Funnerific

Went back to finish it a year after doing the first route. Time well spent.

Was it this? Though it's not about plurals.

Was it this? Though it's not about plurals.

Was it this? Though it's not about plurals.

I thought that underlined phrase was going to be a link. I'm disappointed.

We're talking about Fuwa Reviews here, you don't actually have to read the thing you're reviewing. Just put low score on it for clickbait and complain about the things you kind-of remember.

The "default expectation" here is "no mosaics", because almost every single 18+ VN release on the West does NOT have them. It's often mentioned as one of the advantages of official releases vs fan-translations. Why would anyone suddenly expect something else? Why would anyone even ask about it?
As for informing about mosaics, MG somehow does this in a very clear way, without any controversies, and without using the word "censorship". They do go quite far with this (they dedicated 2 pages in the Ef artbook for the explanation about their localization and mosaics), but that's how it should be. They know that everyone expects and uncensored release, so they do whatever they can to inform the customers when something is different than "default expectations". For some mysterious reason, there was no outrage when they released those two VNs with mosaics.
How about Sekai? They slapped a term "unrated" on it. Why? It says exactly nothing - like I said, all 18+ VNs are "unrated" on the West, nobody cares about it. Heck, nobody even uses this term in the context of VNs. Unlike the term "uncensored"... But yeah, those terms sound so incredibly different there's no way anyone would make any mistakes. It's certainly a better idea to use a perfectly meaningless "unrated" instead of a perfectly clear "with mosaic". Great job.
If this really wasn't an intentional choice meant to deceive less cautious customers, they are retarded.
Going back to the G-Sen case - transparency and communication seems to be a bit of an issue here again. They were treating the "cropping" topic as a taboo, and as far as I know, they didn't even say whether they are planning to release the 18+ edition on Denpasoft or not. Or maybe I'm just missing their announcements? Correct me if I'm wrong.
As for updating art - there are plenty of good solutions:
1) Redrawing and expanding CG into a true, non-cropped HD. That's obviously the best solution. Definitely the most expensive one, but even though it might seem too good to be realistic, it's not unheard of - https://vndb.org/r3723 to mention just one example (and that's a total upgrade form 16-color graphics).
2) Scrolling - easier, cheaper, but less comfortable. Still, it preserves the original artwork in widescreen just fine, and you don't have to use the scrolling feature at all - you just get cropped version then.
3) Choice - you pick either cropped CGs or original ones with black borders - that's a no-brainer. Kizuato/Shizuku remake did this as well - they included the original 16-color editions.
Generally, the best idea is to let people choose. It's simple - you have old artwork, old cutscenes, everything - just slap those together with remastered stuff and let people pick whatever they want. A very easy way to make (almost) everyone happy with little to no additional costs (unless there are some licensing issues, but this shouldn't be the case here). It's actually a rather common practice, now that I think about it...

I should make a quick point regarding the art assets. I’m currently playing through Baldur’s Gate 2: Enhanced Edition, and I discovered that the cutscenes weren’t reworked with modern art like the 1st Baldur’s Gate:EE. This was because people complained when Beamdog changed and modernised the cutscenes in the first game. So what was the response when Beamdog left the cutscenes alone in BG2:EE? People complained, of course. And that's a good example of how you can’t please everybody.
Regarding the art assets, it’s nice to have different options for people who prefer different things. But I’m against the idea of having CG’s be ‘scrollable’, having to scroll through art assets breaks immersion when you’re reading and you’re unable to take in a scene in one go, you gotta scroll and interpret it in pieces. There’s a reason companies don’t do that. Definitely not my thing, but other people could be happy with it.

From what one of the editors said on Steam, apparently their censorship is limited pretty much only to pictures - text is almost unaltered and the sex still remains in the story (it just isn't explicitly shown), so the plot shouldn't be affected. At least that's what he claims. And yeah, the poor job at cropping is AkabeiSoft's fault, not Sekai's.
But... so what? It doesn't change the fact it's a cut version with not-that-great, cropped "HD". And since AkabeiSoft only made an all-ages "HD" version (so - no "HD" H-CGs), the chances for an English 18+ release are very slim. Buying it does NOT support "releasing VNs on the West". It supports the practice of releasing ONLY censored, Steam-DRM-ridden versions of originally 18+ VNs with no choice whatsoever. Because why bother with uncut releases, when people will buy whatever you throw at them anyway?

There are things that feel urgent but actually aren't important in the long run. There likely is time you're spending each day doing stuff you actually don't care about. For me it's browsing reddit and facebook (when I'm unmotivated) or playing random games. You can make an effort to pull time from there.
If after that you still have a list of things that are kinda important to you, it's up to you to decide which ones are more important to you. If VN's are your "me time" then by all means take some.
You could also try and look for ways to keep doing both activities, but trying to get the most out of the time.
 

Thanks for reviving it, guys. I thought nobody wanted a thread separate from the common one.
Just finished Hello,good-bye. Difficulty-wise it was above anything I've read up until now, what with that politics vocab and all. Stopped taking new words at ~200 and just read normally from that point on, it was much easier past the (long) prologue.
Possible minor spoilers below
I also finished Supreme Candy and Yui no Kotonoha a while ago, while this thread was dead.
Some thoughts on Supreme Candy with possible minor spoilers.

Finished H2O -Footprints in the Sand-
What an unsettling mix of carefree comedy and harsh story it was. Loved it though. The plot, characters and music were pretty nice (the ED song is damn good), but probably the best thing about this VN is the art. I picked it because I liked how Ikikoi did some things like the protagonist with a face in many CGs and while I certainly was disappointed on that front, I still loved it. Dem >15 CGs with sunset in the background. the atmosphere.
Don't have anything to rant about this time, except for how much of a moege kusoge the side story Root after and another is.
Out of curiosity I went to see the anime, was greatly disappointed several times over the first two episodes and dropped it before it distorted my experience any further. If I didn't have the game to compare to, however, I might have loved it.
 
Hayami best girl.

Well, it's been fun here on Fuwa with you guys, but now I have no choice but to leave forever.
See you all never!

"X is a 3.5/5 person. He/She has great moments, yes, but overall isn't all that impressive. IMHO he/she does not deserve a very high place in the hallmark of decent people."

Fuck me.

I'll be sure to "buy" this game to test out its "quality" and determine whether "the" transration is good.

GLace: "Hiring translator is for noob, Google-sama is da best."
 

Can't wait for people 5000 years from now to remember us as the "dank memes" generation.