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Recommendation thread that hopefully isn't annoying!


voidpointer

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I apologize in advance if I'm starting "Yet another redundant request" thread. I skimmed through the forum and probably did a piss poor job trying to find something that roughly covered the specifics I'm looking for. I saw the "Read this first" post and under it was a link to a thread for Romance VNs. However, I'm looking for a few more specifics.

 

I just finished If My Heart Had Wings (the Japanese + Eng Patch version) and I really loved it. It's my first VN, so I'm new to this big world. Things I loved:

  • The romance
  • The hentai, obviously
  • The single commitment to 1 girl and each time you get a new love story and experience. Eventually you get to try all the girls.
  • The BGM was just absolutely out of this world and so emotional
  • The art was fantastic

Things that would have been nice:

  • More animation (especially during the H scenes).
  • More special art of each of the girls

But these are minor complaints, mostly probably because I'm mostly an Anime fan and am used to seeing things more visualized / animated.

 

So onto what I'm looking for (my feedback on IMHHW was to help everyone gauge my interests), ordered by importance:

  1. Must be translated to English.
  2. ROMANCE!
  3. Eroge preferred, it's nice to see the intimate side of a nicely developed romance between 2 people
  4. Happy ending would be nice. Clannad is an example of a TRAP IMHO (only saw the anime). Love story was amazing and so emotional, but it had too much depressing crap in it.
  5. Good Art
  6. Good BGM

I was thinking of starting Sengoku Rance next. It has come up in a lot of recommendation threads, even though it doesn't really follow what I'm looking for above. It's just "something to try".

 

To further help gauge my interests, I'll throw out a few romance manga I've thoroughly enjoyed:

  • Kimi Ni Todoke
  • Tonari no Kashiwagi-san
  • Nozoki Ana
  • Minamoto-kun Monogatari
  • "Say I Love You"

I hope all of this helps (maybe I've given too much information?). I still feel a bit too broad here, so the best I can do is give lots of examples. Thanks in advance to everyone that pitches in! Really appreciate it, and I'm so glad this community exists to help find new ideas.

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Princess Evangile, Maji de Watashi ni Koishinisai, To Heart 2,  Ikinari Anata ni Koishiteru, and Koi iro Chu! Lips. Pretty light-hearted games with romance in them for the most part. Not much in the way of animation though. 

 

Check out SakuSaku too after it gets fully translated in a couple of months (?) .

 

EDIT: Oops, forgot to mention My Girlfriend is the President. Definitely a must read IMO

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Is this recommendation based on Kotori's route? I did find that one the most romantic and interestingly original / unique. What is your main thought about this one? Is it mostly romance?

 

Hm, that kinda works but it wasn't my intention. KS is just really great and it also fits what you want, you got romance, sex, great BGM and art. It got good/neutral/bad ends and it's an OELVN, so it should fit well into your preferences.

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Princess Evangile, Maji de Watashi ni Koishinisai, To Heart 2,  Ikinari Anata ni Koishiteru, and Koi iro Chu! Lips. Pretty light-hearted games with romance in them for the most part. Not much in the way of animation though. 

 

Check out SakuSaku too after it gets fully translated in a couple of months (?) .

 

EDIT: Oops, forgot to mention My Girlfriend is the President. Definitely a must read IMO

 

Maji de Watashi ni Koishinisai apparently also has an anime. Assuming the VN has hentai but the Anime won't. Is the Anime a good substitute? I mean, is it enjoyable and conveys the story, or is the VN absolutely necessary to get the "full effect"?

 

Thanks for your huge list of suggestions, BTW.

 

Also, is "My Girlfriend is the President" top priority over Princess Evangile, in your opinion? Kind of wondering what in your list I should tackle first.

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Maji de Watashi ni Koishinisai apparently also has an anime. Assuming the VN has hentai but the Anime won't. Is the Anime a good substitute? I mean, is it enjoyable and conveys the story, or is the VN absolutely necessary to get the "full effect"?

 

Thanks for your huge list of suggestions, BTW.

 

Also, is "My Girlfriend is the President" top priority over Princess Evangile, in your opinion? Kind of wondering what in your list I should tackle first.

 

Princess Evangile is probably the one I would choose first for romance.Definitely the most romantic out of the ones i've mentioned in my opinion . Majikoi is mainly comedy and then romance. Same thing with My Girlfriend is the President, comedy first. The romance is still strong though for the whole list

 

As for the Majikoi anime I've only watched a few episodes but I can tell you that the VN is definitely better than the anime to convey the full story as the anime only focuses on one character route IIRC. There is softcore hentai in the anime though if you're interested in that lol but nothing like the VN.

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Definetly G-senjou no Maou. It has its dark and depressing moment but dang the building romance between the MC and the Main Heroine is just too beautiful.

 

Does this mean happy ending or bad ending? Or just a "dark and depressing" part in the middle somewhere that is eventually recovered from? Not asking for spoilers but I don't think I want a dark and depressing **ending** to the story.

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Nekopara gets fairly heavy on the H later on and has twosomes (and no choices), but is pretty fluffy and cute so you might like it. Note that the Steam version somewhat obviously does not include the porn.

 

Princess Evangile is probably just what you're looking for, it's an official release by MangaGamer. Same as above with the Steam version.

 

Ikikoi if you like the main character being physically abused by tsunderes (I did...). Also like 8 scenes per heroine, why so muchhhh :(

If you choose to use a certain pre-patched release be aware that it's outdated and voices will be on the wrong line in some scenes (was a really bad experience for me personally.) You will need to get some new files from the translator's blog.

 

Katawa Shoujo is a nakige, aka moderately cheery SoL start -> get close to heroine -> some kind of relationship trouble or w/e to make you despair a bit -> catharsis from said trouble being resolved (incidentally CLANNAD and most of Key's other works are in the same genre VN-wise.) The H-scenes are generally not that hot and there is no voice acting.

 

G-Senjou does not end dark and depressing (unless you get a delicious bad ending), but has a lot of that built in otherwise as things progress. I recommend it, but not exactly for the romantic aspect (though it is very romantic in some ways).

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Does this mean happy ending or bad ending? Or just a "dark and depressing" part in the middle somewhere that is eventually recovered from? Not asking for spoilers but I don't think I want a dark and depressing **ending** to the story.

It's the 'Eventually recover from' and the ending is definitely an

HAPPY

ending. 

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  • 3 months later...

If anyone is still interested, I thought I'd update on a few of the suggested VNs here that I've looked into. VNs are incredibly long so I haven't completed any of them 100%, nor do I find that I ever will. Most times I pick the 2-3 girls I like the most and I will run through those routes. Eventually I start feeling like I need to try a different VN, not because I'm bored with the one I'm on, but because I get impatient I guess.

Princess Evangile was the first I tried out of those suggested here. It's very cliche but good. I like it's serious tone. I've run through Rise's route and I really loved it. Now I'm kind of in the middle of Ayaka's. I took a break from this one to move onto some others...

Majikoi and My Girlfriend is the President I spent maybe 1-2 hours on each and I really can't get into them. I think I'm starting to realize I don't enjoy the comedy romance VNs. I am more into the melodramatic, serious romance. So I think I'll be passing those up based on this new discovery (I am still learning my interests, but thanks to the suggestions here, things are becoming more clear).

Something not suggested here but that I found on steam was a kinetic novel called Eden. It had what I would consider a bad ending, and reminded me a lot of Clannad. However, I certainly do not regret reading it and it gave me some insane feels that I probably won't ever forget. It was awesome.

Lastly I just got done with Hanako's route in Katawa Shoujo (good ending). Man, it was lovely too. I really love this one. I'm going to do Lilly's route next, and after that maybe switch back to Princess Evangile. Feel free to keep the suggestions coming based on these updates if you wish. There is still plenty suggested here that I plan to look at. But I'm doing my best to stick to not more than 1-2 VNs at a time, so I don't forget storylines and such. I want to be as immersed as possible.

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My first thought when someone says they really liked KonoSora (which I also really like) is usually that they should try Little Busters! (which I absolutely love). In general, if you're looking for a melodrama romance, you really can't go wrong with a Key game. I can certainly see where you're coming from about Clannad (I assume you mostly mean After Story, when you say the anime was too depressing), although it's just about right for me - but Little Busters! is just a bit lighter, and still has a huge emotional payoff in the end. That said, it does not have any H-scenes at all (at least, the Ecstasy edition wasn't translated yet as of the last I heard), so if that's a deal-breaker for you, keep it in mind.

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You mentioned Rance. Usually I recommend Yumina the Ethereal with that too. They both having amazing gameplays in addition to being a visual novel. Rance have rape/conquest themes and the goal is to build a huge harem but Yumina is more comedy/romance and has interesting heroines.

Edited by CeruleanGamer
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Grisaia no kajitsu its good too, one of the best VNs 

Grisaia is such an amazing visual novel, but like Zakamutt said, some of the endings are bittersweet and there's a lot of depressing stuff in it. As for recommendations for more light hearted visual novels, Majikoi has been recommended in this thread and I completely agree with that. It suits what you want just perfectly.

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Concerning Grisaia no Kajitsu, I did see the anime. Both seasons + the movie/OVA. I was curious about the VN, so since it's come up, I'll ask some questions about it.

  • How is it different from the anime? Is the story the same, but the VN has more detail, things like that?
  • Does the fact that I've seen the anime ruin the VN? Like, would I be able to enjoy the VN from front to back?

Ultimately I liked Grisaia as an anime. I liked how he helped each of the girls. I also thought it was cute how at the end of season 1, Amane grew attached to him and was really forward with him. However, I didn't get the feeling that this was a romance anime. I didn't mind learning about Yuji's past, as grim as it was, at least he had a "happy ending" with the girls from the academy.

The main complaint is that the anime was very unfocused, IMHO. The first season was about him and the girls in the academy. He got to know each one, helped them. Character development here was really good. Season 2 became about his past, but was a complete disconnect from the events of season 1. Maybe that's because this was based on a VN and it couldn't quite cover everything.

Based on this information, can you guys compare the VN to the anime, possibly address my concerns & questions? Is it worth it to dive into the VN? I think the biggest question is, what does the VN have that the anime doesn't. If Romance is the answer, I'll feel pretty excited about it. On the contrary, if it's just H scenes, then I won't feel quite as motivated, there has to be something more material to it.

I appreciate the feedback.

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The visual novel does a way better job with developing the romances with all 5 girls. I personally haven't played Meikyuu or Rakuen due to no english translation at the moment so I can't say anything about that. The VN does have quite a few h scenes, especially with Amane, but the VN is definitely worth playing because of the story and romantic development for each of the girls.

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My Grisaia has been stalled by School Days HQ and Summer Days, but it's very different in feel from the anime.  The anime really seemed to push the bounds of things you would expect to happen in real life, while thus far in the VN it's been as normal as you could expect in a school with only a few girls for students.  Perhaps it will delve into the explosions, conspiracies, crazy actions scenes, etc. but it has not done much of that so far.

To your original question, I will recommend Crescendo.  It's not full of hentai scenes or flashy effects - it's a straight romance story done very well with the expected payoff if you make the right choices.  The story is good, the characters are interesting, it's well written, the art has a uique feel to it.  Everything you could want when you're looking for the exact opposite of a nukige that's only there to get your rocks off.    

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