Leaderboard

I see you've packed it into patch.xp3. But within the original game scripts, nothing is telling the exe to read your patch.xp3 on initialization. Either pack it into data.xp3 itself, or change scripts to tell the game what additional archive to load.

Yes. Just a simple Garbro repack ver.2 xp3 with no encryption specified. MEGA Link for the tjs.

I finished Tix's route, which I'm not sure the game even had when you reviewed it. Regardless, as odd as it is, I both love romance and intimacy and the direct opposite: Sable is reminding me of Nemui from Mutiny!!. A character I deeply loved for being entirely disinterested in sex in a game and world completely all for it. She was wonderful, as is Sable. As you've said, Sable isn't aromantic, but it's nowhere near his current priorities. Tix's route

For whatever reason, I've been interested in this VN since I saw this review, but I clearly didn't read it because I didn't know Sable was the protagonist. Anyways, I'm finally reading this and goodness me how I appreciate a magic school story of this scale with loads of characters and interactions. I haven't read any route yet. In fact, I have no idea how I'd get into a route, since the choices I've made so far have put me all over the place talking to all sorts. I'm properly warned not to expect romance, and frankly I'm not looking for it if the game isn't trying to tease it (as I've found out, that's the reason I tend to dislike a lack of romance; it's because it's almost always teased and used as a hook to keep one reading until the end). Sable is an absolutely fantastic protagonist as he is. From his interests to his interactions, where he's too honest for his own good and where he gets the exact same impressions from conversations as I do ("Something was strange about her today." or "She has a number of flaws, but maliciousness isn't one of them.").

The line you're looking for should be in AppConfig.tjs under root of data.xp3.

I first started writing this in like 2018 and I finished half of it now but I didn't do it the way I was planning back then and it's a bit of a disjointed mess. I hope it's good enough anyway. - There have been some arguments as to what the definition of a visual novel should be, and that's well and good. But let's look at it from the other direction: what works should our definition of visual novels include? Let us begin our journey with a silly, myopic statement I will nevertheless repeat until @Palas finally calls a hit on me: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is not a visual novel. Okay, bullets fired, I feel better already. But why am I trying to define the boundaries of the visual novel category to exclude the pretty good adventure game series Ace Attorney, and what kinds of criteria am I using? Furthermore, why would anyone disagree with me when I am obviously right? ...Okay, let's back up a bit. Why do I care so much about categories at all? Categories Categories are useful because they allow us to make predictions about something assigned to that category. In the visual novel community, there are there are several important predictions to make: 1. I am likely to enjoy this work if it executes its aesthetic well 2. I would consider a person who reads/plays/likes this more a part of the community than one that does not 3. I would probably enjoy talking to someone who reads this work {about visual novels} We can see straight away that different parts of this would be important to different people. If you want to be part of a close-knit community, getting 2 and 3 right matters a lot. If you can find the visual novels you enjoy without community assistance, 1 matters little. The VN category helps us determine what things are acceptable to discuss, and what things are not our (main) concern. Similarly, the category helps us determine what people will be in our community, and what people will not. It's generally more entertaining to discuss things you care about, and it's better when the people you discuss with are more in tune with you. As such, there are real stakes, and real reasons to want to avoid being maximally inclusive. But what draws people to VNs, and what does that draw mean for their desired definition of the VN category? Let me attempt a list of categories: Archetypes of attraction to VNs Weebs The Weeb likes some part of Japanese culture. The Weeb is very skeptical and/or dismissive of visual novels not made in Japan, though the Weeb might make an exception for things made in Korea or China (Indonesia is probably too Western, however). If we asked the Weeb, the main problem with the visual novel category right now would be that too many people see fit to include a flood of shitty EVNs. The Weeb might grudgingly accept Katawa Shoujo depending on the Weeb's other preferences. Moefuck The Moefuck reads visual novels because they really like cute girls or boys. Often personal aesthetics play a big part here and specific preferences are hard to predict, for example certain Moefucks may reject an entire artist or company due to the artstyle in their works being unacceptable. The Moefuck cluster is often seen as an amorphous, rainbow-vomiting blob ruining visual novels by the more seriously afflicted storycucks, but in truth there is more variation in it than they may expect. Moefucks are not necessarily hostile to works with serious stories, they just prefer those stories to also have cute girls. Storycucks The Storycuck wants to experience good stories, and finds VNs to be a source of such stories. In terminal cases, the Storycuck may not be able to deal with the large amount of filler in many visual novels and bounce right out into the community periphery after initially being hooked by some particularly well-paced VN. The perfectly horrible case is the Storycuck that is too distracted to watch shows, unable to get into books due to lack of visual stimulus, yet also unable to deal with SoL content. Is there any being more cursed? Anyway, I digress. The Storycuck doesn't really care that much about medium conventions like moe or superficial presentation style or whatever: they want a compelling narrative. If we ask a Storycuck, one problem with the visual novel category right now is that it doesn't admit other related genres like walking simulators, or things like Actual Sunlight and To The Moon. Their perspective on more extreme extensions like Phoenix Wright or even JRPGs will depend on their evaluation of gameplay. Degenerate Fappers These gender-neutral guys just wanna have fun, in a way that generally requires at least one hand to be free for use. You're unlikely to actually see pure Fappers in the community as they don't really have stories to discuss. I'd try the f95zone or whatever if I were looking. In mixes with other types, this manifests as disinterest in anything that does not have porn. In their eyes, if it's got no ero, it has no place calling itself a VN — after all, if it can't be fapped to, there's no point in reading it! Ero-JRPG fanboys So now you're thinking to yourself - these guys (still gender-neutral) have got to have a lot of overlap with the Degenerate Fappers. I agree, but I think it's worth separating out the two. The Degenerate Fappers don't really have a need for the visual novel category because of their DF association — they'll be arguing mostly from another type's perspective, with a modifier of Horny — but the Ero-JRPG fanboys have a lot to lose if their objects of passion are cut out of the VN category. Why? Because the wider JRPG community often has a serious intolerance of porn in their games. There _are_ places that specify in just Ero-JRPGs [nekohen], but there aren't that many games in the category, and focus for some may be less on the story contents (often machine translated!) and more on the gameplay (ui only patches!) and porn. This leads to wishing to classify Ero-JRPGs like Toushin Toshi II, Evenicle, etc. as VNs despite them being basically equivalent to your average JRPG if one ignores the sex scenes. The pure Ero-JRPG fanboy doesn't really like to read for long stretches without interaction, and if it could remove something from the definition, it would probably pick first choice-free visual novels, then extensionally VNs with few enough choices to be bothersome. Autists The motivation of the Autist when it comes to the visual novel category is that it be clear and defined by a definition that is as Not Bullshit as possible. This is a meta-motivation that may cause people to go against the naive interests of their other types. For example, observe the Storycuck Zaka's high Autism interaction as he proclaims walking simulators should not be considered VNs, despite him having liked Gone Home quite a bit and being interested in more of the genre. The Autist's greatest gripe is when people goddamn try to shove things in the FUCKING category that obviously don't fit PLEASE STOP IT DAMN YOU. VN Evangelists The VN Evangelist wants to spread the word of visual novels by any means possible, and is not afraid to butt heads with some stuffy Autist if they have to. They can and will use imprecise language like "it's like playing an anime, man", wide definitions (expect Phoenix Wright to be on their list of 'VNs' to play for beginners), and such villainy to attempt to get more people into visual novels. A community member in favor of more exclusion may cringe at their methods and predict that they will overwhelmingly attract annoying orbitals who will finish DDLC or whatever and then fuck up discussion with their terrible, uninformed opinions. The Evangelist will tell said member to loosen the fuck up and not be so elitist, and who knows maybe DDLC-kun will be a productive member of the community one day NOT THAT THEY AREN'T ALREADY BUT ANYWAY. And so on. The VN Evangelist wishes more things were on vndb in general so it could have more arguments to get people to try other 'VNs' out. Artistes The Artiste is probably making a VN. Or two. It's got culture up to here. VNs are a medium, but it's so boring if you just take the conventions for granted, right? They want to break and remake in a Shivan storm of creation, never settling for the mediocrity of the established form. They resent criteria that restrict their medium-busting ambitions, and would like for you to abandon your silly notions of traditional presentation methods. The Artiste wants you to fucking chill out on insisting on any definition, but okay can we have like, The Walking Dead in the category please? (Zaka: No.) Oh and Actual Sunlight should definitely be in the category. (Zaka: Sure) Incredibly half-arsed conclusion Speaking as a person who is a Storycuck and Autist, but has low amounts of Weeb, Moefuck, and Horny, I think we should have a somewhat restrictive definition of visual novels, but we should welcome diverse artstyles and embrace EVNs. As I don't value gameplay highly, I consider the _choiceless visual novel_ the best way to ground the category, even though this is arguably ahistorical. Choices are fine, intrusive gameplay only good if it serves the narrative, and things that are OBVIOUSLY JRPGs FOR CHRIST'S SAKE should frankly just be taken out of VNDB right this minute. That said if something is very close to a VN and also story heavy and honestly it kind of reads like a VN? fuck it IS a VN fuck you include Actual Sunlight actually... then uhh yeah... Maybe we can compromise my ideals. —But your reasons for being into VNs may be very different. And this is why we must fight. I can only hope I will one day prevail, or at least see Actual Sunlight (kino) included on VNDB. Until then, I will attempt to appeal to the Autism in both of us to at least get a sensible — if fragile — boundary established.

I just finished it tonight. I liked it so much more than the other Yuzusoft I read, Dracu-Riot. In fact, I liked it more than I thought I would in general. It had a lot of really good themes related to personal growth and relationships. Shuuji was a very solid protag that emphasized the personal growth thing very well. Thought he was gonna be a simp the whole story. As far as the routes as a whole, I liked how they covered very different themes. I also liked all the datable heroines were basically nice girls. Route rankings: 1) Tsumugi - Had the most unique storytelling. Had some nice emotional moments and development. 2) Nene - So long but quite good. Went in ways most won't be expecting. 3) Wakana- BRAVEMAN. Also generally nice and feel good. No issues, just a fun short romance. 4) Meguru- I liked how it covered the little things of making a relationship work. And it involved the OC as a whole most. Had some nice feelsy scenes. Brought down by Meguru being kinda annoying sometimes. 5) Touko - Had some interesting/funny scenes but was kinda forgettable Main Heroine rankings: 1) Wakana- I really enjoyed her honesty. It was fun and refreshing, she knows how to have a good time but also when to be serious with real advice. I kinda wish she had at least a chapter or 2 more in her route. 2) Tsumugi - Her and Nene is pretty close. I honestly think Tsumugi wins cuz I liked her route very slightly more, and I kinda prefer her more motherly vibe. 3) Nene - Not too far behind. Obviously the main heroine with all the shilling. She had some surprising depth I enjoyed. Sometimes a bit too childish/immature for my liking which only brings her down very slightly. 4) Meguru - She had potential to be my #1 character. She had interesting depth, a usually fun-ish personality, some really nice moments in her route, and the nerd thing was nice. Unfortunatley she's easily the one to be the most annoying in comedy, both in and out of her route. 5) Touko - I sometimes like tease-y characters. But for some reason she felt even shallower than most other characters of her type. She does give good advice and I guess she had a plot reason for being how she is but her route didn't make her that interesting to me. Other notes: -Side characters weren't too bad. Cool dad character, cool bro characters, kinda funny teacher, a few other interesting ones. -Most of the humor was hilarious. Some of it was annoying usually Meguru being obnoxious or characters unnecessarily getting mad of Shuuji -I actually quite liked the OST. Though mostly the slice of life theme, plus a few character themes like Nene/Tsumugi/Wakanas. And a few of the feels songs, especially Setsunakute. Overall.. 8.5/10, Will probably round out to 9. I have a feeling no other Yuzusoft VNs will have storytelling even close to what some of the routes did though...