Fred the Barber

What's up, my dude.

Broski's back, y'all.
Denpasoft (full 18+ release): https://denpasoft.com/collections/newest-releases/products/9-nine-episode-2 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1033420/9nineEpisode_2/ Denpasoft (free patch for the Steam release): https://denpasoft.com/collections/dlc/products/9-nine-episode-2-18-dlc

Broski's back, y'all.
Denpasoft (full 18+ release): https://denpasoft.com/collections/newest-releases/products/9-nine-episode-2 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1033420/9nineEpisode_2/ Denpasoft (free patch for the Steam release): https://denpasoft.com/collections/dlc/products/9-nine-episode-2-18-dlc

Broski's back, y'all.
Denpasoft (full 18+ release): https://denpasoft.com/collections/newest-releases/products/9-nine-episode-2 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1033420/9nineEpisode_2/ Denpasoft (free patch for the Steam release): https://denpasoft.com/collections/dlc/products/9-nine-episode-2-18-dlc

Uhh, so, to get the first post-ending scene, you just wait at the title screen for a while, and then it'll take you straight to a short post-ending scene.
After you've seen that, you just start a new game (either from prologue or the other option, I don't have it handy), and the new options are available.

A handful of reviews have popped up (undoubtedly from free keys, but what can you do), in case they help anyone make a decision:
https://www.tech-gaming.com/the-witchs-love-diary/ https://honeysanime.com/the-witchs-love-diary-pc-steam-review/ But for my money, the best is this half-English half-Chinese review I spotted from a Steam user.
 

Note that there is no all ages version and Steam and Denpasoft both have identical uncut, demosaiced releases. That means you'll need the right config toggles in Steam before they'll let you see it exists. Pick it up with a 10% launch discount on either store:
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1100800/I_Walk_Among_Zombies_Vol_2/ Denpasoft: https://denpasoft.com/collections/newest-releases/products/i-walk-among-zombies-vol-2 The new heroine in this one is really cool, and as with volume 1, the volume 2 is one part post-apocalyptic survival horror one part human drama. This time, I'd say, with a little more emphasis on the "human" angle, as Yuusuke slowly starts to become a little less of a clod.

Note that there is no all ages version and Steam and Denpasoft both have identical uncut, demosaiced releases. That means you'll need the right config toggles in Steam before they'll let you see it exists. Pick it up with a 10% launch discount on either store:
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1100800/I_Walk_Among_Zombies_Vol_2/ Denpasoft: https://denpasoft.com/collections/newest-releases/products/i-walk-among-zombies-vol-2 The new heroine in this one is really cool, and as with volume 1, the volume 2 is one part post-apocalyptic survival horror one part human drama. This time, I'd say, with a little more emphasis on the "human" angle, as Yuusuke slowly starts to become a little less of a clod.

Note that there is no all ages version and Steam and Denpasoft both have identical uncut, demosaiced releases. That means you'll need the right config toggles in Steam before they'll let you see it exists. Pick it up with a 10% launch discount on either store:
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1100800/I_Walk_Among_Zombies_Vol_2/ Denpasoft: https://denpasoft.com/collections/newest-releases/products/i-walk-among-zombies-vol-2 The new heroine in this one is really cool, and as with volume 1, the volume 2 is one part post-apocalyptic survival horror one part human drama. This time, I'd say, with a little more emphasis on the "human" angle, as Yuusuke slowly starts to become a little less of a clod.

Note that there is no all ages version and Steam and Denpasoft both have identical uncut, demosaiced releases. That means you'll need the right config toggles in Steam before they'll let you see it exists. Pick it up with a 10% launch discount on either store:
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1100800/I_Walk_Among_Zombies_Vol_2/ Denpasoft: https://denpasoft.com/collections/newest-releases/products/i-walk-among-zombies-vol-2 The new heroine in this one is really cool, and as with volume 1, the volume 2 is one part post-apocalyptic survival horror one part human drama. This time, I'd say, with a little more emphasis on the "human" angle, as Yuusuke slowly starts to become a little less of a clod.

No, yeah, the Kanon H scenes are truly awful. They were actually my first experience with H in a VN, and I was like, god, why is this a thing. And then I think my next experience was F/SN, which only reinforced that view. I had to play one more game with H in it (it ended up being Comyu) before I finally started thinking maybe H scenes weren't so bad after all.

No, yeah, the Kanon H scenes are truly awful. They were actually my first experience with H in a VN, and I was like, god, why is this a thing. And then I think my next experience was F/SN, which only reinforced that view. I had to play one more game with H in it (it ended up being Comyu) before I finally started thinking maybe H scenes weren't so bad after all.

Microwave ovens emit microwaves at a frequency that makes water molecules rotate, adding kinetic energy and heating the water in the food, which in turn heats the rest of the dish (because thermal energy is basically kinetic energy on a microscopic scale).
If the plate gets hot it's because it got microscopic scratches which small amounts of water can flow into. Ceramic itself is practically transparent to the microwaves, meaning it doesn't absorb any energy from the microwaves and doesn't get heated directly. The food itself not heating up properly has to do with the microwaves not reaching far beyond the surface of the dish so most of the heat gets distributed around the edges.

Damn this guy is the definition of an hidden gem
Dudes voice is lit as fuck
 

They've said previously that leaving it off the shop was just an oversight (but that itself is obviously telling), and I don't think they deleted information about it from their site at any point.
Yeah, it's actually pretty interesting, it's just way too short, and (at $3, this is saying something...) overpriced. Could've been an interesting teaser introduction if they'd bothered to keep it up and if they'd priced it better ($1? Free?).

You folks are talking about a mass move by Japanese VN developers toward mobage like it's a hypothetical, but from what I understand, it's pretty much a fait accompli. A large number of VN developers have already tried (and/or are currently trying) their hand at mobage. You just haven't heard much about it here since they've all have failed miserably thus far, aside from Type-Moon. So it's a bit late to be worried about that coming to suck away the attention paid to VNs—we're already in that boat.
To bring this somewhat back on topic... VN loc companies are similarly looking all around for ways to stay/become profitable. There are only two real strategies I've seen almost all of them employing, at this point: China, and console releases. For China: if you have a license for a worldwide release, why not sell to a market that actually has consistently shown they're willing to pay for VNs, enough to fund a localization effort? It's certainly profitable. For console: Switch ports seem to be profitable, maybe? Though I don't have as clear a picture on that, and there aren't a lot of data points yet. But you can look at lackluster games like Root Letter getting huge sales numbers on consoles and realize, oh yeah, there's probably something there if you play your cards right.
Now, neither of those is going to do the vast majority of people on this board much good, since we're mostly 1) not Chinese readers and 2) looking for 18+ content. As long as English 18+ release sales remain low (for whatever reasons, including but not limited to high rates of piracy), the only hope most of us have is that the VN loc companies both expand in some way that lets them make money (China, console, and/or some other means) and continue to subsidize English versions with 18+ content from those profits out of pure passion for it. That is effectively what they're doing today. Denpasoft, JAST USA, and Nekonyan are all on the China boat (Nekonyan through the Hikari Field partnership), leaving only MangaGamer in the lurch. Denpasoft and MangaGamer, at least, are both doing the non-PC thing, though MangaGamer is taking a galaxy-brain approach where they vomited up a buggy android app and then promptly forgot about it. I'd say if MangaGamer doesn't get in on the Chinese market in some way within the next year or so, I'll eat my hat, except they're so slow-moving that maybe they'll just keep trickling away dollars forever...
Anyway, subsidizing 18+ English releases like this is honestly both risky (all kinds of legal exposure they could easily avoid by just, not doing it) and bad business (because it's throwing away money with no hope of return), but all these companies are doing it anyway. And yet somehow a lot of the vocal members of the VN community treat all of them as some evil enemy, most of the time. Sigh.

I finished the eight stories in Octopath Traveler, and I went to do the bonus dungeon... then got demolished by the game changing the rules on me in the second half of the last fight, which was ~2 hours after the most recent save point, and which was, I believe, only the second fight I've lost in the entire game. Jerks. I don't know if I have the patience to build a team to meet the new rules of engagement, especially given how difficult and time-consuming the first half (I think?) of the boss fight was. We'll see. At least beating the eight sub-bosses before it (who I will have to fight all over again...) each gave a lot of background lore for the game which really tied the whole thing together. Anybody who didn't do this last dungeon (and the game is honestly pretty secretive about it) basically missed out on half of the game's backstory, which is... kinda weird TBH!
So maybe I'll go back to that and finish it off at some point, but in the meantime, I've started in on Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and have chosen the Edelgard's Fanboys Black Eagles for my house. Onward to drama!

A handful of reviews have popped up (undoubtedly from free keys, but what can you do), in case they help anyone make a decision:
https://www.tech-gaming.com/the-witchs-love-diary/ https://honeysanime.com/the-witchs-love-diary-pc-steam-review/ But for my money, the best is this half-English half-Chinese review I spotted from a Steam user.
 

Clearly you never played I Walk Among Zombies. Its commitment to safe sex in a zombie apocalypse setting is really quite impressive.

You folks are talking about a mass move by Japanese VN developers toward mobage like it's a hypothetical, but from what I understand, it's pretty much a fait accompli. A large number of VN developers have already tried (and/or are currently trying) their hand at mobage. You just haven't heard much about it here since they've all have failed miserably thus far, aside from Type-Moon. So it's a bit late to be worried about that coming to suck away the attention paid to VNs—we're already in that boat.
To bring this somewhat back on topic... VN loc companies are similarly looking all around for ways to stay/become profitable. There are only two real strategies I've seen almost all of them employing, at this point: China, and console releases. For China: if you have a license for a worldwide release, why not sell to a market that actually has consistently shown they're willing to pay for VNs, enough to fund a localization effort? It's certainly profitable. For console: Switch ports seem to be profitable, maybe? Though I don't have as clear a picture on that, and there aren't a lot of data points yet. But you can look at lackluster games like Root Letter getting huge sales numbers on consoles and realize, oh yeah, there's probably something there if you play your cards right.
Now, neither of those is going to do the vast majority of people on this board much good, since we're mostly 1) not Chinese readers and 2) looking for 18+ content. As long as English 18+ release sales remain low (for whatever reasons, including but not limited to high rates of piracy), the only hope most of us have is that the VN loc companies both expand in some way that lets them make money (China, console, and/or some other means) and continue to subsidize English versions with 18+ content from those profits out of pure passion for it. That is effectively what they're doing today. Denpasoft, JAST USA, and Nekonyan are all on the China boat (Nekonyan through the Hikari Field partnership), leaving only MangaGamer in the lurch. Denpasoft and MangaGamer, at least, are both doing the non-PC thing, though MangaGamer is taking a galaxy-brain approach where they vomited up a buggy android app and then promptly forgot about it. I'd say if MangaGamer doesn't get in on the Chinese market in some way within the next year or so, I'll eat my hat, except they're so slow-moving that maybe they'll just keep trickling away dollars forever...
Anyway, subsidizing 18+ English releases like this is honestly both risky (all kinds of legal exposure they could easily avoid by just, not doing it) and bad business (because it's throwing away money with no hope of return), but all these companies are doing it anyway. And yet somehow a lot of the vocal members of the VN community treat all of them as some evil enemy, most of the time. Sigh.

TBH, I've typically heard worse ratios than 5:1 for pirated:sales from other VN publishers with access to sales data. There are of course cases to be made that some of those pirates wouldn't buy the game anyway even if pirating were, e.g., higher-risk, harder to do, outright impossible, etc. But yeah, piracy does seem to be a substantial contributor to why VNs are doomed to niche status in the west. Publishers just generally can't afford to get the games they and others want to because the vast majority of the people playing the games don't pay for them.

You folks are talking about a mass move by Japanese VN developers toward mobage like it's a hypothetical, but from what I understand, it's pretty much a fait accompli. A large number of VN developers have already tried (and/or are currently trying) their hand at mobage. You just haven't heard much about it here since they've all have failed miserably thus far, aside from Type-Moon. So it's a bit late to be worried about that coming to suck away the attention paid to VNs—we're already in that boat.
To bring this somewhat back on topic... VN loc companies are similarly looking all around for ways to stay/become profitable. There are only two real strategies I've seen almost all of them employing, at this point: China, and console releases. For China: if you have a license for a worldwide release, why not sell to a market that actually has consistently shown they're willing to pay for VNs, enough to fund a localization effort? It's certainly profitable. For console: Switch ports seem to be profitable, maybe? Though I don't have as clear a picture on that, and there aren't a lot of data points yet. But you can look at lackluster games like Root Letter getting huge sales numbers on consoles and realize, oh yeah, there's probably something there if you play your cards right.
Now, neither of those is going to do the vast majority of people on this board much good, since we're mostly 1) not Chinese readers and 2) looking for 18+ content. As long as English 18+ release sales remain low (for whatever reasons, including but not limited to high rates of piracy), the only hope most of us have is that the VN loc companies both expand in some way that lets them make money (China, console, and/or some other means) and continue to subsidize English versions with 18+ content from those profits out of pure passion for it. That is effectively what they're doing today. Denpasoft, JAST USA, and Nekonyan are all on the China boat (Nekonyan through the Hikari Field partnership), leaving only MangaGamer in the lurch. Denpasoft and MangaGamer, at least, are both doing the non-PC thing, though MangaGamer is taking a galaxy-brain approach where they vomited up a buggy android app and then promptly forgot about it. I'd say if MangaGamer doesn't get in on the Chinese market in some way within the next year or so, I'll eat my hat, except they're so slow-moving that maybe they'll just keep trickling away dollars forever...
Anyway, subsidizing 18+ English releases like this is honestly both risky (all kinds of legal exposure they could easily avoid by just, not doing it) and bad business (because it's throwing away money with no hope of return), but all these companies are doing it anyway. And yet somehow a lot of the vocal members of the VN community treat all of them as some evil enemy, most of the time. Sigh.

You folks are talking about a mass move by Japanese VN developers toward mobage like it's a hypothetical, but from what I understand, it's pretty much a fait accompli. A large number of VN developers have already tried (and/or are currently trying) their hand at mobage. You just haven't heard much about it here since they've all have failed miserably thus far, aside from Type-Moon. So it's a bit late to be worried about that coming to suck away the attention paid to VNs—we're already in that boat.
To bring this somewhat back on topic... VN loc companies are similarly looking all around for ways to stay/become profitable. There are only two real strategies I've seen almost all of them employing, at this point: China, and console releases. For China: if you have a license for a worldwide release, why not sell to a market that actually has consistently shown they're willing to pay for VNs, enough to fund a localization effort? It's certainly profitable. For console: Switch ports seem to be profitable, maybe? Though I don't have as clear a picture on that, and there aren't a lot of data points yet. But you can look at lackluster games like Root Letter getting huge sales numbers on consoles and realize, oh yeah, there's probably something there if you play your cards right.
Now, neither of those is going to do the vast majority of people on this board much good, since we're mostly 1) not Chinese readers and 2) looking for 18+ content. As long as English 18+ release sales remain low (for whatever reasons, including but not limited to high rates of piracy), the only hope most of us have is that the VN loc companies both expand in some way that lets them make money (China, console, and/or some other means) and continue to subsidize English versions with 18+ content from those profits out of pure passion for it. That is effectively what they're doing today. Denpasoft, JAST USA, and Nekonyan are all on the China boat (Nekonyan through the Hikari Field partnership), leaving only MangaGamer in the lurch. Denpasoft and MangaGamer, at least, are both doing the non-PC thing, though MangaGamer is taking a galaxy-brain approach where they vomited up a buggy android app and then promptly forgot about it. I'd say if MangaGamer doesn't get in on the Chinese market in some way within the next year or so, I'll eat my hat, except they're so slow-moving that maybe they'll just keep trickling away dollars forever...
Anyway, subsidizing 18+ English releases like this is honestly both risky (all kinds of legal exposure they could easily avoid by just, not doing it) and bad business (because it's throwing away money with no hope of return), but all these companies are doing it anyway. And yet somehow a lot of the vocal members of the VN community treat all of them as some evil enemy, most of the time. Sigh.

You folks are talking about a mass move by Japanese VN developers toward mobage like it's a hypothetical, but from what I understand, it's pretty much a fait accompli. A large number of VN developers have already tried (and/or are currently trying) their hand at mobage. You just haven't heard much about it here since they've all have failed miserably thus far, aside from Type-Moon. So it's a bit late to be worried about that coming to suck away the attention paid to VNs—we're already in that boat.
To bring this somewhat back on topic... VN loc companies are similarly looking all around for ways to stay/become profitable. There are only two real strategies I've seen almost all of them employing, at this point: China, and console releases. For China: if you have a license for a worldwide release, why not sell to a market that actually has consistently shown they're willing to pay for VNs, enough to fund a localization effort? It's certainly profitable. For console: Switch ports seem to be profitable, maybe? Though I don't have as clear a picture on that, and there aren't a lot of data points yet. But you can look at lackluster games like Root Letter getting huge sales numbers on consoles and realize, oh yeah, there's probably something there if you play your cards right.
Now, neither of those is going to do the vast majority of people on this board much good, since we're mostly 1) not Chinese readers and 2) looking for 18+ content. As long as English 18+ release sales remain low (for whatever reasons, including but not limited to high rates of piracy), the only hope most of us have is that the VN loc companies both expand in some way that lets them make money (China, console, and/or some other means) and continue to subsidize English versions with 18+ content from those profits out of pure passion for it. That is effectively what they're doing today. Denpasoft, JAST USA, and Nekonyan are all on the China boat (Nekonyan through the Hikari Field partnership), leaving only MangaGamer in the lurch. Denpasoft and MangaGamer, at least, are both doing the non-PC thing, though MangaGamer is taking a galaxy-brain approach where they vomited up a buggy android app and then promptly forgot about it. I'd say if MangaGamer doesn't get in on the Chinese market in some way within the next year or so, I'll eat my hat, except they're so slow-moving that maybe they'll just keep trickling away dollars forever...
Anyway, subsidizing 18+ English releases like this is honestly both risky (all kinds of legal exposure they could easily avoid by just, not doing it) and bad business (because it's throwing away money with no hope of return), but all these companies are doing it anyway. And yet somehow a lot of the vocal members of the VN community treat all of them as some evil enemy, most of the time. Sigh.

You folks are talking about a mass move by Japanese VN developers toward mobage like it's a hypothetical, but from what I understand, it's pretty much a fait accompli. A large number of VN developers have already tried (and/or are currently trying) their hand at mobage. You just haven't heard much about it here since they've all have failed miserably thus far, aside from Type-Moon. So it's a bit late to be worried about that coming to suck away the attention paid to VNs—we're already in that boat.
To bring this somewhat back on topic... VN loc companies are similarly looking all around for ways to stay/become profitable. There are only two real strategies I've seen almost all of them employing, at this point: China, and console releases. For China: if you have a license for a worldwide release, why not sell to a market that actually has consistently shown they're willing to pay for VNs, enough to fund a localization effort? It's certainly profitable. For console: Switch ports seem to be profitable, maybe? Though I don't have as clear a picture on that, and there aren't a lot of data points yet. But you can look at lackluster games like Root Letter getting huge sales numbers on consoles and realize, oh yeah, there's probably something there if you play your cards right.
Now, neither of those is going to do the vast majority of people on this board much good, since we're mostly 1) not Chinese readers and 2) looking for 18+ content. As long as English 18+ release sales remain low (for whatever reasons, including but not limited to high rates of piracy), the only hope most of us have is that the VN loc companies both expand in some way that lets them make money (China, console, and/or some other means) and continue to subsidize English versions with 18+ content from those profits out of pure passion for it. That is effectively what they're doing today. Denpasoft, JAST USA, and Nekonyan are all on the China boat (Nekonyan through the Hikari Field partnership), leaving only MangaGamer in the lurch. Denpasoft and MangaGamer, at least, are both doing the non-PC thing, though MangaGamer is taking a galaxy-brain approach where they vomited up a buggy android app and then promptly forgot about it. I'd say if MangaGamer doesn't get in on the Chinese market in some way within the next year or so, I'll eat my hat, except they're so slow-moving that maybe they'll just keep trickling away dollars forever...
Anyway, subsidizing 18+ English releases like this is honestly both risky (all kinds of legal exposure they could easily avoid by just, not doing it) and bad business (because it's throwing away money with no hope of return), but all these companies are doing it anyway. And yet somehow a lot of the vocal members of the VN community treat all of them as some evil enemy, most of the time. Sigh.