ChaosRaven

Every language patch is essentially a mod and its purpose should be clear. Besides that, there are uncensor/restoration patches (If my Heart had Wings) or even censor patches (G-Senjou). All of them could be considered mods. So there's nothing wrong with mods for VN's in general, although that doesn't mean that 'every' mod makes sense.

It does have some advantages. You clearly see who's talking and you look closer to the point of the face which is more natural in conversations. The bottom of the screen is also not obscured anymore by the text box, so you see more of the CG. On the other hand, the free text boxes can block parts of the image you'd like to see and having the boxes jumping from here to there might be annoying for some. In general, it's good for dialogs, but not so much for narration text. I think Chrono Clock had an option to switch it off and show a traditional text box instead if you don't like it, if I remember right. That way it's a pure gain since everyone can choose what he wants.

You're wrong about that. I remember a radio interview where Kouryuu said that it did well, and it also got a hard copy which is only the case for titles that sold well (with ef being the exception). What ever it was that killed their relations with Caramel Box, it wasn't related to Otoboku sales. They also brought over Eden, even if ef was one of their worst selling titles ever. And KnS2 and Caucasus was certainly not a given after KnS1 bad start. MangaGamers license deals were never only just about sales of previous titles.

Regarding the original question... They don't translate the titles I want!

It would most likely reduce the amount of VN's I read but not stop it. I read VN's for different reasons, some more for ero and moe, and some more for story and interesting characters. Simple moeges would most likely suffer the most of it besides the obvious nukige victims. I'm pretty sure a lot of VN companies would kick the bucket, since the whole market would surely suffer and loose a lot of customers. But it could also have a positive effect, if H-scenes wouldn't be possible anymore, companies would be forced to focus more on story and interesting characters. Personally, I think I'd focus more on animes again - I prefer them already for action themed stuff anyway.

Kara no Shoujo for me. And I guess suggestions like Hoshimem, Grisaia or Himawari weren't really serious - far too many moelements.

Currently playing Subnautica which was recently released after a very long early access time. This game is genuinely mocking your primal fears of water. It's fascinating and terrifying at the same time. I think the last game that had me so on my toes bcause it was so scary was Amesia - The Dark Descent, and not even that is quite matching it. It's also the first survival game I ever played and feels a bit like Soma meets Minecraft. Building your own under water base is just deeply satisfying. Especially if things go wrong - like disregarding hull integrity until cracks are building and the whole base is running full of water. Or stalker fish ripping out the camera drones of your navigation room and playing catch the ball with his buddies with it. And not being aware of the huge energy consumption of spot lights and then suffocating because the life support system ran out of power was certainly one of my more creative deaths. Maybe not as terrifying as getting killed by a reaper leviathan after it turned my submarine to scrap metal, but certainly more interesting than drowning 10 meters before reaching the surface. There are lots of ways do die anyway: Suffocation, dying of thirst, starving, burning, getting cooked by a volcano, death by radiation, poisoning, getting eaten or otherwise killed by sea monsters, hull break in deep waters, etc. It's really making you paranoid.

Looking mostly forward to Hapymaher, Shiei no Sona-Nyl and the rest of the Leyline trilogy.

Yes, it's from that lolita book. But the Wiki article was so focused on the Japanese lolicon that I got a bit confused.

You're way overthinking things. You can have a complex about all kind of things - it's not restricted to just a few things. Just like 'fan' is also not a word restricted to the usage of 'Star Trek fans'. And considering there's already both a 'father complex' and a 'mother complex' (=Oedipus complex) I think it should be clear that brother and sister complexes are just in line. Especially considering that you can find lots of incest cases between siblings in history and mythology too. And if a psychologist would encounter a patient who's obsessed with his sister - how would he call it? Or do you think crazy stuff like a 'Madonna-whore complex' that spans an entire Wikipedia article has more justification than a simple brother or sister complex?! And do you also think that the huge Lolita Complex article in Wikipedia with countless quotations should be deleted just because it originates from the term 'Lolicon'? The more interesting question would be: would the usage of the word 'Otaku' be okay in a translation? Because it's most certainly not an English word, even if there's a huge Wikipedia article about it. And who exactly decides what's okay to use in an English translation? If the word or term can be found in the Oxford Dictionary - or Wikipedia? But what about fictional beings? If you translate a fantasy RPG that has lots of fictional monsters like gnolls or illithids which are essentially D&D monsters which you will most certainly not find in the Oxford Dictionary, would their usage be allowed, or not - and why? Would the word oni be allowed despite being a very specific Japanese monster or would it have to be translated to something like 'ogre'? Guess that removes all clarity now...

No, those are three words not one. Edit: And btw, 'Sister Complex' is even listed in Wikipedia in the list of specific complexes at the end of the article.

'Fujoshi' is a real Japanese word and at least I wouldn't know what it is, so I'd consider it fine to have it translated. 'Siscon' however, is essentially an English term since it comes from 'Sister Complex'. The short form in Japanese is written in katakana as 'シスコン' and pronounced as 'shisukon'. They use an 'n' instead of an 'm' at the end because 'complex' is written in Japanese katakana as 'コンプレックス' and pronounced as 'konpurekusu'. But essentially it's just the English word 'complex' in slightly mutated form. So instead of trying to translate the English term 'Sister Complex' into another English term 'Sister Enthusiast', I think it would have been the better idea to just use the original term in the correct way like "he has a sister complex" instead of trying to create a new word abomination nobody needs.

That might be, but not all of them are. Usually the more votes the more reliable the result gets. Comparing EGS and VNDB is also a good way for safer results. You can also use 'trusted votes' to check how certain people rated a particular VN and check if it fits to the average rating. I actually did that with your ratings on VNDB a few times since you've played so much VN's.

Saga Planets new VN was quite well received - not only on VNDB but also on EGS. Must admit that the whole knight girl & princess stuff looks quite tempting. It'll be interesting to see how it'll perform in the upcoming Getchu Bishoujo Game awards. The structure doesn't really matter. Even a one-liner would have been okay. My year reviews always tend to end up a bit over the top...

I didn't see a review thread about 2017 VN's yet, so I'm creating a new one because I usually review my VN's every year. I forgot to do that last year, so I really want to do it for 2017 now. Everyone is welcome to add their own review too of course. Best story VN: Best moege: Best slice of life & drama VN: Best comedy VN: Best ero VN: (NSFW) Biggest disappointment: Now, let's go to some side categories... Best art: Love Tore ~Ecchi na Ren'ai Training~ by Atelier Kaguya This was pretty hard since I played several VN's with great art. But I picked this one since it simply stands out because of it stellar animation. But honorable mentions go to Kara no Shojo 2, Lovely & Cation 2, Hyakki Ryouran no Yakata, Dies Irae and Ourai no Gahkthun. Best sound: Ourai no Gahkthun ~What a Shining Braves~ by Liar-Soft I initially was tempted to pick Hyakki Ryouran no Yakata because of it's stellar atmospheric soundtrack, but since some of the voice actors weren't that good, Gahkthun was overall better. Kara no Shoujo 2 was also pretty good but some soundtracks got pretty dull after a while. Other honorable mentions go to The Shadows of Pygmalion and Dies Irae for some pretty good soundtracks. Best male character: Tokisaka Reiji from Kara no Shojo 2 Closely followed by Masaki Tomoyuki, the other protagnist from KnS2. Honorable mentions go to Jay from The Shadows of Pygmalion, Iwaki Akio from Hyakki Ryouran no Yakata and Valeria Trifa from Dies Irae. Best female character: Shimzu Ichigaku from ChuSingGura46+1 For being a great villainous heroine. Honourable mentions goes to Hazuki Kyouko and Aoki Touji from Kara no Shojo 2, although I consider the latter more as a loyal friend and comrade than waifu material. And another honorable mention goes to the Lovely & Cation 2 girls. Guess that got longer than expected, but that's it for me...

I think that's not really the same thing we are talking about. Umineko is told from 3rd person POV and in those character jumps are quite normal. And if Kindred Spirits on the roof is written like Sakurai's other VN's, it's probably also 3rd person POV. Didn't play the others, so I can't judge. Though technically I played Katahane for a few hours, but I dropped it because I didn't like it and I can't remember the writing structure anymore. And in Sorcery Jokers it definitely doesn't work 'perfectly' - it's an absolute mess so far. Not just because of the sudden POV changes, but also because of the unfunny jokes and some really dull written characters with Haruto and his ultra-annoying 'that's not playing fair' statements in particular. The VN even goes so far to show the exact same scene from the 1st person POV of two different characters. This can be interesting if there's a certain twist behind it like in Root Double. But in Sorcery Jokers it's done for completely pointless slice of life scenes just to drag the pacing down. I still hope it's just a messy beginning and gets better after a while, because I definitely won't finish it like that. Currently, the only thing that keeps me reading is Senri and that there are occasionally still interesting story bits showing up.

1. Unionism Quartet 2. Shin Koihime † Musou - Kakumei (Trilogy) 3. Walkure Romanze Guess neither of them will ever happen, but whatever...

Yeah, the 4 heroines for 2 protagonists seems kinda weird considering it's a kinetic novel. And a harem ending also seems a bit unlikely for that kind of VN. Just judging from the looks I'd guess that the younger looking Noah and Asahi are more into Haruto and Riku and Annabel more into Senri. Just speculating though. Also found a few reviews that might prove helpful: https://vnrw.wordpress.com/2016/03/17/vn-sorcery-jokers/ https://vnerogereview.wordpress.com/2015/10/23/magic-is-never-perfect-review-of-150724-sorcery-jokers/ https://vnmusings.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/sorcery-jokers-extended-review/

Started with Sorcery Jokers now and my first impression is a bit mixed so far. The visuals are impressive. I think it's the game with the highest resolution I've played so far - window mode is already almost full screen. I also like that you can change the font in the options, since the original one is a bit small to read, at least if you're sitting in front of a TV. Regarding the two main protagonists, Haruto seems kind of meh, but Senri looks pretty cool. The writing didn't really click with me so far - at least not yet. Maybe it's because I just read Gahkthun, which had an extremely well flowing writing, but this one seems kinda... clunky, for lack of a better word. I mean Ageha already annoyed the hell out of me, not just because of her over-exaggerated vulgar language, but also because of her constant use of the term 'pay-to-win' in strange contexts. I mean I know what 'pay-to-win' is, but she uses it in almost every second sentence, and in half of them I didn't even get what she's trying to say with it. And then there's this girl Ruu, which Senri was saving from a bunch of hoodlums. Senri tries to fool them with a cross-dressing reference regarding her, because of her flat chest. And after the incident Ruu kind of follows up onto that joke with strange references like 'if she had one' - meaning probably a ****. I don't know, but that whole interaction just wasn't funny at all. Still, this doesn't have to mean anything. G-Senjou had a weird sense of humor too after all, and it was still great. A more worrysome matter though is the episode structure. Initially I thought that you take the POV of a certain character for an entire chapter, but it looks like there are constant POV jumps even after short scenes. And not only that, the VN doesn't just jump to the next scene, it opens a whole bunch of new scenes and you can choose with which you want to continue. I honestly don't know how the VN wants to tell a homogenous story when it's structured like an H-scene gallery. Though I'm still at the beginning - maybe things get clearer when I proceed a bit further.

Finally finished Ourai no Gahkthun, and overall it was an enjoyable read, though not without flaws. What makes this VN really stand out is its unique and mature Steampunk setting. A large academy on a small artificial island, located close to the coast of Marseille in an early 20th century France. Most characters are already young adults instead of teenagers and the academy resembles more a university than a school. The VN also manages to create the right atmosphere for the right moment. Slice of life scenes have a classic soundtrack that perfectly captures the feeling of a Paris inspired, lifely city, while the darker scenes are backed by an eerie soundtrack. The battle scenes were also surprisingly well done, using animated effects and such, even if some end a bit sudden. They were also not too long which was a huge plus for me. Although the VN is written from a third person point of view, it uses a rather interesting writing style to create a semi-protagonist feeling when needed. This is done through inner monologues of the characters where they share their feelings and thoughts with the reader, usually in a voiced manner. This is often done for female characters and for Neon in particular. Story-wise there were lights and shadows. While Tesla was an overall interesting character with some supreme lightning powers, you don't really get to know a lot about him, even to the end. He just comes to the academy as a transfer student and rescues Neon from a near-slavery fate. Together they oppose the members of the student council who use some kind of demonic bell to gain special powers - also called arts in the VN. Most chapters then showcase a conflict with one of the members of the student council, though not all of them. And so you get to know that not all of the members are just bad guys and that there's more than meets the eye. While the VN does a marvelous job in setting up a believable Steampunk world and creating the right atmosphere for it, its biggest flaw is certainly the story-flow and character development. To use a somewhat accurate comparison, I guess most people remember the infamous Windows progress bar and when it sometimes gets stuck at about ~X% for minutes, just to suddenly jump to the end in a second. And here it's pretty much the same. While in most chapters you get to know a certain side character better, this is usually not the case for Tesla or Neon and their relationship gets stuck very soon. The chapters are also very independent from each other, to a point that the order doesn't really matter. Usually chapters should build up on each other to create a homogenous story flow, but this isn't really the case here. But in the last chapter the VN suddenly turns up to light speed story development and literally every story and character development you can image is squished in there. It goes without saying that this didn't work out without some sacrifices in the form of abyssal size plot holes like... So yeah, there were quite some questionmarks at the end. For that reason I find it difficult to really call this a story VN. I'd call it more a slice of life VN with a unique setting and actually entertaining slice of life since in every chapter there's new stuff happening with new CG's and sometimes even new characters. It was also somewhat interesting to see an unavoidable tentacle rape scene in a Steam VN. Granted, it was pretty tame, but WTF. So, since I overall still enjoyed the VN and liked most of the characters, I decided to call this a good slife of life VN instead of a bad story VN, so my final rating is 7.5/10. And yeah, I managed to finish a dreadful boring Mihiro route in Wagamama Highspec in about 3 months of time - I'm so proud of me. Still want to try Ashe's route, but I think I'll pass on the other ones.

Hm, for me it's probably still the good old Fate/Stay Night. When Illyasviel asked me to ally with her, I thought: Why not? She's a cute girl - what could go wrong?! And then she... That was a quite remarkable experience.

You're sure about that? I thought they changed the pending to 100,000 $ per chapter later on, but maybe that was just an assumption judging by the first two chapters. But considering the later chapters would need to be newly developed, I guess 150,000 $ for each of the later chapters makes more sense. Guess I take that claim back. I think it was at least very unrealistic from the start and most likely just to boost sales. It was a nice try at that time. maybe hoping for a Steam wonder, but now it's just annoying. They should have made a Kickstarter if they would have been really serious about it.

I think it's save to say that they axed the later chapters 3 - 5 which would have to be newly created. The original funding goal with 300,000 $ was already very unlikely to be reached, but then they raised it to 350,000 $ to really make sure that it will never be reached. And should really impossible things happen and the fund raiser still getting close to the goal, they'll certainly raise the funding goal again. To be frank, I've little understanding for this whole fund raising farce anymore. They should just cancel it and say that it didn't work out in time - end of story.

I know what you mean, but IMHO Ouroborus looks way more like your run of the mill JRPG boss monster than what was actually shown. I still found the revelation one of the most epic moments in the VN - the creepy atmosphere was just great.