ChaosRaven

Uh, unfortunately their quality is reliable bad. I'm currently playing Flowers -Le Volume sur Été- and the sheer number of bugs in that title is shocking. It probably tops their initial release of School Days in number, although School Days was still worse since it crashed much more often. Regarding Sekai, it would be nice if they'd finally send the Chrono Clock hard copies out which should have been done almost two years ago. Nothing against short delays, but rivaling Star Citizen in that regard isn't particular encouraging.

Similar to what Dreamysyu said, I also remember the overall reception being more on the lukewarm side. Especially Decay giving it a rather average review. Some people really seem to like it though. Not sure, maybe there's more to it if you manage to overcome the first two story arcs - I couldn't. I was also thinking about giving Island a try since it seems to be more fleshed out, but I'm not sure if it's only for die-hard Himawari fans.

For me it was I Walk Among Zombies if it comes to releases from last year - man, what a piece of crap. Himawari was also pretty bad, but that wasn't a release from last year.

Some day, someone has to explain to me why otomes get all the cool action stuff while the VN's for dudes are just boring slice of life and drama. Kind of reminds me that I've still Hakuoki left on Steam to read...

So, I finally finished The House of Fata Morgana, and that was quite the ride. Probably the most powerful VN I've read in years emotion-wise - I was literally in tears at the end. I think the last VN that was able to achieve that was Minori's Eden. I had the VN stalled for almost a year or so after the 4 - 5 introductory chapters as I'd call them. Their main purpose was to set up the stage for the real story, but after several short stories that were just loosly connected I got a bit impatient to see the big picture and therefore stalled it a while. But when I picked it up again last week, the VN unleashed its full potential and I almost couldn't stop reading anymore. Overall, there were several aspects that really impressed me about this VN. First, it's really well constructed - pretty much every chapter is an essential mosaic of a big tale. That's not to say I liked every chapter, especially the third and to a certain degree also fourth and fifth didn't really capture me that much. But nevertheless, every chapter had a meaning that allowed the following chapters to build up on it. They wouldn't have been as strong without the introductory chapters. After some initial doubts, I was extremely relieved that in contrast to some other witch VN out there, this wasn't just 80% meaningless filler text and characters. Second, the VN plays with all shades of grey, including bright white and pitch black. It's literally impossible to simply order things in good and evil. Circumstances can massively change people either for the better or worse, and sometimes it's just a matter of perception. There are situations where every action will do a good thing for one side and a bad thing for another, and you'll simply have to make a decision what's more important to you. The writer showed a great understanding how life works. Third, the VN doesn't get lost in grey. Not every character is just a result or product of his or here circumstances. There are still ones that stand out among the masses and refuse to just be a plaything of destiny. And sometimes the brightest light can turn into the darkest black. Fourth, not every character starts out as the epitome of greatness - they need time to grow and develop. I also want to use that opportunity to emphasize how important a plot is to develop its characters - even for a moege. Maybe the deredere isn't as dull and boring if she gets into a situation where she's challenged a bit. And maybe the tsundere isn't just a bitch and shows really admirable virtues given the right situation. Fata Morgana has several characters that might even seem bland at first, but change and develop over time, because the story allows them to do so. Fifth, the writer achieved to make the central tragedy 'special'. Given the time period the story plays in, you could find tragedies and suffering everywhere. Just having a character who experienced great misery isn't sufficient. You need an outstanding character who was victim of a great injustice for that. Visually, the VN certainly hit the mark with its more classical western look, although I still consider the cheaply made blurred photo backgrounds a real downer. In some situations I wasn't even able to decipher what's supposed to be shown on it. In others, the proportions of the sprites didn't fit to the ones of the background at all. It was certainly my biggest gripe about the visuals of the title. The music was pretty great, although I have to say that there were 1 - 2 slice of life tracks I wasn't so fond of - and unfortunately those were probably the most played tracks in the VN *sigh*. But pretty much all tense and dramatic tracks ranged from solid to great. It's a bit unfortunate that the VN didn't have voices though. The VN also frequently seemed to be more expressive when it took a more classic book or novel approach with full images and NVL style. Some of the most engrossing parts were just text and a plain background like a simple book. Although I think they handled the ADV parts with sprites much better in the second half of the VN. Favorite characters: Final rating: 8.5/10 I would have even given an ultra rare 9, but the crappy backgrounds and the lack of voices were a bit of a downer. Still an amazing VN though. I also finished Ann's route of Saku Saku... after more than one year of reading. I also wanted to read Yuuri's route, but Ann's was so boring that I'm not sure if I should just drop it. I recently bought Sakura Sakura and I'd be more interested to read that one as a moege at the moment. Regarding story VN's, Chaos Child will be next.

lol This is nothing - MangaGamer has now finished translations for three Rance games lying around and is doing nothing with them. And the fourth one is already in translation.

I'm using Atlas with Chiitrans and ITH_VNR as text hooker without any problems in Windows 10. So whatever problem it is, it's not a general compatibility problem with Windows 10. I also didn't need to do any time adjustments to get it working. If nothing works, there's still the way of using a virtual machine with Windows 7. I only had to do that for Caucasus though, and I hope I won't need it again.

There are 'other sources' where you can get the whole package a lot easier.

For me it's certainly Fatal Twelve for translated VN's and Shin Koihime † Musou - Kakumei ~Son Go no Ketsumyaku~ for untranslated VN's (even if I'm not completely finished with the latter yet). I'd also give a honorable mention to Kajuu 100% for its awesome animated... virtues. Just noticed that the PC version of Chaos;Child got a translation patch in the meantime - guess that will make it my next English VN to read. Edit: I also wouldn't be surprised if Evenicle would be the best selling English title this year - seems to be pretty popular.

If Clephas' estimation in his Sengoku Koihime review is true, then Sengoku would be even longer than Rance 10. Shin Koihime Musou had about 6 MB of text and if Sengoku is more than 1.5 of that size, then it would be over 9 MB of text. Though, if we allow separate episodes, this will most likely be beaten as soon as the Shin Koihime Kakumei trilogy is finished. I'm currently at the second part Son Go no Ketsumyaku, and it's already so fuc*ing long I can't believe it. I'm reading for weeks now and I don't think I've even finished the first half of it yet.

Great, I was really waiting for this one. It's so pretty I really hope we get the fan disc as well.

Interesting! It's quite some time since I read my last Favorite VN. But I think I like the character designs of Hoshimem more than the ones of Irotoridori, so I'm still a bit hesitant about what to expect from it. We'll see...

I started reading Flowers -Le Volume sur Été- yesterday, and its undeniably a Jast game. Meaning, that it's a technical mess with more bugs than an ant hill. When I started the title the first time I got sound stuttering in the title screen. Then I tried to switch to fullscreen, just to have the game crash straight to desktop. With my second start the sound stuttering fortunately vanished, but when I tried to switch to fullscreen again the game hanged itself up and didn't react anymore. With my third start I somehow managed to succeeded to switch to fullscreen. But unfortuantely the text width calculation seems bugged since the text goes out of the text box on the right side. It's not too much, so it's still readable, but yeah it gives me feelings of nostalgia - that's just good old Jast! The font choice also seems weird - it looks like taken from an old MS DOS command line panel from the 90ties.

Fantastic news, the title deserves a Steam release so much!

Fatal Twelve is pretty great. But it's more plot focused and less focused on the yuri part, so if you're just looking for straight yuri romance, one of the Sono Hanabira VN's like Maidens of Michael might be better.

A litte question about the winner: What's so special about White Album 2? While the anime was a surprisingly decent made love story, I wouldn't exactly say that the love triangle plot itself was particularly praise-worthy. Is there a bit more to it than just a well done nakige?

Angelic Howl is the only thing in Grisaia that's really great - the rest is just optional filler text.

Yes, there was certainly a lot of potential, but unfortunately they just dropped the ball in the middle. I found Keiko's attempt to seduce Tooru at the beginning a bit too cheap, at least considering her kuudere personality. I still liked her though, only Saki never clicked with me. But I usually prefer older heroines anyway, except they are very special like Maia. I also didn't really judge the heroines by their routes anymore since I found them all rather lacking - none of the heroines left a good impression in them.

I'd also add Zanmataisei Demonbane which definitely has horror elements (especially Tiberius). And Liar-Soft's Steampunk series could also fit, since they all have Lovecraftian horror elements, even if I wouldn't call them horror VN's.

Finished Hapymaher and it was a bit of a so-so experience. Not exactly unexpected though, considering Chrono Clock had its fair share of problems too. But the first half of Hapymaher was actually pretty good. The dream world scenes had a sense of mystery and danger, while the real world scenes were more light and slice of life oriented. The iteration between both worlds was decently paced and kept things interesting without neglecting the lighter moe parts. And the heroines were not only very likable, but also contributing to the plot, with Maia being the highlight as the mischievous loli-villain of the dream world. Until that point the VN was scratching on an 8 rating in my book. Unfortunately, the second half couldn't keep up wih that quality. The VN teases Alice in Wonderland in the first half, and just when you're about to tumble down the rabbit hole and experience a world of wonder and mysteries... you get stuck in the entrance and can't move forth or back anymore. This was just about the time when the endless dream starts with the party, christmas and gender-change events. Instead of giving you an interesting sub-plot in a fascinating meta world, the VN just throws the whole plot overboard and tortures you with slice-of-life and bogus events of almost unparalleled boredom. I had to heavily abuse the skip button to make it through that mess with a healthy mind. And the routes weren't much better. Yayoi's didn't fit at all to her personality, Maia's did barely exist and Alice had so many personality changes in her route that I hardly knew who she was at the end. Saki's was probably the 'less worst' since it at least followed the main plot around Maia, but the revelations were still very minor. And the so called true-route was just the continuation of Alice's apruptly ending half-route. Still enough to ridicule all other routes, including the actual main plot around Maia and let you end up with a girl you hardly know or care about. So yeah, the plot was certainly not developing the way I wanted. The VN has still some rather good points. The heroines are all very likable, especially Yayoi, Maia and Alice. Saki was the only one that didn't really click with me. She was a bit of a bitch and I didn't like her voice that much. In contrast to her Maia was just fantastic. Hapymaher was good when she was on the screen and unfortunately she didn't have much screen time in the second half. Her seiyuu also did a marvelous job in making her mischievous, dramatic and mysterious. And Yayoi was just gorgeous. The art is certainly one of the strongest points of the VN - it's certainly one of the most pretty VN's I know. The music is also pretty decent, offering good tracks for both slice of life and dramatic scenes, even if the tracks get a bit repetitive after a while. Heroine rating: Yayoi = Maia > Alice > Keiko >> Saki Overall rating: 7/10 (The plot certainly wouldn't justify that rating, but it gets lots of bonus points for art, music and heroines) Some personal observations: I played Hapymaher at the same time like Fatal Twelve and it gave me some comparison material why HapyMaher's plot failed and the one of Fatal Twelve succeeded. Fatal Twelve has about 15 character sprites, 60 event CG's and lots of background locations just for the plot and it's a medium length VN. HapyMaher has just about 10 character sprites, and despite its 75 event CG's only 20 - 30 are relevant to the plot - the rest are H-scenes. There's also a severe lack of background locations with almost the whole dream world consisting of 'plantified' real world locations. Add to that a long length VN and it's getting clear why it's difficult to make a good story out of that. Although the H-scenes in Hapymaher are certainly gorgeous, they sacrificed too much for it.

So, I've finished Fatal Twelve now, and what a pleasant surprise that was. It's probably the best story VN I've read in years. I'm particular impressed by the overall high quality in all areas - writing, graphics and music. It's also remarkable that the VN has a writing format I usually don't like that much - (mostly)kinetic with frequent POV switches - but I still liked it a lot. The story of the VN is about twelve people having died by different causes and appearing now in a divine selection, hold by Parca, a mischievous goddess of fate, who gives every candidate the chance for a second life. However, the selection will be a battle royale where only the last remaining candidate will have the privilege of a second life. The elimination process happens in a weekly selection round, where a candidate has to show three divine cards about another candidate, containing his name, cause of death and biggest regret in life. The candidates then have to try to get this data about the other candidates between those selection rounds. The VN roughly consist of two major parts: the elimination process and finding out what's behind the whole divine selection and Parca. The latter being the most interesting and tricky part. One of the first things that get clear when the first rounds of elimination start is that the candidates were apparently selected completely arbitrary since the preconditions for all candidates are not fair at all. Some wouldn't have any gain by winning, because they are either so old they'd die anyway soon after, or have a terminal illness which would lead to the same result. Pretty much only candidates that died by an unnatural cause like an accident... or murder, would really profit from a second life, since only the direct cause of death would be negated. This already gives a lot of stuff to think that there's something horribly wrong with the whole divine selection. Now, where the VN really shines in how it plays out the involved characters against each other. Unlike most other VN's that just consist of a hetare protagonist, a few infantile heroines, an idiot friend and maybe a few rapists, this VN has real multi-layered characters with different ethical values and personalities that react differently to pressure and extreme situations. The writer is also one of the rare ones with common sense and an understanding how certain situations could turn out and what consequences they could have. For example, at the start some of the more ruthless characters try to get info through pure violence and black mail, but then have to face the consequences of being investigated by the police. Since being arrested and imprisoned just for a few weeks is almost a death sentence, those characters are then forced to act with much more caution. Another interesting thing is that being just an innocent girl like Rinka or Miharu can also be an advantage, because sympathy also matters. Obviously dangerous participants like Alan or Odette trigger counter-alliances and characters who got their info revealed can get revenge by revealing their info to other participants they'd prefer to win. Besides that, several characters reflect on their actions and change during the elimination process - not always for the better though. During the last third of the VN the focus slowly shifts to the second major story arc - finding out the truth about the divine selection and Parca. That's one the most interesting parts of the VN, since the remaining participants slowly get aware that winning the contest isn't just a generous gift - there's a catch. Parca isn't neutral about the whole outcome and she has her own motives. It also goes full Stein's Gate when explaining the (pseudo-)scientific background of how the divine selection works - hope you didn't forget time lines and reality branches in Stein's Gate. Although the writing is almost consistently on a high standard and the plot well though-out, there are still some weaknesses. While the frequent POV changes show you the personality and development of the other characters, it also drags the pacing down a bit too much from time to time and can also spoil some otherwise surprising situations. The normal (Miharu) end seems a bit too undeservedly happy, especially in comparison to the true (Parca) end. The romance part is also a bit underdeveloped, I'd say the VN is more about friendship between Rinka, Miharu and Naomi and how they and the other participants overcome the trials of the divine selection. And while Rinka is a good-natured girl, she can also be a bit too hesitant at times. Miharu was certainly the more 'heroic' character. There were also some translation inconsitencies from time to time, expecially when Yu was referenced in plural - I didn't get why. The art of the VN is surprisingly good. While the character sprites might not quite reach the top standard of the industry, they are still well drawn, with a more unique - and less moe - western touch. There are also about 60 event CG's purely for the story, about 15 drawn characters and a good amount of background locations as well. And the background locations in particular are top notch quality. And last but least the audio, and this is probably one of the strongest points of the VN. There's a good amount of excellent and diverse music tracks that capture the mood of many situations perfectly. No ultra boring slice of life tracks that make you fall asleep in no time. There's real tense and thrilling music that keeps you on your toes. All characters are voiced and the voice acting is overall pretty good - no idiot friend voice abominations. Heroine ranking: Miharu > Parca > (Odette) > Rinka > Naomi Final Rating: 8.5/10 That's probably the highest rating I've given in years. Admittedly, I was also close to give it just a (still high) 8 at first, because it doesn't offer all too much in the waifu (though Miharu and Parca were cute) and romance department. But since it's so absolutely rare that a well developed plot comes along with good writing, decent art and great music, I've decided to give it a higher rating.

There is age verification - I had to verify my age at least a million times - but it's possible that it's problematic to use with the new filter system. In that case it's probably more a temporary technical problem then.

The title isn't exactly available everywhere - PCGamer reports that it's restricted in 28 countries. I wasn't exactly surprised that it's restricted in countries like Arabia and Lebanon, but it's also not allowed in Japan and Germany. I guess the former is because of the H-scenes are censored, but I've no idea what problem Germany has with it - usually they're quite liberal about that kind of stuff. Not that I'd have a big interest in the title, but it's a bit unexpected that I couldn't get it on Steam even if I wanted to.

There isn't just a lack of horror VN's, there is a lack of story VN's in general. Most VN developers seem to stick to an annual release cycle nowadays, because a longer development time is usually too expensive and risky. And creating a 'good' story VN with decent length in just one year is almost impossible to do, especially since you also need a skilled writer for that. But a typical slice of life VN with little to no plot, but backed up by some decent H-scenes can be easily produced in one year and you don't necessarily need a particular talented writer for it - just a good artist. And story VN's often don't sell that well, which is another problem. Just look at Innocent Grey's list of releases on VNDB. KnS1 and especially KnS2 did take several years to make, but with their yuri series Flowers, they changed to a fixed annual release cycle as well, while KnS3 is in development for probably more than five years now. It's not hard to guess that they use Flowers to finance KnS3. And Innocent Grey is already one of the more popular story VN producers. Others like Propeller already did bite the dust. There's probably a better chance for shorter story/horror VN's like Saya no Uta nowadays, but that doesn't change the fact that some cheaply produced moeges still sell even better.

I think it's fine as long as the ero content isn't an essential part of the VN like in nukiges. So I guess it's probably okay for your typical slice of life and story VN's, but not so much for ero heavy VN's. While I didn't play it myself, I heard that the adult patch is pretty much essential for SubaHibi on Steam. Such cases should stay adult-only in future then. Still, I see a lot of abuse potential here just to increase visibility on Steam. Guess time will tell if it's really an issue or not.