akaritan

Ushiromiya Ange from Seacats Michel Bollinger from Fat Morgan

If you like horror VNs then it's a real treat for sure. And it's a really short read so even if you don't end up liking it, you don't waste very much time.

Given that there was a steam sale going, I had ten dollars in my wallet, and I'm on break, I decided to buy and read some cheap OELVNs that I've been interested in a while. The games in question were Aviary Attorney, and Sweetest Monster. Now, in retrospect, I should have played Aviary Attorney second, because I certainly could use a pick-me-up after Sweetest Monster, ahaha. Aviary was like Phoenix Wright, except with birds and more puns (if you can even believe it). While I like Ace Attorney more, Aviary certainly stands on its own merits. The production is relatively good, and there's nothing quite like it in VNs. The 19th century France setting was a relatively unusual one, and it was really refreshing. The characters are likable, and while they aren't complex, they did everything they needed to in a game like this. The gameplay was similar to Phoenix Wright, but there were a few differences. Most notably, you can fail entirely to collect all of the evidence beforehand, thus screwing yourself over before the trial even begins. Aviary Attorney is a great way to spend an afternoon, especially for it's current ~$3.70 price. Sweetest Monster, on the other hand, was my first ebi-hime VN. And if this is a good indicator of her work's quality, then I need to pick up more. It follows a man who meets a catgirl in the midst of marital problems, to grossly oversimplify. Frankly, I shouldn't say much about the plot of a 2 hour game at all. The atmosphere was incredibly uncomfortable without coming off as too heavy, and as adorable as the catgirl Belle is, while reading this game you can't quite shake the feeling that something is off. There's a sort of creeping unease that develops as you slowly start to realize the implications of the game's events. But it's definitely a good experience and I have quite a bit to say about it, so I'm throwing that in the spoiler tag. So in short, Aviary Attorney was good and fun and Sweetest Monster was fantastic, and they're both good choices, especially given their current price tag. And thanks to anyone who devoted their time to reading this ungodly text wall, ahaha.

I did a reverse image search and it looks like she is, in fact, Hishamaru. That seems to be a screenshot from episode 24.

Happy to help!

As much as I dislike DDLC, the poem mechanic was very nice and I haven't seen anything else like it in a VN. Best girl?

http://dojinquest.com/vanadis/聖もんむす学園/post-2188/ This looks like what you want.

good luck

Just finished Kara no Shoujo 2 and it was preeeety damn fantastic. Now, I had quite a few problems with the first game and found it to be somewhat forgettable, but the opposite was true here. The new characters were great, and I found myself liking the old ones more than before (though, I can't really say why myself). Giving Reiji a sprite and voice worked wonders for giving him a presence in the game, and he was just as fleshed-out and likable as the other characters. It's a very well constructed game, and the story is intricate without necessarily being confusing. The settings, 60's(?) Tokyo and a rural Japanese village, mesh together far better than they have any right to. KnS2 is incredibly atmospheric to boot- the art has an ethereal appeal to it, and the score is lovely. It did a good job alternating between grimdark and relatively peaceful, and I can't say I ever really felt bored. The ending delivers a rhetorical punch to the gut, and it leaves you craving for more while still answering most questions. I'm sorry if this is all ranty and incoherent, it's early morning for me and I stayed up very late playing this Chinese slideshow. I also played DDLC and sorta hated it, but that's been discussed to death so I won't go into it too much. Basically, it's only real selling points aren't that impressive at all (and slightly overdone), and the characters are all either boring or unlikable. Also, it makes me a tad upset that out of all of the wonderful and powerful stories in VNs, this one is the one that gets the most recognition. But these things, especially the latter two, are subjective and there was certainly a lot of love and energy put into the production and scripting, so I will give it that.

You're welcome! I'll definitely give episode 1 a shot sometime, if not soon. I hadn't really considered that it might feel shorter, that's pretty interesting. Certainly, it's the sort of thing that deserves a reading considering how much new information changes the experience.

you shall not pass kidding, 8/10

Oh, man. Umineko is such a masterpiece and I keep meaning to replay it, but it's also so long. I'm a little jealous, ahaha. At any rate, it sounds like you're talking about Daydream's End? I could be wrong, but I can't think of any other 1-4 tracks that quite fit what you're talking about.

That's actually a really interesting idea. I'll take that into consideration!

KnS 2 it is. Thanks guys!

I haven't read completed a VN in a good while, and these three all look good and have been on my radar for a long time. And I'm indecisive so I just decided that I would let Fuwa settle this for me. S;G0 has been of interest to me since it came out, but I just haven't gotten around to it. Everyone and their grandmothers love Steins;gate, and with good reason- you just can't go wrong with it. KnS 1 sort of bored me but from the sounds of it this one fixes a lot of the problems I had with 1 (clunky ui, bland ost, couldn't really care about the characters). And I know I'm going to like V3 no matter what, even though it'll probably be really stupid. Especially because it'll probably end up being really stupid.

After around 2 years cramming Japanese with flashcards and textbooks, I think I want to start practicing another one on the side- partially for a change of pace, and partially because I want to try something easier. I want a language with good classical literature, so I'm thinking either French or German (leaning heavily towards French). Almost certainly a European language, and definitely not another Asian one. Do you guys have any other suggestions? Am I making a terrible mistake?

The only series I watch dubbed is Ghost Stories, so I guess no for me.

Fred, you always make me want to play things that I know I'll probably hate and I don't know how you do it. I mean, I never picked it up, but you made playing Wagamama High seem like an attractive idea. In retrospect I'm pretty sure you convinced me to play the first Karakara (which I'm grateful for, and actually really liked ). And I ended up dropping it even though it was overall good, but your review convinced me to play Chrono Clock too. At any rate, I went off on a tangent but great review as usual! These are always fun to read.

I'm a relatively young (under 25?) girl and I don't even usually like otome, ahaha. Generally I prefer bishoujoge but the story and atmosphere is by far the most important thing to me. I think people bringing up Hikaru games is a tad odd, though. I didn't get the impression that they are necessarily targeted towards either gender. With that said, they're amazing games that everyone should at least try

I started Soukou Akki Muramasa. I think it's very good so far, even if my experience has been marred by my slow reading pace. Frankly, I'm not having as difficult a time as its reputation would have lead me to believe. While the author uses odd kanji and vocabulary much of the time, the sentence structure isn't ridiculously complex. The game itself, if nothing else, is very well produced (though, that's what you expect from the phenomenal nitroplus). The soundtrack and overall atmosphere is thick and beautiful, and the art is incredibly smooth and easy on the eyes. I think I would have had a far more difficult time stomaching the more "everyday life" scenes had the soundtrack not been amazing. I'm about halfway through chapter 1, and my main problems are related to characters. Simply put, I did not start this life and death drama to read about schoolchildren. I know that it'll start putting more focus into things I care about soon enough, but I can't help but think about how much I'd rather be reading about Minato or the red-haired ojou-san than these students who I don't even really like and it's an odd choice for this type of game. With all that said I don't mind the mystery about the missing friend and as much as I'm complaining I am enjoying this one so far.

Personally I didn't love Dies and dropped it on Kei's route, but I can say for certain that it does get much better after Kasumi's route. If you're having a good time right now, then you're definitely going to like this game.

Fata Morgana. If you consider Umineko to have the best story, then I suspect that Fata will sit very well with you. It's core narrative is very different from Umineko but the tone is quite similar and if you go into it and keep yourself from constantly comparing the two then I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Now I don't watch a lot of anime nowadays but I just finished Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei as well as its last 10 or so manga chapters. Like I love it a lot but what the fuck. Frankly, there's nothing else like it at least as far as anime goes, and while it's not for everyone, I would at least tell anyone with a darker sense of humor to give it a shot.

Monster Girl Quest's bad endings will likely be a good time for you if you can bear the inconsistent art. Euphoria's also a good shot, I think. Also, as someone who doesn't like nukige or really ero in general, both of those VNs are really good for other reasons so I would recommend them both regardless.

The first part isn't as unreasonably long as it feels- I finished it in a day. Just soldier through, by the end of Zakuro's route it becomes pretty damned interesting. I found that the Kagami and Tsukasa routes in Down the Rabbit Hole I to be pretty unnecessary, but its your call as to whether you should play them (they are pretty short). As for whether there is anything relevant to pay attention to, I'll let someone else answer... Nothing before the amusement park scene on Zakuro route did anything for me personally, but I've heard arguments that there's value to be found there. I will say that it's worth sitting through. Even in the event that you do not find Subahibi to be The Best Thing Ever(TM), it does a lot of things really well and stays consistently interesting.