Plk_Lesiak

I’ve spent a lot, if not the majority of my time writing the blog covering yuri games and while I enjoy the theme in pretty much all of its variants (outside of plain porn, at least), I quite rarely stumble upon an EVN that surprises me with its approach to lesbian romance or does something very unusual when setting up such a story. Thus, I was more than just a little intrigued when I’ve learned about Dharker Studio’s Highschool Romance: Magi Trials, a sequel to a “trap protagonist” romance VN, this time featuring magic and gender-bending of a much more thorough and permanent nature than simple cross-dressing, along with exclusively-female love interests. This yuri-and-not-yuri setup, coupled with cute, cartoonish art and non-pornographic approach to gender-bending, pretty much unique to the Highschool Romance series held a lot of promise – something I was very eager to verify. As I’ve mentioned in one of my recent posts on Dharker Studio, while the team has a very shaky record, especially when it goes to its early titles, the original Highschool Romance, released in late 2015, was a bit of a positive outlier, featuring charming art and a simple, but fun romance storytelling. Despite basing the plot on the idea of a male protagonist crossdressing to attend an all-girls school, it played with this theme in a cute and surprisingly non-offensive manner – the main character is not a pervert (or especially a sexual predator), but just a person forced to hide his true identity due to unusual circumstances, and the heroine arcs are, for the most part, very wholesome, with mild fanservice and teacher-student romance being the most “risqué” elements in them. Despite being a bit too short and basic, Highschool Romance made for a pleasant experience that I ultimately appreciated, and the sequel, transporting the same formula and artstyle into a fantasy setting, sounded seriously appealing. However, going through the Magi Trials, released on Steam in November 2016, reminded me that there’s more required than some interesting ideas and nice-looking art assets to make a genuinely good VN… Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Welcome to Fuwa, newbie! I hope we can guide on your way to ultimate corruption enjoyment!

Many blogs should have email subscription of some kind? I know mine does (you should find it easily on the sidebar), even though it's probably not the kind of content you're looking for. English Visual Novels was the best site for plain news and release updates, but I think it's still on hiatus due to author's RL issues. With bigger sites, Noisy Pixel and NookGaming lately gained some traction within the VN niche. Also, setting up e-mail subscription/a newsletter is rather easy with most blogging/site creation services, so if a site which content you find interesting don't have one, you can just contact them and ask them to add this feature. On Blogger, which I use, it literally takes a few minutes to make it happen.

Yeah, I feel the same, although it was already very unlikely considering we all knew they'll bring (nearly) everyone back one way or another. So I guess I'm less disappointed and more... Not surprised in any way. I find it funny though that critics rated this one higher than Infinity War. They really are a bunch of clueless hacks when reviewing comic book movies.

As it looks from the screenshots and your description, I'd say it's 50% a choose your own adventure game and 50% an RPG or simulation? Reminds of The Oregon Trail actually. I don't think there's even a proper name for these, but I'm definitely digging it. :] Do you plan to include some forms of world randomisation and RNG, similar to something like FLT or Sunless Sea, or you're rather going for a hand-crafted world player should learn and optimize their path through? Are you planning for any interactions with the NPCs beyond side quests and flavour text (like forming parties, romance)?

You can get banned maybe. But you'll never truly escape. Seriously though, probably the lead administrators can delete accounts? Wouldn't expect that to happen though. Just turn off all email notifications, set up a random password and forget it ever existed.

I don't think there will be a next one. There can be no Avengers without Iron Man and Captain America - or at least it doesn't seem feasible. As I understand it, the next big arc for MCU will reintegrate X-Men (I think they finally regained the right from Fox) into the timeline and explore the mutant & Spiderman storylines. Probably add a few more wildcard heroes to replace the ones killed off or retired in Infinity War/Endgame. That seems like the best approach to keep the whole MCU alive and fresh. Looking forward to it TBH. What Dergonu suggested with the Fantastic Four and Galactus could be awesome too. But as I see it, the next big showdown won't be with Avengers playing the main roles, as their group is effectively done. Iron Man, Captain America and a lesser extent even Black Widow were its leaders. No one can really replace them, so a new generation will have to step in, even if heroes like Thor won't completely fade out into obscurity.

I think Clephas got it right, but I would point even more decidedly towards oversaturation – the VN fan community is still very niche and the output of the localisation companies have been rising much faster than its buying power. If someone gets into VNs today, they have a huge selection of games to choose from, and VNs generally don't age as much as 3D games, so they'll be less tempted to focus on latest, and thus most expensive releases. The EVN scene also grows and the quality of those games is slowly but surely improving, so they're also picking on the JPVN revenue, especially on Steam where you have a lot of less fanatically-weeb and demanding audience. So, it's not like VN sales have dropped much overall, I would speculate they didn't at all, they're just way more spread out.

Welcome to Fuwa, lurker! Hope your problem gets solved and that you decide to post a bit beyond that at some point.

I'm not sure if obscure doujin mangas are really the main force perpetuating all those crappy tropes within the medium.

Ugh, I know what you're getting at, but I'm really not that convinced these high-quality, mature romance mangas are anything more than a niche (I don't see many of them at the top of the popularity rankings). You can get great romance without it being the main focus of the plot. You can also have a dead-serious, focused romantic series that sucks at what it sets out to do. There are insane amounts of good manga series and you can very likely find great anything in them if you look hard enough, but that doesn't nullify the issues the OP and others pointed to. And those are even more painful in anime, as often the shows don't adapt the full plot of the manga and never get to a proper conclusion (or, basically, they actively avoid giving one), so you're even less likely to find compelling love stories there. Didn't mean to question anyone's pleasures, but we're talking about broad trends here and the general trend for manga and anime is... Meh.

This actually does not go against my statement. I think you'll agree those are exceptions rather than the norm, even if they're that excellent.

I think I'm with Clephas and others pointing to genre conventions and shitty business practices more than Japanese culture as such. If even non-eroge VNs can have normal romance progression, I blame the inconclusive/grotesquely stretched out character of most shounen & seinen manga, and the stress on fanservice and harem tropes over genuine romance. As you said yourself, in shoujo, where you are way more likely to have a single love interest for the protagonist and romance scenarios developed with genuine care, you get more expressions of affection and even mild sex scenes. They just fit the formula. Generally, romance in anime/manga sucks more often than not. VNs are really the way to go in this regard, as they strive to tell complete stories, rather than tease you for 800 chapters before delivering something even vaguely conclusive.

Before Dharker Studio became the semi-competent producer of smut we know and (occasionally) love today, its founder, AJ Tilley, made a name for himself through his personal VN publishing brand, AJTilley.com. Throughout 2015 there has been an impressive number of decently-sized games released under that label, the whole endeavour fuelled by a never-ending stream of crowdfunding campaigns, making Tilley one of the most notable creators on the fledgeling EVN scene. At the same time, his activities were spawning increasing controversies, mostly over the appalling quality of some of the games in question and overuse of Kickstarter. In April 2016, after just a year and a half of presence within the EVN scene, the infamy around the label became intense enough that Tilley himself decided to terminate it, removing all of its online presence and transferring all the rights to his company’s “development arm”, Dharker Studio. The "restructured" company then both continued working on the franchises introduced by AJTilley.com and created new ones, including highly successful ecchi VNs such as Negligee or Army Gals, while its creator’s name was conveniently hidden from the public’s eye. Despite the horror stories circulating around these “dark beginnings” of Dharker Studio, the games from that period always interested me quite a lot, both because of my usual, morbid curiosity and the significant role they played in the history of EVNs. While it’s easy to argue that titles like Sword of Asumi or Divine Slice of Life did a lot to reinforce the general impression of EVNs being cheap, awkward imitations of their Japanese predecessors, I wanted to find out whether they’re really as bad as people make them out to be. In today’s episode, I’ll cover four of those pre-Dharker projects – outside of the two mentioned above, I’ll be including Highschool Romance and Highschool Possession, which, amusingly enough, have exactly nothing to do with each other, utilizing drastically different artstyles and telling stories that could hardly be further away from each other, at least apart from the obligatory high school setting. The one game I’ll skip, for the time being, is Beach Bounce, initial episodes of which were published during this time, but which was later heavily reworked and fully released as a “proper” Dharker Studio title, Beach Bounce Remastered. After that, it even spawned its own little franchise – this series, with three VNs in total, deserves a separate look and will be the next topic for Shovelware Adventures. So, going back to our main issue, are the AJTilley.com VNs really that bad? The answer is: no. Because in reality, if you treat them seriously to any extent, they’re even worse than I've expected – at least outside of one, notable exception. Sword of Asumi Imagine a game featuring a female assassin in an alternative-history Japan, where shogunate won the late XIX-century civil war and what in our world was the Meiji restoration followed a different path. The samurai class never lost its dominance, preserving its ethos and prestige till the modern day, while the militaristic government relies on secret police and agents such as our lead, Asumi, to keep people in check. At the same time, a new terrorist group rises, aiming to violently oppose the established order. Sounds pretty cool, right? Only in theory, as the reality of Sword of Asumi is one of the most amazing trainwrecks I’ve seen during my involvement with EVNs, rivalling Winged Cloud’s Legends of Talia with how absurdly stupid and tone-deaf it is. The first thing you might notice after launching the game is that Asumi is possibly the dumbest assassin in the world, spewing edgy one-liners and engaging in small talk with her victims instead of focusing on getting the job done. A moment later, when a member of the Edo's (this universe’s Japan) secret police, a Justicar, shows in the house of Asumi’s latest hit and start discussing extremely delicate details of her next assignment in the middle of the murder scene, you know you’re up for a ride. And be sure, the stream of utter stupidity and inexplicable writing fu**ups never truly ends (like Asumi causally approaching other characters in her assassin’s clothes, while being undercover – I can understand that kind of mistake in writing, but when you can literally see it happening on the screen???). The somewhat-decent romance options, both male and female, help things a tiny bit, but can’t change the overall dreadful quality of the experience. The absurd fanservice (it seems assassins have a strong taste for overly-elaborate, sexy lingerie, especially when preparing for a mission) and the fact how seriously the game treats itself are pretty much the final nails to its coffin. While the likes of Sakura games are after dumb and trashy, they’re self-aware and try to have fun with the formula. In Sword of Asumi, the only fun you can have is the kind fully unintended by its authors: the high from how astonishingly bad and absurd it is. And unless that’s what you’re looking for, there’s really no reason to read it. Sorry Kaori, even you couldn’t save this one... Final Rating: Smelly Poo Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Superheroes, in the strict sense of the word, are not really a thing in VNs... There are some exceptions though, Dengeki Stryker probably being the most notable one - it's currently heavily discounted on both Steam and MG store. Another outlier is Trample on Shatten!!, but I mostly heard bad things about it. There's a cool freeware VN called Scrambled: Syd City which all revolves around low-level superheroes - a borderline parody of the genre, but with quite an interesting story.

Wow, 15 years after the release of the original. I wonder if it's as well-remembered in Japan as it is in the Western fandom? I always thought that it got famous here, at least partially, thanks to being one of the first "proper" eroge to get an official English release and its VNDB score is pretty poor for this kind of VN.

JP stuff: Eden*, Narcissu series, Harmonia, Lonely Yuri EVNs: Soundless, Juniper's Knot, One Thousand Lies, Lynne, Sweetest Monster

I read the VN a while ago, but my RL got me so busy that I completely forgot to leave my feedback here. :< The first thing, I really liked how the game tackled grief and depression, the protagonist's thoughts, his interaction with artefacts of their lost friendship, the e-mails... It was all very impactful. I had some tiny issues with the UI was working (for example messages menu was a bit counter-intuitive), but the way story was presented was also great. The switches between RL and VR environments were an unusual and cool touch and I like how the game explored meaning behind different mundane elements of the virtual space the protagonist shared with Ji-min. What I liked much less was... Well, pretty much anything connected to the catgirl. Still, it was a cool little story and I'll definitely give it a positive recommendation in the NaNoRen0 summary that I'm working on (yeah, I know how horribly late I'm with that thing, but April did me no favours when it goes to working on the blog). BTW, do you have any insights on what was the idea behind the catgirl and her role in the story?

Welcome to Fuwa! Can you tell a bit about yourself/the kind of VNs you're interested in?

Wow, just don't choke on the cake and die. That would be... Somewhat unfortunate! Happy Birthday to You!

Just watched it together with Infinity War in a night "marathon". It was very good, although I think IW was more consistent in quality and impactful. Still, it’s just so awesome seeing all those movies coming together in this. And Thanos is an awesome villain. :]

This kind of thread is basically illegal here? >.> <.< Hmmm... Well, Grisaia no Kajitsu's Makina route would probably count. Saya no Uta is quite a different beast, being lovecraftian horror and all... But it fits all the categories, being an eroge with a loli and great storyline. Hoshimemo has a loli route, only be aware that the translation is pretty flawed in that. Would write more, but this thread might get deleted, so...

Welcome to EVN Chronicles’ 2019 Lesbian Visibility Day Special! Last year, to celebrate this lovely occasion, I wrote a short, impromptu rant about yuri, its inherent ambiguity when it goes to the representation of lesbian romance and the major role it plays in the EVN scene. Having little to add to what I said in that post, this year I’ve decided to use this opportunity to give the spotlight to a game that contributes to the LGBT+ themes in Visual Novels in a particularly interesting and compelling manner. During this day, which is meant to show a real and diverse portrait of the lesbian community, it’s only fair to focus on a game that breaks away from the fetishising conventions of Japanese yuri media and offers meaningful commentary on the challenges people belonging to sexual minorities face. And the fact it also includes some very unique and memorable portrayals of f/f romance is the kind of bonus probably none of us would ever mind… Of course, one could say this is cheating on my part, as I review yuri games all the time (and probably read more of those than any other kind of VNs) and there’s nothing “special” about me taking look at another one. However, Pillow Fight Games’ Heaven Will Be Mine, which I will talk about today, is a very unique title, completely unlike the cookie-cutter f/f romances that dominate the visual novel scene on both Japanese and EVN side of things (and, by extension, my blog’s output). It’s also, when it goes to visual style and writing, a direct continuation of another excellent, similarly-themed game, titled We Know the Devil. While mostly focusing on HWBM, I’ll use this opportunity to talk about both these games, their peculiar, but the extremely creative and memorable approach to the visual novel format, and the messages they convey. So, I hope you’ll be willing to join me while we take our time and explore those two unusual pieces of yuri content. Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

I don't see anything confusing in this. They released the fandisk portion of the console port. Calling it Cruise Sign would be actually confusing, as it would suggest it's a full re-release of the game with additional content. And this doesn't change the fact that the original Western Konosora release has nothing to do with the console port, which was released two years later. Thus it was also not the version where Akari's route belongs, maybe to the point they would be hard to integrate together. Indeed, the best thing they could do was re-releasing the whole game using the console version and new translation. But even much better companies would be hesitant to take this kind of cost on themselves. No matter how you spin it, I can't see anything wrong with how this was handled, apart from the walling the new route behind buying the fandisk. But even that is not really that egregious IMHO.

It also never existed in the version of the base game that got localized. By your logic, the only "fair" thing to do would be not releasing it at all, as it doesn't belong with neither Flight Diary nor the MoeNovel's Konosora. Of course I'm exaggerating and they definitely did it at least partially to make the fandisk more attractive. I also don't know what the translation quality is like, but unless it's dreadful, this is a reasonably-priced piece of meaningful content that fans of the original should fullly enjoy in the form it was presented to them. You made no real arguement on why cutting it out makes it so much of an inferior product that it qualifies as "cash grab", you only repeat that evepresent fallacy that it's "not how it was meant to be in the original". And I never found it to be a compelling arguement for anything.