snowbell55

It's here!

I'm SO GLAD to finally have this. I'd been wanting to buy the physical copy for some months now, but it was kind of hard to justify seeing as I've already read the VN (on Steam), and the asking price was kind of high wherever I could find a copy. However, I started to reconsider, but by then the copies had already begun to run out everywhere I could find them, and I just barely managed to miss the chance to get one when they were being advertised a few weeks ago. I managed to find a copy, though, and jumped on it as quickly as I could, and now it's finally here! . 
I'd been planning on rereading the common route (as well as the Rise route) before jumping in to W Happiness as an end-of-year treat so this just makes me want to do so even more. The really nice part, too, is that it's not just the VN - there's the artbook and soundtrack as well (two aspects of the VN I really enjoyed): I get the strong feeling that even if Mangagamer do reissue hard copies of PE (like for Kara no Shoujo and ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two), they won't include the artbook and soundtrack. Princess Evangile is my third favorite VN, and one I have a lot of happy memories reading, and I'm really really glad to have it physically. It makes for a great start to my burgeoning VN collection. The next step is to acquire what will most likely be the pride of my collection. 

Dropped all the inactive staff. Other translators have bailed once more. This project has gone back to only being 4/6 routes planned that I've translated and will be edited.  Once editing is complete we'll release a patch just of those routes and call it a day. Thanks to our editors for not giving up.

I definitely agree about it being a missed opportunity. I can't say much about the VN as I still haven't finished reading it, but this is one of the best VN songs I've come across. It is SO good and emotive. Within a minute of listening I always wind up feeling melancholic lol.

Been an age since I last posted here :(. 
I've been reading Sabbat of the Witch. I finished the Tsumugi route yesterday (I've already done Touko and Meguru), and I'm now on the Nene route. I'm really enjoying the VN though. It is the kind of VN where it's really easy to read for a bit then wind up getting sucked in and reading more than anticipated. I'm a big fan of the soundtrack, and there are a lot of really good songs in there. I also like the way they have two versions of the heroine songs, and yet somehow both versions sound really good. As usual for a Yuzusoft title (as far as I can tell at least), the art is also very well done, and the characters look charming and inviting. I also am enjoying the story. The premise felt a little bit forced at first, but it has been handled nicely. It must also be said: Nene and Touko are hilarious :D. My only complaint is that the characters don't seem evenly done. Like, it seems like the focus goes towards one or two of the heroines in general (even outside of their given routes), and that leaves one particular heroine only really getting space to shine inside her route. Other than that though it is quite well done. 
So yeah I'm really enjoying the VN. I remember really enjoying Noble*Works, and I can see this being much the same. I can see why it got so highly rated. 
Bonus song
 
 

Been an age since I last posted here :(. 
I've been reading Sabbat of the Witch. I finished the Tsumugi route yesterday (I've already done Touko and Meguru), and I'm now on the Nene route. I'm really enjoying the VN though. It is the kind of VN where it's really easy to read for a bit then wind up getting sucked in and reading more than anticipated. I'm a big fan of the soundtrack, and there are a lot of really good songs in there. I also like the way they have two versions of the heroine songs, and yet somehow both versions sound really good. As usual for a Yuzusoft title (as far as I can tell at least), the art is also very well done, and the characters look charming and inviting. I also am enjoying the story. The premise felt a little bit forced at first, but it has been handled nicely. It must also be said: Nene and Touko are hilarious :D. My only complaint is that the characters don't seem evenly done. Like, it seems like the focus goes towards one or two of the heroines in general (even outside of their given routes), and that leaves one particular heroine only really getting space to shine inside her route. Other than that though it is quite well done. 
So yeah I'm really enjoying the VN. I remember really enjoying Noble*Works, and I can see this being much the same. I can see why it got so highly rated. 
Bonus song
 
 

I found some nice deals on amazon again
Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na -Brighter than Dawning Blue- for PC - Windows 7 Support Edition and ToHeart2 DX PLUS - Regular Edition

I've read fan-TLs of both titles, but it's nice to have originals. And I think one day I'm going to reread them untranslated. I'm especially curious about ToHeart2, since this edition has some additional content and routes from fandisc (which seems to have very polarised reviews ). Also, H-scenes in ToHeart 2 XRated felt tacked-on and out of character, so I'm looking forward to the all-ages version (After all, in case of this title, original was all-ages, with H version coming year later)
BTW, before I noticed, I gathered quite a lot of physical Japanese (and one translated) VNs

From left to right:
Tenohira o, Taiyou ni Kanon Memorial Edition Natsu no Ame Sakura Strasse Sukimazakura to Uso no Machi (without box) World End Syndrome (the only translated one in this bunch) White Album Kono Oozora ni Tsubasa o Hirogete ~Cruise Sign~ Himawari no Kyoukai to Nagai Natsuyasumi To Heart 2 DX PLUS Mashiro Iro Symphony ~mutsu  no hana~ Toradora! Sorairo Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o True Love Story To Heart PSE Ano Hi no Tabibito, Fureau Mirai Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na ~Brighter than a dawning blue When did that all happened? I still remember swearing that I'd never buy physical edition of VN 😮
(I'm also currently waiting for PS3 version of White Album 2 and PS2 versions of Yotsunoha and Konneko - they should arrive next week)

If you like Aokana, read Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate, from the same company.
Besides Rewrite and Little Busters!, read every Key VN possible

As for the recommendations I think I can recommend Senren Banka, Noble Works, Daitoshokan, Fureraba, IxShe Tell, and Wagahigh. If you want more, then I can recommend you Koiresort and Tsujidou. I hope my recommendations here will be helpful to you.

Well, if you don't really mind trading some bad sex for some good story, you should read Key games - specially Clannad and Little Busters!, but if you enjoy those, just go on to the other ones. You may find out that LB has +18 content, but it's an agreement in the community that it is terrible and shouldn't be read by human eyes. Seriously.
 
If you liked Koichoco, try Aokana. It's from the same company and all. Very different, but a great game, probably better than Koichoco - and it is +18!
 
If you enjoy yuri, there's Kindred spirits on the roof. It's incredible, with great story, characters, romance and some sex.

Today I got another physical JVN from Amazon - this time it's Sakura Strasse by Palette.

Unfortunately, risk of disappointment--or even project implosion--is part of the crowdfunding experience.
Never back more than you're willing to see disappear with nothing to show for it. Don't back companies you don't trust. Don't back with any expectation of timelines being met or delays being properly communicated. Companies have no obligation to refund your money if you aren't satisfied.  If you have concerns about any of the above, you shouldn't be pledging in the first place.
That said, clearly Sol Press is in pretty dire straits if a few thousand dollars is more important to them than their company's reputation.  It sounds like their main concern right now is stopping the bleeding rather than long-term health.

Yaaay! Finally I managed to get ToHeart PSE First Press Limited Edition
Actually it's my second attempt at buying it. I ordered it for the first time waay back in February, but sadly the package was lost and never arrived. Recently I found pretty good offer on ebay, so I decided to give it one more try, and this time it arrived safely
It was advertised as used, but actually looks brand new, and has all extras included. The DVD case is enclosed in additional hard sleeve:

Inside there is game disc, manual and extras - some weird cardboard-cutout advertisement thingy, set of cute stickers with chibi-versions of characters, and magnetic payphone card (!) with Multi's picture

Since November I've gone on something of a spree buying up a bunch of Japanese items, and so this will be a long post as I'll be putting in everything I've purchased from then to now. Firstly, the VNs. 

In any event, it took a bit of a while to figure out if I did want to buy these but in the end I opted to and it was very fun opening the boxes as they came in one by one :D. I've wanted to read Umineko for a while now (since the beginning of last year I think), and I really liked the art of eden* so wanted to give ef a try as well. I'd love the limited edition copy of that but those don't seem to be available anymore without paying a bunch of money, sadly. Kara no Shoujo 1 and 2 were a bit of a gamble as I don't know very much about them, but I figured that it'd be worth giving them a try with the copies being as cheap as they were, and I wanted to be able to get the KnS 2 LE before it runs out. As for School Days, I do want to read it but like Kara no Shoujo 1 & 2 I'm not quite sure what to expect as I've tried to stay away from reading too much about it. I've also been reading a lot of more light-hearted romance stuff this past year in general, so I do want to try and branch out past that a bit. I was also extremely fortunate to be able to find a copy of Da Capo 2 for a reasonable price, which wasn't something I was expecting to find at all.
I'd also made a couple of posts on here where I was considering buying these, and I did wind up springing for them. Looking back I think it was the right move. 

For Little Busters, considering how much I loved the VN, I did want to have a physical copy to commemorate that. I do wish I'd been able to find an EX copy, but considering that this copy is still sealed, I figured that's a worthwhile tradeoff. I'm most likely going to keep it sealed as well, which isn't something I'd do normally but I figure it has extra sentimental value that way. Plus I can't quite figure out how to get the bubble wrap off it while being able to close the bubble wrap again, so... :x.   

As for Rewrite, I've noticed that it appears frequently on VN collections, and looking at how much I enjoyed Little Busters I really want to read it. It's pretty heavy though - heavier than I'd expected. I'm planning on reading this relatively soon: hopefully within this year but we'll see how that goes. 
Now for anime. 

I was extremely happy to get these: Amagami is most likely my favorite anime and story (more on this later) and I also really enjoyed Zero no Tsukaima. Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions is the anime that helped me start enjoying the medium (I'd never been able to get into it so much before), so I wanted to pick it up too. I've not yet watched "Rikka Version" yet though, so am very curious to see how that will play out. I also enjoyed watching MM! and Love, Election and Chocolate. For Photo Kano, I didn't enjoy it as much as Amagami but I did think it had its charms, and while I'd still really like to read the VN the anime will suffice for now. If you'd told me even 2 years ago that I'd have a small anime collection I'd think you were crazy - funny how times change. 

Hatsukoi Limited is the other anime pickup. I've never watched it before, but it seems to be similar to several anime I've enjoyed, according to MAL. That said, I never realized until now that DVDs and Blurays had different size cases. 

This was the other thing I got in Nov. I'm a fan of the story, and I can't help but laugh every time Suzutsuki Kanade shows up - she is hilarious and crazy :D. It's a real pity the original LN hasn't been translated though, but having the manga certainly helps. 
Those are the ones that were done between Nov and December. This week, though, I got another set of items :D. I will start with the bonus items before moving on to the "main event"

Bonus item 1: HajiOtsu. I really like this manga and blame it for making me like super sweet romantic manga (as well as anime and VNs). 

Bonus item 2: Hadi Girl. Much like HajiOtsu, I really like this and the concept is hilarious :D. I wish it wasn't so hard to find stories like this, but alas :(. 
And finally, main event time :D. 
I'd mentioned before that Amagami is one of my favorite stories. In any event, I'd promised myself that I would collect some Amagami related items eventually, and that eventually wound up being a couple of weeks ago. 

First: Precious Diary. I really like this manga (the Ayatsuji arc is my favorite) and if I'm honest I think I would've traded almost all of the other adaptations (Various Artists being the exception) to get fully fleshed out arcs like this. I also like the contrast between the arcs in this adaptation and in the anime - you get to see different sides of the characters while maintaining the anime's strength - giving them enough time to be established before rushing in to things. I've often wondered what might've happened if they had indeed been able to publish more of this series, but alas. 

Next: Various Artists. I like this adaptation a lot, as it manages to show different sides of the characters as well, but I think they pulled off the different-artist-per-entry idea pretty well and that helps keep the stories fresh and interesting. 

Next: Love Goes On. I like Love Goes On quite a lot (especially the Rihoko arc) and didn't think it'd be right to not get it considering it has the bulk (by count) of character adaptations. As far as Dreamy Forever and Haruka LS Another, I haven't read either but considering they were really cheap I figured that they'd be good to get too. Hoping they'll be good as well. 

Another Amagami manga that was cheap is this one. Strangely enough I'd never even heard of it until I started buying the items (I'd thought I'd known of all of the adaptations) so that was a nice surprise. It was also really cheap too...

Next: the Amagami SS Fanbook. I've never really gotten artbooks before, but this is much better than a lot of the ones I have which will usually be about 40 pages of art and very little else. It's heavy, but packed full of illustrations and high quality pics and I like that they separated it into 7 booklets - one per arc and another for everything else. It was a bit of an impulse decision buying this but not one I regret. 
And now, we get to the good stuff - not that any of the preceding wasn't good, but still  :D. 
Next: Amagami Chotto Omake & Gianism Special. I've found it really difficult to find any sort of information on this in English, and the little I have been able to find has made it seem somewhat rare. Admittedly, finding a copy of all the discs for a good price is what convinced me to buy the items now, and now that I have I don't regret it :D. 

Last, but not least: the Amagami PSP Limited Edition. This is probably the one item I wanted most - as soon as I laid eyes on it I wanted a copy, so to have one now is something I am extremely happy about :D. As with the artbook I think they did a really good job with making this a limited edition: the puzzle frame is really nice, and while I would've picked a different picture for the puzzle (Having Miya on it doesn't seem to fit) I do want to assemble it and perhaps hang it where the rest of the items will be. I also like that they included the manga too, and the art cards are also really nice as well. The best part is that I'd been afraid that the box might be damaged during shipping (it seems to be quite fragile) but it came in really really good condition. That said, I noticed after having purchased this that PS2 copies were more available where I hadn't seen any before, so I do kind of wonder if maybe I should've gone with one of those instead. 
It'd been said online that the LE is really big, but I didn't quite expect it to be as big as it is. This is a pic of it with the Bluray for comparison:

Those are the purchases for now but I'm sure there'll be more in future. I'm waiting to see what happens with the Sanoba Witch physicals, and I'm also planning on getting the ones for Aokana, Irotoridori no Sekai, and Melty Moment if that gets one. As far as Amagami-related purchases there are also a few other items I'd like to get, like the soundtracks, and perhaps a couple of the manga adaptations I couldn't get this time around. 

To say I'm really excited for this is an understatement :D. I've been wanting to read this since I learned about Hatsukoi 1/1. It seems RIGHT up my alley, with the setting, the art (I really like Tone Work's' art), and (I presume) the soundtrack. That + the all-powerful osananajimi heroine tag has me extremely interested. Probably the best part, though, is that it will most likely be translated really quickly, given how quickly their previous translations have taken. Between this, Aokana, Senren Banka, and Majikoi there is going to be quite a lot of nice and meaty VNs to read :D...
*sighs happily*. Do you have a link to the review?
Oh boy how long are the routes in HoshiOri, do you know? 

I'm trying to decide whether to read the routes as they are released or if I should wait until they all have been. I'm leaning towards the former, since that should reduce the feeling of repetitiveness I got from Hoshi Ori due to the massive length and how similar the routes were in some respects.

Going to recommend Miyase Mihiro from Wagamama High Spec. IMO her route is one of the best in the VN. There's also Kunihiro Hinata from Noble ☆ Works, too. Both of those are kouhai heroines though. 

I've just finished Da Capo - well I say finished but I only read 3 routes - Nemu, Sakura, and Kotori) and Kotori Love ExP and honestly, I was left *quite* disappointed by the both of them. It's been said that Da Capo hasn't aged so well, and the translation/editing has some issues, and I did find those two concerns were ones I shared as well. It was a bit surprising, too, because I'm usually okay with plodding through books/VNs like that, but here it did feel like there were quite a few issues, to the point where they detracted from my enjoyment of the VN. The thing I was most disappointed by was frankly
 It felt like it was forced, didn't really have all that much of an explanation as to how and why it was happening, and felt like they were being more and more ridiculous for the sake of it, and that really damaged my immersion in the story, as well as my desire and ability to care about the characters. It didn't help things much that Junichi seemed to complain regularly and be rather curmudgeonly. 
Kotori Love ExP felt like more of the same, so it was easier to get into since I did actually enjoy Kotori's route the most and by that point I knew what to expect, so getting to see more in that route was nice, but the stories themselves weren't particularly amazing or gripping, and felt like run of the mill stories. It felt like a fandisc, which I suppose it is, but it didn't really feel like it added anything to the experience. Contrast that to (for example) Princess Evangile W Happiness which did have some nice stories for the heroines and also added "routes" for the supporting cast (Marika's, Mitsuki's, and Ruriko's being especially good). 
It's not all bad though - the setting was one I enjoyed, the soundtrack was really good (though short), and (especially in Kotori Love ExP) the artwork was also quite nice, with the CGs being a particular highlight. I also really enjoyed the earlier slice of life portions and the use of the alarm clock to influence what happens next. I think overall it was worth spending the time reading through them. It's just... I'm probably being quite critical, but I was hoping it'd be something like Koichoco, which I liked despite its divisive parts, and I was hoping I'd be able to "get" why it's been such a popular series (at least by the looks of it. That... Didn't wind up happening, and instead it felt like a overly generic VN that tried too hard. It's also made me somewhat reluctant to read Da Capo II. I'm not sure what I'm going to read next, but hopefully it'll be a more engaging read, as it's been a while since I've had a VN that leaves me actively wanting to read it.

I've just finished Da Capo - well I say finished but I only read 3 routes - Nemu, Sakura, and Kotori) and Kotori Love ExP and honestly, I was left *quite* disappointed by the both of them. It's been said that Da Capo hasn't aged so well, and the translation/editing has some issues, and I did find those two concerns were ones I shared as well. It was a bit surprising, too, because I'm usually okay with plodding through books/VNs like that, but here it did feel like there were quite a few issues, to the point where they detracted from my enjoyment of the VN. The thing I was most disappointed by was frankly
 It felt like it was forced, didn't really have all that much of an explanation as to how and why it was happening, and felt like they were being more and more ridiculous for the sake of it, and that really damaged my immersion in the story, as well as my desire and ability to care about the characters. It didn't help things much that Junichi seemed to complain regularly and be rather curmudgeonly. 
Kotori Love ExP felt like more of the same, so it was easier to get into since I did actually enjoy Kotori's route the most and by that point I knew what to expect, so getting to see more in that route was nice, but the stories themselves weren't particularly amazing or gripping, and felt like run of the mill stories. It felt like a fandisc, which I suppose it is, but it didn't really feel like it added anything to the experience. Contrast that to (for example) Princess Evangile W Happiness which did have some nice stories for the heroines and also added "routes" for the supporting cast (Marika's, Mitsuki's, and Ruriko's being especially good). 
It's not all bad though - the setting was one I enjoyed, the soundtrack was really good (though short), and (especially in Kotori Love ExP) the artwork was also quite nice, with the CGs being a particular highlight. I also really enjoyed the earlier slice of life portions and the use of the alarm clock to influence what happens next. I think overall it was worth spending the time reading through them. It's just... I'm probably being quite critical, but I was hoping it'd be something like Koichoco, which I liked despite its divisive parts, and I was hoping I'd be able to "get" why it's been such a popular series (at least by the looks of it. That... Didn't wind up happening, and instead it felt like a overly generic VN that tried too hard. It's also made me somewhat reluctant to read Da Capo II. I'm not sure what I'm going to read next, but hopefully it'll be a more engaging read, as it's been a while since I've had a VN that leaves me actively wanting to read it.

After quite a long wait I have finally have the Grisaia complete box.
This is the front of the box

The back of the box

The sides of the box


The back of the things that houses the games as well as the soundtracks.

The games and soundtrack

The artbook (it is quite large)

A random sample from the artbook (sorry for blurry picture, not really that steady when holding a camera).
Extra items

Size comparison with a regular DVD case and a normal japanese physical VN.

As for the quality of this I would say it is amazing. It looks wonderfull and it has quite a lot of weight to it and just feel like an overall really high quality product. If I were going to nitpick some things I guess one would be that I think it would be nice if they had the small extra stories on disc, since they already had so many things on disc they should have just added one more (not a huge complaint though since they are only really short stories, <2 hours each according to vndb). Another thing is that the cover thing for The cleaning of grisaia light novel doesn't really seem to fitt perfectly (seems larger than it should be compared to the book). Though again these are just small nitpicks, overall I am really really satisfied with the quality of the box and glad I bought it even though it was really expensive.

Hope they announce a moonstone VN and hapymaher fd.
 

Recently I found pretty good deal for Kanon ME on japanese Amazon, so I couldn't resist it. It arrived today - my first PC physical VN

Well, Robotic Notes is pretty much the only announcement this year that I consider worth waiting for. And if I remember correctly AX last year was also pretty weak. I feel like I'm starting to understand "Learn Japanese!" crowd.

More Aokana

yeah there´s django, almost forgot, i mean i pretty much switched jobs like 10 times since its innitial announcement and went from a non chinese speaking monkey from hokkaido to a decent one, but and it´s still not out, no mentioning them telling of sumaga´s release for x-times by now.....

@novurdim, just been sarcastic there, but to be honest i definitely prefer nekonyans recent approach in only announcing stuff when it´s at least ~halfway done. true new title announcements get u hyped, but all hype is dead when waiting for an eternity. in amatsutsumis case it´s a rather long title that requires much work, but even short-medium stuff like schatten took jast way way longer than it should have.