bakauchuujin

All Best Wishes to @bakauchuujin!

Happy Birthday, @bakauchuujin! Keep listing it all out.

With the new year approaching my annual update on everything has started, wish me good look on updating all the info on all the VNs in this list.
Edit, done.

Just read all endings, either it contains things that you should read or they are so short that you don't really lose that much time. While the bad endings don't add much to the overall narative I would say some of them does show a bit more of the characters and considering the length of them it would be a pity to skip them.

With the new year approaching my annual update on everything has started, wish me good look on updating all the info on all the VNs in this list.
Edit, done.

With the new year approaching my annual update on everything has started, wish me good look on updating all the info on all the VNs in this list.
Edit, done.

With the new year approaching my annual update on everything has started, wish me good look on updating all the info on all the VNs in this list.
Edit, done.

Well I gues it wouldn't be that smart of an idea then.
MangaGamer (Store) Title Score Lenght Developer State of release Opening             Umineko When They Cry Question Arcs 8.81  50+ hours 07th Expansion Released               Umineko When They Cry Answer Arcs  8.77  50+ hours 07th Expansion:  Released Opening             Does this work on white background?

MangaGamer (Store)
Title
Score
Lenght
Developer
State of release
Opening
4000+ votes
Umineko When They Cry Question Arcs
8.81 
50+ hours
07th Expansion
Released

 
2000-3999 votes
Umineko When They Cry Answer Arcs 
8.77 
50+ hours
07th Expansion: 
Released
Opening
Higurashi When They Cry Hou
 
8.45
 
30-50 hours
 
07th Expansion
 
Released
 
  Sengoku Rance
8.36
50+ hours
Alice Soft
Not released in english yet
Opening
I am wondering if this type of settup would be better for my list than how it currently is. It would take me quite some time to change the format of the list, though I could do it little by little over a long time if people think it is an improvement. It would be nice to hear some feedback from people about whether or not you think this is an improvement or if it makes the list look worse.

I made a youtube video for the list just generally talking about it and how things are sorted on it. The video is just me talking while I use to list to showcase a few things, but it was somewhat fun to try to make a video. Maybe in the future I will try to make some other visual novel related video though at the moment I don't know that much about editing videos so they probably won't be that great regarding quality.

Here is a list of VNs officially released in english, I will likely not update this list anymore after August 2021 as I don't see much of a point in it anymore with improvements to the search function of vndb.
Orange text means confirmed for an official english release while yellow text means that a part has been released but not the entire VN.
I have also made a list with the ones with physical release, this list is sorted the same way as this but also has info on where the titles can be bought and if it is available 
List of physical english releases of VNs
MangaGamer (Store)
 
Sekai Project (Homepage)/Denpasoft (Store)
 
JAST USA (Store)
 
NekoNyan (Store)
 
Frontwing (Homepage)
 
Sol Press (Store)
 
Shiravune (Loves DRM, especially Denuvo)
 
Visual Arts
 
Fruitbat Factory (Store)
 
MoeNovel (Burn in hell)
 
Cherry Kiss Games (Homepage)
 
Winged Cloud
 
Degica
 
Aksys Games (Store)
 
XSEED Games (Store)
 
NIS America (Store NA, Store EU)
PQube
 
Others (Japanese)
 
Others (not japanese)
 
Himeya Soft (Bankrupt)
 
Hirameki International (Quit the VN market)
 
SakuraGame/Paradise Project (Machine translated, do not buy from them)
 

I think it is nice to be able to get the all ages physical version as well as the 3 side stories physically.

I think it is nice to be able to get the all ages physical version as well as the 3 side stories physically.

The last part of the trilogy has some things that are inconsitant with earlier parts like retcons and an odd unexplained merging of uncompatible routes as well as in my opinion a bit of a stupid plot twist towards the end.
However I think it still has a lot of quality when it comes to the characters interactions, action, comedy and a lot of what makes Grisaia good. I think whether you like Eden of Grisaia comes down to what you like about Grisaia, if the story aspect is what you like the most then you probably won't like it that much, but if the characters and comedy are the main thing you like about it you will probably like it. Personally I really liked it, its flaws made it less enjoyable than the 2 earlier titles, but I still had a lot of fun with it. 

I usually read a bit like 10-40 min a day most days during early parts of a VN then as I get more into it I put many hours a day in until I complete it then I take a break from VNs for a while until I feel like starting a new one.

Make sure all settings are set to japanese, for instance some japanese VNs require you to have time set to japanese time. Other than that welcome to the forum.

Let me guess, oppai mousepads.

When it comes to the left wing stuff I think the reason a lot of people blame them is that you have companies like Sony mentioning things like Me too (which I think is a good movement, though in some cases like this seems to be missused) as a reason for censoring games in japan as well as people using 3rd wave femanist agenda to prevent games like dead or alive extreeme 3 to get a western release. When it comes to consoles the left and SJW generally are considered the bad guys causing censorship. As for steam I think it is different as they there use child exploitation as a reason to ban something, ofc they lack consistancy but the important thing is that from what I have seen the steam ban thing doesn't seem to do with the left wing or SJWs.
 
As for what I think actually is going on is just that a lot of prudish people use whatever excuse they can to get things they don't like, 3rd wave femenism is a thing that is supported by the main stream media therefore it is easy to just try to draw some bullshit from there and use it to ban something you don't like. People hate pedophilia therefore lets try to equate anime games with pedophilia because we don't like anime games etc. I don't really think these things are that political I think people just use the politics they see has the best effect to ban what they want banned. You want something banned because you are religious and think it is sinfull, well most people won't listen to you if you are honest in the western part of the world so just twist some talking points from something more sociably accepted to further your censorship goal.
 
A clear example of this is that one organisation that claimed to be responsible for steam censorship (don't remember their name) even though they weren't. They were clearly motivated by religion, if you digged into their arguments on their main site and looked at the people involved this is quite clear, however on twitter they used generally rhetoric about exploitation as well as things that could fit into the SJW category if I remember correctly. So pretty much their public stance which most people saw was ban all porn ficitional and live action because it exploits people, human traficing etc. while on their site they had articles about how bad it is that soft core porn is becoming available in some muslim countries and BS about how it negativly effects marriage, which if you read a bit of it you see there is no real science behind it.

When it comes to the left wing stuff I think the reason a lot of people blame them is that you have companies like Sony mentioning things like Me too (which I think is a good movement, though in some cases like this seems to be missused) as a reason for censoring games in japan as well as people using 3rd wave femanist agenda to prevent games like dead or alive extreeme 3 to get a western release. When it comes to consoles the left and SJW generally are considered the bad guys causing censorship. As for steam I think it is different as they there use child exploitation as a reason to ban something, ofc they lack consistancy but the important thing is that from what I have seen the steam ban thing doesn't seem to do with the left wing or SJWs.
 
As for what I think actually is going on is just that a lot of prudish people use whatever excuse they can to get things they don't like, 3rd wave femenism is a thing that is supported by the main stream media therefore it is easy to just try to draw some bullshit from there and use it to ban something you don't like. People hate pedophilia therefore lets try to equate anime games with pedophilia because we don't like anime games etc. I don't really think these things are that political I think people just use the politics they see has the best effect to ban what they want banned. You want something banned because you are religious and think it is sinfull, well most people won't listen to you if you are honest in the western part of the world so just twist some talking points from something more sociably accepted to further your censorship goal.
 
A clear example of this is that one organisation that claimed to be responsible for steam censorship (don't remember their name) even though they weren't. They were clearly motivated by religion, if you digged into their arguments on their main site and looked at the people involved this is quite clear, however on twitter they used generally rhetoric about exploitation as well as things that could fit into the SJW category if I remember correctly. So pretty much their public stance which most people saw was ban all porn ficitional and live action because it exploits people, human traficing etc. while on their site they had articles about how bad it is that soft core porn is becoming available in some muslim countries and BS about how it negativly effects marriage, which if you read a bit of it you see there is no real science behind it.

Seems like a bunch of people liked my previous video so here's the next one!

Couldn't this also have to do with saturation of the market rather than shifting consumer base? Moege and Charage usually don't have uniquie things to sell people on, because of this I think they have a large problem competing with older titles. It could be that there are just as many reading Moege and Charage today as before, but that they instead of buying new titles pick up older titles 2nd hand. With a plotge I think they tend to be more unique and have a wider variety of settings (not all being sett in high school for instance). Of course this is just speculations and you most likely have a much better grasp on the japanese VN market in general then I do, I just wanted to add my thoughts on another potential cause to the shift in which title that does well.

I would assume it has to do with so many VN fans having started before there were a decent amount of officially translated VNs and because of this a culture of piracy has been established and lots of newer people getting into it getting advice from these people. Also one thing I think has somewhat of an effect is newer people asking for recommendations getting recommended things that only has a fanpatch thus starting of pirating which just makes it much easier for them to continue doing so. 
Also due to the length of VNs I think people who pirtate are unlikely to buy something they enjoy. For instance with anime since so many of them are rather short it is possible for people to watch a ton of anime through piracy and then among their favorites pick out which to buy on blu-ray or by merchendise. With the length of a VN it is unlikely that people would want to reread it and a digital download is not as enticing as a physical product like a blu-ray for instance and then for the physical versions of VNs many people don't want to import them either because they don't want physical 18+ stuff or are scared because loli character or semi loli characters being taken as illegal material. 

I think VNs have an advantage when it comes to harems, H-scenes and mystery.
When it comes to harems anime often don't have a proper ending and those that does tend to have it ending shortly after the main character gets together with one of the girls which means that you don't tend to get to see much of how they actually interact as a couple. Manga tend to have an ending where the main character chooses a girl, but again in these cases it seems like it tends to end shortly after they get together . As for light novels I am not certain since I haven't really read light novels and anime adaptions usually aren't complete but I would assume they are probably somewhat similar. As for VNs you get to choose which heroine you want the main character to get together with and due to most VNs having sex scenes you usually get to see their relationship develop for quite some time, then after you are done you can read the other girls routes as well. Because of this I think VNs tend to be able to handle harems much better than manga and anime.
 
H-scenes I think has an advantage over eroanime and eromanga due to the length of VNs. Eroanime tend to be quite short, have bad art and animation and pretty much just consist of sex scenes. Because of this I think it gets boring rather quickly, since it is so short and sex focuses the characters are almost never properly built up as anything you care about. Without any character to care about it pretty much just comes down to the scenario and how the character looks, since the art is generally quite poor that usually just leaves the scenario. For me at least this meant that once I had seen lots of different scenarios it just started feeling repetative and boring as they didn't have anything else of value to offer. Eromanga I think are better since the art usually is better and an artists style can keep things fresh, however a problem here is that they tend to be really short and as such I can't care about the characters and get bored rather quickly. As for eroge a lot of them are fairly long and does a good job making you like the character before the H-scenes which to me makes it more satisfying. Thinking about the popularity of Doujinshi based on characters from anime and manga I think this way of thinking is pretty common, but with VNs you get those scenes as an official part of the story rather than just some fanmade what if scenario.
 
As for mysteries I think the route system and choice system of VNs can be used really well to build up mysteries in ways other mediums can't really do. Choices can be used in a way to make you engaged by having you actually trying to figure out the best choices based on your knowledge and routes can be used to feed bits of information from different routes to build up a more complete story.
 
As for general story telling I think an apealing thing about VNs is that adding length does not neccessarily add a lot of cost for the developer. Due to sprites and backgrounds being used repeatedly a story can be expanded quite a lot just based on writing alone, this means that the author isn't as restricted as they are with manga or anime where new drawings need to be made for everything that happens. Also they are not restircted by weekly deadlines like manga and anime. Due to most of them having voice acting and the fact that they shouldn't have too long gaps without CGs there still is more of a cost to adding more text then there is for a light novel. An advantage they have over light novels however is their visuals and audio since I would imagine a lot of people want to see the characters drawn and hear them speak rather than just reading things like a normal book with a drawing here and there once in a while.
Btw I do not mean that VNs are better than the other mediums, I think each of them have their own advantages and things they excel at

I can speak only for myself and my motivation to read VNs is a bit sketchy in the first place. At first, I simply kept them as an allowed exception while trying to limit my video game habits. It evolved to the current state of affairs, where I more or less stopped playing any other kind of games. The reason I find visual novel way less toxic for me is because they require some basic intellectual effort to follow the story and don't include endless gameplay loops I could burn countless hours on. They're stories to experience, and not autistic sandboxes that'll suck me in for a week and spit out with with bloodshot eyes and realisation of dozens of hours burned on something that didn't even left me an impression that would be worth sharing with anyone.
But, if course, if there wasn't something in VN that I really enjoyed, I wouldn't get so much into them. For me its:
1. Incredible variety of conclusive romance stories. I honestly didn't know I liked romance stories this much before I came back to watching anime regularly and started reading VNs. But anime quite too often means harem comedies and I happen to hate "romance" in those. Because they never commit and when they do, it's usually not the girl I was rooting for. This is why having a route for every heroine is an enormous perk. I identified the best girl? I can get the MC to romance her. I like some secondary ones? Also covered. The rest of them? I probably got enough connection to the whole cast by this point to enjoy them too in the end. No linear media will give me that.
2. Variety of romance stories once more. Yuri, otome, galge, BL. Fluffy love stories and serious drama. Tiny games for half an evening and novel-sized epics. VNs got you all covered. It might get stale if you just read moege, but, partially because of my weird blogging endeavours, I end up reading incredibly varied stuff and so far I didn't get bored of any of it.
3. Anime art. I love anime art over any other style. Give me anime girls kissing and you can take all the rest of my visual media away, I won't complain much. But aside from my personal deviancy, VN art is just that good in many cases.
4. And well, for someone like me, with pretty limited visual imagination, in many cases VNs are simply more compelling than literature. I like having at least some visual representation of what I'm reading to give my mind some point of reference/guide on how to interpret it all. For example, I'm not sure if I'd have enjoyed reading Dune as much as I did if I didn't have some vision of its world from the classic games I played. It's not something I'm particularly proud of, but from my experience, that's just how my brain is wired and I can't do much about it. VNs are a pretty good compromise between literary text and graphics, showing you a lot but still leaving a lot of gaps for your imagination to fill.
Curious what other people's motivations are. :3

After quite a long wait I have finally have the Grisaia complete box.
This is the front of the box

The back of the box

The sides of the box


The back of the things that houses the games as well as the soundtracks.

The games and soundtrack

The artbook (it is quite large)

A random sample from the artbook (sorry for blurry picture, not really that steady when holding a camera).
Extra items

Size comparison with a regular DVD case and a normal japanese physical VN.

As for the quality of this I would say it is amazing. It looks wonderfull and it has quite a lot of weight to it and just feel like an overall really high quality product. If I were going to nitpick some things I guess one would be that I think it would be nice if they had the small extra stories on disc, since they already had so many things on disc they should have just added one more (not a huge complaint though since they are only really short stories, <2 hours each according to vndb). Another thing is that the cover thing for The cleaning of grisaia light novel doesn't really seem to fitt perfectly (seems larger than it should be compared to the book). Though again these are just small nitpicks, overall I am really really satisfied with the quality of the box and glad I bought it even though it was really expensive.