fun2novel

Gensou no Idea is the third VN from 3rdEye, a company specializing in chuunige.  When I originally played this game, I was a bit more perverse, personality-wise, and as a result, I treated this VN badly, as one of my pet-peeves is dual-perspective VNs.  I generally prefer for there to be only one protagonist, and my reaction to this game was colored badly by that.
First, I'll introduce the protagonists. 
The first protagonist is Minase Yuuma, an optimistic young man who is nonetheless grounded firmly in reality.  There isn't a scrap of malice in this kid, but he is not an innocent or unaware of the nature of the world he lives in... he simply has a very firm philosophy on life, as the result of being raised by a rather... strong personality.  Yuuma is a 'cleaner', specializing in the removal of corpses and the cleaning of homes that have been contaminated by them.  He takes pride in his work, and he is one of the few optimist protagonists I actually like.
The second protagonist is Akashi, an Idea (the term that refers to beings from Utopia that roughly conform to human legends) who possesses control over fire.  His emotions are weak in most areas, partly because he isn't human, partly because he is missing a big chunk of memories.  However, he possesses a driving urge to recover his memories and destroy the 'Phantom' who brought ruin to his life.  He has a strong interest in humans and believes firmly that he is good at mimicking them, but he is... not very good at it, lol. 
Now for the heroines... strictly speaking, there are no separate heroine paths in this game.  This game is, like Sorcery Jokers, essentially a kinetic novel where you choose which protagonist perspective you see first sometimes.  There are epilogues for each heroine, but they are pretty short and to the point.
The first Yuuma heroine is Naru.  Naru is a fortune-teller with a bad case of chuunibyou and an inherent optimism that matches Yuuma's own.  She is very prideful and has a tendency to lose her cool rather easily.
The second Yuuma heroine is Rinon.  Rinon is an idol and an Idea that Yuuma follows obsessively.  She is arrogant, possessive, and violent.  However, once she falls for him she is... passionate and loyal.  I really, really liked her epilogue, and I almost fell out of my chair laughing at its end.
The third Yuuma heroine is Kokoro.  Kokoro is your classic 'emotionless heroine', showing little reaction to most stimuli. 
The first Akashi heroine is Noel.  Noel is a possessive, jealous Idea woman whose first priority is Akashi's love, second is Akashi's safety, third is Akashi's happiness, and fourth is Akashi's penis.... do I need to go on?  One of her ongoing hobbies is drugging Akashi and having him tortured to find out the identities of women he is cheating on her with (she defines 'cheating' as talking to or being talked to by another woman... or looking at them, touching them, or breathing the same air as them). 
The second Akashi heroine is Mitsuki.  Mitsuki... has issues.  She is very much an introvert, and she has a tendency to keep her distance from others.  She does get pretty cute when Akashi manages to make it past her guard, though.
The setting
This game is based around a century or two after Bloody Rondo (don't know if this is fully canon or not), seven years after a disaster that nearly destroyed humanity.  In this new world, where a large portion of the planet's surface has been submerged and the human population has been greatly reduced, Archive Square, the corporation that has taken charge of the recovery, has become the central power in the world.  This is the case across most of the world, but the city this story is based in is one where more than half of the population works for AS.
There are two worlds in this game... one is 'Dystopia' (the name Idea give Earth) and the other 'Utopia' (the word the Idea use for their own world).  Idea, beings of immense power from Utopia, have been going back and forth between the worlds for centuries, taking the form of humans on Earth and generally indulging their curiosity and whims as they desire.
The story
This story focuses on two perspectives... Yuuma as he deals with the changes in his situation, and Akashi as he seeks the past.  This story has a lot of really good battle scenes, emotional moments, and some seriously interesting hedge philosophy (mostly out of Kyouko and Yuuma, though Akashi contributes sometimes). 
On my second playthrough, having gone in with a more open mind than my first, I found the story a great deal more interesting.  I won't say it is perfectly paced or that the characters are the best I've ever run into in a chuunige (they aren't), but I honestly enjoyed the ride, from beginning to end.  This isn't a VN that is likely to make it into my top fifty, but if you are looking for a good chuunige and have already read the more famous names, this is an excellent choice. 

First, I'll give you links to my observations of the first three chapters of this game.
Contains Chapter 3
Chapters 1 and 2
 
 
Now for Chapter 4... as I said in my post on Chapter 3, the bottom line for this is that if you liked the first three chapters, you'll like this one.  It is humorous, it is bloody, and it contains an odd mix of the grim and abnormal slice-of-life.  I laughed out loud - literally - several times while playing this game, and I honestly liked the insights on Chris's character that this gave.  This chapter also serves as an excellent 'settling in' chapter for Gumi and Maki, as Chapter 3 was focused too much outside of the normal daily setting to get a picture of how she was dealing with her change in situation. 
The introduction of yet another (female) character has me feeling a bit exasperated, but since Taiga fits pretty well with the crew, I didn't feel any irritation.  The combat scenes in this are pretty much just one-sided 'pow-pow, the enemy dies' one-sided massacres, except for one of them. 
I'm going to be blunt... in six months, they probably could have done two chapters like this, so I can't help but wonder why they insist on separating this game into such tiny chapters.  While I won't say that the first two chapters (released together) were 'satisfying' in that sense, I nonetheless felt like I'd spent good money, rather than throwing it away.  Unfortunately, at the price they are offering these chapters, I would much rather pay seven times as much for a full game two years from now than be forced to wait for each chapter. 

For various reasons, this is one of the rare occasions when I didn't aggressively look forward to a Light game.
The first reason is that the setting/story descriptions in the Getchu and homepages were vague and of no real use.  The second was that a crossover was announced between this and Nemurenu (the recent Clock-up title with Kurashiki as the writer) recently. 
The artist for this game (at least the character design, anyway) is Ueda Metawo, the artist from Gore Screaming Show, Mindead Blood, and Yami no Koe.  So, it should come as no surprise to anyone that there is a guro/no guro setting in this game. 
This is atypical for Light.  In general, Light avoids actual guro content, preferring to stick to visual blood effects and shadow slayings (the shadow-figure beheading from Vendetta, as an example).  This is actually typical in chuunige in general, with the rare exceptions including mostly Nitroplus games and a few Akatsuki Works games.  As such, my first thought was, 'This doesn't feel like a Light game, and I only just started.'
That feeling seemed to be betrayed, initially, by how the story begins, with a classic Masada-style protagonist monologue full of pathos and dark emotions.  Unfortunately, it was soon apparent that the brief spark of hope I felt was going to be betrayed, as the horribly-paced prologue/first arc began.
First, within ten minutes, I was watching a loli gang-rape scene.  Second, things flash into vicious combat mode with no real intro to the characters, however limited. 
All of this is atypical of Light.  The pacing of the early game is easily the worst I've encountered from this company, and that particular negative is endemic to the game as a whole.  I can't really say I got to like any of the characters before the path split, which is unusual in a Light game, to say the least. 
Pacing might not seem like a huge issue to people accustomed to the often uneven pacing common in charage, but chuunige are, in many ways, games whose quality is based at least in part on their pacing (story, characters, and setting being the top three).  Even Masada, who is terrible at slice-of-life, still manages to use it to give you a sense of what the characters are fighting for.  However, with this game, Kurashiki failed even at that most basic of tasks... Nao remains two-dimensional outside of Sachi's path, and you never really get a full impression on any of the heroines. 
Kamori's path is short, brutal, and fades out with a whimper.  I honestly liked the combat scenes, but it felt like this path sort of fizzles at the very end.  Oh, there was a truly great guro scene with weird results that would normally have served as the first-class centerpiece for a first-class path... if the whole thing hadn't fizzled at the end.
Yachiru's path is much stronger than Kamori's path... but it is also a bit more unpleasant.  To be honest, I wasn't surprised that the path written solely by Kurashiki would be significantly better than the one written by by Marimo.  However, this path is still atypical of Light in some ways... that I can't get into without spoiling it.  However, like Kamori's path, it fizzles at the very end.  This is part of the story, and it is understandable in a 'true heroine' chuunige, but it felt like this path began and ended with using Yachiru as a punching bag (and as annoying as she is at times, she didn't really deserve that).  I will say that, despite this being stronger than Kamori's path, it is still a marginal path, at best, as chuunige paths go.  The battles are awesome, but...
Sachi
I'm going to be straight with you... the favoritism for Sachi is blatant, even at the beginning of her path, and it is this path that is probably the reason for the guro warnings.  I made this a separate section because, compared to everything else in the game, this path is unnaturally higher in quality.  Kurashiki obviously was only interested in telling this story from the beginning, and it shows.  For those who have played other Light games, the action scenes are pure crack, and the descriptions of the characters' feelings vivid. 
This path has two endings... a classic 'bad end with story' (it is actually kind of a nice read, though it is bad for humanity, lol) and a final end that feels... a lot like a bad end for Nao.  Seriously, this game's final ending feels a lot closer to Nitroplus's style than Light's, which will probably bother some fanboys. 
Conclusion
However, it makes me wonder... just why the hell did he insist on making the other two paths so mundane?  Oh, if I were to compare them to a charage path (which would be unfair to both), they can't really be called 'mundane'.  However, the sheer carelessness with which the common and other two heroine routes were treated, the poor pacing, the lack of a solid base to judge the characters... it feels inept, compared to this company's other works.  As a result, I'm giving this one my lowest rating for a Light game on vndb, and also saying that I wish Sachi's path could be transplanted into another game, where it could really shine, lol.

First, I should mention that I'm a huge fan of David Weber.  Even his crappiest book is still interesting to read (the crappiest book being Out of the Dark, an Independence Day-style story where the world is saved by Dracula, lol).  However, the Honor Harrington series is my favorite series written by him.
Beginning with On Basilisk Station, this military sci-fi series begins focused on the character known as - obviously - Honor Harrington, a young warship captain getting command of a new light cruiser. 
Honor is the post gender-disparity female of the feminist movement's dreams, a woman born and raised in a society where gender limitations were nonexistent and nothing is thought of women going into the military.  Weber, for all his faults as writer, has never shown the prejudices a lot of male sci-fi writers tend to have in this area, and Honor is by far his most popular and powerful character.  She begins the series as a commander, the lowest rank in the Royal Manticoran Navy allowed independent command of a starship, and, as she takes trip after trip though the fires of war's hell, she gradually climbs the ranks of her star nation's military, suffering pain and loss, as well as joy and glory in equal amounts. 
Honor doesn't go through life unscarred... she is a rare individual who can't use regen therapies and can't accept her own cloned tissues, so her tendency to get her ships shot to hell around her has definite permanent consequences to her body and life.  This isn't some two-dimensional warrior who slays enemies in one-sided competitions and comes out the other side covered and glory and only possessing superficial scars.  Honor is the type of person who, because of her integrity and essential strength as a human being, continually manages to put herself in the worst kind of situations.  She doesn't always win, more of her people die than don't, and she suffers from all the guilt you could possibly imagine a morally upright young woman could suffer in such a situation. 
In fact, that is David Weber's brilliance with this series...  Honor definitely climbs the social ladder during the series (even by the third book, she is already pretty high up there), but her essential humanity and her growth as a person gives true life to a series which could easily (and often threatens to) turn into a dry recitation of destruction and death on a literally interstellar scale.  Weber freely admits he intended to kill her off in the seventh or eighth book, but the fans kept her alive through petitions against that decision, lol. 
All in all, that has turned out well.  What was originally a simple and direct conflict between a constitutional monarchy and a socialist expansionist empire gone mad has expanded to a fully galactic scale story, opening up several side storylines (the Crown of Slaves being the most beloved of those).  While Honor still remains a central individual in the series, things have long-since grown too complex and grand in scale for any individual to control its flow. 
I can say straight out that I love this series and don't regret investing the hundred dollars or so it took to get all the books currently released.  There have been a few poor entries (the most recent one is widely disliked for being a rehashing from a different perspective of events in the previous book), the series as a whole is one that any military sci-fi fan should at least try to read.  The societies involved, the events, and the characters make it worth it, even if it is obvious Weber has no intention of concluding it any time soon, even after over fifteen books.

First, I'll give you a quick run-down on this game... it is a game by 3rd Eye, a company known mostly for producing chuunige that are more moe-influenced than is the norm. This game is actually more of a mystery/chuuni/action/conspiracy type than a 'pure' chuunige. The world in which it is based is a future where, ten years before the story began, magic appeared on the scene. Large numbers of people became capable of using magic, and a new branch of science was built up solely for the purpose of utilizing magic as new energy source. The result of this is a society that is somewhat divided between the magical 'haves' and 'have-nots', though that isn't the focus of the story, despite what you might otherwise anticipate.

The protagonists

Senri


Senri is your classic 'bad-ass antihero protagonist'. He is clever, intelligent, and overall highly capable, with a razor-sharp mind and battle instincts that would put a Navy Seal to shame and make Golgo 13 look incompetent. His cold-blooded pursuit of his own interests, which are very opaque through most of the VN, is his primary defining feature... Oh, and he lies... a lot. He makes the protagonist of Sharin no Kuni seem honest.

Haruto

Haruto is a somewhat less beloved type of protagonist in chuunige... basically a 'justice freak' combined with being 'a young man driven against his will by the tides of fate'. He is a natural optimist and a believer in fairness above all. Unfortunately, he also has that bad habit a lot of similar chuunige protagonists have... of sticking his nose into situations he doesn't really need to get involved in. He grows a great deal during the course of the VN (as is typical of this type, if the writers don't suck), and by the end his viewpoint on the world has... been sharpened a great deal by experience. He is more likeable than a lot of similar protagonists, but it still isn't a type I prefer.

The Heroines

Fiona


Fiona, at first glance, seems to be your classic clutzy/innocent nun-type heroine. She works as a nun at a run-down church in the city's... less reputable area and is well-loved by the delinquents who frequent the church. However, she, like most of the characters in this game, is hiding a lot of secrets... She is one of Senri's two heroines.

Noa

An innocent, pure-hearted girl who is seen mostly as a ghost throughout the first part of the game. She has a really unique way of speaking, born partially from Senri's half-hearted efforts at education (mostly through handing her magazines and letting her watch AVs). To be honest, in the reading of this VN, interpreting her weird speech patterns was a bit difficult at first (she cuts apart words and puts them together in weird ways). She is the second of Senri's two heroines.

Asahi

Asahi is... a bit weird. Her personality itself is quite straightforward and honest, and she hates lies and general dishonesty with a passion. However, she is also compassionate to a fault and unwavering in the pursuit of her goals. Unfortunately - at least so it seems at first - there are a few loose screws rolling around in that head of hers. Even more so than Haruto, she is an eternal an unrepentant optimist and probably the single most trustworthy individual in the entire VN.

Riku


Riku is, throughout the VN, perhaps the least expressive individual other than Senri himself. She almost never displays her emotions on her face, and she has an almost unnatural tendency to think objectively about anything and everything, including herself. That the writer managed to grant her so much depth without making her a protagonist was an impressive feat in and of itself... and one of the reasons why her interactions with Haruto and Asahi are so amusing. She really is almost as detached as she seems most of the time, which is one of the reasons it hits so hard when she does become emotional.

The VN

Sorcery Jokers is definitely VN of the Month material. I'll say that right off the bat. The depth of the story and characters is incomparable with previous games by this company, and while it falls slightly short of a kamige, it is nonetheless something worth taking note of. Normally, I can't stand dual protagonists, as many have heard me mention. I hated Subahibi for that, amongst a number of other sins, and one of the biggest reasons it took me so long to play I/O was because I don't like going into VNs with multiple protags.

Fortunately, I managed to get past that, simply because the differing approaches to the story were the only thing that made it possible to grasp something even approaching the whole of the story as it happened. A single perspective wouldn't have done a bit of good as an approach to this VN's story, simply because there are too many things happening at too many different points for a single perspective to handle.

The VN's structure is basically that of a kinetic novel, with the illusion of choice through a flow chart (for the first chapter, at least) where you pick and choose which events you want to see next (though you have to see them all anyway). To be honest, I could have done without the flow chart entirely... flow charts in general are an irritation more than a help, especially if they are made a central part of progressing the story. That said, as the actual switching around mostly ends after the first chapter, it isn't really a big deal (though it does make me wonder why they had a flow chart at all).

The story's mystery and conspiracy elements feel a lot like peeling an onion, as there are layers within layers within layers. What you thought was the root of things turns out to be just another layer, more than once. As things come together near the end, the knowledge you've gained through the character perspectives deepens the experience nicely, making this one of the few part-mystery VNs I've played in recent years that I didn't immediately have 'read' relatively early on.

That isn't to say there aren't points where the VN stumbles. Haruto, because of his role as the 'kid chuunige protag', is the game's Achilles Heel, as all protagonists of the type with his kind of temperament tend to be. However, his growth is enough to offset the cookie-cutter aspects of his character enough that I approved of his role... in the end. Asahi also threatens to tilt the balance of the VN into the realm of the silly a lot early on, simply because of her 'weirdness'. However, because that silliness is a vital ingredient in her growth as a character, it can't really said to be a true weakness, though it can be irritating at times.

The endings are all branches off of the true end, one for each heroine (Noa or Fiona with Senri, and Asahi or Riku with Haruto). I had no problems with the epilogues for Noa or Fiona... but I thought that Haruto had devolved a lot in his heroine epilogues, which kind of brought me back to why I didn't like him in the first place.

Overall, I felt that this VN is one of the more solid chuunige made in the last few years, especially in the sense of 'balance'. Silverio Vendetta, while it is a lot more exhilarating, also had the difficulty of disproportionately focusing the writer's attention on Vendetta, which weakened the other two paths greatly. Bansenjin suffers from reusing an uninspiring cast and being relatively boring throughout most of its length. In terms of a constant sense of tension and in terms of pacing of events, this VN definitely is the winner of Chuunige VN of the Year so far, though it isn't chuuni-crack in the sense that Silverio was. I'm actually quite proud of the fact that this company has evolved so much since its somewhat... unimpressive beginnings (Bloody Rondo), and I'm glad I stuck with the company. It is always nice to be surprised pleasantly by a VN.

For the hell of it, I decided to make up a 'suggested playlist' for people who like/are interested in chuunige who have just begun to play untranslated VNs.
There are two variations on this guide.  One is a 'test the waters, gradually take a dip, then dive into the depths' guide.  The other is a 'Spartan Guide', which starts out with medium difficulty VNs and moves into harder and harder ones at the top tiers.  Each VN list will have four tiers, based on a combination of my estimation of difficulty in reading.
For those unfamiliar with the term 'chuunige', some examples of chuunige that are translated are Fate/Stay Night, Tsukihime, Sorcery Jokers, and Tokyo Babel.  I believe you can get the drift from those four examples, lol.
Soft Landing
Tier 1 suggestions (difficulty ranges from a 4-7 on a scale of 10)- Tiny Dungeon series, Draculius, Hyper→Highspeed→Genius (main path only), Ryuukishi Bloody Saga, ExE
Tier 2 suggestions (difficulty ranges from a 5-7.5 on a scale of 10)- Bloody Rondo, Shinigami no Testament, Gensou no Idea, Sinclient, Innocent Bullet. Yurikago yori Tenshi Made
Tier 3 Suggestions (note: VNs on this list range in difficulty from 6-8 on a scale of 10)- Evolimit, Bullet Butlers, Hello, Lady, Izuna Zanshinken, Devils Devel concept
Tier 4 Suggestions (note: VNs on this list range from 6-10 on a scale of 10)-  Jingai Makyou, Soukou Akki Muramasa, Silverio Vendetta, Zero Infinity, Vermilion Bind of Blood, Tokyo Necro, Bradyon Veda
Spartan
Tier 1 Suggestions- Evolimit, Yurikago Yori Tenshi Made, Izuna Zanshinken(starts at the high end of 'soft landing' tier 2 up through the middle of tier 3)
Tier 2 Suggestions- Hello, Lady, Bullet Butlers, Devils Devel Concept
Tier 3 Suggestions- Vermilion Bind of Blood, Jingai Makyou
Tier 4 Suggestions- Silverio Vendetta, Zero Infinity, Tokyo Necro, Muramasa, Bradyon Veda
Some Last thoughts
Understand, I know people who are just fine with conversational Japanese and even a number of native speakers who can't handle Bradyon Veda or Muramasa.  I honestly suggest you leave those two to last, no matter what. Bullet Butlers is slightly harder than Evolimit due to fantasy terminology.  Vermilion is the easiest of the Tier 4 from 'soft landing'.  I honestly suggest that anyone just beginning with this list do ExE or Draculius first, because if you can't understand what is going on in either of those even giving yourself time to do so, then you won't be able to play anything else on the list.
Suggestions
Toss aside stupid pride when playing chuunige and use a text hooker and kanji parsing engine (Mecab or jparser in TA will do fine).  Chuunige often use kanji in ways almost unique to the individual writer or that are so archaic that even a native speaker won't grasp them immediately.  This is a bad habit of chuunige writers in general.  Some writers even revive kanji that have been out of common use since the middle of the twentieth century. 
Don't feel like you are a traitor for looking up verbs or nouns you haven't encountered before.  Almost all chuunige writers use 'literary Japanese', which is almost never seen in anime or manga.  Literary Japanese, just like literary English, still uses terms that went out of use in the verbal part of the language decades or even centuries ago.  Still, the verbs and nouns themselves are most likely in the dict on your parser, so it should be easy to look up their meanings. 
   

2018, A Year of Possibility in Visual Novels

[source]
~ Leaving Behind the Old Year ~
Let's face it. 2017 was not an impressive year for Japanese visual novels.
Sure, the OELVN scene had a breakout hit in the form of Doki Doki Literature Club.
Sure, the VN localization industry amazed everyone with prominent official releases of super-popular titles like Muv-Luv Alternative, Little Busters, and the never-before-translated Subarashiki Hibi, Dies irae, and Chaos;Child, to name a few.
But the heart of the visual novel industry remains in Japan. And this year has been fairly mediocre for it.
I mean, if you take a look at the numbers on Erogamescape (also known as EGS, it's Japan's equivalent of VNDB), you'll find that Hikari no Umi no Apeiria [vndb], and Nora to Oujo to Noraneko Heart 2 [vndb] were the only VNs with a median around the mid-80's or higher and more than a hundred votes [EGS source data]. For reference, 2016 had 6 titles at that level: Island, Chaos;Child, Akeiro Kaikitan, Utawarerumono 3, Tokyo Necro, and Baldr Heart.
Of course, that data point doesn't tell the full story. EGS is geared toward eroge players; in terms of pure adventure games (also known as ADV, the common way Japanese players refer to visual novels) New Danganronpa V3 [vndb] was very well-received. (V3 is also the only 2017 VN among VNDB's top 100.) The very recently released Kiniro Loveriche's [vndb] reception has been extremely positive, and though it hasn't had time to accumulate votes yet, I'm optimistic it will stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Apeiria. It's not like there aren't an assortment of noteworthy VNs that merely fall short of the top tier statistically, such as Ouka Sabaki [vndb] and ChronoBox [vndb]. Fans of particular studios like SMEE [vndb], Purple software [vndb], and Moonstone [vndb] were also able to get their fix this year. The VN industry is far from dead; if anything, it's evolving to fill various niches.
But that's a whole other topic. The bottom line is I'm ready to move on from 2017. And once you see what's in store for us in 2018, I'm sure you will be, too.
 
 
~ Ringing in the New Year, Along with Potential Kamige ~
Every year has promising titles. Unfortunately, they often don't live up to their promise. Still, some titles are so promising--the studios behind them so reputable, the staff working on them so consistent, so little room for error--that it's hard not to get excited.
There are, in my opinion, 5 such confirmed titles for 2018.
 
~ Summer Pockets (Key) - June 29, Delay Likely ~

Let's start with this one, because it's the one I'm personally most hyped for.
To state the obvious, Summer Pocket is a major ADV from Key. No matter who the staff behind it is, you'd be foolish to underestimate it. Key's complete major titles are Kanon, Air, Clannad, Little Busters, and Rewrite. (I skipped Angel Beats because it's not complete.) Every one of these VNs is resoundingly famous.
But let's pretend we don't know that Key, with its reputation for ambitious works that are patiently crafted rather than quickly pumped out, is behind Summer Pockets. Instead, let's take a look at the staff.
The heart of Summer Pockets is Niijima Yuu. He's the mastermind behind Hatsuyuki Sakura, a massive hit from 2012. His prose is hilarious, fresh, and really endears you to the characters. With his tendency toward fanservice and lewd humor, and the way it's always hard to discern the supernatural from the metaphorical in his narratives, he has a lot in common with Maeda Jun. ...Hopefully you already knew this because you've read Hatsusaku. Nobody should miss out on that one, whether they're a romance fan, an action fan, a mystery fan, or a FEELS fan.
Anyway, the problem with Niijima Yuu is that he can't be allowed too much creative control. If he is, you end up with the likes of his later works Majo Koi Nikki and Koi x Shin Ai Kanojo, where he made creative decisions that alienated many players. When he was with Saga Planets, they reined him in well. When he was with Amuse Craft, they obviously didn't. But he announced a period of self-reflection in response to Koikake's criticisms. And he adopted a very humble attitude in the first Summer Pockets interview from back in December 2016. Furthermore, Key is a company incredibly concerned about its brand identity, and on top of that, Summer Pocket is constrained by Maeda's outline. So I'm confident that Niijima's strengths will truly shine through, like they haven't since Hatsusaku.
And my optimism has been boosted further by all the Summer Pockets info released this past week. Not only are the character designs and backgrounds beautiful, but the excerpts of scenes with each heroine are charming and demonstrate that yes, this is Niijima at his finest.
On a final note, it's very possible that Summer Pockets will be delayed--hopefully not past 2018--because Niijima's recent tweet indicated that he's not at all confident he'll be done with the scenario in time for a June 29 release.
 
~ Kimi to Mezameru Ikutsuka no Houhou (Navel) - April 27 ~

I won't say a lot about this one. I'm not a Navel expert; I've watched the Shuffle anime, and read Oretsuba and Tsuriotsu, but that's it.
One reason I'm so optimistic about Kimimeza is rooted in the way Navel handles their creative works. A cynical way to look at it is that they squeeze all their works dry with at least one or two fandiscs, often way more than that. A better way to look at it is that they rarely put out a title that doesn't deserve fandiscs. Navel has finally moved on from Tsuriotsu, and I believe they haven't done so casually.
The real question, to me, is how much of a creative role Jackson will play. A fair amount of what made Tsuriotsu so special to me came from Jackson (yes, I'm aware of what interviews and such say, and I believe it's deceptive). We know Jackson does miscellaneous work for Navel, but will he involve himself in this new VN? Or will Navel just let Kazuki Fumi do what he wants within a particular framework, and hope for a decent reception?
Even if Kazumi Fumi doesn't receive any support from Jackson, Kimimeza could still wildly succeed. He's a talented writer who wrote Gun Knight Girl and Akeiro Kaikitan, among others, and the constraints of Navel's brand identity could help refine the finished product into one that's broadly appreciated. The premise of Kimimeza feels really interesting, not overly generic but not silly or half-assed either--it's the premise of Chobits where a guy finds an abandoned android, except the girl isn't an android, she's disguised as an android but actually a victim of human organ trafficking, plus there are apparently assassins.
Although the story seems like it'll be exciting, the fact that there are only 3 main heroines makes me wonder if Kimimeza will be smaller-scale than Tsuriotsu. Still, there are plenty of reasons to pay attention.
 
~ Rance 10 (Alice Soft) - February 23 ~

Rance needs no introduction, and doesn't lack proponents. The Rance games are always above average in quality, and they always sell well.
In case you hadn't heard about Rance 10 in particular, it will be the final one in the series. As the concluding chapter, the big question is whether fans will consider this a fitting end that wraps everything up the way they hope it will. My gut is telling me that it will be.
What's also awesome about Rance 10 is that once it's out and the series is over, people like me who aren't into the series will no longer have to feel jealous that they can't join in on the hype.
 
~ Minikui Mojika no Ko (Nitroplus) - Summer ~

The literary core of the current Nitroplus, and the brain behind many ambitious and unique titles, Shimokura Vio, is making a new eroge.
I haven't researched this much, and not a lot has been announced either (maybe more has been mentioned in interviews that I'm just not aware of). The tagline is "I (僕) know your ugliness (醜さ)" and the title is a play on "The Ugly Duckling". "Mojika" is probably a reference to 文字禍 (lit. "letter calamity"), Nakajima Atsushi's 1942 short story about a fatal curse upon an Assyrian king, which originated from a spirit (霊) of written language (文字). I'm not someone who reads classic Japanese literature, so I don't know more than that. In any case, my impression is that it will be another deconstructive work by Shimokura.
 
~ Sakura no Toki (Makura) - TBA ~

Is it stupid of me to assume that the sequel to Sakura no Uta, of all VNs, will actually come out within a mere year, rather than suffer delay after delay? Probably, but it's being steadily developed and Sca-ji initially aimed to release it in 2017, so the whole of 2018 should be enough time, unless... well, unless history repeats itself.
Again, this will be the sequel to Sakura no Uta, the best VN in the last half a decade. And it'll be done by the same writer, and probably mostly the same audiovisual staff (too lazy to check). Although it's possible that it won't be as ambitious as Sakura no Uta, it will naturally feature Sca-ji's writing and have some excellent parts, and probably be rated highly too.
I don't have much to say about Rance 10, Minikui Mojika no Ko, and Sakura no Toki, because their staff situations aren't as complicated as Summer Pockets and Kimimeza, as far as I can tell.
 
~ Other Notable Titles~
Many other VNs will be both announced and released in 2018, so this is far from a representative portion, but here a few other titles that caught my eye. Sorry if I missed your favorites, hypothetical reader.
Kieta Sekai to Tsuki no Shoujo on January 26: A collaboration between La'cryma and Hiyoko Soft. I love Kamiya (writer of fortissimo), but although he's involved with the scenario, it doesn't seem like he's personally writing it. The developers announced they'd be deliberately concealing the staff who work on this. I'm also a little afraid it may repeat the mistakes of Lass with an overly dark scenario. But it's worth paying attention to. Butterfly Seeker on March 30: Another Silky's Plus VN, this one is from Unabara Nozomu, writer of Fairytale Requiem and Shinsou Noise. (The writer of Apeiria doesn't have any announced VNs in the works, if you were wondering.) Riddle Joker on March 30: The new Yuzusoft VN. Many moege fans swear by Yuzusoft, and although their VNs usually aren't rated very high, they sell very well. Toishi Hiroki (an apparently decent writer) will also be taking part in this one.  
~ Other Predictions for 2018 ~

 
My wild prediction is that 2018 will be the year that people accept that the eroge industry won't be pumping out kamige like Fate/stay night or Muv-Luv Alternative reliably any more, and won't be standing at the cutting edge of moe again anytime soon, but still has unique worth as a medium and will continue to steadily produce awesome works that rival any popular anime or manga. The big investors and talented writers are mostly gone, but in exchange, studios are getting smarter and playing to the medium's strengths. Maybe we'll also see people categorize less in terms of eroge versus console ADV, and more in terms of (doujin) eroge versus commercial ADV.
 

This is the list, as it currently stands, of VNs being considered and those previously considered but disqualified for VN of the Year 2017.  While this year hasn't been good for producing kamige, it has succeeded in producing a number of memorable ones.
Being Considered
Ojou-sama no Hanbun wa Ren'ai de Dekiteimasu
Oni ga Kuru. ~Ane ga Hinshi de Pinchi Desu~
Haruru Minamo ni
Suisei Ginka
Additions from 12/30/2017
Bakumatsu Jinchuu Houkoku Resshiden Miburo
Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary
Aoi Tori
Kanojo wa Imouto de Tenshi de
Eliminated/disqualified candidates/Runners-up
Silverio Trinity (Disqualified for being a direct sequel incapable of standing on its own)
Shin Koihime Musou -Kakumei- (ditto to above... with the addendum that it is also a remake)
Hataraku Otona no Ren'ai Jijou (realistically, this VN just hits my sweet spot and really isn't VN of the Year material)
Fuyu Uso (similar to Trinity and Koihime)
Hikari no Umi no Apeiria (funny, interesting, but ultimately falls short)
Additions from 12/30/2017
Kin'iro Loveriche (fun, good feels, but not quite there)
Kizuna Kirameku Koi Iroha (great first job by a new company, but it isn't a finalist)
Junjou Karen Freaks (funny fantasy with mimikko, but not quite there)
Bokura no Sekai no Shukufuku o (great nakige, great story, but not a finalist)

First, a short intro... this is the second Clock Up game where Kurashiki Tatsuya (one of Light's second team of writers) has been involved, and those who played the previous one, Maggot Baits, will recognize the atmosphere and 'flavor' of the story instantly.  This is a game devoid of salvation in any real sense.  The protagonist and the other characters are universally the scum of the Earth (Mirei being the only exception, though she is a bit screwy too), and their lifestyles and pasts range from the distasteful to the outright disgusting.
While there are relatively few of the violent h-scenes that defined Maggot Baits, they do exist, so I do feel a need to warn you that a lot of the content in this game is graphic and not for those with a weak stomach. 
The protagonist (who never reveals his true name in the entire story) is a professional killer who needs to kill people in order to sleep (it is more interesting if you read it yourself, so I won't go into detail).  One day, he gets the order to investigate/find the killer of a paparazzi killed at the love hotel at which he works most of the time.  What he finds is... Azami, a serial killer, whom he gets into combat with immediately.  The end result of the battle is them having sex... and her getting obsessed with/attached to him.  He returns the obsession in part due to the fact that, after having sex with her, he can sleep.
I'll be blunt, there is no point in this game where the characters can really be said to 'shine'.  There are three endings, two of which are different based on how the protagonist pursues his relationship with Azami.  The final path, the true path, brings their relationship to the final stage (visibly inevitable, if you get to know Azami), and you are presented by a predictably depressing ending.
This game has excellent writing, which goes without saying really, since it is done by Kurashiki Tatsuya.  However, the unending dark atmosphere that infuses the story is energy-draining in the extreme.  This is made worse by this general sense that the game is just trying to say 'humans are worthless' throughout its entire length.  While the battle scenes are excellent, there were too many points in the story where cruel turns of event occurred simply to push things forward or to titillate the reader.  This was true of Maggot Baits as well, but this game lacks the 'sort of good ending' you saw in that one, which gave you a sense of satisfaction, even if it was only in comparison to the rest of the game.

I should note that I've been following this series since I played the third game two years ago, and I'm going to rehash some of my feelings about it as a whole.
The first three games of the Sangoku Hime series had a number of good and bad points, even if I don't compare them to the Sengoku Hime series, which has been refined a great deal more due to it already being on its seventh installment.
Pros
1- Male sprites are... badass cool, in general.  Insanely detailed, actually impressive, though they contrast greatly with the more moe-type female sprites. 
2-Ginga, the protagonist of the first three games, is a pure warrior general, with his abilities almost as extremely designed as Lu Bu's (Ryofu Housen), with high tactical and military skills (insanely high) and relatively low intelligence and politics skills.  This actually makes him amongst the five most powerful frontline generals in the game.  In addition, Ginga's psychology and life, as it was described in III, is just... cool.
3- First-class prologues and endings.  For the first three games, moe-bait was avoided assiduously outside of the romantic side-episodes.  The prologues of these games were great intros and the endings were powerful, emotional, and sometimes even inspiring.
4- in 3, at least, you could alter the fates of certain doomed individuals (in particular, the Sun family), though this often cost you others. 
5- Numerous  unit types, all with their own unique abilities and uses.
6- Absolutely perfect portrayal of Cao Cao's feminized character, both in personality and in art (She makes Karen from the Koihime Musou series seem pathetic). 
Cons
1- Way too much sex, way too many 'romantic' side episodes with random female generals.  This was also the case with the early Sengoku Hime games, but the amount of text and time spent on h-scenes actually outweighs the main story of each path.
2-  Almost nothing in the way of the story after you 'settle in' (conquer the first two or three provinces, reach the story's first turning point after the prologue). 
3- Romantic elements mostly feel forced.
4- Illogical handling of public order system and conscription (this is common to 4 and 5 as well).
5- Game difficulty skyrockets about one third into the game, and resource management is made insanely difficult by random bandit attacks stripping your treasury.
Hard to Judge (for both)
1- 'Architect' skill system, which allows for you to improve your characters by using points gained from battles, training, and political actions, allows you to customize story generals to some extent.  In 1-3, this meant you could turn any character into an all-powerful demon lord, but this has been greatly nerfed in 4 and 5.
2- Elemental affinities are just an unnecessary complication...  and generally too much trouble to bother with, since you have only a limited number of actions per turn to move troops around.
 
For 4 and 5
Pros
1- H-content and romantic side-episodes have been greatly reduced in number, thus reducing fatigue.
2- More 'directed' story campaigns, which don't leave you trying to fight enemies on all sides without being able to secure a buffer of resources and generals.
3- Toutaku (Dong Zhuo), after being feminized, goes from a nihilistic dickhead to a Reinhard Heydrich-Class possessive yandere (If you betray her by stopping being hers, she tortures you horribly so that your last thoughts are of her, so making you belong to her even in deaht). 
4- Akito, unlike Ginga, is a more flexible character, though less exhilarating as a protagonist.  As a generalist, he is actually an excellent general, though his starting troop class is the somewhat mediocre light cavalry.
5- Improved story to gameplay balance (massively improved, in some of the paths.
6- Lu Bu now has a measurable brain, so she is actually useful outside of battle... though she isn't as cool.
Cons
1- Cao Cao's makeover.  To be blunt, the new Cao Cao, is so... stereotypical. 
2- Nerfed Architect system.  To be blunt, the architect system is one of the few advantages you have over everyone else, in a game where strategic options are limited in the first place.  The degree to which it has been nerfed in these two games is ridiculous, considering the turn limit.
3- Weakened story generals.  While this isn't true of all of them, most story generals are weaker than their counterparts in 1-3.  This is especially marked with Cao Cao, the Sun Family, and Guan Yu.  Since they are the only generals you don't have to bribe to like you, this can be irritating.
4- Male sprites are now moe-bait.
5- Endings and prologues, while still decent, no longer have the impact of 1-3. 
6- The mouth movement gimmick in these games sucks donkey ass.
7- Sun family personalities are now moe. (blech)
8- Troop class advantages, other than that of the sorcerer (which curses enemies so that all damage they receive is doubled) are nerfed.
9- Stories now start later in the history (meaning that you miss a lot of the best parts).
10- 5-specific bug where Akito's Architect grid resets after the final turning point in each story path, thus eliminating a ton of hard work.  Moreover, where other characters inherit their Architect grids across multiple playthroughs, he doesn't... which is weird, since he is the protagonist.
 
On 5 specifically
I've already expounded on the gameplay above, now I'll go over the story.  I've played two of the six paths in this game (the sixth being Ryofu Housen's path, which branches off from Toutaku's).  The two I played were Toutaku and Cao Cao... 
Toutaku's path is a masochist's wet-dream, since the protagonist is essentially in a controlling relationship with a possessive yandere who generally loves and is possessive of everyone who serves her or lives under her rule.  Considering Toutaku not only raised but educated the protagonist (in multiple ways, including sexual and more mundane meanings), her being dominant wasn't a surprise.  However, the sheer one-sidedness of her possessiveness was awe-inspiring at times, especially toward the end.  There are also times in this path where the faint of heart will probably drop it outright.  Akito's role in Toutaku's court is as an assassin, spy, general, tactician, seducer... and torturer.  In comparison to the kind-hearted, easygoing guy he is in the other paths and in 4, it was a bit shocking, even for me.  I mean, he casually mentions that he seduced a man's wife, had her poison the husband, then killed her afterward... and feels no guilt for it whatsoever, because Toutaku told him to.  lol
Cao Cao's path is much  more mundane, in comparison.  It starts right before Cao Cao initiates the campaigns against Yuan Shao (Enshou), thus leaving all the events around the Yellow Turbans and Dong Zhuo in the dust (along with the fun involved).  I'll be straight, while the character interactions in this path are frequently amusing and I honestly liked things most of the time, the inclusion of moe-aspects into Cao Cao's personality is a non-starter.  Cao Cao's crueler side never comes to the surface in this path, and Akito's hero worship turns to love in the most cliched way possible.  In other words... this path was entirely unlike Cao Cao, and thus, I deem it a failure, despite its good points.
I also played Choukaku's path up until the turning point... and I dropped it like a hot potato.  To be blunt, I found the mewling idealism that suddenly surfaces in that path about halfway to be repulsive (in another game, I probably wouldn't have minded as much... but Zhang Jiao/Choukaku basically closed her eyes to rapine and plunder on a massive scale for years before Akito turns things around, so I thought it was all a bit too convenient).
Overall, I give high points to Toutaku's path and intend to go back and play the Ryofu path that branches off from it at a later time... but Cao Cao's path has made me tired.  Choukaku's path made a shot at the 'redemption from darkness' thing, but it fell flat to me so badly that I couldn't bring myself to go any farther.   It didn't help that they killed off two of your most valuable generals in a path where you only have five story generals (as opposed to the 8-13 seen in the other paths) right before opening you up to invasion from five provinces at once.

Let's first lay out my basic view... I loathe microtransactions.
I'm not an anti-industry activist, and I don't have a serious bone to pick with any individual company about them.  I've had a few bad experiences with them, but the reason for my loathing is something more fundamental, that I came to realize only after I'd put a year or so between my worst experience with them.
First of all, my experience was with an MMORPG on PC, rather than a blockbuster title or a smartphone game.  As such, in some ways my experience is probably the most 'traditional' one for the original form microtransactions took... the 'pay-to-win' model of massively multiplayer games. 
Basically, in that game, you could not only buy clothing and armor with real money, you could also massively accelerate your experience gaining and basically not even do several annoying but important quests that gained you new skills and and access to higher classes if you were willing to fork over enough money.  Now, this was the game that essentially put an end to me playing MMO's, even out of curiosity.  Before then, I'd only played subscription-model games, and as a result, I'd never experienced a game designed to essentially squeeze more and more money out of people in that manner.  My frustration kept growing, because up until then, I'd basically played games when they first came out until I reached the level cap, then dropped them, cancelling my subscriptions and deleting my account.  However, in that game, I kept on running into roadblocks to my curiosity about the world I'd entered, and when that frustration reached its peak... I made the mistake of indulging in microtransactions to speed things along.
I probably wouldn't have realized what it was doing to me or my bank account, if it weren't for the fact that I got caught up in a minor scandal where a GM was raiding players' accounts using his administrative rights and selling off their non-bound equipment and items on the marketplace.  While it wasn't a direct result of my microtransactions, it nonetheless served to cool my head... and make me realize I'd basically thrown away money on virtual items, some of them with frigging time limits for their use.  I got my money back for the stolen items, but only after I flatly stated I wanted nothing to do with the game after that and threatened to lawyer up if they refused.  So, I managed to escape before I reached the degree of financial loss Japanese 'kakinhei' have been casually enduring for years before the concept wormed its way over here (incidentally, it is much, much worse in Japan, China, and Korea than it is here...).
Microtransactions are essentially an outgrowth of the dlc concept, save without even attempting to give you value for value.  Once you've purchased dlc, it is yours, you can leave it installed without worrying the 'time limit' will run out, and you don't need to feel driven to show off how much money you wasted to people who were just as stupid as you were.  However, the most critical difference is that dlc isn't an 'infinite product'.  It isn't constructed to draw ever greater amounts of money out of the user and indulging in purchasing dlc or a season pass for a regular game you like isn't nearly as damaging to your wallet or your mental health as microtransactions are. 
Edit: To be clear, I see microtransactions as being one of the most fundamentally dishonest types of scam directed at consumers to have cropped up this century.  The techniques are well-established, predatory, and poisonous, especially to those too young and inexperienced to realize that money doesn't spray in infinite clouds of green from the cards in their parents' wallet. 

This is a test post, based on the results of the poll I posted a few weeks back.  The win was borderline, so if I don't get a reasonably large response, I won't continue to post about my conventional reading.
The Black Jewels Trilogy, by Anne Bishop is one of my favorite book series of all time.  It is a dark, sensual fantasy based in a unique universe, where a race of magic aristocrats called the Blood rule three worlds, Tereille, Kaeleer, and Hell.  The main characters of the story are a triangle surrounding one young girl whose very existence is their every hope and dream... for she is 'Dreams Made Flesh', Witch, the Queen of the Darkness.  Those main characters are: Daemon Sadi, a male pleasure slave that has been twisted by over seventeen hundred years of abuse at the hands of the women of Terreille, protecting himself from madness only by the prophecy given to him seven hundred years before, that Witch was coming;  Lucivar Yaslana, a slave and member of the winged Eyrien race, who has lived his entire life being called a half-breed bastard; Saetan SaDiablo, the High Lord of Hell, the High Priest of the Hourglass, who became a half-undead Guardian fifty thousand years before so that he would one day be given the opportunity to serve and protect the 'daughter of his soul'... and the father of Lucivar and Daemon; and last of all, the point around which the three revolve, Jaenalle, dreams made flesh, Witch, a kind-hearted young girl who wanders the Realms and is destined to one day rule from Ebon Askavi.
First, I should note that the Blood are matriarchal, forming circles of obligation centered around natural-born Queens (a cast based on a genetic quirk that isn't tied to magical power but rather the nature of the female), who in turn form circles of males who serve to form a court.  The highest rank of male are the Warlord Princes, primal individuals who possess sharp, murderous tempers and an intense need to protect.  Ideally, the Queens hold their leashes lightly, and the first rule of Blood Protocol is to 'protect', then 'serve', and third to 'obey'. 
Unfortunately, due to the influence of two ambitious Priestesses from the long-lived Hayllian race, the Blood in Terreille have become twisted and corrupt, the good Queens vanishing over the course of generations, leaving only twisted monstrosities of the human spirit in their place, women who know only how to use and enslave men... resulting in the men in their districts becoming ever more twisted themselves, as their experiences warp their reactions to their instincts, breaking them a little more with each generation. 
It is into this Terreille that Jaenalle is born and Daemon and Lucivar have lived.  Saetan, bound by his personal honor, has not been able to protect his sons, and when the daughter of his soul, already wounded by the corruption in Terreille first appears before him, it is only his long experience and iron will that keep him from crossing the final line he has held to for over fifty thousand years.
This series is a story of the trials and travails of the circle of relations that orbit the four points of the triangle, as the outer points try to protect the center, Jaenalle, so that the dream might one day become a salvation to them all. 
Honestly, Anne Bishop's brilliance lies in her ability to intimately portray the emotional travails of the characters, the subtle and not so subtle dance of Protocol and power, and the unique nature of the Blood make this one of the single richest experiences out there for dark fantasy.  In a culture where murder is legal but rape is punishable by death, but where the rules are breaking down, the central characters are a bastion of sanity in a world rapidly heading toward horror and despair beyond imagining. 
As Anne Bishop says in the forward in the omnibus edition, 'I started this world with Daemon, Jaenalle, and Lucivar, but it was Saetan who brought it to life.' She started out imagining a world where Darkness was, from the beginning to end, the dominant force, and in that darkness were both a vicious edge of violence, a terrible gentleness, and a primal, deep sort of love.
The characters in this series are passionate, with deep wells of potential violence and compassion both.  Saetan, Lucivar, Daemon, and Jaenalle are all individuals possessing a near-infinite capacity for both love and violence... and above all, they strive to protect.

I've been saving a replay of this VN for years.  My original opinion on this VN was excessively influenced by the fact that this VN is filled to the brim with Masada and Dies Irae worship.  However, it is also the VN that, separate from that, defined the second Light team's style.  The base character archetypes, roles, and numerous aspects of their settings were almost universally drawn from Dies Irae, if you strip away the specifics.  This is the biggest reason I had so much trouble properly rating this VN the first time around.
First, I should mention what is perhaps the most defining element of this team's VNs... there is at least one Mercurius/Reinhardt type in every one of their VNs.  I don't mean in the specifics... but in the sense that those two were 'spontaneously generated absolutes'.  Both Mercurius and Reinhardt were characters who, at the core, were already 'complete' from the beginning.  In each of this team's games, there is at least one character of that type. 
The reasoning for including such characters is probably because 'absolutes' tend to create powerful emotional reactions in people and naturally become catalysts for conflict.  As a tool for progressing chuunige stories, they are an ideal element.  Since these characters are transcendent from the beginning, they tend to change very little during the progression of the story, further pinpointing their role as catalysts.  I could name each such character for you, but I'll limit it to this game... Akizuki Ryouga. 
Akizuki Ryouga is the protagonist of Zero Infinity, a young man who has a rather... unusual philosophy and a mentality that is like that of a person born already close to achieving enlightenment.  Quite naturally for a chuunige, he gets dragged into an underground war between powerful cyborgs called Imaginators, rebels and hunters from Holologium, the organization that rules the world.
The setting is 1967 Japan.  The Japan of that era had achieved a 'miraculous' economic recovery after WWII and was approaching its peak, its population recovering rapidly from the loss of the previous generation. 
The structure of this story is identical to Dies Irae's, at least in how it handles the route order.  It gives you a choice of two 'initial routes', and if you finish one you can access the route of the first main heroine, whose path reveals the truths ignored or left untouched in the first paths, and after you finish the first main heroine's path, you can complete the second main heroine's path, where all the loose ends are tied off and you get an untainted good ending.
Now... one thing I love about this game is the way it humanizes the antagonists.  Setting aside the antagonist who is a heroine (Elizavetta), Ivan Strigoi, Alexandre Raskolinikov, and even Apollon leave a powerful impression.  Ivan is the only one I can talk about without spoiling things to a ridiculous degree, so I'll focus on him.
Ivan Strigoi is something of a tribute to the Einherjar of Dies Irae (all the characters are tributes to Dies Irae ones... lol).  He is a man wrapped in bandages who has lived his entire life on the battlefield.  He is a believer in the value of heroism and loves those who strive (both in war and in everyday life) above all other things... including those who he kills or try to kill him.  Like Elizavetta, he is also a former Soviet soldier, turned into an Imaginator after death and recruited into Gears to hunt rogues.  I'll be straight... this kind of smiling warrior who loves with a passion all those who stand on the battlefield with resolve never once brought out negative emotions in me, despite all the crap he put the protagonist's side through.  It is just so hard to hate him, lol.
As for the story itself... well, it is a Light chuunige.  Stripped of the irritation over the excessive tributes to Dies Irae, it is actually right up there near the top.  After all, this is the team that made Vermilion Bind of Blood and the Silverio series.  I will say that this game is significantly better balanced (lol to anyone who has read this VN) than the Silverio series, as that one put so much emphasis on the main/true paths that the neglect became painful in retrospect.  That said, its flaws are actually glaringly similar to a lot of the greatest of chuunige... the antagonists remain in your memory more strongly than the protagonist and heroines, lol. 
Years after playing this the first time, I still remembered Alexandre and Ivan clearly, even though my memories of the heroines were getting blurred... and that is fairly typical of my experiences with a lot of the better chuunige out there.  There is something about the genre that demands a strong set of antagonists to bring the story to life, which is why chuunige with pathetic antagonists tend not to remain in memory.
Anyway, this VN's theme is more than a little painful for anyone born into modern society.  The characters are rather blunt about their feelings about where society is going as a result of scientific progress, and it plays pseudo-prophet when it comes to the effects of the internet on people's psyches.  As such, the first reaction of some people when it comes to the philosophical ramblings of the characters (an inevitable side-effect of this being a chuunige) will probably be more negative than is the norm. 
I could spend several days analyzing this VN... but I'm going to stop here.  For people who want a heavy chuunige, this is a good choice, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone else, since it is  so blatantly a chuunige in every particular.

First, I should mention that this was an awesome month.  There are multiple releases worthy of consideration for the winner and there are two releases that will be added to overall consideration for VN of the Year 2017.
The actual twin candidates were: Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary and Imoten
The runner-up was: Junjou Karen Freaks
For various reasons, I avoided playing several VNs this month, including Boukyaku Shitsuji and Tsugihagi Make Peace.  The biggest one with the former is that it is yet another VN in the same setting as the 'Uso series' by Campus.  With the latter... it is that it is a relatively high-end charage appearing charage by a new company.  To be honest, Tsugihagi is not something I want to play right now.  It will probably take me until the end of the month to be human again after trying out Giga's massacre of that game.  If I played it now, I'd take my anger out on it, and that would be... unfair.
Imoten and Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary are both great games... falling somewhat short of kamige level, but then, there haven't been any kamige releases this year anyway so far.  I actually struggled a lot when considering the two.  Either one could be VN of the Month for October... and in the end, I couldn't decide.  As such, I announce the rarest of the rare... a tie for VN of the Month October 2017 between Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary and Kanojo wa Imouto de Tenshi de!

... *weeps like a small child*
Seriously, I haven't run into an utsuge/nakige hybrid like this since Karenai Sekai last year.  Imoten (the nickname for this one) is the latest production by Alcot Honey Comb, the mid-priced subsidiary of Alcot responsible for Satsukoi, 1/2 Summer, and Hatsugamai. 
For some reason, in most years, the larger majority of the high quality VNs for the year tend to be put out in the first or last three months of the year... at least, that's the way it has been since 2011, when I first started playing most of the games released during the year.  A 'good month' is a month with two VNs that are VN of the Month quality, and of the three I've played so far from October's releases (setting aside the fact that I'm reserving the rest of Freaks for a later date) two have been of that level of quality... and I haven't even started Baldr Bringer.
This VN is based in the same universe as Satsukoi, which was itself a first-class utsuge/nakige hybrid (I won't tell you about the link, since it is a spoiler for both games).  Now, this game technically has heroine paths... but by the nature of the way the game's story is told, this game is more focused on the protagonist's struggles than on the heroines.  In fact, in order to see the true ending (Touka's), you have to make a rather sad choice near the end of the other three heroine paths.  The 'happy endings' of the first three heroine paths are rather short and end abruptly... which makes a lot of sense, in retrospect. 
This game's protagonist, Yuki, is the son of two famous actors, who present a good face in public but have been living separate from each other and him since he can remember.  After discovering that his  mother only birthed him for the sake of putting forth a good social image, he briefly considers suicide, but upon meeting the archangel Touka, who convinces him life is worth living, he agrees to sign a contract to become an angel candidate, with the intention to one day take over from the present god, who is at her limit after a century and a half of keeping humanity from destroying itself and the world.  Unfortunately, after a year of living together (Touka having altered reality so that she is seen as his little sister), he has yet to become a true angel, much less reach god's throne.  As such, he is regularly scolded (verbally and physically) by Touka and has to endure regular meetings with two other angels... a shinigami (Shizumi) and an angel who is also an idol (Mia) where they try to figure out why he hasn't become an angel yet.
The VN starts out humorous... and indeed, the typical fourth-wall breaking humor Alcot abuses is present constantly here, but things get grim really quick.  This is not a kind world, after all.
I'll be straight with you... if you just want normal romance with a great happy ending, this VN isn't for you.  The world in this VN is as cruel and cold as the real world, in its own way (think about it... this is the same world where mermaid sisters have to eat their oniichan in order to live... and humans in order to extend that life)... all the more so because the characters are in a position to know, to an extent, why the world is the way it is.  If you have a heart, each of the paths will reduce you to tears, each for a different reason... and the choices of Yuki (the protagonist) in order to reach and complete the true story lead to a bittersweet ending which will be hard on those who absolutely need a happy ending.

Well, the fourth anniversary of my VN of the Month series of posts is coming in another week or so... and to be honest, I'm a bit amazed at how long I've kept this going.  Four years of playing most of the non-nukige VNs that came out each month, writing something on them, then picking one to be VN of the Month (or not, if none met my standards)... to be honest, my opinion hasn't changed much since the last time this time of year came around.  VN of the Month is one of the single most grueling tasks I've ever set myself outside of work, and I can honestly say that there are a lot of times when I just want to put it all aside. 
However, I inevitably find myself coming back and playing more VNs.  If I take a week off from VNs, I inevitably tear back into my addiction with insane glee, and it usually at least takes three or four bad VNs before I finally run down and need a recharge. 
I thought about making a poll asking if I should stop, like I did the other years... but the results - and the suggestions - are always the same, so I'm really more interested in what people have to say about this whole thing.

I first played this VN in 2011, having read Accany's review of it (it was on his rather long list of recommended VNs), and at first, I had trouble getting into it.  To be blunt, my distaste for mysteries is pretty much the biggest reason why I had trouble with this... but the protagonist is, in some ways, your typical 'stick his nose in everything and anything' detective, meaning that he frequently takes actions that make me want to face-palm.  In addition, his unwillingness to put the puzzle pieces together (some parts of the setting come together indirectly really early on, and it always bothered me didn't figure it out then and there) bothered me as well.  Nonetheless, I set that feeling aside and decided to replay this, since it is technically a classic VN, lol.
Kurenai no Tsuki is one of those rare VNs (rare even then) where all the characters are full adults with their own occupations and lives.  It is also a combination murder mystery, fantasy, and horror story.  The game's setting is an isolated village in the mountains, where the protagonist, Kouya accidentally stumbled onto the bathing scene of the two main heroines, Sunao and Hiori.  Being old-fashioned Japanese women, they of course demand that he follow the rules and pick one of them (or both of them) to  marry.  If this VN were to have been made this year, then it would have turned into a series of moe antics, with good-hearted villagers blessing the potential marriage and the mystery being cleared up as something relatively innocent.  However, Kurenai no Tsuki was made in 2009, when it was still normal to have this kind of beginning take a different track.
This story has a ridiculous number of choices, most of them you are required to pick eventually and the only thing you can pick is the order, which makes them useless choices in my mind.  Objectively, this is perhaps the most negative point of the VN, lol.
There are two arcs to this VN, based on a choice made mid-way through the second chapter, which requires you to pick between Hiori and Sunao.  Depending on which you choose, you get to look at a different side of the events and mystery of the story.  There are four heroines, two of which are in each arc.  The first one follows the villagers' side and contains Sunao's and Akari's paths.  The second one follows a second faction and leads you to Hiori's and Kokoa's paths. 
While I enjoyed this VN and liked its characters, the fact is that it doesn't really meet my tastes, even now.  I love Sunao and Hiori, and so I always felt that this VN could have done without the mystery elements, since the protagonist is so paranoid he is willing to doubt those pure-hearted girls at the drop of a hat.  That's probably my problem, since I was already thinking of those two as my waifu inside the first ten minutes of the VN each time I played it, hahaha...
Anyway, this VN's atmosphere is frequently gloomy and the villagers are insanely xenophobic (violently so at times), and the deaths that keep occurring only make things worse.   Nonetheless, as a story it is very well-made and has a really interesting setting.  Kokoa's scientific approach to the mystery of the village is also helpful, since it provides some perspective when you find yourself falling into baseless superstitious paranoia, haha.
I recommend this to fantasy mystery lovers, though don't expect that the mysteries will all be solved in a single path.
Edit: Oh, and the true path is the harem path, lol.

Some veterans of reading untranslated VNs refer to the period between 2004 and 2010 as 'The Golden Age of Visual Novels'.  However, you shouldn't really take that statement at face value, as the meaning is a bit more complex than you'd think.
There are some significant differences between VNs today and VNs during that period that both made it the peak of the medium's sales in Japan and produced the greatest ratio of quality VNs to crap VNs. 
One of the primary differences was that, other than moege, there were no strict genre boundaries and genre conventions had yet to slide into place in the minds of fans and writers both.  Companies were mostly experimenters during that time, sometimes basing their projects on previous works (Tsukihime and the Key games got a lot of knock-offs during this time, of varying levels of quality) and sometimes forging out on their own.  
Since there were few genre boundaries, companies were more likely to give the creative staff free reign as to what kind of story they could write, and  - ironically - this actually helped define the various genres in the years to come, as people explored the boundaries of how they could stretch a concept or theme in a story.  Some of these attempts were abortive (ie- thematic moege where all the heroines are of the same type, such as tsundere or yandere, generally didn't catch on) but others were immensely successful (ie- the definition of the chuunige genre and its gradual escape from gakuen battle mania).  However, the point is that the writers, directors, and producers of the time were allowed to fiddle with the formula a lot  more than they are now.  Most major companies nowadays have a 'signature style', that was formed during that period, even if their greatest successes weren't during that period. 
This period also killed the 'pure moege' as a genre, ending the majority genre of the previous half-decade (moege having dominated during that period due to the Da Capo series and Key's games).  The rise of the charage, a demi-moege genre that was much wider in scope and more adaptable, occurred during this period, mostly unrecognized until after the fact.  At the same time, nakige, which had previously been enslaved to the moege genre through Key and others like them, came to define itself as a new, standalone genre that wasn't necessarily dependent on moe stylization.  Even Key itself moved beyond pure moe, though it didn't entirely abandon some elements of it (as the existence of Kud testifies).
However, this age was already ending in 2009, as clearly-delineated genre norms began to form, and charage became the driver for the industry, taking us back, in spirit, to the age before that.  By 2011, the ratio of truly creative works to derivative works was overwhelmingly in favor of the latter, in comparison to the previous decade. 
That isn't to say that the years since haven't produced some great works.  That is patently untrue in my experience... but the fact remains that fewer and fewer writers are able or willing to look outside the 'genre boxes' for answers as to what to write.  I sometimes refer to our current age as the Age of Stagnation, where there is an overwhelming industry pressure to stick to genre norms and those that break the mold are so exceptional they stand out more than they should.
It is possible to create a charage kamige... but it is much easier to make a kamige out of a game that breaks genre boundaries, lol.

Onigokko is a high-quality fantasy charage that was amongst the second fifty I played after I began plowing through untranslated VNs.  Unlike many I read during that time, I find I haven't really forgotten anything significant, so it turned out to be a bit harder to get into than I expected, even after half a decade.   That said, it has a lot to recommend to it, even today.
The story focuses on the protagonist, Keisuke, who is also the Phantom Thief, Ura.  He and his family have been stealing magical treasures and using them to do good for over a century, and he is the third generation to take on the mantle.  He is unable to lie for the most part, but he is surprisingly good at misdirection.  His straightforward and honest personality make him an easy companion for the heroines when they don't know he is a Phantom Thief, and the Phantom Thief persona is also fairly likable, if you don't happen to be a victim, lol.
Anyway, this story focuses on Keisuke's pursuit of the false Ura and his daily life on an island ruled by the descendants of Momotarou, Kintarou, and Otohime of Japanese legend.  His own family is on bad terms with theirs, as they prefer to seal away the magical treasures made by the oni in the distant past, whereas his family utilizes them for the good of others.  It makes for some interesting conversations, lol.
Keep in mind, when reading Otome's path, that this is based in the same universe as Osananajimi wa Daitouryou (for some odd reason, translated into 'My girlfriend is president)) and Naka no Hito Nado Inai, which means things aren't so much pure fantasy as they are science-fantasy. 
Kureha
There is only one phrase I need to say to give you an idea of how I feel about this path... Kuu-nyan Moe!  lol 
Seriously, nobody does tsundere loli characters like Aoba Ringo (the VA), and I found myself wanting to give her candy and pat her on the head at every turn.   Amongst Onigokko's heroines, she is the one I remembered the most clearly, and I spent most of her path waiting for the moments when she went dere or said 'Kuunyan yuuna!'
Did I mention that I love cats...? 
Anyway... her path is pretty long, with a lot of ichaicha (in the time when Onigokko was made, it was still fashionable to layer it on so thick it collapsed the cake beneath), and it actually has two climaxes, which kind of makes it a weird experience, since most VN heroine paths tend to have a single major climax.  I love her character, so I enjoyed it for the  most part... but the loli thing just doesn't attract me... 
Fandisc
Kureha's fandisc after-story actually occurs before the last part of her epilogue, covering a period roughly one year after the end of the main part of her path.  For ichaicha it is fine, but as after-story goes... I was hoping for something a bit farther down the line (like little Kureha children running around, driving her into tsundere fits).
Kana
Kana is a descendant of Kintarou (other name: Suzuka) who fought the oni on the island with a giant axe.  Her family deals with outside threats and searching for treasures outside of the island itself, as well as providing training for the security personnel (ninjas) for the other Three Families.  She loves archaeology in general and studying the ruins on the island in particular.  She is rather obviously infatuated with Keisuke from very early on, but her shyness makes her path a bit frustrating at first... particularly because Suzuka's existence kind of confuses things at key points.
I honestly liked her path as a story and I shed a tear for her ending.  However, I found the epilogue a bit unsatisfying in comparison to Kuu-nyan's. 
Fandisc
Kana's fandisc path should be read only if you have finished Otome's path in the original, since it basically spoils everything in Akari's and Otome's paths.  However, it also is really, really good as an extension of her story, bringing a conclusion to the promise made at the end of the original game and a wonderfully happy ending to the story.
Akari
Akari is Momotarou's descendant and the daughter of the current head of the family.  Her family controls the political end of the Three Families' business (providing a place to hold the treasures, as well as overseeing security) and dealing with internal difficulties.  Akari's issues are entirely wrapped up with her family's internal politics and the cost of their dedication to protecting and concealing the treasures.  She and Kuunyan could definitely fight it out for which heroine oozes sweet stuff the most around Keisuke in their paths.  Like most paths in charage of all types during that period, the romance part is pretty long and has a really long buildup (the same can be said for the previous two paths as well). 
Fandisc
Similar to Kana's path, the fandisc after-story for Akari provides a lot of nice extra details and a frequently amusing conclusion to her story.  It also fills in the details of what went on between the ending and the epilogue of the original game quite nicely for those who are interested.
Otome
Otome is technically the 'true heroine' of the story.  She is a busty, sweet, deredere senpai character with a love of hugging people.  She is a member of the Saionji clan, which is supposedly descended from Otohime.  Anyway, her path is mostly romantic... until it starts delving into 'where the treasures came from' and comes up against the common setting with My Girlfriend is the President and Naka no Hito.  It is actually a fairly emotional story, but while it falls into the realm of 'true paths', it doesn't really have more impact than the others, so you won't feel like you were gypped by the other paths.
Fandisc
Sadly, the fandisc doesn't really add anything to the story, really.  It is mostly ecchi, ichaicha, and day to day issues, and as a result it doesn't really feel like it adds anything to what came before. 
Aoi
お兄ちゃんの童貞は妹のものだって、法律で決まってるのに～～～！！  For those of you who can understand Japanese, this line says everything you need to know about Aoi. 
Anyway, her path exists only in the fandisc and was a gift to fans who voted her the highest-rated character in the game.  That said, I don't have much of a taste for Aoi... she is nice as a side-character, but I couldn't see her as a heroine even in her own path.  The whole thing falls out in a typical 'forbidden fruit imouto' path for the most part, without any really dark undertones (this was written by the same people who did Daitouryou, after all).  I really can't say that I'd bother playing this path again....

Now, those who are accustomed to my praise of Akatsuki Works will probably think I have nothing but praise for Hino Wataru, and they aren't  completely wrong.  However, he has some major issues that tend to make his VNs hard for a certain type of reader to take seriously. 
For better or worse, Hino Wataru is a dyed-in-the-wool chuunige writer.  Even when he isn't writing a chuunige he is writing a chuunige.  I don't think I've ever encountered a writer so completely bound by the genre's conventions as he is.  Is that a bad thing?  In some ways yes, in other ways no.
His defining work, amongst older VN veterans, is Ruitomo.  Ruitomo is hard to define as a chuunige, because there is little to no battling, and it is actually easier to define it as a thriller, as most of the game follows the protagonist and his fellow cursed individuals trying to find a way to survive in a world that isn't kind to those who are cursed the way they are.   However, the game is littered with common chuunige cliches, such as grandiose word choices in the narration and detailed dissections of situations that reveal aspects that otherwise wouldn't have surfaced.  This is common to all of his non-chuunige VNs, and to be blunt, Hino-san tends to stick to what worked for him int he past, lol. 
There are two elements of his style that stand out obviously to me, having read most of them.  A rejection of conventional morality is the first.  Most of his main characters are amoral, acting primarily based on an ideology that they constructed internally that is frequently a bit twisty and created by events that scarred them deeply.   He also tends to give his protagonists a catchphrase that gets used at all parts of the VN (such as Tomo's 'cursed world' and 'we are cursed' or Akihito's 'soredemo, to').  I have never encountered a VN written by him where the protagonist doesn't have some kind of internal or external catchphrase that no normal Japanese person would ever think of or use on a daily basis. 
Are these negative aspects?  It is hard to say.  They do add a certain... flavor to his works.  However, it does get old sometimes.
His characters, unlike Higashide's, tend to be crass and befouled by their life experiences, which ironically makes them as easy to understand as Higashide's 'great souls', if in an entirely different way, lol.  Tomo is a compulsive liar and manipulator, Akihito womanizes indiscriminately and obsesses over his past (as long as they are good-looking), Narita Shinri is arrogant and obsessed with revenge (though it is justified), and Akeno Shuuri is about as lazy and greedy as they come, when he can get away with it. 
As a writer, his style is closer to Masada's than most, because he tends toward flowery, complex language and a love of the poetic.  However, for some reason, what people forgive in Masada is apparently not as attractive in his works, so I've known people who loved Masada who dropped Hino's works in the prologue. 
Overall, as a writer he is a mixed bag... he shows moments of greatness and I personally enjoy his works.  However, if you asked me if he is one of the 'greats', I'd have to tilt my head to the side in thought, as the only kamige he has made is Ruitomo. 

Higashide might be familiar to Western anime fans as the writer for the Fate/Apocrypha LNs and the new anime series, or he might be familiar as the writer of Ayakashibito and Tokyo Babel.  However, of late he has definitely begun to worm his way into the collective consciousness of the Western otakus.
So what kind of writer is he?  He wrote one of my single favorite VNs, Evolimit, and his works definitely have a certain... style.  Perhaps the most obvious reason why he leaves and impression is that he is really, really good at creating characters on both sides of the line of his battle stories that are both larger than life yet still empathetic.  While I could also mention the delightful sense of humor he puts into his works, and that is indeed a defining aspect of his writing, what really defines his games is the sheer overwhelming power of the characters and the emotions born from their interactions.
Of the top ten most memorable scenes I've read in a VN, three of them have been from one of his VNs.  Higashide loves his tragic heroes, his great villains, and all the colors of humanity in between.  The Disasters from Evolimit and their final moments in Shizuku's path still break my heart... even in memory.   Selma's bravery in overcoming her own internal demons in the face of prejudice and malice from those around her in Bullet Butlers still strikes me to the heart today.  Kuki-sensei's bravery and strength of will to overcome his own past in the crossover fandisc Chrono Belt fills me with the same bittersweet emotions it did the first time.
His characters are so... alive.  That is something few VN writers can manage.  Moe, as a tool of storytelling, is really good at leaving an initial impression.  However, HIgashide is someone who can utilize moe without making it the center of the story, using it as a spice rather than drowning the main dish in moe ketchup. 
He really is one of those rare writers who can make a story that is better than the sum of its parts.  He is also really, really, good at presenting that story in a way that leaves and impression that doesn't fade even after years have passed.
As a writer, he doesn't really go for the obscure or for the philosophical.  Many of his works, by the end, start to feel like a Greek tragicomedy or a heroic saga.  They leave you with a feeling of the grandiose, and they are far more straightforward than you usually experience with a chuuni writer, most of whom will often go for being obscure, just out of habit.  The fact that he can create that sense of grandiosity while giving his characters the humanity they need to strike at the hearts of the readers makes him one of my favorite writers of all time.
It just sucks that he doesn't intend to write any more VNs.
 

This is an update of the play status of June's releases.
Ai yori Aoi Umi no Hate- On hiatus/stalled for the moment due to gaming exhaustion.  Plan to resume by the tenth.
Haruoto Alice ＊ Gram - Planned for play after Aiao. 
Pure Song Garden! - Currently being played by Dergonu.
Tantei Seven- Dropped and labeled a kusoge by fun2novel, our resident mystery VN lover.  No plans to include it in the contest.

Kouyoku no Soleil was the first Soleil game I ever played... and from a purely action perspective, it was fun... but it lacked something from my perspective because so much of the game is steeped in pre-existing knowledge from the other games (literally, this game pulls stuff in from Shirogane, Gouen, Soukyuu, and even Primary). 
Basically, this story starts with the Norns fighting one another over what to do about the original Norse Mythology world, which hasn't moved on from the moment the fate they predicted came to a close.  Touya, the protagonist of the story, meets the Norn of the Past, Urd and ends up getting dragged into her affairs as she tries to find the Valkyrie who was supposed to spark the new world into existence.  In the process, he bonds with the clutzy newbie valkyrie Rinasoel, ends up partnering with the magical girl (from Primary's world) Palfina, is repeatedly plagued by attempted sexual assaults by the firebird youkai from the Ayakashi realm named Yatohime, and ends up in a rather odd friendship with the girl beloved of the Lovecraftian Old Ones, Celaeno.  
This really... varied cast comes together because the world he lives in, the 'central' world, is a nexus of dozens of worlds, which in turn have connections to yet other worlds (though distant), thus leading to a rather chaotic situation.  Making it worse is the giant immaterial sword plunged into the central world, which stands silently in the background for much of the story.
To be straight about it, Touya is, like most of the protagonists in this series, a serious philanderer.  He falls in love and has sex with all the heroines I mentioned above, and he is rather passionate...  unfortunately, he is also rather incapable of the fidelity some of the more jealous ones (such as Rina and Palfina) desire.  Touya is devoted to protecting Kukuri, the hikikomori girl who is also his landlord and his boss for his part-time job at the convenience story.  His soft side is most often shown with her, in an almost fatherly manner.  He is strong and violent but highly protective of those he cares about and pretty compassionate, though he does have an immense potential for destruction.  His right arm can transform into a beast-like claw, which he can channel power through to sever anything, whether material or immaterial.
This VN is a kinetic novel  - save that it has bad endings - for the most part, with only one storyline, and that is probably its biggest saving grace, because it didn't share out the story between a bunch of routes that probably would have not been nearly as satisfying as it was.  Upon my second playthrough, I honestly felt that the game deserved a higher rating, since I now possessed the background knowledge necessary to enjoy it fully, lol.

Foreword: I just had to try Elf adventure title. Now I joined the army of Hiruda scenario fans.
Title: ELLE
Original Title: エル
Developer: Elf
Release Date: 1991-06-23
Summary: Post-nuclear world last survivors dome city. "Black Widow" organization is trying to obstruct plans for human survival while anti-terror organization along with lady sniper Elle oppose them.
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v2293
Video playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLENAECnNmAq_KMeaBzd3g0HXL2znhn-eQ
Game Type: Point and click adventure visual novel
Story Length: 7 hours.
Complete Story Clearing Difficulty: Easy!
Comments of Difficulty: One-way road. The worst thing that can happen is that you can miss optional H-scene or couple CG.
Character Design Rating: 9/10.  Story Rating: 10/10. Protagonist Rating: 10/10
Game Quality: 10/10
Overall Rating: 10/10 Rating Comments: I did not really expect this work to surpass De-Ja. But it actually did! Could not stop till finished it in one sitting. I can not give excellent mark to Characters since it's an adventure story and there's little time to crack complex characters. But apart of that I loved every second of it. Point and Click is much more fun than Interactive Adventure choices. There is much less effort needed to capture flags to progress the story compared to De-Ja, mostly because you don't need to think/look/investigate etc - story progresses just by talking and checking different locations for new stuff.

Structure: Game is one piece so it was difficult to say how much progress was left. Almost at the very end I was still of large amount of story to come since there were still two locations closed - but - BAM - unexpected stuff showed up and story shortly ended.
  Story: First things first. I've NO idea what girl is depicted on game poster. The only blonde girl in the game was secretary side-character. That's not fun making a poster out of non-existing character. And there is zero trace of game's alias title - L-Elle.
Story felt a bit shorter than De-Ja. I can't avoid spoilers although promise not to spoiler heavily about the ending. So you join a unit of snipers to investigate recent abductions of humans by Black Widow organization and their leader Gimmick. "Sniper" is just a cool title, all you have is a hand stun-gun with volume ranging from light stun to lethal shot. So five of them are of low ranks and their officer is of S rank. You actually are of SS rank but you can't reveal that so it's blank rank and you're subordinate of a different intelligence body. One of lower rank snipers is girl named Elle who takes you on a tour around Media center and the city and then leaves alone. First you encounter a girl sexually assaulted by two Black Widow members, then as story progresses there are two more sexual assaults that you prevent right in the media center, the base of sniper organization. The attackers have bombs explode on arrest. Then one by one fellow sniper team members start to die just after they approach the mystery of Gimmick identity. Their bodies are gravely destructed, partly dismembered with all entrails out. Eventually Elle joins you as an investigation partner and together you eventually manage to reveal the secret of Gimmick. Then Ex-Machina happens (in a good meaning, nothing extraterrestrial or stupid) and everything ends in the spirit of Matrix.

Characters summary: Characters are all depicted very lively. It's a brutal man world story so males advance the story while girls here are just service staff : waitress, receptionist, nurse, pop-idol, tv drama star. They have quite episodic roles and involve a single H-scene each (Chris actually has one and a half since you save her from street gangsters in quite an intriguing state). So Elle is the only heroine here.   Elle: El Mines is a sniper division member. Right from the start she marks you as a pervert and you by chance come to the same place together following the same lead and find the body of first fellow sniper. After that She feels responsible and volunteers to join you to find Gimmick. She's quite a typical Elf main heroine very similar to Gachako from De-Ja. Loud voice, constant use of "ne, ne" , emotional behavior. Just like Lipstick ADV and De-Ja written by Hiruda before, the most fun stuff happens when she follows you to well-known locations and comments on everything and quarrels with every female around.
  Protagonist: Joe Takanaka is the default name, but actually you get to insert your own name just as game starts. Again, very similar to De-Ja, protagonist is one hell of a pervert. Whenever he sees something with a skirt, he can't stand but to try to grab it, to lick it, to kiss it and to devour it with his eyes, of course.
  Sexual Content: Low. But freaking funny! There are five sexual assaults made throughout the game by gangsters and in four of them you actually join the assaulters! One superfun scene is of Section chief who we found guilty in murder. So he takes his secretary hostage stripping her while threatening with a knife. We don't have a good angle to shoot him so we just join him to harass her together. The fun part is that he cries : stop right now, it's my secretary, what are you doing to my subordinate. Since it's point and click adventure, you can't skip scenes but must gradually kiss/touch/lick etc, but the good stuff is that H-scenes give you a new lead by the end of it, so it's not just a senseless act, but a plot move.
  Affection for the Characters: High. Every male characters has strong individuality and you won't be able to forget them. Every female character is very cute and fun in her own way.
  CG Score: 10/10. There aren't too many CG here, but I just love Elf CG, even H-CG and guro ones. Special note should be given to animations. There are hundreds of 3D animations in the game. Most of objects grow legs and other limbs and do weird things on clicking. Very fun stuff. Really. Every second object on a screen. Another great feature is short videos in most important plot moments. They are of great quality and they make you forget that you're playing a visual novel game. It's totally like anime in those scenes.   Sound Score: There are some 20 compositions and most of them were so-so, just to break the silence. I have not remembered any brilliant ones, but it probably due to the fact that all the multiple animated scenes have their own sound, not the usual compositions. But I never once got tired of any track and never ever felt like one track was looping for too long. So 8/10 it is. Addictiveness: I'm hopelessly addicted to early Elf works now. And ELLE is awesome mostly because of point-and-click style. Now it's really interactive experience and you really feel like playing, not clicking every possible variant in each location over and over. Just talk and walk.
 
Humor: Yes! I'm distinguishing a special column for humor here. Game treats everything unseriously. Just look at this picture. Nurse whipping patient to make him drink medicine properly. One guy hanging on a rope. Another one in speed wheel chair. 3rd one smells a pile of poo. Next pair are having sex. Next to them is a nurse who's masturbating with a sofa. To the right is the guy who holds his own eye. Just below is the guy with his head in his hands. This nice grandpa in lower right corner has a dick showing up from his head and cumming on clicking. Every object is clickable and everything produces fantastic commentaries and/or animations. This no restraint humor is the best!

Technical Difficulties: Game is based on old fullscreen Direct-media and DirectX so it basically freezes on Alt-Tab, but as soon as I tried to run it in window-mode with DXWind, it was perfect.

Conclusion: Game that I'll never be able to forget. Every piece that I like came together and produced pervert protagonist comedy adventure story in sci-fi setting with a single intriguing story-line and great shock in the end. It's the first VN game I played that I liked without any but's.

Now, I'm well aware that most people don't play VNs twice.  Visual novels are a static media, similar to one of the old 'choose your own adventure' novels in interactive terms, so this is only natural.  To be blunt, the main reason I go back and play old VNs is because nothing is satisfying one of my itches amongst the more recent releases.  That said, there are some pieces of advice I can give for those who habitually re-read their favorite books and rewatch their favorite anime.
1- Wait long enough for your memories to fade: The human brain has a tendency to 'compress' old memories, and it is rare person who, through training or at birth, possesses an eidetic memory.  As a result, details do fade over a period of time that tends to vary greatly with the individual.  In my case, the base runs from a year to a year and a half for VNs that made a good impression and four months for ones that didn't. 
2-  Pick your paths: When it comes down to it, most of us are going back for a particular heroine or path.  We aren't that interested in rehashing the heroine paths that we didn't find that interesting, and this is only natural.  Sagaoz and other sites with complete saves can let you go to the true ending without bothering with the heroine endings, if that is what you want. 
3- With gameplay hybrids, make full use of your save data: Most VN hybrids have NG+ built in, and as a result, you can breeze through the game portions of most of them rather easily by simply using your own save data.  This is immensely helpful in games with a particularly tedious bent (like srpgs), where re-leveling would take forever.
4-  Limit replays to your favorites: While I occasionally get a junk-food-like craving for something crappy that nonetheless remained in memory, in most cases I only really enjoy replaying my favorite VNs (in my case, a list of about fifty). 
5- Nakige and utsuge work, but pure charage don't: I'm not kidding.  Pure charage are agonizing to replay, no matter how long after you go back.  I can still cry for the sad scenes in a Key game, but if you asked me to replay anything by Feng or most games by Navel, I'd rather cut off my balls and hang them out to dry on my windowsill.
6- If you fall asleep, just stop- In my experience, nothing is worse than getting bored of your favorites and then forcing yourself to continue.  If you can't pay attention or if you suddenly lose interest, it is time to stop.  If you force yourself to continue, there is a distinct possibility you will ruin your own impressions of the game in question for future playthroughs.
7- Stay away from pure mindfucks- I shouldn't have to explain this, but I will... the value of a mindfuck is in its surprise.  Games centered on a mindfuck, with the sole purpose of trying to fool you into thinking one thing while something else is going on, are terrible for VN replays.  This is because they are probably the  most spoiler-vulnerable genre out there.
8- Highly emotional or intellectually stimulating works will often gain more depth: This isn't a fanciful statement.  In my experience, a VN that is trying to get across something else besides pure story or something that is trying to make you cry will inevitably make for a better replay than something that is just shoving sex, romance, and comedy in your face.  I could probably replay Houkago no Futekikakusha, for instance, three or four times in a year without the emotional aspects fading significantly, and I find new things out about Dies Irae, Vermilion, and Devils Devel Concept with each playthrough. 
9- Infodumpers take longer to recover from: Bradyon Veda, I/O, Muramasa, etc... VNs that infodump seriously as part of the storytelling tend to leave a lot of info inside your brain.  As a result, it takes significantly longer for your memories of them to fully 'compress'.  Don't expect to be able to enjoy anything with frequent infodumps at less than one and a half times that of any of your other favorites. 
10- A good night's sleep is your friend: Why am I emphasizing this?  Because to get the best out of a truly great VN, a well-rested body and brain is necessary.  Nothing kills enjoyment of a good story like being unable to grasp it due to brain-numbness from sleep deprivation.
Hope yall enjoyed my little lecture, lol.