onorub

(making it a blog post because i don't think this would get any activity as a thread) I think this time period from 2011 to 2016 might have been the "golden age" of otome games because those were the years where a lot of the most notable otomeges were released. Just looking at high-rated otomes on VNDB: 2011: Amnesia Memories, Shinigami to Shoujo, Chou no Doku Hana no Kusari, Arcana Famiglia 2012: Black Wolves Saga (both parts), Dandelion, Koezaru wa Akai Hana, Cinders 2013: Ken ga Kimi, Nameless, Norn9, Arcana Famiglia 2, Getsuei no Kusari (and fandisc) 2014: Code Realize, Ayakashi Gohan 2015: Taishou x Alice, Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly, Re Birthday Song, Yoshiwara Higanbana 2016: Collar x Malice, Mystic Messenger, Nightshade, Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk, Code Realize Future Blessings I can only attest to the quality of a few of these VNs but for those that are more into this genre, i would like to raise this discussion.

You didn't buy DDLC too?

As a personal commemoration for reaching 200 VNDB votes, i'm posting my current top 100 for posterity's sake. Not a be-all-end-all list by any means and i care about choice-making gameplay a lot more than other VN fans do, so if some of my placements look ridiculous, that's why. 100) Divi-Dead (good atmosphere, favorite single plot twist) 99) Yume Miru Kusuri (good characters and story) 98) VA-11 HALL-A (good characters and atmosphere) 97) Togainu no Chi (good atmosphere and common route) 96) Snatcher (entertaining story, good atmosphere and finale) 95) Banshee’s Last Cry (great choice-making, favorite starter in the genre) 94) Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (good art, good mystery-solving, good finale) 93) Phoenix Wright: Justice for All (good mystery-solving, great finale) 92) The Labyrinth of Grisaia (entertaining characters, great true route) 91) Gensou Suikogaiden vol.1&2 (good choice-making system) 90) Ar Tonelico (good story and characters, good finale) 89) Battle Goddess Memoria (great RPG gameplay, good villain) 88) MajiKoi S (entertaining characters) 87) Funbag Fantasy (entertaining story and characters, favorite overall art) 86) PCB for Busy Person + Extra (entertaining characters and endings) 85) Hakuouki (good atmosphere and story) 84) Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (good story and mystery-solving, good finale) 83) Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations (good characters and mystery-solving, good finale) 82) Tokyo Babel (good characters and fight scenes) 81) Never7 (good story and atmosphere) 80) Katahane [one route done] (charming characters and story) 79) Himawari The Sunflower (good overall story, great side content) 78) Ace Attorney Investigations 2 (good story, favorite mystery-solving) 77) Amagami [three routes done] (favorite dating sim gameplay, entertaining characters) 76) Zanmataisei Demonbane [one route done] (entertaining story and characters) 75) Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception (entertaining characters, good finale) 74) Lamento Beyond the Void (great atmosphere and art, great endings) 73) EoSD for Busy Person + Extra (entertaining characters and endings) 72) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (great characters, good mystery-solving and story) 71) Comyu (good story, entertaining fight scenes) 70) Ar Tonelico II (good characters, great story and soundtrack) 69) Danganronpa 2 (entertaining characters, good mystery-solving, good finale) 68) Danganronpa V3 (entertaining characters, great mystery-solving, good finale) 67) MajiKoi A1&A2 (entertaining characters and story) 66) Eve: Burst Error (entertaining story, great female protagonist) 65) Dangan Ronpa (entertaining characters, great story, great finale) 64) ChuSinGura 46+1 (entertaining characters, great fight scenes) 63) Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth (good story and characters, amazing finale) 62) Kikokugai The Cyber Slayer (great atmosphere, good fight scenes) 61) Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni + 2nd night (great characters, entertaining story) 60) Flowers: Printemps Volume (great art, charming characters, good use of mystery-solving) 59) Eden* (good story and art) 58) Utawarerumono (entertaining characters, good story) 57) Shikkoku no Sharnoth (good protagonist, great atmosphere, great finale) 56) Rance VI (entertaining characters, good story) 55) Air (good story and characters, good soundtrack) 54) The Letter (favorite branch system for a linear story) 53) Symphonic Rain [one route done] (charming art and soundtrack, good at subverting expectations) 52) Remember11 (good characters, great ending system) 51) Narcissu (great story and ending) 50) Battle Goddess Verita [one route done] (good story, great RPG gameplay) 49) Collar x Malice (entertaining story, great set of villains) 48) Chaos;Head (entertaining characters and choice-making, great plot twist) 47) Ourai no Gahkthun (good atmosphere and characters) 46) Monster Girl Quest 1,2&3 (amazing gameplay, good story and characters) 45) Fata Morgana: A Requiem for Innocence (good story and characters, amazing art) 44) Akai Ito [three routes done] (entertaining protagonist, good atmosphere, favorite OP song) 43) 11eyes (good characters, good fight scenes, great atmosphere) 42) Sekien no Inganock (great art, great atmosphere, good characters) 41) Planetarian (good pairing, great dialogue) 40) 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors (entertaining characters, good true ending) 39) Kizuato (good characters, favorite introductory route, great set of joke endings) 38) Kira Kira [one route done] (good characters, great common route, great ending) 37) ef a fairy tale of the two (great story in the second half, good characters) 36) Chaos;Child (good choice-making system, good characters, good story) 35) Sharin no Kuni (favorite single villain, great story, great plot twist) 34) Root Double (amazing choice-making system, good true ending) 33) Virtue’s Last Reward (great ending system, great multiple route mystery) 32) Kara no Shoujo (great atmosphere) 31) Chou no Doku Hana no Kusari [one route done] (great atmosphere, great protagonist) 30) Cartagra (great art, entertaining characters, great endings) 29) Aoishiro (great choice-making, entertaining bad ending branches on some routes) 28) The Fruit of Grisaia (entertaining characters, great endings) 27) Code: Realize (amazing common route, entertaining story and characters) 26) Rose Guns Days (great story and characters, charming art) 25) Kamidori Alchemy Meister (great RPG gameplay, great New Game+ content) 24) Battle Goddess Zero (great story and characters) 23) Swan Song (amazing atmosphere, good story and characters) 22) Steins;Gate 0 (good story and characters, great use of true ending) 21) Sengoku Rance (entertaining characters, most replayable work in the genre) 20) Rewrite (entertaining characters, good story) 19) Phantom of Inferno (entertaining story and characters, great atmosphere, great action scenes) 18) Yumina The Ethereal (entertaining story, amazing use of multiple routes, great true ending) 17) Kara no Shoujo 2 (great mystery, entertaining characters, great true ending, favorite ED song) 16) G-Senjou no Maou (great true route, great soundtrack, favorite set of villains) 15) Song of Saya (favorite atmosphere, amazing use of endings) 14) Muv Luv Alternative (great action scenes, great sci-fi atmosphere) 13) YU-NO (amazing route system, good story and characters) 12) Higurashi When They Cry + Kai (amazing story, great characters and soundtrack) 11) Dies Irae (favorite fight scenes, entertaining characters and story) 10) Umineko When They Cry + Chiru (favorite story, favorite soundtrack, great characters) 9) Wonderful Everyday (great story, good mystery, good characters, great alternate endings, favorite monologues) 8. The House in Fata Morgana (amazing story, favorite CG and character art, good choice-making, great soundtrack) 7) Tsukihime (amazing choice-making, amazing atmosphere, great characters) 6) MajiKoi (favorite overall character cast, most consistently entertaining work in the genre) 5) Little Busters (favorite common route, great true route, favorite post-true end content) 4) Ever17 (great story, favorite multiple route mystery, great true ending) 3) Steins;Gate (great story, entertaining characters, favorite protagonist, favorite pairing, favorite ending) 2) Fate/Stay Night (great story, favorite ending system, favorite route, favorite single choice) 1) Clannad (favorite route system, high amount of optional scenes, great After Story, fully explores choice-making in a school drama setting) Addendum: Highest rated VNs that i didn't read (non-bayesian, 20 votes minimum) White Album 2 Baldr Sky Great Ace Attorney 2 Taishou Mebiusline Flowers Automne/Hiver Volumes Soukou Akki Muramasa Rance X Shingakkou Ken ga Kimi Sakura no Uta Sakura Wars 3 Koshotengai no Hashihime Shinigami to Shoujo Hana Awase Sengoku Koihime Schwarzesmarken We Without Wings Monmusu Quest Paradox Aiyoku no Eustia yay

Is this anywhere close to what you're looking for?

Finished ChuSinGura 46+1. Might have been one of the worst finales i've ever seen. It's a shame because the first 4 chapters were pretty good.

If you get sick of it, at least play Prologue of Grisaia before dropping it completely, because i actually liked it better than the main story.

That reminds me, does anyone know how good Moshiraba is? The only opinion i've heard of it is that the prologue is the best part by far.

Is it a botanic location of great height as well?

Never watched this series, but from the summary i saw on wikipedia, the closest things to it would probably be Shiori's route from Kanon and the final route from Himawari The Sunflower. There's a recent untranslated one with something like that, but i never played it so i can't attest to its' quality.

During chapter 4, there is literally one line where Yuki said she slept in Maou's place once. I don't know know why he would allow it (maybe he was trying to get some), but the explanation is there.

This is more of something that popped in my head, but i believe the OELVN scene is more or less where the JPVN scene was in 1995, so i thought of comparing the more notable OELVNs with probable japanese equivalent from the 90's. I would go something like this: Katawa Shoujo is the equivalent to Doukyuusei, since is the first romance oriented and more lenghty title; VA11 HALL-A is the equivalent to Kamaitachi no Yoru, since it became sort of a big deal on console (looking at VA11 HALL-A getting a PSVita version in JP language); The Letter is the equivalent to Eve Burst Error, since is a longer and grittier title. I'm just randomly thinking so sorry if it looks disjointed, but i'd like to see if anyone else could come up with comparisons like that. Edit: Now that i think about it, Doki Doki Literature Club might be the equivalent to Shizuku: Short, rather trippy and became a hit despite VN aficionados questioning its' quality. Sakura Dungeon might be the equivalent of Words Worth because of the similar dungeon-crawling.

Yumina The Ethereal? There are complaints that the gameplay is a bit too easy, but i really liked how it handled going through all the routes.

Just be careful in how you write your title. There are two Senshinkans, so it's clearer to write Hachimyoujin instead. Just a tiny nitpick.

Question: when you guys finish translating your first route, are you thinking about releasing it as sort of a demo?

Those freaking "indirect kiss" gags. They're some of the lamest ever and being worried about bacteria spreading would be more believable.

From what i'm hearing, the only ones you have to play chronologically are 6 through 10. 4 and 5 are some of the most irrelevant ones.

Just wondering @mitchhamilton, do you feel like the series became too overbloated with characters after the original VN? I felt that the original had just the right amount of characters to give everyone a chance to shine (one of the reasons why it's in my top 10), but after that there were too many people and it didn't quite feel the same. I think the cast became overbloated right at the beginning of S with the rival school.

Memorial version has new scenes that make the three acts (prologue, middle and After) feel more connected and replaces the H-scenes in the prologue with humourous scenes. I'd recommend the Memorial version.

I don't feel qualified to vote on the poll, but to answer a few questions: Playing Cartagra before Kara no Shoujo is recommended, but not required. Cartagra characters show up and there are quite a few references, but it's not like you'll be completely lost in Kara no Shoujo. You can play White Album 2 no problem, White Album 1 is a completely different story in the same universe.

This one maybe? Your best bet might be searching for the same company or artist.

The best example i can think of right now is Root Double with the sense system.

I'm guessing it was a bad ending. I'm pretty sure that was the point where Kurugaya and Riki were supposed to confess to each other.

The 18+ version is actually one of my favorite OELVNs, because it was one of the few eroges where the h-scenes were short and entertaining. The biggest negatives i had with it were that the alternate outfits are garbage and that the amount of unique characters made monster-hunting worthless in the second half.

Meh, i don't think so. Aries' route and the first half of 2048 were the really bad parts. Anyway, finished Da Capo. I was thinking about doing the whole trilogy, but with only 3 out of 7 routes being decent, it's gonna take a while until i try the second one.