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DISCLAIMER: All that I mention represent my views mixed with basic scientific theories floating around. To 'Love', and to be 'In Love' I believe these two to be different. One does not necessarily love those they are in love with, and one is not necessarily in love with those they love. Sound confusing? Allow me to elaborate. To make this as clear as possible, let's take "romantic feelings" out of the equation. Would you say you love your parents? Or that you are in love with them? Maybe both expressions work for you? The way I see it, one (generally) loves their family, yet is not in love of them. To be in love with someone is the sort of feeling you have towards a crush, that almost irrational slight obsession and redirection of your thoughts in their general direction. Perhaps your heart will beat faster, perhaps you will become slightly euphoric, perhaps you'll get embarrassed; all just by being near the person in question. What I've just described most certainly does not apply towards your parents (unless you're into some really weird nukige). But you still love them, right? You act kind towards them, you are affectionate with them, you take their presence for granted and would sacrifice immensely for their sake. Mayhap, this even applies to your friends? Friendship love. You see it all the time in manga, girls loving each other, but not being in love with each other. You care for your friends much like they care for you. Finally, for all you older folk out there, if you're a parent: would you say you love your children, or that you are in love with them? Because if it's the latter, that would make you the worst kind of scum in the eyes of society. Only when it comes to romance do these two things get interwoven together. Love is a complicated mess, which I will now attempt to arbitrarily classify in a way that makes sense to me. All the previously mentioned situations represent love, yet they are different from falling "in love". As you know, or should know, humans are animals, they are living beings whose purpose is to live. All animals, all plants and all living beings have that very same objective, and they evolve and adapt in order to make sure their species continues to live. One important thing about being a living being is our instinctual desire to reproduce. If we didn't reproduce, the species would go extinct - Giant Pandas are the resident experts on the topic. In order to compel the race to reproduce, our body releases various hormones impelling us to do various things. Falling "in love" is one of these. You'll find that often, the person you develop romantic feelings for, is not one that is particularly close to you. This is what I believe being "in love" is. When you develop feelings for a person, which serves as the selfish catalyst that leads to romance. Having fallen in love, we humans do a bunch of silly things involving spending time with our pleasurable partner, which makes us happy (due to the hormones), and containing our sexual desires, which are also stimulated by the hormones. Probably not the most romantic way of looking at it, but "falling in love" is a mere boost towards romantic love, but I do not think it is romantic love itself. On the contrary, trying to resist this "in love" feeling is, quite literally, against our instincts. Thankfully, human beings are, for the most part, able to resist their instincts given that their conditions are favourable. If everyone ended up marrying their first love, society would be rather different than what it is right now. Now then, I keep mentioning "romantic love", as if it weren't influenced by hormones. Really, you can say that just about anything is influenced by hormones and this is no exception. The usual situation will be for one to develop a romantic relationship with the one they fell in love with. In turn, this "in love" boost will eventually die down leaving you only with a person that you are intimate with, that you share your flaws with, that you care for... and your sexual partner. Sex is yet another source of rather pleasurable hormones, and one important for long-lasting relationships. After all, a proper relationship requires sacrifices, and most of us selfish humans wouldn't be all that interested in maintaining a relationship for little reward. This is, of course, another of our instinct's plans. If a couple doesn't stay together and does not reproduce, then the whole "falling in love" business will end up having been useless. All this said, let us surmise: Because of our innate need to reproduce, we fall in love. Falling in love gives us a boost and creates an easy path that will lead to loving someone. Eventually, this boost dies down - at this point, a good couple would love each other as is (or else, divorce. Good lord, today's society...), with the help of sex. The pleasure sex provides creates hormones that increase our affection for our partner and that generally makes us interested in sex, connecting directly to our species' main goal: Children. The way we look at it today, everybody wants to be with those they're in love with, and lose interest when the magic of "falling in love" dies down. I, however, firmly believe that people are able to love even those they are not in love with... provided the circumstances aren't dead set against you. The main example I wanted to tie this uncultured rant to is this relationship I saw in Ao Haru Ride... I'll elucidate you right off the bat: I didn't like Ao Haru Ride as a story. This does not, however, mean that it was bad. In fact, it gave me enough food for thought to write this whole pointless blog post because of it. In Ao Haru Ride, because both our protagonists fail to act on their feelings in a timely manner because "emotions", they, despite loving each other, end up entering a relationship with someone else. Spoilers ahead. Futaba is our main protagonist, and she clearly falls in love with Kou in the first few chapters. This Kou fellow is the main love interest, who is also in love with Futaba, but who, due to circumstances and "emotions", rejects her advances. Seeing this, another boy, called Touma, felt bad for Futaba, and this kickstarted his feelings, leading him to fall in love with her. Eventually, Futaba, seeing Touma's dedication and depictions of love, enters a relationship with him and tries to love him back. Given this scene, Kou, jealous, surpasses his "circumstances" and "emotions" and tries to win Futaba back. Futaba, on the other hand, doesn't want this. She is not aware of Kou's feelings and really wants to love Touma back - something I consider a most earnest and great wish. However, because that's just the way things are, Futaba is unable to love Touma whilst in love with someone else, and she wouldn't stop being in love so long as Kou didn't stop - and he had no intention of stopping. Therefore, Futaba breaks up with Touma and gets together with Kou. Happy end. This entire turn of events depresses me. I dislike when a main character enters a relationship which just wont last. Totally not the kind of stuff I read manga for. I really hate how she spent most of the manga dating someone who is not the main love interest and the one she'll end up with. Yet, it does bring something to the table I really admired, and those were Futaba's attempts at loving Touma back, even when she wasn't in love with him. People these days always seem to think that they should marry someone they're in love with and whatnot - when I'm a fervent believer that anyone is able to romantically love even those they aren't in love with. Still, even still, we're wired in such a way that we're rather likely to fall in love with those we attempt to love, anyway, so it's almost a moot point. I believe that what Futaba tried to achieve is one of the most idealistic, selfless and admirable forms of love - though that's precisely why it doesn't happen often. It is, after all, much more convenient to just love those you are in love with This is why historical romances interest me so. They're about loving the husband or wife that was arranged for you by your family and not by your hormones (who choose based on what amounts to a whim). But then again... what the hell do I know about love?

Now... I've already commented on this VN elsewhere, at least to a point. So, I'll just do a quick recap of my initial feelings on this VN. I'll go ahead and get the negative out of the way first. First, the common, Sara, and Karen routes... as I've said elsewhere, these routes exist solely to give you certain information that adds depth to the story of Rinne and Setsuna. So, lolicons and fans of heroines like Karen, you are wasting your time if you go into this VN if you are expecting something truly great out of those two. Sadly, those routes are about as weak as some of the worst charage routes I've played. Things change dramatically during the Rinne, Winter, and Summer routes (they extend from one another). The degree of character development quality, story-writing, and narrative is incomparably better than that of the common and sub-heroine routes. This is perhaps inevitable, as this VN is basically a kinetic novel using chameleon-like techniques to make itself look like a normal multi-path VN. Do you think I'm joking? I'm not, seriously. I'm going to be blunt... I wasn't moved emotionally at all until the Rinne route. I can honestly say that if you are looking for emotional stimulation, the Rinne>Winter>Summer progression is ideal. There is a lot of mindfucking involved (those who compared this to other VNs with similar themes are more or less correct). The biggest complaint I might decide to bring up would be a very simple one... in the VN's 'true' ending (there is a 'good' and a 'true' one, whose actual names I won't reveal, since they are spoilers) the story as a whole isn't actually brought to a resolution. Of course, there is a definite sense of hope that comes out of it, but the writer chose to leave the story unresolved, probably for similar reasons to the people who did so with other VNs of the type. Intellectually, this VN isn't nearly as stimulating as you might think. For one thing, the protagonist is too much of an idiot to grasp most of what is going on. For another, there isn't much food for thought that hasn't already been covered if you've taken an advanced physics course or two (at least conceptually). The humor in this VN tends toward shimoneta (sexual humor), which is kind of ironic, considering it is an all-ages VN. I honestly enjoyed the humorous character interplay in the various paths, and they did a really good job in the latter half of the game of bringing the various characters and the settings to life. Edit: One thought that occurs to me is that this might be intellectually stimulating if you aren't accustomed to juggling sci-fi and science fiction weirdness, such as the stuff from the Hyperion book series. The protagonist's perspective in this VN isn't so much ignorant as limited by his own psychological immaturity (like a five year old in an adult's body, his immaturity enforced and reinforced by his amnesiac state). Is this a kamige? No. Three elements make this an impossibility... the common, Karen, and Sara routes, the inconclusive final ending, and the somewhat stale attempt (in my eyes, at least) at intellectual stimulation. However, this is definitely one of those VNs I'll name as 'one to remember from 2016'. It won't make it onto my personal favorites list, because I intensely dislike inconclusive endings, but it is still worth mentioning, just as many flawed VNs I've played have been. Overall... this VN will probably appeal to the sci-fi mystery crowd and inveterate romantics (love across time, lol) the most. This isn't a moe-type story, despite the art style, but it does take a page from the playbook at times. This is also a relatively short VN, considering how much content they tried to force into it... think about seventeen hours of playtime, total (that is what my clock is saying, anyway). It is about the same length as an medium-length charage, so that isn't necessarily short... but for a story-focused VN that is pretty short. If you were to ask me straight out whether I liked it as a whole, I'd say yes, but if you ask me if I'll replay it, I'll say 'only if they remake the ending'.

I ship Decay x Rooke. The older, serious dudes that disable dem sigs

Perhaps they've got it the wrong way around? An increase in levels of depression causes people to up the time they spend on social media - for consolation or some other reason, possibly.

It's extra important that you don't listen to random complains about Michiru's route. Do not fall into that trap.

Honestly I recommend doing the Makina route first since it's practically the Yuuji route and serves as the best introduction of his backstory and circumstances. And it helps to fully understand that for the other routes. But you already did Sachi's route so... welp.

@TheDeadApostle You should take note of this part of the critique. You tell far too much in your text, and you don't write in a way which allows you to get away with it. Because of this your narration comes across as dull Eh, I wasn't going to comment but you're in danger of dismissing some good advice so I'll expand on it a little. The biggest area you need to improve is building an atmosphere. You generally do this by showing (there are exceptions.) Allow me to demonstrate the extent of your use of 'tell' by pasting some paragraphs and underlining all the 'tell' within. Yes, I underlined all of it ... except for the guy's name. I'll pull up a different paragraph: Before you say anything, observe I didn't underline the word 'her' So, substantial no? Because you heavily rely on the use of tell, and exposition (and a tense battle scene isn't really the time or place) you can’t build an atmosphere. You could show the reader her magic is unsuitable through dialogue or through some magical attempts of hers, you could show the reader how his arm was injured, you could show the reader how the homunculi were combat oriented through details of their tactics and the ease with which they take control of situations, and you could show the reader the matchup was bad through description of the scenario. Showing the homunculi's sharp hearing by having them react to the light cough would have made things more real for the reader. There would have been an image in the reader's mind to match the conclusion you draw, and this would make the scene more vivid, more real. Without this piece of imagery, you’re just throwing conclusions out to the reader, which is what telling is. Showing is building a scene and allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions through the experience you’re giving them. No, you don't have to explain everything in the first setting, some mystery is good. In fact, there's too much exposition going on. Show is interesting, tell is boring. But the way you categorise people and things without showing them, and this is a problem of yours which extends to some pretty funky adverb and adjective abuse, kinda half-explains things to the audience and half doesn't. I just wouldn't go there at all until you can devote some proper time to it, and like I said the middle of a battle scene is not the time or place. Stuff like 'conventional female sorcerer' which then leads into a small piece of exposition into what she can and can't do just isn't cool. Instead 'show' a little of what she can and can't do in the opening scene, and expand on it later on, in a different one, when you can do it justice. Also 'ruthless' combat homunculi? Ruthlessness can be shown by what they've done, so drop that also. You don't even need to tell people it's 'Grand Capitol' library, a description of the library probably would have sufficed and introducing it as Grand Capitol in the next scene could have been better. Velociraptor's point about dumping 6 different terms in the one paragraph can be eliminated through more use of show, and less use of tell and exposition. So, yeah, 'telling' is what you first need to work on. As in it should be reduced. Probably substantially. Good luck

I don't buy into the idea that pornographic sex scenes enhance romance. What it does do is deliver a certain kind of cathartic gratification as they deliver a sort of payoff for the buildup that came before. Standard charage h-scenes are cheap way to deliver a climax for a relationship arc, one that requires little thought or creativity. Other kinds of h-scenes in non-nukige titles, such as rape scenes, instead are a rather cheap and uncreative way to evoke sympathy or anger from the readers. This post sounds judgemental as all hell, but really, I have come to enjoy the unique formula of relationship-building and sexual payoff that eroge offers. However, I am under no illusion that these elements offer some kind of depth that can't be provided elsewise, nor are h-scenes usually the best way to accomplish what they ultimately aim to do. Instead, they've ended up scratching an itch many of us have come to have, and I suspect it's the same kind of itch that readers of erotic fan fiction have, except they deliver that payoff within the original story itself. As for the words MG used in their interview, they can't just say "a handful of porn scenes doesn't actually devalue the entire work" when you consider the sheer number of people who feel exactly that. These people aren't exactly lying to us when they say that a single pornongraphic scene can poison the entire well. You can't just say "NO, YOU'RE WRONG!" when most people probably think that way and will never change that way of thought. This even goes for most otaku. You gotta respect their feelings on the matter and find ways to serve them instead. I wonder how many potential customers MG has lost after they've stumbled onto their site and saw what it contains? For all the shit we give SP, the division of all-ages and 18+ brands was a really smart move, and is something I've been saying MG should do for years.

This list won't feature the VNs in order of "how good they are". Rating them would be way too much of a clusterfuck to me. The VNs are not in their respective order. Meaning number 1 is not the best, and so on. 1_CHAOS; HEAD 2_Cross Channel 3_G-Senjou no Maou 4_Fate/Stay Night 5_Forest This Visual Novel is the easiest visual novel translated to get a bad ending without using a walkthrough- which just adds to the fun of it. It makes a massive amount of references to common literature, which makes it even better. 6_Katahane It may seem like an ordinary moege- the atmosphere is light, the story is full of cuteness, which you can note by the character design and soundtrack. It gets really good in the middle, and you'll be dying to know what happens in the end. A game with multiple perspectives, it's definitely one of the most enjoyable Visual Novels I've ever read. 7 Majikoi 8_Little Busters! 9_Tsukihime "You shouldn't tell lies that you can't even fool yourself with" 10_Swan Song A post apocalyptic Visual Novel. 11_Symphonic Rain It may seem like your ordinary moege. Trust me, it's not. 12_Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo (and sequel) 13_Sekien no Inganock Steampunk. An atmosphere full of mysteries and references that will make your head blow up. 14_Steins; Gate A visual novel that deals extensively with time travel and it's consequences. 15_Utawarerumono 16_Fault: Milestone (1 & 2) 17_Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni 18_Kara no Shoujo 19_Umineko no Naku Koro ni 20_Planetarian 21_Ever 17 Another top 10. 22_Remember11 It lacks in the ending, but otherwise the story of this VN has enough to easily become one of my all-time favorites. 23_Zanmataisei Demonbane 24_Rewrite "Could it possibly be rewritten, this fate of hers?" Another one that enters the top 10. 25_Narcissu 26_Grisaia no Kajitsu 27_Saya no Uta Only if you enjoy dark and messed up settings. 28_Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni 29_Eien no Aselia 30_Rose Guns Days (1 & 2) There are small sections of gameplay on this one, but you can skip them by pressing the space bar, so this still qualifies. 31_Sengoku Rance I feel obliged to comment on this VN before suggesting it to anyone. It's an Alicesoft title, which speaks a lot for itself... If you don't know how it's going to be like, well.. Kind of tough to describe. Lots of sex, including comedy rape. Alicesoft tends to make the whole story a comedy until right near the end, where things actually do get serious. It's worth checking out, if you don't mind Rance's personality. 32_Phenomeno Want a short VN that can captivate you for their whole duration? Here is it. Visual novel adapted from the youth horror novel written by Hajime Ninomae and illustrated by yoshitoshi ABe. 33_Ef- A Fairy Tale of the Two 34_Dysfunctional Systems Another one great for those who want short Visual Novels. 35_Daibanchou Another Alicesoft title. While Rouga is not near Rance's level when it comes to pissing off people, alicesoft's style is something which often doesn't please people. 36_Yume Miru Kusuri The endings pack quite a punch. 37_Kikokugai- The Cyber Slayer 38_Eden 39_Hoshizora no Memoria 40_Katawa Shoujo Yep, it's somewhat overrated. Still, the fact that it is substantially easier for those who are starting to play visual novels to read should not be discarded, and overall, the story was good. 41_World End Economica 42_YU-NO 43_Shikkoku no Sharnoth Yep, there is a minigame on this one. If you download a save data you can skip the minigame, though. So it still qualifies. Another VN that enters my top 10. 44_Muv Luv Alternative The first Muv Luv didn't have enough to enter this list. You should still read it, though~ MLA is definitely awesome. 45_Dangan Ronpa 46_Comyu - Kuroi Ryuu to Yasashii Oukoku 47_Hanachirasu 48_Ayakashibito 49_I/O 50_Deardrops

Some people here already know that I hurt my knee falling down the stairs a while ago... what most of you don't know is that the stuff they have me on (non-narcotic pain drugs, sleep pills, and antibiotics) in combination make me a zombie for most of the day... I sleep around twelve hours a day, am fuzzy for two to three hours more, have to do rehab exercises for another two hours, and I spend around four hours of what is remaining working. Needless to say, this doesn't leave much time for anything else... which is why VN of the Month is so far behind. Normally, by this point I would have played through at least four or five of the month's VNs, and I would probably be considering which one - if any - was worth the VN of the month rating... as it is, it has taken me a little over seventeen days to finish just two VNs from April's releases. I'm basically venting my frustration right now... since I lose money with every day I can't work at full capacity and I go a little more stir crazy with every day I can't go out and get some fresh air without using crutches. For the first time in almost nine years, I actually had to use up my entire pay for a month for bills and food (the medical bills being the highest, obviously). Needless to say, I'm in a sour mood. If I seem harsh toward the remaining VNs this month, please forgive me. It is really, really hard to concentrate outside of work right now... and I'm actually having to reconsider a lot of my plans for the rest of the year based on the costs I project for the rest of the next few months. Nothing pisses me off more than being unable to rectify everyday money problems (which is why I work so much normally).... Anyway, that's enough moaning from me for now. The two key points are that the above are the reasons VN of the Month is so far behind and I so rarely post, despite the fact that I'm technically 'online' (I rarely if ever shut down the fuwanovel tab, lol) all the time. If I'm slow to respond, it is because I'm not myself, not because I'm not interested in doing so.

There’s no getting around it. If you’re looking to edit visual novels, at some point you’re going to have roll up your sleeves, put on the rubber gloves, and get elbow-deep in some H. The good news is that if you come prepared, practice your technique, and set some clear boundaries, it can be a pleasurable experience for both you and the reader. First, a disclaimer: I don’t like pineapple on my pizza, and I don’t like H-scenes in my VNs. It’s not a prudish thing; it’s a narrative thing. They’re rarely well crafted — you can feel all the hallmarks of the B-team being brought in to write them — and they almost never add plot/characterization that couldn’t have been handled better some other way. (I’ll pause here so you can mention Amane’s route from Grisaia, an exception that helps prove the rule.) Let’s be honest: they’re shoehorned in to help sell product. It’s built into the economics of the eroge genre. And honestly, that’s fine. I try to be sanguine about it and think of H-scenes as banner ads or TV commercials. They’re profit centers that help support the content I’m actually interested in. (I suspect more than a few developers feel the same way.) Long story short, H-scenes ain’t going anywhere. So how do we deal with them? Go in with a game plan. [Warning, there will be some NSFW language from this point forward. Sorry! It’s all part of seeing how the sausage is made.] 1. Do your research In raw translation, sex scenes from a Japanese visual novel tend to be far from erotic. More often than not, they read like an obsessively detailed transcript of a gynecological exam. That’s not because the Japanese writing team suddenly forgot they were supposed to be penning a passionate sex scene. It’s just that what’s erotic in one culture isn’t always as erotic in another. It’s your job (along with the translator) to help bridge that cultural divide and come up with something that feels faithful to the original, yet still sexy in English. Your first stop? Research. Read some English-language erotica so you can get a better sense of what works and what doesn’t. Sites like literotica.com even have stories broken out into fairly specific categories, so if you know you’ll be editing BDSM, threesome, and footjob scripts, you’ll have no problem finding what you need. (If you have all three in a single scene, you still might be in luck.) There’s also a category called “First Time,” which is more broadly useful, given how fixated many VNs are on virgins. Read, read, and read some more. Pay attention to the verbs, the nouns, the pacing. Try to quickly form a model of what makes a sex scene successful, then look to carry those techniques over to your VN script. 2. Pack a box lunch If you take nothing else away from this post, remember this: bring a big bag of dicks; you’ll need them. Better pack a few pussies while you’re at it. By the time you’ve edited your third or fourth H-script, you’ll find you’ve run dry of good synonyms for the male and female genitalia. In KoiRizo, the raw script mostly used the word "thing" for the protag’s package, which ended up sounding childish and/or ambiguous in English. (I only kept it in a few instances where such a reaction might be appropriate — for example, when the route partner catches her very first glimpse of Lil’ Protag: “Is that your ... thing?”). The remainder of the original script was a mix of the clinical ("my mucous membrane”) and the hilarious (“my soiled meat stick”). As for ladyparts, the original script relied heavy on metaphor and indirect reference — lots of openings, entrances, gates, doors, depths, special places, overflowing pots of nectar, etc. So what’s missing from the above? The common English erotica standbys: “dick” and “cock” for men, “pussy” for women. There’s a reason for that. KoiRizo complicated things by using the Japanese equivalents of these very sparingly, reserving them mainly for shock effect in dialogue — “e.g., OMG, she just said ‘cock!’ Things must be getting real.” Moreover, when these words were finally hauled out, the devs bleeped the VO and censored the text string (e.g., “p*ssy”). That meant it was very obvious when those words were being used and when they weren’t. All of which presented quite a challenge to the team: if we were to preserve those “shocking” character moments, we couldn’t use the most common English terms 99% of the time. And so, I fell back on a shortlist of alternate references: pole, rod, erection, hard-on, manhood, etc. By the time I was done editing, however, this list felt far too limited; those words were overused pencils worn down to their nubs. This is one of those areas where, in hindsight, I feel like I could have done a better job with KoiRizo. The takeaway: If I ever tackle a VN this H-heavy again — doubtful — I’ll come packing a much longer list of euphemisms. 3. Bring a raincoat Compared to its English counterpart, Japanese erotica seems downright obsessed with fluids: saliva, vaginal secretions, semen, urine — you name it. The look, the sound, the feel, the taste, the smell, the volume. You’ll be describing a lot of liquids in a lot of ways, so get ready to break out the thesaurus. And an umbrella. 4. Embrace the improbable Let’s admit it: VN sex is over-the-top ridiculous. In a matter of seconds, sheepish virgins turn into seasoned pornstars, cramming 20 orgasms and 40 positions into a quickie broom closet hookup. (Oh so much cramming.) This is the nature of the genre, so don’t fight it; embrace it. Trying to force realism onto a typical H-scene would be like trying to force realism onto a Dragon Ball Z fight: everyone still looks constipated, but no one’s having any fun. If you’re that desperate to edit sadly mundane sex scenes, wait for the VN version of Michael Winterbottom’s 9 Songs to come out. Till then, work with what you have. I remember a tiny dustup a while back when another TL team supposedly wrote lubricant into an H-scene because they felt the acts described would be difficult or painful without it. It’s a minor thing, but if the original writer left the lube out, I’m inclined to do so too. These portions of the script are wish fulfillment at their best/worst, so just leave them be. Except ... 5. Reject the impossible ... Except when the improbable becomes the impossible. More often than not, this is either the result of a mistranslation or an error by the original writers. (As an example of the latter, KoiRizo was haunted by an entity we dubbed “phantom Riho.” A couple of times, the devs would forget they were writing another girl’s scene and use Riho’s name for a line or two instead. We fixed this in our version, but still ...) Anyway, as editor, it’s your job to keep an eye out for the impossible. Is the protag’s penis simultaneously in someone’s vagina, anus, mouth, and ear? Did the heroine’s hymen suddenly regenerate? (Starfish Girl is mah waifu!) Did a corded vibrator suddenly become a battery-operated one? Ask to have the TL double-checked and, if that still doesn’t resolve the issue, use your best judgement to fix the error while causing minimal disruption to the surrounding lines. 6. Set your limits This is important. Know what you’re comfortable with going into a project and make those boundaries abundantly clear. Some VNs can venture into very unpleasant territory — rape, abuse, gore, catgirls, etc. — and it’s best to ask yourself up front if you could, in good conscience, commit to editing that sort of content. Set your limits early on, then make sure your team’s fully aware of them. 7. Have a sense of humor At the end of the day, VNs are entertainment. Unless you’re editing Saya no Uta 2: Vom Harder, it’s probably okay to approach your H-scripts with a subtle sense of play. A decent chunk of your audience will either be fast-forwarding through these scenes outright, or paying far more attention to the visuals than the script. So think of these times as exhibition games in your script editing schedule. They’re opportunities to spread your wings a little bit, try a few stylistic experiments — maybe even slip in a sly joke or two. And even if everything doesn’t quite work, we’ll still respect you in the morning.

If you have not solved your problem yet, I have made an Unpacker/Packer for Rosebleu's dat files that you can download here : https://mega.nz/#!gxczBaCb!hPr10WGs3NF-YQXwWS7JoHQfXdarxZRMHvh4DbQS5HM I could only test it on one game, so tell me if you have any issue with it.

For everyone who liked the recent 'Gate' anime ('Thus the JSDF fought here', not 'Steins Gate',) the novel '1632' by Eric Flint is free on the Kindle. Definitely worth a read and it's the same sort of thing/fun

Fixed, "other" should be available now, thanks for the heads-up! If I miss something else, please tell me as it's my first attempt at a proper development cycle.

Aoishiro is throughly average... It's pretty fun and the lead is kinda cute, but it's not something I'd suggest to most people. Dengeki Stryker... Ugh. Overdrive. It could potentially be good, I guess, depending on how you enjoy their style. I personally can't stand it, but to each their own. Duel Savior... Hm. The protagonist is a pervert. In our world, he kept switching from girlfriend to girlfriend with no end, much to his sister's displeasure. He's also a bit of an idiot - He's quite cool when it counts (fight scenes) and he doesn't get rolled over by the heroines, so I actually like him. The routes get progressively better, but a lot are locked and you have to play them in a certain order, the first ones are either bad or average... The last few ones are pretty nice, though. Do these things annoy you? If so, you shouldn't play it. It has a pretty fun gameplay system that doesn't interfere with the game too much but you can sink time into if you want to, too.

She started the banter, I just feel bad for making it unnecessarily awkward

That's really nice, I love it.

Damn, that is one sexy dragon king.

I should load the final version since i only did it in my main. @starlessn1ght @Asonn @Soulless Watcher @DarkZedge @Valmore @Kiso @Zebhra

Literally me a few weeks ago, though editing instead of translating. You're also going to want a half dozen or so good euphemisms for boobs (and dicks, I was going to say, but actually I guess not in your case... a small mercy), and probably you should read some erotica originally written in English to set a baseline of expectations and what sounds natural: http://www.literotica.com/. Also, read this:

We didn't A-bomb them for this

This is more a mystery, but i has a fair ammount of romance https://vndb.org/v3126 And if u haven t played Katawa shoujo, u should play that too.

Here are the price increases: First Zone (Asia): 300 yen Second Zone (North America, Middle and Near East, Oceania): 500 yen Second Zone (Europe): 400 yen Third Zone (South America, Africa): 300 yen This is in additional to weight calculation. These are minimum prices.

Well ... There is this. https://vndb.org/v945 Oh and if you are okay with yuri, then this is good, though short. https://vndb.org/v8527 (And it's kind of a nukige.)

Could use more gold around the shoulder area.

>SECOND I used to hate having my hair cut, but not so much anymore Next person likes painting

Please give us something to work with. What kind of VN are you looking for? Help us narrow down things down, because the list of possible recommendations is huge. Most translated VNs are either charage or chuuni. Otherwise, my suggestion is to go here and work your way from the top down: https://vndb.org/v/all?q=;fil=olang-ja.tagspoil-0;rfil=type-complete.lang-en.released-1;o=d;s=rating (except for cases where sequels are rated hgiher than previous games)

I'm playing nothing cuz there's so much shit coming next week. FE: Fates, Total War: Warhammer, and Overwatch (although this one will probably be just to play with friends).

Naruto is actually a really good story, but it's not delivered well in its anime form because of all the filler. Imho anybody is better off reading the manga.

Don't need a signature just wanted to say yours is great

Who is that? I think I might agree with you Also welcome! Hope you enjoy your stay

Pro-tip: Don't do Yumiko and Michiru's routes back to back, they will probably make you want to hit your head against a wall. Space them out between Sachi, Amane and Makina's routes so they're less annoying.

If you need aids with translation there is Translation Aggregator: http://www.hongfire.com/forum/showthread.php/94395-Translation-Aggregator?p=3648894#post3648894 This has been indispensable for me, mainly for the JParser support, which has helped remove a lot of the tedium when looking up unfamiliar words in a passage of text. You can use it to send text to machine translators if you want.

Fuck it all

お年を召されて Gotten old あなたは、いえあなたの血族 You, no, your blood relatives (not the other way around that you have it).

You are evil and I will hire a Dutch hooker to kick you in the shins via PayPal. Don't take that seriously, we all know Dutch hookers only take Bitcoin anyway.

That's fine.

☑ Necro post ☑ Kind of annoying ☑ Words are wind, Jon Snow Can you please not?

That isn’t to say you shouldn’t tell, authors always combine bits of tell with bits of show, but you ‘tell’ far too much. And you exposition too much. It reads a little like a light novel, in parts. You need to fine a balance, but until you do the safest method is to err on the side of ‘showing more’. It’s one of the pieces of advice most often handed out because people always like to abuse 'Tell' in inappropriate ways. (Ew.) I would also advise you to read a lot more English books (don’t read light novels, some people think they count but they don’t,) and to meditate (like a Sith Lord, don’t forget the lightsaber) about techniques used.

Well, no, they won't spend a ton of money on a "decent marketing campaign" if they can't expect to earn that money back. That would just be stupid. If they could expect to make that money back, then I'm sure they would happily do it, who doesn't like more money? But are you suggesting that they should just throw money in the garbage because they can? I'm sure the backers would like it more if they spent that money on something more tangible, or at least not on a potential boondoggle like a marketing campaign. They'll probably pay for a few banners ads here and there and produce a promotional trailer or two. I'm not sure how much more you're expecting. Although I get the feeling that you are underestimating the costs of literally everything involved here. Reward fulfillment is surprisingly expensive. This is the one thing that shocks most indie devs who use kickstarter. They plan out and budget for reward fulfillment and then suddenly it's literally twice as much as they expect and is the biggest cost in their entire KS. I have seen this happen enough times to be convinced that most of that extra $400k will actually be spent on reward fulfillment and they won't have much left over at all. They also upped the scale of retranslation considerably from when they originally budgeted the kickstarter, increasing their localization costs by a large amount. Before, you get the sense that it was just going to be a dude or two breezing through the scripts before giving them the okay, and now it's a very extensive process involving many people.

I suppose. Wouldn't want you to start stalking me now. Thankfully I did manage to get out of that wretched house. My grandma was becoming more aware of the desperate situation that my aunt was keeping my mom and I in, so she decided to take the both of us (and my sister) in. I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but there was a little bit of drama between my mom and the old guy that was living with my grandma (they aren't married), but because grandma was being more generous with rent than my aunt, my mom was able to save up and move out with my sister shortly after. My mom agreed that my staying back with grandma would have been for the best. Not just for my mental health either; she thought it was time to stop depending on me for so many things. So now I'm living with significantly less stress, my group therapy has helped me address a lot of the issues I've had with anxiety, and I'm just about ready to get my life on track. With my service in the military, I not only get to go to college for free, but I receive a stipend if I take a certain number of classes and keep my grades up. I've never had any difficulty with my grades in k-12, so it shouldn't be a problem for me.

HOLY FUCK HOLY MOTHER OF FUCKING FUCK I'M THE FIRST IN THE TERM FOR ENGLISH IN THE SECOND SEMESTED I DID IT I ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING IN ACADEMICS

Welcome, esteemed new user yasuokirito Amagami Kira☆Kira Hoshizora no Memoria Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki Noble Noodle Works Osananajimi wa Daitouryou Kono Oozora ni, Tsubasa o Hirogete See ya around

I use to think the way you do, but it makes zero sense from a business prospective. The only vns that are guaranteed to have a following in the west are obviously the ones that are already translated. Do you honestly think that a relatively unknown vn would make the same money as MuvLuv or Grisaia on kickstarter? Granted many would probably succeed, but why take that risk when you have a guaranteed payday with a larger title. There are obviously some other factors that you should consider the successes of these kickstarters can influence what future projects are localized. VN companies may use them to gauge the level of interest the west has for visual novels in general. For example, due to the massive success of the MuvLuv kickstarter it has been strongly hinted that other titles such as Schwarzesmarken will be localized in the future.

A general rule of thumb is if you can remove the sex scenes without impacting the story, then you don't really have an erotic story rather porn scenes within a story. These obviously don't include those novels which are all about the sex. An erotic story tends to be one where the sex scenes are actually important to the story. I agree that MG did go a little over the top in its defense of sex scenes. The idea of 'sharing' and 'compromise' is also an important part of personal relationships and character development, but a 20 minute long scene depicting (in detail) the husband pattering around the house doing the household chores isn't exactly riveting reading. Which is the crux of the matter - scenes within a story are there to service the story, not character relationships or character growth. Stories should contain those qualities within them, but in a manner which enhances the story, not in a separate 5/10/20 minute scene which achieves very little if anything at all (unless the story doesn't have a story.) Just my 2c on the matter. MG makes the distinction between 'eroge' and 'nukige', but they fail to make the distinction between actual erotic stories and stories with a few porn scenes sprinkled in. They say eroge can have quality story and character development, but the different between erotica and stories with porn scenes (imo, and one or two editors I've talked with) is whether the sex scenes are meaningful to the story. And no, reinforcing character relationships with a 15 minute "ah ... uh" session isn't being meaningful to the story. But anyway, I don't have anything against sexy fiction, I consume them in book form and VN form (I have about 20 erotic/porn novels on the Kindle as well as my VN collection,) but I definitely realise the potential for sex scenes to detract from a story. Basically when I consume sexy VNs it's in the form of an RPG, or something with little plot. When I'm in the mood to read something serious, and I come across a sex scene jammed in the middle, I'm always tempted to jam down the ctrl key. Usually because they're stuck in haphazardly. Just my philosophy.

Planetarian, tbh.

Why would you play a KEY VN when the glorious Snow is out there waiting for you!?

My high school life was kinda like an anime in certain regards (also kind of like a VN). I spend my free time in school (lunch and free-periods) mostly chilling with my good friends (still hangout with them today when I can), playing card games, making fun of each other, helping each other with school work. In this way, my life was a slice of life comedy. But additionally, a decent amount of girls were interested in me. So I also had to balance out attention from certain females and decide whether I wanted to pursue them or not. The main conflict of this anime I suppose was the decision to maintain my simple life hanging out with friends and doing school work, or to complicate my life by getting involved in the world of females. Needless to say, at the time I wasn't quite ready for relationships and the like, so I chose hanging out with my friends over girls. As a consequence of this, I often pretended that I didn't know that certain girls were interested in me, intentionally acting like the dense-protagonist, since I didn't want to face the drama of rejecting anyone. In retrospect it was kind of an asshole-ish thing to do. Also, most high-school anime takes place in Tokyo I think. And similarly I'm from New York City, and the High School I went to also required an application process where you had to do well enough on a test to get admitted (a lot of good NYC high schools are like this, just like good Tokyo high schools).

I disagree. Those people have social lives with other faceless characters and whatnot. If you're anything like me, you're one of those background loners. Before the handsome, social and benevolent main character graces the loner with his presence and forces him to partake in increasingly harder social tasks until he gets completely brainwashed into becoming one of the mindless teenagers in the main character's social group. All this, of course, before the anime airs. And it eventually gets cancelled whilst in production. It never airs. That's our role.