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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

Sorcery Jokers: It surprised Clephas, will it surprise you?

First, I'll give you a quick run-down on this game... it is a game by 3rd Eye, a company known mostly for producing chuunige that are more moe-influenced than is the norm. This game is actually more of a mystery/chuuni/action/conspiracy type than a 'pure' chuunige. The world in which it is based is a future where, ten years before the story began, magic appeared on the scene. Large numbers of people became capable of using magic, and a new branch of science was built up solely for the purpose
Clephas

Clephas

2

Natsuiro Kokoro Log

To be honest, despite how much some people recommended this VN to me (or hyped it without playing it *smiles dryly*) this VN didn't seem even the least bit exciting to me. This didn't change significantly even after I started playing it, and it never really felt like it got off the ground.  First of all, they plopped down a bunch of wastefully (and I do mean that as it sounds) colorful characters into a setting that felt kind of forcibly glued together.  Second, the story itself is brutally
Clephas

Clephas

3

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
Clephas

Clephas

0

**ON REQUEST** Ruri no Ie

Hmm... to be honest, I haven't played many VNs of this type, mostly because they don't really fit my tastes.  This is one of those dark horror/rape/sex training VNs that also happen to be based in the middle of the Cthulhu Mythos universe.  To be precise, this one is based on an island that mirrors Innsmouth in the mythos.  It is ruled by the Mashuu Family, and the protagonist ends up marrying the last daughter of that family, Mizuki.  He also gets stuck with an immense power and the role o
Clephas

Clephas

2

The spirit of an older gamer: Why I play games and why other people play games

I've been playing video games more or less constantly for over twenty-five years.  That's a very simple statement that holds a surprising amount of meaning, considering how much video games have changed since I first began playing them. It began with the NES, for me... with Mario, Luigi, and the ducks.  I shot ducks out of the air, I jumped Mario across gaps and on top of turtles, without ever really understanding what was going on.  As a kid, this was fun, seriously.  Understand, this
Clephas

Clephas

14

Sakura no Mori Dreamers (Clephas returns to the internet)

…Wow.  After the disappointments of last month, it is so nice to encounter such a great VN on my first one of the month this one.  Sakura no Mori Dreamers is a horror/mystery nakige based in a medium-sized Japanese town.  It is primarily focused on the protagonist, Shinji, and his quest to discover the killer of his first love, Madoka.  However, if you ask me if this is a story of revenge in the vein of Hello, Lady, that isn’t the case. Shinji is one of those rarest of things in a VN prot
Clephas

Clephas

8

VN of the Month plans: May Releases

I got asked what I was doing for this blog this month just today, by several people (probably because this is the longest time I've gone without posting since I started this blog). So... I suppose I'll go ahead and tell you. First, the two titles I'm reading on request (though I was planning on doing one anyway).  Sakura no Mori Dreamers (reading now) Ruri no Ie (yes, it is not exactly something I would normally bother with, but he was insistent... sort of like with Maggot Baits)
Clephas

Clephas

9

DS Dal Segno

This is a VN by Circus, the company that makes the Da Capo series, which I'm sure most of our resident moe-addicts are familiar with.  It is also based in the same universe (well, I'm pretty sure it is, since a Professor Amakase made an AI with emotions who likes bananas and who is the true heroine of this VN, lol).  To put it straight to you... this is a very old style of VN.  It is a lot closer to the old Da Capo games and Key's early VNs than it is to anything else made in modern times. 
Clephas

Clephas

5

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
Clephas

Clephas

0

Island

Now... I've already commented on this VN elsewhere, at least to a point.  So, I'll just do a quick recap of my initial feelings on this VN.  I'll go ahead and get the negative out of the way first. First, the common, Sara, and Karen routes... as I've said elsewhere, these routes exist solely to give you certain information that adds depth to the story of Rinne and Setsuna.  So, lolicons and fans of heroines like Karen, you are wasting your time if you go into this VN if you are expecting so
Clephas

Clephas

8

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

1

Sengoku Koihime X ~Otome Kenran Sengoku Emaki

This is a partial remake/rewrite of Sengoku Koihime, which was released back in 2013.  It is by Baseson, the makers of the Koihime Musou series, and the protagonist is the nephew of the protagonist from that series.  It is based on the Moeshouden fandisc ending (where the Shin Koihime Musou heroines are all together).  In addition to h-scenes, the text itself has been partially rewritten (it is more noticeable later in the game), and they added on the Houjou Chapters, a ten-hour after story.
Clephas

Clephas

12

Revised VN of the Month April Plans

After trying both of them, I dropped Anata o Otoko ni Shiteageru and Sankai, for similar reasons.  However, this leaves me with two VNs that have varying levels of interest from the community to play... Island by Frontwing and Wagamama High Spec by Madosoft. Madosoft... produces thematic VNs, rather than your standard charage.  They pick a theme and unify all the heroines into that type.  This tends to have pretty awful results so far (both Yakimochi and Namaiki were kusoge, though they wer
Clephas

Clephas

0

The Feminized Historical Fantasy

I'm sure you are wondering what the hell I'm talking about with the title of this post, but the concept is pretty simple...  You take a period of history or a series of famous/infamous events, turn all or most of the male personages into females, and then plop your main character into their midst, evolving a story from there.  A few examples of this... The Koihime Musou, Sengoku Koihime series by Baseson Chuushingura Sengoku and Sangoku Hime series by Gesen Kikan Bakumat
Clephas

Clephas

7

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

Baldr Bullet Revellion...

I'm going to be blunt... this game is badly overrated on vndb. I was - quite frankly - amazed at how poorly the story was told... it was like looking at a bunch of disorganized pictures set on a wall and trying to make an actual story out of them. The protagonist is your classic cipher for the reader, and the female characters basically exist to have random sex with the protagonist. The actual battle system is nowhere near as refined as it was even in Force, despite the fact that Revellion is a
Clephas

Clephas

1

Thoughts on the Cipher protagonist in VNs

First, let me state what I mean by a 'cipher' protagonist.  A protagonist of this type is basically a painted-on personality who serves solely to interpret the events for you, serving as your 'eyes' and 'ears'.  A protagonist like this is most likely passive and/or reactive in relation to heroines outside of sex/romance and tends to 'go with the flow' most of the time. This isn't necessarily a bad thing.  If the protagonist isn't really part of the story, making them into a cipher isn't a b
Clephas

Clephas

2

Wizards Complex

Hmm... I could say a lot about this VN... NOT. To be honest, this VN is a perfect example of how a VN can have a decent concept, a decent staff, good art, good music, and an interesting (if derivative, at this point) setting... and fall flat on the details. Wizard's Complex is a fantasy VN, based in a future where magic and magic technology have become an accepted part of life (this is a setting type first done effectively in Suzunone Seven by Clochette).  In this world, all magic user
Clephas

Clephas

0

Update: VN of the Month plans for April's releases

For those who were wondering, I do plan to play most of the April releases.  Unlike March, there are no non-VN game releases I'm even the least bit interested in, so I won't be losing any time there.  Right now, due to a request from a friend, I'm starting with Wizard's Complex, by Windmill.  Windmill is a company that has produced a number of notable VNs, such as Witch's Garden, Hyper→Highspeed→Genius, and Kamigakari Cross Heart.   In other words, they make decent fantasy VNs, though their
Clephas

Clephas

0

Random VNs: Thoughts on Houkago no Futekikakusha

This is an utsuge.  For those who don't already know what an utsuge is, it is a VN where the main endings are 'bad' endings.  Generally speaking, the intention with an utsuge is to give the reader catharsis through a sense of despair or sorrow.  Unlike in a nakige, where the sorrow or despair is temporary and everything ends with what amounts to a 'happily ever after', an utsuge's endings tend to be ones where everyone dies, despair goes on unending, or some other kind of bitter aspect.  While m
Clephas

Clephas

4

Random VNs: Comments on Silverio's setting and VN of the Month

Silverio's setting is based approximately fifteen hundred years from now, just over a thousand years after a massive disaster obliterated the civilizations that existed then.  The disaster was caused by a dimensional reactor melt down (basically, a reactor that draws energy from higher dimensions) and it basically erased Japan, the entire east coast of China, and most of Alaska (along with most of the islands in the Pacific).  In exchange, it created a 'second sun', known as 'Amaterasu' in the a
Clephas

Clephas

0

Random VNs: Thoughts as I replay Silverio

Since I already did a full review of this back when it first came out, I'm going to restrict my words on this to comments about things I noticed or found interesting during the second playthrough (setting aside spoilers). First... Zephyr.  As a protagonist, he is the kind of guy most people would love to hate.  In Japanese, he frequently refers to himself with blunt internal honesty (and outwardly to others as well) as '小者’　and ’凡人’ (words that basically mean he is the lowliest of 'normal'
Clephas

Clephas

0

Shoujo-Tachi wa Kouya o Mezasu

To be honest, I wasn’t really interested in playing this VN, as you might have noticed if you read my previous entries.  However, I ended  up playing it because, once I stopped taking the pain meds (thus going into withdrawal… viva Bucket and Water Bottle!), I had a mind just clear enough to read something on the level of a charage or slightly more complex but not enough to read something like Dies Irae or Jeanne. I’m going to be straight up about this VN… like a lot of stuff Takahiro get
Clephas

Clephas

0

Random VN: Lineup

I went ahead and based my schedule on the poll's numbers...  1: Silverio Vendetta (because I need some chuuni) 2: Houkago no Futekikakusha 3:  Dracu-riot (Japanese version) This is subject to change based on what is going on and sales (I keep an eye out for cheap games on download, lol), but for now, this is the schedule.  I am also going to play Kouya (started yesterday as withdrawal reached its peak).  Sorry, as I said before, I ignored that poll.  Jeanne would take too muc
Clephas

Clephas

0

Nukige: Grimo Love and some comments on the beginning of Jeanne

Grimo Love is a nukige.  Now, you'll notice that I generally don't bother to rate or comment on nukige... because most of the time I drop them inside of ten minutes.  However, Grimo Love has this sort of dread fascination to it that kept me playing right until the end (incidentally, it wasn't the story or the characters that kept me going).  I'm going to be blunt.  This VN doesn't really have a story.  Oh, there is one in there that probably would have made for a ridiculously good charage w
Clephas

Clephas

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