ChaosRaven

It's drawn by M&M who's now at Astronauts: Sirius. He's one of the most popular eroge artists for more mature women along with Komori Kei from Ricotta and maybe Sei Shoujo from Empress.

If you don't mind untranslated, I'd suggest Kiriya Hakushakuke no Roku Shimai from Atelier Kaguya. It's a bit like an Innocent Grey VN just with a lot more and better ero and the guys are dying instead of the girls. Great atmoshere and soundtrack. There's some rape in bad endings though, but the main routes are fine except one if I remember right. It's the hottest VN I've ever read. Just don't pick Sumi if you want a submissive girl, she's the exact opposite.

You're probably right, Eushully games have so much content in the side routes that intentionally skipping that much content would be a real waste. It's also risky since skipping the side quests could lead to underleveling and make the main quest line too difficult. Though I still liked Servalwi's route a lot. It's probably better to stick to Aselia and the soon to be released Seinarukana (which I'm eagerly awaiting myself). Can't recommend Yumina though - it was awful.

I think Kamidori can be played very loyal to one of the three main heroines, although you would have to avoid a bunch of side quests. Kamidori might have a lot of H-content for side characters, but at heart it's still a single heroine game. And who could resist Servalwi the elven princess... Though don't take my words as a given since it's quite some time since I last played it.

Yeah, not having a route for Chiaki is Noble Works biggest sin so far. She's even an otaku with hidden eroge depositories...

Completely without romance but lighthearted is tough. If low on romance is also okay I'd suggest Overdrive stuff: Edelweiss, Kira Kira, Deardrops or Dengeki Stryker. They have very entertaining slice of life with lots of fun and quirky characters.

Dude, I don't think quoting the whole list is a good idea.

Just for comparison, this is Getchu's sales ranking 2015. I've also added a list of the top twenty below. Only the entries which didn't appear already in the Getchu awards got an image and VNDB link for easier differentiation (and less work). Some interesting observations: I'm not sure what's more shocking, that Angel Beats didn't make it into the Getchu awards or that nobody even seemed to miss it. I think this is the first time that this happened to a major Key title, but it at least did sell well. Poor Key - beaten by Custom Maid 3D2. Eushully might not haven been happy about the ratings for Kami no Rhapsody but they certainly won't complain about the sales on third place. The same applies to Chrono Clock from Purple Software as well on fifth place. It also shows that a good writer isn't a guaranty for a good story. Both Looseboy's 'Boku no Hitori Sensou' and Ou Jacksons/Takahiro's Anekouji 'Naoko to Gin'iro no Shinigami' didn't get good ratings even if their titles sold well. That's why I love good artists - they always deliver. Edit: List fixed and several titles made it in from the Getchu winners like Sakura no Uta or... Custom Maid 3DR2. Other new titles are from Favorite, Feng and Ensemble. 1.) Sanoba Witch (Yuzusoft) 2.) Custom Maid 3D2 (KISS) 3.) Kami no Rhapsody (Eushully) 4.) Primal Hearts 2 (Marmalade) 5.) Chrono Clock (Purple Software) 6.) Angel Beats! (Key) 7.) Haru Kiss (Giga) 8.) Akai Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai (Favorite) 9.) Sakura no Uta (Makura) 10.) Hatsuru Koto Naki Mirai Yori (Front Wing) 11.) Hanasaki Work Spring! (Saga Planets) 12.) Imouto no Seiiki (Feng) 13.) Tokeijikake no Ley Line -Asagiri ni Chiru Hana- (Unison Shift: Blossom) 14.) Soreyori no Prologue (Minori) 15.) Koi Suru Kimochi no Kasanekata (Ensemble) 16.) Pretty x Cation 2 (Hibiki Works) 17.) Anekouji Naoko to Gin'iro no Shinigami (Minator Carnival) 18.) Boku no Hitori Sensou (Akabei Soft2) 19.) Koko kara Natsu no Innocence! (Clochette) 20.) Amakano ~Second Season~ (Azarashi Soft)

Great! The Kickstarter finally made it. Even if I was confident, you never know... With over 40 hours to go, even some stretch goals might be reached. Very happy!

So, the Getchu Bishoujo Game Awards 2015 are out. That was a lot faster than last year. Congratulations to Makura and SCA-Ji: Sakura no Uta won it. Looks like there's more to this title than just hype. I'm slowly getting interested. I made a short list with the 20 winners from last year with links to VNDB. 1.) Sakura no Uta (Makura) 2.) Sanoba Witch (Yuzusoft) 3.) Evenicle (Alice Soft) 4.) Sorcery Jokers (3rd Eye) 5.) Tokeijikake no Ley Line -Asagiri ni Chiru Hana- (Union Shift: Blossom) 6.) Amakano ~Second Season~ (Azarashi Soft) 7.) Miagete Goran, Yozora no Hoshi o (Pulltop) 8.) Pure x Connect (Smee) 9.) Hanasaki Work Spring! (Saga Planets) 10.) Hatsuru Koto Naki Mirai Yori (Front Wing) 11.) Custom Maid 3D2 (KISS) 12.) Primal x Hearts 2 (Marmalade) 13.) Rance 03 Leazas Kanraku (Alice Soft) 14.) Maggot Baits (Clock Up) 15.) Silverio Vendetta (Light) 16.) Koko kara Natsu no Innocence! (Clochette) 17.) Boku to Koi Suru Ponkotsu Akuma. (SMILE) 18.) Bishoujo Mangekyou -Kami ga Tsukuritamouta Shoujo-tachi- (ωstar) 19.) Koi x Shin Ai Kanojo (Us:Track) 20.) Soreyori no Prologue (Minori)

I'm aware of all the cost problems. That's the whole point of what I'm saying. Through Kickstarter you can get 'high spending' customers who can compensate for a 'lack of' customers. Do you know how much many people were willing to spend for MuvLuv on Kickstarter?! And that's why we can get expensive titles through Sekai Project but not via MangaGamer. Since MangaGamer would never try a Kickstarter if they can't finance a title through normal means. Instead they just pick the next best doujin. And my experiences with douijin are... less than stellar to say the least. Yeah, I know Himawari is supposed be such that that super great lolige - too bad I'm not into that. A cast consisting of a bunch of little kids simply doesn't interest me. And since when is LiarSoft a popular company in Japan? They are absolutely niche - ever had a look on their sales numbers? They never even made it into the yearly top 50 of Getchu. And considering how bad Shikkoku no Sharnoth was, I'm not surprised about it. Certainly, MangaGamer also brought a lot of good stuff over the years and it will take some time for Sekai Project to get even. I'm one of MG's biggest supporters after all. But Sekai Project simply makes more out of their possibilities, that's all I'm saying. They are still pretty new after all so comparing their whole program with the one from MangaGamer isn't exactly fair.

I'm fine with that, but does that mean that Silverio Vendetta 'sucks' because it just ended up on 4th place? Neither Silverio Vendetta nor Sakura no Uta have a translation, but everyone celebrates Sakura no Uta while nobody gives a damn about Silverio Vendetta. So my interpretaion is that people have indeed much more interest in school life VN's than VN's with other scenario's. That's pretty much just an observation. I thought it would be more the Japanese VN fans that prefer the scenario, but overall it looks like the wester VN scene isn't really different: School life VN's >> everything else.

I've never said it sucks. I just expressed my curiosity why people prefer it so much over more interesting scenario's. And I want to emphasize that I mean generic by Japanese standards not westerns standards. Kara no Shoujo is an extremely unique scenario for Japanese standards. But just ask MangaGamer how satisfied they are with its sales. I'm interested in some school life VN's myself, so it's not that I'd hate them.

Uh, no! Maybe it's generic for western movie and game standards, but it's certainly not generic for Japanese VN standards. I've never read a VN with such a scenario, and I wouldn't even know a comparable one with an English translation.

It does matter, because other comparable highly rated school life VN's are criticized because of that but Sca-Ji's aren't. It actually reminds me a bit of Key-fanboyism.

I'm aware that's it's certainly much better than Ikikoi, however even if it's a very good VN, it's still a VN with a super generic school life scenario. There were several other very good and highly rated VN's like Hatsuyuki Sakura in the voting groups which weren't celebrated like the second coming of Fate/Stay Night. Silverio Vendetta is also very highly rated on EGS and VNDB. And Dies Irae is currently at least almost as hyped as Subarashiki Hibi. So it's not that people wouldn't know about Light. So I'm simply a bit irritaded why people go completely crazy over a school life VN just because it's written by Sca-Ji and ignore VN's of comparable quality but with a much more interesting scenario. And it's almost worse with the Cross Channel retranslation which did beat Silverio Vendetta directly. It's not even particularly high rated on VNDB with barely an 8.0. And a high school scenario with students with psychological problems, time loop and a perverted protagonist?! Even if it's greatly written, is a more generic scenario even possible? So maybe people don't really want new and interesting scenario's, maybe they just want their endless school life VN's again and again just with slighly better writing. Overall, there must be reason why the Japanese hardly produce anything else. And the votings don't exactly make me believe otherwise.

I think from the current votig group Soushuu Senshinkan would be the only title I'm interested in. Though to be honest, taking Dies Irae aside, from Light's titles I would prefer Silverio Vendetta over that one. But Silverio Vendetta already ended up in a disastrous 4th place. Probably too new, so the name wasn't popular enough yet. Makes me wonder why people are hyping so much over Sakura no Uta instead, considering it looks more like school life moege Ikikoi 2 - Boredom Reloaded. Silverio Vendetta looks far more interesting and is also highly rated. People complain that they just get run of the mill school life VN's the whole time, but if they actually get the choice they vote it over and over again.

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of faith in MangaGamer's partnerships. It might not be their fault but for whatever reasons they regularly fail to get the better titles from them. Ask a Lilith fan about what titles they wanted and what they finally got. And the latest title from BaseSon was Harukoi Otome - probably the worst title from their list. And what about Ou Jackson's kamiges Oretsuba and Tsuriotsu from Navel?! Nothing!! Any of the newer highly rated works from Caramel Box like Otoboku 2? Nothing!!! And I was probably the only one who was happy that they picked an (almost 10 year old) non-Rance title from AliceSoft instead of one of the newer Rance titles since I like the artist more and I'm also not a Rance fan. And most Propeller fans would have probably preferred Asairo or Evolimit over at least Pygmalion. They wanted to go back to old partners last year and we got... Kuroinu from Liquid *gasp*. The sole exception seems to be Innocent Grey where we really get the best titles. Not sure if that continues though. Yeah, I know they always have a good excuse like license cost, voice costs, their partner didn't want to give them the title they wanted and so on it goes. But people can say about Sekai Project what they want, but at least they can make impossible deals HAPPEN: Clannad, Grisaia, G-Senjou no Maou, Chrono Clock - the 'newest' title from Purple Software not 'ten years old', the YuzuSoft deal, Root Double, etc. They might go a bit overboard with their Kickstarters, but at least they MAKE a Kickstarter if they need the money for a high quality title. MangaGamer just pick the next best doujin title instead. For a title like Baldr Sky I would definitely put my money on Sekai Project, not on MangaGamer.

Depends on what MangaGamer will make out of the final list. Probably the usual: They sort it, order it and then perfectly analyse it - just to accidentally turn it upside down and license the ten most unpopular titles in the list.

Yes, Django Unchained was pretty great - probably my favorite Tarantio movie together with Inglourious Basterds. Though I think Frank Millers Sin City comic art style would better fit to it than Marvel Comic style.

Well, I picked my two usual wanna have titles Tsuriotsu and Shin Koihime Musou. For the third title, it took me about two minutes to decide between Ikusa Megami series and Eustia. I finally ended up picking Eustia, but it could have been Ikusa Megami too.

Hardly! Japanese manga art is already quite diverse. There are already several popular art styles with a more western or realistic touch. For example Sei Shoujo (Empress), M&M (Astronauts) or Sugina Miki (Innocent Grey) have a very unique art style. And IMHO art can't get more 'alien' than in Stein's Gate anyway. Your art might not be classic Japanese style, but it's definitely very well drawn western comic style. I think the more decisive point for VN veterans would be: Where are the pretty girls?!? There's a reason why VN's are also often called bishojo games. Ah and btw, since you have a black western comic protagonist here. Any motivation to make a visual novel about another one - THIS one?!? Give me a decent Blade VN and I'm the first to buy it!!! Just a personal dream. I probably watched the movie at least a dozen times.

For me it would be version A if the red boxes are changed. The bold black text on green background is very good to read, but the red color is so dark that I can barely read the text in it. With the red color, white text would be much easier to see. Or change the red color to something brighter like yellow or orange.

Well the obvious suggestion for sci-fi would be MuvLuv Alternate, but I'd also suggest Soullink, which is IMHO pretty underrated.

Ugh, Eustia versus Tsuritso - that's a hard one. Two visual novels which are on my top ten list I absolutely have to read. Eustia is arguably August's best VN with a great medieval fantasy scenario. But Tsuriotsu has Luna, the ultimate kami heroine who won the Getchu character award three years in a row. Well I hope both finish first and second, I don't really care about the order. I want to see both getting translated. Still, I guess Eustia will finish first because it's longer around and a lot of people, including me, want to see the fan translation get finished and the August curse finally get lifted. Though, I'd have to vote for Tsuriotsu or I'll get trouble with my waifu. lol