Chronopolis

There's no comparison to an actual translation. Maybe if you just want to enjoy the moe and atmosphere. MTL can be helpful for reading description if you have no intention of learning Japanese, but it also tends to butcher dialogue horribly. You can see a random MTL for reference.

I used to read like 2-5 hours a day. Nowadays I only read like 30min-1hour per day. Usually I get distracted by other media too. For some reason I find it easier to marathon web novels... probably there are less distractions reading them on my phone.

Yep, there are smart/clever ways to mix the two (Freespace 2 was great) But they are the exception. In Freespace I imagine they had to consider what type of scenes they could portray within the gameplay. Using missions + briefings is a great gameplay+narrative link. For a good hybrid, you generally want to include meaningful dialogue during gameplay, and you also need to work to un-ambiguously frame the gameplay within the narrative (know what exactly happened in story terms).

From a ideal standpoint, the moment you mix gamplay and narrative, one of the two has to give way. For VN's generally you want to prioritize the story and do everything so that the gameplay doesn't interfere with the narrative. (Actually I thought of mahou shoujo too, lol@Zakamutt). My gripe is that games in general have too many levels, and nothing sucks more than unneccesary levels also killing the story pacing. Just do battles, and if there are too few add extra levels on the side. If you prioritize gameplay, you now have the freedom to cater the story and pacing to what works best for the gameplay. You can't do this if you already have a plot planned out.

Thanks, it was cool to see an objective description of the novel after finishing it. I enjoyed the good heroine characterization and voice acting, though the taboo/messed up relationships made for a rocky experience. Bit unsettling, though I guess the heroines having initiative most of the time was intentional by the authors.

Been reading VN's for over 8 years, but according to VNDB I've only finished 57 VN's (tried a lot more though). Nowadays, I got other hobbies, and I also like to read light novels and web novels, which kinda takes the place of VN's once you get into the story. I mainly get through long works by prioritizing them (whoops) over other responsibilities. You just go straight to reading when you have free time. That being said, I rarely read super long VN's, and I almost never finish all the routes unless its a plotge and doing so is required.

Making a game is a lot of work (talking many months), RPG's are super time consuming even relative to other genres. Also, adding gameplay can clash or dilute the narrative. Why are LN's doing so well? Because the production costs are so little compared to VN's and games, making it easy to break even and cover flops.

Blade Rondo is a fast-paced 2 player card game featuring beautiful gothic anime art. The gameplay is simple but sharp, a nice change from the usual collectable card games. A game takes around 10-15 minutes. There are also a few expansions out which haven't been translated yet. In order to play the mod you need Tabletop Simulator on Steam. Workshop link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1895115999 Thanks to the original mod creator sakuya4667 and @Cyrillej1 for her awesome image editing work. PS: I actually did this TL last year but never got around to sharing it. The translation itself only took 2 days -- it took longer to figure out the rules xD.

VN: Mahou Shoujo (lifelike characters and interactions) Anime: Simoun (could not expect an anime like this, it's like a moody space opera with character development) Manga: N/A LN: Mushoku Tensei, it made me think about what it would be like raising a family. Grimgar: Has influenced me a lot over the years. Serious party combat isekai ftw.

Happy new year, friends!

DDC is a cool VN. I simultaneously relate to their "looking at humanity from an outsider's perspective", and am shocked by how extreme their perspectives are. It's pretty weird and out there, but other than that, it's everything you could ask for in a plot-VN: great heroines, interesting and consistent MC, and routes that go in different directions.

I didn't like Cross Channel, but I do plan on trying Saihate no Ima one day. The themes of a "sanctuary" are a bit interesting. How would you compare this work to Kazoku Keikaku? Would you recommend starting with that work, for someone who isn't that into Romeo Tanaka's works.

I've been wanting to read Maggot baits for a while, but gotta wait until I feel confident enough to handle the sanity loss. The art (the only ClockUp game who's art I genuinely like) and the writing are major draws for me.

Other goals like writing, game dev, blogging, friends, work skills, etc. have become more concrete and important to me, such that I am no longer fine with centering my life around reading VN's. Actually my mind is so much on those things (regardless of progress or not) that I find it hard to immerse in VN's and keep reading regularly. Reading progress slows to a crawl. Reading lots of VN's used to be a goal in itself to me. Now, I just chip away at 1-2 titles while stalling the rest. I also play some short interesting works from time to time, those are good fun too. Overall, I've dropped from 12 full-length VN's a year to reading 3-4 full-length VN's per year. I definitely could do better, with this mystical thing called time management, lol. I still enjoy the medium a lot, but I think I like that familiar reading feeling just as much as the story. For discovering new kinds of titles, I rather do that for anime nowadays, as they are much shorter and -- everything is new to me in a way -- I haven't watched that many types of anime. (You could say I'm familiar with about 50% of VN genres, but only 20% of anime genres).

I knew about Steel and its EGS reviews but it was hard to justify trying such a long title without knowing what the structure was like. Good to know that there's decent character focus. Thanks for the helpful review.

I feel like organizing a server, then doing a group server project together (like making a mini-VN), or working on translating a shorter medium is better for having social interaction. Maybe because of the length of the text, lack of chapter releases (+ people following those releases), VN projects are pretty solidarity from my experience. I found more interaction/collaboration when I was helping with translating a LN in an existing discord server.

Hmm fair enough. I haven't played that many charage so I don't know many of the truly easy ones. I put Leyline because the sentences are short and the dialogue is super simple and standard if the reader's watched anime. It doesn't matter if you can't understand the one incantation, you can see what's going on. Most of the other ones are for the same reason, simple dialogue/short sentences.

6000 words is solid vocab start (it's possible to start from about 1000 words), but you really should study grammar if you want to read. For starting VN's a rule of thumb is you want N3 (maybe N4 at the very start). Here are some easy VNs *翠の海 *そしての世界より *星織ユメミライ *Ley Line 黄昏時の境界線 *この大空に、翼をひろげて None of these are short though. Reddit has a list too: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KnyyDt7jimEz-dgeMSKymRaT2r3QKBPm9AzqZ6oUWAs/pub

Started playing Otome ga Tsumugi Koi no Canvas . I'm playing for the icha icha to come, lol. It's a nice heartful charage. For a jousou vn the protagonist is sometimes impossibly good at being a maid, and there are overly kira kira sappy moments which kind of makes me roll my eyes. The art and voice acting is really great though. The characters outfits is quite good. My favourite voicing is Akie, who has the same VA as Irene from Eustia.

The dialogue in Leyline is really easy, but since it has a mystery element that might make it harder to understand eventually.

Lol nice avatar, its the "mission accomplished finally can die in peace" face. Grats on finishing

What was so rare about Yuuri as a herione? The series looks really light-hearted, I like the OP's. Grats on finishing it.

I think it's both hilarious and a bit disturbing (should we be doing this?)

Yeah, it's @Chronopolize. Feel free to pm me. I dunno, as a non-artist, I feel like its the easier and carefree to find a main job and do my hobby as a hobby (also the unknowns and marketing of entrepreneurship makes me uncomfortable). Finding a way to monetize your passion is a difficult task, you probably need some mentors along the way and a lot of work. There are varying degrees, from freelance workers who have some an online presence, to content creators who have a brand, to professionals who frequently work on company projects. Nowadays, online shops and patreon makes it much easier for a single person to monetize, though you still need the skill and an audience.