adamstan

Maybe your eyes are better than mine I mean, I can read it, but I feel like I'm straining my eyes. The problem I have is with the border/shade around the letters. It should be black and crisp/sharp, but somehow it always looks like there was some kind of interpolation/scaling applied to it, even though I'm playing the game in the window mode in its native resolution. The edges are somewhat blurry and the contrast is poor. The rest of the screen (background, sprites, menu text) looks okay. I'll post screenshot once I get back to it. I have a really soft spot for those - a VN gets easy bonus points from me for that

I just started playing this. Man, the text is somehow really hard on my eyes - no matter which font I choose, it's kind of blurred and with some weird shading/transparency or whatever. Very hard to read. On the positive side - sprites with blinking animations

Yeah, apparently in original version

Yeah, it sounds great. I'd prefer slightly different drums style, but songwriting is brilliant.

I've heard/read in many places, that forums have been dying in general for a quite long time already - in favor of more recent social media platforms.

Yes, that's the case.

Wait wait wait.... Midgar? Whew, I misread some of the previous posts, and thought for a moment that Making Lovers is going to be episodic...

Episodic release? Yikes! That puts me off too.

Yeah, I agree - in a main game Ruriko is a heroine without a route. It feels a bit like they used her to sell a fandisc...

Both girls have routes in W Happiness - it has five routes: Ruriko, Konomi, Tamie, Marika and Mitsuki.

I think, that for my next VN I'll try Pure Love! - I found it discounted to 999円 on DLSite It seems to be "pure" fluffy moege. I'm genuinely curious if I'll like it. Art seems nice, and in the OP I spotted lots of SD CGs. It might be fun - or horribly boring. Let's check

Yes, it's just the repeat of original common route without any changes, so if you have read the main game, and remember it, you can safely skip that part in W Happiness. Ack, that hurts

Good that I haven't bought "Island" yet then (scared off by the high price on Steam) Himawari sits on my account, but my backlog is huge

And, today another one has been delivered - Kono Aozora ni, Yakusoku o (PSP version) Like many other VNs, I've found it by clicking on random screenshots on vndb home page It seemed interesting, and I liked the art. It also seems to have quite good scores. And it's written by the author of White Album (1 & 2) and Damekoi.

I see. I haven't encountered anything like that during my playthrough, so I'm clueless.

In normal lines - I haven't noticed anything weird. However, there's indeed noise during But if you mean that one, then it's deliberate effect.

That's a pity But indeed it isn't technically the greatest... I have played it in full-screen mode on 15" laptop with native resolution of 1366x768, and it seemed a good fit. My main PC has 27" screen with 1920x1080 resolution, and it is playable both fullscreen and windowed. I haven't noticed any extraordinary pixellation. But I actually prefer to play VNs in windowed mode on that bigger screen, since when they're fullscreen I have trouble with seeing full picture at once - I need to focus either on textbox or images. I have no experience with higher-resoultion systems. Returning to main topic of this thread, I once again have trouble deciding what to read next... I have a bunch of recently bought untranslated JVNs waiting - like Sukimazakura to Uso no Machi, Natsu no Ame (Konno Asta's VN), Sorairo (from the makers of Amber Quartz), or the older ones like Hoshizora Planet (from Tanaka Romeo, the writer of YMK and Kazoku Keikaku) or Uminomichi (shares setting with Yukizakura's fandisc)... but then, which one? Or maybe I should finally tackle Grisaia that has been sitting on my Steam account for almost two years instead? Or, since I seem to read mostly various kinds of nakige recently, maybe Toradora! Portable for a change of pace? (I loved the anime) Tough decision...

It didn't disappoint me While it (Alka + Pocket) isn't the most original one (you will definitely recognize some AIR and Clannad tropes), it is good. And I agree with you about Tsumugi's route. Very touching ending indeed.

I just checked how it behaves for me. It seems that side-images appear if the character is speaking, but their sprite isn't shown at the moment. If there is a sprite shown, there's no side image. The only bug/glitch that I remember from my playing were random crashes if I skipped for too long (likie during second and subsequent playthroughs). For that reason I took care to stop skipping and make a save one in a while. I also noticed, that it starts to run much more smoothly if you switch it to the Direct3D display mode in advanced display options (even though the label says it's not recommended).

Weird, I didn't have any such technical problems with it And I played it twice But yeah - what happens in your screenshots is clearly a glitch/bug (but I have never encountered it during my playthroughs). On a side note - damn, those mini-games in Summer Pockets are addictive!

I just finished Summer Pockets. What can I say... it's definitely classic Key nakige - wheter it's good or bad thing depends on the reader's attitude. I liked it. When it comes to "normal" routes, I liked them all. Shiroha's had some pacing issues, but other than that, I don't have many complaints. My favourite heroine from that part is Ao I think. Somebody somewhere said that she's a character taken out straight from Mashiro Iro Symphony - perhaps this impression is strengthened by the fact that she's drawn by Palette's Izumi Tsubasu - but I also had those impressions. She reminded me of Airi a bit. Interactions with side characters (Ryouichi, Tenzen, Nomiki, Shizuku) were also fun. True Route is split into two parts. It was highly emotional for me, even though it takes a lot from previous Key titles - there are bits of Clannad and AIR clearly visible. But I don't mind it. I really like family themes. Art is great - it's definitely the best looking Key VN, and it just looks good on its own as well. I also loved the music - it was definitely enhancing the scenes' mood. To sum it up - while I feel like it doesn't exactly reach the greatness of Clannad, AIR or LB, it's still prety close - very solid work. Therefore I'd rate it at 8.5/10 (the same as Kanon) Also, while I finished the story, I might still spend some more time with it, this time having fun with mini games

I can see ANIPLEX page from my Steam account, but indeed when I try to click Adabana from there, I get the error message "This product is currently unavailable in your region". As for acces to aniplex-exe.com being blocked within EU, I guess that it might have something to do with the site being supposedly not GDPR-compliant. It's the same with some other Japanese or US pages - when you try to browse them from within EU, you get message that they cannot show it because it's not GDPR-compliant, and thus "illegal" in EU. In other words, they have to block it, or they could be sued.

Wholesome romance, and you liked IMHHW. Hmm... from the top of my head, maybe you would like Aokana, Princess Evangile, Sanoba Witch (english title "Sabbat of the witch")? Also, while they are not primarily focused on romance, I'd recommend trying out Key VNs, like Clannad or Little Busters. Recent Summer Pockets is very good as well. Their older titles - AIR and Kanon - also are good, but they might be more difficult to get, since they don't have official english releases.

From NekoNyan's TT:

So, yesterday I finished Tsumugi's route. It was for most of the time very fluffy and lighthearted. But near the end I cried The effect it had on me was similar to Fuuko's route from Clannad. (even though story is different) Mugyuu~~... Now there's true route left - and it's good that it's Friday today, so no work tomorrow