Okarin

Don't confuse fantasy the genre with fantasy the act. As a genre fantasy doesn't necessarily involve leaps of faith and suspension of disbelief, if done right -especially with human characters that should be like us. There can be conceivable fantasy. As a resort fantasy can mean pandering to people that can't materialize the thing in real life -womanizer characters for people with no love life, strong characters for weak people, and so on. The most suspicious thing in fantasy is magic, because we don't have a proof of it existing in real life. But still, if properly explained and bound under some definite rules, it can be conceivable. Every character is defined within his/her own range (everyone expects something concrete of Deadpool) but there are still well and badly written characters. Mary Sues tend to be poor characters and terrible to read about. And even if the fantasy factor is important, you can end up frustrated because you can't relate to him/her -you can't be as perfect as him/her. I thought that the heavy use of tropes indicated lazy writing, as well as everything having been exploited before -which is kinda a fact. Probably you can't innovate with a story, but you can with characters. Supposedly the diversity in people is immense and so should be as well with characters.

Mary Sues, and probably tsunderes, generally hint at the story or author being shit. They're overused tropes that aren't innovative anymore. Also, Mary Sues, and tsunderes, are extraordinarily limited by their very nature. There's narrow room for improvement of the trope. What's better, a fantastical overpowered character to pander to your loser audience, or a realistic character that faces his/her problems with his/her own abilities? You may be willing to accept fantasy, but quality lies on the latter example. The other is just a sort of mental masturbation.

I remembered I HAVE to watch Space Dandy. 2 years already looking for it. Now it's when.

It's true there are problems with the community, especially OELVNs' quality, and people's tastes, but you can't do much about it. Yet it feels that you are looking down on the populace and want to take the cake away from them. Won't things develop in a natural way?

Sachi was a mess, but in truth she alternates being a mess of a person and being a good sister. For the majority of her route she was okay with Mana departing to... slavery, pretty much. It's not that being a piece of trash makes sense -it's that her full-blown transformation is not very convincing. Still, with all the twists and the ups and downs, it's hard to empathize with her. It's not a bad idea per se, it's just inconsistent writing.

It's not the problems themselves which are stupid, it's the way they're addressed. Much as in Yume Miru Kusuri. Supposedly a game about very serious stuff and H scenes every 5 minutes. That just isn't consistent.

I just wanted to express my thoughts. The thread is fine and interesting. Maybe I'll even come to appreciate the genre in the future, who knows... Looking at it as a business, I guess everyone wracks their heads in search of that thing no one has done, and this seemed like a perfect example. Even if it's a derivation of drama CDs, as you say. That it was just doujin level, it hadn't occurred to me.

I have doubts about its validity as porn itself, but I'm no expert on this matter. Porn clearly isn't bad per se; but the general rule is "all things in moderation". I said money grab, because the whole thing seems to me like a "fantastic idea" from an enterpreneur. Well I have to admit that it hasn't been done before. But will it be a fad, or has it come to stay? We'll see.

Seems like a money grab to me. Quoting Natalie Imbruglia: "Hear a bell ring, sex sells everything, but I don't buy it, so don't try it..."

R11 is a mess, but a fine mess indeed. Its story isn't clearly resolved, but it has probably the best atmosphere and immersion ever -beating Ever 17. Sadly, the details are confusing, contradictory, or just not well-thought enough.

I agree with Vorathiel that this work is horribly overrated. Yeah, Sachi's route is pretty mediocre, and Mana integrates badly with the whole of it, but... dem tits!! Just joking, it was pretty meh, and made me stay away from reading the VN for a while. I have currently cleared up Sachi and most of Touka, and have Natsumi left. But I'm pretty much expecting that the whole story behind the characters (i. e. what happened in the past) won't save it. Medium tier novel.

I played VLR before 999, so I guess my opinion is already distorted. But I dug through VLR, couldn't stop playing until the end.

The game will probably end with the equivalent of Aqua Stripe (Ever 17), only that Aqua Stripe was such a good cheerful song. And only after having been through tons of shit for the characters, in that regard it should be similar to VLR. Also there should be a heavier focus on Brother and Free the Soul. As for 999 not being available anywhere...

OELVN I liked best, discounting Katawa Shoujo, was Sepia Tears. Simple moving story... check; geeky references... check; realistic teenage characters without a clue BUT with a personality... check.

More like Sakura Beach (I don't want to play further Sakura games), it's so bad it's just bad. No redeeming qualities. Yume Miru Kusuri also is *very* overrated by many. And A Profile, but that has less fans.

It's not, the game is designed overall to be a clever fanservice coup upon the player. I followed it on a Youtube gameplay, instead of buying it, but looked appealing enough. All in all, it's your modern-day mahjong/pachinko/gambling game with a fanservice reward, I believe those games were popular over Japan once upon a time. As in, win a game and we'll give you this naughty pic as a reward. Also, HuniePop gets hilarious sometimes, especially with some girls like Beli and Aiko... you probably know what I'm talking about. Also, isn't Sharin no Kuni overrated as hell?

Seems I did this post one month early. Ah well.

It should be possible to still find some of the older Fuwa's torrents lying around on the internet. And then some not from Fuwa.

Come on, they did Written in the sky. Ded studio.

Well, 2008 R2 is more of a serious OS. Like Win Pro is miles ahead of Home Edition.

What if you make the trick and have 2 different Windows installations? That's playing safe. Your HDD space might disagree though. Also, it's common that when running a Japanese locale some programs don't boot, since it changes things as your disk routes, so a western program doesn't know where on Earth to locate some files it needs, for example.

"Period", it's very long (8 different girls), but it's not guaranteed you'll like it. However, it's slice of life as hell. "Crescendo", normally I wouldn't recommend this game, but probably you'll find something to like in it.

I'd like to play Hoshimemo. IIRC the game I had crashed on me after some time into the novel, so if I can fully play it, I'll support it.

Confession: I've never fapped to a VN. Though I'm too old for that, started with VNs at the age of 28. It's also that most H scenes that come my way aren't exactly enticing or great.

Well it can't be art, since Sakura Beach has great art and it's terrible in every other aspect. For me it's the plot, the setting, the feel and the writing, I'm certainly not there for the H. Never fapped to a VN, only like once or twice I felt the inclination. It's no surprise many people are naming characters, since telling a story never seen is difficult, characters tend to make or break a work of fiction.