ChaosRaven

Evenicle 2 is also about to be released soon. And no VN/RPG hybrid suggestion with Eushully classic Kamidori Alchemy Meister of course and Kami no Rhapsody just got recently translated. And then there are the old Xuse classics The Spirit of Eternity Sword 1 & 2. There's also one title of the Venus Blood series translated: Frontier. Soon to be followed by Hypno. But those are apparently very tentacle rapy, so those are more for peole with such fetish interests. There's also another series, but I can't remember the name at the moment. Rapey protag minus the tentacles. - a bit like Rance but not as popular.

As much as I like vampire VN's, guro is a bit too much for me.

Finished some visual novels, so it's time for some short mini reviews. Overall rating: 7.5/10 Since the series is really shaping up to get something bigger, I'll rate the first episodes up to 7.5 as well. Overall rating. 8/10 (Could get even higher or lower when the second part gets released) Overall rating: 6.5/10 Regarding VN's I'm currently reading, I've just started with Flowers part 3, which I'm liking quite a bit so far. I'm also almost finished with Mako's route in Senren * Banka. Didn't read that much lately though, since her route is pretty dull even if I like the character. Furthermore, I'll probably drop Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception, since it does focus too much on clown characters like Dekoponpo or Maroro, the character cast got worse and worse with crap characters like Nosuri, Atuy, or the two royal sex slaves and it's just dreadful boring with literally no (serious) plot to speak of.

Yes, it's certainly a different type of visual novel with its main focus on romance. Still, I really hope KnS3 will be finally released this year and translated to English as well. It's been about 5 years since the last one and nobody else makes VN's with that unique style and quality.

The previous two titles didn't exactly blow me away, but they did have a certain charme. I'll certainly read this one, because it focuses on my favorite characters. At last, Yuzuriha gets her romance arc now. I also hope, they improved the quality of the mystery plot for a change and toned down the meaningless choices a bit. But we'll see...

Well, if they really left some H-CG's in the data archives of the game, they can only blame themselves this time. They should know the routine by now and how critical Steam are in that regard and should have done a final check before releasing it. Checking the images is certainly the easiest thing among all data sources. That said, they are still human and make mistakes like all of us. So they probably just missed the CG's somehow - shit happens. The adult patch probably just adds copies of it, instead of using the left-over images. I hope they can clear up the misunderstanding fast now and think about ways to ensure that it doesn't happen again. It's just annoying and additional work for both sides.

Finally some insights of what has happened. Since adult patches for VN's are fairly common, I wonder how they got the idea that this one in particular was just activating hidden content. I assume that MangaGamer is telling the truth here, so I guess a hater probably claimed that he can prove that the title has hidden adult content in its files and Valve fell for it. But well, at least there's some communication going on again, so hopefully the case can be clarified now.

Hm, seems like I could at least find some info why Germany is a special case here: Apparently the age protection of Steam isn't good enough to ensure that only adults get access to titles with explicit content. I think I heard that some time before already, but it seems like they are getting serious now. I checked all titles I own on Steam and it seems only Acting Lessons and Being A Dik are banned so far, although I can still access them in my library. However, the vast majority of the titles I own on Steam are all ages, even if many of them have optional adult patches. Evenicle is banned as well, even if I don't own that. The only titles left with adult content in my library are Depraved Awakening, Kara no Shoujo and the Funbag Fantasy series. I expect those to be banned soon as well. Fortunately, they at least don't seem to care about the adult patches. That said, apparently the age protection is good enough for USK 18 titles like The Witcher 3 - surely there's no disturbing content to be found there that might be inappropriate for kids. I wonder... *sigh* Still, at least there's some logic behind what they are banning, which can't exactly said for random bans like the one of Bokuten in all countries.

The ban is quite odd, considering all the H-content was removed and it was so long on Steam already. I assume it was reported by some VN haters and Valve banned it as a reaction. However, I don't really get why the same doesn't happen to other titles with a lot more questionable content. Evenicle 2 in particular seems to have some pretty rough scenes and it was actually banned in Germany some time ago at least. It's hard to believe that such a title was spared from attacks. Popular titles like Nekopara also seem to be immune to such attacks, even if their characters look very young. I actually wouldn't be surprised if there's an automatism in play, that bans a title if the number of malicious reports exceeds a certain percentage of its owners. That would explain why the actual publishers are not explicitly informed about the ban by a Steam employee, and also why popular titles seem to be almost immune against such bans. So the victims would be mostly niche VN titles with few sales. I'm still not sure why some titles are only banned in some regions, while others get banned everywhere. On the other hand, since Germany forced green blood into Command & Conquer more than 20 years ago, I suppose no other country takes them serious anymore concerning censoring stuff. Though, it could have been also when we started censoring Harry Potter movies, that we just lost all credibility.

I finally finished Ouka Sabaki (aka Master Magistrate) and it was a very nice read overall. The combination of a murder mystery with a past Japan Bakumatsu setting, staring the Shinsengumi, was certainly quite unique. It was also the first time I've played a VN with Phoenix Wright style court gameplay. That said, I'm not sure if the gameplay really worked in favor of the VN or against it. While it was certainly interesting, I had the feeling that its somewhat comical execution with the whole 'talking down' and 'showdown' stuff, lessened the dramatic impact of the story a bit. Though that might be just personal preference. The plot structure of the VN reminded me a bit of Sakura no Mori † Dreamers. There's a very long common route with several connected cases and the heroine routes are more or less just tagged on. The plot itself was actually pretty good. There are four major cases, although the first one could be considered more a tutorial case to learn the gameplay mechanics. What was definitively impressive was how interconnected the cases were. Some events I first thought were relevant for a former case, actually got important in a later case. And some later cases were a direct consequence of the outcome or events of the former cases. That was definitely better as in Sakura no Mori † Dreamers, where the cases had a bit too much of a 'monster of the week' pattern. Another thing I really liked was the rather large cast of well-made side characters. Almost every case introduced new characters and existing characters could play a different role in the new cases. I was particularly impressed about the voice acting. Not only were all and not just the main characters voiced, the overall quality of it was also pretty good, even the male characters. I'm actually a bit curious about the voice acting royalties of this VN. That said, not everying was gold. While the character sprites were quite decent for the most part, I can't really say the same for the backgrounds. There weren't too much and most of them looked a bit bland. Ironically, that actually helped to find certain key items in the investigation scenes. XD The CG's were also a bit of a hit and miss. The black and white sketch CG's didn't really fit to the overly bright and colorful backgrounds, and I would have vastly preferred less but fully colored ones. The audio tracks also felt a bit sparse and repetitive. This combined with the bland backgrounds and the focus on the court gameplay made the VN frequently feel a bit dry. In general, the VN felt a bit too light for a murder mystery. Though, on a positive note that also means that I'd recommend this VN to people who don't want a full gloom and doom murder mystery like Kara no Shoujo. But for me personally Sakura no Mori had a stronger emotional impact even if the story of Master Magistrate was objectively better. The routes also felt a bit weaker here, the ones of Sakura no Mori at least had a final epilogue case. The gameplay nature of this VN also made the matter of prove a bit difficult in some cases. If there's definitive prove to convict a suspect, it can make the case too easy to solve. But if almost everything is guess-work it can be pretty hard to prove. I think the first three major cases had a good balance, but the last one? Sorry, I think if the culprit wouldn't have rewarded every correct guess with a willing confession, a conviction would have been almost impossible without further investigation. Nevertheless, most conclusions and actions felt logical, there was only one thing I simply didn't understand: Nevertheless, with the exception of the short and tagged on wannabe routes, I enjoyed the VN quite a bit. Heroine ranking: Iroha > Rimu = Sakura > Koume >> Shino Final rating: 7.5/10 I think I enjoyed it as much as Sakura no Mori † Dreamers, so I decided to give it the same rating. Both had rather different strengths and weaknesses though, so the experience itself was different.

I didn't want to deal with too many categories, so I've put nakige under the moege umbrella as the more drama-heavy branch of it. And since the major sub-studios of Visual Arts are either moege or nakige, it was the most fitting place for it. Key is admittedly a bit of an edge case, because I'd consider at least Rewrite and Angel Beats as story VN's. But the majority of their titles are still what they are famous for: Nakiges. So even if Key would be separate form Visual Arts, I'd have probably included them in the moege section as well. BTW, it wouldn't have been necessary to quote the whole text wall again. Just the relevant part, like Plk_Lesiak did, would have been enough. Oh, the never ending story about the mysterious Tsukihime remake, they apparently want to release some day in the far future. Well, I believe it if I see it.

Guess I will also try some crystal balling... Overall, I expect Japan to stay the dominant force for visual novels with 2D art, while I expect the west to take the lead for visual novels with 3D render art. I think the latter is already the case with DrPinkCake (Being a DIK, Acting Lessons) and PhylliGames (Depraved Awakening, upcoming City of Broken Dreamers) probably being the most successful 3D VN producers on Steam. I don't really count Japanese Illusion in that category, since they use real time 3D engines and their titles barely qualify as VN. Anyway, I think visual novels will stay a niche, but a stable one with several established producers and a sleeper hit from a no-name studio from time to time. The most successful company's will be the ones that manage to establish a solid fan base around their franchises, extending the pure VN sales to merchandising articles, animes and mobile & game spin-offs. The most successful titles will also not be pure VN's, but JRPG and gacha game hybrids. Bigger companies with several franchises and sub-studios that can afford a few failures are obviously favored. Personal prediction of which companies will stand out here the most: Moege: Visual Arts: With studios like Key, Saga Planets and tone work's under their belt, they certainly won't go down easily. Nexton: They have two successful franchises with BaseSon's Koihime series & Azarashi Soft's Amakano series, and they also have a reasonable successful nukige studio with Liquid. Yuzusoft: Although they are still an independent studio, they seem to do a lot of things right for quite some time now. They are highly popular in Japan and on the best way to get a similar status in the west. If they continue like that, I expect them to grow and take over other studios sooner or later. Nukige: Lilith: They are pretty good at milking the Taimanin cow with their Battle Arena game (no idea how they got that on Steam), tons of merchandising articles and H-animes. And their unique Kagami style adult art is more or less out of competition. Atelier Kaguya: They have two of the most popular nukige studios with Bare & Bunny & HonkeyTonk Pumpkin. One excels in static art and the other in animation. And the third studio CheshireCat is also slowly getting more popular. Although they aren't big in merchandising yet, I see them at a strong technological advantage with top artists in static and animated art. (Choco Chip & Yoppy) Gameplay: Alice-Soft: They have a strong foothold both in Japan and the west with their gameplay titles, and an iconic franchise with Rance. They also produce some rather high quality milf nukiges from time to time, so they aren't just a one-trick pony. Eushully: Although the ratings of their games seem to have declined in recent years, I still see them in a stable position. Maybe because they still don't give the slightest fuck about the west. Apparently they can afford it - their titles are still top sellers in Japan. Besides full JRPG's their only serious contender seems to be AliceSoft anyway. Story: Type-Moon: Ha ha, I know... wouldn't it be nice if the studio that probably has more money than the rest of the bunch together, would actually create a new VN again? Innocent Grey: Would I like to write... but unfortunately, I just can't see them as a save and future proof studio. But seriously, after Light went down (or not?!), I don't even consider Nitroplus a save contender anymore. Pure story VN's are far too hit & miss to be a save investment. Hybrids are the way to go now and probably also in the future. Moege/Nukige/Gameplay with 'some' story is way safer.

This goes way back to Cartagra. He can be considered an insider... maybe not joke, but a humorous acquaintance. Besides that...

Isn't Light supposed to have gone down with their owner Greenwood? They sound pretty lively and full of plans for a dead company. Though the Silverio series certainly sounds interesting.

Also looking forward to Liar-Soft's Jeanne. I'm admittedly a bit worried about the low VNDB rating, but the vote count is rather low and the EGS rating apparently a lot higher, so I'm still optimistic here. Not sure what to expect from the MuvLuv spinoffs. I think I'll need more info and maybe a review about them before I can make a decision about them. The other stuff doesn't seem particular interesting, though I guess there's more to come. I wonder when MangaGamer will announce their annual Rance title this year...

The adult DLC is free btw.

Hm, maybe I'm misreading things, but according to the Eustia Progress Tracker the translation is 100% finished. Isn't that actually a great thing?

The time loop is certainly my least favorite plot type. I think only Stein's Gate did it right, because the whole story was pretty much about time travel theory. But most others just use it as a cheap way to unnecessarily stretch the length of their story by reusing plot arcs, and that gets repetitive very soon. Most VN's are already slow - no reason to make it even worse and drag them down to snail pacing by repeating stuff over and over again. That's not to say that I'd dislike all titles with time loop, some are actually quite decent, but most of them would be better without it.

I'm currently playing it as well. I heard it's similar to the Phoenix Wrigth series, so maybe you can have a look at those. Never read them myself though, but they seem pretty popular. Danganronpa series might also fit the bill, but I didn't play those either yet. But they are also pretty popular. I think both series are also available on Steam. Kara no Shoujo series also has investigations. Though none of those have a shogunate era setting.

Nothing official, but there's a fan translation project for Pretty x Cation:

No kidding here, when you arrive in the capital, pretty much the whole plot is thrown overboard and replaced with tons of random slice of life scenes of questionable quality. I wonder if it's really worth finishing at all, or if it wouldn't just be better to skip straight to Mask of Truth that has all the good stuff. BTW, I think the review would have been also readable with normal font size.

Well, currently it has a lower rating on VNDB than Sankai Ou no Yubiwa, and that's saying something.

Your system settings sound right and at least one of the titles seems to work. But just looking at the super fancy file path in the error message, that first thing I'd try would be to install it directly in C:\Hajimete and not use any fancy special characters or spaces in the file path. I remember that Baku Ane pretty much refused to run any other way.