Turnip Sensei

I love hearing about when people realize how awesome Sakurai's Steampunk-series is. If those games really "click" with someone, they are literally the best shit ever. Hope you enjoy Sharnoth as well! And keep hoping that Mangagamer decides to localize more of the series. I found Sona-Nyl even better than Inganock, so it would be shame if western fans won't get a chance to read it.

Ooh, it's shiny and pretty adorable. 9/10

Gonna give this one a go after work today. I buy (almost) every story focused VN Mangagamer licenses on principle anyways and I did like the demo. Uniqueness is one enticing part of it, but I'm also pretty curious about the reasons behind the really high EGS score.

Welp, Kara no Shoujo 2 was pretty good. There's (obviously) going to be spoilers galore for the whole series, so please exercise caution.

Judging by that reaction, it seems the part about Hitogata village is quite dividing topic. People and their poor taste... I didn't even pay any attention to the third person narration honestly, it just felt like a natural way to tell the story. But now that you mention it, it's not that usual, huh. It really does create a different feeling though, the description feel very different when they aren't passed through somebody. It would be nice if VNs played little more with perspective switches, as the dynamic structure makes it easier to jump between different narrators. For example Sakurai does some pretty cool things in her Steampunk-games by seamlessly changing between first and third person narration, and I wouldn't mind seeing more of that kind of thing elsewhere. And one last thing before I get back to KnS2. I really like Reiji's voice, and more the fact that he's actually voiced now. His voice now brings out his inner softie in a way that the text alone couldn't.

Seeing how much I enjoyed Kara no Shoujo I just couldn't keep my hands off the sequel. KnS2 is going to be my entertainment for the weekend. So far I read the prologue/Hitogata part. It was surprisingly interesting, although somewhere in the middle I almost forgot I was reading KnS. Still I really enjoyed the chemistry between the children and the secluded village had it's own pretty cool atmosphere. I really wouldn't have minded reading more about that. If I had to complain about something, then why wasn't Nanako&Naori a thing. But yeah, it's still nice to get back to the normal flow of the game. I heard the investigation systems were improved, so looking forward to that. And voiced Reiji, and more Yukari... Also, damn KnS2 is pretty. Graphics aren't that important to me in VNs, but what can I say. Really beautiful art is just really damn beautiful.

Yoo that was pretty awesome! I wonder if there's info about the western release at E3, but I'm already itching to buy the Japanese Limited edition. I want that art book and soundtrack collection... I guess it's also time to get myself PS4 after all.

Why the hell is Forest so good?! It's literally literary crack for me, it's been a while since I've read something so thoroughly enjoyable. Forest makes me throw my arms up in amazement and wonder when more and more ridiculous things keeps happening, it makes me laugh with weird passages, it makes me remember all the stories I read when I was child and rethink them a little. I love how confusing it is, how erratic the structure is, and yet how cohesive it feels in all it's chaos. I mean, there's a chapter titled "Midsummer Night's Pirates", where everyone suddenly starts talking in poems. What could be better than that?!

Got myself the 4 parts of Fate/Prototype to read while commuting. Books in Japanese have the nice added benefit of lasting more than a few days, and I really can't get enough of Sakurai. I also got myself Shiei no Sona-Nyl Drama CD. I've always wanted to try and get one, but damn those things are (comparatively) expensive! I think I'll just stick to books and games...

Finished Kara no Shoujo over the weekend.

Welcome! You didn't mention it, but have you read Fate/Hollow Ataraxia? If not, that's some real treat waiting for you. Steampunk-series could also be something you might like, seeing your fondness of Type-Moon stuff. I strongly encourage checking out Gahkthun of the Golden Lighting.

Finished my first playthrough! The final boss was pretty hype, but I was so sure that the game was still deceiving me in some way and so I only realized it was the final boss after beating it. Talk about anti-climax... I don't think anything can beat the magical feeling of playing the PC Dark Souls 1 for the first time, when everything was new and exciting, and when even the community felt more tightly knit and obscure, but still DkS3 is the most fun I've had with Souls-games in a while. It plays better than ever, be it bosses, online and just levels themselves. The progression through the game stays steadily difficult and varied, exploring is fun and rewarding and it's just overall really well built experience. Maybe little too linear for me, but that's just a minor complaint. I think I'll continue randomly playing Dark Souls III, trying to find things I missed earlier and mess around in PVP.

It's actually pretty fun to start over and do everything better with next character and it doesn't take all that long to get back to where I am. I remember restarting the original Dark Souls at least two times. And now that I've gotten better with my new chara I can always go back to my old save. I think I accidentally fell to the dark side. After last nights PVP spree I had 50 Pale Tongues (the item you get from killing the host) in my inventory. Butcher's Knife and throwing knives are all I need, and thanks to all the PVP I did I don't even need shield anymore. Shields are pretty bad in PVP, you get shield broken really fast and that's a free riposte.

I finally hit a brick wall on my main character in Dark Souls III, so I made a new a character and tried my hand at PVP which I ignored completely before. The Undead Legion covenant which summons you to defend the forest is pretty fun, but the summoning rate is kind of random and pretty slow at times. Same with Blue Sentinels, so I've been mostly invading others. It's really nice that there's so many people playing DkS3 since you get to fight often and against all kinds of players. Some times you get your ass-kicked, sometimes you just slaughter your enemies and sometimes the invasions end up in really intense duels. The huge summon amount can be really fun as well, Host + 2 phantoms vs. two different invaders is really hectic and super fun.

Played 12 hours of Dark Souls III yesterday, good stuff. I had some crashing problems too, but after I dropped lighting settings to low those went away for the most part. But man it's fun and pretty. My standard build of long sword + light armor + misc. pyromancies still works wonders. Didn't abandon shield completely since some enemies have pretty erratic move sets. Pretty much my only problem so far was that the game is too linear, but that was actually me just missing the branching points and accidentally proceeding through harder areas. Whoops.

Started playing Gahkthun fandisk and it's pretty cool. The slice of life parts are good and it's nice to see more about the characters that didn't get quite enough screen time in the main game, for example Izumi. Some new light is also shed on the relationships between the members of Governing Council and their closest associates, and these are developed further. Overall it feels really similar to Fate/hollow ataraxia. You repeat set days (though this time it's not really a time loop), choose different events, mostly mundane, but there's also something bigger going on behind the scenes. I've only done one and a half cycle so far, so I'm also excitedly anticipating what is to come. That said, there's already been some pretty intriguing and unsettling foreshadowing, some even on the scale of the whole series, it's setting and timeline.

Started playing Trillion: God of Destruction. It's pretty fun and queer little raising sim. The min-maxer in me loves the character raising elements and the fights too are very enjoyable because how intense they are. One wrong move and it's easily over. Also the concept of a boss having literally trillion HP is pretty crazy and overwhelming. It's also a pretty harsh game. I started by picking a "cannon fodder" Overlord I didn't like that much to raise first, but they do a really good job at making you care about the characters. I haven't lost her yet, but I can already taste the bitterness of the inevitable loss.

I actually really like the way Sorami's speech is portrayed in the translation. She already says weird things in Japanese and in strangely energetic way, so in my head the 'gosh darn' blabbering Sorami is perfect match for her voice acting. And I just really like how Sorami talks in general. Some of my favorite lines from Tokyo Babel so far came from Sorami blurting out something really heavy in really mundane and natural way, like it would be the most obvious thing in the world.

Tokyo Babel is pretty swell. I already read Raziel's route, I just couldn't stop partway. Here's some random non-spoilery impressions, partly because I'm tired and partly because I feel it's important to hype good new VNs. Tokyo Babel is damn cool. Character and monster designs, chuuni dialog, fight scenes... Tension, excitement and "Hell Yeah"-feelings are really strong most of the time. The music is really good, both the melancholic pieces and the high-tension battle music. It's surprisingly humorous. Some amount of humor is always expected, but Tokyo Babel manages to be really hilarious at times, and in a way that doesn't distract from the serious parts. The setting is really fascinating in Tokyo Babel and so are it's themes. Since the setting is based on Christian mythology it should come as no surprise that it's filled with religious themes, but at times Tokyo Babel managed to still really impress me. Without going to too much detail, there's some pretty intriguing stuff about topics like faith, immortality, and of course reason for being -- "raison d'être". Oh yeah, the translation is top notch too. It sounds very natural during normal conversations as it should, and more importantly suitably theatrical when it needs to. So yeah, it's great. I can't wait to see what the other routes have to offer.

Aah, nothing beats reading a good visual novel after a shitty day at work. In other words I read the final chapter of Steins;Gate + the True End. So yeah, Steins;Gate is pretty much as great as I remembered. El Psy Kongroo!

I actually read chapter 7 + Faris's ending a while ago, but I was too busy with Valusia and forgot to post anything. And I guess now is the time to make mad dash to finish, as it's only few days to the release of Tokyo Babel.

You should try the Hollow Area. I got bored of Aincrad after 5 or so floors, but I really liked the adventure through Hollow Area. Not only is the new girl, Philia, more interesting than the others and there's almost a proper story, but Hollow Area is also less linear, the areas are more varied and interesting, it doesn't have as much boring filler quests and it's actually pleasantly challenging. You can't just go spamming skills on bosses and mini-bosses, you actually have strategize a little, which makes the combat way more interesting. I don't know if it gets any better on higher floors of Aincrad, but for me Hollow Area was the most worthwhile part of the game.

I finished Hikari no Valusia last night, but I was too tired to write anything cohesive. It was my second completed VN in japanese and my 5th Steampunk-game. The "One thousand and One Nights"-esque setting was really interesting. The desert city Valusia, it's ancient customs and history. There's even a songstress/storyteller fitting for the the theme, which is utilized very well in the "minigame". (it's just choices like in Gahkhtun) This time the episodic structure is wilder than ever since there's not even a clear main character. Instead the perspective jumps between multiple characters, offering insight to the events through very differing viewpoints and time frames. There's the young boy and the girl, warrior siblings, foreign Scholar and his assistant, King of Bandits, assassin, a dancer of a harem, governor of Valusia and supervisor of Erudite Scholar Association. Each of them gets their own chapter, some more insignificant than others, but all contributing their own small, yet important part to the story. It might feel little frustrating on the middle, but come final moments of the VN all the parallel stories and perspectives are tied together to a satisfying ending. Overall I really enjoyed Valusia. The stories Sakurai crafts are always really intriguing both in terms of the actual events and what goes inside the characters itself. And finishing a Sakurai's story feels always so good. Even if it's only for a moment, Sakurai manages to bring out something really beautiful out of the characters, thus out of humans and making world feel like a slightly better place. Next up, Souten no Celanaria, last Steampunk-game I've yet to read and at the same time the first Steampunk-game released. And I guess there's the Full-voice Fan-disk and Gahkthun Fan-disk too. I also want to read Sharnoth again since I can hardly remember anything worthwhile of it. More so now that I feel like I've finally started to grasp the underlying shadows of Steampunk-world, and I definitely missed most of that in Sharnoth. It wouldn't be a bad idea either to read Inganock again in Japanese and see what I missed...