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  1. OriginalRen

    Dakimakura

    This video has been hidden due to drugs.
    4 points
  2. LinovaA

    Dakimakura

    Guys.. totally picked out my cover for my dakimakura.
    3 points
  3. What is an OELVN? OELVN is an acronym that stands for Original English Language Visual Novel. If you're on Fuwanovel, you know what a visual novel is already. An OELVN is just that, but it's native language is English. An OELVN can be a commercial product, but a lot of them are actually free-to-play. Why are you making this list? Recently, I had to read an OELVN for the Fuwanovel review team. As someone with very little experience with that area of visual novels, I took to looking around the forums to get inspiration on what to read. Not surprisingly, there wasn't a real resource to be found on Fuwanovel that provided an excellent jumping point into that area of the medium. This was later brought up during brainstorming with the visual novels discussion moderating team and that provided me the impetus I needed to start this list. What is this List? As the title implies, this list aims to provide information on OELVNs that might be worth reading to you as a fan of the medium at large. I hope it'll be a good jumping point for those in the Fuwanovel community who want to read OELVNs, but don't know where to begin. As well, I hope it might also spark some curiosity for those who might have little-to-no interest in OELVNs. This will be by no means a comprehensive list. It is one put together through the generous input of a handful of Fuwanovelers and through other resources and reviews that I could find on the internet. What do you mean by 'notable'? This is not an exact qualification. I'm taking titles that have interesting sounding narratives, favorable critical reception, or professional quality production value and putting them together in a list that will hopefully be of interest to those interested in starting to read OELVNs. Some titles on this list will be commercial works, others will be free. Why are you writing this list? It's true that I myself have very limited experience with OELVNs, and I'm not the most comfortable putting together a list like this that doesn't rely heavily on personal recommendations, but it's a good chance for me to maybe discover new things to read as well as share what I find with the community. Now, without further ado... The Fuwanovel List of Notable OELVNS Air Pressure by Bento Smile Notable Tags: Only a Single Heroine, Multiple Endings, Lots of Choices This one is really short, but it has impact. Saying anything more might ruin the experience for you, it might be better to make the connections yourself. Where to play: Kongregate (online), Official Site (download) Analogue: A Hate Story by Christine Love Notable Tags: Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction If you keep up with visual novels, you're likely at least marginally aware of Christine Love and her works. Analogue: A Hate Story is an interesting work, putting you (the player) in the seat as a character in the novel, unraveling the grim details of what befell the crew of the Mugunghwa. If you are finding yourself put off by the art, you shouldn't let that stop you. It is an excellent story, with an interesting narrative device, that will likely leave some lingering feelings after all is said and done. You can find a demo here. The game has a direct sequel, Hate Plus: ~Mute's Golden Days~. Where to buy: Steam, Desura Autumn's Journey by Apple Cider Notable Tags: Otome Game, Fantasy This is a short one, clocking in at around an hour. The story and setting isn't my cup of tea, but it does have excellent production values. The art has a very professional luster and the music is excellent. There's really no downside to trying it out, it's free and the time commitment is minimal. Where to download: Official Site Bacchikoi! by BlackMonkey Pro Notable Tags: Shounen AI, Yaoi, Baseball Club, Lots of Event CGs For those of you that enjoy boy love. This looks to have a really clean presentation. A bit pricey, particularly the uncensored version. Where to buy: Official Site Bermuda by InvertMouse Notable Tags: Linear Plot, Protagonist with Voice Acting This is a visual novel crafted by our very own InvertMouse. It's fully voice acted, looks good, and has some pretty cool design choices for a visual novel. A demo can be found on his official site below. Where to buy: Official Site Cave! Cave! Deus Videt by We Are Muesli Notable Tags: Lots of Choices, Minimalist Sprites This looks pretty esoteric and weird, inspired by the works of Jheronimus Bosch. Might be worth a read if you're into that sort of thing. Where to download: Official Site Cinders by MoaCube & sakevisual Notable Tags: Female Protagonist, Fairy Tale, Multiple Endings Cinders is a retelling of the story of Cinderella, one that places an emphasis on the choice of the reader. The art assets look very nice and have a storybook charm, but there's some mixed reception. From what I can tell, it's on the short side. You can try a demo here. Where to buy: Steam, Official Site Clannad -The Past Path- by Scope Games Notable Tags: Fan Fiction, 80's, Early Branching Plot, High Amount of Bad Endings I haven't played this one, but I thought it would be worthwhile to mention it. It's an unofficial prequel to Clannad made in the Ren'py engine. It's free and the developer's site says it takes between 5-10 hours to 100%. Be warned, it does contain spoilers for Clannad. Where to download: Ren'Ai Archive Death Rule: lost code by MESI Games Notable Tags: Multiple Stories, Battle Royale, Third Person Narrative Haven't played this one, but it's a death game story. The premise will probably either remain interesting or be very tiring for you by now. Might be worth checking out, it's free. Where to download: Official Site Digital: A Love Story by Christine Love Notable Tags: Linear Plot, 80's, Internet This is the spiritual predecessor to Analogue: A Hate Story, made for the NaNoRenO. It employs a similarly unconventional storytelling approach as Analogue: A Hate Story, with the narrative entirely unfolding through BBS conversations in the late 80's. It's a cool concept, the story is engaging, and it's free. If you plan on reading A Hate Story, consider reading this one first as some aspects of Hate Story will spoil the ending to Love Story. Where to download: Official Site Doki Doki no Obama by Chris Sommer Notable Tags: Parody, Politics This might seem like a joke suggestion, but I promise this game is actually fairly amusing. It's obviously not the most high-brow political satire, but it has more to it than you might actually expect. Try it out, it's free and pretty funny. Where to download: 2014 Indie Game Maker Contest don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story by Christina Love Notable Tags: LGBTQ, Teacher Protagonist, Adolescent Romance don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story is the spiritual sequel of sorts to Digital: A Love Story. One isn't necessary to understand the other however, so you can think of it as a stand alone work. Where to download: Official Site Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos by Dischan Media Notable Tags: Science Fiction, Female Protagonist This is the first episode of the Dysfunctional Systems story, with the second one slated for some time this year. I adore the art style of this game and you can't really go wrong with the price point of $4.99. Where to buy: Steam, Official Site Jisei, Kansei, Yousei by sakevisual Notable Tags: Murder Mystery, Superpowers This is a trilogy about a teenager with the power to relive the final, dying moments of corpses. The games look nice enough, has a pretty decent premise, and from what I can tell, get progressively better as the series progresses. You can find a demo on the official site below. Also available for iOS. Where to buy: Official Site Juniper's Knot by Dischan Media Notable Tags: Kinetic Novel, Multiple Protagonists, Demon Protagonist, Shota Protagonist Another NaNoRenO game, this one is a story told from two different perspectives. The art is very slick and you can't go wrong with the price tag of free. Where to download: Official Site Katawa Shoujo by Four Leaf Studios Notable Tags: Slice of Life, High School, Disabled Heroine This one doesn't need any introduction. It's probably the most high-profile OELVN. Chances are you've already played this one, and if you haven't, you probably need to look no further on this list to find what to read. Where to download: Official Site Leviathan: The Last Day of the Decade by Marcel Weyers & Lostwood LLC Notable Tags: Episodic Story, Cyberpunk, Dark Fantasy, Dystopia, Bloody Scenes An interesting premise and setting. It's an episodic game, with the 1st episode being free. They seem to be currently trying to fund the final episode. Where to download/buy: Official Site Long Live the Queen by Hanako Games Notable Tags: Raising Simulation, Medieval Fantasy, Female Protagonist It's hard to put into words just exactly why I enjoyed this game as much as I did. The art quality varies, topping out at alright and the music is pretty generic and forgettable. The "gamey" aspects of it lose value after a single play through. Reading it was fun though. Collecting all the ways the princess can die in an achievement collecting like fashion has a certain morbid charm to it and the setting is surprisingly grim. You can find a trial version on the official site below. Where to buy: Steam, Official Site Loren the Amazon Princes by Winter Wolves Notable Tags: Medieval Fantasy, Fantasy,RPG This is something of a visual novel/RPG hybrid, though. The RPG elements are a bit bland and the combat interface leaves a lot to the imagination, but it looks good, has an alright story, and it does have elements of character creation if you're into that sort of thing. The big downside is that the bundle that includes the dlc is a bit on the pricey side. Where to buy: Steam, Official Website Nicole by Winter Wolves Notable Tags: Otome Game, Mystery, Raising Simulation, Dating Simulation This one isn't really my kind of game, but it's worth mentioning. It looks kind of like your standard otome dating sim, but with the plus of having some great looking art assets. I've read that the writing is kind of cheesy, which could be a plus or negative depending on your tastes. On top of it all, there's supposed to be a yuri version of the game released at some point. You can find a demo on the official site below. Where to buy: Steam, Official Site RE: Alistair by sakevisual & Mugenjohncel Notable Tags: Otome Game, Dating Simulation Once again not exactly my kind of game, but the description makes it seem charming enough. The art looks decent enough, it's free, and its on the short side. Might be worth checking out. Where to download: Official Site Sunrider by Love in Space Notable Tags: Science Fiction, Mecha Combat, Starship Combat, War I'm currently playing through this one myself at the moment. The game looks nice in some select areas, but it is lacking in others and you may find certain 3D elements to be incongruent with the rest of the game. The story doesn't really seem that exceptional yet, but the game play is pretty decent and it's easily available on steam for the low time price of free. Where to buy/download: Steam That Cheap and Sacred Thing by carosene Notable Tags: Female Protagonist, Kinetic Novel, Science Fiction This one comes in at around an hour and I found it surprisingly touching. It has some pretty interesting (if common) themes, but they might seem a bit underdeveloped due to the length of the game. Nevertheless, it's a cool setting with a story that's worth the read. Check it out, it's free. Where to download: Lemma Soft The Dandelion Girl by /jp/ project Tags: Literary Adaptation, Time Travel, Kinetic Novel, Science Fiction, Adult Protagonist This is a literary adaptation of a short story by Robert F. Young. It seems to have a decent reception. If you're into that sort of thing, check it out: it's free! Where to download: VN-Meido The Elevator by Cyanide Tea Notable Tags: Adult Protagonist, Detective Protagonist, Slice of Life This is a free game that seems to be about a relatively simple, human story. I'm looking forward to setting aside the time to play it. Where to download: Official Site The Knife of the Traitor by Clua Notable Tags: Female Protagonist, Mystery, God Hero I included this on this list because of how interesting this title looks. The game's art and sense of style is eye-catching, the synopsis is very curious, and it's free and short. On the whole it looks like a charming title that's worth to try out. Where to download: Lemma Soft The Royal Trap by Hanako Games Notable Tags: Proactive Protagonist, Otome Game, Intrigue This one looks interesting. The art is decent, I actually hear the story is pretty good, and a premise of playing as a well-bred lady whose job it is to mold a prince into marriageable material is an intriguing premise. Throw in some court intrigue and I think this one is worth a look. Where to buy: Official Site The 39 Steps by The Story Mechanic Notable Tags: Literary Adaptation, Interactive Adventure Game, Protagonist with Voice Acting, Crime This is a curious title that never shows any of the characters on screen, but in its stead it's fully voice acted. An interesting concept. It is based on a book, which has a number of movie adaptations. From what I've heard, it's very faithful to its source material. Where to buy/download: Amazon, Steam Witches & Woodlands by Jan-Poo Notable Tags: Parody, Fan Ficion, Metafiction, Kinetic Novel I thought this might be of interest as this is a free Umineko fan parody. From what I've heard, it's actually pretty funny. Where to download: Official Site X-Note by Zevia Inc Notable Tags: Otome Game, Multiple Route Mystery, Murder Mystery It's an interesting synopsis, looks pretty good, and the few reviews I've found for it seem to be in agreement that the story is at least solid, if not good. There is a demo available on the site below. Where to buy: Official Site Some titles you might want to keep an eye out for in the future: Exogenesis - this one has really caught my curiosity. Lucid9 Huniepop - I'm far more excited for this one than I probably should be. Queen At Arms Violet Hill Waxwing Notable sites, tools, and resources: Planet EVN - a regularly updated blog about OELVNs Lemma Soft - discussion and development boards for visuals novels, datings sims, and story based games. Ren'Ai Archive - archive games made with the Ren'Py engine, a free software engine to build visual novels. Be weary, there's a lot of stuff in there that ranges from not-so-good to shit. Steam: Visual Novels Visual Novel Database Change Log: This list will continue to be a work in progress. I'm looking to further expand on it as I discover new titles and new games are released. If you have any suggestions on something to add or would like to point out something I glaringly missed, feel free to do so. Once again, this isn't a definitive, comprehensive list. It's not a list of 10 out of 10 games. They're "notable." You might find them interesting as fans of visual novels, you might even love them, but your mileage will vary. Credits: My thanks to Rooke, Ryechu, InvertMouse, and Down for their input in putting together this list.
    2 points
  4. This. This is exactly what I have worked for the past year on Fuwanovel to accomplish. I am now retiring from the site.
    2 points
  5. And with that, Nozomi pulls out into the lead. As expected. Where my Nozomi home boys at?
    2 points
  6. I'm starting to suspect that Nico has a tendency to be on top of preference lists or at the very bottom. ...We should all be grateful for Nico, though. Having a second rate idol around helps making the real ones shine
    2 points
  7. Stray Cat

    Birthday thread

    Happy Birthday Bats!
    2 points
  8. A forewarning if you didn't read the title, this review contains some spoilers (the anime is included in said spoilers) due to the way the game is built, I'll try not to give you any major spoilers (though with this lack of content there's hardly anything to spoil anyway). I'll try to avoid any spoilers as much as I can but If you absolutely hate any kind of spoilers, feel free not to read past this point. Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai Portable ga Tsuzuku Wake ga Nai (Disc 1) (because short titles are for plebeians) I still remember when I watched OreImo a year ago. I was having a fun time with the somewhat peculiar show. Lots of funny gags ands situations and plenty of development to be enjoyed by all fans, we could finally have one of those romcoms that actually has a conclusive ending, a Light Novel adaptation that doesn't completely suck! That is until the very last 4 episodes aired. Ah.. how I wish I hadn't watched the ending of this show, but I was naive, and thus i had my hopes and dreams completely crushed, just like many others. Have you ever wondered what it's like having an entire fandom rooting for different girls in a show and then watching an ending that literally ignores all logic and its fans and just decides to do whatever it wants for no reason? That's the bitter end most fans of OreImo faced in 2013. But not everything is 100% lost, somewhere out there it was decided that this ending just can't be tolerated (just kidding they only wanted a cashgrab) and they decided to release a game based off of the anime to make their fans happy, OreImo Portable (I'm not writing the long version of the title), which later had a remake by the name of OreImo Portable Tsuzuku, which added new stories and was supervised by the original writer, Fushimi Tsukasa. Which just recently, after many months of waiting, just had its first disc completely translated by Rinjinbu Translations. After hours of grinding in order to completely fix our walkthrough, I finally completed all of the game's endings and got every single CG, so I can finally form a solid opinion on the game. Is the game worth it? Will it fullfill the gaping hole left by the anime's horrid and rushed conclusion? My goal with this review is to kind of give you a prespective on what to expect when going into the game and wether or not you think it'll be for you. First things first, I want to point out that I only read the first disc and with this I can already say the story is not 100% complete so please don't attack me for it. One thing you'll notice as soon as the story begins is that you're thrown right into the action with very little context or characterization. The game does all of its introductions and contextualization in the form of a flashback, referencing the entire season 1 of the anime in the first 5 minutes of gameplay, particularly when Kyousuke says his sister was away for months for some unknown reason but has now returned (because that's totally normal) which you can infer that the game takes place immediately after the first season's events, after Kuroneko joined Kyousuke's highschool and Kirino came back from America. From this point forward it's all original content. This brings up one issue right from the get go. Unless a person has seen the anime, it is almost impossible to take any enjoyment out of the game. There's no meetings, no proper introductions, it just feels like a direct chain of events following the anime, so unless you watch that firs, this game is most certainly not for you yet. Throughout its routes the came rehashes and reuses a lot of anime references, it almost feels like it's afraid to go in its original direction and is instead clinging onto the original plotline with its life, leading to many jokes just not being as funny and the overall plot of the main routes not really having that much original content to be enjoyed which to be was kind of a let down. In terms of structure, the game has a very early branching plot with the first couple choices already deciding where you'll end up in later on. A major issue I had is that these initial events are usually poorly depicted and very rushed so you barely have any time to care for them at all and kind of wonder why are they even there. But where the story truly splits is after Kyousuke goes on a trip to Kyoto with Manami and Kouhei. A trip I might add only lasts 10 minutes and only has 2 meaningful scenes, one of which depends on which route you're going for and the second one is just some talking with Manami which, unless you're going for her route, is irrelevant to the plot. After this the game will take you to each of its individual routes. There are five main girls in the game, much like in the anime: Kousaka Kirino, Aragaki Ayase, Tamura Manami, Gokou Ruri (Kuroneko) and Makashima Saori. Being a fan of the anime and staying truthful to its title, I immediately decided to aim for the Kirino route, hoping I could finally have a proper ending with Kirino and Kyousuke. But to my disappointment and shock, this route was almost the worst in the entire game and it was incredibly painful to sit through all of it. Not only is the storyline completely unoriginal, pulling out one of the most cliché things ever, the ending is incredibly unsatisfactory and doesn't feel like any form of reward, and I even daresay the anime's ending was better than this. Now I'm not super dumb, I'm fully aware there is a second disc in which the endings get proper afterstories and I eagerly await to play it because I know Kirino's got a follow up in it, but as it stands in disc 1, it's most certainly not worth reading through right now. All Kirino's route is is just going back to square one and recycling the entire plot of the anime in the most boring way possible. (Don't look at me like that, you should have given me a better story!) But let's not get too negative here, I'm sure other endings redeemed the whole thing right? Well.. yes and no. I'm going to go over all the main routes individually in order to cover what's good and what's bad about them. Starting with the route I thought was the best in the entire game and the one that elevated the whole experience for me: Ayase's route Ayase's route really provided genuine entertainment. It lets go of that clingyness I mentioned earlier and really tries to give you a genuine original experience between Kyousuke and Ayase. Throughout her route you'll be facing plenty of cute, funny and scary moments with Ayase and try to help her overcome her otaku phobia, which while still based off of how she felt in the anime, still give you new content to appreciate, and by the end I truly appreciated the existence of Ayase. But what was most important was that the ending actually gives you a meaningful epilogue that you can go "aww" on. Without a doubt, Ayase's route is the one that gave this game redeeming qualities. (Look at this face, this is the face of love!) Another great and unexpected story was Saori's route. A character who, in the anime, didn't have much focus except for a particular arc, but in the visual novel really had a lot going for her as throughout her whole story you won't be seeing much of the main otaku plot, but a true route focusing on Saori's issues and her personal life. But this also brings up one problem I had with it, the whole story drags out the same conflict for a very long time, only to be resolved in the most obvious way you can think of, which got a bit annoying at times since you'll be going back and forth the whole time with it. However, for what it's worth, Saori's route really elevates her character to a whole new level and I think any fan of the series would be overjoyed to see so many different sides of this quirky swirly glasses character. (Swirly Glasses will steal your heart) Next up, a fan favorite, Kuroneko (real name Gokou Ruri although you'll only hear it twice in the entire game and not spoken by Kyousuke). Kuroneko's route is kind of a hit and miss, but overall has a positive tone by the end of it. One major improvement between this route and Kirino's route is that, while both branch off of the Siscaly Tournament, Kuroneko's route actually allows you to see the tournament in action which feels much more rewarding than just having the events told after they have happened. The story deals with Kuroneko mostly giving Kyousuke the cold shoulder 70% of the time and him trying to figure out what's wrong. After getting to the bottom of it Kyousuke and Kuroneko kind of form a duo and by the end you can guess what happens. It's not super interesting since the conflict feels very dragged out with Kyousuke running after Kuroneko the whole time, and even more so because it doesn't really feel like Kuroneko's character is being given the proper treatment by the way she's portrayed, but the ending feels satisfatory enough, especially if you're a Kuroneko fan and even more so if you dislike Kirino. (Kirino just got 360 no scoped) And finally the last of the main routes, Manami's route. Manami's route was.. mostly a miss for me. The game doesn't take any risks with it and uses pretty much every element it can from the anime, so unless you know her character previously, the whole thing will feel kind of forced to you. But not only that, the development throughout her route is super cliché and doesn't really have anything interesting going for it. I get where they were trying to go by finally giving a reward for Manami's efforts to get Kyousuke to notice her, but to me it just felt forced and unatural, something even the game aknowledges later down the line but doesn't really do much after so the end product is kind of an empty story with a couple very cliché romcom situations and then an ending which, despite being happy, really doesn't give you much of a conclusion to the story and it left me feeling like Manami wasn't given the attention she deserved. You'll still be able to see how Manami is like once she finally got what she always wanted, which is kind of funny to see at first, but by the end doesn't really provide very entertaining results. (I'll eat your lunch because you're kind but your story was still average) With the main stories out of the way, let's focus on another good point the game had, the extra stories. To my surprise, and something that left me dumbfounded, I found myself enjoying the "What if" routes the game had to offer, which fix pretty much any issue I pointed out earlier because all of them give you original content regardless of the one you go for which felt so refreshing to read through. Not only that, if you were disappointed with Kirino's ending, you have a somewhat more proper ending to her route in these bonus scenarios which kind of salvaged Kirino's trainwreck of a story. My favorite bonus story, and one I knew about and was very eager to read through was Kanako's route, a character with very little focus or relevance in the anime, which the game really elevated by having Kyousuke go on dates with her and see the more bashful side she has to offer. It was just an all around funny story to read and of course provided a very satisfactory ending. If I had to point out a problem with this route is that it's not a main route, but it instead branches off of Ayase's route. Just make her a main girl already. (I-I'm not a lolicon!) Other extra scenarios include the Rock route where Manami and her brother go down the path of Rock n Roll. The Forbidden Yuri path, which to you might sound like a sweet ending where Kirino and Ayase get together, but you might actually be surprised (I shall not spoil any of it). The Kyoto Inn route which will bring out a very scary result. And the Abominable Kirino route, for those who thought they just hadn't gotten enough of being ordered around by Kirino. (I love you.. Onii-chan...) Overall, there are more positives than there are negatives with all these stories. While there are a couple big disappointments, there are also a couple of really fun routes and the others were average to good. The major issue I had is that the game clearly gives up quality over quantity by offering shorter stories in exchange for a wide range of scenarios. In some cases it works out, but in others it just feels inconcistent and rushed and doesn't really reward the reader with any form of meaningful plot. This is more noticeable when we're talking about the setting which the game hardly ever bothers to expand on, it instead focuses almost entirely on character interaction, leaving out quite a chunk of basic plot. The common route, or the tiny amount there is of it is very lacking in context and would probably be more well recieved if one read the game shortly after finishing the anime so you can actually feel a more natural follow up. But as a reward for the anime's severely lacking ending, it pays off for some characters (Ayase, Saori, Kanako and Kuroneko) while not really giving the proper attention to others (Kirino and Kuroneko), but given the amount of scenarios the reader can experience, the bad points almost dilute themselves which is probably for the best. On the more technical side of things, the game's main mechanics are fairly similar to other PSP visual novels. You have a list of items you can use to unlock certain choices and then you have a dialogue mechanic. These are the main game mechanic to get into the different routes. The item format doesn't have much to it, you just kind of have to talk to characters and see what character gives you what item so you can unlock certain paths. This is both facilitated and made annoying by the game's built-in flowchart. Why facilitating? Because it allows you to see every single branching plot so you can make different decisions in your next playthrough. Why annoying? Because you can't access it in-game, you need to go to the title screen every time you need to check up on it which is incredibly frustrating if you don't remember certain paths. The dialogue mechanic is actually what I kind of liked and disliked about the game. The real time choices are pretty entertaining since you feel like you're properly talking to the characters. The Live 2D animations is also rather smooth for a game that came out in 2011. But then you realize most of them hardly have any impact in the story. Most of the dialogues are meant to unlock CGs and only a handful are meant to lock you onto a specific path, usually later on in the game (i.e you'll get a normal end instead of a good one by failing). In short: You can't actually fail the game because most of the choices are meaningless and even the meaningful ones usually only lead you down to a normal end. In terms of artstyle there's nothing to complain about if you enjoyed the original OreImo anime. The character illustrations are done by Kanzaki Hiro so expect the same level of quality you see in the anime, nothing more and nothing less. It's a fairly distinct artstyle which you shouldn't have a problem getting accustomed with it. And lastly the soundtrack. Oh boy the soundtrack, possibly the worst thing this game has to offer is its soundtrack. There are a total of 17 tracks in the whole game that play in the background and all of them feel incredibly repetitive and boring. It's the same loop over and over and over. Every. Single. Time. This game has almost nothing of value to offer with its soundtrack. If anything, you can probably use it for good elevator music. As a final veredict, I can't exactly recommend this game as any major visual novel. It feels more like a treat, a side dish to go along with its anime counter part. The stories are short and albeit some are fullfilling, others fall kind of flat and as a whole they're usually lacking meaningful expansion and stay in a very safe zone. I know there's disc 2 which will expand on all the stories, but so far this is the impression I've been left with which, overall, isn't a terrible one because if I didn't enjoy it I wouldn't even have completed a walkthrough for it, but at the same time it wasn't the best experience you could get and it really serves to rehash the fact that PSP visual novels adapted from anime are more often than not lacking in the story department and focus on trying to provide rewards to all of its fans. If I were to ever recommend this game, the person who I'm recommend it would have to at least seen the anime, there's no way anyone who hasn't seen it will take any meaningful joy out of this and the game is clearly targeted at those who have seen the show. If you're a Kirino fan and wanted a true ending for her like I did, I suggest you wait for the disc 2 translation (or learn Japanese!), because you'll be left almost empty handed with disc 1 alone. If you're a fan of any of the other girls, I suggest you give this a go but go into it with the mindset that it's more of a way to wrap things up where the anime didn't, not a way to construct and build upon the anime's plot to give you a whole next level experience. In short, it was decent.
    1 point
  9. Started reading some new vn's that have release dates this year, Saw Mangagamers site down yesterday and nows its up and running. Really glad i downloaded the new one called "Princess Evangile" and love the demo of it i downloaded today. Really glad its one of those at 30-50 hrs long and like long stories that bring together both opposite sex's. below ill put up info in this visual novel and the release. Princess Evangile Description: Burdened by the incredible debt his father left behind, Okonogi Masaya is now destitute and alone. However, through a strange collection of events, he finds himself living at the prestigious Vincennes Academy, an all-girls charm school! His purpose is to mingle amongst the Filles De La Vincennes ("Maidens of Vincennes") as the single male "sample" to promote gender integration. How will these young, innocent, and otherwise pure maidens react to his presence?! And just like that, his life at an all-girls school began... Vn Link Mangagamer Vn Link Ps: I did play through the first week of game since its only a demo, very impressed with the aspects of the game with a calendar / school day times and building relationships with girls that may hate the character since its all girls school. But really enjoy the story and having his burdens make him wana push on and make others happy. It may not be the best visual novel I have played but this one caught my eye since I have played the other Moonstone games. Princess Evangile release is set for March 27th 2015 so look foward for next month!
    1 point
  10. I`m pretty surprised that no one have not made this thread yet. I thought there will be many Neptunia fanboy. TBH i`m not really fan of this game, since i`m not fond of all girls game/anime. However due some circumstances, i`m playing rebirh 1 at the moment. Yes there are many time i want to RageQuit, but i decided not no because of Noire and Tekken. And because i love Noire so much i cant wait for Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart to get released. What i like about Neptunia games are the jokes and the gameplay. Most of Complie heart games are funny and have crazy antics, For example Fairy fencer F is one of my fav game sadly the game is too easy and didnt provide enough challenge. So, yeah lets discuss everything about Neptunia universe. And ofc....
    1 point
  11. Hey everybody, this is a pretty significant post. Please saddle in with me. Fuwanovel is migrating to both a new domain (Fuwanovel.net) and a new server (which we host). The old “.org” domain is going to be redirecting to the new “.net” domain automatically, so even if you forget to mark your calendars with the following dates, you’ll still end up in the right place. Be sure to update your bookmarks at some point, though : P (Tomorrow) Wednesday 2/18/2015 – Evening: the forums, the Fuwazette blog, and the FuwaReviews blog will be redirected to the new domain. Next week (as late as 3/1/2015): The front site will redirect to the new “.net” domain For those of you who are nosey and want to start poking around the “.net” domain right away, you’ll find all the services I had mentioned but the forums will be outdated and the front site may or may not be online or functional. Do not panic – we’ll update the forums at the time of the transfer tomorrow night, and no content will be lost. Precautions and Cause Some of you will remember our failed migration last year. We’ve taken significant precautions to prevent a repeat of last year: Nayleen has optimized the server and we have paid for a significantly more powerful machine to host the site. Nay and I both did our homework looking for hosts, and we’re very pleased with the one we’ve got: scaling the droplet (the hosting power) is easy, and we’re enjoying a good value for what we’re getting. We did this move for many reasons. Chief among them were legal concerns and recommendations, and my deep-felt responsibility to protect the many community leaders from new legal risks (of which I’ve only very recently become aware). More positively, it also needed to happen because we have a lot of new content and services rolling out in the near future. Consequences of TOS The hot-button issue is compliance with our host’s TOS. I’m engaged today and tomorrow inspecting it and getting legal clarifications, but I do not believe we will be able to host torrents on the front site following the move and the D&R board will be too much of a liability to keep. It wasn’t my intention to have this happen all at once, but I feel like we have little recourse in light of protecting one another. I apologize if the legal liability is shocking, but the best way forward is to admit that what’s done is done, and the only thing we have control over is how we choose to move forward. Compensation I don’t know how else to say this, so please bear with me: I realize that losing the torrents will rub some of you the wrong way. It should make all of us concerned, as they were a major draw to the site. I’ve got two thoughts on the matter: 1) the year-end surveys indicated that torrent usage among the three surveyed usergroups (core, FB, Twitter) was much lower than anticipated, which will soften the blow, and 2) new features must by necessity rise to attract users in their place. Here is a taste of what I’ve been working on over the past few months and crystallizing (hurriedly) in the last few days: The forums have been updated with blogging software. Users can input links to their own blogs, import RSS feeds of their blog, or create blogs hosted by Fuwanovel itself. This includes official/featured blogs such as the Recognition blog, or the Dev Boards Update blog (which is open to all the project managers in the dev boards to post freely on), or the Help Wanted blog (which similarly allows project managers to post freely when they’re looking to fill a position). All these blogs will have their own RSS feeds and will be incorporated into the corresponding Fuwazette categories. (Saving Tiago, Zaka and others time and hassle) ^ this blog functionality will have a lot of cool implications (such as for private clubs and the VN readers club!) The FuwaReviews site will now be reviews.fuwanovel.net, and it will be much more robust than simply a blog of the team’s reviews: I have negotiated with ~a dozen prominent VN bloggers and received the green-light to incorporate feeds of their VN reviews into the reviews site. I plan to continue to reach out to more bloggers and build this base. Things are looking pretty positive. I’ve been in productive talks with several OELVN devs (if I’ve talked to you about this, please don’t name names) and it looks like we’ll be able to form productive agreements for early-access game reviews, interviews, and PR access (we get emails/rss feeds of exclusive insider info to publish on our blogs before they announce it publicly). I can’t finalize these agreements until the full “.net” site is live, but it looks promising! I believe that I’ve arranged for an interview with [two gaming site writers/freelancers]. The interview would be about the VN landscape, Fuwanovel’s history, and how we plan to grow/expand in the future. No firm commitments, yet, but I’m in talks. There is another possible opportunity for an interview in a similar but more tech-focused major online blog as well. The front site redesign team is going to be launched for-reals in the next 72 hours. I’ve made a template for, and several examples of, mock-ups (which are flawed, but conversation starters), and I’m busy this afternoon uploading useful assets/psd resources to be available and ready for the team. Emi has agreed to be our secret-genius weapon, which means we can’t fail : P We’ve purchased a forums add-on which will allow us to use forums content in clever ways in our other websites. I’ve started putting together some ideas of ways it could integrate with the front site (including “FuwaScores” of games where fuwanovel users can score the games they’ve played and track their VN playing history), but its scope is much larger than that one implementation. With Nay’s help, I hope to come up with lots of cool ways to use this. Part of my discussion with devs is their agreement to a “releases” feed which would track OELVN releases and which could easily integrate TL releases on PC, but also on iOS and Android. I’ve been talking to several of the mobile app store VN devs, and they’ve almost universally been enthusiastic about the idea ^ This would be incorporated into the games section and a “What have I missed?” section which would list the important recent news and releases Fuwanovel Academy – the evolution of the “ultimate VN starter kit” idea – will be a section on the front site which will explain VNs, help players get started with a VN within 10 minutes of starting reading, and provide a lot of advanced information about the VN landscape, “movers and shakers” in the western VN world, and (hopefully!) some exclusive (read: slightly longer than normal) demos from our dev allies Obviously added on top of this is outreach to TL groups and OELVN teams to get them to use the Fuwanovel dev boards and/or the updates feed Expansion of the creative corner and dev boards Last of all, I’d like to mention that our host of the past two years has been very generous to us. I’ve passed along our gratitude for the extra nine months he’s given us to put our ducks in a row, and I want the community to know he’s making the transition very easy for us and being very supportive. No matter what we do, we're going to lose some of our traffic and our userbase. I’m convinced this is a necessary decision (if a painful and hard one), and that we’re going to make it through this. People can say a lot of things about Fuwanovel, but nobody can deny that we have staying power. Thank you for your time. I realize this is a lot, and it’s overwhelming. Please don’t be afraid to speak up or ask questions. Tay
    1 point
  12. Monmon

    Po pi Po~~~

    For people who likes Miku, they must already heard one of Miku's original song that was made. This song was made by Lamaze-P, in 2008. This song is about Vegetable juice as you guys deduce on your own. In the song Miku talk about how good vegetable juice for your body and its really cheap(200yen). And this song makes children love veggie juice. Because of the popularity this song went to the hall of fame, not only that there are lots and lots of remixes both funny/stupid and genuine remixes. Also this song has been featured in all vocaloid games and live concert. Finally, this song is featured in the medley "Nanairo no Nico Nico Douga" . For the next post i will talk about some characters from Hetalia. So be sure to check my blog.
    1 point
  13. I'm writing this to prevent myself for becoming a hopeless lurker and introducing myself. I'm also challenging myself to be more open so bear with me. I'm a huge fan of video games, anime and VNs. I mostly play JRPGs, but that's only because at the moment the only interesting games coming out are JRPGs. I don't really care about genre as long as I like the game. I'll drop few of my favorites as a reference: S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Dark Souls, Persona, Ys and Witcher. But since this is a VN forum, maybe I should focus on my VN experiences and talk about games some other time. The VN that really got me interested in Visual Novels was Steins;Gate. Though I had played stuff like Katawa Shoujo, Corpse Party, Virtue's Last Reward and Danganronpa before. I liked all of them, but S;G had much stronger impact on me. I played it trough in one week-end, I spent the whole Saturday in front of my computer. My friends were wondering what happened, because I turned of all communication so I could play without interruptions. After that I started looking for more Visual Novels and eventually found my way here. Now I have played stuff like F/SN, Grisaia, Dengeki Stryker, Tsukihime, Chaos;Head and few others. My VN reading habits are kind of random. I either rush trough something in almost one sitting, or read it slowly in small parts. As much as like Type-Moon stuff I can't read them for long periods. Except Hollow Ataraxia, but that's probably because it has finally good girls. Other than that I don't have any special preferences in VNs. I'll try everything that looks interesting. But if there is one thing that makes me want to read something, that is someones heartful recommendations. If I can sense that someone deeply cares for a story and has something interesting to say about it, I'm immediately interested. If someone is interested in my anime preferences, then I like tear jerking stuff. So everything by Makoto Shinkai is my favorite. So I'm hoping for good forum experiences and I will try best to show up on threads. Turnip Sensei - The wise man of the vegetable cellar
    1 point
  14. Satsuki

    Dakimakura

    I bet you haven't watched Ama Koi Syrups PV.
    1 point
  15. Down

    How do you buy VNs?

    Assuming you're not talking about localized VNs (otherwise: Mangagamer, Steam, JAST (lol), Sekai Project (do they even sell things already) are your best bets), it can be a bit of a pain to buy physical VNs from Japan, because a lot of websites don't ship internationally, and some (like amazon) specifically don't ship 18+ products. In which case you need to use a proxy (a service or person which will order things for you and ship them in your place). Lucky you, our very own OriginalRen is willing to act as a proxy for free! Another possibility is online stores for digital copies, some VN companies do have them.
    1 point
  16. Monmon

    Dakimakura

    I disagree, both have different charm.
    1 point
  17. LinovaA

    Dakimakura

    If I lived alone... I would be 100% all for this. I don't know why, but watching the way the guy touches made me lol. xD
    1 point
  18. Monmon

    Dakimakura

    Interesting....if only she can change her expression 10/10 will buy. And my god look at that man touch....i can see how much experience he got...touching dakimakuras that is.
    1 point
  19. Satsuki

    Dakimakura

    So... How about... Dakimakura... WITH VOICE? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYFvJPincLE
    1 point
  20. Nozomi only appeals to outsiders who do the shallow 'best body = best girl' typical closemindedness opinions Only true people will understand the hardships that lesser-known members like Rin, Hanayo, Nico, etc. went through and thus appreciate why the journey and all the deep meanings behind their growth and development that led them to become who they are through hard work and not some destiny fortune telling hur-dur ness And that's why I voted Umi best girl~ Yes, that wasn't supposed to make sense
    1 point
  21. It has been decided! I'm playing Sharnoth. Thanks to everyone who posted their opinion.
    1 point
  22. And who is this "A-chan" girl!? Your new lover!? Oh... :3 (Dw kosakun, I'm here for you)
    1 point
  23. 1. Best Girl = NOZOMI 2. Attribute/Type where most of your Favorite songs are in. = Cool 3. Combination/ Group/ Etc. = Lily White
    1 point
  24. Rin is love, Rin is live. Haha.
    1 point
  25. Marie takes a big lead in the best burn 2015 competition
    1 point
  26. The Nico x Makis are divided! THEY WII FALL. Nozomi power!
    1 point
  27. HMN

    What are you playing?

    i guess totono has a different effect on each person eh..
    1 point
  28. Uhm, well I can send you the link to our Love Live channel (with our awesome cast xD) Me as Rin xD At the moment we only have one video up but we're really busy with more stuff xD And if I'm already here I can also post a Start Dash cover I was involved in: Edit: Oh, so this is how you post videos xD Good to know~ Ah yeah, and my channelname's NiiveaYoki but I'm really not good at singing xD And the dubs are in German so we're a bit... Well xD
    1 point
  29. RIN IS BEST OMG <3 xD Actually (warning backgroundstory xD) the reason why I started to pay so much attention to her is that... Well, I'm uploading covers on Youtube, so I sing. And when I found out about Love Live I asked around which character fits me most (from the voice xD) and it was Rin. Since that day I'm singing as her and love everything about her :3 *end backgroundstory* Jeez. Touching isn't it? XD
    1 point
  30. Dual M combo. Sounds legit. This was a hard choice. But I guess it is more of a popularity vote sadly.
    1 point
  31. DrKleiner

    Signatures

    This signature's awesome, thanks a lot Meogii!
    1 point
  32. You see? Thats Love ... I think it's clear who should win here after you read that ... Tyrael x Ezeefreak 4ever PS: Sorry to all the one I disappointed now... I love you too
    1 point
  33. Eh yeah I think I have 1 open friend slot... So sure My ID is 783560766
    1 point
  34. I would so love to help out with a project like this but, like Abyssal Monkey, i have no skill what so ever for that The only thing a can contribute with is my cheering がんばってください
    1 point
  35. 1 point
  36. A bit harder to translate: *slurp slurp* (Or whatever licking/sucking sound is) ...the taste's pretty good too, sour and salty. It's an interesting taste. Not everyone would like this wild taste. But if it's from someone you love, you can't get enough of it.
    1 point
  37. Politics aside I think I'll uh... sit out this cycle
    1 point
  38. Like Ceris i came into this game with experience in rhythm games so the adjusting period was fairly reduced. I guess i understand those who never played a rhythm game before have more trouble with it but practice makes perfection. When i played my first ever rhythm game back in middle school i also sucked at it, now i still suck at it () but i found other games where i didn't suck as much because i had experience which helped along the way. So yeah just keep playing.
    1 point
  39. Final edit ~ Maybe Here's the Hanayo post I've been talking about. I've made one about Rin and Honoka, my 1st and 3rd favorite. 2 walls of text from me in a few days, I'll take a break, for all of your sakes I said I would post this as my 2500th post, but then I became lazy so I haven't posted at all since hitting 2499 I'm using this as a 2500th post because I missed posting this on her birthday, so this is a good alternative. First off, I need to give credit to a post Umidah made about Hanayo which brought some light to me as well. In this post I also mention my Rin post a bit. To start off, there's one thing that's always bothered me. I'm identified as an undying Rin fan, but that's not fair, because there's one other I endlessly support far more than any other idol. While Rin is indeed my #1, Hanayo is such a close 2nd, not mentioning her ever is just unfair. I don't think I have really expressed this much other than just saying "Oh, Rin and Hanayo are my favorites, RinPana, yadda yadda", but in reality, I love Hanayo as well for her self and not just because she's joined at the hip with Rin. I guess I'll format this similar to how Rin became my favorite, how I explained from the start. So this is the "How she blew up the list" Unlike Rin, I remembered who Hanayo was at the end of the 1st season (for those who skipped reading my Rin post I linked above, I couldn't even remember Rin's name when I first finished the 1st season), but again, she didn't get as much screentime as other characters later in the first season, and I didn't really think much of her, she was just another character in the anime. After some time, a friend (different than the friend in my Rin post) kept seeing hate for Hanayo's voice, which we had both agreed was cute, so I guess that was my first notice of liking something about Hanayo. Time went on, and after rewatching the anime, I didn't have a sudden "OMG one of my new favorite characters" like I had with Rin, Hanayo was still low key but building affection. So, 2nd season of the anime comes, Hanayo is like ~6th for me, in the gap between my "meh" characters and the ones I liked, and then she started having all these adorable scenes and kept making me like her more. Unlike Rin where she was already my favorite, Hanayo had the benefit of being one of my very early on SRs in SIF, so I had her as leader. Also, one of my other friends liked Hanayo a lot, so that made me pay even more attention to her. Also, around the time I started SIF was when I got to start talking to Nosebleed more, and him posting doujins and fanart, dragging me into the franchise as more than just a fan of the anime, but of a hardcore addict to everything. I also started reading fanfictions. Here's a turning point on my opinion of Hanayo. Around the same time I read the lyrics of her solo song as well, but more on that later. I started with a RinPana fanfic (one that Nosebleed never bothered finishing!!!), which was a story from Hanayo's Point of View where she failed her confession to Rin, who dodged it and didn't give an answer. The writer is EXCELLENT and portrayed Hanayo's emotions and personality so perfectly, it made me take spotlight notice of her. You know me, I'm analytical, so I realized, I never paid true attention to her personality on a deep level and that changed. It made me realize that she's more than the quiet girl who goes crazy whenever you mention idols or rice, she has emotions I know personally. As i said above, I also listened to and read the lyrics to her solo songs, Kodoku na Heaven and Nawatobi at this time. Kodoku was the song with emotions of a girl with unrequited love poured into the lyrics, it made me notice how deep her personality was and how relate-able she is (as Umidah pointed out). And then Nawatobi is a song simply about wanting to thank someone with every bit of their heart, another song so deeply involved with emotions. (the song is simply Hanayo crying from being so happy that she has Rin as a friend and just wants to endlessly thank her because of how much Rin helped her throughout life.) This song hits me hard, I literally cry listening to it. She doesn't take her friendship for granted, she does the opposite, she cherishes it with all her heart. This isn't some fanfiction, this is the intention of her character through her songs. All this, including just having her as my SIF leader, and everything else involved with Hanayo just brings her right to the top for me. And I didn't do this in my Rin post ( should have ) but here's a WHY Hanayo means so much to me. As Umidah pointed out, she is someone you can relate to if you're a shy type of person. Believe it or not, while I consider myself a bit like Rin with the genki personality, that only surfaces around my friends. In any other situation, I'm more like Hanayo. I'm super soft spoken and have crippling shyness, it takes either a split second decision to talk to someone else I'll never do it since nerves just take over. AS someone I can relate to, I want to support her just that much more. and then for the same reason I love Rin so much, Hanayo is also unsure of herself, a trait I value so highly it's a huge driving force to it. Another trait I highly value that they both have is supporitng their friends. I mentioned Hanayo not taking her friendship for granted, she takes it a step further and supports Rin with all her heart. I'm talking S2E5, Hanayo doesn't just take center because "Oh, she wants me to", she took center because it was bothering Rin. And she takes it further, she notices everything as a whole is still bothering Rin, and goes out of her way to talk to Honoka to get advice, and wants to help Rin in any way she can. The fact she cares that much and wants to do so much for someone else means so much to me. Helping people in any way I can is something I want to do with all my time, it's something I LOVE doing, and so overall it's something I care deeply about. So yeah, combined with relating to both Rin and Hanayo, they're my favorites. So hopefully people can see me more than just a Rin fan, or RinPana fan, but a supporter of both Rin and Hanayo
    1 point
  40. perhaps i volunteer after having finished my current labour agreement, as well as my daily sessions at a locale psychotherapist. having a schizophrenic guy with burnout in your team seems to be somehow bad i guess.
    1 point
  41. Monmon

    Dakimakura

    no love for big boobs huh.......dont get me wrong i love pettanko but bigboobs is not bad...just sayin.
    1 point
  42. Whev, speaking of bad ends... Sena's chapter - Deus ex machina Sorry for the lack of pictures this time around, there wasn't really anything else that'd make for interesting screens! This ending was very different than I expected it to be, though that seems to be the pattern with every single one so far. I have no idea what the deal with the baby was, but holy shit, Suwa is an ass. We also finally got some more info about the 300 - and the implications about Momose at the end pretty much change the meaning of the scenes with her and Ban completely. Poor Ban. ;_; Pretty good ending all in all. Kind of makes me hope that Chaos;Child dives into this setting completely.
    1 point
  43. Picked up a N3DS XL and enjoying Pokemon, Shin Megami Tenshi IV and Fire Emblem on it. (oh and Majora's Mask) As unpopular the VITA is, it lends itself to VNs and quite a lot of JP games. Oh and the 3D on the new one is actually nice.
    1 point
  44. Monmon

    GreenText Stories

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxTng4FWxBs
    1 point
  45. Rose

    Reporting for Duty

    Hello, everyone! I'm Rose and I'll be in charge of the Recognition Team, which consists of me and myself so far. I'll be looking for more members soon so if you're interested in helping me, keep an eye out for announcements on the "Help us Out" board. Tay's post pretty much explained what will be done by the team so I guess I'll be only sharing some info about me. I've been reading VNs for almost a year now and I've been in love with the medium since my first contact with it. Guess what? Yeah, my first one was Katawa Shoujo. I decided to volunteer because I believe that lots of cool people and projects, even the less noticed personal ones, deserve some recognition, so trying to be part of the team was the natural course of action. I don't really have much more to talk about me other than misc info which you can find on my profile, so I'll stop here. Now, as for what you can expect from me and the team. Primarily, we plan to highlight projects and threads as well as individuals who deserve it. As the team leader, I'll make sure some quality standards are met to when posts are constructed, as well as work on additional methods to thank all the amazing people we have on the VN community as a whole.
    1 point
  46. Both GGN and TSL are made by japanese for the steam audience. By definition they arent OELVNs.
    1 point
  47. We plan on moving to fuwanovel.rip in a couple years.
    1 point
  48. If I'm half way through the anime, and got really interested.. is there any reason to read the VN? to be more specific, he ends up with Nagisa no matter what in the VN as well?
    1 point
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