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About this blog

Philosophical musings, argumentative squabbles, and fictional works. Also occasional rants about VN localization.

Entries in this blog

"For sale in Japan only": A Japanese developer's perspective on the eroge embargo

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I wrote previously about a display bug in Dual Tail's strategy eroge Venus Blood -Hypno- that prevented interface text from displaying correctly in non-Japanese Windows. Fan hacker binaryfail generously donated a patch that fixes the issue. I sent this patch to Ninetail (parent company of Dual Tail) via Twitter, requestin
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16

Venus Blood Hypno requires a font patch to display correctly in non-Japanese Windows

Edit: Easy fix for this problem provided by binaryfail (scroll to Edit 1)! After writing up my review for Venus Blood Gaia, I decided to launch into the next and most recent title in the series, Venus Blood Hypno.  To my chagrin, upon starting the game I was greeted with a screen similar to the one above.  Notice how the Japanese interface text is cut off? English players of Japanese-language PC games will be familiar with the various locale hoops that need to be cleared to get these g
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10

Tell Debonosu you want the uncut version of Kagura Douchuuki

I wrote yesterday about the Steam Greenlight campaign for Debonosu's Kagura Douchuuki, a rogue-like H-RPG. Read my article for coverage of the announcement and a first impression. As Steam doesn't allow adult content, this release will be censored, with all adult content removed. Kagura Douchuuki contains dozens of H-scenes, so the content removed will be considerable. By my estimation, more CG will be removed than left behind. The game's art will be thoroughly gutted. Not only will the game its
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7

Cross Days: A trainwreck as enthralling as it is infuriating

Makoto Itou is often vilified as the worst VN protagonist ever. These people clearly haven't played Cross Days. VNDB Getchu Cross Days is a retelling of the events of School Days from the perspective of Yuuki Ashikaga, a boy in the same year as Makoto Itou, the protagonist of School Days. Yuuki is childhood friends with Hikari Kuroda and a member of the library club, and his older sister Chie belongs to the basketball club. Good-natured but indecisive, he often puts the needs of others be
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Makenshi Leane: A surprisingly addictive NTR-focused strategy game

VNDB DLSite (NSFW) Official site I came across this Japanese-language title while scrounging around for gameplay titles with defeat rape. I found the concept of defeat NTR intriguing, so I gave the game a spin. The game's "prologue" spans almost half the game's length (~20hrs total) , and manages to tell a reasonably interesting tale of a broken nation's struggle against a brutal and militaristic empire. It starts off with a cliched love story between a knight commander (the protagonis
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Rogue-like H-RPG Kagura Douchuuki hits Steam Greenlight + First Impression

(This is the safe-for-work mirror of my LewdGamer article H-RPG Kagura Douchuuki Gets Greenlight for Censorship [NSFW]) Steam: An opportunity and a threat to ero-gaming The opening of Steam to visual novels is changing the face of professional eroge localization. Until very recently this was a world where every eroge, no matter its merit or lack thereof, sold more or less the same. Story-focused eroge consume several times the resources in time and manpower as short sex-heavy titles, and l
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Kagura Douchuuki, censorship, and apathy towards the English market

I wrote this response to a thoughtful commenter on Reddit.   I would not support a non-adult only English release of Kagura Douchuuki, with a purchase or otherwise. I would also encourage other eroge fans not to support whitewashing of titles where sexual content was an integral part of the original concept (i.e., this title and MoeNovel's If My Heart Had Wings).   Just because a story can be told without sex doesn't mean it should. Just because it's easier to promote a game without sexual con
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5

Visual novel RPG Seinarukana needs to be marketed as a JRPG to succeed

Peter Payne, owner of VN publisher JAST and the J-List empire, made the following comment in their official forums: JAST's experience with RPGs JAST has released several RPGs over the years, including the Raidy series, Brave Soul, Aselia the Eternal, and most recently Yumina the Ethereal. JAST has said hinted before that the Raidy series did very well for them, and they seemed quite eager to work on Raidy 3, so I'd infer that it's not included in this assessment. Brave Soul was heavily pir
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[Fuwa exclusive][Rant] Promoting VNs in a culture of apathy

This rant stemmed from a conversation on Twitter. I'm posting this here purely because posting this line by line on Twitter seemed retarded, and I'd disable the forum notifications for this post if I could. You can dig through my recent Twitter replies if you want to see the context. Have fun. *** The problem is a bit more complicated than "some people don't like what I have to say". Sure, there's that, but the majority of detractors don't like how I raise my voice to be heard through the din. T
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21

Ask sanahtlig: Answers to Common Issues and Concerns in the VN community

I see many frequently encountered issues in the visual novel community.  I've taken some time to address them, with a focus on pragmatic solutions rather than long-winded explanations. Issue: I really like <insert type of VN>, but I can't find others like it, or I've already played through all the suggested titles. Answer: There's over 17k VNs in VNDB's database.  2356 are available in English.  The sorts of VNs you're looking for are almost certainly there.  Time to learn Japanese. Issue:
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23

The Eroge Scene in Parody: Translator Baseball

(An old parody I wrote in 2013, I'm reposting here for general amusement. See the original forum thread for initial reactions.)   Announcer: It’s a beautiful day for baseball today in Eroge Stadium. I’m your host Sanahtlig here to provide commentary for Visual Novel Translation TV. Today the Localizers play against the Fan Translators in a special Western League All-Star game. This should be an interesting matchup. On the Localizers team we have representatives from Mangagamer inc
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4

How to uncensor the Steam version of Sakura Swim Club

Sakura Spirit developer Winged Cloud has unleashed their first full-blown erogame on Steam, Sakura Swim Club. The only problem is that the porn has to be patched in and--this being Steam--many users never learned how to patch games manually. How to uncensor the Steam version of Sakura Swim Club
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Why I endorse JAST’s censorship of Shiny Days

In a feature article on my personal blog, I delve into the controversy surrounding JAST's censorship of Shiny Days. Starting with official statements by JAST and its staff members, I collect and critically evaluate available evidence and reach a seemingly paradoxical conclusion: that those who champion freedom of expression should support JAST's censorship of Shiny Days. Whether you're an ardent opponent of censorship or simply curious about the fuss, this is an article you don't want to miss.  
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[Review] Strip Battle Days

Strip Battle Days is a short rock-paper-scissors strip nukige that lets you strip, grope, and H your favorite characters from the School Days universe. [Review] Strip Battle Days
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Regarding demands for fan translation project quality standards

Recently, a spirited argument erupted in the Monobeno -Happy End- project thread regarding the perceived poor quality of translation samples. As this a topic of general controversy in the fan translation scene, I decided it might be worth addressing on a general level to those who might not care about this particular title. Please don't take this post as an invitation to reignite controversy in that thread; post your comments here instead.   Fan translation is as much about the journey as the d
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6

[In-Depth Review] Sakura Dungeon

Winged Cloud's girls-love focused dungeon crawler Sakura Dungeon packs in solid gameplay, decent characterization, and ample ero into a 20+ hr experience. [In-Depth Review] Sakura Dungeon
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A commentary on American exceptionalism

I'm from the US. We have a strong tradition of freedom here signified in the words of the US Declaration of Independence:   All men (and only men, but not African men) are created equal. We have a right to Life (except if drafted into the army), Liberty (except when others disagree with you), and the pursuit of Happiness (except if you're a repressed minority).   In addition, we enjoy unparalleled freedom of expression and as a culture we're strongly opposed to censorship in all its forms.  
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