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Some veterans of reading untranslated VNs refer to the period between 2004 and 2010 as 'The Golden Age of Visual Novels'. However, you shouldn't really take that statement at face value, as the meaning is a bit more complex than you'd think. There are some significant differences between VNs today and VNs during that period that both made it the peak of the medium's sales in Japan and produced the greatest ratio of quality VNs to crap VNs. One of the primary differences was that, other than moege, there were no strict genre boundaries and genre conventions had yet to slide into place in the minds of fans and writers both. Companies were mostly experimenters during that time, sometimes basing their projects on previous works (Tsukihime and the Key games got a lot of knock-offs during this time, of varying levels of quality) and sometimes forging out on their own. Since there were few genre boundaries, companies were more likely to give the creative staff free reign as to what kind of story they could write, and - ironically - this actually helped define the various genres in the years to come, as people explored the boundaries of how they could stretch a concept or theme in a story. Some of these attempts were abortive (ie- thematic moege where all the heroines are of the same type, such as tsundere or yandere, generally didn't catch on) but others were immensely successful (ie- the definition of the chuunige genre and its gradual escape from gakuen battle mania). However, the point is that the writers, directors, and producers of the time were allowed to fiddle with the formula a lot more than they are now. Most major companies nowadays have a 'signature style', that was formed during that period, even if their greatest successes weren't during that period. This period also killed the 'pure moege' as a genre, ending the majority genre of the previous half-decade (moege having dominated during that period due to the Da Capo series and Key's games). The rise of the charage, a demi-moege genre that was much wider in scope and more adaptable, occurred during this period, mostly unrecognized until after the fact. At the same time, nakige, which had previously been enslaved to the moege genre through Key and others like them, came to define itself as a new, standalone genre that wasn't necessarily dependent on moe stylization. Even Key itself moved beyond pure moe, though it didn't entirely abandon some elements of it (as the existence of Kud testifies). However, this age was already ending in 2009, as clearly-delineated genre norms began to form, and charage became the driver for the industry, taking us back, in spirit, to the age before that. By 2011, the ratio of truly creative works to derivative works was overwhelmingly in favor of the latter, in comparison to the previous decade. That isn't to say that the years since haven't produced some great works. That is patently untrue in my experience... but the fact remains that fewer and fewer writers are able or willing to look outside the 'genre boxes' for answers as to what to write. I sometimes refer to our current age as the Age of Stagnation, where there is an overwhelming industry pressure to stick to genre norms and those that break the mold are so exceptional they stand out more than they should. It is possible to create a charage kamige... but it is much easier to make a kamige out of a game that breaks genre boundaries, lol.

There aren't masterpieces this month, so it's high time to nominate the pretty league series episode Doki Doki Pretty League Dai 3 Wa - Minami no Umi no Kai no Maki as VN of February 1995. It's quite a simple and fun episode on top of that! 1. Themm - Harukanaru Meikyuu ゼム ～はるかなる迷宮～ [950204] Harvest 1 2 3 4 Long time ago, human beings believed in gods. But time has passed, and the humans stopped worshipping them. The gods got angry. The world plunged into chaos. Demons who looked like pretty girls have appeared, driving people insane. Five kings have sent brave heroes to find a magical stone that alone could restore peace to the world. One of these heroes is Lucido. Aided by a simple village girl, he bravely descends into a dungeon full of seductive monsters - but he should beware of the competition... There are English reviews. 2. V Zone ＶＺＯＮＥ [950210] Dollhouse By buying top price adult VHRs hero is able to transfer to a different world to become the main actor himself. Even though the aim of the game is simple, hero needs to set flags for each heroine in all the five worlds making it very complex taking into account a big city to explore manually area by area. But the heroines are very cute able to inspire to clear those flags. 3. Poison ~6 Nin no Majo~ ぽわぞん ～６人の魔女～ [950214] Trush Princess ate a gifted candy and fell into slumber. No one answered the king's call to lift the curse until protagonist showed up. He set on a journey to defeat six witches in undressing card game to get the cure. It's mostly a card game which I did not get through. 4. Doki Doki Pretty League Dai 3 Wa - Minami no Umi no Kai no Maki DokiDokiぷりてぃリーグ 第3話 南の海の怪の巻 [950218] Great The Pink Angels, who won the JPL-ONE league and entered the JPL league, now take a vacation to Okinawa. Game focuses on local ghost story and proceeds to Black Shadows match. Exact system as the prequels with fun adventure getting the bigger chunk of the not so long playthrough. 5. Trouble Chaser Dai 2 Wa - Futarime no Chaser トラぶるＣＨＡＳＥＲ 第２話 ２人目のチェイサー [950218] Nihon Create Daiskuke gets accustomed to living with Rena when his house gets demolished again by another space ship landing on it. Rudy comes out of the ship claiming that she's a friend of Rena. There's also a new strong enemy awaiting. Good pace fun mini-adventure. 6. DR2 Night Janki DR2ナイト雀鬼 [950224] Leaf 1 2 DR² Night Janki is a mahjong game with adult scenes. The game has two modes: "Story" and "Regular". The story mode is set in a medieval castle, which is said to be ancient grounds for sorcery, but is currently controlled by the mysterious Rumira, who runs a mahjong club. The hero, a man named Ryuuji, decides to investigate the castle, and therefore has to defeat its inhabitants (all pretty young girls) in mahjong matches. Game's ordinary undressing mahjong. What makes it special is that there is at least some loose story to tie it together and that it's the first game of the Leaf company. 7. Nozokiya Kagyou のぞき屋稼業 [950224] T2 Co., Ltd. Hero has a car full of peeping equipment and a whole town as his playground. An originator of peeping genre "Odori". This game is close to simulators since there is a freedom of movement and lots of game icons to choose from, especially in the car as well as time of the day. It's quite a boring game able to avert even ardent peeping enthusiasts. 8. Sex [950224] AyPio 1 2 The game with such a simple, yet expressive title is also rather simple and to-the-point in its concept: it is about having sex and nothing else. There is no real story in the game: in the beginning, a crazy-looking character named Mr. Funk, who speaks in Japanese with a heavy dose of stereotypical hip-hop lingo, announces that the player is now declared King of Sex and can therefore directly have sex with any of the three "available" young and pretty girls: Nana, the cute school girl, Makoto, the "mature" woman (probably in her early twenties), and the obligatory underage girl with pink hair, Ai. There's a small talk with each girl discussing intimate life, but apart of that it's just sex. 9. Virtua Call バーチャコール [950224] Fairytale 1 While trying to pick up girls, you are given a card for a video phone service. When you go home you try the number and then a woman tells you how the game works. Nampa game with videophones not yet invented. Many conversation variants are present. But game feels too monotonous, something that's going to be fixed only in sequels. 10. Ce'st la vie Ce'st la vie [950228] May-Be Soft 1 2 The game puts the player in a role of an aspiring young painter, who is more interested in pretty, young, naked models than in the art itself. It starts slowly, but soon the hero finds himself sexually involved with different young women, and the net of relationships grows more and more complex... Don't expect a story here, because there is little of it. It consists mostly of accidental meetings followed by H. 11. Valkyrie ヴァルキリー [950228] Discovery 1 2 An ordinary Japanese high-school student named Hatsumi Tarou was having a normal life - preparing for examinations, like all his classmates - when one day everything changed: it was on the day when he saw a talking cat. The cat promptly explained that it was not a cat, but a creature from the Magic World. Once in a thousand or so years, a fighting competition is being held between the best female fighters of the Magic World. The winner becomes the next queen. The referee however should be a human being; and this time, the honor belongs to our friend Tarou! Well, this is not BlazBlue, the story here is almost non-existant, nothing much to discuss in a fighting game.

I first played this VN in 2011, having read Accany's review of it (it was on his rather long list of recommended VNs), and at first, I had trouble getting into it. To be blunt, my distaste for mysteries is pretty much the biggest reason why I had trouble with this... but the protagonist is, in some ways, your typical 'stick his nose in everything and anything' detective, meaning that he frequently takes actions that make me want to face-palm. In addition, his unwillingness to put the puzzle pieces together (some parts of the setting come together indirectly really early on, and it always bothered me didn't figure it out then and there) bothered me as well. Nonetheless, I set that feeling aside and decided to replay this, since it is technically a classic VN, lol. Kurenai no Tsuki is one of those rare VNs (rare even then) where all the characters are full adults with their own occupations and lives. It is also a combination murder mystery, fantasy, and horror story. The game's setting is an isolated village in the mountains, where the protagonist, Kouya accidentally stumbled onto the bathing scene of the two main heroines, Sunao and Hiori. Being old-fashioned Japanese women, they of course demand that he follow the rules and pick one of them (or both of them) to marry. If this VN were to have been made this year, then it would have turned into a series of moe antics, with good-hearted villagers blessing the potential marriage and the mystery being cleared up as something relatively innocent. However, Kurenai no Tsuki was made in 2009, when it was still normal to have this kind of beginning take a different track. This story has a ridiculous number of choices, most of them you are required to pick eventually and the only thing you can pick is the order, which makes them useless choices in my mind. Objectively, this is perhaps the most negative point of the VN, lol. There are two arcs to this VN, based on a choice made mid-way through the second chapter, which requires you to pick between Hiori and Sunao. Depending on which you choose, you get to look at a different side of the events and mystery of the story. There are four heroines, two of which are in each arc. The first one follows the villagers' side and contains Sunao's and Akari's paths. The second one follows a second faction and leads you to Hiori's and Kokoa's paths. While I enjoyed this VN and liked its characters, the fact is that it doesn't really meet my tastes, even now. I love Sunao and Hiori, and so I always felt that this VN could have done without the mystery elements, since the protagonist is so paranoid he is willing to doubt those pure-hearted girls at the drop of a hat. That's probably my problem, since I was already thinking of those two as my waifu inside the first ten minutes of the VN each time I played it, hahaha... Anyway, this VN's atmosphere is frequently gloomy and the villagers are insanely xenophobic (violently so at times), and the deaths that keep occurring only make things worse. Nonetheless, as a story it is very well-made and has a really interesting setting. Kokoa's scientific approach to the mystery of the village is also helpful, since it provides some perspective when you find yourself falling into baseless superstitious paranoia, haha. I recommend this to fantasy mystery lovers, though don't expect that the mysteries will all be solved in a single path. Edit: Oh, and the true path is the harem path, lol.