Plk_Lesiak

I don't understand what this thread is about. I mean, you guys can't do that every day with your ever-expanding harem of horny, sexually-proficient virgins?

Welcome to Fuwa! And well, VNDB account surely makes it easier in the long run, don't look at it as something you have to fill in one day, more like a tool to gradually keep track of what you read and what you want to read in the future. Anyways, enough of the VNDB evangelism. I hope you'll have fun around here, lurking or posting.

Whut? The series itself is generally quite heavy/uncomfortable, but that scene was a crucial plotpoint that so far I don't think repeated in any form (and probably won't) - a one-time thing that was there to build Mei's background and motivations.

Welcome to Fuwa! If you don't mind reading something light and short, Locked Heart, Cinderella Phenomenon's developer's first game is quite pleasant (and free). Cinders is another highly regarded one and while it's not free, it's cheap and often goes on sale on Steam. Those links SeniorBlitz posted will also provide you with a ton of good recommendations. Anyways, I hope you'll have fun around here!

Are you hoping to stay in Canada, or emigrate to another western country after graduating, or you're more likely coming back home? I think this is an important factor, in Turkey or in Eastern Europe a diploma from a major North-American university is a huge thing, even if it's not from the best-of-the-best. If you want to settle there for good, graduating from University of Toronto could be an important factor - I mean, I can't really imagine the Canadian government kicking someone like that out. 70000 CAD per year though... I have to admit, for someone who've spent so many years on a public, tuition-free university it's a bit unimaginable.

SonoHana started as basically a nukige series, so I don't expect any game in it to be a pinnacle of deep storytelling - that spin-off was indeed a bit bland, even if enjoyable. This, however, is supposed to be the best game in the franchise, it's much bigger and is usually rated way above Remembering how we met - and obviously, it's much more focused on the romance and sex, even without the h-scenes included it will be quite heavy on fluffy love stories and softcore yuri porn. I'm not sure whether Steam version will have an h-patch available or the 18+ version will be a separate product available on MangaGamer's store though.

I think this would be the case this those smaller/older SonoHana games which are more or less pure yuri nukige, this one, just like New Gen, is a slightly different thing. Also Maidens of Michael already had a JP all-ages release on mobile (and that one all ages spin-off promoting it), so it's not just MangaGamer's catering to Steam rules against all logic. ;]

As the title says. I'm not sure to what extent this is newsworthy to everyone else around here, but I'm super-excited. Both about it finally showing up and about MangaGamer making the sexual content optional. Cute girls'-love stories await.

It's actually not on this list. Whether that's an appropriate categorization or simply a missing tag is up for debate. ;p

But my reputation/posts ratio will suffer. Description: A story which teaches you that coming back from a break five minutes earlier or taking a wrong turn in school corridors can lead you to surprise sex and cheating on your girlfriend.

Flowers? This actually fits perfectly with certain tiny OELVN I've read lately but I know it must be something else. ^^

Welcome, welcome! Well, It's hard to beat Steins;Gate, but I encourage you to browse through recommendations subforums, you'll find some titles to ease your pain somewhere out there.

Well, I simply think this term is used in a way that makes it lose any real meaning - it's better to simply avoid it unless for really clear-cut cases (that is, when you have an erotic plot with an adult and a pre-puberty child, like this SonoHana game for example). A romance between an adult and an older teenager might be "illegal" by our standards but doesn't have to appeal to pedophiles or be targeted towards them. And not every case of child rape or child molestation is connected to pedophilia whatsoever. So, when you use this term for broad generalizations, you'll more likely than not miss the point - it's not criticism, as I see it done everywhere and it's hard to really see through the misconception unless you deal with the topic in some more or less systematic ways (as both my master's thesis and my PhD project are primarily in porn studies, the discussion about pedophilia and child porn is something I've gone through dozens of times).

Very cool post, I still sometimes have problems with seperating how certain terms are used in Japan, among western otaku and in other fandoms, they flow through different communities pretty much gaining seperate meanings in every one of them. :] BTW, talking about pedophilia in connection to Japanese media is always a bit risky thing to do, the first thing it that it's a medical term that is generally overused in various contexts, the second one is that it pretty strictly relates to sexual attraction to pre-puberty children (basically primary school-age kids or younger), so there's a lot of questionable sexual scenarios that doesn't really fit the term, even if they're within the definition of "child porn" by western standards or would be simply socially unacceptable.

I'm pretty sure that second thing pays better, at the very least.

I guess it wouldn't be a bad idea, many people like it more than I do.

Possibly, to some extent? I've played it very early in my VN "career", so I could've missed a few things I would understand now (only briefly refreshed it before I've written this review), but there's definitely more than just that. Everything that involved Lilian in later parts of the story was not really about popcultural references, but was simply an absurdly cryptic side story, written so weirdly that I've seen people discussing on the Steam forums what was it all about. The worst part is that it makes you think, at multiple points, that it's something connected to the main mystery and that's why it was written this way, but no, it's a completely separate thing. I was just thinking "people don't talk/act that way" too many times to ignore it.

Hello again, my Dear Readers! Today, I present you another review of an enjoyable freebie and the last post in the long streak of rather random reviews and top lists I was spewing since the start of my blog. From the next week, I have two themed "events" planned. First, in the coming month and the first week of March, I will offer you reviews of five free, quality Otome and Otome-hybrid OELVNs - among those, some of the highest rated western visual novels to date. After that, for at least another month and a half, I will focus exclusively on yuri games - for that occasion, apart from reviews, I'm already preparing my first "developer spotlight" post, which includes an interview with a certain yuri VN author. I hope I'll be able to provide more of that kind of content in the future, but I don't want to rush it either, making sure that I know that author's work and background well-enough before I approach them, so I can make the interview meaningful and the time I ask from them worth it. For now, I'll hope you'll enjoy this week's review and until next friday!

Mystery/romance might not be a rare formula for VNs in general but seems especially popular among Western developers – this probably shouldn't be surprising, as it's very compatible with shorter, linear stories that indie devs usually aim for. Just like One Thousand Lies, which I've reviewed last month, Sepia Tears is a free visual novel available on Steam and mobile devices, which offers a fairly deep, complicated intrigue, relying on its mystery elements to keep the player emotionally and intellectually involved. It's also one of the better known free VNs produced in the West, at least partially thanks to its release date – in early 2013, when it first came out, quality visual novels made outside of Japan were still few and far between, while the official market for localized JP titles was pretty much only starting to develop. The game found its way to a content-starved Western VN community and was pretty highly appreciated. Does it stand the test of time though? Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Indeed, it's pretty possible that I've been watching so many bad series lately (Smartphone included) that anything half-competent suddenly looks like the ninth wonder of the world, but I will cautiously stand by my unreasonable opinions.

Well, obviously the protagonist is in God Mode and that eliminates most of the possible drama, but it also have a very different feel than Smartphone, where you simply knew that nothing exciting can happen, because everything must lead to MC becoming bigger and bigger hero to the whole world. Also, action scenes? There wasn't much of that yet and I think they weren't the point of anything that happened so far. It's all about exploration and figuring out this artificial world and its rules - especially because the protag tries to play it smart and not revealing his true nature to others. Maybe it's just different expectations, but I've found all of this quite refreshing - also, if it's really going to devolve into super-standard harem fantasy anime, then my assessment will change a lot - Smartphone, if we go by that example, stank of harem since the very beginnings, I guess the cast of this one should suggest the same, but there was nothing screaming "ecchi trash series" in the episodes aired so far. BTW, I didn't try to say it's a masterpiece (by wonderful, apart from exaggerating just for the fun of it, I simply meant that for me it's super-entertaining), it is an isekai series with just some slight spins to it, so I judge it as the super-casual entertainment thing that it is. I just find it much more balanced and well-though out than some other examples of this I've seen so far (I don't count Re:ZERO obviously, because it's a very different beast). Also, I have a terrible taste when it goes to all kinds of media, so there's that too. EDIT: Also I find the part with discovering the "god-killer" title and realizing he randomly killed one while testing the meteor shower ability quite funny. The fact he's OP to the point that some of his skills are too dangerous to use is not a bad plot development - he has the means to completely screw this world over or take any role he wants in it, the thing is that he don't want to turn it upside down or bend it to his will, he wants to explore it and enjoy his time there. It's such a simple, casual concept that simply have a very subjective, personal appeal for me.

I'll have to check it out at some point, TBH I didn't really considered buying it before you (or was it someone else?) mentioned it on the forums a few times, the VNDB score isn't very encouraging. So thanks for the review.

It should be. :] The game's choice system and plot makes pushing the protagonist towards the bad ending quite painfull and the ending itself is properly horrible, but it was quite unique and I'm very curious what the better (good...?) conclussions look like. Sadly I won't have time to play it until the late evening at least.

I just hope that JAST gets their shit together and release the second chapter of Flowers. Other than that, my Steam backlog and wishlist are both already monstrous enough that I don't need any new stuff to make it even scarier.

I've just reached what I suppose is the worst ending in CUPID. I've always focused on fairly lighthearted VNs and never delved into really heavy stuff before, so maybe I simply wasn't prepared for this one, but the amount of internal screaming going on right now in my mind and body is not something I've really felt before.