Turnip Sensei

You should try the Hollow Area. I got bored of Aincrad after 5 or so floors, but I really liked the adventure through Hollow Area. Not only is the new girl, Philia, more interesting than the others and there's almost a proper story, but Hollow Area is also less linear, the areas are more varied and interesting, it doesn't have as much boring filler quests and it's actually pleasantly challenging. You can't just go spamming skills on bosses and mini-bosses, you actually have strategize a little, which makes the combat way more interesting. I don't know if it gets any better on higher floors of Aincrad, but for me Hollow Area was the most worthwhile part of the game.

I finished Hikari no Valusia last night, but I was too tired to write anything cohesive. It was my second completed VN in japanese and my 5th Steampunk-game. The "One thousand and One Nights"-esque setting was really interesting. The desert city Valusia, it's ancient customs and history. There's even a songstress/storyteller fitting for the the theme, which is utilized very well in the "minigame". (it's just choices like in Gahkhtun) This time the episodic structure is wilder than ever since there's not even a clear main character. Instead the perspective jumps between multiple characters, offering insight to the events through very differing viewpoints and time frames. There's the young boy and the girl, warrior siblings, foreign Scholar and his assistant, King of Bandits, assassin, a dancer of a harem, governor of Valusia and supervisor of Erudite Scholar Association. Each of them gets their own chapter, some more insignificant than others, but all contributing their own small, yet important part to the story. It might feel little frustrating on the middle, but come final moments of the VN all the parallel stories and perspectives are tied together to a satisfying ending. Overall I really enjoyed Valusia. The stories Sakurai crafts are always really intriguing both in terms of the actual events and what goes inside the characters itself. And finishing a Sakurai's story feels always so good. Even if it's only for a moment, Sakurai manages to bring out something really beautiful out of the characters, thus out of humans and making world feel like a slightly better place. Next up, Souten no Celanaria, last Steampunk-game I've yet to read and at the same time the first Steampunk-game released. And I guess there's the Full-voice Fan-disk and Gahkthun Fan-disk too. I also want to read Sharnoth again since I can hardly remember anything worthwhile of it. More so now that I feel like I've finally started to grasp the underlying shadows of Steampunk-world, and I definitely missed most of that in Sharnoth. It wouldn't be a bad idea either to read Inganock again in Japanese and see what I missed...

Wow, those are pretty great! I especially like the Inganock one, it captures the feeling and themes of Inganock so well.

I'll join Team Down as well. For good taste, bad puns and lethargy.

Just finished Suzuha's ending myself:

I really like these demos. I want to go in with as little knowledge as possible, but also I want to get some taste beforehand. So I ended up doing the same I did with Gahkthun, just read good few lines (didn't even finish a scene), confirmed that it's good and hyped myself in the process. Can't wait Tokyo Babel!

It's best to not worry too much about the routes, especially true route, when you're playing it for the first time. Trying to follow a guide kinda kills the fun of the phone-choice system, and you might still accidentally miss some of the triggers. (That happened to me when I first tried getting the true end). Just play as you feel like. If you manage to get to some of the side routes, great! Even more so if you didn't even intended to get them in the first place. (I have some good stories about the routes, but I'll leave that for later time) I'm at chapter 4 now, and Steins;Gate is just as good as I remembered. It's entertaining (japanese memes!), and the characters are really cool and wacky. Even the the science stuff is cooler than I remembered, and it feels believable enough to play along with. And man, I did really miss the dynamic between Okabe and Kurisu, it's just so good. The e-mails, their constant bickering...

I read Kindred Spirits immediately after launch and I liked it a lot. Especially how straightforward and honest it is. It's lighthearted and funny when it wants to be it, but never goes over top. And then the subjects that require more delicate approach are handled very tactfully. And I think it's definitely one the better, if not the best purely romance focused VNs I've read, despite and because of the Yuri. Pretty much all the couples put most of VN relationships to shame in terms of depth, which is pretty impressing considering how many of them there are. The little clumsy and realistically awkward romantic progression is not only very refreshing, but also very easy to relate to and feels really natural. I mentioned it somewhere before, but Kindred Spirits made me actually remember all the silly feelings that came with falling in love when I was younger. That's how strangely endearing it is. I think Kindred Spirits does something really well when it doesn't really feel like a yuri game. The couples are formed because the characters really love each other, both being women is just a small part of it. It's just really good romance all around, I can wholeheartedly recommend it to pretty much anyone. And yeah, Aki & Youka is indeed the best couple.

I missed the other thread, but it's nice to have you back, @Getsuya! I'm totally in for the game club reboot as the previous one was really fun while it lasted. And I also agree that looser "themes" are better than limiting selection to genres. It's way easier to be prejudiced against a genre, and plus when you choose by more abstract concepts you usually find more interesting and unconventional games.

Importing physical Eroge is kind of dodgy, but books I can by as much as I want. Like even more Sakurai.

Yoo let's go! But first some friendly advice for those reading Steins;Gate for the first time: Don't use any kind of walkthrough. Just don't. Don't even look up how the branching or the choice system works. Steins;Gate is the kind of visual novel where the first playthrough should be done by going with the "feeling" and figuring things out by yourself. This might be a hit or miss depending on the person in question, but if you manage to get into a right state of mind Steins;Gate has some amazingly powerful moments.

Oh, there's some interesting choices here. YU-NO and Remember11 are both classics I've never read and Steins;Gate is so good that I don't mind rereading it. (I've actually been thinking about doing just that) Cross Channel is something that I definitely want to read in Japanese at some point, but for now reading two different VNs in Japanese at the same time would certainly be too much for me. And for Exodus Guilty, I have no words. It's even a DVD game. lol

I decided to read Hanachirasu in order to get back into a VN reading mood. (other than slowly working my way through Hikari no Valusia) Hanachirasu being a short VN meant I could finish it in day and be left craving for more, and so now I can start reading whatever I decide with fresh state of mind. Not to mention I've been interested in reading it for a while, but never got around doing it. And Hanachirasu was pretty great. It was sufficiently dark, but also surprisingly amusing with it's somewhat absurd sense of humor. And damn the battle scenes... I really liked the meticulous explanations and all the info about sword techniques, no matter how accurate they might or might not be. I've always been more fan of battles that are over in one decisive moment than fights that devolve into a contest of endurance, so I'm glad Hanachirasu delivered on that front. There's just much more feeling in it when every move is lethal.

8/10 the contrast with the background is bit too extreme for me. And those eyes, they are staring to my soul...

Yup, sparing Royji is the only requirement, so you are good to go. The final month is pretty impressive, and small things like new background music makes it all the better. You're probably going to have trouble Maxing both Mitsuru's and Aigis's S.Link, so I suggest focusing on Aigis's. Not only is it pretty good S.Link on it's own, it's also really worth do it for variety of reasons and especially on first playthrough. I agree with Shinji being pretty cool, but Jumpei is da man of Persona 3. His and Chidori's storyline is just great, and he really elevates himself out of the "annoying and slightly incompetent sidekick"-status, unlike certain someone in Persona 4.

Here it starts. It must be fate that messed up the previous romance S.Links, now you have no choice but to go for Aigis. FeMC or MC, Aigis is just pure love and the most fitting choice for the whole game.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. In a way the episodic pacing, changing cast and the different themes they bring are the essence of Steampunk games. Each chapter is a smaller story with focus on different concepts, using varied characters to convey these in ways the main character couldn't. And these side characters are at times better developed than your average VN-characters, despite the short period where they appear. You see the new characters of each chapter struggle with their problems and influencing the main characters because of this. There might some conclusion to these struggles, good, bad or indeterminate, but in the end the story and life of the characters continues flowing onward, leaving it's mark in the characters and the reader. Much like in real life, short encounters can influence people more than you can imagine, and the briefness doesn't make them any less important. Even if you never hear about certain character afterwards the meaning of this encounter still stays. While Steampunk games have the bigger story going on, it's usually not most important part. The fantastic setting and events are just a stage for the more mundane and simple things. The real substance of Steampunk games is found in these fleeting relationships between the characters and in beauty that can be found in simple things like memories and so on. But that's just how I feel, and I can easily understand why this style might not please everyone. I personally found the beauty of Steampunk games when reading my third Steampunk VN: Gahkthun, so it's kind of an acquired taste. Still, Steampunk games are pretty cool stories even if you don't buy into my ramblings. Gahkthun is really good VN and in my opinion the most accessible and best place to start with the series.

Sakurai's Steampunk games are pretty divisive. You either like the unique charm and writing, or not, in most cases. I personally find lot to love in these VNs. The settings are great, the characters are always really intriguing and in ways that don't really appear in VNs very often. And I really like the way Sakurai uses fantastic settings and events to convey really mundane things. The stories are more about simple things like importance of memories or foolishness of youth and so on, rather than about some great adventure or mystery. To some this might feel like misuse of the setting, but for me it's part of the charm. And the writing too is strangely captivating. I don't know how to properly convey it, but the kind of poetic flow creates some pretty unique atmosphere and feeling. And at times it just simply sounds really cool and beautiful, especially in Japanese. I can't really comment on anything specific about Valusia since I just started it, but I've heard it's one of the weakest in the series and has some pacing issues. Still liking it though, although the first chapter is full of info-dumping about the setting, which is cool since the setting is amazing, but also kind of exhausting to read. And Sakurai's style doesn't really shine in these long and varied expositions, so I've been progressing pretty slowly. But man the art is good, Valusia is definitely the most visually impressive of the Steampunk games. Especially the scenery shots are just amazing.

Because I like visual novels as a story telling medium, it's simple as that. And it's not like I don't appreciate the audio-visual content, I very much do, but it's just not the the most important part for me. And that's what this thread is about; "the most important part in a visual novel for you". And the hyperbole that I should just read books if I don't care about the audio-visual part that much is really silly. Especially if you happen to recommend me western authors. How's that going to be any replacement for my weeb stories? I happen find the stories presented in visual novels more fascinating than what I found in books. There are these unique themes, concepts and general feel that only Japanese media like anime, JRPGs and VNs have that I happen to really like, and VNs just feature them the best, being the most story-focused of the three. I haven't still read a book that would have made me feel the same way as, for example, Steins;Gate, Narcissu or Gahkthun, even when trying to observe them just purely in terms of story.

Have fun grinding in dungeons! Nah, Dungeon Travelers is actually really entertaining game, provided you like dungeon crawling and fan-service. The girls are all really cute and the combat system is solid. Speaking of DT2, I think I should finish that game. I have a syndrome of buying all the DRPGs, loving them and then for some reason stop playing them around the final dungeon. It's usually either that I get stuck on a boss or some new shiny game is released, but to this day I've yet to finish most of the DRPGs I have. But as long as I like them I guess that's okay.

I've always felt like it's not that hard to get used to "bad" art or music, even bad voice acting can be turned off. But getting used to bad or uninteresting story is almost impossible for me and mostly not worth it at all. VN with good story and bad everything else is still a good story, but pretty VN with abysmal story is still just bad. Aesthetics don't make up for the content. Unless it's a nukige or something, but I don't count them in this case, and because I don't read them. So yeah, story is still the king for me, even in a visual media like VNs.

Yoo, I've done it! I've finally read my first VN in Japanese from start to finish, Liar-soft's Shiei no Sona-Nyl. It only took like 5 months, although that's mostly because I stalled it in order to read other stuff and to study more Japanese. And now I got into reading mood little over week ago and read over half of the novel in one week. I've now finally managed to get to state where reading in Japanese doesn't feel that much exhausting than any other reading. It's still way slower than reading in English, but compared to when I started with Sona-Nyl it's already starting to feel somewhat natural. Sona-Nyl wasn't even that difficult to read after all. The Engine science terms and fight scenes were kind of annoying from time to time, mostly because they had all kinds of weird words and expressions. Other than that there's nothing headache inducing or hard to understand stuff, even the signature repetition makes the reading in some ways easier on then long run. Because there's lots of thematic expressions and wordings that appear often and depending on chapters, reading starts to flow really well after you grasp them. Not mention it's amazing Kanji and synonym practice. And overall... It's Sakurai's Steampunk-game, of course I loved it. The story is on par with all the other Steampunk-games and so are the characters. The road trip through ruins of New York was really interesting, and in a way the road trip feel fits the familiar episodic style the best. You meet new people, interact with them and then leave them behind when stopping at different places while travelling, so the changing cast feels very natural. Sona-Nyl has also a very strong dual perspective on things on top of the usual perspective changes, which is a pretty refreshing element. It also helps that the style of narration changes as well, since the two protagonist see and feel about the world differently.

Just finished the main scenario of Kindred Spirits on the Roof. There's still some bonus scenes left to read, but that's for tomorrow. I had this feeling from the beginning that Kindred Spirits would turn out be a really respectable romance VN, and I'm glad it didn't disappoint me. Sure, it's not the greatest there is and it's little clumsy from time to time, but it's also the best pure romance story (stories?) I've read in a visual novel. It's very honest and natural how it present the romance and does many things better since it doesn't follow the standard eroge formula. No routes mean better focus and very refreshingly there's no shoehorned H-scenes. And the few scenes that are in there are where tastefully done. I encourage everyone to at least look into Kindred Spirits. I can guarantee that it makes you feel way better than making heated arguments about Sekai Project's business decisions. ~ I've also made some really good progress on Shiei no Sona-Nyl, I but got stuck on a H-scene at final chapter just before Kindred Spirits was released. But more about that later when I've read it to completion.

So I've been playing Kindred Spirits for a good while today and I can say it's really good. It strikes a really good balance between being entertaining and... not serious per say, but tackling the more sensitive topics tactfully. The romantic progression is feels really natural and heartfelt; it's both little awkward and really endearing, and portrayed in a down-to-earth way that you don't see very often in visual novels. Some scenes made me actually flashback to my youth, my first love, even though I certainly didn't attend a all-girls school nor had a same sex crush, but the same natural and awkward feelings can be sensed. The characters, which I think there are 16, are all nicely fleshed out and distinctive too. I'm especially very happy with the effort that went into the localization, as each of the characters stands out from each other with unique speech quirks, some more notable than others, but still. The diverse cast also brings a wide perspective into different types relationships and problems and I had blast following all the different pairings and groups. Also extra points for Yuna (the main character) for being a Cooking Goddess. I probably enjoy cooking references and descriptions more than I should, but that girl is more amazing cook than Emiya Shirou. So yeah, if you happen to like cooking, there's lots of nice things for you in Kindred Spirits. I actually want to recommend Kindred Spirits to pretty much everyone. It's Yuri, but there's much to love even if you don't especially like yuri. It's school romance, but done in rather different way, so it fits even for people that don't like moege or stuff like that. Kindred Spirits is great, go buy it!

Probably story and writing. Stories are what makes visual novels for me. Pretty graphics, good music and such can only carry the VN so far. If I don't find the story enjoyable, interesting or worth my while, I'll just drop the VN in most cases. Reading an uninspiring story is the worst. Writing is something I've learned to appreciate as I've read more and more VNs, especially in cases where it focuses on narration. While dialogue is good way to portray many things, I can't help but prefer visual novels like Fate/stay night where the narration is used to greatly enhance the storytelling or Sakurai's Steampunk games where even the writing itself feels really satisfying to read.