adamstan

Another progress report. It seems that I get to work on this project around the actual Season of Sakura Whatever, today I finished all four confession scenes in Chapter 12. So now we're at 90% Now all that remains are actual endings. ~1500 lines left to go.

Well, Ruu is the best girl, so that's no surprise

Recently I didn't have much time, so there was looong break. But I hate the thought of abandoning this project. Today finally I managed to go over some 300 lines, thus finishing retranslating Chapter 11 (Valentine's Day) and bringing completion counter up to the 85% Now what's left is Chapter 12 (White Day - Shuuji's reply to girls' confessions), and endings. Around 2200 lines.

Yesterday I finished (first part of) Matsuri's route in PS2 version of Yotsunoha. And now I'm not sure how to proceed from here. As you may know, PC version of Yotsunoha has strict enforced playing order - Nono 1 > Nono 2 > Iori 1 > Iori 2 > Matsuri 1 > Matsuri 2 > Arisa (true route?). AFAIK the "2" versions of three girls' routes are kind of alternate versions. But, back to the point. PS2 version doesn't have such strict system. At the beginning there are Nono 1 and Iori 1 routes available (you can choose which one to read first). Completing them both unlocks Matsuri 1 (and enables route selection screen at the start). After completing Matsuri 1 (that's where I'm currently) everything else gets unlocked at once, and there are four more options available at route selection screen - Arisa, Iori 2, Nono 2, Matsuri 2. And I don't know if it would be bettter to read Arisa's route before Iori's, Nono's and Matsuri's alternate routes (as PS2 walkthrough suggests), or save it for the very end, sticking to PC route order. PS I'm very disappointed by the fact that best girl Suzuki-senpai doesn't have a route (And she actually liked protagonist!)

Which one was that?

Did you play the old one or the remake? I have remake sitting on shelf waiting for its turn, but I keep hearing worrying things about this VN Some say it's almost like a bit tamer version of School Days - at least when it comes to shitty protagonists

Looks indeed like a neat tool to track play time for non-steam games

Not exactly, but my main motivation to start learning was to be able to read VNs one day. And, in turn, reading VNs definitely improves my Japanese Win-win If I remember correctly, main triggers were bad offical translation of If My Heart Had Wings (unreadable Ageha's route) and lack of translation for Mashiro Iro Symphony

While waiting for Higurashi to go on sale, I started to read PS2 version of Yotsunoha, which has arrived today in my mailbox It is unhookable, but, just like another Hiqosoft's game - Sakura Sakura - it seems to be dialogues-only, so it's fairly easy, since usually narration is the part I find most difficult to read in VNs Actually console edition of Yotsunoha is quite interesting phenomenon, since it looks like some kind of remake. It ditches map movement system and floating text boxes of PC version, replacing it with standard ADV interface and choices. I'm not a fan of map movement systems, so that's a big plus for me. And another, quite striking difference, is art. It uses completely different art, drawn in different style - especially sprites and CGs. It looks like an old-school anime - which is another plus for me, since I love that style (even despite overall lower image quality on PS2) Check out those screenshots from prologue. To the left - console, to the right - PC. Some more comparisons below: Also, PC version seems to follow YU-NO in its obsession with pantyshots in CGs The only thing that bothers me in console release is that white font - it's a bit hard to read sometimes. I wonder if it's perhaps emulation issue, since screenshots in manual feature red font, just like in PC version...

I also forgot to mention, that yesterday I finished Himawari no Kyoukai to Nagai Natsuyasumi. It took me ~90hrs over three weeks, so perhaps half or one-third of my "normal" (translated) reading speed It was great story about friendship, family and time, with a bit of magical undertones - a little KEY-like. In my previous post I mentioned Daiya's route - it was quite typical ojousama moege route, but very enjoyable. Then I read Ruka's route - it had very different mood, with a bit of mystery and magic, and quite interesting twist. Tsukiko's route (console only) was again more lighthearted, but it also featured some additional foreshadowing for Yomi's route. Yomi's route, unlocked after completing those three above, is kind of pre-true route It made the most use of the supernatural parts, and was quite nakige'y. I loved it. Completing Yomi's route unlocks Hina's, which is The True Route. Hina is much younger than the rest of the cast - when we meet her, she's little girl who just came to the Oboshiro church after loosing her parents (or so it seems), and Father Arakawa is taking care of her - just like he did for Yousuke (protagonist) years ago. Hina is really cute, and quickly becomes friends with Yousuke and the girls. It's really heartwarming to watch how they all are doting over her in common route and some parts of the girls' routes . Hina's actual route branches off early part of Yomi's route. It covers an (unexpected) link between Yousuke and her and ultimately ends with Yousuke becoming her guardian, and them living in (now closed) Oboshiro church. (I think the conclusion itself isn't that big of the spoiler, since the most interesting parts lie inbetween.) Luckily, Yousuke isn't lolicon, so there isn't any H stuff in this route in any version of the game Overally, this route was very heartwarming. But that's just a first part. After completing little Hina's route, the following part of the true route unlocks from the main menu. It is continuation of Hina's route after ten years timeskip, following the struggles of Yousuke's and Hina's family life and her growing up. It was really nice family-focused coming of age story. I think we could draw some parallels with Matsuri's route from Kazoku Keikaku, although it is a bit different. But the common point of two people with considerable age gap falling in love remains. Here we also get to know more about Hina's family. Daiya, Ruka and Tsukiko also come back as supporting characters. It was quite a ride, definitely pinnacle of this VN. And the ending was very fulfilling. Art and music is gorgeous. Voices were also nice, I'd just wish that all characters were voiced. As it is, only female characters are fully voiced. For male characters, only three of them are voiced - Father Arakawa, Daiya's grandfather and one other guy who's identity should remain secret, since it's a bit of a spoiler Other male characters are unvoiced and spriteless - those two things combined often tripped me up a bit, since I had to stop for a moment to check if the line I'm just reading is protagonist or one of those characters But that's just a minor complaint. It would also be nice, if common route had some more variety/branches. As it is now, while it has lots of choices, those choices are just convoluted way to select the route, and in common route they change just a few lines, if anything. So after a first playthrough, common route consist mostly of skipping I also skipped through +18 PC version. I didn't like placement of most of the H-scenes, and also I strongly dislike the style of HCGs this VN uses, with big focus on the genital area often taking up to the half of the screen. It's fine in the nukige, but in romance story I'd prefer something less obviously porny. Aokana did great job at that with most of its HCGs. So with that considered, I'd take additional Tsukiko's route of the PS3 version over those dubious H-scenes Time to sum up this horrible wall of text - HimaNatsu is definitely one of the charage gems, and I'm really glad I read it. 8.5/10

Yup. Also, I just found out that Steam version has both English and Japanese text included - so I'd probably will go indeed with Steam version + 07thMod. PS3 version is unfortunately unhookable. But I have to say that PS3 opening song kicks ass - so I'm really glad that 07thMod includes it too

I'm not sure if I'm actually that interested in console arcs, since they apparently are just extensions made by different(?) writers. Also, given sheer length of the story, maybe I should stick to the english version? I guess that finishing it in Japanese would take me something like half a year

Sadly, most of console versions newer than PS3 are no good for me. I don't own any console (and I'm not ready to go without text hooking yet since I have to look up lot of words), so I have to rely on emulators. PS4 isn't emulated yet, so that version is out of question. As for Switch - there's an emu, and I managed to play World End Syndrome with it, but the performance was far from stellar, and I'm not sure how hook-friendly Switch emulation is But then maybe I should try my luck with PS3 version? It looks like I could get it (used) from amazon for ¥4400 (incl. shipping). Just have to check if it's hookable beforehand, since some VN engines are weird, and don't have separate memory area for textbox contents. In those cases, or when the game uses non-standard text encoding, hooking is impossible.

Great. I have considerable backlog, so I guess I'll wait for Steam summer sale, since the whole package comes out rather pricey at regular prices

Hmm... apart from fucked-up h-content, I guess I'm also not good with too depressing mindfuck stuff, like death games etc. (Those two combined rule out things like Euphoria ) To give an example - I know that it's rather mild (and I think a talked about it once here), but I got severely disturbed by watching "The Cube" in the highschool (I think I was 16 back then). Not because of the gory bits, but more because back then I found the overall message kind of depressing. Mystery, violence etc are all fine, as long as it doesn't all spiral down into "All people are monsters, world is fucked-up beyond repair, no hope, no future, no love and it's best to die anyway" kind of stuff Basically - no hard utsuge please. It's just that after reading WES and finding out that I enjoyed its mystery part, I kind of started to warm-up to the idea of tackling Higurashi one day

Congratulations, you played yourself But, jokes aside, I'm also looking forward to the sequel Luckily, for this VN I managed to go spoiler-free. BTW I think that weird character limit for protagonist's name is there because developers couldn't be bothered to properly adapt the system from the Japanese version for English release - in Japanese number of characters would be enough for almost any possible name, when writing in kanji. BTW I have to ask - if I enjoyed this VN, would I be okay with Higurashi? (I'm almost 100% sure that Subahibi is a no-go for me, but Higurashi doesn't seem so fucked-up based on reviews) Yes it is, no doubts about it

https://old.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/lsp2vq/doukyuusei_remake_translation_announcement_by/ I'm mildly interested - although it might be too dating-simey for my taste. Main thing that attracted me to this game was PC98 pixel-art, but that is obviously gone in the remake, just like with YU-NO.

With KEY I actually went backwards. At first I was turned off by character design in their older works, so I started with LittleBusters. I loved it, so then I played Clannad. I think that thanks to it I got gradually used to old KEY's art style, and then I was ready for Kanon, AIR and ONE Planetarian and Summer Pockets were also very good. But for some reason I have almost no interest in Rewrite...

I found some nice deals on amazon again Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na -Brighter than Dawning Blue- for PC - Windows 7 Support Edition and ToHeart2 DX PLUS - Regular Edition I've read fan-TLs of both titles, but it's nice to have originals. And I think one day I'm going to reread them untranslated. I'm especially curious about ToHeart2, since this edition has some additional content and routes from fandisc (which seems to have very polarised reviews ). Also, H-scenes in ToHeart 2 XRated felt tacked-on and out of character, so I'm looking forward to the all-ages version (After all, in case of this title, original was all-ages, with H version coming year later) BTW, before I noticed, I gathered quite a lot of physical Japanese (and one translated) VNs From left to right: Tenohira o, Taiyou ni Kanon Memorial Edition Natsu no Ame Sakura Strasse Sukimazakura to Uso no Machi (without box) World End Syndrome (the only translated one in this bunch) White Album Kono Oozora ni Tsubasa o Hirogete ~Cruise Sign~ Himawari no Kyoukai to Nagai Natsuyasumi To Heart 2 DX PLUS Mashiro Iro Symphony ~mutsu no hana~ Toradora! Sorairo Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o True Love Story To Heart PSE Ano Hi no Tabibito, Fureau Mirai Yoake Mae yori Ruri Iro na ~Brighter than a dawning blue When did that all happened? I still remember swearing that I'd never buy physical edition of VN (I'm also currently waiting for PS3 version of White Album 2 and PS2 versions of Yotsunoha and Konneko - they should arrive next week)

Well, I saw some Steam reviews when someone claimed that they clearly see where the h-scenes were cut from the Akari's route in Flight Diary - even though that route never had any And I guess that if there was only one route without h-scene, then people would still complain, that they can't lewd their favorite waifu. Sadly, that seems to be universal eroge rule - if there's a route, then sex scene is mandatory. Perhaps that's the leftover from dating-sim era - so that players who chose certain heroine wouldn't feel "cheated". You can also often see, that sometimes developers strive to provide equal number of scenes for each heroine, and it's obvious that some of them were added just to meet the quota.

Yeah. But sometimes there are games that were first released as an eroge, but H-scenes in them still feel forced and unnecessary - and in such cases I also prefer all-ages version if it exists. That was the case with the many VNs I've read recently - like Sorairo, Kono Aozora Ni Yakusoku O, or HimaNatsu I'm reading right now. Really, all-ages versions of those titles feel so much more consistent, and have better flow. There are also games which handle their ero stuff tastefully, with proper build-up etc - recent example I've read that comes to mind is Sakura Strasse. Mashiro Iro Symphony and Aokana were also very good at that (but so were their all-ages versions) But actually currently I first usually go for all-ages version - which usually means console port for untranslated, and Steam version for translated. Sometimes, especially if all-ages version is made by translation company, I feel like they didn't do good job, and then I switch over to eroge version. That was the case with titles localized by Solpress - Sakura Sakura and Under One Wing. They cut waay too much. But OTOH all-ages versions created by NekoNyansoft are great, and I never felt the need to download H-scene patch for Sanoba Witch or Making Lovers. And all-ages versions created by developers themselves for console ports also usually do the job for me. And often they come with bonuses such as extended scenario or new routes. As for Hoshimemo this thread started from - I bought it on Steam quite long time ago, but I'm waiting for the long-promised-by-SekaiProject retranslation.

Because otherwise horny players would moan about "censorship"

Sadly, oftens saves aren't compatible across different releases - and saves at sagaoz are obviously made for Japanese release.

Yesterday I finished first route in Himawari no Kyoukai to Nagai Natsuyasumi -extra vacation-. It was Daiya's route. While it's rather tropey ojou-sama story, I enjoyed it very much - it executed its tropes well enough . Daiya herself is cute , and actually the whole cast - including Yousuke, the protagonist - is very likeable. I had no problems to connect with them right from the start. If this route is indeed - like the rumors say - the weakest one, then I think I'm in for a treat and perhaps I've found another charage gem? I'm really liking the overall atmosphere of this VN. It's similar feeling to my other most-liked charages like Konosora, Princess Evangile and some others - it's just nice to be there and spend time with characters Mentor-like male side characters? Funny coincidence - I think that Father Arakawa from Himanatsu also fits the bill. Well, he's more like.. um... father figure for protagonist At first encounter he seems a bit silly with his crazy strength and devotion to martial arts (although you can also sense kind of friendship between him and Yousuke right from the start), but he offers good advice and support here and there, and it's obvious that he really cares about Yousuke and his group. Yousuke also mentions that he learned a lot from him. I'm looking forward to the remaining routes . (And it also looks like I should expect some mood shift, since apparently the route I've just read is an odd one ) I also, as usual, did quick comparison with adult version for this route. I didn't like neither h-scenes placement nor HCGs themselves I'm sticking with PS3 version, especially since it offers additional route for Tsukiko. Console version has +17 rating. It removes sex scenes, leaving just kissing scenes. But it doesn't shy away completely from the sexual themes - for example, during some makeout/kissing scenes protagonist mentions something like "let's stop for now, or I won't be able to control myself", and during bath scene Daiya notices his boner after she washed his back. The difference is that they get embarassed and just enter the bath instead of proceeding to fuck And well - they also spend the night together in protagonist's bed, so there's some food for imagination I liked it better that way, and I think that it fts the particular setting of this VN more.

Yesterday I started reading PS3 version of Himawari no Kyoukai to Nagai Natsuyasumi (which has just arrived) I'm still quite early in the prologue, but it looks promising (and pretty - art is really nice ) Unfortunately I have some technical issues with it (I don't know if it's just due to emulation, or the game itself is broken) - while it runs seemingly without problems, sometimes it will randomly freeze while advancing to the next line. And autosaves/quicksaves don't work properly in emulator. So yesterday I lost 3 hours worth of progress The workaround is to remember to save manually often (at least on scene transitions, when auto-save message pops up ). A bit bothersome, but it looks sooo much better than low-res PSP version, so I'm sticking with it