MaggieROBOT

Nitroplus sure is popular and there's always hype surrounding their games. Their imprint Nitro+CHIRAL receives the same treatment by the BL fanbase. And that was one of the reasons that I was afraid to approach their games. Overhype frequently kills anime and manga for me, and I believe that the more a media is popular, the more parroting we see instead of legitimate opinions, I can't even count the times I read reviews that, if you erased all positive adjectives, you ended up with nothing. Even so, I tried to play this game because its plot was genuinely interesting. Too bad it got so easily abandoned halfway through the game.
 

Game's cover is more badass than the game itself

Togainu no Chi, Nitro+CHIRAL's debut title released in 2005, tells the story of Akira, a champion in some turf war style game, that got falsely accused of a crime. Japan is in a pretty post apocalyptic state and its society is falling apart so he had almost no hope in ever clearing up the misunderstanding. Except a woman named Emma appears before Akira with a deal to free him. And for that, he have to enter another game, this time a battle royale, named Igura. Accepting the terms, Akira travel to the ruins of Tokyo, where Igura take place. The world building is well done and full of good ideas, that unfortunately falls flat when you reach the character routes. The game takes its time to explain all rules of Igura and show all of the weird quirks the game master added just for fun, just to gives us like two fights and then shift the focus of the plot to something else. Of the five routes, only one actually elaborate a bit more about Igura and that ended up being my favorite route. Of course, they tried to tie the Igura plot with the game's true plot, but the excuse they used still doesn't make Igura actually important for anything.
This feeling of disconnection between the beginning and the later parts of the game was so strong that it almost made me want to try the game's trial. Like, the prologue had special portraits for characters that had only one scene worth of appearance (the game have three or so base NPC faces, but these guys are different), three completely useless character had sprites, there's a fighting sequence with some homeless people that acted like wild animals that's never explained or even mentioned again. I do wonder if the game was supposed to be one thing and because some development problems it became something else...
 

Even Akira is sad with how the game turned out...
 
Now for the characters. First we have Akira, the main character, and mostly a silent badass type of guy. Or that's what we expect him to be based on the prologue. For a said champion, he's overpowered way too easily by pretty much any character that cross paths with him. Add the fact that after 90% of said defeats his opponent states how pretty Akira is and how much he wants to rape him (of course, stating too that he doesn't care if he's a guy), and we have one of the most "damsel in distress" MC I ever saw. The thing he said the most in the entire VN is "let go!", seriously (his "hanaseyo!" just played in my mind). Sure, he accomplish some things by himself, but nothing end game tier. He just goes where the plot carries him, over and over again. And to make things worse, his development is tied to the fact that he should warm more to others and not to his uselessness in combat.
Among our five heroes we have: Keisuke, the clingy childhood friend; Rin, an energetic shota; Motomi, a laid back older guy; Shiki, the edgelord that goes around killing guys with a katana and vanishing the next second; and Nano, a mysterious guy that says a lot of things that doesn't make much sense. We also have bad endings with Arbitro, a super eccentric guy, and his two bodyguards Gunji and Kiriwar, but they're pretty short and not really plot relevant. With the exception of Shiki, all of the others have some character growth. 
Personally, I loved Rin's and Motomi's routes, since it developed well not only each character, but also the couple. You can see them growing up and moving on together. Keisuke is your typical childhood friend route, but his route have a twist that's sadly repeated in every single route, making his route completely pointless if you don't care too much about his character. Nano's route had a good start, but guess he was a bit too detached for a medium length game, so his development was way too rushed in the end. Shiki's route is a complete disaster that I'll talk about in the H-scene part of the review, because his route barely had anything else.
 

"No love for an older guy, huh", Motomi thought, remembering how N+C put him out of view in the blowjob part of the h-scene...
 
The h-scenes... sigh. There's eleven scenes in total, and only three aren't rape. And they aren't even dubious consent scenes, it's no consent whatsoever. And most of them are totally gratuitous. There are more routes than consensual h-scenes, so... you know what to expect. I could actually forgive such a ratio if this was some dark and dramatic story. It's not. It's the actually the same annoying BL cliché that plagues a lot of older works: rape turned love. Guy A forces himself on guy B (usually the MC) because "he can't express himself very well". But no worries, because the rapist liked the other guy all along. And the one raped can see beyond the abuse, guy A have other worthy qualities. And then, happy couple ending~ Aaaaw, can I vomit already? I mean, what? How can they even call that romance??? I know the game deals with some dark themes, so the least they could do is treat it with seriousness and not like some "cute" shipping material. Although this description here fits mostly Shiki (except one of his bad endings, that actually depicts some sort of mindbreaking), there's one more character that had a rape scene that came completely out of nowhere, for no real reason and it so happened to be the only h-scene of the route... My headcanon is that one of the "drugs" (drugs are never named in those media, huh?) they use actually turns them into rapists, but who knows the right answer.
And when that's not the problem, we have the unnatural dialogue. "But we're both guys!", oh I didn't even noticed, thanks for telling me! "I don't like guys, it's just you!", he's a guy regardless, give up. "I don't care if you're a guy, you have a pretty face!" (actually this particular quote wasn't in a h-scene, but in a rape attempt scene) I thought that was the norm for BL MCs, how is that not gay? The game really goes out of its way to basically say "NO HOMO!" sometimes... There's so many turn off moments that only positive thing I can say about the h-scenes is that Akira's voice actor do an AMAZING job, one of the best h-scenes voice acting I heard.
 

Nano!!! Please don't sleep!!! I swear Shiki's route is almost over!!!
 
The art is nothing really special. The background can get a bit repetitive with so many gray tones, the CGs are good, better than the sprites, the usual stuff. The soundtrack on the other end is pretty good, enhancing various okay moments to something cool. It sets the mood just right, the song that plays in the bonding/emotional scenes in particular had such a lonely vibe, I liked it a lot. And the good ending song is so beautiful I constantly hear it (and I feel obligated to share it).
And, because it's an old game, I had to add one more section to this review: technical stuff. It's a known fact that this game have some compatibility problems with windows 8.1 and 10. Back when I played it in windows 8.1, I had to do several "tricks" (compatibility mode with windows XP, put it in high priority in task manager) to unfreeze the game after loading a save file. I had to change the tricks (clicking in specific points in the screen, don't ask why) to play it in windows 10, but after some updates it's now completely unplayable for me. Some people had more luck and said tricks still works, others never had any problem, but are you feeling lucky? Nitro+CHIRAL released a new windows 10 compatible version, but, as you can guess, you can't use the english patch in this version.
Another way to play this game is grab the all-ages PS2 version that even added a new route. Even then, I couldn't really bother with reading this again. It's storytelling is so outdated and filled with bad BL stereotypes. But unfortunately there's so few BL translated that this became some sort of mandatory reading.

Nitroplus sure is popular and there's always hype surrounding their games. Their imprint Nitro+CHIRAL receives the same treatment by the BL fanbase. And that was one of the reasons that I was afraid to approach their games. Overhype frequently kills anime and manga for me, and I believe that the more a media is popular, the more parroting we see instead of legitimate opinions, I can't even count the times I read reviews that, if you erased all positive adjectives, you ended up with nothing. Even so, I tried to play this game because its plot was genuinely interesting. Too bad it got so easily abandoned halfway through the game.
 

Game's cover is more badass than the game itself

Togainu no Chi, Nitro+CHIRAL's debut title released in 2005, tells the story of Akira, a champion in some turf war style game, that got falsely accused of a crime. Japan is in a pretty post apocalyptic state and its society is falling apart so he had almost no hope in ever clearing up the misunderstanding. Except a woman named Emma appears before Akira with a deal to free him. And for that, he have to enter another game, this time a battle royale, named Igura. Accepting the terms, Akira travel to the ruins of Tokyo, where Igura take place. The world building is well done and full of good ideas, that unfortunately falls flat when you reach the character routes. The game takes its time to explain all rules of Igura and show all of the weird quirks the game master added just for fun, just to gives us like two fights and then shift the focus of the plot to something else. Of the five routes, only one actually elaborate a bit more about Igura and that ended up being my favorite route. Of course, they tried to tie the Igura plot with the game's true plot, but the excuse they used still doesn't make Igura actually important for anything.
This feeling of disconnection between the beginning and the later parts of the game was so strong that it almost made me want to try the game's trial. Like, the prologue had special portraits for characters that had only one scene worth of appearance (the game have three or so base NPC faces, but these guys are different), three completely useless character had sprites, there's a fighting sequence with some homeless people that acted like wild animals that's never explained or even mentioned again. I do wonder if the game was supposed to be one thing and because some development problems it became something else...
 

Even Akira is sad with how the game turned out...
 
Now for the characters. First we have Akira, the main character, and mostly a silent badass type of guy. Or that's what we expect him to be based on the prologue. For a said champion, he's overpowered way too easily by pretty much any character that cross paths with him. Add the fact that after 90% of said defeats his opponent states how pretty Akira is and how much he wants to rape him (of course, stating too that he doesn't care if he's a guy), and we have one of the most "damsel in distress" MC I ever saw. The thing he said the most in the entire VN is "let go!", seriously (his "hanaseyo!" just played in my mind). Sure, he accomplish some things by himself, but nothing end game tier. He just goes where the plot carries him, over and over again. And to make things worse, his development is tied to the fact that he should warm more to others and not to his uselessness in combat.
Among our five heroes we have: Keisuke, the clingy childhood friend; Rin, an energetic shota; Motomi, a laid back older guy; Shiki, the edgelord that goes around killing guys with a katana and vanishing the next second; and Nano, a mysterious guy that says a lot of things that doesn't make much sense. We also have bad endings with Arbitro, a super eccentric guy, and his two bodyguards Gunji and Kiriwar, but they're pretty short and not really plot relevant. With the exception of Shiki, all of the others have some character growth. 
Personally, I loved Rin's and Motomi's routes, since it developed well not only each character, but also the couple. You can see them growing up and moving on together. Keisuke is your typical childhood friend route, but his route have a twist that's sadly repeated in every single route, making his route completely pointless if you don't care too much about his character. Nano's route had a good start, but guess he was a bit too detached for a medium length game, so his development was way too rushed in the end. Shiki's route is a complete disaster that I'll talk about in the H-scene part of the review, because his route barely had anything else.
 

"No love for an older guy, huh", Motomi thought, remembering how N+C put him out of view in the blowjob part of the h-scene...
 
The h-scenes... sigh. There's eleven scenes in total, and only three aren't rape. And they aren't even dubious consent scenes, it's no consent whatsoever. And most of them are totally gratuitous. There are more routes than consensual h-scenes, so... you know what to expect. I could actually forgive such a ratio if this was some dark and dramatic story. It's not. It's the actually the same annoying BL cliché that plagues a lot of older works: rape turned love. Guy A forces himself on guy B (usually the MC) because "he can't express himself very well". But no worries, because the rapist liked the other guy all along. And the one raped can see beyond the abuse, guy A have other worthy qualities. And then, happy couple ending~ Aaaaw, can I vomit already? I mean, what? How can they even call that romance??? I know the game deals with some dark themes, so the least they could do is treat it with seriousness and not like some "cute" shipping material. Although this description here fits mostly Shiki (except one of his bad endings, that actually depicts some sort of mindbreaking), there's one more character that had a rape scene that came completely out of nowhere, for no real reason and it so happened to be the only h-scene of the route... My headcanon is that one of the "drugs" (drugs are never named in those media, huh?) they use actually turns them into rapists, but who knows the right answer.
And when that's not the problem, we have the unnatural dialogue. "But we're both guys!", oh I didn't even noticed, thanks for telling me! "I don't like guys, it's just you!", he's a guy regardless, give up. "I don't care if you're a guy, you have a pretty face!" (actually this particular quote wasn't in a h-scene, but in a rape attempt scene) I thought that was the norm for BL MCs, how is that not gay? The game really goes out of its way to basically say "NO HOMO!" sometimes... There's so many turn off moments that only positive thing I can say about the h-scenes is that Akira's voice actor do an AMAZING job, one of the best h-scenes voice acting I heard.
 

Nano!!! Please don't sleep!!! I swear Shiki's route is almost over!!!
 
The art is nothing really special. The background can get a bit repetitive with so many gray tones, the CGs are good, better than the sprites, the usual stuff. The soundtrack on the other end is pretty good, enhancing various okay moments to something cool. It sets the mood just right, the song that plays in the bonding/emotional scenes in particular had such a lonely vibe, I liked it a lot. And the good ending song is so beautiful I constantly hear it (and I feel obligated to share it).
And, because it's an old game, I had to add one more section to this review: technical stuff. It's a known fact that this game have some compatibility problems with windows 8.1 and 10. Back when I played it in windows 8.1, I had to do several "tricks" (compatibility mode with windows XP, put it in high priority in task manager) to unfreeze the game after loading a save file. I had to change the tricks (clicking in specific points in the screen, don't ask why) to play it in windows 10, but after some updates it's now completely unplayable for me. Some people had more luck and said tricks still works, others never had any problem, but are you feeling lucky? Nitro+CHIRAL released a new windows 10 compatible version, but, as you can guess, you can't use the english patch in this version.
Another way to play this game is grab the all-ages PS2 version that even added a new route. Even then, I couldn't really bother with reading this again. It's storytelling is so outdated and filled with bad BL stereotypes. But unfortunately there's so few BL translated that this became some sort of mandatory reading.

Some time ago I've offered you a short list of stand-out Yuri Game Jam VNs - titles that went beyond what you normally can expect from the free game jam entries, presenting compelling stories and surprising aesthetic values. While that list included some of the most-appreciated western yurige, such as well-known Ebi-Hime titles, among hundreds of YGJ and NaNoRenO entries produced over the years you can find many more worthwhile VNs with f/f romance themes that never received similar recognition. Today, I'm presenting you a list of another 5 free OELVNs with yuri elements, along with some honourable mentions for games that I'm less comfortable recommending to everyone reading this post, but are still worth appreciating for some of their achievements. Every title will be listed with an appropriate link to download them on Itch.io - I hope you'll find them to your liking!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Butterfly Soup

Brianna Lei's story about a group of lesbian teenagers has gathered a significant amount of mainstream attention thank to its unique subject matter (focusing on minority queer women and their experience) but is definitely more than just a piece of social commentary. It offers a well-written, charming story that tackles its main themes with a lot of subtlety and doesn't overstate the sexuality of characters, saying more about universal challenges of growing up than just minority issues. And while it definitely attempts to create a more realistic representation of homosexual relationships, straying away from the typical, idealized yuri romance, it's a fun and lighthearted read that should be appropriate for anyone not allergic to close-to-reality LGBT stories. 
Her Tears Were My Light

Nami's allegoric love story about Space and Time is a simple, short game, that nonetheless managed to gather an impressive amount of praise from the readers, apparent, among other things, through its impressively high VNDB rating (7.54 average, 6.91 Bayesian). With beautiful visuals and high-quality writing, it's a really touching and surprisingly unpretentious read, appropriate not just for yuri fans, but rather everyone not afraid to shed a few tears.
Disaster Log C

Sofdelux's Disaster Log C is not in any way a traditional love story, but apart from some slight LGBT+ themes and wacky visuals it offers a highly amusing, unusual story about two drastically different and initially antagonistic individuals trying to survive through a cataclysm that threatens to destroy their world. Interesting characters and Nami's strong writing makes it a thoroughly enjoyable read, if you can get past the game's obvious eccentricities.
Taarradhin

Taarradhin is a fairly well-known NaNoRenO VN that only partially relies on yuri themes, but manages to stand out thanks to an appealing aesthetic, India-inspired stylization and a simple, but well-executed plot. It follows the story of Netqia, a young and naive daughter of a powerful noble in a country struck by catastrophic drought, who's unexpectedly presented with a gift of two beautiful slaves. While, just like other games on this list, Taarradhin is fairly short, it manages to create a setting unusual for VNs on a few different levels, a pretty well fleshed-out cast of characters and an interesting intrigue, that lets you connect to the main cast through multiple playthroughs and rewards you with a compelling "true" conclusion at the end of the road.
Romance Detective 1 & 2

Quintessential work by Nami, the Romance Detective duology showcases both her characteristic artstyle and the casual, mostly-comedic storytelling typical for her VNs. While the second game was never truly finished, missing some art assets, the whole series is complete story-wise and offers a lot of fun for those looking for a light, cheerful read - although the sequel has its share of more sober, touching moments and should be compelling also for those looking for some actual romance and drama.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The honorable mentions go to the second Sofdelux title, Mermaid Splash, for a great aesthetic and atmosphere, despite rather predictable writing, Nami's Tunnel Vision for another minimalistic, heartwarming story that charms the player with its visual style, Toki Production's Princesses's Maid for a great protagonist and amusing romance, and finally npckc's Magical Witch Bell and Her Non-Magical Friends for great writing and the simple, but effective stylization. If you enjoy cute, cheerful stories, all these games are also worth your attention. And regardless of whether you decide to check them out, I hope you found this week's recommendations interesting.
As always, all feedback will be deeply appreciated. Have a great week everyone!

(Have you ever had it blue?)
The Setup
Growing up I never did much with my summers. Other than the requisite family trips I spent most of my summers indoors engaged in watching TV or playing video games. I had no real desire to ever go to summer camp or anything like that. That might have been to my detriment now that I think about it. I could have had a wonderful time and forged some lasting relationships or some shit like that. Of course, if you want to go by horror movie logic I spared myself from being cut down by some ax wielding maniac, or subjected to some R.L. Stine twist. Thinking about it realistically, I probably just spared myself a few pen pals I would never write to, and the usual bug bites and poison ivy misadventures. I'll just pack that in the things that I regret not doing when I was young like playing the guitar, taking theater, and learning ventriloquism. For Osanai Shouko, it is doubtless that her summer camp trip will change her life forever, if she can survive it that is.

(Welcome to Camp Nightmare)
The Story
It's summertime and for second year Osanai or (Osa as she is normally called) that means it is time for the annual summer training camp with the rest of the Seijou Girls’ Academy Kendo Club. The location for the training camp is Shoushinji, a Buddhist Monastery that is famous for the island that is across from it Urashima. According to the lengthy prologue that is delivered to you in the beginning, Urashima was the location of a fabled battle with demons several hundred years ago. Being the dependable kendo club captain she is Osa is more concerned about the itinerary of the trip and how well the rest of the team performs than some old legend. Despite that, something about the monastery seems awfully familiar to her. It feels like has been there before somehow even though she is sure that this is her first time. Something relating to an event that occurred eight years ago, a event that she can barley recall. What does it all mean? The story in Aoishiro has competent mystery that is interesting enough that it held my attention throughout and kept me wanting to play. What Aoishiro can truly take pride in is a smorgasbord of intriguing and diverse characters that you encounter over the course of the story.
The Characters

(Get ready to be familiar with this scene because these girls love to eat. )
This is truly Aoishiro's main selling point and it's something the Visual Novel truly excels in. Most notably one of the best characters happens to be the protagonist herself Osanai Shouko. She is a very dependable and grounded character and even though she is just human she can still hold her own when the proverbial shit hits the fan. It's very rare to find a truly great protagonist in a Visual Novel so I was quite delighted to find that in Osa. The rest of the cast are all extremely well developed as well and really add to the legend, and the story. They are all drawn to the monastery at the same time and at the same place because a storm is approaching, and a secret ritual is about to begin at Urashima. Some of these characters include,
Aizawa Yasumi: She is the manager of the kendo club and a very determined girl even though she doesn't have much stamina and gets weak pretty easily. I was a little bit leery of her initially as she reminded me of a certain dango obsessive character but she turned out to have quite a few surprises up her sleeve.
Kyan Migiwa: She is a strange girl that you meet in the beginning of the game at Shoushinji. She is not apart of the kendo club though she is the same age as Osa. Migiwa is initially very secretive about what she is doing at the temple, and why she insists on keeping watch over the forbidden stepping stones that are the only path to the island. She is very carefree and loves to tease and is consequently one of my favorite characters.
Nami: She is another mystery girl that literally washes up at the beach one night. She does not seem able to speak and her memory is gone as well. What a winning combination. She is strangely well adjusted despite that ludicrous setback. 
Kohaku: The mystery girls keep appearing one after another! She is a small odd woman dressed in a very old outfit with one eye perpetually closed. Hm, I wonder what that could mean?
Secret Character: This very characters existence is a mystery!
Each of the main characters drastically change how the the story plays out and they give a very different insight into the events. Like many visual novels before it you have to play in a certain way to unlock all the heroines and the final grand route. Since they are all pretty great it was not much of a hassle. The grand route by itself is definitely worth unlocking since it is the route where Osa get's to truly shine. On top of that Aioshiro boasts a large cast of side characters which is a quite unusual but not unwelcome addition. They are,
Akita Momoko: An intensely energetic girl that is also a ravenous carnivore.
Sakurai Ayashiro: The Vice President of the kendo club and a very dignified lady from a rich family.
Aoi Hanako: The teacher and advisor to the club, she is a exposition monster and enjoys the odd drink.
And finally, Suzuki Yuukai the chief priest at Shoushinji and another of the exposition monsters. He is a big beer and kendo enthusiast.

(I don't know man moments like these just happen)
My Two Cents
I truly enjoyed my time with Aoishiro even though my first few moments were agonizingly slow thanks to a bug. After I figured out the cause my experience greatly improved. That is not to say that my whole time with it was amazing. I was reminded a lot by Fate/Stay Night while I was playing both in a positive way and a negative way. On the positive side the production quality is through the roof. From the highly detailed visuals to the great voice acting and the wonderful soundtrack. This is coming from someone who almost always plays my own music while I play so you know the music has to be great. On the negative side there are quite a few characters who seem to take a sadistic pleasure in barraging you with copious amounts of info dumps on the lore and legends of the area. There is a supposedly handy in game dictionary but unfortunately that part of Aoishiro was untranslated. The amount of names and events eventually fused together in a impenetrable mush. I was not sure half the time what was traditional folklore and what was the in-game lore. I was able to get a handle on it eventually but it led to some tedium. Speaking of tedium there are numerous times where we are treated to lengthy feasting scenes. They all but grind the story to a halt though they do provide some nice character interaction. Thankfully after the first route is complete it is possible to skip through a lot of these scenes. Those were really my only real gripes with the game. Also like Fate there are also a lot of bad ends that you could unwittingly end up in if you aren't careful. It's more of a Shoujo Ai than a pure yuri game though there are quite a few suggestive moments. Aoishiro turned out to be very spectacular especially in the grand route that you unlock in the game. The strength of the protagonist and the rest of the cast, the visuals, the story and finally the music all come together in a cohesive whole. I really liked it is what I'm trying to say.
 

In one particular thread about otome games, fellow Fuwan Plk_Lesiak said something that made me think. "It looks like a lot of japanese otome games are written by men" (along these lines). I can't really describe why is that, but I have the same feeling. But hey, maybe we're both wrong so I decide to do a little research. I looked into the team of some big japanese otome companies and tried to find their scenario writers. Here's what I found!
 
For Otomate:
Code:Realize, a very popular JP otomege, was written by five people and the main one is Nishimura Yuu, a male who's a freelancer LN writer. In the game's fandisc though, that's more romance oriented I should add, a woman named Kojima Nao is credited instead.
Collar x Mallice was written by three people, two of them I couldn't find information about their gender. The remaining one, Sahara Yuki, is a woman. She also helped with Rejet's Black Wolves Saga, Ken ga Kimi and Bad Medicine. The director is also a female.
Kokuchou no Psychedelica was written by a team of three females and also directed by a female.
7'scarlet is the first one I found that only one person is credit. And this person is Kanazawa Tomio, male.
Period Cube also has a single person credited: Seki Ryouko, female.
Amnesia was written by two females.
 
For Rejet:
Tokyo Yamanote Boys (at least the first one because it's such a long series) was written by one male and one female.
Tiny x Machinegun's plot was written by Yamada Yuumi, female.
The Dot Kareshi series also have multiple writers, but the main one for the 2nd and 3rd games (the best ones imo) is Urai Anna, female, nice comedy there girl I loved that game.
There's way more games here with very little information about the writer compared to Otomate...
 
For Honeybee:
Re:Birthday Song, jeez, there are ten people credited there, at least the three main ones are female.
Ayakashi Gohan, same as above.
Starry Sky series have less writers, but still, all of them are female.
 
For Kalmia8:
No info about Little Miss Lonesome or Kami-sama Nante Yondenai!, but Torikago no Marriage was written by two females. One look at its VNDB page and you'll see how different the latter is in comparison with the other two games. It doesn't even seem like it's by the same company!
 
For Karin Entertainment (this is not as famous, but just to do a comparison):
Princess Nightmare and Eikoku Tantei Mysteria were written by one female (the same one, in fact). Zettai Meikyuu Himitsu no Oyayubi-hime and Danzai no Maria were written by two females.

So, what can I say after all this research? It seems that as the company gets bigger, we have less females, less information and more Frankenstein's creature of a plot, dear lord, I couldn't get over ten people yet...

In one particular thread about otome games, fellow Fuwan Plk_Lesiak said something that made me think. "It looks like a lot of japanese otome games are written by men" (along these lines). I can't really describe why is that, but I have the same feeling. But hey, maybe we're both wrong so I decide to do a little research. I looked into the team of some big japanese otome companies and tried to find their scenario writers. Here's what I found!
 
For Otomate:
Code:Realize, a very popular JP otomege, was written by five people and the main one is Nishimura Yuu, a male who's a freelancer LN writer. In the game's fandisc though, that's more romance oriented I should add, a woman named Kojima Nao is credited instead.
Collar x Mallice was written by three people, two of them I couldn't find information about their gender. The remaining one, Sahara Yuki, is a woman. She also helped with Rejet's Black Wolves Saga, Ken ga Kimi and Bad Medicine. The director is also a female.
Kokuchou no Psychedelica was written by a team of three females and also directed by a female.
7'scarlet is the first one I found that only one person is credit. And this person is Kanazawa Tomio, male.
Period Cube also has a single person credited: Seki Ryouko, female.
Amnesia was written by two females.
 
For Rejet:
Tokyo Yamanote Boys (at least the first one because it's such a long series) was written by one male and one female.
Tiny x Machinegun's plot was written by Yamada Yuumi, female.
The Dot Kareshi series also have multiple writers, but the main one for the 2nd and 3rd games (the best ones imo) is Urai Anna, female, nice comedy there girl I loved that game.
There's way more games here with very little information about the writer compared to Otomate...
 
For Honeybee:
Re:Birthday Song, jeez, there are ten people credited there, at least the three main ones are female.
Ayakashi Gohan, same as above.
Starry Sky series have less writers, but still, all of them are female.
 
For Kalmia8:
No info about Little Miss Lonesome or Kami-sama Nante Yondenai!, but Torikago no Marriage was written by two females. One look at its VNDB page and you'll see how different the latter is in comparison with the other two games. It doesn't even seem like it's by the same company!
 
For Karin Entertainment (this is not as famous, but just to do a comparison):
Princess Nightmare and Eikoku Tantei Mysteria were written by one female (the same one, in fact). Zettai Meikyuu Himitsu no Oyayubi-hime and Danzai no Maria were written by two females.

So, what can I say after all this research? It seems that as the company gets bigger, we have less females, less information and more Frankenstein's creature of a plot, dear lord, I couldn't get over ten people yet...

Two weeks ago I've brought you an interview with Reine Works' Jackie M., where we talked about realities of OELVN publishing and the specificity of women-oriented western VNs. Today, I have an immense pleasure of bringing the spotlight onto one of my favourite western VN creators. Nami is an indie game developer and author of highly appreciated yuri titles, such as Her Tears Were My Light and Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet. If you observe VN contests such as Yuri Game Jam or NaNoRenO, or you read my post about the best YGJ VNs, you should probably be at least somewhat familiar with her work – and if you’re not, I hope reading this short interview will convince you to change that ASAP. 😉 Enjoy!
------------------------------------------------------

Plk_Lesiak: Hello and thank you for agreeing to this interview! Many people interested in the OELVN scene might know your Itch.io handle NomnomNami or at least recognize the style you use in your projects, but probably not much more. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Nami: When I’m not making my own games I’m usually screaming about Disgaea, but most of my time lately goes into working for Lab Zero on their big crowdfunded RPG, Indivisible. Right now my life is work, work, work, so I’m afraid I don't have much interesting stuff to say about it.
PL: Usually, developers that try their strength in the visual novel format have a strong connection to otaku culture and borrow various ideas and elements of style from Japanese media. How is it in your case?
N: I've been a huge fan of Japanese anime/manga/games since I was like 10, and I’ve loved a lot of games that use a visual novel style format so it seemed really natural to me. I think my subconscious goal is to write things that feel like a Disgaea cutscene - I just really love Disgaea!
PL: Disgaea is, above all, a strategy game series. Are there any visual novels that you think influenced your work? Do you read any Japanese or Western VNs nowadays?
N: While these aren't pure VNs, I really enjoyed the original Ace Attorney trilogy, Hotel Dusk, and 999. Nowadays I don't play games that often, but I browse Itch.io a lot and try to check out what other people make for NaNoRenO and Yuri Jam!
Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Chapter 3: Madness


 
The mastermind behind the Fuwanovel death game watched the two screens on the desk before him/her with a wicked smile.

"Seven dead already, heh. This is going well."

The video from the past two weeks of the battle royale had been playing on the screens in a loop for hours, with the faces of the four picked for the current week displayed on a different monitor above.

"Hehe. Now, let's see, what kind of arena should I put these four in?"

"Mind if I handle that?"

"Huh?!"

Taken completely aback by the presence of someone else in the control room, <??> nearly fell out of his/her chair.

"How the hell did you get in here?!"

"Hmph. You think your weak magic can control me? Please. I was bored, so I figured I'd join in on this weird game you have going on. So, with that said, I'll be taking over for a bit, heh."

With that, Clephas devoured <??>, trapping them in one of his stomachs.

"Now, let's have some fun. Hmm, these four, huh? Alright. Let's begin."

Using his powers to summon the four members from their cells, Clephas devoured them all in an instant.


 
The First Stomach - alden_0023 & Thatcomicguy


 
The first thing Thatcomicguy noticed was the smell of blood. Opening his eyes, he could tell that he was no longer in his cell.

"Come on... Was I picked again?"

Getting off the floor, he shook his head in frustration. He had fought for his life against another Fuwanovel user in the death game just two weeks before. He was hoping he would be able to avoid being picked again for at least a few more weeks. But, he had no such luck.

"Where the hell am I...?"

Looking around in confusion, he could tell he was in a classroom. The windows in the room were shattered, and the walls were riddled with holes and cracks. The floor was also badly damaged, covered in claw marks of all things.

What on earth had happened there before he woke up?

"Hnng..."

Noticing some rustling coming from the other side of the classroom, Thatcomicguy gripped his spear and got ready for a possible fight.

"Ugh, my head..."

Alden_0023 rubbed his forehead, slowly getting to his feet. The moment he spotted Thatcomicguy standing in the other side of the classroom, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Then, in the next moment.

"Hah!"

Drawing his bow with incredible speed, he sent an arrow flying through the room. Barely managing to block the arrow with his shield, Thatcomicguy started running through the room towards the door, trying to escape.

Another arrow flew towards him, barely missing his neck before digging into a nearby desk. Having reached the door, Thatcomicguy kicked it as hard as he could, making the door fly open. His hands were full because of his weapon and shield, and he had no time to spare, as Alden prepared another arrow.

But, the moment the door flew open, both men suddenly froze in place. It was a natural reaction. Anyone would be shocked by the sight that waited on the other side of that door.

A group of six small figures sat hunched over a corpse, happily chewing at its flesh. They had already eaten a great deal of the corpse, and their small bodies were covered in fresh blood.

"Wh-What... the fuck?"

The group of small girls suddenly stopped eating, and turned towards the two men in the classroom. While they might have looked like normal young girls at first glance, they had two features that no human child had. First, their teeth. The mouths of the girls were covered in shark like teeth, each tooth about ten centimeter in length. As a result, it was impossible for the girls to even close their mouths. Their eyes were glowing in a bright red color, and their pupils were completely gone. The entire eye was simply covered entirely in the red light.

"Cannibal... lolis... Seriously?"

Thatcomicguy uttered in a voice dyed in confusion and dread.

"..."

Realizing the situation was quite dire, Alden lowered his bow, and ran towards one of the broken windows along the classroom wall, then leapt through it.

"HEY! ARE YOU LEAVING ME WITH THESE THINGS?!"

Ignoring Thatcomicguy, Alden performed a forward flip in the air, then prepared his body for the fall. It seemed like the school they had woken up in was quite big, and they were on the sixth floor. But, contrary to his expectations, Alden's body did not fall at all. Instead, he was pulled up, flying towards the roof of the school.

"What in the..."

Soaring up past classroom after classroom, Alden reached the roof of the building, but his body showed no signs of stopping. He was literally falling upwards.

"Tch."

Clicking his tongue, Alden grabbed a hold of the railing covering the school roof, managing to stop his "fall" in the last second. Pulling his body towards the roof, he gripped the railing as he slowly moved towards the fire escape leading back into the school. The moment his foot moved inside the school building, he force pulling him upwards let go.
It seemed like moving outside the school was out of the question. The bizarre arena was nothing like the arenas used the previous weeks.

"What on earth is going on..."

Meanwhile

"AHHH, get away, get away, get away, AHHH!"

Thatcomicguy screamed, as he ran as fast as he could through the dark hallways of the school. Just a few meters behind him were five of the six small girls, giggling as they chased him.

He had managed to kill one of them with his spear in his escape from the classroom. This did not seem to anger the rest at all, as they chased happily after Thatcomicguy. It seemed like the girls had the ability to retract their teeth, and were now humming and laughing. Still, their eyes glowed. It was clear that their eyes were filled with bloodlust. If he stopped for just a moment, they'd probably rip him to shreds.

"Tehehe, I love playing tag."

"We're gonna get you, we're gonna get you ~~"

"GO PLAY WITH SOMEONE ELSE, AHH!"

Still screaming, Thatcomicguy kept running at full speed down the hallway, until...

"Shit..."

He reached a dead end. The stairs leading down to the floor below were blocked by a massive pile of rubble. The roof above had collapsed, also covering the stairs going up in the process. In other words, he was trapped.

The small girls were now just half a meter away.

"Tag. You're it!"

The girls opened their mouths, and their fangs once again sprouted out.

Preparing for what would most likely be his final battle, Thatcomicguy took a deep breath.

"I'm naked in front of a group of lolis, pointing a spear at them. That's a headline for yah."

Crack.

A sound coming from above made Thatcomicguy look up towards the roof, and soon after, a big chunk of the ceiling came crashing down, landing on top of two of the girls, squishing them.

"WHOA!"

Sitting on top of the rubble was Alden, his body covered in small cuts. Or, were they bite marks?

"Ah..."

Realizing what that meant, Thatcomicguy looked towards the hole in the roof, and sure enough, peeking down from above were even more of the rabid lolis, looking at Alden like he was a delicious looking plate of food.

"... Sorry dude, looks like this isn't your day."

With that, Thatcomicguy stood completely still, as the hoard of cannibalistic lolis swarmed Alden, biting through his flesh and bones like it was nothing. The sight was horrifying, making Thatcomicguy look away in disgust.
Taking advantage of the situation, he quietly snuck past the hoard of killer lolis, covering his eyes the entire time. He then started making his way down the hallway, leaving the little monsters to their dinner.




 
The Second Stomach - xGreyHound & Jazid-Kun


 
A jungle of mysterious plants in all sorts of colors stretched as far as the eye could see. A nearby river was filled not with water, but lava, and the sky was dyed red, not blue.

In the middle of this impossible jungle stood Jazid-Kun, looking around him with a smile.

"What a fitting stage for bloodbath. Heh."

Striking a cool pose, Jazid spoke in a dramatic tone of voice. Wearing a black school uniform and with an eye patch covering his left eye, Jazid did not exactly look like he belonged in the strange jungle. If not for the two large swords in crossed sheathes on his back, he would have just looked like any other high-school student.

"Chaos shall rain! Today, we dine with death himself!"

"... The hell are you on kid?"

xGreyHound sent Jazid a confused look, gripping his AK-47 firmly. He was on guard, prepared for the worst. The arena he had been placed in seemed even crazier than any of the previous ones.

GreyHound did not have it in him to kill a kid like Jazid, so he had approached Jazid with the suggestion of an alliance. Jazid accepted, though now he was going on some kind of chuunibyou rant, which made GreyHound instantly regret his decision.

"Please kid, be quiet..."

"Let the curtain fall on this blood drenched play! Let the games begin!"

Jazid shouted, stretching his arms up towards the red sky.

"... I swear, I will smack you over the head if you don't quiet down."

"Hah! A mere mortal like yourself? You wouldn't be able to lay a finger on me."

Rustle.

"?!"

A nearby plant started stirring. GreyHound quickly pointed his gun in the direction of the sound. Another plant started to move, then another. Before long, every single plant in their vicinity had started to move. At first, GreyHound thought the movement was caused by something moving through the plants, but... that wasn't it. The plants themselves were moving.
Clearly a little weirded out by the moving plants, Jazid moved a few steps closer to GreyHound.

"I, uh... I shall protect you, mortal!"

"Yeah, whatever, just draw your weapons at least."

"Kukuku. You mean these?"

Jazid gestured towards his swords.

"I cannot simply draw them out of their sheathe without the proper chant. They are sealed by a powerful—"

"Get down!"

GreyHound pushed Jazid to the side, as a giant vine shot out from one of the strange flowers. The vine was covered in strange spikes, reminiscent of teeth. It slammed into the ground mercilessly, making its sharp spikes dig into the dirt.

"Y-You cannot scare me, for I am... I am..."

"Shut up and run!"

GreyHound turned around and darted into a clearing, as several more giant plant monsters approached the two.

"Y-Yes sir!"

Following suit, Jazid ran as fast as he could after his teammate. Just a second after, five more giant veins slammed into the place he had been standing.

"Wh-What are those thin—"

"Duck!"

Interrupting Jazid once again, GreyHound shouted a command and pointed his gun toward Jazid's face. Doing as he was told Jazid quickly ducked down, and the massive mouth of a bizarre plant closed right above him, catching some of his hair in its massive jaws.

"Dieee!"

GreyHound fired several rounds into the head of the strange plant, making green goo fly everywhere. The plant let out a deafening screech and backed up a few steps, hissing at the two. It's mouth was layered with more teeth than a shark, each one at least five centimeters long. In addition to its killer bite, it also had several long vines covered in spikes sprouting from its body. It was the height of a human man, and moved incredibly fast.

"Over there! Run to the lava!"

"L-Lava? Are you crazy? I-I mean, lava would have no power over my immortal body, of course, but you are just a normal human, so it would surely be in trouble."

"Just shut up and run."

Turning back towards the way they had come, the two started running towards the strange lava stream, about fifty meters away. The stream was no more than one meter in width, but if GreyHound's theory was right, it would do.

"We're jumping over that. Get ready."

Not waiting for his ally to reply, GreyHound leapt across the lava stream. The intense heat from just being in the vicinity of the lava made even just breathing hurt, but it was better than being devoured by flesh eating plants the size of humans.

Jazid made it across the lava soon after GreyHound.

"Kuku. Looks like our plant friends were not so smart after all."

At least twenty of the killer plants tried to follow them, but they all let out loud shrieks as they approached the lava, and took several swift steps back. They were clearly not fond of the heat.

"We have no time to waste here. There could be more. Come on."

"Look out!"

As GreyHound turned his back on the plants and started to walk in the other direction, several of the strange creatures sent their vines flying towards the two humans. It seemed like there was no real limit to how far the vines could stretch, and they approached GreyHound's back with great speed.

"Hah!"

But, just moments before they were about to tear GreyHound to shreds, the vines themselves got cut into tiny pieces.

"Hmph. To think you'd make me take off my eye patch. I'm surprised you'd push me this far."

GreyHound turned around to see what had happened. Sure enough, Jazid's eye patch was gone, revealing an eye with a different color from the other. He had also drawn his swords, which were covered in green goo from cutting apart the vines.
Jazid had somehow managed to remove his eye patch, draw his swords, then cut several vines within a matter of seconds. GreyHound could not help but be amazed at the spectacle, and thanked his teammate for saving his life.

Rustle. Rustle.

Something started moving in the leaves behind the killer plants, and Jazid stood rooted in place, watching whatever it was intently.

"Come on kid, more of those things are coming from the looks of things. We gotta go."

GreyHound did not wait for a reply, and started to walk away from the lava and the plants. But, Jazid did not move.

"Kid, I will leave you, I swear! What are you even... looking... at..."

GreyHound's voice began to falter, as he too laid eyes on the creature on the other side of the lava. It took the form of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life. She wasn't wearing a thing, and on top of her head were two pretty cat ears. Wagging back and forth behind her legs was a fuzzy tail. It was, without a doubt, a catgirl. An incredibly beautiful one, too.
Being fans of visual novels and the likes, both men knew very well what she was. While she appeared harmless, the fact that the plants were not killing her was a clear warning sign in GreyHound's mind.

"We gotta get the hell out of here, now!"

Jazid did not respond, but instead started to move slowly towards the catgirl, dropping his swords on the ground.

"Wait, what the hell are you doing!"

Jazid showed no interest in GreyHound, and kept on slowly approaching the catgirl, who looked back at them with an enchanting smile.

"Dude, this is not the time for your weird ass fantasies! We have to get out of here. Guh?!"

GreyHound tried to reach out for Jazid's hand, but he had gotten so close to the lava, the heat made GreyHound jump back in reflex.

There was nothing GreyHound could do but watch, as Jazid slowly walked into the scorching heat of the lava, seemingly under some kind of spell cast by the mysterious catgirl. He did not even blink at the pain from having his foot melted by the incredible heat. All he did was watch the catgirl on the other side of the lava stream, with a smile on his face.

After a few seconds, Jazid's body had been completely consumed by the lava.

"Y-You bitch, what did you do to him?!"

Pointing his gun at the catgirl in anger, GreyHound's body shook in terror. The creature simply returned a brilliant smile, and started to walk back into the depths of the strange jungle. The flesh eating plants followed suit, leaving GreyHound alone with nothing but the smell of burning flesh, and a sense of dread.


 


Wildcards This Week?
No
 
Dead This Week:
 
 
Still Alive:
 

Here is something that I just decided to randomly work on. It might end up being a Visual Novel who knows. Oh here is my working synopsis.
After years of living a unremarkable high school life, eighteen year old Alice has finally started on her College journey. It's a fresh start in a new city. A chance encounter with a bully from her youth has awakened something within her. Now, determined to make the most of her college days and to crush her newfound rival, Alice has decided to form a rock band that can win the battle of the bands competition. All she has to do now is actually get a band together that can win, but that shouldn't be that hard, right?
Anyway let me know what you think.
 
 
Chapter One, a Fresh Start and a Old Enemy
"Goodbye, Mom! Goodbye, Dad! Oh and how could I forget, goodbye Beth! I love you all!" I shout that to my family as they give me a departing wave before getting into their car and driving away from my life forever. Well, maybe not forever but it does kind of feel that way. At least, that's how my mother and sister felt. I could scarcely pull away from their death grip on me. My father, he is made of sterner stuff but I know that he was probably feeling the same thing on the inside. I was sad too of course, but it wasn't nearly enough to combat the fierce joy I felt.
I'm finally at college! I'm finally on my own! I want to scream that so everyone will hear. That might not make for a good first impression, so I control my joy and simply let it radiate through me. I look around the crowded parking lot filled with newly minted college students accompanied by their grieving but proud parents. Of course, I think to myself as I walk back inside my new dorms, it won't be like I'll be completely on my own. I'll have my very own roommate after all. I wonder what she'll be like and look like? I only briefly emailed her several days ago. She seemed nice enough but who knows, she might be that roommate from hell I've heard so many horror stories about. Now that I think about it I could end up becoming the thing I fear.
I shake off the chill that I just gave me and head toward my room. Like that's going to happen, I'm going to be the best roommate that she could hope to have. I grit my teeth and clench my fist in what I hope is a look of supreme determination. I open the door wide and cross the threshold before throwing myself into my bed and gazing up at the room I'll be living in for the rest of the year. It's not much to be honest though I did manage to bring a lot of my precious things with me. Especially my old electric guitar that my grandmother bought for me at the end of eighth grade.
I glance over at the bare part of the room with the single destitute bed and lonely desk and chair. I'm surprised that she hasn't already moved in yet. Oh well, I guess there is always tomorrow. It's still a little disappointing. "Oh well." I murmur again to myself. I pull myself out of my bed and get to work putting up the rest of my posters and other nick knacks followed by my favorite mirror. After that is completed I spend several minutes gazing back at the young woman who is staring intently at me through the glass. She has long thick messy black hair, bright green eyes and thick eyebrows that always give her a threatening look, even if it's not always her intention. She's pretty enough I suppose if you are into that kind of thing. She'd probably only piss me off if I had to live with her. I sing softly to myself, Spent some time feelin' inferior, standing in front of my mirror. Combed my hair in a thousand ways, but I came out looking just the same. I turn myself away from the mirror and head out the door.
I can't spend all day in my little hovel, I've got some exploring to do! There is commotion in the hallways, commotion in the corridors, commotion all around me. I have to duck and weave in order to save myself from being hit by the constantly apologetic families who are in the middle of moving. I give a small smile of understanding to them knowing that I was in their own shoes myself not an hour ago. The dorm I live in is nice enough even if it is fairly old. It's got a pretty nice common room with a big flat screen tv and a ping pong and pool table which is already in use. The only bad thing about it is a bit of a walk to the campus. That's fine for me as it will give me a good opportunity to get some exercise.
I nod and say hello to a couple of the friendly faces that I come across as I walk out of the dorms and head toward the campus. I love this campus already, of course I had to given that I fought so hard to get into it. It wasn't easy due to the fact that I was a pretty shit student all the way through high school. What were the nicer words that the teachers used, oh it was, "Does not apply herself." Still by hook or by crook I managed to somehow get into it and now here I am. "Now here I am," I whisper to myself. "The future is right ahead of me and there is no one here alive that will be able to stop me from seizing it!" I walk languidly down the path ahead of me thanking the powers that be that this hot August day is not intolerable. I take out my music player, put it in shuffle and put the earbuds where they belong. Today seems to be my day as a song that I adore starts to play.
This is really a beautiful campus, I think to myself as I saunter along taking in the open space surrounded by concrete buildings with a few small gardens clustered around. It's eerily quiet as there are only a few people that evidently had the same motivation as I. It's hard to imagine that tomorrow this relatively empty area is going to pulsating with life. The only problem with it being so large is that I'll be a sweaty mess once I get to class, especially if I must rush. I adjust my gait to the music that is coursing throughout me. Boy, I hope I look as cool as I feel right now. I smile smugly to myself as my favorite song comes to a close. The next song of course has to be a complete mood killer, a tearful dirge to a lost love. Just my luck. This song just has to play enforcing the sad truth that in all my eighteen years of age I have not yet found someone who could pierce me to my core like that. I hurriedly push those annoying thoughts out of my brain. Still plenty of time to fall in love, still plenty of time to fall in love, I chant to myself. I skip through my playlist trying to find a better song as I take a sharp corner, right into destiny. I collide with someone coming from the opposite direction. My head slams into theirs and I fall back on the hard stone floor. "OW! MY ACHING HEAD! OW! MY FUCKING ASS," I shout as I reel from the impact. I hear a grown from the other person and I snap into apology mode.
"I'm so sorry I ran into you, I hope you aren't hurt."
"I'll survive somehow but thanks," comes the reply.
I finally bring myself to look at the person I just collided with and I notice that she is a girl about my age. She has short, spiky white hair with black streaks. She is dressed in a very punk way with a skull t shirt and a tattered skirt. She looks back at me with gray eyes that are a bit dazed. She's pretty cute but she looks awfully familiar. I pick myself up off the floor and remembering what passes for manners I offer my hand to her. She wordlessly takes it and I pull her up.
"I'm sorry again for that reinforced cliches are the worst."
Yeah, I guess that counts as one doesn't it?
We are standing face to face now and the more I look at her the more familiar she becomes. All the while I'm staring at her something is building in me. I can almost hear the sounds of a hundred pulsating drums. I know this woman's face, but from where? Then suddenly it's like a steel door to my memories has suddenly snapped open. Meanwhile, the woman is looking quizzically at me while trying to break my death grip on her hand. I quickly release her hand and instead point an accusing finger at the woman. A name that I never thought I had the chance to say bursts from my lips. VVVERONICA FRENCH!! She looks quite taken aback at this sudden happening and slowly asks, eyes narrowed.
"How do you know my name?"
I match her glare with one of my own putting my heavy brows to good use.
"How could I ever forget your name when it is stitched to the lining of my Soul!"
She looks at me like I'm some kind of mental patient which at this case might not actually be so far from the truth if I'm being honest.
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"You don't remember me at all do you? You don't remember this face? Does the name Alice Blackwood mean anything to you?"
"No, I don't believe I've ever met you at anytime in my life. I think someone as strange as you would be a hard person to forget."
"Hard doesn't mean impossible. You went to Sarajevo Middle School did you not?"
"Yes. Yes I did but how did you...?"
"How did I know? Because we went to the same exact middle school of course!"
My heart is pounding fast and the drums are pulsating awaiting the grand climax that is approaching. I again point my finger accusingly and savagely shout.
"I COULD NEVER FORGET YOUR NAME OR FACE BECAUSE YOU WERE THE ONE WHO MADE MY MIDDLE SCHOOL YEARS A LIVING HELL!"
"You bullied and teased me constantly how could I not remember? That sort of thing is hard to forget."
I grin triumphantly I had no idea that such a day would actually happen. How much time did I spend wanting to confront this shadow of my past? I thought I had lost my chance to face her when she suddenly moved away in the middle of 8th grade. I stare hard at her. She seems quite taken aback by my outburst. She lets a few moments pass before responding. I wait patiently with my arms crossed.
"Um...Alice was it? I'm, I'm really sorry that I did that to you. I knew that I was a real asshole in middle school but I had no idea I had hurt you that badly. Can you ever forgive me?"
She's actually apologizing to me I think, this isn't quite what I had imagined. This isn't exactly how I thought this would go down. I had thought, hoped that she would be unapologetic to the very end. Of course in my dreams we would also immediately start a long and drawn out fight. The question is should I forgive her? It's true she did hurt me deeply but I managed to get over it eventually. Still, I have to do this for my inner child. I clench my fist, give her my most vicious glare and passionately declare.
"No. No, I can never forgive you. I will never forgive you! From this day forward you are my enemy!"
I feel like such a badass right now, I think as I abruptly turn my back and coldly leave her without looking back. I feel like skipping but I find someway to keep my terrible joy in check.
Veronica watches Alice leave, still in something of a bewildered state. She had never thought that she would be confronted by such a ugly part of her past. She had wanted college to be a fresh start for her and now this had happened. College starts tomorrow and already there is someone here that hates me. Still, she wouldn't let that get too her, couldn't let that get to her. She would just have to apologize to her again, apologize until she finally relented. Shame that things had to happen that way she was actually kind of cute, in a really weird way. Veronica finally decides to head back to her own dorm. The sun is starting to set and she still has a lot to plan for the next day. She looks back in the direction that woman had departed from. "Alice Blackwood huh?"
 

Chapter 2: Death In The City
 
Members in this chapter:
“Tch. Where did that little worm go?”
VirginSmasher came to a halt as he scanned the area. The blazing sun made the asphalt below his feet feel like liquid magma, and the light from the sun reflected in the countless windows around him, making it even harder to spot his target. VirginSmasher had been one of the Fuwanovel members picked for the second week of the death game, and he had already been caught in a fight with another user. But, after a few minutes of battle, his opponent had fled, and VirginSmasher lost sight of him.
“I was this close, too…”
Kicking the ground in frustration, VirginSmasher made the asphalt below his feet explode into a million pieces, sending rubble and dust flying around the area. His powers were quite simple. His strength and agility had been increased tenfold, essentially making him a human wrecking ball. Problem was, the person he had been chasing had some kind of teleportation ability, making it impossible for VirginSmasher to land a hit.
“Ugh… What’s with this arena though?”
VirginSmasher looked up at the sky. He was standing in the centre of a massive city, in the middle of summer. It had to be at least thirty degrees in the sun, so all the moving around made him feel like he was melting.
“Last week they got a nice and cool forest, yet we’re stuck in this hellhole. What a jok— Huh?!”
Sensing something approaching from above, VirginSmasher sidestepped and turned to face whatever it was. Two arrows graced his throat, and slammed into the ground behind him, producing two large holes in the concrete.
A thin trail of blood ran down VirginSmasher’s neck. Had he moved just a fraction of a second later, he’d be dead.
“Heh. Looks like I got some new pray.”
VirginSmasher said with a smile, as he looked up at his new opponent.
“...”
Sitting on the top of a nearby telephone pole was Alden_0023, pointing a strung bow at VirginSmasher. Alden wore a grey cloak, with a quiver on his back and a range of different throwing knives stuck to his belt.
“I won’t miss a second time.”
Alden stated in an indifferent tone, and before VirginSmasher could even move an inch, Alden sent another arrow towards his target. The arrow soared through the air with incredible velocity. VirginSmasher barely managed to react in time, slamming the arrow out of the air with his palm. The arrowtip dug into his hand, ripping through the flesh like it was butter.
“Hmph!”
Not bothered by the pain one bit, VirginSmasher slammed his right hand into the ground, and a large crack in the concrete moved towards the telephone pole, which started to collapse moments later.
Alden leapt in the air, and after a graceful backlip, he reached for another two arrows, and fired them both at his target, before landing on another telephone pole about ten meters away from the previous one.
This time VirginSmasher managed to dodge the arrows completely, and jumped towards his opponent. It was an impossible leap for a normal human. The ground below his foot cracked, and VirginSmasher’s body shot forward. In the air, he thrust his healthy hand towards Alden’s chest, then, before hitting his opponent, he twisted his arm sideways and opened his palm, producing a shockwave which pushed Alden off the telephone pole.
“Kuh…”
Alden groaned in pain, but still managed to fire another arrow at VirginSmasher before he landed on the ground. While the arrow did not hit VirginSmasher, it distracted him for long enough to keep him off Alden’s tail for another second.
That second was all Alden needed. With incredible speed, he sprinted towards a nearby building, and jumped up on the wall. As if his feet were layered with glue, Alden ran straight up the wall, firing several arrows at VirginSmasher in the process.
“Tch, the hell is with this guy?!”
Dodging the arrows by a hair's breadth every time, VirginSmasher danced around on the ground below as the barrage of arrows rained down from above.
“Guess I’m switching to long range attacks as well. Hmph!”
Grabbing a nearby piece of rubble, VirginSmasher threw it up at Alden as hard as he could. The concrete block split up into several smaller pieces as it moved towards its target, smashing into the building with a loud bang. Broken glass and rubble fell towards the street below, as a large chunk of the building was torn apart from the impact.
“Did I get him?”
VirginSmasher squinted, trying to find Alden in the middle of the chaos. He soon spotted the shadow of a person rushing out from the rubble, and right after, several small objects flew towards him at great speeds.
“Tch, more arrows?!”
VirginSmasher prepared for another volley of arrows, but what was thrown at him was in fact just some rubble from the building.
“Shit!”
Realizing the attack was just a distraction, VirginSmasher spun around.
“Got you.”
Alden released the bowstring, and sent an arrow flying towards VirginSmasher’s exposed back. Although he did notice Alden’s trick in time for him to turn around, he did not manage to dodge the arrow, which dug into VirginSmasher’s chest.
“Guaah!”
VirginSmasher reached for the arrow, and snapped it in half. Then, he grabbed the arrowhead which was sticking out of his back, and ripped the arrow out of his torso.
Meanwhile, Alden landed on the ground about twenty meters away. Although his physical abilities were heightened, he had still fallen about ten meters, so he needed a second to collect himself after the landing.
“You little bastard!”
VirginSmasher rushed towards Alden, filled with rage. The pain from the wound in his chest only fueled his anger. Putting all of his remaining strength into one last attack, VirginSmasher charged his enemy.
“You don’t… give up, do you?”
Scrambling to his feet, Alden reached for another arrow. While he had not been injured from the fall, it had knocked the air out of him, making it difficult for him to avoid VirginSmasher’s sudden charge.
“Haah!”
VirginSmasher lunged at Alden with everything he had. Alden barely managed to throw himself to the side, dropping his bow in the process. VirginSmasher’s hand collided with the wooden bow, smashing it into a million pieces.
“Heh, what are you going to do now?”
VirginSmasher spat out, as he watched the pieces of Alden’s weapon fall to the ground before him.
“This.”
A sharp pain spread through VirginSmasher’s body, as Alden seemingly threw something in his direction.
“Huh…?”
Looking down at his own body, he saw three throwing knives buried into his chest.
“Well, fuck…”
The world around VirginSmasher grew cloudy, but he did not collapse right away.
“I’ll at least… take you with me…”
Raising his trembling arm into the air, VirginSmasher tried to charge at Alden one last time, but before he could move, another set of throwing knives dug into his torso.
“...”
As the life left VirginSmasher’s body, he managed to flip off Alden before his dead body collided with the ground below.
Meanwhile, on the top of the tallest building in the city:
Two figures stood face to face on the roof of a skyscraper, located in the centre of town. They were too high up to see or hear the commotion happening below.
“Heh, so you finally caught up to me, huh? I was hoping I could avoid fighting...”
Mr Poltroon paused and eyed his opponent, adjusting one of his white gloves.
“I’d especially like to avoid fighting you of all people.”
With a wry smile, Mr Poltroon took a step back, moving towards the ledge of the skyscraper.
“... Sorry.”
Snapping his fingers, Kaguya created a force field around the roof, trapping the two of them inside.
“*Sigh*... That’s what I thought. Well, I guess only one of us gets out of this thing.”
Mr Poltroon tilted his head to the side, and smiled wryly once again.
“I don’t suppose I could talk you out of this?”
Kaguya didn’t respond, and instead brought his hands together. His entire figure was drowned in a bright white light, and the outline of a moon appeared above his head.
"<蓬莱の薬>"
<Hourai elixir>
A small flask appeared in Kaguya’s hands, and he quickly brought it to his mouth, emptying the bottle in a second.
Hourai elixir, also known as the elixir of life. Those who drinks from it are, in short, immortal for a set period of time. Even if Poltroon destroyed Kaguya’s body while he was under the effect of the potion, he would just regenerate. In other words, Poltroon had to stall until the potion wore off if he wanted to win.
Summoning his trusty cane into his hands, Poltroon struck a cool pose and prepared for battle.
“I suppose it would be rude to attack first, so I’ll wait for you, kind sir.”
“You’re fighting with that?”
Kaguya looked at Poltroon’s cane.
“What, is it not to your liking? I find it quite dashing, personally.”
Kaguya shook his head, and jumped towards Poltroon, and unleashed a flurry of punches at an impossible speed. Poltroon blocked each punch with the back of his cane, deflecting the attacks with ease.
“Not bad. I expected nothing less from one of my underlings.”
A smile spread across Kaguya’s face. It would not be such a short battle after all.
Kaguya attacked again, but this time he conjured two blades of pure moonlight in his hands, slashing at Poltroon’s body.
Still, Poltroon deflected the attacks with his cane. The blades did not leave a single scratch in the wood. Needless to say, it was no ordinary stick. With each attack Poltroon stopped, Kaguya unleashed another.
Realizing he would eventually get hit if he didn’t do something, Poltroon leapt backwards, distancing himself from Kaguya. As Kaguya was about to give chase, Poltroon thrust the tip of his cane into the ground, creating four large circles before him.
Kaguya was not sure what they were, but did not really care, because of his immortality. Even if it did end up hurting him, he’d just heal right back anyways. Ignoring the suspicious circles, Kaguya rushed towards Poltroon.
The moment Kaguya’s foot grazed one of the circles, a powerful force puashed Kaguya’s body to the ground, pinning him down.
A gravity trap.
“Kuh… You think this will hold me?”
Kaguya’s body started shaking, as he used everything he had to force himself onto his feet. With sluggish movements, he moved off the circle, and was released from the magic infused in the trap.
“Guess it won’t be that simple.”
Poltroon raised his cane, and prepared for another one of Kaguya’s onslaughts.
The two moderators were caught in an intense fight for over twenty minutes. Kaguya was on the offensive the entire time, while Poltroon deflected most of the attacks coming his way. He did get a few hits in himself, too. But, each attack that hit Kaguya was useless as long as the elixir was in effect. The roof they were standing on had been all but destroyed, and the barrier kaguya had raised was long gone.
“Haah, haah, haah…”
“Haah… Haah…”
The two were catching their breath, taking a short break from the intense fight.
“It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to finish you like this.”
Kaguya raised his arm above his head, and the sky above grew cloudy. Thick clouds moved in front of the sun, leaving the city covered in darkness.
“I have to praise you for pushing me this far. But, this is where it ends.”
“<満月>”
<Full Moon>
Kaguya started hovering above the ground, and slowly floated up into the sky. Above him, the clouds began to disperse, but the sun was nowhere in sight. In its place was the moon, dyed in an ominous shade of red.
Large spheres of moon energy formed around Kaguya’s body, and with a snap of his fingers, Kaguya sent the spheres raining down onto Poltroon.
“Hmph!”
Poltroon knocked the first two out of the air, sending them crashing into the adjacent buildings. But, he could not stop them all. Eventually, one of the spheres hit Poltroon’s body, knocking him through the roof, hurling him down into the floor below.
“Ouch…”
Lifting his body up from the rubble, Poltroon tried to come up with a plan. If he didn’t do something, Kaguya would turn him into dust within a few minutes.
Poltroon made his way towards a nearby window, where he had a clear view of Kaguya, who was sending more spheres into the building. Explosions erupted all around Poltroon. It was only a matter of time before one of them hit him. Looking up at Kaguya, then down towards the street below, Poltroon made up his mind. He had no choice but to flee.
“Well, here goes nothing.”
Poltroon brushed some rubble off his shoulder, then jumped forward, crashing through the window before him. Tumbling towards the asphalt below, Poltroon knocked down another sphere, which Kaguya shot after him.
“Running, are we?”
Kaguya gave chase, flying after Poltroon, sending several spheres towards him. Poltroon kept knocking them out of the air, as he approached the ground below.
“I won’t let you get away.”
Kaguya kept on firing sphere after sphere towards Poltroon. Meanwhile, the street below was growing closer and closer.
The situation was dire. Even if Poltroon slowed his fall and landed safely, he would simply not be able to run away from Kaguya.
In a desperate attempt to slow him down, Poltroon conjured several magic circles along the wall of the skyscraper beside them. Kaguya saw Poltroon’s trick coming, and easily avoided the traps by simply stopping his fall before he reached them, hovering about thirty meters above the ground.
But what Kaguya did not expect was that the spheres he fired towards Poltroon were also affected by the traps. They were pulled in by the magical circle, and large explosions erupted all over the bottom part of the building, making the already damaged skyscraper collapse completely.
Hundreds of tons of rubble, steel and glass tumbled towards the two moderators.
Poltroon, who had somehow managed to brace his fall with a spell, just barely managed to move away from the rubble before it crashed into the ground. But, since Kaguya was thirty meters above, he did not have as much time, and the rubble pulled him down with it, pinning him below the massive pile of debris.
Kaguya's immortality potion was still in effect, but even someone as strong as him would not be able to lift the hundreds of tons that rested on top of his body. Once the elixir’s effect ran out, he would be crushed to death by the rubble.
“... Phew.”
Mr Poltroon let out a sigh, and started to walk along the street, his entire body aching from the exhausting battle. As Kaguya’s power began to vanish, the clouds he had conjured dispersed completely, and the sun once again began to shine down on the city.
 
A few minutes later, across town:
Weiterfechten was walking through a back alley, lifting up his top hat as he wiped som sweat from his brow with the cuff of his victorian tuxedo. His attire did not exactly help against the scorching heat.
He had seen a battle unfold a few blocks away some minutes ago, and chose to get away from them as quickly as he could, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire. While a battle between two members could mean a possible easy kill for him if he snuck up on them, it was apparent from a mile away that the two fighting were not normal members. Weiterfechten had fled as soon as the giant balls of energy began raining from the sky.
“Hm?”
Noticing something stir in the darkness a few meters in front of him, Weiterfechten came to a stop, and reached for his fencing sword, which was resting in a hilt over his left hip.
“Who’s there?”
A small girl walked out from the shadows of the dark alley, gazing at Weiterfechten with an emotionless expression.
Had he not watched last week’s game, Weiterfechten might have thought of the little girl as a defenseless bystander. But, he knew better. He had seen the little girl stab her “ally” in the back in cold blood, laughing.
“Funny I should run into you here, little girl. The person you killed last week happened to be a good friend of mine. I shall take this opportunity to avenge him.”
Kiriririri opened her small hand, and a beautiful sword with a silver blade and a golden hilt appeared out of thin air.
She then brought the blade behind her head, and took a swing at Weiterfechten, who quickly drew his own sword and blocked the attack. Despite being a little girl, she was strong. The impact of her attack made Weiterfechten take a step back, and a dull pain ran down his arm. She was no ordinary girl, that much was obvious.
“初ノ型〈紫電〉”
<First strike: Purple Lightning>
Kiriririri whispered and closed her eyes. Then, her blade glowed in a purple light, and she cut at the place Weiterfechten had been standing.
Being a skilled fencer, Weiterfechten jumped out of the way on instinct, which was smart of him, as a deep cut ran through the ground where he had been standing just moments before. The light that erupted from the girl’s sword looked like lava melting its way through steel, as steam rose from the cut in the ground.
While the girl seemed to lack technical skills with her sword, she made up for it in brute strength.
If Weiterfechten was going to win, he had to wait for the right opportunity, preferably right after the girl used one of her attacks.
Testing her out a bit, Weiterfechten thrust his blade at the girl. Like he thought, she moved awkwardly, and barely managed to deflect his attack. But, as he tried to move in for another thrust, the girl’s blade began to glow once again, and she unleashed another purple ray of light from her sword. The light grazed Weiterfechten’s jacket, setting it on fire. He ripped off the jacket in a fluster, and threw it onto the ground.
“Careful with that thing. You’ll poke someone’s eye out.”
Weiterfechten pointed at Kiriririri’s sword.
“You know, I really liked that jacket. Now I’m even more angrier.”
Weiterfechten sent several precise attacks Kiriririri’s way, trying to prevent her from unleashing more of her pesky attacks. He focused on stabbing at her right side, forcing her to keep her dominant arm back, which in turn, meant she couldn’t raise her sword.
“二ノ型〈流星〉”
<Second strike - Meteor>
Pushed back by Weiterfechten’s onslaught, Kiriririri whispered the name of a different attack. Thinking he’d be fine as long as she couldn’t use her sword, Weiterfechten kept pushing forward. Then…
“Whoa!”
Barely managing to notice before it was to late, Weiterfechten jumped awkwardly to the side, as a purple circle started forming around his legs. Right as he jumped out of the circle, a rock dyed in the same color as the circle crashed into the ground, digging about a meter into the dirt before it came to a stop. Thick smoke rose from the small crater, making Weiterfechten cover his mouth with his arm.
“What the hell… Hm?”
Looking at the girl again, Weiterfechten noticed that she was breathing heavier than before. While that could just have been because she was dodging his attacks, another idea popped into his mind. Could it be that the special attacks she was using tired her out? If that was the case, all he had to do was keep avoiding her strikes, and he should be able to land a killing blow.
“Phew… Hmph!”
After catching calming his own breathing, Weiterfechten stepped forward, once again resuming his attacks. Kiriririri did not even try to deflect his attacks with her sword, and dodged them the best she could instead. Although her movements were awkward, they were really fast, so landing a hit became quite challenging, even for someone as skilled as Weiterfechten. Her small build made the task even harder, as his target was much smaller than he was used to.
Kiriririri suddenly took a step back, and her blade began to glow again.
“Here it comes.”
Weiterfechten thought to himself, and prepared for another one of Kiriririri’s attacks.
Kiriririri brought her blade above her head, and sent the biggest ray of light yet flying towards Weiterfechten. It moved faster than the previous attacks, too, making it even harder to dodge. Moving out of its way by a hair’s breadth, Weiterfechten felt the heat of the purple light searing his skin as it rushed past him.
“Guh…”
Staggering for a second due to the incredible heat, Weiterfechten took a moment to regain his balance, then moved in for a counterattack while Kiriririri herself was recovering from the powerful attack.
“Hmph!”
Weiterfechten thrust his fencing sword towards the little girl’s chest. The blade moved towards Kiriririri at high speed, and for the first time in the entire fight, Kiriririri’s expression was filled with emotion, as her eyes shot open in fear.
The sudden resistance of human flesh made Weiterfechten’s arm come to a halt.
But, he had not hit the target he expected. Kiriririri had moved her left arm in front of the blade in the last second, and the tip of Weiterfechten’s sword had been stopped a few inches from Kiriririri’s body. Fresh blood ran down her arm, and her expression twisted in pain. Nevertheless, she raised her right arm high above her head, gripping the hilt of her sword firmly.
終ノ型〈天絶閃衝(ラスト・ パフェ)〉
<Final strike - The last Parfait >
After she stated the attack’s ludicrous name, her blade lit up in a brilliant purple light, and Kiriririri cut at Weiterfechten’s body.
Weiterfechten jumped back, letting go of his own sword, to at least avoid the attack, but it was no use. The glowing blade grew longer, like it was chasing him, and even though he jumped a good meter and a half back, the blade reached his body with ease, carving into his flesh, making fresh blood sprout from his chest.
“Graaagh!”
Letting out a primal scream, Weiterfechten collapsed.
"Hehe."
Kiriririri looked down at Weiterfechten's corpse, and chuckled.
 
 
Wildcards This Week?
Yes (A user has recieved a second life. Read details about wildcards here.)
 
Dead This Week:
Still Alive:
Hope you enjoyed! See you again next week! (Let me know if you find any issues/ inconsistencies!)

Sometimes, I want to pick a game with a setting that I'm not used to read about. It's good to try something different once in a while, right? Medieval, fantasy, steampunk and robot-infested future settings quickly catch my attention, but I need an extra push to try something more mundane, more post-apocalyptic or something like this game. Mafia stories. I understand about mafias as much as know about cars (as in: nothing, seriously I tell them apart by color), but the art was so pleasant to look at, so why not? Of course, the BL part was the other push. Good thing what awaited me was a cool and very badass game.
 

Why Ugajin (glasses guy) is there with the heroes with locked routes? He must feel so important...
 
The story follows our protagonist JJ (center in the above pic), a famous hitman that always do his job right. One day, he's given an assassination mission by the mafia that pretty much controls the region, King Caesar. Said mafia will probably start a war with the opposing mafia, Dragon's Head, soon, making the choice to involve himself with them a bit dangerous, but the job pays too well to be ignored. Too bad the wrong people were killed, the target escaped, JJ was blamed for all of it even if he did nothing wrong and and now the guys from the biggest mafia around are pissed off. To make things even worse, the wrong people that were killed happened to be the parents of one of our heroes, Azusa, and after he saw JJ in the crime scene he started to follow him around to find a chance to kill him.
Wow, lots of things already happened and this is like 15 minutes into the game. The rest of the game also jumps to one action scene to the other with not very long parts of slow building up in between (some exceptions in certain routes), to keep you always entertained. The scenes are packed with regular gun fights with no absurd tricks or superpowers involved and the author makes the scenes longer giving us a lot of gun trivia. Since I only know about guns through Resident Evil games, I was a bit lost when sometimes the attacks were identified by ammunition and not by character mid fight, but I got the hang of it with time. In fact, the guns are so important that you'll notice that each hero weapon of choice kinda matches their personality.
On the other hand, like a lot of action movies, it's not uncommon for you to be asking yourself "but what about the plot?". Calling it a charage is a lot of stretch, but each route in Omerta have it's own plot and half of the time it doesn't revolve around what happened in the prologue that I described. The intro sequence serves more to introduce the characters and to show you where JJ stands in this whole mess. And before you can pick your choices, he's pretty much avoiding both mafias and living with Azusa in his shadow.
 

Better not to pick another snarky choice...
 
Not having an overaching plot can be a bit disappointing for some people, but that's not a bad thing in the least! Having a very good amount of heroes (seven in total) with different alignment, the game gives you the opportunity of explore their life in this harsh world and take a look at both sides of the conflict. Your allies in one route are your enemies in another. I felt their portrayal were a bit too much black and white (one mafia is clearly portrayed as the good guys and the other as the bad ones), but some shades of gray in their morality are in fact present.
As for the routes themselves, the game splits into three routes and only then it splits into the heroes. If you decide to ally yourself with King Caesar, you have tsundere boy Kiryu and seductive boss Luca. If you decide to go to Dragon's Head instead, you have manipulative Ugajin and the boss everyone fear Liu. And at last, if you decide to stay neutral, you have the blabbermouth Tachibana, the guy that knows well how the city works Toudou and our bratty cat-ears-haired Azusa. At first, Luca, Liu and Azusa's route are locked, but they only need a single playthrough to unlock. Order is also not enforced, so you can really read in the order you prefer. The only recommendation I give is to read the subordinates of each mafia before the bosses. And if you think that the prologue's arc is the closest thing to call a true route, let Azusa's route for last. Either way, there's one epilogue that takes things from most routes that is the Grand Ending (as the game itself calls it) of Omerta.
 

The game didn't gave me a threesome route with these guys, and I'm still pissed
 
The characters themselves are interesting even when some of them aren't exactly likable. This game is tagged with "Villainous Hero" in VNDB, after all. But if there's one character that steals the show, it's the protagonist. JJ is one badass guy in the action scenes, and he stays true to his "killing with no hesitation" nature for the vast majority of the novel. Even so, he's also caring and even a bit naive in the "slice-of-life" parts. Seriously, who would thought that a hitman could be this cute? Well, it makes some sense seeing that he's a dork who lived on the run most of the time. Not many opportunities for normal human interaction.
The romance is done in an very uneven way. Of the seven routes, two follows the "MC was swept away by the hero's affection" pattern, one have more of a "close friends that also have sex with each other" vibe (that I liked a lot), one is the villain route so there's more pity than love there (also nicely done), one have that true canon hero vibe since the very beginning of the route so we could see the love already there somewhat and in the last two the romantic development was so fast that I almost thought that I skipped something by mistake. It's good to have some variation, but in at least two of those I felt the romance very unconvincing. Not that I was expecting epic and fluffy romance in a mafia story anyway. Althought I must say that I was very sad to not have a route with a particular side character...
The H-scenes are very good. Like VERY GOOD. The art in it was so good, the voice acting was also very well done, there's some nice variation of positions (the CGs never felt recycled, just changing one of the guys) and the MC is bottom in some routes and top on others. H-scenes alone, of all the BL games I played, this one takes the prize for me. Of course, since most of the heroes (and the MC himself) are no saints, there's rape and dubious consent in spades in there and I felt quite bad about liking some of those CGs aaaaah, some of them used for threat and domination and not for "love" at least. While this is understandable in the setting, 80% of the time this is done to Azusa, that is the weakest guy, so it felt more like picking on the weak. Not cool. 
If you're planning to skip them without seeing even a glimpse of the CG though, unfortunately they're very randomly located in the game. Not that is hard to see one coming... most of the time. There's a PSP port that got rid of all the H-scenes, but, while it was more than welcome with some rape scenes and some replacements were even more gay than the original, if that was even possible, I kinda missed some of the best H-scenes (I have both version: read the PC one and skimmed through the PSP one).
 

Stop hurting my precious cat boy please...
 
The soundtrack is nothing special. The tracks were cool, but nothing really memorable. Voice acting was quite good, at least for the main characters and the side characters that had more screen time. I could listen to Luca's voice all day, Kiryu's tsun voice is just adorable and Ugajin have the same voice actor as Emiya Shirou from F/SN (and they sound exactly the same) so the H-scene was... funny to listen to say the least. Almost everyone that don't have a sprite have a cheesy or generic voice, but well, they are generic anyway.
Despite all the problems, Omerta was a fun read and very badass. It's hard to make the MC the most likable character, but here they did a good job. Of course, maybe their portrayal of the mafia world is completely wrong, I wouldn't know any better, but eh, just enjoy this piece of entertainment. Because entertainment you can definitely find here. I hope to come back to review the fandisc, but I have to read it first... I can't wait to meet these boys again!

For the last few months, I’ve published reviews and top lists, presenting worthwhile or interesting OELVNs that usually have little presence on Fuwa and don’t get discussed as much as they deserve. From the very beginning, however, my goal was to focus not only on the games themselves, but also the people behind them – the independent creators and small studios that make the core of the Western VN market. Today, I present you with the first “Developer Spotlight” post, where I’ll be talking to Jackie M., the founder of Reine Works, authors of multiple yuri and otome VNs and the studio behind the recently-published otome title Seven Districts of Sin: The Tail The Makes the Fox, about the game’s somewhat-turbulent release and the realities of today’s OELVN market. Be sure to check out my review of the game first, where I also touch on its unusual appearance on Steam.
-------------------------------------------------

Plk Lesiak: Hello and thank you for agreeing to this interview! Let’s start with your latest VN. It’s pretty rare for me to be the first person to rate a game on VNDB, especially four months after its release. What happened to The Tail Makes the Fox that it went so much below the radar of the VN community?
Jackie M.: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there are nearly as many users on VNDB who rate otome games, as compared to anything that could be construed as aimed at men. I took a quick look at some other developers' titles out of curiosity, and it seems that female-aimed titles in general tend to have very few votes. Funnily enough, I can confirm that we do get sales referrals from VNDB. We've had a few of them.
PL: For a few months, your VN was only available on Itch.io, a platform usually associated with free games. Regardless of other plans, what was your experience of trying to sell your title there?
JM: Itch.io isn't really a storefront where a developer can make a profit unless the game in question is very low budget, nor should they particularly expect to, what with the smaller userbase. From when pre-orders opened before release till today, itch.io sales have only amounted to roughly 1/4 of the game's development cost.
That said, we do like it, because it isn't subject to a lot of the restrictions that similar shops are, and transferring earned funds out is also much quicker than anywhere else that I'm aware of. We just wouldn't recommend that anyone only ever sell their games there.

Blossoms Bloom Brightest
Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free review copy of this game by the developer. All opinions expressed here are solely my own.
Be sure to check my interview with Jackie M., founder of Reine Works, the studio behind The Tail Makes the Fox
What better way to link my otome-themed weeks and the upcoming yuri event, than with a game that has an equal share of male and female romance options, especially if its one made by a studio most known for their Yuri Game Jam contributions? The Seven Districts of Sin: The Tail Makes the Fox – episode 1, developed by Reine Works and published in October 2017, came to my attention in an unusual way – a review copy of it was, to my genuine surprise, sent to my freshly-created Steam Curator page. Adding to my confusion, while the game’s release date suggested it was out for a few months already, it had no VNDB ratings or Steam reviews whatsoever.
            While contacting the game’s developer clarified a few things (like the large gap between the initial Itch.io release and the game actually hitting Steam in early February 2018), a few weeks later its generally overlooked status seemed to change only a little. So, is this comedy otome not worth people’s attention? Or rather a testimony to the growing problems of the Western VN market? Even though the first episode of The Tail Makes the Fox is far from being perfect, I will strongly argue for that second interpretation.
Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Sometimes, I want to pick a game with a setting that I'm not used to read about. It's good to try something different once in a while, right? Medieval, fantasy, steampunk and robot-infested future settings quickly catch my attention, but I need an extra push to try something more mundane, more post-apocalyptic or something like this game. Mafia stories. I understand about mafias as much as know about cars (as in: nothing, seriously I tell them apart by color), but the art was so pleasant to look at, so why not? Of course, the BL part was the other push. Good thing what awaited me was a cool and very badass game.
 

Why Ugajin (glasses guy) is there with the heroes with locked routes? He must feel so important...
 
The story follows our protagonist JJ (center in the above pic), a famous hitman that always do his job right. One day, he's given an assassination mission by the mafia that pretty much controls the region, King Caesar. Said mafia will probably start a war with the opposing mafia, Dragon's Head, soon, making the choice to involve himself with them a bit dangerous, but the job pays too well to be ignored. Too bad the wrong people were killed, the target escaped, JJ was blamed for all of it even if he did nothing wrong and and now the guys from the biggest mafia around are pissed off. To make things even worse, the wrong people that were killed happened to be the parents of one of our heroes, Azusa, and after he saw JJ in the crime scene he started to follow him around to find a chance to kill him.
Wow, lots of things already happened and this is like 15 minutes into the game. The rest of the game also jumps to one action scene to the other with not very long parts of slow building up in between (some exceptions in certain routes), to keep you always entertained. The scenes are packed with regular gun fights with no absurd tricks or superpowers involved and the author makes the scenes longer giving us a lot of gun trivia. Since I only know about guns through Resident Evil games, I was a bit lost when sometimes the attacks were identified by ammunition and not by character mid fight, but I got the hang of it with time. In fact, the guns are so important that you'll notice that each hero weapon of choice kinda matches their personality.
On the other hand, like a lot of action movies, it's not uncommon for you to be asking yourself "but what about the plot?". Calling it a charage is a lot of stretch, but each route in Omerta have it's own plot and half of the time it doesn't revolve around what happened in the prologue that I described. The intro sequence serves more to introduce the characters and to show you where JJ stands in this whole mess. And before you can pick your choices, he's pretty much avoiding both mafias and living with Azusa in his shadow.
 

Better not to pick another snarky choice...
 
Not having an overaching plot can be a bit disappointing for some people, but that's not a bad thing in the least! Having a very good amount of heroes (seven in total) with different alignment, the game gives you the opportunity of explore their life in this harsh world and take a look at both sides of the conflict. Your allies in one route are your enemies in another. I felt their portrayal were a bit too much black and white (one mafia is clearly portrayed as the good guys and the other as the bad ones), but some shades of gray in their morality are in fact present.
As for the routes themselves, the game splits into three routes and only then it splits into the heroes. If you decide to ally yourself with King Caesar, you have tsundere boy Kiryu and seductive boss Luca. If you decide to go to Dragon's Head instead, you have manipulative Ugajin and the boss everyone fear Liu. And at last, if you decide to stay neutral, you have the blabbermouth Tachibana, the guy that knows well how the city works Toudou and our bratty cat-ears-haired Azusa. At first, Luca, Liu and Azusa's route are locked, but they only need a single playthrough to unlock. Order is also not enforced, so you can really read in the order you prefer. The only recommendation I give is to read the subordinates of each mafia before the bosses. And if you think that the prologue's arc is the closest thing to call a true route, let Azusa's route for last. Either way, there's one epilogue that takes things from most routes that is the Grand Ending (as the game itself calls it) of Omerta.
 

The game didn't gave me a threesome route with these guys, and I'm still pissed
 
The characters themselves are interesting even when some of them aren't exactly likable. This game is tagged with "Villainous Hero" in VNDB, after all. But if there's one character that steals the show, it's the protagonist. JJ is one badass guy in the action scenes, and he stays true to his "killing with no hesitation" nature for the vast majority of the novel. Even so, he's also caring and even a bit naive in the "slice-of-life" parts. Seriously, who would thought that a hitman could be this cute? Well, it makes some sense seeing that he's a dork who lived on the run most of the time. Not many opportunities for normal human interaction.
The romance is done in an very uneven way. Of the seven routes, two follows the "MC was swept away by the hero's affection" pattern, one have more of a "close friends that also have sex with each other" vibe (that I liked a lot), one is the villain route so there's more pity than love there (also nicely done), one have that true canon hero vibe since the very beginning of the route so we could see the love already there somewhat and in the last two the romantic development was so fast that I almost thought that I skipped something by mistake. It's good to have some variation, but in at least two of those I felt the romance very unconvincing. Not that I was expecting epic and fluffy romance in a mafia story anyway. Althought I must say that I was very sad to not have a route with a particular side character...
The H-scenes are very good. Like VERY GOOD. The art in it was so good, the voice acting was also very well done, there's some nice variation of positions (the CGs never felt recycled, just changing one of the guys) and the MC is bottom in some routes and top on others. H-scenes alone, of all the BL games I played, this one takes the prize for me. Of course, since most of the heroes (and the MC himself) are no saints, there's rape and dubious consent in spades in there and I felt quite bad about liking some of those CGs aaaaah, some of them used for threat and domination and not for "love" at least. While this is understandable in the setting, 80% of the time this is done to Azusa, that is the weakest guy, so it felt more like picking on the weak. Not cool. 
If you're planning to skip them without seeing even a glimpse of the CG though, unfortunately they're very randomly located in the game. Not that is hard to see one coming... most of the time. There's a PSP port that got rid of all the H-scenes, but, while it was more than welcome with some rape scenes and some replacements were even more gay than the original, if that was even possible, I kinda missed some of the best H-scenes (I have both version: read the PC one and skimmed through the PSP one).
 

Stop hurting my precious cat boy please...
 
The soundtrack is nothing special. The tracks were cool, but nothing really memorable. Voice acting was quite good, at least for the main characters and the side characters that had more screen time. I could listen to Luca's voice all day, Kiryu's tsun voice is just adorable and Ugajin have the same voice actor as Emiya Shirou from F/SN (and they sound exactly the same) so the H-scene was... funny to listen to say the least. Almost everyone that don't have a sprite have a cheesy or generic voice, but well, they are generic anyway.
Despite all the problems, Omerta was a fun read and very badass. It's hard to make the MC the most likable character, but here they did a good job. Of course, maybe their portrayal of the mafia world is completely wrong, I wouldn't know any better, but eh, just enjoy this piece of entertainment. Because entertainment you can definitely find here. I hope to come back to review the fandisc, but I have to read it first... I can't wait to meet these boys again!

Get it? Because it's not boring? Right?  
 
Listen, it took me about 20 minutes to come up with that one. So anyway, in case you haven't figured it out, I will be talking about Horizon Zero Dawn. A new ip from the developers Guerilla Games, best known for the Killzone series. Horizon Zero Dawn isn't just another success story to place on top of the already pile of success stories out there. No, no, no, no, no, no, no it is not. Horizon Zero Dawn is a beacon of hope to any company thinking of taking a risk with a new ip. Before it was released, Horizon Zero Dawn already was garnering interest from its audience because of it's sort of mix between Brave, Turok:Dinosaur Hunter, and Terminator.
 

 
Hey, I'd watch that. And now here we are one year later with the game selling over 7 million copies and a new DLC, The Frozen Wilds, proving that despite what EA loves to shove down our throats that singleplayer focused games aren't dying and don't sell well. Now games with multiplayer do sell better as well of games with a connection to a previous universe, such as Call of Duty games, Black Ops, Doom, Gears of War, etc, etc. Horizon is none of these. All it has going for it is its characters, settings, game play, and story. And it succeeds on all.
 
You play a young, redhead girl named Aloy. No, that's not how you pronounce that name. Look at how it's spelt, imagine how it's pronounced based on that and then forget about it. That's how you pronounce her name. An outcast raised by her guardian to pass a trial she will face when she comes of age so she can finally be accepted as one of the tribe. Aloy being an outcast shapes her actions in the game. As an adult she doesn't go insane with talking with herself to be annoying but just enough to be informative. She also has some nice idle animation and even non idle ones, such as placing her hands just over tall grass so they can skim on her fingertips. Holding out her hands to feel the rain or snow. Little touches of this helps the gamers be immersed with the character and the world. Of course it does help that this is one of the best looking games in recent memory.


I got Horizon and it's DLC while it was on sale, luckily and was very surprised on how immersed I found myself in the game. The mechanics work well in the game and are effective in your journey to avenge your tribe. Speaking of, I kind of feel they lost an opportunity here for some interesting conflict. You see, early on, Her tribe is attacked and a large portion of them are killed. Aloy was just freed from being an outcast literally less than 5 minutes ago, and being an outcast means that no one from the tribe can have contact with you, or accept you as their own. So she, aside from her guardian, Rost, had been living on their own with their wits to help them survive. Now, as they are attacked, Aloy then gets a personal reason to go after the attackers. I felt like this is a missed opportunity for Aloy to have a personal struggle with the whole thing. Like now that she's seen as someone who's useful to the tribe while before everyone treated her like she didn't even exist. She only took the trial so she could find answers about her mother. Just imagining her fighting the tribe that abandoned her and looking past her rooted feelings on the matter would've been interesting to experience.
 
So, besides hunting with your bow and setting traps, Aloy has another tool in her arsenal, a kind of like bluetooth headset. This allows her to basically go into batman mode and get more information on the world around her. Except the drawback is she can't run while having it on and it also has a very limited range. This works well because one, it's mostly an open world stealth game and two, it allows you to not rely heavily on it. HOWEVER, there are times for sidequests where you must use it to track an item or person or a target. This is when the thing becomes way to simplified. It's basically turn on your bluetooth, point at the glowy bit and then press R1 to make a trail to follow. Sometimes reach the end of the trail and press R1 again. Felt like this tool should've been a tad more complex, like having filters for chemicals, heat, or unique properties that you need to manually cycle through until finding the right one. Something, ANYTHING other than "point at the thing and press a button."
 
Speaking of press the button, I've gotten to a point with some kind of ancient underground facility and as I approach a control panel for a bridge, Aloy says aloud "How do I get that to activate." Yes, quiet the conundrum here, Aloy. What do we do? Perhaps we find a machine with some kind of pass for the internal workings of the facility? Maybe we play a quick hacking mini-game that's time based to get passed this? Nope! Just hold triangle next to the thing and that'll sort everything out. Again, I wish there was a bit more complexity to the mechanics to the game. I mean, FFS, I need several different bows to fire different elemental arrows, for some reason. Make the one thing that seems like it would be complex complex! AND LET ME PICK UP RESOURCES I'VE USED! Like wire traps or arrows that missed. You can place wire traps that are explosive or shock the enemies that you can't pick up when you want to move them. If you place them in a spot the enemy isn't nearby anymore, you have to adjust yourself so they charge through the trap. Or, if you realize you don't want to fight the enemy anymore, you cant just leave. Otherwise you waste a tripe wire or two since you can't pick them back up.
 
But anyways, small gripes in an otherwise great game. Certainly pick it up when you get the chance. On sale or full price, you can go wrong with this unique experience.

Oh, right. You fight robotic dinosaurs.

Fuwanovel Battle Royale - Volume 2 -
Chapter 1: The Beginning
 
<??> Watched the screen in front of <him/her?> intently. Everything was ready. The time had finally come. All that planning, all that preparation. It had all been for this moment.
“All the pieces are in place. Well then, let’s start the game, shall we?”
<??> Pressed the button before <him/her?> with a wicked smile.
“Hear me, members of Fuwanovel. You are here for a single purpose; to entertain me! Those who have their name announced over these broadcasts shall enter the arena, and fight to the death! Anyone and anything you see out in the arenas will be an enemy, so be careful… And ruthless. As far as the rules go… There are none, heh.
Good luck.”
 
Day 1:
Members in this chapter:

“The game has begun. Good luck.”
“‘Alright, time to hunt.” Ranzo jumped down from the platform he was standing on, numbered ‘11’. He had woken up inside an unfamiliar room just moments before, where he had found his suit and weapons. After a short, confusing briefing from the person in charge, Ranzo’s <cell?> had opened, and he could walk out. What greeted him was a massive forest, full of large trees towering high above him. The large trees blocked out almost all the sunlight, making it hard for Ranzo to see where he was going. But, it was either straight ahead, or back to the cell, so Ranzo chose to keep walking.
The “briefing” had been simple. “You are stuck here. You are to fight anything and anyone you come across. If you are the last alive after the game is over, you win. If you die, you lose.”
“Gee, really? If I die, I lose? That’s a shocker.” Ranzo spun his scythe around his body with precision while he walked, clearly used to handling the weapon. A sabre hung from his waist in a makeshift sheathe, crafted from his belt.
After having advanced through the forest for a good ten minutes, Ranzo reached a suspicious looking cave, marked with a number— “7”.
“Hm, another contender?” Ranzo whispered, and gripped the handle of his scythe firmly while he scanned his surroundings. If his hunch was right, the numbers represented contenders in the “game”. He was 11, and “7” was a different Fuwanovel user, also entered in the game.
Crack.
Ranzo spun around instinctively at the sound of a branch breaking behind him, and in the same motion, he threw his scythe forwards. The sound of metal colliding with metal made Ranzo flinch for a brief second, and he lost sight of the person who had knocked his scythe out of the air.
“Tch.” Ranzo gripped his sabre and chased the mystery person, like a wolf rushing towards a sheep. He had no plan. The only thing going through his head was: kill it. Whoever or whatever it was; kill it.
 
Meanwhile
SeniorBlitz ran as fast as he could through the forest, like he had the grim reaper himself on his heels. That was in fact what Senior had thought for a second when he saw the scythe fly towards him just moments before. Senior was not well versed in any kind of combat. He had, in fact, never been in a fight in his entire life. What he did have, however, was a special ability. The ability to know what to do, where to go. He couldn’t explain it well, but there was something guiding him at all times. If he was about to trip and fall, something in his mind would tell him to stop. If he ever got lost, something would guide him back home, even if he had no idea where he was. It was thanks to that power, that guide, that Senior was still alive. He had seen the scythe coming seconds before it was thrown, and had used the sword that was given to him at the start of the game to block its path. He had sadly dropped the sword in his escape, and was therefore now unarmed.
“Stop running my friend, I wish you no harm!”
His attacker was shouting at Senior from behind. Thanks to his ability, Senior knew that he would be able to shake off his tail if he just kept following the path laid out in his mind. He did not look back, he did not falter.
“Tch, you little… How long do you plan on running for?”
“I’ll catch you eventually you little slime! Just you wait, I’m coming for you!”
The voice of his attacker grew distant, as Senior just kept on running through the forest. Before long, he had completely shaken off the madman running after him.
“Haah, haah, haah…” Senior finally had the opportunity to stop for a breath. With his hands on his knees, he spent a few minutes calming down. He knew that the man behind him would not be able to find him for at least another ten minutes, thanks to his ability.
“Alright, time to find a better place to hide.”
Senior got back up, and started walking through the dense forest, looking for shelter. He figured it would be smart to find someplace safe to gather his thoughts. It would be best to do so before nightfall, so he started walking faster, following the path lit up in his mind.
“Just about another hundred meters this way, and— Huh?!”
“GRAARGH!”
Senior was so focused on following the path to “safety”, he paid no mind to his surroundings, and did not notice the strange creature approaching from his left. Whatever it was, its massive jaw closed around Senior’s chest, and he was lifted up into the air and shook brutally back and forth, the sharp teeth of the beast ripping his flesh apart with each movement.
“GYAAAAH!”
Senior let out a primal scream, and tried to punch the creature with his free arm, but it was no use.
The beast’s iron jaw remained closed, and the life soon drained from Senior’s body, as most of his organs and blood poured down onto the grass below him. His entire torso had been ripped to bits, and what was left of him was soon devoured by the beast, leaving only pools of blood and a few chunks of flesh behind.
 
 
About an hour later, Ranzo arrived at the scene of Senior’s death. Taking one look at the pool of blood and gore, Ranzo clicked his tongue, and turned back.
“Guess someone got to him before me. Oh well, time to look for the next guy, I guess.”
Whistling a song to himself, Ranzo spun his scythe around, matching the song’s rhythm as he walked back into the depths of the forest, looking for new prey to hunt.
 

Elsewhere:
Arcadeotic sat at the end of a cliff, looking at the waterfall below him with a emotionless expression, balancing a katana on his feet. A single sudden motion would surely send the sword tumbling down the fifty meter long drop.
Arcadeotic was wearing a blue yukata, stained red with the blood of a pack of wild boars he had killed an hour ago. After cooking some of their meat on a fire, he had eaten some for himself, then tossed the rest down into the abyss. He had no intentions of sharing the meat with anyone else, nor did he want the smell of the meat to attract possible predators. He had extinguished the fire as soon as he was done cooking the meat, but it might still have notified someone of his location. Nevertheless, Arcadeotic sat completely still on the cliff, staring out into nothingness.
Sure enough, after another few minutes, the sound of footsteps could be heard behind him.
Still, Arcadeotic remaind motionless, not facing his attacker.
 
Sneaking up behind him was Thatcomicguy, clutching his spear with his right hand. In his free arm was a wooden shield, covered in thick leather. Other than his weapons, Thatcomicguy was completely naked, though his body was covered in blue war paint.
Thatcomicguy snuck up to Arcadeotic until he was a mere two meters away, then stabbed at Arcadeotic’s back with his spear. Right before the spear hit Arcadeotic’s back, he jumped straight up into the air, grabbed his katana, and in the same motion as he drew it from its sheath, he cut at Thatcomicguy’s chest.
Thatcomicguy barely had time to block the slice with his shield, and was forced back a few steps from the impact.
Meanwhile, Arcadeotic landed gracefully on the edge of the cliff, and quickly moved in for another attack, cutting at Thatcomicguy’s left foot.
Arcadeotic closed the distance between them in a second, and mercilessly sliced a deep cut in Thatcomicguy’s calf.
“Ugh…”
Thatcomicguy groaned in pain, and pushed his shield forward defensively, hitting Arcadeotic in the chest.
Arcadeotic fell backwards, but quickly regained his balance.
For the first time in the fight, Arcadeotic glanced at his opponent, and chuckled.
“You look ridiculous.”
Thatcomicguy paid him no mind, and tried to focus on his plan of attack. He should have the upper hand, even with the cut on his leg, as he had the longest reach thanks to his spear, and a shield to block the katana’s slashes. The leather on his shield had taken a hit already, and was already starting to come apart. It probably wouldn’t last too long.
Seemingly having come up with a plan, Thatcomicguy stepped forward. Although the pain in his leg was nothing to joke about, he did not let it stop him.
“Yeah, well, we’ll see who gets the last laugh.”
Keeping just enough distance between himself and his opponent, so that the katana would not be able to reach him, Thatcomicguy thrust his spear towards Arcadeotic. Arcadeotic easily deflected the thrust, but as he was about to counterattack, Thatcomicguy swiftly changed his grip, turning his spear downwards towards Arcadeotic leg, and dug the tip of his spear into Arcadeotic’s knee. Arcadeotic winced in response, but didn’t let the pain stop him from fighting. Not wasting any time, Arcadeotic slashed two times, but both attacks were blocked by Thatcomicguy’s pesky shield.
“Tch.”
It became impossible for Arcadeotic to stand on his wounded leg, which meant he would be at an even bigger disadvantage than before. His strongest point was his speed, but without his full mobility, he would be unable to close the distance between himself and his opponent fast enough to stop the spear from keeping him at bay.
“... An eye for an eye, huh?”
Arcadeotic said to himself, as he tried to come up with a way out of the dire situation. He had cut his opponent’s leg, but in return, his own knee had been damaged. Both of them were less mobile, but it seemed like his own injury was a bit more serious.
“Well, what can you do.”
Arcadeotic walked forward with awkward steps, his wounded leg mostly just being dragged along the ground.
“I’ll end this with one strike.”
The bold statement from Arcadeotic made Thatcomicguy snicker.
“Oh, is that so? Well by all means, come at me.”
Thatcomicguy spat back, readied his spear, and covered his chest with his shield. There was no way Arcadeotic would be able to attack his opponent’s torso. And yet…
“Hmph!”
With a grunt, Arcadeotic jumped forward, and with all his might, he slammed the flat side of his sword into the wooden shield. The impact made Thatcomicguy stagger, and he let out a painful groan as he put all his weight on his wounded leg.
Still in the air, Arcadeotic slashed downwards. His sword moved along the rough leather covering the wooden shield, until it reached Thatcomicguy’s exposed shoulder. The sharp blade slashed open the naked shoulder, making Thatcomicguy drop his shield. Unfortunately for Arcadeotic, he was unable to brace himself properly after the attack, and he crashed into the ground, dropping his katana. The air was knocked out of him as his chest collided with the rough ground. But, he wasn’t done there. Although the world around him was spinning, he used his healthy leg to kick violently at Thatcomicguy’s wounded foot.
“Guaaah!”
Thatcomicguy screamed, as he too fell to the ground, paralyzed by pain.
Crawling towards his katana, Arcadeotic was ready to deliver the finishing blow. He gripped the hilt of his weapon, and turned towards his fallen enemy. Although every part of his body hurt, Arcadeotic somehow managed to stand, and moved towards his prey with clumsy movements.
“Hya!”
As he reached his target, he brought his katana above his shoulder, and slashed mercilessly at Thatcomicguy's neck.
Clink.
The sound of something breaking made Arcadeotic look at his sword in confusion. The katana’s blade had snapped in half, most likely a result from his fall. And since the blade had broken mid swing, he had not actually hit his opponent.
“Well, shi—”
Before Arcadeotic could finish his sentence, the tip of a spear dug into his throat, making a spray of fresh blood shoot out from the wound, dying Thatcomicguy’s skin in red.
As Arcadeotic’s dead body hit the floor, Thatcomicguy dropped his spear, as the strength began to leave his body.
“You… Tough bastard…”
With those words, he passed out.
 

 
Meanwhile, at the outskirts of the forest:

 
“How’s this place?”
“Hmm, looks good. We’ll camp here for now. Someone start a fire.”
“Ugh, do you think there are any more of those things out there? I’m not sure I’m comfortable sleeping here, out in the open…”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take shifts keeping guard. #28, #6, you two take the first shift.”
“Huh? Who died and made you the boss?”
Four figures, covered in mud and blood, were talking under the cover of a giant tree, just half a kilometer from the edge of the forest. The four of them were members of Fuwanovel, and contenders in the death game that had started previously that day. But, neither of them wanted to kill their fellow members, and as a result, they had formed a team.
Shortly after they teamed up, however, they were attacked by giant monsters that seemed to live in the depths of the forest. Hungry and tired, the four of them had finally reached a seemingly peaceful area, and were setting up camp with what little resources they had.
The four members were Sayaka (#28), Norleas (#9), Shikomizue (#13) and Kiriririri (#6).
Shikomizue was the natural leader type, and had taken the lead of the group as a result, something that did not sit well with Sayaka.
“Why do I have to listen to your orders, huh? I’m tired too! I want to sleep just as much as the next guy!”
“Look, I don’t mean to be rude here, but in terms of actual combat abilities, me and #9 are the strongest. We need our rest, so that we can protect this group when the time comes. You and #6 are… Well you know.”
Shikomizue gestured towards Kiriririri, a small girl with silver hair, who was poking the ground with a wooden stick, paying no mind to the conversation that was happening around her. So far, she had not participated in the fighting at all.
“Okay, I’ll give you her, but we’re not that crazy! Master and I helped you in the fight against those… Those things, didn’t we?!”
Sayaka pointed in the direction they had come from, where the group had fought against numerous strange beasts.
Shikomizue scratched his head awkwardly in response. He did not want the group to start fighting among each other, as that would just make things worse. He wanted to figure out what was going on, and how to get out of it. In order to do that, he needed to get as many people as possible to form a team. If no one killed each other, the “game” or whatever it was, had to come to a stop. That was the conclusion he had reached.
“Fine, I’ll take the first shift, along with… Her.”
Shikomizue looked towards Kiriririri, who had just finished drawing a strange symbol in the grass.
“Alright then, let’s get that fire going and—”
“Get down, something is coming.”
Norleas reached behind his back and fished out the two daggers he was storing in his jacket, then crouched down, signaling for the others to do the same.
The group gathered together, and those who had them drew their weapons.
“What did you see?”
Shikomizue did not have to wait for a response, as a large bear, covered in metal plating, walked past them. It was looking around, like it was searching for the group. It looked… Off. It looked intelligent, just like the other beasts they had fought that day.
“Something is definitely not right with these things. They started attacking us right after we formed a team. Almost like… Someone doesn’t want us to team up.”
Shikomizue thought to himself, as he recalled the days events. Actually, every time they had been away for combat for a certain period of time, something would come and attack them.
Almost like something, or someone, were controlling them. If that was the case, then...
“Master, behind you!”
Sayaka shouted to himself, and jumped forward. In the next second, a large paw covered in metal slammed down on the very spot Sayaka had been standing.
Reaching into his maid uniform, Sayaka fished out a strange statue, in the shape of an anime figure.
“They know we’re here master, so we might as well make some noise.”
Turning the head of the statue around 180 degrees, Sayaka threw it behind the tree, where the second bear had attacked from.
“Everyone, if you don’t want to go boom, I suggest you run!”
Moments later, the figure exploded, turning the ground beneath it to ash, blowing the bear to bits in the process.
The other bear was alerted to their presence, and jumped at Norleas, who slashed at its snout with his daggers before it had time to react. The beast roared in pain, and slammed its massive paw towards Norleas, who elegantly jumped out of the paws path, and went in for another attack.
While the plate armor proved to be an obstacle, Norleas still managed to bring the massive beast down in a matter of seconds, as a flurry of dagger cuts tore into its hide like it was butter, always finding the unprotected parts of the bears body.

Meanwhile, Shikomizue was fending of two wolves with his wakizashi katanas, holding back one wolf with each blade, as he pressed them against the wolves sharp fangs.
“Where is #6? Someone cover her.”
“Yes, yes, Master and I got her, don’t worry.”
Throwing explosive statues at everything that moved inside the forest, Sayaka jumped around Kiriririri, who was sitting on the ground, watching the fighting happen around her with an indifferent expression.
“Ohh, we’re gonna make master so proud, yes we are, tralala.”
Sayaka sang as he looked up at the sky, throwing statues now seemingly at random. A few landed close to Norleas, but he simply moved out of their path with incredible speed each time, still slashing and stabbing any beast that came in his way with his daggers.
 
The group fended off countless beasts, until finally, only one remained. It was a massive tiger, also covered in metal plating like the bears from before. The beast’s eyes were glowing in a strange blue light, and it moved faster than any other creature they had fought so far.
Sayaka had tried throwing several statues at it, but it always got out of the blast zone before it was damaged.
Norleas was unable to get close to the beast as well, as it was simply too fast.
Shikomizue knew they were out of options.
“Tch… Is this really how it ends?”
He clicked his tongue, and started to walk towards the beast while he shook his head.
“Am I really doing this?”
After glancing over his shoulder, taking another look at his three teammates, Shikomizue nodded, and closed his eyes.
“Listen up. I know what’s going on. These things are being controlled by someone. As long as we’re in a group, we’ll be sitting ducks. They are either being controlled by whoever started this fucked up game... Someone who wants us to keep fighting, or it’s another contender, in which case we should split up to try and find the bastard.
So...  Guys, split up. Run. For now, just get as far away from each other as possible.”
“GRAAWRH!”
Like it understood what Shikomizue was saying, the tiger roared, and charged at the group. It was not happy.
“Yes come on, you stupid cat.”
Shikomizue charged as well, running straight ahead, towards the beast’s fangs.
Then…
“GUAAH!”
Shikomizue screamed in pain, as the tiger bit him, its large fangs digging into his left side.
“I’ll keep this thing at bay… You guys… Run away… Now!”
Lifting up his free arm, Shikomizue gripped his katana firmly, and slashed at the tiger’s front legs, which were not covered by armor. That should slow it down. The thing was, it would have been impossible to target its legs without making it stop first. And, the only way to do that was to make it stop moving, for instance, by letting it bite one of them. Shikomizue had realized this a while ago, as he watched his comrades fail to hit the beast, and he had given his own life so that the other three could live.
“You guys better figure out what the fuck is going on here, and stop this ‘game’, alright?”
Shikomizue looked over his shoulder, watching as his allies ran into different directions. No beasts chased them.
Pleased that he his plan had worked, Shikomizue fished out a cigarette from pocket, and moved it to his mouth, his hand shaking. He didn’t have anything to light it with, but he still put it in his mouth, and took a deep breath, closing his eyes.
That was his last breath.
     
 
Norleas walked through the forest in silence. His daggers were still dripping with blood from the countless monsters he had killed. Still, he had not even broken a sweat. Killing was his job, after all. It was a breath of fresh air for him to kill beasts instead of people.
It was strange. The person whose job was to take people’s lives had chosen to join an alliance to avoid killing others.
It was different this time, after all. The people in question were his friends. His fellow Fuwanovel users. There was no way he could kill them.
Sensing something moving behind him, Norleas gripped his dagger, and prepared for battle. But…
“Oh, it’s just you.”
He lowered his weapons. Behind him stood the strange girl from before, Kiriririri.
“What, didn’t you hear what the boss said? We’re supposed to split up. What, are you scared in the dark by yourself?”
Kiriririri didn't’ say anything. She simply lifted her arm, pointing into the darkness behind Norleas.
“What? What is… It…”
Norleas turned around to look at what she was pointing at, and suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. Looking down at his own stomach, he saw a silvery blade sticking out from his chest, covered in fresh blood.
“Wh-What…”
“Hehe.”
The laughter of a little girl was the last thing he heard, as his lifeless body fell to the floor.
Kiriririri pulled the sword out of Norleas’ corpse, and it soon turned into light particles, vanishing into thin air.
Kiriririri then simply kept walking through the forest with an emotionless expression.

 
 
 
Kiriririri: Status = Alive
Sayaka: Status = Alive



 
Wildcards This Week?
None
 
Dead This Week:
Still Alive:
 

Shadow of The Colossus for the PS4 is a remake of the PS2 game released back in 1876. The graphics hasn't been lightly touched here and there to make another profit from idiots like me who buy a game they already played and beaten. The graphics have been worked from the ground up to appear like modern day graphics. The game supports 4k resolution, and the environment has been reworked to include more textures, such as grass and rocks. You may be asking yourself "Mitch, the hell are you doing writing anything? Your grammar and sentence structure is so bad that I've contemplated blocking your illiterate ass several times." and you would be write. You may also be asking yourself why these details matter at all. Who cares about a little grass and some added rocks here and there? Well, you see with most remastered's they simply just up the engines lighting and maybe a few fixes on textures and character models, but to have a complete remake? That's something to be praised for. How many times has a game been just essentially re-released as a "remastered" and hardly anything was added?
 
I mean, just look at the major differences from ps2, ps3 and the ps4.
 

 
There is an obvious difference between each version outside of just simple furthering the render distance and upping textures. The PS4 version is the version you must have. It brings to life a level of definition that honors the original creators art.
 

 
What else the remake adds is a photo mode with filters that can be accessible at any point by pressing down on the d-pad. New collectibles, the game keeps tracks of your statistics, and changes the controls a bit while still keeping the old school feel.
 
Speaking of the old school feel, all you do is still kill colossi still. No new enemies, no hidden collectibles to gather except for some gold coins which no one is sure what they do if anything, no new colossi, just the same old giant, albeit pretty empty world. Of course, this emptiness could've been intentional and not simple a limitation of what the ps2 can handle. Now, there are bigger worlds from the ps2 era with more going on, such as GTA San Andreas, but you have to keep in mind that structurally, these are two different games. Now, I know its hard to wrap your head around the fact that this

 
is not the same as this,

 
but please bear with me here. GTA San Andreas focused on the feel of a large, living, breathing city. With citizens going about their day, gyms, fast food joints and a plethora of side activities. But the character models for GTA SA was very plain as far as animation is concerned. Sure there were unique ones with characters having arms stuck to their side, some people who slouch as they walk, etc, etc. While Shadow of The Colossus's character animations were complex. The main character flailed his arms around like he was constantly trying to shake something off, but it was detailed nonetheless. And of course there's the massive colossi's animations as well. Each was unique in design and in animation. This of course took up space on the memory and it worked.
 
But enough of that, lets go back a little. Lets just take a step back from our monitors and look at the decision to keep the world practically bare to maybe give the player and the character you control a sense of mystery and forbiddeness in the land. The character is already doing something that is seems atrocious to his kind and even the gods as he is slowly punished for slaying these ancient creatures for a selfish reason, that is, to bring back a woman who has died. Apparently sacrificed for some ritual as well. The sense of loneliness is exactly what the character is. Alone. He acts on his own decision to bring a life that has already gone frolm the world and apparently for a pre-established reason. But dammit, he's gonna do it! He will climb that forbidden mountain, even if it means his life! He is being selfish but he must see it through for the one he loves!
 
Of course, take that as you will. Still doesn't change the fact that it is quite empty aside from lizard tails and fruits to eat. Something carried over from the ps2 that back then wasn't as big an issue as it would've been today if it was first released today.
 
A trip down memory lane except better than you remembered. With all the high resolution textures and character models your eyes can barely handle. And, for those who have been curios about this games hype back in the day but never got around to it, now's your chance... assuming it goes on sale, because 40 bucks is a bit much, despite my weak will caving into the idea of owning this game.
 

 

Wait… A nukige review? On this anti-porn blog? Well, I should probably start with saying a few things about my view on porn in VNs, to avoid potential misunderstanding – this will be a bit of an essay, so be sure you don’t mind a (small) wall of text not completely related to the game itself. My actual stance on pornography in games is very… Ambivalent. I deal with porn extensively in my university studies, wrote a whole thesis on fan-made erotica and I’m on principle anti-censorship. I’m also very disillusioned with porn and personally don’t really enjoy hentai animation – and while I try being open-minded, I have yet to encounter a piece of Japanese 18+ media that would seriously undermine this stance.
            What do I mean exactly by “disillusioned”? Porn, including that in the cartoon form, is oriented purely towards the sexual pleasure of viewer – the uncomfortable, voyeuristic sexual positions, extreme close-ups, unrealistic variety and length of the scenes have little to do both with how actual people have sex and with any kind of meaningful storytelling. The theme of sex and even explicit sex scenes, when used well, can add to realism and depth of a story, but porn as a formula is essentially hollow, apart from its purely “pragmatic” functions. Expecting it to be anything more, in my opinion, is delusional, both because it goes against its most basic principles and because people that actually want more from it are in minority and porn creators most often don’t see them as a viable target group. Hentai adds to this already problematic mixture a significant amount of cultural and genre tropes I personally can’t stand – including fetishizing virginity, the abundance of loli characters etc.
            Why do I even bother approaching a porn VN then? Well, Cute Demon Crashers, a free game created for the 2015 NaNoRen0 contest, is not a typical eroge – more than that, it’s more or less an anti-nukige, promising a focus on consent and intimacy that’s lacking in many Japanese erotic games (and, obviously, many Western ones as well). It also reverses the typical setup, with a female protagonist and predominantly male romance options. But, does it really succeed in delivering something significantly different?
Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

The horror! The horror!

“Misery is manifold. The wretchedness of earth is multiform. Overreaching the wide horizon as the rainbow, its hues are as various as the hues of that arch, --as distinct too, yet as intimately blended."
Edgar Allan Poe
 
             
So why exactly, did I decide to do this? I guess I just wanted to spit in the eye of God by dancing with one of it's abominations. I wanted pain and sought my fill. To walk as far as my bleeding limbs would take me. To sound the death knell of this perverse experiment we call the human race. Or maybe I thought it would be funny. For whatever reason I decided to play Creature Romances that horrible looking Visual Novel that Sekai Project decided to publish. You know, the one with the grasshopper lady. So anyway without further ado here are some of my thoughts while I play through this abomination. Don't you worry alcohol is involved.

(Is this restitution for the brutality I showed to the grasshoppers? Will it stop the midnight screaming?)
 
Of course this fucking thing is voiced, why wouldn't it be? Right off the bat it combines two things I really hate, grasshoppers and childhood friends. Thank you for that, no really! Jesus fucking Christ. What I'm really missing out on is seeing this monsters mandibles open and close while she garbles out some nonsense. I'm really missing out on the full Monty here! What a fucking lie I bet Kokoro is none of those things! I like this skull faced guy though, I feel like he could be a bridge in this horrifying world between worlds. Why couldn't I date him instead? Like ever since Papyrus I just have had the urge to date skeletons. He's a genius as well, why couldn't you have just made a vn about me dating cute skull boys instead? I would have jumped their bones for real!

Tokyo U, huh wasn't that a major plot point in Love Hina? Like the entire reason for it or whatever. It's been years since I've read it. I don't know how much I would enjoy it now. Anyway back to this fucking abomination. Please give up on me! Let me fail! Who in their right mind would let a grasshopper cook for them? Do you think like Flick from that movie Bugs Life, would have asked Hopper to cook dinner for him? Ask Hopper to make a nice creme brulee? No he would not. For one thing Hopper was a huge asshole and another thing grasshoppers can't cook they can only destroy! The fuck is Nikujaga? Christ! This thing has red eyes now how horrible. Now she is fucking killing my kitchen, of course I forgive her cuz I'm hungry for that thorax? Of course my sister is a bat. WHY WOULDN'T MY FUCKING SISTER BE A BAT! (The night moves on)

(Yeah I know I'm the fucking worst)
WHAT THE FUCK? NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME VIDEOGAME??? JUST FUCK OFF GOD DAMNIT!!! Oh so never mind that was just what I was apparently imagining. God I hate this already. FUCKING WHY AGAIN!!!

Yeah I'm low, the lowest of the low. You know I thought about that for the longest time and you are right..you are absolutely right. I am low, I am scum. I accept it no really! It is what I deserve! Scrape my decayed corpse over thousand of sharp knives, fill by belly with acid and pour God the voice quality is pretty awful, which I guess can be a good and bad thing if you look at it the right way. Honestly I really wish it wasn't a grasshopper why couldn't have been a preying mantis instead? I mean sure while copulating it would have bitten my head off but think of the experience! Okay so I still think it is a bit weird that my sister is supposed to be a bat with four eyes but really she is the most normal part of this nightmarish scenario. Still I must push on like the biblical Job or the overworked and unappreciated MoJo JoJo. Wait how does a bat jump so high that she hits her head, especially when she is hanging upside down?
What is this teacher supposed to be if not simply mountains of unholy flesh.

Now that I think of it this is a whole lot like Saya No Ulta right? We are seeing some monstrous grasshopper thing when really it is some generic anime cute girl. It would be like if in the Metamorphosis instead of being disgusted by the vile creature their son and brother had become they merely accepted him as being part of the family. What kind of lesson is that to learn? Wow how fucking meta the main guy is looking at a cicada figurine and trying to determine if it's supposed to be cute or not. Why don't you fuck off and castrate yourself right now you mollusc sucking bilge rat! So sad such a emotional scene the protagonist is starting to think that maybe he shouldn't be taught by a abomination after all. Why would he not wish to be pulled further into the abyss? He has already spent enough time staring at it. What is the world coming to? WHY CAN'T I DATE YOU MASATO WHO IS A DIFFERENT MASATO THEN THE ONE YOU ARE THINKING OF! Of course, WHY CAN'T I DATE THAT MASATO TOO?

So now comes to the final choice, the only choice! DEATH FIRST!!! DEATH AGAIN!!!! You scream like death is insanity but really it's the opposite. Living is the worst. Like walking upon endless broken glass or dancing on sharks teeth the answer is the same. Chaos and madness must follow if only to cushion the blow. Can a parasite dream? Can it reach out and attempt to touch the mortal coil? Writhing maggots whisper sweet nothings on the path to damnation. Are we doomed to only degeneration and entropy? Is there no hope left for humanity in this ugly world that we helped build, piece by piece with bloody brick and bone? Is semen and blood all I've got? Does it really open up the path to the new gold that I have sought? Lost in the prism of a castrated nature, banned forever from vainglorious pursuits? Cruel, twisted, sad,dismal, death, how I wish that I had that choice! When can the drowning man let go of the rope? Live in the corpses of a thousand sinners! Claw into the entrails of the manifested flesh! The death knell is at 12 and the hour is at hand! What must be ripped, must be shorn. Mystery, misery, embrace the suffering that binds you. Only blood will stop the bleeding, and only gashes will close the wound. So must the choice be made. CHAOS REIGNS!
Death, death, death, death,death, death, death, death, death, death,death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death,death, death, death, death, death, death,death, death, death, death, death.
Chasm of Torment
Filth, black filth, flowing like ichor from the bile of the succulent puss.
Now I leave you like a wailing banshee splitting open the doors of infinity.
Don't bother closing your eyes for you are already dead.

 

I know no one cares about the Oscars anymore (or ever) but now came the time to prove how The Shape of the Water is the best otomemu ever.
 

 
# FAQ
Q) What da hell is an otomemu?
A) It's a short for 乙女ムーヴィ (otomemuvi). It's like a ge, but not really. (This bullshit is copyrighted by Maggie not really)
Q) Why the FAQ is at the start of the post?
A) You wouldn't be able to handle the suspense of not knowing what a otomemu is.
Q) This is unfunny.
A) And that's not a question. The Q stand for question, smartass, ask something and leave your stupid comments in your pocket!
 

 
Okay, back in the ge. Oh, I mean the mu. So, the Oscars made me realize how much of a otomege The Shape of Water can be. Don't believe? Just follow me!
 

 
It have a silent female MC that was just doing her mundane job when suddenly she found love in the least expected place; It stars a mysterious aloof guy and only route option and everybody loves the sexy and mysterious trope, right? We have a totally random sex scene shove in for the same reasons as a lot eroge, whatever they are. It's with side character, so you don't need to fear that any kind of NTR is coming; It have the token glasses guy that all otomege seems to have but this time he didn't had a route because that's what all animes do, cut routes (in this particular case, I didn't wanted a route with him anyway); It have a incredibly short gay subplot for the yays because BL is also for girls; It's a pure love story as the meaning of otome would suggest; If you watch it with subs, the experience will be kinda like a OELVN with non anime art emulating School Days style so it can totally be considered a ge along with being a mu.  
So, with this post I hope to clean the slate of the otomemus because Twilight is such a bakamu and 50 Shades a kusomu,  it's refreshing to see a kamige once in a while. Murica also proved that The Shape of the Water was the best VN of 2017 and now I can finally say that Guillermo del Toro is a better VN writer than SCA-Ji. Deal with that, weebs. Cheers!
 

I know no one cares about the Oscars anymore (or ever) but now came the time to prove how The Shape of the Water is the best otomemu ever.
 

 
# FAQ
Q) What da hell is an otomemu?
A) It's a short for 乙女ムーヴィ (otomemuvi). It's like a ge, but not really. (This bullshit is copyrighted by Maggie not really)
Q) Why the FAQ is at the start of the post?
A) You wouldn't be able to handle the suspense of not knowing what a otomemu is.
Q) This is unfunny.
A) And that's not a question. The Q stand for question, smartass, ask something and leave your stupid comments in your pocket!
 

 
Okay, back in the ge. Oh, I mean the mu. So, the Oscars made me realize how much of a otomege The Shape of Water can be. Don't believe? Just follow me!
 

 
It have a silent female MC that was just doing her mundane job when suddenly she found love in the least expected place; It stars a mysterious aloof guy and only route option and everybody loves the sexy and mysterious trope, right? We have a totally random sex scene shove in for the same reasons as a lot eroge, whatever they are. It's with side character, so you don't need to fear that any kind of NTR is coming; It have the token glasses guy that all otomege seems to have but this time he didn't had a route because that's what all animes do, cut routes (in this particular case, I didn't wanted a route with him anyway); It have a incredibly short gay subplot for the yays because BL is also for girls; It's a pure love story as the meaning of otome would suggest; If you watch it with subs, the experience will be kinda like a OELVN with non anime art emulating School Days style so it can totally be considered a ge along with being a mu.  
So, with this post I hope to clean the slate of the otomemus because Twilight is such a bakamu and 50 Shades a kusomu,  it's refreshing to see a kamige once in a while. Murica also proved that The Shape of the Water was the best VN of 2017 and now I can finally say that Guillermo del Toro is a better VN writer than SCA-Ji. Deal with that, weebs. Cheers!
 

I know no one cares about the Oscars anymore (or ever) but now came the time to prove how The Shape of the Water is the best otomemu ever.
 

 
# FAQ
Q) What da hell is an otomemu?
A) It's a short for 乙女ムーヴィ (otomemuvi). It's like a ge, but not really. (This bullshit is copyrighted by Maggie not really)
Q) Why the FAQ is at the start of the post?
A) You wouldn't be able to handle the suspense of not knowing what a otomemu is.
Q) This is unfunny.
A) And that's not a question. The Q stand for question, smartass, ask something and leave your stupid comments in your pocket!
 

 
Okay, back in the ge. Oh, I mean the mu. So, the Oscars made me realize how much of a otomege The Shape of Water can be. Don't believe? Just follow me!
 

 
It have a silent female MC that was just doing her mundane job when suddenly she found love in the least expected place; It stars a mysterious aloof guy and only route option and everybody loves the sexy and mysterious trope, right? We have a totally random sex scene shove in for the same reasons as a lot eroge, whatever they are. It's with side character, so you don't need to fear that any kind of NTR is coming; It have the token glasses guy that all otomege seems to have but this time he didn't had a route because that's what all animes do, cut routes (in this particular case, I didn't wanted a route with him anyway); It have a incredibly short gay subplot for the yays because BL is also for girls; It's a pure love story as the meaning of otome would suggest; If you watch it with subs, the experience will be kinda like a OELVN with non anime art emulating School Days style so it can totally be considered a ge along with being a mu.  
So, with this post I hope to clean the slate of the otomemus because Twilight is such a bakamu and 50 Shades a kusomu,  it's refreshing to see a kamige once in a while. Murica also proved that The Shape of the Water was the best VN of 2017 and now I can finally say that Guillermo del Toro is a better VN writer than SCA-Ji. Deal with that, weebs. Cheers!
 

I know no one cares about the Oscars anymore (or ever) but now came the time to prove how The Shape of the Water is the best otomemu ever.
 

 
# FAQ
Q) What da hell is an otomemu?
A) It's a short for 乙女ムーヴィ (otomemuvi). It's like a ge, but not really. (This bullshit is copyrighted by Maggie not really)
Q) Why the FAQ is at the start of the post?
A) You wouldn't be able to handle the suspense of not knowing what a otomemu is.
Q) This is unfunny.
A) And that's not a question. The Q stand for question, smartass, ask something and leave your stupid comments in your pocket!
 

 
Okay, back in the ge. Oh, I mean the mu. So, the Oscars made me realize how much of a otomege The Shape of Water can be. Don't believe? Just follow me!
 

 
It have a silent female MC that was just doing her mundane job when suddenly she found love in the least expected place; It stars a mysterious aloof guy and only route option and everybody loves the sexy and mysterious trope, right? We have a totally random sex scene shove in for the same reasons as a lot eroge, whatever they are. It's with side character, so you don't need to fear that any kind of NTR is coming; It have the token glasses guy that all otomege seems to have but this time he didn't had a route because that's what all animes do, cut routes (in this particular case, I didn't wanted a route with him anyway); It have a incredibly short gay subplot for the yays because BL is also for girls; It's a pure love story as the meaning of otome would suggest; If you watch it with subs, the experience will be kinda like a OELVN with non anime art emulating School Days style so it can totally be considered a ge along with being a mu.  
So, with this post I hope to clean the slate of the otomemus because Twilight is such a bakamu and 50 Shades a kusomu,  it's refreshing to see a kamige once in a while. Murica also proved that The Shape of the Water was the best VN of 2017 and now I can finally say that Guillermo del Toro is a better VN writer than SCA-Ji. Deal with that, weebs. Cheers!
 

The western otome scene offers a decent amount of hidden gems – small, often obscure titles, that nonetheless offer impressive artistic qualities and/or interesting, unique ideas. It also never stops being surprising to me how many of those games are published for free, sometimes even without any Patreon support or other direct forms of monetization on the part of their creators. 
            Magical Otoge Ciel and Magical Otoge Anholly, developed by Batensan and published for free on Itch.io in 2015 and 2016, are among many high-quality, free otome VNs produced by the booming indie scene in recent years. Still, their author was able to establish a fairly interesting, distinct style both when it goes to art and the storytelling, very consistent between instalments and likely to be continued this year with the upcoming Magical Otoge Iris (with major hints at other, future projects). As both games are fairly short and simple, I've decided to review them together – the very similar writing, art assets and even shared elements such as UI structure and parts of the soundtrack make it justifiable to treat them basically as episodes of a single game. But what are they really about?
Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com
 

Hi hi, everyone! It was surely a good week for us BL fans with the announcement of JAST's new BL brand. Think about it, we'll be able to see Sweet Pool uncensored shortly before hitting 50. Okay, enough JAST jokes and N+C in general. Since they're not saying much about Slow Damage, I already reported everything they announced in that thread the other day. Well, guess I sabotaged my own blog, rip. So why not talk about an obscure upcoming game? Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you today Nie no Machi (no VNDB page yet, now I went full obscure hm? But here's the game's main website)!
 

Dying was never so festive. Wait, WHAT??? (I'll explain in a minute)
 
Okay, I'm saying it's obscure, so how the hell I found out about it? In fact, this debut game from Zombilica was featured in the last edition of Cool-B, a japanese magazine about BL and girl games. If you played any japanese BL game, you probably already stumble in some special artwork of it made for this one magazine.
And what exactly is it about? It follows the story of Hisora, that after following a young man dressed in mourning clothes he fell into another world. Oho, I'm not really a fan of isekais, but with a harem of pretty boys I can change my mind... Too bas this another world is pretty much a town occupied by only by spirits of the dead. The safe place is an inn occupied by... people that fell into a coma in the world of the living and end up trapped there. So our boys must found a way to escape this spirit world. And something tells me that them being half dead won't stop the author to kill some of them noooooooooooo.
 

Our heroes in adorable chibi form: Naruomi, Hisora (MC), Asuku, Mio and Koko
 
The character's designs are simple, but charming. Personally, I loved Hisora's hair, that in some CGs looks kinda purplish. And I'll bet that the best boy will be.......... Ouya!
 

 
Okay, joking or not aside, between our available romanceable options...
 

 
I'll think I'll bet on Mio (third one). I mean, look at the others! Poor Asuku (the first one) looks dead inside, the second one's name is Koko da hell dude, and the fourth one Naruomi seems good too, but he'll probably won't be as adorable as the smirky bastard besides him, RIGHT? How can someone even doubt such a pure and gentle smile? /s
 

 
I like bitchy love interests in VNs, I may have problems. But, if we looks again into the first image I put here... seems like we have a secret love interest there. Hmmmm... The voice actors were revealed already, but no samples available.
The scenario is written by Toritani Shizu (鳥谷しず), and the art is handled by Rinno Miki (厘のミキ). The game is slated to be released in 2018. Meanwhile, let me get addicted to the song of the PV (careful, there's 2 NSFW CGs there. They're censored, the camera quickly pans to a more safe spot of the CG and they last for about a second each, around 1:04~1:05, but still, don't get fired for nothing! The song is pretty cool nevertheless)!!! I'm planning to get the game whenever it's available so I'll be back with impressions! Eventually! (if I can hook it to use a parser, that is)