alpacaman

I don't speak any languages besides German, English and Spanish. I had Latin classes for seven years and even chose it as one of my final exam topics in high school (you only have to pick four in Germany) but that basically amounted to translating while using a dictionary so I don't actually speak any. Other than that I really like the sound of Portuguese and Dutch since for me it kind of sounds like someone with a throat condition trying to sound cute. Also Basque really fascinates me since apparently it isn't related to any other known language and it is said to be so complicated that it's impossible to learn if you haven't grown up with it. I'm actually surprised that German seems to be a popular language. I heard many people say that every conversation in German sounds like people are arguing. On the other hand a lot of famous authors and poets wrote in German so it has to have some kind of appeal. The Japanese language also has quite a few words they took from German, my favourites being Lumpenproletariat (I mean, obviously) and Arubaito (from Arbeit, meaning work) which for some reason has a slightly different meaning in Japanese since it refers mostly to part time jobs. Also the term Steins Gate sounds weird from a German standpoint beside the obvious language mixing. You would probably say Stein gate. While adding the "s" is not technically wrong since the rules for connecting words in German are kind of loose, it sounds like a genitive implicating posession thus resulting in a meaning like "gate belonging to the stone". Several German cities actually have a place called Steintor ("stone gate"). I know Rintaro playing around with other languages is supposed to be stupid, but it still bugs me for some reason. The term "reading Steiner" is even weirder since the form Steiner for the word Stein doesn't even exist. Steiner exists as a surname though. Stein is pronounced "Shtine" by the way. Something similar goes for the anime Schwarzesmarken (German pronounciation Shvartsesmarken with both "a"s being pronounced like the u in ruffian). It took me some time to understand that it's supposed to mean something like "black marks". But then it would have to be Schwarzmarken or Schwarze Marken.

I looked it up and the child has to be at least partially unclothed for it to be considered child pornography, so you're right. I don't really know how to reply to that, so let's just leave it at that.

There is a middle-schooler heroine. There is no way she is not considered under-age by any court. In Germany (and most of the EU afaik) even just having a CG of her in a "sexualised pose" would constitute child pornography and distribution of such is a felony. Maybe you start caring about a law as soon as you risk going to prison for breaking it.

So you consider not wanting to possibly commit a crime narrow-minded?

This is not about morals or realism though (if it got taken down for loli content). It's perfectly understandable when people at Steam are careful about approving titles that could potentially get them sued or even result in prison sentences for executives for distributing something that legally qualifies as child pornography in various countries. In most EU countries even depicting people who are styled to look like minors in pornography is illegal and laws don't distinguish between drawn or real depictions.

I haven't read YMK, so I can't really comment on that example (I mean I haven't read School Days either but I know the gist of it since its pretty notorious). That being said, I don't like the concept of the heroine destined for disaster unless she gets saved by the knight-in-shining-armour-protagonist, so when your absence in a route leads to the respective heroine meeting a bad fate, it doesn't really improve things that much for me.

Sure, it's a good thing when your choices have an impact on other characters as well, I just don't think the way most VNs are set up is a good fit for that kind of story. School Days is practically a parody of exactly that, showing in an over the top way how a classical romance VN setup would play out if your choices affected the other characters as well.

It isn't as if mental issues could only be overcome by the power of having a boyfriend in real life though, especially when the boyfriend is as bland as most VN protagonists. When all female characters are in love with the protagonist but have problems only a romantic partner can solve for them, the realism argument isn't that valid imo.

That's why TexasDice said you should keep the second best route for last. You still end on a high note that way.

I finished Symphonic Rain a few days ago. It has its flaws but I still enjoyed it overall. The tone of the twists and endings of the side heroine routes didn't really match the rest of the VN, I found Phorni more annoying than likeable and Chris was waaay too accepting when learning about the twist in Al Fine imo, but other than that it was a nice experience. The gameplay sections really helped deepening your connection with the heroines as the songs suit them really well. Despite it not jumping to the top of my list of favourite VNs, I can still recommend Symphonic Rain to anyone who doesn't mind a romance VN with some darker themes. Since then I started reading Little Busters and I have to say I just love the comedy and characters in anything from Key I read/watched so far (Kanon anime, Clannad VN+anime, Angel Beats anime and Charlotte). They just really know how to write over-the-top yet likeable characters and how to just let them play off each other until they create the unavoidable baseball subplot. Also I kind of want to start referencing muscles in each of my sentences from now on.

I would like Nr. 4, please.

You could try opening a thread called "Looking for hentai animation or visual novel"

I read Hatoful Boyfriend which probably doesn't really count and Long Live The Queen which, according to vndb, isn't even a VN, but it's pretty close since it is told like a VN and you change the direction of the story through your choices, even if your success is based on your stats. The romance is minimal though since you just pick one of the young dukes as a fiancee for strategic purposes (but there is a yuri route).

It's 07th expansion. Even if it's a Battle Royale, it probably won't be like anything else.

Sorry, I meant it as in humankind, not being a good person. But still, a message doesn't necessarily have to be wrong to be misplaced.

I'm fine with happy endings as long as they don't break the rules of the universe the story takes place in and the necessary decisions/actions made by the characters seem like ones they might actually make. Also I tend to prefer endings on a silent note over grand finales (except for action stories). Most VN endings show some character, usually the protagonist, comeing to some kind of realization or finding his resolve for something. If the story conveys that well I don't need the protagonist to climb the stairwell of a 50 storey building with a broken leg to save the girl (the VN in question at least redeemed itself with a good epilogue). Clannad popped up several times in these discussions. Take Kotomi's route for example which probably would have had my favourite ending if

To quote my impressions of the choice system when I read Root Double: Looking back, most of the times the text prior to the choice indicated what a high value would probably mean and the way it works even gets something like an in-universe explanation somewhere down the line but imo it's still worse than just having straight up choices imo. The only thing you can really change by using values other than 1, 4 or 8 is whose character mini-ending you get which amounts to a short scene and a CG, except for one or two decisions.

Maybe it has to do with you already knowing where it's going so you notice more of the clever foreshadowing the writers are doing? I still wouldn't want to revisit Extra. Tama's stupid reaction sprites and the bad physical humor are just too much for me. And when you think that the common route is finally finished after the cook-off they add the lacrosse tournament just to annoy you with another anime trope. God I hate Extra. Which makes it even more amazing Alternative managed to make me want to be able to just go back to the innocent world of Extra.

Got Little Busters, eden*, Aviary Attorney, Analogue & Hate Plus and Crypt of the Necrodancer (not a VN, but for some reason cheaper if you own the Danganronpa games). Now I have to live on rice and potatoes for the next week but sometimes you have to set priorities.

I completed two and a half routes of Symphonic Rain (Fal/Lise complete, made the choice for the Torta bad ending and now Chris has a visitor on Christmas). It's not great so far but I like it because it has a nice atmosphere and the writers use the term "Good End" very creatively *cough*.

I have bad news for you... I'd also argue that DR1 would be the best choice for a "must read" list. All three installments are more or less equally good, but both sequels spoil the twists for the previous games.

I developed a habit of watching the anime adaptation after finishing a VN if there is one, since it usually helps me with digesting everything that happened. So far I don't think the Umineko anime is that terrible but it's pretty obvious that not having time to explain everything is going to become a problem later on since I finished about one third of the anime and it hasn't even reached the third game. What I noticed though is that it's really easy to figure out

Bernkastel Wine does exist, but it just means wine from Bernkastel, not a specific brand (since there are several wine growers in Bernkastel). Wine from the Moselle region is kind of famous even in other parts of the world as far as I know, probably because it's as sour as it gets since it's one of the wine regions with the coolest climate worldwide.

I thought this is answered rather unambiguously in episode 7:

Finally finished it. Episode 8 actually was my least favourite one because It will probably take some time before all my thoughts on Umineko have settled enough for me to write something coherent on the actual plot and themes of the story so i'll just continue rambling about other random stuff: I would love to see Erika as Super High School Level Detective in a Danganronpa game. Each one of those has one student in an antagonistic role and she would be absolutely perfect for it. Is "Ange" a real name or nickname in any European language or is it just the way you would shorten Angelica/Angelika/Angelique in Japanese? On a similar note I think Krauss' name should probably be translated as Klaus since Krauss is a surname. And I can recommend visiting Bernkastel(-Kues) to anyone who wants to go on vacation in Germany. It's a beautiful old town in a winegrowing area close to the border to Luxembourg (which is also worth a visit if you can stomach paying 10€ and above for an iced coffee in the centre of its capital). So next up is... I still don't really know. Probably Symphonic Rain.