Riku

The VN's worth is Miyabi's route. As long as it's translated, everything is fine. 😛
Like, seriously, the route is just so well structured and Miyabi is such a good character (+Liida!). I'm glad people will be able to play it!
Special mention to Shino who has one of the most memorable and romantic H-scene I've ever read. Still remember her dialogue to this day, 5 years later.
Now the question is: should I replay Miyabi route in English? 🤔

Hey, I'm back. I played Gikei, and considering I talk about Chusingura and Miburo in the previous posts, thought I might as well talk about it here. (well, say a few words, at least)
But let's do things in order.
First I played Maoten.
It was OK, but nothing amazing. Had some fun parts, but otherwhise pretty average. However, I quite liked the last route and thought the drama was rather well done, so I can say it was worth my time.
Next is Meikei no Lupercalia.
It's praised as the best VN of the year since its release, but let's be honest, I didn't really like it. I do understand why it's liked, and I think it's well written. It's just not my kind of thing. You basically follow madmen during the whole story, and even if the end is a happy one, it's an open one and everything that happened leaves a bitter taste. So, yeah, some people might love it, but it wasn't my thing.
Then comes WagaHime.
I loved Majikoi, so even knowing it would be different, I had to try. Liked it overall, but was quite unbalanced. Shaon, while not useless, is pretty bland and almost like air in some scenes. Honestly, aside from a few times were he was useful by himself, the rest of the time it's just thanks to Minjara that he actually does something. Anyway, lot of great and fun characters, just a shame that because there are so many and the VN is divised by country you can't have everyone together. Hope WagaHime S will have a route with everyone together.
Finally, Gikei.
Well, it's said everywhere, so let's say it frankly: it's far below Chusingura and Miburo, but still a good VN nonetheless. To put it simply, characters aren't as memorable as the other two, the infodumpind is FAR WORSE too (mainly because, unlike Chusingura where Suguha is alone, so nobody to explain, and Miburo where Ken is from the era, so no need, here there is either Roko or Shizuka who has to freaking explain what is each freaking place and each freaking person and each freaking everything). I didn't find the story really compelling, and while the fight animations are done even better than the other two, being Heian era, it's mostly with bows, so it was meh. Honestly, the only thing better than Chusingura and Miburo is the ending. Here we have a truly 100% happy and good ending with everyone together, and that's great. Still, it was a good VN, just that I will never reread it, unlike Chusingura that I plan to one day.

So, almost a month ago, I read the latest Youjitsu volume, and a bad habit of Kinugasa shows up in it, so I decided it was time to read Akatsuki no Goei and Reminiscence to see if the endings were really that bad.
Well, let's start with the conclusion: I didn't mind the way the routes ended, but didn't like the endings themselves. I'll come back to it later.
First, AkaGoei 1.
It was honestly pretty disappointing. Yeah Kaito is amazing, yeah the comedy is great, but that's it. Worse, the structure of the routes is terrible. Really short common route, then heroine route starts, but there is some common route chunks inserted in between creating some incoherences in the way the characters act. Also, the start of each heroine route is basically another common route considering that whatever stuff happens without leading to anything.
Anyway, the only thing AkaGoei 1 has for it is the comedy. The rest is just some patchwork making it looks like a VN.
 
Next, AkaGoei 2.
Well, it's a FD, so nothing much to say about the after stories (or the fact that Reika totally got the short end of the stick). Kaito's past was interesting and make you understand why he's so strong, so it was pretty good.
 
AkaGoei 3.
The first half is amazing. The rest not as much. Kaito gets to shine more this time, but then come another problem I have with the trilogy: we never get to see Kaito being serious. Or rather, he does get serious, but never can show his 100% (either he's tired, or injured, etc) Kaito is so strong that Kinugasa had to do that to have some sort of tension, which is a shame. Then back to my other problem: not having either an open ending or harem ending. Like I said above, I didn't mind the way the routes ended, but my problem is that considering canon stuff happening in the series, there are 2 girls who literally can't live without Kaito, and arguably 3 others who most likely will never find another man beside him. So even if not a harem ending, an open one with everyone would be better. (though, considering Anzu is only in the Forbidden Area part of the story, it'd be difficult. At least she's with Kaito in all the Forbidden Area endings).
Anyway, even that aside, Kaito's awesomeness and the comedy were totally worth the time I invested in the trilogy. Special mention to Son, and his antics with Kaito. More stories should make you love the male characters like that, rather that just using the heroines.
 
Now we go 150 years in the future with Reminiscence.
It's even more of a disappointment than AkaGoei. I think the main reason is because I played them almost successively. Hidetaka is a good MC, but when compared to Kaito (who I was with for 3 VNs just before), he just pales in comparison... Also, I wasn't particularly fan of all the negotiation stuff (the cases were so obvious). Another thing I didn't like was the fact it's the future of AkaGoei. Yeah, it's just an alternate future, but still. Even more so considering the crumbs we learn (and that CG in Kyouichi's POV). Still, it wasn't boring and I did went through all the routes. Special mention to Aki's, I guess. In a way, the whole story is all about her and Hidetaka, so once you've done her path, the way you see the other routes is different.
Unfortunately, I just can't care about Re:Collect, so I'll stop here.
 
TL;DR: AkaGoei Trilogy was great and worth my time. Reminiscence wasn't bad, but too long far what it was, so I feel like I wasted a little of my time.

So, almost a month ago, I read the latest Youjitsu volume, and a bad habit of Kinugasa shows up in it, so I decided it was time to read Akatsuki no Goei and Reminiscence to see if the endings were really that bad.
Well, let's start with the conclusion: I didn't mind the way the routes ended, but didn't like the endings themselves. I'll come back to it later.
First, AkaGoei 1.
It was honestly pretty disappointing. Yeah Kaito is amazing, yeah the comedy is great, but that's it. Worse, the structure of the routes is terrible. Really short common route, then heroine route starts, but there is some common route chunks inserted in between creating some incoherences in the way the characters act. Also, the start of each heroine route is basically another common route considering that whatever stuff happens without leading to anything.
Anyway, the only thing AkaGoei 1 has for it is the comedy. The rest is just some patchwork making it looks like a VN.
 
Next, AkaGoei 2.
Well, it's a FD, so nothing much to say about the after stories (or the fact that Reika totally got the short end of the stick). Kaito's past was interesting and make you understand why he's so strong, so it was pretty good.
 
AkaGoei 3.
The first half is amazing. The rest not as much. Kaito gets to shine more this time, but then come another problem I have with the trilogy: we never get to see Kaito being serious. Or rather, he does get serious, but never can show his 100% (either he's tired, or injured, etc) Kaito is so strong that Kinugasa had to do that to have some sort of tension, which is a shame. Then back to my other problem: not having either an open ending or harem ending. Like I said above, I didn't mind the way the routes ended, but my problem is that considering canon stuff happening in the series, there are 2 girls who literally can't live without Kaito, and arguably 3 others who most likely will never find another man beside him. So even if not a harem ending, an open one with everyone would be better. (though, considering Anzu is only in the Forbidden Area part of the story, it'd be difficult. At least she's with Kaito in all the Forbidden Area endings).
Anyway, even that aside, Kaito's awesomeness and the comedy were totally worth the time I invested in the trilogy. Special mention to Son, and his antics with Kaito. More stories should make you love the male characters like that, rather that just using the heroines.
 
Now we go 150 years in the future with Reminiscence.
It's even more of a disappointment than AkaGoei. I think the main reason is because I played them almost successively. Hidetaka is a good MC, but when compared to Kaito (who I was with for 3 VNs just before), he just pales in comparison... Also, I wasn't particularly fan of all the negotiation stuff (the cases were so obvious). Another thing I didn't like was the fact it's the future of AkaGoei. Yeah, it's just an alternate future, but still. Even more so considering the crumbs we learn (and that CG in Kyouichi's POV). Still, it wasn't boring and I did went through all the routes. Special mention to Aki's, I guess. In a way, the whole story is all about her and Hidetaka, so once you've done her path, the way you see the other routes is different.
Unfortunately, I just can't care about Re:Collect, so I'll stop here.
 
TL;DR: AkaGoei Trilogy was great and worth my time. Reminiscence wasn't bad, but too long far what it was, so I feel like I wasted a little of my time.

It was heavily revised, but not entirely retranslated. It's far better than the PSP version, but it still has problems. Mainly the fact that Estelle is dumber in English.
Anyway, it's only FC that has this problem, and after that the localization is great. Just that Estelle will suddenly become smarter in SC. (which is, actually, what many people like about English Estelle.)
 

Didn't play a VN in months, and what's better than restarting with the monster that is ChuSinGura 46+1? lol
Anyway, it was great and my opinion doesn't really differ from most people. Chapters 1 and 2 are amazing, 3 is great, 4 is good and 5 is meh until it finally picks up (which was around the end for me). Aside from chapter 5 where I stopped playing here and there because it was meh, I played the other four without stopping (well, not literally, but you get it)
As for the heroines, I'm really influenced by the story, so of course I liked Kuranosuke, Yasubei and Chikara more than Emoshichi. Quite liked Shinpachi too, so hyped for her route in Bushi no Kodou. (as well as her own FD)
On the more technical side, I was really surprised by how easy it was to read. Of course, it has some difficult old stuff here and there, but overall it was pretty easy and thanks to that it only took me 75 hours to read, which I find rather honorable considering the average Japanese reader is around 50 hours.
 
Now, time to read Bushi no Kodou.

Kanji puns.
Just for that, kanji are great. The possibilities are endless, and it's amazing.

Welp, wasn't planning to at first, but kinda wanted to write something to sort my thoughts, so decided to write about what I read in the past year. Main problem is most are from months ago and only a few are recent, so will just write a line or two. (thank god I mostly read LNs this past year, so it'll be quick)
Hikoukigumo no Mukougawa: Eiri's route was great, and I remember being greatly satisfied by her ending.
Sengoku † Koihime ~Otome Kenran ☆ Sengoku Emaki~: Took me two whole weeks to read, iirc. Was totally worth it.
Heroine wa Tomodachi Desu ka? Koibito Desu ka? Soretomo Tomefure Desu ka?: That one was kinda weird in the sense that it was actually pretty great (character interactions, etc) considering the setting. Unfortunately I hated the way it ended. Everything was great, then sudden all the girls became sluts wanting to be the MC's slave. So it went from great moments and humor to characters only thinking about sex and nothing else. Was really disappointed as until it went in that direction it was really good.
Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas: Honestly I don't remember much. Read it to taste the water with trap MCs, but found it pretty average.
Ou no Mimi ni wa Todokanai!: Can be summed up in one word: AXL. Not amazing, but never boring and pretty entertaining like all their works.
Houkago no Futekikakusha: Man, I hated this one. I tried liking it because it's from Takehaya, but couldn't. Too many things I couldn't agree with. I could understand some people liking it, but overall I would never recommend it to anyone.
Ryakudatsusha no In'en + Ryuukishi Bloody † Saga: First one is despair, and second one is MC obtaining his happiness. Wasn't amazing or anything, but if you played the prequel seeing the MC becoming happy is really nice.
Evolimit: I've been wanting to play this one for a loooong time because of Clephas, and I have to say I was pretty disappointed. It's good, yeah, I can't deny that and I, myself, thought it was good. Just that I was pretty much into Shizuku from the start, so most of the time was just me wanting to be done with the other routes, and when I actually got to it it was different from what I expected. I can't count the number of times I let the VN run in the background for hours while doing something else instead. So basically, even if I think it was good, I couldn't get invested emotionally so it ended up being kinda meh, I guess.
Astraythem: And here come the reason of this post. Let's get this out of the way first, it has a lot of flaws, plot holes and things I really can't agree with. But in the end, it comes out on top of all the ones above to me. Why? Because I was really invested emotionally in this one. The fact that this basically is a whole VN dedicated to a single heroine (who is really great) helped with that. I like MC devoted to a single heroine, and this one take it to another level.「姉さんに恋をして、姉さんも恋をして、姉さんと恋をした」
Unfortunately, like I said at first, it has flaws and things I really couldn't agree with, and some were explained in the very first post of this thread, so I didn't give it that high of a rating, but in the end I still really liked it and I'll probably remember about it for a while. (don't think I'll ever reread it, though. Can't really say it have a good replay value)
While I'm here, to answer the question in the post 5 years ago (though I guess @Funnerific forgot since then, but oh well):
 
Anyway, what I wanted to say is, while I honestly think Evolimit's plot was better, in the end I prefered Astraythem. No matter how "good" something is, if you can't get invested in it, something "less good" might actually be better, no matter how flawed it is. In the end, everything comes down to the reader's feelings.

Tears to Tiara I and II. Only played II, though, so would rather recommend that one. (can be played without the I)

Well, at first it was used for "light" novels (so basically short novels with a small format), but with time it changed to "novel with illustrations with story similar to mangas".

I only played Bethly's route, could never get back to it again. A single route is so complete and long that you just don't have the motivation to do another one after that.

I don't know, they skipped LOT of stuff, even an entire volume, so wouldn't really say it's a good adaptation, but it's not bad either.
The reason the LN is more hyped is because it's a first person novel, so you're in Hikigaya's head, and it's awesome because his thoughts are hilarious.

Man, if you guys knew how deep Maou Gakuin actually is. But you won't, because the anime will never adapt enough content.

Ley Line is pretty easy, but it has a good plot and you wouldn't like to miss things, so just in case start with Clover Days, which is a charage, to see how you hold out, then read Ley Line.

Well, my basic stance is that it's impossible to have a perfect adaptation, but you can have a good one depending on what's adapted and how.
Light Novels, as "light" as they are, are "novels" in the end. And what most of novels are made from? Narration. And you can't get narration across in anime.
Depending on the novel and the author, narration is far more important than others. For example, narration is pretty important in Hyakuren with all the explanations.
If you know Infinite Dendrogram, this novel has some amazingly well written info dumps in narration making the story so amazing, and everything will be lost in the anime adaptation coming up in a few months. Still, the novel having really good action scenes, anime will be liked, just that people won't know anything about its awesome world building you can only see in the narration.
Take another well known example about narration with SAO. People say Kirito is some emotioneless shit, but in fact, LN being 1st POV you see that Kirito isn't as emotioneless as people say. Also, being mostly action (and having a not rushed adaptation to add to that) made it the popular anime it became. (they still skipped content though, like in the second part in Alfheim Online)
Another one, let's take Konosuba. Most of Konosuba's comedy is in the dialogues and situations so it ended well. But Konosuba, like SAO, is a 1st POV narration, and having Scumzuma's (lol) thoughts is awesome, and impossible to reproduce in anime.
So yeah, once you remove the narration, you lose a great deal from the original in the first place. Then you also have rushed adaptations that remove even more things by skipping content. (for example, Hyakuren adapts 7/8 volumes in 12 episodes with anime original ending. 7/8 freaking volumes in ONLY 12 episodes. Shows you how rushed that was)
So yeah, in the end I would say that the best animes adaptating LNs are comedic ones, and action packed ones. Of course others can be good if the anime isn't rushed and carefully done, but in the end you'll always lose all the informations contened in the narration.
It's not something new anyway, just looking at novels and movies (for example Harry Potter, skipping contents in the 4th or its horrendous 6th movie) shows you that. Just that in LN to anime cases, it's worse because they don't get as much care and are mostly just made to promote the series. That and, while there are many LNs I love, I do agree that there are many shitty trash LNs too, and it doesn't help to have them adapted to anime too.
Hmm... I'm not a great writter when it comes to get what I think across, so I hope you understood what I mean. ^^'

For Hyakuren: That's what happens when something is adapted badly and rushed. If you ever have the chance, try the LN. I won't say the LN is amazing with stellar characters, but most of the stuff people hold against it in the anime aren't present in the LN. (like you clearly see the author made his researches and all with everything explained carefully, answering most of the complaints people have against the anime)
For Danmachi: I agree the first 5 volumes are rather average. But after that it gets better and better, and more mature to accompany Bell's growth.
Also, his Argonaut skill isn't "you'll always win if you really want to", but the ability to charge his force in one attack. It's kinda OP, but really, from what I heard from people reading Sword Oratoria (I don't) many people have far stronger skills than that.