Okarin

To be honest, I only played my favourite heroines: Ayu, Shiori and Makoto. The game feels so very ancient today. Awesome opening music though, and my favourite "The fireworks of winter". I think that the anime is easier to watch, the pacing and structure are good.

We'd have to go into detail (of actual dialogue) to see whether Ayu is the true heroine or not, i. e. the girl that Yuuichi truly loved. Due to format quirks, the VN presents each girl as a full-blown love interest, whereas the anime downplays them in favour of Ayu The VN doesn't have a true route because it probably predates that concept.

Spice and Wolf season 3!!!

Nice take, but if you watch the anime, Kanon 2006, you'll see that Ayu is the canon (pun heh) heroine. She's saved for last and it's the culmination of the story.

My fuse blows at the idea of banging someone in partial armour.

School Days seems to be overlooked these days, but it's really intense material and the story can develop in the worst ways (for you and your character, not for it). It's a love triangle with some additional participants, has a lot of endings, and the protagonist girls are nice.

I don't know... emotional H-scenes don't abound. About H-scenes I found hot... I liked Tsuzumi in "Period" [if you play it, don't you mind she turns into a loli at the end], and Sarina's goodbye one in Kira*Kira [banging in public restroom against the wall, hmmmm]. Also there's another improptu banging in Kira*Kira that's really cool, involving a gig organizer IIRC.

I agree with Derg, 30 hours is enough for every kind of game (unless I crazily love it). 50-hour VNs drag along and are boring by the end. Also a great number of heroines means some will be underdeveloped and just filler material. But most really short VNs don't work, they have just too little content. Quartett was okay, but it has way lesser impact than, say, Ever 17. Also, it had way too many characters for such a short playing time.

About the manga you mentioned, that's adolescent love I guess, and people quickly grow out of it and learn to have better relationships. About this thing of "it isn't necessary to be together with someone you aren't 'in love' with", you should check out Erich Fromm's "The art of love" (I think that's the English name), where he points out that in the past it was traditional to have arranged marriages in hopes that both partners learned to love and live together with each other, even if the crush of falling in love wasn't present.

Did anyone like Charlotte at all? And we still have to endure Rewrite's anime. Ugh.

Grisaia's anime holds the dubious honor of having the only first episode that I couldn't watch through. Called it quits some minutes after start. Isn't the first episode where all the effort goes, to compel you to watch the whole thing? Sheesh.

Overdrive ones (Deardrops and Kira*Kira) are somewhat laid back, but drama rears its ugly head at some point (it's not a major point though). They're among the most enjoyable VNs I've read. ef has the disadvantage (or maybe advantage) that characters keep changing from chapter to chapter, it's a collection of stories. As Little Busters, they focus on building a lovable cast of characters and tell their stories. Bad thing is quality varies noticeably, and there's quite a gap between the high schoolers' romance and their seniors'. But it's a nice collection of romances.

Depends on your time budget, Key games are fine if you have many hours to sink into them. Expect some months to finish Little Busters, for example. If low on time you can always pick Planetarian, that has a good ratio of time-to-feelz. Kanon, for example, is fine because you can play the routes that interest you and there's no true route.

I played VLR in 2014 and found it perfect; it was the handheld game that hooked me the most and I couldn't stop playing for a week until I beat it. The Escape Rooms posed an adequate challenge (had to look up some of them) and the thrill of your first Nonary Game is something great. The story is very convoluted and involves suspension of disbelief but it's alright I think. In a normal progression VLR should be the third part as it's the last to happen timing-wise, so if anything Uchikoshi took a valiant stance to make it a middle installment in the series, and prequel to the ending. The thing about Sigma's OP-ism is justification for the way the game unfolds. You had to be locked away from the endings early on and were encouraged to try some other timelines in the tree in order to unlock them. I found this gameplay pretty cool, but it causes bullshit plot-wise. But it was all designed to make the game more interesting, so I can cope with that. I liked Phi, I don't agree she's generic, she's the co-protagonist and has a lot of weight in the story. There are some secrets to her that will be material for ZE3. I got into 999 in 2015 and the playing order was critical. I couldn't help comparing it with VLR and the latter is the more advanced game. Also it's from a later generation of gaming. The story of 999 was simpler and with a smaller scope [saving Akane]. Anyway as a DS game it should be admired. I agree Akane is a gray character but that's the fun to her. Her methods are not always gentle, but prove to be effective. The cockblock to Junpei has to be further explained yet. Somehow I expect ZE3 won't be as good as it's looking and I think it will leave some (maybe many) questions unanswered. As a story and closing part of the series it's a great endeavour.

It's Dr People, and it's all mine! I vote for #2, because hakui.

Yeah, everything stays in the same place, you even have a backup of your Win 7 installation, and the option to go back with the upgrade. The Japanese locale is the exact same, but its menu now appears in a "Region" option under the Control Panel, that you now ("conveniently") have to access in the search bar down left.

If you hate the Grisaia novel, you should by all means stay away from the anime... I couldn't even finish first ep, too much facepalm! I hated the whole thing with a passion and didn't want to touch the novel.

Yes, I was broadly pointing out to major titles that get easily translated; take Root Double, for example. The hype. I wish that the industry was less moe-driven from now on, keeping it to a minimum, but I guess moe has a powerful appeal.

Well, about the moralism, you have two paths to take: a) to leave the interpretation of things to the reader, and b) to let the author deliver his message and view on things. In this case, I think it's not bad to be subjective on the topics, as long as you do it in a mature manner. Even in VLR... ...and VLR is pretty much the crowning game of this genre. In 999...

- The latter to arrive have skewed results, as they may sell more given enough time. - It's a-okay, but I'm not very interested in how well titles that we may never see here are doing; it's more interesting as a picture of the Japanese market. - Japanese publishers should acknowledge the Western market (such as Steam) as a gift from Heaven, since it allows them to basically pump their sales.

The game is fairly bad but the Fuwa reference was golden, your mileage may vary though.

True, whenever the stars are visible I take a good look at them, if you meant it in a more serious way, I'm thinking of doing observations with the local astronomy club (a la HoshiMemo). Next person doesn't like chocolate.

There's a subcategory of the anti-H who feel that most H-scenes are pandering crap, and yet another who think vanilla sex gets boring real fast.

You mean VNs made in the West, or that we shouldn't have trodden upon forbidden grounds?

Sorry, but: drama >>> moe.