Vokoca

Still hoping it's just a timed exclusive... I've really liked Chaos;Head, so I'll probably buy this as soon as they announce it on the Sony consoles. Jus got to keep hoping.

Oh, that'd actually make sense. Thanks, no idea why I didn't think of that, the sentence just seemed really odd to me.

Hooray for a shameless necro! So after quite some time, I've decided to open Grisaia again, only to realize Yuuji's sayings are still as confusing as ever. Could anyone help me with this one? 『いい仕事は、地味な努力の積み重ね。楽な時ほど失敗する』 I can't wrap my head around the second part. What does the ほど particle even mean there? I know its usual uses, but for some reason it just doesn't make any sense to me in that sentence.

Muramasa, do it! From the translated ones, how about Narcissu? Good utsuge is basically what you're looking for.

They were going to continue that? I thought I had to give up on it. Didn't they officially announce it recently? Would be weird if they suddenly dropped it again. Oh god I remember this scene too well. It is placed in such a bad spot that I have seen it around 4 times at the very least. Well the CGs anyway, wasn't crazy enough to re-read the text.

They don't really do it for me a lot of the time, but there was quite a number I did enjoy. It's weirdly specific though. It is for now, though MangaGamer is working on a translation.

To be fair, this ridiculous number is caused mainly by the h-scenes consisting of a single CG with about 30 variations for it, and regular event CGs amount to 10-20 very similar images too. Well, even still that is ~10 h-scenes per route, which means about 50 h-scenes in total. Zeno put it rather well, it is very much sex with story on top, not the other way around. That makes me curious about h-scene counts with nukige that don't even bother with the plot in the first place... I can only imagine the numbers are even crazier then.

And finished euphoria. This is a very hard VN for me to rate. I do not particularly enjoy h-scenes, I certainly don't like rape and scat is most definitely not my thing - yet euphoria was, all in all, a fun read. While the h-scenes served a clear purpose for the plot - and there even were some that had major plot details or character development directly in them - there's no doubt they're the main reason for this VN's existence. No matter how justified they might be, ~1500 CGs of h content is overkill no matter how you look at it. They could've probably done without the whole scat thing too, even though I could see how that's there to make the whole thing more horrible... the point is, the VN still has a clear target audience in mind, and if you aren't a part of it (like me), you aren't going to enjoy it as much. Does that mean there's nothing left to enjoy, though? Definitely not. If you can make it through the fetishistic porn with either morbid curiosity or a really open mind, you'll get to read an interesting and exceptionally dark take on the 'survival game' formula. While it's no mindblowing masterpiece, the true route holds quite a number of twists and surprises, and the other routes give you just enough hints to keep you interested. The highlight of the story, as should be probably expected, is how the characters deal with the situation they were thrown into. Character and relationship developments are things that euphoria does well - it just should be noted that those developments aren't always for the better. Still, the story and characters aren't perfect, and there are quite some far-fetched and odd things here and there, but it doesn't ruin it completely. All in all, a 7/10 from me.

I did, and then I was talked back into it. D: From what you've played, how does it compare to Kara no Shoujo?

Finished Rika's, Mitsuki's and Rinne's routes in euphoria. They were pretty good. Rika's route had some interesting character development (well, she seems to go through this in different ways in every other route too, which is nice), Mitsuki's route was perhaps the most likeable one so far, even if the ending seemed too good to be true, and Rinne's... what the fuck was that? Well, I liked where it went, and it even had h-scenes with plot (madness), but what the hell were those endings? They were so weird I honestly don't even know which one was supposed to be the bad one. Still, an interesting backstory, and I can only hope they'll go into it more in the true route (ending?). Only that left, and Kanae's route. I really don't want to do Kanae's... :x

Finished the first route in RuiTomo. The ending was really predictable, yet it still made me cry... I'm really weak to this kind of stuff, it seems. As for the story itself, I would be kind of disappointed at how much was left unsolved, but considering this was the introduction route, I'll just trust them to reveal everything later. It's time for Atori's route now - god that will get awkward when she finds out the MC is a trap; can't wait. I'm also continuing my adventures through the land of scat euphoria. If anything, I at least have to applaud the h-scenes for the creativity. I read through the weird ones properly, and I sometimes end up regretting it. I found that human washing machine scene almost worse than the scat ones for some reason, ew. As for the story, finished Nemu's route. There were some broken choices that disappeared after patching the VN, which leads me to believe this is actually the true route? I guess I'll have to return to it once I finish up all the rest. The regular ending was quite interesting, though after being so adamant on making Nemu look like the villain, they'd better not go back on it now. Plot twists are cool and all, but really... Kind of worried here. I'm also near the ending of Rika's route, I assume. There's much less story in this one, but the character development is interesting at the very least. And that bad ending - well, I'd rather watch gore than scat, so it wasn't so bad. Kind of glad it was there, actually. All in all... there was some interesting backstory, and a whole load of scat. At least it's becoming kind of a joke here, and my roommate seems to be even more curious than I am about what they can come up with.

I've only finished Nemu's route so far, but I'd have to disagree with this already. Even if the majority of the h-scenes involving the MC might be under the pretence of 'necessity', I think the VN makes it more than clear enough right from the start that that's nothing more but hypocrisy - and the h-scenes that don't involve him directly don't even have that pretence.

I was talked into continuing euphoria. Help.

I wish she was a subject of murder instead, what an infuriating character. Not so much for plot reasons, she just makes no sense. On topic though, there are worse things than gang rape in that VN, you might want to reconsider.

Almost too much, if you ask me.

That's mainly the sign of a higher quality patch.

That's odd, I could've sworn that the voices were missing. Did they somehow get the license and patch them back in later...?

Kara no Shoujo is great, but if I am not mistaken, the voice acting was taken out because of licensing reasons. I'm not sure if it's worth it to buy something you will have to illegally patch either way to fully enjoy.

Illya is one of the main characters of HF, though - it's the closest to her route you're going to get.

You just answered yourself.

Heaven's Feel was my favourite route because of the different, darker atmosphere. The stuff I enjoy the most from Nasu is the dark, cruel world and interesting philosophy, not really the fight scenes themselves, or obsessive stat comparisons. The Fate route is my least favourite, mainly because of Saber and Shirou being annoying in their own ways, and the plot not getting interesting up until the last twist at the end.

Ah, I've only read Amane's out of curiosity and peeked into Yumiko's, so I formed my impression on that. I still think the h-scenes are there because Meikyuu seems to be stuck somewhere between a sequel and a fandisc, but again I will actually need to read it properly first to form a valid opinion. Really looking forward to the grand route, might start it soon. On another note, those short joke stories are pretty amazing.