SilverLi

So you have played your first visual novel game and finally arrived at the greatest moment in it: the h-scene. You have been faced with a difficult decision that will affect humanity.... in a way. The heroine is awaiting your decision, her eyes gleaming with excitement as she knows you are about to unleash your white minions. You are at your limit and you have to make this decision in the next 5 seconds or suffer the consequences...
The question is where? You as a protagonist have a mission or missions (if you reload that save anyway): To be a responsible adult and not create an unnecessary life by pulling out your hyper weapon at the opportune moment because apparently it is the greatest contraception method in the visual novel world and then spray her like a busted fire hydrant 
OR
Satisfy her fully: figuratively and literally by providing your love, warmth, and DNA even if she says "It's a safe day;" you don't believe in safe days or you are just too lazy or exhausted to pull out, so you remain inside. 
If you chose outside, despite covering the precious heroine with your essence and creating chaos made of white fluids all over the place, cleaning the whole place, even if it's the classroom, the rooftop, the library, the balcony or the church will be no problem, and you and the heroine will somehow manage to cleanse all the foul odors and pigments and smile at each other as if you've just robbed a bank without anyone noticing. Apparently you can use sorcery to block people's sense of smell so you and the heroine can totally walk around crowded streets without any suspicion. People who support the Way of the Outside are Ninja-class by default. 
If you chose inside, the heroine can never be become an expectant mother unless The P.L.O.T. demands it. The P.L.O.T. is more powerful than Jesus Himself. It can make babies appear or not appear with the heroine or the protagonist's will alone, so the protagonist can keep releasing inside 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 times without any problems. People may consider it "convenience", but I believe this is more of a miracle. "Inside" protagonists are also environment friendly, making sure the "predicament" can easily be wiped off with a single tissue as opposed to the wasteful "Outsiders" who require a dozen of them. People who follow the Way of the Inside are Hikikomori-class by default because they truly acknowledge that the inside is paradise and anything outside is corrupt, repulsive, and unacceptable. 
So once again, the ultimate question: inside or outside?

So isn't games like Dark Souls very niche too? It is a trial and error game where you die at least a couple of hundreds of times. You save every time you can but the community still loves the game. That game isn't for everyone because it is something for people who enjoy restarting and get a game over whenever you die. Why can't VNs be a niche thing that we who truly enjoy some parts of it could still do that? I still think that if we are going to make the VN market more mainstream we are no different from anything else.
I know I have already said it before but no matter how something looks like you can't really change it. You may lose old customers for new ones? Who can tell if a more mainstream medium is successful? That's why the small steps we take every year is important. We get recognition on Steam, in PC reviews on sites such as PC gamer. A lot of games got two different sides with an 18+ release and all ages release. I think 2016 is yet another year we get more exposure and evolve this market.
Could you tell us some small things of this idea of yours. You don't have to spoil anything but if you think we are "small minded" and can't grasp the "big revolutionary idea" you got we can't give you constructive feedback. So what if you want to do a game with real characters, go ahead. Please give us some information about it and we maybe can help you on your way. And who says we can't enjoy OELVN in different forms? Fuwareviews review anything from any part of the world. Discussions occasionally appears here about titles released in the west. So we aren't blind of the market in the west.
Edit: And I like the artstyle. It is simple as that too. 

So isn't games like Dark Souls very niche too? It is a trial and error game where you die at least a couple of hundreds of times. You save every time you can but the community still loves the game. That game isn't for everyone because it is something for people who enjoy restarting and get a game over whenever you die. Why can't VNs be a niche thing that we who truly enjoy some parts of it could still do that? I still think that if we are going to make the VN market more mainstream we are no different from anything else.
I know I have already said it before but no matter how something looks like you can't really change it. You may lose old customers for new ones? Who can tell if a more mainstream medium is successful? That's why the small steps we take every year is important. We get recognition on Steam, in PC reviews on sites such as PC gamer. A lot of games got two different sides with an 18+ release and all ages release. I think 2016 is yet another year we get more exposure and evolve this market.
Could you tell us some small things of this idea of yours. You don't have to spoil anything but if you think we are "small minded" and can't grasp the "big revolutionary idea" you got we can't give you constructive feedback. So what if you want to do a game with real characters, go ahead. Please give us some information about it and we maybe can help you on your way. And who says we can't enjoy OELVN in different forms? Fuwareviews review anything from any part of the world. Discussions occasionally appears here about titles released in the west. So we aren't blind of the market in the west.
Edit: And I like the artstyle. It is simple as that too. 

A question for you if you are playing games. Do you like that games are mindless and easy to play? Or do you want games with challenges and hard decisions? They don't exist today because everyone no matter how braindead you are should be able to play games. That is a direction I don't want VNs to go. I don't personally like stuff which is indifferent and easy to beat. I understand why you do a game easier but I think it hurts the gaming industry in the core. 
It is the same with VNs. Yes I am sick of the cliche stories and characters sometimes. But then again we get something new and interesting once in a while on the English releases. You can't make something for everyone. If you do you have to sacrifice a lot. In this case I don't think you can make it for the "ordinary" person. A lot of people hate reading. No matter what. A lot of people got problem sitting still and reading something. I have tried bringing my friends into this medium, with traditionally VNs, JRPG, OEVLN and PS3 games. I got some of them into watching anime at most. I am fine with that. This isn't for everyone. Like soccer isn't for everyone either. But do I try to choke the Ice-hockey fans with my opinion of soccer? No. Yes I tease them and do some sporadic "shots fired" but I accept that they don't like what I do. 
I don't think and I don't recommend doing a specialized medium into something casually. I know a lot of people here played Katawa  Shoujo as their first installation into the genre. That's something influenced by the Japanese art. But itsn't made by Japanese people (what I know of).
 
Edit: We got the cliche things but we also got the diverse VNs/OELVN such as Black Sand, Cursed Sight and the Seed. I think we got a diverse medium but forcing it to change because other may like it isn't the way.

A question for you if you are playing games. Do you like that games are mindless and easy to play? Or do you want games with challenges and hard decisions? They don't exist today because everyone no matter how braindead you are should be able to play games. That is a direction I don't want VNs to go. I don't personally like stuff which is indifferent and easy to beat. I understand why you do a game easier but I think it hurts the gaming industry in the core. 
It is the same with VNs. Yes I am sick of the cliche stories and characters sometimes. But then again we get something new and interesting once in a while on the English releases. You can't make something for everyone. If you do you have to sacrifice a lot. In this case I don't think you can make it for the "ordinary" person. A lot of people hate reading. No matter what. A lot of people got problem sitting still and reading something. I have tried bringing my friends into this medium, with traditionally VNs, JRPG, OEVLN and PS3 games. I got some of them into watching anime at most. I am fine with that. This isn't for everyone. Like soccer isn't for everyone either. But do I try to choke the Ice-hockey fans with my opinion of soccer? No. Yes I tease them and do some sporadic "shots fired" but I accept that they don't like what I do. 
I don't think and I don't recommend doing a specialized medium into something casually. I know a lot of people here played Katawa  Shoujo as their first installation into the genre. That's something influenced by the Japanese art. But itsn't made by Japanese people (what I know of).
 
Edit: We got the cliche things but we also got the diverse VNs/OELVN such as Black Sand, Cursed Sight and the Seed. I think we got a diverse medium but forcing it to change because other may like it isn't the way.

You haven't yet developed yourself yet. Embrace the dark side and everything is fine. Arunaru also got a competition you can join. Fap to every H scene. 

Take my money Alicesoft! Visual novels with gameplay are always welcome and you guys revolutionized this genre.

Wow, I'm touched. Hopefully people enjoy the game, it's one of Alicesoft's most popular titles. And I'd be happy to answer questions if anyone has any.

Trust me, you'll be waiting longer than it takes for JAST to finish translating 10 visual novels before that Tsukihime remake gets a release date.

My opinion can be found right there if anyone's interested. /stema
Adults these days... What prevents someone from enjoying a romance without relating to it? (or fapping to it, since you seem to reduce it to that aspect alone?) I'm not a very romantically inclined person but I enjoy fictional romances of all kinds, whether they're realistic or not, between kids or adults, heterosexual, homosexual or anything else you can imagine. I don't need to project myself in them as long as they're good.
Besides, trying to apply a criteria of "realism" to romance is kinda... not really relevant?
If you wanna give another try to AI romance in a piece a fiction that gives it more depth, watch the film "Her". It's beautiful.

Did you just.... nevermind.
 
@SilverLi
I would check Mandarake if I were you. Their prices are almost always good. Or, like @Mugi said, try AmiAmi and MFC. AmiAmi if you don't mind preordering. Be careful about cancellations though. They might ban you from buying from them if you cancel orders unreasonably or if you do it too many times. As for MFC, just check if the user has enough feedback, if you truly want security. Otherwise, most vendors in MFC can be trusted, especially if they've been active members.
 
You might also wanna check MFC's partners. 

Check out the video I did on my YouTube channel. If you don't want to watch all of it, check the description of the video for links to specific parts:

I'm still waiting to pledge my amount. I don't really know what I am waiting for. I can afford it but I am most likely waiting for stretch goals or something else. Or I am just lazy.

What do you guys think of Heterochromia-eyed heroines like Coconut from Nekopara, Satsuki Kagami from Violet Hill or Mayumi Thyme from Shuffle?
I think it's a really wonderful trait. There's something about asymmetrical traits that turn me on.

Katawa Shoujo, it was pretty great. And it was the first time I went "wait, this piece of media has straight up porn in it, and this is legal?"

I don't know if we have this thread for this or not. But anyways I will make one nonetheless. 
I have heard about kancolle, everyone has heard about kancolle. The game with cute ships fighting the abyssal ships. If you haven't stumbled upon one of its doujins then you don't really read doujins. Anyways I didn't know how to play this game and thought it would be a pain , until my lord and savior @Monmon told me about KCV. I then started playing the game. The game is really fun and entertaining. It piqued my interest about some ships and their quotes and what that referenced. For instance, when the ships sank, they usually say something that references how they sank irl. Also the history about ships in general isn't as boring as I thought it would be.
I also wouldn't have been able to get this far without my other lord and savior @Tenkuru 
Now not all of us would be interested in that. About the gameplay? There's currently not that much gameplay, you sortie your ships, they wreck people, you resupply them and repair the damaged ones and do it again. There's the pvp system which I still don't understand really much but it gives tons of exp so who cares. There's the most awesome thing about the game , expeditions, which you get by unlocking your 2nd fleet. It's one of the more fun parts of the game, do you hate to afk? You don't have enough resources to sortie? Fear not, expeditions shall help you. There are 4 resources atm which are steel , fuel , ammo and bauxite. Bauxite regenerates more slowly than other resources per day as you get 1500 of other resources while you only get about 500 (?) bauxite. So expeditions are important for that. Thou only carriers that use planes will be the problem as they are the only reason why you would need bauxite.
Now where's the second most fun thing about the game? LSC LSC LSC LSC LSC LSC ALSO KNOWN AS LARGE SHIP CONSTRUCTION. There are some ships which you can only get from LSC which you unlock later on in the game with quests, these ships can't be get by any other means. You have really strong and cool battleships like Musashi and Yamato, you have the armooooooooooored carrier Taihou and the german Bismarck and more. You can't get these ships by any means other than LSC. Speaking of which I got Yamato yesterday and this was my 4th LSC, I am really happy ;-; , I AM REALLY HAPPY, I CAN'T CONTAIN MY HAPPINESS. 
Ahem back to the mehanix of the game, there are certain things which you will encounter and have problem with as you play like submarines that can only be damaged by CLs and CLTs and DDs , you will find the CVs which will always crit. hit your ships unless you have CVs of your own. Planes too op. If you need any help with the game, tell me or just say it here in the thread.
OH I FORGOT : HOW TO PLAY THIS GAME? 
There are many ways to do that. I know of using vpn, KCV (you don't need anything with KCV : KanColle Viewer, it's one of the best things ever, I can't say how good this one is ) and editing you own cookies. Guides on how to do that are here : http://kancolle.wikia.com/wiki/Tutorial:_Proxy_Connection .
Which brings me to kancolle wiki which will explain to you literally everything you need but I will still be lazy and go and ask my friends about it.
Just remember to play the game for fun and enjoy your waifus: "Waifus > Stats" 
and remember that Haruna is best girl. 
Now forget all your attachments to real life and focus on becoming the best TTK out there!

The male protagonist fails to have sex with all five girls he encounters. In the end, he buys a hooker and only shoots a normal size amount of semen instead of the buckets most protagonists do. Then dies of herpes.

Suggestion for the upcoming streams: put a facecam in the corner of the screen, but instead of your real face make it this: http://store.steampowered.com/app/420680/

http://reviews.fuwanovel.net/2015/12/04/euphoria/
 
Euphoria, sometimes brutal, sometimes disgusting, sometimes intriguing and suspenseful. What a weird game. Steel your stomach and be open minded when approaching this one. 
I'm curious what you all thought of the review, it's the first one I've ever written. 

I recently put up a blog post about how 2015 is devoid of anything I can honestly put in a VN Hall of Fame... but that doesn't mean there aren't any VNs worth playing from 2015.  However, the sheer amount of dross in a given year's releases means that figuring out what VNs are worth your time is a serious chore.  I chose to start with 2014 and move into 2015 (I'll update this list after December's VN of the Month is over), as I don't have the energy to sift through 2011-2013 right now, lol.   Understand, these are opinions based on my own experience, and these recommendations for those who basically 'can't bring themselves to play the old stuff', so I'm restricting it to post-2010 releases, as that was when the current styles began to emerge.  For now... 2014 and 2015.
2012
Gun Knight Girl (also known as Yandere and Mechs Festival, for those in the know)
Ore to 5-nin no Yome wa Raburabu na no wa, Mirai kara Kita Aka-chan no Okage ni Chigainai! (yes, this is a harem-ge, but it is also immensely amusing and generally fun to read)
Yaneura no Kanojo (also known as Konakana 2... but unlike its predecessor, it isn't an utsuge and it is focused entirely on the vampire issue)
Aete Mushisuru, Kimi to no Mirai
Kono Sekai no Mukou de (short and sweet nakige)
Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas (this and its fandisc... one of the year's kamige and one of the three best trap protagonist VNs ever)
Witch's Garden
Chuuning Lover
Sinclient
Re:Birth Colony
Shukufuku no Kane no Oto wa, Sakurairo no Kaze to Tomo ni (I probably need to update my vote on this one, because it is better than most of the others I rated below an 8...)
Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou (one of the 'three tops' of the trap protagonist sub-genre, it only falls behind Canvas because of production values and the fact that it isn't complete without the patch from the sequel)
Tsujidou-san no Junai Road (this one I didn't like the first time I tried it, but it grew on me the second time, despite not liking the protagonist)
Zero Infinity Devil of Maxwell (I rated this one harshly, mostly because I saw how it was trying to imitate Dies Irae, but it is an immensely enjoyable experience the first time around)
Tsukumo no Kanade (has some problems, not the least of which the confusion of so many endings and the abominable h-scenes, but it is enjoyable otherwise)
Tsuisou no Augment (hilarious and has great drama... makes me wonder why this company didn't capitalize on the success and start pumping out VNs like crazy)
Naka no Hito Nado Nai! (made by the same people who did My Girlfriend is the President, it uses the same setting and has a similar atmosphere)
Tokyo Babel (a kamige.  This is slated for translation by Mangagamer and it is one of the few projects they've taken on that I approve of without reservation... and it is also non-ero)
Sakura, Sakimashita (the first VN I did for my Fuwablog, you can check the earliest posts if you want my thoughts on it)
Sei Monmusu Gakuen (if you can get past the fact that the heroines are monsters, this is an immensely fun VN)
Rose Guns Days (for those who care what I think, I didn't really want to include this, because I hate Ryuukishi)
Sousei Kitan Aerial  (It is compared to Muv-luv Alternative, but it is a lot different thematically and actually has a protagonist who feels like a human being... albeit a somewhat hetare-ish one at times)
TIny Dungeon Brave or Slave (conclusion of the four-VN main series, wraps up the main plotline)
Furuiro Meikyuu Rondo (horror/mystery/supernatural VN)
Owaru Sekai to Birthday (Horror/apocalypse type)
1/2 Summer (nakige)
Dolphin Divers (AXL doing what it does best)
Erect! (great borderline charage/nukige)
Fortissimo EXS//Akkord:Nachsten Phase (chuunige)
Gurenka (chuunige)
Namima no Kuni no Faust (kinetic novel, social commentary, dystopia)
Kamigakari Cross Heart!
Grand Libra Academy (despite having one of the weirdest concepts)
Shiawase Kazoku-bu
Harumade, Kururu (mindfuck, rapid extreme genre change)
Hyouka no Mau Sora ni
Monobeno
Kouyoku no Soleil -vii’s World-  (like everything from this series and this company, it will be hit and miss depending on your tastes)
Soukoku no Arterial (Eushully, card-based rpg/VN)
Dracu-Riot
Venus Blood Frontier (if you can get past the tentacle rape)
Strawberry Feels
Grisaia no Meiikyuu
Eiyuu Senki
Hatsuyuki Sakura
'&' - Sora no Mukou de Sakimasu you ni (think if you removed the darkest parts of Ruitomo)
Shinigami no Testament (chuunige)
Kaminoyu (no human heroines, an iyashikei VN)
Gaku Ou
Majikoi S (great sequel, should have stopped here, because there didn't need to be anymore after this)
 
 
 
 
2013
Sanzen Sekai Yuugi (otomege)
Timepiece Ensemble
Electro Arms
Izayoi no Fortuna
Monobeno Happy End
Baldr Sky Zero (the first one)
Cocoro@Function
Ichiban Janakya Dame Desu Ka?
Karumaruka Circle
Tsujidou-san (both)
Innocent Bullet
Gleam Garden no Shoujo
Otome Riron (Tsuriotsu sequel)
Amairo Islenauts
Futagoza no Paradox
Gensou no Idea
Natsukumo Yururu
End Sleep (horror)
Tsukiakari Lunch
Ojou-sama wa Gokigen Naname
Reminiscence
Unmei Yohou wo Shirase Shimasu
Tsuisou no Augment
Lovesick Puppies
Mirai Sekai no Planeta
Himawari no Kyoukai to Nagai Natsuyasumi
Boku ga Tenshi ni Natta Wake (utsuge)
Hapymaher (2013 VN of the Year by me, lol... best VN Music of the decade)
Inpyuri
Komorebi no Nostalgica (almost VN of the Year, fell just short of Hapymaher)
Prism Recollection
Shiro no Pikapika Ohoshi-Sama
Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai (not my favorite game, but someone is bound to insist it be included and it is decent enough)
Natsu no Owari no Nirvana (nakige/utsuge)
 
2014
Unionism Quartet
Hello, Lady (and its sequel)
Kami no Ue no Mahoutsukai
Zannen na Oretachi no Seishun Jijou
Kimi no Tonari de Koishiteiru
Sekai wo Sukuu Dake no Kantan na Oshigoto
Nanairo Reincarnation
Minamijuujisei Renka
Amairo Islenauts
Satsukoi
Dekinai Watashi ga Kurikaesu
Primal Hearts
Baldr Sky Zero 2 (if you played the first one)
Love Revenge
AstralAir no Shiroki Towa
Reminiscence Re:Collect (again, if you played the original)
Semiramis no Tenbin
Koi ga Saku koro Sakura Doki
Harvest OverRay
Houkago no Futekikakusha
Sakigake Generation
Hapymaher Fragmentation Dream (again, you have to play the original first)
Baka Moe Heart ni Ai wo Komete!
Alia's Carnival
Hikoukigumo no Mukougawa
Koi suru Doll to Omoi no Kiseki
Soushuu Senshinkan Gakuen Hachimyoujin (do not bother with Bansenjin... it just ruins the experience after the fact)
Sekai to Sekai no Mannaka de
Bradyon Veda
Kimi to Boku to no Kishi no Hibi
 
2015
Sakura no Uta (yes, I bashed it for what I considered a failed true ending, but I also praised several of the heroine paths, and a lot of it is genuinely touching)
Primal Hearts 2
Kyuuketsu Hime no Libra
Rakuen no Shugosha
Marrybell ga Shinda to Papa ni Tsutaete
Natsuiro Recipe
Sakura Nikagetsu
Sorcery Jokers
Love Rec
Sumire
Koitama
Chrono Clock
Hana no No in Saku Utakata no
Shirogane Spirits
Valkyrie Runabout
Hanasaki Work Spring
Silverio Vendetta
Soreyori no Prologue
Sanoba Witch
 
 

I only got Civ V, but I'm having fun with it so far.

I bet. But it is really intriguing and interesting. I actually look forward to what is coming.

At last. I have been waiting since summer for this release. I don't regret anything. See you in hell.

Seriously it sucked so hard it was released 30 minutes before I started working. One more hour and I am done for today. This weekend is going to be lovely. My body is ready.

Im really really glad that I can be at service! :3
Oh god, euphoria and maggot baits in 1 month, im gonna have to nurse my mental health after this