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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

The two ways to view the Akagoei series

Akatsuki no Goei is something of an oddball if you ignore the existence of Grisaia, but they share some major traits.  Both have a relatively 'peaceful' (if dramatic) first game that involves romantic paths that are mostly irrelevant to the third game.  Both have a psychologically-scarred, killer protagonist with a criminal past.  Both have a quirky sense of humor that is mostly generated by the protagonist's abnormal actions... I could go on, but I'll move on to my point. The most blatantl
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July 2017 Release Megapost (also completion of June)

Fuyu Uso Fuyu Uso is the fourth and final game in Campus’s ‘Lies’ series, based in a mammoth school with a hidden population of magical beings. As a bit of a recap, the protagonist of this story, Sakurai Souichirou gained the power as a young child to sense the lies of others through a magical tool within his body called ‘Red Line’. In the game, this shows as lines of dialog literally being highlighted in red when a person is lying (at the precise part of the dialog they are lying). As
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Blade x Bullet - Kinrin no Soleil

Blade x Bullet is the latest in the Soleil series (search my blog, I played all but the most recent previous entry in a marathon a few months ago).  This series is based off of a series of parallel worlds that proceeded from the end of Ragnarok, the last battle of the Norse gods.  Some of those worlds are similar to our own, others are of a greater technology, and others are worlds of magic.  The world in this VN is in the midst of its own apocalypse, mechanical monsters from the sky invulnerabl
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Renai Kyoushitsu

Yes, despite myself, I played this.  Renai Kyoushitsu is the first VN from an entirely new company (the writer and artist are both new to VNs as well), and it seems to be, in concept, a simple charage of the type where a male protagonist goes to a newly-coed former girls' school and finds himself the only guy (a fairly normal situation in VNs, though less so in the last few years).  The VN has a really weird atmosphere (not psycho-weird, but rather just plain weird) at first, primarily because t
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Ryouchi Kizoku

I'm going to be blunt... this is yet another SofthouseChara game where the entire point of the game lies in the gameplay, which is just complex enough to be annoying.  The heroines and the protagonist are non-people, and the actual endings are boring.  Basically, you are a new noble given a completely random amount of time to build up your lands before the King dies, which takes you to the ending.  The game system is split into building, hiring individuals of talent, fighting off threats, d
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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
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Izuna Zanshinken: Character portraits

Izuna Zanshinken is a VN put out by Akatsuki Works Black back in 2011.  It is a super-violent chuunige with a vigilante assassin called Musumi Kotarou at its center.  The game is split into two main parts... the common route and the heroine routes, which are accessed at a click of the mouse (convenient).  Save for the end of each heroine route, choices are mostly a matter of seeing different scenes or the same scenes from another perspective.  Each route is split into chapters, each with a defin
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Deatte 5-fun wa Ore no Mono! Jikan Teishi to Atropos

The first thing most of you are going to ask is why I didn't play Deep One first, given my tastes... but the answer is fairly simple.  An a-hole spoiled the entire story on the release day to me in a PM on another site, and I read it before I realized what he was doing.  As such, my enthusiasm was dampened to almost nothing, and I'm left feeling listless about everything in general.  The commentary about it all over the untranslated VN community only accelerated its trip to being sealed in my ar
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A guide to Devils Devel Concept (Necessary spoilers)

Why I made this post. Devils Devel Concept is one of my favorite VNs and has one of my top 3 VN settings.  The setting is so ridiculously complex and explained only in fragments along the way, so it is difficult to gain any real grasp on what is going on just reading any one path... Not to mention that there are a ridiculous number of details that can be lost along the way as you read.  Sora is fundamentally an indifferent narrator when it comes to such details, because he doesn't have any
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Shuffle! Essence +

Shuffle Essence! + is the definitive version of Shuffle, which was originally released in 2004.  Shuffle was also the first game where Agobarrier, the now-deceased writer of the Tiny Dungeon series, made a claim to fame.  First, I should note that I originally played Shuffle in English and was not in any way satisfied with the results.  My primary reasons were the low quality of the localization (though it was better than what MG had done up to that point) and certain differences with the a
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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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A few Thoughts on VN Trends

Before I go visit my remaining grandparents this weekend (my grandmother on my father's side and grandfather on my mother's side are both in extremely frail condition right now, so we are taking time to show my sister's kid to them), I thought I would give my thoughts on modern VN trends. Charage aren't going anywhere Though I frequently bash the industry for over-saturating the market with moege/charage/SOL, the fact is that the demand for this type of VN is never going to go away as
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Random VN: Gokudou no Hanayome

Gokudou no Hanayome was released by Galactica (a sister company of Baseson and one of the many subsidaries of Nexton) back in 2011.  I originally played it around the first time I started getting tired of charage... which was horrible timing, thinking about it in retrospect.  To be blunt, I hadn't yet developed my current style of evaluation, and I didn't have as much appreciation for the good points of charage at the time, so I basically judged it based upon what it wasn't... an action chuunige
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VN of the Month September delayed and other announcements

September 2017 Releases I'm delaying VN of the Month September 2017 while fun2novel finishes up Farnese.  I honestly don't know when to expect him to be done, but I don't think it will be much more than halfway through the month of November. My schedule for October's releases. October is chock full of first-class releases in appearance... and I'm just going to mention the ones I'm most excited for. Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary (playing this right now... it is terrifyingly good
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A Ramble: Various Random subjects

The Poll To be straight with you, this is a suggestion that has been brought up numerous times by the small number of people I recommend books (in English) to.  I am a bibliophile, with a focus on history, anthropology, fantasy, and science-fiction.  It has been suggested to me that I should add book reviews/commentaries to my blog in addition to my posts on VNs.  While this is in some ways a good idea... I'm unsure if it makes sense to post about non-otaku content in this blog. Fantas
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Hoshi Furu Yoru no Farnese and VN of the Month September 2017

Farnese This review was written by fun2novel and edited by me.  fun2novel's tastes run to complex settings and stories, with a strong preference for mysteries and a fondness for chuunige. Let me start of by saying that Farnese is a good game. It has all the elements that make a great Phoenix Wright style mystery game. Much of the story is inhabited by murders, corpses, clues, trials, murderers, witnesses, and other characters involved. The game is divided into several chapters wi
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VN of the Year Candidates so far

This is the list, as it currently stands, of VNs being considered and those previously considered but disqualified for VN of the Year 2017.  While this year hasn't been good for producing kamige, it has succeeded in producing a number of memorable ones. Being Considered Ojou-sama no Hanbun wa Ren'ai de Dekiteimasu Oni ga Kuru. ~Ane ga Hinshi de Pinchi Desu~ Haruru Minamo ni Suisei Ginka Additions from 12/30/2017 Bakumatsu Jinchuu Houkoku Resshiden Miburo Y
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Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary

Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary is a VN made by Azarashi Soft, a company that I’ve ignored up until now due to its obsession with the Amakano series (a series which is aesthetically uninteresting to me). It is written by Kizuki (of Tasogare no Sinsemilla, Gurenka, and Hanono) and Onsen Daisuke (of Kon Kon and Koisuru Natsu no Last Resort). Kizuki was responsible for the writing of the common route and the central heroine route (Alice’s), as well as the character settings. Apparently, Onsen Daisuke w
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Junjou Karen Freaks

Junjou Karen Freaks is based in a future world where all the mysterious creatures of human mythology have turned out to be real, and, after some twists and turns, have begun to coexist peacefully with humanity as part of a larger society.  The protagonist, Mikitaka, is the child of two 'diplomats' who work at trying to bring together the many races, and he lives alone together with his cousin oneechan Shizumi.  Suddenly, one day their osananajimi Yuuka appears before them as a ghost, they meet t
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Random VN: Zero Infinity - Devil of Maxwell

I've been saving a replay of this VN for years.  My original opinion on this VN was excessively influenced by the fact that this VN is filled to the brim with Masada and Dies Irae worship.  However, it is also the VN that, separate from that, defined the second Light team's style.  The base character archetypes, roles, and numerous aspects of their settings were almost universally drawn from Dies Irae, if you strip away the specifics.  This is the biggest reason I had so much trouble properly ra
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Aoi Tori

Aoi Tori is Purple Soft's latest project, a VN based in a girls' school in the mountains, where the protagonist, a priest (I'm assuming Episcopalian/Anglican for various reasons), goes to school as an exception, as he cannot live outside of the school without being taken by demons. Ritsu, the protagonist, possesses the power to take others' negative emotions, thus enhancing their feelings of happiness and joy, and this power works best when he has sex with them.  Now, given that he is a you
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Kizuna Kirameku Koi Iroha

For obvious reasons, VN vets rarely get up their hopes for games by new VN companies.  Generally speaking, most of them are charage or nukige, and those that aren't usually flop on their faces.  So, it should come as no surprise that the people I chatted with about this game generally didn't have any hopes for it.  However, that is probably because they didn't take a look at the team of scenario writers.  The first one, Gihara, was the writer for Tenka Gomen, Shin Koihime Eiyuutan, Shin Koi
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December Release: Sangoku Hime 5

I should note that I've been following this series since I played the third game two years ago, and I'm going to rehash some of my feelings about it as a whole. The first three games of the Sangoku Hime series had a number of good and bad points, even if I don't compare them to the Sengoku Hime series, which has been refined a great deal more due to it already being on its seventh installment. Pros 1- Male sprites are... badass cool, in general.  Insanely detailed, actually impres
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[Major Spoilers]Some fun VN Setting facts

Right now, in order to 'clean my palate' before playing Mojika, I'm replaying Bloody Rondo, 3rdEye's first (and arguably worst) VN.  A thought came to my mind that has been bothering me since I finished Oratorio Phantasm.  Are Shinkurou and Luna still alive at the time this VN occurs within the setting?  The reason I ask is because Now that we are finished establishing my hypothesis about why things in Oratorio Phantasm played out as they did, I thought I'd consider Shinigami no Test
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Random VN: Bloody Rondo

Bloody Rondo is 3rdEye's first and arguably their worst game.  By chuunige standards it is very much 'yesteryear' even by the standards of the year it came out, being a 'half-gakuen' type where the protagonist splits his life between school during the day and other stuff at night.    What it comes down to in the end is that this game was, from the very beginning, apologetically derivative and something of a failure primarily due to an attempt to draw on the relative success of Draculius several
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