Zou

Ah, I don't know about VNR, but textextractor is amazing. Here, this video explains everything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eecEOacF6mw&list=LLF34Gjwp2RQifaURIRMkEDQ&index=33&t=0s

Shirogane Takeru x Kagami Sumika (Muv Luv Alternative) Neon Scalar Smilja x Nikola Tesla (Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning) Sakaki Yumiko x Kazami Yuuji (Grisaia series) Riki Naoe x Tokido Saya (Little Busters!)

Man, I feel you. I'm so closed off of the rest of the world that when I speak with people I don't know bringing up any normie related topic is difficult, but mostly boring. I have to really get back into anime though. Been too much into Visual Novels lately, so much so that I cannot keep with what otaku watch these days.

I could write about how much Visual Novels have influenced my life for hours and hours. My life has been great overall, but I was not blessed by some important things like a big and caring family or an enjoyable childhood. For that reason, my traumatic experiences are a bit bigger than normal, and for 7 long years my life has been ripe with strife and despair. But Visual Novels managed to teach me things that inspired me to change myself and be a better person who can move onwards and pursue his goals. For that I'm trully greatful. Plus, Visual Novels are what made me start learning Japanese not so long ago. Hopefully once I achieve my dream of learning Japanese I will be able to enjoy those fantastic stories for the rest of my mortal life.

Thank you so much for taking the time of answering and providing me with new recommendations. I brought Aokana and Clover Days since they usually pop up in community made VN beginners lists around the internet. As for the games, I've wanted to play Walkure Romance for quite some time because I like the concept of knights in a highly soffisticated aristocracy only school. The alternatives to Grimoire no Shisho look interesting enough, altough I don't know if I should play a fantasy themed VN for the first time. I wanna go over more complicated stuff such as the lvl 2 VN's you recommended on your list, but I think I'll play a couple of easier games first just to get better.

Yeah, my choices were very weird now that I go throught them again. Your answer made me rethink what I said, so I decided to check your unstralated VN beginner's list and I found some pretty decent and interesting looking games. The ones who picked most of my attention are Akabanzu, Chuuning Lover, Ryuusei Kiseki, Shiawase Kazoku-bu, Minamijuujisei Renka and Primal Hearts, but especially Primal Hearts because the art is soothing and beautiful. Among those which one do you think is the easiest or most enjoyable? And to wrap things up, is Aokana a good beginner's choice despite being a bit of a letdown?

Right, I thought about that aswell and I wouldn't like missing important key plotpoints, so I'll refrain from playing it for now. I also saw the Clephas list and while it was very useful the moeges it offered didn't catch my attention very much, so I tought that my own selection may prove to be OK at least.

Hello! Name's Zou. I've been studying Japanese seriously for a couple of months and I really want to try the eroge learning method after my level is good enough, probably around January of 2020 if I keep going like this. That's why I've been thinking of picking a good visual novel to start with. There seems to be a dilemma among the community regarding this subject. Some say that it is better to start with something you really are anxious to play even if you won't enjoy as much as if you had a native level, while others seem to prefer starting off with a dumb slice of life moege just to get around the language and grow used to it. I prefer a middle ground, and that's why I've thought that the Ley Line series may be a good idea. I also got other games ready like Ao no Kanata, Grimoire no Sisho and Clover Days. What do you guys think.

I read it half a month ago and I think it's one of the best VN's out there, with Refrain being probably the best true end I've seen in a while. It isn't perfect by any means, especially when it comes to Kud's and Saigusa's routes, but's pretty decent in my opinion.

Nice! It is very fun. Chapter 2 is a bit more dry and there is not much comedy to go around, but for me it works. Ramius best girl by the way.

Playing Evenicle here. After the feelings and deception train it was Island, I wanted to relax and have a good time fighting with cute girls drawn by Yaegashi Nan-sensei in a colorful fantasy world. So far I've been enjoying it quite a lot. Has anyone here played it too?

Sweet Jesus, after reading Clephas post it looks like the otaku industry as well as Japan is breaking apart. It really makes sense that the stagnation of the economy and the downgrade of wages coupled with insane working hours with no stability will cripple VN's sales, especially considering that they are not really cheap. Who in his right mind would ever buy a dumb looking moege for 6000 or 7000 yen? Nobody really. After working 2 part time jobs for the whole day the least I wanna do when I return home is spend hours and hours reading a pointless VN with boring characters and thoughtless plot. Unfortunately, that's been the trend the last couple of decades and the good authors of yore have long since moved on to other places to prove their talents. Unless they bring them back or faciltate colaborations betweem them so they can create new and better games, then we are for a bit of suffering. I hope things get better soon.

I agree with your statement. Young people nowadays have a wide variety of media to get distracted with, specially with mobile phones. I don't know how it is in Japan, but the PC market must be pretty niche still, and very young males will either have a crappy PC which they barely use or none at all. If they have a good one they use regularly, they'll mostly play western games via platforms such as Steam, since that's the best bay of using a powerful PC. As for grown ups, and this is my personal opinion, they'd probably get pretty bored playing a dumb slice of life moege with a highschool setting after maybe 8 or 9 hours at work. If I had that kind of lyfestile with pretty limited free time and a lot of cash to spend on, I'd always go for plotges, nakiges or chuuniges. Of course, I'd always find the time to play a good comedy slice of life eroge from time to time, but if they are not interesting to play then it'd feel like I'm wasting my time since I'm not enjoying any good story or well developed characters. This has been more of a logical explanation based off my knowledge of Japan and also my personal preferences, but that's why I think the O so powerful charage/slice of life genre is dying.