ChaosRaven

Just want to get two VN's off my list I didn't like too much and therefore dropped.

The first is Kin'iro Loveriche - a story about a boy accidentally ending up in a noble private academy for rich kids. Felt a bit like a poor man's Yuzusoft VN. Not the worst thing to be compared with, but the VN has a few peculiarities which I found rather off-putting. First, the protagonist is lazy, dumb and perverse, which made the whole heroine cast fawning over him rather unbelievable. Carrying tons of porn magazines around, drawing nude girls in lessons instead of studying and 'enlighten' his comrades about new fetishes on a daily base like a pimp. And not to mention the running gag going on about his countless hardcore sex fetishes - you get the picture!
That said, I wouldn't go so far to say that he's a bad guy, and his interactions with Ria in particular were almost mature and well above the rest. Unfortunately, besides Ria the rest of the cast was pretty generic. I played Elle's route, which was trash, with no chemistry whatsoever between the two and little to no plot. I also tried Sylvia's route, but almost died of boredom and Sylvia's absolutely bland personality didn't help either. And I found Reina's 'I'm more lude than you' attitude pretty annoying, so I just skipped it. Maybe Ria's would have been better, but it just wasn't worth having to go through all the other routes, just to 'maybe' get a decent route. Besides Ria, I had an odd liking for Akane, but she didn't seem ready for a relationship yet and especially not with the protagonist.
Though to be fair, it's not the worst moege you can play and I've certainly played worse. However, this VN had a strong 'lude & cute' vibe going on, which I simply found unfitting and tasteless. Just not my cup of tea.
Heroine ranking: Ria > Akane > Don't care
Overall rating 5/10

I also played Amatsutsumi, but didn't like it. First, from the three Purplesoft VN's I've played so far, this was certainly the most boring one by far, with absolutely nothing happening whatsover. But well, a VN can still get decent without much plot if it offers at least good romance. However, the protagonist was apparently taken straight out of a nukige. Pretty much a walking boner who barely thinks about anything else than sex and seems to think that the world is his personal brothel. He therefore bangs all the heroines already in the common route - who needs a romance anyway? Ironically, the VN would have been way better if it would have been at least honest enough to fully commit to a nukige. Instead it tried an inbetween ride with the most misplaced and unfitting H-scenes you can imagine. Kinda "Oh I'm so down and depressed - let's f*ck?!" cringe.
I also found the character designs - with the exception of Mana maybe - rather bland in comparison to previous works, with HapyMaher in particular standing out with an incredible audio-visual design. Though, to be fair, the visual effects of many backgrounds (usually involving water) in this VN are off the charts.
While all PurpleSoft VN's I have read so far had their issues, they at least got the basics of romance right. This VN fails even at that. So yeah, if that's the future of PurpleSoft VN's, it'll be a future without me.
Heroine ranking: Don't care
Overall rating: 3/10 (I added one bonus point for the visual effects)

Just want to get two VN's off my list I didn't like too much and therefore dropped.

The first is Kin'iro Loveriche - a story about a boy accidentally ending up in a noble private academy for rich kids. Felt a bit like a poor man's Yuzusoft VN. Not the worst thing to be compared with, but the VN has a few peculiarities which I found rather off-putting. First, the protagonist is lazy, dumb and perverse, which made the whole heroine cast fawning over him rather unbelievable. Carrying tons of porn magazines around, drawing nude girls in lessons instead of studying and 'enlighten' his comrades about new fetishes on a daily base like a pimp. And not to mention the running gag going on about his countless hardcore sex fetishes - you get the picture!
That said, I wouldn't go so far to say that he's a bad guy, and his interactions with Ria in particular were almost mature and well above the rest. Unfortunately, besides Ria the rest of the cast was pretty generic. I played Elle's route, which was trash, with no chemistry whatsoever between the two and little to no plot. I also tried Sylvia's route, but almost died of boredom and Sylvia's absolutely bland personality didn't help either. And I found Reina's 'I'm more lude than you' attitude pretty annoying, so I just skipped it. Maybe Ria's would have been better, but it just wasn't worth having to go through all the other routes, just to 'maybe' get a decent route. Besides Ria, I had an odd liking for Akane, but she didn't seem ready for a relationship yet and especially not with the protagonist.
Though to be fair, it's not the worst moege you can play and I've certainly played worse. However, this VN had a strong 'lude & cute' vibe going on, which I simply found unfitting and tasteless. Just not my cup of tea.
Heroine ranking: Ria > Akane > Don't care
Overall rating 5/10

I also played Amatsutsumi, but didn't like it. First, from the three Purplesoft VN's I've played so far, this was certainly the most boring one by far, with absolutely nothing happening whatsover. But well, a VN can still get decent without much plot if it offers at least good romance. However, the protagonist was apparently taken straight out of a nukige. Pretty much a walking boner who barely thinks about anything else than sex and seems to think that the world is his personal brothel. He therefore bangs all the heroines already in the common route - who needs a romance anyway? Ironically, the VN would have been way better if it would have been at least honest enough to fully commit to a nukige. Instead it tried an inbetween ride with the most misplaced and unfitting H-scenes you can imagine. Kinda "Oh I'm so down and depressed - let's f*ck?!" cringe.
I also found the character designs - with the exception of Mana maybe - rather bland in comparison to previous works, with HapyMaher in particular standing out with an incredible audio-visual design. Though, to be fair, the visual effects of many backgrounds (usually involving water) in this VN are off the charts.
While all PurpleSoft VN's I have read so far had their issues, they at least got the basics of romance right. This VN fails even at that. So yeah, if that's the future of PurpleSoft VN's, it'll be a future without me.
Heroine ranking: Don't care
Overall rating: 3/10 (I added one bonus point for the visual effects)

It's time for Getchu Awards again, even though it's later than usual. The winner for Getchu Awards 2022 here is Hentai Prison, and I'll list top 20 below. Oh yes, as usual you can view the source from this link.
1. Hentai Prison - Qruppo

2. Jewelry Hearts Academia -We will wing wonder world- - Cabbage Soft

3. Hamidashi Creative Totsu - Madosoft

4. Ambitious Mission - Saga Planets
5. Same to Ikiru Nanokakan - Cube

6. Tsui no Stella - Key

7. Unless Terminalia - Whirlpool

-
8. Motto! Haramase! Honoo no Oppai Isekai Oppai Maid Gakuen! - Milk Factory
9. Criminal Border: 1st Offence - Purple Software

10. Houkago Cinderella 2 - Hooksoft

11. Futamata Ren'ai - ASa Project

12. Anetomo - Atelier Kaguya Bare & Bunny
13. Study Steady 2 - Marmalade

14. Ao no Kanats no Four Rhythm EXTRA 2 - sprite

The after story for Misaki.
15. RE:D Cherish - CRYSTALiA
16. Amanatsu - Azarashi Soft

17. Role player: Tororo Shimai no Nenmaku Portrait - Gurigucha LIVE! - AKABEiSOFT2
18. Yuunagi-sou no S-kyuu no Kanojo-tachi - Moonstone Cherry
19. Tomodachi Kara Koibito e - Azarashi Soft

20. Mahou Senshi FINAL IGNITION - Triangle
Of course as usual we have the awards for each categories, and here's the best VNs for each categories.
Best Scenario: Hentai Prison Best Game System: Role player: Tororo Shimai no Nenmaku Portrait - Gurigucha LIVE! Best Graphic: Unless Terminalia Best Soundtrack: Jewelry Hearts Academia -We will wing wonder world- Best Movie: Hentai Prison Best Character: Izumi Hiyori from Hamidashi Creative Totsu Best Erotic Contents: Motto! Haramase! Honoo no Oppai Isekai Oppai Maid Gakuen! Well it's interesting to note that both of high rated VNs for both RAW and the translated version are happen to be fandisc, moreso with Aokana EXTRA2 is conveniently available for both sides with it currently has the best average score for translated VN in 2022 on VNDB, although the one who vote for Getchu are apparently prefer Hamidashi Creative Totsu (I still lament on how Sekai decide to release the main game in Chinese language first despite that it make sense from business perspective). Anyway once again I'll try to comment more on this later, but if anything else at least we'll going to have two VNs from top 20 being translated, with another VN is Tsui no Stella that Key already announced the localization of it.

Late to mention this. As of now Tokyo Necro already has it's Steam store opened along with JAST store, and now you can do pre-order for it in JAST store. The tweet in regard of that below.
Unfortunately though as you can see, there's still no exact release date for this, so not much that we can do other than waiting. I just hope that the wait won't be too long here.

Felt in the mood to read some trapped VNs, idk why 🤷‍♂️ happy holidays 🎅🎄

Killer Queen - it's a 2006 isolated trapped / killing game ruleset type story. Being 2006 it's one of the earlier attempts at such a genre, and boy does it really show. I totally didn't care for the characters, and the shit that happens was very yawn inducing, nothing special and just drags. Doesn't help that the protagonist is a total pacifist, geebus writers that ain't gonna work in this type of narrative rofl 5/10. There was a remake in 2008 with a bit more moeified artwork and a more fleshed out story (~2-3x the length of the original) but not translated.
 
The Sekimeiya: Spun Glass - Ok so, you want some trapped mystery sci-fi and you've already read all the Root Doubles and Ever17s and Zero Escapes, look no further. This VNs got 8 characters trapped in a gemstone exhibit museum called Ashiya Tower centered around the mysterious gemstone- the Sekimeiya itself- and they'll be in for a world of mindscrews- including you.

The blue haired gal above is Shiroya. Best girl of course.
Sekimeiya's made by amateur group Trinitite (their Twitter page says "Three people working to create plot-focused visual novels") so it unfortunately means that there's only like 10 CGs in a 25-35hr reading experience, and no voice acting, but other than that this VN is pretty well made.
The writing is... very dense, to put it lightly. This is a VN where you can and will easily lose track of wtf is going on simply due to its sci fi mystery nature and so by the end of it when it is truth seeking infodumping time and the VN starts recapping everything and asking you to fill in the blanks it can be very  but everything IS technically answered and/or can be deduced. The protagonist himself Atsuki can get very longwinded when something mindscrewy happens and it can be tiresome to listen to his self theory-crafting (which he will do ALOT):

5 minutes later something happens, and then you'll get another wall of text like this, no joke.

There is a built in chapter/scene summary where you can input your own notes, an ingame map of the building, and a backlog where you can literally Cntrl-F to search through the text to help you keep track of things, but I just powered through this VN and took the twists and turns as they came without stressing too much being on top of things. You should pretty much be able to theorize the bigger stuff going on, and it's just the little nuances where you'll just have to take the L because yeah like I'm gonna remember what X person did Y time ago after A person did this B time ago etc etc.
You only get access to the absolute disgusting mess of a flowchart when you finish the game and I guess want to spend additional time bridging the gaps of whatever you might've missed:
 
~~
8/10 Here's my end results lol. They had the gall to have an entire stats thing of what % questions readers got right and whatnot. Pretty interesting stuff though.

I got 41/94 (43%), putting me right in the middle of the pack of ~63% of players getting 30-49% of the ?'s right. Top 5% of readers who got 70%+ ?'s right: I call BS LOL they must've used a walkthrough or something!!

In our case, a blindfold is an advantage, if anything:) After all, we all know that the boss's strongest move in Japanese games is "おかえりなさいませ、ご主人さま", and "お風呂にする？ご飯にする？それとも...わ-た-し？" to finish you off:) Thank you for your support!
 
Thank you! We plan to do it in small increments and will post the next update very soon:)

Wow, someone really tried to tackle Shin Koihime Kakumei?! In translation world that's almost like trying to kill the hardest boss of a Souls game carrying a blindfold. 
The best of luck with it! I've read the other two parts already, and I'll probably start reading this one soon to complete the trilogy.

Shin Koihime † Musou -Kakumei- Souten no Haou - vndb
A fan transation project by Satoshi's team
Patch 0.15(ch1) - MEGA

 
Title: Shin Koihime † Musou -Kakumei- Souten no Haou | 真・恋姫†夢想-革命- 蒼天の覇王
Release date: 2017-07-28
Translation updated: 22.03.2023
Game/Creator: Baseson
Mod/Translation Version: 0.13 (Chapter 1)
Game Version: 1.1
Language: English
Note: The novel consists of the story and game elements (battles), which you need to win to unlock the next part of the story. For now, we're translating only the story.
Features:
Installation:
Screenshots:
Project Introduction / Satoshi's logbook
13.12.2022
07.01.2023
Changelog:
Editor: recruiting
CG Editor: recruiting
Translator(russian-english): recruiting
Translator(japan-english): recruiting

Looks like it might not contain the contents from Superior.  It does contain Mitori and Hishia's routes though.  Superior is a non-heroine path that branches off the events of Saku's path.

It's actually good to hear that a lot of stuff is coming out. But yeah, I can see that it can get a bit too much to list them all. Though, it might be a decent compromise to list 20 nominees or so and then pick the top five of them. That should usually cover all major releases. Just an idea though...
Certainly true for Chaos;Head - the protagonist is rather... unique to put it mildly. It's actually one of the rare cases I liked the anime more than the VN, since the time you have to endure him in his pathetic state is much shorter. I didn't have that endurance in the VN. 
I liked Flowers 3 by far the most. Though, Yatsushiro is my favorite character, so I might be a bit biased here. 
Regarding Flowers 4, I like how Shirahane has developed and Rikka is certainly a lot more bearable than she was in part 1. But the episode was supposed to bring back more of the mystery elements and so far I've seen nothing of it.
That said, I'm eagerly awaiting the annoucement of Kara no Shoujo 3 for a western release. And I don't really care if MangaGamer, Jast or any other publisher is doing it.

Usually when people talk about their favorite BGM in visual novels they talk about specific songs. However in this video I want to talk about my personal top 10 favorite overall soundtracks in visual novel series.
 
 
 
 
 

We've just posted our annual Top Visual Novels Of 2022 / Upcoming Visual Novels Of 2023 list
As always, we're curious what everyone else thinks.
What did you think of our choices? Keeping in mind the proviso: the list is subjective and based on the games that we have personally played. There's also potential for recent releases to be added in later, like Witch on the Holy Night, which we haven't played yet.
What would your choices be for the top visual novels of 2022? It's not been an amazing year, but there have been some great titles.
Which visual novels are you looking forward to in 2023?

Tobisawa Misaki's fans may finally rejoice, because Aokana Four Rhythm Across the Blue - Extra2 is finally out! It's a tad bit more expensive than Extra1 it seems.  

asasasas

Well, I'll wait for a PC release. 

Well, I'll wait for a PC release. 

Circus is really milking this series huh. Honestly, I think 2 was the best and after that it's downhill. I guess someone is buying them tho. I would not hold my breath on MG localizing this as they have not done so for Da Capo 4 or even mentioned it at all.

If you have followed the TGS2022 and did not get overwhelmed, then you are probably made of steel and you have capacities that I would be proud of. There have been more than 470 companies present and most big publishers and AAA companies announces a ton of amazing things. This definitely overwhelms our website's field of interest, so we told @Hiromi to go research a little into the relevant part for us. And hey, the amount of shown (not exclusively announced there) new visual novel projects is still overseeable. Without further ado, let's begin!
 
So, I've done some research. English sources seem to focus on AAA titles like CoD and Tekken. And when they do bring up anime style games, these are mostly RPG and action games.
I googled "TGS 22 ノベルゲーム" and was rewarded with some discoveries:
Indies
 1) Binary Syndrome https://store.steampowered.com/app/2003300/_/ PC-98 style ADV. The game system reminds me of titles you find on Asenheim (Ring Out, Scoop titles, etc.) (so obscure it is not even on VNDB LOL)
2) Coffee Talk Ep. 2 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1663220/Coffee_Talk_Episode_2_Hibiscus__Butterfly/ Pixel art OELVN. VA-11 Hall-A, but as a barista. Not newly announced, but not released yet. Slated for 2023.
3) Ihanashi no Majo https://store.steampowered.com/app/1950570/_/ "Kinetic Novel" with around 10 hr length. Cute art. A boy moves to an island in Okinawa and meets a tanned girl from overseas. (JP/CH only Download release in October!)
4) Trolley Problem Inc. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1582680/Trolley_Problem_Inc/ Text adventure with narrative choices. Philosophical themes and dark humor. (Not on VNDB, most likely doesn't qualify? Out for a while now, still interesting. Even got a video by xqc)
5) Chigau!!!+ https://studio-thursday.work/chigau+/#/ Orthodox Bishoujo-ge... But with meta elements like DDLC: Some heroines remember what happens in their own route, even when you're in another girl's route.
These are some of the indie VN titles which were represented on the TGS in the section Indie Games Selection. https://tgs.nikkeibp.co.jp/tgs/2022/jp/contents/indie81.html I think I've caught all the VNs from these 77 titles. That's barely 6% of the total.
Big announcements
6.) Aoishiro & Akai Ito After like 20 years, there is a remaster bundling Akai Ito & Aoishiro in one for Switch & PC. We have already seen this announcement in another thread and the VNTS, but it might be worth announcing it here too. It contains Mystery-Folklore setting with gay girls. Also it supports English language!
7. Seabed Audio Novel Collection Speaking of gay girls, @PhleBuster(Fruitbat Factory) was also at TGS2022 and they announce that they will be releasing the Seabed Audio Novel Collection. It has been translated by Steiner, so it will be more quality. The original game is a Conjueror work, rip him
Here's everything. While only the last two are proper announcements and the other games earlier were just showcased in that event, I still believe just for Aoishiro & Akai Ito this year's TGS was worth it. Maybe it is also worth it to keep paying attention to such events in the following years..?

Missed anything? Please comment!

So, like usual, they release nothing on PC? 

So, like usual, they release nothing on PC? 

So, like usual, they release nothing on PC? 

Finished some more VN's so I guess it's about time for an update.

First is Summer Pockets which I just finished a few days ago. Reflection Blue wasn't out yet when I started reading, and I didn't want to switch inbetween, so I've only read the vanilla version so far. Overall, it was a rather fluffy moege with one of the most likable heroine casts I've seen in a Key VN so far. Usually there are few hits but also some misses for me, but here I liked all of the 4 heroines with routes. It's also the first time that the actual main heroine (Shiroha) was also my favorite. Granted, that was also the case for Angel Beats, but I just watched the anime for that.
Admittedly, the likable character cast might also have something to do with the nice visuals, since it's probably the best looking Key game to date. At least regarding the character designs. It might be worth noting that they had several character designers. Ao was clearly stolen from Izumi Tsubasu - Palette's main artist. I recognize her character designs from miles away. But also the other artists did a good job. Na-Ga in particular certainly improved a lot since his early times with Key. Just the backgrounds felt a bit more uneven though, with some of them looking rather cheaply made.
Music was okay, but I think earlier Key works had more memorable soundtracks. Still on the good side though.
That said, there were still some things that were bugging me (like usual). First, the writing was frequently a bit hit and miss. Especially the lewd jokes felt a bit too much at times. While Ao was mostly still on the okayish side, Shizuku frequently felt like she was a cheap hentai chick from Boob Wars. The level of sexism towards her character reached almost misogynic levels at times (nickname 'Boobies'?!?) which I frankly found inappropriate for a Key novel. Ryouchi's stripping fetish also got old pretty fast. Still not entirely sure if he's supposed fan-service for female readers or just a plain joke character.
Something I'm also a bit irritated about is its nakige tag. While I do think it's a decent moege, the nakige parts at the end of each route felt a bit short compared to the rather extensive slice-of-life and comedy parts. That's not to say they were bad and it's certainly not about the addition of pointless melodrama. I just wished they sticked with the more serious mood a bit longer and went a bit deeper into the actual mysteries.
Which brings us to the actual 'true' routes that were supposed to shed some light into the events... (Warning: Incoming mini rant!)
So, let's start with Alka - the first of the after routes. First, it tells a lot about the effort put into a route, if literally 50% of it are straight up copy & paste from one of the heroine routes. And to add insult to injury, the other half felt pretty much like a baby-phone recording.
Overall, the whole route felt so unnatural and forced that it was almost creepy to read. Just not in a good and exciting way of creepiness. I ended up just skipping a lot of it...
Fortunately, the final Pocket route was a better. It was still rather short and didn't add a lot of meat to the story, but at least it was way less annoying to read than Alka and also didn't just copy & paste half of its content. While it did highlight the relationship of certain characters, it still kept major things too vague or not explained at all. Most of the relevation seemed about stuff that wasn't even a thing in the main routes.
As a short sidenote, the VN actually reminded me more of Da Capo 2 than other key VN's. The whole island theme with mysterious phenomenons affecting the heroines ; the location structure at the start to decide which heroine to go for ; two sidekicks instead of just one. There were a lot of similarities. Just that Da Capo 2 explained its themes way better, had overall more substance and was actually a real nakige and not just a moege. That said, its heroine cast was more uneven. Summer Pockets really shines in that regard.
Okay, after the bashing, some more compliments again. Regarding the parent & family theme the VN tries so hard to force in its after routes, it did a way better job in the actual main parts about that. The interaction between Kyouko, Hairi and Umi felt very natural and heart warming. Kyouko was a very well written adult character with a strong parent role. And Umi also wasn't just another loli to ****.
Heroine ranking: Shiroha > Ao > Tsumugi > Kamome
Overall rating: 7/10
Actually, after Alka I was very close to rating it down to 6.5, but after some time to vent and considering I read and enjoyed all the heroine routes to some degree, I think a 7 is fair. Just wished it had a bit more substance. The high rating on VNDB is a bit puzzling in that regard. Though, it includes Reflection Blue that might have improved some things. At least I hope it's more that than just blatant Key fanboyism.
Hm, the review got a bit longer than I thought. Guess I'll stop here now and make a separate post for the two other two VN's I've finished in the meantime (well, one of them just dropped). They'll get shorter reviews anyway.

Finished some more VN's so I guess it's about time for an update.

First is Summer Pockets which I just finished a few days ago. Reflection Blue wasn't out yet when I started reading, and I didn't want to switch inbetween, so I've only read the vanilla version so far. Overall, it was a rather fluffy moege with one of the most likable heroine casts I've seen in a Key VN so far. Usually there are few hits but also some misses for me, but here I liked all of the 4 heroines with routes. It's also the first time that the actual main heroine (Shiroha) was also my favorite. Granted, that was also the case for Angel Beats, but I just watched the anime for that.
Admittedly, the likable character cast might also have something to do with the nice visuals, since it's probably the best looking Key game to date. At least regarding the character designs. It might be worth noting that they had several character designers. Ao was clearly stolen from Izumi Tsubasu - Palette's main artist. I recognize her character designs from miles away. But also the other artists did a good job. Na-Ga in particular certainly improved a lot since his early times with Key. Just the backgrounds felt a bit more uneven though, with some of them looking rather cheaply made.
Music was okay, but I think earlier Key works had more memorable soundtracks. Still on the good side though.
That said, there were still some things that were bugging me (like usual). First, the writing was frequently a bit hit and miss. Especially the lewd jokes felt a bit too much at times. While Ao was mostly still on the okayish side, Shizuku frequently felt like she was a cheap hentai chick from Boob Wars. The level of sexism towards her character reached almost misogynic levels at times (nickname 'Boobies'?!?) which I frankly found inappropriate for a Key novel. Ryouchi's stripping fetish also got old pretty fast. Still not entirely sure if he's supposed fan-service for female readers or just a plain joke character.
Something I'm also a bit irritated about is its nakige tag. While I do think it's a decent moege, the nakige parts at the end of each route felt a bit short compared to the rather extensive slice-of-life and comedy parts. That's not to say they were bad and it's certainly not about the addition of pointless melodrama. I just wished they sticked with the more serious mood a bit longer and went a bit deeper into the actual mysteries.
Which brings us to the actual 'true' routes that were supposed to shed some light into the events... (Warning: Incoming mini rant!)
So, let's start with Alka - the first of the after routes. First, it tells a lot about the effort put into a route, if literally 50% of it are straight up copy & paste from one of the heroine routes. And to add insult to injury, the other half felt pretty much like a baby-phone recording.
Overall, the whole route felt so unnatural and forced that it was almost creepy to read. Just not in a good and exciting way of creepiness. I ended up just skipping a lot of it...
Fortunately, the final Pocket route was a better. It was still rather short and didn't add a lot of meat to the story, but at least it was way less annoying to read than Alka and also didn't just copy & paste half of its content. While it did highlight the relationship of certain characters, it still kept major things too vague or not explained at all. Most of the relevation seemed about stuff that wasn't even a thing in the main routes.
As a short sidenote, the VN actually reminded me more of Da Capo 2 than other key VN's. The whole island theme with mysterious phenomenons affecting the heroines ; the location structure at the start to decide which heroine to go for ; two sidekicks instead of just one. There were a lot of similarities. Just that Da Capo 2 explained its themes way better, had overall more substance and was actually a real nakige and not just a moege. That said, its heroine cast was more uneven. Summer Pockets really shines in that regard.
Okay, after the bashing, some more compliments again. Regarding the parent & family theme the VN tries so hard to force in its after routes, it did a way better job in the actual main parts about that. The interaction between Kyouko, Hairi and Umi felt very natural and heart warming. Kyouko was a very well written adult character with a strong parent role. And Umi also wasn't just another loli to ****.
Heroine ranking: Shiroha > Ao > Tsumugi > Kamome
Overall rating: 7/10
Actually, after Alka I was very close to rating it down to 6.5, but after some time to vent and considering I read and enjoyed all the heroine routes to some degree, I think a 7 is fair. Just wished it had a bit more substance. The high rating on VNDB is a bit puzzling in that regard. Though, it includes Reflection Blue that might have improved some things. At least I hope it's more that than just blatant Key fanboyism.
Hm, the review got a bit longer than I thought. Guess I'll stop here now and make a separate post for the two other two VN's I've finished in the meantime (well, one of them just dropped). They'll get shorter reviews anyway.

Yep, that's me - I'm not touching MB, euphoria and similar stuff with a ten feet pole

Nice, I'm happy I was able to buy VN's and I'm going to buy more VN's when I get chance.

Here's a hot take
How the hell did Subahibi get an overwhelming majority 9+/10 ratings (avg 8.68) on VNDB?
Yeah, sure, innocent lighthearted SoL beginnings turned GOTCHA! pyschological multiple viewpoints wtfmux that rabbit?! delusional EnDSkY savior bonanza
But nothing that made me feel like goddamn, this is a 10/10 masterpiece!@#. 
I gave it a 7/Good. Gets too rapey at times. And Takuji can go suck it.

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I feel bad for people who followed 9-Nine since its first episode released in 2017 and had to wait until 2020+ to get the final episode. Idk how episodic releases fare against just making one complete VN, but whatever floats your boat. I got the luxury of finding out about this VN in 2022, so huzzah me, can just marathon the whole thing!
9 9 was fun. It's another modern day high school setting with a dash of the supernatural/superpowers. Good balance of highschool SoL Romance and Supernatural Overarching Plot Build Up to keep things interesting, with 4 Episodes to keep ya busy and add to the superpower lore(each Episode is dedicated to one of the 4 heroines, yee Enforced Route Playthroughs). The payoff when you finally get to Episode 4 is similar to, if not only a fraction of, the payoff you'd get from making the trek from Muv Luv to Muv Luv Alternate. Things can get pretty high stakes and epic, just don't uh, overload. Heh.

7/10 Ep 1-2,
8/10 Ep 3,
9/10 Ep 4.
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I was gonna do a misc. thoughts for both Subahibi and 9-Nine, but uhhh I kinda got too lazy, srrz. And I kinda just wanna start reading: