Seraphim

Playing Evenicle II right now, and to noone's surprise, it didn't take very long for the first rape scene to show up. I like Alicesoft's games in general, but I still find this and some of the other questionable content (like the mandatory prostitution minigame in Dohna Dohna) they're so adamant on including in every title quite offputting. They're also kinda playing down the seriousness of it all by wording it like this: I guess that means that theft could be considered non-consensual borrowing, and murder could be non-consensual life expectancy decrease. They've also somehow managed to make the UI even worse than in the first game, by putting more pointless bloat (that can't be hidden) on-screen. To my knowledge, that huge picture of a house doesn't serve any purpose whatsoever; it's just there, taking up like 15% of the screen at all times. If you want to make the minimap, which is quite awful in itself, visible, an entirely new window pops up in the lower left and takes up even more space. I could list a bunch of other annoyances related to gameplay, but I think you kinda just have to roll with it and go into this game knowing that it's going to be a pretty horrible experience gameplay-wise. I just hope the story will be exciting/entertaining enough to make up for all the bad stuff.

I'd actually recommend against that, unless you're fine with then waiting several decades for the conclusion to the story (judging by the developer's current pace). Both the next part in the series and the prequel should've been out by now, but they've been delayed so many times that the developer seems to have stopped giving any estimates at this point. Furthermore, we can probably expect more sequels after those two titles, because I sincerely doubt they will be enough to conclude the story without it feeling rushed and unsatisfying.

I'm generally not big on h-scenes, in part due to how they tend to play out in more or less the same way every time, so I find it a bit refreshing whenever someone breaks the norm. That said, the fact that they were high kinda ruined this scene for me. For some reason, I tend to be slightly offput whenever a heroine is influenced by something, even if it's only a matter of getting drunk or smoking a cigarette. Drinking and smoking don't bother me whatsoever IRL, so I honestly have no idea why it would when it comes to VNs.

Have you tried using both the x64 and x86 versions of Textractor? Some games seem to be unhookable in the x64 version, so you need to use the x86 version instead. Konosora Flight Diary was one such case for myself.

@adamstan watching the OP be like

The titles I've read have seemed fine to me, but I can't really say anything about the actual accuracy of the translations since I haven't compared them to the Japanese originals. The only thing that annoys me somewhat is that they remove honorifics, opting instead for the use of "brother", "Mr." and such.

Couldn't agree more! Harem Kingdom quickly became my favorite Smee title (well, actually, one of my favorite nukige altogether, to put things in a grander perspective) and this is one of the prime reasons. Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that all of the girls are or become pretty assertive, and that's always a big plus in my book. Lastly, I also have to praise HIkari's vulgarity, which I find equal parts funny and refreshing, since it's something we rarely see in VNs, at least to this degree.

I think the main issue is that it's usually just straight up porn in most cases. If it's done right, sex scenes can add depth to characters and their relationships, but titles that manage to pull that off are pretty rare.

Yeah, I get what you mean. Back when I started reading VNs, I read h-scenes in their entirety because I wouldn't want to risk missing out on anything story related, but there's usually nothing even remotely noteworthy in them so I just skip past most of them nowadays. I can imagine there being a few scenes that are worthwhile in White Album 2 though, so I might pay more attention there.

Damn, it hit you hard, huh? Glad to hear you're back on track! I haven't started any new VNs since my last post here. I'm basically just waiting for the White Album 2 translation to finish, which should be any day now according to the project updates. I really hope there won't be any delays, since I have time off from work until the second week of January, making this the perfect time to take on a longer read.

Dear God, that's one massive wall of text! You really need to format it, or else people's minds are going to implode before they get a chance to comment on the contents of your post

Just get the Restoration Patch. Giga won't let them officially release any 18+ content for the English version of the game, and I doubt that'll change anytime soon.

I've finished a few VNs now in November, so here are some of my thoughts. 1. This wasn't anything to write home about, to put it mildly. The protagonist is a total creep that sexually assaults people in their sleep, the game is almost devoid of any humor, and the writing is pretty awful, both in terms of plot and wording. One thing that's seriously awkward is the fact that the characters, for whatever reason, mostly refer to each other and themselves as "roommate", "landlady", "neighbor" and so on instead of their actual names. They even call each other "big roommate" and "little roommate" (depending on their age differences), which is something I've never seen before. At one point, the landlady even refers to her husband as "his landlord" during some internal monologue, as if she's thinking through the protagonist's perspective. Furthermore, there's a severe lack of punctuation, leading to some... unfortunate dialogue. Honestly, I'm not sure why I even bothered to play through the whole game. I guess it's a case of me hoping the story would pick up at some point, combined with some OCD tendencies. 2. In stark contrast to Dreams of Desire, this was actually great. The plot has some similarities to the former, but the writing here is leaps and bounds above that and the execution is just so much better overall. I also kinda like the anime-ish character design, compared to the more realistic look that VNs like this tend to go for. There's quite a heavy focus on humor, and it happens to align almost perfectly with my tastes, to the point where I think it's safe to say that this is now among the top 3 funniest VNs I've read; something I definitely didn't expect when I picked it up. One thing I really loved was that there's a ton of references to other franchises, and a bunch of cameos from well-known characters. An example: Stuff like this definitely wouldn't be possible if this game had been released on Steam, so I'm really glad they chose to make it available for free on itch.io. All in all, Once in a Lifetime is probably my favorite 3D VN aside from Acting Lessons. 3. As a big fan of Nanairo Reincarnation, I went into this with quite high expecations, but it still managed to deliver. Just like in Nanairo Reincarnation, the story is pretty dark at its core, but it's well rounded with some lighthearted stuff as well and I think it makes for a satisfying whole. (not to be confused with "satisfying holes", which can be found during the game's animated h-scenes) I really don't think I need to go into any more details here. If you've played Nanairo Reincarnation and liked it, you'll almost certainly enjoy this as well. If you haven't played Nanairo Reincarnation, you should do so, and then follow up with this one.

I'd say it's worse when it's a case of conflicting answers that end up with the same result, either by your answer being completely ignored or another event forcing you back on the developer's intended course later on. *cough* Walking Dead: Season 3 *cough*

Same here. It's by far the Key VN that had the biggest impact on me.

As an avid horror fan, I figured I'd give the recently released Abaddon a go, so that's what I did today. I love the retro look and music, and the ambience is surprisingly great in spite of the simple graphics, but man does the combat suck ass from a straw, to quote AVGN. It's completely ruining the experience for me, to the point where I've run out of patience to even continue playing. I wish there was some way to simply turn battles off, but since that isn't an option, I guess I'll have to keep my fingers crossed for someone to eventually release a trainer that'll make it possible to breeze through them.

The only thing I can think of right now that might break a VN in Windows 11 is if the application uses non-ASCII registry keys, because there have been reports of such apps causing crashes. Microsoft are looking into it, though.

Currently reading Harem Kingdom, where I was met with this: I couldn't help but be reminded of a certain scene from this old gem: Anyway, I rarely read harem or isekai titles, but I have to say that Harem Kingdom is one of the more entertaining reads for me lately. It can be pretty hilarious how each of the girls try to one-up each other in order to get the protagonist's attention!

Yeah, at the very least, I could play Moon, One and a bunch of other "problematic" VNs without any issues on Windows 10. The only thing I couldn't get to run properly on that OS was School Days and Shiny Days, which kept crashing every few minutes despite patching the games and trying out various other solutions. I'm pretty sure Windows 11 will run a vast majority of VNs completely hassle-free.

I've been using the Insider version of Windows 11 for a while already, and everything I've tried to run on it so far, VNs and regular games alike, have all worked flawlessly. There are some things about Windows 11 that some people might not like, but when it comes to gaming, I can't make a single complaint based on my experience so far. That said, I have yet to try any old titles that are known to have issues on modern systems, so I can't really give any input on what those are like.

Don't worry, most of it is written in a more normal manner! From what I've heard, the Japanese original could feel quite pretentious at times, so I assume that they just wanted to stay true to that with the localization.

Oh, right, to those of you who'd like to know what you can expect from the translation, here's an example:

I just finished Muramasa, and, well, it was a worthwhile experience, but not much more than that. It's definitely on the good end of the spectrum; it simply fell short of my, admittedly high, expectations. To say it in clearer terms, I wouldn't place it among my top 10 VNs, as suggested on VNDb; maybe not even my top 30. To name a few things I disliked about it: - The protagonist. Yeah, he's pretty much the definition of an antihero and he's expected to grow on you over time, but I still think you'd need to be able to symphathize with him somewhat from the getgo to truly immerse yourself in the story. Sadly, that is something I was unable to do for a good part of the game. I realized there was probably some reason for his actions, but not knowing those, I could only judge him based on the information I had been fed. This made me not really care one way or another whether he lived or died, which made battles, among other things, lose a lot of impact. Speaking of... - The fight scenes. They're probably my biggest issue with Muramasa, considering the fact that they make up such a large part of the game. Basically, I found them too long and over the top for my tastes. I could accept the premise of "Okay, foe, in order to beat you, I will unleash my ultimate attack, which cannot be avoided. <1 second later> Damn, he avoided it. Let's boost my power although I was already at the maximum and try again. Rinse and repeat." back in the days when I was watching Dragonball or Naruto, but I've kinda grown past that by now and don't find it nearly as entertaining or exciting as I used to. (This also happens to be one of the reasons I haven't read Dies Irae yet.) - The rape scenes. I can't recall a single one that was actually relevant to story progression in the grand scheme of things, meaning they were all just there either for cheap shock value or to cater to the tastes of the people who actually enjoy that stuff. - The info-dumping. I realize that many people might want to know every little detail about every little thing, but to me, it just felt tedious and bothersome. At one point, it caused me to literally start nodding off on the couch, so I ended up skipping past that part of the game just so I wouldn't get completely bored out of my mind. I think this is actually the first VN where I've skipped something that wasn't an h-scene, which should speak volumes about how disinterested I was. - The true ending. This came so out of the blue, I had to take a moment just to realize what had happened. I was entirely convinced I was on one of the regular routes and would later end up on some true route revolving around but then it just ended and all I was left with were a few missing CGs from earlier choices and the knowledge that all the stuff I thought were just a bunch of sidenotes in pursuit of something greater were actually what canonically happened in the story. It was a cocktail of confusion and unfulfillment. To not end this post on a negative note, I'd like to mention that one thing that Muramsa deserves praise for is its translation. I remember seeing one person making a comment about this being the new golden standard for localizations, and while I can't attest to the accuracy compared to the Japanese original, which I haven't read, this is without a doubt one of the best VNs I've read in terms of prose.

The common route dragged on for way too long, but I thought the heroine routes were great. That said, Grisaia was one of my first VNs, so I have no idea what I'd think about it today. At the very least, my tolerance for various VN/anime tropes is significantly lower than it used to be, after being fed them over and over more times than I can count.