haruki

It's unfair to blame Steam for the poor quality of some translations. Steam is just a distribution platform, it has nothing to do with the translators/publishers. That said, it's unacceptable that fan translations are often better quality than commercial ones.

I'd like to point out that one of the bad OELVNs you've read (Gogo JP) was actually made by a Japanese developer, Overdrive... You can't generalize and say that all OELVNs are bad after having read just four (three if you don't count the Japanese one). I'm not saying OELVNs are good, in fact I'll be the first to say that most of them are bad. But, there are some hidden gems to be found, and the quality of their stories and art makes me think that if they had the same financial backing and experienced production teams that Japanese developers benefit from, they would be of the same quality as great Japanese VNs. But to answer your question: I'll admit that I haven't read that many Japanese VNs. The only really good ones I've finished have been Aiyoku no Eustia (https://vndb.org/v3770) and Tsukihime. I tried to read Shiei no Sona-nyl (https://vndb.org/v4936) but couldn't finish it, the Japanese was too hard. That said, I've also read some fandisks, as well as a lot of shorter VNs I didn't like. Off the top of my head, stuff like Juukishi Cutie or Maro no Kanja wa Gatenkei... I've read many more translated VNs, though. From those experiences, I can definitely say that there's a big sense of accomplishment and mystique that comes with reading a good VN in the original Japanese. I love Japanese culture (like you, I suppose), and I'd much rather read a great VN in Japanese than in English. None of that changes the fact that a lot of Japanese VNs tend to be very bad, whether it be in terms of story, art, music, gameplay, or whatever. It's not a knock on Japanese VNs, it's just a fact that in every market and artistic medium there tends to be a surfeit of poor-quality content and a small amount of very good content that distinguishes itself from the rest. And, you have to recognize that that problem is exacerbated by the unique characteristics of the Japanese VN market. It caters to an audience that often cares more about h-scenes and moe than innovative plot, gameplay, or art, meaning it has no incentive to challenge itself and produce quality content. It's very corporate and formulaic--there are many companies just like Winged Cloud in Japan that pump out nukige after nukige and manage to break even by targeting the lowest common denominator. Like Toranth pointed out, there are also huge numbers of doujin developers that flood the market with works of essentially the same quality as OELVNs. I'm sure you know all that, because it sounds like you read a lot of untranslated VNs. But it's just undeniable that the very nature of the Japanese market means a majority of Japanese VNs will be bad.

how many OELVNs have you read?

on the off-chance that you're not trolling: If you're judging solely based on stories, you can easily find OELVNs comparable in quality to Japanese VNs (like Analogue: A Hate Story). There's no reason that an English-language author should be any better or worse than a Japanese author. And, if you're judging solely based on stories, then most Japanese VNs are shit.

this is sarcasm, right?

in the japanese market, high quality vns are in the same stores as shit nukiges... what's the difference?

i hear this one's pretty good https://vndb.org/v20006

I like this! Aesthetically, from those pictures, my favorite characters would be the Cat and Leaf. I like the way his hair curls up at the top to look like actual leaves, was that intentional? The art looks good. None of the character designs really stand out to me except for the Cat's, but that's not to say they're bad. The backgrounds and UI look great, and it really looks like you're setting a coherent, overarching tone for the game with your music and art styles. The only thing that bothered me were the character's names. (Dexter Ardent? Really?)

preach the most confusing part for me is why people are playing Sakura games for the boobs when most of them don't even have h-scenes...

I don't think so? Might be wrong, though

That's actually really interesting. So the reason they're pumping out so many Sakura games right now could be to finance the development of a much more serious game? If that turns out to be true, kudos to them. That's a really smart way to raise money...

I wonder how many people are buying them ironically. I mean, it's impossible that this many people actually enjoy these, right?

Hey, I just read through this thread and I've gotta say, this is really impressive. I hope everything goes well and Mikan takes off!