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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

Chuunige protagonists: Heroes, anti-heroes, and monsters

Now, in the past I've often tried to clearly define my favorite VN genre, the chuunige.  While there are many elements that go into making a chuunige, the primary requirements are conflict (violent or otherwise), philosophy (hedge philosophy usually), deliberately exaggerated character personalities and backgrounds, and extremely detailed settings. Now, for reasons known only to me, I felt like talking about the chuunige protagonist.  Understand, chuunige protagonists are inevitably... uniq
Clephas

Clephas

4

VN of the Month plans: May Releases

I got asked what I was doing for this blog this month just today, by several people (probably because this is the longest time I've gone without posting since I started this blog). So... I suppose I'll go ahead and tell you. First, the two titles I'm reading on request (though I was planning on doing one anyway).  Sakura no Mori Dreamers (reading now) Ruri no Ie (yes, it is not exactly something I would normally bother with, but he was insistent... sort of like with Maggot Baits)
Clephas

Clephas

9

Haruru Minamo ni

I first encountered Clochette with Suzunone Seven, a game recommended to me by a friend who lives in Japan.  Suzunone Seven is one of the more memorable charage I've played, both for the depth of its story and the depth of its setting and characters.  Now, Clochette is frequently jokingly referred to as 'oppai central' or 'The Oppai Corporation'... or any number of other similar names, with good reason.  Their style has it so that all the heroines are either close to flat or... the opposite.  It
Clephas

Clephas

1

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
Clephas

Clephas

10

The rules of a Good Trap Protagonist game

I will say it, yes, games with trap protagonists are one of my secret pleasures.  While there are numerous types of this particular niche in VNs, and there are a disproportionate number of this type of game compared to ten years ago, there are some rules shared by all the greats that I thought I'd put out there. 1.  A good trap protagonist is a voiced protagonist.  Most trap protagonists are voiced.  There are a number of reasons for this, but, regardless of the reason, almost all the 'good
Clephas

Clephas

9

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
Clephas

Clephas

0

Abandoner - Severed Dreams

I'll be blunt... despite appearances, this isn't a chuunige. It is a sort of cross between fantasy, science fantasy, and mystery. I'll just say that I wasn't impressed by it... if only because there were numerous technical failures throughout the game (think the kind of BGM random cut-offs you sometimes encounter in older games), and most of the story is shared by all the paths... the only difference is in the epilogue, h-scenes, and who dies and lives at the end. The protagonist is a form
Clephas

Clephas

3

My VN slump

Due to work in recent weeks, I wasn't able to play any VNs for about a week straight... and when I tried to pick up Ouka Sabaki to finish Feb's releases, I found I had no urge whatsoever to play a VN... any VN.  Understand, I've been playing VNs constantly since 2009.  I literally have not gone more than a day without playing at least a little bit of a VN (even if it was only a half hour or so) since then.  So, to my shock, I've found I don't have the energy to pick one up for the first tim
Clephas

Clephas

12

Nukige: Grimo Love and some comments on the beginning of Jeanne

Grimo Love is a nukige.  Now, you'll notice that I generally don't bother to rate or comment on nukige... because most of the time I drop them inside of ten minutes.  However, Grimo Love has this sort of dread fascination to it that kept me playing right until the end (incidentally, it wasn't the story or the characters that kept me going).  I'm going to be blunt.  This VN doesn't really have a story.  Oh, there is one in there that probably would have made for a ridiculously good charage w
Clephas

Clephas

8

Yome Sagashi ga Hakadori Sugite Yabai!

Mmm... first, I should probably mention my first encounter with the company that made this VN, Hulotte, Imouto no Okage de Motesugite Yabai!  Moteyaba was a pretty straightforward take on the 'popular protagonist that forms a harem he eventually chooses a girlfriend from' trope, and as a result, while it was decent, I didn't find anything to be particularly interesting about it.  In a way the same can be said about Yomeyaba, in that it uses the same (common to about ninety percent of charage) tr
Clephas

Clephas

0

Upcoming: 2nd year anniversary of VN of the Month (new post)

On the twenty-fourth of September, 2015, it will officially have been two years since I started doing VN of the Month. In that time, I've read just under 200 VNs, just under one hundred of them for VN of the Month. Even if you take my abnormally fast reading speed into account, that is several thousand hours of VN playtime... so naturally, I am a lot more jaded than I was when I started this. I've become more forgiving in some areas and less in others. I've struggled to keep bias out of my mini-
Clephas

Clephas

4

Maho x Roba -Witches Spiritual Home-

Maho Roba is the latest release from Akabei Soft 3, the subsidiary made by conglomerating staff and resources from a number of Akabei Soft 2's other subsidiaries.  Now, this game is in a different vein from the games previously released... in the sense that this company has done pretty much everything but a fantasy charage since it was formed.  ... I'll be straight with you.  My first thought upon finishing this game was that it is exactly like another half-dozen 'average quality' fantasy c
Clephas

Clephas

4

Tou no Shita no Exercitus part 1: So far

First, I should describe Astronauts, the mother company that created this VN. Astronauts produces a wide variety of VNs done in its own unique art style. Most are halfway to a nukige without quite going there, and about a third of them are gameplay VNs like this one. Since their VNs vary so wildly between subsidiaries and even just between games, the art-style is pretty much the only common thread.   Exercitus is reusing the base card-battle system from Astronauts' previous card-based battle
Clephas

Clephas

0

Himesama Love Life: Why is this month so awful so far?

Despite the title, this isn't a horrible VN. It is basically a rehash of Himesama Gentei which was a near-nukige all-moege about a protagonist 'romancing' (I have to wonder if you would really call a bunch of princesses falling in love with one idiot and him deciding on one or a harem route 'romancing') princesses. I can actually enjoy some of the heroines' routes... but the premise is so ridiculous and so unrealistically presented that it goes beyond suspension of disbelief, even for a moege.
Clephas

Clephas

3

Dropping a title: Quintuple ☆ Splash

For those interested in this game, you have my apologies... but I honestly just couldn't bring myself to play anymore of this after completing the short common route and Sohori's route.  I have a number of reasons, but the main ones are: 1.  This is a lolige.  I am not and have never been a lolicon and my tolerance for non-immortal human lolis is pretty low.  All but one of the heroines in this game are either complete lolis or borderline, and to me, that is just visually tiring after a whi
Clephas

Clephas

0

Heroine wa Tomodachi Desu ka? Koibito Desu ka? Soretomo Tomefure Desu ka?

First, for those who are familiar with me... Yes, I did play this.  Why?  Something about the way it was presented in the Getchu page said that there was more hidden beneath the surface than a standard oppai-nukige.  Thankfully, my instinct was correct, in this case. Now, for those who are curious, this game is a straight-out harem, from beginning to end.  This game's primary attractions are the comedic reactions of the heroines and the way they and the protagonist slowly 'fall'.  It is lik
Clephas

Clephas

0

Ore no Sugata ga, Toumei ni!? Invisible to Suuki na Unmei

Orefuka is the newest game by Hulotte, a company infamous for making extremely ecchi charage with actual plot.  In this game, the protagonist, Haruki, is given pills that make him invisible by a net idol named Kusunoha Chitose, and he begins using it to stand in the same room while the heroines get naked, masturbate, etc without even a hint of hesitation. Haruki is a young man who sees everything around him as an opportunity for fun, and he sees not having fun as a waste of time.  If he fin
Clephas

Clephas

0

Sora no Baroque

For various reasons, this is one of the rare occasions when I didn't aggressively look forward to a Light game. The first reason is that the setting/story descriptions in the Getchu and homepages were vague and of no real use.  The second was that a crossover was announced between this and Nemurenu (the recent Clock-up title with Kurashiki as the writer) recently.  The artist for this game (at least the character design, anyway) is Ueda Metawo, the artist from Gore Screaming Show, Mind
Clephas

Clephas

0

Busy as hell: Working on Seiken Tsukai in my free time (not copious at the moment)

... for the first time in years, I just went through an entire week without finishing a VN... Why? The reason is fairly simple... real life.  I'm having to clean up all the work left over from the time I spent essentially mentally handicapped that I didn't subcontract to someone else.  That is on top of the work I would have received anyway... In any case, I'm slowly making progress on Seiken Tsukai, and I can tell you that it is a VN that will definitely pick its readers.  The st
Clephas

Clephas

1

Random VN: Uso Series (including Full Uso and extra stories)

The Uso series is the original series of kinetic novels made by Campus based in a school campus where magic and mundane exist in parallel.  The protagonist of the Uso series, Sakurai Souichirou, is the head of the Cat's Hand Club, which is a jack-of-all-trades club that will take on just about any request, as long as the individual is willing to pay the price.  However, that is merely the open face of the club, which has the purpose of gathering magical energy from the emotions of those whose re
Clephas

Clephas

2

Silverio Trinity Part one: Common route and Aya Route

**** WARNING WARNING it is impossible to talk about Silverio Trinity without talking about the events of Silverio Vendetta, so this post is going to be full of spoilers.  Until and unless you have played Silverio Vendetta, do not under any circumstances read this post!!!!****               Silverio Trinity is based three years after the events in Vendetta's path in Silverio Vendetta, in the city of Prague.  The technology to make Esperanto warriors h
Clephas

Clephas

0

Tiny Dungeon Brave or Slave

Beware of Wandering Maids   This is the fourth and final VN of the TIny Dungeon main series (see: http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-727-tiny-dungeon-black-and-white/ http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-747-tiny-dungeon-bless-of-dragon/ http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-749-tiny-dungeon-birth-for-yours/ for the rest of the series so far). It also serves as a conclusion to the story that began with the first one (though Endless Dungeon is basically the actual ending of t
Clephas

Clephas

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VNs

VNs I still Remember, no matter how much Time Has passed

This might seem like an odd choice for a blog post, but it should be noted that, after more then twelve years and seven hundred VNs, remembering each and every one is impossible.  In fact, I hardly recall roughly 70% of all the VNs I've played, and less than 10% are memorable enough that I consider replaying them once in a great while.  I'm somewhat infamous for my lists, but I figured one more wouldn't hurt.  Remember, these are the VNs I still remember to the point where I can state almost eve
Clephas

Clephas in VNs

2

Ryakudatsusha no Inen

This VN is Akabeisoft3's latest VN, adding yet another genre to that company's list.  To be straight, this is a guro-rape dark fantasy similar to Maggot Baits in atmosphere (albeit not as extreme).  The protagonist, Roy, starts out as a shota living happily with his family.  However, one day bandits, led by a psychopath named Ix, attack the village, raping and murdering the women, including his mother and older sister.  He himself is raped by the leader's wife as well as her shota slaves. 
Clephas

Clephas

3

Kikouyoku Senki Gin no Toki no Corona part 2: Mini-review

First, I should state that I couldn't stand Yumina from Yumina the Ethereal, so I dropped the game about halfway through. I hate it when a ditz is the main heroine, and Yumina is one of the most air-headed heroines I've ever run across... and I've played a lot of moege. As such, I went in without a lot of the knowledge you are supposed to gain in Yumina's late-game, so my experience will be slightly different from those who played Yumina. First, Touka, the protagonist, is a former chuunibyou
Clephas

Clephas

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