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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

Deciding the VN I WILL play this month

I haven't decided which of these VNs I will play this month, but I thought I'd let yall in on my thought processes. Basic Impressions (based off of previews, official pages, and Getchu pages) Hamidashi Creative- This looks like a solid charage, just from the way they actually decided to handle the intros. https://vndb.org/v27449/chars?view=2S-7Nx23xHY#chars 1) No protagonist intro- Speaking from experience, when the protagonist doesn't even have a brief introduction on the officia
Clephas

Clephas

2

Decide Which VN Clephas will Play: March Releases

First of all, let me get this out of the way... VN of the Month, February 2015: Silverio Vendetta Runner Up: Sanoba Witch Currently playing: Teito Hiten Daisakusen Since I'm playing Teito Hiten for VN of the Year 2014 right now, I decided to let the fans of my VN of the Month thread decide which VN I'll play first from March. These are the three I considered. One is from Saga Planets, another from Rosebleu, and the last is from Minato Soft. Since these three are companies I actually
Clephas

Clephas

10

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
Clephas

Clephas

0

December 2016: The remaining VNs

December was a month with a ridiculous number of highly-anticipated VN releases... and after having played three of them in such a short time, I felt a need to recall which ones I hadn't. Currently, I'm playing Shinsou Noise, which is a dark fantasy mystery written by the Liar-soft team and drawn by the Silky's Plus team (of Nanairo Reincarnation fame).  What remains after that that I planned to play is: Venus Blood Ragnarok (sequel in the 'main setting' of the series) Akiyum
Clephas

Clephas

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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
Clephas

Clephas

0
Japanese literature

Death March Kara Hajimeru Isekai Kyusoukyoku

Let's be clear about something first.  I will be the first person to admit that I am really, seriously strange for actually enjoying the anime version of this.  However, it turns out this story is a lot less frustrating in the written form, so I imagine that those that hated how the anime went might still enjoy the books.  To be clear, Death March is, despite the whole setup, essentially a story of Satou touring the isekai to see the sights and eat good food while incidentally (to his mind) savi
Clephas

Clephas in Japanese literature

1

Dead Days

On request and because I am a Kurashiki fan, I decided to play this, despite worries about the concept and the characters... and I came out finding my worries perfectly justified. First, the protagonist Teru... in a standard chuunige, he would be the jackass that gets killed after begging for his life in the opening act after doing something totally scumbag-like.  Worse, rather than being merely a cold-blooded manipulator (which is how the Getchu page presented him), he is actually an irrit
Clephas

Clephas

2

Curio Dealer

This is the latest VN by AXL, and it is also the latest in its 'swords fantasy' (there is very little magic in these games) series (I say series, but they are just a line of similarly-designed games).  The previous games in this series include Princess Frontier, Hyakka Ryouran Elixir, Racial Merge, and Ou no Mimi ni wa Todokanai.  This is also AXL's fifteenth game, making it one of the most prolific companies (ignoring subsidiaries) still active.  Like all the games in this series, it is ba
Clephas

Clephas

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Creative Corner: Brainstorming a character

Usually, I focus mostly on the perspective of a consumer when I write in this blog.  I do this because I am and always have been primarily a consumer of material rather than a creator.  However, that doesn't mean I've never created anything... just that I haven't published anything (well, under my own name... ghost writing doesn't count) since some early fiction on Deviantart over a decade ago.  So, since I'm not writing as many reviews, I chose to start a small corner describing the techni
Clephas

Clephas

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Crazy Charage Settings

Now, I love nothing more than an interesting setting, and I'm tired of normal charage in general... so one of the biggest points that can be used to draw me into a charage is a crazy setting.  Crazy charage settings are settings that have no possibility whatsoever of happening in real life or are so far outside of common sense that they are inconceivable as a real possibility to most people.  This includes fantasy settings and sci-fi settings, but more often it includes a simple concept tak
Clephas

Clephas

0

Corona Fandisc

I went ahead and played my way through this... for the most part, the story is slice-of-life, with a lot more focus on the comedic elements than in the main game. The result is a lot of hilarious scenes... and really little else for most of the first two-thirds of the game. The endgame story is supposed to be a tearjerking final battle... but to be honest, I hadn't developed enough affection for the new characters to feel anything for what was happening. Too much of the content was comedic, a
Clephas

Clephas

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Conquest Strategy VNs (Sangoku/Sengoku Hime series in particular)

Conquest strategy games, as opposed to RTS, are games where conquest operates on a strategic (large-scale) rather than tactical level and is unconcerned with the activities of individual soldiers (soldiers are numbers, not capable of individual action).  They involve the capture of strategic points in order to hold territory and the keeping of order and management of general resources (wealth and troops, as opposed to specific resources like wood, stone, and food). There are certain rules t
Clephas

Clephas

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Companies that rest on their own laurels

(Note: Right now I'm playing Dungeon of Regalias, on a long-standing request for me to make an assessment.  This doesn't have anything to do with my statements below.) One of my pet peeves is companies that depend on their reputation to sell their games, regardless of quality.  Pulltop, Navel, and Circus are the most frequent offenders on this side...  Pulltop, in particular, has developed a habit of releasing second-rate games under existing IPs (the second and third Lovekami and their sex
Clephas

Clephas

2

Commentary on Hino Wataru's chuunige

Over the last few weeks, I've gone back through all of the chuunige Hino Wataru was responsible for, and I came up with a number of common points that exist in each of his games, that define his overall style.  At the same time, I thought I'd also mention why I usually recommend Comyu to people despite the translation being such a disaster. Hino Wataru patterns Hino Wataru has a number of unique patterns that define his style of writing chuunige (some of it spills over into his SOL gam
Clephas

Clephas

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Clochette: Activist VN-makers or just endless Oppai?

I'm currently playing Koko kara Natsu no Innocence, the latest VN by Clochette, a charage company specializing in busty heroines that tends to produce first-class character development and heroine stories.  One aspect of Clochette that I've always thought was a bit funny was the obsession with 'shoushika', the current phenomenon in Japan where fewer and fewer young people are getting married and/or having kids.  This is touched upon to one degree or another in a lot of VNs, because it is an issu
Clephas

Clephas

3

Clephas's Rave: Minori VNs and Why I Dislike Them

First off, those who remember my comments on Natsuzora and 12gatsu will remember I mentioned hating Minori games, with the exception of Eden*. The fact is, that I still do hate them, I hate reviewing them, and I hate reading them. The question is, why? I keep asking myself this. Minori has really good visual quality, good writers, and decent characters (even if they basically reuse the exact same cast over and over with different appearances and background stories to suit a given VN). T
Clephas

Clephas

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Clephas' Translated VN recommendations

As you can imagine, I got a lot of requests for a similar list over the years, but the thing is, I don't play VNs in English that didn't start out in English.  As such, my recommendations are based entirely on my experience of the Japanese versions of these VNs, rather than the localization.  As such, don't hold me responsible for your personal experiences, lol.  I'm going to split these by genre so I don't have to answer questions along those lines.  For the purposes of fairness, I won't includ
Clephas

Clephas

2

Clephas' top ten Imouto paths

Yes, I'm going to go there.  I've actually been asked this more by my Japanese friend/supplier than anyone else, but I've always refrained from answering except to name one or two that I liked.  However, I made the mistake of watching a few imouto anime on a binge a few weeks ago, and I began seriously considering which little sister paths were the best in the VNs I've played up until now.  Note that I say these are the best 'paths', not necessarily the best imouto heroines.  To be blunt, imouto
Clephas

Clephas

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Clephas' top AI/robot/android/etc heroines

This is a list of my favorite artificial (non-magical) heroines.  The reason I thought this up was because I am currently replaying Komorebi no Nostalgica, which is pretty much the top for an AI-focused VN.   Emmy from Akabanzu  https://vndb.org/c42670 Akabanzu itself is an unusual game in that it is a charage focused on a protagonist being forcibly rehabilitated from game addiction.  The AI in this game, Emmy, focuses on a support role, which makes for a surprisingly interesting (and
Clephas

Clephas

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Clephas' list of high-quality writers: Tier One

I think we can all agree I've read a lot of VNs. *waits for audience laughter with a smile* *looks sad when the audience laughter recording doesn't work* Anyway, over the years I've encountered a lot of writers.  Some were mediocre, others were decent, yet others were good... and some were just great. I decided to list the writers I honestly think have a lot of talent and whose works are something we, as VN fans, should at least keep an eye on.  Tier One presents writers who are '
Clephas

Clephas

4

Clephas' Favorite VNs: Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas part 1

One of only two games written by Kazutaka, the writer of the somewhat comically-named Doushite Daite Kurenai no!?  Onna no Ko Datte Yaritai no! (incidentally, despite the title, the aforementioned game is not a nukige, which is in itself humorous, lol).  It is also the game that gave substance to Ensemble's quest to define itself as a specialist company in trap protagonist and ojousama-ge.  Ironically, it is also the flat-out best SOL game the company has ever made, which makes it somewhat sad f
Clephas

Clephas

3

Clephas' Favorite VNs: Minamijuujisei Renka

Say what you want about Studio Ryokucha, but their weird plotge/charage hybrids are some of my quirkier favorites.  To be specific, Minamijuujisei Renka is my favorite game by this company, at least partially because of how deftly they sidestepped the worst of the 'high school' tropes while keeping the advantages of familiarity.   Minamijuujisei Renka is based on a fictional island still ruled by a post-colonial Caucasian aristocracy that long-since lost its connection with its long-dead or
Clephas

Clephas

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Clephas' basic advice to untranslated beginners

Since I get asked questions constantly on this subject, I'll go ahead and list a few pieces of advice I felt apply to most beginners.   1) Use translation aggregator and a text hooker, even if you feel like you should be getting out your kanji dictionary, out of a sense of self-reliance. I'll be blunt, it is hard to enjoy something if you have to refer to a kanji dictionary for every other non-particle word. I am sometimes stunned at people bragging about spending 100 hours on an 8 hour moege
Clephas

Clephas

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Clephas' 2018 VN recommendations

This is a list of VNs I think are worthy of playing, regardless of my vndb vote (no VN of the Year, since I don't do VN of the Month anymore).  While I haven't been playing much since September, the fact remains that I still played a large number of VNs this year.  Feel free to object, but I have no obligation to listen anymore *whistles cheerfully as he juggles the flaming skulls of those who have opposed him in the past). Fuukan no Grasesta Mirai Radio no Jinkou-bato Haru to Yuk
Clephas

Clephas

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Clephas Top 50 VNs

For the last two years or so, I've gotten repeated requests to unequivocally name my top VNs made up until the present, ignoring objectivity, my vndb votes, etc.  I've more or less just ignored most of those requests, because it is a pain in the ass to name a 'favorite' VN in the first place.  I've made lists of VNs I loved from various genres, and I've also made lists of VNs for a specific purpose.  However, I've avoided making a list like this one up until now, mostly because my 'favorites' sw
Clephas

Clephas

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