ChaosRaven

Hoshimem had an editor?! Well, next time it would be nice if he'd extend his work beyond the title...

No idea, but certainly not for the initial hard copies since I didn't see a patch.

While I'm fairly tolerant with translation quality, untranslated lines is something that really shouldn't happen. I think the last time I saw that was the My Girlfriend is the President fandisc. The thing that's pissing me off about untranslated lines is that it indicates that there was neither an editor nor a simple proof reader - it's pure laziness. Makes me wonder if the new translation is really better than the old one - at least that one didn't have untranslated lines. And nice that you finally found a moege you don't like too. Personally I liked Hoshimem (loved the twins and Mare), but it's also years ago that I read it and it certainly had its fair share of issues too. Though most of the criticism about the bland routes would also apply to Chrono Clock (with the exception of Makoto's route maybe). But that's the thing with moeges - everything depends on if you like the characters.

Inglorious Basterds, a Quentin Tarantino movie. Regarding the original question, I think there aren't that much translated story VN's with a revenge theme. I guess Chusingura might come closest to what you're looking for. G-Senjou and Umineko also come to mind, but those handle revenge somewhat differently. And naturally, there are countless dark hentai nukiges with 'revenge theme' but I hope guess you're aren't looking for those.

I guess for me that makes at least a good 'avoid at all cost' list...

The whole hype around DDLC is actually a pretty sad thing if you think about it, because it shows that although many people seem to be interested in VN's they don't seem to be willing to pay for it. DDLC got an 'Overwhelming Positive' rating with more than 55,000 Steam reviews which is amazing considering that's more than most AAA games even get. Now, the next VN kamige on Steam is Everlasting Summer from... 'Soviet Games' which still has over 25,000 reviews with a very good rating which is again free to play. And then we have Tricolour Lovestory which has much less but still an impressive amount of over 7,500 reviews. It would have surely gotten much more, but the developers dared to charge 99 Cent for it and so it get much less. And now let's have a look on the inferior 'VN garbage' on Steam starting with Stein's Gate which is still looking decent with more than 3,000 reviews, but then it goes down with stuff like Clannad which got at least still more than a 1,000 reviews. It then gets embarassing with Grisaia with about 500 reviews, Dies Irae with about 250 reviews (and its rating isn't even particularly good), Fata Morgana also just with about 250 reviews and Subahibi didn't even make 200 reviews. Nekopara Vol 1 kind of stands out since it got more than 10,000 votes despite charging a 'ridiculous high price' of 5 € on sale. So the unfortunate gist of all that is, that a big Steam success has pretty much nothing to do with quality and just indicates that the title is dirt cheap or even free to play for max success.

Hmm, the new Navel game actually looks interesting, mainly since it seems to have adult characters for a change. And Kyoubashi Mikoto in particular seems to be just my type. It's quite a long time since Key produced anything noteworthy and the VN standards have increased since then, so I'm not sure if they are up to it. Especially since Angel Beats apparently wasn't received so well and the whole 'just the first chapter of six' looks more and more like a big lie. Probably Supipara syndrome - the other chapters were most likely just cancelled. Don't really care about SCA-Ji, and his upcoming title looks again just like a run of the mill school life moege, that will be most likely just more f*cked up than usual again. And Rance is just... not my cup of tea. Nitroplus is usually a hit or miss thing for me and we'll see how their next title will turn out. And yeah, it really hurts that a few almost 15 year old titles apparently can't be topped anymore because of whatever reasons.

Looking mostly forward to Shin Koihime Musou Kakumei Son Go no Ketsumyaku, hopefully with some extended possibilities to save a certain favorite character of mine. Otherwise I guess Clipcraft will announce their next title and I hope they remember that they are able to produce more than just good fan service. I've nothing else on my must play list for now, so I'll just look what comes up and decide then.

I always wanted to play that VN since I own both anime seasons of it, but because of Otomate's PC paranoia the title was only available on consoles for the most time and I only play PC titles. They seem to have lightened up a bit recently, since the title is now available on Steam. Unfortunately, it's apparently not complete yet, so I'm waiting for the full version.

While nobody can say for sure if Inre wanted H-scenes or not, there are examples that show that some companies were definitely forced to include H-scenes. Let me tell you a little Christmas tale about a company called Minori who tried to release a title without H-scenes. The name of the VN was Supipara, and initially they only released two chapters of the originally planned five, but it sold so badly that they almost went bankrupt of it. In a desperate action to survive, they cancelled the last three chapters and put all their remaining money into the infamous Natsuzora no Perseus which they made so full of high quality ero scenes that the title even won the Getchu Ero-award in that year. And we're talking about a company that was originally known for tragic utsuge VN's with very minor H-content - but they still managed to beat every professional nukige company for that award. But it worked, the title sold great and Minori was back in business. And from then on, every following Minori title had a decent amount of H-scenes to satisfy even the biggest libido.

I think the Soleil series got my attention with the recent release of Blade x Bullet - Kinrin no Soleil. The whole Norse theme of the series is really interesting, but I wasn't really sure about what to think of it. Judging by the VNDB tags it seems somewhat ero heavy, but I wonder how vanilla (or not) its H-content might be. And you shouldn't be bothered by the VNDB ratings if this is an H-heavy series. H-heavy VN's will never get a high (>8) VNDB rating regardless how good their story might be - the max those can get is a high 7. Seems to be a natural law of VNDB.

Am I? *Shrugs* I think you can't read Japanese VN's without dealing with censorship, since every Japanese VN with adult contents has mosaics and is therefore censored. Do I like it? No, of course not! But I don't really have a choice, have I?! The Japanese also alter their VN's by cutting out content the whole time to be able to release it on consoles. And I'm pretty damn sure that Inre was both aware and okay that NextNinja had to alter content for Steam. They might not be responsible for the translation issues but they definitely take part of the guilt for the cuts. So if you want to blame anyone for the cuts, then blame Inre and their great writer Hayama Coyote, who apparently doesn't care at all about the altering of his works as long as the money is right. And I absolutely don't think that the released works are always what the authors really wanted to write. It's obvious that many VN's try to fullfill an 'H-quota' to increase sales. I've read too many VN's with absolutely nonesensical and unfitting H-scenes to even remotely believe that. And there are also release dates to apply where VN's have to be released in pretty much 'any condition'. I know several Japanese companies who stick to strict annual release dates - and it shows. A writer can also make mistakes just like a programmer or any person - just that his mistakes aren't called bugs - they are called plot holes, inconsistent writing, etc. And then there are VN's with multiple writers and their inconsistencies between them And just take the case Dies Irae. Apparently the original work wasn't so great after all, then other authors modified it and then the original author Masada again. And most people say the later Amentes amentes version is the best version even if it's the one with the H content removed. So what exactly is the 'original' and 'best' work, the first one or the reworked one, and which reworked one? But yeah, I guess you can discuss those things all day. The gist of it is still that you somehow have to deal with and tolerate censorship if you're into visual novels, regardless if you're reading translated or untranslated ones. Otherwise you have to boycott the whole industry.

I guess it's open to each individual interpretation, if abusing a bunch of little kids for some cheap sexual jokes contributes to or... lowers their characterization. The thing is, it still took me about 116 (!!!) hours to finish Chusingura despite its cut content. So there was certainly more than enough time to teach me the basics. VN's are the entertainment media with the by far biggest amount of excess information I know of - their ratio of plain filler text to actual relevant information is usually about ten times higher than in any other media. Usually you can even skip huge parts and still don't loose any relevant information because it's either just slice of life filler text or dozens of times repeated afterwards. We're talking VN's not theoretic algebra where you have to know group theory inside out to even have a chance to understand the concept of galois groups. I'd go so far to say that about 50% of VN's I've read would have been twice as good with half as much text - the biggest offenders being slice of life heavy VN's. That's not to say that slice of life would be a bad thing - I even consider it a very important part for characterization and relationship development. It's just like eating a few chocolate bars tastes great while having to eat 4 kg of it will make you puke. So I certainly agree that everyone should be given the choice to experience a translation as close as possible to the original, but I don't agree that it's a bad thing to give readers at least the choice to experience a work with questionable content altered. You're very open to questionable content of sexual nature, but many are not.

Ugh, the title was just released three days ago and you're already finished with it - in about 2 days?! I'm still not sure if I should envy you for that insane reading speed or pity you that you just got 2 days of fun out of a title that should usually last for weeks. Anyway, simple question about the individual routes of both this and Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier: Can you save at least the heroines in their respective individual routes or are they doomed whatever you do? And what about the protagonists? I'm pretty fine with bad endings, as long there's a possibility to trick fate as well.

There are two issues to consider about the English release of Chusingura: The translation and the cut content. If you're sensitive to weak translations then this could be a real problem for you. Personally I found it readable, but I'm also not particular damanding in that regard. I care more about 'what' and less about 'how' it's written. It would be also a bit hypocritical for me to complain, considering I'm reading Japanese VN's with a text hooker and what they spit out is certainly much worse than that. But the first chaper of Chusingura is free on Steam, so you can also just give it a try. The second issue is the cut content. Usually I'm not too happy about that, but in Chusingura's case I was actually fine with it, because the content isn't just some vanilla H-scenes, there's also hardcore stuff like bestiality which might no be to everyones taste and certainly not mine. Besides that, whenever the game got even close to sexual related stuff and jokes, it was usually at its worst, so I can't really say that I miss that content. The strengths of Chusingura certainly lie in other areas: story, action, atmosphere and characters. If you care about H-content there are certainly much better titles than this. I can understand the dissatisfaction to play something incomplete though. It's a pity that they didn't release at least an unofficial patch that re-adds the missing content. Though you should be aware that the missing content doesn't necessarily make the game better for you.

Waiting for the sequels sounds like a plan. On the other hand, if I'd be impatiently waiting for the sequels to come out, it would be already a clear sign that I liked the first one, so that's that. I'm actually rather fond of super powers and magic, it's more about how it's written and presented.

Sorcery Jokers is still more than 3 weeks away while Imopara 2 is out now. It would be rather strange if it would be different. I still expect ImoPara to sell significantly better than Sorcery Jokers, since big nukiges always sold well, and are also currently more rare in the west than story or moege titles. MoonStone is also already a rather established brand in the west, while 3rd Eye is pretty much a newcomer nobody really knows what to expect of yet.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this one as well. I've also my eyes on Serizawa Kamo since the first time I saw her. Character design wise she's my absolute favorite. She emits the same badassness like Shimizu Ichigaku, but appears at the same time more soft and pretty. It's a petty that she's not one of the main heroines. Though I expect her to take a somewhat similar, prominent but more villainous role as Ichigaku in Chusingura. From the actual main heroines I like the designs of Hijikata Toshizou and Kondou Isami most, though the other two also look fine. Two secret favorites from the other heroines would be Itou Kashitarou and Nakamura Hanjirou. It will be interesting to see how the VN will turn out in comparison to the last one. I'll probably give it some time until first ratings are dribbling in, but it's certainly a VN I have high hopes for.

Anyone having first impressions of this? I was really looking forward to this one. It looks so mysterious - the art style has a certain magic to it that fits the theme of the VN. Hope it isn't just looks. It's a trilogy, so it would be great if it's a good one. Especially since I backed it. When I'm finished with Gahkthun it's either this or the upcoming Sorcery Jokers. Both are must reads for me.

When I had read so far, I thought: Jay, they are so sick of school life romance VN's that they decided to make something more interesting themselves. And then I read this...

I'd suggest you to start with the KnS2 demo first, since it's pretty much a pre-prologue and has unique content that isn't in the main game.

MangaGamer has been selling IF MY HEART HAD WINGS from their store for years, even if Moenovel is the actual publisher. Technically everyone can sell something on their storefront, as long as it fits to their program and they get a share of the sales (no idea how much though).

To be honest, that statement from Wanaca sounds a lot more believable. While I can believe that Winged Cloud did some shady things, it would be outright idiotic to treat your main artist that badly. You don't bite the hand that feeds you. She also seems to be Spanish (?!) or at least European, so she isn't exactly sitting in a prison of a South American drug cartel. If she wants to leave and work for another company I don't think anyone could stop her. It's more likely that others got the short end of the stick. I'm willing to believe that.

I've been a fan of Wanaca since she made Demon Master Chris. She was the only reason I still bought stuff from them. To hear that she and others are apparently abused in such a terrible way is just horrible - can this really be true?! There would be surely many OELVN teams that would love to get Wanaca onboard, but that she's literally held hostage sounds like stuff from a bad movie.

It's possible that he had some part in the overly poetic writing style, but it would be unfair to blame him for the flaws in the story flow. I'd say the main issue I had with it was that it wasn't focused enough, both regarding characters and story. For example I think I already know Gahkthun's Neon better than I ever knew Mary. Furhermore, the story in Sharnoth was constantly jumping from here to there and characters you just got used to were suddenly dropped. Especially the disappearance of Charlotte kind of pissed me off since I really liked her. Gahkthun appears much more refined in literally every possible way. Though, from what I heard some ongoing flaws of the series will re-occur but aren't as distinctive as before. Especially regarding the couple of Neon and Tesla who seem to get a stronger focus than usual. From what I read so far I'd say I can confirm that, but it's still just a first impression. Only someone who has really finished the VN can give a definitive answer here. But Sharnoth is widely considered to be the weakest part of the series, so it's probably save to say that Gahkthun is at least better.