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Sad to hear, and going by your page, seems like the incomplete two routes are for the red-haired girls that I was looking forward to? Ah well. Thanks for all your work Ittaku! & Editors!

@Larxe1, you have wrong vndb link in your post - Rupekari is under v29383, not v16338 (16338 is Shirogane x Spirits).

Finished Meikei no Lupercalia/Rupekari. It is a 9.5/10 and I rarely give that score. Even if I haven't read a lot of novels this year, this will be definitely on one of the top ten of what I read this year. It's that good. If you're looking for a focus on acting, something like act-age, it's not that. Their acting skills aren't the focus. The focus is on the theatre of the characters shroud their lives in. The lies they envelop themselves in just to live. How far should you go for theatre, how far did theatre ruin their lives. How deep the characters themselves shroud themselves in their own lives. This isn't a down to earth experience, expect something like Clannad where there is some sort of KEY magic going on. First, I'll discuss the more negative parts that I didn't like, and it's not that many. First, the art itself. While the character designs were fine, their poses are simply strange. The proportions feel off and for such a high quality story, such flaws become more and more apparent. While I'm not an expert in art and honestly, I really don't give much care for it, but it is much more noticeable in such a quality story. Some CG's were absolutely beautiful though and I saved it on my pc as it was just that good. The beginning is kind of weak. When they do plays, the voice-acting and atmosphere carries the scene through a whole new level but the SoL parts in the beginning were kind of standard fare. I was kinda sick of SoL at that time, so I barely played Rupekari like I only played an hour every day or whenever I remember. However, when they reach the point in which they start readying for theatre, it gets a lot better trust me. The flashbacks are a double-edged sword, It is also a positive for me in characterization, but sometimes it throws off the pacing of what's going on. And sometimes it can get a bit dreary reading too many flashbacks. Also, for an MC with that much of a personal history and since this is about theatre, it would have been better if he was voiced but its probably budget constraints or something and I understand that. That's it for the negative parts for me. Now for the positive parts. The music, they didn't have a lot of pieces to play like there were only 26 BGMs in total, but they actually used them quite well, and I never felt much need for more BGMs, what they had been perfect, and it always fit the scenes. I'm not an expert in music too, and I can't delve too much into it, but I know a well-executed sound design when I hear one. The story and the characters. I'll be discussing them both together as the story and the characters and intertwined. This is a story driven by its characters, not the other way around. All the characters are extensively developed. A certain scene will end up with you hating a certain character, but the more you get to know him through his interactions with others and his flashbacks, his personality, his motivations, all are warped, but you can still see where he is coming from. He is just a human, and I didn't expect the guy I hated at first to be one of the characters to make me cry at the end of his character arc. Moments like that are many in this novel, everyone is flawed just like real humans are. Those flaws will irritate you to no end. They will make mistakes but in the end, you will understand them. They have their virtues, all of them are trying to get want in their own way. However, their virtues don't cancel out their flaws, but that's just being human. All the characters are written well and by the end, you'll be loving them all. The flashbacks form something like a third of the story and that's a lot but all of them contribute to the story and make you get to know all the characters. All the characters have their purpose in the story, and getting to know them immerses you more and more in the theatres they play, and their character arc becomes more and more tragic and beautiful. Every side character had their own life, their own mistakes, their regrets, their dreams. All of them dream to stand in the theatre, however life is not that pretty, and it reflects well on the writing. Theatre isn't some all-encompassing good thing, it destroyed some actors themselves, the sacrifices they make that chip at their soul, the ugliness of reality is in full display, however whenever they perform on the theatre, you find yourself enchanted. Maybe all those sacrifices were worth it in the end for this piece of art, and the characters themselves often ask those questions to. "Why do I love theatre? Did I really love theatre? Am I happy now?" All the characters have their own answers, all of them pursue theatre for their own reasons, some of them are just there because that's what they thought that they were born to do. As you get to know the characters, the more you will immerse yourself into the setting and get attached to the characters, and when despair hits them, you'll find yourself despairing as much as they do. The circumstances in which they are in are cruel. It isn't because of what they did or what they are, that's just how life is. This story is not pretty, and often you'll find yourself gripped by the despair of what's happening. There are a lot of separate character arcs happening on screen, and they're brought to their conclusion in their own arcs. In each arc, you'll get to know the character themselves, what lie are they living in, what are they trying to get away from, and how will stand against the ugly truth. The routes themselves are in a way bad ends, and it is obvious why it is. They are bad ends with a story that will let you get to know the characters. The format is branching routes, and it's hard to do a route because the choices you need to do is sometimes morally disgusting. You know it is wrong, but you do it because it's a comfortable lie, but a life built by lies will collapse on its own, and you can never be truly happy. While I liked Meguri's character the most, the choice to go into her route is... Well, I can't stomach it since it feels so wrong. But you know destroying her world of lies will thrust her into the despair of reality, and they show her despair when you make that choice to destroy her lies. Sewa Tamaki, the main character is as much as important as a character than everyone else. He is not the focus of the story, all of them are. While he maybe the main POV of the game, there will be a lot of moments where you play the VN as the POV of another character. I don't have much to say about him without being too spoiler-y. Also, while this is a title that will make you cry, it is not an Utsuge as I have previously mentioned. While the despair and hopelessness will make you feel sad, the ending itself is a hopeful one and an earned happy ending. It's a fitting conclusion although while I may hate open-ended endings, this novel did it good and it made me feel satisfied as this is not a story about romance, but how all of the characters move on from the painful reality and face tomorrow head-on. I highly recommend people to try this. BTW MEGURI NO.1 I wrote this on the fly after reading the VN's while my thoughts are fresh but not that organized. I'll probably edit this to add more and construct my thoughts better.

I finished Musicus last night and I figure I should write something about it. First off, for any of you who want to know, I can give a clear answer regarding that spoiler you were discussing earlier on in the thread. The story as a whole is kind of what you're expecting, with a band starting from nothing and gradually moving forward to bigger venues, and while that part didn't really interest me that much since it's been done several times before, I realize it's a mandatory part of a VN such as this and it works out well thanks to a great cast of characters. They (along with the awesome soundtrack) are what really makes Musicus worthwhile, with all their individual quirks, banter and whatnot. If I were to list any cons, these are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head: 1. No cameos from the characters of KiraKira or Deardrops. I was sure that this, being Overdrive's last VN, would bring them all together in the end, but that never happens. Kirari is briefly mentioned in dialogue, but other than that, there's nothing at all. 2. Romance is almost non-existent in all routes. They either contain little or none of it, or the route ends basically as soon as the protagonist and the girl gets together. I kinda expected it, based on previous titles and this being a music VN first and all, but I was hoping they'd focus a little more on it than in Deardrops and KiraKira. 3. A bit heavy on the drama side in one particular route. (Yes, the one I've mentioned before.) It felt a bit forced, like they really wanted to push sadness on us so they just went all out. Musicus is no masterpiece by any means, but when it shines, it's great, and it's definitely a suitable sendoff for Overdrive. To be honest, I felt a bit empty inside once I saw the credits rolling, knowing the only way I'll get to experience this from now on is by replaying one of their older titles.

[Musicus!] This week I'm playing Musicus! I think I only played one vn focused on music so far, so I'm really looking forward to it! First impressions Positive The writing flows so well! I don't know if it's because I've been reading "meh" VNs or what, but I could read this for hours and not feel tired. The music AND THE SONGS, holy moly. I love the BGM, it fits so much and I was expecting actual songs, but I wasn't expecting to love them this much! I guess I'll be searching for them later on... The characters: so far they are pretty darn interesting and captivating! Eveyone has their own flavor and I'm especially intrigued by Hanai. The VA wasn't bad, so I guess that counts as a positive. I wish more VNs had voices for the protagonists tho... sigh, but I guess I understand the reason as for why they don't. Negative The art is 50/50. I like some aspects of it, like the background art and the art for the protagonist and some girls, but most of them just look kinda derpy, especially those eyes lol Act 1 (before Ozaki's route) Oh boy... this vn is something special already. I love the flow, the characters, the writing, the songs, the philosophy aspects, everything! The art has grown on me, I admit. It made me smile, bang my head, cry my eyes out... It was the whole package. P.S.: Guess who's addicted to Gura Gura now ------------- Next week I'll be talking about Ozaki's route!

It seems to me that every VN that has either these heroine traits is nukige. Is there any "normal" romcom/slice of life with at least one heroine like this? Non translated is fine