Salurian

Currently playing through some of last month's Japanese releases, currently on Koi wa Sotto Saku Hana no you ni , which has been one of the better Ensemble games thus far. Just finished Shin Koihime † Musou - Kakumei ~Son Go no Ketsumyaku~ which was quite good - Go was always my favorite faction in that series, so it was nice to get a full game focusing on them.

Muvluv Alternative, but to really get all the references you have to get through Muvluv Extra (deliberately bland romcom)/Unlimited (mecha drama with no action) and Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien (romantic drama). Worth it in the end though, at least in my opinion. Pretty much anything by Type Moon (notably FS/N). Pretty much anything by Nitroplus (Steins;Gate).

Ever 17. The characters are trapped in an underwater theme park that had a massive accident that put the levels above them in water and must find a way out.

Similar to Ciephas, here is my VNDB list - https://vndb.org/u107948/list?c=all;v=0;t=-1;o=d;s=vote Some are translated, most aren't. I still need to go through more of VNDB to rate more games. I can't really say more without knowing anything about your general preferences in games.

Pretty much anything by Innocent Grey (you've played Kara no Shoujo, I'd take a look at the other translated games by them). Ever 17, Remember 11, YUNO... Tsukihime, Fate/Stay Night Untranslated... well. Again, the untranslated Innocent Grey games (though not really Flowers). Gekkou no Carnevale Gore Screaming Show

The main reason I will use walkthroughs is to save time. Walkthroughs ensure I go straight to the route I want to go to, AND ensure I get 100% CG completion. That isn't to say I use walkthroughs all the time - sometimes I don't bother and just play normally. But games that have really complex choices and bad ends to navigate through? I'll probably end up using a walkthrough after I get tired of backtracking several times.

On my top list for this month's releases, in order I'll likely play them: 1. Koisuru Kimochi no Kasanekata I've always been a fan of ensemble's games, and for once they don't have a trap protagonist. I played the demo for this, and it seemed enjoyable and lighthearted. Shouldn't take me too long to play through. It's not going to be the best game this month by any stretch, but it will be a good one to relax with first before I hit.. 2. Hatsuru Koto Naki Mirai Yori From the team behind Grisaia. All ages game though I believe it also has an X-Rated patch option that will be released with it. A zero fighter pilot from the war in the Pacific gets transported to and crash lands into a fantasy world, shenanigans ensue. I'm always a fan of anything that takes you out of the school setting, the main character is a lot of fun from what I saw in the demo, and the heroines and story looks to be good as well. 3. Schwarzesmarken: Kouketsu no Monshou A new entry into the Muvluv series based off a light novel they put out, as I recall. Occurs in the area of East/West Germany around 1983 on the European front again the BETA. Being a fan of Muvluv's universe in general it's hard to pass up... though I believe they are also making an anime for this as well. There are other games that I'll probably check out, but those are the ones I'm definitely going to be working through during December.

In other news, the team behind Grisaia no Kaijutsu is kicking out a new game this month that I'm really looking forward to, Hatsuru Koto Naki Mirai Yori. It's about a Japanese zero pilot from WW2 who somehow gets transported to a fantasy world - shenanigans ensue. The demo was very good, and I'm looking forward to playing the full game.

Characters good, story bad - may be playable if the characters are really good Characters good, story medicore - playable Characters bad, story good - may be playable if the story is really good Characters mediocre, story good - playable Characters good, story good - on my priority list to play first I play a lot of visual novels. And what I've found is that in these days it's generally pretty rare to get a game with any sort of stand out storyline (keep in mind I play them in Japan as they come out). This means that I end up playing a lot of games with mediocre, same old recycled trope storylines. When I find a game that actually breaks those molds, I'm delighted... but that doesn't happen most of the time. You can only play so many school romance style visual novels before you start being able to easily map out things like 'oh, so it's X,X,X,X,X, and X' and then things play out exactly as you expect. In the words of The World Only God Knows, 'I can see the ending!' This happens because a lot of the stories you encounter in certain settings are heavily formulaic. Most of the time it's the same general tropes, but with a specific twist. Once you understand how the twist plays out, it's generally pretty rare for you to be surprised by the story. What keeps games like that alive are the strength of the characters and the VAs voicing them. I can have the most medicore storyline possible where I can predict everything that happens... but still enjoy the game if the characters are fun and interact well. And every so often you find a standout character that you really really enjoy the performance for, that you'll remember for a long time, even in the midst of a relatively mediocre storyline. However, if the characters are bad - as in, I actively dislike them and/or the VAs performance, it is really hard for me to get into a story even if it is very good. In order for me to care about the story, I need to care about the characters and the protagonist. If that's not there, I have a lot of trouble liking the game, even if it does have a good story. And keep in mind, this is not just visual novels - this is true for me across ALL media. Obviously though the best games come when you have a very good, unique storyline and a cast of really solid characters. Those are the game I prioritize playing first, and those are the games I will usually recommend to other people first as well. Also, on the risk of sidetracking this discussion, I also have to add artwork as something that causes me to like/dislike games. Usually more in the 'dislike' area - I've had games where the artwork was just bad, bad enough that I couldn't get into the game. Now, certain games I'm fine with this - notably Type Moon and Ryukishi07, back when they didn't really have access good artists. But there's been a few games by professional companies where I would just look at the art, shake my head, and not play the game. Generally speaking, it helps that such games also tend to have low quality characters and storylines as well. Also, I'd like to note that bad art has nothing to do with me disliking a particular art style. Style I can get used to - look at AXL's and certain liar-soft games, who have a very distinctive art style. They took a bit of getting used to, but I played games from those studios and still enjoyed them. I'm talking actively bad artwork with characters drawn like the artist had no idea of proportion. To the point where I'm wondering just how much and where they found the artist. I can't play games with actively bad art if they are from a professional studio. Doujin works, or games that were originally doujin works, at least get something of a pass. But a professional game studio should at least be able to find one good artist.

Royal Garden by Azarashi Soft. Japanese only, it's been a surprisingly good game so far.

I'd say Takeru from Muvluv and Emiya from F/SN during the Unlimited Blade Works route probably have my favorite development from a protagonist standpoint. I'd have to think if I wanted to start bringing in other characters outside of protagonists.

I will note that at some point you might need to play something a little bit more lighthearted than most of the games found on that list. The heart can only take so much FEELS before it needs to recharge. Reminds me of the day I marathoned watching the anime for Air and Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien. I was depressed as hell after that... and then I watched FLCL for the first time, and the sheer WTF blew me back out of the funk.

Yeah, about what I thought then - that was more or less my take on it as well. Personally, with regards to Japanese-English translations, in my opinion it really shouldn't be about being in 'ALL THE HONORIFICS' or 'NO HONORIFICS' camp. It should really just be more 'what lets me best tell this story to an English audience?' There's also a question of how... Japanese, the work is, if that makes sense. There are some VNs I'd hesitate to even start translating at all because of how reliant they are on knowledge of Japanese culture. And on the note of cliches, VNs are some of the most troped pieces of work I encounter. I have an entire rant I could go on about that subject, but I don't want to derail this blog since it's useful for others. Suffice to say after playing quite literally hundreds of Japanese VNs it is always pleasant to see one's expectations overturned (because it rarely happens). Thankfully the game I'm currently playing is one of those rare cases where they actually are doing something somewhat different - 恋×シンアイ彼女, a release from this last month.

Out of curiousity, what would be your solution to characters referring to another character as senpai? Let's say it's your standard moege that has one senpai route, and that is how the main character always refers to her. Other characters generally refer to her as A-senpai or just senpai. If you are removing honorifics, how would you deal with this situation? Also, on another note - though I suppose it technically falls under the culture group - as someone who has a good listening comprehension of Japanese I find reading something with a lack of honorifics while I am still hearing them in the spoken Japanese dialogue a bit jarring. But then again, that's one of the casualties of playing in the original Japanese and then going back and playing something in English - you're almost always going to find something that bugs you with the translation. But all in all I agree with this article - there are absolutely some VNs I've played that just have absolutely no need for translated honorifics, especially if the VN is removed from the usual high school setting. Also, on the subject of honorifics as plot points... the 'stock standard' routes of most high school based charage/moege is usually one kohai, one senpai, and two girls of the same age. Obviously this changes if they are deliberately catering to guys liking older girls, in which case you might get ALL the routes being senpai characters. But assuming it's a standard high school romcom, that's the usual setup you see. Generally speaking, everyone knows why everyone is addressing someone by specific honorifics, but occasionally you do get into situations where honorifics become a plot point. Ironically, honorifics tend to become a plot point when they are not there. A character refusing to call someone senpai, or a senpai asking another character to call them just by their name, for a few examples. Generally honorifics tend to become plot important when they're not being followed, more so than they are. So that might also be a consideration as well.

Depends. Some games you really don't need a walkthrough at all because the choices are so simple. Sometimes I'll just play and not bother with a walkthrough the first time I play, but after the first when I go into 'capture ALL the heroines' mode I'll reference a walkthrough so I'm not wasting time. If the game is complex enough with bad ends and easily missable CGs I'll just start with a walkthrough from the very beginning.