akaritan

The anime art is... fine? I'd probably have more of a problem with it if I cared about art a lot in the first place. I far prefer the old art, obviously, but it's not a game breaker for me. And while the thought of having jp voices sort of rubs me the wrong way (it felt so "western" that I think it would be jarring), at least going by the voice samples here they do a good job for the most part. As far as anything else goes, frankly the original was so close to perfect that I think that more material would actively hurt it so as long as they don't touch that it's fine. With all that said, like the filthy addict that I am I'm probably going to end up getting a japanese vita for this, haha. And yeah, robeless Michel is a bit strange at first, but you get used to it. What gets me is the hair. rip Michel's ankle-length hair, you will be missed

Hi! I love Saya a lot myself. I can't help that much with slice of life/romance, but if you ever want recommendations for something darker, I am more than happy to oblige.

Hi! If you want any recommendations, feel free to ask. What's your favorite VN? Has it changed since Katawa Shoujo?

Hi! What's your favorite VN?

The House in Fata Morgana is the closest I've ever seen a VN get to perfect. Most everything about it was absolutely fantastic, it was mature and well-woven in a way I don't really see in VNs.

Hi~! I look forward to seeing your art and project thread.

Welcome~ What's your favorite VN?

If the ending is unsatisfying that's a real shame. But I can see why you didn't like it- though I'm having fun with it, there certainly isn't very much substance. It's pretty much what @Eclipsed said- the stylization carries it. In fact, I've found parts of it to be pretty dumb, but I went in to it expecting something that isn't serious, so whenever it does something stupid it adds to the experience if anything for me, haha. It's the same thing for the characters. If you don't find them to be amusing and entertaining from the outset, I doubt you'll get much out of them. It's one of those titles that I would tell people to drop if they hate the first parts; it shows most of its hand from the beginning and if you don't like what you get it's not as though there's a lot of hidden depth under the surface (unless I'm wrong, not done yet, but I doubt that will be the case). But with that said, I really do like the humor. And I sort of think the whole tone in general appeals to me. I start laughing hysterically during every execution just because of how absurd they are (not to mention that I came here because my "dead kid quota" for the month wasn't filled, haha). Mind, I'm the type of person who has a folder of grotesque anime images on their computer, so I guess take this as you will. For what it's worth, the rhythm game isn't frustrating so much as boring; it doesn't add much at all if anything, I honestly think that sort of thing doesn't suit Danganronpa to begin with. It's not like the rhythm game itself is that much fun on its own, either; you just have to keep a steady tempo and adjust every now and then, switching around the keys you press every now and then. On top of that, the free time segments feel tacked on and utterly bland in comparison to the murder mystery segments, but apart from that I love it. Like I said before, the real fun in it is the murder mystery. I love trying to piece together who did it from the start, and those trials have an atmosphere and aesthetic that I haven't really seen before (the mechanics, the pop-art appearance combined with the dark red tint over everything, and the way it "moves" in general). The murders themselves have been pretty intriguing too. edit: Yeah, the "juvenile" sense it has to it is definitely a big part of the charm. But if you don't like it, you don't like it. Shame, but I definitely see where you're coming from.

Sure, it'll be fun. And that's good, I reeeaaally needed a good dose of death. How was Umineko?

Reading Danganronpa and it's wonderful. It can be pretty morbid, and the tone and sense of humor make it play right in to my tastes in comedy. The characters and general presentation are really stylized and quirky and generally a lot of fun. I also like trying to guess how each of the murders were carried out~ This'll definitely meet my monthly body-count quota too; I'm so happy because I needed something darker. I do agree with @Lucius and @Vorathiel on the rhythm gameplay though, it's really tiring. However, I like the courtroom debates a lot, it's like Phoenix Wright but with more dead kids and timed challenges. I guess my most major complaint is with the UI, of all things. No instant text speed makes me sad. I read incredibly quickly, so that was really hard to adapt to and even now I can't say I'm happy about it at all.

Umineko: Ange The House in Fata Morgana: Michel Ourai no Gahkthun: Berta I have a lot of others that I like, but these are my top three.

I started Dead End Junction and a lot about it was quite nice, but it wasn't really my cup of tea, and I'm not in the mood for it in general, so I'm dropping it and I might get back to it later. Harmonia sounds alright, but I've had enough romance/drama for a while from ef, so I'm playing Danganronpa. I haven't met my dead kid quota this month and when that starts to get really impatient with my VNs and have trouble reading. Hopefully Danganronpa will more than fulfill my dead kid quota and it will be a good time in general.

Finished ef. It was pretty great, but had major pacing issues. The first tale was nothing more than "alright", but the latter tale was absolutely fantastic; all of the plotlines were much better imo. The art was absolutely ridiculous (more CG than sprite on background, or at least it felt like it), and the ending cut scene was especially gorgeous. The VN got to be very emotional towards the end, and one could easily start crying while reading it. In a lot of its aspects, I felt that it was comparable to Clannad, but was much more mature as a whole; The plot twists towards the end could be a bit hard to buy at times, but the foreshadowing was good and nothing really took me out of it too much. Some of the characters in the first tale were subpar (and there's a special place in hell for love triangle plotlines), but the latter tale made up for it by a long shot.

Sorry for the late reply! I would recommend linking your VNDB; knowing what you like and don't like makes it a lot easier to recommend things. Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning had some pretty fun (and pretty) fight scenes, in spite of how overpowered the main character was. Rose Guns Days isn't an eroge, but it had a lot of action as well, and the soundtrack is godly. Majikoi is extremely lighthearted, and had a lot of comedy and romance/drama on top of many fight scenes. Kikukogai and Hanachirasu are two extremely dark and gritty Nitro+ VNs that feel a bit more like novels due to how they're written, and were a treat to read (though Hanachirasu probably had way too much infodumping, haha). All of these are very good and definitely worth reading (though I do like Majikoi significantly less than the other ones). If you pick one of these, tell me how it goes. And feel free to ask if you want to know more about any of these

I have a bunch of really specific tastes and most of my favorite heroines have a few of them. Really long yellow hair is nice (not pale blonde, gold), and I like strict personality types too (class reps and student council presidents tend to be favorites every time). Reverse traps are great because they're slender but never curvy, and a lot of the time (but not all) have a taller, thinner figure which is nice too. And most importantly, they have to be interesting and likable.

Sooooo, I just finished ef -the first tale- and it was alright. The first story honestly made me pretty angry (there's a special place in hell for love triangle plot lines, in my opinion, probably contributes to my general dislike of Flowers), but I actually rather liked the second one, about Shindo Kei. It made me actually really like her, which is an achievement seeing as not only did I dislike her at first, but she fits in to some of my least favorite archetypes. Her development more than made up for that, though. The VN is cinematic in a way that I haven't really seen before. I could swear there are more CG than scenes with sprites and backgrounds, which is ridiculous (in the best way imaginable, of course ). The music is also really nice and it has a very good atmosphere; I have a soft spot for quiet, calm piano pieces, and I absolutely adore the track "wish". Now for prediction stuff: The second part of ef should be pretty great. For the most part I liked First Tale, and I hear it gets soul-crushingly depressing (which I do so enjoy ). And I know from experience that Minori actually so I'm looking forward to this a lot.

Inganock had a pretty good OST in general, but this is my favorite track and it made a bunch of really awesome fight scenes that much cooler. And listen to that violin go

Great first review, I had a lot of fun reading it. Do yo thing this is going to become a regular thing?

I've given up and only link steam pages... I've written far too many disclaimers. One time, I recommended someone Bokurano, and they got triggered and spent 20 minutes telling me about how disgusting it was, since then I feel like I've had to tack on a four-paragraph content advisory to everything I recommend and it's such a pain.

No problem. It's actually on a list of good beginner VNs that I found, I think that it's difficult not because of the vocab and structure, but because you have to completely understand what you're reading to get what the writer's saying. Maybe give it a shot? But like I said, I haven't actually read these yet (god knows I would kill to, though), so take this with a grain of salt and maybe someone will come and elaborate or correct me if I'm wrong.

Yeah, I'm in the second "story arc" of ef and it's not exactly blowing me away. It's not intolerable (far from it), but it's definitely not up to par (hopefully it'll get a lot better?). I sort of do like the protagonists and Yuuko, though.

Sadly, I can't read untl yet, but from what I know Subahibi is worth a shot, as is its predecessor Tsui no Sora. Chaos child too, though maybe you should wait until after Chaos;Head? Like I said, I can't read untl, but look in to those, and maybe someone can elaborate on them for me?

Swan Song is good, I would recommend that most. Though, I seem to like it much more than most people, so take this with a grain of salt. I could just be crazy, but Flowers' melodrama drove me half insane, and it felt like a drag as a whole. Hanachirasu is worth a read, it's great but I think people like it less because of the sheer amount of time devoted to exposition and kendo. Still great as a whole. Can't comment on ef (still reading) and Homeward (haven't read yet).

Sorry to hear that you didn't like it. I disagree as a whole, but your points are all really valid (and all of those things bothered me on some level, though obviously much less than they did you) and like I said before, your opinion is incredibly refreshing. Even though I like it as a whole, it's still overrated. From what I can tell (and I don't think I'm wrong), you're a very picky eater, and most VNs that I've read tend to be pretty flawed on some level, and fairly polarizing as a whole. So while I don't think you should place much faith in ratings in general, it's probably still not a bad idea to use them as a guideline? And you should probably try not to get too hyped over everything; as I said before, most VNs are pretty flawed on some level. And from personal experience, a lot of my favorite VNs came as surprises to me (Swan Song, Inganock). tl;dr it was fun to read your impressions, maybe use ratings as a rough guideline but don't place much faith in them at all because that stuff's completely subjective.

Maybe try Phenomeno? It's short and has a subpar ending, but it's one of the few "pure horror" VNs and the art and general atmosphere is great.