A Kiss For the Petals - Maidens of Michael is getting an all-ages Steam release

[Plk_Lesiak]

As the title says.

I'm not sure to what extent this is newsworthy to everyone else around here, but I'm super-excited. Both about it finally showing up and about MangaGamer making the sexual content optional. Cute girls'-love stories await.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Plk_Lesiak

[Kurisu-Chan]

I'm waiting for the all-ages version of Euphoria and Starless. 

[Fiddle]

In other news: Hot Backyard Sluts 42 has earned a rated-G version of its own, with a total runtime of seven seconds.

[Plk_Lesiak]

21 minutes ago, Fiddle said:

In other news: Hot Backyard Sluts 42 has earned a rated-G version of its own, with a total runtime of seven seconds.

I think this would be the case this those smaller/older SonoHana games which are more or less pure yuri nukige, this one, just like New Gen, is a slightly different thing. Also Maidens of Michael already had a JP all-ages release on mobile (and that one all ages spin-off promoting it), so it's not just MangaGamer's catering to Steam rules against all logic. ;]

Edited January 28, 2018 by Plk_Lesiak

[Fiddle]

2 minutes ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

JP all-ages release on mobile

1 minute ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

those smaller/older SonoHana games which are more or less pure yuri nukige

 

[Okarin]

Is this the long-awaited prequel to "Remembering how we met"? I supported that other game, but it wasn't anything particularly memorable. Just cutesy and all.

[Plk_Lesiak]

45 minutes ago, Okarin said:

Is this the long-awaited prequel to "Remembering how we met"? I supported that other game, but it wasn't anything particularly memorable. Just cutesy and all.

SonoHana started as basically a nukige series, so I don't expect any game in it to be a pinnacle of deep storytelling - that spin-off was indeed a bit bland, even if enjoyable. This, however, is supposed to be the best game in the franchise, it's much bigger and is usually rated way above Remembering how we met - and obviously, it's much more focused on the romance and sex, even without the h-scenes included it will be quite heavy on fluffy love stories and softcore yuri porn. I'm not sure whether Steam version will have an h-patch available or the 18+ version will be a separate product available on MangaGamer's store though.

[littleshogun]

As for the matter of H patch for Steam version, I believe that Mangagamer will do like usual by adding the H patch for free, see Sorcery Jokers and Dal Segno for examples. Of course obviously like usual Mangagamer gonna have their own 18+ version available at their own shop as well. Oh, here's the blogpost in regard of this news.

PS - As for me, well kind of interesting see that there will be five couple that were developed along 10 VNs, with the new couple here so I guess we'll gonna have Sonohana All Stars here lol.

[littleshogun]

Late to notice this, but right now Sono Hanabira 11 was finally released. Go get that at Mangagamer store or Steam, and have fun playing.

[arosia]

The trailer for this looked so absolutely cute. It is such an adorable game, and when I need a cup of hot chocolate on a cold, Winter day, this is probably what I'll reach for.

Thanks for posting this @Plk_Lesiak

...and thanks @littleshogun for bumping this thread so I could see it!

[littleshogun]

Did try this a bit, and I think so far it's pretty much okay if we talk about the engine. That said, I'm surprised that Nanami's voice was changed so much between 6th Sonohana and 11th Sonohana here, and as for the seiyuu I thought that perhaps there's a change seeing that the seiyuu name is different. As for me well I prefer Nanami's older voice ie the new seiyuu should try adapt Nanami's older range, but guess I'll better try to adapt to her new voice although it's sound quite jarring though compared to her first appearences and now

[littleshogun]

Finished Risa x Miya and starting Nanami x Yuuna route. As for Risa x Miya route, in regard of this I would say that this time it's slightly better now that we knew what's our two heroines family situation like. I say this because if I recall, there's no much family talk in previous Sonohana except for Sonohana 2 (Sara and Kaede are cousins) and Sonohana 7 (Runa's sister leave her alone).

As for the story, well it's usual Sonohana so it's mean that we only saw of how both of Risa and Miya approached each other, although this time it's more complicated compared to previous Sonohana because we have Risa angry at Miya who is always skip the school. Of course what follow is that at first both of them were quite distant to each other until Miya made advance to Risa, and Risa still don't know if Miya really love her until Christmas (Or perhaps Risa still try to deny her real feeling). At Christmas, finally they declared that they love each other and from there we have both couple flirt with each other. Compared to past Sonohana, I think the development for our main couple (Risa x Miya) was more complex if only was because they become the focus of the common route (And Risa being MC) for the most part, and the post Christmas scripts for them was slightly longer compared to one Sonohana VN, so I see that they put the effort for their first official release.

As for the art, while I think both of Risa and Miya art is fine enough actually the couple from past 10 games was redrawn, and some people might find it awkward to see the new art style compared to the old one - Risa and Miya was not so awkward though because both of them were new characters and therefore need a new sprites. As for the setting, I think there's no enough explanation that Risa is half Japanese because I only hear her said that near the end of her route, and I only knew that she was half British from VNDB description. Other than that, I see that while I did call this Sonohana all star, at most Risa was only interact with both of Nanami and Sara although it's pretty reasonable though because only both of them were fellow 1st grade.

I think that's all for what I can write in regard of Sonohana 11 for now.

[littleshogun]

Finished both of Nanami x Yuuna and Kaede x Sara (Cousin coupling) story, and more or less I can say that it's more or less like the third games for both of them because they have further development to their life, mainly to the MCs themselves. The development goes like Nanami learn of how to be a committee chairman, while Kaede was learn to be in the spotlight by debuting with Sara who is a very famous and very busy model. For my opinion here, at least we can see Nanami's effort is quite successful with her graduation album is widely accepted, while for Kaede we still didn't see that she became confident yet even though she about to do her solo (We didn't even see her debut solo). For the next story, I'll go with Mai x Reo here.

Edited May 10, 2018 by littleshogun

[littleshogun]

Controversy in regard of Steam newest policy aside, I still occasionally play this and right now I already finished both of Mai x Reo and Shizuku x Eris stories. Both stories is more or less like the previous two, although I can say that Mai here is the one who didn't get the development here. I say this because in both of Nanami x Yuna and Kaede x Sara story we saw the developments for both of Nanami and Kaede, so it's only fair that if we saw Mai's development as well. But what I can see from Mai is that she like to fawn over Reo, and like to support both of Kaede and Shizuku in their chapters (Which ironically happened outside her story). So what I can say is that Mai here is she did well when she is not the main MC here.

Of course Mai chapter here is not without the interesting thing there, and actually Reo here is more interesting compared to Mai here even though she is not the protagonist. In fact, more or less Mai Chapter could be described as 'Reo tried her best to developed by interacting with other girls (Especially Eris)', so I think it's not out of place if we think Reo here is the MC of Mai x Reo chapter. Speaking about Eris and Reo friendship, both of them is more or less like Vitriolic Best Bud, mainly because Reo is bad with people so any success from her is can be considered as her development (She did organized the graduation party for both of Eris and Shizuku, and it also happen in Shizuku chapter as well).

As for Shizuku x Mai chapter, more or less it's just Shizuku tried to ease her loneliness when Eris suddenly left her because of the latter business. As for Shizuku, I think she was more sociable compared to back at Sonohana 8 because if I remember she's like to be alone beforehand. Oh and interesting that Eris point out that both of Shizuku and Mai did have same haircut, which lead both of them becoming friend although their relationship is more normal compared to Eris and Reo friendship though.

For the next route, only Takako x Runa chapter so obviously I'll finish it.

[littleshogun]

Finished Takako x Runa route, and I think it's more or less the same as previous one. Of course it didn't mean that it was bad, but rather it was quite lacking compared to the first routes. At least we knew more about Rena-sensei here in which we get to know her past with Runa as the siblings, so that's something to see if you interested with the siblings here. Oh, and we finally see of how Takako finally affirm her feeling to Rena-sensei, which as we knew in the past Rena is Takako's senpai and Takako had a crush on Rena-sensei.

For my last comment on Sono Hanabira 11, the crossover itself is quite lacking considering that most of the time the couple still spend time between themselves. I give the developer a point though because they already put more effort in order to produce this, and it was quite a big steps from the previous 10 short VNs. Mai can have some more development though, in which after I think about it perhaps she was meant as standard capable MC stand in although in this case it's definitely quite jarring though because the previous stories before Mai did have some developments for the MC themselves.

In the end, I think Sono Hanabira 11 here is pretty much a standard VN. Even though I say this, actually this is quite a big improvement compared back to original Sono Hanabira that was categorized as a nukige (A softcore one though, but still), while in here each couple is only have three scenes with Risa x Miya have 4 scenes ie 19 H scenes for a medium length VN. Compared to nowadays VN, the scenes count is quite normal especially when we knew that Amatarasu did have 31 H scenes for medium length VN.

PS - It's too bad though that it was removed from Steam following the panic, and looks like there's no say to bring this back to the store.

Edited June 24, 2018 by littleshogun

[Hetzer123]

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Edited October 2, 2019 by Hetzer123

[Plk_Lesiak]

Hey, isn't it a nice day for some thread necromancy? 

That poor all-ages version of Maidens of Michael, previously murdered by Valve, reincarnated today on GoG. I'm really surprised they took it after all, considering what the Steam drama was most likely about (loli porn), but I'm really happy about it. Will definitely grab it at some point in the future. :3

[littleshogun]

I did saw it coming though since the day when Steam did the censorship because of panicking, but it's surprisingly took a lot of time to finally have GOG sold Sono Hanabira 11. Well at least we already have alternate store for Mangagamer there, so it should be good for a while (Until GOG hypothetically change the policy).