Plk_Lesiak

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.
 
Genre – Sci-fi, Action, Mecha    Play Time - 22 hours    Developer – Love In Space   Steam
 
Return From Exile
 
A fall from grace changes a man and exile from all he has ever known can break him. Such is the state of Kayto Shields as the curtain rises on the fourth game in the Sunrider series. This is the tale of how he pulls himself up from the pit he has fallen into, but this journey will be far same smooth sailing. Love In Space are back again with another space adventure through the brilliant Sunrider universe with a familiar crew, but now on the back foot as both enemies and former allies see them as a threat. The game also features a complete rework of the combat systems and leans into creating more realistic feeling battles with tactical depth. But how does the whole package fit together and is it the worthy sequel we have waited five years for? Let’s jump into our ryders and travel to the edges of the universe and find out.
 
The War is Over – Narrative and Themes
 
To be in exile is to be left behind by the world and on your return you may find that the world no longer wants you. It is this feeling which Sunrider 4 focuses its plot and themes around to great effect and manages to balance the needs of a sequel with its own unique identity. It builds on Liberation Day in all the right ways, picking up the plot points left by that game and running with them inside its own narrative. The choice to put the heroes on the back foot also factors strongly into the effectiveness of the core events of the game and they work together to communicate the journey of the crew. Of course it is not perfect and the game’s relationship with the additions to Liberation Day is an uncomfortable one at best.
 

 
A sequel should build on what came before in its own distinctive manner and this is no easy task, especially so when that game in the fourth in a series. The way in which Captain’s Return chooses to tackle this problem is by taking the points which defined the previous games and asking what they really meant and what people beyond the crew thought of them. This extends from both the obvious fallout from the Liberation Day massacre to smaller relationships between the crew and works to create an overall sense of both progression and returning to a familiar place. It takes the ending point and runs with it, drawing many ideas presented in that game to their logical conclusion within the tone and context of Captain’s Return, be this reinventing familiar mechas in new forms or haunting the characters with past traumas. Relying on this pre-existing backbone means the game does not have to worry about explaining every little detail again to the player and can focus on the heavy lifting of expanding the already rich universe in new and exciting ways. These all combine to make Captain’s Return a benchmark most sequels can only dream of reaching.
 
If there is one flaw in this otherwise excellent narrative it is the uncomfortable relationship it has with the additions made to Liberation Day after its release. These changes expanded on some key points of that game’s plot and by extension the plot of Captain’s Return. However, the reality is that Captain’s Return picks and chooses which parts of those modifications it considers cannon and this leads to many moments where the player will experience a sense of whiplash as what they have experienced in the previous game is ignored by the new one. These points vary from minor details from the side story to major events and set up from the main game’s ending. It is clear that Love In Space were not entirely happy with the choices they made in the rushed additions to Liberation Day and wanted to trim back things that did not fit into their vision for the future of the Sunrider series. This does not change how this choice can take the player out of the experience which counter to how much effort the game put in to making you feel as if you are a part of this world.
 
A Captain Is Only As Good As His Crew – Characters
 
Sunrider’s cast has always been one its biggest strength and means of getting the player invested in the plot. Captain’s Return does a good job of developing the characters and focusing the new additions to help create a lively universe with people who exist beyond the main conflict of the series. However, there is a glaring issue staring you in the face for much of the play time and this is the inconsistent characterisation of some key characters.
 

 
Captain’s Return could have relied on the affection the player base already has for the cast and cruised through the narrative without emphasising the characters too much. Instead of resting of their laurels Love In Space made sure to give every member of the main cast some sort of arc both big and small. Sola and Kryska being the crewmates who get by far the most exploration of their personalities as both are faced with very different events which shake what they once held as fundamental truths. There is also notable elements of discord between the crew and Shields who's actions create a disconnect between them and him in a subtle way which never oversteps its bounds but instead highlights Shields’ increasing desperation. This compliments the generally darker tone of the plot by providing a dose of much needed reality to the more idealistic characters and pushing them to the extremes of their beliefs. Shields as the protagonist embodies this push into an examination of the true motives for each person’s actions as he starts at the edge of what he can mentally take and is then pushed far passed breaking point. What results is a fascinating presentation of the kind of mind set that lead him down his path to ruin and having him face and accept this truth sets his character up to be ready for the challenges of future games.
 
Most of the new characters added by Sunrider 4 serve the purpose of expanding the world building and help provide a more balanced perspective of this universe. Previously the player’s view of the Sunrider universe was limited to the areas directly involved in the conflict which gave a very narrow perspective. To rectify this issue Captain’s Return makes all the new characters serve the role of fleshing out this setting. Since the player is no longer limited to the area of conflict for the war, the narrative can take them to places and people who could not have otherwise been interacted with. Pre’ator Qisah is a good example of this technique as she serves as the player’s main point of interaction with her culture. She is a part of a people who live at the edge of Alliance territory and had their resources bled dry by them, now they are just a backwater nobody cares about. Despite this the player gets a sense of how proud this people are through the actions and words of Qisah who fervently acts on to defend her people with the will of someone that truly believes in their cause. There are countless examples of this communication of place through characters and it helps make Captain’s Return the powerhouse in the series it is.
 
Space, Mecha and Soul Searching – Visual, Audio and Gameplay
 
Love In Space have upped their presentation and gameplay with every new game and this is especially true for Captain’s Return as the gap between Sunrider games makes their vast improvement even more obvious. A distinctive visual and audio identity has always been a critical part of the Sunrider games and this fourth instalment does not disappoint. The overhauled gameplay mechanics help inject new life into a system which had reached its limit. Despite these positives there are a few areas where the gameplay stumbles and brings down the experience.
 

 
Sci-fi has a set of expected design elements when comes to visuals and audio, especially for a game set in a far future. While these are adhered to by the Sunrider series, it has always strived to inject its own flare into proceedings. Perhaps the best demonstration of this is with the mecha designs. On a base level they adhere to the expectations of a mecha, they are humanoid and adhere to the mechanical aesthetic of the setting. However, in practice the strong use of angles and sharp points gives these machines a strangely otherworldly quality with them appearing to almost be an exaggeration of their pilot’s personalities, which is helped by their smart use of colours to make them stand out from one another. It also goes a long way to help sell these mechas as part of the greater setting and when an ancient or special rider appears their designs lean even more into these aestheic choices. This ensures a consistent presentation without losing what makes the regular mechas special. The rest of the visuals and audio follows a similar trend and together allow Captain’s Return to stand out from among its peers with an identity that many game can only dream of.
 
The change in the foundational gameplay made by Sunrider 4 is exactly what the series needed. The system which had been in use for the three previous games was already at its limits and Liberation Day clearly felt like the end of the complexity the developers could realistically add to it without the whole thing collapsing. So this reimagination of the old system was definitely needed and the results speak for themselves. More free-form movement mechanics are the new core of the gameplay and involve a conservation of momentum over the course of several turns. No long is movement a static consideration, instead the player must think ahead about where they want to end up and plan for the future accordingly with it becoming increasingly hard to correct course the faster you go. On the other hand it also means you do not have to dedicated valuable turns to movement and can instead focus on attacking the enemy units. What Love In Space has created here is a uniquely dynamic series of interactions which demand the player consider an array of important actions each turn and keeps them constantly engaged.
 

 
It is a shame then that this excellent system somewhat goes to waste due to the the other elements of gameplay, most notably the lack of mission variety, long enemy turns in the late game and basic AI. There is some attempt to spice up the mission variety throughout the game with a few mission types, but they can all be boiled down to two type, kill all enemies or move to a place. Within these two types there are some changes made to the standard formula, such as using the move type missions as a form of puzzle, but they ultimately do not stray too far form the base formula leaving them to feeling lacking and repetitive, especially as the game goes on. Compounding this problem is the long enemy turns which are a feature of the late game due to the enemy having a lot of units and each one having to perform their actions as well as move. This causes the pacing of turns to be reduced to a crawl as you can spend up to two minutes waiting for the enemy to finish a turn that only took you maybe thirty seconds due to your lower unit count. As you can imagine this kills the pacing of battles and makes them feel like a slog. The final nail in the coffin is that the AI is not even doing anything interesting during their turn since their patterns are incredibly basic. Broadly speaking they will do one of two things, move into point blank range to shoot at you or fire all their missiles at once. This predictability makes them easy to counter when you realise these are the only tricks in their book and results in the player repeating the same actions each battle and by extension causes them to tune out of the actual events of the battles.
 
Verdict – There are few series which continue to impressive so consistently in each new entry with their narrative, characters and gameplay in the way the Sunrider series manages to.
 
Pros
 
+ A wonderfully crafted space adventure which builds perfectly on the ending to Liberation Day.
 
+ The cast of Sunrider has always been its biggest strength and they are just a likeable and human as before.
 
+ Putting the heroes on the back foot allows for characters to show their less desirable aspects and be forced to confront them.
 
+ Achieve a more lived in feeling universe through a nuanced look at how the politics and people have shaped the world the player witnesses.
 
+ The new gameplay mechanics are a strong basis from which future games can build.
 
+ Love In Space continue to up their visual and audio presentation with each game and Captain’s Return is no exception.
 
Cons
 
- Implementation of the gameplay is weakened by samey missions, long enemy turns and one note AI.
 
- Some character directions stretch believability and seem confused, particularity related to Claude.
 
- Has a very uncomfortable relationship with the additions made to the original Liberation Day.

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.
 
There Is Something Behind You
 
Genres define the games they inhabit and how the game uses its unique features to achieve or subvert the expectations of the audience. This is especially true for horror which aims to invoke feelings in the player that many other genres deliberately steer clear of. As such it is an excellent candidate to begin to observe how visual novels adapt themselves to accommodate and play to the strengths of a specific genre. When a developer sets out to make a horror game they are shaping their game into a framework with the aim of creating fear and dread in the player. This is an extremely narrow set of priorities which often leads to creative use of assets and ideas, but also restricts what a game has access to in terms of standard motifs since it is highly incompatible with other genres. Visual novels are by nature a medium of limited means of expression while still being extremely flexible and has lead them to have an odd relationship with horror. Let’s dive in and find out exactly how the bond between them manifests.
 
Less Is More In Horror And VNs 
 

 
The strongest bond between horror and visual novels is their understanding that less is more when it comes to narrative and presentation. For horror this is about not giving away too much information in order to insure that the source of the fear and dread does not become a known quantity and thus familiar to the player. By contrast visual novels lean into this narrative style more out of necessity due to the limitations of the medium and the need to keep the pace of story up while making the most out of the assets available in creative ways. Regardless of their differing reasons for this choice, it makes for an excellent pairing with horror which is able to cleanly achieve its aims and not put a burden on the resources of the visual novel. Perhaps the most iconic example of this common trait is the original Higurashi. This title had a very limited budget to work with resulting in the creator having to make all the artwork himself and splitting the overall narrative into a series of shorter visual novels. However, these apparent shortcomings were in fact strengths for the horror focus of the game. They prevented the source of the fear from becoming an easily identifiable element through the odd style of the artwork, and limited nature of its implementation does as much for obscuring the truth as the narrative. While other horror visual novels might not practice this technique to the extremes of Higurashi, they nevertheless lean into it for both budgetary and artistic reasons to help form the desired dread in the player.
 
Monster Of The Week
 

 
When it comes to structural elements, there is one type which both horror and visual novels love for longer form storytelling and this is the episodic format. The most common manifestation of this format for horror visual novels is a monster of the week style where the threats facing the characters changes regularly to keep the player on the edge of their seat. By not sticking to a single monster the game can preserve the overall sense of the unknown since it can discard an individual threat the moment the player no longer feels fear from them. It also allows for the build up of a greater and insidious final antagonist to act as a capstone for the game through an escalation of the dangers facing the characters, thus making the entity responsible for all the previous monsters come across as particularly threatening.
 
The Death Mark games showcase this compatibility through the various ghosts and ghouls the developers based their episodes around and the way in which the visual novel format complements this approach. Each self contained segment has its own mystery and mechanical puzzles to complement the associated monster and provide a pacing tool through which the game uses to control the build up and release of tension. This is important as for a game of Death Mark’s length as it cannot keep a constant tension otherwise it will wear out the player and cause them to want to stop playing the game. So the solution Death Mark hits upon is to simulate the highs and lows of an overall horror experience on a smaller scale to give space to breathe and generate excitement for what is coming next. It is the also a great pacing tool utilised by visual novels in general to make break their longer games into manageable chunks, leading to them slotting nicely alongside horror.
 
Control Over Information
 
One particular sub-genre of horror which does not adhere to the episodic format is Denpa, a genre where controlling the player’s access to information is critical to the effectiveness of its fear. Given the limited means visual novels have of presenting the player with information, they are capable of providing a developer with precise control over what is know, while still offering the option to drop hints and create striking moments. This might be through the use of specific character portrait placement, subtle audio cues or the clever narrative moments. There are a surprising number of avenues to rely ideas down but these have limitation on the amount which can be conveyed at once and this sets the player’s expectations for what they are witnessing. 
 
Together these are excellent tools to sow doubt in the player's mind and invoke a paranoid state in them that is the hall mark of Denpa. Soundless - A MODERN SALEM IN REMOTE AREA – is a good example of how compatible Denpa horror and visual novels are at their core. The overall aim of Soundless is to create a sense of claustrophobia and doubt the game can channel into making the player question everything as events decay into a whirlpool of madness. To do this, the game establishes a status quo through a set of symbols and sounds that meet the player’s expectations while subtly cueing them in that something is not right, but never allowing them to put their finger on what it is. Thus when events start to slip into an uncontrolled descent, the player cannot tell if the protagonist is a reliable narrator to events given how off they can be at times, but still having to grapple with them as their only source of information. The restricted space to understand what is happening provided by the limitations of the visual novel medium ensure the player will always be in the palm of the developer’s hand and experience the desired dread.
 

 
Conclusion
 
Horror, just like humour, varies by person, some find grotesque monsters scary while others find the unknown a source of dread. Regardless of what type of horror experience is desired, visual novels offer a flexible environment to create an emotional roller-coaster for the player. Their compatibility with horror is founded in a fundamental commonality with how the two approach their structure and execution. From an emphasis on a limited means of presenting ideas, to an episodic centric approach to long form stories, to an ability to create gaps into which the player can project their own monsters. Together they can create games and narratives which would not be possible in other mediums due to their more expansive tool sets and differing player expectations. Horror is a genre defined by its ability to make something from very little material and visual novels understand this approach in a way nothing else can hope to match.
 
 

Hello, Fuwanovellers who read my blog. 

So it has been a whole month since we started the Fuwanovel revival as intensively as we do it right now and so many amazing, but also some frustrating things happened. The peak of frustration obviously is the occasional interference by third parties (mostly the Gambs-adjacent circle) into our affairs who for some reason presume we are either deceitful or harmful to the community as a whole due to taking some things out of context - as usual. They also seem to have some obsession with the algorithm of Twitter. Whatever, I know what I'm doing and what intentions lie beneath what I do. Those people involved in the process or who know me longer than 5 minutes also do. Even if we consider all things and assume malice in everything I do, people cannot deny that I'm putting a lot of time, effort and typing time into getting everything in line. 
Anyways, whatever happened yesterday and also happens with the gambsbot and gambs_v_cumtannia accounts is nothing more than a tempest in a teapot. While the hata last year would have been shaking and quaking right now, the 2022-freshly recovered one is calm and collected.
Now let's get to the positives. Fuwanovel has managed to bring a lot of cool people on board including old veteran posters, many new ones and also content creators. In this first month there was basically almost no moderation necessary as well, since there are not that many frequent posters yet and thus the amount of cognitively dissonant posters is also low. This might change in the future, but we'll see what the next steps will be afterwards. 
In real life we are currently pursuing talks about a Logo for Mimir Translations, and we're soon ready to launch the website as a whole. The German industry will finally have a dedicated VN translation group and not just individuals who do developers a favor. Obviously, this is a business and we have the necessary professionality in place. Additionally, we would need to build another social media account - leading to me running 4 of them + my own!
I'm super glad about the friends that we could make/bring together through Fuwanovel and how I could diminish a large amount of my friendlist for more relevant people. I have 1000 friends as you may have seen in an earlier post, but this does not mean that every single of these account is either VN-related nor that we are still talking frequently. I simply find it tiring to clean up, especially because once you remove a single person the discord window closes for a sec and you have to scroll down again - boring and repetitive tasks are nothing for me.
The Fuwanovel discord has quickly developed into a place that I cherish as much as VN.Info's Hub. Maybe even more because so far the amount of politics and history talks that were so aggressively prevelant in VN.Info Hub's #general chat, are really low. This is not a signal to start up those talks again, however!
Lastly, I'm glad for the partnerships we have been able to quickly forge and the secret cabal discord chats were we plan pouring over the entire visual novel scene with peace and harmony. While meta talks about "wokism" are in vogue in multiple places of the community right now (1/2) we will just talk about VNs instead. Seems to be a better deal for everyone.

Hello dear readers to the second installment of this new, purposefully-random segment on my newly-undead blog! Since the resurrection of my interest in VNs, I've been coming to a rather horrifying, and equally exciting realization of the massive amount of high-quality, free content the EVN scene delivered in the last year and a half. While game jam entries and similar projects are usually an ocean of forgettable works with a few pearls hidden below the murky waters, the number of decently-sized, quality-looking games in this year's edition of NaNoRen0 alone is overwhelming. And if you look around Itch.io and Steam, it's just the tip of the iceberg...
While I have no hope or ambition to cover it all in any kind of systematic and comprehensive manner, it seems like the hobbyist scene is going to provide me with a near-infinite amount of projects to feature in this segment. And as these games are particularly prone to being overlooked and quickly forgotten, I'll do my best to continue spotlighting them in the foreseeable future – and I hope some of you will be willing to join me on this ride.
 
The Gray Wolf and The Little Lamb | Fantasy/Comedy | ~1h 30min

The Gray Wolf and The Little Lamb is your quintessential game jam VN – relatively short, stylish and making up for its short length with tons of personality and wit. It tells the story of the Wolf – an outcast hated and feared by everyone around her, and the Lamb, who offers Wolf hospitality in hope of reforming her. Lamb's charity, however, quickly turns into an exercise in mutual misery, with Wolf staying distrustful and destructive, and Lamb's ego preventing her from fully understanding Wolf's stubborn behaviour.
While normally this setup would be a nice starting point for yuri romance, the actual story nimbly avoids the most obvious cliches, leading to unexpected story developments and a rather out-of-the-box set of endings where romance is at best a mild subtext. The real focus here is on the struggle between Wolf's negative impulses, formed through her haphazard way of life up to this point, and Lamb's somewhat questionable ambition to "civilize" her. Your choices determine if, and in what way, the two will be able to overcome their differences and find some kind of mutual understanding. Of course, "overcoming" does not mean "negating" and one of the main strengths of this VN is acknowledging that there are limits to how much most people can change, especially in short time, and that finding common ground can often be just as grueling as it is rewarding...
Itch.io Page
A Field Of Flowers and Stars | Yuri/Sci-fi | ~1h 30min

A Field of Flower and Stars is a VN by Watercress Studios, the team behind a long list of quality, free EVNs. While it's not as high-concept or unconventional as some of their other projects, it's both decently-conceived as a piece of sci-fi storytelling and rather ambitious in its execution. Featuring three main characters and full voice acting, it tells a story of Reine, a freelance space explorer who crashes on an unfamiliar planet and bonds with one of its alien colonists while trying to repair her ship. While enjoying the hospitality of the locals and being seemingly in no immediate danger, there's one thing that keeps the protagonist's anxiety high – if she fails, she not only risks getting stranded, but also losing the way of life and freedom she values above all. At least until some events makes her doubt her no-attachment, egoistical attitude...
While the story structure itself isn't anything new, it's very solid, with the only thing limiting the game being its length. While we learn quite a lot about Reine, the alien love interest and her colony's history are presented without much context and depth. The game says how the characters talk about the colonists and their homeworld, but probably to avoid infodumps, little of it is actually relayed to the reader. And I really would want to see that infodump, to get a better grasp on the motivations of the aliens and significance of the colony itself, particularly because its safety becomes a crucial plot-point later on. Still, that one complaint aside, the VN looks, reads and sounds very solid and will very likely satisfy fans of yuri romance – just like it did for me.
Itch.io Page | Steam Page
Graveyard Girls | Psychological/Yuri | ~1h

A title like this was bound to belong to some questionable meme game, but in reality, Graveyard Girls is a very serious and surprisingly well-put-together VN. And if that wasn't strange enough, it mixes rather intense depictions of grief with yuri romantic subtext, with an effect much better and more interesting than it had any right to be. Starting with the protagonist, Elle, visiting her father's grave and talking about the struggles she faced after he was gone, for the most of it's length this is a very sombre game discussing the topics of grief and loss in all gruesome details. However, the appearance of the second character, Lucia, adds another layer to it – discussion of long term and short term grief, and of recovery, along with subtle romantic tension between the two. While never losing its focus, Graveyard Girls combine these elements to push the narrative in ultimately positive and hopeful direction – if you make the right choices, even concluding with a straight-up sweet image I won't spoil. The game also looks and sounds very good, with high-quality art, good use of perspective and simple, but very fitting soundtrack. It's definitely on the short side, but for once I won't be complaining about that – it's the kind of short story that achieves exactly what it set out to do and will most likely leave you fully satisfied. If you're in the mood to deal with its heavy subject matter, I highly recommend giving it a chance. 
Itch.io Page | Steam Page
The Life We've Chosen | Psychological/Romance | ~40 min

In some ways, The Life We've Chosen falls slightly below quality standards I aim for with these posts – it's rough around the edges and one of the crucial characters, protagonist's best friend, does not even have a sprite or character portrait. However, what it has going for it is the subversion of most obvious tropes and story structures you would expect from this kind of VN. The ominous "demon" which the protagonist interacts with in her most vulnerable moments might be instinctively identified as a metaphor for depression or some kind of malicious influence, but the story consistently avoids giving easy answers about its nature... And it doesn't even bother to identify the "right" path in any clear way. What could be described as the most optimistic ending is not where most people would expect it to be, while every conclusion leaves a lot of space for interpretation and the "good" or "bad" might be more up to the reader's opinion than anything else. Probably not everyone will find it to their taste, but the quality writing and unconventional choices at the very least make this VN into something memorable, that stands out among your typical game jam entries – and this is something I deeply appreciate.
Itch.io Page
 
And that's all for today! While I'll not necessarily be prioritized fresh releases for this series, as the randomness here is a feature that allows me to read what I feel like and not chasing the new content, the freshly-conlcuded Spooktober VN jam and the upcoming Yuri Game Jam will definitely leave their mark – and I already see there's a lot to look forward to in both events. In the meantime, my renewed activities convinced me to revive my Steam Cutator page and my Twitter – feel free to follow both for updates on stuff I'm putting out. Thank you for reading and until the next time!

Hello dear readers to the second installment of this new, purposefully-random segment on my newly-undead blog! Since the resurrection of my interest in VNs, I've been coming to a rather horrifying, and equally exciting realization of the massive amount of high-quality, free content the EVN scene delivered in the last year and a half. While game jam entries and similar projects are usually an ocean of forgettable works with a few pearls hidden below the murky waters, the number of decently-sized, quality-looking games in this year's edition of NaNoRen0 alone is overwhelming. And if you look around Itch.io and Steam, it's just the tip of the iceberg...
While I have no hope or ambition to cover it all in any kind of systematic and comprehensive manner, it seems like the hobbyist scene is going to provide me with a near-infinite amount of projects to feature in this segment. And as these games are particularly prone to being overlooked and quickly forgotten, I'll do my best to continue spotlighting them in the foreseeable future – and I hope some of you will be willing to join me on this ride.
 
The Gray Wolf and The Little Lamb | Fantasy/Comedy | ~1h 30min

The Gray Wolf and The Little Lamb is your quintessential game jam VN – relatively short, stylish and making up for its short length with tons of personality and wit. It tells the story of the Wolf – an outcast hated and feared by everyone around her, and the Lamb, who offers Wolf hospitality in hope of reforming her. Lamb's charity, however, quickly turns into an exercise in mutual misery, with Wolf staying distrustful and destructive, and Lamb's ego preventing her from fully understanding Wolf's stubborn behaviour.
While normally this setup would be a nice starting point for yuri romance, the actual story nimbly avoids the most obvious cliches, leading to unexpected story developments and a rather out-of-the-box set of endings where romance is at best a mild subtext. The real focus here is on the struggle between Wolf's negative impulses, formed through her haphazard way of life up to this point, and Lamb's somewhat questionable ambition to "civilize" her. Your choices determine if, and in what way, the two will be able to overcome their differences and find some kind of mutual understanding. Of course, "overcoming" does not mean "negating" and one of the main strengths of this VN is acknowledging that there are limits to how much most people can change, especially in short time, and that finding common ground can often be just as grueling as it is rewarding...
Itch.io Page
A Field Of Flowers and Stars | Yuri/Sci-fi | ~1h 30min

A Field of Flower and Stars is a VN by Watercress Studios, the team behind a long list of quality, free EVNs. While it's not as high-concept or unconventional as some of their other projects, it's both decently-conceived as a piece of sci-fi storytelling and rather ambitious in its execution. Featuring three main characters and full voice acting, it tells a story of Reine, a freelance space explorer who crashes on an unfamiliar planet and bonds with one of its alien colonists while trying to repair her ship. While enjoying the hospitality of the locals and being seemingly in no immediate danger, there's one thing that keeps the protagonist's anxiety high – if she fails, she not only risks getting stranded, but also losing the way of life and freedom she values above all. At least until some events makes her doubt her no-attachment, egoistical attitude...
While the story structure itself isn't anything new, it's very solid, with the only thing limiting the game being its length. While we learn quite a lot about Reine, the alien love interest and her colony's history are presented without much context and depth. The game says how the characters talk about the colonists and their homeworld, but probably to avoid infodumps, little of it is actually relayed to the reader. And I really would want to see that infodump, to get a better grasp on the motivations of the aliens and significance of the colony itself, particularly because its safety becomes a crucial plot-point later on. Still, that one complaint aside, the VN looks, reads and sounds very solid and will very likely satisfy fans of yuri romance – just like it did for me.
Itch.io Page | Steam Page
Graveyard Girls | Psychological/Yuri | ~1h

A title like this was bound to belong to some questionable meme game, but in reality, Graveyard Girls is a very serious and surprisingly well-put-together VN. And if that wasn't strange enough, it mixes rather intense depictions of grief with yuri romantic subtext, with an effect much better and more interesting than it had any right to be. Starting with the protagonist, Elle, visiting her father's grave and talking about the struggles she faced after he was gone, for the most of it's length this is a very sombre game discussing the topics of grief and loss in all gruesome details. However, the appearance of the second character, Lucia, adds another layer to it – discussion of long term and short term grief, and of recovery, along with subtle romantic tension between the two. While never losing its focus, Graveyard Girls combine these elements to push the narrative in ultimately positive and hopeful direction – if you make the right choices, even concluding with a straight-up sweet image I won't spoil. The game also looks and sounds very good, with high-quality art, good use of perspective and simple, but very fitting soundtrack. It's definitely on the short side, but for once I won't be complaining about that – it's the kind of short story that achieves exactly what it set out to do and will most likely leave you fully satisfied. If you're in the mood to deal with its heavy subject matter, I highly recommend giving it a chance. 
Itch.io Page | Steam Page
The Life We've Chosen | Psychological/Romance | ~40 min

In some ways, The Life We've Chosen falls slightly below quality standards I aim for with these posts – it's rough around the edges and one of the crucial characters, protagonist's best friend, does not even have a sprite or character portrait. However, what it has going for it is the subversion of most obvious tropes and story structures you would expect from this kind of VN. The ominous "demon" which the protagonist interacts with in her most vulnerable moments might be instinctively identified as a metaphor for depression or some kind of malicious influence, but the story consistently avoids giving easy answers about its nature... And it doesn't even bother to identify the "right" path in any clear way. What could be described as the most optimistic ending is not where most people would expect it to be, while every conclusion leaves a lot of space for interpretation and the "good" or "bad" might be more up to the reader's opinion than anything else. Probably not everyone will find it to their taste, but the quality writing and unconventional choices at the very least make this VN into something memorable, that stands out among your typical game jam entries – and this is something I deeply appreciate.
Itch.io Page
 
And that's all for today! While I'll not necessarily be prioritized fresh releases for this series, as the randomness here is a feature that allows me to read what I feel like and not chasing the new content, the freshly-conlcuded Spooktober VN jam and the upcoming Yuri Game Jam will definitely leave their mark – and I already see there's a lot to look forward to in both events. In the meantime, my renewed activities convinced me to revive my Steam Cutator page and my Twitter – feel free to follow both for updates on stuff I'm putting out. Thank you for reading and until the next time!

Welcome back my dear readers and welcome to this new, irregularly-posted segment on EVN Chronicles! 
As some of you might know, beyond my general burnout which made me put the blog on indefinite hiatus, late last year I've developed some health problems that pretty much killed my will to read VNs and my ability to contribute meaningful content on Fuwa... For a while. As I come back to life, both physically and mentally, I've decided to resurrect this space and log my adventures through mostly short, free EVNs, sharing with you all the most notable finds among the game jam entries and random passion projects I read through. So, do you want to read some hidden gems, all available for the very reasonable price of $0.00? You're sure to find some on this little list, and the ones that come in the future!
Optimal Conditions for a Sacrifice | Yuri/Fantasy/Comedy | ~20 min

It's rare for extremely short VNs to charm me, but Optimal Conditions for a Sacrifice has just the perfect combination of humour, wit and well-delivered punchline to made this kind of tiny experience memorable. The game plays on mythological themes and a rich set if metaphors to construct an intriguing narrative about the nature of love – all while never taking itself seriously or trying too hard to be profound. And this last part is crucial – from the game's Ith.io page, through its net of riddles and on-the-nose social commentary and to the purposefully jumbled ending, you can feel the fun the author had writing all of it and molding it into a VN. And while this kind of experiment has always a high risk of missing the mark and becoming an unreadable mess, the genuine-feeling and relatable messaging it ends with makes it better than it had any right to be. And with a nice artstyle as a bonus... It's very much worth it to sacrifice 20 minutes of your time to check it out. 
Itch.io Page
My Dream Is To Be a Model, Not a Maid! | Yuri/Drama | ~1h 20 min

Team ANPIM are regular authors of cliched G/G romance, always present for the annual Yuri Game Jam with a new piece of heartwarming fluff. While their output in the past three years was a bit of a mixed bag, often lacking interesting twists to keep the formula fun, My Dream Is To Be a Model, Not a Maid! is what I'd call a return to form. Starting with a silly premise of an aspiring (and awfully unsuccessful model) getting coerced into becoming a lived-in housekeeper for a young daughter of a CEO, it provides a well-paced and fun piece of romance between two people of vastly different backgrounds and live experiences. While the short runtime limits how deep the story can get and the overall structure of the romance plot is utterly typical, the characterisation and humour make it all solid enough to be a very enjoyable, one-sitting read. And with a bunch of really nice-looking CGs added to the mix, it's exactly what you would want from this kind of bite-sized piece of yuri fluff.
Itch.io Page
My Crush My Bully | Yuri/Drama | ~30 min

Written by one of my favourite VN writers on the freeware/game jam side of the market, PunishedHag, My Crush My Bully is a short story about an awkward, nerdy girl who unexpectedly encounters her school tormentor on a trip to library. While trying to stealthily buy the newest book in her favourite fantasy series, she's caught by the titular bully, but there's something off with the interaction that follows... While the game is maybe a bit too short to reach its full potential, its strength lies not only in good characterisation of the main characters, but also in providing two vastly different viewpoints on the relationship it depicts. The perspective shift took me by surprise, providing a sombre, emotional backstory to the somewhat whacky-feeling romantic plot. Without it, the whole story would just be a decently-written piece of yuri fluff, but the additional depth and social commentary it adds makes the whole experience worthwhile despite the short length.
Itch.io Page
Wolfskin's Curse | Fantasy/Horror/Mystery | ~1h 30 min

Probably the most involved and well-produced VN on today's list, Wolfskin's Curse offers a mystery plot about a former priestess and a werewolf running away from tragedy and persecution, only to be caught up in a new chain of deaths and being framed as perpetrators. A very climatic piece of dark fantasy, this short story offers most elements you would expect from the formula: a gloomy setting, tragic romance and a cast of ambiguous and tortured characters trying to survive in a hostile world. It also includes high-quality art and full voice acting – that last part being something I usually avoid in freeware projects due to it rarely being good enough to be more enjoyable than just reading the dialogue yourself, but here it was done with decent quality and care, particularly for a game jam entry. And whether you mute the voices or not, the VN will be an interesting and emotional journey – at least if you don't mind reading something pretty depressing in tone.
Itch.io Page | Google Play
And that's all for now! As I'm trying to take things slow, this segment will show up at random intervals and likely with different amounts of content. However, I'm going to keep the mission of spotlighting notable EVNs alive as long as I'm able to – if you're interested in those, be sure to follow the blog and if you have recommendations for free EVNs worth checking out, make sure to leave them in the comments. Thank you for reading!

Welcome back my dear readers and welcome to this new, irregularly-posted segment on EVN Chronicles! 
As some of you might know, beyond my general burnout which made me put the blog on indefinite hiatus, late last year I've developed some health problems that pretty much killed my will to read VNs and my ability to contribute meaningful content on Fuwa... For a while. As I come back to life, both physically and mentally, I've decided to resurrect this space and log my adventures through mostly short, free EVNs, sharing with you all the most notable finds among the game jam entries and random passion projects I read through. So, do you want to read some hidden gems, all available for the very reasonable price of $0.00? You're sure to find some on this little list, and the ones that come in the future!
Optimal Conditions for a Sacrifice | Yuri/Fantasy/Comedy | ~20 min

It's rare for extremely short VNs to charm me, but Optimal Conditions for a Sacrifice has just the perfect combination of humour, wit and well-delivered punchline to made this kind of tiny experience memorable. The game plays on mythological themes and a rich set if metaphors to construct an intriguing narrative about the nature of love – all while never taking itself seriously or trying too hard to be profound. And this last part is crucial – from the game's Ith.io page, through its net of riddles and on-the-nose social commentary and to the purposefully jumbled ending, you can feel the fun the author had writing all of it and molding it into a VN. And while this kind of experiment has always a high risk of missing the mark and becoming an unreadable mess, the genuine-feeling and relatable messaging it ends with makes it better than it had any right to be. And with a nice artstyle as a bonus... It's very much worth it to sacrifice 20 minutes of your time to check it out. 
Itch.io Page
My Dream Is To Be a Model, Not a Maid! | Yuri/Drama | ~1h 20 min

Team ANPIM are regular authors of cliched G/G romance, always present for the annual Yuri Game Jam with a new piece of heartwarming fluff. While their output in the past three years was a bit of a mixed bag, often lacking interesting twists to keep the formula fun, My Dream Is To Be a Model, Not a Maid! is what I'd call a return to form. Starting with a silly premise of an aspiring (and awfully unsuccessful model) getting coerced into becoming a lived-in housekeeper for a young daughter of a CEO, it provides a well-paced and fun piece of romance between two people of vastly different backgrounds and live experiences. While the short runtime limits how deep the story can get and the overall structure of the romance plot is utterly typical, the characterisation and humour make it all solid enough to be a very enjoyable, one-sitting read. And with a bunch of really nice-looking CGs added to the mix, it's exactly what you would want from this kind of bite-sized piece of yuri fluff.
Itch.io Page
My Crush My Bully | Yuri/Drama | ~30 min

Written by one of my favourite VN writers on the freeware/game jam side of the market, PunishedHag, My Crush My Bully is a short story about an awkward, nerdy girl who unexpectedly encounters her school tormentor on a trip to library. While trying to stealthily buy the newest book in her favourite fantasy series, she's caught by the titular bully, but there's something off with the interaction that follows... While the game is maybe a bit too short to reach its full potential, its strength lies not only in good characterisation of the main characters, but also in providing two vastly different viewpoints on the relationship it depicts. The perspective shift took me by surprise, providing a sombre, emotional backstory to the somewhat whacky-feeling romantic plot. Without it, the whole story would just be a decently-written piece of yuri fluff, but the additional depth and social commentary it adds makes the whole experience worthwhile despite the short length.
Itch.io Page
Wolfskin's Curse | Fantasy/Horror/Mystery | ~1h 30 min

Probably the most involved and well-produced VN on today's list, Wolfskin's Curse offers a mystery plot about a former priestess and a werewolf running away from tragedy and persecution, only to be caught up in a new chain of deaths and being framed as perpetrators. A very climatic piece of dark fantasy, this short story offers most elements you would expect from the formula: a gloomy setting, tragic romance and a cast of ambiguous and tortured characters trying to survive in a hostile world. It also includes high-quality art and full voice acting – that last part being something I usually avoid in freeware projects due to it rarely being good enough to be more enjoyable than just reading the dialogue yourself, but here it was done with decent quality and care, particularly for a game jam entry. And whether you mute the voices or not, the VN will be an interesting and emotional journey – at least if you don't mind reading something pretty depressing in tone.
Itch.io Page | Google Play
And that's all for now! As I'm trying to take things slow, this segment will show up at random intervals and likely with different amounts of content. However, I'm going to keep the mission of spotlighting notable EVNs alive as long as I'm able to – if you're interested in those, be sure to follow the blog and if you have recommendations for free EVNs worth checking out, make sure to leave them in the comments. Thank you for reading!

Welcome back my dear readers and welcome to this new, irregularly-posted segment on EVN Chronicles! 
As some of you might know, beyond my general burnout which made me put the blog on indefinite hiatus, late last year I've developed some health problems that pretty much killed my will to read VNs and my ability to contribute meaningful content on Fuwa... For a while. As I come back to life, both physically and mentally, I've decided to resurrect this space and log my adventures through mostly short, free EVNs, sharing with you all the most notable finds among the game jam entries and random passion projects I read through. So, do you want to read some hidden gems, all available for the very reasonable price of $0.00? You're sure to find some on this little list, and the ones that come in the future!
Optimal Conditions for a Sacrifice | Yuri/Fantasy/Comedy | ~20 min

It's rare for extremely short VNs to charm me, but Optimal Conditions for a Sacrifice has just the perfect combination of humour, wit and well-delivered punchline to made this kind of tiny experience memorable. The game plays on mythological themes and a rich set if metaphors to construct an intriguing narrative about the nature of love – all while never taking itself seriously or trying too hard to be profound. And this last part is crucial – from the game's Ith.io page, through its net of riddles and on-the-nose social commentary and to the purposefully jumbled ending, you can feel the fun the author had writing all of it and molding it into a VN. And while this kind of experiment has always a high risk of missing the mark and becoming an unreadable mess, the genuine-feeling and relatable messaging it ends with makes it better than it had any right to be. And with a nice artstyle as a bonus... It's very much worth it to sacrifice 20 minutes of your time to check it out. 
Itch.io Page
My Dream Is To Be a Model, Not a Maid! | Yuri/Drama | ~1h 20 min

Team ANPIM are regular authors of cliched G/G romance, always present for the annual Yuri Game Jam with a new piece of heartwarming fluff. While their output in the past three years was a bit of a mixed bag, often lacking interesting twists to keep the formula fun, My Dream Is To Be a Model, Not a Maid! is what I'd call a return to form. Starting with a silly premise of an aspiring (and awfully unsuccessful model) getting coerced into becoming a lived-in housekeeper for a young daughter of a CEO, it provides a well-paced and fun piece of romance between two people of vastly different backgrounds and live experiences. While the short runtime limits how deep the story can get and the overall structure of the romance plot is utterly typical, the characterisation and humour make it all solid enough to be a very enjoyable, one-sitting read. And with a bunch of really nice-looking CGs added to the mix, it's exactly what you would want from this kind of bite-sized piece of yuri fluff.
Itch.io Page
My Crush My Bully | Yuri/Drama | ~30 min

Written by one of my favourite VN writers on the freeware/game jam side of the market, PunishedHag, My Crush My Bully is a short story about an awkward, nerdy girl who unexpectedly encounters her school tormentor on a trip to library. While trying to stealthily buy the newest book in her favourite fantasy series, she's caught by the titular bully, but there's something off with the interaction that follows... While the game is maybe a bit too short to reach its full potential, its strength lies not only in good characterisation of the main characters, but also in providing two vastly different viewpoints on the relationship it depicts. The perspective shift took me by surprise, providing a sombre, emotional backstory to the somewhat whacky-feeling romantic plot. Without it, the whole story would just be a decently-written piece of yuri fluff, but the additional depth and social commentary it adds makes the whole experience worthwhile despite the short length.
Itch.io Page
Wolfskin's Curse | Fantasy/Horror/Mystery | ~1h 30 min

Probably the most involved and well-produced VN on today's list, Wolfskin's Curse offers a mystery plot about a former priestess and a werewolf running away from tragedy and persecution, only to be caught up in a new chain of deaths and being framed as perpetrators. A very climatic piece of dark fantasy, this short story offers most elements you would expect from the formula: a gloomy setting, tragic romance and a cast of ambiguous and tortured characters trying to survive in a hostile world. It also includes high-quality art and full voice acting – that last part being something I usually avoid in freeware projects due to it rarely being good enough to be more enjoyable than just reading the dialogue yourself, but here it was done with decent quality and care, particularly for a game jam entry. And whether you mute the voices or not, the VN will be an interesting and emotional journey – at least if you don't mind reading something pretty depressing in tone.
Itch.io Page | Google Play
And that's all for now! As I'm trying to take things slow, this segment will show up at random intervals and likely with different amounts of content. However, I'm going to keep the mission of spotlighting notable EVNs alive as long as I'm able to – if you're interested in those, be sure to follow the blog and if you have recommendations for free EVNs worth checking out, make sure to leave them in the comments. Thank you for reading!

Welcome back my dear readers and welcome to this new, irregularly-posted segment on EVN Chronicles! 
As some of you might know, beyond my general burnout which made me put the blog on indefinite hiatus, late last year I've developed some health problems that pretty much killed my will to read VNs and my ability to contribute meaningful content on Fuwa... For a while. As I come back to life, both physically and mentally, I've decided to resurrect this space and log my adventures through mostly short, free EVNs, sharing with you all the most notable finds among the game jam entries and random passion projects I read through. So, do you want to read some hidden gems, all available for the very reasonable price of $0.00? You're sure to find some on this little list, and the ones that come in the future!
Optimal Conditions for a Sacrifice | Yuri/Fantasy/Comedy | ~20 min

It's rare for extremely short VNs to charm me, but Optimal Conditions for a Sacrifice has just the perfect combination of humour, wit and well-delivered punchline to made this kind of tiny experience memorable. The game plays on mythological themes and a rich set if metaphors to construct an intriguing narrative about the nature of love – all while never taking itself seriously or trying too hard to be profound. And this last part is crucial – from the game's Ith.io page, through its net of riddles and on-the-nose social commentary and to the purposefully jumbled ending, you can feel the fun the author had writing all of it and molding it into a VN. And while this kind of experiment has always a high risk of missing the mark and becoming an unreadable mess, the genuine-feeling and relatable messaging it ends with makes it better than it had any right to be. And with a nice artstyle as a bonus... It's very much worth it to sacrifice 20 minutes of your time to check it out. 
Itch.io Page
My Dream Is To Be a Model, Not a Maid! | Yuri/Drama | ~1h 20 min

Team ANPIM are regular authors of cliched G/G romance, always present for the annual Yuri Game Jam with a new piece of heartwarming fluff. While their output in the past three years was a bit of a mixed bag, often lacking interesting twists to keep the formula fun, My Dream Is To Be a Model, Not a Maid! is what I'd call a return to form. Starting with a silly premise of an aspiring (and awfully unsuccessful model) getting coerced into becoming a lived-in housekeeper for a young daughter of a CEO, it provides a well-paced and fun piece of romance between two people of vastly different backgrounds and live experiences. While the short runtime limits how deep the story can get and the overall structure of the romance plot is utterly typical, the characterisation and humour make it all solid enough to be a very enjoyable, one-sitting read. And with a bunch of really nice-looking CGs added to the mix, it's exactly what you would want from this kind of bite-sized piece of yuri fluff.
Itch.io Page
My Crush My Bully | Yuri/Drama | ~30 min

Written by one of my favourite VN writers on the freeware/game jam side of the market, PunishedHag, My Crush My Bully is a short story about an awkward, nerdy girl who unexpectedly encounters her school tormentor on a trip to library. While trying to stealthily buy the newest book in her favourite fantasy series, she's caught by the titular bully, but there's something off with the interaction that follows... While the game is maybe a bit too short to reach its full potential, its strength lies not only in good characterisation of the main characters, but also in providing two vastly different viewpoints on the relationship it depicts. The perspective shift took me by surprise, providing a sombre, emotional backstory to the somewhat whacky-feeling romantic plot. Without it, the whole story would just be a decently-written piece of yuri fluff, but the additional depth and social commentary it adds makes the whole experience worthwhile despite the short length.
Itch.io Page
Wolfskin's Curse | Fantasy/Horror/Mystery | ~1h 30 min

Probably the most involved and well-produced VN on today's list, Wolfskin's Curse offers a mystery plot about a former priestess and a werewolf running away from tragedy and persecution, only to be caught up in a new chain of deaths and being framed as perpetrators. A very climatic piece of dark fantasy, this short story offers most elements you would expect from the formula: a gloomy setting, tragic romance and a cast of ambiguous and tortured characters trying to survive in a hostile world. It also includes high-quality art and full voice acting – that last part being something I usually avoid in freeware projects due to it rarely being good enough to be more enjoyable than just reading the dialogue yourself, but here it was done with decent quality and care, particularly for a game jam entry. And whether you mute the voices or not, the VN will be an interesting and emotional journey – at least if you don't mind reading something pretty depressing in tone.
Itch.io Page | Google Play
And that's all for now! As I'm trying to take things slow, this segment will show up at random intervals and likely with different amounts of content. However, I'm going to keep the mission of spotlighting notable EVNs alive as long as I'm able to – if you're interested in those, be sure to follow the blog and if you have recommendations for free EVNs worth checking out, make sure to leave them in the comments. Thank you for reading!

As announced above, the anime Ancient of Magus' Bride will receive a 2nd season. It became known from their YouTube Channel. It was announced with a Teaser and Visual for the 2nd Season. 
Watch here the Announcement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb8O8SKcb94
One could assume that a 2nd season will be announced as OADs to the series have appeared in recent months. But now the 2nd season has been officially and somewhat unexpectedly announced. 
Story
Chise Hatori, a 15-year-old Japanese girl, was sold for five million pounds at an auction to a tall masked gentleman. Abandoned at a young age and ridiculed by her peers for her unconventional behavior, she was ready to give herself to any buyer if it meant having a place to go home to. In chains and on her way to an unknown fate, she hears whispers from robed men along her path, gossiping and complaining that such a buyer got his hands on a rare "Sleigh Beggy."
Ignoring the murmurs, the mysterious man leads the girl to a study, where he reveals himself to be Elias Ainsworth—a magus. After a brief confrontation and a bit of teleportation magic, the two open their eyes to Elias' picturesque cottage in rural England. Greeted by fairies and surrounded by weird and wonderful beings upon her arrival, these events mark the beginning of Chise's story as the apprentice and supposed bride of the ancient magus.

Dear Diary,

It is not surprising that after the 5 years I'm already in this scene (it is probably more, because just 5 years ago the whole VN.Info thing took off and I oddly played some VNs earlier too) I met many people in this scene who came and went. After living for 3-4 years as a total meme, but totally unobstructed by whatever stood in my way to essentially shape VN.Info into what it is now, I had a big public fight with some people that left some psychological damage and required some introspective. I decided to completely switch my personality to someone who is just striving for harmony, does not get triggered at the occasional idiot anymore and is just focused on his goal to be  "Making VNs popular in the west" or by extension probably due to my illusions of grandeur "Making VNs popular in the world". 

In order to achieve this goal, I have had the pleasure to meet a lot of special people from the scene and the VN community who carry somewhat an influence in companies, fan projects or generally the western VN world. I believe that Fuwanovel (the community we are currently in and that is trying to drag its body out of its coffin after it laid idle for effectively 6 years or more) can achieve everything that we desire from the VN community. I wish to create a society where ppl are not gatekept for external reasons, where fanTL and official TL can thrive in parallel and where a healthy blog scene is nurturing. 

In order to do that I sacrifice my time and effort to connect people who have otherwise never met in the hope they can create something great when working in collaboration with others. Many fan translation projects have failed not necessarily because the staff was incompetent, but because they either lacked the social skills for HR/management or their ego stood in their way of achieving greatness. Fuwanovel houses about 10 years of history and back in the day so many things were posted here where the githubs are still alive and still offer opportunity for the new generation of VN fans to learn how to deal with VN engines and how to start their own translation projects. The FanTL still scene has so much potential. I can see and 95% when I decide to hop fresh into someone's DMs and they get surprised like "who the fuck are you?" it still ends up being a nice talk. Mainly, because we all share the same passions.
However, to get to the point of this post's title. Due to this "dancing on every party" that I perform day after day in my mission to lay bridges for people, I ran into an interesting roadblock that I was not aware existed.

Discord only allows you to have exactly 1000 friends, an arbitrary limit that obviously now tugs on my heartstrings because it forces me to delete some people from my friendlist. I'm convinced that these people will eventually prove useful in some particular project and then I have to wrack my brain to recall their usernames. I can already see it...

Someone from JAST once said that he knows what "type of person" I am. I'm a person that enjoys being the well connected one and would bask in being the go-to guy for the fandom I occupy. Indeed, I enjoy that very much. But as long as it contributes to great projects being realized, no one can say I'm doing this out of malice, can they?

I've been asked to post my reviews here, so I thought I'd start with what I've been working on for about 70 hours - Digimon Survive!

For those unaware, this Digimon Survive is a dark/horror take on Digimon, with death, mental breakdowns, sensitive topics and more. It's not one for the kids. I'd say it's about 80%+ visual novel/point-and-click, with <20% SRPG combat and Digimon recruitment.
Click Here for the Detailed Review of Digimon Survive

Subverse is an ambitious cinematic gameplay erogame that blends visual novel dialogue, SHMUP and grid-combat gameplay, and animated ero.
Sanahtlig's Corner: Subverse, Adult gaming goes mainstream

Here are pictures of all of my physical visual novels.
Some of these I have already done a review of while the others are planned to at some point get a review once I have read them.
There are also going to be more visual novels added here in the future. For instance have I backed physical tier of kickstarter for Island, Momoiro Closet and Newrin as well as having pre ordered the complete box for Grisaia.
 
 
Some of my english visual novels

More of my english visual novels

 
Grisaia complete box

Aokana

Nekopara vol 4 and Sengoku Rance

 
My english visual novels with nsfw cover
English Console VNs

Japanese visual novels for PC

More japanese visual novels for PC

Some more japanese physicals, some of them have NSFW box
My japanese visual novels for PS Vita

My japanese visual novels for PS3 and PS4

 
 

If I had to summarize the experience I had when reading the first half of Umineko for the first time, it would go something like this: At least for the first three episodes I mainly tried to identify the culprit with a typical mystery reader mindset. Even when it became obvious the game told its story from a fantasy standpoint, my focus was on discerning which parts could be taken at face value and which were made up by Beatrice. Even as I was able to see how this approach was getting deconstructed, I was still waiting for Battler to come up with the one logic argument able to solve it all. Even as Beatrice kept repeating "without love it cannot be seen" (or WLICBS, as I am going to call it for the rest of this post)) I took this mainly as an incentive to look at all the romantic and fantastical scenes from the "detective" angle and tried to spot if anyone had unintentionally slipped up. I dismissed the scenes where "real" characters chatted with fantastical ones as merely character building because to me they weren't actually happening. If the discussions of Umineko on this forum and especially in the "What are playing" thread are anything to go by, most readers have a somewhat similar experience. Even the ones whose theories get quite close to the truth usually base them on secondary clues like character designs.
Recently I started rereading Umineko, and well, now I know what the "it" in WLICBS is about. The scene where Maria is searching for the wilting rose isn't primarily setup for the first mini-mystery, namely who gave her the umbrella, it's a tale about a small girl who, being overwhelmed by the loss something precious to her and getting abused by the one who should console her, gets saved by love. The first hour or so of episode 2 isn't just Shannon and Kanon bonding with their love interests and a witch, it is important context for establishing the culprit's motive. Which is way more helpful when trying to figure out who is behind the Rokkenjima killings than guessing how the culprit could have killed someone inside a room locked with a key chain. Thinking about why Shannon and Kanon don't see themselves as full humans deserving of love brings you closer to the truth than pondering on some howdunnit.
So why do most readers seem to not pick up on this the first time, even when it is right in front of them? Why is everyone reading Umineko the wrong way at first?
Yeah I know, it is a polemic question. There is no objective right or wrong way to read something. However, more or less every piece of media contains some form of message or subtext, either explicitely stated or at least implied by its author, often intentionally although it doesn't have to be, and which can be read into.* Depending on your own view of the handled topics and which motive you assume the author to have, your interpretation can change (as well as your overall enjoyment of the work). To name one example and shamelessly plug one my other blog posts**, in my analysis about Steins;Gate I argue the common interpretation of its message that fate can't be changed doesn't really get at the core of S;G but that rather it's a story about growing up and learning to make your own fortune. I came to this conclusion based on the true ending contradicting the former reading. If you assume it wasn't included for some deeper reason, but rather the writers feeling like
that is also valid, keeping the "inescapable fate" interpretation as the most reasonable one (although a message definitely becomes weaker when it gets contradicted by the story itself).*** Of course that doesn't mean all interpretations of pieces of media are created equal. They should be somewhat rooted in the plot, characters, themes and so on.**** If your main takeaway from Steins;Gate is that microwave radiation is evil, you are either a troll or should seriously work on your reading comprehension skills.*****
So is there even one "correct" reading of Umineko? Not really, though luckily the game more or less directly states that it wants you to read "with love" for lack of a better term, and not just Umineko but in general. The concept is pretty complex and it takes Ryukishi07 the whole 60+ hours of Chiru to explain it. The basic idea is to base your mindset while reading on the motivations of the characters and the author. Umineko is not even secretive about this or makes it some unexpected twist. Beatrice says WLICBS for the first time at the beginning of episode 2, and over the course of the VN this sentence gets repeated many, many times. So why does it often take readers so long to adapt this mindset, besides it seeming somewhat abstract at first?
I would say it is because Umineko intentionally tricks you into reading it as a mystery story at first. It deliberately frames itself as a murder mystery. This begins with its setting where a rich family fights over an inheritance while at a remote mansion with a mysterious backstory and then people start dying under strange circumstances. Of course you would want to know what is going on there and the seemingly easiest and most logical way to do so is to look for inconsistencies in the alibis and shown series of events. If Umineko wanted to be read as a story about love from the beginning it would have built up the interpersonal drama first and then culminated in the serial killings. Also each episode has a new set of murder mysteries, constantly giving your inner detective more fodder. After the first game board the battle of wits between Battler and Beatrice gets presented as the central conflict. The latter is a witch claiming to be the culprit and killing people in the most ridiculous and unrealistic fashion possible, so of course you would take the viewpoint of her opponent who tries to explain the killings as "real" murder mysteries and try to solve everything his way******. Umineko's structure caused me (and presumably others too) to not really think about what all the scenes of characters talking about the nature of love and miracles and such are trying to convey, but rather search them for clues for the whodunnits and howdunnits, which made me miss the core of the story.
Which is the point of telling it this way: "Mystery literature" thought patterns don't just not help you to solve Umineko. In fact they get you further away from being able to see the truth, even though it is right in front of you the whole time. Umineko basically forces you into adopting the "mystery" mindset to make its deconstruction hit you harder. By gently, but decisively shoving you into taking a certain perspective you start to have a personal stake in the story, which makes the takedown of said viewpoint so much more effective.******* Only by utterly defeating your own seemingly logical default approach it becomes apparent why the alternative Umineko proposes is superior.********
There is one huge downside to this approach though: Most readers wont get even half of what is going on in Umineko on the first reading. Which is a big deal when your VN is so long most people won't bother going through it a second time. Those that do though get rewarded with an experience that is even better than the first readthrough. Or as Kinzo would put it: The bigger the sacrifice, the greater the magic that results.*********
 
 
 
* This topic does a great job exposing (probably, hopefully) unintentional subtext in a certain subgenre of VNs. Not to say this only happens in trashy media, whenever something is considered to "not have aged well" it usually has to do with some its implicit assumptions about how the world works not being considered acceptable anymore in today's society.
** Originally I thought about naming my blog "Paca Plugs" which would have been an amazing pun, if I dare say so myself. I decided against it because I didn't actually plan on doing any plugging. I don't orgle on here either though so maybe I should have gone with my original idea…
*** I have to admit that after having read Steins;Gate 0 and Chaos;Child, both of which seem very confused about what they want to communicate, I've become much more inclined to accept this admittedly more cynical interpretation, and have started to see Steins;Gate as more of a case of a broken clock showing the right time twice a day within the SciAdv series. I hope Robotics;Notes manages to prove me wrong…
**** I mention this mainly for the sake of completeness, to preemptively invalidate the "if any interpretation is possible, no interpretation can be true, thus interpretation is pointless" argument, not because it ties into where this post is going.
***** Here, have another footnote where I apologize for the length of the sentences in this paragraph and for adding so many footnotes. There's just too many possible ways to get sidetracked with this topic. I thought about adding another one later on where I would rant about Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi and why I thought the way it forces the reader into becoming complicit doesn't work, especially when compared to how clever Umineko achieves this, but then decided not to.
****** One of the greatest ironies in Umineko is that the "real" murder mysteries in the games are just as made up by Beatrice as her fantasy explanations. And just like she keeps adding characters to a closed circle, I keep adding footnotes to a post that would work just as well without them. Without my boredom during proofreading "it" cannot be seen.
******* So about why Totono doesn't work in comparison: Where Umineko lets you make the choice how you want to read it in your head, Totono literally forces you to take the approach to its choice system it is trying to deconstruct if you want to progress beyond its first few hours. Because of this it is easy for you to divorce yourself from your in-game decisions. So when the game scolds you for picking them, you can rightfully shrug it off because your only alternative would have been dropping the VN. I can't imagine Nitroplus praising you for asking for a refund in that case though.
******** The more I think about Umineko's concept of love, the more I find myself actually disagreeing with it. No, I won't go into more detail here because it would take me another blog post of this length to properly explain why. Weirdly enough despite this my enjoyment of the VN hasn't suffered at all.
********* Oh my, this post has gotten really really long. Thanks a lot to everyone who actually bothered to read through all of it! Yes, all three of you!

Hey there all!
 
I will start with saying  that I really treasure my time spent writing this blog and interacting with various people involved in the EVN community. You guys were awesome company in this journey and despite the obscurity of this project, I feel like it benefited me personally in many ways and maybe even helped people appreciate the value within the non-JP visual novel scene. I'm really thankful to all the people that read my blog, the devs that offered me their time and gave me their games for review – they all made these 2+ years into something special.
When I started this project, there were two main things that motivated me. The first one was the frustration over dismissal of EVNs which is still common sense in the large parts of the VN fan community – belittling of the very games that made me fall in love with the visual novel formula. I wanted to create a space that is fully dedicated to discussion and promotion of EVNs as worthwhile and significant part of the genre. The second part was even more personal – my personal struggles with video game addiction and other issues, my ambition to shift my focus into a more challenging and creative activity. In many ways, I consider both my goals relative successes. While slowly, the perception of EVNs is changing and the scene evolving in interesting ways – while it shares pretty much all the suffering of other indie niches, with PC gaming in general being oversaturated and hard to navigate, I feel that it at least established itself as a significant formula that is attractive for story-oriented devs and appreciated by a significant audience. In other words, EVNs are here to stay and in time fewer and fewer people will be able to easily dismiss them as poor imitations of Japanese games. Whether my work had any impact in this regard? Apart from a bunch of people on Fuwanovel that I know I influenced in personal interactions, I honestly have no idea. I want to think there was some minor impact, but I had enough fun in the process and learned enough that I don't mind either way. I did my best and changed a few things about myself, which was the most important part for me.
Of course, I'm in no way saying that I'm putting the blog on hiatus because my job here is done. The real reason is much more prosaic – I just can't keep up with it. The last month was particularly devastating in this regard, with very little time for me to either read or write. And while an obvious answer would be to just work at my own pace and publish stuff whenever I'm able to, it's not really something that would work out for me. Missing deadlines, thinking about future projects, it all became a source of stress rather than a source of fun, and I feel it would only get worse with time. While I really wanted to keep the project alive, I don't want to do so at any cost. I feel burned out. I barely read VNs for fun. I don't watch anime for a few months now. I need a change of pace and ability to rediscover my love for these hobbies. The blog, sadly, became a prime obstacle in this.
So, what's going to happen now? The blog will cease to get updates, unless something special happens. I might still do game jam summaries, as those are something I massively enjoy. I might also publish something on Fuwanovel from time to time – I'm theoretically still an editor there. The one part of the project that's definitely here to stay is the Steam Curator account. The devs that sent me their games deserve to at least get a Steam review and, generally, an evaluation of their work. I will also use my Twitter to publish updates about new games listed on the Curator account. The Steam reviews themselves will likely be a bit more polished – not that much though, I don't want to jump straight into the same burnout-inducing rabbit whole.
 
So, once more, thank you for sticking around and I hope my project gave you some amusement. And, of course, see you around – I'm not giving up on EVNs and the community around them any time soon.

Hey there all!
 
I will start with saying  that I really treasure my time spent writing this blog and interacting with various people involved in the EVN community. You guys were awesome company in this journey and despite the obscurity of this project, I feel like it benefited me personally in many ways and maybe even helped people appreciate the value within the non-JP visual novel scene. I'm really thankful to all the people that read my blog, the devs that offered me their time and gave me their games for review – they all made these 2+ years into something special.
When I started this project, there were two main things that motivated me. The first one was the frustration over dismissal of EVNs which is still common sense in the large parts of the VN fan community – belittling of the very games that made me fall in love with the visual novel formula. I wanted to create a space that is fully dedicated to discussion and promotion of EVNs as worthwhile and significant part of the genre. The second part was even more personal – my personal struggles with video game addiction and other issues, my ambition to shift my focus into a more challenging and creative activity. In many ways, I consider both my goals relative successes. While slowly, the perception of EVNs is changing and the scene evolving in interesting ways – while it shares pretty much all the suffering of other indie niches, with PC gaming in general being oversaturated and hard to navigate, I feel that it at least established itself as a significant formula that is attractive for story-oriented devs and appreciated by a significant audience. In other words, EVNs are here to stay and in time fewer and fewer people will be able to easily dismiss them as poor imitations of Japanese games. Whether my work had any impact in this regard? Apart from a bunch of people on Fuwanovel that I know I influenced in personal interactions, I honestly have no idea. I want to think there was some minor impact, but I had enough fun in the process and learned enough that I don't mind either way. I did my best and changed a few things about myself, which was the most important part for me.
Of course, I'm in no way saying that I'm putting the blog on hiatus because my job here is done. The real reason is much more prosaic – I just can't keep up with it. The last month was particularly devastating in this regard, with very little time for me to either read or write. And while an obvious answer would be to just work at my own pace and publish stuff whenever I'm able to, it's not really something that would work out for me. Missing deadlines, thinking about future projects, it all became a source of stress rather than a source of fun, and I feel it would only get worse with time. While I really wanted to keep the project alive, I don't want to do so at any cost. I feel burned out. I barely read VNs for fun. I don't watch anime for a few months now. I need a change of pace and ability to rediscover my love for these hobbies. The blog, sadly, became a prime obstacle in this.
So, what's going to happen now? The blog will cease to get updates, unless something special happens. I might still do game jam summaries, as those are something I massively enjoy. I might also publish something on Fuwanovel from time to time – I'm theoretically still an editor there. The one part of the project that's definitely here to stay is the Steam Curator account. The devs that sent me their games deserve to at least get a Steam review and, generally, an evaluation of their work. I will also use my Twitter to publish updates about new games listed on the Curator account. The Steam reviews themselves will likely be a bit more polished – not that much though, I don't want to jump straight into the same burnout-inducing rabbit whole.
 
So, once more, thank you for sticking around and I hope my project gave you some amusement. And, of course, see you around – I'm not giving up on EVNs and the community around them any time soon.

Hey there all!
 
I will start with saying  that I really treasure my time spent writing this blog and interacting with various people involved in the EVN community. You guys were awesome company in this journey and despite the obscurity of this project, I feel like it benefited me personally in many ways and maybe even helped people appreciate the value within the non-JP visual novel scene. I'm really thankful to all the people that read my blog, the devs that offered me their time and gave me their games for review – they all made these 2+ years into something special.
When I started this project, there were two main things that motivated me. The first one was the frustration over dismissal of EVNs which is still common sense in the large parts of the VN fan community – belittling of the very games that made me fall in love with the visual novel formula. I wanted to create a space that is fully dedicated to discussion and promotion of EVNs as worthwhile and significant part of the genre. The second part was even more personal – my personal struggles with video game addiction and other issues, my ambition to shift my focus into a more challenging and creative activity. In many ways, I consider both my goals relative successes. While slowly, the perception of EVNs is changing and the scene evolving in interesting ways – while it shares pretty much all the suffering of other indie niches, with PC gaming in general being oversaturated and hard to navigate, I feel that it at least established itself as a significant formula that is attractive for story-oriented devs and appreciated by a significant audience. In other words, EVNs are here to stay and in time fewer and fewer people will be able to easily dismiss them as poor imitations of Japanese games. Whether my work had any impact in this regard? Apart from a bunch of people on Fuwanovel that I know I influenced in personal interactions, I honestly have no idea. I want to think there was some minor impact, but I had enough fun in the process and learned enough that I don't mind either way. I did my best and changed a few things about myself, which was the most important part for me.
Of course, I'm in no way saying that I'm putting the blog on hiatus because my job here is done. The real reason is much more prosaic – I just can't keep up with it. The last month was particularly devastating in this regard, with very little time for me to either read or write. And while an obvious answer would be to just work at my own pace and publish stuff whenever I'm able to, it's not really something that would work out for me. Missing deadlines, thinking about future projects, it all became a source of stress rather than a source of fun, and I feel it would only get worse with time. While I really wanted to keep the project alive, I don't want to do so at any cost. I feel burned out. I barely read VNs for fun. I don't watch anime for a few months now. I need a change of pace and ability to rediscover my love for these hobbies. The blog, sadly, became a prime obstacle in this.
So, what's going to happen now? The blog will cease to get updates, unless something special happens. I might still do game jam summaries, as those are something I massively enjoy. I might also publish something on Fuwanovel from time to time – I'm theoretically still an editor there. The one part of the project that's definitely here to stay is the Steam Curator account. The devs that sent me their games deserve to at least get a Steam review and, generally, an evaluation of their work. I will also use my Twitter to publish updates about new games listed on the Curator account. The Steam reviews themselves will likely be a bit more polished – not that much though, I don't want to jump straight into the same burnout-inducing rabbit whole.
 
So, once more, thank you for sticking around and I hope my project gave you some amusement. And, of course, see you around – I'm not giving up on EVNs and the community around them any time soon.

Hey there all!
 
I will start with saying  that I really treasure my time spent writing this blog and interacting with various people involved in the EVN community. You guys were awesome company in this journey and despite the obscurity of this project, I feel like it benefited me personally in many ways and maybe even helped people appreciate the value within the non-JP visual novel scene. I'm really thankful to all the people that read my blog, the devs that offered me their time and gave me their games for review – they all made these 2+ years into something special.
When I started this project, there were two main things that motivated me. The first one was the frustration over dismissal of EVNs which is still common sense in the large parts of the VN fan community – belittling of the very games that made me fall in love with the visual novel formula. I wanted to create a space that is fully dedicated to discussion and promotion of EVNs as worthwhile and significant part of the genre. The second part was even more personal – my personal struggles with video game addiction and other issues, my ambition to shift my focus into a more challenging and creative activity. In many ways, I consider both my goals relative successes. While slowly, the perception of EVNs is changing and the scene evolving in interesting ways – while it shares pretty much all the suffering of other indie niches, with PC gaming in general being oversaturated and hard to navigate, I feel that it at least established itself as a significant formula that is attractive for story-oriented devs and appreciated by a significant audience. In other words, EVNs are here to stay and in time fewer and fewer people will be able to easily dismiss them as poor imitations of Japanese games. Whether my work had any impact in this regard? Apart from a bunch of people on Fuwanovel that I know I influenced in personal interactions, I honestly have no idea. I want to think there was some minor impact, but I had enough fun in the process and learned enough that I don't mind either way. I did my best and changed a few things about myself, which was the most important part for me.
Of course, I'm in no way saying that I'm putting the blog on hiatus because my job here is done. The real reason is much more prosaic – I just can't keep up with it. The last month was particularly devastating in this regard, with very little time for me to either read or write. And while an obvious answer would be to just work at my own pace and publish stuff whenever I'm able to, it's not really something that would work out for me. Missing deadlines, thinking about future projects, it all became a source of stress rather than a source of fun, and I feel it would only get worse with time. While I really wanted to keep the project alive, I don't want to do so at any cost. I feel burned out. I barely read VNs for fun. I don't watch anime for a few months now. I need a change of pace and ability to rediscover my love for these hobbies. The blog, sadly, became a prime obstacle in this.
So, what's going to happen now? The blog will cease to get updates, unless something special happens. I might still do game jam summaries, as those are something I massively enjoy. I might also publish something on Fuwanovel from time to time – I'm theoretically still an editor there. The one part of the project that's definitely here to stay is the Steam Curator account. The devs that sent me their games deserve to at least get a Steam review and, generally, an evaluation of their work. I will also use my Twitter to publish updates about new games listed on the Curator account. The Steam reviews themselves will likely be a bit more polished – not that much though, I don't want to jump straight into the same burnout-inducing rabbit whole.
 
So, once more, thank you for sticking around and I hope my project gave you some amusement. And, of course, see you around – I'm not giving up on EVNs and the community around them any time soon.

Hey there all!
 
I will start with saying  that I really treasure my time spent writing this blog and interacting with various people involved in the EVN community. You guys were awesome company in this journey and despite the obscurity of this project, I feel like it benefited me personally in many ways and maybe even helped people appreciate the value within the non-JP visual novel scene. I'm really thankful to all the people that read my blog, the devs that offered me their time and gave me their games for review – they all made these 2+ years into something special.
When I started this project, there were two main things that motivated me. The first one was the frustration over dismissal of EVNs which is still common sense in the large parts of the VN fan community – belittling of the very games that made me fall in love with the visual novel formula. I wanted to create a space that is fully dedicated to discussion and promotion of EVNs as worthwhile and significant part of the genre. The second part was even more personal – my personal struggles with video game addiction and other issues, my ambition to shift my focus into a more challenging and creative activity. In many ways, I consider both my goals relative successes. While slowly, the perception of EVNs is changing and the scene evolving in interesting ways – while it shares pretty much all the suffering of other indie niches, with PC gaming in general being oversaturated and hard to navigate, I feel that it at least established itself as a significant formula that is attractive for story-oriented devs and appreciated by a significant audience. In other words, EVNs are here to stay and in time fewer and fewer people will be able to easily dismiss them as poor imitations of Japanese games. Whether my work had any impact in this regard? Apart from a bunch of people on Fuwanovel that I know I influenced in personal interactions, I honestly have no idea. I want to think there was some minor impact, but I had enough fun in the process and learned enough that I don't mind either way. I did my best and changed a few things about myself, which was the most important part for me.
Of course, I'm in no way saying that I'm putting the blog on hiatus because my job here is done. The real reason is much more prosaic – I just can't keep up with it. The last month was particularly devastating in this regard, with very little time for me to either read or write. And while an obvious answer would be to just work at my own pace and publish stuff whenever I'm able to, it's not really something that would work out for me. Missing deadlines, thinking about future projects, it all became a source of stress rather than a source of fun, and I feel it would only get worse with time. While I really wanted to keep the project alive, I don't want to do so at any cost. I feel burned out. I barely read VNs for fun. I don't watch anime for a few months now. I need a change of pace and ability to rediscover my love for these hobbies. The blog, sadly, became a prime obstacle in this.
So, what's going to happen now? The blog will cease to get updates, unless something special happens. I might still do game jam summaries, as those are something I massively enjoy. I might also publish something on Fuwanovel from time to time – I'm theoretically still an editor there. The one part of the project that's definitely here to stay is the Steam Curator account. The devs that sent me their games deserve to at least get a Steam review and, generally, an evaluation of their work. I will also use my Twitter to publish updates about new games listed on the Curator account. The Steam reviews themselves will likely be a bit more polished – not that much though, I don't want to jump straight into the same burnout-inducing rabbit whole.
 
So, once more, thank you for sticking around and I hope my project gave you some amusement. And, of course, see you around – I'm not giving up on EVNs and the community around them any time soon.

Hey there all!
 
I will start with saying  that I really treasure my time spent writing this blog and interacting with various people involved in the EVN community. You guys were awesome company in this journey and despite the obscurity of this project, I feel like it benefited me personally in many ways and maybe even helped people appreciate the value within the non-JP visual novel scene. I'm really thankful to all the people that read my blog, the devs that offered me their time and gave me their games for review – they all made these 2+ years into something special.
When I started this project, there were two main things that motivated me. The first one was the frustration over dismissal of EVNs which is still common sense in the large parts of the VN fan community – belittling of the very games that made me fall in love with the visual novel formula. I wanted to create a space that is fully dedicated to discussion and promotion of EVNs as worthwhile and significant part of the genre. The second part was even more personal – my personal struggles with video game addiction and other issues, my ambition to shift my focus into a more challenging and creative activity. In many ways, I consider both my goals relative successes. While slowly, the perception of EVNs is changing and the scene evolving in interesting ways – while it shares pretty much all the suffering of other indie niches, with PC gaming in general being oversaturated and hard to navigate, I feel that it at least established itself as a significant formula that is attractive for story-oriented devs and appreciated by a significant audience. In other words, EVNs are here to stay and in time fewer and fewer people will be able to easily dismiss them as poor imitations of Japanese games. Whether my work had any impact in this regard? Apart from a bunch of people on Fuwanovel that I know I influenced in personal interactions, I honestly have no idea. I want to think there was some minor impact, but I had enough fun in the process and learned enough that I don't mind either way. I did my best and changed a few things about myself, which was the most important part for me.
Of course, I'm in no way saying that I'm putting the blog on hiatus because my job here is done. The real reason is much more prosaic – I just can't keep up with it. The last month was particularly devastating in this regard, with very little time for me to either read or write. And while an obvious answer would be to just work at my own pace and publish stuff whenever I'm able to, it's not really something that would work out for me. Missing deadlines, thinking about future projects, it all became a source of stress rather than a source of fun, and I feel it would only get worse with time. While I really wanted to keep the project alive, I don't want to do so at any cost. I feel burned out. I barely read VNs for fun. I don't watch anime for a few months now. I need a change of pace and ability to rediscover my love for these hobbies. The blog, sadly, became a prime obstacle in this.
So, what's going to happen now? The blog will cease to get updates, unless something special happens. I might still do game jam summaries, as those are something I massively enjoy. I might also publish something on Fuwanovel from time to time – I'm theoretically still an editor there. The one part of the project that's definitely here to stay is the Steam Curator account. The devs that sent me their games deserve to at least get a Steam review and, generally, an evaluation of their work. I will also use my Twitter to publish updates about new games listed on the Curator account. The Steam reviews themselves will likely be a bit more polished – not that much though, I don't want to jump straight into the same burnout-inducing rabbit whole.
 
So, once more, thank you for sticking around and I hope my project gave you some amusement. And, of course, see you around – I'm not giving up on EVNs and the community around them any time soon.

Hello everyone, Jardic again. I told myself that I wasn’t going to post something so soon after my last one, but I was going through my old computer and I found some old stories I have written over the years and forgot I have written. Most of them were either fanfics or stuff I have written about and scrapped. It was probably sophomore year in high school that I have started writing that I started writing stories and thought about taking it seriously. I never took anything so seriously before and I didn’t have the drive to do anything until my English teacher taught me about not limiting myself. I was an outcast and didn’t like anything I was reading at the time, so I took up writing so I could read what I have written. I found it fun and a lot of people told me that I was good at my craft and I thought about doing this for a living.
 
Then in 2015 or 2016, I found VNs for the first time through a flash game I found on the internet. I was looking for an escape since I lost my job a few months earlier and I was looking for something to play. I think was a crappy game made by Dharker Studios. I forgot the name of the game, but I remember the maker. I didn’t get into VNs honestly until I started buying games from Mangagamer, Sekai and Jast more frequently. I used to be a massive fan of anime when I was a kid and I never had a reason to go back until then. I didn’t grow up with people who watched the same stuff I did, I felt alone in that sense. But I’m getting off topic. Those stories made me a better writer in the process and I felt like I have found my purpose in life.
 
I felt like the world was against me since I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. I was told that I was never going to be normal and I accepted that. I knew I was different, but I didn’t let that stop me. I wouldn’t be talking to you all if I was scared of what people would say. I don’t want people telling me that I’m not good enough to be a writer and throw it down the drain for nothing. My entire family thinks I’m crazy anyway, so I spent most of the time with my thoughts alone. Eventually, I will do something that they will accept me, but right now, they can just hate me for all I care.
 
I’m writing all of this because I am fixing to do something I may regret, or it may turn out awesome. I’m working on my first VN. It’s called Kazoku No Watashi No Sentaku or My Family of Choice. I’m working on it for a while and I am currently working on the script for the VN and I will post it when it is finished. If anyone is an artist or a musician or knows someone who is, let me know. I can’t draw at all due to my motor skills and I’m looking for some music anyway. I’m currently working on the script and trying to work some things out on Ren’Py. If you want to get in touch with me, look for me on discord. Hopefully, I can get this done and into your hands in the future. Until then, I’ll do what I can with what I got. Take care and I will see you next time.

I took my first steps onto the road of the otaku in 1992, when I watched the poorly dubbed (all dubs were godawful back then) Record of Lodoss War Volume 1 OVA VCR tape.  Now, I was already a heavy fantasy addict, having been introduced to the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance in 1990, and my obsession was at its peak at the time.  When I watched Record of Lodoss War, I saw the typical 'elven maiden with human hero' romance in a new way (incidentally, this is a pretty typical romantic theme in those days, less so nowadays).  I also saw oddities that stood out as odd to me precisely because of the oddly black and white point of view enforced on one by the various D&D universes.  
Of course, I was a chuunibyou brat by that time, already, so it should surprise no one that I got obsessed.  It got ten times worse, however, when I encountered Chrono Trigger as it was played on my cousin's SNES.  Chrono Trigger is still, to this day, one of the single best rpgs ever made.  Looking back, considering all that has been done since then, it is almost TERRIFYING that someone was able to do what was done with Chrono Trigger with the limitations placed by using the SNES system.  The story, the world, and the various layers of time were put together into such a subtly complex experience that, to this day, I've yet to see any other rpg manage it.  Chrono Cross would manage to imitate some elements of this with its parallel world jumping, but Chrono Trigger's jumping around in time gave you impetus to explore how every aspect of the world could change based on how and when you did certain things.  Rumors constantly abounded that there were secret endings (such as the infamous 'vampire Chrono' or 'Save Schala' fake rumors, which some believe led to the way the Chrono Cross storyline was handled), and people - such as me - would play the game repeatedly, using all the meager saves allowed by the cartridge limitations of the time, in hopes that they might trigger those endings or find a way to discover something new.  
In all honesty, Chrono Trigger being the game that got me into jrpgs probably ruined me for life.  It set my standards to a ridiculously high level on a subconscious plane, resulting in me comparing every single jrpg experience since then to it.  Aesthetically, musically, and structurally, it was a true jrpg kamige.  It was also the game that turned jrpgs into my second otaku obsession.
During the SNES-PS2 eras, I literally bought and played EVERY jrpg that came out.  I still own them, in fact.  I played most of the PS1 and SNES era games multiple times.
However, it was also in the PS2 era (often called the 'dawn of the mainstream jrpg') that jrpg quality began to fall off drastically.  The kind of genius and artistic flair using minimal resources you saw in previous eras was lost entirely within a few years of the release of FFX (FFX being a good game that also turned VO from a curiosity to a mainstream 'thing').  Musical direction, a role differing from composition, where someone was assigned to decide the timing of using a musical score and which ones fit which dungeons, which story scenes, disappeared in the middle of the PS2 era, as VO was used to fill the gaps of emotionality.  However, this also meant that the subtlety of previous eras was lost with a swiftness that left me bewildered at the time.  
By the time the PS3 era came around, jrpgs were slowing down, due to what I now call 'flashy kusoge fatigue'.  Oh, a few sub-genres, such as the Atelier series' alchemy obsessed SOL titles and the more action-based titles continued to be prolific, but what were called 'console-style rpgs' started to vanish.  MMO elements were introduced into normal jrpgs, making progression and gameplay less interesting as a result (mostly because it seemed to have been done primarily to draw the WoW crowds into solo rpgs).  Storytelling was dying a surprisingly swift death, as tedious gameplay elements (for loot and level-obsessed completionists) began to devour higher and higher proportions of each game's overall playtime.  
There is a very good reason why people go back and play so-called 'retro' jrpgs so much.  There simply aren't that many more recent jrpgs that have that kind of flair and subtle genius.  I know for a fact that one of the best ways to get people addicted to jrpgs is still just to let them play Chrono Trigger.  
Ironically, it was VNs that saved my soul.  This was back in 2008, four years before I joined Fuwa.  I was introduced to Tsukihime by a fellow anime fansubber, and, for the first time in over three years, I had something interesting enough (story-wise) that I was given a perspective on the nature of my growing irritation and fatigue with jrpgs in general.  At the time, the JVN industry was still as vital and full of genius as the jrpg industry was in the PS1 era.  Tsukihime and a few other major classics put out near the turn of the century had created the potential for a market of story-focused VNs that had allowed more and more creative people to get into the medium.  Masada was releasing his latest version of Dies Irae, and there were literally hundreds of potentially interesting VNs for me to try.
Needless to say, I lost my mind almost as badly as when I first played Chrono Trigger.  I must have blown four grand of my meager savings on VNs within the first year, and I didn't regret a penny of it.  Yes, roughly two-thirds of what I bought was pure crap.  However, the gems I discovered gave me a taste of the potential of the medium in a way that was horribly addictive.  Moreover, after a few years of being starved of any decent new stories, even the worst VNs had something that I could find I liked about them.  
In retrospect, I have an addictive personality.  I get addicted to things easily, especially when they scratch my story bug.  People have said to me, when it came to my jrpg obsession 'if you want a good story, why don't you read a book?', to which I usually gave them a blank stare and said 'I'm already reading good books.  I just want stories in my games too.'  
Interestingly enough, there were a few bursts of true creativity in jrpgs in the years since, like Tales of Berseria and Nier: Automata, but they partially stand out due to the sheer bleakness of the genre landscape.  People praise Octopath Traveler and Dragon Quest XI with intensity, and they practically worship Bravely Default.  However, I have been shocked at how low-quality the presentation of these stories has been.  It's like an entire generation has gotten used to ineptness in presentation to the point where they can be charmed by backhanded efforts at retro-nostalgia.  Octopath has all the grind of the old SaGa Frontier games with none of the charm, the best part of each of the paths being at the beginning.  Dragon Quest XI retains the horribly grindy nature of Dragon Quest games without improving on the formula in any real way.  Moreover, locking so much content into the post-game annoys the hell out of me (I prefer new game +, obviously).  
JVNs have suffered their own decline, which is ironically due to the same demographics that inflated the medium in the first place (the dominance of the moe/charage lovers).  VNs were always destined to be a niche medium, but the over-specialization of the industry has led to an inability to adapt to changing spending habits and demographics.  Even if they wanted to regear for a new generation of consumers, most companies no longer have the access to the necessary talent to do so.
I'm fairly sure that jrpgs suffer from a similar lack.  Yes, there are some excellent composers and graphic designers in the jrpg industry, as well as access to the solid voice-acting industry of Japan and the growing one here in the US.  However, there is a severe lack of writers capable of bringing a story to life, and there is no point in a top-tier OST that has no one to properly coordinate its use.  The very fact that something like Undertale could bury so much of the commercial rpg industry, in the eyes of rpg fans, says everything about how far the industry has fallen.
So what am I getting at?  Not really anything, in truth.  I just needed to blow off some steam.  Thank you for reading.

The last time we talked about a “modern fairy tale” VN with a yuri spin to it, it was a very special one – Studio Elan’s Heart of the Woods, which I confidently gave my first and, so far, only 5/5 rating. The way it mixed relatable, modern characters with an emotional fantastical plot resulted in experience in many ways unmatched within the EVN scene. It also showed the huge potential of this formula, handling the clash between mundane and supernatural in a different way than typical fantasy or horror stories. Today we’ll be looking at a game that took similar themes and utilized them a more low-key, light-hearted way – ebi hime’s newest yuri VN, The Fairy’s Song.
                Released on Steam and Itch.io early August 2020, this project is a slight departure from ebi’s usual, angst-filled storytelling, focusing more on cute romance and comedy. Fairly similar in tone to 2016’s Strawberry Vinegar, which also combined modern-day slice of life story and supernatural elements, it plays on classic themes of knights, monsters, magic and sleeping beauties, but puts them in a configuration that gives the whole setup a very different meaning… Which doesn’t necessarily mean The Fairy’s Song manages to offer many surprises or that it feels particularly fresh in how it utilizes those tropes and story elements. But why is that exactly, and is it really a bad thing?

But have they really…? There is certain sloppiness to The Fairy’s Song's lore and the overarching fantasy plot, but thankfully it can’t overshadow the charm of the characters and the yuri romance
The Fairy’s Song's protagonist is Marnie, a goth teenager who tries to make up for her small stature and naturally cute looks with dark clothes and a (slightly) mean attitude. We meet her when she’s being dropped to her grandmother’s house in a small, remote village, quite unhappy with the time she’ll have to spend there while her parents travel abroad. Her grumpiness is only strengthened by the fact her grandmother, struggling after the death of her husband a year earlier, is a shadow of her former self – not just frail and weighted by her loss, but also disturbing her family with frequent talk of fairies and other magical phenomena supposedly present in the surrounding forests. However, what was meant to be a boring and depressing stay is turned on its head when Marnie ignores her grandmother’s warnings and walks deep into the forest. There, she is confronted with several inexplicable events, but most importantly, she discovers an unconscious girl dressed like a knight – Leofe, who apparently spent centuries sleeping in the enchanted grove and is now determined to repay Marnie for waking her up.
Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Have you seen Blade Runner 2049? The cyberpunk epic that charms the viewer with its climate and polished visuals, but is probably a bit too convoluted for its own good and offers relatively little payoff for its massive, multi-layered plot? Now, imagine watching that movie without the context of original Blade Runner and accompanying shorts, all offering crucial pieces of worldbuilding and linking the main entries in the franchise together. How much meaning the sequel would lose and how hard to follow some of its subplots would be?
                This “Blade Runner 2049 without context” metaphor is the best way to explain my feelings about Synergia, the long-anticipated cyberpunk EVN by Radi Art. First announced in mid-2017, the project gathered a lot of attention with its well-defined, gloomy aesthetic and an appealing story outline. After that, it went through a number of hiatuses, with the creator behind it often going silent for long months and many assuming the project was dead. In mid-2019, however, the full development of the game was resumed and after a successful Kickstarter campaign (and another series of delays), we finally received a finished product in August 2020 – one that, in my opinion, proved way less mystery-filled and more flawed than the promotional materials made us hope for. But why is that exactly and to is this game actually bad, or just not living up to the hype?

The few characters central to the Synergia’s plot showed great promise, however, most of them remained relatively unexplored and their stories left without closure
Synergia tells the story of Cila, a police operative and negotiator specialized in dealing with androids, living on a far-future, desert-covered colony planet. Serving as a private contractor to the oppressive imperial government, the dominant polity of the unnamed world, she’s depressed and demotivated, barely managing to fulfil her duties despite being highly-trained and skilful in dealing with both AI and augmented humans. Soon after the game's start, however, her apathetic routine is broken when her best friend Yoko, a shady android merchant and gang leader, gifts her a replacement to her recently-defunct companion android. The new robot, Mara, seems incredibly advanced and human-like – arguably more human than the repressed and corrupt population of the imperial capital – and astonished Cila with her unpredictable and independent behaviour. Soon her unclear origins and level of intelligence, suggesting the use of illegal forms of AI, become signs of trouble, which Cila is unsure how to deal with. However, even she does not expect the real depth of the conspiracy and the significance the android might have to the future of her country (and, possibly, the whole colony).
Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com