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The vocab might be undoubtedly higher-level, but I'm going to cast that shadow of doubt upon its status as well-written. In a way, it somewhat reminds me of my high school English essays: the writing may appear to be sophisticated and intellectual, but it is not necessarily superior for that. The analysis of a VN's merits, qualities, and themes is merely skin-deep, covering a broad and comprehensive overview of the VN as a whole rather than delving deeply into a single element of it, and as a result, the article ends up feeling rather superficial. Certainly, the phrasing is professional, academic, and advanced, and I cannot deny a markedly erudite tone to the work, but there appears to be a certain sort of distance created between the author and the audience that lessens the impact of the recommendations. Were one to read it, they would likely feel unable to appreciate the sentiment placed within the text. But, that's an awfully drawn-out and pretentious way to put it. If your eyes glazed over when you read that, you're probably getting the point. In simpler words, after each recommendation, I get the feeling of having read a whole bunch of nothing, because it doesn't connect with me. Now, it's not that there should be a deeper analysis, since these are just quick reviews designed to interest the reader in the VN, and they shouldn't have any spoilers. Really, the issue is that the tone and style don't really fit this level of analysis. It would fit better if you were writing about some d e e p s h i t explored in the game, maybe a reflection on the core theme, but that'd be something for people to read after a VN, not before. These are recommendations, intended to make people want to read something, so you gotta appeal to people, and to do that, you can't have the distance between author and audience that "essay language" creates. Essay language sounds sanitized and boring, and while it's not false, it's not genuine either, because it feels like it's losing the heart of the author in order to take on some affectation of intellectualism. None of these elements are good for reaching the audience. So, what's to be done? The solution is to be casual, simple, and straightforward. A line like "It is not a happy experience." (from the Muv-Luv portion) sounds stilted and unnatural. A simple "It hurts." flows much better, conveys feeling much better, and interests me much better. A line like "It is when one reaches Alternative, the real meat of the narrative, that Muv Luv becomes an explosion of emotion" seems weird in the same way. I'd say something like "When you get to Alternative, the real meat of the narrative, Muv-Luv starts to hit your heart hard" would work much better. Changing all of those "they"s and "one"s to "you"s would probably help too, since speaking directly to an audience will connect better than speaking to some nebulous avatar representing the audience. In summary, I wouldn't say this article is well-written. It's higher-level in vocabulary and arrangement, but that doesn't make it well-written, because a significant part of the quality of writing is how well it does what it's supposed to do, how well it reaches the audience with its intent. This article fails to interest the audience as well as it needs to, because it fails to connect with them as well as it needs to.

I wouldn't sell myself short if i were you. I absolutely don't get a hint of you being as bad as a bad vn protagonist. You have your opinions and you stick with them. Bad protagonists just go with the flow, like the sheep that they are. Just read rewrite and see how the protagonists thinking varies from one end to the other based on which girl he's with. As for me, i'd chock it up to experience and age. I've given up on dating. I've dated exactly 2 girls before i said "enough". First time i got ntr'd.. Yup, it totally happened. Not because of my dick mind you Second time i dated a girl for a year before finding out she'd been sexually abused for many years by a relative and still wanted to maintain a happy relationship with said relative. Yup, the whole relationship felt like a lie and i couldn't and wouldn't deal with that. Call me a bastard for abandoning her, but with what happened and how she was acting because of it it just simply wasn't worth it. To put it really bluntly. Fortunately for me, i'm quite used to not having a girlfriend so it doesn't matter in the end. Well, as you'd realize, those two themes piss me off. As for self insertions. I think most of us either self insert of heavily empathize with the protagonists. I'm the latter as i rarely agree with anything the protagonist does. I'm sure i was similar at that age as some protagonists (i had a personality though) but i was bad with women. I've come to realize later that a few girls liked me, but i did not realize at all (guess i've been quite the donkan ). Point is: isn't it more inspirational reading a protagonists that is better than you are, yet still similar, rather than one who is potentially as bad as you think you are? Hopefully that didn't become too heavy or too personal history for me so i don't really care anymore.

And it's finally announced! The long-awaited sequel - or rather spin-off - to the popular mahou shoujo series, Madoka Magica! Synopsis The stage is a new city, Kamihama City. "Do you want to battle together with me?" New story begins when girls meet. Magical girls gather in this city lead by mysterious power. This place is where they can be the way they are. They fight with the new power from the witch. "What happens… in this city…" Iroha Tamaki came to this city to search for her sister Ui, who went missing. Iroha begins to search whereabouts of Ui with the help of magical girls. Soon Homura Akemi from Mitakihara City arrived to Yokohama City. "There might be a way to save Madoka when knowing the mystery of this street." Another hope born with two girls from the two different cities meet. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, it's not exactly the sequel to Rebellion that I've been waiting for, but eh, I'll take what I can get. Being a huuuuuge fan of Madoka Magica, I just simply can't ignore this. From the looks of things, it looks like it's going to be featuring new characters with the older characters making guest appearances. From what I have heard, these characters will play a pivotal role in the grand finale of the Madoka story, as foreseen in the Madoka Magica Concept Trailer. So yeah, exciting stuff. Regarding the OP theme, you gotta love how it's different from the original Madoka Magica, in that the latter tried to hide the more ominous tones of the story ("It's a healing anime." - Urobutcher), but with this OP, you could notice that they basically tell you, "You know what's going to happen to these cute and fluffy girls" with a sardonic and wry grin. Flashes of ominous scenes hearkening back to some of the bloodier scenes of the original anime could be seen scattered throughout the OP itself. Yikes. Anyway, looking forward to all that fun and slaughter. Hah.

Another week, so here's another update for this week below: Common: 100.0% Sora: 0.0% Marika: 100.0% Natsuki: 0.0% Misa: 70.59% Rikka: 0.0% Touko: 0.0% Total: 32.23% Good that Trip did took a liking at Misa's route, and that he already finished with Misa's school arc along with reach 30% translated mark. Oh and even if we have Misa's route fully translated at the next week (Which is almost certain), Trip did say that it's still didn't mean that we'll gonna have Misa's patch at the next week because there's still some editing work (I assume that he'll release it two weeks later). That's all for this week update.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PbGVD6ycb1syrZHjPcMLN7inCLnfDELbeF4PV3_6hMo/edit?usp=sharing So, this is something I've been writing up for a while, based on the words of myself and plenty of others. The article is more or less directed to the AniManga community, with the intent of getting more people into the community. I'm creating this thread to get feedback and some direction for when I professionally put it up. Now, to get the inevitable questions out of the way: First off, I openly admit I am not the most qualified person for this duty. I acknowledge that I haven't actually read many of the works on the list, but I feel I'd be missing too much otherwise, and this wasn't supposed to be about my personal opinion (though all the works I listed are ones I at the very least plan to read at some point in the future). Treat it as the communities child, methinks. I had three main rules when constructing the article; No nukige, no moege, no gameplay eroge (specifically RPGs). Nukige is obvious, no way was I promoting outright porn to people (and no, Nukitashi is not a nukige. That is missing the entire joke). Moege is incredibly hard I find to pitch in an appealing way, and I have absolutely zero interest in the genre myself. Gameplay eroge meanwhile has the matter of "Why should you read this over a higher budget JRPG", not to mention it would probably see me trying to justify Rance as a character and I'm, uh, not doing that, for obvious reasons. The other big rule I had was to ban works that I feel would inevitably get an "Extreme" in the Severity of Content, in other words the plot-focused works of ClockUp and BLACK CYC. My basic logic is "Would you see this in a Seinen manga?", and stuff like Euphoria crosses a line for me. The untranslated works being recommended is for people who actually can read Japanese, and to build up additional interest in seeing a localization for those who can't. Simple as that. Please don't argue about me not "accurately representing" the medium and needing to be more praising to the historic titles. This isn't a history anecdote. Summer Pockets is representing Key because I simply felt it fit the list better. Vague answer, I know. As for Hello Lady, I simply put it on because I wanted to give Hino Wataru some rep, and it is both a contender with RuiTomo for his best, and it's getting an official localization. Lastly, if you try to argue that I "forgot" your favorite VN, don't make a huge fuss about it. More likely than not, I simply either ran out of room, forgot about it, or didn't even know it existed and that so many liked it. Cheers~

well.. after long time im became silent reader finally i decided to make fuwanovel's profile and i think i should introduce myself tbh it's my first time making profile so i dont have vndb or mal account, or should i make it ? im a fan of moege and i hope you guys can recommend me some good stuff nice to meet you all and sorry for my bad english

Bernkastel Wine does exist, but it just means wine from Bernkastel, not a specific brand (since there are several wine growers in Bernkastel). Wine from the Moselle region is kind of famous even in other parts of the world as far as I know, probably because it's as sour as it gets since it's one of the wine regions with the coolest climate worldwide.

To some degree yes, but not only this. In some routes MC also has to fix or change himself, as he's the part of the problem too (for example in Ayame's route).

A little, but not exactly. However music reminded me of Katawa Shoujo - although it is different, its mood felt similar. Hmm... difficult to say without spoiling too much. I'd say the romance is used as a kind of "plot device"? So yeah, maybe like Katawa Shoujo or Clannad? With each heroine comes some issue that is main theme of the route, and MC, while he gets closer to her, must face those problems. I'm not sure if I'm wording it correctly... but it definitely isn't pure romance as seen in moeges.

I'd say you exaggerate a bit, or rather jump to quick conclusions. But, tbh, after reading some tags and discussions on VNDB I was hesitating too - but after all I don't regret reading it. I said about "utsuge" somewhere eariler - IMHO Miyu's route it's about as utsuge'ish, as AIR true route, so take it however you see fit. As for "girls dating other guys" - if you're afraid of NTR, it isn't present here. In one route heroine breaks up with her current boyfriend, to be with MC, but it's all resolved pretty peacefully. No "stealing", cheating etc. And speaking of "whore"... That's why I say her route is brilliant. Because at the beginning, from the first impressions, everyone (player and MC included) sees her just as that, but during the route you're in for some surprises. Overally, I'd say Crescendo is definitely worth reading - and it isn't exactly what it appears on surface. It isn't exactly made for "feeling good" (that's what moeges are for ), has some heavier moments/themes, but I liked it. To summarise - I understand your doubts, and I also have some things I prefer to avoid in VNs (like gore, or some other dark, disturbing themes, as well as "true" utsuge, where there's only death and despair, and no trace of hope), which rules out some "kamiges" for me, but I'd say - give Crescendo a chance.

Crescendo's pretty enjoyable, I found. But I never finished it because a couple of the routes bored me. Definitely underappreciated by modern audiences, imo. I get why, the art blows even by 2001 standards. Still worth giving a shot, though.

This is the show that made me fall in love with magical girls. Can't wait.

I liked Kaho's route just as much actually. School nurse was on par for me. Yuka was alright for me but was too realistic seeing as I actually had a relationship with a girl who had those issues (but did not sell her body of course). Kyoko's route was the most innocent and pure hearted to me, so it was pretty good too. School nurse reminded me of a time at the school I went to where somebody there got with the PE teacher and she resigned after graduation that year. (He was 19, she was 23 so its a better age range than 10 years ). Anyways, it was a good game for its age.

As far as magical girl show here, Madoka here is the most appealing to the mainstream here. I wonder if those five girls will working together from the start or work separately and fighting with each other, although knowing Urobochi perhaps he'll write it like the latter. Anyway, gonna check out on this latter along with next year PreCure (Star Twinkle Pretty Cure or STPC).

From Studio - Innocenceイノセンス - Check our Steam Page! We have a Demo on the same page too! Hello Everyone! After a couple of years and a lot of love, I'm proud to announce we have launched our visual novel, Last Stanza on steam! Our two-man team, with collaborators from around the world, created this poignant and heartwarming journey through loss and friendship across the most excitingly normal days of school. - Story - December, 2009. On a day in the last week of that month, I realized how slowly dripping tears had a shivering yet uneasy feeling. The coming of winter turned the air thin and cold. The clouds blocked out the sunlight that normally reached the ground making it seem as if the sun was absent.Many days passed and life seemed to return to normal as if nothing had happened. To conceal my anger and confusion and slowly regain control of my thoughts, I opened my heart up to friends old and new to try at any cost to find a new place for myself.But it is in peaceful moments such as these when even a single seemingly inconsequential action can set up a chain reaction like the endless waves of a once calm ocean turned violent, bringing to the shores of my mind the emotions I had thought were long locked away. - Features - Following the point of view of multiple characters, you will revisit past events finding a new perspective Having almost 70.000 words, Last Stanza is a short and impactful story There are more than 12 unique and detailed characters by Sunna [18+] plus 20 beautiful backgrounds and an exclusive soundtrack by Ryuno English and Brazilian Portuguese are our supported languages - Characters and Screenshots - And many more! - Where you can find us - Steam Itch.io Twitter Tumblr - For the People! - If you came this far, I want to thank you for reading my post and I'd like to say it would be lovely to know what you think about Last Stanza! I will be sticking around and it will be a pleasure to answer anything you might want to discuss! Thanks!

Holy shit, I'm getting a feeling this VN got a translation worthy of the original product. Are many of those third-rate otome this weird and creepy?

I'd say it depends on the actual timeframe. For example, Spike Chunsoft, now, they don't have any qualms about localising just another version of Steins;Gate -ANY version, really, because it's a best seller. But G-Collections is ANCIENT and they probably used what was available. It's just that the companies don't return to previous titles with improved versions, it seems like the West needs a constant flow of new localisations and people care more to have as many different games as possible, not return to old ones. Another (discordant) example is Rewrite, which is officially arriving in 2 versions I think, and given that the majority of Key fans have already read it, either they buy it out of commitment, or it backfires gloriously (like Little Busters, mind you). But of course, Rewrite and S;G are major games in a bountiful age for the community like 2018 is, not an old game like Crescendo.

This article and its author have recently caused an uproar in many discord communities, because the topic of this list seems to come up at any given moment. So, I'll try to provide some context regarding this list and be as civil as possible. My objective is not to be a bully but to give this article a fair analysis. First of all, I must commend the quality of the writing. Whatever one might say about the content, it is without a shadow of doubt well-written. The main issue is how the author's objectives are in conflict with each other. This is supposed to be an introductory article for beginners, members of the animanga community. However, the article is extremely lengthy, each entry worthy of being an article of its own. People have a short attention span and by the time most people are done with reading 2 or 3 entries, chances are they're already tired of reading it. If your objective is to convince, then keep it short. Or rather, cut the entry number. Perhaps a top 10 or even a top 5 would suffice. Regarding the entries themselves and the main objective...they don't really match. Half of these titles are UNTRANSLATED, which is already going to turn away a big chunk of the community. Second, pretty much all of these titles are Long or Very Long. Trust me, hardly anyone would be willing to lay down 50 or more hours for a hobby they're not invested in yet. How about a few shorter titles, such as Narcissu or Planetarian (off the top of my mind). They are short, sweet, have no filler and leave a deep lasting impression. They also don't have Sexual Content. You also excluded titles which are popularly known in the anime community, such as Clannad, Steins;Gate, Fate/Stay Night and Higurashi. People are more likely to find interest in reading the source material of something they already watched and liked. And then, the exclusion of moege and gameplay eroge. Like it or not, moege are some of the best-selling games of the medium (second to doujin H-RPGs, I'd say). If the objective was to attract newcomers from a new community, there is absolutely no reason to exclude one of the most popular ""genre"" of visual novels. Gameplay eroge are the closest to videogames and might be just what newbies need to make the transition to full-fledged text-only visual novels. I'm not going to comment on the entries themselves. After a certain point, they seem to be choosen sort of arbitrarily, merely there to fill the empty space. Honestly, anyone could've picked these titles, but that's not what's important. If I had to comment on one of them, it would be YU-NO. YU-NO was one my favorite eroge for a period of time. It's also one of the highest rated titles of erogamescape. When you have half-truths and misinformation, others are going to believe it if it's this well-written. This is something that concerns me, as one could think of modern bloggers as the historians of old. But to be honest, what bothers me the most is how this entry in particular is quite offensive to the medium as a whole. Not only does it ignore the hundreds of games that already existed in other platforms, such as PC-88, but it dismisses them as "cheap pornography". Just because you read two or three random nukige that JAST or whoever it was gave a bad translation 15 years ago, it doesn't make it true. Sadly, there are many great stories yet to be translated which most likely will remain so, due to engine issues and older art which isn't appealing to the modern gamer who plays everything in 4k 120FPS. To be fair, this title is heavily overrated. The interactivity is incredibly infuriating - not only is it a verb-based game but you literally have to pixel hunt and randomly guess where you should go next. Not only that, but you can't save at will. Because of this, the player is forced to default to a walkthrough. Due to this and many other games with terrible choice systems forcing people to look for walkthroughs, we use walkthroughs even for games with good, carefully crafted systems. As for the content of the game itself, multiple route mystery wasn't anything new at the time. None of the routes really stand strong on their own, except perhaps the stepmother route, the concept of this route having been done better on other games at the time. The sci-fi aspect of the game only exists so that - how cool is that? To finish this rant regarding YU-NO, let me tell you something interesting: one of the most important arcs, the whole emotional hook of the epilogue wasn't even written by Kanno himself. The current translation has different versions of the game mixed together, so you have the protagonist rejecting sex with a character in one line, and then deciding to go forward with it in the very next instant. If I had to say anything else, it would be how you portray YU-NO as an important step forward for the eroge industry and explain its historical value, but you chose the cover from the remake. The main issues, as pointed out by many others, is that this article is overly ambitious. You have only started reading VNs approximately a year ago and you have only read about 20 titles or less, yet decided to create a recommendation list of a higher number. You recommend titles that you haven't read and can't read (japanese). While there is some original content (SubaHibi and Danganronpa reviews), the description of the remaining entries is a mixture of opinions held by different people. If I wanted to read Conjueror's Sakura no Uta review or kastel's rants, I could do it, they already exist in other places. You could very well have started with a smaller project, publishing reviews of titles you have read with your one and only opinion. I know I might have been quite harsh, but I'm honestly tired of this topic being brought up every couple hours, no matter where I hang out. That and I'm not sure if you're really interested in the advice of others or if this is just to show off, but so be it. I gave my two cents, and I hope to not have to comment on this further. Good luck.

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That's all.

@Fred the Barber