PiggiesGoMoo

This game has some great music IMO.  All songs I've heard so far have vocals

How did such a gem stay untranslated for so long? Absolutely love it so far. Music is fantastic as well

I'm 2-3 hours in and it's good so far. It has a reasonably paced introduction and transition into potentially more serious stuff. I'll make a more detailed review when I'm done.
As for the translation, there are some liberties taken it seems, but not so much that it becomes a giant meme IMO.  I don't think the translation changes the personality of the girls in any significant way... but I only know some Japanese, so take that for what it's worth.

Because we finally have the release for Sanoba (Well still about 12 hours though), I figure that it would be fitting if I open the discussion thread for this VN. As for my first look here, I like that two of the heroines did have magical girl like outfit so we could say that this could be the first proper VN that did have magical girl heroine, and I say this because Schatten was too much have blatant fanservice sex scenes (I wouldn't deny that Sanoba here was also have a lot of sex scenes though). Magical girl heroine aside, actually Sanoba here was more in line with charage though considering that we could have our heroines developed by going together with the MC, and the MC himself did have some special issue namely that he could felt someone else emotion like taste. Also unlike Yuzusoft other VNs, actually Sanoba did have very obvious main heroine which in this case would be Nene because of the spoiler reason. For the number of routes here, we have four full routes (Nene, Meguru, Touko, and Tsumugi) and one side route (Wakana), with some additional content that will be unlocked later that called Restart.
As for the reviews, I managed to find several. One of those was from mod Clephas in which he did post five parts of his review at Fuwanovel blog. Another one is from Joyjason, in which he did give the score was at 7 and it's actually quite a good score considering that he also gave the protagonist score at 7, which mean that at least the MC himself was quite capable (Note that he was usually quite critical on his reviews). And for the third review, well he did say that the VN that a light read if you want to read some VNs that was not trying to do something epic. I figred that it would be better if you check the reviews by yourself in case you didn't really care about spoilers, so here's Clephas's (Nene's route, Meguru's route, Touko's route, Tsumugi's route, and Wakana's route), Joyjason's, and the third review.
Here's the heroines of Sanoba below, and as charage personally I think it should be you first interest.
1. Ayachi Nene

The 2nd grade idol (And the main heroine for the reminder) because of her outward appearance in which she was quite helpful and sociable, but obviously she hid the secret that was accidentally found out by the MC (Shuuji) in which she was turned out easily got aroused so much that she was masturbated using the table. From there Shuuji find out that her arousal was caused by the side effect of the contract that turned her into a witch (With stripperiffic costume lol) causing herself to be very embarrassed, and Shuuji himself was accidentally hinder Nene's goal. Obviously as the one who cause the problem for Nene, Shuuji must take responsibility to fix the problem. As for her seiyuu, her name is Tanezaki Atsumi although some people would like to call her Kirihana though because it's easier to said, so I'll call her Kirihana as well. For her role, Kirihana was did have works at three other Yuzusoft VNs as well (Masaki Gaillard in Amairo, Lena Liechtenauer in Senren Banka, and Mitsukasa Ayase in Riddle Joker), while of course she also did have some roles in other VNs such as Ousaka Sora from Hoshiori, Ruu from Sorcery Jokers, Fia from Amayui, Hachiroku from Maitetsu, and Ikoma Murasaki from Phantom Trigger.
2. Inaba Meguru

The first grade student who is admire Nene very much. Even with her supposed flashy style, actually she was more in line with otaku because of her hobby of playing one person game (Such as otome, RPG, and first person shooter). It didn't help though that she's quite shy and thus did have a hard time to make a friend, and her current style was the result of her determination to get changed. Unlike Nene here, she isn't a witch. Her seiyuu is Haruka Sora, or rather I'll call her with her real name Eri Sendai even though her alias was quite well known in eroge though. Like Kirihana, she also did have some role in Yuzusoft VNs so much that there's a video that's show both of Kirihana's characters and Sendai's characters gathered in one video (No Meguru and Nene though), and her role in Yuzusoft VN were Tomotake Yoshino from Senren Banka and Nijouin Hazuki from Riddle Joker (Both appeared in the aforementioned video). Other than those two, her roles were Kouzuki Io from Dal Segno, Kusunoha Misaki and Rin from Hatsukoi Sankaime, and Otonashi Saku from Hello Lady.
3. Togakushi Touko

The 3rd grade idol and also the student council president who was quite capable of handling her work coupling with her willingness to listen to other problems, although she was also did like to teasing others though. Other than that, apparently her family income was quite below average so much that she was need to do part time work, and more importantly she just decided to keep her cardigan that was burst out by the size of her breast because she didn't have money enough to buy another (Presumably). Like Meguru, she isn't the witch as well. Her seiyuu is Kaori Mizuhashi in which her name should be well known enough for Madoka fans. Her role in VNs were Kurokawa Kirara from Yumina the Ethereal, Fushikawa Kokoro from Majikoi franchise, Matsushima Michiru from Grisaia franchise, Kiba Mifuyu from Koichoco, Sawai Maya from Da Capo 2, and Clea from Duel Savior.
4. Shiiba Tsumugi

Another witch that made contract, and this time her side effect was very different in which it'll cause her to vomit every time she wore cute clothes or act cute. And like Nene, obviously that side effect causing her much problem because actually she like to do cute things and wear cute clothes (Forgot to say that her witch outfit is quite cute). Since she couldn't wear the female uniform because it's too cute for her, she must wear male uniform in which it made her less cute although of course some people out there still think that she was quite cute even with boy uniform. While technically both of Nene and Tsumugi were rival because their goal was the same thing if we following old magical girl anime, in here they decided to work together. As for her seiyuu, her name is Matayoshi Ai in which she did voice Tsukishima Yuuri at Saku Saku, Amanogawa Saya at Miagete, and Hinomoto Aoi from Da Capo 3.
Like usual Yuzusoft VNs, the heroines also did have usual image song and this time Yuzusoft decided to add different ending songs for each heroines, so at least it's quite apparent that Yuzusoft spent money from vocal song alone. Also like usual Yuzusoft VNs, the instrumental version of the heroines image songs was the leitmotif for each of the heroines.
I think that's all for what I can write in regard of Sanoba for now, and have fun playing this later.

For the next 12 days, MangaGamer store will feature both a set of fixed discounts and some sweet daily deals, today's one being -70% on Edelweiss titles. While, as usual, most of the things on sale are crappy nukige, there are a few worthwhile titles even now and really cool stuff will definitely show up among those short-term discounts.
And, through some unexplainable lapse of judgment, I actually did end up grabbing euphoria for -50%. I guess this year's Christmas will be all red and brown...?

Finished Princess Evangile.
Wonder what I'm going to read next.....
 
Just noticed Hapymaher is on discount on MangaGamer. It wasn't really on my radar ..... but it seems interesting....

Ironically, this doesn't really have to be a problem. Just take books for example - people don't like to read? No problem, that's why we have audio books nowadays. Most VN's are very dialog focused and the bigger ones are usually fully voiced. So VN's are already quite modern in comparison since they have voices, images and music. And partly animated VN's get more and more common, closing the gap to animes more and more. On the flip side, the production cost get also higher and higher with that, making it more and more difficult to bring those qualities with an expansive story and not just a simple moege.
Actually, many cut scenes of big budget RPG's already have lots of similarities with VN's. I recently played The Witcher 2 in preparation for the third one and it had cut scenes galore, and with sub titles activated, it almost felt like an action RPG VN hybrid. And many JRPG's seem to like the VN fromat for cut scenes as well, so I don't think it's a bad thing at all.
I also heard a rumour that there's a special edition of Stein's Gate in the works that combines the animations of the anime with the VN. If that's true I'm really curious how that will work out. And if it'll works out I'd really like to have the same for Fate/Stay Night *drool*. 

Fucking kill me. Just fucking kill me now please. My moral compass has had an identity crisis and is on a soul-seeking journey who knows fucking where. I don't know what I should believe anymore, and i'm cold, lonely, and shivering in the dark at 4 in the morning as I write this thread. If i'm not wrong, there is about a 3 month or so gap in between Nekopara Extra and 1(Haven't actually read it yet). So i'm looking at the cover, and I realize. There is a 3 month gap between lewdable Coconut(using her as an example), and non-lewdable Coconut. 3 Fucking months. My mind is in shambles. Does this make lewding "young" Coconut ok? Does it make lewding "old" Coconut wrong??? Chocola and Vanilla look 6 years old for fucks sake. And Kashou is balls deep in them 3 months later. Imagine Kashou's home, and thinking about how cute those little girls are, and finding out he is in a sexual relationship with them 3 months later. 
"She IS a Loli, but officer, this is what she looks like in 3 months."
"Ok, so, how old is she in the older example?"
"One year old."
Save me please. All I wanted was to enjoy my loli Neko slice-of-life. I'm ruined.

I think VN's will get more and more animation as the market develops, which will help.  Eventually I even think that the standard practice of reusing sprites will become a dated feature of VNs, and they will have more animation instead. I say this because I think people put a lot of value on the visuals of VN's, and there are definitely companies that have improved their standards over the years.  Like anime, at a certain point the quality will be high enough to where it will break into a western audience.

Let the market develop naturally.

...and done with San Shimai. That was quick
It's probably because it is closer to typical adventure game than VNs, as there are no multiple routes. There's basically one story, with one good ending, and several bad ends. There are also some optional scenes which you can skip.
It was much darker than Sakura no Kisetsu. The plot was actually not bad, even if following some cliches. But not anime/moe cliches, rather b-movies It is also more h-heavy, although some scenes lead to bad end. The number of scenes is probably similar, but since there are no routes, it all happens in single story, so one may get the feeling that the protag fucks around too much, like he was some James Bond or whatever   . But there were some emotional moments here and there too.
In true adventure games fashion, bad ends aren't instant - they just change the epilogue you get. So you can trigger one, and then still play thru whole story until it shows.
"Adventure gameplay" aspect was executed better here, with less pointless choices.
Art is similar to Sakura no Kisetsu, it actually shares some assets with it (school backgrounds). I like the character design, following that 90's anime look. As I said when reviewing Sakura no Kisetsu, I'd really like to see some of that style in newer games.



Music was really good. Translation is on similar level - ther are some typos, missing words and few mismatched names, but overally it's readable.
Nice hybrid - or transitional work - between VN and text adventure. If you aren't put off by ancient technical limitations - try it. 7/10.
Works well with DOSBox. Unfortunately version that is downloadable from abandonware sites has one h-CG broken - lower half of image is messed up.
Also, web version can be played at Asenheim Project.

I'm currently playing HapyMaher and Planetarian in its german version. You'll notice they tled it three times though. Just did it to judge a german translation as a german person.
Else I'm trying to finish Evenicle but chapter 5 leaves me in a slump... Also I'm really disappointed by the lack of depth in the combat system and the difficulty curve. It doesn't get harder at all, very casual game.

Evenicle Review on Friday on our Website btw, stay tuned!

Finished Sorcery Jokers the other day. What a ride and a half that was! That VN had some rather profound themes too.
Asahi best girl (I just love how bold she is). While Ruu is ..... unforgettable (that scene when the tables FINALLY flipped on her was crazy extreme!).
 
Time for my next read ......... well ........ thy time has cometh!
*Installs Muv-Luv*
 
..... doesn't Sumika's voice sound familiar?
*checks VNDB*
Yep, has the same voice as Grisaia's Amane. Apparently all the big sister types have the same voice

Evenicle is a lot of fun, probably the best H-RPG released in the west. However it's incredibly easy, and the randomly generated fights get boring real quick. There's also a couple of places where if you're not paying attention (or doing 3 things at once, none very well haha...) and you miss some instructions, you could be wandering around the world for an hour because no journal!!!

Sorcery Jokers ...... reaches the end of Haruto's route. Thoughts....
Yep, that ended well

I don't know if someone was already posted this here, but I'll post this anyway. Here's the opening of Amayui, and hope you'll enjoy it.

Day 6 in Sorcery Jokers.......
 

Lazy fight scenes. Honestly I wish more VNs would just use a manga-esque style for fight scenes. Funnily enough Cartagra does the "manga-style fight scenes" (I haven't read KNS 1 or 2 yet, maybe they do too), and it looks great. Of course, this demands more on the part of the artist(s). More broadly, I guess I'm asking for more artistic effort when it comes to these scenes, in whatever way it can be done.
The "lazy" type I'm talking about are where CGs are reused, and the fights involve text and "colored slashes" on the screen, plus sound effects.  This is the style in a lot of the highly rated VNs.  It even includes some very action-scene oriented VNs where you'd expect there to be more artistic emphasis on the action. This problem might be because of budget issues.

Very excited for this game.

Aaaand...  I already want to take my words back. I somehow managed to make this post right before I reached a major plot twist which made all of the complaints I previously had about the story not legit anymore. And after that the story gets really interesting, and I'm actually hooked.
You know, that's exactly why I love reading VNs completely blind, without any idea o what they're actually about. Usually gives the best result in terms of enjoyment (in case that the VN in question is actually good of course).
I'll post more detailed comments after I finish at least one route.

Funny that you mention Subahibi, I actually thought there were more "unjustified fanservice" h-scenes in Subahibi than in Grisaia.  Sure there are h-scenes in Subahibi which fit the plot, but there are several I can think of that definitely don't. 
With Grisaia, all of the character arcs are romantic, and the romance leads to the h-scenes, so I'd say the h-scenes are "justified".

After saw the CG, I wonder whether I should play this or not because I saw one of the CG did have yaoi sex scenes. But then again after I read Subahibi, maybe it's not so bad after all although I admit though that I skipped the scenes back at Subahibi (I still understand the reason of why we have yaoi sex scene at Subahibi, okay). Anyway other than yaoi sex scene issue looks like the VN will be interesting if only because we'll gonna have mahou shoujo heroines (According to VNDB), in which it's one of underutilized trope in the VNs from what I saw so far outside of the nukige. Apparently the reception for this VN is quite good as well, so it's a plus. Now if only JAST managed to release it at this year, which at least it should be seeing from their past pattern.
PS - I knew this VN was one of JAST project, but seeing that it's JAST I decided to just give up on this lol and therefore didn't do much research on this until now.

I want to buy and read Sorcery Jokers. And the upcoming Steam Sale isn't active yet.
In the meantime, I'll read *eden.
..... I'm gonna get gut punched in the feels, ain't I? Why do I do this to myself?

The House In Fata Morgana tackles relationships in general in a very unique, very insighful, very tactful and very emotional way.