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First, I’ll say a few words about the Tiny Dungeon series. This series is made up of five games (if you include Endless Dungeon, which is a sequel/canon ending that brings a conclusion to the post-Brave and Slave events). The first three VNs are each focused on one of the three main heroines… Veil Sein, Ururu Kajuta, and Note Ruum. The fourth VN – Brave or Slave – brings an end to the story began in Black and White, and the fifth – Endless Dungeon – is a final conclusion and after-story for the entire group. The first VN, Black and White, contains the common route and the Veil Sein (the demon girl) route. Veil is probably the most obvious deredere heroine in existence… since she doesn’t have a drop of tsun in her body. She loves Hime, lives for him, and without hesitation will erase the existence of anyone who bothers him. The fact that she has the power to do so (the most powerful individual in the demon realm) kind of makes her scary to the various people who don’t like Hime (obviously). Needless to say, I love her, lol. Anyway, this VN, like all the VNs in the Tiny Dungeon series, balances hilarity, serious drama, and emotional moments in a way that you generally won’t see in a VN that is so relatively easy to read. That’s not to say it is a really easy read (it tends to range between 4.5-7)… but it is much easier to read than most VNs with action scenes. The music in all these VNs is pretty good, primarily utilizing piano and techno pieces to enhance and create moods as is appropriate, and they are generally tastefully presented. The voices can be a bit exaggerated, and there is one scene early on when you’ll notice a bit of fuzziness in the background (as a friend explained to me, it is the engine the game runs on, rather than the actual voice-acting or recording itself). However, they are nonetheless generally suited to their characters… and there are a lot of characters. In this VN, there are three main heroines (as stated above) and four total sub-heroines in the series who make up Hime’s hare- I mean, his group of friends. They consist of Amia (Note’s little sister), Opera (Ururu’s psychotic maid), Fon (the dragon/demon hybrid), and Kou (the protagonist’s human roommate). There are also another dozen or so major and minor characters who appear on screen and have a significant effect on the story as a whole, though not all of them appear in the first game. Generally speaking, there is no point in any of the main-series VNs where there is no point to what is going on. The story is always moving forward or creating the basis for moving forward, and the comedy that is used to frost the cake is ever-present, save for in the most tense scenes. Hime, the protagonist, is a natural leader and hard worker who has an incredibly strong will and a reasonable level of intelligence (he’s not a genius, but neither is he average). More importantly, he understands people and has a big, accepting heart. Generally speaking, he is one of the few unvoiced protagonists outside of a chuunige where I truly and absolutely enjoyed every second behind his eyes… One thing you have to keep in mind about this VN is that it is one part in four… and the events in this game are inevitably going to break your heart at times. I know I cried several times in the course of this VN, even though I’ve already played it before. Overall, this VN still gets a strong recommendation from me, both for relatively advanced beginners and veterans alike.

I'm currently playing Black Wolves Saga, an otomege by Rejet. I'm going to repeat a statement I've made many times in the past about otomege in general... their tropes are like a cancer on the genre in general. DIDS (Damsel in Distress Syndrome), tsundere heroes, psychotic/obsessive/possessive heroes, and dominating heroes rot these VNs from the inside in the same way the osananajimi heroines, airhead heroines, and self-insert protagonists of male-oriented VNs do to those. This VN is no exception. The protagonist is your typical optimistic, slightly airheaded doormat that makes up ninety percent of all otomege protagonists. That this VN is an utsuge only makes this stand out more... she attracts a huge host of yandere, yangire, and just generally insane and/or broken heroes who are - to one degree or another - obsessed with her. To be honest, I was almost impressed that they could manage to put so many crazy people in as romantic interests in a single VN. I finished the two Cait Sith main heroes' paths last night... and my thought was 'This is what is listed as a GOOD ending? Seriously? Just how much of a moronic doormat can she be?' To be blunt, it resembled some of the bad endings I've seen in chuunige where the protagonist basically spends the rest of his life as a sex-slave for a psychotic female who isn't quite a heroine before she decides to kill him on a whim. There is absolutely nothing likable about either of them, no redeeming value to them as people... and you are required to finish their paths to access some of the more interesting heroes. To be honest, this entire VN would be a lot more interesting if they had put it in complete 3rd person and made you just a spectator to what was going on rather than forcing you to self-insert into an idiotic ditz who occasionally shows signs of intelligence, only to make you give up on her five minutes later when she thinks, says, or does something so completely idiotic that it cancels out those brief moments of actual intellect. I'm being really harsh... but where this story really stands out is in the depth of the setting and the degree to which the writer captures the insanities of human nature when driven to extremes by a hellish life or the events of the world around them. The characters are generally distasteful scum or people who make you want to kick them in the head for stupid naivete, but in exchange, you get a story of genocide, intrigue, torture, and murder that lines itself up with a number of other dark fantasy out there... and doesn't lose out completely, despite the cast of characters. Another place where this VN stands out is in its music and art... the art is a unique style, with the use of colors and detail you generally don't see even in your average otomege. The music is dominated primarily by gloomy and sorrowful tunes... but those tunes are pretty high quality, so it is a plus, despite most of the tracks being depressing. While I plan to play one of the wolf paths, I have no interest in playing all the paths of this VN, so think of this as my general impression for the time being. Being the protagonist of this VN is just too frustrating given the setting for me to be able to stand it much longer.