Xilium

As far as the Eiyuu Senki situation, the bigger surprise to me was that they didn't just go with the Gold edition of the game. That way, they could have benefited from having a recognizable name among the VN community while still offering something new to the people that played the fan patch. Seems like a no-brainer, best of both worlds scenario to me but I assume there must have been some licensing issue with getting the gold version (or they are thinking like a traditional game company and plan on releasing that version at a later date in an attempt to get people to double dip).

The porn, bluntly put. Honestly, I vastly prefer the video format for porn but sadly, very little of it takes place in the settings that I want (mostly sword & magic fantasy) or have the types of characters I want to see (demons/mostergirls for instance). If hentai could have the quality of art/animation and length of a traditional anime (Think X-rated High School DxD), I probably wouldn't be playing VNs. But that isn't gonna happen so here I am. Unfortunately for me, most of the VNs that tend to get official translations are more on the romantic side of things, which I simply find boring. Nothing against those types of stories, I've just never been one for romance. So nukige are definitely more my thing. Stuff like the Monster Girl Quest and Rance series have been the types of games I've enjoyed the most (having actual gameplay is a plus for me). I would really love to see Eushully games and other VNs like them get officially supported and hopefully with the success of the Alicesoft games, that will eventually happen.

If we're talking about a Hentai VN, a pervy protagonist is preferable, just makes more sense. They can sometimes be over-the-top (like Rance) but that's fine as long as it matches the tone of the rest of the game. I suppose in a more romantic Hentai VN, a more "normal" protag would be better (I don't play those games though, so IDK). I HATE the beta protagonist we typically get in VN's/Anime/Manga. I'm so tired of scenes with the protag brushing up against a girls breast and having a mental breakdown or the indirect kissing nonsense, among many other annoying tropes associated with that type of character.

Traits I like: - Stoic/Kuudere/Dandere - Comically Serious - Tease/Sexually Aggressive - Yandere/Crazy/Psycho/ect. - Nekomimi/Monstergirls/ect. - Honorable Mentions: Shy, Deredere, and Tomboy Generally speaking, it's the Silver/White hair, (Gothic Lolitas with) black hair, and sometimes blue haired girls.

The fact that they are animated alone typically makes them better than HCG for me, but that is also the reason why they aren't as well drawn as HCG. As you said, a static image is simply easier and cheaper to do well. I don't think your average VN is much better than your average hentai though. That said, hentai studio Queen Bee is the worst thing to happen to the hentai industry in a long while. .Gif images have more frames than the garbage animation they put out and they do look like they were legitimately made 15 years ago. They're clearly dirt cheap to hire because they've been getting a lot of work lately.

That's more or less what anime has become, a means of advertising LNs/mangas and merchandise since the profit margins are a lot higher on those than with anime. It works for anime because of how mainstream it is but VNs would have a much harder time with that, especially in the west. Some VNs can make the transition to anime and become very popular from that, which would lead to better merchandising opportunities, but those seem to be few and far between (the Fate series for instance).

The Hentai Bluntly put, other mediums are much better at telling a story, developing characters, creating a mood with music/sfx. And for the handful that have gameplay beyond making dialog choice, they pale in comparison to traditional video games. The HCG is THE reason I play VNs and the more the better. That said, those other aspects are still important, specifically characters and story. It's easy to find the CG online if all I wanted were the images but having context for those images make them far more appealing. And while hentai (anime) is typically more appealing visually, most are only 1-2 episodes so you have very little time to generate an interesting narrative or characters. Context is important.

Romance Anything (triangles, inability to confess, lack of communication, ect.) - So much unnecessary, and often uninteresting, drama...just like real life. Childhood Promises - Should never be taken seriously. The Power of Friendship (and other similar Deus Ex Machina) - Lead me in with the promise of some kind of epic battle only to end it with some ass-pull BS. Infinite Endurance - Often related to the previous one. Heroes can survive entire EPISODES of getting their asses kicked but villains rarely survive a single special attack or fancy combo. Balanced fights are significantly more interesting to watch. Beta/Oblivious Protagonist in a Harem (especially those with assertive heroines) - Suspension of disbelief can only go so far... Harems that aren't Harems - Mostly due to the aforementioned, but it would be nice to see a harem series actually end with a harem. Walking in on People Changing/Bathing - More specifically, the reactions to it. Clearly a Japanese thing. Seems to be the defacto way to set up a tsundere. Food - I don't really know how to word this but Japan has some fetish level obsession with food. Nearly every single anime has to have some scene with a character eating something and exclaiming how amazing it is (or possibly how bad it is if the anime is a comedy) and, depending on the anime, may go into how it was made/the ingredients of said dish. By itself, the trope isn't bad but the fact that it is probably the most frequently used trope in anime (manga/VNs/LNs) makes it pretty annoying. Modern Tsun(dere?) - I should start by saying I'm not a fan of the modern tsundere in general (switches back and forth between being mean/nice) but some modern tsundere are in their tsun state 90+% of the time and have their bitchiness cranked up to 11. These characters are incredibly unlikable (even by people that typically like modern tsundere) yet the plot requires you (and likely the male MC) to like them because they're often a main heroine (Isuca for instance).

For me, generally speaking, the Main/Poster heroine is almost always the least interesting character so a lot of VN common routes suck for me because that's always the character they push the hardest. It seems the character archetypes I like (indifferent/emotionless cooderes, perverted/assertive derederes, mayadere in general, twins, classic tsunderes, ect.) are generally relegated to side character status so I guess I don't have popular taste or something. BB2 aside (which I just started playing), the 2 most recent games I finished playing are pretty bad about this for me, 1 is especially bad. First, Noble Works. NW wasn't especially bad since Akari was the only main heroine I was completely indifferent about but Makoto and Chiaki were significantly more interesting to me than the other available heroines and I was legitimately annoyed that the the secret route wasn't one of them (let alone, one of the main routes). Then there's Princess Evangile... I have never been more annoyed about available routes in a VN than when playing PE. Nearly the entire side cast is better than the main heroines and the fact that the best one (imo), Ruriko is treated like a main heroine during the common route but can't actually be picked for anything is incredibly frustrating. The entire time I was playing that game I couldn't stop thinking about how there were better version of each of the 4 main heroines in the side cast (Ruriko vs. Rise, Mitsuki vs. Chiho, Tamie vs. Ayaka, Konomi vs. Ritsuko). Even a Sister Mishima route would have been amazing. Not even W Happiness can save that game for me, the damage has been done (to be fair, I did end up liking Ritsuko though she gets less screen time than either Ruriko or Konomi during the common route). I've also been making my way through the routes of School Days and Shiny Days and I'll just say that I wish Hikari and the Twins (Futaba & Kazuha) had more fleshed out routes, since their "routes" are just short scenes slapped onto the end of someone else's route. That said, with the style that those games are, I get why they focus primarily on one or two characters. I do appreciate the love that Kokoro and the MILFs get in Shiny Days though.