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And I'm leaving this post behind for the record, so that if I were to shamefully give up in the future you can humiliate me and rub it in my face to your heart's content. Please do if I fail. Starting from today, I'm gonna be putting a very considerable amount of time and effort into learning moonspeak to a level where I can stop learning it deliberately and just progress as I use the language. So, where's my current level at? Hard to say exactly, but let's see. I have a pretty comprehensive grammatical understanding of the language, but it's more on the linguistics side rather than the practical side. Not completely useless, since at least I won't have to beat my head against the wall trying to figure out how things work, but yeah. My active vocab is limited to the most basic day to day conversations. I know how to write the kanas and I should be able to at least recognize around 200 kanji with their meaning and hopefully some sample words. To sum it up, whilst I'm not starting from absolute zero, it's definitely still an early beginner level. So, what's gonna be my approach? Something that hopefully won't drive me to commit suicide, and the closest thing I've found to that that sounds like it could actually work, is the AJATT method, which is supposed to be an immersion based approach. You can read more about it on its website if you google it, but very briefly this is what it says: -First of all start off with Remembering the Kanji and learn all 2046 kanji and their meanings, without bothering with their readings. Use a SRS program like Anki to help you along the process. -Do not learn vocab. Learn full sentences in context instead. And not any sentences, but only those that could be considered "comprehensible input". That is, sentences where all you're lacking is one piece of vocab or grammar. Avoid sentences where you'd have to look up everything. Create Anki cards for those sentences, and at the beginning attach an English translation on the back, but don't go out of your way to try to memorize the translation: just focus on getting the meaning right and use the translation to check your understanding. Oh yeah, and the sentences won't have furigana, so you only know the flashcard if you are able to read it out loud, write it, and understand it. -As you get better you'll switch to 100% Japanese flashcards, describing every word in Japanese. -All this should be accompanied by frequent exposure to the language. Active exposure when possible. That means for example trying to listen carefully to movies and anime without subtitles and picking up on as much info as you can. And that's it. No magic involved, it just makes sense that it has to work if you are consistent. And with that said, I have some odd hundreds of kanji to learn, so I'll see you guys within 3 or 4 months, which is what I expect it to take me if I don't neglect my study. Oh yeah, and in case someone got motivated while reading this, feel free to join in. The more, the merrier. It'd be by no means to be taken as a competition, but it's true that turning it into a group activity would have its benefits. It's much less likely to give up on something when you're doing it together with other people, that's for sure.

Maybe I should have stressed the Slice of Life elements of SeaBed more when I recommended it... For me SeaBed is very special because how mundane and noncommittal it is. Slice of Life to it's logical extreme. It's sometimes boring and nothing happens, because life is like that. There's lots of random flashbacks to old vacations and other events, because remembering fun times of past helps to forget the what ails you at the moment. Many of the conversations are pointless, because that's what conversations usually are and people still like to talk to each other. And like I've said before, there is hardly any explicit drama, because no-one wants to make a huge show of themselves. It's easier to suffer inside, downplay own problems, smile and assure to people around you that you are fine. Isn't that what most people do in their lives? But I can understand that for many people this might feel like a betrayal, or why they would find it hopelessly uninteresting. Even the narration is passive, dry, and lacks emotion, and while that can be attributed to Sachiko's mental state, it doesn't make it very exiting. SeaBed challenges many of the traditional rules storytelling and writing, so it's no wonder that everyone doesn't like. But criticising it for not fitting with your expectations or usual norms, is kind of besides the point. SeaBed wants portray the lives of the characters in all their mundaneness (what else would life be?), and I think it does that effectively and well, even if it's not what is normally expected. Not that this is going to make the story any less boring for someone who already finds it so, but I think it is important to understand. I feel it's really encouraging to have a touching story about loss and living with your problems to be so mundane. Why does every story have to be exciting? Are you not allowed to grieve without being dramatic about it? Even something like character development is questioned. No-one is going to stay exactly the same, but the changes are often subtle, ambiguous. Traumatic event doesn't mean you have to change as person. It's okay to be you. "Mystery being not the point", is maybe too strongly worded, but SeaBed isn't interested in taking delight in plot-twist or grand conclusions, like mysteries usually are. For the most the characters aren't even really interested in solving or chasing it either. The mystery is more like a basic framework for the story to function. There's still interesting revelations, subtle hints and foreshadowing if look closely enough (I'm pretty sure I missed some), but on a grand scale of things the mystery is not what matters. But that doesn't mean the story of Sachiko's silent anguish, Takako struggling with losing her memories, and Narasaki's tragic burden is less meaningful. On the contrary, I think SeaBed is effective and important because of it's life-likeness, for better or worse. Anyways, that's just how I feel. If you have questions about unanswered mysteries, I can try to help.

Alright alright! I'm back in.

Our poll on the best VNs to read during winter just went up here if anyone wants to vote~ Thank you to everyone who offered suggestions! We've kept note of all the suggestions and those who didn't make it onto the poll are very likely to make it onto our recommendation list that we'll be posting next week alongside the poll results. We're still accepting suggestions for the recommendation list if anyone has any other VNs you think are great for winter.

The connection between the sites is a little complicated, they aren't officially linked yet. fuwanovel.se was initially organised by @Palas along with a few other regulars here on the fuwa forums (me, @MaggieROBOT, @lunaterra, @Emi, and a few others - sorry for not mentioning everyone). Emi is currently paying for the hosting and is in the process of taking ownership of the old fuwanovel.net site so they can revive it, at which point the sites will probably be merged, but it's taking a while to get final approval. We'll keep Symphonic Rain in mind thanks, although I think with all the rainy weather in it I might associate more with early spring. But I'll mention it to the others. Generally we were looking for "cosy" VNs so that tended to mostly just leave us with romance/drama oriented stories, but we opened up the list a little bit to just good VNs to read during winter, so yeah Swan Song would be great. The poll is now live here.

Some people don't have a credit card so they need to use a store that supports PayPal.

Denpasoft announced a little while ago that they would be updating I Walk Among Zombies to be mosaic free, and sure enough, last night they put out an update for the game on their store! (Buy it here: NSFW link) I already own the JP version and chose not to buy the TL as a result, but now I'm definitely picking up the TLed version too. The art is so good in these games, seeing it uncensored will be even better. (Just look at the samples on the game's store page. ) It's good to see Denpasoft finally start moving towards uncensored releases, something they did very rarely in the past. They are also putting the game on Steam in like, 10 days or so, though I don't see why you'd wait to get it there when you can just get it DRM free on Denpasoft.

Grisaia has been officially released in English by Sekai Project, so the patch was taken down by TLwiki.

Reading Japanese visual novels with a text hooker is p useful for learning if it clicks for you: Additionally, if RtK1 doesn't fit you then it's pretty skippable. That said if the ajatt approach works for you then enjoy

You're in for a wild ride, enjoy! CSG is the best VN I have ever played. It's quite an amazing journey. (You get used to the fanservice and skimpy outfits rather fast. If anything, I feel like it has a nice place in between the story elements, considering how long the game is, and how intense the plot gets.) I wouldn't say Suguha is just a normal student when he arrives. He was fairly good at kendo in the past, and so he has some decent sword skills down when he arrives. Though he is not very experienced in using them yet, compared to the samurai in the edo period who have trained their whole lives, as their lives literally depended on it. He certainly has much to learn when he arrives in chapter 1. Not at all, no. If you want to know some details, (spoilery details,) here you go: Larxe1, do NOT open this spoiler! (Big ChuSinGura spoilers below!)

There are 5 chapters in CSG, still in the 1st chapter but so far it's good. The MC goes back to the CSG Time period and isn't suddenly strong and beats everyone. He is just a normal student and really acts like one (Particularly in bad ways). Heard that in further chapters he becomes more developed and I'm excited to see that kind of character development. Particularly in the art, I have mixed feelings about it. As you can see from the poster, their boobs are a bit too emphasized that it becomes distracting (I still don't understand japan's obsession with REALLY big boobs.) Their boobs would remove you from the immersion from the dramatic scenes but you'll get used to it anyway. I have nothing to say too much as I haven't even finished the first chapter yet but I can see why it gets high acclaim by a lot of people.

https://github.com/morkt/GARbro/releases

just a little off topic, what is the difference between this site and fuwanovel.net (besides the latter not being active)? I do recall seeing this website before, so is it official? I agree with Kanon, and, although it is not a christmas/snowing-themed VN, I think Symphonic Rain would be a good option. And should the list have exclusively romance/drama games? Because, maybe, Swan Song could be added to it since it does have snow...

Thanks. You make a very good point. At the end of the day I just have to keep writing and see what happens. And yeah, I know the characters. I got the routes planned out to a good degree. It's just conversation or scenes can be hard at times. Sometimes I start out writing feeling decently confident but as I go more into it I begin to worry. But yeah, I guess i should just have fun with the stories and see what happens. .I like that way of thinking =D.

I would love Devil Devel Concept.

It would be awesome if they announced Sakura No Uta and Hatsuyuki Sakura. I really want to read those. Or if they announced Sola and the Re Lief, then that would be would be great too.

Some games get their rights re-negotiated and taken in by third companies. But usually they're big games, not sure if Propeller's works would fit the bill. I think Amairo will happen at some point, it's a desired title, it's Yuzusoft, it has the way paved by a couple other titles like Noble*Works, Dracu Riot and Sanoba Witch, and there's no major hurdle to overcome that I know of. I still got my wishlist from 2013 and most of those games haven't been released in the West, they're covered in a big pile of dust...

That's a nakige setup all-right. Are you planning for seperate routes for each of the major characters you listed there, or focus on Skye? Proper multi-route yurige are actually pretty rare and would stand out nicely from the crowd. I also very much dig that art sample, quite gorgeous. I'm not a writing expert by any means, so I'm not sure I can give meaningful advice on that, but I think you can approach writing yuri just like any other kind of story - female lead is a change in perspective and requires slightly different characterisation, just like Cykaki suggested, but don't necessarily change the fundamentals of your story. There are certain storytelling tropes commonly used in yuri, but you shouldn't actively try to follow them IMO. I would also argue against ecchi and for cautious use of erotic segments - the fanservice simply doesn't fit the type of story you're apparently trying to make. Although considering AIs backstory and Skye's description for example, an erotic scene between those two could have a lot of meaning. Just don't include such stuff without clear purpose. A lot also depends on how much realism you include. Do you ignore LGBT issues like Nurse Love Addiction and make everyone "gay by default", touch upon them in minor ways like Flowers, or make them a major focus of the story? I don't think there's a wrong choice here, but it's important to be consistent and it will affect the tone of your story and the process of writing the characters in a major way. Also, well, I don't know if I can speak for anyone but myself, but a lot of yuri media is very heavy on drama, Flowers included, so I don't think it's anything people would dislike by default. "Friends to lovers" is also a pretty common yuri trope... But as with any other romance genre, anything goes, as long as its well-written and compelling on some way. Don't have any clear arguements for or against it TBH, apart from the fact that it let's you set up an elaborate and believable bond between the heroines and prevent the romance from showing out of nowhere.

SJW's are completely ass-backwards in their ethics. How many VNs have lolis that act children? I feel like that's a dying trope.

Drawings arent real so they dont have rights and neither ages....You can commit mass murders in several popular western game, yet as I recall murder also illegal in RL. So by ur logic everything should be banned in games thats illegal in RL... Damn, SJW's allows no fun in games

Decided to post Misa's songs from Hoshiori here, because we finally got Misa's patch. The first song of hers is 'Sailing', in which it sort of functioning as Misa's first ending song too (ie Misa's school arc ending). Enjoy. What I can say is that 'Sailing' here is quite unique, because out of six first heroines songs only Misa's first song that did served as credit song that rolled when Misa's school arc ended and only Misa's route that did have school arc ending credit (A short one though). Although perhaps it'll be more fitting though, because it's telling of how Misa's will sailing to her dream in which it'll be elaborated in her after story. Speaking of after story, here's her second ending song 'Set Course to Future' below in which it's also serve as Misa's after story ending credit song and her overall ending song below: As for the singer for both of first and second Misa's endings song it's the same person as well just like Marika's, and in this case the singer is Rino aka CooRie who's been responsible for composing several soundtrack and also more well known for sang Da Capo franchise vocal songs.

Well uh... I never really intended to come back to Fuwanovel all of a sudden, but thanks to this thread, it lured me back in. And yes, I was genuinely angry at the news. I guess this means that I still care for VNs even if I claim I don't. I'm a tsundere! Funny how I always end up back here even if it's unintentional. Fuwa must be a black hole or something. I can't escape even if I try. But since I'm back in Fuwa's event horizon, might as well stick around. I've already botched my farewell. Also, @Kiriririri was half-right about me returning in a week. I say half-right because I didn't make an alt account this time.