Narcosis

That's why Song of Saya is considered one of the most memorable visual novels. One, barely a bunch of other visual novels are able to stand on par with.

People still watch/read Naruto? Damn.

That show is so honest. I just hope your approach at japanese popculture won't get skewed after watching it, haha.

No. Just... NO.

F/SN was horrible in that particular case. It's a typical eroge that has a (mostly) awesome storyline and blends it (or rather, kills it) with it's awful h-scenes; Song of Saya, on the other hand is a decent example, on how h-scenes can be handled in eroge (even though, it's still resides mostly on the unreasonable, naughty side).

It's not the worst, but definately not the best either. Actually, far from being decent; watchable, but not much besides that. I'm quite amazed certain people hold it in a high regard, when I'm not sure whether there's anything to regard at all, except for the fact it's definately on the yuri side. Yet another factor, which in the end limits the potential audience (though, not that I'm dissapointed with, personally, heheh). Not watching it; one of friends actually encouraged me to take a look at it, but there's a lot more than yuri for a show to prove being worthy of my attention.

In the end, h-scenes boil down to one thing - fucking, as rude and vulgar it may sound; you can't expect much else out of it. That's the nature of the genre. The issue with most eroge is that they tend to focus on the final part and mostly skip everything else. "Let me show you my awesome magical powers!"

People watch Captain Earth for the graphics. No Game No Life and Black Bullet seem to be the most interesting shows this season. I'd add Hitsugi no Chaika too, but it's already turning onto the mediocre route with it's current plot twists. At least Chaika makes up for the rest, haha. I'm worried with it as well. It does seem story had reached something, that would be considered a final escalation of the whole conflict. There's a bunch of routes everything could go after this, but I'm too used to poor story direction to remain calm they won't fuck it up. Hapilly, teaser showed something that might actually mean what we've seen so far was just the beggining. If they will keep everything up this way and won't lose focus on character development either, it might turn into a decent anime.

That was one of the most hillarious scenes, both in anime and visual novel, haha.

There's a huge difference between erotic content one enjoys, and the very best scenes that were ever written. I read a bunch of visual novels with decent, enjoyable sex scenes or naughty situations, that made your heart go flutter. But calling some of them "the best" would be a huge overstatement.

If I forget, or barely remember anything, it means the visual novel I've read was weak, and it happens in most of cases. I call them disposable entertainment.

Pia Carrot. Don't mix vn's with dating sims. Those are completely two different genres; they share similiarities from time to time, but aren't the same. I'm actually quite allergic to this, since it's what made the western people tag all visual novels as "dating sims" and it's just outright wrong.

They do not exist. Hats off, gentlemen.

I doubt it will happen, since TENCO is currently on a serious lookout for any unofficial TL's. There's a reason why they blocked and DMCA previous english TL. I also doubt that TENCO would ever want to release a western 18+ edition and expand it to the PC market. Even though vn's take a huge portion of the japanese PC gaming market, it's still treated as a foster child compared to the console market. Even the sole fact that visual novels make up to 70% of japense games doesn't change that fact japanese simply do not treat PC's as a main gaming platform, like we do. There's also the issue PC market tends to bring a lot bigger loss in general, than console market, which is much more restricted and thus easier to conrtrol. The only possibility I could consider "realistic" is the fact that the game will actually have decent sales. They will be so good, that it will actually push TENCO to release the game on PC's as well and then release the 18+ content as an additional DLC (though, I cringe on such idea), or simply release a 18+ patch for those who'd like to have the ero content ingame. I doubt it will ever happen though, since the game is a heavy otaku-pandering srpg reminiscent of Rance series; besides small circles of avid fans, these games were actually never really popular on the west and neither in Japan. I preassume the sales will be really mediocre at most, and that will only reassure both Oyari and TENCO, that western market isn't worthy of their attention, not to mention they still have a long way to go after Littlewitch's flop back in 2010 (though, it seems ES became quite popular right now and company seems to be doing well so far).

You shouldn't judge a visual novel by VNDB's rating system; people tend to horribly overrate anything they find "good" within their own opinion. I tend to avoid fandisks like fire; they are typically what it says on the tin - fandisks. I have yet to find a single one, that actually brings something more except the plain fanservice with a bunch of fluff and cutesy to cater to the fans of the game. Perhaps it's because I personally didn't found Sharin no Kuni as good, as people used to say; Even though the dystopian setting was really interesting and had a lot of promise, the story seemed to drift way too much from the important aspects, plot twists were poor and everything ended up in a typical galge clusterfuck. It just strenghted my own opinion that visual novels tend to be an incredibly subjective matter, just like animu and mango are.

It's hard to find anything good nowadays. Best series usually don't tend to reach further beyond mediocre at most, and if they seem to have traces of awesomeness, they dissapoint in the end quite often. Few last seasons were incredibly shitty, though you can still find decent stuff to watch from time to time. I'm currently watching No Game No Life, Black Bullet and Hitsugi no Chaika; I also picked up Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii, not sure why - perhaps because it seems to be something more than your typical otome show. From all of those, No Game no Life is propably the most entertaining; I quite like the art style they went with and it's nice to see such a vivid, colorful palette. Black Bullet has certain degree of potential, but I'm worried they will actually dwelve from the post apocalyptic drama into some average action series; so far It seems they are doing it right and I quite like the way they are actually giving more impact on the relationship between our main duo as the main factor for the storyline. Hitsugi no Chaika seems to be interesting to a certain degree; I picked it up mainly because of the magitech setting and really good designs. Unfortunately, even though premise isn't anything original yet has some degree of potential, I can already sense a shadow of mediocrity looming around. I learned to not hold my hopes up; I tend to watch anime mainly as pure entertainment nowadays and it's actually better this way. If the animu you watched wasn't anything good in the end, you won't get severely dissapointed. If it will, you'll be pleasantly surprised instead.

Good taste, indeed.

Sharin is incredibly weak as a story itself, and I don't even understand why people tend to overrate it so much. I'd recommend either of the three above mentioned vn's, rather than starting with Sharin; both Katahane, Phenomeno and Hoshimemo are better written and more interesting, as well as entertaining than Sharin no Kuni. If you want a decent read from the same creator, go read The Devil on G-String.

It's an old story, and I wouldn't want to bore anyone to death. Let's just say I grew up with them and was one of the lucky few to actually understand what vn's were, before most of you even managed to learn how to properly piss into your potties. Word: your favorite vn's are shit. I'm not even being sarcastic. Really. (￣ー￣)

They are. The "lovecraftian" aspect you're talking about actually relates to the distinct way Hikaru tends to monstrify the "evil", which is in fact always connected with darker side of human soul. Real monsters do not exist; it's humans who are monsters themselves, creating even more monstrosities, which in the end always tend to backfire and bring an end to everything we love and hold dear. It's also a way of asking questions and seeking answers towards everything unknown and unclear; it's both terrifying and fascinating. Although not without it's own issues, WAB series are definately on of the very best and most entertaining visual novels I've ever read. They might not be to everyone's tastes, but those who love unusual, strange fantasy/dystopian settings, as well as fans of steampunk genre should definately read them.

For people not familiar with the genre, definately Ever 17. Otherwise, read it in the exact order Nyanko mentioned. There's a chance you'll get bored eitherway, since Ever17 isn't actually that great of a read, and Never7 looks just plain bland compared to it's "sequel".

B-but I like sex! I am addicted and you won't stop me from making more babies! We want to form our own soccer team! o(≧▽≦)o Jokes aside, sex is really good. It makes you relaxed, more healthy and less prone to stressful things. It is scientifically proven, that people who involve themselves in a lot of sexual activity have longer lifespans and are less prone to certain ilnesses. In other words, I feel for you.

Do I know you? You seem quite familiar. Eitherway, welcome and don't mind the weeaboos; they are poor souls, lost and forgotten.

A word of wisdom: Carry on.

They aren't. It's the same exact world setting. You could call it an alternate steampunk reality. Each of the stories takes place in a different part of the world, though. They tend to discuss different things, but all share certain aspects.