Plk_Lesiak

But isn't it the same with pretty much every form of media nowadays? No genuinely great movie can beat Transformers and that recycled mess of a Star Wars episode we've got lately when it goes to profitability. But that doesn't mean good films aren't made - and that we can't see many of them in the same cinemas that get filled with people looking for mindless entertainment. A platform might be full if filth but still also host valuable products and give them more positive exposure they could hope for without it - I still think that's the case with Steam. It's not really a zero-sum game, because people watching/reading complete shit in most cases won't be that interested in more demanding stuff anyway. Most people on Steam won't touch the "Weeb crap" because of their biases (which, BTW, are not a new thing, more like decades old), but those with enough knowledge about Japanese media or enough curiosity will find their way to high-quality stuff as long as it's available. And that limited interest can make the effort of basic localisation and putting it for sale worth it - let's not kid ourselves, Western markets (and even PC market in general) are not a priority for JP developers and only affects their policies in minor ways. They won't all switch to producing Nekopara sequels because of Steam. But they might bring us more English versions of various products because of Steam. And really, is JP market that much better? Even the shitty western VNs like Sakura series only mimic what was popular for ages in Japan. There's ton of bad, questionable, laughably bad VNs and Dating Sims that sells tons of copies in Japan, it's just not what we, as admittedly a bunch of niche-audience snobs, focus on. :] I think Steam still allows it as long as the patch is only available off-platform and not linked in the game itself. If I'm wrong though it would be a huge problems for many VN publishers, that rely on this unlockable content to make any sales (even with some Japanese games - I'm not sure if the recently mentioned Nekopara would make any sense without Hentai scenes - if it does I would like to know BTW, because I've always though of these games as overly-elaborate set ups for porn segments :p).

This felt super-relatable to me. Death is nothingness, I think there's literally nothing to fear in it (unlike life itself, which can punish you in most horrible ways). For me, if anything, thinking about might bring anxiety about the lost opportunities and things I will not be able to experience. The pass of time on the other hand, the ultimate fragility and most likely futility of all our achievements, IS scary to me. People are usually pretty bad at dealing with lack of purpose or feeling that their existance is meaningless. And being an atheist like myself, it's really hard to find a deeper meaning in all of it. The ultimate conclussion for me is that there is no meaning to life apart the meaning we give to it ourselves. It's not healthy to avoid the topic of death completely, because it will come back to us eventually and we should be prepared for it at least to some extent, but we should focus on living our lives to the fullest. There's no afterlife, no greater order of things, just a life that we were given by fate and the possibilities it brings. And if use those possibilities wisely, we should be able to look at it later with little regret. Of course, if chance allows us, but worrying about things completely beyond our control in unhealthy.

I really like the AU WW2 setting, I think it's an underused theme still. I understand you're replacing character sprites right now, do you have any anime-style CGs planned? Do you have any vision on how you're going to publish it/the possible pricetag (sorry if it's too early to ask)?

Welcome among the Fuwa newbies. I would encourage you to start a topic about your game in the Original VN Projects section, it made me curious and I don't want to spam you with questions here. ^^

Less people knowing what VNs are doesn't lead to availability and fair pricing, no matter how you look at it. For someone like me, who don't know Japanese well enough to read original releases, healthy global market is crucial. And elitist thinking simply doesn't help with that. I can't reasonably discuss your financial situation, but for a long time I don't really buy games other than VNs and still, without Steam sales I would most likely look for another hobby (or give up on my principles and start pirating things). Gamers in general might be "spoiled" and clueless about VNs, but it's not their role to know better or care about VN developer's interests, they should care about their own interest and their fun. And maybe it's the role of fans like us to spread a positive image of the genre and educate people a bit. But above all, we should fight for a place where VNs are accessible to as many people as possible and still profitable enough for developers to make them produce/localise more. Steam is a powerful platform that can most likely deliver both, no matter how it's dominated by the "filthy masses" masturbating to Sakura games bought on sale for 5 bucks. Or whatever image of Steam VN reader you have.

Yeah, I'm pure trash in this way that I absolutely agree with you and couldn't fight the temptation with Threecolour Lovestory and Fox Hime. I find the situation with SG problematic in the way that in many cases playing community police is pretty much painless, in nearly every genre of games boycotting one publisher, even major ones, still leaves you a huge variety of easily accessible products. But when I want to find out what Chinese VNs look like or see some interesting new release added to the still modest Steam vn library, suddenly it's a bit harder. You shouldn't be me though, be a moral person instead. ;]

I won't argue with that, but I think it's more complicated. For an average Japanese person such price might be bearable, but for me, in a less well-off region of the world it often isn't (and I think many VN fans are in similar position). Also while older video games typically get much cheaper with time, visual novels often follow very stiff pricepoints - even when they're more than a decade old they can cost a lot. For an average gamer, there are many ways to economize his investments without doing anything questionable - as I see it now, with VNs its much harder. And the producers would probably gain a lot from making classic VNs more accessible, while still charging (justified) full prices for new products and things like HD re-releases and such. As more and more VNs get Steam releases, with slightly lower prices and regular sale discounts, it definitely gets better, but as I mentioned Steam has its own problems, especially when it goes adult-oriented titles. I didn't say it to justify piracy (apart from abandonware I never do), just to show that people have strong incentives to pirate VNs more than many other types of media.

Sadly, I have to yet see a civil discussion on this topic. Not surprising though, when we have the obvious moral/legal principles on one side and people struggling with limited availability and unreasonable pricing of VNs on the other. The latter is the reason I mostly play VNs on Steam, with sales it's much easier to handle it financially, but you have to deal with censorship, cut out content and poor-quality releases. So in the foreseeable future people will still have huge incentives to bend the rules. BTW, that's also the reason why I bought two VNs published by SakuraGame - felt dirty, but it's not like we can hope for a different western releases of those specific titles in the future. And with their pricing, SG actually reach huge audiences with some of their VNs - if they put a minimal effort in their localisations and toned down the scummy practices they could even have a positive role to play in popularizing VNs in the West. And that's what makes it even more frustrating.

*approaches creepily from behind* My friend, are you maybe into yuri? Isn't yuri just the best thing? I'm happy you agree! I have some right here... So, if you're looking for something with a happy conclusion, I could recommend A Little Lily Princess (https://vndb.org/v19420), Starlight Vega (https://vndb.org/v16817) and Love Ribbon (https://vndb.org/v20027). All of them short, fairly cheap on Steam - obviously western stuff, so it's quite different from typical Japanese VNs, but all of them very good if you don't mind the themes and won't take you a few weeks to fully read through. :)

Hahaha, that's what makes it so fun to watch, isn't it? ^^ I only watch this, Juuni Taisen (which is trash, but I'm curious to see how low it can sink), Konohana Kitan (which is pure relaxation) and Mahoutsukai no Yome. I see a lot of people having mixed feelings about Ancient Magus' Bride, but so far it's growing into one of my all-time favorites. I really love Chise as a character and the mood this series creates. It's rather slow, but that's the kind of pacing I enjoy the most in anime, and the production values are amazing.

^ This. The number of choices and routes is never a problem for me, even when I don't have enough time to explore a VN fully, I usually know what outcomes are a priority to me and what I can leave for repeated playthroughts in the future or skip entirely. What I don't like are overly specific choice combinations and counter-intuitive consequences that screw me over against common sense. That's why I like VNs with simple structure, that work more like an interactive book that a contrived logic puzzle that actively try to f**** with you (hello School Days with your minor choices leading to absurd, horrible outcomes). And why I never approach the latter without a walkthrough. But it's also a bit pointless to complain about it, confusing choice/route structures are a constant feature of VNs since forever, I don't see it changing any time soon. Obviously the game might have tons of contrived, branching paths that add little substance and are simply boring, but I can't say I've seen much of that. The biggest, most complex VNs are usually made by teams that know their craft well and keep pretty consistent quality throughout the whole thing.

How dare you? Rikka is the best girl! Can't argue with the general description though, it's a peculiar experience, even though the whole thing is very much in my taste (after the 5th hour mark a few more tunes would do miracles for it though). VNDB suggests that the second part of the series is getting translated, with Yeagaki as the protagonist it should be a bit less melodramatic and more intriguing when it goes to character interactions. Suou's "shy girl" routine got old pretty fast for me.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! Oh, it's pretty high on my to-read list. ...Although my to-read list is generally huge, even only counting small/western VNs, so being high might as well mean being read around next spring. ;p

Hey, I'm a bit of a newbie when it goes to visual novels, but recently I've got sucked in in major way and started exploring the genre with basically all my free time (shared mostly with watching anime). I'm a huge fan of western-made and indie VNs, especially those made by small teams or being personal passion projects. While obviously main-stream Japanese novels are in different league when it goes to quality and scale, I love experiencing those smaller projects, with all their clunkiness and quirks connected to the specific author. Also, there are quite a few hidden gems among those VNs, that people often reject as "cheap imitations" without giving them a proper chance. I'm also a huge fan of yuri and a bit of a graphomaniac, compulsively writing VN reviews on Steam. And a dirty casual, who just recently started learning Japanese and trying to learn a bit more from his Otaku hobbies. I also have a weird ambition to become a contributor to the main site, but somehow no one returns my e-mails. :C I hope I won't be very annoying and I'm looking forward to get a bit more involved on this forum, after my time of silent lurking.

Yeah, but when you don't even have much hope for vacation it's really hard to completely give up on the larger ones. The right time to read through Clannad might be in my next life if I took it that way.

Hah, I would often do something similar, but ATM I literally don't even have time to lose sleep or skip stuff without generating some kind of disaster. Not that it's beneath me to withdraw from real life for three days to finish some huge VN when I'm on vacation or something. :> And I'm stuck on Grisaia's common route for three weeks now, jumping to short titles from time to time when I get really impatient. I expect to finish by the end of the year...

I wonder, am I the only one starting to read through huge VNs at time when I have very little free time and getting frustrated that I can't make any progress with them? Currently that's me (not) reading Grisaia no Kajitsu and Hakuisei Aijou Izonshou (both are excellent though)...

Devs have all the right in the world to hate fantranslations or try to block them, no matter how unfair it looks from our point of view or how wrong he is about it affecting his bottom line. It's better to focus on the one thing he's definitely not wrong about and that's SakuraGame being cancer, when it goes to their business practices and the quality of their publishing. It's not that VNs have any prestige to lose in the West, but what they do definitely doesn't help. :s