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I don't sign into Fuwanovel anymore, but I will sign in to comment in this thread. To anyone in here who suffers from any form of stress related illnesses or anxiety, I want you to know that you can and always should reach out to those who ease your mind. You are safe, and should find areas in your life that make you feel safe. Everyone has a different story, but if you feel the need to talk to someone or have someone constantly remind you that it's okay to be you and that you are safe, then reach out to me. Social anxiety, PTSD, depression: it can all relate in some way or another, and it's important to know that you have someone to lean on. Even if I need to sit in a Skype call with you everyday for the next year, it doesn't matter because no amount of time should ever be put on curing those thoughts. Depression is a giant pit. It's a giant pit that keeps pulling you back in should you manage to climb out. Curing depression has no time limit, and nothing of that sort, be it anxiety or something else, should either. If it takes 10 years of talking to you to help remind you that you are a good person and that you are safe, so be it. Remember that you are safe and that you have me and a lot of other people to reach out to. If you want me to do some gentle hand movements (something I believe more people should do for calming stress and anxiety) to help you sleep at night, let me. No matter what it takes I will personally make sure to let you know you are safe. If not me, anyone. Even if you don't have suicidal thoughts and even if you are able to function on a daily basis, do not let this go. Depression is easy to hide (trust me, I know very well how to do it), but that doesn't mean it's easy to conquer. Do not bottle your anxiety up and don't face it alone. Trust those you want to reach out to, but at the same time, know that strangers will listen. If they don't, reach out to another, and keep doing it until you exhaust yourself. Anything that allows you to get your mind of battling something that should never be taken lightly is okay. Sometimes we are dealt a hand that sucks, and unfortunately we do need to make the best of our situation, but you are safe. What matters is now and moving forward. What happened in the past will be difficult for you mentally. Some memories never leave us, but it's about letting those memories not have a great impact on you. You are safe, and you do have the strength to overcome what has happened to you. Life sucks, but it is important to try and let you get on the path to healing and better well being. Treat your mind with respect, and give your mind and body the proper nutrition and rest if deserves. Don't face this alone and don't hide it if you feel others can't help you. Happiness is important. For me, it's not being stressed or having any sort of negativity in your life. Happiness doesn't always mean you always have a smile on your face, and it doesn't mean things don't bother you. Ask yourself what happiness means to you. Find out what makes you happy and aim for those goals. We will always have struggles and always be tested in life. Some of us don't have it easy financially, physically, mentally, or otherwise, but always doing your best is important. You are not alone, remember that. I am pulling for you, and many others are as well. Learn what it takes to make you feel safe and at ease. We can't always rely on the same thing to always have access, but always remember that people are there for you. Focus on the present, where you are right now. That's what's always important. Don't hang on to those troublesome thoughts or worries, always try to think positive as best you can. That doesn't mean to ignore the things you need to take care of, but it's okay to feel good and be happy. You do no need permission to feel happy. You are you and you choose how to be happy and feel good. Do others make you feel happy? Then let them make you feel that way. I am always here for you and so are others. Please know that. You deserve to be happy. There are always those who are not as good as we wish, but there are more good people in the world than you may think. It's okay to surround yourself with those people, you never need permission. You decide who enters your life and what influences it. It's okay to say goodbye to things if you can't handle certain situations, environments, or people. Find a spot that has a positive atmosphere. A bed is something I find that always works. Being in a bed and talking to a friend while being cozy might be yours. You are you, and you have permission to make yourself happy. I am here for you, so don't ever forget that.

Honestly, Ren has left and come back to Fuwa so many times that it has basically become a meme at this point.

Now... I know you've heard me bash charage/moege before. That isn't the purpose here, though. I've played plenty of VNs of the type over the years, and a decent number of them have actually managed to make it pretty high on my list of recommendations, despite the genres' flaws. I've also mentioned before that VN quality has fallen drastically in the past two years... and I still think that, despite a few seriously stand-out works this year in general and this month in particular. The reason why I'm focusing on charage/moege right now is because I just played one great one, one average-quality one, and now I'm playing a mediocre (but pretty-looking) one. Having seen, just in the last few weeks, the variance in the genre in detail... I've had it thrust in my face that my conclusions, which were previously just instinctive (thus I thought it was at least in part because I was tired of the genre/s in general) and thus had the possibility of not being entirely justified, were not entirely off the mark. To be specific, I'm somewhat bemused at the degree to which people have been pushing/hyping the one I'm playing right now, considering how pathetic this writer is at using the tools available to him. It isn't the first time where I've encountered a mediocre VN with great visuals that gets pushed by the Western community (mostly by people who haven't played it but voted on it anyway... or ones who just extracted the CGs or used a save file to read the h-scenes) like crazy. However, it is the most egregious example of this particular social pattern I've seen recently. Now, leaving aside my outrage at completely unjustified hype and recommendations... I have to ask, why is this VN, which probably never would have made it to production three years ago, is still somewhat better than the baseline of what I've experienced in the last two years? Thinking about it, the answer came to me startlingly quickly... it is because it satisfies people's nether-regions and their desire for idealized slice-of-life with a few quirks without actually having a personality. The very reason I hate it is the reason it has caught the interest of some in our community, and I find myself smiling wryly as I realize that most of the people who play it are only interested in fapping to archetypical moe-heroines. Understand, I actually don't have any objections to non-extreme fap material or moe fap material. I don't have problems with others' sexuality in general (as long as they don't inflict it on me or create victims along the way). However, I do have to wonder why these same people don't hit up one of the dozens of moe-nukige that get released every year instead, lol. Obliterating all twists and scent of personality from a VN story is reemerging as a habit in VN makers, after a very very brief hiatus, and it is coming back even worse than before. On the bright side, it makes the gems stand out more... but it also means that I have to listen to people fawning over mindless drivel that isn't even good by genre standards. I actually should have seen the signs long ago... considering Sougeki no Jaeger (Propeller's last VN) and the sudden reappearance of the previously endangered beast known as the 'pure moege' in the last two years (though only a few of them, thank god). The problem now, as it was thirteen years ago, is that the market is saturated with VNs in general and charage/moege in particular. Because of this - the Japanese being the most conservative businessmen on the planet - the various VN companies have started to 'go back to basics', trying again the sort of tactics that succeeded before. The fact that the average otaku ero-gamer in Japan is perfectly willing to shell out $120 for a crappy game that happens to have a cute (and preferably half-nude) dakimakura attached actually makes this trend worse, as it is creating an artificial (and very temporary) inflation of a stagnant market (and not for the first, second, or even third time). It is almost like the real estate market here in 2007... everybody knew the bottom was going to fall out eventually, but people kept putting their bets on making a few more bucks before it did. Worse, even if the market does collapse, it is unlikely to result in better VNs, lol.

Hey guys, just wanted to give a little update, I was able to get an appointment with my doctor for tomorrow morning, whice is pretty crazy since it normally takes at least a week. I'll let you all know what happens. Also loving how much support this thread has gotten, though it pains me to know that others have to go through anything like this.

Aah, I'm tired. It has been three days since the last update, but I'ver already surprassed and perhaps even doubled the amount I translated, thus I'm completely exhausted. I see sex lines where-ever I go and to put it frankly, it's not fun. Well, at least now I'll have six whole days to recharge until I finish this. That's right, I'm aiming for my translation to be finished next week. I won't laze around like I usually do, forget about translating for a few days, notice you an upcoming update and then proceed to translate for two days. No, I will finish this next week. And the best part of the whole novel is at hand, so my motivation has reached its maximum potential. As for other things, the editing got a nice bump but QC is still frozen solid. Nothing can be done about it, sorry about that. Look forward to the end next week. Progress: Translation: 7/8 script files finished, 8th script file 81% completed (~97%) Editing: 18% QC: 3,1% Proofreading: 0% Let's finish this, next week.

I dunno about anyone else, but I'm finding the common insults in the English language rather dull. Not that the English language is incapable of good insults, just that the majority of people rely on previously written ones which have been used to death and are just boring. An indication not only of people's general lack of creativity, but their uninspired use of language in all forms of their life. 'Go fuck [insert person.]' 'Screw you'. 'Fuck you.' 'Go home [insert derogatory term].' All generic, all boring. Do insults REALLY carry weight when we trot out regurgitated crap like this? Surely a few seconds of thought would be worth the added meaning it would give to the abuse?

Don't worry, this nifty tool has you covered. Donald Trump Insult Generator

Confession: I identify most of you people by your profile pic and when you change them I basically forget who you are.

Well, if you're bored like me, let's play a game Basically, post a pic along with the name of a character(can be from anywhere really, but please try to avoid mega plot /twist spoiler characters) and put under it something like "hero or villain?". Then just post the answer around it, (in a spoiler tag of course). You can also give some reasoning behind your answer and/or give a link to the characters page/wiki etc if you want to as well. Don't get too hung up by hero/villain really its just more of a good or evil but thought hero/villain sounded cooler so yeah. Also before posting your own, try to answer the persons above you, not required though. Anyway good luck and lets get started Yaginuma Ryouichi Hero or Villain?

A couple blog posts back, I argued that the story exploration game Gone Home can be considered a visual novel. After some great discussion there, it seemed only logical to tackle the much bigger question: “What is a visual novel? Which is why I’m not going to. That’s a spike-filled, snake-infested pit of a question if I ever saw one — and I already had spikes and snakes for breakfast. Instead, we’re going to attempt to answer a more nuanced question: “What are the minimum requirements something must meet in order to be usefully discussed as a visual novel?” That’s a slightly different but way more useful angle. Just about anything can be used as a chair, but not everything is a “chair.” As a society, we’ve agreed on a certain set of characteristics that chairs share in common. This lets us discuss chairs with one another and be pretty sure we won't be given a pineapple to sit on. We’ll do the same here. But for the sake of brevity, we’ll shorthand that question back down to “What’s a visual novel?” It’ll be our little secret. The VNDB standard The most obvious place to start looking for answers would be The Visual Novel Database (VNDB), home to info on more than 18,000 VNs. Here’s their answer, found in the VNDB FAQ: As a working definition, this leaves a lot to be desired. There are an awful lot of cans, mays, typicals, and usuallys. Worse yet, you could easily dream up a VN that meets almost none of the assumptions laid out here — perhaps an extremely short text-based story in which the words run around the outside of a woodcut illustration. There’s absolutely no background music and the player answers no questions, which results in the same plot every time she plays. A somewhat more satisfying answer can be found in VNDB’s list of requirements that titles must meet before being added to their database. For something to qualify as a visual novel: Better, but still somewhat problematic. For one thing, it conflates the commonly accepted with the essential. What if someone wants to present a story in a manner other than ADV (text in box below image) or NVL (text overlaying image)? What if they thought of a more innovative configuration of text + art? Tough luck, Billy; go suck eggs in the corner. (They don't seem to strictly enforce this, by the way. Digital: A Love Story is on VNDB, even though it eschews both ADV and NVL for a diegetic presentation.) Moreover, these guidelines can’t seem to decide if no gameplay is allowed at all, as the first two sentences suggest, or if up to 1% simple gameplay is okay. A title can also be added to the database if it’s a “visual novel/game” hybrid that meets the following requirements: Again, problematic. The ADV/NVL issue is still there, of course, but now a new wrinkle’s been added: the privileging of narrative over dialogue. The assumption here is that a novel can’t consist entirely (or almost entirely) of dialogue, so a title that doesn’t “consistently” rely upon a formal narrator doesn’t qualify. In truth, there are any number of novels that take this form — The Awkward Age by Henry James, for one. Besides, if Key suddenly dropped a 50-hour all-dialogue school drama that looked and played exactly like Clannad, do you doubt for a second that we'd all consider it a VN? Or that FuwaReviews would give it one star? But I don’t blame VNDB. They’re not looking to define the visual novel. They’re just trying to set up some semi-reasonable guidelines to help streamline their submission process. Without this, every staffer there would probably be eating gun-barrel sandwiches for lunch. Fine. Let’s build something better. I’ve sketched out the beginnings of a more general-purpose test for discussing something as a visual novel. I don’t consider this to be at all authoritative, and in fact, I invite you to critique it and build upon it in the comments below. It’s a starting point, nothing more. A 7-point test for visual novels 1. It must be “read” on a digital device that outputs to a screen. Fairly self-explanatory. Computers, consoles, handhelds, phones, e-readers — hell, even a smart watch would qualify. A printed VN would be considered a graphic novel (or a choose-your-own-adventure book). An audio file of a VN would be an audiobook. 2. It must convey a recognizable narrative. Again, fairly self-explanatory. A VN must be a spoken or written account of connected events. In other words, it needs to tell a story, fictional or otherwise. The entirety of the Detroit phone book displayed in Ren’py is not a VN, even if it’s accompanied by a whole chorus line of catgirls. 3. It must use on-screen text as the primary avenue for conveying that narrative. At the heart of any VN is the act of reading — eyes looking at words and turning them into meaning. If any significant portion of the story is delivered as voice-over or action without on-screen text, it isn’t a visual novel. Watching Game of Thrones on your laptop with subtitles doesn’t suddenly turn it into a VN. 4. It must have visuals paired with that narrative. A visual novel must have visuals. Crazy talk, right? It doesn’t matter if those visuals are 8-bit pixel art, hand illustration, 3D renders, photography, or video. Ideally, these images would be germane to the narrative, but even that’s not technically necessary. Having unrelated images wouldn’t keep something from being a VN; it would just make it a *bad* VN. 5. It must be authored. In other words, the story must be an act of creative intention by its author(s). A VN cannot rely upon sandboxes, emergent gameplay, or similar mechanisms to generate its narrative arc (though they may be used to flavor it). Such experiences, while highly interesting, result in something other than a novel. 6. Reading must comprise the majority of one’s experience with the title. This one gets tricky, because it cuts deep to the heart of another unresolved question: “Is a visual novel a game?” For the purposes of this discussion, I’d suggest there’s a continuum that looks roughly like: not a VN >> game w/ some VN qualities >> game/VN hybrid >> VN w/ some game qualities >> VN Roughly past the halfway mark, we can usefully consider something to be a visual novel for terms of discussion. Below that, we can consider it a game but usefully discuss its VN-like elements (or lack thereof). 7. It must offer a deliberately framed reading experience. This one’s a little tricky. Here’s the problem: a plain old Word doc containing a short story + embedded images could technically satisfy requirements #1 through #6, but we’d be hard-pressed to call that a visual novel. I’m still tweaking the language for #7, but the general idea is that just as a film director frames a shot, controlling what the audience can see and hear at any given moment, so too does the creator of a visual novel. This is unlike our hypothetical Word doc, in which you could widen the window to see more text than intended, skip around the story out of order, scroll the window so that you can read a passage without seeing its associated art, etc. I briefly considered adding an eighth bullet point, but chose to leave it on the cutting room floor. Why did this get dropped? Well, I imagined a traditional novel that was rigged to turn its pages at pre-defined intervals. You can’t speed it up, you can’t slow it down; all you have is an on/off switch. Would that lack of agency suddenly keep this particular book from being a novel? I couldn’t think of a good reason why it would, so I removed the requirement. But I'm open to good arguments for bringing it back. Closing thoughts, for now You might note that I’ve avoided any mention of things like: story genre, branching narratives, art style, country of origin, sexual content, sound/music, etc. That’s by design. These things help inform what type of VN a title is, not whether it can be discussed as one. You might also note that my 7-point test would disqualify Gone Home from being considered a visual novel, invalidating my earlier argument. That’s also by design. Kill your darlings, amirite?

Finishing Otoz . It's a fantasy story with battles and armies though like with all of TS's works, you can expect to have a cast of freely interacting characters. Wasn't that interested for the first couple chapters but after I saw where it was going things gradually got more interesting. It's hardly a typical fantasy story, once you get into it's exciting and interesting all the same. Kurenai no Tsuki was mediocre in the character drama and the depiction of the routes, though the atmosphere and setting/mystery which were decent. Was planning on playing Sakura no Mori † Dreamers, but I'm way more exicted to try out リズベルルの魔 (Lisbelluru no Ma).

We're in agreement. I want them to be considered VNs, too. Their interfaces are visuals, and that is the point. Diegetic visuals are still visuals in my book. We can take this to absurd lengths, of course — "My intentional lack of visuals are my visuals!" "The choice of Times New Roman is my visual!" — but at that point, we might as well just burn it all down and live in caves because we've decided definitions are useless. Is a box of refrigerator poetry magnets a poem or the potential for a poem? Again, I think there's a difference between a ludic text that allows for play and discovery within a structure — House of Leaves, I'm looking at you, baby — and something that has absolutely no form without play. Both are very interesting, but they're very different beasts. For the sake of useful conversation, I'd offer that it's best not to conflate them. You're basically arguing against genres. This is entirely defensible — and often useful in academic discussions. But for a working definition, which limits the potentially limitless so we can discuss it, it's not very practical. There is a difference between a VN and a platformer, and if I generally like one and not the other, I want a way to usefully signify that.

There are a lot that look really interesting coming out this year and considering I'm learning Japanese over the summer, I might actually be able to try some.

I would love to see that translated. It looks very interesting!

Nobody cares about Amatsutsumi?

I think it's TB's stream for it that starts in 15 minutes, the actual conference is in 45 minutes.

It's been a while since I have said anything about the VN I'm doing. It's going well. So far I now have another writer/proofreader and an artist. And progress is slowly being made. This is great actually we have a lot of many great ideas that we want to put it. We just need to put it all together. There's still the thing about the music and another artist but we will figure something out. Also here's what the main theme for this VN is. . . http://puu.sh/p6W0V/2abbb09158.mp3 See you all next time. Byee! <3

Sounds like a cross of a classic Megaman stage theme and something from an Ace Attorney OST

I think we’re in agreement here. The definition of “narrative” I used (borrowed from the OED) reads a bit narrowly and could stand to be broadened. A train of thought can still be a novel, as Joyce did a good job showing. But a list of unrelated words or statements picked at random? Probably not, unless you’re a diehard dadaist. Here we disagree. It’s a visual novel. By its very name, it seems to demand some sort of visual accompaniment. Otherwise, a straight ASCII dump of Huck Finn could be saved out as a PDF and qualify as a VN. A definition so broad doesn’t help us usefully discuss VNs, which is why I’m looking for a working definition here rather than a textbook one. I’d argue the opposite, and I think by using the world “build” at the end there, you might just doing the same. The emergent can certainly be wonderful raw material, but someone still needs to recognize the potential underlying narrative, then structure the text to best frame it. Me dumping all of Groucho Marx’s letters on your desk is not a narrative. Me editing and ordering his letters to spotlight the delightful back and forth between him and his studio is something much different. As for your MMO idea, you’re butting up against the notion of a working definition again. If anything that generates text to be read on a screen can be considered a VN, then a VN stops being a useful thing to define (which I suspect is your intent). Back to my chair example, it’d be like you saying that anything I can sit should be considered a chair. I’d ask for one and you’d give me a dead mule. “It has four legs and a back,” you’d say, “just like you’d expect. Go ahead and sit. It’s really not comfortable, but how many chairs are, really?” Yet I’d still be wanting for a chair. I’d be interested in hearing you flesh this out more. It seems like you’re hoping to blur the lines between text as a framework for the ludic (in which a reader plays between the lines, so to speak) and the ludic itself (where the play *is* the text). I could be misunderstanding, but this sounds like another case where the line between "VN" and "game" becomes so incredibly porous that any definition becomes useless. Again, I suspect this might be your intent.

Been watching TB's take on it, which is a first for me because I usually just ignore E3 and find out what happened later. We Happy Few looks really interesting.

Can confirm

Da Capo 3 and Libra for now, if we talk in term of translated one.

Still waiting for harmonia... Also fault: silence the pendant

Finished the first season of Chihayafuru. Hmm... To start with what I loved, the character diversity. Many of the characters in their group seemed like the sort of character and designs that would make them antagonists or secondary/almost extra characters. Not almost primary like they all were. Additionally, there was a surprising variety of characters and play-styles. I could tell the "desk-guy" is especially strong in the "let me play against him 5 times and I can explain his play-style and flaws in detail" department -- he just needs to become better at exploiting the information itself. The Queen has a profound love for the cards, not the syllables, and wastes no movement, hitting the cards only where she needs so they fly off. The traditional clothing girl also doesn't focus on the syllables, but associates meaning to them. This creates a strong defensive play and makes her karuta unpredictable to the opponent. Chihaya is not strategically minded at all, and her karuta is heavily based on her emotions and state. She's able to distinguish first syllables which would normally sound the same when she gets used to the reader and she's fast. When she gets into a "groove", she'll keep on charging on. However, it's easy to break her concentration and spirit. She also at some point learnt to time her movements so as to avoid faults. The Pork guy got overshadowed. We hardly saw any of his games and we only know that he's good, but only up till the lower levels of Class-A. Taichi is a master of concentration and memorisation, and he also has some strategic ability. He just lacks speed willpower for the most part. The master seems like a better version of Chihaya. We also don't know much about Arita (is that his name?); he is fast and can tell what the best plays should be in any given situation. Can't really say much about him. Chihaya's teacher specialises in destroying the oponent's mental state. Chihaya unwittingly manages this with her speed and good sense. Considering this is a game where "speed" is one of the most important aspects, they managed a lot of variety. I didn't like it when we get to the point of "this person is the fastest there is" and then an "even faster person" is introduced, and then a third "fastest person" shows up and that kind of thing. It's kind of unavoidable, but this is mostly a nitpick exclusive to me. I'll actually continue on to the second season. I'm hoping for two things: A conclusion, and new members for the club. I actually hope they either throw the romance aspects out of the window or get them over with. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd much rather this show had no romance. It somehow feels jarring to me.

Well golly gee, it's almost like the gods are telling us that some themes are inferior while one in particular belongs to the master race.

I'd be with you if it weren't for my tendency to have shitty luck in the gacha rolls. I've worked for quartz and I've purchased quartz and more often than not my rolls are Unlimited Craft Essences. I still don't even have a 5* servant to my name for all of that. I have a handful of 4* servants, so I make do. I've got a Zerker, a Rider and an Assassin maxed and can eventually max a Saber and Caster, and Shielder is what she is. Past that, I have to borrow a good Archer or Lancer or I'm screwed if I need one for something.

Irisviel is pretty much a healing machine though, a Medea Lily lite in a sense. Not the best at what she does but still offering a different option with her guts-giving NP. Well, being low level and not having a good team is naturally going to hinder your progress during events, most of the old players just roflstomp through everything. Not gonna deny that but I don't think this is how things should be handled regardless. Besides, all I use all day everyday is Kintoki/Herc/Lancelot for farming, even did the whole America with them. Zerkers are addictive. Not really, I technically have a better option for anything the freewares offer except for Iris now. I really don't like the idea of free Servants being simply better than the ones you rely on luck - and money - to grab, even less so when most of the player base won't have any trouble getting those. I'd be all in for them if they offered unique gimmicks though, would make them feel special rather than just a cookie for taking a stroll on the event map a few times. Edison would have been a super cool event prize for his Concept Improvement, not an overpowered skill but unique in usefulness. Shiki's reduced insta-kill resistance skill is kinda like that too now that I think about it, taking my complaints about her back, pretty sure most Assassins are simply bad too so she's gucci. :3

Too many dank memes for your computer to handle

You wouldn't have this problem if you were using Rooke's superior theme, y'know ... Just sayin'.

Try changing theme to fuwafabulous if you haven't already (or one of the other ones). Themes can consume heaps of cpu doing nothing useful but fancy colours 'n shit.

Daaaaw, the imouto is so cute

It's no longer an 'implication' when they write the 'hidden meaning' across the knuckles of a big glove, put on that glove, then start smacking the fanbase in the face with it over and over and over yelling 'do you understand? DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!'

I remember my first Ramune. I brought it back from Düsseldorf's Japan day. I had no idea how to open it, so I looked up instructions online. I opened it and it sprayed everywhere. I didn't hold it tightly enough apparently. But then I also drank it from the wrong side and the marble rolled back in place and the pressure kept it there again. I had no idea what was going on, I looked down and saw the marble, attempted to push it away with my finger, and the drink sprayed all up in my face. Fun times!

Visual Novel Translation Status (06/11/2016) Since Tay this time using the sketch from Fault's artist in regard of Fata Morgana Steam release, so this week because at the picture we had characters from both Fata Morgana (Maid and White Haired Girl) and Fault (Selphine and Ritona), I made the title 'Fata Morgana and Fault Crossover Fan Fiction'. Oh, and speaking about Fata Morgana it was quite interesting, although the second door was quite bloody imo (Also if you looking for moe girl in Fata Morgana, I suggest you better look at Pauline because I think her design was the most close resemble from Japanese anime girl usual design imo). Anyway, here's my VNTS Review for this week, and I think for this week (And maybe in next weeks depending of my interest) I'll open new segment with the title 'Other' which covered all of the translation group beside usual 4 (Sekai, Mangagamer, JAST, and Fan Translation), or in VNTS word it would be Miscellaneous Projects. As for my opinion, the most interesting update was from Other and Fan Translation, while Mangagamer was had usual 2 weeks update and Sekai was also in their usual state (They add Tenshin Rahman and Chrono Clock now, so I should keep eye on those 2 now). Sekai Project Usual update from them, although most of them was slowed down though if we look at the VNTS page (The progress for the updates was not even touching 5%), and we also had some VN which had hiatus (Although it wasn't interesting one anyway) so for this week Sekai Project segment wasn't too interesting from the update (Oh, as for Chrono Clock and Tenshin Rahman translation progress, it was at 17.22% and 25.38% respectively). Instead of looking at less lively update from Sekai, I think I'll talk about the survey from Sekai since doddler post the Sekai's survey form picture. For the first picture here, well too bad I didn't had any of the console so if Sekai provide number 6 for none, I'll fill all of the choice with 6 ie I will not play VN on any of those console. For the 2nd picture here, I think for now I would fill 1 for Maitetsu, 2 for KARAKARA, 3 for Just Desert, and the rest with 12. It means that for now only Maitetsu and KARAKARA interest me right now, while Just Desert was because the VN once again from Indonesia. Although I knew that Meikyuu and Tokeijikake was good stuff, the reason I wasn't looking forward to it because I knew since back when Kajitsu was in translating process that Meikyuu was ended in cliffhanger, while I'd also read that Tokeijikake was also ended in unresolved mystery. Oh, and for Hoshimemo I think even if the translation was quite bad for some people (Personally I didn't care), it was already discussed and reviewed since back at 2012 so not looking forward to it. That's all for Sekai segment this week. Mangagamer Well, Da Capo 3 translation progress wasn't at 100% (To be exact, the translation progress was at 97% and editing progress was at 95%), but at least it's still had the progress, and hopefully the translator will fulfill his promise to finish it in less than 3 weeks (In more than 3 week we'll had AX, and the translator promise that he'll finish the translation before AX). As for other progress, actually not to much but for roundup here Kuroinu was at 78% translated, Pygmalion was fully translated and 8% edited, and for Bokuten it was also already fully translated and for editing process it was at 89%. And also Mangagamer tease us here in regard of in scripting project. I wonder if one of the project would be Himawari. Well, let's see it later. Oh, and for last update I forgot about it before, but the translation progress for Fata Morgana fandisc was at 12%. Speaking about Fata Morgana, I'd also quite interested with the Drama CD (Speaking about Drama CD, Mangagamer already had Yurirei 3rd Drama CD ready for pre-order there) just like the translator in the interview here, because it was contained some interesting seiyuu. For the special service, since Tay promote Fata Morgana in image header, how about I also give seiyuu list and their MAL page too. Anyway, here's the cast for Fata Morgana Drama CD (I hope if Novectale release voiced version of Fata Morgana, they will use seiyuu from Drama CD). Michel: Takahiro Sakurai The Maid: Asami Seto The Girl with White Hair: Mamiko Noto Mell Rhodes: Soichiro Hoshi Nellie Rhodes: Kana Asumi The Man: Kenichi Suzumura Pauline: Aki Toyosaki Javi: Yuki Kaji Maria Campanella: Yui Horie Jacopo Bearzatti: Junichi Suwabe And for last voiced character, since it was spoiler I'll just tell that Ami Koshimizu will voiced the spoiler character. Well, if some of you didn't interested in Fata Morgana before, maybe you could consider it from Drama CD seiyuu, and it was once again quite interesting cast. That's all for Mangagamer section here. Other The reason I opened this section because we had some interesting update here, and one of them was surprise. Okay, as for this section we already knew that Moonstone will release their moege 'Love Sweets' for English speaker, but we obviously still didn't know when the release date is (Although Moonstone promise us it will be this year). As for Corona Blossom IGG, looks like it'll be only for Chapter 1 while Frontwing want to release Chapter 2 and 3 separately. We still didn't knew though if the VN was could only fully enjoyed by playing all of 3 chapters or not, but I think it was quite not-so-good tactic because it was basically tell the backer that they willing to make more money by making separated release while Frontwing probably could make it in one volume only. Oh well, it's Frontwing strategy though and for Corona Blossom Chapter 1 campaign, right now it was managed to gather 17,052 from the target of 30,000 (56.84% funded). As for Libra, this time it was managed to surprise me by having delivered the progress at Mari's route translation (50% translated right now), but waiting 25 days for 25% progress (Coincidentally the number was same) was definitely tell us the progress was quite slow imo. Well, since Mikandi in the translation page promise us that there will be update for each week, I will keep my eye on it. Finally, for surprise announcement, in 5 days we'll had another new translated VN. As for the premise, it was MC and her little sister will be going to becoming nurse and so they started their study. From the review, I learned that this game was probably had 4 routes for all of heroine. Oh, and just in case you didn't get it MC here was female, so we'll get the yuri (But since it was on Steam and the producer was Kogado, there's no sex scene here). And for the title, once again instead of calling 'Nurse Love Addiction' I'll called this VN Hakuai. For future player of Hakuai, here's the advice from me. Expect some interesting CG in the middle of story based on spoiler filled review that I read (Once again I wonder what kind of reaction Hakuai player will had here). And since both Zakamutt and Decay was had some complain in regard of translation and UI respectively, I think for now I didn't had any problem with that, although to response Decay it would be nice though if we could play the demo to see if we could adjust the UI to transparent like Japanese demo. Oh well, and that's all for new section here. Fan Translation For this week, we had Yukikaze full patch released. While I said I'm far more interested with Yukikaze than Asagi, I think for the woman's breast other than Yukikaze the size was very inappropriate (I knew it was for anyone elso who had vey big breast fetish, but still). Therefore, when I saw Yukikaze, I think I like her design because her breast wasn't too big or in other word flat (Well, if nukige VN offer too many big breast girl, I think seeing flat one was quite refreshing). And speaking about big breast nukige, we had another update in regard of big breast nukige translation project. Once again, here's the page and according to this post, he'll release this patch in this June (For the progress, it was already finished translating and right now it was in editing). Anyway, for any reader here who had fetish for big breast, looking forward to the patch release. For non nukige project, looks like both Tay and Decay forgot to add this (I knew it was probably in regard of Mangagamer partnership with Navel), so I think I'll keep an eye on this project. Anyway, the project was already here for a while since August, and for the progress it was 30% translated (By the way, the premise was quite interesting with MC cosplay as the girl in order to enter girl's school). Looks quite good if we look from VNDB score (8 for average at VNDB right now). Anyway, for this week fan translation update, in regard of ToHeart 2 we had ittaku release another beta patch here, and FredtheBarber finished editing twin's route (And bring the editing progress to 85%, also they started to editing Manaka and Sasara route). Also they finished proofreading Konomi route and started on Tamaki route. For Bishoujo Mangekyou, this week we had the 8th script was at 37.7% (Or around 90% to overall script) translated and 9.9% edited. For Tsui Yuri, we had 36% script translated and 8% edited. As for release date for full patch, the translators of those 3 VN (Ittaku, Arcadeotic, and Dergonu) promised that they aim for 2016 release. Good luck for those three. For Saku Saku, there's no progress other than Akerou assure us that the QC still ongoing, while for Irotoridori the progress was at 13% translated (Also Akerou promised us that by August he already finished translating Irotoridori common route. Let's see it later). Majoki right now was at 11% translated and 5% edited (Nice progress). Finally for Astral Air, this week even crazy was understatement for their progress. In case you wondering, this week the translating progress from last week was at 3.59% (I though 1.65% was already crazy enough), bringing the overall translation progress to 84.95%. And for more news, Corona route was fully translated and they will translated Yuuki route next. Well, looks like Chuee promise in regard of translation progress at summer will picked up was true. That's all for this week VNTS Review, and see you next week.

Well I don't know how long this post will be but here it goes. I was diagnosed with clinical depression, social anxiety and social withdrawal around 9 years ago, so well into my early teen years. In my case I started basically shutting down, I found it hard to be around people, much less having dialogues with them, as well as even be able to do anything for myself. I used to be a perfect attendance student, but I ended up turning into someone that couldn't go without having at least 1-2 absences per a week or two. I would have massive anxiety attacks over the silliest things and I couldn't imagine myself in a sate of peace, I always had to be either down low in my depression or worrying about something I had to do, which would always lead to anxiety attacks. I had no life nor anything to live for at that point, I found joy in nothing, even though I was already initiating myself on the "weeb way". Amidst all of this I started therapy, I've had about 3 different therapy "cycles", in total 4 psychologists and 2 psychiatrists, each one with their medication prescription for me. They all ranged from side effects to overall strength of the drug, to the point that my metabolism was affected permanently. Therapy really had it's ups and downs with me, while I can say that I did get helped a bit in one of those "cycles" I only got to control myself, even if only partially, after I tried to get myself to think about anything I would want or enjoy in life. Since I was basically wallowing in despair because I didn't envision any future for me, I wasn't happy with the path I was taking(at this point in time it was my enrollment in an engineering degree) and I couldn't think of anything else. My "goal" turned out to be a pretty hedonistic one, as I've decided to basically just throw myself into my interest in Japanese and whatever comes will be what comes. So while I don't know what I'll end up doing, in a way not really ending my worries for the future, I was kind of able to hold off on a lot of those immediate worries that triggered my attacks. It's not the most elegant way of doing things, but since I had some knowledge on what cause part of my attacks, it was somewhat easier, in a very loose sense of the term, to try to do something about it. The rest of my "social" related attacks and problems still exist, but I was able to build up some resilience, or rather I basically try to flow things into not thinking about it, even if I fail a lot at it. Even today my father can't understand why I lost contact with everyone I once called a friend, since it was a mixture of me not really having much in common with them as well as my social withdrawal and anxiety, although I was able to make some connections as of late in real life, with our very own Nosebleed being one of them for example. All in all, I can only tell you cliche lines or thoughts regarding your situation or what you should do. In my opinion while professional help wasn't really for me and I was much better off trying to(key word) solve or subside my problems by myself, your case might be different so do try it as a way out of this, however I'll always be a bit cynical towards meds even if I know that there's nothing wrong per se about them, I'm just prejudiced. Anyway I hope that this made sense to anyone or even in the context of this thread in general, and goddamn did I write more than I expected.

What reason would I have to give some inveterate cunt any of my precious mental bandwidth?

I rather stay with the word fuck (which is my fav word in the english language) (link for the real video http://www.nailmaster.ru/fuck.html)

Sure, no problem. Try to find ways to counter your negative thinking. I've told my mom about my concerns. I now have an appointment scheduled with the doctor. This is a genuine concern, but there's nothing else I can do about it and I just need to wait patiently.

What triangle? I hope you don't mean Rem, cuz there hasn't been anything pointing at her falling for Subaru, but rather finally trusting him as a friend and being really grateful. We (and specially anime producers) tend to forget that there's something called "a trillion different feelings apart from love" in the world. We are too used to epic adventures where people randomly fall in love with each other nonstop. Re:Zero has proved, at least for now, that it's not gonna take the road of trashy anime, where being a decent human being and/or helping makes anything with female genitals fall in love with you. We didn't even see a blush on her face, as long as I remember from today's episode, so I'd be really shocked at the sheer stupidity of the author pulling a love triangle out of his ass.

still far away pretending to be helping out in a clients kitchen, but managed to finish my read of モミジは紅く其の身を染めて whilst hiding in a nearby toilette. first thing first, contrary to some fags wrongful perception of ao-titles being aimed at a kindergarden-ish crowd only this one is clearly not and except for some minor elements of kitsch almost everything about it is more or less rather mature. what starts out with a certain pastrelated incisive incident is followed shortly after by seemingly peaceable moments of deluding oneself under the assumption of finally having moved on and ultimately ends up in a nightmare when sins of the olden days start shredding that protective little husk of yours to pieces. though the authors attempts of creating something with literay value by adding some philosophical aspects are a little clumsy at times and not that well executed, the overall atmosphere of angst and guilt is what momiji exells at, not to mention the desperate struggle for absolution/salvation as its core-theme. in short, while certain passages appear a little out of place, btw. strange (you know what i mean when you get there :P), the read as awhole does not and feels very much human. negative emotions and the consequent amplification of theirs as the story progresses is what stands out the most, making it a gloomy experience from start to finish with even the main ending itself having a grave aura of unaccomplishment to it, similar to fraternites one, a fact which might come to annoy few, but which plays a pivotal role in what it tries to accomplish. 救いがあっても、結局代償を払っているので、本当のハッピーエンドとは言えない……。that one sums it up. the game offers quite alot of bad outcomes (partly real bad ones) which can be a little tricky to reach, but with ones brains intact this should be a doable read in about 30-35h. as for the specs, no voices, music pleasantly befitting the atmosphere/plot and a resolution which transmutes your eyeballs into bleeding lumps of flesh, literally. but since this title is basically available for less than a cheap meals worth there´s no real point in try complaining/nitpicking. to me it´s a solid 8,5, forwhy it managed to accomplish what it tried to & gave my mind a much needed fuckup.

While I'm somewhat slow with English VN's, at least I seem to be able to finish some Japanese stuff lately. I've finished the last route I wanted to play in Akagoei with the one from Aya Nikaidou. Well, technically it 'should' have been her route, but in reality it somehow turned out more like one for her bodyguard Takanori. The majority of the route did consist of Kaito and Takanori arguing with each other like two immature teenagers. It was mostly comedy, but in all honesty those two guys were so obsessed with teasing each other that I wouldn't have been surprised anymore if the route would have turned BL on they way. Aya unfortunately got the short end of the stick, ending up more as a side character with some tagged on H-scenes. And that's a bit of a shame since I really liked her as a character. Overall, the VN probably did a decent job in the comedy department, but in terms of story or romance it falls apart. Reika probably had the only route where the story had some substance, but none of them provided a good romance. I unfortunately couldn't appreciate it as much because there was a lot of word play involved which all too often exceeded my Japanese language skills. So I'm certainly to blame here too. I skipped Tsuki's and *spoilers* routes despite liking them because Tsuki was too loli and *spoiler* still looked a bit too *spoiler* for me. Heroine rankings: Aya > Moe > *spoiler* > Tsuki > Tae > Reika. Final rating: 6.5/10 (Though I would have probably rated it higher in English) I've also finished Verethragna about 2 weeks ago. Well, it involved lots of skipping of pointless character events, and I don't think I would have finished it if I wouldn't have fallen into a short card game addiction which ended up in me installing Spellweaver and Magic - Duels on Steam. While the card game in Verethragna might not be the most complex one, it's fast and addictive, has good card art and some additionally gimmicks in the meta game like card leveling. It also isn't too hard to figure out an effective strategy. Usually, I used two armour breakers to make way and then used a mana generation card in combination with a nuke from a T4 monster to kill the leader with one hit. If you focus on just one leader card + crew there shouldn't even be much grinding involved. It was a bit more in my case since I leveled both Kisskill and Leah and a bunch of creatures up to high levels. Leah in particular was brutal since she had -1 deploy cost for each creature and I could run around with three green dragons. The only situation where I really had to grind a while was the end boss. Unfortunately, the rest of the game wasn't as great as the card game. The story about the 'living cards' from the parallel dimension had potential, but trying to force a dozen heroines into one route couldn't end well. About 2/3 of the heroines only acted as plain H-scene deliverers and shouldn't have been heroines at all. It might have still been kind of okay if you would have at least been allowed to just pick the ones you're interested in, but noooooo you had to 'do' them all. They should have at least focused on the card heroines. Having the protagonist 'sliming' himself through the school girls was just *ugh*. And there was so much potential. Having heroines as leader cards was literally screaming for heroine routes as a way to have replays with different leader and creature card combinations. But unfortunately Astronauts doesn't seem to understand the simple concept of a heroine route. Even worse, I think I got about 60% of the character events AFTER I had beaten the final end boss. What the hell were they thinking?! Still, the card game was fun, but I think I'm slowly giving up my hopes to get a (worthy) successor for Kiriya Shimai from them. Heroine rankings: Leah > Kisskill > Suzuna > Satis > don't care. Final rating: 7/10 (Mostly for the card game, the rest was barely a 6/10) And finally, for my moege needs I've finished two left-over routes from Walkure Romanze Retell 1 & 2. Noel's in Retell 1 was better than expected while Akane's in Retell 2 was 'unusual' to say the least. I was almost falling from the chair when her route suddenly went harem. Usually, Walkure Romanze is strictly one girl. Final rating: 7.5/10 Anyway, since I've now finished all that left-over stuff, I've now time for Ikusa Megami and Seikishi Melty ☆ Lovers.

Yup, you're going to want to keep reading the rest of the routes. It'll be absolutely worth it, and everything will make sense once you read the remaining routes. Sky Saga will completely answer your first question, and the Light Saga will shed some light ( ) on your second question.

Kusarihime was pretty peculiar experience. It's little all over the place, but somehow very fulfilling at the same time. I'll probably have to, and I want to read it again to understand it better and to see the scenes I missed. Kusarihime is very much a story where the journey is more important than the destination. It get's pretty strange near the end and quite lot was left pretty uncertain, but at the same time I felt like I read something really cool. It was way more more focused in human emotions and minds than I initially thought. While there is of course supernatural parts to it as well, but it's more about the shadows in people's hears. And Kusarihime has plenty of really impacful scenes concerning those. It's also really atmospheric game and storybook aesthetic makes it even better. Something I really liked in Kusarihime is how well the story and the writing flows. From the scene to scene, event to next, adding steadily new things to keep it interesting and steadily progressing. Sometimes things go faster, sometimes slower; there's laid-back times and desperate times, but flowing feeling stays the same. Writing helps in this too. It's simple enough and reads fairly easily, but has it own nice feel. And like the story, it flows very naturally between narration, dialogue and sometimes pretty ephemeral descriptions. Kusarihime is just really satisfying visual novel to read. Quite numerous H-scenes were the only things hindering my reading enjoyment, but that's just me finding H-scenes kind of annoying to read in general, since for the most part they are not just throwaway scenes and actually contain content worth reading outside of the deed. Overall I liked Kusarihime a lot. There are parts that feel little incomplete, yet it has charm that makes me forgive most of it. Kusarihime might be flawed, but it's a pretty damn cool experience.

I agreed with the definition, every point. Such nuance! I had this idea of a NVL-format VN, but with no graphics, just voice acting and a character icon sprite beside each line of dialogue. This would fail point 4. I wonder what you'd call it. Kinetic novel sounds silly, since from the name you'd picture graphical effects. Probably the term Japanese people used to use: "Sound Novel"

Heh. Sheer coincidence, I discovered yesterday this site (because of the massive twitter leak) and learned that 1) I have a hongfire account (I think, maybe that's someone else with the same username) 2) it was hacked last year