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Scanning through my VNDB I realized how few fresh releases I actually read in 2019... From the few I can actually talk about, Heart of the Woods and The Language of Love would be my favourites. And if I had to choose one favourite (as opposed to "the best VN"), it would be... The Language of Love. It just resonated with me in multiple ways and did the thing ebi-hime does best: conveying emotions and themes that are more or less absent from your typical visual novel storytelling.

Kimagure Temptation or Realive. Kimagure Temptation was yet another good one by the makers of Nanairo Reincarnation, and Realive was another great plotge/nakige by Purple Soft. Most of the other stuff I tried was 'meh' at best. Edit: Nvm, I thought Sakura, Moyu was 2018. Definitely Sakura, Moyu, by several degrees above everything else.

To Heart 2 (duh)

People who drop themselves into the abyss of otaku media tend to have their sense for things dull over time. Action scenes don't excite like they used to, rom-coms aren't as funny, ecchi isn't as hot, and only the densest stories succeed in scratching the itch. This is what I (and some others) call becoming a 'jaded veteran otaku'. Jaded veteran otakus often become 'genre specialists' (meaning they only play one type of game, watch one type of anime, and/or refuse to play specific types), and only the most hypocritical have less than ten favorites in their medium. However, how exactly do you tell that a VN (in this case) is one of your favorites? There are a number of signs. 1. Does watching the opening get you excited no matter how many times you've seen it? 2. Does a great phrase that shattered your personal gate of tears do so again on a second playthrough? 3. Can it still make you giggle? 4. Can it still delight you with new discoveries or even only confirming the ones you made the last time you played? 5. Does defending it to everyone around you fill you with passion and do you have an intense desire to chain every other VN fan in site to a chair in front of a computer to play/read it? 6. Do you find yourself wistfully wondering if you'll ever find anything else like it again? 7. Do you feel like a junkie coming down off a great high after you finish it? These are just some of the signs of a VN happening to be your favorite... and one of the strange side-effects of being a long-time addict of otaku media is that your favorites become ever more distinct to you as time passes. I have literally forgotten the contents of more VNs than most people have played, but the ones I love remain in my memory with surprising detail, even after years without playing them. Not all of my favorites are kamige (in fact, surprisingly few of them are), but to me they are irreplaceable friends similar to the books I can never bring myself to get rid of.

So, as we're still in the time of yearly recollections and were talking recently about VNs we liked the most, what are the titles that crushed your hopes and dreams? Which ones were not plain bad, but rather fell short of your's and everyone else's expectations, to the point of turning your hearts into an emotionless void? For me, the answer is pretty simple: Crystalline and (sorry @ds-sans :() Chemically Bonded. Both games were really well-produced visually and had good sound designs, but absolutely fell apart when it goes to telling a story. The main difference between them is that while Crystalline was absolutely devoid of meaningful plot and tension, Chemically Bonded made a few bizarre missteps with its writing and structure of the story, breaking the flow of the romance, particularly in the tsundere heroine's route. Neither were anywhere close to being among worst EVNs of the year, but definitely had most wasted potential. So, what are your guys' greatest regrets of 2019 in VN form? :3

Today I wanted to talk a bit about an interesting project, and one that provided me with a unique opportunity to, for the first time, act as a proof-reader and do minor editing for a sizeable VN. Because of this personal involvement, this won’t be a full-on review, but more of a loose rant, highlighting both the worthwhile aspects of the game and my somewhat-peculiar experience with it. The VN in question, Bewitched is indeed a rather interesting one, as all games by Graven Visual Novels are – just as they are weighted down by extremely awkward translations from Russian and inherent flaws of their author’s prose. This time, however, the developer made their first attempt to work on properly polishing the game’s English script with the help of a few volunteers (including my gloriously dyslectic person). This move was quite likely inspired by the discussions I had with them regarding their previous projects and the problems with their English versions. If my involvement in the EVN scene ever made a tangible difference, this is the most concrete example of it, and I hope you’ll be willing to join me as I briefly explore what that difference actually is… Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Hmmm. I had no idea anything but the h-scenes was censored in the Steam version. I mean, I don't know how much they didn't show, and it's not like there's much of it, but I would be pretty pissed off if they censored some iconic scenes. By the way, the universal opinion seems to be that the h-scenes are pretty awful and aren't worth wasting you money on.

I thought it completely failed at delivering romance between the protagonists for a single route story, but I otherwise enjoyed it a lot. It was a fun adventure, and the side romance was great! Disappointments on my part... I usually don't properly start something unless I like it, so I don't remember those that disappointed me off the bat. That leaves those that disappointed me in the ending, but I'd need to actually finish something to be disappointed by its ending, so... Uh... One Night Stand, maybe? I don't know why I played it or what I was expecting, but it delivered on its namesake and disappointed me as a result. Not sure why I really did this. One that could be considered a disappointment, maybe, is HoshiOri. It delivers on all my dreams in terms of the scenario it depicts! It just has an itty-bitty misstep... I don't like the comedy in it. This really, genuinely hurts. This ticks all the boxes in terms of what I should like, but them half the reason I enjoy VNs just isn't working for me. Bollocks. I even remember liking the comedy in the previous game by the same studio, so what went wrong for me...?

If I'm to list VNs that were actually released in 2019, I have two candidates off the top of my head: 1. Majo Koi Nikki It's mostly due to the fact that I found the male protagonist utterly unlikeable, but it also felt kinda unfocused due to all the jumping back and forth between different stories. There's also the fact that the way to reach the true end was so ridiculously obscure, I imagine many people could outright miss it without even realizing it. I actually had to write a forum post and ask what to do, because I wasn't able to figure it out for myself and even the guides didn't mention it for some reason. It's a good example of bad game design, considering that ending contains one of the most important puzzle pieces of the story. 2. How To Date A Magical Girl I honestly had fun with this, but it was all ruined because of an immensely cliché and unsatisfying ending. If it wasn't for that, this would have been one of my better experiences of the year. As for VNs that were released earlier but I read in 2019, I think Rewrite takes the cake. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a good VN; just not as good as I was hoping it would be. My expectations were rather high, and when the actual experience fell short, it ended up as a disappointment for me in the end.

For some reason i never saw this post. I went for the original. I decided the ps4 version was not worth the pricetag.

As the title says, this is a thread where you can post your favorite VN quotes. When posting the quotes, remember to note the VN they are from, the names of the characters speaking, and the translation if the quote is in Japanese. Remember to place all quotes in spoiler boxes with the game name over them so that those who don't want to be spoiled don't have to be. Semiramis no Tenbin Inpyuri

DMM occasionally works properly, but it varies. They go through cycles where they block IPs from outside Japan. Yes, it is a matter of size. Back when fantls were the mainstream (fantls being a minority now), it wasn't uncommon for someone to take on such a ridiculously ambitious project. However, now that localization companies are the mainstream (having poached most of the good fantls), they choose which games get a localization... and they have to pay by the line.

let me try: Kanon HoshiZora no memoria to heart 2

forgot that one... that plays almost every "game" day. Fate stay night