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No, this is untrue, CryingWestern is misinformed on this particular subject. We very rarely have had CGs redrawn. The only game in recent memory that we had to do this for was Cartagra because a handful of uncensored assets were lost (I believe it was less than 10% of the CGs). Generally if the uncensored CGs do not exist, the game is released with mosaics intact. I believe some of the confusion may be coming from the fact that we do some de-mosaicing in-house, but this simply involves reprocessing the original PSD files (namely, turning off the mosaic layer and re-generating all of the variations), not redrawing anything. Occasionally, our image editors will do some minor touch-ups (shifting some elements around so they line up correctly with the mosaic removed or adding a bit of shading if the underlying art was left flat or was miscolored) because quite frequently very little care is put into the art beneath the mosaics because it isn't meant to be seen in the first place. A few companies do put a lot of effort into what's beneath the mosaics (ClockUp for example), but many don't bother because the art was always intended to be censored.

MG blog post: http://blog.mangagamer.org/2016/02/15/pay-processor-issues/ tl;dr Because of people making fraudulent purchases in order to obtain Steam Keys and re-sell them, MangaGamer has been forced to remove their Steam Key offers for the foreseeable future until a better solution comes. It really sucks that people pull this kind of shit off. On top of that, because of the currently existing chargeback policies, whoever is returning the money is always on the losing end no matter what they do. I totally understand and agree with MG's move here and I even sympathize with them, but it's still sad I won't be able to get a Steam key to give to a friend (or giveaway) whenever I buy a game from them anymore. Really hope this helps mitigate the damage for them though.

Meh. I'm stuck in the 90s anyway, the modern vidya game market is complete nonsense to me. I'll be on the bench there with Rooke if you're looking for me.

Guess I'll have to give this thread a longer title so people don't come in here with the wrong idea. Are you happy now that the thread has 3 lines of text in the sidebar, you monsters?

Can't wait for the slogan... Let's make this Lolitopia! Himawari/HoshiMemo

thanks obama

You shouldn't use any of these, they all are trash Honestly, I liked Saya's the most, but why not keep up with the latest trends and go with Coconut? That's what I would do if I was given such a trashy collection of pictures to choose from

If you are reading vns on steam (not everyone but in general) you obviously don't care about censorship or having a complete vn butchered, you do it to gain likes in your funny reviews, that you probably didnt read in the first place you just left the novel open for a hours so it looks like you did, and look cool to the whole world and friends on steam, and maybe if you are really really lucky a cool page like kotaku, IGN or any great great site will grab your comment and paste it in a super ultra profound article of that novel and then you can read the super ultra profound comments on that article about how visual novels are porn. YAY \/

Joined yesterday. Found out about this site yesterday when I was looking up a walk-through for all the endings for a VN I was currently reading. Love the concept of this site and met some people in the chatroom that shared some useful knowledge. So thank you to the people behind moderating this site! I assure you, you will always have my support.

Aaaaaand the winner is, saya, Miagete goran, with 36% of the votes. Alright! Recently I havent been able to choose what pic to use as my avatar. Beofre I picked one, used it for a month, then switched. But recently its been like, 2 a week. I just couldnt find the right one. And so, I will leave it up to you guys! Which one of these shall I use for the rest of febuary? (Will start using 1 for a whole month after febuary is over.) The pictures are here in spoilers. EDIT: None of them are cropped quite yet. So, the actual avatar would be a cropped version of them basically. Cant be asked to crop it at the moment My current one - Nekopara, Chocola or: XX of the dead - Touka Maggot Baits - Carol Miagete goran - saya (a cropped version of this) Nekopara - Coconut Nekopara - Azuki SonoHana - ai So guys! Help me pick! Which avatar should I use?!

Confession: I'm going to a planetarium on Wednesday \ /

You do realize Garfield is better without Garfield right? #RemoveRen

Is this sarcasm? I honestly can't tell, but it seems like it isn't, so: - Calling Steam releases of VNs butchery is a melodramatic overstatement in 99% of cases (KonoSora is probably literally the only example of this, and the butchery was completely self-imposed by MoeNovel). Removing pornographic scenes which have no bearing on the story of a heavily story-based game has virtually no impact on the quality or experience of the VN, and certainly doesn't amount to butchery on its own. For a specific example of an altered-but-not-butchered Steam release, I strongly suspect I would have enjoyed the no-H version of G-Senjou more than I'm enjoying the original, where I'm just skipping through the awkward H content. - I care about censorship, in the sense of suppression of free speech due to objectionable content. I give zero shits about Steam insisting on removing certain classes of pornographic content from games, for two reasons: 1) Just because you have a right to free speech doesn't mean I, as a private citizen, am required to hand over to you my nice shiny megaphone when you want to talk. Similarly, Steam has no requirement to give you a platform for something that it doesn't want you to say. You can say what you want, and you can even find supporters to help you say it, but nobody is obligated to help you. 2) As has been pointed out any number of times, getting around Steam censorship (such as by releasing uncensor patches for Steam games off-site) is completely possible and not even discouraged by Steam. Bottom line, nobody's rights are being trampled on here. If an artist wants to sell their art, and even use Steam as the major purchase and delivery platform for that art, they can; they just have to distribute the porn separately. If you are actually concerned about suppression of free speech, you've got much, much bigger fish to fry than Steam - certainly in the US, I'm actually worried about, as an example, Free Speech Zones. Playing VNs on Steam does not imply some naïve acceptance of a horrible 1984 reality that we live in. In a lot of the world right now, the US included, things are mostly pretty good for free speech. And while there are surely many problems out there with the suppression of free speech, both in the US and abroad, Steam's insistence on removing certain pornographic content is quite possibly the very smallest.

We should revoke his title

Well, it's just four extra days. I'm personally curious to see how the losers would do among each other.

Please, do yourself a favor, and choose from one of these: https://mega.nz/#!Ph0jwSQD!0CKgPFEJr6rCEeS4T-_jLy4gNqmffe6wScYoVGCjGRM

Today at work:

People in the civilised world (everywhere except America ... and other scatterings) drive on the left for reasons to do with gentlemanly behaviour. Americans drive on the right for reasons to do with ... vast bulk. How very apt. Let me explain. People in the civilised world would ride on the left so they can stab (in a civilised fashion) anybody they didn't like coming the other way. Their sword arm would be their right arm, and riding on the left allows them to do this. All very civilised. Americans drive on the right because in ancient times (for them) they used to have these big, fat ... wagons (which could maybe serve as a metaphor) and to make sure they didn't collide with oncoming traffic they'd be seated on the left and the passing traffic would pass on their left. So most people drive on the left for civilised reasons, except for America who drive on the right for ... size related reasons.

It's done, enjoy the 67000 emotes, you nerds. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J5iOIUA8lLtfToWU2oj-_mEhvStolAjhtJ5L6JLG548/edit?usp=sharing

Other companies sell adult versions at a premium. eden* is $20 on Steam, $25 for the adult version on MG. $25 for Romanesque on Steam, or $40 for the adult version on JAST's site. KARAKARA's price difference is much closer to Romanesque's. When Nekopara first came out, it was sold by the circle for $20, then put onto Steam for $10. They're doing the same for Volume 2. What happened with Nekopara is that people just ripped the adult content from the more expensive adult version and started posting patch links on the Steam forums. Instead of letting fans do it for free, Sekai Project wants to do it themselves, selling it for the difference in cost between versions. Well, price aside, this is still a pretty user friendly way to go about it. Price differences between the versions are only natural, and in my opinion perfectly acceptable. Allowing people to upgrade if they got it on Steam without initially knowing about the 18+ version seems like a good way to go, instead of charging them for the full price of the adult version, punishing their mistake. Or it allows them to get Steam cards and shit while still enjoying the 18+ content. About the price, eh, I'm not so sure about it. I think people value the pornographic content pretty highly, and MangaGamer underprices it with eden. On one hand, charging twice as much for it is a little much, on the other hand $10 for an 18+ patch is actually probably a price a lot of people are willing to pay. I guess it depends on how much of it is there. Incidentally, I wouldn't be surprised if JAST starts doing this with Seinarukana and Aselia.

Nonsense. Everything must be known whenever the protagonist's dick enters the heroine and it must be described in detail. I have to know what happens to her pussy and how she feels about it.

If you hear this song be ready for an awesome perverted and dramatic adventure of a boy and a sexy reptilian woman.

This thread is for VN main menu tracks that are catchy/memorable/atmospheric/etc. How many you post doesn't matter, but PUT THE DAMN YOUTUBE LINKS IN SPOILER TAGS so that people do not have to scroll down a couple kilometers while reading. Remember11- All or None (Piano) This track's sadness and the whole atmosphere in the main menu reflects the themes of the game beautifully (especially the first half). Danganronpa 1 & 2- DANGANRONPA A perfect introduction to Danganronpa's wacky, catchy style. Ever17- Karma Same as Remember11. This music is tied to some unforgettable moments of the VN for me, hearing it always takes me back. Euphoria- Rakuen no Tobira (Instrumental) Reason is spoilers but the track is amazing either way

TFW I go back to my introduction thread (the very first thread I ever created) and find Hoshizora no Memoria as one of my favorite VNs: ...and then Nosebleed gives you a garbage tier loli when you don't even like lolis:

Look what they did to Shiny Days.

@Ike wait, was Dio your first first FIRST ending, as in you didn't even reach the other Dead Ends? If so, you're a Phi tool for betraying Luna and Clover your first time around ._. Betraying Clover hurt so much, 100x more than Luna, and seeing Sigma trying to guilt-riddled justify himself was just sad >.> Btw, you're good luck Ike, cuz I stumbled on Dio's end, and indeed, don't understand jack, but we can always return to this later... ~~ Right? When I first got into this I was like 'Awww man, even 999's sprites are more pleasing to the eyes'. Got over it already though. ~~ So, excluding Dead Ends, my Magenta side of the flowchart is cleaned out, gonna go Yellow Door (middle flowchart / Tenmyouji) next, saving Cyan door (right flowchart / Alice) for last. I'm assuming the events occurring will be more different this time around for these bigger branches, was getting pretty stale having

This is not just about piracy or even just reselling Steam keys, that's about games being bought with stolen credit cards. That's criminal activity, probably with a minimal degree of organization. And it's worse than piracy for MG because it actually costs them money.

It's no different on how your computer antivirus is good for multiple computers or your PSN account can be linked with several consoles. Whenever I have to renew my antivirus, I pretty much give the codes to my parents or I share my PSN account with my cousin because I have a bigger library of games than him.

I never really understood the point of giving a steam key when you buy a game anyway. Most people give it away to random other people or friends, that sounds like a potential lost sale to me. Sucks for them to be the target of that kind of shit though.

Hmm. Saya would be a nice avatar for you.

I like some of the nekos. Might go with one next month But these are the candidates this month.

Poll is up. Actually vote you scrubs Dont bash on my awesome pictures! Shame on you! They are beautiful.

Pleasing majority of modern casual playerbase is extremely easy. On the contrary, you'd be surprised over the kind of shit western publishers and audiences can sometimes flip tables; so nope, it's not simply "don't show genitals and it'll be fine", it depends on context and whether someone with a stick up in their arse won't notice, nor care enough. Have a bad day, and people can cause an uproar over the silliest of things and as silly it may sound, it can ruin your entire future as a creator, artist or game designer.

I really don't think they're going to give a shit about that. Cutting content has nothing to do with public morals and everything to do with getting onto Steam. In my experience, western companies tend to cut out very little when they do these censored versions themselves. I haven't played the steam version of g-senjou but apparently it left in a lot more than people were expecting.

As opposed to your spam advertising?

My first love's birthday was February 12, she broke up with me on Valentine's Day three (hell maybe even four now) years ago. We got back together for a few weeks a year later but I guess it didn't work out. I'm not sure but I honestly still think I love her to this day. There hasn't been a single crush or interest in a girl over three years nearly as strong as the feelings I had towards her. Guess I'm with ya there.

It reads terribly stilted, so if you have any sort of standard, you should be able to notice that the characters don't speak like normal people. That and it was a Chinese --> English translation and was riddled with errors. https://www.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/45meml/sekai_project_has_picked_up_hoshizora_no_memoria/czz7at0 If the editor is finding translation errors, you probably aren't doing a good job.

I would have really preferred it if they would have taken the existing translation instead of making a complete retranslation. Hoshimem is a fine title but I most likely won't read it again just because of a retranslation that might or might not be slightly better. This way they could have just picked a completely new Favorite title instead - it wouldn't have made a difference for them, the translation costs would have been the same. Just that the way it is now I get pretty much nothing out of it, where I otherwise would have gotten a shiny new Favorite title. So it's pretty much thanks for nothing.

Confession: My ex and I once again had sex on Valentine's Day as fuck buddies. I ended up buying her a very expensive lingerie set, where she proceeded to dress up like a school girl for some costume/roleplay fun. It was only after the sex did I realize that I ended up spending a large amount of money on a free set of clothes for her. Fuck me. I spent the rest of my time in TeamSpeak watching Skelter Heaven/Mars of Destruction while eating potato chips with Nosebleed.

Are there beggars in the game? Also suggest To Heart 2

I'm really perplexed about KARAKARA. It's a joint project between SP and Calme, but pricing seems to be as usual, unreasonable and completely neglects fans in exchange for increased Steam visibility. The game itself shows premise, but it's way too early to speak about quality (you have to agree the art and music seem great for a budget title, though). What triggers me though, is the fact they decided to split the game for an earlier, western Steam release. In other words, you will basically have to first pay 10$ for a Steam key and if you were interested in a full release, you will have to pay another 10$ to Denpasoft to obtain the 18+ patch. Meanwhile, japanese will get a full, 18+ physical release, all for 1800jpy which is around 15$ at the moment. I'm not really sure about this. From one perspective, it seems reasonable to pay less for an all-ages version, but paying twice as much just to get 18+ version? I mean, what the hell, SP? That 18+ content better be damn good and make an important part of the game, if that's the case. Otherwise, I don't really know - microtransactions much? What's next? Paying to unlock routes? Unlockable true ends? Additional side stories? I don't really like the way it's going.

There isn't much that sets the mood better than this - dark, relentless and just plain evil.

Still people saying "I won't play VNs without wide screen or newer than 2010 because older art sucks" is pretty stupid. I think art from for example 2003 is totally okay (ofc it could be better) but people not playing a story driven game because they don't like the art sounds pretty stupid to me. Pic related:

Yoo, I've done it! I've finally read my first VN in Japanese from start to finish, Liar-soft's Shiei no Sona-Nyl. It only took like 5 months, although that's mostly because I stalled it in order to read other stuff and to study more Japanese. And now I got into reading mood little over week ago and read over half of the novel in one week. I've now finally managed to get to state where reading in Japanese doesn't feel that much exhausting than any other reading. It's still way slower than reading in English, but compared to when I started with Sona-Nyl it's already starting to feel somewhat natural. Sona-Nyl wasn't even that difficult to read after all. The Engine science terms and fight scenes were kind of annoying from time to time, mostly because they had all kinds of weird words and expressions. Other than that there's nothing headache inducing or hard to understand stuff, even the signature repetition makes the reading in some ways easier on then long run. Because there's lots of thematic expressions and wordings that appear often and depending on chapters, reading starts to flow really well after you grasp them. Not mention it's amazing Kanji and synonym practice. And overall... It's Sakurai's Steampunk-game, of course I loved it. The story is on par with all the other Steampunk-games and so are the characters. The road trip through ruins of New York was really interesting, and in a way the road trip feel fits the familiar episodic style the best. You meet new people, interact with them and then leave them behind when stopping at different places while travelling, so the changing cast feels very natural. Sona-Nyl has also a very strong dual perspective on things on top of the usual perspective changes, which is a pretty refreshing element. It also helps that the style of narration changes as well, since the two protagonist see and feel about the world differently.

Happy Valentine's Day to all, and in celebration here's a review of otome game Norn9: Var Commons: http://gamesforadultsandeveryone.blogspot.com/2016/02/games-for-everyone-norn9-var-commons.html

Just gonna add something. I'd say that actually rangers with sword skills are one of the most insane and op units there are. Bladestorm, Reaper, Untouchable... basically after getting a few promotions your ranger will 1-hit enemies with its sword, dodge all enemy melee attacks and ignore overwatch shots, counterattack/attack anyone getting near it, dodge ranged shots thanks to Untouchable, etc. If the enemy is really close together it might be a bit too dangerous (unless you already have Reaper, in which case you'll simply kill them 1 by 1 in the same turn), but in most missions the enemy doesn't really go together that much after the initial "we've spot you and taken cover" positions. And, once you unlock the stun sword (quite early in the game), the enemies you don't kill with 1 hit, you leave stunned or unconscious, most of the times. I also disagree with Sharpshooters. Pure snipers end up getting far more kills. And with some weapon upgrade that gives aim + special bullets, they'll snipe most enemies. To this, add Death from Above (getting a kill from higher ground takes only 1 action and doesn't end your turn) and Kill Zone (this one is insane, you take a reaction shot against any enemy that moves or attacks inside a really big cone zone). This means a single Sharpshooter can easily kill a whole group of enemies within a single turn. Gunslinger is also good since some enemies will get too close, which is why I always bring 1 of each, but Snipers simply outdamage gunslingers, and offer so much cover. They have the problem of demanding not to move if you wanna shot with the rifle, but since you want to put it on high ground and leave them there, it's not that problematic. And once you get the Spider Suit, this becomes even easier.

Yeah, go for Sharin. It's the closest you'll get to G-Senjou. Now, these recommendations will be based off of my own tastes, although I will stay within the bounds of what you want. I'd check Symphonic Rain and Grisaia no Kajitsu for pretty good stories with solid romance that mostly stay in the bounds of a common setting, but do escape it (Grisaia in particular does it spectacularly, specially in the sequels). If you're looking for good story twists, check out SR and Grisaia- grisaia having the added benefit of a protagonist that's unique, has a good background and kicks ass, If you're fine with philosophy, broken humans beings and mind-bending twists to go along with your romance, check out Cross Channel. If you're fine with something a tad more out of place, with superpowers and the like, I'd check Ayakashibito and Comyu. That's chuunige territory- If the highlight of G-Senjou to you was the showdown in Haru's route, I'd check those two out. They have really good stories and good romance. The strength of those games doesn't really stop there, though- the heroine routes will be, for the most part, pretty good even if you don't like the heroines themselves, which is neat. If a good battle scene can get your blood pumping, you should watch out for these. There's a lot more I could suggest, but I'll stop with these five titles. Hope you have fun.

I have one and I am currently writing it as a light novel (only the prologue so far). Not sure if I should share it here due to fear of plagiarism. But I guess a summary wouldn't hurt. Science vs Sorcery In 2326, Earth was invaded by an alien invasion force know as Vars. Facing extinction, humanity resorted to their final option, a galactic vessel called "The Ark" to flee from Earth before it becomes fully occupied. With roughly 2700 people aboard The Ark, the humans went on a long journey to find a planet across countless galaxies where they could live in peace and possibly rebuild so they can reclaim Earth again from its conquerors. Arriving on a planet similar to Earth after 32 years and 1286 people still living, they found a new ray of hope to thrive, however, there were already denizens in this planet and surprisingly, they could understand the same languages that the humans can speak. They also possess unique talents which humans can relate to as sorcery or magic. The original denizens of the planet welcomed the Earthlings with open arms and they exchanged all their wealth of knowledge and resource with each other. The Earthlings managed to rebuild their home, their culture, and their lifestyle and they also adapted to the new ways of life presented to them. The story follows Raynor, an 21 year old man born from 1st generation Earthlings after 30 years of human occupation of the new planet the denizens call "Myarlis". Earthlings focused on rebuilding and improving their technology with the new resources of the planet so they can reclaim Earth again. Raynor becomes one of the lead engineers of the reclamation project. He was also curious of the "magical power" of the Myarlisians, so he begins his quest to learning more about this so he can combine both the power of science and sorcery to combat the Vars and make Earth theirs again.