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What the hell are you doing up still bats? You have class in like, 7 hours. You haven't taken a math class in 3 years and you just switched from a history major to geology so you need to catch up on math! You know what though, fuck my future, I have shit posting to do. And what better excuse to shit post than to celebrate 4000 posts on this wretched, evil, disgusting forum. When I started out here, I was a mere boy, looking for a way to run Never7 with sound because I like noises with my shitty VNs. Guess what? I still never bothered solving that issue, and to this day have not read Never7. I likely never will. Rainbow UI turns me off. Gray and black turn me on. You know what I mean? I did discover, however, that people take their shitty porn games super serious. They tell localization company CEOs to kill themselves, they all have business degrees and experience in dealing with JP companies, and above all, will make porn popular in the west. Well, their porn. Research tells me porn is already pretty popular. So is sex with most people not voting Republican this election. This is all besides the point though. But what is the point? The point is that I've wasted too much time on this place, been too frustrated with people here, been too angry at some of the idiocy here. The VN community today is a joke. There is no point in me trying to make sense of it anymore. It is a completely different beast from the typical, misguided anger filled gaming community. The VN community is basically a monster, finding any piece of negativity to feed on, growing, bubbling up into pretentious, wordy arguments, or rage filled tweets/posts. Unfortunately, I've been a part of that monster more than once. I've come to realize, I hate the VN community, and by extension, I've come to dislike Fuwanovel's forums. Don't get me wrong, I love reviewing things still, and love working with the reviews team, and sometimes the blog team when called upon. But the forums? /r/visualnovels? Lewdgamer? Nichegamer? Sekai Project? I hate them all. I only like Mangagamer because they released Fata Morgana, and if you haven't read it, go read it because its the best VN this market will see most likely. Unless some EVN team blows my socks off. The VN community is a contradiction. Large swaths of it want VNs to be taken seriously, to grow and become a popular story telling medium in the west. And its well on its way, adapting to the market. That same swath sees this adapting to the market as a bad thing though and wants zero alterations to the source. Its completely understandable too. I would not be happy if Persona 5 comes West with large chunks of the game simply removed, or huge alterations done like in Revelations: Persona. I highly doubt though, that VNs will become popular unless the stigma of porn games is removed. Then some parts of the community could care less wtf happens to the market, as long as they get their uncut porn. What does this create? A fucking angry community, constantly fighting, constantly harassing localization employees, and even having employees get in on all of the stupidity (dovac, fucking delete your twitter for gods sake). I hate it all. I've realized, it matters not one bit to me in the real world because my life does not revolve around this shit. Each day, I find myself caring less and less about how to make VNs popular, and find myself despising the community more and more. So, its time to basically cut ties with the community. If I didn't like doing reviews so much, I'd had left a while ago. So, this is a shit post, its a rant post, its a celebration post. Its sort of a farewell post. No, unfortunately I am not quitting Fuwanovel completely. Like I said, I love doing reviews, writing them, and reading what my team writes. So you Keyfuckers are just going to have to deal with the fact that Bats is still around to spread the salt (though maybe not reviewing Key VNs since he can't do it properly anymore). But forum activity? If it isn't review related, I'm done. If it was practical, I'd get my reviews board moved somewhere off these forums and work with the team there. But its not. I would say I'd miss reading and talking to most of you.... but it'd be a lie. I'm sure one or two of you will say something super smart, and defensive over the community today, in an attempt to disprove my words. Do it, I won't argue with you. Have at this post. After all, I am just a little bitch to be ignored And before I forget, here is a picture of my refrigerator. I labeled some parts as best as I could. So lets celebrate! tl;dr bats is angry, and done with this shit. Except reviews, he still likes doing all of that.

Nutaku has a long history of undisclosed censorship, but this is surprisingly little known among eroge fans. DMCA abuses suggest a deliberate cover-up. Nutaku caught abusing DMCA takedowns to censor evidence of censorship

I've come up with the male protagonist, who is, unequivocally, the greatest male protagonist in the history of visual novels. You know why? Because he's F-IN' NORMAL!!! He didn't work over 1000 part times jobs. He doesn't have mystic eyes of kill the Earth or something, and he doesn't have any magical ability at all. Not a superior athlete or anything. He's just a dude with a bad heart. LIKE ALL OF YOU -Y PEOPLE ON THIS FORUM.

I don't know who thought it'd be great to have an eroge company based in Canada.

Dude, I will say I disagree with you, but Im very very glad to find someone like you. In my opinion, all elements of a work of fiction must be treated equally. Writing can be just as powerful as art or cause the same amount of damage, if bad, imo. I also watched that video but what opened my mind about the subject was this post. Before reading that, I also thought that story and characters> everything else. But then, I started searching and studying more and I finally realize art, soundtrack, animation, voice acting, etc. can all bring emotions and be intelectually stimulating just like story and characters. It makes me sick seeing people saying stuff like: "I dont care about art" because that is not an opinion, that is a lie. People 'think' they dont care about art because they never studied how it is used and thus do not realize its impact. Those people tend to think good art is just being pretty and therefore it is easier to make than a good story. Now even if I disagree that writing is inferior to art or soundtrack, it makes me really glad to see people like you, at least to balance the amount of overrate writing gets from the community.

I did it bois, finally finished Fate/Stay Night after centuries of delays I wouldn't call it a masterpiece, but it was an overall very enjoyable read. Will admit, after suffering through the mildly lackluster Fate route, my expectations for Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel sank rock bottom, but each subsequent route managed to add meaningful lore, character depth, and present interesting contrasting beliefs resulting in a fulfilling experience Fate suffered from being the 'intro' route- you don't get too much info about the Holy Grail War & overall universe, and the heroine of the route Saber gets heavily stagnated by Shirou's infuriating "You're a girl, so you shouldn't fight!" belief. UBW rectifies this- Shirou ain't head over heels for Saber this time so yippee, no Saberblocking. But who cares about Saber- Archer takes the spotlight this time, and after a series of Wtf-is-this-guy-doing?! you will finally realize his game and ohh shit, things just got personal!! And of course there's Shirou x Rin, and you guys should know how much bias I have for that girl by now >.> Heaven's Feel.... it'll drag a couple characters that felt pretty side-charactery up 'til now into the main plot... and damn, the atmosphere throughout this one can get pretty eerie and creepy. It'll also reveal some "Wtf, there's more?" lore about the Holy Grail, and there's some choices Shirou has to make that completely defy what he would've done in other routes, so it's pretty thrilling. That being said, the characters are what made this VN for me. From Saber's undying loyalty to Rin's incessant teasing, this cast is definitely one of the more entertaining bunch with many ups and downs and it was a pleasure to witness their story. 8.5/10 Misc. Stats: Best route: Unlimited Blade Works > Heaven's Feel >>>>>>>>> Fate Best girl: Rin >>> Saber > Illya > Sakura Best Servant: Archer > Saber >>> Rider > Lancer > Berserker >>> Caster > Assassin TL;DR:

Wow, I'm really 2 months away from being a two-year member. I usually forget how long I've been here until I look it up and think "damn, I'm way too old for this anime nonsense." But here we are: 1000 likes. As some of you might know by now, I don't care much about post counts so I waited to get a juicy like number to make this kind of thread. And it does seem as if I am entertaining you guys, looking at my Post/Like difference (the internal mechanics of our OT forum are obviously completely unrelated). Most of that probably stems from memeing too much, but I would like to think that my contributions in the discussion forums are insightful too. So, I hereby thank Fuwanovel as a whole for being better than reddit and our mod staff for their hard work in the fight against trolls, spam, random porn links and the occasional creepy otaku confession. Now, to the call-outs. Because everyone does it, I guess. @Suzu Fanatic and @Fred the Barber: I didn't place you two into your video roles randomly, you two are kind my "fanclub", if I can say that without looking like an asshole. Anyway, I appreciate all the support you two in particular give me for basically no reason at all. Pressing that green button actually makes me happy. @mitchhamilton, you get a deserved third spot in the fanclub, but you have been slacking lately. The Skype People, who give me an excuse to waste ours of my life with nothing but text chat: @Hanako, @Vokoca, @madvanced, @Dergonu, @Asonn, @Kawasumi, @Vongalaxy, @Kiriririri, @LinovaA(come back, you lazy adult!), @Zakamutt, @YarrakYarrak (no idea who you are here), @Yeah Way (I'm from Tibet, now you know), @sarayne, @Kurisu-Chan (don't let everything in life slap you down, it's bad for your health), @hsmsful, @Hymen, @Funyarinpa (look at me covering the desert in one go ) and some more which I probably forgot because they haven't been online for at least 2 hours \(°ω°)/ The Princess Evangile People: I honestly don't remember who all of you were, but I will never forget how much fun that damn thread was. @Eclipsed, @Zenophilious, @Tiagofvarela, @KosakiFag, @crunchytaco, @Flutterz, @Nosebleed : You guys were the fools who made me feel welcome here from the get-go. I don't care who the real Fuwa-oldguard is, you guys are my oldguard. @Fiddle: You make me depressed, because you are like me; just in funny. But then I read your posts and laugh the depression away. @Decay, @Rooke, @Kaguya: You three probably didn't expect this call out - since we have different opinions on pretty much everything - but you three are really smart and enjoy being around smart people. Even if I don't agree with them. @OriginalRen: You are not the best Reviewer in the world, but you are a great Entertainer. Play to your strengths! @CeruleanGamer: It's not like I care about Nee-san, I just felt like mentioning her. @Valmore: It's not like I care about Aniki, I just felt like mentioning him. @Palas and @nohman: You two are smart and pleasant company. Running into you on the board is always a pleasure. @TheguywholikesDearDrops: You know who you are, keep it up. @Elina-chan; You are the best waifu. Luv u bby <3 @all the translators who actually finish their projects; Texas Dice loves all of you. I would rob a bank for your sakes, you glorious bastards! Here we are, thanks for all the likes everyone! People not mentioned in the thread or shown in the video are free to complain. Now everyone can ask me whatever they want to ask. I shall answer in honest, unless I feel like lying.

Tell me, how does this image make you feel? This was the first thing I ever saw when hearing about Planetarian. I still vividly remember that moment, and how it made me feel. It made me feel like the world was at its literal and figurative end, civilization just a memory. A cold, empty, dangerous world. And somehow, at the peak of it all, this being, standing there. at once a tangible remnant of that civilization, stuck in a warm, cozy world of her own, and at the same time something much older, much wiser than that civilization. No work of fiction has ever drawn me in as strongly as this. Then, I read it. TL;DR Planetarian is the best VN The fact that this is a written article about why I don't care about writing should tell you that it's not going to be very well-written, just keep that in mind. I was inspired to write this by this video by Digibro. I suggest you watch it (up to about 12:13), but to summarize, he says that most media critics value writing above all else, and treat aesthetic elements as secondary. He then claims that, since nearly all critics are also writers, that is not surprising, and then goes on to explain how aesthetic elements can indeed tell a story that no words will ever be able to. And this made me realize: I simply don't care about writing and prose. I'm not saying that I can't appreciate it, or that I've never enjoyed purely written media, but when it comes to all the works of fiction that I truly love, aesthetic has always been the primary reason for that love. To me, writing in a VN is just string. It's there to hold the story together (and doing it well is certainly important), but all of the emotion has to be conveyed through the visuals and music. Nearly all VN critics are writers, and therefore not likely to fully acknowledge the value of art and sound direction. Art, in this community, is seen as something that should be pretty (BiMan) and music as something that should sound good (Little Busters) and almost nothing more. Frankly, I think that's bullshit. Neither art nor sound should just be there to make everything feel right, or to 'fit the mood'. They should be there to create a mood of their own, tell a story of their own. Now, let's look at Planetarian, and how I believe it still works well without a script. May contain vague rambling This is a panning shot of a pre-apocalyptic street. I'm a big fan of imagery like this. There's something beautifully immersive about the lighting. Personally, whenever I feel stressed, there's nothing I like to do more than walk outside on a rainy evening, breathing deeply, letting my mind clear. It's a wonderful world. Shame it all had to end. Now let's add music to it, shall we? Just listen to this while looking at the next one. To me, this is like a massive, fluffy bed of nostalgia. while Yumemi is talking about absolutely nothing, I am somehow right there, in that dusty old planetarium, and she is just sitting there, calmly. An artifact from a bygone age, something that could not be repaired or even maintained by anyone alive right now. When I read Planetarian, these scenes make it feel like Yumemi was part of some strange ritual, somehow kept in a perfect equilibrium all that time, despite everything that has happened, and the protagonist has brutally interrupted that ritual. Now listen to this. In the projection scenes, you are the audience and Yumemi will be your guide for the evening. This is where she really shines. This is exactly what she was made for, what all that (now pointless) chatter was intended for. All she wants is to show you and the protagonist the most beautiful thing she knows, and personally, I was just as moved by the whole thing as the Junker was, and was basically crying sweating from my eyes throughout both parts of the projection. I think I'll stop here. I'm obviously not claiming writing isn't important, it clearly is, I'm just trying to illustrate (pun intended) that visuals and sound can tell (parts of) a good story all by themselves. Be sure to look out for any ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣＳ you can find, will you?

http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=512849 Characters like her should get some wins too.

Meh, the screenshots posted don't even seem terrible to me, nor did I think the translation of the game was bad. If I were to stop and document things like this throughout every single translation, official or not, I've played, I doubt there'd be a single one that didn't at least have a few of those issues.

I'm not saying people can't enjoy some Hisao or prostate exams, it's just not to my liking

Yeah, and the prostate exam I had the other day wasn't "particularly good or anything," but I ain't complaining. Hisao is indeed perfectly normal and normally perfect.

Yeah, it's one of Fate/Stay's route weaknesses. Characters that are prominent in one route will become complete fodder in other routes. Sometimes I wish there was just one grand route that allows every character to have their moment in the spotlight instead of splitting it up into main focuses and villains ~~ That was the first ending I got I think it would've resonated with me more if Shirou had to make 'that' choice in addition to that, but I guess it's all the more poetic that he didn't even get the chance to and so we're just left with a big ol' "Wow... You know what? Fk Sakura. THIS is the True End!"

Also, something I forgot to mention: have you ever read Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou? You might want to check it out. It also deals with apocalypse (in a very different way, tho) and the art is absolutely stunning. Not only it is beautiful, it communicates the essence of the manga in a way is, as Digibro said, hard to describe by words. From glances to smiles and backgrounds, it holds a special place in my heart. The story and characters, although good, would never be able to carry this masterpiece by themselves imo.

Whatta tool, I thought you were a proud hybrid, able to exist in between the realms of Light and Darkness, but now you so easily pledge absolute faith to the Dark side of gurrelitism to "be with the cool kids" Utter disappointment! ~~ Ah, the good ol' "It's more realistic, so it's better!" argument. By all means Shirou and Rin should've both gotten rekt on Day 1, but then we wouldn't have a story now would we? The opponents getting dumbified in UBW is because the main focus is on Archer, but they definitely get their own 'final boss' status in other routes.

Wait, seriously? You actually did it? *claps* Good job! Now I have to get around to it soon too! (See you in 40 years when I finish it.)

lol, sold. Installing right now.

I am a fan of Banya and actually I really like the "writing" in this game too. Right from the start, the description in the beginning how mankind was doomed was pretty good, just as I expected from Banya. Also, Mia's inner monologues, the description of pain and suffering, all the good stuff Banya is known for, is here too. So that is not the problem. The problem is the concept Banya was given by Bug System and has to work with. He makes the best out of it, but personally I just can't find it very interesting. The problem is easily summarized: Killing has no consequences. I like gore in eroge. Mainly because gore means in most cases "story". Like in Kara no Shoujo. When you see a scene with a normal hentai CG, it's probably filler, but when you have a scene with a gore CG, it's probably a thrilling and interesting story scene. In Nikuniku ... it's not. It's essentially a gore nukige, because every killing scene is essentially a filler hentai scenes .. just with gore instead of sex. That's a legit concept, if you have a gore fetish. Sadly, I have not. I like seeing innocent girls die horribly, of course, ... but not because I like to see the act of dying, but instead because I like to experience the tragedy. With Mia's gore scenes, we have no tragedy, because there are no consequences. I'm not necessarily saying the game is bad ... it's just that it does not cater to my fetishes. What a pleb reason, I know. I hope you guys can tell me that there is some actual story in the later half of the game. Would be a waste of potential if it really was "only" a guro nukige. Good point. Normally, screams are the worst parts of a seiyuu's performance because she doesn't want to ruin her voice. In this case, it's actually reversed; the screams are the best part of the performance! What I miss instead in Mia's voice acting are the feelings of despair and anxiety. She acts way too cool in most cases!

started diving into the new muramasa fanfic thingie + re-reading albatross on the sidelines. originally intended clearing off my mind of anything mecha-related so i could start innocently going for lisbelluru vol.5-6 soon, but------- edit: also still working myself through various more promising doujinshi, a task which has pretty much disturbed the mind of mine. *looking at you soramimi

http://giphy.com/gifs/daddy-simulator-biking-egXmgUgruBrpK (it's a really heavy .gif so I won't post it here)

Meh, like anything on this medium or any other(music, books, movies, etc) it's about personal tastes, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, there are VNs considered masterpieces like subarashi that I hate (piece of crap aside from some few very things) and others like homeless girl that I love and nobody seems to really like it but this is just me. Why should anyone influence you on your likes/tastes? After all you are the one who is reading them and you are the one who should and needs to enjoy them. KS was a great vn, like many others my first vns too, probably it's not a 10/10 ( how I rated it when I first played it) but still it holds a big place in my heart because it was the vns that hooked me into this world and second the plot revolves around things that very very few vns even remotely do, which is disabilities. Would you be able to enjoy others vns?Yes, definitely, just don't try to compare them and enjoy them for what they are.

To be clear, I didn't intend to blame any particular person in the chain of producing the translation. I am criticizing the product, not the process. The product, the Corona Blossom translation, is a bad translation, for the reasons I posted above. So now, let's talk process: There are many ways to get to a good translation. The current VN translation scene, especially fan translation, almost exclusively follows a strategy of having translators who know JP well and focus completely on correctly literally translating the Japanese into Engrish and then leans heavily on editors to turn Engrish into English. That is probably a phenomenon completely unique to niche video game translation, mostly but not exclusively VN fan translation. It's not even true of top-tier mainstream JP games; people don't talk about Alexander O. Smith's editor, and they don't call him an editor. He's a video game translator, and a damn good one. He didn't get that reputation by literally translating JP to EN and then letting an editor turn the result into something people really enjoyed reading. There's a reason for the difference: it takes a lot more talent, knowledge, and dedication than most of us in this community have to do both sides of the translation well, especially at the pay rates you can achieve for doing good work in VN translation. People who can do this are rare, respected, and are widely talked about in the community as a result. You know their their names because they can do both. But on the flip side, the demand for translations is high enough that we can't really afford to wait for those scarce resources to take care of everything. So a lot of work gets done the hard way. Exchanging all the necessary context and fixing all the inevitable misunderstandings between translators and editors takes a lot of time. This separation of responsibilities is probably a huge contributor to the various issues with fan translations (alongside other reasons, many of them undoubtedly more important, of course). But I don't really see any way around doing things the hard way like this, other than for editors to spend years studying Japanese or for translators to learn an editor's skills. Probably neither of those is happening any time soon.

If you're having trouble moving on from heroines in VNs after the story is over it's because you haven't fapped to them.

It's not too much to ask. After so many years spent living on scraps, we've just become accustomed to asking too little.

Noooo, nonono. I'm sorry, but this is just entirely wrong. You've been poorly influenced by working on a very bad translation. What we're doing with Dracu Riot is NOT the norm, and is not how the process should ideally go. A good translator, and all of the best translators currently in the scene, will write sensible english the first time around. An editor isn't supposed to seek out "lost meaning" or extract hidden nuance, that's actually the translator's job. 1) No one is better equipped to do so than the translator. They know what the line means in Japanese, how it's conveyed to the Japanese readers, and all of that. An editor doing so can misinterpret the line due to inadequate translation and lead things even further off-track. They need to keep in constant contact with the translator, further wasting the translator's time, and they could get the smaller things wrong that they aren't contacting the translator for. 2) Your method leads to an inefficient use of manpower. If the translator gets things right the first time around, an editor doesn't have to waste as much time deeply analyzing every single line for hidden nuance, and basically "retranslating" the script from engrish to english, further necessitating additional editing and proofreading passes due to the heavy amount of rewriting involved. 3) It's just freaking hard. There's just so much you have to think about with every single line about what makes sense, what doesn't make sense. When you read a sentence in english and wish to rewrite it in english again, you end up with preconceived notions about the message it's trying to convey that are sometimes difficult to eliminate. Basically what I'm saying is that it's really too much, and you're going to miss some things here and there. The translator doesn't experience this phenomenon as strongly due to going across languages, which leads back to point #1. It's a pretty safe guess that almost all of the best translations you're most fond of don't go through this process. Their translators get things right the first time around because they're a fairly eloquent writer in English and are capable of putting out natural-sounding english language on their own. They still need editors because they don't have a perfect hit rate, and two heads are better than one, but the process goes so much more smoothly and turns out so much better when major rewrites aren't required on a regular basis.

Before I go into this VN, I should probably bring up a few facts I’ve noticed about Yuzusoft VNs in general. First, while most Yuzusoft VNs have a central story that is vital to the heroine paths as well as the common route, the degree to which that central plot effects the heroine paths varies pretty wildly. In some cases – such as with Nicola in Dracu-riot – the effects of the main plot are almost nonexistent, and in others – such as Miu’s from the same VN – the effects are dramatic and integral to the progression of the heroine’s own story. Another aspect is consistency… or rather, the degree to which heroine paths are consistent with one another. Generally speaking, Yuzusoft games don’t strive for absolute consistency. One reason is because most charage writers (and Yuzusoft writers are mostly charage writers) are not nearly as good at managing the numerous ‘threads’ of their stories as a chuunige writer has to be. To be blunt, Yuzusoft games tend to eliminate the need for consistency as much as possible, limiting ‘contact points’ between the heroine routes wherever they can. Unfortunately, there are always minor details that slip through the net, so you can’t really expect perfect consistency in any charage. Another aspect of Yuzusoft VNs is that they still utilize the concept of ‘heroine salvation’. The idea that a heroine needs to be ‘saved’ by the protagonist on some level used to be integral to virtually all VNs that tried to charge the emotions of the reader, but it fell out of use over time as the emphasis shifted from story to characterization in most cases. Yuzusoft is somewhat ‘old-fashioned’ this way, as they focus strongly both on the actual ‘stories’ of the heroine paths as well as the characterization aspects. As a result, for those of us who get emotionally invested in the characters, the inability to ‘save’ the heroines you didn’t choose is always a bit… troubling, lol. I know that sounds weird coming from a self-proclaimed pragmatist like me, but that is one of the few areas in which VNs are still mostly games, rather than just reading material. The act of ‘choosing’ a heroine inevitably invests you just a little bit emotionally in the heroines, barring a kusoge experience, lol. Yet another thing to keep in mind about Yuzusoft games is that the company, even after all these years, is still experimenting with the ratio of ichaicha (lovey-dovey flirtation in the girlfriend/boyfriend part, such as dating, visiting one another’s houses, h-scenes, etc) to the actual story and character development. Most of their games tend to have long (in terms of text) dating/lovey-dovey/sex periods, which can be unbelievably annoying in a VN with a good story, lol. Last of all, Yuzusoft games tend to have longer heroine routes on average than most moe-VNs. I’d say by about one and a half to two times, depending on the other developer. Now, having gotten that over with, enjoy my comments on this VN, as I plan to go into more detail than usual. PS: I don’t intend to bother with the two sub-heroines, Ruka and Koharu. Common Route The beginning of the VN is somewhat fantastical, and with a little effort, they could have easily turned this into a light chuunige (I’m actually wondering why they didn’t, considering how suited many members of the cast are for that type of VN). One of the most fortunate aspects of this game is the fact that very little time is spent dwelling on school life… in fact, it is probably the least relevant portion of the game, outside of the character setting of ‘gakusei’. In my experience, the more reliant a VN is on school life for character development and story progression, the less likely it is to be interesting from beginning to end. The basic story is that the protagonist, having drawn the sword from the stone (lol) by breaking it off at the hilt (viva, self-repairing holy weapons! Haha), ends up engaged to and living with the himemiko, one Tomotake Yoshino. He’s also together with a bodiless loli who presents herself as the guardian of the sword calling him her master, and a ninja who does all the cooking and cleaning around the shrine. Apparently, in order to cleanse the taint left by an ancient curse on Yoshino’s family and prevent disaster, he has to help them fight dog-monsters in the mountains around the town, so that their taint doesn’t build up enough to cause natural disasters and other tragedies. The common route is consumed by the quest to free the Tomotake bloodline from the ancient curse and the characters’ travails in the process. For better or worse, the central story of the VN is nearly completely resolved in the common route, leaving the heroine routes for those heroines’ personal issues. This does mean that the tie-in to the central background story in the heroine routes is weaker than in some of Yuzusoft’s other games, such as Dracu-riot. However, the common route itself is actually one of the better ones I’ve seen from this company, and I enjoyed the process immensely. The downside is that the transition feels a bit awkward, sadly. Murasame Murasame is the overseer of the holy sword Murasamemaru, and Senren Banka’s resident loli. In a lot of ways, she embodies the archetype of the ‘outsider/exile from life as we know it’ heroine archetype that has popped up occasionally in VNs like this one. Favorite, in particular, is a company that loves this heroine archetype, utilizing it for the true heroine of every one of their games, and a disproportionate number of the heroines of this archetype are lolis (somewhere around two-thirds, starting with Ilyasviel from FSN). This is probably because a childlike heroine who suffers from that kind of isolation is more likely to strike at our hearts. She started out as a common village girl, and when a sacrifice was needed to become the guardian of the sword, she gave up her humanity to stay with the blade (this isn’t really a spoiler, since they tell you this early on and it is in the character profile, lol). Murasame comes across as your typical ‘loli who hates being treated like a child’ most of the time, but her speech and manner in more serious scenes shows at least some of her experience… and her path rakes her over the hot coals of her own personal darkness and insecurity. Hers is a path that is all about salvation through love, and it is one that can’t help but resonate with romantics in general. I should know… I cried several times in the course of this path. I honestly felt that this path represents Yuzusoft at its best, and for this path alone I would have been willing to play the game… and I’m not even a lolicon. Mako Mako… is the descendent of a ninja family that serves Yoshino’s family (Yoshino being the white-haired hime+miko heroine). While she is deadly serious about her duty to protect and serve Yoshino, her personality is generally friendly, cheerful, and easygoing. She is also more than a little… motherly in the sense that she loves to take care of people. This tends to express itself in the common route through her devotion to never letting Yoshino or her father do anything around the house outside of their duties as a priest and miko at a Shinto shrine (and Yoshino’s duties as the sole descendent of her mother’s family line). To be honest, her path is significantly more boring than Murasame’s, in that her personal worries are ‘classic’ worries from the archetypical ‘raised to serve’ heroine who is suddenly free to do what she wants, along with the fantasy worries unique to her path. It is still a good path, even touching at times. However, since they fell back on what amounts to a ‘normal’ love story with a half-humorous twist, things were significantly less interesting from my point of view. That isn’t to say that it doesn’t have its high points… but most of those are toward the end or involve the fantasy elements. I’m sure the people who adore the junai (pure romance) that is the staple of most VNs will lap it up like their favorite flavor of ice cream, but for someone like me who has been fed that stuff until he feels like a foie gras goose… Yoshino The structure of Yoshino’s path is something of an exception, looking at charage with a serious element in general. Most of the time, the serious element is focused at the end of the path, with the ichaicha part making up the early parts of the path, during and immediately after the formation of the relationship. In this case, the dramatic part happens immediately after the formation of the relationship… and the rest is essentially endless ichaicha and sex. The path has impact, but I honestly thought that the latter part of the path dragged on. However, the ending is pretty touching, and I was honestly happy for them afterwards. Overall Yes, I have no plans to play Rena’s path immediately. To be honest, just two paths in this game takes up ten hours, and with the common route, this game could easily hit thirty hours if I played all the paths… and I don’t have the energy for dealing with an airhead heroine right now. Overall, this VN is one of the better Yuzusoft games I’ve played (considering that I’ve yet to encounter a Yuzusoft game that wasn’t at least worth consideration for a VN of the Month, this is a definite compliment). It definitely beats out Sanoba Witch, both in terms of raw quality overall and in terms of the design of the setting in particular. While the game itself doesn’t escape a lot of the clichés of the fantasy charage with story sub-genre, it carries them out well enough that I didn’t find that irritating. The biggest downside of the game is the downside to just about all of Yuzusoft’s games… the ichaicha is far too extended and there is usually a lot of runaround before they get to the point. PS: By far, Murasame's path is the best... which probably means I should have played it last. For better or worse, after seeing Murasame's path, it felt like a betrayal not to choose her over the others, simply because of her situation, lol.

Yeah, sorry, I just cannot not disagree with you on any level here. Liberal translations should be eradicated. If you prefer them, just read an English novel to get the best translation of them all! I'm very much exaggerating.

Fred exaggerated the issues with some of these, but there are issues there. Most of my problem with the first line comes from "read the mood", which made my nose scrunch up. Even though it's an acceptable phrase grammatically it doesn't mean it's an appropriate phrase in that situation. It actually sounds foreign because it's very unlikely to be said by a girl like Shino in that situation. Or even her Dad. In fact, google "read the mood" and you have business applications, political applications, notice no teenagers on facebook saying the damn phrase. Each section of society has their own little lexicons. The result is it sounds completely unnatural. Very foreign. It's the worst line there, TBH. Definitely not "perfectly fine". It's "perfectly fine" in a grammatical sense, but writing isn't about grammar. "Move your body" is similar but not as bad. Look it up on google and try and find a place where it's used in a colloquial fashion by someone the age of Kumiko. I'm perfectly fine with it, but I'm quite old and I've been exposed to fitness videos with people shouting "Move your body! Come on! Move it!" I never heard my friends tell me that when I was young, though. And if they did I would have laughed at them. It's about tone. Do you want her to sound like a cheesy, fake fitness instructor on TV? 4th line, old guy munching on squid, is about the image conveyed to the audience. What's the problem with that line? In the Western world there's no difference between "old guy munching on squid" and "old guy munching on donuts." Or "old guy munching on fish". Or "old guy munching on a sandwich". I assume the "dried squid" part was deliberately inserted to fashion a specific image, but because this image relates to culture, one we're not familiar with, the whole image gets lost on a Western audience. Writing is never about plunking down grammatically correct sentences, and neither is translation.

Why, yes of course. I love reading about boring, normal people with nothing going for them whatsoever when it comes to my fiction. Why wouldn't I?

Well it's not random. The protagonist falls in love with the selected waifu and they have consensual sex, sometimes in inappropriate places, because they love each other. I mean, you read Katawa Shoujo and Hisao pretty much gets raped in one route.

so, i finished half of the first part of clannad, i'm gonna give my (really positive review) I can't really judge the common route, as it's not a classic common route like Little busters or any other VN, but, i'm gonna give my enjoyment. Misae route : very touching, very short, feels more like a tiny route than a real heroine. Tomoyo route : My, God, I cried, i cried, it was beautiful, perfect, touching, Tomoyo is soo amazing, she's a great heroine, her route is great. Ryou route : Don't care, too short/10 Kyou route : wow, didn't expect that developpment, it was a really interesting route, lacked more romantic Kyou moments, in my opinion. Yukine Route : sweet, Yukine is interesting, the route was interesting, nothing to say about it. Kappei Route : NTR/10, but since i'm not a fanboy of that Heroine, no problem, his route was kinda touching, though. Overall, i pretty much like every character met so far, messing with sunohara is funnier than i thought, the events are funny and touching as well, it's a good experience, and every routes deal with the "familly" theme in it's own form, it's really touching.

I didn't play Heaven's Feel route, but from the remaing two I still liked Fate more than Unlimited Bladeworks simply because it felt more believable.

I don't know about Noble Works, since I haven't finished even one route since like March (I found the game pretty meh), but taking into account most characters are adolescents (broadly speaking about eroge in general), it seems that the first scene is done "to try it" and afterwards they knock boots a lot because they become more interested in (or hooked to) sex. Which seems pretty legit. It also facilitates the sex-meter being cranked up in later scenes to appeal more to the player, of course.

I decided to abandon everything (as I always do lol) and start nikuniku together with @Dergonu and possibly @Arcadeotic, this is gonna be a ride for sure

HENTAI DUDDEEEEEEEE!

Thug heroines, nice.

Agreed on most of this. You forgot about Assassin and Archer, though, and Lancer is clearly way cooler than Rider.

Good find! you also knew that you had to tag me

KS doesn't focus on the H scenes, they are there because it's an eroge and because they *could* happen, they're not forced. In regular eroge you get routes of very different quality even in the same game, so it's all hit and miss. Also they tend to be done by different writers and the style and elements aren't quite the same. In general, it's hard to find a route where the courtship is done right, if only because most protags are pretty useless. Also, spending a lot of time with the heroines causes the player to become more attached to them. Presence of side characters and short games go against that. I recommend "Period" for a cute, easygoing eroge set in summer, with vanilla scenes and only like 2 drama routes, and "Deardrops" where the drama is pretty minimal and there's a better development of the relationships, I loved it.

Although I must say, I find it rather odd that you of all people would quit -even partially- considering what Fuwa has done for you. Recall that this place use to have torrents, and you were the loudest voice demanding their removal. Recall that you've said things other people would be banned for that were overlooked. Not saying you never got banned, but some would say the mods have been relatively lenient. I've seen many people come and go and haven't raised an eyebrow, but you honestly seem to me the least justified to do so. All I can think of is us Key fans calling BS on your reviews, but I don't think that's enough to make you dis mad, especially considering how old your LB review is. I assume there's something behind the scenes going on that's bothering you, possibly even unrelated to fuwa in praticular, maybe a twitter VN squabble? But meh, either way it doesn't really matter. Taking a break from a partner is a key (kek) part of good relationships, so by all means take a break. But I'll miss having one of the few rich salt mines Fuwa possessed

Nobody cares

Hmm my first Vn was Majikoi, followed by Grisaia then G-Senjou and i haven't considered reading Katawa...yet. I think you won't have a problem liking Grisaia and G-Senjou after though, I know of Katawa and i think all those Vn's defer greatly in their story telling. You'll be able to love all of them in their own ways as separate entities from different worlds without thinking lesser of each. Whatever opinions you read about the Vn are just that, opinions. Just jump into it and have fun reading! Godspeed! PS:

an all age in a nukige games? so it is only 10-20% content............. WARNING, SPECULATION That's very true, but at this point in time, it's not really feasible for them to stop translating VNs and switch to doujin games and manga. The fanbase for the two won't make up for the one they would lose, as far as I can tell. I don't deny that they're trying to expand, but I highly doubt they'll stop translating VNs anytime soon, at least until they get popular enough with manga readers. Doujin games are always a bit of a gamble, and I can't see them seriously counting on a bunch of them to secure them regular income. some of sekai project games: rabi ribi- Owners: 56,024 ± 6,120 tobari and the night of the curious moon - Owners: 3,501 ± 1,530 reverse x reverse - Owners: 1,401 ± 967 vs: sakura games: min: 14,706 max: 1,079,157 average: (14,706+1,079,157)/2 not sure if it feasible to switch to doujin games tho even all the games are interesting and very hard

For me, sometimes I have trouble leaving a "World" I've entered. THis happened with F/SN, Tsukihime, Saya no Uta, Muv Luv, ect...I feel so enthralled and "into" that VNs world, that I don't want to read another one for a long time because I feel it just won't live up to the next one. I haven't read the one you're mentioning, because it's just not my type of VN. But aye, like with Utawaremono, these 60 to 80 hour VNs, you spend such a significant time reading about their world...yeah, it can be hard to accept it's done.

More like, if you don't play it now, you probably won't enjoy it as much. KS makes for a great starter VN for some reason I don't really understand, but when you get people who read a significant amount of VNs before that try it out, the majority of them isn't particularly impressed, me included. It's just a pretty competent charage.

You can't convince me that what you're asking for isn't a philosophy of editing. From Japanese literature (although literature might be an overblown word for this) one would evidently expect Japanese expressions, speech patterns, traditions, odd sentence structure, unconventional comedic timing, cultural references, stupid tropes, and whatever other nonsense it brings with it. Adapting all of these for English audiences may be an editor's dream, but is not necessarily the reader's wish (See hamburgers in Ace Attorney and Ice Cream Machines in Doraemon). This why I believe translators should focus on what is written, and not on what is meant by what is written. This isn't an on or off button, though. It's a sliding scale. If every single Japanese term with no direct English equivalent remained untranslated, any English reader would be unable to follow what is going on. If you're looking to learn about Japanese culture, though, that might be just what you're looking for -- A literal translation filled with Translator Notes. I'm exaggerating. Even I don't believe anybody would read (the vast majority) of visual novels to learn about Japanese culture. They might read it looking for Japanese traits and tropes in its writing, like the good old "can't be helped" and such, but that gets into a matter of audiences. For an all-encompassing English Translation of most Visual Novels, I'll agree with you guys. Your methods may be better for the English audience. Not necessarily the "English Audience who has persisted and developed a taste for literal translations", but for the overall English audience. What I don't like, what I truly object to, is calling one method of translation inferior to the other. "Literal Translation's shouldn't be Official"; Like heck they shouldn't. I have no experience in translating from Japanese, but I sure know to translate from English into Portuguese, and it's most of the time easier to convey the meaning than just the words, which sometimes have no equivalent, without forming an incoherent sentence. Literal Translators are still professionals doing their best to make the sentences, odd as they may be, carry whatever meaning while keeping the Japanese structure, and I applaud them for that. It's sometimes easier to just change it and take liberties. I find it unfair and wrong to boo down the literal side of the sliding scale as wrong flat-out. Don't say the translation is "bad", say the translation is "overly" literal, as in, too literal for my acquired tastes and expectations of English structures and expressions in sentences. As a direct reply, and this is as personal as it gets, everything else aside: What's wrong with that? I don't mind asking for too little, so long as I get said too little. It's good that I got used to it.

DON'T FORGET IT'S 1080p Y'ALL

https://twitter.com/DELF_001/status/760459956642385920

LOL, that was pretty great You make some of my favorite posts, and completey out of the blue. We middle-agers gotta stick together~ Random tidbits: 1. I once reported your account when I swore to Suzu I thought you must have gotten hacked, due to that completely random status update a few months back - no hard feelings? 2. Also, if you look at your avater a certain way, it looks like a micro-bikini is on the dice (you're welcome, what has been seen cannot be unseen)