Mr Poltroon

Ho ho ho, ho ho hoes; 'tis the season!
If your avatar is the same as it was last year and I gave you a Santa hat for said avatar, it's time to change it. Otherwise, you may select one of the Santa hats and/or other adornments below, and I'll use my sick graphical skillz to put it on your avatar. (If you don't choose a hat, I'll choose for you, for better or worse. [Worse.])

You know the rules, and so do I. But in case you have a poor memory, they are as follows:
Make sure your current avatar hasn't already been Santified last year or a year before that. You can make a special request or ask for a Santa hat you found somewhere on the Interwebs, but it might be difficult to implement on your avatar. (Translation: I might be too lazy to accommodate your request.) Some avatars won't look very good with a Santa hat, either because the Santa hat is cut off from view or for other reasons. I probably won't be able to do animated avatars. If you get a Santa hat from me, I'll save your original avatar somewhere and @ you after Christmas to remind you that it's time to de-Santify your avatar. For every day beyond liturgical Christmas in which your Santa hat is still on your avatar, I will be angry and I'll probably keep @'ing you in a way that one could reasonably interpret as targeted harassment.

Hmmm, I'm adding 2/3 to the list...

How are you doing people? I haven't been around lately but strangely enough,I'm still alive and even watching trash-tier anime!
First, I've finished The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent which, sadly, fell more into cheesy romance tropes more than the isekai power fantasy in the second part of the season. It's quite an interesting specimen in general, as it does with josei tropes basically the same thing trashiest isekais usually do with shounen tropes – the world is just so convenient for the protagonist it's laughable, but at the same time, the female fantasy is infinitely more wholesome and gentle, so I kind of enjoy it. It's a slow-burn, pleasant series where conflict is barely existent and no forms of malice seem possible outside of natural disasters... But it's all heartwarming enough to justify its existence. Maybe it'd be less so if such shows were common, but this specific spin on isekai wasn't something I've seen before and felt fresh enough to not bore me. 
Than, I fell into the trap of watching Love Tyrant which I knew was a shit anime, but still seemed amusing enough from clips. The clips, sadly, were the best part about it. Bad comedic timing, poor writing, flat characters without charm, plot that for some reason tries to transition from episodic comedy to emotional drama and immediately falls flat on its face... From average ratings you would not think it'd be horrible to watch, but I consider it one of my worst anime experiences to date: not good enough to actually be fun and not bad enough to make for a good ironic watch. It's not "so bad it's good" or outrageous enough to keep you engaged, just a tone-deaf pile of utter mediocrity.
And possibly going even further down the drain, I've started watching The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter. And well, entertainment value is at least infinitely higher than Love Tyrant (that is, higher than zero). In a way, it might be my new favourite perv anime – it has this utterly charming quality of being full-on ecchi and being consistently mild in all it does. The premise is basically the protagonist being OP and regenerating his mana through pleasure – all kinds, like good food and drink, but primarily through mildly sexual acts with a small cast of willing heroines, with a very obvious main girl. And he has to recharge often, as he will die if he overspends his power. I'm not sure if that makes sense to anyone else, but what makes Hidden Dungeon enjoyable to me, outside of being generally a somewhat-competent trash fantasy show, is that it's not over-the-top juvenile – it's just the right, mostly believable levels of juvenile, with surprising attention to detail in both how the world is built and how the ecchi is done. And it's not even a tease, like, you have a fully consensual kissing scene in the first episode! What anime does that? I dunno, I might be crazy, but I respect what this show does. 

Hi, folks!
The main writing focus this month has been to work on some of the unwritten branch paths of existing storylines and get some alternate endings done. I finished two of them: One for the Villainous Robot storyline and one for Sayori's Alter storyline, both involving choices that occur near the end. I know the one for Alter was rather eagerly awaited by some people so I hope it doesn't disappoint~
Also check out the ending for Nozomi's Zombie storyline again. The writing was finished last month, but now there's a couple of adorable new CGs for it ^^
As always, you can find this month's release in PC, Linux, Mac and Android versions on my Patreon or itch.io pages. I've also linked the most recent flowchart guide on the latest public news post on Patreon.
For next month I'm hoping to get another ending written as Penlight continues its long journey towards completion. But for now, please enjoy this latest release!
What's New

WRITING: Sayori's Alter storyline now has a new ending along the unethical path WRITING: Added a new scene to the existing Villainous Robot storyline, on day 6, plus some minor script adjustments to later scenes WRITING: Added a new ending for the Robot storyline ART: Added two new CGs for Nozomi's Zombie storyline ending ART: Added a new CG for Sayori's new Alter ending ART: Minor update to the Zombie storyline's rehearsal scene CG and Atsuko's sprite SFX: Added one new sound to use during the new Villainous Robot scene LOCALIZATION: Various edits and corrections to the existing Spanish script Word count is now over 304,500 Minor typo corrections

I guess I should give some context to my previous post. 🙂
Anyway, I recently watched Selector Infected WIXOSS (and its second season, Selector Spread WIXOSS) It was an alright anime. I wouldn't really call it a hidden gem like some online comments I've seen before watching, but my final impressions were still positive, and I can recommend you to watch it if you feel that you might be interested.
Basically, it's a card game anime that was probably quite heavily influenced by Madoka Magica. Our protagonist, Ruuko, gets gifted a set of card for a new popular card game, WIXOSS, and then she realizes that there's a moving and talking girl inside one of her cards. Later she meets another girl with a similar card, who explains to Ruuko that she is now a selector, and now she should fight other selectors in magical card battles. If she wins enough times, her wish will come true. If she loses three times, she will lose her card and will stop being a selector. There's a small problem with that though: Ruuko doesn't really have a wish. But she still decides to fight because she has nothing to lose. Right?..
Honestly, my main problem with this anime is how the battles are presented. Well, maybe I'm just not a fan of soft magic systems. I've never really watched a card game anime before, and I doubt they are different in that respect, but there aren't really any rules to the card battles here. Basically, we know that one of the girls is stronger than another, and thus she wins. Or one of the girls isn't fighting seriously, because somebody said something bad to her, or because she can't bring herself to fight seriously for reasons I can't explain due to spoilers, but she needs to come to her senses to win. You just have to believe what the other characters say about the game progression, because it isn't really possible to see the results of their actions for yourself. When the anime actually presents some rules, they will probably eventually become broken by the power of will or something like that. Though, as I was typing it I realized that it's not really a big problem in this case, because it is done to move the plot forward and kind of fits the type of show this is. So, I guess, in the end, it's not really a problem. Huh.
The characters themselves are a bit cartoonish, but pretty good. It was interesting to see the MC and her friends develop throughout the series. As for the antagonists, Iona turned out to be pretty interesting in the second season, actually. Akira... is just an ordinary yandere. The plot was actually surprisingly unpredictable. It was obvious from the very start that there was going to be some darker twist with the battles, as the show didn't try to hide its atmosphere. However, I never really guessed any of the major twists correctly. Well, technically I was correct with one thing, but for the wrong reasons.
As for the technical stuff, I'm not an expert, but I think this anime is pretty well made. There weren't any things that irritated me. Well, with the exception of Tama's voice, perhaps. One thing that stood out to me, however, is that some of the backgrounds are really well drawn and pretty to look at.
As for the final rating, I think I will give this anime as a whole 7/10. The second season is slightly better than the firs, but I don't see any reason to give them different ratings, since they don't work on their own.
OPs and EDs here. The second OP has spoilers.
Edit. Oh, and I should probably mention that it has some incest.

https://vndb.org/v16858
Currently reading through Master Magistrate. Despite the story being serious, the balance of comedic moments keeps it from being serious. The CGs I have seen so far look great. I like the use of the CGs in black and white during actions scenes. It is almost like I am reading a comic book. Since I haven't played any Ace Attorney game yet, getting evidence and the trials are new to me. While the one for the first chapter was easy to figure out, Chapter 2's trial did stump me a few times. 

I am currently on Chapter 3. I am excited to see what happens next.

Also, I finished Love Duction. While Yoshia's route was good, Annie's route disappointed me. To explain why,
Despite my thoughts on Annie's route, I still thought that this VN was still decent. You will enjoy more if it can make you laugh. Unfortunately, I didn't even laugh once. 

Hey, everyone!
With this update I have at last completed the "Zombie" storyline along one story path. And on the month of Halloween, no less! Shame that the name has had less and less relevance the longer this story has gone on then, haha ^^;
Anyway, there may still be a couple kinks to work out in the script, but all in all I reckon it's become a fun and unique experience.  Not to mention a massive improvement over the broken original storyline that it replaced. And that's without talking about it having the most ambitious CG sequence in the entire game, most of which has now been completed with only a few finishing touches left to put on it. Do check it out!
As always, you can find this month's release in PC, Linux, Mac and Android versions on my Patreon or itch.io pages. I've also linked the most recent flowchart guide on the latest public news post on Patreon.
Next month we'll be seeing some new endings given to existing storylines as I look to finish writing some of the alternate choices dotted around the game. Penlight's been a fun ride, and we're still a long way from completing the thing, but it's nice to finally start making moves in that direction.
In the meantime, please enjoy the new release and I'll see you again soon!
What's New

WRITING: Zombie storyline scripted to an ending along one story path WRITING: Edited Sayori's Alter storyline script to include the latest sprite art, edited some existing dialogue and added some new script ART: Added some new poses and expressions to the Zombie route rehearsal scene CG ART: Added a second CG to the Zombie route rehearsal scene ART: Added a new outfit to Kyou's, Nozomi's, Sayori's and Hiroko's sprites SFX: Added a new ambient sound for the Zombie route epilogue scene LOCALIZATION: Various edits and corrections to the existing Spanish script Word count is now over 300,000! Minor typo corrections
Known Issue

The big CG sequence near the end of Nozomi's Zombie storyline has not yet been added to the CG gallery

Currently reading Harem Kingdom, where I was met with this:



I couldn't help but be reminded of a certain scene from this old gem:



Anyway, I rarely read harem or isekai titles, but I have to say that Harem Kingdom is one of the more entertaining reads for me lately. It can be pretty hilarious how each of the girls try to one-up each other in order to get the protagonist's attention!

Currently reading Miniature Garden. I really like the beginning. This VN keeps giving me more questions about different things such as characters, events, etc. as I read further. 

Hey, everyone!
It's a bit of a muted release this time I'm afraid. Both me and my artist were pretty badly affected by illness and it seriously disrupted my plans for the month. There's a few more scenes scripted for Nozomi's Zombie storyline, although I was really wanting to finish it by now >.<
There's a couple of new CGs for the story as well, although I had to make do with preliminary sketches to present one of them, which is meant to be the first part of a very ambitious CG scene. Also, our main girls all have had a new pose and expressions added to their sprites. Penlight's characters are already pretty expressive given the visual novel format, and I've always thought it important while constructing the game that their sprites do have a big range to choose from while they're talking and reacting to things. Makes them seem more alive on-screen. So out of all the setbacks I had this past month I was happy to at least get that done for them.
As always, you can find this month's release in PC, Linux, Mac and Android versions on my Patreon or itch.io pages. I've also linked the most recent flowchart guide on the latest public news post on Patreon.
Anyway, that's all for now. At this time of writing both me and my artist are doing a lot better so next month I should finally get the Zombie story path done while adding a lot more of the illustrations I wanted for it. I hope you'll all look forward to it~
What's New

WRITING: Zombie storyline scripted through to the end of day 11 ART: Added the partial Zombie route Rehearsal scene CG, albeit in sketch form ART: Added new poses and expressions for Nozomi, Hiroko and Sayori's sprites. They can be seen in the opening scenes of the game, Sayori's and Hiroko's original storylines and the Zombie storyline ART: New CGs for Zombie storyline: One all-new and one from mostly reused art assets ART: Made Hiroko's sprite 5 pixels shorter GUI: Enlarged the width of the scrollbar in the CG gallery by 20% LOCALIZATION: Various edits and corrections to the existing Spanish script Word count is now around 297,500 Minor typo corrections

Big thanks to everyone who helped us along the way! Scripts are now 100% edited and currently being inserted into the game. 
Please do buy the game if possible! It has been a long road due to time constraints and real life hurdles, but it has finally been completed. Don’t get your hopes up though, since I am the only person inserting the scripts manually as my editor (@mimosa) finally left after doing an exceptional job. Still, it may take a while for me to release it because of a stubborn personal reason. This would be my first and last visual novel project and I want it to be near perfect, free of bugs and errors, because I would never look back on this project again and that may leave you guys hanging. With that said, me and some testers I choose on discord will play the game thoroughly so that we would be free of those things. I cannot promise any dates since I only do this in my free time because of my work, but rest assured that it will be finished and we’ll have Kururu ease our hearts. 

So, retsu batoru!

90 percent boissss. we're so lazy. i'm inserting the scripts now.

Hey Everyone,

I have a couple of cool new tracks for you:

On my Chiptunes 5 page:

CYBERPUNK ARCADE 2
https://soundimage.org/chiptunes-5/

And on my Sci-Fi 10 page:

CYBERPUNK BARS
https://soundimage.org/sci-fi-10/

No, I’m not obsessed with cyberpunk music….well…yeah I am…sort of…lol.

Anyhow, enjoy (and please consider donating to support my efforts if you can.)

🙂

Interesting that you'd say that. The common opinion of Grisaia back when most people played it was that it was great because of the comedy, and that the common route was chock-full of it. But like anything else, it ultimately depends on what one likes. Any individual scene from the common route continues to be a barrel of laughs to me.

Penlight public release day is upon us yet again!
This past month saw a little further development of the Villainous Devotion path, with several scenes being rewritten (one of them majorly) to go along with some fun new CGs added to it. But most importantly I managed to fully outline a path through the new-look "Zombie" storyline from beginning to end~ As ever, I'm interested to see what people make of it all.
Another fun thing to note: As of this release, the number of unlockable CGs in the game has surpassed 100! Where will it end?!
As always, you can find this month's release in PC, Linux, Mac and Android versions on my Patreon or itch.io pages. I've also linked the most recent flowchart guide on the latest public news post on Patreon.
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys the update! And there'll be more to come at the usual time~
What's New

WRITING: Zombie storyline outlined through to a conclusion along one path, and scripted through to about a third of day 11 WRITING: A scene on the Villainous Devotion storyline, using the new CG assets, has been majorly rewritten ART: New CGs for the Villainous Devotion (x3), Sayori Alter and Zombie (x2) storylines ART: Number of CGs is now over 100! ART: A small image depicting the "mind trick" now appears when it's used MUSIC: Added one new music piece to the soundtrack, which plays during the Zombie storyline LOCALIZATION: Various edits and corrections to the existing Spanish script Word count is now around 293,000 Minor typo corrections

Fatal Twelve. It popped up randomly in the Switch store the other day, jeez y'all gotta market better!
 
Fatal Twelve is a, uh... battle of wits style battle royale death game? Except there's no hard violence- no epic Fate/Stay battles to the death. At the other end of the spectrum, there's no glorified verbal debates like Danganronpa's Class Trials. That's probably my biggest first impression disappointment going into this VN lol.
The basic premise is that 12 people died, and through an enigmatic process called Divine Selection they are put through a 12 week altered reality where none of them actually died. The goal? To eliminate all other participants via weekly Elections in the Court of Fate. Other than that they are relatively free to do as they please with their newfound time. In order to Elect someone, a participant must have their opponents' 1) Name 2) Cause of Death 3) Life Regret. An eliminated participant will have their death become reality once again, and any physical actions or influence they made between their original death and the current present is erased. The sole survivor of the Divine Selection gets the privilege to defy fate and live on while the rest perish as fate originally intended.
The whole process is supervised by none other than Parca, a snarky self proclaimed Goddess of Destiny.

Yo you're cute and all, but, I mean, wtf kind of name is Parca?
The 12 participants all have different backgrounds and circumstances ranging from mafioso, wealthy businessman, housewife, single old man, smuggler, rich indian prince, female child, and of course, our protagonist, your every day ordinary high school male high school female with a delinquent appearance: Rinka. She really is just a high school kid, as she mainly spends the first half of the Divine Selection just mulling about her school's upcoming culture festival and friendships, with her research into the other participants being limited to really amateur attempts such as trying to Google them on the internet. The adults do all of the heavy lifting, forming alliances and long con betrayals. 

Who looks more out of place here, the handsome Nigerian Prince or the delinquent schoolgirl lol.
The story plays episodic/weekly, with the first few weeks being easily forgetful since they were used to eliminate the fodder cast and establish the mechanics of the Divine Selection as well as give you a feel for how the other participants are going about their days. Might as well have called this VN Fatal Six, since that's when the remaining cast get to have some better interactions and scenarios with each other. As I said earlier, the weekly eliminations in the Court of Fate also leave much to be desired, as those segments really lack any climax feel. No oomph. One person just Elects someone, calls out their name, cause of death, and regret, and that's it. Moving onto the next week.

YO I FEEL SAD THAT THE DIVINE SELECTION ELECTION ELIMINATIONS BASICALLY BOIL DOWN TO LIST YOUR OPPONENT'S 1-2-3 LINERS AND NOT HOUR LONG DANGANRONPA CLASS TRIAL SEGMENTS
 
Pretty curious to see how this can end, like if there'll be any jaw dropping twists or if it'll just end straightforwardly.


~~
Another VN err otome that just came out today that I've been waiting for is Bustafellows. For some reason I thought this was made by the same devs IdeaFactory/Otomate who made the blockbusters Code;Realize and CollarXMalice, but apparently not. Still looks like it has the potential to be included in the list of high quality otome VNs that everyone who gets into otomes should read though.
You play as Teuta, a cheerful 21yo freelance journalist living in modern fictional U.S. New Sieg. Looking for her next scoop she happened upon one of the heroes, Limbo, a famous skilled arrogant lawyer on the side of justice. Hoping to catch an interview she calls out to him, but much to her shock he just collapses and dies, blood pouring out of his chest.
So what does she do?

She timeleaps one hour into the past into the body of another in order to warn Limbo about his impending doom.


...Oh yeah, this should be good.

Oh god I think I'm gonna become hella spoiled by Yuzusoft
I forgot that they actually put in the effort to change character sprites to go in tandem with what whatever the characters are currently saying. Bless whoever they hired that has enough OCD to take the time to do all of that.
It actually makes me want to listen to the entire dialogue rather than doing my whole min/maxing sweetspot reading because it really does amplify the reading experience significantly.
~~
Anyways I ended up going for Riddle Joker, cuz I need me some high school superpowers
Friggen' Himawari, bless its the-whole-is-greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts-cough-Aqua-Best-Girl took a whopping the entirety of Episode One+Two for me to finally settle down and really start enjoying the narrative for what it was, but Riddle Joker was instant hook line and sinker for me and I'm enjoying everything right off the bat.
Protagonist is (first) Satoru Arihara, a combat-capable-but-slacking-in-studies realist high school boy and he's part of a secret organization of "Astrals" who seek to use their powers for the greater good, vigilante style.
His latest mission: to infiltrate the nation's first prominent Astral education/research facility.
He has a younger sister, too. Foster sister. Nanami Arihara. And man, every VN I'm reading lately is making me realize I'm simply the siscon type, godhelpme, Nanami is fantastic. She's the well meaning younger-than-protagonist-but-responsible/mature-enough-that-she-essentially-takes-care-of-him-like-an-older-sister-type, but she's very, very shy/introverted around others and will have her vulnerable moments where she'll call "Satoru-kun" the coveted "Onii-chan" instead. She's also Satoru's partner in crime in the secret organization they're in, so they have that dynamic going on for them as well. Jeez, what more can you ask for in a brother/sister relationship?

I'd go straight back to sleep all day errday, just so I could get awakened again and again and again by such a kawaii sister lel.
 
But step aside Nanami, first impression best girl hands down goes to:

Ayase Mitsukasa.

Anyone who knows me, knows pink is an automatic win, no questions asked. Pink, responsible role model, student council president...all this is about as common and standard as it gets but I shall never tire of it heh.
Now, I would've been fine with Ayase as is because I'm ez, but hoh boy this oughta be fun(SLIGHT SPOILERS):
 

Good morning good people of Fuwa! As the person that is keeping the main site slightly less dead than it could've been, I decided I could use a space to post about new content without making new threads every time. Here I (or possibly other authors) will post updates whenever something goes up on Fuwa's frontpage – feel free to comment & discuss.
This weekend I published a review of ebi hime's The Mermaid of Zennor, a very interesting and very angsty psychological drama VN. Consider checking it out and leaving your impressions here or in the comments under the article!

I recently read 'Kotonoha Amrilato'.
 

The premise is as simple as it is intriguing: Rin, a regular japanese high-schooler, suddenly finds herself in a bizarre version of her own world after buying taiyaki at a stall on the street. This world is, for the most part, almost identical to her world, but a couple of remarkable aspects stand out: the sky appears to have a pink hue no matter the time of the day (yes, even at night), and all the signs and posters on the street are written in a weird language, whose writing system sort of resembles the roman alphabet albeit with noticeable differences as well.
As you would expect, Rin starts to panic after failing to establish proper communication when trying to ask people on the street for help. Eventually she runs into this young girl, Ruka, who for some reason can speak a smattering of broken Japanese. Ruka then decides to help her out and offers Rin her apartment to stay the night.
First of all, the main focus of this VN is on the struggle to communicate between Rin and Ruka. Most of the text, aside from Rin's inner monologue which is obviously in Japanese/English, is actually in Juliamo, the language of this world... which is actually proper and completely grammatical Esperanto (as a matter of fact they had the help of the JEI, or Japanese Esperanto Institute, to develop this VN), and a translation won't be provided at least on your first playthrough. The reader is expected to feel as lost as Rin does, and to slowly learn the language along with her. A big chunk of your gameplay time will be spent on an in-game Duolingo of sorts. Now, you technically don't need to do well in your tests to procede with the story, and you could theoretically ignore all the language learning stuff. However, the payoff when you are able to understand Rin and Ruka's conversations in Juliamo is huge. It's akin to the very satisfying feeling you get when you are learning a new language and it starts to click, condensed in a ~15h VN.
Language things aside, Kotonoha Amrilato, as the name implies (Amrilato is an Esperanto compound word made up of the root 'am-', related to love, and 'rilato', which means relationship, so literally, 'love relationship') is a romance between these two girls who can barely even talk to each other. Their clumsy efforts are endearing and are sure to warm your heart. The world is also very cleverly constructed and, even though due to its short length it can't spare the time to go tackle the small details, it always feels consistent and believable. It won't be a huge burden on your suspension of disbelief, is what I'm trying to say, barring the fundamental isekai premise, that is. Speaking of which... yeah! this is technically a yuri isekai! Now, I can't claim to have read an insane amount of VNs or having watched a crazy number of anime, but I have the feeling that this combination of genres is not particularly common.
Anyway, the bottom line is, this is one of the most unique VNs I've read. Would I recommend it to everyone? Definitely not. This is only for people who are interested in communication and language (not necessarily Esperanto, as that is just an easy vehicle the VN picked to tell its story: don't expect Esperantist culture) and don't mind to put in the effort just the same way our protagonist does. I would say that if you are big into yuri you should still enjoy it nonetheless, but really, you can only get the whole magical experience this little gem has to offer with some active hard work on your part.

Aaand I feel jipped again LOL 

I finished Himawari.

Asuka's route for me was like
An anthill
Compared to the Mount Everest that was Aqua.
See, there's this enforced playorder thing
So the writers know that you know all about the plot shenanigans that Episode One and Two foreshadowed, with Aqua's route being the route of choice to conclude them, so there's no need to regurgitate all that jazz again.
So what does that leave for Asuka? 
Absolutely NOTHING!
It's like they ran out of gas. Here I thought there would be one last curveball, an Episode Three, a true end, grand finale, idk, something! But Asuka's route ended up being as standard of a heroine route as one could imagine.
Asuka herself is a decent heroine though, I'll honestly just take anyone over Aries, so she was a solid 7/10 enjoyment.

Yeah, sure Asuka.
What's truly frightening, I'd say, is getting all hyped up after finishing Aqua's route and wondering just what the writers could cook up next, but then you appear with all your mediocrity and make me depressed.
 
~~
Even Aqua becomes strangely philosophical during Asuka's route:

WTH, WDYM AQUA?? YOU AND YOUICHI HAD LIKE THE BEST ROMANCE EVER.

~~
Neglected to do a misc. thoughts/spoilers so I'll do one now. It'll only cover Aqua though LOL
Here, have some Techno '48. Though, it should really be renamed into Night of Aquarius or something . This BGM was totally made for her.
SUNFLOWER SPOILS


~~
Whew, my fingers are tired. 
I've been wondering just wtf I could read next, as is the norm when I finish a VN. I kind of want the standard high school romance setting with a pretty cast and SOME plot going on to keep me entertained.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Ah!
Yuzusoft.

Haven't checked them out since the Noble Works and Dracu Riot! days
It's a tossup between Riddle Joker's high school supernatural powers and Senren * Banka's countryside fantasy. I'll end up reading both anyways, Yuzusoft is always yummy, but for now I'll preview both and see which one I wanna read first

In this month's update, I add another load of CGs, tweak some older content and continue making progress on writing Nozomi's second storyline. There's a lot I'm happy about with this one ^^
One of the highlights in this release is the new art for the villainous story paths. Each of the paths now has an illustration to introduce them and a rewritten opening scene to boot, so those are well worth checking out again!
As for Nozomi's second story, "Zombie" (which I should be clear isn't fully descriptive; it's not really about zombies ^^;), I made a lot of scrappy progress trying to get it done. It's certainly looking different enough to distinguish itself from the other stories in the game that's for sure~ Anyway, I'm trying to get it written to some sort of conclusion by the time the next public release rolls around so that should be something to look forward to.
As always, you can find this month's release in PC, Linux, Mac and Android versions on my Patreon or itch.io pages. I've also linked the most recent flowchart guide on the latest public news post on Patreon.
Hope you enjoy the new release!
What's New

WRITING: Rough dialogue written for the Zombie storyline through to day 9, and some rough outlining for day 10 ART: New CGs for the following storylines: Villainous Devotion, Redemption, Nozomi Trance, Sayori Alter (x2), Villainous Sleeper Agent, Villainous Robot and Nozomi Zombie ART: The icons representing Kyou's penlight and phone have been updated with new drawings ART: Several of Sayori's existing CG scenes have been lengthened and improved with additional art UI: Changed the CG Gallery screen to a scrolling display, allowing more images to be accommodated compared to the previous version LOCALIZATION: Various edits and corrections to the existing Spanish script Word count is now around 284,000 Minor typo corrections

Himawari really is a VN that can only be appreciated as a whole, not by the sum of its parts. For some reason it really took me some time (Had to finish both Ep 1 + 2; a week) to get into the "honeymoon" VN reading phase where I spend my days itching to get home so I can read some more.
Episode One was (enjoyment factor) a 5/10, a SoL sloggy grind with one of the most meh poster heroines ever via FUKO ISOGAIII Aries, with Ginga's discount S;G Okabe personality running the show not really helping either. Episode Two was a 6/10, intriguing, liked the setting/narrative change, but overall experience ruined by LOLOL YOU THOUGHT AQUA WOULD BE 100% GRISAIA YUUJI COOLIO??!! NAWWOPE!!! Watch her flail around like a headless chicken and get trolololol'd by one sided upside-down-spade shenanigans. Exaggerating, but yeah. Don't fall for the get overhype :)!!!! -> get disappoint :(!!! trap.
These two episodes combined however finally set the stage for Aqua's route, and at the end of the day I now appreciate Episode Two because it was what sowed the seeds that ultimately culminated into the rather heartfelt (and delicious!) romance between Youichi and Aqua. 9/10 enjoyment factor. 



I enjoyed Aqua x Youichi so much, I actually don't want to read the next heroine route (it's an enforced play order). Considering everything that happens in Himawari up to this point, these two MUST be the canonical pairing, right...? The story HAS to be made for them. So why wasn't Aqua's route meant to be played last...? Guess I'll find out.

@Asuka I don't play too many gameplay/rpg VNs, last one I played was like Yumina the Ethereal years ago which had some dungeon crawling bits that I loathed (I just hate dungeon crawlers in general and can't fathom how people find them enjoyable). I guess if you just want the story try looking for a super easy/story mode setting, if not then go look for handholding walkthrough, and lastly screw everything or ggez just gitgud
@Vernon hehe, the best thing about Kyou route is how many times you get to hear her classic frustrated "AHH mou!!!"
~~
Finished Episode Two of Himawari
...

I feel slightly jipped.
They done Aqua dirty here. The entirety of Episode One you are disillusioned into thinking Aqua'd be this enigmatic, cold hardcore badass, which she still is technically, but she was totally someone's private evil fantasy and the amount of times she's put into awkward, vulnerable, outright provocative positions and sheds her tough exterior for the whole lovesick stuttering mess of a damsel in distress routine was downright disappointing. I get it, it's to fulfill whole "cold on the outside, warm on the inside" trope but forgive me if I just wanted a full 100% awesome this time around.
Here, I'll do her some justice and hype up what her story should've focused on more of.
First, here's a somber space theme:
^It was apparently only 20 sec so I extended it, which holy hell I didn't even notice that during the VN, but apparently most of the BGMs on Blank Note's side were about this length. They're an amateur group, so kudos to them for making a bunch of catchy short themes for this VN.
 
This is Aqua:


Naturally, a character of her stature would have the following goodies:


 

 
See? Pretty interesting sounding stuff right? The times her story focuses on subjects like this, it gets pretty good.
BUT WHAT DO WE MOSTLY GET?


~~
Ultimately tbh Episode One and Two were kinda sloggy to go through, I'd say they're both 80% mundane SoL and 20% intriguing backstory/revelations. Episode One gives you the Muv Luv Extra treatment, only there to establish the characters and very sparsely carrot dangle some bigger picture plot shenanigans. Episode Two covers the backstory of said bigger picture shenanigans but through a different perspective and leaves more to be desired as it focused on more... erotic matters.
Looks like I don't get instant access to Muv Luv Alternate / Episode Three though: look at this Scene Select; Episode 1 & 2 only cover the first 3 Tabs! Jeez I'm slacking, and there are 8 Tabs wtf.

I'm guessing Tabs 4-6 will be heroine specific, cuz I'm currently on Aqua's, and then finally 7-8 will be the finale. I dig it. Feels like a good length. Can always appreciate a VN storywise that does the whole Part 1 - SoL Part 2 - Backstory Part 3 - Finale to get you invested.
P.S. Aqua's helpless damsel in distress girliness in Episode Two is forgiven for pre-Episode Three's:

That's how you do it. Just make her pure moe as FUH if she's not going to be badass
 

@Eclipsed And there you have CLANNAD. I've never actually read the After Story to completion. I don't think I have it in me.
I'd love to hear your impressions on the anime as well, because I think it takes all that is best in CLANNAD: i.e., they do the Kotomi route thing and join all the school characters together rather than keep them constantly isolated from one another.
It neglects CLANNAD's side characters and stories, but as you put it, they're there more for thematic reasons the anime would be unable to replicate regardless.