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As always, I took a ridiculous amount of time considering candidates for VN of the year, this year. The final lineup of candidates were: Aoi Tori Kin'iro Loveriche Bakumatsu Jinchuu Houkoku Resshiden Miburo (I determined that it, to an extent, stands on its own enough to be considered) Suisei Ginka Haruru Minamo ni Eliminated: Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary (lost to Aoi Tori) Kanojo wa Imouto de Tenshi de (lost to Haruru Minamo ni) Oni ga Kuru (lost to Kin'iro Loveriche) Ojou-sama no Hanbun wa Ren'ai de Dekiteimasu (lost to Suisei Ginka) Explanation: While those five candidates made it to final consideration, I have to say for the fanboys that I never really seriously considered Kin'iro Loveriche for the final selection once those five candidates popped up. I reviewed my experiences of each VN individually, then compared them in my mind. While Kin'iro Loveriche is an excellent game, it just didn't match several of the other VNs on the list. If I split this into candidates by genre, though, I would consider this the nakige of the year. Miburo falls off for a different set of reasons... in fact, it probably wouldn't have made it to the finals at all if I wasn't a weaboo and a Japanese history freak. It is good, it is detailed, and the bloodshed is awesome... but if you asked me if its raw quality is at the very top of the list, I would have said 'In another year, maybe.' Suisei Ginka was a great game. I'll say that before I go through why it failed to make it through the final selection... actually, it just fails to get there because it just isn't good enough. Oh, the story is interesting and enjoyable, but truth be told, Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary was better in its limited battle scenes, and I honestly found the antagonists to be too weak for a chuunige. Great bad ending though. Haruru Minamo ni is definitely my pick for charage of the year, if Loveriche is nakige of the year, lol. I'll state it outright... no other charage this year got anywhere close to Haruru Minamo ni. That isn't a surprise, because Clochette's formula (if not the boob obsession) is probably the best established one for the genre. However, it just didn't make it there. VN of the Year 2017 Now, you've probably already figured it out from my explanation above, but Clephas VN of the Year 2017 is Aoi Tori. I probably could have picked any of these in a year with no other equivalent candidates and been satisfied with them as VN of the Year, but, after four 'layers' of consideration (I've been filtering candidates since March last year) this one was the one left over, having barely eked its way past the other VNs above. Any of the VNs that made it past the filter back in December really had VN of the Year levels of quality, which is unusual. 2017 was a good year for quality VNs, even if I didn't choose the one you wanted me to, lol.

It took me only a minute to come up with my random username. That is because I love stories with robots, even more if they are love interests. Their struggle with the fact they are not human despite looking like one or acting like one is something I really enjoy to read, and cry while doing so. And that's what pulled me towards this otomege by Tetrascope. The complete story of this game is split across 3 games: the free edition, that have the base story and it was translated by people from Fuwa; the paid edition, that adds 18+ content and one additional route, untranslated; and the short append story called "Sweet Present for Shin", also untranslated. I checked all of them, and my experience with them was mostly pleasant, even if not all three parts were absolutely necessary. From the intro movie The story starts in distant future Tokyo, where robotic engineering is advanced enough to have robots indistinguishable from real people around. Although, when I say indistinguishable, I meant physically, since most of them don't possess any way of make rational decisions or emotions. They all follow the strict program built into their heads. Our hero Sakuya is the sole exception. Created by the genius scientist that also the father of our protagonist Akane (you can change her name, this is the default one), Sakuya is so human-like that the biggest robotics company don't waste a chance to strike a deal with our girl to buy him for science. The setting is pretty well crafted, with topics like unemployment, sexbots, and anti-robots movements on the rising being touched at least once in the novel. Sadly, the novel is short and its focus is in the romance between a human and a robot, so all of these questions are pretty underdeveloped. We know those problems exist, and that they are too big to tackle in a novel so short, but not much discussion about it is done either. The romance in the first route, the one in the free edition, in the other hand is pretty sweet and satisfying. Sakuya is simply the cutest boy in terms of personality I ever met in a VN. And he's not even human. He's pure, gentle and caring, sometimes naive and sometimes mature. It's easy to forget that he's an android, and that also happens with Akane and Sakuya himself. And the fact that he's not human, but also too emotional to be a robot, it's the biggest source of drama for our characters. Sakuya's asking to hold hands, WHERE'S THE CHOICE SO I COULD SAY YES??? As Sakuya struggle with what he should be... Our protagonist Akane takes the long and dense road. She acts like our usual shoujo manga protagonist, with all of the "what is this feeling?" type of things... except she's supposed to be 23, so usually she comes across as childish. In fact, Sakuya constantly gets right what she's feeling and the only thing about human interaction he knows is mostly through movies. So yeah, originality is not her strongest asset. Last but not least is Shin, Akane's childhood friend. At first you'll think he'll provide some love triangle drama, but that not happens here. Instead, he serves as a good foil for Sakuya. While Sakuya is a robot who looks like a human, Shin is pretty much a human who looks like a robot. He's always calm and composed, almost emotionless. His sprites have very little variations in expression. Even when he's talking about his memories or feelings, he's as blank as ever. The game is not voiced, so we only have to imagine how monotone he must be in those scenes. But despite all that, he does provide some interesting interactions with Akane. All flashbacks are in this style, making everything even more cute Now, let's cover what you'll get in each version. The free version is the essential one if you're interested in this game. It covers pretty much everything I said up to this point. There's no sex scenes in this version, but they are implied, and that's more than enough in this game. The paid version adds not only the porn, but also a new route and three new extra stories (that you can access in the extra menu after clearing certain endings). Is it worth though? Short answer: no. The porn that was added in the free version route is alright. We can see both Akane and Sakuya on screen, and Sakuya is as gentle as you would expect of him. But let's remember, he's a robot. Even he says at some point that he doesn't feel any physical pleasure from the act. So his face is mostly lacking in expressions, except when he reacts to Akane's reactions. It's porn that focus only in the girl again, but this time the boy really cares about how she's feeling it. The new route... it's very subpar. Most of all because of the route structure, that tricks you into thinking it's a route for Shin when it's not, and it's ending, that shift the tone of the novel to the point that I wondered if the author even cared about the character development they build until said point of the story, because they shattered it to pieces in an absolute ex Machina way. Good thing I read this first, I would have hated to finish the game in this route. Needless to say, the porn of this route is just as bad. The extra scenes are fun though, but you won't lose much if you decide to pick the free version. This version is only recommended if you want to support Tetrascope, the game is just 800 yen on DLsite, it's pretty cheap it won't hurt. It's untranslated, but the free game section subs did appeared for me even in the paid version. Young Akane, Shin and Sakuya in "Sweet Present for Shin" And finally we have Sweet Present for Shin. This is the closest of a route for Shin we'll ever get, and it was as sweet and cute as the original game. It happens 5 years before the main game, but it's better appreciated if you play after it. Finally we can see Shin a bit flustered! It's very short, but still have three endings and one epilogue that ended my time spent with Sakuya, Akane and Shin in a pretty heartwarming note. Sakuya had everything that I like: robots, robot drama, cute characters and romance. Even if the paid version route was pretty bad, it wasn't enough to diminish my love for this game. Moe robots are the best!