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You either need interactivity, or a super unique story, and lacking either of those, really really good execution of a "trope". That rules out things like Katawa Shoujo, Clannad, MajiKoi, or basically any of the really popular VNs in this circle. Also, rule out porn. Big no no for most people getting into VNs. Sure you might be able to name an exception or two, but those people are outside the norm. So, what does that leave us with? Short kinetic VNs that focus on telling a single story, really well, things like Planetarian, and Narcissu. For interactivity, we can look towards Analogue: A Hate Story, Ace Attorney, Corpse Party, Danganronpa and even to a certain extent, the Tell Tale games (I'm aware that these generally are not considered VNs, but in my eyes, they at their core, do the same things that VNs do to make themselves unique). And finally, super unique stories, things like Phenomeno, The House in Fata Morgana, and Cave Cave Deus Videt. "But Bats! What about X VN or Y VN!" Chances are, if you are listing anything with a common route, it will not catch the attention of a "normie". Unless the common route, is short, and generally advances the overall story, you will lose the interest of most newcomers to VNs. I say this mostly from experience. Lets take a look at my early VNs I've read. -Analogue: A Hate Story -- common route line sort of blurry, but advances the actual story -Ever 17 -- common route is like 20 minutes long before splitting off into one of four directions -Clannad -- Long common route, but with enough variation to not wear too much on the reader. Subsequent playthroughs can get tedious with changes based off choices, when wanting to get into the route. Also, main story is locked away, HUGE no for newcomers in my experience -Steins;Gate -- This is a tricky one for sure. Solid story, but takes a while to kick off. Can be a turn off to newcomers wanting the real story (though if memory serves, character routes can be skipped and the true story can be unlocked without character arcs completed. Feel free to correct me.) -Planetarian -- Good for newcomers, short, focuses on two characters and their relationship, lack of world story means little time on lore. No common -Corpse Party -- adventure VN, plenty of trial and error, lack of skip make it a tough pill to swallow except for the patient, and if youre patient, you likely already are reading longer, more celebrated VNs in the community like Majikoi and LB! No common route When I explain VNs to people, for example my girlfriend, they tend to be most interested in the shorter, more unique sounding experiences and less in the long, multi-route, high school setting. I will never get my girlfriend to read Clannad, but Planetarian is something she is loving at the moment. She adores The House in Fata Morgana but has absolutely no interest in Majikoi or Katawa Shoujo. Same deal with a co-worker of mine. Same with an old high school friend of mine. All 3 of these people enjoy anime, but don't watch a ton of it. They enjoy manga but do not read a ton of it. They are "normies" and just like with anime and manga, a VN is going to need to stand out like the color of this text in a sea of same looking text.

giving a vn that last more than 30 hours to a person that is just starting is not a good idea imo, specially not >100 like clannad I think Katawa Shoujo is still the perfect vn to this day. But if you insist this is my list: In the very short range: dustmania this one will "blown" everyones brains out (literally) To replace g-senjou what better visual novel other than one of the first vns written by looseboy: A profile ? Nothing stands out better than this, purest of his work Finally for those casuals but who still are eager to play something amazing yet not really long, with some amazing story and a little bit of action: sakura dungeon ............................................................................................................................. For the short length VNs: True Remembrance, sweet story, no eroge at all, same applies to one thousand lies and both of them are free. Narcissu: to introduce them into the utsuge genre Saya no uta: I don't have to say anything about this one (the content in this one might turn some readers away) Lucy - Geunyeoga Baladeon Geos -, short and with some sci-fi elements, no eroge. Fata morgana, agree with this one. Finally this one is amazing in every single aspect, the only downside is the "hard" content (shouldnt be a problem for any vn fan and it would also introduce them into what vns might bring them in the future ): Swan song

Now, for those who are wondering, the reason I chose to play Baldr Heart first is fairly simple... it is the VN most anticipated this month, at least by the people I talk to. Baldr Heart is the fourth game (if you count the Skydive and Zero games as a single game each) in the 'primary series' started with Baldr Force. This series follows the evolving interrelations between humans, the net, extreme VR, and AIs, storywise. The gameplay in all the games is a relatively fast-paced battle mech action system that evolves a lot of explosions and bullets flying. Except for Zero, the series retains a pixelated appearance that is reminscent of the ps2 or psx eras for its gameplay. The series tends to be heavy on the dystopian elements, as well as transhumanism. Zero's setting in particular is horrifyingly dystopian, with children selling reservations for their own body parts and dismemberment videos in advance to strangers on the streets. Baldr Heart doesn't go that far... though it definitely strays into the area of mad science. I can't really say a whole lot about the setting without spoiling Skydive and Zero, sadly. This game is based 200 years after those games and the events in them are the base upon which the entirety of the society in Baldr Heart is constructed. Now, I feel a need to address the biggest complaint from those who were looking at this game. The fact that most of the characters are students... a definite divergence, as the series has in the past had most of its main characters in their early to mid-twenties, save for a few rare exceptions. That fact is one of the series' main attractions for many readers, as many VN fans go to the Baldr series specifically to escape the slice-of-life-in-a-school-setting that plagues most VNs. So, in the eyes of many fans of the Baldr series, this was a huge betrayal... or at least a turn-off. Typical of a Baldr game, this element, that would normally have been a simple way to dumb it down for the 'mainstream' (as so many readers name it contemptuously) is actually used to accentuate the sharp differences between the Baldr world and the modern Japanese settings of most normal VNs. While it is true that Sou isn't as bitter and broken as a lot of Baldr protagonists either begin as or end up, he nonetheless has his own share of horrifying experiences in his past, and he has taken lives in combat before. He is a mercenary who returns to his homeland after receiving a brain injury trying to save a young girl trapped in the net. There is a play order to this game... Tsukuyomi>Mao>Yuri>Nagi. With each successive path, more of the game's mystery is revealed, until you reach the core of things in Nagi's path. I'm going to be blunt... if you thought Yuri's path was a bit screwy, Nagi's is even twistier. The Baldr series loves its mindfuck plot twists filled with pseudo-science and philosophy, and in that sense, this is the Baldr series at its best. However, this story structure means that Tsukuyomi's path, in particular, is fairly unsatisfying since it reveals next to nothing about what happened in the past or what is going on during the story. I also felt that the game fell back on emotionalism a bit too often for my tastes... while it almost always comes down to that in any given Japanese game, I honestly thought the 'Fay' were going a bit too far that way. I know they were probably searching for a new theme after Zero, but I still found it a bit trite. That said, this is still a Baldr game, and thus a mix of filthy human desires and high ideals stain the world crimson with the blood of thousands along the way, leaving me satisfied that Giga didn't abandon the series core precepts. They were just a bit too obvious when they designed the setting and theme, lol. Overall, this game will get mixed reactions from Baldr fans while being perhaps slightly more accessible for those who might have had trouble with the much darker atmosphere of the previous games... in that sense, I think Giga probably made a mistake, as that dark atmosphere is one of the series' attractions. As a VN, it is very well written and smooth to play... showing off the skills of Giga's writing staff to their fullest. It reminds me of why so many who read Giga games say 'Giga is great... if you just play the Baldr series.'

The "anti-SP sentiment" is very heavily exaggerated by the crowd who believes that their insular and niche communities represent the whole of the visual novel fandom. When in reality the vast majority of VN fans and buyers exist outside of Fuwa, Reddit, 4chan, vndb, etc. At most they're lurkers, remaining silent because they have nothing to say on the matter.

I am a deity, I was talking about planes of existence.

What the average VN likes will typically not be what the average newbie to VNs will like. To be honest, many people here like VNs because they are VNs, and are "otaku" oriented as much as I hate using that word. The "normie" or average newcomer is not coming to VNs for the same reasons you did. They are looking for a good story, or something fun. Basically, think about a bunch of solidbatmans (less salty maybe) getting into VNs. My criticisms of many VNs match the criticisms of some of the people I've gotten into VNs. In the near future, I plan to have them write them up for a good post/editorial but its something to keep in mind. I keep seeing certain VNs suggested which absolutely would not be good for your average newcomer to VNs. Unless we are talking about the weeb who sits at home all day, and has no hobbies other than Japanese media, many suggestions in this thread are dubious at best. Not to pick on anyone, but Kara no Shoujo is a no. It has porn. Eden is possible, but I can't comment on it just yet (haven't read it). Tsukihime, far too dated + Nasu not good for entry level (now having someone watch Fate/Zero and then read Fate/Stay Night; thats a valid enough entry). Basically, when recommending a VN to a newbie, shift your perspective. Don't recommend what you like. Completely pull yourself away from your current tastes. If you know the person, it makes your job much easier, so get an idea first, of what they enjoy, and what they dislike. Katawa Shoujo is great for some people, but would have others running to the hills away from it after 20 minutes. The House in Fata Morgana is great for some people, but too heavy for others. Like salty Tiago said, one size does not fit all. There is no single starter VN list, and will never be a good one. A better way to pursue something like a starter list, is draw up a list of comparable titles in other mediums. "If you like the Atelier series, you may also enjoy the Kamidori." "If you like the action in Avengers, you may like Cho Dengeki Stryker." "If you like big tits, murder mystery, and fucking your sister, Touma Kojirou no Tantei File is the VN for you." and so on and so on. This might actually be a good project for someone more motivated than myself. Draw up a starter VN list, comparing various VNs to similarly themed works in other mediums.

Audi went into full Nutaku Protection Mode, which even caught me by surprise. Also, this sounds like a deal negotiated specifically for this title, as he mentioned that other upcoming titles will still see releases on the Denpasoft store. Nutaku may have negotiated for exclusive distribution rights.

Hi! So, we have a completely different release and marketing schedule for Japan and overseas. The reason Vol.2 has been announced and preorders opened in Japan is that the physical release of Vol.1 was last Friday, and the promotion for Vol.2 was prepared in light of that. We haven't started promoting Vol.2 overseas yet for a number of reasons; for example, we're still reviewing all the feedback we got about Vol.1 and figuring out how to approach Vol.2's release in light of that, also, we're going to be utilizing Indiegogo again essentially as a pre-order platform for the game (more on our reasoning for this will come when the campaign is announced), but not all of the goods, etc. have been completely prepared yet so we've held off on an opening date announcement for that (but it's coming soon!). It has nothing to do with our relationship with or standing in the Western VN community, nor with the sales of Vol.1. As far as the tapestry is concerned, our contract with Sofmap prevented us from being able to offer it overseas. I'm glad you like the design, and it's unfortunate we couldn't make it more easily available, but there's literally nothing we could do about that. I've mentioned it before, but we're certainly not affiliated in any way with anyone trying to guilt people into buying our products or anything remotely like that. At this point the only person speaking for Frontwing outside of official social media accounts is me. To be perfectly honest, it's a bit disheartening to me that people still think of us like the OP does, but in a way, that just means I'm not doing my job well enough, so I do apologize for that. Lastly, (criticism of the pricing model and format of the H-scenes aside) while Corona Blossom may not be a genre-changing masterpiece, I think the reviews for Vol.1 on Steam and other sites show that at the very least the game doesn't "suck"!

Every now and then pops up a new list of 'starter' VNs. Like Katawa, like G Maou, like Majikoi. But to get entranced into that you must have at least some knowledge about anime/manga, to get those tropes, to not get them to totally surprise you. Also - even if they're neat/good/great for us, would they be as good for people, who are completly new to a genre and have no connections to anime, besides maybe Dragon Ball? Let's make a list of VNs, which might not only get new people accustomed to a genre, but to really impress them. To use the VNs I mentioned: - Katawa is bland, simple charage. Nice, but nothing 'wow', and filled with not really exciting SoL. - Majikoi is a porn game, so major turn off. It's comedy gold, but probably mote to people really accustomed to usuall japanesse tropes and cliches than to a 'normie'. - G, even without porn is still trope'y and have a lot of SoL, but actually it might be closest to 'make impression' on people of them three. So, what would you recommend? Which VNs are so good, that even people who usually read books and watching tv series would really enjoy? I'll start with those: - The House in FataMorgana - it's like multimedia book. Great story, great read impressive presentation. Probably closest thing to 'not typical VN' I ever seen in this medium. - Phenomeno - I know it's short, but it's probably as best as this genre can be used. Really immersive, really scary, really tensionfull. Whish to see more horrors, but oh well. If something is going to impress a normie, it wouild be a good, short, compact scary story. Still a few typical JP tropes though. - ...Steins Gate? It woulkd be really hard to chew on chuunibyou protagonist at start and get through all those cliched characters...but maybe not? People not used to anime pouldn't know about those tropes so those characters might be fresh to them. And story is probably the greates one ever. and maybe those: - Umineko? Never read them, so don't know. - Danganronpa? Hyperactive VN with gameplay. Would interest many people, but would it really impress anybody? Especailyl people who are not into video games, and infantilization of characters might turn them off? Post your propositions below!

I don't think it is, TBH. A lot of /VN/ and /VNTS/ users skulk around the Reddit boards these days. Not to mention a couple of hundred people downvoting something isn't really going to make much difference in the long run. Especially considering you don't know who's doing the downvoting. 4chan's a place where you can be salty with your words, but Reddit's a place where you can be salty with your votes. I remember when SP was just starting, people on 4chan would urge others to be more active in Reddit's voting practice. That being said, Chrono Clock's on $35,000 after ... 2 days? It's not bad. To me that sort of reaction signals anti-SP fervour is still a vocal minority among hard core fans. Probably says just as much or more than a couple of hundred downvotes on Reddit. Just my 2c. Also, casuals and people not involved in the VN community won't even notice.

Yeah and in the first hour the main character's sister walks into the room naked for no reason.

The Fall list was out so I decided to post it today, I will update it as it gets updated.

Disclaimer: I am not involved with this game in any way, shape, or form. However, it is being worked on by a company I've done work for previously, Culture Select. Disclaimer 2: Penalu is my waifu, and yes I will fight you for her. Check out the Kickstarter! TL;DR, Super-cute game from a recent Comiket by MokyuSoft that is an VN with SRPG elements. 151 Pokemoncute girls to work with. I backed it on Kickstarter. Hoping this game is as cute as it looks. Here's the Press Release, if you're interested in Press Releases:

And it'll be great.

Narcissu - Short, kinetic novel, that will leave you speechless, and no sexual content. That s actually my impression of it. Clanned (haven t yet read that one) - no sexual content, slice of life drama. I think it s just best for a starter VN to not have sexual content, or at least a small ammount of it. Because if someone new, who has no knowdledge about this stuff, might just think it s for people without life, and even might think that all other VNs are just porn. That, ofc, is no problem if the starter has no life and is looking for some hentai, but that s rare i guess. I could also add my favorite VN, and actually my first one of a larger scale Everlasting summer - very small ammount of sexual content, if you don t have the patch, you don t miss anything; the story is awesome with a bit of fantasy; best soundtrack ever; and the impression you get after at least one route is undescribable

Hi everyone, I've created over 2000 tracks of music and sound effects that you are welcome to freely use in visual novels, games or anything else you like. It's all original...all my own work. All I ask is to be attributed as detailed on my homepage: http://soundimage.org/ I sincerely hope my tracks are helpful. Any and all feedback is welcome and always appreciated! All the best, Eric

This list won't feature the VNs in order of "how good they are". Rating them would be way too much of a clusterfuck to me. The VNs are not in their respective order. Meaning number 1 is not the best, and so on. 1_CHAOS; HEAD 2_Cross Channel 3_G-Senjou no Maou 4_Fate/Stay Night 5_Forest This Visual Novel is the easiest visual novel translated to get a bad ending without using a walkthrough- which just adds to the fun of it. It makes a massive amount of references to common literature, which makes it even better. 6_Katahane It may seem like an ordinary moege- the atmosphere is light, the story is full of cuteness, which you can note by the character design and soundtrack. It gets really good in the middle, and you'll be dying to know what happens in the end. A game with multiple perspectives, it's definitely one of the most enjoyable Visual Novels I've ever read. 7 Majikoi 8_Little Busters! 9_Tsukihime "You shouldn't tell lies that you can't even fool yourself with" 10_Swan Song A post apocalyptic Visual Novel. 11_Symphonic Rain It may seem like your ordinary moege. Trust me, it's not. 12_Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo (and sequel) 13_Sekien no Inganock Steampunk. An atmosphere full of mysteries and references that will make your head blow up. 14_Steins; Gate A visual novel that deals extensively with time travel and it's consequences. 15_Utawarerumono 16_Fault: Milestone (1 & 2) 17_Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni 18_Kara no Shoujo 19_Umineko no Naku Koro ni 20_Planetarian 21_Ever 17 Another top 10. 22_Remember11 It lacks in the ending, but otherwise the story of this VN has enough to easily become one of my all-time favorites. 23_Zanmataisei Demonbane 24_Rewrite "Could it possibly be rewritten, this fate of hers?" Another one that enters the top 10. 25_Narcissu 26_Grisaia no Kajitsu 27_Saya no Uta Only if you enjoy dark and messed up settings. 28_Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni 29_Eien no Aselia 30_Rose Guns Days (1 & 2) There are small sections of gameplay on this one, but you can skip them by pressing the space bar, so this still qualifies. 31_Sengoku Rance I feel obliged to comment on this VN before suggesting it to anyone. It's an Alicesoft title, which speaks a lot for itself... If you don't know how it's going to be like, well.. Kind of tough to describe. Lots of sex, including comedy rape. Alicesoft tends to make the whole story a comedy until right near the end, where things actually do get serious. It's worth checking out, if you don't mind Rance's personality. 32_Phenomeno Want a short VN that can captivate you for their whole duration? Here is it. Visual novel adapted from the youth horror novel written by Hajime Ninomae and illustrated by yoshitoshi ABe. 33_Ef- A Fairy Tale of the Two 34_Dysfunctional Systems Another one great for those who want short Visual Novels. 35_Daibanchou Another Alicesoft title. While Rouga is not near Rance's level when it comes to pissing off people, alicesoft's style is something which often doesn't please people. 36_Yume Miru Kusuri The endings pack quite a punch. 37_Kikokugai- The Cyber Slayer 38_Eden 39_Hoshizora no Memoria 40_Katawa Shoujo Yep, it's somewhat overrated. Still, the fact that it is substantially easier for those who are starting to play visual novels to read should not be discarded, and overall, the story was good. 41_World End Economica 42_YU-NO 43_Shikkoku no Sharnoth Yep, there is a minigame on this one. If you download a save data you can skip the minigame, though. So it still qualifies. Another VN that enters my top 10. 44_Muv Luv Alternative The first Muv Luv didn't have enough to enter this list. You should still read it, though~ MLA is definitely awesome. 45_Dangan Ronpa 46_Comyu - Kuroi Ryuu to Yasashii Oukoku 47_Hanachirasu 48_Ayakashibito 49_I/O 50_Deardrops

Rule of thumb - nudity for a reason. People will stomach nudity in games or movies if there's a reason. Genuine romance, for example, or worldbuilding like depicting the horrors and struggles in an uncaring world. Copious nudity shoehorned in purely to excite the audience will quickly get the thing labelled as 'porn'. For Example, the Witcher 3 has nudity but the first Witcher was censored. There were these sex cards you could collect after you romanced people in the first one, and they were censored in the American version of the game (I got my grubby hands on the uncensored international version.) They were then removed in the sequels.

Now this is a driver that doesn't give a fuck, lol

Sorry, my statement wasn't really meant in an offensive way, but I admit it could be read that way. I think we can agree to disagree here, although I want to emphasize that I mentioned KnS explicitly as an 'adult only' suggestion. I had Eden and G-Senjou as tamer suggestions as well. But you said it yourself, you have to consider the person whom you're suggesting something. And I certainly agree with that statement.

Yeah, wow, see that doesn't indicate to me that anti-SP fervor is on the rise. Remembering of course that the pledges are coming from the hard core part of the userbase, the part which is supposed to be MOST against Dovac and SP.

The House in Fata Morgana is a very good choice. I would also recommend Phenomeno, which is a short horror VN with gorgeous art and an incredibly strong atmosphere. As a side note, I haven't finished it quite yet, but I'm reading Inganock and that might be what you're looking for? The world is very intriguing, and the writing and music form a tone that you can't really get anywhere else.

Well, yes, it is incredibly patronizing to tell someone how their job should be done when you have zero experience.

My suggestions would be certainly Eden and G-Senjou for all ages and Kara no Shoujo for an adult only title. All of those really impressed me with their story and their audio-visual merits.

Am I the only one who's not really fond of them teaming up with Nutaku?

Always and forever: Planetarian, Narcissu and True Remembrance. If you can't swallow these, vn's aren't meant for you.

The House in Fata Morgana

Sasuga, Japan.

That much is obvious. The Kickstarter says "And friends, there will also be a Denpasoft version of the game distributed exclusively by Nutaku!". So obvious they must have negotiated something, because otherwise the VN would also be released on Denpasoft. And those kind of exclusive distribution rights normally cost money, because SP has no advantage in not putting the game also on Denpasoft. I can only guess but maybe Nutaku wants some exclusive titles to promote their envisioned Steam for adult games. I could see that happen again in the future if they are serious about their platform, but I guess those kinds of deals are difficult to make with Mangagamer and JAST because their adult stores are more core to their businesses. Generally the idea of making a kickstarter for the sake of financing physical merchandise is a good one. There are people looking for those physical editions and goods, and this is good way to provide them without financial risk for Sekai Project. Also it's good promotion for the VN.

Planetaria / Narcissu The biggest problem will be for them to actually finish the damn thing. Shorter VNs with a strong 'closed' story (aka no large universe with tons of lore) would be best.

^if you can take literally everything else True Remembrance is fairly short, has no porn, is free, and p. good; the themes also don't seem overly Fapanese to me. However its somewhat episodic nature in the start might make people quit before they get to interesting stuff, so idk how well it works. In the same vein, you could try Blue*, though that one makes me even less sure. Has the free/noporn thing, not that short though but not super long either. The writing for the translation is... interesting, at least. It tries hard and sometimes falls flat on its face, basically

Thanks. I see what you mean. Actually we launched before Sekai Project (maybe an hour or two hours early). They had a sudden launch too. I haven't posted on reddit.

The first point is patently false. I can't comment on the second point, but they've literally removed characters from Aigis and redrawn faces for Osawari. People use Nutaku because the audience they draw are literally first-time eroge players whose prior experience with erotic games is likely limited to Newgrounds. Anything is a step up from that. This quote by SP literally made me do a double-take though. Really ironic choice of words.

Planetarian. It was pretty much my first encounter with (serious) anime/manga/vn tropes. It has a very stereotypically enthusiastic anime character, but the fact that she is a robot built only to please (japanese?) customers made that very easy to swallow for me. It also has stellar writing and presentation and some really beautiful and impactful moments, and you can read it in an evening. I'd be lying if I said I'd had much success trying to get friends to read and like it, but I still believe you don't need any experience in anime/manga to enjoy it.

Hey, we'll be releasing a bunch of dev log videos showing off various gameplay systems and features, here's the first one:

Ace Attorney. Not really a VN, but it's a great soil to let the VN seeds grow on.

They are pure evil.

might as well get scarred for life right at the start Saya no Uta

You should check out this list, i'm sure you'll find something that you'll like here! Also i suggest G senjou no maou , Kono Oozora ni, Tsubasa o Hirogete, Ourai no Gahkthun ~What a Shining Braves~ [love this] and other translated liar-soft games. Have fun searching for your next Vn and hope you enjoy the read! Btw, this is just a suggestion, if you tag your VNDB list here it'll be easier for people to give you solid recommendations according to your taste since you mentioned that you haven't completed some [did you drop them?]. Cheers!

"What should I do...?" she asked. "I'll be going then," I replied.

Honestly i think that you guys that are working for frontwing's western market releases are doing a great job. Its great to see you guys actually communicating with the community about the issues they had with Corona Blossom and discussing it with them too. Pretty good pr work i'll say. Also it was a graceful explanation of frontwings plans for the western market. I haven't read Corona Blossom yet [my Vn backlogs too large, time] so I can't say anything about the game. I wish you guys luck for Vol: 2 and also, when you'll release your longer titles, i'm sure many will snap it right up! Cheers

@AlphaJay I can agree with you on that, it's definitively a unique experience, I was skeptical of it at first but soon discovered myself very immersed into it, it's a shame though that the art isn't that much appealing ... I finished only the first part and still have to play the other two ... I intend to replay the first one once I go back to playing it ... There is also a new version of the game that came out (Monmusu Quest! Paradox RPG) but sadly isn't fully translated yet though there is a translator that is working on the game and there is a partial patch for it ... One day when I grasp enough of Japanese I will not have to wait for translations for the games that I want to play

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

Thank you for the wait! I have an update, it's a fan art of Saya no Uta! My first vn, how nostalgic If you want a bigger version, you can download it here: in_bloom_by_ioruko-d9zss6r.jpg It's 4000 x 2509 !

Welcome guys This is a casual review of Air - standard edition, having played all 3 heroine routes plus "Summer", and "Air". The translation I used is by Sheeta, and not Gao-gao translations (sorry). I have seen the anime version a long time ago and I barely remember any details from it. I heard that the VN is better and so I tried it. After finishing the VN, I double down on that statement. Some background: Air is released by KEY after Kanon, and before Clannad. I'd classify the game a Nakige, much like Clannad After Story. The game has the theme of Summer, compared to Kanon's winter. I'm not sure if Clannad had a season theme. Art: Key style. I personally like KEY style. I cannot really comment on the intricacies of the art and the CGs. I do think the number of CGs are quite few but I'm just spoiled. Music/Sound: It's ok. There are a couple of memorable and catchy tunes (Minagi's theme) but nothing too bad, nothing too fantastic. Story: I don't like the fact that I'm forced to play the other two heroines to unlock Summer+Air. Kano's route felt like a massive filler. Minagi's route is decent, while Mizusu's route felt just like Little Buster's Rin route is when playing it for the first time --- stopped short of the climax. Overall the heroine routes suffer from an unbearably SLOW development. I drowned on slice-of-life with what seems like 80% of the game. Literally felt like only 3 sentences out of a day in Air contributes to the advancement of the plot. It's quite anachronistic to make this comparison but, Air feels like an unrefined Clannad. If you are a KEY fan, you will see elements of KEY style in Air. The humor is hit-or-miss, not as good as Clannad or LB. Tension build-up was way too slow in Air, which is something they vastly improved in Clannad in my opinion. The highlight of the whole game for me was Summer route. It contained tension from very early in the route and kept me hooked from start to finish. I'm not sure if going through two unrelated filler arcs was worth getting to Summer. But I would say this route even trumped the final route "Air", and is the main bone of the game. Summer is very impactful. Most of the final route "Air" was mostly a repeat of Misuzu's route and it's quite unpleasant to go through the slice-of-life elements again with barely any change on the narration... The story line outside of "Summer" arc only spikes in drama at the end. Tension in the mid-route is almost non-existent. The mysteries are so-so. As for themes, I'm not really good at analyzing but I will try. The setting takes place on a rural town, and as such cell-phones and modern technology doesn't exist as much. By playing Air, you get a sense of the laidback countryside, with its elderly. The setting is so simple there's nothing eyecatching or interesting. But simplicity in itself seems to be what the setting conveys. Sky and flying are the main aspects of the story and there are countless references to it in-game. There are some great quotes all throughout the game, but I wasn't engaged too much with any kind of philosophical stimulation. I'm sure there are countless other themes that the game conveyed but I won't bother brainstorming at this point. Scores: I'm not going to try to come up with arbitrary number for every category but I will give this VN an overall score of 6-7; meaning I will put it in the AVERAGE category. I have played or watched so much slice-of-life stories that I'm just numbed to the majority of the scenes here. Usually at that point, if there are no main plot developments happening, then humor is the only one that keeps me going. Air's humor is spotty as I mentioned before. Will I recommend this? If you like other KEY titles and its narratives, and are a fan of drama --- then yes. If you are a beginner or new to the Visual Novel scene, play this one later. There are countless numerous other better VNs than Air. Part of the reason I have survived through this game was because I was already a huge fan of KEY (having replayed Clannad like 4 times). As a standalone game it's so-so, not a bad VN, but not superb. And so I leave you with a few more quotes.