bakauchuujin

I recently finished Euphoria so I figured I should make a review of it.
As for the general story of Euphoria I feel like talking about anything other than the start could be a potetial spoiler so I will refrain from doing so. Euphoria starts with the main character waking up in a white room with a door. As he walks through the door he finds himself in another white room along with six girls. Of the six girls there are five students who are in the same school as the main character as well as one of his teachers. Once they are all gathered a mechanical voice tells them that to get out they need to unlock five doors, these doors are unlocked after the main character has done a sexual act with one of the girls, with him being free to choose who. One of the girls then refuses to participate, everything becomes black and when they can see again she is locked to an electric chair where she is electricuted to death. Now with the five remaining girls the main character need to complete the game to get out of there alive. So the first part here which I have given a short introduction to works pretty much like a nukige in that it contains a lot of sex scenes and that there are many fetishes involved. There are also some questions raised during this part as well as its importance in character building though all in all I would call this part of the VN a well written nukige. As for the later half, which I don't want to go into due to spoilers, well it contains way less sex scenes while doing a much better job at storytelling with giving you more hints as to what is actually going on. The recommended way to go though Euphoria is to read it in this order, Rika, Natsuki, Rinne, Nemu and Kanae, with Rika as the first route and Kanae as the last route. The reason this is the prefered way to play it is that it gives the best experience in terms of piecing together information from the different routes. As for what I think is best to categorize Euphora as I would say it is a mystery psychological horror visual novel.
Well now that my introduction to Euphoria is over I suppose I can start the actual review of it.
Firstly I want to talk a bit about what I though about each route induvidually.
I guess I should start with Rika, well her route is pretty bad. The first part of her route was to me the worst part of Euphoria. The main character came of as an irredeemable evil person and Rika is just really annoying. This caused me to not really enjoy the sex scenes or any of the other scenes where you interacted with Rika. As for the later half I found it to be much better. I would say this part is pretty decent and the story here is pretty interesting, Rika also becomes much more tolerable and the main character comes of as a much better person than he did in the first part of her route.
The next route is Natsuki (the teacher), I found her early route to be much much better than the early route of Rika. The back and forth between her and the main character was quite interesting and she is a really likable as a character. Due to her being very good at pushing back against the main character he also became a lot more interesting as his internal strugle became quite clear. As for the later half I liked it quite a lot, her later half I would say is a bit like a horror action story.
Next up is Rinne, as for her first half I though it was quite good, her sex scenes really did a good job at showcasing her personality and there were also some really interesting conversations with her during the first part. As for the secound part of her route, well I found it absolutely amazing, it was just such a good twisted physological horror story and it had me at the edge of my seat the entire time. I remember just being in awe at how interesting this route was. I also think this route is the one that did the best job at implemeting sex scenes, it worked really well with the story and with the atmosphere of the route. Due to this route I got completely hooked on Euphoria and marathoned the rest of it.
As for the nemu route, well I think she has the best first part. Her sex scenes were quite extreeme, but you don't feel bad for her at all since it is Nemu. Other than being quite extreeme her first part also raises some questions about her as a character showing that there may be more under her surface than what can be seen. As for the secound part of her route I found it really interesting though not quite as good as the secound half of the Rinne route. The route was really cruel, but also had quite an interesting story. 
Then lastly is the Kanae route. Her sex scenes during the early part is okay, not really that good or that bad. Though the early part does a pretty good job at forshadowing some things.
As for the secound half of her route I suppose I should split it into two parts since there are two ways her route can play out.
One is a route that has the main character doing really horrible things and seem to be there mainly for people who really want to see messed up sex scenes. This is a rather short route and doesn't really feel that important.
The other route is the true ending route. This route was to me the best part of Euphoria. This route start of as a complete mindfuck that I just found extreemly interesting. After that the route then start to explain in details what has actually happened and it becomes a really emotional story that had me almost crying at times. The last part of it was just wonderful to experience and it was just such an emotional roller coaster which at the end left me really satisfied. While this route answered most of the things in the story I was still left with some questions about certain things, though I think those are meant to be left as mysteries. 
 
As for my final thoughts, well I absolutely love Euphoria. It started of pretty bad with the Rika route and at that point my expectations were a bit low, though as I played through more routes it really sucked me in. I think it did a really good job at mixing the sex scenes with the story and I liked to play it all in its entirety. Even though it has a lot of sex scenes I would still recommend it even if you have no interest in the sex scenes. The story on its own is extreemly good and is definitely the highlight of the VN. While I said the first part of it can be considered a nukige the same can not be said for Euphoria as a whole, the story part take center stage once the first part of the route is done and the later halfs of each route is just so much better than the first part. Most of the time the sex scenes aren't really important to read and it is enough just to generally know what happend which means they can be skipped. As for which sex scenes I think would be most important to read if you are fine with reading them but want to skip most of them, well I think the sex scenes in the Rinne route as well as early Nemu route is the most important ones to read as these actually feel like they add to the characters and story, though I would still say their routes are very good even without going through these scenes.
 
Here is the cover of the physical edition
Here is the back of the physical edition
Here is the disc of the physical edition

The other side of the reversible cover

Limited time bonus BGM collection.

As for my review of the physical edition, well this is a pretty standard hardcopy. There really isn't anything extra other than the BGM collection, which I don't know if still follows with the hardcopy since it is a limited time bonus (I got it when I bought mine in November last year). Since the physical edition is quite standard I would only recommend getting it for people who just want to have a physical edition of their VNs. One thing that I think was quite nice is that the cover doesn't show any nudity, this is nice since it is then less likely for there to be problems in customs when importing it. Also if you want the nudity on the cover you can just turn the cover around and display it that way since it has a reversible cover.

With Date A Live: Rio Reincarnatio being confirmed for an english release I figured I should make a review of it.
 
Date A Live Rio Reincarnation is actually a collection of two Date A Live VNs that released on PS3 as well as a new story that I think can kind of be seen as a fandisc. The two PS3 VNs are Date A Live: Rinne Utopia and Date A Live: Arusu Install while the extra story is just called Date A Live Rio Reincarnation. For this review I will focus on each individual part on its own.
 
A quick summary of Date A Live Rinne Utopia
Date A Live Rinne Utopia takes place sometime after the first season on the anime and includes the characters introduced in the first season. Other than this there is also a new character Rinne a mysterious girl who seem to be Shido's neighboor as well as his childhood friend (they were never reunited, she was always there). Other than this there are some other odd things going on, for instance there is a huge tower in the middle of the city that only Shido finds odd and he has these dreams of a spirit appearing before him. During the common route there are of course also date events where you can choose between Kotori, Origami, Kurumi, Touka and Yoshino. After some of these date events you get into their routes and get an ending with them. After having gone through all the different endings you then unlock Rinne's route where I would say the meat of the story can be found.
 
For my opinion of it I would first like to say that I think this is a really good Date A Live VN. It takes full advantage of the setting of Date A Live and I think it does an excelent job both telling a large impactfull story while also giving lots of nice moments with each of the different heroines and pretty satisfying endings with each of the heroines. For the heroine routes there is always something going on whether there is an internal conflict for one of the girls or it is something else going on, because of this it felt like each of the routes managed to carry themselves as their own story and also make the romance between the heroine and Shido feel satisfying. For the overarching plot I think they do a good job building it up throughout the VN during the different routes and I think the story it tells is something that works perfectly within the setting of a VN. Rinne's route at the end then works as a great climax for the story with lots of epic as well as emotional moments.
 
A quick summary of Date A Live Arusu Install
Date A Live Arusu Install takes place sometime after the second season on the anime and as such also includes Miku and the Yamai twins. The main setup of the story in Arusu Install is that Ratatoskr has made a new dating sim for Shido to practise on which is a fulldive experience that has a recreation of the city they live in as well as the people living there. There Shido is supposed to go on dates with AI's with the same personality and looks as the spirits. However early in the game he meets an odd girl called Arusu, that he has never seen before and shouldn't exist in the game, she ask him what love is as she is curious about it and don't understand it. As this happens Kotori who has been talking to Shido when he was in the game loses contact with him and the people on the outside are unable to get him out of there, meaning he is stuck within the game. This then makes all of the girls hook themselves up to the machine to enter the game so that they can save Shido. This means that they are all stuck in a replica of their city going to the same school and living in the same house. So this means that it is essentially as if they were in the real world other than the fact that side characters are npc, they are forced into roles that fit a dating sim and there is Arusu using her powers to make special date events that happens in the dream of Shido and the heroine that puts them in special suituations with the aim being for them to get closer so she can learn what love is.
 
As for my review of Date A Live Arusu Install I guess I should start with the begining. I think that the way they use the setting of Date A Live to set up the story is really cool. Referencing my little Shido with the fulldive machine is really fun and I think it is a really smart way of getting the characters into suituations they otherwise wouldn't be. Other than this it also sets up a nice overarching mystery with Arusu and them being stuck in the game. Also because of the game's setting there are lots of things that are able to happen that wouldn't otherwise make sense and this is used to make lots of different scenarios with the girls. This I would say works well as fanservice for the girls not necessarily sexual fanservice, but more so seeing them in lots of different suituation like magical girl Kotori or shrine maid Origami which also provides some nice interesting artwork. A problem with this though is that these scenarios don't really do any job with building a good emotional story for the girls or get you connected to them, it just feels like pure fanservice with no substance. This made the routes for the individual heroines seem quite hollow, something that really hurt my enjoyment as this is the majority of the VN. The true route I feel does a good job on the emotional side and just in general having a pretty good and satisfactory story. So overall I would say that the setup and the true route are really good, but that it suffers from the other routes feeling empty only offering hollow fanservice that mainly just show different suitations with the characters in what seem like what if scenarios, though they do have good art and I would say some are quite enjoyable (magical girl Kotori is one that comes to mind). 
 
Date A Live Rio Reincarnation works pretty much like a fandisc for both of the previous VNs. I don't think I can really go much into it without spoiling things from the other VNs, but what I can say is that they meet a small girl named Rio who looks for the most important thing (she doesn't know what it is just that she is looking for it). As for the content of Rio Reincarnation it features a few nice scenes with the heroines as well as give a bit more of a proper ending for each of the VNs. I very much liked this addition as I really liked the different endings in it as well as the story it told in general being interesting.
 
Just some quick remarks about the visuals, the visuals are really nice looking, which is to be expected as the artist is Tsunako, the artist behind the Neptunia series and Fairy Fencer F as well as being the illustrator for the original Date A Live light novel. However I found some rather annoying problems with the PS4 CGs. While most of them were as they should be, some of the CG variations had parts of the art that had been missplaced by a pixel or two or there being a difference in colour between two parts of the CG put together. Under are two examples with some red circles added just to show the area you need to look at. While these aren't really that noticeable I found it annoying as I like to screenshot all of the different CGs and have them on my PC to look at later and I don't want them to have these kinds of flaws.

 
 
Cover of the limited edition

 
Back of the limited edition

 
Cover of regular edition

Everything included with the limited edition

 
Cover of limited PS4 edition and regular PS vita edition

 
 

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

 
 

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

 
 

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

 
 

I figured that it is a bit of a waste to write full reviews of VNs where there are a lot of reviews already by people who are better at writing them than I am, because of this I will now only write a short opinion about a VN I have finished and show the physical edition for titles that has lots of reviews. For VNs where there seem to be a lack of reviews, such as many japanese titles that has never been translated I plan to do longer reviews as well as of course show the pictures of the physical edition.
 
The main thing Grisaia complete box comes with is the Grisaia trilogy and Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru so I will focus on those.
 
The first part of Grisaia is the fruit of Grisaia, this in built up by a common route which focuses on building up the characters and has lots of comedic scenes and then a route for each of the heroines which goes into their backstories and build their relationship with the main character. Fruit of Grisaia is in my opinion the best part of the series, it features a lot of great comedy a fantastic cast of characters and a lot of really good stories and is the only VN I have so far given a 10/10. 
 
Labyrinth of Grisaia is split into multiple parts with the main part focusing on the backstory of the main character then there are afterstories for each of the girls routes in Fruit of Grisaia as well as what if sex scenarios and sidestories (random comedic scenes that are non cannonical). The main story is really good, though in my opinion not quite as good as most parts of fruit of Grisaia. The afterstories were really nice as it allowed you to see the relationship with the girls after everything that happened in their route is dealt with and just added something I felt the first VN lacked. The what if sex scenarios and the side stories were generally quite good though not as good as the other parts, I don't feel like they subtracted anything from my opinion of the VN though and instead just made me like it more as it was just some nice additional fanservice.
 
Eden of Grisaia which is the last of the trilogy. The main story here is the harem route which deals with events from the main characters past catching up with him then there is the prologue which tells some events before the start of Fruit of Grisaia and there are also more what if scenarios sex scenes. The main story is a very action packed story with lots of good comedic moments and I think the characters generally shine, while I think it is really good it isn't quite as good as Fruit of Grisaia or Labyrinth of Grisaia in my opinion because of things such as elements of how the story got to this point doesn't make much sence (combining things from routes that wouldn't really be compatible), some retcons and a rather stupid plot twitst close to the end. As for the prologue it is a nice prequal that shows the different girls slightly before they meet the main character.
 
Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru is a spin-off where one of the main girls (Michiru) becomes a magical girl. All of the character have some of their main traits though they are kind of just shoved into different roles. The consept of Michiru becoming a magical girl is really funny and they manage to do fairly well with the comedy, though overall considering the cast of Grisaia it felt rather underwhelming and I think they could have made it a lot more funny and used the cast better.
 
The front of the box

The back of the box

The sides of the box

 

Outside of the Story collection where the game discs are and the music collection which contains music from the different parts of Grisaia

The discs for the VNs and the discs for the music

The artbook

Inside of the artbook

The extra things in the box

Size comparison with the complete box, one of them is a regular size did case and the other is a typical japanese physcial edition

Grisaia Trilogy on Switch

Grisaia trilogy cartridge

As for the Switch release I haven't read through it all to see whether there are any issues, though I did skip through everything to unlock scenes and CGs and while skipping I didn't notice any problems. Also the visuals looked great and from a few random scenes I went through I didn't find any problems with the sound. So unless there are any glearing problems that won't be noticed by skipping it is likely the best non 18+ release of Grisaia. There is also a rewind button which is just a reverse skip button which I think is really cool and is something I think other VNs should include as well.

Hello there, all you good people still following my content-starved blog! There will be no regular review post this week (I’ll be catching up next week with one about Reine Work’s Our Lovely Escape, and hopefully a week after that with one of the long-overdue games sent to me for review), but I’ve wanted to take this opportunity to share the reasons behind the recent slowdown on the site and talk a bit my plans for the future. A warning: this will contain a lot of personal musings that most of you are probably not very interested in. However, I kind of need this opportunity to vent and reset. I’ll add a tl;dr version at the end of this post.
Outside of my, not-extremely-successful attempt to jumpstart a new wave of activity on Fuwanovel, there have been a few other things happening behind the scenes. The major one was my academic project on visual novel fan translations, which led me to submitting a paper for an international fan studies conference in Cracow. Preparing the speech in English (this was the first time I wasn’t speaking in Polish on such an event), running a survey with people involved in fan translation projects… It all took a lot out of me and gave me little time and energy to actually enjoy VNs as such. It also coincided with a minor health issue, which despite its non-threatening nature made it impossible for me to sit straight for nearly two weeks – a truly infuriating thing when you should be working on your computer and are basically running out of time. This was probably a major factor which destroyed my motivation for working on the project, which in turn made it be the most painful and depressing one to date. I, however, still made my short presentation in the presence of prof. Matt Hills, one of the most influential researchers in my obscure field of study, and learned quite a lot from other speakers. Here’s some photographic proof, courtesy of my girlfriend who once more agreed to help me inflate my ego by documenting my speech. 😉

As you can see, I was asking the Heavens to help me and my listeners to get through those 20+ minutes of my horrible English accent. Not sure to what degree my prayers were heard, but at least there were no fatalities. Oh, and in the lower-left corner, it’s Matt Hills. That was both awesome and terrifying.

And here’s a rare moment where my conference ID wasn’t hanging backwards! You can see the fear in my eyes – one would think after nearly 10 similar presentations I’d be a little bit calmer, but it’s apparently in my nature to stress out over everything.

And here’s me taking one of two questions that were still possible to ask after I’ve used all the discussion time for my way-too-long PowerPoint slideshow. And yup, I will insert Flowers whenever that's even remotely appropriate. Suou x Rikka forever. You can't stop me!
While, in general, my project was fruitful and I’m satisfied with my performance, I also ended up so physically and emotionally drained that I’ve ditched the other two days of the conference, just enjoying my time in Cracow. Even after coming back, I had a day of what could be described as a full-on breakdown before I kind of got my shit together. All this, of course, has some very real consequences for the blog: for quite a while, I didn’t have the time and energy to really read VNs. And, obviously, without any new material to cover, I didn’t write anything either. It’s the first time since establishing the Blogger site that I have no “emergency” posts to use or quick ideas to supplement more involved write-ups with, even despite switching to the biweekly schedule. And honestly, I don’t expect to write much in-advance anymore. The “one post every two weeks” frequency is here to stay and I’m going to be flexible about it, switching content and dates when necessary.
The other thing is that I still want to make the blog a little bit more of my personal space. I’ve kept up the regular stream of content both to become a better writer and to prove a few things to myself. I think I’m satisfied with what I’ve achieved, and while I’m definitely not discarding the general profile of the blog and the responsibilities I’ve taken upon myself (like covering the games sent to me), I’m going to have fun with it too. Write silly stuff connected to the weeb culture and my peculiar experience with it. I’ve already hinted at this at the beginning of the summer, but I’m even more determined to make it happen now. No hobby I’ve picked up over the years was this intellectually stimulating and satisfying as this one and I want to do all I can to keep it this way– I can't let things go too stale.
And while I’m doing all this weird stuff and overthinking things, I hope you guys will stay and still read my crappy writing. Exploring the creativity and passion of EVN devs is not something I’ll ever get tired of, and I hope we can enjoy their stuff together for years to come. Thank you all for following my work, and until next week!
 
tl;dr I’ve been to a fan studies conference which, together with minor health issues, ate a month and a half of my life. I’ll get back to “serious” posting next week, returning to the bi-weekly schedule. I might sneak in some weird posts about Japanese popculture between “proper” EVN ones. EVNs are love, EVNs are life (still). See you next week for actual content!

Henshin !!! Pantsu ni Natte Kunkun Peropero is a nukige about a perverted guy who gets the ability to transform into different things which he uses to creep on girls and rape them (the reason why he can do this is that from the thing he is transformed to he can create different body parts). So ye it is a pretty weird nukige. The VN starts with the main character moving to another school where he ends up in the same class as his little sister (who moved out after he stated his wish to become womans panties). After his day at school he finds an odd creature which looks like a stuffed toy. This creature who gets called Nanako claims to be from the future and gives him a candy with nanomachines that enables him to transform into different things and a phone looking thing to select and record his transformation. The effect of this lasts for 30 days and it can only be used 2 times a day (only 1 time a day in the weekends). The scenes of the VN is built around a map structure where you pick different scenarios from the map, first starting with a limited amount of events, but as things progresses more areas are unlocked either due to events that happen outside of the sex scenes or due to one event unlocking another event with the character. As for characters there are 7 characters that are the main interest of the main character who have their own ending, 2 of them are sisters and shares events and endings so there are 6 endings. While these 7 characters are the main targets of the main character there are also lots of other events which has the main character target random girls with lots of these being full on sex scenes. 
 
The first part of the VN generally focuses on setting up the situation and mainly relies on comedy rather than H-scenes, so it does take a bit of time before the first H-scenes start. As for the early H-scenes I found a lot of them to be quite weak, they are both very long and also quite tame with a lot of the time being filled by the main characters internal monologue with little time spent on the different girl's reactions comperably. Though as I progressed through some scenes they started becoming much better in terms length and the situations also ramped which made them more comedic and more stimulating. So while I initially found myself dissapointed it improved substantially over time for me and i ended up liking it quite a lot. I did still find the internal monologues to be a bit long though, but that is kind of expected given the nature of the H-scenes as there really isn't a back and forth between the main character and the girl in most scenes (though the reason I found the internal monologue to be too heavy probably also has to do with me having a lower reading speed than native japanese people who probably read through these lines in a few seconds). The map system the VN uses works very well with it giving a good amount of freedom to the reader, this is quite limited in the start as only a few scenes are available at that point, but it works really well once more events are unlocked. As for the endings they are either romantic or comedic with the main character and one of the girls (2 with the sister route) getting together. While romance aspects seem rather odd they at least fit quite well with the specific girls which makes it less jarring. Also one of the routes is a bit special and has more story elements, while it is kind of a pain to unlock I did find it to be quite nice, with it tying very much into the character Nanako and why she is in the past. As for what I think is the strongest point of this VN I would have to say the uniqueness of the H-scenes, I mean it is just so different from anything else I have seen in nukige. Situations like turning into a bicycle and spawning a dick to rape the person riding it or turing into a snorkle to get a girl to give you a blowjob is just so freaking weird and exactly what I was looking for as I wanted a VN that would just make me go wtf japan?
 
A bit about the different girls
Amasaka Miko, the main characters little sister. She is a quite typical tsundere with a brother complex. I found her to be a fairly decent character though nothing really special. While there were some good moments with her she just ended up being too much of a standard tsundere without much else apart from a few situations. 
 
Andou Roza is a kohai who is a super hacker and really good at video games and is often in her own world and often comes of as emotionless. While the first few scenes did a decent job of getting to know the character and had some comedic moments the emotionless part kind of hindred a lot of the enjoyment of the scenes. However as the route progressed she opened more up and there were a decent amount of good moments with her and her H-scenes got a lot better.
 
Merakawa Yuzu is an idol that the main character is a fan of and the girl who is number 1 on his list of girls he wants to be the panties of. The first scenes focus primarely on the idea of assulting an idol in secret while she is infront of a large crowd, while the later part shows her personality a lot more with her trying to catch whoever is doing these perverted things to her. The later part of her route really liked as I found the comedy to be really good and also liked the character.
 
Minakoshi Konami is the main characters homeroom teacher as well as a PE teacher. I found her to be a likeable character and I feel like she had generally consistantly good H-scenes. I don't really feel like there is that much to say about her other than her just in general being a likeable character and that one of her later scenes in particular was really good in my opinion.
 
Nakada sisters are senpais of the main character and are the leaders of the student council. One of them is a kind hearted airhead while the other generally portray herself as serious (other then all the time she fantasies about doing lewd things with her sister). Their interactions were in my opinion hillarious and they were by far my favorite characters. My favorite scene in the VN includes them and a double sided dildo and their other scenes were also some of my favorites. One thing I really liked about them was that there was much more of a back and forth between them and the main character after a certain point as well as just them interacting with eachother. I felt like this aspect really spiced up their scenes comedically and sexually which I would assume is why I found their scenes to generally be some of the best.
 
Tsukishiro Kagura is the roommate of the main character's sister. She is quite timid and endearing and I think her route is the one that had the best romance, though the romance still felt a bit odd given how the VN is in general. The main thing with this route is that even though the main character often uses his power to assult her he also helps her with a certain problem she has been struggeling with for a while. As for the H-scenes I would say she has some of the weaker ones in terms of being sexually exciting, but I also think she has the best of the a bit more wholesome scenes in the VN.
 
My general thoughts on the VN
My general thoughts on Henshin !!! Pantsu ni Natte Kunkun Peropero is that it is a good weird nukige that I would recommend anyone who knows japanese and just want something that makes them go wtf Japan? While I think the H-scenes often suffer a bit due to a lack of interaction between the main character and the girl this is something seems pretty inevitable given the general nature of the VN and I think it makes up for this fault by the originality of the scenes as it has H-scenes with situations you won't find in other VNs. The girls were in my opinion all quite good given that it is a nukige though the Nakada sisters were the only ones that really stood out as great characters for me. She map system also worked quite well as it gave a decent amount of choice which is important for a nukige of this nature.
 
 
The front of the physical box
The back of the physical box as well as the inner box which contains the VN
Here is a better view of how the CDs are stored.
The VN itself, it also include the disc for Henshin! and Henshin!2 which are older titles by the same company which has quite low resolution and serves as some bonus things for the release. I don't have any intention to read through the first 2 henshin VNs though I do think it is a nice bonus and I did skip through them to unlock the CGs then upscaled the CGs so I can view them in higher resolution)
 

Sekai Project
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
World End Economica
June 2014
May 2015
Not yet delivered
Clannad
November 11th 2014
October 2015
March 2016
Grisaia Trilogy
December 2014
October 2015
April 2018
Memory’s Dogma
June 2015
December 2016
Part 1 of 3 delivered August 2020
The Human Reignition Project
June 2015
December 2016
Not yet delivered
Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project
October 2015
April 2016
Not yet delivered
Root Double
January 2016
March 2016
November 2016
Chrono Clock
August 2016
April 2017
Not yet delivered
A Clockwork Ley-Line
Febuary 2017
January 2018
Not yet delivered
Fatal Twelve
March 2017
January 2018
November 2018
Hoshizora No Memoria
May 2017
September 2018
Not yet delivered
Shining Song Starnova
August 2017
August 2018
June 2019
A light in the Dark
February 2018
June 2018
July 2019
Tokyo Chronos
July 2018
April 2019
October 2020
 
Frontwing
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
Corona Blossom vol 1
June 2016
October 2016
July 2019
Corona Blossom vol 2
September 2016
December 2016
July 2019
Sharin no Kuni
November 2016
October 2017
Not yet delivered
Corona Blossom vol 3
December 2016
March 2017
July 2019
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 1 and 2
March 2017
June 2017
March 2019
Grisaia Complete box
March 2017
Q4 2017
Febuary 2019
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 3
June 2017
September 2017
Not yet delivered
Wonderful Everyday
August 2017
January 2018
Not yet delivered
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 4
November 2017
April 2018
Not yet delivered
Momoiro Closet
Febuary 2018
July 2018
Not yet delivered
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 5
June 2018
October 2018
Not yet delivered
Island
August 2018
December 2018
Not yet delivered
 
 
Sol Press
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
Sakura Sakura
August 2017
December 2017
Not yet delivered
Newton and the Apple Tree
December 2017
May 2018
Not yet delivered
Irotoridori no Sekai
Febuary 2019
December 2021
Not yet delivered
 
Others
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
Muv-Luv
September 2015
September 2016
July 2018
Libra of the Vampire Princess
December 2015
November 2016
May 2017
Dies Irae
December 2016
May 2017
April 2018
Koropokkur
March 2018
September 2018
October 2018
Venusblood Frontier
September 2018
December 2019
December 2019
Seven Days
September 2018
January 2019
Desember 2019
Aokana
June 2019
December 2019
September 2020

Sekai Project
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
World End Economica
June 2014
May 2015
Not yet delivered
Clannad
November 11th 2014
October 2015
March 2016
Grisaia Trilogy
December 2014
October 2015
April 2018
Memory’s Dogma
June 2015
December 2016
Part 1 of 3 delivered August 2020
The Human Reignition Project
June 2015
December 2016
Not yet delivered
Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project
October 2015
April 2016
Not yet delivered
Root Double
January 2016
March 2016
November 2016
Chrono Clock
August 2016
April 2017
Not yet delivered
A Clockwork Ley-Line
Febuary 2017
January 2018
Not yet delivered
Fatal Twelve
March 2017
January 2018
November 2018
Hoshizora No Memoria
May 2017
September 2018
Not yet delivered
Shining Song Starnova
August 2017
August 2018
June 2019
A light in the Dark
February 2018
June 2018
July 2019
Tokyo Chronos
July 2018
April 2019
October 2020
 
Frontwing
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
Corona Blossom vol 1
June 2016
October 2016
July 2019
Corona Blossom vol 2
September 2016
December 2016
July 2019
Sharin no Kuni
November 2016
October 2017
Not yet delivered
Corona Blossom vol 3
December 2016
March 2017
July 2019
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 1 and 2
March 2017
June 2017
March 2019
Grisaia Complete box
March 2017
Q4 2017
Febuary 2019
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 3
June 2017
September 2017
Not yet delivered
Wonderful Everyday
August 2017
January 2018
Not yet delivered
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 4
November 2017
April 2018
Not yet delivered
Momoiro Closet
Febuary 2018
July 2018
Not yet delivered
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 5
June 2018
October 2018
Not yet delivered
Island
August 2018
December 2018
Not yet delivered
 
 
Sol Press
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
Sakura Sakura
August 2017
December 2017
Not yet delivered
Newton and the Apple Tree
December 2017
May 2018
Not yet delivered
Irotoridori no Sekai
Febuary 2019
December 2021
Not yet delivered
 
Others
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
Muv-Luv
September 2015
September 2016
July 2018
Libra of the Vampire Princess
December 2015
November 2016
May 2017
Dies Irae
December 2016
May 2017
April 2018
Koropokkur
March 2018
September 2018
October 2018
Venusblood Frontier
September 2018
December 2019
December 2019
Seven Days
September 2018
January 2019
Desember 2019
Aokana
June 2019
December 2019
September 2020

Sekai Project
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
World End Economica
June 2014
May 2015
Not yet delivered
Clannad
November 11th 2014
October 2015
March 2016
Grisaia Trilogy
December 2014
October 2015
April 2018
Memory’s Dogma
June 2015
December 2016
Part 1 of 3 delivered August 2020
The Human Reignition Project
June 2015
December 2016
Not yet delivered
Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project
October 2015
April 2016
Not yet delivered
Root Double
January 2016
March 2016
November 2016
Chrono Clock
August 2016
April 2017
Not yet delivered
A Clockwork Ley-Line
Febuary 2017
January 2018
Not yet delivered
Fatal Twelve
March 2017
January 2018
November 2018
Hoshizora No Memoria
May 2017
September 2018
Not yet delivered
Shining Song Starnova
August 2017
August 2018
June 2019
A light in the Dark
February 2018
June 2018
July 2019
Tokyo Chronos
July 2018
April 2019
October 2020
 
Frontwing
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
Corona Blossom vol 1
June 2016
October 2016
July 2019
Corona Blossom vol 2
September 2016
December 2016
July 2019
Sharin no Kuni
November 2016
October 2017
Not yet delivered
Corona Blossom vol 3
December 2016
March 2017
July 2019
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 1 and 2
March 2017
June 2017
March 2019
Grisaia Complete box
March 2017
Q4 2017
Febuary 2019
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 3
June 2017
September 2017
Not yet delivered
Wonderful Everyday
August 2017
January 2018
Not yet delivered
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 4
November 2017
April 2018
Not yet delivered
Momoiro Closet
Febuary 2018
July 2018
Not yet delivered
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 5
June 2018
October 2018
Not yet delivered
Island
August 2018
December 2018
Not yet delivered
 
 
Sol Press
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
Sakura Sakura
August 2017
December 2017
Not yet delivered
Newton and the Apple Tree
December 2017
May 2018
Not yet delivered
Irotoridori no Sekai
Febuary 2019
December 2021
Not yet delivered
 
Others
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
Muv-Luv
September 2015
September 2016
July 2018
Libra of the Vampire Princess
December 2015
November 2016
May 2017
Dies Irae
December 2016
May 2017
April 2018
Koropokkur
March 2018
September 2018
October 2018
Venusblood Frontier
September 2018
December 2019
December 2019
Seven Days
September 2018
January 2019
Desember 2019
Aokana
June 2019
December 2019
September 2020

Sekai Project
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
World End Economica
June 2014
May 2015
Not yet delivered
Clannad
November 11th 2014
October 2015
March 2016
Grisaia Trilogy
December 2014
October 2015
April 2018
Memory’s Dogma
June 2015
December 2016
Part 1 of 3 delivered August 2020
The Human Reignition Project
June 2015
December 2016
Not yet delivered
Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project
October 2015
April 2016
Not yet delivered
Root Double
January 2016
March 2016
November 2016
Chrono Clock
August 2016
April 2017
Not yet delivered
A Clockwork Ley-Line
Febuary 2017
January 2018
Not yet delivered
Fatal Twelve
March 2017
January 2018
November 2018
Hoshizora No Memoria
May 2017
September 2018
Not yet delivered
Shining Song Starnova
August 2017
August 2018
June 2019
A light in the Dark
February 2018
June 2018
July 2019
Tokyo Chronos
July 2018
April 2019
October 2020
 
Frontwing
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
Corona Blossom vol 1
June 2016
October 2016
July 2019
Corona Blossom vol 2
September 2016
December 2016
July 2019
Sharin no Kuni
November 2016
October 2017
Not yet delivered
Corona Blossom vol 3
December 2016
March 2017
July 2019
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 1 and 2
March 2017
June 2017
March 2019
Grisaia Complete box
March 2017
Q4 2017
Febuary 2019
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 3
June 2017
September 2017
Not yet delivered
Wonderful Everyday
August 2017
January 2018
Not yet delivered
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 4
November 2017
April 2018
Not yet delivered
Momoiro Closet
Febuary 2018
July 2018
Not yet delivered
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Volume 5
June 2018
October 2018
Not yet delivered
Island
August 2018
December 2018
Not yet delivered
 
 
Sol Press
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
Sakura Sakura
August 2017
December 2017
Not yet delivered
Newton and the Apple Tree
December 2017
May 2018
Not yet delivered
Irotoridori no Sekai
Febuary 2019
December 2021
Not yet delivered
 
Others
VN
Start of Kickstarter
Estimated delivery
Actual delivery
Muv-Luv
September 2015
September 2016
July 2018
Libra of the Vampire Princess
December 2015
November 2016
May 2017
Dies Irae
December 2016
May 2017
April 2018
Koropokkur
March 2018
September 2018
October 2018
Venusblood Frontier
September 2018
December 2019
December 2019
Seven Days
September 2018
January 2019
Desember 2019
Aokana
June 2019
December 2019
September 2020

Frontwing will soon give more info about shipping of physical copies for their kickstarters. It will probably include another final date for shipment which they most likely will fail to deviler on.
 
Nekonyansoft has recently started talking about potentially kickstarting their physical releases. While many, myself included are a bit annoyed at VN kickstarters in general due to how FW and SP has handled things, I can see that it might be rather risky to do physical releases without one. So while it might not be the prefered way it is understandable in my opinion and whether it turns out good or bad will depend on whether or not Nekonyansoft will be able to deliver their physicals within a reasonable timeframe.
 
Jlist is currently selling Jast USA holiday box set which is a bundle of 3 VNs from Jast USA for $60.00. As for the value of these titles they mention that it has a value of at least $100.00 so it seems like a rather decent sale. The downside however is that you don't know which VNs you are going to get which could result in getting VNs you already own or that you don't care about. Personally I am not really a fan of these types of mystery boxes as I like to only collect VNs that I think seems like something I will like.
 
Here are a few titles that may be close to getting sold out or have a limited time left for pre-order.
There is a limited amount of physical copies for Clannad: Side Stories at sekaiproject, it seems to be leftovers from the original kickstarter.
On PS vita the physical edition of Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternate is being sold over at ricedigital and I am pretty sure that it is a limited run.
Backerkits that are still open Alpha's Adventures, Sakura Sakura Seven Days and Venus Blood Frontier
 

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

 
 

With Date A Live: Rio Reincarnatio being confirmed for an english release I figured I should make a review of it.
 
Date A Live Rio Reincarnation is actually a collection of two Date A Live VNs that released on PS3 as well as a new story that I think can kind of be seen as a fandisc. The two PS3 VNs are Date A Live: Rinne Utopia and Date A Live: Arusu Install while the extra story is just called Date A Live Rio Reincarnation. For this review I will focus on each individual part on its own.
 
A quick summary of Date A Live Rinne Utopia
Date A Live Rinne Utopia takes place sometime after the first season on the anime and includes the characters introduced in the first season. Other than this there is also a new character Rinne a mysterious girl who seem to be Shido's neighboor as well as his childhood friend (they were never reunited, she was always there). Other than this there are some other odd things going on, for instance there is a huge tower in the middle of the city that only Shido finds odd and he has these dreams of a spirit appearing before him. During the common route there are of course also date events where you can choose between Kotori, Origami, Kurumi, Touka and Yoshino. After some of these date events you get into their routes and get an ending with them. After having gone through all the different endings you then unlock Rinne's route where I would say the meat of the story can be found.
 
For my opinion of it I would first like to say that I think this is a really good Date A Live VN. It takes full advantage of the setting of Date A Live and I think it does an excelent job both telling a large impactfull story while also giving lots of nice moments with each of the different heroines and pretty satisfying endings with each of the heroines. For the heroine routes there is always something going on whether there is an internal conflict for one of the girls or it is something else going on, because of this it felt like each of the routes managed to carry themselves as their own story and also make the romance between the heroine and Shido feel satisfying. For the overarching plot I think they do a good job building it up throughout the VN during the different routes and I think the story it tells is something that works perfectly within the setting of a VN. Rinne's route at the end then works as a great climax for the story with lots of epic as well as emotional moments.
 
A quick summary of Date A Live Arusu Install
Date A Live Arusu Install takes place sometime after the second season on the anime and as such also includes Miku and the Yamai twins. The main setup of the story in Arusu Install is that Ratatoskr has made a new dating sim for Shido to practise on which is a fulldive experience that has a recreation of the city they live in as well as the people living there. There Shido is supposed to go on dates with AI's with the same personality and looks as the spirits. However early in the game he meets an odd girl called Arusu, that he has never seen before and shouldn't exist in the game, she ask him what love is as she is curious about it and don't understand it. As this happens Kotori who has been talking to Shido when he was in the game loses contact with him and the people on the outside are unable to get him out of there, meaning he is stuck within the game. This then makes all of the girls hook themselves up to the machine to enter the game so that they can save Shido. This means that they are all stuck in a replica of their city going to the same school and living in the same house. So this means that it is essentially as if they were in the real world other than the fact that side characters are npc, they are forced into roles that fit a dating sim and there is Arusu using her powers to make special date events that happens in the dream of Shido and the heroine that puts them in special suituations with the aim being for them to get closer so she can learn what love is.
 
As for my review of Date A Live Arusu Install I guess I should start with the begining. I think that the way they use the setting of Date A Live to set up the story is really cool. Referencing my little Shido with the fulldive machine is really fun and I think it is a really smart way of getting the characters into suituations they otherwise wouldn't be. Other than this it also sets up a nice overarching mystery with Arusu and them being stuck in the game. Also because of the game's setting there are lots of things that are able to happen that wouldn't otherwise make sense and this is used to make lots of different scenarios with the girls. This I would say works well as fanservice for the girls not necessarily sexual fanservice, but more so seeing them in lots of different suituation like magical girl Kotori or shrine maid Origami which also provides some nice interesting artwork. A problem with this though is that these scenarios don't really do any job with building a good emotional story for the girls or get you connected to them, it just feels like pure fanservice with no substance. This made the routes for the individual heroines seem quite hollow, something that really hurt my enjoyment as this is the majority of the VN. The true route I feel does a good job on the emotional side and just in general having a pretty good and satisfactory story. So overall I would say that the setup and the true route are really good, but that it suffers from the other routes feeling empty only offering hollow fanservice that mainly just show different suitations with the characters in what seem like what if scenarios, though they do have good art and I would say some are quite enjoyable (magical girl Kotori is one that comes to mind). 
 
Date A Live Rio Reincarnation works pretty much like a fandisc for both of the previous VNs. I don't think I can really go much into it without spoiling things from the other VNs, but what I can say is that they meet a small girl named Rio who looks for the most important thing (she doesn't know what it is just that she is looking for it). As for the content of Rio Reincarnation it features a few nice scenes with the heroines as well as give a bit more of a proper ending for each of the VNs. I very much liked this addition as I really liked the different endings in it as well as the story it told in general being interesting.
 
Just some quick remarks about the visuals, the visuals are really nice looking, which is to be expected as the artist is Tsunako, the artist behind the Neptunia series and Fairy Fencer F as well as being the illustrator for the original Date A Live light novel. However I found some rather annoying problems with the PS4 CGs. While most of them were as they should be, some of the CG variations had parts of the art that had been missplaced by a pixel or two or there being a difference in colour between two parts of the CG put together. Under are two examples with some red circles added just to show the area you need to look at. While these aren't really that noticeable I found it annoying as I like to screenshot all of the different CGs and have them on my PC to look at later and I don't want them to have these kinds of flaws.

 
 
Cover of the limited edition

 
Back of the limited edition

 
Cover of regular edition

Everything included with the limited edition

 
Cover of limited PS4 edition and regular PS vita edition

 
 

Over a few years now I have read some japanese VNs on the PS vita that are based on series that already had an anime before the VN. These VNs are Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?? Wonderful Party!, Himouto! Umaru-chan Himouto! Ikusei Keikaku, Nisekoi: Yomeiri!?, Sakura-sou no Pet na Kanojo, and To Love-Ru Trouble Darkness: True Princess. Since I have the physical version of all of them I figured that I would do a review of them, however it has been a while since i read them so I don't think I would be able to make a proper review for each of them without rereading parts of them. As such I decided that instead I would do short reviews of each and put them all in one blog entry. By the way these titles are aimed at people who have watched the anime or read the manga.
 
Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?? Wonderful Party! is in my opinion a good Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka? VN. It does a great job at properly representing the characters as they are in the anime (haven't read the manga) and manage to execute well on the relaxed atmosphere found in the anime. The main story of the common route is that Kokoa wants to make a surprise birthday party for Chino, after this the character that interact most Kokoa (who you play in the common route) will be inspired to themselves hold a party chrismas for all of the other girls. The main thing then is how each of the girls thinks about how best to hold a party and what will make the other girls the happiest. There is also a mini game in the common route where you play as Kokoa working at Rabbit House, this is quite short but can be annoying when you just want to get into another route. I also want to mention that I prefered it to the anime as many of the jokes in the anime seems to be too slowly phased and therefore become boring while they work pretty well in the visual novel. One thing I should also mention is that it of course feels quite childish which is to be expected since the series in Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka?
 
Himouto! Umaru-chan Himouto! Ikusei Keikaku managed to surprise me by being better than I had expected. It released before the 2nd season of the anime, but I would say that the general vibe of it is more similar to the 2nd season rather than the first season, something that I think is a good thing, btw didn't hate first season just thought the 2nd season was better. As for the common route I would say it was pretty decent and had some nice comedic moments, really liked the interactions between Taihei and Alex. As for the routes I would say those were the highlights of the VN. There are 3 different Umaru routes, one for UMR, one for her chibi form and one for her outside form as well as a route for Ebina, Kirie and Sylphinford. The routes did a good job at telling a story (mostly focusing on the relationship between siblings, not the incestious kind) and the comedy was what you would expect from Himouto Umaru (Sylphinford had some amazing comedic moments). Also after the end of the route there is an extra ending, this ending is just a few lines and a CG and tells what Umaru ended up as later, something that depends on lvling stats in the common route (just give her items that she use to lvl skills and have her use them). Again this is an annoying mini game and you probably need a guide to find out the stat combination needed for all the extra endings, but at least I think the extra endings are quite fun even though they are really short.
 
Nisekoi: Yomeiri!? is the first VN I ever read and where my profile picture is from. As for the VN itself I think it is really good, though it could in part be nostalgia since it is the first VN I read. The VN starts with Raku encountering a loli fox spirit named Otama who I would say works as a mascot for the VN. After the introduction you get a map of the school and of the city and then use that to choose who you want to have events with, after a few normal events with a girl you get a larger event that lasts longer and has a bit more impact and you continue with this until you get to the last event which can probably be considered her route. Each of their routes start with the girls going to the shrine connected to Otama and making a wish, Otama then fufills this wish in a way often not really expected or thought through by the one wishing it, thus creating a suituation that needs to be solved. As for the routes there are 6 in total, with 4 main routes that are romance focused one for each of the main heroines Chitoge, Kosaki, Marika and Seishirou and then extra routes unlocking after you have completed a route, one being the Ruri route (not romance but mainly about not making her hate you as Shuu involves you in things that piss her off) and the Raku route which can be considered the harem end, or rather the end where nothing happens. Chitoge's route is really emotional and something I think would fit in a nakige, Onodera's route is very nostalgic having many references to the main series while the other routes mainly focus on comedy (found most of them hilarious). As for gameplay there are a few minigames where you have to avoid being seen by someone (often the gangsters), then there are a few times where you get a few different hiragana that you need to combine to make a word that is your answer to something and lastly there is a health bar which mainly go down if a certain character gets mad at you and punches you or you eat something you shouldn't. I feel like these are the best implemented mini game systems I have seen so far in these kinds of VNs and while these unnecessary minigames that slow you down when you want to read other routes are annoying this one didn't feel all that annoying and a few times actually worked pretty well within the story. Just to end this of I wanted to say that it does a really good job using the characters to their full potential and that anyone who is a fan of Nisekoi, has a PS vita and know japanese should pick it up.
 
Sakura-sou no Pet na Kanojo is something I am a bit more mixed about. On one hand it does a pretty good job with the characters, comedy and story and on the other hand the art is kind of plain (colours are pretty bland) and the gameplay system is really annoying (the most annoying I have seen so far) which I think is somewhat detremental when doing the different routes. The general story is about the people at Sakurasou starting to work together on a game for a game competition. How this plays out in the VN is that you spend time working with them and depending on who you work with you end in their route, though you also need to ensure that all of them manages to get their required tasks done and I found it to be a bit more complex than it sounds. Other than that there are lots of scenes with the different people at Sakurasou as well as a new character that was the one who got them to enter the competition. As I mentioned I found the comedy to be well executed and the characters to be handled well so these scenes are pretty fun. As for the endings there are only endings with Shiina and Aoyama, though there are 3 variations for each of them which I think just depend on how many times you cleared an ending with them (bad type first time, better 2nd time and the best the 3rd time). They have also built in a stupid new game+ thing making it so you have to complete it from scratch to get the better endings, other than that there is an event for each character that includes a CG that requires you to go through each of the 6 routes twice meaning you have to go through it and the stupid gameplay system at least 12 times in total if you want to have all the CGs. In conclusion I would say it is a pretty good VN though it is held back by plain art with bland colours and a stupid system forcing you to go through the VN 12 times to get all the scenes while you navigate a semi difficult annoying system for each route.
 
To Love-Ru Trouble Darkness: True Princess is the only of these titles that I found to really be a disappointment. There is a wide variety in how good the routes are, some I would say are actually somewhat good while others are quite bad (especially Yami's route). While there is a lot of VN original content some of the scenes feel like pretty much a copy of things in the manga/anime just toned down due to it being on PS vita. The general plot is that that Rito loses his memory due to one of Lala's machines, then he spends time with the different girls and at the end of it he regains his memory after having gotten close with a girl and happy end. Other than some routes being generally poorly written and lending too much from the source matterial I would say a huge problem is the limitation it has being on the vita. Since To Love Ru generally rely on perverted comedy it can't really do as good of a job with it due to Sony even before their recent censorship crusade not really accepting anything as lewd as things found in the manga and anime. Other than this there are also some really annoying technical problem, for one all of the art has been compressed which is quite clear when comparing it to other vita titles, this makes it look much worse than it should have (art quality is pretty good), also one really annoying problem is that it seems it has memory problems, as you get close to having done all the scenes it just goes black everytime you try to save regardless of savefile and refuses to save after the VN is complete. This is a problem I found other people also had when I googled the problem in japanese though I didn't find a solution, as such I have  everything other than the ending CGs of the Nemesis route (at her ending part but won't save after the credits) when I have the memory card in and without the memory card I have done the Nemesis route so I could get all CGs, even though I don't have them all in the same place.
 
Front cover of the five VNs

 
Back cover of the five VNs

 

With Date A Live: Rio Reincarnatio being confirmed for an english release I figured I should make a review of it.
 
Date A Live Rio Reincarnation is actually a collection of two Date A Live VNs that released on PS3 as well as a new story that I think can kind of be seen as a fandisc. The two PS3 VNs are Date A Live: Rinne Utopia and Date A Live: Arusu Install while the extra story is just called Date A Live Rio Reincarnation. For this review I will focus on each individual part on its own.
 
A quick summary of Date A Live Rinne Utopia
Date A Live Rinne Utopia takes place sometime after the first season on the anime and includes the characters introduced in the first season. Other than this there is also a new character Rinne a mysterious girl who seem to be Shido's neighboor as well as his childhood friend (they were never reunited, she was always there). Other than this there are some other odd things going on, for instance there is a huge tower in the middle of the city that only Shido finds odd and he has these dreams of a spirit appearing before him. During the common route there are of course also date events where you can choose between Kotori, Origami, Kurumi, Touka and Yoshino. After some of these date events you get into their routes and get an ending with them. After having gone through all the different endings you then unlock Rinne's route where I would say the meat of the story can be found.
 
For my opinion of it I would first like to say that I think this is a really good Date A Live VN. It takes full advantage of the setting of Date A Live and I think it does an excelent job both telling a large impactfull story while also giving lots of nice moments with each of the different heroines and pretty satisfying endings with each of the heroines. For the heroine routes there is always something going on whether there is an internal conflict for one of the girls or it is something else going on, because of this it felt like each of the routes managed to carry themselves as their own story and also make the romance between the heroine and Shido feel satisfying. For the overarching plot I think they do a good job building it up throughout the VN during the different routes and I think the story it tells is something that works perfectly within the setting of a VN. Rinne's route at the end then works as a great climax for the story with lots of epic as well as emotional moments.
 
A quick summary of Date A Live Arusu Install
Date A Live Arusu Install takes place sometime after the second season on the anime and as such also includes Miku and the Yamai twins. The main setup of the story in Arusu Install is that Ratatoskr has made a new dating sim for Shido to practise on which is a fulldive experience that has a recreation of the city they live in as well as the people living there. There Shido is supposed to go on dates with AI's with the same personality and looks as the spirits. However early in the game he meets an odd girl called Arusu, that he has never seen before and shouldn't exist in the game, she ask him what love is as she is curious about it and don't understand it. As this happens Kotori who has been talking to Shido when he was in the game loses contact with him and the people on the outside are unable to get him out of there, meaning he is stuck within the game. This then makes all of the girls hook themselves up to the machine to enter the game so that they can save Shido. This means that they are all stuck in a replica of their city going to the same school and living in the same house. So this means that it is essentially as if they were in the real world other than the fact that side characters are npc, they are forced into roles that fit a dating sim and there is Arusu using her powers to make special date events that happens in the dream of Shido and the heroine that puts them in special suituations with the aim being for them to get closer so she can learn what love is.
 
As for my review of Date A Live Arusu Install I guess I should start with the begining. I think that the way they use the setting of Date A Live to set up the story is really cool. Referencing my little Shido with the fulldive machine is really fun and I think it is a really smart way of getting the characters into suituations they otherwise wouldn't be. Other than this it also sets up a nice overarching mystery with Arusu and them being stuck in the game. Also because of the game's setting there are lots of things that are able to happen that wouldn't otherwise make sense and this is used to make lots of different scenarios with the girls. This I would say works well as fanservice for the girls not necessarily sexual fanservice, but more so seeing them in lots of different suituation like magical girl Kotori or shrine maid Origami which also provides some nice interesting artwork. A problem with this though is that these scenarios don't really do any job with building a good emotional story for the girls or get you connected to them, it just feels like pure fanservice with no substance. This made the routes for the individual heroines seem quite hollow, something that really hurt my enjoyment as this is the majority of the VN. The true route I feel does a good job on the emotional side and just in general having a pretty good and satisfactory story. So overall I would say that the setup and the true route are really good, but that it suffers from the other routes feeling empty only offering hollow fanservice that mainly just show different suitations with the characters in what seem like what if scenarios, though they do have good art and I would say some are quite enjoyable (magical girl Kotori is one that comes to mind). 
 
Date A Live Rio Reincarnation works pretty much like a fandisc for both of the previous VNs. I don't think I can really go much into it without spoiling things from the other VNs, but what I can say is that they meet a small girl named Rio who looks for the most important thing (she doesn't know what it is just that she is looking for it). As for the content of Rio Reincarnation it features a few nice scenes with the heroines as well as give a bit more of a proper ending for each of the VNs. I very much liked this addition as I really liked the different endings in it as well as the story it told in general being interesting.
 
Just some quick remarks about the visuals, the visuals are really nice looking, which is to be expected as the artist is Tsunako, the artist behind the Neptunia series and Fairy Fencer F as well as being the illustrator for the original Date A Live light novel. However I found some rather annoying problems with the PS4 CGs. While most of them were as they should be, some of the CG variations had parts of the art that had been missplaced by a pixel or two or there being a difference in colour between two parts of the CG put together. Under are two examples with some red circles added just to show the area you need to look at. While these aren't really that noticeable I found it annoying as I like to screenshot all of the different CGs and have them on my PC to look at later and I don't want them to have these kinds of flaws.

 
 
Cover of the limited edition

 
Back of the limited edition

 
Cover of regular edition

Everything included with the limited edition

 
Cover of limited PS4 edition and regular PS vita edition

 
 

Over a few years now I have read some japanese VNs on the PS vita that are based on series that already had an anime before the VN. These VNs are Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?? Wonderful Party!, Himouto! Umaru-chan Himouto! Ikusei Keikaku, Nisekoi: Yomeiri!?, Sakura-sou no Pet na Kanojo, and To Love-Ru Trouble Darkness: True Princess. Since I have the physical version of all of them I figured that I would do a review of them, however it has been a while since i read them so I don't think I would be able to make a proper review for each of them without rereading parts of them. As such I decided that instead I would do short reviews of each and put them all in one blog entry. By the way these titles are aimed at people who have watched the anime or read the manga.
 
Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?? Wonderful Party! is in my opinion a good Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka? VN. It does a great job at properly representing the characters as they are in the anime (haven't read the manga) and manage to execute well on the relaxed atmosphere found in the anime. The main story of the common route is that Kokoa wants to make a surprise birthday party for Chino, after this the character that interact most Kokoa (who you play in the common route) will be inspired to themselves hold a party chrismas for all of the other girls. The main thing then is how each of the girls thinks about how best to hold a party and what will make the other girls the happiest. There is also a mini game in the common route where you play as Kokoa working at Rabbit House, this is quite short but can be annoying when you just want to get into another route. I also want to mention that I prefered it to the anime as many of the jokes in the anime seems to be too slowly phased and therefore become boring while they work pretty well in the visual novel. One thing I should also mention is that it of course feels quite childish which is to be expected since the series in Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka?
 
Himouto! Umaru-chan Himouto! Ikusei Keikaku managed to surprise me by being better than I had expected. It released before the 2nd season of the anime, but I would say that the general vibe of it is more similar to the 2nd season rather than the first season, something that I think is a good thing, btw didn't hate first season just thought the 2nd season was better. As for the common route I would say it was pretty decent and had some nice comedic moments, really liked the interactions between Taihei and Alex. As for the routes I would say those were the highlights of the VN. There are 3 different Umaru routes, one for UMR, one for her chibi form and one for her outside form as well as a route for Ebina, Kirie and Sylphinford. The routes did a good job at telling a story (mostly focusing on the relationship between siblings, not the incestious kind) and the comedy was what you would expect from Himouto Umaru (Sylphinford had some amazing comedic moments). Also after the end of the route there is an extra ending, this ending is just a few lines and a CG and tells what Umaru ended up as later, something that depends on lvling stats in the common route (just give her items that she use to lvl skills and have her use them). Again this is an annoying mini game and you probably need a guide to find out the stat combination needed for all the extra endings, but at least I think the extra endings are quite fun even though they are really short.
 
Nisekoi: Yomeiri!? is the first VN I ever read and where my profile picture is from. As for the VN itself I think it is really good, though it could in part be nostalgia since it is the first VN I read. The VN starts with Raku encountering a loli fox spirit named Otama who I would say works as a mascot for the VN. After the introduction you get a map of the school and of the city and then use that to choose who you want to have events with, after a few normal events with a girl you get a larger event that lasts longer and has a bit more impact and you continue with this until you get to the last event which can probably be considered her route. Each of their routes start with the girls going to the shrine connected to Otama and making a wish, Otama then fufills this wish in a way often not really expected or thought through by the one wishing it, thus creating a suituation that needs to be solved. As for the routes there are 6 in total, with 4 main routes that are romance focused one for each of the main heroines Chitoge, Kosaki, Marika and Seishirou and then extra routes unlocking after you have completed a route, one being the Ruri route (not romance but mainly about not making her hate you as Shuu involves you in things that piss her off) and the Raku route which can be considered the harem end, or rather the end where nothing happens. Chitoge's route is really emotional and something I think would fit in a nakige, Onodera's route is very nostalgic having many references to the main series while the other routes mainly focus on comedy (found most of them hilarious). As for gameplay there are a few minigames where you have to avoid being seen by someone (often the gangsters), then there are a few times where you get a few different hiragana that you need to combine to make a word that is your answer to something and lastly there is a health bar which mainly go down if a certain character gets mad at you and punches you or you eat something you shouldn't. I feel like these are the best implemented mini game systems I have seen so far in these kinds of VNs and while these unnecessary minigames that slow you down when you want to read other routes are annoying this one didn't feel all that annoying and a few times actually worked pretty well within the story. Just to end this of I wanted to say that it does a really good job using the characters to their full potential and that anyone who is a fan of Nisekoi, has a PS vita and know japanese should pick it up.
 
Sakura-sou no Pet na Kanojo is something I am a bit more mixed about. On one hand it does a pretty good job with the characters, comedy and story and on the other hand the art is kind of plain (colours are pretty bland) and the gameplay system is really annoying (the most annoying I have seen so far) which I think is somewhat detremental when doing the different routes. The general story is about the people at Sakurasou starting to work together on a game for a game competition. How this plays out in the VN is that you spend time working with them and depending on who you work with you end in their route, though you also need to ensure that all of them manages to get their required tasks done and I found it to be a bit more complex than it sounds. Other than that there are lots of scenes with the different people at Sakurasou as well as a new character that was the one who got them to enter the competition. As I mentioned I found the comedy to be well executed and the characters to be handled well so these scenes are pretty fun. As for the endings there are only endings with Shiina and Aoyama, though there are 3 variations for each of them which I think just depend on how many times you cleared an ending with them (bad type first time, better 2nd time and the best the 3rd time). They have also built in a stupid new game+ thing making it so you have to complete it from scratch to get the better endings, other than that there is an event for each character that includes a CG that requires you to go through each of the 6 routes twice meaning you have to go through it and the stupid gameplay system at least 12 times in total if you want to have all the CGs. In conclusion I would say it is a pretty good VN though it is held back by plain art with bland colours and a stupid system forcing you to go through the VN 12 times to get all the scenes while you navigate a semi difficult annoying system for each route.
 
To Love-Ru Trouble Darkness: True Princess is the only of these titles that I found to really be a disappointment. There is a wide variety in how good the routes are, some I would say are actually somewhat good while others are quite bad (especially Yami's route). While there is a lot of VN original content some of the scenes feel like pretty much a copy of things in the manga/anime just toned down due to it being on PS vita. The general plot is that that Rito loses his memory due to one of Lala's machines, then he spends time with the different girls and at the end of it he regains his memory after having gotten close with a girl and happy end. Other than some routes being generally poorly written and lending too much from the source matterial I would say a huge problem is the limitation it has being on the vita. Since To Love Ru generally rely on perverted comedy it can't really do as good of a job with it due to Sony even before their recent censorship crusade not really accepting anything as lewd as things found in the manga and anime. Other than this there are also some really annoying technical problem, for one all of the art has been compressed which is quite clear when comparing it to other vita titles, this makes it look much worse than it should have (art quality is pretty good), also one really annoying problem is that it seems it has memory problems, as you get close to having done all the scenes it just goes black everytime you try to save regardless of savefile and refuses to save after the VN is complete. This is a problem I found other people also had when I googled the problem in japanese though I didn't find a solution, as such I have  everything other than the ending CGs of the Nemesis route (at her ending part but won't save after the credits) when I have the memory card in and without the memory card I have done the Nemesis route so I could get all CGs, even though I don't have them all in the same place.
 
Front cover of the five VNs

 
Back cover of the five VNs

 

If it is not clear by the title or by the pictures under Imouto Paradise is a nukige about an older brother and his five little sisters. If this doesn't sound like anything you want to read it probably isn't going to be something you enjoy.
 
Before the review I would like to mention that it has been about one and a half year since I read all of the routes of Imopara so I have probably forgotten some details. To make sure that my general feeling towards Imopara was right I did reread different parts of it though so I don't think anything I will write here would contradict with what I would have written if I had read it more recently.
 
First a quick summary of Imopara. Imopara is about a perverted older brother and his 5 little sisters Aya, Michika, Rio and the twins Hiyori and Koharu. Summer vacation just started and their parents are on an overseas trip due to work. This leaves the siblings alone and opens up the chances for them to express their feelings for each other. As for how it plays out there is first an introduction and then you get an option to spend time with one of the sisters. Spending time means a sexual scenes will happen and as you continue picking the same sister you end up with actual sex scenes and enter her route. You can also chose to just relax and stay at your room, after doing this for all the choices the little sisters become worried and it leads to the harem route.
 
Here is a bit about each of the little sisters
 
Aya is the little sister who takes charge of most things in the house like cooking and laundry and pretty much acts like their mother while their parents are away. Her route is pretty much the only one that actually focuses on the fact that what they are doing is incest and she is the only one to be a bit bothered by it. As for her sex scenes I think the vibe they go with is pretty similar to a wife wanting to make her husband happy.
Michika is pretty quiet doesn't show a lot of emotions and generally spends her time reading books. She is also open about being a sadist who want her brother to be her masochism dog and often recommend him books about masochism. While she is a sadist most of her scenes don't really go that far with it, it is mostly about how she is in control during the sex scenes and how she talks down to him and try to excite him with dirty talk. One thing I also want  to mention is that I found her voice during the sex scenes to be really good and quite a turn on.
Rio is a pretty obvious tsundere who is also a closet pervert. Her being a tsundere and her brother being a pervert causes lots of comedic moments. Generally he says something perverted and she gets mad and if he continues she use one of her ultimate moves which is either elbowing or kneeing him. As for her sex scenes they mostly revolve around different non penetrative acts such as hairjob, elbowjob, footjob, etc. though she does also have some actual penetrative sex scenes as well.
Hiyori is the loli sister, she is small cute childish and doesn't really know anything about sex. The first scenes focus on the main character teaching her different things about sex and having her do sexual things in front of him and to him. Most of her sex scenes focuses on embarising suituations and I think she and her twin Koharu are the ones who does the most risky stuff (doing sexual stuff in public or at home when there is a risk of other sisters finding out).
Koharu is a tomboy who excels at everything related to physical activity has endless stamina and a bottomless stomach. She is also an open pervert who kind of has a rivalry with her brother of who can be most of a perv. During the sex scenes she is very direct and uses a lot of dirty talk to turn her brother on. While she does have lots of risky scenes they feel quite different from Hiyori's risky scenes since she really isn't embarrassed and isn't nearly as worried about being found out.
 
Now for the actual review. I think Imouto Paradise does an excelent job at what it sets out to be. Since they are siblings they generally don't hold back when talking to each other which causes some great comedic moments. Due to their differents personalities there are so many fun scenes and I would say the general comedy is just great. As for the sex scenes I would say that they work really nice, each of the distinct personality work really well within the sex scenes and the main character being a pervert also helps since he can do things like tease them or have funny perverted thoughts while having sex causing the scenes to not become boring (at least in my opinion). One thing that seem to be quite prevelent in all of the routes regarding the sex scenes though is having sex in risky places, while I mentioned that the twins has most of this, the other sisters also have a substantial amount of it. So in general I would say sex in places where others could find out is probably the main fetish of Imopara. Also each route feels distinct due to how different the dynamic is between the brother and the little sister as well as how they each route focus on different sexual things. As for the story don't expect much, mainly the routes has some small internal conflict for the little sister to deal with but it keeps itself light hearted since the aim of it is to be a good upbeat nukige with lots of fun character moments rather than tell a complex story. As for the art I would say it is pretty good though it is a bit stiff in my opinion, also for some reason the eyes look a bit grainy. As for genetalia artwork, well it is pretty bad and range from meh to just horrible. Each route feature one sex scene where it is animated after penetration, the animated part is kind of grainy and it is annoying that it isn't possible to turn of while reading it or in the CG gallery. As for the music I found it to be good and pleasing to listen to and just work well with the mood of the VN.
 
Here is the front of the hardcopy
The back of the hardcopy
The inside including the disc
The reversible cover (think it works best on the inside)
The physical copy is pretty standard and has nothing special, it is just a normal dvd case with a reversible cover. As for importing it well it does feature sexual artwork though it doesn't show the loli twins in any sexual position so that should potentially help against problems with importation related to anti loli laws.

I have now read through Princess Evangile W Happiness and of course that means that I have to do a review of it (which is hopefully at least somewhat good).
 
Princess Evangile W Happiness is a fandisc to the original Princess Evangile and has an extra story of 2 chapters for each of the heroines as well as a 4 chapter long route for each of the 5 sub heroines. Other than that it includes the 13 first chapters of the main route in the original which means it can be played as a standalone VN, though I wouldn't recommend it since the extra stories for the main heroines won't make sense and you should just read the original first anyways. Also I would like to mention that you probably should read my review of Princess Evangile before reading this one.
The extra stories to each of the main heroines I found to be really nice, I am not going to review each of them, but if you liked them during the main VN you probably aren't going to be disappointed. 
 
Ruriko's route was really nice. I must say I just love Ruriko's personallity, she manages to be quite funny with her absurd jokes and she just has some really fun character quircks that I find really adorable. As for her route, well I didn't find it to take any interesting direction, but it just had lots of good moments with her and that was generally the focus of her route, just her and the main character being together.
 
Konomi's route was also really good in my opinion. There are some really great comedic moments due to her personallity and I would say that this route was probably the most funny out of all of the character routes in Princess Evangile W Happiness. Other than that the relationship between her and the main character was built up really nicely in a way that really fit Konami. 
 
Mitsuki's route was something I didn't really have high expectations for, I generally found her to be quite annoying in the common route as well as the other character routes, however I was quite pleasantly surprised. Her route did a really good job in terms of rommance and there were some good romantic lines between her and the main characters, something which I felt the other routes didn't do quite as well. I remember really liking it when I played through her route, though in the end she is not quite up there with Rise (who she constantly compares herself to). While it did do a good job with the rommance it didn't really have that much else going on though, at least after the first part, so ye it felt quite uneventful.
 
Marika's route was a route that I would say is okay. It was a pleasant read though I didn't feel like it did anything especially well. One of my main problems with her route is that I just found her personality to be really boring, in her route the best comedic moments came from other characters and those were quite rare. Her route also just felt like it was lacking in terms of the story. So it was pretty much like Mitsuki's route just without the well done rommance and with a character who is quite boring. While I am sounding quite harsh at the moment I need to repeat that I still felt that it was a somewhat pleasant read even though it felt lacking compared to the other routes.
 
Lastly there is Tamie's route. While not as funny in my opinion as Konomi's route it is a good second. Tamie is really wonderful and her jokes and teasing is quite endearing. What I think stands out the most about this route is how energetic it feels since Tamie just filled to the brim with energy. Her route started in a rather surprising way though it lead to some really nice sweet and funny moments. After the first part they did a really cliche thing to move the story forward, this specific cliche is something that I generally don't like, though I felt like they did a good job using it and in the end I don't really feel like I can view it as a negative that they used it. As for the later parts of it, well Tamie kind of mellows a bit out, though not to the point where she feels boring or lacking in her usual energy, just that it is a bit dialed down.
 
As for my opinion of this fandisc as a whole I would like to start by saying that I think that if you liked the original Princess Evangile you should definitly pick it up. Each of the original heroines had nice extra chapters which both provided more nice moments with them as well as just being nice conclusions to their stories. The other heroines all had nice routes, with the exeption of Marika which felt kind of lack luster compared to the rest of the VN. A disadvantage the fandisc has compared to the main VN is that the routes are rather short, 4 chapters compared to the 10 chapers the heroines in the main VN have. While this does mean that each route has less of an impact on the person reading it, I still felt that they did a really good job using those 4 chapters. The routes in the fandisc manages to build the relationships really well through pretty much focusing on the heroine of the route exclusively. A drawback this has though is that the routes can't really have larger story moments like they did at the end of the routes in the original. I would also like to comment on the sex scenes, the sex scenes both in the original and the fandisc are really sweet and quite vanilla (disregarding that some of it takes place in rather risque locations) and I feel like it really works well with the sweet rommances that are built with each heroine, a problem with the scenes though is that they are just too long. It feels like the sex scenes in general should be shortened by quite a lot, preferably by replacing some of the lines that can be found in pretty much all vanilla sex scenes in VNs. Well I would like to end the review by mentioning that it also has some nice referances to Imouto Paradise (a VN I will do a review of in the future, once I have revisited parts of it), personally I found this to be really fun.
 
The front of the physical edition

The back of the physical edition

Here is the inside of the physical edition including the disc
 
As for my review of the physical edition, well I would say it is just pretty okay. It is just a standard DVD case and doesn't really include anything other than the steamkey and the cover being reversible which is a standard for physical editions by Mangagamer. To my knowledge the steam edition is just a censored version of the full VN, though you can patch it. While this is a nice bonus for those who want to have it both digitally and on disc I don't feel like it is as good of a bonus as the original which has replacement scenes for the sex scenes meaning you get extra content with the steam edition.
As for the cover I find it to be quite nice with all of the 9 characters on the cover wihtout anyone of them being pushed too far into the background. The back of the case is pretty plain though it at least gives information about the VN. The reversible cover as I mentioned I think is quite lovely though it isn't really something that work that well as the cover since it is just one large drawing that would then be unnaturally split in two.

From Frontwing there are two kickstarters for physical copies one for the physical copy of Island which has already been released digitally on steam and one for the first part of their new episodic title Loca-Love which haven't been released in Japan yet. The Island Kickstarter is already funded and to me it seems like it has some pretty decent prices for the physicals with 50US$ for the regular edition and 80US$ for the deluxe edition which is a large box with soundtrack and theme song CDs and an artbook, Island itself is 30-50 hours long acording to vndb by the way. The Kickstarter for the first part of Loca-Love is currently at about 60% funded at the end of September with 13 days to go. As for my thoughts on the kickstarter for Loca-Love, well I think it has been poorly thought out. Since it is just the first part it is rather short (roughly 8 hours acording to the kickstarter) the price for the physical edition which is 50US$ is rather high. There is also a deluxe edition for 80US$ (going by earlybird price, if that sells out the actual price is 85US$) which has an artbook, tapestry, keyholder set, printed shikishi and the name in the credits and while it does have a lot of cool extras it just feels too much to pay for something so short. So the price for the physical for the first part of Loca-Love is pretty much the same as the price of Island which is way longer. I also don't think it helps them much that they made the kickstarter under a new creator name (Loca-Love) which means that it is less likely that people who backed their other kickstarters will find it. 
Moving on to Sekai Project or rather Denpasoft they have opened up pre-orders for physical edition for two new titles this week those two being Love's Sweet Garnish (vndb) and Hard Work (vndb). While I don't find any of these titles particulary interesting I do like that they have started to focus a lot of releasing physical editions through Denpasoft and not relying on Kickstarter for all of their physicals (if only they now can get better at quality control). While it does interest me that they have gone with this direction I am rather surprised by the titles they have picked. Both of them are short meaning that the extra price for the physical itself and shipping will be quite large compared to the original price and thus make buying them less attractive. Considering that MG only does physicals for titles that sell well I wonder how Denpasoft is going to be able to not lose any money on releasing physicals for these two titles. At the end I also wanted to mention that based on a tweet from Denpasoft it seems like they plan on focusing more on their physicals so I think it will be interesting to see how things turn out with them regarding physical releases.
 
Venus Blood Frontier Kickstarter has now opened for those interested, the price for the physical edition tier is 66US$ though it is only all ages so physicals for this might not be the best. From the looks of it they plan on putting in a lot of effort into making it a good localization, while it isn't really a title that appeal to me I really hope it succeed. Considering that they seems to be doing things right with the kickstarter I think it would give some really nice feedback to the japanese developers of what we want from a localization if this gets funded.
 
Another Kickstarter is the one for Seven Days which is from Fruitbait Factory. This has a physical edition available for 60US$ that include a visual book and one with a larger box and a dakimakura for 150US$.
 
From Nekonyan there is the confirmation that there is going to be a physical release of Aokana. I know this was technically confirmed last month, but I wanted to mention it since it was the 31st and since this is the first blog entry I make meaning I don't have any for August.
 
Then for some kickstarter updates, Memory's Dogma has promised free physical copy of Code:02 and Code:03 to those who haven't requested a refund, Shining Song Starnova has now finished the design of the box for their physical release and A light in the dark physicals are currently getting printed.
 
Here are a few titles that may be close to getting sold out or have a limited time left for pre-order.
Princess Evangile limited edition went out of print this month.
Eroge sex and games makes sexy games only have two copies left on Mangagamer, but is available from Jlist and Rightstufanime, though I am not sure how many they have in stock or whether there will be reprints.
Kara no Shoujo only has one copie left on Mangagamer, but is available from Jlist and Rightstufanime, though I am not sure how many they have in stock or whether there will be reprints.
Nekopara volume 2 and volume 3 are said to be limited on Denpasoft, not sure how much stock they have left but will put it here on the list anyways since it can sell out at any time.
There is also a limited amount of physical copies for Clannad: Side Stories at sekaiproject, it seems to be leftovers from the original kickstarter.
On PS vita the physical edition of Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternate is being sold over at ricedigital and I am pretty sure that it is a limited run.
As for backerkits that are still open there are A Light in the Dark, Alpha's Adventures and Sakura Sakura
New kickstarters, Island, Loca-Love, Venus Blood Frontier and Seven days
 

Winged Cloud’s early hentai VNs appeared at the moment of company’s greatest creativity (obviously, speaking in the relative terms) and during what could be described as a slow improvement in the overall quality of their titles. The two latest ones, however, came as a syndrome of an exact opposite tendency, one which becomes very clear when we look at pretty much any of the Sakura releases after Nova – the whole formula becoming increasingly stale and cynical, and WC’s games turning into little more than low-effort cash grabs, feeding on the loyal fans of the series.
            Still, while they might represent the lowest moment in Winged Clouds' history, did these games at least keep some of the entertainment value you would hope for in a trashy fanservice VN? Spoiler: Not really…
Sakura Agent

A prime argument for my thesis that if you don’t want to put actual resources into creating an interesting setting, you’ll be better off just sticking to high-school SoL drama – at least then your laziness and corner-cutting won’t be completely obvious. While Sakura Space managed to make the theme of space mercenaries unbearably unexciting and generic, Agent achieved something maybe even harder – making an alien invasion and a secret agency fighting it completely dull and laughable (not to be confused with “funny”), mostly by never showing anything but fanservice and presenting the whole plot through WCs typical, cliched and bland narration.
             Beyond that, the game offers a protagonist with no presence or charisma whatsoever (but who was, I guess, meant to be a badass), no routes, unconvincing heroines, distinct lack of humour and Sakura Maid’s levels of random fanservice (including a hentai scene with a kidnapped heroine in the middle of an enemy base and possibly the dumbest tentacle sex scene in the history of VNs). As a result, Agent is one of the saddest entries in the whole Sakura series, in which WCs attempts to give context to the porn CGs does not add any kind of appeal to them, but rather makes you cringe from how bland and stupid the whole setup is. Also unlike some of the Sakura games that preceded it, like Fantasy, Nova or Dungeon, it simply feels cheap, missing the visual flair and assets necessary to communicate its theme and storyline properly. In the end, it's a highly unfulfilling experience – find the pics online, save your time and money.
Final rating: Smelly Poo
Sakura Magical Girls

The first example of Winged Cloud reusing a whole theme in something that isn’t a direct sequel (if anyone needs a reminder – Sakura Angels was a magical girl story with no actual angels involved) might suggest the studio running out of ideas, but is definitely a proof of it running out of creative powers. With two main heroines so shallow and similar to each other it’s seriously hard to differentiate between them, and a third one only remarkable by being their vague opposite (and whose darker philosophy is strangely also reflected by being black – though, as bad as it sounds, it’s at least a piece of visual variety previously rather absent from the Sakura franchise and I wouldn’t mind it becoming more common), this game already missed out on the most important part of the ecchi formula – appealing female cast.
            Without it, there was already little Magical Girls could do to stay memorable, but it didn’t make itself any favours by also being short and linear. And while it might only be my impression, even Wanaca’s visual designs are among the poorest in the whole series, with magical girl outfits looking like a random, overly colourful mess (and this is made even worse by the ability to contrast them with relatively good-looking sprites from Sakura Angel). The aforementioned “dark magical girl”, Ayame, might be the closest thing to an actual “positive” here, but in the end, she is also way too over-the-top and one-dimensional to hold any serious appeal beyond hentai scenes. With a bland, "delinquent" protagonist and nonsensical plot added to the mix, it's another thoroughly skippable Sakura game, which only makes the cliffhanger ending, signalizing a possible sequel, laughable. Of all VNs in the series, this is probably the last one I would like to see continued and I wholeheartedly recommend avoiding it at all cost.
Final rating: Smelly Poo
----------------------------------
There’s no escaping from one simple fact – the latest straight hentai games by Winged Cloud are terrible. And they’re not terrible in the meaning that would apply to pretty much all Sakura games, with their thin plot, pretty much just pretext for fanservice and h-scenes, poor writing, short length etc. They’re simply devoid of any kind of entertainment value that usually accompanies WCs stream of anime boobs – the bare minimum of characterization and humour that make these VNs more appealing than just writing “Wanaca91” in a Google search or browning random anime fanart. And this time, even Winged Cloud’s fans seem to agree with me in that assessment – both games received relatively poor reviews on Steam and VNDB, and most likely had their role in the company’s move towards hiring a new scenario writer and focusing on yuri content. 
            Will the het-porn formula come back in the upcoming Sakura titles? I have no doubts about it, but hopefully in a much, much better style – at least within the WCs scale of being “good”. After all, no miracles will happen within the world of trashiest Western eroge, even when magical girls are involved.
PS This time too, my special thanks go to Bosskwar, whose videos made preparing this post much less painful then it would otherwise be.

I have now read through Princess Evangile W Happiness and of course that means that I have to do a review of it (which is hopefully at least somewhat good).
 
Princess Evangile W Happiness is a fandisc to the original Princess Evangile and has an extra story of 2 chapters for each of the heroines as well as a 4 chapter long route for each of the 5 sub heroines. Other than that it includes the 13 first chapters of the main route in the original which means it can be played as a standalone VN, though I wouldn't recommend it since the extra stories for the main heroines won't make sense and you should just read the original first anyways. Also I would like to mention that you probably should read my review of Princess Evangile before reading this one.
The extra stories to each of the main heroines I found to be really nice, I am not going to review each of them, but if you liked them during the main VN you probably aren't going to be disappointed. 
 
Ruriko's route was really nice. I must say I just love Ruriko's personallity, she manages to be quite funny with her absurd jokes and she just has some really fun character quircks that I find really adorable. As for her route, well I didn't find it to take any interesting direction, but it just had lots of good moments with her and that was generally the focus of her route, just her and the main character being together.
 
Konomi's route was also really good in my opinion. There are some really great comedic moments due to her personallity and I would say that this route was probably the most funny out of all of the character routes in Princess Evangile W Happiness. Other than that the relationship between her and the main character was built up really nicely in a way that really fit Konami. 
 
Mitsuki's route was something I didn't really have high expectations for, I generally found her to be quite annoying in the common route as well as the other character routes, however I was quite pleasantly surprised. Her route did a really good job in terms of rommance and there were some good romantic lines between her and the main characters, something which I felt the other routes didn't do quite as well. I remember really liking it when I played through her route, though in the end she is not quite up there with Rise (who she constantly compares herself to). While it did do a good job with the rommance it didn't really have that much else going on though, at least after the first part, so ye it felt quite uneventful.
 
Marika's route was a route that I would say is okay. It was a pleasant read though I didn't feel like it did anything especially well. One of my main problems with her route is that I just found her personality to be really boring, in her route the best comedic moments came from other characters and those were quite rare. Her route also just felt like it was lacking in terms of the story. So it was pretty much like Mitsuki's route just without the well done rommance and with a character who is quite boring. While I am sounding quite harsh at the moment I need to repeat that I still felt that it was a somewhat pleasant read even though it felt lacking compared to the other routes.
 
Lastly there is Tamie's route. While not as funny in my opinion as Konomi's route it is a good second. Tamie is really wonderful and her jokes and teasing is quite endearing. What I think stands out the most about this route is how energetic it feels since Tamie just filled to the brim with energy. Her route started in a rather surprising way though it lead to some really nice sweet and funny moments. After the first part they did a really cliche thing to move the story forward, this specific cliche is something that I generally don't like, though I felt like they did a good job using it and in the end I don't really feel like I can view it as a negative that they used it. As for the later parts of it, well Tamie kind of mellows a bit out, though not to the point where she feels boring or lacking in her usual energy, just that it is a bit dialed down.
 
As for my opinion of this fandisc as a whole I would like to start by saying that I think that if you liked the original Princess Evangile you should definitly pick it up. Each of the original heroines had nice extra chapters which both provided more nice moments with them as well as just being nice conclusions to their stories. The other heroines all had nice routes, with the exeption of Marika which felt kind of lack luster compared to the rest of the VN. A disadvantage the fandisc has compared to the main VN is that the routes are rather short, 4 chapters compared to the 10 chapers the heroines in the main VN have. While this does mean that each route has less of an impact on the person reading it, I still felt that they did a really good job using those 4 chapters. The routes in the fandisc manages to build the relationships really well through pretty much focusing on the heroine of the route exclusively. A drawback this has though is that the routes can't really have larger story moments like they did at the end of the routes in the original. I would also like to comment on the sex scenes, the sex scenes both in the original and the fandisc are really sweet and quite vanilla (disregarding that some of it takes place in rather risque locations) and I feel like it really works well with the sweet rommances that are built with each heroine, a problem with the scenes though is that they are just too long. It feels like the sex scenes in general should be shortened by quite a lot, preferably by replacing some of the lines that can be found in pretty much all vanilla sex scenes in VNs. Well I would like to end the review by mentioning that it also has some nice referances to Imouto Paradise (a VN I will do a review of in the future, once I have revisited parts of it), personally I found this to be really fun.
 
The front of the physical edition

The back of the physical edition

Here is the inside of the physical edition including the disc
 
As for my review of the physical edition, well I would say it is just pretty okay. It is just a standard DVD case and doesn't really include anything other than the steamkey and the cover being reversible which is a standard for physical editions by Mangagamer. To my knowledge the steam edition is just a censored version of the full VN, though you can patch it. While this is a nice bonus for those who want to have it both digitally and on disc I don't feel like it is as good of a bonus as the original which has replacement scenes for the sex scenes meaning you get extra content with the steam edition.
As for the cover I find it to be quite nice with all of the 9 characters on the cover wihtout anyone of them being pushed too far into the background. The back of the case is pretty plain though it at least gives information about the VN. The reversible cover as I mentioned I think is quite lovely though it isn't really something that work that well as the cover since it is just one large drawing that would then be unnaturally split in two.

I have now read through Princess Evangile W Happiness and of course that means that I have to do a review of it (which is hopefully at least somewhat good).
 
Princess Evangile W Happiness is a fandisc to the original Princess Evangile and has an extra story of 2 chapters for each of the heroines as well as a 4 chapter long route for each of the 5 sub heroines. Other than that it includes the 13 first chapters of the main route in the original which means it can be played as a standalone VN, though I wouldn't recommend it since the extra stories for the main heroines won't make sense and you should just read the original first anyways. Also I would like to mention that you probably should read my review of Princess Evangile before reading this one.
The extra stories to each of the main heroines I found to be really nice, I am not going to review each of them, but if you liked them during the main VN you probably aren't going to be disappointed. 
 
Ruriko's route was really nice. I must say I just love Ruriko's personallity, she manages to be quite funny with her absurd jokes and she just has some really fun character quircks that I find really adorable. As for her route, well I didn't find it to take any interesting direction, but it just had lots of good moments with her and that was generally the focus of her route, just her and the main character being together.
 
Konomi's route was also really good in my opinion. There are some really great comedic moments due to her personallity and I would say that this route was probably the most funny out of all of the character routes in Princess Evangile W Happiness. Other than that the relationship between her and the main character was built up really nicely in a way that really fit Konami. 
 
Mitsuki's route was something I didn't really have high expectations for, I generally found her to be quite annoying in the common route as well as the other character routes, however I was quite pleasantly surprised. Her route did a really good job in terms of rommance and there were some good romantic lines between her and the main characters, something which I felt the other routes didn't do quite as well. I remember really liking it when I played through her route, though in the end she is not quite up there with Rise (who she constantly compares herself to). While it did do a good job with the rommance it didn't really have that much else going on though, at least after the first part, so ye it felt quite uneventful.
 
Marika's route was a route that I would say is okay. It was a pleasant read though I didn't feel like it did anything especially well. One of my main problems with her route is that I just found her personality to be really boring, in her route the best comedic moments came from other characters and those were quite rare. Her route also just felt like it was lacking in terms of the story. So it was pretty much like Mitsuki's route just without the well done rommance and with a character who is quite boring. While I am sounding quite harsh at the moment I need to repeat that I still felt that it was a somewhat pleasant read even though it felt lacking compared to the other routes.
 
Lastly there is Tamie's route. While not as funny in my opinion as Konomi's route it is a good second. Tamie is really wonderful and her jokes and teasing is quite endearing. What I think stands out the most about this route is how energetic it feels since Tamie just filled to the brim with energy. Her route started in a rather surprising way though it lead to some really nice sweet and funny moments. After the first part they did a really cliche thing to move the story forward, this specific cliche is something that I generally don't like, though I felt like they did a good job using it and in the end I don't really feel like I can view it as a negative that they used it. As for the later parts of it, well Tamie kind of mellows a bit out, though not to the point where she feels boring or lacking in her usual energy, just that it is a bit dialed down.
 
As for my opinion of this fandisc as a whole I would like to start by saying that I think that if you liked the original Princess Evangile you should definitly pick it up. Each of the original heroines had nice extra chapters which both provided more nice moments with them as well as just being nice conclusions to their stories. The other heroines all had nice routes, with the exeption of Marika which felt kind of lack luster compared to the rest of the VN. A disadvantage the fandisc has compared to the main VN is that the routes are rather short, 4 chapters compared to the 10 chapers the heroines in the main VN have. While this does mean that each route has less of an impact on the person reading it, I still felt that they did a really good job using those 4 chapters. The routes in the fandisc manages to build the relationships really well through pretty much focusing on the heroine of the route exclusively. A drawback this has though is that the routes can't really have larger story moments like they did at the end of the routes in the original. I would also like to comment on the sex scenes, the sex scenes both in the original and the fandisc are really sweet and quite vanilla (disregarding that some of it takes place in rather risque locations) and I feel like it really works well with the sweet rommances that are built with each heroine, a problem with the scenes though is that they are just too long. It feels like the sex scenes in general should be shortened by quite a lot, preferably by replacing some of the lines that can be found in pretty much all vanilla sex scenes in VNs. Well I would like to end the review by mentioning that it also has some nice referances to Imouto Paradise (a VN I will do a review of in the future, once I have revisited parts of it), personally I found this to be really fun.
 
The front of the physical edition

The back of the physical edition

Here is the inside of the physical edition including the disc
 
As for my review of the physical edition, well I would say it is just pretty okay. It is just a standard DVD case and doesn't really include anything other than the steamkey and the cover being reversible which is a standard for physical editions by Mangagamer. To my knowledge the steam edition is just a censored version of the full VN, though you can patch it. While this is a nice bonus for those who want to have it both digitally and on disc I don't feel like it is as good of a bonus as the original which has replacement scenes for the sex scenes meaning you get extra content with the steam edition.
As for the cover I find it to be quite nice with all of the 9 characters on the cover wihtout anyone of them being pushed too far into the background. The back of the case is pretty plain though it at least gives information about the VN. The reversible cover as I mentioned I think is quite lovely though it isn't really something that work that well as the cover since it is just one large drawing that would then be unnaturally split in two.

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