Chronopolis

I think enjoyment and fascination is a state of the mind. While it's rare that you're going to come across exactly the vn you felt like reading, if you try reading a bunch of stories, you might get into a few of them, and that will be just as good. The more stuff you enjoy, the more comparisons you can draw, which might help you enjoy other works.

Vn's and lns are different then western media, but after reading a bunch I still don't yet see how Kishotenketsu describes them. I do think that any description/depiction of a world, character and events can constitute a story, even without plot or conflict. Western shows usually can't pull their characters away from western culture, or western media tropes. LN's/VN's have their own tropes, but I actually like some of them.

For comedy or faster-paced VN's, it's great to have voice acting. It gives the thing more life. Also in important scenes the voice acting can provide a voice that you couldn't have imagined from the text. Voice acting's never going to be able to save a bad story though. For English works I almost always prefer no voice acting. It seems fake and not seamless like JP voice acting, iuuno.

Around four years is about how long after I find I'm able to comfortably replay VN's. After that long, even the trite portions I probably will experience in a different way to how I remembered. Besides replaying for interesting scenes and details, one could also replay to enjoy the atmosphere of the VN. That'd be something I'd replay a charage for. There's also catharsis like Clephas mentioned. Charage's lose a lot on the replay because you can never have that feeling of warm anticipation wondering what will happen next. Unconventional stories might actually gain on the replay, because you aren't disappointed when the story ended up going in different direction. Any story with lots to analyze would be a natural replay target... though those kinds of stories are more common in books than VN's. At it is I'm barely able to finish all the routes of a VN on the first play (unless required for the true end) . And so, whatever I'm replaying for, I only go through a couple sections, which is far short of the full VN.

Took a brief look. Most of it is translated good, but there are a few mistakes in the difficult parts. But I don't think it would hurt anyone's enjoyment of the game. I'm glad they listened to feedback and improved the translation quality.

I had this experience where I was playing f2p for a long time, and then finally gave in and bought premium. At that moment I felt like everything in the game should become trivial. Like when you activate cheat mode in a single-player game. But it didn't and I felt disappointed, lost motivation and quit. A lot of my friends play these games with everyday routines, which kind of makes me want to stay away from those micro-transaction games. Usually it isn't the routine gameplay that appeals to me, but the combination with voice acting and art. Because of that and the fact that I don't play games on my mobile phone, I seldom play those kinds of games. I did manage to spend about $200 on a game called Shadowverse. About half of that was on a 33% off sale. Though I must say, the transaction system is honestly pretty decent for that game - it's clean and elegant, and f2p is a real legitimate option. I also found it's easy to get lured into buying shitty stuff on dlsite (quickly learned my lesson though). For big-name steam games I watch a lot of gameplay videos before buying them to make sure that I'll actually play and enjoy the game. Overall I feel that it was good I got exposure to these elements in a moderate way and didn't get hooked on those seriously exploitative games. I agree. In terms of games, micro-transaction ones are the bottom of the barrel. I don't consider them as games anymore, when they are not about gameplay and are just a system with stimuli designed to psychologically trap their users.

I'm still curious what you'll think about Kanojo-tachi no Ryuugi the second time around.

That sure is some detail for a nakige VN. Gonna try this one out. Been ages since I've properly played something (just been reading LN/Manga/Anime).

I really like fiction and been wanting to write a few stories of my own (though I barely get any writing done). I'm also pretty interested in game design and development. For gaming I tend to lean towards strategy games, cause I like getting better at things, though sometimes I just try out games to see what the developers made. For outdoor activities, I was into longboarding in the past year or two.

Merciless Utsuge...don't think I'm in the mood for that atm haha...

Starting playing Magical Charming as a much needed change-of-pace. (before that I was reading the LN series SukaSuka and SukaMoka. Both those were intense and crushingly sad at times). I haven't played much VN's in the last couple months, it's nice to enjoy them some more. Not much to say. Basically just recovering with moe.

Man I totally forgot, it might have been Tenshi from Angel Beats. I have a thing for stoic girls haha. I also liked that girl from Maeda Jun's PV "Killer Song". This was when back when I was high school, before I got into VN's.

It's pretty cool seeing these old adventure titles, this kind of "merry adventures" you don't really see in modern vns. (There's fantasy adventure/harems in gameplay vns but the feel is still kinda different).

Dunno about the others, but I would warn you from expecting much from Biman 3, that game was so disappointing. Good atmosphere/world, but weak as hell story and characters. I might check this one out though.

I thought it was basically a classic "spend time with these pretty girls" game. If you find your waifu in one of those two, then you have a pretty well-balanced game. I personally was lukewarm towards them and so the VN as a whole. The setting's not bad, but the characters/drama aren't strong enough. Also the mystery takes too long to piece together. My god, if I ever have to go through a wall of choices again. This kind of detective work much better for point and click games, where the clues you get provide feedback to your actions. Picking some choice (or every choice) is just laborious and ruins any buildup. I played the two girl's endings and Akari's end, didn't get the harem end I *think* (or if I did I skipped through it and forgot about it).

I like having the original sketches, and the in-progress or concept art. Like you guys said, the original cg isn't that hard to get. Anything setting related is nice too. I imagine the artist has their own ideas of the setting and characters, esp. if they were the ones who did the char. design.

I recently finished Kanojyo-tachi no Ryuugi. Going into the VN, I somehow mixed up this title with another VN, Yuri Kago no Naka, and thought it was going to be a hyper-chuuni novel. Well, it definitely wasn't that, but it was pretty good anyways. The VN starts out with the MC returning to old home where he sees his older twin sisters for the first time in five years. He is pretty miffed when his older sister Tobari ignores him completely. Especially since he (MC's name is Kotarou) holds a bit of an inferiority complex towards her. She does recruit him to the theatre club in order to perform at the upcoming school festival. He's going to be playing the main heroine alongside her as the hero. Yep, it's a VN with crossdressing. The MC is voiced, too (hooray!) I found the BGM well-fitted for each of the scenes. It looks like they paid attention there. Was really impressed by the voice acting for Tobari, Akane, and Suzutsuki. The early dialogue had a bit of characterization, but the voice acting really gave it life. Though when I saw Seseri's (blue-haired hopelessly genki-naive type) character I cringed at the thought of having to bear with her for the rest of the VN. I really liked Suzutsuki's (Pink-haired girl) route who I played first. Her route was super short (literally 6-7 scenes!!!), but it had this amazing atmosphere. She ends up being my favourite girl. Next I played Seseri's route, which mostly boring. Then was Akane (the older twin sister). Her route wasn't extensive like I thought it was, but it does provide some important facts about the sisters and their family. After that I skipped the other two minor heriones and went for the Tobari's route, the true herione's. While doing her route, I still found the events seems pretty underwhelming (just seemed like Kotarou arguing a lot with Tobari). But then the latter part of her route comes, and it's pretty good. At the end of the route there's this big perspective change which pretty much is the culmination of the entire route. It was amazing the first time, but it took me a second read to connect the pieces. Now I finally get why everyone on erogegamescape keeps saying the game exists for the sake of Tobari. Basically the whole game is revolving about Kotarou's (the MC) and Tobari's relationship (or apparent lack of one), and her mental state. It's kind of an unexpected work (old, heavy character-focus, and yet not being about the normal romance progressions), but the cg, music, voice acting, and characters are all quite good. Would recommend to someone who wants to read a character-focused story and doesn't mind the crossdressing, the unusual combination of elements, or the short length. As a side note, I think the crossdressing was more to allow Akari and Tobari to exhibit some S-traits during the sex scenes. The sex scenes are generally pretty mild, but the thing is, Kotarou is actually in the M position a lot of the time, which makes it feel more 'out there' than most crossdressing vns. I dunno. Kotarou's not bad relatively speaking, but some of the stuff made me groan a bit inside.

Heriones, atmosphere, escapism/being able to feel a different mood, being able to see or discover ideals/values within the story, emotional engagement, cartharsis, things to wonder about, characters to watch. Oh, and don't forget Ero, of course. Totallly agree with @InvictusCobra, the combination of music+text+graphics+voice is amazing and almost is what I live for.

Not any that I know of, and grimgar is one of my favourites. There really should be, the premise could totally work in a VN.

Haha, I can see why you aren't in the mood. That veil of gloom is thick. I like the potential of this one for having more of a setting and less wacked up shit of Kamihamo, though the its hard getting into the protagonist's view. I'd be happy to review Istoria later this month after I get through term exams.

The setting screams Koromoebi no Nostalgia lool. It's different when you use an issue for it's gloom/depress value first, instead of intending to develop it evenly. Haven't investigated into minori's games that much but I'm starting to feel like they aren't my cup of tea either. Nice job on the level review.

Serious with some comedy >> Purely serious >>>> Comedy all the way through >> Mostly comedy, with one serious part >>> Uninspired bland shit

Don't really have high hopes, as the scenes in the OP looks a bit generic, and it's obviously a light-hearted comedy. The OP is great though.

Huh, thanks for the review! Saw the game a couple times on vndb and got curious what it what it was like. Probably not something I'll actually play (Japn mythology is as bonkers as modern dempa mindfuck imho), but nevertheless interesting!