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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

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
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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
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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
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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
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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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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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Ojounana Character Special: Yuuzenji Tsurumi

Those of you who are familiar with Ojousama wa Gokigen Naname will probably wonder, "Why did he just introduce a non-heroine character before anyone else?"  The reason is fairly simple... this is a game that is defined at least as much by its antagonist as its protagonist and heroines.  This one of about a dozen VNs I'm replaying in parallel (as the mood takes me), and it is one of my favorites... as well as one of the two reasons I keep playing Ensemble games, even though they've made nothing b
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Ojounana Character Special: Sakurazaki Hajime

Hajime is your ultimate lady's valet (not a butler, as he says repeatedly), serving as Naname Nanami's bodyguard, tutor, and general servant.  He and his sister, Hana were brought to the Naname Manor as children after their parents' death to live as servants by the head of the Yuuzenji Family at the time (the Yuuzenji are one of seven cadet branches of the Naname Family).  He earned Nanami's trust and became her ultimate ally, protecting her from attempts to forcefully betroth her to members of
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Random Vns: Valkyrie Complex

.... I finally finished this one.  It has been installed on my computer for the better part of three years, with me only going back to play it occasionally... This VN/srpg hybrid is by Circus, the same company that did Suika and the Da Capo series... so obviously, this kind of VN is completely out of character for them, lol.  I'm going to be blunt... this VN pales in comparison to just about every decent hybrid I've played, both storywise and gameplay wise.  The best thing I can say for the
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Random VNs: Kyonyuu Fantasy 2if

Knonyuu Fantasy 2if is a remake of the original Kyonyuu Fantasy 2, with an apparently expanded narrative.  Having played the Digitalized Novel version of the original Kyonyuu Fantasy, which I loved, I found Kyonyuu Fantasy 2if to be very… familiar. To be blunt, everything in this VN is exactly like the first few chapters of that estimable game, with the easygoing, unambitious protagonist gaining political power and rising to the top over the course of the game… while having sex constantly
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Random VNs: Kyonyuu Fantasy 3

The Kyonyuu Fantasy series is easily one of the weirdest series I’ve ever encountered.  On one side, you have what is clearly nukige levels of sexual content, with some of the most absurd h-scenes I’ve ever encountered, taking male breast-obsessions to new levels.  On the other side, you have startlingly detailed settings and interesting stories with protagonists who only seem weak on the surface. Kyonyuu Fantasy 3 is no exception to my experiences with the series.  When I started it, I w
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Random VNs: Damekoi Part 1

It has been a while since I did a partial post on a VN, and most of the time I either do it out of enthusiasm or because I got a specific request for a path-by-path detailed report from a friend.  In this case, it is because I ran out of time to finish Sekai de Ichiban Dame na Koi after I played through half the game and two of the paths.  I ran out of time because my copy of Senren Banka, which I asked me friend to ship to me directly, arrived two days early.  I wasn't expecting it until Tuesd
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Aristear Remain

This VN is based a few thousand years after Tou no Shita no Exercitus, and without the background knowledge of that VN, it is a bit hard to get into the details of this one.  Unlike that game, this one has no gameplay and is instead a kinetic novel in the 'standard chuunige' style... which basically means that it isn't a high-detail wordsmith and CG artist's playground like the stuff by Light and Nitroplus.  Sadly, since this VN's setting had some nice potential to make such a game in. I'm
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Saga Planets

As I've been playing Floral Flowlove, I've been recalling my experiences with Saga Planets.  This is one of a very small group of companies that has never produced a 'complete kusoge' in my experience, and they always manage to maintain a certain level of quality, though they do their best work in VNs with a strong protagonist. Saga Planets is unusual amongst VN producers in that their games (at least in my experience) always maintain a certain baseline of quality... and in that they don't
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Random VNs: Doushite, Sonna ni Kuroi Kami ga Suki na no?

First, I should say that this VN has major problems, despite the fact that I ended up enjoying it quite a bit as a whole.  This is true of most VNs (obviously), but in this case, the problems are a bit more obvious. The main problem is the number of choices... to be honest, the sheer number of choices in this VN completely breaks engrossment with it at most points.  Generally, the best parts of this VN are found when the choices are over and all that is left is the momentum until the end of
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Agobarrier: Some afterthoughts on a great writer

Agobarrier, who was the writer of Shuffle (the work most familiar to people here) was one of my favorite non-chuuni VN writers.  Ironically, his best works were all written after leaving Navel and its massive stream of liquid cash to form Rosebleu, my favorite comedy company.  I started going back through his entire library of works (or at least the ones I've played and own) since I heard of his death in mid-April, and as I replay his final work, Valkyrie Runabout, I feel a need to look back on
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Vn of the Month, July 2016

July was unique so far, when it comes to the quality of what was released.  Three VNs, Amatsutsumi, Senren Banka, and Floral Flowlove were all at a high level of quality that qualifies them as a potential VN of the Month.  As those who keep up with this blog know, I really won't name a VN of the Month if I don't feel there were any releases worthy of it. First, Senren Banka:   Looking back on it, it was an enjoyable experience, but I came to the conclusion that it was the weakest
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Random VNs: Nanairo Reincarnation

Below is the original mini-review I wrote of Nanairo Reincarnation in 2014, which I mostly pulled out because it is much harder to access than this blog because of how buried that thread is.  Also, I was feeling too lazy to completely rehash everything I said back then.     Nanairo Reincarnation   Kamige kita!!!  lol   I've been waiting all this  year for a kamige to appear, and thankfully, I wasn't disappointed.  Every once in a while I co
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Newton to Ringo no Ki

... Laplacian isn't a company I had any hopes for, after how much of a kusoge their first game, Kimi to Yumemishi was.  However, Newton to Ringo no Ki is a pleasant surprise, with a lot of nostalgia for people, like me, who were born in the mid to early eighties. Why?  Because this is, in some ways, a tribute to the Back to the Future movies I watched as a kid.  While the time travel style is switched from a car to a telescope and there are a few minor differences (no vanishing protagonists
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Akatsuki Works and Applique release free mini-VNs

Akatsuki Works and Applique, two subsidiaries of Akabeisoft2 (of Sharin no Kuni and G-Senjou no Maou fame) have each released a mini-VN for free on their websites (which are a pain to access from outside of Japan, but anyone used to bypassing DMM's controls on their MMO releases should be able to manage it).  Akatsuki Works released Hi no Nai Tokoro ni Kemuri wa Tatanai  ( https://vndb.org/v19369  ), which seems to be a chuunige-type by Hino Wataru, as is typical of the Akatsuki Works brand.  Ap
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Sakura Hitohira Koi Moyou

For those who are interested, this VN is the latest production by Parasol, a company rather infamous for its incest charage (most of which are middling in quality).   This is one of the few companies where I've actually dropped most of the VNs they made simply because they were boring, rather than because of some inevitable mismatch between my tastes and some aspect of the game's setting, characters or story.  To put this in perspective, I rarely drop charage merely because they are boring.
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Natsu no Majo no Parade

Natsu no Majo no Parade is a classic-style 'dotabata love-comedy', meaning that it is partially about romance and partially about what amounts to a situational comedy.  The VN was made by a newborn company called Wonder Fool.  It is based in a world where (mostly female) magic-users called Witches go around helping people (the setting is never really properly explained, probably because the writers were lazy when it came to world-building). The protagonist, Yukito, is a normal guy whose mot
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Random VNs: Prima Stella [edited]

First thing that anyone thinks when they see a VN written by Choco Chip is 'nukige!!!'.  That isn't precisely correct.  I've played exactly three games by this guy that impressed me, though that was over four years ago.  Those three games were Prima Stella, Sarasara, and Sakura Iro Quartet.  Randomly, I decided to pick Prima Stella back up, and I relived my ancient experiences with it, gaining new impressions relative to what I've experienced since. First, my impressions are universally pos
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Sora no Tsukurikata Part one: First Arc, Kazuha route

As I began this VN, I decided to change my approach to how I would handle it.  My dislike of ladder-style story structures will probably cause me to go berserk when I finish the final (Haru's) route, but for now, I'm going to evaluate the story based on each arc and its associated heroine route, ignoring the VN as a whole until I've gone through the final route. Now, the protagonist of this story is a pretty archetypical character... a PI who has been scarred and run down by life living in
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Sora no Tsukurikata part two: Second Arc and Yurika

The second arc of this story is focused narrowly on the aftermath of the first arc and Yurika.  Yurika is a rare type in VNs these days... a sexy adult woman who isn't another man's wife or widow (yes, I went there).  She is a member of the 'Virgin of Chains', the more 'peaceful' of the two mafia groups dominating the area.  She is the protagonist's friend, occasional partner, drinking buddy, and sex friend.  She has a somewhat nihilistic attitude toward life and an absolute love of te
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