Clephas

1/2 Summer is a fairly straight-up non-Key style nakige from an established company that usually does a good job, so even if I didn't recommend it it would probably be a safe game to try. Nonetheless, I'll say that yeah, it is good. As for Eustia, duh. I have never even considered replaying Eustia and with good reason. Considering that I replay all action-fantasy VNs I even like a little bit at least once, that says a lot. (incidentally, August is a company that produces games that look good at first glance but let you down in the end... every game I've played from them, including Hitsujikai and Fortune Arterial followed that same pattern) Edit: I've heard the 'Ruriiro' series is good, but it is sitting in my backlog. For all I know, it might be an exception to the rule with August. However, I won't hold my breath.

No. I hate that game. Edit: A small addendum. I am a Eushully fan, and as all Eushully fans know, kodzukuri banchou, Himegari and Kamidori are the three worst games ever made or produced by that company. As such, I wouldn't add them even if you put a gun to my head and demanded it. Edit2: Thank god that at least Banchou was written by a subsidiary rather than the main company...

Resurrecting this thread from the horrors of Fuwapocalypse 3.0, I give you my list of great fantasy VNs. For the untranslated ones, I'm going to split them into regular/moe fantasy and action fantasy. Translated: Tsukihime Fate/Stay Night Kagetsu Tohya Comyu Irotoridori no Sekai (partial) Eien no Aselia (gameplay) Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Dracu-riot (partial) Cross Channel Sharin no Kuni (it isn't fantasy in the classic sense, but it is fantasy in the sense that it is based in an alternative world that is so different as to not even resemble our world socially) Shinikiss Hoshizora no Memoria (and the fandisc) Zanmataisei Demonbane (even with mecha, this is fantasy...) 1/09/2015 edit Bunny Black Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning Sekien no Inganock (I honestly don't know why I didn't put this here before) Shikkoku no Sharnoth Untranslated (regular): Hapymaher Hyper→Highspeed→Genius Konata yori Kanata Made Ore no Tsure wa Hitodenashi Maji Suki ~Marginal Skip Moshimo Ashita ga Harenaraba Ruitomo (as well as the fandisc both are borderline, but I decided to list them as regular fantasy) Suzunone Seven Kamikaze Explorer Tenshi no Hane wo Fumanaide (similar to Ruitomo, borderline because there are serious action scenes) Tsuisou no Augment 1/2 Summer Gaku Ou Hatsuyuki Sakura Hotel. (end of world fantasy) Boku ga Tenshi ni Natta Wake (utsuge, some rape, a little too dark for the average reader) Kamigakari Cross Heart Karumaruka Circle Koko yori, Haruka Kono Sekai no Mukou de Lunaris Filia (vampires, Whirlpool, fairly good) Mahou Shoujo na Taisetsu na Koto (too ridiculous for the action section) Meguri Megureba Meguru Toki!? (Caramel Box, interesting concept) Monobeno (youkai, very 'Japanese' feeling in an older sense) Naka no Hito nado Nai (might be considered sci-fi by some, but too fantasy-like to even be science fantasy) Onigokko Ryuuyoku no Melodia (Whirlpool, decent) Tayutama Timepiece Ensemble Tojita Sekai no Tori Colony Toppara Tsubasa wo Kudasai Witch's Garden 11eyes (I was requested to list this one, but to be honest I'm not fond of it) 3 Days Wiz Anniversary Amatsu Misora ni Erect! (I make an exception for this nukige because it also has a good story, though it is in the end a nukige) Natsu no Owari no Nirvana (utsuge, Japanese-influenced Buddhist mythology) Mirai Nostalgica Tasogare no Sinsemillia Gleam Garden no Shoujo '&' - Sora no Mukou de Sakimasu you ni - Kaminoyu (peaceful, no human heroines) Kurenai no Tsuki (other person's recommendation/request) Lovekami (Japanese mythology/moege) Furuiro Meikyuu Rondo ~Histoire de Destin~ (horror, mystery, mindfuck) 8/13/2014 edit AstralAir no Shiroki Towa Atled Ashita no Kimi ni Ao Tame ni Majo Koi Nikki (an acquired taste, too surreal for mine) Tsukiakari Lunch Sakigake Generation (same world as Suzunone Seven, a generation previous) Hapymaher Fragmentation Dream (sequel to the original, concludes the overall story) Alia's Carnival Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki Izayoi no Fortuna 1/09/2015 edit Monobeno Happy End Sakura Nikagetsu Kitto, Sumiwataru Asairo yori mo Sei Monmusu Gakuen (and the fandisc) Mamono Musume no Rakuen series Ayakashi Contract Love Rec Koitama Chrono Clock Hana no No ni Saku Utakata no Soreyori no Prologue Sanoba Witch Natsu no Iro no Nostalgia Hyakka Ryouran Elixir Kami no Ue no Mahoutsukai Nanairo Reincarnation Amairo Islenauts Satsukoi Dekina Watashi ga, Kurikaesu Untranslated (action): Bullet Butlers Tokyo Babel (non-ero, very good use of Christian angel/demon apocrypha, great protagonist, great heroines) Chrono Belt Devils Devel Concept Dies Irae Paradise Lost Kajiri Kamui Kagura Soranica Ele Vermillion Bind of Blood Yurikago yori Tenshi made Draculius Shinigami no Testament Gurenka Bloody Rondo Futagoza no Paradox (cthulu) Ikusa Megami Zero (gameplay) Shin Koihime Musou (gameplay) Soukoku no Arterial (gameplay) Gensou no Avatar (doujin, no voices) Abyss Homicide Club (some of the stuff in this game is too whacked out to call it non-fantasy) Jingai Makyou Muramasa Gekkou no Carnevale Tiny Dungeon (whole series, in order) Danzai no Maria Hello, Good-bye Legend Seven Trample on Schatten Owaru Sekai to Birthday (almost made this non-action, cthulu influence) Para-sol Shinjisougeki Carnival Stellula Eques Codex ~Tasogare no Himekishi~ (dark Mahou Shoujo without tentacles, lol) Trouble@Vampire Boku no Te no Naka no Rakuen (medieval fantasy without rape, for those who want it) Gensou no Idea Heliotrope ~sore wa shi ni itaru kami no ai (trans: That is the love of god that results in death. This game has a borderline hetare protag, so not to be recommended for those with that as a pet peeve) ExE (decent but a little too formulaic) Jesus 13th (cthulu) Kouyoku no Soleil -vii’s World- (decent but not great) Soushuu Senshinkan Hachimyoujin (more fun from the makers of Dies Irae) 8/13/2014 edit Ikusa Megami Zero Ikusa Megami Verita Tenbin no la Dea (this one and the two above are from the same series of fantasy gameplay vns) Houkago no Futekikakusha (extremely utsuge, not for the faint of heart) Tiny Dungeon series Hello, Lady (awesome new game from Akatsuki Works) 1/09/2015 edit Izumo 4 Silverio Vendetta Kyuuketsu Hime no Libra Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier Hatsuru koto Naki Mirai yori Tou no Shita no Exercitus Rakuen no Shugosha Sorcery Jokers Marrybell wa Shinda to Papa ni Tsutaete Kikouyoku Senki Gin no Toki no Corona (and fandisc) Venus Blood Frontier Venus Blood Hypno Kami no Rhapsody Teito Hiten Daisakusen Unionism Quartet Hello Lady Fandisc Chuushingura Sekai wo Sukuu Dake no Kantan na Oshigoto Valkyrie Runabout

That's why I give at least some info on each of the games I play from each month's releases, even if I don't like them. In this case, it got a lot of mention from me and others (as seen in the posts above), but I've yet to neglect a game of this type when it came out, though I've only been doing this thread since October.

For all-ages and games coming from an anime or light novel (and thus already have established popularity) it makes sense from a financial perspective to put them on consoles or portables, because that is the best way to reach the audience. In opposition, great 18+ VNs and unique ones tend to end up on the PC. It's just a question of marketing, really.

For your first and second requests, try the latest game I played, Bradyon Veda. It is hard sci-fi at its most extreme, with a multiverse-spanning plot. For your third and fourth, I can recommend Evolimit, one of my permanent top-ten residents. Most games by Propeller have great humor, balanced with great action and the like. The protagonist isn't one of those super-hot blooded people, but that is mostly because he isn't a moron, like most of the people of that type. If you want really hot-blooded protag, you need Trample on Schatten or Legend Seven. Most decent mech VNs (though mech-haters would say there is no such thing) don't have much in the way of hot-blooded main characters. Sorry I couldn't find you anything like that. Lagann was like a love letter to the old 'giant robot' genre, and the genre was already dying at the turn of the century. So, it is quite natural you won't find anything like that anymore that doesn't make fun of the genre. Comedy is ridiculously easy to find in VNs... but truly hilarious comedy is fairly rare. Stuff similar to Clannad is the most common (usually toned down or not nearly as good) and the comedy tends to be reliant on the character dynamics. Manzai (tsukkumi/boke) is the most common, with the next being comedy where the situation plus Japanese inside culture makes it into a joke. tbh, unless you are an all-out otaku who has given over his life to otaku culture, there is a good chance you won't pick up on the latter. Edit: At least part of the reason why there are almost no decent 'pure-comedy' VNs is because VNs with great comedy tend to also have great writers, and great writers have problems with open-ended or empty stories. A good portion of the VNs with great stories also have great humor.

Hinaori Kagome from Comyu: Shigure Sora (protagonist) from Devils Devel Concept: Kuki-sensei (antagonist) from Ayakashibito: Shiranui Yoshikazu (protagonist) from Evolimit:

Yeah, like I said, I can't recommend this as my game of the month for that reason. It is quite simply too much for the average reader, even setting aside mainstream readers and concentrating on sci-fi and chuuni fans. In its own way, this game has a tendency to create obsession to the same degree Muramasa did (I had dreams about both games while playing them, where I viewed alternative versions made up by my fried psyche). The difference is that it is a lot harder to access, simply because most people don't know enough physics to follow it, whereas the moral concepts central to Muramasa and the rather careful explanations of swordsmanship in the game made it relatively easy to understand (they learned significantly from the problems with Hanachirasu and applied their solutions to Muramasa).

Mmm... for me, the game was a pleasant surprise. I sometimes dislike infodumping, but Bradyon's choice to infodump as part of the battles was actually interesting. Mostly, I feel that way because it is immediately relevant information that I can understand relatively easily (though it probably woudn't be so for many). In my Japanese reading of Hanachirasu, for instance, I found myself disliking the game's infodumping on swordsmanship, because I didn't have the points of reference to understand it.

They describe doing some pretty interesting things, like transforming base particles into metals or the ingredients for TNT... If there was one I had trouble with, it was Ryou's secret attack... I had to reread the reveal scene to think it over again. Most of the others were relatively simple concepts. I thought the coolest ones were Komoe's and Shion's (her ultimate one). Shion's is pretty horrifying if you think about experiencing being killed that way... The really interesting way about the way they fight is that they are basically constructing their techniques from the ground up, based on physics theory. It is pretty scary to imagine a brain capable of that (imagine someone with savant syndrome who has no communication deficiency and a near-perfect memory for detail).

Well, having finished Bradyon Veda... all I can say is that Akatsuki Works still has the old magic. This VN is hard sci-fi at its most extreme. By that, I mean that nine out of ten non-native Japanese speakers (and a lot of those who speak Japanese) would get lost halfway through the game. This game's linguistic level frequently goes up to 8-9, and even many of the spoken parts hover around 7. This game infodumps like crazy and is something of a mindfuck, as well. If you don't know your basic physics concepts you will get lost during every battle scene... ... but god was it fun to read. I eat this kind of thing up, so I can't help but love this game. However, this is for sci-fi maniacs who like to think of the possibilities of evolution, the nature of time, and the nature of dimensions. For someone looking for a simple action story, this game would probably sink you within a few hours. The battle systems are ridiculously well-written... but what Naoto and the others are doing is so complex (and well-described) that most people won't even be able to follow it. As such... even for science fiction veterans in Japanese, this game is pretty much out of reach. Nonetheless, this is a great game I can recommend... to someone who has the ability to read it. Anyway, as I promised in another thread, this game simply gets an honorable mention for hitting all the right buttons for me, and I'll be picking another, more accessible game for game of the month. My basic reasons for doing so? Because I have an essential duty to recommend to people games that they can actually read. I love Kajiri Kamui Kagura, but the game is beyond the reach of most non-native speakers. As such, I never would have recommended it as a game of the month. Another reason is that I can never quite be sure I'm assessing a game like this appropriately from the average reader's point of view. I try my best, but in the end my tastes will always get the better for me. So, whenever a game so obviously presses all my happy buttons, I will always choose a different VN for the VN of the month, if there is one that is worthy of it. There is literally no way I can describe the story or setting without spoiling things (a great deal of the story is bound up in the setting itself and this game loves to leave you hanging early on). First, despite the appearance in the trailers, what the characters are using isn't onmyoujutsu or some other kind of mystical power, but rather they are using those motions, words, and the like to activate a particular code in those devices on their arms that has a particular effect on reality using certain particles which can effect but aren't effected by the natural forces of the universe. So, despite the outer appearance, this game is definitely science-fiction. Second, this is not 'our' Earth they are playing around on, or at least it is not the Earth of our time frame. It is at least some time in the future, gauging by the presence of cyborgs, the fact that China apparently became a feudal empire (or never stopped being one) and people have no hesitation whatsoever about using nukes in war. This game also follows a distinct route order, which is: Kaede>Shion>True. Kaede and Shion routes are directly linked to the true ending, so it is pretty much required reading to go through both before the True ending. For those of you who have the courage to play this game... good luck!!!

Draculius. In that one, they switch perspectives during the h-scenes occasionally, and it gets pretty... hot.

To be quite frank, there isn't one really. If there is a difference between chuuni as many see it and your average epic, it is that chuuni has a habit of transforming someone who might possibly be the reader into a hero, whereas epic stories idolize heroes to the point where they become something more than the humans their stories might or might not be based off of. The essential nature of both is the same, but they are colored by the times they were written in. If you want an example of early Japanese chuunibyou portrayed in anime, check out the protagonist's female friend in 12 Kingdoms. Edit: She is pretty much the poster child for modern chuunibyou, as it is understood now. That insecurity I was talking about in a previous post tends to reach a critical point in early to mid puberty where the boundaries of what is real and what is not have a tendency to blur, which causes chuunibyou as it is understood in Japan.

I'm pretty sure some people will be offended by this statement, and at the same time, it is an expression of my own cynicism toward human nature in general. So, if you don't want to be pissed off, don't read what is in the spoiler box.

Games that don't have any basic character development scenes are fairly boring, as well. If you don't get to know the characters at all, even the best story idea will frequently fall flat.

We all have our little pet peeves. In fact, our taste in anything is generally framed at least a little bit by our pet peeves. For an otaku, the more jaded you become, the more your pet peeves bother you if you don't make an effort to repress them. So, what are your pet peeves, and how does it effect what you prefer to play? My VN pet peeves are: Plot inconsistency in story-focused VNs Hetare protagonists Multiple main protagonists the entertainment industry (as a game focus, though I can usually stand an idol heroine, if it is just one of them) weak-willed, submissive, foolish female protagonists (DID {damsel in distress} Syndrome) Protagonists with no redeeming value (a protagonist who is completely and utterly average or below average, with no particularly admirable traits or stand-out capabilities) G-Senjou no Maou's path structure Meaningless sub-heroine routes nukige well-designed but poorly utilized settings (someone went through the effort to make an incredibly detailed setting... but the story doesn't do anything with that setting) How these effect my enjoyment... generally speaking, they simply decrease my enjoyment of the game in general (though a few, like hetare protagonists and the meaningless sub-heroine routes are game-killers for me). I've played enough VNs that I've learned to suppress my pet peeves until the game is over, in most cases. Generally speaking, I don't have high enough expectations of the average moege to go insane with hate over it touching on my pet peeves. However, if it is in a game I had expectations for... watch me explode.

Because it was only near the end that everything went to shit. I kept hoping that the game would redeem itself, but it failed utterly to do so. It is one thing to stop when the game starts out awful, but when it is near the end, you might as well finish it. I hoped the ending would redeem the overall story for me... but even that failed miserably.

There are tons of kusoge out there, but the worst experience I ever had with a VN wasn't a kusoge. I have a lot of pet peeves, mostly born of having read so many books, played so many games, and watched so much anime that my tastes have if anything become more solidly defined than most otaku. My worst experience was Aiyoku no Eustia. Looking at that game from an objective perspective, I realize that the writing was above-average and the main story was cohesive and well-designed... However, it hit all the wrong buttons for me. First, it used G-senjou's story structure, which turns every heroine besides the main into a sub-heroine and gives you half-assed spin-off paths for them. Making it worse was that the very existence of those paths made no sense within the greater context of the setting and story once you'd played the true path. Third, Eustia has to be the least interesting, most annoying main heroine I've ever run across in a story-focused VN. I honestly couldn't find any redeeming value in her as a heroine, which made the fact that she was the true heroine a thousand times worse for me. Finally, the finishing blow was the way the protagonist suddenly went hetare (becoming indecisive, self-pitying, and whiney) for a long section of the last part of the true path. Considering that he was the opposite of that throughout the rest of the story, it destroyed what connection to the story I had left completely, leaving me feeling disgusted with the story as a whole. The biggest problem was the inconsistencies that plagued that game's story, which would have been forgivable if it were a moege, nakige, a charage, or even the lighter story-focused. However, Eustia presented itself as a serious, solid story-focused from the beginning, so when all those blatant inconsistencies began to pop up, I gradually found my distaste for the game rising, until it exploded after I completed the game. I erased it from my hard drive and broke the disc in a fit of anger... I haven't been that pissed at a game in over six years. The point is, I can overlook minor inconsistencies as a mild irritation, but in a serious story, major inconsistencies are unforgivable, at least for me.

Medieval fantasy vns tend to either be rape-fests, gameplay-fests, or rather pathetic... I mostly despise Eustia because it is another example of August completely wasting the potential of an interesting cast of characters and a setting. It would have been forgivable if it had been a kinetic novel, straight to the true ending. However, it included side-paths that were completely inconsistent with the general situation that world is in. It was blindingly obvious, at least to me, that they were tacked on after the main story was written for the sake of h-scenes. The best swords and sorcery fantasy VN without gameplay I've run across is Tiny Dungeon (the whole series), and it is about one half comedy.

Avoid Aiyoku no Eustia. It uses G-senjou's route format, the side-heroine paths are even weaker (they make no sense in the context of the true route), the protagonist goes hetare near the end of the true route, and the main heroine is incredibly weak, pathetic, and annoying. This is the most overrated fantasy vn I've ever seen, at least partly because some people insist on recommending it to everyone.

Having played both of the Grisaia sequels, I seriously warn you that even if the second gets a translation patch, wait for the third before you play it. The main route is a serious cliffhanger that will have you throwing things at your computer if you play it before that.

Bad ends like that aren't always terrible. I'm particularly fond of Raziel's bad end in Tokyo Babel. I hadn't realized I was on the bad end path, until I actually got to it. It was fairly horrifying, but it was also well-written, to the point where it was obvious they put real effort into it for the sake of the reader, rather than it being a half-assed bad end where you suddenly die for an unknown reason.

Umm... I was just describing learning ALL languages. While the syntax and basic grammar of Japanese is dramatically different from Western languages, the basic methodology for learning it if it isn't your first language. The only real difference is the presence of kanji, which is an example of a symbolic writing system, which aren't used for most Western languages. Edit: In addition, there is no such thing as a 'casual' way to learn Japanese. There is formal study and individual learning. The former has you sit in a classroom, the latter has you work on it without the crutch of fellow students and a teacher. You either learn and master the language or you don't. Edit2: Also, I remarked that my method was the harder one and isn't really to be recommended. It takes more effort, more energy, and it takes longer. If I had continued to sit in a classroom past those two semesters in high school, I would have picked up the language much faster (though my approach to understanding it would have been different, and I most likely wouldn't have succeeded in reaching the point where I can think naturally in Japanese). I was fortunate, in that my teacher prioritized forcing us to learn grammar first, thus giving me the basis I needed to understand a great deal more later.

Here are January's candidates for Clephas' VN of the Month. I will post again when I get my hands on the first out of this group. http://vndb.org/v12609 http://vndb.org/v13342 http://vndb.org/v12562 http://vndb.org/v13224 http://vndb.org/v12830 http://vndb.org/v13717

Bradyon Veda... that is on my list of games as a potential candidate for January's VN of the Month. Because it is in my favorite genre, I'll put down comments on it, but I won't make it VN of the Month unless there is nothing that matches it in another genre (it is hard to impossible to make an unbiased comment on my favorite genre, so I've decided to compromise that way).