Fred the Barber

Your oddly specific example has me wondering: has there been any other game meeting this description, aside from The World Ends With You (which was objectively one of the best soundtracks ever)? Random comments on other stuff: The soundtrack is certainly out of the norm, but in a way that I actually rather like. Unless it's really bland, art style usually takes some getting used to. For me, an initial dislike due to unfamiliarity quite often turns into really liking an art style, within a few hours. So at this point, I tend to just reserve judgement on that particular facet until I've had a lot of time with the game. I don't think the art is by any means ugly or bad - though admittedly that girl's facepalm face is definitely not my favorite... There are people who play windowed? Weird. Fullscreen master race. In all seriousness, why bother complaining about options, as long as you like at least one of the options? There are defaults, sure, but the reason an option exists in the first place is because not everybody's going to agree on the value the developer chose. I'm sorry that happened to be you this time?

Have to agree with ittaku on both points, but although I myself can't believe it, I think I have relevant information: didn't the Majikoi fan translation patch have a decensoring option? I'm pretty sure I remember being traumatized by the example of it that I saw, wherever it was; I definitely did not apply it when I was reading.

I played varsity tennis in high school - now I play it casually with friends on the weekends when the weather is nice. It's not going anywhere just because you're getting older - most hobbies, you can keep up long after high school and/or college are over. So, don't sweat it too much, young uns.

In the spirit of shameless self-promotion, I recently did a live presentation at SakuraCon largely about how to find VNs you'll like, and where to get them. I recorded and uploaded one of my rehearsals, so if you like, take a look; it's a lot easier than you think. Be aware, since I know jack about editing video, there's a few seconds of nothing happening at the beginning and the ending: Welcome! I hope you enjoy your time here.

I didn't watch any Ghibli movies until I was already in college, so I don't have that childhood nostalgia thing going for me. I have, however, really enjoyed a lot of Ghibli movies (most notably Kiki, Howl, and Castle in the Sky). Despite that, I also didn't really "get" Spirited Away. The setting was amazing, but somehow the movie just didn't do much for me.

Don't worry, Date A Live 2 wasn't a letdown for me, because season 1 was so bad that I never watched season 2. I guess I already posted my usual example in this thread, but here's another: the Black Lagoon OVA. Season 1 was a fun premise, a good story, and kept introducing interesting characters. Season 2 took it to a whole new level, especially in the last arc, moving everything to a new setting that really let them change the mood and feel of the show effectively, while still keeping the soul and fun of the show intact. And then along came an OVA made of 100% pure fanservice, featuring a radical departure from character for pretty much everybody involved, and zero interesting events. I don't just want my time back, I want my mind back - but unfortunately it cannot be unseen.

Milestones, but no mile and no stones? We must be talking about the iconic Miles Davis album, right? Congrats, Valmore. It's always nice being able to list another person around here who is still much older than I am.

I actually liked K-On season 2 better than season 1, but solely because of the ending - I can't express well just how much I loved that season 2 ending. It's been long enough that I don't recall how the contents of each season compared, but I expect I'd agree with you that the first season was otherwise stronger than the second. I actually recommend not watching the movie - it took a lot of the punch out of the ending, for me.

Got through Luka's ending yesterday or day before, so I can comment a bit on that as well:

Just finished my Rookie playthrough of XCOM 2. But I actually didn't have any more lost soldiers after the early phases, before I understood how anything worked. I'm a little bit tired of it, so I probably actually won't go back and start up another playthrough to start getting my butt kicked by a higher difficulty just yet. I'm not actually sure what I'll pick up next, but Tales of Zestiria has been waiting a long time, so that's pretty likely.

I empathize with that But it could be worse

I finished Galko, and will amend my earlier statement: it is funny, different, and short, and the last episode is incredibly sweet. This is an easy recommendation, especially because the whole season takes about 1.5 hours to watch. Now back to DxD...

Individual employees (at least, the ones you want to hire) take pride in and responsibility for their work. Companies exist to make money. Fortunately and unsurprisingly, the two goals often align, especially with respect to long-term goals: people want to build high-quality products (because they want to consume high-quality products, and also because they want people to take pleasure in the fruits of their labor), and companies thrive when people perceive their goods as high-quality. But you should not confuse this with companies themselves having a desire to produce products of a certain quality or tailored to a certain market: a company exists to make money, and those are intermediate means to that end. I'll call your mentioning of Demonbane, since I played that a month or two ago - the translation of Leica's route was, for about a third of it, abominable. It was completely inconsistent with the rest of the translation (which was fine), it had serious grammar and spelling mistakes, and even the text display was screwy. I'll specifically direct you at the "This is a temple cum throne room" line: the scene is repeated perhaps 10 times across the VN. That paragraph's translation is identical, consistent, and well-written everywhere else; in Leica's route, the same exact words are translated differently, and frankly much more poorly. The Demonbane translation gets a pretty bad mark in my book - I'd rather have something which is consistently decent than something which is at times quite good, and at others quite bad. Now, why do I bring that up? To illustrate my point, of course. The developers didn't know about that problem. And if they don't know about it, they won't act on it. No amount of pride in craftsmanship can replace the importance of customer feedback, either in the form of specific verbal feedback from individual consumers, or better yet in the form of implicit feedback from sales numbers. Money talks, and bullshit walks. That's how companies work. If you think otherwise, in any circumstance, you're deluding yourself.

I'm also a soundtrack nut, and I'm a huge fan of Key soundtracks, but it seems you've already played the two VNs of theirs that I think are their best (Little Busters! and Rewrite). So, here's a few other suggestions that I also think have excellent soundtracks. I'm only going to link the BGM that you're going to hear more often, rather than OP/ED/insert songs: Comyu has a funky electronic soundtrack. I really enjoy its down-tempo jazzier moments, but unfortunately I couldn't find my favorite piece from the OST on youtube (named Strategy Time), but this is probably my second-favorite. You'll hear it a lot. It may even sound a little generic initially, but it'll grow on you: From Sekien no Inganock, my favorite track is actually the BGM for the H-scenes. Based on my limited experience, it may actually be the only good music that has ever appeared in an H-scene in any VN, ever. The soundtrack from this VN is kind of short, but it is excellent. The OST reflects the melancholy atmosphere at times, but at others it punctuates the sweeter moments with lovely, gentle piano tracks. Action scenes have customary action tracks, and, the H scene music is searingly passionate. This VN's soundtrack may very well be perfect. Actually, both of the games I've played in the Steampunk series have wonderful soundtracks. I love Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning as well, and while its soundtrack is sometimes only ok, at its best it is nothing short of magnificent. I will link the second-best song from the soundtrack here. You shouldn't listen to the whole Gahkthun soundtrack except in the context of the game, because everybody deserves to hear the very best Gahkthun song in its one and only appearance in the context of the game; the climax of the VN, with that BGM, is my favorite moment in any VN. But the second-best track, while completely different, is damn good too: KonoSora, as much as the English translation is a butchery, is still a great game and has a gorgeous soundtrack. The art and music both shine, and are at their best when they're reflecting the upbeat and cheerful tempo of the characters and events in the VN: You know, after putting all that down, I really, really want to play KonoSora again. Edit: I should add that I thought we initially had similar taste, until I saw your F/SN rating. But hey, everybody's different, right? At any rate, I hope something I recommended strikes a chord - but given the strong Little Busters! resonance, I'd bet on KonoSora being the right recommendation for you.

Newsflash: all companies are after one thing and one thing only. What you seem to be implying with this statement is that all the companies you lump in that group are short-sighted. But having revenue be your motivating goal doesn't immediately make you short-sighted; far from it, long-term investments are also important. Capitalism is pretty great at this particular scenario. It's very clear from sales numbers and from level of engagement by consumers that the English-reading VN industry is growing by leaps and bounds. There will be associated growing pains. But when the dust clears, the associated companies will of course spend most of their effort on what can make them the most money, and right now they're trying to figure out what that is. I don't blame them at all for leaving ero content behind whenever it proves problematic, at the moment: the sales numbers right now are showing that it doesn't seem to be nearly as profitable as pretty art. The good news is, if the market grows enough, the niches within our niche market will grow as well, to the point that someone will find a way to make money off them as well (maybe the current licensing companies, maybe someone else entirely). Those niches includes both ero content (which was previously dominant, but is now starting to get left by the wayside in favor of the Steam releases) and well-written stories (which have never done well, but which a vocal minority keeps beating the drum in favor of). We're already experiencing this benefit with the latter case: in the last couple years, more of the licensing companies are experimenting with bringing over well-written stories. I just really hope more people start buying those, since that's the niche I'm interested in.

I'm also 99% certain that the spammer formerly known as Marie is not, in fact, female. In related probable hypotheses, I'm 99.9% certain that Flutterz is not a pony. Mind you, I went out of my way to say it was a rather nice Rin figurine. There are always plenty of bad Rin figurines floating around as well. Cons really are a pretty great experience, for niche hobbyists like us - it took me a while to get up the motivation to go to one, but since that first time, I look forward to going back every year. Edit to avoid double-posting: Confession: I can't stop myself from arguing with people on the internet.

I'm also a bit of a foodie, and have to agree on this point. I visited some five years ago, and I remember enjoying pretty literally every meal I ate in Japan. I visited there before I turned into an otaku, so I wasn't blinded by rose-colored glasses, either; it really was great. The only other place I've been to which had comparably good food (probably better, but it's a close one) was Italy. Anyway, I have to agree with the general "like anywhere, it's got pros and cons" sentiment. Living in the US, I like a lot of things here, and I also dislike a lot of things (and if Trump gets elected, there'll be one more thing that I really don't like...). I expect I'd feel the same wherever I went, Japan included, except that I'd undoubtedly find it easier to be somewhere that I'm not an outsider, which for me pretty much means the US or Canada, since the US's Pacific Northwest and large parts of Canada are practically indistinguishable. I can certainly see where the welcoming-but-keeping-at-arms-length attitude towards foreigners makes it difficult for anybody wanting to actually move to Japan, but anecdotally many people do manage it. My old company had a large office in Japan (support/consulting positions rather than product, though, so I never looked into it myself) and I knew someone who leveraged that to switch from a typical engineer job at the US office to a role of some sort over in Japan, living and working for about four years in Tokyo. I should really ask him about his experience sometime, but at any rate, depending on your career there are certainly ways you could work out a job, even outside of working from home, if you were really dedicated to living in Japan.

Have to agree with @Tyrael - After reading the descriptions, I'm rather glad Mr. T didn't mention me.

Dude, you had to walk, like, 5 feet from the bar counter to bring that girl her salad. I'm surprised she didn't start mistaking you for the waiter.

Pretty accurate for me as well (although I'm missing a lot more achievements than that), except that I got 10-star friendships with 8 people at the same time I finished the community center. It seems that, as usual, socializing just wasn't your strong suit.

We've only been talking about ramen for eleven hours, how could I have known? Anyway, I don't see any interesting panels on the schedule today, and I've already spent a few hours on the show floor (including plenty of time ... erm ... having friendly chats with MG and Sekai Project), so it looks like I've survived another con without buying a figurine or a dakimakura. There was a rather nice Tohsaka Rin figurine, which was really, really tempting, and SP had a few Grisaia dakimakura covers, which it turns out actually aren't tempting to me at all, which is something of a relief, but it looks like nonetheless I retain a few tattered shreds of dignity.

Yet another reason you should have come to SakuraCon - I would've totally gone to get ramen with you.

The egg is crucial. I also found I really like bamboo shoots and usually get extra of those, and I like adding roasted seaweed sometimes, but only if I eat it all right after it arrives, while it's still mostly crunchy. Letting it get soggy in the broth ruins it, somehow. The place I mostly go to has a "low sodium" shoyu broth option; even so it's still crazy salty. I don't even want to know how bad it is for me, let alone how much worse the regular broth would be. Incidentally, that place is about 4 blocks away. I went yesterday. Living downtown in a metropolitan city is awesome.

I don't doubt that it requires a certain kind of addictive personality to actually want to play these games. On the up-side, I find that I tend to play them a whole lot for a short time, and then burn out fast. I don't think I've started the game in about a week, nor do I really feel any strong pull to do so. I actually never even got past fall of year 2.