Salurian

Yeah, mainly because I had trouble finishing Hatsyuki Sakura after a certain point. I honestly don't even remember why since it's been awhile since I've played it - I remember really enjoying it at the start and then losing interest toward the end. And updated VNDB for Irotoridori no Sekai (which I put at an 8). Note that I tend to rate fandisks automatically one ranking lower than the original unless the fan disk is particularly notably good.

Yo. Um. Right. Should probably introduce myself. Name is Salurian. Wait, you can see that from the author of the post. Ummmm... Right. Anyways. You guys likely saw me posting over in the Visual Novel discussion forums, so I figured I may as well make an introduction post for myself over here. I've been debating joining the Fuwa community for a bit, finally decided to do it. I've been playing visual novels since... 2005? No, 2007? I think. Whenever it was that Cartagra was first released. I came across the game, thought it looked really interesting. I'd already had an interest in anime at that point, so I had at least some Japanese knowledge. I never started with English VNs - I was actually crazy enough to jump into a mystery novel in Japanese as my first visual novel read, a fact that I don't regret. Cartagra showed me the potential of the visual novel genre, that it doesn't necessarily just have to be just h-scenes and silliness, that there can be (extensive) plot and craziness and fun. So I started reading more and more... until I hit my stride and I reached the point where I am currently at, where I'm more or less caught up on releases and actively check out demos on Getchu to see what releases I actually want to read every month. Every month I usually play 2-3 games in their entirety, if not more depending on the quality of the games released that month. Now, considering the fact that I've been playing several games a month, every month, since probably 2009... Well. Suffice to say I've played a lot. If you check out my VNDB list, I finally got around to noting and rating some of the games that I've played, and you'll notice quite a few... and that was just me going through the 'popular' list of games. At some point I'll need to sit down for a a day and just run through the VNDB database to note down everything I've read. For reference, my personal VNDB ratings are: 10 - I'll annoy you until you play it (currently this is reserved for Muvluv Alternative) 9 - I'll gladly recommend it to anyone with an interest in visual novels 8 - I enjoyed the game quite a bit, but don't consider it necessarily a must play for everyone 7 - I enjoyed the game, but something about it held it from getting a higher rating - an annoying character, something in the setting, whatever 6 - the *shrug* it was alright and I didn't feel like I wasted my time tier 5 - or lower I generally don't even bother playing in the first place, so you'll almost never see me rate something as this Knowing that... what are my preferences? I'm always a fan of light-hearted romance/comedy VNs, and those tend to be my default go-to targets every month's releases. First up of this months releases will be Primal x Hearts 2, as I quite enjoyed the demo. Note that I primarily read to relax, so I will often stay away from mystery or hard hitting dramas unless they're really good. Generally speaking I stay away from the really dark games, though I've been known to make exceptions (Gore Screaming Show being a notable one). Possibly favorite heroine type for me is warrior women - female knights, kendo captains, mecha pilots, gunslinger girls, doesn't really matter, I'm there. This obviously means I tend to be biased toward liking action oriented games or martial arts/magic academies. I would ask for game recommendations but... I've probably already read them. So you can ask me for recommendations instead if you want instead! (why do I feel like I'll regret saying that)

*looks at the upcoming releases for this month and sighs* Tell me about it >_< Hopefully you'll enjoy your options though. If you are willing to go with a little bit of drama (and really in truth not that much), Koisuru no Last Resort is good as well, by the way. As if you don't already have enough to check out.

Yep, Michiru is fun. I liked her best out of the heroines. Then again, I'm a sucker for tsunderes, even 'bad' ones. Games with a satisfying ending... I was going to say Ever 17 but someone beat me to it. So I'll second it instead. If you haven't played it, it's absolutely worth going through.

I.e, most Key games. Nakige are basically the games that try to hit you right in the feels as hard as they can. I can play and enjoy games like that, but I really need to be in the right sort of mood for them. Not to be confused with nukige, where you are primarily there for the h-scenes. Generally it's very obvious, but your biggest hint as to if the game is or isn't one is the title and the game's cover. Similarly, I can play and enjoy games like that, but I really need to be in the right sort of mood for them. >_> I like blocking NTR for pretty much the opposite reason that people who like NTR play NTR. People who play NTR games enjoy seeing 'your' heroine getting taken by someone else. I, however, enjoy the precise opposite - saving the heroine from that situation, and then enjoying the 'happy ending' afterward. Unfortunately, the only way you can get a heroine OUT of that situation is if she's placed into that situation in the first place, which generally only happens in NTR games.

In all honesty it's not as bad as you might think. Once you get text hooking software set up, you can generally figure out 70-80% of what's going on, easily enough to infer and go 'oh, that's what's happening/being said'. A few weeks of intensive study should fairly easily get you a basic grasp of katakana and hiragana, the basic writing forms of Japanese. Once you can get that, you can read probably half of what's being said and rely on the text hooking software to take care of kanji translation (which is where Japanese really IS hard to learn - kanji is the bane of your existence when you are trying to learn Japanese). Heck, in my case, I didn't do any formal study into Japanese until years down the line from when I started reading VNs in Japanese, and I pretty much picked up reading hiragana/katakana from association. When you hear the same words consistently over and over again and you see the same characters come up at the same point over and over again when that word is said, you start going 'oh, that's what those characters mean'. And when you realize that hiragana and katakana show syllables not letters it becomes even easier, because once you figure out a syllable you can puzzle an entire word out if it's all in basic script. It is absolutely, 100% worth it if you're willing to try it - there's a huge library of games that open up to you at that point. Then you are no longer stuck waiting on someone to translate a game - you just go and read it yourself. And then you end up like me, who DLs the demos for all of the VN releases in Japan every month and figures out which games he wants to pick up by the time they release.

I second Kaito for Akatsuki no Goei. Great game (series) and Kaito is a fantastic protagonist that's a) a badass and b) anything but your standard harem protagonist. And he comes that way from the start.

Pretty much anything by 07th Expansion - Umineko/Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. Anything by Innocent Grey - Cartagra, Kara no Shoujo Gore Screaming Show I highly recommend if they ever finish translating it.

Anything by Nasu/Type Moon - Tsukihime, Fate/Stay Night, ect. is certainly work a read. If you find you enjoy Tsukihime, you'll probably like F/SN as well. Muvluv Alternative is another big one. I'll second all of Ciephas suggestions as well, because I'm evil and advocate moving to reading Japanese VNs >_>

I'd love to see an anime of Muvluv Alternative at some point... just please with a different VA for Takeru, because that VA irritated the hell out of me. I don't know we'd ever get an anime for the original Muvluv series though... you'd have to cover Muvluv itself (a deliberately generic harem romcom that's pure setup that would almost certainly get panned in reviews) before you could dive into Unlimited, which is better but still... isn't Alternative. But you can't just dive into Alternative, because Alternative requires the setup from Extra/Unlimited to show why it's really really good. The best way I can think to put it is imagine that the Muvluv series is very good, rich, chocolate cake. Sure, the cake by itself is delicious, but then you start adding the icing on top and it truly becomes good. That's kind of how the first two games flow into Alternative - they're the icing on Alternatives rich cakey goodness. --- I just wish I had money to contribute to the Kickstarter. I'm not a rich guy and I'm going to be moving soon, so I'm having to save up money for that instead >_<

You could always join the dark side and try reading it in the original Japanese. Princess Evangile is a relatively simple read compared to a lot of VNs I've seen. Else you're going to be stuck waiting a year or so for a translation, I suspect. Though maybe not that long, I don't recall the fandisk being notably lengthy...

The important thing to note with Kara no Shoujo is you have to be very thorough searching the bodies, and realize it'll let you leave without finding key evidence. Kara no Shoujo 2 I felt wasn't as bad about it, but as I recall the mechanic was still there.

I sympathize, as I like the same sort of characters and you don't get them often enough in visual novels. Um. Translated options. Current best bet for bang for your buck would be: Maji de Watashi ni Koishinisai! mostly has equal age, but there are a few routes you can go down that have some older options. -Kawakami Momoyo, arguably main heroine of the series, is sempai/nee-san type. -Margitte, Chris's guardian, is older and plays a part in her route (including h-scene), and gets a small individual route in S. -Itagaki Tatsuko is one of the 'enemies' of the game, but she is also another older type, lazy, and generally cute until she gets angry - she has at least one scene in the first game, and has her own route in the S. And outside of those characters, the rest of the routes are all generally just solid and fun to run through.

If you're looking for feel good stuff, I have to counter anyone who recommends key games to you - Clannad, Little Busters, Air, ect. They're great games, but man you just feel depressed afterwards... they're called nakige for a reason. No, if you're looking for more simple lighthearted romance go for games like Princess Evangile or Maji de Watashi ni Koishinisai! They're pretty fast reads that are good for new readers. If you're really feeling brave there's any number of untranslated games I could recommend as well, but making the step into reading full Japanese is a big one.

The Majikoi endings all tend toward more comedy than trajedy, in fitting with the lighthearted nature of the series. That's the main one that comes to mind.

Tsujidou-san no Junai Road, so fun. Umm... red haired heroines... what have I read recently that had a red haired heroine. I mean, what are we defining as red hair? Dark red hair? Or are we allowing more dark pinkish looks as well? Most recent one I remember was Kumihama Yuki from Renai Phrase. Though that's more of a dark pink look than a red, in my opinion.

Translated? The Majikoi series (Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai!) is solid - fun action, solid heroines, good humor, good guys beat up bad guys sort of thing. Majikoi S just got finished translating recently, so you'd have two games of content to read through. I'll second Yuzusoft games - they're all relatively lighthearted (mostly) and are generally fun reads. Princess Evangile is another relatively lighthearted recent release. Untranslated... oy, so many choices I don't know where I'd even start. I'd have to know more about your preferences and what end of the spectrum you wanted to go for. On the more nukige side of things, I've always been a fan of the Kyonyuu Fantasy series - surprisingly long with decent plot. On the other side, AXL and ensemble both make some really solid lighthearted romantic comedies.

I finally got around to noting visual novels I've read on my vndb account and very rapidly realized that I have read waaaay to many VNs... I've been reading untranslated visual novels for almost ten years now, with Cartagra being the first one I read (at it's original release way back when). Currently I'm kind of scattered all over while I wait for this month's releases to come out. I've been eyeballing Sakura no Uta (finally released!) but I'm probably going to hold off and dive into Primal Hearts 2 first, as I really enjoyed the demo. But I also still have routes in Amakano, Golden Marriage, Traveling Stars, and several other games to finish up as well. Beato, I hate you, because you're really tempting me to try reading Utawarerumono 2... I'm a fan of the first game and I've been enjoying the anime of the second so far. But I haven't quite been able to bring myself to pick it up yet.

Neither do I. A friend of mine argued me into checking Umineko out, and I don't regret the time spent on it. It is a quite fun read. Innocent Grey games are much better for someone looking for a more straightforward mystery. I'm still trying to get noted above friend to read them and get his take on them.

Finishing up routes from my backlog (Golden Marriage, Amakano, Traveling Stars) - note, I play in original Japanese - currently waiting for Primal Hearts 2 to come out in a few days. I enjoyed the first game, but judging from the demo I think I'm going to like the characters in the second one even more.

Valid point. Getting 'ambushed' by NTR is a no-no. But when you know it is a part of the game and even more importantly, can be worked around (i.e, you can prevent it - MINE!) it's workable.

It really depends on what route you go down with Kara no Shoujo. Some routes end perfectly happily. Others... not so much. Umineko is... >_< Hm. How best to put it. On one hand, it is a mystery visual novel. A very good one. It is, however, very long, and has a high overarching meta plot that kicks in shortly after the first arc. It's especially enjoyable for those very familiar with mystery tropes, as it deliberately explores a lot of them. If you get the right version, you get it all voiced with the higher quality sprites. But that said, you can't really draw parallels between the games, because they scratch a different itch. Cartagra/Kara no Shoujo are a 'solve the mystery, find the murderer' more standard sort of game - and I mean that in a perfectly good way. As Down noted, Umineko is more high brow, well here is this whole big mystery of the witch and what does she have to do with the murders and theorize and speculate and... ect. It's the kind of game that you settle down with people who've played it afterward and then you guys start arguing as to what the heck has been going on the entire time. The mystery is the mystery, if that makes any sense? And I mean that in a perfectly good way. They're good games, but the target is somewhat different.

Netorare is a big one for me. Specifically someone stealing 'my' woman, rather than the other way around. The more darker games usually get a pass. That said, I still end up doing a quick check on those games because you wind up with gems like Gore Screaming Show. Otherwise, as a graphic designer UI design and artwork is a big swing either in favor or disfavor. I'm fine with having kind of out there character styles if it IS a style (I'm looking at you, AXL). But bad art is bad art. Also, laziness on the part of animation - to the point where the characters barely twitch or change pose on the screen. Playing games with the EMOTE engine or similar things has spoiled me...

A friend of mine would probably fight you to the death for saying that (he's a big Umineko fan). Innocent Grey (the company behind Cartagra/Kara no Shoujo) does a lot of high quality work. The art is good, the story is solid. Now, that said, these are murder mysteries, and you do see some pretty graphic depictions of murdered women. They are also not happy fun time fuzzy feeling games - the stories are good, but as noted about they are very dark. There are characters that you like. Depending on the choices you make, some of the characters that you like may die. If you decide to play, I do recommend playing Cartagra first, then go and play Kara no Shoujo. Kara no Shoujo is not a sequel per se (different protagonist) but some of the characters from Cartagra show up in fairly important ways in Kara no Shoujo, and without having played Cartagra you're going to be missing out on your knowledge of those characters. That said, Kara no Shoujo is the better game, in my opinion. Kara no Shoujo 2 actually is a direct sequel, is also quite good, and its translation comes out quite shortly, so you won't have to wait for that either. If you're feeling brave, PP -Pianissimo- and Caucasus are also decent (but only in Japanese). I still need to get around to playing through the two Flowers games...