Arcadeotic

My writing professor in college started his course by saying that all stories are driven by desire. Desire motivates characters to go out and do something, and conflict happens when a character doesn’t get what they want. 
Then he asked us “What does everybody want?”
I think some people said money, some people said fame. He shook his head.
“Love,” he said, emphasizing the word. “Everybody wants love.”
It didn’t have to be romantic love, he explained. 'Love' could be a mother accepting her son for who he is, or someone helping their friend recover from addiction. Love isn’t about getting comfortable enough around someone to have sex with them—that’s just an extension of what love is: acceptance, affirmation, and connection.
Sure, everyone wants love. But that’s not the whole story.
There’s a dark side to love, just as there’s a dark side to everyone, and that’s what I wanted to explore in Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim.

THE STORY
In Black Heaven, you play as a former scholar of the Itzon Academy, where students studied the art of immortality. There, you met Ru, your shy but brilliant mentor, Izagi, a stoic and idealistic martial arts prodigy, and Lyse, a sharp-tongued and flirtatious debutante.
That school (and all your classmates) perished when you and your mentor accidentally unleashed a cancerous plague that wiped out most of the continent, leaving you one of the sole survivors. Most of the ‘dating’ part of the ‘dating sim’ takes place in memories, where you return to your happiest moments with Ru, Izagi, and Lyse.
Your lonely exile from Itzon is interrupted when you meet No-Eyes, a mysterious necromancer who offers you a deal: bring him the souls of your former classmates at Itzon, and he’ll rip your soul free from the flow of time and allow you to relive the happiest moments of your life on a loop, forever.
When you return to Itzon, however, you come face-to-face with the ghosts of your friends, who have become monstrous, shattered versions of the people you used to know, still obsessed with their past lives.
The ghosts are what I really want to talk about.

HUNGRY GHOSTS
One of the big ideas that informed the game’s narrative is a Buddhist concept called the “hungry ghost,” a spirit that’s driven by “intense emotional needs in an animalistic way.” I imagined a hungry ghost as being less of a person and more of a bundle of desires, kind of like an amalgamation of wants in the shape of a human being.
But if my writing professor was right, then that’s all human beings are. Everything we do, everything we are, is based on a want, a desire, a feeling of incompleteness that drives us to go out and fill the hole within ourselves.
I like to think I have a grasp on what kinds of characters and stories resonate with people, and what I’ve discovered so far is that people like complex characters, which are characters that are built on contradictions. 
Here’s an excerpt from a piece I wrote a while ago:
“At the heart of every interesting, complex character is a contradiction (or several of them). It’s the imbalance that creates desires, weaknesses, and conflict. It also creates something to unearth or discover over the course of a story.”
It’s a pretty radical idea if you think about it, because it implies that what resonates with most readers is having some deep-seated flaw that ensures that they’ll never be whole, happy, or satisfied until they reconcile with it. I think it says something about the human condition—that maybe each of us, consciously or not, has built our sense of self, our identity, on a foundation riddled with cracks.

SELFISH LOVE
So what do people do with this feeling of emptiness, of desire, of wanting more? How do they become whole and finally reconcile with all the parts of themselves that are flawed?
The answer, many times, is to seek out someone else’s love. As long as someone else loves that person, then they receive the ultimate affirmation that they’re worth something, that they’re good, and that they don’t have to face the difficult parts of living alone (see the infamous scene from Bojack Horseman for reference).
But it’s not enough.
Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most brutal, thorny, and complex explorations of love, and one of the reasons I like it so much is because its thesis, arguably, is that being loved by someone doesn’t redeem you. Instead, it shows that love, like anything else, can be warped and twisted into something destructive if you go into it with the wrong pretenses.
It's not a coincidence that Evangelion talks a lot about the self and about love, because love is portrayed as a selfish desire: Asuka wants someone to love her to confirm that she matters, Misato wants love so she can lose herself in someone else, and Shinji wants someone to love so he can feel like he’s worth something, anything.
You see the thread here? What’s called “love” is often all tied up with the self: our own thoughts, fears, insecurities, and perceptions of the world. If you want to see this in action in a well-known visual novel, take Katawa Shoujo, a story about high schoolers attending a school for students with medical disabilities.

A CASE STUDY IN TWISTED LOVE
There’s a scene in Katawa Shoujo where Hanako, a burn victim with extensive scars over half of her body, sheds her clothes, reveals her scars, and has sex with the protagonist, Hisao. It’s supposed to be the moment when the two truly connect, but despite the trappings of intimacy, neither of them truly understands the other: Hanako is using the intimacy to ensure that Hisao doesn’t leave her, and Hisao sees it as the end product of his conscious, long-term project to help Hanako overcome her insecurities.
Most importantly of all, the relationship is warped by both character’s internal issues: Hisao seems to view Hanako partly as a broken person he wants to “fix” (mirroring his inability to fix his own lingering fears about his heart), and Hanako is caught between fearing Hisao will leave her like others who “cared” for her and resenting how helpless and fragile he treats her. 
With this in mind, the intimate act of sex, which is supposed to be an act of love, isn’t about love at all—it’s a twisted manifestation of the internal issues of both characters, who are so blinded by their own fears and desires that they’re not even having the same experience.
In fact, some of the most extreme commentators on sex and desire claim that it’s always selfish: “The act of sex for humans is so much caught up in our fantasies (our idealized images of both ourselves and our sexual partners) that it is ultimately narcissistic.”

ROMANCE IN BLACK HEAVEN
In Black Heaven, one of the key ideas that went into writing the romance arcs was fleshing out each character’s “internal picture”—essentially a map of their personality traits, their flaws, and what their idea of ‘love’ looked like.
For the character Ru, relating to people is a messy, unpredictable chemical reaction, where there are too many variables to figure out and too many chances for misunderstanding and pain. Ru is analytical and logical because it helps her feel in control of her life, but the parts of her that are hard to quantify (like taking care of herself or her own emotions) get neglected.
Ru’s internal contradiction is that, despite her attempts to ignore or minimize the inconvenient parts of herself and her life, she still feels their effects: she’s lonely, she’s insecure about other’s perceptions of her, and she feels like she’s constantly running from the parts of her that are frightening or confusing.
Over the course of the story, the protagonist of Black Heaven can grow closer to Ru, which may turn into a romantic relationship. For Ru, the romance is a terrifying, uncertain, guilty affair (she’s supposed to be a teacher, after all), but the desire for someone else to assuage her fears about being too broken or pathetic to love is great enough to overcome those misgivings.
In stories like this, the villain isn’t a serial killer or a necromancer—it’s a person who wears ‘I love you’ like a mask. That kind of villain is well aware of their partner’s reasons for seeking out love, and uses them for their own ends. 
That kind of ‘love’ is part of what I wanted to explore in Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim. It’s a destructive kind of love, but more importantly, it sheds some light on the parts of us that are too painful and too vital to ignore.
 
You can play the extended demo of Black Heaven here! You can also check the Kickstarter page for updates here!
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With Date A Live: Rio Reincarnatio being confirmed for an english release I figured I should make a review of it.
 
Date A Live Rio Reincarnation is actually a collection of two Date A Live VNs that released on PS3 as well as a new story that I think can kind of be seen as a fandisc. The two PS3 VNs are Date A Live: Rinne Utopia and Date A Live: Arusu Install while the extra story is just called Date A Live Rio Reincarnation. For this review I will focus on each individual part on its own.
 
A quick summary of Date A Live Rinne Utopia
Date A Live Rinne Utopia takes place sometime after the first season on the anime and includes the characters introduced in the first season. Other than this there is also a new character Rinne a mysterious girl who seem to be Shido's neighboor as well as his childhood friend (they were never reunited, she was always there). Other than this there are some other odd things going on, for instance there is a huge tower in the middle of the city that only Shido finds odd and he has these dreams of a spirit appearing before him. During the common route there are of course also date events where you can choose between Kotori, Origami, Kurumi, Touka and Yoshino. After some of these date events you get into their routes and get an ending with them. After having gone through all the different endings you then unlock Rinne's route where I would say the meat of the story can be found.
 
For my opinion of it I would first like to say that I think this is a really good Date A Live VN. It takes full advantage of the setting of Date A Live and I think it does an excelent job both telling a large impactfull story while also giving lots of nice moments with each of the different heroines and pretty satisfying endings with each of the heroines. For the heroine routes there is always something going on whether there is an internal conflict for one of the girls or it is something else going on, because of this it felt like each of the routes managed to carry themselves as their own story and also make the romance between the heroine and Shido feel satisfying. For the overarching plot I think they do a good job building it up throughout the VN during the different routes and I think the story it tells is something that works perfectly within the setting of a VN. Rinne's route at the end then works as a great climax for the story with lots of epic as well as emotional moments.
 
A quick summary of Date A Live Arusu Install
Date A Live Arusu Install takes place sometime after the second season on the anime and as such also includes Miku and the Yamai twins. The main setup of the story in Arusu Install is that Ratatoskr has made a new dating sim for Shido to practise on which is a fulldive experience that has a recreation of the city they live in as well as the people living there. There Shido is supposed to go on dates with AI's with the same personality and looks as the spirits. However early in the game he meets an odd girl called Arusu, that he has never seen before and shouldn't exist in the game, she ask him what love is as she is curious about it and don't understand it. As this happens Kotori who has been talking to Shido when he was in the game loses contact with him and the people on the outside are unable to get him out of there, meaning he is stuck within the game. This then makes all of the girls hook themselves up to the machine to enter the game so that they can save Shido. This means that they are all stuck in a replica of their city going to the same school and living in the same house. So this means that it is essentially as if they were in the real world other than the fact that side characters are npc, they are forced into roles that fit a dating sim and there is Arusu using her powers to make special date events that happens in the dream of Shido and the heroine that puts them in special suituations with the aim being for them to get closer so she can learn what love is.
 
As for my review of Date A Live Arusu Install I guess I should start with the begining. I think that the way they use the setting of Date A Live to set up the story is really cool. Referencing my little Shido with the fulldive machine is really fun and I think it is a really smart way of getting the characters into suituations they otherwise wouldn't be. Other than this it also sets up a nice overarching mystery with Arusu and them being stuck in the game. Also because of the game's setting there are lots of things that are able to happen that wouldn't otherwise make sense and this is used to make lots of different scenarios with the girls. This I would say works well as fanservice for the girls not necessarily sexual fanservice, but more so seeing them in lots of different suituation like magical girl Kotori or shrine maid Origami which also provides some nice interesting artwork. A problem with this though is that these scenarios don't really do any job with building a good emotional story for the girls or get you connected to them, it just feels like pure fanservice with no substance. This made the routes for the individual heroines seem quite hollow, something that really hurt my enjoyment as this is the majority of the VN. The true route I feel does a good job on the emotional side and just in general having a pretty good and satisfactory story. So overall I would say that the setup and the true route are really good, but that it suffers from the other routes feeling empty only offering hollow fanservice that mainly just show different suitations with the characters in what seem like what if scenarios, though they do have good art and I would say some are quite enjoyable (magical girl Kotori is one that comes to mind). 
 
Date A Live Rio Reincarnation works pretty much like a fandisc for both of the previous VNs. I don't think I can really go much into it without spoiling things from the other VNs, but what I can say is that they meet a small girl named Rio who looks for the most important thing (she doesn't know what it is just that she is looking for it). As for the content of Rio Reincarnation it features a few nice scenes with the heroines as well as give a bit more of a proper ending for each of the VNs. I very much liked this addition as I really liked the different endings in it as well as the story it told in general being interesting.
 
Just some quick remarks about the visuals, the visuals are really nice looking, which is to be expected as the artist is Tsunako, the artist behind the Neptunia series and Fairy Fencer F as well as being the illustrator for the original Date A Live light novel. However I found some rather annoying problems with the PS4 CGs. While most of them were as they should be, some of the CG variations had parts of the art that had been missplaced by a pixel or two or there being a difference in colour between two parts of the CG put together. Under are two examples with some red circles added just to show the area you need to look at. While these aren't really that noticeable I found it annoying as I like to screenshot all of the different CGs and have them on my PC to look at later and I don't want them to have these kinds of flaws.

 
 
Cover of the limited edition

 
Back of the limited edition

 
Cover of regular edition

Everything included with the limited edition

 
Cover of limited PS4 edition and regular PS vita edition

 
 

Foreword - Yet another week with no VNTS, so hopefully by the time of Sanoba release (Four days left) we'll gonna see another VNTS Review there, and for the reminder Decay was worked on Sanoba. So here's another VNTS Review from mine here, and I hope that you'll enjoy this week review.
For the title, seeing that we have Bishoujo Mangekyou release at the last week, I thought that it would be appropriate if I parodied 'Fifty Shades of Grey' movie into 'Fifty Shades of Kirie' even though I'm belated a week for that. As for the reason of why I chose that particular franchise, it's because in Bishoujo Mangekyou we have young looking vampire girl (Kirie) and we surely know that Twilight here would be associated with romance between vampire and human. Being the popular work obviously mean that Twilight here would have a lot of fan fiction/doujin work, and one of those works was the basis for Fifty Shades of Grey with Christian Grey in the novel was supposed to be stand-in for Edward Cullen, in which Edward himself is a vampire in the original Twilight. Therefore I changed 'Grey' into 'Kirie' simply because she's a vampire like Edward and did have some sadistic streak like Grey, even though the sex scenes in Bishoujo Mangekyou didn't involved BDSM lol.
Fifty Shades of Grey rambling aside, welcome to this week VNTS Review in which unlike last week we didn't have the releases at this week. That said we have a bunch of the updates from Mangagamer after a while so at least this week was slightly interesting for that, although of course we still have some usual updates from fan translation here at this week. Other than usual updates, we also got a good news that Frontier KS was officially confirmed as successful one along with many stretch goal was also funded. Let's see what I could write for this week as well.
From Cherry Kiss we'll gonna have elf angel demon nukige will be released at November 7th so congratulation to mod Dergonu in regard of that his second work was finally about to be released, although personally I'm just pass on this though. Other than Cherry Kiss announcement release, we also got an update in regard of Lamunation in which the current progress was at 17% although I admittedly late in regard of reporting this because LoveLab was already posted the update since back at last week (14th) at their Twitter here. As for Frontier KS, congratulation for the successful campaign in which they managed to gather more than ~23 million yen with the base goal was only at 16,665,000 yen for the comparison. While personally I think that the stretch goal was mostly only a cosmetic one, it's nice to see though that Ninetail would do their extra effort to provide new content there such as new soundtrack and new side episodes. Anyway what I can say is that after I did try the gameplay demo, easy to say that I'm gonna looking forward for the full release even though I'm need to wait for 14 or more months here.
As for the updates from Mangagamer, obviously their most biggest updates at this week was Bokuten was about to enter the testing in which if we know it's been frozen for several years because of the editing hell or something like that. With this update, obviously it mean that all of the editing process was already finished. As for me while in the past it's one of the big title that was announced by Mangagamer, nowadays there's a lot of more attractive VNs announcement that was announced by either Mangagamer or other company so I couldn't help to think that Bokuten was already having the trope 'Seinfeld is Unfunny' there, but it's still nice to see that finally it managed to get a word from them about that after a long while though. Other than Bokuten, we have Steam Prison was about to enter the testing too, Amatarasu was fully translated and 78% edited, Trinoline was fully edited, Sukehime was at 23% translated and 13% edited, Escalayer was at 91% translated and 58% edited, Maggot Bait was at 55% edited, Room No.9 was at 45% translated and 30% edited, Sona Nyl was at 64% translated, and Rance X was at 18% translated which is a lot more than it sounds. That's all for Mangagamer updates.
Right now we have Eustia was at 55.35% translated, Harugi's overall was at 24% translated with Miyabi's route was at 10% translated, and Loverable was at 44.39% edited. We also have new project for Gore Screaming Show with the obvious goal was to fully translated the VN in question, although technically it's not the new project though because the team was been working on that for a while. Right now the team was finally find someone who can make the patch, so hopefully they'll be able to keep the stable updates there. You can visit their homepages here (There's two websites for the info), and for the current progress right now it was at 20.97% translated. As for Screaming Show itself, personally I didn't quite interested with that but I see that some people who like the disturbing content took a liking with that, so I hope that the project will be successful if only for them. For the last update, we got Marika's route of Hoshiori was past halfway (52.79%) translated and overall was at 15.6% translated. There's also the plan that they'll release Marika's patch along with announcing the route order at November 3rd because Urrim want to go to Japan, but keep in mind that the plan may change.
That's all for this week VNTS Review, and see you next week.

I'm sure there are legitimate complaints to be had about the biman 1 translation that cummed out today, but who has time for that shit when you see THIS?
PLEASE IGNORE THE FACT THAT THIS IS A MEME PATCH WITH THE NAMES WRONG RIGHT (thanks @HMN), THE OTHER TEXT BITS WILL BE THE SAME OKAY.
YES THAT'S RIGHT, THAT IS THE MOTHERFUCKING DOUBLE HYPHEN STANDIN FOR A PROPER EM DASH. THIS IS POSSIBLY THE UGLIEST PUNCTUATION SHORTCUT IN EXISTENCE. WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD USE THIS MONSTROSITY RATHER THAN EVEN A TECHNICALLY NOT APPROVED BY LIKE ANY STYLE GUIDE SPACED DASH?
THE BIMAN 1 TL IS CONFIRMED SHIT. THANKS FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK ON LIVING IN A MOTHERFUCKING SOCIETY
BOTTOM TEXT:
UPDATE: MORE CRIMES AGAINST TYPOGRAPHY HAVE BEEN FOUND: BEHOLD THIS RIDICULOUS DOUBLE SPACING:

I'M FUCKING DONE
Just look at this
I-I-I just can't. This is too much. This flipping game, man. It's just brilliant. Kamige, nothing more, nothing less.
Well, I guess I should elaborate even a little bit, given that I'm really just talking about a shit game full of baka gaijin punches and weeb references. Keikaku, desu, slice of bread, stupid Nipponese emotes, jabs at VN and anime tropes, fucking FACELESS side character named Classmate-kun that has a lenny emote as his face. Yup, this game is rather special, truth be told. Did I also mention that the menu is written with Comic Sans? Becuase it is. 
Anyways, the game follows the journey of.... I forgot. Forgive me, but the main character's name spans three dialogue boxes, so everyone just gives up on everything and calls him Protag-kun for short. Works, right? Right? Well, there on out he stumbles on a tsundere yankee (although her being a tsundere could be considered a spoiler, but who cares, roight?), who has a piece of goddamn toast in her mouth, and apparently the MC stumbles ALL over her face and she's still utterly unfazed. She's also a Mahou Shoujo in the pures Sailor Moon way, becuase... reasons? Twintails included. Get your own damn batteries, though.
Then he meets the just mentioned Classmate-kun, with whom you can have wonderful homoerotic, homodachi endings with, including:
Shitting together in a public bathroom Going totally gay together, like pure homoerotic bro-homodachis would Sleeping together in a hotel completely butt-naked, causing some hilarious, albeit cringy events together and making him not look like a cheap Saitama ripoff, and in the end getting married in 'Murica He also uses those oh so fun Nippon emotes that those boke gaijins couldn't understand, and some variations of lenny thrown in for shit good taste.
Then, the last of the bunch, comically dubbed 'Iinchou-chan'. Literally just 'Iinchou-chan' literally meaning 'class rep' for all the gaijins out there, who don't know the brilliance of Weebism.
Well, she's your average small, big-breasted deredere I guess, except that she adds those ridiculous end-suffixes (I think they're called that? Honestly, I don't give to kusos.). Yes, you heard me right. She adds a desu, -nyan or -uguu in every single damn of her sentences. It's funny for like the first five minutes, and then I feel like stabbing her in the abodmen and hanging myself with her entrails.
*cough*
Well, there are a few instances where it's still cringy as hell, but at least it's funny. Apparently she's also a yandere. Yeah, it came out of nowhere. She literally steals everything from School Days, fucking decapitates Protag-kun with a kitchen knife, stuffs his cold body in a duffel bag and sets on a voyage with his head a la School Days. I don't even.
The game has 24 endings, believe it or not, and after all that you get to answer the question 'What is the answer to life?', and the answer to life apparently is 'All your bases are belong to us. Wew.
There's also a Boku no Pico ending, but I doubt you want your psyche broken with several PTSDs, stacks on stacks, so I'll just give you a scene before that happens, k? K.
As you've probably noticed by now, the game has a terrific sense of humour. One of such classics is this
And this.
Also this.
Quite fitting humour for something accurately dubbed as shit. There is of course some other jokes, like that one ending resulting in a game over because everything didn't go according to keikaku.
One more for the road.
The game's a literal shitfest, but the funniest shitfest I've ever had the pleasure of playing.
9/11, 6/5, 1/1 Kusogest kamige to top all kamiges. Must play, enough water -IGN, GG Takeshi.
In all honesty though, play it if you like satire even the tiniest big.
That's all, thanks for sticking with me to the end.
Arigato! Minna!
Blegh, now I feel like a dirty weeaboo, kuso.

Well, as of thirty-nine minutes ago, it is officially my birthday (as of the time I checked at the beginning of making this post).  I have a lot of things to reflect on this year. 
I am now thirty-six, settling into the beginnings of middle-age, knowing my lifestyle will probably kill me before I hit fifty. 
I'm a sugar addict, I love fatty foods, I make my own alcoholic drinks (this year, a mixed fruit wine that actually turned out well and was much easier than the rum and hard root beer I did last year). 
I sit on my ass eighty percent of the time, I am hugely fat...
... and I'm surprisingly happy.  I won't say I don't have my down moments.  Looking back, I regret not going for more athletic pursuits while my knees and back could still stand them.  I regret not trying for a more regular and less... frustrating line of work.  However, I can honestly say that, for all its frustrations, I actually seem to like being a fat, balding otaku who has pretensions at being  some kind of VN guru (lol).
I do wish that I could fit into a plane seat, lol.  If I ever go to Japan, it is going to have to be a sea trip, since buying two plane tickets for one person is both embarrassing and more than a little expensive.
I hate my work, but I'm good at it and, in good times, it pays well, so I keep doing it.
So what would I change? 
Honestly, it is hard to say.  I won't pretend I'm all love and joy when it comes to life.  I have too much toxic waste going through my brain for that (I just happened to have gained just enough maturity not to feed the trolls constantly *smiles dryly*).  I'm fundamentally a passive person once I set foot outside my hobbies, preferring not to do anything I don't absolutely have to do.  I'm also negative and misanthropic... but is that stuff I actually want to change?
*shrugs*
I've never been any other way, so it is impossible to say.  However, every year I hit this day and wonder what could have been, which probably says everything that needs to be said about my experiences with life, for all my proclamations of relative happiness.
 

For those wondering why I haven't posted recently (two weeks without a blog post is about the longest I've ever gone since the Fuwa blogs opened, save for the Fuwapocalypse periods), I've simply been too busy with work and playing Mask of Truth to bother.  This review was written up by Dergonu before then, and I only just got around to editing it. 
Bishoujo Mangekyou -Tsumi to Batsu no Shoujo- was my first Mangekyou game, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect of it. The limit of my knowledge of the series was that it has nice art and animated scenes. In short, I went in blind.
As I started reading, my first impression was that the game didn't feel like a nukige at all. The introduction felt like one you'd see in a story driven game. The writing, music and backgrounds set up a pretty heavy atmosphere, and the first real H-scene doesn't happen until quite some time into the story. Although H is definitely a central part of the game, I'd honestly say this reads a lot more like a "story driven game" than a nukige.  In addition, the game touches on a lot of things that doesn't exactly get your mojo going, like death, incest, rape and mental illness. Needless to say, the game was a lot darker than I had imagined. 
The story is centered around the twins Yuuma and Yuuri. The main character, Yuuma, harbors some pretty complicated feelings towards his sister. He has spent the last year in a hospital, for reasons yet unknown to the reader, and during his stay, his feelings for his sister only grew stronger.  Clephas: Spoilers contained in the box below.  Since I generally don't post anything that can't be guessed or read from the Getchu or official page of a VN here in terms of actual details, I'm taking the liberty of sticking this section into a spoiler box.  These are minor spoilers, so don't feel like you absolutely have to avoid reading them.  I'm just doing this for the peace of mind of the more obsessive members.  
The writing in this game was surprisingly good. It even felt poetic at times, and the true ending really had me thinking for a good while. As you might be able to guess by the title, (tsumi to batsu = crime and punishment,) the story delves a lot into morality. It's the type of story that gets you thinking about right and wrong, and how every person has a dark side hidden within them.  I'll leave it at that to avoid spoilers, but, in conclusion, there is a lot more to this game than what meets the eye.  So, I almost feel bad calling it a nukige.   I'd say this is definitely worth a read. (It made me very interested in the prequels. I'll go ahead and read those sometime soon. Hopefully they are as good as this game was.)
Clephas Note: The Bishoujo Mangekyou series is only technically a nukige series, since it has too much h-content to deny it, but each game has a solidly-written and interesting story. 

Visual Novel Translation Status (07/22/2017)
As for the title, because this week we had surprise announcement for an unknown VN Kickstarter (Sakura Sakura, or Sakusakura) and an unknown VN that had female assassin as MC was rereleased at Steam, I decided to just make the title as the combination of those two title 'Sakura Assassin'. And no, this is not Winged Cloud plan for their next Sakura VN here lol just in case some user here really interested with Sakura franchise, and I'm sorry in regard of that. Welcome to this week VNTS Review, which to tell the truth still just usual one which is filled with the updates only (And unknown VN releases). Although of course the updates were just as important as either announcements or releases, so I decided to reporting it here. For this week, we had Mangagamer joined fan translation with the usual updates. As for Sekai, too bad that Sekai decided to didn't use their tracker anymore just as I thought (Their new policy) and instead they would be just use 'video format' for their tracker, which sounds very vague since we didn't knew of how that's supposed to be there (I knew that Tay said something like semi regular video, but I wouldn't be sure here until they do that).
Other
As for Song of Memories, I think it's quite interesting that we had both of console (PS4) and PC releases. The premise was looks interesting, but I think for now I wouldn't interested with that for now although the production value for the number of songs were certainly very good there, because after all it's called 'Songs of Memories' not for nothing. There's also the matter that the VN itself looks like was some sort of an attempt to promote unknown idol group, which in this case that idol group would be Dream4You, and here's their website if you interested although it was explained that it was from the game inside the VN though. I'll just wait and see in regard of the release for now.
Other than Song of Memories, there's Sakusakura Kickstarter which would be launched at August 1st. The VN itself was quite unknown and definitely wasn't part of Winged Cloud Sakura's franchise, although I'd heard some good point for Sakusakura though. As for the premise, apparently it'll involved love triangle in the high school. The company behing the localization was quite suspicious, because their website weren't didn't reveal much information from Sakusakura itself and therefore it might be questionable. While I did think that their Kickstarter was in danger, I think it's better to save my comment in regard of that until the launch later (If the launch later wouldn't be delayed that is).
There's also Pure Pure in which we had a new translation project established. As for a little history, actually this VN did had translation project in the past but apparently the old project was getting stalled, and therefore considered dead. Therefore, the leader of the new group (Abyss Translation) was decided to tackle this and right now it was at around 18% (Chapter two was a quarter translated). Not quite interested with Pure Pure to be honest, but good luck to the project here nevertheless and I'll try to keep my eyes on that. By the way I knew that this is supposed to be fan translation section project, but since the translation group was already involved with official Tayutama 2 translation and they also attempted to contact Pure Pure developer, I decided to include it here for time now (I'll add this to fan translation section if they had more updates).
Fan Translation
As for fan translation, it's usual updates for this week as well so there's not much to talk about here in regard of the progress. Although there's a good news though from Bishoujo Mangekyou, namely Arcadeotic want two beta tester to test his first Bishoujo Mangekyou which mean that it should be ready for the release after the testing (Actually he was already prepared the beta patch). As for Majokoi, unfortunately there's no visible progress for this week but Fred assured us that there's still some work behind that, and he would work together with Hijiri's route translator to see of how it's should be going for the progress. This week we also had the progress from Clovers Day, in which right now Anzu's route was at around 87% translated. For Loverable, right now it was reaching 80% mark translated with the exact number was at 80.89% translated (Nanako's route was at 60.72% translated), 47.75% TLC-ed, and 20.79% edited. For the rest of the progress we had Sansha Mendan was at 94.3% translated, Venus Blood Chimera was at 48% translated, and Eustia was at 18.03% translated.
For more news from fan translation section, actually there's one project announced. The project's goal was to translated a VN (Duh) which named 'Karenai Sekai to Owaru Hana', which from now on I'll just call it Karehana. As for Karehana, from the first look it's just like usual moege although from the review that I'd read apparently there's something more that make this VN was quite good. As for my personal opinion, I would like to see of how much the translator could translate it so I'll try keep my eyes on this project. Oh, and we already had the progress in which right now it was at 10.43% (1,926 out of 18,461 lines) translated and 4.99% (923 out of 18,461 lines) edited.
Almost forgot that we also had the update from Ate the Moon in regard of Tsukiyori, in which right now it was at 7.2% translated and 3.8% edited. As for the updates, the translator herself said that she decided to do weekly progress just like Tsujidou, so I decided to keep my eyes weekly on Tsukiyori. There's also Tsurezure in which they almost reached 30% translated mark for Tsujidou overall translation (29.43% translated), and for Ai's route itself right now it was at 33.44% translated.
Mangagamer
As for Mangagamer, even though this week image header was from Boukaku actually it's still wasn't released yet becaus it's just out from beta testing. Although judging from last experience in regard of beta testing, perhaps we could expect that in near future Mangagamer would be released Boukaku ie one or two months later. Since Boukaku was finished the testing, it mean that right now it's only Suki Suki that was still in the testing although hopefully it won't be that long before it was finally finished the testing. Speaking about the testing, right now Naked Butler was starting the testing and Mangagamer was concerned whether the testers would knew about Naked Butler beforehand or not.
Aside from beta testing, of course Mangagamer still offer some updates here. The updates for this time were goes like Hapymaher was at 87% translated, Sorcery Joker was at 87% edited, Maggot Bait was at 45% translated, Marriage was at three quarter translated and 72% edited, Imopara 2 was fully edited, Evenicle was at 96% translated (Almost completed), Hashihime was at 84% translated, and Trinoline was at 28% translated.
That's all for this week VNTS, and see you next week. 

Now, I'm well aware that most people don't play VNs twice.  Visual novels are a static media, similar to one of the old 'choose your own adventure' novels in interactive terms, so this is only natural.  To be blunt, the main reason I go back and play old VNs is because nothing is satisfying one of my itches amongst the more recent releases.  That said, there are some pieces of advice I can give for those who habitually re-read their favorite books and rewatch their favorite anime.
1- Wait long enough for your memories to fade: The human brain has a tendency to 'compress' old memories, and it is rare person who, through training or at birth, possesses an eidetic memory.  As a result, details do fade over a period of time that tends to vary greatly with the individual.  In my case, the base runs from a year to a year and a half for VNs that made a good impression and four months for ones that didn't. 
2-  Pick your paths: When it comes down to it, most of us are going back for a particular heroine or path.  We aren't that interested in rehashing the heroine paths that we didn't find that interesting, and this is only natural.  Sagaoz and other sites with complete saves can let you go to the true ending without bothering with the heroine endings, if that is what you want. 
3- With gameplay hybrids, make full use of your save data: Most VN hybrids have NG+ built in, and as a result, you can breeze through the game portions of most of them rather easily by simply using your own save data.  This is immensely helpful in games with a particularly tedious bent (like srpgs), where re-leveling would take forever.
4-  Limit replays to your favorites: While I occasionally get a junk-food-like craving for something crappy that nonetheless remained in memory, in most cases I only really enjoy replaying my favorite VNs (in my case, a list of about fifty). 
5- Nakige and utsuge work, but pure charage don't: I'm not kidding.  Pure charage are agonizing to replay, no matter how long after you go back.  I can still cry for the sad scenes in a Key game, but if you asked me to replay anything by Feng or most games by Navel, I'd rather cut off my balls and hang them out to dry on my windowsill.
6- If you fall asleep, just stop- In my experience, nothing is worse than getting bored of your favorites and then forcing yourself to continue.  If you can't pay attention or if you suddenly lose interest, it is time to stop.  If you force yourself to continue, there is a distinct possibility you will ruin your own impressions of the game in question for future playthroughs.
7- Stay away from pure mindfucks- I shouldn't have to explain this, but I will... the value of a mindfuck is in its surprise.  Games centered on a mindfuck, with the sole purpose of trying to fool you into thinking one thing while something else is going on, are terrible for VN replays.  This is because they are probably the  most spoiler-vulnerable genre out there.
8- Highly emotional or intellectually stimulating works will often gain more depth: This isn't a fanciful statement.  In my experience, a VN that is trying to get across something else besides pure story or something that is trying to make you cry will inevitably make for a better replay than something that is just shoving sex, romance, and comedy in your face.  I could probably replay Houkago no Futekikakusha, for instance, three or four times in a year without the emotional aspects fading significantly, and I find new things out about Dies Irae, Vermilion, and Devils Devel Concept with each playthrough. 
9- Infodumpers take longer to recover from: Bradyon Veda, I/O, Muramasa, etc... VNs that infodump seriously as part of the storytelling tend to leave a lot of info inside your brain.  As a result, it takes significantly longer for your memories of them to fully 'compress'.  Don't expect to be able to enjoy anything with frequent infodumps at less than one and a half times that of any of your other favorites. 
10- A good night's sleep is your friend: Why am I emphasizing this?  Because to get the best out of a truly great VN, a well-rested body and brain is necessary.  Nothing kills enjoyment of a good story like being unable to grasp it due to brain-numbness from sleep deprivation.
Hope yall enjoyed my little lecture, lol.

Visual Novel Translation Status (03/18/2017)
The title for this week was very simple. It was meant to combine the otome game title (Funny enough, the title was 'Birthday Song') and new Narcissu character there (Sumire), so we got 'Happy Birthday Sumire' there which ironically the character in question was not in the mood to celebrate it (Sickness and all). Anyway, welcome to this week VNTS Review which is quite late at that and this is also the first time in 2017 I make the title from combining two VNTS image header. That aside, for this week I think the updates was had some interesting point there, especially with some Kickstarter project which I just noticed. Although from Sekai there's no much that I could write from their usual updates though, instead they prepared for some release of several VNs (Hope that they had some interesting announcement at Boston later). With that done, let's see what I could write for this week.
As for Mangagamer secret project, to be honest I didn't track those at all. Since I already gave their belated updates at last blog post here, let me give the belated updates from their secret projects this week. The updates were goes like 1st secret project was at 74% translated, 2nd secret project was at 46% translated and 17% edited, 3rd secret project was at 27% translated and 26% edited, 4th secret project was at 72% translated and 43% edited, and 5th secret project was fully edited. As for what secret projects is, still don't know yet although maybe they'll announce it at Boston later (Only three announcements, with one from new partner iirc). That's all for Mangagamer belated updates at their secret project.
Sekai Project
For Sekai project, there's no usual update once again (The reason would be that Chrono Clock was finally released and Maitetsu fully translated) other than Bokukotsu which right now was at 39.2% translated. Although their usual updates was getting few, of course there's some release plan from them which I'll tell here later. But beforehand let me state that this week we also had Narcissu Sumire release once again, which was the part of Narcissu anthology or something like that. I would said if you really want to enjoy all Narcissu, get Sumire. As for the premise, it was once again sick girl which apparently the franchise was fond of. The other updates from Sekai was goes like that both of Paca Plus and Darekoi were finally entering Steam Greenlight, which mean that the release time for those two were almost close. Not quite interested with Darekoi for now, but at least I could comment that Paca Plus was quite interesting I guess that we had our childhood friend as alpaca there (I knew that the truth was more complicated).
For last news from Sekai, this week they also launched another Kickstarter. The Kickstarter goal was to realize the release of Fatal Twelve, which is the VN that had same developer as Sound of Drop. Earlier, there's some controversy in regard of Japanese seiyuu, and my answer to the controversy would be I think it's actually quite rational because the developer itself was also Japanese company. As for the seiyuu themselves, all of them was quite unknown (Had few roles in the anime) with one exception which is quite understandable if the company want to reduce the cost (Although they probably prioritizing the budget on the art though, because the art was good looking). For current situation, right now they managed to gather the fund at 26,697 out of 35,000 ie almost complete. That's all for Sekai Project news here.
Other
For this section, first of all there's some interesting OELVN Kickstarter. For the first Kickstarter, this week we had Episicava Kickstarter which was created by our dfbreezy out there. As for the funding, right now it was at 754 out of 5,500 which still far from ideal to say the least. If some of the reader here curious about the VN, just download the demo here. Of course there's one more Kickstarter, and this time it's Crystalline Kickstarter which I found out about that when I saw the LP for the demo. From what I knew after my little searching, it's from save developer as Ace Academy and I think it's quite interesting that it was voiced. As for my opinion, I think the VA was doing quite a good job there (Although to tell the truth I rarely heard VN with English voice though, so I couldn't say more here) and most importantly the art was quite good to look at. Here's the Kickstarter page for Crystalline, and if you interested just download the demo there (For the record right now it gathered CA$ 31,675 out of CA$ 65,000).
Other than those two Kickstarters, once again there's update. First update here would be that Whirlpool was about to releasing Nekonin at April later at Steam, which mean of course there will be no H Scenes there. Although with or with out H Scenes I wouldn't interested with Nekonin in the first place though, and so does for Hakuoki remake in which will be released at May for PS Vita (Otome game and for PSV at that). And for the last news here, this is the best one in regard of Libra release date in which finally they announced the exact date. The date was unfortunately not at March, but rather at May 16th which mean the release was obviously delayed once again (Duh). Apparently the reason was because they didn't want the release date was coincide with Phantom Trigger Kickstarter and release, although to be honest I prefer that they could just release it per schedule (March). Guess it's they policy though to respect another company, and therefore I'll just leave it at that. That's all for Other section.
Fan Translation
There's so many things happened this week, but first let me state that this week we didn't had the update for Majokoi (The first happened) because of some personal business from the editor FredtheBarber (Travelling and all). Hope we could see usual progress at the next week. With that done, this week we also had some Loverable update which right now it was at 56.92% translated and 28.76% TLC-ed. For Sono Hanabira 11, right now it's almost completed the translation with 117 out of 120 scripts were translated (Apparntly they also planned to bring the translation to Mangagamer, although it's still not clear for now though). This week we also finally had some word from Arcadeotic in which he stated that Bishoujo Mangekyou project still alive, only right now he was busy with real life matter (Exams at university iirc). As for HatsuKoi, once again good job to them now that they was past halfway for overall progress (51.53% translated), although they said that too bad they didn't managed to fully translated Runa route this week (It was at 96.25% translated for Runa route). As for they next plan, it should be obvious that they'll try to release Runa's patch next weekend or sooner.
Before closing this VNTS Review, there's another translation project established. It's Aiyoku no Eustia in which was another of August VN (By the way, right now Fortune Arterial was at 47% for the 3rd script of Erika's route). As for Eustia, it's one of quite famous VN in which back in the past Taka Jun was attempted to translate it through Yandere Translation. Which of course was stalled like Majikoi because he was to busy with work and all (12 or 13 hours of work iirc), although they still managed to release partial patch up to Fione's arc though. I'll keep my eyes on this, and the current progress right now it was at 5.18% translated, 2.01% edited, and 1.5% TLC-ed for overall (Or 56.24%, 21.81% edited, and 16.3% TLC-ed for prologue). The team was pick up from the scratch instead of using old translation which translate up to Fione's arc, and what I could say here would be good luck to the project there. Also hope we could enjoy Eustia translated (By the way, I like the opening song of Eustia).
That's all for my belated VNTS Review this week, and see you next week.

Well, I guess it’s time to show something.
Don’t worry, dearest follower of this site, I’m not dead, I’ve just been incredibly busy. I’ve had exams left and right, and thus, I’ve felt a little demotivated. But, I’ve never given up on this project, there’s no way I can. I mean, it’s been over a year since I started this “passion project”, and I still intend to finish it with all of my power.
I won’t give up, there’s no way I’ll allow myself that. This project is important to me, way more than you think. And yes, for a while, I’ve been incredibly dead, I’ve still answered every question coming my way on Twitter, and I’m still active as ever on my Discord server. There’s no need to worry, Biman -1- will see the light of day.
As for a “beta” patch some people have been asking, I will be looking for two beta-testers after proofreading is done, and after the testing, I will ship the translation out to the masses, and then focus on Biman -2.5- that I’ve neglected, and then onto bigger things.
I’ve been pretty horrible with my way of keeping all of you above water, but all I can do at this point is to ask for all of you to wait patiently and to have faith in me.
Okay?
 
Well then, this’ll be another sporadic update that won’t become the norm for a while, but the next planned update is the recruitment of those before mentioned beta-testers.
Until then, everyone!

Well, I guess it’s time to show something.
Don’t worry, dearest follower of this site, I’m not dead, I’ve just been incredibly busy. I’ve had exams left and right, and thus, I’ve felt a little demotivated. But, I’ve never given up on this project, there’s no way I can. I mean, it’s been over a year since I started this “passion project”, and I still intend to finish it with all of my power.
I won’t give up, there’s no way I’ll allow myself that. This project is important to me, way more than you think. And yes, for a while, I’ve been incredibly dead, I’ve still answered every question coming my way on Twitter, and I’m still active as ever on my Discord server. There’s no need to worry, Biman -1- will see the light of day.
As for a “beta” patch some people have been asking, I will be looking for two beta-testers after proofreading is done, and after the testing, I will ship the translation out to the masses, and then focus on Biman -2.5- that I’ve neglected, and then onto bigger things.
I’ve been pretty horrible with my way of keeping all of you above water, but all I can do at this point is to ask for all of you to wait patiently and to have faith in me.
Okay?
 
Well then, this’ll be another sporadic update that won’t become the norm for a while, but the next planned update is the recruitment of those before mentioned beta-testers.
Until then, everyone!

Peace~

Peace~

Peace~

Since this week had no noteworthy progress being made, I decided to do this instead of a regular update and splitting percentages.
The Future
Current Projects
Let’s talk about release dates. Note that these are only estimation based on pure calculations and logic and will not be final nor necessary truthful under any circumstances.
As I’ve stated before, I would’ve fancied this project finishing before end of the year. Now, I’m sure the editing and QC will finish before that, but I’m not so sure about the proofreading. It could be at 75% at most, but in all seriousness, that’s as far as it’s going to get, I’m afraid.
So, according to my estimations, Biman -1- will most likely release in mid to late January, most likely.
 
Then, Biman -2.5-.
As much as I’d want for the translation to finish in 2016, I do think such an event is rather unlikely.
If all goes well, the translation should finish around at the same time as Biman -1- releases.
As for the full release, probably mid-year or sooner, but that’s a really rough estimation, so don’t quote me on that.
 
Future Projects
As much as I’d like to start a new project right after Biman -2.5-, I’m most likely going take a short hiatus from translating, so be wary of that.
As for actual, I have a few in mind, but I’ll disclose information from those after these two will be out, in the same time as my hiatus.
 
My thoughts on Biman -4-
As you may or may not know, there’s a new Biman game on the horizon, and I’m quite excited for it.
It’ll be a game with a trap protagonist and it’s been a pretty long time since I played a Trap VN, but it’ll be a very nice change of pace from what I’ve been reading recently. As for the whole story, I’m more or less expecting something along the lines of the first Biman with some kind of S/M relationship.
As for the name, it does set some nice undertones it might have, a rough translation being “A Girl’s Crime and Punishment”.
At this point, there’s really quite little I can speculate about, but I do wish for something more akin to the first game in the series, but we’ll have to wait and see, and I hope it doesn’t try to be too many things at once and just fall flat on its arse.
As for translating it, well, it’s a possibility and I’ll leave it at that.
See you next week, everyone.

Since this week had no noteworthy progress being made, I decided to do this instead of a regular update and splitting percentages.
The Future
Current Projects
Let’s talk about release dates. Note that these are only estimation based on pure calculations and logic and will not be final nor necessary truthful under any circumstances.
As I’ve stated before, I would’ve fancied this project finishing before end of the year. Now, I’m sure the editing and QC will finish before that, but I’m not so sure about the proofreading. It could be at 75% at most, but in all seriousness, that’s as far as it’s going to get, I’m afraid.
So, according to my estimations, Biman -1- will most likely release in mid to late January, most likely.
 
Then, Biman -2.5-.
As much as I’d want for the translation to finish in 2016, I do think such an event is rather unlikely.
If all goes well, the translation should finish around at the same time as Biman -1- releases.
As for the full release, probably mid-year or sooner, but that’s a really rough estimation, so don’t quote me on that.
 
Future Projects
As much as I’d like to start a new project right after Biman -2.5-, I’m most likely going take a short hiatus from translating, so be wary of that.
As for actual, I have a few in mind, but I’ll disclose information from those after these two will be out, in the same time as my hiatus.
 
My thoughts on Biman -4-
As you may or may not know, there’s a new Biman game on the horizon, and I’m quite excited for it.
It’ll be a game with a trap protagonist and it’s been a pretty long time since I played a Trap VN, but it’ll be a very nice change of pace from what I’ve been reading recently. As for the whole story, I’m more or less expecting something along the lines of the first Biman with some kind of S/M relationship.
As for the name, it does set some nice undertones it might have, a rough translation being “A Girl’s Crime and Punishment”.
At this point, there’s really quite little I can speculate about, but I do wish for something more akin to the first game in the series, but we’ll have to wait and see, and I hope it doesn’t try to be too many things at once and just fall flat on its arse.
As for translating it, well, it’s a possibility and I’ll leave it at that.
See you next week, everyone.

Since this week had no noteworthy progress being made, I decided to do this instead of a regular update and splitting percentages.
The Future
Current Projects
Let’s talk about release dates. Note that these are only estimation based on pure calculations and logic and will not be final nor necessary truthful under any circumstances.
As I’ve stated before, I would’ve fancied this project finishing before end of the year. Now, I’m sure the editing and QC will finish before that, but I’m not so sure about the proofreading. It could be at 75% at most, but in all seriousness, that’s as far as it’s going to get, I’m afraid.
So, according to my estimations, Biman -1- will most likely release in mid to late January, most likely.
 
Then, Biman -2.5-.
As much as I’d want for the translation to finish in 2016, I do think such an event is rather unlikely.
If all goes well, the translation should finish around at the same time as Biman -1- releases.
As for the full release, probably mid-year or sooner, but that’s a really rough estimation, so don’t quote me on that.
 
Future Projects
As much as I’d like to start a new project right after Biman -2.5-, I’m most likely going take a short hiatus from translating, so be wary of that.
As for actual, I have a few in mind, but I’ll disclose information from those after these two will be out, in the same time as my hiatus.
 
My thoughts on Biman -4-
As you may or may not know, there’s a new Biman game on the horizon, and I’m quite excited for it.
It’ll be a game with a trap protagonist and it’s been a pretty long time since I played a Trap VN, but it’ll be a very nice change of pace from what I’ve been reading recently. As for the whole story, I’m more or less expecting something along the lines of the first Biman with some kind of S/M relationship.
As for the name, it does set some nice undertones it might have, a rough translation being “A Girl’s Crime and Punishment”.
At this point, there’s really quite little I can speculate about, but I do wish for something more akin to the first game in the series, but we’ll have to wait and see, and I hope it doesn’t try to be too many things at once and just fall flat on its arse.
As for translating it, well, it’s a possibility and I’ll leave it at that.
See you next week, everyone.

Truly, I am sorry.
The last update was three weeks ago, and in that period of time, I’ve had a bunch of things happen to me, both good and bad.
  

First up, I was facing a little bit of an identity crisis after two, three years of nothing of the sort. Now, this was quite big, which did block my progress for a while, but I still got some done and posted an update that week. The after-shocks, however, did ripple for a bit longer.
Worry not, I’m all over it, and a better person due to it, but that did happen and did chip at my motivation to both translate and to make updates. I don’t have a habit of having these crises, but nonetheless, I hope I have your understanding. 

Secondly, the good.
I had my 18th birthday party celebrated by my most close and loved ones, as you may have seen from my Twitter, and that did somewhat chop off my attempts at translating and making updates.
Otherwise, it was quite nice. I saw some relatives I haven’t seen for a long time, as well as my closest friend. All in all, it was very nice.
 
Now that we’ve done with the reasons for my absence, let’s go to the project updates.

Biman -1-
 
As for BIman1, past these weeks, the progress’s been good and steady as always. There was a miscalculation on my part in the previous update, so I apologise for that.
Anyways, there has been a decent amount of progress nonetheless and everyone on the team has been quite busy, so fear not.


Biman -2.5-
 
On to a more pressing part of the projects.
As I stated above, I’m sad to say, but I was lacking the dedication, motivation, and the time to translate almost at all in these past weeks as well as school getting respectably harder as weeks passed on
Now, I have gotten some of my motivation back a bit, but the progress can be a bit slower than before, but I will keep translating, so do not worry, it’ll just be a slower phase for a while.
Thank you for understanding.

Truly, I am sorry.
The last update was three weeks ago, and in that period of time, I’ve had a bunch of things happen to me, both good and bad.
  

First up, I was facing a little bit of an identity crisis after two, three years of nothing of the sort. Now, this was quite big, which did block my progress for a while, but I still got some done and posted an update that week. The after-shocks, however, did ripple for a bit longer.
Worry not, I’m all over it, and a better person due to it, but that did happen and did chip at my motivation to both translate and to make updates. I don’t have a habit of having these crises, but nonetheless, I hope I have your understanding. 

Secondly, the good.
I had my 18th birthday party celebrated by my most close and loved ones, as you may have seen from my Twitter, and that did somewhat chop off my attempts at translating and making updates.
Otherwise, it was quite nice. I saw some relatives I haven’t seen for a long time, as well as my closest friend. All in all, it was very nice.
 
Now that we’ve done with the reasons for my absence, let’s go to the project updates.

Biman -1-
 
As for BIman1, past these weeks, the progress’s been good and steady as always. There was a miscalculation on my part in the previous update, so I apologise for that.
Anyways, there has been a decent amount of progress nonetheless and everyone on the team has been quite busy, so fear not.


Biman -2.5-
 
On to a more pressing part of the projects.
As I stated above, I’m sad to say, but I was lacking the dedication, motivation, and the time to translate almost at all in these past weeks as well as school getting respectably harder as weeks passed on
Now, I have gotten some of my motivation back a bit, but the progress can be a bit slower than before, but I will keep translating, so do not worry, it’ll just be a slower phase for a while.
Thank you for understanding.

Truly, I am sorry.
The last update was three weeks ago, and in that period of time, I’ve had a bunch of things happen to me, both good and bad.
  

First up, I was facing a little bit of an identity crisis after two, three years of nothing of the sort. Now, this was quite big, which did block my progress for a while, but I still got some done and posted an update that week. The after-shocks, however, did ripple for a bit longer.
Worry not, I’m all over it, and a better person due to it, but that did happen and did chip at my motivation to both translate and to make updates. I don’t have a habit of having these crises, but nonetheless, I hope I have your understanding. 

Secondly, the good.
I had my 18th birthday party celebrated by my most close and loved ones, as you may have seen from my Twitter, and that did somewhat chop off my attempts at translating and making updates.
Otherwise, it was quite nice. I saw some relatives I haven’t seen for a long time, as well as my closest friend. All in all, it was very nice.
 
Now that we’ve done with the reasons for my absence, let’s go to the project updates.

Biman -1-
 
As for BIman1, past these weeks, the progress’s been good and steady as always. There was a miscalculation on my part in the previous update, so I apologise for that.
Anyways, there has been a decent amount of progress nonetheless and everyone on the team has been quite busy, so fear not.


Biman -2.5-
 
On to a more pressing part of the projects.
As I stated above, I’m sad to say, but I was lacking the dedication, motivation, and the time to translate almost at all in these past weeks as well as school getting respectably harder as weeks passed on
Now, I have gotten some of my motivation back a bit, but the progress can be a bit slower than before, but I will keep translating, so do not worry, it’ll just be a slower phase for a while.
Thank you for understanding.

For the last two years or so, I've gotten repeated requests to unequivocally name my top VNs made up until the present, ignoring objectivity, my vndb votes, etc.  I've more or less just ignored most of those requests, because it is a pain in the ass to name a 'favorite' VN in the first place.  I've made lists of VNs I loved from various genres, and I've also made lists of VNs for a specific purpose.  However, I've avoided making a list like this one up until now, mostly because my 'favorites' switch out so often. 
Let's get this straight for those who are going to criticize my choices... these are the VNs I like the most, not the fifty best VNs of all time.  I make no pretense to preeminence of opinion in this case, because I'm also discarding all attempts at objectivity.  What a person likes is ultimately a matter of personal tastes, not a matter of logic.
Why did I make it fifty?  Because my number of VNs played, setting aside replays and nukige, is over six hundred already (with replays and nukige, it is closer to eight hundred...)... I'd be surprised if I didn't have this many VNs I considered wonderful. 
Keep in mind that these aren't in a particular order.
 
1.   Evolimit
2.   Dies Irae (the one by Light)
3.   Ikusa Megami Zero
4.   Nanairo Reincarnation
5.   Semiramis no Tenbin
6.   Bradyon Veda
7.   Vermilion Bind of Blood
8.   Hapymaher
9.   Tiny Dungeon (as a series)
10.  Bullet Butlers
11.  Chrono Belt
12.  Ayakashibito
13.  Otome ga Boku ni Koishiteiru 2
14.  Chusingura
15.  Draculius
16.  Otome ga Tsumugu, Koi no Canvas
17.  Silverio Vendetta
18.  Konata yori Kanata Made
19.  Grisaia series
20.  Akatsuki no Goei series
21.  Reminiscence series
22.  Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no
23.  Harumade, Kururu
24.  Soukou Akki Muramasa
25.  Tokyo Babel
26.  Tasogare no Sinsemilla
27.  Komorebi no Nostalgica
28.  Yurikago yori Tenshi Made
29.  Izuna Zanshinken
30.  Moshimo Ashita ga Harenaraba
31.  Kamikaze Explorers
32.  Devils Devel Concept
33.  Suzunone Seven
34.  Baldr Skydive series
35.  Baldr Sky Zero series
36.  Toppara Zashikiwarashi no Hanashi
37.  Tsuisou no Augment (series)
38.  Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier
39.  Shin Koihime Musou (series not including the original Koihime Musou)
40.  Soshite Hatsukoi wa Imouto ni Naru
41.  Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide
42.  Irotoridori no Sekai
43.  Noble Works
44.  Koisuru Otome to Shugo no Tate (series)
45.  Kitto, Sumiwataru Asairo yori mo
46.  Jingai Makyou
47.  Sakura, Sakimashita
48.  Abyss Homicide Club
49.  Re:Birth Colony Lost Azurite
50.  Owaru Sekai to Birthday
 
 

Visual Novel Translation Status (10/29/2016)
Sorry for very late here, and as for the title here I didn't mean hanami (And definitely not Sakura series here) but rather it refers to Japanese folktale which tell us that there's a corpse under the sakura tree. So I think I'll just using the party part from Corpse Party (Don't care much because it was in 3DS) and sakura part from rather unknown VN. In regard of other releases, I only interested to MYTH and Sorakumo (My shortened name, since the name was quite mouthful) for now if only the graphic for those two was better than the rest of this week release and most importantly was completed and didn't released on console (Root Letter was released on PS4 and Princess Knight was still one part here). By the way, even though I knew that released Sorakumo was had the H-Scenes was cut up, I still take an interest there if only because of the gameplay there.
Other
This week we had some surprise from Frontwing which they decided to add another Grisaia story there with the name 'Phantom Trigger'. The reaction, let's just said it was quite mixed up here although looks like there's more who looking forward to it though. Personally I think I'll just wait and see here, because the release format here was not so favorable for Frontwing here ie instead of full Grisaia game like Kajitsu, they decided to release it by volume which is quite unacceptable imo (Chapter based usually tends to gain some apathy to the game itself). And to close this on positive note, I think blue haired long haired male MC here was quite interesting to see, if only we usually only see that MC was had black and short hair (Including Yuuji from original Grisaia).
Speaking about Frontwing, this week we also had Corona Blossom volume 2 released. Well, I still did not play volume 1 yet, but maybe I will in the future. For more progresshere, Enigma will be on Steam ie launched at November 15th (By the way Conjueror also translated Miniature Garden too). And for lase but not least here, we had Libra progress advancing 15% more for Aoi's route (ie Aoi route was 30% translated) and finally they start translating 15% of Lycoris route there.
Sekai Project
As for them, it was only usual for them with Chrono Clock 43.98% translated, Tenshin Ranman (I always mistakenly it as Rahman) was at 61.54% translated, Maitetsu was at 47.71% translated, Bokukotsu was finally reaching 12% translated for the progress (12.01%), and Princess Knight 2 was at 81.3% translated. Other than that there's nothing special from their progress, although guess it's good that Chrono Clock finally show the progress a little bit after they stagnant for the last week.
Momory Dogma demo here was released, and while I didn't play it yet I think it could be good Visual Novel there looking from the production value (Opening and seiyuu). Although too bad that they decided to release more chapter in the future, so I couldn't said that I'm interested for now (But maybe I will the future). Oh, and they had one more progress there although it was not reported on Sekai tracker though. It was Hoshimemo retranslation project, and according to the translator (Akerou) they managed to retranslated halfway of it (50%) although I'm not sure though (He was gave the info back at October 5th).
Fan Translation
This week we had some other progress other than usual one, so I'll list those first here. First of all, we had Majikoi A was at finalizing in which they had 75 out out of 102 scripts was finished the finalizing. While I admit here that I didn't care about Majikoi A project there if only because of a fandisc only, and beside the original one was already satisfying enough to me, look forward to it if you Majikoi fan there. Second update here we finally had Sayooshi update after there's no update for long time there, and tight now it was at 38.24% translated. The third here we had To Heart 2 was 95 edited, and according to Ittaku he was only need to editing the rest of Manaka's route to complete the editing. For the last update for unusual one, we had Nocturnal Illusion Renewal was at 4.6% for the second editing there.
As for usual progress, first of all we'll had Bishoujo Mangekyou duology here. The first one here was at 95% edited and 90% QC-ed, while for 2.5 it was at 47% translated and 43% TLC-ed. In regard of Luna Translation, Tsui Yuri was at 97% translated and for Majokoi while the translation progress was slowing down there, at least there's still stable if we talk about the update here (The progress was 52.5% translated, 39.1% edited, and 19.2% TLC-ed). And for the last but certainly not the least, Loverable here showing good progress here and for more detail, it was at 22.99% (Or maybe I should call it 23%) translated, 4.74% edited, 6.93% TLC-ed, and they started the QC here which right now it was at 0.83%. That's all for fan translation section.
Mangagamer
As epected they give plenty of update this week, and hopefully they will go back to their schedule twice a week if we talk about update. I'll just list it first here.
Evangile W was at 66.2% translated Hapymaher was 55% translated and 36% edited Fata Morgana Fandisc was 35% translated Imouto Paradise 2 was fully translated and 46% edited Suki Suki both fully translated and edited Boukaku was 40% translated and 37% edited Maggot Bait was 3% translated Pygmalion was about starting the testing Kuroinu was 44% edited Da Capo 3 and Rance VI was currently in testing Sorcery Joker was 54% translated and halfway edited Nyuu Jene was finishing the testing Hadaka Shitsuji aka Naked Butler was 30% retranslated and 21% edited for the retranslation Dal Segno was at 79% for both of translating and editing progress Not much I could said here, other than good job. And for Himawari, they only said that it was on post testing process there. I just hope thagt i will be released soon here (Mangagamer said Soon™ though, so no much I could expect here I guess). For one more progress, they also already had Go Go Nippon 2016 ready for the pre-order and it will be released at November 11th although I could care less here about that for now.
Oh, and about the release they released MYTH. As for my first look, I think while it's some kind of doujin VN at least the character was look better than both of Higurashi and Umineko original design imo. The premise was apparently MC was dragged to the shadow world or something like that. Didn't knew much for now other than apparently it'll be full of question and the soundtrack was composed by some member from 07Expansion (The company between Higurashi and Umineko), so at least we could expect that the soundtrack will be fitting to the scenes imo just like in the past.
That;s all for this week VNTS Review and sorry for being very late this week. See you next week.

Visual Novel Translation Status (10/22/2016)
As for the title meaning, since the image header was 'Sakura Nova' and a nukige (Wild Romance) which going to the Steam from Zoo Company, I used Sakura Zoo from this week title (The meaning should be obvious here, and sorry for being very cliche here). Hopefully Winged Cloud didn't release Sakura Zoo for their next title there. About the releases, those two was pretty much bring the controversy there, but Wild Romance bring more because in this VN was actually nukige and bring it to the Steam mean that it'll cut the most important thing for nukige (Sex). Speaking about Steam, I didn't carein regard of Sakura Nova release at Steam. My comment here would be whatever.
As for this week, to be honest it was very bland here (There's very few progress here) and the releases was not something that I could said was looking forward too (I admit that the VN image header was quite nice too look though in regard of the girls there). Also too bad that this week we didn't see Mangagamer bring their updates like usual two weekly there (They bring another AJ Tilley VN Negligee though), although if they preparing for MYTH release right now maybe we could see some nice updates from them next week. So I'll just looking forward to next week then in regard of Mangagamer.
Since I talk about Mangagamer, might as well comment about Shuffle in regard of Navel which break up from Mangagamer in the past. While if I said that this is definitely smart move from Navel by releasing PS2 version to Steam, it's still inferior to the Essence+ which contained 5 more heroines while PS2 version only contain 2 more heroines only. Although I said nowadays it'll be cliche, it was my first VN here and I think it's still good for some beginner who want to play VN out there. For Corona Blossom Volume 2, it'll be released at 27 this month so at least Frontwing fulfill their promise in regard of release there. Didn't care too much about another Grisaia spin off (Melody) and Muv Luv news, so I couldn't comment in regard of those two much here.
As for Sekai, this week the progress for Chrono Clock was stagnant at 40% for a week ie not moving at all. As for Wagahigh, they finally fully translated there and they starting the editing and engine process there. As for usual progress, both of Maitetsu (44.75% translated) and Princess Knight Chapter 2 (69.61% translated) there had some nice progress, while for both of Tenshin Rahman (60.46% translated) and Bokukotsu (10.49% translated) was quite slow. Other than that, no much I could comment from Sekai there.
For fan translation, somehow I missed this but Sukiuso (I think I'll just called it Sukiuso there instead of Sukima) right now was at 38.7% translated. Speaking about missing something, I also miss that Luna Translation got one more project there and it was Ushieta translation, and what I could said for now good luck to Ushieta team. For more progress here, this week we only had usual one although it's still good though. For roundup here Bishoujo Mangekyou was 93% edited, 88% QC-ed, and 45% TLC-ed proofread; Bishoujo Mangekyou 2.5 was 44% translated and 35% edited TLC-ed; Majokoi was 52.3% translated, 37.1% edited, and 18% TLC-ed (The TLC may be regressing in the future); Loverable was 20.01% translated, 64.38% image edited, and 1.39% edited; and Tsui Yuri was almost completed in regard of translation (95% translated), 84% edited, and 15% QC-ed. That's all for the roundup here.
I think this is it for my VNTS Review this week, and see you next week.
PS - I wonder what happened to Kimisora project for a while because there was no update after it was posted. Turn out that the translator was preparing thesis and therefore it'll be stalled until December, so obviously there's no update here. Hope we could see the progress at January 2017 at least.
PPS - This morning, we had more progress from Chrono Clock after I give up to keep my eyes on, which is at 42.44% translated for the progress. Hopefully it'll be not stagnant anymore here.
PPPS - Thanks for the correction there, Arcadeotic.

This is a simple post putting forth my views on what the largest pitfalls are for a fantranslator, both in the immediate sense and the long-term.
Immediate
1. Making promises: Anyone who starts a translation is bound to do something stupid... such as setting a deadline or predicting how long it will take them to do something.  Even experienced translation groups trip and fall into this particular trap.  Nothing good comes of making promises, primarily because rl exists.
2.  Agreeing to translate/edit/proofread something you aren't interested in: This links to motivation.  To be blunt, no fantl will be able to finish work on a VN if they don't enjoy the original or at least prefer the genre it is in.  Fantls are a labor of love not a workplace with a set salary and a boss telling you to get back to work or he'll dock your pay.  Passion about the subject matter is necessary to get anywhere on a fantl project.
3.  Taking on a job you aren't qualified for: This mostly applies to beginner fantls... to be blunt, don't take on something you can't read easily.  If you can't read and fully comprehend the text of the VN you've agreed to translate, don't even make the attempt.
4.  Machine translations: Don't work.
5.  Looking up your name/reputation/etc: Some people get addicted to looking for positive reactions to their work.  Unfortunately, this also means that they stumble across the negative responses and can damage their confidence in ways that can destroy a project. 
Long-term
1. The choice to announce  a project or not: Many who translate VNs use community comments to help them build motivation.  However, choosing to involve the community in your project is a two-sided sword... it cuts both ways.  Negative comments, people asking you when it will come out, and complaints about the translation of any partial you put out can obliterate your motivation and cripple the project.
2.  Internal group chemistry and mechanics:  No matter how you look at it, the translator is the origin and star of any given project.  Without the translator it goes nowhere... but translators can't be the ones going around motivating the group to keep working.  It's inefficient and emotionally draining for the person in question, and it is the number one cause of project failure I've seen related to group chemistry, when the translator finally falls apart.  An editor's role only seems minor to a translator.  It is actually a job that can be equally frustrating to that of the raw translation, and a decent translator's secondary job often becomes tlcing and explaining his own work to the editor.  Thus, my advice to any fantranslator is find an editor you can talk to and get along with, or you'll regret it later.  My advice to editors is: Be patient.  Many translators really don't like going back over their own work, so just keep an eye out for potential signs that they are at their limit. 
3.  Burn-out: This can potentially happen to any fantl position.  It is also related to all the things above, since it is a state where all motivation is lost and the individual in question basically just drops out of the project.  Apathy toward the project and ignoring group members are fairly common signs of this.  Whether it is permanent or not depends on the individual, but it can take years to recover mentally and emotionally once you've reached this stage *speaking from personal experience*