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Since it's already 2020 which mean the year was already changed, I figure that I should make my list for best rated translated VNs from back at 2019. I know that people here might not agree with my list here seeing that they have their own best VNs list there, but still it should be fine if I give my own list here. Once again the rule is still the same in that I wouldn't list otome, BL (No Hashihime here), fandisc, and partial translated VNs. Oh and censored VNs is obviously out of window, so no Noraneko duology even though those are quite well received on VNDB. Anyway let's see my list for 2019 here, and I'll tell what's the title mean at PS later. Almost forget to mention that the score based on today (May 23rd, 2025), and it's possible that both of the rank and the score will be change in the future. 10. 9 -Nine- Kokonotsu Kokonoka Kokonoiro (VNDB 7.11) Since this VN was from Palette, it mean that obviously Tsubasu will be responsible for the art here and as expected her drawing is quite beautiful. For the premise here, we have a lot of people manage to gain the power through the artifact from another world, and it happened after a relic in the shrine was destroyed by the earthquake. One of the people who gain the power is our MC Kakeru, and that he was asked by a mascot to gather the artifacts by asking the power user to return it. From there Kakeru did his best on his task even though it'll be hard to do, seeing that the power user might not want to return the artifact willingly. As for Nine here, I'd list Episode 1 here because it's still ongoing and the plan is that we'll going to have four Nine VNs with one VN for each heroines (The first episode heroine here is Miyako) which to say is not the most ideal release format. We also have Sekai did the good job by released two Nine episodes in a year, so good for them (They also currently working on Episode 3). Lastly if you think that the first part here is quite an average one, rest assure that each part here will get better as seen with Episode 2 later. 9. Majo Koi Nikki aka The Witch's Love Diary (VNDB 7.21) The first Niijima Yuu VN that was translated, which is quite an accomplishment seeing that there's several failed attempt to translate his works. For the project itself, at first it's started as fan translation by Luna Translation with the progress looks satisfying at least until AX 2018 in which Sekai did announce this. While it's surprising to me, at least it's not as shocking like back at Saku Saku announcement. After that, like other Sekai announcements there's no much talk from them until when they decided to do sudden release back at July 26th. For the premise, we have our female MC Nanno Alice find a mysterious diary. Curious she peek on the diary only to find out that apparently the diary depict the life of a man named Sakurai Takumi (Majokoi's true MC), and Alice find out that Takumi is quite a player for approaching several women and then have sex with them. Obviously being Niijima Yuu work nothing as simple as that, so in Majokoi here we'll going to unravel some mystery behind Sakurai Takumi. While the story itself are interesting in that it have some unexpected element, some reader are understandably react like Alice when they play the prologue in that they disturbed with Takumi's attitude. 8. Kotonoha Amrilato aka The Expression Amrilato (VNDB 7.62) This VN have a unique premise, and of course it's obviously not only just because it's a GL VN. Also it's not just because we have the MC transported to the another world as well either, even though it's still unique on it's own seeing that isekai translated VNs is still quite rare. The reason is because in Amrilato we'll be able to learn another language, and in this case it's Esperanto. Too bad that Valve didn't manage to see the educational value of this VN and only see the bath scene, so they decided to throw a tantrum by banned it for a while (Even though Amrilato here is all age). Well all of those are in the past, and at least now we can get this from Steam as well after Valve revoke the ban. The premise is we'll have our female MC Rin who somehow going to another world, and naturally she tried to communicate with the other people only to find out that it's futile because the people can only speak Esperanto. At least until she find a girl (Ruka) who can speak Japanese a bit, and from there Ruka teach Rin the Esperanto language bit by bit while at the same time both of them develop their relationship with each other. 7. Sekai de Ichiban Dame na Koi aka The Most Forbidden Love in the World (VNDB 7.64) So-called White Album 2 prototype, although in this case it's more like Maruto only have one main heroine (Mitoko) instead of two. That said, I can understand the reason why people draw some comparison with WA2, because Maruto did apply some of Damekoi characteristic in WA2 as well. While the English title looks suggestive, honestly I don't think it's that bad if we already see some example of big age difference romance in other media. Of course that kind of romance would be very sensitive issue in real life, and let's leave it at that. The premise is we have 28 years old MC Osamu who just fired from the company as the scapegoat and that he didn't have home to come back seeing that he's been divorced, so basically his life is very unlucky. After meeting a passerby woman who somehow help him and tell where her home is, Osamu decided to go to her home only to find out that the woman is eloped leaving her 14 years old daughter Mitoko alone who proceed to slap Osamu. After sorting out the situation, Osamu decided to help Mitoko and possibly to have so-called forbidden love with her. For more info, this VN have ladder structure route and it's been translated by the late Conjueror. 6. Ano Harewataru Sora yori Takaku aka Farther Than the Blue Sky (VNDB 7.66) At first I thought it's impossible for Mangagamer to localize this seeing that we have Chuable bankrupt before we have Haretaka translated here, only to turned out that I was wrong because Mangagamer announced this back at Otakon 2018. After some payment processor problem, Mangagamer manage to release this back at September. For the premise, we'll have our so-called idiot Otoya who attend a general class in a school that was famous with the rocket making. Then at one night he met with a red haired tsundere girl Arisa who want to retrieve the rocket from the sea, and Otoya do that without hesitation. After that, both of them met again at school and after Arisa tell a story on how her rocket club Byakko will be abolished because lack of member, Otoya decided to join the club despite his lack knowledge of rocket. For Haretaka here, I can say that the writer did good job compared to Suki Suki in that he manage to have all four heroines did have enough interaction with each other in the common route, which is very important seeing that Suki Suki did have out of context heroine (I'm looking at you Chiho, and I'm sort of understand why Arunaru did translate her onii-chan as dude). 5. Nanairo Reincarnation (VNDB 7.71) For Nanairo I can say this is quite a smooth one in regard of the release so no much to say other than than Sekai did released it (After several QCs) at the same time when Nekonyan released Aokana, so good job to Sekai here. As for Nanairo here, it have some appeal namely that you'll have the MC as university student instead of usual high schooler. For the premise our MC Makoto did got some inheritance from his grandfather in form of a house. In there Makoto find out that his grandfather have some spirutual connection, and that Makoto did have same capability like the grandfather. As if it's not enough, Makoto also found out that his cheerful childhood friend was in fact a selfish zashiki warashi who's been helping Makoto's family for generations. Then Makoto was being told that his grandfather help the police with the cases that involved supernatural as the spirit detective, and Makoto was also supposed to inherit that role. Seeing no choice, Makoto slowly learning the rope of his new role in solving some supernatural cases. Lastly, I'm content with Nanairo release here seeing that it's one of well received VN out there. 4. Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai (VNDB 7.92) After several years of waiting we finally manage to have a proper translated August eroge, and with this August's curse that there's no translated August eroge was finally broken. I know there's Yoake, but it didn't count because the translated one is the backport of PS2 version which mean no sex scenes with it had two additional routes in exchange. For a bit of history, the translation started at 2016 before the project going silent for about three years and finally a staff decided to leak the complete translation patch with the patch is still unedited. In here, we have Kyoutarou (The MC) who who like to read alone, at least until he met with Tsugumi who have her mission to help everyone in the academy. At first Kyoutarou thought it was a bother, but after he got a message from someone called Sheperd who somehow know what Kyoutarou doing and that Tsugumi also got the message, Kyoutarou decided to help Tsugumi in order to get down the mystery. After that, it's also revealed that some more students are received the same message. While initially Kyoutarou was confused, slowly he learn to enjoy his new daily life. Oh yes, the VN has two opening, with the second opening shown much later in the VN. 3. Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai (VNDB 8.06) The VN that Trip want to transla note first, although Irru convince Trip to do HatsuKoi first though because back then both of them (Tsurezure) didn't have enough knowledge to do engine work on Hoshiori. Time passed, and they started to work on Hoshiori here back at October 2018. Six months later, they manage to release the full patch of Hoshiori and currently they working on Ginharu. The premise of Hoshiori itself is our MC Ryousuke going back to his hometown after seven years living in another town, and after that Ryousuke was roped into helping Tanabata festival which is the biggest event in his hometown. From there he'll have a romance with one of six heroines. I also like to note that this VN have a have extensive after stories for each heroines which is a rarity in the VNs, and that they carry this concept to Ginharu. Other than that, I think Hoshiori here is sort of feedback for HatsuKoi's criticism seeing that tone work's try to make Ryousuke more capable compared to Yuuma and also tried to reduce the amount of drama. Granted that those change might be a little too successful for some people, but at least it make Hoshiori's reception is generally better compared to HatsuKoi. 2. Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm (VNDB 8.29) In the past there's a project to translate this by Ren, and I remember that he was accidentally delete the fully translated script of Aokana. After that he basically running away by throwing a tantrum after promising an announcement. While accidental loss of data is very annoying, I think he just need to clearly say that he quit the project if he can't keep up with it. That aside we finally have Aokana thanks to Nekonyan after their successful Kickstarter, and we got an improved version at that seeing that it also have music gallery which not exist in the original version for some reason. The premise is we have a fictional sport that required to wear flying shoes (Flying Circus/FC), and our MC Masaya was a prodigy at FC before he got hit with some trauma and then quit. Time passed, and Masaya find Asuka who has great talent for FC. After that, Masaya is getting dragged back into FC as the coach. At first he's against it, but slowly he started to find the enjoyment that has been lost to him in the past. Aokana here is also serve as some sort of sprite's Swan Song, seeing that it's their last big VN before they quit although apparently they've been revived so we may have the promised sequel in the future. 1. Baldr Sky Dive2 “Recordare” (VNDB 8.66) One of most awaited VNs from back at 2010, and back then GIGA did C&D one of the projects that tried to translate this. Time passed, and at 2016 we have a surprise in which Sekai did license this. Of course we worried that there'll be no 18+ contents seeing that Sekai didn't say a word about it, and turned out that our worry is right because Sekai was forced by GIGA to release it censored. While at first it mean that we'll get censored Baldr Sky, fortunately a fan immediately make 18+ patch of this so we can enjoy the sex contents. The premise is we have Kou woke up in the battlefield with the beautiful lady (Rain) called him lieutenant, and Kou is confused because his memories are mostly about his school life. After a while Kou started to remember 'Gray Christmas' word in that it's a major incident, and he started to find out more about his memories. Some things to note that this is a gameplay VN with robot, and that we'll going to have virtual world setting. As for the releases, in the past GIGA released the VN in two parts while Sekai did release this in one package. I list the 2nd part here along with the opening for it, because in the original version the 2nd part here cover the whole Baldr Sky. That's all for my list here, and by the way if I may name some honorable mention here, I would name HGB (VNDB 7.02), Lamunation (VNDB 6.88), and Bokuten (VNDB 7.14). I think overall 2019 is quite a nice year with long awaited title releases such as Baldr Sky, Aokana, and Damekoi so overall I'm content with it. Another things to note is that Sekai recently like to release their title at the same time when one of their competitor released their own title, so perhaps it might be worth to expect some Sekai release whenever some other companies release their VN (Well at least it's nice seeing them being active here). In the end, I hope that we'll have more VNs releases at 2020 later especially from Nekonyan here. PS - For the title here, I'm simply combined 'Baldr' word from Baldr Sky and 'Rhythm' from Aokana so we have 'Baldr Rhythm' for the title here.

Hello and welcome to the second part of my NaNoRenO 2020 coverage, where I’ll be going through the most noteworthy games submitted to the most recent edition of the biggest EVN game jam. While in the first part I focused on otome and other GxB romantic VNs, this time I’ll tackle the niche that, in my opinion, contained some of the best projects in the whole event – horror. Once more, I’ll be focusing on complete projects, rather than many demos and prototypes that get submitted to NaNoRenO – and thanks to the extended deadline devs worked with this year, that’s still a lot of interesting content. One game from the previous post, Dream Dilemma, also fits into this week’s theme besides featuring GxB romance – however, it was a rather unremarkable, simplistic game and most of those I’ll be writing about today are anything but that. So, please join me in this quick overview of NaNoRenO 2020 horror VNs – and as always, whenever one of them catches your attention, clicking its title in the list will get you straight to its Itch.io games. Of course, all the titles I’m covering are completely free to play. Let’s have some scary (and slightly messed up) fun! Divilethion Divilethion is far from your typical scary VN, tilting more to the side of grotesque horror-comedy, with visuals and writing style that contrast heavily with the grim essence of its story – and do so in a brilliant, at times hilarious way. The game follows Lynn, a young high priest in an isolated village “protected” by a monstrous god named Divilethion. While the entity is the only guarantee of survival for the community surrounded by monster-infested swamps and regularly plagues by disasters, the price for its “miracles” is steep – every time, a villager has to be sacrificed and his heart fed to Devilethion. Lynn, cynical and disturbingly diligent about his duties, is soon put to the greatest test yet by the apparently bored deity, asked to sacrifice one thing he might not be willing to give up… As serious as this story setup might sound, what sets its tone as primarily a dark comedy is Lynn’s warped perception of the reality around him and the grotesque enthusiasm Divilethion requires from his worshippers. This combined with an unrelenting writing style, never shying away from harsh language and disturbing story developments, creates a striking experience that will likely keep you engaged all the way through, to either a relatively-positive or deeply unsettling conclusion. While overall the game is relatively short, it’s just so full of personality and meaningful story developments it’s hard to not be satisfied with it. I deeply recommend checking it out – very few hour-long VNs left me with such a strong impression. Final Rating: Highly Recommended Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

When I feel like shit the music I nearly always come back to lately is this generic anison-style pop... My brain somehow finds it really soothing, and this band is a prime example. :3

I'm not sure if this is a right forum but I will write here anyway... Greetings from South Korean translation team. We just released Korean patch for "Cafe Stella to Shinigami no Chou" https://myskrpatch.tistory.com/16 We also made kirikiroid mobile patcher for it and want to share with everyone. (This is compatible with original japanese version) https://myskrpatch.tistory.com/18

I love it when a VN actually make proper usage of having multiple endings by expanding on different things with each different route. That sentence alone convinced me to check out Eislyn’s Apocalypse. Also the honorable mention, Unfamiliar Work, looks to have quite an interesting art style. At least based off of the sample art on the itch.io page.

Actually, I remember reading somewhere that Ryukishi himself was a bit unsatisfied with how he handled certain aspects of mystery in Higurashi, and he tried to improve them in Umineko. And I'm pretty sure he succeeded, so... Ever17 spoilers.

Wasn't Higurashi chapter 8 also quite disliked though? The fist console release even completely cut it and replaced with something else. As far as I remember, the second season and Rei actually looked somewhat decent. The first season though... ugh...

Well, still there's neither Umineko nor Fata Morgana in the list. Shit tastes of the Japanese fans are confirmed.

No Clannad, Planetarian or Rewrite either, but Venus Blood -Frontier- somehow made the list, while sitting on 7,5 average and 7,2 bayesian on VNDB... Maybe they don't list games without 18+ content? That's the only way I can explain differences this deep. It would also influence the kind of people that used the site in the first play, attracting mostly seriously ero-oriented players... After all, there's not really a "VN fandom" in Japan the same way as there's one in the West, so probably it's more useful to see this ranking as one from eroge fans specifically?

sure thing buddy sure thing 1. AMASSING CAPITAL - As with the vast majority of businesses, you're going to need some startup capital. Because the general profitability of English language visual novel translations is approximately 0, you will likely have a difficult time finding investors unless they have two or more health conditions that inhibit their brain function. You will most likely have to self-fund. Flip those cushions, ransack your old man's attic for some forgotten stock certificates, you know the deal. The bare minimum, I'd say, is somewhere around $50,000. NOTE that you can increase your (probably non-existent because VN) profit margins by performing a work role in the company, translating, editing, etc; instead of just being the translation sweatshop overseer. OK and PLEASE don't go into debt over such a pants-on-head business idea. Please don't. 2. ESTABLISH THE COMPANY - Search for how to establish a company in your jurisdiction, it should be the same for a localization business as most other businesses. Come up with some sick name and branding, get a fancy graphic artist to do some of it, maybe get an anime girl mascot since zoomers seem to love that shit these days. OK you have money to burn and company branding that hopefully doesn't look like a kindergarten art project, not bad let's get started down that slope that ends in 'we are, regrettably, going to be phasing out of visual novel publishing'. 3. ACQUIRE LICENSES - This is where my man Kokoro, my 4th favourite person on Fuwanovel, 's advice comes in. Haul ass over to Japan — you DO speak Japanese, right? Perhaps consider enlisting the services of a business consultant with experience in Japan so as to not make a fool of yourself and make use of their connections so you are not cold calling. Otherwise, cold call, flash your sick branding, and attempt to get a meeting with a representative one of the last vestiges of a dying industry. In a pinch, you could try virtual meetings, but in general it is better to have boots on the ground when performing international business. BONUS STEP - Wait for COVID-19 to settle down. BONUS BONUS STEP - Consider working with Chinese companies as well so you perhaps stand a chance at financial success. Practise drinking baijiu and sake before you leave in order to sharpen your abilities in shitfaced negotiation. 4. ACQUIRE STAFF - Assuming you made it this far by the grace of God, you will need staff members to work on the license you have acquired. A translator, an editor, and a QA (preferably a GOOD one they're important) is probably the bare minimum, along with the unfortunate bastard that will have to handle the technical side of things with the engine. Probably attempt to pay them around the sweet spot between 'this would be a decent wage in 1820' and 'this would be a decent wage in 2020'. You have to keep those expenses down but if the sweatshop workers take up arms then the game is all over, commissar. 5. WORK ON THE THING - Do the translating and the editing and the QA-ing. Try to stick to the deadlines you impose and share, that alone would probably set you apart. 6. ADVERTISE THE THING AND DO SOCIAL MEDIA THINGS - Again use that sick branding to form an online presence. Do it yourself if you are personable and responsible, otherwise find somebody else to do it. 7. SELL THE THING - Contact storefronts, the classics, Steam, JAST USA, all that great stuff we know and love, get it listed places where people can buy it, maybe start your own web store if your web design person lives in an economically depressed region. 8. GO BANKRUPT - Ok nah just kidding but probably. Then you just repeat from 3, possibly skipping 4 if you are a benevolent overlord. Best of luck to you!