ChaosRaven

Well, not exactly surprising to be honest. Just seeing those two Nekomiya loli twins with their very suggestive red elementary school backpacks made it somewhat clear to me why.

I've now finished Heart of the Woods, my first OELVN in ages, and it was actually surprisingly good. If that's the new OELVN standard, then I'm all for more of it. Heart of the Woods could be described as a modern fairy tale about a conflict of good vs. evil. While the cast isn't particular sizable, the creators certainly tried to make the most of it. Although it's tagged as a yuri VN, it's still first and foremost a story VN about defeating an evil being. The VN relies on several corner stones for that: The friendship between Maddie and Tara, the mysteries of the woods and its inhabitants, Morgan and her weird cat, the relationship between Maddie and Abigail and the evil being itself. The friendship between Maddie and Tara is rather realistically showcased. When they arrive in the remote village they were invited to by Morgan, they are in a bit of a crisis, but over the course of the story they overcome it and stick together when it matters. I also liked how the VN just slowly reveals its supernatural elements. In the beginning, everythings looks normal and Morgan appears more like a weirdo who made up some stories to attract attention. But then, slowly more and more strange things are happening and the true nature of some people is revealed. It was also nice that the VN went deeper into the mysterious world of the woods and its inhabitants. There are other VN's which are just teasing things and riding on the sugar coat *cough* Hapymaher *cough*. The VN also does a very good job in presenting its story in a very engaging way. Many key events and situations are emphasized with well placed event CG's and some pretty good atmospheric soundtracks. Story progress is decently paced, opposing the trend of slowing down everything with tons of slice of life. Although the VN shows that the OELVN scene made a lot of progress in comparison to its Japanese counter parts, it's still a bit rough around the edges. There's no voice acting, and while the VN has some good soundtracks and effects, it's handling of it is often a bit wonky. There were many occasions when music wasn't faded out but apruptly stopped or changed instead. In other situations there was no sound at all and I wasn't sure if I accidentally muted my speakers. Sprites were okay, but they could have had more variety in positions. Why was Morgan the only character constantly staring into the screen while all the others were watching to the sides? Furthermore, while story and characters were well presented, both were still kept kind of simple in a rather straight black and white scenario. Good and evil characters were mostly clear and there was no sudden twist or surprinsing revelation in that regard. It did fit to the overall fairy tale theme though. While the relationship between Maddie and Abigail was rather sweet and well developed, I can't exactly say the same thing about the one between Morgan and Tara. They were suddently sleeping together and that was pretty much their 'relationship development'. Not to mention that there was little chemisty between them. Though I could never really see Tara as much more as a side kick of Maddie. I think I would have preferred to have a choice of Maddie getting together with Abigail or Morgan. And why does the most pretty girl of the VN, only appear in the true ending with no chance of romance?! I didn't play with the adult patch. Just found out about it after I was finished, but I didn't really care about it anyway in that kind of VN. Anyway, overall a very nice VN that values your time for a change. Heroine ranking: Maddie > Abigail > Morgan > Tara Overall rating: 7.5/10

When you're in Japan, what about joining the official eroge racing association?! I guess my favorite cars would be the following ones... I'd probably die of embarrassment driving in one, but it would be so worth it!

That's very interesting! In contrast to this SPIRAL! thing they released some time ago, this actually 'looks' like Shuffle. Those are clearly Sia and Nerine on the cover page. I guess it certainly helps that the original artists are actually drawing the VN this time and aren't just 'assisting with school uniform design' and leaving the character designs to a loli artist from Da Capo. Maybe... there is even a chance for my favorite character Ai (my avatar) from the Nerine fan disc to be included. The list of writers actually looks pretty impressive. They have Ou Jackson and Higashinosuke on board, the main writers of Oretachi and Tsuriotsu which are Navel's most highly regarded works. I hope they'll keep the the two Da Capo writers from messing things up. That was certainly one of the main reasons it got popular both in Japan and in the west. It's rating isn't high, but there aren't that many VN's with more than 3000 votes on VNDB. Popularity isn't just about a high rating but also about the vote count. Shuffle's main strength was arguably its simplicity, so it's not surprising that the rating isn't high. It's the same with Nekopara - huge popularity and high vote count, but the rating is below 7. I also appreciate that Shuffle was a somewhat fast-paced moege - in the worst case it at least didn't overstay its welcome. Many moeges nowadays are real slice of life monsters with huge amounts of filler text that unfortunately have the tendency to bore me to death. Though Shuffle did have an interesting setting, so I think there's also more potential in it than just a simple moege if they want to.

I would have expected Scandinavia to be expensive just like Western Europe in general, but not that the difference to Japan would be so big.

How did you handle the financial aspect? I guess since you're studying Japanese you could benefit from some kind of university support program? If so, was this only for your first visit or also for your next one, or will you finance that one yourself? I assume you will or already are working as a freelance translator then. Do you find live in Japan cheaper or more expensive than your home country (Norway if I remember right)? Will you stick to VN's or also do other stuff? I think I heard that other translators are also doing sub titles for animes, light novels, manga... and even manuals.

Propeller VN's also have pretty good tense and atmospheric music. I'm still hearing the soundtracks from Tokyo Babel and The Shadows of Pygmalion from time to time. Liar-Soft VN's also have good music with a mixture of classic and atmospheric tracks - especially Ourai no Gahkthun.

Actually, just from reading the description, the protagonist is at least initially not into Mitoko, but her mother instead. That sounds pretty normal to me and indicates that their relationship might be more of a father-daughter type, at least in the common route. Not sure how it's handled in this VN, but in most other VN's with loli routes I read, the protagonist takes more of a care-taker or big brother role in the common route and only starts to show romantic interest when you actively approach her route. If this the same, then there's no problem because you can just skip her route. Most VN's are a bit like (Bioware) RPGs - the player controls the romantic interests of the protagonist. I think Angel Beats has even a gay route, and I never heard anyone complaining that its protagonist was lusting for handsome dudes non-stop during the common route.

I think Fatal Twelve didn't get enough attention because it's pretty much from a no-name company aiueo Kompany. Considering what some established franchise dared to deliver as a 'story', it's really painful to see this going almost unnoticed. It's not without flaws, but right along with Fata Morgana it's one of the best story VN's I've read in years. Judging by their former releases, it probably got about three years of development time - and it shows. It's clearly not one of those half-assed products where the plot was sacrificed to comply to an annual release cycle.

So, I finally finished Midori no Umi after having it stalled for a while. The wannabe translation taken aside, this was still a rather bizarre experience. The VN somehow tries to be a simple moege while bombarding you with bad endings non-stop. It did manage to keep things interesting for a while though, the whole idea of the lost mansion in the woods certainly had potential. Unfortunately the execution was quite lacking. Plot based VN's take a certain responsibility to handle characters and events at least with a minimum of maturity and credibility, or the story will fall flat on its face. But at times I was just flabbergasted about the lack of common sense characters were showing. Let's take Sara for example, even if she was probably my favorite character, when thinking things through, she might even be one of the worst. And the way how people go crazy at this place (including yourself) was just out of this world. Considering that they had literally everything they need for a comfortable living, including nice and helpful people around them, it was just bizarre. Overall, I think this VN would have been better if they just made it a simple moege in a unique setting. The VN has very high production values, with good visuals and some very captivating sound tracks. It's a real pity that they were wasted for such a poorly written story. Heroine ranking: Sara > Chisha > Haina > Michiru > Tsumugi > Rikuno = Sorane Overall rating: 5.5/10 (I would have given a 6, but I've substracted half a grade for the translation)

Hmm, I think I'll wait first for the overall reception before giving this one a try. The reviews are rather... critical - a rather dull moege story at its core, made depressing just for the sake of being depressing, not because the story would really demand for it. That's not a good combination and very different from the eden* it supposedly tries to resemble, which played in a very desparate, apocalyptic scenario. Furthermore, although the VN provides a very high technical level of art, the character designs don't feel as iconic anymore than their older works from Nanao Naru, who fled to NanaWind after the Supipara debacle. Though that's just my personal impression.

I'll certainly play this. I heard very good things about it from different sources, and having a cast of mostly adults is a breath of fresh air.

ChuSingura 46+1 Koihime Musou Koiken Otome Majikoi Kamidori Alchemy Meister (Pretty much all gameplay VN's)

I usually start with the routes of the girls that appeal the most to me. Typically, that results in starting with the elder ones and then go down the age ladder until the loli routes start, which I then skip.

I'd also like a refund for the Chrono Clock hardcopy I never got.

Thanks, the reviews pretty much confirm my thoughts that it's one of August's weaker titles. So not really 'must read' material and more for times when nothing else is available.

Are there any (non-anime) reviews out there about this VN? Although the VN was apparently very popular in Japan, it honestly seems to be one of August's more generic works. It doesn't exactly look like the story would be on a comparable level like Aiyoku no Eustia. Is there more to it than just a simple school life comedy?

Man, your VNDB list makes it pretty difficult to come up with something you didn't play yet. I definitely back Ranzo's suggestion of Fatal Twelve since it's a very good VN. Besides that, I'd throw in Caucasus since you seem to be okay with Innocent Grey and untranslated stuff. It has some issues with the detective gameplay parts, but story-wise it's good. ChuSinGura 46+1 is also a VN I'd suggest to read. It has some cool fighting action and story developments. I'd also mention Soul Link since I think it's underrated on VNDB. It does have its issues, especially with the second protagonist in the latter half, but I played way worse story VN's which were much higher rated. It might also be worth to check out One Day in London, since it seems to be complete now. The scenario and art is pretty cool, but when I tried it years ago, only the first chapter was out and it lacked some very basic features like auto-read and was a bit puzzle game heavy. I also need someone to try it out to tell me if it's good or not.

Well, she's an important character for reasons I don't want to spoil here, but since she's not a fighter like the others she's usually more at the side lines while the others do the job. I didn't really hold that against her since she's just a weak girl. You frequently get the choice to the best thing from her perspective which was okay for me. But she does interact with the others, she's just not particular useful in combat situations.

Fata Morgana is actually a bit different. While VN's like eden* end with a tragedy, Fata starts with tragedies and then deals with how to fix them. I found it overall more touching than depressing and it has a very beautiful ending IMHO. But it does have some nasty stuff going on along the road, so it might still be not up to your taste.

So, I'm currently also poaching in otome territory and finished Hakuouki - Kyoto Winds, the first part of the saga with the second part Edo Blossoms to follow. While Ozmafia left we with somewhat mixed feelings due to a wonky plot, this was overall a vastly better experience. I think this is also the first VN that I've read that could be called historic fiction, following a group of Shinsengumi samurai through the fall of the shogunate during the second half of the 19th century. I liked the two anime seasons and therefore always wanted to read the visual novels too. The first part does focus on the events in Kyoto and the conflict with the Satsuma domain. Surprisingly, despite being an otome and playing a female protagonist, this didn't feel 'girly' at all. Although the characters are certainly a bit romanticized, the whole atmosphere and setting was serious and mature. Although the VN has many hero routes and choices, it's still more of a plot focused kinetic story. The chapters focus on certain historic events involving the Shinsengumi and the choices mostly decide which characters to follow. The romance was at least in this part very light - there was not even a kissing scene. It's more bromance than romance. The protagonist was also so passive that she often appeared more like an independent observer instead of a fully involved character. The VN is clearly more about the story and the interaction of its characters and less about the interaction with the protagonist. I think there was even a choice to switch off romance at the start, but I didn't use it since I wasn't sure what I'd miss. Ironically, this often felt more like a well written chuunige due to its focus on cool guys and sword fighting action. You won't find your typical idiot friend here. The characters were a real blast, not only the Shinsengumi themselves, but also their enemies and the Choshu clan in particular. I think only Fate and Dies Irae put so much attention into their male characters. Although this is a historic VN, it also has some fantasy elements. There are furies - vampire-like individuals with special powers (that's not even a spoiler since it's already shown in the prologue) - and the Choshu also aren't exactly normal. Overall, my favorite character was Hijikata, the commander of the Shinsengumi whose route I played first. Then I played the route of the Choshu leader Kazama and Saito's afterwards. I thought about playing Harada's route as well, but with each route there's less new stuff and only the endings are a bit different, so I passed on it. Amagiri was also pretty cool despite being just a side character. Though those were only my favorites, since I liked most characters. The production values of the VN are very high. Great art even with animated mouths, good music, top voice actors and lots of drawn and voiced characters in general. It's hard to believe that this VN is already more than 10 years old. Overall, I'd rate this part an 8/10. I'd even given it a higher rating if the protagonist would have been better developed and more pro-active, but it was also not a big hassle, since she was more passive and not annoying. Looking forward to the second part.

Tokyo Babel has a pretty good protagonist that should fit your description I think. The scenario is also quite unique and the music is very good to create a fitting atmosphere. It has some rather heavy mood swings between comedy and drama though and since it's a chuunige the battles can get a bit lengthy, but otherwise it's a good read.

If you've finished route B, then the weaker stuff should be behind you and it should just get better. Route D is the best with some pretty cool revelations.

I actually tried: https://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/14092-root-double-before-crime-after-days-review-discussion/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-394441 I stopped shortly before I lost my sanity...

Should be the the min value. I don't think the writers expect all readers to think like programmers.