adamstan

Did you play the old one or the remake? I have remake sitting on shelf waiting for its turn, but I keep hearing worrying things about this VN Some say it's almost like a bit tamer version of School Days - at least when it comes to shitty protagonists

Played White Album. I played it in one night since I really liked Ogata Rina (Kinda biased since she seemed like a prototype Setsuna WHO STILL REMAINS MY NO.1 HEROINE IN ANY MEDIA), but while I liked this game enough to burn through it fast, I couldn't honestly recommend it to anyone easily. Objectively, I fucking hate this game as it really threw away its potential, while fucking over what it has left. Yes, I'm disappointed very much so. It shares a lot of themes with White Album 2 but fails to reach the same depths, and even what it has got going for it they do it badly. A love triangle, songs are an important point, and some random side characters that have routes.
The game starts with you already with a girlfriend named Morikawa Yuki, an up and coming idol who looks like kazusa, although unlike Ogata Rina which is like prototype setsuna, Yuki is nothing like Kazusa as she has that typical quiet deredere childhood friend personality. Your relationship gets a bit strained by her always being busy at being an idol, and thats where Ogata Rina comes in. She's basically prototype setsuna but more outgoing, confident, and also willing to step on anything if its for their goal which is the MC. Both of them are in situations where they are initially at a downhill battle with Haruki being already in love with Kazusa and the MC of WA1 already having a girlfriend, and they will both naturally do things that betray their close friend Yuki/Kazusa  for that MC.
Unlike WA2 where the fanbase is cleanly divided between Setsuna and Kazusa, Ogata Rina is just too good for the MC. Seriously, Ogata's one of my favorite heroines which is what let me power through this crap VN. Ogata Rina brought this game a few scores up for me.
Now let me talk about what I really hated about this game.
Reading the synopsis, you would think this is a story-focused VN, since it has a dramatic love triangle. WRONG. ITS PLAYS LIKE A DATING SIM IN WHICH YOU CHOOSE EVERYDAY WHERE YOU GO. That usually only works with school life romcom that doesnt have a clear-cut story heavy setting unlike this one but in this one its kinda jarring. They even write the dating sim parts badly for me, ITS TOO SHORT. You choose someone to hang out with that day and the scene usually ends 2-5 mins depending on how you fast. The flag system also sucks, you can get locked out of events by simply missing a day you could hang out with them. Also you cant just consistently choose Rina everyday, some dialogue choices are locked behind other activities you do with other characters. I just want to focus on Rina not on the other badly designed characters. EVERYTHING IS TOO SHORT, it tries to write too many scenes while trying to make it short as possible and it sucked. It should have focused on the story aspect and just removed the jarring dating system altogether and removed the side characters since who played this game for someone other than Yuki and Rina. While in WA2, the side characters were good, in WA1 they're cardboard.
The side characters are mostly bad. I don't know about Sayoko the new character you unlock after you finish a game no way Im going back in the game. But the designs for me are atrocious on some characters. Haruka looks like a man, and not in a trap way, she really looks like one of the bros I talk to everyday and that bothers me. While it is subjective, this is the first time I seriously did not like a design too much and hated it. Also Mana looks like a literal child. The personalities of the side-characters are plain and has no depth and why did Yayoi the manager of Yuki even had a route?
I read this story because I love dramatic love triangle and predetermined relationships like having a girlfriend or an ex in a game, yes I enjoy cheating in VN's yes im trash but usually I see a lot of good angst, and warped romance from that and I love reading about fucked-up romances like cheating. However it even doesn't do that kinda properly in this story. In one scene, Rina suddenly kisses the MC, and the MC didn't even think about Yuki that much. While I understand the MC on that route started to love Rina, I'm sure there must be some kind of attachment to Yuki to induce guilt but no, its just one line saying he feels guilty and god damn where's the angst. Atleast Haruki went almost went insane when shit happens. And all that climax leading up to the confession of Rina cheating with the MC was quick. Yuki just slaps rina and fight a few bit and then... end scene. God damn it where is the drama.
The MC is a self-insert in a what should have been a story heavy setting, Usually, if there are predetermined relationships in a VN, the protagonist has a semblance of personality but no, the MC here is a cardboard cut-out with his features that stick out is being a coward in admitting his guilt to Yuki. I guess it makes sense if this really was written as a dating sim in mind but it is simply jarring on how the setting is jam packed with possible stories and it instead becomes a dating sim with a few heavy scenes mixed-in due to its setting.
I'm writing this right after finishing the VN and lacking sleep so I think I ranted a bit too long lol. Time to sleep and read again what I said tomorrow.
 
 

Seems like a good way to keep track of VN playtime and .exes if VNs aren't on Steam or something:   Download: https://micah686.github.io/VnManager/   Report Issues: https://github.com/micah686/VnManager/issues   Ask for features: https://github.com/micah686/VnManager/discussions

Win-Win indeed! I should start getting into gear too

Did you learn japanese by stubbornly reading vn's Adam?

I also forgot to mention, that yesterday I finished Himawari no Kyoukai to Nagai Natsuyasumi. It took me ~90hrs over three weeks, so perhaps half or one-third of my "normal" (translated) reading speed
It was great story about friendship, family and time, with a bit of magical undertones - a little KEY-like.
In my previous post I mentioned Daiya's route - it was quite typical ojousama moege route, but very enjoyable. Then I read Ruka's route - it had very different mood, with a bit of mystery and magic, and quite interesting twist. Tsukiko's route (console only) was again more lighthearted, but it also featured some additional foreshadowing for Yomi's route.
Yomi's route, unlocked after completing those three above, is kind of pre-true route It made the most use of the supernatural parts, and was quite nakige'y. I loved it.
Completing Yomi's route unlocks Hina's, which is The True Route. Hina is much younger than the rest of the cast - when we meet her, she's little girl who just came to the Oboshiro church after loosing her parents (or so it seems), and Father Arakawa is taking care of her - just like he did for Yousuke (protagonist) years ago.
Hina is really cute, and quickly becomes friends with Yousuke and the girls. It's really heartwarming to watch how they all are doting over her in common route and some parts of the girls' routes .
Hina's actual route branches off early part of Yomi's route. It covers an (unexpected) link between Yousuke and her and ultimately ends with Yousuke becoming her guardian, and them living in (now closed) Oboshiro church. (I think the conclusion itself isn't that big of the spoiler, since the most interesting parts lie inbetween.) Luckily, Yousuke isn't lolicon, so there isn't any H stuff in this route in any version of the game Overally, this route was very heartwarming.
But that's just a first part. After completing little Hina's route, the following part of the true route unlocks from the main menu. It is continuation of Hina's route after ten years timeskip, following the struggles of Yousuke's and Hina's family life and her growing up. It was really nice family-focused coming of age story. I think we could draw some parallels with Matsuri's route from Kazoku Keikaku, although it is a bit different. But the common point of two people with considerable age gap falling in love remains. Here we also get to know more about Hina's family. Daiya, Ruka and Tsukiko also come back as supporting characters. It was quite a ride, definitely pinnacle of this VN. And the ending was very fulfilling.
Art and music is gorgeous. Voices were also nice, I'd just wish that all characters were voiced. As it is, only female characters are fully voiced. For male characters, only three of them are voiced - Father Arakawa, Daiya's grandfather and one other guy who's identity should remain secret, since it's a bit of a spoiler Other male characters are unvoiced and spriteless - those two things combined often tripped me up a bit, since I had to stop for a moment to check if the line I'm just reading is protagonist or one of those characters But that's just a minor complaint.
It would also be nice, if common route had some more variety/branches. As it is now, while it has lots of choices, those choices are just convoluted way to select the route, and in common route they change just a few lines, if anything. So after a first playthrough, common route consist mostly of skipping
I also skipped through +18 PC version. I didn't like placement of most of the H-scenes, and also I strongly dislike the style of HCGs this VN uses, with big focus on the genital area often taking up to the half of the screen. It's fine in the nukige, but in romance story I'd prefer something less obviously porny. Aokana did great job at that with most of its HCGs. So with that considered, I'd take additional Tsukiko's route of the PS3 version over those dubious H-scenes
Time to sum up this horrible wall of text - HimaNatsu is definitely one of the charage gems, and I'm really glad I read it. 8.5/10
 

Euphoria and Higurashi don't have anything in common... Higurashi is way more focused on psychological horror, while Euphoria is exactly what you'd expect [tho with great story]. Also there is a ton of SoL cutsy stuff in Higu, so you'll be fine. The og anime made Higurashi sound way worse than it actually is!
That said, Umineko is better! But I do recommend reading them in order so you can enjoy some of Umi's twists and references

I haven't read them myself, but it seems to be the common knowledge that the console exclusive arcs are pretty bad and make the whole game way too long. The exceptions are the arcs based on the manga created by the original author.
EDIT. I somehow missed it when I posted it, but don't read the annotations unless you finished the first 4 arcs from the main game!
https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=6399
https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=6398
Honestly, almost all openings are pretty good. 

Hmm... apart from fucked-up h-content, I guess I'm also not good with too depressing mindfuck stuff, like death games etc. (Those two combined rule out things like Euphoria ) To give an example - I know that it's rather mild (and I think a talked about it once here), but I got severely disturbed by watching "The Cube" in the highschool (I think I was 16 back then). Not because of the gory bits, but more because back then I found the overall message kind of depressing.
Mystery, violence etc are all fine, as long as it doesn't all spiral down into "All people are monsters, world is fucked-up beyond repair, no hope, no future, no love and it's best to die anyway" kind of stuff Basically - no hard utsuge please.
It's just that after reading WES and finding out that I enjoyed its mystery part, I kind of started to warm-up to the idea of tackling Higurashi one day

Reading the English Steam version is definitely a safer bet then. If you want to delve into the console arcs later, all you need to play them on PC is a copy of Chapter 4.

That might work, yeah. I haven't actually gotten started on the console arcs myself yet, since I want to read them all in one go. Most of them are available in English on PC by now, but there are a few still in the pipeline.

Sadly, most of console versions newer than PS3 are no good for me. I don't own any console (and I'm not ready to go without text hooking yet since I have to look up lot of words), so I have to rely on emulators. PS4 isn't emulated yet, so that version is out of question. As for Switch - there's an emu, and I managed to play World End Syndrome with it, but the performance was far from stellar, and I'm not sure how hook-friendly Switch emulation is
But then maybe I should try my luck with PS3 version? It looks like I could get it (used) from amazon for ¥4400 (incl. shipping). Just have to check if it's hookable beforehand, since some VN engines are weird, and don't have separate memory area for textbox contents. In those cases, or when the game uses non-standard text encoding, hooking is impossible.

Too bad you don't own a Switch, or you could've picked up that version for a measly ¥3960. It's, to my knowledge, the only release that includes the story in its (current) entirety ("all 19 console arcs, the drama cd arc, Hajisarashi-hen, plus the three Hou exclusive arcs", to quote VNDb). That's some serious bang for the buck.
(Dunno if you're at the point where you can read Japanese without a text hooker though, so maybe it wouldn't help you even if you had the console.)

EDIT: I just noticed that the Switch version was apparently later ported to PS4, so maybe that's an option for you.

I think you'd be fine with Higurashi then, so give it a whirl!

I don't think saying Grisaia is the Twilight of VNs is that wrong... Maybe slightly exaggerated. 😛 But let's focus on Kajitsu for the time being. I think there are many positive things about it you'll be able to get most people to agree about. Like it's humour being well-done, the art and music being consistently high-quality and the common route effectively building up towards the dramatic character routes. The trashy and over-the-top parts of it, mostly showing up in the later parts of the experience, are what's most contentious about it – and it'd be easy to argue they wouldn't work, even for their intended audience, if they weren't preceded by the genuinely well-done aspects of the game, building the necessary emotional investment and slowly exploring the crucial characters.
Also, from what I've seen, you'll find more people claiming it's a very enjoyable VN or a good entry-level one (for people who are not yet sick of the tropes it relies on), rather than seriously saying it's a masterpiece. In my ideal world, the statements "Kajitsu's heroine routes are trashy and over-the-top" and "Kajitsu is a great/touching experience for those that enjoy its stylistic" are completely compatible with each other and non-controversial. And we should, indeed, put all popular media to similar scrutiny.
Edit: TBH, this is kind of a heavy(?) topic for me personally, as someone who plays with reviewing stuff. We're living in a world where things that I find objectively atrocious, like the Transformers movies, are wildly successful. And in a world where media critics fetishise technical competency and subversion of tropes that something as awful as The Last Jedi could become a critical darling. But still I don't think that we should give up on certain baseline quality standards. I mean, you can make various excuses and adjustments when it goes to specific genres and storytelling formulas, but for example, are teens too dumb to enjoy better prose and better-constructed characters than what Twilight offers? Nah. Its even on different level than Kajitsu, that very deliberately builds it's cascade of ridiculousness and ends up with something pretty unique despite remixing overused tropes – it's just lame writing, and that's the part that no amount of context can nullify. 😛

Yeah, that's what I figured as well. It'd be pretty weird to implement such a limit otherwise, when most of the other characters have names that are longer than that.
 
Hard to say since I don't know quite how sensitive you are or what type of content affects you most. I found Higurashi a lot less disturbing than SubaHibi, but it's definitely a few shades darker and more impactful than World End Syndrome. In any case, I highly recommend you give it a try, because it's quite a ride if you're up for it! Just remember to grab the 07th-Mod.

Congratulations, you played yourself
But, jokes aside, I'm also looking forward to the sequel Luckily, for this VN I managed to go spoiler-free. BTW I think that weird character limit for protagonist's name is there because developers couldn't be bothered to properly adapt the system from the Japanese version for English release - in Japanese number of characters would be enough for almost any possible name, when writing in kanji.
BTW I have to ask - if I enjoyed this VN, would I be okay with Higurashi? (I'm almost 100% sure that Subahibi is a no-go for me, but Higurashi doesn't seem so fucked-up based on reviews)
 
  
Yes it is, no doubts about it
 

Congratulations, you played yourself
But, jokes aside, I'm also looking forward to the sequel Luckily, for this VN I managed to go spoiler-free. BTW I think that weird character limit for protagonist's name is there because developers couldn't be bothered to properly adapt the system from the Japanese version for English release - in Japanese number of characters would be enough for almost any possible name, when writing in kanji.
BTW I have to ask - if I enjoyed this VN, would I be okay with Higurashi? (I'm almost 100% sure that Subahibi is a no-go for me, but Higurashi doesn't seem so fucked-up based on reviews)
 
  
Yes it is, no doubts about it
 

Finished World End Syndrome a few moments ago. I'm a big mystery fan, but I ruined the experience for myself here to some extent by unintentionally spoiling myself.
 

Anyway, despite this and the cliffhanger-ish ending, I found the VN quite enjoyable as a whole, and I'm looking forward to see what they do with the sequel.

Key's standard works are nakige that defined the 'classic' style, focused on character development and catharsis.  Rewrite and Planetarian represent outliers, though the latter is excellent and the former a meh chuunige.

I found some nice deals on amazon again
Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na -Brighter than Dawning Blue- for PC - Windows 7 Support Edition and ToHeart2 DX PLUS - Regular Edition

I've read fan-TLs of both titles, but it's nice to have originals. And I think one day I'm going to reread them untranslated. I'm especially curious about ToHeart2, since this edition has some additional content and routes from fandisc (which seems to have very polarised reviews ). Also, H-scenes in ToHeart 2 XRated felt tacked-on and out of character, so I'm looking forward to the all-ages version (After all, in case of this title, original was all-ages, with H version coming year later)
BTW, before I noticed, I gathered quite a lot of physical Japanese (and one translated) VNs

From left to right:
Tenohira o, Taiyou ni Kanon Memorial Edition Natsu no Ame Sakura Strasse Sukimazakura to Uso no Machi (without box) World End Syndrome (the only translated one in this bunch) White Album Kono Oozora ni Tsubasa o Hirogete ~Cruise Sign~ Himawari no Kyoukai to Nagai Natsuyasumi To Heart 2 DX PLUS Mashiro Iro Symphony ~mutsu  no hana~ Toradora! Sorairo Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o True Love Story To Heart PSE Ano Hi no Tabibito, Fureau Mirai Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na ~Brighter than a dawning blue When did that all happened? I still remember swearing that I'd never buy physical edition of VN 😮
(I'm also currently waiting for PS3 version of White Album 2 and PS2 versions of Yotsunoha and Konneko - they should arrive next week)

I found some nice deals on amazon again
Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na -Brighter than Dawning Blue- for PC - Windows 7 Support Edition and ToHeart2 DX PLUS - Regular Edition

I've read fan-TLs of both titles, but it's nice to have originals. And I think one day I'm going to reread them untranslated. I'm especially curious about ToHeart2, since this edition has some additional content and routes from fandisc (which seems to have very polarised reviews ). Also, H-scenes in ToHeart 2 XRated felt tacked-on and out of character, so I'm looking forward to the all-ages version (After all, in case of this title, original was all-ages, with H version coming year later)
BTW, before I noticed, I gathered quite a lot of physical Japanese (and one translated) VNs

From left to right:
Tenohira o, Taiyou ni Kanon Memorial Edition Natsu no Ame Sakura Strasse Sukimazakura to Uso no Machi (without box) World End Syndrome (the only translated one in this bunch) White Album Kono Oozora ni Tsubasa o Hirogete ~Cruise Sign~ Himawari no Kyoukai to Nagai Natsuyasumi To Heart 2 DX PLUS Mashiro Iro Symphony ~mutsu  no hana~ Toradora! Sorairo Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o True Love Story To Heart PSE Ano Hi no Tabibito, Fureau Mirai Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na ~Brighter than a dawning blue When did that all happened? I still remember swearing that I'd never buy physical edition of VN 😮
(I'm also currently waiting for PS3 version of White Album 2 and PS2 versions of Yotsunoha and Konneko - they should arrive next week)

Well, I saw some Steam reviews when someone claimed that they clearly see where the h-scenes were cut from the Akari's route in Flight Diary - even though that route never had any And I guess that if there was only one route without h-scene, then people would still complain, that they can't lewd their favorite waifu. Sadly, that seems to be universal eroge rule - if there's a route, then sex scene is mandatory. Perhaps that's the leftover from dating-sim era - so that players who chose certain heroine wouldn't feel "cheated".
You can also often see, that sometimes developers strive to provide equal number of scenes for each heroine, and it's obvious that some of them were added just to meet the quota.

Yesterday I finished first route in Himawari no Kyoukai to Nagai Natsuyasumi -extra vacation-. It was Daiya's route. While it's rather tropey ojou-sama story, I enjoyed it very much - it executed its tropes well enough . Daiya herself is cute , and actually the whole cast - including Yousuke, the protagonist - is very likeable. I had no problems to connect with them right from the start. If this route is indeed - like the rumors say - the weakest one, then I think I'm in for a treat and perhaps I've found another charage gem? I'm really liking the overall atmosphere of this VN. It's similar feeling to my other most-liked charages like Konosora, Princess Evangile and some others - it's just nice to be there and spend time with characters
Mentor-like male side characters? Funny coincidence - I think that Father Arakawa from Himanatsu also fits the bill. Well, he's more like.. um... father figure for protagonist At first encounter he seems a bit silly with his crazy strength and devotion to martial arts (although you can also sense kind of friendship between him and Yousuke right from the start), but he offers good advice and support here and there, and it's obvious that he really cares about Yousuke and his group. Yousuke also mentions that he learned a lot from him.
I'm looking forward to the remaining routes . (And it also looks like I should expect some mood shift, since apparently the route I've just read is an odd one )
I also, as usual, did quick comparison with adult version for this route. I didn't like neither h-scenes placement nor HCGs themselves I'm sticking with PS3 version, especially since it offers additional route for Tsukiko. Console version has +17 rating. It removes sex scenes, leaving just kissing scenes. But it doesn't shy away completely from the sexual themes - for example, during some makeout/kissing scenes protagonist mentions something like "let's stop for now, or I won't be able to control myself", and during bath scene Daiya notices his boner after she washed his back. The difference is that they get embarassed and just enter the bath instead of proceeding to fuck And well - they also spend the night together in protagonist's bed, so there's some food for imagination  I liked it better that way, and I think that it fts the particular setting of this VN more.

That's sounds like a rough situation that you face there, although in the end I must say that it's still won't help your case much because your reason here did show that you're quite petty for getting frustrated at the issue that normally would be non-issue to most people and thus not really worth to get angry over.