Chronopolis

Got some more LNs and "real" novels as a late Christmas present for myself

G’day everyone,I thought I’d see how hard it is to deconstruct the first episode of Lain. Serial Experiments Lain is often seen as one of the weirdest, and most confusing anime but I think it’s blown way out of proportion. One of its strengths is that you don’t understand everything on the first watching, one of its weaknesses is that you don’t understand everything on the first watching, but I don’t remember it being too confusing. So to put that to the test I’m going to rewatch the first episode for the first time in a decade, and quickly write down my thoughts while viewing it. This will be a quick analysis, there’ll be things that are missing like the importance of certain artistic effects, but it should show that getting a general idea of what’s going on isn’t too hard. Obviously spoiler alert.
EPISODE 1:
Key points in the first episode:
-        First scene and we see a young girl distressed in an alley. She’s panting, hand on heart, either running or fearful. A group of passers-by stop to point and laugh, uncaringly. Is that not the way of the world? This uncaring disconnect between people? This lack of empathy? Amid the normal everyday actions of Tokyo’s (I assume) nightlife, that same young girl now appears on a rooftop. She strips herself of her glasses, her hair unties, a metaphor showing herself becoming free. She has a smile on her face and she throws herself off the building. That she wasn’t scared or distressed means she wasn’t running away from something, rather she was at peace and happy which means she’s running toward something. What was she running toward? No clue at this stage. Anyway, the silence of her suicide scene and her beautiful smile juxtapose harshly with her loud and violent death. Words appear on the screen - ‘I don’t need to stay in a place like this’.
-        Next scene Lain appears on a bright morning in school get up. She’s walking down the stairs and is on her way to school. The imagery here is interesting, there’s an electrical hum that permeates strongly and a focus on the power lines. The hum is a metaphor for the wired or ‘internet’ which is everywhere, connecting people and hovering eternally in the background of everyday life. There and yet not there. The powerlines are the same and they also connect everything, but they don’t hover in the background. However, the shadows splotched with what I assume is blood at times are annoying. It was a late decision to insert the metaphor into the anime connecting shadows with the wired, that the wired is everywhere just underneath the surface. A shadow world. I believe they stuffed up here. This was already done with the humming, it was already done with the powerlines, this is just a rather inelegant way of hammering the audience with a concept and I just think it’s ugly and gaudy. It makes things easier for the creators to get some stuff across, but I think it’s unnecessarily whimsical. Anyway what’s done is done, so most every piece of shadow is splotched with stuff.
-        Lain is on a train travelling to school. Everyone on board is doing their own thing as people in society tend to do. In silence. We are becoming increasingly disconnected with each other, so we have people reading, sleeping, gazing romantically out of windows, but nobody interacting and sharing their lives. However Lain comments on how noisy it is, asking why things can’t quiet down. It confuses the train’s inhabitants because it’s quiet in the real world, but I’m sure that electric hum indicates a greater interactivity and connectivity somewhere else. Also interesting that Lain can hear it. Lain doesn’t notice the commotion she causes those near her.
-        She arrives at school with herself gazing at her splotchy shadow, then looking up and seeing reality melt away. Obviously not a metaphor at all of something, which isn’t at all related to the metaphor on the train.
-        In class one of Lain’s classmates is distressed. It appears the young lass who just committed suicide (Yomoda Chisa) has been sending emails to everybody, but how can that be when she’s dead? ‘You shouldn’t be getting mail from a dead girl’ says one of the girls. What truly sage advice. Interesting theme of digital existence is raised here, though. I wonder how they will deal with it. It should be noted here that this show was created in the 90s, well before these themes became mainstream. Words appear on the screen - ‘What’s it like when you die?’ ‘It really hurts :)’ – only if you chuck yourself off a building, crash through some neon signs, and have a vending machine topple onto you after you hit the pavement. In programming class, reality once again begins to melt away from Lain. Sounds fade away, things begin to blur, white smoke from fingers. Lain’s beginning to see things.
-        Lain is walking again, presumably home from school. In her bedroom she loads up her computer to discover she has mail from Yomoda Chisa. Not just any mail but a very personalised email from Yomoda Chisa resembling a conversation. ‘I walked home with you once, do you remember Lain? I have given up my body, but through this email I want you to know I’m still alive. Rumour has it that this is a prank, but it isn’t. Do you understand? No matter, everyone will understand soon.’ Absent here is the MWAHAHA evil laugh every member of a nefarious organisation uses when plotting something. Pity. When asked why she killed herself, Yomoda responds ‘God is here’.
-        Lain is at dinner with a very cold, unfeeling family. They are thoroughly disconnected from one another. There's no sharing of lives and feelings here. The sister leaves without finishing dinner to do her own thing. When Lain tells her mother about the email from the dead lady, her mother doesn’t respond. From her facial expression she doesn’t care.
-        She goes to find her father, who is a huge computer nerd and is so lost in the tech word he also doesn’t take an interest in his family’s life. She asks for a new computer so she can see a friend and he’s obviously happy to oblige saying she’s being left in the dust. ‘People connect with each other, that’s how society’s function’ the father says as he interacts with faceless avatars on the computer/wired (metaphor alert.) Remarkably these futuristic computers look like they’re running Windows 3.1 or something xD 
-        Next scene. Lain’s on a train riding to school when the train suddenly halts due to an accident. And when I say ‘suddenly halts’ I mean it looks as though Lain is violently thrown into the door. She shakes it off like a champ, though. Lain looks out the window and things become white, the electrical hum gets louder, and splotchy shadows tinged with blood drip from the power lines. That’s a pretty strong metaphor about what just occurred, blood melting into the wired, also it shows that reality is melting away taking Lain along for the ride (or is it the other way round?)
-        Scenes flutter quickly one after another, whether by chance or is Lain searching for something? The middle of a busy crossing, stairs leading out of a subway, an empty school courtyard, an empty room, then white smoke, train tracks and ... the silhouette of a girl? The girl hops the barricade and runs in front of a train, a fanatical look on her face as the train collides with her. Is she laughing? Was this the cause of the accident Lain was just involved in? Why is Lain viewing this?
-        Lain jerks back to reality in her school classroom drenched with sweat. The teacher admonishes her and walks away. The words on the chalkboard start blurring and reality once again melts away from Lain. New words appear on the blackboard asking Lain to visit the Wired ASAP.
-        As Lain walks home she’s walking in the splotchy shadow. It surrounds her. Possibly important, because at this moment Yomoda Chisa strolls past. ‘Where are you’ Lain asks. Yomoda smiles, then her normal sad expression returns. Yomoda disappears.
So yeah, the anime is confusing but I think it’s blown way out of proportion. If you pay attention and possibly do a bit of research, you should be fine. You might not get everything, but you’ll understand the gist of it.
Though I doubt anybody is interested in the brief analysis of an almost 20 year old anime's first episode.

If I'd ever rate anything on a 10 mark scale, I'd start from 5 as the average and either increase or decrease the score depending on factors. Obviously, I don't rate anything anymore, because it's hard to be completely objective, especially about the things you like - your love for particular things coulds your mind, no matter what. There's also a bunch of different factors involved - whether a person is willing to drop his suspension of disbelief (thus raising the score), or whether things in a particular work trigger them (and as such, lower the score considerably). Certain aspects might raise the score for particular people. Some works are really good and deserve praise, others don't. Some games are easily reachable to a far wider audience, while others cater to particular niches. Certain games might have good bits, even if they don't leave much of an impression as a whole. Some stories start off good and then kill all the tension and excitement along the way to end in the worst kind of way possible. There is literally no way any score system could provide a wholesome and objective ranking.
Nowadays, I simply summarize and try to point out the most obvious flaws, whilst trying to dwelve into things, that make the essence of a particular visual novel; I don't over-glorify, nor shit on games. I simply provide information as to why I think a particular game might be considered above or below average and if it's truly worth mentioning - why particular games excell within their medium, to the point of being worthy considered masterpieces; that or at least highly recomended vn's.
That aside, people became way too subjective nowadays. It's one of the reasons why every game is 10/10 and an instant masterpiece. I used to give higher scores in the past myself. Nowadays, I'd rate most of those games far lower, even if I still liked them a lot. The truth is, majority of decent vn's doesn't really deserve a score above 6, if we'd try to keep close to the original guidelines created by some major archives, like vndb for example. The good thing is, the more you play, the less skewed your opinions become and the more valuable they might get for another person. Still, I'd treat everything others say with a grain of salt - the best kind of opinion will be always that of your own.

For the rating system I have, most of the VN's I appreciate and did something admirably well get a rating between 8.2 and 8.6. The reason why I don't give out ratings higher than 9 often is that at those highest levels my scale isn't even really well defined. It's hard for me to tell what properties a VN had that made it excellent in many areas, or outstanding in something it did. So upon finishing a really good series, without further examination, I can "this is probably at least a 9"
At the end of the day, the numerical rating is just a memory jog for what things you liked/disliked, and what you thought the VN did well or not. Different VN's are trying to do different things, so their ratings aren't comparable to other VN's unless the two are closely related in genre. That is to say, there isn't much meaning in directly comparing their ratings and trying to draw something from that.

For the rating system I have, most of the VN's I appreciate and did something admirably well get a rating between 8.2 and 8.6. The reason why I don't give out ratings higher than 9 often is that at those highest levels my scale isn't even really well defined. It's hard for me to tell what properties a VN had that made it excellent in many areas, or outstanding in something it did. So upon finishing a really good series, without further examination, I can "this is probably at least a 9"
At the end of the day, the numerical rating is just a memory jog for what things you liked/disliked, and what you thought the VN did well or not. Different VN's are trying to do different things, so their ratings aren't comparable to other VN's unless the two are closely related in genre. That is to say, there isn't much meaning in directly comparing their ratings and trying to draw something from that.

I mean let's be honest with ourselves a true 10/10 visual novel doesn't exist, even if we make sure to factor in subjective tastes, I am confident that we can all point out various flaws in our favorite visual novels. A numerical system of rating is inherently flawed in that complex opinions can't be converted into a number without striping allot of the complex opinion of its' meaning. 
I would recommend that you revisit some of your ratings after you have read a dozen plus more visual novels. You currently have a relatively low amount of visual novels rated, so your ratings might be a bit skewed in certain ways. After expanding the amount of titles read you may look back and rate some visual novels differently. 

I suggest you establish your own rating system. What things must 10 tier VNs possess? What qualities does 9 tier VN need to possess?
Alternatively, you could do it like I do and rate them based on how much you enjoyed them. I find that by the end I just know what they deserve, or have a very good idea.
Surprisingly, given that I give 9/10's left and right, I only have a 10/10.

Yeah, SeaBed is gem, one the best VNs I read last year.
It's pretty hard to categorize or even explain properly, but SeaBed is a cool exercise in psychology and very atmospheric story. A mystery, but not really. Adults living with their problems.
And even though the game is Yuri that's never the focus. In fact if someone were to pick the game just expecting yuri they would probably be disappointed. (Unless they'd fell for the it's other wonderful qualities)
But that said, even though I really took a liking to it I can see that SeaBed is not really for everyone. Some might find the dreamy, diary-like narration boring, but for those looking something different, little unusual SeaBed can be an amazing experience.     
 

ebihime is a good EVN developer. If you enjoy EVNs, you'll like ebihime. If you dont like EVNs, move along 

I... don't see what's so triggering about that writing either. It looks quite good to me.

VNDB link
Has anyone here read it?  I remember someone praising it and wishing it would get translated.  Whoever that was, it looks like you're getting your wish 
The translation is being done by Conjueror and the editing by gare (link), so that makes me happy.

They're mostly introverted or quirky and maudlin works, though there's quite of range, but if that's your cup of tea and you don't mind the art she's pretty decent. Definitely much better than your average OELVN writer.

Oho, 100% legally assault if you can prove intent ... would be my assessment. If the image was just for lulz though, no.
But stupidity on the internet is causing us to rapidly move toward a future where there will be a concerted effort to curtail the freedoms and the consequence-free nature of the internet. Didn't have that in the 90s when people were more sensible, now every idiot can get on xD

The author said on twitter a while back that StP would be about twice the length of the previous installments.
Anyways, I love Fault's combination of stunning visuals and the world view (plus the fact that story is respectable).
I'm guessing the story probably will be more involved and psychological than the other episodes, seeing as its Ritona's whole backstory. Looking forward to it.

Well it seems like the next installment will be the SILENCE OF THE PEDANT which will be out in nearly half a year (sigh), June 20th. 
I was under the impression that it would just be a "short story", but going by the site it seems to be at least as big as the previous installments of the series. The art looks fantastic and dat tagline "DAMN YOUR LEGACY" , can't wait. 
Here's de link for the website. 
http://projectwritten.com/fault/en/stp/

That's weird... I tried translating a bit this summer, and after some fiddling I managed to get those tools working.
If it's of any use here's the first 250 lines of Chapter 3 (TL'd and edited) from back then.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1CZ2Ai5gEW-RE1GZ0x5SUNHXzA/view?usp=sharing

I think one of the reasons why this game is so good and connects with the people who like to read a well-written story is that Natsu no Kusari is not trying to sugarcoat anything. Shinji is a bastard. The game never glorifies what he does and even in the instances when he succeeds, there is a bitter aftertaste for the reader to stomach.
That may not seem like much, but it's really fundamentally different than 99% of all the other eroge out there which are constantly trying to pander to the reader.
For example, usually if you have a villainous protagonist, there is some kind of dark desire the reader has and the game wants to satisfy. (And there is nothing wrong with this as this is fiction and having some dark fetishes is perfectly normal.)
In a normal corruption eroge, even though the reader knows it's wrong to do the things shown in the story, the corruption of the heroine is in the end shown as something glorious, a feat worth praise. And the evil protagonist, although without a doubt the reader knows he is a bad person, is looked upon with envy and respect. And the reader might even wish he was as awesome as he is.
But none of this is in Natsu no Kusari. Even though the game knows that the majority of its players will identify with the protagonist, it doesn't give us the satisfaction of enjoying the torment of the girl or putting ourselves in Shinji's shoes. We only get a reason, no justification for having these feelings, the feelings of being social outcasts, not being able to find our place in society or even happiness, even though the game definitely understands why we are thinking like that and why we can relate to Shinji's line of thought.
When I'm thinking of the best game 2016, there is no doubt in my mind that it's Natsu no Kusari. For telling a story without compromises alone, even though the reader might, no, certainly will find this off-putting, it deserves this title.
There is no reason to force you to read something that you will obviously not enjoy. Natsu no Kusari is a very good game, but even the best story can't make you enjoy something that is conceptually repulsive to you.

A very long time ago, in around the end of 2013 I believe, this idea was attempted. But it never went anywhere, and I don't think it would go much better this time either. The biggest problem that prevented it from succeeding last time was that everyone had ideas that They liked, and wanted their idea to be the VN that the community would produce. Ultimately to make a VN, you need enough people to like 1 idea enough to want to work on it. But you also can't have too many people either, since that will increase disagreement. So a project open to a community is very difficult to achieve, since it requires severely limiting what average members can contribute, and having leaders who make the big decisions in how the VN will progress and be developed. And thats the problem, many people will probably disagree with the leadership, and ultimately choose to completely opt out.
Katawa Shoujo is a rare case, and what helped a lot with that VN is that everybody already knew the idea they wanted to do. A picture of disabled anime girls sparked the motivation for people to create a VN about the idea. So at the very least the community already agreed on what the basic story would be about, which would be very difficult to achieve here. Since if you pick one story idea, the rest of the community might bitch about why "their's wasn't picked". Also, Katawa shoujo's most productive phases of development was when their was already clear leadership and roles that were assigned. Meaning that most of the productive development of Katawa Shoujo was not really a community effort, but the effort of an established team.
The only other quality community made game I saw made was the Fire Emblem rom hack, Fire Emblem the Last Promise (its old name was Fire Emblem Tactics Universe, which was named after an old Fire Emblem forum that no longer exists). And most of the game was made once it fell into the hands of a guy known as Blazer, and it basically became his personal project. The community would submit map, music, sprites to be used, but he had the ultimate pick of what got used or not. 
In order for a Community project like this to work, it requires dictatorial leadership, which communities are fundamentally against, which is why successful Community projects are such an anomaly.

I made a similar topic a long time ago.
 
Obviously:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_80zOZXC0BQ
 
Jokes aside, on my case, it's probably a remix "Bhava-Agra as seen through a child'd mind". I have way too many remixes of it to pick from, though, so I'll just put the original here.
 

Something to keep in mind is that Dating Sims regularly make a resurgence, and a small but significant proportion of the VN community came from people seeking dating sims who got hooked on slice-of-life VNs.
One thing about dating sims is that they are relatively easy to make (the basic system hasn't changed since the nineties, with only minor details different between games).  Another thing is that they don't require a ton of processing power, so they can easily make their way onto mobile platforms.  This has made the popularity of western-made games of this type rise in recent years.
One other thing to keep in mind is a fundamental difference between a true dating sim and a VN (including most otomege).  Dating sims are active experiences where you create your own love experience from the options available.  However, VNs are essentially a passive experience where you experience other people's romances in most cases.  This is where tastes tend to split off between VN lovers and dating sim lovers...
A dating sim lover will often find it frustrating to play your average slice-of-life VN, as they won't feel they are an active participant in the story.  In opposition, your average VN lover will find dating sims frustrating because they are interested in the characters' perceptions, not in inserting their own into the story beyond a choice of heroine. 
Keep in mind that I'm speaking about 'center of the road' players on both sides, not the 'fringe' players who can enjoy both.
Another issue is that otomege have one huge advantage over male-oriented VNs when appealing to young female dating sim lovers... the sexual element is rarely, if ever, blatant outside of a few scenes here and there (extremely unrealistic situations that stop short of actual H).

There's a lot I disagree with on your perception of otomege, but all of that would take way too long to talk about and ultimately doesn't matter to the point I'll try to make, so I'll just not touch that. I also think not classifying them as VNs in the first place is almost ridiculous, but that also doesn't matter here and I'm just going on a tangent about my dissatisfaction with it.
The same way bishoujo moe games like Nekopara won't destroy the medium despite being overwhelmingly more popular than story-driven VNs, otome games won't. 
They're even marketed towards different audiences (unlike those bishoujo moe games, which plot and character driven games also appeal to the audience of) and on different platforms. 
Guys won't stop buying their games about cute girls with swords because there's suddenly an influx of games about being wooed by hot vampire guys. 
Guys who don't even buy games about cute girls with swords because they care about the story of those games certainly won't stop buying their hipster fata morgana or whatever else it is they buy. 
Ultimately, I believe otomege thriving or not simply doesn't matter for the health of the niche you're worried about.
Now, I know there's a point about otome games shaping the public perception of what a visual novel is that can be made here, but I don't think that'd ever be a problem (at least not more than what it already is), since the VN community has worked out pretty well with people already having very warped ideas about what VNs are anyway. 
In fact, I believe getting people more used to the VN style in general is already super likely to drag in fans (like those guys who started reading VNs because they played some Neptunia game,) so it's probably something worth celebrating.  

Website (Intro and download)
Hello,
TC Kain+ is an evolved form of my previous WIP VN called TC Kain which has a thread here.
The reason for "plus" is that the game now runs in Unity3D and I've added space battle mini games to it.
This VN is a little different from others. It has no element of anime. It is not about relationships. It is about war and politics as well as life and death based on a sci-fi world I've created. I've built this world based on year 9599 and wrote extensive lore to enrich the world.
The title is Two Clusters Kain arc plus or, in short, TC Kain+.


Story
There are four main characters. Two are immediately introduced. Two others are introduced much later.
Kain and Suu who are introduced at the beginning take most screentime.
Kain hails from a humble beginning. As an ex-journalist working for a magazine company on Moon, he joins Sol navy just to get away from his financial hardships casued by severe recession. His goal, initially, is simply to feed himself. But he soons finds himself heavily engulfed in war, politics, and women.
Suu hails from a strong family. She has powerful parent and background. Having deep respect, almost to a point of being overly zealous, toward his father, she volunteers to join Sol navy to aid her father in achieving his dream. However, she soon finds that the world outside of sheltered life isn't what she thought it'd be.
Third character, Juron, is introduced in chapter 6.
Forth, and final, character, Magenta is introduced in chapter 8.
This VN portrays their lives.


Few ingame screenshots








Art
This VN uses exclusively CG (Computer Grahpics). I use Blender.
However, due to large amount of cast, I also use stock CG assets that I purchased. You can generally tell the different on the screen from stock assets and mine unfortunately. Over time, I hope to replace them with my own. But modelling clothes, humanoid figures, and such take a loooong time.
Therefore, not all characters are made in Blender and some are from stock assets.
VN and its arts are inseparable. Though, in my case, it's CG art.
For an example, on a screne.
Before render


After a quick, simple, test render


Full render before being fed into GIMP for post processing


Tactical mini space battle
A major improvement from my previous TC Kain is an addition of mini space battles. This is the reason I decided to import my VN to Unity. There is a test battle feature where you can just try the mini game. There will be more test battles added in the future.
From chapter 8 and onward, there will be story related space battles.

Thank you

That moment when you realize OP quotes everyone; besides you. 

Saya no Uta differs in a way, reader is clearly given an explanation, why Fuminori sees the world like that. In denpa-type stories, that does not happen and when it does, it doesn't until the story develops or even ends. Nothing is ever explained in a concise manner and you're only given vague hints, which are often misleading and tend to carry readers astray. Points of view shift, world becomes distorted - you never know exactly when and how. It is up to you to piece everything together and find a solid ground to thread upon... that is, if you can; the very best works in that genre won't allow you that, forever toying with your perception.

Glare (use a walkthrough if you get stuck, instead of guessing) (http://akimasanari.sakura.ne.jp/) It's a really quality AI story. Also the herione is the only tsundere character that I've liked ever.
I'd also sort of recommend the author's other work ayakashigami.