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http://reviews.fuwanovel.net/2016/04/14/tokyo-babel/ I give this one five out of five stars. How many of you have finished this one? What did you think?

Not really. I feel like most people who do like VNs are more likely to be anime fans than anything else... Plus there's the light novel crowd (who tend to be gigantic when added up - same thing with manga, really. They can get really out of hand.) VNs can appeal to anime watchers through anime porn and the type of romance that can't really go on TV It also lets you know characters before using H scenes for erotic purposes, which provides the ultimate type of erotica for some people. You might or might not argue that's why we're a niche and that VNs should focus on reaching other audiences... But if they stop marketing towards that niche I'll no longer have an interest in VNs, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Not a fan of the communitie's attitude towards requests. I get it, no one is expected to translate anything for anyone, but at least have more tact. Especially to those new to the site. Also, perhaps a thread could be created where a poll could be taken to see which titles people would like to see translated. Nothing has to come from it, but perhaps a translator may see it and consider it. To OP: Your best bet is to ask Mangagamer or Jast. I wouldn't bother with Sekai tho.

Basically, this is just an excuse to giveaway a copy of the recently-released Tokyo Babel, as well as two other games as consolation prizes. There are two rounds in the contest. The first round is an entry round, where members of the community write up a fanfic based on my Clephas roleplay (for those who haven't encountered it, a profile is written below). It will then be judged by Kaguya and Rooke, who will determine if it is acceptable grammatically, has the right touch of humor (generally absurdity) to it, and fits within the Clephas persona. The second round is basically a lottery... those whose works were judged 'acceptable' by both Kaguya and Rooke (if only one judges it so, I have the tie-breaker vote). I will assign numbers from 1 to however many acceptable works there are, which will then be put into a random number generator. First place is a Steam copy of Tokyo babel, and the second and third place prizes are Nekopara Vol 0 and the Sega Genesis Classic Pack 5 (containing the old Sega Genesis Phantasy Star games). Second place will have the option of either of the runner-up prizes and third will get the remaining prize. Entries will be excepted from now to 12:00AM US Central time, 5/23/2016 Profile Name: Clephas Gender: variable (based on whim) Age: Immeasurable Race: Universe-eating monster who was originally a fat, balding otaku who liked cats a bit too much Abilities: Can and has eaten everything. Manifests as a humanoid avatar in universes he has eaten. Creating life on a whim. Remaking sentient beings into Clephas Cultists (people with glowing orange eyes, steel-trap teeth, and the knowledge of the truth that 'cannibalism is love' ) through passage through his intestinal tract. Creates new stomachs to contain new universes designed to his whim. Immortality in the sense that it is impossible to kill him, though his avatars can be destroyed (temporarily). Access to all technologies and magic existing in his stomachs. Personality: Whimsically cruel, arrogant, otaku, ever-hungry, kind to cats, dislikes dogs but likes dog-girls, loves things meant to kill people. Location: Everywhere Limits: Is incapable of not eating people and universes. Unusual qualities: Avatar personalities can be different, based on what part of Clephas' personality they inherited strongest. Weaknesses: Mimikko and a failure to understand why people don't want to be eaten Edit: For an example of a Clephas story...

Tbh I agree with Kaguya, I've mostly only seen people who are into animu/mango also be into VNs. Sure there's probably a small crowd out there who don't enjoy those things and like VNs, but overall the VN world is hugely influenced by the otaku media and VN fans are typically fans of other types of said media. I agree VNs will likely never be immensely popular, but that's unfortunately the cost of being a medium so heavily niche targeted. It doesn't mean they're doing something terrible, it's just that there isn't a massive crowd for VNs yet.

You make a good point. I agree, cold and overly blunt responses are unnecessary, especially when it's clear that the user is new to the site and that he hasn't seen too many of these threads get constantly shut down by the same answer over and over. It hardly takes much effort to explain the situation in an orderly fashion. It's really just a few lines: Translating something takes a lot of time and effort. It is not something people will do without motivation. Most of the time, a translation project is started because the translator(s) have a genuine interest in the title and wish to make that VN available to others who don't speak Japanese. (Or a different language of course.) Therefore, taking requests from a person, and just suddenly starting to translate a visual novel one has no connection to will rarely happen. In fact, it pretty much never happens.

For me, it was the exact opposite. When I started reading VNs, I was a stupid teenager (13 years old I think) who wanted to see naked 2D girls; the more the better! Nowadays, when some "serious" looking romance story tries to pull a harem route on me, I ragequit instantly. I want to read a love story, not some juvenile porn fanfiction.

This is the line art and base color for Darc, Not finished yet *-*

Translated VNs, as others have already stated, are clearly only ever going to be of interest to otakus/anime/mangu/LN/Japanophile/hikkikomoris. It's a particular art form for a particular audience in Japan and therefore will appeal to those outside Japan who are interested in that inside Japan. It's also why the bulk of OELVNs imitate Japan storylines. The "visual" component is a strong feature in Japanese culture, making the ridiculously complex language more approachable from a young age for the natives in manga and animated form, then when they become adults they've become used to that as a component of their media. They're not books and never will be, but they offer appeal that books don't. Now remind me why they actually need to be more popular outside this group? Make Japanese culture more popular outside the otaku crowd? Clearly that won't happen. Change the medium just to increase sales, increase the popularity and keep the medium alive? Cut off your nose to spite your face and all that?

A) No, I'm talking about all aspects of writing. Content, pacing, ... you know, let's talk pacing. Most VNs have trash pacing, compromised by including copious slice of life scenes within a story with a plot. Setting, the reuse of the high school setting is really quite telling - rule of thumb, a piece of entertainment tends to be aimed at people who are the same age as the protagonist, so if you have a young protagonist it's a story aimed at young people. Generally speaking. The content in VNs tend to impress a lot of young people, especially because they're (as a whole) fascinated with ideas and don't really care much about execution, but I don't see how the content is much to write home about, tbh. Even Gahkthun managed to set the damn thing in a school. B) Another rule of thumb, don't compare pieces to authors who wrote their 1st drafts in publishable prose. Dostoevsky wrote in a raw manner, and his works benefited from being written in a raw manner, and some of his translators later went on to say his prose style was carefully crafted. It's extremely difficult to write something which comes off as clumsy and raw while not being actually anywhere near as clumsy as first appeared. Its rawness amplified its passion. Its rawness amplified its authenticity. In general, you (the normal public) cannot write like Dostoevsky (one of the greatest genius' in the world of literature) so don't even try. Also, EVERY writer gets criticised a lot. It's the way of things. C) It happened in English also, but it had nothing to do with his 'ugly writing'. His works were 'localised' into 'Victorian' English (a very polite society) so it would appeal more to the Upper Class audience. D) We don't "pay too much attention to 'writing'". A storyteller's job is to convey the story to the reader, convey the imagery to the reader in an effective manner. 'Writing' or 'prose' is the way which we achieve that. Without visuals, we create impact with words, with sentence construction, with passive or active, we create images through description, this is how the reader feels or views the story, through our words, and that is why those words are important. To say 'we pay too much attention to the writing' well ... that's how the reader experiences the story, it is thus very important. Unless you do a Telltale and go interactive movie.

Fair enough, those are understandable decisions. And to be fair, my opinion will hopefully be in the minority - as mine is derived from personal circumstances. Regardless, I believe in honest work being recognized, and so I hope it does well.

It is the flaw with touchscreens in general... tablets suck *laughs evilly*

I don't mind english voice over but if done right. My opinion originated from watching the voice cast trailer, which I didn't like how they pronounce the character lines and it din't help I found the voices to not match the characters. Now as a matter of fact obviously I still have to play this game so my feelings towards the voices could change in due time. Anyway my statement only reflects my own opinion regarding this case, which mean always is there some people or maybe lots of them whos opinion could be the opposite of my thinking. Anyway having the option to disable voices of free will is a good choice because there is people who will refuse to play a game if they dislike the voice acting. Well in a better note I hope this turns out well, more fun games to play or read are gladly welcomed.

Asking for a translation is like asking an artist to draw you fan art for free. No offense to you in anyway, but in the artist community it's rude and that kind of stuff doesn't fly, nor should it here. Ask anyone who does commission work.

If you ask me, I think this is another case of 8.8 trope (Although it's more reviewer was basically noob in VN I think). I read the site, and I think it's reviewed by wrong member, because I saw in the site that they review Clannad at 7 (The complain that Clannad was long) and G-Senjou at 9 (Both of those was by different reviewer though), so I think they should at least recognize what VN is, and the problem from Tokyo Babel review was the reviewer only review the game with gameplay, not Visual Novel which basically had no gameplay. Beside, I think if the reviewer want to review TB in first place, he should at least understand what is VN basically about, or either did some research in regard of Propeller and Mangagamer company to know what kind of game they'll bring at least. Well, at least he review the story quite good I think although a bit cliche, but if he write the review about some VN again and he complained about no gameplay again, I just hope that he quit to write the review forever because it only make him look stupid by not knowing what is VN (Well his review already show that though). PS - He think it's like digital manga, which made it more questionable if he think like that, why did he bring it to video game review site in the first place.

I don't think it is possible to make a great wallpaper from that image. On top of suffering from low resolution, it also has a problem with aspect radio. If you divide width by height, you get: * 16:9 widescreen: 1.78 (the most common widescreen) * 16:10 widescreen: 1.6 * 4:3 standard: 1.33 * The image posted here: 0.707 I think the resolution and the aspect radio are so wallpaper unfriendly that it's simply not possible to make a great looking one based on that image.

Great review, but you could've also mentioned how well researched was the biblical mythology stuff. It gives a fair share of uniqueness to the VN.

★★★★★★★★★☆

The bad thing about being one of the only competent counters for a high priority account like Kaiser is that your Supervisor and AM will very, very politely ask if you can work on a day you listed on your schedule as UNAVAILABLE (because school for 10 hours pls) and drive yourself 100 miles to said location since you'll miss the vanpool (BTW. the count starts at 9PM, meaning we'll be there at least until 2 AM, then gotta drive 100 miles back, GG) They promised they'll cover mileage and give me travel time as compensation, but lol. I'm not that desperate for pocket munnies to work my ass off Then they said they'll give me a Louise de la Valliere and Nana Deviluke figurine combo, and I said absolutely! No.

With that profile pic, you're gonna get @DarkZedge a little too aroused. Anyways, welcome to the forums Listless. If you like plot based VNs, I and many others have a long list for you to check out. Some I'd recommend are Ever17, G Senjou No Maou, Steins;Gate, Kara No Shoujo series, and Gahkthun (personally I wasn't that much of a fan of it, but you should check it out and form your own opinions). I hope to see you around.

"My Slutty Older Sister Can't Be This Pure" Technically slut means someone who goes around sleeping with whoever, but people also use it to just describe women who act like a "temptress". Also regarding the whole ビッチ thing, "bitch" used to mean slut, as in the person is essentially a female dog in heat. That's where the Japanese word comes from, but the word has evolved over here to mean other things now.

I'll just leave words with multiple interpretations in moon rune next time, if people would prefer that. Like so: My ビッチ Elder Sister Can't be this Chaste!

Apparently it's tied for the worst visual novel of the 9001 Clephas has played, which is quite a feat.

There was an attempt at translating it that has been dead for forever now. Something you'll have to learn is that no matter the quality of the VN, most VNs will never be picked up and even if they are, they won't be fully TLed unless it's an official translation and some companies can't even promise that.

Upvoted! I haven't gotten very far yet, but it looks great!

i believe there is still a project going on to fix ageha's route. someday soon we can read it the way it was intended.

I believe in myself to continuously seek out and find hidden gems in Eroge for now and the future to come, and I can keep it up because I have several references I use/follow (certain people on Twitter) to find them and I'm not limited to only the haphazard selection of works that are being translated to English. I suspect that the issue of selection is going to change very soon given that two of these references, Conjueror and Garejei, are on-board the selection train and are committed to continuously bringing us the highest or the second highest scenario-ge to the best of their abilities. I don't believe in B/M/S/VNs/Eroge/[X media], but I believe in media, and that I'll gain "intellectual value" (which, really, I'm attaching to the work), aka. enjoyment, from works I can find myself when I have that er, "faith". I've just then had to realize; despite using other people as references to find these, the fact still remains that I'm coming across them myself, and that's what I should "believe in" when it comes to media. Just wait until Himawari and Subarashiki Hibi get released and then read/play those; they have a lot to tell/to teach and manage to do so in little words (which is the best IMO). I'm sure those two works will spur on more of these sorts of discussions and people will find more value in the discussions and then the media they surround as a result.

I loved this VN so much... Maybe a little too much.. All the routes are great IMO. The only thing that annoyed me about that twin route is that Yoru did not get her own route. Kotori's route was SO filling and just great in general. Agaha's route was the first I went down it confused me so much but ended up with a pretty sweet ending. I have a large amount of bias towards this VN though it being the first one I played and all so yeah And I recommend the patch... It's worth it

Today I was once again reminded why I hate arguing. I effectively wasted 4 hours of my life with explaining my unchanging viewpoint to others with opposing unchanging viewpoints. So now I'm sitting here asking myself; What was the point? And why did I not just use my time for something that is actually worth it?

quote from Douchebagchocolate on youtube. Freaking hilarious videos

This is good news You seem to have a lot of plans for this, I wish you good luck Lookin' forward to more

*Charlotte flashbacks* This is going to be terrible isn't it? I want to have hope, but then I remember the VN is shorter than half of a typical full anime season, which begs the question: how are they going to drag it and essentially butcher what was a wonderfully paced short story? The only way this can realistically work is in movie form, but if you want my honest opinion i don't think Planetarian is very fit for the anime medium.

None of my incarnations has ever been very good at pretending to be nice. Yes, that is an understatement, from a purely objective perspective. However, when you are a sentient universe-eating monster that used to be a fat, bald otaku from a frontier planet in a rather pathetic galaxy in an even more pathetic universe, it is kind of hard to understand how to be ‘nice’. Understand, I was just out to have a few drinks, perhaps eat some of the more nasty criminals that infested the city of Neo Lovenia, and maybe find a few people worth loving… I had no intention of getting involved in something so utterly boring as a slum-dwellers’ riot when I left the sewer-level apartment I’d chosen more out of memories of a certain child’s cartoon back ‘home’ than any practical reasons. Unfortunately, as with most matters involving mortals, I wasn’t exactly given a choice whether to get involved or not. Especially when a really pretty girl hidden under the rags of a filthy slum-dwelling piece of mortal trash was tossed off a bridge, straight into my arms… That, in and of itself, would not have been much of a problem. On any other day, I would have simply eaten the girl, made her into one of my trillions of immortal servants, then gone on about the business of getting myself debauched in the biggest city on one of the most degenerate planets in all of that particular universe. Unfortunately, the men in the silly blue robes with the magic staffs had the bad taste to try to blast me with lightning bolts, probably thinking I was one of the girl’s allies. Since this verged on that most terrible of all sins, incivility, I decided to retaliate in kind. It wasn’t my fault that the fragile matter of that particular space-time continuum wasn’t up to the task of withstanding the equivalent of a sigh of exasperation from me. The bridge, the rioting slum-dwellers in their filthy rags, and the entire unit of what passed for police on that particular sorry excuse for a civilized world, were suddenly wiped from existence, along with a large portion of the surrounding streets and buildings… and a perfect half-sphere of the water running through the reservoir below. Needless to say, I was somewhat dismayed. While I tended to devour all sorts of nasty things in my true form, I generally refrained from drinking the water on planets like that one… one could never tell just what was in it, after all. The oily taste of rotten fish and the bits of effluvia that tended to infest the waters on backward worlds like this one filled my mouth, reminding me of why I generally refrained from such activities when in mortal form. The girl in my arms was quite unconscious, and I was briefly tempted to just toss her in the river and be done with it… but she was also unreasonably pretty underneath all that grime. So pretty, in fact, that she reminded me of my own mortal days, when I spent most of every day staring at a computer screen at animated beauty because the world around me was so ugly. As such, I believe that it is only reasonable that I should be forgiven for deciding to refrain from eating her before I got to know her. Once an erogamer, always an erogamer, after all. Having returned to my home, such as it was, I found myself at a loss. Being a sensible creature, I’d long-since arranged for my own pocket dimension full of all the creature comforts to follow me wherever I went, and there was no chance of trouble from the outside entering without my permission. Unfortunately, I had seemingly lost my wits, deciding to bring a mere mortal child, however pretty, to my sanctum, full of walls of eroge, anime blu-rays, and video games from every era of my pox-infested homeworld’s technological age. As such, I was quite well-aware that my home wasn’t exactly suitable for the inhabitance of beings of the female persuasion. The nightmare of many otakus yet to obtain the power of true enlightenment, of taking a girlfriend home only for her to find out about his hidden passions and reject him furiously, briefly raised its head. I shook my head, smiling somewhat wryly at my rather prosaic worry. After all, if all else failed I could always eat the girl anyway. Pretty as she was, she would be even prettier with glowing orange eyes and a bear-trap smile full of endless hunger. However, now that I had refrained from eating her once, I found it difficult to consider doing so anyway. I am nothing if not stubborn, as a particularly bone-headed (literally) Neanderthal discovered when we got into a headbutting contest during one of my many pleasure trips to my homeworld’s distant past. So it was that I found myself transforming the girl’s rags into a simple kimono (again, once a weaboo, always a weaboo), cleaning her body by the simple expedient of turning all non-living matter on the surface of her skin into quick-evaporating anti-bacterial soap. Why did I have to inherit the original’s otaku-obsessions? I wondered, feeling a bit exasperated. All of the avatars made by the original have their own quirks and individual leanings, though the essential nature of the being we represent is unchangeable. However, I am one of the few unfortunates to have inherited the original’s ‘hobby’ and tastes. The one thing all of us inherit is ‘hunger’. It takes different forms, depending on the individual, but all of us eat people. If it is the simple fondness one might have for their favorite meal, the result tends to be what most mortal races would call a ‘monster’. The individual’s basic personality survives being eaten… but their body and their desires are changed drastically. In the billions of years since my maker had eaten this particular universe, I’d come to understand just how differently our emotions toward those we eat effect various species. If we happened to actually know and like the person in question, the result that came out the other side was generally superficially unchanged… after all, the more we know and like someone, the less likely we are to want to turn them into a duplicate of ourselves. But I digress. I was speaking of our ‘hunger’. In some cases it manifests as lust, in others it manifests as greed, in some it manifests as sadism, and yet in others it can manifest as a desire to kill. It isn’t always negative… if it was, very few universes would have managed to survive our presence. In my case, it is pride, the desire for recognition given free reign. Need I state how paradoxical my otaku hobbies and my ‘hunger’ are? I’ve not quite gone so far down that path as the original went… so I’m not about to proudly state that I love eroge to the world. Unfortunately, that meant that I was generally forced to hide my hobbies on whatever world I chose to use as a foothold at a given time. As such, I vanished the various otaku paraphernalia in the room, transforming the walls into something resembling the inside of a castle lord’s room from the Middle Ages (imagined by me), with a four-poster canopied bed, deep purple silk sheets, covering the walls with bookshelves filled old-fashioned hand-written, hand-bound books in the local language (translated in an instant). As a bow to my ever-present weabooism, I left the katana and wakizashi hanging sheathed on nails driven into the wall and the set of samurai armor I’d created in one of my all-too-common fits of obsessive madness on its stand in the corner of the room closest to the heavy varnished-wood door. I took another look at the girl and sighed deeply. Her fuzzy black cat ears and silky black tail attracted my otaku-obsessions like a fly to honey, and the fact that she was a Japanese-style bishoujo only made it worse (considering the whole reason this universe had been devoured was because the original found out there were naturally-occurring cat-people there). The urge to eat her was briefly overwhelming, but it soon receded, tamed by certain… other feelings. Unlike the original, I have some restraint, after all. I picked her up, threw her over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and carried her over to the bed, where I dropped her, covering her with a down-filled quilt I materialized out of thin air. Her white, oh-so-white skin which contrasted so wonderfully with her midnight-black hair once again invited me to dine upon my guest, but I had little difficulty suppressing the urge this time. That done, I picked a random book off of the shelves and began reading, Hmm… Waylander by Gemmel… my original’s tastes are a bit predictable. I reflected as I waited for her to wake. The story was about a kingslayer assassin, and it was written by one of the original’s childhood favorite authors. While the story started as a straightforward revenge story, describing the rapid collapse of the man who became Waylander into the worst pits of human nature, it was still an enjoyable read… very much like cheap fantasy junk food. A few hours later, I sensed her stirring in the bed, her ears twitching and her breathing becoming shallower. An instant later, she shot upright, screaming. Irritated, I created a sound barrier around her head and waited for her to stop. The cat-like ears of the native form I was using were highly sensitive, and her screaming could have awakened the dead. I observed her closely, seeing that her wide, unfocused eyes were a large, brilliant emerald in color and her teeth had the prominent canines that distinguished her visually from humankind, together with her ears and tail. Eventually, her eyes focused, and her screaming stopped, and I released the sound barrier, waiting for her to speak. “…w…wh…who are you?” She asked in obvious confusion, her voice hoarse, most likely from the screaming. “My name is Clephas.” I replied, giving her what I thought was a gentle, reassuring smile.