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Confession: I've just learned that there's is a large subreddit (and more broadly, a large community) of femcels, that is more or less female incels, but them and male incels hate each other with a burning passion (instead of, like, hooking up and cancelling each other's problems?). If this doesn't represent perfectly how screwed up modern society is, I'm not sure what does. (+ crying inside) EDIT: And funnily enough, I think the lady that introduced me to the fact of femcels being a thing is the same person that made this memorable Bing search I mentioned in my previous post. She went to /vnsuggest subreddit today looking for "yuri lolicon visual novel" and got downvoted to hell, but her nick, "femcelforever", sparked my curiosity. BTW, that's probably on my top 5 list of saddest nicks anyone could use online.

I'm a Medieval Historian moving into neomedivalism. I'm analysing the ways different people view the Middle Ages (in video games) in comparison to current scholarship and if this has any effect on contemporary ideologies and views of the period. Right now i'm in the very early scouting phase for primary sources. I need to remove the Otome part of this post really as my work in note limited to that. Really, right now, it's focused on how Japanese (and other Eastern countries) present medieval women/characters in comparison to how the West do it. So anything at all works. Honestly, from what I have found, visual novels could very well be an entire chapter in my work. I focus primarily on Otome games right now as they tend to have female audience members in mind.

If you guys allow me for another pointless rant, I've recently "discovered" Spotify and started exploring various old music, which I both really like and can rarely be bothered to actively look for (I also listen to so many podcasts etc. that I don't listen to music much lately) and stumbled upon songs by Annette Hanshaw, one of the biggest stars of late 20s - early 30s. Brilliantly catchy stuff and I felt there was this kind of genuine joy and personality in her singing. The kind of stuff that always makes me think "this is a person that loves what they're doing". Then I read that she absolutely hated singing professionally (and show business in general), despised most of her records (though they all suck) and ended her career as soon as she got married. Said in an interview that she only did it for money and were ashamed of that for a long time. I don't understand anything about this world anymore.

I'm losing my shit That's so stupid but makes so much sense at the same time (hint: the incel identity isn't just about being lonely and wanting a partner)

For those familiar with me, you know I spent year after year doing VN of the Month and that I ritualistically complained about how tired I was of this or that trope or bad habit that plagued the industry or games. I was asked repeatedly why I could still plow through so many VNs, despite the stress? The simple answer is that I have always been stubborn as hell. I've experienced 'burnout' numerous times in my life, mostly because I have a naturally obsessive personality. Once I start obsessing over something, I literally am incapable of ceasing to do so without something jarring me completely away from it for a time, which usually results in me realizing I burned out long ago and have just been hanging out of stubbornness. The same was the case for VNs. When I first started playing VNs, all VNs were worth at least trying. However, as time went on, I increasingly lost interest in most nukige and eventually my interest in 'everyday teenaged life SOL romance' (or 'the standard charage') began to fade. It was probably about 2016 when this reached the critical point, but it took another year and a two-week bout of flu where I couldn't think well enough to play anything to bump me out of my years-long trance. Part of it was that I rarely, if ever, took a break from VNs during those years. I was always playing at least one, and I had a tendency to barrel through them consecutively without even a short pause to rest, week after week, month after month. I used most of my free time to play them, I structured my work schedule and habits around playing them, and I generally existed solely to do so. I dunno how many of you can even imagine what living like that is like... but it was the fact that I am no longer driven to play game after game that is letting me sit back and enjoy the few I actually want to play. I go back and pull stuff out of my attic on a whim, I dig through my collection based on a desire to relive a single scene, and I generally just take pleasure in playing what I want to play. Would it be strange for you to hear that this all feels unnatural to me, after all these years? I've been playing third-rate charage I didn't want to even see, much less play, for years... and now I only play stuff that takes my interest, dropping them if I don't see any hope for the game to break out of the shell of mediocrity. I don't feel driven to blog about replays beyond when I feel like it or when I think I have something to add to a previous assessment, and I can actually sit back and enjoy the few charage I actually feel like I want to play. While I do have regrets, they aren't about the years spent obsessing and over-playing VNs, despite my previous words. I set out to do VN of the Month because, at the time, there was no way for people to have an idea of what they were getting into with most VNs. It was a bit startling how few people were seriously trying to let people know what kind of VNs were out there without spoiling everything from beginning to end. Even today, most reviewers can't seem to keep heavy spoilers out of the text, which saddens me. However, I no longer feel that it is my mission to 'fix' this. I've been there, I've done that, and I won't be doing it again. I will still play VNs, and I will still review them (on occasion), but don't expect me to be as prolific as I used to be, lol.

Yesterday I finished reading Grisaia no Kajitsu / Fruit of Grisaia. And while I still have no idea what Grisaia means (?) this was a truly awesome read. There were so many things done well in this VN that it's hard to count them all. Let's start off with the main character. Although he did have his flaws Yuuji was definitely the most entertaining MC I have had so far. I really liked how he did try to act on things immediately that bothered him. He wouldn't remain passive until someone else solved his problems for him. I loved how he he did not start stuttering as soon as a girl spoke to him and how he could handle them quite well without being a macho. Although I did find his reactions pretty rude in the beginning, after a while you start accepting the MC the way he is and it even makes sense when you progress further into the game. I also really liked his attitude towards sex and relationships, I could very well identify with that. Even to a degree that for the first time in a VN I wondered how those H-scenes actually played out - especially in Sacchis route (since I was playing the censored Steam version). But in the end it's not really bothering me. So - great MC! Then there is the girls: they are a really funny mix of totally different characters. The common route does an awesome job in making you acquainted with their habits and flaws. I remember the first dialogue between Yuuji and Michiru and how I thought 'WTF what kind of conversation is this supposed to be?'. Hard to believe that in the end I even got used to these conversations and actually even liked and enjoyed them. The common route is pretty long and just when I thought it dragged on for a bit too long the heroines routes finally started. Until then it's a lot of SoL stuff with many dirty jokes and other funny stuff. But in the heroines routes the game really starts to shine IMO (although there are many people out there who think the other way round). I gave this VN a final rating of 9.6 and will below name the reasons why I deducted those minimal points. Also what made this VN so awesome was that there was no bad, stupid or boring route. Even the girls that I did like the least and where I thought they could never sensibly match with the MC had great routes and in the end I really liked all the girls nearly equally (because after their stories their behavior suddenly made sense). Well done on a novel where none of the heroines feel neglected or have a lackluster story! I will now write a bit more about the individual heroines routes: Since there are spoilers I will make that section hidden. So as you can see I am really happy I started the Grisaia series. And of course I will now continue with Grisaia no Meikyuu which I have already bought in another Steam offer. Looking forward to it!

I'm calling BS here. There is no way that route is a 5.3. I'd say it's very much a 5.4, at the very least.

Actually this thread gave me some insights that I see less often about Euphoria, because there is a sites out there that lot that people just put on a pedestal for it... Fuwanovel is not a heavy traffic forum and she probably wanted a more personal response. I don't see anything wrong in one person creating a topic for this. Yeah, I know, she could have just searched for it but still... I might not be here on fuwa for such a long time, but that's my honest opinion. Because after all, the Forums are here to discuss, isn't it? It barely has new threads anyway...

I'd go beyond that and say sometimes the translator even asks the editors for ideas while they're translating on how to tackle some issues where there is no good translation for a word, name, pun, meme, etc.

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Hello, As crazy as this sounds I study (academically) medieval themed video games and right now I'm delving into the world of Japanese/Asian game and visual novels. One of the main areas I am interested in is Japanese/Asian games aimed primary towards female audiences so I was hoping you all could help me gather a list. I'm looking for any and all games (both fan made or official) that are set in the Medieval west or fantasy. They can either have a male protagonist or female protagonist but there has to be some female characters in it somewhere. Audience age range can be anything as well. Note: for the purpose of my study visual novels are included in the category of digital games. Basically anything digital with a dialogue tree is counted as games for me. On a side note, one game i am currently looking for this is this one: faith/Puella : la Sorcière d’Orléans https://vndb.org/v13191 However, I am unable to find a download link so i'm hoping someone here might help me out. TLTR: Looking for: Medieval and fantasy themed Audience age range: Any Official or fan made: Both Male or female protagonist: Both

Unless someone reads everything for you. But that can only apply to EVNs or VN without voice acting (that's how I experience most of those trash-tier ecchi EVNs, I just watch playthroughs). Unless you watch let's play where someone reads narration and you know Japanese well enough to understand the dialogues without reading... Well, my point is, there are ways to "read" VNs without fully paying attention to them and I do that a lot while working or doing exercises.

For the story and overall quality.. If you haven't read MLA and you don't hate mecha, read muv-luv (it sucks but it adds context to MLA) and then MLA. It's on a whole different level. In fact read it even if you hate mecha.

Oh, that's actually super-interesting. I honestly don't see this kind of analyses from historians, usually its cultural scholars (or more rarely antropologists and sociologists like me) that delve into this kind of stuff. Otome game should indeed provide you with tons of material, as they more often delve into historical drama than male-oriented VNs (i.e eroge) with their obsession with highschool romance. There are significant exceptions though, so yeah, a lot to work with. ^^

I don't how it is for other people, but for me "passive reading" means that I spend less than an hour of my time (per day) reading a VN. Anything more than that would fall under "active reading".

Just finished Zanmataisei Demonbane a while ago and I have to say it's a quite an interesting read. A chuunige with mechs is something that you don't see everyday, and for a VN from Nitroplus, it sure has a fair share of humour. Not too many flaws to point out, but Fight scenes were okay, humour was decent and pacing was alright. I liked all routes equally, so I can't really choose a favourite. Final rating: 8.2/10.

It's not an otome (the authors mention that they didn't make it with people of a specific gender in mind), but some chapters in The House of Fata Morgana are set in the Middle Ages. I'm not really a big expert on otome, but, from what I know, it's pretty common for the otome games to be set in pseudo-medieval fantasy worlds. I recommend The Second Reproduction as something I myself played, but, like I said, there are many games like that.

Orfluers - You might need a somewhat liberal interpretation of "medieval" to make this one fit. The brothers are all knights (I think) so that's why I’m posting it, but most of the screenshots seem like the setting is a bit later than "medieval."

Nice to see another person reading Grisaia and knowing how great it is. It is the VN that got me very hooked on the genre in the first place. ....... and ChiruChiru best girl

Aselia The Eternal Kara No Shoujo Steins;Gate Saya No Uta: The Song of Saya Hanachirasu Ever17: Out Of Infinity Cross Channel Sorcery Jokers ef The House in Fata Morgana

Some time ago I made a list containing pretty much all VNs officially released in english. When going through them I found that a lot of phone VNs are otome VNs often with Medieval setting. I would recommend checking through titles from NTT Solmare Corporation, Otomate and Design Factory Co., Ltd. Think those should have a good amount of what you are looking for.

Thanks for above review. I also have Steam versions of all three Grisaia games (got them on winter sale, I think ). It's good to hear that it's good

Not sure what gave you that idea, but they are. I’ve also worked for both Mangagamer and JAST.

Absolutely. I always work closely with the editors on my projects, and have never been in a situation where that wasn't possible. Editors should always be able to ask the translator for their opinion on something / ask for further explanations of translations should they need it, and translators should always read the editor's edits in case there is something they feel should be handled differently. (And in these cases, the editor and translator will often discuss how to handle it together, like Fred pointed out.) So, this is very much not the case, at least in my experience:

Can only speak from my personal experience, which is about a dozen things with about eight different translators, but at least from what I've seen in the industry, the translator usually checks over the editor's output and does so-called "counter-edits" (75% of the games I've worked on). Also, who gets the "final cut" between the TL and the editor is kind of up in the air, though usually the TL and editor simply discuss anything where they disagree, so it's not really an issue. And just briefly, regarding Fureraba: the translator has spoken very highly of the work the editor did on Fureraba on several occasions, to me and to others, so you can at least assume they were agreed that it was good work overall. I haven't read it myself, but the screenshots I've seen posted here and there have always looked fine to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Good luck on Eustia's chapter there.

I am very much with Nandemonai here. Even if I blot out all the h scenes I simply cannot find much sense in the story. And the fact that the true route made all others more or less obsolete just added to the frustration. Many disgusting h scenes + an utterly senseless story makes this my worst VN reading experience so far.

None of the characters, including the MC, want to be there. As for the H, I found every scene in the game utterly repellent. Even the theoretically more vanilla scenes. I didn't read any of them. As for the story, it's interesting - it certainly kept me interested in finishing it. But after I was done, I ultimately found it unsatisfying. The story is at war with itself. The latter half makes the most interesting aspect of the first part into an ice cream koan - undermining it and making what was interesting about it basically irrelevant. The true ending makes very little sense. The explanation behind the first part doesn't make any sense, either. One character's personality and actions make sense only if you stop considering them a 'character' with believable motivations and recognize that they're a walking plot device. Considering how highly this title was praised by those who like the dark side (Nargrakhan, etc), the fact that I wasn't overly impressed with it has convinced me to be far more selective screening dark side titles. I'm just giving Maggot Baits a hard pass, for instance. Nope. Nuh-huh. Not happening.

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