Larxe1

Tenshi no Inai 12-Gatsu Decided to come back to reading VN's again and chose this depressing classic. Fits perfectly to the type of VN's I love reading. A storyline that is grounded in reality, with characters written well with their own flaws and problems. This visual novel puts the characters flaws and problems as the main story. It is a character-driven work and there are possibly no good people here aside from Toko (I didn't do her route but she seems the nicest out of all of the characters. The start of the plot begins with Toko offering herself to the MC. It was some form of transactional sex with Toko getting permission from the MC to escape her own hell to his place. The MC is unique, in the sense that many asshole main characters are written to have a heart of gold hidden under all that attitude, but the MC is kind of an asshole 80% of the time. I actually found this refreshing as it is rare to see a genuine asshole as a main character, and seeing him uncharacteristically act nice in some scenes was fun to read. I only read Shinobu's route, and Shinobu is Toko's best friend that seems to be overly protective of Toko. The start of her route is on par with the theme of the novel, very depressing and there's a sense of despair on every scene. Shinobu's traumas are on full display, and the MC isn't some magical main character from romcom's who manage to cure the traumas of his heroines. The MC is as fucked up as she is and their relationship is equally bad. They aren't lovers in their route, neither sex friends or friends either. Their relationship is something unique to the two of them that came about from their own unique circumstances, and their relationship makes them feel safe from the demons that haunt them. As I read from the other reviews, I agree with their sentiments that usually the endings aren't very satisfying. You don't fully find out what happened with the MC and why he's such as asshole, you don't know what happened in the past for Shinobu to become so broken. She shows clues of what her possible traumas are. They aren't fully explored, heck they aren't even mentioned again later on. Just writing about it frustrates me as I was actually invested to know more but the game is really short. The game ends on a weirdly hopeful and depressing note. The game ends without really solving any of their problems, but their strange and warped relationship comforts them. The game ends with the feeling of that their problems may never really be solved. It doesn't matter to them, they didn't enter into their relationship with the goal of being exactly happy or having their partner solve their traumas for them. The traumas and problems that they carry aren't solvable, as solving them doesn't really matter. They just want to atone for their sins or run from their traumas. Self-harm and depression and sometimes suicide is a topic that heavily plays into the story which is a rare topic for visual novels to actually dive deeply into. Usually in some other VN's they get better but with Tenshi no Inai, they just learn to live with it. It is hard to recommend this VN to others as the story is not for everyone but for those who like this kind of stories, it is hella good.

Playing Futama Renai from Asa Project, It's been so long since I read another VN lol since I lost the energy to read. Picked a random recent release and I played this game. Another game from Asa Project, Renai Karichaimashita, I liked because of its change to the typical setting which is being a rental bf, while I absolutely did not like Renai X Royale because it was too average, Most of their games are average to good in quality but I was looking for romcoms with different settings no more "loser protagonist gets with school idol/childhood friend etc etc. Rental boyfriend setting was kinda new and Futama Renai was kind of new to with the setting being the protagonist is a cheating bastard while he has a reason why he two-times, he still knows he was trash on choosing to two time. This was a college setting so there isn't a lot of school-life shown so far (only few hours) and that already made me happy. So far, I was surprised that the jokes are kinda toned down unlike the typical Asa project game. They got the slight change of setting from Renai Karichaimashita without the usage of tons of jokes as usual form Asa Project. It just seemed kinda like a normal VN with possible drama ( I don't know if they will actually pursue that drama or do it badly since this is an Asa project game). I'm interested in the story so far and hopefully they don't drop the ball too hard or avoid the drama they set-up and answer it with jokes

Played Your Diary + H It's the newer version of Your Diary with new routes for that one senpai character and Kaho, the best friend character and wingwoman in the original game. Surprisingly, I didn't like much of the characters here enough to pursue a route except for Kaho which is the additional route. I didn't expect that as normally additional routes kinda suck and feel padded on for new content but surprisingly I liked Kaho's route a lot and probably due to me liking Kaho's character type a lot. I usually love best friend or very cheerful kind of characters as seeing the gap of them being light-hearted and always joking around and the contrast of them being embarassed and having a hard time in romance is kinda cute. Kaho's route kinda tries to get into that awkward stuff and as she is the wingwoman of the childhood friend who likes the MC, as expected one of the main dramas that they do is with the kind of love triangle? It's hard to say because there isn't much drama of the love triangle present. The drama is focused on Kaho just not wanting to be honest to her feelings due to not wanting to hurt the childhood friend. The drama of that is solved well, very lightly like a very light romcom way of dealing with the problem that is kinda laughable but it's not that bad. The route all in all is kinda fine, not bad is what I would rate it. I thought of making a review on in vndb but I literally only played the common route and 3/4 of Kaho's and skipped a lot so I thought I shouldn't write a review for a game I didn't technically finish. All in all, it is a fairly high quality game. I loved Kaho's route and some people may enjoy the game too.

Natsu no Ame - MC is a popular football player in their school, untranslated though Swallowtail - A bit of a polarizing work, personally I liked it. The MC is extremely popular and referred to as handsome by the school, has a lot of ex-relationships with some heroines. Also untranslated Kind of hard to find vn's with a handsome or popular MC, usually it's just "average" mc

Playing Hello, Goodbye, the english translated ver. I can kinda understand the main criticisms of the game which is the setting has a lot of potential and even could be a good plotge but kinda fizzles out, its a solid charage but contrary to its story-heavy setting it is character-focused. Although yeah I am still at chapter 1 lol after the prologue but I could see the signs. The prologue is kinda weak at the start but there is a really amazing hook at the end which could be the start of something great but after that, you would expect an explosive follow up from that amazing hook but nothing, it just kinda returns to the same old wacky everyday school life. Also I'm just gonna play Natsume and stop since Natsume is the heroine I usually like and what people consider the best one Edit: Okay I actually finished it that was short as hell. It really is a charage which while I like charages the setting could have been used more since espionage and civil wars really interest me but alas they weren't really the focus, it wasn't much used as a setting. It doesn't help that the MC doesn't do any espionage work, he is just practically a student practically in everything. If you look at it just as a charage it is pretty satisfying but not amazing, Natsume is an extremely cute heroine that I'm gonna remember for some time, with i guess okay drama? It doesn't help that one of the main dramas of Natsume isn't actually fully explained as they obviously try to put most of the details in the true route. All in all a pretty fine game, yes I'm done with the game with just Natsume i'm not interested in any of the other heroines so I have a lot of unanswered questions but im fine with it

Trying to start on reading on good old VN's starting with Duelist x Engage. https://vndb.org/v6334 Read Clephas' review first and the one thing he mentions that I really agree with is the setting is crazy weird that you have to suspend your disbelief a lot. Crazy settings are fine when the game plays it off but it was actually used quite seriously in the game. An example of the crazy stuff background setting is the existence of mithril. Mithril seems to be an exclusive resource on the main heroine's country. It is apparently an extremely strong metal that her forefathers wore riding cavalry charges against machine gun barrages, seriously? A lot of some serious stuff is hooked into that mithril stuff too so you really have to suspend your disbelief a lot. The backstory of the country to is kinda iffy but yeah people shouldn't try to think too much about the setting and enjoy it for what it is and a charage not an amazing world-building vn. Also is it just me, or oldie VN's have more donkan protagonists. While there are donkan protagonists in recent VN's it seems that they're starting to be replaced by more less dense but still dense. Yukito in this VN fucking grinds my gears a lot, he is pretty much a symbol of what I hate about donkan protagonists, naive and dumb. A child would have noticed how much the girls liked him but he just kinda doesn't notice. It doesn't help that he is dumb too being manipulated all the time and just kinda being swept by the story, Yukito doesn't have much agency aside from what he does in the ending. He's just kinda there like a walking plot device attracting flags. While I have a lot of negative things to say, I did like the game for what it does which is having a coherent story structure and attractive heroines. I liked Violetta and Tsubaki a lot. They're character archetypes I like a lot and there is a lot of plot in their routes which makes it compelling but I do admit I skipped some text here and there on some parts I found tedious. Game isn't like the usual charages which there isn't a speck of plot to be found. This charage has a coherent plot that doesn't get forgotten and is compelling in of itself. 8/10 Thinking of starting moshimo ashita ga hare naraba next

Reading Sousaku Kanojo, https://vndb.org/v31136 I actually wrote a long review for this but I accidentally deleted it and it is now lost in history, and I don't want to type it again since i'm lazy and there are a lot of reviews for it out there considering it is a hyped game i guess with its production values. It was enjoyable but ironically for a game about "creators" or writers and the author making fun of cliche otaku developments, they do the same cliche otaku developments in the routes. The aspect that makes this vn for me good is Kiriha, which should have been the main heroine since there was a lot of Kiriha content in the common route even moreso than Ayase the main heroine. A lot of things happen to the mc due to kiriha and kiriha is in turn changed which is good but bad for the main heroine Ayase since she's a bit overshadowed and if you headover to vndb reviews a lot of them just tell you to read Kiriha's route which is what I would say too. She's a modern tsundere and sometimes an asshole but a cold and pragmatic person which is not the kind of tsundere you usually see in charages. Usually in charages, tsunderes are emotionally driven but Kiriha is pragmatic and calculating in achieving dream, this aspect isn't totally lost in her route too. Also the game really likes to shove the word "creator" on you. It's always "This is what a creater will do" or "as a creator" and the plot does sometimes touch upon the theme it is trying to say which is "How much are you willing to sacrifice to be a creator" which is a weird theme to be trying to do since it is out of place in this rather happy go lucky but sometimes melodramatic vn. Meikei no Lupercalia did that sacrifice thing a lot better since the game really took it seriously and built on it but it felt kinda cheap in Sousaku no Kanojo where the serious stuff it's trying to do is not given too much attention making it look like the writer trying to make a story that is out of his depth. I say a lof of shit about sousaku but I did enjoy it a lot it has a strong common route, and entertaining cast of heroines, but this is just a high quality (production-wise) charage, there's no tragic depth here or something. There is tragedy but it felt cheap.

https://vndb.org/v31262 Reading Monkeys! It's a very lighthearted story, I'm still in the first few hours of the game and the presentation does kinda stand out from other vn's, There is early on a large amount of cg's but it is mostly in the form of a manga, so basically its like reading a voiced manga sometimes while coming back to the VN format again. It has both a trap protagonist and an outrageous setting. Usually I dislike trap games, because well, I'm not really into traps but more on that I dislike the common trope of trap protagonists being a mixture of extremely kind, and girlish. Like trap protagonists are usually the same just like how self insert protagonists in random moeges are the same. The trap protagonist here Saruyoshi is kinda a fresh take on it since I don't think I have read a trap VN before where the protagonist was a delinquent, but yeah idk I don't read trap vn's a lot. The setting is outrageous in the sense that it is fun but just dont think about it too deeply lol, I was able to notice a lot of weird holes in the setting but I think that I nor future readers should take this setting a bit too seriously just suspend your disbelief. I'm still early on so I can't say if its good but it did pass the test of me not dropping it within the first hour, I drop a lot of VN's in the first hour if it doesn't hold my attention but Monkeys is a standard lighthearted vn so far with good execution and a unique presentation for me. Also Karasu's VA is new but her voice is very nice, looking forward to her career in the future

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

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:

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.

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

https://vndb.org/v31125 Looked up one of the monthly releases and played some random game that doesn't take much commitment and played Hooksoft's Aikoi. Looks like a childhood group kind of story with the mc leaving his friend group in his childhood and then returning for some reason. Hooksoft games are a hit or miss for me and I only played through the prologue right now and I skipped so many texts due to it presenting the prologue from the perspective of the MC in his childhood. I skipped for I think 10-20 mins and that is a lot of content if I actually read it. I really don't like children-focused dialogues, while I may understand the intent behind it, being that it tries to introduce the childhood group organically and have them grow up to serve as a contrast later on, it is a risky move that requires the writer to be competent in handling children's dialogue and making it engaging and for me I wasn't really engaged much. I read some random dialogues here and there just so I can get the gist and head on the reunion part. I don't like skipping much and maybe this will be a miss from me, but I'll continue reading anyway until I get really bored out of it. Also tried reading Muramasa and its amazing albeit with a lot of unnecessary rape scenes, haven't finished it yet due to Tales of Arise

Since you read WA2, I'll assume you read untranslated. Waga Himegimi ni Eikan O (https://vndb.org/v29057). It's a Minatosoft game, same vibes as Majikoi since it has the same writer, but it feels like an upgraded version since it's the newer one. Rich in characters and lore and probably has futures of fandiscs to come like Majikoi A. Also doesn't have that much drama, just the same level of drama as Majikoi

Finally, finished Parfait, I'm just going to ignore Asuka and Kasuri. Finished Rikako's route and in short, her route is probably the most memorable, while Rea's character is the most memorable for me. Rea is probably going to be one of my favorite tsunderes in VN's and probably how I would go define good tsunderes, her tsun isn't that tsun that it kinda makes you think she actually despises you, just the right amount of tsun that makes you think she doesn't mean anything malicious by it and most of the time her being tsun makes sense and helps the MC, and why the hell am I suddenly praising Rea when this post was supposed to be about Rikako lol, I'm just writing down a stream of consciousness. Rikako's route is what I consider the true route, but more exactly the route where the most story and effort was probably put into. Honestly, it is kinda weird that Rikako's route doesn't require Ema's route to be finished. I think a lot of the enjoyment would be diminished if you didn't know what happened with Ema and the MC in the past, which only Ema's route explained. You could probably only rely on context clues to know what happened between Ema and the MC, and what happened there is very, very relevant in Rikako's route. My thoughts on the route was that I really did like it a lot, it was kinda refreshing seeing the MC working hard towards the relationship to work because Rikako has a lot of problems that needs to be solved before they can be together and the MC did that a lot. It was really different where the MC wasn't so clearly defined and was more like a self-insert in Yui and Rea's route. Rikako's a good heroine that has a lot going on for her and against her which is kinda hard to talk about without spoiling the whole thing since its a main plot point too in her route being the mystery. All in all Parfait is a good vn, not perfect, it still has a lot of flaws that I'm not sure if it's just unrefined Maruto writing or production limits. Game felt short for me, it did kind of gloss over some scenes where it could have been further expanded or scenes where it should have been shown because there are scenes where they just kind of skip over it and just tell it happened. Also fuck map-type choice VN's lol, It's fine but if you put specific flags to trigger the true ending or other flags to reach the end you want, and it isn't intuitive and easy to understand, it's a bad design choice. How tf was i supposed to know you needed to hang out with Yui in that specific day to reach Rea's true end. Probably my next VN is , probably https://vndb.org/v18145 or when Muramasa gets released in EN. But idk, I'm always open to recommendations and random novels but I'm probably not going to read again for a few weeks, I only read Parfait because it was Maruto.

Fnish Playing Parfait Remake and finished Yui and Ema route I really like Yui, her voice and personality is awesome, but I ended up stalling her route halfway near the end because I just don't like that kind of conflicts lol. I really wasn't interested in the plot going forward in her route which I dropped but yeah it was kinda sad because I really liked the first half as Yui is so cute but damn I was bored with the plot in her route. Ema was kind of the reverse, I liked her character but not that much, I ended up liking her route and character a lot due to the drama(which was kinda light but still more dramatic than Yui and Rea). Ema has a unique background I was really interested in, which was being an ex-wife of the MC's dead brother. It really was one of a kind of character background and I really like backgrounds like that since it gives Ema and the MC with character depth that is rarely explored in vn's. Ema definitely isn't a saint and has done a lot of morally dubious but human decisions in the past and in the route, and I liked her for being a good and flawed heroine. Of course, her route explores the dynamic behind their relationship well, but let's say it wasn't explored seriously enough but that isn't just unique to her route but the whole game where the routes felt short. (More best tsundere rea where?) Otw to Rikako route and I seriously didn't like her a lot, not that I hated her, but nothing seemed to be of much interest but her relationship with the MC is also explored in Ema's route, which gave depth to Rikako and that gave me a lot of interest toward her character. It is kinda weird that there is some kind of set-up where the game obviously points to Rikako being the true route. It is also obvious that most of Parfait's story and serious stuff is in Ema and Rikako considering that they deal with the problems in the past. Yui and Rea are bundled together and admitedly there was some real lazy writing here with the shared events. There is some kind of love triangle that was present in both their routes, but was only emphasized by Rea's route and mostly absent in Yui's route. One scene in particular was kinda lazy writing in which the shared event was Rikako asks you at the end of the day which do you really like Yui or Rea? This event happens right after you have sex with one of the heroines and confess, but the MC just goes "..." why the hell didn't you answer MC wtf, you just confessed and had sex, and you're telling me you're unsure. The text is the same no matter what route you are, so it is lazy writing choice. I'm writing this half- asleep lol finished Ema's route before I sleep since idk when my motivation to read will also randomly disappear and I may leave parfait stalled without completing the routes, hopefully I'll finish Rikako's route tomorrow or this week and enter a reading hiatus again for a month lol.

Yeah I really had to do a walkthrough just to be able to see the true end. Somehow I think that people who don't use a walkthrough will always get normal ends since who would have thought you needed to choose another heroine for the other heroine you want lol. Yeah I think its actually locked, after I finish reading Yui and Rea Ill head straight into Ema and then Rikako, and then I'm done with the game. BTW, who was your favorite heroine(s)? for curiosity sake

Came back to playing VN's again randomly after a long hiatus and played Parfait Remake. Holy crap I expected this game to be longer, I felt so unsatisfied by the length because I seriously liked the heroines a lot, like I wanted to see a lot more of them. Its literally just navigating the map system and triggering events and then you can lock in a heroine after a few weeks of ingame time, and then the relationship forms, h-scene, and then an ending shortly thereafter. Why was it short and why was Katori Rea so perfect, rarely do I praise tsunderes a lot as they can be easily mishandled by a bad writer and make me hate the trope but Rea was just the perfect balance of tsun and dere, and her tsun isn't so annoying like most other tsunderes that make you want to bash their head in, Rea's tsun is just so cute, and you can actually see her getting softer and softer overtime and it melts my heart out. The game is actually quite good in of itself, It does everything well, it's a good light-hearted romcom and doesn't stray too far from it but I only finished Rea's route so far and some people have said that the other routes are quite dramatic, but I'll read them again when I have the time since I am still in the "why was the route so short" phase. I need more good tsundere content in my life lol, I really love it when it is well executed. Well aside from my Rea praising rants, I'll offer some thoughts on the other parts of the game The heroines are all good but maybe this is just personal taste but some of them are a bit lacking or maybe because I wasn't as invested in them, particularly Asuka at Kasuri. Asuka seems to just throw herself at the MC and she really has an obvious crush on the MC and Kasuri just lukes the kind of charm that would make me try to go into her route. I also really like Yui, I normally don't like air headed heroines but there's just something about her that's really cute and kinda grips your heart and the best part about her is that her character likes to sing a lot, she sings while working and it's often emphasized by the narration on how good she is and she does actually sing in the game a lot. The VA actually sounds like she's having fun singing, so its really endearing, unlike other VNs in which if a heroine sings, they just kinda gloss over it without the heroine actually singing and just said "she sang". Bruh let us hear the singing. Rikako and Ema seems to be what other fans consider the true route considering that both of them are the ones most obviously connected to the MC's past and both are fascinating, particularly Ema. Ema is route I am also most interested for, considering her personality and how unique her situation with the MC is in VN stories. Particularly she is the ex of the MC's dead brother so she is her sister in law, and both the MC and Ema might care a little too much for each other. I don't know maybe there is some unique circumstance about it but I was also intrigued because in VN's some people have a weird obsession with their heroines being pure. The story remains light and while there maybe some elements of drama present, it doesn't take itself too seriosuly with too much drama and just kinda plops the drama with a short resolution and i'm fine with that. (Note that I have only played Rea route lol) Edit: I was on the normal ending of Rea not the true, wtf that was why it was so short, goddamn map navigation system

I used to avoid gameplay VN's like a plague since I usually want to focus on just passive reading for VN's and then if I want to play active games then I play my gameplay focused games but I'm willing to try it starting with Eushully or other VN's with RPG or some other gameplay style. I was initially starting with Soukoku no Arterial but the lack of Male Voice acting kinda iffed me but I'll continue it again after I played some other modern Eushully game. Also seeing as there are a lot of Eushully games and all of them have a very long playtime and given my lack of time to play now, I want to focus on playing the best on what they have. I'd like a recommendation on which modern Eushully games to play or other rpg VN's but I can't read unhookable text so please recommend VN's only with an interface patch or something.

Ojou-sama no Hanbun wa Ren'ai de Dekiteimasu! Reading again after a long time of on and off reading VN's and dropping a ton of VN's. I really love romance novels, that's why I'm always trying to find a good one to read and in the past I might have enjoyed vanilla scenes of just plain dating or ichaicha, but now I just hate it when it happens. I only enjoy scenes like that for a heroine that I REALLY, REALLY like, if there's a dating event with a heroine I only moderately like, I'm going to be bored as hell. It's hard to write a good dating event in romance VN's, It's easy to make on but creating a hanging out event for the heroine that progresses the plot or develops character traits is hard and that's what I'm looking for. I guess after reading almost a hundred VN's, I just got sick of the normal icha-icha and I just want some good ol' drama/romance where every scene feels like it has a purpose rather than just showing off how cute she is. I probably grew to hate VN's where the soundtrack is extremely happy-go-lucky with heroines almost being perfect with their flaws played off for comedic effect where they randomly fall in love with the MC for an unbelievable reason such as "He was nice to me". I just want a good drama VN with the same vibes as Natsu no Ame or White Album 2 where it feels melodramatic I love that atmosphere, rant aside here's my thoughts on what I'm reading right now. Ojomasu is kinda weird given that the topic of the story is clearly not aligned with the moe-moe cute art of the game and how it generally looks like. It has its dark moments and the protagonist can be a villain depending on the perspective. MC is straight up manipulating all of them for his own gain and I actually like that since it's a fresh take on the Trap genre. I usually don't read trap games for the single reason that I don't like traps, but I can let it go in Ojomasu since Hajime is an interesting MC with him being a trap not being the central piece of his character, he's mainly a cunning and manipulative person who's willing to do anything for his goals, and he does it well. He is still a self-insert, though, just because he's different from a normal self-insert mc, doesn't mean he is one. A lot of readers want to self-insert as the smart and competent character and Hajime is perfect for it with an incredibly vague backstory. Not that I'm bashing on Hajime though, I really like him as a protagonist. Haven't finished it, yet, probably I'll finish it in a week considering my glacial reading progress with me constantly being distracted with academics.

Back to my usual with reading random vn's which lead me to dropping VN's at a fast pace which kinda burns me out. Yume to Iro de Dekiteiru - Same author of Hoshizora no Memoria and I guess co-writer on astral air. Made by feng and surprisingly a full length game. There are supernatural elements to this like same level of supernatural you can find in Hoshizora no memoria. I used to be okay with stuff like that in the past I dont know what changed but seeing random supernatural elements in a high-school setting now turns me off real bad. I changed into wanting grounded and real stories. Rupekari had supernatural elements that I did not like but it was just so good to overshadow whatever misgivings I have. Yumeiro constantly changes with its approach of mystery and suspense with detective-like thinking of the protag, and its supernatural elements, those two tropes rarely go well unless you are a reallly good author. I like the cast and all, its passable but the magic elements are really turning me off with mikos actually being legitimate wizard-like powers and mikos hunting poltergeists that were actually *gasp* one of the characters dead cat that wasnt able to pass on. I really don't like tropes like that even more if its barely explained, I guess if I read more I will understand but i'm stalling it or reading at a snail's pace. I was able to enjoy Hoshizora no Memoria when I was younger but now my tastes have changed and I don't think I'll be able to enjoy it at the same level I do now but its still enjoyable because IIRC it did execute its tropes well. Yubisaki Connection- New game by Hooksoft capitalizing on the unexpected popularity of Making Lovers adult heroines, tried playing it and what did I expect lol. I dropped it immediately, I don't like this kind of games where everyone is constantly upbeat, max energy, ost goes full-blown happy daily life ost with a high af BPM. Its kinda draining to read something like that I prefer grounded stories where its not constant max energy happy. What made Making Lovers stand out for me is the characters where kinda normal (except the mc though but he is funny), the characters in there felt more grounded to me and they act crazy sometimes because of the crazy situations the mc brings them into. Dropped. Probably gonna read Tsuriotsu, Sen no Hatou, or Muramasa depending on my mood

Finally, finished the last and most likely, the true route of the game. This route makes use of all the experiences and knowledge you gained from the 1st and 2nd route, it uses some side-characters you know and love to travel to Rancage, the home of Tenmazoku. It's pretty intense and exciting all the way through. A lot of questions you may have had in 1st and 2nd route are answered in Krone's route. While Krone may not be my favorite heroine out of the main three (Noa, Erin and Krone), she was extremely endearing and was like a childish Momoyo from Majikoi but also more intense in everything. The 1st and the 2nd routes were not exactly heroine-centric but rather focuses on the factions, the cultures, and the history themselves. It was a good balance between story, side-character scenes, and heroine-centric scenes. This is the same with the third route however, less focus is given on Rancage and the Tenmazoku themselves but now it tries to explain the history of their whole continent. I'm still surprised by how rich the world building is in this novel. They really set up this novel to be the next Majikoi given that there are foreign lands left to be unexplored. They are mostly mentioned and I'm expecting there would be further world exploration in the next game but Escudo and Last route pls. I'm pretty sure this novel has more potential than Majikoi given how rich this world is and the untapped potential it has in the future. While being a set-up for the future it is not that unsatisfying, given by the end you're given most of the answers you need to fully understand the general history of the continent the story takes place in. Also, one of my favorite relationships in the game were astounding. It was not the protag-heroine relationship but a friendship between Minjara and another person who I will not mention due to spoiler reasons but they had the most wholesome friendship and it had me tear up a bit. This game has action elements though and IMO they do it better than Majikoi, I find it hard to take the martial arts battle in Majikoi seriously as it was still a school life story, it was hard to imagine that those kids were on par with soldiers and many more, it required a ton of suspension of disbelief to make sense but action here makes sense as magic is commonplace. Power levels are respected and easily understood here, and it makes sense within the world, so no suspension of disbelief is that needed. The side characters were all amazing and the relevant interesting side characters are given flashbacks/backstories that make you like them and understand them even more. Although I kinda dislike how Shaon's master looked so generic like he was just a random NPC while having one of the most interesting backstories for me. Sensei, Damian, and Pigaro had the most interesting past given their connected history like they were companions in the past and the sense of history that gave was interesting. Every heroine was good, I had a hard time deciding who I liked best Noa = Erin > Krone. I really like Noa's jealous scenes lol, I really like those kind of scenes and Noa really endeared me with what she went through for Shaon in the end. Erin was a unique heroine for me and she was the most adult out of all them, she is the prime minister (dairi). Erin was both the most mature and childish at the same time depending on the scene considering her happy-go-lucky but cunning personality. She was the most fun to listen to due to how bubbly she is which contrasted with how cunning and competent she was in politics. Krone was also excellent, I just like Noa and Erin better, I just kinda feel like you don't get to spend as much time with her as you spend with Noa and Erin, or is it just me? Krone's intensity in both love and battle was interesting to see. Route-wise: Tenmazoku (3rd) > Federation=Empire Pretty much a reversal of my heroine opinions, Tenmazoku route which was obviously the best route given that everything builds up to that route. Its hard for me to talk about it without it being too spoiler-y. 9/10. I've been on a streak now with excellent VN's, Meikei no Lupercarlia then Wagahime. I'm expecting Wagahime to be a big hit in JP and getchu polls in the future, although Rupekari is a bit iffy on mainstream popularity considering its nature. Probably gonna read something light like the new Yubisaki connection.

Waga Himegimi ni Eikan o Finished the 2nd route which is the Federal/Republic route, I'm not sure exactly what to translate it as but I think its better to call it the Federation or Erin Route. I will also be referring to their faction as the federation, so its easier to understand. The obvious difference right at the start is there is a lot of mini-events and a longer journey in the Empire Route. Before you reach the capital where the story really begins, in Empire you go through a lot of detours to set up the characters and setting. The Federation Route skips all of that setting-up and exposition and you meet Erin and go straight away to the capital as the world is already set-up, and you will learn more and more about the Diverse cultures and states inside the Federation. What livened up the Empire Route is the vast array of charismatic side characters that are all interesting and fun to talk to, the culture is mostly the same in the Empire. All are humans with some sub traditions inside their own towns but usually they are the same. The Federation though, is different. The background of Federation is all the races inside it are all minorities and slaves who escaped from the Empire and formed their own nation based on the idea of equality and democracy of different races such as humans, elves, dwarves, Ururu(Dog-like people), Taiga, (Cat-like People), Mermaids, Lizards, Demons and some more. The empire route dealt with the complexities within the royal family and the military battles with the Tenmazoku(Demons), while it is obvious that the Federation Route will deal with a lot of politics as the main driving point of the route is the election battle between Erin and Ignacio, pro-Empire and anti-Empire candidates respectively. Shaon will go around solving problems, going to each races' city, and slowly you will eventually get to know all the races' culture, cities, and inherent personality traits. I actually like this route quite better than the Empire as while both nations have almost the same landmass, the Federation feels a lot bigger due to how diverse the cultures are, each city is very different from one another and it really feels like a union of many races. It also has a lot more things going on due to how Erin and the cast will be travelling all over the Federation and the almost constant political battle of Erin and Ignacio. I read on a review that the ending feels quite unfinished, for spoiler-y reasons but it doesn't feel that much a lot, its not unfulfilling, you just kinda end up wishing that it should have been a bit longer to deal with the next foreshadowed crisis which was brushed over. Erin is also a really good heroine, while not being a powerhouse like Noa and Krone, Erin is a political player and she does it well, and as I like political intrigue so I enjoyed her character. Next up will be the Maou route, Krone's which a lot of people consider to be the true end as a lot of questions will be answered and I am excited to see why Krone was considered the 2nd favourite character by the poll, escudo is 1st of course.