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Clephas

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Blog Entries posted by Clephas

  1. Clephas
    What is an ojousama-ge? It is fairly simple... it is a VN where multiple heroines (sometimes all or most of them) are young women from wealthy families. I love these VNs... but it isn't so much because I like ojousama heroines (though there is that, since I love people with warped personalities). Rather, it is because some of the best charage, nakige, and non-action story-focused VNs I've played are ojousama-ge.
     
    Examples
    Otome ga Boku ni Koishiteiru 2
    Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no
    Akatsuki no Goei (the first one only, since 3 varies its heroine types a lot more)
    Noble Works
    Otome ga Tsumugu, Koi no Canvas (and the FD)
    Ojousama wa Gokigen Naname
     
    Now we come to why these VNs tend to be more likely to be good... and the answer is relatively simple. To be blunt, settings where multiple ojousama heroines are possible tend to be a bit more detached from everyday life than the average VN setting, thus giving the writer more flexibility to form the plot of the various routes and overall VN. Another aspect is that people with money tend to be the target of all sorts of problems, from simple marriage issues to kidnappings and assassinations. As such, it is very easy to create an exciting story that feels relatively realistic in such a setting.
     
    It is pretty easy to see from this why I generally get excited about ojousama-ge, now isn't it?
  2. Clephas
    Despite the title, this isn't a horrible VN. It is basically a rehash of Himesama Gentei which was a near-nukige all-moege about a protagonist 'romancing' (I have to wonder if you would really call a bunch of princesses falling in love with one idiot and him deciding on one or a harem route 'romancing') princesses. I can actually enjoy some of the heroines' routes... but the premise is so ridiculous and so unrealistically presented that it goes beyond suspension of disbelief, even for a moege. Understand, ridiculousness in moege settings is par for the course... but the classic 'the heroines are all my sisters because my dad really got around' premise is one of the more annoying ones.
     
    That isn't to say there isn't some good stuff... Maika, for instance, is one of those rare tsundere who becomes supremely adorable after you enter her route and never goes back to being tsun, and Io's 'boke-boke' statements made in absolute seriousness are fairly funny. However, I've played so many other VNs in a similar vein that are so much better... it makes me wonder why I stole an hour here and an hour there over the past five days in between my work schedule to push through with finishing this game.
     
    The routes really don't escape the templates for their 'princess' types, so I honestly can't say that I was surprised by anything I found in this VN. There is also too much H early in this VN... so much that I would have been tempted to call this a nukige, if it weren't for the fact that the writing and character development are fairly solid, at least for a VN of the type.
     
    Overall, this VN isn't something to get excited about, but if you like 'princess' heroines it is a decent choice...
     

    Why is this month so bad so far?
    It isn't that it is bad... it is just that there is a disproportionate amount of second-rate VNs being released for September. So far, there is nothing that I would have called VN of the Month material, though if Seikishi had toned down the H and worked harder on solidifying the story in general, it might have been one. Most of the good stuff that was supposed to get released for September got delayed, so I suppose it is only natural... but still, I don't like having all the good stuff concentrated in one or two months of the year. That tends to cause kusoge-exhaustion after a while, lol.
  3. Clephas
    Since I get asked questions constantly on this subject, I'll go ahead and list a few pieces of advice I felt apply to most beginners.
     
    1) Use translation aggregator and a text hooker, even if you feel like you should be getting out your kanji dictionary, out of a sense of self-reliance. I'll be blunt, it is hard to enjoy something if you have to refer to a kanji dictionary for every other non-particle word. I am sometimes stunned at people bragging about spending 100 hours on an 8 hour moege because they chose not to use a text hooker. That is not an efficient way of using your time, even if you want to learn kanji. It is actually more efficient time-wise to do kanji exercises separately and read your VNs with a text hooker (you'll still be done with both in half the time it would have taken for you to read it using a kanji dictionary).
     
    2) There are two methods you can choose to start your untranslated career... you can start off easy and work your way up, or you can smash your head into the walls of text of the harder VNs out there. I chose the latter, and most people choose the former. The walls of text method has the advantage of jump-starting your learning... but in exchange, you'll probably end up sleeping more to let you process all the new information you've gathered and you'll get frustrated more often. If you want to use the former method, I made a list here sometime ago ( http://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/3493-for-love-of-vns-for-beginners/ ).
     
    3) jparser in Translation aggregator isn't perfect, nor is Mecab. They are tools to give you a chance to parse the kanji faster, rather than a translation tool. However, there is a good side-benefit to the frequently weird choices of furigana they make... and that is that you'll naturally learn the path to understanding kanji puns without having to look them up later, and it will become ever more easy to dissect more difficult words even without the tools later on.
     
    4) In the end, mastering reading untranslated VNs is an uphill battle for most people. Don't expect yourself or everything you use to be perfect from the beginning, as the very idea is absurd. You'll run into stumbling blocks constantly, and you'll worry endlessly about whether you really understood that last line for most of your first hundred VNs or so.
     
    5) If you read slowly in your native language, you will also read slowly in Japanese. Reading is reading, and it is a skill honed by a simple process of practice, practice, practice that never ends. Yes, learning to read fast in your own language will help you learn to read fast in Japanese once you've gotten to a certain level. If you are barely competent in your own language, I'll be frank in saying that this isn't for you, not to be mean but because it is the same skill, regardless of the details.
     
    6) Last of all, I'd suggest hitting a wide variety of genres early on, not just your favorite ones. Why? Because that sense of wonder and love for VNs is only going to last through your first twenty-five to forty VNs, and once you've gotten past that point, it is going to be harder and harder to grow beyond your limits on your own.
  4. Clephas
    To be honest, after the moe-moe disaster of Juukishi, I wasn't really interested in this VN... and while the VN was much more interesting than that lump of adorable pink crap, it had the down-side of being utterly predictable... to me.
     
    Now, I don't know how many of you are familiar with a particular VN fad that several major companies bought into about five years ago, where they did partial 'slice-of-life' VNs in faux-medieval settings. This fad resulted in some good VNs, lots of mediocre ones, and a few truly horrible ones. This falls somewhere in between the good and the mediocre, in the sense that it hits all the points such VNs were 'expected' to hit (princess heroines, action scenes - though not necessarily good ones - and lots of slice-of-life). Seikishi has the benefit of a decent set of heroines... but their roles are so archetypical for this type of VN that I had to shake my head in exasperation. The only one that wasn't completely cookie-cutter was Rill, and she had her own issues.
     
    I'll be perfectly honest with you... I'm downright pissed off that Akabeisoft3 wasted my time with this VN. The Juukishi team seems to be incapable of escaping their roots, and the results were a VN that was disappointingly predictable in overall structure, right down the obstacles in each heroine's path. This isn't a horrible VN... but considering that Akabeisoft3 has access to many teams that actually write good VNs, I was more than a little miffed that they wasted funding on a moe-bait medieval slice-of-life with an excessive amount of H-scenes.
     
    Why am I being so overboard with the bashing here? It is mostly because I started getting tired about halfway through this VN. Flay's path was decent, as was Sefui's... but I really did feel like I was retreading old ground from beginning to end. While I don't generally expect brilliance from a team that specializes in moe-variants, it was still a frustrating experience to have it so completely fail to differ from my expectations in any way. I almost would have enjoyed this more if it had been a Walkure Romance-type battle sport VN, as several of the characters felt like they'd been extracted directly from that VN, with slightly different roles. Like most VNs with a partial action focus, the protagonist is generally the deciding factor for me on whether the VN is actually worth the effort... and unfortunately, the protagonist feels too much like a non-entity from beginning to end for me to actually believe he is attracting a set of such pretty and capable females.
     
    Edit: Almost forgot... basically, this VN is suitable for people who like a fusion between moe-elements, mild action, and faux-medieval settings. While this VN isn't one I'd personally want to go back to, it is nonetheless one of the better ones of the type.
  5. Clephas
    Like some others, I got tricked into playing yet another gameplay-hybrid in the series of games by Gesen known as the Sangoku Hime series. To be honest... I couldn't imagine how they could have screwed things up worse.
     
    First of all, they used their 'restructuring' of the game as a big draw for those who were disappointed with a lot of the aspects of 3. They basically redid all the character designs (without exception) with completely new characterization, art, and voices... and I'll be honest, I couldn't imagine how they could have screwed things up worse.
     
    It isn't just that the style has regressed in some ways (the male character designs, which were actually pretty awesomely detailed in previous games, are now unbelievably crappy by any standard, probably to bring them in line with the new, moe-moe character designs for the female characters)... if it were just that, I would have shrugged and let it go. Unfortunately, it pretty much eliminated the best part of 3, which was the glorious atmosphere that enveloped you at key historical moments, such as the confrontation with the Yellow Turbans or the Alliance against Dong Zhuo... and especially when you defeated one of the Three Kingdoms or reached another historical turning points. Sun Ce, who was a warrior-queen type in the previous games, has turned into a moe-airhead with a war-addiction in this one. Cao Cao, who always put her ambition first and had the immense strength of will to follow through on her plans at all costs, while possessing a surprising sense of mercy and compassion to those who followed her or surrendered to her... has become a kuudere with a love of sweets. Even worse, her appearance in 3, which was kind of demonic, was changed drastically to make her into 'just another leader-heroine'. The only ones that hadn't changed were the Liu Bei followers, whose drive and personality hadn't essentially changed (though their visuals had changed significantly... oddly the only positive visual change I saw in the game).
     
    Now, setting aside the characterization and visual changes in other characters, we'll come to the change I found the most unbelievably annoying. Ginga, for all that he was a straight-out womanizing soldier-type in the previous games, nonetheless had a distinct personality. He was a powerful individual who knew the battlefield like the back of his hand. Unfortunately, he was replaced in the new game by Akito, your typical 'nice-guy' VN protagonist who happens to have an ability to see the future in dreams (and yet he can't seem to figure out how to use it... until late in various paths). Oh, there were other big issues throughout what I played... such as the lack of serious character development and the retaining of pointless slice of life scenes for side-characters that feels out of place in an otherwise serious game. However, the writing/story side just basically lost ALL of its luster... leaving you with the drudgery of the Sangoku Hime series (yes, the actual game-progression hadn't changed a bit from the previous games).
     
    There were some changes to the gameplay... such as the contraction of the soldier-types into a mere six different ones (light infantry, destroyers, barbarians, cavalry, archers, and tacticians (female or male)) versus the twelve or so that existed in previous games. This was actually an improvement in some ways, as it clearly redefined the classes according to their abilities and role. The character-building system is also simplified into three trees (war, learning, and astrology) and is expanded to cover all generals, not just the unique ones. Unfortunately, that simplification means that it is hard to impossible to overcome weaknesses in vital characters such as the ruler of your country (Liu Bei and Sun Ce both have weak political abilities compared to Cao Cao, whose abilities in this area are among the highest in the game). This can be a huge handicap, as your leader's political ability determines how much you can do in a single turn. You also lose most of the skills that were most useful in the previous games, such as the ones that let you massively increase your attack power in certain situations (thus giving you more strategic options).
     
    In the end, I just had to drop the game after I conquered half of China with Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and the Sun family... all three had exactly the same problems. Not to mention that the detailed story scenes that recreated certain minor but vital historical events were gone entirely (I particularly missed the events from Cao Cao's rise to power, which were fascinating and as true to the base material as anything I've seen in a game like this).
  6. Clephas
    I'll be blunt... I got this for free a while back from my supplier, and ever since then, I've kept it shelved, simply because the description makes it sound like a nukige. Fortunately, it isn't one... in fact, it is pretty far from that.
     
    Basically, it is a propaganda piece, speaking on the issue of rewriting the part of the Japanese constitution that prevents them from fighting except in a case where they were attacked first. The heroines and other characters line up behind either the ones who want to change the constitution or those who want to keep it the way it is. To be honest, this was such a blatantly political story that I almost tossed it back into the abyss of my account so I could forget I'd ever seen it.
     
    The romance in this VN isn't terribly strong... mostly because the pacing is so fractured that you can't help but wonder why they bothered in the first place. It isn't that the actual writing is bad... it is just that the attempt to graft a standard charage onto a political debate story weakened the overall storytelling to the point where I literally fell asleep sitting up several times while I played this.
     
    My biggest complaints with the political side of it is that this is an obviously pro-change propaganda story (though the outcome differs depending on what heroine you choose). The ones who are against the change are universally presented as silly idealists during the debate scenes and the ones for it have a tendency toward realist arguments, though arguments on both sides were pretty extreme. It wasn't terribly blatant... but it wasn't subtle either, at least from my point of view. I have to wonder if someone paid Ja no Michi to do things this way...
  7. Clephas
    Typical Dragon Race Members: "Ururu-sama Banzai! Ururu-sama Banzai! Ururu-sama Banzai!
     
    lol, setting that aside, this is the ending of the Tiny Dungeon series (so far anyway. I'm sure they'll eventually reuse the setting, if not the characters). First of all, it should be noted that this VN does not have the impact of the rest of the series. It is mostly comedy, with a few really cool combat scenes mixed in (Veil vs. Note is pretty awesome) and H-scenes for all four of the new heroines. This also serves as the harem ending for Tiny Dungeon, and it was apparently created on the request of fans, as the epilogue of Brave or Slave was a bit truncated.
     
    Anyway, this is based approximately a year after the events in Brave or Slave, and it starts as Miko, Hime's little sister, is entering the school, entirely unaware of what happened to him a year before, believing that his position is as weak as it was before (basically, members of the human race are considered trash by the other races because it was a human who deliberately started the inter-world war twenty years before). So she is startled to find how much things have changed.
     
    While there are plenty of service scenes in this VN, and as always the dragon race is insane about Ururu (see the pic above), a lot of things have changed for Hime and friends in the previous year, as a result of the events of Brave or Slave. Since most of this VN is comedic slice of life, it might seem a bit disappointing to some, but there are some good action scenes, including a really awesome one at the end, where Hime shows off his best.
     
    Anyway, as an extended epilogue and extra after story, this is a more than adequate experience. However, without the previous VNs, it wouldn't make a lick of sense. The new characters all have a legitimate reason for being there, but since they all have their own motives, it is a bit hard to sort through it all. I do think that they should have had the VN extend across a longer period of time, preferably letting Miko get more out of her trials at the school, but that is probably asking a bit too much, lol.
  8. Clephas
    Beware of Wandering Maids

     
    This is the fourth and final VN of the TIny Dungeon main series (see: http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-727-tiny-dungeon-black-and-white/ http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-747-tiny-dungeon-bless-of-dragon/ http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-749-tiny-dungeon-birth-for-yours/ for the rest of the series so far). It also serves as a conclusion to the story that began with the first one (though Endless Dungeon is basically the actual ending of the series).
     
    This VN doesn't have a single-heroine focus (except maybe Kamishia). Rather, it is a story focused on the drama that has been building throughout the other VNs (the common elements), and it brings those to a conclusion in a pretty dramatic fashion. Unlike the other three VNs, this one isn't defined as much by its tragedy as its laughter (as seen in the pics above, it still has a lot of laughter though), but in exchange, it has the most plentiful (and fun) combat scenes in the entire series.
     
    All of the cast of main characters grow at least somewhat in the course of this VN, as they come to terms with their own problems (man, it is really hard not to spoil the other VNs here). However, again it is Hime who grows the most, this time as much psychologically as in terms of skill and ability.
     
    One thing that should be kept in mind as one of the pluses of Hime as a protagonist is that he is basically working from a disability throughout the series. In a world where every warrior uses magic in some form or another, he is the only who can't use magic. Instead, he has put himself through insane levels of painful training, as well as constantly looking for ways to make himself useful to his comrades. He has a very clear vision of his own abilities and those of the people around him in most cases, and he is an extremely compassionate (not just kind) individual. By the time you get to this VN, you'll probably be rooting for him anyway, but I thought I'd go ahead and give him a boost in yall's minds.
     
    The confrontations at the end of this VN are generally awesome, with some really good match-ups, though they don't have the impact of extreme chuunige action scenes like those in Dies Irae. I especially love it when Veil's mother is fighting... her spell chants tell you a lot about why she had so many nicknames in the war between the worlds ('the Jet Black Ogre of War' 'The Wind of Disaster' 'The Unending Nightmare' 'The Sorceress of Massacre' 'Fully Automatic Ground Meat Production Machine' 'Mobile Strategic Weapon').
     
    The actual epilogue of the story is pretty short, which is probably why Endless Dungeon was made as such an extensive follow-up. Nonetheless, this VN is a pretty nice conclusion to the main series, having sufficient drama to satisfy most people who played/read the other VNs.
  9. Clephas
    This is the third VN in the Tiny Dungeon series (see: http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-727-tiny-dungeon-black-and-white/ and http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-747-tiny-dungeon-bless-of-dragon/ for the first two). This one is focused on Note Ruum.
     
    Note Ruum's secret you will already know from Black and White (it is central to the drama near the end), but I will refrain from revealing it anyway. She is the First Princess of the Divine World, as well as being the 'Grand Luna', the only member of the divine race to have been born with the full power of the race and the pure silver hair that symbolizes it in centuries. However, her base personality is that of a tennen dojikko who is generally clumsy about everything except combat.
     
    This VN has the potential to be the most emotional of the first three, for those who have been enjoying the series from the beginning, mostly due to the events that occur near the end. Also, it is in this VN that the commonality of the three comes to light (hint: there is one person who always dies at some point in each of the three VNs, becoming the key to the tragedies that follow). Similar to the previous two, hilarious slice of life is interspersed with foreshadowing and - in the end - a series of tragedies that would break a heart of stone. Hime's growth during the course of the VN, while it takes a slightly different path, is really something to look forward to... but in exchange, it becomes a cause for one of the more tragic elements of the story.
     
    Finally, it is in this VN that the identities of the people behind the scenes get revealed, and it is pretty shocking at the time. In particular, the identity of Kamishia (not her real name) will probably surprise a lot of people. This final revelation shoves you directly into the path of the fourth VN. Look forward to it, as I will be heading straight into it, lol.
  10. Clephas
    First, I’ll say a few words about the Tiny Dungeon series. This series is made up of five games (if you include Endless Dungeon, which is a sequel/canon ending that brings a conclusion to the post-Brave and Slave events). The first three VNs are each focused on one of the three main heroines… Veil Sein, Ururu Kajuta, and Note Ruum. The fourth VN – Brave or Slave – brings an end to the story began in Black and White, and the fifth – Endless Dungeon – is a final conclusion and after-story for the entire group. The first VN, Black and White, contains the common route and the Veil Sein (the demon girl) route.

    Veil is probably the most obvious deredere heroine in existence… since she doesn’t have a drop of tsun in her body. She loves Hime, lives for him, and without hesitation will erase the existence of anyone who bothers him. The fact that she has the power to do so (the most powerful individual in the demon realm) kind of makes her scary to the various people who don’t like Hime (obviously). Needless to say, I love her, lol.

    Anyway, this VN, like all the VNs in the Tiny Dungeon series, balances hilarity, serious drama, and emotional moments in a way that you generally won’t see in a VN that is so relatively easy to read. That’s not to say it is a really easy read (it tends to range between 4.5-7)… but it is much easier to read than most VNs with action scenes.

    The music in all these VNs is pretty good, primarily utilizing piano and techno pieces to enhance and create moods as is appropriate, and they are generally tastefully presented. The voices can be a bit exaggerated, and there is one scene early on when you’ll notice a bit of fuzziness in the background (as a friend explained to me, it is the engine the game runs on, rather than the actual voice-acting or recording itself). However, they are nonetheless generally suited to their characters… and there are a lot of characters.

    In this VN, there are three main heroines (as stated above) and four total sub-heroines in the series who make up Hime’s hare- I mean, his group of friends. They consist of Amia (Note’s little sister), Opera (Ururu’s psychotic maid), Fon (the dragon/demon hybrid), and Kou (the protagonist’s human roommate). There are also another dozen or so major and minor characters who appear on screen and have a significant effect on the story as a whole, though not all of them appear in the first game.

    Generally speaking, there is no point in any of the main-series VNs where there is no point to what is going on. The story is always moving forward or creating the basis for moving forward, and the comedy that is used to frost the cake is ever-present, save for in the most tense scenes.

    Hime, the protagonist, is a natural leader and hard worker who has an incredibly strong will and a reasonable level of intelligence (he’s not a genius, but neither is he average). More importantly, he understands people and has a big, accepting heart. Generally speaking, he is one of the few unvoiced protagonists outside of a chuunige where I truly and absolutely enjoyed every second behind his eyes…

    One thing you have to keep in mind about this VN is that it is one part in four… and the events in this game are inevitably going to break your heart at times. I know I cried several times in the course of this VN, even though I’ve already played it before.

    Overall, this VN still gets a strong recommendation from me, both for relatively advanced beginners and veterans alike.
  11. Clephas
    Bless of Dragon is the second VN in the Tiny Dungeon series (see http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-727-tiny-dungeon-black-and-white/ for my comments on Black and White). The picture above is of Fon, who is one of this VN's two side-heroines (Opera the maid is the other). She is a half-dragon, half-demon girl with her own major issues that come out into the open in this VN, which is focused on Ururu Kajuta, the loli-dragon princess.
     
    Ururu is technically what would be called a 'loli-babaa', because she is in the latter of her second century of life. It says a lot about her that her base personality that she is still childish enough that she willingly calls the protagonist 'nii-sama', for you moe-freaks out there.
     
    Hime, as always, grows a lot during the course of this VN, exceeding the expectations of those around him at every turn, though he isn't some kind of 'I am powerful!' type, but rather the type that improves through solid hard work and constant consideration and learning.
     
    The serious (deadly) action scenes in this VN are a bit more plentiful than those in Black and White... but in exchange, the emotions surrounding them tend to be more intense (though the last confrontation in Black and White outmatches all of those in the other two 'heroine' games). In addition, the usual comedy is offset by the sheer tragedy of certain events... This is a characteristic you will probably be familiar with already, if you played Black and White before this one, like you were supposed to.
     
    Ururu also shows herself to be an individual worthy of the insanely (a cross between half-religious zealotry and obsessive idol-worshipping fandom) loyal dragon race that is under her rule, which will probably surprise the heck out of those who are used to thinking of her as lolicon bait. This shows off perhaps one of the things I like most about this series... the characters do confront their individual problems, at some point in the series, and that grants a definite sense of substance to the whole thing.
     
    For those who follow my Random VN part of the blog, I will be going through the other two VNs in the main series as well as a second playthrough of Endless Dungeon in the near future, so look forward to it.
  12. Clephas
    Tou no Shita no Exercitus, as I mentioned in the previous post, pretty much eliminates most of the problems that Verethragna had in terms of the card combat system, in exchange for a loss of any real challenge, outside of the last boss and a few others along the way. That impression didn't change throughout my experience of the last few chapters of the game, so at this point, I won't bother rehashing that explanation.
     
    More importantly, I thought I should mention that this VN doesn't commit the greatest sin of a gameplay hybrid by using the gameplay in place of narration (rather than to supplement it). Its combat scenes have decent (if not overwhelmingly good) narration, and there is a general sense that this was someone's work of love, as well as business, which is relatively rare in VNs these days. The plot, while not anything new (the setting channels Wild Arms and Mana Khemia, which had me cracking up a bit) is nonetheless solidly written, and the characters, while sometimes a bit overly comical in nature, were generally well-described and developed by the end, with a few exceptions (Ruana's team, the tower keepers), though this was alleviated by the large number of side-events you could access during the last chapter to get to know them.
     
    The existence of money is actually pretty pointless, since you can get by just by using the cards you pick up along the way (though third level single-enemy magic attack cards can only be purchased in the store, as far as I could tell). On the other hand, this means that you are free from the need to budget, instead allowing you to focus on dungeon-crawling to get your levels even with the enemies and obtain cards you might find of use.
     
    Overall, this VN was surprisingly good, leaving me with a general good feeling, though it wasn't exceptionally awesome. This VN would probably suit the tastes of people who like the Koihime Musou series (if you excise the first game, which was localized) and other 'light' gameplay hybrids, where the gameplay is designed to be easy to navigate. It isn't anywhere near kamige level, but it is nonetheless VN of the Month, August 2015.
  13. Clephas
    First, I should describe Astronauts, the mother company that created this VN. Astronauts produces a wide variety of VNs done in its own unique art style. Most are halfway to a nukige without quite going there, and about a third of them are gameplay VNs like this one. Since their VNs vary so wildly between subsidiaries and even just between games, the art-style is pretty much the only common thread.
     
    Exercitus is reusing the base card-battle system from Astronauts' previous card-based battle rpg, Verethragna. To be honest, I dropped Vereth because the battles were so tedious. The random draw system made the game unbelievably annoying, because of the sheer number of battles you ended up experiencing, even in the early game. Thankfully, in Exercitus, the monster/character cards are separated from the magic/trap cards and it is only the magic/trap cards that are drawn randomly. This allows you to actually treat your monster/character cards like a party in a normal rpg, rather than wondering what kind of BS draw the AI is going to give you next. Also, because you and your enemies are limited to six party cards in total, the actual battle length is cut by about 4/5, making it actually playable, despite the expansion of dungeon-exploration elements.
     
    For those who want hard-level difficulty, this VN is probably not really going to fulfill your fantasies. In exchange for eliminating the tedium and irritation of Verethragna's version of the system, most of the challenge is eliminated, once you've figured out the elemental affinities and have a solid deck of magic cards and party cards.
     
    The story of the VN is your basic 'protagonist summoned to a fantasy world' gig, with the twist that the protagonist is a genius engineer, who can pretty much grasp the composition and purpose of any tool, given time. This is a nice change from the tendency to put faceless nobodies in VNs like this, who tend to either be muscle-brains or weak-spirited, kind-hearted 'rulers'.
     
    This VN does fall into the cliche of the harem... you are going to end up in H situations with pretty much everything female in this VN, and their protests against the protagonist's philandering are really weak, lol. The actual story of this VN is pretty good, though it tends to walk a tightrope between a 'fantasy jrpg' plot and a school life one (reminding me of Mana Khemia before it started to suck).
     
    I'll give my final comments once I'm done with the VN, which shouldn't take too much longer.
  14. Clephas
    This is a VN by a new company, Prometheus that seems to be reusing members from ID, a company known for third-rate moege. Overall, I didn't have any real hopes for this VN going in, and thus I wasn't disappointed. That said, this VN did surprise me in that it actually had some good points to it, which I'll enumerate below.
     
    Pros
     
    1. The two heroines, while not entirely unique, actually have real worries in life that get wrapped up in the events of the heroine routes. There is actually drama to their paths that can actually qualify as drama, and that in itself is enough of a rarity in moege that it was a pleasant surprise.
     
    2. The VN actually has a decent protagonist, though he is perhaps a bit obvious as a character, he does escape being a self-insert nonentity, which is good.
     
    Cons
     
    1. The pacing in this VN is pretty poor. It feels like large chunks of development are just left out altogether.
     
    2. The art is the washed-out style that was used by I.D., and thus it feels like something that was done by a company ten years ago, rather than now.
     
    3. The music is universally generic and generally poorly utilized (there was even a redesigned public domain BGM from Phantasy Star 2 in there).
     
    Overall, this VN isn't one I can honestly recommend... and not just because it is incomplete.
  15. Clephas
    Shiro

    Kon


    Most of you already know that one of my fetishes is mimikko... and kitsune in particular. So, it shouldn't surprise anyone to hear that I liked this VN. That said, this VN is so straightforward (in a 'in a straight line' sense) that you probably shouldn't expect anything in the way of twists.

    The two heroines are Shiro and Kon (see the pics above). Shiro is the little sister, a white-haired loli-kitsune who is totally innocent and carefree. She is straightforward both about what she likes and what she dislikes, and she has no problems going after it. Kon is more mature (definitely the older sister type), with a tendency to tease the protagonist in order to get a reaction out of him.

    Overall, this VN has a single purpose... to ease you straight into a romance with one of the two heroines, resulting eventually in love and marriage. There is no room for spoilers because it really is just that straightforward. What drama there is is so mild as to be nonexistent... but considering how warm and cuddly the story feels, it probably won't matter to my fellow mimikko-worshipers.

    The motion-animation system that is used for the sprites in this VN is a bit more complex than that used in most boobatron-type and blink-machine ones you see in the average VN, and that does add some life to the characters that otherwise wouldn't be there... especially with the ear movements. Anyway, this VN is definitely a moe-fest... a moe-fest that fits my fetishes, lol.
  16. Clephas
    On the twenty-fourth of September, 2015, it will officially have been two years since I started doing VN of the Month. In that time, I've read just under 200 VNs, just under one hundred of them for VN of the Month. Even if you take my abnormally fast reading speed into account, that is several thousand hours of VN playtime... so naturally, I am a lot more jaded than I was when I started this. I've become more forgiving in some areas and less in others. I've struggled to keep bias out of my mini-reviews as much as possible - though with the filter that all VNs are meant to tell a story ever-present - , and, much to my bemusement, I've found that there are actually people who pay attention to my reviews before choosing which untranslated VNs they will play.

    To be honest, VN of the Month can be one of the most grueling tasks I've ever taken on outside of work. Where I would normally just ignore certain VNs, I play them so that people will have an idea of what to expect, and if a new company puts out their first release, I'm the first to jump on it. I filter VNs through my long (seven year) VN experience and attempt to put them in perspective, and I even succeed at times. I hit my favorite type of VNs - chuunige - with levels of criticism I wouldn't bother with with a moege in order to counter my bias (which can be painful at times), and I give even the most puerile of moege a chance to show me its good side. At times, I'll outright refuse to play a VN, but I usually end up getting to it later, in my Random VN thread.

    So why am I waxing nostalgic? Because, just like last year, I'm giving Fuwans a chance to shut me down. Oh, I'll still play VNs - most likely from every month - but I'll probably ignore anything I'm not already interested in. I'll use that time for other pursuits, and if I don't want to give a VN an honest chance, I won't. VN of the Month will cease to exist, leaving only the Random VN series.

    So what is your choice, Fuwans? If I don't get at least thirty Yes votes by September 24 (the anniversary) or the No votes outweigh the Yes ones, VN of the Month gets shutdown. That might not seem like much, but it is more than you probably think, considering how few people actively pay attention to this blog and the thread that is its sister.

    Edit: Redid the post.
  17. Clephas
    Zirconia
    Zirconia is the protagonist's elven 'oneechan', who basically took care of him while he was in the other world... and who raised him like Hikari Genji in the Genji Monogatari to be her ideal man. She is probably the most straight-out hilarious heroine in the game, because she even goes so far as to lock the door whenever they are alone in a room, has a dakimakura of the protagonist, and her favorite pastime is having daydreams about the protagonist...

    Her path is easily the most complex and deep of the paths in this VN (well, the ones I was willing to play), and her character development is the most thorough. Unfortunately, the path is also a straight-out template of an overused fantasy self-sacrificial type of love, and the resolution is even more template, if that is possible. I wasn't expecting to be surprised by anything by Hook Soft, but I felt more than a little exasperated at how obvious they were in this case.

    Miisha and Pascal
    Miisha and Pascal are sub-heroines, whose routes last maybe thirty minutes. Both are straight-out 'fall in love for an idiotic reason, have sex, story over' paths that are basically excuses for more catgirl and elven H-scenes.

    Overall
    Overall, this VN is a moege, straight and out... it'll appeal to people who don't care about the story and just want to see lots of moe fantasy characters. However, anyone who likes to see solid storytelling (even if it is within the limits of a charage) will probably have trouble getting anywhere with this VN... because if you stuck a ruler into its depths, only an inch or so would come out wet. Perhaps the best part of this VN is actually the music, which reminds me of Suikoden I and II (PS1 rpgs) in style, frequently. I honestly had to praise their taste in music for this VN, though they didn't use it very well.
  18. Clephas
    Finn

    Finn is an angel who is also an oracle for the god of the other world where all the non-humans live. In the story, she has basically been told to 'go to the human world and learn', and she is a total innocent who is incapable of acting on her own. Her main draw as a character is the way she attaches herself at the hip to the protagonist almost from the beginning and her generally straightforward and innocent reactions to anything and everything. Her path is a simple one, with a really obvious path to the ending. Her cuteness was great... but to be honest, I felt her path, like Kuroe's, was kind of lacking in depth.


    Rea

    Rea's path is... a classic example of what happens when people who aren't used to writing serious non-romance scenes try to write a bit of serious drama (the only serious drama/action I've seen so far in this VN). To be honest, it feels abrupt and forced... and it is obvious that the writer doesn't really have a strong image of what he wants to do here. It doesn't help that the actual antagonist is so ridiculous-looking that it is pretty much impossible to take what is going on seriously or emotionally attach to what is going on. As a path, the ichaicha part is about par for the course with Hook Soft's VNs in general, but the attempt at seriousness just doesn't go down right.

    Edit: I should clarify that Rea's path is not all drama... it is mostly ichaicha (like all Hook soft paths), but the above description is how I felt about the experience with the drama at the end of the path.
  19. Clephas
    There are a few companies out there, such as Feng, Hook Soft, and Circus, who specialize primarily in the 'pure moe' genre. They might tack on a real story to some of their VNs (Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou), but at the core is a direct appeal to the moe-addicts that make up about seventy percent of all otakus. There is absolutely nothing wrong with moe-appeals. Almost all Japanese VN-makers have moe appeals, even ones like Light that primarily do chuunige. I don't even think that pure moege are a bad thing... though they can be wearying at times.

    Hook Soft is probably the most obvious example of a pure moege company that doesn't stray into nukige territory out there. Strawberry Nauts, which is one of their more famous VNs, is probably the most sugar-sweet moege/charage I've ever played, without anything resembling darkness or bitterness to it... not even a hint of it. This is actually typical of this company's games, from what I have played. Another aspect that is typical of this company is heroine-overdosing. Almost all of their VNs have more than the standard five heroines (Strawberry Nauts had ten, if I recall correctly), and the common route is generally the strongest part of their VNs.

    If I had to pick a company that is the model case for 'modern' moege, it would be Hook Soft (though it is an older company, having been formed just after the turn of the century). If you play one of the VNs they made in the last seven years, you will inevitably see echoes of familiar charage in them, with all hint of hard drama extracted painstakingly to render all potential sharp edges round.

    While there are many companies that use the basic idea of Hook Soft's VNs in their own ways, I don't think any other is either as prolific or as obvious about it as this company, lol.
  20. Clephas
    Now... this is a VN by Hooksoft. Hooksoft is a company known for its 'sweet' stories, with lots of moe, decent (occasionally straying into excellent) character development, and lots of heroines. This is their first trip into fantasy, and from what I've seen so far, it looks like they did a better job than some companies tend to do with this kind of thing, though the character types are universally standard Hook Soft heroines (I can see echoes of previous heroines from their games in all of them). Similar to all the other Hook Soft games I've played, I have no intention of playing all the paths. To be blunt, with nine heroines, it would take too long and I wouldn't be able to properly evaluate the VN by the end (deluge of endless moe results in hate). Hook Soft VNs are examples of the charage/moege ideal... and they are basically a perfect strike to the heart of lovers of that type of VN. However, for people who just dabble in moe, they tend to present a gift of psychological heartburn.

    So, I decided to hit the heroines I found interesting... naturally, all of the non-human ones are included (Chloe, Zirconia, Finn, Pascal, Rea, and Miisha)... and after that we'll see if I have the energy for one more (probably not).

    Common
    The common route is actually relatively short for a charage. I completed it in just under five hours... and that was without really hurrying. During the course of the common route, you are introduced to the heroines, get to know the situation and setting to a certain degree, and you are given just enough information to decide which heroine you will choose. To be honest, I thought this common route was a bit out of character, compared to other Hook Soft games. If anything, most Hook Soft VNs tend to have a lot of fat and filler (usually cute and comedy). However, this was kept relatively minimal, with a definite sense of 'head for the nearest heroine' to it. Whether this is a good thing or not depends on your perspective.

    Chloe de Pureryune

    Choe is a vampire... though you would hardly notice it at any point in the VN if she wasn't so obsessed with it. Most of it is comedic, save for what is used to create her path's drama. To be honest, even for a Hook Soft VN, there was no real struggle to push her in the protagonist's path or make them into lovers... it happened so fast and with so few complications I was left gaping. One of the top points of a good vampire heroine's path (when the heroine has something resembling common sense) is actually getting into the relationship. However, in this case, most of the inconveniences of an immortal and a mortal being lovers are sort of glossed over in this path in favor of another nearby conflict. To be honest, my opinion on this path is that it wasted the entire vampire issue as a whole, despite her vampirism being a central issue. I also felt a bit gypped in the end, because they had several perfect chances for touching scenes where they just skipped over it and said 'its over' at the end. While I'm sure a lot of moe-addicts will love the ichaicha and general cuteness, this is not a well-designed path.
  21. Clephas
    Tou no Shita no Exircitus (https://vndb.org/v17835 )- This company tends to produce either excellent games or horrible games. Astronauts is constantly exploring the borderline between nukige, normal VNs, and gameplay-focused VNs and frequently tips over into one of the three. However, because they do occasionally produce good games, I can't ignore them, lol.

    Tenkiame (https://vndb.org/v17337 )- Because I love kitsune.

    Traveling Stars (https://vndb.org/v16459 )- This is the newest VN from Hook Soft, a company known for producing 'iyashikei' VNs, meant to soothe, give you mild catharsis, and bury you in cute/moe. From what I saw, this VN won't escape that, but because the heroines are mostly non-human, I can't resist trying it.

    As you can see, this is a pretty quiet month, so I shouldn't have any problem finishing all three of these. If you find any other VNs you want to bring my attention to, feel free (as long as they aren't nukige).
  22. Clephas
    This is the first of August's releases I'm playing, and to be honest, I didn't really have any hopes for this VN... in a good way, my belief that it would suck was betrayed, though this is a very problematic VN, in a number of ways.

    1. It is LONG. This VN is way too long for a story that is almost entirely slice-of-life (though it is an extremely abnormal life) and considering how self-abusing the protagonist tends to be.

    2. The music cuts out at irregular intervals, and frequently it doesn't make sense when it does.

    Those are the obvious flaws, and I'll just leave it at that. For a doujin VN, the art is about as good as it gets (outside of a few miraculous works of art that pop up once or twice a year). The match of characterization to art is pretty good in this case (in other words, the characters' personalities are properly matched to the expressions and poses of the tachie), though there is very little in the way of pose variances in comparison to a commercial VN.

    Most of the music in this VN is generic (though the opening and ending songs are decent unique ones), but it is used properly - where it doesn't cut out and leave you hanging - so there isn't a lot to complain about.

    Story-wise... the concept is interesting. The basic idea of the protagonist is that he is cursed to be the 'idiot friend' (think Sunohara from Clannad) who exists entirely to help the protagonist get together with a heroine or to kick him out of his mood and save the heroine. The thing is... he has at least forty groups of such 'osananajimi' characters, each with a 'protagonist' of its own that he has to help. The basic impression is that it is like a full time job... a job he really, really hates.

    To be honest, I was kind of amazed they went with a primarily serious story (yes, it is serious) despite the seemingly humor-focused idea of the story. Oh, there is indeed a ton of laughable points... in fact, it is impossible to avoid them even if you try. However, the baseline of the story is serious, to the point where you have to wonder just why they had to lay it on so heavy in the latter part of each heroine route. (incidentally, I'm half-sure there is a hidden heroine route in here somewhere, but because this is a doujin VN, there are no walkthroughs to help me find it, lol)

    Well, my conclusion after having played the obvious heroine routes is that this is a decent VN... but only decent. It doesn't get beyond that, primarily because its flaws are glaring enough that they offset most of the good points. This VN could definitely have done with a bit of cutting the fat, especially when it came to the repetitious gags and constant foreshadowing with no progression (it took way too long to get to the point) in Nanami's route.
  23. Clephas
    I had a lot of reasons for avoiding playing this game... first, it had really crappy-looking gameplay. Second, it was tagged both in Japanese and English with the hetare protagonist tag. Third, the concept was pretty stupid, even by VN standards...

    On all these counts, I was correct in my assessment as to whether this would be playable.

    That's not to say this VN doesn't have a lot of positive points. The heroines are generally well-developed, and they do have their own paths (though all of them other than Ryuana, Senshia, Yuki, and Kudelka are all short and less well-developed). However, that positive point is absolutely overwhelmed by the fact that EVERY FEMALE IN THIS GAME IS A HEROINE except the protagonist's mother... and that is just way too much.

    Making it worse is that the protagonist is the perverted sandbag hetare type that generally ends up as the 'idiot best friend' in most love-comedy VNs these days... I'm sorry, but I don't enjoy vicariously experiencing being beaten on by the heroines in just about every scene. Unless you are completely do-M, you'll come to hate this protagonist well before you get out of the common route.

    The writing quality is spotty, probably because it was handled by so many separate writers (five that I know of), and as a result, the gap between the really well-written scenes (usually in the dungeons or during special scenes in the heroine routes) and the 'normal' scenes is so obvious that I was a bit exasperated.

    Ryuana is probably the most favored of all the heroines, because hers is the only route where you really see the protagonist grow out of his hetare-dom, if only just a bit. Frankly, he is pretty much a weak-willed, cowardly, perverted idiot until the end of most of the paths, and I wanted to impale him for most of the VN.

    The gameplay is pretty pointless, since you basically walk through the dungeon (your level is automatically matched to it and you can't change anything about your characters) to the goal every time, and there is no real sense of accomplishment to it, since it doesn't gain you any advantages to out of your way. Thankfully, it generally only pops up three times in the common route and zero to three times in various heroine routes. That said, it was annoying just for its very existence, since it is basically a waste of your time.

    Overall, I can't recommend this VN... at all. The art is good and there are some attractive heroines and some good moments, but that doesn't change the fact that most of the elements that went into this VN sucked donkey hair.
  24. Clephas
    I'll start out saying this. The primary reason I hadn't played this up until now was because the concept just sounded so silly on paper, no matter how many times I read it. I mean, making sex toys as a gameplay element? Seriously? However, I don't regret playing this game in any sense of the word, and it escapes being a nukige despite the concept.

    First, the gameplay... There are two major aspects to the gameplay, a phase where you research and make sex toys as well as other daily activities (such as expanding facilities or conducting general research with a heroine) and a battle phase that pops up at irregular times. The battle phase is a card-based system (with random draws) based off of rock-paper-scissors where you deal damage to an enemy based on your character's stats plus the number on the cards. You can combine the three types of cards in a combo that both increases hits and damage, and the first card in the combo decides whether it is rock, paper, or scissors. To an extent, the battles are based on luck, so you shouldn't expect to be able to win at all times. The 'daily life' gameplay focuses on the creation of sex toys and the handing over of lost technology to your company's partner/parent company in order to increase their share of the market. The basic objective is to put together 500,000,000 yen in earnings (put together from bonuses for handing over tech and the sales of sex toys you researched and put into production) and gain a total of a 70% share of the market so you can do a hostile takeover of the SHE corporation.

    The story is so intimately connected to the gameplay that I couldn't help but be impressed at how they supplemented one another. I had to rofl at the sex toy H-scenes (they range from the bizarre to the psychotic), and there was just enough slice-of-life to give you a strong impression of all the characters (and heroines) without becoming tedious. The story itself was fairly awesome, with the nature and future of artificial intelligence and scientific ethics as major themes. I honestly enjoyed both the main story and the ideas behind it, and I didn't manage to get bored at any time during the course of the game (I pulled an all-nighter to finish it and I just woke up after two hours of sleep). To be honest, I don't have anything significant to complain about, storywise, with this game, though I could have wished for a non-bad Kuon ending (I got all the Teria and Fam endings - non-human heroines banzai!!!).

    This is a good VN for someone who wants a good balance between the comedic and the serious in a gameplay-based VN that is relatively easy to master. There are a few too many H-scenes, but considering the concept, there were actually a lot fewer than I expected.
  25. Clephas
    I'm currently playing Black Wolves Saga, an otomege by Rejet. I'm going to repeat a statement I've made many times in the past about otomege in general... their tropes are like a cancer on the genre in general. DIDS (Damsel in Distress Syndrome), tsundere heroes, psychotic/obsessive/possessive heroes, and dominating heroes rot these VNs from the inside in the same way the osananajimi heroines, airhead heroines, and self-insert protagonists of male-oriented VNs do to those.

    This VN is no exception.

    The protagonist is your typical optimistic, slightly airheaded doormat that makes up ninety percent of all otomege protagonists. That this VN is an utsuge only makes this stand out more... she attracts a huge host of yandere, yangire, and just generally insane and/or broken heroes who are - to one degree or another - obsessed with her. To be honest, I was almost impressed that they could manage to put so many crazy people in as romantic interests in a single VN.

    I finished the two Cait Sith main heroes' paths last night... and my thought was 'This is what is listed as a GOOD ending? Seriously? Just how much of a moronic doormat can she be?' To be blunt, it resembled some of the bad endings I've seen in chuunige where the protagonist basically spends the rest of his life as a sex-slave for a psychotic female who isn't quite a heroine before she decides to kill him on a whim. There is absolutely nothing likable about either of them, no redeeming value to them as people... and you are required to finish their paths to access some of the more interesting heroes.

    To be honest, this entire VN would be a lot more interesting if they had put it in complete 3rd person and made you just a spectator to what was going on rather than forcing you to self-insert into an idiotic ditz who occasionally shows signs of intelligence, only to make you give up on her five minutes later when she thinks, says, or does something so completely idiotic that it cancels out those brief moments of actual intellect.

    I'm being really harsh... but where this story really stands out is in the depth of the setting and the degree to which the writer captures the insanities of human nature when driven to extremes by a hellish life or the events of the world around them. The characters are generally distasteful scum or people who make you want to kick them in the head for stupid naivete, but in exchange, you get a story of genocide, intrigue, torture, and murder that lines itself up with a number of other dark fantasy out there... and doesn't lose out completely, despite the cast of characters.

    Another place where this VN stands out is in its music and art... the art is a unique style, with the use of colors and detail you generally don't see even in your average otomege. The music is dominated primarily by gloomy and sorrowful tunes... but those tunes are pretty high quality, so it is a plus, despite most of the tracks being depressing.

    While I plan to play one of the wolf paths, I have no interest in playing all the paths of this VN, so think of this as my general impression for the time being. Being the protagonist of this VN is just too frustrating given the setting for me to be able to stand it much longer.
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