ChaosRaven

So, it's again that time of the year when Getchu's Bishoujo Game Awards 2019 are out and the glorious winner is: Uh... Nukige Mitai na Shima ni Sunderu Watashi wa Dou Surya Ii Desu ka? 2 (aka Nukitashi 2). Congratulations to Qruppo for it! It follows a list of the twenty best VN's of the contest: 1.) Nukitashi2 by Qruppo (Also best Music) So this title is supposed to be super good, eh? Doesn't really look like it. 2.) Sakura, Moyu. -As the Night's, Reincarnation- by Favorite (Also best Scenario and Character with Kuro) This reminds me that I'm still waiting for the translations of Hoshimem -Eternal Heart- and Irohika. When will we get those? 3.) Tsuki no Kanata de Aimashou by Tone Work's I'm kinda interested in that one since it has some adult heroines for a change. I wonder if this will also picked up for translation by this hyper-fanboy Tsurezure Scans translation group. 4.) Cafe Stella to Shinigami no Chou by Yuzusoft (Also best Graphics and Movies) What, no first place this year for Yuzusoft? Shame on them! Must surely be a terrible title then. 5.) 9 -Nine- Haruiro Harukoi Harunokaze by Palette Jay, I like the 9 - Nine series and can't wait for the title with my favorite heroine - Empress. 6.) Nee-chan no Susume ~Onee-chan no Itazura Seiseikatsu~ by Atelier Kaguya Bare & Bunny NSFW Impressive, Atelier Kaguya got two titles into the top ten. And both from team Bare & Bunny - no love for their rivals HonkyTonk Pumpkin. 7.) MUSICUS! by Overdrive Whu, what?! Overdrive got a title into the top ten? Shouldn't they be dead by now? Though that was supposed their last title I think. Maybe they reconsider if sales are good. 8.) Motto! Haramase! Honoo no Oppai Chou Ero ♥ Appli Gakuen! by Milk Factory NSFW (Also best Ero) I guess it's the same here like with their previous titles - good art but far too many heroines and poor story even for nukige standards. Atelier Kaguya should have gotten the Ero title. 9.) Mamagoto ~Mama to Naisho no Ecchi Shimasho~ by Atelier Kaguya Bare & Bunny NSFW I actually liked this one a bit more than the higher ranked Nee-chan no Susume, but both were good. 10.) Kin'iro Loveriche -Golden Time- by Saga Planets So, since we're getting Kin'iro Loveriche, I guess this one is a possibility too now. Well, we'll see how the the first one turns out. 11.) Raillore no Ryakudatsusha by 3rdEye I really don't understand why 3rdEye is so obsessed with their double protagonists. Sorcery Jokers would have been much better if they'd left the dork at home. 12.) Aonatsu Line by Giga Looks pretty generic to be honest. What's up with Team Baldrhead? 13.) Evenicle 2 by Alice Soft I guess MangaGamer will have an interest in that considering the first one sold so well. But they've still Rance titles to translate, so this will probably have to wait. 14.) Haha Ranman by Alice Soft This doesn't seem to be as popular as their other Milf titles - I wonder why. Art looks a bit odd, but certainly not bad. 15.) Kimagure Temptation by Silky's Plus Wasabi Hmm, Nanairo Reincarnation was already a bit of a so so experience with lights and shadows and this is much lower rated. 16.) Study § Steady by Marmalade Not sure what to think about this one. Seems a bit bland. 17.) pieces / Wataridori no Somnium by Whirlpool So that's from the company that made the Neko-nin exHeart from Sekai Project? Didn't read that, but the VNDB rating wasn't particularly flattering. This seems to be a lot better though. 18.) Ryuusei World Actor by Heliodor Never heard of that company before, but apparently it's new and this is their first title. Plot sounds interesting with urban crime mystery and stuff, but I'm not sure about the quality of it. 19.) Ren'ai, Karichaimashita by Asa Project So this is from the makers of Sankaku Ren'ai: Love Triangle Trouble! we got from NekoNyan? That was rated rather average, so I'm not conviced about that one either. 20.) Waka-sama no Zasuru Sekai by Minato Carnival I'm actually a bit surprised that this is tagged as a comedy title in VNDB, because the images look more like a dark fantasy setting - and I think I wish it was. And oh yeah, the list of best selling titles is here: Getchu's sales ranking 2019. Yuzusoft might not have won the Bishoujo Game award, but they can at least take comfort in being the bestseller again. Clochette and August are both in the top five best sellers as well, but surprisingly neither of their title made in into the Bishoujo Game award list.

Yes, this will probably take a while, but 'Being a DIK - Season 1', the successor to 'Acting Lessons', will be released next week and I'll probably check that out as well. I guess it won't be too long anyway, so it should be easy to squish inbetween the other VN's I'm currently reading.

Actually, your conversation with @adamstan a while ago inspired me to play those two titles.

Out of curiosity I've also tried two of those new western render VN's, and for the most part I was positively surprised. Apparently Acting Lessons and Depraved Awakening are the ones that stand out the most at the moment and so I picked those. The former goes more into slice of life and drama territory, while the latter is pretty much a nukige. Depraved Awakening: Overall, I found the quality of the two titles comparable, although Depraved Awakening impressed me a bit more with its erotic thriller approach. H-heavy titles with a solid plot are pretty rare and Depraved Awakening certainly tried to give you an interesting story to keep you engaged. You're playing a detective trying to solve a murder case in a film noir setting. There aren't a lot of Japanese VN's like that. The Innocent Grey titles have a similar setting but are way more serious and plot focused with less H-content. Except Cartagra maybe which was also quite H-heavy. The closest thing are probably the mystery titles of Astronauts: Sirius which have a strong western touch and a lot of H-content. Writing was a bit crude for my taste, but I liked the atmosphere and the fast pacing. It also had a decent soundtrack, but almost no sound effects and no voices. Acting Lessons: I think the writing of Acting Lessons was a bit better (except for the H-scenes) but I had the impression that it struggled a bit with what it wanted to be. Some plot developments towards the end were a bit... odd to put it mildly. It was also bit 'slow on the uptake' so to speak. I mean, if the VN asks me twenty times if I prefer Melissa over Megan and I'm answering "HELL, YES!!!" and the conclusion of the VN is 'Deeply in love with Megan, but plays around with Melissa', then I really don't know what to say anymore. I think the plot arc with your buddy was the most consistent one, even if I found some of his escapades a bit too over the top lol. The actual acting lessons and 'Improv' in particular was a bit boring for my taste, but I liked when they were just hanging out with each other. H-scenes were poorly written with almost no text in them which is a serious issue considering it had quite a lot of them. Soundtrack could have been better and just like Depraved Awakening, it had spare sound effects and no voices. Overall, I think if you want slice of life and drama and don't care too much about the style, then you probably find a lot more and better stuff amongst Japanese VN's. 3D versus 2D: Nevertheless, there are a few things that stand out in both VN's and I guess in render VN's in general. First and foremost, the art content is way higher than in tradional drawn VN's. I guess it's way easier to come up with lots of render images and even animations if you have a finished scene in your 3D-render program. Roughly estimated, traditional 2D VN's usually have around 100 - 200 CG's if you include backgrounds, but 3D ones have thousands of CG's. Though it has to be considered that 2D VN's usually create their scenes on the fly by adding sprites in different poses to a background. In 3D VN's those are all pre-rendered. However, a common problem of the 3D VN's is still the somewhat synthetic look of render scenes and as nice as animations are, they often feel unnatural if you do them without motion capturing. Though both VN's made huge improvements in that regard through the chapters. On the other hand, rendering seems to be a good technique if you want to produce glamour girls with an emphasis on sex appeal. While the faces are still a bit of a problem, hot appealing bodies seem to be easy - there's certainly a lot of potential in 3D VN's with an emphasis on sex. It can't really compare with the 'cuteness' aspect of manga art though. If you want adorable characters there's nothing to see here. Style differences: Another point that stood out amongst both VN's is the unique western style of them. The age group of young women in the age of 20 - 30 almost doesn't exist in Japanese VN's. Judging by appearance it usually goes from 5 - 15... and then continues with 30+ in milf nukiges. Furthermore, since there's fortunately no obsession with school life scenarios, the heroines are older and more mature (and slutty) and less childish than their Japanese counterparts. The pacing is also way faster - almost too fast sometimes. But I definitely appreciate that they don't stretch 5 minutes of story content to 50 hours of slice of life like Japanese VN's. Overall ratings: Acting Lessons: 6.5/10 Deprived Awakening: 7/10 But Acting Lessons had best waifu with Melissa... I've also tried the first three chapters of the upcoming City of broken Dreamers, the successor of Depraced Awakening and I was quite impressed to be honest. It has a cool cyber punk scenario and is more plot focused than its predecessor. And the technical advancements in comparions to the last title are impressive. There's certainly a huge potential here for western developers to make their own thing. Think 'Resident Evil 2 - The Visual Novel' with Leon as protagonist, Claire as waifu and Sherry as walking hugging pillow. Well, I guess I can dream...

So it's already out? I didn't really expect it to be released so soon. Anyway, I'll definitely try this. Though, it's quite some time since Key managed to release something that was able to captivate me, so I better keep my expectations low.

So, I just finished Fata morgana no Yakata -Another Episodes-, but I was honestly a bit disappointed by it. It was supposed to tell the prelude of the main story in more detail, but some episodes felt far too stretched with nothing happening for an eternity and others which should have been of great importance were just left as a side note or not particular impactful. Several developments also felt a bit too artificially constructed for drama purposes. I think the start was still good though and the episode with the old lord as shocking as it should be. But then more and more issues started to pile up: I guess part of my discontent might also be because Jacopo was the protagonist and I was never a big fan of him. But still, I think the main game showed much more effort and the story flow was more conclusive. Overall rating 6/10

Yes, the fan disc was pretty bad - best to ignore its existence. I think 'My Girlfriend is the President' is widely considered one of Alcot's weaker titles, so I'm curious about Clover Day's, which is considered one of their better ones.

Some impressive announcements from the moege front. More Yuzusoft isn't surprising considering they are pretty generous with their titles and they are pretty popular in the west. Blondie connection Kin'iro Loveriche is probably the highlight. The title was very well received and Saga Planets is a widely requested studio anyway. I guess Hatsuyuki Sakura is a very likely possibility now. Clover's Days is a bit of a surprise, since I didn't really expect to see a title from Alcot anymore. My Girlfriend is the President was one of the rare comedy titles I actually liked, so I'm looking forward to this one. The Hooksoft title IxSHE Tell doesn't look bad either. Provided I'm not totally buried in other VN's, it's certainly a title I might give a try. I'm a bit irritated by the time of those announcements, since there isn't a con at the moment - are NekoNyan Brexit fans?

Ah okay, that's certainly true. I just misunderstood what you were trying to say.

You might actually have a point with that. Rika really surprised me at the start, when she criticised Masaya regarding the bad timing of their practice event. That takes courage and I didn't expect that much bite from her. I also think that her flying style did fit her personality, which is something I definitely can't say about Asuka. Truth to be told, I didn't really like her character design and voice and I'm not a big friend of dere heroines anyway. And that makes it pretty hard to warm up for a romance route. I'd lie if I'd say that appearance wouldn't matter for me. Asuka's an ultra pacifist dere-dere. She's certainly the last heroine I'd call a battle shounen type. lol

So, I've finally finished this VN. Though, I've only finished Misaki's and Asuka's routes, Rika didn't interest me and Mashiro, despite being adorable, was a bit too loli for me for a romance route. Overall, this was certainly a well made VN, where a lot of effort was put into it by the creators. Not only in terms of art, but also the whole flying circus scenario was well-developed. Regarding the art, the VN doesn't only convince with its detailed backgounds that even include background characters, but also with its massive CG count. There are well over hundred of them and the flight scenes aren't even included in those. The flying circus scenario also lifts this above your average school life moege. Although some descriptions and diagrams didn't really make sense, the sport itself was well-thought out with specific rules, equipment, tactics and the whole media spectacle around it. The quality of the side characters also deserves praise. Aoi was a convincing mentor, Saki an impressive opponent that really had a special aura around her, Madoka was just hilarious and Satouin not being a main heroine was almost a crime. But not only the female side characters did impress, Shirase was a pretty cool dude I could really imagine to hang around with and Shindou... honestly, he should have been the protagonist. Which brings us to some of the not so glowing aspects of the VN. First and foremost, the protagonist. While he wasn't bad personality-wise, the VN clearly set itself a goal to bring Masaya back to flying, and to be frank, the VN completly failed in that regard, at least in the routes I played. The whole thing wouldn't have been so bad if they wouldn't rub it in your face the whole time. Everyone is literally worshipping him for his apparent greatness in the past, Irina even considering 'him' the only true opponent worthy to face Saki and everyone else being pretty much just small fry. You also see Shindou being a real team with Satouin and Rika and not just the lazy coward on the ground. I think I was still fine with it in the common route, but in the heroine routes it started to get really on my nerves. Another negative aspect were some of the main heroines. I think Misaki and Mashiro were fine overall, and I really liked their funny interactions. But I have no clue why Rika was a main heroine. She's a rather bland character, not part of Masaya's team and doesn't even have a lot of screen time in the common route. And there's Asuka, the supposedly main heroine. But even if she grows on you after a while, there are some aspects about her that just didn't add up. On the one hand she's introduced as being super-clumsy and on the other hand she's supposed to be the next super-genius. As a result you get some akward display of clumsiness with a Deus Ex Machina thrown in every now and then, like 'accidentally' making a back-flip out of full sprint. And it got even worse in her route when the duels with Saki develop more and more into over-the-top chuuni battles with glowing halos, teleporting and what not. And Asuka never really looked like the sporty type anyway. Her true and most admirable strength was her positive attitude and never-give-up mentality. They should have focused more on that and let her win against the odds instead of coming up with that whole Deus Ex Machina bogus. Misaki was a lot more convincing as genius girl hold back by lazy attitude. Heroine ranking: Satouin > Misaki > Mashiro = Madoka > Saki >> Asuka > Rika Overall rating: 7/10 During the common route I had the VN still mostly rated at a 7.5, but the routes itself were a bit underwhelming, mainly because of the protagonist and the VN's obsession to make Asuka someone she really isn't. Nevertheless, this is certainly a good moege well-worth checking out, even if it doesn't reach 'very good' level in my book.

I didn't mention my disappointments of last year yet, so I'm doing that now. Although there were several VN's last year I dropped early, they weren't necessarily the biggest disappointments. For a real disappointment you have to stick a while to a VN so you can really 'feal the rage' so to speak. From the VN's that didn't live up to my expectations, two stood out as particular disappointing. The first is Chaos;Child, not because it would have been just bad, but because it actually had a rather strong first half that made hope for a real hit and then completely collapsed in the second half under one of the biggest piles of nonesensical bullshit I have ever seen. The whole thing was almost like a daoist Yin and Yang symbol with a glowing white and pitch black half. The second major disappointment was a Japanese VN - Guildmaster from Astronauts Sirius. While their gameplay titles always tend to be a bit on the weaker side (at least plot-wise), this was definitely their weakest title by far. Part of the problem was certainly that they switched to the Unity engine and the whole title was pretty much a technical disaster with crashes galore and weird gameplay bugs even after several patches. And if that wouldn't be enough already, I had the strong impression that simply less effort went into all aspects of the title. Less overall CG's, over-simplified gameplay and an even weaker plot than usual. And that's not even the end of the story. They then rushed Chaos - Dominas, another gameplay title, in the same year which was at least okay from a technical point of view, but otherwise barely an improvement. And now they want to release yet another title just 4 months after that with Zettai Jotei Toshi. I'm slowly getting a bit worried about that studio - that's not the path that leads to quality. Other titles that were rather underwhelming were Midori no Umi, Sakura Sakura, Damekoi and Majokoi. There was also Yu-No, but that one was more because of the annoying adventure game system and less because of the story - I don't really consider it a VN anymore. Judging by the anime, the story seems to be not that bad, at least until the epilogue hits home where they apparently tried to squish in 'yet another' genre. Not sure how it was done in the VN, but at least in the anime that part was just rubbish and I'm pretty sure it was the main reason for its not exactly glowing rating.

So, I guess I'll also pick my favorites from last year. Though I don't really care if it was released last year, I'll just choose from the ones I played. Best story VN: I think Fata morgana no Yakata from Novectacle is a clear winner here. There was certainly nothing else that came close to this one in terms of story telling. But my runner-up is surprisingly an OELVN, Heart of the Woods from Studio Élan. I think that's the way to go for the English VN scene. Best moege: Shin Koihime † Musou -Kakumei- Son Go no Ketsumyaku from BaseSon gets first place for me. I was actually pretty close to pick that in the story VN section due to its strong plot, but in general I see the Koihime franchise still as a moege series because of the all-girls cast and the emphasis on fan-service. And Haruru Minamo ni! from Clochette is my runner-up in this section. I played both titles in Japanese, but if I would have to pick an English favorite as well, I'd probably choose the two first 9 -Nine- episodes from Palette. Best nukige: (NSFW) So Mamagoto ~Mama to Naisho no Ecchi Shimasho~ from Atelier Kaguya Team Bare & Bunny gets first place from me. And I decided to pick Bishoujo Mangekyou -Norowareshi Densetsu no Shoujo- despite its loli heroine for second place, because of its surprisingly strong emotional impact. It's probably the only nukige I've read where I had tears in my eyes at the end. And Kyonyuu Fantasy Gaiden gets an honorable mention from me for its surprisingly strong plot. Best otome: Ah and I almost forgot, Hakuouki ~Shinsengumi Kitan~ gets first place for me for otome, followed by Nightshade. Actually, both would have been strong contenders in the story section as well.

Somewhat unexpected, at least the anime completely fell apart in the epilogue. Felt like watching a completely different show than the previous episodes. lol

Let's just say the other characters choose you and not vice verca... you don't really have a say in that.

I see. I think I'll give it a try - it's pretty cheap anyway and apparently not too long either. It'll be interesting to see how much the 3D-EVN scene has evolved in the meantime.

Coincidentally, I stumbled over this title yesterday when browsing Steam titles. I was quite surprised by the raving reviews, but wasn't entirely sure what to make out of it. Those types of 3D titles didn't really go beyond strip-club simulator so far, but judging by the comments in the reviews, there seems to be more than meets the eye. It did sound like a slice-of-life drama between young adults. I must admit that it made me a bit curious. Is there anything comparable among the more popular J-VNs?

Ah yes, the HRE was pretty much Germany in medieval Europe - the full name was Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. But Gaiden has a map and Edellant is just a small part of it.

I've recently finished Kyonyuu Fantasy and its Gaiden fan disc (aka Funbag and Sideboob). Those were some real oddballs. Originally I tried the first one in Japanese years ago, but didn't like it and dropped it. When it got translated I gave it a new chance and read a bit occasionally. Still wasn't really convinced by the routes and was close to drop it again. Then I progressed a bit further and noticed that the real meat of the story is actually hidden in the harem route. That was rather unexpected since in most eroges (and not only nukiges) the harem routes are crap. I then continued right afterwards with Gaiden and finished that almost in one go. Having played both now I think I have a better picture of the series to accurately comment about it. The Kyonyuu Fantasy series is pretty much a fantasy parody around a very 'potent' looser protagonist who goes from zero to hero. While this isn't an unusual setting, there's an unusual heavy focus on story and character development. The fantasy world is surprisingly rich even for non-nukige standards and represents a medieval Europe setting with fantasy elements. There are several factions, with each having their own representative key characters and soldiers, and all of them drawn and voiced. This also includes an unusual high amount of male characters, with several of them even playing key roles in the story. And not just as villains, the world is surprisingly grey here. Many characters have their own beliefs, strengths and weaknesses and some might even start out as enemies and then turn into friends later on. There are frequently multiple interwoven intrigues going on. The similarities to medieval Europe are also striking, there's 'Fronce' which is clearly France, Spain is also mentioned as Iberia (?!) I think and even the Vatican plays an important role. Edellant itself seems to be a splinter state of the Holy Roman Empire, although the HRE probably doesn't exist as such in the game. That said, while the series definitely has some commendable merits, it also has its fair share of weaknesses. First and foremost, the titles have a strong B-movie feeling that can be a real turn-off. All the characters are voiced, but certainly not by the best voice actors the scene has to offer. All characters have sprites, but they've usually just one pose and some look akward or even painfullly bad. The music isn't bad but some tracks are heavily overused and get very repetitive and annoying after a while. The whole parody theme is also a bit of a double-edged sword. While it might make it easier to overlook some weaknesses, some characters and plot resolutions are also too silly and cheap and do more harm than good to the overall experience. Some characters also change too drastically during the story. The heroines in particular can go from literal hate and scorn towards the protagonist to almost worshipping him, appearing as if they would have been brainwashed. This being tagged as a nukige is also a bit ironic, because it's arguably its weakest point. The whole boob-fetish of the VN is more often than not just akward or even gross instead of arousing. The art isn't the best and certainly one of the main reasons I've never seen those titles amongst the top sellers on Getchu. The backgrounds are decent, but the character art is very hit and miss. Luceria is probably one of the most ugly heroines I've ever seen in a VN while Gladys looks almost two art generations more refined. While the later titles do show some slight improvements in the art department, I think Kyonyuu Fantasy 3 (Athena) and Gaiden 2 After (Irina) are the first ones where they appear more significant. H-scenes also often appear randomly thrown in instead of being developped, especially harem scenes. Heroine ranking: Gladys > Aphrodia = Emeralia > Isis >= Shamsiel > Nellis >> Roxanne >>> Luceria Overall rating: 6.5/10 (KF) and 7/10 (Gaiden) In general, I'm a bit irritated why Waffle insists to recreate pretty much the same title over and over again. They've good plot ideas and a very efficient usage of art - why aren't they striving for more? I'm sure that if they'd go for something more serious, they could reach a bigger audience.

Oh, thanks for bringing up the release Raging Loop. I completely missed that, since it got a bit overshadowed by the release of Baldr Sky and the finished fan translation of Kami no Rhapsody.

Isn't this mainly because those are hardcopies? I mean, if I check the Getchu download center, I see titles like Maitetsu for just 455 yen (link NSFW) - that's dirt cheap even for western standards. Sure, not everything is as cheap there, newer download titles in particular don't seem much cheaper than their hardcopy counterparts, but many older ones seem to be significantly cheaper. And western releases are usually all download versions. I've also several Japanese hardcopies which have art books, tapestries and other stuff included, so a higher price for those is somewhat justified. On the other hand, I've also a few where there's just a lot of empty air in a huge box.

Nah, Grisaia is a comedy VN, it has little to no similarities to G-Senjou. The Angelic Howl chapter is the only one that might come close. The only VN similar to G-Senjou is its predecessor Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo.

I'm a bit disappointed that they couldn't get a higher resolution for this title - 800 x 600 feels pretty outdated nowadays. But from what I've heard, the title wasn't easy to get ported to English, so I guess it's already a good thing they managed to get it working at all. Though I'm not sure how the title is holding up these days. The Baldr series doesn't seem to be a big as it once were. I'm not really interested that much in the gameplay, so I hope there isn't too much of it. But getting a big budget mecha VN is kind of exciting, the last I've read was MuvLuv Alternative I think. I hope it lives up to the hype.

Every eroge reader should know that the disclaimer saying that every character is over 18 years old, is just a meme that's only there to guarantee you that all characters are minors. Beware of reading a VN without that disclaimer - you might see a character that's actually 18 or even older!

I usually try to avoid using a walkthrough as long as possible. In typical moeges, finding the right heroine route is usually not all too difficult and in more plot focused games it's fun to make all the choices yourself and see where you're ending up. I only use a walkthrough if I get stuck or to complete all or certain paths of a VN. Making my own choices also increases the immersion for me since I feel in control and not just following a path someone else decided. I'm also not sure if people are aware that many walkthroughs follow a middleground path to delay the splitting into the various routes as long as possible to make efficient use of save points. And that also includes neglecting certain heroine choices to stay 'neutral' as long as possible. That means you might miss out text sections for certain heroines in favour of not committing to their route too early. Most walkthroughs only care about CG completion, but not about scene or text completion. But if I go for a heroine, it means I'll pick every choice in the game in favor of her, so I get all her scenes.