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Have a wonderful week.

Hi all, decided to register here since this seems like a nice community for talking about visual novels. As for me i'm just the average person who enjoys visual novels, gaming and anime. As far as visual novels my favorites are: The Majikoi series (my absolute favorite, a series very dear for me as it even helped me get out of depression sort to say a few times) Muv-Luv series (i played this in a rough time as well, it was a very enticing and amazing story) G-Senjou no Maou (with this one i had no personal problems when going in, but the main route really was amazing) 46+1 ChuSinGura (had its share of flaws, like misspellings and sometimes it cut rather weirdly but despite that they manage to keep the overall feel of the original which is why its one of my favorites) As for now i'm enjoying myself with Tsujidou-san Jun'ai Road . With my brief description ending i will like to end on this note: Mina-san Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu!

This guy is good.....

Note: in this post I'm talking only about plotge. In romance-focused VNs and charage routes often work perfectly as different what-if scenarios and they don't really have to connect to each other in any way other than thematically, and there are usually no problems with how they're handled. Which is understandable, considering that the classical eroge system of routes originates from dating sims, and thus generally works well with romance-focused games. First of all, I'd like to say that I really like the way how many VNs handle branching plots. The fact that you can basically combine several possible plot-lines into one story and explore all the different contradicting possibilities of what could possibly happen in one story is one of the reasons that originally made me fall in love with the VN medium. It's also a great way to show all the different ways how characters could develop in the different circumstances. It's especially true with the protagonists, and a good popular example is Fate/Stay Night. Another thing that make branching plots work better in my opinion is how different routes often compliment each other in presenting mystery and the world-building. In different branches of the story the protagonist can take completely different roles and explore the setting of the VN from different sides. Thus, the authors basically take the good point of both 1st and 3rd person narratives. At the same time, I start to notice that... the branching stories often have quite a lot of flaws, compared to the stories that take one plot-line and follow it to the end. The first flaw is that not all stories work equally well with multiple routes. Thus we come to a "ladder-type" route structure, where we have the main story-line and all the different routes, focused on non-main heroines, branching out at its different points. The apparent problem with this type of storytelling is that the authors often focus their attention strictly on the main route, and the side routes become pretty mediocre. And the second flaw I see with the branching plots ironically lies in the same field as one of the strengths: in character development. Linear story-lines by definition allow for uninterrupted character development for the whole length of a story, and doesn't have to "reset" at each route. And you know, I think this second flaw is the main reason why so many highest rated VNs on vndb are either linear, or almost linear, in one way or another. I want to bring an example of a story that wouldn't really work as branching story, unless the branches are very short. I personally adore slow-paced "growing-up" stories, where we can see over the years, starting with their childhood, how the protagonist becomes acquainted with new people and interacts with them, how his or her worldview slowly changes with time, and how they learn new things about the world. I think, there are some romance-based VNs that attempt something similar, but this particular type of the story simply doesn't work in the VN format, and one of the reasons is that you can't really make it into multiple routes. (Actually, if you know this type of the story in a VN, I'm always open to your recommendations! ) I personally would love to see more linear VNs which wouldn't attempt to make multiple romantic routes in stories that don't need it, but, considering how most VNs that come out are eroge, and that the market for VNs like that is much smaller, I understand that it's a pretty empty dream. (Note: I'm not saying that VNs like that should replace the multiple-route VNs, I'm just saying that I'd like to see more of them). So, I'd like to present you a few questions to discuss in this thread: Do you prefer branching or linear story-lines to each other, and why? Are there some other advantages/disadvantages that multiple-route VNs have compared to linear stories, and do they matter to you. Do you think there's something wrong with how VNs handle routes in general, and would you like it to change in some way? What branching VNs, in your opinion, would work better if they were linear, and, vice versa, do you think that there are some linear VNs that would work better if they had multiple routes? Any other things I brought up in my post. Well, that's all.

Kickstarter backer copies are going out as I write this, so if you backed it, expect something in your e-mail box within the next 1-2h!

Welcome aboard mate, hope you have a fantastic time here! Nice profile picture if I may add, purple hair is the greatest of colours, a- wait, what's that?

Fate is worth it just for the Tiger Dojo! If you hop onto Beasts Lair (no links so hope I'll get away with this) Jacktheinfinate101 and co have made the ultimate FSN package putting the new Real Nua stuff into the original and using Resolve/Mirror Moons TL. I've not read this version myself but it looks to be quite epic! Do it for Tohsaka, she is justice!

Snow Sakura. I think people tend to recommend the same VNs over and over. Now I will recommend something, which I have not seen being recommended at all. I feel it's a bit lost to history, which is a shame because it's actually a good one. The VN is about a guy whose parents goes overseas and he is sent to live with his uncle and his daughter (the cousin heroine). They live in a closed onsen hotel, meaning they have their own private onsen in the backyard. This naturally makes it a natural place to gather with all the friends (mixed gender). He is from a big city (Tokyo?) and the story takes place in rural Hokkaido. It's a slice of life comedy about the city boy who end up living in the countryside and the locals behave weirdly, yet are very friendly. The comedy is good, appears often, yet it changes often and as such will never repeat itself and get old. The routes contain growing romance with the heroine of choice and then stuff happens and it turns into drama as well. The comedy is also present in all routes, though drama takes priority and comedy and drama will not mix, which would otherwise have killed the drama mood. A bit of background info, which is not really explained in the VN: Hokkaido is the middle of nowhere by Japanese standards and it's lightly populated, not just by Japanese standard, but in general. All countries in EU have higher population density. It's also in the bottom half when compared to US state population densities. In other words it is extremely rural in an otherwise densely populated country like Japan. It makes a big fuss out of pointing out they commute to school by train and that it is a really weird train because it runs on diesel. This seems odd as most of the world is familiar with diesel trains. However early electric trains were used in mountains because they were much better than steam at hill climbing and they didn't smoke in the tunnels. Japan being all mountain switched to electric extremely early and since diesels had problems climbing hills early on as well, electric got a more than 50 year head start and absolutely dominated when diesel finally arrived. As a result diesel has never been anything but extremely niche in Japan and most Japanese have never even seen a diesel train. Hokkaido however never electrified and is the only place in Japan with diesel on main lines.

I've read 4 of these, and... all of them are pretty great, so I can't really recommend any of them over the others, to be honest. I guess, just read whatever VN you are more interested in at the moment. I'll lay down my basic impression of them. Umineko - starts as a relatively enjoyable mystery at first and turns into massive (but amazing) mindfuck later on. Basically, a postmodern reconstruction of the mystery genre. My personal most favorite VN of all time, but it's definitely not for everyone. Subahibi - even more massive midfuck, but with h-scenes. One philosophical VN actually done right. Fate - simply a nice action story with amazing characters. Probably, one VN that should actually be read by everyone, but you don't really have anything similar in your list, so I'm not sure if you're going to like it. Rewrite - very nonuniform VN. It's basically a nakige, an utsuge and a chuunige in one VN, but, actually, most parts are done pretty well, so it's not a flaw. Plus, I'm a big fan of its true routes. Dies - I've only read the prologue, but it has a great start. Another action-oriented VN. Edit. I guess, I'll vote for Fate.

no. There are many trans women who still have a penis, there are trans men who don't, and there are many conditions where a person can have each organ. There should be no relation between sexuality and a reproductional organ.

The common route is literally the best part (of what I've played... still only one full route). It is hilarious.

A Sky Full of Stars is from MoeNovel. That says it all right there. Just wait for that group to add the h-scenes back into it before you read it. Hatsukoi 1/1 personally bored me to death, but who knows what it'll do for you. Tsujidou isn't like MajiKoi in a lot of ways, so I'd recommend giving it a shot and seeing if you like it. The White Album 2 TL is garbage, almost machine TL levels of bad, so avoid it at all costs. And for the original question, I haven't tried either, mainly because one isn't out and the other has a poor release, so wait until Magical Marriage Lunatics as Mangagamer almost always releases quality translations nowadays.

MIKU! (/・ω・)/

The common route is so ungodly boring that it makes me think the entire game is not worth my time no matter how much people praise it.

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”; If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run— Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Not even going to touch the traps = gay argument. Honestly, though, ever since Trump got elected to the WH, I've lost contact with several inlaws who think he's the best thing since sliced bread. Granted, the "lost contact" is kind of on my part but after they told me they'd "pray for me", I was like "Buh-bye" and blocked/unfriended them. (To my defense, these people are pretty shitty individuals and are pretty much borderline-white power/supremacists types. Must've really spun their world upside down with their grandson/nephew married an Asian chick. ) Arguing with people who loves Trump and think Hillary Clinton is the devil (Also thinks Alex Jones is telling the truth when he talks about the lizard people) is...the worst thing I've done. I don't even bother anymore.

I hop so too as well, so let me say welcome to Fuwanovel and I hope you'll enjoy yourself here. Also if you need more VN Recommendations, just ask us here.

You should use more particles. Right now there is "no" grammar used. I think they will be happy to know you learned Japanese for our culture (mangabunka)! Manga and light novels and games are pretty normal so I think those are okay but eroge is more on the darker side I think... (^^; Otaku don't really have too good image because many are neets... I talk to my friends a lot about shoujo manga but eroge I don't really have anyone to talk about that... Only small otaku friend circle... (^^; Shoujo manga is very much more normal I can try to take a pic later this week when I go to buy new games... If I remember... (^^;

l'm afraid the only possible punishment for thread necromancy is death. We'll miss you. You should never believe the hype unless you know the game is exactly up your alley. I keep healthy skepticism to everything I approach unless I can tell it will cater precisely to my tastes (I'm a simple man, you see, give me a piece of cute, well-written yuri and I'll never be disappointed). I find it funny btw that this whole thread is about hating on the Grisaia's common route which is probably my favorite part of it. I've always found it very well written and relaxing. Well, to each their own, this world would be boring without polar-opposite opinions.

Welcome to Fuwa! I hope our little community will meet your expectations.

Hi there and welcome to Fuwa, have a nice stay here

Welcome and enjoy your stay.

Read this instead instead of Ikinari if you are a masochist

I love Kara no Shoujo so much...it completely destroyed me, but I love it. Beautiful somber art and music. It was the first time I could really understand the power art had, and its theme of obsession was really well done.

I like the way you think. Serious truth there.

Actually, the fandisc delves deep into Houzuki's past so you will definitely better understand his motives and personality in Sharin. P.S The fandisc also contains afterstories for each heroine but like in Grisaia no Meikyuu, they are only there for fanservice so important parts like character development and plot development are thrown out of the window.

Finally have a working demo, whoopx2.

Well, I love Shinsekai Yori and I'm not a big fan of Evangelion, and I like both of these, so there's that. But, on the other hand, Subahibi is pretty similar to Evangelion, so it'll probably be safer to avoid it. As for Umineko, it's just its own thing. I can't really compare it to any other anime or VN I've read/watched. I wouldn't use MLA as a reference, the way it handles action is very different. I don't thing it's possible to see if you are going to like this type of the VN before you try them. Oh, yeah, it's very different from the other Key VNs. I wouldn't recommend even comparing it to them, because it's just different. It has a comedic common route which is pretty standard for Key VNs, but then goes a completely different way. For example, one route is a standard chuunige-like action, and another is more of the mystery-horror type of the story, and the third route is more about "politics". One great thing about this VN is its worldbuilding, but it also has quite a lot of plot-holes.

Pewdiepie

I voted for FSN, since as Dreamysyu said you don't have anything similar in your list, it'll do just fine if you want to try different things! ^.^ Rewrite seems good for you too, looking at your list. Subahibi seems like a way too drastic change of what you usually read, so I would vote against that unless you're prepared to go waaaaaaaay out of your confort zone.

When people think the earth is flat you know there is no chance of them ever listening to logic. It is probably easier to convince them that the moon is a cheese made by unicorns rather than to actually convince them that the earth is not flat.

Thanks! ^^ I could tell you... but I'd have to kill you.

Happy (late) birthday, @Down. Good luck with the science Happy (late) birthday to @Dergonu also, good luck with ... whatever it is you do And happy birthday to @Zalor and @Dreamysyu too!

Rewatching Cross Game - for the fourth time - with the whole family. Truly a remarkable anime and deservedly one of the few to score a 10/10 in my ratings.

I've seen that arguement before, but aren't most trap characters just crossdressers, rather than transsexuals? I understand that they might encourage negative stereotypes, but that doesn't seem to be the intention in most cases. --- Going back to the topic, I've one had a day-long political arguement with someone on YouTube until we both realized that I've misunderstood his initial arguement and we actually agreed with each other all along. GG.

"too large" and now we have 'moticons like

Pretty much anyone who hates on English dubs for either outdated reasons (many of them have likely not given a good dub a chance) or stupid reasons ("no emotion" "Japanese/original is always 100% better no questions asked" "I can feel the better acting in Japanese even though I don't understand the language" "Dubs suck because everyone on the internet says so") It's one thing to prefer a language and you're fine to like subs more but hating on things for dumb/uneducated reasons has made me just avoid any topic related to dubs vs subs or hating on dubs since otherwise it'll just be me arguing with ignorant bigots.

sasuga, senior. also, idk. i once argued with @Dergonu about asuna's nipple or something once.

challenge accepted. the attraction to traps is because of their feminine features, not masculine ones. i posed this scenario to virginsmasher once and may have destroyed him. but i will use it again here for the sake of the argument. i pose a scenario for you. here we have two people. i ask simply this to you, tymmur, which one would you rather have sex with? this person? or this person? choose carefully. and do choose and not bail out, please.

A long time ago I got into an argument with somebody that actually thought G-Senjou no Maou is good.

Internet arguments are a lost cause that I try not have. If a person can't acknowledge that I'm right in every circumstance then why bother.

Everyone is derailing this topic with this ridiculous "are traps gay?" nonsense! Come on guys. To answer OP and get back on topic: Traps are gay, without question.

Let us all argue more. It will be the worst online argument I've ever been in.

Every single "Trap's are gay" argument that people make despite it being obvious that if the trap has sufficiently feminine features apart from her genitals, you are totally straight.

Hello! So I recently finished playing "Tales of Berseria" (JRPG game by Bandai Namco) and I thought I would round up my thoughts about the game here (the review should be mostly spoiler free, otherwise notify me and I'll change it). The story tells the tale of young Velvet Crowe and her adventurous crew (surmounting to 6 by the end of the game) who set out to put an end to a trauma of Velvet's past by all manner of means, ranging from fishing and cooking to straight up fighting. Well mostly the latter. You see while you might be fooled by an early cutesy introduction the meat of the game is truly in its dark undertones which, for a game with a age rating of 16, is a fair amount of the content. I found also that the content was fairly philosophical at times (perhaps not in the amount of some VNs though). In the game you namely find yourself fighting between different values, ideas and perspectives, something the game manages in my opinion to do with fluidity and better than most games and VNs. This philosophy comes from the intimite and delicate relation the game places between cutscenes, extra dialogue (dialogue you can choose to straight up never open) and world building in which you get to take a part of not a straight up philosophy lesson but instead a smaller amount of nit picks of philosophy. In this regard I found the game interesting above the brute force gameplay and story (we will get to that later) and found myself able to enjoy not skipping every single dialogue line, something I admittedly find myself doing all too often in games. The story is very good and interesting throughout the whole game, if somewhat trope-ish (what can one expect from a JRPG game?) and while the story never managed to grab me to the point of tears it certainly has its moments for both the ones liking darker and (somewhat) lighter storylines. Is this good? Well, perhaps. I personally did not really enjoy the sudden shift the game took towards the end to become so light namely and I sort of wished the story had stuck purely to the largely dark undertones it held in the beginning, since this shift sort of opened up the door for it being trope-ish for the (in my opinion good) ending. Did this largely influence my enjoyment? Certainly not, but just something to note for those not able to stand JRPGs love for tropes. In terms of voice acting I can not speak for the English side but with Japanese voices the dialogue is very nicely voiced. The fighting (which is 50%> of the game in my opinion) is focused on different, so called, artes (attacks basically) which have different effects, elements, level upgrading (..., I was literally still getting new tutorial messages for fights 1 hour before the, ~40-ish hour, game ended). If you are like me however you will notice the little blue bar (so called "souls") next to people's faces and that is, truth be told, the MVP meter, 80% of your time will be spent waiting for this to go up to three bars and then pressing R to do some, so called, break soul ability, which is basically code name for stun lock, invincibility frames and damage central (if you want some NG+ level fighting, I am not your guy, I am the R spammer). If you do not have this bar filled you will be in the living hell mode, where you can get stun locked into the next century and can get absolutely destroyed by different AI unless you run around in circles (blocking does exist but did not work very well in my experience compared to dashing away) and wait for your blue bar (basically working as a stamina bar) to refill by attacking with basic artes and running. Is the fighting enjoyable? Yes. Is it repetitive? Yes, especially if you need to farm for levels where your life basically becomes turning down the volume to next to nought to not have to use hearing aid in the near future due to the EXTREMELY loud battle sounds (one reason I cannot really speak for the music) and getting perhaps slightly bored of seeing the same cat on a wand for the 30th time. Personally I would have perhaps liked some other battle system (with an lessened focus on stuns and the "souls" (stamina bar) and an increased focus on leveling) but I can also see the enjoyment it brings when you absolutely destroy your enemies with OP and nice animated powers. Beware however, the AOE stun of doom is real in this game so if you screw up your blue bar of destiny you are a bit in the toilet when an enemy does an AOE of half the battleground and you can neither run away, get up your souls (since it takes forever to do so) or attack (due to the extreme damage some bosses do). In terms of bosses the game too offers a wide arrange, though arguably they are later on narrowed down in terms of difficulty to their AOE attack size and ability to stun lock you and your AI friends (which are actually pretty good in my experience of not needlessly dying), since in my experience that is where the real trouble late game comes up and minor changes in attack patterns become minor. The characters are also really enjoyable and funny, making me chuckle more than once and not making one character that one guy which is boring compared to the others. The relations between the different antagonists and characters later on get really interesting too, tying in nicely with good story overall. In terms of graphics the game is generally really good, if perhaps somewhat randomly pixely at some points (I laughed when an antagonist got an 144p background randomly smashed up behind himself while he kept the same quality as the rest of the game). Out doors the quality stays pretty good too and most of the views of the game are pretty nice if looked from afar, if somewhat dulled out if you get close up. Ending thoughts Though focusing (perhaps too much) on the the battle system, Tales of Berseria is something to truly enjoy for its story and characters, which is something that brought me back to game and made the experience all the more worth it.

Accusations Abound

Went through 3 different game engines and ultimately went back to Ren'Py. It doesn't look as flashy as Tyrano or VNM, but JAYSUS, it gets the job done. SOOOO CLOSE TO A WORKING DEMO. The prologue itself is around 13-14k words, which is roughly around half an hour of play, if one reads fast enough, I'spose. Have updated SSs to share: Really hoping to have the demo ready by the end of THIS WEEK. I'm just waiting for one CG scene to be colored/shaded.

Rewrite kinda has the same problem, common route is too long and tries too much to be funny (but it kinda works, because of what happens afterwards). Grisaia is beyond saving. Walking-deus-ex-machina-plot-device-protag really doesn't work in a comedy setting, imo. (He still doesn't work in the routes, at least for me, but that might be because I hate those kind of protagonists)