ChaosRaven

Played more today and it was quite a ride so far. I was almost glued to the screen because there was so much tension with one event coming after another. Fortunately, the title switched a gear back now from its speed to give the characters some time to calm down and reflect on the events. Besides the radiation problem there were some
that really made me curious about what's going on. I also think I started a love triangle between Kazami and Ena. At least I hope so. 
I think I'm also slowly getting used to the Senses Symphathy System - which means I'm getting used to dying. It really does a fantastic job... in sending you straight to hell because of some simple 'misunderstanding'. I guess there must be some relationship to the AI of the first Resident Evil movie, because the system can be a real bitch. Usually it goes like this:
Scene 1:
SSS: "Do you want to do A which makes you look like a coward, or B which is courageous but more dangerous?"
Me: "Hmm, B of course!"
SSS: "Sorry, you die because you were too careless and foolish."
Me: "Shit!" 
Scene 2:
SSS: "Do you want to do A which makes you look like a coward, or B which is courageous but more dangerous?"
Me: "Not again darling, this time I choose A!"
SSS: "Sorry, you die because you hesitated too much."
Me: "You're kidding!?" 
Scene 3:
SSS: "Do you want to do A which makes you look like a coward, or B which is courageous but more dangerous?"
Me: "It's clear that it's B this time, but I don't know how to trigger it because I can't figure out the right combination for the six sympathy sliders."
SSS: "Sorry, you die because you acted like a coward."
Me: "Hrrrnnnghhhh!!!" 

Uncensoring a piece of work is creating a derivative work. A derivative work changes the work in question. This change can impact how an artist is perceived or viewed, and can impact their reputation. Sayori is quite famous and maybe worries how this might affect her (?), so has exercised her right to control derivative works. Nothing really groundbreaking here, or anything to get worked up over, TBH.
Anyway I'm a little shoddy on law, but I think what I said is accurate, and you can't fault the reasoning behind this also. The people publishing this modified stuff won't have to deal with any repercussions that modification may create, so they really have little moral standing here.

After the whole censoring theater with MangaGamer's Minori titles, I'm not surprised at all about this. Some people in the business are simply extremely paranoid that the uncensored art might get back to Japan and that they are facing a lawsuit because of that. I once heard that a director of a company that released uncensored art went to prison because of that, so I do have some understanding that they don't want to take unnecessary risks.

one minute they are drawing tentacle rape to some loli and the next one they dont want to show their draws uncensored, that's the Japanese thinking for you  it's a puzzle for us westerns, but hey it makes sense for them so who are we to judge them, in the end is her decision (her art) no matter the reasons behind it we need to accept it.

Well, I already backed it months ago, so the review had no chance to influence my decision to buy it anyway. Root Double is also a title that most likely fits my taste so I'm probably more tolerant to flaws it might have.
Besides that, the title has more than enough good ratings that it can be considered a good title. But I always appreciate a more critical review because they often emphasize the true flaws of a VN, and usually I find it easier to tolerate those if I'm prepared for them. Too glowing reviews can raise unrealistic high expectations which inevitably leads to disappointment. Ironically, a critical review can therefore result in a more pleasant experience than an all roses review.

Hi. Just in time for the game's release.

http://reviews.fuwanovel.net/2016/04/27/root-double-before-crime-after-days-xtend-edition/
I couldn't find a decent promo image in English. I have no idea what that's saying but hey, whatever. I give this game 3/5 stars.  
While I think it's a bit overhyped and overrated, it still has some good stuff going for it and some of you people who are huge zero escape and infinity fans might like it anyways.

Well, I already backed it months ago, so the review had no chance to influence my decision to buy it anyway. Root Double is also a title that most likely fits my taste so I'm probably more tolerant to flaws it might have.
Besides that, the title has more than enough good ratings that it can be considered a good title. But I always appreciate a more critical review because they often emphasize the true flaws of a VN, and usually I find it easier to tolerate those if I'm prepared for them. Too glowing reviews can raise unrealistic high expectations which inevitably leads to disappointment. Ironically, a critical review can therefore result in a more pleasant experience than an all roses review.

It's available on Steam now, so I'm currently downloading.
And I'm still hyped for it... 

Ah sorry, my mistake. Wrote the post at breakfast - not exactly my brightest time of the day.  

This one comes close I think. At least that's used in Demonion which was full of Stockholm syndrome...

I don't think this is the same thing like Palas said. Palas case would be evil for evil's sake without any reason. But someone who is evil for evils sake already made himself a slave of human moral values and therefore inferior to Lovecraft's beings. But what makes Lovecraft's beings so fascinating is that they are beyond morals - there might be a reason for their actions but they are so different that a mere human would not be able to understand them. Lovecraft himself once made a statement that he considers the Great Old Ones 'amoral' beings. The Great Old Ones just give a damn about humans, they are just a tool or nuisance for their real intentions which just happen to be devastating and horrifying for humans.

Lucia's route is crap tier. Made me stop playing for months.

If Frontwing are making a Kickstarter for Sharin no Kuni, then it would be nice if they would add the fan disc Yuukyuu no Shounenshoujo as a stretch goal. That would make the campaign a lot more interesting since the fan disc was never fully translated, it just got a partial translation.
I already own the Japanese original so I'm a bit hesitant to back the whole thing. But if the translation of the fan disc would be an option, then things would look a bit different for me.
Well, I guess I just have to wait until the campaign starts to find out...

Finished my first route in Aoishiro now. Although it was a bit slow I enjoyed it quite a bit. It had an overall mysterious atmosphere that always made you wonder what secrets might be hidden in the darkness. I also used the walkthrough only to correct choices that lead to bad ends and I ran in several of them that lead to either my or another chracters death. It was pretty funny though, since I really had to think about my choices and there was always the thrill of dying. And while I wasn't able to predict all outcomes in advance, correcting my last choice usually lead to a logical conclusion why the bad end was avoided. The only major exception was the route locking. I had to start with Yasumi but ran several times in a bad end because I was going for another character at first.
I was actually surprised about the high production values. Although the art looks a bit dated it had lots of CG's, all characters drawn, animation effects and more. The story was a bit confusing though. Lots of info about Japanese legendary creatures and gods. I guess finishing the other routes will reveal more information and shed light to unanswered questions. Romance was also more on the light side so far. It could have also been just a close friendship.
I'll continue with Migiwa now. Wasn't so sure about her at first, but she made some pretty cool stuff since then and I got quite fond of her meanwhile.
I guess reading 4 VN's at the same time is starting to take its toll, because my overall progress seems to be rather slow currently. 

It's far too early to make any final statements about the sales. It's a Steam title. Eden's initial sales weren't that great either, but a few Steam sales later it was the second best selling title of the year. Besides that, it's a title with no adult content, not particularly moegish art, overall average ratings and a reputation that it's mostly for hardcore chuuni fans because of an overabundance of battle scenes. Expecting top sales from MangaGamer's more adult content oriented customer base isn't particularly realistic. The real money will come from Steam sales when the title is cheap enough to be viable for its customer base.

Although I haven't played the title yet, I have a comment concerning the dresses of the characters.
For good chuuni fighting scenes, the characters also should have cool looking dresses that somehow reflect who they are. And overall I think the good old F/SN did a better job here with the dresses for both, the male and female characters and especially the servants.
In Tokyo Babel, we have Astaroth as the sole highlight, but the rest are just dressed in plain school uniforms and a... maid dress?! Aren't they supposed to be (warrior) angels and demons?! But while the school uniforms of the male characters in Tokyo Babel look still kind of okay with their elegant simplicity, I can't exactly say the same for the female ones. Especially Samael - does she want to fight or clean the kitchen?! And the rest of the girls also look more like ready for pillow fight than anything else. Compared to Rider's cool dress in F/SN that's just a joke.

Well, obviously and as has been said before, if what you want is to get a taste of the range of possibilities of the english language, you're better off reading Nabokov, Woolf or Shakespeare than even the best translated VNs like Grisaia or Dra+Koi.
But the thing is, and that's pretty obvious, you don't write a visual novel like you write a novel. Not that visual novels have bad prose or w/e, it's just that for two media with two different ways of delivering text, the approach to writing has to be different. In particular if your VN is going to be in ADV format.
Therefore it would actually be good for you to read visual novels in order to see what kind of writing techniques are used. The issue is that I'm not sure there are really a lot of good samples in EVNs. There is definitely a whole range of available interesting prose and techniques in japanese VNs, but you don't write in japanese like you write in english either so it's all kinda useless to you.
So yeah, idk. Maybe the best thing you could do is to read theater. Theatrics is probably what's closest to ADV dialogs. Reading great english prose books certainly can't hurt anyway. But contrary to previous advices I wouldn't say to avoid VNs, because you need to understand the medium you're using too.

First thing to do - get away from VNs. I would wager the same rule applies for aspiring Japanese fiction writers also, VNs aren't the kind of place you find exceptional prose. If the prose in VNs were exceptional, they'd make a living off only that prose.
Most authors start off mimicking their favourite writers ... kinda. It's a natural stage in a person's development as a writer and one of the first steps toward developing your own style. A person reads a lot to get an understanding of what works, what doesn't, what they enjoy, and how they pull that off. This includes mimicking stuff you think is awesome, and shunning stuff you find terrible.
You're going to have to narrow it down. 'Exceptional' is a subjective term, it tends to differ from person to person. What you're really after is how writers build the sort of effects you want to create, in an effective manner, because different styles are created with an end effect in mind.
Some authors use adjectives and adverbs so powerful that a single word is all it takes to produce a clear image. It should be noted that these adverbs and adjectives are often not in standard use and it takes someone with a pretty complete control over a language to do this. Someone with this sort of control (and it's rare) can create vivid images with short, punchy sentences. 
Some authors prefer a smooth, flowing, conversational style. Some authors seem to require the reader to hurl their novel across the room in frustration, and they'll craft complex sentences which are hard to decipher. Each style benefits from different techniques, which is why you read extensively when you're young so you have an understanding of different styles and the techniques used to create them. To be honest, if you're asking for examples at this stage it's an indication that either a) you haven't read enough or b) you haven't paid enough attention or thought enough about what you're reading. 
Then you go away and find authors whose style matches what you desire to create and you mimic, then you find other authors who do something slightly different and you mimic them also, then after a while you take the best points and you make your own style. However, nobody else can find this 'exceptional' prose for you, that's your homework as a writer. My heros are Pratchett, Adams, those kinds or writers. I also model my style off some romance novels cause I like a kind of flowing style (which you more often find in women authors.) During this process, I've learnt to identify stuff which is 'undesirable' to me, analysed what made it 'undesirable' and learnt to stay away from those practices. Nobody else could identify this stuff for me, it's a personal process because nobody knows what you like.
Bad writing is always the same, making the same sorts of mistakes - however good writing is good in different ways. Different writers will give you theories, very few of these theories will be iron clad rules but most of these theories will be what works for them. It's hard to copy, because what works is different for different people. Your homework as a writer is to develop your own style through research and study. This is why everybody's first advice to writers is the same - 'read everything and read widely. After you think you've read everything, read some more.'
... Except for VNs. Don't read those. There are some OELVNs written by professional authors, but you'd be better off reading their books rather than their VNs. Studying prose in VNs will give you a limited education and appreciation of prose. Reading writing advice from different authors doesn't count - it's good as a supplementary material, but you need to think about stuff yourself.
Good luck  

Using translated VNs as a model to improve your writing is probably a bad idea.  Most releases employ literal translations by translators and editors who aren't professional fiction writers.
Using OELVNs as a model won't be much better since, again, most groups don't employ professional fiction writers.
You're probably better off reading popular fiction novels, honestly.

The fact that the adult content of both Maitetsu and Chrono Clock is split from the main story, so that it easily can be released 'uncut' as an all ages version, somehow sounds a bit too convenient for me to be just a coincidence. Neither Purple Software nor Lose have done that before, so I wouldn't be surprised if both titles were already created with the intention in mind to release it on the western market.
However, while it's certainly nice that Japanese are really starting to consider the English market, I don't really like the splitting of the adult content from the story. Because this way, it'll be degenerated to just simple porn you can also get from a cheap porn site or magazine. I mean what a visual novel normally lets it stand above that is the fact that this is just a 'part' of the story, just like it is a 'part' of life. But if it's split it loses that notable feature.
And there's also the problem how this issue will be approached in an ongoing relationship. Will it be like "Oh darling, I love you so much!!! Just don't touch me and keep a save distance of 3 metres, okay!?". Or will it be like in anime or some all ages VN's *cough*Clannad*cough* where the story just conveniently ends when the relationship starts?
Overall, I would prefer a 'blackout' like in the Steam version for Dengeki Stryker for situations like this. That way you can still play the original version where everything is in place even if it's just in Japanese. But if it's already written that way, you can't patch it in anymore or read the original version. If the romance parts appear awkward because of that, the VN already lost a good part of its quality and it can't be restored anymore.
For obvious reasons this isn't a big issue for story or action focused VN's like Tokyo Babel, Root Double, Kara no Shoujo, etc. But it can severely hurt moeges which you play just for the romane with the girls.
 

Edelweiss got some laughs out of me. To tell you the truth, I would have been satisfied if there was a full route dedicated to staying single and hanging out with your bros. Those guys were hilarious -- more than wingmen, they were their own unique characters who made for a great comedic trio.
(To clarify, however, I'm hesitant to claim Edelweiss as a "great visual novel" by that virtue alone. Regarding the focus of the game, the girls themselves, it pretty much fell flat for me.)

Hey all,
I wish I had some additional news and information to share with you all, but right now we're working hard to see that the game is released just as soon as possible. I know we're all anticipating the release and maybe even a little excited to dive right into the game the second it drops, but please just hang in there with us a weeee bit longer.
Thanks for the patience and understanding, it really is appreciated.

I think you're right about that and I take my statement back since it's simply to general. I've read lots of books in my younger years with action scenes too (god that makes me sound old), like BattleTech, Shadowrun, etc. So it works if they really take a narrative writing style to describes a scene. For example: "He carefully hid behind a small hill following the movements of his enemy. Then after a short moment of hesitation he made his decision and shot his heavy laser targeting the right leg with weaker armor of his opponent."
Unfortunately, what I often see in VN's instead is some kind of comic book approach. The 'narration' in those cases then looks more like "Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeee!!!" followed by five minutes of cling and clang sounds and the screen flashing in every color the rainbow has to offer. Then it contnues with a "Muhahahahah... now you get that back!!!" followed by another ten minutes of disco flashing supported by a chain of very, VERY simple words that almost makes you want to cry. In short, they try to let flashy screens do the job instead of the narration, and for that an anime or a straight comic would simply be better. Those at least show a bit more than the same screen over and over again, just with a different color.
So the key question would be if the action scenes in Tokyo Babel will also consist of endless repeated 'Shonen Power' scenes or if they are more descriptive and with unique images instead of flashing screen x 1000.

Thats not funny anymore and seriously fuck these guys.
 

Okay, I think the problem is the people who worry about action scene was definitely didn't play the demo. Because the demo should give you how Tokyo Babel will be. So, in order to allow all people see the fighting scene, how about the sample of fighting scene from propeller official channel. This is the first fighting scene and if you download the demo you'd definitely know which part (Actually propeller also had fighting scene video, but it contained some spoiler so I couldn't post it here). Well, if after seeing the fighting scene and the people still scare to play this game, too bad. And I apologize if my thought about conjueror review scare some people here to play this VN.