Mr Poltroon

Finished Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright
It was good overall, I tend to like medieval fantasy settings, and Phoenix utilizing his desk slamming prowess as a baker was outright hilarious and it was nice to have the Maya from the good ol' days
Puzzles were whatevers, they were about as good as some random mobile app you'd play to pass the time. Didn't know who the hell Professor Layton was prior to this but he was a cool guy, a bit too cool though in that he often overshadows Phoenix and makes him look like a total novice
The overarching mystery regarding the lore of Labyrinthia and the Great Witch Bezella was good enough to keep me interested, though when it came down facing the reality and unraveling the truth behind it all it was kind of disappointing if not super underwhelming
But the entire setting did make for some fun witch trials. I particularly liked the whole mob mentality / having multiple witnesses testifying together, it made cross examinations much more hectic and fun. The stakes were extremely high too, I mean you usually don't see or hear about the fate of the Guilty parties in Ace Attorney but here you get to see the results immediately ><
P.S. I think this game came out before Dual Destinies but apparently Professor Layton is a follower of Professor Means 

~~
Gonna take a break from this stuff now. It's nice to be late to a series, almost 20 years of games in the making defeated in a mere month. Pce out 
 

Oh my lord, Eclipsed is alive!
Good post, because you reminded me that I am completely out of touch with the Ace Attorney series. I didn't watch the anime, I didn't play the fan-tl'd Investigations 2 and I completely forgot they made Spirit of Justice.

guys I solved it I solved it, I finally know why mmorpgs make female armor so skimpy
 
 
Sharty's face is just priceless

AA2 Justice for All was aight, but definitely these cases lacked the extra "oomph" that the cases in AA1 had, I guess because there wasn't really a prominent baddie nor was there any big case developing in the background like DL-6.
Pearls is just too adorbs, jeez the writers really can't stop shoving them Fey females in our faces huh >.>
Francizka(?) was waaay too overdone unfortunately, especially with the constant whippings and the foolishly foolish fool spamming. Good ending scene though :')
The drama b/w Nick and Edge was kinda weird, you get all this foreshadowing about choosing death and Nick getting mad at Maya for mentioning his name but then
  
Last case was pretty thrilling, if not a a bit too Hollywood-action-movie-glorified though
 
~~
Anyways I'm already on Ep. 4 of the third game AA: Trials and Tribulations, and wow they really did Mia's courtroom sprite justice, idk her regular sprite's face always had that weird tilt to it imo
Prosecutor Godot is my favorite so far. His best sprite combination is when you best him in court and then he shakes his head, slides himself a mug, drinks from it, then spits. HILARIOUS.
 
~~
The fourth case is... REALLY hard, idk. Playing it right now. I'm pretty decent when it came to making connections and deductions with evidence, but when it comes to pointing out contradictions due to perspective it's like holy shit i got destroyed xD
They played with perspective a few times already like how can two witnesses:
 
But yeah this case is just LOADED with them. Goddamn the Dusky Bridge, man. Let's see, I'm pulling up the walkthrough now because JESUS:
/

I've just finished Ebi-Hime's Blackberry Honey and it was... Painful. Part of it it was because I was busy last week and could only play the game in short bursts, which made it feel like even more of a slog, but it was still the slowest VN I've ever read. If got me hooked at some point, but Ebi herself wrote in the post-credits note that the idea was originally for a short yuri nukige and was re-written multiple times, before becoming a 10-hour kinetic novel. And it shows - the whole plot could be summarized in like 10 sentences without skipping any significant detail. It was written in nice prose, decently-produced and the romance had a pretty satisfying conclussion, but it was ultimately so ubelievably empty... 

First off, let me just say that I love reading your posts. They actually serve as a great recap for me, as a person who tends to forget a lot of details from VNs I haven't read in a while.
As for Island, I enjoyed it a lot back when I read it, and I'm glad to see it getting some more appreciation. The only thing I wasn't entirely satisfied with was how
 

....I finished Island.
Goddamn, I haven't been this emotionally attached to a cast of characters in a looong time. Specifically the love tale between Setsuna and Rinne. It's just so fabulously romantic, everlasting love that transcends the boundaries of time... Sorry Sara and Karen, these two heroines get absolutely shafted in the grand scheme of things, but it worked in my favor anyways cuz I just ADORE Rinne.
Unfortunately can't say much without instantly getting into SPOILERS, but yeah, once I got into winter I was hooked until the end.
Random highlight reel (ULTIMATE SPOILERS) cuz I gotta rant about this stuff to get it out of my system or I'll get a real nasty case of post-VN completion withdrawal depression LOL:
 

Hi, folks!
This month, I turned my writing focus towards Nozomi's story paths. Her long-neglected second storyline, beginning when Kyou suggests Nozomi act like a zombie, has had some significant work done to it after having been essentially broken for so many months. There's a lot more that needs doing, but we're off to a decent start, I reckon.
A couple of alternate endings have also been written for Nozomi's original path, Trance, which result from a choice made towards the end of the storyline. If you go looking for them, the latest flowchart guide will help you out if you're having trouble~
There's also another ton of new art in here, with most main storylines getting some form of additional illustration including something to close out the current Trickster story writing from last time.
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.
And that's all for now! Please enjoy the new updates and I'll see you again in June
What's New

A reconstruction of Nozomi's Zombie storyline, written up to partway through day 6 Written two previously outlined decision paths on Nozomi's Trance storyline, each leading to a new ending New CGs for the following storylines: Hiroko (original and "Trickster"), Sayori (Doll and Alter) and Villainous Sleeper Agent New CG for some of the classroom scenes, seen across multiple storylines Minor script changes on most storylines, mostly to address discrepencies caused by the new classroom CG Fixed a bug in one of Hiroko's CGs on her original route that didn't display her shadow correctly Spanish localisation: Various edits and corrections to the existing script Minor typo corrections Word count is now around 276,000
Known Issues

Changing the language on a line where an animation occurs (like screen shake) will throw up an error.

I'm enjoying Island a lot more than I thought it would. I think that's the particular VN formula I enjoy the most- charamoeges with beautiful scenery that more importantly ultimately builds up to a greater plot. Probably why Rewrite is one of my top VNs.
Island really keeps you guessing though. Is all the scientific hypothesis jargon really true, or is it all just some grand delusions from a bunch of wishful islander kids?

 
The heroines are all great. Going off of my 5yearold Grisaia memories, Frontwing was always good at making heroines with top-notch-common-route-bantering-prowess-but-with-fundamentally-flawed-personal-issues-that-will-be-explored-in-their-routes:

 

Karen, who longs to leave the island and its outdated traditions.
 

Sara, who longs to uphold tradition and save the island.


Rinne, who believes she and Setsuna are the same Rinne and Setsuna of legend.
 
Btw, devs were generous enough to give her a whopping 1 CG without her hat:

I CANT HELP IT! YOU LOOK SO GOOD WITHOUT THE HAT!

Rinne is obviously my best gal, and so I bawled absolutely hard at her ending. Now, I would've been fine if things ended the way they did, but hoh boy, Island gains massive bonus points for:
 

[Musicus!]
Act II
(I'm typing this as I'm playing it, and I had to turn off Kaneda's voice because I just couldn't stand it, ugh. He got even more annoying real fast.)
Okay, I finished it. It's official, I'm dropping this. This act was... fine. 
Act I was fun and all, but after that it was just painful to keep reading - it's a shame, I was expecting so much more :(((
----
After this, I'll finally be able to make progress with Maggot Baits, so at least I'm excited for that! 

Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai

Summary

Kawakami City is famous for its strong dedication to its samurai ancestors. A strong fighting spirit is always valued and it's even an important factor in succeeding in school there.

Yamato, a second year student from Kawakami Highchool is always with his close friends (4 boys and 3 girls). They have known each other since they were young and have done loads of things together. They have many other friends, but this seven people is a close-knit group, they even have a secret base where they meet...

With the new semester, they welcome two girls into their group and shortly after things start to change...
 
Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order
 
There are 5 main routes, 6 sub-routes and 1 hidden route, as well as a couple of other endings.
Initially you'll be forced to choose one of the 5 main routes. As you finish them more and more sub-routes will open up, and after finishing all of the main routes the hidden route will be unlocked. 
You may play all of these in any order you wish.
 
To get into a route, finish the prologue and you'll get into a choice screen. You get into a route by exhausting all red spheres with any given character. Each time you select a character she will lose a sphere.
Walkthrough
Choices crucial for certain CG's will be detailed below. Choices recommended will be written below, but only choices which will otherwise lead to a bad end will be in bold. Timed choices are included in the choice number. After Stories and Sub-Routes have no story relevant choices.  
 
Prologue

Momoyo Route

Chris Route

Wanko Route

Miyako Route

Mayucchi Route
 
Sub-Routes
Hidden Routes
Attribution

This walkthrough is based on info attained here, all info tested by yours truly.
Summary stolen from VNDB.
 
Changelog:
(23/08/18)
- Fixed broken main image.
- Fixed broken spoilers as a result of forum updates.

Just started playing My Girlfriend is the President. Welp bois, time to f*ck a spaceship!

[Musicus!]
Ozaki's Route
This was a tough one. A pal of mine warned me I should read this in one sitting since I might lose my motivation to get back on it after and I tried, but I ended up reading this in three (not full) days. It wasn't bad: their relationship was good and I really liked the parallels between Ozaki and Kei, but the middle (and most of the route) was really REALLY slow and dragged. 
In the end, it was only a 6/10. If only they had shortened in the middle of the route, it would be enough for me to give it a 7/10.
I sure hope this is the weakest route 
------------
Alright, next week I'll be reading the second act! 

Ok so, good first impressions on Island
You play as Setsuna, an above average decent looking 5.3 rating guy who wakes up amnesiac on an Island. That's as cliche as it gets huh.

Whew. Unfortunately, buddy, you ain't got nothing on Grisaia's Yuuji. 
Setsuna woke up feeling like he was in the middle of something important- a greater, save the world purpose perhaps- and there are immediate hints that this VN could be dealing with time travel and destiny and whatnot. 

Oo la la, didn't really expect that. Of course, this could all be a big ol' red herring and all the talks of future and time travel is simply a result of Setsuna's delusions. Cuz yeah the guy seems a bit out of it. But he is indeed fairly entertaining, Frontwing delivers with their male protags, as usual.

The poster heroine is Rinne. I think she'd look better without the hat, but whatever floats your boat. Setsuna immediately recognizes/knows her name upon "first" seeing her so maybe there really is some destiny shiz going on here. Rinne a rich gal, from one of the three elite families on the island (the other two heroines are naturally from the other two elite families). She hires Setsuna to be her servant.

TAKE OFF THE HAT LADY
There is a built in flowchart and in general Frontwings' software development team got so pro at coding that you can literally skip or rewind the VN in realtime and jump to any particular scene no problemo. I wonder if they'll narratively make this a plot feature like YUNO's save points

 
The BGMs are fantastic. I guess I have a thing for peaceful/tranquil/surreal/fantasy sounding types and Island would of course be stocked with plenty them. They really do enhance the reading experience indeed.
 

Finished Livestream and Root Film
Livestream: was a decent horror experience. I was expecting a bit more SAW-esque horror scenarios for the heroines but outside of the first few flagship advertisement ones they got, it's been relatively tame. Kinda like Corpse Party. More focus on exploring the Hotel and gathering bits and pieces of information while avoiding the monster rather than back to back horror shenanigans.
There are several (4) bad endings that you have to get to make your way to the true ending, and they add a bit to the mystery/suspense while you try to figure out just wtf is going on with Hotel Izanami and what you should do differently to avoid the current bad end you got. Ultimately there's nothing too grand though. Pretty straightforward explanations and reasons at the end of the day. But will these heroines live to see that day?

 


~~
Root Film was a good mystery/suspense adventure. It's only shortcoming is, you spend 80% of the VN building up this overarching mystery revolving around a decade old cancelled film with a supposed cursed reputation and its relation to the protagonists while you're doing all of your episodic murder mysteries and then it just... kinda falls flat when you finally start getting into the thick of things.

The culprit confrontational scenes could've been done a bit better, it's probably the most simplistic/barebones out of the Ace Attorney/Danganronpa games. Basically a glorified multiple choice that you absolutely shouldn't fail if you paid the slightest bit of attention during your investigations.
Everything by the end of it is wrapped up with a neat little bow, all the motivations are explained yada yada yada but man i actually felt unsatisfied with the conclusion. Also Riho was criminally underused. You can't advertise having dual protagonists and then have Riho only take 28.5% screentime while Rintaro gets 72.5%. That's some Danganronpa V3 Ch1 shit right there. But yeah, good read, but overall would've liked more Riho. lel.

 
Also worth mentioning: the comicbook simplistic artstyle allowed them to litter this VN with CGs, there's probably an easy 75-100 CGs so presentation wise they did a stellar job. The world / Shimane Prefecture feels vibrant, colorful, and the characters are all quirky and distinct. It's something Root Letter kind of failed to do with its bland characters, empty world.

 
~~
Just did some Switch browsing.
Island came out on the 8th this month, I think i remember being slightly intrigued by it esp. by that one shrine maiden gal with the fuzzy hair when i read Grisaia no Kajitsu 50 years ago (btw still need to read Meikyuu and Rakuen or w.e for Grisaia...) but uhh yup Island it is

Just making this post about the localisation announcement for the newest Ace Attorney game.
Whether this is a Visual Novel or Game, eh, this includes a story mode where the game plays itself so let's say it's a Visual Novel then
 

Just making this post about the localisation announcement for the newest Ace Attorney game.
Whether this is a Visual Novel or Game, eh, this includes a story mode where the game plays itself so let's say it's a Visual Novel then
 

[Musicus!]
This week I'm playing Musicus! I think I only played one vn focused on music so far, so I'm really looking forward to it! 
First impressions
Positive
The writing flows so well! I don't know if it's because I've been reading "meh" VNs or what, but I could read this for hours and not feel tired. The music AND THE SONGS, holy moly. I love the BGM, it fits so much and I was expecting actual songs, but I wasn't expecting to love them this much! I guess I'll be searching for them later on...  The characters: so far they are pretty darn interesting and captivating! Eveyone has their own flavor and I'm especially intrigued by Hanai. The VA wasn't bad, so I guess that counts as a positive. I wish more VNs had voices for the protagonists tho... sigh, but I guess I understand the reason as for why they don't. Negative
The art is 50/50. I like some aspects of it, like the background art and the art for the protagonist and some girls, but most of them just look kinda derpy, especially those eyes lol Act 1 (before Ozaki's route)
Oh boy... this vn is something special already. I love the flow, the characters, the writing, the songs, the philosophy aspects, everything! The art has grown on me, I admit. It made me smile, bang my head, cry my eyes out... It was the whole package.
P.S.: Guess who's addicted to Gura Gura now 
-------------
Next week I'll be talking about Ozaki's route! 

Yeah, and that's mostly what it is, but the route I mentioned stands out from the rest. I've read all of Overdrive's other VNs, and this route is quite possibly the darkest thing they've written, even compared to Bokuten.

If anyone here wants to know what happens in the route without having to read it themselves, I can try doing a summary. There will be heavy spoilers, obviously.
 
I doubt this summary alone does it justice, since the writing and music are what truly gives this route its dark ambience. In any case, despite how depressing this part of the game may be, I still don't feel like marking the censored version of Musicus as "adult" is the right call, considering the fact that there are other games and VNs out there that were given a pass despite their disturbing content.

Wow time flies.

qureate's horror adv "Livestream: Escape from Hotel Izanami" is out. It's, naturally, about a group of three female streamers Nana(left), Mio and Azusa(right), who go visit an abandoned haunted hotel Izanami because streamers gotta stream and then they get trapped and subject to its horrors

 
There's a giant bloody pig mascot thing that serves as the poster monster of this VN and it stalks the halls during the adv 2D side scrolling horror exploration bits. Pretty scary at first, but once you take a moment to learn the game mechanics the Oinker becomes more of an annoyance than anything since whenever its chasing you, you are unable to progress with the exploration/puzzle solving segments until you get him off your tail.

 

 

 
Random nitpick: this is a supposed to be a survival horror adventure thingy, and it indeed is, but qureate just couldn't resist and they tossed in some typical ecchi stuff, though with a touch of horror. Even better (or worse), here's a screenshot of one of the 'features' they highlight in one of their trailers: 
 
 

So I read Ciconia When They Cry - Phase 1 over the last few days. I know it's kind of a stupid idea to start reading the first episode of a series that's just been delayed until the end of the pandemic (whenever that is supposed to be) for dubious reasons, but I was in the mood for a murder mystery VN without wanting to buy one so I picked the most promising option from by backlog. As it turns out Ciconia isn't a murder mystery, which I could probably have guessed beforehand, given the Sci-Fi military setting. So it's less of a sequel to Umineko in terms of subject matter, but rather tries to develop (and deconstruct, of course) some of Umineko's core ideas and themes. What Ciconia Phase 1 basically does is to put a character who somewhat embodies the "golden" solution Umineko proposes for its central idealism vs. realism conflict into a situation where, despite him being one of the seemingly most important figures, he is powerless to prevent a war that could potentially wipe out mankind.
I read somewhere that Phase 1 is supposed to be Ciconia's equivalent of the complete question arcs in Higurashi and Umineko, which would explain its length (~25 hours) and complexity. It is rather heavy on exposition and introduces a lot of characters and factions.
As for overall enjoyment, I'm kind of torn. It has enough really strong moments, but it can get pretty cringey at times, especially when Ryukishi07 tries his hands at social and media criticism. Tbf Umineko had its weird/boring moments as well, but at least to me they didn't feel as central to the core of the narrative as they do in Ciconia. Then again Phase 2 is probably going to take the story into a completely different direction than I'm expecting right now, so chances are I'm completely wrong in this regard.

[Magical Eyes -Red is for anguish-]
Soo, I've been reading this one for the past two weeks and wow, what a waste of time. Bah, at least now I know lol Also, it's funny how soft I was while writing the "first impressions" lmao  First of all, to anyone who might be interested on this one: if you don't want to wait for a sequel that is yet to be released, don't bother to read it. Sure it has a story on its own, but the main characters don't even start developing.
First Impressions
Positive:
The art!! Gosh, I find this art really good It's not as stunning as a lot of other vns I have played but it's still very pleasing to look at! The story and mechanics; the story is very chuuni-ish, I admit - but hey, if that's something you enjoy, go for it! I don't mind it but I don't love it either. And oh, there's a map and you can choose where to go... Kara no Shoujo flashbacks, oof- I hope it's not as "stressing" as that one. Negative: 
Definitely the sloppy writing. The descriptions are awkward, the English isn't the best and a lot of the sentences are very long, which usually isn't the best for both the English language and the readability of the game. After finishing the game...
Everything was from bad to average. The OST was pretty forgettable; the background was awful, oof; the art was... ok? I don't know, it looked a little weird the more characters I saw, but it wasn't really bad; the writing was awful bad lmao almost every sentence is too dragged or long and it really affects one's reading experience and overall readability of the story. The narrative was very poor, to be frank... I don't know if it was the pace, but I felt utterly bored reading this; the dialogues are super generic, just like all characters; they look like they are trying so hard to be funny it hurts.
 
 
Overall, I will give this one a solid 4/10. So, would I recommend it? 
Next week I'll be posting about Musicus!

I made a kinda new/unique video: talking about major online visual novel communities I was aware of. Visual Novels are kind of a niche medium so I wanted to highlight some of the more popular ones.
Since Fuwanovel is still one of the decently active ones there, decided to include talking about it.
 

Hi, everyone!
This month saw my writing struggles continue as I tried to progress the new Trickster storyline some more. I never really got going, but a few new scenes have been written along with a little reworking of the previous month's scenes. It seems a good place to leave it for now while I find other things to work on because gosh, there's no shortage of stuff to do on this thing!
That means this month's new content leans heavily on its art updates once again ^^; With seven new CGs included here it's the biggest art dump yet! Why yes, this is getting to be rather heavily illustrated for a free visual novel. No, I do not intend to stop anytime soon...
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.
So yes, next month I'm taking a break from Trickster to finish some other writing tasks and see how things are after that. Enjoy the update and I'll see you then!
What's New
New CG for the Delusion storyline New CG for Hiroko's "Ticklish Hands" storyline ending New CG set for Akiko, covering two scenes on the Redemption storyline New CG for Sayori's Alter storyline New CG for Nozomi's Trance storyline New CG for Hiroko's storylines, near the beginning New CG for the Redemption storyline, for the epilogue Hiroko's Trickster storyline has been edited and dialogued a little more through to the seventh day Added a check for two instances where the player can input a name to prevent Kyou from using something he'd consider inappropriate Word count is now around 271,500 Spanish localisation: Various edits and corrections to the existing script Updated the end credits with the latest backers Minor typo corrections Known Issues
Changing the language on a line where an animation occurs (like screen shake) will throw up an error.

Thanks! 
Thank you!