ChaosRaven

Isn't the Xtend Episode practically route E?

It's actually pretty hard for me to get addicted to a game nowadays since I get saturated pretty fast. It's almost the opposite, it's hard for me to get motivated to even start a new game even if it's a good one. I guess less time than in my younger years is probably the most likely reason, though not the only one. Still, I played Dota 1 for almost 2 years regularly cooperative against the AI with some friends. That was a really fun time. Then we switched to LoL, the AI sucked and we played more competitive against other people and the game almost turned to stress with people getting too ambitious and upset when games weren't going well. And so I lost motivation and stopped. I was never really interested in competitive play since I play to relax not to prove something. However, people are different, some friends of mine really enjoy the competitive part. Even if they get upset sometimes, it's somehow easier for them to come down again afterwards. I seem to be more... resentful. Always kept some distance from MMORPG's since I didn't want to start a second 'life'. I also care more about story in RPG's than other people which is usually a weak part of those games.

Man, I envy you since I'm still crawling through route B. Well, I made a short detour and finished the first route of Tokyo Babel which was somehow more entertaining. But now I'm back and try to progress some more and it's almost like time had stopped. Originally, I thought the routes in Root Double were named just in simple alphabetical order, but now I'm slowly starting to believe there's more behind it. I guess the 'A' in route A stands for 'Action', the 'B' in route B for 'Boredom', the 'C' in route C maybe for 'Confusion', the 'D' in route D probably for 'Dumb Revelations' and the 'E' in route E for... hmm... 'Expendable'?

Yeah, that's actually my biggest gripe with the game so far. The silly humour and battles simply didn't really fit to the dark scenario. A more cynical and bitter humour would have been more appropriate. The characters therefore appeared somehow dull and out of touch with reality because of that which made it hard for me to feel sympathy for them. The protagonist appeared like the only one who actually seemed to 'get' what's really going on, and he was the main reason I finished the route. Fortunately, since the last part of Raziel's route when the game finally sticked to its darker roots and the characters got serious for a change, was pretty great. So, since the VN finally showed some qualities it earned itself me reading the next route which would be Sorami's.

It's actually hard to imagine MoonStone going Innocent Grey gory style. But well, wrapped up in a good murder mystery story, color me interested.

Koihime Musou is one of the longest translated titles. It was MangaGamer's best selling title for years and is probably still the most expensive title they've ever translated. So this is definitely a high quality title. It has one very long story route where you can choose to get into a closer relationship with several heroines. So it's more of a custom route instead of multiple routes, even if it does have several different endings. Da Capo 2 is almost a 'remake' of Da Capo 1. It's very similar, just that pretty much everything is better: writing, art, characters. I've seen people being disappointed with Da Capo 2 because it was too similar to Da Capo 1, so this would be one rare case where I'd suggest to just skip the first part. The connections between both are very loose anyway. If you like DC2 you can still play the first one afterwards. I did the same and it wasn't a problem. But it would be a real pity if you'd skip DC2 just because you've played DC1 first and didn't like it.

I'd also add Da Capo 2 and if you're fine with gameplay, Kamidori Alchemy Meister. Kohime Musou is also a great fantasy romcom, but it leans more towards harem than single heroine if you're fine with that.

I have my doubts that I'd like this title. I do like gothic stuff, but I read a synopsis about the story somewhere that it's pretty much tragedy from start to finish. Or to be more precise, apparently a bunch of tyrannic dudes have their way with a few poor victims the whole time, turning the whole thing into an endless abuse and bullying festival. However, I'm more the guy who wants to strike back instead of sucking it all up the whole time. It's also okay if you're some kind of neutral investigator and solve the mysteries like in KnS since you can keep some distance to the tragedies. But being forced to experience all the misery in detail by reading all the tragedies of the different ages would just piss me off and make me depressed.

I also second the Saya no Uta suggestion. It's brilliantly written and makes it very hard to decide what's morally good or bad. And good old G-Senjou has some greyish areas too of course. A lesser known title with some more philosophical depth would be Suika AS. It looks just moe on the outside, but there's more than meets the eye. Tokyo Babel also has some deeper philosophical backgrounds even if I still find its execution deeply flawed.

When the Kamidori patch was released I was still rather new to VN's and didn't really know the translation scene yet. The only thing I can remember is that apparently the game engine was a chore to work with.

Well, he did translate Kamidori, so...

Aroduc from Seiha Translations might be up to something from Eushully again. There's even a big thread Kamidori 2 in the Seiha forums which is unfortunately locked for outsiders. I heard a rumour that it might be Himegari Dungeon Meister, but considering that it's probably one of Eushully's weakest titles, I find that somehow hard to believe. It might still be true, since I don't know how difficult Eushully's other titles are to hack and Himegari could therefore be the only title he's able to work on.

I actually liked Walkure Romanze quite a bit even if it had its issues. In the genre of ero-moeges there isn't much that beats it. Not only the unique jousting theme, but also the simple fact that it has a cast of young adults instead of the usual bunch of elementary school kids makes it stand out quite a bit. Especially with a real kick-ass heroine like Celia and a cool protagonist like Takahiro. Unfortunately, not everything was gold either with Aya being one of the most annyoing heroines ever written and Celia's and Noel's routes being pretty much the only good ones. Things improved in the More & More fan disc though, which was IMHO better than the main title. Would probably sell like crazy if it would get an official translation.

I usually prefer mid-sized VN's since most long VN's I've read didn't really have more content but were just incredibly bloated instead. Story VN's usually suffer more from this than typical nakiges or moeges since they've often just one very long route instead of several smaller ones, resulting in an almost endless borefest. It's like watching a movie in slow motion - even Star Wars would suck like that. There are exceptions though. I would love to read one of the text monsters from BaseSon because they've actual content behing it and not just text spam with 5 different backgrounds for 50 hours.

This will probably be Winged Cloud's first title that won't be just a simple cash grab for Steam. Considering that they should have a much higher budget now than in their earlier times, I'm curious if they'll be able to convert this into actual quality. The times of 'can't afford a good writer' excuses should be over now.

Now we got it - Conjuerors secret project!

Well, there are two points to consider. First, the title Eustia itself is a very highly rated and popular VN. Second, it's widely considered to be August's best title, and August isn't just some run of the mill VN company, they are one of the most popular VN developers in Japan. The only thing that's missing is a smash hit anime, otherwise they would be right up there with TypeMoon and Key. If you take just Getchu as a measurement, they could be even considered THE most popular VN developer. Since 2003, they've released five individual VN titles which weren't just fan discs and every single one of them got a top five placement in the yearly Getchu Bishojo Game Awards: 2003 Tsuki wa Higashi ni Hi wa Nishi ni ~Operation Sanctuary~: 2nd Place 2005 Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na: 4th place 2007 Fortune Arterial: 1st place (Winner) 2010 Aiyoku no Eustia: 2nd place 2013 Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai: 1st place (Winner) The only other company that won the Getchu awards two times is TypeMoon with their two Fate titles long ago. And August's sales rankings look even more scary. The are pretty much the 'incarnation' of mass appeal in the Japanese VN scene. So they are not just a company that had a good run a decade ago *cough*Type Moon/Key/AkabeiSoft2*cough*, they are always at the top, be it 10 years ago, 5 years ago, or now. And if I would have to make a bet who'll win the Getchu awards 2016, I would make it on their upcoming title Sen no Hatou, Tsukisome no Kouki. And that's why August is 'special' and why the 'August Curse' is so infamous - they are the only VN developer with such a pedigree that don't even have a single title fully translated because almost all of their titles have a fan translation that was started, but none of them ever got finished. And what makes Eustia in particular even more special, is that it's also highly acclaimed by people who aren't really into moege but more into darker more serious stuff, since August is usually considered first and foremost a moege developer.

I usually prefer H-heavy moege and story titles like Kohime Musou over straight nukiges. The only two titles I'd currently like to see translated which are really tagged as nukige are Bishoujo Mangekyou -Norowareshi Densetsu no Shoujo- and Boku to Koi Suru Ponkotsu Akuma and its fan disc Boku to Koi Suru Ponkotsu Akuma. Suggoi Ecchi! from NekoPara artist Sayori.

I think I would have mentioned that the voice acting can be a bit irritating since the voiced segments usually are just many small snippets instead of long continuous parts. I also felt that the many choices did disrupt the reading flow too much. Less but more meaningful choices would have been more IMO. Other than that, very nice review.

Well, the two translated gameplay heavy weights are Sengoku Rance and Kamidori Alchemy Meister. Kamidori can be grindy though, but it has very good gameplay and high production values. Besides those it's mostly the Xuse titles Eien no Aselia, Seinarukana -The Spirit of Eternity Sword 2- and Yumina the Ethereal. Though Yumina is just from former Xuse members.

The main title Majikoi and its first fan disc Majikoi S are translated, but the second fan disc Majikoi A is still in translation. The Deardrops fan disc is a crossover fan disc beween Kira Kira and Deardops, but besides that both are pretty much unrelated. Kira Kira is probably the most popular title out of the three but its translation is considered a bit weaker since its an older title. Deardrops has a better translation but isn't as good as Kira Kira story-wise. I like Edelweiss the most, but it's certainly a lot more chaotic than the other two. The first two routes of F/SN have two very good anime adaptions, so I don't really think it's necessary to read them, especially considering that the title is very old and really starts to show its age. Actually, I heard of Aoishiro just recently myself and read it about a month ago. I was pleasantly surprised since it was rather well made, though it does have its issues that it's a bit slow and the routes are very similar. Well, like many story VN's it can be rather slow, although I didn't really have that issue with G-Senjou. Some very good story VN's with a faster pacing are Cartagra and Kara no Shoujo from Innocent Grey, but those are more along the lines of Silence of the Lambs and certainly no fluffy high school romcoms. And I assume you've already read ef - a fairy tale of the two if you've a Sion avatar from Eden?

If you liked Little Busters and comedy, you should give Majkoi a try. Overdrive also has some good slice of life comedy titles with Deardrops, Kira Kira or Edelweiss. One of the best nakiges out there is still Hoshimem and for some lighter moege the Shuffle series is still a solid bet. Konosora is also a good read. The closest thing to Rewrite is probably still F/SN but you probably know that already. However, I'd suggest the less known Aoishiro instead. Nice Sion avatar btw Edit: And not to forget, the good old classic Ever17 if you like VN's with a big hidden mystery.

Someone mentioned Shuffle in a post and 'I' was suspected to be the poster, WTH!? Should I feel honored that I've gained enough fame to be even known on 4chan or pissed because I'm suspected to have made a post which is such a grammar mess that even I have problems to figure out its meaning. I'm not perfect, but I'm not that bad (at least I hope so). Besides that, I would have suggested Tsuriotsu not Shuffle! Essence+.

Ah okay, so they'll be adding more?! Just three announcements for AX felt a bit sparse anyway.

Those three also seem to be the only announcements for AX. MangaGamer really changes partners like their underwear... Most likely candidates are probably companies that are struggling on their homemarket. So which companies released big flops lately and/or are in severe financial trouble?! Besides that, exotic doujin companies nobody ever heard of are probably also likely candidates...