Seraphim

Continuing with HoshiOri, today I finished Natsuki's route.
While "school" part of the route wasn't anything special (decent, but not outstanding), I really enjoyed her after story. It was - as it's standard with this VN - "just" a series of SoL scenes, but somehow they really clicked with me.
Also, I think this was the first route that featured prominent additional "story" content as replacement for skipped h-scenes.
(The console edition (+17) goes for the "off screen sex" approach, but it doesn't pretend that sex didn't happen - quite the opposite actually, it just doesn't show the act itself)
In Sora's and Marika's case those were mostly afterglow/pillow talk scenes, but with Natsuki's route there was much more.
 
Besides those, there were also other smaller story-enhancing additions sprinkled here and there - really good job
I have to admit that those additional scenes heavily contributed to my enjoyment of Natsuki's route - they were really well thought out, and I was surprised to see them missing from original +18 version, since they felt like they should be there right from the beginning.
So now, after 60 hours of reading, I guess I'm near the half? Now there are Misa, Rikka and Touko left.
 

Yesterday I finished second route in Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai. This time I went for Marika's route. It was extremely heartwarming and wholesome experience - especially in console version, which adds one of the most heart-melting scenes near the ending.
Based on the two routes I read so far (Sora and Marika) I can see why this game is a love-or-hate thing - but for me it definitely lands on the "love" side, since I don't mind pure SoL at all, and the (let's admit - heavily idealized) way it portrays love also scratches all the right itches It isn't the kind of VN I'd read one after another, but once in a while it's great. Just like with sweets I guess
After those two routes my gameplay clock reads 47 hours, and completion rate is at 30%, so this will be a looong journey.
Now I'm starting Natsuki's route. Then I'll go with Misa, and I save Rikka and Touko for the last, since apparently those two routes are quite different from the rest - at least that's what I can get from reviews I saw.
 

No, it was later,
I read that scene just a few minutes ago
 

Yeah, Sora's great! She's my favorite aside from Rikka. I still find this kissing CG (that I think I've already posted here at some point) of her hilariously awkward, but I can't quite remember if it was from the first kiss scene you mentioned.

I started with Sora, since she was first both in the walkthrough, and on choices list I'm still somewhere around the first half of the route, I guess (just reached the first kiss ), but I'm loving it so far. Sora is so cute
It seems to be near-perfect relaxing, feel-good moege - and nicely executed
I've heard that Perfect Edition isn't as perfect as the devs claim AFAIK it tries to merge together the original +18 version and additional/replacement scenes from console edition (which I'm currently reading), but apparently sometimes it comes out weird.
BTW reading Vita version on PC (using emulator) is an experience surprisingly close to playing actual PC VN - since Vita's touchscreen is emulated with the mouse, so I can freely navigate all the menus just like on PC - the only missing thing is right-click

There's not really any recommended order from what I can remember, so just go with whatever strikes your fancy. At some point in the future when I feel like rereading this VN in the form of Perfect Edition (only read the original so far), I'm probably saving Rikka for last, since she's the heroine I liked the most (and a lot of others seem to do as well).

Nah, I think I'll pass, at least for now
***********************************************
Making use of recent progress in PSVita emulation and my new PC, I just started reading console version of Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai. Even the text-hooking works

I currently stopped in the middle of the third in-game day (first day of school), but I'm really liking it so far - it has really nice, warm mood.
Is there any recommended route order for this VN? As far as I can see, there seems to be no "true ending" or "true route" - just six heroines. The walkthrough at seiya-saiga gives following order:
Sora -> Rika -> Touko -> Misa -> Marika -> Natsuki.
Is it OK to follow that order, or would you recommend other one?

Well it's been a while since I make a tier list for AX, so let me try here seeing that Otakon is almost close (Again, and I suppose they decided to held it in July's end instead of August's beginning from now on). Also note that I didn't add Shiravune's announcements here because they announced it before AX, and that I'll not list Watasi-tachi no Marrigae 1 for the same reason that I did find out about it before the AX happened.
Very Good
Hamidashi Creative Tokyo Necro Those two above are the VNs that were quite well received even before announced to have localization, so obviously I look forward to those two VNs to be localized (In fact I sort of hope that Madosoft will ask either Nekonyan or Shiravune to localized Hamidashi only to have Sekai still work on it). Anyway for now I just hope that we can see the progress on Hamidashi soon or later. Tokyo Necro here need no much introduction other than it's Nitroplus take on zombie apocalypse, and I like the graphic in there. I don't know if JAST will be able to release it on this year or not, so let's see if they can really do it later.
Good
Tokyo Hero Project Raspberry Cube Gears of Dragoon 2 Gore Screaming Show Anonymous Code Actually I also look forward to Raspberry Cube as well, although seeing the reception is less compared to Hamidashi I decided to put it here. Tokyo Hero Project here has nice VAs, although the story here is not as good as Onigokko from what I see (I may be wrong on this though). Gears of Dragoon 2 here looks interesting, although apparently it's not as good as Venus Blood from what I hear (At least I can say that I look forward into it as well). I did think that GSS has a number of disturbing scene from the name alone, and after I see some info on it along with seeing on how Metawo's art still hold up even after 16 years I can say that it's nice to see it announced (I still have doubt on this though after seeing a certain tag on VNDB). For Anonymous Code, well at least the premise is quite nice despite Mages still like to milk Steins Gate by saying that Anonymous Code also took the same universe as Steins Gate (It's interesting to know though that Anonymous Code did through six times of rewrites).
Average
Parfait Rance 03 NEKO Works announcements (Nie no Hakoniwa, Inupara, Nekopara 5) I know that I should look forward to Parfait seeing that it's one of well received VN in the past, although knowing that it's developed by GIGA which mean it's possible that GIGA will ask Sekai to cut the sex scenes like what they did with Baldr Sky and there's also PS2 backport edition that has two additional heroines, safe to say that the fans who restore Baldr Sky sex scenes may think that adding the sex scenes in Parfait is not quite worthwhile. We already have some VNs with cafe setting translated anyway and two of the writer's work (WA2 and Damekoi) are already translated, so I suppose I can pass Parfait for now. While 03 story here can be said as redundant, at least the story is good enough and 03 here is the only Rance that has voice, so at least it's quite worthwhile to license. Lastly no much to say in regard of NEKO Works other than it should have good art thanks to Sayori, and yes I call Nekopara After as Nekopara 5 because of the full title (Neko Para After: La Vraie Famille) has 'V' and as we know V is the Roman number of 5.
Take Your Time (ie Below Average)
Aksys announcements (Shuuen no Virche, Norn fandisc, Radiant Tale, Death Mark 2) In'youchuu Lkyt Happy Saint Sheol In the past I call the tier as 'Take Your Time JAST' thanks to their infamy of being slow, although now that they change the management and that they manage to have monthly release I suppose I shouldn't add JAST in the tier title anymore. Speaking of JAST, there's one of the announcement from them in this tier (In'youchuu) because I felt that the scene might be a bit disturbing, although I know that some may like it. Also while like I say beforehand I didn't pay much attention to otome VN, actually I like Radiant Tale female MC design (For the info all of otome VNs are only for Switch so no PC version for the fans who only own PC/laptop). Death Mark 2 might be nice title in case you like some mystery, although I didn't know much of it so I'll pass (By the way I'm leaned toward neutral in regard of it). For Lykt, well let's just say that some BL fans who like Attack on Titan may interested with the title. No much comment on Sheol other than it has some disturbing sex scenes along with no much info on this, so I'll obviously pass on it.
That's all for my tier on AX announcements, and I understand some of you may not agree what I write above here because everyone have their own taste.

Yesterday I finished Loopers. 
What can I say - it's pretty typical KEY story in a short format, with all pros and cons that come with it.
I loved it - but I'm easily moved, and I like KEY formula, so the fact that this VN adheres to it didn't bother me at all I think the fairy tale prologue sets the mood perfectly, and it tells what this story actually is, allowing to adjust expectations.

Because I have to admit, seeing the premise and R07 as main writer, it's easy to expect more, and then get disappointed - which can be seen in some reviews.
I think it's a similar case like with ATRI and PARQUET - the setting isn't the main point, it's just a stage to tell a story. And while surely R07 added his own flavor to it, especially in the early chapters, this is still unmistakably KEY story. Needless to say, it fulfilled its "nakige" mission, making my eyes teary many times.
I think the closest to this from the "big" KEY VNs would be Little Busters - there are some clearly visible parallels. But at the same time it isn't just "LB! abridged"
I think this was first VN I read that in addition to voiced MC featured third person narration. That was nice, made it more "novel-like" I guess
Art is nice, music and voices too, although the voices have too much of dynamic range - some shouted lines are waaaay to loud.
To sum it up - YMMV, but for me it was 8/10.
If you're not tired of the KEY formula yet, want another dose, but don't have time for behemots such as Clannad or Summer Pockets - go for it

There's English translation available in Switch version, and unofficial patch that ports this translation to the PC version. There's also multi-language Steam version in the works, but no release date yet
I played Japanese PC version, so I cannot say much about TL quality. Reportedly there are some errors, but it's not bad.

And now it's been released on Steam, so you can get it on the Steam store here if you already looking forward to the release for some times in the past.

Somewhere in April I started Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka, but just after the prologue I got distracted/interrupted by moving to a new flat, and haven't been able to resume it yet.
 
Meanwhile, the "Loopers Book Club" formed on wanikani forums, so I jumped on and started reading Loopers today. I just completed the prologue, and so far I'm liking what I'm seeing
 
I'm playing JP version from DLSite, but there's bi-lingual Switch version released, and Steam port in works, so it's possible to play this VN in English too.
 

Here's a hot take
How the hell did Subahibi get an overwhelming majority 9+/10 ratings (avg 8.68) on VNDB?
Yeah, sure, innocent lighthearted SoL beginnings turned GOTCHA! pyschological multiple viewpoints wtfmux that rabbit?! delusional EnDSkY savior bonanza
But nothing that made me feel like goddamn, this is a 10/10 masterpiece!@#. 
I gave it a 7/Good. Gets too rapey at times. And Takuji can go suck it.

~~
I feel bad for people who followed 9-Nine since its first episode released in 2017 and had to wait until 2020+ to get the final episode. Idk how episodic releases fare against just making one complete VN, but whatever floats your boat. I got the luxury of finding out about this VN in 2022, so huzzah me, can just marathon the whole thing!
9 9 was fun. It's another modern day high school setting with a dash of the supernatural/superpowers. Good balance of highschool SoL Romance and Supernatural Overarching Plot Build Up to keep things interesting, with 4 Episodes to keep ya busy and add to the superpower lore(each Episode is dedicated to one of the 4 heroines, yee Enforced Route Playthroughs). The payoff when you finally get to Episode 4 is similar to, if not only a fraction of, the payoff you'd get from making the trek from Muv Luv to Muv Luv Alternate. Things can get pretty high stakes and epic, just don't uh, overload. Heh.

7/10 Ep 1-2,
8/10 Ep 3,
9/10 Ep 4.
~~ 
I was gonna do a misc. thoughts for both Subahibi and 9-Nine, but uhhh I kinda got too lazy, srrz. And I kinda just wanna start reading:
 

From what I'd read, none of Sekai's announcement was announced at Denpasoft panel, although to be honest it could mean anything as in it's already open secret that Sekai will release their VN with 18+ contents intact. That said for Parfait obviously it mean that we may not have the sex scenes translated, seeing that this time GIGA has good reason to just release all age version of Parfait with said version has extra heroine (In this case it mean that it'll be like Yoake or Eien no Aselia) and the 'fans' may not find that it's worth to include the sex scenes into Parfait Remake later. As for whether we see the announcement will have the sex scenes I guess we better see it at Watasi-tachi no Marriage 1 later in that the plan is to release it at August later (For the info the VA using pseudonym which mean there's a chance that the developer will include the sex scenes).
As for the announcements for AX 2022, I'll compile it in this post as well below.
Sekai Project
Raspberry Cube Hamidashi Creative Watashi-tachi Marriage 1 Parfait ~Chocolat Second Brew~ Inu Para Happy Saint Sheol Nie no Hakoniwa Neko Para After: La Vraie Famille Aksys Games
Norn9 ~Norn + Nonette~ Last Era Shuuen no Virche -ErroR:salvation- Radiant Tale Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II Spike Chunsoft
Anonymous Code JAST USA
Shin'yaku In'youchuu Gore Screaming Show Naka no Hito nado Inai! Tokyo Hero Project Gears of Dragoon 2 ~Reimei no Fragments~ Tokyo Necro Mangagamer
Lkyt. Rance 03 Leazas Kanraku Overall quite nice convention that we have after two years of pandemic with JAST and Sekai has some interesting title. Rance 03 is quite interesting title though, although it's pretty much inevitable and that it's the remake of the old Rance III. Once again I'll try to comment on those announcements and make the tier for it later.

Two days ago I finished Aonatsu Line
It's very nice "coming of age" story, with great friendship vibe between characters. I especially loved common route for that. All characters are present and important in every route, which is another big plus.
Yui's and Kotone's routes are "feel-good" routes, featuring some sweet romance, and light drama. One could say, that's "moege standard", but it was executed very well - at least it worked for me, giving me wonderful warm, fuzzy feeling Kind of side-routes, but very nice.
Miki's route is more serious and longer, her being the main heroine. Apart from (obviously) romance between Tatsumi and Miki, it's also focused on the relationship between Tatsumi, Miki and Chihiro. And that leads to the next highlight of this VN - very good MC's male friend character. Chihiro is actually pretty serious and important character, not another Sunohara-wannabe comic relief.
Now for the (minor) downsides. This VN lacks after-route epilogues. While no deal-breaker, I always kind of wait for them...
Completing all three routes unlocks short bonus story after credits, and while walkthroughs sometimes call it "True End" it isn't one - it's actually "bonus prologue", showing four short scenes from the first day of school from the POV of four main characters - Yui, Kotone, Chihiro and Miki. Nice little touch, but I'd prefer full-fledged epilogues still...
Another thing I missed are sprites for side characters. There are only four sprites in the whole game - three heroines and Chihiro. Thankfuly all "NPCs" are voiced, but I'd like to see them as well.
And that's it - it took me 36 hours to read this in Japanese (without text hooking, because it didn't work on emulated version), so it isn't long VN.
To sum up - nice atmosphere, cute heroines, great friendship vibe, and some minor drawbacks - that makes it 8/10 for me   I guess that my initial impression of this having similar atmosphere to Konosora was because of the "coming of age story" + "friendship" combination.
I hope that one day Alka translations team manages to overcome technical issues and translate this nice VN, so more people can enjoy it. I actually think it deserves official release - maybe NekoNyan could pick it up?

EDIT: No offense to OP, but I would prefer if people used my own link for downloading the game. I can't vouch for how up to date or secure other links might be.

Hello, hello, made an account just for this lol. To clarify I'm the guy that made the patch.
Always glad to see people spread the word about this work. Extremely niche, yet likely one of the most important VNs of all time.
Without Bakehouse chances are the larger Chinese Gacha industry wouldn't exist in the first place, so even if it's niche, the ripples left by its impact are honestly immeasurable and still felt in the industry today.
I could go off for days about this, but to spare this forum of my random presence, here's an article I wrote summarizing the history of MICA Team, the developers of this VN.
After the patch I also grabbed an artist and started working on a Ren'Py remaster that also reimagines the three other stories surrounding Girl of the Bakehouse that never actually released. Development's really slow right now, because both of us are lacking resources, but you can find all the details here.
 
If y'all have any questions feel free to let me know!

Finished the second episode of Supipara a while ago. I've read the first one years ago already and due to the whole funding campaign mess, the seond one vanished from my radar for quite some time. I then picked it up after Higurashi since I wanted something short and also to get it finally finished.
Overall, it was okay. As typical for a Minori VN, the atmosphere was a bit more on the melancholic side, which I quite liked. The second episode focused on Ange, which is the resident tsundere in Supipara. Her story arc is about compensating for the loss of her mother by making a deal with the witch Alice to gain special powers to help others. Those special powers enable her to see into the future and prevent bad things from happening. However, that powers also comes with the price of sacrificing parts of her happy memories. Naturally, when she gets closer to the protagonist, this is causing problems to their developing relationship and the protagonist tries to help her overcome those issues during the route.
It wasn't the deepest plot arc, but still nicely written due to the likable characters. However, Ange itself felt a bit like she was written too much to fit the tsundere cliche. While undoubtly a good person, she talked a bit too much nonesense for my taste. Meaning, she lacked the sharp intellect to back up her foul mouth.
Actually, the true star of this episode - just like in the first one - is Alice the witch. It's pretty obvious that she was intended to be the main heroine, destined for the final true route. She resembles Yuuko from ef a lot, being Minori's unique smart-dere character type. Funny and talkative, but also smart and mysterious. I absolutely adore her.
Graphics were still impressive, due to the many CG's and the fantastic scene lighting, even if some of the character faces felt a bit simple for todays standards.
It's a pity that the VN could never be finished, because the ending of the episode made it quite obvious that the first two episodes were just small fragments of a much bigger story. Especially Rikka and Momiji seem to know a lot more than they were willing to reveal so far. Not to mention Alice, who's quite obvious a big blob of hidden secrets. It also makes the VN hard to rate since it's obviously incomplete.
Heroine ranking: Alice >> Momiji > Rikka > Sakura > Ange
Overall rating: 7/10 (I'd rate the story lower since it's just incomplete, but it gets a bonus for Alice, atmoshere and graphics)

I've also read Making＊Lovers and frankly it wasn't my cup of tea. It took me literally months just to finish Saki's route, because it was just so painful to read. The writing was extremely goofy and didn't fit the cast of supposedly adult characters at all. Actually, there was not a single character that seemed to have a mental age beyond 12.
There was also pretty much no common route at all and the characters started dating like they were coupled by a dating agency. An overlapping friendship theme also didn't exist since the heroines only exist in their own routes (juding by Saki's route at least). The protagonist -let's call him Hamster-kun - was also presented as somewhat mentally retarded and really annoying. It's as if they made the idiot friend the actual protagonist. A plot also didn't really exist, so you're stuck with an endless loop of dumb and unfunny jokes, connected by some arbitrary H-scenes.
In terms of positives, the art was quite decent - it's a pity that it was wasted on such a bad writer. The custom dates were also a good idea and some of the heroines at least had potential.
Generally, I think the writing would have fit more to loliges or at least school life VN's with a strong comedy theme. For a romance VN involving adult characters, it felt just completely inappropriate. But to be perfectly honest, I don't think I'll read another VN from this writer or company again. Just not my cup of tea.
Heroine ranking: Don't care
Overall rating: 4/10

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.

@adamstan watching the OP be like

@adamstan watching the OP be like

@adamstan watching the OP be like

I just started Tenshin Ranman Happy GO Lucky PC. It looks very nice, has the distinctive Yuzusoft's art style, and seems to be nice charage. UI in this version is indeed updated, and seems to be the same as in, for example, PARQUET, with flowchart, lots of skipping and rewinding options etc
I just completed the prologue, and during the OP sequence I encountered one weird bug - videos are flipped in both axes - meaning they're upside down and mirrored 😕 I haven't found the patch online - perhaps it hasn't been released yet. Video files themselves are packed into KiriKiri's *.xp3 archives, so fixing that would probably involve unpacking, unflipping them in some video editor, re-encoding and repacking... 面倒くさい... 😕

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.

I've started reading The House in Fata Morgana this week and I'm absolutely LOVING IT  
Chapter 1 was a wild ride, I loved the pacing of it
I'm still not done with chapter 2 but so far it's really good!!
Anyways, I should be done with chapter 2 by Sunday so I'll probably mention it in my next post! Next week I want to read both ch. 3 and 4  I now can see why this vn is so well-regarded within the community!

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