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This is a VN by Circus, the company that makes the Da Capo series, which I'm sure most of our resident moe-addicts are familiar with. It is also based in the same universe (well, I'm pretty sure it is, since a Professor Amakase made an AI with emotions who likes bananas and who is the true heroine of this VN, lol). To put it straight to you... this is a very old style of VN. It is a lot closer to the old Da Capo games and Key's early VNs than it is to anything else made in modern times. Like Da Capo, it has its emotional moments... and some decent drama. However, in exchange, the lateral relationships are almost nonexistent (character interrelationships other than with the protagonist tend to be weak to nonexistent, beyond a few templates). This is the standard for this type of VN, and it was more than satisfying enough for me when I first started playing VNs... but now that I've experienced more fulfilling interactions between casts of characters, this VN feels startlingly dull at times. Both visually and audio-wise, this is a VN that 'feels' like a Circus VN. Almost all of the tracks are 'honobono' (restful) or playful in atmosphere. Visually, it is a reasonably pretty VN... but it isn't near the higher end of things. I feel a need to mention the ero simply because of the degree to which the spare (short and plain) h-scenes screw up the rhythm of a VN that doesn't have that good of a rhythm in the first place. This is a VN that was definitely made with an eye toward releasing a console non-H version later on, and it shows. As such, the ero is fairly meaningless and tends to be more of an obstacle to enjoyment than is usual. One more little thing that had me peeved about this VN was the fact that the protagonist is nameable... and that is also the single element that caused me the most difficulty in enjoying the VN as a whole. I don't say this to be an ass, but this particular trope has a singularly dehumanizing effect on the protagonist of any VN in which it is used. Considering how weak and pale charage protags are in the first place, this is a really bad idea, lol. In particular, when there is a blank spot in various spoken dialogue from the heroines where nothing is said or the name is changed to a pronoun, it feels really weird and breaks my engrossment in the story. Style-wise, this is one of the most abominable tropes in existence, and it is the reason it took me five tries to get into and finish Hoshi ori Yume Mirai, despite the overall high-quality of the VN otherwise. Now... this VN particularly shines in its heroine routes. Those routes are done - as I mentioned above - in the 'older' style, where the heroines have a serious problem that only comes up when they are with the protagonist and the protagonist solves, thus affirming their bond (after some shakeups). Now, I don't particularly hate this particular archaic type of story, and the heroine routes themselves are fairly high-level... but looking at the VN as a whole, the weak scenario design outside of the heroine paths (the lead up to the romance formation) is absolutely abominable to experience. This, in some ways, makes the heroine paths an experience in the good slowly carving away at the negativity of the early game. Overall, this VN is a typical Circus experience... good in some ways, godawful in many others. It is difficult to call most of the games by this company a kusoge, but this kind of BS is why this company isn't anywhere near a favorite of mine.

Visual Novel Translation Status (05/21/2016) Okay, for the title this week I decided parodying this song from 1969. As we could see, Sachi was hypnotized Yumiko and Sachi said 'Come on, Sakaki-san... What are you?'. Well, there's much more choice in term of what you want to become in term of animal though, but Yumiko decided to became a dog (Well, it's the writer choice anyway, and in game Yumiko said 'bitch' so I guess it was appropriate). After my comment on VNTS Header Image this week, welcome to my VNTS Review for this week. As for Leisure itself, not interested but anyway, there's a good news for everyone that waited for Meikyuu (It will be released this summer) and Rakuen (Translated 35% as of now). Well, the Anime Central announcement this time was surely would bring everyone with high expectation down. Okay, maybe Kyonyuu Fantasy (Or Funbag Fantasy for localization) was quite decent (Bookwormotaku like this nukige) and Fata Morgana fandisc should be good for anyone else who want to read more Fata Morgana after finished reading it, but 4 out 6 six announcement was turned out to be hardcopy from already existed title, so this is quite letdown (Although if I said the box might attract the people who want to collect the packaging though). Although the earlier announcement was letdown, Mangagamer also announce that they'll release Tatarigoroshi on June 24th and Umineko on July 8th. I only look forward to Tatarigoroshi (If only to patching the voice), while Umineko was already had the patch with improved sprite and voiced to boot (And I kind of didn't click with new sprite from Mangagamer). I think since Anime Center announcement was majorly from Mangagamer, so I'll conclude Mangagamer section here. Oh, for last word I think I better look forward to next week update from Mangagamer to made up this letdown. For more announcement, Sekai announce one doujin VN called 2236 AD which the premise might sounds interesting, although kind of vague. For more update, other than Grisaia series Sekai also had nice progress from WEE Episode 3 which touched 82.49% as of now. Other than that, there's not much interesting although if you want to knew the round up Darekoi and Memory Dogma had some nice progress (More than 10% progress) while Sekai also want to launch Princess Knight using Indie Go Go (At least they learned not to using Kickstarter in case the project failed I supposed). Okay, this week instead of Anime Central, actually interesting news mostly came from Fan Translation. Astral Air progress this time was crazy (1.6% progress from last week, and for the progress it was at 78.76%), and looks like this summer we'll get boost in term of progress according to Chuee. Koiken Otome, they had 100% editing and 86.71% QC this week, which mean it shouldn't be long time before they release the patch (Or maybe next month hopefully?). While both of those 2 news of course good, we'd also face the problem from Dracu Riot side. As we knew, the team right now face some real life issue so maybe they need delayed the first rough complete patch (Although they said it'll be at the end of June, I'm still willing to wait until end of July). For last roundup, Tsui Yuri as of now had 22% translation progress and 2% edited. There's no translation progress from Bishoujo Mangekyou, but the QC was already started and it was at 3.1%. And for last update, we had Majokoi translated at 1.9% and edited at 1.6% (Also Majokoi team got another new 2 translators there. Hope it'll be speed up the translation). Oh, and actually from last week Mari's route at Libra was not 20% translated, but 25% translated. I think that's all for this week, and see you next week. PS - Since Decay mentioned his worry about Angel Beats translation project (Not that I'm interested as of now), here's the translator response in regard of Angel Beats localization announcement from Key at Arcadeotic post (Thanks). It mean that they'll try to continue for new as long as they didn't get hit by C&D or DMCA claim as for now. Although the translator word was more likely they wait until Key make official announcement. Well, let's see it for later though.

I'm going to be honest... this was a month of unrealized potential and over-hyped games. To put things straight in my own words... I really, really don't want to name anything from this month as VN of the Month. If I were to name a VN of the Month based solely on quality and ignoring my own policies on sequels and remakes, it would definitely be Sengoku Koihime X. Nothing this month even gets in the same region as that VN, for all its flaws. Unfortunately, I do have a personal policy on naming direct sequels, fandics, and remakes as VN of the Month, so it isn't a full candidate. On the other hand, Island, for all its hype, turned out to be something of a disappointment for me. I like Front Wing's games, for the most part, though I do end up disliking some of them. I honestly thought like the setting and characters looked interesting when I was reading up to it in the weeks preceding its release. However, when I got into it, I had a definite sense of dejavu, and not in a good way. To be honest, though I do like a good mindfuck sometimes, the somewhat absurd nature of the ones in Island left me a bit irritated. Moreover, the weakness of the initial paths and the true ending were enough to push it below the level I demand of VN of the Month vns, even if it will still be named on my potential recommendations for the year as a whole. Wizard's Complex was, in some ways, my biggest disappointment for the month. It comes from Windmill, a company that has produced a number of first-class games (such as Kamigakari Cross Heart and HHG). However, the hopes I had crumbled with surprising speed once I actually started playing the VN. My misfortune in playing this VN was expecting more just because the company in question had produced more in the past. Almost by default, this leaves Wagamama High Spec as the VN of the Month 2016... though I feel it is unfortunate that Island didn't blow it out of the water, as I'd hoped it would. Dal Segno, for all that it had its good points, had some severe problems that just made it impossible to take seriously, in the end.

Re:Birth Colony is a VN that has a special place in my heart. It is the second VN in the two VN series about a future where a rain of meteors rendered the planet's surface lifeless and humanity is living in arcologies of various types. The first one, Fake Azure Arcology, I plan to replay a bit later. It has the same writer as Hapymaher, Harukiss, Sakigake Generation, and a number of other VNs going back to 2007. The protagonist, Keram Souji (also known as Rindou Souji), is the adoptive child of a noble in the multicultural arcology of Aquarius, some 500 years after the Star Rain (the disaster) and a few years after the events in FAA. The society he lives in is one split between two areas... the 'Central District' where the nobles and what amounts to middle class citizens and normal corporations operate... and the outer regions that are controlled by criminal syndicates such as the multicultural (with heavy oriental leanings) Gentian. It is a world where the nobles have absolute power... as long as they don't seriously screw up. On the surface, Souji seems like the standard role model student... However, Souji's other identity, as a first-rate hacker raised by Airi (also known as Rangiku) and working for Gentian, is somewhat less... pure. Souji is a pragmatist, except where his friends and family are involved. Then, he will use any means he can put his hands on to completely obliterate whatever is threatening those he cares about. Seriously. One of the best scenes in the entire VN involves him essentially In the early part of the story, Souji comes upon a girl called Azurite in a facility sealed off for the past five hundred years, and his - relatively - peaceful life gets turned upside down. For better or worse, the story of this VN is focused on Souji and Azurite, and while things come to a resolution in all the paths (sort of) it isn't one that is really satisfying in the sense that someone as greedy as I would prefer. I mean, , but that ending wasn't exactly a resolution to the story's main conflict, lol. The various paths all reveal elements crucial to creating the big picture in Azurite's path, which is the true one... but because of that, they leave too much unresolved by definition As a whole, the story of the VN is first-class, but that sense that the heroines other than Azurite are just foils for her is more than a little irritating... I loved Noie (both conceptually and as a character) so I was a bit miffed at how her route gets gypped. Technology in this setting is pretty advanced... in particular cybernetics, AI, and networking technology are all way beyond what is possible now, even if you set aside certain super-abilities possessed by the protagonist and Azurite. That kind of hard sci-fi is one of my biggest addictions, so I quite naturally adore that part of this VN. Overall, this is a VN that will seriously tickle people who love hard sci-fi and twisted, dystopian societies. I honestly hope they will produce a third VN in the series (a distinct possibility, considering how open-ended the series' concept is), so I can experience more of this lovely stuff.