adamstan

I started YU-NO. So far I finished the prologue - and I'm really liking it and curious what will happen next. Art and music is great (I'm playing with PC-98 FM music pack), and it has two of my favourite voice actresses - Aya Hisakawa and Kikuko Inoue

I just finished One ~Kagayaku Kisetsu e~ Not perfect, but not bad. This VN feels a bit unpolished, like a demo record of a band It presents many ideas that will be further developed in KEY games (like Dream World, the power of promises etc). It can also be considered team's first attempt at establishing their nakige formula. It didn't fully succeed, but the seeds were sown. The start however wasn't great. Common route was fun, but then I started with Nagamori's route, full of high hopes, as I have soft spot for osananajimi heroines. However, this route wasn't very good - I really disliked the protag's behaviour in it OTOH maybe starting with this route was good idea to have it out of the way in the beginning BTW Nagamori herself is good, she just got bad route. Then I read Misaki's and Mio's routes - and they're easily two best girls in this game for me . Their interactions also are pretty amusing, as Misaki is blind, while Mio is mute but somehow they manage to get along well - with a help of Kouhei of course. (BTW I wonder if Katawa Shoujo writers have read "One" ) Misaki's route was first that made me shed some tears. Mio's too. Next was kuudere Akane. Her route was interesting, and it was really heartwarming to watch how near the end she warmed up to Kouhei. Also, Akane's route is special as Here there were many feels again near the ending. After that I read Nanase - she is the game's tsundere. The route was nice, and Nanase herself turned out to be very likeable. It seems that I generally like tsundere heroines in VNs too. This route was more lighthearted than the previous ones. And Nanase in deredere mode is sweeet Then there's little Mayu. Some say that this route is weak, but I liked it too. Nice tale about growing up. However, here (as well as in Nagamori's route) h-scene felt out of place and unnecessary - so, you may say, standard KEY quailty But, surprisingly, scenes in remaining four routes were actually not bad. They were kept rather short (except for somewhat longer Nanase's), and without explicitly describing each move using ton of onomatopeic sounds. Instead, the writing was focused more at the bond between the characters (as that's actually the plot purpose of all these scenes, see spoiler tag below). Hidden Hikami's mini route serves more as a description of world mechanics (however, after finishing some routes, and also getting some bad endings, you can figure most of it on your own). As I mentioned previously, game feels somewhat unpolished - it shows that it was first of its kind for the team. Sometimes the story makes too sudden jumps. But still overally it was enjoyable read. I got used to the graphics after a while, but they aren't that great. It looks like a transitional work between earlier pixel-art style, and modern one. The backgrounds especially feel lacking, with few details and overuse of gradients. Character sprites are okay (that is, as long as you're used to the Hinoue Itaru's style) but ancient game engine, that doesn't have any kind of smoothing, makes the sprite's edges look overly pixellated. CGs are mostly looking good. Music was nice too. Download edition of the game can be still bought at getchu. Then you can apply translation patch. Translation quality is decent, and there weren't many typos or other glaring errors. To sum it up - little rough over the edges, but nevertheless enjoyable experience. Check it out if you want to see the birth of the classic Key's formula. 7.5/10 Now I think I'll try YU-NO.

That's not entirely true I actually enjoyed most of the h-scenes in VNs I've read (like, Konosora, or PE, and many others) But then it's not the end of the world if they are not present - and sometimes it actually makes the whole thing better, at least for me. KEY's horrible scenes are obvious example, but, as I wrote in Miagete thread, all-ages version was all good for me, while +18 version was too much - if they halved amount of the scenes it would be perfect for me I started with VNs looking for H, but as time goes by I tend to appreciate non-porn versions more and more ("Came for the porn, stayed for the story ") . But I'm not totally anti-H. Like, Ageha's route in Konosora wouldn't work in all-ages version, as one of the main plot points is that Scenes in other routes were nice too. I also really liked the way sex was portrayed in Princess Evangile or Dal Segno - and even some reviews pointed it out, that it was "surprisingly wholesome for an eroge"

Hmm... this FD looks indeed like being somewhat more story-focused, similar to Princes Evangile W Happiness, where we got legit additional routes, and not just bunch of h-scenes. But OTOH based on VNDB description, sisters' side routes (Asa/Yoru, Ageha/Hotaru) are "ecchi-focused", so that might be a problem. But then, Pulltop already did all-ages console version (Cruise Sign) that contained both main game and FD routes, and it worked out somehow? Maybe at least it'll be cheaper That's main problem However, last two translations of Pulltop games were okayish. OTOH there was horrible Cross Channel - but maybe they started to pay more attention at least when it's about their own games?

So that's why there are some inconsistencies with nomenclature?

If that's the case, then I'm glad that there will be all-ages version, you perverts

Well, If they do it Miagete way - meaning "+17" rating (only h-scenes removed) and at least half-decent translator - then I'll be happy to read this. So let's just pray to RNG gods that the randomly-assigned translator will be decent

For me ideal +18 version would have half of the h-scenes that the original has . Nevertheless, as it is, I liked all-ages version more, especially for two main heroines - Hikari and Saya. Some of the h-scenes seemed forced, just to meet the quota. And all-ages version is actually well done - if you didn't know that there were h-scenes, you wouldn't feel that anything is missing, as transitions/replacement scenes are handled really well. It's proper all-ages edition, not just some cutting. Here's my mini-review (and detailed comparison for Hikari's route two posts eariler):

I'd just like to ask about one thing regarding Konosora fandiscs. There was once floating around the net something called "Sweet Love". However it isn't mentioned on the VNDB. AFAIK it was afterstory for Kotori. And it functioned as an addon/DLC for main game. So is it just another name/version of "Snow Presents"? Or what was it and why isn't it on VNDB?

Yukizakura and True Love. Also, Heart de Roommate has teacher as a side heroine.

Well, Toa is certainly imouto, but I think she doesn't qualify as loli with those E+ cups (which are WagaHigh trademark)

Remake is untranslated, so there is no choice

After thinking some more about it, I have to admit defeat. Probably I'm "pro-honorifics" because English isn't my native language, so I don't have enough sensivity for what's "natural" and what's not. But then I started to think how would I go about translating a VN dialogue into my native language - and indeed, with honorifics it would sound awful... So after doing that thought experiment I fully get the point of the "anti-honorifics" crowd. We're doomed...

Yeah, this. I actually still cannot comprehend how adding some suffix to the name - and especially to the foreign name - would be changing grammar - it still is a name, just different sounding A mutation of the name, or whatever. And - as have been mentioned - French or German "honorifics" like Herr or Monsieur are being used in Engilsh texts, and nobody bats an eye. But write "name-san" or "senpai" and everybody goes crazy But then, I'm not native English speaker, nor linguist, so I think I'll give up here. It's not like I'm going to drop VN if it doesn't have honorifics And the longer I think and discuss about it, the less sure I become, and it starts to look more and more complicated. That's why I dodged @Kiriririri's question - sorry about that. Maybe one day I'll be able to read untranslated, and then these problems will vanish

Okay, I think I start to get your point. Indeed, if the reader knows absolutely nothing about Japanese, (and is going to stay that way forever) these are completely meaningless, so if that's the target audience, there is no point in having them. But then, you'll have to cut out the whole scene. It seems that "proffesional translation" means "translation that is completely clear without any knowledge about source" - and in such approach there is no place for honorifics, I have to agree. However I'm not sure, if this is the best approach for all VNs. I think there's no harm for the player in learning what those funny thingies stuck to the names in japanese conversations mean - and that can be accomplished with TL-notes (either in-game, somewhere in the beginning, or in separate readme file). Of course then that means that some knowledge is required to enjoy the game, so then it no longer is "professional translation" by above definition, but I think for some VNs it works better. Funny thing - I'm writing here in defence of honorifics in TLs, but actually sometimes they indeed start to bother me - they look jarring especially when used during MCs internal monologues or narration. Damn...

After reading description on VNDB I decided that it's not for me. Too dark.

If that's the case, try Season of Sakura, Nocturnal Illusion or YU-NO. (With Season of Sakura, make sure to get DOS version and run it inside DOSBox.) Pixel-art classics (and wonderful character designs - taken straight from '90s anime). Three Sisters Story is on the same engine as Season of Sakura, but it isn't as good storywise. Season of Sakura: Three Sisters Story: Nocturnal Illusion:

"One" doesn't look as good as Kanon, but I think I'll enjoy it nevertheless. Art style is similar, but it uses different engine, so for example, sprites don't have any smoothing on them, so the edges are quite pixellated. Also, backgrounds are of poorer quality. Actually, with Kanon they made significant visual progress. One's visuals look like something transitional between old pixel-art and modern style.

Hmm... you said that they make english text ungrammatical. I don't think that's true. At least not with suffixes added to names. We can just treat the whole thing as a different variations of the name - kind of nickname or whatever - that tells us something about the relationship between characters. So, let's just treat "Kouhei-san", "Kouhei-kun" or "Kouhei-chan" as a whole name, and I don't see the problem at all. If what you said was true, that would mean that certain scenes are just impossible to translate "properly" and so some games cannot get professional translation. Like - all scenes where characters explicitly discuss honorifics. I just stumbled upon another example while reading "One" - first encounter with Misaki is like that, where they discuss if she should call MC the aforementioned "Kouhei-san", "Kouhei-kun" or "Kouhei-chan". With English names there are other ways to tell about relationship - like using diminutions, "Ann -> Annie" etc - but that won't work with Japanese names, as english transformations won't work on them. So, I think it's safe to just treat, say, "Yumiko-chan" as an euqivalent of diminuted name, so it would be to "Yumiko" what "Annie" is to "Ann".

I just started One - we'll see how it turns out.

Count me in as well

Well, I reread it after 6 months or something like that - I had to wait for new patch . That route was readable with original TL too, but then I still enjoyed it again. I loved Kotori too Best girl from this game.

It's possible. After all, with the original TL, I often couldn't figure what's going on at all - that's why I dropped it, while in new version I enjoyed all routes - and even repeating Kotori's route felt nice. At worst case, you can skip through routes that you enjoyed with "bad" translation, and reread just Ageha and Amane.

If only there was decent translation for it... As it is now, with each TL worse than the other, I'm not going anywhere near it But yeah, screenshots look nice.

For me LB! was first Key VN I read. Despite that I still enjoyed older ones - Kanon, Air and Clannad. But I'm not bored by "slow" titles - as long as I like characters And old graphics isn't instant turn-off for me - sometimes I genuinely like it. For example, I loved heroines look in Season of Sakura or overall graphic feel of Nocturnal Illusion. YU-NO looks really promising too.