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market awareness was never JAST's strong point. Thanks for cheering me up this gloomy snowy morning!

So, the Getchu Bishoujo Game Awards 2015 are out. That was a lot faster than last year. Congratulations to Makura and SCA-Ji: Sakura no Uta won it. Looks like there's more to this title than just hype. I'm slowly getting interested. I made a short list with the 20 winners from last year with links to VNDB. 1.) Sakura no Uta (Makura) 2.) Sanoba Witch (Yuzusoft) 3.) Evenicle (Alice Soft) 4.) Sorcery Jokers (3rd Eye) 5.) Tokeijikake no Ley Line -Asagiri ni Chiru Hana- (Union Shift: Blossom) 6.) Amakano ~Second Season~ (Azarashi Soft) 7.) Miagete Goran, Yozora no Hoshi o (Pulltop) 8.) Pure x Connect (Smee) 9.) Hanasaki Work Spring! (Saga Planets) 10.) Hatsuru Koto Naki Mirai Yori (Front Wing) 11.) Custom Maid 3D2 (KISS) 12.) Primal x Hearts 2 (Marmalade) 13.) Rance 03 Leazas Kanraku (Alice Soft) 14.) Maggot Baits (Clock Up) 15.) Silverio Vendetta (Light) 16.) Koko kara Natsu no Innocence! (Clochette) 17.) Boku to Koi Suru Ponkotsu Akuma. (SMILE) 18.) Bishoujo Mangekyou -Kami ga Tsukuritamouta Shoujo-tachi- (ωstar) 19.) Koi x Shin Ai Kanojo (Us:Track) 20.) Soreyori no Prologue (Minori)

Not as good as Lumaria vs Everyone but still acceptable. /passes popcorn @bigfatround0

[18:48:15] 妹ちゃん: Tay, did I break fuwa's search engine? [18:48:45] Archmage Tay: ...? [18:49:36] 妹ちゃん: Basically I unticked the box, then I just ticked it back and saved. [18:49:44] Archmage Tay: hm [18:49:46] 妹ちゃん: Didn't think it would do anything [18:51:06] Archmage Tay: hm [18:51:11] Archmage Tay: looking into it [18:51:44] Archmage Tay: did you trigger a re-index? [18:51:52] Archmage Tay: like, manually, or something? [18:55:46] Archmage Tay: I doubt you caused it [18:55:51] Archmage Tay: I mean [18:55:54] Archmage Tay: it's more fun to pretend you did <19:05:12> "Nosebleed": Well Tay just said I probably wasn't the cause of the fuwa search breaking <19:05:22> "Nosebleed": Because changes only take effect when you click save <19:05:51> "Down": I'm still gonna push #blamenosebleed2016 if you don't mind DON'T BELIEVE WHAT THESE PEOPLE MAY TELL YOU #EXPOSED

So, they don't want to localize their games on our market? TIME TO LEARN JAPANESE

Because YOU DIRTY FOREIGNERS don't deserve the good vns and you SHOULD BE GRATEFUL for the few fan tls you get. If you beg hard enough MAYBE you will get one good official localization in 5 years.

Lolis

Fan demand may not be as strong on some of these titles as you may think. Koihime Musou wasn't a particularly large success. MangaGamer has maintained that Shin Koihime Musou would cost way too much to localize internally. There's a fan translation group currently working on SKM and MG has said that they're open to officially releasing that translation if it's any good, but they probably can't turn a profit if they do that game normally. At least, they believe they wouldn't. Also, keep in mind that MangaGamer is only one part of the equation here. The original developers and publishers of the Japanese games have a larger say in the matter than MG in a lot of cases. That's why MG is releasing Beat Blades Haruka this month instead of Rance, that came from AliceSoft who did not want to license out Rance, a very important property to them, as their first venture into the western market. I can only speculate, but I imagine Propeller wants the Steam money, so that's why Pygmalion and Tokyo Babel were licensed instead of Evolimit. These decisions aren't made randomly. It's very likely that Evolimit simply wouldn't make as much money as those two. Regarding Oretsuba, MangaGamer has already commented on this. Like SKM, it's too long, and it also has a higher skill requirement for translation if they want to do a decent job. This is another title MG has claimed would not be profitable to translate in the current environment. Well, they said that a year or two ago, so maybe things have changed since then, but they aren't pulling our leg on this. This is what they truly believe, and they're probably right. Regarding Tsuriotsu, I don't know if anyone at MG has ever commented on that directly, but my understanding is that it's a title they actually do want to work on but there's stupid business nonsense holding it back. With regards to Otoboku it's a sequel, and sequels rarely perform well, especially when the predecessor was pretty much panned and bombed. Otoboku 2 is by all accounts a FAR better VN, but it's also a very big risk because of the first one being shit. It's very important to have the correct perspective on these things. MG wields a lot less power and influence than you think they do and they can only do so much. edit: Also, same with SP. But SP probably pushes the all-ages/Steam angle a lot more aggressively and ropes in everyone who wants to cash in on the Steam market that way. Also I like how you mention positively stuff like g-senjou no maou, which is an easy, already translated title instead of something new because Akabei Soft won't let SP pick a newer title yet, and Purple Software/Chrono Clock which is identical to the Propeller situation (nobody wants that game over Hapymaher), and also they got one of Yuzusoft's least-liked titles from seven years ago because it's the one that can go on Steam. SP is hardly pulling in the fan-favorites or making nothing but power moves like you make them out to be. They've made a few good moves, but so has MangaGamer IMO. You conveniently left out how MG just recently released a title in the renowned Liarsoft Steampunk series, or are going to release one of the most popular doujin titles ever soon with Himawari.

Dude, you're judging 20+ hours long VN on their 10 line badly done synopses (synopses are somehow always terrible, I'm not sure how that's doable). Believe me, as far as I'm concerned generic school setting moege/whatever can eat shit, but there's a reason why SakuUta is currently my 2nd best rated VN on vndb. And the generic school setting moege argument doesn't hold, Dies Irae has high-schoolers and chuu2 superpowers, if you stay at that that's also one of the most generic thing you could think of in otaku media. The individual games are what matter more here.

My votes went to: Sayonara wo Oshiete (Probably the most unlikely, but I want it so bad) Natsu no Iro no Nostalgia (Moonstone seems to have had some success with MG, so it's worth a shot) Eromanga (More quality Clockup nukige? Yes please. Especially since this one has my second-favorite Hamashima art after euphoria) Honestly, asking for the big stuff like Baldr or Dies seems like a waste to me. I'm pretty sure they already know people want that stuff.

trust me, it would have been in translation already if the crew that translated euphoria was in charge, we have been hyping it a lot on twitter lol clockup fanboys unite!

Confession: I had half a lime leftover from making dinner, and of course the only thing to do with half a lime (other than making dinner, naturally) is to make a cocktail. Unfortunately, the resulting cocktail was stronger than I realized, so following James Thurber, I've firmly already landed in "not enough" territory and am thinking I should make another. I have my first first-round job interview (since quitting my old job 10 days ago) tomorrow, but I'm sure it'll be fine, right? brb, making another drink...

Here's what I asked for: 1) Kyonyuu Fantasy series (I'm probably the only one here who had a nukige on the list and as #1 ) 2) Dies Irae (hey, last year's speculations got my interest...and I'm curious if anyone can actually translate it) 3) Evolimit (because we need more Propeller)

A little (shameless ress) useless report because NepGear is love, Blanc is life; and I feel like writing/sharing. After a good amount of time, I've completed Re;Birth2's album (which means that I've done all 9 endings): As a side quest, I leveled lily ranks: Here is my "final" data: That's all folks, thanks for attention. Now i'm off to play Re;Birth3

It made it, hopefully though SP learns some lessons from this kickstarter, as much as I dislike Sekai Project, I will admit they handled their past campaigns much better, at the end I was seeing backers scrambling around desperate to get this game some press. That isn't something a backer should have to do.

firecat reborn? Wait what!? firecat got banned!?

at least I dont get off to people stealing and raping others lovers

That's bullshit. Japanese aren't xenophobic, they're just careful with business and won't be willing to take any risks, unless there's a guarantee it will work (business mentality). Language barrier is a far bigger problem and they're actually aware vn's are both a niche in the west, and they're dealing with games highly sexual in nature. It doesn't take long to understand those games are looked upon poorly in the west, while everything outside porn industry with 18+ plastered on top of it is a highly risky business. Instead of wasting months on Fuwanovel shitposting, people could use that time to learn japanese instead, so they could actually have something meaningful to share and discuss about with others.

ts3.fuwanovel.info should work iirc. <20:29:08> "Nosebleed": [19:27:53] Archmage Tay: bad news [19:28:04] Archmage Tay: turns out you were the culprit #blamenosebleed2016

I didnt say not to vote for top 50 VNs. What I am pushing for is following your heart and not other people's opinions. Because people are easily persuaded/dissuaded because they are confused about what they really want and just follow the "majority".

I remember that back in the day JAST tried to do business with Key but they didn't want to and some Key staff even said that their games are not for Western people, are too precious to localize anyway and Gaijins should stop importing and playing them. Then, after some financial struggle, Key immediately whored out their games. Exactly the same games no Gaijin was worthy to read, as stated just a few years ago. The Japanese just hate Peter. I don't even know why. Probably because he's a weeaboo and does not westernize the games enough like Dovac does (which means cutting the porn).

It still doesn't change the fact that the top 50/100 w/e title deserve to be there because well they are simply outstanding and thats why everyone including me want them in english. That has nothing to do with bandwagon or whatever. I just want to play the best VNs available.

I mostly just follow Tae Kim's guide and I'm currently memorizing Hiragana completely. His guide is very helpful for learning and I'm making decent progress with it. I'm the same way. I can't believe I only recently thought of learning Japanese. Then again, I never dived any deeper into VNs than the TLed ones

• never said you should all vote for doujinshi only • only wanting to read what others believe is great makes you basically a doll, that lacks an own opinion • there´s a fair chance of you beeing left disappointed by their choices, simply because NOONE takes the same liking in things as others do • never mentioned them 3 titles i voted for were of an uknown nature, which they arent by no fucking means • this whole shit has been addressed mostly at the one, who´s been dismissing non top rated, btw niche titles as inferior to those who are and keeps on blaming mg for decide publishing them instead of what he calls kamige, despite knowing most of their content only from hearsay. • going by the logic of his the upcoming fata morgana must be bad, because its negative aspects like 1) beeing from a small studio 2) pretty niche 3) non having much entertainment value to it in a modern way, outwight its positive ones (very highly rated etc) by a wide margin. edit: pretty much the same goes for all the ones throwing the hate of theirs at mangagamer for their choice of working on haruka, which is a pretty retarded thing to do and must appear to alice-soft exactly as that. a retarded behaviour & unreasonable whining when getting offered to read the ultimate nukige, pretty highly rated and destined of selling more than well.

Funny i thought i was the only one who put in Maggot Baits I also put in Evenicle and Dies Irae even though it probably wont happen.

Because no lies

I put in ... Wait for it ... <-- I also wrote Maggot baits Come on Mangagamer!

oh my sweet, sweet summer child

We have to love them all equally!! Haven't you read Boob Wars 2? Though if I had to choose, the smaller, the cuter.

Quoted for truth. I have far better success with this. Do it and it will help you pick up Japanese chicks/guys at a bar too especially if you say it in a funny accent. /real life confessions

A little less than $8000 to go~ Also, all you Root Double backers, don't forget to support the Thunderclap thing if you haven't already, so the KS gets sent to all the supporting people's friends and followers. Here: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/37185-let-s-kickstart-root-double

Taken fom https://twitter.com/Michael1979/ go follow them if you want more of these since the guy seems to post one every once in a while.

It'd be awesome if the Kyonyuu Fantasy series got picked up. Then I'd stop pestering @Arcadeotic to translate Kyonyuu Fantasy.

It's perfectly fascinating that we not only have pretty complex (and formed in complex ways) pre-established opinions about works we haven't read/watched yet, but we also discuss vehemently over them and popularity polls where they're featured much in the same way we do for stuff we did read/watch. I realized that as I was preparing to type an answer to Rooke to say that what people praise in Dies is far from being just narration when I realized the number of people who actually read Dies in that thread (I'm not one of them) is probably equal to the number of those shônen manga that Rooke likes so much to make fun of that he has read in his entire life. And yet here we are taking part in this nonsense. And I almost participated in it despite criticizing it already elsewhere. And we even enjoy it. I think I'll just link this great (and depressing) article from the Paris Review, On the Pleasures of Not Reading.

Translation: Rooke is in his prime, and cuts a figure both handsome AND charming ...

Seriously, Dies irae's setting is really generic. So is Senshinkan's. If you'd vote for those, then you're being hypocritical as hell, ChaosRaven. Anyways, I voted for Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai. I will make no apologies for my tastes.

Yet somehow Sakura no Uta wins couple VNOTY awards + get the highest EGS score in 2015, and it's also currently TOP 7 overall, averaging 90/100 points. It would be strange for it to be "Ikikoi 2 - Boredom Reloaded" Hype... is.... real. EDIT I even checked Ikikoi for you, and it have pretty bad rating on japanese side too.

if one scares easily you clearly want to give them this https://vndb.org/v97.

managed to finish Noble Works and cartaga. Noble works was a pretty fun ride, nothing special and in some ways very similar to Princess Evangile. But i needed something on the happy side of the spectrum at the time, and i generally like these types of stories if they are done good enough. cartaga, I just need to lose this: The picture on the vndb page and the menu is a BLOODY SHAM. And no i dont mean about the story, i read the synopsis, i mean about the type of character the person on the picture is. Such a big mismatch. Not to say she was not a pretty adorable character. On other news, I am thinking of starting on Long live the queen, but i am in doubt as to Werther it will be worth it as i generally dont really enjoy these choice heavy games.

You've made a few similar threads recently, and the best, all-encompassing, advice I can give you is: just make what you want to make, dude. An indie visual novel isn't going to make you a millionaire, probably not even a living, so just make something that you can love and be proud of. That's the best pay-off you're going to get from doing this. Once you've done that, making money is a bonus. Also you're not going to win any friends by saying: "Look how different and better I am than other OELVNs". It's really dismissive of other people's hard work and, contrary to ignorant popular belief, OELVNs are most assuredly not just a bunch of copy paste high school games. The shovelware shite on steam ≠ the sole representative of the OELVN scene.

CHATMOD-CHAN IS NOT AN "IT." I'm on your side, Chatmod-chan.

Probably. It would be awesome if it reached 180k, but lets face it .. That is kind of a stretch. But, you never know. Hopefully all the lazy people who clicked "remind me" will be jumping on and start pledging soon, when it reaches the last 48 hours.

Even if it barely makes it, it still made it. A lot of us thought this Kickstarter would never even get near the funding goal.

You can't really fully address this without exploring the porn aspect of VNs. The majority of VNs are for PC, and the majority of those are pornographic. To me, the porn element is what makes VNs uniquely a Japanese product. That wouldn't fly in the West, and that's why VNs have had so much difficulty getting a foothold here. To me, and probably to others, VNs represent the pinnacle of erotica--visuals and sound integrated with a highly developed story that lets you insert yourself into another world. That's something you can't find in Western pornography.

I am really looking forward to seeing what kinds of localizations will come after this. I remember thinking after I backed Clannad... "Hey... it would be cool if Muv-Luv got localized sometime..." Wishes granted~ Perfect excuse for me to replay this though, as I have been meaning to do that. Alright guys... let's get into the spirit of Muv-Luv~

Princess Evangile Licensed by Mangagamer Summary "To be honest, I really did give up hope... And that's when I met you." 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... Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order There are four heroines: Rise, Chiho, Ritsuko, and Ayaka. You may play in any order you want based on your preferences. I personally did Rise -> Chiho -> Ritsuko -> Ayaka Note: Ayaka's route has spoilers for Ritsuko's route. Route Guideline Common route: Chapters 0 ~ 16, Heroine route: Chapters 17 ~ 26. During common route, stay faithful to whichever heroine you want! Failure to do so will result in returning to the title screen after Chapter 16. Rousenin Rise Sagisawa Chiho Kitamikado Ritsuko Kitamikado Ayaka Attribution This walkthrough was created and formatted by Eclipsed based on information from seiya-saga.com Special thanks to Sonicboom2.0 for the jumpstart & Nimbus for walkthrough suggestions~