ChaosRaven

So, do we have sun flower season now with one Himawari title announced after another? It has Sexual Content 3.0 on VNDB which makes the question about an 18+ release quite interesting. If my Heart had Wings is tagged with Sexual Content 2.2 which was enough that more than half of the CG's were cut out in the all ages release. Hmmmmm...

That's true, I didn't consider that. I guess there's still hope then. I already own the Japanese versions, but considering that it's an AkabeiSoft2 classic, I probably back it.

I don't really care about the mosaics, I'm mainly interested in the fan disc which isn't translated yet, but as a stretch goal at 105.000$ it's not very likely to happen. Even the 80.000$ for the main title is already quite ambitious considering that their first Kickstarter didn't even reach 60.000$. To be honest I'd be more motivated to back if the goals would be lower. This way it feels just like a waste of time because the goal won't be reached anyway if they are that high. So why even bother to back?!

Well, it looks like I'm doing it right by just picking the scenes where the heroine I'm going for is involved...

I'm already reading the fan disc A3. It starts pretty much where UQ ended but assumes that you weren't going for any heroine so you start more or less on 'good friends' terms with everyone. I would have preferred a continuation of each romance though. The start is good but the story structure then soon turns into a strange scene picking system. I get the romance picks even if I'm not sure if they went too far with 14 romanceable heroines, but the neutral scenes inbetween just make me head-scratching. You can either skip them all or play them all in arbitrary order, and I've no clue if I'm supposed to read them all at once, or just pick the ones I'm interested in. I hope it'll lock into individual routes after a while, since it currently feels more like a scene gallery than a homogenous story.

Yeah, about half a minute after I posted it I realized that it had to be the decimal ratings. I can't believe how I could miss that. *sigh*

This thread is somehow convenient since I also have a question about VNDB. There's something I don't understand about the calculation of the average ratings for the VNs. Let's use Gusha no Kyouben as an example since it's new and has exactly 10 votes now which makes it easy to calculate. The 10 votes are currently 5 x 9, 4 x 7 and 1 x 4. The list of people who voted are just 7 though. I don't have a VNDB account but I assume that's because there are three hidden votes from people who want to keep their vote anonymous. I'm also aware that there are two average ratings, and one of them a bayesian one used for the overall ranking to keep VN's with a low vote count down. It's 5.85 here, but that's not the one I'm interested in. The one I don't understand is the normal average rating which is apparently 7.74. However, if I add all the votes and divide them by 10 I get (5 * 9 + 4 * 7 + 1 * 4) / 10 = 7.7. Why is that? I understand the purpose of the bayesian rating, but modifying the normal average rating in whatever way doesn't make sense to me. Is there something I'm missing? Edit: Ah, I guess I'm dumb, the final ratings are probably based on the precise ratings not the rounded values. Never mind.

Although Summer Days is a horrible comparison object since it's not even a real VN and technically more an anime with choices, it's certainly true that Rewrite had rather poor production values. Serveral images were clearly poorly modified real life photographs and one of the main villains didn't even have a sprite - you can't sink lower than that. Though calling Lucia's route Rewite's best route is kinda hilarious, considering Ryuukishi... Ryuukishi is a talented writer, but Lucia's route was certainly one of his lesser works. Anyway, I think some of the issues with the production values will be addressed with the Rewrite+ release. I'm pretty sure I saw a preview image with an image of a character who didn't have a sprite before.

Not sure if that helps, but I had a look on the html code of your review page and I noticed that the correct transparent text sections are wrapped into a simple "MsoNormal" div-container: <div class="MsoNormal"> The problematic text sections however, where you used a span-tag to force a black background, have some kind of extended "MsoNormal" div-container with additional styles: <div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto auto; line-height: normal;"> You're sure that's intended that way? Because the correct text sections don't seem to need such fancy styles. Not sure if it's really the cause of it, but it looks kinda suspicious.

Nice review, I agree with a lot of points you brought up. Though this one also seems to have problems with the background color. Not sure if it's my Chrome browser but the general background is dark grey, but half of the text has a black background. I guess it should be either all transparent or all black but not a mixture of both. Not a biggy though, just wanted to mention it.

Amusingly, the ladder-style structure reflects real life by far the best. I mean, what's more realistic: 1.) You meet five interesting girls in a disco and you either decide for one of them over the course of a few weeks or you'll be single forever. 2.) You meet an interesting girl in a pub and the situation could have gotten tense, but somehow the chemistry wasn't perfect. But a few months later you meet another girl at work and you're head over heels into her immediately. Then you meet another girl a year ago in holidays on Mallorca, but since you've already decided for the girl at work, nothing came out of it. But if you would have decided against the girl at work before, things might have gone different with the girl in Mallorca. That's simply life. You just don't meet all interesting people at the same time.

It's quite a while when I read it, but wasn't Ever 17 the ultimate 'break the fourth wall' VN? It's not a nukige though...

I think I'm with Decay here, the major factor that counts is the quality of the routes themselves not their place in the whole picture. And the supposed main heroine doesn't always get the best route either like Yumiko's train wreck of a route in Grisaia proves. The only route structure I know which is pretty much doomed to fail is the one heroine per chapter system like in Chusingura or Supipara. The first being even worse than the latter, abandoning each heroine in every subsequent chapter in favor of another one. Edit: Technically, there's only one way I know that certain routes are pretty much invalidated, and that would be an official sequel to a VN that takes a certain ending as a given like in Kara no Shoujo 2 or the Grisaia sequels. Edit2: I also don't understand what the ladder route structure has to do with the problem of a main heroine. Clannad had a clear main heroine with Nagisa despite not using a ladder route system. If there's a problem, then it's the so called 'True Route' and those exist in VN's with all kinds of route structures, especially in Key ones and none of those have a ladder route structure.

That's not entirely correct, apparently it's okay to sell 18+ goods but not to offer them for free on the same site like free demos and such. That's the reason why MangaGamer weren't allowed to use PayPal - they would have been forced to remove all their adult demos, wallpapers, etc. and they didn't want that. J-List allows payment with PayPal and they sell a lot of adult stuff. Not only import games but also English hard copies from Jast and MangaGamer.

They weren't particularly active anymore on their ask.fm account anyway, but most of their staff members have their own ask.fm accounts too which are still active. But if they post something on their ask.fm account they usually also link it on Twitter, so solidbatman's suggestion would the right way to go and just check out their Twitter channels. They also post more progress updates about their work there.

You are aware that neither Daiteikoku nor Walkure Romanze have an English translation, right?! Just asking because everything else on your list is translated and I'm not sure if it was just an accident or you're also reading untranslated stuff. Considering your original question: If depends on your mood. If you're motivated to read some dark mystery, then Kara no Shoujo would be the way to go. If you want moe then If my Heart had Wings is a solid choice (I'd priorize Walkure if you read untranslated). For action go Ayakashibito and for lots of H with some gameplay try Beat Blades Haruka.

The crapisodes structure really rubs me the wrong way. Had too much of those lately, and each subsequent one seemed to get worse than the last one. I guess I should better not ask for routes or different endings. It'll most likely be kinetic VN with one heroine per episode with the protagonist going for one of them after the other because of ridiculous reasons. And am I right to assume that the protagonist is a trap, or is it yet another yuri VN?

Getchu sent me my copy of Unionism Quartet A-3 Days special edition today, but it first has to arrive at Tenso, then consolidated with the Shin Koihime † Eiyuutan copy I also ordered, then sent to Europe, then arriving at the customs office, then waiting for their delivery notification, then picking it up... *sigh* I guess it'll take almost two weeks until I can hold them in my hands.

Probably a new title they'll release both in Japan and in the west. Though, it could als be Grisaia side story 456.

Finished the first chapter of Chusingura, but it did cost me a lot of willpower to do so, because it was a real snorefest. Overall, the chapter was supposed be a complete heroine route, but instead it was just a gutted husk of a story whose lack of focus caused it to achieve nothing and that was far too funny for its own good. Well, it can't be helped I guess. The VN was probably never supposed to be a story VN in the first place and just intended as a simple goofige. Not my type of humour though. A real waste of time, but at least it had a clean ending so I can safely skip the other chapters. Heroine ratings: Ichigaku > Don’t care Overall rating: 3 / 10 Wanted to give it a 4 / 10, but I subtracted a point because the translators were apparently not aware that titles in English are gender-aware, constantly addressing the girls with ‘Mr.’ or ‘he’. I'm fairly tolerant if it comes to translation, but not 'that' tolerant.

Touching and highly emotional would be Minori stuff like Eden or ef - a fairy tale of the two. Heard good things about Narcissu too, even if I didn't play it myself.

The two most recent ones are probably Jast's Flowers for yuri and MangaGamer's Ozmafia for otome.

I heard that otomes are big on mobiles. Never played one myself on one, but that's what I've heard at least. And If my Heart had Wings had a mobile release too if I remember right.

Speaking of Subahibi... shouldn't this get an official English release some day? Considering the translation was almost finished when it was announced last year (if I remember right), shouldn't it be out anytime soon? But I didn't even hear a release date yet. Or are they going for a snail race with Himawari? The one with the longest release delay after completed translation wins!

Yeah, I was never particular fond of the DAO combat either, but the character cast was great. It was a chore to play through though. For that reason I was one of the few people who wasn't disappointed when they announced that they'll change the combat system in DA2.