granit

First, despite the way moege fans fawn over the first two VNs by Madosoft, they are perfect examples of absolute mediocrity in charage.  That isn't to say they didn't have good points... the visual aspects of this company's VNs are on the higher end of things in the charage part of the VN industry.  However, they were basically slogs through WWI-style trenches full of mud made from ichaicha... and one of my  pet peeves is writers who pump in endless ichaicha.  I personally see them as kusoge, due to the fact that I dropped Namaiki after one path (didn't vote on it) and Yakimochi was a nightmare of a substance-free ball of cotton candy.
I was kind of exasperated that this VN had an anime come out beforehand, and to be honest, I avoided that anime like the plague specifically so it wouldn't color my attitude on this one.  Considering how much the sexual aspect colors the relationships with the heroines in their paths, I am mildly curious as to how they handled the latter part of the series, though.
One thing all the paths in this VN have in common is that the protagonist falls apart completely at least once in all of them.  I'll be perfectly straight with you... if it weren't for the fact that he was so obviously fragile mentally in the first place, I probably would have been a lot more pissed off about this aspect.  That tendency toward tunnel vision when stressed is pretty common in charage protags, but it does get tiring at times.
The common route in this VN is fairly good...  especially since the protagonist actually has a personality and a role other than as the donkan harem protagonist.  I did think that it was insane to consider anyone other than Towa (the imouto) a heroine at all after a few hours (I love stories of twisted mutual dependence), but I went straight for Aashe first, simply because I'm too perverse to go for the heroine I most want from the beginning.  On the other side, Kaoruko and Mihiro are both heroine types I really and sincerely am bored of... the immensely capable school council president who acts like an airhead (I hate airheads) and the osananajimi (sort-of) heroine.  Understand, when I hear the words 'osananajimi heroine', I am almost instantly consumed by hatred and the heroine in question starts from a negative point.  
Aashe's path was a good experience.  While it did feel a bit obvious when it came to the drama (the foreshadowing was overly blatant), that wasn't so bad  a stumble that the path didn't manage to recover... at least somewhat.  This is a problem that was somewhat endemic to all the paths. I liked the ending, as well as the solution the protagonist settled on.  However, I felt that the end didn't move far enough ahead in time (this VN seriously needs a story fandisc to round out the endings), and that was somewhat of a downer.
The little sister's path was pretty good in this one.  In recent years, little sister paths have mostly been perfunctory, with none of the seriously twisted stuff you tend to see with the dependence that usually creates (consensual) incestuous relationships.  I do feel that they should have included the parental issues into the main VN, rather than making them a background setting.  However, the drama that comes up in the path is emotional enough to be satisfying.  Towa is a great dependent imouto character, and I had to laugh at how easily they transitioned (seriously, it is pretty hilarious).  The fact that they actually managed to take it from there to a really emotional piece of drama near the end was a demonstration of surprising skill.  Again, the big downside was the fact that they really, seriously didn't focus on the issues the protagonist and his sister had with their parents, except in a ridiculously indirect and matter-of-fact fashion.   This is a perfect example of 'failing to milk the setting', and it is a common flaw when it comes to charage-makers (most of them have a tendency to obsessively avoid introducing new or extra characters in heroine paths). 
Kaoruko is the obvious 'main heroine' of the story, and accordingly, it was given the most love by the writer.   The humor and ichaicha are both on a higher level than the other paths (which means it was given more love, given the specialty of charage writers is humor and ichaicha), to the point where I actually broke into real-life lol situations several times midway through.  Unfortunately, the drama in this path is surprisingly... dull compared to the others (this is actually common with charage writers, who seem to like giving their main heroines smooth rides).  I was made a bit sad by this... but the writer's love was shown fairly clearly again in the ending, which is based a pretty long time after the end of the main story and talks about a lot of the details about how they arrived there.
I'm going to be blunt.  I don't have the energy to play Mihiro's path now or any time soon.  She is a great friend character who is frequently amusing... but by that same tone, she is the type of character who makes a horrible transition to the 'heroine' role.  I honestly can't see any non-awkward way in which they would move her into the heroine position, and I honestly don't want her as a heroine, so I'll leave it to someone else to bother with her.
Overall, this is by far the best of Madosoft's three VNs released so far... but it is no kamige.  It does, however, manage to fulfill the requirements for a VN of the Month candidate, in that it both stimulates the emotions, the intellect, and my sense of humor... even if no two of them is strongly stimulated in any given path, lol.  Unfortunately, it just barely puts its fingernails on the edge of candidacy, so anything even reasonably good could blow it out of the water with little trouble, lol.

I'm sure you are wondering what the hell I'm talking about with the title of this post, but the concept is pretty simple...  You take a period of history or a series of famous/infamous events, turn all or most of the male personages into females, and then plop your main character into their midst, evolving a story from there. 
A few examples of this...
The Koihime Musou, Sengoku Koihime series by Baseson
Chuushingura
Sengoku and Sangoku Hime series by Gesen
Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier
Koihime Musou is the one most of you will probably be familiar with, and it is the basic model for most of the type.  It is based in the era of the fall of the later Han dynasty in China, portrayed in the ancient story Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  This is one of the two eras most favored by those making games, VNs, anime, and manga in this particular little niche, and it is also one of the easiest ones to use, as the story has made at least some headway in most of the countries of the world (it was translated into English first over a century ago) to one degree or another.  In a way, Koihime Musou (the original) is a classic example of the genre, as the events portrayed generally only vaguely resemble the ones that existed in the original story, even when you set aside the issues of all the characters being female except the protagonist.  Shin Koihime Musou, which follows each of the three factions in separate story arcs (rather than a single arc with Liu Bei's side unifying China like in the original) is generally better written and actually uses historical events in most of the paths, up to a point (where it inevitably diverges radically). 
The Sangoku Hime series is a strategy-VN series based in the same era as Koihime Musou, with the big difference that the protagonist is both fairly irrelevant to the story and the events are fairly close to the original material, up to a point (in fact, this is the biggest draw of the series, other than the surprisingly well-done story sequences in some of the cases).  This series suffers from definite 'strategy fatigue', though... as fighting your way across China tends to rapidly become monotonous, with actual plot tending to only come up at the beginning and end of each prefecture's invasion, meaning you can go five or six hours without seeing anything in the way of story except sex scenes (of which there are generally a ridiculous number...). 
Chuushingura follows the story of the 47 Ronin, a famous story of Edo-era samurai that was the inspiration for most foreigners' impressions of the samurai caste.  In this case, while the events in each 'arc' generally follow the basic outline of the original story, there are divergences in perspective based on where the protagonist chooses to go, and the final story diverges immensely from the original.  This VN doesn't have any gameplay, and it was originally a doujin VN series that went commercial a few years ago in the form of a rewritten, partially redesigned omnibus VN. 
The Sengoku Hime series by Gesen is based in the Sengoku Jidai (Japan's Warring States period).  In this one, you generally take on the role of a strategist (whose actual level of influence varies from path to path) who serves with one of the major clans of Japan as they set out to conquer the country.  Generally speaking, the balance of story to gameplay in this series is better than in the Sangoku series by the same company, but the pacing is still fairly shitty due to the intervention of the gameplay.  Depending on which faction you choose (generally if you choose the Tokugawa or Toyotomi) you can get a fairly accurate replay of past events, with a lot of differing details.  However, if you pick certain factions (the Oda, the Date, the Ashikaga or the Shimazu) you tend to get stories that radically diverge from history even if you ignore the issues with female clan lords and the like.  This is inevitable, considering the sheer chaos of that era (the concept of the 'honorable' samurai as foreigners like to see it portrayed is a product of the Edo era that followed after Tokugawa's unification of Japan), with the betrayals, massacres, religious rebellions, and the like...
Koihime Sengoku (the new version of which I am playing right now) is also based in the same era, but, similar to the original Koihime Musou, diverges radically from history relatively early on.  In particular, it should be noted that while certain famous events and relationships were deliberately reproduced for the pleasure of historical romantics (the Takedo-Uesugi rivalry, Oda Nobunaga's relationship with Mino's deceased leader, the Viper, etc), a lot more of it is different.  This VN is significantly different from Koihime Musou in that it has a far darker, more violent atmosphere (lots of killing, and some of the heroines are... not good people, lol), and the protagonist is far more active as part of the story (in fact, he is the nephew of the protagonist from Shin Koihime Musou). 
Kikan Bakumatsu is based in the highly-romanticized period of the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate after Perry's 'black ships' opened Japan.  It covers a lot of the political and ideological conflicts wracking Japan at the time fairly accurately, while focusing on the infamous Shinsengumi (who are often thought of as the last samurai).  This period is also covered in the otomege series, Hakuoki, though the only common element between them beside that is the existence of a fantasy element.  Depending on the path you choose in this one, you can radically alter history and the life and death of certain characters, but if you choose one of the Shinsengumi heroines, the basic path in life of the protagonist, Okita Soujirou, goes pretty much as history portrays (it is pretty sad). 
Generally speaking, due to the depth that can be added to the setting for these stories, they tend to be good more often than most... and that is generally why I tend to look forward to them, lol.  However, if you aren't a history buff, some of it will just go over your head, and the language in a VN based in these eras will frequently be incomprehensible for the inexperienced.  To be blunt, anyone who reads one of these should have a degree of pre-existing knowledge if they want to really enjoy them... otherwise, it isn't nearly as fun to see how the writers choose to twist things out of shape, hahaha.

These are just a few thoughts that I've had after experiencing various gameplay VNs over the years. 
First, understand that I see VNs as reading material (in the same vein as manga but with the addition of voice, some animation, and detailed narration) first and games second.  Second, the type of gameplay most likely to be fused to a VN (strategy or turn-based rpg) are ones I played for well over a decade before I first encountered VNs, so I have at least some qualifications to evaluate them.
First, for the gameplay...  no matter how you express it, the average VN gameplay is several levels below the average console strategy game, srpg, or jrpg in terms of quality and design.  Some of the best of the type - such as the Ikusa Megami series - just barely reach the same level as stuff released before the turn of the century as far as those two aspects go. 
Second, balance... in a VN hybrid, having a good balance between the story and gameplay is vital.  In other words, the grinding needs to be minimalized and difficulty should be adjustable.  VN hybrids without adjustable difficulty levels (with an easy version that really is easy) tend to result in a VN where the story is told in snippets between long stretches of grindy gameplay (Softhouse Chara's games tend to have this flaw in excess).
Third is feature creep... a lot of hybrids have weird gameplay features that make the game confusing without really adding anything enjoyable to the game.  An example of this is the recruitment system from the 'breeder' Venus Blood games.  To be blunt, this game mechanic, while fitting in with the atmosphere in the story, made the games unnecessarily complicated, and not in a good way.
Fourth... story pacing.  A lot of hybrids have horrible pacing.  In particular, many of them start out really well, grasping the reader/player with a dramatic prologue or first few chapters... then suddenly become a complete slog or grind in the mid-game.  To be honest, the most egregious offender in this case are strategy-conquest VNs, where the story won't progress significantly until you've achieved an artificial goal, like conquest of a certain region.  Generally speaking, most strategy-conquest VNs (such as Sengoku Rance or Madou Koukaku) start out really well, with an interesting beginning to the story... and suddenly become devoid of story for about thirty hours if you don't act in exactly the right way.  The Sengoku Hime and Sangoku Hime series are classic examples of this.  Both series tend to have first-rate beginnings, but the story gets put to the wayside pretty early in the game.  As a result, you essentially get stuck playing a sub-par strategy game for ten to fifteen hours before you manage to restart the plot.  This is tiring and boring, to say the least.
My conclusion?  Generally speaking, VN hybrids can be good, but that is only if the VN aspects don't become an adjunct for the third-rate gameplay that tends to be tacked onto them.

I'm definitely going to have really, seriously mixed feelings on this VN when it is done.  The problems with the common route still apply, but some of the heroine routes make up for the problem.  I'm not going to say this is going to be another Tasogare no Sinsemilla... that possibility never even really existed.   For better or worse, this VN has serious pacing issues near the beginning (yes, the heroine routes are longer than the common route), and the difference between even the non-true heroine routes is a bit sharp, based on my experience with Yui's, Honoka's, and Koharu's routes. 
First, Honoka's route is straight-out the best of the non-Misaki routes.  I say it is 'the best', but that is mostly because it strikes the best balance between the heroine and the protagonist and their problems.  Unlike in the average charage (it is questionable after playing this route whether this can be seriously considered a charage), there are multiple points of drama, and the actual story (non-ichaicha/H) is fairly extended.  I was actually impressed by this route in the sense that I haven't encountered one like it in a while, but that just emphasizes how 'patchwork' this VN feels as a whole so far.
Second, Koharu's route... for better or worse, this is a lot closer to a charage route than Honoka's, in the sense that the drama is very self-contained, mild, and it is over relatively quickly (in the larger perspective of the route as a whole).  Unfortunately, this just points out how much better Honoka's route was, both in detail and in general.  This is what I mean by the VN feeling 'patchwork'.  There are seriously good points to this experience, but then there will be long stretches of mediocrity or intermittent moments of brilliance with the same.  It feels like it was written by three separate writers at times, lol.
Third... Yui's route.  Yui's route is a lot closer to Honoka's, in that the conflicts involved are more serious/have more serious consequences.  Again, this tends to contrast with Koharu's route, which felt bland and drama-less in comparison.
So far, the biggest common point between the three paths is that the protagonist is a bit clingy and if the girls didn't already love him, he'd probably be stalking them (seriously, this was my thought as I played).  That said, I liked how natural (in terms of the plot) the relationship-formation stage was in all three paths, though the paths themselves tended to feel a bit drawn-out. 
Now, on to Misaki's path... and the wrap-up.

Now, anyone who has seen pictures or videos from Hapymaher will have noticed the VN's resident loli, Maia.

For various reasons, Maia is easily the character who leaves the strongest impression in the VN, hands-down.  She is the center of the VN's obvious conflict, and she easily has the greatest variety of character poses and non-H CGs.  If there is drama of some sort throughout the common route, Saki's route, Keiko's route, or Yayoi's route, she is somehow involved or the cause of it.  In a game that is focused around dreams, she is the devil's whisper, always giving people that last push they need to cross a line or jump off a cliff.  If Tohru, the protagonist, is the picture of the human capacity for self-control, she is apparently a representative of the part of the human psyche that denies that same control.
However, that is only a small part of who she is.  In fact, that surface appearance and her symbolic role are actually less important than what lies at the core... a person who's motivations are neither inscrutable or incomprehensible (though she lies like a rug when it suits her).  In fact, she repeats her motivation verbally throughout the VN, mixed in with the lies and half-truths she tells habitually just to see the look on other people's faces.  She hides nothing of her nature or personality, but she is quite capable of using that truth to deceive.  In fact, in a regular chuunige, she really would be the ideal antagonist, as that combination of lies, half-truths, and truth that defines her makes for precisely the kind of antagonist chuunige-makers love.
Heck, just listen to her theme song.
 
That is precisely the kind of music they'd normally give to the last-boss type protagonist in another game... 
Nonetheless, at the core of her is a deep and abiding love and devotion that surpasses all barriers, allows her to bear anything... except that emotion itself.  To be honest, she even makes the yandere-ish Saki (she really seems like it sometimes) seem mild in terms of her degree of emotion.  That love contains everything that love should contain, including the fundamental duality of human nature... what we want for ourselves and what we want for others (I'm not saying anymore on this, as going any farther would be a  real spoiler). 

 

Naitou Tohru is the protagonist of Hapymaher and the character whose viewpoint you share for about 85% of the VN.  He is a character whose personality and situation are defined by a sense of loss and guilt so painful, it has literally driven him to the brink of insanity.  Oddly enough, the thing I find most admirable about him is the fact that is self-aware enough to actually rely on someone (most of the time) when he is at his limits and outside his specialty (which is altering/controlling his own dreams).
A few words about his situation without giving away anything that would ruin the story.  If you know the concept of a 'lucid dream', you also know that it is a dream where you are aware you are dreaming (this often leads to you remembering more of it).  In Tohru's case, he sees nothing but lucid dreams... which means that the barriers between reality and dreams in his consciousness are extremely blurry and he is incapable of 'resting' psychologically when he sleeps.  He rarely, if ever receives what we would call 'restful sleep' without the aid of drugs that send him into utter insensibility, and in his dreams, he is capable of doing practically whatever he wants, in many cases. 
Tohru's character can sometimes be seen as a symbol of self-control - as I said in my post on Maia - because he really does have a ridiculous level of self-control for someone still in his teens.  He is not really that dense, though he often pretends to be out of self-defense.  However, he has a lot of psychological hangups even in real life that have reinforced his somewhat blurry view of reality... ones he actually needs to maintain his mental and emotional balance, even if he realizes they are ridiculous.
Tohru's clear-eyed view of dreams can be seen as a contrast to his somewhat blurry view of reality, as he is almost always the first to realize when he and the other characters are dreaming and when they aren't... and what the nature of the dream is.  To him, nightmares are everyday stuff, and he is so inured to the pain that accompanies them by experience that it would be tempting to see him as nerve-dead from the outside.
He does have his weaknesses, even in dreams, though... and their names are Saki and Maia.  He is heavily dependent on Saki (self-evident within seconds of encountering her) and... holds other emotions towards Maia. 
So what can I say?  In another VN, I might seriously dislike him, because he is too aware of those around him to be your standard harem protagonist, but he does have some seriously admirable elements... such as a sense of compassion and good Samaritan-ism (limited to women most of the time) or his willingness to endure pain for the sake of others.  However, he is also more than a little clumsy when it comes to handling those close to him and he frequently makes a wild boar look mild and easily moved. 

Tokyo Babel is scheduled to be released pretty soon, so I decided to replay it.  As Propeller is one of my favorite companies and Tokyo Babel has a more or less permanent place in my top fifty (when the number of VNs you've played passes five hundred, fifty is a good place to be, lol), so this doesn't bother me.  Tokyo Babel is one of the few purely all-ages titles from Japan on the PC, and it is a chuunige of rare quality that was obviously written with one of a dozen or so pairs of eyes on Masada and the rest on an internal vision that more prudish Christians would probably call blasphemous.
Tokyo Babel is not only the name of the game, it is also the name of the setting, a remade version of Purgatory floating in mid-air, where angels, humans, and demons are working together desperately in hopes that they can convince God to stop squishing the universes.  This is not a VN for the excessively religious to play... to be honest, there were moments when even I felt uncomfortable and I've never seriously adhered to any organized religion, though I was raised Christian. 
Some of the major characters include Astaroth, Belial, Carmael, Uriel, and many other famous or infamous demons and angels.  The three heroines are Raziel, Kugutsu Sorami, and Lilith.  Raziel is the angel who recorded all of creation in her book, the Sefer Raziel (this is partially taken from various apocryphal mythology).  Kugutsu Sorami is the first character you meet in the VN, whose ignorant untainted perspective gives you your first clear insight into the world from a human perspective.  Lilith is the first wife of Adam, who left him and who lay down with demons and produced all the monsters of the world (book of Enoch). 
Understand, like a lot of stories using Christian mythology, it uses bits and pieces from Milton's Paradise Lost, medieval literature, Gnostic ideas, and many other elements and branching-off literature that went off in all directions since the genesis of that particular faith.  One thing to keep in mind if you are a Christian and were raised to believe that Lilith never existed is that the Bible is not and has never been what we would call 'complete', as each version had bits and pieces grafted on or removed based on what the powerful and influential of an era or region felt was convenient, necessary, correct, and/or all of the above.  The Book of Enoch is one of dozens of 'books' not included in the accepted versions of the Bible, that were considered paradoxical in the eyes of the church of the time.  So... just keep an open mind when reading up on this kind of thing, because Wikipedia isn't exactly reliable when looking up religion-related facts.
Now, setting philosophical, historical, and other issues aside... this is a pretty enjoyable VN on a lot of levels.  Propeller developed its own (fairly hilarious in my opinion) style of humor that is incorporated into the story, and its effect in Tokyo Babel is one of humanizing the characters.  I don't think a lot of people who read chuuni really understand how vital a few moments of humor can be in giving life to a character, even in this type of VN.  While Masada and his type choose another path, Propeller's writers generally choose to use humor as one of the elements of their characterization.  On another level, this VN is chuuni crack.  The protagonist is a self-hating guy with a dark past and a deathwish seven billion kilometers wide, but he also has an even stronger sense of responsibility toward those he comes to care about, which is seen in the heroine routes.  The situation is one fit to drive even the most optimistic mind to despair, and there are bad guys behind the curtains, waiting to push everyone in the abyss.
In other words, this is one of those VNs that has almost an infinite capacity for fun in a chuuni sense of the word.
The art style of this VN is... unique.  In some ways, it feels like an elaboration on Propeller's previously-preferred style, but it was actually done by a completely  different artist from their previous works and it does show in a lot of places.  In particular, the vivid designs you see on the more monstrous demons and monsters in the VN shows this off very well.  Leviathan (the giant serpent) and the Seven Beasts from Setsuna's sword are two of the more distinctive examples of this art-style, and ones that honestly impress me even today. 
Sound-wise... I'll be straight.  There is no such thing as a bad Propeller sound track... well, until Sougeki no Jaeger anyway.  Tokyo Babel's isn't as good as Evolimit's, but that's kind of like saying that Sasaki Kojirou wasn't as good a swordsman as Musashi (token weabooism, lol).  Generally speaking, the songs in this VN vary to a surprising degree, ranging from techno tunes, to rock, and even a few hymn-like ones.  The one thing that unifies them is that none are poorly used, lol.
Now... down to the story.  I've already described the basic concept above, but now I'll get into structure.  This VN is split into three major routes after a pretty short common route (the trial ends about the same time you are supposed to head into the heroine routes, from what I've heard).  Raziel's route is the one that keeps you furthest from the 'deepest truths' of the VN, and having played her route is pretty good preparation for Sorami's route, as Sorami's route reveals some things that might make it hard for some people to read Raziel's route and take it for what it is.  Raziel's route has a bad end that is seriously... bad.  However, it is also a highly-detailed and reasonably long diversion from the 'good' (this is debatable) ending.  Sorami's path has a good ending (bittersweet but technically a good ending), a normal ending (really sad...), and a bad ending (like Raziel's, it is fairly long).  Sorami's path has a different focus on the events in Tokyo Babel than Raziel's, and I've heard some people describe Raziel's, Sorami's, and Lilith's paths as the Angel, Human, and Demon paths in that order... However, that is a pretty generalized statement and one that doesn't really feel correct, lol.  Lilith's path... is the true path.  I'm going to be blunt.  If you are silly enough to try to do Lilith's path first, you'll deserve your inability to figure out a third of the references in the path, because it is constructed so that the information from the previous two paths feeds directly into the events in that one.  In other words, if you haven't played the other two paths, Lilith's path has a lot of potential for being confusing.  Lilith's path has three distinctive bad ends, one true end, and one 'Setsuna' end, which is a branch-off from the true one.  Lilith's path has some of the best battles in the VN, and there are no secrets left in shadow by the end, which makes it a great way to end things.
A few thoughts about Propeller as a company... Propeller doesn't really produce that many overwhelmingly attractive heroines.  I'm pretty sure that this is deliberate, as there is a definite tendency toward the story being more important than the heroines in these VNs.  For people accustomed to the extreme character focus that defines a lot of VNs, this has a potential to be problematic...  Take Ayakashibito, for instance... how many of you really, seriously were obsessed with the romantic aspects of the VN (if you read it)?  There are even heroines in Propeller games that are actually deliberately made to seem bland (the elf in Bullet Butlers, for instance) or somehow unattractive for situational/emotional reasons (Kaori in Ayakashibito).  This is a part of their style, which calls for heroines to not take up the whole of the limelight in the VN, and it is one of the reasons I honestly find their VNs so enjoyable, other than the sheer chuunige nougat that makes my mouth water.
Overall, while Tokyo Babel is no Dies Irae, it does have a high level of quality, as well as being one of the few chuunige to dare to avoid the 'perfect happy ending' that has become standard even in many VNs of the type in recent years (for some reason, bittersweet endings are less popular these days...).   It can definitely play on your emotions at times (especially the endings), and there is just enough humor to keep the VN as a whole from being unbearably heavy.  Of course, if you dislike gloomy protagonists who don't really understand other people very well, there might be some abrasive moments in this VN for you... but Setsuna comes by that particular set of flaws honestly, so I never held it against him, lol. 

Before anyone asks, no I'm not translating this VN as a whole.  For one thing, it is long and I'm lazy.  For another, it actually has a small chance of coming over here, so I'm not going to do something that will spoil the whole game for them (I want this officially localized).  This is a fully narrated version (narrated by the poster of the video) of the first few scenes of Hapymaher, which was my VN of the Year 2013.  This VN has ridiculously good music... and a frequently heartbreaking story. 
2:38-14:42  The youtube guy voices the narration and the protagonist, in a way that is pretty good... and this is a translation.
There is no need for you to do anything. Just leave everything to me. 
 
Also, when it comes to your 'true desires', they are something you just think you understand.
 
Misfortune, happiness, difficulties, weeping, pain, pleasure, and fun… I will provide them all.
 
I know for certain what to do to make it so, after all.
 
But even so, you will still force yourself to go on.
 
You like to give up as well, don’t you?
 
That’s why I’ll capture you.
 
You like that as well, don’t you?
 
You always need to be looked after, after all.
 
That place was an extravagant room.
 
In the center was a wide, heavily-built table.
 
Upon the table, a pot with steam wafting from it and colorful candies and treats were lined up.
 
The fluffy couch and the handwoven rug upon the floor were all intended for the guests that came here.
 
Here, the preparations for a tea party are always complete.
 
That room, which seemed like it had lept out of a dream or a story, looked like a bad joke to me.
 
That was because of the coloring… black, white, red, purple, pink, blue… all the colors I could see were vivid ones.  It was as if the room were decorated like a butterfly.
 
Though it was a room that seemed as if it was from an aristocrat’s mansion, the color made it seem as if it had tossed aside all forms of dignity.
 
It wasn’t just the inside of the room that was strange.
 
Outside the window, vegetation grew so thickly that it was if it were a botanical garden.
 
The only light was the flickering light of the stars and the moon.  However, even that was blocked by the thick growth of the forest.
 
Thin trees, thick trees, flowers blooming despite the fact that it was night, and the overgrowth of grass, vines, and leaves.
 
The excess of plant growth around the room seemed to indicate that no human hand had intervened there in centuries.
 
However, the room itself was new, in all ways.
 
That strange place was filled with the silence of the forest and the presence of living things.
 
Suddenly, a single shadow appeared in the room.
 
Roses, which were not amongst the flowers blooming outside, began to bloom as if in order to conceal the shadow. 
 
The white roses, which seemed to grow in fast forward, began to give off the sweet smell of burning honey as they bloomed, as if someone had set fire to them.
 
The roses spread slowly like spilled water, giving off the scents of tea, honey, sweets, and the deep forest. 
 
And then the shadow took on the form of a young girl and stood there as if she had been there from the beginning.
 
The girl who stood amongst the white roses laughed quietly.
 
“Since I’ve been called, I must treat you to my hospitality.”
 
With a mien of mixed enjoyment and sorrow she whispered.
Opening
 
Second Scene
And so, I dream once again today.
 
When I came to, I was lying in the forest at night.
 
“Why am I dreaming this dream again…?”
 
There is no point in complaining.  I rise and begin to walk through the forest in my dreams.  I walk, I walk.
 
In that deep forest, the light of the stars and moon filtered through the trees is all the ilumination.
 
Even though the forest holds the sense of no presence other than “ours”, even though it is perfectly silent…
 
Even so, I can’t seem to believe there is no one else there.
 
A beast, a bird, a person, or perhaps even something like a ghost.
 
I’m not sure, but I sought to leave that forest, holding her hand amidst the intense sensation that something is there.
 
I almost trip over thick roots and stumble over buried stones.
 
Even so, I continue to walk holding the hand of the silent presence following me.
 
I know that this is a dream.
 
In the end, a dream is a dream.
 
I know.  This is the past.
 
Even if this actually occurred in the past, what I am seeing is merely a dream.
 
So, what I am seeing here is utterly meaningless.
 
This is a dream.
 
I know that better than anyone.  I know!
 
However, even so.  No matter how well I know it is meaningless, I can’t bring myself to let go of this hand I'm holding.
 
“It will be all right ______.  Let’s return home.”
 
There is no answer, nor is there a sense of a nod.
 
However, I don’t release that hand.
 
I know what will happen after this.  It is a dream I’ve seen countless times.
 
I can leave this forest.  It is a dark forest where I can’t figure out where I am, but I can return.
 
However…
 
“Ah… will we be able to go home?”
 
The direction of the light changes changes.
 
The forest goes from deep forest of the inside to the shallow forest of that which is close to the outside.
 
The trees are thin, the young ones begin to stand out, and the light filtering through the trees increases.
 
“We will return for sure this time… together this time for sure…!”
 
My legs shiver from walking through the forest, and I’m not sure my voice is coming out.
 
Even so, the sensation of the hand gripping mine was there.
 
-I know what happens after this.
 
---Please stop.
 
I can also here my own voice screaming those words.
 
However, I also think ‘this time for sure’.
 
.It’s just a dream!  Why give up if it is only a dream?!  Even if it is just in a dream…!
 
We walk, step by step, toward the outside.
 
If we get through this forest, we can return home.
 
The light from the outside gets stronger.  The area becomes brighter.
 
And when I exited the forest…
 
… the hand I was supposed to be holding was no longer there.
 
“Why?!  Why…?!”
 
I knew it.  I knew it would be this way.
 
Only I can leave the forest.
 
We will never be able to return together.
 
“Why...?!”
 
You gave up didn’t you?  You know, don’t you?
 
I should already know… know that only I returned.
 
It took me a long time to understand and I caused a lot of trouble in the process, but shouldn’t I have figured this out by now?
 
“That’s… even so…!”
 
And… Even if you returned together in the dream --- it isn’t like she’ll come back, will she?
 
After all, this is just a dream.
 
It changes nothing.  It is just self-satisfaction.  Even if I know it is a dream, it can’t have any effect on reality.
 
Yes, I know.  In the end, a dream is a dream.
 
I can’t return with her…
 
“Then, if you could return with her?”

Since I get asked questions constantly on this subject, I'll go ahead and list a few pieces of advice I felt apply to most beginners.
 
1) Use translation aggregator and a text hooker, even if you feel like you should be getting out your kanji dictionary, out of a sense of self-reliance. I'll be blunt, it is hard to enjoy something if you have to refer to a kanji dictionary for every other non-particle word. I am sometimes stunned at people bragging about spending 100 hours on an 8 hour moege because they chose not to use a text hooker. That is not an efficient way of using your time, even if you want to learn kanji. It is actually more efficient time-wise to do kanji exercises separately and read your VNs with a text hooker (you'll still be done with both in half the time it would have taken for you to read it using a kanji dictionary).
 
2) There are two methods you can choose to start your untranslated career... you can start off easy and work your way up, or you can smash your head into the walls of text of the harder VNs out there. I chose the latter, and most people choose the former. The walls of text method has the advantage of jump-starting your learning... but in exchange, you'll probably end up sleeping more to let you process all the new information you've gathered and you'll get frustrated more often. If you want to use the former method, I made a list here sometime ago ( http://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/3493-for-love-of-vns-for-beginners/ ).
 
3) jparser in Translation aggregator isn't perfect, nor is Mecab. They are tools to give you a chance to parse the kanji faster, rather than a translation tool. However, there is a good side-benefit to the frequently weird choices of furigana they make... and that is that you'll naturally learn the path to understanding kanji puns without having to look them up later, and it will become ever more easy to dissect more difficult words even without the tools later on.
 
4) In the end, mastering reading untranslated VNs is an uphill battle for most people. Don't expect yourself or everything you use to be perfect from the beginning, as the very idea is absurd. You'll run into stumbling blocks constantly, and you'll worry endlessly about whether you really understood that last line for most of your first hundred VNs or so.
 
5) If you read slowly in your native language, you will also read slowly in Japanese. Reading is reading, and it is a skill honed by a simple process of practice, practice, practice that never ends. Yes, learning to read fast in your own language will help you learn to read fast in Japanese once you've gotten to a certain level. If you are barely competent in your own language, I'll be frank in saying that this isn't for you, not to be mean but because it is the same skill, regardless of the details.
 
6) Last of all, I'd suggest hitting a wide variety of genres early on, not just your favorite ones. Why? Because that sense of wonder and love for VNs is only going to last through your first twenty-five to forty VNs, and once you've gotten past that point, it is going to be harder and harder to grow beyond your limits on your own.

First, I should probably address those who questioned why I never played this VN before... the answer is that I did try this VN 'way back when' and couldn't get past the prologue. To be frank, the prologue of this VN is pretty... unimpressive. However, once you get past that prologue, you are put into what probably amounts to the best nakige I've ever played.

This VN is a kinetic novel, with only a single ending. It combines elements of mythology, mystery, fantasy, and psychological horror (relatively mild) into a single whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. For those who love Araragi (to be honest, I think all of those who read this VN love Araragi) more than Hiyo... my condolences. There is only one path and it is Hiyo's.

The child-version of Hiyo in the pic above is part of one of my favorite early scenes in the VN and the scene that pretty much locked in my love of the characters as a whole. I'm a sucker for appeals to emotions like the ones in this VN, and there is very little in this VN that doesn't appeal to your emotions on some level. The warmth and kindness of the three girls closest to the protagonist and the dynamic between the four of them is central to most of the story. While Hiyo-love indeed has a big impact on the story, romance in this VN is ultimately merely one of many themes, ranging from the obvious 'love of art' and 'autumn', to 'the nature of kindness'.

For those who have seen the opening song on youtube... you should probably be aware that the entire OST for this VN is on that level or better. Like many of the best VNs out there, the musical direction and the choice of music in general is superb... a work of art. There are many Chinese-classical and hybrid Japanese-classical themes mixed in with various other types, and this adds to the atmosphere created by the 'old Japan' design of the school and dorms where all the events of the story take place. These aspects, combined with the plentiful expressions and poses given to the characters' tachie, are used effectively to create the 'personality' of the VN as a whole.

The most important way to evaluate VNs that fall into the 'nakige' category is how much they made you love the characters, thus giving you a reason to cry for them. In that sense, I can honestly say that it leaves almost every nakige I've played in the dust (including all of Key's). The lack of massive casts of heroines and multiple paths serves to make every occurrence in this VN feel 'real', adding more impact to the sorrow, joy, hope, and pride that continually break your heart. I can honestly say that I feel Propeller used the 'kinetic novel' format to its fullest, succeeding in creating a story with an impact far in excess of what it would have possessed if it had been a multi-path story.

Now... I feel it is about time I stopped praising this VN and spoke about the one issue that bothered me, even after I finished it...

... it truly amazed me how bad the VN is during the initial stages. It feels awkward and forced, and that sense of 'eh, what were they trying to do here?!' is so strong at first that it was enough to make me drop this five years ago without a second thought. Of course, back then I hadn't been as thoroughly 'trained' by years of playing moege that are far worse than this... but it is still a flaw in an otherwise awesome VN. That said, once it gets started, this VN is really, really hard to put down.

Overall, the only people I can't recommend this to are the extreme moe and dark fantasy fans. For all that the designs are most definitely moe, the degree to which the characters suffer in this VN will be a bit much for the soft-moe addicts. For the dark fantasy fans... you'll probably be a bit put off by a lack of action and murder. This VN has precisely one action scene that would interest that type... and it isn't that long (though it is important to the story in general). Everyone else? If you can make it past the prologue, I can guarantee you'll fall in love with the characters, even if other aspects bother you.

Yakushi Ryouko

To be blunt, Ryouko is a sub-heroine, so there really isn't much to say about her. Her path quality is lower, the details are less involved, and the drama is so mild you almost have to ask yourself if it even exists. Despite this, she is a fairly cute character, and she does fill the 'adorable kouhai' slot nicely.



Fujimiya Shione

This path, in terms of quality and nature, is something of a hybrid of Shizuku's and Reina's. Similar to Reina's, it is an osananajimi's path, with the assumption of past relationships and the reliance on them to form the protagonist-heroine dynamic. However, at the same time, it also possesses the kind of depth of introduction and character development that made Shizuku's path so satisfying overall. It makes sense that you have to have played at least one of the previous paths to access this one, when you consider the quality of this path.

That said, I think a lot of you will be a bit shocked at how their romantic relationship gets started, so feel free to look forward to it.

A few comments. This path and Ouka's are set on a story branch that is separate from the previous three, which has a slightly more intense focus on the fantasy element than was the norm in the main story of the other branch. Because of this, the two paths that follow feel a bit less like charage paths, which should be satisfying for those who prefer the more intense experience that came from Tasogare no Sinsemilla, though it still doesn't reach those heights.



Ouka (True Path)

Ouka is... a complex character. She has a number of roles: ghost, advisor, armchair detective, confidante... but in the end, she is the true heroine. Ouka's path is... the most complex and 'complete' of all the paths, with the most powerful emotional impact.

The first half of Ouka's path alone is as strong as Shizuku's or Shione's paths as a whole, and the second half (started from the title screen) is easily the densest drama in the entire VN. That said, all of the drama is intensely personal. There is no element of 'save the world' or 'cut the ties of an ancient, dark fate'. Rather, this is a romantic story, focusing on the relationship between two people who are as close as it is possible for two beings to be.

All the aspects of the protagonist's ability (including what is only hinted at in the others) is revealed. In addition, the hidden truth about Ouka is revealed, which is never even really touched upon in the other paths (deliberately). This is the only route I cried for, and it is worth playing this VN solely for this path...


Final thoughts

First, a few things I left out above. Ouka's route has two endings. One is an Tsukihime/Akiha-style 'normal' ending and the other a 'true good' ending.

Despite the fact that I raved about Ouka's path above, I do have to say that if this had just been a normal romance between normal people, I probably wouldn't have been so into it. I'm a fantasy freak, and I love out of this world romances.





A major flaw of the story is that there is no ending where Michitaka uses his ability as part of a career (it would be really easy to do so, and it would be interesting as an ending), and most of the heroine endings other than Ouka's left behind a definite feeling of incompleteness, despite the H-filled after-story 'fragments' you can access from the flow chart.

A major advantage to the way they construct the flow chart is that you can access the extra scenes along the way that enhance the story... or you can just live with the characters' casual mention of the events that happen in those stories. Little things like the protagonist's first meeting with his best friend's little sister, and certain people's reactions to Ouka are in such scenes... so it can be a good idea to look at them. At the same time, this is a VN of respectable length, so you might feel that it is better not to do so, due to your own personal time constraints.

On the whole, this is a good VN for those who like fantasy, and - while this is no Tasogare no Sinsemilla despite having the same writer - it is still a well-written narrative.

This is a VN by Applique, the makers of Concerto Note and Tasogare no Sinsemilla. Like most of their other VNs, this one has a layer of the supernatural mixed in with slice-of-life, wherein the supernatural becomes integral to their daily life.

There are two major supernatural aspects present from the beginning. One is the protagonist, Michitaka, and his ability to see the traces of other human beings as colors, both on they themselves and the objects they touch or own. The other is Ouka... whom I'll deliberately avoid explaining so as to avoid spoiling a really funny scene early on.

Common Route

The common route is really straightforward, with Ouka being something of an armchair detective for figuring out events that happen in Michitaka's daily life. His interactions with his two osananajimis (Reina and Shione) and the other people around him are well-described and serve well in introducing you to both the heroines and side-characters. The actual split for the first three heroine paths is relatively early on (this game uses a flow-chart style, which decides where you split off the common route) and the events leading up to it are, if not exciting, at least interesting enough that you can feel yourself developing a sense of the heroines' personas and how they might react during their own routes.

Inoue Reina

Reina is one of the protagonist's two osananajimis, the daughter of a realtor who is known, for the most part, for his honorable behavior. She herself is presented as a straightforward, serious girl with a somewhat boyish way of talking and acting. Because of some events that are deliberately not made clear in the common route, she and the protagonist were somewhat estranged before the VN began, but they quickly regain the relationship they possessed before. This route isn't a firestorm romance, but rather a simple case of two people who cared about each other already deciding to take it a step further, triggered by the events in the early part of the route. I do think that things move a little too fast once they get together, but the emotional events left me satisfied with the main path...

... even though I felt a little miffed by the short epilogue.

Kariya Wakana

Wakana is the game's single sub-heroine, who is only accessible after you have finished both parts of Nene's route. It is slightly shorter than the other routes, naturally, and it splits off a lot earlier in the common route.

This route is entirely devoid of the fantastical aspects that were central to the drama of the other paths, setting them aside for standard love-comedy drama. Thankfully, this doesn't include a lot of meaningless ichaicha (in fact, the route ends really quickly after they become lovers). At the same time, Wakana serves as a contrast to the other heroines, in that there is no real sense of severe tension to the story, even temporary, and it ends with no real sense of accomplishment. That's not to say it is a bad route... it is just that it seemed out of place in the context of this VN's themes and story.

Conclusion
I can safely say that this charage is a potential VN of the Month entry, which is nice, considering the lack of such games last month. For those who like Yuzusoft's visual and narration style, as well as charage, this is a great choice. I won't say I can recommend it to people who like action or darker plots, because this lacks anything of the type, despite indications that they could have very easily used this setting that way.

Shiiba Tsumugi

Tsumugi is both a transfer student and the game's reverse trap. That said, she has a definite fondness for cute things, and the way she dresses is a special circumstance, so don't go in thinking she is a boyish heroine. She's actually quite the reverse.

Her path is probably the most focused on the protagonist so far, with an even stronger focus on a certain aspect of the setting that is vital to all the paths. Since I'm avoiding spoilers here, I won't spell it out, especially since it isn't stated in any of the summaries.

Tsumugi's path is well-written, with a surprising lack of excessive ichaicha, mostly because of the sheer difficulty of achieving an 'ichaicha-state' due to her personal problems. At the same time, the romance is surprisingly straightforward and 'normal', which means that you won't run into anything you wouldn't expect from two young people falling in love for the first time, when it comes to their reactions to the purely romantic aspects.

I really liked how they touched more strongly upon parts of the fantasy setting that weren't really explored in the other paths, and the ending is quite satisfying, though - like all the others - the epilogue is still only based a relatively short time after the actual crisis of the story.

Togakushi Touko

Touko is the 'oneesan-senpai' of the group. She takes pleasure in teasing others, making jokes, and generally maintaining a light atmosphere.

Her path is perhaps the least straightforward so far... mostly because the issues are a bit less than predictable if you aren't used to seeing potential difficulties based upon minimal setting cues. I will say that I did like her as a heroine... but I didn't like her as much as Meguru or Nene. The simple reason for this is that her presence in the common route is so faint, so you don't really get the attachment to her in advance that you get with Meguru or Nene. In fact, I'm fairly sure about seventy percent of the people who read this VN will say 'I liked her path, but I'm not sure if I really got attached to her.' This leads to a definite lack of emotional impact for the crises in the later part of the path, at least in my case.


Look forward to Shiiba Tsumugi, next time!

Inaba Meguru

Meguru is the 'lively and cheerful, puppy-like kouhai' of the story. She is also the most 'fashionable' of the heroines, and the one who is perhaps the most like a 'normal girl' as far as this type of VN goes. The fact that Yuzusoft managed to make her character work is a mark of how high quality their stories are.

I will say that the ichaicha in this one is a lot more tedious than it was in Nene's story, though. A lot of it is that both Meguru and Shuuji are really dense about their own feelings, and they are really slow to progress once they do get together.

The drama in this story is about evenly split between Shuuji's and Meguru's issues, with Meguru's main issue resolved fairly early in the path and the protagonists' issues resolved slowly over the course of the path as a whole. While this is generally nice and the ending is decent... the fact that so much of the story is endless ichaicha kind of made me fall asleep.

Nonetheless, I like Meguru, and her tachie is probably the most well-used besides Nene, who was the main heroine.




Look forward to Togakushi Touko in the next entry!

Common

First of all, this is, like most Yuzusoft games, a high-quality charage, though a charage first and foremost. As such, there is definitely a lighter atmosphere than you'd expect, considering the protagonist's personal difficulties and those of the heroines. Problems are resolved quickly and with no real secondary disasters, and they are generally resolved to the satisfaction of the characters involved, if not in the most ideal of manners.

In other words, you won't be reading this VN for superlative story... but what is there is good nonetheless. The characters are interesting, the actual use of the tachie is as brilliant as always (Yuzusoft's tendency to choreograph rapid tachie expression and posture changes into each spoken line is alive and well here and used to extremely good effect), and the crises do have enough emotional impact for you to care to at least a reasonable degree.

Ayachi Nene

Nene's route is... really the main heroine route, to be honest. I was halfway aware of this, but the first meeting between her and the protagonist is so... rofl. I love heroines of her type in charages, so I honestly couldn't bring myself to play anyone else first.

Nene is your basic 'cool and kind-hearted beauty' who has a hidden 'dojikko' side that makes her absolutely adorable. The side-effect of her witch's abilities only makes this part of her personality come out more.

While I was able to easily predict the flow of events leading to the end of the first half of the route, I was nonetheless able to honestly enjoy them. This is rare, because usually charage routes that I can predict this easily don't tend to be able to keep my interest. It says a lot for the basic quality of the game that I could sit back and just enjoy the ride.

The big downside of this route (and probably all the others) is the sheer amount of ichaicha (that state where the heroine and the protagonist are all over each other). Yuzusoft loves their games to be full of this quality and this one is no exception... so for those who just want to pursue a story, this VN is probably not a good choice.



Look forward to Inaba Meguru's route, next time!

I'll be playing Sanoba Witch (https://vndb.org/v16044) first this month, and Boku no Hitori Sensou immediately after if Silverio Vendetta isn't available before that. So far, Sanoba Witch is Yuzusoft to the core... I'm curious to see where they'll go with this setting.