Tellah

I've played the first half of Umineko (arcs 1 through 4, not just like half of arc 1 or anything)- I actually own a hard copy of those that I had to import. For some reason or another, though, I never went back and finished the second half of the story. I think I heard something about the ending I didn't like or life just got busy or something like that... If nothing else, I'll probably throw in and buy the new Mangagamer releases of the series once it happens, so I'll finish it eventually.

I just ended up playing Blood Code last night, so maybe I can offer up some opinions here? I'd say that the English translation is... well, it's not flawless, but it's not awful either. There are some grammar errors and odd word choices, but I never really found myself having to re-read a sentence over to understand what it meant. The plot was never hard to follow because of it, and I only remember maybe one or two flat-out spelling errors ( and possibly only that because I'm nitpicky and it was a 'clam' for 'calm' typo and that was really just sort of funny). There was a single instance that I caught where a very minor character had her name spelled in a different way in the same scene (again, I'm nitpicky- but not nitpicky enough to actually note what the person's name was -_-; ). That being said... I'd only intended to test out the game and I ended up playing it all the way to an ending in more-or-less one sitting. I also have every intention of playing it again, as I managed to end up with absolutely nobody in an otome game -_-; I suppose it might be a plus for some people to hear that you can have a conclusion to the plot and somehow largely miss the romantic portions? I might ramble a bit more about my playthrough later, but I just thought I'd comment about what I thought about the translation semi-quickly in case it might help people decide whether or not they wanted to play it too.

Was it a dungeon crawler? Was it Lightning Warrior Raidy? No, it was older than Raidy- maybe it wasn't even a JAST title... I just kind of assumed it was them because they were the only ones I could remember releasing translated h-games back then. I can't remember the name of it at all- it was something where the protagonist's uncle owned an apartment complex and was letting the protagonist run the place and of COURSE all the tenants were pretty ladies? It was kind of silly and I think the main 'heroine' was the protagonist's cousin or something.

I can't really remember the EXACT first VN I played- it was some old JAST title, I think though. Largely you just had to roam around until you'd triggered all the h-scenes and then there was one ending with the gal I liked the least out of the cast. Not a very rosy start. The first VN I remembered LIKING was Nocturnal Illusion/s (I forget if it was a plural or not)- still had the same sort of 'roam around until you bump into the hentai scenes, rinse, repeat' sort of formula... but there was some vague horror-y/fairytale motifs and at the time I was quite happy to find that you could PICK which heroine you ended up with, even if it was off of a drop-down list. Of course I've since moved on to more involved VNs (and at the time I didn't even know there was a GENRE call 'visual novel'), but for some reason that game has always stuck in my head.

Glad to hear about this! The voicing isn't really for me (I've played before without), but I've been enjoying going through the game again with the PS3 Graphics. For whatever reason I like them a lot better than the new Steam options (...then again I still have a lingering fondness for the original character sprites, so my taste may be suspect.)

I figured that I'd quote your reply since you asked me a direct question and all- ...and hooboy it's sort of a doozy. My favorite VN is probably... well, the Higurashi series (all eight original arcs, please don't make me choose just one of them). I have sort of a weakness for horror stories, especially the more psychological ones- and I thought the writing did a good job with the lighter moments so that when Bad Stuff happened, I actually cared about what was going on. ...I mean it's such a shock, someone using a Corpse Party avatar has a thing for horror VNs, right? Thanks all for the welcome messages- we'll see if I can manage to stick around.

Hello all- I'm Tellah. I've been reading visual novels for a long time- but I mostly keep to myself and so some of the lingo might escape me sometime. Most of the VNs I enjoy the most are plot-heavy, but there are always exceptions to that rule. I was a little mopey when I could never figure out how to make Nocturnal Illusion install/run on Windows 7, but I kept the Memorial CD I bought it on anyway. I mostly play VNs that have official releases, but I did import a copy of the first four episodes of Umineko ages ago and fiddled with it until I was able to run it. I've also enjoyed some OELVNs- so my tastes are kind of all over the place. I suppose I'm just poking around and seeing what this community is like (and possibly hoping to keep a little more on-track with reading VNs I own because my backlog is ridiculous). So yes, in sum... hi?

I've been re-playing Hatoful Boyfriend- Holiday Star because of the recent re-release (and because, well, holiday season). I needed something sort of goofy and light anyway because the last one I played before that was Euphoria. And despite my ridiculous backlog and love of darker VNs, going straight from Euphoria into, oh, Kara no Shoujo 2, might have been a little much. ...still have no idea where to head next after I finish up Holiday Star again, though.