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Shinsou Noise is the first game by a new collaboration company called Azurite, which was founded as a joint effort by Silky's Plus and Liar Soft. In this case, Liar Soft provided the writing staff and Silky's provided the art and programming staff. It is also fairly obvious that the planning wasn't done by the Liar Soft team, given the general style of the story, which is more in line with my experiences with Silky's Plus (and thus lacks the annoying conventions Liar Soft usually indulges in). Anyway, this VN is a mystery VN, with the added element of a 'deduction game' that is part of the story. The deduction game fits into the story, where the protagonist, a reception-only telepath who can't control his abilities to any significant extent, figures out who committed a crime at a specific time and place. This game mechanic is... to be honest... not something I really enjoyed. I mean, it was fairly easy to figure out all but the sixth-chapter stuff without the walkthrough (I had to resort to the walkthrough for the sixth chapter, where things aren't multiple-choice and you actually have to type in the answer). However, to me the deduction game mechanic felt like it broke up the pacing of the game... perhaps it is because I prefer being a watcher over an active participant in mysteries, lol. There was one other element, which people will inevitably remark upon, that annoyed me.... it was yet another release that utilized the ladder-style story structure. What made it worse in this case was that you could feel the writers trying to make you hate that you picked anything other than the main path, and at the same time, they created a requirement for you to see the other endings before you could view the true one. I'm not going to rave this time, because I'm pretty emotionally exhausted right now. The story of this game is full of tragedies... including the big one that forms the basis for all the protagonist's actions in the main story. What's more, regardless which of the two final endings you choose on the main path, it still feels like you betrayed someone. There is no real sense of satisfaction that comes from completing this VN, at least for me... perhaps it is because I so quickly became fond of Sakura. Momo, the true heroine, is a true innocent... an absolutely-trusting mind who I found pretty much impossible to see as a heroine. Overall, this game will probably split people who read it wildly between those left feeling like I am right now and those who love it for the Japanese-style mystery... EDIT: As an addendum, I'm going to put in my two cents about this game's theme... ... to be honest, both teams were obviously taking waaaaay too much pleasure in hurting the characters from start to finish, without the salvation of this being an utsuge or a nakige. The actual heroine endings were all short and pathetic (literally pathetic) both in scope and in design. I felt actively insulted with the final two endings, which felt like an anticlimax after all that had come before. I don't know why they chose to finish things that way, but it left me feeling like I'd gone through all that vicarious suffering and striving for nothing.

It's been a while since a single VN burned me out completely, but Silverio Trinity managed it. That VN had many of the best elements of its predecessor, while being more balanced, having added unique soundtracks, and overall creating a mostly new experience that, while it didn't completely transcend the original, still managed to stand on the same plane. Unfortunately, it was a highly emotional experience, with a lot of excitement along the way... so I know I won't rate any VNs I play at this moment fairly, regardless of genre. As a result, I'm taking a week's break from my VN of the Month to recover my sanity, lol.

Visual Novel Translation Status (02/04/2017) It should be very obvious what parody that the title tried to deliver here (It's Love Live duh). But for more twist here, two of three people in header image were men. Yes men, although they definitely looking good though in their disguise (Hence the title trap). With that said, welcome to this week VNTS Review and sorry for being late here. Let's see what update that VNTS had for this week, but first let me comment on the VN at header image beforehand. Apparently Mangagamer decided to do surprise release like JAST. But unlike JAST, Mangagamer just launching nukige which is quite short according to VNDB. To tell the truth, the premise was riduculuous and ironically mimicking Love Live series further. Best not question that I suppose. Although it's quite interestimg that apparently Mangagamer was partnering with Umesoft though, and I think this was quite sudden because there's no announcement from Mangagamer in regard of partnership with Umesoft (Or I just missng the news). For Mangagamer other releases, not care too much here so that's all for Mangagamer at this week. Sekai Project About Chrono Clock delay here, while I sort of predicted it gonna happen, I couldn't help but feel a little down there. But while there's delay there, at least they prepared Chrono Clock Steam Store which hopefully means it shouldn't take long time to release it - I still slightly wary though looking at 'Soon' at release time which mean that they're not certain in regard of release time (And we knew of how JAST love word 'soon' here). Now for Chrono Clock update, right now it was at 93.29% translated and apparently Sekai was preparing the launching of beta version there. At least there's notable progress though if we talk about the translation process only. For the other update we had Maitetsu which finally had resume the updates after two weeks absence (88.45% translated). For more updates, there are bunch of progress from secret projects, but let me state two more updates from non-secret project here - Hoshimemo was fully retranslated, Rakuen was at 90% translated and Bokukotsu was at 28.07% translated. As for the secret projects, 1st was at 37% translates, 2nd was at 73% translated, 4th was at 63% translated, and somehow they add another project which right now was at 24% translated (Maybe they following Mangagamer which had 6 secret projects?). That's all for Sekai at this week. Fan Translation While there's no notable release from fan translated VN as of now yet, overall I'm quite satisfied with the updates from all of the project that I interested here. Let's see what the updates had here, shall we? For usual updates, there's both of Majokoi and Loverable which as expected always deliver the update in time. For more detail, Majokoi was 72.1% translated and 62% edited for the most obvious one, and the less obvious one would be they finished the translation for another route here (Kozue). Also Fred said that the translator will be finishing the translation for the ending soon. As for Loverable, right now it was at 51.58% translated, 18.85% TLC-ed, and the image editing was touching three quarter mark (75.16%). Also right now Satsuki's route was being in work ie translating process, and there's some work on the interface as well. That's all for the weekly usual progress here. For more updates here, we had ToHeart 2 was finished all of the editing work which mean it was 100% edited for now and for additional info the proofreading progressing at 45% (There's some graphic editing left as well). Also there's Sukiuso in which the translation progressing at 42.3% and Tsui Yuri was at 52% QC-ed. That's all for the unusual updates here. Before I closing my VNTS Review, there's HatsuKoi in which they had some nice progress. Personally the reason I interested in HatsuKoi was because the production factor. I mean the graphic was nice to look at, there's ton of image song, and there's also famous eroge seiyuu there who voicing heroines. Although too bad though that the review that I found (At least in English) said that the MC was stupid and useless. But still, I'll plan to keep my eyes on this project for now once again. As for the update, they planned to translated Midori's route once again in which right now was at 21.8% translated. For more info, they almost finish translating common route in which it was at 95.78% translated, and for overall translation progress it was touching 20% mark (20.01%) which is quite impressive that they started this back at December 20th. That's all for this week VNTS Review, and sorry for being late here. See you next week.