two to appreciate.  Too much of what is going on requires understanding of concepts that aren't reintroduced but constantly referenced throughout the game.  This game is based only a few years after Trinity in Canterbury, the theocratic state ruled by a Japanophilic religion based on seeing old Japan as a sort of El Dorado.   I should
Clephas

Clephas

3

Random Vns: Rui wa Tomo wo Yobu

Now, Ruitomo is one of 'those legendary VNs', the first kamige written by the Akatsuki Works team.  It is well-known and often discussed amongst vets of playing untranslated VNs, and you can see how this was the formative stage for a team that would go on to make numerous great games in the future, most of them chuunige. First off, Ruitomo isn't a chuunige, at least in the classic sense.  The protagonist is a trap who is bound by an inherited curse not to reveal his true gender, and the sto
Clephas

Clephas

4

Island

Now... I've already commented on this VN elsewhere, at least to a point.  So, I'll just do a quick recap of my initial feelings on this VN.  I'll go ahead and get the negative out of the way first. First, the common, Sara, and Karen routes... as I've said elsewhere, these routes exist solely to give you certain information that adds depth to the story of Rinne and Setsuna.  So, lolicons and fans of heroines like Karen, you are wasting your time if you go into this VN if you are expecting so
Clephas

Clephas

8

Teito Hiten Daisakusen

First, for those of you who are fans of the Steampunk Liar-soft games, this isn't one of them. Rather, it is based on an alternative version of the 1920's where curses, magic, and monsters exist and the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 never happened. Japan has come away from its first major military contacts with the outside world as the victor over Russia, which is making its bloody transition from Empire to communist state. Garan, one of the two protagonists, is a tengu... as arrogant as
Clephas

Clephas

1

Sakura no Uta part 1: Makoto and thoughts on Sca-ji

First, I should say that I hated Subahibi.  Those of you who loved it will probably try to convince me it was a kamige or that I'm not rating it without bias... but from my perspective, it ultimately fell flat.  Part of this is because I absolutely loathed the psychedelic fantasy craze that went through otaku media around the turn of the century and gained full strength in VNs with Sumaga and Subahibi.  Another part is that Sca-ji doesn't know when to shut up.  Oh, I honestly think that if he wr
Clephas

Clephas

2

Tou no Shita no Exercitus part 1: So far

First, I should describe Astronauts, the mother company that created this VN. Astronauts produces a wide variety of VNs done in its own unique art style. Most are halfway to a nukige without quite going there, and about a third of them are gameplay VNs like this one. Since their VNs vary so wildly between subsidiaries and even just between games, the art-style is pretty much the only common thread.   Exercitus is reusing the base card-battle system from Astronauts' previous card-based battle
Clephas

Clephas

0

Kimi to Yumemishi

Ok... this is by a new company by the name of Laplacian, and as a result, I didn't really have much in the way of expectations for it.  As a result, I wasn't disappointed... but they didn't manage to surprise me either, sadly.  This VN's protagonist has the ability to enter people's dreams when they dream about him and uses a perfume he designed himself to make people remember and dream about him when they go to sleep. This VN, when it comes down to it, is a straight-out moege.  The low-lev
Clephas

Clephas

3

A bit of Hapymaher, as a motivator and because I'm evil

Before anyone asks, no I'm not translating this VN as a whole.  For one thing, it is long and I'm lazy.  For another, it actually has a small chance of coming over here, so I'm not going to do something that will spoil the whole game for them (I want this officially localized).  This is a fully narrated version (narrated by the poster of the video) of the first few scenes of Hapymaher, which was my VN of the Year 2013.  This VN has ridiculously good music... and a frequently heartbreaking story.
Clephas

Clephas

4

Weabooism: The experience, its causes (in Westerners), and tempering it with doses of reality

Hello, my name is Clephas, and I am/was a weaboo.  *snickers at the AA reference*  I'm mostly posting on this matter to give those otakus who aren't necessarily weaboos an idea of what it is like to be a weaboo (ignoring social problems, for the moment, haha) and just why we exist in the first place.  First, to correct a common misconception... not all weaboos are solely obsessed with Japanese culture/history/etc.  In fact, most Western ones are or eventually become interested in all Asian cultu
Clephas

Clephas

19

Ryakudatsusha no Inen

This VN is Akabeisoft3's latest VN, adding yet another genre to that company's list.  To be straight, this is a guro-rape dark fantasy similar to Maggot Baits in atmosphere (albeit not as extreme).  The protagonist, Roy, starts out as a shota living happily with his family.  However, one day bandits, led by a psychopath named Ix, attack the village, raping and murdering the women, including his mother and older sister.  He himself is raped by the leader's wife as well as her shota slaves. 
Clephas

Clephas

3

Hana no No ni Saku Utakata no Final Part: Ryouko, Shione, and Ouka (true path)

Yakushi Ryouko To be blunt, Ryouko is a sub-heroine, so there really isn't much to say about her. Her path quality is lower, the details are less involved, and the drama is so mild you almost have to ask yourself if it even exists. Despite this, she is a fairly cute character, and she does fill the 'adorable kouhai' slot nicely. Fujimiya Shione This path, in terms of quality and nature, is something of a hybrid of Shizuku's and Reina's. Similar to Reina's, it is an osananajimi's pat
Clephas

Clephas

0

Angenehm Platz -Kleiner Garten Sie Erstellen-

... well, I guess I was wrong.  They do still make pure moege.  The only problem with this is that 'pure moege=kusoge' these days, so I honestly can't see a reason to be happy about that.  This VN was written partly by the same guy who wrote Flyable Heart, and it is by a company (Hexenhaus) that has a fondness for producing moe-based VNs focused on eating establishments of some sort (this case, a Cafe Club at a school).  I'll be perfectly honest... this VN starts out with all the elements n
Clephas

Clephas

2

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

2

Grisaia Phantom Trigger parts one and two

Since this one was released in English already, I'm pretty sure at least a good number of the members of this community have already sampled it.  However, this is also the last VN for this month (that isn't a nukige).  This has been a month full of short kinetic novels that are parts of a larger story... a setup that I normally dislike intensely.  Since this game is only a partial, it isn't actually a candidate for VN of the Month (VN of the Month's rules require that the release in question be
Clephas

Clephas

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