Vokoca

Hooray, finally someone who doesn't blindly hate the character! He does get better, but he takes his sweet time. The delusion triggers don't really do anything on your first playthrough, though you can get a special bad ending on your second one if you pick the right ones. Funny thing is that I went through the entire VN without knowing those choices even existed - which just lead to a lot of the 'Whose eyes are those eyes' scenes, which made the whole thing even better.

MoeNovel is...? I'm scared. Oh, isn't this the engine Sweetlight used in Himawari!!? I was considering reading that just for the animations alone...

Now I think about it, that ending was much better than ep2 ending lol.. The ep2 ending however did involve like you said And then the cheesy stuff happened after already a lot of other cheesy stuff happened lol, atleast that's my opinion. I don't mean to hurt any people who really liked that ending, but for me it was a real disappointment. Oh wow, this is pretty baffling... the original ending really sounds better. In SC EP1, the last act goes like this: I really don't know how I should feel about this. It definitely doesn't sound like an improvement, though.

So far it doesn't really seem too difficult - the main narration is pretty close to spoken language, and the textbox isn't abused by long, complex sentences. Though I will get back to you when things actually get crazy, it might change then. If there is anything difficult about it, it's not the Japanese, but the references to foreign old literature, it makes me feel dumb when I have to look them up D: Oh no... That's just bad. There are four episodes in total, so there probably are two more routes in Secret Game, not just two... I don't think I can handle that. Though it is possible they have changed the endings? I've read a bit of an ending in a different thread here (possible KQ EP1 spoilers, and maybe SC EP1 spoilers assuming they're different - if anyone even cares for this thing)

Felt like reading something different, so I picked up SubaHibi pretty much on impulse - although I was meaning to read it for quite some time. Too bad the vndb summary has a small spoiler with it, I probably could've done without that - but it's probably nothing major. I haven't read much of the VN yet, but it was hilarious so far. It's much funnier than I've expected - I'm guessing it'll get equally horrible, though. Hahaha... ouch. Since you finished the whole VN, how was the second episode? Any better than the first?

Finished Koyori's route in RuiTomo. The bit of drama at the beginning was pretty rough, but I've really enjoyed the rest a lot. Probably the best route so far - although it's kind of unfair to rate them in a VN with a structure where each route gives you a bit more info on the overall plot. Not sure if this is such a good choice-- but it is an interesting change from the usual formula. Iyo's route is next, and then finally the true one! Not sure how to feel about Akaneko being the true heroine, but I definitely don't dislike her either. She's mysteirous and fun, there's definitely stuff to look forward to. Just really interested in the main plot!

I'll have to second this. When it comes to deep and well built characters, Kageaki definitely comes on top. Muramasa wouldn't have been nowhere as amazing if he wasn't the protagonist. Speaking of interesting male protagonists, Tomo from RuiTomo is also pretty great. W-wait... does she even count?

There's a character... named Euphoria? Nope, I won't be able to take that seriously at all. Thanks, Clock Up.

Sorry to disappoint you, but there's not such a thing. At least not in the first episode-- the ending is just as awful and generic as the rest of the VN. I haven't read the rest yet myself, so maybe it does get better, but I can't find the energy to continue.

Kaito from Akatsuki no Goei was so incredibly badass that he made the entire series for me. In fact, there are some moments where he's arguably too badass-- didn't stop me from enjoying it, though! Hearing him voiced was also about the only reason why I played Reminiscence.

Slowly making it through the cursed visual novel RuiTomo. On Koyori's route now, and... augh, this is hard to read. ;_; I hate this kind of stuff, it literally makes me nervous as well. I enjoy reading utsuge and such, but this very specific kind of drama really gets to me - if there is a VN specialising on specifically being as uncomfortable and awkward as possible, I probably wouldn't make it through alive.

I admit its existence alone made me laugh, but I don't think I want to read this, let alone pledge.

I've bought a couple of digital editions of VNs on consoles and gotten some through PS+. On PC though, I just download them for free, since it's so easy. That said, if I like a VN enough - and if it has an awesome boxed edition - I'll buy it. Bought a couple in Sofmap when I was in Japan.

Picked up TIME TRAVELERS since it was free on PS+. Haven't played much of it yet, but as for the first impressions... this thing is amazing! I was a bit iffy at the idea of a 3D VN at first, but the constant cutscenes really do TIME TRAVELERS a great service. The voice acting is top notch too, and that music! The main theme is amazing... is this what happens when you give someone a too big budget for a VN? The most impressive thing so far, though, is the VN's structure. I've really liked VLR's integrated flowchart - and this is like VLR on steroids. So you thought being able to jump along a flowchart was cool? Well, how about mixing multiple character-perspectives into that flowchart? And better yet, how about making decisions you make as one character affect the fate of the others? Amazing! I'm afraid they will take the cheap way out and keep it really linear either way, but who knows.

Oh yeah, it's not like it's horrible or anything. ^^ It might look really bad in comparison to the rest of my votes, but that only means I haven't played any bad VNs yet. Or that I can't vote D: How did you like Ayakashibito, by the way? I was planning to start it eventually, but the beginning didn't really grab me when I tried it some time back... It was one of the first VNs I've ever played. Very fun read, it's still one of my favourites when it comes to branching stories - that common route variation is crazy! I'd really like to see that in some other VNs too. By the way, you might want to edit your posts instead of multi-posting. :x

Yep, in Japanese. And I assume the only different thing are the two extra episodes?

Just finished the first episode of Secret Game - Killer Queen. That was... boring, to say the least. KQ EP1 spoilers In short, the first episode does nothing new, and what it does do is incredibly half-assed and boring. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they hid some more interesting plot points for the later episodes, but after making it through this, I am really not looking forward to reading something similar three more times. :| A 6/10 so far at best.

I was really disappointed with Hou, so when this got announced, I got incredibly hyped. Exactly what I've wanted, couldn't ask for anything more. Definitely preordering the limited edition of this.

It all depends on the quality of the translation, I suppose. If it's very high, it can definitely help just like any other book would - but there's not so many of these. If we're talking strictly about Japanese visual novels, while there are a lot of them that are written in a (figuratively) lazy way, taking shortcuts books really can't take - like relying on dialogues a lot, not caring that much about text flow - there also is a relatively high number of VNs where the literacy level is high. This would include a lot of chuuni titles (Muramasa, Senshinkan...), or generally VNs that are anything but a regular charage/moege. I'd say Akatsuki Works write on a pretty high level, in their works like RuiTomo, you get bombarded by old saying and plays on the language in almost every single scene. So yes, I agree with your notion. While it is much more complicated in English, it's definitely not impossible. Just like there are poorly and well written books, visual novels follow the same standards. Even if VNs might seem a bit more lenient on the language at first, it would probably be good to keep in mind that light novels tend creep on those low language levels as well, and there is a lot of those.

Actually, disregard my last comment. After looking into it for a bit, I think it's a made up city after all. Mihama (美浜) is just the name of the academy, not the city itself - the city Grisaia is supposedly located in is called 三嶋崎, and it's made up. Judging by the descriptions, it could possibly be somewhere in Kanagawa (maybe Miura?), but in the end, the place doesn't really exist - even if you follow the trains and such specified in some parts of the novels, you won't really find it. (Source)

Mihama is a real place in Chiba, if I'm not mistaken. They make references to the place (and the train lines) several times in the trilogy, they're not really making up any fictional cities.