adamstan

When I like something and I'm bored, I read really fast and in long bursts so I usually finish medium length games in a few days and by finish I mean certain routes only. I only tried the route of Orihime, and I didn't even expect to like her. My mind was set on Bernadette, the obvious main girl and in which the common route spends a lot of time on her own monologues. I seriously really liked her personality, although the way she were set-up with the MC is a trope I really don't like which is the "I met this hot girl one time when I was a child and I played with her and I promised *insert a promise that makes the girl blush and will never forget*" It feels really cheap for me as seriously ONE OF THE BEST PARTS OF THE VN FOR ME IS WHEN THE HEROINE AND THE MC FALL IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER and if it is predetermined at the start without the reader it feels rather cheap and forced, which is sad as I really liked Bernadette's character which is the strong and capable heroine being cool in the outside but inside and personally is extremely cute, gap moe is real. 
Since the VNDB doesn't have a synopsis, I'll provide one. MC is in one of those families that has lineages that exist to serve the royalty in which they are the butlers, maids, etc. He meets this blond royalty girl who is crying, and he plays with her a short while and the girl's bodyguards take the MC away thinking he was a bad person or some shit, and while being taken away he promises to be by her side and if you read VN's a lot, its pretty easy to know where this is going. Seriously, why the fuck you keep a life-changing promise to a girl you met for only a while lol, is it because she's hot?  Yes I really don't like this kind of settings but that aside the VN is actually a pretty good read considering I read a lot of charages and I drop them like flies. 
I'll discuss the good things about it that I seriously want to see a lot in VN's. This is very big for me and which is having a good side male character, one that actually the writer respects and doesn't make a constant joke of. Instead of having a best friend character that is a total bro, the VN has you have a male friend that takes on a mentor role to the MC and its a good variation on the trope as he is actually capable and isn't a total musclehead as his looks seem to imply, although he does muscle his way a lot. 
Second, it's actually having a world that moves on its own, rather than having the MC be the kickstarter of literally all events. For example, On the Orihime route, while Orihime was the focus, all events were not centered around her, a non-spoilery event that happened is the revelation that two friends of the MC became real good friends enough to reveal their secrets to one another without the MC, so it implies that they actually do something and have a life without the MC and I actually like that instead of having the MC having to do everything. Also, the presence of smart characters particularly, Orihime and Ella which is the sister of Bernadette, have you guessing what their motives are every time, but particularly its usually Ella you have to be wary around as she is pulling the string out of everything. She pretty much used the MC cleverly for her own gains and that's a plus, too bad she is a side character, she deserved a route. I guess smart characters and intrigue is a staple to this kind of setting which is an academy centered around nobles but it's not given much focus but when it's talked about it's a topic treated with respect. 
Third, I would normally give this a 8 but Orihime's route elevates it for me since I actually liked this kind of romantic development. Orihime is an ojou-san character that is a game otaku with a group of friends that attend to her and they all do it willingly since she has some good charisma. She talks rather in a archaic japanese which unnecessarily made the reading difficulty harder for me but she speaks in a normal way with other classmates. Orihime only had a low level of attraction towards the MC and the MC too likewise. They just tried each other out by hanging out and dating and that feels rather real to me instead of confessing and reaching max 100% love but rather a slow gradual attraction that explodes to real love. Orihime's conflict at the start pissed me off which is the point of it since it points out her immaturity. In the date, she has her circle of loyal otaku gamer friends/servants to act out a hostage situation and to see if the MC will save her first instead of the other hostages, and it pissed the MC off. It actually made sense from Orihime's perspective as while she may be incredibly smart, she is immature and treats everything as a game and has never had anyone really angry at her before so the MC got pissed at bam, Orihime tries to change and its the explosion that started off their love. 
And thats why I gave it an 8.5, other VN's should really just execute their tropes better.
Also I checked the writer out and its insane for me he also wrote Doshikuro which is like long ass vn dedicated to long hair fetishes and parallel worlds . Didn't expect to write something long but its more of a rant on the things I like to see in VN's rather than the VN itself lol
 

https://vndb.org/v29402#main
Reading Glass Hime to Kagami no Juusha. My playthroughs of VN's are usually ruined by reading bad reviews. I read VN's with the inherent bias that it might be bad due to reviews and well in some cases I enjoyed it a lot more than what the reviewers seemed to suggest. So I went in totally blind and just looked for a random VN from Giga that was recently released and like had only 10 votes on vndb. Unexpectedly, I really liked it. I'm only a few hours in and usually I could tell if it is some cliched crap that is done bad but this VN had everything I could ask for from a random charage VN. It had all of the VA's I loved, mostly Tsukino Kiiro. She's a god at her calm and soothing voice. While the setting seemed average, it is done well and thats enough for me I'm not expecting something like White Album. 
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My personal favorites specifically for the comedy (or at least one of the major reasons)
MajiKoi Love Me Seriously Making * Lovers Sankaku Ren'ai Fureraba

PS3 version of Himawari no Kyoukai to Nagai Natsuyasumi

I just finished my first playthrough (prologue) of World End Syndrome
My impressions so far - I like the setting, the characters, and little animations sprinkled here and there - blinking, lip-sync and various animated elements in the backgrounds. I'm not the fan of nameable protagonist, and scenes felt a bit disconnected sometimes. Perhaps some more narration would be in order? But then, perhaps it has something to do with protagonists' condition?
Also, translation has been a bit of hit and miss so far. Dialogues are done pretty decently most of the time, but some lines in narration feel rather awkward. Like the use of present tense while obviously reporting past events that happened before.
Nevertheless it got me interested, and I'm looking forward to subsequent runs, romancing those cute girls and discovering town's mystery
 

Content-wise Steam versions of IMHHW + Flight Diary + Akari Route = Cruise Sign (PS3 port that combines main game and FD). They are identical - I checked it thoroughly while reading Cruise Sign. It's just that main game suffers from bad translation. But, OTOH, FD + Akari are much better. They are by no means perfect, but can be read without cringing too much
 

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This is preview of the new album from Yoko Matsuura, released on 2021-01-11. Yesterday the CD safely arrived in my mailbox, after crossing over 9000km

I love it, it's really heartwarming and uplifting (I think I might have also fallen for her, even though I know it's rather pointless...)
 
 

That sure took a while. I think we can rule out the porn having been written in from the start in this one, lmao.

About Umikana, what I can say is that Pulltop won't make it as 18+ VN. The reason is simply because they chose newbie anime VA in which I'm sure that they won't do voice act for eroge first, and the VA themselves did use real name instead of pseudonym (The most famous one is Akari Kitou who is famous for voicing Nezuko in Demon Slayer and Momo in Machikado Mazoku). Most importantly, Pulltop already released Umikana in Japan and it mean that they already have a vision on how the VN will going. So yeah unless Pulltop want to recast the VA for 18+ version I don't think that they'll make Umikana (And Anofure) 18+ version, and I certainly hope that they keep Umikana as all age VN because if they really make 18+ version of it then Pulltop's reputation is going worse than already is (At least to me).

Akina is really great.

Yes, I read Noble Works, Sanoba Witch and Natsuzora Kanata - and liked them all. I intentionally skipped Dracu Riot because vampire setting puts me off. But Senren Banka and Riddle Joker seem interesting.
(I also have BraBan and Tenshin Ranman on my "to read" list)

Did you read a Yuzusoft title before? For moe you usually can't go wrong with them. On VNDB at least, the most popular Yuzusoft title seems to be Sanoba Witch, but it probably depends a lot on what people have already read and Senren * Banka is newer. The just recently released Riddle Joker seems to be rather strong in the plot department though, so that will probably my next Yuzusoft title (after a reasonable break).

Ohh so this franchise shat on itself just like my girlfriends the president? "3P true route" Jesus christ, why would anyone want that in a more or less serious story about teenage romance?

Finally finished some titles...

It took a while, but Senren * Banka was very sweet. Probably my favorite Yuzusoft title so far (just played Noble Works and Dracu Riot before though) and ended up playing all routes except Koharu's. It still had the typical Yuzusoft problem that they come up with a decent plot (for a moege) in the common route, but then more or less drop it in the character routes. Only Lena's route somewhat built up on it. I think they could learn a lesson or two from 9-nine how to successfully keep things interesting with reasonable effort.
Nevertheless, as a moege it certainly succeeds. In that area, it's hard to argue that Yuzusoft know their trade. The characters were very likable and had a good chemistry with each other. You really got family vibes from them. Like usual in a Yuzusoft the sprite dynamics were most excellent and made the characters feel more lively than ever. It also had a competent and caring protagonist. I really liked his dedication to his sword fight training. It's a pity it couldn't be used more. It would have been great to see some *Chusingura action* with him.
Heroine ranking: Lena >= Yoshino = Mako = Murasame = Roka > Koharu
I really have a hard time picking favorites here, since I liked most heroines almost equally. Though I think I liked Lena a tiny bit more than the others.
Overall rating 7/10 (Could have been higher if they would have put more emphasis on story)

Also finished Kyonyuu Fantasy Gaiden 2, the second fan disc for Kyonyuu Fantasy. I don't think this can be called a nukige anymore. In the first two hours you don't even see a girl, and the first H-scene happens after eight hours or so. They literally *plundered* all their previous Kyonyuu Fantasy games, including KF2 to get the sprite and image resources necessary to realize a full cross-pseudo-European conflict involving Spain (Iberia), France (Fronce), England (Hillsland), the Holy Roman Empire (Edellandt) and probably Denmark (Nordland). It's actually pretty impressive that they managed to pull that off, full with intrigues and wars.
On the other hand, it's still rather 'cheaply' made, so it's essentially just more of the same. It also suffers from Lute's harem being too big with only Shamsiel, Gladys and Aphrodia having useful roles from the old cast. Lute's antics also slowly get old, especially in the later parts when every problem is solved by him just walking in range. It's a lot more interesting when he actually comes up with a crazy idea or turns an enemy into an ally.
Heroine ranking: Gladys > Aphrodia > Shamsiel > Emeralia > Rosalyn > Estoria > ... (too much effort to list them all)
Overall rating: 6.5/10 (I originally wanted to give a 7, but Lute's *demi-god* problem solutions were just lame)

Well, Iwaihime was an odd one. I read a few chapters and then had a look at VNDB again if this was really written by Ryuukishi07. While the structure of VN resembles his previous works, the writing itself... does now. I'm not the biggest fan of Ryu, but my usual problems with his writing is that he doesn't find an end and just goes on and on until he suddenly comes up with a troll twist I hate. But on the other hand, he can also come up with some really powerful writing.
In Iwaihime however, you get an almost lightning fast pacing. Considering I usually like fast-paced VN's, this should have been perfect for me. However, this wasn't simply fast-paced, there were just essential parts missing. No proper character introductions, scene build-ups to create tension pretty much didn't exist. The chapters show-casing the different heroine problems felt like copy & paste with slightly different scenarios. Overall, it felt like the VN was written by a complete amateur, since not a single thing was decently done - it was more like a rough draft of how the VN should be structured than the full thing. Ryu must have really hated working on this, probably because it was contract work and not his own. It was obvious that he just wanted to get it over with, so he could work on his own stuff again.
Heroine ranking: Meh
Overall rating: 2/10 (Seriously, this was just bad and not me being grumpy for a change...)
Next on my list are Kami no Rhapsody and Gekkou no Carnevale. Though Gekkou is so unstable under Windows 10 that you can only use hotkeys, because accessing the game menu via right-click freezes the game. Story sounds interesting, but I'm not sure if it's worth going through those hassles.

I have finished Miazora Interstellar Focus in Japanese.
I ended up really really liking it. One of the best (the best?) fandiscs I've read.
The 3some true route was pretty much what I wanted: Pure comfy, just enough drama, made both girls happy, and kinda explored the difficulties.
It was also nice to see a bit of the other characters get epilogues and screen time even though it wasn't their route. It was nice to see characters like Hinami and Yoshioka get some nice scenes.
And the bonus Quiz thing was a really fun way to incorporate that in the plot. I especially liked the one with Take and Narue since it's the only case where you can just have 1 on 1 time with em and even have Narue's thoughts on Take.
I don't think this fandisc really changed my opinion much on the characters, but it did give many of them to shine again which is great. It did help get me more hilarious and sweet Hinami moments which I always appreciate.
Honestly after reading this, Miazora might be my 2nd favorite VN series (after MajiKoi) even if any of them individually aren't in my top 3. Each of the 3 Miazora VNs were just all really consistently enjoyable and my type of slice of life: comfy, heartwarming, nice romance, a decent amount of character development, a fun way to incorporate a theme (stargazing), nice music, and just fun to read in just about every route.

Kazusa from Hitotsuba might be fitting for you, and other than that maybe Ranpha from Galaxy Angel trilogy. Also Ashe from Wagahigh and Yuzuyu from Fureraba can qualify as well. I hope my recommendations here can be helpful to you.

I just finished PSP version of Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o ("The promise under blue sky"). I'll try to write my impressions below, but it might get a bit chaotic - please excuse me.
This VN has been written by Maruto Fumiaki (DameKoi, White Album 2)
I really liked it - it's nice charage, and while no LB! or Majikoi, it's also very good at evoking that "Group of friends" trope that I love I think this CG somewhere from common route captures the overall mood pretty well:

I quickly got very attached to characters. Each heroine has her own quirks and problems, there are also some minor, but still interesting twists and mysteries here and there. I also liked the protagonist, and I didn't have the "problem" I had with Sakura Strasse - this time I was reading few hours everyday, and didn't get bored for a second. There's also lot of side characters with voices and sprites. Comedic bits were brilliant - I was laughing often and loud
I think my favourite routes from the main six were Saeri, Rinna and Umi. Next would be Naoko, followed by Shizu and Miya - but they were all very close. Each route had different theme and mood - quite nice variety.
After completing all six routes, kind of "True Route" gets unlocked. First there's a story titled "Yakusoku no Hi" - "A promised day" (or "Day of a promise"). Very heartwarming (and tearjerking) story about our group's final day at the dorm. Then, after that, there's Akane's route. Akane was one of the side characters in the main game, and while some say that her route is just an meaningless bonus, I really liked it - it is very good continuation of "Yakusoku no Hi". It also has nice connection with one of the twists from Rinna's route
And then, after completing all above, eighth route gets unlocked (PSP exclusive). This time it's hidden heroine - Chihiro. She's a shy girl from Wataru's class, who suddenly confesses to him somewhere during common route.

I didn't have any expectations regarding this route, but it was lovely and heartwarming. It was also perhaps closest to typical VN high-school romance, with dates etc, but it also did good job at showing how the group of friends accepted new girl.
PSP version also features four side stories from the fandisc, which get unlocked after clearing respective routes.
"Hidamari no virgin road" ("Aisle under the sun") - absolutely lovely extension of Umi's epilogue
"Kono Aozora ni Omoide o" ("Memories under blue sky") - side story that gets unlocked after Shizu's route, revealing a bit more about her past - how she met Wataru. It also has some small memories for other characters.
"Kono Fuyuzora ni Utagoe o" ("Singing under winter sky") - heartwarming side story/extension for "Yakusoku no Hi".
"Atashi no kakera" ("My fragment") - side story further connecting Akane's and Rinna's routes, with quite emotional ending.
So, to sum it up - it wasn't perfect, but lovely. 8/10
*******************************************************************************
I also briefly compared it with adult version. PSP version's "censorship" level is similar to Konosora - meaning that scenario got rewritten in a non-erotic way - there's only kissing and handholding at most, but I'm fine with it . Replacement and additional scenes are quite good. Adult version was actually a big disappointment for me. It almost felt as if it was made by applying Rule34 to all-ages version First sex scenes were definitely too rushed, and whole thing seemed like just being there because "PC VN has to be eroge".  Meh. It isn't reaching the bottom where Kanon's or LB!'s h-scenes lie, but I feel like in this case still non-ero version aligns better with overall mood of the story.
Also, bonus content in PSP version >>>> hentai in PC version. The only drawback of PSP version is low resolution - the whole thing definitely looked much nicer in original 800x600.
 
Also, if you are going to play it - walkthrough at seiya-saiga isn't optimal. While it works for getting all endings, it makes you miss one important scene for Rinna's route, because it does split between Umi's and Rinna's routes at a later point. So it's better to follow for example this one. Well, guess those are drawbacks of map movement system.

Most of Akina Nakamori's songs hit Spotify and YouTube Music. This sure boosted my mood in this ugly, gloomy week. :3
Now, please excuse me while I go through this 170 track compilation...

Well, 2020 was utter shit, but it's over now (at least here in Europe) and the new year has a real chance to be better. So, congrats everyone on surviving this madness and I wish you all a wonderful 2021, one that will make us all forget the crap we went through! 

While reading Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o for some reasons I remembered one silly song - "Highschool Lullaby" by Imokin Trio. It was a joke band from early '80s, meant as a parody of Johnny's boy-band groups. The song itself is from 1981, and it has pretty nice early electronic-disco sound, similar to YMO. It also features silly lyrics about highschool unrequited love  
And since it's New Year's Eve, I also did my take, to create a bit of party mood
 

For a moment I thought about "~uso" series from Campus
Haru Uso -Passing Memories-
Natsu Uso -Ahead of the Reminiscence-
Aki Uso -The Only Neat Thing To Do-
Fuyu Uso -Snow World End-
But textbox in your example looks different.
EDIT:
Ah, I see that @Seraphim found your first example. So the four seasons thing is second question I guess?
 

I remember that Flyable Heart have (MTL) translation patch and that the menu has very long (5 seconds) loading, although the most annoying one would be the need to mount the DVD if you apply the patch, which is no good for someone who like to pinch the HDD space (Like me) because it mean I must allocate the additional HDD space at about three GB for the ISO file. I didn't play Kiminago yet and it also got the translation patch as well, although looking from the Flyable Heart which obviously share same engine as Kiminago I would expect same problem to occur. 
For Flyable Heart, there's three set of routes that sort of serve as question-answer relation like back at Higurashi, and those three pairs are Mayuri-Sakurako, Amane-Kururi, and Yui-Suzuno. While there's still some plot element that I didn't find it quite satisfying (Mostly at Kukuri's route), overall Flyable Heart here manage to complete the main story. For Kiminago, I believe that it's for Mayuri's fans who didn't find her development in regard of family issue at Flyable Heart satisfying, although to me it make sense that they wrote Mayuri route in Flyable Heart like what it does there to a degree because Mayuri's family issue here is almost unrelated to the main story. Whether you'll play Kiminago or not I would say that it depend on whether you like Mayuri at the main game or not, and if you want to see more of her after reading her route then sure you can play Kiminago. So yeah I recommend you to read Flyable Heart first, and whether you'll continuing to Kiminago or not later it's up to you. Either way have fun.
Back to the topic, and as for hidden gem I would say that it's quite hard to say here. That said I can still give some VNs that I wish can be more popular such as Kichikuou Rance, Hatsukoi Sankaime, Kami no Rhapsody, Seabed, and Galaxy Angel trilogy. Oh and Flyable Heart here is also count.