Leaderboard

This kind of thread pops up every two years or so... but the basic rule of thumb is the existence of extensive narration and the use of a text box in the ADV or NVL style (though there are exceptions). VNs must always try to tell a story, even if it is nothing more than excuse for sex scenes. While I mention narration above, someone is eventually going to point out Lamunation, which has almost no narration and the story is told almost entirely through dialogue. There are hardline parts of the community that don't even want to accept Eushully-type games as VNs because of the existence of gameplay. there are also more liberal parts of the community that want to consider most jrpgs that even hint at VN elements as VNs. However, the fact is, you have to draw the line somewhere. A few comments. Persona generally gets excluded because the VN elements are actually far closer to dating sim elements than visual novel ones. Dating sims, while they retain some similarities to a VN on the surface, rarely tell a story and are focused on simulation of a romance, often using social stats such as are seen in the Persona games. Personally, I find the inclusion of Ar Tonelico to be almost equally questionable, because the Cosmosphere is not so much telling a story as exploring the psyches of the heroines... though it does effect the story greatly at times. Understand, if you play any Eushully game, then play a normal jrpg afterward, you will immediately see the differences... even if that other jrpg is Persona. Simply put, Persona games' story is dependent on its gameplay, whereas a true VN hybrid's gameplay is an appendage to the story. The differences are obvious when taken subjectively, but objectively, they are hard to describe.

I finished YMK. Whoa, that was a ride. But then, @Stormwolf was right It was better than I expected, and didn't disturb me as much as I feared. I started with Nekoko's route. In the beginning that route was like one big WTF - but that's understandable considering Nekoko's circumstances and her route's main theme. But the ending made up for it (not just epilogue, but generally last 3rd of this route). Also, the plot twist really surprised me I also liked the 4th wall breaking - or VN's self-consciousness - in this route, with Nekoko giving "affection points" to Kouhei, and his frequent talks with Tsubaki about eroge - route systems, character's behaviour etc. (This comes up in other routes too, but in Nekoko's it was most pronounced). Next was Mizuki. That route was pretty crazy too - when I think about it, Mizuki had something in common with Nekoko - she also tried doing various crazy things as an escape. Sometimes I almost couldn't catch up with her But Mizuki's ending was maybe the best in whole game. At last I read Aeka's route. It was definitely the heaviest of them all, but very good. It does really good job at making player want to protect Aeka, and then fall for her along with Kouhei. Don't know what to say, as almost anything will be spoiler for this route. Also, while maybe slightly exaggerated, the whole bullying theme and mechanisms of it were presented almost disturbingly realistically. Final sequence got me by surprise, it was very strong too. It was difficult to go for Nekoko's route first, as the game surely made me feel like trash for abandoning Aeka - to not get on her route you have to completely ignore her, and that's really painful. (on the second playthrough, when aiming for Mizuki, auto-skip eased that pain ). Also, antagonist in that route... Another strong point of the whole VN is Kouhei's family - that's right, here we have eroge protagonist living with full family (well, adoptive, but still) - now that's something you don't find often. And on top of that, they're great people, really caring for him. Now about H-scenes - yes, there were a lot, but authors made the effort to justify them within a story. Well, in Nekoko's route they were a bit random to me - except the last one - but then again, everything she did was random, so it fits I guess. I think in that route the reality was bent the most to allow for h-scenes, but still, somehow it worked. In Mizuki's and especially in Aeka's route sex scenes fit well into the story. There were also some really important and moving dialogues during Aeka's scenes - I like that. So - except maybe a little for Nekoko's route - no complaints about h-content from me Well, maybe HCGs could use a bit more variation, because often they don't align with the text (like, characters being in completely different pose). Translation is OK - there were some rough lines and typos, but it read well. All in all - I'm glad that I gave it a chance and read it. 8/10

.

imo, if i read more than play more, its a VN, otherwise it isnt

What I can say is that the sales is quite good, although if I speak from my personal opinion here I'm not the one who like to hunt the sales, so I'm still not reckless enough to do impulse buying so much that I need to sell my kidney lol. That said, if I may recommend something to buy perhaps Fata Morgana fandisc should be the one that you buy along with Fureraba bundle as well, and the latter here is should be good if you're un mood for some light read.

Hello all, After many many years of rust, I've recently revived my Japanese studies and I'm looking to tutor/guide someone to help me refresh my basics. Reason being I'll be going to Japan for the first time next year. Specifically looking for someone ranging from fresh beginners (we're going to gloss over basic grammar mostly) or intermediate (going to go over jlpt N2 grammar patterns). I will try to teach these and in the process help me de-rust. As they say, teaching is the best way of learning. We can hold voice/text sessions on discord, where I'm most active. I am by no means a great educator but I can show you the steps of how I approached learning Japanese. This is going to be reading-focus, as my speaking skills are bad atm, so it's good if you eventually want to read a VN. PM me to exchange discord/contact infos and scheduling.

I plan to grab Sakura Sakura during december sale

Boi, I've been waiting for this! Finally got my hands on Clannad, Fruit of Grisaia, Nurse Love Addiction, Miniature Garden and the last three Higurashi chapters that I've been missing ^^ I'm eyeing some other stuff too, but I have to keep some spare change for food... So I guess I'll try again next month ;v; I should have enough material to last me til then, tho XD

I used this sale to snatch Root Double - its regular price was bit too much for me, but after 65% off it became much more accessible

To be clear about this: Piracy is not an advantage or great in any way. And I can see the thought process of "well great, 200.000 people just STOLE our product". I get it, it sucks. However, you can't make the mistake of seeing these, lets say, 200.000 downloads as "lost sales". Because they are not lost sales. They aren't lost because nothing was ever sold. They are nothing. If you sold, lets say 500.000 copies of your product and 200.000 also pirated your shit, getting rid of piracy would still mean you only sold 500.000. The only way to actually turn the pirate numbers into customer numbers, is to make pirating more of a hassle than purchasing. And no, that is not accomplished by 23,7 different accounts and 4 spy programs connected to the software, like game developers seem to think. Put it on steam for 10, 20, what have you, bucks. Slap a discount on during release week. Don't break their balls, tickle them. (which also why the "make VNs more expensive" idea is up there with the dumbest plans I've ever read).