Nemesis

祝姫
It has some of Ryuukishi's trademark writing: the unreliable protagonist, the sudden shifts in mood, the blurring of reality and fantasy, but without any of his themes. It's a rather bland and boring horror game, but shows some of his spark from time to time.
So far, it's a rather standard B flick horror movie. They just try and shove as many disgusting things at you as possible. They don't even show the worst of it explicitly, which makes it a rather half-assed game. I feel like the art doesn't really contribute anything to Ryuukishi's writing. If there is any good thing that came from this, the voice acting is top notch.
Ryuukishi really knows how to go back to being a kid and write SOL the way a kid would think, but the problem is it doesn't fit the story this time. Overall, a rather mediocre experience.

祝姫
It has some of Ryuukishi's trademark writing: the unreliable protagonist, the sudden shifts in mood, the blurring of reality and fantasy, but without any of his themes. It's a rather bland and boring horror game, but shows some of his spark from time to time.
So far, it's a rather standard B flick horror movie. They just try and shove as many disgusting things at you as possible. They don't even show the worst of it explicitly, which makes it a rather half-assed game. I feel like the art doesn't really contribute anything to Ryuukishi's writing. If there is any good thing that came from this, the voice acting is top notch.
Ryuukishi really knows how to go back to being a kid and write SOL the way a kid would think, but the problem is it doesn't fit the story this time. Overall, a rather mediocre experience.

Recently I've finished Ayakashi. I've actually heard of the game back in 2010 but only got around to it this year. It was really enjoyable, it's been a long time since I've played a game like it - the writing is to the point and easy to read, but it draws you into the world. The story about the protagonists fighting other people with parasitic supernatural beings (a lot like Jojo stands) is used to deliver an overarching theme of getting over the loss of your close friends and lovers. There are a lot of bonus routes that show different perspectives and it's cool how you gradually figure out the setting. In particular I liked the relationship Maekawa has with the villain. The highly dynamic scenes with a lot of CG changes (the CG collection is huge!) were also great and gave it a a shonen manga feeling. And of on top of all it the humor was good, Anzu's route in particular had some hilarious moments.
It's a shame that apricot/crossnet never tried publishing it overseas, I think it would have been decently popular.
Next I've started Maple Colors, their previous game. There's a massive cast, and a lot of them are very memorable. The main heroine in particular, Mirai. Some of the minigames (it has fast-paced minigames you have to beat to recruit some people) are crazy hard.
I've played about 10 hours, but I ran into some technical problems, sometimes when I start the game the fps is either low or very high. Not sure what causes it
This godforsaken minigame right here:
 

Pretty cool, but driving that to work everyday must feel とても痛いですね。

I mostly don't reread things as my backlog is infinitely growing. I might reread some scenes I like or some H-scenes, but not the whole VN.
 
So far I have only reread 1 VN from beginning to finish and that is Cross Channel. I first read it in English, but I wasn't satisfied with the translation, so I reread it in Japanese. There might be a couple other VN's I might reread in Japanese, because there are a lot of things you really miss in English. Those are not as high priority as reading completely new VN's though.

There are some pretty good shows this season:

Golden Kamuy - glad to see this amazing series is back with more Hinna. Probably best show of the season for me.

Yojouhan Time Machine Blues - A short OVA, but seeing that Yojouhan Shinwa is one of my favorite animes, I have rather high expectations for it.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury - it's an AU gundam universe, we'll see whether it gets good.

Tensei shitara Ken Deshita - one of the better isekai novels gets an adaptation.

Akiba Meido Sensou - I originally wasn't planning on watching this, but it was recommended to me. Lol, it's a story about crime syndicates in maid cafes. Really hilarious show by PA works. I didn't see that last time I went to Akiba. Maybe, next time I'll be on the lookout and see if I can spot them in action.

Poputepipikku 2nd Season - it's about what you'd expect, more of the same thing. Meme in anime form.

MLA S2 - is as shitty as ever as an adaptation. Do yourself a favor and skip this. Only good thing is Jam Project singing the OP.

Fumetsu no Anata S2 - so far only 1 episode is out, but good for fans of the show. No new OP though. I like the OP, but getting new OP's is also one of the things I look forward to.
 

Started Kisaragai Gold Star as a fall season game. Maybe I'll also start a halloween themed game.
キサラギGOLD★STAR
It's a rather lighthearted charage with some mystery surrounding their past with everyone possessing a mysterious glowing bracelet. The music is pretty good. So far it's a fairly funny and relaxing game. The story is a normal protagonist surrounded by talented childhood friends, and their shenanigenans together. So all the heroines are all osananajimi charas with exception of his sister. We'll see where it goes from here.
I went for Ichika route first, because I liked her voice actor the most. Then, I went for Mikoto route after.

紫影のソナーニル ～What a beautiful memories～
I put this on pause for a while as I read through some other games, and now I finally got back to it.
This game is inspired by Nietzsche. They hammer this stanza every chapter:
すべて
そう、すべて
あらゆるものは意味が持たない
Everything
Yes, everything
All things hold no meaning
Memories hold no meaning, they are nothing but fragments of the past. Something that will eventually be forgotten. While Lily holds the opposite view: memories have meaning. They are the proof of people's lives and existence. As long as you remembers them, people can still live inside you. Your world is made up of your own memories. What a beautiful memories.
It's good, but it has too much otome wish fulfillment dragging it down. Plus, steampunk genre is not really my taste. I can only read so much 「わたしの、背の高い、足の長いあなた」 - "My tall darling with long legs" before getting annoyed, lol. It's a good game, but I'm obviously not the target audience.

終のステラ
The setting is in a post-apocalyptic world where large singularity machines roam around and pose a threat to anyone who comes near them. The MC, Jude, is a Transporter who gets a request to transport an android to a certain place for the revival of humanity.
Jude finds the android in an old ruin, and names her Philia. Philia wants to be a human, and Jude promises to take her to the professor who might be able to make her human. So the two travels together while trying to figure out how to be human.
Philia has a child-like innocence lacking knowledge of most things with her being a complete blank state. You watch her slowly learn about the world. She doesn't want to eat deer as she feels sorry for it, but she's fine with eating fish. I guess it shows the hypocrisy of humans as mammals are closer to us, so we can relate it to it more. She often reminds Jude of his daughter.
Her lack of sense of danger with Jude's realistic outlook makes for a good contrast. They both experience both the beautiful and ugly side of human nature through their travel.
This works seems to be about finding the boundary between machine and human. What does it mean to be human? Does having a human body make someone human even if their mind is an AI? Or is the mind what matters, if an AI passes the turing test, does that mean they are indistinguishable from humans?
It explores what is necessary for an AI to gain an ego. The professor says that for an AI to gain an ego, it is necessary to have instinct and fear. An AI stuck in a CPU case cannot gain a mind, because they cannot experience instinct and fear without a body. They need a body that can be stimulated by the outside world. I wonder what does /u/gambs think as this seems close to his field of study?
It talks about the uncanny valley: a robot that looks too close to human becomes creepy. A simple robot with a ribbon looks cuter. But the uncanny valley can be conquered by making them indistinguishable from humans.
As usual, Tanaka Romeo's prose is amazing. I have zero complaints. The background art looks great with the scenery.
Tanaka Romeo explores the relationship between parent and child well. How a child is seeking the attention of their parent to prevent from being abandoned. Why are parents willing to die for their kids? Jude's answer is because it's their instict to preserve their genes. Sounds like something Setoguchi would say, hahaha. But he adds later on, that it can develop past instinct into true love after spending time with them.
What the professor wanted was as I expected a 人柱 ending: sacrifice the few for the many. While it might be good for society, if it doesn't prove beneficial for the people being sacrificed it's a conflict of interest. So Jude ends up risking his life to save Philia.
At its core, it's an adventure of two people who learn more about the world：its beauty and ugliness, what it means to be human, and about family love. Tanaka Romeo has created another great piece.
For those who also just want to read a moege, not to worry, Philia is moe as hell. You can ignore all the complicated story and just focus on how moe Philia is.
 

美少女万華鏡 -神が造りたもうた少女たち-
I can see why some people can like Biman 3 so much. It has lots of meme, and lots of it is based on Steins; Gate. But the story is rather meh. It's decent enough for a sci-fi, but there are plenty of better ones. What I would praise it for though is I guess the threesomes scenes which the previous Biman games did not have.
It explores the relationship between religion, science, and the masses. How religion is used as a tool by those in power to keep themselves at the top, and the masses use it to mentally support themselves in hard times. It is amazing how self-aware Japanese are of religion, while accepting it themselves： 「苦しい時の神頼み。」 But honestly, compared to Tsui no Stella, it is rather shallow. Still, It is a decent game with a rather strong ending.

BLACK SHEEP TOWN
It's unvoiced, but I don't really care too much for that. The story seems to have a somewhat similar atmosphere to Rose Guns Days with main characters being mafia related. There are people with mutations divided into different types: Type A - Psychic powers which comes with physical deformation and Type B - physical augmentation with degrading minds. There are 7 great holes in the world with the setting being in a city built near one of them. This reads more like a traditional novel written for literature than entertainment.
 
Chris Tsue or however you spell his name is a rather interesting character.
 
They show things from the perspective of many different characters, but there are cases where the same scenes does not have the same dialogues. I'm not sure if that's intentional or just a writing miss. An example is when the former detective talked to the doctor and the doctor reacted to his talk about Chris Tsue's dying, but from the doctor's perspective he heard about him dying from rumours coming from a nurse.
The writing is engaging and nihilistic. It feels very realistic, if not a bit dry and he does not sugarcoat anything. Majority of it is about finding your own meaning in life.

終のステラ
The setting is in a post-apocalyptic world where large singularity machines roam around and pose a threat to anyone who comes near them. The MC, Jude, is a Transporter who gets a request to transport an android to a certain place for the revival of humanity.
Jude finds the android in an old ruin, and names her Philia. Philia wants to be a human, and Jude promises to take her to the professor who might be able to make her human. So the two travels together while trying to figure out how to be human.
Philia has a child-like innocence lacking knowledge of most things with her being a complete blank state. You watch her slowly learn about the world. She doesn't want to eat deer as she feels sorry for it, but she's fine with eating fish. I guess it shows the hypocrisy of humans as mammals are closer to us, so we can relate it to it more. She often reminds Jude of his daughter.
Her lack of sense of danger with Jude's realistic outlook makes for a good contrast. They both experience both the beautiful and ugly side of human nature through their travel.
This works seems to be about finding the boundary between machine and human. What does it mean to be human? Does having a human body make someone human even if their mind is an AI? Or is the mind what matters, if an AI passes the turing test, does that mean they are indistinguishable from humans?
It explores what is necessary for an AI to gain an ego. The professor says that for an AI to gain an ego, it is necessary to have instinct and fear. An AI stuck in a CPU case cannot gain a mind, because they cannot experience instinct and fear without a body. They need a body that can be stimulated by the outside world. I wonder what does /u/gambs think as this seems close to his field of study?
It talks about the uncanny valley: a robot that looks too close to human becomes creepy. A simple robot with a ribbon looks cuter. But the uncanny valley can be conquered by making them indistinguishable from humans.
As usual, Tanaka Romeo's prose is amazing. I have zero complaints. The background art looks great with the scenery.
Tanaka Romeo explores the relationship between parent and child well. How a child is seeking the attention of their parent to prevent from being abandoned. Why are parents willing to die for their kids? Jude's answer is because it's their instict to preserve their genes. Sounds like something Setoguchi would say, hahaha. But he adds later on, that it can develop past instinct into true love after spending time with them.
What the professor wanted was as I expected a 人柱 ending: sacrifice the few for the many. While it might be good for society, if it doesn't prove beneficial for the people being sacrificed it's a conflict of interest. So Jude ends up risking his life to save Philia.
At its core, it's an adventure of two people who learn more about the world：its beauty and ugliness, what it means to be human, and about family love. Tanaka Romeo has created another great piece.
For those who also just want to read a moege, not to worry, Philia is moe as hell. You can ignore all the complicated story and just focus on how moe Philia is.
 

美少女万華鏡 -神が造りたもうた少女たち-
I can see why some people can like Biman 3 so much. It has lots of meme, and lots of it is based on Steins; Gate. But the story is rather meh. It's decent enough for a sci-fi, but there are plenty of better ones. What I would praise it for though is I guess the threesomes scenes which the previous Biman games did not have.
It explores the relationship between religion, science, and the masses. How religion is used as a tool by those in power to keep themselves at the top, and the masses use it to mentally support themselves in hard times. It is amazing how self-aware Japanese are of religion, while accepting it themselves： 「苦しい時の神頼み。」 But honestly, compared to Tsui no Stella, it is rather shallow. Still, It is a decent game with a rather strong ending.

BLACK SHEEP TOWN
Generational change, huh. That's a pretty interesting topic in itself. The old passes away or retires and passes their hopes and dreams to their children. It's a reality that one cannot get away from as a mortal, and pretty much becomes the raison d'être of the older generations.
It's interesting how they show how different humans choose to live based on nature vs nurture. Those born as mutants tend to be more influenced by nature, while the more normal people are more influenced by nurture. But I think the point is that those two things both greatly influence a person's life. Ryou just wants to live a normal life as a student, but his circumstances around him won't permit it and turned him into a cold ruthless leader of a mafia.
All the characters are interesting as fuck. Tachigawa Ryouma, the doctor decided to stop living smartly and live as he pleases after getting involved with Chris Tsue. Chris Tsue is so fucking badass: 「おれが思うに、人間の命そのものには何の価値もない。命の価値というものは、その人間がどう考え、どう行動したかによってはじめて生まれる。……つまり作り出すものなんだ。」- "I think that there's no intrinsic value in people's life. A life's value is created from how people think and act...meaning we have to create it ourselves." 「人間は所詮土くれだ。誇りをなくし、心を濁らせれば糞と変われねえのさ 。」- "Humans are in the end the same as dirt. Those who lose their dignity, and have their minds tainted are no different from shit." Humans who live like cattle have no value. In real life, this refers to people who sell their dignity for money. They then use that money to buy safety for a stable empty life.
I think that his logic jump is too big here, but it's still an interesting thing to think about. I think it all depends on the personal goal of the person involved. For example, someone might join the sex industry to earn some money to pay for education, and then quit after a year. Is having that option truly bad? Systematically, it probably is as it can make poor people over-reliant on it. But for the individual involved, it's not necessarily bad. I guess I have similar ideas to Ryaochimin, which is money is just a tool.
There's lots of great quotes in this game. Saiki:
The main theme here seems to essentially be: life is meaningless, so you should at least live freely and make your own choices on how to live your life so that you can die satisfied no matter the result. The other part is that humans are no different from beasts. They can be extremely cruel, or be extremely nice depending on their mood and the situation. 「優しさと残酷さは似ているんだろうか？」- "Do kindness and cruelty resemble each other?" It's pretty much a 善悪相殺 situation.
Setoguchi seems more negative about life compared to Sca-ji. Well I do agree with him to a certain extent. Life is indeed pointless: your parents were horny and made you, end of story, what other meaning is there? But that shouldn't really stop you from pursuing happiness and valuing life. I've read a couple of reviews mention that it's Setoguchi's best work so far. It's hard to confirm that from my end as this is the first time I'm reading his work, but I will say that this is definitely a great game worth reading.

BLACK SHEEP TOWN
Generational change, huh. That's a pretty interesting topic in itself. The old passes away or retires and passes their hopes and dreams to their children. It's a reality that one cannot get away from as a mortal, and pretty much becomes the raison d'être of the older generations.
It's interesting how they show how different humans choose to live based on nature vs nurture. Those born as mutants tend to be more influenced by nature, while the more normal people are more influenced by nurture. But I think the point is that those two things both greatly influence a person's life. Ryou just wants to live a normal life as a student, but his circumstances around him won't permit it and turned him into a cold ruthless leader of a mafia.
All the characters are interesting as fuck. Tachigawa Ryouma, the doctor decided to stop living smartly and live as he pleases after getting involved with Chris Tsue. Chris Tsue is so fucking badass: 「おれが思うに、人間の命そのものには何の価値もない。命の価値というものは、その人間がどう考え、どう行動したかによってはじめて生まれる。……つまり作り出すものなんだ。」- "I think that there's no intrinsic value in people's life. A life's value is created from how people think and act...meaning we have to create it ourselves." 「人間は所詮土くれだ。誇りをなくし、心を濁らせれば糞と変われねえのさ 。」- "Humans are in the end the same as dirt. Those who lose their dignity, and have their minds tainted are no different from shit." Humans who live like cattle have no value. In real life, this refers to people who sell their dignity for money. They then use that money to buy safety for a stable empty life.
I think that his logic jump is too big here, but it's still an interesting thing to think about. I think it all depends on the personal goal of the person involved. For example, someone might join the sex industry to earn some money to pay for education, and then quit after a year. Is having that option truly bad? Systematically, it probably is as it can make poor people over-reliant on it. But for the individual involved, it's not necessarily bad. I guess I have similar ideas to Ryaochimin, which is money is just a tool.
There's lots of great quotes in this game. Saiki:
The main theme here seems to essentially be: life is meaningless, so you should at least live freely and make your own choices on how to live your life so that you can die satisfied no matter the result. The other part is that humans are no different from beasts. They can be extremely cruel, or be extremely nice depending on their mood and the situation. 「優しさと残酷さは似ているんだろうか？」- "Do kindness and cruelty resemble each other?" It's pretty much a 善悪相殺 situation.
Setoguchi seems more negative about life compared to Sca-ji. Well I do agree with him to a certain extent. Life is indeed pointless: your parents were horny and made you, end of story, what other meaning is there? But that shouldn't really stop you from pursuing happiness and valuing life. I've read a couple of reviews mention that it's Setoguchi's best work so far. It's hard to confirm that from my end as this is the first time I'm reading his work, but I will say that this is definitely a great game worth reading.

Brought to you by the creators of ATRI with Konno Asta as the writer and Yusano as the artist. The title of the game is Ginka
 
 

Brought to you by the creators of ATRI with Konno Asta as the writer and Yusano as the artist. The title of the game is Ginka
 
 

Brought to you by the creators of ATRI with Konno Asta as the writer and Yusano as the artist. The title of the game is Ginka
 
 

Brought to you by the creators of ATRI with Konno Asta as the writer and Yusano as the artist. The title of the game is Ginka
 
 

Brought to you by the creators of ATRI with Konno Asta as the writer and Yusano as the artist. The title of the game is Ginka
 
 

Interesting to see what's going on behind the scenes. You can really see the passion from Peter compared to something like SekaiProject. Ero is justice.
Where is my Muramasa Limited Edition?

Guess I can show off my new tapestries here
 
 

Does anyone actually use playasia? I find that their prices are way too high. It's usually cheaper to buy directly from Japanese publishers and have a third party export it for you.

I'll be passing. This game reminds me of my trauma with 姦肉蟲川３.

Started reading Kourin no Machi, Lavender no Shoujo.
Looks like I haven't learned once again from picking up a game by studio. This has been on my list for a long time due to being related to Sharin no Kuni, which holds a special place for me. But different writer means the game is pretty much unrelated.
It's not bad, but it's nowhere near Sharin no Kuni. Sakuragi Hikaru is kind of interesting. Riko is also kind of funny with how she naturally messes with the teacher. She also feeds animals weird stuff, lol. Poisonous mushroom - give it to the rabbit. Expired milk - give it to the dog.
The Engrish is so cringe lol. I am alive hard = 私は一生懸命生きています。
The drama is pretty cheap, we'll see where it goes from here.

Started reading Kourin no Machi, Lavender no Shoujo.
Looks like I haven't learned once again from picking up a game by studio. This has been on my list for a long time due to being related to Sharin no Kuni, which holds a special place for me. But different writer means the game is pretty much unrelated.
It's not bad, but it's nowhere near Sharin no Kuni. Sakuragi Hikaru is kind of interesting. Riko is also kind of funny with how she naturally messes with the teacher. She also feeds animals weird stuff, lol. Poisonous mushroom - give it to the rabbit. Expired milk - give it to the dog.
The Engrish is so cringe lol. I am alive hard = 私は一生懸命生きています。
The drama is pretty cheap, we'll see where it goes from here.