What VN do personally find enjoyable but find hard to recommend/convince people to try

[Thatcomicguy]

Back again with another daily thread, because... *does a 720 dab while tea bagging a fish* That's just how I roll. 

Getting back on topic. The two I find worth recommending but finding difficult to do so, mainly due to certain themes and so on are: 

Euphoria... for kinda obvious reasons most normies people turn there nose up at it despite how good the pay off is in the true route and the art is pretty top tier.

and the other is No, Thank You!! - This one has a really good story (granted it does feel like some parts are missing that would explain it better) and the characters are great... The reason most people won't try it is because of two little letters... BL.

But in all seriousness even straight guys should try this one, and help Maggie get one step closer to turning this whole community into BL lovers  As it is a solid 8.5/10 as it's got good action, a banging piano BGM (It's one of the few BGM's that I don't mute and also ties into one of the characters.), will make you laugh and gut punch you all at the same time. And don't you worry all you macho fellas it's even got a pussy for you to enjoy... 

Edited February 11, 2018 by Thatcomicguy

[Clephas]

Mecha-con

I like the Mecha-con series in general and the original is a fun read, even if the world it is based in seems to have gone insane.  However, even most otakus don't really want to read a game where forming a harem is seen as normal behavior for the protagonist... and is even required by law.  In many ways, the forced harem (the protagonist forced to marry five women because of his deceased parents' wealth) thing seems like a societal evil, but from the perspective of the man and women involved (protagonist and heroines), there was a great deal of reassurance and happiness born from the experience.  Friendship turns to love and that love is shared between all the characters, creating a family that transcends the original pragmatic needs that caused its formation.  Sure, it is an unlikely ideal resolution, but it was fun to read and generally heart-warming, lol.

Futagoza no Paradox and Owaru Sekai to Birthday

These two VNs, both based in rather twisted settings with an impending disaster on the horizon, are both excellent... but the mystery/horror in both games picks its readers. 

Namima no Kuni no Faust

This game is disturbing for anyone living in the modern world.  To be blunt, the island this game is based in is like the ultimate capitalist dystopia.  Everything that capitalism can do to society and the human psyche occurs in this city (up to and including formalized debt slavery), and the children raised there see this as a perfectly natural way of living.  I shudder at the thought of living in a society like this one, and I am well-aware that it could happen.

Mugen Renkan

It is surprisingly hard to recommend a game that contains tentacle rape, protagonist dismemberment (in CGs) and body modifications, even if it also happens to have a first-class story.  The protagonist of this story is immortal and goes through hell as a result... but she also evolves a great deal a person over the centuries, making it a really fascinating read.  I do recommend skipping all of the h-scenes though.

[Silvz]

Instead of creating a new thread, go and comment on mine

I have difficulties with any game, but mostly with long ones, such as Umineko and Clannad. I only got one person to read Narcissu, but it was through a long and not worthy process.

About No, Thank You!!! one friend of mine actually enjoyed the art, although he didn't play it, and I always talk about this game as a great one despite personal tastes. NTY!!! does what I always expect from Vns but they fail to deliver, and that is a story that gets more and more expanded as you read its routes. For those who never heard about it, I can only say that whenever you finish a route, the common route gets more content that change the story DRAMATICALLY; I think it is called genre shifting.

[VirginSmasher]

According to @Dergonu, literally everything. Mostly Myth and Himawari though as those don't have an amazing reputation in the west even though I love them.

[Thatcomicguy]

14 minutes ago, Silvz said:

Instead of creating a new thread, go and comment on mine

I have difficulties with any game, but mostly with long ones, such as Umineko and Clannad. I only got one person to read Narcissu, but it was through a long and not worthy process.

About No, Thank You!!! one friend of mine actually enjoyed the art, although he didn't play it, and I always talk about this game as a great one despite personal tastes. NTY!!! does what I always expect from Vns but they fail to deliver, and that is a story that gets more and more expanded as you read its routes. For those who never heard about it, I can only say that whenever you finish a route, the common route gets more content that change the story DRAMATICALLY; I think it is called genre shifting.

If I didn't spend more time than I'm willing to admit looking for the cg of that cat for the thread, I would have noticed you posted more or less the same thread just before me haha. 

But agreed, I wished I followed the suggested route order on the walkthrough to get the full effect of the common route changing, Maki was my first route choice but I went back to see the changes in his route one I finished the game. It was one truly unique experience seeing the changes like that as it's niche enough to want to see it more but not overused. I think NTY!! is one of the few BL VN's where I've man crushed on nearly all the guys expect Kouichi but given his route that was kinda the point, haha.

[tahu157]

I gotta stop reading threads like this because my "to read when I can read Japanese" list gets longer every time I do.

[Guest]

Euphoria ('cause of obvious reasons), and anything BL since most (if not all, sadly) of my hetero friends have incredible fragile masculinity\sexuality.

I think more accurately any eroge since people can't process Explicit Porn with "Good Story". xoP 

Edited February 11, 2018 by Guest

[Silvz]

13 minutes ago, Thatcomicguy said:

If I didn't spend more time than I'm willing to admit looking for the cg of that cat for the thread, I would have noticed you posted more or less the same thread just before me haha. 

But agreed, I wished I followed the suggested route order on the walkthrough to get the full effect of the common route changing, Maki was my first route choice but I went back to see the changes in his route one I finished the game. It was one truly unique experience seeing the changes like that as it's niche enough to want to see it more but not overused. I think NTY!! is one of the few BL VN's where I've man crushed on nearly all the guys expect Kouichi but given his route that was kinda the point, haha.

I'm almost sure the story changes in the same way despite the route you take. At least it seemed that 1 route equals X content, no matter the order. I'd love to see this system in the future, as most games just feel worthless after you beat a route. That said, there is another game by the same producers being translated, so let's get our hype high!

[Thatcomicguy]

2 minutes ago, SeniorBlitz said:

 my hetero friends have incredible fragile masculinity\sexuality.

As soon as I read this the first thing that popped into my head was. "Those guys sound like they're so far in the closet, that they're getting bummed by Aslan..." haha

[Thatcomicguy]

3 minutes ago, Silvz said:

I'm almost sure the story changes in the same way despite the route you take. At least it seemed that 1 route equals X content, no matter the order. I'd love to see this system in the future, as most games just feel worthless after you beat a route. That said, there is another game by the same producers being translated, so let's get our hype high!

Yeah, Room No. 9 I saw the CG gallery for that once I heard about it and it's looks okay. A shame it's only got one main character, besides the Protagonist though, given the plot details they could of added a few more characters and routes.

[Silvz]

4 minutes ago, Thatcomicguy said:

Yeah, Room No. 9 I saw the CG gallery for that once I heard about it and it's looks okay. A shame it's only got one main character, besides the Protagonist though, given the plot details they could of added a few more characters and routes.

I really hope the story is full of twists like NTY. At the same time few characters can be bad, depending on what happens there, it could become great.

[Thatcomicguy]

4 minutes ago, Silvz said:

I really hope the story is full of twists like NTY. At the same time few characters can be bad, depending on what happens there, it could become great.

I hope so too, we really need more good BL titles. Naked Butlers is okay but nowhere near as good NTY!! as while the guys and the sex are good, the lack of story really does it no favours.

[Kaguya]

I try to only recommend stuff according to the person's tastes, so usually it'd be curveball VNs like symphonic rain where things are not as they seem to be. 

Still, I've generally found recommending stuff pretty easy. Otaku tend to take pride in being into niche and obscure things (being a "normal" person is an insult after all, though that's not only a weeb community thing,) so it's really about finding whatever niche the person is interested in. 

[Dreamysyu]

Well, honestly, I'd find it pretty hard to recommend almost any VN, but number one for me might be Muv Luv series, because, no matter how much I like Alternative, I simply can't recommend Extra, and you need to read it to get full experience.

[Kabu]

Having read through the original Muv-Luv myself fairly recently, I don't really understand all the hate that Extra gets. I found it to be rather enjoyable most of the time, though it did make me rather angry at points.

Spoiler

If I have any complaints it's that I feel like in the end Sumika unfairly got the shaft, for a number of reasons ranging from Takeru's treatment of her to how the VN itself seems to think of her very existence as nonvital.

As for the topic at hand.. I have a few weird, short VNs such as Otomaid@Cafe or Escalation ~Kuruai no Fugue~ that I enjoyed to some extent but would never actually recommend to another person for a number of reasons.

[MaggieROBOT]

13 hours ago, Thatcomicguy said:

and the other is No, Thank You!! - This one has a really good story (granted it does feel like some parts are missing that would explain it better) and the characters are great... The reason most people won't try it is because of two little letters... BL.

 

11 hours ago, SeniorBlitz said:

and anything BL since most (if not all, sadly) of my hetero friends have incredible fragile masculinity\sexuality.

These guys nailed it already for me. It doesn't matter if it have a good story, it doesn't matter if there good fights, it doesn't matter if the mystery is well done, it's gay so no.  Like, I don't know why people don't even try just bc of the porn, you can still ctrl the scenes like some people do even with BxG scenes you know...?

[Thyndd]

10 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

Well, honestly, I'd find it pretty hard to recommend almost any VN, but number one for me might be Muv Luv series, because, no matter how much I like Alternative, I simply can't recommend Extra, and you need to read it to get full experience.

Damn, I've been planning to get into Muv Luv for a while now, but I keep reading all those comments about how terribly boring and dull is all but Alternative that it kinda puts me off. I'm just not convinced that it be worth it to go through the pain of reading Muv Luv Extra and Unlimited (which combined make up a really long VN) in order to enjoy the awesomeness of Alternative. In my mind, both cancel out to give something mediocre, unless Alternative is the most incredible thing that I would experience in my whole life. Problem is, I'm not even into the mecha genre... so there's literally nothing that catches my interest at first glance.

Now onto the topic, I personally really enjoy utsuges... but you know, anything past a nakige is hard to recommend. People don't usually like sad and depressing stuff. The reason I like it is... well, probably just out of masochism, since they can affect me inmensely, but I'd say that they also act as an outlet for my emotions and I get a feeling of relaxation. You know the expression "cry yourself to sleep", right? Well, it exists for a reason.

Apart from that, I guess I find it hard to recommend eroge (that is, VN with h content) to people who are not familiar with the genre. Not out of concern for what they might think of me or anything like that, but you know, there are so many stereotypes in regards to japanese hentai and porn games that people might get the wrong impression and don't take the recommendation seriously.

[DharmaFreedom]

When i recommend VNs here, i usually recommend stuff I think that particular person will like based on what they're into and what they've referenced. Unless they themselves want something completely different from their own preferences.

Though my knowledge of niche VNs isn't vast since my taste are fairly regular and i'm not into dark and depressing stuff . 

[Frullo NDE]

Subahibi because I reckon most "normal" people would be put off by either the denpa/weird h-scenes or all the pilosophical stuff and literary quotes.

[Ranzo]

I've been trying to convince people to play Galaxy Angel for goddamn almost 10 years now and I'll keep at it FOREVER!!!!

[Thatcomicguy]

18 minutes ago, Ranzo said:

I've been trying to convince people to play Galaxy Angel for goddamn almost 10 years now and I'll keep at it FOREVER!!!!

Just because of that dedication to get people to try it, I'm now going to avoid like the plague. 

[Kabu]

20 minutes ago, Ranzo said:

I've been trying to convince people to play Galaxy Angel for goddamn almost 10 years now and I'll keep at it FOREVER!!!!

I've tried to play Galaxy Angel but I can never actually get the first one to work properly so I gave up on the dream.

[littleshogun]

Let's see. In regard of recommendation it's pretty easy just like mod Kaguya said, and I'm pretty much just recommend the VNs that I like to be shilled more well known as long as they didn't ask the specific lol. That said, I still quite hesitate to recommend Flyable Heart though because I got a bit of feedback for not recommending any MTL-ed VN, and unfortunately Flyable Heart was one of those VNs (I like the opening by the way).

For more example, there's is Soukoku no Arterial in which it got very interesting card battle and it's pretty developed unlike Princess Waltz, and there's also the matter of survive in the other world with exact same tone as Shin Megami Tensei. Too bad that what we got here is MTL-ed narration patch, which is even worse than Flyable Heart translation and that's say something.

I also like to recommend Libra as well, but seeing that it got infamous for the translation and the score in VNDB was less than favorable, I'm not quite sure to recommend it.

Edited February 12, 2018 by littleshogun

[Dreamysyu]

16 hours ago, Thyndd said:

Damn, I've been planning to get into Muv Luv for a while now, but I keep reading all those comments about how terribly boring and dull is all but Alternative that it kinda puts me off. I'm just not convinced that it be worth it to go through the pain of reading Muv Luv Extra and Unlimited (which combined make up a really long VN) in order to enjoy the awesomeness of Alternative. In my mind, both cancel out to give something mediocre, unless Alternative is the most incredible thing that I would experience in my whole life. Problem is, I'm not even into the mecha genre... so there's literally nothing that catches my interest at first glance.

Well, I regret my previous post now. I completely forgot that people who haven't read MLA yet might read it. Oh, well. Let me try to convince you that after all things people write you should at least give this series a chance.

First of all, I think, you shouldn't trust my and other people's opinions on Muv-Luv Extra too much. It's a comedy, the most relative of all VN genres, and if it didn't work for me, it doesn't mean it won't work for you. There are plenty of people who say they enjoyed it. Also, the current translation is definitely much better than the one I was reading, so you should also take that into account. Just don't go for any of the side routes, at least before you finish the main one. They have some relevant information to Alternative, but it isn't very important, and the only side route I read was simply bad. I'd say, go for the main route first (Sumika+Meya, they divide by the end, but essentially it's the same route), then, if you really feel like it, try one or several of the side routes, then get the second ending of the main route (for a different girl) and then continue with Unlimited. Essentially, you only need to read the main route (and it isn't particularly long), but if you are really bored at some point, I don't really see any problem if you start ctrl-skipping some parts.

As for Unlimited, I don't really get most criticism for it. Sure, it's worse than Alternative, but I still enjoyed it. And the ending is pretty good. And Alternative, yes, it's simply that good. Again, I can't guarantee that you'll enjoy it, because there are plenty of people who didn't (and some of them are pretty toxic about it). You say that you enjoy utsuge, and this is definitely a plus, but, again, I can't say anything for sure. But there's a very good reason why it's the highest rated VN on VNDB. I can say it that way: it is simply the most emotional VN I've ever read before. All Key VNs are nothing compared to MLA. They simply make you cry, while MLA makes you come through a range of completely emotions, leaving you completely exhausted in the end. It also gives you an alternate history world with extremely though out history and political situation, and I actually found myself thinking that, yeah, if the world is attacked by aliens at some point, these are the things that could possibly happen. Also, I really don't want to accidentally spoil anything, but I'll say it this way: I loved Extra by the end of Alternative. That's it.

And no, I don't' think it matters if you enjoy mecha or not.

[Thyndd]

1 hour ago, Dreamysyu said:

 

So be it. That was definitely not a bad coaxing, and even though I'm still not fully convinced, I surely am curious about why it is that so many people, despite voicing their disliking for Extra (I've even read some comments saying that it was literally the worst VN they've ever played), vouch for the worth of Alternative and Muv Luv as a whole. Plus yeah, it's #1 on VNDB, and whilst that doesn't make it automatically the best or even good, I guess it's a fact that people must find something special about it.

I appreciate your effort and seeing how others are passionate about it truly makes me wanna give it a try, so after finishing Ever17 (which will probably last me for a while since now I haven't a lot of free time ) I think I will start with Muv Luv and share my opinions with you guys.