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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

Random VN: Primary ~Magical★Trouble★Scramble~

Primary was one of my earliest fantasy charage... and in many ways it shaped what I was willing to forgive in the genre, rather than how I looked at the genre as a whole. Primary has a lot of good points... the heroines are interesting, the protagonist's motivations are compelling, and the actual central issues of the overarching story are potentially fascinating.  However... it makes the mistake many charage of the type do, of failing to utilize the setting to its fullest extent in most of
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Akaneiro no Kyoukaisen

... are you as surprised as I am that I'm already posting on this?  It isn't because I rushed through it or concentrated on it for three days straight.  No, in this case, it is because the game is actually only about seven hours long in total... and that is probably an overestimate.  While I don't tend to judge VNs by length, I do want to be able to get to know the characters before I see them falling in love.  This game's biggest plus point is that it is story straight from beginning to en
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Delayed Satisfaction: Putting Ai Yori Aoi Umi no Hate on Hiatus

I have numerous reasons for putting Ai Yori Aoi Umi no Hate on hiatus... including that I'm tired of slice-of-life and the oddities of the setting are driving me a little crazy.  However, the fact is that I'm just tired.  Every once in a while, I fall into a sourceless funk, where I don't want to do anything - fun or not - and I'm in the middle of one of those now.  I can tell you for certain that I'm not really interested in this VN right now, despite the fact that, until about eighteen hours a
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Random VN: Shinsei ni Shite Okasubekarazu

First, this VN was written during Pulltop's brief 'golden age', by the writer of the Kamikaze Explorer, Dracu-riot, Noble Works, and Amairo Islenauts, as well as the writer of the original LoveKami.  As such, it can be said that they had something of a dream team put together for this game...  since two of the four writers were skilled moege-with-story writers.  I pulled this game out of my 'treasure box' so I would have something to revive me from my fugue state, and it actually turned out quit
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Random VN: Niizuma Koyomi

First, yes I decided to write about another nukige... a nukige with story.  Now, the reason I decided to play this one is because of my fondness for kitsune heroines (my fetish is everlasting), and I thought, going into this, that it was going to be a sex fest from day one... but the actual amount of h-content in this game is quite a bit lower proportionally to the story than is the norm in a nukige.  In fact, this game actually has solid heroine paths that impressed me with their quality.
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My VN Reassessment Project (UPDATED)

When I first started playing untranslated VNs (right about the time Obama got into office), I had the luxury of cherry-picking some of the best titles in existence at the time for my initial lineup.  In some cases, I just randomly grabbed stuff that met my tastes, and in others I went by recommendations by established vets like Accany.  However, at this point in my VN experience, I had yet to start VN of the Month and I was basically seeing VNs solely by how they met my expectations and tastes,
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Yoru Meguru, Bokura no Maigo Kyoushitsu

This game is the second project made by Samoyed Smile, a subsidiary of the same corporation that owns Softhouse-seal.  This is, incidentally, why the game has the really crappy lip-sync and sex animations so familiar from that company's works.  That said, this company is not a nukige company, despite the lateral relationship. The game starts with a young teacher, Haruki, teaching a class of dropouts at a night school.  Haruki, having had horrible experiences at his first teaching job, has a
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Conquest Strategy VNs (Sangoku/Sengoku Hime series in particular)

Conquest strategy games, as opposed to RTS, are games where conquest operates on a strategic (large-scale) rather than tactical level and is unconcerned with the activities of individual soldiers (soldiers are numbers, not capable of individual action).  They involve the capture of strategic points in order to hold territory and the keeping of order and management of general resources (wealth and troops, as opposed to specific resources like wood, stone, and food). There are certain rules t
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Random VN: Dungeon of Regalias ~Haitoku no Miyako Ishgalia~

Umm... I'm going to be honest with you.  I'm not terribly fond of Astronauts' irregular ventures off into the lands of dark fantasy gameplay hybrids, and as a result, I chose not to play this one when it came out.  My experiences with the original Demonion, which, while the story was decent, was incredibly tedious when it came to the gameplay, made me not want to have anything to do with this game. I won't say that this game surprised me... the story is straightforward Astronauts-style (lot
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Random VN: Gensou no Idea - Oratorio Phantasm Historia

Gensou no Idea is the third VN from 3rdEye, a company specializing in chuunige.  When I originally played this game, I was a bit more perverse, personality-wise, and as a result, I treated this VN badly, as one of my pet-peeves is dual-perspective VNs.  I generally prefer for there to be only one protagonist, and my reaction to this game was colored badly by that. First, I'll introduce the protagonists.  The first protagonist is Minase Yuuma, an optimistic young man who is nonetheless
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A likely delay for VN of the Month, January 2018

To be blunt, there is no way I'm going to be able to use more than an hour or two each day for the next week for VNs.  My work pace is currently at the highest it's been since the summer of 2013.  I, quite frankly, had to cut sleep out of my schedule to get through Shogun-sama, and that is costing me in focus and energy now.  As such, I am unsure of when I will get to the next VN.   Of late, my days have consisted of work>eat>take nap>more work>eat>take nap>yet more work&g
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Yorite Konoha wa Kurenai ni

Yorite Konoha wa Kurenai ni is the newest release from Lump of Sugar, the company responsible for Tayutama.  Lump of Sugar is a huge hit and miss company.  Though it was more consistent ten years ago, of its last seven releases, only two have been at VN of the Month level (eligible if nothing better is there), which is a huge downward move from the era of the original Tayutama.  Lump of Sugar's art-style is 'classic moe', updated with current tech but mostly left alone at the most basic level. 
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dropping for now: IxShe Tell

I honestly normally wouldn't bother explaining why I choose not to play a given VN in a given month, but with Hooksoft games, given their rather high popularity, there is a real need for me to say something. First, I don't like Hooksoft games.  They are written well, are visually pretty, and generally have moe-stimulating heroines.  However, they are also perfect examples of every reason I can find not to bother with the genre at times.  The characters are cute, there is plenty of ichaicha
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VN Special [Major Spoilers]: Higashide and Evolimit

It is no secret that I am a huge Higashide Yuuichirou fan and that Evolimit is my favorite Higashide Yuuichirou game.  Before I go any further into this, I should note that Evolimit has the dubious honor of being the VN I've played the most often... a total of six times, as of two hours ago.  I should also explain what Higashide's unique qualities are as a writer. Higashide Yuuichirou wrote six VNs for Propeller before retiring from VNs completely to work for Type-Moon as a writer.  He also
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VN of the Month, February 2018

This one was a straight-out contest between Lost Echoes and Otoboku 3. On the one hand, Lost Echoes has an excellent story and some seriously good heroines.  On the other hand, Otoboku has first-class writing, first-class slice-of-life, and excellent epilogues. In fact, it was that last element that decided the contest... the two were neck and neck, but the difference in epilogue quality, which is much more important than most people credit it for being, was huge.  Lost Echoes, fo
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VNs with a Seasonal Theme

The greater proportion of VNs out there take place in a three or four month period... and are usually linked to a seasonal theme.  This is especially true of moege/charage variants, but it can also be said for more story-focused games, like Tasogare no Sinsemilla.  I just thought I'd bring out my thoughts on the use of seasonal themes here, since it comes to mind fairly often. The two most common seasons used in VNs as a thematic background to the setting are summer and winter.  Now, why mi
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VN of the Month, March and April 2018

Now that I have confirmation from Dergonu that the game he was playing is not VN of the Month quality (he has stalled on it), I will move on to finally announcing VN of the Month for March and April. March March was a decent month, since it had three potential candidates for VN of the Month.  Those candidates are: Butterfly Seeker AI Love Unjou no Fairy Tale Now, despite my rating of it, I'm going to go ahead and disqualify AI Love.  Why?  Because it is essentially
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Curio Dealer

This is the latest VN by AXL, and it is also the latest in its 'swords fantasy' (there is very little magic in these games) series (I say series, but they are just a line of similarly-designed games).  The previous games in this series include Princess Frontier, Hyakka Ryouran Elixir, Racial Merge, and Ou no Mimi ni wa Todokanai.  This is also AXL's fifteenth game, making it one of the most prolific companies (ignoring subsidiaries) still active.  Like all the games in this series, it is ba
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VNs

Random VN: Tsukiakari Lunch

Tsukiakari Lunch is an oddball game that, despite the fact that I was in a particularly miserable state when I originally played it, I couldn't help but fall in love with.  I was playing it in thirty minute snatches in between some of the hardest work I've ever done, and it took me almost two weeks (that's a long time for me) to finish it.  Because of the way I played it, I've always felt that I didn't really do it justice, so I have wanted to go back and play this for years.  I recommend it to
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Clephas in VNs

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Koi wa Sotto Saku Hana no you ni

A few words before I get into this... As my previous post spells out, I will no longer be doing the VN of the Month column, and this VN was the one that was the straw that broke the camel's back.  That said, it isn't like I didn't enjoy what I played of it once I got past the sticking points (date scenes).  If anything, this game is a definite increase over the quality seen in Ensemble's works since Gokigen Naname blew me away.  That said, when it comes down to it, this game is SOL all
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Revisiting an old memory

Recently, @Dreamysyu liked one of my older posts, and I felt it was worth revisiting three years later, simply because it has become an even more valid post in light of current events. At the time I wrote this post, I was pretty angry.  Why?  I'd had the misfortune to see several fellow otakus who happened to be female being subtly (and not so subtly) denigrated by other male otakus at a small gathering at a local gaming event.  The girls were obviously enjoying their cosplay (it was a cos
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Random VN: Shoujo to Toshi no Sa, Futamawari

For those of you who are curious, I played this VN on a request from an old friend who wanted an opinion before he bought it (I already had the game, just hadn't opened it).  This game is relatively short, being a kinetic novel, but that doesn't detract from the experience at all, at least in my eyes. Now, I was skeptical about the concept of a VN focused on romance between a middle-aged guy and a girl in school... for one thing, it is a theme that has been mostly avoided like the plague ou
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Grisaia Phantom Trigger Part 6

Tbh, there isn't a lot to say about this episode.  For those who were curious about Haruto's past, this pretty much reveals everything (well, since it is non-ero, it doesn't touch upon my suspicion that there was some classic Grisaia oneshota in there somewhere).  It is pretty bloody - again, as usual - and it properly spotlights Haruto and the group of adults who raised him (questionable whether you can really call them adults, though).  That said, it should be noted that this is obviously
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Kami-sama no You na Kimi e

Kami-sama no You na Kimi e is the latest game by Cube, and it is based in a near-future setting where AIs run just about every aspect of society.  In this society, people have gotten past that raw terror of AI horror stories and have pretty much accepted the the ease and luxury of having AI run most of the important things that make civilization possible.   At the beginning of the story, the protagonist, Kaito, is hacking into Central AI, the AI based on the Moon that runs most of the world
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Creative Corner: Brainstorming a character

Usually, I focus mostly on the perspective of a consumer when I write in this blog.  I do this because I am and always have been primarily a consumer of material rather than a creator.  However, that doesn't mean I've never created anything... just that I haven't published anything (well, under my own name... ghost writing doesn't count) since some early fiction on Deviantart over a decade ago.  So, since I'm not writing as many reviews, I chose to start a small corner describing the techni
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