adamstan

Since I caught covid at 7th November, I had almost six weeks long break in reading. Recently I finally almost fully recovered, and so I resumed reading Damekoi PSP.
Currently I'm at 13th chapter and going for (or actually already almost entered) Asami's route. While I had some complaints at the beginning of the game, it gets better and better as it goes, and as I got used to it.
I'm loving how the relationship between Osamu and Asami is portrayed, and I'm really rooting for them. Let's see how it unfolds.

In 3DOELVNs those are usually signs of early incest version that has been poorly covered up for patreon purposes

Time for some more 80s J-pop
Lovely rich electronic sound and some not-so-obvious chord changes - I like it
 

Project is still alive, plodding along.

Edit: That's like you're eating fish and being like, "Yeah I haven’t tasted chicken before, but this totally tastes like it!"

Well, I played it, and it was playable, but had some quirks, mistranslations, and an untranslated parts (like Estel's presentation/lecture, where AFAIR text was in the form of the images). Overally, it shows that it's unfinished. From my "review-ish" post:
Despite the translation problems, I loved the VN. I think one day I'm going to replay it in Japanese

Reflection Blue is a subtitle of an extended edition of Summer Pockets.

Yeah, I loved it too despite some flaws (that map movement system...) Now, Toybox, where's the damn sequel? You think you can get away with teasing us like that?

Today I finished World End Syndrome. It was fantastic, I loved it and it got me hooked through the whole story. I just wish the routes were longer - it felt that when the routes were finally starting to get interesting, they ended.
 
Now I'm still reading Angel Beats and plan to finally restart SeaBed. This is one that I've read for some time and didn't enjoy because it was too slow-paced. But now I got it on the Switch and am actually pretty excited to try it again.

They put a VN full of rape and guro on Steam and act surprised that it gets banned?!? The level of naivety shown here is baffling. 

I just found nice easter egg / reference in DameKoi.
Do you remember a game they played in chapter 7 during the
Buntarou says that he remembers this game being a VN, while Yoshinori says that he grabbed the assets of said VN and remade it.
Actually, all the locations they mention and the music that is playing is from first Hermit's VN - Folklore Jam (also written by Maruto).

I just found nice easter egg / reference in DameKoi.
Do you remember a game they played in chapter 7 during the
Buntarou says that he remembers this game being a VN, while Yoshinori says that he grabbed the assets of said VN and remade it.
Actually, all the locations they mention and the music that is playing is from first Hermit's VN - Folklore Jam (also written by Maruto).

That's a tough question. Sora is for me definitely the best character, as she shines throughout the whole series, and brings light into every episode But when coming to the "choose your best waifu" problem, that's another dimension To put it simply, I loved them all. And each episode was better than the previous one. In first episode I thought that Miyako was very sweet girl, and I wouldn't mind a girlfriend like her. But then came Sora's route, and I found it to be very good too. Haruka was also lovely, and I really liked how she developed as a character. And then there was Noa. I didn't care too much about her throughout the first three episodes - especially since she was always staying on the side. But her episode turned this all upside down and made me fall for her head over heels.
So, however contradictory it might seem - Sora is my best character, Episode 4 is my best episode, and I'm unable to choose my favorite heroine.

Yeah it seemed to work because it was rather self-aware in what it's trying to be. Sora and Kakeru's banter felt real and also extremely funny to me lol, Tanezaki Atsumi's voice elevates their banter to another level or maybe it's just because I'm biased as hell because Tanezaki Atsumi is my favorite voice actor.
Who's your favorite heroine and episode? Although I feel like your favorite heroine is already Sora though lol

While most of the characters were rather tropey - which seemed to work perhaps thanks to fantasy elements in the setting? - there's one exception, and that's banter between Kakeru and Sora, which, at least to me, felt surprisingly natural. And maybe that's what makes Sora the best character  
As for your complaints towards Sora's route - that's where all-ages version shows its superiority
Unfortunately, I cannot recommend Steam editions without adult patches, since there are parts where they are overly censored (especially the Haruka's chapter). The only "proper" all-ages version is Complete Edition, (available in two physical versions and on DLSite) which unfortunately is untranslated. But if one wants to read -Nine- in Japanese, it's great (and it's in 1080p ) Besides, the epilogue is all-ages only anyway
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As for Damekoi,
Few days ago I finished Kaya's route. I liked it, although it shows that she's just a "side heroine" I have stopped for a moment, because last few days I've been too tired to read, but maybe I'll return to it today.
BTW I again did a quick comparison between the All-ages edition that I'm playing and +18 MangaGamer's version (so far only for Kaya's route). And once again I lean heavily towards all-ages version, even if sometimes it felt a bit too tame (but then, it has +15 rating). I found the replacement scenes added in the PSP version to be much nicer than too-many badly-animated H-scenes from MG's edition. Really, some of those animations looked so bad it's not even funny   I was very disappointed to find out that scenes like
were just the replacement scenes, and were completely absent from adult version - they fit the route so well. Also, all-ages edition added very nice post-credits epilogue for Kaya (and I assume for other "side" heroines as well, but will know for sure after finishing them)
It's a pity that all-ages version is available only on low-res PSP though I wish there was PC or PS3 port...

Wow lol, I tried to read 9-nine in one go, I actually played the original one with Miyako but got bored of it right after the plot twist, I then just skipped to Sora's and well I read the whole saga in a week and its really good.
9-Nine as a series is good in the sense that it doesn't have some insane character depth or central plot element, it's just that it does every standard trope really well and sometimes does it spectacularly. Most of the characters are the usual character stereotypes, without much depth to them, but I liked reading their dialogues and stories anyway since they're well executed. To be more specific, the characters felt very unreal, they didn't have any sense of realness to them in the sense that their traits don't feel real, it rather feels instead that they had specific traits in mind to appeal to each otaku fetish, and made a character around them. While this may be a harsh thing to say, it was still enjoyable in its own way.
9-nine's last game around Noa was probably one of the best last games in episodic stories like this, where every information in the past games are used and everything led to that moment but its hard to say much about it without being spoiler-ish.
I'm not gonna make a review about this since there has been a ton of reviews about 9-nine already, I only make reviews on games without reviews. 
Spoilerish thoughts:
 

What you are trying to run is the Chinese version of mashiro-iro symphony so you might wanna check if you have all the chinese fonts and other stuff...
If it is intentional that it is the Chinese version...

Okay finally finished, I now know why some people say the ending is vague. While this maybe a spoiler, if people are gonna read this it would be important to know that this down-to-earth story has a sci-fi element to it that felt tacked on which was essential to the ending.
Its hard to say much without spoiling others too but, the 80% of the game was amazing with extremely good character interactions and atmosphere for me but the last 20% may be polarizing for some people since it went into sci-fi territory. 80% of the game was about moving on from the past (which was Yuna's sudden disappearance). Each route helped Shou grow to be a better person to face his traumas but the last 20% vexed me in that I did like it but it was a big downgrade from the amazing experience I had. Some people would probably like that aspect but personally I would have preferred if it remained down to earth and realistic about moving on from the past instead of engaging in sci-fi stuff, the sci-fi stuff felt tacked on and worked something like KEY magic if you read clannad.
Spoiler thoughts:
if anyone is curious for a review, I have on up in the vndb page later

Just finished the third route, Imozawa Erina. I rarely read alot of routes in a VN due to me quickly losing interest due to the atmosphere of the game and such. Unexpectedly I really loved this game's story and all the routes, I don't think I had a moment where I was bored because  I really loved the atmosphere of it being very adult-like, or something like the atmosphere of a college life with problems being encountered by young adults and not the teenagers normally in stories.
Imozawa Erina is the genki girl that I usually am not interested in but there is a very interesting contrast to be had with Erina. Erina is the closest friend of Yuna, Shou's original girlfriend who randomly disappeared. Erina lost Yuna, and then she also lost her mother, she grieved and in contrast to her natural genki and friendly character, she became thorny and pushed people away. What's interesting to me about it is that normally, in stories the thorny side becomes the main personality, but in Erina, her thorny side was simply a facade because she was grieving and pushed everything away because she blamed herself for everything, it was easy to break through her thorny side because she was always seeking help and Shou gave that to her. Her route is really interesting in that the progress of their relationship felt natural without like a big moment that dragged them into a relationship but something very natural like they just naturally had fun together and helped each other in their weakness, naturally this ended with them asking each other out.
The ending was good but unsatisfying because I did want to read more, I felt like there should have been more, but in the end their route indeed solved most of their character problems by supporting each other, I just wanted to see more casual romantic stuff because I really liked their pairing. This is one of the rare VN's where i feel bummed out when I finish a game because I wanted more of their character and dialogue but alas, its not a pretty long game.
Going to my next route now, and the mystery of Yuna's disappearance isn't given much clues to in the first three routes but it seems like there will be something in the next route of Kasumi.

Just finished my 2nd route in the game. Its a ladder type of story which I admittedly dislike because sometimes it feels like it cheapens the route, like when you diverge from the ladder by choosing a route early on, you miss out on the true story, and that respective heroine's end is not the proper path to play on, but Swallowtail tries to solve this problem by making viewing each part of the ladder by making the routes themselves have their own contribution to the story.
I am writing this yet again while sleepy since I basically read this novel the whole night and finished Yuka's route which was amazing for me. Yuka's route hits all the buttons for a heroine for me by being something like a coodere like Kazusa from WA2 but also being highly aggressive of what she wants and being upfront while also being very shy. 
What truly makes this route amazing for me is it is important to give the context for the story and the route which is as I referred to earlier, Yuna is Shou's ex which suddenly disappeared and she shares the same looks and a lot of same personality traits with Yuka but they both have very obvious differences once you get to know them better. The route is obviously also centered around this shared commonality, as Yuna is a trauma and an obsession for Shou, and Yuka is something like  a living reminder of his past that he wants to forget that still continues to haunt him even up to today. The story of the route actually progressed very neatly and felt very adult-ish. I mean that in the way that Highschool romances that dominate the vn genre right now feel very immature and sometimes in a fairytale kind of way but the romance progression in this game felt very real and something that may actually happen IRL except the vanishing part. I don't want to spoil too much about it but the route is very fulfilling. 
Also what I hate about this ladder style of route is that sometimes the ladder is structured around rejecting the girls and If you really get in to the story it is kinda hard to do it. I skipped the 1st route which was Saeko, Shou's ex and IMO they wrote her well with her being still in love with Shou and regretting her decision to break up with him. It wasn't explained why they broke up so you have to play her route but I didn't like her well enough to play her route but that is simply because she is not the kind of heroine I like. Rejecting Yuka which I really really liked was kind of hard but it wasn't much of a rejection of a confession per se, but rather rejecting the crucial step that will start their eventual relationship.
Yuka on the other hand, which is the 2nd route, has you also going through the same problem as Shou. It is easy to sympathize  with him because most of the drama is centered around him still not fully getting over Yuna, and as he falls in love with Yuka, he begins to doubt his own feelings about Yuna and it is interesting since the player too will probably be confused about the two but eventually get over the problem the same way as Shou as you also begin to notice how different they are. 
 

Thanks for another VN added to bookmark/wishlist

https://vndb.org/v23205  After flip-flopping from a lot of different VN's I finally settled on Swallowtail.  I didn't expect to be immersed in the story considering it felt very rough, both in writing and system but it was unique enough to stand out for me to gain my interest. There is actually is established relationships between the protag and the heroines, which is interesting, the story starts with you already going out with one of the childhood friends Rie, and shows flashbacks from the past also focused on Yuuna, which I think is the true heroine.
Yuuna was originally Shou's (The main character) girlfriend but she randomly disappeared in the festival which is the main focal point of the mystery of the game I guess. The prologue was hella long though I think I was in 5-10 hours before I saw the opening. Saeko is also one of the Ex's of Shou so you could expect that the MC isn't a donkan or hetare, but he's actually a competent and fairly popular guy, albeit a bit bland himself but it made him stand out in the sea of eroge protagonists who sometimes act like idiots or losers. Shou is actually a charismatic guy which made me like him.
The game alternates 50/50 between the past and the present, which is fairly unique but sometimes presented in the interface badly. This is the kind of game I like which seems down to earth with characters not acting like caricatures. I'll make a review when I'm done with this

That looks like something that I might like. Thanks 🙂

Which version of Shuffle do you have? I have Steam version from YumeHaven, which is apparently a port of PS2 version, but haven't read it yet. AFAIK currently none of the translated versions is available because licensing agreements have ran out.