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Foreword: This is Keno-san's scenario. He did not have much experience when we was thrown to produce scenario of the game that we know as Love Potion in two months time. Critics buried the game and that's why there was much more care in producing next game scenario - that was DESIRE, the game that I can't praise enough. The next year Keno wrote scenario for EVE burst error and on the wave of popularity moved to legendary Elf company where he kept working on EVE franchise and created another masterpiece YU-NO and then left for Abel company. He created a lot of wonderful scenarios after that but we're interested in Xenon ~Mugen no Shitai~ scenario. It was developed after DESIRE but prior to EVE. So it was the golden age for Keno and he was experimenting a lot, trying to further develop the already complex DESIRE structure. This resulted in Xenon -Phantom Limbs-. Title: Xenon ~Mugen no Shitai~ Developer: C's Ware Date: 1994-12-09 VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v7474 Synopsis: Kōji, a Japanese high school student, experiences strange, recurrent life-like dreams. He finds himself in a space station inhabited by beautiful young women. As he tries to explore the dream realm he wakes up. His teacher, intrigued by his account of the bizarre adventure, urges him to travel back to the space station in his dream and report his discoveries to her. Eventually Kōji realizes that his dream and reality are tightly connected, and finds himself compelled to avert a grave danger. Structure: Three routes with 3rd route to have four branches for different heroines, then there is an extra small kinetic route or something like that. Length: Close to 10 hours, probably a bit less. Game type: Space mindfuck mystery Difficulty: Moderate. Flags are obscure so best to use guide. Character Design rating: 7/10 Protagonist rating: 7/10 Story rating: 10/10 Game quality: 7/10 Overall rating: 8/10 Rating comments: Game is quite difficult to evaluate since there are two worlds with own sets of characters and there are even two protagonists (actually, even three) of varying charm. Not all the characters are cute, some look good only at CG. Game has great text but is lacking in some fields. Protagonist: Quite and ordinary japanese student on one hand and much cooler The Greatest and Toughest Space Pirate, Genius and Universe Champion on the other hand. I liked the latter much more! Characters: Megumi - real world girl, your lover and her papa is medical center sponsor Sayaka - real world government researcher Ryouko-sensei - real world psychiatrist Mai - real world Ryouko-sensei sister, participates in experiments as catalyst Ranfa - space ship mechanic Fal - space ship researcher Tracy - space ship captain assistant Bianca - space ship sleeping beauty in cryogenic chamber Story: It's not easy to tell this game's story without spoilers. And this game's charm is only due to this mindfuck state of mind in projects constantly. If I tell the contents of 3rd route, game will be stripped of half of its charm. So I'll only roughly retell first route. Game introduction shows Kouji being taken out of hypnosis state by psychiatrist Ryouko-sensei. And this scene is repeated like 10 times throughout the whole game and it's great for the atmosphere - sometimes it's real awakening, sometimes it's just a dream. After introduction we find ourselves in some hospital chamber, bump in some weird looking (some exposing uniform) girl then discover naked girl wired to some cryogenic coffin. After that Kouji wakes up in the real world (I'll call it real for now although it's not that simple). He's questioned by Ryouko-sensei about what he remembered from the dream. Outside of the room he is greeted by Megumi, who claims to be his girlfriend and lover. There is also some strict government official lady Sayaka who does not let us go into computer room. And finally there is Mai girl who is very worried about Kouji condition. And from there it goes chaotic. This real world is constantly shifting with the dream world where there are four different space ship crew girls await - mechanic Ranfa, researcher Fal, captain assistant Tracy and sleeping beauty Bianca in cryogenic room (actually, it's the different sleeping girl, first one in the dream was actually Fal). So Kouji gets thrown from one world to another, sometimes without warning - we share consciousness and even items while there, so basically we've found some media disk in one world and could find the device to play it only in another world. Furthermore, we hear voice of some man from time to time. In real world we try to know more about the hypnosis treatment we undergo and to get to the computer room. In the dream world there is even more action - we investigate the sleeping beauties, try to find out about our identity and once even blow the ship. As for identity - that's another interesting story. Some ancient ruins were found on some planet and first research team was sent to investigate the ruins. Noone survived. Second research team was sent to investigate the fate of the first research team and.... noone survived, except Kouji. So everyone urges us to remember anything but in vain. Then there is the sleeping beauty Bianca who eventually wakes up and blames Kouji of killing the whole first and second research teams. Then there are reports that actually Kouji was not listed neither in 1st, nor in 2nd research team... So the main question of the game is WHAT am I? That's just an amazing start, but actually game does not live up to this fantastic start to the end. First chapter ends when Megumi gets kidnapped and as we rush to rescue her we get caught by Ryouko-sensei and get another charge from the mind machine that burns 2000-30000 of brain fibers in Kouji's brain and in the dream world Kouji steals the shuttle and flies to the Eriteia planet with ancient ruins to meet with Ranfa who promises to give answers to all the questions - and we get first chapter end while man and woman promise each other to become new Adam and Eve while staying on some wasteland. That is a fantastic first chapter. But then starts the second chapter and... Kouji just cries off the bat - I'm the Great Space Pirate, Genius and Champion of the Universe! So the beginning of the chapter feels like a comedy with most of the real world girls trying to calm him down and treat his craziness. But the sad part here that this is real space pirate who changed consciousness with Kouji and came 6000 years from the future. He's cool, reserved and he first persuades Rouko-sensei into being his slave, then with her hands does the same with Ryouko-sensei's sister Mami, then proposes to his girlfriend Megumi to become his wife, actually, slave wife! And together they manage to confront Sayaka successfully after some violent scene and burning 30k more of Kouji's brain vibers. Third route finally gives some answers as we play as real-life Kouji on the space ship. Fourth route is just ero-bonus content, sadly. So what we have is awesome space mystery that gradually looses its mystery and turns into a set of ero-scenes. Theme: The recurring theme of the game is that of the dream. What is reality? Is it possible to percieve what's real and what's not? Game tells us a definite - impossible to perceive. The Confucius symbol of butterfly in human's dream is used a lot. Mai directly asks Kouji to be a butterfly in her dream. Since dream is as important as reality it's best to live a full life and take full efforts even in dreams. CG: There are very few event CG in this game and those few that exist are of bland palette. Sound: Actually, it was to my liking. Especially the theme of Greatest Space Pirate was awesome. It's some heroic march so when it starts merrily, you always know that Kouji now has a different personality. And I totally adored the voicing of Rafna... she's the youngest character and her seiyu just did a miracle here with the special voice and intonations. And Rafna got the cutest character design and CGs on top of that. Overall comments: Scenario is second to none and text is really good. Game mechanics are finally driven from commands selection to usual ADV type, so story can be enjoyed to a bigger extent. I can't recommend this game to everyone since it does not reach the level of other Mr. Keno's masterpieces. But I can totally recommend this game if you like the space mindfuck mystery setting or if like good writing. Personally, I adore Vladimir Nabokov's books. Of course he has well known masterpieces like "Lolita", but I can take any of his novels and open them at any part and just start reading - the text is so good, complex, multi-level and rich that I get great pleasure just from reading a couple of pages. The same goes to this work. The aftertaste might not be the best, but while you read there's much pleasure in the process.

First, some statistics. Here's the chart of total number of VNs, number of listed VNs in this blog and number of blocked VNs for the years 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994. Number won't change significantly since for the moment these are all the VNs that vndb.org has for the noted periods. VN per year Year Total Listed Blocked 1991 75 1992 80 1993 121 1994 155 As you remember, year 1992 was to my liking since, due to harsh censorship, works were more story-oriented. And with almost the same number of total VNs compared to 1991, in 1992 there were much more works that made it in the list and even smaller number of blocked ones. The total number of works increased further by 28%, but the correlation of quality story oriented works improved slightly in comparison to 1993. So let's see what year 1994 brought: Dating SIMs showed up and pushed Raising SIMs back RPG weren't too numerous but there are surprisingly many very high quality RPGs in 1994 There's the first Otome game Angelique There's the first Yaoi reference in Uchuu Kaitou Funny Bee Gao Gao 3 presented a new model of game - party interaction based. Let's count the masterpiece level games of 1994: 1. AmbivalenZ -Niritsu Haihan- AmbivalenZ 2. Crystal Rinal - Ouma No Meikyuu - 3. DESIRE - Haitoku no Rasen 4. Dragon Knight 4 5. Gao Gao! 3rd ~Wild Force~ 6. Fuzoroi no Lemon 7. Mirage 2 - Torry x Neat x Roan no Daibouken 8. Nooch 3 Saigo no Seisen 9. Policenauts 10. Team Innocent: The Point of No Return 11. Tokimeki Memorial 12. Toushin Toshi II 13. Urusei Yatsura: Dear My Friends 14. Wedding Errantry -Gyakutama Ou- 15. Welcome to the Cinemahouse 16. Zatsuon Ryouiki And five of those 15 are RPGs, pretty insane. I guess there was no competition from the beginning - I'd put DESIRE pretty much above any game put beside. So DESIRE is the game of the year 1994.

John is a young man suffering from severe depression. As he loses his sense of purpose in life, he begins to see the world in unfocused gray. Just when he begins to lose all hope, John meets a girl... A very special girl. Though Lizzie appears affectionate and devoted, it becomes clear that she's so violent and unstable that a normal boy would run away from her. But when John sees her, he sees someone else suffering from a mental condition. John is willing to risk his safety for a chance to help Lizzie gain some mental stability. Lizzie is willing to murder everyone in school if she believes it would make him happy. Will he reject her or succumb to his depression? Will she lose control and ruin her chances? Is there a sinister conspiracy lurking in their school, or is it only a figment of their mental struggles? Or... could the two of them actually be exactly what the other needs? Depending on your choices, their relationship will end in tragedy, violence, or just maybe happiness. Project Info This is a completed visual novel you can find in a variety of places: VNDB: https://vndb.org/v21499 Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/655770/Crimson_Gray/ itch.io (SFW): https://sierralee.itch.io/crimson-gray itch.io (NSFW): https://sierralee.itch.io/crimson-gray-nsfw MangaGamer: http://blog.mangagamer.com/detail.php?product_code=1027 Nutaku: https://www.nutaku.net/games/download/crimson-gray/ DLsite English: http://www.dlsite.com/ecchi-eng/work/=/product_id/RE204113.html DLsite Japanese: http://www.dlsite.com/maniax/work/=/product_id/RJ204113.html Info Crimson Gray is a psychological thriller, exploring the psyches of the characters and the strange circumstances that brought them together. It has a focus on subtle actions having consequences, your choices impacting the characters' mental stability in ways that could make choices later in the story have very different results. Lizzie has multiple poses and many expressions to convey a wide variety of different emotions, which you'll have to navigate during the game. The backgrounds are also part of the game's core themes: John sees the world in black and white to represent his depression, and the world becomes increasingly unfocused when he succumbs to it. Hi everyone! I'm Sierra Lee - I make a variety of games, but I've never posted any of them here before. This is my first major Steam release, so I hope people will take a look! Most of the rest of my games are free and can be found in my signature links. More RPG content, but there are some VN hybrids in there as well.

This is the first of hopefully many little eroge reviews I decided to write, mostly for older and more obscure games since these are the games I find most interesting and like to talk about. You can use these reviews to find something for you to read (I will try to avoid spoiler as much as possible) but since I know that most people probably aren't interested in actually playing these games and might only be interested in reading about them, I will also add a spoiler section at the end of each review where I talk about the themes and endings of the games in depth and tell you about my personal feelings and impressions that can't be talked about without giving away the meat of the story. Hajimari no Kisetsu ~Izakaya Fuyu Monogatari~ (do not look at the tags or the screenshots on its entry because they are all spoilers) is the second visual novel by R.A.N.Software, a little eroge company which was active in 1997 till 2000 and you probably never have heard of. It's written by someone who never has written any other eroge again (at least not under this pseudonym) and drawn by people who either vanished like the writer or continued to work on eroge but never used the same art style again. All in all, Hajimari no Kisetsu seems like a pretty unique game, so why don't we take the time to look at this strange little eroge in detail? Story: Our nameable protagonist is in his last year of his university life. His girlfriend Kaori already graduated and works now as an office lady for a very big company. Because of her work he doesn't see her as often anymore and when she finds the time to meet with him for a few hours, they don't know what to talk about since their lives are so different now. The protagonist remembers the happy memories he had with her, especially when they went skiing a year ago and to rekindle their love he wants to go with her to the same ski resort again. Protagonist meets Kaori for the first time in a flashback Themes: Eroge are escapism. We all know it. What annoys me, especially with eroge in the last few years, is how safe-spacey they became. If you play a feel-good game, you know you will get feel-good scenes ... and nothing else. Erogamer became fragile and eroge companies know that. Drama in most charage is cheap, light and will be resolved in just a few scenes. We don't want to upset the player, he might even think that being in a relationship is not just fun and happy times! Or worse, he might get the impression that his waifu has other things on her mind than him, maybe even has her own life! And if a writer tries to break out of this limitation, it often seems like trolling and the readers are rightfully angry at the game; having a bittersweet resolution at the end of a route that consisted only of sugar and rainbows is neither appropriate nor meaningful; it's just mean-spirited. But this is also true for different genres; NTR heroines are most of the time unredeemable sluts and you have to wonder why the protagonist married her in the first place. It seems logical that an NTR game consists of only NTR scenes, but without the right buildup and good characterization, it can never be more than simple fetish fuel. And I really have to wonder why Nakige and Utsuge are oftentimes so painfully obvious labeled as such; how can you be emotionally invested when you already know how it ends? Well, the answer to this is probably that people want to get their emotional thrills in a safe environment. Being invested in a relationship with problems is only nice, if you know that the relationship can be saved at the end. If you are invested in this situation and the situation ends badly for the characters involved, you will feel bad yourself and that is not the feeling you wanted to have when you decided to read this story. This leads to a dilemma; do you want to be safe but never really that emotional attached or do you want to experience something surprising and truly thrilling but with the risk that you might get extremely disappointed and depressed by the outcome? The innkeeper knows that the only solution to problems is drowning them in alcohol. Hajimari no Kisetsu is certainly not a safe space. Right from the beginning, you notice that something is wrong. Kaori isn't satisfied with the restaurant you choose for your meeting with her, even though it's the same restaurant where you meet her for the first time. She isn't too thrilled about the idea of drinking beer and would instead rather take a glass of wine. And she also doesn't show much interest in your ordinary life and prefers to talk about her new designer handbag. Where did she even get this thing from? Looks expensive... mhm... Chances are you have experienced this kind of human interaction in your own real life, too. This steady process of people changing and slowly drifting apart. It's irritating, but you can't do anything against it. When the protagonist tries to invoke nostalgia in her, hoping that she shows signs that the old Kaori is still somewhere in her, she reacts coldly. A career woman like her has no interest in the past. Someone here seems a little out of place... Hajimari's greatest achievement is that the game portraits its characters so humanly. Kaori is not a bad woman for having different goals in life than the protagonist. It's also not necessary a bad thing that she changed over time. It's a human thing to do. Maybe it's even the protagonist who stays a child and simply can't keep up with her? ... but also, is it so wrong to not change and being happy with who you are? This winter, our protagonist will find the answers to these questions. He will find out what he wants to do with his life and, even more importantly, what kind of human being he wants to be. Characters: I like the protagonist of this story. He speaks in Kansai-ben which makes the game a little bit harder to read, but really helps to bring the point across that he has more in common with a country bumpkin than a well-spoken member of the high society even though he is by no means stupid. He is not very strong or confident, but also not useless or weak-minded. He is just a normal guy, who wants to do the right thing, but is seldom in the position to actually act on it. In fact, even though he always wants to do something, he rarely is able to actual do anything. Not because the game does not give the player the choice to do, but because it's simply impossible for him. This is not a story, where the protagonist solves every problem the heroine has. This is a story, where the protagonist gives the heroine the strength by being on her side, so she can overcome the problems herself. And to be honest, there are really far too few eroge like this. One of my favorite endings is actually a bad end you can get rather quickly by simply saying "I don't want that, I go home." The protagonist proves his worth by standing up to himself, and even though the bad ending credits roll, the usual bad end BGM is replaced by a more hopeful tune, emphasizing that the protagonist grew up a little and might have a better future in front of him now. Because somehow, this is more important than bedding your waifu. A side-character has to rescue the protagonist who wanted to rescue a woman... Gameplay: Speaking of endings, there are 24 "bad ends" and 4 "good ends". They are all interesting and one of the reasons (the other being spoilers) you shouldn't use a guide (there doesn't exist one anyway) to go straight to one of the good ends. Sadly, there are many choices that are badly designed because there is no indication that some of them are a hard route fork (like "going to the first floor" or "second floor"). But there are also some quite interesting choices which help forming the story in a meaningful way. For example, there is a choice during your already achieved happy end where you can choose between uncovering the secrets of your heroine's past or decide not to do it. You will get your happy end either way, but your choice does make difference in how you approach your eventual relationship with her. When you get a bad end, there is some hint for you telling you what you should have done differently, but it's really not important since in most cases it comes simply down to changing the decision of your last choice. I found everything the game has to offer easily on my own except for one good end which is a little bit non-obvious but makes sense in hindsight. I even had to use the Waybackmachine and read some random Japanese comment on a random Japanese website to get the necessary hint to unlock it. I will not spoil it here, so you can feel the same despair I felt. Choose wisely how to approach her, if at all. Emotional women are dangerous. Hajimari no Kisetsu is not a long game and every route can easily be finished in one reading session. The game tells short, romantic stories. They are a little bit cliché'd, but very nice and well-intentioned. There are scenes that make you feel good and some that make you feel depressed, but there is always a nice balance between the two extremes. And it's well earned. Even if you forget some of the details of the story a few months after you read it, you probably wont forget some of the scenes. At least for me that was the case. I did not regret spending my time with this game. Sound and Art: Let's talk about some technical aspects. This game was released in 1998 and sadly it shows. The biggest misstep is to not have any voices. Especially the kind of seiyuu work of the late 90s would have been perfect for this kind of game. There are many dramatic scenes which would be even better with some passionate dubbing. The soundtrack is very nice. Every character has its own theme, themes have several variations and the melodies are pleasant to listen to. You can choose between CD-Audio and MIDI, but the MIDI version, depending on your MIDI configuration of course, is not much worse. Seems to me the CD-Tracks are simple MIDI recordings. That could have been better. The game has no backlog and no "already read" skip function which is really a problem when you try to find all the different endings. You might think that you are on a known path because you skipped over slight text variations when in fact it's the beginning of a new route. The game has an old school omake room, where you can check CGs, endings and music by talking with the characters. Hentai scenes are short, tastefully written and quite romantic. Aside from the nice story, the art is the best feature of this eroge. Your mileage may vary, but to me it captures perfectly the whimsical, romantic and melancholic mood of the winter days. Sadly the artists never worked on another game, or at least not with this art style. Speaking of the staff, the writer also was never read again. What a shame. This makes this game even more unique though. Heh. Conclusion: Don't get the impression that this game is a masterpiece. It's not. It's just a nice little gem. It's not mind-blowing, but certainly thought-provoking. Not flashy, but pleasant ... except when it isn't. If you are alone on a cold, rainy evening and want to read something appropriate you can immerse yourself in for a short time, this is a good recommendation. This will not be the best thing you've ever read, but it will become a bittersweet memory you'll remember fondly. ... Now onto the spoiler discussion. Read this only if you've played the game or you don't care and just want to know what it's about: Thanks for reading. If you have questions, suggestions or something else on your mind, feel free to comment. The next time, I will talk about the sickest eroge I have ever read and explain why it's not as sick as you expected but far more sick than you thought.

I'm not a backer of Libra so I'll just post a reply to this here:

Well I posted about a single guy and a sex doll before that post, in support of it. I thought it was admirable of him to live how he wants, he wasn't affecting anybody in a bad way. I don't even think its weird, its just different [I never once said it was weird actually ]. You don't think it traumatises the kids, I think it does. Its just a difference of opinion that are both possible, depending on circumstances. Let me make it clear though, I have nothing against people liking sex dolls, I've mentioned it in my previous post, it isn't about that. People can do what they want as long as they aren't hurting others, or get off on others getting hurt. I've had my own experience regarding trauma, personally and through working with single parent households that have shaped the way I think about these things. I'm sure you have your own experiences, that shaped your own opinions of matters such as this too [regarding families and trauma]. I respect your stance on it mate. Cheers! @Jun Inoue I just read your post below, i figure i'll comment here instead of posting again , yeah I do believe that it isn't a hobby for them. They love the dolls and consider them partners [regarding the article]. One of the men [a married father of two] said that he wouldn't cheat on the doll because he considers her human and doesn't want to destroy what he has with her.

I would suggest to stick with a virtual pc. VirtualBox is a great virtual machine program. It's free and you can install all kinds of OSs. If you have a system that runs Win10 it's probably good enough to run a virtual machine with a WinXP or Win7. Install your vns on your virtual machine and there you go. You can even adjust the size of the screen (some older vns don't have that ability but it's no problem if you run in a VM). Keeps your computer clean too. But how will the text hooking work? Say you have ITH on your system and the vn is in a virtual machine. It's possible but might take a few extra steps to make it work.

Those are both the NSFW version, guess they got lost in the copy-pasting. Thanks for bringing them up, I added both to the OP. We managed to hit #3 on MangaGamer this week!

Hey Guys!!! I got really bored and decided to make a post about a random thing I feel whenever I'm done with a Visual Novel. I'm sure I'm not the only one who get that empty feeling once done with a visual novel. And honestly it's quite interesting that human beings feel this way whether it's a Visual Novel, A game, or even an anime. But yea I got bored so I decided to post. Go ahead and pitch in if you want.

Hello, I apologize for bringing this old topic up again. But I've got some info regarding the Pure Pure. I basically made a group some time ago and (re)started the Pure Pure project. However, I managed to get in touch with FOTS Dummyacct7 and he had to stop the project, because he is busy with his university studies, irl issues, etc... He told us to wait a bit so he might get back to it, but he never did again... We "forced" him to update the TLWiki in March but that's the only thing he did... But now our group is working (cooperating) officially with Hikari Field on the Tayutama 2 ( we lent them our English corrector so the game is not released with Engrish) and in the meantime the rest of the team is working on the Pure Pure. HOWEVER obtaining license for it is probably impossible because Klein (the game company who created Pure Pure) is dead. Their website is just half - working and no one responds to my emails... SO we decided to finish it atleast like a fan - made translation because this is one of the novels which deserve translation. The game itself can be still purchased on one Japanese e-shop, I even made a guide how to buy it for people who do not speak Japanese. I post info regularly here so I hope someone who still waits for this project will be pleased. Have a nice day, Aki =)

This is just a bit of advice coming from someone who has had to recently troubleshoot a lot of older games in recent months. A lot of the VNs from before the release of Windows 8 simply can't work on the later OS's without a bit of troubleshooting. So... here is a bit of advice. First, never install any Japanese VN in the programs folder. I know this might not seem like a big issue, but about one third of all VNs will refuse to function on a non-Japanese system when installed in the programs folder, for some reason. This is particularly problematic with pre-Windows Vista VNs, which often cannot save or alter settings when installed in the programs folder. Second, check for an x64 fix patch on the VN company's website support page. Most of the major companies that haven't gone out of business have made patches for their older works to let them work on later systems (incidentally, this seems to be primarily a problem with proprietary engines, and most games based off of Kirikiri don't seem to have this problem). Also make sure you download any fix patches that are still active, because their content is not always included with the fix for x64 systems. Then, you should always install the fix patches before the x64 patches, as they frequently change the exe file (thus unfixing the problem with x64 systems). Third and final, as a last resort, consider emulating an earlier Windows system (make sure you don't allow internet to be used by the virtual pc, since ransomware vulnerabilities are integral to all pre-Windows 7 systems and even a properly updated pre-Windows 10 system will often still be vulnerable to certain types of nasty malware developed in the last few years). This can often get around the issue entirely... but I don't recommend it as a first option, lol. If you have anything to add in terms of suggestions, please do.

You open ITH in your virtual box, then you activate "clipboard sharing". TA or whatever you use, which runs on your Host OS, will get everything the ITH in the virtual box captures since it will be shared between Guest OS and Host OS. Simple solution and works flawlessly (as long as you use VirtualBox as your virtual machine). I use VirtualBox for every game prior to Windows 7 and never had a problem with it. It's really the best solution to play older games. I have a WinXP VM for nearly every game and a Japanese Win98SE VM for really, really old games that only work on this OS. You can't use ITH in Win95 or Win98, so if you want to hook them, you have to hook the VM itself. I doubt anyone wants to do it, so I wont go into it here, but it is possible. ^^

you can use garbro instead of nipa, https://github.com/morkt/GARbro both can be used for nitro plus games, you dont need to do anything with the script, since it just a plain text format, just open it in text editor and start translating, the differences is nipa require you to have basic knowledge to use console, while garbro already has GUI for easier use, even for noobs...

Jesus Christ, such disappointment. I'm actually glad I wasn't really interested with Libra, but I still cheered and hold my fingers crossed for the whole team responsible for localization. Sadly, it seems to be all in vain and it's quite baffling seeing how much the final product diverted from the original concept; frankly, it feels almost like a fraud of sorts. Where did things go so wrong to end up like this? Was it the lack of actual communication yet again™, mere misunderstanding or typical corporationism? I'm even more astonished with people, who are fine with such quality assurance and state it's fine to pay 40$ for something that reads like garbage, any middle-schooler would wrote better. I'm sorry to say that, but this kind of approach isn't acceptable.

It so happens I began to write more as of late. Send me some keys or copies and I'll gladly review at least a vn or two every month, if that's what you really want

More like insane. That standpoint is wrong. VN's were never retrofitted around that. It simply happened and that had nothing to do with any particular convictions, beliefs or social standards. VN's began as games made mostly by male developers for male consumers, so it's quite obvious they presented mostly a male point of view. It's not even a standard anymore nowadays, as vn's became so diverse unlike any other genre in the world. One of my favourite vn's are in fact those written by female writers, as they typically have a lot better grasp of certain aspects, rather than guys mostly writing porn. Japanese also don't typically mix in negativity into entertainment like we do, unless it's straight out played for laughs. Their games are mostly "neutral" and devoid of the sort of negativity, that affects our entertainment with various creators including their very personal standpoints on controversial, difficult topics - politics, religion, social standards etc. often showcasing their views in a rather extreme way that is bound to attract attention and cause arguments because it's often hate speech. We live in an age, where people forgot how to discuss things and creators forgot how to properly ask questions. More over, I have a feeling people also forgot what it really means to have fun and enjoy things.

Yeap, I only pasted it again because Minatosoft wanted to give an update on it or something. Not sure what it is, but they posted it again very recently. They had that special edition for quite some time Edit: The Spark was mentioned to say that the game will no longer be available for download. Lmao

Looks interesting! Will probably pick it up and give it a try sometime when I have time

Congrats!

I would just like to thank everyone who has in the past, and who currently works with Fuwareviews. For something that is purely done out of the love of this hobby, it looks like a lot of hard work. The kind of hard work that some people even get paid to do, and yet you guys all do it for free. I really do respect and admire that. I've always felt bad myself for never applying for a position as a reviewer. But I know myself well enough to know that it is work I can not do. I have very particular taste and standards for stories, and if those standards are not met I simply just drop what I am reading. If I love a story, I can write tons about it and analyze its minute details. But if I hold no passion for a story, finishing it, no less writing about it is something I can't see myself being able to do. And as a reviewer, you have to read and write about whatever is given to you, whether you like it or not. This is work I can not do, and so I really do respect the people who can.

I'm not familiar with US laws, but banning drawn animals seems even more retarded than drawn loli. We have to protect those poor fictional animals. Also arent there some US states where that is legal even with real animals Some guy on reddit made the point that monsters actually are animals, especially tentacle monsters who often are literally just big squids. Fiction vs. fictional fiction Giving birth to such discussions proves Subahibi really is a Kamige and the deepest of philosophical VNs Honestly, I think they are less concerned about legal problems and more about triggered people destroying the companies "image" leading to removing the game from steam, people burning their HQ etc. Companies being scared of negative feedback is becoming more and more of an issue nowadays.

None taken Translating hundreds of thousands of words so that he can quote sections here and there is probably the biggest waste of time I've heard of. If that was the reason behind his translation of Cross Channel then I have to congratulate him for inventing such a unique way of wasting years of his life. Normal people would translate the relevant sections within the essay itself instead of producing a separate few hundred thousand word "throw away" translation (which was never meant to be good) solely so he could quote a few thousand words from it xD (and even that number is too many.) That is the very definition of inefficient behaviour (so very much doing it wrong.) So I would have to question the point on that count. Content and themes can be summarised, select quotes could have been translated within the document. Secondly and probably more importantly, considering that some of his prose is almost impossible to decipher, I would have to wonder if the translation served any point at all. If you put forth an incompetent translation, then any conclusions or statements drawn from that translation is lost. Words have been improperly used, the style has been butchered, meaning has been lost. Because of this, as an accompanying text to any reasoned argument it's almost pointless. Nabokov needed no translation accompaniment to Turgenev when he critiqued his work, rather he quoted and explained the relevant points within the text: And when Nabokov did release a translation along with his commentary, it was an exemplary translation (not a throw away one,) because doing anything else would have been an affront to the author (he wanted liberal translators put in the stocks and other stuff. He was very passionate of translation quality ... the zealot.) To me, the idea that the released translation accompaniment of Cross Channel was "never meant to be good" and "was just an aid" reeks of the excuses used by people who want to dodge criticism of their work. An excuse to sidestep judgement and criticism. Just my 2c Basically, if what GHS wants to do is write essays then he should stick to writing essays. Translate and quote the relevant passages within the text itself.

They are on JP, it should be an upcoming song in EN as well as corresponding with the release of year fan titles

No offense, but this is such an arrogant and entitled statement, I have to call you out on it. His intend was never to make a "good" translation of Cross Channel, his only purpose was to write his essay on Cross Channel. Also translating the game was a necessary evil because he needed a quotable source and Ixrec's translation was too liberal. He needed a translation that was very close to the Japanese script, because his thesis was based on nuances not found in Amaterasu's version. Saying he should rather practice writing and translate games instead of writing essays is extremely disrespectful to him and the work he did. Maybe I'm the only one, but I really appreciated his book. It's a very interested read and helped me to like Cross Channel (which I actually don't really like) a little more by offering some new points, ideas and theories I hadn't thought of yet. I might not agree with everything he wrote, but at least he gave us some interesting and original thoughts. That's 100% more than most people in the English VN community can offer (not you Rooke, you write usually very interesting comments) who are ironically the first when it comes to dismissing GHS' work and calling him a troll. Which leads me to: What even is this? This is exactly what it wanted to be; a literal translation of the original prose. You call him out on being too wordy when that was exactly the point of it. When he released his book (and with it his translation of Cross Channel, since the translation is an attachment to the book, not the other way around) he explicitly stated that the translation is not supposed to be a "normal" translation, not supposed to be read the first time you play the game and should only be seen as an accompanying material. A purpose it accomplishes adequately, by the way, and which would not have been possible if he translated it any other way. I know you know that, I know that most people in this thread know that, and still, you guys deliberately choose to ignore this fact just so you can thrash his works and efforts and make him look like an illiterate. I wonder why? What is the reason for being this envious, malicious and toxic? Has anyone of you actually read his book? What do you think of the points he made? Do you want to engage in a discussion about his thesis? ... Of course, you don't. That would take effort and actual thinking. It's much easier to make someone into a meme and criticize him for the things, he never was out do to. In some way GHS is really a troll, but not in the way most people try to depict him. He is the kind of troll who, every time he surfaces, gets people to show their true color, while still providing interesting and thought-provoking material. Just like last month, when he released his (pretty interesting) book and translations of the talestune games, and was again misquoted and badmouthed by people who didn't even read his essay or only skimmed through it to find something they can take out of context and make fun of it. The level of shallowness, pretentiousness and lynch mob mentality in the English VN community is really astonishing. GHS is indeed a troll, the best kind of troll. Not the kind of troll the VN community wants, but the kind it deserves.

We tossed this idea around for a while, but the problem is that the content and format of these user-submitted reviews was so inconsistent that editing them to at least match the straightforward format we use would have been a nightmare that I would never wish upon anybody. When I asked for reviews/reviewers a couple years ago, I got a bunch of 1-2 sentence "reviews." There were one or two reviews at most that nearly met our requirements, but we ended up scrapping those as well because they still required more information to fulfill our requirements and Tay and I agreed that trying to get those up and running was more work than what we wanted to do. This is also huge for us. We want to create conversation using our reviews, and knowing that people actually take the time to read our reviews is an incredible feeling.

I don't run FuwaReviews anymore (That's Palas), but as somebody who used to run it, I can at least shed a little light on what's going on, and explain why I stopped doing reviews in the first place: So, for those who aren't aware, I work for quite a few different companies in the localization industry in various different roles. I won't provide that list here because you can find most/all of them by looking around. Some of these companies I started working for in the past couple years. Before that, I had a ton of connections with a lot of different devs, and I was able to get us signed up for review keys from something like a dozen companies/teams/groups/whatever you wanna call them. Some of those connections are still around today, while others have pulled out for various reasons (none of which were our fault—at least not that I'm aware of). During that time, we had pretty consistent reviews, a great set of reviewers (many of whom are still on the team), and it was 20% thanks to our reviewers and 80% thanks to Flutterz (seriously, he edited everything for us and is amazing—10/10 would recommend) that we were able to be that blessed. Thanks to our connections, I was usually able to just be like "Hay [company] can I get key for x?" and then divvy out the keys to whoever wanted them. Then, everybody started getting busy. A few reviewers, including myself, fell off the face of the Earth/peaced out/couldn't spend time playing VNs. It sucked. I put out a call for new reviewers and got basically nobody (except Decay—love you bae). I got slammed with school and life and official stuff, so I stepped down. Bats took over and tried to keep the ship afloat, but during this time we lost roughly half of our connections for various reason (not because of this swap, just bad timing). We attempted to pick up more reviewers, but nobody fit the bill. We have a general process for our reviewers, which is why we had to turn down quite a few people. We try to remain unbiased (though, like any review site, it happens), and we write enough to justify our reasons. A lot of our posts are on the longer side, follow a pretty straightforward format, and give people a good idea of what to expect. We also anticipate that our writers have some mastery of the English language, so that we can get reviews edited in a timely manner. Not much to ask for: you spent two to 40+ hours playing a game, hopefully you'll be willing to spend thirty minutes to an hour writing a solid review. So we were having problems finding reviewers. And while I say "We," I mean Bats. Later, some "things" happened. At the time, we had a rule in place (mostly for me) that we cannot review any title we worked on. For the record, I never reviewed a title I directly worked on, and any titles I did work on had a disclaimer, especially when I was the one who got the key. It's the ethical thing to do. But, because that wasn't enough, we had to strengthen the rule to "We can't review games from a company we work/worked for." I understand why that rule is in place, but the number of companies I can do reviews for is fewer than the number of companies I can't do reviews for, so I was finished. Bats left the VN scene completely shortly after this, and Palas stepped up. He's doing what he can, but there are a lot of roadblocks. The fact that a couple other reviewers also had restrictions placed on them caused a bit of a dead space that we still weren't able to fill because nobody applied and met the basic requirements to be a reviewer. We still have a strong team, but virtually all of us are involved with something (official, unofficial, or non-VN related) in one way or another, and it's difficult to make it work. Would I love to run FuwaReviews again and get it back to the glory days? Yes, of course I would. But I can't. I'm too involved in the community for that to work out. Instead, I'll have to depend on somebody else, and I look forward to seeing if we can make it work out. And maybe, one day, I'll do a JAST game review. Maybe.

Tips for drawing better: put hours into it. It takes years to learn how to draw. I guess is the same for programming and everything else, it just takes time. If you dont enjoy it while doing it I would try to look for something else to do, as I said it can take a lot of time to learn so the best thing you can do is try to enjoy the journey instaid of just wanting results right away.

UPDATE 30/06/17: New Bio cards and changes: BIO CARDS: OTHER CHANGES: -The game will have +60 CGs+BGs -Increased ammount of Sprites -Script increased from 56k to 60k words (minor rework to replace any bland scene with better dialogue) Stay tuned, I'll update with more news soon.

Uh, sorry, but the translation is very badly done. It's not "a few mistakes," it's a constant stream of massive fuckups. Anyway, the "quantity over quality" argument is one I will vehemently disagree with, though I doubt any debate on the matter would be productive.

It is our right as consumers of visual novels to discuss and point out the level of quality of the product. I personally don't have the mentality that, "hey at least i can buy a VN even if the quality isn't up to par". That's not right for me, I mean if the translation isn't smooth and reading it may prove to be annoying, i appreciate it when people point it out with examples. I can then choose not to buy it and buy something else instead. I don't need to learn Japanese just because I'm not satisfied with the translation quality done by companies that are supposed to specialise in translation. Its a new time for Vns in the west now, there are many available for people to pick and choose. I've got over 30 vns in my backlog that i may read when i have the time. Honestly i'm not interested in learning Japanese right now and am fine with just picking up the Vns already available or will be coming soon. I mean, mikandi had like a year to translate the game and polish it up. They aren't creating the game, they're translating it. I think a year is ample time to get it to the best possible quality by apparent professionals. If this was a fan translation, hey take years if you want. You're doing it on your own time, you didn't ask for anyone's money to do it. But if you're a professional then people are going to have high expectations for quality. I've read hundreds of books in my time and I don't think i've ever had issues with books not being proofread properly. It really shocked me when i first starting reading visual novels, how official translations done by professionals can have so many errors that have been pointed out and never addressed or edited. Like its just an accepted fact that just because there aren't many Vns out there, they can just cut corners with releases and people will just go "oh well, it can't be helped, we don't have much of a choice anyway...". Its a sad thing to see. Visual novel companies should endeavour to release products of the highest quality and translations that are honest and accurate to the meaning of the original scripts. It is their duty as professionals and it is also their responsibility to consumers and the creators of those games.

That is ever the conundrum, is it not? I don't want to pay for product X, because it's bad quality! But if I don't pay for product X they will stop making product X. We should be thankful there is product X at all. But then they'll just keep making bad product X. Whatever will we do? Up to you's, the answer. Set your own limits on what is acceptable and what is not. Personally, I like supporting even bad quality products when the company has half competent PR, as then I can at the very least convey when something is of inferior quality and hope they do better next time. I can do this because my standards are actually rather low, and I'll accept most things. If a product being of bad quality actively impairs your enjoyment, there may be other things you could be investing on.

As someone who is learning Japanese, and intends on becoming a professional translator, I don't like this mentality. It is the job of the translator to produce a good translation that pleases the readers, and not a poor translation that is hard to understand, (or worse, one that is straight up incorrect.) People being okay with bad translations means the people who translated said work gets away with it, and more bad translations could surface in the future. If no one speaks up about someone's work being bad, then the translator and the localization company won't learn. It's okay to criticise translators if their work is sub-par. I know for a fact that my first work wasn't the best, and I use the feedback I got from that as motivation to get better in the future. This should be what all translators tries to do. So, I think it's important that the community speaks up about something if there is actual issues in a localization. Based on the lines Decay has posted in this thread so far, the translation looks very awkward. I hope the lines are at the very least accurate, (I'll be checking this later when the game comes out,) but even if they are, we should definitely let Mikandi Japan know that their work is in need of some serious editing. If they aren't made aware of the fact that their work isn't that good, they could just keep making sub-par translations for the foreseeable future, which would suck for them and their fans. With the amount of good localizations that has been released in the past few years, this community should be allowed to have high standards when it comes to translations.

Some samples to tide ya'll over: "She grips in her hand something that looks like a leash and it's connected to the thing tied around my body." Because who needs commas? Or grammar in general? There are quite a few lines where it seems like they straight up forgot to use commas. Of course, that's almost the least of this line's problems. It has the prose of a twelve year old's Spongebob Squarepants fanfic. From pointless repetition ("grips in her hand"), to frustrating vagueness ("the thing tied around my body"), to word usage that's uncommon in English ("my body" when "me" also works). It's the kind of line you have to read two or three times to figure out what it's saying. "Stream with reduced force runs along her thighs like water trickling from rocks and flows onto the washing area of the bathroom." Bwueahhh!? First of all, welcome to the first of many pissing incidents in Libra of the Vampire Princess! I hope you like pee, because boy does this VN have a lot of it. Aside from the aforementioned lack of commas, this line also introduces another common issue: the lack of articles. One of their many translators seems to have frequently left them out, and their editor(s) didn't catch a it very often. I'm guessing that their staff had very few people whose first language is English, and it shows. Just like the first line, even if this line had proper punctuation, it could be worded much better. Like, "down rocks" instead of "from rocks," though that metaphor is super clunky anyway. "A weak stream" instead of "stream with reduced force." I mean, really, trying to slap some band-aids on this line is idiotic. It needs to be thrown out and rewritten completely. "It is simply impossible to stop mindlessly flowing pee with a thin cloth." I want to mindlessly flow this line into the fucking garbage can. "The thin cloth of her panties is no match for the uncontrollable flow of urine." I spent ten seconds thinking up that alternative. It's still quite bad, yet somehow a hundred times better than what they had. The two chief problems being 1) the way their version is phrased makes it sound like stopping the flow is an active effort, when it is not, and 2) maybe I missed this in biology, but I'm pretty sure urine doesn't have a consciousness, and so the piss can't be "mindlessly flowing." "But so many weird things happened recently like, a random attacker and cosplay girl. And close to me, two transfer students from a small country I never heard of before called Racronia." I'm sorry, but I'm still not fully sure what the fuck this line is saying. What happened with the attacker and cosplay girl? What did the two transfer students do??? This is what happens when you throw grammar out the window. That second sentence is one very long sentence fragment. At least this line has commas. One of them isn't in the right spot, but hey, it's progress! Oh, also, it's Lacronia. They can't even get their own proper nouns right. "Well, I'm your fiancee. As the two people who promised each other the future, it is proper to live together." And in this case, an article showed up where it wasn't needed! C'mon! And what the hell does "promised each other the future" even mean? It sounds really poetic and meaningful, but I'm pretty sure it's not actually supposed to be. An overall incredibly awkward line. "Hooray, Master's got a lawful wife! After this, suck as much blood as possible and keep your favorite mistresses! Yay, harem, successful man!" Boo, Libra, terrible fucking translation! Mari is a ditz, but she's at least be able to form complete, comprehensible sentences. Also, Shuma doesn't have any mistresses to keep currently, that line is about acquiring new ones. This maid is obsessed with encouraging the protagonist to create as big of a harem as possible. It would be funny if it was actually translated halfway competently. This is basically the entire translation. Some routes will likely be better than others since there were multiple translators, but I wouldn't get your hopes up for anything being especially good.

HELLO GUYS! First of all, I <3 Fuwanovel. (That's why I'm here *hearts*) I've been wandering around here for quite some time now but I was always hesitant to make an account, until now. HEHE I started taking Visual Novels seriously just November last year. I say 'seriously' because I've played Radical Dreamers a very long time ago...I loved it but I didn't know that VNs really existed as how they exist. My first 'legit' VN is Steins;Gate. I loved it sooo much it's the reason why I got hooked into this. By this, I don't just mean the whole VN thing, it's making me into an otaku, like really driving me closer to Japanese culture. I'm starting to really like Animes and I'm also starting to learn very little Japanese and stuff. I love VNs because I get to read a novel and kinda like play a game all at the same time. And, it also gives me a break from tons and tons and tons of readings required at school. I don't have much time in my side right now to indulge myself to Visual Novels because of school but I still try to squeeze in this guilty pleasure of mine. aaaaand yes, I talk a lot. I can keep going on and on and on and on with this introductory post alone, but I'll save some (or more) for other parts of the forum. Feel free to ask me more questions, if you like HAHA =)) It's so nice to meet you all! :)

When the game first came out, I was just being born into this world. I guess I'm a young fan of such an old yet classic game. Ahhh~~! I am so happy to meet a Chrono fan! I rarely meet people who even know that such a console like SNES exists, and they call themselves "gamers." Psh. </3 I am really enjoying the people I meet here!

Of course. I played it when it first came out for the SNES and was one of its first Western fans. I also spent better than a year following the 'you can save Schala' rumor by replaying the game like ten times. That, and the vampire-Crono rumor. I literally tried every combination of event order and actions, in my attempt to find it. I finally gave up after my twenty-fifth playthrough.

Thank You for all your warm greetings! I really am enjoying myself. Hihi <3 Hello There! Someone finally noticed the Chrono Reference! Chrono Trigger is my all-time favorite RPG. :)

Chrono Trigger, one of the best jrpgs of all time, some of the best music directing of all time. Chrono Cross, best game soundtrack, ever. Welcome to Fuwa, Chrono-series reference girl.

Oh believe me, I'm already enjoying sooooo much! Steins;Gate is my fave, definitely. I am just obsessed with the idea of Time and Time Travel stories. <3