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For those of you who didn’t already know, this VN is based in the same setting as Nanairo Reincarnation and by the same company. Nanairo Reincarnation was my VN of the Year 2014, and it is a VN that has remained strong in memory ever since. This VN has a much stronger ‘horror’ influence than Nanairo, which tended to be more of a nakige for much of its length. The protagonist, Yashiro, is a young guy who was born particularly vulnerable to spiritual influences while not having the ability to see ghosts or spirits… meaning he is basically a walking target for stuff like that. At the beginning of the story, he finds out he is cursed by the ‘Ghost of the Old School Building’, one of the ‘seven mysteries’ of his school. This curse is fairly simple… it tries to get him to kill himself by jumping off the roof of the school building. A lot of the common parts of this VN focus around dealing with the mysteries and trying to discover a way to put the ghosts to rest, and in that sense it is almost identical to Nanairo… except that the protagonist, while central to the story, is essentially a ‘normal guy’ who got caught up in the mess involving ghosts and spirits. The protagonist from Nanairo makes several appearances in the VN, as do his ‘family’ members, and it is based about two years after the original story. There is definitely enough influence from the original that I have to recommend you play Nanairo first. This VN… tends toward an aura of sorrow, for much of its length. The moments of fear are there, but they tend to be less common than ones of sorrow/grief. There are a total of six heroines in the VN (five if you count Riri and Ruka as a single heroine), with three major arcs… The first arc is the Velvet Arc, which has the twin kami (Riri and Ruka) path splitting off midway. Riri and Ruka’s ending… leaves a really strong impression, to say the least. Technically, they are sub-heroines, but their ending is in no way neglected, either for detail or emotional value. If there is a significant difference from the main part of the arc (Velvet’s path), it is that it is somewhat shorter and less dramatic. Still, I cried for a half hour after it was over. Those who liked the red-head from Hikoukigumo no Mukougawa’s ending will like this one. Velvet’s ending… is closer to what I would call a ‘bittersweet romance’ path. Velvet has serious psychological problems, all wrapped up in her past (I won’t spoil it), and dealing with those issues is the main focus of her path. The second arc is the Older Women Arc, which contains Misato’s and Youko’s path. I’ll be straight… play Youko’s path first. If you play Misato’s path before Youko’s, it will destroy you utterly, whereas it is merely saddening when you play Youko’s first. Honestly, since I like that type of ending, I really did like how Youko’s path turned out, but it isn’t really a romance path (neither was Ruka’s and Riri’s). Misato and Youko’s paths branch off from one another dramatically very late on (from a story perspective), and Misato’s path follows a far less dramatic and painful road to the end, one that is closer to what romance fans would like. The third and last arc is the True Arc. This path contains Kana’s and the True ending. Kana’s path… is probably the most normal of all the paths, at least until the endgame. To be honest, Kana’s path is the reason why I won’t be calling this one a kamige, though it isn’t horrible. It is just… difficult to empathize with Kana (by the time I got to her path, I just considered her Idiot Friend #2, so I couldn’t see her as a romantic partner, even through the protagonist’s eyes). Nonetheless, as paths go in a general sense, it was still pretty high quality. However, where this arc shines is, of course, the True path. The True ending is… really heart-breaking. What you might or might not have figured out from the clues about the mysteries behind what is going on at the school are brought to light in full form, and the issues that were generally laid to rest outside of the protagonist’s control or in a way that didn’t reveal the whole mystery were brought to a head in the protagonist’s personal viewpoint. I cried for the True path. I seriously cried. If you don’t cry after you see what there is to see in this path, you probably should go to a psychologist. A few other comments before I go to my overall wrap-up. My favorite heroine in this VN was undeniably Velvet, both because of my tastes in heroines (you’ll know what I’m talking about when you know her secrets), and because I just really, really liked her ending. The protagonist’s degree of personal growth – and even his personality or outlook on life – will often be changed dramatically during the course of the paths, and this is one of the reasons I would love to give the kamige stamp to this one, despite the fact that it doesn’t quite reach Nanairo’s level. Overall, this is definitely one of those VNs I’ll still be recommending to people five years from now, along with Nanairo. It is a bit guro at times (at about the same level as Nanairo there), and the protagonist is a bit too typical of protagonists in the kind of situation he ends up in at times. However, as long as you can get past these issues (or actively enjoy them) this is a great VN to play. I will say that I really wished they would have done another adult protagonist, like Makoto from Nanairo. I don’t really see the need to go back to student protagonists, but I guess that is just an inevitability when companies are under the kind of pressure of tradition these are. I am seriously looking forward to more works from this company and this writer in the future, and this one is a solid (almost inevitable) VN of the Month candidate.

So I know @Deep Blue made one of these a little while ago, but I really wanted to get one out myself as well. (I am also including pictures. You are too lazy man! ) Now that the game is released, I feel it really deserves some coverage! (Note that I read the beta version, and so some improvements will have been made to the final release. Also, I wrote this review in a littel bit of a subjective style, really because I want to get through my personal feelings that I experienced when I read the VN. It might make the review seem slightly biased, but I hope this doesn´t make the review seem less serious. I played the game with a completely objective state of mind, and this is just my honest opinion of the game. Anyways, on to the review:) One thousand lies is a 5-10 hour OELVN made by Keinart Lobre, (@Keinart.) The VN is about a group of friends goofing around as they get closer to graduating from high-school, though there is a lot more to the novel than what initially meets the eye. (Note, the novel has both a Spanish and English version. I read and proofread the English version.) In One Thousand Lies we meet Ciaràn Endyein, a slightly delinquent-like teenager who, along with his best friend Ausse Ealdwine, pull of silly yet harmless shenanigans that always end up getting them in trouble. The two are also accompanied by the pretty and intelligent Ziva Shani, who constantly try to psychoanalyze Endyein. At the beggining of the story, Endyein recieves a strange, mysterious email, telling him to go to a certain place without any more detailed instructions. The sender appears to have stolen a package Endyein was waiting for, so confused and angry, he decides to do what the email says. (With some persuasion from his friends.) This sends him down a fairly heavy psychological, yet heartwarming and slice of life-like journey. Story and writing The story in the game starts of really light and funny. It´s a slice of life story that has refreshing and entertaining humor; it doesn´t use overused clichès that you have seen 100 times before. As you get further into the story, you will start to notice that not everything is exactly how it seems. It´s hard to talk about this without spoiling the entire story, so we are going to keep it short. The story is well written, has pretty good pacing and does a good job of hiding the real kicker until the very end. The writing in the novel is, like I´ve already mentioned, really good. It is every editor´s dream, going through a novel that has essentially no mistakes, and that doesn´t repeat itself over and over, but instead offers new, refreshing words and phrases for each sentence. The language was almost a little bit too complex at times, as I felt it was unnecessary to use such big words for a normal, every-day setting. Still, the novel does use a lot of psychology terms and the likes, so it´s not like a complex language is a bad thing for it. There isn´t much else to say about the story, as the novel is quite short, and giving any more information could possibly spoil it. All in all, story and writing is very well done, and deserves a good 9/10 rating. Characters and art The characters in the novel are all diverse and interesting in their own way. You have Ausse, the slightly dumb but lovable rich kid who might or might not be the MC´s friend because of his financial situation. Ziva, the beautiful and determined female friend who constantly gets on the MC´s nerves when she tries to diagnose him with different psychological disorders. Claire, the cute and shy girl who only opens up when in the presence of Endyein. Luce, the playful and energic joker who always has a funny remark that will put the MC in his place. And finally Diniz The Sloth. (I think that title should be sufficent in describing him.) Each character has nice and well drawn sprites with several facial expressions that feels natural. The CG in the game is very pretty, though certain facial features gets a little less "natural" in the CGs compared to the character sprites, especially Luce´s. Regardless of this though, the CG is very nice and well made. The backgrounds are kind of like a painted sketch, which is a unique but interesting style that I personally found quite enjoyable. The only complaint I would have about the characters is that Diniz seems to have very little screen time compared to the others, and therefore he has little time to become a part of the main cast. Characters, 9/10, Art 7.5/10 Music and atmosphere The music in the novel is pretty good overall and seeing as the game is not voiced, this is a good thing. There are several comfortable soundtracks that helps bring out the emotion reflected in the scene, especially during the more enigmatic and mysterious situations the novel has to offer. The music did not take me by storm, but it still did its job very well in filling the "silence" when playing the unvoiced game. Not much more to say about it. Music gets a 6.5/10 score from me. The atmosphere in the game is quite hard to put into words. During the reading experience, it is obvious that there is something there that is more than just a few teenagers messing around. There is some kind of heavy undertone in the writing that clearly tries to tell you something more, but its written in such a way that what exactly that is, doesnt become apperant until the very end. I think that the way this was done is really quite impressive. Each character has a part to him or her that helps hint to this, and each scene does put out tiny clues, though in the end, figuring out what the cause of such an atmosphere is before the credits roll is not easy. This part of the game gets a clear 10/10 rating from me. It was quite the ride. Conclusion: In conclusion, OTL is an entertaining and innovative OELVN that doesnt try to do all those things we have already seen in Japanese VNs, but instead it uses original humor, exceptional writing and an interesting and thrilling psychological aspect to make the entire reading experience a blast. I had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading this, and simply voulenteered to proofread / test the game because of Deep Blue´s interest in it. Needless to say, I was not dissapointed. Final rating: 9/10. Here is a link to the thread for the game here on Fuwanovel:

Visual Novel Translation Status (03/26/2016) Since Tay, Decay, and Zakamutt always submit their thought in every week at VN Translation Update, might as well try to write my thought here. The title format would be the image header of VNTS derivative word and Review, and since this week header image was Maitetsu girl train, so I'll use Densha Collection for the title (Densha mean train in Japan) and collection, well you should knew if you watch Kancolle). Note that maybe I'll deliver my though for VNTS late. And below was my review for VNTS this week. For this week, once again the announcement at Saturday surely was underwhelming. Especially from Mangagamer which I'd already wrote my very long post about speculation for Mangagamer, which from 10 result of vote I guess Type-Moon as their future partner, oh well. But this time Sekai surprised us with Maitetsu and Tokeijikake announcement. I'll try to type my though here later but first I'll try to round up the translation progress. For all of the update, what I'd interested was only Astral Air and Karakara. As for Astral Air, good work for stable progress, but if each week we had update only at 0.4% we'll probably had 100% of Astral Air translated at 2017 (Hopefully not). For Karakara, I could not comment much other than good work for reaching 46.42% translation progress. Now for Mangagamer announcement, we had 4. The announcement were Free Friend hardcopy, Bokuten Steam version, Yurirei drama CD, and Imopara 2. For Free Friend hardcopy, no comment other than as long as people had necessary device like DVD RW and Free Friend download edition, they could made the hardcopy easily (Then again, maybe there was some fan who like to collect the box from every eroge hardcopy). For Bokuten, since according to Tyrosyn the H-Scene was important for character development, maybe Overdrive will try to substitute H-Scenes with porn free scene (I think they could made it just had black screen when in H-Scene or had the characters sleep and taking about their problem). Normally this VN was the one I'd looking forward the most, but Mangagamer already translating it and at this moment the progress was at 77%, so it's still a while. About drama CD, I knew GundamAce had translated Ever17 Drama CD at Animesuki forum. Here's the link for Drama CD Translation (Beware spoiler from Ever17 though). Although with this kind of arrangement, I'd wonder if Mangagamer will release it in Japan voice with translated script or either will hire local VA and had them voicing drama CD. First option will save cost, but to enjoy Drama CD required good listening and always need to read the script, while second option was more expensive because Mangagamer need to pay both VA and translator, but it'll allow us to understand Drama CD easily. Either way, it'll be interesting that Mangagamer will release their first Drama CD and hopefully it'll satisfied Yurirei fan, although Decay said he was satisfied enough. Imopara 2, I think my comment was Momoka sprite copied Aya sprite (Down to seiyuu) from first Imopara. Other than that I think it'll be standard nukige involving incest between cousins and imouto, because the cousins was born from different mother, and the mothers actually was Imopara 1 heroines (I mean back in Imopara 1 MC was involved in incest with his 5 imouto). And don't ask me why all imouto and cousins in this series attracted to MC other than the reason MC was nice guy. For Sekai, they announce Taiwan VN, South Korea VN, Sakura Spirit Ecchi Manga adaptation, Indonesia VN, Maitetsu, and Tokeijikake. For Taiwan, I think it was more eden like since it was said that the world will be destroyed because of the star. South Korea VN was more like dark love story involving NTR, I think. For Indonesian VN, well it's leaning toward dating sim and the premise was like fighting alien with you as the commander of 5 girls. The reaction from Indonesian anime community as expected quite positive. Here's the news at Jurnal Otaku Indonesia, and if some Indonesian user or lurker read that, you'll understand the news (If some of non Indonesian curious, you could just copy and paste the word to Google Translate). But the summary from the news and the comment the reaction was quite positive. For more info about Indonesian VN company, here's the website. As for Sakura Spirit Manga, no comment. And here I'll try my best to comment 2 big announcement from Sekai. Maitetsu, what I saw it was already gather some controversy regarding censorship and loli thing. Although my interest was of course not those 2 unrelated thing, instead it was more to release date and the seiyuu as usual, beside there should be enough heat if we talk about censorship and loli. The release date actually was very new, in face one day before announcement or in America the night when this VN released. In other word it was the fastest translation news delivered (Not counting Nekopara since it was planned to be released in English at the same time for Japanese release), only few hours after released in original language. As for the seiyuu they got Kawashima Rino and Kadowaki Mai there. We obviously didn't need to doubt Kawashima experience, and Kadowaki also quite famous for Fate fan as Ilya. Another interesing note that we also had our MC voiced here. Well, let's see it later. Tokeijikake, the opening was quite good. I'd knew that this game was translated since Shinikiss translation finished. But since this is first part of trilogy, not interested because I'd heard that the first part end with cliffhanger. Well, hopefully Sekai could also announce and release part 2 and part 3 quickly (Although I knew it's like hoping that Yandere translation translating Aiyoku no Eustia though ie impossible since the leader already too busy at work). Oh, for the seiyuu they got Kawashima Rino here too and also another name to note was Ogura Yui (Himiko from Eiyuu Senki, Eika from Ikikoi) and Moka Choko (Ageha from Konosora, Otome from Da Capo 2). Sekai promised this game will be released at 2016. I think that's all I could comment from Sekai announcement. And one last note, could we got confirmation from Sekai if Root Double will be released at March or not. If not it's okay then, although what I understand that the flame will be going to Sekai, and many people who waiting for translated Root Double will said profanity. Well, at least we had one certain release came from Mangagamer (Tokyo Babel). For JAST, we still wait when they'll announce release date for Seinarukana. I think that's all of my review of VNTL progress. And sorry for my bad English here.