Fred the Barber

This is 100% shameless self-promotion and kind of a threadjack (sorry), but that's exactly the problem I'm trying to address in the panel I'm doing at Sakura-Con in a few weeks. More info over here: The slides I produce for that should make a good basis for a "getting started with visual novels" guide in website form.

That intro thread, though. I can hardly believe that's the same solidbatman, but I guess 3.5 years is a pretty long time.

Eclipsed already recommended it, but I'll chip in another vote for KonoSora / If My Heart Had Wings; given your VNDB votes and what you say you like, I think it's a perfect fit.

Thread necromancy time. With Sakuracon starting in 2.5 weeks, having heard nothing at all from the organizers, I'd been assuming either that my panel was not accepted or that it completely fell through the cracks. But an email arrived this morning, and it would seem my panel has been accepted. So, 10:30-11:30 PM, Friday March 25th, I'll be hosting "Getting Started With Visual Novels". Pardon me while I freak out prepare slides. I'm thinking I'll organize a live stream rehearsal for Fuwanovel viewers so I can 1) get some practice, and 2) gather feedback from all the knowledgeable, friendly folks around here.

So, mods seem to fit into three buckets so far: art replacements, quality-of-life, and crops. The first two are kind of nice, and the last is rather interesting, but what I'd really like to see is mods that add substantial content. Could you, for instance, make a new event or festival as a mod? How about adding a new character? If something like that came along I'd be all over it, but I don't know if that's even possible (obviously even if it is it'd be a lot of work, but I just wonder if it's possible).

Ok, one technical problem, which is really a problem with Gahkthun itself more so than the translation: most Canadians don't have much of an accent to their English, relative to the kind of English spoken in the US which is usually referred to as having "no accent", aside from the way they pronounce the "o" in words like "sorry". I haven't met any Quebecois so I can't speak to that, I suppose, but I don't believe her accent was representative of that speech either (and if it were, you'd say she had a Quebecois accent, not a Canadian accent). So, the accent as written wasn't something that I could call a Canadian accent. And one that's really more an issue with me: I wasn't able to hear anything like that accent in the voice acting. While that's surely my problem, that doesn't change the subjective experience for me. So on both the objective fork and, for me, the subjective fork as well, it didn't make sense.

I'm actually really sad to hear you didn't think Usagi Drop was awesome. That's a high bar to meet, certainly, but for me, it was definitely awesome. Girls Und Panzer is actually really good, but definitely do not watch the OVAs - they are mostly garbage (one was ok - the rest were unmitigated garbage). Have you watched Kokoro Connect? It's a tiny bit fanservicey for the first episode or two, and the description makes it sound much more so, but it gets good fast and it's got a very nice rhythm to it. In total contrast to Girls Und Panzer, the OVA feels like just another story arc, and is the second-best arc IMO (between one season and the OVA, it has four very distinct, well-contained story arcs). I finished my rewatch of Love Live! season one. Apparently I didn't actually forget much at all, but it was so disconcerting when season two started up with both an English dub and the conclusion of an event of which I had no recollection that I felt I had no choice but to rewatch. Season one was pretty great, again, though it definitely wasn't as amazing as the first time I watched it. Now fully armed with context, I'm ready to proceed to season two; hopefully it grabs my heart the way season one did the first time I saw it.

Ok, I've had a change of heart - I previously voiced my disapproval of translation trying to capture heavy Japanese accents through equally heavily accented English translation. Well, I hit a line in Grisaia (amusingly, the same translator whose application of this previously annoyed me, since I didn't really appreciate Gahkthun's Annabeth's accented translation) where it worked to better capture the mood for me. The thing that made it nice here was that the quotation was unvoiced, but the accented translation made it so I could mentally hear the person saying it - quite an accomplishment, really. I can't spoiler things right now, but it's not a big deal at all, so I'll just link it directly:

I looked back over my screenshots folder and found a few fond memories worth sharing: Edit: manually added spoiler tags

I daresay there may have been an agenda behind this month's theme.

Confession: I used to confuse B0X0R and solidbatman because B0X0R has (or at least had) a bat for his avatar.

Ehh, in my opinion SAO is only justifiable if you draw the line at just the Aincrad arc (not even a full season). The ending for season one was not gratifying at all, to me, to such an extent that I'm not even watching season two - I can see the way the wind's blowing. But maybe I'm just salty because the second half of season one made me a Suguha fan, despite her hopeless situation, and the ending did absolutely nothing to alleviate that despair.

When you phrase it that way, fair enough - for whatever reason it didn't even register as a joke at the time I read it, and I just found it bizarre. On a completely different note, I just saw a Cool Hand Luke reference in Grisaia with the good old "What we've got here is a failure to communicate" line. First person I've ever seen make that reference aside from my father At any rate, I'm still thoroughly enjoying the Grisaia common route. I'm clearly not spending as much time with this VN as it deserves, or I'd be done with the common route by now, but Stardew Valley has turned out to be entirely too effective at pushing my buttons. I'll be trying to get into a regular rhythm of reading again, probably with both Grisaia and Steins;Gate, since it looks like the reading club will be picking up the latter for March.

Judging by the Makina emote, I think the School Days suggestion was probably a joke...

Confession: I really was going to go outside today, but as I was walking to the door, I saw it was raining kind of hard. Maybe tomorrow.

This might significantly inflate the cost, but I do like the idea of having a few different "moods" for the character, depending on the part of the site. The reason for that is that I think, for the main site and maybe for things like social media presence, the character should probably be a little bit bland so that they are more approachable. But I just don't think the character is going to be representative of a large portion of Fuwa culture if there isn't at least one that looks a bit like a tsun in the middle of an intense lecture on what an idiot I am, which obviously should be used for the forums.

The hype is pretty real; Fate/Stay Night is well worth your time. It's standing at #7 overall ranking at VNDB, and from my (admittedly limited) experience, it deserves a ranking around there.

That's your other thread, not this one, but I also was fretting about the lack of spoiler tags while I was posting that... the Madoka ending is both very sweet and a little bitter, for me. But I love that, and that combination is the reason Madoka is the show I recommend to people who express interest in trying out anime.

I didn't dislike it.

Thanks, this is an interestingly different perspective. From my perspective of just watching the anime, I find Haru more a nuisance than anything else, and Kosaki and Chitoge by far the most interesting. Kosaki has the lead most of the time, but Chitoge takes a slight edge near the end. You've definitely got me interested in starting fresh with the manga, so maybe I'll do that once it's all released. But, I really do love the Shaft treatment it's getting in the anime. While I've actually never read a manga before (back off, I've got enough otaku hobbies already; I don't need more), but I can't imagine it would be remotely near this visually appealing. I haven't been called that since college...

Wait, wait, wait. I just saw Madoka is on your list. That show is one of my very favorites (somewhere around #3 overall?), particularly because the ending is so complete, but I'm surprised it's enough of a happy ending to merit your list. Amazing ending, yes, but... for me, at least, it's incredibly bittersweet. At any rate, I looked through stuff and found one more worth adding: Welcome to the NHK. Great show, although a little bit dark at times, with a very satisfying happy ending.

There is literally nothing more to the combat in Stardew Valley than was experienced the first time you killed a slime. Swing your sword, don't get hit, repeat. Nonetheless, it compels us, it does. It was really the "arrange the display of your goods and sell them" aspect that had be interested in Recettear. I'm weird. But it sounds like you are, too, and there's a person dedicated enough to that particular weirdness to make en entire game about it, so I guess it's ok. So thanks for the info, I'll definitely give it a try, one of these days.

I heard about Recettear years ago, but it got very little noise on the communities I was on at the time - given your mention of it in tandem here, I'm guessing I should try it?

Finished Nisekoi. The last episode was amazing, but the lack of resolution is still annoying. I have no desire to get embroiled further in the ongoing story, so I'll hold out at least until the manga is finished, and hopefully they'll make a season 3 at that time to wrap it all up. It's weird, though. I usually really like shows that end, satisfyingly, conclusively, tying up the knots. Don't get me wrong: there's a certain artistry to an open ending, and when it's done well it is actually the most interesting kind of ending for me, vs. a neat, complete ending. However, standard otaku content is usually not at a level that can pull that off; Haibane Renmei, in anime, and Rewrite, in VNs, are the only exceptions that come immediately to mind, but if you look in literature you can find plenty of examples. This story couldn't pull it off, but nonetheless it's got me so emotionally invested in both Chitoge and Kosaki that I don't really want to see an ending, because then one of them has to lose (or the ending has to be open, and therefore annoying; or worse, harem). Or, wait, one more option: I think it's going to have to be a dramatic sudden death for one of the main three players. It's the only way I'll enjoy the ending. Sorry, Raku, but the plot just won't allow you to live.

My favorite heroine route in my favorite VN got called lackluster Also, that voice actor is everywhere in this thread - she's also Neon in Gahkthun (with a really different-sounding voice versus the two you mentioned!), and apparently Hazakura Seiso in Majikoi. Anyway, I'll agree with Comyu being a particularly good recommendation - "strong" is probably the single best word to describe that heroine. The game is a bit darker than Majikoi, but it's equally action-heavy, and very, very good; most people who like one will like the other.