Plk_Lesiak

What are you doing Crunchyroll?

Hey, never say never. Maybe VNs will come back to ha... I mean, entertain you yet. ^^ And, well, no hard feelings for sure. I know how hard it can be to deal with a place/topic connected to bad memories and anxieties, moving on is sometimes the right choice. If you ever feel like giving VNs and this place another go, don't hesitate to say hello. No one will mind the "inconsistency".

This is a bit of a follow-up to my "Sundays suck" post, as one of my primary "workarounds" for being too tired to do anything is watching anime so dumb that it requires no intellectual effort to follow. So I've binged nearly the whole season of Sakura Trick. And it's... Well, just as bad as I've expected it to be and I like it as much as I hoped I would. Its story and writing are pretty much trash-tier, being neither compelling nor really funny or witty. It's pretty much just a neverending stream of yuri fanservice, but also not just any kind of fanservice. It's both bold with how it inserts kisses and making-out sessions into literally every episode, but also does not go overboard with creepy shots and nudity. It's definitely ecchi, but a particularly cute variant of it, which really fits with the overall theme and stylistic. I actually thought that after a few episodes the kissing scenes and awkward interactions would get boring but... Not really. Obviously, it would be virtually unwatchable for someone who isn't into yuri, but the only things it does right, it does quite right. Just a shame there's so little substance in the SoL and comedy sections. It could've been quite a good show even without toning the fanservice much. And, well, now that I'm nearly finished with it, I guess it should be easier to start on the better yuri shows after it. My plan is to climb the quality ladder going: Sakura Trick —> Aoi Hana —> Strawberry Panic —> Maria-sama Ga Miteru. Should be fun. :3

I would say so. Well, I thought about that and the truth is I know very little about this kind of third-rate JP chuunige. I know the really good ones are able to mix the cliches into something satisfying and craft an engaging story out of them. The "angry shounen" line was mainly to signify the lack of depth - a VN of this size would usually have some of it even if it's mostly about the corny action sequences, here... It's just a lot of shouting and purely-literary gore. Kind of missing the point I guess...?

Confession: I've grown to hate Sundays lately. I usually have my Sundays completely free BTW. Doesn't make much sense to hate it, right, hating the only day when you can truly rest? The thing is, I don't like just sitting on my ass. I want to do something. But on Sundays, I'm usually so burned out that even watching anime feels like a chore. It's too much of an emotional investment. At some point, I half-wish I had some work to be done, so I could distract myself from the general misery. I eventually start doing stuff, but everything ends up half-assed and I usually give up after a short burst of any activity. So, Sundays suck. Somehow.

Where did that videos voice came from? The game has some kind of blooper section?

A nukige reminded me of this. :3

Thanks. ^^ What's funny, the studio behind it directly cite F/SN and similar games as their inspirations, so it really feels like a "let's take all the worst elements from this genre and compile them all in one product" kind of deal. But hey, they also made Analistica Academy, so I'm sure we'll see great things from them yet.

Chuunige is one of the visual novel genres that are barely present in OELVN scene, at least to any “serious” capacity – among the more popular and high-quality releases there’s very few that would even loosely fit the “fighting VN” formula, or especially effectively replicate the unique feel of this particular current in Japanese fiction. Recently, however, a fledgeling studio under the name of Epic Works decided to remedy this sorry state of affairs by creating a content-rich, Fate-inspired EVN called Episicava. The first volume, of what was apparently planned to become a longer series, was released on Steam in April 2018, in a slightly disastrous state – full of graphical bugs and various technical issues, the game made a rather poor first impression. However, since those problems were mostly fixed with patches in the months after launch, it’s a good moment to look at Episicava and ask the most important question – did it manage, in its improved state, to capture some of the magic of Fate/Stay Night or Dies Irae in a downscaled, low-budget form of an EVN? Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

I think both Lucy ~The Eternity She Wished For~ and otome games by Cheritz are pretty highly-rated and I haven't seen any complaints about their translations. Not sure if there are any Chinese ones I can safely recommend... Well, A Light In the Dark looks pretty cool and was localized by Sekai, they usually do a much better job with the smaller titles and people don't seem to complain in the Steam reviews. With other Chinese VNs I can recall I know they all have serious issues.

This is a pretty old thread, isn't it? I don't think my scale changed that much, but definitely got refined a bit. It is now: 1 - 3.5 - various levels of utter trash, stuff that most likely isn't worth picking up even to laugh at it (ex. Sakura Magical Girls & other cheap, ecchi trash); 4 - 4.5 - trash with some kind of actual entertainment value to it, be it a few funny jokes, art that is nice to look at etc. (ex. Sakura Cupid); 5 - 5.5 - mediocre VN, might be even enjoyable to go through, but doesn't (positively) stand out in any way (ex. Sakura Nova, Aozora Meikyuu); 6 - 6.5 - average VN, enjoyable and without any devastating flaws, but far from being truly great (ex. Sakura Dungeon, Negligee); 7 - 7.5 - a good VN, with some highly praiseworthy characteristics and no game-breaking issues, but not especially memorable/impactful (ex. Fragment's Note, SonoHana: Remembering How We Met); 8 - 9.5 - various degrees of greatness: VNs that are well produced and highly enjoyable to go through, and left me with a lasting impression (ex. Flowers, CUPID); 10 - a masterpiece, game that managed to enthral me and move me to the core - Analogue: A Hate Story has an honourable 10 on my VNDB list because of how it genuinely got me thinking about certain issues and sparked my interest in VNs as a medium, although it most likely don't deserve it "objectively". It's simply a 10/10 in my heart and will stay like that forever. :3

As I don't know when Thanksgiving is or care what it really is about (seriously, it's one of the more arcane American customs from my perspective) I'm thankful for everyone that puts up with me despite my messed up priorities and chronic lack of time for "serious" stuff. Especially for my family and girlfriend, who somehow can live through me spending all my free time today writing that stupid Steam Sale blog post, instead of spending time with her. I'm lucky to have these people around me, although I'm not sure whether they're lucky to be on the other side of these relationships... And, well, I'm obviously thankful for Fuwa and all the awesome people I communicate with within the VN community. You guys make all this whole VN business truly worth it.

So, the Steam Autumn Sale is upon us with dozens upon dozens of discounts on VNs. While I don't think it's quite as insane as the last summer sale was (and Winter sale most likely will be in a month and a half), there are some very cool offers, like the nice -72% on Clannad Bundle or the first major discount for Requiem for Innocence. I've also, of course, made a blog post about the best deals for EVNs - not too many great ones there, but the -90% for Analogue: A Hate Story and Hate Plus is absolutely awesome. So, what are your impressions with this sale so far? Have you seriously endangered your survival through reckless feeding of your enormous backlogs yet?

I've heard that "神ゲー" translates directly to "games that I really like and I'm going to shill for every opportunity I get". At least, it's the only definition that matters.

Charage is I think the least defined term among them all, so it's hard to tell either way. And, BTW, I think you can freely edit TVTropes articled once you make an account? Maybe we could improve this page through community effort? Maybe not today though, I'm busy with Steam Autumn Sale summary.

Mostly Twitter and r/visualnovels. I use VNDB when I want to research stuff or when I'm looking for specific themes.

You don't seem to care what anyone has to say TBH.

Holy shit, I'm getting a feeling this VN got a translation worthy of the original product. Are many of those third-rate otome this weird and creepy?

You shouldn't start with so many untranslated works if the point of your article is to pick the inrerest of average Western otaku. Knowing Japanese, especially to the level of reading most VNs comfortably, is a rare skill and you'll mostly end up taunting people with things they can't have - also some of the titles that have localizations planned, like Baldr Sky, will appear who-knows-when. I suggest prioratizing translated work (ex. Little Busters over Summer Pockets) and moving all the untranslated ones to a seperate section, at the end of the list. I would also add Steins;Gate, as it's something people recognize and there's a good chance of conveying "you'll get more of what you already love" kind of message. The article is also a bit bulky, but I guess people that are not willing to read this much won't be likely to pick up VNs anyways.

People that read VNs already consume other otaku media, I don't see any reason they would "migrate" anywhere. We are a niche within the otaku fandom and while it's thriving in the West, I don't see the VN community going anywhere. Sustainability is another issue. I'm a bit worried we're getting to the point where it's actually too much stuff getting translated, especially when it goes to move and nukige - the more competition there is, the smaller the return per translation project will be. On the other hand, with VNs reaching new platforms such as GOG, Steam giving up on censorship we can have for VNs getting more visibility and new fans. They'll never be mainstream like anime, but they don't need to be to survive. The community is also doing fine and I see no reasons for doomsaying.

Two weeks ago we’ve started our journey through the world of Yuri Game Jam visual novels and today we’re gonna conclude its “historic” part, with another 6 games from the 2015-2017 period. As before, the order in which the games are presented is semi-random, but I’ve tried to mix commonly known and widely appreciated titles – ones you might be familiar with even if you never followed the event itself – with some lesser known entries, which are still worth a closer look. While even the list is obviously not exhaustive (and of course don’t cover the huge library of non-VN YGJ releases), it covers most of the entries I’ve personally found interesting. While I might still cover more of them in the future, it will most likely be in a different format and above all, I hope to focus on giving an overview of the latest event every year. But, that's in the future – for now, I hope you’ll enjoy this one last look at the GxG visual novel glory of YGJs past! Once on a Windswept Night Once on a Windswept Night by ebi-hime is definitely among the most ambitious Yuri Game Jam VNs, with an intricate meta-narrative and multiple layers of mystery for the player to uncover (starting with an element as basic as the identity of the protagonist). Featuring two touching, tragic love stories, up to three hours of content and very solid writing, it delivers much more than you would normally expect from a free game. The visual side of things suffered slightly from the relatively short development cycle, but it doesn’t change the fact that its a very creative and in many ways unique experience – and, for a game jam entry, an impressive artistic achievement, in many ways on par with ebi's commercial projects. Final Rating: Highly Recommended Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

It took me a while to realize this is different Suki Suki from the one NekoNyan is releasing next year... I will probably wait for that one. Which, btw, is in no way connected to the fact it has two separate incest routes.

Wow these otome games getting released on Switch! So quality! Very translation!

But it was lost on someone.