Toranth

Oh? Pray tell, what do you think makes a "good" eroge?

Just finished Akeiro Kaikitan, And It Was Good. Clephas already did a review on his blog, and he hit all the major points. I'll disagree with Clephas in one thing though - I thought Akeiro was a better game than the already very good Nanairo Reincarnation. Akeiro fixed what I thought the greatest weakness of the Nanairo was: actual differentiation between the routes. Nanairo had one story with short differences in the ending. Akeiro routes can be very different (and much darker), but always for a good reason. Each route results from the Protagonist choosing different actions in the Common part, learning different things, then acting on that info - and each makes sense. This all cumulates in the True route, an amazing conclusion to the buildup in the previous routes. The weak points of the game are a bit of lack of focus (for example: 3 routes are romantic, 3 aren't), a bit of reliance on the previous game for lore, and a bit of a Deus Ex to set up the True Route. Hardly major, but they keep it from being perfect. Not sure if I'd go so far as to call it a 9/10, but it is one of the better 8/10s I've read.

Yeah, that's about what I remember. The girls are one-dimensional stereotypes, specifically created to BE stereotypes. It wasn't quite "take a poll for character traits", but starting from the original 9, they were designed to cover all the bases. Adding more certainly didn't add any more substance, just clichés. No, the best things about Sister Princess were the music and the jokes (both the official 4-koma, and the many parodies). I would not recommend wasting your time with SP2, or any of the side stories/special games.

Nasu is like the ee cummings of Visual Novels. He's creative, and Tsukihime is much more creative than Fate, and when he gets in the groove, the presentation gets wild and the scenes can just flow... but dear GOD, he needs a good editor. Tsukihime has many sections that a decent editor would have chopped, or shortened, or done something with to make more interesting. The original release of Kara no Kyokai needed work, too, but the final version was an excellent work. The major popularity of Fate over Tsukihime is, to me, proof that when someone edits his creations they work better.

This used to be common - most VNs used to use some variety of a "points" system, where making choices in the common route added (or subtracted) points for the heroines. Then, at the end of the common route, there would be a branch, and the player would follow whichever heroine had the most points. In recent years, there's been a trend towards making each choice matter more, both for a more solid story, and because there has always been a segment of the VN fanbase that complained when choices didn't seem to do much. But it's still around.

Doesn't get better, exactly, but there is an actual story there at the end. Of course, it depends on the adult Mint you end up with - the endings are not at all the same. Some have almost no story, while one route goes really in depth, typing up all the loose threads (and more that were never even hinted at in other routes). All in all, it was a decent game that spawned several spin-offs that were also OK. 6/10 material. Better than average, but only just barely. This is actually a decent choice for a Steam game. H material not needed, good graphics, and solid, if simple and unimaginative, gameplay. They just need a good translator and a low price, and they're good to go.

Are we sure these results aren't all accidently being reversed? You know, maybe people think this is Survivor and are voting games off the bracket?

Parfait without Chocolat is missing a lot. ChuSinGura and Ruitomo are better than Parfait AND Chocolat, anyway. Why must people do this to me?

Netcraft confirms it: this bracket is dead. Somehow only one contest turned out with the better game winning. (No, I'm not bitter that every one of my preferred games soundly lost. Why do you ask?)

To comment on just this point, it isn't exactly accurate. If the first few users to play a certain game all give it 1s and tell everyone it was complete crap, it won't get many votes at all. A few that hate it, a few that love it, but most people will never even give it a chance. On the other hand, if the first few users to play that game give it 10s and tell everyone it is totally awesome, many people will play it. So it is likely that most of the votes in any given system with voluntary participation will be above "average", if just because people actively avoid the 'bad' stuff to play the 'good' stuff.

If you've read 42 minutes of Planetarian, you've already surpassed the story content of This War of Mine. People talked up TWoM as something amazing, but I found it simple, shallow, and extremely repetitive. I would not recommend it anyone.

Ah, Snow... now, that brings back memories. Piles of OK, with the only good 'route' being the Meiko fandisk. Still, the best Kanon/Air tribute game I've ever seen.

Exactly. Motome takes over Yuuto's body for a little bit, just to rape all the female characters. It's been a while, but I remember that in the original 18+ game, this is the only time you actually see the minor Spirits as characters. In the All Ages version, they actually get scenes. They also proved so popular that they got an entire game to themselves (SpiTan), so it was definitely a good decision. Really, the Evil route was really boring. Losing it doesn't cost the game anything but gratuitous, low quality H-scenes. Now, the main game H-scenes were typical low-quality, but some of them had ties to the story or character development. They tried to work around that in the All Ages version, but it just didn't turn out the same.

Because a) I'd forgotten, and b) now that you mention it, I remember being rather contemptuous of the translation. But if you wanted to put it into the English list as a vote, fine.

Hmm, hard to choose, but I'll go with (Japanese): 5) Haruka no Aogi, Urawashi no 4) Air 3) Rui wa Tomo wo Yobu 2) ChuSinGuRa 46+1 1) Giniro Some runners up include: Kimi to Boku to no Kishi no Hibi, Ouka, Setsuei, Symphonic Rain, something (pretty much anything) from August, Purple, or Caramel Box (especially Yarukibako fandisc's Moonlight Diner short story)... So much good stuff out there.

Otaku do have some blame for it, but it is mostly the publishing company's fault. Japanese companies are very conservative and very paranoid. They don't like digital distribution, because it is new and because there is the risk of piracy. They'd rather guaranteed lose 100 sales than risk losing 200. They'd rather release a game in 600x800 than 1080p if it would allow them to save a yen on development costs. For all that we have this idea of Japan as a high-tech nation, Japan is the only nation where I've ever encountered someone that would brag about their inability to use a computer.

Piracy is a problem, yes, but a far bigger problem is that the industry overexpanded and dropped significantly in quality the past few years. Like the anime industry, I expect we'll see a period of contraction as lesser companies and fringe studios go out of business. When the market stabilizes, more new studios will appear, there'll be more new and interesting games, and the industry will grow again (until the next bust cycle). Remember, 2015 averaged 75-100 mid to major releases a month, with that many or more little doujin releases added on. That's still a LOT of games.

It's a free download, direct from tone's website. There's a link to it on the VNDB page, actually, down in the Links section. So download, and enjoy! (1GB in size, roughly - it might take a while)

Them there's FIGHTIN' words, boy. Seriously, the sex-magic bit is so common in supernatural VNs, I find it surprising it would bother anyone. I guess everyone has their pet peeves, but to call Nanairo a kusoge because of them... that just ain't right. Nanairo Reincarnation had excellent writing, good characters, and it avoided all the lazy traps most mysteries fall into (the 'Out of nowhere' reveal, and the 'Lying to the reader' trick being the two I hate most). If you're careful, the twist is actually revealed in the first half hour of the game! But the clues are so subtle, it's only in hindsight that it means anything. Unfortunately, they took a one-route mystery story, and tried to slap multiple character routes onto it. It should have had one, true, route. No other ends, no character-specific side trips, nothing like that. Playing it once through was great. Playing through all the characters felt like a waste of time. It was a very good game, but damn it, it wasn't no stinkin' kusoge.

Kyou for passion, Tomoyo for competence (except English) and Kotomi for the most bizarre games of shiritori ever. Fuko for starfish. Douzo!

Oh, Dustmania, you claim another victim... Guro usually doesn't bother me, but I'll admit, that's one I was unwilling to even try. For all I know, it may have the best writing and most amazing story in the universe.. but:

"The height of disgusting"? That sounds like a challenge! More seriously, lots of stuff is much worse. Black Cyc has many games that make this one look tame, and that's still toned down for 'mass market' (of ero-games). The real nasty stuff, like Eien to natta Rusuban, or Kasshoku no Sei Senshi Aisha - that's niche, and that's very different.

I mean... no, you know what, I'm not continuing this argument. You're absolutely right. Indeed I am.

First off, I disagree with 'poor writing', or with your claims of no characterization. Maeda does trim out the non-essential bits to his stories, which throws off people that expect those bits to be important. This sort of writing is more common in Japanese, as opposed to the "Must tie off every thread!" philosophy that is popular among English writers. It's awkward, and as a native English reader, I would prefer more complete stories. But it just isn't the way things are done, so I've learned not to expect it. However, the point I was attempting to make is that the focus of the game isn't on the romantic relationships, but on the familial ones. If you like that, fine - you like Clannad. If you don't like that, fine - you don't like Clannad. There is no requirement you like Clannad. But if you dislike it, dislike it because of what it IS, not because it didn't include something you expected but the writers NEVER intended to include. If someone were to claim Clannad is terrible because the action scenes are bad and the villians had no development, should anyone take that as valid criticism?

I think part of your disappointment is that you aren't expecting what Clannad is about. See, Clannad isn't a straight up moe- or chara-game. It isn't about Fuuko, or Kyou, or any of the girls - it's about Tomoya, and it's about family. All the routes, both the girls' and the others, serve to illustrate certain family relationships - look for that as the plot, not the romantic relationship between Tomoya and girl-of-the-day. Once you recognize what the point of each route is, and how they all come together, you'll either get more enjoyment out of the story, or understand why you don't like it.