Jump to content
  • entries
    772
  • comments
    1841
  • views
    567571

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

Shiranui's Journey (Evolimit): The Tale of a Hero

Be warned, this is full of spoilers for one of my favorite VNs, Evolimit.  Shiranui Yoshikazu is one of my favorite protagonists of all time, and I thought it would be good to just lay out why I loved the guy from beginning to end.           Shiranui's past   The Disaster (MAJOR Spoilers.  Don't read this part unless you have finished at least Kazuna's ending) Even entirely ignoring the events of the main story, Shiranui's story is one of quiet he
Clephas

Clephas

0

Ren'ai x Royale

This is the latest game by ASa Project, a company that rose up during the Golden Age of VNs, making a name for themselves as solid comedy charage makers.  To this day, their style hasn't changed significantly, but in some ways that gives them an advantage over modern charage, which tend to be less comedy-focused (actually, most newer charage makers don't seem to know how to make the readers laugh anymore).   This game is focused on the harem of a young man named Hirotaka.  The situation is,
Clephas

Clephas

0

litrpg author: William D. Arand

The Litrpg genre has a bunch of subsets, from the gamelit (characters are actually in a game) and portal fantasy  (go through a portal to a game-like world) to Wuxia/xanxia style cultivation and anime-style harem setups. William D Arand is an interesting writer...  He is definitely on the harem side of things, because all of his protagonists end up with a harem of women who are both devoted to him and end up running his life, as well as being deadly, amoral and more than a little crazy.  Mo
Clephas

Clephas

0

Akatsuki Yureru Koi Akari

This is the third game in Crystalia's series based on a world where a sport has grown up around using spiritual swords and a prequel to the original game, Kizuna Kirameku Koi Iroha.  For those who haven't played the other games, I can say that you might or might  not get more out of this game by playing the others first, as playing the original spoils you on the winner of the tournament and a few other issues.  On the other hand, this game also fills in a lot of gaps on characters from the origi
Clephas

Clephas

0

Litrpg: Everybody Loves Large Chests

Everybody Loves Large Chests (the series) by Neven Iliev is probably the most horrifying dark comedy fantasy I've ever read.  I laughed almost constantly throughout the first five books (what I've read) of this series... simply because it is just so far out there that it insulates you from the sheer horror of what is going on. This series is focused on the antics and life of an aberrant, sociopathic, homicidal and ever-hungry mimic (yes, the treasure-chest monster) named Boxxy T Morningwood
Clephas

Clephas

0
Litrpg

Litrpg series: Apocalypse Gates and Alpha Alpha World

Recently, I've been devouring anything written by Daniel Shinhofen, the writer of the Binding Words series I recommended in a previous post.  Shinhofen is a harem specialist that can vary from having non-existent ero to full-on BDSM in his stories, but a common element to all of them is that all his protagonists end up with a harem and that harem is happy (for the most part).   Lest I make that sound like he scrimps on story, the very reverse is the case.  Every one of his series is extreme
Clephas

Clephas in Litrpg

0
JRPG

JRPG: Saga Frontier Remastered

Saga Frontier is one of the most oddball rpgs to have been released on the ps1, and the ps1 was long considered the 'era of classics' for all jrpg-dom, with remakes of the earlier major names and innumerable newer classics being released for the system.  The Saga series in general is something of an acquired taste, due to the sheer opaqueness of the leveling mechanics and odd, often nonsensical experimentation with random game elements.   In terms of game mechanics, Saga Frontier is easily
Clephas

Clephas in JRPG

0
VNs

Random VN: Raillore no Ryakudatsusha

Raillore is 3rdeye's  most recent chuunige, made back in 2019.  At the time, I tried to play it and dropped it after the prologue, for a number of reasons.  The primary reason was the lack of narration in combat scenes... For some reason, 3rdEye has almost no narration in this game, comparative even to charage.  Instead, battle scenes are done using CGs, brief animations, and sound-effects.  Unfortunately, this means you generally have no idea of what is going on, due to the limitations of such
Clephas

Clephas in VNs

0
VNs

Random VN: Yome Sagashi ga Hakadorisugite Yabai

This is the second game in Hulotte's Yabai trilogy.   It is also, by far, the highest quality of the three.  Like the other two, it is a harem-ge/charage with slight rom-com elements.  Where it differs from more modern charage/moege is that it is more of an issue of 'who' he picks rather than falling in love in the normal way.  The why of this makes sense (and not in totally forced way) within the setting and story, so that isn't necessarily an issue. The protagonist, Ashihara Daiki, is the
Clephas

Clephas in VNs

0
VNs

Ryuusei World Actor Badge and Dagger and Dies Irae Interview with Kaziklu Bey

Ryuusei World Actor Badge and Dagger I'm going to be blunt, I'm not fond of what was done with the previous game, and I felt like this one was a repeat of the same mistakes. That's not to say there aren't a lot of good points to this game and its predecessor. Kinugasa Shougo is an excellent writer (as VN writers go) with a great skill in characterization and scenario design. However, just like the first game, this one cuts off without completing the story.I'm not nearly as angry this time,
Clephas

Clephas in VNs

0
VNs

Random VN: Death End Re;Quest 2

Let's first get this out there... I did not play the original game.  The reasons?  Well, mostly because it was supposedly horribly buggy and I have no patience for bugs and glitches.  The other part was that it didn't sound that interesting to me.  It sounded like an occult take on SAO.  However, I decided when this came out that I would buy it and later play it.  Why?  Because Touyama Mai is a much more interesting protagonist than Shina or Arata. The game begins with Mai being driven to m
Clephas

Clephas in VNs

0
VNs

Recommendations: VNs with Psychotic characters

I love 'psychologically challenged' characters, whether they are heroines, protagonists, or antagonists.  That said, I don't mean those cookie-cutter 'villains' and 'serial killer' types when I say this.  I mean characters who are twisted up inside and as a result have a completely different outlook on life or appear inconsistent on the surface as a result.  Villain and serial killer types, who just cause harm because they want to, just aren't that interesting.  Here is a shortlist of good VNs t
Clephas

Clephas in VNs

0
VNs

Princess x Princess and Kurogane Kaikitan

Princess x Princess is the sequel/extension of Rishia's route from Shuffle 2.  Essentially, it begins with Rishia enthusiastically searching out extra wives for Raito while he has difficulty adjusting to his girlfriend's values.  However, this quickly expands into a game that, to some extent, can actually be called a sequel rather than a fandisc.  This is similar to how the original Shuffle's 'extras' functioned more like true additions to the original game than fandiscs. I'm going to be bl
Clephas

Clephas in VNs

0
Japanese literature

LN: Yondome, Sacchi sarenai Rule Breaker, and Kuro no Maou

Yondome wa Iyana Shizokusei Majutsushi Yondome is a series that would probably be traumatic to watch but is ideal for reading.  I say this because the things done to the protagonist and he does to others are pretty horrifying from an objective perspective.  He spends most of his first reincarnation being tortured as an experimental subject, his magical energy drawn out to make convenient tools, and his second reincarnation has him cursed and living his life surrounded by undead of his own m
Clephas

Clephas in Japanese literature

0
Japanese literature

LN: Chiyu Mahou no Machigatta Tsukaikata, Magan to Dangan o Tsukatte Isekai o Buchinuku, Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute

These three I'm only going to introduce to yall because they were the most memorable of the Web Novels/LNs that I read through in the last month. Chiyu Mahou Chiyu Mahou has the protagonist, Usato Ken, being summoned by accident along with two heroes.  Usato, being a kind-hearted young man to the core, isn't particularly annoyed or angered by this (Kazuki, one of the two heroes is more bothered by it than he is), but he has the misfortune to have a talent for healing magic, meaning he
Clephas

Clephas in Japanese literature

0
Japanese literature

LN: Yaritsukai to Kuroneko

To be clear, I haven't finished this particular WN series (at over 900 chapters, all of them of reasonable length, that would take a long time).  I have gotten around halfway through the story, enough to get a solid impression of how this is going to go.  Like most of the LNs/WNs I have been reading lately, it is an isekai story.  This particular story has a different approach compared to the ones I've posted about so far.  First, this story doesn't have a specific antagonist or group of antagon
Clephas

Clephas in Japanese literature

0
Japanese literature

LN: The Great Cleric (Seija Musou)

Seija Musou, better known as the Great Cleric for its English release (which I haven't read), is an interesting story about an isekai reincarnator who becomes a cleric purely because he wants to die of old age this time around.   In a way, Luciel, the protagonist, is fairly similar to Satou, the protagonist of Death March, in that his goal isn't to save the world but he ends up doing it anyway.  The biggest difference is that Luciel isn't all-powerful (well, at least not until VERY late in
Clephas

Clephas in Japanese literature

0
Japanese literature

WN: 29sai Dokushin wa Isekai de Jiyuu ni Ikita...katta

This series is a funny little one by the same author as Surviving in another world with Goshujinsama (not to my taste, as the protag is M and a bit of a hetare, but it is really popular in Japan).  The protagonist of this story is randomly transported to another world by a mischievous evil god (Pretty sure her/his real name starts with Nyarl, like most evil gods of this type in otaku stories) and left to his own devices.  Taking advantage of his high growth rate and ability to pick skills to gro
Clephas

Clephas in Japanese literature

0
Japanese literature

WN: Ikidaore no Shoujo o Hirotta to Omottara Mirai no Maou Datta

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7471fo/34/ This is a very short WN I read on a whim over the course of a few hours.  It is complete for what it is, and what it is isn't what you'd think.  The protagonist is a reincarnator who was reborn in a game world, where he became a rootless traveling mage, sightseeing in the fantasy world he knew from the game.  One day, he comes across a collapsed Dragonkin girl, who turns out to be the demon lord from the game. This story is one of romance and redem
Japanese literature

WN: Hazurewaku no "Joutai Ijou Skill" de Saikyou ni Natta Ore ga Subete wo Juurin suru made

This WN, also published in the West as Failure Frame, is a variant on the 'isekai summoning' genre where the summoner is malicious toward the summoned.  This particular sub-genre has become more common of late (since the straight-up good people summon heroes out of desperation setup has gotten stale), but this one stands out to me for the sheer evil and brutality of the antagonist (the goddess) and the protagonist (who is probably the epitome of an anti-hero in its most brutal form).   One
Japanese literature

WN: Omake Tenseisha

Omake Tenseisha is the story of a girl who lived through hell on earth and had a new hell waiting for her when she was tossed aside by the gods and reincarnated again.  For those who have read a Snake's Life or Kumo, this will be a story that is somewhat familiar.  The protagonist is fairly similar to Kumoko (naturally ruthless, tends to think cheerfully most of the time, ends up eating everything that is her enemy, lol).   The story itself is one long 'driven out of a town', 'ate everythin
Japanese literature

WN: Cheat Majutsu de Unmei o Nejifuseru

To be honest, this is probably the best of the last six WNs I've read in the last month.  It is also complete.  This one is a 'same world, different protagonist' story from the same world as Elf Tensei kara no Cheat Kenkokuki, and the protagonist of that one is the father one of the two heroines.  However, even if you haven't read the first story, this one stands on its own quite well. The protagonist, Souji, was a player of a game on Earth that was insanely realistic, with time compression
Japanese literature

WN: Seichou Cheat de Nandemo Dekiru you ni Narimashita ga, Mushoku dake wa Yamerarenai you desu

This particular series follows a guy who dies after being trampled by an escaped horse as he is revived in another world and told to live freely.  He is given two major growth cheats right up front (20 times experience gain, plus 1/20 experience to next level) and becomes immensely powerful in a relatively short time, while gathering a group of friends and lovers around him (he only has two lovers, which is pretty low compared to most isekai protagonists).   Throughout most of the story, he
Japanese literature

WN: Anata no Tenshoku wa 'Daiyoukai' Desu

This particular WN is the first I've read that isn't another world fantasy or isekai.   The first thing I found myself comparing this to was Devils Devel Concept.  Why?  There are a lot of reasons, but a lot of it is that the protagonist is a monster in human skin and most of the characters remind me of the characters from that VN.   The setting is based six hundred years after the near-destruction of civilization earth due to a massive war (basically WWIII), and humans have the option
Japanese literature

WN: Mezametara Saikyou Soubi to Uchuusen mochi datta nanode

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3581fh/ This series is the odd one out of my recent reviews.  That is because it is a sci-fi story that contains a bit of Cowboy Bebop, a bit of Outlaw Star, and even a small dose of Tenchi Muyo(albeit a weak version with less mystic elements).  The protagonist, Hiro, wakes up in the cockpit of his ship Krishna from the game he had been playing for the past few years.  He has no memory of how it came to that, and his ship is floating around a random asteroid in a
×
×
  • Create New...