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I sure as hell wouldn't. I don't have enough time to read every new release as it is. Why would I need even more, faster? And if I could read them all in time, there's always a life outside of eroge/VNs. I don't want a life full of mediocre experiences. Give me quality over quantity literally every single time, please.

I would. I have no idea what can be defended about machine translation. It's pure garbage and while I don't really care about telling other people how they should read x or y, I don't think there's any point in pretending we've read the same thing if one has read a machine TL and I've read the actual VN. I don't think that's "elitism".

What really aggravates me is that I convinced someone--a person much more adept with text hooking than me who's been a mentor to me in the past --to seriously consider implementing one or more of the ideas in the initial question of the poll. You know what was holding him back and his initial response to the idea? "But I'll be labeled [incorrectly] and ridiculed as someone who machine translates [by all the community elitists]." I thought the notion was ridiculous. Then what happens next? I make a poll to explore user interest in the sorts of text hooking services he could provide and his unfounded fears were confirmed! He could very well backpedal after seeing this reaction and decide that such a toxic community isn't worth the effort.

Oh, that's easy. Just don't do this.

Ahh, sorry, I should clarify my stance on prices in general, and VN prices in particular, before people think I'm nuts (too late? much too late? oh well). Here's the two criteria for how I judge the price of something that I like: Is it affordable for me personally? If not, I don't like it. (the obvious criterion) Is there an alternative pricing model that would noticeably increase profit for the developer? (the less obvious criterion) VN prices are fine by me on the first criterion, but on the second one, I'm pretty sure they're stupid, in the US and Japan both. Like both you and @OriginalRen are implying, if the cost of quality digital VNs was much cheaper, the developers would almost certainly be reaping a lot more profit because of vastly increased sales (coupled with the vastly lower marginal COGS for a digital good, of course). Maybe worth noting this doesn't work at all for physical goods because of that parenthetical comment, and that this probably explains why Japanese companies are hesitant to even try this strategy - their solvency right now is too reliant on the costumers who are willing to pay super-high costs for physical goods. Even if they kept that limited edition around, if they started also selling the same stuff for 1/8 the cost digitally, I bet (and I bet they bet) they'd start hemorrhaging that elite customer base. What I was getting at earlier when talking about price was merely that I don't think high cost is sufficient to explain the degree of poor sales seen by G-Senjou, Gahkthun, and Tokyo Babel (assuming things don't change), given Grisaia's equally high cost and vastly better sales. And, yes, I understand Grisaia is no juggernaut - it only does well by comparison to other high-cost, long VNs. Quite a lot of qualifiers on that, by now. Notably also in the same ballpark, on both sales numbers and price, unsurprisingly: Clannad. But it's obviously exceptional: it's got quite a leg up because of the well-liked anime adaptation, which Grisaia certainly doesn't have.

Well, I pretty much knew what I was going to post in this thread before even seeing it. Most of it still stands, starting with: At least do Front Wing the service of waiting until they announce their plans, rather than crucifying them now on the basis of what you hypothesize their plans to be. Most of you are jumping to conclusions that are, frankly, still unwarranted. There'll be a Kickstarter soon enough - you'll have plenty of time to belittle them without evidence as to translation quality at that time. At least then we'll know what their plans are WRT translation and editing. Now, as far as the bizarre partnership, I have a pretty reasonable explanation for this. Here's the sequence of relevant events: Grisaia gets a Sekai Project release. The Steam release alone sells like gangbusters. 16k owners, at > $30 per copy? In the English VN market, we can comfortably call this yooj. That's not to count Denpasoft money and Kickstarter money (though let's be frank, despite the ability to contribute a lot more, Kickstarter money on average probably isn't any better than a full-price Steam sale; shipping, merch production, and logistics to orchestrate it all ain't cheap, nor is the cut Kickstarter itself takes). But the end result is clear: Frontwing is happy, SP is happy, and shockingly enough, even us salty fans are pretty happy. Next up, G-Senjou gets a Sekai Project release. I think it's fair to say that G-Senjou's reputation is, if anything, stronger than Grisaia's. Like Grisaia, the release uses an existing fan TL, which in both cases people have had ample opportunity to pirate. Pretty good comparable, really. It tanks. 3k owners? It even has the option of a substantially lower price point without voice acting, for anybody crazy enough to think that's a good idea *cough*Rooke*cough*, and the same price as Grisaia if you do want voice acting. AkabeiSoft2 is justifiably left wondering what the hell happened. They got 20% the sales of Grisaia, for the same amount of work (or more? probably more; don't forget they HD-ified all their assets, to the community's consternation). Arguably what should have been their most profitable IP is burned, and they have nothing to show for it. Sekai Project probably straight-up took a loss on this project. Clearly the magic wasn't Sekai Project. Sekai Project might not even be interested in Sharin at this point; I wouldn't be surprised if they would have turned down the option, with as many balls as they have in the air and with what a flop G-Senjou was. So AkabeiSoft2 starts talking to Front Wing: why is Grisaia so successful? What's the secret sauce? Front Wing thinks they know, and uses their answer to leverage this partnership. And I think I know, too. The conclusion almost seems obvious, at this point. You're gonna hate it. Kickstarter is the premier advertising platform for large, high-profile VNs.

What upsets me the most is that all this is doing is asking for money that is not needed whatsoever. Frontwing already earns money in Japan and is a very rich company when it comes to the games they make each year. With anime royalties, a VN market, and other products, why the fuck do they need to run a Kickstarter? If they really want to localize the game all they need to do is buy the rights in Japan, therefore allowing a Western release. There is absolutely no reason a Kickstarter needs to throw another 400,000 dollars their way. It's shameful as a company and a disgusting practice for an already AAA company that doesn't need the money at all. Why feed them money early, then have to pay 40-50 dollars for the game in the future a second time? We all know the price of the game is going to be expensive, considering a new VN in Japan already sells for 8,800 yen or more. It's a cash grab and the same kind of bullshit Sunshine pulls with Love Live. This is almost as bad people who preorder games that have no added bonus material whatsoever. It isn't even about the fans at this point... Doesn't matter I guess as people will still blindly toss money at it no matter what they ask for. Popular games will always, and have always been funded. To give you an example, I bet that if TM launched a Fate Kickstarter asking for 5 million dollars, it would be funded in less than a day. I promise you that.

Because it's about on par with an Ixrec translation.

This came across my twitter feed today, and I cringed hard. As pretty much the only person around here who will admit to enjoying watching anime with English dubs (recent dubs, that is, not the crap they churned out 15 years ago), I've sometimes wondered whether we'd ever see a VN with an English dub. On these boards, Huniepop gets a fair bit of both hate and love for its voice acting - I personally think both are deserved (the hate, for Nikki; the love, for the rest of the cast; seriously, Kyu, marry me). But Huniepop is of course originally an English-language game and is a far cry from a VN, even though we talk about it a lot around here. But the day has finally come. Our historical first (as far as I know) English-dubbed honest-to-God Japanese VN is on its way, and I'm sure @Rooke will be delighted more than anyone by this double-whammy of good news: I get it, I really do. Growth has stagnated. They want to branch out, grow their market in new directions. If this is it, more power to them. But this isn't it. This isn't going to work. Somebody, save us before it's too late.

I've never played it nor do I care to look into this, but the VNDB lists Sonico as the only character in the game. From what I've heard it's also just a game where you act as Sonico's manager or some shit, so maybe she's the only voiced character in it? Also, I'm not sure how much you know about the voice actor, but she's really, really famous among cosplay and convention-going people. Her twitter has 517k followers, so just imagine someone with that big of a following being on your game. They're not aiming for a steam audience, they're aiming for the casual anime fans who might not know anything about visual novels, but see Jessica Nigri on it and pick up interest in it.

Yes, the graphics are subpar and could've, should've been better, we get it. But if you were playing Zero Escape for the graphics, then lol @ you

Sorry Down, but you're arguing a strawman here. What you've described isn't elitism, the behaviour on display at Reddit and described by Sanah is, though. Pretty toxic place, Reddit. EDIT: More specifically, the coming together of users to ridicule, downvote, and taunt other users for holding ‘inferior’ viewpoints. Worthless circle-jerking. It’s a rubbish practice, and certain people over at Reddit really should grow up.

It's a valid fear. r/vns is full of so-called "elitists", who look down on machine translations and even parsing to an extent. And I can assure you that if this poll wasn't linked to there, the result would've been largely different. However, that place is one of two major VN communities, so that isn't exactly an option. I've used machine translation and text-parsing a lot, and now that I'm learning Japanese, I'm still using text-parsing and MTL. They are a major help to those still learning this language, and this amount of shunning and ridicule doesn't feel mature. I'd understand if it was something along the lines of "I understand the merits of machine translation and parsing, but I prefer to read VNs in their original form, and thus don't feel comfortable using them any longer". Instead, in certain communities, we get this sort of backlash, and it's never nice to look at. I agree that learning Japanese is the best way to read VNs, but not everyone has that kind of time to put into learning this rather hard language, so parsing and MTL are great alternatives to read these games and learn Japanese at the same time. Even if it doesn't help you or you think it's a waste of time personally, it doesn't automatically mean it's a "worse" choice and should be shunned and given this kind of treatment. This elitism is really aggravating, and it would be for the better if such an attitude would be left and buried entirely.

This whole arrangement is dodgy, and Frontwing has been pretty shitty so far in the West. Really would be cautious with this.

Except you have to factor in that those two are the only AKBS2 VNs that western VN fans have ever known. If something as popular as G-senjou is selling poorly, imagine how poorly something like Boku no Hitori Sensou, which apparently even flopped in Japan, would go over in the west. All it would have going for it would be looseboy's name as the writer, and the Akabei Soft2 brand name, and your average Steam dude probably doesn't give a shit about either of those.

Which, in retrospect, this probably played a part in FW dropping SP, because SP openly supported koestl's team in their desire to release an alternative translation.

Maybe they're using the fan TL, I wouldn't be surprised, but herkz tends to run his mouth off and makes these kinds of proclamations with only tiny snippets of information. It seems Frontwing is already set on combating rumors. Of course, they offer no information in return. It's a crapshoot.

Perhaps the avoidance of sekai project is because of their uncaring attitude towards adult games which is what people quite obviously want. I can hope that's the case anyway. I have no intent to support this game unless it gets a proper release 18+ content included (be that patch or otherwise) as I simply am fed up with games releasing with censorship. I'm still extremely skeptical of frontwing because of the way they handled the chirchiru game (which I still haven't gotten).

Which is ridiculous, because this game is actually quite great. The VN community is so utterly enamored with the elite set of action chuuni titles that get hyped to hell and back that any title in the same genre that isn't part of that group just gets ignored completely, especially if it's all-ages. The age rating is completely irrelevant to this title, though. It doesn't feel like it lacks maturity in any way, nor does it feel like it ever glosses over any important events. Everything just works, nothing is lacking. Oh well, this is how the VN fanbase has always been. I've been expecting this the whole time, while really hoping I was wrong.

Okay so...I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IMHHW. Ugh. And I thought Koisuru Natsu was great! Seems I haven't had enough of Pulltop lately. Pulltop is like...idk...for me the definition of the perfect Visual Novel gaming company. The UI is clean, the art is very nice, the music(omg) is sublime, and just overall topnotch! So as the poll suggests, who's your fave route? Please, don't spoil some major things. I loved how the ending of Kotori's was, it was just so satisfying at the end! So much so with Amane as well, the part where she became kinda of like the narrator and the text was different and just, ugh, it was all perfect....HOT DAMN! Amazing stuff. But I enjoyed Kotori's route more because there we could see the progression of basically everything. Though in Amane's route, it shed more light on Isuka, Tatsuya, and Tobioka. Who knows what else is waiting for me in Ageha's, Asa's, and Yoru's route! What's more...the "epilogue", the Sweet Love of each route! I can't wait for it!(still looking for a patch cause it's all symbols) Anyway, I've rambled long enough. By now you must realize how much this VN has touched my life, or for that matter...how much VNs touch my life. So, why did you choose that route? Why did you like the girl you choose more than the others? P.S. Please don't spoil any major things in Ageha's, Asa's, and Yoru's route since I'm currently in the process of doing it. ALSO in the Sweet Love routes.

Hello there! I'm a simple guy that like simple things and simple VNs! Unfortunately, due to lack of time I still haven't played many VNs, so I'm still kind of a novice on the hobby. Well, as I said, I'm a guy of simple tastes, I'm particularly not a big fan of Chuuni stuff, I prefer good ol' romance Charage and/or Moege. If you guys wanna leave any recommendations for me, I'd very much appreciate those. Thanks all and I hope I can get along with you all! PS: I also just finished playing Kindred Spirits on the Roof, and I just wanna say that

The last GM standing Q&A: Link to the thread: Would you rather read the chapters in a PDF document? Click here! Chapter 1: Chapter 2: Chapter 3: (Word count, 4439) The last GM standing chapter 3: On the third day of battle, the sun was blazing hot. The dark clouds that had been hovering over the battlefield for two days straight were nowhere to be seen. The base of team Nosbeleed, which was turned into a charred wasteland after the previous day's battle, was abandoned. The battle had been pushed further and further away from the forest and open plains, and a group of warriors found themselves in a harsh desert, being tormented by heat under the scorching sun. ... Trying to get away from their pursuers, Kiriririri and Nebjula from team Nosebleed were running through the desert at full speed. Because of the protective shield granted to them by their commander, the heat didn't mean too much, but fatigue was taking its toll on their bodies. They had been running for hours already, and it was only a matter of time now; their tail would soon catch up to them, and they would have to fight. And sure enough, after a few more minutes, the outline of a person could be seen appearing in front of them. Coming to a complete stop, the two team Nosebleed warriors prepared for battle. Their pursuers soon came to a halt as well, their weapons shining brightly in the sun. "Ohh, I see our prey has stopped running. What's the matter, tired?" Pouting her lips whilst making an intimidating face, the woman in the group presented her weapon in a taunting manner; a sickle. The curved blade of the weapon was forged in a deep black metal. The tip of the sickle was jagged, with several small razor sharp edges that were there in order to inflict as much damage as possible. It allowed the weapon to function as a stabbing tool as well as a cutting blade. The woman was wearing the green garb standard for Down's army. Interestingly enough though, behind her, two more warriors were approaching, but they were clad in the red armor of Kaguya's army. To her left was another one of her teammates. Had Kaguya's soldiers been sent after Down's soldiers?.. There was also one more person who had appeared in front of Kiri and Nebjula, another one of Kaguya's men. In order to cover both their sides, Nebjula and Kiriririri stood back to back, weapons at a ready. The situation was quite chaotic, and the only way to identify who was who, was by the color of their armor. The female soldier from team Down took a step forward and smiled at Kiriririri. "So, which one of you will be my playmate? Oh, wait! I haven't introduced myself yet, how rude." Taking a step back again and bowing gracefully, the woman's hair swayed in the harsh wind. She was paying no mind to the two enemies who had appeared behind her. "My name is Kawasumi. It's a pleasure to meet you gentlemen. Now, I'll start by cutting up you!" Just as she finished her sentence, Kawasumi charged forward, her sickle heading for Kiriririri's neck. Kiri quickly parried the attack by charging his fist with energy and striking at the approaching weapon. The sound of his fist colliding with the steel was deafening, but neither party cared. They launched attack after attack at each other, completely ignoring their surroundings. Kawasumi laughed joyfully during the fight, seemingly having a fun time. Kiri was focused, not saying a word. Nebjula, who was standing behind Kiri as Kawasumi attacked, quickly got his weapons ready and struck at the opponent in front of him. Zebhra from team Kaguya who was holding a sword, blocked the first mace hit, and jumped to the side to retaliate. The thin blade moved quickly, and Nebjula barely managed to stop it with his maces. Unleashing a flurry of attacks at Nebjula, Zebhra moved forward, not giving Nebjula a chance to strike back. At the same time, one of the men in the back came forward, joining the fight. The desert was soon turned into a big mess of a battle; green, pink and red clashing in an epic fight. A shadow quickly moved towards Kiririri, and he only managed to dodge it by a hair. Looking to his left, Kiriririri spotted a man in red armor with his hand extended towards him. A big red magic circle was floating in front of his hand, and the shadow that had attacked him appeared to have been made by it. Beside him was a another one of Kaguya's soldiers, standing with his arms crossed. Was he not going to attack? "Hahaha, this is magnificent!" Shouting in a wild voice, Kawasumi rapidly struck at Kiri with her sickle, each blow being blocked by Kiri's fists. Then several knives made out of shadow quickly flew towards him again, sent out by the magician standing in the back. He was able to hit them in mid air, stopping them from doing any damage, whilst still fending off Kawasumi's sickle. "You really are good. I'll make sure I kill you slowly as a reward." A wicked smile spread across her lips, and she took a few steps backwards, distancing herself from her foe. Then she readied her sickle again and leapt forward. Meanwhile, Nebjula was busy fighting off an onslaught of magical attacks as well as a flurry of sword cuts. The attackers from Kaguya's army who had appeared behind him both seemed to use magic. The shadow user who was fighting Kiri and Kawasumi was Jade, and the one attacking Nebjula was Nimbus. One of the oncoming lightning bolts got past Nebjula's guard and struck his chest. It was blocked by his barrier, but it had been worn down by running in the blazing sun for hours, and it still hurt quite a bit. "Damnit..." He needed a way to get some distance from the sword-wielding Zebhra in order to attack Nimbus who was attacking with lightning magic. This was easier said than done though ... "Wohoooo! YEAH!" Suddenly, a surreal voice came from behind, and a man wearing a green garb ran past Nebjula at a crazy speed and rushed through the oncoming magic attacks. He brushed them off like they were nothing and quickly reached the two long range attackers. In his hand was a cleaver, stained with dried blood. It was the man who had been standing next to Kawasumi earlier. "Nohman has arrived!" Loudly declaring his name, he swung his weapon violently at the two, making them scatter. Still fending off Zebhra's sword, Nebjula tried to get a closer look at the battle between Kawasumi and Kiriririri. Kiriririri was still fighting off the relentless attacks with ease. Kawasumi's sickle moved through the air so fast, it was hard for Nebjula to follow it, but Kiri was still able to parry and retaliate using his fists. Now that Jade's magic had been interrupted, it was easier for Kiri to move around freely. "Take this, and this and this and this and this!!!" Striking at the barrier protecting Nimbus, Nohman brutally attacked it again and again. His battle style was vicious and reckless, but it was quite effective. In seconds, Nimbus' barrier shattered, and he had no way to stop the cleaver. Just as Nohman lifted his weapon in order to finish off his victim, Jade fired several knives made of shadow at him. Quickly turning around and hitting every single one of them out of the air, Nohman shook his head. "Two against one... Hm. Well, whatever. This will be fun." Smiling from ear to ear, Nohman advanced on Jade this time. Jumping slightly in order to avoid the lightning bolt coming from behind, he turned his body mid air and struck upwards, hitting Jade's right arm. A barrier blocked the hit, but he still did some damage. As he landed, Nohman spun around swiftly and launched at Jade again. But this time, the lightning bolts were moving a little too fast, and two of them pierced Nohman's chest, sending waves of pain through his body. Nohman lost his balance and tumbled to the ground. Still, he wasn't done yet. Violently striking at the foot in front of him, Nohman's cleaver made a deep cut in Nimbus' foot. "GHAAAA!" A loud scream was heard throughout the blazing hot desert. "Damn you!" Shouting at the fallen attacker, Jade fired several knives at his exposed back. But, before they hit, something hard hit him in the side. Missing his target ever so slightly because of the sudden attack, Jade stumbled backwards and slowly got back on his feet. Nebjula was standing in front of him, clutching his two maces. ... Team Nosebleed, Kiriririri vs Team Kaguya Zebhra and team Down Kawasumi Suddenly feeling oncoming danger from behind him, Kiri turned his body sideways in an awkward manner. Then, a sword struck in the place he had just been. The sickle that Kawasumi was swinging around like a lunatic also swept right past him, missing his arm by mere inches. Kicking the ground behind him hard, Kiri leapt forward and hit Zebhra in the chest. He attempted to block the sudden attack with his sword, but Kiri's fist was faster. Lifting his right arm slightly, Kiri then caught the sickle quickly advancing towards him in his palm, strengthening his skin with energy in order for it not to cut him. He then kicked at Kawasumi's legs, making her fall over. Kiri was currently fighting two enemies, one from team Down and one from team Kaguya. Nebjula had gotten wounded in the fight against Zebhra, and Kiri had taken over for him. Instead, Nebjula had moved over to the fight where Nohman was on the verge of being killed by the two magicians from Kaguya's team. He would be of more use there. He had sustained a deep cut over his back, making sudden movements really difficult. But in a close combat situation versus magicians that liked long range battles, he would hopefully be fine. It seemed impossible for him to retreat in the chaotic situation, and so he had instead moved over to a different battle. It was becoming difficult for everyone to determine friend from foe, and a wild free for all like battle was underway. Zebhra and Kawasumi were both standing again, and charged at Kiri; it seemed they had decided, he was the biggest threat. Nimbly dodging the oncoming blades, Kiri turned his body around and preformed a roundhouse kick that struck Zebhra in the chin, bringing him to the ground. He didn't have time to let his guard down though, with two attackers being present, and paid the price for it. Lightly jumping up into the air, he brought his hardened fist down towards Zebhra's head, but before it hit, Kawasumi moved in. Her sickle cut through Kiri's barrier and left him with a small wound on his left side. Stepping on Zebhra wo was still on the ground, Kawasumi moved in closer. Zebhra angrily made it back to his feet and approached as well, but he still did not attack Kawasumi. He was dead set on taking out Kiri. In order to win Kiri had to act fast. Seeing as the two weren't actually teammates, their attacks weren't very well synchronized, and they would still be wary of each other. He had to use this to his advantage. The two of them raised their weapons and approached Kiri. "... Now!" Moving forward and grabbing both weapons in mid air, Kiri used the rest of his strength to protect his palms from the sharp blades. He then moved forward, advancing past the two attackers, turned around and brought his fist forward with all his might. It struck Zebhra in the neck, and an ominous snap sound followed. Zebhra fell to the ground, his head dangling about without the proper support from his broken spine. "Haha, look at it wobble!!!" Laughing sadistically whilst looking at the spectacle, Kawasumi yanked her blade out of Kiri's hand and cut at his chest. No longer able to summon any strength, Kiri had no way to defend himself. The blade cut through his chest, destroying his lungs. Kawasumi pushed him to the ground and got on top of his bleeding chest, bringing her face close to Kiri's. "Sleep well sweetheart." Placing the tip of her blade on Kiri's temple, she slowly put pressure on it. The jagged spike started making its way through the skin and after a few seconds of intense pain, Kiri closed his eyes for good. Team Kaguya, Zebhra- DEAD END Team Nosebleed, Kiriririri (REAL) - DEAD END Team Kaguya Nimbus and Jade, vs Team Down Nohman and Team Nosebleed's Nebjula "Whooohooooooo!" Swinging his cleaver at Nimbus like a madman, Nohman charged forward. Nimbus was having trouble moving because of his wounded foot, but managed to dodge the attacks. Nohman had sustained quite a lot of damage previously as well, and so he wasn't moving as fast anymore. Still, he didn't seem to care one bit. "I'm going to cut your throat open and watch the blood soil the sand!" Nohman shouted as he switched between deflecting magic and striking at Nimbus. Meanwhile, the wounded Nebjula was fighting Jade, who had sustained a broken arm from Nebjula's earlier attack. Finally, Kawasumi was busy cutting Kiri's corpse open, not caring about the fight going on behind her. Her green armor was stained completely with fresh blood. Jade was using his magic to both deflect attacks and retaliate, making his energy drain at a rapid pace. Lucky for him, Nebjula's back had sustained a serious wound, and he was moving rather sluggishly. I'll have to finish this in a few attacks, or I'm going to run out of energy. Jade thought to himself. Sending two large spikes of shadow towards Nebjula, Jade took advantage of the time Nebjula needed to dodge, and started chanting in order to strengthen his next, final attack. "Make those who oppose your ways, wither before your gaze... Eyes of evil, hands of darkness, gazing, clawing... Continuing his chant, Jade brought his hand together and aimed them at Nebjula, who was running towards Jade with his maces raised. A magic circle appeared between the two and black light particles started forming around Jade's hands. "Turn their bones to dust and their heart to sand, become their nightmare, ...the bane of man." As he finished chanting, a wave of darkness washed over the place where he stood, and the ground beneath Nebjula's feet split open. A large hand made of pure darkness gripped his entire body tightly, and held him in place. The pain of having pressure put on his open wound rendered him defenseless, and there was nothing he could do against the overpowering magic. Several red eyes appeared from the darkness below, probably belonging to whatever creature had seized Nebjula. Slowly squeezing the life out of its prey, the hand gripped Nebjula tighter, and the sound of bones breaking made a chill go down Jade's spine. It didn't take long for the monstrous hand to crush every bone in Nebjula's body. After releasing the magic, Jade collapsed on the spot, having used up way too much energy. As his consciousness faded, he caught a glimpse of the fight still taking place some distance away, between Nohman and Nimbus. Both parties were still standing. As for Nebjula, the remnants of his body was brought back into the shadows by the devilish hand, and he was never to be seen again... Team Nosebleed, Nebjula- (CLONE) DEAD END "Die, you glorified light bulb!" Shouting at Nimbus, Nohman chopped vigorously at his target with decreasing accuracy. The two gaping holes in his chest had started to really slow down his movements, but in return, Nimbus had also received a long cut to his left arm, leaving him with only one functional arm and leg. No longer capable of moving much, he had resorted to using his energy for making his own shields as well as attacking his opponent with electricity. Each time Nohman struck Nimbus' shield, Nimbus felt that the strength in each blow was decreasing. He only had to hold out longer than his opponent. Probably realizing his dire state, Nohman gritted his teeth. "You little ... If I am going down here, I'll make damn sure you die as well." Suddenly throwing his cleaver onto the ground, Nohman reached inside his garb and brought out a small dagger. What could he accomplish with that? Nimbus wondered. Getting ready for a possible surprise attack, he strengthened his shield. Then, Nohman did something quite surprising. Turning the dagger around, he thrust it into his own chest. Then, he uttered a small chant in a weak voice: "I will be, the one who makes... a world of pain, where no one wakes... Once they hear, the voice of death, the two will draw, their final breath..." When Nimbus realized what Nohman was doing, it was already too late. Nohman's skin started glowing, and soon it started breaking apart. A green light shone through the cracks, and after a few seconds the battlefield was enveloped in a massive explosion. It was a spell that, in return for giving up one's own life, granted massive amounts of energy for a final attack. Such an attack was designed for one simple purpose: to take out whoever else it can in the process losing your own life. A massive crater was the only thing that remained of Nohman, but... "Tch, what a pain." Holding his passed out teammate under his arm, Nimbus looked at the crater. He had moved quickly, snatched the unconscious body of Jade, then he had escaped before the explosion went off. It was an act impossible for most people, but Nimbus had used a last resort given to him by Kaguya himself; a way to stop time for a couple of seconds. Once used, he was no longer capable of repeating it. It was a gift granted to Nimbus because he excelled at magic, and so he was the one best suited for using it. And it had ended up saving the lives of himself and his teammate, Jade. The violent explosion that Nohman had set off would destroy anything in its path. "Did that crazy bitch make it out alive?" Looking down at the crater from afar one last time, Nimbus started making his way back to Kaguya's base. Team down, Nohman- DEAD END Team Down, Kawasumi- ??? _________________________________________________________________ Walking along the outskirts of the desert, Mitchhamilton and Satsuki were looking for their teammates, Kiriririri and Nebjula when they saw a massive explosion. A figure clad in pure red was making its way out of the chaos, and was headed in their direction. Mitch reacted quickly, recognizing the figure as someone from Kaguya's army. He grasped his spear and hurled it at the rapidly approaching target. The person, who Mitch had first mistaken for a team Kaguya member, was actually wearing Down's garbs, but they were completely stained in wet blood. The woman managed to nimbly avoid the spear, and kept running. Following her general's example, Satsuki moved towards the enemy. "Tch, can't a lady get a second of peace around here?" The team Down member was a woman, completely covered in blood from top to toe. Whatever had happened could have been linked to her own teammates, and so Satsuki wanted to interrogate the woman. But, in order to do that, she first had to defeat her. Preparing for combat, Satsuki drew both her twin axes from behind her back. The axes were small and compact, like hatchets used for chopping down trees, but they were solid steel and sharp as could be. "Little lady, I am in a hurry, so please move." Not listening to the woman, Satsuki charged just as her general Mitch was making his way over to join the fight. Satsuki jumped up in the air and swung her hatchet down towards the woman's head, but instead of hitting her flesh, a powerful force threw Satsuki back. Mitch, who had arrived at the scene as well, was also blown back by a sudden invisible force. "Kawasumi, go back to base. I'll handle these two." Satsuki could hear the voice of a man through the ringing in her ears. Lifting her chin up, she spotted the retreating figure of the woman. It seemed someone from her team had shown up in order to help bring their wounded back to base. "Tch. Mitch, what do we do? Do we chase her?" Turning to her general for advice, a sudden shiver went down Satsuki's spine. "LOOK OUT!" She shouted and jumped forward, grabbing a hold of Mitch. Barely managing to push him to the ground in time, several kunai knives flew past their heads and hit the ground behind them. Right after, an approaching enemy in a green garb rushed forward with a katana. Clutching her axes, Satsuki stood up and blocked the blade, staring straight into the face of Down's general, Tiagofvarela. Mitch quickly got to his feet and struck at Tiago's body with his spear. Sidestepping in order to avoid the attack, Tiago let go of his katana for a second, then snatched it out of the air before it hit the ground. Striking at Satsuki with great force, he swung his katana up in an arc. The blade made a whistling sound as it cut through the air, and the impact from the blow made Satsuki's arms burn. She managed to block it, but this was an enemy she was not capable of fighting on her own; that much was obvious. Luckily, it was two against one. The two started attacking Tiago in rapid succession. Every time one attacked, the other one would strike from a different direction, making it hard to block the oncoming attacks. Also, Mitch's spear made for a great medium ranged weapon, where as Satsuki was striking from close range, making the attacks even harder to predict. As a spear thrust was blocked, two chops from Satsuki's axes followed. Still, Tiago spun around swiftly, his katana moving so fast, it was like it became one with the air itself. The sound of steel clashing with steel and the constant footsteps of the three was all that one could hear. Tiago ducked in order to avoid the approaching axes, and used his katana to knock the spear thrust out of the way, then he launched his body forward. Pointing his katana at Mitch's chest, he took advantage of Mitch's poor close combat compatibility and the katana dug into Mitchhamilton's shoulder as Mitch did his best to steer the blade from his heart. "GRAAHH!" Mitch screamed as he clutched his bleeding shoulder, and Satsuki quickly ran up to him to check on his condition. Tiago followed up with another attack, this time a diagonal cut, but Satsuki's axe parried the strike. She tried retaliating, but Tiago was able to keep her at a distance. Without the aid from Mitch's spear keeping him at bay, getting close to Tiago was a challenge for Satsuki. Every time she tried advancing, he would swing his katana quickly towards her body, forcing her to retreat or dodge. "Time to end this." Tiago suddenly sped up his movements, stepping forward and clutched his katana with both hands. He then preformed another cut from above, but with much more force than before. The heavy attack made Satsuki's hands falter, and the sharp edge of the katana cut a deep gash in Satsuki's face, slicing all the way from her left eye down to her cheekbone. "Satsuki!!!" Panicking, Mitch charged back into the fight, wielding his spear with only one hand. "RAAAAAAARGH!" He Thrust at Tiago with all his might in the hope of pushing him back, but instead Tiago moved his body to the left, avoiding the spear, and stabbed at Mitch with his katana. Mitch, who was approaching at a great speed, was incapable of stopping and was impaled on the blade. Tiago started turning the katana around inside of Mitch's chest, making large amounts of blood spill out from his mouth and from the open wound. "D-DAMNIT! DIE!" Charging towards Tiago whilst clutching her wounded eye, Satsuki tried to hit Tiago with her hatchet, but it was a futile effort. Tiago grabbed her arm mid air, not even needing a weapon to stop the attack, and snatched her axe out of her hand. He then used her own weapon to cut open her throat. Mitch, who still wasn't dead, tried to summon some strength to use magic, but before he could do anything, Tiago pulled his katana out of Mitch's chest and spun around. The blade flew through the air and connected with Mitch's neck, separating his head from his shoulders... Team Nosebleed, Satsuki (CLONE) and Mitchhamilton (REAL) DEAD END ... Satsuki had slowly bled out on the ground, and Mitch could not be brought back because he already lost a life the previous day. Nosebleed was looking at the figures of his four fallen soldiers. Nebjula and Satsuki had been clones, but it was still a tough loss. Kiriririri and Mitchhamilton had been two of his best fighters, and both were gone for good. Clutching his fists tightly, Nosebleed looked up at the sky; starting right at the shimmering sun. The figure of a reaper holding a scythe was barely visible on the horizon. It was watching him from the distance, it's yellow eyes glowed faintly. It was the same creature that had stopped him previously when he fought with Down. He had noticed it then, this ... thing, used to be 12Kami, the member who disappeared on the first day of battle. For what purpose was he created? For what reason was here there, watching Nosebleed's every move? Turning his back to the reaper, Nosebleed brought the corpses of his comrades back to his new base, preparing himself and his soldiers for the next day of battle. The coming days would be even harsher and more grueling than ever before, that he could tell... _________________________________________________________________ Deaths this week: Team Nosebleed: Nebjula, (CLONE), Satsuki, (CLONE), Mitchhamilton (REAL), Kiriririri (REAL). Team Down: Nohman Team Kaguya: Zebhra _________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ List of currently remaining members!! #Team Nosebleed: Members, Satsuki (-1 life), Valmore , Deep Blue (-1 life) , Nebjula (-1life) , kingdomcome #Team Down: Members, Tiagofvarela (- 1 life) , Babiker , Maxel , Fred the Barber , Totodile , FinalChaos , Kawasumi , Flutterz , Turnip Sensei #Team Kaguya: Members, Dergonu , Nimbus, Gijimu, Greenshadow622 (- 1 life) , Eclipsed, Duyy , Jade ___________________________________________________________________________ TO BE CONTINUED!

Because Japan fucking loves their re-releases. And otaku eat it up.

Because the VA for sonico is a very famous cosplayer, which is pretty the only reason she was chosen to do the dub of the sonico anime (she's literally never voice acted anything else). Throwing her name in there means she can promote the game, which would give it a lot of exposure it wouldn't have had otherwise. None of the other English voice actors can give them that, so it's not worth it to spend money on them.

Eeeeeeew, English.

1v1 me noobs

can't forget this one

Tiago too OP plz nerf

Sure, but if Amazon is allowing it, then there isn't some nefarious organization decreeing that visual novels are "For sale in Japan only". As far as I know, that's a rule that applies specifically to eroge, and those rules are set by the EOCS (otherwise known as Sofurin). Those rules have been strictly enforced since the Rapelay incident, and the reasoning is pretty clear. Wait, so Moogy is claiming that Frontwing is using the translation--against the protests of the authors--and isn't even compensating them? Bingo. This is what I've been saying all along (I would go ever further and say that the quality of the translation is only somewhat related to eventual popularity, and good marketing is a far more dominant factor). I don't necessarily mind using crowdfunding as a marketing tool to promote visual novel sales. The problem I have is that the campaigns themselves are somewhat exploitative and don't provide value to backers (my opinion). The greater problem I have is that Kickstarter campaigns are being used to fund eroge localization, which is dangerous because Kickstarter bans adult content. It's pushing the industry towards censorship, removal of adult content, and/or a focus on non-adult titles. I find the first two unacceptable, and the latter chilling for the future of eroge localization.

We would like to announce our partnership with MangaGamer! In addition to the help of MikandiJapan, the three of us are going to work together and bring more Japanese visual novels to the West! Banzai! Lastly, here's an interview that we recently conducted with them about our game. Enjoy some more news about the future of Bloody Chronicles!" You mention the main character Kazuki can form relationships with NPCs. Can you elaborate on this? Does this mean the player can form love relationships? Can relationships be made regardless of gender? – Correct, Kazuki can have relationships with other Igrasil members like Suzumi, Aki, Kaoru and even Akito. Many users asking us for adult content (H content). Like we said before, we are always listening to our users and we will start our work on Adult Version of Bloody Chronicles. You mention the game will be made in 3 installments; are all these going to be funded this time or will there be three different funding opportunities – The current campaign will fund the first release, "New Cycle of Death." We are hopeful that through this initial funding drive we can create the first act and receive future funding through sales of the game. You mention the first part will be released in March 2017, but how much of the game is left to make? Will the other parts take as long to be released? -Our estimated release for Act 1 is next March. You can view our progress here:http://bloodychronicles.com/project-statusIf all goes according to plan, we're hoping to release Act 2 (Revenge) December 2017 and act 3 (Last Order) by October 2018. It's going to be a wild ride! With a Japanese style visual novel game it seems odd to have English voice actors. Can you explain how you came to use English voice actors? -To be honest, what we're doing is a bit unorthodox; while most of our team is located in Japan, we're focusing our efforts in the western market. Likewise, we wanted to reach out to English voice actors to fit our localization; they were very kind and offered their services wholeheartedly. We also wanted to try something else with the voice acting, to gauge how western audiences would see a visual novel that was catered towards them rather than Japanese audiences. How many different paths are possible in the game and how much do they actually affect the player’s progress or change the story? –There will be five unique "paths", one for each of the cast excluding the main character, plus one "dark" ending. We made the paths unique, so that you won't know the true story just playing through once, much like visual novels with branches. We've spent a year researching serial killers, how they work, and why it takes a while for police to catch them, if at all (such as the case of the zodiac killer.) The story in the demo is a little confusing. For instance, as detectives do they work for, with, or independently from the police? – Well, the demo was meant to establish the game engine as well as the UI, so we apologize if there was any confusion. There were a lot of things cut, such dialogue trees, since we're still working on those. In this universe, the organization is independent from the police, and they have funding through the Moriyama family. This means they don't have to be cooperative if the situation calls for it. However, there are a couple of characters who have ties to the police, so it's in their best interests to work together. 80 hours seems like a lot of time to fill with just the Phantom case, what else will happen in Bloody Chronicles? 80 hours is an estimate, so just take it with a grain of salt. The overarching narrative involves the Phantom as well as his effect on the other characters; almost everyone has a different motivation for capturing the killer. We're hoping that the series will captivate players by going through the multiple endings (which will be vastly different from each other.) These different branches will explain why Kazuki was spared in that accident that killed his parents, as well as the different murders that are happening while the case is underway.

Well, this one of course!

This is most likely a problem all of us have at some point. I am the same. But I have realized what my problem is. It is that I have too much on my hands. I got too many games, animes and VNs available and I am a human being which functions better if I don't got that many things to choose between. For example I was much better at doing anything when I was limited in what I could watch or play. When I was young and lived at home I was always anticipating Christmas and birthday. Because I would get something new I could immerse myself in for several months without getting anything new. In some rare cases I would get a game on release but I had to beg on my knees for it. But since Steam/Internet and credit cards was implemented in my life I got unlimited access whenever I want. I also learned how to get things the "shady" way which gave me endless possibilities. Just reading summaries of a game/VN or anime could be enough to add it on a backlog. That's a big problem. You have unlimited access to anything. You got hardrive(s) of games, anime, VNs, movies, TV-series and whatever you may save. That way you don't know what you want because you are content and pleased with what you have and know. You end up playing something familiar because: You are lazy, you can't force yourself to learn something new (can't learn an old dog to sit or what's the saying is) and you don't exactly know what the new thing is because you got hundreds of new things which means you have to research it again before you decide to play it. It is the same with anime and VNs. When I had a few series or a few VNs I would immerse myself into it and watch it nonstop and play every route etc. I could nonstop watch the few anime series I begun watching for hours. But my backlog and to do list grew bigger and bigger. Now it is just a list I don't even care about any more. I think it is a mix of me growing up a bit and the stagnation of "good" (subjective!) animes. I am a fan of long going anime series. I am not content or pleased with 1/2 cour animes. My list of VNs were very small in the beginning. It only consisted of a few selected and handpicked VNs from Fuwa. I played them thoroughly. I have never done that since my list of VNs grew bigger and longer. I don't know what to play because I got several VNs I want to play at the same time. I can't pick one. I end up doing nothing or pick something I haven't finished yet (which gets stalled again) I think the problem is the volume and hassle to pick something among the huge volume someone owns. I am not a lazy person but I am unstructured. If I have a few selected favorites and got a new game I would dive into it without hesitation. But today it is more of a commitment because it is easier to play and enjoy something I know than learning something new. And If I don't really know if I should begin game A or B. I end up doing nothing and browsing Reddit, YT or whatever place to pass the time. My way of solving this is: Remove stuff you aren't interested in. That includes everything. If you don't know if you want to play/watch it yet, remove it. This is something you have to feel. Do I want to play Game X now? No? Remove it. The fewer options the better. And you can always reinstall or acquire stuff later on. If you forgot about some games or so. That's good. You weren't interested from the beginning. I don't know if you own Steam. But that's a curse scrolling through your games even though you sorted them. You see X amount of titles you acquired from HumbleBundle (not interested at all), from Steam sales and I don't know what. Sort them into an undesirable folder. That way you don't see them when you are looking for something to play among the interested titles. Limit what your brain sees. Of course you can visit that undesirable folder later on to find something which is interesting now. Take one thing at a time. About games I decided to do a list I follow until I feel "completed". You force yourself to play stuff in an order. Just so you can't stall the selection and whenever you feel an urge to play something you already got that game picked. Your brain doesn't have to think. See 4 about when you could move on. When you move on you delete it so you can't say "I am just going to play this for a while" or so and then you indefinitely stall it. If it is about anime I pick one anime, watch it and then remove it. I have already removed every anime I don't know if I am gonna watch yet. I have a few selected animes I won't delete but I have saved those on a different location so I can't see them with my eyes whenever I want to watch something new. If you start something you continue until you are finished or feel completed. You don't have to complete it but you shouldn't feel that it was a waste and you have at least TRIED playing the game. If you don't enjoy the game move on. You can't like everything. I know it is so hard finishing something you have begun. But it is a mental thing in my case. You just have to force yourself to finish what you started if you enjoy it. Be it a VN route, the last 4 episodes of an anime or whatever. Just force yourself to watch it. Whenever I force myself to the end I feel a good satisfaction and I am pleased. Of course you could tweak it in your way. But this is how I try to pass my time during weekends and doing something "productive" on my spare time. How I write this is a bit radical and I am not following this point by point. But it is to give you and everyone else an idea how you perhaps could get motivation back. I am following this to an extent and I did follow this for a month until I felt I had begun playing games/watching anime again. Of course you are allowed to just browse shitposting sites too. But we all know that feeling "I want to do something" but you can't decide what to do. This is how to help with that. Hopefully. Edit: I never pre order things anymore and I try to limit my buys to a couple each year. For example I am so anticipating Warhammer: Total War. But I am not ordering until summer because I already got a lot of stuff already planned until summer. But because we got Seinarukana coming out soontm I am waiting for that game. And that's a game I know is at least 40 hours of dedicated gameplay. Why should I buy something else when I can't spare any time to play it? It is better to wait. The game is perhaps somewhat cheaper and patched later on anyway.

As a little followup to this, the game's translator posted on VNDB just recently that he was initially contacted a while back about this, told them that his fan translation wasn't good enough and shouldn't be used, then seemingly never heard from them again. So it seems unlikely that they're going to be using it. FW wanting to cover the localization costs ahead of time might be the reason for the kickstarter.

r/vns can be really butthurt about Machine Translations, but yoy get used to it as time goes by. Good poll, and I kind of expected there to be a thread on reddit full of clashing opinions about the poll The results were interesting

I find this hilarious. Japan gets an English localization group to allow a popular VN to be sold outside of the country, then turns it around and makes their own localization group for an outside market knowing that most Japanese groups will stick to them since they know the industry on a local level. Classic Japanese otaku market money grab if you ask me. Sunrise did the same thing with Love Live (and those Panama Papers), so none of this surprises me one bit. On the other hand, the concept of "Japan Sales Only" is slowly becoming more and more lenient, so I do respect the country for that at least. Now if only Japan can see that Blu-ray sales at 6,000 yen a volume for 3 episodes need to stop and paid services for anime need to become a thing...

Whoops, you're right. Dunno why I thought that

I don't really know of many movies of that sort...For animes you got quite a few but movies mmmmm. If you seek animes aswell i'd say you'll be fine with higurashi or Another to start with, I'll do some research into the movies though to see if i can find a good one

Alrighty done with it aswell, I myself use Chitrans and now I'm starting to try and make a different one work but so far Chitrands + Atlas works well even if sometimes makes a few mistakes or doesn't know some words also(i know it's silly) but I hope we surpass Reddit on votes brought to the poll! I screened and cropped it It was an interesting poll, thanks for linking it to us

Thanks for adding the link to the results! seems like chiitrans it's more popular than everyone believes, so far is winning lol it seems you have some haters

Alright, I submitted my answers. Chiitrans is my favorite btw (thanks Deep Blue for introducing it to me).

Not sure if it's possible with Edelweiss like it is for other vn's out there that either are tweakeable by their files or simply include the option in the game itself, that being said I'll do some research and get back to you. Though this might get answered before I find anything

I have taken everything you guys said into consideration, and here is a small teaser for this week's chapter, with some ... obvious new additions

Maybe a Clephas fanfic (based on my roleplay, which I'm sure at least some of you are familiar with), the results judged based upon prose quality, originality, and humor, maybe. This would be the entry level... with multiple judges just saying whether it is acceptable or not (My preferences are for Kaguya, Rooke, and one other random member besides me). Those that get branded as 'acceptable' will then be picked out by a random number generator in three stages for the three prizes. First prize is Tokyo Babel, second being a choice of the remaining two (or more if other people want to add to this silly contest), etc.

My absolute favorite:

Tokyo Babel Licensed by MangaGamer, available on Steam Summary The gates of Heaven are closed shut; the realm of Hell consumed by flood. And in their wake, countless parallel worlds wither away, one after another. The surviving angels and demons gather at the city they believe to be their final chance at salvation: the floating purgatory of "Tokyo Babel". Joined by humans, they embark on a pilgrimage across the seven layers of Babel, hoping to ascend Jacob's Ladder in an effort to re-open the gates of Heaven. Their journey would be an atonement toward the heavens. And yet, their plans fall into ruin as a group of pilgrims -- their minds consumed by madness - set out to lord over the numerous layers of Tokyo Babel with the intention to wreak complete and utter havoc atop the floating purgatory. Amidst this neverending impasse, a lone youth is saved from the ruins of his devastated world - Tendou Setsuna, a man denied human treatment since birth. Joining his savior, Lilith - known as the Witch of the Night, he begins his journey across Tokyo Babel... ...yearning for an answer to a single question: Why he still possesses the will to keep on living. Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order It is highly recommended that you go Raziel -> Sorami -> Lilith to avoid spoilers. Note: Lilith's route can only be entered after the other two are completed. Route Guideline Raziel Bad End True End Kugutsu Sorami Bad End Normal End True End Lilith Bad End #1 Bad End #2 Bad End #3 True End Setsuna End Attribution Walkthrough was originally created and posted by Gare on his blog. I did some formatting and added repeat choices, that's all.