PhleBuster

Making Visual Novels popular is a goal that goes way further beyond the thing you guys are trying to consciously achieve. Most people consider what we think Visual Novels are as Animegames and Porngames, but the genre has so much potential being way more than that if we think about what the genre is. Nowadays people don't read that many books anymore, because everything has to be quick-quick entertainment. In that regard visual novels could provide a new way to tell stories, but it just did not reach this hemisphere yet and this is obvious because the people make VNs without having a real team try to abuse the visual novel genre as a way to get access to the gaming industry. That is also a reason why people try to convert their half-assed fanfictions into visual novels and then make actually sellable games out of them. But what if we make it possible that capable book authors find the genre and think it is revolutionizing? They could produce amazing stories and have the funds to actually found big western based publishers/development studios because they can hire capable people. If we are actually attempting to make VNs popular over here we have to get away from the selfish goal to bring only japanese gems over here. We have to create our own amazing stories, with western-based writing and settings. The art can still attempt to be moe and japanese, but the settings should not try to simulate a japanese one. I'm sick of western studios attempting to create foreign settings they don't understand, because they only gloss over the source material and attempt to rehash what they know from anime, storytelling takes A LOT of research and I'm surprised how japanese manage to use western philosophy in their works better than western developers do..

What I am trying to say. Try to promote the genre in itself and improve on creating new things instead of rehashing japanese ones and localizing games. We have so many capable people over here in the west, but we don't use their potential which is unfortunate. I'm not telling that we should completely cease localizing japanese titles but we should be less selfish.
 

As bad as it may sound, but try to get the Animeman on board. Hes a grown, adult man speaks Japanese, can promote obscure japanese titles and he has talked about visual novels and how they didn't reach the west as a medium yet in the past. I think he can actually grow the interest of the medium widely if he makes a video to promote you guys. Let's say a fuwanovel written script he models a big introductory video after.

On the other hand, we are also trying to establish visual novels in germany and made a website and a connective community you can visit and have fun in. Our site and our dream is just a little instance of the overall vision we western visual novel enthusiasts all want to create.

A visual novel Reich.

There is, actually.

While they're an easy target to point a finger at, I figure that's giving them too much credit and attention they don't deserve. 
My guess: they had absolutely nothing to do with what went down (even articles mention they've been going at it for years already), but they'll be all too happy to claim the credit as proof of how effective they are.

Speaking from personal experience, GOG is not friendly toward Japanese indie games, especially visual novels. There may be some exceptions but it's clear to me they don't really want those non-games in their store. They're at least as bad in this regard than Steam was pre-Greenlight, quite possibly worse with their internal bias.
As for the main topic, well I can't say too much and it's mostly speculation, but it's worth bearing in mind that most adult content of sexual nature is already forbidden in their terms of service. This has been enforced very laxly so far, but with the removal of any Steam-side curation with Steam Direct, and people pushing boundaries with new titles, it wouldn't surprise me if they've gotten fed up and decided to write actual internal guidelines (good luck getting them to share those), which may have turned out stricter than previous case by case judgments. There may be actual legal reasons (at least plausible threat of legal action for violating some regional laws for selling pornographic content either containing minors, or to minors) for this, though it'll never be more than speculation since they'd never disclose such detail. If anything, I've been surprised at what -has- been allowed in the marketplace over the past few years until now.
I can't say I know the details of affected games' contents, but it seems to me we're pretty much talking about games that already self-censored themselves and released adult content as an off-Steam patch, and which haven't been just removed from Steam but given an opportunity to correct the content further, which should in this case just mean moving a bit more of the content into the patch, and shouldn't be an unreasonable amount of work.

Speaking from personal experience, GOG is not friendly toward Japanese indie games, especially visual novels. There may be some exceptions but it's clear to me they don't really want those non-games in their store. They're at least as bad in this regard than Steam was pre-Greenlight, quite possibly worse with their internal bias.
As for the main topic, well I can't say too much and it's mostly speculation, but it's worth bearing in mind that most adult content of sexual nature is already forbidden in their terms of service. This has been enforced very laxly so far, but with the removal of any Steam-side curation with Steam Direct, and people pushing boundaries with new titles, it wouldn't surprise me if they've gotten fed up and decided to write actual internal guidelines (good luck getting them to share those), which may have turned out stricter than previous case by case judgments. There may be actual legal reasons (at least plausible threat of legal action for violating some regional laws for selling pornographic content either containing minors, or to minors) for this, though it'll never be more than speculation since they'd never disclose such detail. If anything, I've been surprised at what -has- been allowed in the marketplace over the past few years until now.
I can't say I know the details of affected games' contents, but it seems to me we're pretty much talking about games that already self-censored themselves and released adult content as an off-Steam patch, and which haven't been just removed from Steam but given an opportunity to correct the content further, which should in this case just mean moving a bit more of the content into the patch, and shouldn't be an unreasonable amount of work.

If you've ever read one of those wonderful VN game reviews saying "story was OK, but there was no gameplay, you just click on the screen to advance the text, 4/10", imagine that as a GOG curator (personal interpretation).

I can just imagine a GOG curator reading DDLC with a checklist:
Good ❌
Old ❌
Game ❌

If you've ever read one of those wonderful VN game reviews saying "story was OK, but there was no gameplay, you just click on the screen to advance the text, 4/10", imagine that as a GOG curator (personal interpretation).

Speaking from personal experience, GOG is not friendly toward Japanese indie games, especially visual novels. There may be some exceptions but it's clear to me they don't really want those non-games in their store. They're at least as bad in this regard than Steam was pre-Greenlight, quite possibly worse with their internal bias.
As for the main topic, well I can't say too much and it's mostly speculation, but it's worth bearing in mind that most adult content of sexual nature is already forbidden in their terms of service. This has been enforced very laxly so far, but with the removal of any Steam-side curation with Steam Direct, and people pushing boundaries with new titles, it wouldn't surprise me if they've gotten fed up and decided to write actual internal guidelines (good luck getting them to share those), which may have turned out stricter than previous case by case judgments. There may be actual legal reasons (at least plausible threat of legal action for violating some regional laws for selling pornographic content either containing minors, or to minors) for this, though it'll never be more than speculation since they'd never disclose such detail. If anything, I've been surprised at what -has- been allowed in the marketplace over the past few years until now.
I can't say I know the details of affected games' contents, but it seems to me we're pretty much talking about games that already self-censored themselves and released adult content as an off-Steam patch, and which haven't been just removed from Steam but given an opportunity to correct the content further, which should in this case just mean moving a bit more of the content into the patch, and shouldn't be an unreasonable amount of work.

So, I finished Chuusotsu earlier today. And, basically, this VN actually turned out to be really good! I'll be honest, I wasn't really impressed when I started reading it. The comedic parts are pretty funny, but they seemed a bit too simplistic (and too Japanese, I guess), and due to that the more serious parts felt kind of out of place. But then, after more serious parts of the story started to kick in, it became apparent that this way of telling the story works quite well.
Actually, its simplicity imo is the main strength of this VN. It doesn't try to bombard you with difficult words and complex concepts. The dystopian world where it is set doesn't even seem futuristic, and it basically serves as a hyperbole to our own world where every person is expected to fit in and work as a part of a big mechanism. It tells a story of three girls who for different reasons didn't fit in. The messages it's trying to present are pretty simple, but in my case, while I can't say that I 100% agree with everything this VN is trying to convey, the themes it presents happened to connect pretty well to the problems some of my acquaintances had to face in the past (and also with my personal experience). With all the things said, I definitely recommend giving this VN a try.
As for the score, I'm giving it 8/10. I'd give it 9 if it was a finished story, but, apparently, this VN is only the first part of an episodic story, and a lot of plot threads are left hanging. Though I need to mention that it's still a complete story, and it does works on its own, even though it's quite apparent that there's still a lot more to the story than it was show thus far.
Also, wasn't Froit supposed to be Freud?

Shiei no Sona-Nyl (and the rest of Steampunk-series as well)
Sakurai Hikaru is pretty much the only writer I don't mind calling my favorite and the reason I bothered to properly study japanese. Her unique style resonates with me, from the slightly poetic expressions, theatrical mannerisms, to how the characters and stories are presented. Sakurai's stories are full of emotion, wonderful ideas and something profoundly beautiful, at least for me.
Plus, if you go deep enough, the Steampunk-series is one the most fascinating and expansive alt-history/Steampunk/cosmic-horror settings out there.
 
     
SeaBed is just the kind of curious and unusual story that entices me, refuses to leave my thoughts.
Definitely not for everyone, but so much for me!
 

Looking back, there's a big bunch of really good VNs I've read. Yet, at the same time I mostly remember just liking them back then, while the actual feelings have long gone.
But there are some exceptions, like Kindred Spirits on the Roof. Just thinking about it makes me smile and feel warm and fuzzy! And that if anything is important.
I don't have any good picks for fourth right now...

This game seems interesting.
*adds to internal wishlist*

The game was already available at both of Steam store and Mangagamer shop, so in case you still didn't have this VN you may purchase it from those stores. Congratulation for the releases, and I hope that we'll get the continuation of Chuusotsu here.

Kickstarter backer copies are going out as I write this, so if you backed it, expect something in your e-mail box within the next 1-2h!

Kickstarter backer copies are going out as I write this, so if you backed it, expect something in your e-mail box within the next 1-2h!

Thank you for the support, very much appreciated!
We just updated the Steam demo to latest version, including dual language and new opening movie.

Thank you for the support, very much appreciated!
We just updated the Steam demo to latest version, including dual language and new opening movie.

Yes! I've been waiting for this!
SeaBed and now Chuusotsu, Fruitbat Factory keeps me supplied with just my kind of quirky (doujin) VNs.

This looks lovely... Fruitbat Factory is one of those companies that you can easily forget about, but from time to time they come up with something really sweet and they seem to localize stuff with a lot of care. Nice to have them around. :3

SeaBed is purposefully written in a really passive fashion. Partly to show Sachi's mental state, but also to emphasize the themes of the whole work. There's hardly any "drama" and structure is pretty flat, because the story and the characters refuse to dramatize their situations. After all, isn't that what we all do? Downplay our problems and just keep living our daily lives?
SeaBed does get more interesting towards the end (plus the later chapters are shorter too), but for the most part it's is very low-key.
Not that I think that any explanation can help if SeaBed's style doesn't work with someone, but I'm really impressed by it. The passive tone and the lack of explicit emotions in the narration is really unusual and pretty brave choice. I'm not surprised it is seen as boring, but I personally find it strangely calming. It's not captivating in the usual sense, but there's a nice feeling of time just flowing peacefully. Kinda like reading an old diary. I also think it's amazing how touching the story manages to be despite being what one would traditionally consider "uneventful".  

Finished Seabed for a while, and up to Chapter 5 things were going slowly. However, by Chapter 6 it managed to pick up the steam until the final chapter - although it definitely help though that the later chapters were quite shorts. In the end I would say it's quite an interesting read, although you might be overwhelmed by psychology talk or the description of the sceneries though (I experienced that a lot).
PS - I'm pretty much fine for the sprites, except for Nanae's in which her hand was quite long and skinny so much that it looks quite uncanny. By the way, some background did use very obvious CG image that looks like from PS1 game.

Okay so here are mine since 2017 was the year I got back into Visual Novels
Best story VN:
Best Yuri VN
Best Art Direction
Worst Trash
 

Looking back, I didn't read all that many VNs in 2017. But I had fun with the few that I did read. Enjoy some arbitrarily made up categories.
Best Journey/Story
Best "My kind of Story"
Best Music: 
Favorite Characters: 
Best Localization:
Best Food for thought:
 

Best VN Read :
Worst VN read (Disappointment Award) :
Best Ero VN :
Best H-Scene:
Worst H-scene :
Best Art :
Worst Art :
Best OST :
Best male character :
Best female character :
Otome Award :
Comedy Award :
Slice of Life Award :