Jartse

Not saying Dies Irae is a bad VN, but the protag certainly doesn't strike out as unique/capable (aside from the chunni-ness way into the routes). The game stands out because of everyone but the protag IMO (similar to MLA) I know you hate Aiyoku no Eustia, but surely Caim gets a mention at least?

Here are mine: 1. don't read two at the same time 2. do not look for your next vn until you are nearly finishing the current 3. ctrl over h-scenes (unless plot related) 4. take mini breaks, where there's a good spot like an intermission/end of chapter, stop, take a 2-3 min break, then back to it. Helps with going through slow SoL sections which tend to be written this way. 5. Don't read at auto mode, voice acting is great during interesting spots but it really slow you down in reading during the uninteresting spots. 6. Give yourself a mini goal especially after the intro if the vndb blurb is too vague (eg/ see a particular character smooching the protag, or try to predict how the story will play out) - sometimes i find myself enjoying the vn to the point where i didn't care about the original mini goal (theses I tend to give good scores on vndb) 7. Most important of all, pick a vn you are interested in from the vndb blurb It's worked for me so far from my vndb listing so maybe I might be onto something here.

What about CharaBration from Akabei Soft3? Though it feels like an average Love-Comedy with Trap Protag reading the summary.

June Release choices: Erewhon Shukusei no Girlfriend Minikui Mojika no Ko Did you mean July Release Choices?

I'm surprised to not find somewhat popular untranslated titles like muramasa and sakura no uta on the list.

Akumade, kore wa ~ monogatari is quite a strange vn. It starts great but it gets more boring and confusing the more you read it, eventually... (minor spoiler) I'd prefer Etatoto over it for mystery fans just because this is an extremely frustrating read for a good portion of the vn. Happy for me to share my thoughts with full spoilers in a pm for your blog if you want.

Pretty sure those special looking CGs are on purpose to match the atmosphere. I didn't pick out too big of a difference between the hcg vs normal cgs. Personally I thought the story could use a little bit more slice of life after the op shows up (saying the reason would be spoiler) to hint the mystery rather than what it had done though. Text hookers don't work on the game though, that's a downer for people relying on them.

I think everyone is over thinking it. What do people say as experienced as other mediums? like Film or books? Just need to be at it for a while. When you start comparing this VN with another you can probably be counted in the experienced group. Ignoring Nukiges, the average casual VN reader may not have read as much as most people on these forums.

I see yuusha as more like your average jrpg protag/group saving the world and eiyuu as someone/group who perform(ed) heroic deeds. If that's a more simpler explanation - its definitely not an easy one for the translator

First 10 - it's quite easy since I keep the save games so I just look at the modify dates. - Planetarian (around 2007 - I don't think I know this is a VN back then) - Ever 17 (2010) - 999 (2010) - Remember 11 (2011) - Wanko to Kurasou (2011 - one route only before I dropped it) - Umineko (2011) - Umineko Chiru (2012) - Chaos;Head (2012) - Never7 (2013) - Steins;Gate (2013) If you count Ace Attorney as VNs - they would fill up #2 to #5 (1st to 4th game)

Seconding this, the length indicator in vndb/egs is not always accurate - some of the Medium length VNs I've read in default auto mode definitely goes way higher than 30 hours. Flowchart is nice but sometimes you just don't want to be spoiled, maybe after you finish all the routes.

I like to compare this to movies/tv shows/anime, sometimes you just happen to be reminded (through conversations or discussions) about a particular scene which will cause you to go and rewatch it in say an evening as the commitment there is only around a few hours - with tv shows and anime there's the big temptation to fast forward to the interesting scenes on rewatches. With VNs it's much harder as I find that a majority of plot/interesting scenes seem to stick and other trivial/unimportant/uninteresting scenes fade. I definitely wouldn't want to re-read 20hours of boring stuff just to refresh myself on 2 hours of interesting scenes. I also seem to find enjoyment in remembering the plot points/awesome scenes of how a VN went vs actually reading it again. The Engrish from Baldr sky - impression sublimes to memories - is actually pretty true as I can still clearly remember my first few VNs quite well.

Christmas/New Year holidays gave me extra time to read, recently finished Yurameku Kokoro ni Michita Sekai de, Kimi no Yume to Yokubou wa Kanau ka - longest non nukige name VN I've read so far. To those who wants to read this VN, be careful of spoilers - once you've been spoiled, a few routes are literally unplayable as it hinges on the fact that you have yet to work out what's going on. I also recommend the following route order for optimal enjoyment if you plan to play all the routes. Tomoe -> Tsukino -> Sumire/Konoha (just make sure these are read after the other two) From reading the blurb on vndb it sounds like a mystery-ge, and in a way it is during the common route, however once you get into the routes it feels more of a romance charage than a mystery-ge as it starts to explore their motivations in being there during the summer break with the protag, some with excessive slice of life aka SOL. Every mystery being revealed during the routes are well hinted during the common route, so for experienced mystery VN readers, you could work out the entire mystery before the first choice even pops up. The protagonist (Aoi) is as dull as any VN Protags goes, for those who hate a generic dull protagonist stay well away from this VN. He is emotionless throughout the entire game, the reasoning does get explained in one of the routes, but still... it's terrible. The common route is extremely well done in setting up the mystery and getting you all hyped up about the mystery and things going on. This bit also does a good job conveying each of the heroines' characteristics with a bit of SOL along the way (not too excessive here at all in my opinion). However the routes themselves don't really live up to the hype built up in the common route so if you're going into the routes expecting this quality, you will be disappointed. Tomoe path is a good starter route to the VN as it doesn't dive into the mystery too much. Tomoe herself in short is an excessive brocon borderlining yandere, gets jealous real quickly and jumps in between the protag and other heroines during their routes lol. Her route has a lot of SOL with the mystery elements of the island are shown in glimpses, so you never have a full picture of what's happening (which is why I recommend reading this first). By the end of her route I was a bit sick of her exccessive jealousy (it gets annoying) so I was happy to have that over and done with. For those who are reading and trying to solve the mystery, you can use this route to test your theory. Tsukino route is the one which dives into the main mystery behind the island and slowly slips you info about it as part of the SOL, eventually ending with the whole thing told to you flat out. Basically aside from revealing the mystery her route is empty of other drama so if you are like me and "accidentally" read one of the two latter routes, her route becomes extremely boring and dull to read. Her ending is just what you would expect once you know the truth. From here onward the next two routes becomes more of a charage than a mystery-ge, as in both routes the island's mystery is literally handed to you on a silver platter near the beginning and instead explore the so-what-now side. Konoha route is the one which goes into to this and has a very sweet ending (Catharsis is the word I think), her route resembles a moege route the most if you ignore the island mystery reveal part. Finally Sumire route is a bit different to Konoha. Bit spoilery to get into details but in short it goes through her background story, personally I was surprised by some of the plot reveals in this route. My complaint here is the fact that the latter part of her route including the ending feels a bit lackluster in that all the other heroines seems to have vanished in thin air (not literally, just the lack of interactions with them) Overall the game had interesting mystery set up from the common route with very minimal SOL, but the actual routes themselves suffer from not living up to the expectation built up in the common and instead is full of SOL and drama. I'm a bit of a sucker for sweet endings which melts your heart so I enjoyed Konoha route the most.

Finished Baldr Bringer... in short, it's wasted potential due to bad execution, the player is rewarded with some plot too late. The game is very different to sky/heart where you don't actually follow a flowchart story of events happening to the Protag. Firstly a bit of a rant on the game mechanics. There will be some very minor spoilers here on how the game is structured but shouldn't ruin your experience should you end up playing this game. That's all the game mechanics (rant) out of the way, here comes the more spoilerish area, plot, the problem with talking about the plot in this game is that it's quite spoilerish so I'll keep this as minor as possible. I rated this game 6/10 on VNDB (the true route was a little redeeming and some of the heroine routes aren't bad). Overall this game is really only for the die-hard Baldr fans to know why it's the final chapter having played all the previous games, but if you are a die-hard fan planning to play this, be prepared to be frustrated by the difference in gameplay and lack of plot for the first 10-20 hours, only to be rewarded with a few hours of real plot. Though the lack-of-high-school theme is definitely a break from the VN norm.

having actually read what you're asking for - a chapter summary won't get you the insight for Muramasa's character I had a look on the broken link at the archive, which points you to chapter 1 (SPOILER ALERT) I don't think all the chapters are done though, and that chapter 1 probably have the least amount of interaction with Muramasa out of them all lol