Plk_Lesiak

That's quite interesting blog that you have there. In regard of EVN, I admit that I noticed less compared to their Japanese counterpart but I knew that there's some potential EVN out there. So I would say keep up the good work there, and sorry for being late to give my comment here.
PS - Just asking here, will you gonna play Everlasting Summer sometimes in the future? I wonder about that here, because I did play that in the past.

Ha, so a rival appears, and even announces himself, the nerve... Jk, guess I'll focus in japanese otomes in January then! That's the best plan to flood Fuwa with otome mwahahaha!
Also congrats on becoming a otome trash.

Oh, and BTW, you're gonna have some competition soon. I'm officially proclaiming January 2018 an Otome Month on my blog.
This way I'll have an extra motivation to read through all those western Otome waiting in my Steam library - there's surprising number of free-to-play, but pretty highly rated ones on the platform. And going with themed periods should be a bit more interesting than just putting up random reviews. :>

Aye, althought Inquisition also made Sera, the worst Bioware character in history, as pretty much the main F/F romance options, so it's not without sins. The romance arcs I did (Josephine and Cullen) felt very thoughtful and compelling though, maybe more than I've expected. If only they weren't dilluted by the 60-70 hours of filler content - it's even hard to recommend that game with clear concience. With all its awesome storytelling and attention to details, the 160 hours I've burned on it was one of the major reasons I've banned myself from playing RPGs. I'm not even sure I'll break that rule for the next Dragon Age, Bioware was so disappointing lately they even made me quit Star Wars: The Old Republic, the only game that ever immersed me enough to make me want to RP and that nearly made me write fan fiction. Also the yuri romance on my main char there got irreversibly bugged, and considering it's an MMO with maybe hundreds of hours invested in that char, it was a hard pill to swallow.

You mentioned Mass Effect and Dragon Age, you've played any M/M arcs in Inquisition or Andromeda? TBH Dorian's and Iron Bull's gay romances looked so good that I would've probably played through them at some point if the game wasn't so damn long. In Andromeda on the other hand, F/F Peebee romance was so laughably bad that I didn't even feel compelled to check out the other ones on YouTube. They've also made Jaal retroactively bisexual with a patch, I don't imagine that producing a compelling storyarc.

I don't think that detailed about the term, tbh. If it's not Japanese, it's "OELVN" in my head. To me that just means "Not Japanese VN." Perhaps that's kind of "elitist" of me.
Incidentally I actually helped proofread this game, and from what I can recall, the English and Spanish versions were released at the same time, so in a sense it's still an "OELVN."

Nice review.
OTL is such a great OELVN. Definitely worth a read, (or two, to make sure you understand everything! )
I'm a sucker for mysteries, so I was hooked from start to finish when I read this. (Phew, can't believe it's been well over a year since I read it.)

You know what? At least for me, a first timer's opinion is as valuable than one from a veteran. I mean, sure, someone who played a lot of certain genre clearly knows what makes them so special, but a first time sometimes picks things up that veteran already are, I don't know, desensitized (is that a proper word?) and thus provide some fair, unbiased opinion. Ofc, if they are willing to give one, bc some dumb people just play like minutes of games of a genre they dislike only to bash it. 

*You got me on the Otome part* Is one of them Cinderella Phenomenon?  I really want to play it!! It'll be nice to read your opinion about it!
And I totally understand you, I should be writing my graduation thesis now...

Great review! And for free?  I'll definitely play this in my summer vacation (meaning: soon, I live in the south hemisphere)!!!

I had this experience where I was playing f2p for a long time, and then finally gave in and bought premium. At that moment I felt like everything in the game should become trivial. Like when you activate cheat mode in a single-player game. But it didn't and I felt disappointed, lost motivation and quit.
A lot of my friends play these games with everyday routines, which kind of makes me want to stay away from those micro-transaction games. Usually it isn't the routine gameplay that appeals to me, but the combination with voice acting and art. Because of that and the fact that I don't play games on my mobile phone, I seldom play those kinds of games. I did manage to spend about $200 on a game called Shadowverse. About half of that was on a 33% off sale. Though I must say, the transaction system is honestly pretty decent for that game - it's clean and elegant, and f2p is a real legitimate option.
I also found it's easy to get lured into buying shitty stuff on dlsite (quickly learned my lesson though). For big-name steam games I watch a lot of gameplay videos before buying them to make sure that I'll actually play and enjoy the game. Overall I feel that it was good I got exposure to these elements in a moderate way and didn't get hooked on those seriously exploitative games.
 
I agree. In terms of games, micro-transaction ones are the bottom of the barrel. I don't consider them as games anymore, when they are not about gameplay and are just a system with stimuli designed to psychologically trap their users.

I honestly wondered about this part of the story when observing your knowledge and the output of your blog, especially after I've started preparing my own and realized how much it will take from me to keep a weekly schedule.
I guess it all have costs, but I've just wanted to say that I find this kind of dedication extremely impressive and have a huge respect for what you've achieved around here. I always had a lot problems with giving my all to anything in my life and honestly VNs are a bit of a therapy to me, something I want to stick with and build upon in creative ways (while in the past I've spend literal years mindlessly playing strategy games and RPGs, really barely getting anything out of it - just wasting time). I hope I can one day get anywhere close to your level of expertise and authority on the topic.
Also, with bad/mediocre VNs... That's the everyday reality of every genre, isn't it? Classics are classics, but following new stuff always has this effect. So far, I find lesser stuff entertaining in it's own way and don't really feel regrets about postponing my obligatory kamige experiences. I wonder how I will look at it in a few years...

My advice is not to try to match my output... to be blunt, I'm seriously pushing the edges of my own limits just to keep going.  Cherry pick your favorite genres and ignore everything else. 

*smiles wryly* it is more that I subconsciously distrust all humans that aren't family and am paranoid even about family if something triggers one of the 'traps' in my brain.  Being paranoid is emotionally exhausting, so it eventually comes out as open irritation that can easily blow up into raw hatred and anger.  I have to be alone for several hours for every hour I spend in company, lol. 
Also, that was just me blowing off some steam... I had my neighbor say - sarcastically - that he envies all the free time I had, and it was all I could do not to take his head off this morning... literally.

One Thousand Lies. I see we have a man of good taste.

I still have to get to the sequel.  
TBH, I hate a problem with reading "serious" VNs lately, I need to have a bit of clear mind for those and my mood was so bad in past few months I mostly ended up reading bad or silly ones just to relax. "Hate+" and "Digital: A Love Story" are high on my list but in reality always lose to a thing like Nekopara or some obscure crap I read just for the fun of mercilessly picking it apart.
I'll definitely get to those two around the winter break though, otherwise this whole "western VN appreciation" formula will get a bit hollow.
PS Next week's review will be One Thousand Lies, I hope you'll enjoy it.

When I'm writing something like this I'm always a bit afraid that I'm overhyping it and setting people up for disappointment, because how you respond to this kind of story is probably very much a personal matter. But Analogue is definitely much more than it seems at first glance. I still have to play through Love's first VN, Digital: A Love Story, which is pretty much a text game in a retro internet browser stylistics, but also gets a lot of praise. Minimalism seems to be her default style. 

I didn't knew that such a powerful story was hidden behind a simple interface like this. Interesting.

After I wrote everything that I noticed the pattern XD  But yeah, somehow it's way easier to find dark themed BL than light heart themed BL. They DO exist, but you'll have more luck looking around dj circles stuff than big companies' works. That shows you how many sadistic girls are out there!
Paradise seems less hardcore, but this developer LOVES some terror stuff (like demons, pacts, jump scares) so I'm betting it's not for the faint heart!
But I'll talk about otomeges next week, the majority of them are a lot more sacarine   at least in comparison to the stained world of BL
Fiddle, I do love your collection of gifs! You have one for everything hahahahaha

HADAKA SHITSUJI

So this week's accidental theme is "domination and sadism". Or is it just everywhere in BL games? :]

While intoxicated you say? Looks quite cool.  I've been dealing with writer's block for months now, maybe I should try out this method.