ChaosRaven

Hm, for me it's probably still the good old Fate/Stay Night.
When Illyasviel asked me to ally with her, I thought: Why not? She's a cute girl - what could go wrong?! And then she...
That was a quite remarkable experience. 

Hm, for me it's probably still the good old Fate/Stay Night.
When Illyasviel asked me to ally with her, I thought: Why not? She's a cute girl - what could go wrong?! And then she...
That was a quite remarkable experience. 

I know what you mean, but IMHO Ouroborus looks way more like your run of the mill JRPG boss monster than what was actually shown.
I still found the revelation one of the most epic moments in the VN - the creepy atmosphere was just great.

Well, I would usually avoid calling RPGs visual novels, as the gameplay/story ratio is usually heavily skewed in the direction of gameplay. That's why I've stopped playing RPGs, I've realized that I've played things like DA Inquisition or Star Wars: The Old Republic mostly for the story, while burning dozens of hours on mindless grind I didn't really care about. For me, VN is every medium where the text-based story content reigns supreme while any gameplay it offers is supplementary to that. In this way it's very hard for me to accept this kind of purist definitions that Palas creates, where VN is created only by stripping the game from any visible, number-based gameplay mechanics. What do I care that my story route in Long Live the Queen is some ways guided by the stats? The core content is still that of a visual novel, in a very literal understanding of the term. Same goes for most VN-hybrid games and dating sims - in most of them, the story content is the central part of the experience.
Closer to the original topic, I think that gameplay can both make a VN better and break it. If gameplay elements are well-connected with the story and support its main themes, I can appreciate them even if they're mediocre by themselves - they simply work as that additional flavour that adds to the immersion. But I also hate then the gameplay lacks proper difficulty settings or skip option, so it could stall experiencing the story. For me, it's all about how it's implemented and how much time it takes - I really didn't switch from playing sandbox games to reading VNs just to play with mindless minigames for hours on end, but anything less extreme and somewhat approachable is ok with me, as long as it fits the story.

Inglorious Basterds, a Quentin Tarantino movie.
Regarding the original question, I think there aren't that much translated story VN's with a revenge theme. I guess Chusingura might come closest to what you're looking for. G-Senjou and Umineko also come to mind, but those handle revenge somewhat differently.
And naturally, there are countless dark hentai nukiges with 'revenge theme' but I hope guess you're aren't looking for those.

No idea, but certainly not for the initial hard copies since I didn't see a patch.

Yea It's kinda easy to see the bias in his review though I very much agree with the disaster of the translation. 
 
The worst part is that they had a decent amount of time to translate and check. Untranslated lines should be the easiest to spot.
I speculate ( and this is pure speculation) that they are just trying to take on too many projects at once. While they try to be professional they are still a relatively small company so I'm guessing they didn't manage their time and resources and too on too many projects at once. Which is purely their fault.
 
If there's any consolation they did release an apology 
Hopefully they will fix this and learn from their mistakes....Definitely lost some faith 
 

https://fuwanovel.net/reviews/2018/01/03/hoshizora-no-memoria-3/
I really don't know why there's a "3" in the review link, but I can't help but wonder if it isn't because the last FuwaReview was for "Karakara 2".

The whole hype around DDLC is actually a pretty sad thing if you think about it, because it shows that although many people seem to be interested in VN's they don't seem to be willing to pay for it.
DDLC got an 'Overwhelming Positive' rating with more than 55,000 Steam reviews which is amazing considering that's more than most AAA games even get. Now, the next VN kamige on Steam is Everlasting Summer from... 'Soviet Games' which still has over 25,000 reviews with a very good rating which is again free to play. And then we have Tricolour Lovestory which has much less but still an impressive amount of over 7,500 reviews. It would have surely gotten much more, but the developers dared to charge 99 Cent for it and so it get much less.
And now let's have a look on the inferior 'VN garbage' on Steam starting with Stein's Gate which is still looking decent with more than 3,000 reviews, but then it goes down with stuff like Clannad which got at least still more than a 1,000 reviews. It then gets embarassing with Grisaia with about 500 reviews, Dies Irae with about 250 reviews (and its rating isn't even particularly good), Fata Morgana also just with about 250 reviews and Subahibi didn't even make 200 reviews.
Nekopara Vol 1 kind of stands out since it got more than 10,000 votes despite charging a 'ridiculous high price' of 5 € on sale.
So the unfortunate gist of all that is, that a big Steam success has pretty much nothing to do with quality and just indicates that the title is dirt cheap or even free to play for max success.

The whole hype around DDLC is actually a pretty sad thing if you think about it, because it shows that although many people seem to be interested in VN's they don't seem to be willing to pay for it.
DDLC got an 'Overwhelming Positive' rating with more than 55,000 Steam reviews which is amazing considering that's more than most AAA games even get. Now, the next VN kamige on Steam is Everlasting Summer from... 'Soviet Games' which still has over 25,000 reviews with a very good rating which is again free to play. And then we have Tricolour Lovestory which has much less but still an impressive amount of over 7,500 reviews. It would have surely gotten much more, but the developers dared to charge 99 Cent for it and so it get much less.
And now let's have a look on the inferior 'VN garbage' on Steam starting with Stein's Gate which is still looking decent with more than 3,000 reviews, but then it goes down with stuff like Clannad which got at least still more than a 1,000 reviews. It then gets embarassing with Grisaia with about 500 reviews, Dies Irae with about 250 reviews (and its rating isn't even particularly good), Fata Morgana also just with about 250 reviews and Subahibi didn't even make 200 reviews.
Nekopara Vol 1 kind of stands out since it got more than 10,000 votes despite charging a 'ridiculous high price' of 5 € on sale.
So the unfortunate gist of all that is, that a big Steam success has pretty much nothing to do with quality and just indicates that the title is dirt cheap or even free to play for max success.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this one as well. I've also my eyes on Serizawa Kamo since the first time I saw her. Character design wise she's my absolute favorite. She emits the same badassness like Shimizu Ichigaku, but appears at the same time more soft and pretty. It's a petty that she's not one of the main heroines. Though I expect her to take a somewhat similar, prominent but more villainous role as Ichigaku in Chusingura.
From the actual main heroines I like the designs of Hijikata Toshizou and Kondou Isami most, though the other two also look fine.
Two secret favorites from the other heroines would be Itou Kashitarou and Nakamura Hanjirou.
It will be interesting to see how the VN will turn out in comparison to the last one. I'll probably give it some time until first ratings are dribbling in, but it's certainly a VN I have high hopes for.

Well, the game is out, so I figured I'd give this thread a little bump to remind everyone that they need to pick it up and play it (/ω＼) The opening sequence is pretty freaking great. I'm hooked already.
Doesn't look like Derg will get any sleep tonight. But hey, who needs sleep anyways.
 
I really like the designs for these two:
The MC seems pretty promising as well. He does remind me a little bit of Suguha in terms of design, though. 
 

I actually had to look that up to remember it, but that was in a thread with a discussion about the translation quality of Tokyo Babel not in one of Clepahs' review threads. But that was actually an interesting thing in Dies Irae, I expected them to have lots of grammatical and spelling mistakes in the German sentences, but surprisingly it was pretty much all correct, at least the parts I checked (I didn't read all of them). I'm sure that they either had a translator with good German knowledge or an editor helping out.

BTW, I started reading Ourai no Gahkthun from Liarsoft. I had some trouble at first to get it working in Windows 10 since it always stopped working after 5 - 10 minutes, but after setting it to Windows 7 compatibility mode, it worked like a charm. The only small annoyances left are the small font size and the starting intro playing with approximately ~800 decibel sound intensity without any possible option to lower it. 
Technical problems aside, I'm positively surprised so far. When I read Shikkoku no Sharnoth years ago, I liked the atmosphere and setting, but the writing was a bit too poetic for my taste with a rather chaotic story flow - and not to forget the silly mini game. But Gahkthun seems to have kept all the things I liked, like the fascinating world building and the great atmosphere, but managed to get rid of all flaws from Sharnoth in the writing and story flow - at least so far. The fictional Offshore Academia city in France the story takes place gives me feelings of nostalgia from my visit of Paris last year, and the wonderful classic soundtrack further supports the whole mature feeling of the setting - it just oozes atmoshere. Neon is also a very likable character who fortunately avoids to fall into the trap of being cliché cute. Since the story is told from her perspective at the beginning, the VN has strong otome vibes. I just met Tesla so I can't say too much about him yet, but he looks pretty cool so far - I think the both will make a great couple.
So the first impression is pretty good - I can hardly believe that I was rather critical at the initial announcement years ago. Though it has yet to be seen if it can follow up to the good first impression.

Time for some status update for my JP VN's I guess.
Well, I already finished Hyakki Ryouran no Yakata some weeks ago. This was actually one of the titles I was mostly looking forward to this year, because it's the quasi successor to Kiriya Hakushakuke no Roku Shimai which is still one my all time favorites. What made it special is that it was a very ero heavy title that also offered an intriguing, mysterious plot that resembles Innocent Grey's semi-realistic style very closely. But in contrast to Innocent Grey's titles, it was much less gory and more focused on heroines and fan service. But the combination of an ero heavy VN with a strong supporting plot is still extremely rare. Especially since the production values were very high with art from M&M and a great soundtrack. The title was still released under the label of Atelier Kaguya when M&M was still the artist of Team Heartbeat before they 'rebelled' and created studio Astronauts Sirius which is mostly known for their H-heavy gameplay titles now.

Astronauts Sirius usually has a good sense for game mechanics and their titles are usually less grindy than Eushully & Co who managed to take grinding on a whole new level. For that reason it's usually possible to finish one of their titles in reasonable time. Their biggest weakness is that their stories unfortunatley tend to suck. So you play an Astronauts VN because of the gameplay and M&M's sexy art, but hardly because of the story.
For that reason I was hesitant what to expect from the new Hyakki Ryouran no Yakata, especially since their last try in 'story' Saint Estella was quite disappointing. I was still slightly optimistic though, since they broke their fixed annual release cycle for it and gave it about half a year more development time. And to give a short preemptive consclusion, I was both positively surprised and relieved that they succeeded with it for the most part.
In Hyakki Ryouran no Yakata you play a student from the University of Tokyo who comes to Yugoshi mountain in search for his professor. During his search he stumbles upon an old, mysterious mansion and is invited to join a certain marriage ritual of the Mikado family along with several other candidates. The story is set up in a similar way like an old Hitchcock movie, where several people meet in a house where one or more of the participants are murdered and you have to figure out the culprit. It's therefore a very traditonal murder mystery at heart - just with way more sex in it. 
The VN also takes a different approach to many other story VN's, that make POV switching almost a new sport, in that it keeps its protagonist POV almost for the whole time. This makes the VN very immersive - you only know what the protagonist knows and sees and nothing more except for the knowledge you gain from previous routes. There's a lot of intrigue and hidden secrets to discover and one play through will only reveal parts of the story. I was honestly impressed how much effort they took to give every character a unique identity and reasons why they are part of the story. Everyone has its place is part of a big mystery. One my favorite characters was actually Iwaki Akio, a detective who also tries to solve the mystery for his own reasons. He's more or less your ally for a good part of the story. The characters are also for the most part more 'grey' instead of just black and white, with both character strengths and flaws.

The routes of the VN are roughly separated in three parts - the introduction route, the main routes and the true route. The introduction route was a bit of a suprise since all heroine routes are locked and the VN is pretty much kinetic. H scenes there are actually plot relevant except some 'preview semi H-scenes' for the main heroines which were probably only included to keep readers who are only there for 'one reason' at least mildly entertained. But I found the plot surprisingly engaging and dig through it in pretty much one sitting. The VN pretty much forces you into a bad end here which is already spoiled at the start.
After that the main routes are unlocked and you can pick heroines and events via map movement. Now you'll have to change the events of the introduction route. To succeed with a heroine route you also have to find certain items along the way, the protagonist will usually use to free himself from unpleasant situations or get important information. If you missed a required item you'll run in a bad end, where you'll usually get killed and you might also see (a rather tame) rape scene. The routes itself vary in quality. Since the introduction route already tells a lot of the story, the heroine arcs were a bit too much uneven on the fan service side.

Aya's route felt almost redundant with the introduction route and Yuri's felt more like a side route. Considering Yuri was the heroine I was mostly looking toward too, that was a bit disappointing. She didn't even get an appropriate ending. And that's almost a shame since she was a quite interesting character. She wasn't just a tsundere, she was borderline cruel and your job was more or less to save her from herself. Fumika had surprisingly the strongest route besides the main heroine Ririka. The other side routes were pretty much just fan service.
After that the true route around Ririka unlocks and the final secrets about the hidden shrine and the dark god of the Mikado family gets revealed. Although it felt a bit rushed and lacked some information about the previous miko, it was still good enough to leave me satisfied. In comparison to its predecessor Kiriya Shimai, I'd say it has probably a better written main plot, but the heroine routes besides the main heroine Riririka felt a bit more lacking. Kiriya Shimai had more fleshed out heroine routes but the main plot was probably a bit weaker. Though it's quite some time that I read it. Other weaknesses are shared by both and are also known from Innocent Grey VN's. Picking another route can result in lots of text skipping with frequent interruptions sinec you have to pick the right location. Since the VN is also very ero heavy, the heroines tend to be rather 'willing' even if the H-scenes itself are probably at least less random than in Kara no Shoujo. The VN also has a very tight time frame that makes relationship developments a bit unrealistic.

But overall, I was pretty satisfied with the VN despite some flaws. Production values were top notch with great art and soundtrack that helped greatly to create a thriliing, mysterious atmosphere. The story might not be as refined as in a true Innocent Grey VN, but it's still very solid and easily wipes the floor with what most other VN releases dare to offer. I also appreciate the fact that the VN isn't overambitious and tries to create an epic conflict with hardly any substance to back it. The VN focuses on the mansion and its involved characters, locations and events, and that part is rather well done.
Character ranking: Yuri > Aya > Ririka > Fumika
Overall rating: 8/10
Besides my reread of Kara no Shoujo 2, this was probably the best VN I've read this year. I finished it well under a week, which is extremely fast for my standards.
 
Besides that, I finished two routes in Shin Koihime Eiyuutan, one good and one bad. But I stalled it for a while when Hyakki came up. The VN just offers short fan service routes anyway and I still dislike the mass over class with far too many heroines you're apparently involved with and you often don't even get the choice with whom you want to get involved with.

I also don't think I'll continue with Ikusa Megami Verita. Having two hero parties in a grinding game is just too much and I was neither impressed by the story nor the characters so far. I rather start a newer Eushully VN instead when I get motivated again.
I also had a look on what Atelier Kaguya's non-rebel studios had to offer for some 'light entertainment'. I tried out Love Tore form Team HonkyTonk Pumpkin first which turned out to be probably the best 'pure nukige' I've played so far. I played it's successor JD Onsen last year which impressed me with its outstanding animation quality but disappointed with its silly plot. Love Tore was more of a traditional dating sim and I liked the character designs a bit more, but the animation quality was just as good. Overall rating: 7.5/10
I then also I tried Niizuma Fuwa Toro from Team CheshireCat but it turned out as a quite disappointing 5/10. Though I'll also have a look on some of Team Bare & Bunny's newer releases, even if I still feel burned by the buggy crash festival that Baku Ane was.

I also started with Caucasus since MangaGamer doesn't seem to care about story VN's anymore. It was quite troublesome since it's the first VN I couldn't hook in Windows 10 and had to create a Win7 virtual machine just for it.

I actually had to look that up to remember it, but that was in a thread with a discussion about the translation quality of Tokyo Babel not in one of Clepahs' review threads. But that was actually an interesting thing in Dies Irae, I expected them to have lots of grammatical and spelling mistakes in the German sentences, but surprisingly it was pretty much all correct, at least the parts I checked (I didn't read all of them). I'm sure that they either had a translator with good German knowledge or an editor helping out.

BTW, I started reading Ourai no Gahkthun from Liarsoft. I had some trouble at first to get it working in Windows 10 since it always stopped working after 5 - 10 minutes, but after setting it to Windows 7 compatibility mode, it worked like a charm. The only small annoyances left are the small font size and the starting intro playing with approximately ~800 decibel sound intensity without any possible option to lower it. 
Technical problems aside, I'm positively surprised so far. When I read Shikkoku no Sharnoth years ago, I liked the atmosphere and setting, but the writing was a bit too poetic for my taste with a rather chaotic story flow - and not to forget the silly mini game. But Gahkthun seems to have kept all the things I liked, like the fascinating world building and the great atmosphere, but managed to get rid of all flaws from Sharnoth in the writing and story flow - at least so far. The fictional Offshore Academia city in France the story takes place gives me feelings of nostalgia from my visit of Paris last year, and the wonderful classic soundtrack further supports the whole mature feeling of the setting - it just oozes atmoshere. Neon is also a very likable character who fortunately avoids to fall into the trap of being cliché cute. Since the story is told from her perspective at the beginning, the VN has strong otome vibes. I just met Tesla so I can't say too much about him yet, but he looks pretty cool so far - I think the both will make a great couple.
So the first impression is pretty good - I can hardly believe that I was rather critical at the initial announcement years ago. Though it has yet to be seen if it can follow up to the good first impression.

I actually had to look that up to remember it, but that was in a thread with a discussion about the translation quality of Tokyo Babel not in one of Clepahs' review threads. But that was actually an interesting thing in Dies Irae, I expected them to have lots of grammatical and spelling mistakes in the German sentences, but surprisingly it was pretty much all correct, at least the parts I checked (I didn't read all of them). I'm sure that they either had a translator with good German knowledge or an editor helping out.

BTW, I started reading Ourai no Gahkthun from Liarsoft. I had some trouble at first to get it working in Windows 10 since it always stopped working after 5 - 10 minutes, but after setting it to Windows 7 compatibility mode, it worked like a charm. The only small annoyances left are the small font size and the starting intro playing with approximately ~800 decibel sound intensity without any possible option to lower it. 
Technical problems aside, I'm positively surprised so far. When I read Shikkoku no Sharnoth years ago, I liked the atmosphere and setting, but the writing was a bit too poetic for my taste with a rather chaotic story flow - and not to forget the silly mini game. But Gahkthun seems to have kept all the things I liked, like the fascinating world building and the great atmosphere, but managed to get rid of all flaws from Sharnoth in the writing and story flow - at least so far. The fictional Offshore Academia city in France the story takes place gives me feelings of nostalgia from my visit of Paris last year, and the wonderful classic soundtrack further supports the whole mature feeling of the setting - it just oozes atmoshere. Neon is also a very likable character who fortunately avoids to fall into the trap of being cliché cute. Since the story is told from her perspective at the beginning, the VN has strong otome vibes. I just met Tesla so I can't say too much about him yet, but he looks pretty cool so far - I think the both will make a great couple.
So the first impression is pretty good - I can hardly believe that I was rather critical at the initial announcement years ago. Though it has yet to be seen if it can follow up to the good first impression.

I actually had to look that up to remember it, but that was in a thread with a discussion about the translation quality of Tokyo Babel not in one of Clepahs' review threads. But that was actually an interesting thing in Dies Irae, I expected them to have lots of grammatical and spelling mistakes in the German sentences, but surprisingly it was pretty much all correct, at least the parts I checked (I didn't read all of them). I'm sure that they either had a translator with good German knowledge or an editor helping out.

BTW, I started reading Ourai no Gahkthun from Liarsoft. I had some trouble at first to get it working in Windows 10 since it always stopped working after 5 - 10 minutes, but after setting it to Windows 7 compatibility mode, it worked like a charm. The only small annoyances left are the small font size and the starting intro playing with approximately ~800 decibel sound intensity without any possible option to lower it. 
Technical problems aside, I'm positively surprised so far. When I read Shikkoku no Sharnoth years ago, I liked the atmosphere and setting, but the writing was a bit too poetic for my taste with a rather chaotic story flow - and not to forget the silly mini game. But Gahkthun seems to have kept all the things I liked, like the fascinating world building and the great atmosphere, but managed to get rid of all flaws from Sharnoth in the writing and story flow - at least so far. The fictional Offshore Academia city in France the story takes place gives me feelings of nostalgia from my visit of Paris last year, and the wonderful classic soundtrack further supports the whole mature feeling of the setting - it just oozes atmoshere. Neon is also a very likable character who fortunately avoids to fall into the trap of being cliché cute. Since the story is told from her perspective at the beginning, the VN has strong otome vibes. I just met Tesla so I can't say too much about him yet, but he looks pretty cool so far - I think the both will make a great couple.
So the first impression is pretty good - I can hardly believe that I was rather critical at the initial announcement years ago. Though it has yet to be seen if it can follow up to the good first impression.

https://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/690-sorcery-jokers-it-surprised-clephas-will-it-surprise-you/

He brought up Subahibi as an example of a highly rated VN.
He then explained why he didn't like Subahibi, and brought up Euphoria as another example of something he can believe is good, but not good for him.
So the answer to your question would, most likely, be the hardcore scenes, as he said.
But I'm not him. I wouldn't know.

Yeah, that's precisely what I'm worried about. VN's rated around 8.5 or higher are often full of pseudo-intellectual bogus and whining, with an extra bonus for snail-pacing and repetitive time loops. For example, stuff like Subahibi is definitely the last thing I'd want to read, despite the high rating.
Usually I have a better hit rate with VN's in the higher sevens or lower eights. 

Hmm, you might want to give Kira Kira a try. The whole band goes on tour theme felt somewhat more mature and realistic than the vast majority of moe blob VN's.
If drama is a plus for you, you can also try ef - a fairy tale of the two or Eden*. Both are very emotional and deal with some heavy themes.
Da Capo 2 and Clannad are also two nakige classics that have a good mixture of romance and drama and aren't already on the heavy utsuge side like the two previously mentioned Minori titles.

No. While everyone involved bears some blame, Nutaku probably bears the brunt of it. Likely all the licensor did wrong was pick the wrong localizer.  For two reasons:
1) Nutaku has pulled similar stunts before.  In fact, they got caught censoring a game, then used the DMCA to take down articles criticizing them over it.  After this, they said they planned to censor less. They also committed to being open and fully disclosing whenever they think they have to censor something.  See here and here (around the 10 min mark). For this reason alone, Nutaku deserves flak, either for incompetence (announcing a game is censored really isn't a hard commitment to live up to), or for deliberately lying.
2) Let's consider the field of Nutaku competitors here.
Jast USA.  I seem to recall Jast actually did the virgin blood thing once.  I think in addition to XC3's loli problems, some blood was also censored.  That was a long time ago, and it seems like Peter actually learned his lesson from the ensuing uproar.  As for traps, Jast USA localized two full-on BL VNs.  I'm fairly confident Jast wouldn't demand/make either change. MangaGamer.  Some MG titles have a fair amount of virgin blood. They seem fine with it.  As for traps, they've yet to do a game with a trap 'heroine'.  But they've done a trap protag and a reverse trap.  They've also done well with BL titles; with otome titles; and with their one GxB title (so far).  I can't see MangaGamer making either of those changes, either. Denpasoft.  I've never heard of Denpasoft ever censoring anything.  And SP/Denpasoft had that gender bender BL title they tried to Kickstart.  Sure, it didn't work.  But they tried. I can't see any of these three companies making either of these changes.  All three of the big names probably would have left well enough alone.  But if you believe that, doesn't that basically mean that the only reason the game ended up censored was because it was released by Nutaku?  Which would indeed make it their fault.

Do not worry about Takuru (Chaos;Child's protagonist) : he's pretty smart, proactive and he's not a hikikomori or an antisocial otaku Having said that, yes He's kinda odd (maybe because He's a bit shy or reserved), he's not very charismatic and He's a bit arrogant ("I know everything/They don't") and stubborn...But, believe me, He's seriously less annoying than Takumi/Chaos;Head's protagonist

While I can't exactly say that I'd shed a tear for loosing a trap route, the message Nutaku is sending with that action is questionable at best. You could get the idea that Nutaku's 'moral codex' doesn't go along as well with gay relationships as expected from an open-minded and liberal company. They could get some very bad publicity because of that.
If they dislike the content of the VN so much that they are cutting large junks of it, then I wonder why they decided to translate that VN in the first place. I mean, the number of untranslated VN's is still huge, so it shouldn't have been particularly hard to find one to their liking.

So, I finally finished Caucasus.  This was the one VN from Innocent Grey I still wanted to read, even if it's in Japanese. Since it had a considerably lower rating than the Kara no Shojo series I did expect some weaknesses, although I wasn't really sure what they might be. Well, I was about to find out soon enough when I started reading.
Caucasus has a lot in common with the last Japanese VN I read, Hyakki Ryouran no Yakata. So much in fact, that I'd say the latter was at least inspired by the former. In both VN's the protagonist is a university student in folklore that stumbles into a mysterious mansion by accident where strange things are happening. Though here you're accompanied by a girl instead of being alone. But there's also a wedding ceremony going on, in this case between the youngest daughter of the Nanatsuki family - Shion - and her fiance Rokuyou.
An interesting thing about Caucasus was that some tags indicated that it might have some supernatural elements. Though, having read it now, this assumption was wrong. That's not saying that the tags were wrong, I just interpreted them in a different way. Without spoiling too much, the story is inspired a bit by a certain historic person with the name Elisabeth Báthory.

Caucasus is a typical case of making one step forward but two steps backwards. While IG's previous VN Kara no Shoujo had some detective gameplay elements, it was still mostly a VN with some investigation scenes at certain points. In Caucasus they decided to go full out with the detective gameplay and combine it with the map location choices. That means there are now frequent map movement sections where you can freely decide where to go, and every location can investigated and every person questioned. For each of this sections this can be done multiple times until a timer runs out. While this system might be great for detective enthusiasts, there are unfortunately so many possible things to do and consider now that it made the VN literally incomprehensible without using a guide. Actually, it made me think countless time about the recent thread about VN's with too many choices, since this was certainly a prime example for such a case.
They also had the glorious idea to give almost every girl a happy ending. While the idea sounds great in theory, the execution was 'questionable' to say the least. The usual strategy to win a girl in a VN is to try to spend as much as possible with her. Technically that's also the case here, just not really the way you'd think how. So in order to win a girl in Caucasus you have to... question her. No kidding, during the investigation sequences you not only have to investigate locations, you also have to pay your chosen one a visit, usually about ~2 times and just do nothing or question her about the murder case. Usually there's at least a slice of life sequence to get to know the girl even in other VN's from Innocent Grey, but not here. That was really, really lazy from IG. 

Furthermore, although you can get most girls there are technically still just two endings, not counting the bad ones. The normal one and the true one. The normal one can be gotten for Akane, Narumi, Ai, Venio and Shion while the true one can be Venio, Shion and another one I don't want to spoil here. Though Shion is not really winnable, at least in the true ending. So if you want to really get all the endings for each girl you have to replay an insane amount of investigation sequences since you can't just skip them. Overall, the best is to decide for one girl for each ending and just get a 100% save to get the rest of the CG's.
That's not to say it would be all bad. The plot is interesting, and the characters look and act authentic and the story sections are well told even if they are far too often interrupted by investigation sequences. There's also a large story block told towards the end through a book which should have better been revealed bit by bit during the story instead. The story also isn't as grim as Kara no Shoujo and you can save pretty much every girl which was nice. On the other hand, the infamous perpetrator scenes were missing and just replaced by a few H-scenes which dragged the thrill and suspense a bit down. The art also has IG's great trademark art style.
Overall, I think it's still a good story VN even if it's clearly weaker than Kara no Shoujo. I'd say it's roughly on par with Cartagra even if both have different strengths and weaknesses. In case of Caucasus the main weakness is without question the detective gameplay. They should have skipped or at least reduced it a bit and flesh out the story further instead.
Heroine rankings: Narumi > Souko = Shion > Venio = Ai > Akane
Overall rating: 7.5/10
I also tried two more nukige from Atelier Kaguya. The first one being Konomama dato Otouto from Honkytonk Pumpkin which was far too fetishy and overall the weakest title from this particular team so far (5.5/10). And the second one was Baku Ane 2 from Bare & Bunny which was kind of okayish even if I expected more (6.5/10). I hope the new Shigokare will be better.
 
On the story front the next two VN's I will try are Reminiscence from Tigre Soft and Haruru Minamo ni! from Clochette. I hope the former will be better than its predecessor Akatsuki no Goei while the second one will be my first VN from Clochette, so I'm eager to see how it turns out.
And yeah, I'm still trying to finish Shin Koihime † Eiyuutan anytime soon. I really hate that you're supposed to be in a relationship with literally everyone. It's almost as bad as in Moeshuden. Maybe not just as bad, since some routes actually focus on a certain girl, but others are just a huge clusterfuck.