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VN of the Month December 2011 - Hotel.


kivandopulus

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Hotel. is the only masterpiece for me in December. Micchi highlights some RPG and - naturally - a game about 345 imoutos

 

1. Ever17 [111201] CyberFront 1
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Ever17 is the tale of seven individuals who come to be trapped 153 feet within the underwater marine theme park, LeMU. During an apparently normal day at the park, a massive accident happens, placing almost half of the facility underwater. The path to the surface and the communication lines are cut off. In addition, LeMU is under constant assault by severe water pressure, limiting time to find a means of escape to 119 hours. Escape is not the only concern, however; many questions arise as to the legitimacy of the accident and whether or not those trapped there were brought there for a purpose.
Remake

 

2. Kikouyoku Senki Gin no Toki no Corona 輝光翼戦記 銀の刻のコロナ [111216] Eternal 1 2 3 4 5
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The fantasy SRPG Gin no Toki no Corona follows ETERNAL’s previous title, Tenkuu no Yumina. Touka isn’t a normal student: he has the ability to sense and interfere in the purple-lit space known as ‘shinya’ (true night). One time in shinya, he met a strange girl named Tokino who also had the same ability as him. Then a woman named Murial descended from the skies and entrusted a small girl Corona to them. Even though she is an innocent girl right now, she is a dragon girl who possesses enough power to destroy the world. Murial tells them if they raise Corona right then they will be able to save the world from ending.
RPG has English reviews

 

3. Shin Kamaitachi no Yoru: 11ninme no Suspect 真かまいたちの夜 11人目の訪問者(サスペクト) [111217] Chunsoft 1 2
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A mystery sound novel that’s supposed to be this generation’s follow-up to Chunsoft’s famous murder mystery, Kamaitachi no Yoru.
There are English reviews

 

4. Appare! Tenka Gomen あっぱれ!天下御免 [111222] BaseSon 1 2 
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The famous Ooedo Gakuen is the home of students who will become the future leaders of Nihon. It is a mix of traditional setting and modern technology where students walk around with swords. Yakumo recently transferred to the school and he is very satisfied with the school life. There is a school rule that students must earn money to support their own expenses, in order to learn how to be independent. He helps out at a nearby tea shop, but soon after he starts some delinquents pick on him. A girl on a white horse, Yoshine, appears and dispatches them after a lively swordfight. Touched by her pure sense of justice, he ends up helping her in her quest to change the world.
There are English reviews

 

5. Hanasaku Otome to Koi no Grimoire ~Guild no Nai Mura ni Guild o Tsukurou!~ 花咲く乙女と恋の魔導書~ギルドのない村にギルドを作ろう!~ [111222] Debo no Su Seisakusho 
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Lime and Sheena are dragon girls who wanted to be of help to the world and joined an adventurer’s guild to undertake quests. One day, the guildmaster asked them if they wanted to start a guild in a town that doesn’t have one. They happily accept the challenge and head off to the remote village of Erile. Along the way, they saved a young boy Ein from monsters. He tells them that he used to be bigger, but was turned into a small boy by the monsters’ magic and asks for their help in returning him to his normal form.
RPG

 

6. Hotel. [111222] Akatsuki Works Black 1
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Keisuke is the vice manager of the Hotel Primeiro, a warm respite for the hearts of weary travellers. He is an overly serious individual who strictly enforces the hotel’s rules. In the comforts of his room, he listens to a melody over and over again. After he heard a similar music coming from the lobby, he headed there to find a girl playing the guitar. When he asked her for the name of the song she was playing, she rushed at him with a knife. Fortunately, he was able to stop her by grabbing the blade. She collapsed to the ground, not knowing why she just did that.
She later apologized for the incident, introducing herself as Sarah and requested to listen to his tape after he mentioned it. The soothing melody made her cry and she explained that it was composed by her precious friend Lucille who had been murdered. It was Lucille’s wish to let everyone her hear music and become happy, so she was travelling around and playing her songs to people in order to fulfill this wish. However, she decides to stay in the hotel for now.
There is an English impression

 

7. Imouto Senbatsu☆Sousenkyo 妹選抜☆総選挙 [111222] Latte 1
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April 1st is the day when the world is full of lies, however to Kouta, it is his precious imouto’s birthday. His father returned that day after a long time away and told him: “Actually Kouta… you have 364 other imoutos”. He was still confused when his father brought him to Tachibana Gakuen. He was the only guy at the school. The other 365 students were… all his imoutos.
There is an English review

 

8. Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi Portable いつか天魔の黒ウサギ Portable [111222] Kadokawa Shoten
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1st year high school student Kurogane Taito is a disillusioned youth. He has thrown away the belief that hard work and effort will be compensated. Now, he simply exists as the days pass him by.
However, there is something that he has forgotten. A stolen memory of a girl, a pact, and a curse. 9 years ago, the young Taito had met Saito Himea, the eldest vampire, and made a pact with her.
Now, Taito's memories are about to be restored, and he will remember the girl which has been kidnapped and kept imprisoned for the past 9 years, waiting for him to free her.
Anime spin-off

 

9. Koisuru Koto to Mitsuketari! 恋するコトと見つけたり! [111222] Fizz 1
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The story starts off with our protagonist Kyou waking up to 2 girls lying on top of him and teasing him, and they both end up kissing him on the cheek. However, he then wakes up in the student council room where student council president Mira finds him and reminds him of the meeting. After said meeting, Kyou attends an assembly where Mira announces that all the students should strive to find love this year but anyone who wants to lay their hands on Kyou needs to go through her first! It seems the two girls from the beginning, Yukina and Towa, are Kyou's fiancées. As more girls join in, the fight for Kyou's love begins!
There is an English impression

 

10. Manatsu no Yoru no Yuki Monogatari 真夏の夜の雪物語 [111222] Ex-One 1 2 3 4
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The debut title from EX-ONE, a pure love story illustrated by Mikeou and written by Saitou Kenji and Fuuyama Yuuki. It’s the height of summer, but snow blankets the mysterious town of Aome-machi where it snows year-round and the legend of the Yuki-onna has been passed down for generations. There are hot springs, beaches and ski resorts in this popular sightseeing town. Yuuya transfers into Aome Gakuen and stays at the Snowflake Lodge which his relatives run. He meets his cousins Mana and Koromo who have opposing personalities, the public morals committee leader Nozomi who doesn’t seem to like him, and the mysterious Yukina who calls him her husband. What secrets do they hold and how will he solve them? And so begins the winter fairy tale in the middle of summer.
There are English reviews

 

11. Nanatsu no Fushigi no Owaru Toki 七つのふしぎの終わるとき [111222] etude 1 2 3 
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Tomo is a student at Tokinodai Gakuen, a small traditional liberal arts boarding school that was built in the Meiji era. However, he has a secret – he has a clock passed down from him by his grandmother which allows him to control time – and he uses this ability to make his school life enjoyable.
One time, Tomo found out that there is a link between the clock and the seven mysteries of the school. If one obtains any of the seven clocks linked to the seven mysteries, they will be able to use various time-manipulating powers. His interest perked, Tomo set out after school to the old school building to begin his search. During his search, he meets various girls and together they unlock one of the seven mysteries. They arrive at a space where time has stopped and find a girl in traditional dress sleeping there. She used to be able to manipulate time, but now she has lost those abilities. Will they be able to find all the clocks, awaken the sleeping girl and return her to her time?
There are English reviews

 

12. Omae no Pantsu wa Nani-iro da!? お前のパンツは何色だ!? [111222] Molamola Software
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On Takato’s first day at Kojou Academy, an energetic girl Mitsuna ordered him to use his genius brain only for her sake for the next three years (and all this while he could see her panties clearly). For Takato who failed to make it into an overseas school of his choice and ending up transferring to Kojou Academy instead, of course he bluntly said no. However, she manages to convince him to join her unofficial club Tateyoko-kai that she is the leader of. The only thing that the Tateyoko-kai does is to "use words to help others". The other club members are just as weird as Mitsuna: masochistic rich girl Yomi, poor girl Shizuku who masturbates everywhere, his childhood friend Sae who’s a stalker no matter how you look at it, and the delusional denpa girl Sako.
Did not block prequel, so can't block this game now. Just an ecchi comedy.

 

13. Seifuku Tenshi 制服天使 [111222] Sherbet Soft 1
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Even though Kento was fed up with the monotony of every day, he doesn’t do anything to make it better. His only joy is sneaking glances at the angel-like girl Shion who sits next to him. One day at dusk, he saw her with wings on her back. As she tells him about her ‘angel sickness’, they are attacked by the ‘angel hunter’ Hiruta. He helps her escape and avoid the clutches of a man who harbours great hatred for angels.
There is an English review

 

14. Suigetsu 2 水月 弐 [111222] F&C 1
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Suigetsu 2 will feature a new story along with a new protagonist and heroines, while retaining the Japanese folklore theme of its predecessor. You play as Moriya Fumihara, who lives in the onsen (hot springs) town of Mizumori.
One day during summer vacation, while taking part in practice with his school's archery club, Moriya stumbles across two girls playing in a lake. Like the manly man that he is, he quickly flees the area; but when he returns home, he finds himself greeted by those very same girls! It turns out that the two girls are the daughters of Moriya's father's friend, and they'll be staying at the Fumihara residence for the time being.
Scenario is full of loopholes, and quality is very uneven. Individual routes have lots of duplicate scenes. Making it a sequel but with new protagonist and heroines to feed on ancient game's fame can only irritate.

 

15. White Album 2 ~Closing Chapter~ [111222] Leaf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
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The cold breeze chilled me to the bone, a singing voice reached my ear-
That frozen song from 3 years ago,
It once echoed in the classroom, in the empty cafeteria, in the silent campus.
Born from passion, evolved by love yet ultimately, vanished as a "lying song".
The winter where they were "three" was no longer. A new winter started as "one and one"
The season is late autumn.
A foreboding change is approaching although the scar of the severed bond is yet to heal.
2 lonely melodies attracted each other and hurt each other, summoning new one in the process.
The new winter will arrive soon.
The winter without her.
There will be no more white album, because I won't sing again.
There will be no more unreachable love, because I won't love again.
There are English reviews

 

BLOCKED
 
1. Boku no Kanojo wa Gatenkei/Kanojo ga Shita Koto, Ore ga Sareta Koto/Kyonyuu Tsuma Kanzen Hokaku Keikaku/Boku no Tsuma ga Aitsu ni Netoraremashita. ボクの彼女はガテン系/彼女がした事、僕がされた事/巨乳妻完全捕獲計画/ボクの妻がアイツに寝取られました。 [111208] Elf 1 2
This is a story of love between Masashi and his wife Misaki over the years. The different titles of this game refers to stages of their story.
Nukige, but with English reviews
 
2. Kansen 5 ~The Daybreak~ 姦染5 ~The Daybreak~ [111222] Speed 1
Four years ago, Makoto Nakazawa lost family, friends, and even memory of the events during the outbreak of the Unknown virus epidemic in the Tohoku region of Japan.
Now adopted by a female friend of his deceased father, he lives in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, struggling to rebuild a new life in a new land. However he doesn't suspect what Fate has for him when he accepts to go to a little (and not entirely fictional) island in the Inland Sea of Japan as correspondent for the newspaper club of his school, because that island is about to become one of the starting points of the second outbreak of the epidemic he barely survived once...
Nukige, but with an English review
 
3. Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni - Dai Ni Ya 彼岸花の咲く夜に 第二夜 [111231] 07th Expansion 1 2 3 4 
Continuation of Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni - Dai Ichi Ya.
Doujin, but localized one and with English reviews.
 
4. ChuSinGura 46+1 Edo Kyuushin-ha Hen ChuSinGura46+1 -忠臣蔵46+1- 江戸急進派編-Edo radical faction [111231]
Sequel with a new main heroine.
Doujin, but with an opening

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I'd like to know more detailed thoughts of yours about White Album 2. I liked ironically, because the way the story kept you engaged for some of the most toxic characters in the genre was quite fascinating.

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Detailed thoughts are only possible with fresh enough memories. And I remember cheering for Kazusa and liking it, thus I called Introductory chapter a masterpiece. Setsuna remained toxic to me since the end of Introductory chapter, and her tears only irritated me more. But I can't stand this split into two games, can't call it masterpiece twice, not worth it, too much attention for this game already. Just a rather popular game with good enough concept for comparisons. There are enough people who are crazy about this game already, and I'm not interested in replaying it.

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My choice for this month would be Manatsu no Yoru no Yuki Monogatari.  It is a modern-style nakige (post-Key) with a solid cast of heroines.  It's rare for me to pick a moe-based game over something more serious, but this game was worth it.

Kikouyoku Senki Gin no Toki no Corona... basically a better game in the world of Yumina.  I liked the dragon girl a great deal more than I ever liked any of the girls from Yumina, and the story as a whole was just more enjoyable.

Appare Tenka Gomen is a seriously weird game.  It is very much a BaseSon game, in that it mixes heavy-handed moe with more serious themes, but it gets away from BaseSon's usual schtick by being like a jidaigeki on a modern artificial island.  Tons of heroines, lots of moe, and lots of chanbara.

Koisuru Koto to Mitsuketari is a game that shouldn't exist.  It has a classic anime/manga concept, deredere heroines, and abominable presentation.

Hotel. is an utsuge.  I'll say that up front.  The story is about a Hotel (obviously) serving as the center for a settlement of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world, even as that world dies.  This is not a story of hope but rather a story of people trying to make the best of life in a world where life appears to be doomed, but it has a surprisingly gentle atmosphere, despite that.  Also, a lot of the oddities in perspective are explained in the true epilogue.

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Gin no Toki no Corona - The VN name here is riddled with the unfortunate name, although it's more likely because it's created at 2011 instead of 2020 in which back at 2011 there's still no Corona pandemic. That aside, I know that it got Yumina quartet cameo, it has gameplay just like Yumina (Same company), and that the MC is quite capable in battle. Too bad that JAST didn't interested with this in which I presume that it's because Yumina's sales was not enough to cover the localization cost of this, so obviously we still didn't have this translated.

Ever17 - The remake did add an unique CG and new opening, although apparently there's a lot of differences that was gathered by GundamAce in his Gamefaqs thread (Beware of Ever17 spoiler before you open it). As for Ever17 itself, one can say that it's the most successful Hirameki's release not only because finally they decided to let go their convoluted DVD system and just release this with normal format, but it also because this VN did have a lot of twist and interesting story that was quite engaging for the years it was released (2005). Note that other than Ever17 the other available translated story VN at 2005 are Phantom of Inferno (That was riddled by DVD system), Kana Little Sister, and Crescendo with the latter two have sex scenes while Ever17 here is all age VN in the first place.

White Album 2 (WA2) Closing Chapter - Well Setsuna herself is what some can say quite a complicated characters, but of course she also got some fans although the number might be not as much as Kazusa's fans. WA2 here is quite iconic with the love triangle story, although of course it wasn't as messy as School Days. As for the Closing Chapter here, it's still not adapted into the anime so naturally the people read this even with the fact that it's still not translated, and thus a lot of people did try to translate it. Currently there's one group that manage to finish the whole WA2 translation and all that left is working on some editing works before finally released the full translation patch, in which the plan was to release it at this year. Oh yes Closing Chapter here actually carry two parts of WA2, the Closing Chapter itself (That was already translated through the partial patch) and Coda (Still untranslated). Lastly I also remember that my roommate did play WA2 and that he like to listen the opening song for Closing Chapter here.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of December 2011, and currently none of those released VNs at this month are fully translated (Well WA2 might be has full translated patch released at this year if all goes well).

Edited by littleshogun
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