Thyndd

Where exactly? I need to move there asap. I remember saying this earlier in some other topic... As much as I like bashing religion and finding things to blame it for, I honesty don't think the sexual taboo originates within the Christian dogma. Sure, Christianity strongly incorporates this repudiation against sexuality, but so do other unrelated religions and cultures throughout the globe, each in their own degree. After all, most peoples exhibit at the very least the shyness to cover up their bodies. Something must be going on in our psyches that's just deeper than "it's just a culturally adquired custom". Of course it still doesn't make any sense, so we should know better than blindly following our instincts.

I started watching this new series that is currently airing, "Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl senpai no yume wo minai". I've watched the first 2 episodes and damn, this shit is good. I love the dynamics of the main couple so much. Two more episodes to go until I catch up, and then I'll be sad waiting till next week.

That's actually hilarious. I'm uneducated in business enterprise, but I find amusing how two big companies, Valve and now Sony, take opposite approaches regarding the same issue in such a short lapse of time.

That sounds like a truly broken man

Hmm I don't know if it counts, but in ef - a fairy tale of the two you actually play from the perspective of different main characters, which in turn means that once a couple is formed, you move onto the tale of another couple, while the first couple still appears on stage and keeps on developing. Furthermore, you actually get to see things from the perspective of a female MC, which let's admit it's quite uncommon in romantic VNs, as they are targeted primarily towards a male demographic.

Glad to hear that! If you've already played a few titles maybe it's time for you to create a VNDB profile so you can share it with us and make the most out of the suggestions people can offer by letting us know both what you've already read and what you are more likely to enjoy based on your ratings.

Please do. You should not skip Extra and Unlimited. Having played those is the difference Between MLA being good and being absolutely phenomenal You didn't mention any genre preference or content to avoid beyond too much H, so I'm gonna suggest Saya no Uta. It's short and good, and was one of my entry points to the medium. It's dark and pretty disturbing though, so keep that in mind.

Yorokobe, Shounen, you've already seen the worst Yuuji. In Makina's route and especially Yumiko's he's a gentleman, in Sachi he goes back to being kind of a jerk but much more acceptable than in Michiru's, and in Amane it doesn't really matter.

The thing with Yuuji is that he kinda oscillates between being a very competent, pragmatic and insightful protagonist in some routes and a complete asshole in others. The line is actually thinner than you might expect at first. Overall I'd say that I generally don't dislike Yuuji (though I don't think he's necessariliy the great MC that some people make him out to be), but yes, sometimes he's undoubtedly a pompous ass. I still have PTSD flashbacks from Michiru's route, for example. As for OP's question... I second ef -a fairy tale of the two-. It's my favorite romance VN to this day, so I have to give it the love I think it deserves. Other than that, I also second Grisaia no Kajitsu and I'll add Sharin no Kuni, which is very similar. Then for a less plot oriented stuff, I'll say Chrono Clock, a fun little moege.

I'm currently reading it and of course it's perfectly enjoyable. Damn, we should be grateful we even have the new sprites; and even then! there's people who actually claim the original, even though way shabbier, were more expressive. I don't know, I for one will stick to the new art

Since when comparing VNs to books is considered a form of disparagement? If anything, it should be a form of praise, acknowledging them as pieces of literature and a medium as valid as any other to tell a good story. Just saying.

I'm a simple man. Someone praises ef or ef's soundtrack, I like.

You never know where you'll wake up tomorrow Suddenly isekai adventures seem a lot worse huh? Congrats on finishing MLA! I glad you enjoyed the ride and I hope you'll eventually get over your newly adquired PTSD. Have fun with Steins;Gate

I don't think you NEED them. As a matter of fact, most VNs do well without them. They can be a nice occasional addition if they match the art quality of everything else, though.

Well, that's something I'm definitely not qualified to answer, and you'd be better off having a specialist give you counseling. But, I guess any advice I could give you won't do you any harm either, so... You could try keeping a VN diary where you write down the general idea and the most important points you've read during that day. Since it's something you wrote it's probably gonna be easier to read (maybe?) and will act as a trigger to help you remember everything else.

Well yeah, namely everyone who hasn't read the original But you bring up a very interesting point. People usually underestimate how much is left unsaid in language, and how important context, either common sense knowledge or cultural stuff, actually is. With a great understanding of the work and the language you are translating from, you may be able to pick up on these contextual clues and translate them in a fairly accurate and natural sounding manner, but then there's the fact that the translator is not inside the author's mind: sometimes, probably fairly often depending on the type of work, the author will intentionally or unintentionally leave things ambiguous and the reader will give it their own interpretation. This makes any translation more accurately described as a "reinterpretation" of the original. Although unavoidable, I think a good translator should strive to minimize this effect, but it's not that I can't see where those 'elitist' that insist that you won't get the exact same experience reading a translation are coming from.

Well, I guess it's a matter of definition. For me, good prose is an integral part of the translation, but I can see the line might get blurry, especially when approaching the more artistic component and the style itself is conveying sensations that weren't even there in the original. In any case, the way I see it, saying that 'the writing style doesn't matter so long as the events remain unaltered' is like saying that it's the same thing reading a poem and an essay explaining what the poem is about.

I would assume you are an English monolingual speaker? Correct me if I'm wrong, and I don't mean it as an offense, at all, if anything, I can perfectly relate. Unfortunately my Japanese is still not good enough to comfortably read VNs (nor it'll be any time soon if I don't get my shit together and start to take it seriously ), but I had a similar enough experience given that English is not my first language and there was a time when I couldn't read it fluently. My native languages would be Spanish and French, and for a very long time everything I consumed would be in one of those languages, especially Spanish. The thing is, the few translated VNs available would most of the time be a machine translation from English, which at the same time would usually be a pretty bad translation from Japanese. Just imagine how terrible that is. Needless to say, since I got my English up to par I completely stopped consuming this shitty translations, and I'm now a happier individual and the world is a better place. And still, sometimes I replay VNs along with friends that can't speak English, so we download a Spanish patch... and I'm constantly thinking how much better those scenes were just by the way they were worded in English. The style and prose can definitely make or break a good scene. And before you retort that it's just because I've read the English translation first, nope, this goes both ways. I've checked the English translation of stuff I've originally read in Spanish/French and I still think it's way better. Either because you truly don't care or you are not yet aware that you do, I obviously won't try to force my view on you. I just wanted to let you know that I'm the farthest from a 'VN elitist' that you could get, and I still very much care for translation quality, as many others do.

Because rare = cool, and VNs follow the law of the coolest. This is like asking why diamonds are so valuable. A valid question, but you have to understand that value, or aesthetic value in this case, is arbitrary.

Are you at least in my area? Welcome to Fuwa

That was practically vanilla

Some linear combination of these. Pure moeges are often boring unless the characters are the greatest thing ever, so I'd at least ask for some plot in most cases to keep things interesting. In terms of priorities, I do think that characters > story, since great characters can make up for a luckluster story, but no matter how good your story is, if the characters are shit it's gonna be nigh impossible to get invested, but of course if possible I like to have the best of both. Also while I do tend to gravitate towards certain genre, or subgenre rather (namely a very specific kind of romantic drama), there's no way I can afford to be picky considering the short list of translated VNs that fit into this category of mine. I'll read whatever lies on my hands that manages to catch my attention, and there's been quite a lot of variety genre-wise. What I'm starting to realize as of late is that I don't usually enjoy action. What I'd imagine that for most people should be a thrilling action scene that gets their adrenaline pumping, for me it's more often than not just a boring part that I need to get through in order to get to the good stuff: character interactions, emotional moments, plot reveals...

Umineko ep 4, and thus the whole first game, finished. Moving onto chiru now! As always I'mma roughly develop some of my impressions and theories in spoilers, though a good review and a great tl;dr would be just ASKDFHSDJJKLHGASRLMDSCMKZ

Hmm I think I'm starting to understand. Yeah, definitely, Grisaia doesn't have the most wholesome romance out there. Yuuji is fucked up and the girls are fucked up, so their relationship is not healthy by any stretch if you stop to analyze it. For me it somehow works because it was interesting, and honestly I thought that Yuuji being an asshole could unironically be what those girls needed the most. Yeah, seriously. When you hate yourself for who and how you are like the last thing you need is an awkward smile and kindness out of pity. I for one don't think it's that unbeliavable that someone as blunt as Yuuji could be the only person those girls would open up to. Anyway, if you end up giving it another opportunity, I would still suggest Amane's route. With Sachi you'll come across pretty much every single issue you've had with Grisaia so far (aside from the FBI knocking on your door), so I think it'd be counter-productive. Amane's route is pretty much all backstory, and it's a really good story in and of itself. The romance? Messed up, but at least due to Amane's personality the "dominance" you talked about is less noticeable, so there's that. Ok, so I finished Umineko episode 3. What an episode Let's break it down a little.