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Well event CG is obviously very common feature in the VN, and obviously the company make it as the way to attract the people into buying the VN, because after all the people tend to check the CG whenever they saw the VN before they decided to get it. That said, not all successful VN using event CG though which Ryukishi manage to prove it with both Higurashi and Umineko with Alchemist add the even CG for both in the console version. For the first point, obviously this is what the developer thinking when it come to make the CG, with they use the very first CG in order to introduce the heroine that the player will date. Another standard usage for this is obviously HCG with it far more prominent in nukige because the main selling point of nukige is the sex scenes, and the developer of nukige would put their focus on the HCG for very obvious reasons (The CG need to be visually exciting after all). Sometimes we also have CG in video games, with the most prominent company that like to use it is Gust in their older games, and it should be noted that one of their game, Ar Tonelico, is available on VNDB with it has a number of CG. Another obvious usage of the CG is SDCG, which as you say is to emphasize the comical moment. Note that many charage company made their VNs have SDCG, like Yuzusoft and Purple Software with they hire Komowata Haruka who is quite a well known name who working on SDCG. That said, not all of the company use SDCG to express the comical moment, with tone work's just use the SDCG as the hint for the player to know which route they'll enter if they chose a certain choice (At least in Hoshiori and Ginharu). For the last point, obviously chuunige (Or like any VNs that have battle scenes) are the one that like to use the event CG to show the casts use the special move in the battle, and obviously it's the attempt to copy the action scene in the anime with VN can't really do animating the action scene. Again not all of the battle scenes in the VNs use the event CG to depict it (Particularly Umineko with Ryukishi use the sprites movement in order to make up the lack of the CG), although it definitely help the reader to immerse themselves in the battle scenes. That's all for what I can write in regard of this topic.

The Event CG is both a central part of the story and potentially the single most expensive part of any given visual novel (at least, that's the way it is reported). A lot of visual novel makers include their number of Event CGs in their advertising, and often the final Event CG for a route becomes the defining memory for the reader. The CG above, from Tokyo Babel, is one of a number of defining moments, where hints of the reality that lies behind the facade, become evident, even as the characters battle to fulfill their desires. Poor utilization of Event CGs can often result in the wrong scenes being emphasized or major plot twists being overlooked, because VN readers are trained to associate them with story progression. On the flip side, effective use of an Event CG can give life to even a trite or mundane plot. Despite the fact that I often made fun of 'charage' (the standard sol-focused VN that had a strong focus on character development but lacked overall cohesion), this was one aspect a lot of companies excelled in. A single Event CG at exactly the right time could turn a mundane romance into a dramatic, emotional one that feels more real to the reader (and I'm not talking about H-scenes, though I'll get to those in a moment). Now, for the more controversial aspect of Event CGs... the H-scene CG. To be blunt, in the vast majority of plot-focused visual novels, sexual content is neither necessary nor does it add anything, save that if there wasn't one, a lot of readers would think they were missing out. However, for a lot of romance-focused visual novels, experienced VN-readers feel cheated if there isn't an H-scene, even if they don't necessarily want to watch/read it. Rarely, a visual novel makes the H-Scene a vital part of the story progression, and in these cases, it is easy to feel that it was a valid choice. Devils Devel Concept's H-scenes (the majority of them, anyway) usually have a role in how the story comes to life, as the protagonist's near-emotionless persona tends to crack open the most in these scenes, and the author does an excellent job of portraying the way his way of thinking and that of the heroine don't quite match. Similarly, Draculius's H-Scenes reveal a great deal about the characters and setting that would otherwise be missed by the reader. The Event CGs, in these cases, have innumerous variations in expression that go along with the text to bring the characters, their emotions, and their desires to life in a way that can't quite be expressed without them.

Adventure. PS - Seriously speaking, VN as the whole is the subgenre of adventure, at least according to Wikipedia. Obviously there's growing distiction of both with pure adventure game relies on the features above while VNs only has choices, although Japanese would never forget that seeing the ADV text presentation was came from adventure with I also remember one commercial called a VN as adventure game, so yeah Japanese was called VNs as adventure game. As for the other examples of the VN that retain the adventure game element, it would be Kara no Shoujo trilogy with the MC Reiji need to examined the criminal scenes (Pixel hunt) in order to gather the evidence that could help him in the investigation. Another example is the Zero Escape series with it being the game that was made by Somnium's writer (Uchikoshi) back in 2009, which is contrast to Root Double here with it is the traditional VN even with Nakazawa made it as the answer to 999 (Zero Escape first game). That's all for what I can write in regard of this topic.

I see that you tried the original Tsui no Sora there. While the remake was obviously refined the art (And have voices), the original design are mostly fine except for Yasuko with her original design is the least appealing to me. Speaking of Yasuko, her role in here at most is on Kotomi's perspective so at least it's still more than her appearance at Subahibi, although obviously SCA-JI didn't write Yasuko as one of perspective character in the original. For the remake, besides the obvious Yasuko's perspective (And cuter design), I only spot a difference in the writing where Zakuro was about to be dead with the girls tried to calmed down Zakuro by saying the ritual stuffs was taken from the manga, which not exist in the original and Subahibi. In the end, when it come to Tsui no Sora I would say that I probably prefer the remake, although I can see if you prefer the old version for some reasons (Whether it's just feel right or find the charm in the old art). If anything else, at least it's not as bad as the infamous OVA of Subahibi with the writer also wrongly wrote the circumstances surrounding Zakuro's death.

The biggest hazard with the ladder-style story progression structure is that all the heroines but the 'true' heroine get gypped. Aoi Tori, at least, has the advantage that all the paths are technically 'true' in an alternate worlds sense, but it still feels like the heroines other than Akari aren't really getting treated equally. In the case of Aiyoku no Eustia, the author failed utterly to create internal consistency, as his setting (both the general one and the heroines' settings) made any path other than Tia's path impossible within the greater context of the story. This is actually a trend with a lot of writers who like to use the ladder-style, where they fail to maintain internal consistency due to a half-assed attitude toward the non-true heroines' stories.

Saving is obviously very essential function in the game, especially since no one would want to replay the game from the beginning had they lost the progress without saving the game. Granted there are some games that didn't have save feature, but those games are quite rare. Anyway other than the obvious saving the progress, people find a number of ways to exploit the save system. Well most VNs obviously has the first type when it come to save system, which may be happen because the gameplay of the VN is basically the cutscenes and so the developers make sure that you can save anytime. Note that I say most VNs, because there are VNs that still abide to force the player saving in the save points and not saving in the narration, like Ar Tonelico trilogy with Gust pretty much treated it as RPG despite VNs element in Cosmosphere. Speaking of saving freely, we have Persona 2 allow us to save freely in the dungeon which is very notable because usually in RPG the player can only save freely in the world map whilst you need to search for the save points in the dungeon (Which could also act as the warning that bosses await the players after the save points). For auto save only, it's very rare for the VN to use it with the only example that I knew is Rance Quest. Obviously this feature limit the player ability to be able to exploit the save system, so the player need to live with their unwanted progress, which bring in mind of mobile game whereas the game immediately save any activities that the player make for the very obvious reasons. For the non-mobile game, we have the infamous Getting Over It that the players mention as very difficult with one of the feature that make it harsh is the save system with it'll automatically save any progress the players make, whether it's favorable for them or not with the player has easy time to lost a big progress. For the third type of save system, single save shot, on paper I can see if the game tried to challenge the player to be careful with their chance to save the game. In practice though, obviously the player would see the walkthrough just so they can go through the game without much problem, at least when it come to the game like Phoenix Wright in which the single save slot is the artifact from their game way back in GBA. Since you also mention that Capcom add the additional save slots in Ace Attorney PC version, I agree the new feature may feel odd for some people seeing there's no much need to make multiple saves in the game besides to replay the player's favorite scene in one of the chapters. That's all for what I can write in regard of the topic.

With JVNs, in particular untranslated ones, saves are intricately intertwined with how people play the game, with save points being specifically recommended in walkthroughs to shorten replay time when moving to other routes or filling out CGs and scenes. A lot of people who make walkthroughs for translated games in English have a tendency not to transfer this system over, even if they used a Japanese walkthrough as a base, a lack of convenience I found notable, even if I honestly don't know why. If you want to look for an ideal form of this kind of walkthrough, Foolmaker (gusha no Yakata) is still preserved at the Sagaoz website (along with game saves for a lot of old VNs) and contains a bunch of efficiency walkthroughs that save at the latest point possible for each path split, which is why I generally recommend it for people playing old JVNs. Seiya-Saiga, which is the oldest surviving walkthrough producer for visual novels in Japanese, still releases walkthroughs for all the releases in a given month. They also place save points at key points in progression to make things easier for readers who have less time and don't want to have to figure things out themselves.

The apocalypse genre is greatly influenced by the post-war (WWII) mentality. In post-war Japan, which rebuilt after seeing most of their major cities firebombed and their industry destroyed, the concept of an apocalypse was much closer to reality, not the least because of the nuclear bombings. Similarly, much of Europe's urban landscape was a ruin due to the bombings from both sides, and rebuilding afterward was a colossal undertaking that made it easy for the Soviet Union to take over a massive portion of the continent like it did, through means both forceful and more subtle. As a result, most apocalypse genre works in all mediums are descended from the ones inspired by this era and the threat of nuclear war that persisted through much of the twentieth century afterward. For a generation that had witnessed the disintegration of two major cities and now had multiple hostile powers possessing similar - even more powerful - weapons, it was much, much easier to imagine the annihilation of humanity than it was for previous generations. Most current works are evolutions on the same ideas as those from that era. There is a sense of cynicism about human nature, a sense of helplessness when it comes to an individual's ability to effect outcomes, and a sense of desperation for survival that influences preppers and all other sorts of people even today. I personally would like to offer the most unique variation on the post-apocalypse experience I've seen in a VN (or rather the most modern one). Komorebi no Nostalgica. This VN is unique in that, at first, it is difficult to tell that this is a post-apocalypse landscape. The characters are living normal, peaceful lives in a seemingly super high-tech world, but when they discover an ancient android, the predecessor to the sentient AI androids called the Metosera that now live as independent sapients amongst them, the perspective changes drastically. While the basic atmosphere remains soft and disconnected from what came before, the characters are slowly confronted with a line of thought that predates their current society and the remnants of the old war. Another example of an interesting apocalypse story would be Evolimit, one of my all-time favorite VNs and written by the same author as Tokyo Babel. I'm going to spoiler this one as well, since I intend to just talk openly about various aspects of the setting and story. Baldr Sky (all of the series) is a perfect example of the post-apocalypse and apocalypse genres.

I actually think my method might be as general as theirs, I've dropped in my file unchanged and had it work for same-version tyrano as you can see from the last line of the post. I also don't remember a kag.tag.js file in that folder in some of the releases I've seen. Still, who knows

Dating sim system most likely is the relic from the past where the developer still focusing on the gameplay, and so they pad the gameplay in there with the MC need to improved himself while he need to pick what he want to say to the heroines carefully before he become worthy to the heroine he seeks, with the player would feel rewarded if he manage to get closer to the girl. This approach is obviously has some weakness in the writing, with some may find the story is very bare boned if they (Understandably) using the walkthrough to get the right steps to get a certain heroine. Obviously, nowadays dating sim system would be quite cumbersome had the player was forced to do so before even hearing the story of the heroines, so the developer gradually removed the dating system parts with eventually the choices was boiled down to chose the heroines. Anyway, when it come to dating sim, the closest one that I played was Fureraba in which it was listed as such on VNDB, and obviously I use walkthrough in order to get through all of the choices. There's also Dokyuusei in which it had its remake released by Shiravune, and the remake version has Easy Mode in case the newer player didn't want to engage with the difficult gameplay much. Since mod Clephas mentioned Persona 3 to 5, I also should mention that Metaphor (Which share gameplay as Persona) has its own Social Link system called Bond, and Atlus did streamline the system even further so the newer player should have easier time to maximize the Bond compared to the old Persona 3. That's all for what I can write in regard of this topic.

The Japanese dating sim genre hit is height back in the late 1990's and early 2000's, before vanishing almost entirely with the advent of modern visual novels. In most ancient dating sims, you would spend time polishing yourself (studying, working out, etc) on some turns while doing part-time jobs to earn money for presents and conversing with heroines (often repeating the same set of questions and interactions over and over) on a regular basis until you could get their affections high enough they were willing to go on a date. Depending on your choices during the date, you would get closer to an actual relationship, which was the end goal of most dating sims (since most of them weren't h-games). Dating sim elements were leftover in most SOL VNs during the mid and late 2000's, but by 2010, most dating sim elements (even hidden ones such as affection points) were completely eliminated from modern visual novels. As a side-note, references to dating sims persist in anime and manga long after the Japanese version of the genre died, and they made a comeback with Persona 3-5's social links system.

This game fixes most of the quality of life issues the original game had, while creating an interesting atmosphere typical of Japanese horror. The death ends weren't as abrupt as in the original game, as Pallas says. They are pretty telegraphed, and by the end, I was mechanically saving right before key points and seeing the dead ends before moving on to the main story. I disagree primarily with the assessment of the rpg system, but that is because I honestly see nothing wrong with 'classic' rpg combat systems in general. I'm generally playing jrpgs while I'm half-asleep after work, so I don't want to be troubled by things like real-time battles or complex gimmicks that aren't really a 'quality of life' improvement for an old-style solo gamer like me. To my mind, the turn-based battle system was perfected with Grandia II, and I think all jrpgs should use it, lol. As a visual novel, sadly, I've read many, many better ones, even ones in the same genre. Which is kinda sad, considering that Compile Heart put more money into the game than any five of those VNs combined (with the possible exception of Minori, who was horrible about managing their funding, or Key who always blew money on mini-games and silly animations with their later games). Edit: One thing I should note is that, as visual novels and visual novel hybrids became more ubiquitous, telegraphing bad ends became more and more common, even in the horror and mystery genres. Back with Tsukihime, the bad endings (really just dead endings) were not predictable to any significant degree (the original Tsukihime of course), and most of the visual novels made from 2000-2012 used some variation of a koukando (love point/affection point) system to determine which heroine route and which ending you ended up with, if they weren't using a strict 'choose your own adventure' format. It is very rare to find a mystery or horror VN made before JVNs began to decline five years ago and after 2015 that wasn't fairly obvious about which choices led to dead ends or bad endings if you were paying attention. The major reason most people end up using walkthroughs for VNs is because it takes way too much time and effort to figure it out on your own, compared to rpgs with multiple endings and the like. Sometimes, VN-makers like to create triggers for bad endings or 'normal' endings in the weirdest places, even going so far as to erase affection point gains simply because you selected the wrong choice in a joke scene (real story).

Well let's just say that it's very useful tool to anyone else who didn't like to read the lines in the VN for the second time, although sometimes it does its job too well because the button would obviously skip everything that already read, regardless if the reader want to re-read the lines or not. Still, the usefulness outweigh it's potential drawback anyway, seeing that it would help someone who stuck in reaching the route that the player want, moreso if said VN has too many inconsequential choices which is prevalent in the older VNs. Said potential drawback is quite rare anyway, in which it only happen in the old Chaos Head where the text keep skipping if the player need to trigger the delusion at the certain instances in order to get the bad ending, and you can only get the bad ending in the second playthrough which mean you already read the lines. For skip the scene, the closest one that we have is skip to the next choice which skip a lot of scenes anyway if the developer didn't make much choices in the first place outside of the sex scenes, and one of the VN that apply that is prominently Yuzusoft VNs. As for the VN that explicitly mention skipping the scenes, well maybe only Fate/Stay Night that still apply it until now. Anyway, this feature is obviously very useful if you want to check the Japanese guide before making the English guide, or maybe checking the gallery seeing it only unlocked after you finished the game. Granted you can also do so with the regular skip, although it's obviously faster if you can skip the scenes. No much to say that the auto mode is mostly useful if you record the VN to make the playthrough to upload it on Youtube, although it won't be useful if you prefer to rush the game seeing auto mode speed is usually too slow if you're fast reader. That's all for what I can write in regard of this topic.

It isn't really an issue if you can read a VN quickly enough, but I can see how the skip function might be an engrossment-breaking tool for the majority of people, who can't read a line a second, lol.

Science Fantasy is perhaps one of the most pervasive genres in existence. The most powerful example in Western culture would be Star Wars, which is often considered the penultimate science-fantasy by fanboys. However, the genre also gained some minor popularity elsewhere, with the Deathstalker Saga and a few others prior to the current fantasy/sci-fi publishing boom that hit after ebooks took off. The Superhero genre can also be considered to be science-fantasy in a general sense, making it a bigger umbrella than most think. JRPGs such as the old Breath of Fire series and Xenogears both included elements of science-fantasy, mixing magic and tech freely, and this was also seen in Final Fantasy VI, where magitech was at the center of the story for much of the game. For VNs, my beloved Silverio series is worth mentioning, as the series has a basis in science-fantasy rather than being pure fantasy. Perhaps the most notable aspect of science-fantasy is that it combines the flexibility of fantasy with an internal consistency reminiscent of science-fiction in many cases. Fantasy is an infinitely flexible genre with no real limits, whereas science-fiction is usually an extension of our world, seen as a potential future or past. When the two are combined, you get a genre that seems partially like an extension of the world we know and partially a realm of pure fantasy and imagination.

This game, in retrospect, didn't really do justice to any of the heroines other than Shinku. I can't say I recall any of the paths or the details of the characters anymore, whereas I can recall most of the details of Sakura, Moyu and even AstralAir by the same company. The incidents in the other worlds left a much stronger impression than most of the heroine routes, which is perhaps on purpose. Favorite's specialty as a company is playing on emotions, and the other world chapters and Shinku's path do an excellent job with this, while the other paths are mostly just background information to add depth to Shinku's path. While this was true - to an extent - with most of Favorite's other games (feeding the true path with the other heroine paths being a common tactic when there is a true path), this one is perhaps the most obvious about it. Nonetheless, it is a game that is worth mentioning for people who want the catharsis of emotion brought forth by the characters' situations.

Arguably, we can also said the title screen change is a reward for completing a heroines routes, as seen in Mashiro Iro and Otome Domain, which in a way is also fall into indicating progress categories. Since both VNs are from Palette (And yes I count Otome Domain as such despite it from Palette's sister company), I may as well mention Nine series use the title screen change in the ending, and there are some change to indicate the tone in the series. Oh yes, Yuzusoft also does the similar thing, at least in Cafe Stella (I did remember they also did so in Tenshi Re-Boot, although I'll need to confirm it). By the way, while you can categorized the title scene change to those three categories, sometimes the developer decided to do so just because they can, with said developer is Alcot in which they'll change the title screen to adapt the time when the player boot their game (As in the title scene will be in the night instead of day had the player start the game in between 12 AM to 6 AM). That said, I only confirmed the feature in Clover Day's though. That's all for what I can comment in regard of this topic.

A few examples of multiple Title Screen styles. Evolimit: Depending on which ending was the most recent, the final background CG from that ending is visible on the title screen, while that ending's unique BGM is played. A number of VNs: The title screen starts out blank, but as you complete heroine routes, the heroines are added to the title screen in various poses until the scene on the front of the game box is complete. This is the most common style, seen in numerous VNs across many genres. A number of VNs: Background change (usually along with BGM music). This one was common in the 'early era' from 2000-2009. The title screen change is most common in plot-heavy VNs, whereas it is rare with mid-budget charage/moege (your basic sol-romance). The main reason for this is that those type of games tend to pour most of their budget into the h-cgs, heroine sprites, and scene cgs.

Well it's not coincidence all of the examples are from Arc System Works, which mean they like to put the narrative in their fighting game whereas the other companies most likely just put very short characters stories and therefore less narrative. I don't really know if it's true or not, because I only glance at Tekken 5 Asuka story with the beginning was shown by using CG. Speaking of it, obviously Atlus can't use Tekken-like story telling to tell the story in Persona fighting game, so obviously they approach visual novel narrative style to tell the story. Honestly speaking I felt skeptical towards the idea of Persona fighting game, although considering back then Atlus was face the bankruptcy so they can't avoid to milk their successful series in order to make more money. All in all, honestly I'm quite suck on fighting games, so I didn't play much of it. That's all for what I can talk about the topic here.

Well, this is definitely interesting topic, so let's see what I can talk about this topic. As for traps VN, let's just say that obviously I treat it as BL VN even though the dateable characters (Or maybe I should call them as heroes) looking good like usual VNs heroines, although this should be the discussion for another days. That said, let me say that the trap VN that really sit in the middle of GL and BL is Trap Yuri Garden, if only because the MC himself also the trap (And yes I admit that I like the premise so much I treat it as VN of the Month for June 2024, so in a way this is my guilty pleasure). For the rest of the topic, let's just say that I find it interesting there are much more well received BL VNs compared to GL VNs, with two of particular examples are Slow Damage and Hashihime. It help that somehow Nitroplus see the interest to develop BL VN and thus give them the chance to woven their story writing, which tend to be well received for how twisted it is. Obviously, the people who want to see good story would play the VN no matter the genre, and thus it manage to attract the number of people (From what I see on VNDB). The same phenomenon can also be observed in otome VN, which is no coincidence that some otome VN has more interesting stories compared to the usual VN. I don't really know though on why the work aimed for female demographic has more intricate story, but it's quite interesting phenomenon to see. In the end, while I prefer to not play BL or otome, I understand some man would like to try that kind of game for several reasons. That's all for what I can write in regard of this topic.

A lot of the same people who enjoy otomege also enjoy Yaoi-ge, and for obvious reasons. A disproportionate number of the heroes in yaoi-ge are the forceful type that is plentiful in darker otomege that have 'love-hate' paths and yandere paths. Tbh, this sub-genre is something I'm only familiar with because my cousin kept trying to get me hooked on it, and I refrained from reviewing them or rating them on vndb in order to avoid excessive bias (for similar reasons, I only rated a few of the otomege I played). To be blunt, at least in the ones I played, it seemed like there was a large percentage of paths that either went from bromance to romance or were were the result of some kind of insane obsession on the part of the hero. Given my own predilections, it was just disturbing to me, and I thus refrained from rating them, because I DEFINITELY am not the audience these games are meant for. There were a few times where the protagonist was the forceful one, but most of the time the protagonist was just a cipher or a doormat.

For the info, actually light enforce the play order for Dies Irae with the player must finished either Kasumi or Kei routes first before playing Marie's route and only by finishing Marie's route the player can finally play Rea's route. The only reason why player can pick any route they want to play first in English version is because light decided to just unlocked all of the routes from the start as DLC, with many people suggest the new players to play the VN as intended starting from Kasumi's route. For the topic, two more example of the VNs that I can think of are Amazing Grace and Flyable Heart. Flyable Heart did follow Multiple Route Mystery faithfully, even though the staffs divided the six heroines routes into three stories (Mayuri and Sakurako, Amane and Kururi, and Yui and Suzuno). The three stories did try to tell the circumstances about the MC and the setting, although the middle one (Amane and Kururi) didn't have much connection to both stories (It still has nice heroine writing (For Amane) at the very least). For Amazing Grace, it's more like Ladder Structure like G-Senjou, so each of the heroines routes are more or less like the arc with each of the routes reveal something more in regard of the clue that will eventually help Shuu (The MC) to find out the answer to the peculiar setting around him. Not everyone find the answer satisfying, but at least Amazing Grace did make the routes contain the connection to the main stories. That's all for what I can comment in regard of the topic.

There are many to comment when it come to SRPG, so let me try it here. Well sometimes simple is the best, because if SRPG has too much gimmick (Mechanic Distinctiveness) it may ended up become very confusing for the new players, and I speak from my experience as someone who confused when I tried FFT (Which is the standard of modern SRPG) with I ended up stuck in the 4th story battle (And then I decided to delete the game). SRPG can also have dating sim element like Luminous Arc trilogy, in which while the game has gimmick the battle system itself is simple enough. Also for blending it with VN like narrative, well it's more or less given seeing most SRPG didn't have much walking around like usual RPG. For the second point, I always think on how Eushully did good job on facilitate the large number of characters in Kamidori in combat, and yet the roster is still fewer than Chrono Cross. For comparison, the first playthrough of Kamidori have 16 characters while first playthrough of Chrono Cross have almost 40 characters with the latter didn't have SRPG gameplay thus making some characters become underplayed. It's even worse when you consider Chrono Cross staffs only limit the characters into three people (With Serge as the permanent party member) while Kamidori didn't necessarily forced Wil to be deployed in every stage. Speaking of large group combat, Arterial as the next Eushully game after Kamidori did it better on that front even though it's card game, mainly because you can have all the duelists gain all of the experiences at once and every card in the deck (Up to 30 cards) can gain experience even if it's not played. For the first point, arguably we can say on why all of SRPG have war stories is started from Fire Emblem in which it's about an exiled prince who start the war against the one who conquered his own country, and seeing it's very popular naturally the developer make the SRPG variant based on it. It also help that SRPG are usually harder than normal RPG, and thus it give the player feeling like they're the tactician if they manage to pull out the win, which Fire Emblem staffs realize seeing the player need to be very smart to have all of their allies keep alive until the end of the game seeing the older Fire Emblem keep the dead party member remain dead (The modern one circumvent it by making Easy Mode revive all fallen allies after the stages ended). About Utawarerumono, the original game is kind of difficult if only because there's no much opportunities to do some grinding, and Aquaplus fixed the problem in the next two games and the remake of the first game. Oh yes, Digimon Survive creator was inspired by Utawarerumono gameplay, so if you wonder why it has SRPG gameplay despite it would be fine if it's in RPG form, there you have the answer (Besides saving cost for the walking animations in the area obviously). That's all for what I can comment in regard of SRPG.

SRPG hybrids can be a mixed bag. Classic style (The Shining Force/FFT/Fire Emblem type) that use stages are ideal for matching progression with participation. However, in my experience, the more the balance goes toward strategy, the more likely the story starts to fall by the wayside. Venus Blood also strikes a decent balance between the two sides, using more standard strategy (based on building army units that can counter enemy advantages and build on one's own, while picking how one expands one's field of influence and other aspects). It is perhaps the most gameplay-leaning series that doesn't fall into the trap of over-focusing on the gameplay to the detriment of storytelling (which is the entire point of a VN). Where things start to tip in the other direction is games like the Sengoku Hime series and Madou Koukaku. The former is a series where you fight to conquer Japan using feminized Sengoku Jidai units, and it is very heavily tilted toward gameplay throughout most of the series, except in V, where progression and storytelling was more tightly scripted (The Oda plotline and Ashikaga one in particular were really well-designed to bring the characters and their trials to life). Madou Koukaku goes a little too far in the direction of gameplay at times, in particular if you don't choose the 'true history' or 'magic' routes. Those two routes have a somewhat scripted storyline that you can follow, but if you just go around conquering, the game quickly becomes a slog devoid of story other than the collapse of your enemies and your protagonist's corruption due to power lust (which isn't necessarily boring, but it is significantly less interesting than the more scripted stories of the two primary routes). Overall, all gameplay hybrids need to strike a balance between the gameplay and storytelling, and in my experience, it is those that keep the focus on the story that turn out the best.

Well obviously dark fantasy is what people usually call as edgy, and in light novel it's usually the one that has revenge story. Obviously this type story would be too bleak for some people, although obviously it would be very engaging to follow until the end in order to see whether the casts can earn their happy ending or not in the bleak setting. Of course though, the writer should try their best to balancing the character development and breather in the midst of dark story, because after all almost nobody would want the story become bleak from the beginning to the end so much it make the story become not engaging at all. Oh yes, it's quite interesting most of translated otome has dark story, which is quite ironic compared to the male oriented VNs that have much lighter stories. Speaking of otome, actually what we saw in light novel with the genre 'Reincarnated as Villainess' is really misrepresent otome game, because most of the story in the light novel are mostly have kingdom setting with the villainess is not really prominent in otome VNs, and the reason why the author use otome game is probably because the author only understand otome is the counterpart of usual VNs where the female can date more than one handsome characters (To further make the counterpart with isekai harem novel) with the author can only refer shoujo manga when it come to make the in-universe otome VN. That aside, most otome VNs are only available on console, so it's too bad if you want to play those and only have PC or laptop. Forgot to mention usually dark fantasy VNs have some rape, which make sense as the way to instill the bleakness into the reader. For the prominent example, besides Maggot Bait there's euphoria with it has nice song along with surprisingly nice story beneath the disturbing sex scenes. Obviously the story should be the main draw, although obviously most people would prefer to avoid the rape altogether. Speaking of rape, there's Mugen Renkan with the female MC will suffer a lot of rape, which in hindsight make it closer to the otome when one think hard about it. Of course there's more than rape in Mugen Renkan, because it tell the story about the immortal female MC who did her best to find happiness in her immortality. That's all for what I can write in regard of this topic.

In my experience, VN dark fantasy either emphasizes an endless path to despair or a path through despair to hope for the future. Nitroplus tends to focus on the former, as is seen in Tokyo Necro and Muramasa, where the majority of paths and their endings are unrelievedly dark from beginning to end. Indeed, there is this belief in a lot of Japanese makers that the dark needs to continue right through the epilogue. When there is an exception, it often comes with a backlash. One particular scenario that annoys me to this day is the Ein route vs the anime of Phantom of Inferno. In the original Ein route, the ending has Ein smiling and happy for the first time in her life, whereas the anime has the protagonist murdered during their trip to Mongolia. This contrast seriously pissed me off, because Ein's path was essentially the 'good ending' of the game, the only path where there was some level of salvation, and the anime makers ruined it out of a desire to turn it into some kind of twisted moral lesson. Anyway, one thing I find ironic is that there is far more dark fantasy on the otome-ge side of things than there is on the male-oriented side of things. I'm sometimes stunned at how deep into the darkness the otome genre goes, with levels of emotional brutality (both toward the characters and toward the reader) that are frightening. I mean, I like yandere heroines, but yandere heroes are freakin' scary. Dark Fantasy in male-oriented JVNs hit its peak in the mid-2000's, and most of the games were focused on extreme stuff similar to Maggots Baits, even if it went in a different direction. At present, the only real (non-nukige) dark fantasy company still operating is Clock-up, since Nitroplus hasn't put anything new out in half a decade. Edit: Incidentally, to this day I have extremely mixed feelings about Maggot Baits. It had excellent action and if you cut out the H, the story was great. However, if you include the H, it all becomes disgusting smut.

I tried to search gotsugoushugi thingy, and apparently it mean plot convenience which would be similar to Deus Ex Machina (Or Diabolos Ex Machina for the story getting worse). Obviously the usage of this is always cause controversy no matter which side of the world, although whether the usage would destroy the enjoyment of the story or not is up to each of their own. About Grisaia, let's just say I did think Meikyuu and especially Rakuen as the fandisc simply because there's no canon route in Kajitsu, something that Frontwing didn't provide at 2011 because they intend Kajitsu as their last VN and ready to scrap the trilogy plan. Of course, history speak otherwise and thus Frontwing continued the trilogy plan while recklessly expand the franchise (Phantom Trigger and Chronos Rebellion). Anyway forcing charage into linear VN obviously would cause issues especially with one of the ending is pretty much completed, so Frontwing tried to fix the situation by showing on how Yuuji help all five girls in the anime, which to say not really perfect but at least it get it's job done. Speaking of VN series that turned into trilogy or duology, there's Galaxy Angel or Ryuusei World Actor which does the continuity better (Galaxy Angel ask us to chose the heroines at the beginning of the sequels, while Kinugasa (For all his ending writing fault) always wrote the sequel based on the available ending). There's also Sharin in which the fandisc is like Meikyuu, and Keiichi stated to Hozuki he chose Hinata as his lover. My point is all of those examples write the continuation based on the available endings, something that Frontwing didn't do with Grisaia, so yeah I can definitely see if you have the problem with it. Anyway, for all of it's fault on connecting the sequels, at least the author manage to write nice character stories, which allow Kajitsu quickly to become well known VN with I remember did keep my eyes on by then active TL Wiki site to see the translation progress of Kajitsu. That's all for what I can write about Grisaia here.

Oh, you also mention characters acting oddly to make the story progress, but this is fairly common in plot-focused VNs. In early VNs, it was mostly because of the philosophy of 'gotsugoushugi', which is a game-maker philosophy for plot-focused games with multiple routes where character actions and even personalities are warped at a moment's notice solely to move the story forward. The real issue is a matter of degree. For instance, there are a number of VNs I can think of off the top of my head where the personality change of a main character was so dramatic it completely broke me out of my engrossment in the story. The most egregious example of this I can name right here and now is Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou 2. During the common route of the game, the protagonist is an arrogant, immensely capable person with a wide variety of talents, but in each of the heroine routes, his personality gets toned down, his talents weakened, and his motivations twisted in ways that don't make sense even in the context of the route. This is an example of going too far with that kind of tactic. More subtle are the random bad endings that pop up in a lot of horror and action VNs (especially early ones) where the actual choices result in random horrible deaths that make absolutely no sense in the chronology of the story. These games were the reason I started resulting to using walkthroughs for all VNs, because I got tired of making choices, only to end up with senseless bad ends or normal just friends endings. However, at the same time, this degree of manipulation can actually result in a positive result, as while those endings were often frustrating, they were also part of the experience as a whole and made it richer in some way. To be honest, it is one of those JVN storytelling techniques that can be either excellent or horrible depending on how well it is utilized.

This isn't the only VN series that organically turned into a trilogy or a duology. A perfect example is Akatsuki no Goei. It has an almost identical approach to continuing things to Grisaia, in that the second game is a combination of after-stories and a route that covers the protagonist's past (which is incidentally even more brutal than Yuuji's). The big difference is in the third game, which is based off of the Kaoru route of the first game (non-romantic route). While it has a core story, it has three main routes and numerous heroines, the big change mostly being in what perspective the protagonist sees the story from. As an approach, it has its positives and negatives. Kinugasa Shougo, the writer for Akatsuki no Goei, hates conclusive endings, and it is pretty evident that Shangri-la (later absorbed by Akabei) forced him to conclusively end the main series in Tsumibukaki Shuumatsuron. His resentment came out in spreading the reader's attention across way too many heroines, in my opinion. Grisaia came out later, so I always figured that they learned from the excesses of the Akagoei trilogy when they made Grisaia into a trilogy, focusing on the cast of characters rather than expanding it massively.

Well like mod Clephas said this feature seems like to be quite annoying, especially if one need time to either thinking or open the walkthrough so that they can answer the choice right in case the timed choice really affected the story. Thankfully though there's no much VNs that apply this feature, which is for good reasons with the few VNs that apply it are usually mystery or thriller like you mentioned above. Oh yes, other than the VNs that you mentioned, according to VNDB Danganronpa and Schoold Days (Also IxShe Tell) also applied this feature, although I don't recall if it's true or not. That's all for what I can comment in regard of this topic.

I never liked timed choices as a mechanism in VNs... most of the time, they were just annoying. I guess it is because if I wanted to feel pressured, I would just go play a normal video game like a shooter or an a Souls-like game.

Well honestly in the recent time I've seen more of April Fools events in the manga and anime scenes, although turned out there are surprising amount of April Fools VNs. Other than those three, there are the other two that are particularly stick out to me, Shakadou-san no Jun'ai Road and Seventh Coat. For more elaboration, Seventh Coat is the April Fool VN for Fata Morgana with the developer change the genre from fantasy to science fiction, while for Shakadou VN it's the parody of Tsujidou with Shakadou (One of the antagonist in Majikoi) as the MC. Note that the developers for both put some efforts into those VNs, with Fata Morgana writer tried to make Seventh Coat writing as good as possible while Minato-soft hired Hanakana of all VA to voiced the main heroine of Shakadou (Kugenuma Sakura). I think that's all for what I can comment in regard of April Fools VNs.

This feature is definitely would be a lot of help if it applied in the game that need many explanation. Technically speaking, Fate/Stay Night also has one, although it's more like RPG status which make sense seeing the casts involve in a battle royale involving summoning the servants who can use their best moves and ultimately made player more like playing RPG. Other than that, Science Adventure like to make full use of this feature to do the info dump on their stories. As for dropping hints function, I recall how FF8 has that one in the encyclopedia, although in this case it's more like the staff decided to write the plot point based on the entry. That's all for what I can say in regard of this topic. PS - Forgot to mention that Utawarerumono also has this feature as well, which is really help seeing there's a number of words from Ainu tribe with said language is not exactly common one to put it simply. Obviously the developer is also intend to use the dictionary as the way to build the world, seeing Utawarerumono world is fictional one.

What I understand is that thriller genre mean the MC is always face the chance of his life in danger, which make the story is more exciting to the reader so much that some of highest rating VNs on VNDB have Thriller genre. For more VNs with thriller, there's Root Double in which it list Thriller as one of the genre, which make sense seeing the two MCs are in constant danger while at the same time they also need to find out on how they escape the nuclear facility within nine hours. Steins Gate can also count to be thriller, seeing Okabe need to move very carefully after his action was detected by mysterious organization that want to remove him. That's all for what I can comment in regard of this topic.

While some may ponder on why 0 exist when the original Steins Gate is already conclusive enough, the answer is surprisingly simple, namely to allow Mages to milk Steins Gate as much as possible. Of course, adapting from the ending directly would obviously very controversial (And back then Mages still has some standard to not going DaSH), so they decided to show us on what happen with Okabe when he did his best to raise up from his big failure. So the fans would see that Okabe's journey to get the true ending is not simply skip the game and then peek the walkthrough to see the correct choice, but instead it'll be full of complication and danger. Anyway, for the VN, actually it's the adaptation of the light novel of Steins Gate spin off, so in a way 0 is like the fandisc despite calling it as midquel (Not sequel) is also fit because it happen in the middle of Steins Gate. Lastly, I can say that at least Mages still write some nice character writing, especially in regard of Daru and Suzuha relationship. That's all for what I can comment in regard of Steins Gate 0. PS - I did remember that initially it didn't have PC version, but the people at Committee of Zero worked hard to add this on PC back when it's just released in 2016.

I see, and in this case I'll strictly compared it to 2018 list. As for whether 2010 list is better compared to 2018 or not, well it depend on the rank here. But overall I would say that 2010 is better though because most of the score for the VN that was released in 2010 is higher if we compared it side by side (2018 releases did have less VNs that receive average score 8 from VNDB), at least if I based it on my list here. On the other hand, there's a lot of good release that I didn't add to my release simply because it's censored (Baldr Force), MTL-ed (Your Diary and Fortissimo), and only a fandisc (Fata Morgana). There's also some good releases that I didn't add simply because it's not my taste here, such as Sakusakura and Suki Suki. So objectively seeing, I would say that 2018 is better if we talk about the number of releases and quality, although each year did have advantage and weakness though. tldr - From my list 2010 is better, although if we look at it objectively 2018 is better. So I guess we can say that it's a draw here, although it may change in the future though seeing that VNDB average score will always fluctuated.