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Okay guys, time for some updates. The entirety of this month, July, was spent on doing tech work. And for their great successes and achievements with this, you can all send your thanks to @marcus-beta and @Casual_Scrub. They alone really did a lot, lot more than anyone else involved with this project did so far. I am really grateful for their active support for this project, and I wish I could say the same kind of progress was made for the other parts of the project. But alas, other than the great progress on the tech stuff, I must admit we didn't do much for the translation of the H-scenes. Not only that, but we may have also hit a roadblock in this project at the moment. Namely, our TLer got busy with real life issues and won't have time to work on this anymore. That means we practically don't have a TLer now. And that's why, if you know anyone who'd be interested in helping us to translate this, we'd be grateful if you could point that person our way. We're right now looking for a TLer, but in case we don't manage to find one, not all is lost. The final solution will be to just MTL all H-scenes and release the patch like that. It's not a perfect solution, but at least Noratoto will be uncensored that way. Thank you for your continued support.

Just a general idea: shouldn't this thread be pinned instead of all those super-outdated compilations? It's kind of a core part of the forums... Anyway, to the topic. I was actually reading quite a few things lately, even though it doesn't show very much in my VNDB. I've finished the route I once skipped in Fragment's Note, Misha's (the deredere childhood friend) and read all the three arcs of After Stories. It's one of the very few genuine mobile JVNs (that is, counting those that actually tell stories and not the microtransaction-riddled messes just masquerading as VNs) that were translated into English and I can't really decide what to think about it. The main intrigue is quite cool and I like most of the characters, but there are just no limits to how dumb and repetitive this VN can get. The stepsister's and childhood friend's routes are nearly identical, the drama showing up after the main plot is resolved is utterly idiotic and drags on for an eternity. But I still kind of can't force myself to hate it, especially when reading it leisurely on my phone. After Stories were nice to read mostly because they skipped on serious drama and just focused on the protagonist and the heroine of your choice figuring out what their relationship should be like. And in the end, two things are certain: Eri is the best girl (she starts as a bit of a confused moron, but I think a slightly-traumatized teen could easily end up being that way – at least she has an actual personality) and Misha is annoying as f*** when she's not in a supporting role. But also, even if I'm reading through an utterly mediocre series, I find it impossible to not feel some connection to the characters and to not enjoy the whole thing more and more over time (well, Sakura MMO might be an exception, but that's beside the point...). I'm slowly starting to get into Fragment's Note 2 and I think I'll enjoy it even if it repeats most of the sins of the original – also because every VN reads better when it's your only entertainment during a long, boring bus ride... I've also finished reading No One But You and well, it was entertaining for all the wrong reasons. I have a review of it more or less ready and it will show up soon, but damn, I'm sometimes amazed by what kind of monstrosities VN writers can produce. I think I've lost like 10% of my brain cells reading through Shiro's and Megumi's routes. Also had a bitter laugh after learning that ebi-hime wrote Chinatsu's route (it was okay-ish, way above the ones I've already mentioned for sure), not only getting involved in this trainwreck but also having her nick misspelt as "ebi-himi" in the credits. And continuing with ebi-hime, I went back to reading The Language of Love, happily reminding myself what a mature work by a talented writer looks like. It's utterly mundane in its flow and themes, but still manages to be original by tackling the kind of everyday scenarios and characters that aren't usually a part of VN's romantic fantasy, with a struggling single mother and a screw-up in his mid-twenties being at the center of it all. Also, it gave me that awkward moment of realization, that even these unusually old VN lead characters are still six-seven years younger than me. When did that happen?

As for the "childhood promise" trope - for some reasons I seem to like it (as well as "childhood friend" heroines -> Chinatsu), and it was actually one of the reasons I liked Yui's route, but of course its execution in NOBY is seriously lacking. It was one of the first VNs that I've read (after Army Gals and Battle Girls from Dharker) - that probably "helped" it a bit, as I knew basically nothing about genres' tropes and cliches back then (Although gigantic plot holes and inconsistencies of Megumi's route were already obvious). For some reasons I didn't like Ryo as a character too much, and BL is generally not for me, so that's it. And then I read first "full-sized" JVN - if I'm not mistaken, it was Dal Segno - and difference was like night and day... Then followed Harukoi Otome (mixed bag...) and Princess Evangile (great), and after that there was no going back - the only EVN that managed to capture me since then, and stand on its own when compared to JVNs was Katawa Shoujo. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to NOBY review at EVN chronicles

It was probably the best-written one, but my favourite is still going to be Ryo's. Unlike all the edgy crap, going for a light BL route with the best buddy character was actually a pretty ballsy idea and I like how it was handled. Plus the drama in it is straightforward and avoids those worst cliches (the sudden appearance of the "childhood promise" trope kind of soured Yui's route for me). Chinatsu's route, on the other hand, is decent overall, but kind of exposes all the weaker parts of ebi's sensibilities. The mystery is quite obvious even by the end of the common route and later the piling of tragedy over tragedy overdid it in my perspective. It was going for this super-heavy emotional impact, but I kind of felt nothing by the point it ended. Thus, my personal ranking is Ryo > Yui > Chinatsu >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Shiro & Megumi

Finished two pretty short vns Over The Hills And Far Away The setting was very unique and I'm a sucker for historical background The two main characters were well done and had a good rapport Unfortunately, I thought it was pretty short and the ending felt very rushed. It was bittersweet but I kinda saw it coming( I thought it would have been even more bleak) The ending was abrupt and a bit disappointing, I thought there might be a small epilogue but no, story ends. I also played Lake of Voices which I thought was surprisingly good. The quality of the voice acting was even more surprising. It was tense at times, the art was good, the mc was good. Bemelle was the best and he had the best voice for the role.

I'm looking forward to it Yeah, it was definitely the best route. It was also the first route I've read. Another semi-decent one IMO was Yui's. But Megumi's and Shiro's were utterly ridiculous... I had that kind of sad "revelation" while playing Kazoku Keikaku - not only MC, but also Masumi, the older, mother-like, heroine, was younger than me.

Recently like to hear Nine Episode 3 opening song, so I'll post it below. Enjoy.

Hi, just want to say thanks guys for translating the 18+ version on the game, won't play the game yet and will when the patch comes out. Keep up the good work

Which is one good reason to use the English title, given it's an English release and all... I'd take it as a personal favor, even if you love to snatch thread-starting opportunities, if you'd at least use the title we gave the game.

https://imgur.com/a/RBDOnJn Special thanks to @Sonikun4 on Twitter for archiving his current Rewrite readthrough on Twitter through screenshots.