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An intelligent question. Some of the worst localisations seem to enjoy teasing the Western plebeians by attaching themselves to some of the best games.

Thought that many people here would probably like this so here: https://www.humblebundle.com/sekai-project-bundle Lots of awesome games for cheap.

To provoke desirable reactions such as yours.

This is clearly rigged; John Cena's Sexy High School Adventure lost.

grisaia no kajitsu

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/Rihochan/Ojomasu.png Now, this was a game I didn't really have high hopes for, but I am glad to say that I was pleasantly surprised. While this falls short of kamige level (primarily due to the disproportionately short epilogues), it is definitely an interesting take on the trap protagonist ojousama-ge. Generally speaking, trap protagonists and ojousama-ge go together like hot fruit pie and ice cream. While the formula (begun with the original Shugotate by AXL) hasn't changed significantly since it came into existence, it has a lot of minor variants. However, in this case they took a rather unusual path with the character settings... for one thing, the protagonist is not the timid type in any way, shape or form. For better or worse, most of the trap protagonists in these games are somewhat timid but talented and deeply kind-hearted or are actually almost afraid of women (for hilarity's sake). The protagonist in this game, Hajime, is an agent for an organization that primarily involves itself with money and politics, for no apparent goal beyond gathering power to itself. Is it an evil organization? The question is hard to answer based on what comes up in the game, but I sort of lean toward yes, considering what gets revealed in Arika's path. Hajime is cool-headed, ambitious, and pragmatic on most issues. He does have a tendency to help people where he can, but he doesn't go out of his way to help people that aren't actually in front of him. He is also capable of being coldly manipulative when responding to the orders of the organization. He also has none of the usual hesitations or inhibitions this type of protagonist tends to have about sex (he rather casually mentions he enjoys it but is quite capable of going without... and proves it). This makes for some... interesting situations. This definitely isn't a pure love game, but it isn't a nukige by any stretch of the imagination either. The common route is seriously long... While there are numerous characters in this game, there are only three heroines. They are: Arika (the granddaughter of his organization's leader), Benio (a young girl from an influential kenjutsu/kendo dojo), and Peko (the princess of a fictional East European country). The other girls are basically Hajime's targets... he needs to gain influence over them for the sake of his mission, but they aren't love interests in the context of the game. In fact, he rather coldly manipulates some of them, albeit not in a way that harms them (he actually helps them, in his own way). Arika is... one strange girl. In some ways, she is reminiscent of Kamio Ami from Semiramis no Tenbin. However, she is far more open about her nature (she is a mischief-maker who just enjoys making situations more chaotic for her own amusement), and she isn't a near-sociopath. She simply displays her affections in ways that are extremely troubling to anyone and everyone involved... or even merely in the vicinity. She is also extremely lazy about anything she doesn't have an interest in. Benio is Arika's opposite. She is simple, straightforward, and rather obvious about everything. She is a lover of the way of the sword and has no real hesitation about living to become the next head of her rather large clan's dojo. That said, she is rather blind to anything that isn't on the surface, and she frequently gets into fights with Arisa, who seems to take an endless pleasure in setting her off. Peko is perhaps the most easy to understand heroine in the group. She is very kind-hearted and sensitive, with a strong sense of compassion and dignity fitting for postmodern royalty. That said, she also has a surprisingly strong will hidden under that soft surface, and it comes out in full in her path. Overall, I found this game to be an immensely pleasurable experience, and while I could have used more action scenes and perhaps more cold-blooded manipulation on the part of Arika and the protagonist... this still turned out to be a game worth remembering. I'm glad that this month already has at least one solid VN of the Month candidate, hahaha...

I thought so after playing Koiken Otome... but this company is absolutely incapable of properly utilizing their settings. Good music, mostly good characters (the protagonist sucks), decent art... but so empty of content it isn't even funny. The sex obsession from beginning to end is carried out poorly, the actual paths have too much ichaicha, and the potentially humorous elements fall short of where they would have gone in any other game. In other words, this is yet another kusoge from Eufonie. A lot of the problem is that the game is so sexually-obsessed it might as well be a nukige, while still making pathetic attempts (truly pathetic attempts) at telling a story. This is a classic example of a game where all the elements of a potentially high-quality game existed but didn't come together in a cohesive whole. I was more than a little horrified at how incompetent the efforts of this company were in this area. This is a game of lost opportunities, and I honestly wish I hadn't paid for it. Edit: Oh and the protagonist is a total hetare in the slice-of-life scenes, which makes him horribly unsuited to the situation they set up in the story. Edit2: This game is horrible mostly due to the degree of frustration it creates in me. Given the same setup of characters and plot elements, any half-decent VN writer should have been able to write a far more interesting story than this. Heck, even if they did it as a simple charage, it should have been better than this. If this were a true nukige, it would be par for the course... but there isn't enough H for that, comparatively speaking. Heck, they even failed to utilize most of the girls' personal settings to their fullest potential, which is just pathetic.

https://myanimelist.net/manga/57015/Jitsu_wa_Watashi_wa https://myanimelist.net/manga/13102/Kanojo_wo_Mamoru_51_no_Houhou https://myanimelist.net/manga/18939/Yasashii_Sekai_no_Tsukurikata https://myanimelist.net/manga/41375/Yome_ga_Kore_na_mon_de https://myanimelist.net/manga/47617/Kyou_no_Yuiko-san Thanks for the recommendations, haven't heard of a few of these. I'll check em out! Listed a few you might not know of [according to your mal], otherwise you're pretty well set up with enough romance mangas to read for a long long time .

@Dergonu: You have been forced into: Kokoro Connect.

To be honest, the best strategy would probably be to take something from the bottom of the vndb rating, like this. I know that ratings in general aren't really good in judging good games, but if the average rating for some VN is below 5 or even 4, I'll almost guarantee to you that the VN in question is trash.

The game uses a system that "builds" saves on top of others - meaning that you have to complete all the routes using the same save file. Having a "full" save around doesn't unlock the routes for other playthroughs. Since Ema route starts last, I would have to skip through all the routes and stop at the very beginning of Ema route to give you the right save file, which would take you the same amount of time. Trust me though, you will be disappointed. Not to mention a lot of things won't make sense because of all the stuff happening in other routes, it's a plotge. Also I'm pretty sure you decided to play it after seeing my post in that VNDB thread

It took us long enough to get through Valve's validation process but at last, Ambre will be coming on Steam the 9th June! Don't hesitate to share the news with people who played the old version, I think they're going to like the overhaul and the achievements

some shitty codes: fault milestone one: 0DKB2-NQY06-873Y0 fault - milestone two side:above: 05YGW-9RM6C-L04WP NEKOPARA Vol. 0: 06X6P-IAE7I-6EB83 NEKOPARA Vol. 1 : 08PBC-DZYLH-XC8BW NEKOPARA Vol. 2: 0CLZH-KYHQK-K7PXC Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru Part 1: 07LY7-MGVGB-39B94 Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru Part 2: 0CKZH-02HCT-WYNYV WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.01: C0QWN-HEAC0-PCC6K WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.02: T3DFQ-F8WT3-NBLWB WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.03: 047WM-5ZLQ5-C4GPG Sound of Drop - fall into poison: 09YR6-A7C6Z-E36B8 Highway Blossoms: 0BYL8-DV6R8-9XEH5 Japanese School Life: 0AWNF-2HG99-VB9XN please let others know if you picked one!

The problem with ranking companies is that while most companies have a certain 'style', the actual talents working for them tend to switch out fairly often. It still isn't uncommon in the VN industry for writers, artists, and composers to work for a half-dozen different companies in the space of a year or two, and that is part of the reason why one release might be superb but the next one awful in some cases. The most 'solid' companies, like Light, Nitroplus, and Akatsuki Works, tend to have set groups of talent that they use on a more or less permanent basis. However, Purple Software, for instance, switches out its writers practically every time it puts out a new game. Moreover, some of the greatest talent in the industry have a tendency to 'wander' from company to company (Shumon Yuu).

I'm Majikoi Trash Someone help me. Also thought I'd post in here since everything Majikoi has been dead quiet and there's been no updates to the progress page for a month. and it's my birthday today so I'm showing off.

It was Propeller... but now it is Light, because Propeller hasn't produced anything decent since Tokyo Babel... and its main writer is retired. My current top five companies are listed below. Eushully got knocked off because they haven't produced a masterpiece since Madou Koukaku (story-wise) 1. Light 2. Akatsuki Works 3. Caramel Box (Setting aside the art-style, which some art-bigots have trouble with, they produce excellent games) 4. Purple Software (high percentage of highest tier games since Mirai Nostalgia) 5. AXL (because their stuff is always worth reading)

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. The top main stream brands like Yuzusoft, August, Clochette or Navel still seam to be able to sell about ~40.000 copies initial sales. There were several posts with concrete sales data over the last 1 - 2 years that confirm that. But what's certainly true is that the market is more 'tight', at least in the mainstream moege market. There's a lot more competition today than let's say a dekade ago. So if you're not one of the established top brands or have something special to offer, then there's certainly the risk to fall through and just end up with a few thousand copies sold or less. Overdrive is probably one of the most prominent examples of recent times. Apparently they'll release one more title and then close down. There's much less competition on the market for story VN's and that's probably the main reason why the small group of Nitroplus, Light and Innocent Grey still seem to do well. I wouldn't take that as a given though, since Propeller, who were certainly one of the most established story brands a few years ago, are dead now. And newcomers don't have an easy life like Novectacle can surely confirm. Fata morgana no Yakata is a highly praised story title, but apparently didn't sell well, at least at first. I think they recovered since. But there's a reason why most newcomers target the mainstream market. The breadcrumps there are still much fatter than in the niche section. lol What I've learned from the various post with concrete sales data: ~40.000 initial copies sold => Fantastic (Yuzusoft, August, Clochette, Navel) ~20.000 initial copies sold => Very good (Purple Software, Eushully, AliceSoft) ~10.000 initial copies sold => Good (Circus, Ensemble, Moonstone, Minori) ~5.000 initial copies sold => Average (Lump of Sugar, Whirlpool, AXL) Depending on how individual titles performed some developers might place higher or lower, but I think the examples aren't too far off from the truth.

If by "coming to Europe" you mean being sold physically in retail stores (please correct me if I'm wrong!), the answer is no, sorry Also, please keep in mind that the Grisaia Complete Box contains a lot of physical merchandise so it's quite big both in size and weight, which increases shipping costs (to be more specific, it weighs over 2kg, so that makes EMS the cheapest shipping method available and that's what we choose). There's not much we can do about that and taxes... Phantom Trigger is still a work in progress with vol.3 & 4 currently in the works, so if we included only the first two volumes it wouldn't be really "complete"!

I finally finished all of Chrono Clock. I'd finished all the actual story stuff quite a while back, but after that I still had five H scenes left (one Makoto, two for each of the last two routes), which I'd been putting off because, well, I just don't typically care for marathoning H scenes. But I got the last remaining three finished today and was actually somehow delighted to see that doing so unlocked the ability to select the title screen splash image for myself, even though I'm pretty unlikely to ever open the game again, simply because I thought the second splash screen that unlocked after finishing the first four routes was actually super lame boring compared to the original splash screen. Of course, since I was suddenly presented with even more choices than I expected, I promptly switched to the one with just Misaki on it, because she's best girl. After spending some time away from the actual game, I think this is probably the second-best moege I've read, behind KonoSora (ignoring the MoeNovel translation issues and just assessing the game on other elements...). Chrono Clock has hardly got any plot (which is what puts KonoSora firmly above it), but it's a masterpiece when it comes to characters, and as I realized when I started playing this game, that really can be good enough to make a VN a delight to play.

With a free common route, even I might read something or other. And then promptly give up on it all.

So I finished watching https://myanimelist.net/anime/5781/Isekai_no_Seikishi_Monogatari Tenchi muyo war on geminar. I didn't notice it was yet another part of the massive Tenchi muyo universe until I started watching it. It was an odd show which started as a very serious mecha show and then spent then next 6 episodes in pure harem comedy land. After that it went back to progressively more serious mecha while maintaining the harem comedy components. It was good fun, mostly during the earlier harem moments in fact, and the fact that Tenchi was ridiculously overpowered while remaining very modest was stupid fun. I didn't expect any harem or romance resolution so I only viewed it as a comedy and to that end it was a success. The serious aspects didn't really hold much dramatic tension for me but that didn't worry me much nor interfere with me enjoying it. Shows that hold dramatic tension for me are ones I simply cannot stop watching and with Tenchi I could watch one (double length) episode and then go to bed not really caring what happened next. One thing that bugged me a little was that everything looked blurry; I couldn't tell if that was original or a BD encode issue or what but I kept feeling like everything was slightly out of focus. It was still well worth seeing and entertaining overall, 7/10. @kyrt I'll eventually be checking out your revised list shows next from the rom &/or com perspective but I still have a few other shows I started that I never finished that I should probably return to first, and my source of shows (ahem) disappeared recently so it'll be a lot harder to source them now.

From a creator's point of view, if they accept mindless criticism they'll be driven to improve their work even if they got no meaningful information from the criticism. If they accept mindless praise they'll be of the impression that they don't need to improve. Thus mindless praise leads to stagnation from a creator's point of view. Stagnation is bad, m'kay From a consumer's point of view ... I don't see any ill effects from mindless praise or criticism really.

The problem with mindless praise is that it is ineffective at making creators' works better as it does not point out what made the work good in the first place. I imagine Narcosis, an aspiring salty vn writer, is also thinking about the "hugbox" effect that exists in certain places to shield creators from any criticism - considering there is or at least was at some point a specific badge to put in your profile if you want honest criticism of your work at Lemmasoft, it's not like his fears are entirely unwarranted. It's a p. decent mirror with the problem of mindless bashing not helping you make your work better by pointing out what was bad. It's not like either has no information content; one tells you to stop making things in your current fashion, another tells you to continue in similar fashion. However, they would appear suboptimal from a creator's perspective. Outside of a creator's perspective, mindlessness on either side does not promote thoughtful discussion or trying to understand people that think different to you, and instead encourages forming groups around liking or not liking something. This is certainly one way of enjoying fiction, but not everyone appreciates it very much - not to mention polarization is where nuance, oh sweet nuance, goes right out the picture. We could use less of it, wherever we are.

This won't "kill" fan translations so long as Japan keeps releasing games exclusively in Japanese, that's just a fact. Even anime still has fansub groups despite being much more widely available nowadays. You have to understand most fan translators translate a game because they like it and want to share it with other people. If a company comes along that has the proper channels to make that game legally available in the Western market, there's very little reason not to accept such an offer. Complaints are usually from people that have only pirated games before and are salty about having to pay money now. Of course there are valid criticisms to be made in the actual localization processes for each game, namely the fact a lot of erotic content is being left behind in favor of all ages releases, but the concept of a company buying a fan translation isn't really destroying the world as we know it. Also fan groups asking for donations are 10 times shadier than ChuSinGura's Kickstarter project.

i take the stance of a modern western vn-customer & say pretty visuals are the most important here, rest doesnt matter at all, if it happens to be blessed with a good story too, then so be it, otherwise its okay and i wont be disappointed :/