ChaosRaven

Well, it's a Key VN - everything is about feeeelings! Their common route is always about comedy and then makes place for the drama in the individual routes. That's their typical formula. And the weakest heroine being the main heroine is also kind of tradition. Your heroine ratings are kind of comparable to mine since Mai and Nayuki were my favorites. You should give the Kanon anime a try if you haven't already, it's worth it.

From their Kickstarter closing comments: Yeah, I guess it was totally impossible to mention that in advance or offer that already in the KS campaign... *Sudden urge to strangle someone*

Da Capo 3 has about 4 MB of text. Still, I can just laugh about those numbers. I'm currently playing Shin Kohime Musou which has almost 6 MB of text. And I just found out that my eagerly awaited 'little' Unionism Quartet fan disc which will be released in a month, will have over 5 MB of text too. *hysterical laughter* Oh man, I need a second life to finish all that stuff...

Well, they certainly try to cover all the costs in advance which is just to be expected. If it works is another story though. The KS projects for ChuSingura and Sharin no Kuni paid the price for being too greedy and failed to reach their Kickstarter goal. And yet, they both started (or will start) a retry with a reduced KS goal. ChuSingura even gave up on the KS campaign completely and are now just selling one chapter after another on Steam. It certainly tells a lot about what to think about those 'minimum' required KS goals if they can simply lower it for the next try or just skip it completely.

Oh, has the quarterly forum fallout already begun?! I guess that means I should backup all my latest posts since we'll soon loose at least a week of forum history anyway...

I think the Kickstarter backers are usually amongst the more well-informed people of the VN community, and Purple Software is currently one of the most popular VN developers in Japan even if Chrono Clock is considered one of their weaker titles. Otherwise Dies might be in for a bad surprise since there are no translated Light titles or animes (yet) and the only thing that's currently there is hype. It doesn't have to since they'll sell the title on other platforms later. The Kickstarter campaign is just a way to get some extra money from high spending customers and also acts as a promotion campaign.

Cheapest physical one. Still not that much compared to the times of Clannad and Grisaia when they could get almost half a million. (Granted, Grisaia was the whole trilogy...) I'm extremely curious how the one for Dies Irae will go though. It's one of those rare over-hyped VN's that could very well mobilize a lot of backers.

Just wanna bump this since the Kickstarter will be closed in a few hours. It's already financed with more than 80.000$ so there's nothing to worry about. But if someone is still interested in some limited edition stuff, then time is running out now. Got the physical edition myself even if it's damn expensive. Though otherwise I would have probably bought the Japanese version which isn't that much cheaper. At least this one has the OST and even a drama CD included.

Not a lot of translated ones but Navel's Tick Tack is technically netori if you go for Ai or Sage (seriously). And MangaGamer's new Funbag Fantasy (aka Kyonyuu Fantasy) also has light netori tag. It's a nukige, but apparently a rather story heavy one. For untranslated ones Tsumamigui 3 from Alice Soft is definitely netori if you go for Miyuri. There's also a lot of netorare, but you can avoid it if you play true love mode. Elf's Maro no Kanja wa Gatenkei also is kind of popular if you can stand the protagonist (I wouldn't). Edit: Another translated one would be Jast's Secret Wives Club, but it's a nukige and might be a bit too H-heavy for your request. Still, it's one of the rare nukiges I actually liked, so I just throw it in.

Ririko in Sharin no Kuni,

Couldn't find another Flowers discussion thread so I think I put my own little review here since I finished Flowers now. I probably didn't get a true end since I just ended up in the main menu without any further comment, but I was in the last chapter and that's definitely enough for me. Overall, I think the VN really tried to be... but somehow ended up more like... The art wasn't bad but far too bright for my tastes. I vastly prefer the darker color tones of IG's other titles. The music was somehow pretty dull and definitely not my cup of tea and I replaced it pretty soon with my own. Story wise it starts extremely slow with little to nothing happening except some character introductions. The protagonist girl Suou is easily hetare 3.0 with neither confidence nor any character strength. Not as bad as Takumi from Chaos,Head, but pretty close. And unfortunately, she never seemed to grow over the course of the story. She's pretty much the same super shy and timid person at the end of the story like at the start. Most of the story is plain slice of life, solely interrupted by some micro dramas followed by some short investigation scenes that had more similarities with a look-up copy protection from the nineties than an actual serious investigation. The answers ranged from far-fetched and silly to just plain wrong. Memo to Innocent Grey: The number of christians in the USA is higher than the whole population of Italy. And the bad ends themselves were as crappy and cheap as it gets. The best parts of the VN were the interaction of Suou with the Sasaki twins and Yuzuriha. The worst parts were the ones with the so called 'romance interests' Ricca and Mayuri. There was absolutely zilch chemistry between them and their whole affair seemed to consist of distrust and maliciousness with some ultra poor jealousy dramas like... I'd even dare to say that the VN doesn't even deserve the yuri or even shoujo AI tag since the whole 'romance interaction' between Mayuri and Ricca was pretty much just bitching around. Even the worst Sono Hanabira title would be still a mile better than this one in that category. That's not to say that there wouldn't have been other characters that would have worked. Yuzuriha would have been perfect and I'm really pissed that she didn't get a route. She had a great chemistry with her and she had the right personality to make Suou more confident. Mayuri and Ricca however were simply terrible matches for Suou. And then the choices *sigh*. Meaningless and confusing choices were always a plague in Innocent Grey titles but it was never as bad as in Flowers. The majority of them were simply absolutely pointless, but they appeared so often that I somehow got the impression that their only purpose was to check if the reader is still awake. In general Flowers appeared more as a side project from IG (and it most likely was) since everything was just less detailed and more half-assed than the KnS series. Heroine ratings: Yuzuriha >> Ichigo > Ringo > Nerine >> Erika > Suou >>> Mayuri > Ricca Final rating: 6/10 (It only gets so much because I liked Yuzuriha and the Sasaki twins) As should be clear from my review, I wasn't particularly fond of Flowers and it's certainly the weakest IG title I've read by a long mile. I therefore most likely skip the other parts of it, there's simply better stuff to read. Although I might make an exception for the third one since it's centered around all my favorite characters Yuzuriha, Nerine and the Sasaki twins.

Hmm, I think I've progressed pretty far, but if there's any fan service it either comes very late or it's hidden pretty good behind the millions of choices, since I certainly haven't seen anything of it yet. I wouldn't even call it a yuri VN so far since there was hardly any romance interaction worth mentioning. It's more about friendship and facepalm dramas tbh.

Sounds a bit like Sharin no Kuni. Is the protagonist more abusive or faithfully to his duties? He seems a bit like a villainous protagonist.

Someone who points his finger on others shouldn't forget that three fingers of his hand are directed on himself. I think PP would be better off checking out his own localization company first instead of badmouthing others. Especially since I remember some rants from him in the Jast forums too. None of Sekai's releases I've played so far were buggy crash festivals or had untranslated parts because of a lack of proof reading. Can't exactly say the same for Jast's releases.

And another interview, this time about the upcoming Rance 5D and 6 double release with www.DualShockers.com. Participants are Kouryuu, Arunaru (the translator) and Amy (no idea).

He has no backlog anymore... Anyway, would be interested to hear some thoughts about Akagoei's successor's ~Tsumibukaki Shuumatsuron~ and Reminiscene. The original Akagoei had a pretty good start, but I found the actual routes pretty lackluster. Too short and too much silly comedy for my taste, and not enough romance and/or serious story. I'm curious if the two aforementioned titles were an improvement over that or just more of the same.

You might have a look on Kouryuu's Twitter account, since he's the translator and already dropped some comments about it. It's not much, but better than nothing. Not sure if he's already started to translate it though. If I remember right, then he usually first reads a VN before starting to translate it to get an impression of its overall style and atmosphere in order to decide how to translate it best.

There's a new interview with MangaGamer staff members Kouryuu and Good Haro on the review and blog site www.thedrastikmeasure.com. Like usual, there's not much new stuff they've talked about. Mainly a general introduction into what MangaGamer does and a little bit about their inner workings. Still some interesting points: - They don't have tentacles as door handles (yet) - Their stance on VN's with extreme content: They don't intend to go further than Maggot Baits 'for now' (Hard to believe how they are even able to find new titles with such a harsh restriction... ) - The decision what titles to bring over is either done by the localization staff, the acquisition team (probably Evospace and ???) or they are approached directly by a Japanese VN company - Good Haro apparently the only one among the senior staff with an interest in the otome and BL scene - Why the Mangagamer site is... pink - The ongoing challenge to get VN's with sexual content more accepted by the mainstream crowd via uncut Steam releases like Kindred Spirits or the specialized landing pages to avoid interferences with other titles - No solution to the Steam key problem yet - Minori apparently can call former team members back for work on Supipara if necessary. (That's interesting because I was always wondering how they'd get their artist back since he isn't working for them anymore. It seems like the original Supipara team really liked their project.)

I guess I must be some of the rare people who like Ever17 because of its overall atmosphere and character routes (mainly Sora's) and not because of its true ending. Sure, it was certainly 'creative'. But I don't know, if you have to pull almost every fantasy and science fiction trope in existence to explain your story, then it gets a bit hard to believe. At least I would have preferred a more down to earth explanation instead of the whole pseudo sci-fi mumbo jumbo.

Oh, I didn't know that. I never tryed a female Shepard so I've no clue how she is. I guess if I ever find the time for a second playthrough I'll pick her. * Goes and checks all lesbian romance options *

Currently playing Mass Effect 2. First I wasn't sure if I should be waiting when the rumours about the advanced edition came up, but since EA decided against it I gave it a go. Maybe I can finish the trilogy before Andromeda gets released. As annoying as the Mako could sometimes get, I somehow miss the bigger scope of the first part. Everything in Mass Effect 2 seems a bit smaller, and that's coming from someone who gets tired of huge open world games pretty soon. So I guess I'm not too unhappy that it will return in Andromeda. Anyway, Shepard is as great as he was in Mass Effect 1. Really love his calm voice. Always gives me the impression to have everything in control and things will go well. Would be great to get a protagonist like that in a VN. Maybe in a huge space opera setting like Mass Effect. But I guess the times of epic big budget productions like MuvLuv Alternate are over.

I think I have another one. Yuuki Yamato from Cho Dengeki Stryker should fit the bill. He's very similar to Sousuke Sagara (aka Sergeant Serious) from Full Metal Panic, so if you've seen that anime you should have a good impression of what to expect of him. I can't even believe I missed that one since it's a pretty obvious choice. He has Donkan 3.0 tag on VNDB which also should be a good search term for that kind of protagonist. BTW, why does Grisaia doesn't have a Donkan tag?! I mean, it can't get more Donkan than Yuuji.

There was one, but it was dropped like usual.

It's most likely more a problem of Ricotta not being interested in a western release of their titles, than English publishers not being interested in them.

I know that. What I meant to say was, that it was probably a condition from them or something they assumed as a given because Nekopara also got its many sales from Steam.