Hiromi

When I go on Twitter, I see that the trending seasonal anime always receives a torrent of fanart. Last cour was Lycoris Recoil. Some time ago was Spy x Family. But yeah, I experience a similar feeling of detachment from the larger community too.
For quite some time I haven't been able to get as excited about anime as I was in school age. I can think of various reasons why, but I think a huge part of it is pessimism caused by caring too much about what happens in the outside world. It sapps away attention and energy, which could've been invested in enjoyable, creative hobbies. As long as we live in a society (lul) we can't really isolate ourselves from current events, but we have the choice where to direct our attention to. The more we direct it outwards, the more negative feelings we get. The more we direct it inwards, the more positive feelings we get. At least that's my hypothesis for the time being.
A nice short series I watched recently is This Ugly yet Beautiful World. It's from Gainax (Series Director: Saeki Shouji), produced some time after Evangelion, back in the days where the company still was about anime and not fishing young girls for sexual favors in dubious voice acting competitions (Would be a good eroge plot but disastrous when practiced in real life). Character designer is Takamura Kazuhiro of Strike Witches fame -- also the main reason I picked up the series since I'm a huge fan of his art. It's basically a cute girl anime, in the way that Strike Witches is a cute girl anime too despite the accessory aspects like military gear and the Neuroi. This Ugly yet Beautiful World has sci-fi elements too like super powers and alien monsters, but that's not really what the show is about, but rather the inner conflicts of the characters, and how they overcome these in the course of the story. The anime makes me think of a video essay I've watched on YouTube about the concept of human consciousness, that we only start to achieve understanding of ourselves and the outside world through seeing ourselves reflected in the eyes of other people. The human subject achieves recognition of itself as a subject only through coming into contact with other human subjects, and so on and so on. Anyways it's a nice anime if you like cute girls and psychology.
^ Opening sequence. Theme song by Takahashi Youko, most famous probably for Cruel Angel's Thesis.

On Switch, visual novels should be able to reach a wider audience than PC exclusive titles. With this, hopefully more young people will get into this wonderful niche and ameliorate the over-aging problem in the eroge population.

Dang, I already have this on steam. I hope it sells well on the Switch--- love that we're getting more and more ports! Was I expecting the Switch of all things to become a portable VN machine when I bought it? Honestly, no. Glad it is.

The console port of Harmonia (Visual Arts/Key) was released on Nintendo Switch recently on Oct 20, 2022.
Come to think of it, this was probably the last work from Key where Itaru officially worked as the company illlustrator. She quit the company in Sept 2016 and Harmonia came out literally three days later on Sept 23.
~~~~~
How did you guys like Harmonia?
I really liked Itaru's coloring in this game, the skin tone is especially well done, particularly noticable on the thighs pictured above and oppais on the in-game CG. But otherwise I have the impression that the face she draws has gotten more derpy compared to her peak in Clannad. I mean they don't look that bad, but they come off rather flat, in both sense of the word.
The voice acting was lovely as well. I associate Mizuhashi Kaori with the violent pettan tsundere from Baka to Test who starts speaking gibberish in German when she's flabbergasted, but Shiona from Harmonia (the blonde girl above for those who haven't played the game) has a diametrically opposite character compared to Minami. A holy sister overflowing with babumi... Not really my fetish but her voice soothes my depraved soul.
When it comes to the music, well, you've got Orito Shinji working on most of the music in this agame. I don't have the game installed on my PC right now, so I can't check whether it's him, but I like the BGM embed above the most. I think it captures very well the vibe of the town in the story, an oasis in the middle of a decaying world. A temporary breathing space, but will the peaceful days last forever? This faint trace of wistfulness and unease in an otherwise relaxing piece is something Key does very well, in my opinion.
Unfortunately I won't be buying this console port for now, due to the grave reason of... not having a Nintendo Switch at home. This port allows you to switch the language between Japanese, English, and Chinese (probably in-game like the Steam edition of Little Busters), so it's not like I'm not interested in it, since I'd like to try reading it in the original language. Maybe one day I'll get a Switch and the game, when I'm not using my shiokuri for onaholes and onsei sakuhin on DLsite.
It's a short kinetic novel, and a very good one at that. Recommended for those with a Nintendo Switch and a penchant for emotional stories.
The price goes around 25 USD on the Nintendo E-Shop, which is suprisingly a little bit more expensive than the Japanese price (2,980 Yen, around 20 USD). I guess one could also say that this port is worth three games, so it's not really expensive in the end.

Hope it was a good nut, my man.

Possible, but I'd rather guess the problem here is that with this game, which looks like an older eroge from the early 2000s, you have to have the game CD inserted in the PC disk drive in order to play the game.
Naturally, you install the game with the CD inserted. But even when the game files are already installed in your PC, you still need the CD inside your PC to run the game.
So seems to be the case with earlier titles. With the proliferation of digital releases, this kind of problem is not to be seen anymore.
TL;DR A physical CD is required. Otherwise you'll have to wait until an eroge wizard creates a patch or so.

Possible, but I'd rather guess the problem here is that with this game, which looks like an older eroge from the early 2000s, you have to have the game CD inserted in the PC disk drive in order to play the game.
Naturally, you install the game with the CD inserted. But even when the game files are already installed in your PC, you still need the CD inside your PC to run the game.
So seems to be the case with earlier titles. With the proliferation of digital releases, this kind of problem is not to be seen anymore.
TL;DR A physical CD is required. Otherwise you'll have to wait until an eroge wizard creates a patch or so.

Now that I think of it, Gino and the Witch of the Black Swamp was the first EVN I ever managed to coom to... Thank you (?)
 

And now, for something new and a little bit strange.
 
 
 
I'm Hatch, the creator of "Outis Media," an eroge-producing brand determined to raise the bar of quality of the eroge produced in the West. I've been working on making this type of content for roughly 10 years, though it's only over the last two that we've finally begun to gain traction. I am someone who is generally disappointed in the low-quality eroge Westerners produce, and it has become my life's mission to change this and co-opt as many competent people as possible to help me in my crusade.
There's no obligation to pay for our content, but it would be wonderful if you could at least keep an eye on us to see if you like what you see. We're on Twitter, Subscribestar, Newgrounds and Itch. We produce doujinshi, short VNs and LNs at the moment. We're in the process getting into other forms of game production, too.
I generally don't go on about this sort of thing, but my biggest influences are the early Type Moon Works (I haven't really consumed much post-Fate), all of the 07th Exp catalogue and the Infinity Series (especially Remember 11). If you comb through our catalogue, you may pick up on those influences in some of our longer-form content. I really enjoy interacting with fellow enthusiasts, so if you have any strong opinions about anything by us feel free to leave a comment. I personally read through every response we get.
I was invited to post here by a committed member of this community and I'm happy to keep my ear to to ground and see what kinds of things come from this community, as well.
Thank you for your time, eroge-enjoyers.
 
 
 

Heya,

I used to be very active here many years ago, looking to catch up with the many wonderful people I met here but sadly lost contact with along the way. 

A bit about me: I used to be a casual reader, did a few reviews for the website here back in the day. My fav VNs are Rewrite, Song of Saya and G-Senjou no Maou. These days I spend a lot of my time working (argh), playing magic the gathering (irl? woah!), playing table tennis and a bit of video gaming here and there when I have the time.

Glad to be back! 

Bonjour! Guten Tag! Hola ma!

A bit lazy atm, so I'll just copy paste my intro from the Kero Makura server and mod it a bit...
Aye yo, what's up, I go by Shinyyy.
You may know of me from other servers, my IG page, names such as the CEO of ふもふも & タイツ or as an enjoyer of 電波 and 蓬莱山輝夜.
You'll usually find me helping out with the QC or proofreading side of TL projects if given the opportunity to be part of a team. Thankfully I have been blessed to be part of many and continue to do so.
Some of my hobbies include hiking, gaming, trying to get back into art/drawing and picked up gardening as of lately. Oh, and of course collecting rare items and merchandise for those who know me personally.
I love reading a bunch as well, from older literature to weird deep dive articles into the zany and bizarre.
Some of my favorite VN companies include ケロ枕, Type-Moon, Innocent Grey, Key and Aquaplus/Leaf. Also enjoy 東方Project a whole bunch and Blue Archive as well as of recent.

Hope we can all get along well and enjoy VNs for the wonderous pieces of works that they can be! 😁

PS: I'm still figuring out this whole blog forum thing out, so forgive me if I make a few blunders here and there

hiii hello everyone, (I hope I'm doing this right lol, I'm not very used to writing in forums, sorry.) i'm gyme, nice to meet you.
i enjoy vns a lot, more specifically otomes but I have read my fair share of all sorts of types of vns lol since i have irl friends who enjoy them as well
english isn't my native language, spanish is, so please understand if I make any mistake^^
to say a bit about me, mainly im an artist and i've been developing my own visual novel for a while now. im really enjoying it and also makes me think about all the hard work that goes into making one. hopefully i'll have a demo done by december this year, who knows. 
anyways, looking forward to meeting and talking with other vn enjoyers and developers !! 
 

Hi everyone! I'm AuntWitch. I came up with that name as a reference to me being an Aunt, who likes witchy stuff. Anyway, I'm 24 years old and I got into visual novels when I was a young kid exploring Newgrounds like an oblivious fool and found weird games that parodied popular visual novels/anime, except with a bucket full of dark humor to them. Probably inappropriate for me to have read, but it started my love for visual novels. Sadly, at the time there wasn't much to read! Ended up taking a break from VNs until I found out about Dangan Ronpa while it was being fan-translated on a forum. Katawa Shoujo was the first VN I played through by myself, but I believe Dangan Ronpa is what got me motivated to play them properly.
Anyway, with that said......it was a slippery slope. I don't know what happened, but now I have a metric ton of visual novels in my steam catalog. My favorite is probably the Nekopara franchise for how easy it is to read when you're down in the dumps, but I also love Fata Morgana and the Grisaia series. Still need to finish Eden of Grisaia and then start the Phantom Trigger series.   I like both bishoujo games and otome games, though I have a preference for bishoujo games.
It's nice to meet you all!

If you have followed the TGS2022 and did not get overwhelmed, then you are probably made of steel and you have capacities that I would be proud of. There have been more than 470 companies present and most big publishers and AAA companies announces a ton of amazing things. This definitely overwhelms our website's field of interest, so we told @Hiromi to go research a little into the relevant part for us. And hey, the amount of shown (not exclusively announced there) new visual novel projects is still overseeable. Without further ado, let's begin!
 
So, I've done some research. English sources seem to focus on AAA titles like CoD and Tekken. And when they do bring up anime style games, these are mostly RPG and action games.
I googled "TGS 22 ノベルゲーム" and was rewarded with some discoveries:
Indies
 1) Binary Syndrome https://store.steampowered.com/app/2003300/_/ PC-98 style ADV. The game system reminds me of titles you find on Asenheim (Ring Out, Scoop titles, etc.) (so obscure it is not even on VNDB LOL)
2) Coffee Talk Ep. 2 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1663220/Coffee_Talk_Episode_2_Hibiscus__Butterfly/ Pixel art OELVN. VA-11 Hall-A, but as a barista. Not newly announced, but not released yet. Slated for 2023.
3) Ihanashi no Majo https://store.steampowered.com/app/1950570/_/ "Kinetic Novel" with around 10 hr length. Cute art. A boy moves to an island in Okinawa and meets a tanned girl from overseas. (JP/CH only Download release in October!)
4) Trolley Problem Inc. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1582680/Trolley_Problem_Inc/ Text adventure with narrative choices. Philosophical themes and dark humor. (Not on VNDB, most likely doesn't qualify? Out for a while now, still interesting. Even got a video by xqc)
5) Chigau!!!+ https://studio-thursday.work/chigau+/#/ Orthodox Bishoujo-ge... But with meta elements like DDLC: Some heroines remember what happens in their own route, even when you're in another girl's route.
These are some of the indie VN titles which were represented on the TGS in the section Indie Games Selection. https://tgs.nikkeibp.co.jp/tgs/2022/jp/contents/indie81.html I think I've caught all the VNs from these 77 titles. That's barely 6% of the total.
Big announcements
6.) Aoishiro & Akai Ito After like 20 years, there is a remaster bundling Akai Ito & Aoishiro in one for Switch & PC. We have already seen this announcement in another thread and the VNTS, but it might be worth announcing it here too. It contains Mystery-Folklore setting with gay girls. Also it supports English language!
7. Seabed Audio Novel Collection Speaking of gay girls, @PhleBuster(Fruitbat Factory) was also at TGS2022 and they announce that they will be releasing the Seabed Audio Novel Collection. It has been translated by Steiner, so it will be more quality. The original game is a Conjueror work, rip him
Here's everything. While only the last two are proper announcements and the other games earlier were just showcased in that event, I still believe just for Aoishiro & Akai Ito this year's TGS was worth it. Maybe it is also worth it to keep paying attention to such events in the following years..?

Missed anything? Please comment!

Thank you to everyone for being patient. Here it is, the full patch, ver. 1.00: Download
If you like, swing by the Studio Frisay Discord channel during or after playing the game for discussing the game and the patch.
The first post in this thread has also been updated to include a download link.

As long as there's a version with less of that localization nonsense, all is good.

Imasugu Onii-chan ni Imouto datte Iitai!

Release
Download the patch (ver. 1.00, dated September 9, 2022)
Description
This is an all-ages game by fairys, the sister brand of Sprite. It takes place before Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate.

Rikuto had a new younger brother Ayumu after his father’s remarriage. However, little did he know that Ayumu was actually his younger sister and it was under her mother’s orders that she pretend to be a boy to him. Every day, his heart beats a little faster around his overly cute ‘brother’ (sister), while her heart aches in having to hide her true identity from her kind brother.

With the arrival of spring, Rikuto and Ayumu begin attending the popular private school Asaoka Academy, with Ayumu dressed up as a girl. As he became friends with his classmates, he noticed that they all had something missing. His friend from middle school, Matsuri, has lost sight of what it meant to be a girl. The cool-mannered Mao dresses as a boy even though she is a girl. The extremely shy class rep Kimika wishes to change herself. With Ayumu by his side, he sets out to help them seek out what they are missing.
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v7766
Where to purchase
The game can be purchased legally from DMM (https://dlsoft.dmm.com/detail/fairys_0001/), but this requires the use of a Japanese proxy to access the website. Not that hard to do, just annoying. That is where I obtained my copy.
Project

The English localization project is taking place under the banner of the newly established Studio Frisay, of which I (Tooko) am the sole member. That means I am doing all of the translating and editing of the script, in addition to the image editing, and at least all of the (major) engine hacks (there are one or two things on that front I may need help with in the future). I actually have extensive experience translating and editing text and images, although this is still my first ever visual novel translation project (I was previously a scanlator for a number of years in another life).
Studio Frisay Discord server
Progress
Programming: The game is built on the BGI/Ethornell engine, and after an extensive combination of research, testing, trial and error, and just plain dumb (beginner's) luck, I've managed to solve all of the major programming issues, including dumping and re-encoding scripts, dumping and editing of images, altering system images/text, repackaging of system files, and changing how all fonts are handled in-game, including sizing and positioning. I still want to figure out how to incorporate Locale Emulator natively and one or two other things that will improve usability, but none of that will prevent the patch from being completed at this point.
Translation: The translation officially commenced on April 4, 2022 and was completed on June 27, 2022. The game has 44,837 lines across 460 separate scenario files split up between the common route and four heroine routes:
Common: 8910 / 8910: 100%
Ayumu: 12045 / 12045: 100%
Matsuri: 8168 / 8168: 100%
Kimika: 7719 / 7719: 100%
Mao: 7995 / 7995: 100%
Total: 44837 / 44837: 100%
Images and videos: Aside from minor tweaks, the 164 images in need of editing for text, including 31 for the UI, are now completed. Editing of images is shared between me and nReus, who is also translating and typesetting lyrics onto the OP/ED videos.
Editing: The editing of the game's text officially commenced on July 6, 2022 and was completed on July 30, 2022.
QC: The quality check phase will commence in two phases: pre-QC and then the actual QC. Pre-QC involves the engine work and recompiling the patch files. The actual QC involves testing the files by playing the patched game. Overall, this phase will take at least a month, so the patch is scheduled for release on September 9.
Progress link on Google Sheets
Notes
Special thanks goes to arcusmaximus over at GitHub for developing both VNTranslationTools and EthornellTools which were absolutely essential in making this project even possible. Also, another shout out goes to Perturbed Pangolin over at Operation Bellflower whose blog posts related to the BGI/Ethornell engine were crucial with the programming in this game.

Hey there everyone. It's me, Bee, reborn once more after spending 4 years in the fuwa prison.
A lot of things have happened since the last time I was seen around here, but I am back reformed and ready to contribute here and there from time to time if I feel the need to do so.
This thread's to mainly say hi and to answer any questions you may have.
I run a fan translation group now called "Daybreak Translations," working on different games, but primarily the Akatsuki no Goei trilogy.
So yeah, see you around I suppose.

But I haven't done anything Mr. Officer!!

That's quite an introduction there. Anyway no much to say other than good luck to live in Japan if you already decided to do it, and of course I hope that you'll have fun in here.

good luck comrade

My name is Hiromi-sama. I am a 27 year old Erogamer... is what I'd like to say, but I'm not that close yet to becoming a wizard.
I started learning Japanese long before I had an idea what I was doing with my life. As a result, now I can read and listen most Japanese media with ease. Unfortunately, these days I mostly end up using my superior intellect to train my katana to 18禁 ASMR on DLsite. Just kidding, I usually squander my time acquiring rights to animated JPEGs of 2D girls on my mobile device (Arona-chan 😭 Izuna-chan uohh 😭😭 Yuuka-chan UOHH 😭😭😭).
Jokes aside, these days my contact with VNs consists of mainly reading up on the new titles which come up every month. Though that's like seeing pictures of the menu at the local Italian restaurant without actually having the dish in front of you. My worldly desires keep growing and I'm barely keeping up with it. So I've decided recently to start changing course and make adjustments so that I could play more VN. Last Friday I managed to finish Kimagure Temptation after stalling for about half a year so I have grounds to be optimistic. A tomodachi of mine suggested that writing a blog might help with keeping account of my progress so here I am on Fuwanovel. I'm not very good with organization and schedule but I'll give my gambaribest.
When I get my Japanese visa, I am moving to Chiyoda-ku to attend a prestigious academy to learn more about their magnificent culture. I hope I can become a sugar daddy for a JC or an impoverished animator.
Wish me luck in Japan!

My name is Hiromi-sama. I am a 27 year old Erogamer... is what I'd like to say, but I'm not that close yet to becoming a wizard.
I started learning Japanese long before I had an idea what I was doing with my life. As a result, now I can read and listen most Japanese media with ease. Unfortunately, these days I mostly end up using my superior intellect to train my katana to 18禁 ASMR on DLsite. Just kidding, I usually squander my time acquiring rights to animated JPEGs of 2D girls on my mobile device (Arona-chan 😭 Izuna-chan uohh 😭😭 Yuuka-chan UOHH 😭😭😭).
Jokes aside, these days my contact with VNs consists of mainly reading up on the new titles which come up every month. Though that's like seeing pictures of the menu at the local Italian restaurant without actually having the dish in front of you. My worldly desires keep growing and I'm barely keeping up with it. So I've decided recently to start changing course and make adjustments so that I could play more VN. Last Friday I managed to finish Kimagure Temptation after stalling for about half a year so I have grounds to be optimistic. A tomodachi of mine suggested that writing a blog might help with keeping account of my progress so here I am on Fuwanovel. I'm not very good with organization and schedule but I'll give my gambaribest.
When I get my Japanese visa, I am moving to Chiyoda-ku to attend a prestigious academy to learn more about their magnificent culture. I hope I can become a sugar daddy for a JC or an impoverished animator.
Wish me luck in Japan!

My name is Hiromi-sama. I am a 27 year old Erogamer... is what I'd like to say, but I'm not that close yet to becoming a wizard.
I started learning Japanese long before I had an idea what I was doing with my life. As a result, now I can read and listen most Japanese media with ease. Unfortunately, these days I mostly end up using my superior intellect to train my katana to 18禁 ASMR on DLsite. Just kidding, I usually squander my time acquiring rights to animated JPEGs of 2D girls on my mobile device (Arona-chan 😭 Izuna-chan uohh 😭😭 Yuuka-chan UOHH 😭😭😭).
Jokes aside, these days my contact with VNs consists of mainly reading up on the new titles which come up every month. Though that's like seeing pictures of the menu at the local Italian restaurant without actually having the dish in front of you. My worldly desires keep growing and I'm barely keeping up with it. So I've decided recently to start changing course and make adjustments so that I could play more VN. Last Friday I managed to finish Kimagure Temptation after stalling for about half a year so I have grounds to be optimistic. A tomodachi of mine suggested that writing a blog might help with keeping account of my progress so here I am on Fuwanovel. I'm not very good with organization and schedule but I'll give my gambaribest.
When I get my Japanese visa, I am moving to Chiyoda-ku to attend a prestigious academy to learn more about their magnificent culture. I hope I can become a sugar daddy for a JC or an impoverished animator.
Wish me luck in Japan!