Swim Swim

Newton and The Apple Tree release had been withheld by Steam for 3 months or so, now it will finally release on the 15th August, still no word on 18+ support as Sol Press is remaining silent on that matter (looks like they really are afraid of Steam using that as an excuse to remove the game).
Now another VN who has been the victim of the anti-animu Steam policy where Steam takes months to try and find faults in anything and everything about it, the development of the game has been completed since the beginning of this year, and it has been trying to be approved for release on Steam since March, it's release has since been withheld and still nothing is known about the game release date, one issue that Steam pointed to the dev was over the fact that there is a CG where the protagonist is wearing speedos and a part of his back can be seen:

Meanwhile non-anime western games with upfront nudity and gratuitous sex scenes are still on the store, uncensored and uncut.
Steam really hates anime don't they?
This nonsense reminds me of that Married with Children episode (skip to 12:30 for the relevant part):
 

Not surprised this didn't sell well. I didn't buy it, the aspect ratio and resolution are way too out of date. Other things that keep me away from it are multiple protagonists, cut content, and the art doesn't look all that good. I put a lot of emphasis on the 'visual' part of visual novel. You can have the best story in the world, but if I don't like the art I find myself having very little motivation to play it.

To be fair, the western release was censored, so many people probably chose not to buy it in protest. Yes, it was simply one CG and nothing more, but censorship is censorship. It's an important issue to many in this community. 

Being one of the voices that pushes this VN the most loudly as Purple Soft's single best work (by several degrees), I was immensely glad to see that this was getting a localization from Mangagamer.  This was my VN of the Year for 2013 and it has by far the best soundtrack I've ever seen in a VN, period.  Not only that, but I've never come across a VN that utilized its soundtrack so effectively to stimulate emotion in-sync with the story before, so it was in some ways my awakening to the fact that there were still music directors who could 'do the work' around outside of the makers of the Drakengard and Nier jrpg series. 
This VN focuses on the reality-blurring experiences of Tohru, a young man who sees nothing but lucid dreams (dreams where you are aware that you are in a dream) and suffers from physical and mental health issues as a result, and his group of female friends/acquaintances.  The VN itself is something of a mindfuck experience, mostly because the line between dreams and reality is so vague to the protagonist himself. 
If you want my translation of the first scene, go here (the narrated videos are dead, but meh):

 
I also did introductions for the protagonist and Maia, two of the major characters.

 

 
 

The sad truth is, where porn or fanservice aren't involved, those games aren't popular either. VNs are mostly about reading and no one really reads nowadays, especially gamers; the reading rates have been constantly dropping across the world. When you compare the sales numbers of popular games like Nekopara and story-driven, plot-heavy all-ages titles you will see they barely sell at all; no matter how good they are and how well praised they get by critics, Steam curators and gaming websites, they won't ever be able to fight with those. It's another reason why we get so little of them and what gets translated nowadays are typically light charage and moege instead.
VNs are destined to remain a niche and interesting vns will always be a niche within a niche. It's because the population those games were once directed at is actually declining and new generation that's ought to replace it remains completely different.

Nope, drop the west, keep the porn.

I just got a refund for my copy. To me personally, this is a matter of principle. I have had bad experiences with Sekai Project in the past, but chose to buy this game either way, with the thought: "hopefully this one will be handled well, at least," much like Dovac himself. (See this)
It sadly wasn't. People make mistakes, yes, and if this had been their first big mistake, I would have given them a chance to make up for it, but ... well, there is a reason why the document above has five different apologies, not just one.
In addition, while I understand that to some people, a handful of censored CGs isn't that big of a deal, it is to me, and many others. I specifically paid for an adult version of the game, and the assets in the story itself are still all-ages. Not to mention, noticing this mistake is very easy. It took me a couple of minutes to notice it, and I wasn't actually looking for any issues when I did, I just stumbled across it. So, not only is this a mistake that should not happen, but it is a pretty big deal, all in all, despite "only being a handful of CGs." The game is literally not what I paid for.
The TL being kind of awkward just puts the final nail in the coffin for me, and I chose to ask for a refund. That being said, people throwing around death threats and going on crazy witch hunts are being completely silly. (And it in fact just drowns out the actual proper complaints people have, so please, stop that stuff...)
Fakku is being very helpful and understanding, which is good. People who are dissapointed can get refunds. Dovac's apology post is also a step in the right direction. I do hope that SP will improve moving forward, but I will personally not buy any more of their games until I see this happen. I gave them one more chance with Maitetsu, and it sadly did not go very well.
Hopefully the issue gets fixed soon, for the people who chose not to get a refund, and patiently wait for the fix to be implemented.

I'm more interested in Venus Blood, to be honest. AliceSoft games get stale after a while.

I'm patiently waiting for some GOOD "person gets sent to another world and there's quality world building and indepth characters, even some political bullshittery" anime to be released, because at the moment we've got a bunch of "person gets sent to superficial alternate worlds populated by superficial characters ... and there's a gimmick. Watch the show people we have a gimmick, everybody loves gimmicks right?" 
We've had in another world with time loops, we've had smartphones, we've had advanced knowledge about mechs, I wonder how long it'll take before they run out of ideas. Twelve Kingdoms did the genre well at a time when there weren't many of these sorts of shows being made. Nowadays there's tons of Isekai and many of them suck. Re;Zero doesn't suck though, it's just not that good  

Rewrite kinda has the same problem, common route is too long and tries too much to be funny (but it kinda works, because of what happens afterwards).
Grisaia is beyond saving. Walking-deus-ex-machina-plot-device-protag really doesn't work in a comedy setting, imo. (He still doesn't work in the routes, at least for me, but that might be because I hate those kind of protagonists)

>reusing the same jokes and stereotypes seven million times
>fun

 

The common route is so ungodly boring that it makes me think the entire game is not worth my time no matter how much people praise it. 

Put in an 18+ Patch for this game then I'll reconsider.

If you think you're going to have to censor something, you shouldn't be releasing the game in the first place. Not because the it's bad, but because it should be left for those who would release it uncensored. IOW, SubaHibi should've gone to MangaGamer.

I don't know subahibi and i can't imagine how important a bestiality scene is, but 10-15 lines is actually a lot of lines. So much can be said with those lines, so much can be conveyed if used properly. For example: 
Thats like 13-15 lines i think. So it depends on the scene in the Vn and what's being said and how its used to invoke particular thoughts and feelings from the reader. All i'm saying is 10-15 lines can mean a lot. 

It's clear, that Frontwing losses the AX. The most anticipated titles are being pushed to 2018 and Subahibi suffers from deleted content. It's funny, that, apparently, from the lawyer's point of view lolis are fine and bestiality is not. Regardless, I'm more worried about Subahibi TL quality. I heard it has quite unordinary "crazy" style of writing.

Hey all,
I just wanted to let everyone know that Princess Evangile W Happiness was officially set to be released on July 28th. For those who haven't noticed this announcement yet, I post here to let you in on the good news. Princess Evangile was one of my all time top three favorite visual novels and since Mangagamer announced back in 2015 that they were translating W Happiness, I was extremely excited and now after waiting two long years or more, we finally have a release date set and I just pre-ordered my copy on Mangagamer! 
Both all ages and 18+ will be released on the 28th and Mangagamer is charging $35.95 for pre-ordering, which isn't too bad at all. 
For more information check out this link on Mangagamer.
Pre-order your copy now. Too many people are pirating visual novels but when you do that, all the hundreds of hours of work the translators did is for nothing and if they don't get paid for the games, that's less funding they will have for future projects. Mangagamer is rather quick in the translation department as well, compared to some other translators. I expected about two or three years for W Happiness so this is no surprise. 
I just wanted to relay the good news so the countdown now begins.
THERE IS 24 DAYS LEFT UNTIL PRINCESS EVANGILE W HAPPINESS IS RELEASED!!!

#JusticeForTamie

#MakeMarikaGreatAgain

Seriously...? Well that sucks. 
How do we know they won't cut more from the game while they are at it. I know that is really paranoid, but if they already cut one thing, they might have cut more. 
How do you know they cut something? I couldn't see anything about that on their twitter. 

... > . < 
Fuck you, USA.

Going to compile all AX 2017 (new licenses only) announcements in one place and I will be putting all announcements in spoilers by company. 
Aksys
Mangagamer Announcements
Sekai Project Announcements
Denpasoft Announcements
JAST USA Announcements
Frontwing Announcements
 
 
 

Apparently these were the first words uttered in the denpasoft panel: "Who's excited to see some boobies!?!? WHO'S EXCITED TO SEE SOME VAGINAS!?!?!?!?!?" - The irony of course lies in the fact that they were probably still mosaiced.
Regardless it seems they've been announcing a bunch of stuff (no sign of Baldr yet though). 
 

At the Denpasoft panel so far, still ongoing:
Dracu Riot, Senran Banka, Tenshin Ranman - 18+ confirmed
Nanairo Reincarnation - 18+ confirmed
Maitetsu - 18+ confirmed

Magical Marriage Lunatics   Decent fantasy charage, but no better than decent.  Typical of Moonstone.
The Most Forbidden Love in the World  While this game counts as a classic, I can guarantee it is going to cause trouble, considering that it openly states in-game that Mitoko is underage. 
Nanairo Reincarnation A kamige and a great choice in general... though I'm curious how they plan to deal with the plays on kanji and the uniquely Japanese concepts.
Senren * Banka  One of the better games from YuzuSoft...
 
Dracu-riot... do I need to say anything more at this point?  I posted about it when it first came out, but I don't have the energy to dig that post out of the graveyard right now, lol.