Valmore

Exactly. Every website listed isn't even in the same ballpark as Steam. Just being able to download games isn't delivering the same impact as Steam, and most of them don't have the same brand recognition. For example, Amazon.com isn't somewhere to go and also play the games you download with other people. Sure, I can get anything from a pet rock to Fallout 4, but it's not a place that's going to even bother giving any sort of advertising to a new Visual Novel or indie game. Because Amazon is a marketplace, it doesn't specialize in games. IE: I create a new indie game. I need a place to put it. It's not wrong to have it available on multiple locations, but which one are most laypersons going to recognize and likely be a part of already? "You can download it on bigfishgames.com." OR "You can download it on Steam."

Onii-chan's country is 'Murica and he hates it when people call it 'Murica. And he hates it's Presidential candidates. All I have is this melon bread right now. But I can run to the store and get you whatever you want!

Well remember, Steam does have a policy about distribution of what might be considered pornography. Since a lot of VNs tend to have erogi, ecchi, etc. Steam isn't going to allow distribution of the adult versions. Most companies will offer a patch to restore the h-scenes on the back-end. Just the cost of doing business with the most recognizable internet site for games. Which is pretty much why Steam gets used. Unless you're EA or some other game company with a huge worldwide presence and a marketing department of suits, Steam is fairly essential to getting your game out there at a reasonable cost. And heck, even big companies still use Steam as part of their releases, which just shows the value of having it. It's better to be on a central place that everyone knows to gain any chance at larger exposure. Think American Idol - would Kelly Clarkson be anywhere today had she not won that gawdawful tv show contest? Probably not. Would Clannad be anywhere in the US with a true translation instead of a fan patch without Steam? Probably not - who would distribute it? A virtually unknown-to-Americans Japanese gaming company? I don't think Steam can really fall under the title of "Just Another Website" until you can name 9 more similar websites that deliver the same impact as Steam does.

Am I dead yet?

Yeah, if you search "otome games" on Google Play you'll get quite a few results. Most of them are romance games.

I thought the only Japanese swear word was Fufufufufufu.

Welcome! Glad you decided to become a member of the non-lurking crowd. Otome is pretty much a term that means the game company designed their product specifically to go after the girls market, and the product will be geared towards what the company thinks girls, in general, will like. Fanservice will be based on that accordingly as well. Most dating sims/visual novels you find on Google Play are considered otome.

Daisuki!!! Man I wish he had learned to pitch to contact. MLB umpires were stingy on the strike zone at that point in time. You had to challenge hitters! Wait, that's Dice-K. Seriously though, it makes me really happy to get mentioned. Glad I can entertain you even if just a little.

Totally claiming a ghost waifu.

Here to help! How can I help? 1. How do you know he isn't? 2. World would implode. 3. He hasn't? 4. He is a tsundere. I'd show the proof but he might hurt me. 5. Would anyone even notice an extra "ri" at all? He could probably add those slowly over time and no one would notice until he was finally Kiririririririririririririririririririririririririririririririririririririririririririririri. 6. I'd think he grab some tissue paper to plug his nose to stop the bleeding. 7. Little secret - he's already in a cage in my basement. He'll stay there until he writes me winning the ultimate waifu war and publishes it online. 8. He'd be the happiest man to die, ever.

+1 Alisa is best grill Haven't read all 13 endings yet, but I've enjoyed it. And I again give them kudos for not really bothering writing out long, poorly-worded sex scenes. A couple lewds, no words ... bam, you know they had sex, no awkward speeches. I appreciated that effort.

So after railing about the lack of logic in Megumi's story in No One But You, I've moved on to the wonderful world of ghosts, which defy logic anyway, so it's all good to be illogical. Because it's a ghost story. With ghost stories, a lot of times you can see them coming from a mile away. The author either accidentally or intentionally tips his hand that his story involves ghosts. Bruce Willis is the exception, not the rule. And that's okay. I'm down for a good ghost story, especially if it can draw an emotion out of me. If you can surprise me so much the better, but you don't have to for it to be a good story. Congratulations, writer of Chinatsu's route. While you didn't surprise me, you made me cry. A lot. If I don't find some Visene soon I'm just going to go get drunk and blame my red eyes on the booze. Can a ghost be a waifu? Because I would make Chinatsu my ghost waifu. So you scored on that route, NOBY. While I could tell she was a ghost, you did a very nice job of keeping it from the protagonist. Most of the ways she used to hide her secret from him were very plausible, which certainly helped strengthen the story. The ending, while expected, was still well done, which is what's important in a ghost romance story anyway. Let's face it, most ghost stories end with the ghost fading away, finally having the one thing keeping them chained to the living world accomplished, making it time to go. If you write it well, it's all that matters. I can't even call it a cliche because there aren't many other ways to end a ghost story. Ghost either stays on Earth forever (which would probably be a bad end) or ghost finally knows peace. Great job on giving Chinatsu peace. Actually, I'm pretty much through with the VN, as I only have one achievement left on Steam to earn, and I'm pretty sure it's the "Your protagonist sucks at life" achievement, where he doesn't get a character route at all. Overall, Loved Chinatsu's route, really liked Yui's route, Shiro's route was just okay, Megumi's route infuriated my sense of logic... and I skipped through Ryo's route because I just don't go for that. Overall it's a decent enough read. It's strength tends to be in character interaction over plot most of the time. And the protagonist still looks like Ryo...

From my Twitter account. I made them and uploaded them there so I could copy links.

Yes, you should play Katawa Shoujo. For the low low price of absolutely free it's one of the ultimate steals in Visual Novels. No, it's not perfect, no visual novel is. Except Fate, because it has Rider and Rider is perfection incarnate. CONFESSION: I worked hard on those altered scenes and it saddens me that no one even told me how much they hate them.

That's fine. You can like it, but it still makes no logical sense. I like the character Megumi just fine. With changes the plot would even be fine. As it is, it's just completely faulty and flies in the face of logic.

I saved ahead of time so I could do both, but it was an obvious bad end choice.

WARNING - This post WILL have spoilers for a new Visual Novel. If you don't like spoilers, go read something else I wrote. Like ask onii-chan a question, hmmmmm? Okay, Unwonted Studios recently released "No One But You" - a visual novel about a young man who returns to his hometown and runs into girls, picks up a weird friend and does stuff. That's the layman's gist of it. Okay, so Hidaeki moves back home. Meets cute girls. Can pursue cute girls. Cute girls are emotional wrecks - it's like Katawa Shoujo, but without all the physical cripples. Oh, and while the artwork is really nice, why does Hidaeki look so much like his best buddy Ryo? Are they really long-lost twins? Is this a route I can unlock later? Anyway, I've only finished two routes so far - the long lost girl who's now a tsundere Yui and the overly clingy big boobed Megumi. I enjoyed Yui's route well enough. No real complaints, other than I'm getting a bit sick of reading heroines pushing away the protagonist they love because they don't want to hurt them again or anymore or in the future. EMBRACE YOUR CLUELESS PROTAGONIST! THERE'S A REAL LIFE HUMAN BEHIND HIM AT THE KEYBOARD WHO JUST WANTS TO WAIFU YOU FOREVER!!! I WILL WAIFU YOU, YUI, FOR YOUR AUBURN HAIR!!! The Megumi route... was awful. I'm sorry, I wanted to like it. There's a story in there that could have been good. But it was just done awfully. Terribly. The logical plotholes in the route are large enough to designate a new Zip Code to. You see, Megumi had a big sister, but not so big that they couldn't be in high school together and be on the student council together. Which means they're only a year or two apart in age. Remember this, because in the story, Megumi is STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL. Why is this important? Because a charming teacher that all the idiot girls in the high school get moist in the britches over is really just a rapist, and he's going to rape Hitomi (that's Megumi's sister, but you probably guessed that) but Megumi catches him, proceeds to angrily taunt him by calling him a pedophile, all while he's got his hands around Hitomi (and his dick near her ass), and he loses it and smashes Hitomi's head into the desk, killing her. But he gets caught! He's got her hairs in his hands, her blood on his shoes, his fingerprints on her - it's an open and shut case. Fast forward a year or two. Megumi lives alone, because her parents don't give a flying fuck about her now that Hitomi is dead. Right, because parents wouldn't naturally cling to their only remaining child in the tragic loss of the other. Oh no - push that dumb bitch aside, stupid younger sibling - WHY DIDN'T THE TEACHER RAPE AND MURDER YOU INSTEAD?!?! Sorry, lost track there... okay, remember the TIME FRAME. TIME FRAME IS IMPORTANT. It can only be a year or so later, and RAPIST PEDOPHILE MURDERER DOODEYHEAD TEACHER IS BACK TEACHING AT THE SAME SCHOOL. Oh, AND ASSIGNED TO MEGUMI'S CLASS. If your head hasn't exploded from the gaping lack of legal logic there, congratulations. I'll repeat it for you: okay, remember the TIME FRAME. TIME FRAME IS IMPORTANT. It can only be a year or so later, and RAPIST PEDOPHILE MURDERER DOODEYHEAD TEACHER IS BACK TEACHING AT THE SAME SCHOOL. Oh, AND ASSIGNED TO MEGUMI'S CLASS. Okay, let's assume his off-handed remark of "paying people off" to stay out of jail holds true. Guess it can happen. Millionaires do it all the time, so why not a low-wage high school worker in Japan, right? Maybe he has family money and instead of lounging away at a private beach in Hakkaido, he turned to teaching... SO HE COULD RAPE GIRLS. Could happen. Fine. However, there's no way in the fucking world the Japanese school system would have let him keep his license or issued him a new one. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. The evidence against him was already stated to be right there. But let's say they slip up and somehow he gets his license back. THE SAME SCHOOL WHERE HE MURDERED A STUDENT HIRES HIM AND ASSIGNS HIM TO THE CLASS OF THE WITNESS WHO IS ALSO THE SISTER OF THE DECEASED WHO COULD ONLY BE DEAD A YEAR OR SO FROM THIS INCIDENT? Bullshit. Absolute bullshit. Complete nonsense. That fucker would be on the "No Fly Zone" list at that school. He comes within 50 feet and alarms go off and cops beat him bloody. I assign this plot hole a Zip Code of 0821-NO. (FUWA points to the person who Googles this zip code with actual last digit.) Okay, this was really a blog post of me railing against the Megumi story... I still have other routes to finish, but that route really, REALLY annoyed me to the fullest. I'd still waifu Yui. Sexy tsundere. Growl.

How does this board NOT have a Tohsaka emoticon?

Yes, I'm old. You can call me senpai and pray I notice you from now on, youngster. For those too lazy to Google, MUD = Multi-User Dungeon. It's basically old-school MMORPG - all text, no graphics.

MUD? Damn, I haven't mudded since college.

Paizuri? Isn't that the illegal money-making scheme that sent Madoff to jail? You get off on that?

I'm not lost... I'm just misplaced.

Someday I'm going to find that set of Grail Quest books... and avoid the dreaded 14!!!