What are you playing?

[ChaosRaven]

Finished the second episode of Supipara a while ago. I've read the first one years ago already and due to the whole funding campaign mess, the seond one vanished from my radar for quite some time. I then picked it up after Higurashi since I wanted something short and also to get it finally finished.

Overall, it was okay. As typical for a Minori VN, the atmosphere was a bit more on the melancholic side, which I quite liked. The second episode focused on Ange, which is the resident tsundere in Supipara. Her story arc is about compensating for the loss of her mother by making a deal with the witch Alice to gain special powers to help others. Those special powers enable her to see into the future and prevent bad things from happening. However, that powers also comes with the price of sacrificing parts of her happy memories. Naturally, when she gets closer to the protagonist, this is causing problems to their developing relationship and the protagonist tries to help her overcome those issues during the route.

It wasn't the deepest plot arc, but still nicely written due to the likable characters. However, Ange itself felt a bit like she was written too much to fit the tsundere cliche. While undoubtly a good person, she talked a bit too much nonesense for my taste. Meaning, she lacked the sharp intellect to back up her foul mouth.

Actually, the true star of this episode - just like in the first one - is Alice the witch. It's pretty obvious that she was intended to be the main heroine, destined for the final true route. She resembles Yuuko from ef a lot, being Minori's unique smart-dere character type. Funny and talkative, but also smart and mysterious. I absolutely adore her.

Graphics were still impressive, due to the many CG's and the fantastic scene lighting, even if some of the character faces felt a bit simple for todays standards.

It's a pity that the VN could never be finished, because the ending of the episode made it quite obvious that the first two episodes were just small fragments of a much bigger story. Especially Rikka and Momiji seem to know a lot more than they were willing to reveal so far. Not to mention Alice, who's quite obvious a big blob of hidden secrets. It also makes the VN hard to rate since it's obviously incomplete.

Heroine ranking: Alice >> Momiji > Rikka > Sakura > Ange

Overall rating: 7/10 (I'd rate the story lower since it's just incomplete, but it gets a bonus for Alice, atmoshere and graphics)

I've also read Making＊Lovers and frankly it wasn't my cup of tea. It took me literally months just to finish Saki's route, because it was just so painful to read. The writing was extremely goofy and didn't fit the cast of supposedly adult characters at all. Actually, there was not a single character that seemed to have a mental age beyond 12.

There was also pretty much no common route at all and the characters started dating like they were coupled by a dating agency. An overlapping friendship theme also didn't exist since the heroines only exist in their own routes (juding by Saki's route at least). The protagonist -let's call him Hamster-kun - was also presented as somewhat mentally retarded and really annoying. It's as if they made the idiot friend the actual protagonist. A plot also didn't really exist, so you're stuck with an endless loop of dumb and unfunny jokes, connected by some arbitrary H-scenes.

In terms of positives, the art was quite decent - it's a pity that it was wasted on such a bad writer. The custom dates were also a good idea and some of the heroines at least had potential.

Generally, I think the writing would have fit more to loliges or at least school life VN's with a strong comedy theme. For a romance VN involving adult characters, it felt just completely inappropriate. But to be perfectly honest, I don't think I'll read another VN from this writer or company again. Just not my cup of tea.

Heroine ranking: Don't care

Overall rating: 4/10

Edited April 28, 2022 by ChaosRaven

[adamstan]

Today I started Aonatsu Line - and made it to the OP movie, so I guess I completed the prologue ;) 

So far I'm really liking what I'm seeing - mainly the nice friendship between the characters. Even though this game isn't about saving the school club on the verge of demise, I got similar warm, fuzzy feeling like when reading Konosora :) 

I'm reading Switch version, and this presents additional challenge, since I have no H-code for this version so far. But OTOH this VN seems to be on the easier side language-wise, so this might be a good thing - I have to concentrate more on the text itself, and I'm not so easily tempted/distracted by mouseover dictionary. Now, since I have to look up unknown words manually, I use it as a last resort, and try to infer as much as possible from context. Interesting experience :)

It seems, that Alka Translation group wanted to translate this VN, but sadly the project is stalled for now, since they ran into engine problems :( 

 

[The Striker]

The latest yuzusoft VN, café Stella, its yuzusoft so i automatically like it.

[ztrepzilius]

I read all the routes of Koikari. It was quite fun reading this romance comedy visual novel but some running gags ruin it. Plenty of puns in the translation, enough to receive the Punitzer Prize by Carlos.

 

[Larxe1]

Playing Futama Renai from Asa Project, It's been so long since I read another VN lol since I lost the energy to read.  Picked a random recent release and I played this game. Another game from Asa Project, Renai Karichaimashita, I liked because of its change to the typical setting which is being a rental bf, while I absolutely did not like Renai X Royale because it was too average, Most of their games are average to good in quality but I was looking for romcoms with different settings no more "loser protagonist gets with school idol/childhood friend etc etc. Rental boyfriend setting was kinda new and Futama Renai was kind of new to with the setting being the protagonist is a cheating bastard while he has a reason why he two-times, he still knows he was trash on choosing to two time.

This was a college setting so there isn't a lot of school-life shown so far (only few hours) and that already made me happy. So far, I was surprised that the jokes are kinda toned down unlike the typical Asa project game. They got the slight change of setting from Renai Karichaimashita without the usage of tons of jokes as usual form Asa Project. It just seemed kinda like a normal VN with possible drama ( I don't know if they will actually pursue that drama or do it badly since this is an Asa project game). I'm interested in the story so far and hopefully they don't drop the ball too hard or avoid the drama they set-up and answer it with jokes

Edited May 8, 2022 by Larxe1

[adamstan]

Two days ago I finished Aonatsu Line

It's very nice "coming of age" story, with great friendship vibe between characters. I especially loved common route for that. All characters are present and important in every route, which is another big plus.

Yui's and Kotone's routes are "feel-good" routes, featuring some sweet romance, and light drama. One could say, that's "moege standard", but it was executed very well - at least it worked for me, giving me wonderful warm, fuzzy feeling Kind of side-routes, but very nice.

Miki's route is more serious and longer, her being the main heroine. Apart from (obviously) romance between Tatsumi and Miki, it's also focused on the relationship between Tatsumi, Miki and Chihiro. And that leads to the next highlight of this VN - very good MC's male friend character. Chihiro is actually pretty serious and important character, not another Sunohara-wannabe comic relief.

Now for the (minor) downsides. This VN lacks after-route epilogues. While no deal-breaker, I always kind of wait for them...
Completing all three routes unlocks short bonus story after credits, and while walkthroughs sometimes call it "True End" it isn't one - it's actually "bonus prologue", showing four short scenes from the first day of school from the POV of four main characters - Yui, Kotone, Chihiro and Miki. Nice little touch, but I'd prefer full-fledged epilogues still...

Another thing I missed are sprites for side characters. There are only four sprites in the whole game - three heroines and Chihiro. Thankfuly all "NPCs" are voiced, but I'd like to see them as well.

And that's it - it took me 36 hours to read this in Japanese (without text hooking, because it didn't work on emulated version), so it isn't long VN.

To sum up - nice atmosphere, cute heroines, great friendship vibe, and some minor drawbacks - that makes it 8/10 for me   I guess that my initial impression of this having similar atmosphere to Konosora was because of the "coming of age story" + "friendship" combination.

I hope that one day Alka translations team manages to overcome technical issues and translate this nice VN, so more people can enjoy it. I actually think it deserves official release - maybe NekoNyan could pick it up?

Edited May 28, 2022 by adamstan
typo

[Fujoneko]

Long time no see, all of you! It's been a month, more or less! In the meantime, I've been playing Zero Time Dilemma and while I know many don't consider it a visual novel and for good reasons, I approach it the same way dknjasknda It was... well, it was something, alright. Yeah, I didn't enjoy it... I'll give it a 6/10 but honestly? It felt like a 4/10... Maybe I'm just done with these series and it's my brain saying "pls no moreee" but oh well; I did like one thing! The puzzles!! They are easier!!! I actually did most by myself!! Way to make me feel not dumb lmao

But yeah, the cast was not fun to be with at all, maybe except Team D, but the visuals didn't help aaaaa... I hate it I hate it I hate it. At some point I did get used to it but it was always something that stopped me from being too emotionally invested lol I just couldn't take the story seriously.

I'm almost done with Maggot Baits (finally!) at 90%, hooray! I might actually finish it lololol

[novurdim]

On 6/2/2022 at 9:11 PM, Fujoneko said:

Maybe I'm just done with these series and it's my brain saying "pls no moreee" but oh well; I did like one thing! The puzzles!!

Nah, ZTD is just that bad, objectively the worst thing Uchikoshi has ever written, even if you count the barely coherent Punchline. I will never believe that he had this story in mind when he was working on VLR.

[Fujoneko]

On 6/8/2022 at 8:48 AM, novurdim said:

even if you count the barely coherent Punchline

He wrote PUNCHLINE??? Seriously? Damn, that was so shitty and I don't even remember much of it lmao welp, glad to know my taste is still somewhat good /j

[Silvz]

7 hours ago, Fujoneko said:

He wrote PUNCHLINE??? Seriously? Damn, that was so shitty and I don't even remember much of it lmao welp, glad to know my taste is still somewhat good /j

I tried it twice plus one try at the anime. I gave up all three times. It was sad

[Eclipsed]

Here's a hot take

How the hell did Subahibi get an overwhelming majority 9+/10 ratings (avg 8.68) on VNDB?

Yeah, sure, innocent lighthearted SoL beginnings turned GOTCHA! pyschological multiple viewpoints wtfmux that rabbit?! delusional EnDSkY savior bonanza

But nothing that made me feel like goddamn, this is a 10/10 masterpiece!@#. 

I gave it a 7/Good. Gets too rapey at times. And Takuji can go suck it.

~~
I feel bad for people who followed 9-Nine since its first episode released in 2017 and had to wait until 2020+ to get the final episode. Idk how episodic releases fare against just making one complete VN, but whatever floats your boat. I got the luxury of finding out about this VN in 2022, so huzzah me, can just marathon the whole thing!

9 9 was fun. It's another modern day high school setting with a dash of the supernatural/superpowers. Good balance of highschool SoL Romance and Supernatural Overarching Plot Build Up to keep things interesting, with 4 Episodes to keep ya busy and add to the superpower lore(each Episode is dedicated to one of the 4 heroines, yee Enforced Route Playthroughs). The payoff when you finally get to Episode 4 is similar to, if not only a fraction of, the payoff you'd get from making the trek from Muv Luv to Muv Luv Alternate. Things can get pretty high stakes and epic, just don't uh, overload. Heh.

7/10 Ep 1-2,
8/10 Ep 3,
9/10 Ep 4.

~~ 
I was gonna do a misc. thoughts for both Subahibi and 9-Nine, but uhhh I kinda got too lazy, srrz. And I kinda just wanna start reading:

Spoiler

 

[adamstan]

Somewhere in April I started Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka, but just after the prologue I got distracted/interrupted by moving to a new flat, and haven't been able to resume it yet.

 

Meanwhile, the "Loopers Book Club" formed on wanikani forums, so I jumped on and started reading Loopers today. I just completed the prologue, and so far I'm liking what I'm seeing

 

I'm playing JP version from DLSite, but there's bi-lingual Switch version released, and Steam port in works, so it's possible to play this VN in English too.

 

Edited July 16, 2022 by adamstan

[Fujoneko]

I started ef - a fairy tale of the two. two weeks ago and although I haven't made much progress, I'm really liking it! Miyako is really cute and interesting to be with and Kei is not as annoying as I thought she could be. Everyone in the game seems to be entertaining enough~

[adamstan]

Yesterday I finished Loopers. 

What can I say - it's pretty typical KEY story in a short format, with all pros and cons that come with it.

I loved it - but I'm easily moved, and I like KEY formula, so the fact that this VN adheres to it didn't bother me at all I think the fairy tale prologue sets the mood perfectly, and it tells what this story actually is, allowing to adjust expectations.

Because I have to admit, seeing the premise and R07 as main writer, it's easy to expect more, and then get disappointed - which can be seen in some reviews.

I think it's a similar case like with ATRI and PARQUET - the setting isn't the main point, it's just a stage to tell a story. And while surely R07 added his own flavor to it, especially in the early chapters, this is still unmistakably KEY story. Needless to say, it fulfilled its "nakige" mission, making my eyes teary many times.

I think the closest to this from the "big" KEY VNs would be Little Busters - there are some clearly visible parallels. But at the same time it isn't just "LB! abridged"

Spoiler

 

"Maybe this world is someone's dream?"

 

I think this was first VN I read that in addition to voiced MC featured third person narration. That was nice, made it more "novel-like" I guess

Art is nice, music and voices too, although the voices have too much of dynamic range - some shouted lines are waaaay to loud.

To sum it up - YMMV, but for me it was 8/10.

If you're not tired of the KEY formula yet, want another dose, but don't have time for behemots such as Clannad or Summer Pockets - go for it

There's English translation available in Switch version, and unofficial patch that ports this translation to the PC version. There's also multi-language Steam version in the works, but no release date yet

I played Japanese PC version, so I cannot say much about TL quality. Reportedly there are some errors, but it's not bad.

[Eclipsed]

^"If you're not tired of the KEY formula yet, want another dose, but don't have time for behemots such as Clannad or Summer Pockets - go for it"

Sold. I already have Loopers on my Switch but haven't gotten around to it; but I'll definitely move it up on my to-do-list  

~~
AI: Nirvana Initiative was good. If you liked the general reading experience from The Somnium Files you should be able to enjoy this as well.

The Somniums can be solved more logically this time around instead of having to trial and error yolo choosing random actions and hoping for the best so that's a plus.

The dual-protagonist system is... unfortunate; splitting screentime between Mizuki and Ryuki definitely imo weakens the both of them than if the VN focused on just one of them. Ryuki was aight, but ngl would've totally preferred Mizuki to be the sole protagonist cuz bias

The big twist... was a whole bunch of "...that's it?", especially with how it'll literally, and I mean quite literally, be told to you upfront in plain English handholding spoonfed style after a certain part in the story. It's VERY underwhelming.

8/10. I gave the first game 8.5/10. The first game just keeps you hooked with the always-a-step-behind murder mystery. Second game tries to be grand with the whole Nirvana Initiative plotline and falls flat

~~
Currently reading the most randomest thing ever, Making*Lovers. If you're ever in the mood for a legit dating sim where the narrative is all about a modern day no-relationship-experience whatsoever young adult male protagonist meeting a likewise no-relationship-experience whatsoever heroine by some contrived circumstantial chance, they awkwardly hit it off, but slowly and surely fall in love as they get to know each other and involve in each others' lives, this thing will be quite a treat. No overarching plot or common routes here, the entire focus of this VN will be on the protag and the heroine of your choice's fated encounter and blossoming romance.

If you don't got a thing for the sassy just-an-acquaintance from the good ol' college days, ya oughta rethink your life decisions:

 

[adamstan]

Recently I downloaded update for the Vita3k (PSV emulator), and was pleasantly surprised at the progress it made - many VNs that I wanted to try out but weren't working are now completely playable.

Therefore I think that for my next VN I might go with either Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai or Hatsuyuki Sakura.

Sadly, AstralAir no Shiroki Towa boots up, but then freezes on the title screen, so that one has to wait

Or perhaps the time has come to tackle the White Album 2?

Too many options and too big of a backlog!

Edited July 29, 2022 by adamstan

[adamstan]

Plans are funny thing - they usually get changed

HoshiOri is rather lenghty, HatsuSaku also isn't exactly short. And next week I'm going on vacation, and I can only bring my 12 years old laptop, which cannot run Vita emu no matter how hard it tried. And then I received notification about Seven Days: Anata to Sugosu Nanokakan being on sale on Steam (it's 30% off)

So that's what I'm going to start reading today

 

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by adamstan

[adamstan]

Yesterday I finished the prologue for Seven Days: Anata to Sugosu Nanokakan and so far I'm really enjoying it. The heroines are pretty likeable and it looks nice

 

The only thing I'm missing is voiced protagonist - after playing few VNs with this feature (9-Nine, Damekoi or - recently - Loopers) I really got to like it.

Edited August 4, 2022 by adamstan

[WinterfuryZX]

I'm currently playing Total Eclipse.

Noce ride so far but damn it can became too hreavy with descrptions and discussions of TSF features and functilnaly sometimes.

[adamstan]

Yesterday I finished Seven Days: Anata to Sugosu Nanokakan

First four chapters/routes (Sakura, Kotoha, Mari and Ichiru) were really good nakige stuff - on par with the best, or at least as effective as KEY's masterpieces   After that I feel like it lost direction a bit. Shizuku got the short end of the stick, since her chapter was there mostly to provide backstory/plot information. Nene's chapter also wasn't as strong as the first four. And then the three final chapters - Chiyako, Zero and bonus Murasaki's epilogue - I feel like it was unnecessarily overcomplicated

Spoiler

With all the time travel / parallel worlds stuff.

They tried to pull off the KEY and YU-NO at the same time - especially with bonus chapter  

On one hand - it was interesting, and there were still some nice heartwarming KEYish moments

Spoiler

Like when the ghosts of the first six girl appear in cursed world to defeat the villain. Or the scene with little Chiyako and Shuuichi's dad.

And it was oddly satisfying, when

Spoiler

Shizuku got her revenge, and told the villain - "Yes, you will go down in history - as a mad scientist turned into serial murderer of little girls"

But on the other hand I can't stop thinking that maybe the story would have stronger emotional impact, if it sticked to the original premise of helping the seven ghosts to find safe way to the other side.

Nevertheless I still enjoyed it very much, so it gets 8/10 from me Strongly recommended to nakige lovers - especially the first half.

I played in Japanese, so cannot comment on the quality of translation.

Edited August 14, 2022 by adamstan

[Fujoneko]

Well, I have finally finished Maggot Baits!  Phew~!

I can't believe it took me almost two years to finish one novel... if it wasn't so graphic, I could have finished it sooner, but I always had to make sure my parents wouldn't see me playing it haha
I'll just start by complaining about the one thing I disliked: up until chapter 4 or even 5, there is barely any balance between the plot scenes and the h-scenes; I can count on my fingers the ones minimally relevant to the characters or the story itself; most dragged themselves for much longer than they should have, even if the reader was getting off to it. With the amount of h-scenes there is in the initial chapters, the readers certainly do not need 15 minutes worth of tentacles and torture for every 10 minutes of plot, do they? That's what it felt like for me, at least.
Anyways, the character design is, as always, beautiful! I love Hamashima's work~  I especially liked their glowing eyes, they really felt bewitching during the night...!
The OST was way better than what I expected, especially during the battle scenes, but the ending song was so lovely it made me relax as I listened to it~
The writing felt a bit dense at times, but that is to be expected, due to its setting.
I liked that there weren't many choices, as I could totally focus without worrying about my previous choices, since it felt like characters could drop dead at any moment... well, some characters. The plot itself never got tiring, always adding more mysteries to the main thing - after the endless h-scenes, the plot scenes start to get longer and you get by the other h-scenes that come next quicker, so it only gets better from there!

(about the endings)

Spoiler

For the bad ending, I understand that they wanted to introduce other fucked up shit they thought of and didn't want to add it to the canon story, but geez, that really felt out of place for the characters; the neutral ending was so interesting! It truly felt like a neutral ending - more like a sad and bittersweet ending than a "bad" ending in itself but not as happy and fulfilling as a good ending... I enjoyed it a lot! The true ending felt more bitter to me, maybe because I was expecting a happier ending after what they went through and me, as a reader, after finding the new unlocked choices during my second playthrough, only to have another bittersweet ending. ClockUp sure knows how to end stories, huh? lol

This was such a fun VN to read! I've cried... I've laughed... and I sure recommend this to anyone who is able to stomach the torture. No, wait...! You don't have to, actually! If you really want to read it, they have an on/off switch and you'll only be seeing vomit when there is any, but not blood or gore! If the descriptions and/or the specific sexual content presented turn you off, however, I'm afraid you'd be better off just reading something else.
I know this game has a bit of a bad fame, mostly coming from people who haven't read it in its entirety (or anything at all), but trust me, it's a very beautiful story! Overall, I'd give it a full 8/10!

oh and best girl is Serika, of course ✰

[adamstan]

3 minutes ago, Fujoneko said:

If the descriptions and/or the specific sexual content presented turn you off, however, I'm afraid you'd be better off just reading something else.

Yep, that's me - I'm not touching MB, euphoria and similar stuff with a ten feet pole

[Plk_Lesiak]

2 hours ago, Fujoneko said:

I know this game has a bit of a bad fame, mostly coming from people who haven't read it in its entirety (or anything at all), but trust me, it's a very beautiful story! Overall, I'd give it a full 8/10!

Beautiful story is quite a bold way to put it still. xDDD

But honestly, I think that even if something like MB is generally not your thing the first (neutral?) ending is possibly worth slogging through all the torture porn. It's one of the most imaginative conclusions I've seen in a VN – unique and thought-provoking enough to kind of set up the true ending for being a disappointment. You could stop reading at that point and do not miss much of value.

Also, the bad route is a just massive stream of porn and I don't think it even tried being anything else. A hard-pass for anyone that approaches MB for the story as it literally adds nothing narrative-wise and goes on forever. Although I chuckled at one or two scenes there because of how over-the-top they were.  

2 hours ago, adamstan said:

Yep, that's me - I'm not touching MB, euphoria and similar stuff with a ten feet pole

If you ever change your mind, I have a legitimate copy of euphoria I'd be willing to share. Always curious to see what people that aren't into that content make out of its story, particularly Makiba's route as it's almost universally loathed and also my personal favourite for its extremely-uncomfortable Stockholm syndrome plotline.

Edited August 14, 2022 by Plk_Lesiak

[adamstan]

On 8/14/2022 at 7:08 PM, Plk_Lesiak said:

If you ever change your mind, I have a legitimate copy of euphoria I'd be willing to share.

Nah, I think I'll pass, at least for now

***********************************************

Making use of recent progress in PSVita emulation and my new PC, I just started reading console version of Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai. Even the text-hooking works

I currently stopped in the middle of the third in-game day (first day of school), but I'm really liking it so far - it has really nice, warm mood.

Is there any recommended route order for this VN? As far as I can see, there seems to be no "true ending" or "true route" - just six heroines. The walkthrough at seiya-saiga gives following order:
Sora -> Rika -> Touko -> Misa -> Marika -> Natsuki.

Is it OK to follow that order, or would you recommend other one?

[Seraphim]

There's not really any recommended order from what I can remember, so just go with whatever strikes your fancy. At some point in the future when I feel like rereading this VN in the form of Perfect Edition (only read the original so far), I'm probably saving Rikka for last, since she's the heroine I liked the most (and a lot of others seem to do as well).