Yakumo

Looks like someone else already beat me to mentioning it, but I did get an email from Jlist telling me that they did actually ship Seinarukana. It's not just notice that they're preparing shipping or anything either, the tracking number's gone live and the package is in transit.

Has anyone else who preordered this received an email from the USPS telling them Jlist is shipping something to them? I didn't get any notice from Jlist themselves and I haven't heard anything about a release date even, but this is the only thing I have on order with them. They might actually be shipping already. Tracking number isn't active yet though, I'll check later today and see if there's any more info.

Well, like I said, it still has an activation code with a limit listed for my older purchase of Koihime Musou. It's possible that they just don't do it for the newer games but still would for the older ones, I'm not really sure. Gahkthun is obviously a newer release, and it and Kindred Spirits(which doesn't have a limit) are both from Liar Soft, so you would probably be fine for that one.

Mangagamer doesn't do this anymore, though? I've gotten Kindred Spirits and Beat Blades Haruka from them recently and neither of them have a limit. My old purchase of Koihime Musou still lists it on the account page, so it's not like they're just hiding it either. Neither of the new games required an activation code or have any sort of counter whatsoever.

I'm going to throw Quartett a vote because I was just about to replay it for myself anyway, might as well join the discussion if it wins. I am going to echo mjriedstra up there in saying that everyone should try Symphonic Rain at some point whether it wins or not. I considered voting for it but I read it just long enough ago that I don't remember it well enough to discuss it but remember it too well to want to replay it just yet.

After clicking that link, looks like it's more "people mildly annoyed at sanahtlig for posting stupid shit with clickbait title" than anyone actually caring about the delay. Seriously, I thought you were linking to an actual discussion but it's just you putting three links on reddit(only one of which is actually from a fan) and people getting snippy at you for it. What the hell is the point of putting that link here?

I don't know if I'd go quite as low as he did on the score but I definitely agree that this isn't all that great of a VN. The quality of the character routes was all over the place. The minigames were just pointless filler that distracts from the story, though at least you can turn them off. In my opinion, though, the true route doesn't even come close to salvaging the VN, it actually in my opinion damages the goodwill I had. It's at a 5 or 6 level for me, some of the characters are good and some of the routes are good, though the good characters and routes didn't always match up(Kud deserved much better). Very little was actively bad. It really kinda feels like the whole is less than the sum of the parts to me, though. I'm not one of those people who think anything less than an 8 is terrible, I just mean it averages out to be, well, pretty average.

I'm not talking about gameplay visual novels as a whole, I'm talking about this specific one. Of course, this is only my opinion and obviously I don't have anything to do with the reading club aside from that I've been watching the topics. The problem I would expect with Daibanchou specifically is that the game has a lot of different characters that have their own little substories that it uses to fill the time between things happening in the main story. There's nothing wrong with this, but since the player's actions determine which characters you get to know(and even which characters you get, period), even two people playing the same route could have very different experiences. Also, Daibanchou is a conquest game and it's possible to fight your opponents in different orders, which will also change the way a player will see the story. I just feel like it would be hard to have a good discussion about the story of the game with first time players when the game experience can vary wildly from game to game. Compare it to your own example, Eien no Aselia. In that game, aside from route specific and new game plus events, the game is going to play out more or less the same every time. You get the same characters for the same chapters and the events are scripted to occur at the same times. It's easy to discuss what's going on in that game because everyone on the same route is seeing the same story(possibly minus some side events if you let someone die), even though the game part might play out differently for them. It's a much better choice for a reading club setting. None of this is to say that Daibanchou is a bad game. It's not going to be for everyone, but I would certainly suggest people at least give it a shot if they're okay with Alicesoft games. The variety that makes it hard to discuss based on one playthrough is a huge upside in my opinion, just not in this particular setting. Though, again, it's just my two cents and it's way behind anyway so it probably doesn't even matter.

I don't know if you guys have a different definition of RTS or what(I always thought it was Real Time Strategy, like Starcraft), but Daibanchou is turn based and not what I expect when I hear that acronym. Also I don't know if it's a good choice for a reading club since there's so much gameplay and so little actual story. Plenty of character stuff but the actual story stuff is lacking until quite late in the game, and different people are going to concentrate on different characters.