Gibberish

On May 11th, 2017 (ie, Thursday last week) the parody visual novel "Stay! Stay! Democratic People's Republic of Korea" was released. Most people probably know that I wrote it. Well, 90% or so of it, there were some humor changes and a couple last-minute changes to make some things make sense, those were done by the Project Leader. But for the vast majority of it, it's my handiwork.
I actually got picked for the project because the developer advertised here on the boards. I submitted a sample, they liked it and brought me in. So without the boards, I wouldn't have had the chance to do the project. For that I'm extremely grateful.
I'm actually really grateful because, in a sense, it's a comeback for me. A long time ago I wrote sports articles for newspapers. You may not think it's relevant, but the sports section is actually one of the places you're supposed to expect some creativity when it comes to writing. The last year I had done it, I was in New Hampshire at a weekly start-up in its infancy - The Connecticut Valley Spectator (it was owned by The Eagles Times, but they went kaput years ago during the first couple death waves to newspapers). They pretty much turned over most of the staff after about 8-9 months, including myself. To be fair, I was doing everything for the section then - stories, page layout, even photography. I was pretty burned out, and trying to get people on board for a new local weekly isn't easy. Once I was let go with the others, I hadn't really done a job in professional writing since.
No, this isn't me trying to influence the forthcoming review. It is what it is and if the reviewer here loves it great, if not, I'm willing to listen to what they think would have been better. But the initial Steam reviews, both "real" and "shitposting real" have been really good.
But it also just feels really nice to have written something that people are reading once again. And without the boards here, it wouldn't have happened. So this place - it's alright. 
And yes, you can tell me how much you loved or hated it if you read it. I don't bite. I'm actually super nice.  WAIT WRONG ICON!!!

The number of visual novels in 1987 increased greatly, but the number of masterpieces is relatively the same:
1. Amazons no Hihou
2. Urusei Yatsura
3. DNA
4. Koroshi no Dress
5. Hadou no Hyouteki
6. Jesus
7. Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School
8. Hiatari Ryoukou!
9. The 4th Unit

1987 has become a great breakthrough for visual novels. Text parser has been made obsolete by command selection and quite many games that amplify text over gameplay or graphics have showed up (even though the graphics have evolutioned immensely as well). But the most innovative and engaging game of 1987 is Hiatari Ryoukou adapted from anime by Toho. That's the first galge in modern sense - it's about daily routine and chasing one of the girls with lots of sunshine and comedy scenes. The charm of characters is overwhelming and gameplay is quite easy and infectious. If only it could be hooked...
1. Dennou Suikoden 電脳水滸伝 [870112] Hot-B 1 Game is based on the classic Chinese four-book epic "Suikoden" and uses the same character in an original story. Three scenarios are available from the start and upon clearing them the fourth one opens up. One of the stories starts with two journalists investigating a strange get into an ambush. One of them gets a strange disease that kills in two months time. To get the cure it's needed to break through three gateways and reach the peak of a mountain. There's a good English walkthrough of this game, but it covers only one story out of four due to ingame bugs. It's a rather complex game since you control multiple characters at each story and they hold various items. You can easily get stuck without knowing what specialization each character has. The number of commands and sub-commands is rather huge so bruteforcing is painful. Such a complex game is a welcome addition since majority of visual novels of this time are very primitive and crude.  
2. Lolita Hime no Enikki ロリータ姫の絵日記 [8701] Bond Soft A kinetic novel containing graphic strips of Lolita Hime alongside with a bit of text. It's more of a CG collection than a synthetic work. Even though it's the same series with the scatology Lolita, here the system is different and is rather a pure ADV. It's very short too so there's nothing really to discuss here.  
3. Teki wa Kaizoku Kaizoku Ban 敵は海賊・海賊版 [8701] Victor Musical Industries I am a first class pirate. There was a call from my noisy boss to settle one matter. While on it, two ships of my old enemy appeared. Together with my alien cat Apro I was able to settle the incident. However, strange incidents started to happen one after another. Based on the light novel series. The story is almost fully original though using novel heroes. You actually are playing for the cat! The game uses icons for actions which is welcome, but there's a need to keep in the head conversation keywords to go on which is very painful. The work was not really popular with original novel fans.  
4. Touch タッチ [8701] Toho The story centers around three characters—Uesugi Kazuya, his twin older brother Tatsuya, and Asakura Minami. Kazuya is the darling of his town as he's talented, hardworking, and the ace pitcher for his middle school baseball team. Tatsuya is a hopeless slacker who's been living the life of giving up the spotlight to Kazuya, despite the fact that he may be more gifted than him. Minami is the beautiful childhood girlfriend and for all intents, sister from next door who treats both of them as equals. Society largely assumes Kazuya and Minami will become the perfect couple, including Tatsuya. Yet as time progresses, Tatsuya grows to realize that he's willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of his brother, except at the expense of giving up Minami to Kazuya. And thus the story is told of Tatsuya trying to prove himself over his established younger brother, how it affects the relationship between the three, and both brothers' attempts to make Minami's lifelong dreams come true. Another obscure Toho adaptation of an anime work. It's pure command selection. Characters are cute enough, but graphics are dated. The next Toho anime adaptation feels much better than this one. And at least touch here means baseball touchdown rather than something perverted.  
5. Las Vegas ラスベガス [8701] Starcraft Co., Ltd. 1

Las Vegas is a Japan-exclusive graphical variant of Softporn Adventure, and hence can be seen as an earlier version of Leisure Suit Larry, which was released a few months later. The gameplay is, by and large, identical to the original text-only version, with the exception of a few adjustments made to the monetary system and a few commands handled slightly differently. Soft Porn Adventure released in 1981 is considered world's first adult game, so the will to imitate it with graphical presentation seems natural.  
6. Dwelling デウリング [8702] Cross Media Soft 1 In "Dwelling" we have to infiltrate the mansion of Count Dracula and save a kidnapped girl Anna. The game is bizzare. It shows all kind of weird creatures in bright poisonous colors. It's pretty cool that in important scenes the command selection is taken away and you're being left alone with text parser and text "THINK YOURSERL". But it's mostly about visual shock and there's no real story apart of walking around the estate and seeing all kind of things, so it can't be called a masterpiece for me.  
6. Twilight Zone トワイライトゾーン [8702] Great 1 Twilight Zone is a text adventure game with graphics. The protagonist is a young man who finds himself in a mysterious mansion created by an equally mysterious old woman. His goal is to escape the mansion and have sex with as many young women living there as possible. The interaction with the game is performed by inputting text commands (Japanese kana only). Navigation is performed by typing the Japanese words for the four directions, and locations are represented as still first-person screens. The game has no real puzzles and very limited item usage. Mansion search type. We need to find eight girls in the mansion and then can finally leave through the door. Search around with command input is no fun at all. The game spawned multiple sequels.  
7. Amazons no Hihou アマゾネスの秘宝 [8703] Studio Lime Those who find the secret treasure of amazons will get immortality. The hero takes up this challenge and now he needs to deal with a lot of amazons that dwell in this forest. This is a rare work since it actually places fun and pleasure of playing above everything. There's a moderate eroticism present, but mostly it's a lighthearted comedy. On your travels you need to gather and appropriately use items (10 max, so need to throw something out at times). There are many commands to search from and when you don't know what to do you can use hints from the "voice of God". But if you hit the appropriate one, you move through, so no need for useless repetition and bruteforcing. But there are lots of optional things you can miss on. It may still look troublesome today, but compared to constant repetitions of Manhattan Requiem it was a real heaven and a very addictive work.  
8. Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken 探偵 神宮寺三郎 新宿中央公園殺人事件 [870424] Data East Corporation 1 2 3 4 Police inspector Scott Kingsley has asked Jake Hunter for help when a young woman was found dead in Aspicio Central Park. Jake accepts the case, but first he needs to find witnesses that are willing to speak out. Game has some English reviews.  
9. Guin Saga ~Hyoutou no Kamen~ グインサーガ ～豹頭の仮面～ [8704] JAST Based on first volume of Guin Saga novels. You are the survivor of the royal family and are chased by mongolian raids. Game is based on the very first volume of the novel that nowadays has huge development in media. It is an adventure game which progresses by making various choices for every scene with his point of view in mind. It even had some voice of protagonist when connected to JAST sound. The difficulty degree is comparatively low.
 
10. Imitation City イミテーションシティ [8704] DataWest 1 In 2017, a rebellion of clones made with the use of biotechnology begins and you get caught in the middle of it. Three "Doll" robots have rebelled and escaped the factory and their managers hired you to find and return them. A classy and fashionable plot resembling Blade runner. But this game uses text parser in the year when it was abandoned already. It feels like the game tried to empathize freedom and pose a challenge for hardcore gamers. It seems have been shipped with a parser that produced hints and write a map. Well, this game hardly has any information coverage, so I supposed it did not really meet the needs of the crowds.  
11. Loliventure no Shiro 幻夢の城 [8704] Champion Soft You are asked to find rescue the sister of your acquaintance. You need to find information about her in the town and then infiltrate the castle where she is kept evading all the traps laid about. Yet another text parser dated game. The systems have not gone anywhere since Pop Lemon and the difficulty level is really insane - sometimes you need to enter the same command many times to get a result. Now you can pretty much guess why Champion Soft decided to change name for Alice Soft - it's because Champion Soft was stamping the same dated ugly games over and over while almost everyone else moved on.  
12. Makai Fukkatsu 魔界復活 [8704] Soft Studio Wing 1 The story begins with the fact that one reporter Akira Kamishiro gets a call from a friend archaeologist - Professor Masunaga. As it turns out, with archaeological research has been a stolen valuable artifact - "Divine Stone". At the same time in the nearby village disappears abbot of the local Buddhist temple. Trying to understand what happened, Kamishiro and Masunaga are involved in the chain of mystical events. Occultic adventure game are rarely good since they rely on things other than consciousness, but Soft Studio Wing is particularly known for creating very realistic setting and gradually inserting the insanity. This is also the first game of the brand for pc88. It's command selection, but you need to confirm each selection with pressing enter since any wrong choice inevitably brings a bad end. No bruteforcing will work here either since sometimes to move the story on the right order of commands is needed to take, like speak → talk → see. And there is no hint mechanic or context on the order. Games at that time weren't supposed to be cleared by everyone and were made as difficult as possible.  
13. Project A-ko プロジェクトＡ子 [8704] Tatsumi Publishing An alien space craft crashed into Graviton City, wiping out the entire population and leaving a massive crater where Graviton City is rebuilt. Students A-ko Magami and her best friend C-ko Kotobuki, a bubbly, carefree optimist, enter a new year of school at the all-girls Graviton High School. Although A-ko possesses superhuman speed and strength, she considers herself an average teenager; she mostly worries about getting to school on time, chronically oversleeping her alarm clock each morning. The pair catch the unwanted attention of B-ko Daitokuji, a rich, spoiled and brilliant fellow student. That's what anime is about. And the game is just a dice game with A-ko/B-ko/C-ko competition. Rolling dice, using all kinds of buffs and just seeing the events constantly happening on rolling are quite fun even without reading the text. Playing with two people is possible with each player rolling himself and choosing his own buffs to hinder opponent's movement. That's a rare example of a game that empathizes ease of use and fun.  
14. Soshi Hime Adventure 素子姫アドベンチャー [8704] Tatsumi Publishing Soshi Hime is science fiction writer. After finishing writing a novel she was sucked into the novel and you're the only one who can save her. Game only operates with function keys without the additional text input which is great. The contents is quite weird like a hundred of cats in one room. I guess the knowledge of original novel is required to understand what's happening. Game uses very few colors which makes images to look very simplistic.  
15. Fairy Tale ふぇありぃている [8705] Fairytale Hero has been keeping an eye on the pretty girl Yumiko-chan and now succeeds now in getting in her apartment impersonating himself as a gas company staff member. On the pretext of a regualar check-up he searches the kitchen for useful items and then approaches Yumiko with an intention to get in her pants. The debut work of Fairy Tale and quite a lighthearted one despite the synopsis. System is pure command selection type and it's easy to manipulate allowing to bruteforce all the variants. Another nice feature is that the work actually uses hiragana+kanji and hot that horrified half-width katakana that old works had to adhere to because of technical limitations on symbols drawing. There is one branching so it's possible to say that it's a multi-scenario work. It can also be viewed as a comedy since hero has access to chest area but he only aims for the panty and he uses lots off strategies to get there - there is no real act in this game, but there are lots of erotic CG still. Yumiko is funny looking and her personality is bright leaving a good light impression on the game.  
16. Fukashigi Denshou ~Kabara no Himitsu~ 不可思議伝承 ～カバラの秘密～ [8705] Zenryuutsuu The story is of the village of Syria close to Greece at the time when the German army invasion approaches in 1941. This work's motif is the search of holy grail and occult research performed by the Germany. Player is village chief's son who  travels to get two secret books about Kabbalah. It's a strange game that reveals mysterious things one after another, such as the secret behind Nostradamus predictions and immortal clones that rule the Earth from the shades.  
17. Still Sword すてぃる･そーど [8705] Fairytale 1 2 This medieval world is divided into 5 countries. The demon Incoma is jealous of the world's beauty and imprisoned the Princess from each of the 5 countries in their own castles. You are to rescue the princesses and stop Incoma's ambitions. Top down action rpg, an early predecessor of Ys series. It was first released as an all-age work, probably without text scenes, but later the game was reworked with addition of H scenes due to the popular demand. In adult version the main character is a girl, so there aren't many H scenes while you're successful - most of them packed close to the finale - but this is a lot of radical stuff when you lose, so it's an ancestor of Beat Blades Haruka and the like.  
18. Urusei Yatsura うる星やつら [870605] Micro Cabin Scenario is original from the anime. We get and invitation to Okiko birthday party. The person who finds her first is going to get a kiss, so a fierce competition among the invited guests ensues. The mansion is a maze with lots of traps laid about. The characters are carefully transferred from the anime so it's needed to know the original to get the most of fun. It's possible either to go the shortest way or to eliminate all the other competitors, so it can be considered multiple-branch story. The ending also depends on how other characters are dealt with so it's multiple endings as well. The system is command selection, but the number of commands is quite large, so the difficulty level is really high. In the early visual novels years lots of works were clinging desperately to the popularity of anime franchises, but this work is really well done and it shows how a game can be better in many elements than the original anime.  
19. Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin: Ohotsk ni Kiyu 北海道連鎖殺人 オホーツクに消ゆ [870627] Login Soft 1 2 A total remake of Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin: Ohotsk ni Kiyu. The version reworked for famicom. There is some info in English on this version.  
20. Abunai Josei Shinrigaku Nyuumon あぶない女性心理学入門 [8706] Fairytale A kinetic novel comprising of four very short erotic stories about 15 screens each dwelling on women psychology. Each story lasts only some 2-3 minutes so it's faster to click through them than write about them. The feature of the work is that the stories are shown from the woman perspective. So from today's perspective it's useless to talk about this work. But from historical perspective it's quite eminent. First it's a kinetic novel while all the other works use command selection. Secondly, it's one of the first works from woman perspective and thus the work that separates the hero from the gamer. The third important aspect is that I don't really remember games before that had multiple stories in it - it presented a pleasant concept and more of multiple stories works spawned because of it.  
21. Hot Milk ほっとMILK [8706] Fairytale The story is about a super rapist who violated 994 women already and he only needs six more to become a legendary person with a name "Weirdo 28" written forever in the history. Eroge of the 1980s rarely just relied on image alone, but were mostly conceptual games with much gameplay involved. Despite a pretty gloomy synopsis this game has rather light feel. It's a command selection ADV with the use of items - some have non-trivial use like stunning the girls with the smell of the socks. The game flow is six girls consecutively, but the big command list and the use of items distinguish it from just an eroge.  
22. Akujo Densetsu II ~Sailor Fuku Rhapsody~ 悪女伝説 Ⅱ ～セーラー服ラプソディ～ [8707] Dott Kikaku A nampa game where the hero needs to get the girl interested, raise the affection level during conversation in a cafe, beat her in the blackjack card game and lead her to the hotel as a result. The prequel is not listed on VNDB and it was a very ugly (VERY few colors used) first adult game for MSX. But pc-88 chosen for the prequel has much more instruments in the department of picture beauty. Now the images are digitized from the drawings which make them especially cute. That's very different from the games of the time where the cover was mostly supercute, but the contents remaining ugly. The system is command selection, but several wrong answers lead to game over. While in the cafe it's needed to guess the right answer about 10 times to move on. But the game has a firm place in the history as one of the first with really beautiful girls.  
23. DNA ドナ [8707] Himitsu Kessha KID DNA (Donna) is the name of the star in the universe. The giant city Megaro Dynamo is is inhabited by the two classes - titan (ruling class) and oak (laborers). The titans have excellent abilities, but their existence is endangered as they are cursed with reproductive function weakened with every generation. There is a girl from the titan class Mercedes who wished to undergo an experiment to fix this fatal trait. And the hero is an oak class member Cesare who wishes to protect her. Just like the previous game of Hot-B Youkiden - DNA uses manga strips for the screen - that really adds dynamic to the scenes. This game has adult content - the opening scene that I shot alone has two and it's cut just before more of it continuing. That's one of the reasons that the game was often overlooked as a trash adult game. But in fact it's a thrilling SF work with serious topics raised. The system is command selection and it goes without much stress. The character design is poor, but this is one of the first original heavy scenario oriented works and is a masterpiece in this regard.  
24. J.B. Harold no Jikenbo #2 - Manhattan Requiem - Yami ni Tobu Tenshi-tachi J.B.ハロルドの事件簿 - マンハッタンレクイエム - 闇に翔ぶ天使たち [8707] Riverhill Soft inc. 1 2 3 24 year old pianist Sarah Shields was found dead after falling from the 25th floor of her apartment window. The cause of death was a fractured skull from the horrific impact. With no evidence of foul play, an act of suicide was the best explanation - but J.B. Harold thinks otherwise. Having recieved a letter from Sarah beforehand, the famous detective heads towards New York city to find the truth. There are English reviews of this game.  
25. Adrenalin Connection アドレナリン・コネクション [870821] Amorphous "I shall take my revenge on the peaceful St. Eastern high school" - an anonymous letter arrived at the school. The principal asks the new teacher to investigate the source of the letter. At the same time transfer students are being forced to drop out one by one because of bullying... This is the only game every developed by Amorpheus company. I was not able to play this game since could not find a ROM for it. Although I really wanted to. Just look at the magazine ad - there's a very colorful company gathered in here. At least it would not be boring! I'll do my best to present information from japanese reviews on this game in a readable format.
Setting is close to real world but events turn around school girls and the idealistic vibe of "let's be together forver" spoils it a bit. The atmosphere of the game was very light, but story was unexpectedly bulky. Schoolgirls were unrealistically glamorous.
Multiple command selection helped to keep the good pace and concentrate on plot and the multi-ending was one of the first appearances in game. Graphics were of high standart considering hardware limitations of pc-98. Almost all the characters who talked actually had mouth animation. Sound would make you excited from the start of the game. Pity it could not have voices included yet. Every girl had her own ending. There were 5 endings overall.
Its existence in 1987 was a miracle itself. Rather than having outstanding advantages and features, it was rather the work without shortcomings. It's not really remembered as masterpiece, but it was one of first quality works to pave the road for next generation of quality VNs.  
26. Lovely GAL ラブリーＧＡＬ [8708] Champion Soft "Get three hidden treasures, then the door to another world will be opened" - said the mysterious old man. If you manage to collect the famous sword, secret medicine and ancient documents you may try to enter there. Game is basically divided into two parts - first you search for those three items and in the later half you'll have to find a way to awaken the Queen of the floating city Meniere in the alternative world from a deep slumber to prevent the crisis. The game is about gathering information and by coincidence only beautiful girls have that information and thus there's a need to interrogate them. So this is another Champion Soft game which means it has dated text parser system, low number of colors and not cute girls. And even though there's an attempt to introduce fantasy setting the gameplay is just your old guess what to write in H scenes. The difficulty level is again insanely high.  
27. Tenshi-tachi no Gogo II -Minako- 天使たちの午後ＩＩ -美奈子- [8708] JAST 1 The sequel to "Tenshi-tachi no Gogo"; instead of playing as the obnoxious male protagonist of the previous game, the player takes control of Minako, a female Japanese high-school student with a strong interest towards sexuality. The story mainly depicts Minako's sexual encounters with men and women, which take place on school grounds, in various locations of the city, etc. JAST decided to just go with popularity flow and introduced a with the dated command input systems and even bolder erotic content. They did not bother to introduce any story and just depicted the two days of Minako's saturated life. This work is a step back from the original in terms of storytelling, but it was even more popular than the original because of amplified eroticism.  
28. Timeparadox タイムパラドックス [8708] DataWest After his girlfriend Aiko is mysteriously killed, the hero hops into a time machine invented by his uncle and goes on a journey through the time to save her. DataWest releases yet another command input work after Immitation city. That and the fact that the synopsis does not leave much mystery ahead made this work obsolete already. Game also uses lots of difficult terms related to SF time travel.  
29. Dreamy Town MAJO ドリーミータウン 魔女サンドラ [8709] Great On Sunday, I made a promise to date. When I entered the coffee shop her body began to get distorted suddenly and I understood that she was a witch. Now I'm dragged into her world and need to find her to get back. It's an adult adventure, but with some really weird transformations into monsters. System is basically command selection, but there is also command input possible and - needless to say - many steps are impossible to pass without manual input. The difficulty is very high. Sometimes you need to repeat the same action over and over to get a result and sometimes you need to know the contents of some novel to write the right input. The map of the town is total 7x7 squares which adds another layer of difficulty due to multiple locations.  
30. Love Chaser ラブチェイサー [8709] Champion Soft Adventure game to investigate the case of fake kidnapping to stop political marriage that developed into a real abduction. Champion soft so we get another command input system again. In the beginning of the game we're given a huge puzzle to combine and 900 points of power. Upon puzzle completion we're left with the leftover power only and power is used on lots of actions, so effective puzzle completion is a must if one aims at clearing the game. In the terms of the content there is not much originality. The picture lacks originality either. A bit of deduction is still needed though, but the overall difficulty is reported to be moderate.  
31. Ikenie no Machi いけにえの街 [8710] Adult Inn While exploring Shinjuku hero finds out a SM club "Ikemei' s House" - the world of pleasure and craziness. The content is on par with the synopsis. But these are mostly pictures of tied women. One interesting aspect though is that Shinjuku is displayed quite precisely.  
32. Koroshi no Dress 殺しのドレス [8710] Fairytale Best friend's fiancé is found dead and naked at the park's toilet. Hero starts an investigation, but then the second murder occurs and his girlfriend disappears mysteriously. It' suspense mystery from the start since we don't really understand what's going on or who is the killer (but naming the game "killer dress" helps with guessing). It can hardly be called an eroge, but the adult atmosphere is everywhere including many gore scenes. It's a breakthrough game that broke the trend of games being treated as erotic cg collection. This is a game that carries away with the story alone and just couple of erotic cg thrown for the story's sake. System is command selection with a shortlist of commands to select from - very convenient to use. The story is basically a single road, but with good and bad end branching close to the finale. Another rather new feature is the ability to name the hero. This game is a paragon for all the future horror mystery scenario games to come.  
33. Lolita Violence ロリータバイオレンス [8710] Adult Inn One usual day from the life of one girl, but as she returns home late there are various dangers on her way back. Kinetic novel or rather a picture story. On the way back girl's attacked by a gang and there's a help button that's possible to be pressed - that summons her boyfriend who rescues her and it develops into another H scene. The work is rare enough that I could not find it, but the focus is on graphics alone.  
34. Shin Tamatori Monogatari 新玉取物語 [8710] Cross Media Soft The hero needs to find five balls scattered around the four worlds. A sequel to Shin Taketori Monogatari. It's the first such big ADV for pc88 - six diskettes! The content stays pretty much the same - explore everything and have fun. Age is requested at start and some scenes actually differ depending on the input.  
35. Anjela [8711] Cross Media Soft

The highly civilized star Obelix citizens use preserved red liquid as food. But production crisis occurs, and many of them find feeding grounds on the Earth by sucking animals and humans blood - thus they start to be called vampires. Anjela comes to the Earth in search of her father who was among the first generation to migrate to this planet.
Commands are difficult to figure out, but as an additional layer of difficulty there are multiple challenging action fights.  
36. Gakuen Monogatari 学園物語 [8711] Great Hero enters a well-known private high school and falls in love with his English class school teacher Norico at the first sight. One day a Noriko-sensei is suddenly expelled, apparently on the reason that she is intimidated by someone. The hero launches investigation to get to the source of it. Command selection adventure. In order to find the criminal and know more about Noriko-sensei the hero interrogates school girls. The story is a single road, but the difficulty level is high as it's needed to ask the right things in the conversation and use proper strategies to make people stop.  
37. Hadou no Hyouteki 波動の標的 [8711] Soft Studio Wing 1 Events of "Hadou no Hyouteki" begin with a strange incident in a small Japanese village: one day all members of a local religious organization "Church of the Messiah" were brutally murdered. Our main character is a journalist Shiro Kusanagi, who came to the place of slaughter, to shoot the reportage. Soon begin to clear up the details of the incident - it appears that the sectarians themselves killed each other. In addition, inside the Church of our journalist discovers a strange secret altar. What actually worshiped members of the "Church of the Messiah", and that was the cause of the massacre in the village? All these questions remain unanswered, and meanwhile, the authorities sent Mr. Kusanagi on shooting a new story. The fact is that in the middle of the Vietnamese jungle suddenly there was a huge black tower, and it is rumored that in the nearby vicinity bred some creepy monsters. Can all these strange events be connected somehow? Peaceful Japanese village. One day all members of "Church of the Messiah" were found brutally murdered. We play as journalist Shiro Kusanagi who is sent to make a reportage. More and more shocking details come up. Sectarians killed each other and a strange altar discovered. With all questions hung in the air Mr. Kusanagi being sent to shoot another story on appearance of a huge black tower in the middle of the Vietnamese jungle. Who coould have thought that those were the events of one chain... I don't like horror stories. But reading about a good horror story is another thing. So let's investigate this outstanding work together.
This game has a great dark atmosphere. Death comes at every corner and you constantly get bad end on the screen. Bullets are scarce, enemies keep appearing and only a small hope keeps beating. System was finally well done. Comand selection implemented. Graphics are great and rendering in an instant. There is even animation at many scenes. Cruel shots are especially impressive. The use of multiwindow makes actions dynamic and it starts to look like manga. For example you get picture in the left upper corner then the next picture appers in the left lower corner and in serveral lines some shocking picture appears in the center of the screen so that about 50% of first and second one remain seen. That's genius.
I'll retell the plot here just to get a grip on the game story. I won't tackle any characters or important details though. The whole plot intorduction actually happens in the game and jungle infiltration is 5th chapter already. You can't even land the jungle peacefully. You have to destroy boobytrapped vietnamese barricade and border patrol starts to use arms against you. Water surface glows and huge water worm attacks your boat. In the cave there's a dead body of another reporter. Further on skeletons with different weapons assault you and you running low on bullets. Having made it to a tower, monster attacks and he can't be even killed with bullets.
You get surrounded by feline monsters and skeletons with no weapons and no way back only to be miraculously saved by your fellow reporter on a military helicopter.
You gain consciousness in the hospital and get to know that a black tower now appeared right in the center of Shinjuku. Somehow inside Shinjuku turns out to be a new village with a manor. You get to investigate the manor which happens to be a training facility for espers. The tower is awaiting. Men in black open fire on visual contact. One of survivors advises to find Shirai, who is good at teleportation. Mansion now is heavily guarded. At the verge of being shot you get teleported to the gathering of men with unique abilities like telekinesis. Mansion now is being guarded by both military and ESP. You manage to break through only to be cornered again with it all disappearing by a whirpool of hallucination. The final battle of you and ESP against the mansion darkest secrets awaits. Who's the enemy and who's a friend? What's that altar with a sword? What was that whirlpool? What is black tower? What is that double edged sword? All the mysteries get answered. In a way.  
38. Jesus ジーザス [8711] Enix 1 2 3 4 5 The game takes place in 2061. Halley's Comet has been approaching Earth for quite some time, and the nations of Earth send a mission to investigate the Comet, as some form of life has been detected inside the gas of the comet. The main character of the story, Hayao Musou, is a Japanese soldier-in-training and the second-youngest member of the mission. Coincidentally, his girlfriend, Eline Suleyman, is also a participant. The game has multiple reviews in English.  
39. Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School 中山美穂のトキメキハイスクール [871201] Nintendo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The game begins with your character, whose family has just moved to the area, entering his new school for the first time. After class, you accidentially run into a conservative-looking girl wearing glasses. She introduces herself as Mizuho, but you can't help but notice her striking resemblance to your dream pop idol Cher (I mean Miho, of course). You pick up a good-luck charm Mizuho dropped to give back to her, then make a startling revelation - your photographer brother took a picture of Miho carrying the exact same charm! You go to the music room to confront her with this evidence - and this is where the true challenge of the game begins. There are English reviews of this game.  
40. Seilane セイレーン [871210] Micro Cabin 1 One day when Prill visits Bukimi forest, he finds all the villagers have all been turned into stone statues. But more worringly his sister was nowhere to be seen. As he explores the forest, he later learns that the person responsible was the Demon King Pazul. With help from his friends, Prill sets off on a journey to save both his sister and the villagers, but it won't be easy as the Demon King is determined to stop him in his tracks. There is a good English review on the work.  
41. Shiritsu Tantei Max ~Sennyuu!! Nazo no Joshikou~ 私立探偵マックス ～潜入！！謎の女子校～ [871220] Agumix 1 Max is a private detective who is known - beside his investigative and combat skills - for his way with women. One day, he receives just the case he was hoping for: he has to travel to a remote space colony near the Sun - more precisely, to the women school in this colony. The principal of the school has committed suicide. Two agents that were sent to the colony disappeared under mysterious circumstances. It's time for Max to find out what's going on - an interesting side-quest to his main mission: have sex with as many girls as possible! It's mostly collection work since there are some 12 girls that appear randomly and some are predetermined to resist Max's charms from the start so multiple new games needed for 100%. The H with the girls also restores Max's esper powers. The best part of the game the quality of girls pictures - they are digitized and thus look very good and cute.  
42. Hiatari Ryoukou! 陽あたり良好！ [8712] Toho The story focuses on the relationships of Kasumi Kishimoto, a high school student. When she enters Myōjō High School, she moves into her aunt's boarding house, where four boys attending the high school are tenants. Despite her steadfast determination to stay loyal to her boyfriend, who is studying abroad, Kasumi finds herself slowly falling in love with one of the boarders, Yūsaku The first really impressive TOHO adaptation of an anime work. On top of that it seems to be the original galge ancestor - here you raise favorability rate with one of the girls during the game events and if you reach a high level with some girl you get her ending. I think the point of the game is to engage deeply in the world of the original and it worked 100%. We now refer to the slice of life scenes as to necessary evil in galge, but before Hiatari Ryoukou there have been very few games with focus on everyday routing. The game system is command selection ADV and it's easy to manage and possible to bruteforce to go on, but actually getting some girl's ending is quite difficult. The character cast is awesome and there are a lot of very funny scenes. There is no special aim in the game but living the everyday life and falling in love with someone. The graphic level is the highest of 1987. A very sunny and heartwarming work.  
43. J.B. Harold no Jikenbo - Kiss of Murder - Satsui no Kuchizuke J.B.ハロルドの事件簿 - キス・オブ・マーダー - 殺意の接吻 [8712] Riverhill Soft inc. 1 2 Kiss of Murder, is set in a parallel world to Manhattan Requiem, and while featuring the same set of characters as that title, has a completely different scenario. Early releases of the game were addons to "Manhattan Requiem" and used its graphical data. Later iterations became stand-alone. The game was not usually shipped alone, but with Manhattan Requiem, so it does not have as many English reviews, but I'm sure there should be some reference in the numerous Manhattan Requiem reviews.  
44. Kudokikata Oshiemasu 2 ~Kind Gal's~ 口説き方教えます２ ～カインドゥギャルズ～ [8712] Hard A nampa game with five adult women as heroines. First of all the game is R-18 same as the prequel. The game is famous for the conversation system it derived. So this time you get the beginning of the sentence prepared and need to input a correct continuation which would rise affection if right. Each of the heroines has some personality archetype. The game has very impressive graphics that alone is enough to overlook its many shortcomings.  
45. Lagrange L2 PART2 D-SIDE ラグランジュL2 PART2 D-SIDE [8712] Vehicle Software Game starts in the shuttle right after the end of Lagrange L2. The breath is relieved now but the first challenge is already there - the need to escape from missiles of approaching Zera enemy. And the sequel still uses the same ancient systems... same ugly with text input. The only difference that now animation is frequently used. The overall difficulty is easier than part 1, but there are less hints displayed. As I see it this work is only for hard-boiled fans of first part.  
46. Tennyo Densetsu 天女伝説 [8712] Champion Soft There are girls who descend from the celestial love weaving beings. Letters are hidden on their bodies and if you solve the mystery a celestial woman will appear. Champion Soft continues its odyssey to pour same loads of crap on the gaming community. Over and over. Now there is command selection but that's made really painful since even text lines take time to draw and there's the need to press enter after each selection. I guess noone ever tried to find the celestial woman since the game has zero reviews and even no CG apart of the two ones in the beginning that I saw.  
47. The 4th Unit 第４のユニット [8712] DataWest 1 2 Yuusuke, a common boy back from school, finds a naked girl in the forest while searching for his hidden bike. She is amnesic and only remember a name: Blon-Win. Four days ago, a mysterious battle between unidentified aircraft occurred above Tokyo. One of them, shot down, felt in the same forest the girl was found. The authorities never found any body in the debris. Might this girl be linked to this case? This is what she is decided to discover. There is an English review of the game.  
48. The Byouin ザ・病院 [8712] PSK 1 Patients begin to die one by one under mysterious circumstances in a mental hospital. A young nurse named Ikuko Matsuda doubts that these deaths were natural. On day, Ikuko disappears, leaving behind a blood-stained cash card. Her fiance Katsuyoshi Yamazaki ventures into the hospital, attempting to investigate the mystery. It's mostly a text adventure with CG only occasionally showed. In order to show that much text in good quality 400 lines were needed and The Byouin is the only PC-88 game in history to have 400 lines. All the new keywords are added to the list of commands and soon this list grows to huge lengths. The story is not bad, but without corresponding CG it feels lacking. PSK as the fathers of visual novels marked a new path - shifting from gameplay elements to focusing attention on reading and that's the game's biggest achievement.  
52. Yamamura Misa Suspense: Kyouto Ryuu no Tera Satsujin Jiken 山村美紗サスペンス 京都龍の寺殺人事件 [8712] Taito Corporation

The protagonist is American investigator Catherine Turner, who has just been accused of a crime commited in the grounds of Kyoto's most famous temple. She'll have to do some detective work to clear her name. Detective investigation is not my genre.  
52. Wingman Special -Saraba Yume Senshi- ウイングマンスペシャル -さらば夢戦士- [8712] TamTam Co., Ltd. The story is the same as the the original Wingman game, but with enhanced size and quality. Same Powdream, same assassins sent for Aoi. The synopsis is really the same. The graphics are superb. The controls have not changed much and the operability remained difficult. Puzzles are inconsistent and are easy to get stuck on. The new scenes are cool, but reading the same story for the second time is much less fun and most of the fans of the series are felt unsatisfied.  
49. Idaten Ikase Otoko ~Mugiko ni Aitai~ 韋駄天いかせ男 ～麦子に逢いたい～ [87] Family Soft The hero is a Korean wrestler who has been working in a Brazilian farm and now comes to Japan without the proper knowledge of the language. He has an ability to excite girls with words alone so now he phones to different phones saying ridiculous phrases getting them to the state of ecstasy. That's a nanpa bakage. Basically we get to choose numbers that correspond to some words and with three of those we construct a phrase. If the girls finds the phrase especially crazy or funny her excitement meter rises and when at top the reward erotic CG are show. There are five girls to call to. The words selected are funny so the result phrases alone can be entertaining to read. The game had many sequels and was sold cheaply in packs so it got quite a wide spread.  
50. Mayonaka no Love Call 真夜中のラブコール [87] STUDIO ANGEL Mika and her boyfriend are having an intimate telephone talk with her becoming excited with each right answer. Another gameplay oriented erotic picture collection. The right answer out of three variants takes to new scene while the wrong brings back to the previous scene. And whether the answer is right or wrong is chosen at random, so clearing can take a while. The good point of the game is the ease of use since only three numbers and clicking is enough for clearing.  
51. Melon Soda メロンソーダ [87] Bond Soft The hero arrives to the town where the secret of fobidden pheromone juice "Melon Soda" is concealed. He will have to interrogate the girls in the town to get to the secret. There are 13 girls in the game with H-scenes reserved for 12 of them. But the important part is that you have the endurance stat the depeletes with actions. There are multiple tricks not to waste endurance in different scenes, but still it's impossible to H with all the girls and get to the ending, so multiple playthroughs needed for 100% clearance. Command selection is used.  
53. Zenkoku Nanpa Shugyou ~Tasogare no Kyouto Hen~ 全国ナンパ修行 ～たそがれの京都編～ [8712] STUDIO ANGEL To excel in nanpa the hero comes to Kyoto for training. The game is about choices. Choosing totally bad line brings game over. Choosing normal lines does not bring effect and you need to search on for the best variant. The game is not particularly interesting and Kyoto exotics does not really make it better. Emulator gets stuck after the first scene for some reason.  

Ambiguity is a fascinating element of language, one an editor both struggles with and celebrates regularly. On the celebration side of things, ambiguity is an essential tool in the setup of a lot of short jokes, for one. As an example, an ambiguous statement leads to a misunderstanding, and in a VN said misunderstanding usually leads to an accidental love confession, resulting in the unfortunate victim stammering outrageously while blushing like a sunset. How cute. Ambiguity can also be a powerful tool in foreshadowing, since it allows a single statement to be interpreted in two ways, of which one can be applicable to the immediate present, thus making it a perfectly reasonable line to have in the present, and the other only meaningful when considering future events, usually causing the reader to look back and say, "Ahh-hah, now I see what it really meant." Ambiguity is also absolutely essential in writing clever blog post titles. But on the struggling side, ambiguity is often an enemy getting in the way of your reader enjoying your text.
As you read, your brain furiously analyzes words as they come in, building up and tearing down many possible syntactical structures for the sentence and many possible semantic interpretations of the various words and phrases, before eventually trimming this all down to a single interpretation of the sentence, typically over the course of a tiny fraction of a second. However, there are many stumbling blocks which can lengthen this process or thwart it entirely, notably including actual errors (misspellings, dropped words, incorrect grammar, etc.,), which is probably the chief reason why such errors are so frowned-upon in typical writing. Slowing down the reader's understanding, or preventing it entirely, is generally not the author's goal, assuming said author is not James Joyce.
Setting aside actual errors, ambiguity is one of the main impediments to a reader's understanding. Since one of a VN editor's chief goals is to ensure a script flows well for a reader, eliminating unintentional ambiguity is an important sub-goal. Even outside of intentional usage like in the cases mentioned in the first paragraph, ambiguity in English is still incredibly common, with small ambiguities cropping up constantly while reading essentially any text. Let's take a look at an example of a super-small ambiguity which slows down the reader just a tiny bit, a sentence containing my least favorite word:
Looks fine, right? As a whole the sentence is totally unambiguous. But while you're reading it, you're going to run into "that", and "that"'s a problem. "That" is an incredibly flexible word in the English language: it's a pronoun, a determiner, an adverb, and a relative pronoun. It's actually even more flexible in British English, where it can act as a subordinating conjunction, and even though most VN translations are written in American English, the lines there are pretty fuzzy, and it wouldn't be surprising or confusing to see a sentence like "He asked that she go" in a VN.
Now, in the sentence above, "that" is being used as a relative pronoun, but the prefix of this sentence, "I told you that" is also a perfectly well-formed English sentence in which it's instead being used as a pronoun, and if your brain follows such an interpretation immediately as you read the sentence, it'll take it a few extra milliseconds for your brain to unwedge itself, reorganize into treating "that" as a relative pronoun, and continue on forming the correct interpretation.
All right, doesn't sound like a big deal, does it? You're right. This particular, single instance isn't. But they add up, and you can do better, so you might as well. To put it in super technical jargon I didn't know until I was writing up this post, English has a so-called "zero relative pronoun" which can be used in place of relative pronouns like "that" which are introducing restrictive relative clauses. To give an example, since the previous jargon is so technical as to be basically useless, instead of the above sentence, you can just drop "that" and write:
Now, look, I'm not saying this makes a huge difference, but doesn't this version feel a tiny bit better when you read it? Eliminating usage of overly-flexible words like "that" is a good way to reduce some ambiguity, but keep in mind this is a single example of a specific case. It just happened to be the one which prompted this blog post. However, I assure you, if you start reading your work with a careful eye out for the clarity of each line, you'll find tons of small, unintentional ambiguities popping out at you which you want to correct. Training yourself to look for them and to clean them up is one part of helping your text flow better.
I guess that's that. I hope you got something out of that, and I ask that, if you have questions, comments, or problems regarding this or "that", you leave a note below to that effect.

Visual Novel Translation Status (10/08/2016)
Since image header from this week was from Higurashi, I think the book Tales of Tinfoil would be fitting for Higurashi there considering that the subtitle for real book was 'Stories of Paranoia and Conspiracy' and we knew enough that Higurashi was full of those two (The first 6 arcs arcs at least). As for Hinamizawa subtitle, obviously it was from the setting of Higurashi there. Anyway, this is another my VNTS Review obviously and I'll admit that I'd just find about Tinfoil book right now. As for Decay's musing, I'm very agree that Mangagamer update was more exciting than their announcement from last week. Other than Mangagamer, there's also good news from fan translated one in regard of Majokoi. So let me tell my opinion in regard of this week progress one by one. Oh, and still no progress from JAST by the way.
Other
Thanks to our new friend PhleBuster who also work as Fruitbat employee there, we got some juicy news in regard of the progress from Fruitbat Factory there. Admittedly I should list this back at Monday, but I missed that. So let me tried to write some of my thought here. There was some progress from the project that didn't had VNDB page like Lionheart which had 95% for both of translation and editing, Dungeon Girl which was 78% translated and 72% edited, and Acceleration of SUGURI 2 which was complete for both of translation and editing. Those 3 were more in line with game than Visual Novel, and for the gameplay Lionheart would be alike classic JRPG, Suguri was sone kind of bullet hell only with dueling instead of avoiding it (Maybe), and Dungeon Girl was more like Huniepop or Puzzle Quest if we talk about puzzle game with some RPG element there. From three games which were either completed or almost, only Dungeon Girl game that was picked my interest, while for the other two not so much.
For visual novels project, they announced 2 VNs which had the progress (Enigma and Miniature Garden). As for Enigma, it was already completed the translation and for the next plan they'll release it at this winter, either late this year or early next year. Once again, the premise looks promising there, although I won't count on it for now. For Miniature Garden, they already started the translation there and they planning the release for Spring 2017 which could be at around March or if we follow Australia it'll be around September. While they write that they had good production from the art and seiyuu (The character design was quite good indeed), I would like to elaborate that Yazawa Nico (Love Live) seiyuu also voicing one of the character in this game. From the looks at VNDB, looks like it'll be quite a bad VN here but then again it's still too early to said that.
Seven Days, apparently this game that XReaper tried to tell the news earlier here, and they had gathered around 4,2 million yen (US $ 42,000) while the goal was only at 2 million yen (US $ 20,000). My comment here the art was very good and apparently they'll had Steam release if they managed to bring it overseas. The reason was because there's Shimizu Ai as seiyuu and she used her real name here, while we also knew that she was voicing eroge characters (The seiyuu usually using alias if they work in an eroge as seiyuu) so it's safe to assume that this VN will be all age. As for more comment, I think the production value was very high for the VN which had target 20,000 gathered looking from seiyuu, and I think it kind of make sense because Fruitbat announced that they also handling the funding here (Outside crowdfunding). As for the news, they'll reveal more the closer this game released at Japan (2017) so it'll take a while there.
This week we also had the progress from Libra, but too bad that the release will be pushed to May 2017 so no 2016 release there. As for the progress, they managed to finish 2 bonus routes here (Aoi's and Harem). Once again I would like to comment that those bonus route was quite short, and I think they could managed it first there (Although I far more interested to see the progress for the routes though). For the recap, the completed one was common routes, Calen's, Mari's, and those 2 bonus routes (Aoi's and Harem) there. I'll be waiting here if you ask my opinion in regard of delay.
Sekai Project
Seeing Libra release was pushed back to March, I think Chrono Clock release will definitely suffer delay there, more so if we looking at the progress not even reaching 40% mark yet (39.81%). Well, let's just waiting then in case this game will be delayed (Of course I hope there's no delay for Chrono Clock, but if there is couldn't be help there).
As for the usual progress, they still did good job there albeit slowly (Tenshin Rahman was 57.14% translated and Maitetsu was at 39.71% translated). And this time they also add more of their project to their tracker there. One of them was Boku to Koisuru Ponkotsu Akuma (Too mouthful, so I'll just called it Bokukotsu) which announced back at AX and for the progress it was at 8.85% translated there. Apparently they also already had both of Tokeijikake and Saku Saku in QA this week, or maybe they're already did it from last weeks and I missed that. The most surprising news was from Wagahigh which the translation progress was very crazy bringing it to 73.54% translated (Granted, the last update was from a month ago, but still). And for last update here Ne No Kami Chapter 2 was 33.95% translated.
They also had releases for Sakura series there, Sakura Maid 2 and Sakura Nova. Other than they made the sequel very fast for Sakura Maid (Less than 2 weeks or 12 days to be exact), my comment here would be whatever ie don't care.
Fan Translation
As for fan translation, they still give good progress there if we talk about usual one here. For more elaboration here, Bishoujo Mangekyou was 85% edited, 80% QC-ed, and 38% proofread; Tsui Yuri was 84% translated, 73% edited, and starting the QC there (1%); Loverable was at 18.06% translated, 3.26% TLC-ed, and somehow the editing progress was regressing to 1.29% there; and finally Majokoi was almost touching halfway mark translated (47.6% translated), 33.9% edited, and 16.2% TLC-ed. That's all for those who gave the update weekly here.
For the unusual one there's Kanobito, and in regard of that there's some bad news that they'll put the translation project in hold because of some real llife issue there. Although at least the still gave the progress right now which at 27% translated. And one more news in regard of Arcadeotic new project, right now the translation was going albeit slowed down a bit because of exam. Also there's some news in regard of Ushieta which although they're still not give the concrete update, they stated that Airi's route was starting the editing process and the translation for both Kaori's and Nagisa's route was begin.
Mangagamer
They surely had so much progress there, and once again it's definitely excited compared to the letdown back at Atlanta last week. Let me list the update one by one here, but beforehand let me state that Himatsubushi was released at Friday. Once again I'm waiting for the modding patch here, maybe until Christmas.
Suki Suki was at 92% for both translation and editing progress Maggot Bait translation was begin and it was translated at half percent Imopara 2 was 90% translated Go Go Nippon 2016 was finished for both of translation and editing, and will be scripting Rance 5D testing was completed while Rance VI about to do testing Nyuu Jene was about to finishing the beta testing Boukaku was 32% translated Hadaka Shitsuji was 28% retranslated Dal Segno was 66% translated Hapymaher was 51% translated and 32% edited Sorcery Joker was 52% translated and 40% edited Pygmalion was starting the scripting Evangile W was 62% translated and 42% edited Bokuten was still doing the porting Himawari was completing the testing Da Capo 3 was about to do the testing There's a lot of update there. First of all, congratulations for both of Hapymaher and Sorcery Joker for finally halfway translated. As for Decay's statement in regard of three weeks, it maybe true that there's some bigger jump in regard of the progress there. But I think it's still depending on the translator themselves if we want to determined of translation speed there. The example it was relative to the translator would be Naked Butler (Not that I care though, but this is perfect example), because I was take a look to the previous VNTS there and after doing some comparison the progress was pretty much very little with only 2% progress there (No excuse because I saw that they managed to had 3% progress in 2 weeks). Well, either way of course I'm still excited with the progress here.
As for Himawari finishing the testing, I wonder if they'll releasing the demo or not. But maybe now that they finally finishing the testing, maybe it'll be out this year. About Da Capo 3, once again they preparing the demo, so it'll be out this year although it's still my guess though. Either way, at least the waiting for whoever wait for those two games should be almost over, especially for Decay who looking forward to Himawari release the most. If I may give the reason why I guess those two release for this year, the reason would be Mangagamer pattern from last year in which they release two big one both at November and December (euphoria and Gahktun respectively). So I guess that if they want to release two big title for this year it would be Himawari and Da Capo 3, considering that the progress for those two was already done (Himawari) or almost done (Da Capo 3). Keep in mind that once again it's my guess only.
Oh, and I almost forgot about MYTH. From the looks it was quite good if we talk about character design. From the premise looks like it was mystery one and I think I could the music will be good or at least fittingly place, if only looking at the staff who also working on When They Cry music there. Other than that, I didn't knew much about this VN for now. There's already pre-order there, and it'll be released at October 28th.
That's all that I thought of this week, and see you next week.

I'm going to hell for this.

I want to preface this by saying that I enjoyed Highway Blossoms. But if I want to see better stuff out there in English language Visual Novels, whether OELVN or in translation, people are going to have to start criticizing the problems they have, and I didn't see criticism of the problems I found in Highway Blossoms. So, so that the creators (be they OELVN writers or translators) can learn and benefit from criticism and hopefully come back with something stronger next time around, and so that potential readers know what they're getting into, here's my critique of some of the flaws I found in Highway Blossoms's writing.
I'm really just talking about the writing here. I'll start by talking about macro-scale problems: issues I had with themes and how they were handled, and problems that should have been solved in developmental editing. I'm, frankly, not very good at seeing these kinds of problems: I'm better at seeing small-scale (line-by-line) problems. I'll talk about those second.
For what it's worth, I think the macro-scale issues are not that bad, but the micro-scale issues are pretty bad. If your reaction to the broader problems I talk about first is "yes, but all games have issues like this, and many/most are much worse about it", let's be clear that I'm totally with you on that one. I just think that this game could be made better by addressing some of them, so I want to talk about them a little bit. Let's start there.
 
Themes - Americana and music
"Americana" is a big overarching theme for this game, but in spite of that, the VN includes a lot of Japanese-isms. Why is an earthy late-teens American girl fretting about "indirect kisses" (scare quotes courtesy of the original text) like a typical Japanese schoolgirl eroge heroine? Why are both of the heroines flashing peace signs in a photograph, again for all the world like Japanese schoolgirls? In one scene that I blocked out of my mind until I found it in my screenshots, some late-teenage American guy is bowing repeatedly. Highway Blossoms wants to be about the rural American south-west, but these weeaboisms, in part, compromise that goal. Examples:
The topic of music was treated very oddly. It was almost constantly there, hanging over the conversation and the action, but it somehow never made its way into being a focus. One character liked to talk about music, and it seemed to hold a deep meaning for her as a personal connection to her grandfather, but the others just kind of nodded or frowned along when the topic came up - they understood and accepted the importance, but there was no real discourse about it, just constant name-dropping. Music as a theme featured prominently in both minor scenes and key scenes, but somehow never felt particularly important to the narrative. When I was done reading, I still didn't really feel that Marina and Amber had connected over music, and I still didn't have a good handle on what music meant to Amber. By way of contrast, I read VA-11 Hall-A about a week after I read Highway Blossoms. In the space of three drinks with Kira Miki, I learned more about the significance of music to that character than I did throughout all of Highway Blossoms's music mentions.
 
An unnecessary scene
Lastly on macro-scale problems, I did feel that there was at least one whole scene that should have been cut from Highway Blossoms: the Jumbo scene. The actions of the main characters in this scene actually subverted their characterization: I don't view Amber as the sort of person to commit petty vandalism against an individual, nor Marina the sort of person to laugh prettily about it afterwards, even if the victim was a redneck who wouldn't stop hitting on both of them. This scene was, I guess, meant to be comic relief? But it didn't succeed, at least for me. It just introduced a flat side character who served no purpose but to be the butt of a bad joke. Cut it.
 
Telling rather than showing
At a micro scale, which admittedly is something I'm more picky about, the writing has a few big problems. First, it tends to tell rather than show, a fair amount of the time. Examples:
The telling/showing issues are at their worst when the narration adopts what I can only call a first-person omniscient point of view, where the narrating character somehow reads the mind of the other main character and narrates all of her emotions directly. The first time I saw this, it was just a straight-up description of complex emotions and motivations; this does not make for an interesting or compelling read. In contrast, the very next line was a solid example of showing: it described actions in a way that vibrantly communicated the underlying emotions. The potential for solid work is here, but it's headed off by missteps like the above examples.
 
Purple prose
Second, verbosity and purple prose are a serious problem. Examples:
Most of these are not describing crucial events, and even the ones that are need better handling. For the second screenshot, for instance, all that needs to be communicated is "we drank a lot of beer" (not necessarily in those words; just that idea). Instead, it's been turned into a mess of mixed metaphors and unnecessarily complex verbiage. Unfortunately, this is par for the course - every well-executed line is balanced by one full of dead weight. Important lines fade into the background because descriptors are bloating the unimportant lines as well. Economy is an essential element to good writing, and it's sorely lacking in Highway Blossoms.
 
Awkward prose
Finally, there's a lot of simply unnatural phrasing and odd language choice, some of it even apparently intentional. Examples:
 
In closing.
When the writing avoids all of these issues, or when (as happened to me in one noteworthy scene) the music and CG combine to carry the reader pell-mell through a scene, so that you skim the text rather than actually reading it, the VN has some great moments. Unfortunately, a whole lot of the time, it does fall victim to one or more of the above issues and becomes a lot less of a joy to read.
Now, look, I know that all sounds pretty bad; it probably sounds like I hated this game. I didn't. I think the art was generally gorgeous, especially the background art and some of the CGs. I rather liked the soundtrack, and I thought it fit the setting well. On that topic, I love the setting — different is good! I am always up for VNs outside of high schools and outside of Japan. But the bulk of the experience in a visual novel, for me at least, is the novel part. It's the script, the writing. The writing in Highway Blossoms, especially when looked at line-by-line, comes up short.

Hello everyone, Aizen-Sama here. I’ve been only around this community and forums for around 6 months by now, and even though I may not be the most knowledgeable when it comes to VN’s in general, I think that I possess enough knowledge about the translation scene. That’s right, today I’m not writing a post about Luna Translations, but one about my opinion on the translation scene, translation groups, and the community revolving them.

Let us establish how this community and market actually exist in the first place. Piracy and fan translating, they are both mutually exclusive to each other and they are the foundations of what we consider as the “western visual novel community”.
After some years where piracy slowly started to decrease and official releases started to be a thing I can safely assume that there are three types of people now, one who will support every single game localization and buy the Visual Novels instead of pirating them, one who will pirate everything and anything, or one that will mix between these two because either there is no other access to the game in Japanese to apply the English patch (in other words, you can’t buy the game legally because the Japanese market is already a very difficult place to access with Western VPN’s, mostly because Japanese publishers block them to not let people outside Japan buy these games online, which is usually the only way to get them in the first place) or the individual simply doesn’t support some releases or companies that release VN’s in particular (I’ll set people that want to buy legally a game with a fan-translated patch but can’t do it, so they have to pirate the VN even if they don’t want to as an example).
This last example leads to another concerning issue, the relationship between translation groups and the community itself. It’s partly human nature; when a group establishes itself and releases a patch (no matter whether it’s full or partial) we automatically create what is called a “power level” between these two types of people, the users that translate and work on translating games in one way or another (editing, QC’ing, etc…) and the users that simply play the releases made by the first ones.
This so called “power level” is what should be avoided at all costs, sometimes the community must remember that the people that belong to translation groups (whether they are official or not) are part of the community as well, and have their own stances and way of doing things.
Those “power levels” are automatically made, and they are the primary reason of this community’s fragmentation into several “sub-communities”, which is a problem mainly for the translation groups. What I’m trying to say here is that what is constantly happening right now is that what this “power division” has made is to categorize groups by number of patches released (the more they have released the more praised they are) and that has ultimately lead to two things; groups distancing themselves from the community, which is a very bad thing for both of the parties involved, and groups distancing from each other.
What I mean by this last statement is that there is no communication between teams, which leads to what is happening in the actual society that we live in: the individualization of people (Tl-teams in this case). But regarding that aspect, some groups have managed to find a solution to this matter. Let’s put @Arcadeotic's (Euphemic Translation) and @oystein's (Elevator TL) groups for example; both of them have found a way to make the community feel closer to their groups thanks to their “Public Discord Server Policy” (that’s how I call it) and both of them are in the TL Leaders Discord Server (basically a group to try to unite translation teams more, an initiative from Arcadeotic and I). That group has opened my eyes in many aspects regarding team stances towards piracy as well as opinions about the community and it's relation with the Tl teams. This group has also helped me in getting to know people that otherwise I would have never met even if we were active members of this forum and interacted with each other sometimes, like for example Dergonu, Oystein, Kardororororo, and many more.
What I’m ultimately trying to say is that banding together is a rare thing for groups now, and this is the first step to create a community feel again, something that, in my opinion, is being lost little by little and needs to be stopped.
I’ll mention another issue that many people find itchy, and that is the topic of “the sense of entitlement of a loud minority”.
I’d like to make myself very clear about this; I know that there is a silent positive majority, and that compared to the amount of people that complain about things about projects and English patches this majority vastly overcomes the “minority”, but the matter of fact is that this “loud minority” is what gives people that are new to the community a bad impression about it from the start.
I’ll set two examples to demonstrate the last point I mentioned: firstly, I’d like to address the Koiken Otome Project, one that took approximately three years to finish. It’s a topic full of controversy, firstly because people firstly speculated that Flying Pantsu was going to “definitely sell out to the localization companies” and they made a ruckus about it.

First of all, what if they really “sold out” to one of them? That is, in my opinion, a good thing (primarily because I belong to the “buy everything” type of guy instead of pirating unless it can’t be avoided and tend to support official releases), but mostly because, the fact of the matter is that they spent working on an English patch of a game that contains more than 40K lines three years, and the entire effort is theirs, that means that even if they decided to not release the patch for whatever reason, I would have been totally in favor. Why? Because it’s THEIR work and THEY did it, not the people that feel entitled to have the English patch.
Same goes with the problem that revolved around the time of release. Again, I’ll repeat, the matter of fact is that they could’ve released that patch whenever they wanted because since THEY did the patch, they decide when to release it, simple.

The second example I’ll highlight in this post talks about Shinku Translations and the controversy that revolved around the SakuSaku patch. If you don’t know what happened regarding this project I’ll quickly sum it up: Shinku Translations made a deal with Sekai Project to release the game officially, what ultimately made people who were waiting for a fan-patch very pissed. The comments on their website were mostly full of “sellouts” and “I already bought the game in Japanese, now I’ll have to buy it again, gg boys” and many more that blew my mind. That was the perfect demonstration of the entitlement that people slowly begin to have when a project is close to being finished.
 I’ll repeat myself once again, just like Koiken Otome and Flying Pantsu, it was THEIR work, so they had the right to make a deal with Sekai Project and do whatever they wanted to the patch. And, as Akerou explained in one of the comments, it could lead to more titles being localized, which, in my opinion, are good news!
 People have to start realizing that sooner or later, the entire scope if not most of the translation scope will shift towards official releases instead of fan-patches.
As a last argument regarding this matter, I’ll mention a couple of YouTube comments that I found in the official OP video of SakuSaku published by Sekai Project’s YouTube channel, they basically said this:
“That's a low punch SP. That's just low. The guy translating it is almost done. If you buy the translation from him and release it in the next 2 months I might forgive you. If you do it less than a month you are forgiven.”
“Well just pirate the release when it comes out. This is one of the cases when piracy is completely justified.”
These two comments are part of the “entitlement problem” that I’ve addressed before, and I hope they highlight what I’ve been trying to tackle (take into account that these comments are just the surface, just look at the ones in Shinku’s page and you’ll get a grasp of what this community broods sometimes).

Last but not least, I’d like to address Fuwanovel as a platform for translation projects and my opinion about it as a Leader of a translation group (in this case, Luna Translations).
Don’t get me wrong when I say that. I love Fuwanovel as a site. It’s one of the principal, if not the main responsible for the appearance of a community that revolves around Visual Novels in general. I love this site, and I appreciate the people that back this site paying monthly (I hope I can do it as well when I get the chance) and the mods for doing their jobs correctly and every other person that supports this site. But, I’d like to tackle the issue of trying to host translation projects in a forum-based website.
 I’d like to point out that the system created in Fuwa worked very VERY well at the beginning stages of the creation of this community. Basically, the “Fan Translator Skills” thread and the “Translation Projects” thread were probably very useful and effective back when the community was niche and not a lot of projects and teams crowded the scene (I’m not directing this towards the “Fan TL Discussion” thread, by the way).
But, as a leader of a translation team (and I’m sure that many people will agree with me on this) I just think that Fuwa’s way of hosting projects is not as effective as it was probably two or three years ago.
What I’m trying to say here is that, just like VNDB exists, a platform that focuses solely on helping teams and individuals to work on projects will certainly appear at some point, or at least needs to appear at some point. Summing up, Fuwanovel as a forum focused on the discussion of Visual Novels and the fan translation scene is a very good and positive website, and it’s totally needed for the community to keep growing, but! Fuwanovel (the forums) used as a platform to support projects and teams may have been very effective in the past but not anymore, since now the scope is very broad and more complex compared to when all of this started.
Finally, to close this rant, I’d like to say that if I had to sum up things probably the most important issue would be that the community is losing the sense of being together, and groups, as well as individuals, are distancing themselves from each other, which is something that has to be avoided at all costs. I’ll personally try to do whatever I can about this matter and little by little this problem will hopefully be solved in the future, because together we can do great things.
Let’s try to make the translation world great again, as Trump as it sounds.
 
 
 

Tell me, how does this image make you feel?

This was the first thing I ever saw when hearing about Planetarian. I still vividly remember that moment, and how it made me feel. It made me feel like the world was at its literal and figurative end, civilization just a memory. A cold, empty, dangerous world. And somehow, at the peak of it all, this being, standing there. at once a tangible remnant of that civilization, stuck in a warm, cozy world of her own, and at the same time something much older, much wiser than that civilization. No work of fiction has ever drawn me in as strongly as this. Then, I read it.
TL;DR Planetarian is the best VN
The fact that this is a written article about why I don't care about writing should tell you that it's not going to be very well-written, just keep that in mind.
I was inspired to write this by this video by Digibro. I suggest you watch it (up to about 12:13), but to summarize, he says that most media critics value writing above all else, and treat aesthetic elements as secondary. He then claims that, since nearly all critics are also writers, that is not surprising, and then goes on to explain how aesthetic elements can indeed tell a story that no words will ever be able to.
And this made me realize: I simply don't care about writing and prose. I'm not saying that I can't appreciate it, or that I've never enjoyed purely written media, but when it comes to all the works of fiction that I truly love, aesthetic has always been the primary reason for that love.
To me, writing in a VN is just string. It's there to hold the story together (and doing it well is certainly important), but all of the emotion has to be conveyed through the visuals and music. Nearly all VN critics are writers, and therefore not likely to fully acknowledge the value of art and sound direction. Art, in this community, is seen as something that should be pretty (BiMan) and music as something that should sound good (Little Busters) and almost nothing more. Frankly, I think that's bullshit. Neither art nor sound should just be there to make everything feel right, or to 'fit the mood'. They should be there to create a mood of their own, tell a story of their own.
Now, let's look at Planetarian, and how I believe it still works well without a script. May contain vague rambling

This is a panning shot of a pre-apocalyptic street. I'm a big fan of imagery like this. There's something beautifully immersive about the lighting. Personally, whenever I feel stressed, there's nothing I like to do more than walk outside on a rainy evening, breathing deeply, letting my mind clear. It's a wonderful world. Shame it all had to end.
Now let's add music to it, shall we?
Just listen to this while looking at the next one.

To me, this is like a massive, fluffy bed of nostalgia. while Yumemi is talking about absolutely nothing, I am somehow right there, in that dusty old planetarium, and she is just sitting there, calmly. An artifact from a bygone age, something that could not be repaired or even maintained by anyone alive right now. When I read Planetarian, these scenes make it feel like Yumemi was part of some strange ritual, somehow kept in a perfect equilibrium all that time, despite everything that has happened, and the protagonist has brutally interrupted that ritual.
Now listen to this.

In the projection scenes, you are the audience and Yumemi will be your guide for the evening. This is where she really shines. This is exactly what she was made for, what all that (now pointless) chatter was intended for. All she wants is to show you and the protagonist the most beautiful thing she knows, and personally, I was just as moved by the whole thing as the Junker was, and was basically crying sweating from my eyes throughout both parts of the projection.
I think I'll stop here. I'm obviously not claiming writing isn't important, it clearly is, I'm just trying to illustrate (pun intended) that visuals and sound can tell (parts of) a good story all by themselves.
Be sure to look out for any ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣＳ  you can find, will you?

For better or worse, the VN localization industry in America and other Western nations is expanding rapidly, primarily due to the efforts of aggressive localization companies such as Mangagamer and Sekai Project, but also due to the increased interest on the part of at least some Japanese VN companies in making a few extra bucks through localization. 
I say 'for better or worse' because the increase in localizations has actually begun to outline what some of the biggest problems with VNs are, for those living in the West.  What I've put down below is basic guidance... not all of which I follow myself, but which is mostly common sense (which a surprising number of new Fuwans seem to be ignorant of).
 
Ethical/Legal problems
1. Piracy- To be blunt, prosecuting consumers of pirated games is a waste of time, and most companies are quite well aware of this.  So, most of the fallout for this kind of thing is going to keep hitting the websites and individuals who promote the distribution end of things.  A few examples will most likely be made of outspoken pirate consumers (the idiots, in other words), but the problem here is almost entirely ethical for most.  Tell me, do you think it is right not to pay for content if you happen to have the money needed to pay for it?
2. Lolicon content- Seriously guys?  When I saw that Maitetsu was getting a localization, even though it was an all-ages one, alarm bells went off in my head.  Someone is inevitably going to put up an h-patch for the game, and that is going to cause a huge amount of controversy later on that could be a huge blow to the industry, in the short run.  Loli content is one of the two nuclear bombs of Japanese eroge, and it is the one that honestly bothers me the most personally (not so much morally, as in a pragmatic sense).
3. Rapegames- I'm going to be blunt... considering the degree to which Western culture has come to consider rape a mortal sin, do you really think games focused around rape and extreme sexual situations (ie the entire Maggot Baits game) are safe for the industry to localize, if you consider their potential to backfire?  There is no conceivable way that these games could be considered anything other than obscene by any reasonable critic (not a community one, in other words), and in the long run, games like these have an enormous potential to castrate the localization industry.
4. School-based games- Sadly, the excuse that 'all the heroines are over eighteen' is only going to take you so far in some countries... to be blunt, a judge is unlikely to listen to that kind of protestation if, for whatever insane reason, you end up dragged into court.
Common sense issues
1. I don't think anyone has any business telling us we can't import Japanese games, including VNs.  However, as a matter of common sense, you should probably avoid importing anything with a lot of content linked to the numbers 2 and 3 in the section above.  I don't mean to piss on your bonfire, but if you are going to buy something with that kind of material, at least have the sense to use digital download purchases and/or don't display the packages for that type of eroge where casual visitors can see them.
2. Figurines and other side-junk- Within reason, there is no reason why a fan of a particular bit of otaku media shouldn't order figurines, statuettes, oppai mousepads, etc to decorate their room or gaming space.  However, keep it within reason... I've seen otaku friends of mine go insane and overpurchase, even going into debt, over buying swag.  If you aren't rich, have the sense to focus on the main material first, then expand at a reasonable pace into the swag.  To an extent, the same can be said of the games themselves, considering the costs of the actual purchases plus import costs.
3.  Anonymity is your best friend.  Don't pull stupid crap like linking your Facebook profile to your dlsite or getchu account... for that matter, don't link them to your Fuwanovel account, if you are a fan of 'deep' eroge content.  Leaving that kind of data around for casual skimmers to find is just plain stupid.
4.  If you are a fantranslator, number 3 applies emphatically unless you are about to go 'legit' by handing your translation to a localization company.
5.  During scandal times (like when the media is making a big deal over an eroge-related issue such as during the infamous Rapelay incident) have the sense to take cover and avoid conversing on rapegames and lolige publicly. 
6.  Know the difference between being open about your libido and being excessive *remembers Steve*
 
A final comment
Needless to say, almost all the issues above revolve around controversial sexual content.  Part of that is that many people, both inside and outside the VN fanbase, have trouble marking the difference between fiction and reality when it comes to otaku media (an insanity that I can understand but am long past).  As a legal argument, it (as in the argument that figments of an artist's or writer's imagination, as opposed to real women, cannot be considered underaged and cannot be considered victims in any way, form, or fashion) actually has a lot of merit... but that doesn't mean that they'll rule in your favor, in the end, lol.  The West is prudish, to the extreme.  There is no telling when religious interests will slip a noose around our necks, and general moralists are just as bad.  I'm not perfect about taking my own advice.  I'm a VN junkie, and I really don't have any morals when it comes to my search for good VN stories.  I might be disgusted by some content, but that won't prevent me from experiencing the story, lol.  However, a lot of the people around me seem to be utterly unaware of the risks of being an eroge reader... and I felt I had to put this out there, for the 'public' good, even though I'm certain I've already pissed off the anti-censorship and pro-piracy parts of the community, lol. 

Last time I talked about trade-offs in editing and high-level motifs; macro-scale stuff. This time, I want to talk about a micro-scale topic: how to make an individual line better. As before, I'll be demonstrating this with examples drawn from recent editing experience. Before writing this post, I went around looking for other people talking about similar things, and I found this reference: http://kristensguide.com/Writing/powerful_sentences.asp. Frankly, it's great; probably better than what I have, especially in terms of breadth of topics. Give it a read and get your editing learning on. For this post, I'm going to deep dive into one single topic mentioned there, though, for which I've been saving up examples: putting the first and last words of your sentence to good use.
The first and last words of a sentence are powerful. They're memorable. Forgetting the middle of a sentence is natural, so put a word at the end of a sentence when you really, really want that one word to be remembered.
Okay, so what did you get from that last paragraph. I hope it was "first", "powerful", "memorable", "forgetting", and "remembered", because that's the point of this blog post.
Anyway, let's look at some examples from my recent edits to Majo Koi Nikki, some to the prologue patch we're about to release, and some later. I'll point out other things that I changed as well and why, but this one point is going to be the running theme.
 
Original:
  Looking in the mirror, she pondered for a second and answered with a shy smile on her face.
Potential problems:
- "on her face" is extraneous
- that extraneous phrase is squatting on valuable real estate at the end of the sentence.
Mine:
  Looking in the mirror, she pondered for a second, and then she answered with a shy smile.
Changes:
- drop "on her face" (for both reasons above - it's less verbose, and now I get "smile" as the last word in the sentence, which is great)
- the comma after "she ponders for a second" is intended to give the reader that same mental pause as "she" has, to better set up the last part
- "then she" somehow pushes you out of that mental pause and into the most important part: that shy smile, lingering at the end of the sentence.
 
Original:
  Tokeizaka-san irritatedly flips through the book, but her hand stops suddenly.
Potential problems:
- With the benefit of spell-check, "irritatedly" => irritably
- "suddenly" is often overused
I actually really like the original; if you left it alone, aside from the spell-check correction, I wouldn't fault you for it. The verbs are great, "irritably" is a good use of a modifier, and the sentence communicates multiple events very concisely. But there's always room for improvement.
Mine:
  Irritated, Tokeizaka-san flips through the book, until her hand suddenly stops.
Changes:
- Drop "suddenly." "Stops" is strong enough to carry that feeling of suddenness on its own, so "suddenly" is only making things weaker. I've also noticed a tendency for raw JP translations to overuse "suddenly", which makes me especially biased to remove it. It's the typical problem of overuse: if everything is happening suddenly, it might as well all be happening normally.
- Move those good words, "irritably" and "stops" to the memorable points of the sentence. "Stops" we got for free, "irritably" requires a small bit of juggling. Unfortunately, Tokeizaka-san's family name is a bit unwieldy at best; better to bury it in the middle of the sentence and let the nice, emotive words take pride of place.
- Swapping "but" for "until" made for a clearer plot to the sentence, I thought.
 
Original:
- The colorful beauty article are displayed neatly.
Potential problems:
- Engrish
- Passive voice
- Not flashy enough
Mine:
- Iridescent beauty products dot the shelves, arranged with flawless precision.

On that last potential problem: normally my style is pretty spare. My typical goal is to drop adjectives and adverbs, and make verbs and nouns stronger to carry the weight of description, without going overboard on vocabulary. More often than not, I'm trying to make long sentences shorter and punchier.
I didn't do that here.
For context on why, it would help for you to hear the ridiculously high-brow BGM accompanying this scene and see the gorgeous background art. So, here:
Background:


BGM:
 
Equally important for context, you need to know about the surrounding narration: basically, the narrator is currently marveling at just how amazing this beauty parlor is.
One of the benefits of generally being spare with your adjectives and adverbs is that they then work a lot better when you actually do pull them out. A good mental model is that you have a budget: don't spend your nice words if you don't need to. Only pull them out when you're going for the razzle dazzle. The analogy breaks down fast, but basically, if you're constantly using flowery language and overdecorating the ordinary scenes, nobody's going to be impressed when something extraordinary happens, just like the overuse of "suddenly" I mentioned earlier. Since this actually is an extraordinary moment for our narrator, I'm spending a few nice words now.
And again, I want to call attention to the first and last words of the sentence. Those are strong places in a sentence (or, especially in the case of a VN, a line). Previously there were pretty weak words there ("The colorful" and "neatly"); now we've got "iridescent" and "precision". Good words in good places.
 
One last thing to mention. I wrote each of these up in the middle of editing, and then later edited that up into a blog post. I made changes to the edited line itself in the process of writing all this stuff up, which made it better. In fact, I even noticed a problem while writing up this blog post and further refined the line. You'll never know what it was (probably). The point being, simply spending time reflecting on an edit, and especially writing down your observations and motivations for certain choices, will help you do better work. You don't have to be this thorough all the time (I certainly am not), but every time you do an exercise like that, you'll learn from it, and then you can write up your own blog post and teach me something.
 

After some great discussion regarding v1 of this working definition, I brought it back to the shop for some tweaks and tinkering. The results are posted below as v2 of the definition. And I'm sure I'll repeat this cycle many, many more times.
So, without further ado...
A 5-point test for visual novels
1. It must be read/played on an electronic device that outputs to a screen.
Fairly self-explanatory. Computers, game consoles, handhelds, phones — hell, even a smart watch would qualify. A printed VN would be considered a graphic novel (or a choose-your-own-adventure book). An audio file of a VN would be an audiobook.
2. It must convey an authored narrative.
By narrative, we mean an organized account of true or fictional events, actions, thoughts, etc. In other words, the visual novel has to tell a “story.” The entirety of the Detroit phone book displayed in Ren’py is not a VN, even if it’s accompanied by a whole chorus line of catgirls.
By authored, we mean the narrative must be an act of transformative intent by its author. A VN cannot rely upon sandboxes, emergent gameplay, or similar mechanisms to generate its narrative arc (though they may be used to flavor it). Such experiences, while highly interesting, result in something other than a visual novel.
To put Rule 2 in more narratological terms: both the story and discourse of a VN must be deliberate acts.
3. It must use art & copy as the near-exclusive means for conveying that narrative.
Art: A visual novel must have visuals. Crazy talk, right? It doesn’t matter if those visuals are 1-bit pixel art, hand illustration, 3D renders, photography, or video. Ideally, these images will also be germane to the narrative.
Copy: At the heart of any VN is the act of reading — eyes looking at words and turning them into meaning. A VN should be structured around this. If significant portions of the story are delivered as voice-over/video without text, then title isn’t a visual novel. If the text can be turned off — e.g., captions, subtitles, etc. — then the title isn’t a visual novel.
4. Uninterrupted reading must comprise the near-entirety of one’s experience with the title.
For the purposes of our discussion, let’s assume a continuum that looks roughly like:
non-reading gameplay (0%) >>>> reading as gameplay (100%)
Past the 98% mark or so, we can usefully consider a title to be a straight-up  “visual novel.” From 50%-97%, we can usefully consider that title to be a VN-hybrid (a cross between a VN and another genre of game, such as an SRPG). Below that point, we don’t consider it to be a visual novel at all, but we can still discuss its VN-like elements (or lack thereof).
5. It must possess a defined “page” structure that’s generated in real time and is, to some extent, controllable by the reader.
Page structure: Unlike a novel seen in a word processor's window, a VN intentionally constrains what we may read and/or see at any given time. A VN-creator is almost like a film director in this respect, breaking a larger narrative into individual shots — in our case, screens or “pages” — for dramatic effect. Such narrative chunking is one trait that helps us distinguish visual novels from things like web novels or e-books. There are different conventions for such page display — ADV, NVL, diegetic, etc. — and each contains its own assumptions about how a story will be displayed. 
Real-time generation: Feel free to fight me on this, but a pre-rendered PDF is not a visual novel. A “Let’s Play” of a visual novel is not, itself, a visual novel. While it seems an arbitrary distinction to make, I’ll make it nonetheless. A VN must use a real-time engine of some sort to assemble art + copy for display.
Controllability: In most cases, this is achieved by turning to the next “page” of the VN with a click, tap, or button press, but any user input could suffice — speech or motion controls, for instance. If the option is available (e.g., via an “auto-play” setting) the reader may choose to waive this ability. But why have this requirement at all? (If you remember, I intentionally chose to omit it in v1 of my definition.) It's here now because, at their core, VNs are both literature and video games. Can you have a novel without mechanical interaction? Sure; I argued as much in v1. But can you have a video game that allows for no interaction or control? Not really; it'd be a machima at best, indistinguishable from a video. And yes, I know Mountain exists, and there's still some small level of control there, if not meaningful interaction.

A VN may also…
A VN may offer a non-linear/branching narrative… or it may not.
A VN may feature sound and music… or it may not.
A VN may feature a story and/or visuals rooted in the anime/manga tradition… or it may not.
A VN may be made by Japanese developers… or it may not.
A VN may feature erotic content… or it may not.
 
Extra credit
"This is stupid. I know a visual novel when I see one."
Well, what about the visual novel you haven’t yet seen?
"Can't a visual novel be just text and no images? Why are we privileging one form of content over another?"
You can create such a beast in a visual novel engine, sure — but it's not a visual novel. It's something like a visual novel, something I haven't yet seen an agreed-upon name for. I invite you to propose one here. Why do we make such a distinction? Genre lines are arbitrary, but we do have to draw them somewhere. Otherwise, anything could be considered a visual novel, which doesn't make for useful discussions. "This tree stump is telling me a visual story about its history, bro. And the tree is the author. And nature is its game engine. And I'm playing it right now." And Domino's stops delivering pizza to the dorm lounge at 2 a.m., so you better finish up wondering if we're all living in an exact simulation of the universe sometime soon. Bro.
"Can't a visual novel be just images and no text? Why are we privileging one form of content over another?"
See the above.
"But when you get right down to it, what’s a 'story' anyway? Or a 'narrative'? And is an 'author' even necessary? Or 'readers'?"
All good questions. They’ve been debated for hundreds of years, and they’ll continue to be debated for hundreds more. Suffice to say, we won’t solve them here. Go ask Stanley Fish or something.
That's right. Go Fish.

Visual Novel Translation Status (06/18/2016)
As for the title because this week VN from VNTS Image header was had same premise as Go Go Nippon, only we going to Kyoto instead of Tokyo, I'd use the title Go Go Nippon and for the expansion we had My First Trip to Kyoto because the VN Setting was in Kyoto.
This week, to be honest it was quite plain if we looking from the progress that Decay made. But from Steam we had many exciting announcement from there. First, we had KARAKARA demo release, which to be honest I'm still not playing it yet (I'll write my impression later). Second we had Meikyuu release announcement next week, which should be enough if you looking forward to Yuuji story (If not enough ie want to see more H-Scenes, well too bad you must wait for a while). For last announcement, we'll had Muv Luv released at July 14th. My question is will they using new opening or not, other than that I think it's quite redundant release imo because we already had this translated some times ago. But if some of you want to read Muv Luv using new translation, go ahead and you may looking forward to July 14th.
For Sekai, the progress here was good in some VN, while we also had questionable progress like Maitetsu (Decreasing? What's happened here). As the roundup, Darekoi was had the biggest jump here (From 79% to 90.01%), while for Love, Guitar, and Nashville it was at 77.7% (Lucky number here). I'd checked Nashville and it was another yuri VN, and speaking about yuri VN, this week we had Highway Blossom released. As for more interesting project, looks like Sekai willing to update Tenshin Rahman and Chrono Clock regularly (This week both of the progess was at 29.99% and 19.19% respectively) so I'll keep my eyes on those two from now on. For last progressedps, we had 2236 at 62.77% translated and WEE Episode 3 at 97.15% translated. I think that's all for Sekai (KARAKARA and Meikyuu was already covered in previous paragraph).
Since I'd already covered Muv Luv, for other segment first update we had Corona Blossom Chapter 1 was funded at 22,087 of 30,000 (Almost three quarter funded) with 2 weeks left. And for Hakuai, too bad that they need delay the release, but if they need that to fix the translation can't be help here I guess (Hopefully it could satisfy Zakamutt who find the initial Hakuai translation was disappointing). For last update, we didn't had Libra update, but Mikandi promised us that they'll give update 2 weeks each (Just like Mangagamer), and by the way they tell us that they often need to beg the translator to move faster. Oh, and they assured us that they were on schedule for the release. Let's see it later.
From Mangagamer, we had surprise Tatarigoroshi release from them. As for next chapter, hopefully Mangagamer didn't take too long for releasing Himatsubushi, which is the shortest chapter in Higurashi. I'm waiting for Tatarigoroshi mod by the way. Forother announcements from them, wait for next week.
Finally, for fan translation, we had usual progess here, although our Arcadeotic this time was managed to give us update for Bishoujo Mangekyou at the beginning of this week (8th script was 81% translated, and overall translation progress was at 97%. Also right now it was 18% edited). Tsui Yuri, this week we didn't had translation progress (But if you really need translation progress, Dergonu said he managed to translate 30 lines iirc) but we had major bump in editing from 8% to 29%. For Majokoi, we had 12% translation progess and apparently they planning to release prologue patch. Speaking about Majokoi translation group (Luna Translation), they add another project here although I didn't do enough research right now other than there's a 15% translated patch for this VN (Oh, the VN was Musumaker). And for Nursery Rhyme, according to the thread it was updated back at January before this update (Right now it was 56% translated). I only knew that this VN was came from same company as Tayutama for now.
Koiken Otome, thanks Decay for give the progress because I just knew it. Anyway, for Koiken Otome right now it was at 92.38% QC-ing, and hopefully they managed to fight the DDoS attack that caused the project lead delay the release (According to the post, supposedly this patch will be released at June 5th, but because there was some troll had grudge against some community, he decided to attacking server that host the community by DDoS, and unfortunately Koiken Otome server was the same server as targeted one). For last update (Astral Air), looks like this time Supreme Tentacle was prove us that what Chuee promised will come true (Translation will picked up in summer). I knew that there's still some QC left, but hopefully it'll take no long time and if possible we had it released this year. As for the progress, it was 3.88% jump from last week (Will we see 4% jump I wonder), bringing Astral Air to 88.83% translated.
For this week, I think that's all for my review and sorry if I miss some. See you next week.
PS - Congratulations on English patch release from big breast nukige 'Kimonen demo Harem Guild', Quof. And if some reader like big breast, go get the patch and play it.
PPS - Add one more progress here. For Hanasaki, right now they had Hikari's route translated at 12% progress.

Last time, we discussed how the casual ellipsis should almost always be considered punctuation non grata in VN translations. Today, we set our sights on a new target: Japanese-style quotation marks. Handling these couldn’t be simpler: If you see any in your text, replace them with English-style quotation marks immediately. No exceptions. No special cases. No mercy.
A quick primer on Japanese quotation marks
If you’ve spent any time looking at Japanese texts, you’ve likely seen 「 and its friend 」. These little guys are known as kagikakko (“hook brackets”) and function almost exactly like opening (“) and closing (”) quotations marks would in English. No surprise there; kagikakko were invented during the 19th Century to aid in translating Western texts into Japanese. Why use these instead the genuine article? Because a Western quote (“) looks an awful lot like a dakuten (゛), a common Japanese diacritical mark; it turns “ta” (た) into “da” (だ), for instance. The potential for confusion was enormous, so new punctuation was introduced.
Less frequently seen are 『 and 』, known as nijūkagikakko (“double hook brackets”). These operate much like opening (‘) and closing (’) single quotation marks would in English — which is to say, for quoting things within quotes. (“You can’t just scream ‘FIRE!’ in a crowded theater,” he scolded.) In Japanese, they also moonlight as italics for things like book titles. Times are tough and they need the extra cash.
The rules (You can quote me on these.)
But all my friends are doing it!
So here’s the rub: I see Japanese quotation marks everywhere. Fan translations, professional translations — everywhere. Why? Buggered if I know. I can only imagine it’s affectation that, over time, has become habit. Maybe TL teams think it’s more authentic? Maybe they’re convinced it makes the English text look more Japanese-y? Maybe it’s chemtrails? I just don’t know.
Regardless of the reason, this is one seriously annoying trend that needs to be pushed off a seriously tall cliff. Starting now.
UPDATE #1: As pointed out in the comments, I'm assuming the rules of U.S. punctuation here. I also eat my soft-boiled eggs little end up, just as The Lord God Almighty intended. If you live in the U.K. or one of its offshoots, however, feel free to reverse the order I've given — i.e., single quotes as your primary tool, double quotes for nested quotes and italics.
And to be honest, if you look at how Japanese quotation marks are constructed, it seems pretty clear they're based off the British style. Point for the Queen. But ultimately, your editing decisions should be based on whether you're using U.S. or U.K. English for your translation in general.

Winged Cloud's girls-love focused dungeon crawler Sakura Dungeon packs in solid gameplay, decent characterization, and ample ero into a 20+ hr experience.
[In-Depth Review] Sakura Dungeon

This past weekend marked the unofficial start of summer here in the States, and to celebrate, dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster threw down the gauntlet in a major way. The hot dog, it declared, is a sandwich. It consists of bread (the bun) holding some filling (a plump, juicy hot dog). It meets the textbook definition of a sandwich. Therefore, it’s a sandwich.
The reaction from Team Hot Dog was swift. “Nooo! That’s not true!” they Luke Skywalkered across the Twiterverse. “Hot dogs are hot dogs! Shuttuuuuuhp!” Whereas Team Sandwich raised nary a peep. “Cool,” they said. “We like sandwiches. Welcome to the club.”
And why was that? Maybe a look at similar sort of statement can help us try to figure it out:
Gone Home is a visual novel.

Nooo! That’s not true! Gone Home isn’t a VN! Shuttuuuuhp!
Very light spoilers to follow.
If you don’t know, Gone Home is a game that came out in 2013, created by a handful of former BioShock devs. In it, you assume the role of an American college student who comes home from a year abroad only to find her parents’ house deserted, a cryptic note from her sister taped to the front door. The rest of the game is spent finding out just what happened.
Except it’s not a “game” as such. And you don’t really “play.” You simply wander the house using FPS controls, going from room to room and reading/hearing scattered bits of documentary evidence – letters, journal entries, crumpled-up notes, etc. – that help you unravel the mystery. That’s it. Some gamers have dismissively called it a “walking simulator,” but there’s clearly more to it than that. Gone Home is a digital experience that exists primarily to convey an authored text, one that shares structural similarities with traditional novels/short stories. That text is then given strong support by on-screen visual elements to form a cohesive whole.
While there’s no hard and fast definition of “visual novel” that I’m aware of, the above seems to do the job pretty well. And by that definition, Gone Home is a visual novel.
Nooo! It’s not a VN! It doesn’t take the form of a written novel!
Sure it does – an epistolary novel, to be specific. Here, I’ll even save you the trip to Wikipedia:
Some well-known entries in this genre include Frankenstein, Dracula, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and World War Z. In Gone Home’s case, the main narrative thread is told via your sister’s journal entries, which are penned as letters in absentia to you. Additional plot is introduced via other letters, newspaper clippings, and historical documents. Sound familiar? Yup. In fact, if you printed the collected documents of Gone Home in paperback, it would hold up extremely well as an example of the epistolary form.
Gone Home is a visual novel. Deal with it.

Nooo! It’s not a VN! You walk around in a 3D environment!
So what? Macbeth is a play; we can all agree on that. Sleep No More is a highly regarded re-contextualizing of that play as performance spaces meant to be walked through and experienced. The fact that you sit on your ass through one and physically traverse the other doesn’t change the fact that both are plays. They both have actors, scenes, and staging.
And besides, several other VN titles use the exploration of 3D environments to frame their textual elements – Corpse Party: Book of Shadows, Danganronpa, etc.
Gone Home is a visual novel. Deal with it.
Nooo! It’s not a VN! It’s a game that just happens to have text!
There’s almost zero “gameplay” in Gone Home. Seriously. Most of one’s time in so-called “narrative-driven” games like BioShock or Final Fantasy [n] or Persona is spent doing non-narrative things – fighting, more often than not. In Gone Home, if you’re not reading/listening to documents, you’re usually (a) walking, (b) turning on lamps, or (c) opening cupboards and looking at cans of soup. The “game,” such as it is, exists solely to deliver the narrative.
Baldr Sky, Aselia, the Rance VNs – all have far more gameplay than Gone Home could ever dream of.
Gone Home is a visual novel. Deal with it.

Nooo! It’s not a VN! You can finish the game without reading most of it!
While Gone Home definitely gives you a great deal of leeway in what you choose to read, and in what order, there are still certain key documents that act as plot gateways. These help ensure there’s a beginning, a middle, and an end with an identifiable narrative arc in between.
Anyway, I can also “finish” a more traditional VN without reading most of it. Maybe I get an early bad ending. Or I can read one route to completion and decide to stop, missing most of the content.
Gone Home is a visual novel. Deal with it.
Nooo! It’s not a VN! If it is, then any game can claim the same!
Nope. Slippery slope denied. Just because Gone Home can be considered a VN, that doesn’t mean Tetris or Call of Duty: Jackalope can; it’s still a fairly high bar. Take The Walking Dead series by Telltale, for example. A number of people have argued that these games could (and should) be considered VNs, but I’d disagree. That could be a whole blog post by itself, but suffice to say their narrative form is much closer to that of a TV script than a novel or story.
All kings are men, but not all men are kings. Just because VNs prioritize narrative doesn’t mean all games that prioritize narrative are VNs.

Nooo! It’s not a VN! It doesn’t have sprites against a background!
So what? Go tell that to Narcissu.
Nooo! It’s not a VN! It doesn’t have hand-drawn art!
So what? Go tell that to any recent VN using 3D character models/backdrops.
Nooo! It’s not a VN! It doesn’t have routes! And heroines!
Are we seriously having this conversation?
Nooo! It’s not a VN! Its creators don’t even call it that!
So what? Authorial intent means nothing. All the audience can judge is what’s on the page/screen. And what’s there is a visual novel. (For the record, the devs call it a "story exploration" game.)
Okay, class. What have we learned?
Our Gone Home experiment, interestingly enough, is the reverse of the hot dog situation. Visual novel fans (a.k.a., Team Sandwich) tend to be the ones arguing against Gone Home (a.k.a., Team Hot Dog) being considered part of the genre, rather than the other way around. Larger resists smaller, rather than smaller resisting larger. And why is that?
For Team Hot Dog, the object of its affection is more than a tube-shaped piece of meat on a bun. It’s the whole emotional experience surrounding the idea of “hot dog” – the childhood ballgames, the smell of charcoal in the backyard grill. There’s a good reason I can watch the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on TV next month, but not the Boar’s Head Ham and Cheese on Rye Eating Contest. To admit that a hot dog is just a sandwich is to risk making it less special somehow, to blur the lines of its magic.
And for members of Team VN, a “visual novel” is more than just any old game that combines textual narrative with computer graphics. It’s also the emotional experience of all the VNs they’ve played until now – experiences that are often colored by very specific art styles and narrative conceits. To admit that a “game” like Gone Home can be a visual novel is to risk making the genre seem less special somehow, to blur the lines of its magic.
In both cases, the emotional experience of a thing proves to be just as true and just as powerful as the dictionary definition of that thing. And unless your name happens to be Merriam or Webster, there’s very little to be done about the latter. But the former is a matter of personal interpretation; personal interpretation remains a hill that one can choose to defend and, indeed, die upon.
In other words, it’s possible for the statements “Gone Home is a visual novel,” and “I don’t consider Gone Home to be a visual novel,” to both be true simultaneously. But if you put ketchup on your hot dog sandwich, you’re just a bloody idiot.
Update #1: Now watch as I argue that Gone Home really isn't a visual novel. Proof you can have your cake and piss on it too.

So, Kaguya. The final boss of Touhou 8, Imperishable Night, and also the character my whole profile is based on, and my favorite touhou character, all in all.  
A long time ago, a bamboo cutter found a baby girl while working.
She was unlike all other babies he had ever seen, being really small, and much more fragile.
While he was a simple bamboo cutter, and didn't have much to provide, after some thought, he decided to adopt her.
And so he took the baby, and he and his wife continued to live their lives normally.
 
However, after adopting the baby, the man was blessed with fortune. Mysteriously finding gold while working, amongst other things. Everything in his life was working out more than perfectly, to ridiculous levels, and they became a very wealthy family over the years.
During that time, the girl grew up, with unnatural health and beauty. 
The girl's beauty was unlike anything ever seen before on earth, and word of Princess Kaguya spread accross the land with shocking speed. 
And so, tens, if not hundreds of men came to see the rumored princess. All of them proposed to her, and she refused all of them. 
 
Even after being refused several times, however, 5 nobles would absolutely not give up on marrying her. Kaguya was conflicted, and decided to set them for a trial. She then set 5 impossible requests to bring her different treasures; She would marry the man who managed to bring her one of the treasures first. 
The first request was to bring her the stone begging bowl of Buddha. The second was to take a jeweled branch from Mount Hourai. The third was to find the robe of the fire-rat of China. The fourth was to retrieve a colored jewel from a dragon's neck. The final task was to find the legendary Cowry treasure of the swallows.
Upon facing these requests, 2 of the nobles gave up, one tried to swindle her with a fake treasure and one decided to propose to her without any treasure. 
One man, however, decided to seek the treasure to the very end, and tragically died in a storm, before he could even reach his destination.
 
With all of them rejected, word of the princess reched the emperor of Japan, who arranged a meeting with her.
Upon seeing her beauty, he too, could not help but propose to her, which she also rejected, wishing only to live with her family in peace.
Unlike the nobles, however, the emperor kept contact with her, and they would trade letters as friends for a long time to come.
 
With the passage of time, however, Kaguya began to act weirdly. She would be seen sobbing at night, and acting troubled and depressed.
It would later be revealed that she recovered her memories, and that she wasn't human, but rather a being from a species that lived in the moon, exiled to the earth temporarily as a way to pay for her crime of developing and using a drug that brough her immortality, thus leaving her unclean to the eyes of the lunarians. 
That penitence, however, was about to end, and soon she would have to return to the moon. 
Not wishing to return, she then decided to hide, and run away. 
As a last apology, she made and left one drink of the potion of immortality, asking it to be delivered to her closest friend, the emperor of Japan. 
And that would be the end of it, if not for Mokou. 

Mokou is the Extra stage boss of IN, and she's quite an interesting one - She was the daughter of the Fujiwara family; The noble who died while doing his impossible request was her father. 
She viewed Kaguya as a figure that's almost a demon - someone who charmed and tricked her father to his death.
She then decided that she would have her vengeance, no matter what. And then she stole the drug of immortality, and took it, determined to make Kaguya pay. The drug was completely beyond her expectations, and she felt tricked yet again, being forced into a curse of never dying, no matter what. Realizing her revenge was pointless, but still determined to have it, it's said that Mokou went on a ramapage for 200 years, burning everything that entered her sight to ashes, be it human or youkai, all the while she felt the pain of the fire in her body, searching Kaguya to make her suffer the same.
And that's the start of their story, basically. Though I haven't covered Reisen, Tewi or Eirin, all who are quite important for Kaguya. There's also a lot to expand on Mokou, but I'll leave that for when I explain Imperishable Night. 
For now, cheers! 
 

Katawa Shoujo was a first for me in a few fields, which I might have discussed briefly in an earlier post. It was my first visual novel, and while I'm not exactly a font of knowledge of experience in the medium, it opened me up to a wonderful (if expensive and sometimes questionable) form of storytelling. It was the first exposure I had to a Japanese-style thing, and while not being actually Japanese itself, got me on that road too.
It was also the first internet forum I got properly involved with, back in February 2014. I managed to rack up over 1,000 posts of mostly (if I'm honest) trying to figure out whether Emi or Rin is bestgirl, mooning over artwork, and just general mindless shitposting. Really, I look back on the time and it's a strange mixture of trying to figure out why I spent so much time there, and being sincerely glad I did. Just distracting myself on there and discussing essentially irrelevant bumph helped me out vastly during a crappy stage of my life, and for that I'm forever grateful towards it.
However, being a forum based around a singular VN there's only so much somebody can contribute (at least, without being excellent at art or a damn good creative writer). The amount of times a lemon joke can be made, or a Rinfidel can be declared eventually dries up, and so after spending roughly a year on it, I basically stopped going on there. Every now and then I would pop my head back in to see if I was missing anything interesting, but then even those occasions started to disappear, and about 9-10 months went by.
I figured that, today, I might just see how this little community was doing. I was never what I would call a major part of the community, but as I've already alluded to I was fond of it - I just had nothing left to offer. Yet, I opened it up and what greeted me was a sad state of inactivity. It was, I admit, never the fastest moving forum in the world, but typically things would move at a fair-t'-middling pace most of the time - a good 10 or so topics a day with at least one comment, perhaps one or two with a decent conversation on. But this time, there were 8 topics explored in the 'Public Discussion' field since the start of April. I found one or two conversations - short, but conversations nevertheless - that had taken place, largely among people who were regulars when I used to frequent, but very few new faces.
To be fair, for what it is it's had a bloody good run (the forums themselves opened in 2007 in their current guise) and to call it dead would be unfair - it's not like nothing's happening - but it seems to be approaching a moribund, final state. Whether it happens next year, or the year after, who knows, but for myself it brings a very real feeling of sadness. I understand this is how forums work. People come and go, some stay for longer than others; this is just a fact of life in these places, and for more 'limited' forums one only expects a natural lifespan, obviously culminating in death. But to see a community start to fade, particularly one I held dear during my time there... Yeah, it does bring me down a little.
And that got me thinking. I regularly partake in two internet communities, and it made me appreciate how much I actually feel towards these people; people who I've never met and am never likely to meet. Most will likely phase out as time goes by - be it days, months, years - and I fully expect it will be the same for me. I'll likely only think about them once in a while, a thought like "Oh, I wonder how such-and-such is getting on nowadays". The two I am part of are both far more expansive in their scope than the KS forums - Fuwanovel for... well, obviously visual novels, and the other for music - and I suppose that they will probably last longer than I give them my attention as a consequence. But the fact that these communities leave such an indelible mark on my being, however small I may think they are, means that one day I am likely to feel this feeling of sadness once again, whether I come back to find it nearly gone, or whether I stick around long enough to see it fall.
 
Sorry for being a bit of a bummer, but this hit me a little harder than I suppose it might/should and wished to vent a little. Here's Renge singing
 

I won't lie, I enjoyed HuniePop. It was a fun little Bejeweled clone + vestigial eroge + cynical message about base human nature. It was fun to play, fun to replay and even fun to try and 100%-complete. Fun, fun, fun.
The developer's second game is, in many ways, an entirely different animal, at least as far as gameplay and graphics are concerned. Sex scenes are gone, the art style is markedly different, and the genre is probably best-described as a real-time click-happy time management game. In HunieCam Studio, the player takes control of a camwhore operation and has to keep it running by recruiting and managing up to 18 different girls (including the entire "basic" cast of HuniePop, complete with shamelessly reused voice assets).
After employing girls, you can have them perform various activities, the most important of which are (obviously) camming, which earns you money, and posing for dirty photoshoots, which earns you fans. More fans = more money earned from subsequent cam sessions. Fans themselves are attracted to particular fetishes (teen, latina, etc etc), and when a girl performs a photoshoot, she earns new fans based on fetishes she satisfies. Similarly, only fans attracted to a particular fetish will watch the cam session. Each girl starts with two distinct fetishes (distributed in such way that no two girls share both) and can acquire more by means of accessories that you can procure from the adult shop. Each girl also has two skill attributes that can be trained. Talent increases money earned from camming, while Style gets her more fans from the photoshoots. It's all rather straightforward.
Other activities girls can perform include shopping for alcohol or cigarettes (some girls drink and/or smoke, and you have to keep the supply up or they'll get stressed), performing at the strip club (which increases Talent), shopping for clothes (which increases Style), recruiting new girls at the model agency, browsing the adult shop (which lets you pick up one of six random accessories upon completion), relaxing at the spa in order to remove stress, and... visiting a hotel for some "private time" with rich clients. Yes, you can actually be a pimp in this game. I wonder if Steam folks are even aware of that.
All of this happens in nigh-unpausable real time. I mean, sure, you can pause easily by bringing up various management screens, but it's not the kind of game that lends itself to tinkering with things at your leisure. Virtually every resource you earn (money, fans, booze, even friggin' skill points) must also be manually extracted from corresponding buildings by rapidly clicking them (or, mercifully, by clicking and holding LMB). The process can be automated via upgrades, but even then resources trickle very slowly when you're not actively extracting them, and since you can't manually extract them from multiple buildings simultaneously, you're forced to prioritize. Furthermore, you can speed up any current activity using the same method, but ain't nobody got time for that when you're busy gathering the money. All in all, I more or less hated the gameplay in HunieCam Studio. It's simultaneously stressful and boring (I didn't even know that was possible), and all novelty wears off within half an hour, leaving nothing but grind to look forward to. Once you get to 4-5 employed girls, the game turns into the proverbial equivalent of herding cats.
Moreover, some elements of the gameplay system are a bit... illogical. For example, since fans are attracted to a fetish (and NOT to a particular girl), you can have a girl with maxed-out Style do all the photoshoots, and have another girl with maxed-out Talent (and same fetish) do all cam sessions. I'm not an expert at this sort of thing ((c) Kazami Yuuji), but wouldn't at least some of those imaginary people want to see a cam show starring the girl they've actually seen in photos, rather than some other girl who also happens to have Huge Tits or Thick Ass? Not to mention that the above approach is actually more efficient for the player, in terms of both income and time management. Girls' salaries increase exponentially with each skill point earned, and it makes very little sense to level one girl in both Style and Talent. After all, she can't be in two places at the same time, and two girls trained in Talent or Style, respectively, will earn you the same amount of money or fans (and their combined salaries will be lower), with the added bonus of, y'know, being able to do two things instead of one. The game makes specialization in a narrow range of fetishes much more appealing than diversification, but purposefully inhibits your initial ability to specialize. This is solved by hiring girls with matching fetishes (as I said above, no two girls have two identical fetishes, so there is some recruiting strategy involved) and equipping them with identical accessories, thus giving them more matching fetishes. So yes, specialization in both skills and fetishes is the best way to play...
But why would you do that to yourself? Once you get the message, check out all the bios (some of them are admittedly funny), listen to girls' soundbites the first few times and click on things for a while, HunieCam Studio has nothing more to offer you. Now, I hear you can unlock outfits and hairstyles in a similar vein to HuniePop, but I couldn't even get that far. At some point it became clear to me that I'm wasting my fucking time, which is a minor miracle considering how much of said time I generally waste on games without stumbling upon the above realization.
Maybe I'm just not the kind of person that gets hooked on a game like HunieCam Studio, that is a definite possibility. So, you know, I wouldn't advise against buying it. Hell, I had my share of mild chuckles over the course of 2 hours I spent in it. Maybe I'll even go back and resume managing my collection of DFCs (it's one of the easier fetishes to build around, what with two girls who don't demand a lot of money and can be specialized... I wanted to build around fiery latinas at first (cause, you know, thatsmyfetish.gif), but the goddamn Brazilian chick with pre-maxed skills drove me to bankruptcy, so there's that). But the bottom line is, the gameplay is just not very fun unless you're a grind monkey addicted to floating numbers. 'Tis a shame.

I remember the not-insane guy from the documentary about The Pirate Bay talking about why he rather used AFK in place of IRL when denoting anything he did which was not in front of his computer. Recalling the exact quote proves difficult but it doesn't matter as my point isn't necessarily what he meant but how I perceived it. I seem to recall his reasoning being something along the lines of online and digital presence also, technically, being part of real life.
 
It makes sense to me that reality is not exclusive but in fact the opposite; inclusive. Anything that can be at all I would consider part of reality and thus also, if I am involved in it, a part of my own real life. Which leads me to virtual reality. Not VR but the idea of virtuality. As far as I know, European philosophers back in the day (and maybe even now?) sometimes divided reality into the material reality (is actual, has form) and virtuality. Keep in mind that I'm using the term very liberally. Something virtual can be a thing, such as a character in a visual novel, which is not material but according to some people very much real since it obviously exists. If the character did not exist, there would be no way to see or interact with it, even through the UI of the game. There may be moral values connected to the importance of something virtual vs. something material but that is another discussion. However, I don't really buy the fact that distinctions between forms of realities are necessary nor representative of the way it works. This is why I'm just going to say that everything is real, real to the extent that we don't even need the word real as nothing can not be real. Truth be told, I am making a conscious effort not to get trapped in a spiral of semantics, arguing the duality of language, thoughts and symbols such as the word 'reality'. So, in conclusion to this paragraph, let me say that since I consider reality inclusive and non-specific, I also consider reality all-encompassing and so it includes anything that follows henceforth.
 
Since smooth segue is smooth and If I haven't already lost everyone at this point, what I wanted to get to was this: animu and vidya are for realz! In fact, it makes me very satisfied that I can fool myself into believing the equal reality of MMORPG worlds enjoy compared to the one my shrink wants me to be functional in.
 
Ever since I was a wee lad I have enjoyed escapism a lot. Like many of my generation I was at a point completely absorbed in the World of Warcraft, Azeroth. Because, while I love the worlds of my favourite movies, anime, fighting games, visual novels and so on, they are a bit lacking in the world department. With world I mean a traversable landscape which preferably differs enough from Earth to make it interesting. So, for me, what an MMORPG needs to be is a system which makes an as large of a virtual landscape as interesting and exciting as possible, ideally to the point that you start to forget that it is not indeed virtual.
 
My interest in these kinds of games has dwindled significantly for the past several years. I feel they have become more about being virtual landscapes supporting a gameplay system than the other way around. Specifically I'm talking about convenience features which make the gameplay systems quicker and easier to understand. I didn't get into them for that, though. There are plenty of games I enjoy primarily for their gameplay features, such as Street Fighter and Starcraft, but none of them are MMORPGs.
 
Recently I have regained hope, though. On March 11th this year, Visionary Realms streamed over an hour of gameplay from the pre-alpha version of their game Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. I've been skeptical, thinking the game was most likely vapourware until I saw the stream but now, seeing how far along they've gotten, I think it will most likely see the light of day after all. Basically, the game is like any other game in the genre only stripped of what I consider bloat features. It will also be significantly slower paced and focus more on group efforts as opposed to solo play. There will be limited fast-travel, instancing and enemies which can be killed by a lone player. They are promising that there won't be exclamation marks over the heads of NPCs giving quests and combat as well as regeneration of health will take longer than in modern MMORPGs. The graphics aren't exactly state of the art but to me they look serviceable, although I'm fine with playing Dragon Quest (1986) on my Famicom so my standards aren't exactly sky high.
 
Maybe this pitch sounds like a snorefest to you and I completely understand why someone might think so but I do hope that there are enough people interested in this kind of niche to let the game stay afloat. Perhaps you are like me and love to escape to a world of fantasy, be it in a visual novel or otherwise. Perhaps you are like me and happen to have 12-20 hours to kill in front of your computer before you sleep again. Just thought I'd put the word out there in my own construed and needy way.
 
That's all, thanks.
 

I told a couple people I would post my thoughts about Sayonara wo Oshiete when I finished it, and just a few days ago I finished a bad end and Mutsuki's good end. So here are my impressions, thoughts, and analysis of that experience. Also, this post does not contain any significant spoilers to the VN. So its safe for all those that are curious. (Also from here on forward I will refer to Sayonara wo Oshiete as 'Sayooshi')
Before I start talking about Sayooshi, I want to briefly describe the circumstances in which I discovered it. During this past summer, after having studied Japanese (with a grammatical focus) for a while,  I wanted to get a few easy moege under my belt before attempting something I actually wanted to read. I was honestly having a miserable time, as I hate moege. I was reading them for no other reason than to practice and learn Japanese, as they were appropriate for my level. I wasn't having fun, and it honestly felt like work more than anything else. Just as I was about to give up on Untld Vns for the time being, I read a post by Vokoca talking about Sayooshi, and he linked to this video. The unsettling music and ominous imagery instantly piqued my curiosity and I set out to get this VN. For a while I was saving it, still thinking "My Japanese isn't good enough yet", but then at some point in the fall I decided "Fuck it, with the help of dictionaries and text hooking software, I can make this journey", and began reading it whenever I had time. And boy was this a journey worth taking, even if I did proceed through it a bit slowly. 
I love the first person narrative because getting inside the heads of interesting characters is truly experiencing the world through a different person's eyes. And VNs in my view are the best medium for first person narration, as they allow you to to see and hear what the MC experiences. Furthermore, back ground music enriches the story by immersing the reader in the moods of various settings and situations. Sayooshi takes all these strengths of VNs and the first person narrative, and uses it to put you inside the head of a madman. A man whose sense of reality is slipping further and further away by the day. The unreliable narrator is a literary trope that I really enjoy, but this is an area where I think VNs by default have higher potential than books. It is one thing to solely read the mind of a madman/untrustworthy narrator, it is another thing all together to see and hear that man's world, on top of reading his narrative.   
Too often I see wasted potential in the artistic side of VNs. Visual art is important for not only conveying ideas (i.e. a picture of a hallway should look like a hallway, a picture of a girl should look like a girl, etc.), but art can also convey moods. VNs of the same era usually have extremely similar character designs, and there is usually a lack of creativity in artistic style in VNs. While the character designs aren't anything revolutionary (it is admittedly nice that this VN came out before moe blobs became popular though), what is special about the art, is the eternal twilight. Hitomi's world is a world drenched in the orange and reddish hue of twilight, as the VN takes place exclusively during the evening. And coupled with all the things Hitomi experiences, the color of twilight really makes things even more ominous. It instills a feeling of loneliness, or at the very least detachment.

Supporting the artwork in creating an unsettling atmosphere, is the music. The main theme that plays when Hitomi is wandering the school alone (this theme), only reinforces the feelings of detachment that the visual art and writing create. Character themes as well are quite well suited for each of the characters and the moods they represent, further successfully reinforcing the tone of the writing.
Now onto the writing itself. Things are confusing, and they only get more confusing. Any sense of orientation is screwed around with, and this only gets worse as the story continues. You are left thinking "Did what I see actually happen?", until it gets to the point where you just altogether give up on distinguishing reality. In this way, you yourself submit to the insanity and fall further into Hitomi's world. Not knowing what to make of his situation. The only difference between you and him, is that you know he is crazy, but nonetheless identify with him because you experience the same sense of the world as he does. And perhaps weird to say, but the H-scenes in this VN serve to further sympathize with his madness.
When I was telling a (non-VN reading) friend of mine about Sayooshi. He admitted that it sounded interesting, and even could appreciate the use of the H-scenes from an intellectual perspective. But he then told me that what he thought was truly disturbing, was not the use of H-scenes, but that "inevitably there will be people out there that will find it arousing". For him, (and his understanding of what I told him about Sayooshi), the sex scenes, which are exclusively rape scenes, serve to reinforce Hitomi's insanity, and therefore their portrayal is justified. But finding the scenes arousing yourself, is horrific as it is identifying with a monster; like the monster that plagues Hitomi's dreams. But it is here, where I disagree. The VN does everything in its power to have you identify with Hitomi's insanity, and the sex scenes are no exception.
The sex scenes are arousing, despite knowing that they shouldn't be. It isn't just rape, but the Heroines are (supposedly) middle school girls for Christ's sake. Perhaps eroge players (particularly nukige fans) maybe a bit desensitized, but this is certainly fucked up. But just like when Hitomi experiences the dream that plagues him for the first half of the story, he knows he is the monster raping the angel, and there is pleasure still drawn from this. A pleasure that Hitomi knows is horrible and monstrous. But just as Hitomi submits to the role as the monster as he views his nightmare; we are in an identical role, viewing (and partly identifying) with his sexual misdemeanors as he commits them. It coerces you into submitting yourself to the madness of these H-scenes. By doing so an enjoyment is found in them, but for you and Hitomi alike there is a darkness implied in that pleasure. Furthermore, Hitomi seems to understand that he is defiling them. There is a guilt and sense of disgust felt, but also a feeling of extreme excitement, just as we as readers feel. This is shown through the multiple references he makes to 'contaminating the purity of the angel/Mutsuki', to paraphrase what he says. The H-scenes, and our feelings towards them, mirror Hitomi's perspective; furthering our identification with his insanity.
Yet, just like the reoccurring nightmare, the H-scenes almost always end abruptly, and are divorced from continuity. It is not uncommon for an H scene to abruptly happen, end all of a sudden, and the next thing you know you are placed into a completely different context. And not only do the H-scenes lack continuity immediately before and after, but the characters never make reference to it afterwards, and act just as they did before. Further questioning whether they ever really happened. And this confusion surrounding the reality of the h-scenes, makes it easier to identify with Hitomi during them, since the normal consequences and damage caused by rape, do not apply.  

(Perhaps this would be a considered spoiler if I could guarantee that it actually happened )
And for all these reasons, I feel that the thesis of this VN is the fragility of the human mind. Often we draw huge differences between the mentally deranged, and functional normal human beings; but what Sayooshi points out is that the difference is actually rather subtle. In seeing the world Hitomi experiences, and sympathizing with him, it gets us to realize that we ourselves are not that different. That given his circumstances and what he experiences (and seeing it through his eyes), his reactions are actually understandable. The atmosphere of his world, and reading the thoughts of his mind, gets us to question his sanity, and in doing so, eventually gets us to question our own sanity as well.     
Sayooshi in an incredibly strong atmospheric experience. And it is for this reason that I feel Sayooshi is a great representative of the strengths VNs offer as a medium. This VN took advantage of all the tools it had as a VN (music, sound effects, visuals, and narrative) to provide a full experience of what the wanders of a madman look like. I really felt like I understood to a degree what it was like to be insane reading this work, and I don't think I would have been able to identify as well if it were told in any other medium in any other way.  
 
 

Just an introduction to my blog, but being me I had to take advantage of a pretentious sounding title just for the fun of it. In any case, on to the point.
At their best, I find Visual Novels to be the most immersive medium of written fiction. I enjoy literature, but often I appreciate it more from an intellectual/contemplative standpoint than through an enjoyment factor. Great VNs however, are in my mind the best of both worlds (I can read them for fun, and they leave me with something to think about and to intellectually digest.) Perhaps I am a bit jaded, but there are a relative small amount of VNs that fit my tastes. But when I do read VNs that truly impact me, I like to organize my thoughts on them through writing. I've already written a few articles in the past (Kanon: Mai and Sayuri Analysis, Narcissu and Death, and Perspective in Saya no Uta), but I think I will place future submissions here. Also, I may write my thoughts on anime and some Japanese Video Games on occasion as well. This is meant to be my all purpose Otaku blog.
Getting on a bit more of a personal level, I've been reading Visual Novels since my early adolescence (since I was 13). The first VN to really introduce all the bewitching and immersive powers of this medium to me was Yume Miru Kusuri. Admittedly I did dabble a bit in VNs before YMK, but they were more like 1-off experiences. They didn't really get me interested in the broader VN medium like YMK succeeded in doing. I still remember that one day during my 8th grade winter break when I first read it. Everything from the music, characters, art, and especially the MC's witty narration took me away. I spent that whole day in bed reading it until I finished. Whenever I search for a VN to read, I always hope it will have the same captivating and magical effect that YMK had on me all those years ago. 
Additionally, I've been a part of Fuwanovel for almost 3 years now, joining back in March of 2013. I've met many interesting people here, and it is one of the few forums that I actually still participate in. Granted, it should be known that my activity functions through bursts. Usually I get really active for a while, and then spend a long while on hiatus, and then return to being really active again. This has been true for not only my whole time on Fuwa, but I functioned similarly in previous forums I used to be active on. So if you ever see that my account hasn't been active for months, I'm not dead, just hibernating.
This post maybe a bit short, but I think it served its purpose as an introduction. And besides, I should have my first real blog post submitted a little later today, which should make up for the brevity in this one.

As some may or may not know, a long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away - New Jersey and New Hampshire) I was a writer/editor for sports sections of some different newspapers. I loved it, because I've always loved writing. And I've managed to profit off of it (let's not discuss high school where I wrote papers for money). But newspapers are an industry practically on its deathbed and my last job feel through. With sports, it's hard to get in, as it's a great job and those who bet them stay until the bitter end. Can't say I blame them - you get paid to watch a game and then write about it.
So I've fallen in love with the visual novel format this year, and have been looking for ways to get in on projects. Frankly, I miss writing for an audience. I'm not even looking for payment - I just want to write and have someone read it. So I'm pretty stoked that I'm working on a project. Now I have to get used to writing in more of a VN format as opposed to prose. I'll keep everyone updated on the project as it goes along.

CONFESSION: I use you guys in lieu of an actual social life. I really do.
The internet has made certain things easier. When you find people you share things in common with and can socialize in some way, such as message boards about Japanese porno games stories, you tend to use it as a surrogate friendship. Heck, I actually got married because of CrossGen's boards way back in the day.
So, I love you guys.

A new, English release of a Visual Art’s/Key visual novel is upon us, thanks to Sekai Project...
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I just had an extra big breakfast, so I thought I'd pull up a chair and solve one of the most hotly debated issues facing the English-speaking VN community today. No, no need for thanks. Just name a stadium or sandwich after me at some point. Or both.

Ready? Here we go. Honorifics or no honorifics? Should translated visual novels maintain the traditional Japanese cavalcade of name suffixes — san, kun, chan, sama, and so forth? Or should they adopt a more familiar Western approach, dropping honorifics entirely and/or replacing them with English titles — Mr., Mrs., Sir, etc. — only where situationally appropriate?
San? Or sans san?

I've thought long and hard on the matter and I think I've finally figured it out. Here's the answer you've all been waiting for.

ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?

Haven't you been reading this blog? Did you really think a self-professed amateur VN editor would suddenly crack the code wide open and save the day? I’m quite literally an idiot. My wife will back me up on that one. And besides, this isn't some question with an obvious answer, like "Should I put ketchup on my steak?" (Answer: No. And if you do, you're an awful person who probably pushes elderly nuns in front of buses when you think no one's looking, then steals their mangled nun panties.)
In fact, that question doesn't even have an answer, per se; it has a decision tree. Imagine your friend asks you, "Should I get a tattoo?" There are a lot of considerations to run through before you can give an answer. What kind of job do they have? Bankers and bartenders each have different leeway when it comes to full-sleeve tats. What's the context of their question? Is your friend asking you this over coffee? Or looking up at you from a vomit-filled toilet bowl in a way off-Strip Vegas casino? And what's the tattoo of? If it's Tweety Bird, then it's off to prison with them, along with all the steak-on-ketchup panty sniffers.
Same for honorifics. There's no one-size-fits-all answer — only questions and considerations. And the first big branch of that decision tree: Who are your readers and why do they read VNs?
The Battle Lines Are Drawn
By and large, we can break VN readers down into two camps: story-seekers and culture-seekers. It’s an overgeneralization, of course — there’s some drift and overlap between these two groups — but it will give us a useful starting point for our discussion.
Story-seekers tend to read visual novels for the plot, for the romance, for the giant mechs, for the faps, and for THE FEELS, MAN, THE FEELS. The fact that these stories are Japanese in origin is kinda cool, but secondary to the overall experience. As a group, they value readability over verisimilitude. They don’t get their stolen nun panties in a bunch because Ixrec’s translation of Rewrite doesn’t capture every last nuance of the Japanese, or even gets a few lines wrong at times. They just sit back and enjoy the ride. And for them, honorifics are often just weeaboo speedbumps that interfere with said ride.
Culture-seekers, on the other hand, tend to read VNs not only for the story, but to indulge their passion for Japanese culture. They might speak Japanese, or they might be in the process of learning to do so. Visual novels are often a means to an end: they read VNs in part to practice their Japanese. (And they practice Japanese to read VNs. Loopity-loopity-loop.) Culture-seekers enjoy the inherent Japanese-ness of the medium — seeing the subtle social interplay of honorifics at work, for example — so for them, stripping away “san” to please some Naruto-watching noobs is like throwing away part of the story.
As a translator or editor, you will inevitably piss off one of these camps. Sorry, that’s just how it is. You’re dealing with two groups of people who have inherently different motivations for reading the same work. And you can only translate/edit one way. Sucks, right? To extend my steak metaphor, it’s like owning a restaurant that, for logistical reasons, can only cook its steaks to one temperature — rare or well-done. And it’s up to you to pick which. If you go with rare, all the well-done lovers will give your little bistro one-star reviews on Yelp. And if you choose well-done, the folks who like their steaks blue and bloody will come at you with knives drawn.


In a way, this becomes sort of liberating. No matter what you do, you will annoy a good chunk of your audience. This is fait accompli. So you’re now free to do what you actually think is right for the work, knowing it won’t really affect the outcome much.
Of course, you’re also probably in one of those two camps yourself. (I know I am.) As such, you probably have an clear bias toward a particular approach — san or sans san. And you know what? That’s fine. Recognize your bias. Embrace it. Make friends with the fact that you prefer to translate/edit one way or the other. Then remember the advice I gave a few blog entries back: You are not your audience. Your close friends are not your audience. The message boards you follow are not your audience.
Your audience is your audience; its needs may differ from yours. And the novel is the novel; its needs may also differ from yours.
So here’s what I propose: Rather than take a one-size-fits-all approach to every VN, just accept that, all things being equal, you will probably prefer one approach to editing/translation over the other. And then leave yourself open to the possibility of changing that approach based on the specific needs of the VN and the audience for that VN. Handle it the same way you would that friend asking about the tattoo. Is getting inked right for them right now? And is including honorifics right for the audience and right for the novel?
Let’s walk through some questions you might ask yourself while making that decision:
Who’s the primary audience for the VN?
Are your readers primarily story-seekers or culture-seekers? Is your VN some niche title that appeals only to otakus, or is it a game with broad crossover appeal? A stronger case could be made for honorifics in the former situation; less so in the latter
What's the setting of the visual novel?
If your characters are all alien catgirls on a spaceship 23,000,000 light years from Earth, it's harder to justify keeping in honorifics than if you’ve got a cast of high school students in modern-day Japan.
Are the honorifics plot-relevant?
Is there any good story-related reason for all the sans and kuns to be there? Is the central conflict of the VN about whether the protagonist and his best girl are ready to go first name-only? If so, you have a better case for keeping honorifics than if they're just there as subtle social shading.
Is the visual novel voiced?
This one's common sense. You’ll have an easier time not including honorifics if the reader isn’t hearing them in VO. And vice versa.
How annoying are the honorifics?
This one is totally subjective, but it needs to be asked. Some writers tend to favor narration over dialogue, so their scripts will have fewer honorifics to deal with. Other writers love the rhythms of slice-of-life dialogue, so their prose might be a minefield of sans and chans. Read the script aloud. How jarring is it to the ear?
Is this an OELVN?
Stop it. Just stop it already. You don’t need honorifics. You’re writing a novel in English for an English-speaking audience, for crissakes. Don’t make me come back there.
Run down the decision tree. Be honest with yourself. Is there enough evidence to make you reconsider your approach to this novel? Are you an anti-honorific type editing a VN set in feudal Japan, where one missing “sama” could mean the difference between life or death for the characters? Consider keeping them in. Are you a pro-honorific person translating a VN about competitive bread baking in Paris? Consider ditching them.
Full Disclosure
I’m a story-seeker. Given my druthers, I will choose to omit honorifics from a VN for the sake of more readable English prose. I’m fairly certain that if it’s possible to translate Murakami and Kurosawa into English without honorifics, it should be more than possible to do the same for some random high school moege.
I admit you might be losing a certain amount content by omitting those honorifics — clues about the social standing of various characters in relation to one another, not to mention their personalities — but as far as I'm concerned, it’s content that can either be (a) baked into the script via other contextual clues, or (b) written off as redundant — that is to say, most of what those honorifics are communicating will already be apparent through the rest of the dialogue and on-screen action.
I also admit that my sans-san approach won’t be the right one in every situation. Same goes for the opposite approach. Every work and every audience demands its own solution. Your job is to stop for a moment and ask yourself what that solution is.
And then be willing to listen to the answer.