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Neko Work H (sub-brand of Neko Works) released their debut game - Love Cube - on Steam and Fakku. You can get all ages version for 10$ in Steam and also 18+ patch for 10$ (or buy from Fakku for 20$). Game size - 4.5Gb (adult patch) + 1.5Gb (all ages) = 6Gb

Finished the VN last night Overall I liked it. I would say its biggest strengths are: * All the characters are pretty likable and funny, outside maybe one prominent character in Mimari's route who was written to be unlikable * It has some nice feel good/emotional moments throughout * Unique enough setting with the plane fighting and stuff to make it stick out from other galge. * Character development is decent enough for each character. I'd say its biggest weaknesses are: * Romance seems slightly rushed in each route * The routes are obviously formulaic: Route starts -> Romance starts -> H-scene + SoL x3-5 -> Drama outta nowhere -> EPIC PLANE FLIGHT * While not as bad as say... Muv-Luv every so once in a while the plane explanations are a little too long-winded for a plane noob like me who isn't particularly into fighting planes. * Nahoko and Hikari's voice acting volumes aren't balanced very well with the otehrs and there's no way to adjust individual character volumes. Some other thoughts that are more like observations: * It has a slightly unique art style. While still anime style, all the drawings are... stencil-y? * Those H-scenes are loooooonnnnnnnnnggg * Only 1 choice mattering, I don't particularly whether choices really count as long as the story/characters are good Overall Character Rankings Kazusa > Hikari > Mimari > Nahoko Kazusa- I've stated multiple times but from the beginning but I was VERY impressed with how they handled her as a tsundere. Very reasonable and willing to admit her mistakes and be openly caring of others while still having the typical tsundere trait of being dishonest with her feelings to allow for decent development. Hikari- I thought she would be a generic optimistic ditzy character... well she still basically was by the end but I actually like the way her character was executed in terms of motivating the rest of the team. Also she was pretty funny and a surprisingly good troll humor wise. Sadly she herself didn't develop much. Mimari- The closest thing to a mysterious/kuudere character. While she did have her blunt side, she mixed it with otherwise being very friendly for the most part and only being harsh to people who really deserve it. Her bluntness provided some good humor. Her past was clearly the most deep and interesting. Nahoko- She had some funny moments and is likable enough but she felt oddly... underused even though she was supposed to be the leader? Even in her route I liked the concept of her development but some parts were executed oddly. Overall Route Rankings Hikari > Kazusa > Nahoko > Mimari Hikari- Arguably the most simple route, Hikari herself doesn't have too much development BUT you get to see the positive motivation she has on everyone the most here and it's really nice to see. Also her backstory related to her plane was the cutest. Her development with her plane was the most memorable to me as well. Kazusa- Mostly carried due to the fact that Junichi and her had the most interactions in the common route due to their living situation so them getting together quickly actually kinda made sense. Her development being centered around her insecurities was nice. Nahoko- As stated in her character writeup, I like the idea of her development in her route related to working herself hard to not knowing what she wanted to do and related to her and Junichi not being officially together right away. But... some parts were executed weirdly. Still enjoyed it. Mimari- Her route had arguably the most plot relevance in terms of characters involved in a way that felt like a true route. I personally wasn't a big fan of the typical running away from an arranged marriage trope being the main plot. It caused MImari herslef to not have room to develop in an interesting way outside using her Grandma's plane temporarily. Still was overall decent. Overall H-scene Rankings Kazusa > Mimari > Nahoko > Hikari Won't go into much detail besides Kazusa's were much better than everyone else's. If you wanna know more details just PM or @ me or something. Overall Plane Rankings A6M5 Type Zero Model 52 > Kyushu J7W Shinden > Spitfire LF mk.lXc > Ki-46 III Otsu + Hei > Ki-44 Shoki Zero- I like the specs and features of it the most. Also has the cutest relations to the plot/route. Shinden- Kinda unfair due to plot and MC relevance but can't beat that speed and firepower. Spitfire- Mostly for the plot/route relevance. Ki-46- Has an interesting design. Shoki- Least memorable. Characters I want a route of most Rankings Akane > Katou > Saiko > Haruka > who cares Akane- I usually like down to earth girls who have potential to be fun. Not sure where her development would be though. Katou- A very confident girl who would have interesting developments Id imagine. Saiko- Seems like the obvious choice but... she did have more of an obsession with machines and god what the fuck are those boobs size wise Haruka- She's nice and all but given when happens in Kazusa's I would feel bad. Favorite Song It's Counterattack Time! (Sadly not on YouTube at the moment, may have to fix that myself) Final Rating TDLR If you like slice of life feel good VNs and don't mind a touch of fighting plane action, recommend. 7.5/10, rounds up to an 8.

I won't hide that I'm mostly creating this thread due to not being able to sleep after one such dream, but it's still a travesty that we didn't have a similar one since 2014. I thought weird dreams are a constant with people consuming excessive amounts of weird media. So, getting to the point, today I dreamed that I was a shift manager lady (!) in a night club. After talking to one of the clients I've noticed she had a gun in her purse. I've asked if she had a permit and she showed me a laughably-fake one, after which I said I have to confiscate the gun. She started panicking and screaming while I was taking it away (along with $200 penalty for bringing illegal stuff to the club), so soon the owners and most of the staff gathered around and it became a mess of everyone shouting and the client accusing me of stealing stuff from her. I woke up heavily stressed out and couldn't sleep anymore. Funny thing is, I'm usually able to pretty easily pinpoint what inspired my dreams (it's quite often something I've seen or read recently, combined with other media I've consumed in the past or RL occurrences), but I have no idea where any of that came from. :s Edit: I just remembered that I read an article about a luxury brothel in Germany yesterday. I guess that's where the setting came from? Although that's still the only part that feels even remotely connected to anything... So, anyone has some interesting dreams to share?

Well, I know this might sound like an awkward introduction, but I started playing visual novels once I watched Oreimo, and saw Kirino playing them. I looked them up, and I found...Imouto Paradise. I thought it would be like the games Kirino was playing. In the end, I wasn't very satisfied with it because it didn't have much of a story, or at least moe elements. I think it was a nukige. Anyways, I looked up more games, and I found Da Capo. I ended up liking that game more, because it was more dEep but at the same time was also kind of moe. In any case...this introduction was quite long and the only phrase that would fit here is 'yoroshiku onegaishimasu' I guess.

You younglings and your technowhats and soulless machines.

Well, I definitely had a lot of very weird dreams during my life. One pretty epic dream I can remember happened very long time ago (probably around middle school). I remember that inside that dream I was reading some kind of book. It was a story about a music player that was damaged in a train catastrophe, and it was taken to a hospital, and the doctors for some reason mistook it for a human and started healing it, and in the end, many years later, it basically turned into a human. And I think it had some kind of a tragic ending, but I'm not sure. I wonder how my brain managed to make this kind of a story, lol. You know, before some time ago I pretty much always had dreams like that. Even if I were a part of my dream, I always was looking at myself from the third person perspective. I think it stopped happening after I reached adulthood.

Maybe you were thinking of Rin's sitting room? It probably has more similarities.

I don't think so? Isn't the BGs in Tsukihime photographs with filters on? Here's the BG you mentioned in FHA btw.

My venture into 80s Japanese pop led me into a different direction, namely to Jun Togawa, probably most famous for her song Suki Suki Daisuki, which became kind of a meme a few years ago. The subtitles in the thumbnail might give you hint as to why. The rest of her output isn't any less weird. To give a few examples: I love everything about this music video, be it the silent 30 second intro, her stage costume and especially the awkward scene filmed from the view of the insect man. And speaking of Japanese artists attempting English lyrics:

I've once had a dream which I wasn't even a part of. Just a spectator from a third person (or bird) view. I obviously have more weird (and more weird) dreams, but I'm kinda lazy to try and remember the details. A few cases of sleep paralysis as well. This phenomenon can be incredibly stressing and scary, but I've kinda found a way to deal with this (and stressing/scary dreams in general). Simply said, I am able to force myself awake while I'm aware of my dream. It's kinda good that i managed to take control of my dreams at least partially. From my experience, if you remember any dream at all when you wake up in the morning, that means you were aware to an extent, and when you are aware, you can control your dreams (just have to realize it and learn how to).

I feel like the answers they give you for those are actually going to be pretty satisfying. However, the game absolutely suffers from the "win the fight, lose the subsequent cutscene, survive anyway" formula, and I don't blame you for holding that (or something in that ballpark) against it, which it sounds like you do. So that's a totally fair complaint. I think what I loved most about Xenoblade 2 was its epic sweep, which pervaded the other elements of the game more than they did the core plot. The music, the art, and the setting were all phenomenally evocative. They make me feel like I'm there, on this fantastical world with its cloud sea, its titans, its blades, and rising up above them all, the world tree. I also love it for the localization, a mindblowingly beautiful rendition of the world. I'm in love with the names, and with the accents (god, Morag's accent...). The plot, well... it'll consistently get better from where you are, for sure, but it's never going to knock your socks off. The characters will do a better job of carrying you through the game than the plot will, and even they're merely good, not great. I'm a big fan of Nia, though, and of some others who I won't mention because spoilers, and I suspect you'll end up a Nia fan too. It's hard not to. Basically, Xenoblade 2 has its share of flaws and weak points, but the high points are so damn high for me that I can't speak of it without reverence. Now, on to what I'm playing... I've finally managed to get back into playing a JRPG, for the first time in... god I don't even know how long, ten months? And I've resumed Octopath Traveler. This game is so goddamn good. I stalled out on the game a long time ago right after finishing each character's first chapter, but since I've gotten back to it, I've finished about half the second chapters, and I've grabbed all the first round of secondary jobs. I'm thinking I might attempt Tressa's chapter three as well, right now, since it's one of the lower-level ones and since I'm already in the right place to do it. To my surprise, my favorite character so far is Ophilia. She kinda looks like a goody two-shoes, and in fact she is, but she somehow pulls it off in a way that's not boring. She's also cool, thoughtful, and above all, capable. I'm magnetically attracted to capable people. Ophilia's chapter two felt like a perfect testament to her—no evil people ruining everybody's lives (see: Tressa's chapter two, or Cyrus's whole storyline) or people acting with unfathomable motives (see: Olbert's storyline, or Therion's), just a couple kids going through a rough patch in life and needing a little help, which Ophilia provides with the utmost grace and humility. I hope they carry out doing this style of story for her through the rest of the game, honestly. Having this kind of variety in the tales they tell really keeps the game fresh, and I found that I just really like that kind of story, and it's not one you see terribly often in a JRPG. Work has me kinda busy right now, but I'm gonna keep carving out the time to play Octopath Traveler, on the weekends if nothing else. Really enjoying this one.

So based on the remaining hints from their survey at the beginning of the year, we at the very least will be getting something yuri announced. Hopefully it's not the atelier Sonohana game that got a fan patch today. The hints this year were cats, three, yuri, gameplay, and moege. Cats was done with the nukige from their first con, three was Imouto Paradise, gameplay was probably Rance, so unless they counted the cats cafe VN's as moege, we still haven't gotten one of those. Considering no new partners it's almost guaranteed we get a Sonohana, as I don't think they have any other yuri options. At least none they would use Otakon to announce. Moege though, that's really hard to pick through. I would guess the Princess Evangile-like from Moonstone(though I want the Sakura thing instead), or Da Capo 4. The third slot could be anything, though hopefully it's not Rance 03, that can wait till next year. Hopefully they get their payment processor backup soon so they can release stuff again. They have like 8 things in ready to be released already. They really don't need things slowing them down.

He doesn't need to "find a way", it was already stated in like the first or second episode that the protagonist is like 4-5 times stronger than any living human, while the girl in just in the upper limits of what greatest mages in the world can achieve. I think the actual value of this trick was introducing a love interest with a pre-established relationship with the protagonist and nullifying the need for harem. That's something I was really excited about, but the show itself is just incredibly bad. It's not even the story at this point, every episode amazes me more by how it manages to make the animation even cheaper than the previous one and doesn't care enough to try to hide it with some clever tricks. My absolute favourite is when the guildmaster says something: he's a dwarf with big beard covering his mouth, so his dialogue is presented with literal stills. Sometimes they remember to make his blink from time to time, but not always. And even the "best" moments looks like if they animated every 4th frame instead of every 2nd one. I've seen some cheap shit, but this is borderline unbelievable.

Happy Birthday, @krill ! And @bogdankl as well.

If you do not understand Japanese I would recommend that you go for things that are translated rather than japanese only releases as there are a lot of VNs that has been translated and actual translations should be much better to read than VNR. As for pirating I am pretty sure asking for where to pirate is against the rules of this site as it does not promote pirating. Under is a list of visual novels that have an official english release. There are also some other titles that has gotten fan patches in english that you can probably look for on vndb but I specialise on official releases so I would not be much of help when it comes to those.

That's quite an awesome live performance. Decent part of my experience with exploring j-pop lately was being shocked how boring and soulless the live performances there can be. It's probably mostly the issue with idol groups, but I just find those kinds of over-choreographed, soulless routines impossible to watch for more than a few minutes. I genuinely find it strange that people pay money to see that stuff and fanboy over it... I mean, how people get excited over dance routines by a uniform mass of girls with playback music and singing? Ugh... I'd take that no-name group I've posted about in the image thread over this any time. It might be junky as f***, but at least there's music in it? Uhm, when did this turn into a rant...? Sorry for this. I guess this thought was on my mind for a few days now. xD

Vincennes and "Filles de la Vincennes", hue hue hue They'll never manage to get anything right in any language, be it English, French, German or Russian. Gonna download that demo though.