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.
As promised, I post both of 2013 and 2014 translated VN in one post. The reason is because it's quite hard to make the list that I usually make the exception of it, and those examples are Monster Girl Quest 3 (Nukige) and Ataraxia (Fandiscs). As for the rules, other than no fandisc and nukige I'll not list otome and BL VNs. Also I forget to remind this earlier, but I wouldn't list OELVN here because the title is 'Translated VNs' and that's why you didn't see both of Katawa Shoujo and Doki Doki Literature Club in my past lists simply because both of those are OELVNs. Anyway here's my list for both of 2013 and 2014, and keep in mind that the list here is mostly my taste.
10. Kikouyoku Senki Tenkuu no Yumina aka Yumina the Ethereal (VNDB 7.41)
I remember JAST did tease this in around 2011, in which it's their upcoming release and I immediately show the interest to the game. However, as we know JAST was very slow when it come to release their VN, and so predictably it took years for them to finally release Yumina at 2013. In Yumina, we have the titular character Yumina who has one main problem, namely she didn't have good enough grade to not repeat a year. Ayumu, the MC and Yumina's classmate reluctantly tried his best to help Yumina, especially since he was tasked by his adoptive father to help her. Unfortunately, Ayumu's effort was failed because he was caught in a quarrel against Yumina which cost her the remedial test, ensuring her fate to repeat a year was very certain. Then, a mysterious upperclassman Kirara offer Yumina a chance to avoid her fate, namely offer Yumina to join as candidate in the student council president election with Kirara will fully support Yumina in her endeavor, and seeing no choice Yumina immediately accept even with the offer sounds quite shady.
While the premise is sound quite silly with Yumina decided to do her campaign in order to avoid repeating the grade, actually it has more than that, especially with what the second opening show in which it has very different support characters. Forgot to mention Yumina is the gameplay VN, with the player need to help Yumina and Ayumu in the debate which suspiciously looks like battle. For more info, Yumina was developed by the staffs who was worked on Xuse, so you may see the resemblance with Xuse gameplay VNs, especially Seinarukana, although it didn't have SRPG gameplay like those VNs. Oh yes, I can say that Yumina's VA tone, Mizukiri Keito, is quite recognizable so much I remember Yumina when I hear Akari's voice in Soukoku no Arterial (Same VA).
9. Comyu - Kuroi Ryuu to Yasashii Oukoku - (VNDB 7.45)
There's a bit of drama happened back when it was before the translation begin. Namely that it's supposedly to be the ninth work for Amaterasu after Ixrec finished translated by DraKoi. Seeing that Ixrec already prepared to translated DraKoi, Moogy decided to released his DraKoi full translation after holding it back for a while and it's quite obvious that Moogy is really didn't want to lose to Ixrec. Whether you agree with Moogy action or not is up to you (It's slightly inappropriate to me), but at least it's slightly hasten Comyu translation here so we have Comyu as the eighth work for Amaterasu. As for the project itself, it goes for around more than a year before we finally have this at July 2014. For the translation itself, while I did read some not favorable opinion toward Ixrec's translation I think it's still good enough in that we can still understand it.
As for the premise we have Akihito who is always a feminist (Or if we want to said it in less controversial manner chivalrous), although in this case it's an extreme one seeing that he'll defend any women regardless on their affiliation or morality. The reason for that it's because Akihito saw his mother was murdered in front of him, and it's still traumatizing him until today so much that he always recalled red color (Thanks to Hino Wataru writing style who always repeat a certain words, and he carry his writing style to Hello Lady as well). For the story we have Akihito managed to met with the four strangers who somehow manage to summon a black dragon together, and that he and the strangers will fight as the team (Even though their bond not as tight as usual team) with the help of Akihito's childhood friend Kagome who look like Majikoi's Momoyo.
8. I/O (VNDB 7.57)
The second project of Lemnisca after Never7, and one of five best VNs for Lemnisca's founder GundamAce (The other four are Fate Stay Night, Ever17, Root Double, and Steins Gate). As for the VN itself, it's about a hard sci fi complete with some confusing terms and the plot twists in that you might scratch your head, complete with futuristic city setting that have exploration at cyber network in 2032. For the premise, we have Hinata who is still depressed over his loss of younger sister back when he was a child. One day suddenly he find a message that supposedly was from his little sister, and so Hinata decided to investigate the message which then lead him to some earth shattering events. Another thing to note is that in here we need to chose one of four MCs, and Hinata here is one of the MC. Each story will uncover a side of the setting, whether it's about an usual school setting, a lively hacker group, a woman who lost of everything, or a badass man who is always win with style and in a journey to search for something. Another interesting thing to note would be that Nakazawa here (The director of Ever17) was involved as a director for this VN, and that obviously we wouldn't find any sex scene seeing that I/O was released for PS2 first and ported to the PC later.
7. Ayakashibito (VNDB 7.61)
No much drama that I remember with this VN other than it's temporary stopped by the translator (Ate the Moon group) before resumed back at 2013, and that we finally have full patch at 2014 April Fools. Also it's interesting to note that the writer is Higashide Yuichiro in that we know him as the one who write Tokyo Babel and some of Fate spin off, and also assistant writer for Princess Waltz (The only Pulltop VN that got some action writing), so we can say that he experienced in writing the actions. As for the premise, it's about Ryouichi who got sent to a special facility because of his superpower. At the facility, he met with a kitsune that Ryouichi named Suzu and Suzu herself quickly attached to Ryouichi. One day he decided to escape from facility, and afterwards he decided to live in a town that have the people who have similar situation in that they have superpower with the new name Sousichi along with Suzu. Almost forget to mention that the people with superpower was said to be the desendant of youkai, and that they feared by normal people so much that they got discriminated. Also since the writer is Higashide, naturally we also will have some action in Ayakashibito here.
6. Kono Oozora ni Tsubasa o Hirogete aka If My Heart Had Wings (VNDB 7.69)
Back at 2013 Pulltop suddenly have a brilliant idea to expand their market overseas, and they form MoeNovel as their subsidiary for overseas release. After that, they chose Konosora as their first localized VN which to say was not a bad idea in paper. Except it come with some problem, namely that they have badly translated it and more importantly censored the sex scenes along with the sex jokes, and the censorship here is definitely make them quite infamous. I don't see any reason on why they ask a company who usually translated console game to translate this seeing that they can at least try to ask either JAST or Mangagamer (Or both) for that matter, other than Pulltop already firm to censored their releases for overseas. Long story short, some fans obviously didn't accept it so they took upon themselves to retranslate the whole script and translated the sex scenes, and it took five years before finally we can have Konosora restoration patch back at 2018.
As for Konosora itself, it's about our MC Aoi who come back to his hometown after seven years away from it. The reason on why Aoi came back to his hometown it's because he suffer an injury, and he come there to recuperate. Near his hometown, he met with a girl in wheelchair who need help and Aoi note her as being beautiful. Obviously Aoi help her while at the same time being mesmerized by a glider with the girl and not long after that he met with the girl again and introduce herself as Kotori, and learnt that she quite blunt with her speaking. Some time after that, both of Aoi and Kotori find out that there's a club who make glider and seeing that they interested with it both of them decide to join the club. For the last word here, I'm recommend you to play this with restoration patch seeing that Pulltop only released the censored version and didn't spend a lot of effort to add some new content to make up the censorship.
5. Air (VNDB 7.75)
Seeing that this VN have the most beautiful opening song back at 2011, I decided to tried some ATLAS in order to play it. The result of that is the MC's name Yukito was translated into Inin, and I decided to give up on the ATLAS. This VN was also the lesser known of KEY VNs simply because the anime was not quite as popular as Clannad, at least back at when I tried using ATLAS to play it. Fast forward to 2014 we suddenly have two AIR translation project with the first one was by Sheeta (Amaterasu's editor) and the second by Gao Gao Translation, and Sheeta here is the one who finished it first and released it back at 2014 with Gao Gao version released a year afterwards at 2015 (I know that people prefer Gao Gao Translation here). For the premise we have Yukito who is quite handsome wondering on a journey as a wondering puppetmaster who can control puppet without string, and the reason is to follow his mother last wish to find a girl in the sky. Then in a rural town at beachside he met a cheerful girl with the name Mizusu, and from there Yukito start his friendship with Mizusu in which it's slowly turned into love. As for AIR here, I heard that the ending is quite sad even for KEY VN so you may need to prepare some tissue to wipe the tears from your eyes.
4. Kichikuou Rance (VNDB 8.24)
Out of all old Rance VNs, Kichikuou here is the biggest one in which it's pretty much intentional seeing that Alicesoft intended this as the last Rance VN because they about to discontinued it. Of course thing turned out differently for Alicesoft seeing that it's become one of best selling VN, and that they managed to keep Rance going for more than 21 years before ended it with a bang (Kichikuou was released at 1996 end, while X as the last Rance VN was released at 2018 beginning). The influence of Kichikuou for the storyline of newer Rance VNs (VI to X) is very strong, so much that we can trace some plot points in the newer Rance VNs to Kichikuou. As for the premise, we have our usual selfish Rance lead a band of bandit. After a raid with his band, Rance was screwed up so much that he lost his most trusted slave (Sill), and Rance decided to ask his old acquintance who is a selfish queen (Lia) to marry him and rule Lia's kingdom as the king. From there, Rance keep his world conquest while at the same time keep searching for Sill. As for the gameplay, we can also say that this is the best one for all of older Rance VNs, although the gameplay here is basically crude version of Sengoku's gameplay like Daibanchou. Almost forget that Arunaru translated this back at 2014 as fan translation, and after that he'd translated Mamatoto before going official with VI.
3. Grisaia no Kajitsu aka The Fruit of Grisaia (VNDB 8.36)
As for this VN, we can say that this is Frontwing (FW) Magnum Opus here, and perhaps it's because it was intended as their Swan Song because back at 2011 they going to be out of business. Of course seeing that FW managed to be survive thanks to Kajitsu's success, obviously they made two sequels (Meikyuu and Rakuen). Granted that they already intended Grisaia as the trilogy, although in this case FW forced it because they made Kajitsu as the charage and the sequels based on the unavailable route, and so to me the sequels here is more akin to fandiscs. As for the translation of Kajitsu, we have this released by TL Wiki back at 2013 and later by Sekai back at 2015, in which the latter release is a redundant one and riddled with controversy. For the premise, we have our snarky secret agent Yuuji want to have a normal life and so he decided to enter Mihama Academy and in there he met with five girls that have different personalities. Of course nothing as normal as it looks, considering that the girls did have dark pasts with some of those might be quite traumatic for them. From there, it's up to Yuuji to fix those problem for those girls. In anime version of this, Yuuji fix all the girls problem in one route and made the continuity to the trilogy slightly more acceptable, although it was infamous for being rushed because it only had 13 episodes.
2. Rewrite (VNDB 8.54)
The seventh work for Amaterasu that was released back at 2013, and also the first KEY VN that Amaterasu translated. Also it's been officially picked up by Sekai along with the FD back at 2017, although they chose the different translator to translate the new version (Rewrite+). In any case, obviously Sekai release here will be redundant seeing that Rewrite+ didn't have much change so I would say that you better read Amaterasu's version if you want to read Rewrite quickly, especially if we remember that the new translator is the late Conjueror, although it's okay if you still prefer to wait for new translation. In Rewrite, we have Tennouji Kotarou who more or less have a normal life in a city that full of greenery called Kazamatsuri. One day, he saw a mysterious female who turned out to be occult club president with the goal to investigate a supernatural happening, and then Kotarou decided to join the club. While it's usual for KEY VN to have mood shift, the shift in Rewrite here is too extreme with battle and even horror happening in a route (The reason for horror element is because we have Ryukishi here finally have a chance to write in a company that gave his inspiration for Higurashi), and not to mention apocalypse theme (You can compare the first opening below with the second opening to see the contrast).
1. Steins Gate (VNDB 9.01)
I remember that Blick Winkel was completely translated this VN before decided to sell the translation to JAST, and that JAST release this back at March 2014 end for PC version which is quite quick for them seeing that we still didn't get Chaos Head from them ever since back at 2009. Anyway we have Okabe Rintarou who is a chuunibyou that insist his real identity is Houhouin Kyouma who is a mad scientist, and that he like to create some gadget that supposed to have same effect as Doraemon's gadget. One day, Okabe somehow find himself in a desolate Akihabara and decided to investigate the cause. Some time after, he find out that somehow his gadget managed to have time travel power, and unfortunately some sinister organization also know it. From there, Okabe try his best to escape the organization, which not always successful seeing that we have 0 in that it show Okabe's failure that caused him to be in despair. Steins Gate here is also a part of Science Adventure series, in that it share same universe as Chaos Head and Robotic Note, and out of all anime adaptation of the series Steins Gate here is the most successful one. It also help that the anime adaptation here is widely acclaimed as the good one, so people most likely know Steins Gate anime first.
As for both years, it's quite hard to say but at least we still have fan translation ongoing here seeing that Sekai was still not established yet. Although at the same time both JAST and Mangagamer started to get active though, with JAST somehow managed to get Steins Gate released quickly along with Mangagamer slightly more active compared to their previous years (Their releases back at 2013 and 2014 are mostly nukige though). It's too bad though that Pulltop here decided to be stubborn with their censorship until now, because they have chance to be a good publisher if they let go their policy (I know that I listed Konosora here in which it's censored back then, but in this case at least we can play full version so I add it here). That's all for my list here and I hope you'll enjoy it, and I'm sorry if some of your favorite VNs didn't in my list here.
PS - As for the title, I'm simply combined both of Rewrite and Steins Gate here. The 'Mad Scientist' was obviously refer to Okabe who always address himself as the mad scientist, and as for 'Sakura' it's because there's a shot of sakura tree in Rewrite second opening.
Well since I'd already made two of my top 10 list based on Conjueror's video, might as well goes with the third as well which is based on the video that talk about best rated translated VNs at 2015 - therefore the scoring was already different compared to the video because it was fluctuated. As for the rules, it's still the same though with the most obvious one there will be not yaoi or otome. Also I didn't want to add euphoria here because the sex content was too hardcore, although I might consider that for another list. For VNDB score, I'll list that based on the votes at June 10th 2025. Beware of the spoiler when you playing the opening here, and I'll tell the meaning of the title at PS.
10. Noble Works (VNDB 7.27, Erogamescape 78)
Also known as Noodle Works back when it was released, although it's obviously meme title lol. This VN was the first VN that break Yuzusoft curse in which in the past there's no known complete translation for the VN from the company, and in turn prove us that it's possible for us to have Yuzusoft VN to be fully translated (They have partnership with Sekai as of now, so there'll be more in the future). The premise was a poor MC with many capabilities met a man who resemble him very much and an ill boy as well, so the MC decided to became the man body double and turn out that the man was a son from a very rich conglomerate. Of course since he spent the time as the very rich boy, he attends the high class school and from there he tried to enjoy his new school life while make sure that his secret as the body double remained secret. I like that Yuzusoft here did have some high production value, especially in regard of the cover songs for the heroines as the promotion in which they keep that tradition for their future VNs.
9. Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate (VNDB 7.33, Erogamescape 70)
This VN was see very long time of translation since back at 2012, before finally have a sudden release back at 2015. For the premise, it's about the MC and his childhood friend (A female by the way) club which about to be abolished because the club didn't contributed to the school at all, and of course they couldn't accept that. The only solution was to become the student council president, and it's up to MC for becoming one. Since the main focus was the election, there will be some school politic talk so it might be interesting if you like politic. Other thing to note is that the aforementioned childhood friend (Chisato) route was locked first before you could play all of other routes, which seeing that some of the people dislike Chisato at the other girls route it could be interpreted that the writers may didn't have confidence that her route will be be played if the player able to chose any route to play first, so they decided forced the player to play her route first - a decision that cause some divisive opinion for easy word. As for the art, it was quite unique compared to many other VN out there.
8. Princess Evangile (VNDB 7.34, Erogamescape 69)
Don't be surprised by the Erogamescape score, because sometimes the taste of the VN will be differ between overseas and Japan. I knew that there's some issue in regard of Erogamescape rating, but perhaps Japanese people didn't like Evangile as much as in overseas. As for the premise, once again it's in regard of poor MC who have many capability entering the high class school, only that the school is former Catholic all girl school and the MC was first male student when the school was about to be reformed into mixed school. Of course there would be many discrimination that the MC will be faced, so it's up to him to face the discrimination and hope that he could endure all of it. There's also the matter of infamous headmistress, in which when I saw the writer past work I think it could be attributed to his portrayal of one of the mom back at Suika, although headmistress herself was far saner than the mom though (Hint: The mom at Suika was very crazy). What I could say in regard of this is that back at 2015 I'm surprised that Shimotsuki Haruka sang the opening, although if I see the opening right now maybe it's not surprising anymore.
7. Ourai no Gahkthun ~What a Shining Brave~ aka Gahkthun the Golden Lightning -What a Radiant Brave- (VNDB 7.45, Erogamescape 81)
The first Sakurai Hikaru Steampunk series to be officially translated, and it's supposed to be hard to translated because her works supposed to have some poetic style. Not that it matter though because more or less we already got three of Steampunk VNs translated (Inganock and Sharnoth was arguably badly translated though), and the fourth work (Sona-Nyl) was in translation right now. As for the premise, our female MC (Neon) was live poorly at the university and she must overworked every time so much she was suffer because of that. To add more her problem it happened that she saw some supernatural battle and about to be silenced, only to be rescued by some handsome man who somehow control a giant robot. One day after that, turn out that the handsome man was Nikola Tesla (The male MC) which is at 72 years old as of the time of the game, and Neon became Tesla's maid because she was bought by Tesla for 30 silver coins. For more info, the VN have usual Steampunk VN style in which Tesla gonna have 'battle of the chapter' format for each chapter, so it might be repetitive for some people. Oh, and as for the name it was quite hard to type to me lol.
6. Bunny Black (VNDB 7.52, Erogamescape 73)
This VN MC was pretty much an expy of Rance, although by the 2nd VN he was more or less different though because he managed to have good relationship with the woman that he was sexed with. As for the premise, we have our Rance expy MC (Darx) was about to defeat the demon king only to be defeated by the demon king. Took an interest to Darx, she (The demon king is a woman by the way) recruit Darx to became one of her minion. From there, Darx will do many grunts job at first before finally have rise in regard of the rank, and of course fighting the threat that came to the demon king. The VN itself the gameplay VN, and in here you could make the party although you can't control their action though just like Persona 3 - at least they sort of fix the problem in the sequel. What I could say more is that at the beginning it'll be quite hard and you could die if you careless, at least until the mid game in which it became pretty easy.
5. Eden* They Were Only Two, On The Planet (VNDB 7.60, Erogamescape 80)
The premise of eden was the Earth was about to approach it's destruction because of the calamity that caused by the mysterious red star, and most of Earth population were already migrated to the space leaving handful people stay on the Earth. Our MC here was a capable young soldier (Ryou) who tasked to protect a female artificial human (Sion), who supposed to have very high intelligent. Said artificial human was help the migration to the space, and now that Sion already finished her job she was waiting until Earth's destruction. Seeing that Sion was have an isolated life and want to be free in the last days of Earth, our Ryou decided to help Sion to reach her freedom. As expected from minori the animation was very good, moreso if we looking at the opening which have some good effects. If we asked whether there will be an happy end for this, unfortunately there's none because the Earth was about to approach it's destruction so more or less it's an utsuge. Forget to say that the demo was translated by No Name Loser before they joining Mangagamer.
4. Rose Guns Days (VNDB 8.17, Erogamescape 81)
While this is another Ryukishi07 work, it won't have many mysterious murders like his previous work (Higurashi and Umineko, or When They Cry for both series) and also it won't be another eight parts of kinetic VN. Instead Rose Guns Days (RGD) itself is just four parts of kinetic VN which set up in an alternative world, with Japanese was divided into the part that was a part of Chinese and a part of American with Japanese people became the minority in their own land, so we'll gonna have to see the struggle of Japanese people - and yes the land of Japan still didn't belong to Japanese themselves even at the present because it was stated at the prologue that one part of Japanese is a part of Chinese. The story was begin back at modern time (Present time) in the prologue, before flashed back to 1947 to 1950 when most of the story take place of.
The main casts are work in a brothel so more or less it could be said that it have underworld setting, in which the story itself could be quite dark and grim for another reason (There'll be some death here as well, only not as often as When They Cry series). Other than that, I admit that RGD sprite was improved compared to When They Cry, although it could be argued that it was because it have multiple actress to draw the characters though. There's still no voice though, so too bad if one want to play it with voice - although it's no problem to me though (I just wonder if Yukari Tamura would voiced Stella though because she's resembled both of Furude Rika of Higurashi and Bernkastel of Umineko). As a bonus, I'll add the second opening here although beware of the spoiler though, especially because it was played at the second half of the last part of RGD.
3. Maji de Watashi Koi Shinasai (VNDB 8.35, Erogamescape 82)
The premise was very simple, with MC was already be one of seven people group since his childhood and that's about to be change because the group gonna accept two more female into the group. But the main strength of Majikoi was the comedy, which could be quite absurd so much that you're not gonna care about the logic here and just laughing. It also have martial arts setting as well, although it didn't matter anyway since one of the main cast have Story Breaker Power, and therefore we could ignore that setting mostly. For a history in regard of this, it was translated by Takajun (ie Yandere Translations) first before he disappeared back at 2013 after he work at out of five girls route with the fifth route (Miyako's) was at 85% translated. After that, it was picked by one of the user here and from there we saw the progress of Majikoi going steadily, and finally it was released as fully translated patch at March 2015. It'll be officially localized by JAST as well, but seeing that it's JAST and we already have complete translation I could say that JAST announcement in regard of this was pretty much redundant to me. Enjoy the opening below, which is fully animated although there's no special effect like Eden opening though.
2. Kara no Shoujo 2 (VNDB 8.50, Erogamescape 85)
Unlike Majikoi in which the tone was mostly lighthearted, this VN did have exactly the opposite in regard of the tone - grim and depressing. The beginning was already grim enough with our MC Reiji who work as detective was still couldn't move on from his traumatic event back at first Kara no Shoujo, which is already depressing enough. Here he must have another murder case to contend, this time with another MC Masaki who have some connection with the murder. As for the murder, it's also rumored to have some curse from Masaki's hometown so obviously things not going to be easy for our Reiji. From there, both of Masaki and Reiji work together in order to unfold the murder case, and to find out the truth behind the curse. As for the ending unfortunately it's still quite dark especially at the true end (After all, this VN was called as utsuge for a very good reason), and what's more it's obviously a sequel hook because Innocent Grey was working on Kara no Shoujo 3, so unfortunately Reiji still didn't get the satisfying conclusion. That said, at least the conclusion for Masaki was satisfying enough. Oh, and the demo that was provided was did have different story compared to the main VN, so if possible you should play the demo as well because it was sort of served as the prologue and introduction.
1. Clannad (VNDB 8.69, Erogamescape 87)
The release year for this quite complicated because we already have this translated at 2012, although it listed as partial release though. We also have Sekai here did release Clannad at 2015 here, and unlike their several releases back then I think it's their best release seeing that the available PC patch did have several problems. For the premise we have Tomoya who have a lot of daddy issue thanks to the abuse, and that he always skip the school. One day in April, Tomoya met with a girl on the way to the school and some time after that the girl introduce herself as Nagisa. From there Tomoya find himself being interested with her, and started to enjoy his school life more. It should also be noted that this is the first KEY VN that was intended as all age VN in the first place, and thus there's no need to make some fuss in regard of the censorship (Because there is none of that). Also Clannad here is one of the most well known KEY VN thanks to the anime adaptation which widely acclaimed as good adaptation, and that is well known as one of the saddest anime although of course it's still not as sad as AIR though.
That's all for my list here, and hope you'll enjoy this. As for my opinion, 2015 was the year when we started to get some interesting VNs from the official company, especially when Sekai announced some interesting VN like Root Double - same goes with Mangagamer in regard of Tokyo Babel. Although in exchange of that, the number of fan translation was goes down compared to back at 2015 to nowadays - which could be argued as most of fan translator already going official. Just my opinion here.
PS - As for the title, since we have Majikoi which have the anime title as 'Majikoi: Oh Samurai Girls' and Kara no Shoujo 2 as the two best VNs of 2015, I decided to add 'Samurai' to 'Kara no Shoujo' so we have 'Samurai no Shoujo'.
As for this time, I decided to make my 'Top 10 translated VN at 2016' even though it's very belated for obvious reason lol. Once again, I would use some data from Conjueror's video with some modification here, and also to show of how easy the score was fluctuated. As for the rules, no yaoi and otome VN here, localized name for alias, I'll list both of Erogamescape and VNDB score if possible, and the translation must be considered complete by VNDB as of June 10th 2025 with the VNDB score would be based on that date as well (Keep in mind that it can be fluctuate). Also beware of the spoiler when you played the opening here.
10. 11eyes -Tsumi to Batsu to Aganai no Shoujo- (VNDB 7.31, Erogamescape 76)
Back at 2011 there's a lot of talk about this VN with the translation project of this was ongoing, although of course nowadays the project is already dead. And then back at December 2016 we suddenly have Denwalts release his surprise translation patch, and turned out that it's 11eyes patch. While granted that the patch was have some faults, I say we should appreciate Denwalts's effort for translating a well-known VN. The premise is we have Kakeru who is an orphan lost his older sister five years ago, and his only friend is Yuka. One day both him and Yuka was thrown into a world with red sky that was called Red Night, and that it have a lot of monsters. Some time after he somehow survived, he find out that there's several other people who can enter the Red Night. From there Kakeru decided to unravel the mystery behind the Red Night which naturally will involve a lot of fighting. 11eyes here also offer an unique feature called Cross Vision in that we'll be able to see some scenes from other perspective, although of course most of the time we see things from Kakeru's perspective seeing that he's the MC.
9. Tokyo Babel (VNDB 7.44, Erogamescape 71)
As for this VN, the premise was that the world was already destroyed and right now the last remaining of humanity live in the purgatory - by the way the name of the purgatory was the title drop. Also other than human world, both of heaven and hell also have some complicated situation as well so both of angels and demons live in purgatory as well. From there, all three races was travelling together in order to met the God to asking His atonement. Of course there would be no smooth sailing for this because sometimes some powerful being got crazy, and here's our MC job to combat the crazy one while on his quest to find out about himself. That premise aside, it's already well known for the fighting scenes here so it should be good if one yearn for that. Also interestingly this VN did have no sex scenes, and in exchange it have all star cast from the anime (Such as Hanakana and Miyuki Sawashiro) which probably blew most of Propeller's budget. For last note here, I just want to nitpick that why they need to use school as purgatory lol, and more seriously noted that Tokyo Babel was more in line with Shin Megami Tensei franchise in general.
8. Flowers -Le Volume sur Printemps- (VNDB 7.48, Erogamescape 76)
First of all, this is a shoujo ai VN which mean that there would be some yuri, moreso because the setting is very similar with Maria-sama ga Miteru (Marimite) anime series, although in regard if that it's quite limited though because this is all age VN. Second, this is the VN from Innocent Grey who as we know was made Kara no Shoujo with it had the grim atmosphere along with some disturbing murder mystery. Speaking of it, Flowers still has some mystery even though it's not as disturbing as Kara no Shoujo. As for the story, we have the tall and beautiful yet painfully shy girl who like the literature Suoh attended the all-girl academy Saint Angraecum in order to improve herself. In there, she was assigned into her new two friends, Mayuri and Rikka, with soon enough there'll be something happened between the three girls, which eventually ended with some drama. For the one who translate Flowers, curiously we have Innocent Grey asked JAST to do that instead of Mangagamer, who as we know was localized both Kara no Shoujo title. Also Flowers here has a bit of controversy, namely the translator's work on the trial was heavily critivized before JAST addressed the complain and fixing the translation in the full release.
7. Seinarukana -The Spirit of Eternity Sword 2- (VNDB 7.55, Erogamescape 75)
As for this VN, supposedly it was Eien no Aselia sequel although the connection was quite loose because it only have few returning characters from Aselia, and the casts are travelling between different worlds instead of stay in one world like back at Aselia. That said, the gameplay for this VN was improved so at least should be satisfy some people who's been interested with Aselia gameplay. As for the history of the translation, it was back at 2011 iirc that Seinarukana was started the fan translation. After that, the first translator was disappeared and then the team got another translator to hopefully finished the project. Too bad thought that the second translator did disappear as well making the project was in danger of the purge. After all that happened, Aroduc decided to help with the translation and out of those two he is obviously managed to finished the translation and sold it to JAST. Which obviously lead to long time - it was planned at 2013 iirc only to be delayed, before finally it was saw the release at 2016. Well all of those events were already in the past, and at the very least we could enjoy it in English.
6. Himawari (VNDB 7.57, Erogamescape 82)
There's an interesting case in regard of the English version release of this VN, namely that this VN spent too much time in testing case ie delayed. As for the reason, I could say it was probably because Frontwing released PSV version for Japan first before ported it to PC for overseas version, but it didn't matter now anyway because it's already released - the delay was last for more than half a year though because it was supposed to be released along with Tokyo Babel (Tokyo Babel released at March 31st). As for the premise of the VN, it was in regard of Youichi (The MC) who live in 2048 and still recovering in regard the loss of his dad who was dead along with many victims in the space plane crash, with him as the sole survivor of the accident and suffer amnesia to boot. After he find an alien girl at one night, Youichi was started to uncover his memory and the truth behind the accident. For a bit more trivia, Himawari was released as doujin first before Frontwing took the attention to this and adding all star cast from anime as the seiyuu. As for the difference, the original version contain sex scene while the remake version didn't have that (Duh).
5. Dracu Riot (VNDB 7.68, Erogamescape 77)
This VN did have many history back at April 2012 when the VN itself was translated by Insem after he finished with Hoshimemo. Long story short, we saw Insem withhold his almost completed patch for more than two years (And make the fan angry in the process), before finally release it back at April 2016 with Miu's route untranslated. Because the patch was incomplete, some members of Fuwanovel decided to to finish Miu's route. After that, back at September 2016 apparently there's a discord within the team, which resulting some team members leaked the patch. Although the patch then was taken down quickly, it's still too late though because the leaked patch was already spread. After that, back at AX 2017 Sekai decided to officially announce this in that the new version should be more polished compared to the leaked patch (According to Decay, the leaked patch was still unedited). As for the premise, it's more or less just vampire who live in an articifial island and MC was tried to adapt at the island after became the vampire. It have some sci-fi element and some plot about vampire origin, but the overall tone is lighthearted.
4. Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- (VNDB 7.85, Erogamescape 82)
What I first remember for Root Double is that I'm looking forward to the eventual English release of this VN since back at 2012, simply because GundamAce (The translator) said that this VN was on the almost same level as Ever17. Of course I was quite happy seeing that it was finally about to be licensed by Sekai back then, some problematic issue aside. Let's not forget that this VN was also have the delay as well, although the case was not as bad as Saku Saku though because at least they only delay it once instead of twice lol. As for the premise, it's involved a nuclear explosion in a facility and there's amnesiac firefighter captain who was supposed to rescue the people inside the facility, only to be trapped for 9 hours and from there he and his comrades must try to figure of how to save themselves. There's also another MC in which he was a high school student who also trapped inside the facility, and from there he also must figure out of how to save himself and his friends.
For more info, there a lot of number nine here (Nine enneagrams, nine characters, and nine hours) so I think it's more or less could be said as Nakazawa answer to 999 (Uchikoshi created that, and Nakazawa was Uchikoshi's former partner back at Ever17). For one more note here, GundamAce lament that Takeshi Abo was not composed the OST in Root Double, because he think that it would be more fitting. Oh, and forget to said that Sekai released Xtend version instead of original version, which is a better version because Xtend add some additional scenes. So I'd decided to post both opening here, and beware of the spoiler from 2nd opening below.
3. Rance VI - Zeth Houkai (VNDB 7.89, Erogamescape 84)
After Arunaru finished with Mamatoto, he worked on Rance 6 back at 2015. Back when he worked on the VN I was quite hyped, especially with someone said it's more enjoyable than FF12 in his blogpost and Arunaru is fast translator. However, I was disappointed when he decided to halt the project for some reasons, which turned out to be working with Mangagamer to translate Beat Blade Haruka. Thankfully, Mangagamer announced Rance 6 along with 5D and so Arunaru can use his translation. For Rance 6 itself, it's about Rance who came to Zeth after his adventure in 5D. In there, he find himself become the slave because he didn't posses magical talent while his slave Sill ironically treated far better than Rance (Sill herself is the mage). Zeth itself is a country where people treat mage as the first class citizen with non-mage as lower than human, so obviously there's a resistance movement to fight the unfair situation. Being scouted into one of the movement, Rance decided to join the resistance in order to get his revenge to the mages, be reunited with Sill, and more importantly have sex with as much as woman as possible.
2. Okujou no Yurirei-san aka Kindred Spirits on the Roof (VNDB 7.94, Erogamescape 79)
I admit that at first I didn't see this VN potential because of the simplistic graphic lol, and I thought that the format just 'yuri couple of the chapter' in which it's what Liar-soft like to do with their Steampunk VN. Turned out that's not the case because instead of just one time appearance, the couple actually did have enough development and more so if we decided to watch all the scenes from the perspective of the couple. For the premise, it was just a ghost yuri couple who couldn't move on because they want to felt each other but they wouldn't be able to do that for obvious reason, and so they decided to enlist Yuna's (The MC) help in order to established as many yuri couple as possible in order to allow the ghosts for learning how to express the feeling. Obviously heard that request Yuna was quite hesitant, but after did the first attempt reluctantly she started to like that and decided to be more active. Oh, and by the way this VN was partially voiced, although there will be full voiced version later though (JP only) - I hope that Mangagamer will license that version if possible.
1. Fata Morgana no Yakata aka The House in Fata Morgana (VNDB 8.81, Erogamescape 87)
Okay, at first I didn't trust this VN like Yurirei because of the graphic was quite unorthodox compared to usual VN, and more importantly the Bayesian score of this VN was quite low - turned out that more or less it's just determined of how popular the VN was. After seeing the good review for this VN, I decided to tried this and find it was quite good indeed, especially with the mystery behind the aforementioned house. As for the premise, you act as someone who got amnesia and a mysterious maid guide you through the doors which show the tale of the house's former residents, whose more or less were doomed to have a tragedy while hoping that you'll get your memories back. The VN itself was a doujin one so there's no voice in the VN, at least in translated version because there's also PSV version with voice acting. It also spawned drama CD which have voice acting as well, and the casts are well known for anime fan - some of them returned for voicing PSV version. Another good point of this VN was the OST, which some of those was sang by Gao. Here's one of the sample in form of the opening.
Well, that's all for the list here and hope you enjoying this. As for 2016 it was quite interesting contrast because there's more story content VN, compared to 2017 in which some of best VN there could be categorized as usual charage. Not that I said it was bad of course, but rather it's just something that I noticed here.
PS - For the title I went with Fata Morgana 0 with 0 is because Root Double is some sort of answer to 999 with it being the first part of Zero Escape series, which could be still an appropriate title for Fata Morgana fandisc lol.
This is not my VNTS Review, but rather I kind of want to do my version of 'Top 10 best rated translated VN at 2017' for a long while, so here goes. Seeing that we already has Conjueror posted his video in regard of that subject on Youtube, I decided to make similar list here because personally I didn't agree with some of his choice. That said, most of my pick here was still similar to him though. As for the rule, no yaoi and otome here. Also I'll use Japanese VN name and add the English name for the alias. For the score I'll use both of VNDB average and Erogamescape average, and keep in mind that it'll be fluctuate at the future - VNDB average score was based on June 10th, 2025 for the info. Let's see what I could write in this review here, and I'll explain the title in PS later. Beware of the spoiler when you play the opening.
10. Hatsukoi 1/1 (VNDB 7.19, Erogamescape 70)
This is the first VN translation work for Tsurezure (Previously they scanlated manga), and I think they did the good job in regard of HatsuKoi translation because they're working on this pretty fast. This is the first translated Tone Work's VN as well, and as we knew usually they'll gonna have descriptive detail in regard of the relationship. As for the premise, it was very simple with the MC was forming cafetaria club with five girls. For the MC himself, the opinion from the reader was quite unfavorable to say the least. So much that the staff need to post apology video in regard of MC, which mean most of the people hate him because the MC could have some face-palming action that caused the situation goes worse. Other than that I like it though that they got some vocal song from different singers in this VN, and apparently they'll repeat that feat in both of Hoshiori (Tsurezure planned next project) and Gin'iro Haruka (Ginharu). One more thing to note that this is the shortest Tone Work's VN, because it didn't span years in lengthy detail like at both of Hoshiori and Ginharu.
9. Wagamama High Spec (VNDB 7.24, Erogamescape 76)
My first impression in regard of this was not good though, if only because of how the female breast was drawn (It's too big) and the same face that the heroines have (I tried to not bothered with it though). But if you look past that art, actually this VN was pretty good because it show some comedy and good character development for the girls in which each girls did have their specialty. There's also another factor in regard of the developer (Madosoft) last VN in which it was Yakimochi Stream (Nukige like VN), so of course Wagahigh here was the major improvement from Yakimochi. The premise was the MC is a mangaka that was supposed to be the secret at his school, at least until the student council president knew that and sort of rope the MC to join the council in exchange of keep MC's secret. Turned out that the president was also the mangaka as well - and was supposed to be MC's partner in manga writing to boot, something that the MC learned after he joined the council.
8. Chrono Clock (VNDB 7.33, Erogamescape 71)
The first Purplesoft VN that was localized, and let's just say that the translation choice for this is quite divisive (Either like it, dislike it, or just neutral). The premise is that our rich MC Rei did have a pocket watch from his grandfather, and with the pocket watch he's been able to turn back the time by five minutes. Even though the power is quite powerful, our Rei was mostly use the clock to search his girlfriend by confessing and then turned back the time. One day, he met Miu who was saved by Rei turning back the time after she did fall down and dead, and our Rei did impressed by seeing Miu's determination to confess to his best friend. From there Rei decided to help Miu while at the same time fall in love with her. While at first glance the man heroine is Miu looking from the prologue alone, actually the true main heroine in here is Cro who is the goddess that reside inside Rei's clock and thus the reason of why Rei's clock did have power. Also while I did say prologue here, I felt that it's not the case because we see Miu's development in the prologue and that Miu's route is more like her ending, so we can say that Miu's route here is the prologue (I did call it Miu's arc) and her ending.
7. Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki aka Saku Saku Love Blooms with the Cherry Blossom (VNDB 7.33, Erogamescape 69)
I still remember that this VN was started as the translation project for Shinku TL with some steady progress back at 2014. At first I expected that they'll release the patch quickly, but then suddenly the updates was stopped at QC progress until one day Akerou did announce that he'll go to vacation in order to have some rest. Little we knew that back then Akerou already asked some help from Sekai in order to do the QC (Sell it to Sekai), and then Sekai announced that they help Saku Saku QC (Announced the license) back at AX 2016 in which it shocked me very hard. Even then, Sekai still have delayed the release twice back at August 2017 end (Mismanagement on the release date) before finally manage to release it back at October 2017
The premise was that our MC got a bounty of 21,000 yen to anyone else who managed to make him fall in love, because the MC was known as romance consultant and yet he himself is unable to fall in love which ironically caused by his role as the romance consultant seeing he need to hears a bunch of troubles related to love. The MC's problem is increasing when he meet a shinigami (Tina) who remind him of his childhood when he saw a shinigami, and Tina herself did insist that she's a love fairy who will help the MC love become true (A lousy one though seeing that she use dramatic romance manga as the reference). As for the graphic, it's very beautiful so at least you can enjoy the graphic there if the story is no good for you, seeing not everyone are the fan of the drama that happen in this VN.
6. Da Capo 3 (VNDB 7.48, Erogamescape 77)
This one VN have some history with our Fuwanovel here, namely that there's first attempt of translating this by our founder Aaeru. Her method is quite divisive though because she'd use VNR which could be amounted as MTL to most of the people. Even so Aaeru keep working on this until she managed to release the prologue patch, only for Mangagamer to C&D her after they got the wind on this. After that she was disappear from the forum and nowadays nobody knew where she is. Anyway, what's done is done and we finally get the release back at 2017 January (By Mangagamer obviously). For the premise, it was set at 2072 after Everlasting Sakura was wither after Da Capo 2 event (The reason of why at 2072 is spoiler though), only to have that tree mysteriously blooming again. So more or less it's just usual Da Capo, and as for play order I would suggest you to play the first side story before going to common route because it's the real prologue for Da Capo 3 (Note that the Prologue and Common Route in Da Capo 3 did have VERY different setting). As for the opening here, there's too much opening for this so I'll just use the first opening in which it's very misleading because it only depict the situation at the Prologue (At least it did have 2D drawing).
5. Dies Irae (VNDB 8.11, Erogamescape 87)
I'm sure that everyone already knew this VN, along with another certain well known VN that released at 2017 as well. But just for the formality I'll write the premise in which case it goes like there's a group of Germany who involved in some dark ritual which involved absorbing the souls in order to strengthen themselves, and the only one who could possibly put the stop of the group was the MC (Fuuji Ren) himself. From there, Ren and the group would engage in very crazy battle with the world at stake. If it sounds cliche, then yes the premise is a cliche one. But the strength of Dies Irae was supposed to be the prose that was hard to be translated, and perhaps to allow the reader immerse in the reading. Although it got some infamy though because of that as well, namely that the prose itself was pretty long and roundabout at that for some people so it might be not for everyone. Oh, and there's also some charismatic gods who is managed to get some attention. I'll post the all age version opening, because all age version is the best one with side stories available and most people would prefer it over 18+ version (I also recommend that you should play all age version instead of 18+ version here, even though the latter did have 'passionate Hitomi Nabatame-voiced love-making' scene).
4. Seabed (VNDB 8.13, Erogamescape 80)
As for the scoring, since the number of votes was still very few this VN will be the most fluctuative one. As for the premise, it was very simple in which we got a woman (Sachiko) who has her lover disappear and from there she'll try to recover from the heartbreak that caused by the disappearance by the help of her childhood friend (Narasaki) who is also a psychiatrist. By the way Sachiko's lover (Takako) here was the woman as well, so we'll gonna get some yuri VN from the first glance although there'll be no explicit sex scenes though seeing that it's all age VN. Seeing that Sachiko seek some psychiatrist, there'll be some talk in regard of psychology in which it may confusing for some people out there. From there we'll going to see what's going on in Seabed through three POV (Sachiko, Takako, and Narasaki). The VN itself is a doujin one and didn't have voice, although seeing that we have example the good doujin VN that didn't have voice (ie Umineko and Fata Morgana before being ported to the consoles) I would say that you should try Seabed here to see it by yourself, and if anything at least the art is better than Umineko default art.
3. Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen aka Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception (VNDB 8.32, Erogamescape 82)
The first part of Utawarerumono sequel duology, in that it tell the story several years after first Utawarerumono. While at first it mean that you'll follow the older casts, actually in here you'll follow the new casts and the old casts here only have role as the cameo (Even though the role that the cameos have is not exactly small). So in order to enjoy this VN you better adapt with the new characters here, because we'll following them for the whole VN. As for the premise, we have our amnesiac man who find himself under treatment of a girl who capable in medicine. After the girl find out that the man did forget his name, the girl decided to call the man as Haku and the girl introduce herself as Kuon. From there both of Haku and Kuon will go to imperial city in order to find the job for Haku even though Haku just want to laze around, and from there the duo will eventually entangled in wars like back at first Utawarerumono. For more info the setting here is that the people except Haku have animal ears, and that Utawarerumono here is gameplay VN (SRPG) with the gameplay for the sequel here is vastly improved compared to the prequel. The most important thing in here is that it's only the first part of duology, so naturally the ending in here is a cliffhanger one and the second part (Futari no Hakuoro aka Mask of Truth) will pick up from the ending.
2. Chaos Child (VNDB 8.34, Erogamescape 85)
Unfortunately so far it's for console only, so no PC version for now. That said, Committee of Zero promised us that someday they'll port Chaos Child PS4 translation to PC version, so there's that. Anyway, the premise was we have another serial murder in Shibuya which eerily resembled the one back at Chaos Head (The prequel), which of course would be quite graphic considering that in the past Nitroplus was involved with Chaos Head. From there, it's up to MC and his girls teammate to solve the problem and ease the anxiety of Shibuya. Forget to say that the casts also have some kind of superpower here. From what I read apparently the girls route was not quite satisfying (The girls good as eye candy though if that's the case lol), so at least it could be interpreted that the writing was more focused on the main story which is full of sci-fi. Oh, and actually this is more in line with Steins Gate instead of original Chaos Head. As for the opening, I'll post PS4 version below because it would be more fitting seeing that we have PS4 version release for overseas here, and personally I prefer PS4 version opening (Singularity).
1. Subarashiki Hibi ~Furenzoku Sonzai~ aka Wonderful Everyday ~Diskontinuierliches Dasein~ (VNDB 8.70, Erogamescape 86)
As for this VN we definitely have many history with this in regard of the translation, and this VN is another well known VN that I said back at Dies Irae. Long story short, it was started as TL Wiki project since back at 2012 before it was officially localized by Frontwing who expanded their business into localized the VN overseas. I think in regard of this they did good job for that, although there's a matter of censorship though (Not as bad as Pulltop because only the picture was censored, and it was quite disturbing for some people). As for the premise, it was in regard of the world which about to face the apocalypse at July 20th 2012, and this VN depict that day from several perspective - the beginning of Subahibi was deceivingly present this VN as yuri harem VN though. What make this VN was good was apparently some say that it could change of how one would view his life, although if one want to be more realistic it's a denpa story which is belong to a horror genre - some contents could be disturbing because it could be happen in the real life as well. In the end, while this VN was divisive enough I would say that you should try it once. Forget to said that Frontwing did add Germany subtitle for this, just like Grisaia trilogy with French subtitle.
That's all for my top 10 here. In the future I'll try to write my list for 2016 as well later to show of how easy the VNs score was fluctuated in VNDB, and of course to compare the score difference in one year as well between Conjueror's video and now. Hope you like my post here.
PS - As for the title, I just combined both of Chaos Child and Subahibi title into 'Chaotic Everyday'. The explanation is that the 'Chaotic' part was come from 'Chaos', and 'Everyday' was come from Subarashiki Hibi (Translator's Note: Hibi mean Everyday).
Welcome to my top 10 list of translated VNs for 2018, and I think it's the right time to make this seeing that 2019 is almost come. As for the rule, there's no yaoi, otome, fandisc (ie Fata Morgana fandisc), and re-release (Konosora and Chaos Child). As for my list here, my taste here is quite personal so I'm sorry if some of your favorite titles didn't available here. Here's my list of top 10 translated VNs for this year, and I hope that you'll enjoy it. As for the score currently I'm based on the VNDB average score at June 10th, 2025, although it may be change in the future seeing that the scores is often fluctuated.
10. Hapymaher (VNDB 7.41, Erogamescape 78)
While I did admit that I was interested with this VN because of the costumes that the girls wear in the dream, I also can see that the costumes here is quite sexy so much that it did distract the reader's attention from the real meat of this VN which is the mind screw story that have some nakige element. I understand that the distraction may be deliberate, but it's still a waste though to have that kind of sexy costumes considering that this isn't nukige lol. As for the premise, it was in regard of the MC Tohru Naito who is burdened by his past that he was lost his family, so much that he can't rest because he did have lucid dream every night that he keep felt awaken in the dream. One night he saw two mysterious girls Alice and Maia, with the former was trying to help Tohru while the latter keep doing something bad. From there Tohru keep trying to find the solution to his own problem, while Maia somehow keep dragging the other girls into Tohru's dream. Since this VN involving people entering dream, what I can say is that it would be better to just enjoy the show instead of keep thinking seriously of how is that even plausible because it'll be hurt you head if you think it. Oh and almost forget to say that Hapymaher here did have Alice in Wonderland theme.
9. Sorcery Jokers (VNDB 7.43, Erogamescape 79)
The first 2018 release from Mangagamer that was announced back at Otakon 2016, and it's setting was in regard of a city which got some magic user that was exist after years ago when the magic was suddenly came to the existence. While at the first glance it made people felt more content seeing that they manage to a normal life, beneath that there's some secret plan happening and it affected the life of several people. Two of those people are Senri (The magic using criminal) and Mutsumi Haruto (Ordinary school boy), and from there they'd try to understand more about what's happening around them in which they may need have a hard time to do that.
As for the MCs each of the MC got two heroines each, and yeah I did say it in plural because in Sorcery Jokers we'll going to have two MCs (The aforementioned Haruto and Senri). That said, since this VN involving some combat and world building we won't see much romance at least until you finished the VN, and for more info this VN is a linear one with the feature that you need to unlock the scenes first. Also while there's only two MCs occasionally we also can see the perspective from three other heroines (The fourth heroine didn't have POV), or to put it simply it's like 11eyes Cross Vision system. Speaking about Haruto, I did hear that his 'not playing fair' catchphrase is annoying although I would say that Haruto here is overshadowed by far more cool Senri, and that you can slightly understand there's a reason of why Haruto is like that if you know the twist (The twist remind me of Tales of the Abyss's own twist).
8. Fureraba ~Friend to Lover~ (VNDB 7.61, Erogamescape 81)
The first time I find this VN was through the opening song, in which I did hear it when I'm binged Astral Air opening. One time I let my Youtube video player to play next video in the play list, and it happen that one of the video was Fureraba opening in which I'd find it addictive because it's sounds melancholic. Anyway after I'd hear the opening I search about the VN, and turned out that it's a VN from Smee in which back then there's no hope to be translated even though I'm quite interested with that. At least until Nekonyan did their debut and announced Fureraba as their first title, in which they'd release it quickly at the same month that they promised (March). As for Fureraba, while the opening sounds melancholic actually the game itself is full of humor so we can say that it got some mismatch lol. The premise is simple though that namely it's about Kyousuke (The MC) who strife get his girlfriend, and that you must accomplish it through the small talks between the heroines. As for the heroines, there's estranged childhood friend, best friend, very rude classmate, and very shy popular senior girl. Overall I did enjoy this VN and if you want more Smee VNs, there'll be more considering that Nekonyan picked Making Lovers.
7. Maitetsu (VNDB 7.68, Erogamescape 77)
Since the heroines here are designed to look like child, Lose was afraid of the ban for overseas release so much that they censored panty shot in the VN as well. That said, it's still fair enough compared to what Pulltop did to Miagete because at least Sekai also released the 18+ patch for this in that it unlock the sex scenes if you didn't mind with it. Nowadays there's also the patch to restore the censored contents, so censored contents shouldn't be an issue anymore. For the premise here, we got out MC Soutetsu who suffer train accident in his childhood come back to his hometown in order to save the town from the potential water pollution thanks to the plan to build an aircraft factory. Some time later, he find a doll which turned out to be an android known as Raillord which supposed to control the train, and seeing that Soutetu got an idea to revive the train so that the town didn't need to depend on the factory as income source of the town. By the way the Raillords here are pretty much the train's life, so it's understandable if you asking about the setting if you heard it first. The questionable setting and early controversy aside, Maitetsu here did have a lot of technical talk about train itself.
6. Evenicle (VNDB 7.69, Erogamescape 82)
The first attempt from Alicesoft to make new franchise now that they already ended Rance franchise, although both of Evenicle and Rance did share some of it's lore though. As for the VN story itself, it's self contained enough considering the scope was covering of the whole Evenicle world instead of a part of the whole world like Rance, although judging from the sequel we may have many different worlds for Evenicle series setting though. As for the first Evenicle premise, it's in regard of Aster who want to marry both of his childhood friend only to be stopped by the rule that man can only have one wife unless he became the knight. So Aster decide to become the knight in order to be able to marry both, and from there he met several other women who one way or another become his wives while at the same time he face several enemies who based on Seven Deadly Sins. As for the gameplay I think it's like the combination of Final Fantasy 4 with fixed five party members with specified roles, and Final Fantasy 4 Heroes of Light with battle system that based on 5 BP that will regenerate by one per turn (Also with the Seven Deadly Sins). Overall I did find that Evenicle here is quite good.
5. Tsujidou-san no Jun'ai Road (VNDB 7.69, Erogamescape 78)
I did repeatedly say that it'll be better if we didn't expect Majikoi from this seeing that both premises are already different, but seeing that the tone is the same along with the fact that there's Takahiro who is infamously have big influence in each of his credited works, it's hard to say that it's not like Majikoi here. So perhaps the right word for Tsujidou here is 'Majikoi but no Majikoi', in which I know it's hard to understand but at least I'm certain that Tsujidou here will be full of comedy. Anyway the premise is that our Hiroshi who is far more normal compared to Majikoi's MC did spot the beautiful delinquent at his class Tsujidou Ai (The main heroine) did looking cute while pick a cat, and from there both of Hiroshi and Ai sort of in relationship for a while. At the same time, Ai was dubbed as one of the three strong delinquent in their territory along with two other heroines (Renna and Maki). For more info, this is the second Tsurezure's work that in which Trip didn't like Maki to put it lightly and said that Hiroshi here is worse compared to HatsuKoi's Yuuma. Even so, they still managed to finish Tsujidou and I'm sure that most people who've been looking forward to this would be grateful, so I appriciate their work on this even with the fact that Trip dislike this.
4. Island (VNDB 7.77, Erogamescape 82)
Frontwing 15th anniversary project, and instead of ask four writers like back at Grisaia this time they decided to ask Goo to write this, so it's normal if we expect some sci-fi from this considering that Goo did write Himawari who is also known for some sci-fi element. As for the premise, it was in regard of Setsuna who at first didn't remember his name until a girl with the name Rinne call him with that name, and so Setsuna decided to go with it and helping Rinne while at the same time try to understand his own self. We also have the setting that there's a legend that Rinne here is one part of the three families in an isolated island, and that there's a rumored curse that was supposed to be happened because of apparent past mistakes that was done by supposed Setsuna's and Rinne's ancestors. Almost forget that like Tsujidou you can have a romance with the three family daughters, although since this is all age VN obviously we wouldn't have sex scenes (At least Yukari Tamura as Rinne here is more than enough tradeoff lol). Like Grisaia, Frontwing also adapt Island into anime and it should be good if for the conclusive ending only (The anime was kind of rushed though), while at the same time the VN was ended in slightly less conclusive note.
3. Sanoba Witch aka Sabbat of the Witch (VNDB 7.84, Erogamescape 80)
Back at last year I did thought that Sekai will bring more Yuzusoft VNs, and turned out I was wrong because the one who release it first was Nekonyan. Also to elaborate more Senren Banka license was moved from Sekai to Nekonyan, leaving Sekai with Tenshin Ranman and Dracu Riot in which both of those are frozen so any chance for near future release is small. So let me redact my statement by saying that there'll be more Yuzusoft VN in the future because Nekonyan have Senren Banka. Anyway as for Sanoba's premise here it's about of how love that was started from masturbation, and it make sense in the context. Or if you want to be concise it's about our MC Shuuji who can perceive the emotion saw Nene who was masturbate in the library which turned out it's because of her witch contract that cause the horniness, and Nene sign the contract in order to fulfill her wish just like Madoka. While they say witch, I would say that magical girl here is more fitting to Sanoba but then again both of those are almost the same. For more info, this is the first officially localized Yuzusoft VN while at the same time the third (The second if you still wait for Dracu Riot official release) translated Yuzusoft VN, and once again there'll be more in the future thanks to Nekonyan.
2. Flowers -Le Volume sur Été- (VNDB 8.34, Erogamescape 81)
Also known as Flowers Summer, and the most interesting JAST release at this year out of their three releases to me, with their other two releases are Schatten and Sweet House. As for the premise, once again it's shoujo ai VN telling the story of a tall and beautiful girl, Suoh, who is painfully shy attend Saint Angraecum in order to improve herself, and currently suffer some heartbreak after the drama from Flowers Spring happened. Thus our snarky wheel chaired girl Yaegaki Erika took unto herself as Suoh's fellow fan of literature to help Suoh to recover and become the MC of this VN, and obviously we'll going to see of how Erika will handle her own problem in which she did find a new friend with the name Takasaki Chidori who'll later become her soulmate. Since this is the second part of tetralogy, obviously there'll be two more parts in which as of now JAST was working on the third part and hopefully they'll work on the fourth part (Which will conclude Suoh's story) later. Oh yes, unlike Flowers Spring this time there's no controversies in regard of the bad translation, so good job to the translator. Also there are some known anime VAs voicing the characters in here, namely Kaori Nazuka (Suoh's VA), Aya Suzaki (Chidori's VA), and Sakura Ayane (Erika's VA).
1. 428 ~Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de~ aka 428: Shibuya Scramble (VNDB 8.35 Erogamescape 84)
Currently the only VN that got Famitsu score 40/40 in which in term of video game it would be a big accomplishment (Only 25 games as of 2017), and obviously it mean that Shibuya Scramble here would be a subject of hype. Although as for that, I think the hype was pretty much justified seeing that this VN is quite unique because instead of usual anime like drawing, the creator decided to use photograph which mean that it's obviously will cost a lot. As for the premise, it start simple enough with a detective was tasking into resolve the kidnapping case by giving the ransom money to the kidnapper. Of course things turn out to be not as simple as the first look, and so the detective decided to unravel what's really happening behind the kidnapping. Other than the detective, there's four other characters who somehow are involved in the kidnapping case and you'll going to see from the perspectives of all of those characters so essentially we'll going to have five MCs. Other than PS4, Shibuya Scramble was also out for PC so you can play it if you didn't have PS4, although you can only use the keyboard to play it. Almost forget that if you like Canaan anime, you should check Shibuya Scramble here seeing that this VN is the prequel for the anime itself.
As for of the VNs at this year, I would say that with Nekonyan being aggressive looks like it'll be possible that we can get more VNs title. Although of course the situation can be change though because it's still up to the company whether they can release it or not, and we know that the company situation could be easily changed. With this year was almost close, let's look forward to 2019 later with more potential VNs release.
PS - As for the title, I'm just combined Flowers school place setting (Saint Angraecum) with Shibuya Scramble, so we got 'Angraecum Scramble' for the title although of course there's no big scrambling zebra cross in the school in Flowers like back at Shibuya.
Quite a crazy year that we have in regard of 2020, especially with pandemic and all here. Anyway just like previous best rated VNs list I'll list what's translated VNs that we have in 2020 here, and the rules are still the same in that I won't list BL, fandisc (So no Aokana EXTRA1 and Miagete FD), partial translated VNs, censored VNs (None at this year thankfully) and otome VNs. Let's see what kind of VNs that I'll list below, and I'll tell the meaning of the title at PS below. Also I'm sorry if some of your favorite VNs here didn't available in my list, and I know that each of you may think differently on what's the best translated VNs that we have at 2020. For the scoring, it would be based on VNDB average score at May 20th, 2025, and as always both of the score and the rating can be change in the future.
10. Riddle Joker (VNDB 7.59)
Back at January last year, Nekonyan did announce this along with (Redundant) Dracu Riot, which to say sort of ironic seeing that mod Clephas did say that Riddle Joker here is very similar to Dracu Riot. As for what I can say in regard of that, at least I can say that I recommend anyone else to read Riddle Joker first if you still waiting for Nekonyan to release Dracu Riot. Also both works did have it's own pro and con, so to each of their own in regard on which VN is better. The premise goes like we have Satoru who've been hide the secret that he's a secret agent and then he got the mission to infiltrate the school that educate the students with super power. Along the mission, he met the student council president Ayase who find out Satoru's secret and turned out Ayase also has a big secret, and her secret is she wore the pad to cover the fact that her breast is quite small. As both of them known each other secret, they started to get closer with each other and naturally there'll be romance between them (Of course Satoru can ended up with other girls beside Ayase). Lastly I can say that it's nice that we can see two translated Yuzusoft VNs in a year, and thus now we have five translated Yuzusoft VNs.
9. Senren Banka (VNDB 7.70)
At July 2017 in AX Sekai did announce this along with several other announcements, and of course back then I really hoping that Sekai will deliver it. Only to find out that Sekai didn't do anything on Senren Banka for around 17 months until when Nekonyan did announce this, and from there we've started to see some progress on Senren Banka. Time passed, and back at Valentine Nekonyan did release this after they did release the trial beforehand. As for the premise, we have our MC Masaomi visiting his grandfather village in order to helping out the ryokan. Before going to Ryokan, Masaomi did see a tourist attraction in which there's a katana was stuck in the stone and he did try to pull it. Little did he know back then that he'll broke the katana and thus it created the commotion, with the end result that Masaomi must engaged to the shrine maiden as form of responsibilities. While at first Masaomi didn't like it seeing that the village is basically out of nowhere, it didn't take too long before Masaomi took a liking to the village. By the way while the story in common route is interesting, in the end it's still a charage so don't expect some epic story in Senren Banka here.
8. Robotics Notes (VNDB 7.70)
Science Adventure VN that is quite unfortunate in that it has been compared with Steins Gate so much that people think it's not good, and the staffs here didn't help at all by released the fandisc that has Steins Gate major characters (Daru) as the second MC which indicate that even the staffs themselves didn't have confidence that Robotics Notes can stand on it's own. As for Robotics Notes itself, we have our MC Kaito who's been childhood friend with Akiho. One day in order to avoid the disband of Robot club, Akiho decided to make a big accomplishment by building a giant robot, and of course she decided to enlist Kaito's help who at first is not quite enthusiastic. Some times after that Kaito find some files called Kimijima Report, and the report did contain a plot that involving the whole world which of course would lead into something big as per Science Adventure VN. Curious about the report, Kaito decided to investigate it while at the same time he gather more allies to help Akiho build the robot. The PC version at first didn't have mouse control support which to say is a questionable decision, but thanks to Committee of Zero who released the improvement patch now we can play this using mouse.
7. Making Lovers (VNDB 7.77)
Another Smee VN, and it's the 2nd Smee VN that Nekonyan localized after Fureraba. Since it came from same company along with have same writer, Makeover here also has comedy writing like Fureraba and of course Makeover here is just usual moege. As for the premise, we have Kazuma who is a young adult and live alone. Obviously this time the MC here is not a high school student, but instead Kazuma here is already graduated from the college. Even so, the problem is still the same though in that he want to have a girlfriend. In Makeover here we supposed to help Kazuma to get his girlfriend, although this time instead of small talk like at Fureraba you can just chose the heroines by using the choice like usual VN and there's no much choices so you can immediately make Kazuma to have his girlfriend. As for the girlfriend candidates (ie heroines), this time we have five with the candidates are a tsundere former college friend, a high school model, a stepsister, a weather forecast presenter, and a strange neighbor. Nekonyan also plan to localize the FD of this, although as of now there's still no work on the FD because they've been quite busy with handling many other projects.
6. Ryuusei World Actor aka Meteor World Actor (VNDB 7.81)
At first Shiravune (Formerly ShiraVN) want to release this on Steam, but for some reason Valve reject it for three time so that we can't see Steam release for it. After the repeated rejections, Shiravune decided to release it on Johren in which it's their own store (Both of Shiravune and Johren are owned by DMM). For the premise, we have our MC Ruka who work as a policeman and that he's been quite infamous within the forces. One day he got a female elf newbie named Claris, and Ruka guide Claris begrudgingly because he was forced to do that by his superior. Other thing to note is that it's first Kinugasa translated work in that it show he can write good comedy along with good setting in which the other races live together with human (One of those is the aforementioned elf), while at the same time he can't write an ending to his own story because he spent too much time on establishing the setting or to put it nicely he prefer to write open ending that some people may like it. I know currently the sequel is in development according to this tweet, but seeing that Kinugasa still wrote open ending even at Akagoei 3 I don't think that Kinugasa won't write the open ending in the sequel.
5. Atri -My Dear Moments- (VNDB 7.82)
At 2020 Aniplex decided to enter the VN market, and they published two title at once, Adabana Itan and Atri. For Adabana Itan, it's Liar-soft VN with beautiful arts courtesy of Ooishi Ryuuko, while Atri is Frontwing VN with both Konno Asta and SCA-JI as the staffs, although SCA-JI only direct the art. By the way, Atri itself is all age in the first place, so you didn't need to worry the sex scenes removal like what Pulltop did to the writer's previous works (Konosora and Miagete). Atri's setting is the sunken world with only the little habitable area remains, although it's not the main focus of the VN. Instead, the VN will be focused on the relation of the MC, Natsuki, and the titular character Atri. In Atri, we have Natsuki who has lost both of his mother and his leg in his childhood because of the accident. One day, he dive into the ruined his late grandmother undersea laboratory in hope finding some treasure that he may be use to buy advanced cybernetic leg. However instead of treasure, what Natsuki is found on the ruin is the robot girl who called herself Atri. Feeling thankful to Natsuki, Atri decided to repay Natsuki's kindness by she doing her best to act as Natsuki's leg.
4. Gekkou no Carnevale (VNDB 7.87)
I must say that I'm quite surprised with this, especially I did know about this three days after the release (The release day was at Christmas). Moreso if I consider that the one who release this was GHS of all people, and naturally people are skeptical about this seeing that his reputation is quite infamous thanks to his (So-called) badly translated Cross Channel. That said even with knowing his past infamy and that the translation of this is apparently not quite well done, I still say that you should read this to either read more Nitroplus VN or check if the translation is really bad as people says. As for the premise of Carnevale, we have Romeo who work as taxi driver and ironically has a bad sense of direction. However, he has a secret in that he's a former member of a mafia and he himself is a werewolf, and that the mafia where he did belong is pursuing him. Along the way, Romeo pick a living doll that didn't have past memories named Anna, and Romeo decided to live together with her. Of course seeing that Romeo did need to fend off his pursuer along with some new enemies, naturally he'll fight some people and thus Carnevale here has fighting scenes.
3. Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi aka YOU and ME and HER: A Love Story (VNDB 8.02)
As for Kimikoi, at first I was surprised on why Nitroplus here like to make the VN setting like a usual moege with school and all. At least until one day in which I watch a certain video, and I can say that I like that Nitroplus did go all out step outside their comfort zone by making a lighthearted moege. As for the premise, we have our MC Shinichi who has a childhood friend named Miyuki. One day he find a weird girl named Aoi who like to mutter some nonsense terms such as game, heroine, and the like. Of course Shinichi as normal people would pitying her because it mean that she's not normal so Shinichi decided to enlist Miyuki help. Over time, Shinichi, Miyuki, and Aoi become the best friends and as per moege rule both heroines are fall in love with Shinichi. I see that some people did mention that this VN did resemble Doki Doki Literature Club when they play or review Kimikoi, but I would say that they're totally wrong because there's no literature club in Kimikoi here. I also see some people did compare Miyuki with Monika, but I think they're pretty much different with the only similarities are those their name started with M and both names have six letters.
2. Flowers -Le Volume sur Automne- (VNDB 8.35)
The third part of Flowers tetralogy (Which depict the GL story with the setting that resemble Marimite, the all-girl Catholic school) which also known as Flowers Autumn, and once again Innocent Grey decided to not made Suoh as the MC even though she started to make a move to resolve her problem from the first Flowers. Instead, we have the student council president Yuzuriha who was the side character in previous two parts as the MC of Flowers Autumn, and in here we'll see on how Yuzuriha has her own problem along with on how she'll handle it. For the story, we have Suoh was asked by Yuzuriha who was about to graduate to become student council president as the requirement for Suoh to know the truth that could help her, which is almost impossible seeing Suoh herself is painfully shy. However, Suoh knew that the truth is very important and related to her dilemma, so she took the challenge before she resolve her problem in the last part (Flowers Winter). Seeing on how JAST took two years to work on each parts, obviously JAST will release Flowers Winter at 2022 if they decided to localize it, and they should anyway if they want to complete the tetralogy seeing it conclude Suoh's story.
1. Summer Pockets (VNDB 8.47)
The newest KEY work, and it's their big work after Rewrite. As for the VN itself, all of the twists did resemble some of previous KEY VNs twists here and thus it make Summer Pockets quite fit as first KEY VN to play, or perhaps can also be treated as nostalgia for veteran KEY player. As for the translation, at first Alka is the one who handle this, but later Visual Arts decided to localize this and they released this back at February. With Reflection Blue release, Alka decided to work on that and they also decided to reworking the original version translation seeing that they're not satisfied with the official translation. As for the premise, we have Hairi who experienced some unpleasant incident decided to go to the island where his late grandmother did reside in order to recover. From there he'll get introduced with the four girls who one way or another will have the romance with him. Forgot to say that while Summer Pockets twists like KEY past VNs, the main writer here is Niijima Yuu in which it made Summer Pockets as the second work of him that was translated after Majokoi. As for the opening, I'll use the one from the original version because it has nice 2D animation and Reflection Blue keep it anyway.
That's all for my list this year, and as for my honorable mention I'll name Sakuramori (VNDB 7.30), Ouka Sabaki (VNDB 7.55), and Kami no Rhapsody (VNDB 7.14). Overall for 2020 I can say that Nekonyan did being aggressive by releasing several interesting title at once, although I guess I can say that Mangagamer is not so bad considering the year that we have here (If anything else I'll look forward to their Musicus release later). Also this year we have Shiravune which as we know is DMM branch, I'll look forward to see what kind of feat that they'll be able to do in the future even though their VNs lineup is not as interesting as Nekonyan yet. To conclude this, I'll look forward to what both of Nekonyan and Shiravune can do later along with some potential interesting releases at 2021 later.
PS - As for the title, I combined both of the opening song title from both of Makeover (Girls' Carnival) and Summer Pocket (Alkatale), so we have 'Girls' Tale' for the title here
For this week title since we had Yoru ga Kuru released with the story resemble Persona 3 and Alicesoft add Remaster label, I decided to add the word 'Reload' in the English title of it (Square of the Moon), even though Alicesoft didn't do much improvement on Yoru ga Kuru compared to what Atlus did on Persona 3. Anyway, compared to the last week we have fewer release, so it's pretty obvious that this week is a breather one. That said, there's still some interesting announcements, such as Nekopara 5 new exact release date and Tsukikana translation progress, so at least there's something worth to note. Overall this week is an average one, and let's see what I can write in regard of it.
As for the release in this week, it's Pussylimpics from Cherry Kiss in which once again telling a story about a creepy sports physician who spent his time at job to take the picture at the big breasted female athletes until one day he was approached by the tennis player who tell the MC to make her rivals as his sex slaves, so that the tennis player can become number one athlete. Unfortunately for the tennis player, the MC was too eager to do his job with he eventually also make the tennis player as one of of his sex slave. Go get Pussylimpics if you're in a mood for a nukige, and have fun.
Sekai had several updates at this week, although the most notable one is in regard of Nekopara 5 exact release date with they'll release it on 13th later. That said, it's more like it was released by the developer in DLSite with the English language support, because the review process by Steam is still not done yet so Sekai need to wait before they can release it on Steam (Or if they can release it on there or not). For their other updates, they currently waiting for the build of Dra-Con Cafe in order to insert the fully translated text, and also they already finished the editing work for A Maiden's Serenade with they currently do the programming work for it. From fan translation, we have Ushieta's translator say that he'll release the full patch of it on 13th later (Let's see if he can release the translation patch at that date later), and Majikoi A Plus Disk is at 15.42% edited.
One of Nekonyan's translator mentioned that Futamata was already starting its QA work at their Discord, which mean that it's possibly already fully or almost fully edited and perhaps may be released in this year, although we still need to wait and see here. Speaking of wait and see, Yuzusoft has another new VN, LimeLight Lemonade Jam, in which they're clearly inspired from Bocchi the Rock by making the cover heroine, Ena, as someone who is shy on top having the story revolving around the rock band. While obviously there's still no announcement in regard of English translation with the VN will be released on September 26th later, there's a very high chance that Nekonyan will localized this, and so I'll write more of it later if there's some signs appear later. Lastly, Tsukikana full translation text was already finished which is definitely very major progress, although it's still not ended yet because the team still need to do editing and QC works before releasing the full translation patch of it.
That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.
Visual Novel Translation Status (14/07/2024)
Welcome to this week VNTS review, and because we have Hookah Haze release with the premise is similar with Coffee Talk, I made the parody of Coffee Talk by change 'Coffee' into 'Shisha' with shiha is another name for hookah, so we have 'Shisha Talk' as the title. As for this week, while usually we got a breather after AX, this week is quite plain seeing there's no much happening. That said, there's still some news to note, such as the release of Hookah Haze and Sekai revealed the progress for two of their projects. With that done, let's see what I can write in regard of this week.
Last week I did miss some updates from AX, so let me try to round it up here. At AX, Mangagamer did announce the release date for one of their VN, with said VN is Steam Prison fandisc and the release date for it will be on November 28th later so feel free to note the date if you want to see more Steam Prison. Also actually Denpasoft did announce Kurikuri Click 3 with the VN decided to be a bit meta with the single heroine being gravure model who also is a succubus (For the info the VA of the trilogy is gravure model), and looks like the announcement is too underwhelming so much nobody add the English version entry on its VNDB page. Aniplex had the biggest announcement that I missed last week, although said announcement is the plan to localized second part of Tsukihime Remake, which would be involve a lot of waiting seeing Nasu probably still thinking on how he resolve the character that he add in the first part while also adding more new characters. For the reminder, second part has the remaining three routes along with the new route for Satsuki, so it's very easy to say Nasu will spent very long time writing it if the first part is any indication.
Cherry Kiss was just released Sexcalibur nukige, and well feel free to get it if you want to see on how the MC do his revenge quest to the leader of the female knights who destroyed his hometown by raping her. For Hookah Haze, once again the premise is quite similar to Coffee Talk with the MC as the manager of hookah lounge listened to the problem that his customer tell with him provided the fitting hookah, which in turn it's also similar with Valhalla with pixel arts and all. For the premise, once again it's about the MC Toru (By the way he looks like the female and good looking at that) who is sick and about to die was asked to manage hookah lounge by his doctor in order to make the most of his remaining time. In the lounge, Toru got three unusual girls as his customers with he soon find out the three girls have bottled up problem, and it's upt to Toru on how he'll help the girl. Go get Hookah Haze if you're into the VN that has pixel arts like Valhalla, and have fun.
Sekai did reveal the progress for their projects that they've been planned to be released on this year, Amairo Chocolata 3 and Akaneiro, and surprisingly they have good number of progress. For Akaneiro currently it's been in programming with they already completed both of the translation and editing work, while for Amairo Chocolata 3 currently it's been at three quarter translated. Lastly for fan translation updates, we have Akagoei 3 is at 82.96% edited, Shinzou Translation's secret project is at three quarter edited, and Karenai Sekai was already fully translated.
That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.
Welcome to my list of best-rated translated visual novels in 2023, with the world back to normal after the pandemic. Of course, we still have several translated VN releases, even though the title is not as big as in several past years. But if anything else, seeing Mahoyo being available on Steam means Type-Moon showed an interest in releasing their translated VN on PC, which is quite interesting. Also, I'm sorry if some of your favorite VNs are not on the list because I may be a bit subjective when making this list. As for the rule, the translation must be considered complete by VNDB as of today, June 2nd, 2025, and the score for each VN is the score on VNDB today. Oh yes, I almost forgot to say the scores could change in the future.
10. Kunado Kokuki (VNDB 7.38)
I already guess Purple Software has a plan to add translated Kunado in Steam by reducing the number of sex scenes to almost less than half on either Amatsutsumi or Aoi Tori. This time, Purple Software asked Shiravune to localize the game, which makes Purple Software work with four publishers. Even with fewer sex scenes, Shiravune still cut one route for the Steam version before the release. The setting for Kunado is around 1,000 years in the future, with Tekki (the metal that becomes sentient) roaming across the Earth and attacking humanity. Tekki also caused further problems by corrupting all kinds of metal, so humanity had no choice but to revert the civilization to ancient Japan and reduce their numbers. Even so, the humans didn't give up, so they fought against the strongest Tekki and won after one big war with the loss of the strongest warrior. A hundred days after the big war, the amnesiac man (the MC) who knows the civilization from 1,000 years ago woke up from cryogenic sleep. Seeing that humans didn't have any other knowledge besides warfare, the amnesiac MC decided to teach the humans the knowledge to rebuild the civilization.
9. Walkure Romanze ~Shoujo Kishi Monogatari~ (VNDB 7.54)
In 2011, Ricotta released Walkure Romanze after being successful with Princess Lover. Like Princess Lover, Walkure Romanze has a high-class setting, although they also add jousting sport. While Ricotta themselves is not as famous as Minato-soft, at least they still manage to get some anime VA to voice the characters in Walkure Romanze, such as Shitaya Noriko and Uchiyama Yumi. Ricotta also did their best on the graphic, which made Walkure get the Best Graphic award from Getchu in 2011. In 2012, a fan was interested in translating Walkure Romanze, although the project was going nowhere, so there's no hope of seeing the translation of Walkure Romanze if not for a 4chan user who decided to work on it back in 2021. After two years of effort, we finally see the full translation patch for Walkure Romanze available in August 2023. For the VN, it's about Takahiro, a prodigy in jousting, although he has an accident that forced him to retire. Even so, he still works on jousting as the begleiter (assistant). Being former athletes, many aspiring jousting athletes want his assistance. So obviously, we're going to see Takahiro help the athletes and see his romance blooming while at it.
8. Anonymous Code (VNDB 7.54)
I admit that initially, I thought MAGES did milk Steins Gate again when they made this, especially with the staff saying it has the same setting as Steins Gate. After I see more of the game, I think at least it's not just blatantly milking Steins Gate. Anonymous Code is the sixth Science Adventure VN, and it had six times rewrites. The premise is the hacker MC, Pollon, says he wants to elope with a cute girl, only to have his friend dismiss him. One day, he saw his imaginary girl, Momo, in danger. Being the nice guy and engaged with Momo in his mind, Pollon tries to save Momo even though it's dangerous. Then, Pollon finds the strange app that allows him to Save and Load. Yes, Save and Load like in the video games. So, Pollon use the app to find a safer way to rescue Momo. After escaping the danger, Pollon finds many dangerous people who want to capture Momo, so Pollon decides to do his best to fight the chaser using the mysterious app. Anonymous Code didn't have character routes, which may be good if someone has a problem with the character routes. It also has the English dub, unlike past Science Adventure VNs, so it has the usual translated video game feel.
7. Clover Day's (VNDB 7.66)
In 2014, Astro wanted to express his love for this VN, so he established a translation project for it. Time passed, and it was going well until he had to stop his translation activities in 2018. In 2020, Nekonyan announced this as one of their licenses, with the new translator, Ittaku, working on it. Unfortunately, it was not smooth sailing, seeing Valve decide to ban the VN. In 2023, Hikari Field submitted the heavily edited VN to Valve, and they finally accepted it. Afterward, Nekonyan released this in August 2023. The setting for this VN is nothing special, especially if we compare it to the other Alcot VNs, such as My Girlfriend is the President or Tokyo Hero Project. The premise is about Yuuto, a half-Japanese who spent his time in an orphanage in England. One day, a businessman from Japan picked Yuuto as his stepson. At first, Yuuto had difficulties getting along with the other children, but then he managed to do so. Ten years after Yuuto came to Japan, Yuuto started to experience romance with one of his childhood friends. I forgot to mention the staff showed their interest in twin heroines, with four heroines being two pairs of twin siblings.
6. Nukige Mitai na Shima ni Sunderu Watashi wa Dou Surya Ii Desu ka (VNDB 7.84)
Back in 2020, Nukitashi was almost ready to be released in English, only for the chance to blow up thanks to the publisher issue. Thankfully, Shiravune did pick this title, and now we managed to have Nukitashi in English. It's also worth noting that Shiravune cut most of the content for the Steam version, resulting in the Steam version having less than an hour of gameplay, which is quite extreme but understandable if we see how Valve banning works. In Nukitashi, we have the MC Junnosuke return to his hometown in Seiran. When he came back, he saw his hometown turned from a backwater town into a sex paradise thanks to the law that allow people to have sex whenever they want. While this sounds good on paper, he feels that there's something wrong with the state of his hometown, especially when it becomes a police state with civil servants forcing people to have sex. To fight back against the situation, Junnosuke revolts against the system while backed by a mysterious sponsor. As it turned out, Nukitashi's focus is not really on sex like the title suggests (nukige meant sex-focused VN), but instead on the deconstruction of the setting that allows the people to have sex as much as possible.
5. Tokyo Necro (VNDB 7.91)
After Muramasa and Totono, in 2016, Nitroplus released Tokyo Necro with them experimenting with it, notably showing the fight in 3D animation. In Tokyo Necro, the world in 2199 facing the second Ice Age and still reeling from the most terrible war. As if the situation is not bad enough, there are living dead (also known as zombies) roaming in the open, and some people capable of making the zombies do their bidding called Necromancers. Thus, we had two protagonists, Souun and Ethica, working hard fighting the zombies. Even though both are capable of combating the living dead and have an interest in women, both have many differences, such as fighting style, personalities, and gender (Souun is male while Ethica is female). One day, Souun and Ethica do a mission to rescue the VIP person kidnapped by one of the Necromancers. After fighting against the Necromancer, Souun finds the mysterious girl who forgot everything except her name, Ilia. Afterward, both Souun and Ethica started to search for information about Ilia while investigating more about the Necromancer they fought. Eventually, their investigation uncovered multiple secrets connected to Ilia and the world around them.
4. Meikei no Lupercalia (VNDB 8.16)
In the past, I saw a post about voice acting in Lupercalia, so I read the post. Of course, I did hear the sample of the voice acting, and the VA went all out to voicing the character (said character is supposed to be the best actress in the setting, Orihara Hyouko). With good voice acting, I thought it could be good to have it translated, although I knew there was almost no chance back then unless a publisher somehow decided to pick the license. However, one fan decided to take the job of translating the VN alone. After months of hard work, he released the full translation patch with the English title Lupercalia of the Silent Accord. In Lupercalia, we have Tamaki, formerly a child theater actor who quit acting, invited to see Lampyris Troupe performing Hamlet. Curious, he watched it and found out the performance was good. Afterward, Tamaki tried to enter the troupe with his childhood friend, Futaba, only to find out they must pass a test by doing a play. Seeing Tamaki still has cold feet from acting, he took the director's role to direct Futaba's first play. For the VN itself, there'll be some harsh stories about the theatre and how it'll affect the people in it, for better or worse.
3. Tsui no Stella (VNDB 8.22)
Tsui no Stella is one of KEY VN. For information, while their more famous work is quite lengthy, they also like to make several short VNs, with those VNs usually having robot characters (a trend they started way back in 2004 with Planetarian). This work is not different from those short VN, with the single heroine, Philia, being an android. The premise for Tsui no Stella is Jude, the MC, is the Courier who worked a dangerous job as the delivery man to deliver the cargo. As for why the job is a dangerous one, it's because Jude lives in a world where humanity is almost extinct with the machines roaming around. One day, Jude received a request to deliver some unusual cargo, and that cargo was Philia, an android who is not hostile to humans. After Jude met with Philia, Philia decided to ask Jude to escort her to the place where she could turn into a human. Seeing no choice, Jude decided to deliver her to her goal. In the journey, Jude and Philia develop their relationship, although in this case, it would be like father and daughter rather than in a romantic sense. The writer for this VN is Tanaka Romeo, who also wrote one of the long KEY VNs, Rewrite.
2. Rance IX - Helman Kakumei (VNDB 8.31)
Unlike when there was an 11-year gap between Sengoku Rance and Rance Quest English version releases, we only have a two-year gap between Rance Quest and Rance IX releases, so good job for Mangagamer. For Rance IX's premise, our selfish Rance goes to Helman to seek the secret item in Helman's Royal Treasure. However, seeing Helman is in turmoil, there's no way for Rance to get it. Enter Patton, the former prince of Helman, asking for help from Rance to start the revolutionary army. Rance agrees with some conditions that he must be the one who leads the revolution and has the freedom to have sex with as many girls as possible. Patton agrees with Rance's conditions, and from there, both start to change Helman with revolution. In Rance IX, Alicesoft decided to rehash the gameplay from one of their older VN, Mamatoto (translated by the same translator, Arunaru), with both VNs having several similar soundtracks. Rance IX is the penultimate game of the Rance series, with Alicesoft writing up how Rance will take care of the problems in the oldest human country before going all out to wage war against the Monster Army in Rance X.
1. Tsukihime -A Piece of Blue Glass Moon- (VNDB 8.82)
In 1999, Nasu made a VN with the vampire heroine (Arcueid) called Tsukihime. Seeing that he was still new, he didn't have a big publisher to back him up, so he could only sell it at Comiket in 2000. In 2008, Nasu announced his plan to remake Tsukihime and started its development in 2012. Soon after, Nasu was busy with Fate/Grand Order, so much so that the development halted in 2013. The work resumed in 2017, which still needs some years to finish because Nasu decided to insert new ideas into the remake as much as possible. Finally, after all of years in development, in 2021, we see the release, but only for the first part because the second part is still in development. The premise for Tsukihime is the same no matter which version, with Shiki (who can see the death) murdering Arcueid by impulse. Afterward, Shiki sees Arcueid revived because she's a vampire, and then Arcueid asks Shiki to help her fight because she's weakened after being revived. We had the fan translation patch released first before Aniplex announced this at AX, which made the Aniplex version redundant, especially since they don't say it'll have the PC version (it is only available on Switch).
That's all for my list of translated visual novels released in 2023. Overall, what I can say last 2023 is more or less the same as 2022, only with no exciting fan disc release. I can say that Shiravune is getting more aggressive with the releases, even though most of their 2023 catalog is not exciting to me, so I hope they'll get more good work in 2024, together with Nekonyan. Mangagamer does release some good titles, with JAST still at their usual pace, and let's say that I hope Sekai will get the better title in 2024. So yeah, I'll wait and see regarding those three publishers, and hopefully, they can bring some surprises.
PS - Seeing we have Tsukihime Remake, I parodied the most known work from the author, Fate/Stay Night, by changing "Stay" into "Twilight" with the latter from the Twilight saga (and because both Tsukihime and Twilight saga have vampires), and also I changing "Night" into "Revolution" with it is from Rance IX English title, The Helmanian Revolution, resulting "Fate/Twilight Revolution" as the title.
Originally posted on April 28, 2025.
Welcome to this week VNTS Review, and because we have Sakura Wars 2 fan translation patch release I decided to make a parody of a very famous series that also set in Taisho era, Demon Slayer, with I added 'Sakura' in front of it, so we have 'Sakura Demon Slayer' as the title. As for this week, other than Sakura Wars 2 we also have relatively big release with Hundred Lines with Danganronpa staffs work together with Uchikoshi to write it. Other than that, there's Love Live Nijigasaki VN if someone want to see more Nijigasaki in form of VN. Overall, this week is a below average one to me even with the number of the releases simply because I'm not really interested with those, and let's see what I can write in regard of it.
For Sakura Wars 2, what I understand is that it was the SRPG series with dating sim element that Sega made, and the only officially translated game of it is Sakura Wars 5 on Playstation 2 with the first game is also fan translated. For the premise of series, we have Ichirou who is capable to using a special armor (ie robot) that can only be operated by female, and his ability is very useful to have because his town was keep getting attacked by the creature called kouma, so Ichirou was assigned to lead a squad full of female who can operate the armor in order to combat the evil creature. Note that the game is only for Sega Saturn, which mean you need to use emulator in order to play it. After some times, we have an update on Shin Koihime Musou, with it now is at 74% edited.
What I know about Hundred Lines is that it has quite a numerous ending with it being SRPG and the illustration resembled Danganronpa series, and also it has the 15 casts trapped into a creepy school headed by a creepy principal. However, this time the 15 students was not asked to kill each other, but instead they tasked to defend the school from the invaders and they only have 100 days to do so, which to say is still not an easy task for the students. Well, seeing it has good reception, perhaps you may interested to try it, and have fun if you decided to do so. Honestly I don't want to talk about Love Live Nijigasaki VN, but I may as well talk about it a bit in regard of the MC with the staffs at least smart enough to not make the MC being male, although I'm not really sure if the featureless MC is better alternative because to me it would be nice if it follow the original mobile game with the player gender locked as female and thus become the basic of the anime MC, Yu. Feel free to get Nijigasaki VN if you want to see more Love Live in the VN instead of the two upcoming Nijigasaki anime, and have fun.
Cherry Kiss will release another nukige on May 9th later, Succu-Mama, and said nukige has the succubus heroine with said succubus is the MC's step mother as the title indicate. We also have a mystery VN, Honjin Murders, released featuring the MC Kindaichi Kosuke with he is the famous fictional detective in Japan (The anime fan probably know him more as the grandfather of the MC of Kindaichi manga with the reference cause some dispute), and the VN is the adaptation of Kindaichi's very first case that was out in 1946. For the last release, we have Yokai Landlord with it another mystery VN where the MC will try to find out who is the monster among the tenants of his apartment that the mysterious person warned about.
That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.
Originally posted on April 21, 2025.
Welcome to this week VNTS Review, and because we have the updates from Mangagamer in regard of Raillore and Luckydog I decided to make a parody of a famous novel from 1872, A Dog of Flanders, by changed 'Flanders' into 'Raillore' so we have 'A Dog of Raillore' as the title. This week we have Mangagamer's update along with some fan translation project and also some new title announcements, although to me the main interest is only in the updates, so this week is ended up to be a bit plain one. Let's see what I can write in regard of this week as well.
For Raillore's update, unfortunately it's not a pleasant one with said update in regard of its banning from Steam for some unknown reasons, which obviously put the snag into Mangagamer's plan to release it. Then again, there may be some CG that shows a lot of skin in the build and we know the reviewer could probably ban the VN based on that reasons if Holy Undead ban is any indication. Let's just hope Mangagamer find a way to release it. For the other updates, we have Luckydog finally in testing process, both Sleepless VNs are fully translated and edited, Funbag Fantasy 4 is now fully translated along with 95% edited, and Rance X finally show some editing major progress with it now at 24% edited. We also have Hakuouki SSL will be released in this year with it only available on Switch. From what I see, SSL is the alternative universe that had the casts attend the school in modern era, while the original Hakuouki itself is about a girl who time slipped into the past (1850's).
JAST Blue did announce the new title, and it's obviously another BL VN with they announced Paradise Musubi with it being the fandisc of Paradise that had the after stories for the heroes. In case you want another VTuber VN, we have Entergram was about to release the VN with the main heroine is the VTuber Nekomata Okayu, Okayu Nyumu, and you can wait until August 7th later if you want to get it. Forgot to mention that we already have the exact release date for Putrika for some times, and said date is May 20th later so let's see if the publisher can release it at that date later. We also have fan translation updates, and one of those is in regard of the original Tsui no Sora with it already finished the editing and porting work leaving the translation team now working on the finalization before the release. Lastly, we have the updates from Shinzou, and for the updates we have Sousaku Kanojo is at 41% edited and Dekinai is at 86% translated along with 3% edited.
That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.
Welcome to this week VNTS Review, and because we have Perennial Dusk released, I decided to make the parody of the writer's previous work (Sakura, Moyu. -as the Night's, Reincarnation-) by changing 'Sakura' into 'Kinsenka' from Perennial Dusk full title, Hanataba o Kimi ni Okurou -Kinsenka-, and 'Reincarnation' into 'Celebration', with the latter from Sakura Celebration that Nekonyan finally finished with, which is quite fitting seeing we have witch in Sakura Celebration with it the closest thing to magical girl that Sakura Moyu is know for. For this week, it's certainly very interesting with several numbers of the releases, especially with the Perennial Dusk and Sakura Celebration, and not to mention Raillore. With that done, let's see what I can write in regard of this week.
For Perennial Dusk, one of the notable stuff is that it was written by Irotoridori's writer, who as we know have some intricate writing when it come to world building and characters, which he manage to prove that he still can do it. In here, we have the serial murderer, Sai, who killed several people for the sake of protecting his little sister, although he can't feeling anything because he can't feel the pain in his heart. One day, he encounter a mysterious, Benio, and Sai start to feeling the sensation of falling in love to her, and afterwards Sai live together with Benio in the world where the living and dead mingle. Note that the writer did write very dark story, which while it's not really unusual seeing both Irotoridori and Sakura Moyu story are quite dark in some parts, this time it's really noticeable so much Frontwing need to censor the disturbing contents and advice the player to use the patch to restore it. Go get Perennial Dusk if you're curious about another work from Irotoridori's writer, and have fun. Oh yes, besides Perennial Dusk release Frontwing also has the exact release date for Kanade, in which they'll release it on 12th later so you can note the date if you're waiting for it.
Unfortunately the preparation for releasing Nekopara 5 is still not done yet, so once again Sekai need to delay the release yet again. We also have Clover Reset manage to be released without much problem, and once again it's a GL VN where the MC Marin got awestruck by the transfer student Shizuku with Marin make a wish to get closer by pressing a four-leaf clover into her student notebook. Go get Clover Reset if you want to read more GL VN, and have fun. From fan translation, we have Daybreak give another update on Majikoi A Plus Disk with it now is at 5.34% edited.
Despite the ban from Steam, Mangagamer manage to find a way to release Raillore with they released it in their own store after a Valve reviewer reject it to be added into Steam for some reasons (Probably because it shows too much skin for them), so good for Mangagamer. In Raillore, we have the world's civilization was reverted into the middle age with the people have the superpower called Dunamis. One day, there was a surge of the people gaining the superpower different from the known Dunamis called Errors, and so the task to handle the incident that may be caused by the Errors fell into the MCs group (Yes, we have two MCs just like in Sorcery Joker) who is the part of the security force. Note this is another 3rdEye VN, which mean it'll have battle with this time they tried to not using the narration to depict the battle, although it depend to each of their own to think whether it's the improvement or not. Go get Raillore if you've been waiting for it, and have fun.
Kagura Games released Yoru ga Kuru with it is Alicesoft VN released in 2021, and people said the story resemble Persona 3 with the story involving moon. For the story, we have a town where it has another moon suddenly appearing, with another moon appearance signalize the beginning where the town terrorized by the monster in the night. One day, our MC Ryou suddenly encounter a monster in the night with he was saved by a girl. A day after, Ryou saw the girl again with she introduce herself as Izumi, and then she invite Ryou to join her club which was made to fight the creature. Obviously Alicesoft here remade the game in light of Persona 3 Reload, although Alicesoft only add standard improvement feature (ie double experience) which is more than enough. Go get the VN if you want to play an old Alicesoft VN, and have fun. We also have DesperaDrops Steam release, so feel free to get it if you want to play it on PC or Steam Deck.
Lastly, we have Nekonyan finally manage to release Sakura Celebration after a delay for eight months in order to fixing the bugs and more importantly after Sol Press was folded when they're supposed to release it. For a bit of refresher, it was announced way back in AX 2019 or six years ago. However, soon enough Sol Press find themselves they took more than they could, with the company eventually folded because their inability to pay the tax and thus the license was cancelled. Some times later, Nekonyan took over the license with they finally manage to release this after delayed for some times. History aside, in here we have the MC Kazuki came back to his hometown in Misaki city with the town was known for the sakura flowers that stay longer than usual at each 10 years with Kazuki was came back when the town celebrating the happening. While the premise is related to sakura tree, it should be noted the main focus is the magic with the four heroines along with the MC are the witches, and speaking of it I hope that Nekonyan will also localize Witch's Garden if possible. Go get Sakura Celebration if you've been waiting for it ever since Sol Press announced it, and have fun.
That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.
I suppose we can say that 2021 here is the continuation of 2020 in that we're still in the middle of the pandemic, although there's a lot of vaccination right now. Of course, it won't stop the releases of the translated VNs, and it's nice to see that JAST is very aggressive regarding the release in 2021, so much so that it can rival both Mangagamer and Sekai for yearly release numbers. With that done, let's see which translated VNs I chose as the best-rated ones in 2021. I'm sorry if some of your favorites are not here, so you may disagree with my choice because I may be subjective. Lastly, the scores and rank can fluctuate in the future, and for the reminder, the scores are the VNDB score for each VN as of today (June 2nd, 2025).
10. Ren'ai Karichaimashita (VNDB 7.26)
If you look at Sankaku Ren'ai (developed by the same company and localized by Nekonyan), you know what to expect from Karichaimashita here. As a reminder, it's the comedy with a love triangle that's not as dramatic as White Album 2 (WA2), and we'll have it here. Karichaimashita is about our MC, Yuki, who keeps thinking about how money is the only thing that makes his little sister happy, thanks to his family's unique circumstances that forced Yuki to be the family's breadwinner. So, of course, he'll keep working for money if his sister can be happy, so much so that he calls himself having a Sister Complex. One day, Yuki saw a job advertisement for a company that allows clients to have fake relationships; the job is quite common in Japan, as shown in the infamous Kanojo Okarishimasu manga. While the job is highly suspicious, Yuki decides to apply anyway since it offers the high pay he desperately needs. Little did he know back then that he would keep involved with the clients, which in turn allowed him to start a relationship with one of the clients, and here we're going to have four and a half routes because, while technically there are five heroines, two of those heroines are the twin who's sharing Yuki.
9. Primal x Hearts (VNDB 7.36)
Shiravune released several interesting visual novels in 2021, one of those VNs being Marmalade's Primal Hearts series. While it's inevitable because we also have Study Steady (another Marmalade VN) localized by them, it's still nice to see they license the Primal Hearts series. The series features a school with two student councils and an even number of students, thus ensuring a deadlock situation every time a vote happens. The MC's role in the series is as the hope to break the deadlock because he's the 777th student, hence his Three Sevens nickname. So, both councils inevitably approach the MC to persuade him to join one of the councils to have whichever side has the MC win the future votes. While I understand that the second Primal Hearts here has received some improvements, I list the first one here because the Primal Hearts series reminds me of the Lunar series, with both Lunar and Primal Hearts developers improving their second game. So the first Primal Hearts here should make a nice parallel with the first Lunar, and I know it's quite a stretch to compare Lunar and Primal Hearts, seeing that both series have a lot of differences anyway.
8. Sugar * Style (VNDB 7.40)
Compared to other translated Smee VNs (HaremKingdom and Making Lovers) with unique MCs, Sugar Style here didn't have the MC become a king in a different world or already be working. But instead, our MC has just started his college life. For the premise, we have Kazuki (MC's default name), whose parents fled and left him with debts while also being deceived by an evil woman. So, after a string of bad luck, he turns the page by entering the college with the dormitory, which his cousin manages, only to find out that the dormitory is for females. Then Kazuki accidentally stumbles into a perverted situation. Thus, his relationship with the female residents, the heroines, has a rocky start. However, as per Smee VN, Kazuki will gradually get closer to the heroines. He'll then enter a relationship with one of the four heroines in the original version (which Nekonyan localized) and with the two additional heroines, including Kazuki's cousin, in the untranslated console version (that does not have sex scenes). Like other Smee VNs, besides obviously still having the usual comedy, it also has a mini fan disc, but we don't know if Nekonyan will localize it.
7. Dohna Dohna -Issho ni Warui Koto o Shiyou- (VNDB 7.89)
After Shiravune brought the Primal Hearts series in July 2021, we have Dohna Dohna as another exciting license released by them in October 2021. Dohna Dohna, as in the latest gameplay VN by Alicesoft, which, as we know, is attempting to localize Evenicle 2 on their own (so perhaps Shiravune will localize Evenicle 2 later), as well as having a partnership with Mangagamer to localize the Rance series. For Dohna Dohna itself, while the graphic style resembles Persona 5, the story is more similar to FF7. In the story of Dohna Dohna, it has an outlaw group that lives in a city tightly controlled by a massive corporation. The group does everything it can, including robbing the facility related to the corporation, to fight them. While we usually think that the group is in the right, in this case, we can't exactly say that the group is better than the corporation morally because we have the group kidnapping several women to sell them as prostitutes to get money. Finally, while the graphics are quite colorful, it should go without saying that the content is quite dark, especially with the already mentioned prostitute and some disturbing sex scenes in the Bad Endings.
6. Rance Quest (VNDB 7.96)
After some time of waiting (11 years for the ones who play fan translations of Sengoku Rance and 17 months for the ones who play the Mangagamer version), we finally have Rance Quest released in English. As for the story, after Rance encountered a problem in Sengoku Rance, he decided to find a way to resolve his situation. Of course, Rance being Rance, his inability to control his libido caused trouble, and he's been struck with a curse by a woman with whom he had sex. Said curse renders any woman who has sex with Rance weakened, as well as making Rance not able to have sex with weaker women, so there will be many restrictions on Rance's having sex. Facing the situation, rather than trying to find a way to remove the curse quickly, Rance decided to enjoy his life as much as possible. Of course, he'll do so by searching for many strong women so that he can have sex with them. Rance Quest is the eighth part of the Rance series that Alicesoft developed, and it's the breather episode with Rance doing a lot of quests that resemble the old RPG (hence the word "Quest"). For the video, because Rance Quest didn't have the opening, I'll use its PV video.
5. Musicus (VNDB 8.01)
When Overdrive worked on this VN, which was planned as their last VN before they went with the Virtual Youtuber stuff, they found themselves without enough funds to develop the VN. So, they did the crowdfund to get the funds, and as a result, they managed to gather 130 million yen. According to what I've seen, Musicus has been well received, with some calling it a thought-provoking VN if we borrow the late Conjueror's word, though whether that's true is up to each person. But I know for sure that in Musicus, we have Kei, who is currently in a dilemma regarding his future after encountering the difficulties of becoming a doctor like his father. Of course, as per Overdrive MC, Kei finds himself drawn to the music after watching a concert. From there, he does his best to perform in a band after being suggested by a band leader. Unlike the writer's previous Overdrive VN, which also focused on the music band (Kira Kira), in this one, the writer shows what would happen if one made a band for a living, which turned out to be quite an ordeal. Since Musicus didn't have an opening, I'll use the ending credit of Yako's route for the video below.
4. Kin'iro Loveriche (VNDB 8.18)
Kini'iro Loveriche, aka Kinkoi, is the first translated Saga Planet VN that Nekonyan localized. With that, we finally have Saga Planet VN translated, which defies people's belief that it's impossible to see it happen, especially with several failed Saga Planet VN translation projects we've had in the past (Hanasaki Work Spring, Hatsuyuki Sakura). As for Kinkoi, the premise here is that Ouro carried Princess Sylvie (her full name is too long) in Princess Carry (how appropriate), which obviously would alert her bodyguards because it made Ouro look like he had kidnapped the princess. Since Ouro himself caught Sylvie's attention, she had arranged for Ouro to attend the school with her. While the premise suggested that this is just a comedy VN with rich people as heroines, it turned out that there's more to Kinkoi than meets the eye, particularly regarding the story of one of the heroines. The VN also has a fan disc, Golden Time, with two routes for the side heroines, after stories for each heroine (including the side one), and an alternate ending for a specific heroine. Just in case you're asking if the fan disc will be licensed or not, Nekonyan has already licensed it, and so far, the translation work on it is going pretty well.
3. 9 -Nine- Yukiiro Yukihana Yukinoato (VNDB 8.58)
I said the serial release is not ideal for releasing a VN. But after I read one of the reviews about Nine, perhaps going serial here is the best way to make the writer, Kazuki Fumi, build up the story arc because not all writers can make the complete story arc from the beginning. That said, I'm still not a fan of serial release. In Episode 4, after Kakeru gets close to the other heroines, Miyako, Sora, and Haruka, in the previous episodes while investigating the incidents in the city, this time Kakeru gets close to Noa. More importantly, Kakeru finally confronts a person who's been causing the incidents after getting some help from an unexpected fellow. While there's Shinshou, aka New Episode, which is said to be the sequel to Episode 4, the New Episode is more like the fan disc than the sequel. The New Episode contents are the after stories for the heroines with some wrap-up for the story, so Episode 4 here is the grand finale for the Nine series itself. Izumi Tsubasu is still in charge of the design, so we still have her beautiful drawings. Sekai did well on this by releasing four episodes of Nine within two years, contrasting with when they needed three years to release two VN of the ReLord trilogy.
2. Soukou Akki Muramasa (VNDB 8.96)
We knew JAST got the license for Muramasa back in 2012 when one of TLWiki's users, Makoto, became the translator for JAST. JAST being JAST, we didn't see them give us many updates on Muramasa, so people decided to give up on it. At least until July 2021, when JAST abruptly announced that Muramasa would be released shortly, and with their new pace, JAST did manage to release it in August 2021. For the premise, we have an alternative world where Japan (ruled by the Rokuhara shogunate with an iron fist and has unique warriors called musha) has a roaming monster that terrorizes the country by killing many people. Enter Kageaki with his eyes set on it, and then he hunts it down. While usually, we would say that Kageaki is the hero, one should remember the arc word, "This is not a story of the heroes." So, of course, Kageaki will make many horrible decisions to achieve the goal. Since the writer, Narahara Ittetsu, did write both Hanachirasu and Muramasa, with the former having a lot of deaths, sure enough, Muramasa has tons of people dying left and right. Besides that, Narahara here also provides some writing that can be thought-provoking.
1. White Album 2 (VNDB 9.00)
I still remember in 2011 when my roommate listened to the WA2 Closing Chapter opening, and obviously, there was no translated version of it back then. The Todokanai group worked hard to translate WA2, but it took years to finish because of its length. After several years of work, they finally released the full translation patch on December 22nd of last year (2021), making it a nice early Christmas gift from them. For the premise, we have Haruki, who is searching for additional light music club members to perform at the school festival. He manages to get two girls, Setsuna and Kazusa, to participate. Haruki had no idea at the time that he would become embroiled in a dramatic love triangle that would last into his adulthood, and it would be pretty messy, given that each involved person had numerous flaws. WA2 here is Maruto Fumiaki's last VN before he moves on to write the light novel (Saekano). As I said, Maruto wrote each character like in Damekoi, but he focused more on two heroines (Setsuna and Kazusa) instead of just one like in Damekoi (Mitoko). As for the video, I used the Closing Chapter opening because the VNDB page of this used to be the page for the Closing Chapter VNDB entry.
That's all for my list of translated visual novels released in 2021. To conclude, 2021 is pretty much an exciting year, with two of the most well-received VNs (Muramasa and WA2) getting translated so we can finally play them in English. Lastly, with JAST's new strategy, which is to release the download version first to quicken the releases, I look forward to what they can do in 2022. Of course, I also look forward to what the other companies can do in 2022, especially regarding Nekonyan and Shiravune, seeing both of them manage to release several interesting visual novels in 2021.
PS - For the title, I combined the words "winter" (the WA2 season motif) and "musha" (the unique warrior in Muramasa), resulting in "The Winter Musha," which is similar to one of Captain America's films (The Winter Soldier).
In 2022, the pandemic was starting to subside, so after two years of absence, we finally had conventions with several new VNs translation announcements. Of course, we still have translated VN releases, so I'll list the best-rated translated VNs in 2022. Once again, I may be subjective, so I'm sorry if some of your favorite VNs are not here, and feel free to disagree with my choice. Anyway, let's see the best translated VNs in 2022 that I chose here, and of course, the rank and the score can change in the future. For the scores, I'll use today's (June 2nd, 2025) scores for each VN.
10. Evenicle 2 (VNDB 7.35)
There's a drama behind the Evenicle 2 release because of the censorship on the trial version that removes the first sex scene. The censorship is not much help to add this on Steam anyway, thanks to a random ban from Valve. For the game, I thought it was an unnecessary sequel at first. However, after I played the trial, I found myself liking this. Of course, most people would understandably see this as inferior compared to the prequel, especially with no changes in the gameplay besides the healing system and skill gain, which are not much better than the prequel. For the premise, Alex, an apprentice doctor in a world with a deadly pandemic, heard the news of a beautiful girl getting sick. Because he's as pervert as Aster (the prequel MC), Alex starts to examine the patient, which leads him to discover that he can cure the beautiful female patient through sexual intercourse thanks to his hidden ability (I'm not making up the premise). After seeing the effect of the treatment, Alex concluded that his ability might be the key to eradicating the pandemic. Then he went to get his doctor's license, and while on the trip, he found himself treating several more beautiful female patients.
9. Ouchi ni Kaeru made ga Mashimaro Desu (VNDB 7.41)
After Shiravune localized both Primal Hearts and Study Steady, they went to localized one more VN from Marmalade, Mashimaro (localized as Marshmallow All the Way Home), so currently, we have four VNs from Marmalade (including Primal Hearts 2) translated by Shiravune. In Mashimaro, our MC, Ryou, becomes homeless after being chased out of his former house and forced to sleep in the park. One day, he met with a friendly, beautiful girl who fed him sweets and then introduced herself as Kanon. Being grateful, Ryou followed Kanon to her bakery, Marshmallow Tree, which was almost out of business because of a change in the opening hour and the arrival of a famous competitor nearby. As the responsible person, Ryou returned the favor by helping Kanon revitalize Marshmallow Tree by working as a part-timer there. It turned out that he was pretty competent, so he managed to make Marshmallow Tree successful quickly. Even though Kanon is the apparent main heroine (as shown in the beginning), Ryou can date another girl besides her. While Mashimaro here has a sweet and lighthearted story, it also has several lengthy sex scenes in the heroine's routes.
8. Otome * Domain (VNDB 7.43)
Shiravune manages to localize the Otome Domain, in that it's one of the known trap VN besides Otoboku and Tsuki no Yorisou. By the way, I added this based on my interest in the VN with trap MC. While the VNDB lists the connection with Boku to Koi Suru Ponkotsu Akuma (Koikuma), it's only for the trial version. But, since the heroines are the same as in Koikuma for being useless, we may call this Koikuma with the young ladies. In Otome Domain, we have the MC, Minato, who recently lost his grandmother, leaving him alone. At the funeral, a young lady, Kazari, offers Minato to take care of his needs. Said offer included enrolling Minato into the school that Kazari runs as the board chairwoman. However, Minato must cross-dress as a girl since the school is an all-girls school, and he manages to look as good as a girl, much to his dismay. After coming into the school, Minato finds out that Kazari has some quirk that makes her useless, and his dormmates also have some quirks that make them problematic. Having no choice, Minato decides to take care of their problem, which makes him ironically more feminine than the girls who enrolled in the school.
7. Cafe Stella to Shinigami no Chou (VNDB 7.54)
Yuzusoft finally decided to make a VN revolve around a cafe after featuring it several times in their previous VNs with Cafe Stella. When Cafe Stella was about to be released in Japan, Yuzusoft provided several 4-Koma videos featuring each heroine (including the side one). Said videos have English captions, which should indicate that Cafe Stella will be localized. Sure enough, Nekonyan announced they'd localize Cafe Stella in 2020 before finally releasing it in March 2022 as the 5th officially translated Yuzusoft VN (which includes Parquet, even though it is just the experimental work). For the premise, we have our MC Kousei encounter a cute grim reaper, Kanna, after he somehow turned back into the past because of an accident that supposedly killed him, and Kanna tells Kousei that he's still not free from his grim fate yet. So Kousei decided to accept Kanna's offer to help her, as he had worked with Kanna to open the titular Cafe Stella. The story of Cafe Stella combines the supernatural (Kanna and her grim reaper work) and slice-of-life (obviously the cafe). Lastly, I can say that the waitress uniform looks nice, with the color scheme resembling the waitress uniform in Blend S.
6. Hello Lady (VNDB 7.55)
I admit that my initial interest in Hello Lady was because of the VAs, of which two, Eri Sendai and Yamamura Hibiku, were voicing Precure. Even without looking at those VAs, the VN is already well known. Many people wish to have this VN translated, although no company was willing to get the license until Nekonyan announced this in 2018. Afterward, it took more than 40 months before the release because the developer, Akatsuki Works, needed time to develop the engine for the complete edition (which includes the FD and an additional ending from the PSV version). After a long wait, we have Hello Lady release in January 2022. For the premise, we have Narita, who has been invited to The Academy as a transfer student by the chairman, rescue the kidnapped student council president Saku while also deciding to be daring by grabbing Saku's breast. Of course, Saku was furious about that, especially with Narita joining the council. While initially Narita is presented as a breast lover, actually Narita himself has come to the school with his hidden goal in mind, and he may find himself finding out that there's something more regarding his said goal.
5. Amatsutsumi (VNDB 7.80)
For some reason, Valve banned Amatsutsumi on Steam, thus making Sekai need to delay the release for a while before finally releasing it on the other platforms. While we can think of several reasons why Valve banned this, such as high school settings and the MC (Makoto) having sex with more than one girl, only Valve can answer that. In Amatsutsumi, we have Makoto, who lives in an isolated village and is already engaged. He wanted to set the journey to see the outside world because of his intense longing, so he started to do so. But then, he collapsed in the nearby town because he didn't prepare enough before leaving the village. After being saved by a passerby, Kokoro, Makoto uses his power to brainwash Kokoro through a word to make her think of Makoto as Kokoro's older brother. Then, Makoto decided to live with Kokoro's family as the first step to living as a regular human instead of someone with superpowers. Some days after, Makoto encounters a girl, Hotaru, who is immune to his power. After talking with Hotaru, Makoto promises to help the other by using his power. He will do so with all the heroines, who each have their circumstances.
4. Chaos Head Noah (VNDB 7.88)
Technically, this is a redundant release because we already have the Chaos Head translation patch from 2009, and Noah is mostly the same. That said, the developer added some new content, such as routes and a new opening, so we can consider it a new release despite several problems with the English releases, such as the ban by Valve before it got revoked and a high number of bugs. This release is significant as Noah is the very first VN of the Science Adventure series, and with this, now we have all translated Science Adventure VN available on Steam. For the premise, we have our loser MC Nishijou Takumi, an otaku who rarely leaves his room on the rooftop except to go to school occasionally. One day, he heard a rumor that a serial murder had happened around his premises in Shibuya. Since Nitroplus developed the original Chaos Head, the murders were very disturbing. After somehow stumbling upon one of the serial murder sites, Takumi encounters a cute girl with a lot of blood on her body, and naturally, he's frightened. After that, one way or another, Takumi finds himself dragged into the middle of the serial murder case, which forces him to find a way to survive the ordeal.
3. Tokeijikake no Ley Line -Asagiri ni Chiru Hana- (VNDB 8.15)
Compared to the 51-month gap between the Tokeijikake trilogy's first and second part releases, the second and last part releases are only eight months apart. It helps that Sekai and the developer had already ironed out the buggy engine by the time the second part was available in March 2022, so they didn't need to wait too long to release the whole trilogy. As for the premise of the entire trilogy, it started with our MC Koga attending the mysterious magical school located in a remote area. Sometime after entering the school, Koga accidentally breaks a quite expensive statue. Unfortunately, Koga has no money to compensate for it. To have Koga take responsibility for the broken statue, the principal paired him with the head of the Bureau for the Investigation of Special Affairs, Ushio (the main heroine of the Tokeijikake trilogy). Said Bureau is responsible for investigating magic-related incidents in the school, and eventually, the Bureau would investigate the massive incident in the last part. Since both Koga and Ushio here are pretty stubborn, the meeting between those two ended in bad blood. Of course, both of them would develop their relationship throughout the trilogy.
2. Hakuchuumu no Aojashin (VNDB 8.52)
Around the time when the English version of Aojashin was released, several headache-inducing shenanigans happened. Those shenanigans are the writer's "smooth" way of addressing the censorship critic, the license problem for another Laplacian VN, and the setting change for the high school student heroine into a college student. While the English version here obviously didn't have 18+ contents because of the censorship, thankfully, a fan team worked hard to restore the removed contents and revert the change for the school student heroine. In Aojashin, we have a combination of Fata Morgana and Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V. The latter is because Laplacian used their previous VNs setting into Aojashin here, and ARC V did the same. Story-wise, it's closer to Fata Morgana because it and Aojashin have three initial stories/cases that converge into one main arc. Other similarities are that both have white-haired girls involved in the story, and that's where the similarities end. Unlike in Fata Morgana, where you start from the first story, in Aojashin, you'll randomly start in one of three initial cases. For the video, I'll use the Case 0 opening because Case 0 is the main arc of Aojashin itself.
1. Mahoutsukai no Yoru (VNDB 8.64)
After watching Evangelion, a man was getting inspiration to write a novel. However, the publisher rejected the novel because of its length. Some years later, after the man had been successful with Fate/Stay Night, he revisited his old novel. Yes, that man is Kinoko Nasu, and his old novel is Mahoyo with the full title Mahoutsukai no Yoru (literally translated as "A Magician's Night"). For the premise, we have Aoko (who, as we know, is Shiki's teacher in Tsukihime) suddenly chosen to become the head of a magician family, so naturally, she's underprepared. To prepare herself, she lives with the young witch Alice in her mansion to get some magic lessons. After some time, Aoko's classmate, Soujuurou, witnesses the duo using magic. Seeing no other choice, they force Soujuurou to live in the mansion. While the premise sounds like a slice-of-life story (and to be fair, it is), being a Type-Moon VN, there will be some battles with beautiful effects. Initially, Nasu planned Mahoyo to be the trilogy. But seeing that Nasu is still busy with FGO and promised to work on the sequels after he finishes with the Tsukihime remake (which only has the first half released in August 2021), it better not expect the sequels to be released soon.
Overall, 2022 still has some good releases, even though they're not as big as 2021. That said, I felt that some of the exciting releases concentrated on the fan discs, which, while it's not bad per se, I would prefer to see more exciting releases for the main title here. Anyway, now that we're in 2023 here, I hope we see more nice releases, especially from Nekonyan. Of course, I still want to see if JAST can keep their release pace, even with them sometimes releasing the Remaster of their old VNs. Lastly, while I don't know if I can look forward to Mangagamer and Sekai's new title, I hope they can release some interesting VNs.
PS - Since we have William Shakespeare in Aojashin, I allude to his play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, by changing "Night's Dream" into "Magician's Night" (because Mahoyo release), so we have "A Midsummer Magician's Night" as the title.
For 2024, we still have some interesting releases. However, this time, we also have several notable old titles officially available in English, such as Kanon and Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, despite the latter having its sex scenes removed by the publishers themselves. Anyway, as usual, I'll list the visual novels that finished translation in 2024. Of course, I may be subjective in my choices of VNs, so I apologize if your favorite VNs are not available on my list. Like my past lists, the scores of each visual novel can and will change in the future. For the info, the scores and the ranking of the VNs below will be according to the VNDB scores for each VN today (June 2nd, 2025).
10. Kakenuke Seishun Sparking (VNDB 7.51)
Saga Planets tried to bring the lighthearted VN in 2020, and the result of the attempt is Kakenuke Seishun Sparking, or Forward to Our Sparking Youth in English, which Nekonyan uses as the subtitle. In Kakenuke, we have a young male MC, Tono Yuu, who was left alone with his younger sister by his parents. Left with no choice, Yuu became the provider for the family while he needed to study to get a scholarship at school, leaving him very exhausted every day. On top of that, his situation left him bitter, and he could only think about money instead of having fun. Seeing Yuu's situation, his nearest people are worried about him, so two of his friends, Hibiki and Riri, relentlessly recruit him to their respective clubs, with both clubs having the mission to enjoy youth in their ways. Of course, being money-minded, Yuu was hesitant to join the club because he needed to do his part-time job. Yet, Yuu will get involved in the club's activities despite his initial hesitation. For Kakenuke, while Saga Planets successfully brings lighthearted VN focusing on daily life in an ordinary setting, they still have some knack for writing the dramatic story, as seen in some parts.
9. Karenai Sekai to Owaru Hana (VNDB 7.66)
Back in 2023, someone established a fan translation group called Shinzou Translations. At first, most of their works were short and free VNs, such as Rinkaiten no Azrael and Nagi no Koi, before they worked on translating Karenai Sekai. Karenai Sekai is the first game from the developer, Sweet & Tea, which is quite ironic given the remaining VNs from the developer (Kemono Musume and Nekogami-sama) translated by Sekai Project. For the premise of Karenai Sekai, we have a young man, Shou, who travels with the little girl, Ren. One day, they arrive at a town full of flowers. Soon after, they meet with the sisters, Kotose, Haru, and Yukina, who open a cafe, and then Shou agrees to work there in exchange for a bed to sleep in. In the middle of the night, Shou saw the middle sister, Haru, going outside, and he followed her to the hill full of flowers. There, Shou saw Haru embracing a little girl, and afterward, the little girl turned into a flower. Knowing Shou saw her, Haru says she has her circumstances, and Shou can only respond he'll keep praying for the world to end. The game tone is quite somber, which is quite a departure from the writer's previous work, with said work being the well-known Nekopara.
8. Aoi Tori (VNDB 7.66)
Aoi Tori was announced in 2021 by Nekonyan, which made Purple Software work with three publishers at that time. While the translation and editing work went without much problem, Nekonyan found troubles with the engine work. Eventually, Purple Software felt the work was too long, so they asked Nekonyan to release Aoi Tori by April 2024, or the license would revoked. Seeing no choice, Nekonyan did their best to comply with the request by canceling the engine work and releasing the game in English, with the Steam version released in June 2024 because Valve rejected the initial build for the Steam version of Aoi Tori. Aoi Tori is about Ritsu, who lives as a priest in an all-girl Catholic school in the middle of nowhere. He has the power to give positive emotions over sex, so he occasionally gets asked for sex by desperate students, making him a little more than a gigolo. One day in his plain life, after he had sex with the desperate student, he somehow got a call from the devil. After the call, Ritsu encounters the cheerful 99-year-old vampire girl, Mary, who says she's back to her former house where Ritsu resides. From there, Ritsu's life starts to get more lively.
7. Amazing Grace -What Color is Your Attribute- (VNDB 7.67)
While Cabbage Soft produces Amairo Chocolate to compete with Nekopara, they also made several plot-focused VNs, one of which is Amazing Grace (available in English thanks to Shiravune). While the heroines look cute courtesy of Korie Riko as the artist, it has more than cute character designs, especially the story. The story is about Shuu, who has amnesia and stumbled into the town in the post-apocalypse world. The place itself has some peculiar situations, with the most important thing is the people were going all out to put the focus on art. Regardless, Shuu enjoys his life. At the start of Advent, Shuu and Yune (one of the heroines) eat the strange apples, which in the long run helps them a lot, seeing the town destroyed by the explosions at Christmas, with the apples giving them time travel ability to the Advent's beginning. So, with his time travel power, Shuu makes full use of it to save the town. After using the powers and failing to prevent the explosions several times, Shuu finally finds the town's secret together with his memories. While the story may not satisfy everyone, at least Amazing Grace has interesting talk about art and how to appreciate it.
6. Mashiro-iro Symphony (VNDB 7.71)
In 2009, Palette hired Izumi Tsubasu to do the art for their newest VN, Mashiro Iro Symphony, and her art is pretty good-looking. Afterward, Palette released the PSP version, and then it received an anime adaptation in 2011 with Kawamura Toshie (one of the Precure character designers) responsible for its beautiful art. In 2023, Palette decided to remake Mashiro Iro while at the same time also remaking the route for Sana (fan favorite character) from the PSP version, and somehow selling both the remake and Sana's route separately despite almost no reason to do so. A year after that, Shiravune localized the remake along with Sana Edition, and they released it with the English version keeping the Sprite Viewer feature, which is nice because somehow that feature was omitted in the other translated Palette's VNs (Nine series, Saku Saku, Otome Domain) despite no engine change. The story is quite simple; it's about the MC Shingo, who is about to attend an all-girls school that soon faces a merger. However, his road was not smooth sailing because the female students resisted the change. Still, Shingo tried his best to have a good relationship with the female students, and eventually, he managed to get close to them.
5. Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (VNDB 7.80)
Before the Muv Luv franchise, Age had Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, aka Kiminozo, which they made in 2001 before they made the anime adaptation in 2003. While the anime saw some success overseas, it took them 20 years before they finally managed to release Kiminozo VN on Steam with English language support, and even then, they cut the sex scenes. While I know the main focus is the story, I understand if people complain about the sex scenes removal. Anyway, in Kiminozo, we have a group of friends, with three of them (Takayuki, Haruka, and Mitsuki) involved in a love triangle. Things get messier when Haruka becomes in a coma after an accident, and Mitsuki, who already fell in love with Takayuki, decides to take the chance to go out with Takayuki despite Mitsuki knowing that Takayuki already has Haruka as his girlfriend. With Takayuki being the nice guy and already in love with Mitsuki (and not to mention being depressed with Haruka in a coma), he decided to accept Mitsuki, which inevitably caused a lot of drama, especially after Haruka suddenly woke from her coma with she doesn't realize some times has passed since she was in an accident.
Additional Notes - I know the English release was censored with the publisher removed the ~15% of the script which consist of the sex scenes, but I decided to add this anyway. Moreso because we have the team who worked on adding the translated lines into the original 18+ version with said team also translate the sex scenes, and of course as soon as the team finished the project I'll delete the additional notes here just like when I added Aojashin in 2022 list.
4. Tsui no Sora Remake (VNDB 7.91)
One day, SCA-JI got the inspiration after reading the works of Frederich Nietzsche to write the psychological horror VN Tsui no Sora and released it in 1999. His Tsui no Sora was very successful, so much so that it was called one of three legendary psychological horror VNs in Japan, with the other two VNs being Sayooshi and Jisatsu 101. In 2009, SCA-JI tried to remake Tsui no Sora as Subahibi, which then took its own identity. Then, 21 years after the original Tsui no Sora release (in 2020), SCA-JI decided to do another remake for Tsui no Sora and managed to be quite similar to the original. The VN storytelling is identical to the original and Subahibi, with multiple persons showing how they live with the world that is about to end on the 20th day of the month (July). For the video, since there's no opening, I'll use the ending video for Yasuko's chapter, who in Tsui no Sora Remake became a much more important character (and cuter). By that, I mean SCA-JI did flesh out her character far more and explain her background in her chapter, which is interesting given that she is just a side character in the original and bordering cameo in Subahibi.
3. Hatsuyuki Sakura (VNDB 8.11)
When Saga Planets was under Visual Arts, they'd release a series of VNs called Four Seasons Games. Each VN represented one season (Coming x Humming for Spring, Natsuyume Nagisa for Summer, Kisaragi Gold Star for Autumn, and Hatsuyuki Sakura for Winter) with Niijima Yuu directing two of its games; Natsuyume Nagisa and Hatsuyuki Sakura, with both are said to be the best VNs in the series. Time passes, and some other games from Niijima (Majo Koi Nikki and Summer Pockets) are available in English. Yet, Hatsuyuki Sakura has not been available in English until now, with Nekonyan releasing it in December 2024. In Hatsuyuki Sakura, we have the school delinquent Hatsuyuki, who is rude and likes to drink alcohol. One day, at the beginning of December, he saw a girl wearing a white dress. Hatsuyuki approached her, and the girl said she wanted to search for her rabbit. Afterward, the girl introduced herself as Sakura. Two days later, Sakura transferred into the same class as Hatsuyuki, and his life started to change even though he was initially annoyed. Hatsuyuki Sakura is far more serious and dramatic than the other translated Saga Planets VNs, and the tone is quite somber in some parts.
2. Irotoridori no Sekai (VNDB 8.13)
This VN has one intricate history of translating it into English. Long story short, someone decided to try to translate it in 2011, only to be dropped. Then, in 2015, Shinku Translation (Nekonyan's precursor) expressed their love for the main heroine, Shinku, by translating this. In 2019, a publisher ran Kickstarter to fund the license, which barely reached the goal before the publisher crashed into the ground shortly after. Then, in 2022, Nekonyan managed to get the Irotoridori no Sekai license. After years of those happenings, Nekonyan finally released Irotoridori in February 2024, as they'd been hoping for in the first place. In Irotoridori, we have the amnesiac MC Yuuma with a superpower given by Shinku, the mysterious girl only visible to Yuuma. One day, he saw a girl about to jump from the lighthouse, and Yuuma rushed to save the girl. Then, the girl said she knew Yuuma and asked Yuuma to save her. From there, Yuuma tried to find out what kind of ordeal the girl was having and find a way to fulfill her request. Irotoridori no Sekai is the first part of the trilogy, with the second part, Irotoridori no Hikari, adding more of the story. That said, the story for the first part is complete to a degree.
1. Gin'iro Haruka (VNDB 8.21)
One day in August 2019, Tsurezurescan announced they'd been working with Gin'iro Haruka (Ginharu) after finishing Hoshiori in March 2019. Obviously, with them proven to be very fast with their past projects, people expected the full translation patch would be available shortly. Unfortunately, after they released the partial patch (which translated Bethly, Hinata, and Momiji routes), the translator, Trip, decided to drop the project in 2021 after he worked a bit on the fourth heroine, Yuzuki, routes, leaving the two routes, Yuzuki and Mizuha, untranslated. Afterward, the editor, Irru, searched for a new translator, and then he worked with the new group in 2022. Initially, the group was only interested in translating the other untranslated route, Mizuha, before they decided to finish what Trip started. Afterward, we saw progress in the works, which led to the full patch release in April 2024. For Ginharu, the staff does the same formula as Hoshiori, in which we'll see the romance story of the MC, Yukito, to adulthood. They also add the middle school story, so all five heroines can be said to be Yukito's childhood friends. If you worry about the drama like in HatsuKoi, rest assured there won't be any in Ginharu.
For more info, there are some VNs with better scores that I didn't list, and it's because those VNs are re-releases. That aside, as you can see, now both Irotoridori no Sekai and Hatsuyuki Sakura are available in English, which is nice seeing both have failed translation attempts in the past. Also, I may as well mention Aniplex, which they've gotten a bit more aggressive compared to the previous years, even though they still focused on Type-Moon VN, and I hope I can see more interesting titles from them in 2025. Lastly, I look forward to seeing what Nekonyan and Shiravune can release in 2025.
PS - Since there's a Canadian in Gin'iro Haruka, I'm changing "Ginban" from Ginban Kaleidoscope anime (with it also had a Canadian) into "Scarlet" with it is the English word of Shinku (Irotoridori main heroine), so we have "Scarlet Kaleidoscope" as the title.
Welcome to the VNTS Review for this week. For the title because we have Putrika released with the opening has focus on the jewel, I made the reference of Cabbage Soft's Jewelry series with I add 'Lights' from Perennial Dusk's writer previous work (Irotoridori no Hikari with 'Hikari' mean light) and 'Aria' from Iwakura Aria, so we have 'Jewelry Light Aria'. For this week, the most obvious thing is that it was very active compared to the last week with several releases along with the publishers announced the exact release date for several titles, and more importantly there are several updates from fan translation section for better or worse. Overall, this week is definitely an interesting one, and let's see what I can write in regard of it.
First of all, I should address the news that we know was happened, namely Sakura no Uta translation project was stopped because the team was told by the developer to do so. While it's too bad seeing it's one of well received VN with it currently has sizeable progress, the developer has the right to do so, like it or not. Besides, nowadays there's a number of VNs available in English anyway, including some with the past problematic translation projects such as Hatsusaku or Mahoyo, so if I may be frank I didn't feel the loss too much. That said, had it happen nine years ago I probably reacted more strongly. In the end, I just hope that the C&D may resulted with Sakura no Uta getting the official release even though the chance for it seems to be quite low if not miniscule or nothing.
Dramatic Create released Nie no Machi fandisc, and I only know Nie no Machi is BL VN with the MC manage to date one of handsome heroes after being stranded into another world that is full of death. Feel free to get the fandisc if you played the original Nie no Machi and want to see more of it, and have fun. We also have dramatic GL VN Iwakura Aria release date was changed from August 18th to August 14th, and well at least you can get it quicker even though it's only four days earlier. Sekai need to delay Nekopara 5 to 30th later because of some approval problem (Most likely from Steam reviewer), and turned out they already have sizeable progress from their Anime Central announcements (Nekonin exHeart Spin fandisc is already fully translated and edited while Dra-Con Cafe is already fully translated). After delayed for some times because of the engine work, Nekonyan finally have the exact release date for Sakura Celebration, and it'll be on 30th later so you can note the date if you've been waiting for it ever since Sol Press announced it. Oh yes, we have Kawaiinium promote Tayutama 18+ patch, so we got the confirmation that the 18+ patch is official.
For fan translation, obviously there are some more updates beside the cancellation Sakura no Uta translation project. First, we have Daybreak give surprising update for Majikoi A Plus Disk with it now was at 43.14% translated along with 3.44% edited. We also have a fan translate a nukige called Sneaky Link Seduced by my Girlfriend’s Best Friend which telling us the story about the horny MC Yukito who has his childhood become his girlfriend, although he was at the crossroad where his girlfriend's best friend using her body to seduce him, so Yukito being horny was become indecisive before he decided to do some bold thing. Well, at least I can say the art is not too bad if you're not the fan of the story where the MC has affair with another woman while he is in relationship. For the last fan translation update, we have two updates from Shinzou with Dekinai is at 20% edited and Sousaku Kanojo is halfway edited. That's all for the fan translation updates.
Last but not the least, we have Putrika 1st Cut released in which is pretty much new Uguisu Kagura VN even though they used doujin name in order to save some cost or something like that. In Putrika, we have a girl, Lazriel, find herself with an amnesia has an encounter with the demon boy, Remi. Soon, Lazriel find herself has a dream with she was called Ilsa in the dream with she very devoted to an Archangel, which would eventually led into the tragedy. Uguisu Kagura here obviously still has some knack to write the dramatic story, with the voice acting direction can rival Lupercalia. Note that it's called 1st Cut, so obviously Uguisu Kagura still has more story to tell, with the most recent update is that they're almost finished with the 2nd Cut. Go get Putrika if you want first officially translated Uguisu Kagura VN, and have fun. Also there are some other secret projects from Kagami Games with some have sizeable progress, so I'll look forward to when they announce those.
That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.
Welcome to this week VNTS Review. For the title, because we have Da Capo Remake announced along with Clover Reset exact release date announcement, I made the parody of the latter by changing 'Clover' into 'Sakura' because everlasting sakura tree in Da Capo, thus we have 'Sakura Reset'. By the way, in term of music Da Capo mean 'play the song from the beginning', which is synonymous with reset. For this week, we have several new VNs announced at Anime Central, although to be frank none of those are interesting to me. That said, Da Capo Remake announcement is quite interesting, and also there's DesperaDrops PC version announcement in which Aksys already released the Switch version of it. Overall, this week is an average one, and let's see what I can write in regard of it.
Shiravune announced two new nukige title, Double Date Dilemma and My Wife’s Voice Through the Wall. While the announcements are not on what I want to keep eyes on, at least it's no longer RPGMaker game now that Shiravune have the sister brand to take care of those. As for the nukige, both are focused on switching couple which had the wife had sex with another man with the husband accept it while he had sex with the wife of said another man. So yeah, it's more like NTR in the technical term only with the consent between the involved persons. For Double Date Dilemma, the couples start exchange the couple after both couples find themselves in the trouble, while for My Wife's Voice it was started when the couple feel bothered by the voice in their new neighbor before the curiosity get the best of the couple. In case you want to know when both will be released, no release date from them as of now.
Sekai announced Nekonin exHeart Spin fandisc, and I think I have saying enough that I would prefer longer Whirlpool VN if possible. They also announced Dra-Con Cafe in which it's short VN with two dragon girl run a maid cafe, and let's just say there are much more interesting VNs out there when it come to having cafe setting. Mangagamer announced How I Met My Healthy Hentai Neighbors with it is the third VN of Healthy Hentai series, and this time it's about the MC who is lucky enough to be the neighbors of the titular hentai family (With said family consist of the first VN heroines) because he'll be able to have sex as much as he could, although he may be not as lucky as we think because it mean the MC could be sucked dry by his horny neighbors.
We have Loe Translation released new patch for Junketsu Megami-sama with the patch translated all of the main story for each goddesses, although note that it's still not the full patch because there are still some untranslated patch with some of the translated part are still bugged. We also have Cherry Kiss announced yet another nukige called Pussylympics, and it's about the MC who is a creepy sport physician like to take the picture of big breast female athletes getting blackmailed by the female tennis athlete to force him to ruin the career of her three other rivals without the tennis athlete realizing that she may will get the same treatment as her rivals from the MC. Cherry Kiss already have the exact release date for this, and they'll release it on June 6th later. If you've been waiting for Clover Reset, it'll be available on 30th later. We also have a publisher decided to release DesperaDrops on Steam (The Steam store page of it), which is nice to see more otome VN in PC and doubly so with Aksys already released it only at Switch. They also already have the exact release date for it, and they'll release it on 27th later, so you can note the date if you want to get the VN.
Lastly, we have Da Capo Re:Tune which as we know is the planned Da Capo remake, although as it turned out the developer will also provide English support. Also it's worth to note that the one who localize it is Bushiroad instead of Mangagamer with the latter was formed by Circus as well, although then again Nexton was listed as Mangagamer's founder and yet several of their VNs are localized by Shiravune. For additional notes, the remake will be all age with the VA are experienced in voicing the anime. Also yes I know some didn't like it because it's amounted to censorship seeing the original Da Capo is 18+, although in this case I didn't mind seeing we already have the old version translated by Mangagamer years ago. I hope that Da Capo Re-Tune release would ended up with Da Capo 4 and 5 being localized, although I may ask too much. Oh yes, Re:Tune will be available on October 30th later if you're curious about the release date.
That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.
For this week title, because we have Kiminozo Restoration project along with Sousaku Kanojo translation project, I combined both with 'Rumbling' is from Kiminozo English title (Rumbling Hearts) and 'Romance' is from Sousaku Kanojo full title (Sousaku Kanojo to Ren'ai Koushiki with Ren'ai mean romance), so for the title we have 'Rumbling Romance'. Anyway, for this week we have both Mangagamer and Frontwing announced the same exact date for their respective VNs release, Raillore and Perennial Dusk. That said, my biggest attention is toward Kiminozo Restoration project though with the goal is to technically restore the removed sex scenes in the English version. Overall, this week is another below average one, and let's see what I can write in regard of it.
Forget to mention we also have the releases, although I'm not quite interested with those. For the first release, we have Kagura Games released the VN with pixel graphic Amaoto ni Michiru Yoru with the premise we have the MC was randomly came into the bar at the middle of rainy night with he see a cute girl who soon proved to be very good conversation partner. Shiravune manage to release Beastkin Training, and feel free to get the game if you want to play as the one who train a haughty noble beastwoman. We also have more important news from Shiravune, namely they formed new brand called Co-Fun Games that will be focused on the doujin games (ie RPGMaker games), and hopefully it slightly make Shiravune job to localize VNs easier now that they have their sister brand to take care of their increasing RPGMaker games backlog (At 10 with another 10 coming later) even though I know RPGMaker games has cheaper cost to license.
Like I say beforehand Mangagamer planned to release Raillore, which is good because as we know it was banned by Steam with Mangagamer's employee show some suggestive CG which may influence the reviewer, and you can wait until 29th later if you've been waiting for Raillore even though you can't get it from Steam. You can wait until that date if you've been waited for Perennial Dusk in which it's the new VN written by Irotoridori's writer, and it'll be available on Steam. From Shinzou translation, we have Dekinai is at 13% edited and Sousaku Kanojo is at 47% edited. Lastly, we have the project with the goal to restore the sex scenes in Kiminozo that was removed in the translated version, although in this case it's more like translating the version that contain the sex scenes because the team find the difficulties to insert the removed scenes (At around ~15% of the script) into Steam version. For the progress, currently the team was almost done translating all of the scenes with they now doing the editing work as well, and more importantly they planned to release the patch in the near future so let's see if we can see the team manage to do so.
That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.
Because I see the word 'San Shimai' in GL VN Affection with said word remind me of very old VN Three Sisters Story, I made the parody of another old VN localized by JAST, The Sagara Family, by changing 'Sagara' into 'Viscotte' with Viscotte is from the family in Affection, so we have 'The Viscotte Family' as the title. For this week, the main highlight is the updates from Sekai. Other than that, we also have the aforementioned Affection release along with the announcement of the exact release date for several VNs. Overall this week is another below average one, and let's see what I can write in regard of it.
Kagura Games announced they'll localized a nukige called Summer Days in the Joyful Countryside with the nukige is from Orcsoft. The VN itself is about an adult who manage to enjoy having sex with his three nieces, and while I don't think the uncle is handsome he definitely is quite capable in the other stuffs (Besides being handsome is not really main requirement to be nukige MC anyway). Speaking of nukige from Orcsoft, we have Cherry Kiss manage to release Succu-Mama on time, and once again the nukige is about the MC who have sex with his new tep mother who turned out to be a succubus. Forgot to mention that Kagura Games already have the exact release date for Yoru ga Kuru, in which they'll release it on May 31st later. We also have the exact release date for two otome VNs, with PQube will release Bustafellows 2 on July 17th later (Also will be available on Steam) and Aksys Games will release Uchronia on September 30th later (Only on Switch).
For the updates from Sekai, we have Wagahigh FD is fully translated and they preparing Harvest Festa for the release with they already edited 90% of it. For the rest of the updates, it's on the engine work with Chiisana Kanojo is 30% done along with it already three quarter edited and Amairo Chocolata 2 is 20% done. There's also some question in regard of Harukuru 18+ version with the employee mention they find some difficulties on the engine working, so it should be very obvious that the plan to release it on Q1 of 2025 is no longer possible. Speaking of 18+ version, currently the team who translate Kiminozo 18+ version already finished with the first pass which according to them is the hardest part. For the next plan, they'll do the editing and playtesting before releasing the patch.
Lastly, we have GL VN Affection released suddenly, and for a bit of history the developer want to make use of the fan translation that they find it online. While at first they find some difficulties on it, with they now be able to release the English version of it obviously they manage to find a way to translate their VN. For Affection, it's about Saya who felt like she can't find a place to where she belong find a job as the maid through her former teacher's acquaintance, and she works in a mansion belong to Viscotte family which consist of three sisters that are younger than Saya. Slowly, Saya find herself to be able to smile after she find herself knows more about her masters. Go get Affection in their Itch.io (It's available for free, although you can donate the developer) if you want to play some GL VN, and have fun.
That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.
Welcome to this week VNTS Review. For the title, because we have Tayutama announced with its full title is 'Tayutama -Kiss on My Deity-' along with Sacrifice Villain finally released, I decided to make Boku no Hero Academia English title parody (My Hero Academia) because Sacrifice Villain setting is very clearly Boku no Hero Academia setting, so we have 'My Deity Academia' as the title. As for this week, the most obvious things here would be it was less plain compared to the last two weeks. To elaborate more, this week we have Shiravune being active with them released two of their title and announce one of new title. There's also the aforementioned Tayutama announcement, although I can't say that I like the announcement. Overall this week is an average one, and let's see what I can write in regard of it.
I did mention that I like to see Tayutama available in English, and my reaction is initially interested after a sudden announcement from a new company decided to bring it into English. However, turned out there's a catch, namely there won't be sex scenes because the publisher also release it on Switch. While granted Tayutama main attraction is not the sex scenes, it's still too bad there won't be translated sex scenes, which is more like Kiminozo or Yoake (Because the fan translator for the latter chose the PS2 backport that had two additional routes in exchange of the sex scenes). Anyway, for Tayutama it's about Yuuri who suddenly met a mysterious girl Mashiro which turned out to be the deity, and Yuuri's life start to change from there. Well, it's more or less a charage, and it'll be released sometimes in this Spring. Oh yes, you can see the Steam store for Tayutama if you want to see some of its translation example.
We have Nagi no Koi is now available on Steam, and as it turned out Shinzou Translation did involve in the official translation of it. Well no much to say other than it's redundant release to me, although feel free to get Nagi no Koi from Steam if you want to support the developer with the money (For the info the developer did initially release this as free game). Speaking of redundant release, Nekonyan announced they already have the release estimation time for Koichoco, and they said it'll be available sometimes in Q1 of 2025 (Up to March 31st later) with they already opened the Steam store for it. Again it's redundant release to me, but at least the Steam version should be easier to install seeing it's quite cumbersome to install the original game. We also have Alka gave sudden update in regard of Kud Wafter, and for the update currently we have the all age version of it is at 87.5% translated.
Shiravune announced ExS-Tia Concerto 2 with the premise is still the same with the prequel only with the story focused on the other magical girl, Touka. With Shiravune announced its second game even before released the first game, perhaps they may aim for simultaneous release. Also by them announced its second game, I hope they also announced the third and fourth game as well if only to complete the whole tetralogy. They also released Ochingin, in which it's about the MC who have a lot of sex thanks to him have the sugar mommy of a CEO. Lastly, they finally released Sacrifice Villains after almost three years of waiting (The longest record for Shiravune for now) with the artist is the one responsible for Healthy Hentai nukige series. For the premise, it's about the MC who was tasked to rehabilitate three super villainess in setting. However, the way of the MC carry the task is not exactly very heroic, seeing the MC apply a lot of love into the villainess in the forceful manner with several ways. Anyway, feel free to get Sacrifice Villain if you like the art from Healthy Hentai and want to see more of it in this superhero parody nukige, and have fun.
That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.
Welcome to this week VNTS Review, and for the title I'll tell about it in PS later. For this week, well honestly speaking it's quite a plain one which to say is quite understandable if we consider it as the breather one. We also have Shiravune released the nukige, and once again we have a number of updates from fan translation. With that done, let's see what I can write in regard of this week as well.
For Kamitsubaki City Regenerate, I do a bit of research of Kamitsubaki and find out they're a group of virtual idol that currently becoming popular. For the VN itself, what I got it's about the male MC who somehow ended up in a ruined world, and after he woke up he met up with a girl named Kafu with the MC soon set up a quest to save the ruined world together with Kafu. Another things that I know is the VN story is apparently quite dark, it have some gameplay with the gameplay is the usual RPG along with rhythm game in which the latter is quite obvious because of Kamitsubaki group as the virtual idol group, and Lemnisca themselves was involved in the translation work of it. I do hear the VN is quite good even with the virtual idol group stuffs, so feel free to try the VN if you're curious.
Shiravune did release Real Eroge Situation DT, and once again it's about the reality of eroge MC with he was manage to have sex with five girls even though he was called out as being unlucky because he manage to crush any romance flags. Go get the VN if you're in the mood for a nukige with big breast heroines (And admittedly quite nice arts), and have fun. For fan translation updates, we have Ushieta is in QC work with it now is 63% done, and Watamasu suddenly see some progress in QA after around three years with it's QA is now 40% done. Lastly, we have Shizuku was translated the same team who translate ToHeart 1997 version, and currently 190 script files of it are already translated. For a bit of explanation, Shizuku is one of the well known denpa VN that popularized the genre in 1996 with the story has the MC see the girl in her class became insane with he asked by his uncle to investigate the matter.
That's all for what I can write in regard of thhis week, and see you next week.
PS - For the title, because we have Kamitsubaki City Regenerate released with they're turned out to be a group of virtual idol, I decided to make a parody for one of their song, Confused Telepathy, by changed 'Telepathy' into 'Time Leap' with the latter is from Dekinai Watashi's MC ability to do time leap to the past, so we have 'Confused Time Leap' as the title.
Welcome to this week VNTS Review, and for the title I'll tell it at PS later. For this week, we have Shiravune do some move, although it's not really quite interesting yet. We also have Idea Factory released Senjou no Waltz along with Sekai announced Nekopara 5 exact release date. Overall, I feel this week is below average, and let's see what I can write in regard of it.
First of all, we have Watamasu QA work is now 41% done. Sekai also finally announced the exact release date for Nekopara 5 (Or if we follow the title Nekopara After) with they'll release it on May 23rd later, so feel free to note the date if you want to get the last(?) VN in Nekopara series and maybe like Sayori's art. Once again we have Idea Factory released Senjou no Waltz, and good for Idea Factory by releasing it on time despite it's only for Switch. For the premise of it, we have a girl who lost everything find herself wielding a cursed sword, and from now on she didn't have any other choice except to live in the battlefield with she attend a military academy together with several handsome students. Go get the VN if you want to play another otome VN on Switch, and have fun. After some waiting, finally Visual Arts announced when they'll release Reflection Blue after Summer Pocket anime was aired, and it'll be sometimes in Summer later.
Shiravune announced the exact date for one of their title, Beastkin Training, with said date is on 30th later so you can note the date if you want to get it. They also announced Karenai Sekai, and technically speaking it has quite good graphic so it should be nice title to look forward to, if not for Shinzou Translation already released the patch of it back in last September, so yeah it's more or less redundant to me (Feel free to wait though if you didn't find the translation by Shinzou satisfying). Lastly, they announced another ExS-Tia title, although it's not Concerto but instead it's Magical Pastel Marie with it being the parallel story of the original ExS-Tia that has the main girl (Marina) is Souma's younger sister becoming the magical girl called Magical Pastel. For the info, in the original Marie is Souma's childhood with Souma being the MC, and no Marina being younger in the alternate continuity won't allow her escaping her fate from getting raped every time she was defeated.
That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.
PS - For the title, I made the VA allusion for the purple Cure from the past two series (Kirihana in WPC as Cure Friendy and Takamori Natsumi in IdolPC as Cure Kyun-Kyun) because we have the announcement in regard of the two VNs that had them, Kirihana in Karenai Sekai and Takamori Natsumi in Summer Pockets, so we have 'Wonderful Idol' as the first part. For the second part, I just change 'Magical' into 'Pretty' from Shiravune's announcement, ExS-Tia Magical Pastel (Which conveniently is purple magical girl), and so we have 'Wonderful Idol Pretty Pastel' as this week full title.
For this week title, because we have Irotoridori no Hikari released and I did make the parody of the first part of Narnia when Irotoridori no Sekai was released, I decided to make a parody of the second part of Narnia, Prince Caspian, by changing it into 'Princess Asumi' with Asumi is the main heroine of the new little sister VN (Countryside Siblings). Anyway, we have Irotoridori no Hikari translation patch as the most notable news for this week, and another notable news is we have Mojika release. Overall this week is an above average one, and let's see what I can write in regard of it.
After several delays, JAST finally manage to released Mojika. For Mojika itself, while I know there's much more beneath the VN with it seems like a disturbing nukige, I feel the content a bit too disturbing and hard to recommend to most people. In here, we have an ugly student, Suteru with he was constantly bullied because of his ugliness. Unbeknown to the bullies, Suteru has superpower which allow him to read the mind of the people within the radius of 120 centimeter, although since every thoughts towards him are harsh he keep looking at the floor to avoid it. One day Suteru was asked to come into the rooftop by a girl he has crush into, although obviously the girl was also cruel to him like the rest of the other. Have enough of it, Suteru decided to take the matter into his own hand by make full use of his power in order to get even at his bullies. Go get Mojika if you didn't mind the disturbing content and want to see what Nitroplus provide in the game, and have fun.
Cherry Kiss released their newest nukige, and no much to say other than it's about the teacher who was blackmailed into have sex with one of her male student (The MC) because he find the teacher in the sugar mama website. Hayasaki no Kuroyuri Kickstarter was finished, and it managed to gather around 15,000 dollars through the campaign. We have 40 out of 197 script files for Shizuku are edited, and we have Tsukikana updates after a while with the translator mention that finally the script translation is now nearly complete so hopefully we can see more Tsukikana progress later.
We have a little sister VN released, and said game is the aforementioned Countryside Siblings. What's worth to note is that the game was made by Onikiss director with he also bring the artist for it, so the art for Country Siblings is quite good. For the premise, it's about the nameless MC who need to take care of his sickly little sister Asumi, which really worth to mention is really blood related. Hearing their father was passed away leaving an inheritance, the sibling decided to move to the countryside if only for Asumi's sake seeing she has asthma with the polluted air will cause the attack. Starting new life is obviously not easy, but regardless the MC decided to do her best to keep taking care of his sister for the rest of his life with he'll have a lot of sex with Asumi. Unlike Onikiss, in here we have some gameplay with the MC has map movement in the game. Feel free to get Country Siblings if you're in the mood for little sister VN and waiting for Onigyu, and have fun.
Last but not the least, we have Irotoridori no Hikari translation patch release in which it's the sequel of Irotoridori no Sekai, although the one who release it is a random 4chan user instead of Nekonyan. While I said the sequel, actually it was initially mentioned as the fandisc thus make it the same as Nukitashi 2. I said that the first game should be complete, although I see some want to see more of the characters so obviously Hikari should be interesting to play for them, especially with Favorite put the effort on writing the after stories for all of the heroines compared to when they only focused on two heroines in Eternal Heart (Hoshimemo FD). Either way feel free to get Hikari if you want to see more of Irotoridori characters or want to see more of the setting, and have fun.
That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.
Welcome to this week VNTS Review. For the title, because we have Nekonyan released Koichoco, I decided to make the parody of its English title (Love, Election, and Chocolate) by changing 'Election' into 'Invasion' from Rance 03 event (Helman invasion to Leazas) and 'Chocolate' into 'Marshmallow' with it being Mashiro's (Tayutama main heroine) favorite food, so we have 'Love, Invasion, and Marshmallow' as the title. For this week, the three releases alone (Koichoco, Rance 03, and Tayutama) make it being an active one, and of course we also have some other updates with the most notable one is Mahou Shoujo release. Overall, this week is quite an interesting one, and let's see what I can write in regard of it.
Nekonyan did release Koichoco as planned, and honestly speaking to me it's redundant release seeing we have nine years old translation patch which was released in November 2015. That said, it still has nice production value, and Nekonyan version is much easier to install compared to the old version so at least you didn't need to go through the hassle to play the new version of Koichoco. For the premise, it's the same no matter which version, with the MC Yuki need to join a very dramatic student council election as the candidate in order to save his unproductive club which about to face financial reform. Forgot to mention the new version also remove the necessity to play Chisato's route first, although I don't know if that feature will be able to improve her not quite good reputation among the one who play Koichoco in 2016. Go get Koichoco from Steam if you want to play the VN with the new translation or maybe did decide to wait for Nekonyan version, and have fun.
Speaking of 2016, I do remember there's a project to translate Mahou Shoujo back then, although that project was going nowhere. Nevertheless, a new translator worked on it, and now we have the game available in English (The post in regard of the release). For the premise, it's about the normal high school girl Chiyoko who thrown into the battle against the monster after approached by a strange talking cat, and then she gather more allies in order to increase the manpower. While this seems like the usual premise of magical girl work, the outfit is more like the bodysuit instead of usual magical girl uniform with the aesthetic is leaned toward sci-fi, and the tone is quite heavy. It has SRPG gameplay and some people who played it praise the game, so you can try the game if you're curious about it.
Mangagamer released Rance 03, and it has the most distinctive feature with it the only Rance game that have voices with Alicesoft decided to omit that feature in X because X has many characters which would be very costly to dub all of the characters. Back to 03, in there we have Helman army led by the prince Patton invade Leazas. Seeing no choice, the rules of Leazas, Princess Lia, ask help from a certain adventurer that she knew, Rance. Of course, Rance asked for his reward immediately, which should be obvious revolving of having sex with the beautiful women. Rance 3 is the game where Alicesoft start to write the story in the bigger scale compared to the previous games that have smaller scale, and the remake is no different with Alicesoft going all out to polish the remake as much as possible with they also overhaul the gameplay. Go get 03 if you want to play Rance 3 in better graphic or maybe want to play another Rance game, and have fun.
We have Cherry Kiss announced yet another nukige (Swipe Right for Sugar Mama Sensei), and they'll release it on April 4th later. For fan translation updates, we have Shizuku is now fully translated, the original Tsui no Sora was past three quarter (76%) edited, and QC work for Ushieta is 73.8% done. We also have Cartagra Remake Switch version announced with it will have English language support, although the one who will release it is Visual Arts instead of Shiravune and obviously won't have sex scenes. For now, I can only wonder if Shiravune will also localized the PC version later.
Lastly, we have Tayutama released with it didn't have the sex scenes. However, someone (Who may or may not be the translation staff) make the 18+ patch for Tayutama and released it just today (Four days after the full game release), with it remind me of Baldr Sky 18+ patch release. For the story, it's about Yuuri who is a son of a priest about to perform a ritual in an ancient monument before it accidentally destroyed by his friend. Turned out the monument is the seal containing the spiritual creatures, Tayutai, thus the monument's destruction causing Tayutai to roam in the human world. Then, Yuuri saw a girl with her turned out to be a deity who manage Tayutai. Following that, Yuuri give the name to the new girl as Mashiro, and afterward Yuuri's life start to be more lively with Mashiro. While it's good now we have the 18+ patch, some may prefer to play Tayutama without the sex scenes, so feel free to get the VN if you interested (Whether with 18+ patch or not) and have fun.
That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.
