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Warning: this post contains screenshots and (very) minor spoilers from the trial version. If you completely don't want to spoil yourself, or haven't played the trial yet, I'd highly advise to postpone reading until you finish the game first. If you did not yet stumble upon one of those TIME TO LEARN JAPANESE reminders, you have a damn good reason to finally consider studying moon runes. Title: 眠れぬ羊と孤独な狼－A Tale of Love, and Cutthroat－ (trial ver.) (eng. Sleepless Sheep and Lonesome Wolf - A Tale of Love, and Cutthroat / Yourou for short) Developer: ClockUp Genre: Psychological thriller Rating: AO/18+ as f*ck VNDB Official website I always had a mixed opinion about ClockUp and their games. It's one of those studios, you will either love or hate with a profound passion and one that's going to be blocked by many game news outlets, websites and forums. Gods forbid you from even talking about their games, unless you're a member of some obscure corner of the internet (like this one) or a member of the perverted sect, known as filthy eroge players. Why? Because their blockbuster games are not only addictive, but often delve into topics, that are - to be blunt - plain repulsive and/or very uncomfortable for most average people to tackle. When they aren't working on their next serious game, they typically tend to churn out low budget porn games, that borderline on rape and mind corruption, with occasional gems in-between (yes, I am looking at you, Zwei Vorter). Joyful, right? Yourou is their latest addition to that wonderful lineup, best described as a "thrilling crime tale". In comparison to their previous games, Tatsuya dropped fantasy based concepts in favor of a more down-to-earth setting. Yourou seems to focus more broadly on the environment itself, rather than portraying the lives of single characters or a particular group. In that manner, main characters play more of a central role, rather than just being forced into hero/heroine roles. This makes the whole game feel more akin to an actual digital story, rather than a classic visual novel, where everything is told mostly from protagonist's perspective. In all honesty, this was a perfect choice, as the world presented within becomes much more colourful, playing an important role itself, instead of being just a backdrop for the characters to play on. Heavy filtered, neon-like photographic backgrounds with an added touch of grunge stylistics remind of the reality within - coarse, twisted and brutal, yet insanely vivid. It's a world of prostitutes, carnal pleasures, yakuza and bustling nightlife. Yourou tells a tale of Takeo - a young man, living in your typical, run-of-the-mill love hotel in Kabukicho district, commonly known as the biggest entertainment zone of Tokyo, Japan. Takeo suffers from chronic insomnia, which turned his whole life upside down. His life is filled with nearly endless days that span across the weeks, while he earns his living as a janitor, cleaning up after guests. We quickly learn of his problems. His daily job is nothing but a cover for his true rason d'etre. In order to survive his disability, Takeo takes upon the offer of one of the leading gang's Bosses and works as an assassin during the nights; killing is the only way he can actually experience sleep. For both Takeo and Azami - back then still complete strangers, this was ought to be a night like any other. Little did they knew, the following events will make their paths cross again. This changes, after he meets Azami - a mysterious girl, he spots one day upon leaving to work, as usual. A pretty, young call girl, en-route to her client. Takeo didn't put much thought into it, until the next day his group discovers a dead body in the same exact room, she was supposedly to meet up; A pretty gruesome discovery too boot. upon finding out the man was actually an important member of the neighbourhooding group, Takeo's boss - Mamoru - orders him to find the culprit at all costs and bring her alive to prevent a potential gang war. At this point, Takeo couldn't care less about that, since he already had a reason of his own. Until now, Takeo considered himself a killer sheep - because he only killed upon a direct order. The sole fact of another killer like him, capable to bring down and gut a man of this size, regardless of consequences - an indicator of free will - makes Takeo boil with anger. For him, the mysterious girl becomes an actual wolf, which directly puts his life on the line. Unable to rest in peace, he vouches to find the girl himself at all costs and bloody murder her, so he can finally get a good night's sleep. Whoopsie~ Takeo's personal investigation takes him across the streets of Kabukicho. Soon, he discovers the girl he chased after sports nearly inhuman strength and reflexes far beyond his own capabilities; he's forced to run for his own life. As it turns out, this was just the beginning of a wild road, that will inevitably bring an end to his current, peaceful existence. The trial version covers exactly, what could be considered a prologue to the whole story. It's incredibly well paced, drawing you into a vividly painted image of Kabukicho's underworld - back alleys, host clubs, brothels and many of it's criminal groups, fighting for supremacy in this world filled to the brim with human dreams and desires. I was honestly surprised with the amount of detail, that went into every single aspect of the game. Tatsuya is well known for his prose, that often shifts more into psychological side of things and Yourou uses it surprisingly well to create a colourful cast of characters teeming with life. It's one of those rare stories, that make you feel emotionally invested with heroes of the story and you'll often find yourself cheering for them, even though you know they aren't necessarily good people. In fact, the world of Yourou is painted with grey and greyer shades, while it's characters aren't some superfluous paper dolls, but plain people with their own dreams and goals. This is especially prevalent for both Takeo and Azami, as they aren't guided by some invisible hand, but act entirely based on their own assumptions, choices and more than often - emotions - which in turn makes for some really interesting situations. Things don't "just happen"; if they happen, they do happen for a reason. Each criminal group within the story is given a proper introduction, without sparing any details. This kind of intricate world-building greatly enriches the game and makes you emotionally invested with characters, no matter who they are. Nemurenu Hitsuji to Kodoku na Ookami convinces me there are still studios capable of creating original, adult-oriented, purely story driven experiences, instead of this uninspired trash relying on commonly found otaku tropes. I have high expectations of this game and - of course - can't wait for the release. No matter if you're a fan of ClockUp, or someone who's looking for a more mature story - one without highly-pitched animu gals, fawning over protag's virtually infinite manhood - Yourou might be what you're looking for. As of now, Yourou is scheduled for release on 22th of December. I couldn't ask for a better Christmas present. PS. Azami is a fantastic heroine. Read the game and you'll understand why

Maybe because they're quite confused with the good partner for publishing VNs overseas? The best solution here would be to just stick with one company, in which out of those three the best option here would be Sekai. The VN itself looks interesting, although seeing the company was infamous perhaps it would be better if I didn't buy this. Quite a shame since I found the casts for the characters were interesting, although in regard of the art was it quite different compared to usual VNs. PS - The moment I saw the cover, it remind me of some other VN and turned out that the girls position was very similar with Hello Lady - then again it might be deliberate though.

The only good route was hers TBH

Pulltop/Moenovel deserves to fail if they don't listen to the people who actually care about their games. The visual novel market is saturated with both quality and crap everywhere and now people are cautious about picking a product up and no longer are limited in what is available to them. I like pulltop games but I won't support a censored or poorly translated release. We have plenty of options to choose instead of them. Hope the sales of this game make them realize that.

I very much doubt the Hoshimemo fandisc will be a Kickstarter exclusive. I can't imagine Sekai would want to leave that money on the table. Sure, there have been some light novels and things that were, but those are much harder for Sekai to sell. Sekai sells games. It makes more sense to get money from the Kickstarter to translate the fandisc, then also get money from people buying at retail. If the fandisc was some kind of Kickstarter exclusive, I'm pretty sure it'd have been explcitly mentioned in the campaign.

As for Mangagamer, it's just Light storefront for Dies Irae 18+ version like Steam for all age version, so it's not that surprising because they also sold the VNs from the third party in the past like Light right now. Well, Clockwork here was direct translation of Tokeijikake so more or less you're right about that. Anyway it's definitely the good news that Denpa release dual VN at the same time, especially in regard of Hoshimemo which while it was a redundant release for the fan who already read the fan translated version, it's still have enough advantage against Miagete which have same premise with Hoshimemo (Star viewing) except that Miagete didn't have 18+ content while Hoshimemo should have - and hopefully without dolphin lol.

Aiyoku No Eustia (https://vndb.org/r24024) A fan transation project by Eustia Translations Partial Patch is out! https://mega.nz/#!no0DyQza!DZShSFgME_-iW6vaEdYy3oek-794a1yiuiW48U05dBQ Covers up to Eris' chapter (Chapter 2). Opening Movie: Description (modified VNDB description): Personal words: Translation Video Sample: Team: Project Lead/Translator/TLC: eplipswich @eplipswich Head Editor: Desertopa Head QC: Angeldeath Reserve/Former Members: Translator (Reserve): TakoRin @TakoRin Editor (Reserve): kumada Translator (Former): goodluckmyway/Be Water @goodluckmyway Editor/QC (Former): Vermillio @Vermillio QC (Former): Esham @Esham Progress: You can check out detailed real-time progress update at the following link: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AhHDq_NSwaAqgSnImaDDLTME-lmi?e=ai9dey ---------------------------------- You can follow me on Twitter: @eplipswich Job Opening(s): None at the moment, but feel free to PM me if you feel you can contribute to the project.

For those interested in the development side of VNs, VNConf is coming up soon on Jan 13, 2018. There will be 18 speakers from various parts of the industry including 2 from Japan: Kio Nachi and Watanabe Ryoichi. I'll also be doing a fun little presentation on trends in the VN medium. The presentations from last year's conference are online for free here. Tickets can be bought from the VNConf website here. It's priced to just cover the streaming and web hosting expenses, but for those who can't afford it, the presentations will be going up online a few weeks later. It should be a lot of fun~

Hi there, guys and gals! Part 2 of my Kickstarter special, this time with some BL titles! What new things these guys will bring us? Let's find out! Again, I'm only listing projects that were 100% funded already, but it's never too late to follow them! OBS: Seiyuu Danshi also fits here, but since I already talk about it in the last BL post, I'll skip it for now. Sentimental Trickster DEMO ON THE OFFICIAL SITE Let's start with a normal slice of life college stuff, that seems to be unusual for BL games whatever the reason. This game follows shota MC Haru trying to adapt to a new city and a new home. But then he meets a bunch of new guys and then everything works out... I hope so. Haru seems to be kinda bratty and sarcastic, so I wouldn't be surprised if he actually start picking fights and be all snarky with his love interests... The art seems a bit outdated, but old shoujos also have it's charms, right? 1st degree DEMO ON ITCH.IO Anyone remembers them? They posted here on Fuwa some months back, and I'm following it since them! It's story is about a psychopathic detective that decided to dirty his own hands to solve a case. One thing that draws attention in the KS description is this sentence "Who will he [MC] choose to love, and who will he resolve to kill?". Yep, in this game we have to KILL THE REMAINING LOVE INTERESTS TO SEE SOMEONE'S GOOD ENDING. Dear god, can I handle this? Oh, and did I mention we have a threesome route? Not everything is blood and tears here XD The game is expected to release in early 2019. Full Service DEMO ON THE OFFICIAL SITE Well, how about we talk about muscular bara guys now? This game tells the story of average MC Tomoki and his chance encounter with the dudes that work in a spa, and then becomes a regular there. Seriously, you can even pick who's gonna massage you there. But this is not a nukige (I think), we'll have plenty of other activities to choose in MC's free time! And of course, he needs to work too, massages aren't for free (maybe in the good ending, but...). The game is expected to release in January 2018. Chess of Blades A loli in a BL game? She's the villain, I'm calling it now! DEMO ON ITCH.IO Last week, I brought you a masquerade otome. Now, I bring a masquerade BL :3 Guess I just love the theme. Anyway, this game is about a murder that occurs in a ball and our prince-like MC Rivian will have to solve the mystery. And maybe find something more there. The game features 3 boys and 2 versions, one PG13 and other R18, for you to choose. I really loved the art of this one! The game is expected to release around Christmas, wait, this is later this week! Yay! And that concludes my KS special! Next time, with otomege, I'll teach you guys how to make sense of Hakuouki's releases. Until then!

Hey hey, are you implying that the usual BL fans are slightly psychopath already so we have to be full-on to break the norm? Who am I kidding, this kinda makes sense! I never tried to write a proper review of something, but I'm planning to do one next month (let's see how this will turn out ), but I'll be better at it by the time the game is out! So yeah, you can wait for it in 2019! BRING IT ON!

I don't think I'll ever go far enough in VN diversity appreciation to play BL, but if I ever do, it will probably be 1st degree. I don't see one crucial question answered anywhere though - can you just kill everyone?

Umineko

https://www.lewdgamer.com/2017/10/27/lewdgamer-expose-sakuragame/ Gues this is a good read if you want to know about SakuraGame

Just stick to Amantes then, and another good example of justified all age release here if I may said in regard of Dies Irae.

I sure hope those are katanas you're grabbing or I'll have to have a word with the non-weeb police myself Thank you for the warm welcome! I'm on board with the idea of western-made VNs too, so if you come across any good ones let me know Even if it's yuri. I'm really proud of your choice in VNs, son. KnS had just the right mix with its historical setting, murder mystery theme, and likeable protagonist; it checked all the right boxes for me. Really loved it even though I probably died more times than I did in my first playthrough of Dark Souls III. I'm excited for KnS 3 too I've heard a lot about that series, and will definitely check it out! Thank you! That's true, I probably chose my words a little didn't mean to imply anyone would bash me for it. This forum seems extremely accepting and friendly. I don't prefer OELVNs necessarily, but I am interested in VNs that break out of the Japanese setting so I'll probably track down this Rooke sometime. And thank you for the Fata Morgana recommendation, it looks exactly like what I'm looking for and will be my next VN! I took a look at Subahibi on vndb and this screenshot made me curious enough to want to give it a try Shadows of Pygmalion also looks really interesting! Thank you. And thank you for the welcome littleshogun!

^^Actually this. If you care enough about the other characters you can get some minor insights if you read into the routes enough. If you play them after knowing what happens at the end (of the real route) though, they are filled with inconsistencies and don't even work as a what-if scenario.

Truer words have never been spoken! Honestly the rest of the routes just don't make very much sense.

Yeah, it's really dumb. They made the whole thing overly complicated, and just straight up lied about what the patch would actually be. (We thought we'd be getting AA with 18+ scenes, and simply just got plain old Acta instead. Good job, Light.)

That would be on Denpasoft/ Sekai Project, and not Frontwing. Frontwing aren't the ones doing the TL for the Grisaia games; they are just the ones who put together the box originally in Japanese, as they are the devs behind the series. Western fans started asking for an English version, and Fronwting complied. But, since they aren't the ones doing the TL, they have to wait for the TL to finish before they can put the box together. So, before the English box can start shipping, Rakuen 18+ has to be released on Denpasoft, and it's taking them a loooooooooooooooong time to do that, in standard Sekai Project fashion.

i wan grisaia no rakuen 18+ though....

EDIT: MangaGamer just this minute also released a Dies irae DX package with also 10% dropping it too $33.95. So good news if you're a fan of this series I personally haven't tried it and last I heard the first Dies Irae was already released on Steam by someone so I don't know how MG got the license to do it as well but anyway link here. http://www.mangagamer.com/detail.php?goods_type=1&product_code=1041

I'm of two minds in regards to that last one. On the one hand: What. The. Fuck. Was. That? And on the other hand? I am intrigued by your ideas, and wish to subscribe to your mailing list.

Looks like the message is getting across so that's a good thing. Although, I would have written more about Moenovel not listening to the fan's feedback. If I was being harsh, I would have said that we should have another company translating these games instead of them because this is just stupid for what they're doing. Also we need an obligatory 12-year-old French girls quote too.

True. Dracu riot is great with including action,story,and fantasy packed in something that doesn't take our heavy mind and the artwork are so tidy I got to say

Willpower. Lol

MoeNovel devs gave me a warning on the steam discussions for this topic http://steamcommunity.com/app/745960/discussions/0/2906376154330413460/ It's the most I've ever heard from them though, now if only we could get the same for the censorship. For those interested in seeing the warning message I'll put it below. It's just a typical response you'd expect though. I put little edit on the bottom of the steam post to try keep it from getting deleted again. "Hi, I'm afraid that I have to issue you a warning regarding your post. Both the original post and this post have been flagged to us as encouraging hate within the forums. As much as we want to allow our users free speech and the freedom to express their opinion openly, we still have to abide by Steam's rules. Should this thread deteriorate down into a hate-encouraging speech, we will be forced to remove it again. We hope that you will understand this and consider the Steam forum rules. MoeNovel"

Everyone has their own tastes. If you prefer OELVNs or just want anything with a good story, we won't bash you for it. A few suggestions of translated VNs (ask Rooke for OELVNs) with a good narrative. Fata Morgana Tokyo Babel Ayakashibito Now I'll leave you to it... enjoy your VN life.

A non-weeb on our forums? Sound the alarm! Grab your swords!!! Seriously though, welcome to fuwa, I'm always happy to see another person sharing my policy of avoiding h-content when ever it's possible! I don't avoid it with yuri though... ... anyways, I don't think there's a problem with standing out around here, if you love VNs, you'll find plenty of things to read and write about. If my fascination with western-made VNs didn't get me driven out of here I don't think you have much to worry about. So, don't be afraid to say strange things and I hope you'll have fun while doing that. :3

Yo yo yo Homie-G, Vinnie with a capital V, closing in with the "teehee." I can't rhyme "Syarif" with anything.

A month without internet? And you survived? You're a true hero, Visya-sama! Welcome to Fuwa, I hope you'll have fun using you newly-regained connection to the online world here.

I was going to do a quickie presentation on the importance of QC but got rejected

The patch for this game has finally released and is a pain to install by requiring the game to be played in Japanese Locale. To top this all off Mangagamer is currently offering the game for 33.00 for both games in one (DX version or something...think it's simply both games in one and you can pick which game but who knows). Why they couldn't do that for the backers version is beyond me. Quite disappointed in the way this has all worked out. Backers are supposed to more often than not receive the better deal but it seems anyone who has waited is definitely getting the best digital deal out of anyone. NSFW Link: Dies Irae Mangagamer