First, I'm going to state that all charage/moege are harem-ge (with the exception of kinetic novels with only a single heroine). In all these cases, you have a bevy of heroines that are, at the very least, friendly with or somehow attached to the protagonist. There are a three standard types of harem that I consider to be general umbrella types. These harems do not include nukige sex-only harems or the type of harems that pop up in gameplay hybrid VNs, as these often have distinctive story-exclusive reasons for harem formation.
The Disconnected Harem
This is the standard-issue harem for modern charage/moege. In this harem situation, the protagonist is independently connected to most of the heroines, with very little or no interaction between the members of his harem of latent deredere troopers. The reason this has become the dominant harem in the charage genre in the last seven years or so is because it is the one that is the most 'tasteful' to monogamists and traditionalists. In this case, the heroines either have no real connection with one another or only weak connections that become tenuous the second the heroine path begins. Games that have these harems tend to have extremely weak casts of characters in general, and there is usually very little or no real conflict between the characters (low incidence of love triangles, few jealousy attacks, etc). As a result, games with this type of harem tend to have weak or nonexistent plots, lackluster SOL outside of ichaicha dating, and 'convenient' drama that is resolved so quickly it might as well not even exist. These harems generally disband at the end of the common route, as the protagonist seems to completely forget any attraction he had to the other girls and they fade into the background.
The Dominant-Sharing Harem
The Dominant-sharing Harem is defined by the members of the harem being at least somewhat familiar with each other (often friends, family, or members of a group or club) and able to be cooperative to an extent while competing for the protagonist's love and attention. Girls in this kind of harem situation (Shuffle is a prime example of it) are ok with the idea of sharing the protagonist in the abstract, but in practice they want to be the 'first wife' or the 'wife' and relegate the other heroines to the mistress or concubine status (though it isn't always stated this bluntly). This is perhaps the most realistic harem situation, as, historically, real harems - other than royal ones - have usually been structured with a head or first wife and a number of secondary wives, often married with the permission of or by the choice of the first wife, lol.
The Everybody's Equal Harem
The Everybody's Equal Harem is, just as the name indicates, a harem where the protagonist essentially loves and treats all the heroines equally and the heroines accept this situation, albeit often with a tacit understanding between one another that they won't stop aiming for a Dominant-Sharing type situation. As such, this can often be considered a prelude to a Dominant-Sharing Harem result in practical terms. A classic example of this would be the end of the Grisaia series or the ending of Strawberry Feels, where the protagonist himself never forms a preference, even if the heroines do build a sort of pecking order based on dominance of personality or circumstance. Tiny Dungeon's Endless Dungeon ending can also be considered this kind of ending, whereas the individual routes represented by the first three games would be considered Dominant-Sharing harems.
Why I bothered with this post
Anyone who has been an otaku as long as I have been has to accept that harem-thinking is essential to SOL otaku-ism. As early as Love Hina and Tenchi Muyo, rom-coms have been creating wacky harems and weird situations that result. This is because romantic comedy is the easiest type of comedy for anyone to get into, and the easiest one to empathize with... and comedy used to be the dominant genre in otaku media (though romance always came a close second).
The evolution from that type of loose harem (though in later incarnations, the Tenchi universe threw off all pretense of not being harem-ist) to the current situation took decades, but it was a natural evolution in visual novels in particular, due to the fact that most visual novels are multi-route, heroine-focused affairs. Charage in particular, with their focus on SOL, inevitably give off a sense that the protagonist is the center of a harem, even if it is only in the common route. Since this kind of situation appeals to the more primitive parts of the male psyche (males are genetically predisposed to seeking multiple mates, though socialization and emotional attachment overwhelm this in modern settings), eroge tend to abuse this flagrantly.
Oh yeah, if you haven't figured it out, I like harem endings that aren't sex-heavy... but that isn't so much because I have a thing for 'collecting' bishoujos. Rather, I like the various situations that result in VNs, as they are often intellectually interesting, heart-warming, or hilarious (or all three). Nukige-style harem endings are boring and make me roll my eyes, mostly because I question whether anyone has that kind of stamina, and because ignoring the emotional and practical aspects entirely like that makes it hard to suspend disbelief. If a plotge can make me think a harem would work, I want to see it work, lol.
For those who are wondering, I am currently replaying Unionism Quartet before moving on to A3 Days. It has been long enough that I didn't recall most of the details, so I needed a refresher. At the same time, I'm playing Dishonored 2, so I'm dividing my time in half between VNs and gaming right now.
I don't plan on doing a full post solely on Unionism Quartet, so I'm going to just relate a few impressions here before I finish Yulia's path (I already finished Silvia's, Jubei's, Yuno's and Mariel's... meaning I did all the secondary and sub-heroines before I hit on the game's true heroine, lol).
First, as non-bloody combat VNs go, Unionism is actually fairly good. It actually ranks up there with Walkure Romanze and a few others I could name... if nothing else, the protagonist is decent. However, replaying it in light of the fact that a fandisc/sequel was just released, I'm a bit dissatisfied, as it has become rather apparently that they intended to sequel this thing to death from the beginning, based on the way they did the endings (all the endings are short and based only a short time after the end of the main story).
The game's story structure is of a type I'm sure veterans are familiar with... essentially, you pick a heroine and some scenes change and are added on, but the main story doesn't change to any significant degree, leading to a significant amount of repeated text, for those who dislike that kind of thing.
This is a moege (yes, a moege) and a nakige (think Key style, with less depth and more sex) by Aries, a company that makes 'themed' games (mostly). In this case, the theme is 'what if?' Basically, they set it up as a deliberate 'what if you changed these events?' scenario for the protagonist. To be frank, Aries' games tend to rank from average down to somewhere below mediocre, outside of having some of the sexiest heroines I've seen outside of nukige and Semiramis no Tenbin, lol (this is setting aside the actual art style and focusing on how it is used).
I'm going to be blunt... this VN's pacing is downright awful at first. At least part of it is because it uses the 'map episode choice' system, where you literally choose what episodes of the VN's story to read from a map... about eighteen times. It is more or less established fact, in my experience, that VNs with too many choices tend to have horrible pacing... and this doesn't break from that mold. It is fine when those choices actually make an obvious difference to the story, but this is basically choosing what heroines you pay attention to, over and over until you get to the end of the 'common route'. To be blunt, this system is as annoying as hell and breaks immersion to an immense degree, weakening the VN as a whole.
The biggest example, other than the choice system, of how the pacing is awful... is the actual progression to romance. Basically this is an 'every love confession happens at approximately the same point' setup. There is no buildup to the confession save for one brief scene, and that isn't nearly enough to aid the formation of the kind of mindlessly adoring deredere bacouple that gets formed in this VN. For one thing, who has sex within an hour of a confession of love when neither side was really even aware of their own feelings up until that point? lol That seriously stretches suspension of disbelief.
On the upside, the heroine paths are pretty decent... emotional, with mild catharsis. However, they are also exactly like a dozen other similar paths from VNs made in the nakige 'golden age' between 2000 and 2004. Tia's path is probably the most emotional - for obvious reasons - but even it has such a cliche turn of events (think uguu~ ) that I just had to sight with exasperation at the end, after it was all over.
For better or worse, this is a VN that goes back to basics... in other words, a bare-bones old-style 'classic' nakige. If you actually like that type of VN, it will be a nice appetizer... but if you are tired of the old styles, it has an immense potential for boredom.
With Tales of Berseria coming out today, I pulled Zestiria out of my long backlog last week and began playing it.
I've been playing the Tales series since Tales of Destiny came out for the PSX in the nineties, and I've played most of the mainline series, though I regretted it in some cases. To be blunt, Tales of Vesperia is still the last truly great Tales game, even after playing this one. However, my conclusions will probably differ somewhat from the reviews out there on the net, which were mostly hype complaints and comments about other issues that have nothing to do with the actual game in question.
First, I'm going to address the Alisha issue, since it was the one that pissed off the Western fans (the Japanese fans apparently didn't feel 'cheated' like some of us did, lol).
The second issue that tended to drive some Western fans nuts was the use of a pure-hearted hero protagonist. To be blunt, I thought this ignored the struggles of the characters in the story, as well as the honest way Sorey faces the dirty realities of the world he lives in. While Sorey's personality is generally straightforward and pure-hearted, that doesn't mean that he lacks complexity... he doesn't. In fact, the struggles with the pitfalls of a pure-heart in a world that seeks to destroy or corrupt such individuals are pretty much the central issue of the story toward the end. I was impressed at the twist the Tales team put on this over-used character type.
Last of all, I'm going to address the setting, which is probably the most impressive part of the story-related issues. Rather, I'm going to talk about how... Japanese this setting is. Most jrpgs, for better or worse, pick a mostly Western underpinning to their settings... and visually, this game seems the same. However, that visual aspect is mostly just a facade, if you know what you are looking for.
As an example, the 'Lords of the Land' system is a fairly straightforward reproduction of the Japanese concept of the 'tochigami', or a kami whose duty is to watch over and provide blessings to a particular area in Shintoism. The Seraphs and Hellions are also obviously based off of Shinto concepts, as well as the idea of 'malevolence' (a more correct translation would be corruption, filth, or taint, but this is Namdai's localization team we are talking about...lol).
Even the way Sorey has the seraph members of the team reside in his body resembles the 'kamioroshi' concept in Shinto.
Overall, the setting was a rather fascinating utilization of Japan's unique embedded culture, from my point of view... which is probably why it didn't translate that well to most Western audiences, lol.
Now, for an obligatory gameplay comment... this is perhaps the easiest system of any Tales game after they went three-dimensional with Abyss to master. The battle mechanics of the Tales series have, since Abyss, been somewhat unfriendly to the less dexterous fans of the series. While they could be played and enjoyed to an extent even by the more fat-fingered fans, the fact was that such fans ended up grinding to much higher levels just to be able to handle things in the last few entries in the series. In that sense, this game was a victory of design.
Now to the downside... the way levels make so little difference. I'm not kidding. Levels in this game make little to no difference due to the micro-level stat increases and their relatively limited effects on the battlefield. If you want a shortcut to victory in this game, equipment fusion is the god at whose feet you should be worshiping, as putting together the right set of equipment skills and enhancing your equipment to a certain level is far more important to victory than simply gaining levels. Unfortunately, since skills on equipment and equipment drops and appearances in shops are a matter of random virtual dice-rolls, this process was needlessly cumbersome and time-consuming, though it does mean that you can theoretically strengthen the first tier of weapons to a ridiculous level of power given enough time and effort.
The gameplay, which was praised far more than the story, is in some ways the game's greatest weakness... at least from my point of view. To a customization geek, it is heaven, but I went into the game wanting a straight jrpg experience, so it was tedious for me.
EDIT/UPDATE: I forgot to add a section on the Alisha's story dlc, mostly because i didn't think about it at the time. My opinions on the way this game ended are at least partly based on the existence of this DLC. My reason is that this story, while it sucks as a sop to people who thought Alisha was supposed to be the main heroine of the game, is great for tying off loose ends, of which there were many because of the 'classic' way they chose to close out the epilogue (lots of pictures, very little dialogue).
A few extra comments on the story: Considering the amount of salt puked out by reviewers and western players, I was thinking this game would be a worse abomination than Abyss, and I was prepared to lose interest and drop it halfway through. However, for a JRPG with a pure-pure protagonist, there were almost no true head-desk moments outside of the comedic skits. That is a huge plus, since the Japanese tendency to have parties full of dreamy idealists (even the ones who seem cynical) is perhaps the worst habit of the industry. Sorey is indeed, by most standards, naive, but he is quite capable of accepting and comprehending other people's viewpoints while creating his own opinions, which is perhaps the one point on which he surpasses most protagonists of his type.
Perhaps the most interesting way they approached the role of the Shepherd was in how they present his proper role as one only involved in purifying Hellions and malevolence, avoiding excessive interference in everyday human affairs. This means, unlike most protagonists of the type, he has to turn his back on people at times simply because it is not his duty to intervene. To the inexperienced, this might seem like a minor touch, but it is one I marked as a welcome departure from the surrealist hero-has-to-save-everyone ideas most JRPGs seem to get infected with.
This one was a straight-out contest between Lost Echoes and Otoboku 3.
On the one hand, Lost Echoes has an excellent story and some seriously good heroines.
On the other hand, Otoboku has first-class writing, first-class slice-of-life, and excellent epilogues.
In fact, it was that last element that decided the contest... the two were neck and neck, but the difference in epilogue quality, which is much more important than most people credit it for being, was huge. Lost Echoes, for better or worse, ends very soon after the final climax for each path, and (in the VN's chronology) a month or less after the climax. Otoboku 3, however, had detailed epilogues that dealt with the thereafter of the heroines and protagonist, which is a huge plus for remaining in my memory.
So, in the end, Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru: Trinkle Stars was VN of the Month, February 2018.
It should be mentioned that my utter inability to play sports VNs made Tsubasa no Shita a non-starter for me from the beginning (I like combat and blood sports, but other sports suck as game themes except for seishun BS).
Ok... normally I chose my Random VNs really at random, on a whim, through whatever method comes to mind. However, this year there were a number of requests - mostly from off-site people (c'mon guys, I shouldn't be having two-thirds of those that make requests be off-site people, considering this site is the only one I'm really active on). First, due to my Venus Blood, Ikusa Megami, and Sengoku Hime marathons of previous years, I was asked to marathon another long-running series with numerous entries by several people who argued convincingly for it. That series is Tsuyokiss. Understand, I am not fond of this series. The original is one of the more overrated pieces of cliched VN material out there, and the sequels hardly vary from the original at all in terms of concept or content. Nonetheless, I chose to hear out this request and you'll have the opportunity to read about my journey through this major series, at least in part due to the recent release of an omnibus version of the entire series. I will also be (have already restarted) replaying the entire Grisaia series as a revival event, entirely in Japanese while also explaining some things I noticed after having gone back and forth between the two versions of the original (this was originally a request, and I'm still unsure if I can manage to do this without turning it into a translation criticism party). Now for single-game replays... I'll be replaying these VNs for certain in the next year: Houkago no Futekikakusha, Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai (to give it a proper review this time), Noble Works (again, this is on a request from someone who wanted me to do a full commentary on the game), Ruitomo (again on request), and Soukou Akki Muramasa (on request). All of these requests were made over the course of the past four months, and I am kind of angry that certain someone gave out one of my private emails to certain members of the larger community, as it meant that I had to actually seriously sift my junk mail box. I'm also accepting requests for random VNs from the last five years that I haven't played, though in this case I reserve the right to seriously think about it before doing so.
Mmm... because I replayed Lost Azurite, I thought I'd do a bit of comparison... also because I didn't feel up to playing Sengo or Dragoon yet. Fake Azure Arcology is based some time before Lost Azurite, in Amahara, an arcology completely cut off from the outside world. It is a city that basically tries to maintain a sense of the 'outside' inasmuch as it is possible while essentially living inside a giant dome. Seasons and the sky are simulated, as is weather, and it is even possible to cook real food (though it is reconstituted through the recycling systems for the most part). The element of the setting most central to the story is 'Flight', a type of race-battle involving fast-moving airplanes dogfighting while struggling to reach the goal first.
The protagonist, Chihiro, is a former pilot who lost the ability to fly due to a certain traumatic event. He acts bright and cheerful and is something of a troublemaker, but he is constantly struggling with his desire to return to the skies. Near the beginning of the VN, he suddenly finds himself rescuing a blonde girl from a downed aircraft, and that is how the story really gets started.
To be honest, most of this story is the heroines beating up on the protagonist because he is so utterly hopeless at anything other than making trouble and flying. I'm pretty sure anyone who has watched anime from the late nineties and early 2000's will recognize the 'punching bag protagonist', who seems to spend all his time getting insulted and treated like crap by women who love him anyway. To be blunt, he is that type. For those who can't stand this type of situational comedy, I honestly have to warn you against playing this.
Reti, the blonde girl, is Noel's counterpart in this story, in the sense that she originates from the same place (and even has a brief cameo appearance in the true end of Azurite). She is cheerful, free-thinking, and a bit cat-like. She drags Chihiro around behind her as she explores Amahara, and it is her appearance that drives the feelings of the various heroines out onto the surface.
Rio is... a girl that really looks like she should be yandere. Seriously. In fact, there are a lot of moments, both in her path and otherwise, where you almost see her that way. She and Chihiro are osananajimis, and their past is complex and wrapped up in the events that caused Chihiro's trauma and the aftermath. She is what is called a 'heavy' woman, in the emotional sense, and that is the primary cause of conflict with her and Chihiro throughout the story.
Akira is an imouto-like character (sort-of) who is also Chihiro's osananajimi... but she is also from a powerful family that serves as a lodestone for the trouble in this story. Her path is, to be honest, mostly involved with that family and its problems. It is also the weakest path, looking at it from an objective perspective.
Haruko, the final heroine, is the protagonist's former rival, a fellow pilot who went through training school with him. Her path is one of the better ones (if you are just going for detail, Rio's is the best), and it is the most intimately involved with the sport of Flight, for reasons that are self-evident.
Overall, to be honest this story does not in anyway match that of Lost Azurite. I don't say this as an insult, but Lost Azurite was both darker and more unconventional. For that reason, those who like Lost Azurite might very well hate this one and vise-versa. That said, both times I played it, it was a fairly interesting (if at times irritating due to protagonist issues) trip into the future, and I honestly liked most of the characters, despite everything. I do think this VN could have used a much longer and more solid set of after-stories, and I would have liked to see an added ending for a certain character, but other than that, most of its flaws are forgivable.
Some people may have seen the relatively low-quality anime for Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou and are probably wondering why I am bothering to spout about this. Lately I've been plowing through LNs and web novels because I ran out of interesting VNs, but this is the first one I feel a need to expound on at length. Let's be clear, I am one of the freaks who enjoyed the anime, though I did so while wincing constantly at the animators' choices and the horrible monster CGs. To me, Hajime's story just stood out as being that good, despite the crippling weakness of having used up half the season on the 'buildup arc' that is the content of the first LN.
However, I wasn't anticipating just how high in quality the web novel version would be. To be blunt, Ryo Shirakome is one of those rare Japanese writers who really is as good as the hype and has a very obvious love of the material he is writing. More importantly, he is very consistent with how he portrays his characters and their growth.
Story Intro
For those unfamiliar with this series, it focuses on Nagumo Hajime, a young man summoned with his class to another world, only to turn out to be the overall weakest of the group and in possession of a class that is both common and unsuited for battle. In the beginning, Hajime is a kind-hearted, pacifistic young man with a great deal of courage (and enough of an otaku that it survives all his travails) but no standout abilities. However, when delving into the depths of the Orcus Labyrinth, his fellow classmates get caught in a trap and they are all sent to a much lower floor... to face a Behemoth, a monster that is beyond their abilities. Hajime, despite his weakness, manages to help greatly in holding it off, but just as he is about to make his own escape, one of his classmates betrays him, directing a fireball to stray and hit him so that he will fall into the abyss with the Behemoth.
He survives the fall only to have his right arm eaten by one of the beasts in the depths in front of his own eyes. In order to survive, he is forced into a corner where his previously kind heart is shattered and reforged in the fires of despair and hatred, reforming him into a man who sees the world in only two colors, those who are enemies and those who are not... and responds to enemies with death. This is further reinforced when he eats a monster and has to endure immense agony as his body is broken and remade again and again, shaving away at his humanity with each cycle, until what remains is only one step short of a true monster.
Main Story assessment
That's a pretty bare bones prologue for you and essentially covers the content of the first episode of the anime and the first three chapters of the web novel. Oddly, despite the horrific beginnings, this is as much a story about love as it is of hate and killing. Yue, the story's main heroine, is the reason for this. She is also the reason that this didn't turn into just another 'dark anti-hero goes out and gets revenge' story. His meeting with Yue is one of several turning points in Hajime's growth as a character and one of the most well-orchestrated ones I've ever seen (regardless of whether it is the anime or the web novel). Yue is the kindred spirit who helps Hajime stay one step away from the abyss of endless carnage he would otherwise have stepped into. This is despite the fact that she is just as broken as he is, psychologically.
The way this story uses the various heroines to help Hajime regain bits and pieces of his humanity is perhaps the most emotionally powerful aspect in retrospect. Yue helps him stop short of losing his humanity, Shia (the bunny-girl) stops Yue and Hajime from becoming completely isolated from the rest of the world, Aiko reminds him of what it is to be human, and Kaori reconnects him to his past, solidifying his reasons for his journey. Without all of these heroines, it is likely this story would not have been nearly as powerful, as Hajime's journey would have probably just been a series of 'kill this, kill that, have sex with Yue, kill more'.
I didn't mention Tio, Shizuku and Myuu in the previous paragraph because they serve slightly different roles from the other girls. Tio is pretty much just comedy relief as a character, despite being as in love with Hajime and the other girls. Shizuku is, surprisingly, the most 'normal' girl in the group and the one who serves as the most solid connection between the self-isolating harem of girls who are mostly disinterested in anything other than Hajime (with Aiko being the exception, given her sense of duty to her students). Myuu... well lets just say Myuu's role is fairly similar to Yue's, except that she awakens Hajime's obsessively protective instincts that come to define him later on.
The story itself is dark and brutal despite the frequent humorous interactions between the characters. This is inevitable, as the world of Tortus is a world ruled by an insane god whose greatest pleasure lies in ruining the lives of his slaves. There are a lot of hugely powerful battle scenes, crazy plot twists, and hilarious results of Hajime's trip through Tortus. The ending of the main story (which will probably be published sometime next year in the LNs) is as hugely dramatic as the beginning.
After Story Assessment
The After Story, which is still ongoing, is HUGE. It is almost as big as the main story, but it is told in non-chronological order as a bunch of arcs and one-off postings rather than in order. Despite this, the After Story has provided me with probably fifty times as many laughs as the main story did. Part of this is because what trials and tribulations that occur are mostly overcome by Hajime's already beyond-divine power gained during the main story or the power of his OP friends, wives, allies, and classmates. Whether it is Myuu attracting UMAs, demons, ghosts, and youkai like a bug lamp attracts flies or Kousuke falling deeper into the chuuni abyss as he builds his accidental harem in Hajime's service, I haven't stopped laughing in weeks.
Of course, there are some deadly serious points, perhaps the most powerful of which are the stories involving Kouki, who struggles with the after-effects of his time on Tortus more than anybody else (for reasons that will be obvious to anyone who has already read the existing LNs or the main story of the web novel). However, even in these, Shirokome does an excellent job of keeping the balance from taking you too far into grimdark to truly enjoy.
Overall assessment up to the present
Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou does great at every aspect of what I want from this kind of story. It has great feels, it has great comedy, it has awesome characters, and its plot is close to sublime. More importantly, it is put together in such a way that all the elements enhance one another nearly to perfection. If you like isekai with a wide dark streak that can make fun of itself, this is an excellent choice.
Sadly, I couldn't bring myself to finish this one... for a certain type of person (moe-addict plus lolicon) this is a heavenly game, but... it so boring for someone who actually wants some substance under the fluff. This is one of those cases where there is no possibility whatsoever that an ending could justify me going through twelve hours of torture (four hours was enough for me to want to sell the game on Ebay...).
The biggest problem was the fact that there is no balance to the reality that the game is almost entirely dialogue, with even less narration than in your standard charage, making me label this as a 'pure' moege, in the old sense. What non-dialogue lines there are are minimal and immensely frustrating, and the humor is so... fourth-rate. There are a lot of points where they were trying to make the game funny, but I honestly couldn't laugh, as I wasn't able to care about the characters (again, the sparseness of the narration is the cause).
Sadly, for people who are into VNs in order to be able to read a story, this VN has little to offer that I could see.
Bloody Rondo is 3rdEye's first and arguably their worst game. By chuunige standards it is very much 'yesteryear' even by the standards of the year it came out, being a 'half-gakuen' type where the protagonist splits his life between school during the day and other stuff at night. What it comes down to in the end is that this game was, from the very beginning, apologetically derivative and something of a failure primarily due to an attempt to draw on the relative success of Draculius several years before.
First, I'll explain why I say the game attempts to draw on Draculius. Draculius is probably the best vampire fantasy chuunige/slice-of-life hybrid in existence. I say this because it doesn't in any way nerf vampiric nature or power, and it also has a rather unique atmosphere that draws on the fantasy familial aspects of the non-undead type of vampire (a vampire that is a lifeform, as opposed to being a dead being forcibly kept alive by magic or evil forces, lol). The combination of intimacy and hedonistic behavior that you see in that game, as well as the veiled potential for violence and moral ambiguity are subtly presented to the reader interspersed between humorous slice of life and often brutal action scenes.
Bloody Rondo (and Libra) attempt something similar... but fail dramatically in that sense. Luna, the canon heroine of the game, is a clumsy true vampire (as in trips over her own feet clumsy) with a nonexistent work ethic but a deep capacity for love combined with an incredibly dependent personality. This in itself wouldn't be a negative and it indeed bears some similarities to Draculius's approach to the cast of characters, but the biggest issue is the utter failure to shift from the humorous elements to the more serious ones properly. Luna generally only maintains something like dignity for a few minutes at a time before stumbling, and her attempts to maintain it are... spectacularly bad, often lightening the atmosphere at the worst time for the story.
The path that actually succeeds in reminding the reader of what is best about Draculius is Lynette's path, where the somewhat twisted relationship between her, Luna, and Shinkurou is the focus of things. Lynette is modeled on Zeno from Draculius in a blatantly obvious fashion (werewolf turned into a hybrid vampire with incredible physical abilities and absolute devotion), and she also serves as an excellent catalyst to turn the three into something resembling a family in her own path. The unfortunate aspect of this is that it waves the flaws in the 'canon' path in front of the reader so blatantly that you have to wonder why a short path that completely ignores the background story and Shinkurou's own issues works out so much better.
I will not say this is a bad game... but it stumbles because it never quite manages anything like individuality, despite a good cast of characters and a decent setting. Anyone who plays this after Sorcery Jokers will instantly get how the writer used his failures with Bloody Rondo to grow and build up the setting he eventually used. In that sense, this game provides an excellent study in 'before and after' for someone interested in the history of VN writers.
Shinkurou is actually a great protagonist, but he is damned by a weakness of motivation and a general lack of emotional filling in of the blanks by the writer. He is skilled, he is intelligent, and he is pragmatic... but the writer fails to capitalize on his personality the way he did with Senri's personality in Sorcery Jokers. Going back to play this, it is blatantly obvious that Egami Shinkurou is the prototype for Senri... a rough bare-bones character archetype to Senri's full-fleshed individuality.
Needless to say, this is one of those rare times where I went back and actually felt the game failed in comparison to my distant, years-ago impressions. Most of the chuunige I go back and play years later have new discoveries waiting for me... but this game is an exception, unfortunately. Lynette's path is still great, but the weakness of Luna and her failure as a canon/true heroine is painful to read.
Yay! Two catgirl harems in one month!!! lol
Anyway, this is the newest game by Moonstone's crappy subsidiary, Moonstone Honey. It is a straight-out catgirl harem moege from beginning to end... which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The game is set on an island that has been completely built up with leisure facilities of various types (amusement park, pool, beach, a mall, etc), and the protagonist is a young man in his early twenties who is given a chance to take charge of resurrecting the stagnant pool business.
I'm going to be blunt (as usual) here... there really isn't a lot to this VN except endless ichaicha between the protagonist and the three catgirls. The protagonist accepts the catgirls' presence and change to a human form with relative ease, and within a few days, he has them working part time at the indoor pool he is running. While problems pop up along the way, they are solved quickly and with relative ease, and the girls make the transition from 'just pets' to his harem rather early on (albeit without h-scenes).
The catgirls' names are Mikan, Lime, and Lemon. Mikan is the innocently affectionate type, constantly trying to be helpful and showing her love for her master in an honest and straightforward manner. Lime is a mischievous type, showing her affection and trust by teasing and playing small pranks on the people she likes. Lemon is... a classic tsundere.
Don't expect a real story or any kind of drama in this game. The whole point of the game is to enjoy the ichaicha between the protagonist and the catgirls, so there isn't a whole lot extra outside of that. How the girls transformed is never explained (in fact, it is pretty much forgotten ten seconds after they first emerge), and there is no step-up of affection from them toward the protagonist, as they already love him pretty much from the beginning (it just changes to romantic love later on). This is a kinetic novel, the choices only deciding whether you see a CG or not. There is no H content during the main part of the game, but the rather long after story contains about twelve h-scenes for those who are interested.
Overall, if you just want some catgirl harem action, this is a decent choice, but if you don't want what amounts to an old-style moege (not a charage) this probably isn't a good choice.
Umm... wow?
This game is seriously out there.
Yes, I needed to start with that. Love Destination's every aspect is more than a little crazy. It starts with a salaryman in his late thirties dying in a car accident and being told by the lazy-ass woman at the gates that she accidentally killed him on a whim. She offers him a chance to start over from the branching point of his life (after several other attempts to cover her own incompetence), and he ends up going back in time... only to choose to go to the girls' school he previously refused to go to.
Now, up until this, you might think this was a charage... but that couldn't be any further from the truth. This game is a seriously screwed up plotge with a scenario designed by someone with a rather twisted mind. There are four paths in this game, one monogamist and the other three threesomes. There are also a ton of bad endings at two normal endings (some of them branching off from the paths).
Now, up until now I've focused on how crazy this game is, but I need to say that this game has some negative aspects I need to state early on. First, though the scenario itself is actually at kamige tier, the writing is... second-rate? I felt like I was reading something by someone who loved chuunige but also liked to insert symbols in the place of words. A lot of this game already has furigana even without a parser because of this, which bemused me somewhat. Personally, I found the methods this writer used to be pure eye and brain cancer, so if you are a fan of god-tier writing, you aren't going to be happy with this game. I seriously empathize with anyone who might attempt to translate this, lol.
Second is the protagonist and his osananajimi. The protagonist, in his previous life, was the type of guy who, rather than seeking out positives, always sought to eliminate negatives. As a result, he ended up on the lowest rungs of a decaying Japanese society that was on the verge of losing its sovereignty before his death. While he does try to change in his new life (literal), it is only in the actual heroine paths and at the end of the common route that he actually starts to strip away the layers of cowardice that make up his personality. He does this in a grand fashion in several of the paths, so I can forgive the way he is at the beginning... but I really hate his interactions with his osananajimi Mayuri early on. Mayuri keeps insisting he act in a way convenient to her without ever actually getting around to telling him what she wants from him. That this is true both in his former life and in his new life is one point that annoyed me to no end.
Rina and Shina
The Otona sisters are descendants of foreigners from northern Europe (so no, the older sister did not dye her hair). Early on, the relationship between Shina and the protagonist is almost antagonistic, whereas Rina is so quiet she is not in the picture. Shina pretends at being a delinquent, but she fails utterly (even moreso because the protagonist sees through her easily), but she does, unfortunately, have a relationship with real delinquents.
Honestly, I can't dig deep into the heroines' personalities without ruining the experience for you all, so I'll stick to a vague description of what the path is like. I didn't bother with bad or normal endings on this path. In this path, the protagonist gets caught up in the twisted problems hidden beneath the surface of the seemingly normal sisters and is forced to grow far beyond his previous limits in order to deal with what he finds there. The actual events that occur in this path are... dark and depressing until things turn out all right. This path is probably too muddy for anyone interested in a simple romance, but I thought the ending made everything worth it, since I loved both heroines (despite their... issues).
Mayuri and Sakurako
Mayuri is the protagonist's overbearing osananajimi (who has the worst kind of tsundere thing going) and Sakurako is her best friend, a rich girl who obviously has certain 'tendencies'. Most of this path focuses on this particular love triangle's difficulties (Protagonist>Mayuri<Sakurako), and there are a lot of facepalm moments involved... mostly because all three have similar personalities hidden under different facades. Now, this path's impression, for me... was that it was good but exhausting.
I liked the solution they came to in the end, and I had to rofl at some of the weirder moments. However, the antagonist of the path is a seriously exhausting person... and this is the first time in the VN that I encountered her (vicariously). The first scene in which she appears left me needing to watch something fluffy, so I went and watched a few episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura to cleanse some of that atmosphere's effects on my mind.
This path is quite a bit less dramatic and dark than the previous path... and thus it lacks the sheer gravity born of comparison when you watch the ending. Still, it is a pretty good path, with an interesting concept.
Ai
Ai's path is the only monogamous path in the game, and Ai herself is a somewhat 'mysterious' heroine. Her role in the story is minimal... until you do her path. For various reasons, I recommend that anyone who plays this game do this path last, as it spoils all the other paths' secrets.
Since Ai's path draws on elements from all the other paths, many of the events and revelations were familiar to me. For obvious reasons, I left the Mizuki/Karin path to last, but in terms of experiencing the story as it is meant to be experienced, it is better to do this path last.
Ai appears randomly throughout the common route, often questioning the protagonist's ridiculous good luck (which does seem ridiculous toward the end of the common route, though the heroine routes reveal that his luck isn't as good as it seems), and she has a familiar role to many true heroines... the heroine it shouldn't be possible to get together with.
Now, I'm not questioning whether this trope works. I've played any number of VNs where this trope was used effectively to create truly exceptional stories. Indeed, this path is one of the single best uses of the trope I've ever seen. However, the ending feels waaay too convenient in comparison to the other paths. Yes, it was exhilarating to see the antagonist of the game getting what she deserved, but the way they went all mystic with the ending gave me a headache.
Mizuki and Karin
Yes, I played this path. No, I didn't play this path for the H (as one guy joked with me as I conversed with him on discord). Instead, the events in Ai's path made me curious enough to get over my inhibitions. Well, to be straight, this is a weird yandere SM path. Well, that is the relationship anyway... both heroines are a bit crazy/obsessive/possessive/etc.
This path was surprisingly good, despite the fact that I had to actually read the h-scenes to get to parts of the story (normally, I skip h-scenes, but the first few are vital to progression of the story, as are some later). I also found myself laughing through much of the latter parts of the path, despite the darkness of what was going on, because both Mizuki and Karen are so... out there. Their common sense and personalities are pretty abnormal by most standards, though they grew on me as the path reached its end.
The ending... well, like most of the paths in this game, the ending was good. I still like the twins' ending the best, though.
Conclusion
Well, this game was an unexpected treat. It doesn't really fall into any established genre beyond 'plotge', and the writer/writers (no names are listed) are not the most skilled out there (tons of typos, use of symbols in place of words, etc), but the story itself was pretty interesting. The only 'downside' to the whole thing is that you only ever really see the heroines truly happy near the end and in the epilogue.
(Note: Right now I'm playing Dungeon of Regalias, on a long-standing request for me to make an assessment. This doesn't have anything to do with my statements below.)
One of my pet peeves is companies that depend on their reputation to sell their games, regardless of quality. Pulltop, Navel, and Circus are the most frequent offenders on this side... Pulltop, in particular, has developed a habit of releasing second-rate games under existing IPs (the second and third Lovekami and their sex-focused FDs) that add nothing to the series. Navel has a habit of excessive sequels (Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou and Shuffle) and trips off into side-story wonderland. Circus has a habit of endless sequels (D.C.).
I call this 'resting on your laurels' because these companies are basically milking successful IPs to death in order to stay afloat, rather than generating really new content. Oh, I will be the first to admit that Shuffle really, really did need the rewrites it got later on, and the afterstories and voice patch for the original Tsuki ni Yorisou were hugely beneficial. However, Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou 2, despite the hopes of those of us who were interested to see how they would handle a second generation, turned out to be greatly substandard to the original, flopping massively in the heroine paths despite a promising beginning in the common route (which is probably why they've been releasing so many mini-fandiscs to 'rebuild trust').
As for Pulltop... The original Lovekami was actually a first-class VN that showed off the best of what a fantasy charage can be. However, its successors were... immature and pathetic in comparison (obviously written as moe-bait rather than serious efforts to continue the series). Koi no Resort was a rather blatant effort to make a spiritual successor to the kamige Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no that failed massively (primarily due to the lack of comparable sensitivity in the writing, depth of the characters, and independent strength of the heroine paths... in other words, everything). Even Oozora and Miagete Goran visibly suffer from an excess of ambition and a lack of the ability and patience to achieve it (believe me, every time I go into a new main-company Pulltop game of late, I leave wanting to cry from disappointment). This is pretty sad, considering that Pulltop started out as one of my favorite companies after blowing me away with Uruwashi no and Lovekami in rapid succession...
I don't think I should even have to describe what Circus does with Da Capo, lol (I could, but it would just start a salt fight).
However, it isn't just charage companies that are the culprits. Even my beloved chuunige companies can fall victim to this kind of intellectual laziness. Propeller, the second it lost its primary writers, forced out two massively flawed works in rapid succession (one of which - Pygmalion - , to my despair, actually got localized *spits in disgust*) that weren't even worth playing (though Pygmalion probably would have been good if they'd used a different writer and actually put forth the effort to make it into a real story). Light, the producer of so many awesome chuunige, put out a work of penultimate laziness just a few months ago (Sora no Baroque). Nitroplus, in a rather pathetic effort to sharpen its skills at psychedelic stories, went off the beaten track with Sumaga and Axanael. Even Akatsuki Works, which has always been consistent, if nothing else, has of late been lowering its standards somewhat.
Understand, I am perfectly willing to accept that companies will not produce a kamige with every single project. The idea that any company could manage that, given the limited budgets most VN companies have to work with, is fundamentally ridiculous. I am quite willing to enjoy trips off into the wilds on occasion (such as Pulltop's surprisingly high-quality Natsuiro Recipe or Moonstone's Sakura no Mori Dreamers). I am also willing to accept that sequels rarely match the originals. However, I do think, if they can't match the original, they should at least build something of close to equal quality in a slightly different direction, instead. To be specific, there was absolutely no reason to make every aspect of Tsuki ni Yorisou 2 to echo the original's beginning framework so closely (to be specific, the way he suddenly became less capable than before when the heroine paths started made me want to various unpleasant things to the writer).
I am also willing to admit that a new set of writers means inevitable hiccups... I could have accepted that Propeller's works would need to be a bit different after Yuuichirou left the company. I would have even been willing to shrug off Pygmalion as a fluke. However, the way the company, rather than pulling in a single capable freelance veteran writer (of which there are plenty in the industry), dragged in a massive number of writers (all of which were mostly nukige writers) to make Jaeger.
Light... has no excuse. Light's fanbase, whether they started with Dies Irae or have been following the company for much longer, is accustomed to high quality long games with extensive setting and character development and highly complex stories where every last element of the setting is squeezed for everything it is worth. Sora no Baroque was a slap in the face, a game that departed greatly from the company's style, even aside from the raw quality issues.
Nitroplus did have an excuse... they were a company that was always seen as 'weird'. Experimentation has always been their norm (which is probably why it takes them so long to recover after each release), so Sumaga, while being a massively boring abomination from the perspective of people who liked their earlier works, was understandable and forgivable. However, Axanael... wasn't. To be blunt, it takes a peculiar type of brain to actually enjoy those two games, even if you aren't a Nitroplus fan.
Akatsuki Works' gradual descent really has been so gradual as to have been barely noticed. While their characters and situations have mostly maintained the quality we, the readers/players, are accustomed to, it has to be said that the gradual decreases in length and detail in the stories have been apparent for some time. I honestly enjoyed Suisei Ginka and thought it was one of the most conceptually exceptional of the company's games in years. However, it was also relatively short (less than fifteen hours for me is short for a chuunige) and generally over reliant on the 'Akatsuki Works Style' of VN design to keep the reader's interest. The 'style' is proven to work at keeping the reader's interest, but it is also so recognizable that anyone who has been reading this company's works since Ruitomo will recognize it instantly.
In other words, I just needed to spout salt about the companies I feel have gotten intellectually lazy due to past success, lol.
Primary was one of my earliest fantasy charage... and in many ways it shaped what I was willing to forgive in the genre, rather than how I looked at the genre as a whole.
Primary has a lot of good points... the heroines are interesting, the protagonist's motivations are compelling, and the actual central issues of the overarching story are potentially fascinating. However... it makes the mistake many charage of the type do, of failing to utilize the setting to its fullest extent in most of the paths. Part of this is because Hinana's path is the one where everything is supposed to come together to reveal all the 'truths', and I'm willing to forgive a lot in a story where the protagonist isn't just an average dude.
Unfortunately, the biggest low point of this game is that the protagonist, Rikuo, is not really that smart. He is a skilled mage-knight, and - with work - he manages to keep good grades. However, he is dense about women, more than a little ignorant about issues outside of magic and fighting, and he has a tendency to sort of fall into his relationships with the heroines in their paths (usually because the heroine loses patience with him).
This game contains a few nostalgic archetypes... such as the mild yandere (Lime) and the standard-issue tsundere who is constantly angry (Prim). Not to mention the brocon imouto (Hinana) and the fuwafuwa ojousama (Maria). Their characters, in retrospect, are far more predictable to me than they were at the time I first played this.
While this game could have done with a more focused story, for a fantasy charage it is actually in the upper ranks... it just doesn't satisfy the way something more story-focused would have.
Before I go visit my remaining grandparents this weekend (my grandmother on my father's side and grandfather on my mother's side are both in extremely frail condition right now, so we are taking time to show my sister's kid to them), I thought I would give my thoughts on modern VN trends.
Charage aren't going anywhere
Though I frequently bash the industry for over-saturating the market with moege/charage/SOL, the fact is that the demand for this type of VN is never going to go away as long as the Japanese eroge VN market exists. Why? Because it is the single easiest way to present the formation of relationships of young people into a sexual one. While the genre isn't that attractive for people in their late teens or early to mid-twenties (incidentally the reason this market is declining), the majority of any older generation is always going to prefer this. The lesser numbers of young people in Japan compared to my generation and the lower relative amounts of income are the main reasons for the current contraction of the genre.
Good Writers don't go into VNs anymore
This is a truth that few of the plotge addicts like me want to admit. Most of the best writers in the VN industry are getting into middle age or later now (or have already left it), and the new and upcoming writers are mostly up and coming LN writers who have a far looser grasp on how to write/narrate and (more importantly) complete a story. This doesn't mean they won't evolve their styles to match the new medium eventually, but whenever I've read a VN written by one of these newbies, the plot holes and poor handling of the endings of their games stand out painfully.
Chuunige are in decline
I absolutely hate to say this. However, it needs to be said. Trends in the last nine years in chuunige have tended to result in far too much side-story exploitation and sequelitis. There is also a distinct lack of innovation, and when innovation does come, it tends to come with a huge drop in quality in the final product (Sora no Baroque). Fans of the genre are getting older, and some companies (such as Light) have been putting their games in non-ero form on consoles to try to grasp the hearts of younger VN lovers (this has actually succeeded to an extent), but the fact is that it takes a much longer time for a chuunige company to make back its investment after a release. This is exacerbated by economic issues in Japan, and the fact that these companies mostly suck at advertising (like many niche genre companies, they only put it up in places where those already 'in the know' will find them).
VN Trends are always years behind the rest of Otaku-dom
VN communities in Japan are insular. Even moreso than they are in the US. When rom-com anime vanished for the most part at the end of the last decade, it was replaced with cheap action-fantasy (shallow, weaker stories for the most part, with more emphasis put on 'cool' elements) and moeblob. The glut of such anime is reaching its peak right now... and that influence is starting to overflow (interpreted through the lens of the hyper-conservative VN community, of course) into our side of things. That said, this is a trend that is unlikely to take hold, because it requires a modicum of writing skill that doesn't involve dialogue, and most VN writers just don't have that. Instead, VN companies that have been around for a while have been 'testing the waters' by making games that step out of their usual niches, hoping to diversify to deal with the changing trends. Light went with going down a much darker path than usual with its most recent game, and Navel actually put up a half-assed plotge last month. These, along with many other incidences in the last two years, make me wonder just what the market will look like five years from now.
First, I should explain Alcot's varying styles to those who aren't accustomed to me discussing this company. Alcot has three types of VNs it makes. One is the classic charage type, like Clover Days. The characters and story are funny but tend to be shallow, with little overall depth. Nonetheless, because the stories are funny, you still like them anyway. The second type are the more serious works, like Kurenai no Tsuki, which have more adult (not in the sexual meaning of the word) themes and an actual central plot. This type can range from mysteries to high fantasy, and of the three types it has the most varying quality between works. The third type is their fantasy/sci-fi comedy games. Starting with Osadai (Girlfriend is President) and including Naka no Hito, this type tends to keep the humor of the charage types (sometimes including silly story elements such as giant pandas with pretty human daughters) and include a much deeper type of character development (mixed with the humor).
This game falls into the third category, at least from the common route and the first route so far. It has a definite element of fantasy to it, and the interactions in the common route are fast paced and generally hilarious. At the same time, the protagonist is one of the few 'normal guy' types I felt escaped that particular protagonist type's limitations, due to his addiction to his camera and his supportive nature toward those who catch his interest.
Nori
Nori is a young woman who reached the heights of pro video editing while still in middle school, but she gets dragged out of her hikikomori lifestyle through a combination of her big brother's efforts and the protagonist's encouragement (and timely questions). Her path has an indecent amount of ichaicha, but since she also grows a great deal during the course of the path, it is hard to complain. Her confrontation of her personal issues, in addition to the drama near the end, is the focus of the path, and it makes the ending a lot more satisfying than you normally would expect. While this route didn't contain an epilogue that could satisfy me, it is a solid path nonetheless and something to look forward to for fans of oppai.
Umm... it really isn't worth it to make a post for this, but I went ahead and played Phantom Trigger vol 5 in Japanese.
My impression of this one was that it was very much like the 'flashback episodes' that pop up in so many urban fantasy anime of the nineties and two thousands... It is all about Haruto and Murasaki's past (how they got acquainted, Saki's sister, etc), and, while that is in itself interesting, I felt cheated at the end.
I'm going to be blunt. They should be putting a lot more content into these releases, considering how long the gap between each one is and the cost. I would much rather pay forty or fifty dollars for a half-length VN than dish out fifteen dollars every six months for what amounts to a tenth of an average VN's length of content. While I do like what is put out, I am always left feeling like there should have been more to it. I pay less for books on Kindle and get a lot more out of them. *sighs*
Anyway, like all the entries in this serial VN, this 'episode' is interesting... but I'm starting to get 'repetition fatigue' due to the way the series is constructed. Each episode is, of course, self-contained but contiguous with the previous one and the one after. However, the way each one starts is exactly the same (structurally), and you hear almost identical speeches out of Haruto (internal or external) throughout their lengths, the only difference being the subject.
If this were bundled as three episodes per installment, I probably wouldn't be feeling so irritated. However, the amount of content given by a single entry in this series is very, very low. Yeah, now I know all the main characters' backgrounds intimately except Haruto himself... but I also feel cheated because I'm finishing each installment in under an hour and a half... and fifteen bucks is a bit much to pay for an hour and a half of entertainment, in my mind.
... in the end, I couldn't stop complaining. The real problem here is that I love what is there, but there just isn't enough of it to satisfy me with any individual installment.
July was unique so far, when it comes to the quality of what was released. Three VNs, Amatsutsumi, Senren Banka, and Floral Flowlove were all at a high level of quality that qualifies them as a potential VN of the Month. As those who keep up with this blog know, I really won't name a VN of the Month if I don't feel there were any releases worthy of it.
First, Senren Banka:
Looking back on it, it was an enjoyable experience, but I came to the conclusion that it was the weakest of the three, when I compared them.
Amatsutsumi:
Floral Flowlove:
More problematic was that, as I looked back on it, I honestly couldn't measure an appreciable difference in overall quality between Amatsutsumi and Floral Flowlove. Normally, I have a clear conclusion on the matter of the VN of the Month shortly after I finish my last release from that month, but in this case, I continued to consider it right up until the last of the next month. My conclusion was that both games were of roughly equal quality, subtracting their flaws and considering their unique aspects. However, it was the use of the G-senjou story structure in Amatsutsumi that eventually made me pick Floral Flowlove as VN of the Month July 2016. Sadly, the systematic aspects of the ladder-type multi-path story crippled the VN in some unavoidable ways, though Amatsutsumi is far more emotionally stimulating. Floral Flowlove is just more complete in a general and technical sense than Amatsutsumi was. This is the single hardest decision I've made in a contest since I had to decide between Hapymaher and Komorebi no Nostalgica for VN of the Year 2013.
If yall haven't guessed (or just read my previous posts) my primary reason for giving up VN of the Month was being buried in SOL... well, that and the fact that playing that many new VNs a month took up too much of my time and left me none for any pursuits beyond work.
My immediate realization afterwards was that I quite simply couldn't play SOL games at all for the first few months. After years of constant overdosing on saccharine fake romance and meaningless conversations that exist only to make you go moe over the heroines, I had simply had enough. Even now, I literally cannot play a pure SOL game without my body physically rejecting it by putting me to sleep or giving me a headache.
After a while, I got to where SOL didn't bother me, as long as I knew there was something beyond it (actual plot of some sort, maybe a little violence or a protagonist I could like). Unfortunately, that means I can't bring myself to play anything where I see no hint of something beyond the SOL (seishun doesn't count, since that is default). My most recent experiments (Clochette games) told me that I could still enjoy SOL as long as it was peppered with something interesting. However, I quickly realized when I tried to play some of the newer games that came out this month... I wanted to vomit after starting several of them. I literally couldn't stand the obviously standard-issue protagonist, the weak carbon copy heroines, and the dead copies of games that came out years ago.
For instance, Sora ni Kizanda Parallelogram was such a blatant attempt to use the nostalgia of both Aokana and Walkure Romanze fans (FD for the former and complete pack for the later came out recently) that it made me want to be sick. The protagonist's situation and personality were carbon copies of the one from Walkure Romanze, and the situation and setting were partially stolen from Aokana. Hell, one of the heroines is of the same type as the main heroine from Aokana. That sent me over the edge, and I sold my copy to a local eroge addict so I wouldn't have to look at the filthy thing again.
Worse, a bad copy of Ninki Seiyuu no Tsukurikata came out this month, and I wanted to smash something (I hate games that focus on entertainment industries). Ugh.
*coughs* ahem, now that I got that out of my system, I have to wonder... am I going to have just as violent a reaction next month and the next after? There are things I used to like about SOL games that I just can't enjoy anymore, and that saddens me deeply... and my tolerance for blatant and pathetic attempts at milking other companies' games' popularity has gone down to zero, apparently.
The fandisc for the entire series actually brings all the characters - plus a new cast of one protagonist and three heroines - together, including extensive after-stories for both the first and second generation of characters (Gakuen being the second generation and the others the first). The new cast is based in an era fifty years after the events in the second generation, when most of the characters are elderly or deceased (with the exceptions of near-immortals like Suiku). The three heroines are the endlessly greedy baphomet (demon) Meti, the shy chimera tapir-girl Lettuce, and the dryad (whose name I didn't bother to remember).
Overall, like most of the entries in this series, the standout aspects are the writing quality and the comedic character interactions. It is especially hilarious to see the casts of all the VNs (including the nukige) from the first generation interacting with one another to bring about the setting of Gakuen. Since the main story doesn't change at all (except for h-scenes) depending on which heroine you pick for the new protagonist, I went with Meti... and didn't regret it. I've always liked weird/insane heroines, and she definitely fits the bill.
That said, the story in this VN is structured really weirdly, due to the fact that the protagonist and his friends are basically looking into the past and interfering with it... and if you aren't paying attention, it can be easy to miss important details. However, that is the mark of a well-written story in any case, as a detailed story usually means a good one, though not always.
There is one VN in the series I haven't touched, other than the Alraune nukige... the mermaid one, but that is supposedly based after the events in all these games (though I only got that through some vague hints) so I am not all that focused on it (in total the games so far have covered over seventy years of history, after all).
Final thoughts
To be honest, I never expected to see this much detail out of what is essentially a low-cost series created by a company that originally produced only nukige. From a visual perspective, the VNs aren't excessively impressive, and the backgrounds are reused in each game where appropriate, for instance. Nonetheless, it is an impressive series of games purely from the perspective of writing, and if you don't mind feeling like you want to puke at some of the H scenes... this is a great choice for an experienced reader who is bored with normal romance and moege romance.
I'll be perfectly honest... having finished Shizuma's path, the only thing I can say is that he was a total douche-bag intelligent self-hating moron to the end. Being inside his mind was depressing, right from the beginning to the end. While I loved most of the other characters on his path, I hated him and his heroines, also from beginning to end. Similar to Kai, he is actually more effective on foot than he is riding in Stigma. Stigma is slightly more durable than Alfaria, and she definitely has a lot better support skills. However, when it came down to it, all that meant was that I had to keep a piece of deadweight alive through the entire game. Gameplay-wise, that is a nightmare in both Kai's and Shizuma's paths. I did like the characters in Shizuma's path more than the ones in Kai's, because they seemed more human (except the psychopath). Unfortunately, there really was no reason why they should have stuck with Shizuma. He resents them through most of the game, takes out his frustrations on them frequently, and generally makes an ass of himself. Also, there was a huge load of 'what was the point of all that?' self-pity from Shizuma for about the last half of his path that made me feel like I wanted to smash his head in. Shizuma's story is dark... but it isn't the kind of darkness you can sit back and take pleasure in. It is the kind of darkness that gives you a headache because it is largely born out of Shizuma's idiocy after a certain point of the game. Yes, I unreservedly hate Shizuma. I don't mind characters that get twisted by the things they have to do, but self-hating, self-pitying idiots with 18 Intelligence and 0 Wisdom make me want to smash things. He does not evolve or really learn from his mistakes, and his paranoia gets old, fast. Story-wise... there are way too many inconsistencies between the two paths, even where they meet. I had to honestly throw my hands up in frustration at trying to figure out how they meant the game to make sense. Not only that, but throughout Shizuma's path you see bits of the backstage that should have really come to the forefront at some point but fizzle out, with the inability to access the third path making me want to do the 'crazy dance'. There should be a third path, because none of the crap that happens in this game is conclusive in any way. They hinted at a third path before release. So why can't I access it after completing both paths once, I wonder? If they mean to release it as a sequel, I'm just going to forget about this game entirely. I am also at least partially sure that heroine choice actually effects things more than it really should in this type of game, due to the sheer amount of extra battles I had to fight in comparison to Kai's path. Since Veridadear is a really easy to notice secondary heroine, I suppose going down her path probably creates a much different outcome from choosing Alfaria. Choosing Stigma in Shizuma's path resulted in a nightmare rollercoaster of endless death that made me bored halfway through (I know that sounds impossible - me loving endless death -, but the way the story for Shizuma's path stumbled so completely after the turning point made me want to scream).
Update Ok, the thing you have to do to access the third path is to complete Stigma's and Alfaria's path, as I suspected *sighs*. The difference in length and difficulty between Alfaria's path and Veridadear's path is pretty extreme... and at the end, after playing through the equivalent of two full VN-rpgs? You have to play yet another path... the best thing I can say about it is that you actually find out what was going on behind the scenes to some extent early on. I'm really tired of this game... for obvious reasons. Nonetheless, I'll keep playing this until it is over, lol.
Lost Echoes is the first VN by the new company Petitlinge and is written by one of the writers of Hatsugamai (https://vndb.org/v18790) . In this VN the protagonist, Yuuki Riku, is asked by the low-ranking kami, Ryuusen Umi (her name as a kami has been forgotten by both her and the descendants of her worshipers), to go to the past to save the soul of his childhood friend by preventing her previous life (Tachibana Ginchiyo, a rare female warrior leader in the Sengoku era who was the daughter of Tachibana Dousetsu, a famous retainer of the Ootomo Clan before its fall), from killing her friend Chihaya in battle.
This game incorporates the choice system into the actual story, with Riku making decisions on what actions he will take or what he will say to affect the course of events in the past era. The first three paths that are available from the start are Akio, Hinao, and Kohaku. Yuika (the osananajimi who is Ginchiyo's reincarnation) opens up when you complete those three paths (it makes sense, because the variation from the other paths is massive, though the basic length and strength of the path is unchanged), and Umi's path opens up after Yuika's as the true path (the one where everyone finds happiness... it also ends pretty hilariously).
Kohaku
I pursued Kohaku first on a whim and didn't regret it, though this path made my head hurt a bit (chicken and egg issues). Kohaku is rather blatantly in love with Riku from the very start (she makes him wake her up every morning and deliberately ensures he sees her half-naked), and she is the head of the Archaeology Club, the daughter of a large toilet-making corporation, and a generally cheerful person. She lives in the same building as their club meeting room, which she has rented in her own name using her own money.
Kohaku's path, once you get past the common route, (the end of the common route is almost identical for the first three heroines), starts out the most normally of the three paths initially available to you... but that normalcy doesn't last that long. Since I had thought they would settle for a standard charage cop-out with the first three heroine paths, I didn't expect the high-quality drama that occurred. It was a pleasant surprise, though.
Hinao
... I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Hinao becomes either the most hated or most beloved of this game's heroines in the minds of anyone who reads this VN. She is a miko at the rather large temple that enshrines Umi as a 'hidden deity' (forgotten by the time the story begins), and she serves as the means by which Umi is able to materialize in the mortal realm, despite her relative weakness. She has a natural talent as a miko... but she is about as airheaded and thoughtless as it is possible to be (not to mention she pees herself every time she meets a powerful deity and acts like Umi's dog half the time).
Her path starts out oddly. Let's just say that you will be immediately confused by the Hinao you meet after the common route ends and leave it at that. As a whole, this route is interesting to read, and I liked the way they brought the story to an end.
Akio
Akio is Riku's little sister, who runs the cafe part of their home-business (he runs the photography part). She is very capable and pragmatic, forgiving of her big brother's faults, and she is perhaps the 'wisest' heroine in the game, except when it comes to her own path, lol.
Her path is about what you'd expect for a path involving two siblings with no parents who have been working hard to survive... when you further add on the romantic feelings she inherited from Kaya-hime (her previous life) to Akio's own pre-existing ones. There are lots of complications, and this is the only path with a bad ending.
Yuika
The stubborn, delusion-prone kendo girl osananajimi who is the center of the game's main conflict. Due to the actions of her ancestor and previous life, Ginchiyo, she carries a stain on her soul that will eventually turn her into a tatarigami, a type of deity that causes disaster regardless of its own will or desires (in Yuika's case, they said she would wipe out Kyushu and all that lives there if left to her own devices). She is kind-hearted by nature, always putting others before herself.
Her path differs from the previous three massively... and it ends on a melancholic note.
Umi
Umi's path is accessed from the title screen after the previous four paths are complete. Umi herself is a loving, motherly (despite being a loli), and friendly kami who deeply desires to protect those souls that are closest to her. Due to the fact that she is a hidden kami (at some shrines, it was common to enshrine a secondary, guardian deity besides the primary deity), she had few followers and was eventually forgotten over time. She has lost most of her power and memories, but she has been given permission to narrowly alter the past through Riku to save Yuika's soul.
Umi's path is highly emotional, building off one of the melancholic notes from the end of Yuika's path (though it is a completely separate path). The striving of the characters to give back to a deity who gives her all to her 'precious children' is the high point of this path and makes it the most emotional by far.
Overall
This is an excellent game by a new company, and I hope to see more like this one. It frequently made me smile and laugh, and I cried with the characters on a number of occasions. I don't regret playing this one in any way, which is unusual with new companies.
I've been asked in the past many times, 'How can you replay VNs?' and 'Isn't that boring?'. In fact, I get asked that a lot with my 'Random VNs' posts. I thought I'd answer this question...
Replaying VNs is a matter of passion. To be blunt, if it is in a genre I don't like or hits my pet peeves too hard, I can't bring myself to replay it. The fact is, VN experiences don't change through multiple playthroughs, and in this way they are much closer to a book than to the interactivity of many games.
Something I should make clear is that I am a story-lover above all other things. I don't just mean that I love games, anime, and VNs for their stories... I mean that I'll do practically anything to experience a good, well-presented story. Hell, I learned Japanese for that reason.
This is actually the reason why I have so much trouble with pure romance, mystery, and charage. These three types of stories follow some of the most 'confined' story patterns in existence, with a very limited selection of story elements, and as a result they are far easier to predict than many fantasy, sci-fi, or even conspiracy-drama stories... at least for me. This is particularly fatal for mysteries, since a lot of the attraction of the genre, at least to me (when I still liked them) was how much trouble figuring out 'whodunnit' or 'what is going on'.
Now, I have become experienced enough that very little surprises me. Particularly, in the last five years or so, this trend has become marked in my own subjective point of view when it comes to VNs. The issue now is the subject matter... what do I enjoy enough to experience pleasure with on a second run? The genres I can take pleasure in on a second playthrough are limited... almost entirely to the sci-fi, fantasy, and conspiracy genres. Rare exceptions exist, but that is due to a sheer, overwhelming level of quality or due to a powerful emotional experience that doesn't fade quickly through multiple playthroughs (Uruwashi no is an example of this type).
To be blunt, with most VNs, replaying them is impossible. There are no new angles to explore, the feels no longer touch me, and I honestly have no interest in re-experiencing slice of life scenes, lol.
So, it comes down, as I said above, to taste. I can replay VNs i love multiple times. However, I will never be able to replay say... Subahibi or Aiyoku no Eustia.
I'm guessing some of those that follow my blog are wondering why I haven't started up any random VNs this month... there are a number of reasons. 1) I'm busy. I have my work, with an addition of university, which takes up about 80% of my time, save for a few days like today when I have time to rest and relax. 2) I simply don't have an appreciation for anything in my backlog right now. I cleared out most of the most interesting stuff over the last two years, and I'm keeping what little is left for a truly rainy day, when I'm not busy and I don't have anything better to do. 3) This has been a very dry quarter. July, August, and September were mostly dry of interesting releases, and I'm saving up energy for Kenseiki Alpha Ride, which I promised certain people I would play early on, rather than waiting until a later date as I commonly do with most gameplay-VNs. 4) This has been a particularly bad month irl. I've been helping my brother get ready to move his family into our place for a few months while their old place is on the market and they are closing on their new place, I've been applying for a graduate program, and I got several major commissions that have kept me locked down a lot more than I would have liked. 5) I promised myself I wouldn't play any more moege/charage until I've played Kenseiki or the new Fortissimo. Now for my thoughts... Today's post is going to be focused on what makes a good chuunige. I should probably define the origins of chuuni as opposed to what a chuunige is. First of all, if any of you have seen Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai, you have at least a vague idea of what chuunibyou is like. Basically, take your average D&D nut or cosplayer and add some delusions of glory to him, and you have a chuunibyou patient. That's simplifying matters somewhat, but it is also fairly accurate for a good portion of them, though. Chuuni, on the other hand, is literature, games, anime, etc. that feels like it comes out of the mind of a chuunibyou patient. Drama on a large scale, often in somewhat familiar settings, is probably the easiest and most obvious way to tell if something is chuuni. In addition, in a good chuuni-anything, the protagonist is never a self-insert carbon copy of your average harem-building protagonist. I say this because it is the easiest way to tell when something isn't a chuunige, as chuuni protagonists are supposed to experience and/or be something that is beyond what you can experience in your life, whether it is psychologically or physically. Most chuunige have action of some sort, but not all of them do. A famous chuunige that isn't mostly action - that a lot of you will have played - is G-senjou no Maou. In a way, Sharin no Kuni can also be considered a chuunige, for a similar reason. The more 'standard' type of chuunige is the 'gakuen battle' type. The most obvious translated examples of this are Tsukihime, FSN, and Comyu. In this type, a schoolkid somehow gets mixed up in a horrible situation that should kill him right off the bat, but he somehow survives to become central to 'the conflict'. A rarer type is the 'mature protagonist taking on the world' type. This is easily my favorite type, as protagonists in these VNs tend to have more solid philosophies and are less... idiotic. I think most people will agree that Shirou from FSN is a bit immature, though he had mature aspects. However, protagonists in these are adults, whether they are grown up fully or not. An example of this type that is translated would be Sharin no Kuni's protagonist. For untranslated, Hello, Lady and Vermillion Bind of Blood (Toshiro from Vermillion reminds me of Auron from FF X, hahaha) come to mind. Generally speaking, the themes of these VNs will be a lot larger in scale than you usually see in the gakuen battle types. This is because the themes are generally written to keep pace with the protagonists, lol. The last type is the 'poetic' type, where a writer is obviously masturbating with his keyboard. Masada's works are the most obvious examples of this (Dies Irae, Paradise Lost, Kajiri Kamui Kagura), though Light's 'other' chuuni-crew also writes similar VNs, and Devils Devel Concept and Bradyon Veda by Akatsuki Works both fall into this category. In this type of chuunige, the action, the story, and the visuals all exist as an excuse for the writer to try to blow you away. Currently, the only one of this type in translation is Tokyo Babel, whose release is sometime off... though I'm tempted to include Sekien no Inganock in this crew. For someone who loves complex, deep prose, these VNs are pure crack... but in exchange, they are also incredibly difficult to read for someone not native to the language. Overall, reading chuunige is all about having fun. It isn't about being moe-ed to death or being awed by the pretty pastel colors... it is about enjoying the part of you that never quite gave up that desire to be or see something more...
While reading litrpgs, I sometimes come across ones that stray into the realms of Xianxia or are simply Xianxia mislabeled as litrpgs. Xianxia is a genre of Chinese-origin, creating a system of magic and abilities based off of Qigong practices. Technically, stuff like Naruto and Hunter X Hunter would fall into the realm of Xianxia, given its use of many of the same concepts.
Xianxia books have a number of common issues, in my opinion. Some of them are quite enjoyable, but even the enjoyable ones seem to love the heavy-handed ladling of the 'power is everything' and 'hubris comes before the fall' themes. In some series, a protagonist will constantly obsess over the former and get kicked in the ass by the latter several times over the course of a single book. This is particularly bad in the case of Xianxia translated from Chinese, where genre tropes are almost as ingrained to them as charage ones are in Japan. Another trend is protagonists who are so amoral they aren't even really characters, as well as protagonists who are inconsistent and hypocritical to an extreme degree, even to the layman's point of view. I love the ones who go on to create or destroy worlds, and I love sagas spanning ten books and hundreds or thousands of years. What I hate is that every Xianxia novel that gets translated seems to read like a reprint of the previous one.
There is another type of Xianxia, mostly written by Westerners (I call it Weabooist Xianxia), that combines these tropes with a tendency to sound like a bad translation from Japanese. They will constantly repeat the 'I need more power', the infamous 'it can't be helped', and other turns of phrase that will cause winces from any experienced translator. It is appalling that anyone who considers themselves a writer would consider some of the crap that comes out of many of the Western-based Xianxia writers to be even adequate, much less good. It never fails to amaze me that some of these people actually got through the editing process.
The very best Western Xianxia writers manage to do something great with the genre, something that the Chinese, as restricted as they are, seem to be incapable of doing... breaking out of that seventy-meter-deep rut. The worst read as badly as the worst translated Xianxia.
Let's be clear, I really, really enjoy the gradual power-gaining of cultivation worlds, the martial arts, the gratuitous and even casual violence, the duels and rivalries. What I don't like are the linguistic conventions and pathetically overused tropes that seem to get dropped into so many of them.
