RusAnon

Umm, if you want to just get chars frequency, you don't need regexes or anything else. >>> import collections >>> d = collections.Counter() >>> d.update(list(s)) where s is text string.

What exactly you mean by "catch-all"? It already covers pretty much everything you could relate to typical VN archetype. Any broader than that would be simply "japan games" or "games", which isn't descriptive enough.

Not really, there's still more than 3/4 of game to tl even if you find demo tl quality to be appropriate and have no problems with porting it (they didn't change script between releases and so on, which isn't a given).

Well, strictly speaking, calling it NVL isn't correct, since its ADV for the most part of game. But yeah, japs use NVL/ADV in official docs to refer to this particular type of game (text against fixed background, with one or more tachie and event CG).

Japs prefer eroge to VN because its easier for them to pronounce, there's no deep meaning behind it. But both VN and SN originated from japan, and its known fact that for example Ryokishi preferers to call his early games as サウンドノベル. VNs and eroge are completely different things tho, so its preferrable to be specific. KID VNs are not eroge for example. RPGMaker h-games are eroge but not VNs and aren't something you would expect in vn-related discussion.

There are no major problems with reinserting scripts. Only thing we didn't fix yet is that chapter names are still in japanese in scene recall mode.

TBH, majority of VNs are very repetitive as well. Once you completed dozen of moege, you can predict events and even particular jokes and phrases in next ones with very high accuracy. And nukiges are even worse in this sense.

How can someone not like Rance? He is best protag ever, doing right things and not being afraid of anything.

Just use prepatched version from here http://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4488161

First bath scene with Kotori has her completely nude if patch worked.

Oh, so thats who is responsible for this atrocity. It fucking replaced my beloved gravatar with some fugly shit, and moreover forums are full of this stuff now, causing my eyes to bleed. Using such tactics against own users is very bad idea.

Wasn't this already discussed to death? VN is "visual novel". To qualify as VN, game should have "visual" aspect of some form, and "novel" aspect (in particular, narration). So if significant part of story is explained via narration text (ADV or NVL style), its VN. If text is limited to dialogues mostly or its audio narration, its not VN.

First part is not something that could be explained in a forum post. At very least, you have to have solid grasp on common C/C++ data structures and containers (how they are represented in memory and on disk), common compression and encryption algorithms, common encodings, at least basic knowledge of x86 assembler and some skills in reverse-engineering (at least to be familiar with IDA Pro). There are tons of materials available on each of these subjects, but its not something you could learn overnight. Second (installer) is simpler — you just use any of available toolkits, like Nullsoft Scriptable Install System.

Just do Takeshi's routes before Shounen's, and you will be fine. I started with Shounen and it kinda spoiled half the game.

1) Depends. Its okay with neesan, but not okay for underage imoutos. It was really annoying that I had to complete Chinami route in hoshimemo to read true end. 2) No fiction should be ever outlawed. Generally, you shouldn't expect "reason", "accounting" and "common sense" from authorities. There would be no NSA, "Patriot Act" and other pointless (from citizen perspective) stuff if they would actually care about "reason".

If you are looking for something-not-SoL, MLA is definitely first thing you should check. Other titles with unique and interesting stories: Saya no Uta, Liar-Soft WAB series (esp. Sharnoth and Inganock), Dra+KoI

Interaction with protag matters much more than archetype for me, and pretty much every archetype can be played good, but if I'd have to choose, I'd go with Yamato Nadeshiko type. Esp. ones which combine strength, strictness and reservedness with feminine and cute sides. Best example Uesugi Kenshin (http://vndb.org/c2859) from Sengoku Rance. In her shy-mode she is irresistibly cute. Also, Mitsurugi Meya (MLU/MLA), Kan'u Unchou (Koihime Musou). Other two archetypes worth mentioning are "Arrogant Ojousama" and "Modern Tsundere", because most of the time I cannot tolerate their presence in novel and just ctrl through their lines, but they also can be played right (for example, Mare isn't that bad even tho she's abusive and tsun). If protag is not some hetare shit and actually got balls, arrogant heroines become good comedy relief characters, like Yuuji x Yumiko in Grisaia. Appearances are much easier to rank: kemonomimi; twintails; meido uniforms; slim, petite body; gothic/lolita fashion suits. Kuroneko in her nekomimi mode is best example. And out of categories, just ranking heroines alone: Saya and Makina, two best eroge girls ever.

You can ask for everyone's vndb profiles, then sum up votes on their vn lists, and then calculate which vns have better average/median/total/weighted average scores.

No MLA, SnY or Grisaia? No KID novels? Thats quite weird selection. Also, KiraKira? Its slightly-above-average, but hard to see why it would be in this list, its no better than, say, Quartett or Period.

Xenophobia or not, but they turned down all approaches from MG, JAST and everyone else, and its common tale in community that they asked about million dollars of advance payment for license for one of their games. MG staff several times stated on MG forums that getting Key/VA games is impossible.

Official TL of Visual Arts game? Not going to ever happen.

Hanahira is simplest VN I've read in jp, also its all-ages and no drama or other distracting stuff.

Gathering team before game released is pointless, size, engine, writing complexity and even whether its worth reading at all is unknown at this moment.

Yes, project uses our own tools. Crowd uses different encryption between games, so our tools wouldn't work with other versions of XC/XCA as is, I or binaryfail would need to reverse-engineer encryption there and change code accordingly.

DR has linear main plot, all characters die in specified order and you cannot affect story in any way. Your actions only affect whether you get characters backstory or not.