Plk_Lesiak

I 100%'d this game. And quite loved it, in fact. Yes, weeb stylistic choices and all that, but I was otherwise fond of the writing.
Super cynical view on the idol industry, but all is well because Starnova represents the good side and they always win in the end (Bad ends? What's that? Can you eat those? I skipped through them.).
Even
I mean, this isn't necessarily a commentary on the actual state of the industry or anything. It's an hyperbolic version created specifically to make the main girls an even bigger shining beacon of hope and all that.

This is what'll save the idol industry.

Even if reality tries to get in the way.
But yeah, the girls are good, the producer is good(?), and in stories the good will win in the end.

Sometimes it's more like this, but whatever.

I'm waiting for the next "Shovelware Adventures" episode then
 

Yeah, if I was writing about Katawa Shoujo I would probably drop the quotation marks. It captured the spirit of JVNs without overdoing it or cynical pandering, sadly can't say that about SSS (although I still don't think it kills the game unless you're really not fond of weeb easthetic).
And right, No One But You! You reminded me what my next VN playthrough to watch on YouTube should be. It's not like me keep skipping on a disaster of these proportions.

Very nice review. Nevertheless, I think I'll skip this VN
You titled your thread on r/vn "Shining Song Starnova - the most "Japanese" EVN ever created [Review]", and after seeing that I obviously immediately thought about Katawa Shoujo. But comparing my impressions of KS and what I read in your review of SSS, it seems that they approach the issue of being "Japanese EVN" very differently. KS managed to fool many people into thinking it was translation of JVN (which is pretty big achievement, I think), and in my memories there are Japanese voices even though it was unvoiced However, it didn't went over the top with "weebness" as SSS apparently does, and it was very good decision (they even presented quite decent in-story justification for dropping honorifics ).
The most obvious example of "over the top weebness and edginess gone wrong" is probably No One But You,  and I'm quite sure that SSS doesn't drop to such horrible levels of atrocity, but while I probably could somewhat enjoy it two years ago (after all, I enjoyed some aspects of NOBY back then), today it would be too much.

I don't think there's any point in arguing about it, it's very much a matter of taste. I found this game too much all over the place - the amount of paedophile executives, psychotic fans and literal shit-eating in the middle kind of didn't let me believe the happy endings. Kamijou was a cool antagonist, but he was an outlier in this regard. It's my personal impression, but that is inevitably the main basis for my review, otherwise it would be dishonest. Same goes for the weebness - some people will find it appealing, some people will get grossed-out Zaka-style and I don't think any of them are "right" about it, enjoyment-wise, but it's still fair to point out how much it is on the extreme end of the spectrum, and that it bothered me from time to time.
I don't fault anyone for loving this game, but for me it did way too many things wrong to be considered great - and it's not just me trying to be an "objective reviewer", they seriously detracted from my enjoyment. It's impressively-made, to the point I kind of feel guilty bashing it, but just OK overall.

I wonder if they changed any of the things I memed about in the trial https://twitter.com/i/moments/887601776240857089
...probably not any of the weeb language, to my despair... Oh well, I'm a JOP, it's not like LiS would ever make anything I'd want to read at this point.

Sooner or later it'll happen for real. 

@Plk_Lesiak I didn’t even see your response until now. Well since the VN is done, I can tell you everything. It was largely Wolf’s idea our studio director. I didn’t contribute much to the design of her character. The idea of Cheshire was to be a memento. I wanted a memento of Ji-Min like a museum of memories kinda thing, and someone brought up an avatar like Budapest from Watercress’s previous VN Palinarus. But, if you were expecting some meaning behind the story, sorry, the story doesn’t have any meaning outside of Grief. Personally, I don’t like writing stories without an arc or resolution, but the goal of “This was for you”, was for the reader to experience that grief has no resolution or arc, or any motif on it’s own. In your review, you brought up that you didn’t like the interactions with Cheshire and her twist. I agree with your criticism, however, giving her some poetic meaning seemed to antithetical to the whole theme of This Was For You. I thought about it too when we in our writing meeting, because I wanted the relationship to a bit more pronounced with flashbacks of Ji-Min or something however, the goal was for the relationship to be exclusively online. The characters just knew each other online and used Cheshire as a joke. In fact Cheshire is the joke, she was created by Ji-Min to troll MC. That’s why Cheshire is so damn annoying. She was designed for MC not to like her. Even giving her sentience, would’ve taken away from the whole grief theme we were going for. Honestly, our VN has no story. It’s the MC griefing for 30 minutes. Our goal was for the reader to experience that feeling of lost and not be so captured in a narrative arc. That’s why MC has no gender, no identity, etc, they are a self-insert. Imagine if you were there. 
 
It’s funny because as soon as I joined the studio in February, I was like “are going to make another depression simulator?” Everyone laughed on the Discord voice chat. Because This was for you is the quintessential Watercress experience. It’s our most polished VN to date. I contributed 25% of the writing. I did the audio splicing work lol. I did some of the GUI work. So yeah. 
 
Is that why you recommend it vs highly recommended it?

I agree with what you say. I started to play it. Was nothing bad either at first, but I got tired of the main character. I picked a girl, and it didn't feel like at all like I was playing one. They were really lazy with that part and should've just kept it a BxG game. Personally the dating sim part was a little annoying but not horrible. Took long though for me to get my stats up. As for the art, it's okay for me, though the sprites aren't my cup of tea but not too bad. I actually like the BG's, but maybe that's because I love 2D backgrounds. 
As for the girls, I agree that they weren't very interesting (though neither was the mc). Best part for me was with the best guy friend being gay (since I like BL). The girls weren't horrible, just not good. The worst was the Tsun character though. I'm really beginning to gate that trouble. I will say, I don't mind cliches but they have to be done well and this game just doesn't really do it. Yeah, there was some shock value, but too much blood and death. This is why it's hard for me to watch game of thrones actually lol. But anyway, the ending is what ruined it for me. Basically you're wasting your time. What would've been a better end if one would change this a bit, would to be to have the girl you wooed be the one to be by your side when you woke up and you had been lovers. At least that gives me a reason to do all the routes. But sadly, I doubt I will. 
So in the end, the game was meh for me. I'm not going to say horrible, but not good. Also, it's a no Yuri game as you said since they do a terrible job with that part. If only they took just more time with the writing/story, it could've been better for me. 

Well, I read it and quite enjoyed it! ^^
The story is pretty well written, creating a situation with a tough decision to be made and no obvious villain. Both heroes have their good and bad points and are likable characters overall (but I'm team Alto). Bonus points for the little MC customization (adds a personal touch to story) and the music that, while very simple,  fits the game really well and I love these kinda things where there are subtle changes to the track when the mood of the scenes shift. Another good point is that even if it's short, the story feels more or less complete, and not just a prologue to some bigger project.
My biggest complaint is not even something generally bad, just a stylistic choice that I particularly dislike: too many choices one after another, coupled with an affection points system. As I prefer to play without walkthroughs, figuring it out where something went wrong with this type of system is usually a nightmare (okay, this game in particular is pretty short so no real damage, but I kinda like when I see the results of what I picked before my next set of choices, I'm spoiled  ), so I usually prefer less choices that activate some flags system or instant bad endings (I know the latter wouldn't really work here though).
So guess in the end is kind of a tie? www  Mnemonic Devices definitely have a better plot, development and conclusion, but I preferred Monochrome Blues art and choices (hey, we can give snarky responses to a bunch of 5 years old, what's not to love? ) But both dev groups have talent, cheers to them.
I'm not giving a score just yet though because I still have a few endings to catch on Mnemonic  

I can't imagine it really disappointing anyone with love of android stories. But I'll be curious about your take on it. ^^

I'm actually baffled I could miss a game with Robot Protagonist tag  
You know what? I'll read it tomorrow and update this entry accordingly   Don't disappoint me here, man, I'm trusting your opinion that's good!!!!!

Good to see you doing fine and not giving up on weeb, even if you can't always share it around here. ^^
Also, I'm so with you on Monochrome Blues (that twist could've gone better...) and Heart of the Woods. But speaking about NaNoRenO, have you tried Mnemonic Devices? It was my personal "winner" of the whole thing.

I haven't read or watched anything from the Fate franchise, so I can't really comment on that.
As for comedy heavy VNs, if I remember correctly, at least the few ones I read had MCs who mainly acted as "straight man" characters, meaning someone who is more or less normal to contrast the absurd of the comedy and keep the audience from getting to accustomed to it. The useful idiot category kind of implies that the character's incompetence or ignorance is what drives the plot, which most of the time makes them part of the absurd (Phoenix Wright is a notable exception). There probably are useful idiot protagonists in some comedy VNs, I just imagine them being hard to include in anything with heroine routes, as heroines tend to be flashy as well and the risk of losing the comedic balance would be high. 
You could argue that Rintaro from Steins;Gate fits the category as well (although I put him in the strong protagonist column in the diagram). It's mainly his chuuni persona and his curiosity driving the plot in the first half of S;G until at some point he is made painfully aware of the fact that he got himself into something way beyond his control.

Wouldn't Fate's Shirou start as a full-on useful idiot, getting more competent over time?
Another thing coming to my mind are some protagonists in comedy anime, especially Konosuba's Kazuma. There would probably be some kind of equivalent of that in VNs?

That's a shame I was kind of looking forward to eventually playing this because I really like that old school aesthetic
 
All they had to do was give the vn the same vibe that Golden Boy had and it would have all been groovy.

A very good VN. And some of the revelations about the characters you don't really manage to anticipate, yet they do not feel like they were added there just for surprise. Definitely worth every penny. 

Ah, sorry! I put a spoiler warning in the article itself but forgot to put one here. Thanks for the comment.
I wouldn't really recommend this game unless you get it for free like I did (or maybe for extremely cheap). It's not terrible, but it definitely wore out its welcome for me.

I strongly believe there's never a need to hurry when it goes to games and VNs, but yeah, I think this one is worth checking out at some point, for anyone that's not fully against yuri and slight LGBT drama. The core story and characters are just THAT GOOD.

You know, the way you describe it, it sounds very interesting. I think, it sounds like the type of story I tend to enjoy quite a lot. Right now I'm trying (and kind of failing ) to prioritize my backlog over getting new VNs to play, but, I guess, I'll take notice of this VN and probably buy it at some point in the future when I feel like it.

Yeah, like a living world where certain parts of the setting seem to be moving their own way. I can only think of one story I've read which fits that bill.
Even in a story with much smaller world-building I think a setting and it's characters needs to be something the protagonist wanders through and bumps into, not something they finish like an RPG dungeon. I enjoy stories focused on a cast of characters because they tend to naturally fulfill this criteria.
Perhaps having primarily consumed VN's and JP media, I'm not that picky about behind-the-scenes logic and minor plot inconsistencies, but when a story breaks its own rules... that just weakens it.
 

Oh my god, I played Part-Time Job quite a while ago. It was somewhat interesting enough to keep me going, but the culmination of the story was just so obnoxious and dumb that it's now probably my lowest rated vn on vndb.
The only other fan-MLP vn that i remember hearing of is Starswirl Academy.
But you're right, the MLP community is just an entire swarm of unfinished projects.

Agreed... I suppose VNs are beginning to again widespread acclaim and popularity nowadays compared to in the past. Popular enough that got the attention of those SJWs idiots on Steam and initiated a Waifu genocide 
Heck even GOG.com acknowledges them now as "genuine games" due to their potential which was hesitant to host these games in the past due to not having enough gameplay aspects to it...   
I daresay the future of Visual Novels, whether Western or its original Japanese counterparts is shining brightly above the horizon and things well just get better and better as time passes by
 
 

You could say that VNs are conquering the world... For better and for worse.