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About this blog

This is a blog primarily focusing on but not limited to VNs.  It is primarily designed to express my opinion on otaku media (jrpgs, anime, manga, LNs, VNs, etc), individual VNs, and otaku community issues.   Most of the posts are related to my VN of the Month and Random VN columns, originally started in threads in the forums. 

As of March of 2017, I'm also looking for people to help with VN of the Month.

Entries in this blog

Toki ga Tsumugu Yakusoku Part 3: Final thoughts

First, I should comment on Misaki's route... As is to be expected of a true route in a VN with as much story as this one, Misaki's route is incomparable in both length and content to the other three routes.  In terms of emotional impact, it literally leaves the other routes in the dust, while finishing off the other heroines' issues almost as if they were a mere aside, lol.  That said, not all the emotions associated with this route are positive... there are some seriously heartbreaking mom
Clephas

Clephas

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Wagamama High Spec

First, despite the way moege fans fawn over the first two VNs by Madosoft, they are perfect examples of absolute mediocrity in charage.  That isn't to say they didn't have good points... the visual aspects of this company's VNs are on the higher end of things in the charage part of the VN industry.  However, they were basically slogs through WWI-style trenches full of mud made from ichaicha... and one of my  pet peeves is writers who pump in endless ichaicha.  I personally see them as kusoge, du
Clephas

Clephas

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Busy as hell: Working on Seiken Tsukai in my free time (not copious at the moment)

... for the first time in years, I just went through an entire week without finishing a VN... Why? The reason is fairly simple... real life.  I'm having to clean up all the work left over from the time I spent essentially mentally handicapped that I didn't subcontract to someone else.  That is on top of the work I would have received anyway... In any case, I'm slowly making progress on Seiken Tsukai, and I can tell you that it is a VN that will definitely pick its readers.  The st
Clephas

Clephas

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Random VNs: Damekoi Final part

Now, this is going to be a somewhat short post, despite the fact that Damekoi has turned into one of the better VNs I've played in recent years (well, for the first time, anyway).  That is because Asami and Mitoko's routes split at the same point and share at least some of the same events and text, and Asami's route is mostly done by that split. I'm going to be blunt... once you get past Himeo's route, it turns into a muddy and messy ren'ai drama.  The protagonist, Osamu, is torn between hi
Clephas

Clephas

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Ichibun no Ni Koigokoro and VN of the Month, August 2016

Ugh... can you say kusoge out loud twenty times fast?  I'm sorry, but it has been a while since I played a VN that was this awful outright.  It had all the elements, setting-wise, that a good story VN should have... a protagonist who gave up high school to work to support his sisters, twin sister heroines (yay for incest), a generally capable protagonist, a hikikomori neighbor heroine, and a lot of hints of potential story points that could have been used to enhance the paths. Unfortunately
Clephas

Clephas

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Random VNs: Tayutama Kiss on My Deity (edit: and the FD)

First, let me say that this was the very first non-violent VN I played after jumping into Japanese-language (untranslated) VNs.  I should also say that it was the one that taught me that even a VN of this type (what I later came to call a charage) could have a truly solid story.  This VN is the reason I'm frequently willing to give charage the benefit of the doubt, and it is also the reason why I became somewhat obsessed with ojousama heroines.  Mifuyu is still one of the better ojousama heroine
Clephas

Clephas

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Tayutama 2

First, I should apologize to those who voted for Sen no Hatou.  To be honest, I had every intention of finishing it first... but I kept running into the walls I described in the previous post, so I switched over to this game.     ****** Before reading further, please realize that it is impossible to talk about this VN without spoiling the original to some extent.  If you haven't played the original Tayutama, you shouldn't be considering playing this game anyway (as it doesn't make sens
Clephas

Clephas

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October Releases: Hi no Nai Tokoro ni Kemuri wa Tatanai

This is a mini-VN planned by and written by Hino Wataru of Akatsuki Works, the company responsible for Ruitomo; Comyu; and Hello, Lady.  It was released for free at the beginning of the month, and it is done in a style that feels a lot like one of those close-ended hour-long 'preview' OVAs that sometimes come out a few years in advance of a potential TV anime release (Noblesse, Beelzebub, Phantom, etc).  In other words, it is done in the form of a single 'episode' in the life of the characters,
Clephas

Clephas

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Tokubetsu na Bonjin no Seikatsu

No, the title isn't the name of a VN... at least as far as I know.  It essentially means 'the lifestyle of a special normal/average person'.  This is the wording that came to mind when I thought about the standard charage protagonist... Now, slice-of-life is by nature just that... a slice of the characters' lives outside of whatever conflict or set of events that determines the flow of the story.  There are slice-of-life moments in almost all VNs (except for a few sex-only nukige, mahou sho
Clephas

Clephas

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Signalist Stars and VN of the Month, October 2016

Signalist Stars came at me from out of left field, smashing me across the face with a spike grenade.   I literally wasn't expecting anything from this VN, as my recent experiences with new companies have left me unwilling to hope for better.  This VN does, in my mind, fall into the charage genre, but it does it so well that I was left a bit stunned.  Signalist Stars is based in a city where people who have a burning passion are encouraged to pursue it, regardless of what it is.  In this cit
Clephas

Clephas

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Suki to Suki to de Sankaku Ren'ai

This VN is pretty straightforward.  It is a comedy charage with about 90% of the emphasis focused on the comedic aspects.  What about the romance?  At its best, it is a bare bones generic type, constantly interrupted by jokes that break the mood (deliberately).  What about the story?  Irrelevant to nonexistent. This is a VN where you get almost all the enjoyment out of the comedic aspects and character interactions.  Even if I were to compare this to the 'average' charage, the romance would
Clephas

Clephas

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September Releases (UDATED!!!)

First... I already talked about Haze Man, though you can't really call it a review, lol.  Second... I'm stalling Mono no Aware for now.  After playing it for three hours, I've come to the conclusion that I hate the setting in this game.  It feels like one of those anime episodes in an otherwise awesome series that I drop simply because I don't like how they handled it.  This game has enormous potential to be interesting... if you obliterate player agency.  Unfortunately, I hate the way this game
Clephas

Clephas

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Random VNs: Minamijuujisei Renka

Minamijuujisei Renka is by far my favorite Studio Ryokucha game.  The setting, the characters, and the presentation of this VN are first class.  The only real downside this VN has is that the true (Kanori's) ending stops short of tying up all the loose ends. The setting of this VN is in a southern island, purchased from old Britain by a now-defunct kingdom and colonized by the nobles from that kingdom.  It is called the 'Dukedom of Gwinburg', despite being ruled by a king because of the fac
Clephas

Clephas

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Amenity's life (Well, I warned you) *shrugs*

Anyway, as I said in my previous post, I've never finished all of the routes of a Hook Soft game, despite their VNs being almost universally of relatively high-quality as charage go.  This one didn't turn out to be an exception, for the same reasons as all the others. It isn't a horrible VN.  In fact, for lovers of slice-of-life, cheap romance, and 'golden road' standard heroine routes, this VN is pure crack.  Unfortunately, the excess of any one of those elements without a good balance wit
Clephas

Clephas

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Ou no Mimi ni Todokenai

Now, I've said this several times before, but AXL is a company that reuses its art, music, and character designs/features heavily.  As such, I rate their games solely based on plot/story and how those elements are used (in other words, jackasses who point out the somewhat dated art style and recycled music can go sodomize themselves with a pickle for all I care).  Unless you are a bigot who absolutely has to have the latest art styles, this shouldn't be something that bothers you anyway. Ou
Clephas

Clephas

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JRPG: Tales of Zestiria [UPDATED/EDITED]

With Tales of Berseria coming out today, I pulled Zestiria out of my long backlog last week and began playing it.  I've been playing the Tales series since Tales of Destiny came out for the PSX in the nineties, and I've played most of the mainline series, though I regretted it in some cases.  To be blunt, Tales of Vesperia is still the last truly great Tales game, even after playing this one.  However, my conclusions will probably differ somewhat from the reviews out there on the net, which
Clephas

Clephas

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Feb Release: Ouka Sabaki and VN of the Month

This entry was written by fun2novel and edited by me.  As in the previous post, I have only made grammatical and stylistic changes, as well as eliminating unnecessary spoilers.  As such, the content is essentially fun2novel's review of the game. tl;dr: If you’re a fan of the Phoenix Wright series then stop reading. There’s nothing more I can say to make you want to play Ouka Sabaki. Go play it now. The rest of you keep reading. In the ancient Japan during the Edo period, under the firm
Clephas

Clephas

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Haruru Minamo ni

I first encountered Clochette with Suzunone Seven, a game recommended to me by a friend who lives in Japan.  Suzunone Seven is one of the more memorable charage I've played, both for the depth of its story and the depth of its setting and characters.  Now, Clochette is frequently jokingly referred to as 'oppai central' or 'The Oppai Corporation'... or any number of other similar names, with good reason.  Their style has it so that all the heroines are either close to flat or... the opposite.  It
Clephas

Clephas

1

Amanatsu Adolescence (Dergonu) and Suisou Ginka no Istoria (cancelled by Clephas)

Played and written by Dergonu, edited for grammar by Clephas Amanatsu Adolesence is a moege that might seem very average at first glance. And, well, I'm not going to lie, it kind of is. But, at the same time the game has quite a few fun aspects that breaks away from the norm that is the "standard moege". This, alongside a fairly enjoyable cast, made me like this game more than I expected to. You won't find any seriously engaging drama, or super intellectual writing in this VN. But it does a
Clephas

Clephas

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JRPG series: Shin Megami Tensei

I've been friendly with the Shin Megami Tensei series for over twenty years now, since the release of the incredibly crappy localization of the original Persona on the ps1 (believe me, it is one of the worst localizations of all time).  That said, I saw the series as just a darker than normal jrpg series... until I played SMT: Nocturne for the PS2. Nocturne is frequently referred to, both seriously and derisively, as 'Pokemon with demons and a cohesive story'.  Seriously.  While the Persona
Clephas

Clephas

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VN of the Month March 2017

After discussions with the other contributors to this month, we decided that the VN of the Month for March 2017 is Haruru Minamo ni by Clochette.  The reason is fairly simple... nothing else met the standards for a VN of the Month pick from the March releases we played.  Now, Haruru isn't a kamige (except that the heroines are kami, lol), but it is an excellent 'charage with a story', and it is definitely the type of VN I'll remember years from now.  As such, I didn't really have an reserva
Clephas

Clephas

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9 -Nine- Kokonotsu Kokonoka Kokonoiro

This game, which I will refer to by the nickname Kukoro from now on, is Palette's newest low-price release, based on the same concept as Corona Blossom (episodic releases) and other games released in the last few years.  It is also written by the same individual who wrote Nanairo Reincarnation and Akeiro Kaikitan, so in that sense this is definitely something I was looking forward to.  I should tell you that my philosophy on this kind of episodic game is not to play it until all the episodes are
Clephas

Clephas

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Random VNs: Tsuisou no Augment (both)

Tsuisou no Augment, when I first played it, blew me away.  Part of it was because it was so surprising, part of it because it was just that good.  Thankfully, it turned out to be just as good on a second playthrough. First, this VN doesn't fall into any of the standard genres.  Most of the game is hilarious, some of it is romantic, some of it is hot and sexual (seriously so), there is serious drama, and there is even some guro, though of limited scale.  The game begins with Hideya, the prot
Clephas

Clephas

1

Hanidebi! Honey & Devil

I thought so after playing Koiken Otome... but this company is absolutely incapable of properly utilizing their settings.  Good music, mostly good characters (the protagonist sucks), decent art... but so empty of content it isn't even funny.  The sex obsession from beginning to end is carried out poorly, the actual paths have too much ichaicha, and the potentially humorous elements fall short of where they would have gone in any other game.  In other words, this is yet another kusoge f
Clephas

Clephas

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The Soleil series

The Soleil series by Skyfish is one of the weirder VN series out there... all the games are connected, but the connection is so twisty and strange that if you make the mistake of starting from a later game, it becomes incomprehensible.  Part of this is that all the protagonists in the series are fundamentally ignorant of the nature of the worlds they are living in, and another part of it is that the nature of incarnation and reincarnation in the series deliberately unpredictable. Basically,
Clephas

Clephas

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