ヤミハナ

This is yet another VN from Ensemble, the company specializing in trap protagonist infiltrations and ojousama-ge.  For the first time in a while, the protagonist in this one is actually not a trap and the game actually has something approaching a good story... which was nice.  However, if you ask if it met my expectations for it, that's another story entirely.
First, this VN starts with the protagonist, a part-time bodyguard from a family of such individuals, transferring into a school to secretly serve as additional security for Kuon, the daughter of the head of the powerful Hikami family.  There he meets his osananajimi, Natsuki, who is Kuon's open bodyguard, Kuon's friend Erika, and the wise and somewhat playful senpai Miku.  In addition, his brocon little sister Rikka transfers later on, unable to stand the idea of him being surrounded by other women, lol. 
Anyway, the first thing I should say about the protagonist is that he is very close to the 'classic' protagonist type that plagues charages in most ways... he is sincere, kind-hearted, dense, and indiscriminately compassionate.  However, he is also a trained bodyguard, with all the observational and martial arts skills that go along with that.  Unfortunately, there are rarely few times in the VN where he actually acts as a bodyguard, because most of the VN is slice-of-life focused on reviving the Shuvesta tradition at the school, with him and Kuon at the center of it all, as the first Shuvesta pair. 
Kuon... isn't exactly what you'd expect from an ojousama heroine.  She's bright, enthusiastic, and 'sparkly' (her personality is extremely... bubbly).  She is also highly intelligent, but she has a tendency to jump to conclusions that can drag those around her in her wake at times.  I liked her as a character, and she is one of those rare heroines who actually makes ichaicha romance fun, if only for a brief time.
Erika is your average serious and straight-laced school president heroine, with the usual tendency to be a devoted and adoring lover that comes along with that type.  To be straight, I thought that they could have done more to show off that side of her, since the best part of heroines like her is seeing the mask fall off completely as the story goes on.  This is a rare case where I think they moved from lovers to the endgame a bit too quickly.
Miku is... a compassionate, playful, and mischievous older 'oneesan' type.  Her type is less and less common in recent years, primarily because over 90% of VN heroines are of the same or lower age than the protagonist in non-nukige VNs (in nukige, really older women are making a comeback, for some reason).  As a character, she was invaluable in and of herself, providing a powerful support in the other paths.  In her own path... she's very aggressive.  Very AGGRESSIVE (it needed to be said twice). 
Natsuki is the protagonist's osananajimi and Kuon's personal bodyguard.  She and the protagonist are reunited after ten years apart in this VN, and she is quite obviously dragging her puppy love for him behind her like a lead weight, though she covers it up with occasional tsundere-isms and excuses, lol.  Her path was primarily interesting because it was the first one I played that actually dug into the protagonist's origins (I won't spoil it for you).  I can't really say I'm fond of her type of heroine (I have negative feelings about half-assed usage of childhood friends/osananajimi settings), but I did enjoy her path...
Rikka is the protagonist's younger sister by adoption (he was adopted after his parents' death).  She is a genius, to put it bluntly.  So much so that she has actually already completed her education and is working as a full-fledged bodyguard, while the protagonist is still moonlighting as a student bodyguard.  She adores her oniisan in a way that is rather obviously more 'a girl in love' than an imouto's affection for her oniichan (as portrayed in VNs, as opposed to rl, lol).  Though she manages to cover it up with her acting skills, she is actually very slow to trust and has difficulty getting really close to non-family members.  Her path was probably the most predictable of them all...
The biggest negative point of this VN, besides the fact that it doesn't provide enough action to take advantage of the bodyguard setting, is the lack of comprehensive endings and/or after stories.  To be blunt, the 'drama' at the end of each path feels too obviously like it was made up specifically to wrap the routes up and provide an excuse for a fandisc.  Worse, the 'after-stories' that come after each path are basically just h-scenes... usually based less than a week after the route ends (c'mon, Ensemble... I want to see what happens ten years down the road, not what happens after school the same day!). 
Overall, this turned out to be a standard charage for the most part, if one with a bit more solid of a story than you see in most.  While it is amongst the better games made by Ensemble in recent years, it is pure crap when compared to Koi no Canvas or Gokigen Naname.  I can't help but wonder if this company will ever figure out that it contracted with the wrong writers when it was deciding who would be in the main staff roll...

First, I recently completed my second playthrough of Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier... and I'd forgotten how much fun it was digging around in the political violence of that period.  It made me remember why I named it VN of the Year 2015, though that was mostly because 2015 sucked, lol.  It is a great game for fans of historical fantasy and the Shinsengumi, as well as fans of Grisaia's writer (who also wrote this one).  Having a trap protagonist who is also more than a little... bewitching makes it even more interesting, hahaha.
Second, I'm considering a number of VNs for my next random VN... I keep meaning to replay Muramasa (though that one is so over-sized it is hard to get up the energy for it) and Bradyon Veda (ditto).  I'm also considering a number of older VNs for replay, as well as Sengoku Hime 7.  Last Cavalier was great for sword fights and high ideals accompanied by bloodshed, but I'm kind of in the mood for ambition and war, lol.
April's releases are all short games, so it won't take much time to get through all of them.  As a result, I will inevitably play at least some random VNs this time around... what kind of game would you like to hear from me about?
 

About the February Releases
Currently, fun2novel is reading Ouka Sabaki for me, and he has a fondness for mystery games and the Ace Attorney series, so he is a good fit for that game.  When he completes it and I post his commentary, we'll make the decision on the VN of the Month for February at that point.
Omoi o Sasageru Otome no Melody
This is the newest game in Ensemble's ongoing trap protagonist series of ojousama-ge (charage where all or most of the characters are rich girls).  In this one, the protagonist dresses up as a girl to both attend school and teach music at a girl's school.  He does this because he wants to play the piano his father tuned that is only played during the school festival.
Now, I should say that this VN shares the singular flaw that all of the VNs in this series after Koi no Canvas have made... primarily the lack of depth in the heroine settings and the weak endings.  So, in that sense, this isn't an improvement over any of those, which I generally rated between a 6 and a 7. 
This game's common route is short and to the point, splitting off into two differing arcs based on your first choice, then into heroine routes based on your second choice.  The differing arcs also represent differing experiences with the characters in general and the heroines specifically, since the circumstances differ greatly. 
Now, setting aside my displeasure with the endings and the weak character settings (all character settings save the protagonist are 'confined' to the school, with almost no reference to their lives before or their formative experiences), I can honestly say that they did the protagonist well.  This is despite the fact that he is basically the same protagonist as in the previous games in the series, based off of Koi no Canvas's protag, who was kind-hearted and giving but more than a little passive outside his areas of expertise (this has become a series tradition, to mixed results).  In this protagonist's case, it actually fits really well into his role as a teacher, so it isn't as much of a downside as it was in the previous games.  
Now, the focus in this VN generally lies with the music and the development of the relationships with the heroines, rather than the heroines themselves, if that makes sense to you.  That decision, as in previous games, to ignore the 'history' of the heroines, means that character development is based entirely in the here and now, with no information on the 'why' of things in depth.  It also means that you won't see outside influences dropping in to create drama, which is rather a waste considering that one of the attractions of ojousama-ge by other companies is the way the parents or circumstances almost always intervene to interfere in the romances. 
Don't expect a strong conflict in this VN... for the most part, the girls all end up accepting the protagonist in their paths with relatively little worrying, a fact that left me feeling a bit bemused.  Mia, in particular, seemed like the type to at least go to another teacher with it (I was kind of looking forward to it), so I was a bit let down in this sense.  Generally speaking, while there are 'moments of drama' there aren't any drawn out drama elements in it, so tension tends to be limited to one or two scenes before it is resolved. 
Romantically, since this is a relatively short VN, things move really fast, as they always seem to in this type of VN.  Because the protagonist is in an 'upper' role to most of the heroines, it actually works better than it did in the previous games in the series, even if it shared some of the same elements. 
The big attraction of this VN is the protagonist's teacher role, at least for me.  For the first time since Koi no Canvas, I actually felt like the protagonist was playing an interesting role... and at the same time, he is also a brilliant and devoted pianist, which is a huge positive.  In this sense, this game escapes the 'pale and useless' protagonist box that almost every charage falls into. 
So... is this a good VN?  It will probably pick its readers.  First, you have to be fond of or at least tolerant of trap protagonists.  Second, you'll have to bear with the lack of in-depth character settings.  Third, the endings are even less in-depth than the normal charage.  This is a decent VN, in my opinion.  However, it isn't VN of the Month material, unfortunately.  It is an improvement over the last few games in the series, though.
Edit: Just a bit of information...  all of these VNs after Koi no Canvas were written predicated on the future release of a fandisc.  That seems to be at least part of the reason for the weak character development, though it is inadequate as an excuse. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've simply reached a point where playing four VNs from every month's releases is now unfeasible.  However, at the same time, I wish to ensure that the role I set this up for in the first place continues to be fulfilled.
The Original Purpose of VN of the Month
The central purpose of VN of the Month is to give people a general idea of what they can expect going into a VN that is untranslated.  Is it enjoyable?  Who would it be enjoyable for?  What kind of genre is it a part of?  Is there something that makes this VN special? 
The current situation
I no longer have the energy to do everything I have been doing. Doing VN of the Month takes up amounts of time I'd rather be spending asleep, being social, or helping with translation projects.  Moreover, I'm currently in the middle of an apparent rush season for my work, so keeping up with it has become burdensome in the extreme.  However, I remember when all opinions of VNs were basically given off-hand in instant messaging and chat platforms, and no one really had any idea if a VN was any good, because of the troll voting that plagues all database sites.  While there are some English language VN bloggers out there, they mostly concentrate on translated entries and titles by companies everybody is already familiar with (such as Favorite, Pulltop, Yuzusoft, Minori, etc). 
My solution
I want to ask some of the people who regularly play new VNs on Fuwa to take some of the burden off my shoulders... in particular, I'd like to at least offload two of the charage from each month on some people so I can concentrate on VNs I have a standing interest in.  Preferably, I would like four or five people to do maybe one of these VNs each every two months (accounting for other people's reading speed and time constraints).  To be blunt, I have no interest in aiding and abetting another person's burnout by forcing them into handling a VN or two every month on schedule, so that is why I want the greater numbers.
The issue
Japanese readers are still a vast minority here, and I don't know if it is even realistic to expect anyone but me to even consider helping with something like this.  I know a few people who read fairly fast, but I honestly don't want to make a request directly that is fundamentally burdensome.
If you are interested, comment on this blog post and we'll work things out in a PM.
Edit:   Keep in mind that what I want are opinions.  To be blunt, I can write up a blog post based on someone else's opinions in under ten minutes if I need to, even if they themselves are terrible at writing or organizing their thoughts.  It is what I do for a living, after all.  In this way, the focus will shift somewhat... because I'll be handing things over to people who have a preference for the genre they are playing.  That's why I'd like to get some charage players on board.  While I personally strive for as little bias as possible, the fact is that charage reviews should be geared to charage lovers, and that is something I can't provide, sadly.  The same goes for mystery, sports-focused, and denpa types.  I have no taste for those genres, so it is best that I leave them to someone else who does like them. 
Current new Members-
fun2novel: Specialties are mindfuck, mystery, and chuunige.  I'll be depending on him primarily for mystery VNs, which I dislike.  For a start, I've asked him to take over Ouka Sabaki, since I can't bring myself to play it.  He's got a decent level of experience, and he is reasonably fast. 
 
 

After reading Clephas’ recent blog update I decided to rip him off was inspired to do something similar. My own experience with visual novel is not as vast as his so go read his blog, his list is awesome and is way more interesting, so just give up reading this and go to his blog -__-
Every work should be judged on its own no matter who the writer is but it’s impossible, in my opinion, not to rely on those writers that really speak to us, those that know how to push our buttons and inspire us, touch us deeply, bring us to tears, and blow our minds. When you find a writer that does all that for you then you’ll probably want to read more of his works if only because nobody else does that for you.
Takumi Nakazawa – Best known for his work on the Infinity series, Nakazawa is one of the most incredible writers and story builders of our time. He writes Hard Science Fiction Mysteries and is completely crazy for plot details. Every single scene in his stories have a purpose to be there, every line can have multiple interpretations. Each story he writes explores many philosophical themes and scientific theories. His obsession with details what gives his stories so much depth. His characters is another part where he excels at as each one has a reason and an important part in the overall narrative. Nakazawa is not just a writer but a director and a producer but his plot structure and narrative mastery is in everyone of his major projects.
Notable works:
  
Never7

Ever17

Remember11

I/O

Root Double.
 
Uchikoshi Koutarou – Very famous among the western visual novel community and one of the very few writers recognized outside the community. Uchikoshi worked closely with Takumi Nakazawa on the Infinity series, that is where he found his passion for Science Fiction Mystery stories and what he kept writing since Never7. His ideas are incredible and just as much fascinating as Nakazawa’s ideas with a detailed narrative structure only matched by Nakazawa himself. It’s impossible to talk about either of those writers and not to compare between their individual works. Uchikoshi is an amazing writer but he doesn’t spend as much time into fleshing out his plots as much as Nakazawa does. But his stories are still amazing and highly entertaining.
Notable works:
   
                        Never7                                                 Ever17                                                              Remember11

12Riven

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
  
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma .
 
 
Eve - New Generation -
 
Masada Takashi – This guy is… the only words floating in my mind is insane and epic. His got the most chuuniest chuuni style of any writer out there. Until you read him you don’t know how good his narrative mastery truly is and just how much research he puts into his stories with everything from the bible to ancient mystical rituals to all kinds of mythologies and philosophies. The guy is a freaking poet and manages to turn a chuuni battle story into the most mind blowing FEELS kind of visual novels. What even more interesting about him is that he’s not just about the chuuni, his stories are very character centric and he is a master at making the reader sympathize with his characters and gives just as much attention to them as he does to everything else in his stories. His stories are like epic poems or German operas with extravagant imagery and presentation. He is the guy that put Light on the map and his Dies Irae built a lot of fan following for the company.
Notable Works:

Paradise Lost
  
Dies Irae
 
Kajiri Kamui Kagura

Soushuu Senshinkan Gakuen Hachimyoujin

Soushuu Senshinkan Gakuen Bansenjin

Dies irae ~Interview with Kaziklu Bey~.
 
Kurashiki Tatsuya & Takahama Ryou – Also known as the Light’s non Masada chuuni team. Masada has a very unique instantly recognizable style that is both incredible and difficult to replicate. Kurashiki Tatsuya & Takahama Ryou don't try to copy Masada and instead try different a lot more diverse styles compared to Masada and every visual novel they worked on is a completely fresh and unique work by its own merits with different presentation, visual, and writing style. Their stories are epic chuuni through and through with great prose and narrative structure. Sometimes they will bring another writer as they did with Mugi Ayumu when they worked on Zero Infinity, Electro Arms, and Silverio Vendetta or Monaka Koke for Silverio Trinity. Tatsuya also did some contractual work for Clock-Up on Maggot Baits and both of them worked together on Studio e.go!’s Izumo 4. Masada and this non Masada team defined what a chuuni visual novel should be like, they are the superstars of any chuuni visual novel reader.
Notable Works:

Vermilion -Bind of Blood-

Zero Infinity -Devil of Maxwell-

Electro Arms -Realize Digital Dimension
 
Silverio Vendetta

Maggot Baits

Izumo 4

Silverio Trinity(coming soon).
Higashide Yuuichirou – Another one of the best chuuni writers. His style is both varied and distinctly his own. One of the most noticeable things about him is how much he loves to create very unique settings and puts a lot of time into building his worlds. The settings in his stories are as much a character as the main characters themselves, pick any of his works and you’ll be pulled into a place so alive and imaginative you will believe it actually exists. When it comes to characters Yuuichirou is a master, at least when it comes to protagonists and the main cast and his characters really shine. Besides writing cool stylish epic battle scenes Yuuichirou is also the best comedy writer in the chuuni genre and his comedy can get absolutely hilarious. Sometimes he’s so good with characters and humor that you’ll not want those so called ‘slice of life’ scenes to end once the real plot kicks in. Unfortunately he left Propeller the company where he created his most famous works and went to work for Type-Moon.
Notable Works:

Ayakashibito

Bullet Butlers

Chrono Belt

Evolimit

Tokyo Babel.
Ryuukishi07 – One of the most prolific visual novel writers of this decade. The guy is like a perpetual machine never running out of oil and never rusting. He is known mostly for Higurashi and Umineko two of the longest visual novels ever made and are well known for being some of the best mystery stories ever written. His prose style is long but never boring, slow, or full of filler. It’s quite amazing to see long works without being full of fillers but Ryuukishi07 somehow does it. His works are very diverse on the one hand and very recognizable as his own style on the other. He also did a lot of work for and with other people like Lucia’s route in Rewrite, Ookamikakushi for Konami, and Iwahime for DMM. He can write anything from horror, a style he is known for, to drama and mysteries. Currently he is working on Rewrite side stories and is writing one of the scenarios for the Kamaitachi no Yoru remake.
Notable Works:

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Umineko no Naku Koro ni

Ookamikakushi

Rose Guns Days

Iwaihime

Trianthology ~Sanmenkyou no Kuni no Alice~.
 
Hideo Kojima – Aka the father of Metal Gear series. His Snatcher and Policenauts are a lot more like Japanese adventure games than straight out visual novels but these games are story driven and any visual novel gamer should not miss on either of those games. Kojima fills his stories with a very detailed setting, detailed and interesting characters, and a very detailed well crafted plots. This incredible detailed stories never feel like too much or too overwhelming because every single detail is explained in a clear and understandable manner and it’s a lot of fun to try out every item and every option just to see what new stuff you’ll learn about the world, characters, and plot. Both games are full of futuristic atypical detective stories and have what could only be said as the best moments in gaming history. Even back then Kojima was a master game designer and an excellent storyteller.
Notable Works:

Snatcher

Policenauts.
 
Takumi Shuu – The man behind the Gyakuten Saiban aka Ace Attorney series. Similar to Kojima games, these are more of the Japanese adventure genre rather than pure visual novels. Not much else can be said about the awesome Ace Attorney that hasn’t been said before. It’s got one of the most boring premises, you play as a lawyer Yeah, Sure. That sounds like fun. But Takumi Shuu took the idea and turned it on its head with of the wall over the top characters and a lot of very well crafted mystery cases to solve. In a way all the cases are episodic but Takumi is such a smart writer he always has some kind of surprise up his sleeves by changing the formula in some way and brings everything together by the end in clever unexpected ways. Most of his characters are, for lack of a better word, very annoying. But even then the stories are so interesting that even that won’t stop you from having a lot of fun with his games. His Ghost Trick is a very innovative puzzle style game and shouldn’t be missed either.
Notable Works:


  
The Entire Ace Attorney series
  
Ghost Trick.
 
Kodaka Kazutaka – Worked in the games industry for a long time now and was a secondary director on Clock Tower 3 Kotaka Kazutaka is more famous for a small little series which today has exploded into a huge franchise, the Danganronpa series. Once again, like the previous two writers his games are Japanese adventure games and not what the purest will call a visual novel but really who cares about these small details anyway, Danganronpa is here to tell a story and that’s what’s important. Referred as as the Psychopop genre by Kazutaka himself, who sees himself as the creator of his own genre, Danganronpa can very easily be compared to the Ace Attorney series because of the episodic style of mystery cases the characters must solve. But Danganronpa has an overarching plot and a plot that is very detailed and a cleverly crafted crowning achievement of mystery, horror, despair, dark and bright humor, and plenty of twists and turns. The closer you get to the end of each game the more your head will be spinning and twisting with your jaw dragging on the floor. His characters are really fun, interesting and very likeable, most of them at least and they go through a lot of extreme stuff. Kazutaka loves to leave gamers  in complete despair.
Notable Works:

Danganronpa

Super Danganronpa 2

Danganronpa Another Episode
 
Danganronpa 3 (anime)

the next game in the series New Danganronpa V3
 
Fujisaki Ryuuta – The Grisaia guy. An excellent writer putting a lot of care into his characters and brings them to life. Not everything he writes is gold but with each new story he gets better and better. With a clear and easy prose and a lot of character and hilarious comedy Ryuuta is master at writing fun character exploration scenes almost perfectly avoiding the long boring nothing happens so prevalent in other visual novels. Grisaia is his most famous work and while the first game in the series had some very slow scenes that feel like they shouldn’t have been there, most of the game is a lot of fun and entertaining as well as humorous enough it never gets tiring. However he’s also known for writing in other genres like in Draculius and Hatsuru Koto Naki Mirai Yori both of which are great and highly entertaining. An interesting trivia, Grisaia is not the first work by Fujisaki Ryuuta to have an official English release, he was one of the scenario writers on Tea Society of a Witch released by Hirameki International.
Notable Works:
 
Draculius

Grisaia no Kajitsu

Grisaia no Meikyuu

Grisaia no Rakuen

Hatsuru Koto Naki Mirai Yor

the upcoming Grisaia: Phantom Trigger.
 
Hiei Murasaki – The Cyberpunk guy heading the Baldr series. But he also worked on a lot of other visual novels with very different genres. He has great with characters when needed and a big idea man when appropriate. The Baldr series is what he’s mostly known for because of the awesome ideas but he also worked on the mecha anime style and highly entertaining Dengeki Stryker visual novel. His prose is very easy to read except when he goes into info dumping in which case it’s doubtful even the Japanese readers can understand him completely. But Murasaki’s awesome and crazy entertaining stories earned a huge place in a lot of visual novel player’s hearts.
Notable Works:

Cho Dengeki Stryker

Baldr Force


Baldr Sky

Baldr Heart.
 
Watanabe Ryouichi – An almost sinfully unrecognized writer. Watanabe Ryouichi is a very diverse writer adapting different style depending on the needs of the company and projects he works on, ranging from sports stories to science fiction. His prose is simple and very easy but can be highly emotionally charged full of dramatic elements. He is also a big ideas man and his ideas are BIG. Ryouichi also likes to troll his readers by disguising epic science fiction stories with marvelous ideas and wrapping it all in what, at first, appears to be a boring nukige. Nevertheless he is the one writer that needs more recognition and his works need to be translated into English ASAP.
Notable Works:

Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm

Harumade, Kururu

Natsukumo Yururu

the upcoming Akiyume Kukuru.
 
Fushichou & Shimantogawa Seiryuu – Another pair of great chuuni writers. Fushichou and Seiryuu work for 3rdEye and wrote all four of their games so far. All chuuni, all have great beautiful and sleek presentation with great writing and good prose. Bloody Rondo was not their best work but with each subsequent game their stories got much better with a better focused plot and great narrative structure techniques. They are one of the best chuuni teams in the industry with a style all their own different from what Light, Propeller, or any other chuuni developers do in writing technique and presentation design. As chuuni stories go this pair’s games are full of action, packed with battles, fighting techniques and a fully developed magic system. Like every good chuuni writer Fushichou and Seiryuu also write great and lovable characters with their own dreams and motivations with personalities easy to care for. Fortunately their latest game Sorcery Jokers is officially coming in English, probably sometime next year.
Notable Works:
 
Shinigami no Testament ~menuet of epistula~

Gensou no Idea ~Oratorio Phantasm Historia~

Sorcery Jokers
 
There are many more visual novel writers I wanted to talk about but I don’t have enough experience with their works yet to write about them in depth. Writers such as G.O., Sca-Ji, and some other interesting mystery, comedy, chuuni, science fiction, and drama writers. Maybe in a year or two I’ll expand the list. Thanks for reading.

Disclaimer: At the end of this post I get pretty salty, so be aware of that. This post endorses MY and MY OPINION ONLY. The numbers about the costs of a translation team were researched before putting them here.
Hello guys. Aizen-Sama here with another spicy rant. Although I haven’t been around the forums as long as other users who have spent their time here several years (I have spent around 7 months more or less at the present time being) I have seen that there’s a huge problem that I’ve mostly seen here, in Fuwanovel, more than any other site that congregates VN fans. In fact, I think that this doesn’t happen anywhere but here, but again, what do I know? I don’t really visit Reddit nor 4chan that much, let alone interact there.

Anyways, what I want to address is a problem that has been going on since the beginning stages of this site, and that problem is the Translation Requests, or what I like to call “e-beggars” (yes, I know this term has been invented already).

First and foremost, the majority of people that make these Translation Request posts are usually new users and I’m fully aware of that. But this has been blowing up lately. I know that 4 posts in the last month and a half doesn’t sound like that much, but the proposals are getting so ridiculous that it’s hard to believe sometimes if the guys asking these things are for real or if they’re straight out trolling.

Let’s take this post as a quick example. You’re scrolling through the forums and see this post, and then the thought comes to mind “Another typical Request Post. Sigh. Let’s see what this guy’s asking for…” and then you see this:

These posts show nothing more than ignorance and arrogance, as well as no interest towards these groups they are begging to translate something for them. Do these people even understand what it takes to translate a medium length VN? A medium length, around the 35-40k line mark in my opinion, could easily take a year. And the guy in this post begged for 5 medium and long length VN’s to be translated, one of them being >50 hours long.

But don’t be mistaken, the worst part about that post wasn’t the amount of VN’s he was begging for nor their length. It was the last statement: “Thanks in advance”. Although it sounds stupid, that’s what triggered me the most. A shitty “thanks in advance” is not something that motivates people to do these things. People have to put themselves in a translators’ shoes sometimes. Not only him, but also the people who aren’t translating, but the ones who edit the text, proofread it, the image editors, the quality checkers, etc… Do they think that the task can be easily done if the guy in question knows Japanese? Not even close.

The secret of a translation project.

I know this is hard to believe for the e-beggars, but the translation of a game requires an enormous amount of time, and one year to finish the TRANSLATION, not editing, of a medium length VN is a very decent deadline. And I’m talking about a medium length game, not a long one. Majo Koi has around 47k lines. Supposing it had one sole translator and the translator in question did 100 lines a day, the game would be finished in around 470 days approximately, this taking into account he diligently does 100 lines a day, no skipping, no nothing. Let’s convert that into hours spent in total, since that tends to shock people more; 470 days doing 100 lines a day, if the translator is an experienced one, meaning that he has done this before or is a professional in the field, he could get rid of that task in about an hour. But an amateur translator, basically the bulk of the community in itself when it comes to fan translations, could take around 1,5 or 2 hours to do the exact same number of lines. That could mean than in total, just translating could take from 470 hours for the experienced translator, which means around 20 full days translating something, to 705-940 hours for the amateur translator, which is around 30-40 days translating nonstop. And this would be just translation, I’m purposely taking out the other processes such as editing and QC’ing. Do you e-beggars understand the amount of work is being put in these projects? This is why Translation Request posts should be completely banned off this site and instantly deleted. Then again, where would I put my insulting memes towards the op’s to gain likes for no reason?

Let’s throw in another question now that we’re shifting towards that matter: Is fan-translating Visual Novels even worth it in the first place?

Before I answer (although it’s probably known what I’m going to say, given my tone) let me address this: I by no means think that fan-translation is bad, in fact, it has been the reason why we’re getting official localizations now and I think that no amount of praise of thanks can equate the amount of work the translators of these projects did in order for this genre to be known better in the Western community.

But, as sad as it sounds, fan translating at this moment is not worth it. Why? I’ll put in some of the reasons:

-          Although some members of the vocal community throw in the occasional thanks once the patch is out that’s all the team who translated the game gets. Nothing more, nothing less. Some people might say that recognition counts as some sort of reward as well, but personally I don’t think that’s the case.
-          No reviews of the translated VN’s are usually made (this is what in my opinion spreads the awareness of these games), only discussion threads are made, which is pretty sad in my opinion.
-          I’m going to quote something that Clephas said in one of my posts, that sums up this next point:  “Another thing is that most people in the community will never even try to experience fantl from the other side of things... they don't realize how much time it eats up, that emptiness you feel when you realize you've used dozens of hours of your personal time only to put out a patch that people bash left and right for 'errors' and other shit.”
-          The work put in to translate the game itself is not worth, meaning that the compensation that the translator/team worked for it is not even close enough to what they should be getting.
Lastly, I want to address the problem that comes with donations, awareness of localization costs/translation costs, and ignorance.

I’ll cut to the chase; for the people that think that with donations alone you can “pay” a translator to do some kind of game, you’re WRONG. Let’s put an example of what could a medium VN translation cost: let’s suppose that the team consists of three persons, to translate a 1.5 million jp character VN (equating to a 45k line count approximately). The translator gets 1 cent per Japanese character, the editor gets 1 cent per English word and the QC gets a quarter of a cent for each English word. In total, the final price equates to 33k dollars JUST FOR THE TEAM TO TRANSLATE A SINGLE VN. And these prices are apparently pretty shitty for a translator, so yeah, there you go. Besides, why donating a random group of guys, who could easily run away with the money and machine translate the game, or not even translate the game at all, when you can just support the official localizers? Contrary to what some people think they are actually releasing more games than ever and the 18+ industry in the scene has never seen so many official releases ever.

Summing up this 3 page-long essay of frustration:

1.       Please for the love of god don’t e-beg or Request for translations. Just no, it triggers people off and it only shows how ignorant you are about what happens behind the scenes.
2.       Fan Translating in this actual moment is NOT WORTH, only people who are very commited and have a strong resolution will be able to start one, and very few out of those will actually finish the project.
3.       Donations are NOT a solution to encourage Fan Translation, it ruins the very concept of it and it’s also ILLEGAL. Don’t support an already illegal activity by paying it.
4.       Before posting retarded shit on the forums please look for other posts similar to what you might want to post. Maybe looking at the responses could enlighten you and help the other users not waste their time by reading the same shit over and over again.
5.       Before criticizing Translations and patches for “errors” and “typos” and being a little whining bitch how about you try to show interest on how much effort people put on the translation of these games behind the scenes? (This goes solely to the people that haven't experienced working on a fan translation and whine non-stop about "how bad the translation of this is" and blah blah blah.)
Anyways, I think that’s all the rage out. For those of you who haven’t dozed off already have a nice day and all of that stuff.

And if you smash that like button you will get your very own… DIES IRAE MACHINE TRANSLATED PATCH. Yes! This is not a scam at all, your own personal Dies Irae Machine Translated patch. If you leave a like you can choose between a Google, Bing, or a Skype translated patch. I’ve invested so many hours on them, it was totally worth though ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

For those who have no idea whatsoever what I am talking about, I'm referring to a type of heroine that tends to exist in a relatively high proportion with a strong central plot... the type of heroine that remains by the protagonist's side, usually no matter which heroine he chooses and is usually the true heroine.  This heroine has a bond with the protagonist that surpasses that of a simple friendship or lover and can't really be cut without destroying them both.  This heroine's existence is usually so vital to the protagonist that without her, he isn't entirely sane.   Often, this will be the true heroine, though that isn't always the case.  This type of heroine will not always be pleasant to be around... in fact, many of them are outright prickly or poisonous.  However, the bond they have with the protagonist is sufficient to make parting nearly impossible, if not entirely unthinkable.
Examples of this heroine include:
Suzu from Ayakashibito
Kagome from Comyu
Shizuku from Evolimit
Selma from Bullet Butlers
Mana from Amatsutsumi
Belche from Draculius
Saki from Hapymaher
Nonosaki Akiho of Moshimo Ashita ga Harenaraba
Kamio Ami of Semiramis no Tenbin (in a weird way)
Chikae from Ore no Tsure wa Hito de nashi
Mitoko from Damekoi
Understand, I absolutely adore this type of heroine role... mostly because the intimacy (not always positive) makes for some really interesting and warped relationships.  Also, the love when they do get together is... extreme, lol. 

Now, Ruitomo is one of 'those legendary VNs', the first kamige written by the Akatsuki Works team.  It is well-known and often discussed amongst vets of playing untranslated VNs, and you can see how this was the formative stage for a team that would go on to make numerous great games in the future, most of them chuunige.
First off, Ruitomo isn't a chuunige, at least in the classic sense.  The protagonist is a trap who is bound by an inherited curse not to reveal his true gender, and the story begins with him encountering several others that also possess similar curses, as well as powers that he doesn't possess.  Ruitomo is one of those games that doesn't easily fall into a genre or sub-genre, as it has elements of action, mystery, mindfuck, fantasy, and romance all wrapped into one big bundle.  So, I just have to shrug and call it a 'story-focused VN', lol (as vague a term as moege or charage, haha). 
One thing that you should know about all Hino Wataru-written Akatsuki Works VNs... in every one of them a version of Akaneko (the final heroine of this one) appears, with the same personality, similar habits, and the same voice actor (Akaneko, Eru from Hello, Lady, Yuki from Comyu).  Similarly, there is always at least one 'straight-man' heroine who tends to prefer correctness over everything else (Iyo in Ruitomo, Saku in Hello, Lady, Benio in Comyu, etc)
I once read a crappy review that said this was a VN about friendship *spews laughter*.  Sorry, but that was one reviewer who mistook one element of the story for the whole point of it.  The real central theme of this VN is isolation, social ostracism, and moral relativity.  Technically, all Akatsuki Works VNs indulge in moral relativity, so you can just ignore that one, since it is Hino Wataru's favorite dog to beat.  The isolation and social ostracism elements are fairly obvious from the beginning.  All the heroines and the protagonist are social outcasts by means of their curses.  The protagonist is the most obvious example as it forces him to lie and distance others from himself, but others have their own issues.  For instance, Rui's curse, the inability to make promises of any kind, is crippling in a modern world, where you have to be able to sign a contract just to find a place to live or 'promise' to be at work on time.  To one extent or another, the others' curses hold them isolated and ostracized from society as well. 
Tomo is driven by a strong desire to escape his curse, intensified as time goes on by his growing fondness for his fellow curse-bearers and the guilt for deceiving them.  I honestly can't help but like Tomo... he is selfish enough to be human but selfless enough when it comes to his friends to give his all for them.  A lot of people who hate Akihito from Comyu will probably find Tomo to be far more pleasant, as that other's less pleasant qualities are diluted and his more pleasant ones enhanced in Tomo.  He lacks Akihito's female-directed philanthropic spirit, but he does have a strong generosity of spirit to him... without the somewhat indiscriminate sexual mores of Akihito.
One thing I think a lot of people who try to read this VN have trouble with, besides the somewhat complex turns of phrase that are endemic to all Hino Wataru works, is the way so much of the dialogue between the characters, even in the slice-of-life scenes, is... oblique, requiring reading between the lines to grasp the full content.  A lot of this comes from the curses, both referencing them, avoiding referencing them, and avoiding activating them.  However, at least some of it is simply an extension of how relatively easy with one another the group is in normal situations, despite their often conflicting personalities.  These conversations are easier to follow if you get the characters' personalities and roles in the group, but if you have trouble with that kind of thing, you'll probably be left behind at times.
Ruitomo has a definite playing order, with you being forced to play Rui's path before reading Atori's, Koyori's, and Iyo's (preferably in that order, or at least with Iyo as the last of the second three) and completing those four opening up Akaneko's path (the true path).  I'll be blunt when I say that grasping the whole of the story without reading the first four paths is virtually impossible, so 'cheaters' who use 100% save files to get the true end first will just be screwing themselves over, lol.
This VN's story starts out in the middle... one of Hino Wataru's questionable habits.  For better or worse, he likes to thrust you into the middle of the prologue before dragging you back to the beginning of it, and Ruitomo is the VN that suffers the most for it, in my experience.  To be blunt, it is really hard to figure out what is going on during the first scene, so about one-third of the people I've talked to that tried to read this VN dropped it or stalled within the first quarter of the prologue.  However, as the VN goes on, its characters, their personalities, their troubles, and their experiences grow on you rapidly, until you can't help but be entranced. 
One thing that I was seriously impressed about, coming back to play this through a second time, was the meticulous way Hino Wataru designed the common route and the paths... he made sure everything was perfectly consistent as a whole, even if it didn't seem like it at first, and every single scene had at least some meaning in the greater context of the game as a whole, even if it might have seemed irrelevant or secondary in the path in which it existed.  This shows off the rather impressive capacity for 'management of the details' that a very few writers in the VN world manage to display.  There is a good reason why creating a large-scale story-focused VN (whether chuunige or not) tends to be rare.  Most writers simply can't manage to maintain the internal consistency that you see in a VN like this one.
Overall, I was actually more impressed this time around than I was the first time I played this.  It is called a kamige for a reason... brilliance of design, emotional stimulation, intellectual stimulation, etc.  The fact is that VNs on this level are exceedingly rare and always worth the price I pay to buy them.
PS: I'll play the fandisc soon, though I might or might not manage to replay it before I begin playing this month's releases.
 

Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete
Current Situation:
We are trying to get this game translated, and had a somewhat functioning team back in December, where we had enough people to make decent progress. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, I'm the only translator left and the group, out of the two members we're left with, and am quite busy for the year, so I'm going really slow with the translations.
What's been done?
Most of the TL progress has gone to Airi, with the other routes having practically no progress. Minimal editing has been done, but is not recorded.
Progress:
Kaori 556/8159 6.81% Airi 4837/7236 65.6% Nagisa 0/7356 0% Yui 120/8334 1.44% Others 0/3839 0% Total Progress: 4282/35056 (15.7%)
What we need:
In order of decreasing importance,
Translators Editors Translation checkers Translators:
I'd be happy with even one new translator, because it will mean that the project would not be stagnating as much as it is now. What we need you to be is someone who will stick around to the end. Our last translator just disappeared on us, so I hope whoever comes next won't leave without saying anything. Hopefully, you'd have enough free time to make up for my really slow pace, to give this project some bit of progress. Joining us, you have a choice on any of the routes that isn't Airi. You'll be starting from scratch with the route, for better or for worse. Now if you're interested in this position, simply PM me.
What now?
Our plan now, is to finish up the translation route by route, followed by a round of editing, and finally a TLC/QC. One plan of action we are considering is for us to release a partial patch for each of the routes, because they do mostly make sense on their own (with the exception of Yui's route). However, this is not confirmed, and might change in the future.
I hope we can get the support necessary to finish this translation. If not, we'd have to put this project on hiatus until November or when we get another translator, whichever comes first. If you'd like to help, simply PM me, or even just leave a post in our thread.

For better or worse, the VN localization industry in America and other Western nations is expanding rapidly, primarily due to the efforts of aggressive localization companies such as Mangagamer and Sekai Project, but also due to the increased interest on the part of at least some Japanese VN companies in making a few extra bucks through localization. 
I say 'for better or worse' because the increase in localizations has actually begun to outline what some of the biggest problems with VNs are, for those living in the West.  What I've put down below is basic guidance... not all of which I follow myself, but which is mostly common sense (which a surprising number of new Fuwans seem to be ignorant of).
 
Ethical/Legal problems
1. Piracy- To be blunt, prosecuting consumers of pirated games is a waste of time, and most companies are quite well aware of this.  So, most of the fallout for this kind of thing is going to keep hitting the websites and individuals who promote the distribution end of things.  A few examples will most likely be made of outspoken pirate consumers (the idiots, in other words), but the problem here is almost entirely ethical for most.  Tell me, do you think it is right not to pay for content if you happen to have the money needed to pay for it?
2. Lolicon content- Seriously guys?  When I saw that Maitetsu was getting a localization, even though it was an all-ages one, alarm bells went off in my head.  Someone is inevitably going to put up an h-patch for the game, and that is going to cause a huge amount of controversy later on that could be a huge blow to the industry, in the short run.  Loli content is one of the two nuclear bombs of Japanese eroge, and it is the one that honestly bothers me the most personally (not so much morally, as in a pragmatic sense).
3. Rapegames- I'm going to be blunt... considering the degree to which Western culture has come to consider rape a mortal sin, do you really think games focused around rape and extreme sexual situations (ie the entire Maggot Baits game) are safe for the industry to localize, if you consider their potential to backfire?  There is no conceivable way that these games could be considered anything other than obscene by any reasonable critic (not a community one, in other words), and in the long run, games like these have an enormous potential to castrate the localization industry.
4. School-based games- Sadly, the excuse that 'all the heroines are over eighteen' is only going to take you so far in some countries... to be blunt, a judge is unlikely to listen to that kind of protestation if, for whatever insane reason, you end up dragged into court.
Common sense issues
1. I don't think anyone has any business telling us we can't import Japanese games, including VNs.  However, as a matter of common sense, you should probably avoid importing anything with a lot of content linked to the numbers 2 and 3 in the section above.  I don't mean to piss on your bonfire, but if you are going to buy something with that kind of material, at least have the sense to use digital download purchases and/or don't display the packages for that type of eroge where casual visitors can see them.
2. Figurines and other side-junk- Within reason, there is no reason why a fan of a particular bit of otaku media shouldn't order figurines, statuettes, oppai mousepads, etc to decorate their room or gaming space.  However, keep it within reason... I've seen otaku friends of mine go insane and overpurchase, even going into debt, over buying swag.  If you aren't rich, have the sense to focus on the main material first, then expand at a reasonable pace into the swag.  To an extent, the same can be said of the games themselves, considering the costs of the actual purchases plus import costs.
3.  Anonymity is your best friend.  Don't pull stupid crap like linking your Facebook profile to your dlsite or getchu account... for that matter, don't link them to your Fuwanovel account, if you are a fan of 'deep' eroge content.  Leaving that kind of data around for casual skimmers to find is just plain stupid.
4.  If you are a fantranslator, number 3 applies emphatically unless you are about to go 'legit' by handing your translation to a localization company.
5.  During scandal times (like when the media is making a big deal over an eroge-related issue such as during the infamous Rapelay incident) have the sense to take cover and avoid conversing on rapegames and lolige publicly. 
6.  Know the difference between being open about your libido and being excessive *remembers Steve*
 
A final comment
Needless to say, almost all the issues above revolve around controversial sexual content.  Part of that is that many people, both inside and outside the VN fanbase, have trouble marking the difference between fiction and reality when it comes to otaku media (an insanity that I can understand but am long past).  As a legal argument, it (as in the argument that figments of an artist's or writer's imagination, as opposed to real women, cannot be considered underaged and cannot be considered victims in any way, form, or fashion) actually has a lot of merit... but that doesn't mean that they'll rule in your favor, in the end, lol.  The West is prudish, to the extreme.  There is no telling when religious interests will slip a noose around our necks, and general moralists are just as bad.  I'm not perfect about taking my own advice.  I'm a VN junkie, and I really don't have any morals when it comes to my search for good VN stories.  I might be disgusted by some content, but that won't prevent me from experiencing the story, lol.  However, a lot of the people around me seem to be utterly unaware of the risks of being an eroge reader... and I felt I had to put this out there, for the 'public' good, even though I'm certain I've already pissed off the anti-censorship and pro-piracy parts of the community, lol. 

Hmm... to be honest, I haven't played many VNs of this type, mostly because they don't really fit my tastes. 
This is one of those dark horror/rape/sex training VNs that also happen to be based in the middle of the Cthulhu Mythos universe.  To be precise, this one is based on an island that mirrors Innsmouth in the mythos.  It is ruled by the Mashuu Family, and the protagonist ends up marrying the last daughter of that family, Mizuki.  He also gets stuck with an immense power and the role of giving women over to the islanders as breeders.
I'll be blunt, while I liked the actual story, there is way too much dark H in this VN, for my tastes.  It was made worse by the fact that I actually liked the 'heroines' and I didn't like to see the gang rapes that are part of the VN's story. 
The funny thing is that the actual relationship between most of the heroines and the protagonist is actually... pleasant, most of the time.  Given that is a Cthulhu Mythos story, it is inevitable that people go insane or fall under the control of evil.  However, on the flip side, the girls are basically stained with darkness somewhere at the core from the beginning, and the protagonist, for all his own insanity and flaws, is something of a salvation to them.
I can't really say that any of the endings are 'good'.  I did like Riri's ending, and the bad guys mostly got their just desserts in the true ending.  However, I've never been fond of VNs that aren't utsuge where everyone goes insane to one degree or another, lol.

... I'm going to be blunt.  It has been a while (think 2014) since any company has produced a nakige that compares to this one.  The characters, their backgrounds, their personalities, and the setting all come together to form a story of deep affection, pain, and tears that had me crying more than a dozen times throughout the VN.
In terms of heroines, this VN's imoutos are the best.  Shinobu is the twisted, obsessive half-yandere, super-capable imouto who adores her niisan (with good reason).  Tsubasa is the honest, affectionate, straightforward imouto who is incapable of hiding anything.  While the other two heroines kind of pale compared to those two, their routes are another story entirely.
I'm going to be straight... there are no bad or under-developed paths in this VN.  The characters' emotional and real-life (to them) struggles are intense, engrossing, and emotional.  Neneko's and Yuuka's paths are cases of the 'paths surpassing the heroines', a phenomenon that has become sadly rare in recent years, as writing quality has fallen drastically in the charage 'genre'. 
Technically, Tsubasa's is the true route, but none of the routes were neglected in favor of hers, though I could have wished for an epilogue based a few years later for Shinobu's path (a matter of personal taste).  This is a mark of the skill of the writer and the person who designed the scenario, as the fact is that in most cases where there is a true or central heroine, the other heroines tend to be neglected, at least in my experience.
The protagonist in this story will probably get mixed reactions out of people, if only because he is a bit angsty, especially when issues of parents come up.  He has good reason, as he is a victim of child abuse (he doesn't hide this, and it is revealed within the first half-hour of reading).  At heart, he is a good person, but he is very exclusive in the people he cares about and insanely protective of those chosen few.  His obsession with his role as a big brother causes some big problems in Shinobu's route, but that is mostly because he is very hard-headed and straight-laced... the type of guy who makes a vow to himself and never breaks it, even in the particulars.
Story-wise... this is classic non-Key nakige fare.  The protagonist deals with his own issues (to varying degrees) while doing his best for the heroines, the troubles and drama along the way designed to drag the tears out of you, though it all ends happily eventually.  I was particularly touched by the healing that occurs in the protagonist in Tsubasa and Neneko's endings (through different methods), and I, for once, wasn't frustrated with the protagonist and heroine's struggles in Shinobu's path. 
None of the characters' struggles felt forced or unnatural, the way many charage make them seem, which was impressive in and of itself.
Overall, this is a first-class addition to anyone's nakige collection, and it is definitely going to be stiff competition for my VN of the Month for May.  I wept, I laughed, and I suffered along with the characters and out of sympathy for them.  I come out of this VN glad that I played it, a rare experience for a person who is as jaded as I am when it comes to VNs.

…Wow.  After the disappointments of last month, it is so nice to encounter such a great VN on my first one of the month this one.  Sakura no Mori Dreamers is a horror/mystery nakige based in a medium-sized Japanese town.  It is primarily focused on the protagonist, Shinji, and his quest to discover the killer of his first love, Madoka.  However, if you ask me if this is a story of revenge in the vein of Hello, Lady, that isn’t the case.

Shinji is one of those rarest of things in a VN protagonist these days… a young man with a strong will and who is actually intelligent enough to figure out the best way to act in most situations.  That isn’t to say he is some paragon of the avenger archetype… if anything, he is a normal guy… but he has encountered enough loss in his life that it is pretty easy to empathize with him and his reactions to tense situations lack the frustrating aspects you see in a lot of VN protagonists.

Madoka, his deceased girlfriend, plays a vital role in the story, with the prologue thoroughly introducing her and the relationships between the protagonist and his adopted family (his parents are deceased).  To be honest, the sense of loss at the end of the prologue is devastating, even though you know – since every single summary on the web reveals it to you – what is going to happen.

In terms of structure, about thirty-percent of this VN is slice-of-life, with the rest being raw plot.  Most of the story is told as part of the ‘common route’, which makes up about 80% of the VN.  In fact, the main conflict is resolved in the common route, so afterward it moves from the protagonist’s own personal conflict to that of the heroines… with the exception of Kureha’s path, which becomes something of an extension of the common route near the end.

This VN really touches on the darker side of human nature, with multiple psychopathic killers involved.  There is a lot of semi-guro imagery in this VN (like pencils sticking out of the eye of a rotting corpse, a half-pancaked schoolgirl, etc).  As such, I can’t recommend it for the faint of heart, especially since it is pretty frequent in the common route.  

The protagonist and friends dive into the dreams of killers in this VN and eliminate the evil spirits waiting there… but that part of the VN is actually relatively small in comparison to the ‘background’ that gets formed around each major incident and its human cause.  The fantasy-horror element is vital to the story, but it tends to take a backseat in two of the four heroine routes (Mahoro and Hatsune’s routes), whereas it is more vital to the other two (Kureha and Mifuyu’s). 

In all honestly, it is quite possible to be perfectly satisfied with this VN after playing only Kureha’s route, which is why I think it should have been locked until you finished the others.  There is a definite sensation of ‘true route flavor’ to her route, and I made the mistake of playing it first.  That doesn’t mean that the other routes were neglected, but it is the only route where the common route’s main storyline is continued.

Hatsune’s route is probably the mildest… it is basically your classic nakige route with a few minor twists born of the fantasy element.  Mahoro’s route is quite similar in this respect.  However, Mifuyu’s route is seriously dark at times… primarily because Mifuyu is carrying a bit more baggage than the other two heroines, lol.

Overall, this VN is one of the better ones this year so far.  For some reason, this seems to be the year for fantasy-horror VNs (with Tokyo Necro and Akeiro Kaikitan both standing out like burning flagpoles).  There are some issues with the setting that prevent it from being a kamige – the evil spirits are a bit too… opaque as an existence, even at the end – but it is definitely worth playing and a solid candidate for May’s VN of the Month.

I actually finished this VN and this post before I went to sleep, but since I lost internet access due to a freak lightning strike (curse you, oh Lady of Storms!), I haven’t been able to get online to take care of things.  This VN took me roughly twenty-one hours over the course of five days, but a lot of that was because, until the internet got knocked out, I was working like crazy to meet some short-term deadlines.  Moreover, the loss of internet access completely screwed up my work schedule (while also hurrying my play schedule), which I’d re-geared since my doctor pronounced me semi-recovered. 

Anyway, I’ve already started Soshite Hatsukoi ga Imouto ni Naru.  For those who are wondering… the VN is absolutely nothing like what I expected so far, in a good way, lol.  *smiles enigmatically*

I got asked what I was doing for this blog this month just today, by several people (probably because this is the longest time I've gone without posting since I started this blog). So... I suppose I'll go ahead and tell you.
First, the two titles I'm reading on request (though I was planning on doing one anyway). 
Sakura no Mori Dreamers (reading now)
Ruri no Ie (yes, it is not exactly something I would normally bother with, but he was insistent... sort of like with Maggot Baits)
The rest of the releases this month I'm considering playing:
Soshite Hatsukoi ga Imouto ni naru
Seiken Tsukai no Proposition (by a new company, might suck, might  not)
Natsuiro Kokoro Log (this is by Hearts, a company infamous for producing kusoge, lol)
Tarareba (by Aries, that makes decent to horrible charage)
 
Personally, from what I've played, if they don't screw it up, I think Sakura no Mori Dreamers will probably end up being the best.  However, my past experiences with Moonstone's rare attempts to be serious tell me that that feeling isn't really trustworthy.  Clear started out good but went downhill with terrifying speed, for instance.  Their single best game is Maji Suki, and that was seven years ago...  though Natsu no Iro no Nostalgia was pretty good, for Moonstone.

Now... I've already commented on this VN elsewhere, at least to a point.  So, I'll just do a quick recap of my initial feelings on this VN.  I'll go ahead and get the negative out of the way first.
First, the common, Sara, and Karen routes... as I've said elsewhere, these routes exist solely to give you certain information that adds depth to the story of Rinne and Setsuna.  So, lolicons and fans of heroines like Karen, you are wasting your time if you go into this VN if you are expecting something truly great out of those two.  Sadly, those routes are about as weak as some of the worst charage routes I've played. 
Things change dramatically during the Rinne, Winter, and Summer routes (they extend from one another).  The degree of character development quality, story-writing, and narrative is incomparably better than that of the common and sub-heroine routes.  This is perhaps inevitable, as this VN is basically a kinetic novel using chameleon-like techniques to make itself look like a normal multi-path VN.  Do you think I'm joking?  I'm not, seriously. 
I'm going to be blunt... I wasn't moved emotionally at all until the Rinne route.  I can honestly say that if you are looking for emotional stimulation, the Rinne>Winter>Summer progression is ideal.  There is a lot of mindfucking involved (those who compared this to other VNs with similar themes are more or less correct).  The biggest complaint I might decide to bring up would be a very simple one... in the VN's 'true' ending (there is a 'good' and a 'true' one, whose actual names I won't reveal, since they are spoilers) the story as a whole isn't actually brought to a resolution.  Of course, there is a definite sense of hope that comes out of it, but the writer chose to leave the story unresolved, probably for similar reasons to the people who did so with other VNs of the type.
Intellectually, this VN isn't nearly as stimulating as you might think.  For one thing, the protagonist is too much of an idiot to grasp most of what is going on.  For another, there isn't much food for thought that hasn't already been covered if you've taken an advanced physics course or two (at least conceptually).  The humor in this VN tends toward shimoneta (sexual humor), which is kind of ironic, considering it is an all-ages VN.  I honestly enjoyed the humorous character interplay in the various paths, and they did a really good job in the latter half of the game of bringing the various characters and the settings to life.  Edit: One thought that occurs to me is that this might be intellectually stimulating if you aren't accustomed to juggling sci-fi and science fiction weirdness, such as the stuff from the Hyperion book series.  The protagonist's perspective in this VN isn't so much ignorant as limited by his own psychological immaturity (like a five year old in an adult's body, his immaturity enforced and reinforced by his amnesiac state).
Is this a kamige?  No.  Three elements make this an impossibility... the common, Karen, and Sara routes, the inconclusive final ending, and the somewhat stale attempt (in my eyes, at least) at intellectual stimulation.  However, this is definitely one of those VNs I'll name as 'one to remember from 2016'.  It won't make it onto my personal favorites list, because I intensely dislike inconclusive endings, but it is still worth mentioning, just as many flawed VNs I've played have been.
Overall... this VN will probably appeal to the sci-fi mystery crowd and inveterate romantics (love across time, lol) the most.  This isn't a moe-type story, despite the art style, but it does take a page from the playbook at times.  This is also a relatively short VN, considering how much content they tried to force into it... think about seventeen hours of playtime, total (that is what my clock is saying, anyway).  It is about the same length as an medium-length charage, so that isn't necessarily short... but for a story-focused VN that is pretty short.  If you were to ask me straight out whether I liked it as a whole, I'd say yes, but if you ask me if I'll replay it, I'll say 'only if they remake the ending'.

After trying both of them, I dropped Anata o Otoko ni Shiteageru and Sankai, for similar reasons.  However, this leaves me with two VNs that have varying levels of interest from the community to play... Island by Frontwing and Wagamama High Spec by Madosoft.
Madosoft... produces thematic VNs, rather than your standard charage.  They pick a theme and unify all the heroines into that type.  This tends to have pretty awful results so far (both Yakimochi and Namaiki were kusoge, though they were fairly popular with the fans of older-style moege), so I'm honestly not hopeful for the VN. 
Island... I plan to give it a chance, and I'm honestly hopeful for it, after reading up on it.

Hmm... I could say a lot about this VN... NOT.
To be honest, this VN is a perfect example of how a VN can have a decent concept, a decent staff, good art, good music, and an interesting (if derivative, at this point) setting... and fall flat on the details.
Wizard's Complex is a fantasy VN, based in a future where magic and magic technology have become an accepted part of life (this is a setting type first done effectively in Suzunone Seven by Clochette).  In this world, all magic users are women... except the protagonist (basically an excuse to send him to an all-girls school where there will be no rivals, lol). 
Now, perhaps one of the biggest down points of this VN is the protagonist.  It isn't his personality, its his role.  To be perfectly honest, his personality isn't interesting either, but his role in the VN is so often passive or reactive that it completely ruins the entire setup.  While cipher protagonists are common to charage in general, this was one of those cases where it probably wasn't a good idea, as the heroines in this VN are all a bit... meh. 
First, Honoka... she is the classic 'kind-hearted airhead prodigy' archetype that some VNs have thrown up in the past.  She's the type that will honestly and wholeheartedly endorse wishes for world peace and still believes in the idea of a knight in shining armor as the ideal love interest.  I'm going to be blunt, for first and later impressions, she was the most irritating heroine in the VN.  While she will occasionally break character by acting in a manner that seems out of sync with her archetype, that is only to reinforce that the core of her personality, as presented, is exactly what I just defined it as.
Iris... I picked her first.  Why? I always pick foreigner heroines first.  I always pick heroines who are out of place above all other things, and in most cases, it is the foreigner heroine who is most obviously out of place.  Iris is... frail, fragile, and weak-willed... until she isn't.  Her base personality is exactly how I just described her, but in her path, she does manage to break the mold a few times...  unfortunately, the pacing in her path is godawful (this applies to all the paths to one extent or another), and I was honestly left behind as the romance and events progressed in her path. 
Kazuha... I'll be honest.  I liked Kazuha at first, but she falls into the classic pitfall of giving the 'martial artist heroine' too many weaknesses... not to mention that she is one of those classic ones who is constantly talking about how her hobbies don't fit her outward persona.  This drove me crazy both in and outside her path, and it wasn't helped by the fact that the protagonist is so... passive.
Mei... a gamer heroine is a rare type, even now.  Moreover, one that is aiming to become a pro gamer is a first in a VN I've played.  I'm sorry, but I hate one-sided rival heroines (the ones who feel a rivalry for another character who doesn't even recognize their existence).  This is made even worse because Melissa, one of the sub-heroines, has an almost identical role in her 'rivalry' toward Kazuha.  As a result, her half-idiot personality looks even more uninteresting than it would otherwise.  This is a presentation issue, more than anything else.
Last of all, I need to talk about the common route.  This thing is too short.  I hate to say it, but charage with short common routes just don't work, if they don't have an above-average set of heroine routes in terms of length and non-ichaicha detail.  I'm pretty sure the writer thought s/he was making you like the characters, but the branch-off point basically serves to truncate the protagonist's own evolution, weakening an already weak and undefined main character.
Overall, this is one of those utterly mediocre VNs that occasionally get produced by great companies... I'm tempted to cynically lump this VN in with all the other VNs that amputated their own potential over the last few years, and I probably should... but beginners to VNs who have a taste for moe will probably get at least some enjoyment out of this.  For me, this was a VN with at least some potential that deliberately shot itself in the leg, but - like many mediocre VNs - it will probably get eaten up like ice cream at a birthday party by the moe-addicts, though not with the kind of relish you'd see in the case of one of Favorite's games.
Edit: Understand, I did like some parts and others made me smile... but having played much better VNs that used a similar setting (with better characters) made it virtually impossible to enjoy this VN without serious reservations.  I honestly like some of the conflicts, but the way it was presented made it impossible to get emotionally invested. 
Edit2: This protagonist is a cipher in the truest sense, as he literally doesn't have any interest or goals outside of the heroines.  Generally speaking, this is not a good idea in any protagonist, as it leaves them with nothing to draw the heroines except their 'personality', which is pathetically underdeveloped, in most cases.

Grimo Love is a nukige.  Now, you'll notice that I generally don't bother to rate or comment on nukige... because most of the time I drop them inside of ten minutes.  However, Grimo Love has this sort of dread fascination to it that kept me playing right until the end (incidentally, it wasn't the story or the characters that kept me going). 
I'm going to be blunt.  This VN doesn't really have a story.  Oh, there is one in there that probably would have made for a ridiculously good charage with story if they'd bothered to develop it properly... and the sheer amount of detailed sprites in this VN makes me want to ask why they didn't.  However, this is ultimately a nukige and it has that ever-so-familiar 'sex under the necessity' trope going for it.
In this case, the protagonist is a member of the student council and the Second Literature Club (descended from the ancient Occult Research Club, whose leader died ten years before).  This VN is so full of supernatural incidents that they actually overwhelm the nukige H by a ratio of 10:1... and that's just weird, for a nukige (and it is one, from the feeling).  The school in this VN, its characters, and the constant incidents are comedic and feel unbelievably surreal... and virtually endless.  This VN is seriously long.  It took me twenty hours to finish, and most of the time I was either smiling or outright laughing.
If you asked me whether this was a pure comedy, I'd say no... but despite all the horrifying incidents that supposedly occur or almost occur around the characters (with a witch teacher who loves evil grimoires constantly causing trouble, ghosts and youkai attracted to the school like moths to a flame, and a vampire True Ancestor sleeping on the emergency stairs, how could it be peaceful?  lol) it never quite manages to be serious.  Sure, there is a really half-hearted attempt to make certain parts serious... but the characters and their reactions are so silly and blase that it is impossible to take even zombies, ogres, and evil gods seriously.  The protagonist's blase reaction to everything that happens around him is what defines a lot of the VN's atmosphere, and since he basically has sex with all the girls as a result of such incidents (or the girls' whims) it is kind of hard to take anything in this VN seriously.
In other words, I laughed but I never cried.
 
Anyway, now down to my thoughts on Jeanne... Liarsoft's new game.  I only started it about five hours ago, but I'm already ready to drop it.  Sorry, I just have trouble with Alice in Wonderland-type down the rabbit-hole stories.  Mixing it with chuuni-ism and a former French Resistance fighter doesn't actually help as much as you might think, at least for me.
I'm sometimes surprised at how intolerant I can be of this kind of stuff... but it doesn't really help that the writer is making it out to be a huge mystery when what is going on is blatantly obvious to anyone who has read a little bit of history and surrealist fantasy.  As a point of reference, I just have unforgiving tastes when it comes to serious fantasy in general.  My dislike for surrealist fantasy (I like down in the dirt fantasy much better) is an inevitable result of having outgrown that kind of crap when I was in second grade, lol.  Just making it  more mature doesn't make it interesting for me.
Anyway, I'm going to play a random VN until I can get into a mood to forgive this VN for being a part of a sub-genre type that I generally avoid like the plague, so don't expect another post on it for at least a few days.

First, I should mention that this is a true sequel to the original Shugo no Tate and that it is based three years after the events at St Terejia Academy.  The protagonist, Kisaragi Shuuji (who didn't get together with any of the girls from the original) is stuck in the job of the cross-dressing bodyguard, and he agrees to carry out this one last mission in exchange for the right to stop cross-dressing (lol). 
I'm going to say right off the bat that Nozomi is the true/central heroine of this VN.  Only in her path are all the aspects of the story fully revealed, and so I advise reading her path last.  There are five heroines in this VN... Nozomi (a shy girl who tries not to stand out), Riri (a cross-dressing girl who is immensely popular with the student body), Mana (an air-headed ojousama), Mai (a poison-tongued maid), and Sonya (a Russian transfer student).  Like the original, there are a lot of darker aspects hidden under the elegant surface of the school, and those who prefer to avoid serious drama should probably also avoid playing this.  Similarly, there are some battle scenes - generally well-described - where the protagonist makes out pretty well. 
Shuuji, the protagonist, is an experienced bodyguard and agent, and his combat skills show that.  Unfortunately for him, his cross-dressing skills are even greater (lol).  I should say that the protagonist is a lot more central to the plot than is customary in most of today's VNs (in other words, he isn't overwhelmed by the impact of the heroines), and the original in this duology was my first experience with the trap protagonist. 
Overall, this game is pretty much what you would expect from a game in the same series as the original Shugo no Tate.  There is a decent balance between action, drama, romance and slice-of-life without going overwhelmingly in any of the four directions, save at key points.  The endings are generally satisfying enough, though people who have played the better AXL games will definitely recognize their style.  The original was a kamige, and this was a fun one to play... but it pretty much requires you to have played the original to get the full effect, so it isn't a VN of the Month candidate.
Edit: I should note that some of the heroines have seriously dark pasts, and two of them are about as twisted up inside as the secret heroine from the original.  However, like most heroines with twisted pasts, they tend to have some of the best deredere attitudes once they fall in love with the protag.