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First of all, watch your language, that's the second time you've done this in this thread. If you want to actually explain your point, go ahead, but if you're just here to insult people, you might as well just refrain from posting. To reiterate my point, Harukaze wanting to create an all-ages brand does not change what they have already released in the past under their current label. So, them releasing an old IP, Noratoto, in the west 18+ would not change anything. It's exactly the same game, and anyone actually googling the game will find the 18+ content anyways. It's an eroge, after all. In other words, their all-ages re-brand and their release of Noratoto could absolutely have been separate things, done under the two different brands. And since it has already been stated directly by their partners that the reason for the censored release was voice license costs, it's very obvious that this was just a move done to save money, not specifically a move done tactically along with this re-branding.

cleans off dust Ahem, okay folks, what's uuuuuuup?!?!?! MaggieP is in da building!!! It's been a whole while, and while I still didn't graduated from my position of elusive shiny pokémon in the early gens just yet and I am very much still quite busy to handle multiple communities together with gacha, I decided to drop here this fine day to at least give you guys a big hello then a big bye and go my way. And while I'm here why not we chat and catch up over average quality tea? Do tell me what happened around these parts aside from the big warning of doom from Tay in the front page. I'm seeing new faces, new medals, new mods, and the same old shit all around, so whatever more did I miss? Do give me your worst barely intelligible tl;dr k thx bye* *This still isn't the big bye I mentioned yet, rest assured.

Here is a list of VNs officially released in english, I will likely not update this list anymore after August 2021 as I don't see much of a point in it anymore with improvements to the search function of vndb. Orange text means confirmed for an official english release while yellow text means that a part has been released but not the entire VN. I have also made a list with the ones with physical release, this list is sorted the same way as this but also has info on where the titles can be bought and if it is available List of physical english releases of VNs MangaGamer (Store) Sekai Project (Homepage)/Denpasoft (Store) JAST USA (Store) NekoNyan (Store) Frontwing (Homepage) Sol Press (Store) Shiravune (Loves DRM, especially Denuvo) Visual Arts Fruitbat Factory (Store) MoeNovel (Burn in hell) Cherry Kiss Games (Homepage) Winged Cloud Degica Aksys Games (Store) XSEED Games (Store) NIS America (Store NA, Store EU) PQube Others (Japanese) Others (not japanese) Himeya Soft (Bankrupt) Hirameki International (Quit the VN market) SakuraGame/Paradise Project (Machine translated, do not buy from them)

Well, this blog is... quite unused lately, but I had to come back to talk about this game. The one that effectively reignited my enthusiasm for VNs that was waning a bit for some months. The one that made me sit and only think about reading it for all weekend when I was reading best boy's route. Yes, the long-awaited psychedelic artsy and moody historical game, the latest BL game by Mangagamer Hashihime of the Old Book Town. From the introduction, you can see it was totally worth my time, but was the entirety of the game such good? Details below. And before anyone asks, Hashihime is a water yokai. Me, writing about my thought on this game in an epic manner This piece by the little developers ADELTA tells us the story of Tamamori, an incredibly lazy and somewhat self-centered aspiring writer, and his two childhood friends, the quiet bookworm that sometimes is a bit too focused on reading Minakami and the completely ruthless and sharp-tongued clean freak Kawase, living in the district of Jinbouchou in 1922, after moving from the countryside to attend the Tokyo Imperial University, a feat that only our poor protagonist failed to do. So he starts to work in a mysterious used bookstore and meet all kinds of weird people, except some of them are all but his delusions as he have the habit to daydream quite a lot. But when things start to get real weird and supernatural and his friends start dying, Tamamori suddenly goes back in time, only three days to be more precise, but it's enough of a chance to undo his friends' deaths. But will someone actually believe his story? The beginning is incredibly strong, doing a great job transporting us to Japan's Taishou Era with a lot of attention to detail. There's a ton of cultural references, most of them highlighted so you can click on them for a glossary explanation to pop up with on-screen on the go (although you can make them highlight only on the first time the word appears or disable it entirely). The world it's trying to build is our own, but it feels actually charming and make you curious about the era rather than a storm of unknown terms and explanations that makes you wonder why the characters are explaning something they should know. It flows really naturally, just the characters talking about what was "in" in their time. The main references, especially in the first few routes, are japanese authors of the era and, while my experience wasn't diminished at all for not having read a single one of those books, I do wonder how I would perceive the story itself, or catch even more subtle references, actually knowing the multiple times quoted Dogra Magra by Yumeno Kyusaku, or some less quoted works by Kuroiwa Ruikou or Ozaki Kouyou. The story is mainly a mystery, so your peaceful historical slice of life will turn into an irrational scenario when you're least expecting, and the mood shifts went all well. You and Tamamori will progress through the story in confusion more often than not, but keeping in check everything you learned until now can offer some fun theory crafting along the way and very satisfying "I knew it!" moments when some answers finally reveals themselves. That worked most on small details for me though, since some twist are very hard to see them coming. The time travel plot is used mostly effectively too, draining poor Tamamori's mental health with each failed loop. That also allowed for several bad ending scenarios to take place even with each route having a single ending, leaving you constantly in the edge of your seat because you never what, how or when things will go south. We have these cutouts instead of regular sprites, but they have quite some variations in clothing and expression There are a lot of good themes explored in this game, but the strongest ones all revolves around our three childhood friends (the group is actually composed by four people, but the fourth one is meh at best). Only after the story takes a weird turn that Tamamori notices but since they moved to the capital they all started growing apart somewhat, and it all may have started way back in the countryside. Their relationship, and most relationship between the main cast, stem from negative emotions such as loneliness, guilty, obsession, pity or even hatred, so Tamamori's journey through time for trust, love and to mend their friendship is one of my favorite aspects of the story, and the hardships he faces along the way were heartbreaking and emotional, turning him into a very memorable protagonist, even if he starts the game as one big good-for-nothing (and he is well aware of that). Let's remember though that the game sells itself as psychedelic so this journey will be full of CGs in weird and vibrant coloring, very magical parts, talking animals, delusion sequences, a lot of insanity overall and some explanations that makes very little sense the first time you read them. While not excessive to turn someone off entirely for being too bizarre, it can make people unsatisfied as some plot points only have weirdly metaphorical explanations... while others I still have to think about where to look at in the game to understand their answers. It's definitely food for thought though, one that can definitely make people who likes rereading things excited as there's several clues and foreshadowing all over the place that are only possible to catch a second time around. The story structure is a very simple one. The game have an enforced playing order and the only choices you have are to get into the routes. First time around you only have chapter 1 (as the game calls it, but it's Minakami's route) unlocked, and it'll look like this is a kinetic novel. After clearing it, the choice to the chapter 2 reveals itself, and after clearing it the choice to chapter 3 appears and so on. There are 5 chapters in total, all of them branching off the "main path", in a "bus stop" like fashion with Minakami's ending as the last stop if you didn't let off before. Each chapter focus on a different hero, and that's where the enforced order makes it annoying. Only 2 heroes interested me at first, and I ultimately only enjoyed 3 routes, but I can't even suggest to others to skip one chapter entirely because it's right in the middle of the game and you need it to unlock the next one. I can see why lock Minakami's route as the first one, as the others works best if you have some knowledge about the supernatural lore, but chapter 2, 3 and 4 could probably be read in any other or even skipped without losing all that much. I think the VN itself says Minakami keeps his eyes open only a few millimeters to read xD On the characters and routes themselves. Minakami is our first boy and, in my opinion, the best route of the game. Yeah, right off the bat to hook you on. According to the scenario writer herself, each route have a literary genre as base and Minakami's is "romance". And indeed, it was one sweet ride to save him. It's the longest route, but you'll find out very soon why this route will make you cry a lot. I can also add there's one good mini arc about a transgender side character here where the fact she is transgender is actually pointed out for once. Chapter 2 is for Tamamori's second friend Kawase. His theme is "mystery". And indeed, this guy is full of them. His abrasive personality, that is downright cruel on occasion, may make people not like him much, but he ended up being my best boy, help. >.< Some of his banter with Tamamori is really funny and the few glimpses of positive emotions he lets through his evil mask are genuine, or even cute if you're a fan of gap moe effect (like me). His route is very nice and its narrative complements quite well Minakami's route, and the support cast here is a really interesting bunch, so I think there's something to enjoy even if you're not the biggest fan of his character. Oh well, he never goes full well nor even a half nor a quarter deredere (romance is Minakami's theme after all), but his rudeness is a spice that's part of his charm ;p Chapter 3's hero is Hanazawa, Tamamori's third childhood friend, one that's 3 years older than him and one that our protagonist doesn't see in 8 years. Yeah, he's the meh guy I mentioned earlier. AND the route you could skip I used as example of why the enforced order is a bad idea. His theme is "adventure", but it's more a character theme than a route theme. His route is so short and thus underwhelming, adding literally nothing to the story nor exploring the character. So I don't even have much to say. The ending will meme you hard though, I warn you. Chapter 4 is for Hikawa Kijuurou aka Professor, the used bookstore faithful costumer and a massive dork. I'm not even fan of the blindly obsessed types, but man is it impossible to hate this guy. His dumb reactions, cute giggles when he "scores" very little with Tamamori like learning his name or his knees failing at the audacious idea of becoming friends with his crush will either leaves you laughing or going aaawww as the guy is a social failure but a very moe one at that. His theme is "sci-fi". The route does takes a weird turn by the end, even by the game standards www, that can considered a bit of a "cheat", but it was pretty nice overall, raising some interesting questions that are often ignored in time travel stories. And then there's chapter 5. Oh boy, chapter 5. Theme is "bizarre thriller" and bizarre is, indeed, the right word for it. It takes a completely different approach to the plot as a whole, moving the story in the totally opposite direction with different themes, lessons and motivations. Unfortunately it's less like Fate Stay Night's Heaven's Feel and more like a glorified bad ending. And the game even forces you to go for it last so you can end it all in a low note, instead of the sweet endings of most of the other routes. It's quite a short route too, far too short to explain most of it, but its main twist have such massive destructive power you'll either just brush it off as "just one of many routes, I will focus on the better ones instead", have the whole VN completely ruined or find it a really smart, shocking and amazing ending, depending how you take it. I can't say more without spoiling, so I'll just say I'm with the brush it off camp, and I would have rated the game higher if not for this one route. Professor reading the next section of this review. Sex scenes are your average VN stuff, just to show their relationship is going to another stage, but are safe to skip without losing much. In fact, I think the all-ages version that supposedly would be released on Steam would be real good for this one VN. It would make recommending it to mystery/historical fiction lovers easier www. And frankly, it would get rid of 2 h-scenes that are really awful context-wise (one is a rape scene and the other is... concerning). Although I must say you'll miss some funny banter that happens during the normal h-scenes if you skip them, like one of the heroes chanting sutras to get rid of his everlasting boner and Tamamori not moving and then demanding another hero to say "please" before simply hoping into a different position. Each hero get one scene, usually in the end of their routes. And if you really must know, Tamamori is always the bottom, but 2 heroes did volunteer to be on the receiving end, but our MC simply didn't agree. Oh man, why. Worth to mention too that the Mangagamer version is fully uncensored, so you can see Tamamori's impressive average size. To be fair, he is a rather short guy (5'3"/160 cm tall), but without looking like a shota, bless, we need more non-shota short boys in VNs. Art is simple but have that "doujin charm" that I love (it's hard to explain what that means wwwwww). This VN have quite an impressive number of CGs, 159 in total not including variations. Characters are mostly really really normal, with normal hair colors and haircuts, it was almost refreshing! Every mob character made just to populate backgrounds is a shadow though, but there's some eeriness to it. Speaking of backgrounds, the game have both gloomy, cool colored ones and bright, vibrant colored ones, that kinda goes well with all the mood shifts the VN goes through. The music also helps to set the mood, be it calm, tense or one of relief, and the jazzy tracks in particular were quite pleasant to listen to. You can also play back the opening/ending songs in the main menu, but sadly only those. Voice acting is well done, there's no big names in the cast or anything, but they conveyed pretty well the characters' personality and emotions. I did have other minor grips with the system in general, like noticing the area where you could click in the system buttons are a loooot smaller than their actual size, some random line breaks in the middle of the text box for no reason mainly on Kawase's route and a handful of lines that advanced by itself, but nothing that renders the game unplayable. I refuse to provide context for this CG In conclusion, Hashihime is one hell of an addition to the small pool of localized BL VNs, a truly unique experience, and a great bizarre and artsy plotge in general (are there other games in this category www? maybe Inganock??? both have a lot of literary references too hmmm). The 3 good routes are very high quality for me, but sadly it gets dragged down by 2 subpar routes when you rate the game as a whole. The last route is highly divisive but you'll definitely have something to appreciate in this adventure, be it the ending route itself or anything else despite the ending route. Well, Minakami would probably like all routes regardless. According to Kawase, "that guy enjoys anything as long as it's written. He would even enjoy reading the diary of a tuberculosis patient" (exact words).

Okay, like, important question

Well, if you like the comedy, then you'll most likely love the next volume then. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So, I guess, if I'm not the only person posting in this thread anymore, I guess, I'll post about a few other things that I read recently. So I'm a Spider. So What? I caught up with the localization (currently at volume 6), and the protagonist is still absolutely hilarious, and, moreover, my worries after finishing the second volume were completely unfounded. The plot twists so far were absolutely amazing, Ever17 level of amazing, and I suspect that it will get even better later on. The writing is also surprisingly solid. It definitely has the most complex story structure I've seen in an LN so far. The reader is only shown some parts of the big picture through different perspective, and it slowly starts making more and more sense as the story progresses, and all the little things that the story made you believe so far turn out to be completely false. Which is exactly why you should not look up anything about this series before starting it, since the spoilers are basically everywhere. I managed to avoid spoilers as I was binge-reading it, but after that I accidentally stumbled upon some big reveals that will happen later. And it doesn't help that many people read the WN version (by the way, I looked it up to see how different some scenes were there, but the translation is unreadable, so I'd definitely recommend to follow the official LN translation like I did). Falling In Love With the Villainess. The rating on NU was really high, and even though this WN never had an official LN release, I didn't really consider it a problem since I know a few other great stories that are the same. Sadly, while it was really intriguing in the beginning, it turned into a massive disappointment by the end of the first story arc, and I dropped it by the middle of the second arc. Starting with the good things. Surprisingly, I liked the romance. While the relationship between Rion and Ariel seemed kind of cancerous at first, it turned really sweet later on! Another thing, not many isekais cover the themes of social equality in the Medieval or early Modern societies, but this one did, and it was pretty interesting to see. Sadly, the plot is just trash. First of all, this is the one type of LN that really didn't need an OP protagonist. It doesn't serve any purpose at all and just makes the experience bland. Secondly, the main "villain", just happens to be even more ridiculously OP, which is the opposite problem for most isekais. I mean, all fictional stories need good balance. Just as with the protagonist, if you make the villain so OP that nothing the main characters can do will change the flow of the events, the story turns extremely predictable and boring. I mean, in this particular case this is not even necessarily true, as there are some hits how the MC will be able to overcome these complications eventually. But the way the author decides to show it, with constant foreshadowing of doom and gloom and remarks of how powerless the main characters are, just gets extremely annoying after a while. You know, ironically, this actually could turn into a really good story if it got an official release where the author would have to rewrite these annoying parts. So far, it has potential, but it's just not there. Even Though I’m a Former Noble and a Single Mother, My Daughters Are Too Cute and Working as an Adventurer Isn’t Too Much of a Hassle. Well it's another story with good potential that just doesn't work because the writing sucks. To be brief, the villains are just comically evil and incompetent, while the good guys are just way too OP and just bland. I mean, I'm not to against OP characters if the book follows on comedy and SOL and not on the actual story, but, for some reason, this one decides to actually focus on the story while it would work a lot better as a healing type SOL. Dropped after 3 volumes. Drop!! ～A Tale of the Fragrance Princess～ Well, it's just a very sweet shoujo novel. The story isn't particularly good, but it's an ideal story to relax to after a hard day. Also, the romance is very sweet, even if it's your typical "the girl doesn't realize her feelings, and the boy is too much of a coward to confess".

From the way the OP talked about it, I thought this thread was about a nukige, lol.

Your new assessment (this one) is correct. I invested into two volumes and found that I quite like it. I first suspected I wouldn't mind it when I first started seeing comedy pop up frequently. I believe that if you're capable of pulling these hilarious shenanigans frequently with your setting, then surely your edge is not too much for me. As of volume two I'm entirely convinced. If you have a slapstick party member then you can only be a good story in my book. I dislike stories with pessimistic worldviews, but that isn't the case here. Not really. Enough emotional bonds have been formed that I not longer fear the story. I dislike stories that tease things and then don't deliver on them. But this one's done a good job so far. It seems like this story is here for the audience to enjoy, not to torture them or to make them invested to drag the story. That's excellent for me.

Oh, hey, welcome back!

They obviously do care about all-ages content though. They have expanded to anime, light-novels and even mobile games. Advertising with the train company was also for the "anime" because you can't do that with porn just like Maitetsu showed us when their thing was cancelled. Harukaze believes that if they want to make it big then eroge is not gonna cut it. You need to appeal to bigger masses and I think Harukaze can do it with their IPs.

Thanks for the review. I am glad that I passed on Maggot Baits, this title isn't for me, even though the story sounds interesting.

So at first glance here's how it appears that unlocks work: Bad Ends have no bearing on unlocks. Completing each character route in GnK unlocks their respective afterstory from GnM as well as the short stories from GnM that are focused on them. Completing any one character route in GnK unlocks GnY. Completing any two character routes in GnK unlocks the Cocoon of Caprice from GnM. Completing all five character routes from GnK unlocks the Prologue from GnR. Completing the Cocoon of Caprice from GnM unlocks the Seed of Blanc Aile from GnR as well as GnZ and GnS. Completing the Seed of Blanc Aile from GnR unlocks Eden Afterstory (it will be available as the last option in the short stories section). If anyone can confirm or correct my observations, please let me know. Additional points worth noting: There are only 200 save slots and they're shared between all the novels. GnK's chapter "Mystery Yumiko Theater" is available through chapter select after reading it. All official PC releases of GnK don't have this chapter available in chapter select.

I made a youtube video for the list just generally talking about it and how things are sorted on it. The video is just me talking while I use to list to showcase a few things, but it was somewhat fun to try to make a video. Maybe in the future I will try to make some other visual novel related video though at the moment I don't know that much about editing videos so they probably won't be that great regarding quality.

Well I gues it wouldn't be that smart of an idea then. MangaGamer (Store) Title Score Lenght Developer State of release Opening Umineko When They Cry Question Arcs 8.81 50+ hours 07th Expansion Released Umineko When They Cry Answer Arcs 8.77 50+ hours 07th Expansion: Released Opening Does this work on white background?

MangaGamer (Store) Title Score Lenght Developer State of release Opening 4000+ votes Umineko When They Cry Question Arcs 8.81 50+ hours 07th Expansion Released 2000-3999 votes Umineko When They Cry Answer Arcs 8.77 50+ hours 07th Expansion: Released Opening Higurashi When They Cry Hou 8.45 30-50 hours 07th Expansion Released Sengoku Rance 8.36 50+ hours Alice Soft Not released in english yet Opening I am wondering if this type of settup would be better for my list than how it currently is. It would take me quite some time to change the format of the list, though I could do it little by little over a long time if people think it is an improvement. It would be nice to hear some feedback from people about whether or not you think this is an improvement or if it makes the list look worse.

You can't ground me because I quit!