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So I watched Konosuba 2. Best thing I've seen since Konosuba.

It's not a slump. You're simply changing like we all do. Despite my wilingness to learn japanese and general fondness for vn's, I found myself incapable to play them on a regular basis and I can't really force myself to do so either. I'm kind of still slowly plowing through my backlog (currently on 魔物娘の館　彗星館異形録 ～人魚の章～ ), but it's not really enjoyable when you force yourself to do things, that used to bring joy in the past. Just... I don't know - it's not like my interest in vn's vained or anything, I'd say the opposite, but I simply don't feel like playing all the games I wanted to. Maybe it's because I'm more focused on creating something of my own nowadays. Maybe because I have a decent job that finally allowed me to afford things I could only dream of a couple years ago; that aside, there's life and various obligations to consider as well. Sadly, reading and playing vn's remains time consuming. I'm not the kind of person to waste a couple days worth of time on a silly moege, I might not even enjoy that much. At times... we just need a longer break.

I told a couple people I would post my thoughts about Sayonara wo Oshiete when I finished it, and just a few days ago I finished a bad end and Mutsuki's good end. So here are my impressions, thoughts, and analysis of that experience. Also, this post does not contain any significant spoilers to the VN. So its safe for all those that are curious. (Also from here on forward I will refer to Sayonara wo Oshiete as 'Sayooshi') Before I start talking about Sayooshi, I want to briefly describe the circumstances in which I discovered it. During this past summer, after having studied Japanese (with a grammatical focus) for a while, I wanted to get a few easy moege under my belt before attempting something I actually wanted to read. I was honestly having a miserable time, as I hate moege. I was reading them for no other reason than to practice and learn Japanese, as they were appropriate for my level. I wasn't having fun, and it honestly felt like work more than anything else. Just as I was about to give up on Untld Vns for the time being, I read a post by Vokoca talking about Sayooshi, and he linked to this video. The unsettling music and ominous imagery instantly piqued my curiosity and I set out to get this VN. For a while I was saving it, still thinking "My Japanese isn't good enough yet", but then at some point in the fall I decided "Fuck it, with the help of dictionaries and text hooking software, I can make this journey", and began reading it whenever I had time. And boy was this a journey worth taking, even if I did proceed through it a bit slowly. I love the first person narrative because getting inside the heads of interesting characters is truly experiencing the world through a different person's eyes. And VNs in my view are the best medium for first person narration, as they allow you to to see and hear what the MC experiences. Furthermore, back ground music enriches the story by immersing the reader in the moods of various settings and situations. Sayooshi takes all these strengths of VNs and the first person narrative, and uses it to put you inside the head of a madman. A man whose sense of reality is slipping further and further away by the day. The unreliable narrator is a literary trope that I really enjoy, but this is an area where I think VNs by default have higher potential than books. It is one thing to solely read the mind of a madman/untrustworthy narrator, it is another thing all together to see and hear that man's world, on top of reading his narrative. Too often I see wasted potential in the artistic side of VNs. Visual art is important for not only conveying ideas (i.e. a picture of a hallway should look like a hallway, a picture of a girl should look like a girl, etc.), but art can also convey moods. VNs of the same era usually have extremely similar character designs, and there is usually a lack of creativity in artistic style in VNs. While the character designs aren't anything revolutionary (it is admittedly nice that this VN came out before moe blobs became popular though), what is special about the art, is the eternal twilight. Hitomi's world is a world drenched in the orange and reddish hue of twilight, as the VN takes place exclusively during the evening. And coupled with all the things Hitomi experiences, the color of twilight really makes things even more ominous. It instills a feeling of loneliness, or at the very least detachment. Supporting the artwork in creating an unsettling atmosphere, is the music. The main theme that plays when Hitomi is wandering the school alone (this theme), only reinforces the feelings of detachment that the visual art and writing create. Character themes as well are quite well suited for each of the characters and the moods they represent, further successfully reinforcing the tone of the writing. Now onto the writing itself. Things are confusing, and they only get more confusing. Any sense of orientation is screwed around with, and this only gets worse as the story continues. You are left thinking "Did what I see actually happen?", until it gets to the point where you just altogether give up on distinguishing reality. In this way, you yourself submit to the insanity and fall further into Hitomi's world. Not knowing what to make of his situation. The only difference between you and him, is that you know he is crazy, but nonetheless identify with him because you experience the same sense of the world as he does. And perhaps weird to say, but the H-scenes in this VN serve to further sympathize with his madness. When I was telling a (non-VN reading) friend of mine about Sayooshi. He admitted that it sounded interesting, and even could appreciate the use of the H-scenes from an intellectual perspective. But he then told me that what he thought was truly disturbing, was not the use of H-scenes, but that "inevitably there will be people out there that will find it arousing". For him, (and his understanding of what I told him about Sayooshi), the sex scenes, which are exclusively rape scenes, serve to reinforce Hitomi's insanity, and therefore their portrayal is justified. But finding the scenes arousing yourself, is horrific as it is identifying with a monster; like the monster that plagues Hitomi's dreams. But it is here, where I disagree. The VN does everything in its power to have you identify with Hitomi's insanity, and the sex scenes are no exception. The sex scenes are arousing, despite knowing that they shouldn't be. It isn't just rape, but the Heroines are (supposedly) middle school girls for Christ's sake. Perhaps eroge players (particularly nukige fans) maybe a bit desensitized, but this is certainly fucked up. But just like when Hitomi experiences the dream that plagues him for the first half of the story, he knows he is the monster raping the angel, and there is pleasure still drawn from this. A pleasure that Hitomi knows is horrible and monstrous. But just as Hitomi submits to the role as the monster as he views his nightmare; we are in an identical role, viewing (and partly identifying) with his sexual misdemeanors as he commits them. It coerces you into submitting yourself to the madness of these H-scenes. By doing so an enjoyment is found in them, but for you and Hitomi alike there is a darkness implied in that pleasure. Furthermore, Hitomi seems to understand that he is defiling them. There is a guilt and sense of disgust felt, but also a feeling of extreme excitement, just as we as readers feel. This is shown through the multiple references he makes to 'contaminating the purity of the angel/Mutsuki', to paraphrase what he says. The H-scenes, and our feelings towards them, mirror Hitomi's perspective; furthering our identification with his insanity. Yet, just like the reoccurring nightmare, the H-scenes almost always end abruptly, and are divorced from continuity. It is not uncommon for an H scene to abruptly happen, end all of a sudden, and the next thing you know you are placed into a completely different context. And not only do the H-scenes lack continuity immediately before and after, but the characters never make reference to it afterwards, and act just as they did before. Further questioning whether they ever really happened. And this confusion surrounding the reality of the h-scenes, makes it easier to identify with Hitomi during them, since the normal consequences and damage caused by rape, do not apply. (Perhaps this would be a considered spoiler if I could guarantee that it actually happened ) And for all these reasons, I feel that the thesis of this VN is the fragility of the human mind. Often we draw huge differences between the mentally deranged, and functional normal human beings; but what Sayooshi points out is that the difference is actually rather subtle. In seeing the world Hitomi experiences, and sympathizing with him, it gets us to realize that we ourselves are not that different. That given his circumstances and what he experiences (and seeing it through his eyes), his reactions are actually understandable. The atmosphere of his world, and reading the thoughts of his mind, gets us to question his sanity, and in doing so, eventually gets us to question our own sanity as well. Sayooshi in an incredibly strong atmospheric experience. And it is for this reason that I feel Sayooshi is a great representative of the strengths VNs offer as a medium. This VN took advantage of all the tools it had as a VN (music, sound effects, visuals, and narrative) to provide a full experience of what the wanders of a madman look like. I really felt like I understood to a degree what it was like to be insane reading this work, and I don't think I would have been able to identify as well if it were told in any other medium in any other way.

まずはブランド的に新しい試みとして低価格帯タイトルの開発を進めております。 発売は春前ごろで海外向けに英語版でもリリース予定です。 http://blog.livedoor.jp/wp_staffblog/archives/cat_10021622.html What they are saying is basically that they are trying something new and will release a low price VN that will also have an English release. Release date will be winter/spring or so. http://store.steampowered.com/app/407310/

Firstly, let me say that it looks like there's an amazing community here, I'm really looking forward to reading everyone's views, opinions and suggestions with what to read next. I'm sort of a VN newbie by titles read rather than time, and while my story is somewhat convoluted please bare with me. I got into VN's after watching Deens adaptation of FSN and reading everyone at anidb slate it, and they were correct the VN was amazing! Although I didn't complete all routes at the time, due to issues with text hooker, it gave me a good enough experience that I proceeded to perv my way through several other titles, Gibo, Bunnies, secret wives club, etc. This ended abruptly when I met my wife in 2006 and decided to give up reading; apart from melty blood which I kept playing online. However, FHA came out recently creating a storm of interest at anidb, so I finished FSN, FHA and I'm once again hooked! I believe being able to now read on sofa with tablet has enhanced the re-addiction; I cannot think of anything better to relax. So that's my story, I currently reading Kono Oozora, and will probably read Steins Gate next. I'm just working my way through Kaguya's top 50 list. Anyhow, thanks for reading my ramblings, I look forward to discussing VNs with you all in the future. Trick

dude, love kono oozora ni. ^ ^ welcome to the forums, hope you have a great time and make lots of new friends! \ /

Over 10 posts have been hidden. This is not a Sekai Project thread.

I didn't see it posted elsewhere (I probably just missed it), but just so it's in this thread too: The game is actually going to be VR, though it will support a non-VR mode for plebes like me. Sekai Project has long-since been confirmed to be handling the US release. The English release is coming out really soon, on March 31st 2017

Welcome!! You shure will find amazing titles to keep on your reading! If you are a fan of mistery/policial novels, and also novels with a true end, don't miss Kara no Shoujo and G-Senjou (my favourites so far).

Welcome to this lovely community of ours! Like always, I will recommend Euphoria, it's one of my favourite VN's of late.

Welcome to the community, I myself loved Kono oozora, once you get finished with it, you should read pulltops many other VNs (Koi Resort, Miagete Goran, Yozora no Hoshi o, etc.) i myself am still working on Koi Resort cause I forgot Like half of the routes so I decided to go back and do them. but I'm your local everyday shitposter, and I welcome you

It's a good one tho.

I can only recommend a manga reader on play strore,It's name is manga rock, you have to buy it to download more than 3 mangas? Tho u can get it slighty legally from GetApk Market (just google it). It remebers last read chapters and pages, also u have acces to mangas from many sources, and u can download also.

Gameplay video:

A lot of vn's allow you to change it in the options, by turning on a function where character voices won't be clipped if the next line is left unvoiced; otherwise, it's not really possible when the next line is also voiced.

Anime style hair doesn't usually afford itself much fine detail. Kinda at odds style wise in most cases. Besides, I'm fine without being welcomed to the jungle. We have fun and games without it.

In the style of mosaicing being done these days, the vast majority of VNs wouldn't have the pubic hair hidden by mosaics. It's really just an issue of most eroge artists not really knowing how to make it look good.

I haven't forgotten you either, @Mr Poltroon, I've just been ignoring you since you asked about stuff that was harder to answer. For starters, I totally agree with you that asterisked sound effects are less of an interruption than singularly complex sentence structure. Forcing the reader to go back and re-read a sentence just to try to understand what the blazes is going on when all they want is to move on to the next element in the plot is anathema to the goal of most VNs, which is, generally, to offer the straightforward entertainment of a quick jaunt through a story world, rather than the joy of ruminating on a particularly fibrous utterance. However, *clears his throat*, I would like to point you at the hill you're about to go sliding down. It is, if I do say so myself, a slippery slope *wink*. My own personal experience with trying to use this technique was that use instantly turned to abuse *sigh*. Before too long, the dialogue was filled with all sorts of things that had no business being there; they weren't sounds being made by a speaker at all, but rather related actions which, if they needed to be communicated, belonged more properly in a narration line, and if none was available, why then the dialogue itself would have to carry the meaning *shakes his head*. It simply doesn't make sense for characters to be communicating quite so much in what is, ultimately, a poor excuse for narration *nod*. In a nutshell, I found that the technique simply did my script more harm than it did my script good. The same is true of the use of italics in scripts I've read: I have seen them used only once that I can recall, in an official translation, and while once or twice they were helpful, much more often they were completely unneeded and simply served to call attention to themselves and look out of place. When a tool causes you more harm than it does you good, it's better to simply force yourself to throw it out and work under tighter constraints. Art has always and will always flourish under constraints, and I personally have not found it particularly onerous to go without this one tool; on the contrary, I've relished the change. Aside from their usage to introduce lists of things, you can also use a colon in place of a semi-colon when the half of a sentence after the colon is more like an illumination/rephrasing of some part of the first half, rather than a separate, related, independent clause. It's kind of an advanced technique, I guess? I don't mention it in the guide both because I don't have a solid handle on the rule myself and because I think it's not really a necessary thing to do (there are plenty of other options available), but I certainly do use colons this way myself from time to time without much thought. Your usage looks perfectly cromulent to me. (I would probably always assume the former interpretation, not the latter, without some strong contextual evidence otherwise, and I would probably only find it not to be a somewhat odd utterance when coming on the heels of a request for help putting on a seatbelt.)

I'll start by reiterating my position that I have shit taste, but honestly, I really liked the original Karakara. It's "just a moege," but it at least has a unique setting and doesn't drag, both of which are more than you can say for most moege. So, I'm even looking forward to Karakara 2. And, if I'm being honest with myself, I'll probably even try out Neko-nin as a guilty pleasure.

Nice to see Neko-Nin get an 18+ version. Was a bit worried they would only sell the all-ages version and nothing more. (They are even removing the mosiacs. Good stuff.)

Read like two minutes of Higanbana. This thing so far is the perfect antithesis to people who hate the original versions of Ryukishi07 works- the music drew me in from the first second, and the 4:3 photo CGs perfectly complemented the barren setting. The main menu is incredibly chilling for something so simple, holy shit.

Hm, there's a few. I'd suggest checking out Tamanin Yukikaze if you haven't already. Depending on your reactions to that one I could recommend more translated stuff. For just pure netorare you could check out Ai Suru Tsuma.

Great, because the first two that come to my mind aren't translated. If you are looking for a great mindfucky story, then I think Sayonara wo Oshiete is the go-to VN to read. I even have a spoiler-free blog post here talking about the VN. After you have read that, I would recommend Subarashiki Hibi. This VN also has really good Mind-fuckery, but is a bit slow to get started and drags on in certain parts. But in general, it is a great VN. There is actually one other really good mind-fucking VN, but you have to wait until the last chapter to really get to that part. The whole VN is really interesting and nice to read so don't worry. I am talking about Symphonic Rain. Specifically the AL Fine portion. Another pro about Symphonic Rain is that unlike the other two titles I mentioned earlier, this one is translated.

*sighs*... Whirlpool really should stick to what they are best at... creating higher-tier charage (full cost) and just contract with a localization company.