Narcosis

Hello! My name is Roxie and I've been wanting to meet other VN community members  Admittedly I'm more of a lurker, and my current schedule in juggling everything might not change all too much, but I still wanted to introduce myself at the very least. I generally play EVNs and some JVNs when I'm not too busy. I'm currently working on my own yuri visual novel, after spending lots of times helping my friends on their VNs. My biggest experience working on a VN title is when I helped Razz as the co-writer of Starlight Vega. I've written on each girl's route, with Scherza as my primary one. Nice to meet you all!

Oh wow, ha ha
I can't hide my disappointment with their latest announcement, neither am I able to understand the intent behind their decisions. This is no different from suddenly watering down a game that was always meant to be a pure eroge. It begs to ask what was the point in making an 18+ version at all. They create a game with animated hentai scenes featuring lolis but refuse to show a couple nipples or pantyshots? What is this sort of an hypocrisy? It's plain hilarious and I'm slowly losing all my respect I always had for Lose. This kind of thinking will also literally ruin their reputation, as you can't really influence and regain trust that easily, once you produced a lolige; you won't really make the mainstream crowd happy, while you're also slowly alienating your entire existing fanbase in the process. It's mindboggling.
At this point it's clear to state Sekai Project also blatantly lied about the version we'll be obtaining on the west. Since it was Lose reinforcing the decisions, this also places SP in a very uncomfortable position of being the sole party responsible for the entire mess, including complete lack of communication during whole localization and publishing process, as well as relaying appropriate information to both fans and people at Fakku. They will have a lot of explaining to do, not to mention this whole mess wouldn't even take place, if they would be more transparent right from the very start. Its this lack of transparency, communication and blatant lies on their behalf which led to this situation.

The official patch has been released. It's probably not what most people want, but it seems the best we'll get officially: https://www.fakku.net/forums/games/maitetsu-fixes-and-updates
Long story short, the version that was initially released was the version Lose intended to release, and is in fact the version of Maitetsu they'll be selling in Japan in an upcoming re-release. Fakku and Sekai Project both sat down with Lose and they came to a compromise. Some of the ecchi content like the upskirt will be restored, but none of the main story nudity will. Nipples will remain hidden.
It seems rather absurd to me that they're unwilling to show boobs in the main story but are perfectly okay with including hardcore pornography featuring the same characters. I don't understand Lose's thinking here.

But that's literally what most japanese companies always did The modern successes behind certain titles in Japan are mostly because studios behind them actually learned good PR work, actively advertising their products to their respective, potential audiences.

But that's literally what most japanese companies always did The modern successes behind certain titles in Japan are mostly because studios behind them actually learned good PR work, actively advertising their products to their respective, potential audiences.

How, oh how am I not surprised at all?
People aren't interested in great, thought-provoking stories. All they care about are animay boobs.
I actually doubt whether they are actually read at all. VNs on Steam are an entirely different beast, with both western and english-language versions of new games tailored specially towards your average Steam user, choke full of memes & silliness to warrant decent streaming potential... and gods forbid them for containing any sort of politically incorrect content. People are so surprised publishers nowadays rarely release large titles without crowdfunding help.
VNs were niche, are a niche and will forever remain a niche. You actually need a bit more than just a decently written story to garner any sort of success.
At this point, from a western developer's perspective, it's better to remain small and balance between funding, quality and creativity.

What's more puzzling is that developers think that good titles will just sell themselves.  That's not how it works.  You need to find the audience for your game and get them interested in it.  You need to reach out to sites that get a lot of traffic from your audience.  You need the right sales pitch.  You need to convince people that you're worth supporting.  You need a message that will resonate and will get people to chatter about your game.  If you can't be bothered to do any of these things, then you're literally just rolling the dice and hoping some combination of factors beyond your control will align to make your game a success.  Doesn't sound like a good business strategy to me.

Not enough to actually warrant all the effort that went into western localization. In terms of japanese sales numbers, that's far below average; if not for the fact KS literally funded the entire localization, it would be a flop. In other words, it pretty much became a one time thing with little to no actual revenue, lowering any chances for possible future releases. In all of this, I presume Sca-Ji is certainly more concerned he only managed to reach out to so very few people despite his best efforts, which is simply sad.

SubaHibi is a complicated, demanding game that is extremely foreign to Western sensibilities in its formula. It's not that hard to explain Clannad, Dies Irae or even Muv-Luv to a Western gamer, but after a year of reading about SubaHibi every other day, I still only have a very vague idea what it is about. It might be popular in Japan, where Eroge is already a major industry and people are used to extreme mixes of themes and drastic content it offers, but it's pretty much one of the hardest things to sell in the West. It could dissuade JP companies from investing in the localization of other large plotge, but I think it's a very peculiar case and we shouldn't read too deep into it - SubaHibi might be a masterpiece, but it's also a particularly quirky and hermetic one and as there was no real idea on how to sell it to anyone but hardcore VN geeks that already wanted it, it'd be strange if it didn't flop.

Honestly I think these sucesses are related to well known youtubers playing them, I think that we should consider exposure on youtube through well known youtubers to be really important for a title to do really well like DDLC, Sakura series and Nekopara. Also them being short in length probably made them way more approachable for people that have not really goten into VNs. I think that for those that haven't really goten into VNs something like 30-50 hours must sound like quite some time to dedicate to a title.

Not enough to actually warrant all the effort that went into western localization. In terms of japanese sales numbers, that's far below average; if not for the fact KS literally funded the entire localization, it would be a flop. In other words, it pretty much became a one time thing with little to no actual revenue, lowering any chances for possible future releases. In all of this, I presume Sca-Ji is certainly more concerned he only managed to reach out to so very few people despite his best efforts, which is simply sad.

How, oh how am I not surprised at all?
People aren't interested in great, thought-provoking stories. All they care about are animay boobs.
I actually doubt whether they are actually read at all. VNs on Steam are an entirely different beast, with both western and english-language versions of new games tailored specially towards your average Steam user, choke full of memes & silliness to warrant decent streaming potential... and gods forbid them for containing any sort of politically incorrect content. People are so surprised publishers nowadays rarely release large titles without crowdfunding help.
VNs were niche, are a niche and will forever remain a niche. You actually need a bit more than just a decently written story to garner any sort of success.
At this point, from a western developer's perspective, it's better to remain small and balance between funding, quality and creativity.

How, oh how am I not surprised at all?
People aren't interested in great, thought-provoking stories. All they care about are animay boobs.
I actually doubt whether they are actually read at all. VNs on Steam are an entirely different beast, with both western and english-language versions of new games tailored specially towards your average Steam user, choke full of memes & silliness to warrant decent streaming potential... and gods forbid them for containing any sort of politically incorrect content. People are so surprised publishers nowadays rarely release large titles without crowdfunding help.
VNs were niche, are a niche and will forever remain a niche. You actually need a bit more than just a decently written story to garner any sort of success.
At this point, from a western developer's perspective, it's better to remain small and balance between funding, quality and creativity.

How, oh how am I not surprised at all?
People aren't interested in great, thought-provoking stories. All they care about are animay boobs.
I actually doubt whether they are actually read at all. VNs on Steam are an entirely different beast, with both western and english-language versions of new games tailored specially towards your average Steam user, choke full of memes & silliness to warrant decent streaming potential... and gods forbid them for containing any sort of politically incorrect content. People are so surprised publishers nowadays rarely release large titles without crowdfunding help.
VNs were niche, are a niche and will forever remain a niche. You actually need a bit more than just a decently written story to garner any sort of success.
At this point, from a western developer's perspective, it's better to remain small and balance between funding, quality and creativity.

How, oh how am I not surprised at all?
People aren't interested in great, thought-provoking stories. All they care about are animay boobs.
I actually doubt whether they are actually read at all. VNs on Steam are an entirely different beast, with both western and english-language versions of new games tailored specially towards your average Steam user, choke full of memes & silliness to warrant decent streaming potential... and gods forbid them for containing any sort of politically incorrect content. People are so surprised publishers nowadays rarely release large titles without crowdfunding help.
VNs were niche, are a niche and will forever remain a niche. You actually need a bit more than just a decently written story to garner any sort of success.
At this point, from a western developer's perspective, it's better to remain small and balance between funding, quality and creativity.

False. Anime, manga, LNs, and VNs are all Japan's ingenious strategy for population control by turning everybody into socially maladjusted weirdos.

People have to finally understand high quality, story-focused vns aren't the main focus of publishers, because - ironically - they don't sell. Why? Because most people don't want to read. They want instant gratification, as to why they prefer light vns filled with either moe or porn (preferably both) over story-heavy games, which also take a lot of time to complete; time, they don't necessarily have, nor want to sacrifice on reading. No matter how hard we'll try, it's already not possible to revert this - vns fell into the same exact pitfall as in Japan. Publishing business is too risky for companies to strive for high quality releases, especially if they don't pay off. That's why we get a lot of cheap/mediocre licenses and good ones are a rarity. There's not much we can do, unless reading becomes a lot more popular once again.

The abyss you're about to descend into goes far deeper than you might think

#outofcontextvns

The abyss you're about to descend into goes far deeper than you might think

#outofcontextvns

The abyss you're about to descend into goes far deeper than you might think

#outofcontextvns

The abyss you're about to descend into goes far deeper than you might think

#outofcontextvns

So, another poor soul has fallen into depravity and become one with the scum that perforates the darkest reaches of the known world. Oh well, another one for the compost pile.

Fucking kill me. Just fucking kill me now please. My moral compass has had an identity crisis and is on a soul-seeking journey who knows fucking where. I don't know what I should believe anymore, and i'm cold, lonely, and shivering in the dark at 4 in the morning as I write this thread. If i'm not wrong, there is about a 3 month or so gap in between Nekopara Extra and 1(Haven't actually read it yet). So i'm looking at the cover, and I realize. There is a 3 month gap between lewdable Coconut(using her as an example), and non-lewdable Coconut. 3 Fucking months. My mind is in shambles. Does this make lewding "young" Coconut ok? Does it make lewding "old" Coconut wrong??? Chocola and Vanilla look 6 years old for fucks sake. And Kashou is balls deep in them 3 months later. Imagine Kashou's home, and thinking about how cute those little girls are, and finding out he is in a sexual relationship with them 3 months later. 
"She IS a Loli, but officer, this is what she looks like in 3 months."
"Ok, so, how old is she in the older example?"
"One year old."
Save me please. All I wanted was to enjoy my loli Neko slice-of-life. I'm ruined.

Summary

The year is 1908. The 20th century is still young.
An unfamiliar 20th century - in an unfamiliar world.
This is a world that experienced a 19th century very different from our own. A world filled with innumerable steam-powered "Engines."
The unnaturally rapid development of this steam civilization has left the world's skies shrouded in grey... and its seas dyed black.

"Sea" - Once, the word suggested an expanse of blue. Today, it refers to something dark and putrid.
The former harbor city of Marseille in the European Kingdom of France looks out on a sea as black as any other. But these particular waters are home to something that can't be found anywhere else on Earth...
A massive artificial island, solid and imposing as a fortress. A city in its own right, but also a school; a place bursting with life and color.
Its formal name: The Marseille Offshore Academia.

In the spring of 1908... A single young man appears within its walls.
After declaring his intent to wage war against its powerful Governing Council, he introduces himself in this way:
"Nikola Tesla. 72 years old. I'm a transfer student."
"Students of the Marseille Offshore Academia. My hundred thousand young friends, cursed by fate."
"...I will save every last one of you with my own two hands."

And at the summit of Château d'If, a bell rings out.
The Bell of Gahkthun, announcing that the time of rejoicing is at hand...
 
Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order

In Gahkthun it's rather easy to get to the end without actually getting a bad end.
There are however these "Exercises for Readers" that can get you a bad end and unlock extra side-stories usually with the minor characters, who don't get much screentime otherwise.
Gahkthun is completely linear with only one Good End.
Ending Guideline
 
Chapter 1: "Enemy of the World"
 
Chapter 2: "A Dog's Destiny"
 
Chapter 3: "Fire-Forged Steel"
 
Chapter 4: "The Message in the Melody"
 
 
Chapter 5: "Ornamental Sunshine"
 
Chapter 6: "Shining Clown"
 
Chapter 7: "A Day of Mistakes"
 
Chapter 9: "Beyond the Gate"
 
Chapter 10: "The Sword of Love"
 
Final Chapter Part 2: "And Until Your Final Day"
 
 
Attribution

This walkthrough was made by my own information playing through the game and experimenting myself

Making Visual Novels popular is a goal that goes way further beyond the thing you guys are trying to consciously achieve. Most people consider what we think Visual Novels are as Animegames and Porngames, but the genre has so much potential being way more than that if we think about what the genre is. Nowadays people don't read that many books anymore, because everything has to be quick-quick entertainment. In that regard visual novels could provide a new way to tell stories, but it just did not reach this hemisphere yet and this is obvious because the people make VNs without having a real team try to abuse the visual novel genre as a way to get access to the gaming industry. That is also a reason why people try to convert their half-assed fanfictions into visual novels and then make actually sellable games out of them. But what if we make it possible that capable book authors find the genre and think it is revolutionizing? They could produce amazing stories and have the funds to actually found big western based publishers/development studios because they can hire capable people. If we are actually attempting to make VNs popular over here we have to get away from the selfish goal to bring only japanese gems over here. We have to create our own amazing stories, with western-based writing and settings. The art can still attempt to be moe and japanese, but the settings should not try to simulate a japanese one. I'm sick of western studios attempting to create foreign settings they don't understand, because they only gloss over the source material and attempt to rehash what they know from anime, storytelling takes A LOT of research and I'm surprised how japanese manage to use western philosophy in their works better than western developers do..

What I am trying to say. Try to promote the genre in itself and improve on creating new things instead of rehashing japanese ones and localizing games. We have so many capable people over here in the west, but we don't use their potential which is unfortunate. I'm not telling that we should completely cease localizing japanese titles but we should be less selfish.