adamstan

You're right - I searched for some screenshots, and it looks surprisingly bad... PC: PS2: That sucks, indeed It looks like low quality anime DVD rip...

I'd say that if you like original's art style, definitely give it a go. I loved old YU-NO, and current English fantl version with voice patch is kind of "ultimate" one. As for the remake - I cannot stand those new character designs. Maybe I'll buy it to give some support to publishers (even though Elf is no more, and old version is long-time abandonware...), but I don't look forward to it too much... It will have different graphics, different music and different voices (and all three things were great in the old version) - so basically almost completely different game based on the same scenario. Also, @Mr Poltroon is right - definitely get a walkthtrough ready.

It looks like Steam's banhammer is on the loose again... Yotsunoha suddenly disappeared from my wishlist, and link https://store.steampowered.com/app/880150/Yotsunoha/ points to nowhere 畜生っ！ At this point I'm seriously thinking about grabbing used PS2 version...

+1 I loved it. Sakura was best girl for me. I also loved Nanako's route for Maison Ikkoku references It also does the "group of friends" thingy pretty well.

I'd rather not - that's what puts me off the most. *** I admit, there were some dark and/or rapey scenes in some of the VNs that I've rated highly, but when it becomes almost main theme of the whole VN, that's too much for me.

I agree with ONE recommendation, however synopsis and tags of MOON had put me off - it seems very dark, much different from most KEY works. (Apparently, it has some connections/similarities with Rewrite, however I haven't read Rewrite, so cannot comment on that).

I thought so too, yet for some mysterious reasons something felt "off" to me. I probably wouldn't have noticed it, if there was no switch option available It's like all those sans, kuns, chans and oneesans didn't go well with translation style used - they felt unnatural, sticking out like a sore thumb. But that's just personal feeling of course, and the one that surprised me a bit. And it's the exact opposite of situation in Sakura Sakura - there everything seemed "optimized" for honorifics, and it was the honorific-less version, that felt "off" (especially since they also discarded last names, sticking with first names only in it, if memory serves).

If that's the case, then IMO they should just stick to this version, and polish it well. In other routes, when I tried to switch to the "honorific version", it somehow sounded off, too stiff and unnatural. That's why I think that whole "switch" gimmick doesn't work, as both approaches require slightly different style of translation altogether. It seems like a good idea, because in theory you can please both camps that way, but I think it would be better to choose one style, and pour all efforts and resources into it. In current state, both versions seem a bit half-assed - it isn't as simple as replacing names to make it sound good. However, I have to admit that outside Nahoko's route honorificless version was pretty good, and not much was lost, as there wasn't too much fuss or development concerning the way of adressing each other, and translators managed to convey most of the relationship nuances using just different speaking styles for characters. They also thankfully preserved the distinction between using first names and last names, and that was enough most of the time. The only thing I'd change in it would be the way students speak about Junnichi's grandma, Akiko-san, from bare "Akiko" to "Mrs. Akiko" or something like that. Other than that, there wasn't anything that would bother me.

Okay, so I just finished the whole thing. Mimari's route was indeed very good, but personally I still prefer Kazusa - but she wins just by a notch Hikari's route was OK, while Nahoko's was a mess. It had potential, but execution was lacking, I'd say, so overally it was disappointing. Initially I started with all-ages version. It was handled a bit better than in Sakura Sakura, but still not good enough, so I switched to adult patch. Again, the cuts for all-ages version were made too early, loosing some valuable character interaction in the process. Up until now, the only well-done all-ages versions of eroges that I played were (apart from Air and Kanon, which are kind of special cases) Sanoba Witch, Princess Evangile, Yoake, ToHeart and ASFOS. And among those, only Sanoba's all-ages version was done by localization company alone - others were based on existing JP all-ages versions (even if those were unreleased, like with ASFOS). So it seems that NekoNyan is better at this game than SolPress As for localization - it reads pretty smooth, although there are some typos and missing words here and there. Nevertheless, "honorific switch" thingy still doesn't work out. In case of this VN, for most routes it's the "non-honorific" version that actually feels more natural, but it kind of falls apart in Nahoko's route. In other routes there's no problem most of the time, and it felt OK for me. Also, there are still some "leaks" - meaning, for example Nahoko will still randomly get refered to as "Senpai" in "non-honorific" version. So it would need another round of editing QC, I'd say. Aaand, really, I know I repeat myself (and others), but lack of Saiko's route is unforgivable So, all in all, my rating is the same as @Naterocks2000's - 7.5/10

I suppose that what you describe is more suited towards action games than VNs...

But then there are some that, fortunately, get The closest one I can think to Saiko, would be perhaps Amane from Konosora. Still, I don't think it's the case of "anti-older-heroine" thinking, as Nahoko, who has the route, is the same age (and of similar figure ) as Saiko. Maybe writers thought that they would be too similar? I'd say that there's also a possibility that she's been relegated to FD - like Kanako from Konosora or Ruriko from Princess Evangile. After all, Hitotsuba is pretty new game (JP version was released just a year ago) so FanDisc is not out of the question yet. I finished Hikari's route yesterday. There were some good scenes along the way, and I liked the setup but the ending felt a bit underwhelming for me. However, matches and all that plane stuff was quite good. It actually surprised me a bit, as I was afraid that it will be boring (like martial arts scenes from Aoi's route in ToHeart).

I started it few days ago, and just now I completed my first route. I went for Kazusa's, as it seemed most natural progression from common. I loved it, ESPECIALLY the utterly satisfying epilogue I think next I'll go Hikari -> Nahoko -> Mimari. Also, I have one minor complaint - Saiko should totally have route too

Planetarian

Project is on the backburner, but there are some good news - I found a way to extract scripts from voiced JP version - AE was able to extract files, and then isfcodec to decode. After that, ArcTool can extract strings using the same method as with translated version. So now it should be possible to restore that missing line from Matsuri's route, and also, when I finally get to it, I should be able to compare TL with original text, which may come useful when fixing those few lines that are hard to understand in TL.

How's that even possible? Weren't they done in the same "batch"? RNG in all its glory...

Well, maybe it will gain more interest when it gets complete release. In its current unfinished episodic form I'm not interested.

Agreed. There was something magical about this relatively simple soundtrack. Fits the atmosphere perfectly. While we're at oldies - YU-NO's music is awesome too.

It's going to be released "soon" for about a year, and SolPress keeps completely silent about it in all their progress updates... It didn't seem to me to be ALL about lolis, but if that's the case then I'm definitely sticking with all-ages version.

Ah, I remembered another one - Crescendo.

I'm not sure about "best", but Konosora has great music.

It was long way around, but, after all, I came to the conclusion - screw all that smoothing. Pixels FTW. It feels a bit of a waste to discard many hours of work, but since I cannot get fully satisfying results, and they take up ~15x more space than pixel versions (literally - smoothed images set in png format is ~200MB, while 16 color ones are ~12MB) - I think it's reasonable to abandon them. As for progress report - I'm slowly making my way through text.

I started Hitotsu Yane no, Tsubasa no Shita de - Under one wing. First impressions - I like the characters, but their design... ugh... the artist went totally overboard with those boobs. Kyonyuu high-school girls definitely aren't my thing. Well, Hikari seems to look normal. Kazusa - it depends on the pose, in CGs she's normal, but sprites also are somewhat off. But Nohoko and Saiko - come on, gimme a break! Those balloons sticked to their chests aren't sexy, they're ridiculous, as they seem just tacked on - proportions seem to be completely off. If they toned it down from current E+++ to something like D it would have been much better. And then, at the opposite end is flat Mimarin Let's see how it turns out.

And so, today I finished Saki no Love Love Honeymoon. It was great. This fandisc for Yukizakura is exactly what it says on the tin - Yuuji's and Saki's summer trip to one southern island - in kind of "pre-honeymoon", as it is set between their engagement and Saki's route ending. Pretty short, but sweet. Somehow, it has put me into extraordinarily good mood. It reminded me how great heroine Saki was (there were many moments where I just wanted to hug her), and her relationship with Yuuji is amazing as well. I loved how often they were totally in phase, understanding each other. Their conversations about future were nice too. Whole game is filled with love - including 2 h-scenes. Most of the game is narrated from Saki's point of view - interesting change. Also, it's kind of "crossover episode", as side characters (Yoshioka family) and setting (Matsukawa Island) come from another D.O. VN - Uminomichi. (which I added to my backlog ) I think I could rate this small side story even a bit higher than main game, and give it 8/10. Also, I have to say that, for what it's worth, I found it much easier to read than ToHeart. Like I said in my previous post, for my next VN I'm going to go back to the translated world, and read Hitotsuba, I think.

+1000, that would be indeed the best, bud sadly, probably won't happen

Isn't it then just like half of the Cruise Sign? After all - Cruise Sign = all ages version of Konosora with added Akari route + all ages version of Flight Diary. So, it makes sense to base translated all-ages version of FD on it. However, still, Akari's route belongs to main game, not to the FD, so I think in this case it is valid to think about translation of this route as a bonus rather than cutting out. It just should be DLC for main game, not for FD So I'm with @Plk_Lesiak on this one.