adamstan

It would have been nice to just stick with Siglus, but the cost of the license was prohibitive. One of the main things we had to forfeit is the Twitter integration, which was a fun gimmick in the original version. Other than that, we've had to scale back some of the menu options such as skipping back a line or changing opacity of the text box. Of course these are things that could be implemented in Kirikiri with enough time and resources, but the cost was out of the scope of this project. Still, I think the game looks great and functions well, especially for this price point
Edit// I just saw that Wildbreed responded above, and their post answers most of the questions! Thanks! ^^

Thanks to everyone who has bought the game! The release is going really well so far!!
Regarding the price, we set it so low for two reasons. 1) As adamstan said, we're hoping to appeal to the Chinese market, as well as to more casual fans/newbies to visual novels who are more likely to buy at a lower price point. 2) We ported the game to a new engine, which meant some of the QOL features had to be cut from the original version, so we thought it was fair to reduce the price accordingly.
If anyone has any questions, drop them here and I'll do my best to answer

Aye, that price and launch discount are very hard to say no to. :3 Probably will be a while before I read it, but I'm going to grab it anyways. 

Yep... Like, I don't have it in me to not buy this. There's just no way.
I'm not seeing how they can profit off of this and give the team enough to keep food on the table, but perhaps it is a steam gamble with low price, h-patch, and good translation, and in that case I genuinely wish them all luck.

Well, at this price it's a no-brainer, even if good art was it's only redeeming feature - but I hope at least for good comedy as well Was going to add it to the wishlist to "bookmark" it, but after seeing the price, I just bought it

Recently I finished Ageha's route in Cruise Sign. All-ages version of this route has slightly different tone than the ero original, but it was good nevertheless. Also, during this playthrough I'm getting more and more interested in Hotaru and Akari - looking forward to their routes in FD
On a side note - just like Kotori's route, also Ageha's route in Cruise Sign is identical content-wise to the all-ages PC version (IMHHW). It's exactly same script and same CGs. I have to check remaining routes to be totally sure, but it seems that, contrary to popular belief (which I shared as well), all-ages version hasn't been made by MoeNovel, but by "main" Pulltop. The "only" (albeit quite big) problem with IMHHW compared to Cruise Sign is bad translation. And probably it seems "butchered" / "badly-cut" exactly because of that bad translation, which often makes no sense in Ageha's route. But actually there are proper replacement scenes and scenario rewrites, not just "blindly cutting everything remotely related to sex", as we've been believing.
The only extra content that console version has over English PC release (IMHHW) was all-ages version of Flight Diary, but that got also translated recently (I haven't checked it out yet, want to complete JP version first)
So the chronology seems to be something like this:
 > Pulltop releases original +18 Konosora in 2012 and Flight Diary in January 2013
 > They create all-ages edition (with replacement scenes etc), but for unknown reasons release only badly translated English version in May 2013
 > In 2016 they make all-ages version of Flight Diary (that replaces "Himegi harem" route with Akari's route), combine it with the aforementioned all-ages version of main game, and release it for PS3 as Cruise Sign
 > fast forward to 2019 - they decide to translate console version of Flight Diary and release it on Steam
So if the translation wasn't as shitty as it is, we'd currently actually effectively have English PC port of Cruise Sign on Steam (albeit split into three releases). Sadly, Ageha's route translation is amazingly bad... It's really surprising. As far as I know, AGM is Japanese company, so I can partly understand that maybe translators working on this title weren't masters of English, and that's why overally translation sounds stiff or has grammar errors. (However, it's editor's job to fix it...) But when it comes to Ageha's route, it reads as if person translating this knew neither English nor Japanese. How did they hire such person in big company specialized in videogame translations?

Recently I finished Ageha's route in Cruise Sign. All-ages version of this route has slightly different tone than the ero original, but it was good nevertheless. Also, during this playthrough I'm getting more and more interested in Hotaru and Akari - looking forward to their routes in FD
On a side note - just like Kotori's route, also Ageha's route in Cruise Sign is identical content-wise to the all-ages PC version (IMHHW). It's exactly same script and same CGs. I have to check remaining routes to be totally sure, but it seems that, contrary to popular belief (which I shared as well), all-ages version hasn't been made by MoeNovel, but by "main" Pulltop. The "only" (albeit quite big) problem with IMHHW compared to Cruise Sign is bad translation. And probably it seems "butchered" / "badly-cut" exactly because of that bad translation, which often makes no sense in Ageha's route. But actually there are proper replacement scenes and scenario rewrites, not just "blindly cutting everything remotely related to sex", as we've been believing.
The only extra content that console version has over English PC release (IMHHW) was all-ages version of Flight Diary, but that got also translated recently (I haven't checked it out yet, want to complete JP version first)
So the chronology seems to be something like this:
 > Pulltop releases original +18 Konosora in 2012 and Flight Diary in January 2013
 > They create all-ages edition (with replacement scenes etc), but for unknown reasons release only badly translated English version in May 2013
 > In 2016 they make all-ages version of Flight Diary (that replaces "Himegi harem" route with Akari's route), combine it with the aforementioned all-ages version of main game, and release it for PS3 as Cruise Sign
 > fast forward to 2019 - they decide to translate console version of Flight Diary and release it on Steam
So if the translation wasn't as shitty as it is, we'd currently actually effectively have English PC port of Cruise Sign on Steam (albeit split into three releases). Sadly, Ageha's route translation is amazingly bad... It's really surprising. As far as I know, AGM is Japanese company, so I can partly understand that maybe translators working on this title weren't masters of English, and that's why overally translation sounds stiff or has grammar errors. (However, it's editor's job to fix it...) But when it comes to Ageha's route, it reads as if person translating this knew neither English nor Japanese. How did they hire such person in big company specialized in videogame translations?

Yooo, that was a blast. Aokana is the first "sports"-vn I've ever read, (excluding the occasional track team route,) so with my boxing background I felt right at home (and should move my fat overwinter ass off the couch). The big FC fights actually glued me into my chair from start to finish and this title makes good use of moving the screen, transitions, sound effects and narration to make them exciting to follow along. The last vn fight scenes I enjoyed were the ones in Comyu and this is even better. Nice. (quick shoutout to the episode-preview narrations)
Sprite draws amazing... well sprites, SDs and backgrounds, so like in koichoco I had a lot of fun looking for easter eggs in CGs and backgrounds. The Soundtrack also kept me entertained without becoming grating after repeating for all four routes.
I've read the routes in the following order; Mashiro, Rika, Misaki, Asuka. I would recommend following that, with the option to either start or completely skip Rika. Whatever you do, read Asuka last.
Mashiro - smoll and cute
Rika - Things happens and then it ends
Misaki - The pity party
Asuka - the big finale
The protagonist is a cool guy and I love almost all side characters. So much so that I'm baffled that ohohohjou-sama didn't get a route (also why does Arika have those giant knockers? Holy lord in the sky)
Overall I give Aokana a 0/10, because there's a character voiced by my girl, Mizuhashi Kaori and I wasn't allowed to respectfully bone her into oblivion all night long.  
NSFW PS: bless Madoka, she a good girl.
 

After a long time, I've finally finished reading Fragment's Note 2, the rare mobile-only Japanese VN that actually is a pure visual novel and not some kind of gacha crap. This series is such a weird one that I can never truly make my mind about: it's got a lot of lazy writing, obnoxious pseudo-psychology and the first part got unbearably bloated and repetitive after the main plot got resolved, basically adding a few full hours of dumb drama and pointless fluff after it simply should've ended. I liked the main story in it and at least some of the characters, but then literally skipped through an hour-worth of content in each route to not get bored to death.
The second game has fewer issues with pacing, but is separated into two, basically standalone routes: in Japan they were two different apps, but got merged together for the English release. And these routes are definitely NOT equal. The first one, which the game suggests you to start with, focuses on Shizuku, protagonist's younger step-sister who shares with him the trauma of losing her original family in a plane crash. In the end, they see taking care of each other as the main motivation to keep living and this leads to various unpleasant consequences – including deeply disturbed incest romance. Still, all that wouldn't be so bad, if the girl had any kind of personality, or even visible traits beyond being traumatized and a brocon. The romance feels just as bland as she is and the whole route is pretty much pointless trash. It has some reveals that the second scenario only vaguely explains, but it's really neither necessary to understand everything nor worthwhile to read.
The second route, on the other hand, Yukitsuki's, focuses on the antagonist of the first game as the love interest. She's not a very deep character by any means, but has a bit of personality and context to her (at this point she's something of a reformed villain, burdened by her previous misdeeds). Her story connects the new characters and major plot points to the events of the first game, giving both the new cast and herself proper closure and tying neatly all the loose ends. It builds proper romance instead of the poorly-conceived loli incest plot. If you ever decide to read FN2, go straight to this part, especially because the core structure of the story is essentially the same and many fragments are literally repeated word-for-word between the two routes. The imouto route can just burn in hell.
Assuming Shizuku's route doesn't exist, 6,5/10

Custom tags and filtering options are nice, as well as easier access to adding notes, but I will miss separate pages for wishlist and votes, if they go I prefer the current way compared to having everything on one massive list and needing filtering for everything.

Apart from a few typos.. its decent....atleast i didn't find anything that looks weird or off-putting ... plus i can vouch for the translator who TLed this..
https://twitter.com/TlRochan

After common route I thought I wouldn't like Mashiro's route, as she seemed just annoying. But for me her route actually worked, and I liked it.
Yeah, they were really good. It's sad that such thing is pretty rare even among romance VNs

The above things including the text sync bugs have been fixed with the latest patch that was rolled out last night..
However the config menu is still bugged and is being worked on ( nothing game breaking tho its just a small coding mistake..and its easy to rectify on your own )...minor typos are still present tho and will be patched along with the config  menu fixes shortly..
also clearly the bugs are not that aghast such that they warrant a game deletion... and some people are clearly overreacting to certain things....
the above bugs are only triggered only during a certain scene and get rectified by itself. which is basically 20 lines at most .. the rest of the VN is unaffected ... anyways all these things have now been fixed with the recent patch.. so lets give that a rest...
 
the only issues i had with SolPress is the way in which certain staff members replied to me when we asked them " that how was the VN pushed for release.. when certain bugs like the ones in the config menu were so easily noticeable " the reply i got to this was  ignorance to say the least...
The bugs themselves were not the main issue for me... easily circumventable  

Just as another piece of clarification, this is something Crystalline did on purpose to differentiate itself from the majority of VNs – I think it was a cool idea, just done poorly and the story ended up being bland and unsatisfying. You can basically expect any VN with a "Romance" tag and without "Only a Single Heroine" one to be a multi-route story with a few romance options.
But this still have side heroines/side-route romances too, doesn't it? I think proper examples would be Gahkthun or Fatal Twelve, where there is some story variety but just a single love interest.

Just to nitpick a little, you can definitely find games with one heroine that has several routes/ endings.

So, I finished the last route last night and I have to say that it was a really great vn
I really loved the protag and just how much of an actual character he was! He had strengths, weaknesses, growth, and something he needed to accomplish and push through.
He wasn't Mr. Generic Average High School Boy Number 5000000
Like it actually made sense why these girls would fall for him, which is so different from other vns, (cough Hatsukoi) that have protags that leave me scratching my head why any of these beautiful and cute young ladies would want to ever give Mr. GAHSB the time of day
I ended up liking most of the characters and almost all the routes. My favorite was Misaki because I felt a genuine love connection between the two of them. Plus, I loved that reveal about her role in his childhood. Can I say that for the most part the sex scenes were really well handled? Like some of them actually felt romantic and they didn't lean heavily on shitty h scene writing troupes. For the most part anyway. Misaki had the best scenes by far I mean in the second scene Masaya actually takes off his clothes to have sex. Incredible.
The side characters were across the board pretty great with Aoi being the standout and favorite character for me. A lot of them felt like they could have easily been reworked as romantic targets.

But for every gem there is always going to be a flaw and for me that was Mashiro's route and, well, Mashiro
I really couldn't stand her constant annoying clinging to Misaki and I genuinely didn't care for her. Her route also was pretty garbage and felt like a complete afterthought. I thought she would end up going against Arika. I thought they'd flesh out her character more and that yuri relationship with Mayu. Instead she didn't shine in the tournament at all and instead just went against Misaki. It seemed like a waste and I found much of her route a huge chore to play through.
 
Oh, I almost forgot that production quality was aammmmazing I especially loved the backgrounds. They took the already great backgrounds that Koi had and dialed up that shit to 11.
Overall, I think this was a truly great vn and I think it's pretty fucking sad that sprite went bankrupt. A real shame.

I take that all back
I'm on Ageha's route now, and did some checking - the translation is as bad, as it was, and there are so many mistranslations that it's not even funny... Many lines are translated in a way that completely reverts their meaning, turning the route into incomprehensible gibberish I remember it was before I dropped it
Also, I've been mistaken - the thingy with "eyes" wasn't during bath scene in common route, but at the beginning of Ageha's route, and it's still there.
However, it looks to me like translator didn't do it because of their urge to censor (since word "boobs" appears earlier already), but as a lame attempt at humor.

I'll give you the same advice I give any and all new VN fantl groups.  Pick something short and easy for your first project.  It is tempting to answer a fan wishlist or fan demand, but VN translation is completely different from anime or manga translation, both in difficulty and in length.

They obviously do care about all-ages content though.
They have expanded to anime, light-novels and even mobile games.
Advertising with the train company was also for the "anime" because you can't do that with porn just like Maitetsu showed us when their thing was cancelled. Harukaze believes that if they want to make it big then eroge is not gonna cut it. You need to appeal to bigger masses and I think Harukaze can do it with their IPs.

I just finished the story yesterday!  It was just awesome! I did them in the order the game presented them to me, only switching Rika by Mashiro.
I initially thought that Asuka was going to be the main heroine but by the end, I think it's split between her and Misaki.
Asuka is basically cuteness incarnate.  Everything, she talks, thinks, her dog, her "tchans"... even when she is sad she is still cute.  
Misaki on the other hand, while she has a cute side (nowhere near Asuka though), she also has that sass that I love, she has more "dimensions" (not talking about her breasts here) and is just more interesting to me as a character overall.
As far as routes go, I also preferred Misaki's over Asuka, but I feel they both offer alternative solutions on how to get over trauma.  Asuka's is about just having fun and Misaki's more about finding an answer.
PS1: Just started watching the Anime (ep2) and I believe that, while the story is quite inferiorly presented (understandable) they seem to propose an alternative pairing which might just be the one.  Asuka x Misaki.  Or Asaki for short.
 
 

Will just post this here but just like I suspected, the reason why Noratotos are not getting 18+ versions are because they want to keep the company, Tokyotoon, all-ages.
If you take a look at their new game's website you can see it says it will release on Steam with English and Chinese versions too. It will also only be all-ages with no 18+ version even made.
https://uyragnigotocr.am/

As with others, time dictates what time I can spend reading VNs, so it is by no means daily that I read them, but when I do, it's normally 2 or 3 hours per VN. I can read multiple or none in a day. If I am particularly engaged, I can spend my every moment of free time on the particular title of interest.
However, this goes for any piece of entertainment, so if I'm engaged in an anime, manga, light novel, or game, then I will have no time for VNs.

When I'm seriously playing a VN and I have nothing else that is demanding my attention (such as work) I will play it until it is complete or it is time to sleep... meaning up to fourteen hours in a day.