ChaosRaven

First of all, editing and testing are factors that can take as long or more than the translation took. Especially because these are gameplay titles, and some of them non-linear at that.
And it's not just the staff that takes longer. Gameplay titles also last longer for the players, so they at least avoid releasing gameplay titles in quick succession, and Evenicle came out just a bit over a month ago. If too many were released in succession, they would theoretically eat into each other's sales.
Third, Decay is correct.

The real answer is that the translator translates faster than anyone else at the company can keep up with. Arunaru is a beast.

Yeah, I was literally fuming in those scenes as well. Most people didn't seem to care though. Still, I didn't really hate Yuuji but he's certainly far from my favorite.

Well 'great' would be a hard one. Unfortuantely, the majority of VN's aren't exactly blessed with those types of protagonists.
I think Tokyo Babel had a pretty good protagonist and Suguha from Chusingura too - especially in the later chapers. The Overdrive VN's like Kira Kira, Edelweiss or Dengeki Stryker usually have decent protagonists as well. Kanon had a great one, but you're better off watching the anime since the VN is ancient now. I personally also liked the one from Koihime Musou and Da Capo 2 but I wouldn't go so far to call them great.
If you're also fine with adult ones, then Gii from Sekien no Inganock, Reiji from Kara no Shojo 1 & 2, Hakuoro from Utawarerumono and Ryou from Eden are good. (Eden also a has strong caretaker theme, but it's very sad)
Those are just notification sounds if you were quoted, mentioned or got a post reaction. I guess you can desctivate them in your profile settings if you don't like them.

Well, I'm not exactly surprised that it didn't do well. If you look at the Steam page it 'looks' like run of the mill school life moege 3728, just with outdated art.
And if you the look at the story synopsis you get:
What the heck is that supposed to tell me?  
And the more detailed description is so bizarre that it doesn't really make it better. Someone who isn't a VN insider would never get the idea that this is something worth reading.
Apparently only the initial sales of Tokyo Babel weren't that good, but it picked up momentum afterwards. Conjueror made a twitter statement regarding that some time ago, that didn't sound like disappointing sales at all. Shadows of Pygmalion probably didn't sell that well though. But Fata Morgana did EXTREMELY well according to MangaGamer - I've no idea where you heard the opposite. It just wasn't a hit in Japan. Not sure about Ghakthun though, but if Steam Spy is still any guideline then both Tokyo Babel and Gahkthun sold about 10.000 copies just on Steam, not counting the copies sold at the MG store.
And there are VN's that did pretty well, like Dies Irae for example which did fantastic with more than 50.000 sales. And there are more like Grisaia, Nekopara, etc. So could we please not judge overall VN sales just by one flop?! 

I think the protagonist of Grisaia can be considered a caretaker for the heroines even if he's a bit of a weirdo himself.
And the protagonist of Sekien no Inganock which I'm currently reading is definitely a caretaker for Keea.
Simliar thing in Ourai no Gahkthun with Neon and Tesla.

To be honest, did Frontwing even advertise this VN properly when it was released? What I personally noticed when it was released originally is that the exposure in social media was pretty lacking. Yeah, the niche VN circles were talking about it quite a lot, but did it even reach the right audience who could buy the game? I feel that they pretty much relied on Steam algorithms to advertise it, which didn't work at all in this particular case, considering that the whole distribution process was made very confusing for someone who isn't that good with using patches. And also, this is simply not the game that catches much attention if you're unaware of its cult status.
And relying on the core VN fans is probably also not a very good idea, considering that there aren't really that many of them overall (and even less of those who actually buy the VNs they read).
I actually heard the same thing about Fata Morgana. I think it's the same thing as with Tokyo Babel: the sales during the first month after the release were really poor, but it gained the momentum after that, and mostly due to Steam sales.
As for DI, I'm pretty sure this number only shows how many people downloaded the common route, which is free. I kind of doubt that the actual sales were that good.
Well, DDLC is free, and it mostly became known through the same mechanism as most memes. It's very overrated, but it's also a relatively decent game. It's way more depressing to compare these sales numbers to how well all that Sakura Crap sells tbh.
I'm out of likes, but this, really.
Well, I get why they do that, but it's honestly not a very effective way to protest, because the publisher will never know what the exact reason for the lack of sales was. I mean, instead of sending the publisher the message "we won't buy your games if you censor them", they are basically sending them "we don't want your philosophical VNs, you should've just released Ikikoi instead".

Well, I'm not exactly surprised that it didn't do well. If you look at the Steam page it 'looks' like run of the mill school life moege 3728, just with outdated art.
And if you the look at the story synopsis you get:
What the heck is that supposed to tell me?  
And the more detailed description is so bizarre that it doesn't really make it better. Someone who isn't a VN insider would never get the idea that this is something worth reading.
Apparently only the initial sales of Tokyo Babel weren't that good, but it picked up momentum afterwards. Conjueror made a twitter statement regarding that some time ago, that didn't sound like disappointing sales at all. Shadows of Pygmalion probably didn't sell that well though. But Fata Morgana did EXTREMELY well according to MangaGamer - I've no idea where you heard the opposite. It just wasn't a hit in Japan. Not sure about Ghakthun though, but if Steam Spy is still any guideline then both Tokyo Babel and Gahkthun sold about 10.000 copies just on Steam, not counting the copies sold at the MG store.
And there are VN's that did pretty well, like Dies Irae for example which did fantastic with more than 50.000 sales. And there are more like Grisaia, Nekopara, etc. So could we please not judge overall VN sales just by one flop?! 

How, oh how am I not surprised at all?
People aren't interested in great, thought-provoking stories. All they care about are animay boobs.
I actually doubt whether they are actually read at all. VNs on Steam are an entirely different beast, with both western and english-language versions of new games tailored specially towards your average Steam user, choke full of memes & silliness to warrant decent streaming potential... and gods forbid them for containing any sort of politically incorrect content. People are so surprised publishers nowadays rarely release large titles without crowdfunding help.
VNs were niche, are a niche and will forever remain a niche. You actually need a bit more than just a decently written story to garner any sort of success.
At this point, from a western developer's perspective, it's better to remain small and balance between funding, quality and creativity.

Ironically, this doesn't really have to be a problem. Just take books for example - people don't like to read? No problem, that's why we have audio books nowadays. Most VN's are very dialog focused and the bigger ones are usually fully voiced. So VN's are already quite modern in comparison since they have voices, images and music. And partly animated VN's get more and more common, closing the gap to animes more and more. On the flip side, the production cost get also higher and higher with that, making it more and more difficult to bring those qualities with an expansive story and not just a simple moege.
Actually, many cut scenes of big budget RPG's already have lots of similarities with VN's. I recently played The Witcher 2 in preparation for the third one and it had cut scenes galore, and with sub titles activated, it almost felt like an action RPG VN hybrid. And many JRPG's seem to like the VN fromat for cut scenes as well, so I don't think it's a bad thing at all.
I also heard a rumour that there's a special edition of Stein's Gate in the works that combines the animations of the anime with the VN. If that's true I'm really curious how that will work out. And if it'll works out I'd really like to have the same for Fate/Stay Night *drool*. 

I think the connection is clear. Popularity means more sales and more sales means more money. And the quality of a product is almost always directly connected to the available money. High quality games like The Witcher 3 or GTA5 weren't just created with air and love. Just for The Witcher 3, there were more than a thousand people involved in development, design, QA and marketing.
And currently, one of the main problems is that most VN developers have a very tight budget due to overall low sales. It's usually enough for some sprites, a few backgrounds and most important nowadays - the H-scenes. But a good story VN needs a lot more stuff drawn. A typical moege has maybe up to ten drawn characters. But good story VN's like Kara no Shojo, Fate, MuvLuv Alternative or G-Senjou can easily have 40 or even more. And you need a lot more event CG's for a good story VN than for a simple moege - and event CG's are expensive. And expansive story VN's usually also take a lot more than just a year to develop.
There's a reason why games like Fate or MuvLuv Alternative with a huge amount of special effects and characters aren't done anymore.
And it goes without saying that lots of money gives you the opportunity to hire the best artists, writers, translators and editors.
TypeMoon would probably be the only VN developer with the possibility to make a REALLY high budget VN. Apparently they made about 2 billion dollars revenue with Fate Grand Order in two years. That makes even games like The Witcher 3 look like small fry in comparision. Unfortunately, TypeMoon doesn't exactly look like they ever want to go back to pure VN's again. So that's that. 
MangaGamer actually had an all ages site, but it was apparently used very rarely and they therefore decided to make Steam their All Ages store front.

I think the connection is clear. Popularity means more sales and more sales means more money. And the quality of a product is almost always directly connected to the available money. High quality games like The Witcher 3 or GTA5 weren't just created with air and love. Just for The Witcher 3, there were more than a thousand people involved in development, design, QA and marketing.
And currently, one of the main problems is that most VN developers have a very tight budget due to overall low sales. It's usually enough for some sprites, a few backgrounds and most important nowadays - the H-scenes. But a good story VN needs a lot more stuff drawn. A typical moege has maybe up to ten drawn characters. But good story VN's like Kara no Shojo, Fate, MuvLuv Alternative or G-Senjou can easily have 40 or even more. And you need a lot more event CG's for a good story VN than for a simple moege - and event CG's are expensive. And expansive story VN's usually also take a lot more than just a year to develop.
There's a reason why games like Fate or MuvLuv Alternative with a huge amount of special effects and characters aren't done anymore.
And it goes without saying that lots of money gives you the opportunity to hire the best artists, writers, translators and editors.
TypeMoon would probably be the only VN developer with the possibility to make a REALLY high budget VN. Apparently they made about 2 billion dollars revenue with Fate Grand Order in two years. That makes even games like The Witcher 3 look like small fry in comparision. Unfortunately, TypeMoon doesn't exactly look like they ever want to go back to pure VN's again. So that's that. 
MangaGamer actually had an all ages site, but it was apparently used very rarely and they therefore decided to make Steam their All Ages store front.

So, I've finished Wagamama High Spec after what feels like an eternity. (Technically I already finished it a few weeks ago, but I was just too lazy to post.) 
I had already started this in October last year and at that time I finished the common at a rather good pace. The way the protagonist and especially his sister Toa end up in the student council together with Kaoruko and Ashe was actually quite funny. I think the VN did take a lot of inspirations from Yuzusoft, since the sprites are very dynamic with lots of expressions that even change multiple time during a sentence. It's certainly very well done. And the plot arc about Kouki being a secret manga writer and his connection to Kaoruko was also quite amusing. I also appreciate that the VN has several decent support characters with Yukari and Karen in particular being almost more interesting than the main cast.
Unfortunately the VN also shares some weaknesses with Yuzusoft titles - the routes. While I had finished the common route comparably fast, it took me almost half a year to finish just Mihiro's and Ashe's route and I didn't really have the endurance for the others anymore. That's not to say they were bad, just very generic. Even the other heroines matter in the routes, so I guess it's fair to say that they were probably better than many other moege routes I've read. The main problem was more that I wasn't really 'interested' in the heroines. The character designs have a certain childish goofyness that make them cute and entertaining to watch, but lack the maturity I need to get the hots for a girl.
It's also common problem of romance comedy's for me, that the comedy parts takes so much seriousness out of the plot that the actual romance is left without the necessary tension to captivate me. And a certain passion and tension are necessary ingredients for a good romance to me. And I guess partly to blame is also my ongoing moege slump, that makes it harder to stomach generic moege plots than in my earlier VN years.
So in conclusion, I'd say this IS a well done romance comedy with decent art, lots of ero and likable characters. But besides that it doesn't offer a particular outstanding plot like Dracu Riot's action loaded vampire slapstick comedy for example.
Heroine rating: Yukari > Karen > Mihiro = Toa > Ashe > Kaoruko
Overall rating: 6.5/10 (feel free to add a grade if you're more into comedy and the cutesy character designs)

I've also started Saku Saku, but already stalled it in favor of Hapymaher. To still throw in a few comments about it, it's major selling point is probably the art. The character designs are attractive, although some like Tina are probably a bit too cute for my taste. The artist also put a lot of effort into drawing background characters. I'm not sure when I had the last time the pleasure to see a class room FULL with different students. I think only some older titles like Clannad, Da Capo 2 and Shuffle put so much effort into it.
Anyway, the plot in the common route is kind of ridiculous at first, but the VN kinda makes up for it a bit with some surprisingly good character interactions. Especially the protagonist is actually a rather cynical dude with dry humor. The plot gets somewhat more interesting when some Shinigami start to show up from nowhere. On the other hand, it declines so fast to comedic level that it looses almost its entire appeal. So far my plans are to play Ann's and Yuuri's route and skip the rest.
Didn't progress in Hapymaher far enough yet to really give a qualified comment about it, but so far it's rather promising with its mysterious dream sequences and Maia a really unique and interesting character as mischivous villain. It's not without flaws though, since the pacing is rather slow and Saki kind of annoying. But I really like that it gives more serious vibes for a change and isn't just light comedy. And Yayoi is kind of super hot - her route will certainly be my first. 

Key's success was always strongly connected to their animes. And the quality of their animes has considerably gone down for whatever reason. The last good one was Angel Beats, and even that one is almost 10 years ago now. I didn't watch the Rewrite anime, but apparently it was pretty bad. I watched Charlotte which was better received, but it only showed glimmers of Key's past glory and was filled to the brink with completely out of place gore.
Their other problem is that they had the biggest success in the VN genre by inventing the classic school life nakige. But nowadays the VN market is oversaturated with those kind of VN's. There are very strong competitors with good art, decent writers (for that kind of VN), and last but not least... no problem with ero scenes.
It's therefore very difficult for Key to stand out amongst those anymore. I think they could land a hit if they tried something like Rewrite again. Although I wasn't the biggest fan of it, it was at least a unique work that was more than just a simple school life nakige and went a bit more into direction of Type-Moon's Fate with some more mystery and action orientated themes.
The Angel Beats VN was probably the first VN for Key that kind of flopped (for their standards). Can't judge their new Summer Pockets yet, but so far it looks very generic. And without a successful anime, I don't think they'll do much better with their western VN releases than the other competitors.

Key's success was always strongly connected to their animes. And the quality of their animes has considerably gone down for whatever reason. The last good one was Angel Beats, and even that one is almost 10 years ago now. I didn't watch the Rewrite anime, but apparently it was pretty bad. I watched Charlotte which was better received, but it only showed glimmers of Key's past glory and was filled to the brink with completely out of place gore.
Their other problem is that they had the biggest success in the VN genre by inventing the classic school life nakige. But nowadays the VN market is oversaturated with those kind of VN's. There are very strong competitors with good art, decent writers (for that kind of VN), and last but not least... no problem with ero scenes.
It's therefore very difficult for Key to stand out amongst those anymore. I think they could land a hit if they tried something like Rewrite again. Although I wasn't the biggest fan of it, it was at least a unique work that was more than just a simple school life nakige and went a bit more into direction of Type-Moon's Fate with some more mystery and action orientated themes.
The Angel Beats VN was probably the first VN for Key that kind of flopped (for their standards). Can't judge their new Summer Pockets yet, but so far it looks very generic. And without a successful anime, I don't think they'll do much better with their western VN releases than the other competitors.

Eeerrr... the original name of this VN is ゾンビのあふれた世界で俺だけが襲われない that literally means "I am the only one who is not attacked in the world filled with zombies."
Anyway, I somewhat enjoyed the first one, it was okayish, but the second one is quite boring so far. Like Walking Dead after they settle up in the prison, it's more about the character's relationship and less about the zombies... (Might change, I was half way through but I stalled it)
But you couldn't be more right on this one.
If you dropped it after Kurose's scene, you did yourself a favor. He's even worse after that.

To explain exactly what makes totono special would be a huge spoiler. Which means it's the type of school life VN where major spoilers are possible. There's a lot more to it than it first seems. I wouldn't say it's much like Subahibi. If you want to compare it to another VN, I'd say Doki Doki Literature Club is a poor man's version of totono.
 

My follow Yuri lovers, 
we finally know when Flowers 2nd part will be released! 16th of this month! 
Summer is already here and Flowers -Le Volume sur Été-(in english: FLOWERS -The volume of summer-)  too 
I am really happy to read it. I didn't read any VNs in the last months and now I am really excited to read the 2nd part.
Hopefully they don't delay it again >.<
Source: CLICK
One more good news! JAST already confirmed it, that they are working on the 3rd part -Autumn-!!!
I seriously can't wait to read that part. Why?
Because of:

Yeah, that's one of the biggest mysteries of the VN genre to me too. While otomes cover all kinds of interesting historic or fantasy settings, and also represent them with an appropriate authenticy, the common VN's adressed to guys almost exclusively consist of school life moeges and derivatives. 

Why do otome games always look more interesting than vns for males? 

Pretty hyped about this one for a change. I waited a long time for it. 
Well, I'm not really worried about this one, since my tastes in VN's seem rather different from his. I mean, he also considers Kara no Shoujo just an average VN while Himawari is the best kamige ever written for him. That's pretty much the complete opposite of my opinion. 
That's not to say I'd expect Hapymaher to be perfect. It'll most likely have similar flaws like Chrono Clock had, although I do expect it to be better.

Not sure what to think about this one. It certainly looks very interesting and seems to be a refreshing change of pace to the usual school life moeges.
However...
While I'd like both, a seriously written horror story or an H-heavy take on Highschool of the Dead, but a dark zombie rape hentai isn't exactly on my wish list. The tag combinations of Necrophilia, Unavoidable Rape and Kinetic VN pretty much kill the VN for me. Girls raped by zombies is certainly the last thing I want to see. 

Not sure what to think about this one. It certainly looks very interesting and seems to be a refreshing change of pace to the usual school life moeges.
However...
While I'd like both, a seriously written horror story or an H-heavy take on Highschool of the Dead, but a dark zombie rape hentai isn't exactly on my wish list. The tag combinations of Necrophilia, Unavoidable Rape and Kinetic VN pretty much kill the VN for me. Girls raped by zombies is certainly the last thing I want to see. 

He was my favorite game critic. I'm so sorry that he had to die in such a young age. It's hard to believe that all our modern medicine couldn't help him. 

He was my favorite game critic. I'm so sorry that he had to die in such a young age. It's hard to believe that all our modern medicine couldn't help him.