alpacaman

So I finished MYTH a few days ago. It's kind of hard to talk about since it's one of those VNs that don't really lend themselves to being discussed in terms of superficial production values or plot consistency, kind of like SubaHibi or The Silver Case. Personally I think I liked it despite still not being able to pinpoint what it actually wants to tell its audience. I'll probably need to read it again at some point to get a better understanding.

I wish someone wrote this same basic rant about how every single AC/DC song is the same.

Man, Madosoft is one big joke (haha same as the title of the thread). Honestly, I never realised I would be invested in one singular company that pumps out visual novels, and it bugs me that I still occasionally check their website for any updates on their projects. But let's start from the beginning. There's a lot to cover here, so be prepared for a wall of text.   Madosoft (jap. まどそふと Madosofuto) is a Japanese company that specialises in developing adult games, mainly eroge/galge/visual novels. Not a lot is known about them in grave detail other than the info I provided. So far, they only developed 5 games (one being a fandisc), which are as follows: Namaiki Delation (2013), Yakimochi Stream (2014), the very well-known cult classic Wagamama High Spec (2016), Wagamama High Spec OC (2017, the fandisc I mentioned earlier) and Raspberry Cube (2018). Everything sounds pretty good so far, and as far as plots for each games go, they're mediocre at best, but some are pretty intriguing. I, for one, am the most familiar with WagaHigh, a game that'll forever be in my heart and inspired me to write more, and much better than these guys.
Not saying they were necessarily bad writers, but from the English version which we got in 2017 by Sekai Project and Denpasoft, a lot of the dialogue is kinda, unironically, cringe. The real kicker will come soon.   Though, keep in mind this colour palette: black, gold, red, white. You will need it to understand this a lot better.   Let's talk about Namaiki Delation first. Its plot is as follows:   Shinjuurou managed to avoid supplementary lessons by passing the make-up test. However, his joy was fleeting, as he was tricked by his teacher to be a member of the cultural festival committee. Since there was no one else there, he had to find other members to join as well… but why are all those joined so cheeky?   Heroines in Namaiki Delation consist of (pictures for reference, left to right): - Nishimura Shiori (the childhood friend of the main character, clingy towards him, used to be shy but has gained confidence over the years and became a lot sweeter, and is trusted by the students and the staff; RED) - Natsushima Misaki (the little sister, cool, serious, scolds the protagonist often to hide her true feelings towards him (you know where this is going, right?); WHITE) - Shinkai Nagisa (I can't believe she shares a surname with the well-known Japanese director! MC's kouhai, she's the violent one and is treated as a delinquent but is actually sweet, also she's into karate; BLACK) - Meia Kreutzerung Hakuhou (a genius inventor, looks like an elementary schooler but is actually a high schooler due to skipping grades, childish but very smart, goes to school just to experience what high school is like; GOLD).   Variety between the heroines is wide. Not as wide when compared to games made by another company, but wide enough that I can call "original." Now, what about the main character? Self-insert, donkan, no face, no voice. Standard shit that I've grown tired of. Lemme be a voice actor, damn it!   Next game is Yakimochi Stream. Dominant theme is jealousy, naturally. The plot revolves around Takumi, the once-again self-insert main character, who leaves England because his little sister sent him a telegram telling him to come home immediately. Under the impression she was attacked, he comes back home to find that his little sister, Sana, became a shut-in and blames England for taking him away (she literally cusses at the country, what did it do to deserve this treatment?). Takumi decides to halt his studies abroad and transfer to a school in Japan, and ends up meeting his other female friends.   Speaking of which, there are four of them and yes, all four are the heroines. Pay attention to this: - Ibuki Kohane (the protagonist's childhood friend, she promised to be beautiful by the time she comes back, and so it does happen, she's the tsundere one; jealousy index: 80%, chest class: Southern Alps; RED) - Yukikura Mutsuki (childhood friend No. 2??? because she knew Takumi even before he transferred to the school in Japan; jealousy index: 100%, chest class: Kilimanjaro; WHITE) - Kirishima Sana (little sister of the main character, a serious brocon that's, imo, beyond saving, and she's also quite an academic chick; jealousy index: idk% (technically 120%), chest class: Mount Fuji; BLACK) - Tania Helvellyn (that's right, transfer student, foreigner, she's an athlete, just like everyone else for some reason, follows the MC back home to be with him; jealousy index: 70%, chest class: Mont Blanc; GOLD).   So you starting to see a pattern here? If not, I got you covered, keep on reading. The MC is the same, except a lot denser. All the girls also have giant boobies, which I don't really mind but it's overkill imo. As a wise Steam user once said, "I like my heroines how I like my fruit basket, assorted." And they're right - assorted heroines allow for an easier pick. Not everyone likes them big.   Pinnacle of the company everyone! Wagamama High Spec is up, and this one may or may not need any explanation. You know it, I know it, bless Sekai and Denpa for bringing home the bacon! Ahem. WagaHigh is centered around a guy named Narumi Kouki who attends an academy which used to be for girls only. He goes by the name of Potato Salad for his manga series, Deredere Scramble, and works with Mr Deer. He joins the student council after an encounter with the student council president, Rokuonji Kaoruko (BEST GIRL ALERT), who also happens to be Mr Deer. After joining, he's placed in a trial since Sakuragi R. Ashe (the vice president) is skeptical of his skills.   The heroines (pay attention once again): - Miyase Mihiro (the childhood friend of the main character, likes to tease him a lot, is actually sweet, best friends with Toa, owns a family restaurant; RED) - Narumi Toa (MC's little sister, lazy, but also a programmer, plays video games, skips school, cold towards the MC but likes him a lot, earns money because of apps that predict the lottery...; WHITE) - Rokuonji Kaoruko (The aforementioned best girl imo, fite me! Smart, beautiful, student council president that is also a secret artist named Mr Deer, has a bad sense of humour, lives in a strict family; BLACK) - Sakuragi Rooflet Ashe (Yet another foreigner, vice president, the classic tsundere character, pianist with a pinch of composer, has a large appetite, her character is too strong; GOLD).   While I definitely appreciate the enthusiasm that this visual novel has, something still doesn't quite add up. The protag is a bit better I guess, but he's still the generic old, self-insert kind. At some point, I decided to rewrite the entirety of the visual novel by skimming over some unneeded plots, and it ended up being just as mediocre. I guess I'm not that good at writing fanfics. But Kaoruko was the focus, because she really needs more love... She's completely overshadowed by Toa due to her immense popularity, Ashe due to her route being highly praised, and Mihiro for just being the comedic relief and also having the largest rack.   Ahem. My bad. Back to the topic.   ... At this point, you should have started noticing that something was going off. I'm skipping over WagaHigh OC because it's technically the game above. Moving over swiftly, here's Raspberry Hexahedron- I mean Raspberry Cube. The plot... The MC, Satoru, regrets being a delinquent and decides to have a change of heart. He goes back to his hometown to help out a few people who he ends up befriending, three being the heroines: he saved Mikoto from thugs, helped Minato with her garden and helped Yuu with her military shop. However, Ruri, the student council president, seemed to have had some grudge against him because he found himself in a pathetic state after falling in a pit trying to chase her down. She also refused to help him out and took a picture of him instead...   Damn, reality truly is harsh nowadays, and I'm getting real tired already.   ... Well anyway, the heroines... Here we go again... Try and guess... - Kanou Minato (the only member of the gardening club, takes care of it every day while trying to gather new members, sweet, hard-working, lives in an agricultural family, has a lot of friends (translating this from the official website because there's literally no info about this game)) - Sakuraba Victoria Ruri (the student council president that has a grudge against the protagonist, IS the student council, claiming that she can do stuff by herself, actually a troublesome person, ice beauty) - Kaidou Mikoto (MC's far-away relative, does chores, lives in an apartment that isn't doing well financially, a gentle person, but very much worried about debt) - Yuzuki Yuu (not only a tsundere but also a gal, runs a military store, likes coffee, swears... I'm sorry, I have nothing to say, my Japanese is very rusty, check the website for yourself).   Haah... haa... Damn, I think that's about it... 5/10, needs more raspberries. Please explain the significance of that title.   Noticed it yet? Yes? No? Well, either way, this is it...   Here comes the kicker.   The characters.   The fucking characters of each of these games.   Madosoft is "notorious" (quotation marks because nobody cares tbh) for reusing colour palettes for the four heroines for all the games they ever made, and will make in the future. Taking that into perspective, this makes Namaiki Delation, their very first game, look like the, wait for it, Citizen Kane of visual novels. The more you notice it, the more grating it becomes! This is something even I didn't quite notice until a certain accident happened and I decided to do some research... Turns out, they really don't work with different colour palettes.   This will (in a comedic way) explain how Madosoft's heroines have (d)evolved throughout the years. Heck, Hamidashi Creative, their newest installment, suffers from the same problems!!   I would like this problem to be dubbed the "Madosoft Syndrome" (unless there's another company that has the same practice as them).   This is the major problem with this company. Before the conclusion, I would like to let you know a few facts, and maybe some ways you could research along.   Madosoft also organised two Madosoft Live events: one in 2017 and one in 2018. I think this was just to promote their products further which wasn't necessarily bad but I can't say much about it because there's no way to find any other info about it. The official websites for both of these are still open, so feel free to check it out: http://madosoft.net/madolive2017/ http://madosoft.net/madolive2018/   Merchandise is literally all over Japan. Body pillows, tiddy mouse pads, stickers, prints, tapestries, stationery... And even with all this, it's difficult to get a hold of any of these unless you're rich, lucky, or rich AND lucky. Well, there's Comicket, so if you happen to come by and see a Madosoft stand, you know what to do.   Cafes are also often themed by Madosoft products. I think this is just being a sell-out. I understand you want your products to sell and I see nothing wrong with that, but this is just going completely overboard. You can disagree with me if you want, tbh I did see other companies do that, too.   Raspberry Cube also has a Nintendo Switch port. What's in it? Ask God. Obviously the base game is there, but is there any bonus content? I doubt it. Plus it's like 8,000+ Yen.   ... Wagamama High Spec will also be ported to the Switch. How do I know this? Well today... THEY FUCKING ANNOUNCED IT ON THEIR WEBSITE. WHY. JUST WHY. I would understand if you were to add content that I can't see in my PC version of the game, but otherwise... WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY-   ... What's next, Yakimochi Stream? Is anybody gonna talk about Namaiki? That game is gone, nobody remembers it anymore.   "I'm gonna cry. I'm seriously gonna cry. Waaaaaah!"   ...   .......   ...............................   I just had a breakdown, didn't I?   Well anyway, that about sums it up. In conclusion, Madosoft is one big joke. OK plots, OK characters even, just BAD practices. Case closed.   Lemme know if I missed anything, or if you agree or disagree with my opinion on this company. Thanks you for reading this far, I appreciate it, really! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's a joke for you:   Q: What's the difference between Madosoft and a printer?  

I can think of one memorable scene you missed... 

They both to some degree share this kind of late 90s Japan postmodernist asthetic and experimentation with storytelling techniques, there even is at least some overlap in themes. So I'm kind of surprised no one ever makes this comparison. But maybe just too few people know both, as they are rather niche even in their respective genres.

I don't have an excel-sheet or anything like that where I stricty categorize every VN I read, but I sometimes do think about who I would recommend a title to. I don't really have strict categories, but there are a few titles you could bunch together. For example the "gateway drugs" are VNs that you can get into easily without any prior knowledge, usually with some broader mainstream appeal (in VN terms) and gameplay, like Danganronpa, Ace Attorney or Zero Escape. You could also put "mocking" titles that only require minimal previous knowledge of the genre to enjoy in there too, like Hatoful Boyfriend, DDLC or Lily's Night Off. For someone feeling a little more adventurous I would also add stuff like Ladykiller in a Bind, VA11-HALL-A, Raging Loop, 428 or Steins;Gate, depending on their taste in other media. What all these titles have in common is they are not eroge, aren't heavy on the tropes that make VNs feel toxic to outsiders and are generally rather accessible when it comes to their general mechanics.
As for SubaHibi, I'd put it on my acquired taste stack, together with something like The Silver Case (and to a lesser degree Saya no Uta, Kara no Shoujo or Umineko). VNs I wouldn't recommend even to most VN veterans, but might appeal to someone who likes Lars von Trier's movies or Serial Experiments Lain (in the Case of The Silver Case), even if they haven't had any prior exposure to VNs.
Other than that I usually go on a case by case basis. To pick one example, I would recommend Chaos;Child to people who already read a few VNs but also like stuff like Man of Steel, because I hate both for very similar reasons, and I assume this also works the other way round.

Finished Totono last night.
 

Finished Totono last night.
 

This illustrates the situation for myself:


They also pretty much completely dismissed the notion that girls might want to read this VN.

Ok, so I think I can throw in a few observations connected to the EVN scene specifically: some lewd games gained pretty wide popularity with the Western otakus and that's pretty much the closest thing to VNs going "mainstream" so far – people fapping on mass or meme'ing to Nekopara and Winged Cloud's Sakura games. DDLC became a massive meme and brought many people into VNs, but generally, the aggressive gatekeeping drove many of them off and made them organize into a separate community that doesn't really know/understand much about VNs. Most VNs, as a see it, do not have the appeal to bring mainstream crowds, with the prevalence of porn and questionable themes pushing them even harder in this shady, obscure corner.
In the West, outside of the particularly dedicated otakus, VNs thrive in basically two places: among women that enjoy romance stories/otome and within the queer crowd. For example, while in Japan yuri is very much created for the male audience, in the West you'll see lesbians/bisexual women being both devs and avid consumers of VNs, simply because it's one of the main forms of media touching on their experience and prefered romantic setups. On the BL side, you'll see more "bara" VNs created by openly gay developers and geared towards male readers. As a medium that is relatively easy to make and story-oriented, VNs in the West became a tool for minority groups to express themselves and create their own brands of entertainment, which is interestingly detached from what they (usually) represent in Japan. This approach, of course, is by default niche, aiming for very specific audiences.
I'm kind of stuck thinking that without the specific trajectory and cultural context that made VNs important in Japan trying to push them into mainstream is kind of hopeless. The idea of porn with story has its appeal, but it's not something the Western audience wants in mass (one could argue that it's because they don't know they want it/aren't familiar with how VNs do stuff, but I'm not sure). The storytelling formula of VNs is also not automatically attractive – just observe the bewilderment of people that stumble upon VNs randomly on Steam. Literary buffs usually scoff at the anime aesthetic and cliches inherent with the otaku media. While VNs are growing in the West and people are more aware of their existence, but I just don't see them expanding out of those few, very specific niches they're confined to now.

428 is only 10€ right now (instead of 50€) and it's one of the best VNs on Steam.
As for your wishlist, each of the VNs (except maybe Maitetsu, which I haven't read) has some aspects you might consider "long-winded". Grisaia has a very long common route (~40 hours) without an actual plot. G-Senjou no Maou has rather mediocre side routes (which you can skip without missing anything though). Baldr Sky is really long and has a section around the halfway point where you have to re-read several hours of content you already know. Muv Luv takes until the third game to actually get good. And Root Double has a habit of overexplaining its plot points and devices.

I think Raging Loop is totally fine. It has its issues, but for me none of them had to with the things ChaosRaven mentioned as it does a pretty good job explaining the game, usefulness of the roles and character motivations (and how different setups in the roles completely change the character dynamics) imo.

I mostly agree with your opinions on the routes, except for Yukine's route which I found rather boring. Tomoyo might be my favorite heroine in Clannad but what the way they handle her route just feels like such a waste to me.
The main reason people love Clannad though is probably the true route, although I personally think its individual heroine routes are on the whole stronger than the ones in LB as well. LB has the better common route though.

I'm playing Clannad and I finished Misae's, Tomoyo's and Yukine's routes.
So far I'm not finding Clannad to be as amazing as people claim it is... maybe it's because I don't really like "pure" romance and all that stuff, maybe it's because I played LB before this, I don't know, but let's talk about the routes.
Misae's route is so far my favorite, no doubt about it! It doesn't really focus that much on the romance aspect, which I like  It was also short... could be longer, but I liked it.
Tomoyo's route was... painful to read. Tomoyo did grow on me but Clannad's constant sexist talk and the "girls have to be like this and behave like that" stuff kinda turned me off, well.
Yukine's route was surprising! At first, I didn't like Yukine; every time I had a scene with her, I would yawn.
 
I am reading Ryou's route right now and I'm finding it pretty damn cute! She's not my type (I like her sister more) but the stuff she does with the cards is amazing haha

P.S: This weekend I'll probably comment on Kara no Shoujo's True Ending... let's see how it goes.

Depending on the type of VN it could have been any other bodily fluid, so I'm glad they clarified.

Depending on the type of VN it could have been any other bodily fluid, so I'm glad they clarified.

Depending on the type of VN it could have been any other bodily fluid, so I'm glad they clarified.

Depending on the type of VN it could have been any other bodily fluid, so I'm glad they clarified.

Aggressive containment measures from the moment there was a chance Covid would reach Japan (or other East Asian countries for that matter), like testing anyone entering the country from a place with known cases and quarantining them until the results come back. That way they can more or less effectively isolate any source of spreading. This only works as long as you can identify every chain of infections. As soon as you reach a certain threshold of unidentified infected people that strategy is not viable anymore as tracing these chains would require hundreds of thousands of tests each day, among other problems. If Western countries wanted to contain Covid, they would have to start aggressively testing some time back in January. Now all that is left is mitigation, which means trying to slow the spread over a long enough time window that healthcare systems don't become overwhelmed. Which many countries were late for anyway.
One of the reasons many Asian countries are semmingly dealing way better with this than those in the west is that they already had to deal with SARS a couple of years ago and learned a few lessons about how to effectively fight infectious diseases.

Even Germany wouldn't be able to handle the mass-spreading approach. They may have greater capacities in terms of hospital beds and ICU units than other European countries, but still way to few to be able to manage rates like Italy has right. Also Germany has few nurses per hospital bed when compared to other countries so risks like medical personnel getting infected are higher than elsewhere.
Also, comparing death rates between northern Italy right now and other countries isn't really helpful. Someone pointed out earlier that an overwhelmed healthcare system causes the death rate to go way up (this very long article discussing all the statistics we knew five days ago estimates a factor of around 8 compared to a proper response). A comparison to the total amount of deaths caused by the flu doesn't make a lot of sense either as infection rates for it are so low that it doesn't spread a lot and only a small fraction of the population get it at all.

Even Germany wouldn't be able to handle the mass-spreading approach. They may have greater capacities in terms of hospital beds and ICU units than other European countries, but still way to few to be able to manage rates like Italy has right. Also Germany has few nurses per hospital bed when compared to other countries so risks like medical personnel getting infected are higher than elsewhere.
Also, comparing death rates between northern Italy right now and other countries isn't really helpful. Someone pointed out earlier that an overwhelmed healthcare system causes the death rate to go way up (this very long article discussing all the statistics we knew five days ago estimates a factor of around 8 compared to a proper response). A comparison to the total amount of deaths caused by the flu doesn't make a lot of sense either as infection rates for it are so low that it doesn't spread a lot and only a small fraction of the population get it at all.

Most of the things you mention in 2. are things governments can in turn respond to by providing sensible relief for employees and economic stimuli and guarantees. People who die because of 1. don't come back and an overwhelmed healthcare system isn't too great for the economy or public trust in institutions either.
As an individual you can be careful without panicking. Should you buy rations for a few days in case become sick and can't leave your home? Probably (at least unless you usually buy a week's worth of groceries anyway). Should you buy all the toilet paper your local grocery has in stock? Of course not. Should you wash your hands more often and regularly disinfect surfaces several people might touch? Yes. Should you steal disinfectant from a children's cancer ward (which actually happened in Germany a few days ago)? Hell no! Avoid crowded spaces like bars or public transportation as far as possible, cough and sneeze into tissues or the crook of your arm, wash your hands regularly, avoid touching your face, stay at home when you're feeling sick, and maybe postpone the visit to your grandparents for a few weeks.
The institute in Germany responsible for disease control advises people not to use protective masks unless the are required to for professional reasons. The protection they provide is relatively low compared to the measures I mentioned above and it's suspected they can give a false sense of security leading to people letting the other stuff slide. Also places like hospitals and pharmacies need them more urgently than private citizens and their stocks are usually not big enough for a lasting epidemic.

+ Scar of the Doll. I only picked The Agony because of reviews saying it was hilariously bad and it only being 0,49€ though, so that might be the one on the list you probably shouldn't check out.

Just finished SubaHibi and yeah, I liked it a lot. What surprised me a little was how "normal" the VN is in the sense that there is a coherent plot and way less artsy posing than I expected after what I read about the game beforehand. Occasionally there is an overly long tangent or some pretentious symbolism, but never to a degree that it hurts the overall experience. Also SubaHibi is one of the rare cases in Japanese media I consumed so far where I felt like the author actually did some research on the mental illnesses they wanted to portray. And it has one of the best soundtracks of any non-Key VN I've read so far, including one of the greatest stupid shenanigans songs ever, which is close to the last thing I expected to get out of it all:
 
So after having finished almost every long VN on my must-read list, I decided to go for a change of pace and purchased a total of 14 promising looking short EVNs (plus one JVN) for a total of ~33€ in the recent VN-sale on Steam and which I'm probably going to read all over next few weeks.

Just finished SubaHibi and yeah, I liked it a lot. What surprised me a little was how "normal" the VN is in the sense that there is a coherent plot and way less artsy posing than I expected after what I read about the game beforehand. Occasionally there is an overly long tangent or some pretentious symbolism, but never to a degree that it hurts the overall experience. Also SubaHibi is one of the rare cases in Japanese media I consumed so far where I felt like the author actually did some research on the mental illnesses they wanted to portray. And it has one of the best soundtracks of any non-Key VN I've read so far, including one of the greatest stupid shenanigans songs ever, which is close to the last thing I expected to get out of it all:
 
So after having finished almost every long VN on my must-read list, I decided to go for a change of pace and purchased a total of 14 promising looking short EVNs (plus one JVN) for a total of ~33€ in the recent VN-sale on Steam and which I'm probably going to read all over next few weeks.