adamstan

New patch adds more font colours
 
 

When I buy a VN on Steam/DLSite/wherever I usually download it immediately. I also don't uninstall the ones I've finished, so my HDD is full of VNs. I also keep disc images for the few disc-based VNs that I own.
Having unread titles sitting on the HDD helps me remember that I should read them at some point
 
 

I install/download pretty much everything I buy (or plan to read, when it goes to freeware stuff)... Which led me to having 250+ VNs dowloaded on Steam, like a dozen installed from other sources and around 100 in a dedicated folder where I keep Itch.io/DRM free games and sort them by read/unread (and occasionally by the game jam they came from or a blog project I'm reading them for). One day, I might actually be able to completely clog my hard drive with just VNs and that's going to be something of an accomplishment.

I basically download everything my HDD can handle, even if I don't plan to reading/playing the VN/game soon. [yeah, I do that for games as well]. I have literally more than 10 VNs and countless games installed, but the reality is that most of them will only be used next year [or never, in some cases... I'm a compulsive buyer, after all].
I bought Adabana the day it got released with ATRI. I have it downloaded, ready to play. However, while I was reading Higurashi [which I finished yesterday], I also bought Room No 9 [my current read] and Flowers 3, which I plan to read before Adabana. Only these three may keep me busy for at least two or three months.
Then, I have Steam Prison, Necrobarista,  Milky Way Prince, Hashishime of the old book town, Lonely Yuri, A light in the dark, Cupid and Angel Beats installed...

I just install as many as I can, in case that I suddenly decide to play some particular VN when I don't have stable internet access.
(I play them on a laptop btw.)

Started reading this a bit, its a bit different from the usual moege i guess. The MC is actually deceisive and popular, bit like SakuSaku's one but is a far more interesting character so far.Liked how they introduced all the girls too and it was nice seeing them being aggressive from the start . The only intro that was lacking a bit was Ayaka and not a fan of her speech so far 
Still not sure what route to go for first, all of them look interesting in their own way.

While I'm sure this isn't anything new to people who have already been doing this, I wrote a tutorial (with videos) on how to extract text from untranslated JP PSP games using 1) PPSSPP and 2) either ITHVNR or Textractor.
https://aurora6290.wordpress.com/2020/08/28/tutorial-on-extracting-text-from-psp-games/
I hope this will be useful to someone

Regional pricing is pretty much irrelevant in my country, but Steam sales are a big deal and the convenience of having my whole catalogue under one client is huge.
Also, I have my tiny Curator account to shill for EVNs I like, so if I can find something on Steam I'll rather play it there and review/catalogue it.
Plus I generally don't care for H-scenes, so the kind of censorship Steam forces on some VNs do not bother me, or is even preferable... Of course, that is when Valve does not randomly screw over developers and remove games for no legitimate reason, but that's a whole different conversation. 

Hilarious I remember hearing a bit similar '80s song, but don't know the title. Will try to shazam it next time it comes up on the radio

I think I like the third one the best. Pumping dynamics compression on the first one kills my ears. Coupled with vocal processing makes it sound a bit too "modern US" for my taste. However that third one is pretty good. The second one has a bit similar mood, but I like those synth sounds on the third one more.

So, yesterday I finished it. It was quite decent nakige. It definitely has strong KEY vibe - especially Sasara's and Chihaya's routes. Also, common route is rather short, and each route tells its own different story - a bit like in Making*Lovers.
The setting is like this - Souta comes in the beginning of December to the strange island where the summer never ends. Actually he comes every year, to help his aunt Miho, who's running a guesthouse. And there he meets (or doesn't - it is possible to never meet Chihaya and Sasara) the heroines, and stuff happens There's also a legend, that somewhere on the island there's a mirror that grants wishes.
LIke I said before, I started with Yuiko's route. She's Souta's cousin (Miho's daughter) and the first person we meet in the game. Her route seems to be the default one, if you don't actively go for another. It is the most stand-alone, and perhaps the shortest one of the three stories, maybe a bit like a "side route", but it is good to read it first, since in other two routes there are some light spoilers for it. I was initially a bit worried, since Yuiko looks like a loli, but fortunately it's mostly her sprite. I mean sure, she's almost flat-chested, and behaves a bit childish sometimes, but still she's the same age as MC, and when she turns serious it shows. Also, in H-CGs she's drawn in a more mature way. I liked how this route made use of the "group of friends" trope, portraying friendship between Yuiko, Souta (MC) and Goro. It also touches up very lightly upon the island's legend. Yuiko is also good supporting character in other routes.
After that I went with Sasara's route. She's the mysterious girl that we briefly see during preparations for the festival. Her route was very emotional, full of KEY mood, with family as one of its main themes. It also explains island's lore about granting wishes. Anything more would be a spoiler, so I'll stop here, but I really liked this route. It also has interesting quirk. There are two endings - two versions of epilogue - and they are determined by
And lastly I read Chihaya's route, since she seemed to be the main heroine. First thing to say is that she's totally cute, moe incarnate, one of the cutest heroines I've seen. And also very kind and nice. I can understand why Souta falls in love with her almost instantly. But then drama hits, since she seems to lose her memory every three days, due to past accident. There's more to it, but that would be too spoilerish, so let's leave it at that, since it's mentioned even in summary on vndb This route is kind of intertwined with Sasara's, or, to be more accurate, it also is strongly based upon island's "wish granting system" that was featured in Sasara's route. Chihaya's route also has two endings. On the first playthrough we're locked onto the "normal" one, and then on the second run there's additional choice that unlocks "true end". Both are more or less "magical", but my main complain would be that the "normal end" seems to be more developed and better written than the supposed "true ending", which seems to be a bit over the top with
and it lacks post-credits epilogue. But still it was very good route.
Supporting cast was also good. Yuiko (outside her route), Futaba (her younger sister), Goro and Miho - I really liked their interactions with Souta. Well, Futaba was mostly comic relief, but she was very good at it
Art is great - like I said before, backgrounds are very detailed, and I really liked the style in which characters were drawn. Especially Chihaya's sprite - she has that look taken straight from 90's anime that I love There were also quite funny SD CGs, especially in Sasara's and Chihaya's routes. Music is also good, emphasizing the mood of the scenes.
H-scenes were also decent. Very vanilla, but that's exactly my thing so I won't complain. They weren't too much out of character, and there was love in there, so I'm satisfied (although I skipped through some of the moaning and sfx lines ). They were definitely placed better than in some of the Natsu no Ame's routes.
While playing this VN I also often noticed, that some of the tropes used here also appear in the recent Summer Pockets, - the setting seems very similar, and the prologue, with the MC standing on the ferry's deck and gazing at the sea and approaching island.
When it comes to the final score, I'm a bit troubled tbh. I really enjoyed this VN, but at the same time I feel like it lacked that something special. Perhaps it's difficult to beat KEY when it comes to nakige, and when looking at it as just a charage, I guess I got spoiled by Mashiro Iro Symphony... But still, Natsukana is very good charage/nakige, and I strongly recommend getting it, especially since it can be got quite cheap on DLSite (2750JPY). 8/10
PS I also found it quite easy to read - of course, with the help of text hooker and dictionary, but still. It felt much easier than Natsu no Ame or To Heart. I think it could be added to those "beginner friendly charage" lists.
 
Now, what to read next... Perhaps I'll need some break, but after that... maybe Bokuten?

Just for the record, I seem to recall that the current theme used to be the default one at some point in the past. Probably, before I even made an account here. I personally prefer Spectrum, so I pretty much instantly switched back to it after it was changed.

I think the name of this VN should be more than enough to response that kind of creative localization idea.

As I was one of the members that burned out a while back (too many VNs played for the sake of my blog on the site), I know something of where you are coming from.  I was spending something like 50 hours a week playing VNs, many of them I didn't like or whose concept I found boring and pedestrian, to be able to be fair when doing my VN of the Month column.  I was using a tiny scoop to try to get through the piles of hot steaming brown stuff to get to the stuff that shone regardless of genre, and my satisfaction levels kept falling until I just fell apart.  I was even working on one screen while playing on another at times, while using meal times as a time to get caught up on a VN.  
To this day, I have to be careful not to play too much in the way of VNs, or my trauma comes back, despite the fact that I am loving what I'm reading.  Heck, I'm currently recovering from another bout of that while doing something else to put myself back together.
More recently, I was becoming increasingly depressed that the only community I still enjoyed being a part of was doomed.  With the increased rl stress that hits every time I leave the house over the last four  months, I was on the verge of collapse when I decided to get online and do my latest scan of the forums... and saw this.
To be honest, just the fact that you are getting involved in the site again at all eased a lot of the pent-up stress that has been weighing on me every time I come online of late, so thanks for coming back.

Thanks Yumi Matsutoya is great.

Thanks guys

All Best Wishes to a fellow man of culture @adamstan.
https://open.spotify.com/track/5VQbp9eSgeSVi8ly1J40Q0?si=9Mn5442IT9qAvbCEWC277g

Happy birthday, @adamstan!

@adamstan
(Very mad that littleshogun ninja'd me whilst I spent by precious time looking for this tweet.)

Happy 36th birthday to our @adamstan, and also happy 20th birthday to our @joshopit as well. I hope that both of you will have a good birthday.

Recently Akina Nakamori comes up often on the radio I'm listening to
Today I recorded instrumental cover of her song "Jukkai (1984)"
 

Indeed It sounds very good with this natural-sounding singing. What was with the album version - did they overuse the vocal processing? (extreme tuning etc?)
BTW recently I tried to do kind-of "live" cover of one of abovementioned Yoko Matsuura's songs. Here's the result - officially approved by the author herself, despite my terrible singing
Also, this time I also put English translation of lyrics in the subtitles.

Yesterday, as I went to sleep, I listened to Maiko Fujita. There's something in her songs that tugs on my heartstrings even though on the surface they're pretty typical Jpop ballads. Don't know what it is exactly. (Or perhaps I'm just captivated by her beauty? But then, I was only listening, not looking ) The first song on the disc was 藤田麻衣子君が呼ぶのなら, which is also featured in this live clip:
Now I think I have to get some of her live discs as well