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https://fuwanovel.net/reviews/2017/01/18/himawari-the-sunflower/ So this game was moderately hyped and I personally was really excited for it. I didn't exactly like it as much as a lot of other people, though. For funsies, here's a list of VNs I think are better than this legendary doujin kamige, according to my VNDB ratings: Princess Evangile Noble ☆ Works Osananajimi wa Daitouryou: My Girlfriend is the President. Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai! S Deardrops Games I think are exactly as good as Himawari, according to my VNDB ratings: Edelweiss Duel Savior What great company Himawari keeps.

Common routes are horrible and are usually a padding tool because VN fans are weird.

http://atlus.com/uta/truth/index.php http://atlus.com/uta/deception/index.php For those who are interested, it is true. Atlus is localizing both of these Utawarerumono VN/games. Something for yall to look forward to, eh?

Gross Profit != Gross Revenue. Gross profit is how much you get after operating costs. In this case, they are probably subtracting gross revenue by the cost of localization and licensing, and probably royalties and such as well. I'm not 100% sure on the formula they're using, because it seems like they're adding revenue from every sale starting from sale #1, even though they need to account for cost of localization and licensing which happens usually in full before the product goes on sale.

I have allot of trouble interacting with my university professors. I usually hate their guts and don't want to talk to them out of fear of accidentally letting my true thoughts show on my face or I respect the hell out of them and I am afraid of accidentally offending them or making myself look like an idiot in their presence. Speaking of ass-first chili, that reminds me of an unfortunate lunch break I had during one of my night shifts. I got home from work and quickly heated up some microwave lasagna that I was looking forward to, as soon as it was done I took it and went downstairs in order to watch some netflix while consuming de lasagna. I placed it on the couch, went to turn on the lights to look for the remote, found the remote, than promptly sat on the lasagna. Burned my ass, ruined the food and the carpet, and wasted the rest of my lunch break trying to clean the mess I made. I was soo despondent that I forgot to change my pants and went back to work with lasagna ass, I'm kinda shocked that no one said anything to me.

I think one of the reasons why this game is so good and connects with the people who like to read a well-written story is that Natsu no Kusari is not trying to sugarcoat anything. Shinji is a bastard. The game never glorifies what he does and even in the instances when he succeeds, there is a bitter aftertaste for the reader to stomach. That may not seem like much, but it's really fundamentally different than 99% of all the other eroge out there which are constantly trying to pander to the reader. For example, usually if you have a villainous protagonist, there is some kind of dark desire the reader has and the game wants to satisfy. (And there is nothing wrong with this as this is fiction and having some dark fetishes is perfectly normal.) In a normal corruption eroge, even though the reader knows it's wrong to do the things shown in the story, the corruption of the heroine is in the end shown as something glorious, a feat worth praise. And the evil protagonist, although without a doubt the reader knows he is a bad person, is looked upon with envy and respect. And the reader might even wish he was as awesome as he is. But none of this is in Natsu no Kusari. Even though the game knows that the majority of its players will identify with the protagonist, it doesn't give us the satisfaction of enjoying the torment of the girl or putting ourselves in Shinji's shoes. We only get a reason, no justification for having these feelings, the feelings of being social outcasts, not being able to find our place in society or even happiness, even though the game definitely understands why we are thinking like that and why we can relate to Shinji's line of thought. When I'm thinking of the best game 2016, there is no doubt in my mind that it's Natsu no Kusari. For telling a story without compromises alone, even though the reader might, no, certainly will find this off-putting, it deserves this title. There is no reason to force you to read something that you will obviously not enjoy. Natsu no Kusari is a very good game, but even the best story can't make you enjoy something that is conceptually repulsive to you.

Honestly I'm a huge no no on censorship for games, HOWEVER, that's for games where the publisher/company does not let us know why the fuck they are censoring whatever the fuck they are censoring. Atlus giving us an explanation and it making sense is basically all I ask for a publisher before I buy a game. I've not bought, or bought from 3'rd party as to support the 3'rd party but not the publisher, a censored game in quite awhile unless it is explained why it was censored. It isn't hard Nintendo :|

Hi everyone, I've been building a library of images that you are welcome to freely use in your projects. They are all original...all my own work. I think a lot of them could be made into cool textures for games. All I ask is to be attributed as indicated on my homepage: http://soundimage.org/ The images are on my "TXR" pages. I'm adding new ones all the time, so be sure to check back often. I sincerely hope that some of them are useful. Any and all constructive feedback is welcome and always appreciated. :-) All the best, Eric

Spoilers for the game as a whole. Spoilers for Sunao's ending

It gets better. IT GETS EVEN BETTER.

Buckle the fuck up

Common routes are the best part of the VN experience. Once you make your pick and the other characters get degraded to side characters, everything goes downhill.

Just arrived today

The problem of common routes is that they cannot shine more than the heroines path but at the same time the history need to advance giving screen time to the protagonist and all heroines in a more "open" way. Personally I like common routes that have story progression and something like a mini climax at the end.

After another monthly delay, finished the third chapter of Fata Morgana, and it was awesome! It's definitely the best chapter so far. Heavy spoilers ahead. That said, this VN is extremely to my tastes at this point. I'm pretty tired of Japanese school settings, and this seems like a nice change of pace. I might not have time to continue to the fourth chapter right now, but I definitely going to finish it some day. So far 9/10, with potential to increase.

"A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to." --Gandalf

Neither Atlus nor Aquaplus have never ported anything on pc in the modern history, so the chances of a pc port are likely very bleak.

If anyone wants an hour of high-noise discussion on common routes go ahead and listen to this w

I thought it was boring and it sucked. And I'm not even more than 5 hours into it.

In my personal opinion, common routes are meant to establish the world and tone of the setting. At the end of a common route we should have a basic understanding of how our protagonist perceives other characters and how they fit in the world. It should be the foundation that holds the stories of each of the routes up. Having said that, I don't think that is the only thing a common route can do, I think characters can have development in common routes if the story requires it. In other words I don't think there is really any solid "rules" on what a common route should or should not have.

are they dogs?

lol... it took forever for the PS3 to reach that point, too... RPG's in the classic sense are a dying genre, hahaha.

It's not fair to compare PE with Himawari, one is kamige and the other a doujin desu.

Sums up most of the problems I have (am having) with it. I'm kind of iffy on the SoL scenes. Some are great, but ultimately I feel like it suffers from there only being like 5 characters in the 2050 portion. That and the repetition of some stuff... As much as I enjoy hearing Tamura Yukari scream out KAKUGOOOO, there only needed to be one toy gun fight scene in the school.

I remember the days when we would swat people for threats they made, anyhoo, don't worry if they try to touch you (I probably showed up to late) either A. Fight back (I do not condone violence but you gotta do what you gotta do) B. Run or C. Call the cops. Or D. Make this face And run ;-;

Maybe we should have a post videos you like thread Super Mario done in Grand Theft Auto universe:

Semiramis no Tenbin is a great game, except for Sunao's ending (hers has issues if you like Ami). I will say that you will see the ugliest side of Japanese societal structure in this VN though. Suzukaze no Melt is an excellent game, if you just want some charage/moege stress relief. Tasogare no Sinsemilla... it has a few endings that approach the Tsukihime 'normal' ending in style, but other than that it is an excellent game. Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide is one of my permanent recommendations for all Vn lovers to at least try to play. Evolimit is great... and it is significantly easier than Dies Irae. Devils Devel Concept has a difficulty level approaching that of Dies Irae, so you might want to avoid it. Subahibi has mostly bad endings, so you probably want to avoid it. Baldr Sky Dive has gameplay. Hapymaher is a first-class nakige with the single best soundtrack in all of VNs. Irotoridori no Sekai is Favorite at its best, so if you liked Hoshimemo, you are pretty much guaranteed to like it. Sakura no Mori Dreamers... if you can remain sane after the prologue, it is easy to enjoy. Sakura no Uta has the same problems as Subahibi Kami no Ue no Mahoutsukai has a huge number of bad and 'normal' endings. Eien no Aselia is fully translated but it does have gameplay. However, if you are willing, it is a first-class VN story. If you start Grisaia Part 2, I recommend you immediately play 3 after, as it is immensely frustrating otherwise. Mirai Nostalgia was the first Purple Soft game to earn my mostly unstinting praise. Sharin no Kuni will probably split opinions here, but I enjoyed it immensely at the time. The only question is whether it will fit you tastes once you begin to play it.

I'll never understand all the complains about moeges. You guys are acting like if they didn't exist all those moege players will suddenly realize the greater taste and will spend all of their money on story based games or something. Currently moeges are keeping the eroge industry alive, gotta admit that. I mean if an average moege like Wagamama High Spec can sell more than 20.000 copies while a good story based game like island is selling only 2000 (both of them got released at the same month btw) its not the moege's fault. It just means people who are complaining about the rarity of story based games actually dont care about them enough to buy, while moege customers actually throw money to games they like.

Based on you using Muv-Luv Alt as an example, I have to assume that you don't mean double life in the literal sense, since Takeru simply had his life disrupted beyond repair by his experiences. He isn't so much leading a double life as simply surviving his new one, lol. In that sense, Eien no Aselia (Aselia the Eternal) is a good choice... as is Seinarukana. Edit: Also, Dies Irae which comes out in May (supposedly) fulfills your conditions, as does Libra, which comes out in March. Both protagonists lead a 'student by day, something drastically different by night' lifestyle.

Finished the main story of Kindred Spirits (apparently there are now bonus scenes? is this something I should play? probably). It was amazing. This is kind of a depressing thought, but I really won't be surprised if it ends up being my favorite VN I play this whole year. I'm a sucker for sweet romances like this, and I liked the variety of characters and the amount of attention paid to each of them. For instance, seeing a sharper side to Maki's personality late in the game was a great way to add a little depth to her character, and really made me like her a lot more; or for another example, there were some surprises with Tsukuyo in her H scene which I thought were cute. This is obviously just a matter of taste, but I especially appreciate that the game tells a lot of interrelated romance stories without it being essentially a harem. I guess I'm much more a fan of the game pairing up a bunch of couples and telling me each couple's story, rather than me picking routes to match up a single protagonist with one of many love interests. Maybe it's because I like having a headcanon where everybody is happy? Or because I feel bad about making the protagonist "cheat" on the previous route's girl when I play through again? Couldn't really say. I'm a huge fan of the sprite art, too; moderately more realistic body shapes are always a pleasant surprise. And while I wish there were more background tracks (the game is moderately long, and the soundtrack they use for most of it rather short...), I was glad that they saved a few good tracks to introduce in the late game. Both the music for the school festival and the H scene music (surprisingly) were quite good, though nothing ever did match up to the game's go-to BGM track, which plays over the title screen. I wish I knew of literally any other localized VN that was like this, in terms of tone and themes. I just really like straightforward romances (by which I mean stories that actually depict a relationship being built, not what passes for a romance in most moege or nakige), I guess.

I'm glad you liked it I recently started New Game, and holy shit is it great. I generally like laid-back slice-of-life shows like this, but I usually find them a little bit boring, so I don't watch them too often. However, I do not find this one boring at all, and I think it's because it has that unique twist that the characters are working adults, and the depiction of working life is incredibly spot-on without itself being boring.

Rewatching Kanon2006 with my wife. I haven't rewatched it since it aired over 10 years ago (2006 duh.) It still stands up very well. Sure there are convenient and obvious plot points and devices but most of them work and the characters and story development are great. Funnily enough those plot devices were very original and did not feel forced in 2006 whereas now, everyone's done the same thing since then. Someone had to do these things the first time around, and I'm a sucker for the original execution of what becomes a classic trope. Only the eyes are overdone, but otherwise it still looks great too.

Moribito is a fantastic show. It's one of only two shows that makes me think, "Oh, I should make sure my niece watches that when she's old enough", along with Yona of the Dawn. Truly excellent female leads in serious shows are a rare treasure.

I'd say it's a sort of catharsis on an entirely different level. It makes you aware of certain things. It also reminds you that kidnapping and rape are - indeed, obviously - horrible and not really a subject matter for silly joking (sorry, AliceSoft). I guess it's the reason why majority of people I knew actually dropped it - they couldn't get past the point, where it becomes apparent the "rape" part is not a joke. It reminds you, it is not something you should be enjoying, as opposed to majority of darker/edgier eroge. That aside, even on a sliding sociopathic scale, Shinichi (Shinji?) makes for an incredibly interesting character, you're actually - somehow - able to relate with, if the topics mentioned within the story aren't completely oblivious to you. Feeling of social isolation, sense of loss, lack of drive towards your very own life and future, complete rejection that leads to non-existence... yet, those things are something we're not able - as human beings - to fight against. We want to love and be loved by others. It's what makes our lives fulfilling and worth living for. Everyday, we strive to build our perfect utopias, mostly unaware of the fact our freedom ends where it starts for someone else and only end up hurting them in the process. Even though, it is something we cannot influence; it's an integral part of us being a part of this society, whether we like it or not. Doesn't make a difference Mitsuki isn't any less interesting, nor important; albeit her role is designated more to one, who makes the protagonist "whole". It's an apparent theme throughout the whole game, whilst the different endings cope with different outcomes of our couple (no pun intended) coming to terms with their own existence and place in this peculiar relationship. I daresay, this is actually their best game so far, mostly because of the themes they chose; it's propably even better than Maggot Baits and Euphoria, considering how disconnected they feel in regards to our world and reality. This is, mostly because of it's presentation - which not only plays a tremendous role, but remains perfectly executed. I have yet to see a visual novel, that is *so close* to being the defining factor of it's own genre and remaining - even despite it's gritty, twisted premise - so artistically pleasant.

Weakling It's kind of amusing, since we're so used to rape no one gives a damn when it's used as a lousy plot device; everyone just rolls their eyes, when it happens. But give them a well thought-out vn, which actually portrays rape as-it-is and people suddenly get offended. Actually, maybe for the better. After all, if you got offended, it must had mean the story left you with a desirable impact, regardless whether you liked it, or not. I don't think I actually read that many vn's this past year, to actually have any sort of solid candidates. I'd say VA-11 HALL-A might prolly be the best game I had the chance to interact with (even though it's not a 100% vn, YMMV); the biggest (positive) surprise goes exactly to Natsu no Kusari, while the weakest link would be Inochi no Spare; I had a better initial view of that visual novel in the beginning, but once I got into it, I couldn't believe how absurd it actually is; we're literally talking about legally consented medical homicide; what sane parents would actually do that to any of their children? Sacrifice one, so another may live? Or better, perhaps - give birth to one to save another? It not only doesn't make sense; there's literally no actual ground for the events portrayed in the story to be based upon. That said, art was gorgeous, but that alone can't save the writing. I have a feeling AkabeiSoft3 is starting to get overboard with their latest projects; I still have Gusha no Kyouben to read, but regardless of it - almost all of their games have been more or less a huge disappointment to me. I actually feel offended, because there's no way any self-respecting writer would drop down that kind of shit and expect to be treated seriously by their readers. I - for one - couldn't. The more astonishing it was considered one of the very best japanese releases of 2016. It seems like there's really not much to chose from nowadays - you either get all the garbage tier charage/moege with no actual plot, or pseudo-intellectual stories that try to sound better than they really are, with end results being no less than insulting to any person with a slightest bit of intelligence.

Looks evil. I hate it already.