Kawasumi

It was yet another pretentious game with a lot of crap. I cannot phantom people actually like this stuff. 

it was so cute and really enjoyable to read, I love homura so much aaaah 

Yeah, I sure miss the times when Kickstarter was only used for classy things, like potato salad and the Autoblow 2.

Just finished Majikoi A-4, up next is A-5, then I guess I'll just have to feel empty inside for a week and get on with my life.
 
First was Rin chong's route, and well, can't say it was particularly groundbreaking or anything, although there was that one moment towards the end when Rin captured Yamato and took him to a cottage in the middle of nowhere, that was pretty surprising. Also, the BGM that played at this moment (Wavelets, I think) was really cool, and I just had to take a smoke break in order to fully understand what had just happened and get my hopes up for the end of the route. Well, I'd be lying if I said I was totally satisfied with the way things turned out, but all in all, that route was pretty decent.
 
Homura's route, though, was probably the best thing since sliced bread (and believe me, I was hyped af for sliced bread).
Really, just a nice sweet story about a bunch of people living together for some time and getting close to one another, a slight tinge of drama to keep things interesting, probably the cutest heroine ever (and an Amako mini route, which is nice) for overall one of my favorite routes of the series.

って、多すぎっ！You have tons of interesting vns..
Read the blog post about Shinsou Noise. The minigame sounds 面倒臭い but Mystery+Tragedy looks nice

https://vndb.org/v933
horror, occult
https://vndb.org/v16796
surrealism, madness
https://vndb.org/v17863
horror, denpa
https://vndb.org/v3660
horror, mystery
https://vndb.org/v6411
occultism, mystery
https://vndb.org/v6475
madness, denpa
https://vndb.org/v2567
drama, mystery
https://vndb.org/v5047
gore, horror, fucked up in general
https://vndb.org/v37
horror, denpa
https://vndb.org/v9196
surreal, mystery
https://vndb.org/v4703
????
https://vndb.org/v1912
surrealism
https://vndb.org/v235
the mother of all denpa vns

https://vndb.org/v933
horror, occult
https://vndb.org/v16796
surrealism, madness
https://vndb.org/v17863
horror, denpa
https://vndb.org/v3660
horror, mystery
https://vndb.org/v6411
occultism, mystery
https://vndb.org/v6475
madness, denpa
https://vndb.org/v2567
drama, mystery
https://vndb.org/v5047
gore, horror, fucked up in general
https://vndb.org/v37
horror, denpa
https://vndb.org/v9196
surreal, mystery
https://vndb.org/v4703
????
https://vndb.org/v1912
surrealism
https://vndb.org/v235
the mother of all denpa vns

It's worthy to note, at that point it makes it obvious what points Natsu no Kusari makes; that we're all slaves. There is no escape - we can't live outside society and Shinichi is completely aware of that. In fact - he's aware of that to such an extent, it literally hurts his very own existence.

Weakling
It's kind of amusing, since we're so used to rape no one gives a damn when it's used as a lousy plot device; everyone just rolls their eyes, when it happens. But give them a well thought-out vn, which actually portrays rape as-it-is and people suddenly get offended. Actually, maybe for the better. After all, if you got offended, it must had mean the story left you with a desirable impact, regardless whether you liked it, or not.
I don't think I actually read that many vn's this past year, to actually have any sort of solid candidates. I'd say VA-11 HALL-A might prolly be the best game I had the chance to interact with (even though it's not a 100% vn, YMMV); the biggest (positive) surprise goes exactly to Natsu no Kusari, while the weakest link would be Inochi no Spare; I had a better initial view of that visual novel in the beginning, but once I got into it, I couldn't believe how absurd it actually is; we're literally talking about legally consented medical homicide; what sane parents would actually do that to any of their children? Sacrifice one, so another may live? Or better, perhaps - give birth to one to save another? It not only doesn't make sense; there's literally no actual ground for the events portrayed in the story to be based upon. That said, art was gorgeous, but that alone can't save the writing.
I have a feeling AkabeiSoft3 is starting to get overboard with their latest projects; I still have Gusha no Kyouben to read, but regardless of it - almost all of their games have been more or less a huge disappointment to me. I actually feel offended, because there's no way any self-respecting writer would drop down that kind of shit and expect to be treated seriously by their readers. I - for one - couldn't. The more astonishing it was considered one of the very best japanese releases of 2016. It seems like there's really not much to chose from nowadays - you either get all the garbage tier charage/moege with no actual plot, or pseudo-intellectual stories that try to sound better than they really are, with end results being no less than insulting to any person with a slightest bit of intelligence.

All these speciesists thinking cats liking eroge is weird make Nyatashi disappointed enough to completely ignore the main question posed by the OP.

"Why are they prioritizing the real version of the game over muh pointless plastic case?!"

No, it will be artists, when they realise Ryu just wants to "draw" everything himself again.

Okay
There you go  

Volume 3 when? I need my naked nekos man, I don't want some lame anime version.
(Insert less creepy comment here)

Finished Kikokugai.  Really liked it, and I felt that for what it was (a relatively short kinetic novel), it was quite exceptional.
First of all, I want to thank @Decay for steering me towards the remake.  After having read through it in its entirety, and comparing the CGs of the two versions, I have to say, there is no reason to read the original.  The are mostly the same, just with the remake having much better art, animations, voice acting, and slightly edited h-scenes so they're less explicit (no genitals, less explicit dialogue).  According to VNDB, the original release had no animations, and I can say without a doubt that the animations made the fights scenes much more enjoyable.  It was much easier to, well, envision the actions happening with a combination of the excellent writing in English (Makoto's use of English is probably the best I've seen so far in the TL scene) and the animations themselves.  Thanks to the animations and the updated art, it was the slickest-looking VN I've read besides Tokyo Babel, which had pretty good production values itself.  If I have to give up more explicit h-scenes in return for all of those improvements, then I'm honestly for it.  It did nothing to dull the overall grim feel of the story, and also didn't attempt to make it "all-ages" in the true sense of the word.  It's still an incredibly dark tale that was definitely not meant for children with either release.
Now, to the setting itself.  I'm going to come straight out and say it: I felt a very strong inspiration from Blade Runner.  Now, I'm not saying Urobuchi took the dystopian future with robots setting just from that movie alone, but having seen Blade Runner, I can't deny the similarities, and in my opinion, it's a very good thing.  It focuses more on the criminal underbelly than Blade Runner did, and the setting being in a futuristic Shanghai opens up the path to replace guns with kung fu and traditional eastern weapons for the main character's way of killing his cybernetic foes.  I've always been a fan of noire and sci-fi, and seeing such an immersive movie affect a VN is such a cool thing.  It's a lot less philosophical than Blade Runner was, but it's still an extremely awesome setting that I was extremely pleased to see more of.  I'm always game for dystopian futuristic setting 
And finally, the story.  It doesn't disappoint for those aware of Urobuchi's reputation.  It starts out dark from the very beginning, and it remains so to the very end.  Not much point in posting a short synopsis, since VNDB already has one for those that aren't too lazy to go there and read it themselves.  I was initially a little disappointed with the ending itself, but after a while and a little bit of thought, I don't dislike it as much as I initially thought.  It certainly could have been better, but it definitely didn't ruin the story, and was itself quite twisted and disturbing.  I still think that the story leading up to the ending was a lot more enjoyable than the conclusion itself, though.
TL;DR: Kikokugai is a dark tale of a broken man lusting for bloody revenge and the violent deaths of his enemies that caused him to turn into what he is.  It doesn't pull any punches, and is quite an exciting read.  I highly recommend it for those that like darker stories with futuristic settings full of robots, cyborgs and good fight scenes.

This is why VNs aren't popular in the west.

I intend on finishing that, though uni has kept me quite busy. Hopefully I can get back into a schedule where I have some time to write. I'll be sure to let you know when the next chapter is done.
 
Gratz on 499 clears throat 500 posts!

I'll never understand peoples lust for hategifts

Please install Japanese language in my brain so that I too can partake of the Japanese releases while they're full of spunk.

(aka it's time to learn Japanese...)

yep, hes actually sleeping in my bed right now lol

Chaos;Head Noah (stylized as ChäoS;HEAd NoAH) is an updated rerelease of Chaos;Head, a 2008 visual novel by Nitro+ and 5pb. This version includes six new endings that were not present in the original; one for every main heroine. However, while the original version was only available on PC, the updated version was available on practically every platform but PC.
We at the Committee of Zero intend to change that.
The original Chaos;Head was translated on TLWiki years ago. We intend to build on this work, but heavily revise it and edit it as to match our writing style. Please bear in mind that we are not associated with TLWiki's team in any way, and this project is not related to their own abandoned Noah port and translation.
Staff
We are currently in need of:
A translator with some amount of past experience and the availability and diligence to make steady progress over a few months to a year. Our core Noah team consists of:
Engine Reimplementation for PC: SomeAnon, DrDaxxy Translator: [RECRUITING] TL Checker: SnowedEarth Editor: Kumin, Discontinuous Qualia CG Editor: Cypert Keep in mind that this list does not include everyone in the Committee of Zero. We have many members, including those who have done... zero work.
Progress
At the moment, not much work on the translation itself has been done. We've set up the basic workflow and are putting together an organization system, so once we finish our current side project, we should be all set and ready to jump on translation work no later than the start of the new year (assuming we find a translator by then).
However, what this project currently lacks in translation work, it makes up for in porting work. Our technical team is building a complete reimplementation for PC of the N2System engine that the Xbox version of Noah runs on, and we've made substantial progress. Right now, the engine is capable of reading and interpreting the game's scripts (though it currently only displays backgrounds and plays in-game audio - nothing to show off yet).
Notes
By the way, SciADV fans may be interested to hear that we recently released a patch for the Steam version of STEINS;GATE fixing many of that version's shortcomings. We don't feel this warrants a Fuwa thread on its own, but we wanted to mention it.
The port will likely be finished before the translation, and once that happens, we plan to release it, so Japanese speakers can read the VN on PC.
If you're interested, and think you can help, then aside from this thread and my PMs, the best places to contact us are via e-mail at [email protected] or our Discord.

https://vndb.org/c18937