Chronopolis

Hmm the presentation (CG, etc.) looks so good for the sport elements. Lots of hype.

Rogue-like: http://store.steampowered.com/app/266210/(kinda soft rogue-like, plays kinda like FTL but with the premise of an RPG)

You should go read it . The routes were horribly rushed and obviously could be a lot more plotwise and there may be some other flaws, but imo it accomplished do what it tried to do. Mostly through the common route, but also through the branches that follow. The author is obviously a smart guy and there are no shortage of things to think about. It's to the point where the VN is not for people who don't like thinking on the side about ideas, rather than the plot/characters or even themes. It's not that the VN is particularly obtuse or dry either, it's that it passes directly through the town of Thought.

I feel like not having voices limits what I can imagine the characters' voices to what I can imagine. Compared to voices, where sometimes I can "feel" like the voice acting made help bring out that character or made them them. I can also react directly to the voice, rather than only react to the content, circumstances, and surrounding description of what is being said. Probably the weakness of voices is when it removes possibilities that are useful, that is, the voice of a character would be better off left to the imagination, or the author wants to make the character's voice be propelled more through the text then the audio.

Advertisment 詐欺. Well, it's good to know what that VN was actually about.

Out of the 4-5 titles I was rotating between, I finally settled on mainly reading Itsuka, Todoku, Ano Sora ni. I know that there is a lot of crazy fights deeper into the vn, which is exiting. Most of the characters still remain a mystery. They are a bit quirky, but it's likable. On my first route (Futami first) Futami was like WTF strange at first, but as time passes, you really settle down to just accepting who she is. I like this pattern where you the strange quirk you first see with a character after you spend more time with them, is revealed to be "a part of them that fits consistently" or just "simply who they are" in a way that makes sense . I kinda like the slice of life in this game. It's yet again slightly different from what I've seen so far. Maybe it's because I know that something is working in the background, so that makes me wonder ahead of time what really the relationships between the characters are, and what are their roles and positions. The characters largely remain a mystery, or have only been introduced. There also is a lot of folklore and monologue (literary description of bodies/scenes??.) passages interspersed in the route, which gives a sort of aura to the thing and through it's significant ratio distances the novel from the constant dialogue that usually forms most common routes.

There's Kami no ue no Mahoutsukai...one of the heriones wins during her route AND the true route. Though it's also not 100% obvious who *is* the main herione. And Shin Sekai Yori (book/anime). It's actually an unexpected boy that "wins", if you can call it that. The circumstances were pretty miserable though.

This is one of my more liked snippets. No thoughts, no dialogue, not even a story. Just enough room for me to patch together some mildly dramatic descriptive lines without them conflicting with each other. I'm pretty shy about my writing. Like I like thinking of concepts for stories, images/scenes to depict, explanations for events, causes for character development, but I don't know how to construct and tie together scenes in written text.

I have a play list for this: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWUnPw6NpxHCALJBkmpUrf2WOJgneBapL It's not exactly soothing, but it has that effect on me.

Finished Semiramis no Tenbin (well, just the two super main herione routes and related endings). There's so much to think about. The plot is kinda level, but the VN has impact just from all the points it raises. The two primary heroines represent two extremes, and are very memorable. I frequently thought "they are like not freaking human". Aside from that, suprisingly, I enjoyed the relaxed moments in this novel. There was really any pure slice of life, since there was always a debate or a social anomaly (which is basically forms the ingredients for the plot in the common route) happening not far away.

The fact that you got got wrong most of the indirect references and more complicated structures is a sign that you don't have enough experience and study with grammar and reading. I think you know enough to enjoy the scene and sense what are the emotions in it, but not enough to recognize and recreate every part of the narrative in english. I don't have much experience with the nitty gritty parts of translation, but like Fiddle says, translate the meaning, not the Japanese sentence structure. If a character is trying to get a point something across, translate the line into an English line which gets the same point across. If you are interesting in studying Japanese, I'd advise you switch to Translation Aggregator with Jparser (J-E look up dictionary). I cannot stress this enough, you'll make no further progress with machine translators. If you want to try translating web comic chapters or short things for fun, by all means, but it's not a releasable level. The reason why I suggest studying and reading more first, is that translating is a lot of work and not a very efficient way to get better at Japanese. Edit: Pabloc and others have said the same thing, but better.

shots fired. I've played a bit of Kajutsu but don't know who Kazuki is.

Had this on my backlog, yup might as well read it now. Count me in.

Been playing Semiramis no Tenbin. Ahahaha Ami and Reiji's relationship is so twisted. I only really felt that during one of the (around chapter 4) mellow sections. It's not twisted in that it's repulsive per se. Just that it's an unusual relationship that is hard to imagine and makes you a bit uncomfortable and not know what to think. Well, a fair amount of the "twistedness" to the relationship comes from Ami herself. I thought the novel would be very edgy to start with, but it isn't. That's probably a good thing, as there are a of things the story couldn't show to the reader if they were paying attention to all these high-tension events going on. Later on I think it might be more cruel than edgy, but w/e. The discussions with Eru are probably the most interesting part so far. Eru herself is quite a pleasant character. Like someone you aren't attracted to but admire, and is pleasant. I think Ami is done well. She's subtly terrifying. The pace seems a teeny bit sluggish at times, but I've seen worse. The novel isn't for everyone, the focus and direction of the "slice of life" and "exposition" is quite different from most VN's. It's been like 4 chapters and only like 3 characters have been developed further. Instead, a lot of ideas have been thrown around, main characters developed, and ground-work set. There's been no-payoff at all yet, not the most interesting opening section, but there have been interesting ideas and the two main heroines seem like no ordinary characters. It's pretty important for this VN to be aware and acknowledge what the story is introducing and what axis it's moving on. Otherwise it could be a pretty disappointing/boring novel. I wonder if the game will have supernatural elements. I suppose, with the occasional voice in Reiji's head, it ought to be... (no spoil please ) edit: http://puu.sh/fQWCN/94b17662db.jpg makes so much sense

I think most people outside of the VN community study textbooks (as well as speaking, writing, listening practice) for a long while until they start getting into substantial native material. If anything, the only thing that matters is continuing to study grammar (keep going until at least n2). Honestly, many questions can be answered through a playing more. If you have a place to ask questions that is incredible helpful. The reason why it's not productive to try and understand everything is that : a) some topics are too complex to understand for one's level B) you might not have to means to find the answer to your question (be a person to as who has seen that usage, or can't find it through google) 当たる　doesn't have a similiar connotation (if you are talking about "good and bad" connotations). It doesn't really have a connotation. I think what you mean is that it is used in a bunch of ways, some which may seem like a spin-off of the base meaning. Personally, I don't try and think too hard an justify the alternate meanings against a base one. It's too many mental hoops. 2 tips: Use Jparser to provide a hint at the core meaning. Try to remember the context to remember *how" a word is used. For example, some one could say　当たった！ when their guess turned out to be correct. Remember that situation, the fact that 当たる　can be used to refer to a guess or estimate being on the mark.　 I mean there have been words which I've been like "I know I've seen the word used here here and here with this sort of tone, but I don't really know what it means." That's ok. Note it down and ask someone when you get a chance. For this example, don't remember "当たる　= to be called on by the teacher". Remember the situation you saw that meaning of 当たる used in. There will be definitions where it's hard to tell what is doing what. Don't stress too much about words are unclear because of the english definition. Most Jparser definitions are helpful enough, for the ones that aren't you can ask about it, or just move on and wait until you can use a J-J dictionary or figure it out later. Mm, this. Some lines can be solved if you are aware of what is happening (e.g. char A is mad at B because of this). Even if you don't, they provide context for you to gain a vague understanding of when the word is used, and with what tone.

Kajiri Kamui Kagura Probably going to review some grammar and properly learn the classical japanese particles/conjugations before heading into this monster. Of course I still need to play Dies irae first...

I call them VN's most of the time. Well, pressure or no pressure, it still takes like two of the three to get a VN done: crazy determination, insane-work ethic, a solid project manager.

Sort of finished Kami no ue no Mahoutsukai (took a bit over a month). Non-spoiler thoughts, basically why I liked the game The next game I'm playing's probably going to be Scales of Semiramis. Eek, the menu theme already is setting the mood, part melodic, part calm, part dramatic, part haunting.

Why are developers obsessed with the 箱庭　theme. Nothing stands out to me (yet) that would make it an interesting motif....

I think subtitles are fine (english or japanese). English subs are fine as long as you consciously attempt to listen for most lines. It can also provide the context to help you identify words.

I used the jlpt vocab lists for N5, N4, and N3. http://www.tanos.co.uk/jlpt/jlpt5/vocab/ As a starter, something like a verb list can be nice, since they often the most important words in a sentence. http://nihongoichiban.com/2012/08/13/list-of-all-verbs-for-the-jlpt-n4/ If you want to learn by category, it can be fun to learn words from here: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:1000_Japanese_basic_words. The words obviously aren't the most common ones, and there are some rare words, but it's still useful vocab. Keep in mind that the Japanese words, especially abstract nouns, are not used in the same way as the english words that are used as their definition. If you're already gotten a hang of word types and basic grammar, the Core 10k deck for anki (https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/702754122) is a pretty good option. The pictures are from google search, and so are sometimes wrong, but the example sentences and audio are from native speakers.

you don't need to memorize how to write the kanji, though You still should learn to recognize the radicals: the 合　and the radical above it.

Nukige would be neat if it didn't break immersion. Usually what breaks immersion is outlandish H-scene tropes. I guess that would be a story told substantially through sex, which is probably not nukige but erotica.

That method is perfectly legitimate (it's not by Aaeru btw, http://forum.koohii.com/viewforum.php?id=1). RTK teaches to recognize kanji and gives a keyword, which may have some connection with one of the meanings of the kanji. It doesn't give you the on-yomi reading for compounds, I'm not sure how much easier it is to remember the on-yomi reading if you already recognize the kanji. Throughout my study, I had to go through the process of distinguishing similiar looking kanji by looking to see which radicals differed. 塵　鹿、 籠、龍 理科　料理 等、寺 待つ　持つ 慰める、褒める 桃色、　挑戦 微かな、微妙、微塵、　（same kanji) Doing RTK kinda front-loads this, meaning you'll have to do less of this remembering differences later on. Whether it's hugely. Proponents say it's much more effecient, but I didn't have too much problem just examining words along the way, to see if their kanji were actually the same, and learning the differences if they were different.