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Rain on the G-String Review - Top 10 Best Rated VNs Translated in 2010


littleshogun

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After 2009 and 2012, this time I'll talk about 2010 in which there's still quite a number of good VNs being fan translated while at the same time Mangagamer was slowly making their way to be more active. Of course obviously we still didn't have Sekai yet and JAST here is still idling with they readying the release for 2011, and apparently from what I remember they already got infamous because on how they only announced fan translated projects or something like that. As for the list here, the rule is still the same with no nukige, no otome, no BL, and no fandisc in the list. Let's see what kind of good VN that we have at 2010.

10. Kikokugai - The Cyber Slayer (VNDB 7.46)

There's a story abut a Ki Master (Kong Taoluo) who lost his sister (Ruili) that married to his best friend (Haojun), because her husband way of showing his affection by brutally rape her and split her soul into five (Also storing the souls in the sex cyborgs). Enraged, Taoluo decided to kill Haojun and try to get back Ruili's soul by fusing all of five separated parts, only that it's not as easy as it looks seeing that Haojun became the Chinese mafia leader and that he handed the other four sex dolls to his trusted four cadres who each of them are quite strong. Seeing that there's no other choice and the cadres are also helping Haojun showing his affection to Ruili, Taoluo decided to kill them as well even though it may prove too much for him. As for the releases we have two version with the original one was back at 2010, and at 2015 we have the remake release in that it have improved graphic and voice from famous seiyuu (Including Yukari Tamura as Ruili and Sho Hayami as Haojun) in exchange for slight CG censorship. We also have JAST was abut to release it since back at 2011, but considering that we already have the remake translated let's just say that it'll be redundant release if they ever manage to release it. Almost forget to say that this is another Urobochi's work, so obviously don't expect happy story here.

9. Daibanchou -Big Bang Age- (VNDB 7.47)

Another VN that was translated by Aroduc and that was released by Alice Soft, so it should be pretty obvious that Daibanchou here is another gameplay VN. For the premise, we have our hot blooded student Zanma Ruga transferred to a school in Tokyo in order to cure his fiancee's curse, and that he must collect the magical items to achieve the gals. There's a problem though, namely that the items was held by some powerful school leader so Rouga must gather his army in order to take the items. By the way in here we have a setting where the world was invaded by the demon and that each student did have superpower, and the strongest one would be the school leader (Rouga here is one of the strongest student). Since this is Alice Soft VN, it's possible for Rouga to have sex with other woman even though Rouga himself already have fiancee (Well she allow it if I remember). As for the gameplay itself, it's sort of crude version of Sengoku in that you can only attack enemies territory once per turn, although the most significant things is that you have time limit in which it force you to play several times if you want to get all of the characters and clear them. Even then, I'm still find that Daibanchou here is quite fun and that Rouga was not as selfish as Rance (Not say a lot though).

8. Narcissu 2 (VNDB 7.53)

The second part of Narcissu duology in that it tell us the story abut our main heroine Setsumi before facing a certain ending that rumored to made some reader spent a lot of tissue, and apparently the same rumor would hold true to this VN as well (After all Narcissu is categorized as utsuge not for nothing). Anyway as for the premise in the first part we have Setsumi was go through the journey with the nameless male MC seeing that she didn't have a lot of time thanks to her disease, and in this second part here we'll roll back to seven years ago when Setsumi was at 15 at the hospital. At the hospital Setsumi will slowly befriended Himeko who is also a car otaku, and that Himeko have some problem with her faith because of her past. As for the release it's an unique one seeing that the author himself did approve the fan translation just like True Remembrance, and that this release was also combined the first part that was released back at 2005 so you can get this to play Narcissu fully. There's also Sekai rereleased this back at 2014, although of course by then it's release is already redundant. For the bonus, here's the second part opening and as usual eufonius here did a good job.

7. Da Capo 2 (VNDB 7.59)

Took place ~50 years after first Da Capo and ~20 years before Da Capo 3 Prologue, once again we have our advanture at Haysunejima in that it was famous because of the everlasting sakura that can grant any wish. This time our MC is Sakurai Yoshiyuki who been best friends with Junichi's (Da Capo 1 MC) granddaughters, and those two granddaughters are also one school with Yoshiyuki. Other character to note is Sakura (Returning character from the prequel, and Junichi's cousin who doubled as one of Da Capo heroine), in that she's the principal of Yoshiyuki's school and that she didn't aging for ~50 years because she's a magician and all. As for the writing it's generally accepted that the routes writing here did improved from Da Capo, although there's a flaw as well though in that Koko's route which became infamous because Yoshiyuki here prefer to make some drama instead of resole it calmly. Other than that, this time Circus learn from first Da Capo in that they place the main heroines (Junichi's granddaughters) routes unlocked later instead of available from the first. Lastly we can play 'passionate Hitomi Nabatame-voiced love-making' scenes here, because we have Nabatame voicing Nanaka who as we know is quite similar with DC Kotori.

6. Eien no Aselia -The Spirit of Eternity Sword- (VNDB 7.64)

An isekai VN in that we have our siscon MC Yuuto was summoned into anther world, and forced to work for a warmongering king that want to expand his territory as much as possible. To make it worse, the sword that Yuuto weld is a sentient being and Yuuto himself is could be succumbed into the sword's influence and thus make the people around him suffer. Of course seeing that it's a VN Yuuto is not alone in that he have female companions with one of them is the titular heroine Aseila (ie the main one), and that her ending is canon thanks to a certain character at Senarukana (The sequel). As for the release, while back then it's censored at least it could be justified because back then Xuse still not released the perfect edition in that it contain both of PS2 contents and 18+ contents, and that Dakkodango (Later will become Fruitbat) already finished this back at 2010 (Besides the PS2 contents are more than enough to make up the censorship anyway). After a year (At 2011), JAST rereleased this and it's still censored as it is. While they gave a reason in that they didn't want to take a risk on the lolicon contents, I'm more convinced that they didn't want to do an extra work to either translated the sex scenes or working on the Complete edition.

5. ef - a fairy tale of the two (VNDB 8.05)

If back at 2009 we have Aoishiro as the most beautiful graphic in regard of translated VN, then in 2010 we have ef in that we can say this as minori's Magnum Opus. And it really show considering that it's still famous because of the arts, in that it's still be able to rival some modern VNs graphic (And both of ef opening here is really show good animation thanks to Makoto Shinkai). Another thing to note is that apparently ef was released back at when both No Name Loser (NNL) and minori did have a conflict of interest, and that the incident was called minorigate. In the end even with that shenanigan in that in the past they say that they didn't need foreign support, it's still unfortunate though that minori is no longer operated after their big fail in Supipara (Well not exactly though seeing that they still develop some VNs after Supipara, but Supipara here is apparently need a lot of money so much that it cost minori a lot).

As for the VN itself, it contain five different MC with five different love stories. While at the first glance this looks like separated stories, actually there's a Myth Arc happen behind it and it also happen that each characters in each stories turned out have some connections with each other to a degree. As for the Myth Arc, we have our main MC Himura Yuu have meeting with the main heroine Amamiya Yuuko at the church in the Christmas Eve, and both of them reminisce on how they help some couple along with their own love story. For additional note here, we have Mangagamer act as the third party in regard of minorigate, so in order to resolve the conflict they decided to allow Mangagamer to own minori's license. So obviously Mangagamer did rerelease ef at the latter years, and the release is not so redundant because they add the Extra menu that was missing in 2010 release (Probably because NNL release it hastily back then).

4. Symphonic Rain (VNDB 8.13)

Also known as the only rhythm gameplay translated VN (So naturally there'll be some insert song), and that it's only all age release in which it's logical seeing that we have well-known seiyuu voicing the heroines here. It also have rerelease as well back at 2017 by Degica, in that it change the graphic slightly (Not as drastic as YU-NO remake). And for the most important part, the songs and the BGM here is the late Okazaki Ritsuko's Swan Song because she compose the BGM for this VN before she passed away back at 2004. The premise is we have our MC Chris attend a music school in a city that always raining, and he somehow managed to befriended a fairy. One day he's about to graduate from the school and that his last test is he must play a fortell to allow his partner to sing along, and that it might be too hard for Chris seeing that he didn't have much friend. Even so, there's no choice for Chris other than to search the partner to do his graduation test. While graphically wise this VN would give you the impression that it'll be a lighthearted story (Especially the rereleased one), don't be fooled by that because like Hakuai (Same developer) some of the ending are quite heavy. 

3. Remember11 -The Age of Infinity- (VNDB 8.18)

The most infamous Infinity series, manly because the fact that the ending was quite abrupt thanks to the conflict between the staffs that didn't allow them to have a consensus in regard of the true ending (Or so that's what I'd read somewhere). This VN is also the second Infinity series to be translated after Ever17, although people was more well aware with the controversy though. As for the premise, we have two accidents in that both of Kokoro (Female MC) and Satoru (Male MC) did get trapped around the place where the heavy snowstorm is happen. As for the circumstances we have our Kokoro was one of the surviving victim of a fatal airplane accident, while for our Satoru he apparently was abut to be murdered only to be survive and trapped in a snowstorm. To complicated matter, both of Satoru and Kokoro was somehow can swap each other soul in the most impossible circumstance seeing that both of them was separated for around a thousand kilometers and more importantly the accidents were happened in the different years. As for the solution here, at least we can still guess what's really happen if we get a certain bad end, although for now most of the solution is only hypothesis though.

2. G-Senjou no Maou (VNDB 8.29)

The most famous VN that was translated in 2010 and also the most controversial rereleased by Sekai (At 2015) because not only the license itself is redundant, it's also because Dovac was use his trusted brand of public communication to respond the criticism in regard of the censorship back at VNDB, and let's just say that it make me face-palmed there. Granted that Sekai was finally release the 18+ patch for this at April, but even then (And even back at 2015) most people are already know and discuss about this a lot so more or less people already know about this (If nothing else at least it's good for newbie). Controversy by Sekai aside, in here we have Kyousuke who is a stepson of a head yakuza and that he was intelligent. One day, he crossed path with a beautiful intelligent woman that have messy long hair (Haru, who also the main heroine here), and that she's chasing her nemesis who known by the alias 'Maou'. And so the curtain for the battle of wits between Haru and Maou was started, and little did Kyousuke know back then that he have much more involved into the battle more than he know. As for the route structure, it'd use the ladder system in which Kyousuke can either pick a girl or keep going until he reach Haru's chapter.

1. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai (VNDB 8.75)

The second part of Higurashi that contained the last four arcs (Higurashi have eight arcs for the reminder), and unlike the first part this time we'll going to uncover the truth behind Hinamizawa tragedy and mystery. As for the release while back at 2010 Mangagamer did release Matsuribayashi as single release instead of released full version of Kai, it still count here because Matsuribayashi here is the last arc of Higurashi. As for Kai itself of course things were still as bleak as ever with death and all even though it's not as scary as the first part, but this time our Keiichi and friends are starting to uncover some information. That said even with the horror was slowly diminishing, the 5th arc (Meakashi) was also quite infamous because of some action that was quite horrifying. This is also the part when Ryukishi started to ask some help to compose the BGM instead of rely on the free BGM, and it really show seeing that the soundtrack was considered as being very good. For more info Mangagamer was also rereleased this along with the first part, and the only two arcs that was still unreleased is Minagoroshi (Will be released at 18th later) and Matsuribayashi. For the opening I'll use Miotsukushi opening in which it's the PS2 last arc for Higurashi, although it's quite fitting anyway for Kai's opening.

That's all for 2010 list here, and as you can see some of the releases were rereleased officially with the most notable examples are G-Senjou and ef. Another thing to note is that we got many good VNs, and also JAST was starting the decline in regard of their activity (They started to be more active at 2011 if I remember). We also have some drama though, namely with the aforementioned minorigate in which apparently it's because minori so traumatic with Rapelay incident so much that minori was lashed out. Honestly both of Rapelay and minori VN are very vastly different, but remember back then the stigma that VN was a porn games for Westerner is still stronger compared to nowadays. I hope you'll like my list here.

PS - As for the title, seeing that we have Symphonic Rain and G-Senjou released back at 2010 I decided to combine those two so we have 'Rain on the G-String' as the title. For additional note here, G-Senjou title is derivative of Bach's 'Air on the G String' so of course I change the 'Air' part into 'Rain', even though it was impossible in the real life (It sounds romantic though). Forget to say that both of Symphonic Rain and G-Senjou did have music as the topic, and the latter did remixed 'Air on G String' to be used as a BGM in the G-Senjou soundtrack itself.

Edited by littleshogun

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On 7/2/2019 at 12:01 PM, kokoro said:

Higurashi Kai first but not Higurashi Questions?

Seriously?

As for Higurashi Question, I already covered that back at 2009 list.

On 7/3/2019 at 1:31 AM, Dreamysyu said:

Looks like it was a pretty good year for VN translations, huh.

If we talk about it from the number of translation released, I think nowadays would be better. Although if you think that nowadays there's too much release so much that it become saturated, then yeah 2010 would be better because there's still few releases back then. Of course it's also interesting to note that some of the VNs from the list (6 out of 10) already have official rerelease, so maybe you can say that there's some demand for the rerelease here.

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On 7/4/2019 at 8:47 PM, littleshogun said:

If we talk about it from the number of translation released, I think nowadays would be better. Although if you think that nowadays there's too much release so much that it become saturated, then yeah 2010 would be better because there's still few releases back then. Of course it's also interesting to note that some of the VNs from the list (6 out of 10) already have official rerelease, so maybe you can say that there's some demand for the rerelease here.

I wasn't talking about the number of releases (it's not like that many VN readers read more than 10 every year on average), but about general quality of the games translated. I mean, looking through this list, there's a lot of very popular stuff. Compare it to the last year, for example.

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11 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

I wasn't talking about the number of releases (it's not like that many VN readers read more than 10 every year on average), but about general quality of the games translated. I mean, looking through this list, there's a lot of very popular stuff. Compare it to the last year, for example.

I see, and in this case I'll strictly compared it to 2018 list. As for whether 2010 list is better compared to 2018 or not, well it depend on the rank here. But overall I would say that 2010 is better though because most of the score for the VN that was released in 2010 is higher if we compared it side by side (2018 releases did have less VNs that receive average score 8 from VNDB), at least if I based it on my list here. On the other hand, there's a lot of good release that I didn't add to my release simply because it's censored (Baldr Force), MTL-ed (Your Diary and Fortissimo), and only a fandisc (Fata Morgana). There's also some good releases that I didn't add simply because it's not my taste here, such as Sakusakura and Suki Suki. So objectively seeing, I would say that 2018 is better if we talk about the number of releases and quality, although each year did have advantage and weakness though.

tldr - From my list 2010 is better, although if we look at it objectively 2018 is better. So I guess we can say that it's a draw here, although it may change in the future though seeing that VNDB average score will always fluctuated.

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