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Here's Megumn, encouraging everyone to spam and of course explosions Made by yours truly, of course

Well, as it says on the tin, this week I mangaed to reach the 90%-mark. This is pretty good news, as now there's just one last push for this game to be fully translated. I'm pretty excited. Anyways, this update is going live one day before the normal because of VNTS. Other than that, some slight editing progress was made, but sadly no QC progress. Other than that, I'll be gone for almost a week with my family, starting next Monday and I'll return late Sunday, so there most likely won't be an update next week, unless I manage to make a mini-update on Sunday or Monday. This of course depends on if I'm fast enough to do such a thing and/or am just lazy or not. Progress: Translation: 7/8 script files finished, 8th script file 37,7% completed (~90%) Editing: 9,9% QC: 3,1% Proofreading: 0% Later!

A couple blog posts back, I argued that the story exploration game Gone Home can be considered a visual novel. After some great discussion there, it seemed only logical to tackle the much bigger question: “What is a visual novel? Which is why I’m not going to. That’s a spike-filled, snake-infested pit of a question if I ever saw one — and I already had spikes and snakes for breakfast. Instead, we’re going to attempt to answer a more nuanced question: “What are the minimum requirements something must meet in order to be usefully discussed as a visual novel?” That’s a slightly different but way more useful angle. Just about anything can be used as a chair, but not everything is a “chair.” As a society, we’ve agreed on a certain set of characteristics that chairs share in common. This lets us discuss chairs with one another and be pretty sure we won't be given a pineapple to sit on. We’ll do the same here. But for the sake of brevity, we’ll shorthand that question back down to “What’s a visual novel?” It’ll be our little secret. The VNDB standard The most obvious place to start looking for answers would be The Visual Novel Database (VNDB), home to info on more than 18,000 VNs. Here’s their answer, found in the VNDB FAQ: As a working definition, this leaves a lot to be desired. There are an awful lot of cans, mays, typicals, and usuallys. Worse yet, you could easily dream up a VN that meets almost none of the assumptions laid out here — perhaps an extremely short text-based story in which the words run around the outside of a woodcut illustration. There’s absolutely no background music and the player answers no questions, which results in the same plot every time she plays. A somewhat more satisfying answer can be found in VNDB’s list of requirements that titles must meet before being added to their database. For something to qualify as a visual novel: Better, but still somewhat problematic. For one thing, it conflates the commonly accepted with the essential. What if someone wants to present a story in a manner other than ADV (text in box below image) or NVL (text overlaying image)? What if they thought of a more innovative configuration of text + art? Tough luck, Billy; go suck eggs in the corner. (They don't seem to strictly enforce this, by the way. Digital: A Love Story is on VNDB, even though it eschews both ADV and NVL for a diegetic presentation.) Moreover, these guidelines can’t seem to decide if no gameplay is allowed at all, as the first two sentences suggest, or if up to 1% simple gameplay is okay. A title can also be added to the database if it’s a “visual novel/game” hybrid that meets the following requirements: Again, problematic. The ADV/NVL issue is still there, of course, but now a new wrinkle’s been added: the privileging of narrative over dialogue. The assumption here is that a novel can’t consist entirely (or almost entirely) of dialogue, so a title that doesn’t “consistently” rely upon a formal narrator doesn’t qualify. In truth, there are any number of novels that take this form — The Awkward Age by Henry James, for one. Besides, if Key suddenly dropped a 50-hour all-dialogue school drama that looked and played exactly like Clannad, do you doubt for a second that we'd all consider it a VN? Or that FuwaReviews would give it one star? But I don’t blame VNDB. They’re not looking to define the visual novel. They’re just trying to set up some semi-reasonable guidelines to help streamline their submission process. Without this, every staffer there would probably be eating gun-barrel sandwiches for lunch. Fine. Let’s build something better. I’ve sketched out the beginnings of a more general-purpose test for discussing something as a visual novel. I don’t consider this to be at all authoritative, and in fact, I invite you to critique it and build upon it in the comments below. It’s a starting point, nothing more. A 7-point test for visual novels 1. It must be “read” on a digital device that outputs to a screen. Fairly self-explanatory. Computers, consoles, handhelds, phones, e-readers — hell, even a smart watch would qualify. A printed VN would be considered a graphic novel (or a choose-your-own-adventure book). An audio file of a VN would be an audiobook. 2. It must convey a recognizable narrative. Again, fairly self-explanatory. A VN must be a spoken or written account of connected events. In other words, it needs to tell a story, fictional or otherwise. The entirety of the Detroit phone book displayed in Ren’py is not a VN, even if it’s accompanied by a whole chorus line of catgirls. 3. It must use on-screen text as the primary avenue for conveying that narrative. At the heart of any VN is the act of reading — eyes looking at words and turning them into meaning. If any significant portion of the story is delivered as voice-over or action without on-screen text, it isn’t a visual novel. Watching Game of Thrones on your laptop with subtitles doesn’t suddenly turn it into a VN. 4. It must have visuals paired with that narrative. A visual novel must have visuals. Crazy talk, right? It doesn’t matter if those visuals are 8-bit pixel art, hand illustration, 3D renders, photography, or video. Ideally, these images would be germane to the narrative, but even that’s not technically necessary. Having unrelated images wouldn’t keep something from being a VN; it would just make it a *bad* VN. 5. It must be authored. In other words, the story must be an act of creative intention by its author(s). A VN cannot rely upon sandboxes, emergent gameplay, or similar mechanisms to generate its narrative arc (though they may be used to flavor it). Such experiences, while highly interesting, result in something other than a novel. 6. Reading must comprise the majority of one’s experience with the title. This one gets tricky, because it cuts deep to the heart of another unresolved question: “Is a visual novel a game?” For the purposes of this discussion, I’d suggest there’s a continuum that looks roughly like: not a VN >> game w/ some VN qualities >> game/VN hybrid >> VN w/ some game qualities >> VN Roughly past the halfway mark, we can usefully consider something to be a visual novel for terms of discussion. Below that, we can consider it a game but usefully discuss its VN-like elements (or lack thereof). 7. It must offer a deliberately framed reading experience. This one’s a little tricky. Here’s the problem: a plain old Word doc containing a short story + embedded images could technically satisfy requirements #1 through #6, but we’d be hard-pressed to call that a visual novel. I’m still tweaking the language for #7, but the general idea is that just as a film director frames a shot, controlling what the audience can see and hear at any given moment, so too does the creator of a visual novel. This is unlike our hypothetical Word doc, in which you could widen the window to see more text than intended, skip around the story out of order, scroll the window so that you can read a passage without seeing its associated art, etc. I briefly considered adding an eighth bullet point, but chose to leave it on the cutting room floor. Why did this get dropped? Well, I imagined a traditional novel that was rigged to turn its pages at pre-defined intervals. You can’t speed it up, you can’t slow it down; all you have is an on/off switch. Would that lack of agency suddenly keep this particular book from being a novel? I couldn’t think of a good reason why it would, so I removed the requirement. But I'm open to good arguments for bringing it back. Closing thoughts, for now You might note that I’ve avoided any mention of things like: story genre, branching narratives, art style, country of origin, sexual content, sound/music, etc. That’s by design. These things help inform what type of VN a title is, not whether it can be discussed as one. You might also note that my 7-point test would disqualify Gone Home from being considered a visual novel, invalidating my earlier argument. That’s also by design. Kill your darlings, amirite?

just do it for the tapestries, those naughty looking tapestries. i mean who´s able to resist having his wall plastered with a peeing(?) osananajimi, think about it! XD

This is a pretty good narrative between @Darbury and @Palas that I'm reading... on my computer screen... with the on-screen text matching their avatars... THIS ISN'T A BLOG! IT'S A VISUAL NOVEL!!!

I’ll agree with you and disagree with you. The first line is not 100% identical to the second. An ellipsis can be (ab)used to slightly alter the tone of a sentence, but only when it appears sparingly in a text. When every other sentence ends in an ellipsis, however, you lose that ability. When you highlight 80% of the lines in a textbook, you’ve done the opposite of highlight. Building off Rooke’s point, that ellipsis then needs to be paired with tight writing to achieve a desired effect. Throwing an ellipsis at the end of a line is like putting glass to a furnace. You’ve loosened the voice and created something pliable, but unless you rework it with a craftsman’s eye, all you end up with is a directionless inflection — and a shapeless lump of glass. (Which I suppose would be useful for hucking at Rooke’s head, but not much else.)

Ever since Sekai Project acquired the license for Maitetsu, there has been discussion, speculation and hope among the internet; "Sekai Project, will there be an 18+ version?". "Sekai Project, where is the adult version?". "Sekai Project, will we receive those hardcopies on time this go around?" and so on. But I - as well as many others - highly doubt that this will happen. Therefore, I am quite confident to announce the following bet: IF Sekai Project (not a fanbased translation group) confirms a full1 18+ version of Maitetsu at any point between now and the official release, I will change my current Avatar to one voted by community2. This is the one time chance for the community to break my status as an eternal user, who has not once changed his avatar. However, should I win the bet, everyone who bet against me will have to wear the TexasDice avatar for 1 week. Further rules: - 1Full means no content is left out. A partial adult release will not count. - 2Every User who bets against me, will add one week to my punishment, should I lose. (example: Should three people bet against me and win, I'll wear the punishment avatar for 3 weeks.) - In case of my loss, I'll gather suggestions for my punishment-avatar and let you decide which one to wear via Strawpoll. The suggestions can't break any Forum rules, keep that in mind. - Bets given after I lost obviously won't add to the punishment time. - [Placeholder for future Questions/clarification] Good gambling everyone. Participants: EDIT: The Sign Up period is over, FUTHER SUBMISSIONS WILL BE INGORED - Texas Dice August 2nd 2016

(this video is from the very beginning of 999) I believe the implication is evident. In case the pictures don't load: Just look at the newest tweets: https://twitter.com/Uchikoshi_Eng Fuck yes. FUCK. YES.

Nice. I'm actually talking about the hallucinogenic effect that red text has on me. I feel like I'm tripping out. Wheeeeee. ... But the definition is tops, too

umm... I hate to say it, but ninety-percent of the time, if you are playing a VN-rpg hybrid you need to know kanji to decipher the interface. There are interface patches for most Eushully games, but other companies' works don't, for the most part. Here are a few basic kanji that tend to show up in a lot of gameplay-hybrids. 攻 Generally can be seen as part of an attack-related stat 坊 Defensive-related 速 speed-related 運 luck-related 魔 magic-related 回避　Evasion, in most cases. In the case of the IM games, the first kanji gets tacked onto the attack and defense kanji from above for 'number of defenses and number of attacks', which is a unique stat from those games. Other than that, I can't really help you, since the variance is so wide.

Not looking forward much right now. The reason is that we still didn't knew what kind of improvement that Steam version of 999 will bring (Beside, if I want to play 999 instead of installing likely 2 or more GB games from Steam, I could just search DS Emulator and less than 500 MB 999 ROM). Unlike PSP emulator which it's quite complicated to operate to me, DS emulator was easier to operate so once again not looking forward to this too much. Unless Chunsoft will bring voice acting to 999, then maybe I could hope that we'll also got Zero Time Escape on Steam too and of course looking forward to this. Well, I think I'd rather wait and see about this for now.

[WARNING] [This entry has great amounts of spoilers from Miu's route, which you most likely haven't played, so if you wan't the best experience for the obvious best grill, turn around now. If not, go ahead and enjoy.] Miu is a so-called 'senpai' to Yuuto in their workplace. When Yuuto gets attacked in the very beginning of the VN, Miu feels responsible for this because she couldn't stop it and Yuuto got dragged to the ambush pretty much unnecessarily. Afterwards, Miu swears to protect Yuuto to right this wrong she did. Miu is pretty much a shy girl, hiding behind a wall of a 'experienced woman'. She's also listed as a Modern Tsundere, but I really don't see it that much in her. As I've said countless times already, Miu's route is my favorite, and the same goes for the heroine itself. Honestly, I realy didn't like the heroine, but this is the case for most of my favorite heroines in VNs. In the beginning, she just seems like a sadist tsundere, which was rather annoying, but when she really cared for Yuuto's sudden transformation to a vampire and that her 'sadist experinced woman' side was just an act, I started to warm up to her. What made her shine the most in the Common Route was how she acted when Yuuto saved Azusa from the speeding car, thus revealing his lycanthropy. The genuine emotion was something that was missing from the Common Route, and as such, shone through even more. This kind of behavior made her stand out from just a regular moe-blob heroine, and although heroines in Dracu-Riot aren't this kind of heroines, Miu stands out with actual character development in the very beginning. Needless, to say that she made the biggest expression on me. The start of Miu's route is pretty much the same as everyone else's. Some event triggers Yuuto and the heroine to get closer. In this case, the unfortunate conclusion that was in the Common Route, causes Miu to getting confused and sort of going to a boob-groping streak. I'm not even kidding, it's quite hilarious. Afterwards, after they conclude this, Yuuto asks Miu to go on sort of a date with Miu, to buy gifts for everyone, which causes more funny and rose-colored events to happen, like that one with a dressing booth. They also get put together to smoke out some criminals hiding in the shadows, so they have to act like a couple. This start of the route is pretty nice and fluffy, very well done for a moege. It also has those undertones I adore in VNs, no matter the genre. Miu and Yuuto's ever-growing consciousness of each other is really heart-warming to watch. Also Miu's reaction to these are something that you won't see that often, at least for me, that is. After these events, Yuuto starts getting conscious of his feelings for Miu, and proceeds to keep his distance, mostly because of his lychantropy. Their fake-couple acting is also getting taxing for Yuuto, so he's getting more and more akward by the minute and keeping his distance to Miu. Miu of course notices this, and gets more and more depressed. It all cluminates in an amazing kiss in an alleyway. Thye start dating right afterwards, but get one week of house-arrest for illicit behavior in work-hours. This final part before dating is, well, okay. I never liked this trope of getting farther and farther even if it's really, really obvious that they love eachother, but it was actually bareable. That might be because of Miu's fear for lychantropes was established in the Common Route, and as such there was legitimate reason for Yuuto's actions. That doesn't make it that much better, however. It was just okay, but the climax of this part was more than worth it. It felt very Miu-esque. You really can't describe it without reading the route yourself. The dating part is pretty good. The week-long house arrest is quite funny, as Miu's more than ready for them to become one, but Yuuto's just nerveous. So all they really do is hold hands. However, it all culminates with Miu staying home under the guise of being sick. She asks for Yuuto's room's key with the explanation of 'wanting to borrow manga', although she wants to find a reason why Yuuto hasn't done anything at all. In the truest reoge fashion, she ends masturbating while sniffing Yuuto's boxers. And of course Yuuto comes back when she's still masturbating, and thus the first H-scene happens. There's some normal couple-like events afterwards and another H-scene. This start and mid-part of the dating part is quite... different, if I say so myself, well at least the beginning-part is. It's been a while since I saw a scene like that in VNs. The following part though, is just your standart 'couples doing couple-like' things, which isn't bad in my opinion. They bring out Miu's somewhat special character out more. The two H-scenes present are amazing, I really did like them. Then the meat of the route begins to form, earlier on than other heroine's route's by far. How Yuuto gets kidnapped by the researchers who produce L and how that specific drug feeds the lychantrope genes, ultimately leading to Yuuto basically becoming a super-vampire, trashing everything and everyone. Only the combined efforts of Azusa, Miu and Hyouma can fell him. Also the way how Miu found where Yuuto was kept captive was touching, to say the least. Somehow hearing the screams of Yuuto's consciousness in her mind and chalking it up to 'power of love' is somehow cheesy and romantic at the same time. The after-effects of L and how it makes Yuuto's thirst for blood that much stronger makes Miu go jealous by just Yuuto feeling bloodlust and sexual arousal towards his fellow dorm-mates triggers the 3rd H-scene. All of this makes for a great meter on how much they long for and love each other. The date afterwards is your standart mushy-mushy lovey-dovey stuff, but I must say that the sound effects in this route are amazing. In the middle of the date they get called by Hyouma and hear that there's a riot outside of the school. This riot marks the finale of the route. Vampires have grown weaker and ill because of the lack of blood-packs distributed thanks to the drug L's own distribution in blood-packs in its own completely authenticated trade route. After Saya fails to quell the flames of the riot, the only way out of Aqua Eden, the monorail-bridge, gets blown to pieces by a so-called terrorist attack. This all especially lets Anna and Saya shine to their maximum potential, outshining Elina's route and Azusa's as well to some extent, which I can appreciate. This final part gives life to the rioters, introduces two new characters, Yuka and her mother, and establishes a brand-new villain, goverment's peace-keeping agency, who want to sink the artificial island in its entirety. Everyone works nicely together, be it Saya and the rioters, the dorm-mates all pulling together, or Yuuto and Miu. The point where Yuuto shields Yuka from the crashing warehouse, making everyone, humans and vampires, to work together manages to do something that no other route could, bringing in the problems of other more minor characters and thus making the more 'alive'. The ending too, was wonderful. Yuuto decides that he has to destroy the missile aiming towards Aqua Eden in an attempt to destroy it, not for his or Miu's own good, but for everyone's future on the island. The way it all gets resolved was fantastic, definitely deserving the title of best ending in Dracu-Riot! All in all, the route's great. There definitely is more effort put into this than say, Azusa's route, but the balance of everything, the icha icha, charactrr ane romantic development, the effort put in the side characters, the underlying themes and the grand finale is all that makes Dracu-Riot! my favorite moege and Miu my favorite route in moege. Thanks for reading my heroine impressions in Dracu-Riot!, review coming soon.

On the contrary, I pretty much hate any harem anime where there isn't actually a central love interest that wins out. If you're not going to go anywhere with the romance, then don't include romantic tension in the first place. That's just frustrating.

Translated lyrics always sound like arse when going between Japanese and English. To translate properly you’d need to be incredibly liberal, like ‘Ari no Mama de,’ which was a localised version of the song ‘Let it Go’ from Frozen. Both versions of ‘Ari no Mama de’ did incredibly well as a song, topping some charts if I remember correctly, yet look at the differences between the Japanese script and the English script. Which is pretty much what you need to do when you translate them, because doing it literally makes the song sound like arse. And if the song sounds like arse when you translate it, what’s the point if it’s only the OP? :S I suppose it'd be interesting for curious people to know kinda what they're singing about, but I doubt there'd be a huge call for it so what's the point? Anime companies do it and they're always terrible. I doubt many people sit there and reads the translated lyrics of an anime OP.

The people above have basically explained it by now. The second game does containt after routes that connects to the routes from the first game, however these are rather short, and feel a little unrelated to the main route in Meikyuu. The main route is about Yuuji's past, as well as the present, which is an alternate story where Yuuji never actually picked any one girl. The girls find out about Yuuji's past because of a certain ... event that has made them a little uncertain of who Yuuji actually is. Meanwhile, Yuuji himself is not present that much in the actual present time story. A big cliffhanger in the present time story leads into the third game. Rakuen does have a prologue route, which happens before Kajitsu, (it tells the story of how the girls all came to Mihama and ends right before Yuuji enters the school,) but the main route connects to the ending in Meikyuu and ends the series. There is no individual character routes, but instead an overall harem story that is the continuation of the Meikyuu grand route. If you compare the type of game Kajitsu was to Meikyuu and Rakuen, they are quite different in many ways, an in my opinion Kajitsu is 10x better. That being said, both the new games are very good, and are definitely worth a read. Lastly, like Decay mentioned, both the new games have a great deal of extra H-content. Basically, fan service for days.

The central route (the canon story) has the protagonist screwing all the girls and going through most or all the events of their paths in the first one. The second one contains after-stories for the first game's paths and a 'main path' which recaps the protagonist's past in detail and cuts off on a cliffhanger for the third, which is a kinetic novel that leads to the series ending.

The Malazan Book of the Fallen wasn't my thing (I dropped it part of the way through the second book, if I recall correctly), but it might be yours, Funya. It was pretty awesome at times, but overall a bit dark for my taste. Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn universe is pretty big, and still has a lot of growing to do, but it's very manageable because he isolates out the trilogies rather than making one sprawling epic sharing characters. On the other hand, his Stormlight Archive is going to be at that scale, and is going to be literally the best fantasy epic series ever made, but he's only finished two (amazing) books so far.

While I agree about almost everything written in this post, I just feel like one, important thing was omitted. It's all about proffesional editing of text. Also - in probably most of the cases it doesn't even matter if ellipsis is cut. But. There is something I used to call 'melody' of dialogues. Just look here: These are NOT the same sentences. Why? It's simple. If sentence is written with a single dot at the end, it sounds in your head, while you're reading it, with fast paced, 'strict' voice. But if you add ellipsis, it's no longer the same. Fast paced voice is gone, and you have kind of melancholic and/or bored voice in your head. Melody of this sentence is going lower in tones and longer in sounds near the end of that sentence. It's important in dialogues to keep that, because otherwise (especially in vns, when we have no narrator telling us things like 'he sound bored when he said that') we would not know how this dialogue suposed to look. To emphasize I'll write down some improvised dialogue. It's not hard to believe that those characters have 'their shit together' and without delay they're starting to work. But look at this: But here it's impossible to think that of character A. He sounds lazy, sounds bored, sounds like he don't want to do it. ("sounds" of course, in your head, while reading) I believe same thing was here: Fred added that ellipsis just to exagerate that sentence, to make it sound differently, sound less bright, less strict, more lazy. Am I right? So - it's important to keep ellipsis at the end oif sentences in dialogues, because they're dictates the rhytm and melody of voices.

I could rather count the ammount of vn's, which didn't dissapoint me on both of my hands... and that's circa 2010-2012. With our current worldwide trends, you get a few decent games a year at most; doesn't seem like it'll change anytime soon and definately not for the better.

You almost have to ignore Ikusa Megami 1 and 2... Zero is the best starting point for the series, lol.

For me the 2nd spoiler is empty... does this mean 3D nurse wear nothing?

If you're interested in the series enough, read the LN before watching the anime. The adaption doesn't do much justice to the protagonist, but it's fun to watch if you know him well enough from the source. It's one of my favorite books, too. Confession: I'm having a little bit of an identity crisis right now. I don't know if all of you have seen my post about it on Clephas' blog entry about gaming addiction, but I've recently given up on competitive gaming. Honestly, this is why I hate being depressed so much, it's nothing but a vicious cycle that takes more effort to cope with than it needs to. Looking back on it, I feel like I've always had a weak foundation for certain aspects of my life I could identify myself with. Whether it was sports, academics, or being the oldest and most appreciated child in the family, these things I once took pride in during my school years never lasted long afterwards. As with my enlistment, that part of me that I once identified with has since diminished since I got out. The thing that remained after that and up until now was competitive gaming. I felt like it was the only thing I could really put a lot of time and effort into, and I managed to get some great results because of it. However, there were a number of things associated with that aspect of my life that were keeping me from doing what I needed to. Having that lack of something that defined who I was is taking it's toll on me though, and I'm not having a lot of luck with deciding what I need to do next. I've tried looking at an article for dealing with identity crisis, but the steps I need to take in dealing with it seem overwhelming. On the plus side, I'm at least getting to know myself a little better.

hahahahahahahahhahah八は母八はjさhgf気じゃht類ｖのうぇｑｙふヴぃｎｙふいｖｌｍｊｙひおｂ；ｊぃｌｊｙべｌｊｙｈｆべｋｌｙじｌっいぇぶ no

I would buy a nukige title over an all age VN any day of the week. In fact I wouldn't buy an all age VN well... ever, no matter how good the story supposedly is.

edit: did I really just type all this warning wall of text ahead apologies. I definitely prefer JAST. Physical copies offered every time (with a download copy usually given as well), most of the events J-list or JAST show up Peter shows up and sometimes get wrapped up in talking with fans at his booth. His panels are often a lot more organized enjoyable and while question wise they sometimes can't answer everything the way you'd want (if he can give an answer he does). He's a professional which is a big difference from both mangagamer and sekai project panels that I've seen. They try to only release games fully uncensored which is something sekai project has yet to do for any of its japanese games (likely not their fault). Generally they also have good prices (at least in the U.S.) and a good variety. The main issue with JAST is the release schedule for games, the acquisitions, and the quality of translations are sometimes leaving much to be desired. I'm pretty sure a bunch of the people working for JAST are freelance with maybe a few actually working. I also get the feeling that they've not had the best of luck with partners. I also have to say the customer service while sometimes a bit slow is usually excellent. I'm expecting a few announcements this year and a few additional releases besides sonico but they definitely don't release quite as many games as the second best. Mangagamer on the other hand the only thing I have fully against is the lack of physical copies and the DRM. While they have definitely gotten better with that the recent issue with not giving steam keys with purchases and not doing physical editions (where they could put the steam keys and have no issues) definitely hurts in my eye. Their lineup of games has definitely gotten better over the years and their ability to release about one game a month is a very nice bonus the problem lies that they get games that are not top tier. The majority of Mangagamer's games are not anything special. They release more oelvn and nukige than good quality story driven games but like I said that is getting better. Especially recently I've been buying at Mangagamer more often now that the majority of their new games require no DRM. I have a huge stance against DRM and for the longest time the only way I bought their games was via physical copies. The problem here is that their physical copies are often limited runs and if I don't have money at a particular time there is always a chance that when I do have the money they will be out. They to my knowledge do not reprint titles nor have they gone back and gotten rid of DRM from everything which means some DRM still exists. They also are quite a bit more expensive for the better quality titles. I also have to praise their ability to keep us informed on titles they've announced. Allowing us to see where they are with each title is not just a good gesture to the community but is a good marketing strategy. Now people can predict when they will need to scrounge for a bit of extra dough (or take it from the grocery budget), this makes it more likely someone will be able to purchase their games. Like JAST the few times I have had to talk to customer service the service has been impeccable and the quickness at replying might actually be quicker than JAST. Both JAST and Mangagamer also take care of All Ages and Adult fans and release titles on both sides of the spectrum rather regularly. Honestly both are very good companies and while each will have an occasional spot of bad every so often generally they are both very good companies. Sekai Project: Oh boy this one. I may not have the most favorable of opinions on this company but I do appreciate them. It's thanks to Sekai Project that we even have the chance for official versions of certain titles and despite my dislike of how they go about their business they have spread visual novel awareness to more than regular visual novel fans. I would not go as far as to say they've made visual novels popular in the west but they have made them noticeable. Sekai Project generally releases pretty cheap games which is a plus as well however it has its fair share of problems as well. The lack of physical copies. The majority of all of their released games have been digital only or kickstarter physicals only. While business wise this is a sound method as a fan and collector it really annoys me. Sekai Project also has the bad habit of releasing only all ages titles and while they do have an adult spin-off website under denpasoft it's treated like a neglected child. Sekai Project's habit of releasing via kickstarter or indiegogo only if successful is also a real annoyance for those of us who expect acquisitions of licenses to mean they actually already have the rights to release the game. Sekai Project has made it possible for things like Clannad to release westward but has also caused a shift in the way japanese visual novel companies think about licensing. I imagine this hurts the chances of some big names coming to Mangagamer or Jast because they wanna try the kickstarter route. I see kickstarter as eventually not working as a means of funding projects and hopefully once this happens the japanese companies will try the normal way or will release titles themselves (with proper translators). Sekai Project has had a few failed kickstarters (or extremely delayed kickstarters) because they like to fund the little guy which is alright and good so long as the little guy does not fall through on his promise. Another big area of concern is that because the majority of their games are steam only they do not offer a way to get them outside of the Steam DRM which is really annoying for someone who wants a DRM-free game. Sekai Project is not the greatest of the visual novel companies but it's also not the worst either and despite most people's disatisfaction toward them it cannot be denied that Sekai Project has had a profound effect on the visual novel market in the west. Denpasoft: Technically a part of Sekai Project for the longest time denpasoft was ignored and even now is not overly hyped up. Denpasoft never has a panel or a mention at Sekai Project's visual novel panels at cons. It has a very limited selection of games the most of which are extremely short or were only added because of kickstarter. Going forward Sekai Project does not wish to release full games but rather only 18+ patches that you buy separate of the game. They don't seem to bother with trying to get titles mosaic free. Recent announcements have made them decide to try indiegogo for an adult title one of which they announced over a year ago (with no kickstarter/indiegogo...it was likely Karakara's fault this is now happening), they fail to release the higher quality titles with the 18+ content they were originally released with (G-Senjou), and they do not keep people well informed about the games in their lineup. They take no risks which business wise is probably a smart venture but is really irritating for those of us who are sick to death of funding via indiegogo/kickstarter. It is almost June and the last update on the website was back in February when they announced the removal of steam keys. They also seem to be having issues with having adult only titles and an actual payment processor which isn't their fault but is yet another thing that just isn't working. It does not help that because most of denpasoft's games were either from a kickstarter, available elsewhere, niche genre, or really short that people have a habit of pirating their games more than anyone else. Part of this likely comes from the bad rapport denpasoft has made with the fans. The change of the website from the original is a nice change but that was months ago and nothing new has been updated outside of a single release that may not have even gotten a news update. Sekai Project is essentially ignoring Denpasoft. I want to like Denpasoft as much as the others but until Sekai Project gives it the due attention it needs (which I do think will happen eventually) it's just going to be taking a backseat to the visual novel companies that do the same things better. Moenovel: The Black-sheep of visual novel localization companies. One of the worst releases of a popular visual novel yet. Censored for 12 year old french girls so they could play it. The translation was awful, the censorship was beyond simple sex/nudity, and the release was a joke. They've released a total of one game. If anything it did show what not to do with a visual novel release. It did however have a physical edition and did have a pretty decent record of keeping people informed about the release leading up to it. I think it would be incredibly smart of them to work with the current (does this exist still?) translators of the restoration patch and have them re-release the game without the cut content as they'd make some money from it but then that's unlikely as well. Nothing really worked about this release and it's considered quite possibly to be the worst of the vn localization companies. Honorable Mentions (verdict is still out): Degica (Muv-luv no idea on translation quality), Mikandi Japan (Libra of the Vampire Princess no idea on translation quality), NISA (released Danganronpa and Psycho-Pass vns), Aksys (blazblue, norn, virtue's last reward, hakuoki, fate/extra, sweet fuse), frontwing (nothing in house yet), and capcom (iffy translation for phoenix wright games but usually enjoyable nonetheless)