LightBladeNova

Sakura no Uta got delayed too right (again)...? To October 23rd

Definitely Root Double ~Before Crime - After Days~ It quite literally starts with a bang and gets right to the point, an explosion in a research facility. Here's the VNDB link: https://vndb.org/v5000

Yeah, just download the save file that havoc posted. You don't wanna skip Unlimited and just read a plot summary of it.

Well shit, that looks classy and interesting as hell. Consider me hyped as well.

Truly the only title I'm really interested in is Root Double... so if the Kickstarter for that ends up failing (I kinda doubt it though), then I shall cry

If anything, all-ages should be saving the VN market, I would imagine... o.O

I guess Asairo was indeed far too good to be true huh... oh well

I mainly just want to hear some Root Double progress I would like Asairo as well, but isn't that VN particularly difficult to translate to English because of all the Kanji puns/jokes (or so I've heard)?

I, for one, was severely disappointed by the Terra route... it just hit so many wrong notes for me.

Regardless of whether or not G-Senjou is overall better than Sharin, I still think Sharin at least has the better plot structure (and I'd argue better overall characterization as well). Because Sharin's plot is for the most part linear, all the characters more or less keep their character development (instead of it disappearing after every branching route like in a lot of other VNs), they play significant roles in the final chapter, and so the story is more cohesive and organized. Can't really say the same for G-Senjou.

The Sakura no Uta trial has some pretty nice music so far especially that piano piece that plays during Natsume Shizuku's first appearance as well as during Misakura Rin's class introduction, it's so pretty~ it's like the new Yoru no Himawari for me.

I haven't watched Fate/Zero yet unfortunately, though I know about some of the characters and what the ending is like. From what I've heard from most people though, they seem to really praise the character development in F/Z? Especially for, like, Kiritsugu. I can't say for sure though. About Nasu needing an editor to cut down on the excessive exposition (take out some of those food scenes...), I can agree with that yeah.

My favorite route would be UBW, though HF is kinda close. I had some problems with HF, such as the way it killed off most of the Servants so early and... anticlimactically (seriously Gilgamesh, who was the final boss in the previous two routes, died so pathetically... same with other Servants like Caster, Assassin, and Lancer). I also didn't like HF's treatment of Saber: she's the noble mascot character, but she basically got no redemption throughout the route and stayed dark as Saber Alter until the end. You may argue that HF was supposed to be dark and edgy like that, but I just personally didn't like that particular development; I didn't want to end Fate/Stay Night with Saber still corrupted like that. And don't get me started on Shirou somehow managing to beat her... that just felt really contrived (with the help of Rider kinda, but still... also, Rider was a pretty lackluster character as well, she wasn't all that interesting. I had been hoping for some awesome mindblowing reveal about her - similar to Archer's - since she was the last Servant whose identity we hadn't known yet, but nope, she's just Medusa... and she didn't have much of a significant role in HF besides the fight with Saber Alter). Other issues I had included the rushed and underdeveloped Angra Mainyu plot point, Illya suddenly appearing at the end with the Heaven's Feel robe that got no explanation, and the anticlimactic end of the fight between Shirou and Kotomine (Kotomine just... stopped, cuz he was out of time, he said. Meh). Things that HF did well though, are its themes and the character development of the main people involved. Edit: @Scorp, I don't think the overall characterization in F/SN is all that great, to be honest. Shinji is a laughable one-dimensional asshole all the way through. Assassin, Rider, and Kuzuki lack depth, Gilgamesh was entertaining, but he didn't get all that fleshed out either. Lancer was also funny, but he didn't get a lot of screen time in all 3 routes. I'd even say Caster was boring even with her backstory. That's part of the problem with F/SN; since all these Servants are former heroes, we already know their backstories (or if we don't, we can look them up), but for a fictional story, that shouldn't count as character development; if it did, it'd be lazy writing. That's why Archer is the best and most well-developed Servant; he's different from the rest because of his fleshed-out ideas and relationship with Shirou. Heck, UBW was Archer's route, not Rin's, so yeah. Moreover, random side characters like Mitsuzuri, Issei, and Taiga dropped out of the story soon enough, when they should've had some more importance in the story (especially Issei, he actually had some kind of relationship with Kuzuki, that could've been explored further); otherwise, why even bother creating them in the first place? The great characters were Shirou (though admittedly, he was pretty sexist and annoying in the Fate route, that was pretty bad), Illya, Sakura, Kotomine, Saber, Archer, and I guess Rin too maybe. I didn't really care about anyone else...

Thank you for your reply, Abyssal Monkey. I don't really feel like getting into a prolonged debate about HakoMari, but of course I respect your opinion. You didn't really have to provide those general summaries of the plot and characters though, as they're not exactly contributing to an argument for why this LN is supposed to be godly. I can see your point about HakoMari breaking out of a negative, cliche trend that has been plaguing Japanese LNs lately (I can't really say myself though, since HakoMari is the only LN I've been reading), but that specific point seems to pervade most of your discussion. It's not a really strong argument for you to be comparing the unconventional HakoMari with generic and noncohesive harem, ecchi, Gary Stu trash in the first place, because lots of stories are better than that. In other words, just "breaking out of convention" is not significant enough for a story to be considered amazing. Now, I'm sure you have more compelling arguments as to why HakoMari is so great, but I'm just saying that you didn't talk about them much in your comment. You say that "every last one [of the characters] has a flaw", but well duh, any good story should have characters that are flawed. You say that "we get to see an actual story pan out over several volumes and culminate into something", but well, that's supposed to be expected of any series, not limited to just LNs and manga. You say that "fluff is cut out" but that too doesn't mean much. I've already pointed out some of my direct reasons for why I'm not really seeing HakoMari as some masterpiece yet; it's good overall so far, don't get me wrong, but masterpiece of masterpieces is pushing it. I don't agree that prose is something that shouldn't be cared about. Why? Because the way a writer manipulates words obviously affects how the story is told. You mentioned how the prose being simple and lacking in detail/description is because the setting of the story is not the point (which I agree with), but you should realize that detail and description are not limited to just setting or worldbuilding. Quality prose helps to conjure some profound image or message, vividly show action instead of merely telling it, create emotional resonance and suspenseful atmosphere through careful word choice, add substance through figurative language, metaphors, similes, etc., maybe allude to some symbolism or motifs, and make the text and dialogue flow naturally and purposefully. This isn't a medium like anime and movies, where prose doesn't have as much significance because the visuals, character voices, and music also tell the story; HakoMari is a light novel, a book, and the text is the only thing that matters, and so I will judge the prose's ability to resonate with me. And for me, HakoMari has only average (occasionally below average, when it's awkward) prose. So you admit that some of the dialogue sounds artificial? Well, this artificial-sounding dialogue directly affects my ability to emotionally connect with the characters and events. Again, the line really broke my immersion (as well as many others); it just sounds so dumb... seriously, try saying that to someone of the opposite sex, out loud. It's very unnatural. And again, several of the characters sound alike when they're being serious, so that's also a minus. You didn't address my point about Volume 2. I've seen on MyAnimeList that many people also didn't really find Volume 2 good; for me, it was just straight up bad. Very lackluster antagonists, , and plus the atmosphere wasn't as good, partly because the prose was at an all-time low in this volume. Sorry if I'm being too harsh or something, I'm just sharing my honest thoughts.

I've finished Volumes 1-4, and frankly little has really amazed me yet, definitely not godly material. Volume 2 in particular is pretty meh, I swear you could take it out entirely and the story would actually be better. Also, I've talked about this on MyAnimeList, but does no one care about the prose quality in HakoMari? In my opinion, the prose is occasionally pretty awkward and unnatural, especially in the dialogue (not necessarily the fault of the translator). Volume 1 spoiler And that's only one line, I found quite a few others that distracted me from the story. Also, several characters talk in similar ways, mainly when they're being "serious", so that's also off-putting. Moreover, in addition to the occasional awkwardness, the writing in HakoMari is relatively simple and lacks details and description, so often times I cannot truly feel the atmosphere, the tension, or the emotion; there's not a lot of "force" in the prose, basically. Oh yes, and characters sometimes overexplain things in this very... artificial or affected manner (like, for example, Kazuki keeps using "therefore", which sounds weird).

Visual novels all the way for me. Since they're often very long, VNs have the most potential for great character interactions; you can see characters interacting about casual, mundane stuff (which wouldn't work as effectively in other mediums like books and anime, and definitely not for manga), and it wouldn't feel unnatural or tedious to read, if done right. For me, it just feels like I can live in the VN world, actually looking through the eyes of the protagonist (unlike with anime, where I get a third-person POV of everything).

The only great thing about Ever17 is the true route, a good chunk of the story was fairly boring and uninteresting for me. And Root Double is much better than Ever17 overall, imo. Better suspense, and by far better characters.

Almost every translated visual novel in the top 10 on VNDB is a little bit/kinda overrated, in my opinion. Yes, that includes Muv-Luv Alternative and Steins;Gate, even though I still really enjoyed both of them nonetheless and gave them a 9.3 and 9.1, respectively. Fight me.

This heroine's route had quite a few... questionable plot developments, including the one that's being discussed in this topic. She's my favorite heroine by far, but yeah, wasn't a big fan of some of the ridiculousness.

I really like the title of the VN haha: "Wonderful Everyday ~Discontinuous Existence~". It not only grabs your attention, but also just sounds really nice.

Yeah lol, I might be a little too generous, I'll probably change some of those scores a bit later on, as I get more VNs under my belt ^^ most of the VNs on my list are pretty high-rated on the site though, so I guess having all >=8 isn't too surprising. And I find that generally, my votes don't deviate too greatly from the VNDB averages haha.

Thanks everyone ! Sorry for the really late reply... >__< These are the VNs I've read so far, for those who may be curious ^^: https://vndb.org/u68672/votes Some of these votes are likely to change later on haha. I guess my current favorite would be Muv-Luv Alternative yeah, though I still have some problems with it.

Hello everyone I've been reading VNs and following Fuwanovel for quite a while, but now I've decided to actually join haha. よろしくお願いします~ By the way, here's a growing Visual Novel facebook page in case you don't know about it ^^: https://www.facebook.com/groups/614956271934653/