Chronopolis

Foreword: Unlike Hidamari this AXL work has no superficial elements, so I'm starting it with heavy heart. Can AXL pull it out with a SOL story?

Synopsis: Naoya fails the university entrance examination, and starts to study at a preparatory school. He meets Sakura, Miyuki and Ouka there and enjoys his life. On the other hand, his father tells him to go and help the hotel, owned by his father. He also meets beautiful girls including Izumi, his childhood friend, there and enjoys his peaceful life. Naoya is busy with studying, loving and working! Sakura, Izumi and Miyuki... Love with girls, friendship with friends, long distance love and triple cohabitation...? What will happen to Naoya in the end?
Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqMbhWBS_vA&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv_GNDXkWAd8Vb9u1nwXBH6K
Game type: Youth comedy
Character Design rating: 8/10
Protagonist rating: 7/10
Story rating: 6/10
Game quality: 9/10
Overall rating: 8/10

Story is really absolutely normal, so I'm rather disappointed with it. But it's not a plotge, so game should be evaluated by different criteria. Still some words about the story. Naoya fails entrance exams to the university, so he attends a preparatory school for a year as a ronin. And it's a fantastic setting, actually. It's just a bit about school to get new acquaintances, but it's mostly free time to do anything characters want. Such a gracious way to avoid school-college-work dilemma. Recurring video addresses of Naoya's father is a huge repeating gag by itself, but among others it also gives an opportunity to help about family ryoukan. It's all about choice where to move now.

Here comes the structure. Game presents an unusually complex structure that can be treated positively and negatively. Basically, there are three routes that can be roughly described as distance romance relations, cohabitation with heroine, and cohabitation with multiple heroines turning into harem. First branch is much more to my liking. Moreover, it seems to be initial plan for the story due to game's title that can be translated as "I can hear your voice". First part is all about telephone talks and sending photos to the telephones. As for heroine routes, it's also not that simple...

There are three main heroines - step-sister Miyuki who comes to live together with Naoya, childhood friend and ryokan caretaker Izumi, genki classmate Sakura. Izumi and Sakura have an ending in each of three route branches while Miyuki has only one ending in third branch that can be described as harem. Can't stand Izumi, btw. There are also four sub-heroines that have just one ending each, but they are unjustly treated as bad endings. There is such feeling, because in every such branch choice there's either instant ending of sub-heroine or story continuation with several more choices for either Sakura or Izumi. It's ok for less funny heroines, but I feel that Ouka deserves better. 

But where game especially shines is humor. Common route is an absolute paragon for comedy. Everything serves humor purpose here. Only bright and funny heroines like Sakura, Ouka and Miyuki show up here to set the drive. Needless to say that each heroine meeting is done masterfully. But that's not all. There are two baka friends that bring so much fun with them - otaku Masamune and moderately stupid sportsman Kenta. As if it's not enough two more silly characters are added - a self-proclaimed best-friend Gonjuurou and homosexual Shirou. Every time this many hilarious characters gather together it's in for a blast.

As a result, Kimi no Koe ga Kikoeru is a fabulous comedy that deserves much more attention. I personally consider that game would win with only distance romance relations authentic branch present. It would be a cleaner and less confusing structure without loli step-sister Miyuki and harem additions. But bigger story can't possibly be described as disadvantage. Don't read extra routes if you don't want to. I just wish I knew that and read only first route.

Foreword: Choosing a chunige from Caramel Box can't be wrong.

Synopsis: In 2022, the world is afflicted with a mysterious phenomenon. Adjoining multi-dimension world assimilates and becomes another space, dimension assimilation phenomenon called "Petulation". Humans can't approach these areas and their number keeps increasing...
One day, Kuroudo receives summons from the government to help the related scientific investigation at Shin Shinonome Academy located on the newly reclaimed land in Tokyo bay.
He has no idea what is going on. But the world gets closer to the destruction little by little. All he has is his skill of swordplay and one sword.
There he meets others, whom just like him are destined to fight for the future of mankind...
Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq3br0Dm-r4&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8vL6O9gksA54sSIv93SKwF
Game type: Eschatology story set in near future.
Character Design rating: 8/10
Protagonist rating: 8/10
Story rating: 9/10
Game quality: 8/10
Overall rating: 8/10

Another Caramel Box game, and again a 8. But this time it's much closer to 9. There are already good English reviews on the game, so skipping introductions.
My main impression from Shuumatsu Shoujo Gensou Alicematic is how much in common it has with Aekanaru Sekai no Owari ni despite the fact that scenario writers are different. First of all, both games have virtual world dimension. Second, both games present unique settings with very rich in detail worldview. Third similarity is non-cliche and developed personalities of heroines (well, Rikka may be an exception). And structure is unusual for both games.

But Alicematic learns by past experience. Scenario is now more epic and overall more exciting. Male characters are voiced. We even get to see and hear protagonist for the times when protagonist shifts. There are good action scenes including sword fights. Unlike Aekanaru Sekai no Owari ni, Alicematic does not really require to have special mindset anymore, it's quite entertaining for newcomer readers. But there are also problems.
CG aren't enough for me. I had trouble even picking some CG for this review as there are few cool CG here. Another strange thing is game's font that's really uncomfortable for the eyes. But probably main problem is how unexciting is the first half of the game. It's some strange academy where we meet teacher with some girls, get tons of seemingly unimportant information, and just spend time with our pal Nobutsuna doing usual boys stuff occasionally even in Green Green fashion. Things really take time.

In the raw outcome we have once again a very special game with unique worldview. It's more heroine focused than story focused, but heroines in this game are worth it. Game complexity and lack of excitement can easily scare unprepared readers, but there is enough depth to keep the interest. I should especially note cool and able protagonist. Game is not for everyone, and that's not a bad thing.

 
 

Kami-sama no You na Kimi e is the latest game by Cube, and it is based in a near-future setting where AIs run just about every aspect of society.  In this society, people have gotten past that raw terror of AI horror stories and have pretty much accepted the the ease and luxury of having AI run most of the important things that make civilization possible.  
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist, Kaito, is hacking into Central AI, the AI based on the Moon that runs most of the world's infrastructure.  Triumphantly, he succeeds, essentially gaining control over the AI that rules the world... and the one thing he asks for before getting out of the system is for it to find his ideal girlfriend, which the system then says doesn't exist.  Kaito, quite naturally, is a bit down after this, but he goes to sleep more or less normally... only to answer the door in the morning to find his ideal girl standing outside.
Quite naturally, this ideal girl is Tsukuyomi, the game's flagship heroine and the embodiment of Central AI in girl form.  As requested, she is already completely deredere over him, and a great deal of the common route has him running from her excessively sexual approaches.  In the days after this, like dominoes falling in a row, he meets a number of attractive heroines, and he shows off the usual donkan protagonist routine almost constantly when it matters.
Now, just from this, you'd think this was your standard charage... but in actuality, it is a lot closer to a plotge in structure.  The heroines have real issues, the protagonist doesn't flake out or become less interesting as you proceed, and the paths actually have solid stories that involve most of the game's cast of characters.  For someone who wants an SOL plotge with some decent drama in a futuristic setting, this game is pure crack.
Tsukuyomi
I probably should have left her for last, but I played Tsukuyomi's path first.  Tsukuyomi is the game's obvious main heroine, the girl who is most prominent on the package and in the advertising, and in general is the one most central in the common route.  In most cases, I don't like 'no common sense' heroines, but Tsukuyomi manages to pull it off without it feeling excessively contrived, which is actually a feat, considering she is a robot heroine.  It is helped along by the fact that Kaito generally accepts that Tsukuyomi is what she is, has no illusions about her nature, and is perfectly fine with her being a different existence from himself.  
Her story is your usual deredere heroine romance at first, but it quickly goes dramatic about midway through, for reasons that should be fairly obvious.  While the templated turn of events in this path is not revolutionary, it is well-executed and interesting.  There is even a truly surprising and emotional moment near the end that had me crying.  That, in itself, makes this path a success.  My only real complaint is that this path lacked an epilogue to tie off the story.
Rein
Rein is the cold-hearted student council president, an honor student with a black heart and an overabundance of pride.  Her path branches off from Tsukuyomi's path and is a great deal weaker, at least in my opinion.  To be honest, this path was kind of 'meh' for me, since it never revealed anything important about the details of what was going on with Rein beyond the basics that were revealed in Tsukuyomi's path, which is a huge weakness in a plotge or a charage.  While the protagonist remains a cool and interesting character, the failures of this path are really glaring.
Worse, the same as Tsukuyomi's path, there is no real epilogue, meaning you don't get to find out what happened after.
Rana
Rana... Rana is the heroine on the cover dressed like Sherlock Holmes, a cosplay uniform she wears nearly constantly.  As it indicates, she is a private detective and extremely intelligent... but also fairly perverted (she has a thing for Kaito's butt).  Her path... let's just say it is surprising and diverges widely from the events in Tsukuyomi's path (I didn't really like how Tsukuyomi almost became a non-entity in her path, but meh...).  This path... is a bit depressing, to be honest.  Oh, if you choose the Rana-only good ending, it is actually pretty good and heart-warming at the end, but the process you go through to reach that point is pretty hard if you came to like Rana.
Sophia/Sophia & Rana
At first glance, Sophia seems like your standard 'yurufuwa oneesan', but she is actually a fairly intelligent adult (yes, she is the adult heroine in this game).  She is Rana's older sister and one of those involved in developing the S-CHIP, an AI chip designed to be implanted into the human brain as an aid to those who have brain diseases.  Sophia's 'path' diverges from Rana's during the darkest period of Rana's path, and... to be honest, while it is easy to understand why it happens, this path is fairly unusual/stand out for a modern VN for reasons I'm not going to spell out here.  
Anyway, toward the end of Sophia's path, you have to decide whether you want the protagonist to be with just Sophia or with both Sophia and Rana... of course, after a seriously awkward set of events.  Generally, I recommend the Sophia and Rana choice... the guilt-trip you get from choosing just Sophia is pretty awful.
Kirika
Kirika is the protagonist's fellow loner, a girl who accuses him of stalking her because they keep meeting whenever they are trying to find places to be alone.  Her secret comes out relatively early in the common route, but I'll keep it quiet since it is funnier if you don't know in advance.  Her path actually begins very much like a charage path.  It is only toward the end where it becomes as deadly serious as the other paths above.  Indeed, in some ways it is the grimmest and most shocking of the paths, even compared to the depressing aspects of Rana's path.  It is also the path where the other heroines showed the least amount of relevance, a fact that I have mixed feelings about, considering how powerful the characters are.
Similar to most of the paths above, this path's greatest weakness is the fact that while it does have a conclusion, it doesn't have an epilogue or after-story to tie off the last few loose ends.  For that reason, I'm pretty sure they are planning a fandisc, as I can't see them leaving things as is.
Airi
Airi has the dubious honor of having the single weakest path in the game.  She is a net idol that the protagonist meets in the course of interacting with Kirika, and her main focus in life is on her work, despite being the youngest heroine.  Unfortunately, she is also the least unusual personality in the group, meaning that her character is by far the weakest... and her path follows suit.  Where the other paths had somewhat grandiose episodes that showed off the darkest aspects of an over-connected society, Airi's path's drama feels like an extension of internet trolling, so I had trouble getting into it.  
Conclusion
A good game with a solid setting and characters, this is probably a good choice for those who want a decent near-future sci-fi plotge who have already played Komorebi no Nostalgica and Missing X-Link.  Tsukuyomi is an above-average AI heroine, though she falls short of the genius of Cinema and Fluorite from Komorebi or the raw emotions experienced with the AIs in Missing X-Link.  It's greatest flaw is how it handles the endings, a common flaw in modern VNs that seems to be born of the bad habits of the fandisc-loving charage companies.  It's greatest strength lies in the way it manages to keep the protagonist, the heroines, and the story interesting while balancing it with enough SOL to make them feel real in the first place.  
 

I will say it, yes, games with trap protagonists are one of my secret pleasures.  While there are numerous types of this particular niche in VNs, and there are a disproportionate number of this type of game compared to ten years ago, there are some rules shared by all the greats that I thought I'd put out there.
1.  A good trap protagonist is a voiced protagonist.  Most trap protagonists are voiced.  There are a number of reasons for this, but, regardless of the reason, almost all the 'good' trap protagonist are voiced.  There are exceptions (early on) or ones where the voice was added on later (Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou), but they are just that, exceptions.
2.  The protagonist has some kind of spectacularly high level skill or attractive point.  This really is universal.  In some cases it is housework (protagonist in Otome no Sahou) and in others it is physical prowess, force of personality, or artistic talent.  However, regardless of what it is, no good trap protagonist is devoid of such skills.
3.  There is at least one 'ojousama' heroine.  While this is not universal, given the nature of this type of game and the fact that most of the schools they 'sneak into' are girls' schools, this is inevitable.  Girls schools, even in Japan, are private institutions, meaning there is inevitably (or so says the kami of eroge) going to be at least one sheltered girl that comes from wealth.
4.  There will be at least some drama when the protagonist is 'revealed' to the heroines.  Easy transitions make for bad games.  All the heroines merely accepting it as if it doesn't matter at all means that there was no weight at all to the protagonist's earlier whini- *coughs* ahem, worrying about being revealed.  While this drama might be comedic, tense, or sexual in nature, it should not go without note.
5.  At some point, most such protagonists will begin to react naturally as their female persona without realizing it (leading to many fans simply forgetting their original names, such as in the case with Mizuki in Koi no Canvas).
There are two major types of this type of protagonist.  One is the 'forceful personality' type, and the other is the 'submissive personality' type.  An example of the former would be Ojousama no Hanbun wa Ren'ai de Dekiteimasu, and an example of the latter would be Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas.  In the former case, the protagonist has a clear objective in infiltrating the girls' school, and he uses his personal abilities ruthlessly and aggressively for that purpose.  In the latter case, the protagonist loses himself (herself as I sometimes think of Mizuki) in his role so completely that he often catches himself reacting entirely as a female.
I like both types, and I find this particular niche tends to produce a disproportionate amount of good games compared to the rest of the VN world... but then, I'm biased.
Edit: As a side note, for those who are interested in recs involving this kind of thing, there are no truly transgender protagonists in any of these games, as far as I know.  There are a few who get addicted to dressing in drag or who live as a woman of their own free will even after the story is over depending on the route (Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou), but as far as I know none of these have been confirmed as actually being transgender.  That's not to say that none of the writers/makers have intended any of these protagonists to be such (it is a distinct possibility), but so far, in the games I've played/read, none of them have actually confirmed themselves as being such, even in their own thoughts (though again, some have edged around it or verged upon it).  
Edit2: Examples of this type of game that have either a submissive or a dominant protagonist that also are top tier.
Submissive (outside of H, since most H scenes in male-oriented VNs are inevitably bed-yakuza affairs)
Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou
Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas
Otome Domain
Dominant
Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide 
Ojousama no Hanbun wa Ren'ai de Dekiteimasu
Otoboku (despite appearances, all three games)
Koi Suru Otome to Shugo no Tate (though this one can be borderline at times)
Hmm... there were fewer great ones than I thought... the barrage of endless Ensemble games makes me forget sometimes, lol.

Welcome to my blog.
Where have we been? Where are we going?
TIMELINE
1980s:
- Early eroge largely consist of still art (what we call pixel art now), very short dialogue/narrative elements, and some primitive interactive elements, while spanning many genres.
1990s:
- The point-and-click adventure game, which has its roots in 1980s video games, establishes itself as one of the most popular genres of eroge. Many games emerge which have interfaces that are visually similar to those of most point-and-click adventure games, but with gradually differing gameplay. These games are all collectively called "adventure games" or "ADV" in Japanese. The general style of having an interface which consists of a rectangular text box at the bottom of the screen, and a collage of visual elements meant to serve as a guide for what the main character sees, is also called "ADV". In other words, ADV becomes a genre that embodies a style of presentation.
- The non-adult game company Chunsoft puts out Otogirisou, a kind of illustrated story in which pictures are placed in the background as visual aids while the full narrative is conveyed as overlaid text. This style of presentation is called a "novel game" or "NVL" in Japanese. The gameplay of Otogirisou purely consists of the player making choices on where to take the story, similar to "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, a simple yet powerful narrative tool which would prove influential to ADV as a whole.
- Two major eroge brands that specialize in ADV, elf and Leaf, create popular games like Doukyuusei and To Heart. These games stand out from their competitors by the way they utilize talented artists and writers to focus on the personalities of charming heroines, rather than treating pixel porn as what matters and the characterization as an afterthought. This character-centric evolution is called a charage (character game) and encompasses both NVL (like Kizuato) and ADV. And with the release of YU-NO and Kamaitachi no Yoru, two ADV/NVL games that have well-written stories, the term scenarioge (scenario game) becomes more popular.
1999:
- Kanon is released by Key. It's the first time a large number of players became very emotionally moved by the story of an eroge, or any ADV at that. Even someone like Baba from Visual Arts, who was just a businessman without much personal interest in ADV, became interested after Kanon. Aside from inventing the nakige (naki game, which means "crying game") genre, it awakened in players a desire for longer scenarios as necessary to deepen their attachment to the heroines. But its most significant role is being the first major moege (moe game) at a time when the term "moe" wasn't even very well known.
2000:
- The doujin NVL Tsukihime comes out, and its quality lets it rank among the very top, if not at the very top, of both scenarioge and charage. See Popular Views on What Defines the Chuuni Genre for more info on the influence of Type-Moon's works.
2000-2006:
- Now that Kanon and Tsukihime have come out, it seems like a dam bursts and a flood of popular and influential ADV/NVL are released. There are comparatively fewer in 2001, with the most notable ones in my mind being Kiminozo and Kazokei. But in 2002 you have Ever17, Higurashi, Kusarihime, Baldr Force, Hello world, Da Capo, and others. And every year after that just has more and more top quality ADV/NVL. The biggest year is 2004, which sees the release of both Clannad and Fate/stay night (successors to Kanon and Tsukihime, respectively).
- Around the middle of the decade, the term "visual novel" is invented among English speaking fans of these games, and basically refers to any game which has an ADV/NVL-style interface and a strong and constant narrative. Since the rest of the world directly bypassed the early history of Japanese eroge and ADV/NVL, they didn't bother with the origins of these styles of games, and just chose a term which seemed to more naturally describe the most famous and representative ADV/NVL. Since then, the term "visual novel" has been recognized by the Japanese too, although the broader Japanese playerbase still commonly thinks that VN is synonymous with "adventure game". In any case, the term is excellent and I like it.
- Over the course of this decade, the major tropes and popular genres of VNs, which were mostly foreshadowed in the late 1990s, are firmly established and standardized. They include TIPs, unlockable routes/end, true ends, bad ends, hidden heroines, time loops/leaps, moe, chuuni, nakige, utsuge, imouto games, and many more. The diverse and awkward gameplay of the 1980s and 1990s more or less disappears.
- Meanwhile, many of the most successful eroge companies like Key, Type-Moon, and Leaf/Aqua-Plus successfully rebrand themselves and reduce their focus on adult content for the sake of marketing their works to the rest of the Japanese "otaku" industries. They adopt the label of "bishoujo game maker". Many of their most popular IPs (intellectual properties) receive anime adaptations or evolve into multimedia franchises, with "Fate" being the most famous example. On the other hand, as these industries embrace VNs, they also learn from them and try to emulate that same appeal within their own IPs; Fate/stay night is especially influential as a progenitor of the "chuuni" genre.
2006:
- Statistically, eroge sales begin to decline. The industry itself doesn't immediately begin to decline, though, because investors take time to notice and react to such trends, companies are still in the midst of developing games, and they will try to shift strategies to fight the trend. The decline in sales won't slow down until 2012.
WHY
Causes of the trend? This was fiercely debated for years and still hasn't been completely settled. But it's more or less clear.
VNs served as a creative outlet without rivals for several years.
At first, in the early 1990s, nobody expect much from eroge. But as we entered the later part of the decade, that changed. Eroge was always a venue for weird and exciting scenarios that wouldn't be accepted elsewhere, and it was easier than ever to make quality audiovisual experiences, with multiple free or cheap VN engines available. Writers like Maeda Jun and Nasu took advantage of the medium's ease of entry, along with the freedom of expression it afforded. It was a fresh, mature alternative to the LN industry. However, that didn't last forever. Major publishers in other mediums distilled the parts of eroge that appealed most to players: the nakige components, the moe components, the fanservice and unapologetic harems, the handy sci-fi tropes, the balloon breasts. Everything except the deep emotional and mental investment that's only possible with literature. And of course, the mature themes and content.
Above all, what VNs brought to the table was no longer as fresh to people. Without a sense of excitement, the fact that VNs require people to sit down and actually read continuously for hours became... problematic. The era of smartphones and social media also heralded the era of low attention spans. People came to think that "adventure games" = "boring". This was coupled with the fact that more and more people play bishoujo games on their smartphones, and who wants to play eroge in public?
Waifu/husbando social games like Fate/Grand Order and Granblue Fantasy dealt especially heavy blows to players' interest in VNs. They let players pick between countless more waifus and husbandos than VNs, have more exciting plots to engage casual players (not some ordinary school life drama), have the slutty outfits and exaggerated figures of nukige heroines, continually put out new content for the most popular characters, let you put your waifu/husbando in your home screen so you can constantly look at her, and tap on the portrait of her/him to hear some flirty line voiced by a popular anime seiyuu. They even copied the feature of some VNs where you can give your favorite hero or heroine chocolates on Valentine's Day or White Day. The proof is in the recent anime Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy where the "guy who's only interested in 2D girls" stereotype no longer involves VNs on a PSP, but rather depicts a social game on a phone. To be frank, even the latest Fire Emblem game probably makes VNs less appealing by comparison. The main draw of VNs was always the cute and flirty heroines and romance, but these elements have been thoroughly exported.
The exact same situation arose with Japanese web novels on the site Shousetsuka ni Narou. An initial wave of authors pioneered new genres with certain distinctive tropes, most of them related to isekai, and started a trend which has dominated the Japanese web novel scene. But the mainstream LN industry quickly learned and started to put out its own isekai LNs, as well as aggressively recruit these authors (who naturally didn't object to being paid for what they'd initially put out for free online). A few years later, Narou's talents have more or less moved out, and the stories at the top of the popularity charts haven't been supplanted by any new talents. In any case, the major difference between Narou and the VN industry is that Narou authors are overall much better off with editors, whereas the transition from VNs to LNs/anime is absolutely a creative downgrade.
WHAT DO
1. Copy FGO.
Social games are a natural evolution of the appeal of many VNs. Unfortunately, they're also largely vapid experiences with have less voice acting, silent protagonists, a massive cast of heroines who receive little character development, a disjointed narrative, a story that's mostly dialogue and constantly interrupted by battles, and many other flaws that prevent them from achieving literary excellence.
These games have invariably underestimated how popular they'll become and worked with cheap art assets and flimsy storytelling, only to fix this by hiring better artists and writers for the more recent arcs of their ongoing main storylines. However, even those recent arcs are still shallow experiences compared to VNs. The best they can do is have good comedy--no one will ever feel as empathetic toward the characters as they do in VNs.
But of course, despite the problems with social games' storytelling, they are still... inevitable. They will still successfully rake in cash from people with personalities prone to gambling addiction. So one VN company after another has tried to become the next FGO. Eushully, light, August, Key, Lilith, Frontwing, Nitroplus and many others have pursued social games, virtually all of which failed to really take off like FGO--in part because they weren't very well-made, and in part because the Fate franchise is more popular with more devoted fans.
Frankly, this solution has been thoroughly pursued by all sorts of VN companies, and we know exactly what happens: it fails unless they're very lucky.
2. Give up.
This is a wise and fine choice. The river of life flows ever onward. Sometimes it's best to accept defeat.
3. Make NOT a visual novel.
Be Kodaka Kazutaka. Start from the idea that you want to make an adventure game. Then to appease your producer, call it a detective game instead, and add a 3D world with gameplay that takes place within it while occupying a lot of the player's time, so it in no way feels like a pure ADV. Make the narrative largely dialogue-driven. Write in a way that wastes less time on subtlety and imagery and takes more advantage of humor, twists, and action. Then call it Danganronpa and be successful, while feeling that you tricked the world by making an adventure game with the quality storytelling of an adventure game that doesn't feel like an adventure game.
Too Kyo Games plans to water down a full-fledged ADV-quality scenario with meaningful realtime gameplay, by partnering with studios that actually know how to make fun games. It's a long-term experiment on tricking people into playing adventure games.
4. Make a visual novel, but be better.
Find a slightly new angle. Gather the A-Team. Target non-traditional markets. Cultivate one's prestige. In short, reorganize and rebrand. But still make a visual novel, with ordinary 2D art and probably little to no gameplay.
The only problem is that people don't like VNs anymore because smartphones shrunk their brains until they had flea-sized attention spans. So at best, such "better" VNs will simply exist in the top tier of modern VNs, able to survive and maybe make a little profit. These are VNs for the sake of creators who want to stay in the VN industry despite how comparatively little it pays.
Aniplex.exe, a new VN brand started under Aniplex that Makura staff like Sca-ji are involved with, seems to fall under this category. They're identifying as makers of "novel games" probably because that sounds more respectable these days than bishoujo game. I'm frankly more interested in Sca-ji's other still unannounced projects (but that's just because I'm not personally a fan of Konno Asta or Umihara Nozomu).
5. Copy FGO, but EVOLVE.
Before Light's "Pantheon" mobile game died mid-development, Masada planned for it to have a substantial scenario. That kind of story would fatally clash, like matter and dark matter, with social games as they exist today. Unless they rethought the entire premise from scratch, I assume they'd have to at the very least dilute such a lengthy narrative into segments with constant breaks, rewards, and mini-games. And they'd have to make a tough choice about whether they seriously want to market it for smartphones, or stick to PC like Granblue Fantasy.
It's easier to not evolve or just give up. But moreover, I think industry veterans are just pissed off and unable to accept that something as amazing as VNs can't find its consumers anymore. So they will struggle. Visual Arts will struggle, for sure. Key pretended to be half-dead in their 20th anniversary message, but they were actually hard at work. They've let Maeda take on the scenario of a high budget smartphone game called "Heaven Burns Red". Will he be able to do for social games with "Heaven Burns Red" what he did for VNs with "Kanon"? I'm not too optimistic, since I haven't seen any indication that the overall story concept was Maeda's.
6. ???
To quote Sca-ji, a writer who's qualified to talk about the unique worth of eroge, from late October: "People across various otaku industries have said, 'I want the wonderful culture of eroge to stay alive.' They're going out of their way and doing many things to make that happen. If I'm pessimistic, this might be our last chance to revive this industry, so I'm cheering them on. Do your best. ... People around their late twenties to thirty years old have started to take positions of power in society, praising eroge and doing many things for us."
ZZZ
「Kanon」や「CLANNAD」「Angel Beats!」など…「泣きゲー」からアニメ原作まで、美少女IPを仕掛け続けた28年！ ビジュアルアーツのユニークなブランド戦略と経営思想を馬場隆博社長に聞いてみた
『ダンガンロンパ』、『東京クロノス』、『グノーシア』の開発者が語る。「アドベンチャーゲームは滅ぶのか？」緊急座談会
「なぜエロゲ業界は衰退してるのか」 それをまとめた画像が話題にwwwww
https://twitter.com/gannbattemasenn/status/1015644154271973376
https://enty.jp/avestan
https://twitter.com/sca_di
https://vndb.org/
EPILOGUE
A new decade is upon is, and we're in the midst of a wave of 20th anniversaries that inevitably prompt retrospection.
What I'm keeping an eye on, out of concern for the industry, as we enter it:
- Too Kyo Games
- Heaven Burns Red (unveiling on February 28) and Visual Arts as a whole
- Sca-ji's Twitter account
- Aniplex.exe as a whole
- Any news from Masada about new publishers for Pantheon
- Major non-adult scenarioge companies like Spike-Chunsoft and Mages (they may absorb some talent or try to carry on eroge culture)
- Any actual new VNs from Nasu, like the Tsukihime remake
ADDENDUM I: A Note on Death VS Decline (added 1/28)
 

Foreword: Could only find one small impression (1), and it covers main points. I'll try to provide some novelty by comparing the game with the anime version.
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v25
Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o19Xvg1cMhE&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv-J7-CHaWYlOWzwXgTG0uAE
Synopsis: Kusaka Yuu is a student that lost his will to live after the death of a dear childhood friend, until the day a mysterious girl, named Yoake Eimu, appears. From that moment on, his life would never be the same again. Hunted by Ayakashi and their hosts, the power within Yuu awakens and a never ending battle begins.

Game type: Chunige with superpower battles
Character Design rating: 8/10
Protagonist rating: 7/10
Story rating: 7/10
Game quality: 10/10
Overall rating: 8/10
Some comments on the rating are necessary. I absolutely adore quality here as there is an abundance of CGs here, all male characters are voiced (except for protagonist), a lot of animation is used constantly, writing level is high. But as a whole it's a pretty straightforward action chunige with moderately interesting heroines and normal protagonist. The result is great, but within the expectation boundaries set by the concept.

A few words should be added about the story. Yuu has a gift to manipulate items from the start. He meets aggressive gift bearers very soon, and mysterious girl Eimu can't protect him all the time, so Yuu has his power awakened in extreme situation. Alliances between ayakashi wielders get forged and broken as they all try to find their place in the society and protect the world from this curse that drains power with each use. Soon Yuu finds out that his powers come from the incident that happened two years ago and of which he has no recollections...

As expected, anime version retells the introduction of the game very thoroughly and vividly (unlike game that tries to limit impact of blood in scenes), but then focuses mostly on action skipping all the build-up and gags. As a result, it feels like a spree of pretty random battles and starts to become boring around the middle of the series. Anime also does not have the liberty of following all the endings, so it focuses primarily on Eimu and her sister Akino endings. Eimu can be called the main heroine of the game due to complex personality (hinting this would be in the spoiler range already), and Akino story underlines the problem and future of ayakashi as species, so it's only natural these themes are developed in the anime. A lot of side characters get scrapped in the anime. What makes me feel awkward in the game is childish sprites of the girls. In CG they look much older, and in HCG even more mature. Anime fixes that by presenting slightly older versions of the heroines. Overall, anime feels forced and disappointing while game manages to provide a unique story while giving enough attention to various heroines. I especially liked that Chinatsu got her ending after being so poorly treated in the main course of the game.

Ayakashi remains mostly an action game while the philosophy of ayakashi as species becomes buried in whirlpool of betrayals. Game is highly enjoyable as it is, and my only regret is that age range of main characters and constant shift into action did not let the more serious themes to flourish. Every heroine is likable, and personal stories vary greatly, so I don't really see a reason to ditch this game.

Memories Off #5 Togireta Film , Ayakashi and Heaven's Cage are masterpieces of the month, and I'm reviewing the latter two. The winner is Ayakashi. I refuse to acknowledge any spin-offs or sequels of Fate/Night like Fate/Hollow Ataraxia .
1. Shirogane no Torikago: The Angels with Strange Wings しろがねの鳥籠 The Angels with Strange Wings [051013] Cromwell 1

Shirogane no Torikage takes place in the city of Roddo Town. Two hundred years ago, a great war lead to the near destruction of mankind. The few people that did remain following the war started off with a clean slate, built new towns and connected the towns via steam-powered train. Soon, airplanes were invented and mankind took to the skies. Mysterious children started to be born in this new world, children with strange powers. So strange and feared were these powers that adults sent all the special children to Roddo Town, which is itself separated from the other towns of the world and is surrounded by a great steel wall.
The game's main character is Woll, one such special child. Woll and the other kids of Roddo Town have the ability to read the memories of objects and know their pasts. One day, Woll uses his powers to fix the train station manager's television, and he's summoned to the Roddo Town mayor's place. He expects that he will be punished for having used his powers.
Instead, the mayor asks him to fix a plane from 200 years ago and make it so that it can fly again. A great floating fortress called Sky Ray was built 200 years ago and is believed to contain the secrets into long lost pre-war technology. Woll, along with Andy, Bibi, Katie, Mini and the other boys and girls of the town start off on an adventure that will change not just their own lives, but the lives of people throughout the world. Visuals and some fun interactions are the only benefits. of the game. Scenario is pretty much a juvenile boy's growth story that's nothing but plain. Second half is especially bad.  
2. Kakuu Shoujo 夏空少女 [051014] Mixed Up 1

After the end of the world war in the near future, every human being is managed and controlled by a computer called "Mother". People who could not adapt to such a system were called "irregular", thus they lived in the educational facility "Reclaim Garden". The main character was sent to the garden as a "guardian" to re-educate its irregularities. Therefore, he will experience a world that he couldn't feel so far. There is an English review.  
3. Days of Memories ~Boku to Kanojo no Atsui Natsu~ Days of Memories 〜僕と彼女の熱い夏〜 [051017] SNK Playmore 1 2

Beautiful female warriors and other charming girls from SNK games make their appearances in this innovative dating simulation game. The first game depicts the adventures of the male lead (player character) and the the female cast. During the last summer of high school, the player has a premonition that something will happen between himself and the girls he came to know and became friends with. There are English reviews.  
4. Kenshuui Tendou Dokuta 2 ~Inochi no Tenbin~ 研修医 天堂独太2～命の天秤～ [051020] Spike 1 2 3 4

LifeSigns: Surgical Unit (研修医 天堂独太2～命の天秤～, Kenshūi Tendō Dokuta 2: Inochi no Tenbin, lit. "Resident Dokuta Tendo 2: The Scales of Life") is an adventure game for the Nintendo DS set in a hospital. This is the second game in a series that redefined the sim genre to make way for other medical games games such as Trauma Center: Under The Knife. Following the success of Trauma Center, LifeSigns was released in North America on November 6, 2007, and is released in Europe on July 25, 2008 under the name LifeSigns: Hospital Affairs. LifeSigns: Surgical Unit is the second game in the Kenshuui Tendo Dokuta series, but its predecessor has not been announced for foreign release. Game is localized and has English reviews.  
5. Urusei Yatsura: Endless Summer うる星やつら エンドレスサマー [051020] Marvelous Interactive 1

In here you will basically find a rather usual Japanese dating simulation in which you will be controlling Ataru and move him across the many screens that compose the town you will be playing in. You can enter some houses, talk to people you find around the scenario and even collect some items, all by simply moving your character to the place where the house/person/item is. When you enter a house or you get in touch with a person you will usually spot a small event sequence, in which your character will talk to someone else and sometimes more things may occur, like you having to play a mini-game (which are always really easy to play) and even increasing how much a specific girl likes you. There is an English review.  
6. Aozora Enikki 青空絵日記 [051021] H.W.Lab

The last summer vacation in the school life. This is the time when main character gets attracted to two younger sisters. The feeling of guilt for forbidden love can not suppress this wonder from a life-size perspective. Heartwarming and shy comedy. The ending is refreshing, but there is no impact.  
7. Born Freaks! ぼーん・ふりーくす！ [051021] Liar-soft

Cell's sister, Uracil, suffers from an unknown disease since she was born. Cell became a successful medical doctor but he still can't find a cure for her. Together with another doctor, who happens to be his ex-girlfriend Fenyl, that works in the same clinic with him, they devise an unconventional method that might save Uracil, where everything else already failed.
The plan is to make changes in her DNA so it can fight the pathogens eating her from inside. To do that, they have to try cultivating different strains in Cell's body and inject them into her body in a way that won't be rejected by her immune system. And the only way to do that is by sex... It's primarily a gameplay game, so no use talking about it without understanding mechanics.  
8. CROSS WORLD -Mishiranu Sora no Etatia- クロスワールド 〜見知らぬ空のエターティア〜 [051021] Broccoli

Enter Kuros, an average high school student who gets sent into another world after getting into a car accident. Losing his memory and forgetting his name, he became known as the Cross Sword hero. In search of a way to open up the Cross Gate to return his own world, Kuros and one of three heroines partner up to travel across the world of Etatia in search of clues. Meanwhile, a mysterious cloaked figure seems intent on disrupting their journey of getting Kuros back to his own world... It can be called a picture-only game. Enemies show up and get defeated through communication with one of three selected girls. Synopsis basically tells everything already, and there is no twist. An absolute failure game.  
9. Happiness! はぴねす！ [051021] Windmill Oasis

Happiness! centers around Yūma Kohinata, who is a high school student attending Mizuhosaka Academy's regular section of the school, along with his close friends Jun Watarase and Hachisuke Takamizo. The other section, aptly named the magic section, was founded in order to train mages in the art of using magic. The story begins with Valentine's Day coming up in just a few days and there's a rush for all the girls to get the chocolate they want in order to give it to the boys they like, in accordance with Japanese custom. Haruhi Kamisaka, a mage in training, is out with her friend Anri Hiiragi, also a mage in training, in order to do just this. While walking outside in the park, after buying the chocolate she wanted to give to a boy she met when she was a child, Haruhi meets Yūma, who stops some younger boys bullying a young girl, and Haruhi thinks that he may be the boy she's been searching for all this time. The next day is Valentine's Day and at school, all the girls are giving their gifts to the boys of their choice. Later that day, Anri challenges Haruhi to a magic battle in order to take the chocolate she has by force for the reason that Haruhi wouldn't tell her who she was going to give it to. Before long, Anri loses control of her magic and it is flown outside, almost falling onto Yūma and his friends. Ultimately, Haruhi gives him the chocolate she had bought, and in turn Anri does the same, which was her plan - to give her chocolate to the same boy as Haruhi and see who would win his favor more. The next day there is a gas explosion at the magic section of the school and all the mages in training must transfer over to the normal section for the time being. Coincidentally, Haruhi and Anri are placed within Yūma's class.
Now Haruhi and her friends must adjust to the transfer into the normal section of Mizuhosaka Academy. Extremely orthodox adventure. Overall, it's a normal moege with a slight tilt into magic. And it loses much charm for being overextended.  
10. Heaven Strada ヘブンストラーダ [051021] AniSeed

Aleph grew up listening about rare artifacts and adventures in the ancient ruins. As he becomes adult, he joins his uncle who got position of ruins caretaker.
When he comes to the duel place in the ruins with his childhood friend, Aleph meets a girl in unfamiliar clothes being attacked by inquisition men in black. As enemies are defeated, Aleph takes girl home. She tells that she comes from the world of the blue sky. They decide to guard the ruins together against the men in black and work towards getting to the world of the blue sky. It's a single road RPG. Contradictions begin in the middle of the game, so game is weak story-wise. RPG part is unsatisfactory, but not bad.  
11. Memories Off #5 Togireta Film Memories Off #5 とぎれたフィルム [051027] KID 1 2

Haruto Kawai is an aspiring film director, however, upon the death of his best friend, the boy gave up the dream and settled down for a mundane existence until a strange girl pops up in his life. Life is like a movie, when Mahiro Sendou intrudes into his life, the cameras start moving. With touching storylines and endearing characters, make your own film and experience the climaxes and troughs as well as irreplaceable memories in the newest romantic adventure in the Memories Off series. There is an English review  
12. Ayakashi AYAKASHI アヤカシ [051028] Apricot 1 2

Kusaka Yuu is a student that lost his will to live after the death of a dear childhood friend, until the day a mysterious girl, named Yoake Eimu, appears. From that moment on, his life would never be the same again. Hunted by Ayakashi and their hosts, the power within Yuu awakens and a never ending battle begins. I want to play this game blindly and review it myself.  
13. Bin★Can Darling BIN★CANダーリン [051028] Actress

Our protagonist managed to enter in the school of his dreams, and prepared himself for a sweet school life after a painful past. He might even find a girlfriend! Thus, he starts interacting with the girls around him, trying to succeed in love... Game has nothing to do with Akikan anime, but it does not help much as moege direction is chosen instead. Basically, main character is invited to the art club with only girls as members. Development for each heroine is very thin, and very little effort is required for heroines to fall in love. H element is dominating here, and 3P scenes are frequent, so can't really understand how IOS and Android versions manage to exist with such a weak story and no H scenes.  
14. Fate/Hollow Ataraxia [051028] Type-Moon 1 2 3 4

Bazett Fraga McRemitz, a member of the Mages' Association and a master in the 5th Holy Grail War, wakes on the fourth day of the 5th Holy Grail war with a new servant, Avenger, and no memory of what happened to her beforehand. She and Avenger set off to fight and win the Holy Grail War. Meanwhile, Shirou Emiya lives a peaceful life with all his friends, from the 5th Holy Grail War. After her experiment alters the event-horizon changes time and space, Rin Tohsaka leaves for the Mages' Association in England to fix things. The Servants sense a new danger while dark creatures appear soon afterward. Shirou, as a precaution, sets off to ensure nobody is in danger and instead finds himself frequently meeting a mysterious girl, Caren Hortensia. There are English reviews.  
15. Heaven's Cage ヘブンズケージ [051028] Art

This game is about a group of classmates and an online game called “Heaven’s Cage”. As they go forth and explore the virtual landscape, battling monsters and looting dungeons, they unknowingly start to get to know each other. I appears that the characters can make some interesting online personae in the virtual world; such as seasoned fighters, powerful magicians, mysterious player killers, or a character that hates fighting/killing monsters. It would also appear that this game is more connected to the real world than we’d assume. I would not be me if I skipped a MMORPG setting visual game, so I'm reviewing it.  
16. ShiroKuro ~Shiroi Kokoro to Kuroi Tsurugi~ しろクロ～白いこころと黒いツルギ～ [051028] ALTERNA

Akira leaves his town to observe the first and last major meteor shower in this century and gets in an accident. He regains consciousness when he is attacked by some black life form "Zyphos". A girl appears and rescues him. This way Akira makes the first contact with the extraterrestrial life forms and gets involved in the species confrontation.  Some girls are more human-like, some are rather exotic. Scenario is a single road with frequent gags inclusion. Gameplay is quite monotonous, but game mechanics and moe tilt help a lot here. RPG part is tolerable, so it's a pity game is in oblivion now.  
BLOCKED  
1. Purepuri Niizuma wa Boku no Tannin プレプリ 新妻は僕の担任 [051001] Haikara Kissa Enari Akane, a new teacher at your school, was recently married with you. She is a close friend of yours since you were kids. She is so curious about sex, wanting to explore sexuality more and more! Doujin Nukige  
2. Hitozuma Leotard 2 ~Akage no Bijo wa Inran Tsuma~ 人妻レオタード2～赤毛の美女は淫乱妻～ [051003] Studio Ebisu Let's buy various leotards by using the one like a kind of money that is called RP and dress to married women. It buys of course, and the game progresses by the dressed leotard. The thing always changed while playing a game is possible. The dressed leotard can be reflected even in event CG. Not only default (usually) leotard but also a special leotard was prepared. Nukige  
3. Happy Class ハッピークラス [051005] Tabun Osoraku Kitto A short and linear horror sound novel.
"Hey, do you know about the happy class?" Doujin  
4. Aru Atsui Natsu no Hi no Dekigoto. ある暑い夏の日の出来事。 [051006] αPLACE A collection of three mysterious stories about high school girls in summer. Doujin Nukige  
5. Sex & Friend ~Osananajimi no Amai Nioi~ セックス＆フレンド ～幼馴染の甘い匂い～ [051007] Under Lip Masaki had known Mitsuru Ebina since they were little. The rumor at school was that they were going out. But in reality, they were always at each other's throats. Even so...Mitsuru was getting prettier each year, and Masaki couldn't help but notice. Then one day she came to give him a love letter one of the other girls had asked her to give him. Masaki had mixed feelings, but Mitsuru was as blunt as ever. And then he told her how he felt... Nukige  
6. Komachi Koiuta 小町恋歌 [051009] Circle Mebius Main character has been working in an antique shop for ten years since childhood. He believes that there should be only laughter in this world, but no sadness. One day he overhears a story about a girl living in an old temple outside the town. This very evening he approaches this building and finds young girl inside. Doujin  
7. Nurunuru Shokushu ~Miko to Majokko Daisakusen~ ぬるぬる触手　～巫女と魔女っ娘大作戦～ [051011] Necronomicon The sealed tentacle monster has escaped! A shrine maiden and a witch girl move out to deal with the situation. Doujin  
8. Mirugeki 2 Papa tte Yobitai no みるげき2パパってよびたいの [051012] Milky Pearl Father suddenly remarries one day, so main character who attends college acquires a new mother and a younger sister. There is a big age difference, so sister calls protagonist "papa" for some reason. But somehow sister's behavior is far from childish, she is definitely longing for sex... Doujin  
9. Akuratsu ~Chijoku no Yuri Shimai~ あくらつ～恥辱の百合姉妹～ [051014] Marry Bell This time father orders to train six half-sisters to prevent their claims to the conglomerate. This time he will be assisted by the two previously trained half-sisters. Nukige  
10. In'youchuu ~Ryoujoku Gakuen Taimaroku~ 淫妖蟲 ～凌触学園退魔録～ [051014] TinkerBell This is the story of a monster hunter squad consisting of three beautiful girls and the "hardships" they face in their endless fight... Nukige  
11. Okaa-san to Na-i-sho ~Bijin Oyako, Bessou Kankin 7 Nichikan~ おかあさんとな・い・しょ～美人母娘、別荘監禁7日間～ [051014] Haoh Yosuke, Yukari, his stepmother, and Natsuki, his stepsister, visit their summer house. Yosuke secretly loves Yukari and he plans to tell her that he loves her. However, a group of bank robbers suddenly comes into their house. "Well, you're now our slaves. Just entertain us...." Like this, they are confined in a separate room.... Will Yosuke be able to save Yukari and Natsuki...? Also, will Yosuke tell Yukari that he loves her...? Nukige  
12. Ore no Miko-sama ~Ore Miko~ オレの巫女さま～オレ巫女 [051014] Black Package There is a shrine inhabited only by three maiden sisters after their parents' death. But they aren't allowed to continue like that without a proper priest, so main character is appointed to this shrine. Nukige  
13. Subete Ubatteyaru! 全て奪ってやる！ [051014] Waffle Ryuya's life has changed completely after Atsuko, his mother, got remarried. Tatsuo, his new father, robs him of his position in his family. Konoha, his younger sister, also depends on Tatsuo. He dislikes Serina, his new older sister, too. One night, Ryuya sees Atsuko and Tatsuo having sex and his anger reaches its peak. Several days later, Tatsuo leaves his home for ten days on business. Ryuya makes up his mind that he will get back what used to be while Tatsuo is out.... Nukige  
14. Tomona ~Watashi to Furousha no Oji-san no Kouryuu Jikan~ 智奈 ～私と浮浪者のおじさんの交流時間～ [051014] STARWORKS Main heroine leads a normal school life with friends, but she is missing something... On her way to school she goes past homeless bums. She is confused, but also interested... And these guys are happy to make an acquaintance. Doujin Nukige  
15. Coupling Cocktail. [051015] Momoto Ichigo.jp Western mansion humiliation training novel featuring big breasted futanari girls. Nukige  
16. Sora no Mayoibito 空の迷い人 [051020] Nokka~ The protagonist finds himself wandering in a world of loss, unable to remember exactly what was missing. Through the help of people in his life, he finally starts remembering... Doujin  
17. Aigan Iinchou ~Doukyuusei wa Nikudorei~ 愛玩委員長～同級生は肉奴隷～ [051021] Under Lip Yoji is a transfered student. He is attracted by Miyuki, a class president. She shows him around the school after school and suddenly she induces him to have a sex with her. After that his classmates tell him that she is a "sexual slave" and he is appointed as her trainer. Nukige  
18. Fami Fami! ファミふぁみ! [051021] Applemint Main character is an ordinary school student in Tokyo. He returns to his home town in Hokkaido for summer vacations and finds his home being reconstructed into a family restaurant. Moreover, there are two cute twin sisters helping out. Doujin  
19. Milk Junkie 3 MILK・ジャンキー3 [051021] Blue Gale Yusuke, the protagonist of the first game who loves big tits, is back.
After a few years, he ended marrying Mitsuki, the mother of the girl he was tutoring.
Besides a beautiful wife with big tits, now he has a new employment opportunity at the company of the cousin of Mitsuki.
A well-endowed wife waiting him in home, and a well-endowed boss waiting him at workplace. His new married life is about to begin... Nukige  
20. Taimanin Asagi 対魔忍アサギ [051021] Anime Lilith  1 2 The game stars and takes the viewpoint from a female ninja who is said to be one of Japan's greatest warriors. She's part of an elite ninja squad called Anti-Demon Ninja that fights in the name of justice. The main enemy in this story is the OFA (Oboro Forbearance Army) lead by another female ninja who is also said to be one of the finest in the land. These two female ninjas go at it until one of them is captured and trained/transformed against their will into a sex slave.
It's important to note here that the game takes place around 2050 in Tokyo, so technology has become relatively advanced. The world itself seems to be VERY grim. It's also slightly fantasy based as it seems many different races inhabit the world, including vampires, orcs, and various types of evil spirits, which are the demons or "evil influenced" people that are making the world so corrupt. The ninjas also have special, beyond human, abilities as well. Nukige  
21. Wana ~Hakudaku Mamire no Houkago~ 輪罠 ～白濁まみれの放課後～ [051021] Guilty 1 2 Misaki Raika's brother, a teacher at an all-boys school, has committed suicide. So Raika decides to disguise herself as a male student to enter the school and find out the truth behind his death... Nukige  
22. Qu Beifang 去北方 [051021] Yangwawa Girl loves snow so much that she sets off on a journey to the North. She is sure to find the meaning of her life in this journey... Non-Eng/Jp  
23. Have Relations With... 3 ~Junko to Nami to Naoyuki to Ore~ have relations with... 3 ～淳子と奈美と直之と俺～ [051022] Soft Circle Courreges This game is an interactive sex simulation game, where the commands you choose influences the attitudes of those you meet and causes different situations to occur.
The game spans 14 days, from September 4th to September 17th. The game continues by the selection of commands, having sex and having conversations.
The sex part contains two couples that have sex together: the hero and Junko, plus Nami and Naoyuki.
Depending on your selection, the attitudes of the people you meet will change, and different situations will occur, so try out a number of things. Doujin Nukige  
24. Honki ni Shite wa Ikenai Uranai 本気にしてはいけない占い [051022] Tabun Osoraku Kitto A joke fortune-telling game. Doujin  
25. Tsui no Hi -in the latter half of the 90's- 対ノ日 -in the latter half of the 90's- [051023] Inspire 1 Main character goes to Tokyo to enter a college. A woman that lives next door envigorates his fantasies. He is confused by his feelings and tries to listen cautiously to his heart. This summer the two bodies will overlap. But it takes something more for thoughts to overlap as well. Doujin  
26. Ryoujoku Shiokinin 陵辱仕置人 [051024] Haoh Main heroine's father remarries a young woman. She gets both company and mansion after father's death. The girl runs away from the mansion after hearing that she is going to be sold to yakuza the next day... Nukige  
27. Setsugekka 雪月花 [051024] Pleiades Company Three years have passed since abduction on a ruined island. A terrible power broke out at that time. Main character lives in these snowy mountains while taking care of his childhood friend Miyuki who lives next door. But the battle for extraordinary power pursues protagonist even to these mountains. Messenger brings a bad news, and boy turns his blade to the fate... Doujin  
28. Dorei Seitokai 奴隷生徒会 [051028] Cybele Main character is a rich bonbon attending a prestigious school. His only hobby is personal computer, so he gathers school geeks around him in the computer club. Since all they do is visit adult sites and install illegal software, the club is crushed by the student council president who is also main character's childhood friend. Protagonist decides to revive computer club with his own means. Nukige  
29. Hajimete no Otetsudai はじめてのおてつだい [051028] Studio Ring Landlord asks main character to help about the cafe on the first floor of the building. It turns out to be a maid cafe where two cute twins are working already. It's confusing to be called "onii-chan", but promise needs to be fulfilled. Lolicon  
30. Houkago Gekisha Club ~Inyoku no Motif~ 放課後激写倶楽部～淫欲のモチーフ～ [051028] Oz Project Shame is art! Girls humiliation can reach the masterpiece level! This is the motto of main character who heads school photo club. All the five girls in club lead an active sex life with the boys of the same club, so protagonist has no difficulty inviting girls to a private shooting session for a solo exhibition. Nukige  
31. Kunoichiban! くのいちばんっ！ [051028] Crowd There is a world famous shinobu village that produced a huge number of subterfuge experts. Main character returns to his home village for retirement. He is asked to make full-fledged ninja out of failed ninja candidates. It's a colorful bunch of different girls, but pride of his art is on the stake. He starts to live with the girls under one roof and train them. Nukige  
32. Kuro no Utahime 黒の歌姫 [051028] Clock Up In a peaceful kingdom, the country is governed by the five royal sisters who are also mystical songstress.
The gentle oldest sister - the diva of the earth, the second sister who is also the leader of the knights - the diva of the fire, the third sister - the diva of the light, the fourth sister - the diva of the water, and the fifth and youngest sister - the innocent diva of the wind.
From generation to generation the divas sing the song of peace, leading the nation against the power of the devil. But a man resurrected from the grave. And along with him, the shadow of many demons appear at the peaceful kingdom.
Against the hord of demons, the diva of light serving as a guardian of the kingdom sings, and all demons disappear in an instant. The revived man who saw that demonstration of power gets startled.
"If I get that power... i can dominate everything!"
And beside the man, the figure of a succubus arises. And so the man who is the revived demon king began to move in order to dominate and rape them all. Nukige  
33. Mahoutsukai no Tamago 魔法使いのタマゴ [051028] Zero Main character is taken by a 300-year-old magician to the forest. There he has to help apprentice girl Miu to become a witch and also comply with the host orders. The way to produce familiars is to place eggs in Miu's body, and he has to help with that as well. He helps to raise a fine demon and hopes to find a way to return home one day. Lolicon  
34. Natural Another One 2nd -Belladonna- Natural Another One 2nd -Belladonna- [051028] DreamSoft Belladonna is the name of a flower that is both beautiful and extremely poisonous. But it's also the name of the goddess who cuts the fate threads with scissors.
Main character is asked to fulfill a request if he wants to return former lover and get a billion yen. The request is to persuade former lover to abandon all her claims to her dead husband's corporation. Any means are allowed, so he can choose to cultivate love or lust in mansion girls to reach his goal. Nukige  
35. Nymphomania [051028] M no Violet Main character is an ordinary student who lives with a step-mother and a step-sister. He has never had relations with girls, but he starts to show interest. There is a childhood friend with the same fascination who attends the same school. The peaceful everyday is transformed suddenly by a single transfer student girl who starts to live in the same house... Nukige  
36. Ryouki 2 ~Ayashiku Ugomeku Inbou no Enbukyoku~ 凌姫II～妖しく蠢く淫謀の円舞曲～ [051028] Psy-chs The main character of this h-game is part of the royal guard in service of the king. However, the king has fallen ill, and there is suspicion that witchcraft is the culprit. Soon the kingdom is in a frenzy to capture any woman suspected to be a witch. The 'hero' has taken this opportunity to get his hands on the trio of princess-sisters. Furthermore, his power over them includes their female servants and court members, giving him a total of 10 girls to interrogate/train/humiliate. Perhaps, if he's successful, he may have the entire kingdom for himself! Nukige  
37. Slave Police Michiru & Misuzu スレイブポリスみちる＆美鈴 [051028] 1 In this game you play as a perverted teacher who happens to find one his students trying to steal a test paper to cheat. He ends up blackmailing her and forcing her to have sex with him. Eventually, he uses her to help him screw all of the hottest girls from the school. Nukige  
38. Tenshi no Himegoto 天使のひめごと [051028] Tactics Hideyuki Inori is an exorcist and a member of a secret Catholic order fighting supernatural evil worldwide, but apparently even Holy Ops from the Vatican need a vacation sometimes, because he suddenly asks for a leave from service and returns to his native Japan.
His true motives, however, are terribly serious: his dearest childhood friends, the two daughters of his old teacher, have fallen under demonic influence, a power so terrible that maybe only the death of the girls themselves can banish it.
Hideyuki is unwilling to report this situation to his superiors, but what can he do? And what are the real nature and objectives of this mysterious, demonic enemy? Nukige  
39. Tutorial Summer チュートリアルサマー [051028] Studio Miris Pellet Hyuuga Ippei is a self-supporting university student. He has to work part-time to finance his studies so he does not have spare time to spend for summer sports, Romance, refreshing summer retreat, not even summer festival.
"During this summer, I want you to tutor my granddaughters living in the countryside beach," his professor ask along with the promise of good salary and accommodation. It is also a good opportunity to enjoy summer, on top of that, those girls are known to be cute.
"I'll do tutoring! Please let me do it!" Nukige  
40. Toki, Tsunagu Yume ~Ano Goro no Sunao sa o~ トキ、ツナグユメ　～あの頃の素直さを～ [051029] Crus-Ade First day of the second semester of high school. Main character is unable to reconcile with his girlfriend for a week. He tries to avoid seeing her on the way to school. At this time a mysterious boy stops him. Doujin  
41. Inanimate Alice [0510] Chris Joseph Set in the early years of the 21st century and told through text, sound, images, music and games, Inanimate Alice is the story of Alice and her imaginary digital friend Brad. EVN

Foreword: The reviews we have are pretty vague (1 2 3 4 5 6 7), so the impression of a very difficult work is created. I'm going to put all the dots so that there was not fear to read it.
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v1278
Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyO6B82c_GE&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv9G-VbjOXlAvQZqm-u8F497

Synopsis: This game tells the story of seven long-time friends. How they grew closer or further apart as they got older. The story is presented using a blog-like interface.
The protagonist, Atemiya Shinobu, who was raised at a certain facility since young, had no one around him that could be called "friend". Being that way, the first thing he started doing after leaving the facility with his sister - Chidori - was to find and make friends.
Benio Azusa, a tomboyish girl who lived nearby.
Hondou Sayaka, a quiet yet sharp-tongued girl who was in charge of raising the pets at school just like him.
Tsukamoto Youko and Itsuki, a pair of siblings who belong to a prestigious family around the area.
Higuchi Shouji, a boy he knew by being attracted to by the similarities they both share.
Izuki Fueko, a girl he met by chance.
Together with Shinobu, they were a group of seven. Just like that, each and every one of them, who had never experienced the joy of having friends, was able to meet each other and become companions. The story begins in a quiet town colored by dusk. Around the seven friends, there were understanding, empathy, conflict, and what's more, fleeting love of adolescence. It was a friendship that could last forever.
Such a simple happiness should have... lasted forever.
That was until the "enemy" appeared.
The "enemy" had disturbed the peaceful relationship of the seven people.
Shinobu could not forgive that. He could not forgive the one that injures his companions, nor could he forgive the one that hurts another one's hearts. And when he realized all that, the world they reside in changed, rather then becoming the new world that it should have... they had arrived at the "sanctuary" instead.
This is a story that describes the heart.
A story that describes the thing located in the farthest end of a heart.

Game type: Mindscrew circle of friends story
Character Design rating: 10/10
Protagonist rating: 10/10
Story rating: 10/10
Game quality: 10/10
Overall rating: 10/10
I just can't understand how it's possible to give any other score than 10 if game is played to the end. It's the third philosophical visual novel in history after Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~ and Cross†Channel, and it's just a great human story with the magic of Cross†Channel still present, and even on a higher level since childish pranks don't interrupt serious talk this time. But enough vague words.

The structure of Saihate no Ima is very simple. There are four girls in the circle of friends - Azusa, Sayaka, Fueko, Youko - and there is a route for each this heroine told in a forced order. In the last Youko route we see a mysterious gothic loli girl Ima who says that Shinobu is not ready yet. And then all the four girl routes repeat again, but with more explanation and depth to the stories as well as the Shinobu mystery. In videos I call this second lap of routes as True heroine routes. After the end of True Youko route there's the True Shinobu route as I call it. It's something absolutely different from the rest of heroines routes. Basically, there are no four main heroines in there, but instead there is a whole new cast of characters. So, there are only nine structural parts in the game. Moreover, True routes generally include all or almost all the scenes from the Normal heroine routes, so I'd advise to skip Normal heroine routes overall and start with True heroine routes if you follow the video. That saves you from the bulk of repetition and allows to have a fresh view. There are actually some scenes in the Normal routes that don't present in True routes. For example, there is a step sister Chidori H scene in Fueko Normal route that does not present in Fueko True route. But it has little influence on the story, so I'd still stronly advise to skip Normal heroine routes or at least watch them after all the heroine routes and Shinobu True routes are finished.

Again, the story is simple. Just mind it that heroine routes are not entirely romantic ones as different killer stories often in the core of the routes. Heroines are fleshed out so well that I absolutely adore  all four of them. Azusa has a perfect buid-up for her story. Sayaka the sulky ojousama really starts to shine in her route. Fueko has that beautiful a-ha effect upon taking down glasses. Youko is actually my favorite character for her sharp tongue and absolutely enthralling voicing that I can't ever have enough of. All the more difficult parts of this visual novel actually refer to retelling the concepts of modern world philosophy related to the core of the game, namely, the phenomenology of Husserl and Global village concept of McLuhan. Basically, all the spoilers of the True Shinobu route are given in the synopsis. This is a story of the heart, and the main mystery is the identity of the "enemy". Pretty much anything else would be in the spoiler zone already, so I hope you see everything with your own eyes.

Basically, Saihate no Ima is an eternal ultimate masterpiece that shares the Olympus of intellectual visual novels alongside Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~ and Cross†Channel. Saihate no Ima deserves dissertations written on it just like George Henry Shaft's 160000-word dissection on Cross Channel. From these dissertations we'd be able to discuss the message of the game, follow all the hints and compare all the additional scenes in Normal and True routes as well as clicked links versions compared to non-clicked versions (since there are couple scenes available only when no links are clicked, actually). But unlike Cross†Channel the other two games are not translated, so we'll see none of those, to my great regret. Let's keep fingers crossed, with Kickstarter miracles are possible like the one with Dies Irae.

Maggot Baits is something of a Holy Grail of dark eroge, highly anticipated guro fans within the Western VN community and often hyped as possibly the greatest achievement of the company that produced it, Clock Up. As one the most gruesome VNs ever produced, and quite likely the most brutal one ever brought to the West, it contains dozens upon dozens of violent sex scenes, all accompanied by intricate CGs, with small variations in them so numerable that they sum to nearly 2500 unique illustrations. All of that placed in a highly-unique, modern-fantasy setting populated by amazingly-crafted characters and tackling interesting philosophical and religious topics. While it’s pretty much the furthest possible thing from what I usually write about on this blog, few games intrigued me as much as this one, particularly after my inconsistent, but extremely interesting experience with Clock Up’s another famous title, euphoria. Everything I’ve heard about Maggot Baits suggested that it was both more extreme and overall better than studio’s other bestseller, and after reading it to completion, I felt the need to share my thoughts about it in detail. Both because it’s a pretty fascinating case of strengths and pitfalls of this breed of eroge, and to warn those interested in it as a piece of storytelling – while in many ways an incredible achievement, this game is extremely hard to recommend for a “normie” reader such as myself. Why is that exactly?
                Before I go into story details, it’s most important to deal with Maggot Baits’ greatest issue – its structure and general storytelling formula. This game is, at its core, a guro nukige and it’s incredibly dedicated to this template. It throws h-scenes at you at very consistent intervals, disregarding whatever might be going on in the story and sacrificing any sense of pacing or tension so it can constantly offer a new piece of violent hentai. Quite often, the scenes are not important for, or even directly connected to what’s happening in the plot, pretty much pausing the whole narrative to insert a new piece of fanservice. In this, it goes even further than euphoria, which did a much better job intertwining its scenes with the story and had a bit more restraint in the most dramatic and meaningful parts of the plot. Maggot Baits even goes to the length of adding a major side-branch in the first chapter of the story, which is nothing but 3-4 hours of futanari porn leading to a bad ending. All of it narratively empty and pretty much derailing your experience if you expect any kind of interesting reveals or a meaningful conclusion within it. I still don’t understand why it was a part of the main story, and especially inserted so early in the game, before you build any connection to the characters involved or can understand the full implications of what is happening in those scenes. 
Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Foreword: This is a formal shameless review just to present a video and give score / personal impression. There is an abundance of reviews of this game in untranslated review sources (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8), and I did not even include reviews in the translated review sources. 
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v646
Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkfbKBF3PZE&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8HOd7D19oHjX9NAj_dJRkF

Synopsis: In face of human technological advancement during the Meiji Restoration, the youkai of Japan were forced to make a hard decision:
1) To remain as youkai and watch over the land
2) To return to the netherworld
3) To give up their power and status as youkai and live amongst humans.
While there were some that chose otherwise, the majority of the youkai decided it was best to become human. It was tough, but as time passed these youkai were able to blend in with the human world and live peacefully amongst them.
However, blood is thicker than water. The offspring of these youkai displayed the powerful abilities of their ancestors in times of great anxiety, often manifesting in horrible and dangerous ways, and were labeled by society as monsters.
Officially their condition was named "Acquired Systemic Special Heredity variety Syndrome", or "ASSHS" for short and treated as a non-contagious illness, but the common people began to refer to them as Jinyous (half-youkai) nevertheless.
Of these Jinyous, most were sent to Kamizawa City: an isolated urban area walled off from the rest of Japan to keep all the Jinyous together and away from the human population. However, the ones that were deemed especially dangerous were sent to a medical facility on an uncharted island near the shores of Japan where they would be under constant surveillance.
Takabe Ryouichi was one of those who were sent to said island at the age of five. This is a story about him along with the girl called Suzu, his only friend on the island, escaping to Kamizawa city to live a normal life. What they didn’t expect was that Suzu carried a secret that attracted much unwanted attention…

Game type: Action chunige with fantasy elements
Character Design rating: 9/10
Protagonist rating: 8/10
Story rating: 6/10
Game quality: 10/10
Overall rating: 8/10
I won't be original here. Game is a firm masterpiece with great action, funny SOL scenes and just perfect quality overall. But different people find different parts faulty. Some people blame protagonist Soushichi, but I actually like him a lot. He is really funny and human-like in conversations. Heroines are the main flavor of the game. They all are really well developed, and pretty much every one of them has fighting capabilities. Each route has a distinctive individuality.

Other people did not like story resolution, but - again - everything felt natural, don't see much of a problem here. My complaint is much more profound. I do not see an interesting story here at all. On a grand scale absolutely nothing happens. There is no intrigue. Basically we get to know from synopsis that Takabe Ryouichi escapes from a clinic for youkai and is searched by the organization controlling this clinic. So what happens during the course of the game? Organization goons finally find Takabe after a few years which is followed by confrontation. That's it. Where the hell is multiple route mystery featured among vndb tags? There is absolutely no need to play different routes to get the whole mystery picture, because there is no mystery. Yes, we have different girls as allies in different routes, and different sources of power are discovered to fight back. But that's not a mystery. There are even no big twists.

Ayakashibito is a great game, but its strength is not in depth and mystery. It's in width and details. The story is developed by constantly adding new characters and presenting their backgrounds and sometimes even small stories in great detail. I absolutely like writing, pacing and all. It's an enjoyable reading, but whenever I try to rationalize - why I keep reading - I can't find the answer, and overall evaluation degrades because of that. Ayakashibito remains a game about girls and their magnificent routes. Personally, I hoped for more mystery and twists.

Hello there, all you good people still following my content-starved blog! There will be no regular review post this week (I’ll be catching up next week with one about Reine Work’s Our Lovely Escape, and hopefully a week after that with one of the long-overdue games sent to me for review), but I’ve wanted to take this opportunity to share the reasons behind the recent slowdown on the site and talk a bit my plans for the future. A warning: this will contain a lot of personal musings that most of you are probably not very interested in. However, I kind of need this opportunity to vent and reset. I’ll add a tl;dr version at the end of this post.
Outside of my, not-extremely-successful attempt to jumpstart a new wave of activity on Fuwanovel, there have been a few other things happening behind the scenes. The major one was my academic project on visual novel fan translations, which led me to submitting a paper for an international fan studies conference in Cracow. Preparing the speech in English (this was the first time I wasn’t speaking in Polish on such an event), running a survey with people involved in fan translation projects… It all took a lot out of me and gave me little time and energy to actually enjoy VNs as such. It also coincided with a minor health issue, which despite its non-threatening nature made it impossible for me to sit straight for nearly two weeks – a truly infuriating thing when you should be working on your computer and are basically running out of time. This was probably a major factor which destroyed my motivation for working on the project, which in turn made it be the most painful and depressing one to date. I, however, still made my short presentation in the presence of prof. Matt Hills, one of the most influential researchers in my obscure field of study, and learned quite a lot from other speakers. Here’s some photographic proof, courtesy of my girlfriend who once more agreed to help me inflate my ego by documenting my speech. 😉

As you can see, I was asking the Heavens to help me and my listeners to get through those 20+ minutes of my horrible English accent. Not sure to what degree my prayers were heard, but at least there were no fatalities. Oh, and in the lower-left corner, it’s Matt Hills. That was both awesome and terrifying.

And here’s a rare moment where my conference ID wasn’t hanging backwards! You can see the fear in my eyes – one would think after nearly 10 similar presentations I’d be a little bit calmer, but it’s apparently in my nature to stress out over everything.

And here’s me taking one of two questions that were still possible to ask after I’ve used all the discussion time for my way-too-long PowerPoint slideshow. And yup, I will insert Flowers whenever that's even remotely appropriate. Suou x Rikka forever. You can't stop me!
While, in general, my project was fruitful and I’m satisfied with my performance, I also ended up so physically and emotionally drained that I’ve ditched the other two days of the conference, just enjoying my time in Cracow. Even after coming back, I had a day of what could be described as a full-on breakdown before I kind of got my shit together. All this, of course, has some very real consequences for the blog: for quite a while, I didn’t have the time and energy to really read VNs. And, obviously, without any new material to cover, I didn’t write anything either. It’s the first time since establishing the Blogger site that I have no “emergency” posts to use or quick ideas to supplement more involved write-ups with, even despite switching to the biweekly schedule. And honestly, I don’t expect to write much in-advance anymore. The “one post every two weeks” frequency is here to stay and I’m going to be flexible about it, switching content and dates when necessary.
The other thing is that I still want to make the blog a little bit more of my personal space. I’ve kept up the regular stream of content both to become a better writer and to prove a few things to myself. I think I’m satisfied with what I’ve achieved, and while I’m definitely not discarding the general profile of the blog and the responsibilities I’ve taken upon myself (like covering the games sent to me), I’m going to have fun with it too. Write silly stuff connected to the weeb culture and my peculiar experience with it. I’ve already hinted at this at the beginning of the summer, but I’m even more determined to make it happen now. No hobby I’ve picked up over the years was this intellectually stimulating and satisfying as this one and I want to do all I can to keep it this way– I can't let things go too stale.
And while I’m doing all this weird stuff and overthinking things, I hope you guys will stay and still read my crappy writing. Exploring the creativity and passion of EVN devs is not something I’ll ever get tired of, and I hope we can enjoy their stuff together for years to come. Thank you all for following my work, and until next week!
 
tl;dr I’ve been to a fan studies conference which, together with minor health issues, ate a month and a half of my life. I’ll get back to “serious” posting next week, returning to the bi-weekly schedule. I might sneak in some weird posts about Japanese popculture between “proper” EVN ones. EVNs are love, EVNs are life (still). See you next week for actual content!

Foreword: I never expected a 80 hour long race out of this "episodic" story. How much time should pass till opening? What about length of the epilogue? Should there be some lines after the final credits? Believe me, Steel will surprise you with each answer. I knew that scenario from Kadokura Keisuke would be enjoyable. But it took me a full week to be able to digest it.
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v6416
Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Nc368AlSs&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv9jHMWwIIkzFPiTpLJ-eMP7

Synopsis: The protagonist, Tomoya, was abandoned by his mother at a tender age. He was taken in by Honjou Arisa after a chance meeting. Four girl adoptees who had joined the Honjou family home for similar reasons also lived there.
Though they were not related by blood, Tomoya treated the girls as if they were his siblings. They lived peaceful lives at the Honjou residence... but one day, he encountered a strange woman in town. She was wreathed in something that looked like iron – and upon seeing her figure, he remembered that he, too, had once harbored such a metallic augment.
"Is that... your Anima?"
A right arm turned to metal... A peculiar corpse discovered at school... A transfer student exuding dark mist... And a foreign warrior wreathed in thick steel armor... Tomoya's peaceful life would soon begin to crumble as disaster came to visit him and his sisters. To protect them, he shall have to once again wreathe his right arm in Anima.
Game type: Supernatural abilities chuuni story
Character Design rating: 8/10
Protagonist rating: 7/10
Story rating: 9/10
Game quality: 4/10
Overall rating: 7/10

Basics first. This is a story of a big and powerful Honjo clan. Main character Tomoya is an adopted child who lives in the family for the last five years. Only few families possess the anima ability to turn their body into weapons. They have rivals, but don't show their powers to the outsiders. Tomoya only starts to master his anima. That brings us to structure.
There are four chapters. Three first chapters have similar shape. Each of them is devoted to Honjo sisters and their anima - first Misaki, then Ayano, finally Iori. These three chapters have two endings each - initially the true one when the heroine comes off the stage in some way and then the side happy ending with each heroine. After each of four chapters there's a short explanatory chapter which is devoted mostly to past events and Honjo Alice heroine. The fourth chapter has only one ending and is devoted to the most mysterious heroine Nishinomiya Akizuki. It also covers most of the loose ends of the game. Epilogue chapter (with a small Final chapter which finalizes Explanatory Chapters) is very different from the other chapters and presents after-story for the different characters that remain on the stage up to the point. 

Phew, with that covered - almost - without spoilers it's possible to go on. Story is thrilling, and text is really rich. Characters are quite developed despite having no voicing thanks to whole 15-hour long chapter devoted to each of them. What I liked the most is that there are very few SOL scenes. Protagonist Tomoya starts off pretty well with all his powers awakening gradually and evolving with more emotional experiences. But game really lacks a good conflict. There are some goons (including elite ones) from the rival family, but that's it. So in result Tomoya just does not have opportunity to actually fight since we constantly need to show battle prowess of our chapter heroines. Thus he gets from cool to passive losing charm. Due to the lack of conflict some fights happen even between heroines out of trifles. But on the other hand, some antagonists jump to the stage out of the blue. Momentum never gets lost.

Time to get back to story since it's the main flavor of the game. Each chapter is actually very different, so we can't stop being surprised. Misaki chapter is our straightforward nakige with personal drama and focus on the heroine alone. Ayano chapter suddenly changes focus from heroine to her anima. Iori chapter is totally different again since Iori actually can't fight. Maid Noriko has to fulfill that function, so Noriko actually gets her own ending as well. Third chapter also marks the main conflict of the game and uncovers Honjo clan secrets. Fourth chapter has the most straightforward conflict between main heroines Alice and Akizuki against their own antagonists. As for epilogue, it gives off too much of Clannad scent which is a great minus for such Clannad hater as me. Each chapter is named after anima name and explanatory chapters are called Shizoid because of the very different perspective presented.

The saddest part is graphical presentation and absence of voicing. That gives a huge penalty to the quality evaluation. I can't really imagine many persons to be able to read such a huge story with such poor presentation. But - on the other hand - how many real modern masterpieces are there without voicing? Can't really remember even one out of the blue. That's an enormous feat by itself.

Foreword: It's requested as extra review, so I'm pleased to tell what kind of masterpiece this game is. It does not mean I'm not reviewing Abandoner, though. Both games stood so close in the poll that I could not make my mind in any way.
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v1085
Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDJG1UQavYg&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv-73f48qzUpNIceFnIA8Mot

Synopsis: The game revolves around the main character's 3 days repeating over and over again, where he is constantly being killed in the third day of the story (in various ways) but magically being brought back to life in the first day to repeat his 3 days. Your goal here is to solve the mystery behind the death of your sempai and also to find the identity of the murderer.
Game type: Horror looped murder story with fantasy elements
Character Design rating: 8/10
Protagonist rating: 7/10
Story rating: 8/10
Game quality: 6/10
Overall rating: 7/10

I only found one impression (1), and it's not very elaborate, so let's dissect things properly. 3days is a classic loop game, but for me it's the same kind of classic as To Heart for galge - boring and exhausting. The same loop of three days goes on for some 15 laps (maybe less if some alternative branches are skipped) and finishes with more and more elaborate ways of killing and sometimes raping. But the worst thing for me is that specific scene needs to be triggered in all of three heroine initial roues. I had to do much more loops, because I triggered only one Tamaki H scene while I needed to find another one for her item to show at the main screen indicating her route fully done.

That being said, first half of 3days is of little interest to me. Watching the same events over and over and girls die over and over in different situations is not really what constitutes for fun pastime. However, the second part actually manages to present a favorable impression by cleverly mixing past, present and future Ryou stories. We get acquainted with the new charming heroine Miyu who has to bear all the positive intentions of the game alone just because she's the only heroine that we don't see dying miserably with torn apart body and face distorted with fear. Magic finally comes to the stage, and game turns into a fantasy battle from a pesky contemporary murder story. 
But I don't suffer from short memory, so horrible first part gets a huge evaluation penalty from me. There are also other negative factors. Basically, game is a royal story. That goes for both first and second part. The individual heroine endings take really like a few minutes astray from the main story. Another negative factor is poor CG representation and occasional lack of voicing. I can remember very few CG after playthrough, so it's constant character sprites hell. Also, I can't really stand Harry Potter, so second part is rather repulsive with all the magic domination and stuff. At the same time Tsukiko as the best starting heroine never receives her route in the main game and plays mostly a comical role. There are too many deficiencies to neglect in the overall evaluation.

In the raw outcome, 3days is a masterpiece, but only thanks to the main concept and true route in the second part. It occupies a firm position among classics as one of grandfathers of loop visual novels. Tsukiko and later Miyu don't let the game to turn into total despair. But as to my recommendations... I'm not so sure. Game fails as a detective story and suffers a lot whenever it tries to advance romance. Would I really play this game if I knew that it'd total to magic battle? I'm pretty sure that I would not, although such turn of events was really unexpected. Game really feels old and lacking production quality. It's still a good game at the core, but who would want to get to the core when there are so many better quality stories nowadays.

Anyone who has read one of my reviews knows I'm something of a cynic and a pessimist.  I try to think the best about every VN I go into, but my first impulse is to see what is wrong, rather than what is right. 
Whether it is optimism and rose-colored glasses or pessimism and cynicism, and excess of either is often a negative influence on the quality of a review.  Generally speaking, I usually make an effort to find something I like about a VN's concept before going in, then I start the VN trying to enjoy it as an outgrowth of that.  By the end, this usually results in me having experienced both the negative and positive aspects of the VN... the problem is, when reviewing, it is all too easy to forget what is good about the VN.
As a result, when I'm writing up a review, the first thing I do is write up a list of the good points I found, ignoring the mitigating negative factors.  I then build the review around these and include the negative points in with the rest... but you can probably tell that being positive just doesn't come naturally to me, since I tend to be pretty harsh.
However, by using this system, I've found dozens of VN gems over the years that I probably would have discarded for perceived negative qualities if I didn't use this process.  Indeed, early on in my reading of untranslated VNs, I dropped numerous ones simply because they had a negative aspect that I got obsessed with.  I would later go back and replay them, only to find that the negative aspect wasn't as big a deal as I thought at the time, since I made the effort to go back with a differing perspective.
A poor quality in a reviewer is the tendency to ignore the negatives about something you like.  Another one is to rate things entirely based on aspects you only have a vague grasp or focus on (in my case, due to my eye problems, I'm not the best judge of artwork, and my musical sense is entirely based on how it enhances the atmosphere, rather than raw quality comprehension).  I'm a story reviewer.  I review almost exclusively based on the story, characters, and presentation.  As such, art and sound rarely have a place in my reviews, since I don't think I'm qualified to evaluate them except in the most general of terms.
I can tell when a VA did an exceptional job, because it stands out enough for me to notice.  I will even mention this in the review, since it takes a lot for a performance to stand out to me.  However, I never pretend to know the ins and outs of specific aspects of VA or musical quality.  I simply don't have the right kind of ear for that kind of thing, not being musically inclined. 
One thing I've noticed in some reviewers who prefer niche genres (such as myself) is to display a tendency I refer to as PGRD (or Popular Game Reactionary Disorder).  It is a fictional mental disease that many of us who have a distinct preference for a niche genre display that causes us to have a knee-jerk negative reaction to popular works, simply because they are mainstream.  This is a problem that is particularly common in Western otakus of around my age, who became fanboys during a time when watching anime, playing Japanese video games, and reading manga had a rather strong stigma that left us feeling isolated and defensive.  However, it is also present in people who prefer niche genres (I get the double whammy, being both).  That sense of isolation leads to a tendency to over-praise our favorite materials and bash anything that we see as being too popular.
In reverse, there are those who automatically dismiss anything that isn't mainstream.  Both types are reactionary in nature and have little to do with the quality of the materials in question.  Being a long-time sci-fi addict, I can't understand why anyone would enjoy Avatar (the movie).  However, if I make the mistake of saying that in front of a fanboy of the movie, I will inevitably get a vociferous lecture on how misunderstood the movie is by science fiction fans...
There are many such examples of such behavior I have experienced over the years, both in myself and in others.  As such, a reviewer has to be willing to examine his own motives for liking or hating something.  Are you being cynical for the sake of being cynical?  Are you over-praising something to the point of overlooking the obvious problems with it?  Are you making excuses while thinking you are making a reasoned argument?  On the other side, are you ignoring the voice of reason to give you an excuse to dislike something? 
In the end, bias is unavoidable... but it is a reviewer's duty to do their best to cast aside as much of it as possible, because people use our reviews as reference points when they pick what they want to play/read/watch.

Foreword: This is going to a slightly unusual review, because I'm going to totally ignore main three heroines and focus solely on two side heroines because of Masada scenario writing and uniqueness of these two heroines compared to conventional ones.
Title: Dear My Friend
Developer: light
Date: 2004-07-09
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v519
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvEtF1Nh89A&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv-vEHq8MQwNWKJi9NyRbYch

Synopsis: This light-hearted, high school eroge surrounds the exploits of a soon-to-be non-average student named Kyoichi Morikawa. The son of the odd paring of a nurse and a poorly-selling novelist, he’s been living his life in mind-numbing virtuosity. One auspicious day his father returns home after running errands with a girl (about Kyoichi’s age) claiming to be orphaned. Being the good Samaritan, our hero’s father adopts the hapless girl. Now Kyoichi must explain the extraordinary circumstances to his one and only friend. Furthermore, seeing the main character with a girl has caused several of the female student body to take notice of him...
Game type: Charage
Character Design rating: 9/10
Protagonist rating: 8/10
Story rating: 6/10
Game quality: 8/10
Overall rating: 8/10

Rating comments: I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the game. The two heroine routes I saw were unique and charming, protagonist contributed to gags a lot, and side characters really shined in here. A firm masterpiece, I say.
Protagonist: Kyouichi is not really our usual nobody. He has a face and a strong personality. He does not have piety towards girls and plays jokes on them a lot. He's almost as fun as Taichi from Cross†Channel, just less pervy.

Characters: There are five heroines. 
Kushiro Mai is our main heroine. And - according to To Heart tradition - the most boring one. She's blushing at every second line and is extremely shy overall. But even she has something fun about her - she leans to Kyouichi all the time despite the environment. That becomes the source of some nice joyful moments. She's the only naive heroine in the game.
Kurihara Tsukuyo is the second heroine that's available from the start. She's our traditional ojou-sama, polite and kind. It's good that she's serious and not naive, but all the other heroines look more interesting to me. 
Kitazawa Miyako is the last of three heroines available from the start. She's a genki heroine, but really intelligent at the same time, kind of Ayaka from To Heart. She would be my natural first choice if not for the other two heroines... 
Kurosaki Komugi is our crazy alien or so she's introduced in the game. The cute girl with bunny ears swears like a sailor and picks up on everyone. She makes every scene whirl around her. By To Heart analogy she's definitely Multi.
Nagamura Saeka is kind of joker of this game. She looks like a serious sempai, but she turns out to be of mischievous kind. Masada went a long way to invent all kinds of plot twists for her route. The one fact is that in her route Kyouichi dates.... drums-drums... Mai! And Saeka kind of tries to support them. Finishing with To Heart analogies, she's definitely Shiho.

Story: Don't think there is integral story. Mai just starts living in Kyouichi family and attending the same class. Game starts with the choice between heroines, but if we start following Mai route there's later branching to Komugi and Saeka routes. I especially want to take  notice of Kyouichi parents - they're marvelous and really funny. Guess now it's time say a few words about my attitude towards heroines. Both Komugi and Saeka routes were really good for the comedy part and quite good for the drama. Not really should game would make it to the masterpiece status for me without these two brilliant routes written by Masada.
Overall comments: I'll be brief since it's not a plotge. I never really cared for charage and grew a disgust towards the titles with great evaluation like Mashiro Iro Symphony or White Album 2 (I hope to bitch about it some day too). I got assured that I can appreciate a charage only in conjunction with some great story like in SubaHibi or Cross†Channel. So Dear My Friend really took me by surprise. There's no great depth or drama in here, but it's an absolutely enjoyable cozy read. And it's not all Masada's praise as Kyouichi's parents written by main author are equally enjoyable. Guess Dear My Friend produced a little revolution in me, and I've yet to know how to live with this thought.

3days ~Michiteyuku Toki no Kanata de~ is VN of the Month. I'm intrigued by positive reviews of MinDeaD BlooD ~Shihaisha no Tame no Kyoushikyoku~ . I'm going to review it and develop an  opinion on it.
1. Cosple Tea Party こすぷれ☆ティーパーティー [040604] Softhouse Dew

Main character gets drag, ged to an alumni assotiation meeting by his two friends who wish to temporarily revive high school cosplay club consisting of six pretty girls. Protagonist gets attracted by their charm, especially by "rabbit" girl Yuka. A moege with dozens of spontaneous events rather than an integrative story.  
2. Dice-ki! ~Koi wa Un Makase~ ダイス・き！～恋は運任せ～ [040604] Studio B-Room

Main character advances to a new school and falls in love with a woman at first sight. However, childhood friend and classmates notice the change and are eager to change his view on women. Is love just a dice throw or it's possible to shake off annoying love candidates? A really bad board SIM game.  
3. Koyuki no Aka 小雪の朱－コユキノアカ－ [040604] Discovery

School is closed due to raging snowstorm. Main character manages to get there due to a promise given to his girlfriend. But weather deteriorates rapidly, and there is no way back anymore. A group of students and a teacher get trapped at this empty building in the sea of snow. There is not much to do, so students organize to pursue legendary school wonders. It's not mystery that they find, but something totally unexpected... Love story in hindered conditions won't get old, not after those KID games. Transformation of characters is depicted well even though sometimes it feels that some text is missing to describe motivations - actions feel sudden at times. There is fantasy element, but it feels natural in the school wonders setting. It is a nice change from the usual school romance games.  
4. Majipuri -Wonder Cradle- まじぷり -Wonder Cradle- [040604] Purple Software

One day, the protagonist Makoto Himekawa was going to his school, Shiroha Academy, when he came upon a girl going crazy by a vending machine. He went to help her, but ended up drenching her in soda instead. After a light argument, the protagonist christened this girl "Trouble Woman". Due to this he was late for school, and barely made it to homeroom. And there, it seemed that there was an exchange student. But that exchange student was ... the "Trouble Woman"! Thus, with the appearance of the exchange student Yuuri Ashitaba, Makoto's ordinary school life took a sudden turn for the decidedly non-boring, and through the athletic festival, the cultural festival, and even the autumn leaf festival, the chaos of his life quickly increased. And then, he was swallowed up in an unexpected incident ...  Kind of onii-chan game. Someone counted that onii-chan is pronounced 997 times here. Quality varies from one root to another. Game's definitely not for scenario-oriented people.  
5. Natsu no Tomoshibi 夏の燈火 [040606] 1

One day a young boy arrived at this village, holding a letter in one hand and his sister's hand in the other. They had no place left to go but the address written in the letter he was holding. Since they traveled with one-way tickets, there was no way back.
In the end, they were accepted as a part of the family living at the address written in the message, and started their new life in the village.
A village full of spirits and protected by gods summoned into mirrors... It's a doujin game, but since it's first Looseboy scenario I won't block it. It's a straight nakige with only two heroines for capture, about 6-7 hours per heroine. There is just one H event for each heroine. Game has to do with sickness and is not really interesting per se, especially with the rural monster introduction. But game text is really good. Only length actually reminds that it's still a doujin game.  
6. MinDeaD BlooD ~Shihaisha no Tame no Kyoushikyoku~ MinDeaD BlooD ～支配者の為の狂死曲～ [040611] Black Cyc 1 2 3 4 5

Just off the coast of mainland Japan is the island of Chisakura, home to a city of the same name, where the heralds of darkness are slowly gathering. Host to a prosperous economy, with a nationally renowned academic institution for young women and an equally upstanding medical research facility, the community has unwittingly attracted the attentions of dreaded supernatural creatures with few equals: vampires. Yet even these immortal predators have daring individuals who hunt them, and a secret war between the two powers is quickly racing to an apocalyptic conclusion. At the center of this nightmarish struggle is a man who has the potential to tip the scales in favor of one side or the other. His choice of allies - the hunters, the vampires, or none at all - may very well determine the fate of humanity and the undead. There are English reviews.  
7. Oratorio ~Umi yori Aoi Natsu no Kanata de~ ORATORIO～海より青い夏の彼方で～ [040611] Unchain

Main character studies at geophysics faculty. He receives a report mentioning his native island being in danger of volcano eruption this summer. He arrives to his native town and meets a lot of relatives and childhood acquaintances there. Strangely, volcano shows no signs of activity yet besides slight shakes... Game shines for its directorship and animation. Both protagonist and heroines are depicted very realistically, but there's not much in the story department, to be honest. There is unique charm and fresh ideas in this game which alone qualifies for a masterpiece.  
8. Tantei Jinguuji Saburou Series No.03: Kiken na Futari 探偵 神宮寺三郎 Series No.03 危険な二人 [040623] WorkJam 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Detective Hunter and his assistant Yulia have been invited to watch Yulia's friend Sabin participate in a motorcycle race. It doesn't all go too well when he crashes in the race, but when the racing team checks up on him it turns out to be Thomas, Sabin's apprentice, under the helmet. The mystery deepens as another friend of Yulia is found murdered in a hotel room. There are English reviews.  
9. DearS ディアーズ [040624] Vridge Inc. 1

A visual novel based on the manga and anime series "DearS". A "game original" character, not seen in the manga or anime, makes an appearance. Takeya Ikuhara is a temperamental seventeen-year-old Japanese student attending the fictitious Koharu High School with a strong prejudice against the DearS. Due to a childhood scare, he believes that the aliens are fake, worthless beings that have generated nationwide overhype and are secretly plotting to take control of Earth.
On his way home from school he discovers a homeless DearS who, after fainting and much to his annoyance, he feeds and shelters in his apartment. The girl, who he nicknames Ren, is infantile and friendly, and grows obsequious and dependent upon Takeya, a responsibility he tries to disassociate himself from. Her oblivious tenacity keeps her around, however, and over time, realizing Ren's genuine care and empathy for him, Takeya has a change of heart. Unfortunately, because Ren is deemed defective, DearS headquarters orders her arrested. SIM games are just no go for me.  
10. Memories Off ~Sorekara~ Memories Off ～それから～ [040624] KID 1 2 3

Inori was looking forward to go to the annual Ashikajima Fireworks Display with Isshu this summer. They had made a promise to always go to the fireworks festival together, since that was the place that they orginally became a couple. But Isshu said he wouldn't able to go because of his part time job. That day would fall on their two year anniversary. Inori went alone to their memorable place, the church... and she began to recall the previous two years. Fourth game in the Memories Off series (subtitled "Kakeganai Omoi wo Norikoete"). It takes place one year and a half after Omoide ni Kawaru Kimi ~Memories Off~ (Omoide ni Kawaru Kimi ~Memories Off~) There are English reviews.  
11. 3days ~Michiteyuku Toki no Kanata de~ 3days～満ちてゆく刻の彼方で～ [040625] Lass 1 2

The game revolves around the main character's 3 days repeating over and over again, where he is constantly being killed in the third day of the story (in various ways) but magically being brought back to life in the first day to repeat his 3 days. Your goal here is to solve the mystery behind the death of your senpai and also to find the identity of the murderer. There is an English review.  
12. Angel Egg [040625] You & I

You're a high school student who's secretly an accomplished writer. All the upperclassmen of the drama club suddenly decide to quit due to a conflict, and the remains of the club need to do a play for the upcoming school festival. You end up being responsible for the script. Everything is painful about this game. Text depictions, boring characters, inconsistencies... It's a light work, but can't really be recommended.  
13. Doko e Iku no, Ano Hi 何処へ行くの、あの日 [040625] Moonstone 1 2

I killed a girl. Who was she...? The protagonist, Kunimi Kyousuke can't remember the memories of his distant past. Even the details are vague, merely appearing as flashes in his heart.
"I am certainly the one who with this hand did that to the lone girl", he keeps thinking, but can't even remember the time or place it happened. But the memories are slowly entering his mind. He remembers the corpse...
How will Kyousuke deal with his supposed sin? There are English reviews.  
14. Innocence pain ~Michiru Yami Kakeru Tsuki~ Innocence pain～満ちる闇　欠ける月～ [040625] Ankh

Main character is a new teacher at girls academy where witch legend is popular. He pays little attention to this story, but one day occult-looking events lead to student injury. Similar incidents continue while the culprit remains unknown. Protagonist starts his own investigation. Game is described as a suspense story, but it's mostly normal SOL in girls school. There is very short story involved, so they have to pour lots of water and insert insult scenes at random. Game produces rather weak impression.  
15. Miko-san Hosoude Hanjouki 巫女さん細腕繁盛記 [040625] Studio Ryokucha

Main character receives priest education and returns from Tokyo to his home town. But the local shrine
is on the verge of bankruptcy. Protagonist needs to work hard alongside cute shrine maidens and childhood friends. Who will be his girlfriend during the festival? Light comedy game, but of mediocre quality. First half is somewhat saved by gags, but there is no charm of the heroines. The hinted conflict with the enemy has thin presence.  
16. Night Wizard Mahou Taisen ~The Peace Plan to Save the World~ ナイトウィザード　魔法大戦～The Peace Plan to Save the World～ [040625] Rune

Peaceful school life is interrupted by a transfer student arrival. Newcomer vows to kill main character who has his abilities awakened shortly afterwards. With the power of science and magic protagonist needs to defeat demons and save the world in card battles. You need only wins, so upon losing in battle game just restarts the card battle. World is based on tabletop RPG Night Wizard released in 2002, so is rather rich in detail. Each route takes some 10 hours, but it's impossible to skip battles, so it get bothersome from the second lap. Each heroine has two H events, plus there's a number of sub-heroines. There's nothing that stands out here.  
17. Rakuen ~Ai Kawarazu na Boku no Baai~ らくえん～あいかわらずなぼく。の場合～ [040625] TerraLunar 1 2 3 4 5

The player takes the role of a nameless protagonist that the script refers to as Boku. Boku is a ronin that moves to Tokyo in hopes of being able to study and prepare himself for the university entrance exams. His hobbies as an artist and the myriad of temptations of the big city have kind of caused him to waste his time away, playing games and watching anime instead of focusing on studying. His need for a job eventually landed him a job at MoonEarth, an eroge studio that at the time was needing a character designer. The studio's fate takes a turn for the worse when the scenario writer decides to entirely drop out just as the crew is producing their first title. Seeing as the fledgeling studio is under a lot of scrutiny from its parent companies, this turn of events places MoonEarth in a very sticky situation. As such, the story focuses on MoonEarth's budget problems (the project director likes gambling budget money away by playing pachinko), scheduling issues (the lack of a scenario writer means EVERYTHING from character designs to CGs to BGMs and Voice Actor casting is delayed as well), and eventual crunch-time (since as of the game's start, MoonEarth has one month to create a game from scratch) as they trudge their way to releasing their first title, a game called Ai kawarazu na boku. There are English reviews.  
18. Sora no Iro, Mizu no Iro そらのいろ、みずのいろ [040625] Ciel 1

Asa & Natsume are both in love with Hajime Saisho. Instead of fighting over him, they both promised to share him equally. However, both girls have to leave him by the end of the summer. As the summer days go by, they each spend their precious time with Hajime, while the day of their fated departure draws near. Game was in many people's wish-lists, but upon release it could not really boast something more than just another Tony's works graphics borderline nukige. It failed to please pure love fans because of its NTR tilt. It could not please nukige fans because of long exhausting monotonous routes without letting any steam out.  
19. Suzukuri Dragon 巣作りドラゴン [040625] SofthouseChara 1 2 3 4 5

The setting is Middle Ages Europe style. A dragon male (the protagonist) must, in order to marry, amass a lot of treasures and wealth in his dungeon. For that reason, the protagonist went alone and lived in an area where human lives, constructed a huge nest and started amassing treasures. However, soon after the nest got built, gallant heroes wanting to exterminate dragons, townspeople that see the dragon as a nuisance and adventurers and thief out to get the dragon's treasure came.
With this, he couldn't gather treasures at ease. Therefore, the protagonist hired monsters, added traps and threatened the neighboring area to not approach his nest. With his nest's defense strengthened, the protagonist started amassing wealth. He searched for a gold mine all over the place, started farming, deforested the forest to build drawers out of it. Of course, the foolish invaders that's successfully repulsed are stripped of all their possessions. Incidentally the women are used as sparring partner to gain experience for the honeymoon.
Will he succeed in amassing treasures and marry his fiancée? Or would he meet some other woman...? There are English reviews.  
20. Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito Typing Traveller ヤミと帽子と本の旅人 タイピングトラベラー [040625] Livedoor

Main character's librarian sister got sucked into some book. Protagonist dives into different book worlds in order to rescue his sister. Typing episodic game, not in my interest league.  
BLOCKED  
1. Kokuin Waltz. 刻淫ワルツ。 [040601] Sponge Teikoku I had a childhood girl friend Rinka, who I always stayed together. One day her cousin got killed in a car crash. She told me that she'd been in love with him but trained as a sex slave..... Hot sizzling 10 days with her!! Adventure game with voice. Doujin Nukige  
2. Lo-Devi ~Koakumateki Hen'airon~ ろーでび ～小悪魔的偏愛論～ [040604] Black Light Main character is a lower class demon who comes to this town to store human arousal power. However, she gets compelled to sex acts herself which is bad for her as she can not gain energy this way. Can she become a high-level demon? Nukige
 
3. Mirai Daughter Musuemon 未来ドータｰ ムスえもん [040604] ZyX There are four stories about main character's daughters coming from future to live and laugh with him.  Lolicon  
4. Moteasobing ~Moteasobaretai~ 弄ing～もてあそばれたい～ [040604] Yamikumo-Communications A mistake put Nagase Izumi, a boy and the protagonist of the story, to the girls dormitory. Head of the dormitory, Ayame, acknowledged her mistake and decided to let him live there. She even made a move on him and they had sex right there.
But on the next day, she gave him a videotape of them having sex; which was edited to make it look like Izumi raped Ayame. As it turned out, Ayame had a hobby of peeping on her tenants and there were secret cameras in every room of the dormitory.
In return for not spreading videotape all over, Ayame told Izumi to have sex with the tenants and sexually train them, including her own daughter. Nukige  
5. Yokubou no Ori 欲望の檻 [040604] Double Soft Cream The lead character accidentally obtained two tools: contoll someone's mind, and make someone's desire visible in the shape of tentacle. By using the tools, control guys as you want, and lead the beautiful young chick into the world of sensuality! Doujin Nukige  
6. Yume Shokushu! 夢触手! [040609] BANANA BLUE SOFT A package was sent to me one day, a panties was in. With the "dream" panties on in bed, anyone can have a dream whatever it is. A glasses girl tries to see the effect, but... Doujin Nukige  
7. Houkago no Love Beat 放課後のLove Beat [040610] HuneX The main character is a high school girl trained in classical piano who has just transferred to a new high school, Aobadai Gakuen. On her first day, she gets lost and meets 4 boys there who are secretly practising as a band. She eventually becomes the songwriter for the band, using her classical background to create fresh melodies for the band to build on. Otomege  
8. Hanazono no Musume 花園の娘 [040611] Dark Side Main character breaks up with his girlfriend and goes to the sea thinking about suicide. He calms down a little and turns back when his leg slips dragging him  in the den below the cliff.
He wakes up in a Western-style mansion inhabited by three young women and one housekeeper. He has to stay there till he recovers. What secret is hidden inside the building? Nukige  
9. Haruiro Toiki ~Kinroku Suimitsu Momo no Shimai-tachi~ 春色吐息～禁録・水蜜桃の姉妹たち～ [040611] EXtry Main character wants to be seen as a man, but childhood nurtured the girly side of him. His parents' business partners insisted on protagonist staying at the house with only women bullying him every day. The harassment continued till the day he broke the seal during shrine visit and gained great physical and mental power over women. Nukige  
10. Moekasu モエカす [040611] KeroQ Among other goodies there are two stories based on the extended world of Moekan's Kirishima route and Tsui no Sora. Fandisc  
11. Marukon まるコン [040611] Danco
Main character leads a normal life until the day he picks an object from the devil world off the road.
He starts to have mischief with the girls around him, and bizarre incidents start to happen one after another. Fate makes him travel to the devil world with different girls. Nukige  
12. Bishoku 美喰 [040618] Gage Kenji Asama has returned to his home city to exact revenge on Douzan Kanzaki, his hated father. And all the girls somehow involved with Douzan will become the instrument of Kenji's revenge, willing or not... Nukige  
13. Oshikake Mahou Shoujo Yui おしかけ魔法少女ユイ [040619] Lilith Soft Shacking up with a puni magical girl!
The source of her magic is energy of men!! Inject sperm into her pussy without hesitation! Nukige  
14. Azazel アザゼル [040620] Akabei Soft Main character loses after an accident two years ago. Life goes on peacefully till he notices a  shadow of a woman with a gun followed by receiving an injection. All his senses improve immensely, but so do his desires. Standing in a pool of blood he hears her say: "Finally your powers have been unsealed". Doujin  
15. Gyakuten Ryoujoku Angel Online 逆転陵辱エンジェルオンライン [040624] Trinitron CG Various girls come to the insidious man's house. What actions will he undertake towards the sweet scent of innocence? Doujin  
16. Ane Ore Imouto ~Kyoushi, Doukyuusei, Kouhai no Kankei~ 姉・オレ・妹～教師、同級生、後輩のカンケイ～ [040625] MBS Truth -The protagonist Kousuke attends school while living with his 3 stepsisters.
The oldest sister is his homeroom teacher, the second sister is his classmate and the youngest sister attends the neighboring girls school.
Kousuke starts developing certain emotions towards the sisters...
Mixing in a childhood friend and a student council president an exciting school life is about to begin. Nukige  
17. Boku to 4nin no Onna Kyoushi 僕と4人の女教師 [040625] Take Out Shun is a high school student. He has a regular head but looks weak and he is prissy. That is why he is sometimes teased by other students. However, he is living a peaceful life at school. But his peaceful life is destroyed by a new teacher Kasumi, beautiful and pure. He gets stiff when she is around and can't move even his tongue. When he knows Kasumi is engaged to Yoshio who is the worst teacher at school, the story starts to .... Nukige  
18. Chijoku no Gakuen ~Toukou Sareru Onna Kyoushi~ 恥辱の学園～投稿される女教師～ [040625] Euros Main character gains pleasure from putting women in shameful exposing positions. But girls get used to it with time. Then he makes up his mind to spend shameful sessions outdoors... Nukige  
19. Crime Rhyme クライミライ　CrimeRhyme [040625] FlyingShine Black Aida Masaki, the leader of the newspaper club, has been investigating the rumor of ghosts with Kaede and Hinoki. Meanwhile, Shion, who lives with Masahi, is invited to the psychic treatment club's anniversary party by her classmate. However, the psychic treatment club is actually a group of rapists. Nukige  
20. Hanamaru 3 Shimai はなまる3姉妹 [040625] Honey Soft Main character is a university student living alone in Tokyo. As he returns to his home town, he reunites with three neighbor girls. However, these girls aren't same innocent girls anymore - they are well aware of men as opposite sex. They suggest having relations with them  simultaneously at the same time. So starts their secret. Nukige  
21. Immoral [040625] Blue Gale A school doctor comes in possession of a sexual hypnotic spray that inhibits girls to succumb to sexual desires. One after another, high school girls fall prey to the school doctor's sex schemes turning them into sex slaves. Nukige  
22. Inran Byoutou 24 Ji 淫乱病棟24時 [040625] Tryset The protagonist is a horny young guy involved in a motorcycle accident whose stay in the hospital is spiced by 4 nurses, a female doctor and 2 female patients just as horny as he is turning his stay in the hospital to every day a 24 hour sexathon. Nukige  
23. Kimi ga Nozomu Eien ~Special Fan Disc~ 君が望む永遠 ～special FanDisk～ [040625] Age 1 "What would have happened if that accident never took place?"
Kimi ga Nozomu Eien Special Fan Disc explores this concept by retelling the first chapter of the original game. Also includes radio shows, puzzles, wallpapers and other fan materials. Fandisc  
24. Kuro Ai ~Ichiya Saikan Inkou Rannyuuroku~ 黒愛　一夜妻館・淫口乱乳録 [040625] Clock Up Gojo Testsuya visited his distant related aunt, Kojin Rikka, to borrow money for the operation of Utsumi Ayaka. She is his childhood friend, and she took care of him like his sister. However, in return for lending money, Rikka ordered him to take beautiful women into the house to train them as prostitutes. Assaulting maids and female students, his hidden power was awakening. Nukige  
25. Love Fetish ~Ashi Fetish Ashikoki Hen~ らぶフェチ ～脚フェチ・足コキ編～ [040625] Erogos After an accident Kouji bumps into the local school idol and ends up with his head stuck between her legs. This triggers a fascination and Kouji starts on his newest fetish conquest. Nukige  
26. Nee, Chanto Shiyou Yo! 2 姉、ちゃんとしようよっ！2 [040625] Candy Soft Sequel to the first game.
One year after the events of the first game, Kuuya Hiiragi finally finished his training at some distant relative's house, the Inugami family.
After so much time, he is finally allowed to go back to the Hiiragi house and live together with his six older adopted sisters who love and dote him.
But little he knew, his two adopted sisters at the Inugami house where he was training himself also loved him, and came after him.
Now Kuuya has eight adopted sisters fighting for him. Nukige  
27. Ryoujoku Hitozuma Onsen 凌辱人妻温泉 [040625] Strikes This is a historic Japanese style hotel, but after Yuji began to work part-time, everything has gone wrong. First, the young landlady and a waitress fell victims to him. Not being satisfied with them, the next games he aims at are three young married women staying at the hotel. Nukige  
28. Tsui no Yakata ~Ningyou~ 終の館 ～人形～ [040625] Circus Fetish 1 Released under the Circus brand division 'Circus Fetish', the Tsui no Yakata series mainly focuses on maids.
It's a winter's day and a second-hand dealer by the name of Akihiro pursues a clue he hopes will help him find a valuable doll by the little-known but skillful doll-maker Holst.
The clue leads him to a certain European-style mansion, currently used as a brothel. Akihiro, meeting the mansion's mistress and the maid Melissa, decides to search the house in order to find the missing doll... Nukige  
29. X Change 3 [040625] Crowd 1 2 You are Takuya Aihara, the hero/heroine of the story. You've been blessed with a very interesting life: several years ago you were changed a girl through bizarre chemistry accidents, not once but twice. Now as you approach your final year of university with faithful girlfriend Asuka at your side, you almost get nostalgic thinking about those crazy days you spent as a girl.
Until it happens again, that is: that troublesome Kouji, still madly in love with your female persona, secretly gets Asami-senpai to whip up some of the sex-change potion and tricks you into drinking it! It'll be harder than ever for you to change back into your male self this time, but you've got no choice: you have to find a way to return to normal before your female body becomes permanent. Although Asuka is one of the most understanding women in the world, there's no way she'll stay with you as a girl -- that's just not her thing.
As you start another round of bizarre sexual adventures in your female body, virtually all the characters from the past X-Change games are back: your twisted sister Natsumi, who loves to tease you; the ingenius Asami-senpai; the endlessly experimenting Chisato; and a host of others from the first two games. With an even richer and more complex game story than last time, you'll have loads of fun exploring college life in your new female body, with many rewarding story lines to discover. Where will it all end? Nukige  
30. Erogeteki ni Imouto Suki! エロゲ的に妹好き! [040626] Sansai Soft Brother continues playing eroge while staying numb towards feelings of his real sister. One day his friend confesses his feelings to the sister. What should brother do in this situation? Doujin Nukige  
31. My Pet Alchemist マイペットアルケミスト [040627] MOON GODDESS Alchemist Michelle sells illegal glaze to a shady merchant. How is it possible to stop her? One option is to drawn Michelle into the abyss of insult ...  Doujin Nukige  
32. Have Relations With... ~Maho to Kataho~ have relations with…　～真帆と片帆～ [040630] Soft Circle Courreges I have a strong desire that I have never told anyone before...... I want to be humiliated and used like a slave by men...... Maho is a submissive woman indeed, while her younger sister Kataho is free-spirited and sexually active. Doujin Nukige  
33. Milkyway 2.5 [040630] Witch Game observes the process of coupling and producing the new generation of heroines to come in Milkyway 3. Fandisc  
34. Departures Second Engine [0406] Ochanomizu Electronic Manufacturing With dream and courage main character sets off for an adventure. He has to come over numerous trials to discover the secret behind the maritime Empire. Doujin

I do not regret playing this game.
I needed to say this first, because this game has a pretty high level of emotional impact.  The actual characters are quiet for the most part, but the relationships in this game are so twisted that even thinking about them being real would make a saint wince. 
This story centers around a young personal servant, Kumagata Arima, and his young mistress, Otobe Supika.  It is the Taishou Era (pre-WWII, late teens to late twenties of the twentieth century), and Japan's first age of modern prosperity is at its height.  Supika is an apparently sickly ojousama who reluctantly goes to school at the urge of her personal servant Arima, who takes care of all her personal needs (up to and including dressing her and doing her hair).  Arima is an apparently devoted servant who can be relied on without reservation by his sickly mistress...
Well, there is a lot more to it, but this is as far as I can go in terms of specifics without spoiling it for you.  Tasogare no Folklore is a game where not knowing too much is an important aspect of enjoying the story, so I really suggest you don't read the official site or the Getchu page.  Instead, I will explain what kind of game it is.
Tasogare no Folklore's primary attractions are the disparity between the darkness hidden in the depths of the characters' home and the apparent strength of their relationships, particularly the one between Supika and Arima.  Their relationship is not as simple and straighforward as it seems on the surface, and the way it twists is the source of a lot of the sick fascination I felt watching the train head for the broken tracks. 
To be straight, this is a dark game with no miraculous salvation.  Oh, there are a few times when a 'convenient' outcome occurs, but those are the exceptions rather than the rule.  The characters' feelings for one another are real, but they are also muddied by circumstance and events in the past.  As a result, their relationships are twisted to an extreme degree (though Supika and Arima's relationship is so twisted even the other characters can't understand it). 
However, the presentation of this game is top tier.  I'm almost tempted to cry 'kamige', but that is going too far, lol.  This game is a dark fantasy, but it is also a quietly intense love-romance.  It also has elements of a number of genres, but in the end, what stuck with me was that I felt it was a romance from the beginning.
There are two endings (and one extra story based off the 'good' ending) in this game... a 'good' ending and a 'normal' ending (in Tsukihime style).  The good ending is a happy one... but I say that with the caveat that it is still bittersweet.  The environment Supika and Arima are forced into is not one that goes for charage-style 'purely happy' endings, after all.

Foreword: It looked like a semi-historical plot-centered game, so why not sample it, really.
Title: Salem no Majo-tachi
Developer: Daiginjou
Date: 2003-08-08
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v3679
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P53wX3hGx64&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv-sUBbx3VBtkjZ8QS4wiJk4

Synopsis: Year 1699. A young priest, named Kevin, sailed to the peaceful town in the British colony in the New World. This town's name was Salem. He is yet to know all of the horrors of the Salem's witch-hunt.
Game type: Semi-historical drama
Difficulty: Easy, very few choices
Character Design rating: 7/10
Protagonist rating: 7/10
Story rating: 5/10
Game quality: 6/10
Overall rating: 6/10
Rating comments: Story became a major disappointment for me dragging it all down.

Protagonist: Kevin is actually really nice. His identity is complex - English pastor of indian origin fighting with knuckles. He is always shown with face. He does not really move the plot, but he's still a cool guy looking naturally in this environment.
Characters: There are four heroines - naive main heroine Meg, free-spirit Julia, pretentious Emily and genius Sophie. I played only the routes of the first two - main heroine and gun-wielding girl. And these are two dead-serious boring heroines. All the comedy relief is created by the other two heroines. The problem with characters is that routes are pretty much the same - first some incident happens which is resolved by particular heroine special skill - love blooms - then it moves to the actual witch-hunt.

Story: Such pseudo-historical setting is quite disadvantageous, as for me. It is overcrowded with all kinds of one-sided grotesque characters. Even prior to playing the game reader already has a very good image of what's going to happen - there's going to be a witch trial and a happy end. So the only thing that should surprise to create an impact is process and plot shifts. Game introduces two humorous heroines to lighten up the mood, but it still remains overextended historical SOL with just two notable events. Main heroine Meg route tries to tell a more involving story, but too little too late.

Thoughts: 
Somehow much older Dorei Ichiba produced a better impression on me. That were easy to grasp single heroine stories with interesting individual lines and plot shifts. Much shorter as well. Salem no Majo-tachi is a much more complex game containing dozens of characters, but heroines fail to charm, and lots of filler scenes both distract and irritate.
Overall comments: Game is of very high quality and made with much effort and skill, but neither story, nor heroines manage to grasp attention, and without it any game is worthless for me.

Interlude is the only masterpiece of the month. This month blocked novels surpassed normal ones over four times which is very scary considered that it's not a Comiket month.
1. Erinyes [030313] Pleiades Company

There is an island country similar to Japan. Memory of the great war that happened 50 years ago starts to wear off. But people who got hurt can never forget. There is a den where such people are gathered - underground prison. Now the time for settlement has come. Will protagonist escape from this place? What role will mysterious girl in the rain play? A free puzzle-based adventure with the aim to escape prison through many different ways and enter one of 20 endings. Game is more about the process than the result.  
2. Interlude インタールード [030313] Longshot 1

For a close-knit foursome of high school friends, life is all about sleeping in class, strawberry milk, and after-class karaoke. However, our unnamed main protagonist is troubled by nightmares of death and disaster. Only when he begins to realize that his memories of people and events are different from those of Tamaki Maiko (named "Tama-chan" by her friends, "Mai-chan" by herself), Chimu and Harusa, his three female friends, does he begin to wonder. Later, when the waking dreams start.... a short moment of him seeing something that noone else sees....an attractive young lady, who stares back at him in amazement from an empty subway station, does he begin to wonder about his sanity. That evening, the four encounter and follow a shadow with no person, only to encounter a gang of stumbling zombies. And then he wakes up that morning from yet another bad dream, but the threads of reality have become a bit too frayed, and he begins to see a way in which he can travel over to the reality of his nightmares. There is an English review. I absolutely adore this game. Anime is an absolute must watch one. Visual novel has different, longer ending and is nice for those who liked the anime.  
3. Angelium -Tokimeki Love God- ANGELIUM -ときめきLOVE GOD- [030314] Terios

Zeus was an omniscient and omnipotent god who ruled in Heaven where the gods lived. However, he was a pervert who had a wish to flirt with young angels, unbeknownst to his wife, Hera. He came up with an idea to make use of the promotion examination which took place every three years. Three angels, Yu, Miki, and Chado-ko, came down to Earth to take the exams. When they began to work part-time jobs at the flower shop, the severe trials occurred one after another.
Zeus was taking care of them secretly. However, it's wasn't from his kindness, but from his perverted desires. But, his activities were known in the lower world... Slapstick comedy. Anime actually follows story quite faithfully, just with less volume, naturally.  
4. Colorful Kiss ~12 ko no Mune Kyun!~ カラフルキッス ～12コの胸キュン！～ [030314] Giga

Main character returns to his alma mater for teaching practice starting in the fall. According to facility rule he has to stay at student dormitory. His stay there is full of nostalgia. Oh, and there are so many events at school - sports festivals, culture festivals and school trips. He gets in touch with many juniors through these multiple occasions.  It's Giga, so I did not expect anything above average moege. And it's exactly like that - generic moege with 12 characters, each having 2 H scenes.  
5. Ai Yori Aoshi 藍より青し [030320] KID 1 2 3 4

The game comes with two different story segments, South Island and Winter Lake. South Island Edition 
During winter vacation, Tina sees a TV program about the balmy southern islands and says that she wants to go to the ocean. Aoi proposes that they go visit her villa in the southern islands.
They immediately board a cruise ship to make the journey to the island as a group. However, on the way the weather turns nasty and the ship capsizes. Miyabi calls for help, but the radio is broken and proves of no use. They 
Winter Lake Edition 
During winter vacation, Tina sees a TV program about the warm southern islands and says that she wants to go to the ocean again. Kaoru points out that they just been to the ocean. With perfect timing, Mayu shows up to invite them to her vacation home for the holidays. Game is localized and has English reviews.  
6. Run [030320] Lip2 1

The story begins with Kouichi, the only son from a wealthy family. His mother died when was very little, and within that lapse of time, his father married a second time, and the stepmother brought her own daughter over, Serino, who would later become Kouichi’s little sister. His father used to ride a bike in his youth, on which he went on many trips to many places, meeting up with new people, and having different experiences. Kouichi liked to listen attentively to his father stories, no matter how plain, or simple they sounded. Both his admiration and love for his father grew with the pass of time, mostly due to these stories, and seeing how other people relied so much on his father. But after a couple of years, his father passed away. It’s normal, life comes to an end, he thought. By then he was already a college student, and would soon inherit and administrate his father’s company. Reality kicks in, a reality far away from those stories he used to hear. He had to embrace it, until he stumbled upon that old bike once again. It was non-functional, rusty, long forgotten by time. That beaten up bike, left abandoned at the corner of the garage brought him to tears the moment he laid eyes on it, and decided to do a total restoration of it to go on a journey, just like his father did. Easier said than done, though. There’s school, responsibilities, and pretty soon, work. Somehow, he got permission, both from his father’s company and school to be absent for a while. And his stepmother helped him with the cost of the bike’s restoration. Okay, everything is moving smoothly. But he hasn’t done anything on his own, he is just the family’s pampered child. They answer to his whims. But that’s precisely why he wanted to go out to the world; to grow as a person, to gain experience in life, to stop being the family’s child, and become like his father, his life-long role model. To obtain that “something” his father had, but he actually hasn’t. There is an English review.  
7. Sister Princess 2 シスター・プリンセス2 [030320] STACK software

The story begins on the final day of school before summer vacation. Then the player chooses a sister who he wants to start with for a close relationship. Therefore, Sister Princess 2 is about spending the player's time with either one sister or all sisters at the same time as they spend their summer together. Especially in Sister Princess 2, the player can spend the summer with all the sisters, not just one, in a special ending where the sisters invite their brother to a summer party where the brother and the sisters would swear to be together forever. Sister Princess 2 has four endings for each sister. The first two were the non-sibling relation and siblings-together ending and, if the player chooses one sister in the beginning but ends up with another sister, either of the other two endings for the first sister who the player does not choose appear ("non-blood relation" ending and "still brother and sister forever" ending also) but with a different story. Prequel got quite famous. This sequel has different systems, but as for contents - it's almost the same. Summer vacation story - going on a trip with a sister. A solid sister experience.  
8. Vampire Yui ~Sen'ya-shou~ 吸血姫夕維～千夜抄～ [030327] Generation X

Yui is the daughter of human and a Shi (another type of demon, also described as anti-shinma in some English translations). She is also part vampire as Miyu's blood runs in her veins, as Miyu fed on her mother while pregnant with Yui. Miyu describes Yui as both her sister, her daughter, and herself. Yui has long dark hair, and looks to be about twelve or thirteen years old. Like Miyu, Yui has a tragic past and friends she had to abandon upon her awakening. Yui has the additional issue of being both hunted and supported by rival factions of Shi, who do not approve of her existence.
Also like Miyu, Yui also has a blood bonded protector, a younger shinma named Nagi. Yui's personality is much more shy and timid than Miyu's, and she is still largely naive about the world at large. Nagi is very hot headed, but is a faithful companion, allowing Yui to feed on him as she refuses to feed on humans. Yui's weapon of choice are cherry blossoms, which she can bend to her will in a variety of ways. She passes this power to Miyu upon giving up her own blood for Miyu's rebirth.
Kyuuketsu Hime Yui Senyasyo is a visual novel based on the Vampire Princess Yui manga released for the Playstation 2 console. In the game the player can choose between 4 different main female characters (only 2 of them are availables at the beginning of the game), the game got a Life bar that will decrease depending of the player choices during the game. The game features different endings depending of the player choices during the game and unlockable pictures galleries. Quite a confusing and unsatisfying work unless you're fan of the original.  
8. Brown Doori Sanbanme ブラウン通り三番目 [030328] SofthouseChara

The setting is Middle Ages, a time where peace and war is jumbled together. It is during this time that utility people called "Adventurers" came into existence.
Monster extermination, ruins exploration, getting back stolen goods, etc.
As long as you have rewards and policy, they're an extremely useful existence.
To those people, weapons and goods necessary for adventure are sold, requests are dispatched and wounded bodies are tended and nursed.
An extremely essential existence for them adventurers that is, "Adventurer's Bar". SofthouseChara continues to make weird SIM games, as always.  
9. Tsuki no Mori 月の守 [030328] Ark

Japan, feudal era. In this game, you are Tsukinomori, a samurai. After a very difficult battle, during a night of full moon, you are walking hurt and alone in the forest when you see a mysterious light emanating from inside an old sacred tree. Investigating, you find inside a beautiful girl, naked. Her name is Hime, and she is the promised daughter of the moon who comes to the Earth every 50.000 years to change the story of the humanity.
Is she an angel or a devil? Will she bring salvation or destruction to the human race? It is up to you to decide by becoming her guardian, tutoring her and teaching her all she need to know in order to find her true destiny... Basically heroine asks about different aspects of the world and, depending on answers, one of four hidden parameters raises or drops. Such conversation continues endlessly, and - since there's no story in the game - it becomes super monotonous. The number of events is very limited. Rare kusoge.  
BLOCKED  
1. Moshi Moshi Milk Cocktail Debut もしもし みるくカクテル Debut [030304] Studio-74 Get acquainted with a girl by email and date her without making mistakes to get to know her for real. Doujin  
2. Pita Netsu Lesson EX: Tadashii Sei no Mezamekata Sono Ni ぴた熱 Lesson EX 正しい性の目覚め方 その二 [030304] Iconoclasm Main character excels in study and sports. But there is one thing he can't beat his best friend in for six years - sex. Doujin  
3. Boku no Mesu Hisho wa Doukyuusei 僕の牝秘書は同級生 [030307] Liquid 1 The Kirishima family holds the long standing tradition that the head of the company must train and maintain a sex slave as an obedient partner. Young Masato must find and train a female slave to take over his father's position as CEO of the group.
Masato's father has left his slave (secretary) to help young Masato to find a suitable candidate. Masato turns to his classmates in hopes of finding a suitable female sex slave. Three girls rise to the occasion. He must put those girls through intense training so he can choose the best one. Your choices help Masato to find the best female sex slave. Nukige  
4. Houkai Jokyoku 崩壊序曲 [030307] Rouge Main character gets mistaken for a pervert on the train one day, but that incident helps him to get acquainted with Miyuki who goes to the same university. They start dating, but Miyuki has phobia of physical relations due to past trauma. However after one seminar titled "Respect for self" she starts to behave differently... Nukige  
5. Rakuen Yuki 楽園行 -RAKUENYUKI- [030307] Alice Blue Taisei spends his days working at a convenience store. Nothing ever changes--until the day a briefcase full of cash was dropped in front of him. Suddenly there are scary guys after him and the briefcase. Now, with the help of his friends, he is on the run to stay alive... Boys Love  
6. Soushitsukyou 喪失郷 [030307] Mu Naoto and his lover Miyuki were going to ski resort. However, their bus was stalled in blizzard. The passengers were helped by Natsuyo, a landlady of a Japanese style hotel, and they decided to stay at the hotel for a while. At that night, Naoto and Miyuki made love at the hotel over and over, but he couldn't be satisfied, and finally he began to love Natsuyo. The situation was the same with other passengers. In this closed space, ritual and accidents continued... A bizarre and erotic story was just begun... Nukige  
7. Toki no Tabibito 季節の旅人 [030307] Miryou Koubou Main character is on the verge of marrying his lover, but one passionate night he loses consciousness and is awakened by his lover crying. The girl runs out and gets in a traffic incident. Protagonist's desire to revive his love is so strong that he gets warped in time. Nukige  
8. Promised Land [030309] ANGEL/BLOOD Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side parody game. Main heroine has time till the final exam to find her love.  Otome Doujin  
9. Angelique Etoile アンジェリーク エトワール [030314] Koei 1 Fourth installment in the series. The main character is a girl from the cosmos ruled by Angelique Limoges named Ange, who must save the cosmos as the "Legendary Etoile". Includes all of the major characters from previous Angelique titles, plus three new "Holy Beast Cosmos" Guardians. Otome  
10. Ayakashizoushi ~Oumagatoki no Yume~ あやかし草子～逢魔が時の夢～ [030314] Mermaid Main character is the successor of a shrine, but he does not believe in monsters, spirits etc. One day youkai begin to sing. Protagonist does not know how to handle youkai, but thanks to that inability he manages to handle them his way - by having intimacy with them. Luckily, all youkai have shape of little girls. Protagonist's revolution has begun! Lolicon  
11. Cosplay Tantei Nama Kigae♪ こすぷれ探偵ナマ着替え♪ [030314] Chiffon Main character is an ordinary college student. One day he is taken to a cabaret by his sempai and falls in love with hostess Sakura at first sight. However, in reality she is a woman detective who loves cosplay. Protagonist decides to work as her assistant, and he has to squeeze into nurses, maids, shrine maidens etc costumes while she wears female police officer uniform. Depending on the content of requests, sex techniques need to be applied to successfully fulfill the cases.  Nukige  
12. Mahou no Milk Tea ni Onegai 魔法のミルクティーにお願い [030314] Hadashi Shoujo Main character becomes an owner of a tea shop, but he is not really interested in tea. He wants to have intimate relations with girls around. So he adds aphrodisiac to the tea and enjoys company of waitresses and cute clients. Nukige  
13. Motto! Himitsu Taiken もっと！ヒミツたいけん [030314] Complet's Takes place a year after "Boku no Himitsu Taiken". Nukige  
14. Ura Kazoku Yuugi ~Oyako Choukyou Hanashi~ 裏家族遊戯～母娘調教譚～ [030314] Haoh Father remarries a very young girl, and protagonist moves out to live alone. But as father gets into an accident, mother-in-law begs protagonist to return home. The scale of distortion at home is yet to become known. Nukige  
15. Akaku Kagayaku Yuki 紅く輝く雪 [030314] Milk Cafe Main character returns to snowy hometown after 15 years. There he finds nostalgic spots and reunites with two important childhood friends. He thinks that such happy quiet life will last forever, but there are traces of separation in the air. Doujin  
16. Goukon Date! 合コンデート！ [030319] TOKOTON-LOVERS Atobe gets a date, but choices can lead to a crazy outcome like getting to Sengoku samurai and ninja. Boys Love Doujin  
17. Joi Okkusu 女医○っくす [030320] Blue Gale ON DEMAND This spring main character enters private medical college. He is attached to a senior doctor. This doctor turns out to be his lovely neighbor Yukari who he admires for a long time. However, she behaves coldly unlike old times. Protagonist is told that her character has changed after being betrayed by a man. 
Yukari... let me heal you so that you could shine like before! Nukige  
18. Sexfriend SEXFRIEND ～セックスフレンド～ [030320] CODEPINK Sexfriend focuses on the protagonist, Takabe Tomohiro who just happened to have his first sexual encounter in the nurse's office after school with his classmate, Hayase Mina. Tomohiro and Mina had been just friends until that fateful day. But was surprised at her attitude, he started to become addicted to the woman's body, and he continued the relationship with Hayase and eventually desires a real romantic relationship, not just friends with "benefits and cookies". With the school nurse's help, they were able to have sexual practice everyday. Nukige  
19. Tsuma x Tsuma 3 ~Koko wa Hitozuma Market!~ 人妻×人妻3～ここは人妻まーけっと！～ [030320] Discovery 1  Sakuraba Koutarou has taken over the Sakura Mart since his father passed away due to a traffic accident. He now has to take over Sakura Mart's management and also take care of his young and beautiful mother in law Sakuraba Minato and his little sister Sakuraba Nagisa. The road before him wont be an easy one however since his evil older brother is demanding him to hand over Sakura mart since he has more lucrative plans for that place...
Koutarou has to make Sakura Mart successful as fast as he can...he should fear not as many hot wives will be more than happy to help him and give him some "motivation", including of course his mother and sister!. Nukige  
20. Boku no Mushi Kago ぼくのむしかご [030321] Arkham Products At school the protagonist is bullied, while at home he's forced to live with the gold-digger stepfamily of his absent father. He finds solace with his friends, which consist of pets such as reptiles and insects.
One day he discovers that one of his bullies is afraid of a spider. Shortly after, he discovers he can make any girl obedient with his "power": a fearful obedience instilled by waving one of his uncute pets in her face.
With the aid of a secret dungeon under his house and tons of bondage equipment, along with an aphrodisiac he developed from his friends' venoms and secretions, he begins to wield his power in an aggressive campaign of vengeance. Nukige  
21. Fuyuiro Denshin 冬色伝心 [030321] Hanerom Main character attends school on a boring winter day. But this day he encounters a mysterious person, and the world around protagonist starts to change rapidly. Will there be warmth of someone else by the end of winter vacations? Boys Love  
22. Magical Twirler Angel Rabbie まじかるトワラー・エンジェルラビィ [030321] Kuroneko-san Team
Humanity makes much progress through a combination of science and magic, until a large war breaks out. Many years later, the magical city of Sosarium (constructed on the Moon) sends an agent down to Earth to make sure history does not repeat itself as civilisation starts to rebuild itself. That agent is known as an "Angel". Fandisc  
23. No Area NoAREA [030321] Fusyro Two solitudes - doctor and company president secretary - meet at a beautiful bar named NoAREA.  Boys Love Doujin  
24. Utsurogami ウツロガミ [030321] Underground Campaign The main protagonist is a boy who is working for the rich family. The game consists of two stories.
First story is about demon that is killing people and the main goal is to understand the mystery about that demon. Second story is about protagonists childhood friend and about his relationship with other people(this story has more sexual content and consist only of narrow path). Boys Love Doujin  
25. Wasurenagusa no Yoru 勿忘草の夜 [030322] Jewel Box Makoto is on her way to the drama club’s spring retreat when she gets lost in the woods, so she’s pretty glad to meet up with another lost kid. Taking him under her wing, she heads for the old school where the retreat is going to take place, blissfully unaware of what lies in wait... Doujin  
26. Wagaya ni Majo ga Yattekita! 我家に魔女がやって来た！ [030326] Touchy Black witch Kiri is defeated in a magic war and expelled to human world. She can not use magic there unless establishes a contract with a human being - and that human happens to be our protagonist. Kiri only desires to return to her primary world and conduct revenge at first, but her heart gradually softens. However, two white witches are soon sent to the human world to kill Kiri... Lolicon  
27. Akikaze Yozora ~Boy Meets UFO~ 秋風夜空 ～BOY MEETS UFO～ [030328] Glasses! On an autumn night main character encounters a flying object and meets an alien girl who asks him to remember their common childhood recollections. Having finished playing the piano she says "I am the one who shot that person." Doujin  
28. Daughter Maker ドーターメーカー [030328] Fortune♪ Suddenly main character's boss and lover Michiko dies from overwork. Protagonist decides to take care of Michiko's only daughter Mio. With time his attraction to Mio overgrows the one that foster father should have. Lolicon  
29. Eden IV [030328] Forester Remnants of rockets drifting near Mars are discovered in 2070 AD. Investigation reveals that materials belong to the rocket from moon base attacked by aliens in 2067. Among the investigation team is planet geologist Ellen Marvell. Noone noticed Glen Collins lurking inside the recovered rocket... Nukige  
30. Fushigi Densha ふしぎ電車 [030328] Digi Anime 1 2 The main character awoke at a bar in front of the station after getting drunk. There he saw a strange tram running through a strange city. A city filled with absurdity, a city lacking common sense. Our hero got on the tram and henceforth he was going to experience a lot of different stories and a lot of different sexual affairs as well. While getting himself involved in various strange happenings he arrives at the terminal station. Though, when he finally got there, the sun has already hidden itself behind the horizon, so he decided to wait for the dawn at the bar in front of the station. Once again drunk, he awakes and finds himself in a strange city with a strange tram running through it. Our hero, having lost all of his previous memories gets on the tram onсe again and sets on a journey through a mysterious town once more.
Will this seemingly indefinitely looping tramway trip continue for a long time? 
When will our hero finally get home? Nukige  
31. Gekkou ni Nureru Kyoushitsu de, Boku wa. 月光に濡れる教室で、僕は。 [030328] Cherry Soft Graduation ceremony is coming soon. Main characters writes a little novel where his classmates are insulted. He could never believe it when his classmate called him to meet in moonlight class. Her words were "Please insult me".  Nukige  
32. Grope ~Yami no Naka no Kotori-tachi~ Grope ～闇の中の小鳥たち～ [030328] May-Be Soft An earthquake causes the school campus to collapse living only 4 survivors—2 childhood friends, Fubuki & Shinichi with Takahaki and a Junior girl. Both Shinichi and Takahaki likes Fubuki, but Fubuki likes only Shinichi. Takahaki made false accusation on Shinichi having interest on the Junior, whom also likes Shinchi, in front of Fubuki to create a doubt between both childhood friends. And making use of the situation and raped the Junior and of course.... Fubuki. Leaving Shinichi in a mist of doubts. Nukige  
33. Ichibatsu Hyakkai Special 一罰百快Special [030328] Herb Soft A set of two works with full voice: Ichibatsu Hyakkai  and Ichibatsu Hyakkai 2. Card game  
34. Kingin☆Heart☆Succubus! きんぎん☆はぁと☆さっきゅばす！ [030328] Megami  1 Partly against his own will, Ataru has been specially chosen for an unimaginably important task: aiding three promising succubus achieve demonic transcendence. To do this he must rigorously assess the sexual performance of his charges, and in the process temper their strengths while correcting weaknesses. The reward for success is beyond anything his mortal mind could ever comprehend, yet the the punishment for failure is equally as incomprehensible. Nukige  
35. Marionette ~Ito Tsukai~ MARIONETTE～糸使い～ [030328] Carriere 1 The main character is Hiroki Mikage, apparently nothing more than a gifted but unremarkable high school student, although this facade hides an almost physical Darkness, a profound sense of restlessness and dissatisfaction menacing his own sanity.
However this is merely the prelude to even darker events, when Hiroki, while going to school, notices a strange violet light coming from the riverbank beside the road and finds a mysterious violet gem(?) scintillating with an eerie inner light... Nukige  
36. Match Uri no Bishoujo マッチ売りの美少女 [030328] Gaia A great war that divides the world in two, ends. One battle robot returns to New Edo...
The female protagonist is selling matches, but no one will buy them. One day she comes across the robot who is about to run out of energy, and she is able to communicate with it and help it by using her matches. Lolicon  
37. Menou-kun no Oshiete Oneechan-sensei 瑪瑙くんのおしえてお姉ちゃん先生 [030328] Jewelry Main character is given summer vacations task to touch nature and describe experience in the notebook. But he lives in the city! So he comes to his relative's house and is greeted by pretty little girls. They happily agree to play in the nature together, but they are eager to learn a lot from this new onii-chan. Lolicon  
38. Nikushimi no Rosette 憎しみのRosette [030328] Marine Heart City that never sleeps, Shinjuku. Cocktail bar "Rosette" dwells peacefully while most of neighboring establishments are crowded. Inside the store are three beautiful boys and a master with shade. They are the "revengers" who carry out the revenge tasks on request ... Become one of them in this fascinating occupation. Boys Love  
39. Ryoujoku Chikan Bus 凌辱痴漢バス [030328] Interheart Hi, I'm Masashi. I'm a bus driver. I secretly installed some bug microphones into my bus and eavesdrop on my customers, especially young girls. I get their secrets and enjoy having sex with them. There are now five target girls.... Well, it's time to get down to work... Nukige  
40. Sei Famiresu Gakuen 聖ファミレス学園 [030328] Black Light Vocational schools are opened in a little distance from Tokyo in an attempt to revive family restaurant industry. The world's first family restaurant salesperson training school opens its doors! Main character is the store manager who is responsible for apprenticeship and evaluation of waitress girls. This year there is a contest to choose "Miss family". A fun and challenging weeks starts. Nukige  
41. Tsumamigui 2 妻みぐい2 [030328] Alice Soft Three years after the events of the first game, Kanae divorced of her late husband and married the protagonist from the 1st game. Now they are living happily together with their two kids.
The new protagonist is Naoto, an university student good natured but a little womanizer. One day he receives a letter from his old neighroor and sempai from highschool days, Haruka "nee-chan".
Her husband is traveling to Italia, leaving her alone at their restaurant for an entire month, so she needs help. 
You decide to help her, so you move to her block of apartments. Besides the new residents, there you meet your new neighroor Kanae (from the 1st game) too, who is feeling very alone because her beloved husband is traveling.
Now you have the chance to live with two beautiful wives during the time their husbands are away on business... Nukige  
42. D.Zone [030329] Ritz software The setting is a futuristic Japan in which the country is divided into the City and the lawless D.Zone. The citizens who live in the safe city have IDs and are implanted with chips that allow them access to everything (hence they're known as Chips). People who live in the slum-like D.Zone are either Lost (from the city but lost or sold their chip), Visitors (foreigners with no chips) or just plain unlucky enough to be born there (Next).
Teenagers Tsugumi and Dail are childhood friends. Both are orphans living in a city called Eden and have only each other to support.
Tsugumi works at a recycling plant. On his way home from work one night, Tsugumi found a sad-looking Dail in the park. He wanted to be left alone. "Tsugumi...I'm sorry.." were the last words he heard from Dail.
The next morning, the police are at their house and Dail is nowhere to be found. It turns out that Dail has been accused of killing his uncle and is currently missing. He can't be found anywhere in the city and was last seen near the boundaries of Eden and D.Zone.
Frantic to find Dail, Tsugumi leaves the safety of Eden behind and ventures into the dangerous D.Zone... Boys Love

Year 2002 was quite curious. A lot of heavy weight candidates finally entered the scene. 
New portion of Visual Novel Openings 2002 with songs.
My list of masterpieces in 2002:
Baldr Force  Bokura ga Koko ni Iru Fushigi. D.U.O. ~Song for All~  Ever17 -The Out of Infinity- Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hotosenaru Uta Chitosenaru Shirushi Kikokugai - The Cyber Slayer  Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~ Masaru: Ashita no Yukinojou 2 One 2 ~Eien no Yakusoku~   Princess Knights Rocket no Natsu  Subete ga F ni Naru ~The Perfect Insider~  Suigetsu Utawarerumono Viper-RSR It's evident that public sympathies stand for translated visual novels. But for me meta-layer intellectual novels would always stand above plotge, so VN of the Year 2002 is Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~ .
My previous attempt of poll for review failed mostly because I do not like to return to VNs that I played recently. This my new attempt is for visual novels that I evaluate highly, but did not have time to make a proper review due to one month - one review concept. This time poll won't have ending date, and I will be reviewing game with highest number of votes despite of overall number of votes. So here we go. 

Foreword: Absolutely unknown game in the West that has overwhelmingly positive evaluation in Japan. Which side would I take?
Title: Rocket no Natsu
Developer: TerraLunar
Date: 2002-10-11
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v4190
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_HLI2A5oFE&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv_3lP089VAcjTRvabUf9dJf

Synopsis: There used to be a season called "Rocket summer"...
The Earth has become a member of the Galactic Federation and has accepted multiple emissaries from aliens.  Silver rockets are launched from the Earth on daily basis, but one day all inter-galaxy contacts cease and space port doors get shut.
Main character has dreamt of space travel since childhood. One day he decides to help girl Chise to participate in self-made rocket competition "50 Miles Over". Together with princess from the other star they form a rocket club. Will their dreams come true?
Structure: Roughly a month from 05.07 till 06.11
Length: 7 hours for initial route, some 3 hours for each of remaining 4 routes. Plus 3 hours for omake.
Game type: Space dream youth comedy with aliens
Difficulty: Moderate
Character Design rating: 8/10
Protagonist rating: 7/10
Story rating: 8/10
Game quality: 7/10
Overall rating: 7 or 8/10
Rating comments: It's 7 if you have sound stuttering like me and are't crazy about the genre like me. It's 8 for everyone else.

Protagonist: Takashi is pretty cool. He's so knowledgeable of rockets and so patient and attentive that I'd happily have same intelligent protagonist everywhere. 
Characters: There are five heroines which are very different. Chika route is forced as first - and she's the only normal human among all the heroines. She has the only normal route about passion for rocket building and normal romance. But after that surprises begin. There are two routes for each of aliens - Selen-chan and her guard Berthia. Characters are pretty crazy and so are their routes, but it was really sad for me to see ignorant and vain Selen-chan to have teary face in the end. Tsundere should never cry! Haruhi-sensei is... android teacher. And Akira is our normal childhood friend with a huge secret about her - the most shocking route for sure.

Story: Main route only covers characters getting together around Chika desire to build a rocket and being joined by aliens. Then each route has its turns.
CG: No complaints at all.

Sound: Everyone is voiced, including protagonist. That's absolutely superb. But sound stuttering that I got at Win10 really started to kill the fun around the third route I played. Freezes also got more and more frequent, so I did not record past 3rd route.
Thoughts:  It's the third rocket club theme visual novel that I play, and it's actually the best one of the three. The reason is the variety of routes and only interesting scenes. There's tension that leaves your interested from beginning to the end. Full voicing, bright atmosphere and colorful characters add up to the feeling. Omake about space adventures fits greatly to the picture as well.

Overall comments: Game is a masterpiece, no doubt. It's not a breakthrough game to become a pillar of new visual novel world. No, it's just a cosy cool place to visit and have a rest. I guess it's the real reason why it went unnoticed in the West - we need a breakthrough. The Japanese can be jerks about plotge, but they can rarely be wrong about a good calming charage.

Shirogane no Soleil -Successor of Wyrd- <<Unmei no Keishousha>>
( "The soliel of silvery-white" - Successor of Wyrd << The Fated successor >> )
 
This is the first game in Skyfish's epic norse mythology series. I had never even heard of this game before Clephas made a blog post about it a little earlier this year, and that might be the case for many. Having finally played the game myself, I have to ask... how is this possible? Why is such a great game not more well known? This VN truly deserves more exposure than it currently has.
Introduction:
Shirogane starts off with our main character, Ryuuhei, and his sister Tamako on their way to a set of ancient ruins in Iceland. Ryuuhei is not an archaeologist like his sister, but was dragged along by her on the pretense of being her "bodyguard." Ironically, that is exactly what he ends up being. Ryuuhei's group gets pulled into an encounter with a strange creature called "Berserk", a monster made up by the broken soul of an ancient warrior, which fell in battle ages ago. Powerless against this incredibly dangerous foe, Ryuuhei prays for help, asking for power-- the power to protect the people he loves. His call is answered by a slumbering Valkyrie, Sol, who makes a contract with Ryuuhei. She will fight for him, in exhange for his life force. Every time she uses her powers, she drains some of Ryuuhei's life force out of his body, shortening his life. They fight off the Berserk together, but this is merely the beginning of their tale. This seemingly random encounter might not have been as random as they thought. One might even call it... fate.

Story
The story in Shirogane is fantastic. It's told in two parts, "Valkyrie in love", and "Successor of Wyrd." Some of the story takes place in the present, while certain other parts takes place in the past. Shirogane contains tons of refrences to norse mythology, though the descriptions of characters and events from norse mythology in the VN are not necessarily identical to the "real thing". Therefore, while familiarity with norse mythology helps with appreciating certain aspects of the game's story, it is not at all needed. What matters in terms of refrences are all explained well enough in game, and seeing as they usually put a unique spin on things, it is not at all needed to know everything there is to know about norse mythology before reading this. (That being said, knowing some of the general concepts about who is who, and what is what will certainly make it an even more enjoyable read.)

 
Although Shirogane is a very serious story, with tragic themes riddled all over it, just like normal stories from norse mythology, the game contains a good number of humoristic slice of life moments as well. That being said, all of these moments fits very well into the flow of the story. We are seeing things from Ryuuhei's point of view, as he deals with the fact that his own life span is constantly being drained because of his contract with his Valkyrie. As a result, you feel a little more attatched to these everyday moments, since they are seen through the eyes of someone who only has so much time left to enjoy them. In addition, the comedy is pure gold most of the time. The slice of life moments very rarely feels out of place, and never gets in the way of the story. The humor in the game had me literally laughing out loud so many times, I lost count.

Characters:
One of the biggest strengths of this game is without a doubt the characters. Each character feels unique and is well fleshed out. They all add something to the story in their own ways, and it's hard not to grow attatched to them, be it heroes, anti-heroes or straight up villains at times. The interactions between the characters truly pulls out all sorts of emotions from the reader, making the story feel like one hell of a roller coaster ride. (In a good way. Prepare your tickets to the feel train, folks.) While the "good guys" are all very well done, my favorite characters were honestly the villains / anti-heroes that are introduced throughout the game.
On top of making fantastic "villains", the "duos" in the game are brilliant. Essentially every single character is paired up with another in some way, and they all complement each other greatly. These "duos" were without a doubt one of the best parts about the game in my opinion. Be it heartbreaking moments or hilarious ones; nearly all the most impactful moments in the story stems from one of these duos' interactions.


Art, Music and Writing:
As shown in the screenshots above, the art is nicely detailed. Considering this game was released in 2007, the art is very impressive. The amount of special effects, cut-scenes and CGs is no joke either. Sadly, things aren't as good in the music department. The music is by no means bad, but it does feel a little bland at times. Certain tracks do work very well with the tone of the story, and are straight up beautiful to listen to, but others feel repetitive and aren't that impactful. So, my complaint with the music would be the inconsistent quality of the tracks. That being said, this is hardly a big issue, as the writing, art and story makes slightly repetitive music matter very little in the end.
Overall, I have very few complaints about this game. It was a fantastic read from beginning to end, and I strongly recommend reading it. I don't use the term kamige a lot, but this definitely qualifies in my personal opinion.
You can buy all the Soleil games on DMM. (NSFW LINK!!!)

I've been seeing people wondering about Daitoshokan's translation, so I'm making this compilation of screenshots just to show what the experience is like in English.
The further down you go, the further into the game you are. But these screenshots are all from the first half of the common route and earlier, so I wouldn't worry terribly.
I think the VN is super fun, and really, that's all I care about, to be honest.

Foreword: I already chose another game for review in February... but in the end just could not ignore this huge pillar of today's visual novels. Without Kusarihime there would not be Saya no Uta, Cross Channel, Fate/stay night and Higurashi, so it's significance for the history can not be overerestimated.
Title: Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~
Developer: Liar-soft
Date: 2002-02-08
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v37
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J_joeqKri0&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv9h7u5e_7ePpWZ28i2PWbxd

Synopsis: After the mysterious death of his father and his younger sister Juri, Itsuki, now suffering from amnesia, moves back to his hometown with his stepmother. There he meets an enigmatic young girl dressed in a crimson red kimono named Kurame, and the two soon become friends. The strange thing is, Kurame looks exactly like his younger sister Juri...
On the surface, Itsuki's family and friends all appear to be rooting for his full recovery. However, deep inside, they also seem to be burdened with secrets and guilt about the past. In the span of four days, Itsuki's memories will slowly return as he struggles between his loss and his fear of the truth, until the fourth night, when the whole world becomes blanketed under a red sheet of snow and wrapped up in the silence of death....

Structure: 10 cycles x 4 days
Length: 10 hours
Game type: Mythology rural human drama mystery.
Difficulty: It's easy to get some ending, but not so easy to get the desired ending
Character Design rating: 10/10
Protagonist rating: 10/10
Story rating: 10/10
Game quality: 10/10
Overall rating: 10/10
There are as many as 5 reviews, plus reddit impressions, plus very curious spoiler theory-crafting thread (1 2 3 4 5 6 7), so pretty much everything is said there already. So what I intend to is to tell you without spoilers what this visual novel is about and why you must read it. And it's very difficult to talk about Kusarihime without spoilers. Let me present an imaginary dialogue of my consciousness after reading Kusarihime trying to persuade my skeptical other self reluctant to try it.

- So, first of all, Kusarihime is neither a horror nor a nakige. It's a rural story about a boy who looses memory and comes to his home town to try to regain his memories.
- How convenient! We've seen dozens of such stories by 2002 already! What's special in it this time?
- One thing is that game is looped over the same four August days
- That's not exactly a new thing. I remember at least three games with loops before 2002.
- But the second thing is that it's not a game about chasing girls. No heroine gets her separate end.
- That's weird. Is it some all ages game or something? What is there if there aren't heroine routes?
- Each heroine actually gets one of those 10 time loops to focus attention almost exclusively on her. That provides ample opportunities for presenting H scenes.

- So there ARE actually heroines routes, they are just hidden inside some of the loops. What makes it different from usual nukige or charage?
- Heroines here are not isolated inside their stories. They pierce all the loops, and each heroine story only helps to reveal the mystery behind the protagonist past.
- Oh, the "mystery". Something about the promise made 10 years ago?
- Absolutely not. First tier of mystery is about stray girl Kurame who looks just like protagonist's deceased sister Juri. Second tier of mystery is about protagonist's family overall - he had a father, a mother, a sister and a dog - all dead by now. The third tier of mystery is about the loop itself that ends with red snow falling, usually after some impactful violent events.

- Oh, so people die in here? Any guro as well?
- Thanks to loop concept it's possible to introduce any number of deaths here and then rewrite everything with another loop cycle. There is no guro.
- Pff, so even deaths happen not in the real world. Why should I bother reading 10 imaginary stories?
- Well, deaths actually affect same characters in next loops greatly. And count the characters - only half of the stories are loosely focused on some character. The rest of loops are focused on past or give hints to the listed mysteries.
- Oh, the "mysteries" again. Btw, what does this weird title Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~ mean?
- Kusarihime is translated as "rotting princess", it's the local legend about a girl in red kimono that causes certain people die. That girl's name is Kagame. And the stray girl that's found in the forest is given name Kagame by protagonist, but he can not explain why. As for "euthanasia", it's also a mystery. Here's dictionary definition: "Euthanasia is the termination of a very sick person's life in order to relieve them of their suffering".

- I know what it means, thank you. So I get the concept of the game more or less. But what makes this game so special?
- Soundtrack, unique graphics style, great directing with lots of flashbacks and insertion of sudden scenes from other times, use of frequently moving figures on the screen instead of sprites, stunning stories of each girl, mystery plot loopholes as basis for replay-ability or theory-crafting.
- Ok, enough! Might give it a look if I find the time in my busy schedule. No promises, though.
Overall comments: I consider Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~ to be the first intellectual visual novel in history. It attracts not thanks to thrilling plot, great characters or superb visuals. It creates a multiple layer mystery where different parts move in their own pace cross-referencing each till sudden resolution. Reader is required to remember or re-read early scenes to fill some parts of the puzzle and make his own guess about the rest. In that way it can also be called the first interactive visual novel.

 

First, I'm going to state that all charage/moege are harem-ge (with the exception of kinetic novels with only a single heroine).  In all these cases, you have a bevy of heroines that are, at the very least, friendly with or somehow attached to the protagonist.  There are a three standard types of harem that I consider to be general umbrella types.  These harems do not include nukige sex-only harems or the type of harems that pop up in gameplay hybrid VNs, as these often have distinctive story-exclusive reasons for harem formation.
The Disconnected Harem
This is the standard-issue harem for modern charage/moege.  In this harem situation, the protagonist is independently connected to most of the heroines, with very little or no interaction between the members of his harem of latent deredere troopers.  The reason this has become the dominant harem in the charage genre in the last seven years or so is because it is the one that is the most 'tasteful' to monogamists and traditionalists.  In this case, the heroines either have no real connection with one another or only weak connections that become tenuous the second the heroine path begins.  Games that have these harems tend to have extremely weak casts of characters in general, and there is usually very little or no real conflict between the characters (low incidence of love triangles, few jealousy attacks, etc).  As a result, games with this type of harem tend to have weak or nonexistent plots, lackluster SOL outside of ichaicha dating, and 'convenient' drama that is resolved so quickly it might as well not even exist.  These harems generally disband at the end of the common route, as the protagonist seems to completely forget any attraction he had to the other girls and they fade into the background.
The Dominant-Sharing Harem
The Dominant-sharing Harem is defined by the members of the harem being at least somewhat familiar with each other (often friends, family, or members of a group or club) and able to be cooperative to an extent while competing for the protagonist's love and attention.  Girls in this kind of harem situation (Shuffle is a prime example of it) are ok with the idea of sharing the protagonist in the abstract, but in practice they want to be the 'first wife' or the 'wife' and relegate the other heroines to the mistress or concubine status (though it isn't always stated this bluntly).  This is perhaps the most realistic harem situation, as, historically, real harems - other than royal ones - have usually been structured with a head or first wife and a number of secondary wives, often married with the permission of or by the choice of the first wife, lol. 
The Everybody's Equal Harem
The Everybody's Equal Harem is, just as the name indicates, a harem where the protagonist essentially loves and treats all the heroines equally and the heroines accept this situation, albeit often with a tacit understanding between one another that they won't stop aiming for a Dominant-Sharing type situation.  As such, this can often be considered a prelude to a Dominant-Sharing Harem result in practical terms.  A classic example of this would be the end of the Grisaia series or the ending of Strawberry Feels, where the protagonist himself never forms a preference, even if the heroines do build a sort of pecking order based on dominance of personality or circumstance.  Tiny Dungeon's Endless Dungeon ending can also be considered this kind of ending, whereas the individual routes represented by the first three games would be considered Dominant-Sharing harems. 
Why I bothered with this post
Anyone who has been an otaku as long as I have been has to accept that harem-thinking is essential to SOL otaku-ism.  As early as Love Hina and Tenchi Muyo, rom-coms have been creating wacky harems and weird situations that result.   This is because romantic comedy is the easiest type of comedy for anyone to get into, and the easiest one to empathize with... and comedy used to be the dominant genre in otaku media (though romance always came a close second). 
The evolution from that type of loose harem (though in later incarnations, the Tenchi universe threw off all pretense of not being harem-ist) to the current situation took decades, but it was a natural evolution in visual novels in particular, due to the fact that most visual novels are multi-route, heroine-focused affairs.  Charage in particular, with their focus on SOL, inevitably give off a sense that the protagonist is the center of a harem, even if it is only  in the common route.  Since this kind of situation appeals to the more primitive parts of the male psyche (males are genetically predisposed to seeking multiple mates, though socialization and emotional attachment overwhelm this in modern settings), eroge tend to abuse this flagrantly. 
Oh yeah, if you haven't figured it out, I like harem endings that aren't sex-heavy... but that isn't so much because I have a thing for 'collecting' bishoujos.  Rather, I like the various situations that result in VNs, as they are often intellectually interesting, heart-warming, or hilarious (or all three).  Nukige-style harem endings are boring and make me roll my eyes, mostly because I question whether anyone has that kind of stamina, and because ignoring the emotional and practical aspects entirely like that makes it hard to suspend disbelief.  If a plotge can make me think a harem would work, I want to see it work, lol.