mjriedstra

In my opinion, Rewrite is a top-10 VN out of those that have been translated. The gameplay elements are mediocre, but the plot, characters, and fun "mysterious animal" mini-stories are well worth the time. The production values are also very high, beyond the level of most other KEY VNs, mainly because it is newer and more polished than the ones they are more famous for (Clannad, Kanon, Air, etc.). It also has a more of a modern anime art style than the classic KEY style, which is a plus to me.

Congratulations on the release of your game. Looking forward to trying it out when I have the time.

I'll add a few more: Stein's;GateKoihime (has gameplay)Muv-Luv AlternativePhantom of InfernoEien no Aselia (has gameplay)Utawarerumono (has gameplay)World End Economica

Very nice trailer. Great music, great art. Love the hand-painted style. The only drawback is that, even after watching the trailer, I wouldn't have a clear idea what the game is about if I hadn't already been following this thread. Somebody watching without much context might have a tougher time understanding what they're looking at. I totally get the aesthetic reasons for not wanting to clutter up those images with text, but even a few words to tease the setting and/or characters might make a big difference. Purely my opinion of course! Keep up the good work.

Based on your references of Date A Live! and Infinite Stratos, I'd say you might like: Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru no Darou ka (also has excellent action scenes) Sword Art Online Outbreak Company Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio Nisekoi Kuusen Madoushi Kouhousei no Kyoukan Absolute Duo

I see. It's useful to have those other opinions on a solo project so that you don't end up with blinders. The great part about solo design though is having full agency over the project. On my own project I originally intended to do almost everything myself, but it turned out to be way too much, so a lot of work has been contracted out. It takes some of the direct burden off, but also results in a lot of time and effort spent on coordinating everyone's activities. The scale of your project seems large enough that I would have thought it would be quite difficult to do solo. I suppose it's because you're doing it as a full-time job. How did you decide to make that commitment?

You seem to be making pretty good progress, even if you say it's been "slow." Are you doing everything yourself?

I'll be playing it when I have the time. The first game was one of the few I've read where almost nothing happened the way I expected. Of course, that's part and parcel with how dark and disturbing the game was, so no doubt it'll take a few weeks of staring straight ahead and chanting or watching something like Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka? to get over it afterward, but it will be worth it. Hopefully.

"Satisfying" can be kind of a loaded word when it comes to VN endings, but in my opinion some great endings are: Fate/Stay Night Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo Rewrite Symphonic Rain Though keep in mind that in my opinion, a "satisfying" ending can be pretty different from a traditional "happy ending."

If somebody doesn't do one with Amakase Minatsu in it, all is not right with the world.

Hmm, let's see. 1) Intelligent, interesting and trustworthy 2) Must enjoy random conversations about all kinds of things — science, world events, books, shows and games, the meaning of life, whatever 3) Attractive by my personal standard (it doesn't matter whether anyone else thinks they're attractive) 4) Has hobbies of her own that take up roughly as much of her time as my hobbies take of mine, so that we're able to do things together, but also do things apart When I first started out in the world of relationships, I didn't think this list would be that hard to fulfill. After quite a few failures since, it turns out I was wrong, or else I'm not capable of recognizing when someone actually has these qualities and is available. Still, I don't really want to reduce the list and end up in a relationship where neither of us is satisfied.

It's a shame you don't want giant robots. A ton of terrific anime are about modern age mech warfare. I thought for about ten minutes trying to find something militaristic that doesn't have space travel, robots or airplanes and came up with almost nothing besides Valkyria Chronicles. Unless you're willing to stretch the definition of "military" pretty far to find something like Phantom of Inferno or Black Lagoon, or take an alternate timeline like Attack on Titan ... or GATE, which is half modern military, half fantasy.

The choice structure sounds very interesting. You're right that the majority of games have clear options for "good" or "bad" choices and that the duality of the choice structure doesn't suit reality. A good counter-example is Fate Stay/night, which I still consider one of the best VNs ever made primarily for the number of choices and how truly different the various outcomes are that can be attained. There are very few (if any) outcomes that are purely "good" or "bad" and many choices in the game lead directly to sacrificing something in order to gain something else. If you are able to create a choice structure anywhere near that level, it will certainly be a noteworthy achievement. Best of luck with it.

50 menus seems like a ton for a game that I thought didn't have much of a gameplay element. When you say "menus" are you including choices? Or is there some other reason it's so high?

Grisaia and Majikoi are both excellent and it's hard to argue with either choice. Michiru and Wanko are roughly tied for my favorite two heroines in any game, and in terms of full cast I think both games have almost no weaknesses. Honorable mentions are Clannad, Da Capo II ... and FSN. Rin, Saber, Ilya, Sakura ... they're all good.