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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 2: Based on a few routes

I'm definitely going to have really, seriously mixed feelings on this VN when it is done.  The problems with the common route still apply, but some of the heroine routes make up for the problem.  I'm not going to say this is going to be another Tasogare no Sinsemilla... that possibility never even really existed.   For better or worse, this VN has serious pacing issues near the beginning (yes, the heroine routes are longer than the common route), and the difference between even the non-true hero
Clephas

Clephas

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Random VNs: Kono Sekai no Mukou de

Kono Sekai no Mukou de was the first game made by Orange Yell, and it is based in the same world as their second game, Sakura Nikagetsu.  This company is a low-budget maker that produces comedy/nakige (from the time between each release and the low budget, I'm guessing they are almost completely self-funded).  While they are nothing special visually or in terms of the audio, their games 'have heart' as some people put it. Kono Sekai starts out just after the protagonist, Asobu, discovers hi
Clephas

Clephas

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November releases, what I'm playing/looking forward to

Playing: Koisuru Kimochi no Kasanekata by Ensemble.  This VN is by the same company that did Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas (kamige) and Ojousama ha Gokigen Naname.  The company specializes in ojousama-ge (games with mostly wealthy heroines) and generally the protagonists in their VNs are either wealthy themselves or have some special talent that makes it logical for them to be around the wealthy.  There last few games have been mediocre, unfortunately...  Golden Marriage wasn't bad per se... bu
Clephas

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VNs

Madoi Shiroki no Kamikakushi

This is the latest kemomomi VN from Lump of Sugar, whose best VNs all have kemomimi girls, lol.  In this one, the protagonist Takuto and his little sister Shiina are transported to the world of the gods, where human perceptions of the world, mythology and legends come to life.  As a game, this story feels a lot like a 'gentle and slow nakige'.   To be blunt, the first thing I think most people will note upon getting past the prologue of this game is... that Roka is the most moe-moe heroine
Clephas

Clephas in VNs

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Random VN: Concerto Note

Concerto Note is a game I bought years ago and stuck in a small box containing my 'rainy day classics' without playing it.  Recommended to me over eight years ago as a classic kamige, I essentially forgot about it until I saw that Cross Concerto was coming out soon. This game uses a 'parallel story' system with a flowchart, where obtaining items on the non-true paths is required to complete the true path successfully.  This particular type of system is fairly rare, but it occasionally pops
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May 2018 VN of the Month and Maoten

VN of the Month, May 2018 First, VN of the Month, May 2018 is Shunkyoku no Tyrhia.  While the game had some serious flaws, like all Liar Soft games, it was enjoyable enough that I felt it worth becoming a candidate for VN of the Month.  Maoten Maoten is the game I was looking forward to the most for June's releases... and I was not in any way disappointed.  The game is classic Candy Soft in some ways (the over the top characters, looser sexual mores than the norm in non-nukige, et
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Renai Phase: No VN of the Month, as expected

As I’ve said before, Giga is at its best when it is doing the Baldr series.  Why?  Because their high production values really shine in a more serious setting, as it gives so many more tools for presentation.  That’s not all… for some reason, in my experience Giga seems to be incapable of making a non-Baldr gem.  Their stuff is inevitably visually beautiful and has great sound… but in exchange, the stories tend to be deeply flawed or poorly paced compared to other companies with less money power
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Chuuni Hime no Teikoku

Now, this is one of those games where the Getchu description and the one on the site don't represent the reality.  First, this game is a straight-out comedy.  The protagonist is a 'classic baka', a character who is easily distracted, daydreams about convenient scenarios with cute females, and generally makes trouble without meaning to.  Because of his perspective, the game is pretty high pace (and not really in a good way). The heroines include: Chuuni Hime- A real princess from a
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Wakaba-iro no Quartet

Wakaba-iro no Quartet is the latest mimikko VN from Lump of Sugar, a company that has a huge variance in quality from game to game (kamige one time, kusoge the next, lol).  Lump of Sugar has of late  mostly been doing mimikko games, with the Tayutama sequels/FDs and now two newer IPs having come out in the last four years.  Since I love mimikko (it was my first fetish) this is a happy thing for me. In the setting of this game, the mimikko come from an isolated mountain nation and are basica
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Random translation: Silverio Vendetta's opening scene

This scene is the opening of Silverio Vendetta, and the two monologues (one from Zephyr, one from a spoiler character who isn't named in the scene) define the nature of the game's theme. “勝利”とは、何だ？ What is victory? “栄光”とは、何だ？ What is glory? それを得れば、何も失わずに済むのだろうか I choose that path, will I be able to live without losing anything? 救えるのか。守れるのか。本当に、幸せになれるのだろうか Can I save what is mine?  Can I protect it?  Can I really find happiness? 　問いは切実。なぜなら、勝利というものはとても
Clephas

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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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VN of the Month: April 2016

I'm going to be honest... this was a month of unrealized potential and over-hyped games.  To put things straight in my own words... I really, really don't want to name anything from this month as VN of the Month.  If I were to name a VN of the Month based solely on quality and ignoring my own policies on sequels and remakes, it would definitely be Sengoku Koihime X.  Nothing this month even gets in the same region as that VN, for all its flaws.  Unfortunately, I do have a personal policy on nami
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Releasing VNs in pieces

First, I should say that I disapprove of releasing visual novels in pieces.  I'm perfectly willing to wait three or four years for a good story, but I hate nothing more than being interrupted in the middle and having to wait another year for the next one.  The habit of releasing VNs in chapters was a vice mostly restricted to doujin VNs in the past.  The more obvious reasons are people like me who hate having their stories interrupted, the previous dominance of physical media, and other iss
Clephas

Clephas

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Bansenjin so far

I'll be frank, Soushuu Senshinkan Gakuen Bansenjin feels more and more like a 'worthless sequel' the more I read. I don't say that out of cruelty but simply because I have no attachment left to the characters from the original, except a general feeling of 'that story was over, for god's sake move on!'. Some people already know my feelings about sequels in chuunige VNs, and Masada is particularly bad when it comes to returning characters. One of the problems is that Masada tends to actually compl
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Fallout 4, my experience so far

First, I should say that, despite Gamespot's glowing review of this game, I can honestly say that this game's story sucks.  This is fairly typical of Bethesda, as the main stories of all their games have sucked.  Frequently a side-quest chain will be the best part of the game's 'story'.  For instance, the political issues in Skyrim were way more interesting than all that Dragonborn BS, and they never did manage to make the main story of Morrowind seem compelling.  Fallout 4 suffers from the usua
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Clephas

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Tarareba

This is a moege (yes, a moege) and a nakige (think Key style, with less depth and more sex) by Aries, a company that makes 'themed' games (mostly).  In this case, the theme is 'what if?'  Basically, they set it up as a deliberate 'what if you changed these events?' scenario for the protagonist.  To be frank, Aries' games tend to rank from average down to somewhere below mediocre, outside of having some of the sexiest heroines I've seen outside of nukige and Semiramis no Tenbin, lol (this is sett
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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
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The Schools of Charage/Moege harems

First, I'm going to state that all charage/moege are harem-ge (with the exception of kinetic novels with only a single heroine).  In all these cases, you have a bevy of heroines that are, at the very least, friendly with or somehow attached to the protagonist.  There are a three standard types of harem that I consider to be general umbrella types.  These harems do not include nukige sex-only harems or the type of harems that pop up in gameplay hybrid VNs, as these often have distinctive story-ex
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Issues for VN of the Month

As the title says, there are some issues for March's VN of the Month... namely the fact that there are too many releases, lol.  After playing 3 VNs, I've  played less than half of the releases for March. This means that I'm going to have to prioritize.  Now, in this case the obvious cuts are going to be the gameplay VNs.  I'm going to avoid them this time around, simply because neither of them looks like anything special anyway.  I'm also tempted to avoid Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu.  T
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First March Title

I'll be playing Sanoba Witch (https://vndb.org/v16044) first this month, and Boku no Hitori Sensou immediately after if Silverio Vendetta isn't available before that. So far, Sanoba Witch is Yuzusoft to the core... I'm curious to see where they'll go with this setting.
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

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Japanese literature

Blessing from the Goddess and Transfer to Another World

This particular WN falls into a particular sub-genre of isekai where the protagonist is cast out of a group of people summoned as heroes to another world.  This particular genre began to become popular with Shield Hero, but it has evolved significantly since then.   In this WN, the protagonist is summoned along with eight hundred other people from the same school and is one of two people who are not granted a gift from the goddess.  As a result, he is cast out of the castle and driven from
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Clephas in Japanese literature

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Sora no Tsukurikata Final: Final Arc, Haru route

Surprisingly enough, Sora no Tsukurikata has managed to avoid driving me insane with rage.  *pauses for the gasps of shock and the screeches of terror from the audience* In the end, this VN managed to mostly avoid the violence you would see in most VNs with mafia members as main characters, and it did so without going down the 'total moe-moe' route that most VN writers would have chosen in the same case.  Haru is the main heroine of the game, but her route doesn't relegate the other he
Clephas

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Yuganda Uso to Koi no Letter

First, I should note that, despite how it begins, this VN turned out to not be a nukige.  However, it is definitely not a 'pure love' story from beginning to end.  A literal translation of the Japanese name would be 'The warped lie and love letter' with 'letter' being interchangeable with the word for a stereotyped reputation. Second, I should warn anyone who plays this to either do Saeko's path last or read only her path.  It is just too hard to pick another heroine after picking Saeko.  I
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Sakura Sakimashita Part 3: Miu

Minato Miu Miu is one of my favorite types of characters... a character that has two sides to their personality that are so dramatically different that you'd almost think they had a major psychological disorder. Miu's path is focused on taking joy in life in the face of certain death (though it might not seem that way at first). To be blunt, Miu's dere is probably the most hilarious and adorable of all of them. When she goes all lovey-dovey, it is in a fashion that even puts other lolis to
Clephas

Clephas

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