EcchiOujisama

Great, so that's what the artist intended. I don't really care as I want my pr0n if I can get it. Artist/audience/Japan/west disconnect, whatever, fuck the mosaics.

What is wrong with you people?  We need Trump-sempai to Make the USSA Great Again!  It's not just for Americans, Japan needs America to be great again just as much as Americans.  Most Americans don't realize how much of a problem it is for Japan to have a pussy in charge.  But the Japanese with their eyes open know.  Trump-sempai will give Japan the kick in the ass she needs to be great again.  When Japan is great again anime will be great again. Why don't you want Japan to be great again? You must be hateful, hurtful, racist, bigoted, sexist, xenophobic Japanphobes who kidnap kittens and eat them alive.
This tall drink of umeshu knows what's up. Random-kun for Prime Minister! And my waifu no. 612!
You think some liberal pussy who wants to sell Japan to the Chinese will keep the world safe for anime and galge? NO! A vote for Trump is a vote for Japan and a vote to Make Anime Great Again!

We need some quality handicraft in here:

My PM box is going crazy thanks to Mr. Mojii, who admits to being the banned katakana whorebitch, bothering myself and 9 other members with a PM titled "DuDE DELETE DAT THREAD RIGHT NOW" 
He/she/it is claiming the evil kaguya banned him/her/it for no reason, because kaguya is a big meanie who bans people without even warning them.  Rule-abiding board members are being spammed with this because " a revolution or something to make the admins realize what kaguya did. hes the one who should be banned" is being plotted.
I'd like to think there is some kind of rule against spamming unrelated people by PM to incite mod revolution.  Call it being an adult if you like.  Please deal with this appropriately.

There was a consensus to ban them between all the GMs (Beato aside, she doesn't really get involved in this type of thing), by the way. 
We did it because the guy is straight up a troll who did nothing but post inflamatory remarks in his entire post history. 
The conspiracy part gets me laughing - since I did state I was going to ban them on fuwachat and a pm convo with like, 50 other members. 
But hey, if I had a penny every time someone says I'm abusing my authority I'd probably have like, 15 pennies or something, so that's neat \  /

This one dropped about a week ago.  While @CeruleanGamer  is no doubt ovaries deep while NTRabisming your girlfriend, or words to that effect, there doesn't seem to be a lot of excitement about this one.
On the surface, you'd think this can't miss.  Commanding a pair of kunoichi and doing H things to them while fighting bad guys trying to take over the world.  What's not to love?  Quite a lot, as it turns out.
The first thing that sticks out is the two kunoichi you get on the first run aren't particularly interesting or fun characters.  You have Narika, the annoying, flat, jealous childhood friend you've only known for 2 years.   Then there's Haruka, who doesn't feel like someone from centuries ago like she is supposed to be.  She's every shy modern girl you've ever seen.  As the most interesting character with the best body, Subaru is of course off limits on your first playthrough.  
For the first 30-35 turns (going over 99 is automatic game over and bad end) you pretty much do nothing but spin your wheels as you try to build yourself up enough to do just about anything.  It's hard explain as it has a lot of interconnected moving parts that affect each other, but if you imagine playing some NES RPG that requires a lot of grinding (like Dragon Quest 1 or Final Fantasy 1), then lose experience points every time you take a step, you start to get the idea.  Except you have more like 6 interconnected parts here.
What really stood out is that it seems to replicate the major flaws of both Hitozuma Hime Club and Otoboku.  Like Hitozuma Hime Club, you're bombarded with far more H scenes in succession than (I'd imagine) anyone could ever get off to.  Sooner or later you find yourself clicking through them so the game can continue.  Like Otoboku, it has a plot and enough characters that are interesting enough (even if they aren't the main heroines) that it should be engaging, but somehow it just isn't.  While Eiyuu*Senki balances the gameplay and story pretty well, this one had a tendency to give gameplay when I'm ready for story and to throw too many nothing segments at me when I'm just trying to get strong enough to survive.  It's less difficult than it is more tedious than it needs to be.
Another annoyance is that the option to skip previously messages turns itself off.  I haven't figured out what causes it yet, but it's a regular occurrence.
If you decide to save yourself for Akira-sensei, don't wait too long during her first scene.  You've been warned.
I found the bonus game for extra CGs to be quite a lot of fun.  It's very simple, but an enjoyable slash-everything-that-moves game.  
I just don't see why this one gets the amount of love it does in Japan.  It is greatly outclassed by the Rance remakes.  It's a decent game, but not a great one.
For an extra challenge, try playing on Nightmare Mode.  An invention of one of the guys in the staff room, you need to orgasm during every Haruka scene.  It's harder thank you think.  

This one dropped about a week ago.  While @CeruleanGamer  is no doubt ovaries deep while NTRabisming your girlfriend, or words to that effect, there doesn't seem to be a lot of excitement about this one.
On the surface, you'd think this can't miss.  Commanding a pair of kunoichi and doing H things to them while fighting bad guys trying to take over the world.  What's not to love?  Quite a lot, as it turns out.
The first thing that sticks out is the two kunoichi you get on the first run aren't particularly interesting or fun characters.  You have Narika, the annoying, flat, jealous childhood friend you've only known for 2 years.   Then there's Haruka, who doesn't feel like someone from centuries ago like she is supposed to be.  She's every shy modern girl you've ever seen.  As the most interesting character with the best body, Subaru is of course off limits on your first playthrough.  
For the first 30-35 turns (going over 99 is automatic game over and bad end) you pretty much do nothing but spin your wheels as you try to build yourself up enough to do just about anything.  It's hard explain as it has a lot of interconnected moving parts that affect each other, but if you imagine playing some NES RPG that requires a lot of grinding (like Dragon Quest 1 or Final Fantasy 1), then lose experience points every time you take a step, you start to get the idea.  Except you have more like 6 interconnected parts here.
What really stood out is that it seems to replicate the major flaws of both Hitozuma Hime Club and Otoboku.  Like Hitozuma Hime Club, you're bombarded with far more H scenes in succession than (I'd imagine) anyone could ever get off to.  Sooner or later you find yourself clicking through them so the game can continue.  Like Otoboku, it has a plot and enough characters that are interesting enough (even if they aren't the main heroines) that it should be engaging, but somehow it just isn't.  While Eiyuu*Senki balances the gameplay and story pretty well, this one had a tendency to give gameplay when I'm ready for story and to throw too many nothing segments at me when I'm just trying to get strong enough to survive.  It's less difficult than it is more tedious than it needs to be.
Another annoyance is that the option to skip previously messages turns itself off.  I haven't figured out what causes it yet, but it's a regular occurrence.
If you decide to save yourself for Akira-sensei, don't wait too long during her first scene.  You've been warned.
I found the bonus game for extra CGs to be quite a lot of fun.  It's very simple, but an enjoyable slash-everything-that-moves game.  
I just don't see why this one gets the amount of love it does in Japan.  It is greatly outclassed by the Rance remakes.  It's a decent game, but not a great one.
For an extra challenge, try playing on Nightmare Mode.  An invention of one of the guys in the staff room, you need to orgasm during every Haruka scene.  It's harder thank you think.  

Sometimes you just can't wait 24 hours to eat Peking Duck.  Sometimes you just can't wait for her headache to go away before you bust a nut.  Sometimes you can solve both problems at the same time.

scuse me sir, but you have been selected in a random ballet! 
Congratulations!

thanks obama

Locale is/was part of the settings on the user account, so in theory that should be doable.  Of course, it would take less time to experiment than it would to ask the question and wait for someone to answer it.   (^_-) Without knowing which version of Windows you're using I can't make a blanket statement.  I've come across situations with a single machine having different locales on user accounts in XP and 7 but 8 and 10 break a lot of things.  I run Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise on Japanese locale and I've yet to find ANYTHING that won't run on that save some 16-bit DOS programs and the old Magic The Gathering PC game when it gets its panties in a wad.   
As long as it's still part of the user profile on your version of Windows, than yes, you can do that.  If Microsoft changed it over to the machine settings on your version of Windows you can't.  
As Okarin said while I was typing, Japanese Windows fixes everything.  Activating Japanese Windows outside of Japan is a PITA if you buy a disc on YJA, but if you can download a VL/MSDN version (get a MSDN membership or use your school's MSDN membership to download a Japanese VL Windows if they will let you is the non-piracy answer), that is ideal.     
 

Give Pita Ten a chance.  It's the perfect amount of cuteness and absurdity wrapped up in one hilarious package.  If you're not sold after the first episode I don't know what to tell you.
Anime vs. VNs is no longer a fair comparison, because they have come to serve two very different purposes from the business side of things.  Back in MY DAY, when we walked to school in the snow, uphill both ways, anime was the end product and it didn't get any better than having a genuine Japanese laserdisc in your hands.  To this day Kimagure Orange Road remains among the elite of the elite in its genre.  Even though there was a manga out there, the anime was its own complete product, that gave you the entire story and was an end product you would buy unto itself.  VNs do that today.  When you are asked for 10,000+ yen, it is to give you the whole story in a complete and fulfilling way (in theory).  You don't go through a 2 hour VN as a teaser for a 200 episode anime series.
Over the last decade plus the business model for anime has changed.  The run of anime has gone from 26+ episodes to 13 to 12 to now even 10.  With 26 episodes it is possible to establish 5 or 6 or more characters and give them a story tell.  This is no longer the endgame.  For the most part, anime is no longer an end product to deliver a compelling, entertaining and satisfying story.  12 episodes are pissed away on a few gags and introducing the characters with no intention of giving a satisfying conclusion.  It has become a commercial for the manga, or light novel, or game, or wall scrolls, or cell phone straps, or whatever else.  
It's not even that you can't tell a compelling story with riveting characters in a relatively short period of time, as the great OVA series of the 90s can attest.  The problem is that anime is no longer designed to do so.  As such a fair comparison cannot be made.  It's like expecting a better story from a trailer than the full film (I realize with the shittiness of American films the trailers are often more entertaining, but you know what I mean).
Compare the Majikoi game and anime and it's obvious that game is a much more rewarding experience.  Give the writer 100 episodes to tell that kind of story and we can make a more informed comparison.       

I don't know what's wrong with some of your deductive reasoning, but IRL paizuri is even better than it is on screen.  Holy shit, so fucking amazing.  Of course, it takes a nice pair for it to work, but HOLY FUCK.  The first time I got sandwiched by a pair of F cups I shot my load in 3 strokes.  Soooooooo goooooooooood.   You might as well be claiming a woman's mouth wouldn't feel good on you in real life.  Does not compute. 
I can't believe I am seriously reading a thread where a man is trying to tell a woman what does and does not stimulate her secret place, AFTER she says she has a fetish for it.  Only on the internet.
Onto how eroge have corrupted me...
I certainly have a fetish for the word hora now.  I can't hear the word without thinking about shooting my load in a lamia's mouth.  With or without a paizuri to warm up.
I have developed a Pavlovian response to the name Takashiro that always gets me ready to tear Takashiro-sensei's clothes off and makes my dick tinge.  Thankfully I don't encounter any Takashiros in real life.
It's opened me up to rape, to a certain extent.  When getting revenge on some bitch in an eroge who is being a bitch for the sake of being hated, or raping an ally/enemy until they like it I'm fine with.  However, bring up real rape like what the rapefugees have been doing to European women and boys and I want to see them meet a very violent and painful end.  
Between games and anime, I've certainly opened my eyes to the feminine charms of the kitsune.  And Kansaiben.  I wouldn't call it a fetish per se, but women who use warawa or ware are almost guaranteed to be winners.

I want to use a laptop, is a charging cable really necessary?

Note to new readers: I changed the title of the thread as it morphs from an early review to a source of information on how to 100% the game over time.
I saw XReaper say the full patch was going to be out on 1/26 so I decided to start giving this one a go with the partial patch yesterday.  I'm about 7 hours in so I've been through enough to contrast it with Bunny Black.
The good:
-If you liked the story in the first one, there's a lot to like here so far.  It maintains the style of the original by giving you the story in small pieces so there is always more story to anticipate.
-The on-screen map now comes in multiple sizes.  You can change the size of the map with the shift key.  Once you step on a trap Darx is actually smart enough to mark it on the map.
-YOU CAN NOW SAVE ANYWHERE IN THE DUNGEONS!!!  It would have been nice if I realized that before getting wiped out several times.
 
The neutral:
-Treasure no longer infinitely spawns, unless I missed out on how to make it respawn.
-You are now given the opportunity to "invest" in the city after you see enough events, and by "invest" I mean personally foot the bill from your save the demon world budget.  Right after it is established that Maou-sama's government has put a ton of money into these projects, because that's not good enough apparently.  I give this a neutral because doing so increases your renown by 1 or 2 each time you "invest" in these -100% interest bearing bonds.  Ah, how I long for the good old days of picking up 30 or 40 renown just for cleaning up graffiti.  In BB2 raising your renown also raises your command and some of these unlock new units, so in practice it's fine.  The story reason behind it is just ridiculous.  Seriously, SHTF to the point that your king is out there fighting himself and you think THIS is the time to hit him up for his weapon money?  Fortunately this is Bunny Black so there's no need for a hookers and blow budget.  It's a built in fringe benefit.  \(^o^)/
 
The bad:
-The game gets WAY TOO HARD and WAY TOO FAST.  If you're old enough to remember playing NES RPGs you'll remember that walking too far could quickly see you die if you don't gain a few levels first.  Not in this one.  You get random encounters capable of wiping you out on the very first floor of the game.    
-All dungeons have multiple floors.  One of the things that kept the pace feeling brisk in the original was that most of the missions you did were on one floor, so you never spent too much time in one place.  Even if you were just doing patrols or cleaning up graffiti it felt like you making progress at every turn.   They get around it being "multiple floors" by calling it floor 9, 9A, 9B, etc. but if I'm going up and down stairs to a different map, it's a different floor.
-RANDOM FUCKING ENCOUNTERS!  Everyone's favorite part of RPGs right?  That whole awesome aspect of the first game about being able to see your enemies on the map so you could seek them out or avoid them?  Yeah, that's gone.  Apparently they decided it was too great and had to get rid of it after the first dungeon.  Which leads to another problem...
-THE PACING SUCKS ASS!!!  Based on who the enemies are, I could see a storyline reason for it not being on the map's radar if they bothered to explain it.  But why in the name of fuck would you take away something as great as knowing where the enemies are so you can kill them in a game that requires a metric shitton of level building?!?!?  Most of the time I have in the game so far is walking back and forth looking for random encounters to kill so I could finally beat the last fight in the second dungeon of the game.  If you've played Digital Devil Saga on PS2 you understand the difference between a satisfying challenge and wasting my time.  DDS is the former, this feels like the latter. 
-Your party has been "streamlined" down to 6 characters, while your enemies still get 9 plus backup units.  Because that' s fair.  
-Apparently reigning as Maou has greatly decreased Darx' ability to control his underlings, as he now only has half the command ability needed to boss Meryl around, despite doing so in the scene before you discover this fact.
-The speed up battles button has been changed from CTRL to CTRL+SHIFT.  Because holding down only one button for hours doesn't hurt enough.  Fuck that, get yourself a gaming mouse.  I just posted about this and it's even more recommended for BB2.
 

-Per the opening video, in Japanese logic Daakusu = Dirks.  That's putting those 6 years of English you guys took in school to good use.  Had they given him the last name of Digglers I would have moved this neutral.
 
Looking at all of that, you're probably thinking the game is terrible, and it's not.  However, most of the changes that really stick out are negative.  The Wiki that noted "not all of the changes were positive" put it gently.  Still, if you enjoyed the first one, you'll enjoy this one, and I suspect NG+ will cancel out most of the BS associated with this one.  It should also be noted that I carried over my save from BB1 so I actually started with 2 characters that are better than what you can buy on top of it.
If you're not going to wait for the full patch, there are two files to get from the thread on Seiha.  There is the patch which translates the game text, and a separate patch that translates the buttons.  Make sure you grab both of them.
http://games.seiha.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1095&sid=63061fb69d749fb186264196defafb1e

Those issues should be fixed in 1.3.2.  I've confirmed Michelangelo's sprite works properly now.  The one I linked should have been included in 1.3.2 but was an oversight.  It fixes Shambala with Michelangelo, Kojiro and the other two in your party.  At least it doesn't crash as soon as I start the fight, haven't gone through the 9th floor yet thanks to Bunny Black 2.  That link and 1.3.2 should take care of all crashes and problems in the English version AFAIK.

Let me see here...
5.Imari from Bible Black  I don't hate her exactly per se, but I'm not into her bland character in the least.  She's always in the way.  Either I want to go full evil and bang the shit out of Kitami-sensei and her followers, and the swim team, or play the white knight and have Takashiro-sensei pleasure me to high heaven in return.   あいしてる、Takashiro-sensei!
4.Hisui from Jewel Knights Crusaders  So let me get this straight.  I'm an evil antisuperhero who gets to rape the shit out of my giant-titted superhero teammates, complete with cornball names and costumes, as well as a giant-titted supervillainess who wants to take over the world and is in love with me?  Did you see my hometown?  SIGN ME THE FUCK UP RIGHT NOW!  Except we're going to screw this up by adding some loli who looks like she's about 8, talks like a child, acts like a child and even gets tired and goes to sleep super early like a little kid.  And has to be in most of the harem scenes to ruin those too.  BULLSHIT!  Like you're going to make a good upstanding Oppaiseijin like myself stray from the righteous path so easily.
3.Kaede from Shuffle!  Most of the main heroines are all kinda generic and just don't have much going for them.  Kaede on the other hand...just gets under my skin at every opportunity.  She makes herself the world's biggest doormat to the point that I not only don't feel sorry for her, but want it to break her and make her go away.  Seeing her past in Really? Really! made me hate her even more.  If she were going to jump off the roof of the school, even Great Teacher Onizuka wouldn't feel bad about kicking her in the back so he could look at her panties on the way down.    
2.Sumika from Muv-Luv   Words do not describe how I detest this petulant child.  Immature, nagging, omnipresent, cockblocking, unintelligent, unfeminine, I can't come up with a single nice thing to say about her.   You'd think someone would get the hint after being locked out of the house so many times.  I would gladly sell my best friend to Tsukuyomi-san to have this matter handled permanently.  And quietly.  In a way that could never be traced back to me.  I'll even take Yuuhi as my mistress to sweeten the pot.   
1.The heroin used by the writers of Muv-Luv Alternative  To give a SPOILERRIFFIC recap, you sit down and create a game with Mitsurugi Meiya, Hayase Mitsuki, Kouzuki Yuuko, Koubuin Yuuhi, Suzumiya Akane, Kashiwagi Haruko, Ayamine Kei, Sakaki Chizuru, Isumi Michiru and even Suzumiya Haruka and closet nymphomaniac Marimo-chan.  You take all of these awesome, amazing women and you decide that a red blooded heterosexual man in his sexual  prime is not going to pursue ANY of them.  In an environment where young men are very scarce and he probably get away with making a harem of them.  No, he's too hung up on one of the biggest cockblockers in eroge history to realize that aside from that whole "could get killed at any time, fighting for survival of the species" snag he's surrounded by premium poon from THREE awesome eroge.  MOST people would be quite happy to have one eroge's worth of heroines in their lives, but not this asshole.  Serious lack of taste in women aside, I could even accept that as a necessary evil to get where the story is going.  I get that real life doesn't always have a harem ending.  But there is no reason, and I mean NO GODDAMN REASON, that all of these characters I have come to love and respect can't be recognized for their part in SAVING THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE!  Give them a memorial, let them be honored and remembered for their unparalleled heroism and I'll honor their memories with a stick of incense with not a single complaint.  There is no need to whitewash their existence now that the 00 Unit did its job.  Is that small drop of emotional closure really too much to ask?  To the writers of Muv-Luv Alternative and the heroin that inspired them to such massive failings I say FAKKU YUU!    

Note to new readers: I changed the title of the thread as it morphs from an early review to a source of information on how to 100% the game over time.
I saw XReaper say the full patch was going to be out on 1/26 so I decided to start giving this one a go with the partial patch yesterday.  I'm about 7 hours in so I've been through enough to contrast it with Bunny Black.
The good:
-If you liked the story in the first one, there's a lot to like here so far.  It maintains the style of the original by giving you the story in small pieces so there is always more story to anticipate.
-The on-screen map now comes in multiple sizes.  You can change the size of the map with the shift key.  Once you step on a trap Darx is actually smart enough to mark it on the map.
-YOU CAN NOW SAVE ANYWHERE IN THE DUNGEONS!!!  It would have been nice if I realized that before getting wiped out several times.
 
The neutral:
-Treasure no longer infinitely spawns, unless I missed out on how to make it respawn.
-You are now given the opportunity to "invest" in the city after you see enough events, and by "invest" I mean personally foot the bill from your save the demon world budget.  Right after it is established that Maou-sama's government has put a ton of money into these projects, because that's not good enough apparently.  I give this a neutral because doing so increases your renown by 1 or 2 each time you "invest" in these -100% interest bearing bonds.  Ah, how I long for the good old days of picking up 30 or 40 renown just for cleaning up graffiti.  In BB2 raising your renown also raises your command and some of these unlock new units, so in practice it's fine.  The story reason behind it is just ridiculous.  Seriously, SHTF to the point that your king is out there fighting himself and you think THIS is the time to hit him up for his weapon money?  Fortunately this is Bunny Black so there's no need for a hookers and blow budget.  It's a built in fringe benefit.  \(^o^)/
 
The bad:
-The game gets WAY TOO HARD and WAY TOO FAST.  If you're old enough to remember playing NES RPGs you'll remember that walking too far could quickly see you die if you don't gain a few levels first.  Not in this one.  You get random encounters capable of wiping you out on the very first floor of the game.    
-All dungeons have multiple floors.  One of the things that kept the pace feeling brisk in the original was that most of the missions you did were on one floor, so you never spent too much time in one place.  Even if you were just doing patrols or cleaning up graffiti it felt like you making progress at every turn.   They get around it being "multiple floors" by calling it floor 9, 9A, 9B, etc. but if I'm going up and down stairs to a different map, it's a different floor.
-RANDOM FUCKING ENCOUNTERS!  Everyone's favorite part of RPGs right?  That whole awesome aspect of the first game about being able to see your enemies on the map so you could seek them out or avoid them?  Yeah, that's gone.  Apparently they decided it was too great and had to get rid of it after the first dungeon.  Which leads to another problem...
-THE PACING SUCKS ASS!!!  Based on who the enemies are, I could see a storyline reason for it not being on the map's radar if they bothered to explain it.  But why in the name of fuck would you take away something as great as knowing where the enemies are so you can kill them in a game that requires a metric shitton of level building?!?!?  Most of the time I have in the game so far is walking back and forth looking for random encounters to kill so I could finally beat the last fight in the second dungeon of the game.  If you've played Digital Devil Saga on PS2 you understand the difference between a satisfying challenge and wasting my time.  DDS is the former, this feels like the latter. 
-Your party has been "streamlined" down to 6 characters, while your enemies still get 9 plus backup units.  Because that' s fair.  
-Apparently reigning as Maou has greatly decreased Darx' ability to control his underlings, as he now only has half the command ability needed to boss Meryl around, despite doing so in the scene before you discover this fact.
-The speed up battles button has been changed from CTRL to CTRL+SHIFT.  Because holding down only one button for hours doesn't hurt enough.  Fuck that, get yourself a gaming mouse.  I just posted about this and it's even more recommended for BB2.
 

-Per the opening video, in Japanese logic Daakusu = Dirks.  That's putting those 6 years of English you guys took in school to good use.  Had they given him the last name of Digglers I would have moved this neutral.
 
Looking at all of that, you're probably thinking the game is terrible, and it's not.  However, most of the changes that really stick out are negative.  The Wiki that noted "not all of the changes were positive" put it gently.  Still, if you enjoyed the first one, you'll enjoy this one, and I suspect NG+ will cancel out most of the BS associated with this one.  It should also be noted that I carried over my save from BB1 so I actually started with 2 characters that are better than what you can buy on top of it.
If you're not going to wait for the full patch, there are two files to get from the thread on Seiha.  There is the patch which translates the game text, and a separate patch that translates the buttons.  Make sure you grab both of them.
http://games.seiha.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1095&sid=63061fb69d749fb186264196defafb1e

If you're anything like me, you've noticed a similar nagging annoyance of every major HRPG - it requires an inordinate amount of holding down or repeatedly pressing a button to speed up battles, fight efficiently, etc.  After enough hours the tip of your finger might even start to hurt from this.  It seems like there has to be a better way to H.
There is.
The combination I have found to do wonders for my HRPG gaming is a gaming mouse (ReDragon Centrophorus, available for $12ish shipped on eBay, $16ish on Amazon or $40ish in your local big box store) and a program called X-Mouse Button Control.
The main stumbling block with one of these so-called "gaming" mice is that Windows immediately appropriates the buttons for forward and back for web browsing, and does not make it very easy to reassign the buttons for something that is actually useful in games not programmed to use a 5 button mouse.  This is where X-Mouse Button Control comes in.  Not only does it make it extremely easy to reconfigure what each mouse button does when you press it, but it allows you to change what the buttons do on a PER PROGRAM BASIS!
What does that mean?  Well in Brave Soul you need to hold down TAB to get the game to accelerate.  In Eiyuu*Senki and Bunny Black you use CTRL to get the battles to move along.  As you are remapping the buttons per program you can have both be same button on your mouse!  It might not sound like a big deal, but trust me, you get used to this very quickly.
Moreover, X-Mouse Button Control gives you options for how buttons are utilized.  You can press the mouse button once and have it held or pressed repeatedly until you press it again, or pressed down as you hold it, or held down until you press the button again.  It is extremely configurable, and can simplify your controls immensely in a way that makes the most sense to you.  If one of the preprogrammed commands isn't what you need, which it probably isn't for HRPGs, the simulated keyboard option from the dropdown takes care of anything and everything you could need.
Minimizing wrist strain is a big deal for me as both of my wrists have been broken horribly (when the cast goes from your knuckle to your shoulder, it's bad).  As someone with very bad wrists, I have found the positioning of buttons on most 5 button mice to cause as much wrist strain as it would save from using the keyboard.  Not with this one.  The 4th and 5th button placements are quite ergonomic, even for someone with bad wrists.  I give it my highest recommendation to avoid wrist pain associated with holding down or repeatedly pressing buttons for extended periods of time.
Thus far I have used it on Eiyuu*Senki, Eiyuu*Senki GOLD, Bunny Black, Brave Soul, Rance 3 and Little Princess with great success.  It further streamlines other tasks I do regularly in normal applications.  Two thumbs up from me,  a very worthy investment for your 12 bucks. 

There is a lot to like and a lot to dislike.  Extra, Unlimited and Alternative all have their strengths and weaknesses.  It is very much a series of extremes, the good is very good and the bad is very bad.  I talked about this in some detail with another forum user so I'll copy/paste what I said for your convenience.  If you have any other questions let me know.      
 
How much you read before Alternative is largely up to you and your preferences. To start with, the first two games of the series, Extra and Unlimited, are packaged together. In order to get access to Unlimited you must clear the Meiya and Sumika routes in Extra. There are three other routes in Extra, and honestly, even though I like Iinchou and Ayamine a lot as characters, the story they decide to tell is largely something I didn't want to see. From a storyline standpoint I actually liked Tama's route, even though the thought of doing an H scene with her makes me throw up a bit in my mouth. I would still suggest you play every route in Extra. Why? The characters introduced in these routes will show up in Alternative, and their appearance and roles will make far more sense. I also loved the "bad" end with Marimo, which I thought was awesome and wouldn't call a bad end at all. It answers a nagging question I had throughout the VN as well.
While we're talking about the world of Muv Luv Extra, this happens in the same world as Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. There are several tie ins with KimiNozo. As it is only in the beginning of being translated, and is one of the longest VNs of all time, it's probably not an option if your kanji isn't at JLPT level 1. I would say watching the TV series is absolutely necessary. You should actually watch it before playing Extra as one of the characters from Kiminozo has a good amount of screen time. Watch Second Season is you want, and watch Akane Maniax after you play Extra for a chance to see some Muv Luv characters in anime. AyuMayu Theater will make far more sense after you play Alternative, so wait on that one.
Unlimited is a different story. All of the routes are the same and the choices you make have almost no impact on the story. Instead of event A happening with character A, you could manipulate it into being character B with enough of the right choices, but the differences are minor. There is no reason to play the game more than once unless you want to see the H scene of another character. The endings are all EXACTLY the fucking same, to the point that it doesn't feel true to the characters. It's done to plant seeds for Alternative and it makes sense now in retrospect, but it drags on a LOT when playing for 100% and felt like a big fuck you from the writer to the fanbase IMO. I'd suggest making choices that seem like they will maximize time with your favorite character and to play Alternative before going through the game again. Clearing it to 100% after the first character was brutal.
Alternative is extremely linear. The choices you make have only a minor impact on the story, and after going back through it to see what would happen with all of the opposite choices, there's basically no difference. The game gives you a big middle finger by having zero benefits after clearing the game. No soundtracks. No CG gallery. Nothing. It's like "Oh, you just forked over 60 hours of your life and thought that would let you listen to the game's music? Well fuck you." There are only 2 H scenes in the whole game, and they're both with a character I wouldn't even want to bang in real life.
Now that I've said all of the bad parts about it, on the whole it's really great. Just about everything I didn't like in Extra and Unlimited tied into the story and paid off in a way that made sense. The effects that they pull off are visually stunning. While the others would have points where the story was interesting and would then drag, this went more than 10 hours before it even came close to slowing down once. The more you pay attention to little details in the prior games the more you are rewarded in Alternative. Alternative doesn't expect you to remember every hint about the way things might go and reminds you of lines here and there when foreshadowing is paid off. As you go farther into Alternative you'll be glad you at least watched KimiNozo as a lot of characters from Kimizono appear, and are true to the characters you've come to know. There aren't a lot of areas that are light-hearted in this one, but it will grab you by the balls and not let go for hours at a time. The ending is certainly divisive, you'll probably love or hate it, but the ending of the ending gave me huge blue balls for Altered Fable. I can't wait to play it.

You've basically got it right.  The first two games are what they are, you'll see when you go through them.  The experience is interesting as it contains one of my favorite (Meiya) and most hated (Sumika) characters in any VN.  Opinions on the end of Alternative are widely varied, but you'll probably react strongly one way or the other.  Here's what I recommend.
1.Watch the Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (also called Rumbling Hearts) anime.     
2.Play every route in Muv-Luv Extra.
3.Play the route of your favorite character in Muv-Luv Unlimited.
4.(Optional) Watch Akane Maniax OVA.  It's not particularly great, but you'll get to see Iinchou and the world's greatest physics teacher in anime form.  Stars Suzumiya Akane (no relation to Haruhi).
5.Muv-Luv Alternative
6.Watch AyuMayu Theatre.  It's SO awesome when you get the Muv-Luv jokes, and makes you think the writers were on acid when you don't.  
If you end up liking Haruko after you get through Extra you could play Haruko Maniax (translated) at any time, as it doesn't tie in to the rest of the series at all.  On the plus side you'll get to see Haruko's awesome body, on the creepy side the H scenes are her little brother imagining her doing different guys.  A penny's worth of free advice - the game gives the option of skipping the H scenes and viewing them later, and it's actually better to go through the story and view the H scenes on their own afterwards.  Just take my word for it.   

There is a lot to like and a lot to dislike.  Extra, Unlimited and Alternative all have their strengths and weaknesses.  It is very much a series of extremes, the good is very good and the bad is very bad.  I talked about this in some detail with another forum user so I'll copy/paste what I said for your convenience.  If you have any other questions let me know.      
 
How much you read before Alternative is largely up to you and your preferences. To start with, the first two games of the series, Extra and Unlimited, are packaged together. In order to get access to Unlimited you must clear the Meiya and Sumika routes in Extra. There are three other routes in Extra, and honestly, even though I like Iinchou and Ayamine a lot as characters, the story they decide to tell is largely something I didn't want to see. From a storyline standpoint I actually liked Tama's route, even though the thought of doing an H scene with her makes me throw up a bit in my mouth. I would still suggest you play every route in Extra. Why? The characters introduced in these routes will show up in Alternative, and their appearance and roles will make far more sense. I also loved the "bad" end with Marimo, which I thought was awesome and wouldn't call a bad end at all. It answers a nagging question I had throughout the VN as well.
While we're talking about the world of Muv Luv Extra, this happens in the same world as Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. There are several tie ins with KimiNozo. As it is only in the beginning of being translated, and is one of the longest VNs of all time, it's probably not an option if your kanji isn't at JLPT level 1. I would say watching the TV series is absolutely necessary. You should actually watch it before playing Extra as one of the characters from Kiminozo has a good amount of screen time. Watch Second Season is you want, and watch Akane Maniax after you play Extra for a chance to see some Muv Luv characters in anime. AyuMayu Theater will make far more sense after you play Alternative, so wait on that one.
Unlimited is a different story. All of the routes are the same and the choices you make have almost no impact on the story. Instead of event A happening with character A, you could manipulate it into being character B with enough of the right choices, but the differences are minor. There is no reason to play the game more than once unless you want to see the H scene of another character. The endings are all EXACTLY the fucking same, to the point that it doesn't feel true to the characters. It's done to plant seeds for Alternative and it makes sense now in retrospect, but it drags on a LOT when playing for 100% and felt like a big fuck you from the writer to the fanbase IMO. I'd suggest making choices that seem like they will maximize time with your favorite character and to play Alternative before going through the game again. Clearing it to 100% after the first character was brutal.
Alternative is extremely linear. The choices you make have only a minor impact on the story, and after going back through it to see what would happen with all of the opposite choices, there's basically no difference. The game gives you a big middle finger by having zero benefits after clearing the game. No soundtracks. No CG gallery. Nothing. It's like "Oh, you just forked over 60 hours of your life and thought that would let you listen to the game's music? Well fuck you." There are only 2 H scenes in the whole game, and they're both with a character I wouldn't even want to bang in real life.
Now that I've said all of the bad parts about it, on the whole it's really great. Just about everything I didn't like in Extra and Unlimited tied into the story and paid off in a way that made sense. The effects that they pull off are visually stunning. While the others would have points where the story was interesting and would then drag, this went more than 10 hours before it even came close to slowing down once. The more you pay attention to little details in the prior games the more you are rewarded in Alternative. Alternative doesn't expect you to remember every hint about the way things might go and reminds you of lines here and there when foreshadowing is paid off. As you go farther into Alternative you'll be glad you at least watched KimiNozo as a lot of characters from Kimizono appear, and are true to the characters you've come to know. There aren't a lot of areas that are light-hearted in this one, but it will grab you by the balls and not let go for hours at a time. The ending is certainly divisive, you'll probably love or hate it, but the ending of the ending gave me huge blue balls for Altered Fable. I can't wait to play it.