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As the title says, I'm looking for a visual novel/eroge with an older woman. I know there are thousands of eroge with older women, but I'd like something with a romance story as well, not only sex. It doesn't matter if it's not translated, you can recommend anything.

Sable’s Grimoire was, in my opinion, one of the most interesting and enjoyable OELVN releases of 2018 – the expansive, story-driven VN with a very unusual approach to the theme of monster girls impressed me both with the sheer amount of content and the stories it told. Featuring various mature themes but essentially devoid of sexual fanservice (if you didn’t read my original review, check it out here – it also includes a lengthy interview with the game’s developer, Zetsubou), it was a rare kind of uncompromising project, which didn’t really cater to the reader’s expectations or insert elements that would help it become commercially successful, but rather followed its creator’s particular vision, to a very compelling and fresh-feeling effect. Even with the basic premise – a human student entering a magic academy dominated by demi-humans – sounding relatively standard, the VN itself was, in many ways, unlike anything I’ve read within the EVN scene. Another significant detail about the Sable’s Grimoire, signifying its relatively non-commercial nature, was the promise of free updates from the developer, which would expand significantly on what was already an impressively-sized VN (over 20 hours of content) with additional story routes. First of these was meant to be the story of Tix, a short-tempered, but cheerful pixie, who because of an administrative mistake becomes the protagonist’s roommate – a route originally planned for the main game, but cut out because of the already-prolonged development cycle. In January 2019, 8 months after the game’s initial release, the promised update was finally made available, adding around 4 hours of new content and full heroine arc for Tix. So, how does it compare to the rest of the game and how much does it add to the already awesome value-proposition of Sable’s Grimoire? Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

In my previous blog entry I talked about protagonists in fictional media by comparing their ability to advance a plot vs. how much they actually do in their respective stories. With the model I came up with I identified four archetypes (in the meantime I remembered a possible example for “useful idiot” characters, which I edited into that post, in case you missed it). This time I'm going to focus on visual novels and why they seem to produce mainly “weak protagonists” by my metric (which doesn't say anything about how interesting they might be as it doesn't really account for blandness). There certainly is a cultural and psychological component to this, but I think I'm not enough of an expert on Japanese society to talk about the former and the “self-insert”-aspect is kind of obvious and also something I already talked about in the last post in the paragraph about Harry Potter. So instead I'll try to focus on the unique way many visual novels are structured from a narrative standpoint and how this in my opinion often makes choosing a weak protagonist kind of the logical choice from the writer's point of view. I think there are two main aspects to this. The first one is pretty obvious solely from looking at game mechanics. Most VNs have a choice system, and the character the reader makes these choices for should be able to believably carry them out in-game. A writer either needs a lot of very good ideas about how to bring the protagonist into situations where they could go either way without breaking character, or let them have a personality that's just bendable enough to always do what the plot requires them to. The second aspect is a bit more complex and has to do with most VNs being multi-route. This poses a great challenge to a writer as it's not that easy to tell several stories from the same setup without them ending up too similar. And even if the plot of each route is completely different, chances are the protagonist's character arcs are still going to end up more or less similar. A route feels incomplete if the main character's central personal struggle isn't resolved to some degree. The most common workaround for this is centering the routes themselves around a supporting character, usually a hero(ine), and giving the protagonist just a minor character arc, often in the veins of something like "love gives me the determination to achieve every goal". This basically means creating subplots where the overall protagonist isn't the literal main character anymore as entering someone else's route means also entering their story and character arc most of the time. These characters' development would be diminished though if the protagonist just went along and solved the respective heroine's problems for them, as for the development to be believable the character going through it has to do the substantive part of the emotional work (this is why white-knighting isn't just problematic from the viewpoint of gender roles but it's bad writing as well). In other media the protagonist most of the time either isn't present during most of the subplot or at least not involved too much. In visual novels both of these options in general aren't viable as from the point of entering a route the subplot becomes the narrative focus and it would be pretty weird if the protagonist just disappeared or at least decided not to interfere in the third act and climax of a playthrough, especially since the choices leading up to a route usually involve the MC trying to get closer to the character it revolves around. The fact that routes are often based around romance and the necessity to include a justification for H-scenes involving the MC further complicate this issue. As you can see, a capable protagonist is incredibly hard to employ under these circumstances. They have to fall in love with a hero(ine), yet shouldn't get so involved with them too such a degree that they decide to essentially rob said love-interest of their character arc. In many cases there is no proper solution to this dilemma. And this is where the weak protagonist comes in handy as them not becoming proactive once they have a reason to act can be justified by them simply not being able to. This setup also already has an inherent starting point for the aforementioned minor character arc for the protagonist. I don't want to imply that weak protagonists are always the best choice (or ever), but they often are the most viable compromise imo when a VN main character has to be so passive that they don't outshine the supporting cast but at the same time be a justifiable lead character. The most important feature in a VN protagonist in general simply isn't being proactive, as their main purpose is a structural one, namely to connect the game mechanic aspect of making choices to access new parts of the story with the way these new segments are set up from a narrative standpoint. This sounds kind of convoluted, but I hope by now you get what I'm trying to say. Of course the points I made don't apply to every visual novel or even every genre of VN, but I think they cover a reasonable share of weak protagonists out there. And of course this doesn't excuse bland MCs, but many of the things I pointed out don't exactly make it easier to give them colourful personalities.

....... I'm still somewhat shaken over what happened. Last time I was kept up at night like that was..... (Clannad spoilers) ...... the two scenes were somewhat similar too....

Can you please not write about stuff you have no idea about

I haven't read or watched anything from the Fate franchise, so I can't really comment on that. As for comedy heavy VNs, if I remember correctly, at least the few ones I read had MCs who mainly acted as "straight man" characters, meaning someone who is more or less normal to contrast the absurd of the comedy and keep the audience from getting to accustomed to it. The useful idiot category kind of implies that the character's incompetence or ignorance is what drives the plot, which most of the time makes them part of the absurd (Phoenix Wright is a notable exception). There probably are useful idiot protagonists in some comedy VNs, I just imagine them being hard to include in anything with heroine routes, as heroines tend to be flashy as well and the risk of losing the comedic balance would be high. You could argue that Rintaro from Steins;Gate fits the category as well (although I put him in the strong protagonist column in the diagram). It's mainly his chuuni persona and his curiosity driving the plot in the first half of S;G until at some point he is made painfully aware of the fact that he got himself into something way beyond his control.

Wouldn't Fate's Shirou start as a full-on useful idiot, getting more competent over time? Another thing coming to my mind are some protagonists in comedy anime, especially Konosuba's Kazuma. There would probably be some kind of equivalent of that in VNs?

It make us to be more patient for waiting their release, and it also teach us to be grateful on what we received. I also like that they even give one of their license to the newer company, and I didn't see them complaining. Also let's not forget their patient boss who always answer the customer complain with nice words. And that's what make Sekai great.

I just finished reading EF. I really enjoyed it. I also thought the music and cgs were amazing!

theres the standard netorare which is the mc's girl is stolen from them. theres the netori where the mc steal the girl from someone and netorase where the mc willing shares his girl with others. there may be more but thats the only ones i can think of from the top of my head. some netorase titles are "please bang my wife" and "marinas cuckolding report" both are about a husband wanting their wives to sleep with other men because they find it arousing.

You could try the other Alicesoft games with sim gameplay and NTR. They're generally lighter than Oyako Rankan, from what I've heard.