babiker

@OriginalRen @Nosebleed @solidbatman @nohman @Okami @Down @Flutterz @Nayleen @~Mayumi~ @Tay @Kendjin @Steve @Luch @shcboomer

Happy B'day, Tiag + Babiker.

Happy early 20th birthday there, @babiker. Thanks for your Moster Girl Quest review and your video below (Quite interesting that I could see old avatar from Fuwanovel member there). Hope you had good year ahead.
 

Kaguya's 4k post count thread is a 7/10 thread. It has great moments, yes, but overall it isn't all that impressive. IMHO it does not deserve very high a place in the hallmark of post count threads.
Have some Sakurider:
 

Trump's platform isn't even coherent.  He can't even articulate a coherent conservative position like "I'm against abortion and would restrict abortion access by penalizing providers or de-funding non-profit organizations that provide abortion care".  Instead he says "I would penalize women who abort their pregnancy".  That's not being "straightforward".  That's being ignorant.  He doesn't even conceptually understand the mainstream policy arguments, much less the details of their implementation!

Hey guys!
Just want to say that we have made significant progress! We have new assets, but we're planning on revealing them at a later time.
As we're working on the final assets now, we're planning to have the demo released this Fall!
Stay tuned!

Great replies! I'm happy so see this much discussion. I hope Fuwanovel continues to be a welcoming place for EVN devs. Here's a list of (most) of the good EVNs we mentioned in our podcast, if you're looking for some good stuff:-
Nanolife
SC2VN
One Thousand Lies
Cursed Sight (or anything made by the great @InvertMouse sama)
Always the Same Blue Sky
Autumn
Katawa Shoujo
Lucid9
Sunrider
When you add up all the other good EVNs that were mentioned in the thread, you have quite a lot of good stuff out there. I think that we, as a visual novel community, often fail to recognize how far EVNs have come, in contrast to how we don't skip a beat in calling out any garbage that comes our way. This gives the false impression that we somehow generally dislike EVNs, which horribly discourages actual EVN devs, many of whom browse this very site.
So to all those devs (or future devs) that happen to see this: Keep doing what you're doing man. I personally want to see the rest of Lucid9, longer versions of Cursed Sight and nanolife, a squeal to SC2VN, the release of Black Sands. Just from looking at the poll I can tell that a lot of us also want to see more from you guys. I don't really need to tell you to git gud, because ya'll are already steadily getting better. So just keep it up and don't let them haters get to you  
 

What's your favourite OELVN? - Analogue: A Hate Story
Will OELVNs ever be as good as Japanese VNs? - As a medium, No. There's too many structural limitations for western VNs to be better than the Japanese industry as a whole.
The nature of VNs are inherently more Japanese in nature:
Show Vs Tell (West prefers show, Japanese prefer tell) The west isn't all that keen on reading The west has established mediums to tell longform stories like radio shows/podcasts, TVs, actual books, etc. VNs are essentially a YA medium in Japan that's highly linked to weeb culture, Doubt the west could tackle that. Even if OELVNs got popular in the west it would probably be classified as adventure like the Telltale games mentioned in the podcast. Outside of the nature of VNs, I think that it would be very hard for the west to create a comparable industry of VNs to Japan. Japan can make VNs targeting the Japanese market and there will be a market in the west for it. The west doesn't have that advantage, and Due to the fact that the market is so predominately Japanese focused and has Japanese tendencies, I have a hard time believing it could pull away and thrive without the Japanese market like we have in games. There's also the fact that we have many established development studios in japan able to pour large budgets into the games, while it would take a lot for the western market to catch up, which I just don't see happening.

Individual titles? Hell yeah. Just because one's from a specific country doesn't make them inherently superior at making a work of art that's better than others. While sparse, there's already great OELVNs that are as good as Japan like Katawa Shoujo and Analogue.  
Why are OELVNs generally considered worse than Japanese VNs? - They're almost all indie, low budget affairs which inherently leads to lower quality. There's also the fact that while not all of them, quite a lot of them try to emulate the Japanese style with Japanese tropes, an approach that usually fails. There's also the fact that we're weebs and some weebs are elitist scum.
What are the attributes that make OELVNs stand out (in a positive way) from their Japanese counterparts? - Uh, idk. The only real difference should be who makes them. There's no inherent reason why OELVNs should have an atribute better than Japanese VNs or vice versa. Though, from what i've played, I'd have to say that they tend to tackle social issues that are more relevant to a western reader, and that they seem to have more stylistic liberties. 
Recommend a random (relatively unknown) OELVN - Even though I've mentioned it a fair amount of times in this post, gotta give more love to Analogue: A Hate Story  or anything by Christine Love for that matter. (See what I did there? See it? You weren't impressed by my bad pun? aww...)

I typed a really long response to this, but I ended up deleting all of it, and the only thing left is this face: 

@XReaper It's nice to know fuwanovel is so 'welcoming'.  You're statement reminds me of people on Steam. You don't like OELVN's? Fine. But don't go about saying most or all of them are shit and the creators behind them have no talent. Japanese visual novels are far from perfect either. A good number of japanese visual novels use the same tropes over and over again, characters are bland, and sometimes even a stupid story like a protagonist being in a all girl's school and is the only guy. Another thing annoying is the lack of diversity in the games from race to body type (both guys and girls). Yes Japanese visual novels at times outshine OELVN'S , but they are far from perfect. Dharkerstudios and Winged Cloud have given OELVN'S a bad rep. I get that. But not all of them are bad.
Honestly I came to this site to learn more about Japanese visual novels and maybe even get tips on how to to make a western vn more appealing. But reading things like this and some other threads, I often wonder if I'd be welcome here at all. I've noticed OELVN's, when posted in the game section, barely get looked at. I'm not saying OELVN's are perfect, far from it, but some of the things I read about them are toxic. Makes me feel like if I ever created something it would be instantly regarded as crap

As an EVN developer, it's kind of frustrating to see this discussion a lot, with the same points being brought up, even when they're not true anymore (three or four years ago? Yeah, totally). I see the whole "EVN's are just wannabe JVN's and will never get anywhere until they stop copying tropes," as if that's the only thing getting made, but honestly that hasn't really been the case in a long time. Yes, there are still lotsa games like that getting made - I'm even working on one that's similar, myself - but the notion that nothing else exists is outdated. I'll give some examples:
Shameless self-mention first - Highway Blossoms, a game that I helped create. It's a GxG kinetic novel set in the American southwest.
Asphyxia - Genderbent British Romantic poets.
Menagerie (NSFW) - I haven't played this one, so I don't want to misrepresent it in a summary, but click the link and you should see what it's about.
Selenon Rising - Sci-fi/mystery/noir
Caramel Mokaccino - A dating sim with a female protagonist that lets you pursue men, women, and polyamorous relationships, with various gameplay elements
Yeah, most games tend to use anime art rather than "Western" art, I'll give you that. But I think that's to be expected - of course most EVN devs are JVN fans. What else would we be? EVN's haven't been even close to mainstream long enough for there to be a robust community that's never touched a Japanese VN. Even Lemmasoft, which is the largest EVN-specific community, has a long history rooted in JVN fandom. So give it time, and maybe that'll change. But considering that EVN's have only really been something that people took note of since Katawa Shoujo in 2012, I'd say we're doing pretty well for ourselves as it is.
And you know what? The reason that there continue to be tons of fanservicey, ecchi games dominating the EVN market is because that's still what sells. People - SO many people - say that they want to see EVN's with a more Western style, and then so few of them follow up on it with their wallet. Success doesn't just come from making good games, it comes from people giving those good games a shot too.
I'm not saying that consumers have an obligation to buy bad games to support the cause. I'm saying don't write off an entire subset of games because you haven't tried one in half a decade.

Hey guys! Now that summer break is over, it's time to get back to work.
Even though most of us were on a holiday, we've still managed to make a lot of progress! So here's our new update:
 
The GUI by Atomic Invasion is completely finished! We went for something bright, but still with a "cold" feel. Seeing the results, Here's a sneak peek: 

  New backgrounds have been drawn! We've made two new character sprites! Old sprites have been rescaled to fit the textbox better.  90% of the scenes have been coded. New music tracks have been added! As we are nearing the completion of our demo, the next steps are new CGs and more tracks.
Thank you for your patience! 
We hope you're looking forward to the next update!

Although I must say, I find it rather odd that you of all people would quit -even partially- considering what Fuwa has done for you. Recall that this place use to have torrents, and you were the loudest voice demanding their removal. Recall that you've said things other people would be banned for that were overlooked. Not saying you never got banned, but some would say the mods have been relatively lenient. I've seen many people come and go and haven't raised an eyebrow, but you honestly seem to me the least justified to do so. All I can think of is us Key fans calling BS on your reviews, but I don't think that's enough to make you dis mad, especially considering how old your LB review is. I assume there's something behind the scenes going on that's bothering you, possibly even unrelated to fuwa in praticular, maybe a twitter VN squabble? 
But meh, either way it doesn't really matter. Taking a break from a partner is a key (kek) part of good relationships, so by all means take a break. But I'll miss having one of the few rich salt mines Fuwa possessed

Nobody cares

Versus all the other VNS out there, Liarsoft has not only a unique art style compared to pretty much every VN, but their writing is so...different too, it's hard to explain, but it comes across as more "Genuine", i/e, the way people think and talk.  They do re-use alot of dialogue for dramatic effect, of course, but still, their VNs stand out from others because pretty much every other VN uses a similar art style / reads the same.  When you read a Liarsoft VN, much like a Type-Moon VN, you -know- who made it. By their writing style & art style alone.  I really appreciate them going the extra mile for stuff like that.   Nitroplus, at least their older works, also has a consistent style to them.

Glad you found it interesting
 
No, to this day nobody knows what has happened to her. I've contacted a few people about it, including Tay, and none of them know. As far as the internet is concerned, the username Aaeru is dead. My speculation is that all the drama she was causing and drawing to herself was too much for her, and she just wanted to escape from it all. So as a result she just abandoned the entire VN community. There are 4 possibilities that I see happened to her.
1) She abandoned the user name Aaeru, and is still involved in the VN community, but under a completely different username with no connections to her old one. In other words she made a clean slate for herself. Honestly though, I think this is fairly unlikely. Since there is no way she would be able to keep silent over all the bullshit that is going on in the VN community these days. 
2) She completely abandoned VN and has moved on from the medium. This along with number 3 are the two options that I find most likely.
3) She still reads VNs, but doesn't pay any attention to the community anymore.
4) She legit died. This is by far the least likely option, but still entirely possible. 

Wrong thread, I think this belongs to "how to piss of Fuwa in one sentence".

Wrong thread, I think this belongs to "how to piss of Fuwa in one sentence".

Wrong thread, I think this belongs to "how to piss of Fuwa in one sentence".

Wrong thread, I think this belongs to "how to piss of Fuwa in one sentence".

A bit of an odd question, so let me spell it out a little: Are the things we consider to be right or wrong in our every day lives, also right/wrong in an online environment such as an MMO? This may sound like an easy question, but I can't really think of a satisfying answer. Let me show ya'll an example that happened to me once:
In the very first MMO I played, I was trading with this one fella I randomly met. It was a very expensive and rare item he had, and he gave me quite a big discount (almost 50%). During the transaction, he accidentally clicked "accept" when I'd yet to give him any money. So I ended up with a rare item and he had nothing. He immediately begged me to give him the money, and since it felt wrong I just gave it to him. Later, after I told my other online friend about this incident, he laughed at me and said "why'd you apply your morals to an MMO? It's just a game. You're ok with raiding a party and stealing all their equipment, but this is too much for you?"
I... Didn't have much of a response at the time and just dismissed it as two very different scenarios. But when I thought more about it, I realized that people do tend to create their own online "moral code", especially those who've played for a large amount of time in a particular game. I'm mostly familiar with Hearthstone, but you have stuff like stream sniping, in which one player runs into another that happens to stream, opens the other's stream to see his cards and predict his moves. Many have called it "wrong", but is it really? You can simply use the "it's just a game" justification here too. Who can really decide what's wrong or right in a game other than the creators themselves?

A bit of an odd question, so let me spell it out a little: Are the things we consider to be right or wrong in our every day lives, also right/wrong in an online environment such as an MMO? This may sound like an easy question, but I can't really think of a satisfying answer. Let me show ya'll an example that happened to me once:
In the very first MMO I played, I was trading with this one fella I randomly met. It was a very expensive and rare item he had, and he gave me quite a big discount (almost 50%). During the transaction, he accidentally clicked "accept" when I'd yet to give him any money. So I ended up with a rare item and he had nothing. He immediately begged me to give him the money, and since it felt wrong I just gave it to him. Later, after I told my other online friend about this incident, he laughed at me and said "why'd you apply your morals to an MMO? It's just a game. You're ok with raiding a party and stealing all their equipment, but this is too much for you?"
I... Didn't have much of a response at the time and just dismissed it as two very different scenarios. But when I thought more about it, I realized that people do tend to create their own online "moral code", especially those who've played for a large amount of time in a particular game. I'm mostly familiar with Hearthstone, but you have stuff like stream sniping, in which one player runs into another that happens to stream, opens the other's stream to see his cards and predict his moves. Many have called it "wrong", but is it really? You can simply use the "it's just a game" justification here too. Who can really decide what's wrong or right in a game other than the creators themselves?

Sekien no Inganock
-What a Beautiful People-
 
    Summary Inganock, a city isolated from the outside, a city where everything is distorted, even the sun.
It all started ten years ago, at a day called 'Revival'. Then residents of the city slowly changed into beings partially human and partially animal.

To this day, only a few still look fully human on the outside. One of these is Gii, a former medical student, now an illegal doctor that walks the city and cures the poor for free.
He changed too, but only in the inside, and his change gave him a mysterious ability that he uses to heal people that keep mutating further every day.

He has a few 'friends' if you can call them that. One of them is a black steel cat girl called Ati.
Another one is an old friend from his medical school that he just met again after ten years, Salem.
 
But everything truly begins when he meets a little girl with pink eyes named Kia...
  Ending Guideline While Sekien no Inganock is completely linear it does come with a minigame that can take some trial and error to get through and is sometimes quite frustrating. There is an option in the game to skip this game completely however I do not recommend doing this. Without the information provided in it several core parts of the story will be very hard to understand.   Walkthrough   Chapter 1: The Sky, There Are Two Suns
  Chapter 2: And Now, A Fairy Tale
  Chapter 3: This Sound, Surely If I play It...
  Chapter 4: A Mirror, Even If It Reflects Nothing...
  Chapter 5: Right Now, Your Tears Are Right Here
  Chapter 6: The Window, On A Night of Pouring Rain
  Chapter 7: My Voice, Even If It Doesn't Reach You Now...
  Chapter 8: A Death, A Voice from the Intermission
  Chapter 9: A Flower, One Thing Sparkling


Chapter 10: A Flower, On That Day It Bloomed Proudly
  Chapter 11: My Heart, Where In My Chest?
  Chapter 12: Inganock of the Brightest Flame
  Attribution This walkthrough was based on the one Amaterasu Translations included with their translation.

Thoughts?
 
Rah is next on the chopping block with a new darker vision to match his personality.