Plk_Lesiak

As it's Hobibox publishing it, they might just put a port of the PSP version on Steam and call it a day, but they might also make a patch or put the 18+ version as a separate product somewhere. I find the obvious Engrish on the Steam page much more problematic. This is a Chinese/English release, so I won't be surprised if the English translation is pure gibberish.

Yeah, fannily enough, I consider writing on female leads in Sakura games not so terrible. Obviously, they're not "serious" yurige, trying to emulate female perspective, but they also don't give me that "a guy wrote that" feeling 100% of the time. Plus, as I wrote in the previous post, at least the yuri stuff have proper protagonists. Male leads in WC games are pretty much the blandest self-iserts possible, with female ones they at least have to try to make them appealing. ;] Thus, the fundamental superiority of yuri over all other kinds of VNs have been scientifically proven.

Hello again and welcome to the second part of our journey through the world of Winged Cloud's yuri shovelware! The release of the Legends of Talia’s was undoubtfully a small disaster for Winged Cloud, not only failing to kickstart the new non-ecchi franchise, but also being quite harshly rejected by WC’s already-existing fanbase. It didn’t, however, end the yurige streak which made the straight Sakura porn, once definitely the dominating format, surprisingly rare in last year and a half (and the het games that actually did show up in that time were all very much underwhelming, even by the series’ standards). Still, whether this “Golden Age of Yuri” translated into us customers receiving anything of quality is, as always when we’re talking about Winged Cloud, a bit more complicated issue. So, what exactly the latest yuri Sakura games have to offer, apart from an unreasonable amount of boob-centric CGs? Sakura Gamer A Sakura game about making a Sakura game, Gamer is one of the first examples of Winged Cloud trying to include what would normally be the basic component of any ecchi VN: actual comedy and humour. This development undoubtedly connected to the hiring of a new writer, Waffle, who replaced the veteran Liberty, whose track record was progressively getting more and more awful. In the case of Gamer, the satire is mostly directed towards WC's own products, resulting in some highly-amusing and accurate episodes of self-ridicule. Although it might be slightly hermetic to an outside reader, with a lot of references to other Sakura titles, it’s probably the first instalment in the whole franchise that on occasions was genuinely funny to me – and still remembering the jokes and references in Sakura Spirit, dryer than the Karakum Desert, this was a very welcome change. The plot of the game, if you can call it that, seems more like a semi-random set of interactions written to fit previously-drawn character sprites and CGs, but also features a fairly amusing cast of female characters (the protagonist, Nekohime, is probably my third most favourite Sakura lead after Dungeon’s Yomi and Fantasy’s Raelin) all of which receive traces of actual development and, when it goes to heroines, can be seen as serviceable romance options. Inma’s character designs, while rather absurd, are also among the best ones she’s ever made for Winged Cloud – those buying Sakura titles solely for the CG’s (as much as I’m puzzled by that practice) will definitely have something to look at here. While this might not be, objectively speaking, one of the best WC titles ever, it was one of the most enjoyable ones for me and I can recommend playing it as strongly as it is ever possible with a Sakura game (that is, just watch Bosskwar’s playthrough of it, it will be a lot of fun). Final rating: Golden Poo! Sakura Cupid Winged Cloud’s 2018 Valentine’s Day surprise is, putting all the possible Gabriel Dropout inspirations aside, a relatively competent VN, once more utilizing the arcane art of comedy to make the Sakura formula slightly less stale and generic – this time mostly in the form of some over-the-top CGs and character interactions, that, especially in the opening segments, give the whole game some actual personality. Cupid also stands out by, very surprisingly, throwing the fanservice and hentai scenes at you in a way that is both logical and fits the story, and it's probably the only time I’ve seen this particular feature in the whole series. The actual plot and characters, however, are more on the bland side of the spectrum, mostly due to lack of any interesting development – especially Mitsuki, the waitress that out protagonist teases constantly in the café she frequently visits, starts as a pretty amusing, snarky heroine, but quickly turns into an over-the-top deredere, whose only clear quality is her obsessive love for our female lead. The endings also are among the more anti-climactic and dumb ones I’ve seen lately, making the whole VN rather hard to recommend. I have to admit though that the CG presented above and the scene associated are among the funniest things I’ve seen in WC’s games – thanks to it and a few other highly-amusing moments I don't actually regret reading through the whole thing. Final rating: Rabbit Poo Sakura Sadist Sakura Sadist is another gloriously contradictory example of Winged Cloud’s simultaneous progress and regress when it goes to quality – an initially nicely written and fairly funny VN that pretty much completely falls apart later into the story and is incapable to capitalize on its best assets. The game, following a female pervert protagonist, starts quite amusingly, with our lead constantly teasing and bickering with her childhood friend, Mari, who serves both as a straight man throughout the story and as one of two love interests (the second one being a certain beautiful, dignified star of the school, who we can instantly identify as the titular [closeted] sadist). The actually competent dialogue and nice chemistry between the main girls made me at first quite optimistic about the game and the possible direction it might go to. Sadly, if you thought that anything interesting would be done with the BDSM theme or there would be any kind of twist to the story that you couldn't easily predict after first 15 minutes, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Not only the main premise is realized through a few episodes of pet-play and the second heroine trying to control the protagonist in vaguely BDSM-esque fashion, but it can also be… Skipped completely, by choosing not to be a total creep and in that way reaching Mari’s route, with its 10 minutes of dialogue and 20 minute-long hentai scene (at least I have to admit it might be the most extensive porn segment in all of Sakura games, whatever that’s worth to you). The already short game, ending an hour early in one of its main conclusions is not a thing I see every day, but also not something I ever want to see – just like I don’t want to ever see more of Sakura Sadist. Final score: Rabbit Poo ------------------------------ So, as we've reached the most recent instalment in the whole Sakura franchise, what the future might hold for these trashiest among trashy Western yurige? I would expect them to keep coming out, more or less, till the end of times – while not all Winged Cloud fans are happy about the switch to mostly f/f smut, the company’s dedication to the theme shows that it’s a viable niche and sells at least well enough to justify constantly spewing new iterations of the formula. I’m also pretty sure that Winged Cloud isn’t going anywhere, considering it’s stable Patreon support that at least partially compensate for possibly dropping Steam sale (obviously, with the effective death of SteamSpy it’s very hard to say what the numbers look like for their latest titles). I’m very sure that before I’m done covering the whole already-available roster of Sakura games, they’ll be new ones coming to keep the Shovelware Adventures alive. SUCH JOY! SUCH HAPPINESS! PS Once more, my special thanks go to Bosskwar, who made this series possible (or at least much more enjoyable to make) through his let's play videos.

As the last game in the event, Love Ribbon is now available on the MG store with quite a big discount (-40%, I think it's just as high as it was ever discounted on Steam, so it's a genuinely good offer). You'll not find a better sister/sister incest scenario, at least until Flowers: Autumn is released by Jast (and that might as well be in 2020 or beyond).

Huh, I'm starting to think that liking Rikka makes me a sociopath or some other kind of deviant. It seems pretty much everyone else in the world hates her. ;p Anyways, I'll actually be getting the game on Steam, because... Reasons. It's still not out on Steam yet, but I'm also not in a hurry, because I have to deal with some stuff before I can read it with a clear conscience and few RL distractions. I'm super-happy for it though, only hearing good things about the game so far.

And today's pick is, indeed, My Magical Demon Lover, a recently-released BL nukige. Quite a rare specimen on the EVN market, I wonder if it will get much interest from the MangaGamer's customers.

Well, the easiest way to change it would be to post something. Otherwise, we'll have to send Ranzo to a Yuri Reservation or something... Would help you out too, but considering it me we're talking about, if I started looking fir a pic to post I would end up adding to your plight with some Flowers CGs.

As @bakauchuujin's prophecy is slowly becoming reality, the second game arraving at MG store is Razzart's Wolf Tails - a rather cute little think BTW. If it all goes according to the Lewdgamer's predictions, there's also Razzart's Love Ribbon getting a spot on MG and Love Ribbon is kamige.

So just 6 games in total? And as they're adding Zetsubou's game I'm surprised it's not Sable's Grimoire, it seems like something more up to the JP VN fans expectations (long story, distinct routes, tons of CGs etc). Oh well, we'll see if there are any surprises awaiting us.

So, the first announcement is here and it's... HunieCam Studio. That is, not a VN by any definition and a somewhat mediocre sim game, from what I've heard. Not the most exciting opening, but let's where it will go next.

That sounds great, I've talked with a few people in the past months wondering what happened to this project, it's really nice to hear it's back on track. Do you have a Twitter or any other place where you post updates beyond here and Lemmasoft Forums? Damn, this looks fine too. I guess good aesthetic isn't everything, but the more I see the more exciting this one gets. It can't be a bad sign. :3

It looks like MangaGamer is going to add some EVNs to their store next week and give them a bit of publicity in the process. I'm quite curious what titles they'll choose for this "event" - and while there's not that much to talk about now, I've though that I'll open a thread and channel the news as it shows up. Probably will do a summary of it all on the blog after it's all done.

While Loren: The Amazon Princess, which I reviewed two weeks ago, if fairly well-known among western VN fans and did a lot to establish WinterWolves studio as a respected OELVN developer, the second RPG placed in the fantasy world of Aravorn, Seasons of the Wolf, flew very much below the radar of most gamers and VN fans. Published on Steam in January 2015, this game pushed the series in a slightly different direction, with a smaller cast, more casual story and far fewer romance options, to a very mixed reaction from the players. However, Seasons of the Wolf was also the title that made significant improvements to the core gameplay mechanics of the series and refined the whole experience in a way that created a standard for future WinterWolves RPGs to follow and build upon. How then this “less of a dating sim” (citing the developer himself) looks like three years after its initial release and is it worth attention from VN fans, especially those that are more interested in the story, rather than RPG gameplay? Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Started reading Six Days of Snow and at the very beginning there's this line from the protagonist, a writer: It seems he takes a direct opposite stance from the actual author. I was tempted to say Ebi should hear her own advice here, but I guess we would miss out on some really great VNs if that was the case. The art in this though... I think there's some serious Fata Morgana inspiration here. Can't complain about that.

Language and culture are not things you can separate from each other. They are strongly interconnected and when you try to imitate some nation's manner of speech with a foreign language you end up with a mess, that sounds neither like the source material nor like proper prose on the language you're translating to. Putting the absurd cases of cultural appropriation aside (like the infamous easily-recognizable rice balls turning into doughnuts in Pokemon), honorifics are something to be avoided whenever possible. Because unlike "rice balls", there's no place for them in the logic of English language and the prose that uses them in abundance will never flow well - and might be even hard to read for someone without basic knowledge of Japanese culture. And no, I don't see any reason to believe that you shouldn't be able to read English-localized VNs without being a weeb - the less confusion the text creates for a normally-educated English reader, the better, as long as we're not going against the source material or missing something really important. I guess I'm in the minority here though.

I think one of the most horrible things I've read when it goes to VNs was an EVN with Japanese honorifics in it. Just so forced, dumb and clunky... In general, I think there's no justification for leaving them in. I can accept some expection, like when "senpai" is used as a pronoun it might be hard to find any English equivalent and a weeb reader won't be bothered by leaving the Japanese word in. In most other cases, however, it's poor desition-making or simply laziness on the part of the translator.

So, after I've dealt with my leftover academic duties, I was able to continue the agony also known as my Ebi-Hime marathon. Where the Sun Always Shines actually gave me a bit of a breather - it's this kind of casual, bittersweet story that deals with relatively heavy themes, but ends on a fairly positive note and leaves you in a good mood. It had good characters and was overall very decent, but was also possibly the least memorable thing from Ebi-Hime I've read so far. Lynne, however, which I approached next, didn't grant me similar mercy. It's greatly stylized when it goes to visuals, makes an excellent use of music and sound effects, and the convincing characters really get me involved in the story. It is, however, a horror through and through - not a supernatural one (at least it's debatable whether anything that happens is anything more than protagonist's mind playing tricks on her), but terrifying and brutal in this existential sense. It's a story that could happen in real life, but that only makes it more suffocating and impactful. I only have one "real" story to go through, Six Days of Snow and then I'll be just left with the Ebi's April Fool's game, Learning in Love! I pretty much gave up on hope that the former won't devastate me even further, so maybe the latter will cheer me up a bit.

Confession: I've just finished writing a 5k words paper on VN fan translations, follow up to the conference I was posting about a few months ago. I still have to check it up once more and do some dumb paperwork before I can submit it, so I'll be done around 2 am and I'm already a day behind the deadline, hoping they don't care enough to reject it because of that. So, kids, try to avoid mixing hobbies and work too much. I really love VNs, but I also kind of hate them right now...

So the project is alive? I was getting a bit worried with the lack of updates in any visible place. How's your work on it going?

Welcome to Fuwa! That's quite a backstory you have there and your project looks very intriguing, I'll try to leave some feeback for it later. Hope you'll have fun arlund here!

Welcome to Fuwanovel! It's a shame people still have these prejudices about otaku media, I hope you'll find some fellow VN fans in your RL place too. But, for now, I hope our little forum will suffice.

Uuuh... Welcome to Fuwa! Anything more you'd like to share about yourself?

HANEBADO! is [redacted - what the f*** did I write here? Hope the anime Gods will forgive me]. It's also a rather fine show so far. A bit over-the-top, as every sports anime is, but it's getting better over time.

From our limited interactions I have yet to find anything annoying about you, but I'm still glad you're doing better mate. Our minds can be our biggest enemies sometimes, I hope the peace treaty you made with yours will last.

Congrats on you Fuwa-resurrection, I hope you'll stay with us this time & have fun posting.