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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 VNs: Poll

Right now, while the pain meds are wearing off and my mind is relatively clear (since I don't recall anything I did or posted today before an hour and a half ago) I figured I'd  post this poll.  First, I'm more or less decided on setting aside any more reading for VNs from March, at least for the next week.  I will resume playing at least one more on the nineteenth, so if you want, feel free to vote on the other poll, though I will probably ignore the results from it.  The first VN on
Clephas

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12

Toki ga Tsumugu Yakusoku Part 3: Final thoughts

First, I should comment on Misaki's route... As is to be expected of a true route in a VN with as much story as this one, Misaki's route is incomparable in both length and content to the other three routes.  In terms of emotional impact, it literally leaves the other routes in the dust, while finishing off the other heroines' issues almost as if they were a mere aside, lol.  That said, not all the emotions associated with this route are positive... there are some seriously heartbreaking mom
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1

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
Clephas

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2

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
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0

Toki ga Tsumugu Yakusoku part 1: Some thoughts based on the common route EDITED

First, I should say that this starts out like a first-class nakige in classic non-Key style (which means no loli heroines with weird speech patterns and less than six heroines total, lol).  I generally am fond of Applique for giving me Tasogare no Sinsemilla and the Arcology series, but when they screw up, it is usually in a way that should have been blatantly obvious as they were doing it. The protagonist and his daughter (yes, his daughter) are a great combo, and their past is one of one
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0

Do you like Japan?

This is a question I wonder if many people here have asked themselves... do you honestly like Japan, as a country (whether you've visited or just look in from the outside)?  My own feelings are... mixed.  Japan has a pretty fascinating culture that is essentially a scrapbook of various elements drawn from cultures that contacted it that were then evolved based on what the people of a given era wanted/needed.  However... the country itself is pretty problematic looking at it from the outside.  Po
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23

Tokyo Babel

Tokyo Babel is scheduled to be released pretty soon, so I decided to replay it.  As Propeller is one of my favorite companies and Tokyo Babel has a more or less permanent place in my top fifty (when the number of VNs you've played passes five hundred, fifty is a good place to be, lol), so this doesn't bother me.  Tokyo Babel is one of the few purely all-ages titles from Japan on the PC, and it is a chuunige of rare quality that was obviously written with one of a dozen or so pairs of eyes on Mas
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6

Hapymaher Character Special: Talking about the Protagonist

Naitou Tohru is the protagonist of Hapymaher and the character whose viewpoint you share for about 85% of the VN.  He is a character whose personality and situation are defined by a sense of loss and guilt so painful, it has literally driven him to the brink of insanity.  Oddly enough, the thing I find most admirable about him is the fact that is self-aware enough to actually rely on someone (most of the time) when he is at his limits and outside his specialty (which is altering/controlling his
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0

A bit of Hapymaher, as a motivator and because I'm evil

Before anyone asks, no I'm not translating this VN as a whole.  For one thing, it is long and I'm lazy.  For another, it actually has a small chance of coming over here, so I'm not going to do something that will spoil the whole game for them (I want this officially localized).  This is a fully narrated version (narrated by the poster of the video) of the first few scenes of Hapymaher, which was my VN of the Year 2013.  This VN has ridiculously good music... and a frequently heartbreaking story.
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4

VN of the Month Feb 2016 and March titles

First, VN of the Month 2016 basically comes down to a competition between two titles, World Election and Tsumi no Hikari Rendezvous.  The other stuff from February was mostly... disappointing.  Shugotate 2 is great... but one of my rules is that direct sequels and continuances of previous games can't compete if they require knowledge of the original to enjoy (and in this case that is true).      Both games in the posts above are solid VN of the Month candidates... and
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2

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
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10

Tsumi no Hikari Rendezvous

Since I finished getting the acidic, poisonous, and unreasoning emotions out of my system - see this post: I was able to get through this VN without a lot of pain and twisted emotion such as I experienced with Soreyori no Prologue.  First, this is a VN that people who prefer moege/charage will not like.  I say this because, despite the high-quality visuals, this is - like most of Minori's more recent VNs - just a few steps too far in the direction of 'down in the mud romance dram
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1

Amaekata wa Kanojo nari ni

First, this VN is by Giga.  Yes, Giga, the same people who did the Baldr series.  However - and I have said this repeatedly in my comments on other non-Baldr Giga VNs - the second Giga steps outside of hard, complex, violent sci-fi... they get third-rate (except the visuals).  The best non-Baldr VN I've even tried to play by Giga was Harvest Overray, and even that was only just above average for a charage with a central story (though the humor was the best of Giga).  In fact, if you ignore the v
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5

Why I'm going to drop Kadenz Fermata

Yes, I'm serious about dropping this VN.  There are a number of reasons... but the main one is a pet peeve that has recently become my primary one when it comes to VNs... and that is flowcharts.  I HATE flowcharts.  Making it worse is that Kadenz Fermata's flowchart is combined with an unbelievably annoying 'gameplay' system that requires you to take a really half-assed 'active' part in the battles to bring them to the best possible conclusion... even though that conclusion is often identical to
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7

World Election

Here it comes, a possible VN of the Month!!!  Seriously, I hadn't expected that Whirlpool's ten year anniversary game would be this good.  It is written by the same person who wrote Koisuru Doll to Omoi no Kiseki, and it feels in many ways like a return to the better of Whirlpool's two distinct styles.  Whirlpool's two styles are: 1- A straight moege/charage that makes a vague attempt at seriousness on occasion and inevitably falls into the habit of producing endlessly repeated 'ongoing jok
Clephas

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5

VN of the Year 2015: A statement in Compromises

First, let me state that 2015 is the flat-out worst year for VNs I've seen out of the last six.  There was a lot of upward and downward flow hovering around the line known as 'mediocre' or 'average', but there were - saying it straight out - no kamige and few titles that really stood out from the crowd.  It is definitely the worst year since I started VN of the Month, just two years and five months (or so) ago.  Unlike in 2013 or 2014, there are not a lot of titles I really even seriously c
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6

VNs: Gears of Dragoon 2, settling in for the long haul, VN of The Month Announcement

OK, I started playing Gears of Dragoon 2 about four days ago (I've only managed twenty hours so far, due to work), and I have a few comments on the game. For better or worse, Gears of Dragoon 2 Reimei no Fragments is a dungeon crawler/rpg/VN hybrid, and like most VNs of this type, it is pretty big.  To be blunt, in 20 hours, I've only managed to get to level 24 and get halfway through Chapter 2.  Considering that with the same amount of time I was already halfway through (or farther) with e
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4

Fake Azure Arcology

Mmm... because I replayed Lost Azurite, I thought I'd do a bit of comparison... also because I didn't feel up to playing Sengo or Dragoon yet.  Fake Azure Arcology is based some time before Lost Azurite, in Amahara, an arcology completely cut off from the outside world.  It is a city that basically tries to maintain a sense of the 'outside' inasmuch as it is possible while essentially living inside a giant dome.  Seasons and the sky are simulated, as is weather, and it is even possible to cook r
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0

Random Replay: Re:Birth Colony - Lost Azurite

Re:Birth Colony is a VN that has a special place in my heart.  It is the second VN in the two VN series about a future where a rain of meteors rendered the planet's surface lifeless and humanity is living in arcologies of various types.  The first one, Fake Azure Arcology, I plan to replay a bit later.  It has the same writer as Hapymaher, Harukiss, Sakigake Generation, and a number of other VNs going back to 2007.  The protagonist, Keram Souji (also known as Rindou Souji), is the adoptive
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0

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
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1

Angenehm Platz -Kleiner Garten Sie Erstellen-

... well, I guess I was wrong.  They do still make pure moege.  The only problem with this is that 'pure moege=kusoge' these days, so I honestly can't see a reason to be happy about that.  This VN was written partly by the same guy who wrote Flyable Heart, and it is by a company (Hexenhaus) that has a fondness for producing moe-based VNs focused on eating establishments of some sort (this case, a Cafe Club at a school).  I'll be perfectly honest... this VN starts out with all the elements n
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2

Hataraku Otona no Renai Jijou

As the title above indicates, this is a story about the love life of a working adult... to be specific, a twenty-five year old salaryman named Oga Itsuki.  At the beginning of the story Itsuki, who has already begun to settle into the dull exhaustion of the salaryman style of life, is awakened to just how pathetic his life is by his immediate superior, who suggests he try to change himself.  The amazing thing is that he does go through with it, and it changes his fate (makes it interesting).
Clephas

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6

Hanikami Clover: Succubi and wasted potential

... it has been almost a year and a half since the last release from Studio Ryokucha, and I was looking forward to this, almost despite myself.  This company has produced some really good games over the years, and I have generally enjoyed most of their games I've played thoroughly.  At first, it seemed like this one might end up being one of the better VNs by this company, but once I finished my first route, I was forced to come to the realization that my expectations - based on the building of
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0

Random VN: Majikoi S and A-1 through A-4

To be honest, it is really hard to comment on this series of sequels/fandiscs...  S For better or worse, S really is a sequel, starting from just before the events in the true route of the original.  It adds a massive number of characters (seriously, the number added is ridiculous), extended after-stories for the original game, a what-if scenario for Yuki, and five new heroine paths...  unfortunately, those heroine paths are hit and miss.  I'm going to say it outright... Tsubame's
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3

Random VN replay: Majikoi

I decided while I was playing my Tsuyokiss marathon to replay the Majikoi series.  My reason?  I played the original over five years ago, and my perspective on it was bound to have changed since.  In that sense I was correct.  I came to one conclusion that I'll go ahead and state beforehand... Majikoi is a game that definitely picks its readers (in a sense, this is true of all of Takahiro's games).  Whereas the Tsuyokiss series is, for better or worse, a series of VNs in the 'traditional go
Clephas

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