Chronopolis

That's the same phrasing that gets used sometimes in fantasy novels, explaining items in the world, and the flow is great.

Magenkyou 3 had a nice story and setting viewed as a nukige, but it was really unsatisfying as a story work because they didn't pursue the potential or deepen the characters more. I'll chip in these titles. Hotel Ergriffen Koukyuu Shoufu The boundary between ero and plot (Hotel Ergriffen doesn't really have plot since cause it's a step in sensorial dream land) is pretty much non-existent. It ranks pretty high in terms of the ero being inseparable or integral to the work (both games have prostitution as a central theme). Not saying the games weren't coined with that in mind...but it's a strange thing when a nukige has a stronger atmosphere than most story games. It's the purple text (your mileage may very), painting-style art, music, ero, and content, all being in-sync towards creating a unified quality/atmosphere for the work, that turns these two games from bad to intriguingly notable.

For Osu, I know there's a lot of bad habits and practice habits that can stop you from getting any better. It takes the right type of practice and a lot of work to continuously improve. So, while I'm disappointed, I'm hopefully not beating myself up over being stuck at this wall at ~25k, even though I've played more than most people have at that level. Nowadays for MP games, as far as gameplay reasons, I only play them now if the strategy is fun, or if gameplay is pretty fun regardless of win or lose. There are few IRL people I knowwho have spent less time on Japanese (or managed their time better and so have gotten more other things done in addition) and are just as good or better. This had me quite taken-aback, but the truth is, the fact is that, as long as it's the stuff attached to you that you value, someone else having more skill than you doesn't make what you've experienced and gained less valuable. I chose to study Japanese, and it matters how good I am compared to if I had spent a different amount of time on it. It shouldn't matter how good I am compared to another person. If I see other people studying more efficiently, I can try and copy that study method. But studying the method might be difficult (for me) and so I shouldn't expect 100% to see a benefit out of that, nor should I feel so bad in the case that I can't apply that method effectively. I'm not really the king of positive thinking, but what I say to myself when I see people way ahead of me: "Those people are miles ahead. Well, the best thing I can do is keep working, that'll get me as far as possible. That's the important part." Having people somewhat above and below your level is good for gaining gaining and understanding of what constitutes skill. Having people way above your level is disconcerting, and can be harmful if you don't handle it well internally. Hah, I look down on people too from time to time. I can't help it. It must be my blasted insecurity showing.

Propoganda....not just with moe, but IN my moe...*shudders*.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sekaiproject/witch-boy-magical-piece-a-bl-visual-novel-localiza BL game with boys transforming into magical "girls" Yooooo. Yooooo. Yoooooo. The really went there. ................................... I dig it. The reason being, gender changing (sorta like trap vns) can lead to some cute/funny/adorable moments. It makes me curious about how the characters would see each other. I think I might check it out, if the VN isn't chock full of horrible BL cliches. Discuss.

Wow, that's some nice art

Had this thought lying in bed thinking about the anime backlog I never get to because I'm too busy watching anime. I think there are more anime with this post apocalyptic sci-fi mecha setting then VN's. It all came to me frighteningly fast. I'm really exicted as this is like the opposite of writer's block (well ok, I still can't write real description or dialogu yet). Maybe some influences from Expelled from Paradise, Aldoah Zero, , particularly All you need is Kill.

Uh huh, dat's right (only suggestion I have).

Glad to see a good title that's not too difficult to read. Also, Fantasy Adventure + Combat = Excellent. There are a lot of VN's that are rewarding, but a lot of work to go through. Impressive protagonists are cool too, but protagonists for whom you enjoy just standing behind their eyes are, though rare, literally the best thing ever. I personally would have never gotten through Muramasa if not for Kageaki. ...You got me there.

I see you are basking in the final rays of a golden dusk. Welcome to the fuwa, wanderer.

Tenkiame seems fun not for story but for kitsune. I haven't played Monobeno but it reminds me of that. Happy, fluffy, herione VN's.

Playing Sono Hikari Sono Tsubasa ~Azathoth no Isan~, a doujin game I learned of from clicking on one of the random pictures that show up on the front page. For a doujin game, the art and vfx are pretty detailed, this game seems to haven gotten a lot of love. Speaking of the love, characters are all very caring of each other, which is one of my favourite character cast relations. They also turned that in to comedy in places. Of the first three characters we see after the prologue, the first is a extremely well-mannered girl who still manages to be 天然, a total goofball, and lastly we have the poor misunderstood shota who looks like a girl (He's the protag btw). The bgm is only normal quality, but is very calming and soothing along with the scenes. There's also sense of wonder towards the fantastical objects in the novel. Sono Hikari has really drawn me in and made me forget about judging the VN. There's some exposition and the story has some sci-fi elements lying around in the background, but man, the characters sometimes. They're so adorable it should be illegal. Squee~

Lot of interesting titles, thanks for listing them.

Reading SonoTsubasaSonoHikari. The characters kind of clicked with me, as the novel seems very gentle and caring. The main character is a little frail boy in a hospital. He sort of looks like a girl. Not really still what the plot will be about. Also there's comedy and it's hilariouss.

How do you finish your first major VN in 6 days. Damn that is impressive. Grats. Ah, well I suppose now a days it would be like 60-70 hours of reading, except there is no way in hell I can read 12 hours a day.

A while back I wrote a post rounding up all the VN fan sites (communities, not content sources and resources) I could find. Just ignore the number estimates cause they are very inaccurate. https://chrolize.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/visual-novel-communities/ Copy of the post: Besides this, there's tumblr (probably where'll you find the otome/BL game fan population)/

Ok I really need to start X.X

Ooh what a great topic to pick. I'd be happy to participate. Qualifications: Err, I like to think about things? I don't have an opinion yet, but I'll be sure to gather one up!

seconding eflein lied. It has so much violence it's confusing at times.

Re-recc'ing Gin'iro for maximum utsuge. It's a quite different from a nakige emotional rollercoaster (more like gradual development with utsu looming around everywhere), but yeah. One Way Heroics (If you're looking for a cute rogue-like to play. The story's really short but the princesses' ending was very moving imo) I'd probably pick something from the catharsis list. Futekikakusha was the only thing I've played that felt like that what you're talking about.

I think gameplay and story end up having to compromise, and usually so building one to support the other is necessary. I preface with this that I'm not an experienced player of gameplay/story games, having played just IMZ and Evenicle. In general, I prefer going for pure gameplay (optional story/setting built around it) and pure storytelling (no gameplay). You can make both gameplay and story compelling, but the gameplay and story have to be consistent and not strain the other. Hmm...Like when you come up with a gameplay structure which is like an armies battle game. You can't insert battles everywhere unless the plot has that. You might have to change the structure of the story to make it work with the gameplay. The issue I have with gameplay is that the time during the battles don't serve the story. You can place speech or thoughts during a battle, but they may feel a bit awkward if the player is retrying multiple times to beat the level. You can also have plot events show up inside the battle, or influence the gameplay element. This is very nice and immersive, but requires the gameplay element be able to represent such a factor. If you make the gameplay the main place where the characters express themselves, the ADV view can expand on that world atmosphere, showing the characters between battles, living life or running the campaign in their position, showing more of the world that was introduced by the gameplay (very important for the narration text to act like the gameplay events exist and happen). However, if the focus and build up of the VN is in the story text, then adding gameplay regularly isn't easy. It's like reading a novel and then having to play a different video game for 10 minutes every 30 pages. So, gameplay hybrids require a specific type of story in order for the gameplay and story to be able to work together well. The more "strict" the storyline is the harder it is for arbitrary gameplay to be adapted in.

I haven't played that many VN's. If you filter out the games that are too hard, and you take out the slice of life heavy games, you get novels which are all over the place and different. The following games I recommend aren't masterpieces or even great. They're all decent though, I enjoyed them all. -Midori no umi. The common route is not that long, and there are lots of branches with some interesting minor ends. (mystery, atmospheric charage). -Houkago no Futekikakusha. There's basically no normal slice of life and the story starts quickly. There is some later on but it's pretty much part of the plot. Quite an emotionally powerful game, but might come off as repetitive or clumsy as a story. (utsug-ish, lots of character hurt and suffering due to adverse situations) Both of the following two are old games and have abbreviated common routes. -Konata yori Kanata Made (utsuge. There's supernatural but the novel isn't totally not about that and completely about the emotions and thoughts.) -Kizuato (suspense, thriller, supernatural. It in a few ways inspired Tsukihime and the VN genre. It's kinda got archtype not-that-deep (but still very likable) characters, but the story is totally respectable in itself. Play the remake version.) If you want to challenge yourself, I'd recommend Aiyoku, overall it's both higher quality and more widely appealing than all of the games listed above. Sure, each chapter takes time to build up, but it's well presented (Characters are fantastic) and the atmosphere of the world just sucks you in. Another recommendation if you want to challenge yourself is Giniro. It's a non-conventional story, a set of 5 seperate stories which kind of connect thematically with the theme of the "Silver Thread". It's the most utsuge ever. I really reccomend the first story, as it's got some poetic and artistic style to it as well as being very memorable. You could read just the first story and be fine with that. It's also easier than some of the later chapters to read, because it's a relatively minimal story. Hmm...Indeed the first two chapters of IMZ were good (still stalled on chapter 5 though). But IMZ is harder than average to read, and is veeerrry text heavy, and not suitable for a novice.

Not sure. It's a terrible thing to go die and leave your child an orphan. If I were safe, I'd save the stronger of the two. Which of the two could bear the loss of the other one better, without being crushed for the rest of their life.