adamstan

Yeah, that's exactly what I've been doing with PSP and PS3 VNs. But if I'm not mistaken, apart from cartridges the Switch also has digital releases and so I was wondering if it's possible to buy them from within emulator. *****************************************EDIT************************* I looked around a bit, and it seems that while emulators work and can run some games, they're useless without having an actual console (and it has to be certain serial number range/version that can be hacked), since even though it's possible to download game ROMs, they still won't work without obtaining an license key - and to activate game, you have to install it on the console and link it to your Nintendo account. Then - if your Switch is of the hackable kind - you can transfer data to the PC and run the game inside emulator. But well, if the game is translated, then if I had an actual Switch I wouldn't need an emu, since at that point the only thing it would be useful for would be text hooking in case of JP games Okay, scratch that, there are some workarounds But it seems that my CPU is too shitty to run even a VN inside an switch emulator (or the game isn't fully compatible with it yet) So it seems that in order to play WES I'll still have to get a Switch... Makes it a bit expensive

Really? That's great news. It looks like I was a bit out of touch. Perhaps I assumed it was still too recent platform, or too closed. AFAIK there's still no PS4 or PSV emu, so I thought it was similar situation with Switch, without actually checking. But... Is there a way to buy games and transfer them to emu without owning an actual Switch?

@Eclipsed Reading your post, and having heard the title before I started to wonder - "why didn't I tried this one before? It looks interesting". But then I searched it on vndb and I knew - no PC version, consoles only, and the ones that aren't emulated yet to boot - PSV, PS4 and Switch Why, oh why no PSP release at least?

For side characters - Clannad perhaps (Nagisa's parents - Akio and Sanae)? And for main - The Language of Love comes to mind.

Yesterday I finished Marie's route in Sakura Strasse. So far it's been pretty lighthearted and funny moege. Could perhaps call it romcom. (Without the school setting!) Characters are very likeable and the humor worked for me - I've been laughing out loud every few lines. OTOH the attempts at drama were literally hit and miss - meaning, some did hit me, while others flew completely over my head The story was a bit all over the place, but perhaps that impression is because I had quite long breaks between my reading sessions (up to three weeks!) - this game, while very enjoyable, didn't manage to exactly engage me. Feels weird, but it is what it is. Highlights of this route would be definitely Marie herself, who is cute and shy (and a bit of tsundere), but sometimes - perhaps half unconsciously - drops some serious bombshells And then we have her childhood friend Claudia, who reminds me a bit of Urd from "Oh! My Goddess!" franchise Coupled with her little brother Cris, most of the time she's just comic relief, but they also have important role near the end of the route. Like I said in the previous post, H-scenes (at least in this route) are handled quite nicely. They don't jump out of nowhere, and have strong focus on feelings and love. There are also some sweet dialogues in there. As the MC-kun said (or rather thought) during the final H-scene (please forgive my sloppy translation) : "Putting sexual pleasure itself aside, the greatest thing was that feeling of comfort and peace (楽) inside my heart" or something along those lines That's the way I like my H-scenes, if they have to be there, so big thumbs up . I am still mildly interested in remaining three routes, and hope to finish it before the New Year For now it is heading for 7.5 rating, which in my scoring system is "good, but not outstanding" - it's kind of a base score which then can increase or decrease. And after finishing this I plan to read latest Konno Asta's game - Ano Hi no Tabibito, Fureau Mirai which I bought recently and it arrived yesterday. It's set on the same island that previous Pulltop's short VN - Sora to Umi ga, Fureau Kanata (Adventure of a Lifetime), but features new set of characters. The formula is similar - protagonist, two heroines, and single choice at the end of common route. Pulltop doesn't seem too eager to translate it, so I got tired of waiting, and bought JP version instead. (Especially since Pulltop's translation quality is hit and miss anyway )

Great Saving this right now, as I plan to play Kakyuusei too one day.

This weekend I returned to Sakura Strasse. I finally finished common route, and started Marie's. Now I'm past the first h-scene and I was pleasantly surprised. It had proper build up and didn't jump out of nowhere like they often tend to do. It also was nicely written, with more emphasis on feelings than on moves

If that search didn't give anything, then I'm afraid it might be lost cause Even if the game doesn't have walkthrough on sagaoz or seiya-saiga, searching for "game title 攻略" usually provides links to some obscure pages or blogs where there should be something... I also played old PC98 VN recently - Love Escalator, but was able to find walkthroughs/guides. It's only two years younger than Kakyuusei. And I'm a bit surprised, since Elf games seem to be more popular...

Ah, Mashiro Iro Symphony I haven't seen the anime, but I played this, and it's perhaps the greatest moege I've ever played. Indeed, it would be nice if it got translated release, since more people could experience its greatness

A few days ago, on Wednesday (11.11) Anri Kumaki has released new album. It sounds very promising:

Please forgive me spamming with my recordings (but actually that's what I'm really listening to right now - after I record something, I tend to listen to it a lot in the following days ) Anyway, I just uploaded my cover version of 誕生日 (Tanjoubi - Birthday) by one of my favorite singer-songwriters, Anri Kumaki, to celebrate birthday of another singer-songwriter - Yoko Matsuura I mentioned a few posts before I think it turned out quite nicely

Sadly, nothing of interest for me in there But whatever, I wish them good luck

I'm currently feeling completely unexpected kind-of VN, and general, burn-out(?). I mean, last time I read a VN (Sakura Strasse) was over a week ago. Perhaps it's because MC makes it not engaging enough for me, so I don't have strong incentive to continue, but still, I totally wasn't expecting that. In the meantime, my other hobbies took over for a while. I guess I'll return to reading sooner or later, but now it feels really weird. Maybe I should just drop Sakura Strasse and switch to something more engaging, but then, after buying a physical edition (since there's no download one, and no pirated one either ) I feel a bit reluctant to do so... Should have tried out the demo version before buying... Nevertheless looks like my tastes evolved a bit, and "pure" moege doesn't seem to work for me as well as it did before. Now I seem to need a bit of nakige as well. Didn't want to clutter WhatAreYouPlaying thread with this, so I'm writing here...

Recently I don't have much time, but I'm still going slowly through Sakura Strasse. It turns out that I've been reading it like maybe just a few hours a week. It's strange. When I'm reading it I'm enjoying it - the girls are cute and comedy is funny. But at the same time I don't find it as engaging as other titles (and as I would expect). I guess that has to be because of protagonist. While he got much better than in the prologue (when I wrote my rant on him), I still cannot relate too much to him - and I don't mean in a self-insert way, but still perhaps it hinders my immersion. Even though the game uses first person narration, I feel more like watching events from a distance. 不思議だね

Ekhm... Toradora would like to have a word with you But yeah, those are rare.

Ah, now I see. Before YU-NO (and after it ) I played mostly charage of various kinds, so I went into it kind of blind, without specific expectations. Maybe that enabled me to enjoy it more, since it was the first of its kind for me. Fully agree on your note about alternate happy endings. It would be really nice if they did it as you described. Also, have to say that while I wasn't too fond of Kanna's remake sprite, she looks really good in that CG you posted. Generally, when I look at your screenshots, I start to warm up to this remake a bit. Maybe I'll really get it on winter or summer sale

Actually that change of pacing didn't bother me much. Rather, the final route was perhaps my favorite part of the game. I'd say that it was a bit artificially slowed down by all that adventure game mechanics. Of course final route makes some huge timeskips, but it still worked for me. And I really appreciated that it ditched the point'n'click mechanics. Disclaimer: I played fan-TL of original with added voice patch. Maybe remake does some things differently?

In San Shimai, when looking for Emi in a school, you can walk in on a random couple having sex in one of the classrooms But it's just one CG and a few lines, and those characters are total randoms, not appearing anywhere in the game.

Actually, no. (But it perhaps did happen with some of the moeges I played. Nevertheless I don't actively aim for that) Most of the times for me it's also just following the story - with various degrees of immersion. I just wanted to stress how much his attitude annoys me and makes me wanna smack him over the head (Well, Yuu-nee already does it, so maybe I don't need to )

I'm reading Sakura Strasse, but protagonist really annoys me. He definitely won't work as a self-insert character for me He's horrible tsundere, and on top of that keeps switching between two modes - rude and whiny bitch. And donkan to boot... Poor girls, falling in love with such fool... I wonder if they manage to change him into something decent

But we got To Heart 2 translated. I think that interest for translation of the first game might be hurt by three factors: It's really old The best version is all-ages, so eroge fans might be not interested in working on it To Heart 2 is better Also, there were some voice-only parts (the "Heart to Heart" radio program that you can listen to on evenings), so I guess providing subtitles for those would mean serious engine rework, or be outright impossible. (Not to mention, they'd have to be transcribed and translated by ear)

After all, not every text-heavy game has to be Visual Novel. There were text-based adventures - which Visual Novels evolved from, so perhaps Disco Elysium could be called text-RPG?

I still prefer older art style for YU-NO. Maybe my perception would change after actually playing new version, but that's not happening until it gets some massive discount during one of Steam sales At full price it's prohibitively expensive for me. Also, I loved original voices, but I guess to have them in the remake would be a hell of licensing nightmare, so I understand that. As for the art - it doesn't even have to be pixellated 16 color original one, I'm fine with redoing it for hi-res etc, but it's just that some of the new character designs themselves are IMO worse - especially Mio, but also Ayumi and Mitsuki - their new designs have kind of dumbed-down look. If they'd redraw it using original designs it would have been perfect for me I think. However, if the rumors are true, and remake does away with constant pantyshot CGs in the most inappropriate mood ruining moments, then that's a big plus

I have to confess - I love their G.R.N.D. album.

So, after all I got distracted again, and started reading another moege from Palette - Sakura Strasse instead of Bokuten