To be blunt, I might or might not continue playing this game, so I thought I'd go ahead and get my thoughts down now, after finishing one path. More and more these days, I only play one path of a game before moving on, after all.
Shinigami no Chou is Yuzusoft's latest release, and it is more along the lines of its more SOL-focused games like Sanoba Witch, as opposed to its more plot-focused ones like Dracu-riot or Senren Banka. As such, the ichaicha and H-scenes are a bit overly long and the common route drags out more than their more plot-focused games.
That said, this game is an example of what Yuzusoft does best... amusing characters, decent settings, reasonably good protagonists, and a fantasy edge to the whole thing. In this case, the protagonist turns out to have a 'large soul' that can cause miracles by interacting with the weaker wandering souls (in the form of mystic butterflies), and as a result, when he dies, his wish to live causes time to reverse itself. The shinigami Kanna, whose job is to guide souls to the afterlife, is essentially ordered by the divine brass to watch over the protagonist to make sure he doesn't harm reality further by creating more miracles, and the solution to the problem is for him to be satisfied with life (romance in other words).
This game's concept is a bit closer to a nakige than most of their previous games, which tended to be either primarily humorous love-comedies or story-focused with some action (with some exceptions). The common route supplies some decent cheap catharsis at a few points without going overboard, and Kanna's route, which is the route I chose to do, has some really nice cathartic points in the classic nakige sense (almost Key-style).
I will say that my primary complaint is that the clothes the characters end up wearing for the larger part of the game (the waitress uniforms) are actually some of the ugliest clothes I've seen in a moe-influenced VN in some time. I know that is a weird complaint coming from me, but it seriously bothered me that the girls were calling those uniforms 'cute'. I won't go so far as to say they were repulsive, but they were of a style that lost my interest instantly, lol.
One element that many who are tired of the usual tropes will be happy with is that the protagonist is actually in his third year of college when the story begins, and school is definitely not the focal setting of the game. The greatest amount of time is spent in the cafe where he ends up working, and, unlike many games where a cafe is the focal setting, it actually manages to be interesting (most 'cafe setting' VNs are either nukige or extremely boring moege with sugary sweet heroines that seem like you might be able to see the sun shining from their eyes due to the hole in the back of their heads).
Kanna's route is an excellent example of the best way to handle a story of a soul searching for happiness, and I absolutely loved the way the ending was handled, with the relatively extensive epilogue that followed the protagonist and Kanna for at least half a decade after the climax of the path. That said, since she is the obvious main heroine, it strikes me as unlikely the other paths will reach the same level, lol.
Caramel Box is one of my favorite companies. I'll say that right off the bat. They have one of the best writing/producing teams in the business, and it tends to show. Not only that, but their VNs tend to run the gamut, all the way from nakige to chuunige. While artist-freaks will sometimes nitpick on the details of their CGs, their artistic style is unique in VNs, retaining some older techniques and mixing it with new. In addition, their musical choices are similarly odd, frequently utilizing tunes that you normally wouldn't expect to create powerful emotional effects and shape the atmosphere of certain scenes. Another issue is that there is that they have a tendency to disregard many of the cliches of the industry. In most of their VNs, the classic heroine archetypes are either nonexistent or used in a different fashion than is common to other VNs, and I've yet to read one of their VNs that fell into the trap that is the 'non-entity protagonist' that so many other companies allow themselves to be caught in. To give you an idea of what I mean by the wide variations in this company's choice of genres... Toppara- Nakige/charage with a strong element of catharsis and self-healing that led me to add it to my 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' list. It also has only one human heroine... and a total of nine heroines, lol. Shuumatsu Shoujo Gensou Alicematic- A fantasy chuunige, with a direct Cthulhu Mythos theme to it. The addition of serious, well-researched sword techniques combined with elements of the mythos drawn straight from Lovecraft's own works was impressive, even to my relatively inexperienced brain at the time I played it. Semiramis no Tenbin- A social commentary combined with a deep personal drama and a quite deliberate denial of moral absolutism in regards to matters of law and human relations, all wrapped up in the interactions between a near-sociopathic heroine and the inhabitants of the protagonist's own surroundings. Otoboku (series)- The original cross-dresser protagonist VN and its kamige sequel. The combination of Taisei-era girl's school otome storytelling with modern charage/nakige techniques has become something of a signature for the genre in general, though most don't manage to recreate the same atmosphere. Aekanaru Sekai no Owari ni- A somewhat average-quality hard science fiction based in a dystopian future of underground arcologies. Boku no Te no Naka no Rakuen- A classic fantasy-style story in a fictional world, with a typically amnesiac protagonist with special powers... that somehow manages to be enjoyable anyway. Meguri Megureba Meguru Toki- Supernatural ghost story, with two distinct sides, each with two heroines... the supernatural and the non-supernatural. The contrast between the two is one of the more fascinating aspects of this VN and it is the reason why I consider this VN a potential recommendation to people who like to read things for their 'atmosphere'. Komorebi no Nostalgica- This isn't technically by Caramel Box, but it was both (partially) funded by it and written and drawn by their main team, so it might as well have been. It is a hard science fiction story based in a post-WWIII world where almost everything before the war was lost - culturally, and its society has changed radically due to the coexistence with the sentient AIs known as Metosera. It begins with the awakening of an old-model android named Cinema, who provides a window on the world before the war as well as showing an alternative to the Metosera's own AI evolution. This VN touches on many of the negatives and positives brought up in science fiction in regards to AI technology in a thoughtful and deep fashion while also providing a deeply emotional story and a wonderfully well-developed cast of unique characters.
Edit: You can see why I consider this to be a somewhat oddball company, can't you? This company generally produces high-quality VNs in such a wide variety of genres and messages/themes that it is impossible to pin down anything other than their style, which is also unique. I honestly haven't encountered a team or company that does things the way this one does, and for that reason, I think most people reading Japanese VNS should at least try some of their works. Edit2: For those who haven't read some of my other comments on VN companies in general, I should probably explain something about the average VN company. Most companies retain one or two teams, usually specializing in the same type of VN, with members switching out at irregular intervals. This is a lot of the reason for the massive drops and rises in quality you see in a lot of VN companies. A company with a single team whose members are pretty much the same as when the company was started is almost unheard of... and that that team has produced such a large variance in the nature of its VNs, whether it was genre-wise or in terms of theme, is also extremely unusual. As an extreme example, Whirlpool produce charage with story... always. There are variances in the balance of moe, character, development, and story, but the general nature of their VNs doesn't really change. The same can be said for Nitroplus, which produces three types of VNs from three different teams... dark fantasy chuunige (the Muramasa and Jingai Makyou team), psychedelic fantasy (the Sumaga Team), and the Science series team, which produces VNs that are... a bit 'different'. Nonetheless, all these VNs still produce a basic 'area' of the VN industry that the company as a whole specializes in. Yet another would be Navel, which specializes in generic charage, while occasionally experimenting with more unusual projects such as Tsuriotsu. Even if a company covers multiple 'areas', those areas are generally very narrow, such as Front Wing and its split between nukige and story-focused VNs such as Grisaia and Hatsuru (they might not seem to have commonality, but the protagonist of Hatsuru has a lot of the same self-hating qualities that Yuuji had).
Yay, Clephas is contributing to a controversial topic in his blog! *listens for the hisses and boos of his loving public*
More seriously, I'm not out to bash fantranslators, localization companies, or anyone else involved with the process. I've been on both sides (consumer and producer) and I can honestly say that I can see all four sides of the argument (the producer side, the negative consumer side, the neutral consumer side, and the positive consumer side).
The Positive Consumer
Based on my personal experience (beginning with jrpgs in the nineties), most people begin in this stage. Honestly, I didn't know enough to figure out when things were badly translated, and as long as the lines weren't too out there (spoony bard, lol), it never really got to me. There are plenty of people out here who remain in this stage forever, never taking interest one way or the other in the translation aspects of things... and that is perfectly natural. Most Americans (if not people from other countries) are essentially linguistic bigots, and as a result, they won't care if things are wrong as long as they can't tell just by playing a game, reading a book, or enjoying an anime or film.
The Negative Consumer
Most people with at least some knowledge of Japanese end up in this stage at some point. The reasons are manifold, but the biggest one is the 'literalist disease'. Almost everyone who gets involved with translation or knows enough Japanese to nitpick is under a peculiar delusion... that 'Literal Japanese to English translation isn't an oxymoron'. Unfortunately for their delusions, my personal experience and the experience of many others does not bear this particular one out.
Literalist translation is a delusion born of a misapprehension of the Rosetta Stone concept... basically because we can generally match up most words with their equivalents in our own languages given a decent reference point, that perfect translations are both possible and should be provided without hesitation by mechanical translators (often literally). However, this ignores two major issues... the cultural basis for the formation of modern language's concepts and the difference in how the language is structured (grammar in other words).
This isn't the only reason for ending up in this stage... some people are in it because it makes them feel superior or they like trolling 'lesser beings' (I'm sure you know what I'm talking about). Others simply disagree with the way the translation is handled or the usage of censorship. There are innumerable reasons for ending up in this stage, and that is the reason why it is the single largest one in the 'experienced' community.
The Neutral Consumer
This is the smallest grouping... mostly because it pretty much demands that you have resolved to stop caring one way or the other about localization quality. The most common reason to end up here is because you can play VNs, watch anime, and read manga/LNs without a localization, so the concept becomes irrelevant (or at least of less interest) to you. Another is that you get tired of being trolled (or trolling yourself) and decide to shut off your emotions about it. Last of all are the people who just want to 'spread the word' and don't really care about quality issues (people who are just happy VNs are getting localized). Since a lot of this group don't even buy localizations except to 'support the cause', this group has a lot less invested in the arguments, overall.
The Producer
... need I mention that being on this side sucks? No matter how good a job you do, you get bashed by someone, and inevitably someone is going to decide to nitpick every one of your word choices. Literalists will hate you for not doing exactly what they want, generalists will hate you for picking obscure/dead words from actual literary English (as opposed to spoken English) because the concepts involved are dead in modern English, and everyone else will hate you for censorship or because you are too slow.
While you get combative people or apologetic people from this side every once in a while, most just stop paying attention to the noise, for the sake of their mental health.
Let's be clear... I have no reason to try to be fair to charage anymore. This might sound like a terrible statement to make, but the fact is, I've been a lot nicer than I wanted to be for years when it came to charage. I went out of my way to look for positive aspects, and when I found one, I deliberately put it in as positive a light I could without overdoing it. This was because the sensation I got coming out of most charage was fatigue. SOL, in small doses, is enjoyable and even relaxing... in the kind of doses I experienced over the last five years, it is downright toxic.
Now, down to the game... CharaBration is what is termed a 'thematic charage'. This is a type of VN with a preset theme that all the heroines and possibly the protagonist all adhere to to one degree or another. In this case, it is the duality of the heroines/protagonist's character types. Each of the characters presents one face to the world and another in private... and in the case of this game, the gap between them is massive.
The heroine who starts as the initial focus is Hai, the protagonist's cousin whom he thought was a sickly ojousama that he had to take care of... and is really the kind of tomboy who dominates all the males around her, with a coarse manner and foul language. Yukia, who is pretending to be her sister Mirei, presents herself normally as an arrogant leader who always dominates the room, but in private, she is shy and has trouble talking at all. Himeme is normally acts in a false male role, but she really prefers to act like the girl she really is. All the heroines are like this to one degree or another, and Rikka (the protagonist) ends up splitting his life between pretending to be a maid and attending school in his male form.
Now... this is a game with a lot of potentially fun elements, and it would have been great if the 'hidden' character traits for Hai, who was presented as the main heroine at first, weren't so grating. Starting out with a positive hatred for Hai that never really faded even after I got into the heroine routes (her ojousama act just made me more irritated, due to that fake cough) was a huge drag on the experience for me, and it is the reason why I took so long to finish even the paths I did. Hai is annoying, to be straight about it. While her presence is necessary to create the situation going in, her persona (both of them) drove me up the wall.
The fact that I actually liked the other heroines only made it worse, because whenever she came onto the scene, I just wanted to delete her character. I'm sure some will love her (there is someone for everyone, supposedly), but she isn't for me.
Common Route
Tbh, the common route spent so much time on Hai and stuff related to her that I'm tempted to erase it from my brain. However, it needs to be said that it does a good job of introducing the heroines and creating their relationships with Yuki/Rikka. Rikka is a standard 'I protest dressing up like a girl but I subconsciously am coming to love it' trap protagonist, and that creates a few moderately amusing scenes... However, I can't really said this did a good job of anything but introducing the heroines and creating those basic relationships. It is a pretty short common route, and the heroine routes afterward aren't long either, so it feels like more time and effort could have been spent deepening the relationships before they headed off into the romantic wilds.
Yukia
Yukia is easy to like, at least for me. Her helpful, kind nature is prevalent throughout much of the VN, and her other persona is mostly amusing (some of the ways she strings together lines to hold a conversation together make me laugh). Her relationship with her sister, Mirei, which comes out in her path, is amusing on several levels, and I like the way she grows as a character during the course of her path. That said, her ending is somewhat disappointing, as I would have liked to see what she and Rikka were like after graduation.
Corona
I chose Corona as the second heroine mostly because she is Yukia's opposite in so many ways... and because I rolled a pair of dice to decide which would be the second and final heroine I would play (I can't bring myself to play all the heroines in this type of game anymore). Umm... I really like her character, if only because it makes me laugh (an easily-embarrassed prime personality and a secondary personality that strips without a hint of hesitation and is obsessed with other women's breasts... definitely worth a laugh). In fact, this path is nicely weird, especially because of how those twin personalities interact with the romance. If Yukia's path was par for the course (predictable and staid as trap protagonist and ojousama heroines go), Corona's went pretty far out there. The epilogue and after story was also too close to the ending in chronology though, *sighs*.
Conclusions
Despite some high points, this game is pretty average as charage go. Like a lot of thematic charage, it makes the mistake of assuming that the theme is all-powerful, and, as a result, it falls short on a lot of minor points. I was particularly irritated at the way they handled the endings/epilogues, and I felt that the writer didn't really do Corona or Yukia justice, when it came down to it. Given more detail and time spent deepening character relationships in a believable fashion, it would have been much easier to engross myself in the setting. Unfortunately, that never happened here (the good parts of Yukia's and Corona's paths stand out so much precisely because they are the best parts of the VN by far). It felt like the writer wrote his favorite scenes first then sort of created a bare-bones framework to support it using the theme.
This is a theme that actually doesn't come up very often in my reviews/commentaries on VNs these days, primarily because most VNs use what settings - whether those of the characters or of the game itself - to at least an adequate degree. There are actually very few VNs that include setting elements that are interesting but never end up used... because it irritates the hell out of people who actually pay attention.
The most recent example, which made me go off on a foul-mouthed tirade in private and a bash-post in my blog, is Hanidebi. Just as an example is Aoi, one of the heroines. Aoi is from a family that is extremely old (think the tenth century) and powerful/wealthy. Even today, such families tend to exert a ridiculous degree of influence/control over their kids, especially their daughters. In VNs, this tends to be even more extreme... so why is it that the only element of such a family that is used in the game is her moral upbringing, rather than her ties to her family or other issues that might have come up as a result of the type of family she was raised in? Most VNs, even if they don't make it central to the story, at least would deal with the family issues (getting them out of the way) during the course of the game. Moreover, she also has a yandere yuri kouhai who was supposed to be an ongoing source of humor for her path... but who mysteriously faded into the background early on in her path.
That is failing to utilize the setting.
The same goes for Eufonie's other work, Koiken Otome, where they dramatically speak about the monsters who threatened the world and the purpose for the powers the characters possess... and then keep the game a fantasy version of a slice-of-life charage from beginning to end. OK, it is perfectly fine to use such a setting in a fantasy charage... but when you introduce something like that, it is only natural to use it at some point in the story...
This is a relatively rare issue... but when it does come up, it is rarely as bad as the two games above. Most of the time, it is simply 'not going far enough'. However, every once in a while, I come across games like these, that fail utterly to use the elements they presented. I felt worse than the first time I ran across an NTR nukige by accident.
Why should you play Chrono Belt, fans of Ayakashibito and Bullet Butlers?
This is your reason. Do you really need another?
But seriously, this fight is told entirely from Kuki's point of view, and as a result it is suitably awesome. Rather than doing it in order, I went ahead and did the Kuki-viewpoint segment first solely so I could re-experience the awesomeness that is Kuki Youkou.
Anyway, Chrono Belt isn't so much a fandisc as a true-ending crossover of both games. Basically, it happens after the ending of both games, and it is a VN that manages to standout on its own as awesome, though it is reliant on the characters from the two games for its plot.
To be blunt, this VN manages to satisfy fanboy crossover 'what-ifs' while not being ridiculous, which is a feat in and of itself. I'll leave it to you to imagine what those what-ifs are, because, as always, I refuse to spoil it for you. I will say that there are three segments: Kuki, Alfred, and - last of all - the main segment. All three are generally cool and interesting, though the last one is kind of heart-breaking or stomach-twisting at times, for fans of both games. I won't be doing a complete rundown of this VN, because it is quite simply impossible to do so without spoiling its origin-VNs.
PS: Incidentally, this is one of only a few fandisc-type VNs that I've played/read that weren't excuses for extra H-scenes (though there are extra H-scenes, lol).
I just finished this game a few hours ago, and I’m honestly not sure what I should write about it. It left me with so many different impressions and emotions, I’m kinda overwhelmed. One thing is for certain though, this game was absolutely amazing. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and, dammit, it scared the crap out of me a few times.
Chrono Box is a mystery from start to finish. As a result, one of the things that makes the writing and the story so good is the element of surprise. In other words, twists you don’t see coming. There are tons of these, and they are done very well. The writers really did a fantastic job in my opinion. I was constantly trying to piece together the puzzle in my head. However, they just kept on taking me by surprise, making me more and more confused. (In a good way. Confused as in, the kind of confusion you want from a good mystery.)
You are fed information on a regular basis, but it is never enough to come to a complete conclusion. Honestly, comparing it to some of the other mystery stories I have read, this was by far one of the better ones. I often manage to somewhat guess most of what is going on by the halfway mark in these types of stories, but here I was at a loss until the very end.
To be honest, because of the fact that this is a mystery, where spoilers really can ruin the experience, I don’t want to get into any details about the plot. In fact, I recommend that you do not look into the plot at all, as stupid as that sounds.
My recommendation is this: if you have some interest in reading the game, just do it. Don’t read any summaries or reviews, don’t look at any CGs. Just read it blindly. Well, use a guide if you want. The guide luckily won’t spoil anything at all, as all the choices are map movement choices, meaning you won’t have to worry about «spoilery choices» whatsoever.
I will say one thing though. The game has a lot of H. I know some people aren’t really big fans of H-scenes, and ends up skipping them. DO NOT DO THAT IN THIS GAME. Don’t skip any scenes. Read everything, even if it bores you. Trust me, you want to read absolutely everything in this VN. Every little detail matters.
Anyways, Chrono Box is definitely a must read for horror/ mystery fans in my opinion. It's one of those stories I wish I could forget, just so that I could experience it all for the first time again.
First, I should say this VN isn't like Purple Soft's last few works. The common route is straight comedy and heart-warming antics combined with some minor drama and with a bit of personal growth for the protagonist on the side. It is good comedy and the personal growth is actually quite nice, since the protagonist as he started out would have driven me insane inside two hours. It is also relatively short, as are the heroine routes so far. I managed to finish the common route and one heroine route in around seven and a half hours...
Makoto
Makoto is a very straightforward girl, the daughter of a local yakuza group who has been ordered to live as a normal girl by her family. The funny thing is, she isn't one of those template heroines who dislikes her criminal family, but rather respects and loves them. This results in a rather hilarious personality that comes out a great deal in her route. This VN's route structure is really unusual, in that there is literally no H in the routes themselves, though there are a few nude scenes. As a result, this route passes by with relatively little ichaicha and most of its focus on the drama, which is one of the reasons why it is so short... there is no time wasted whatsoever.
Michiru
Aaah... Michiru is probably the most blatant example of the 'adoring little sister' I've seen recently... and combined with her being a total yamato nadeshiko and blind, this makes her the standout amongst the four heroines available at the beginning of the VN. One of her most hilarious aspects is how she sounds like a 'niisama-cultist' when talking to others, and how aggressive she is in her pursuit of her older brother... so naturally you'd expect a 'oh, I'm not sure if I can cross the line!' kind of route, right? Fortunately, my expectations were betrayed quite nicely on this, and the route itself is highly emotional, following a track I can guarantee you won't guess without spoilers. That said, it is mostly heart-warming and tear-jerking stuff, and that is one of its biggest draws.
Because of the policy they are using for this VN - no H in the actual routes - it is really easy to focus on the plot flow, and there is none of that sense of 'you interrupted the story for a pink-colored scene?!' that comes so frequently with many VNs of the type. To be honest, I'm really surprised that no one has done this before, as having the choice as to whether to pursue the H in the extras section rather than go through it in the main game makes it a lot easier to enjoy the character interactions and story in general.
Edit: Adding Misaki
Misaki
Ummm... I'll be frank, I was disappointed with Misaki's route... but that's because I went for the two most unique heroines - and least annoying - amongst the four starter heroines first. It isn't that it is a bad route. Indeed, if you go by the standards of your average VN (cutting the low and high ends off the curve) I'd say that it was in the upper ranks as individual heroine routes go... but after Michiru it just lacked impact. Misaki is one of those heroines who is a lot better as comic relief than as a heroine... or at least, that is how it felt to me. A big issue is that they reused Alice's face and voice (from Hapymaher) for her, and I was always a bit frustrated that Alice was the true/main for that one (I liked her the least, though I still liked her). Cutting out those emotions, her struggles are actually interesting, if a bit overly familiar for those who have seen (this really is a spoiler, though indirectly)
That said, the theme for this particular one has been touched on so often in VNs lately that it seems overly dull...
That said, if you weren't me, you'd probably be able to enjoy this route just fine - actually, you'd probably enjoy it a great deal - as long as you made sure to play it first or second (I'm not really interested in the annoying foreign girl heroine, since her speech patterns make me want to punch her).
Dorothy
Dorothy is a foreign exchange student, as well as the protagonist's new maid and his fiance (sort of). To be blunt, I dislike her character so much outside of her route that I wanted to smash her head in with a steel rod. Nonetheless, her route was actually pretty good. I was surprised at how good it was. I cried for it almost as much as I did for Michiru's, if for different reasons. If you can stand her, this is an excellent route to choose.
Kuro
Kuro is the female version of the god of time, Chronos, who is connected to the protagonist's watch. She is one of the game's two resident lolis (who are incidentally the true heroines *laughs dryly*). Her route is the most out there (fantasy), in terms of overall content, and it shows off the best of the protagonist as well (though Michiru's route also shows off his good qualities). Kuro is also really adorable as a heroine, and her personality changes a lot as a result of the events in the route. I will say that the actual progress of the route is rather predictable... so predictable that I was reminded of a Key nakige route.
Miu
Miu is a clumsy genius with horrible luck (to a ridiculous degree at times). She is honest, kind-hearted, and also brilliant... she is also the focus of the first half of the common route, so most of the development leading up to her ending occurs there. As a result, her 'ending' really is only an ending that you get by going back to the first choice. That it is heart-warming is because of how all the events in the story are connected. Along with Kuro, she is one of the two seemingly 'true' heroines (to be honest, calling them true heroines is probably inaccurate in this case).
Overall
My final thoughts on this game are... that it is nowhere near Hapymaher or Mirai Nostalgia in terms of impact or quality, but for those who wanted a generally heart-warming story about personal growth with some fantasy mixed in, it is actually an excellent choice. For those who hate explicit sexual content, it is also a good choice because the H-scenes are set aside in a corner where you don't actually have to read them.
Now, this is one of those games where the Getchu description and the one on the site don't represent the reality.
First, this game is a straight-out comedy. The protagonist is a 'classic baka', a character who is easily distracted, daydreams about convenient scenarios with cute females, and generally makes trouble without meaning to. Because of his perspective, the game is pretty high pace (and not really in a good way).
The heroines include:
Chuuni Hime- A real princess from another world who is the master of the renovated love hotel that is the central stage for the story. She is apparently a genius and a great leader... but you would never be able to tell that from the pictures of her daily life. She is a heavy gamer (doesn't leave her room for days at a time), and she has little interest in fulfilling her stated purpose for coming to Earth. She has a real name, but nobody uses it.
Lagunaseca- Chuuni Hime's dark elven maid. She is a workaholic. Seriously, that is literally the entirety of her personality. Her only reason for living is to give of herself to others, so she is literally incapable of considering a life outside of service. She works several part-time jobs to feed the princess, and she only sleeps three hours a day.
Stella- Stella is a rather naive young knight from the same world as Chuuni Hime and in her direct service. She was raised on stories of female knights being raped by tentacles and orcs, along with falls into pleasure and mind break, and as a result, she is extremely... weak. She is terrible with a sword... so much so that she is liable to trip over it when she tries to draw it out. Since she came to Earth, she has become a light novel author, and when her editor gets onto her, she locks herself in a defunct fridge.
Suzuka- The only earthling amongst the heroines (ironically so) and the protagonist's childhood friend. She has a terrible case of chuunibyou (think wearing a black cape in summer and transforming her room into an alchemist's workshop), and... that is about the entirety of her personality. Unless you get on her route, she is almost a non-entity throughout the game.
I'm going to be blunt... this game actually starts out fairly well, but as a whole, it is very... not worth the money I put down for it.
The first reason is the writing. For some reason, this writer fails utterly to do anything other than the comedy right. Even momentarily serious or romantic scenes flop (at least partly because Masaki doesn't have the brains to carry those scenes off right) badly, and because of that, it becomes hard to even enjoy the humorous scenes.
The second reason is the artwork. I'm going to be blunt... this game's CG's and sprites are very... low budget. It isn't noticeable for a non-art-bigot such as myself at first, but it became bloody obvious when it came to the h-scenes and the few scenes granted a CG. If this game had been made in 2008, I probably wouldn't have noticed anything wrong, but for a game that is being sold at right about the average price for a VN on today's commercial market, that is a huge downer.
The third, and probably the most fatal reason, is the music and voice acting. The soundtrack for this game is... terrible. However, that could be forgiven if it weren't for the unusual fact that this game's makers managed to botch the voice-acting. Most of the voices in this game are horrible, with the notable exceptions of Chuuni Hime and Suzuka. I'm going to be blunt... considering how long ago they announced this game, it is ridiculous that this low level of quality in an area where the industry standard is about as level as it is possible for what is essentially an 'art' can even exist. All of the VAs are established names, so it is silly to make excuses about the quality of the actors. No, this had to be a massive direction and/or production failure.
My conclusion is that, while the concept wasn't bad, the execution for this game was downright horrible.
Now, in the past I've often tried to clearly define my favorite VN genre, the chuunige. While there are many elements that go into making a chuunige, the primary requirements are conflict (violent or otherwise), philosophy (hedge philosophy usually), deliberately exaggerated character personalities and backgrounds, and extremely detailed settings.
Now, for reasons known only to me, I felt like talking about the chuunige protagonist. Understand, chuunige protagonists are inevitably... unique personalities (sometimes to the point of being unreal). One of the greatest ironies of the chuunige is that the genre's very nature makes it impossible for its protagonists to fall entirely within the narrow archetypes that come standard with most VNs (the kind-hearted but dense protagonist of love-comedy VNs, for instance).
However, they can be put into three more general archetypes based on aspects of their personalities and personal morality: the hero, the anti-hero, and the monster.
Heroes are very simple and straightforward. These individuals represent virtue in general or a single human virtue and overcome obstacles through that particular virtue (at least in part). A love of justice, a desire for love, a desire to save the people they care about or people in general, a desire for self-improvement, etc. Most protagonists of this type are inspiring as individuals when placed into situations of extreme stress and conflict. As a result, chuunige with this type of protagonist tend to be very inspiring in the end. Also almost universal to them is a deep (Greek drama style) flaw that might destroy them in the end or at least trip them up.
Examples of chuunige with this type of protagonist include: The Tiny Dungeon series, Evolimit, Bullet Butlers, Ayakashibito, FSN (in the Fate path), Sorcery Jokers (the younger protagonist), etc.
The anti-hero protagonist is a bit more complex. Individuals in this type of chuunige will generally obtain the same results... but they might do so through amoral or reprehensible methods. Anti-heroes tend to fall into two types... the type that will willingly abandon everything for the person they care about most without a second thought and the type that will mercilessly cut off the one for the sake of the many. This type often will have a moral compass that differs radically from the average human being.
Chuunige with this type of protagonist include: Vermilion, Dies Irae, Kajiri Kamui Kagura, Shinigami no Testament, Gensou no Idea (both), Sorcery Jokers (the older protagonist), Comyu, Jingai Makyou, Hello Lady, Zero Infinity, Electro Arms, Izuna Zanshinken etc.
The third and final protagonist type is the monster. This type is the rarest of the three... mostly because few Japanese writers have the courage to create a protagonist of this type in the first place. This type of protagonist has a tendency to be brutal, selfish, amoral, or outright villainous. These protagonists have a tendency to be immensely intelligent and/or capable... but that intelligence/capability is usually directed to a goal that is less than wholesome in most cases. Berserkers, killers, etc.
Chuunige with this type of protagonist: Devils Devel Concept, Silverio Vendetta, Muramasa, Yurikago yori Tenshi Made, Maggot Baits (yes it counts, though I hate to admit it) etc.
In almost every way it matters, chuunige are defined by their protagonists. Their perspectives are deliberately warped, corrupted, and/or out of sync with most human beings, and that is the primary reason I keep coming back to them, lol.
Edit: Note that most of the monster type protagonists come from chuunige-specialist companies that pretty much produce nothing but this type of VN, lol.
Edit2: A lot of the reason for the excessively exaggerated nature of character designs (both visual and written) in chuunige comes from a philosophy in the genre that is very similar to that seen on the stage when classic plays are acted out for a live audience. Making things over the top is seen as both a virtue and an absolute necessity for creating understanding in the watcher/reader in both cases.
I've been asked what my standards are for VNs in general and how I apply them to my commentaries on VNs I've played in this blog. I've explained my standards before, as needed, but there is something that came out in that conversation that I think needs to be addressed.
First, my favorite genre of VNs is and probably always will be chuunige. This is because I like violence, I like internal monologues, I like hedge philosophy, and I love all that crap that makes former chuunibyou patients roll around on the floor in embarrassment.
Second, my least-favorite genre will always be 'mystery/detective' stories. I don't enjoy them, because predictability can't be made into a virtue for this kind of story in most cases, and predictability is pretty much standard equipment for Japanese VNs.
Third, I don't hate charage/moege. This is perhaps the most important thing that needs to be made clear here. I do bash charage as a genre rather frequently, saying that it is a 'typical' charage something or other. However, when it comes down to it, what frustrates me about charage is that oftentimes a writer will go through a lot of trouble to construct an interesting setting for the game and/or its characters and... utterly fail to take advantage of what he built. A classic example of this is Koiken Otome, which has both supernatural powers and a past fight with monsters/aliens... so why do they not take advantage of the setting to make the heroine paths more interesting and memorable? This is a typical failure for many charage, but there are also some charage who manage to both build and use settings to their full extent. Saying that something is a trope, an archetype, or typical of the genre isn't necessarily a criticism. There are literally hundreds of charage out there, and the genre is the single most established one in VNs. As such, that it is ruled by tropes, archetypes, and typical setups is unavoidable, considering that the Japanese from of love is mimicry.
Now, that same person asked me how I evaluate charage, given my preference for storytelling above all other things... and my answer is 'It's a charage. I want it to tell me the heroine and the protagonist's story. I don't ask anything else of it, and you shouldn't expect anything more.'
At the same time, he asked me, 'Why are you so harsh with chuunige, if you love them so much?' When I started the VN of the Month thing, I made a decision to nitpick when it came to my favorite genres. This is something a lot of chuunige reviewers end up doing. Part of it is that chuunige are so complex that fanboys can easily pick out flaws in even the best games. Part of it is that we are all a bit twisted inside and a little S, so we want to punish our favorite genres/games.
My basic standards are storytelling, sound/music direction (rarely does a VN fall below a basically high level of quality in the actual music, so I base it on music usage), and visual media usage. Understand, the latter two standards don't cover raw quality of the 'materials'. I'm not a music freak or an art bigot, so as long as the art and music are used effectively, I am quite willing to overlook things no fanatic in either field would be willing to. This is born out of the fact that I grew up playing console jrpgs, and music direction and the usage of limited visual resources in combination with the storytelling (dialog) was often what made the difference between a kamige and a kusoge. I've found that the same applies to VNs, in my personal experience.
That said, I'm a long-time otaku, so I can be picky... but I generally am much less so than most otakus.
For the hell of it, I decided to make up a 'suggested playlist' for people who like/are interested in chuunige who have just begun to play untranslated VNs.
There are two variations on this guide. One is a 'test the waters, gradually take a dip, then dive into the depths' guide. The other is a 'Spartan Guide', which starts out with medium difficulty VNs and moves into harder and harder ones at the top tiers. Each VN list will have four tiers, based on a combination of my estimation of difficulty in reading.
For those unfamiliar with the term 'chuunige', some examples of chuunige that are translated are Fate/Stay Night, Tsukihime, Sorcery Jokers, and Tokyo Babel. I believe you can get the drift from those four examples, lol.
Soft Landing
Tier 1 suggestions (difficulty ranges from a 4-7 on a scale of 10)- Tiny Dungeon series, Draculius, Hyper→Highspeed→Genius (main path only), Ryuukishi Bloody Saga, ExE
Tier 2 suggestions (difficulty ranges from a 5-7.5 on a scale of 10)- Bloody Rondo, Shinigami no Testament, Gensou no Idea, Sinclient, Innocent Bullet. Yurikago yori Tenshi Made
Tier 3 Suggestions (note: VNs on this list range in difficulty from 6-8 on a scale of 10)- Evolimit, Bullet Butlers, Hello, Lady, Izuna Zanshinken, Devils Devel concept
Tier 4 Suggestions (note: VNs on this list range from 6-10 on a scale of 10)- Jingai Makyou, Soukou Akki Muramasa, Silverio Vendetta, Zero Infinity, Vermilion Bind of Blood, Tokyo Necro, Bradyon Veda
Spartan
Tier 1 Suggestions- Evolimit, Yurikago Yori Tenshi Made, Izuna Zanshinken(starts at the high end of 'soft landing' tier 2 up through the middle of tier 3)
Tier 2 Suggestions- Hello, Lady, Bullet Butlers, Devils Devel Concept
Tier 3 Suggestions- Vermilion Bind of Blood, Jingai Makyou
Tier 4 Suggestions- Silverio Vendetta, Zero Infinity, Tokyo Necro, Muramasa, Bradyon Veda
Some Last thoughts
Understand, I know people who are just fine with conversational Japanese and even a number of native speakers who can't handle Bradyon Veda or Muramasa. I honestly suggest you leave those two to last, no matter what. Bullet Butlers is slightly harder than Evolimit due to fantasy terminology. Vermilion is the easiest of the Tier 4 from 'soft landing'. I honestly suggest that anyone just beginning with this list do ExE or Draculius first, because if you can't understand what is going on in either of those even giving yourself time to do so, then you won't be able to play anything else on the list.
Suggestions
Toss aside stupid pride when playing chuunige and use a text hooker and kanji parsing engine (Mecab or jparser in TA will do fine). Chuunige often use kanji in ways almost unique to the individual writer or that are so archaic that even a native speaker won't grasp them immediately. This is a bad habit of chuunige writers in general. Some writers even revive kanji that have been out of common use since the middle of the twentieth century.
Don't feel like you are a traitor for looking up verbs or nouns you haven't encountered before. Almost all chuunige writers use 'literary Japanese', which is almost never seen in anime or manga. Literary Japanese, just like literary English, still uses terms that went out of use in the verbal part of the language decades or even centuries ago. Still, the verbs and nouns themselves are most likely in the dict on your parser, so it should be easy to look up their meanings.
For the last two years or so, I've gotten repeated requests to unequivocally name my top VNs made up until the present, ignoring objectivity, my vndb votes, etc. I've more or less just ignored most of those requests, because it is a pain in the ass to name a 'favorite' VN in the first place. I've made lists of VNs I loved from various genres, and I've also made lists of VNs for a specific purpose. However, I've avoided making a list like this one up until now, mostly because my 'favorites' switch out so often.
Let's get this straight for those who are going to criticize my choices... these are the VNs I like the most, not the fifty best VNs of all time. I make no pretense to preeminence of opinion in this case, because I'm also discarding all attempts at objectivity. What a person likes is ultimately a matter of personal tastes, not a matter of logic.
Why did I make it fifty? Because my number of VNs played, setting aside replays and nukige, is over six hundred already (with replays and nukige, it is closer to eight hundred...)... I'd be surprised if I didn't have this many VNs I considered wonderful.
Keep in mind that these aren't in a particular order.
1. Evolimit
2. Dies Irae (the one by Light)
3. Ikusa Megami Zero
4. Nanairo Reincarnation
5. Semiramis no Tenbin
6. Bradyon Veda
7. Vermilion Bind of Blood
8. Hapymaher
9. Tiny Dungeon (as a series)
10. Bullet Butlers
11. Chrono Belt
12. Ayakashibito
13. Otome ga Boku ni Koishiteiru 2
14. Chusingura
15. Draculius
16. Otome ga Tsumugu, Koi no Canvas
17. Silverio Vendetta
18. Konata yori Kanata Made
19. Grisaia series
20. Akatsuki no Goei series
21. Reminiscence series
22. Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no
23. Harumade, Kururu
24. Soukou Akki Muramasa
25. Tokyo Babel
26. Tasogare no Sinsemilla
27. Komorebi no Nostalgica
28. Yurikago yori Tenshi Made
29. Izuna Zanshinken
30. Moshimo Ashita ga Harenaraba
31. Kamikaze Explorers
32. Devils Devel Concept
33. Suzunone Seven
34. Baldr Skydive series
35. Baldr Sky Zero series
36. Toppara Zashikiwarashi no Hanashi
37. Tsuisou no Augment (series)
38. Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier
39. Shin Koihime Musou (series not including the original Koihime Musou)
40. Soshite Hatsukoi wa Imouto ni Naru
41. Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide
42. Irotoridori no Sekai
43. Noble Works
44. Koisuru Otome to Shugo no Tate (series)
45. Kitto, Sumiwataru Asairo yori mo
46. Jingai Makyou
47. Sakura, Sakimashita
48. Abyss Homicide Club
49. Re:Birth Colony Lost Azurite
50. Owaru Sekai to Birthday
This is a list of VNs I think are worthy of playing, regardless of my vndb vote (no VN of the Year, since I don't do VN of the Month anymore). While I haven't been playing much since September, the fact remains that I still played a large number of VNs this year. Feel free to object, but I have no obligation to listen anymore *whistles cheerfully as he juggles the flaming skulls of those who have opposed him in the past).
Fuukan no Grasesta
Mirai Radio no Jinkou-bato
Haru to Yuki (if I could say I'd played most of the games this year, this would be my VN of the Year choice)
Shin Koihime Musou Kakumei Son Go no Ketsumyaku
Maoten
Curio Dealer
Kimi to Hajimeru Dasantekina Love Come
Kimi to Mezameru Ikutsuka no Houhou
Butterfly Seeker
A.I. Love
Unjou no Fairy Tale
Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteiru: Trinkle Stars
Hataraku Otona no Ren'ai Jijou 2
Shogun-sama wa Otoshigoro
Hello, Lady Superior Entelecheia
I might add the new Venus Blood, depending on whether I come out on the other end feeling it was good, lol.
Since I get asked questions constantly on this subject, I'll go ahead and list a few pieces of advice I felt apply to most beginners.
1) Use translation aggregator and a text hooker, even if you feel like you should be getting out your kanji dictionary, out of a sense of self-reliance. I'll be blunt, it is hard to enjoy something if you have to refer to a kanji dictionary for every other non-particle word. I am sometimes stunned at people bragging about spending 100 hours on an 8 hour moege because they chose not to use a text hooker. That is not an efficient way of using your time, even if you want to learn kanji. It is actually more efficient time-wise to do kanji exercises separately and read your VNs with a text hooker (you'll still be done with both in half the time it would have taken for you to read it using a kanji dictionary).
2) There are two methods you can choose to start your untranslated career... you can start off easy and work your way up, or you can smash your head into the walls of text of the harder VNs out there. I chose the latter, and most people choose the former. The walls of text method has the advantage of jump-starting your learning... but in exchange, you'll probably end up sleeping more to let you process all the new information you've gathered and you'll get frustrated more often. If you want to use the former method, I made a list here sometime ago ( http://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/3493-for-love-of-vns-for-beginners/ ).
3) jparser in Translation aggregator isn't perfect, nor is Mecab. They are tools to give you a chance to parse the kanji faster, rather than a translation tool. However, there is a good side-benefit to the frequently weird choices of furigana they make... and that is that you'll naturally learn the path to understanding kanji puns without having to look them up later, and it will become ever more easy to dissect more difficult words even without the tools later on.
4) In the end, mastering reading untranslated VNs is an uphill battle for most people. Don't expect yourself or everything you use to be perfect from the beginning, as the very idea is absurd. You'll run into stumbling blocks constantly, and you'll worry endlessly about whether you really understood that last line for most of your first hundred VNs or so.
5) If you read slowly in your native language, you will also read slowly in Japanese. Reading is reading, and it is a skill honed by a simple process of practice, practice, practice that never ends. Yes, learning to read fast in your own language will help you learn to read fast in Japanese once you've gotten to a certain level. If you are barely competent in your own language, I'll be frank in saying that this isn't for you, not to be mean but because it is the same skill, regardless of the details.
6) Last of all, I'd suggest hitting a wide variety of genres early on, not just your favorite ones. Why? Because that sense of wonder and love for VNs is only going to last through your first twenty-five to forty VNs, and once you've gotten past that point, it is going to be harder and harder to grow beyond your limits on your own.
Say what you want about Studio Ryokucha, but their weird plotge/charage hybrids are some of my quirkier favorites. To be specific, Minamijuujisei Renka is my favorite game by this company, at least partially because of how deftly they sidestepped the worst of the 'high school' tropes while keeping the advantages of familiarity.
Minamijuujisei Renka is based on a fictional island still ruled by a post-colonial Caucasian aristocracy that long-since lost its connection with its long-dead original nation (I'm guessing Prussia is the model for the fictional dead nation, based on certain aspects of the setting). It has achieved a high level of technological and societal development despite being handicapped by a small land area, a relatively small population (just around a million), and the gap between the aboriginal population and the white aristocracy. The game's true/main heroine, Kanori, is the half-white, half-Japanese princess and currently the sole heir to the nation, a fact that has the more conservative elements grumbling about mongrels and other predictable purist BS.
The protagonist of this story, Tobe Ryousuke, meets Kanori by chance on his first day in the nation, when he gets lost and encounters her while she is fleeing from men in black. This leads to a predictably amusing set of small chase scenes, and it also solidifies Kanori and Ryousuke's relationship (her in love with him, him thinking of her as a friend) before he ever realizes who she is.
Ryousuke came to the nation involved along with his twin sisters, little genius girls who, when he collapsed from exhaustion trying to take care of them, took a job in the Dukedom in order to allow him to go to school and be a normal kid, essentially. Rina and Rena, the twin sisters, are both children (literally), and their cuteness of both manner and feature serves as a constant throughout the game, as they often appear at important moments to move the story forward. There are hints that if 'nii-chan' didn't have the good taste to get hitched before they were grown, there would have been some incest there, but, unfortunately for the lolicons out there *laughs at them* and fortunately for our peace of mind, they aren't heroines.
Anyway, this game is designed with a chapter system, where incidents occur and get resolved, bringing the protagonist closer with the heroines throughout the common route. This system often falls flat in games that use it, because it can get repetitive, but the creativity with which the writers set up the story makes that a non-issue in this game. Like a lot of games from the middle of the decade that just ended, most of the heroines are deredere almost from the beginning (the exception being Elize, though it can be argued she is just another tsundere along with Miyako).
Unlike many charage hybrids, this game doesn't kill the story in the heroine paths or only have the story in the heroine paths... rather, the story flows in different directions based on which heroine you pick, and it feels natural at the time, which is what is important. There are exciting moments in each path, without it flowing over into excessive seriousness (most of the story is interwoven with amusing or cute elements).
Though the story is good in this game, perhaps the place where this game shines the most is in character development. By the time the common route ends (it is fairly long), you have a solid idea of what all the heroines are like under the skin, and you have almost definitely gotten attached to one or more of them. Tbh, each time I play this game, I always waver between routes before making my choice, simply because I like all the heroines to one degree or another.
This game's weakness, from an objective standpoint, is the very length that allows for such extensive character development. Many simply won't have the stamina to finish even one path in a single run, due to the length of the common route. To give you an idea of its length, it is roughly the same as the common route of Clannad.
I occasionally go back to this game for one reason... it is so reliably enjoyable that just finishing a single route can temporarily restore my faith in the possibilities of charage.
One of only two games written by Kazutaka, the writer of the somewhat comically-named Doushite Daite Kurenai no!? Onna no Ko Datte Yaritai no! (incidentally, despite the title, the aforementioned game is not a nukige, which is in itself humorous, lol). It is also the game that gave substance to Ensemble's quest to define itself as a specialist company in trap protagonist and ojousama-ge. Ironically, it is also the flat-out best SOL game the company has ever made, which makes it somewhat sad for me that Kazutaka faded out after this game was released. I can say right out that the only reason I still try Ensemble games is because of the experience I had with this one.
One of the parts anyone who first plays this game will notice is that the protagonist is voiced. More than that, 'Mizuki' is voiced by a female VA that was able to put a hint of androgyny into the voice, giving you the impression that it was quite natural that most people mistake him for a girl. Another part of this game that is obviously noticeable from the start is that the writer has really done his research into the art field. 'Mizuki' has an extremely wide and deep knowledge of all forms of art and their care, and this serves as one of his (actually, it is easier to think of him as a girl with a penis, lol) charm points for the reader, along with his obvious love of housework.
One part that makes it easy to regard this game's path as being far more in-depth than the norm for an SOL-focused game is the way the choices are handled. Essentially, before you exit the prologue, you will have already chosen your heroine, since all choices are concentrated in a very short period of time at the beginning of the game. By choosing to essentially get the choices 'out of the way', the writer manages to avoid one of the most common pitfalls of VNs in general... breaking engrossment in the game by inserting choices into every important scene. This game essentially ignores the lie of player agency (Clephas: Player agency in a VN, pfft), which is definitely a positive in this case. This allows the protagonist's and the heroines' personalities and actions to become clear to the reader (and there is no doubt that you are a reader with this VN) without the interference of random choices or the need to keep which heroine you want to go for in the back of your mind constantly.
Ootori Rena
Rena is the game's obvious main heroine. She is the daughter of the town's owner and permanent mayor (literally, their business bought the town in which the game is based). She is also an art dealer from a family of art dealers. It is tempting, at first glance, to call her a tsundere... but for once, this archetypical characterization fails. Rena is very straightforward in how she expresses her feelings, having a policy of expressing her emotions openly regardless of what they are. She is also very mature in the sense that she has a solid grasp on what her responsibilities are to those around her, coming from her upbringing as the successor of a family of primary art dealers (art dealers that primarily 'raise' artists and sell their works as opposed to buying artists' works that already have an established market value).
I say she is the main heroine, and indeed, her path is one of the few paths where the protagonist is forced to confront his own issues head on. For better or worse, in most of the paths, Shin/Mizuki manages to avoid directly confronting his past and his own weakness, making this path an obvious favorite for me. That said, this was the first path I played originally, so I couldn't help but play this one first again.
Chiharu
Chiharu is my yome! lol Seriously, if you were to ask me which heroine (as opposed to 'which girl' since Akie is my favorite girl... I love haraguro characters) touched my heartstrings (and my libido) the most, it would be Chiharu. Chiharu is the single-minded but kind-hearted bodyguard that serves Rena. She is very serious and kind-hearted, but it often shows in odd ways, because she is somewhat socially awkward. Her reactions are also driven by her early upbringing and profession, the former of which was strict and the latter of which is professional security.
Chiharu's dere is... frighteningly powerful. Oh, this can be said of all the heroines, really, but Chiharu is a very loving soul. I love Chiharu's path for a lot of reasons, but the biggest reason is that she is, at heart, someone who just wants someone who can accept her from the bottom of their hearts, flaws, disabilities, and all. This very human worry is what turned Chiharu from a two-dimensional character to a person in my mind.
Also: 「だって幽霊って死んでるんだよ、死霊って生きてないんだよ、生きてなければ殺傷することもできないじゃないか、刀で死人は斬れないよ怖いよ！！」
Chiharu "But ghosts are dead! Ghosts aren't alive! If they aren't alive, you can't kill them! You can't kill the dead with a katana! I'm scared!"
「いえ、テレビは斬れます。寮の器物損壊はやめてください」
Akie "No, but you can cut the TV. Please refrain from damaging dorm property."
Shizuku
Shizuku is an art auctioneer and the daughter of the head of the Karasuma Group, a company that specializes in the resale of art. She and Rena are on bad terms, not the least because their places in the art industry make it inevitable. To most people, she is a sharp-tongued (dokuzetsu) but elegant-looking girl who dominates her surroundings by her very presence. In private, she is an intensely loving and passionate woman who will do absolutely anything and everything for the person she loves. However, she has a bad habit of jumping to conclusions (something that can be said of the other two heroines above as well, though not of Yuki and Anastasia), especially when it comes to Shin.
Tbh, this is the most frustrating of the routes to speak of, because so much of her profile is spoilers for the other routes. Let's just say there are some seriously hilarious antics that occur partly because of Shii-cha- *coughs* ahem, Shizuku's tendency to jump to conclusions, her willingness to do anything for the people she loves, and Rena's inevitable reactions, lol.
This path is primarily hilarious, but it also gets into the more intimate elements of Shin's 'why' in a way that even Rena's path doesn't. Tbh, if I were to put a recommended route order up, it would be Rena>Shizuku>Chiharu>Yuki>Anastasia. My reasoning for this is because this game actually benefits from experiencing it in an order that could be seen as 'main to sub' instead of 'sub to main' as I would normally recommend. All the paths are good in their own ways, but the knowledge from Rena and Shizuku's paths enhance the experience of the other three paths to a rather large degree. Moreover, playing Anastasia's path without having played Rena's would make it somewhat confusing, and I'm pretty sure some important points would be missed by first-timers.
For now, I'm going to stop, because I need to take a rest from SOL for a few days, but I'll finish this one up soon.
I think we can all agree I've read a lot of VNs. *waits for audience laughter with a smile*
*looks sad when the audience laughter recording doesn't work*
Anyway, over the years I've encountered a lot of writers. Some were mediocre, others were decent, yet others were good... and some were just great.
I decided to list the writers I honestly think have a lot of talent and whose works are something we, as VN fans, should at least keep an eye on. Tier One presents writers who are 'masters of their craft', to the point where they can be put onto a pedestal with few qualms.
My list:
Hino Wataru- Hino Wataru is Akatsuki Works' primary writer. His bad habits include a tendency toward overuse of line repetition (like 'soredemo, to' in Comyu and 'norowareta sekai' in Ruitomo) and an absolute adoration for hedge philosophy themes in each VN he writes. However, if you can endure his quirks, his raw writing is actually really high quality, and he does have a serious talent for scenario construction. It's just too bad that you can tell how he favors his heroines based on their path length and closeness to the 'true' heroine.
Masada Takashi- Now, the first thing that comes to mind to any of us when we hear 'Masada' is the famous/infamous VN Dies Irae. For chuuni fans and fans of elaborate prose, Dies Irae is a drug more powerful than heroin. For people who want prose to be straightforward and easy to understand, it is pure poison. His adoration for the use of phrasing rarely utilized in modern prose, flowery descriptions, and poetic phrasing have also made him one of the most impossible writers to translate, though. His preference is for grandiose settings, 'archetypical characters escaping their archetypes', and over the top plot twists. He is surprisingly good at avoiding giving away future story developments to the reader, and his most brilliant characters are usually the antagonists of the story, rather than the protagonists or the heroines. He is also a first-class master of the art of presentation.
Kurashiki Tatsuya and Takahama Ryou- These guys are what I like to call the 'Masada Fanboys'. Their prose, their scenario and setting construction, and even the cadence of their poetry is all an imprint of Masada. For those unfamiliar with Light's works, Kurashiki Tatsuya was the scenario writer for Maggot Baits (which had unbelievably good prose outside of the torture/sex scenes) and Takahama Ryou was one of Izumo 4's writers. While their writing shows off a rather obvious obsession with Masada's works, that doesn't seem to keep them from writing enormously enjoyable stories and characters. The biggest difference between them and Masada is that they tend to place more of an emphasis on the protagonist and heroines than Masada does (as Masada is a master of the 'supreme antagonist' as is evidenced by Amakasu, Reinhardt, Mercurius, and Hajun). Evidence of this is Vermilion, Electro Arms, Zero Infinity, and Silverio Vendetta, all of which were VNs that were defined almost entirely by the protagonist and/or the heroines.
Kinugasa Shougo- The writer of Akatsuki no Goei (the series) and Reminiscence (the series), Kinugasa Shougo is perhaps best known for his character-based situational comedy, despite having a surprising flair for building a setting. He has an inordinate fondness for dystopian settings and characters who are either amoral or outright villainous. Kaito in Akatsuki no Goei is perhaps one of the most amoral protagonists I've ever come across, possessing a capacity for directed brutality that I've found nearly unmatched in VNs combined with an arrogance that causes endless hilarity throughout the VNs involving him. However, this writer does have one huge flaw... he loves leaving things unfinished and/or to your imagination. He never concludes his stories, and things almost never have a 'happily ever after' feeling to them after he gets done with them.
Takaya Aya- Perhaps one of the most versatile writers on this list, Takaya Aya is Caramel Box's primary writer, having been responsible for many first-class VNs, including Semiramis no Tenbin, Komorebi no Nostalgica, Shuumatsu Shoujo Gensou Alicematic, Otoboku 2, and Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier. He is absolutely brilliant at creating empathetic characters and pulling the reader into their situations. He can do chuunige, slice-of-life comedy, nakige, and even a dark social commentary.
Higashide Yuuichirou- Like Masada, Higashide Yuuichirou is/was (he is retired) primarily a chuunige writer and was Propeller's main writer until 2011. Unlike Masada, he specializes in a more 'standard' version of the hero. His protagonists are designed to inspire, his writing is full of humor (both standard manzai and self-effacing), and he has a mastery of catharsis that Masada simply doesn't possess. To be honest, I've only come across a few writers that can balance so many elements in a single literary work without having it all fall apart, and his works don't lose their flavor after multiple playthroughs.
Takehaya- Takehaya is a master of catharsis, the creating of characters, settings, and scenarios that can draw out the emotions of the reader, forcing them into an emotional release despite themselves. All of his best works - from utsuge Konakana to the more recent Rakuen no Shugosha - rip into your heart and force you to make a place for the characters there. There are few writers out there that can do what he does, but I can't help but wish there were.
Morisaki Ryouto- Morisaki Ryouto is a challenger for Takaya Aya in terms of versatility, capable of writing nakige, charage, hard sci-fi, chuunige fantasy (Fate/Hollow Ataraxia) and even heavy eros. While he isn't as brilliant as Takaya as a writer, he does have a gift for adapting himself to the genre he is writing, and it is always worth it to at least try anything he writes, even if the genre itself turns out not to suit your tastes.
Shumon Yuu- Shumon Yuu is something of an enigma. He occasionally appears in the VN industry (every three years or so) and puts out a VN that is artistically brilliant (in the general sense) and possesses depths that are almost impossible to fully plumb in a single playthrough. Every VN he has put out since he hit his stride with Itsuka Todoku has been a kamige. He is also a light novel writer. He is brilliant at portraying both suffering and joy, drawing you into the setting and characters while presenting them in their best lights. If there is a writer in the VN industry I can say unequivocally is a genius, he is it.
This is a list of my favorite artificial (non-magical) heroines. The reason I thought this up was because I am currently replaying Komorebi no Nostalgica, which is pretty much the top for an AI-focused VN.
Emmy from Akabanzu https://vndb.org/c42670
Akabanzu itself is an unusual game in that it is a charage focused on a protagonist being forcibly rehabilitated from game addiction. The AI in this game, Emmy, focuses on a support role, which makes for a surprisingly interesting (and comedic) story. She isn't one of my absolute favorites, but failing to note her would leave the ignorant with no way to know such a VN existed.
Tsukuyomi from Kamikimi https://vndb.org/c85636
Tsukuyomi is a pretty interesting individual AI. Designed from the beginning to answer the protagonist's desires, she is somewhat... excessively enthusiastic about what she considers to be her duties. However, her story as a heroine and a side-character in the other routes is powerful, so I honestly consider her a good choice for a robot waifu.
Himefuuro from Missing X-link https://vndb.org/c78927
Himefuuro is an AI designed to form empathic links with her master, one of two projects (the other conflict-oriented). I'll be straight and say she is a lot like a cross between an older sister who spoils her younger brother rotten, a psychological therapist, and a maid. Her role is rather unusual while at the same time being the epitome of what a young male with a scarred psyche would seek from an empathic AI.
Accela from Reminiscence https://vndb.org/c12819
In the underground arcology that Reminiscence is based in, robots like Accela serve a number of service roles, and they have evolved a great deal since the age of Akagoei (which was centuries before). However, Accela is unusual in that her limiters (especially on emotional reactions) have been removed. She is the glue that keeps Aki and Hidetaka from breaking into pieces, a dear friend to Aki, and the holder of an emotional debt he won't even allow himself to speak of to Hidetaka.
Fluorite Alvega of Komorebi no Nostalgica https://vndb.org/c11680
A member of a race of self-aware and independent AIs in the twenty-fifth century, she is straight-out a member of the 'group of friends' in the game, having grown up with them quite literally. She is still in the process of developing emotionally (a process that never really ends, apparently), and her mechanical origins are obvious by her choice of wording and mannerisms. However, she does display emotion (if subtly) and cares about her friends (and Shouta in particular) greatly. As the member of a publicly-acknowledged machine race with equal rights to humans, she is unique on this list.
Neueblau T MILLA of Re:Birth Colony https://vndb.org/c44998
An AI 'child' born of the genius of a single scientist and grown inside a partially biological body, she is unusual on this list that while her origins are entirely artificial, she is nonetheless partially biological. She is an agent and diplomat for another arcology, and she acts as such, partly out of her duty to search out and handle dangers born of pre-Disaster projects. As a lover, there is little difference between her and the average human, save that she can switch bodies at need. Her older sister is married to the protagonist of Fake Azure Arcology in the story's canon and is also an AI.
Misora of Shiawase Kazoku-bu https://vndb.org/c23258
What can I say about Misora? Think 'standard-issue anime robot heroine' and you won't be far off. The game itself is more notable than her, similar to Akabanzu.
Ripple of Aekanaru Sekai no Owari ni https://vndb.org/c58825
The mischievous AI main character and main heroine of the sci-fi VN Aekanaru Sekai no Owari ni. I could say a lot about her, but not without spoiling the game. The game gets mixed reviews from those who like this kind of thing (mostly because of its age), but Ripple is a pretty good AI heroine, if one that is less 'convenient' as a heroine than most (you'll understand what I mean if you play the game).
There are other AI heroines out there (many of whom I have probably forgotten or don't consider to be heroines) but these are the ones that came to mind when I asked myself about AI heroines from games I could feel safe recommending.
Yes, I'm going to go there. I've actually been asked this more by my Japanese friend/supplier than anyone else, but I've always refrained from answering except to name one or two that I liked. However, I made the mistake of watching a few imouto anime on a binge a few weeks ago, and I began seriously considering which little sister paths were the best in the VNs I've played up until now. Note that I say these are the best 'paths', not necessarily the best imouto heroines. To be blunt, imouto heroines are a dime a dozen, and I've seen every variation on the concept a dozen times over, so I'm focusing on which paths were best, starting from ten, counting down to one.
First, little sisters in these will not include cousin paths unless they were raised under the same roof as siblings. Adopted sisters will be included, as will blood-related sisters who were parted from the protagonist for long periods of time.
10. Kuguyama Konoka (Prism Recollection by Clochette)
9. Shimazu Akira (Komorebi no Nostalgica)
8. Minori Hikari (Unmei Yohou o Oshirase Shimasu)
7. Kurosaki Sayo (Aoi Tori)
6. Hasuno Saki (Hapymaher)
5. Kaede (Shuffle Essence)
4. Tokitani Shinobu (Soshite Hatsukoi ga Imouto ni Naru)
3. Saisu Riku (Floral Flowlove)
2. Asagiri Futaba and Ichiha (Realive)
1. Shimazu Aki (Reminiscence)
As you can imagine, I got a lot of requests for a similar list over the years, but the thing is, I don't play VNs in English that didn't start out in English. As such, my recommendations are based entirely on my experience of the Japanese versions of these VNs, rather than the localization. As such, don't hold me responsible for your personal experiences, lol. I'm going to split these by genre so I don't have to answer questions along those lines. For the purposes of fairness, I won't include anything with a machine translation (which means no Chuushingura).
Chuunige
I/O (yes, I did indeed play this, and it was good despite being dated horribly)
FSN (you saw that coming, right?)
Tsukihime (again, you saw that coming, right?)
Comyu (fantasy)
Ayakashibito (fantasy)
Tokyo Babel (fantasy)
Dies Irae (fantasy)
Demonbane (fantasy)
Sorcery Jokers (fantasy)
Hello, Lady (upcoming fantasy)
Hatsuru Koto naki Mirai Yori (upcoming eventually, fantasy)
Baldr Sky (whenever it comes out (*crosses fingers for your sake* sci-fi)
Phantom of Inferno (despite all the problems with the localized version it is a great read)
Muv-Luv Alternative (this one is borderline, because it makes you read two mediocre games prior just to understand it)
Charage/Moege
Noble Works
Majikoi (classified this way as long as you don't include the true/last route)
Da Capo (the original only, and only because it is wrong not to have the archetypical moege experience at least one time in your VN lifespan)
Shuffle (truth be told, I'm basing this assessment off of the expanded version, not the version originally released over here)
Sanoba Witch (Yuzu-soft and thus predictably overdone with the ichaicha since this is one of their less plotge-style ones)
Dracu-riot (Wait until an official release comes out. The patch currently floating around is a nonentity in comparison)
Senren Banka (Sadly not out yet, but something to look forward to)
Chrono Clock (I listed it in this one rather than plotge because the 'plot' was a bit too thin)
Akatsuki no Goei (the original falls, barely, into this category, despite some seriously disturbing shit involving Kaito's origin story that was dropped here and there and the dystopian nature of the setting. Fan patch will probably be released next year)
Tsujidou-san no Jun'ai Road (yes, I put this here)
Note: For those who wonder why my list is sparse on a lot of names beloved by those who play localized games obsessively... you do realize that a lot of the charage that get released over here are from the bottom of the pile, right?
Nakige
Hapymaher (probably my biggest recommendation for this genre)
Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no (for the distant future, something to look forward to)
AstralAir no Shiroki Towa (whenever it releases)
Hoshizora no Memoria (yes, I recommend it, lol)
Irotoridori no Sekai (Eventually. And again, more Favorite... despite the fact that its staff idolize mysterious lolis)
Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura doki (I was insanely surprised that this got localized at the time, considering the normal sluggishness of localization at the time)
Plotge
Koisuru Otome to Shugo no Tate (partial with two routes done. Definitely worth reading, if only to get an idea of what AXL is like)
Cross Channel (weirdly, I've always had a fondness for this game and its clinically insane protagonist)
Yume Miru Kusuri (yes, I played it. Yes, I liked it)
Boku ga Tenshi ni Natta Wake (no idea when this will come out... but definitely a recommendation, for all the screwy shit that happens in it)
Nanairo Reincarnation (upcoming soon hopefully for you, since that would mean two kamige releases in two years, lol)
Hello,Goodbye (this was a possible for chuunige, but I put it here. This will supposedly release before the end of the year, but I'm guessing March)
Gameplay Hybrid
Eien no Aselia
Seinarukana
Ar Tonelico
Ar Tonelico 2 (this and the one above can only be considered to be borderline VNs in an odd way, because they are mostly jrpgs with a few VN elements)
Note: I don't include anything Eushully, because none of the good ones have a translation that isn't a machine one.
First off, those who remember my comments on Natsuzora and 12gatsu will remember I mentioned hating Minori games, with the exception of Eden*. The fact is, that I still do hate them, I hate reviewing them, and I hate reading them.
The question is, why?
I keep asking myself this. Minori has really good visual quality, good writers, and decent characters (even if they basically reuse the exact same cast over and over with different appearances and background stories to suit a given VN).
The reason turned out to be very simple... Minori is very good at making the interesting seem mundane in a bad way. To be blunt, if there is one thing I hate, it is mud and blood romantic drama (ie, the Lifetime Movie Network turned VN). Except for with Eden*, where romance wasn't really the focus of the game (though it existed), all of Minori's VNs are basically this type of story with the addition of fantasy. I don't think I've ever come across a VN company that can so consistently make me hate its protagonists in such a personal and intimate manner as I've encountered with Minori.
I have absolutely loathed all of the protagonists, at least on some level (though I wasn't conscious of it until I really went back and thought about it later) of the Minori games I've played besides Eden* and Wind (which I can barely recall at all, lol). All of their protagonists should, logically, be interesting... but with the 'mud and blood romance' that characterizes their stories, they make those interesting aspects into a reason for contempt and mediocrity. Since I get behind a protagonist's eyes when I play, it is like being forced to hate myself, and self-hate isn't exactly a healthy emotion, even when it is vicarious.
What is worse is that all their works after ef have followed this exact basic pattern. I used to have a vague hope they might do something as interesting as Eden* again, but I've more or less been forced to forget that hope as I've slogged through VN after VN by this company. If there is a company that is antithetical to my tastes while achieving partial synchronicity with them, it is this one. I find myself feeling like a hypocrite for hating them, which makes the hate worse, ironically.
I can't even really enjoy the suffering of the characters like I would with an utsuge... because there is always at least one moment where the protagonist makes such a big ass of himself that I want to throw my laptop on the ground and stamp on it in every single one of these things. There is no catharsis for me these games... and the whole reason I go for VNs that stimulate the emotions is because that catharsis is one of the things I seek from VN stories.
*breaths heavily and sighs* Anyway, that is enough raving... understand, this is just an opinion. I really, really hate ef and all the Minori works that are based on the same model. Some are good, some really are awful, despite visual and audio quality, but I hate them all nonetheless. Hearing people praise Minori causes me emotional stress, hearing people say ef is good makes me want to scream, and having people pm to ask me what I think of Minori games other than Eden* makes me want to break something.
PS: Soreyori no Prologue is more of the same so far... protagonist has already made me hate him, and he has only gotten worse since the first turning point of the story.
I'm currently playing Koko kara Natsu no Innocence, the latest VN by Clochette, a charage company specializing in busty heroines that tends to produce first-class character development and heroine stories. One aspect of Clochette that I've always thought was a bit funny was the obsession with 'shoushika', the current phenomenon in Japan where fewer and fewer young people are getting married and/or having kids. This is touched upon to one degree or another in a lot of VNs, because it is an issue that becomes bigger every year for the Japanese. Why? Because they are dying off faster than their kids are being born, and it has been that way for more than two decades. That in itself wouldn't be that big of a problem normally... falls in population are actually positive when you get to modern population levels. However, the drastic population fall in Japan is such that it is constricting them economically to a degree that scares many of their social scientists, making it into as big a scientific deal there as climate change is here. Clochette has a tendency to insert subtle anti-shoushika propaganda into it throughout its length, actively encouraging the reader to go out and have kids. It is one of the funnier things about it, as most charage gloss over the kids aspect outside of the h-scenes (and then it is only get the perversion levels up). However, themes of continuation across generations, preparing for the next generation, thinking about a future for the kids, etc. are common to all of Clochette's games, to one degree or another. Ironically, it is this 'activist VN-writing' that is what makes their stories frequently so much fun to read, and the message itself is kind of amusing when you think about it (since we aren't Japanese). However, I do find it interesting how VN makers will sometimes use the platform for subtle activism (brainwashing through eroge, lol). If you want another example of VN-activism, Semiramis no Tenbin is a bit more blatant about it, hitting on almost every major piece of 'dirty linen' in Japan's social closet. VNs in general, like all entertainment media, can be used in such ways... and frequently, the best VNs will be activist on one level or another, because passion plus skill tends to bring out much better results than just one or the other. Edit: Namima no Kuni no Faust is another example of somewhat blatant 'VN-activism', and in its case, it is a combined statement, criticism, and speculation on capitalism as a religion. Yes, I say a religion, because to those who worship the mighty dollar, that is precisely what it is. The entire VN is a story about a true free market economic society taken to its logical conclusion. It was a fascinating exercise, and it left a lot of food for thought, without necessarily being completely negative about capitalism in general or even some of its more obvious flaws.
Over the last few weeks, I've gone back through all of the chuunige Hino Wataru was responsible for, and I came up with a number of common points that exist in each of his games, that define his overall style. At the same time, I thought I'd also mention why I usually recommend Comyu to people despite the translation being such a disaster.
Hino Wataru patterns
Hino Wataru has a number of unique patterns that define his style of writing chuunige (some of it spills over into his SOL games, which I plan to replay soon as well). Here, I will describe these patterns and why they are unique in modern non-nukige VNs.
First, every Hino Wataru game has at least one major character (antagonist, protagonist, main character, or heroine) who is sexually open or strongly driven by their sexual impulses to the point of being out of control. In Ruitomo, it was the infamous predatory lesbian Atori. In Hello, Lady, Narita Shinri is himself the one with the overdriven libido. In Comyu, both Haru and Akihito can be considered to be of this type, albeit for opposite sexes. Shizuku (a major antagonist in Suisei Ginka) is pretty much a bisexual succubus. Akeno Shuri himself in Hi ga Nai is the sexually amoral one. (incidentally, the first complaint most people have about Akihito from Comyu is that he is a cheating man-whore... but I always figured they were just being prudes)
Second, every Hino Wataru chuunige has some kind of internal catchphrase (sometimes multiple ones) that plays a vital part in the thought processes of the protagonist. In Ruitomo, it is 'we are cursed'. In Comyu, it is 'koko wa yasashii oukoku' and 'soredemo, to'. In Hello, Lady it is 'Nasu beki koto o nasudarou.'. Generally speaking, these phrases are often loaded with multiple meanings or meanings that are unconventional. Unfortunately, these phrases and a lot of Hino Wataru's other wordgames just don't translate at all, which is one of the reasons why Comyu's translation comes across as flat or awkward.
Third, a lot (not all) of his chuunige involve a group of characters forced together because of circumstance that never quite get over that first awkwardness. The heroines of Hello, Lady never really settle down around Shinri. Ruitomo's group of friends are constantly on the verge of being at one another's throats over one thing or another. Comyu's main cast has so many conflicting personalities it is a miracle they don't kill one another (literally).
Hino Wataru loves to philosophize. All of his chuunige protagonists philosophize or have a moral policy that is slightly or completely out of sync with conventional morality. Narita is capable of valuing life deeply while taking the lives of others ruthlessly for the sake of his goals. Akihito is ruthless at times, excessively soft on women, and actively prioritizes those close to him over what is right. It goes on.
Comyu
During my recent replay of Comyu, I was reminded again of why I stopped playing VNs in English. I played the patched version of Comyu shortly after it came out, out of curiosity... and it was enough to put me off playing translates games entirely for years after. A lot of this has to do with elements of Hino Wataru's style that just don't translate well, so it can't be said to the translator's fault entirely...
As such, it always screws with me when people nitpick the translation then use it to bash the game itself. Calling Akihito a man-whore is fine, but using that as a reason not to like the game always struck me as stupid, since he has a lot more stuff to him that makes him interesting.
Anyway, down to the nuts and bolts...
Comyu, as anyone who has played it knows, suffers because of the way the paths are locked at the beginning. To be blunt, nobody who plays the game likes Benio as a heroine. She is naive, her personality is incompatible with what is going on, and, though she serves as a perfect opposite to Isawa, that doesn't get around the fact that her naivete is frequently annoying. As a side-character, she is excellent, but, like Ruitomo, forcing you to play the least interesting heroine first doesn't make for a good start.
Hisoka's path benefits from being highly emotional... Hisoka's situation is a tear-jerker, and the way you are introduced to it is ideal for ripping your heart out and serving it back to you on a plate. It has one bad, one normal, and one 'sort of good' ending... However, it is also much bloodier and darker than Benio's path, providing a strong contrast.
Mayuki's path is significantly more light-hearted and SOL-focused than the previous two paths, but it too has a number of strongly emotional moments. It has one bad and one good ending and only one major fight.
Now we come to Kagome's path (Ayaya's not being worth mentioning). Kagome is, very obviously from the beginning, the true heroine of the game. She and Akihito are inseparable in all the paths, and the one thing she never does is abandon him. This path reveals the 'area behind the stage' in its entirely, and as a result, it is exponentially more bloody than all the other paths combined. Kagome's own truths are about as dark as they come, and all the characters are pushed to their very limits, many of them dying in the process.
Kagome is one of the major reasons I come back to this game on occasion. She is also the heroine who sparked my recognition of the phenomenon of the 'absolutely connected' heroine (the type of heroine who is so close to the protagonist that she is still by his side in all the paths, unless she dies). Not to mention she is the only heroine I've ever encountered who honestly loves the protagonist to the point of being truly deredere and yet has a semi-permanent sneer/contemptuous smile on her face (I consider her to the ultimate spiky tsundere). Well, she is also truly contemptuous of him... it just doesn't get in the way of her loving him.
