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Makoto Itou is often vilified as the worst VN protagonist ever. These people clearly haven't played Cross Days. VNDB Getchu Cross Days is a retelling of the events of School Days from the perspective of Yuuki Ashikaga, a boy in the same year as Makoto Itou, the protagonist of School Days. Yuuki is childhood friends with Hikari Kuroda and a member of the library club, and his older sister Chie belongs to the basketball club. Good-natured but indecisive, he often puts the needs of others before his own because he can't muster the courage to say "no". His sister introduces him to Roka Kitsuregawa, whom he quickly develops a crush on. Roka likes him too but misunderstands his relationship with Hikari. Roka tells Yuuki she's going out with Makoto to make Yuuki jealous. Kotonoha, who frequents the library, tells Yuuki she's Makoto's girlfriend, yet Makoto's classmates say he's going out with Sekai. Swept up in romantic intrigue, Yuuki has to figure out how to convince Roka that he's serious about her while getting her to give up on Makoto. Much of the plot of Cross Days revolves around romantic misunderstandings, often reinforced and propagated by gossip. Yuuki and Roka are the main couple, while Makoto and Kotonoha are the secondary couple. The way these relationships play out forms the crux of the plot. The story begins with Makoto in a relationship with Sekai, following the route in School Days where Makoto pairs up with Sekai almost from the start. Sekai herself is a minor character. Unlike School Days's Makoto, the plot of Cross Days doesn't revolve around the protagonist Yuuki, and this is a core weakness. Yuuki is very much swept up in the events occurring around him, and he is unable to directly solve the problems he's confronted with. Instead, his influence is indirect--he influences other actors who have the power to change events, such as Makoto. Cross Days is as much about the various characters surrounding Yuuki as it is about Yuuki himself, and as a result the experience ends up feeling rather fragmented. Much of the game is spent viewing events from an "outside" perspective other than Yuuki's, really reinforcing the feeling that this isn't Yuuki's story. As a player, I felt alienated by the arbitrary perspective shifts that often had no direct relation to the events surrounding Yuuki. This leads to one of the game's main issues: the hopelessly convoluted scenario. The triggers for the various branches in the game's plot are cryptic and difficult to comprehend even in retrospect, much less when you're encountering them for the first time. As a player, you end up feeling very much like Yuuki--lost and fumbling about at random as situations spin out of control in often ludicrous fashion. This is in contrast to School Days, where there was usually a clear connection between Makoto's choices and downstream consequences. The choices in this game left me befuddled, and I ended up using a walkthrough after wandering aimlessly through the scenario a few times and haphazardly hitting the major routes. In some cases, the flow diagram in-game isn't even accurate (i.e., flowing one-way from left to right)--instead you can end up on a route that retraces to an earlier branch point. The scenario was patched to fix some of the divergence issues, but this actually makes the problem even worse because it breaks the earlier fan-made guides. I was unable to get most of the endings in the boys' love route because I couldn't figure out the proper sequence of choices even after trying several different guides. The game has many of the same problems as School Days. It crashes/hangs frequently, especially if you scene skip in a scene with a choice. The problem is more acute in Cross Days because there's no "skip to the next choice" feature as there was in School Days HQ. Like School Days, the scenario consists of many puzzle pieces intended to fit together in many different configurations--but not all the configurations tell a cohesive story. Certain paths detour around scenes that are necessary for explaining/instigating downstream events. Cross Days features a total of 22 endings (8 are in the BL route, which I haven't fully explored). The endings I saw were all distinct. There's some distinct routes that diverge midway, such as the ones focusing on BL and Ai Yamagata. The actual divergence has nothing to do with these themes however. Sadly many of the endings have no epilogue (especially the ones ending in H-scenes), so there's a nagging lack of closure. Reflecting the overall feel of Cross Days, many of the endings are "bad ends" for Yuuki and Roka. The game is hard to evaluate. Despite all the problems, Cross Days captivated me for several days straight. I literally did nothing in my free time except play this game. Roka makes a great main heroine, and her jealousy is positively adorable. Her push-pull relationship with Yuuki is a highlight of the game. I was disappointed however that there was no opportunity to pair up Yuuki with Kotonoha. The setting has incredible detail that emerges when you explore all the different routes, conveying the sense of a truly living world. You end up missing much of the backstory if you only play through to one or two endings. The animation is engaging, with visual cues used to convey information layered on top of the dialogue. There isn't much fluff dialogue that serves no purpose in the story. Cross Days is a rare interactive movie VN with a highly dynamic scenario that evolves based on your choices. If that's your cup of tea, there's hardly any alternatives to the School Days series. If you liked School Days, you should give Cross Days a try--but realize that the experience is different. Cross Days was clearly intended to be experienced after School Days, so don't make this your first sampling of the series. If you didn't like School Days, you probably won't like Cross Days, as it sports one of the weakest protagonists I've come across in a VN, and makes Makoto look like Rance by comparison. Score: 7/10 (including -1 penalty for crashes and freezes) Recommended for fans of series who have already played School Days and Shiny Days and are hungering for more. I played this title in Japanese. If you're interested in seeing Cross Days in English, support JAST USA's English releases of School Days HQ and Shiny Days and let JAST know you're interested in Cross Days on their new official forums.

In this post I'll attempt to introduce JWPce (for those who don't know what it is) (* = refer to JWPce User Manual) JWPce JWPce (Japanese Word Processor for Windows) by Glenn Rosenthal is a program designed for English speakers who are studying Japanese. Now, JWPce has BUNCH of functions (13 others) but I'm only going to talk about the DICTIONARY FUNCTION. Upon searching a word, the dictionary will give you the word in Kanji, the word in Hiragana and the meaning of the word. The dictionary is not limited to Japanese to English. Press Ctrl A to search from English to Japanese. (To return to Japanese to English, Ctrl K) How to use the Dictionary for Learning Japanese through Visual Novels Rains told me about this program. lol This is what I'm using to read Raw VNs. (I'm not an expert yet) After opening the program, press F6. On the left side, you'll see buttons such as Search, Sort... Click Options. A window will appear. Look on the left side and check Track Clipboard. Then OK. Say you have a hooked Japanese sentence on the ITH. Upon highlighting a word (in the ITH) that you do not know, the dictionary will automatically search that word. This is the result of the procedure I described above. If you look at the upper right side of the dictionary, you'll see four stuff you can check or uncheck. These things are used to limit the search. A matter of one's preference. Personally, I check them all so that only the needed meanings are shown and the search is fast (but there are disadvantages too). Basically, you will be reading the text on the ITH which means that parsing (identifying words, particles, etc.) is done by you. In case no matches are found, a warning is triggered and the default warning sound is annoying. Sound can be made tolerable by changing your Windows theme. JWPce uses EDICT, ENAMDICT, and other dictionaries (you can add others) at the same time.* It also has a USER DICTIONARY - a personalized dictionary you can make.* Note: ☆ JWPce is free under the terms of GNU General Public License Link to download ☆ No romaji in this program. Go learn Kana first. ☆ Radical Look-up (F5) is useful for Kanjis you can't hook ☆ Again, to make the warning sound quite acceptable in the ears, I suggest changing your theme. ☆ There are times when the program crashes. This is because of certain words (it can't search). I suggest moving to the next line of the game and open the program again. ☆ To recognize the kanji more (make it bigger) or for more details about a certain kanji, point the mouse to the kanji (on the dictionary), right click then click Get info. ☆ I suggest reading the User Manual (atleast the section about dictionary) ☆ Some things I said are based only on my observations. Stuff may vary. ☆ credit to rainsismyfav for introducing me to JWPce / ITH method I will answer questions I can / am willing to answer. Also please correct me for false information I might have stated. See you around.

Who are you? We're Alternative Projects, translating Muv-Luv related VNs. We have released translations for Muv-Luv Alternative Chronicles 01 and The Day After 02 in the past two years. We are opening recruitment to get more help as we have a larger line-up of projects we are looking to work on next. What are you looking for? TLCs: Able to understand Japanese fluently, and check the original meaning against the translated lines for any lost content. If you are able to suggest edits and line corrections to make it read better that'll be a bonus. Editors: Able to work sentences into a coherent story, correct grammar and tenses, and check the flow of the story from line to line. Some knowledge of the Muv-Luv Unlimited/Alternative universe is necessary, so that you know what you are getting into. Knowledge of military workings and science-fiction is preferable. Hackers/Programmers: Able to help convert text files with Japanese and English text to excel and back, keeping the text format the same. Will need to be compatible with Afhook tool, so if you have some knowledge of the tool that would be preferable. If you want to help us, please write us an e-mail, [email protected] Something that we really care about is consistency. We are looking for people who are willing to commit to the project in the long run without pulling out halfway through. That said, we do understand that this is a hobby and that IRL issues will always come first. We appreciate open communication on issues and concerns in the team. Current projects: Adoration (ML Chronicles 02's sidestory, currently in progress) Our planned project line-up: ML Chronicles 03 and 04, Haruko Maniax, Ayu Mayu Alternative, Total Eclipse, Schwarzemarken (VN and LN). Note: Projects will be confirmed once we have the personnel.

WHOOPS I MUST HAVE ACCIDENTALLY DROPPED MY IMAGES OF ADORABLE GIRLS

Ok, this is the first part of my words on Evenicle, which will be the last VN I play from April's releases. I am only playing this one because it was specifically requested by several people, and to be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it. I am not a fan of the Rance series or Alice Soft in general, because their VNs' plots just aren't that interesting, generally. The ratio of goofy to serious is generally too slanted in the goofy direction, so I tend to get bored about halfway through. Not to mention that most of their games' actual plots are so awfully written that they might as well not exist at all. That said, as a game - so far - Evenicle is actually fairly enjoyable, for what it is. Asta, the protagonist, is - like almost all Alice Soft protagonists - a harem-maker and a sex-fiend, but fortunately, he isn't a Rance-type, which was a relief for me - since I loathe Rance. Story-wise... the setting is interesting and what is going on in general has possibilities, but I hate that they use so much obvious foreshadowing... especially in the naming of certain areas (El Quixote, lol). I'm at the end of Chapter 3, and one thing I'm finding is that the actual difficulty level of everyday battles is just a bit too uneven. There are way too many points where the difficulty spikes low or high, where it doesn't really make sense for it to do so... and that's just regular fights. Boss fights tend to be anticlimactic, with the exception of one fight at the end of Chapter 2 - so far. The way you gain skills is a bit irritating as well. It seems like you randomly get skills for the various characters at the end of battles - regardless of levels - and out of chests, of all things. I've never been fond of games that add useless or annoying gimmicks onto what is - in the end - a regular jrpg-style game outside of story segments. However, I more or less expected this kind of thing, because Alice Soft is almost as bad as Idea Factory about the gimmicks issue... Well, that's it for now, look forward to my final review after I've completed the game.

Okay I am putting up a ALPHA Demo with Missing Assets So that everyone can get a feel for the game. i want people to play it before the KS is done. Remember lots of assets are missing so some things may not look right and some scenes may not be complete. With this you can get a feel for the story and such. http://noby.unwontedstudios.com/noby_demo.zip

Cat has been around the world since more than thousands years ago. Their long history with humans has made their own place in human's ethiology, history, and society. If you were to ask 100 girls what the cutest animal is, about 70 of them will answer "cat". So, cats are undoubtedly popular. But even among this popular species, there is one who stands out even more. Although his existence is still unclear and no one has never laid his/her eyes on him, this one guy, I mean cat surely "exists" in our hearts. He is no other than Schrödinger's cat. As his name implies, his master is named Schrödinger. So what exactly the charm of this cat? What is his relation with the owner and what impact they brought to our world? We'll know that next week. See you............ Ahem, just kidding. Maybe some of you have known a bit about this felis' identity. Yeah, he is a cat which is used by its master Erwin Schrödinger to prove his thought theory about Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. This particular experiment presents our fellas Schrödinger's cat COULD BE SIMULTANEOUSLY BOTH AND DEAD, which is caused by being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur. This state is called as a quantum superposition. The experiment is like this: Schrödinger's cat: a cat, a flask of poison, and a radioactive source are placed in a sealed box. If an internal monitor detects radioactivity (i.e. a single atom decaying), the flask is shattered, releasing the poison that kills the cat. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies that after a while, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead. Yet, when one looks in the box, one sees the cat either alive or dead, not both alive and dead. This poses the question of when exactly quantum superposition ends and reality collapses into one possibility or the other. Maybe some of you confused from the lengthy detailed explanation. In short, when Schrödinger's cat is put to the box, and the box then closed and sealed, we won't know whether the cat is alive or dead until we open the box, even if the box is hazardous and full of poisons. So during the time the cat is still inside the sealed box, it is SIMULTANEOUSLY ALIVE AND DEAD. But this is a PARADOX. Something alive couldn't be dead and something dead couldn't be alive. From here, comes several interpretations: 1. Copenhagen interpretation 2. Many-worlds interpretation and consistent histories 3. Ensemble interpretation 4. Relational interpretation 5. Objective collapse theories 6. Some other less popular theories (explanation on this will be skipped) 1. Copenhagen interpretation In the Copenhagen interpretation, a system stops being a superposition of states and becomes either one or the other when an observation takes place. In short, this interpretation greatly depends on the existence of an observer, when the observer open the box and "observe" the cat, then it could be known the state of this cat. 2. Many-worlds interpretation and consistent histories This theory basically said the same thing as Copenhagen interpretation, with one difference, that is the state between the box opened and after the box open decoherent from each other. In other words, when the box opened, THE WORLD SPLIT INTO 2 POSSIBILITIES, the observer see a dead cat and the observer see a live cat. This is also rhyme with consistent histories, that denies a possibility a live cat coming from a dead one. 3. Ensemble interpretation Basically this interpretation said that this condition is only a statistical matter. Meaning it's only one of several prepared cats undergoing the same experiment. So it is ONLY A TRIVIAL MATTER. 4. Relational interpretation This interpretation doesn't differentiate between the observer, the apparatus, and the cat or between animate object and inanimate one. Meaning that the cat or the apparatus could also be an observer. In short, if we see with the cat's point of view, he already knew (he has the information) about the condition, while the observer still doesn't, the observer will get the information the time he open the box. 5. Objective collapse theories This last theory stated that superpositions are destroyed spontaneously (irrespective of external observation) when some objective physical threshold (of time, mass, temperature, irreversibility, etc.) is reached. Thus, the cat would be expected to have settled into a definite state long before the box is opened. If you still don't get the idea or getting confused by the explanation, this illustion MAY help: This thought experiment maybe seems so high-level and this quantum mechanic thingy doesn't sit well with you, but it's the fact about Schrödinger's cat, not a cute furry one, but rather transparent and tricky one. But still, Schrödinger's cat sure is one helluva cat not to be ignored.