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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

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,
Clephas

Clephas

1

My Random VN Schedule For July

Normally, I don't finish the VN of the Month games so early (I'd expected to be forced to take more time out for Neyuki, and so I've been left at loose ends). So, I normally just pull a few random VNs out of my massive backlog (mostly stuff I got at really low prices through my friend in Japan), play them, then mini-review them. However, I've chosen to be a bit more ambitious this time around, since I have the time. I'm actually going to make a schedule! 1. Kikouyoku Senki Gin no Toki no
Clephas

Clephas

11

My opinion: Pitfalls of a Fantranslator

This is a simple post putting forth my views on what the largest pitfalls are for a fantranslator, both in the immediate sense and the long-term. Immediate 1. Making promises: Anyone who starts a translation is bound to do something stupid... such as setting a deadline or predicting how long it will take them to do something.  Even experienced translation groups trip and fall into this particular trap.  Nothing good comes of making promises, primarily because rl exists. 2.  Agreei
Clephas

Clephas

4

My odd experiences with Anime icons

Anime, if you limit it to Japanese animation (the actual word in Japanese refers to all animated shows, but I'm limiting the definition to J-animation), has been around since 1917, but anime as we know it, in its earliest distinct form, was born in the 1960's.  My personal experience with anime (where I understood it to be anime, as opposed to my Voltron experience in the mid eighties as a kid) began in 1992, with Record of Lodoss War (the OVA series, not the TV series), drawing me in and making
Clephas

Clephas

2

My next VN...

I'm going to avoid Saga Planets' new game for now, because I'm getting a lot of mixed signals... even if I set aside the fact that all the highest votes on it are by troll and duplicate troll accounts. As such, it came down to a contest between Shirogane Spirits (by Giga) and 11gatsu no Arcadia (by a new company named Levol). Naturally, being wary of anything non-Baldr by Giga, I've chosen to play 11gatsu no Arcadia.
Clephas

Clephas

3

My next Random VN

Hopefully, this poll will work out better than Minikui Mojika did (sadly, my opinion on it has only gotten worse in hindsight), but I thought I'd give you all a chance to pick out which Random VN I will play after my current one. First, the VN I'm currently playing... Honoguraki Toki no Hate yori.  I just started this one, and I probably won't finish it until I've played whatever I choose to from August's releases (there aren't enough releases for a poll this time around, lol).  My interest
Clephas

Clephas

0

My new relationship with SOL

If yall haven't guessed (or just read my previous posts) my primary reason for giving up VN of the Month was being buried in SOL... well, that and the fact that playing that many new VNs a month took up too much of my time and left me none for any pursuits beyond work.  My immediate realization afterwards was that I quite simply couldn't play SOL games at all for the first few months.   After years of constant overdosing on saccharine fake romance and meaningless conversations that exist on
Clephas

Clephas

0

My March Release schedule

I'm going to be blunt.  As soon as Persona 5 comes out, I'll probably drop everything and stop talking for at least two or three days.  As such, you can pretty much be sure that the time from now until the fourth is the time for me to play VNs, lol.  This month is, however, extremely heavy on the number of releases, if not the level of excitement that follows them (Minori's style is antithetical to me, so I really do want to offload Trinoline on someone else, despite their high quality productio
Clephas

Clephas

6

My list of the greatest charage

This list isn't in any particular order, but I'm going to separate out the fantasy ones from the non-fantasy for the sake of those who have no taste in fantasy elements.  This list excludes nakige and utsuge.  I got a request to make a charage list a while back, but I only got around to it today.   Fantasy World Election (first-class) Floral Flowlove (kamige) Minamijuujisei Renka Koiiro Soramoyou Senren Banka Ore no Tsure wa Hitodenashi Yomegami
Clephas

Clephas

0

My list of Capable Heroines

The definition of a 'capable' heroine, in my case, is a heroine who manages to surf the waves of life and move circumstances to create a situation convenient to herself, either through manipulation or force of will.  A heroine of this type might pursue a dream, pursue revenge, or pursue power, but what defines them is that they both 'seek' and 'take' what they want.  Most heroines in male-oriented and otomege VNs do not fall into this area.  Most are reliant on the males in their life to some ex
Clephas

Clephas

0

My Guilty Pleasure: Ojousama-ge

What is an ojousama-ge? It is fairly simple... it is a VN where multiple heroines (sometimes all or most of them) are young women from wealthy families. I love these VNs... but it isn't so much because I like ojousama heroines (though there is that, since I love people with warped personalities). Rather, it is because some of the best charage, nakige, and non-action story-focused VNs I've played are ojousama-ge.   Examples Otome ga Boku ni Koishiteiru 2 Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no Akatsuk
Clephas

Clephas

4

My experience with Gameplay VNs

These are just a few thoughts that I've had after experiencing various gameplay VNs over the years.  First, understand that I see VNs as reading material (in the same vein as manga but with the addition of voice, some animation, and detailed narration) first and games second.  Second, the type of gameplay most likely to be fused to a VN (strategy or turn-based rpg) are ones I played for well over a decade before I first encountered VNs, so I have at least some qualifications to evaluate the
Clephas

Clephas

8

My experience with Fate/Grand Order

Ok, anyone who has read some of my rants about microtransactions will wonder why I decided to play this f2p smartphone game... until you remember I'm also a Nasuverse fanboy. I made the questionable decision of picking this game up about two and a half months ago, and since then I've been left with a lot to ponder.  First, I'll list what I like about this game. 1.  Relatively easy to play for free, in the sense that simply doing free quests and story quests can get you the in-game Sain
Clephas

Clephas

2

My attitude toward moege/charage

Since most of the people who read my blog at all are probably already aware of this, I'm not going to hide the fact that moege/charage aren't my favorite sector of the VN industry.  I see VNs in general as a storytelling medium first and a visual art third or fourth, so the overfocus on visual elements that defines 'true moege' and the inevitable inconsistencies and storytelling incompetence in charage can be pretty irritating for me.  That said, I have and do enjoy some charage/moege.  One
Clephas

Clephas

1

Mousou Complete

Ok... there really isn't much to say on this VN, because it is ridiculously low-budget/low-quality. That isn't to say that it doesn't show moments of brilliance... it is just that the pacing is so terrible it is like the story got tossed into a high-speed blender before being pulled out and taped back together... with a lot of missing pieces. I'm not fond of pointless ichaicha, but when all the heroine routes but one feel so truncated you feel like they might as well not even exist... well, y
Clephas

Clephas

2

Monster Musume series part 2: The fandisc and my final thoughts (for now, anyway)

The fandisc for the entire series actually brings all the characters - plus a new cast of one protagonist and three heroines - together, including extensive after-stories for both the first and second generation of characters (Gakuen being the second generation and the others the first). The new cast is based in an era fifty years after the events in the second generation, when most of the characters are elderly or deceased (with the exceptions of near-immortals like Suiku). The three heroines
Clephas

Clephas

1

Monster Musume series part 1: Why the heck is Clephas playing this?

Well, the answer to the above question is simple... I saw the monster girl anime for this season's first episode and got curious about what kind of content these games had... to be honest, I was planning to drop it inside the first few hours, using it as a break from more serious content before starting Baldr Force.. but I was surprised to find just how good the writing in these games is. That said, the early games (the Lamia and Alraune games) are nukige, as presented... and the H scenes ar
Clephas

Clephas

9

Mononokei Kanojo

Yes I played this, for obvious reasons.  This is one of those rare nukige that makes an attempt at escaping being a nukige.  It attempts to have a story, has an interesting setting, and even has interesting heroines with dark pasts... Unfortunately, there are places where it stumbles (and no, I'm not talking about the high H content).  The most obvious place it stumbles, for someone just starting it, is the horrible way the music is handled.  It cuts out in some scenes, has little connectio
Clephas

Clephas

0

Monobeno Happy End part 2: Alice, Natsuha, and a few thoughts

I'm not going to go into detail like I did with Sumi's path, if only because my love for youkai isn't fulfilled to the same degree in Alice's or Natsuha's paths as it was in that one. Also, another reason is that the progression for both is far less dramatic than it is with Sumi's path. In Alice's case, the actual events leading up to the end of the main story are really dark and sad, and the path itself tends to be quite a bit more gloomy than the other two. In exchange, there is a lot mor
Clephas

Clephas

1

Monobeno Happy End part 1: Sumi

First, I should state that Monobeno is an unapologetic lolige. The extent the writers went to to make this game a lolige (even in Alice's path) is so ridiculous I had to sigh in exasperation. Sadly, it also has one of the best plots and some of the best characters you can see in a VN. Like this company's previous VN, Gothderi, dismissing it because it is a lolige is a huge mistake. I played the original version of Monobeno, where all the endings were extremely bittersweet and vague, and
Clephas

Clephas

2

Mono no Aware wa Sai no Koro

The review below was done by fun2novel and edited by me.  One word about the title that might be interesting to you is that 'Mono no Aware' is a term for the 'awareness of impermanence', and it is one of the fundamental concepts underlying the traditional Japanese views on life and death and mortality.  In essence Mono no Aware wa Sai no Koro is a Japanese take on the film Jumanji staring the late Robin Williams (Clephas: I cried when he died for a week straight...). However, this is doesn
Clephas

Clephas

2

Missing-X-Link ~Ten no Yurikago, Togi no Hana~ Part one

I started X-link on a whim, and I was surprised at its quality almost immediately.  This post is basically a composite view of my impressions up through the Chiruouka (bad) ending that lies roughly two-thirds of the way through the game.   X-Link uses the ladder-style structure made popular with G-senjou no Maou and Aiyoku no Eustia, and we all know my general dissatisfaction with this particular structure, so I won't go back over it.  Instead, I'll focus on the parts of this game that exis
Clephas

Clephas

0

Mirai Radio no Jinkou-Bato

First, apologies to those who actually want to read about some of August's releases.  I went on vacation (vacation being a word open to interpretation when it comes to sleeping in unfamiliar beds and helping with my brother's kids), and when I got back, I found I had absolutely no urge whatsoever to pick up a VN.  I guess that taking a true break from VNs for the first time in almost a decade (no VNs for five days straight) was enough to free me from the spell of my obsession. That said, Ji
Clephas

Clephas

6

Minori: Some self-examination

Now, those who remember my rave from last year will probably sigh in exasperation (or boredom) that I'm posting on Minori again.  I mentioned before that I dislike most of Minori's games on a personal level, even while acknowledging the high-level art and sound in them... My reasons were varied but all of them were pretty amorphous, probably because I was so blinded by that intense, instinctive dislike that I never really sat down and meditated on just what was driving me crazy.  I mea
Clephas

Clephas

10

Minato Carnival FD

This game is a crossover FD for Anekouji Naoko to Gin'iro no Shinigami and Tsujidou-san no Jun'ai Road.  To be clear, the former game (Anekouji) was a kusoge... inasmuch as it is possible for a game made by Minato-soft to be a kusoge.  In fact, its section in this VN is several degrees more interesting than the original, which is just pathetic, in retrospect... However, this fandisc is actually quite a fun read... setting aside that the Tsujidou side of things is based on a shared ending wh
Clephas

Clephas

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