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  1. Ranzo
    Campus Notes-Forget Me Not (Aka The Adventures of the Pointy Teeth, the Spade, and the Beret) The Setup Campus Notes immediately stood out to me because it is one of the few Visual Novels that actually is set in a University. In a medium dominated by the stale and overused High School setting it was a breath of fresh air to say the least. Your characters name is Yuta Kiriha and he is a new transfer student of the University of Tsukuba. Typically, College is supposed to be a time of finding your path, forging lifelong friendships, spending many sleepless nights studying last minute for a test, and getting irresponsibly drunk and puking all over yourself. Unfortunately for Yuta, after the opening ceremony he instead runs afoul of several oddballs and a strange doll like girl. Such is the spinning turmoil of fate. Yuta awakes the next morning only to find out that for some unknown reason nearly everyone on campus has completely forgotten who he is. If that wasn't enough after every day they forget him all over again. It is up to Yuta and his merry band of oddballs to uncover the truth behind the lost memories. Why do harbingers of doom always look like cute girls? The Characters Yuta is not the best protagonist I have ever encountered but he is far, far, from being the worst. Yuta is aided in his quest by the three oddballs from before and his new pal Fuma. They all bizarrely have the same struggles that Yuta has so they decide to band together in order to get to the bottom of this phenomenon. The oddball's names are Togi, Sion, and Kaen and they are some of the most unique characters I have experienced in a Visual Novel so far. They are the primary draws of the VN and they are just so much fun! Togi, Sion, and Kaen all have their own quirks and peculiarities and yet they all balance each other out. They're very fleshed out and not your typical tropey VN girl in the slightest. All of them are pursuing science degrees and it shows in their outlook and their theories on the situation. Togi is sarcastic and cynical and easily my favorite. She has a sweet side about her and she is the most overtly flirty one of the group. Sion is brash and the more intellectual of the group. She also loves her line, "I believe only what I can see for myself." Kaen loves gardening and cute things, is pretty tomboyish, and has a bad habit of referring to herself in the third person. Yuta as I mentioned before is decent enough and he has some pretty good lines even though he is often overwhelmed by the strength of the girls personalities. Fuma is a good platonic friend character and I liked how realistic the way Yuta and Fuma met each other came across. Each heroine has their own mini route which gives us a lot more insight into the girls background and backstories. The mini routes all stem from each girls theory of what exactly is the cause of this phenomenon. (From right to left Sion, Kaen, and Togi) (Oh and this is Fuma who is busily cursing the fact that he is but a sidekick) My Two Cents The mystery in Campus Notes does a pretty good job in moving the story along but it was the weakest part of the Visual Novel for me. What really makes it what it is are the characters and the dialogue between them and Yuta. The dialogue is something that I really loved and a lot of it reminded me of all the weird conversations I would have with own friends. The main problem with Campus Notes is that it is pretty short at most 15 hours and that's only if you really take your time with it. This is most noticeable in the girls routes when they abruptly come to a premature end. It makes sense within the context of the narrative but it still felt unsatisfying. The second problem I had with it was that there are a hardly any cgs in the game. Each girl only has two devoted to them which I thought was a real shame because there were a lot of scenes in the VN that I felt could have easily warranted their own cg. Lastly, there is the problem of the side characters. From what I have been able to determine a lot of these characters are in fact from the other Visual Novels that 4th Cluster has published. I had no idea who these characters were and it felt a bit off when one of them would suddenly appear. It did make me want to play their other releases however, though they have yet to be translated. The ending to the story itself felt a bit anticlimactic after all the setup but I wasn't too terribly disappointed. Despite its faults, it does enough things right for me to want to give it a hearty recommendation. My final verdict for it is a 8/10 it's by far not the best VN I have ever played but I'm still really glad I played it.
    3 points
  2. Mr Poltroon

    Akshay and one other reacted to Mr Poltroon for a status update

    2 points
  3. Nandemonai
    Hear, hear. A guy by the name of Paul Otlet invented the internet. In 1910. He had all the main ideas, more or less. (The only thing they hadn't cottoned on to was user-driven content, like Wikipedia, being king; but nobody predicted that would be as successful as it was.) The only problem was, there was no way to actually implement his grand vision in a way that could get decent market penetration. It ended up being forgotten for several decades before being rediscovered a few years ago.
    2 points
  4. Ranzo

    ANY GIRLS IN HERE???

    Plk_Lesiak and one other reacted to Ranzo for a topic

    HA! Fat chance for that, just give in to the corruption!
    2 points
  5. Mr Poltroon
    The Libra team is helping with PR. They are not connected to the translation team, and the translation team is made up of different people than the ones from Libra's TL team. I'll refrain from commenting on their capabilities beyond saying that they are patently more capable that Libra's translators were.
    2 points
  6. Thatcomicguy
    I've been spotting quite a few newcomers to both VN's in general and us crazy lot here on Fuwa, so I thought to start this thread for any noobies to give them a hint as to what's coming up from what we know from last years announcements, upcoming fan projects and also just what we like to see personally as well. For reference if you can't remember the announcements - MangaGamer - https://vndb.org/p428 Denpasoft/Sekai - https://vndb.org/p4859 JAST - https://vndb.org/p102 For me: Officially would be - The Complete Box for the Grisiaia seires Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai *Even though I read the Fan version I still want to support an official release.* The rest of the officials listed are less or a priority and more a curiosity - Evenicle The most forbidden love in the world Maitetsu Senren ＊ Banka Nanairo Reincarnation Sengoku Rance Trample on "Schatten!!" Fan Releases - Tsujidou-san no Jun'ai Road Koiken Otome ~Revive~ Majo Koi Nikki Shin Koihime † Musou ~Otome Ryouran ☆ Sangokushi Engi Kanojo to Ore to Koibito to. And finally what I wish to see this year personally would be Majikoi A-3. I would list it with the other fan releases but unlike the others we haven't really heard much from the team progress wise, but they have said last I checked that it's still happening despite the official release of the first game.
    1 point
  7. MaggieROBOT
    Hi, ladies and gentlemen! Today, I bring you a bit of history and information about the origins of some BL related terms. Of course, I'm not the supreme autority in japanese BL culture, very far from that, in fact I did a lot of research for this post, so feel free to correct any mistakes, I would love to learn more about it! Let's start with the main one. What's Yaoi? In the west, is the most generic term to describe works that have romance and usually sex between two males. By now, you must have noticed that I never use this term, be it in this blog or around the forums. Why's that? Because it's a short for the expression "YAma nashi, Ochi nashi, Imi nashi" that roughly translates to "No climax, no ending, no meaning". Pretty much our classic "porn without plot". It was a term used by two manga artists in the '70s to dismiss poor quality doujinshis, and this was appropriated by early BL authors when the genre started to go beyond fanfiction of popular shounen series. Yeah, sure, the low quality and no plot parts are pretty much true for tons of male on male doujinshis I found around in the internet, but BL as a genre now is a lot more than just this! It's natural to distance itself of this old label now. Even if the fans accept it by learning how to laugh at themselves... I still prefer a serious label any day. Japanese sites that sells games and manga magazines all tag those works as BL now, so yaoi is way less used over there, except for refering to parody doujinshis and such. Here in the west, on the other hand, I see the term all the time used by either long time fans that didn't bother to switch out the term they got used to or by people outside the fanbase. Looking around here on Fuwanovel or VNDB, places where the bishoujoge fans far outnumbers the BL fans, like pretty much any other VN discussion place, I see the yaoi term being used quite a few times. Okay, in VNDB maybe it's because the tag is named like this and it could be too much unnecessary work to try to change it now, so they're forgiven for now. Now now. What if a work have romance between two guys but no sex? Yaoi was for porn without plot, but what should we call the works that don't have porn either? Are you guys familiar with the expression Shounen Ai? Here in the west, that's exactly how we call these kinds of work! Well, too bad it's not exactly right. You see, Shounen Ai was a term to describe manga that were inspired by tanbi literature. These stories (both Shounen Ai and tanbi) were about the pursuit of beauty in the form of romance between a older man and a pure and innocent younger one (read as: teens, late teens or young adults. Younger than this is shotacon), with flowery language and unusual kanji. Meaning, the term Shounen Ai in Japan actually refers to pederasty (and that means "love of boys" in greek). Sure, these manga didn't exactly have any porn in it either, but the association of "no porn" and this term was never a thing in Japan. And they don't even use this term anymore, since this is pretty much a dead type of manga style anyway, much like tanbi. They call everything BL and the rest of the tags that gives away if it have porn or not. But what about Bara? The even-more-niche gay romance works, usually created by gay men for a gay audience, full of very masculine guys? Are they also known by the name of BL in Japan, even if they are so different of their female oriented counterpart? No, they aren't called BL... and not Bara either. Bara probably comes from the name of a early popular gay magazine (that's not sold anymore) called Barazoku (translates to rose tribe). But that magazine didn't focus only in manga, it also contained news, short stories, interviews, pornographic pictures and even some space for personal advertisement to search for a romantic partner. It was the first gay magazine to be sold in popular bookshops of Japan, so that's maybe why the association was made. Hey, even BL was once called June, because that was the name of one of the earliest magazines for BL works! Well okay, that was some milestone, but guess japanese publishing industry don't use the association. So, what are more masculine guys romance games/manga called? Guess... ML, or Men's Love. Yep. Although, for manga, they also use Geikomi (as in gay comic). So yeah, if you ever want to look for this type of content in japanese sites, you know what you need to look for. Not BL, but still interesting to mention, maybe the origin of the Yuri term... was a column of Barazoku that tried to appeal for lesbian readers named Yurizoku no Heya (Lily tribe's room) back in the '70s. And yes, Shoujo Ai is used in a similar manner than Shounen Ai, to refer to works that deals with pedophilia (I never saw a yuri manga with a lolicon girl though... but I'm still a yuri noob, there's still much for me to see). Unlike all other BL terms though, Yuri is vastly used in Japan, but GL (or Girl's Love) sometimes pops up here and there. And now, to wrap things up, what's my opinion about all this terms mess? Frankly, I'm a bit torn... I really dislike the misuse of the terms, but how can little me do something to change such widespread terms in the west at this point? I'll also not even try to correct every single person that uses yaoi instead of BL, but now you know that it kinda annoys me a bit. The most important thing is that we can understand each other, even if we use different terms, but at least I tried to raise awareness so you don't embarrass yourself in your trip to Japan. Cheers!
    1 point
  8. MaggieROBOT
    Yay! Seems fun! I think this one is... I try to make some too. A girl runs like she's training for a marathon while a guy keeps her safe with the power of mathematical expressions. A guy calls his online friends to talk how much he's afraid of the basic math lessons going on in his house. A guy spend so many routes sweet talking guys that in the end goes so full in the gay that ends up fucking himself.
    1 point
  9. Dreamysyu
    So, I remembered this old thread and decided to make a crazy attempt to revive it. Because, why not? The rules are the same: you describe some VN in a weird way, other people try to guess it. I will start: A dead guy meets a dead girl, and together they watch other dead people suffer a lot. A dead guy passionately wants to meet his love from the past, but she is dead, and everything is a lie. A sociopath trap tries to make friends. He fails. The game where a girl is attacked by monsters and turns into an old man. A guy kills a robot with a voice of a loli. And many of its kids. Enjoy!
    1 point
  10. eris

    ANY GIRLS IN HERE???

    MaggieROBOT reacted to eris for a topic

    Only interested in a harem ending.
    1 point
  11. Dreamysyu
    True. By the way, there are hundreds of stories about famous inventions and discoveries that they were first made by some random guy nobody knows about, and later redone/stolen/enhanced by some other guy who decided to publish his discovery or patent his invention, and in the end it's always the second guy who is known as the inventor. Reminds you something about VNs, doesn't it? Though, in reality, making things popular is important. Nobody would care about VNs with multiple-route mystery if they only existed in the 80s.
    1 point
  12. Plk_Lesiak
    Mystery/romance might not be a rare formula for VNs in general but seems especially popular among Western developers – this probably shouldn't be surprising, as it's very compatible with shorter, linear stories that indie devs usually aim for. Just like One Thousand Lies, which I've reviewed last month, Sepia Tears is a free visual novel available on Steam and mobile devices, which offers a fairly deep, complicated intrigue, relying on its mystery elements to keep the player emotionally and intellectually involved. It's also one of the better known free VNs produced in the West, at least partially thanks to its release date – in early 2013, when it first came out, quality visual novels made outside of Japan were still few and far between, while the official market for localized JP titles was pretty much only starting to develop. The game found its way to a content-starved Western VN community and was pretty highly appreciated. Does it stand the test of time though? Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com
    1 point
  13. Yuuko

    ANY GIRLS IN HERE???

    Asonn reacted to Yuuko for a topic

    Hello
    1 point
  14. Mr Poltroon
    By all means, please enjoy yourself. There have been cases where external opinions have affected my opinion of a title. Don't let that happen. If you're enjoying a 'mediocre' title, please do so. Any time time spent doing so is time not spent on excellently regarded titles you might later consume and enjoy. I think the bane of most badly regarded titles is that not enough people even try them with any patience (Not that that's a bad thing. Your time is your own, and there are plenty of other things you could do that you find to be more rewarding investments). In other words, take every opportunity to enjoy things you usually would not, and leave those that you normally would enjoy for another time. That will maximise your overall enjoyment, or so I believe. Incidentally, since I am posting in this thread, here are some things I'm really looking forward to starting: Envy my slow consumption rate and crappy standards, peasants!
    1 point
  15. Plk_Lesiak
    Hello again, my Dear Readers! Today, I present you another review of an enjoyable freebie and the last post in the long streak of rather random reviews and top lists I was spewing since the start of my blog. From the next week, I have two themed "events" planned. First, in the coming month and the first week of March, I will offer you reviews of five free, quality Otome and Otome-hybrid OELVNs - among those, some of the highest rated western visual novels to date. After that, for at least another month and a half, I will focus exclusively on yuri games - for that occasion, apart from reviews, I'm already preparing my first "developer spotlight" post, which includes an interview with a certain yuri VN author. I hope I'll be able to provide more of that kind of content in the future, but I don't want to rush it either, making sure that I know that author's work and background well-enough before I approach them, so I can make the interview meaningful and the time I ask from them worth it. For now, I'll hope you'll enjoy this week's review and until next friday!
    1 point
  16. bakauchuujin
    Personally I feel like Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody is just like In Another World With My Smartphone just that it has better writing and better animation. Btw being better at that than smartphone is not hard.
    1 point
  17. Xehanort

    ANY GIRLS IN HERE???

    Plk_Lesiak reacted to Xehanort for a topic

    I'm a girl too. I love to play sad/crazy yandere/romantic eroges, only for their story, not interested in the sexual stuff only if it is meaningful for the storyline. I did like CLOCKUP's Fraternite and euphoria. Playing for almost 8 years now. (I'm a crazy 0verflow fan)
    1 point
  18. Kurisu-Chan
    Stop trying to sell me that Isekai please, stop wwww, it took me a whole year to finally be objective about Re;Zero, i don't want to relive the nightmare!! Jk jk, so far i watched first episode of Violet Evergarden...it reminds me way too much about the first ghost in the shell movie, i don't know why, but i have the impression both shows tackles the same theme, just phrased differently.
    1 point
  19. -soraa
    Looking forward and really Hyped: - Hapymaher - Clover Day's - Trinoline - Tokeijikake no Ley Line (all 3 parts) - and there is a high chance that we will finally get a Fan-Translation of Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai. (but it won't be finished until this year, because it's a very long VN) Looking forward: - Sekai de Ichiban Dame na Koi - Majo Koi Nikki - Island And I HOPE that one of this Visual Novel's will get an official english release: - Natsuzora no Perseus - Natsu no Iro no Nostalgia or Sakura no Mori † Dreamers (moonstone --> mangagamer = we are waiting! Please don't announce Imouto Paradise 3...) - Amatsutsumi & Aoi Tori - Sakura no Uta -Sakura no Mori no Ue o Mau- - Karenai Sekai to Owaru Hana - Mashiro Iro Symphony - Summer Pockets (Yeah I know, that this new game from Key isn't even out in japan but I can dream that it gets an english translation)
    1 point
  20. Clephas

    Mount Rushmore of VNs?

    Dreamysyu reacted to Clephas for a topic

    Making my choices based on influence over the course of VNs in general. I don't necessarily like these games... (though I have played them). Air- While One, made by the same team, is a decent nakige, it didn't define the genre the way the team that came to be named Key did. While Air is often forgotten by those who talk about Key games, the fact is that Air is the game that defined nakige as a genre. Tsukihime- While a few story-focused VNs came out before Tsukihime (Yu-No being one of them), it was Tsukihime that sparked the tinder that eventually roared into the flames of the 'VN Golden Age' (the era of the greatest creativity, if not necessarily quality, in VNs... basically an industry growth spurt or a bubble), which began in 2004 and 'ended' in 2009. While FSN is more recognizable for most people who have encountered the Nasuverse, it was Tsukihime that first brought it to life. It was also the first VN that can really be called a chuunige. Ikusa Megami- Ikusa Megami, with its unique and flexible setting, gave a lease on life to the gameplay hybrid VNs. While the VN has aged horribly by modern standards (even more than Tsukihime), the wide appeal of its world is still evident today in Eushully's yearly releases of new games based in its setting. Ever17- How many modern VN tropes were introduced by this VN? Alternate realities, higher dimensional beings, time loops (both fake and real), duality of perspective... While many other VNs use these tropes better or in more interesting ways, Ever17 and its successors definitely left their mark, even if I have no interest in playing them ever again.
    1 point
  21. Dergonu

    This will be me again in just 5 days.

    tymmur reacted to Dergonu for a status update

    This will be me again in just 5 days.
    1 point
  22. eris
    EXCITED FOR THESE. Aksys is releasing a few promising otomege this year! (Psychedelia of the Butterfly looks dooooope!) Still waiting for someone to wise up and localize UtaPri. Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai is getting a full translation patch soon so that's cool.
    1 point
  23. littleshogun
    Let's just don't put the expectation too much here in regard both of Senren Banka and Nanairo, because it's Sekai that we talk about lol. More so since that we still didn't see the progress for Senren, and their piled up fully translated VNs that was queued to be released - one of those was Nanairo. That said, at least they still better than JAST though, if only because they have frequent release of VNs even though in regard of 2017 release from them I was only interested with three VNs from them (Tokeijikake, Wagahigh, and Chrono Clock). As for my personal wish here, well in regard of Mangagamer I expect that at least they should be able to release Evenicle and Damekoi, especially the latter in which they finally finished the testing. Also I was quite interested with Hapymaher as well, and I think they could have this year release as well seeing that it was in testing. I have slight worry though in regard of Hapymaher because Purple Software did have two partnership with both of Sekai and Mangagamer, and if anything Himawari case teach us that usually the company with two partnership would have difficulty to have a quick release - I may remember it wrong though. For Sekai, well personally I just hope that they'll be able to release Daybreak this year for now at the very least. PS - For fan translation, I'm looking forward to both of Majokoi and Loverable release at this year.
    1 point
  24. Dergonu
    I'm very excited for the Kimihane sequel. Been hyped for this since it was announced. Also looking forward to Koneko Neko Neko from Skyfish Poco, as NaeNae did the art for that. (One of my favorite artists.) It looks so good! In terms of TLs, I'm hyped to see some of my own projects get completed. Hopefully 2018 will be my year, lol. (And Maggot Baits, because Maggot Baits is awesome.)
    1 point
  25. the tales of Sora
    I am so scared
    1 point
  26. Ranzo
    Oh okay gotcha! Well, saddle up space cowboy because you've ain't seen nothin' yet!
    1 point
  27. Tyr

    Mount Rushmore of VNs?

    Deep Blue reacted to Tyr for a topic

    This is a common trope in scifi novels. It's not like Kanno invented this theory. He simply used this as a means to make the story look more complex than it actually is by explaining pointless backstory in the end. Which is a practice that was common back then. Elle, which was also published by elf a few years earlier, also used an elaborate scifi infodump in its epilogue to make the game appear more complex and meaningful than it actually was. Incidentally, both games take place in a seemingly normal town where you spend most of the time trying to bed waifus while some mystery is going on in the background and at the end of the game you have a long epilogue that tries to explain everything with science fiction twists. I don't see how YU-NO is anything special. I don't think science fiction visual novel writers only played this one eroge. That's like saying Ever 17 was influenced by Elle because both games' twists are based on a misconception of when the story actually takes place. Instead of the more plausible explanation that these tropes are simply popular concepts scifi writers like to use. And were already using for decades in literature and cinema.
    1 point
  28. Ranzo
    I'd say about 12? Including the prologue and epilogue
    1 point
  29. tahu157
    Worth noting that the Libra TL team is working pretty hard to clean up the translation, which is nice to see. They should have gotten it right the first time of course, but I'm glad they're putting out the effort to fix their mistakes.
    1 point
  30. r0xm2n
    +18 releases of G-Senjou no Maou, MUV-LUV alternate. +18 fan translation of Miagete Goran, Yozora no Hoshi (Sky Full of Stars). Newton and the Apple Tree. Otherwise my backlog will keep me occupied for most of 2018.
    1 point
  31. Thatcomicguy
    Oh That's good to know, I'll probably grab when it comes out then... Or at least wait for some reviews as I still haven't even touched my copy of Libra after I pre-ordered after reading some early reviews. Me too the art looks so unique. I'm also looking forward to Room No.9 as it's made by the people who did No, Thank You!!. I'm getting bored with Naked Butlers, it's good but even with a guide it's still a pain to navigate the route you want, Komine's is the worst it's so easy to fail early on.
    1 point
  32. MaggieROBOT
    Hopefully, Mangagamer finishes Hashihime of the Old Book Town this year. This art is so dreamy For certain releases, there's Code Realize's fandisc in March by Aksys. Yay!
    1 point
  33. Thatcomicguy
    After finishing Kamidori I have to agree. I was already looking for the other translated ones but they're not full English patches only narrative and menus... You'd really think I'd learn my lesson after counting that I have 90 VN's on Steam to read and another 91 downloaded from elsewhere before planning on buying more new releases, but no I'm too weak. I'm partly looking forward to this but isn't the team who did Libra the Vampire Princess doing this? I've heard bad things from that. I was interested in that but when I viewed the CG gallery to learn more about it, it seems pretty messed up even for me when I thought VN's like Euphoira were pretty tame but maybe I'll still get it.
    1 point
  34. finiteHP
    Bokuten, but what are chances of that since it sat at the same point for most (all?) of 2017 Shiei no Sona-Nyl Majikoi, but again what are the chances it actually comes out this year. I might pick up some of the others coming out this year, but I have to get get out of my VN slump first.
    1 point
  35. Ranzo
    I just really want Flowers -Le Volume sur Été! Give it to me JAST! Give it! Maggot Baits also looks interesting so I'm willing to give it a try when it comes out.
    1 point
  36. PapaRabbi
    I just want anything by Eushully to be translated
    1 point
  37. Jazid-Kun
    It's that so ? Hmm... I was too amateur about that thing .. Sorry ~
    1 point
  38. ChaosRaven
    Looking mostly forward to Hapymaher, Shiei no Sona-Nyl and the rest of the Leyline trilogy.
    1 point
  39. mitchhamilton
    hapymaher, maggot baits, rance quest, and majikoi. ive read majikoi already but just really want to see how well it does once its released and maybe help jast with speeding up with their translations.
    1 point
  40. Plk_Lesiak
    I just hope that JAST gets their shit together and release the second chapter of Flowers. Other than that, my Steam backlog and wishlist are both already monstrous enough that I don't need any new stuff to make it even scarier.
    1 point
  41. Tyr

    Mount Rushmore of VNs?

    Deep Blue reacted to Tyr for a topic

    Being popular does not matter in any way if you want to make an interesting statement about a genre or medium. Popularity does not say anything about a work itself, just about the time and environment it was released in, and even then you can't really make educated guesses about the reasons for its popularity because it's hard to find trustworthy sources when everyone tries to infer success from quality post hoc. Popularity is poison for historic research because it's a catalyst for muddling the truth, especially if it is a field like video games where history is written by non-academics who write misinformed blog posts which later become sources for even more misinformed articles. This thread is a good example for this: I can name you a dozen pre-YU-NO VNs that influenced each other, formed the multiple route mystery genre and were the inspiration for YU-NO. But nobody cares about them, right? Because YU-NO is the one everybody remembers talks about. And because it is the only eroge from that era people even know, they are very quick to make outrageous statements to explain why it is the one that is still talked about today. Like the first reply in this thread ("YU-NO also created the Multiple Route Mystery genre") which is hilariously wrong since we talk about one of the last games of an era that was the golden age of mystery adventures where nearly every VN that wasn't a linear mystery adventure was a multiple route mystery adventure. How is it even possible to make such a grave mistake? Well, the poster probably read this false statement somewhere on the Internet where a number of misinformative reviews and comments about YU-NO exist, written by people who don't know anything about the time and context YU-NO was released in but want to make explanations why it's such a good game and why it's still talked about today. However, this is all baseless conjecture, essentially historical revisionism. I didn't say that popularity can't be an interesting topic to explore. But that wasn't what I was talking about. What I wrote in my last comment was that none of the aforementioned VNs are innovative. Their popularity can't be explained solely by their content since VNs like these already existed for years. OP asked for VNs that were important. However, being popular does not make something important (though it certainly can be both). But we should refrain from inferring importance from popularity. I'm not sure what you mean exactly. You are probably referring to me saying YU-NO is not particularly innovative, aren't you? As far as I see it, YU-NO implements two concepts; multi-branched intersecting routes in the first part and an isekai world in the second part. Both are things you can already see in Kanno Hiroyuki's earlier works and are not that uncommon in other vns from that time either. (I don't want to make a statement what was the "first", I don't believe I have the knowledge to do that.) However, it's not like the different routes are interfering with each other story-wise. As far as I remember it's nothing more than taking an item from one route to use it in another. The links between the second and first part of the game are not that different from what you can see in a time travel story. The multiverse stuff that comes up at the end of the story is not really more than background information and not part of the actual story while there are also a multitude of other VNs implementing some kind of space/time cop trope. The reason I said it's not that innovative is because I don't think YU-NO does anything "new". What it does however is taking every trope that was already there and blends it together in one big epos. I think the reason YU-NO is remembered today is that it's the culmination of everything Kanno did so far and he never really tried to surpass it afterwards. However, if we are looking outside of Kanno's oeuvre, we can find many other VNs that explored and expanded on the genre in a similar or even different fashion. If you mean multiverse theories as in "multiple routes that connect with each other" like in Higurashi, for example D.O.'s Zatsuon Ryouiki has a multiple route mystery where the protagonist can remember stuff from other routes. A few years after YU-NO, elf released Kawarazaki-ke no Ichizoku 2 which is based on the flowchart and multiple route mystery concept introduced in YU-NO but expands on it and tells a story where visiting multiple routes is essential for the protagonist and the reader and everything is deeply connected with each other and not just an alternative reality on its own. As far as I see it, YU-NO is an important link in the evolution of the genre, but I don't think it's a beginning or an end.
    1 point
  42. littleshogun
    I see, and congratulation for finished Fione's arc translation. Hope the rest goes smoothly up to the release of partial patch.
    1 point
  43. eplipswich
    Milestone achieved. Translation of Chapter 1 (Fione's chapter) is complete Next milestones to achieve in the near future are pretty much the following: - Complete translation of Eris' chapter (Chapter 2) - Edit/TLC Fione and Eris' chapters - QC Prologue, Fione and Eris' chapters - Release Partial Patch
    1 point
  44. Tyr

    Mount Rushmore of VNs?

    Deep Blue reacted to Tyr for a topic

    If I have learned anything from having played over a thousand VNs from the 80s till today, it's that pretty much everything that is written on the Internet about the history of VNs is wrong, even the articles written by Japanese people. For example, there is nothing particular innovative about Kanon, YU-NO, To heart or Higurashi. The only reason that these novels are always mentioned in the context of "being the first of something" is that they are popular. And because people like to simplify everything and want their favorite VNs to be very special, they are very quick to give out awards based on their feeling of "this must be something special because I haven't seen anything else like this" even thought these people don't have the expertise to be able to make these kinds of statements. This is especially dangerous with the younger generation which likes to generalize about the past since social media encourages them to enter discussions about their hobbies, but are too lazy and ignorant to actually do the research. And because people nowadays don't want to read articles and news based on truths but rather want to read something that simply confirms their narrow worldview, these lies and made-up facts are quickly going viral. And if everyone says it, it must be true. History is written by the popular VNs. Just as it is with anime, video games, movies, books etc.
    1 point
  45. Andromis
    The stuff this guy does is amazing. Here's his artstation if your interested in looking at his other work: https://www.artstation.com/jakubrozalski
    1 point
  46. Fiddle
    1 point
  47. Clephas
    For the hell of it, I decided to make up a 'suggested playlist' for people who like/are interested in chuunige who have just begun to play untranslated VNs. There are two variations on this guide. One is a 'test the waters, gradually take a dip, then dive into the depths' guide. The other is a 'Spartan Guide', which starts out with medium difficulty VNs and moves into harder and harder ones at the top tiers. Each VN list will have four tiers, based on a combination of my estimation of difficulty in reading. For those unfamiliar with the term 'chuunige', some examples of chuunige that are translated are Fate/Stay Night, Tsukihime, Sorcery Jokers, and Tokyo Babel. I believe you can get the drift from those four examples, lol. Soft Landing Tier 1 suggestions (difficulty ranges from a 4-7 on a scale of 10)- Tiny Dungeon series, Draculius, Hyper→Highspeed→Genius (main path only), Ryuukishi Bloody Saga, ExE Tier 2 suggestions (difficulty ranges from a 5-7.5 on a scale of 10)- Bloody Rondo, Shinigami no Testament, Gensou no Idea, Sinclient, Innocent Bullet. Yurikago yori Tenshi Made Tier 3 Suggestions (note: VNs on this list range in difficulty from 6-8 on a scale of 10)- Evolimit, Bullet Butlers, Hello, Lady, Izuna Zanshinken, Devils Devel concept Tier 4 Suggestions (note: VNs on this list range from 6-10 on a scale of 10)- Jingai Makyou, Soukou Akki Muramasa, Silverio Vendetta, Zero Infinity, Vermilion Bind of Blood, Tokyo Necro, Bradyon Veda Spartan Tier 1 Suggestions- Evolimit, Yurikago Yori Tenshi Made, Izuna Zanshinken(starts at the high end of 'soft landing' tier 2 up through the middle of tier 3) Tier 2 Suggestions- Hello, Lady, Bullet Butlers, Devils Devel Concept Tier 3 Suggestions- Vermilion Bind of Blood, Jingai Makyou Tier 4 Suggestions- Silverio Vendetta, Zero Infinity, Tokyo Necro, Muramasa, Bradyon Veda Some Last thoughts Understand, I know people who are just fine with conversational Japanese and even a number of native speakers who can't handle Bradyon Veda or Muramasa. I honestly suggest you leave those two to last, no matter what. Bullet Butlers is slightly harder than Evolimit due to fantasy terminology. Vermilion is the easiest of the Tier 4 from 'soft landing'. I honestly suggest that anyone just beginning with this list do ExE or Draculius first, because if you can't understand what is going on in either of those even giving yourself time to do so, then you won't be able to play anything else on the list. Suggestions Toss aside stupid pride when playing chuunige and use a text hooker and kanji parsing engine (Mecab or jparser in TA will do fine). Chuunige often use kanji in ways almost unique to the individual writer or that are so archaic that even a native speaker won't grasp them immediately. This is a bad habit of chuunige writers in general. Some writers even revive kanji that have been out of common use since the middle of the twentieth century. Don't feel like you are a traitor for looking up verbs or nouns you haven't encountered before. Almost all chuunige writers use 'literary Japanese', which is almost never seen in anime or manga. Literary Japanese, just like literary English, still uses terms that went out of use in the verbal part of the language decades or even centuries ago. Still, the verbs and nouns themselves are most likely in the dict on your parser, so it should be easy to look up their meanings.
    1 point
  48. MaggieROBOT
    You have to watch all 8 Kyon-kun denwa to get the full experience.
    1 point
  49. Fiddle
    LET THE PEOPLE WRITE SHORTER REVIEWS, YOU TYRANTS.
    1 point
  50. onorub
    https://vndb.org/v19314 "Sit", she commanded, but the large dog just stared at Madoka. It made her feel uncomfortable, but things couldn't be helped. The situation was what it was. Later she fell asleep on the sofa, and felt a loving tongue that made her cum in her dream. That was when their relationship became deep... deeply lewd. Gulliver had a plan. He was going to make this girl his lover. Little by little, Madoka was seduced into a rutting "bitch" by the very dog she was taking care of.
    0 points
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