Leaderboard

Oooh, my parents are some purists and slightly homophobic, so it could lead to aaaaaaaaaaaall kinds of embarrassing situations! But that didn't stop me to play VNs in the only computer in the house before I had one for myself. And this story start with Comyu, of all things! Me and my sister were reading Benio's route and thought it was okay because the porn mostly happened in the love hotel, so if that background appeared, we just have to close it and pretend nothing happened. Except Rondo's h-scene starts out of nowhere!!! And my mom was sitting some five meters behind us, in a place she could definetly see the computer's screen... She was half asleep, so she didn't noticed, but boy I don't remember what I hit first, the mouse to click elsewhere or my sister because she was with the mouse at the time and didn't clicked elsewhere fast enough. My life is now three years shorter because of the scare.

Hello again, you degenerates. Today, instead of trashing one specific part of VNs, why not tackle everything wrong with VN localization companies in general? Mainly doing this because I feel like shitting on the reason I even get good VNs in the first place. Well, here we go. No turning back from here Mangagamer is easily my favourite localization company, yet this doesn't mean they don't have problems. First of all, the low pay that their editors apparently get. Editors do a lot more work than they're given credit for and unfortunately, they don't get enough respect and it shows in their paychecks. Also, maybe respect the opinions of beta testers more than you actually do. Damn, Mangagamer isn't that appreciative of jobs that catch mistakes before release, huh. This last one is a personal complaint for 2018. Stop flooding the market with so much moege. I get that you need to make money and all, but seriously. The amount of companies popping up that have been dedicated to this stale genre is quite appalling. I do respect this company the most though. My many complaints will be saved for later. JAST is my second target and there's a lot to talk about with these guys. So much so that I'll split them up into numbered sections. Make a damn release schedule. This company is the epitome of dropping a VN on people without so much as a release date at times. They're an incredibly unreliable company when it comes to knowing when things will come out. Hence all the memes about them. Check their translations before putting out terrible demos. The Flowers debacle definitely didn't put the company's image in a good light and made us question whether or not Makoto was their only competent translator that they have hired at the moment. Luckily, they added Meru to fix up the next edition in that series. #FreeMakoto Release another worthwile Nitroplus game in this century. They've got such an amazing license in them and it's completely wasted on such a botched company. #FreeMakoto Hire more worthwile translators for their projects. Then maybe we'll get more than 1 or 2 VNs a year from them. Sekai Project. Well well well. There's a lot to complain about here. I'm sure @Barry Benson would agree. Well, let's get on with it. Stop using Kickstarters as a safety net. It shows that they clearly don't believe that the VNs you localize will sell well and that doesn't give VN companies a very good image of them. Make an actual release schedule. Same criticism as with JAST Check their translations. The fact that two botched translations came out in the same month is telling of how much they care about quality, and that needs to change. Manage their localization projects better. It's because of these recent blunders that shine light on how terrible their project management is at the moment. If they're not gonna be able to handle projects well, why get so many licenses? There's no point in handling as many projects as they have when they can't even properly release a quality translation. SoL Press and NekoNyan Soft Make sure to earn our trust. I'm usually extremely pessimistic about new VN localization companies popping up with some sort of ambition and both SoL Press and NekoNyan (God I hate that name) have questionable English in their demos and/or synopsis' and a certain reputation of certain people involved in said new companies. Mikandi is associated with SoL Press and we all know how botched their first release was. NekoNyan has people involved that worked on the botched releases of Saku Saku and Hoshimemo and that makes them untrustworthy to me. Sure, none of these companies have currently released a full fledged VN yet, but it's hard to trust them knowing the reputation behind both companies. If your companies really want to show ambition in your aim to localize VNs, maybe focus on more than just moege. It's hard to see any sort of ambition if all they're trying to localize is something the VN market is already oversaturated with. Even 1 or 2 more VNs with more of a plot emphasis would definitely show me that you're targeting more than just one audience. To me, it's hard to care about a company that only has VNs of one genre planned for release at the moment. I'm hoping they improve on this in the future, but at the moment, this is a major problem with these companies. Well, that took me way too long to write, but my negativity knows no bounds. Post your criticism of VN companies as well because I may have missed some points in my tangents. (I realize that this was a massive waste of time, but oh well)

Can't get your heart broken if you avoid all human interaction in the first place

For me it would have to be the time I was looking through Maggot Baits CGs at school, in what I thought was an empty classroom. The students behind me didn't say anything, but I think they were scarred for life.

My dad walked in on me fapping to a h scene. He only noticed the fapping luckily and didn't notice the h scene. Hence I can continue with my degenerate hobby.

Actually I am not a new member but I never introduced myself before. Who am I? My name on fuwanovel is -soraa and I actually like that name because it means "sky" in english. I was born in Austria and I live in Austria, Vienna. However my parents are from India. But most of the time I speak german. I am 21 years old and a student. At the moment I am doing my bachelor in mechanical engineering. Why? Because I love math. In my freetime I read VN and Light Novels. Currently I am reading Classroom of the Elite. Furthermore I do Strength-Endurance Training because I always feel weak if I don't do sport. Additionally my study isn't easy and Sports help me a lot to relieve stress. However I love this feeling after Sport when my heart is racing like crazy Nedless to say but I am a ANIME-FAN of course and I watched a lof of Animes.... ---> MyAnimeList NO, I am not an OTAKU My favorite Visual Novel? YUMIKO BEST GIRL!!! I love Coodere-Heroine with long dark Hair. My favorite Genre? I love VN's about Romance and a lot of Drama with a great Story. Furthermore I am a hell of Yuri-Fan! I love Lesbian Love Storys. Something else about me? NO. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu mina-san! PS: I hope my english isn't that bad.

Well, that's true! @Ranzo I am also reading Yagate Kimi ni Naru Bro, then you know what you need to do this weekend! Show us the best Intrudiction EVER.

Release games

Wow, this thread is pure gold. My story will be super tame compared to some of those above, but stil... I was reading the all-ages Sonohana spin-off, you know, one that doesn't even have much romance in it, and decided to finish it in the morning before my gf wakes up. So, obviously she woke up earlier than usual and walked into my room exactly at the beginning of the only kissing scene in the whole game. Maybe I looked unreasonably engrossed in the romantic conclussion of the story, but the look she gave me nearly made me wish I was cought reading some actual porn. Hmmm... I think I have to go through that scene again, I couldn't really focus when finishing the read that day. :]

You know, whilst this thread initially brought to mind to people running into me in the midst of an H-Scene, that is likely not the worst situation. When I'm particularly excited reading a VN I act like an absolute madman. I often read the characters' lines aloud, shout, make up new ones, react to them, etcetera. This, unfortunately, is quite audible in my younger sister's room, so she's the person most subjected to my lunacy. My parents occasionally walk by the corridor near my room, and should they catch me in the middle of a fit they sometimes even interrupt to ask me what the bloody hell I'm doing.

I was reading an H-scene that other time and you could say that I was "engrossed" in it. My older brother walked into my room and he started silently at me and the screen for a full minute or so without saying anything. Then he sat through the whole scene next to me and left when it finished without saying a word. I still see the disappointment in his eyes each time he looks at me.

Derg: Fiddle. I commend your subtle insult of saying "Fiddle" instead of "Fiddle's."

My father opened my minimised VN that was in the middle of an H-Scene. His non-reaction makes it seem like he didn't even realise what it was. Could be, since he was looking for something else and immediately minimised it once he realised it wasn't what he was looking for.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Yes and No! You don't have to force yourself to play all Couples. Just play the ones you like. In Maidens of Micheal you can choose the Routes anyway. Furthermore read A Kiss For The Petals - Remembering How We Met before you start with Maidens of Micheal because it tells the Story how Risa and Miya met and became a couple. Therefore: Read all or the couples you like ---> Remembering how we met ---> Maidens Micheal. Adittionally I would recommend you also to read Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o - New Gen!. I really liked the Sister-Incest-Route. But it isn't a sequel!

I once played Chaos;Head on my laptop at my parents' house, while sitting next to my mum... Bear in mind this was the first vn I read and I wasn't too aware of its content. I quite quickly noped out of there. I'm sure my parents have their suspicions about me the figure collection also doesn't help.

...What? Gay.

License bad games. License bad games that aren't even the bad games I want them to license (*cough* https://vndb.org/p1374 *cough*).

The link above is the best route to approach the SonoHana games. While there are not a ton of things you REALLY have to know (because "Maidens of Michael" does a good job reintroducing the couples—enough to help you understand why they are where they are), I would definitely recommend playing all of the games in the order mentioned in that link. "Maidens of Michael", chronologically speaking, does come before "Remembering How We Met" (which is actually a sequel to the as-of-yet untranslated 15th game "Snow White's Knight", which you'll notice a previous Best Couple is missing (Rena/Runa can't be a best couple for reasons you either already know about or will find out in "Maidens of Michael") and has been replaced with a new one) and "New Generation!" "New Generation!" in particular takes place after all of the previous Best Couples (including Sayuki and Rikka) are graduated and off doing whatever it is they decide to do. So there's actually a pretty large time window involved here. Also, if you organize the game releases by date on VNDB, you'll get the same recommended playing order, honestly. "Maidens of Michael" is the eleventh game of the series.

Zaka: For the likes, obviously. Zaka: Zaka: Ren's, obviously. Derg: Fiddle.

A simple topic tonight, but hey I got to keep the quota of posting a new thread daily or the mods will never release my family... For me, it was my friend visiting while I was reading Euphoria.... You can guess how well that went. He took it fairly well considering it's main theme is rape, luckily I was on the true route so it made justifying explaining it to him easier.

It seems that when I attempt to use Yukatool(https://github.com/AtomCrafty/yukatool/releases), it keeps closing in on me. Did I get a syntax error, if so how should I input(didn't really get the example on the tool itself) or did I miss something. Thanks in advance

Zaka: Why hello there fuwans and fuwanots, today me and the dorg have something special to announce… Dorg: You're pregnant? Zaka: Only with shitposts, man. So yeah we both passed 3k posts recently (dorg couldn't hold it and managed to go past 3k smh) and thought we should celebrate it in a special way. Dorg: Hey, the fact that I went past 3k just goes to show how good I am at shitposting. Zaka: There's a time and place for everything, you know. Though actually now that I think about it doing it at 3002 is like kind of a shitpost. Fuck. Shitposting is deep, man. Dorg: Indeed. Bow before me, mortal! So, what kind of special celebration did you have in mind? (insert gay joke) ;w; Zaka: A gay joke? Surely that particular knob has been polished well enough you don't even need lube to take it up the ass… uhh well I'd like to celebrate how amazing of a person I am, that ok with you? Dorg: Well, I mean, seeing as I have 2 more posts than you, I’d like to think of myself as more amazing, but… sure! Zaka: You know, it's actually hard to think of.. [Actually, zaka is just too lazy to look up posts to link] WHAT THE FUCK STOP FUCKING WITH ME META-ZAKA [Look, you made me like this. It's time to pay the price for all your Ever17 shilling] Fuck. Dorg: Can we just go back to gay jokes already? You're losing it. Zaka: Okay, so once upon a time there was a man named dorg. The Dorg was really stupid, as it thought that once you got 3k posts, people would have gay sex with you. Turns out you need 4k posts. Dorg: Well, fuck. I mean… good. Zaka: (this is the reason dorg became a mod; everyone knows mods have more reason to post than most people, just look at Nosebleed (rip)) . Literally his only motivation is my swedish ass. Dorg: And know that I can ban you at any moment, so you better start shaking that ass for me, neko. Zaka: You mean misclick the "spammer" button? wwwwwwwwwwwww Dorg: @Asonn SouDesuKa? Zaka: … Well memed, sir. Dorg: Now, let’s get back to this celebration. Zaka: I guess since it's a celebration for both of us we should have something about you as well… let's see, let's celebrate you getting back from Japanese uni hell to nice, cold, dreary, girls don't randomly fuck you Norway! Dorg: Fuck my life. Take me back. Zaka: Just tl that shitty moege fandisc to dull the pain man. Dorg: Ok desu. TLnote: Ok Desu means yes in Spanish. Zaka: そうですか TLNote: "Shikata ga nai deSU", means "the pleasure of being cummed inside by a humanoid canine" Dorg: Now, let’s put the tide pod eating aside for a moment, and start a juicy AMA. Zaka: So you know how AMA's are all boring and overdone? Well they still are and honestly we should kill ourselves, but at least ours has one little twist. See, you can ask any question you want… but you gotta specify who it's to (or if you want, pick both I guess…). Zaka will answer all questions to Dorg. Dorg will fail to answer all questions to Zaka because he sucks, but I'll let him try anyway out of pity. Dorg: *Hovers over “mark as spammer” button for a second.* So there you have it! Ask us anything! But please, make it spicy. Zaka: You may ask questions in the master language (English) as well as Japanese. I have no idea why you'd want to use an inferior language such as Japanese though tbh. Anyway, enjoy or something~

I hate to admit it, but... No, I'll simply remain silent!

Mangagamer only got to this point after a lot of hit and misses. Not everyone may remember that, but they even released Kara no Shojo without voices, along with bad translations for Higurashi and a LOT of cheap nukige. If I were to start a company now, I'd also go into the easy road of moeges before I could start doing better stuff. So for those two new companies, we need to be patient and supportive as long as they show us a good product. It's not just you, Virgin; lately, a lot of people are voicing their complaints about moeges here in Fuwa, but most of the arguments are just based in their own opinions. Most of those who complain don't even read nor buy the games, so what is the point of bashing them? And trust me, I know how it is to be against trends, and how frustrating it is to see a whole library full of crap instead of quality works. In my case, I refer to the boom that youtubers got in Brazil, to the point that they nowadays are as influential as politicians (my opinion), although they are pretty much shit. But the time I could spend complaining about it every time I pass in front a library, I spend looking into things that actually are worth my time. And in our case here, for each moege MG releases, they have at least one great game released alongside it. In a perfect world, we'd have only what we like being released. However, we have to cope with what is available right now, and I emphasize "now" because if you take a look into what we had localised in 2013 and what we have now, less than 5 years after, you'll see that, for sure, in the near future, there will be way more and better titles released.

Guys, it's Sol Press, not SoL Press. Like the sun, not the boring genre.

Oh, well... You know, you should think this over. I know that these 3 might seem like your only options right now, but there's always a way out. For example, you can jump off a bridge. -------------------------- But, putting tasteless shitposting aside, Yosuga no Sora looks most interesting out of those two (please, don't touch Hoshimemo until they fix it, unless you're going for the original version), but it seems to only have a partial patch available? Do you mean to read it in Japanese?

I think all arguments are valid, except for the one about moe games. It is not like not releasing them would make companies translate story-focused games; most like to be the opposite: without the money from moeges, companies wouldn't have the capital to invest in better games. And let's be honest, moeges sell a lot in comparison to better games, to the point that Fata Morgana was a huge disappointment in sales while NekoPara got an one-hour OVA that gathered thousands of dollars. And the reason for that is not that difficult to grasp. People want cheap and easy games to feel confortable playing instead of having to think hard. People also want to see their anime character waifus moaning whenever they slip in a banana or get scolded by nii-san. I may be exhagerating, but the point is that moeges sell more because there is a bigger market for them. And I think we should - not thank them - but to stop ranting about them all the time and admit that they are a necessary evil. About the two new companies: SoL Press is making a good impression on how they are actually listening to fans. You mentioned their demo for Sakura Sakura, but as soon as errors were spotted on it, SoL Press worked fast to fix them and to improve the quality of the product. I really have high hopes for them. NekoNyan is still too young for us to know what they are really capable of. Translators improve, just like any professionals. I won't judge the future works of this company because of the failures of Sekai Project. And even though the people behind the translation are the same, Sekai is the one to blame for releasing Hoshimemo and Leyline how they did. I mean: how can nobody notice that a good part of the text is in japanese? Simple: there is nobody checking. And let's not forget that Mangagamer started as bad as any company could be, and improved a lot to the point of becoming a reference of eroge localization. This, however, does not justify how terrible some companies such as Sakura Gamer and Mikandi are (although the latter was a victim just like us).

Hi! Welcome to Fuwanovel! And don't worry, you aren't the only member here with a delayed introduction. I still haven't done mine.

Very late "Welcome to Fuwa" for you! I wanted to like your post but I somehow run out of likes for today - I blame that "most awkward" thread. Will try to fix that later.

Hi! I'm kinda new myself but even so, enjoy yourself here! (and it looks like we share the same favourite character in Grisaia hooray )

Hi bro! I'd say welcome and enjoy your stay but you already do so I'm also a sportsman , but on my 30s and I play tennis a lot. Love open air sports. Any way... どうぞよろしく！

Zaka: 1) Myself (Your rules have no power over me.) 2) Run 3) Aeru 4) Run 5) Firecat

Why girlfriends aren't worth it.

Sekai never struck me as a company that doesn't care about the games they release. They're terrible at public relations (witness their latest bon mot about Root Double on Vita), and they've had a couple of recent slip-ups in regards to TL quality, and they seem to struggle with too many projects and not enough people to run them. But we know the modus operandi of companies that don't give a shit: they just do a crappy job and release the game anyway. They don't bother delaying projects for a long time, like Sekai has done. They just release a steaming pile, and maybe kinda sorta fix it later. They also don't launch Kickstarters for games. Those are a pain in the ass, they involve a lot of extra work, and generate a lot of really picky and demanding customers. And if a game needs a Kickstarter, that's a sign that it hasn't got enough market potential to be worth it to them anyway. Or, put another way - Maybe you don't have to do a quality release if you already got the Kickstarter money. But remember: A good reputation takes years to build, but only moments to destroy. If you ever want to get more Kickstarter money, you can't expect to half-ass it the first time. Despite all of Sekai's problems, I have exactly once gotten a vibe from them that they said 'eh, fuck it' and released something they clearly shouldn't have (that would be Leyline, naturally).

Actually, I believe, these two points are connected. You don't really have to give a quality release if you already got the money for it through Kickstarter.

@Huang Ling Yin yes, that is possible, but it requires changes to the game executable. That is a very complex process I described in these articles: http://raburabu.net/font-upgrade-for-lover-able/ http://raburabu.net/yuka-internals/ If you need any help with that, let me know But be aware that I'm currently very busy, so it may be a while until I can work on something new ^^" - Atom

I don't think that you really have to read them in any particular order, except for the fact that each pairing has two games that you probably should read back to back, but I would still recommend reading them all. They're really short, fluffy, and have surprisingly lovable characters despite being short and more or less being almost entirely sex driven.

Also talking about this month's releases, MangaGamer is dropping A Kiss For The Petals - Maidens of Michael on the 22nd

Plagiarizing and gay

First, I'll give you links to my observations of the first three chapters of this game. Contains Chapter 3 Chapters 1 and 2 Now for Chapter 4... as I said in my post on Chapter 3, the bottom line for this is that if you liked the first three chapters, you'll like this one. It is humorous, it is bloody, and it contains an odd mix of the grim and abnormal slice-of-life. I laughed out loud - literally - several times while playing this game, and I honestly liked the insights on Chris's character that this gave. This chapter also serves as an excellent 'settling in' chapter for Gumi and Maki, as Chapter 3 was focused too much outside of the normal daily setting to get a picture of how she was dealing with her change in situation. The introduction of yet another (female) character has me feeling a bit exasperated, but since Taiga fits pretty well with the crew, I didn't feel any irritation. The combat scenes in this are pretty much just one-sided 'pow-pow, the enemy dies' one-sided massacres, except for one of them. I'm going to be blunt... in six months, they probably could have done two chapters like this, so I can't help but wonder why they insist on separating this game into such tiny chapters. While I won't say that the first two chapters (released together) were 'satisfying' in that sense, I nonetheless felt like I'd spent good money, rather than throwing it away. Unfortunately, at the price they are offering these chapters, I would much rather pay seven times as much for a full game two years from now than be forced to wait for each chapter.

For various reasons, this is one of the rare occasions when I didn't aggressively look forward to a Light game. The first reason is that the setting/story descriptions in the Getchu and homepages were vague and of no real use. The second was that a crossover was announced between this and Nemurenu (the recent Clock-up title with Kurashiki as the writer) recently. The artist for this game (at least the character design, anyway) is Ueda Metawo, the artist from Gore Screaming Show, Mindead Blood, and Yami no Koe. So, it should come as no surprise to anyone that there is a guro/no guro setting in this game. This is atypical for Light. In general, Light avoids actual guro content, preferring to stick to visual blood effects and shadow slayings (the shadow-figure beheading from Vendetta, as an example). This is actually typical in chuunige in general, with the rare exceptions including mostly Nitroplus games and a few Akatsuki Works games. As such, my first thought was, 'This doesn't feel like a Light game, and I only just started.' That feeling seemed to be betrayed, initially, by how the story begins, with a classic Masada-style protagonist monologue full of pathos and dark emotions. Unfortunately, it was soon apparent that the brief spark of hope I felt was going to be betrayed, as the horribly-paced prologue/first arc began. First, within ten minutes, I was watching a loli gang-rape scene. Second, things flash into vicious combat mode with no real intro to the characters, however limited. All of this is atypical of Light. The pacing of the early game is easily the worst I've encountered from this company, and that particular negative is endemic to the game as a whole. I can't really say I got to like any of the characters before the path split, which is unusual in a Light game, to say the least. Pacing might not seem like a huge issue to people accustomed to the often uneven pacing common in charage, but chuunige are, in many ways, games whose quality is based at least in part on their pacing (story, characters, and setting being the top three). Even Masada, who is terrible at slice-of-life, still manages to use it to give you a sense of what the characters are fighting for. However, with this game, Kurashiki failed even at that most basic of tasks... Nao remains two-dimensional outside of Sachi's path, and you never really get a full impression on any of the heroines. Kamori's path is short, brutal, and fades out with a whimper. I honestly liked the combat scenes, but it felt like this path sort of fizzles at the very end. Oh, there was a truly great guro scene with weird results that would normally have served as the first-class centerpiece for a first-class path... if the whole thing hadn't fizzled at the end. Yachiru's path is much stronger than Kamori's path... but it is also a bit more unpleasant. To be honest, I wasn't surprised that the path written solely by Kurashiki would be significantly better than the one written by by Marimo. However, this path is still atypical of Light in some ways... that I can't get into without spoiling it. However, like Kamori's path, it fizzles at the very end. This is part of the story, and it is understandable in a 'true heroine' chuunige, but it felt like this path began and ended with using Yachiru as a punching bag (and as annoying as she is at times, she didn't really deserve that). I will say that, despite this being stronger than Kamori's path, it is still a marginal path, at best, as chuunige paths go. The battles are awesome, but... Sachi I'm going to be straight with you... the favoritism for Sachi is blatant, even at the beginning of her path, and it is this path that is probably the reason for the guro warnings. I made this a separate section because, compared to everything else in the game, this path is unnaturally higher in quality. Kurashiki obviously was only interested in telling this story from the beginning, and it shows. For those who have played other Light games, the action scenes are pure crack, and the descriptions of the characters' feelings vivid. This path has two endings... a classic 'bad end with story' (it is actually kind of a nice read, though it is bad for humanity, lol) and a final end that feels... a lot like a bad end for Nao. Seriously, this game's final ending feels a lot closer to Nitroplus's style than Light's, which will probably bother some fanboys. Conclusion However, it makes me wonder... just why the hell did he insist on making the other two paths so mundane? Oh, if I were to compare them to a charage path (which would be unfair to both), they can't really be called 'mundane'. However, the sheer carelessness with which the common and other two heroine routes were treated, the poor pacing, the lack of a solid base to judge the characters... it feels inept, compared to this company's other works. As a result, I'm giving this one my lowest rating for a Light game on vndb, and also saying that I wish Sachi's path could be transplanted into another game, where it could really shine, lol.

Have you ever read anything by the Marquis de Sade? EDIT: Thought more about old French stuff I've read. I really like Marie de France's poem "Bisclavret."

And then there was none - Agatha Christie The Passage trilogy - Justin Cronin I could recommend a lot of books, but just these four would be enough for at least a month or two. The problem on recommending books is that there are millions to recommend (and on my shelves, waiting for my free time), so it really depends on what picks your interest. Vns are easier since they are pretty limited when considering english translated ones.

As the man who managed to get Asonn to buy this after getting it myself, I can only echo this recommendation. Menhera shoujo is p legit. As for more classical lit though I haven't read a lot but I liked both The Collector (read in school and not hated) and the previously suggested Crime and Punishment (as well as The Idiot by the same author, but I think I prefer the former). For something that's not French but at least originally romance language, though... The Garden of Forking Paths, part of Borges' Ficciones, was apparently an inspiration to many IF writers - I know Alexis Kennedy at Failbetter (Fallen London) likes citing him sometimes. VNs are often branching stories, and it might provide an interesting look into the subject.

-this one is haruki

First, despite the way moege fans fawn over the first two VNs by Madosoft, they are perfect examples of absolute mediocrity in charage. That isn't to say they didn't have good points... the visual aspects of this company's VNs are on the higher end of things in the charage part of the VN industry. However, they were basically slogs through WWI-style trenches full of mud made from ichaicha... and one of my pet peeves is writers who pump in endless ichaicha. I personally see them as kusoge, due to the fact that I dropped Namaiki after one path (didn't vote on it) and Yakimochi was a nightmare of a substance-free ball of cotton candy. I was kind of exasperated that this VN had an anime come out beforehand, and to be honest, I avoided that anime like the plague specifically so it wouldn't color my attitude on this one. Considering how much the sexual aspect colors the relationships with the heroines in their paths, I am mildly curious as to how they handled the latter part of the series, though. One thing all the paths in this VN have in common is that the protagonist falls apart completely at least once in all of them. I'll be perfectly straight with you... if it weren't for the fact that he was so obviously fragile mentally in the first place, I probably would have been a lot more pissed off about this aspect. That tendency toward tunnel vision when stressed is pretty common in charage protags, but it does get tiring at times. The common route in this VN is fairly good... especially since the protagonist actually has a personality and a role other than as the donkan harem protagonist. I did think that it was insane to consider anyone other than Towa (the imouto) a heroine at all after a few hours (I love stories of twisted mutual dependence), but I went straight for Aashe first, simply because I'm too perverse to go for the heroine I most want from the beginning. On the other side, Kaoruko and Mihiro are both heroine types I really and sincerely am bored of... the immensely capable school council president who acts like an airhead (I hate airheads) and the osananajimi (sort-of) heroine. Understand, when I hear the words 'osananajimi heroine', I am almost instantly consumed by hatred and the heroine in question starts from a negative point. Aashe's path was a good experience. While it did feel a bit obvious when it came to the drama (the foreshadowing was overly blatant), that wasn't so bad a stumble that the path didn't manage to recover... at least somewhat. This is a problem that was somewhat endemic to all the paths. I liked the ending, as well as the solution the protagonist settled on. However, I felt that the end didn't move far enough ahead in time (this VN seriously needs a story fandisc to round out the endings), and that was somewhat of a downer. The little sister's path was pretty good in this one. In recent years, little sister paths have mostly been perfunctory, with none of the seriously twisted stuff you tend to see with the dependence that usually creates (consensual) incestuous relationships. I do feel that they should have included the parental issues into the main VN, rather than making them a background setting. However, the drama that comes up in the path is emotional enough to be satisfying. Towa is a great dependent imouto character, and I had to laugh at how easily they transitioned (seriously, it is pretty hilarious). The fact that they actually managed to take it from there to a really emotional piece of drama near the end was a demonstration of surprising skill. Again, the big downside was the fact that they really, seriously didn't focus on the issues the protagonist and his sister had with their parents, except in a ridiculously indirect and matter-of-fact fashion. This is a perfect example of 'failing to milk the setting', and it is a common flaw when it comes to charage-makers (most of them have a tendency to obsessively avoid introducing new or extra characters in heroine paths). Kaoruko is the obvious 'main heroine' of the story, and accordingly, it was given the most love by the writer. The humor and ichaicha are both on a higher level than the other paths (which means it was given more love, given the specialty of charage writers is humor and ichaicha), to the point where I actually broke into real-life lol situations several times midway through. Unfortunately, the drama in this path is surprisingly... dull compared to the others (this is actually common with charage writers, who seem to like giving their main heroines smooth rides). I was made a bit sad by this... but the writer's love was shown fairly clearly again in the ending, which is based a pretty long time after the end of the main story and talks about a lot of the details about how they arrived there. I'm going to be blunt. I don't have the energy to play Mihiro's path now or any time soon. She is a great friend character who is frequently amusing... but by that same tone, she is the type of character who makes a horrible transition to the 'heroine' role. I honestly can't see any non-awkward way in which they would move her into the heroine position, and I honestly don't want her as a heroine, so I'll leave it to someone else to bother with her. Overall, this is by far the best of Madosoft's three VNs released so far... but it is no kamige. It does, however, manage to fulfill the requirements for a VN of the Month candidate, in that it both stimulates the emotions, the intellect, and my sense of humor... even if no two of them is strongly stimulated in any given path, lol. Unfortunately, it just barely puts its fingernails on the edge of candidacy, so anything even reasonably good could blow it out of the water with little trouble, lol.

Someone should make a VN, that only shows the bottom half of the character sprites. Legs are the best part of the female body after all. ...