Toranth

The makers of the mobage say it is based on the Vita version. The makers of the Steam release said it was based off the mobage version. The assets of the Steam release DO NOT MATCH the original PC - not even the Japanese text of the Steam release, and the English doesn't match either version. It is obvious where the English was changed as part of the release (to remove references to sex or nudity). However, the Japanese text (taken from the mobage) also removes references to things like menstruation, wetting oneself, using the toilet / indigestion, or minors with alcohol. Unless you think that NextNinja did a Japanese re-write for this release, the text is clearly NOT taken from the original PC version. And no, Nier, the game was not "butchered". Please stop saying that. The adult content DID NOT ADD ANYTHING to the game, and removing it did not hurt the game. Hyperbole like yours is why it is difficult for people to get a good idea of the actual quality of products. I suppose you think the original Japanese release of games like Wagamama High-Spec were "butchered" because the naked sprites pack wasn't included in the game? And yet, that's about the same level of fanservice and meaning that the adult content added to ChuSinGura.

Sorry, let me be more specific: The Steam release is based on the mobage version which was in turn built off the Vita version. All three versions were developed and published by different companies, so it doesn't surprise me that NextNinja, the publishers this time, din't have complete rights to all three other versions. The original PC release, when compared to the English Steam release, is missing nothing but the adult content. There was no story content removed - period. People complaining that the game is somehow damaged because of that are wrong.

This is incorrect: The Steam release IS the Vita version. All the same text and graphical changes made for the PS Vita all-ages release are present here on Steam as well. There are rumors that some of the CGs removed from the Vita release were redrawn and added for the Steam version, but I don't know (and doubt it). Actually, they may have used the voices from the original PC release - there are times when the character voices say things I don't think Sony will allow them to say on the Vita, and that doesn't match the Steam release's English or Japanese text. The translation is varied; it's obvious they used multiple translators and applied different levels of editing at different parts. It's all understandable, and generally correct (or close to correct) English. Just not very good English. As patches have been released, they've fixed some of the more obvious problems. I don't know if they will continue that now that the entire thing is out, though. Hopefully, chapters 4 and 5 will get some attention, at least. As for "butchered" - No. The original game had very large amounts of odd and unnecessary fanservice. Random bath scenes, people tripping while not wearing underwear, stripping to pull a frog out of their clothes, etc. The sex scenes were the same way - only one of them has any bearing on the plot at all, and that is entirely covered by the surrounding scene's dialogue (even in the original version). Mr Poltroon linked to the other ChuSinGura 46+1 thread, so you can check there for more details if you want. But really, no, removing the adult content did not damage the game in any way, as the story is completely intact. And the story is why people rate the game highly. It's a well-written chuuni story, with solid characters. It is based on the classic 47 Ronin story, so people go into it already knowing a lot about what's going to happen... but despite that, the details of HOW it happens, and what each character does, thinks, or feels while doing it - that's the story, and it is good. The time loop is not convenient, or friendly. The violence is still there; plenty of blood and people getting killed - there's no "He was just knocked out!" stuff going on here. Of course, I'm a big fan of the original release. I consider it one of the top 10 VNs released in the past 15 years, in any language. It may be that I am willing to overlook some problems with the Steam release that would bother me more for a different game, so feel free to take my opinion with a dose of salt. But personally, I would strongly recommend that anyone that likes chuuni VNs to get the game. At the very least, play through Chapter 1, which is Free on Steam. If you can't stand the game or the translation, then the rest isn't for you. If you like it, though... it just gets better.

I like the Wei route a little more than the Wu route, but part of that is because I liked Karin as a character. The story of the route itself is definitely weaker than Wu's. On the other hand, both of them blow the Shu route out of the water, without even trying.

You sure you are using "Most" ? How many untranslated games have you read? Actually, Haruki is right. Most Japanese VNs are doujin, aka amateur, works. These are the equivalent of most OELVNs - people that want to make a VN and (usually) use a free engine to do it. Individuals or small teams, little to no budget, small release or limited to digital only, and so on. And there a relots of them. To give you an idea, there are 56 'major' releases this month (9/1-9/30) according to Getchu. It's hard to tell how many doujin games are published, but Getchu, DLSite, and dmm show somewhere between 5 and 10 releases every single day during September, with 20+ on the last few days - a total of 200-250. You're looking at something like 1/5 or less being 'professional' titles. The vast majority of those doujin games are crap. Cheap knock-offs, barely re-labeled fanfics, 2nd grade art projects, etc. In fact, most 'professional' titles aren't very good. Sure, there are gems in there: Tsukihime, or the ChuSinGura 46+1 original release. But very few, out of thousands released in a given year. This shouldn't be surprising, very few non-professionals produce high quality works. The OELVN market is the same way - most works are amateur, and most of those are crap. But they're crap because they're low-quality amateur works, not because they're English.

Is... is this entire thread a joke? Have you trolled a dozen people already in just one day?

Akane Maniax takes place shortly after KimiNozo resolves, and is about how Akane deals with it all. It's interesting in that a) it is a bit of an epilogue, and b) it finally gives Akane some depth. But it's still a comedy fandisk, so I wouldn't expect much from it. The game is better than the OVA, but hardly worth going out of your way to acquire. But better than any of the Ayumayu stuff, which is all garbage and worth going out of your way to avoid.

Yeah... those. Those ends were added in the first rerelease, and in my opinion were distinctly unnecessary. Probably the same producer that though the fandisks need more green-haired she-monster was responsible. I still think of those as 'non-canon', and like to pretend only the main three endings exist. The fandisk stuff could (should!) have been worked into the high-school part, I think. Similarly, following up the main game by unlocking Akane Maniax would help shed a lot of light on her character, and how she coped with everything. As for scoring, well. Back when the game was originally released in 2001 (dear God, 15 years ago) there wasn't a whole lot of "good story" options. Air, KimiNozo, YU-NO, Memories Off, uh... man, even Kazoku Keikaku wasn't out quite yet. Anyway, there weren't a lot of options, and for the time it was a high quality product in every way - music, art, voice acting, story, engine. I have a lot of nostalgia about the game, I'll admit. If I were to encounter it these days, I wouldn't rate it an 8 or 9, for sure. But back then, it really was one of the top games out there.

Mitsuki had a route in the original game, although later editions added more for her and other characters (mostly bad ends). Mitsuki had one, Haruka had one, Akane had one, and then there were the other routes - the fetish routes. Ayumayu and the nurses all are specific niche fetishes that for some reason age felt necessary to throw in there. Honestly, I would have preferred for the game to have only the three main routes. While I agree with most of what you said in your review, I think that if you look closer, you'll see the OL Mitsuki and JK Mitsuki were pretty similar, So, to me, I wouldn't want to see happy and cheerful Mitsuki there. It'd seem pretty wrong and out of place. At the same time, a harem route would also seem very wrong. Haruka and Mitsuki are both very possessive, and Akane would never try for it. Just look at how Haruka reacts in the Mitsuki ending - All things considered, I'd almost recommend that people watch the anime instead. The game is good, and it sounds like the LE rerelease fixed up the graphics to mostly modern standards... but it's still basically a simple soap-opera love triangle, and the anime covers that story, and those characters, pretty well. PS - Manami can die. In one of the card game side discs, there's a route where she captures an alternate reality Takayuki, and has TWO of them to play with She can ruin anything.

Lamune features the best osananajimi romance ever. Good OP/ED, too. Overall, the game is just a better version of Mizuiro... but Nanami route 4ever.

Tonoko? There was a Tonoko? (goes and looks it up) Oh, her. Yeah, I barely remember her now. Didn't like her, or her route, very much. Then again, compared to the Miyabi and the others, it'd be hard to make her good. Still better than Yuuna, though.

I almost feel like we played different games, here. Frey is supposedly the better swordsman, but the MC in her route is shown as better tactically and at dealing with people. In the beginning, no, she didn't respect him. But there's an entire sequence in the middle of her route that demonstrates his abilities to her, and her growing respect for him because of them is what pushed the entire romance along. I certainly don't see how you can claim she treats him badly at all, much less 'like a dog', after the common part (where she's supposed to be completely tsun). Her desires are dominant in driving the story not because he's totally submissive but because he's a blank-slate MC: he has no goals, no driving ambition, and not even that much of a pre-determined personality. He goes along with what she wants because there's no conflicting drive, not because she abuses him and forces her way over his - just like in Sefi's or Canon's routes. The story could have been improved dramatically if the MC actually had a real personality, rather than just drifting along with whatever the girl of the route wants. But that's how many of these main characters are written, which is why those games end up with 6/10 ratings, rather than being remembered.

Yeah, as you mentioned, this was the speedy "Save our Reputation" game tossed out to compensate for the utter crap that was Cutie Bullet, so despite the art, it wasn't worth expecting much from it. I think your rating is pretty spot on at 6/10, buoyed mostly by the art and voice acting. That said, I disagree with your characterization of Frey. She starts as a solid Tsun, but slowly changes through her route. There's even a point most of the way through where you can see that her 'tsun' is mostly teasing, rather than serious, and of course once the sex starts she's entirely deredere. The reasons for her tsun and her story are pretty bad, which prevent her from being best girl, but as a tsundere, she's actually pretty good. Better than most in other games, at least. Lil's route, you aren't missing much: There are some cute moments here and there, but overall much like Frey's route.

The 'alternate end' is exactly one scene, an H-scene, Yes - originally, there was bare breasts in both cases.

Kickstarter vs retail prices are all over the place - some higher, some lower. Kickstarter $15 for the entire game vs Steam $36 for the entire game (base, no sale, price) is a bit more extreme than most. Not as bad as Planetary Annihilation, of course. I only played a little of the English translation, but it's pretty decent. Better than most, but with a few mistakes. I discovered that you can switch the game to Japanese text, though, and so I did so quickly and haven't looked back. The odd bit is that the text and graphics are from the portable version, but the audio is from the original game, which sometimes leads to mismatches.

So, Chapters 2 and 3 have been released now, as DLC for the original Chapter 1 free game. Just to make things complicated. They're asking $18 base price, currently on sale for -30%, or $12.59. That implies $36 for the entire thing, which is twice as much as the kickstarter price.

Oh, you're playing that version. No idea why that was added to the game. Of course, the original release still had the hospital and restaurant girls with routes, and all of those are just bad. Mitsuki, Haruka, Akane routes only. The rest of the game is terrible.

What problem? Us disagreeing? Or you insulting me? Or you refusing to let it go, and trying to get in one last attack? Maybe the thread does need to be locked, just to make you stop.

I'll agree that you and I are going around in circles, and there isn't any point to continuing our discourse here. Still, I think it is unlikely that Walkure Romanze will see a commercial translation anytime soon. Maybe if the anime had been more successful... but if you want to start a fan translation, I'm there are people that would appreciate it.

There are so many inconsistencies and logical failures in this post, it's hard to know where to begin. First, I'm telling you to calm down because you are becoming rude and insulting. It is easy to disagree with someone without calling them rude names. You repeated assertion that "That's only my opinion" is not an argument, nor is it conductive to a discussion. It is, in fact, the anti-discussion. If you truly believe that all opinions are equal, then there is no point in holding a discussion on the merits of anything. Your posts are therefore doing nothing more than wasting the time of everyone in this thread. Making wild claims about the quality of a product ("excellent" "masterpiece") requires support, as you aren't just expressing a personal opinion. The only claim you can make that is purely opinion is "I liked it" or "I didn't like it". Anything else starts dragging other people, and other products, into it and becomes subject to objective (no 's') measures. You also seem to miss out on the entire oddity of you attempting to force your opinion that all opinions are equal on me, while ignoring my opinion that opinions on quality need to be back up by evidence. Why should your opinion on the nature of opinions be more valid than mine? That's just, like, your opinion, man! The reason I didn't bother with your aside about the objective (no 's') quality of most VNs is because I didn't disagree. Sturgeon's Law applies here, as with all other forms of writing: 90% of all writing, VN, novel, light novel, comic, doesn't matter - is crap. But no, VNs are not all crap writing that cannot compare to novels. Clannad, for example, is very well respected, still one of the most highly rated VNs ever. It won awards, including for the writing. Do you think it was popular because of the H-scenes? No, there weren't any. Because of the art? Itaru art, seriously, no. Maybe because of the voice acting? Original release was unvoiced, so no. It was praised, and received national awards, because of the writing. By the way, when you claim that something is very good or 'excellent', you are claiming that it is BETTER than all the rest of that material. How can you both claim that something is not very good, and excellent, at the same time? Also, be careful trying to compare a VN directly to a novel. Novels are a pure text media format, while VNs are combined visual, audio, and textual. It is legitimate to compare the writing of a VN to a novel, but sometimes the lack of visual cues can cause the writing, taken alone, to look bad when it works when complete. As you said, it is an ensemble of all its components. It is unfortunate that you then try to claim that something that is, by your own admission, only "better than average" is somehow "excellent". Now, about h-scenes, you seem oddly obsessed with the topic, and this seems to be interfering with your reading comprehension. I did not call Walkure Romanze a nukige. I have not condemned the sex scenes. In fact, I praised them. I said that the sex scenes were the only "excellent" part of the game, and that the rest of the material lacks enough quality to serve a purpose other than tying them together. I then said that, if the game was a nukige, it would be a failure, because the sex scenes are too far apart. But, since Walkure Romanze isn't a nukige, that isn't the problem. The problem is that those long segments before the sex scenes are shallow and boring. The entire point of mentioning the erogamescape rating was because you kept trying to claim that other people, including the Japanese, loved it and ranked it highly. I was pointing out that no, in fact, my opinion is pretty common amongst people that rated it, and the ranking isn't very high. In fact, Walkure Romanze doesn't even come in the top 1500 games on erogramescape. That is pretty strong evidence that other people do not find it "excellent" or "very good" - remember, a majority of people rated the game at 74 or below. And that's why it was relevant (it was not an analogy at all) to show that your claim that the game was popular did not reflect upon its quality, even if your claim was correct. 50 Shades and Harry Potter are popular series of books, but are not in any way 'excellent'. And claiming it is 'excellent', by the way, IS claiming it is among the best works. That's what the word means. Relating back to what I said about the sex scenes, the problem with Walkure Romanze is that of the 20 hours you will play the game, 15 or so are 'story' and 'character' driven. By choosing to play this game at all, you are choosing to play a story and character driven game. If you want sex scenes, choose a nukige. If you want just pretty pictures, go browse pixiv. If you play Walkure Romanze, you are getting a story and character centered game. Trying to then claim that one should not judge the game by the quality of the material that makes up the vast majority of the game, and that the game advertised itself as containing, is just silly. The story and characters are as much a part of the game as everything else, and need to be taken into account when judging quality. If Walkure Romanze had poor art, dull music, and uninspired VAs, with the exact same story and characters, then it would be a BAD game, as opposed to merely above average. TL;DR - Walkure Romanze is an above average game overall, but it is NOT "very good", much less "excellent", because despite the technical production values that went into it, the focus of the game, to wit, the story and characters, are shallow and not well developed. If you want to claim that you LIKE the game, fine. That is purely a matter of opinion. If you want to claim that the game is 'excellent', you will need to justify your argument, because you are saying that the game is objectively better than almost all other games, whether you liked it or not.

Ok, calm down. Walkure Romanze is not an 'excellent' title for anything other than prurient viewing purposes, BECAUSE it has no substance outside of them. The characters are not deep or well developed and the story is very weak. These are extremely important facets to any VN than isn't a nukige. I don't call the game "not very good" because it has h-scenes, I call it not very good because that's ALL it has, but it tries hard to pretend otherwise. As a straight nukige, it is a failure because you go a long time between h-scenes. The Japanese love them their cute, though, so good artwork and famous VAs is enough to guarantee the success of any product that isn't total crap. Walkure Romanze isn't total crap; as I said, it had high technical production values. It's just shallow and edging on boring, which isn't enough to bring it down to 'bad' ratings. But if you actually look at what the [NSFW] Japanese rate it and say about it [/NSFW], you'll find it matches what's been said here: Pretty, but nothing else; 7/10. I enjoyed playing it for a while. I'm not so foolish as to mistake enjoyment for quality, though. You also seem to confuse popular with good. By your logic, 50 Shades of Grey and the Harry Potter series are amongst the best pieces of literature ever produced by humanity.

It's not actually a very good game. Technical production values are high: Good art, good VAs, decent music. Even the writing itself isn't bad. But the story is VERY weak. It serves mainly as a way to put the characters into sex scenes, with some jousting "action" tossed in there. It's better than most of the nukige out there, but it certainly isn't an "excellent" title in any other sense.

So Best Girl has a few quirks, it's not like anyone is perfect! Except for that scene, they could cut almost all the H-scenes with no real loss. I'm not sure about the one with Ichigaku, though... the sex itself doesn't matter, but the discussion and attitude changes do matter. If they could get the original developers to do a little work, both those scenes could be replaced with very similar-but-not-sex scenes easily... Ah, well. Never happen, especially not now.

Glad to see someone playing this. I enjoyed Princess Witches a lot, but could never quite get into Twinkle Crusaders. It just went on and on and on...

The VN was fine though. Some parts of it can be difficult, specifically the parts about old-fashioned stuff, and there's quite a lot of "formal" talk. The letters Ooishi gets for instance were really hard to understand. There are interesting titbits included too if you're willing to wiki a bit, like how they integrated the characters into their real-life counterparts really well (lives and deaths especially). Or I remember one aprt about how they used to draw maps so east was at the top, instead of north being at the top, because they see Japan as being west to west, not north to south, and that followed into their map-making. I thought that was really interesting. So some extra reading on wiki can be a nice follow-on. Other than some specific hard parts though, the average level is really normal, not difficult. This - The language is basically standard Japanese, with some 'classicisms' thrown in. Think movie Shakespeare. However, the subject matter is different. The governmental structure, the political and familial relationships, etc, are all just assumed to be basically familiar to the reader. Wiki reading can help a lot (I probably spent as much time on reading up on history as I did reading the story for the first 2-3 routes of the game), or you can just accept that you're missing stuff and go on. As for this localization... They're either going to have to throw in tons of translator's notes (a small books worth), or gloss over a lot of detail for this to work.