Leaderboard

To confirm what Decay said, Denpasoft just replied to me on twitter. So yes, the 18+ version is coming out at the same time as the all-ages game

Isaku and Ryouki no Ori are masterpieces of the month, but the winner is Isaku since it's more traditional visual novel. 1. Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi 学校であった怖い話 [950804] Pandora Box 1 2 Sakagami Shuuichi, a member of the school newspaper, is asked to gather information about the school's seven mysteries. He meets with six other students after school to listen to their stories. There is an English review. 2. Hyaku Monogatari ~Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi~ 百物語 ~ほんとにあった怖い話~ [950804] Hudson Soft 1 There is one hundred selectable candles. Each candle leads to a short story a few minutes long. There is one small English review. 3. Immoral Study Scenario 1: Shirakawa Reiko インモラルスタディ シナリオ1 白川玲子 [950811] Scoop 1 2 3 4 5 6 You are professor Hitosuji, a well-known teacher who possesses the remarkable gift of turning weak students into straight A ones. What's the secret of professor's method? As you might have suspected, the talented professor uses somewhat... ahem... unconventional means to attain this noble educational goal. This time, the "victim" is a young innocent girl named Reiko Shirakawa. She attends an all-girl and has never had any real contact with men. Controlling the cunning professor, you must seduce Reiko by selecting correct choices that are presented to you at almost any given point, avoiding disturbances such as the ugly housekeeper in Reiko's house. Game is localized and has English reviews. 4. Kirishima Shinryoushitsu no Gogo 霧島診療室の午後 [950811] May-Be Soft 1 Kyoko is a young woman who does some counseling in a high school; she must talk to people, listen to their problems, and try to solve them. Naturally, this being a hentai game, the problems are usually restricted to sexual fetishes, and the counseling often consists of helping the patients in such ways that new problems of a similar kind might arise... Quite a loose ero-centered story about counseling on sex problems. 5. Frontier フロンティア [950825] Frontier A collection of three stories: 1. 遠雷ワイバーン is about a bounty hunter who stays at the inn and is requested to rescue a kidnapped girl. 2. 快感空間「愛」is about a couple who get summoned to another world one day. The goddess there gives a test to make love to three her maids. 3. "Blood line" is about a an adult store owner Eleanor who supplies space ships with sex dolls. She learns about a suspicious disappearance of a space ship that is rumored to be hijacked by a terrorist group. It's a multi-site adventure that shows another point of view after initial playthrough. Stories are set in some desolate future and quite elaborately done. It might be the peak of multiple stories genre, but whatever complicated prelude is, it inevitably leads to multiple H events. 6. Isaku 遺作 [950825] Elf 1 2 3 4 Unlike the sequels that follows you take on the role of Kenta, a high school student trapped by Isaku, the eldest brother of the Itou Family on the fourth floor of an abandoned school building together with fellow classmates and a teacher. The main objective of the game is to have the player and his companions escape from a locked school building, and to avoid having your companions captured by Isaku. The only way out is through a stairwell, the doors of which are locked on every floor. The player must search the rooms on each floor for clues and items that will lead him to locate the keys that will open the stairwell doors and allow him to descend to the next level and ultimately to a final confrontation with Isaku himself. Famous rapist series of Elf, but this first game has an ordinary high school student as protagonist, so it can be enjoyed. There is one English review. First things first: this game has an amazing point and click system, probably ideal one. There are items to pick up at school, but if misuse some needed item, you won't be able to get a happy ending, cruel as that. There are few VNs with escape as main theme, so it's a nice treat. The graphics of Elf here are in its blossom and it's especially cool that the most attractive character is Kumiko-sensei and not those multiple girls. Game basically has no flaws and manages to have all the elements in sync, so it's a masterpiece, just not for everyone. 7. May Club 五月倶楽部 [950825] Desire 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 The year is 2023, and you play the role of Hajime Kudo, a young man who has just finished his studies at Jiyugaoka University. Hajime is enjoying some downtime after graduation before he is scheduled to start his training with a CAT company and enter the corporate world as a "wage-slave". One February afternoon you receive a flyer advertising a Virtual Reality Dating Simulator called May Club, apparently the most advanced human interface unit of this type to be developed. In May Club, you can supposedly act out any desire you wish with other May Club users, a world where "virtually" anything is possible and physically represented, and inhibitions are forgotten. Naturally, you're intrigued, and make it a point to spend your vacation time at May Club hoping to meet the woman of your dreams before starting your new life. One of the well known old dating sims. Has many English reviews. 8. Moratorium モラトリアム [950825] Gloria Your father remarries and you end up living together with three new grown-up sisters. This work has some gag situations in addition to H events. It can sometimes be seen as a unique comic book and it's easy to read. 9. Ryouki no Ori 猟奇の檻 [950825] Studio Polaris 1 2 A series of strange disappearances occurs in Zeroshiki Department Store, one of the largest shopping malls in Japan. The management is concerned and unwilling to involve the authorities. For an unknown reason they turn to one of their salesmen, a young man named Kuniharu Shitaku, requesting him to investigate the case and find out who or what is behind these disappearances. Kuniharu must explore the mall and gather information by talking to shop managers and staff, most of which are attractive young women who may not be what they seem at first glance. An ADV that incorporates time system. Every map movement takes some time. Suspense story about missing people that turns out to be about organs shipment. Even if you find the criminal, it's only the peak of the iceberg and the puppeteer remains unknown. Graphics is great. There are multiple endings and some of them are quite cheerful in contrast with the dark suspense mood of the game. Of course, there are a lot of bad endings as well, so a guide is almost a necessity in such time driven game. Very original game worthy of masterpiece title, but the modern remake of the game makes old version obsolete. 10. Sakura no Mori 櫻の杜 ～さくらのもり～ [950825] Active 1 Girls school recently started to adopt male students. There's an old urban legend about a ghost called "young lady" at school and three ghost study club members are set to investigate it. It's lesbian comedy. And it's more lesbian than a comedy. It's more or less fun through the middle, but don't expect to see any kind of story development here. Yet another bakage with emphasis on H-scenes. 11. Trigger 2 トリガー２ [950825] ZyX 1 Trigger 2 consists of three unrelated stories. The protagonist of the first one is Kerberos, the mythical guardian hellhound. Following a dispute with Lucifer, Kerberos was banned to Earth, where he assumed human form and eventually decided to battle monsters who had been sexually assaulting young women. In the second story, a seventeen-year-old modern-day girl named Ryoko is magically transferred to a parallel world known as Ryudo. There, she receives painful sexual "training" ans is send to battle machine enemies. The third story is set in American Old West and focuses on Marie, a female rogue who wants to pass for a young man. The rest of the plot depicts various sexual encounters of hers with men and women, consensual and non-consensual alike. Zyx continues the animated games race along with Sogna and Himeya Soft. But Trigger 2 is almost entirely committed to H events unlike his competitors. 12. Shin Youjuu Kyoushitsu Ecstasy Adventure 真・妖獣教室 エクスタシーアドベンチャー [950825] Dez Climax The Earth is under assault by aliens called beasts. They choose this green land as their breeding grounds. But in the Universe there is also an organization that opposes these beasts, and its agents are instantly sent to the Earth. A new round of confrontation starts now. It's basically an anime presented as a game. Great move, but difficult to justify such medium while anime presents a much more comfortable approach.

Kuro no Danshou: The Literary Fragment is the only masterpiece of the month 1. Jinmon Yuugi 尋問遊戯 [950707] Red Zone Main hero who is an amateur detective is invited to drink in the bar with a beautiful woman while on a voyage. They move to her room and... the next thing he remembers is her dead body on the floor. Hero is the main suspect, but famous British detective agrees to allow him freedom of movement till the end of voyage as an opportunity to search for a different culprit. Time is limited and hero will have to use all his wits and interrogation skills to get to the truth. Game is called interrogation play not occasionally. After elaborate introduction content is primarily interrogation. Game has multiple endings including lots of bad ones. 2. Mugen Houyou 夢幻泡影 [950707] Alice Soft 1 After a prolonged absence due to mental problems, Kuon, a young heir to a dynasty of powerful oligarchs, returns to his mansion. He is greeted by his wife, his associates, his servants, and other people who live in the huge family estate. Kuon has to continue the political work of his predecessors, but he is more interested in exploring sexual desires - his own and those of other people. But each "experiment" reveals more of Kuon's troubled past, and he will have to fight his childhood traumas and determine himself the limits of what he can allow himself to do... Kind of depressing story of Alice Soft tackling on how to spend last days before death from incurable disease. Hmm... what to do in those last days? Oh, right... another setting as an excuse to portray extreme H scenes. Game barely passed censorship thanks to the fact that incest with the sister is not portrayed in the positive manner. Each scenario is no longer than one hour, but there are numerous endings and even more bad endings that reader is supposed to explore. Game might have some charm for someone due to the fact that "events" take place at Taishou era, but I totally could not sympathize with the setting. 3. Inma Seifuku Gari 淫魔制服狩り [950714] Ail 1 For years, the days on the Earth belonged to human beings, while demonic creatures roamed the planet during the night. But humans have invented artificial illumination. In huge modern cities, nights became as bright as the days. Demons were deprived of their time on the Earth. So they decided to strike back. A powerful demonic warrior decides it's time to show the human who the bosses are... by having sex with young pretty girls in uniforms, of course! There's no much meaning. Just choose one of three girls and play with her. 4. Jealousy ジェラシー [950714] Interheart 1 An ordinary Japanese young man named Fujibayashi Kotarou was playing a computer game at his friend's house. Upon returning home at night, he was approached by mobsters, who demanded money. With debts everywhere and without real means to earn money, Kotarou opts to work for a dubious night club manager as a host. He finds it hard to adjust to the new life style, which brings not only danger and violence, but also sexual experiences he hasn't even dreamed of before... A host experience ADV, but unlike modern bright host otome novels atmosphere here is very gloomy, fishy and yakuza upper hand seen everywhere. Operability of the game is quite bad and animated H events make the gist of it. 5. Kuro no Danshou: The Literary Fragment 黒の断章 THE LITERARY FRAGMENT [950714] Abogado Powers 1 The Literary Fragment is the first game in Abogado's mystery/horror/adult Detective Suzusaki series. The story focuses on Satoshi Suzusaki, a private investigator with a tragic past, which has left a permanent scar on his life and mental abilities. The case that opens the game's story is a horrifying death of an entire family in their house, at the dining table; circumstances lead to an assumption of either a ritual suicide or murder. Suzusaki, his lovely secretary Asuka, and his young friend, psychologist extraordinaire Kusanagi, have to do everything in their powers to solve the case, while the hero's mysterious past continuous to haunt him... Suspense detective story with ties to Cthulhu myth. Story shifts into occult theme quickly. Stunning visuals, ever-deepening plot and point and click system make this game a masterpiece. Point and click is not as refined and friendly as in Elf games though. This is definitely a masterpiece, but need some guts to embrace the dark atmosphere and gore scenes. And there's even a sequel in 1996. It should have been a trilogy, but - alas - third part is never going to see the light. There is a good hentai anime that follows game events quite truthfully. 6. Shinsetsu Kamiya Ukyou 2 真説 神谷右京2 [950714] Altacia The theme of the story is "arbitrary arrangement" introduced with the 1988 law. Sarah is the debtor that appeals to arbitrary arrangement. Fourth installment of detective series, but actually a remake of older game. Another case based on real life case and again debt as main theme. This work has a much more user friendly systems. As usual, lots of specialized vocabulary and professional slang is used. Ukyo who takes the case is old-fashioned with some bearded jokes to tell, so it's hard to appeal to younger auditory. Case itself lacks excitement so may look boring. But if it does not scare you, it's actually the masterpiece level detective game with many endings, serious approach and story that takes priority over usual tedious detective works gameplay. 7. Doki Doki Pretty League Final DokiDokiぷりてぃリーグ Final [950720] Great Pink Angels who won the JPL league discover their trophy disappearance one day. Hero does not want publicity and wants to hire a private detective. But on his way there he attends a birthday party of one of team members and discovers the cup in one of the rooms... Mentioning anything else of the plot would be a spoiler. Enough to say that there is a happy end. This episode is "final" instead of a number meaning it's more of an extra episode after the whole baseball business. Episode is the longest and does not have a game included making it a nice final. 8. Dora Dora Emotion ~Seihaiden~ ＤＯＲＡＤＯＲＡエモーション ～聖牌伝～ [950721] Cocktail Soft 1 2 A young treasure hunter named Asuta travels together with his faithful companion, the cute angel-like creature Mink. One day, Mink tells her "master" about the floating continent Norland. Rumors say that a golden tablet of immense value is hidden somewhere on that continent. Asuta and Mink travel to Norland and try to enter the Queen's palace. However, it seems that the people of Norland only have respect to those who are proficient in the ancient game of mahjong. Mink quickly teaches Asuta how to play the game, and they challenge the famous people (read: young, pretty women) of the country to the bloodless battle! This time with a story. But it does not really help. The game is ordinary. 9. Lemon Angel レモンエンジェル [950721] Fairy Dust 1 2 The plot involves Tomo meeting her friends Erika and Miki, only to become trapped in a magical dimension with her friends gone. Tomo must travel to various worlds in order to find them; these worlds have varied themes and settings, including an alien attack on a spaceship, a country populated by giant sexually abusive mushrooms, a realm that changes Tomo's gender, etc. There is an English review. 10. Perfect Blue パーフェクトブルー [950725] Ucom Main character is a biker who has ample opportunities to have sex at home, at school and at his girlfriend's place. But as he rescues a girl from a group of men, his daily routine starts to change... Pretty horrible game as pretty much nothing happens, but H events follow one by one for eternity. Game is mostly remembered for an intercourse scene with imouto at the start. 11. Arbeit ~Futari no Omoi~ アルバイト ～二人の想い～ [950728] Ange A couple is preparing for a holiday together, and need money to do that. Both go for a part-time job. You get to see both the boyfriend's and girlfriend's points of view. There are six weekly jobs each with a different girl and possibility to confess on the friday. So it's quite close to our usual heroine routes. The multi-site system is still fresh and quite popular after C's Ware hit DESIRE. But the content is ordinary. 12. Branmarker 2 ブランマーカー２ [950728] D.O. 1 2 3 Branmarker 2 is a direct sequel to the first Branmarker. The heroine Shami has completed her quest, received the magical artifact known as "branmarker", and is returning home with her companion Viga. Alas, the evil sorceress Kara has other plans, so she steals the branmarker from Shami to use it for her own mysterious purposes. Shami and Viga have to find the thief and recover the artifact before hell is unleashed upon the world. There's a good English review out there. 13. De.FaNa デ・ファーナ [950728] Himeya Soft 1 A young boy with spiky purple hair lies on the ground, contemplating the clear sky. He enjoys the well-deserved rest. Life is good. The only problem is... he can't remember who he is. Finally, after some efforts, he recalls his name: Luck. Profession: adventurer. He was supposed to meet his partner, a sexy girl named Sue, but instead ended up in some sort of a magical land, with zombies and angry female warriors. Soon he will learn that the land is called De FaNa, is ruled by a queen, and contains plenty of dangerous quests for an adventurer... and pretty girls for a horny teenager! Himeya Soft accepts the Sogna challenge and issues another highly animated game. Tempo is a bit sluggish since you need to try all the variants before moving on. Characters and the story aren't too exciting, but overall a very nice work. 14. Kousoku ~Yorokobi no Juice~ 拘束 ～悦びの淫液～ [950728] Persian Soft 1 A young man named Keisuke falls asleep on a train and sees a dream: he is having sex with a beautiful woman whom he calls Miyuki, even though he doesn't know this woman in his real life. Afterwards, Keisuke misses the last train to the city and is stranded on a rainy day on a small, uninhabited station. Suddenly, he sees the woman from his dream, and finds out her name is really Miyuki. She tells him and her rich father has built for her and her sisters a European-style mansion nearby, and invites the young man to visit. Keisuke accepts and meets her family, which leads to unexpected and dark erotic adventures... Characters were mysterious enough to make me play to the end. But last quarter of the game has much disturbing content. It's still a good thing that Miyuki is not subject to the overall madness, well, maybe just a little. So it's mostly an ero-centered game, but with nice mystery and cute characters. 15. Kurumi-chan Ninja くるみちゃんにんじゃあ [950728] Studio Jikkenshitsu A legendary black ship arrives at Minato shore shipping suspicious black chests. A ninja girl is sent to investigate the contents of the chests. There aren't reviews and game process is just too dull. It's still nice to see as much as three attacking commands available to use at any time.

Noticed a very tiny man. He looks lonely.

Bethly seems to be up to something... The next day The next day This blog is way overdue as it is because of RL so I'm just going to stop here for now

lol, guess Evangile and this will release one after another dammit, my holidays are running short

me needs some sauce plz

I seconded Kikokugai here, but if you want more there's Hanachirasu which is from the same company as Kikokugai. For one more recommendation, I think Baldr Force could be qualified there seeing that apparently the protagonist did had some sort of revenge .

I can only talk about the numbered titles, Da Capo II and Da Capo III. The former seems to be, by all accounts, the best they have done with the entire series. There's still plenty of vanilla blandness and still plenty of insanity. The main difference is that it is not quite as bland because they managed to create a cast of characters that all play off each other pretty nicely. The same cannot be said for Da Capo III. While the cast is still numerous, they aren't together quite as much and they get relatively few moments to shine altogether. It also moves away from the... semi-normal setting the previous two games had, so while the setting is somewhat interesting... not too much is done to make good use of it. I haven't finished it, though, so I don't know how many insane twists and turns it may or may not hold.

Jesus Fucking Christ, that was a bit of a rollercoaster. I spent 120 of my stored free quartz and got nothing of value but about a dozen four star essences and like three or four five star. I promptly broke my "never pay micro-transactions rule" and purchased the highest value of quartz and kept spinning. Got a shit ton of essences again. On my second to last spin I got a Tamamo Cat, which I would have been happy with... if I got that with my free quartz. On my last spin, God had mercy on my soul and I got a Nero AND a Altera. THANK FUCKING GOD.

Right that one, (sigh) English was always my worst subject.

Since I watched it to see all my favourite moments animated, I did not have too much of an issue, and rather liked it. Therein lies the problem. With everything. It shouldn't, but the existence of a "source material" affects one's enjoyment of an adaptation. It's not something people can just avoid. Just another application of my final sentence in the previous post. Ideally, things would be judged for what they are and nothing else, but that's not what happens. "Faithfulness" is a useful concept, but a lack of it should not lead one to dislike the material. It does, because it often leads one to think "it could have been better", even when such is not true. People who complain about lack of faithfulness have already been 'spoiled' about a version of the story: they know what happens and how, and thus its harder for them to clearly see how a removal of a scene would make the overall product 'better', so to speak. It seems likely that the ones who complain about a lack of faithfulness are the ones who thought the original material was good -- if it were bad, they would not care; therefore, it's not an inherent less=bad or not faithful=bad argument, it's also a mix with fandom and cult behaviour of "How dare you defile my favourite manga! Where's the scene where the main character was brushing her teeth in the morning?! Without it the entire story loses all meaning!!1". There's still plenty of more reasonable people who think "Scene A was boring and served no point, I hope they leave it out in the adaptation" or some such. Or simply do not care. As always, I presume these to be the silent majority. All of those points you mentioned are points I made as a hypothetical reaction a fan might have to an adaptation, for people who never watched/read other versions are not affected by said issues. I'm sure not all fans fall in these categories. I don't, for instance, and like to simply take things as they come. Changes aren't a problem so long as the overall product is good. But I don't believe any fan can be completely unaffected when watching an adaptation of something they love. If a fan doesn't think it is as good as the original there will be that small inkling in the back of your mind that will affect your enjoyment. Somebody who already knows the whole thing is less likely to be involved "in the moment", and instead may be looking at the big picture the whole time, and this affects how one perceives things. Experiencing a faithful adaptation is definitely affected by how good the material is at being rewatched/reread: Some products are simple entertainment or thrillers or emotion-hooks that aren't meant to be as good (or at least the same sort of experience) the second time around. A more vocal fan may try to latch onto any available excuse, such as how faithful it is or is not. So yes. I maintain the initial ideas I had about fans. Some want to re-watch things just in another medium; some want to watch all the good bits in a different form but don't care about the rest; some want something new and different done with the IP. The first two groups are the most likely to complain at the lack of faithfulness (the second group if a scene the person wanted to see didn't make it). Finally, when any fan feels that they aren't enjoying it as much 'isn't faithful' is the easiest excuse to use, even when it may not be the correct one in any particular case. All of this is exacerbated by the fact that even when the product the adaptation creates is good, but not as good as the original, fans are more likely to label it a bad product or, more commonly, a bad adaptation. Again, the cause is generally attributed to lack of faithfulness, for its easiest to identify. I have no particular opinions one whether transitioning between media should require large changes. I haven't looked, but I can think of no particular examples where a transition between mediums would be impossible or heavily degrade one of the versions (except for more apparent things like an anime about colours transitioning into black and white manga -- and that's still manageable! There's no lack of manga about music and other topics manga is not necessarily equipped to reproduce). This all said, I'm not very good at talking about such abstract and hypothetical concepts, so if anything makes no sense, do not mind it.

As said in the topic title, We need future Guests for the Following Topics. If you feel comfortable talking on a podcast and talking about a topic feel free to PM me! Topics we plan to discuss in the future. 18+ vs. All Ages Art Buying vs. Pirating Visual Novels Length of visual novels (Short vs. Long, in between) Music Romance Quality Settings Tropes/Cliches Untranslated VNs/Learning Japanese Visual Novels aimed for Females (Otomes/BL/other?) Why Popular Visual Novels are Popular We would also like any topics you'd like to hear about besides any of the above and ones we've done already (EVNs, Kinetic vs Choices, Gameplay, TL Quality, Genres, Kickstarter)!

Well, if I may defend Chrono Clock translation the old people in Japan called green as blue because of cultural reason. But otherwise it was a mistake indeed because the translation was too literal, and I'd already watched two Japanese LPs to knew that the text was indeed said 'aoi' in the original language (Not 'midori'). Either way, I didn't remember too much about the mistranslation in the first place.