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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.

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.

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?

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.