adamstan

While most of the characters were rather tropey - which seemed to work perhaps thanks to fantasy elements in the setting? - there's one exception, and that's banter between Kakeru and Sora, which, at least to me, felt surprisingly natural. And maybe that's what makes Sora the best character As for your complaints towards Sora's route - that's where all-ages version shows its superiority Unfortunately, I cannot recommend Steam editions without adult patches, since there are parts where they are overly censored (especially the Haruka's chapter). The only "proper" all-ages version is Complete Edition, (available in two physical versions and on DLSite) which unfortunately is untranslated. But if one wants to read -Nine- in Japanese, it's great (and it's in 1080p ) Besides, the epilogue is all-ages only anyway ********************** As for Damekoi, Few days ago I finished Kaya's route. I liked it, although it shows that she's just a "side heroine" I have stopped for a moment, because last few days I've been too tired to read, but maybe I'll return to it today. BTW I again did a quick comparison between the All-ages edition that I'm playing and +18 MangaGamer's version (so far only for Kaya's route). And once again I lean heavily towards all-ages version, even if sometimes it felt a bit too tame (but then, it has +15 rating). I found the replacement scenes added in the PSP version to be much nicer than too-many badly-animated H-scenes from MG's edition. Really, some of those animations looked so bad it's not even funny I was very disappointed to find out that scenes like were just the replacement scenes, and were completely absent from adult version - they fit the route so well. Also, all-ages edition added very nice post-credits epilogue for Kaya (and I assume for other "side" heroines as well, but will know for sure after finishing them) It's a pity that all-ages version is available only on low-res PSP though I wish there was PC or PS3 port...

Yeah, the executable with "CHS" in its name was Chinese patch.

It's the first time I see such glitches. With badly set locale you'd usually just get garbage instead of Japanese text (or the game refuses to run at all) When I played Mashiro Iro Symphony I had to fiddle a bit with various patches to make it start, but once it started, it ran without any errors. Maybe that's compatibility problem with newer Windows versions? I played on Win 7.

Thanks for another VN added to bookmark/wishlist

They're the same - all versions of Nine use Kirikiri engine. As for my playing - I reached sixth chapter in Damekoi, and in the meantime it all started to come together and make sense The very beginning was perhaps a bit too chaotic, but after getting used to that style now it's okay.

That looks like something that I might like. Thanks

Which version of Shuffle do you have? I have Steam version from YumeHaven, which is apparently a port of PS2 version, but haven't read it yet. AFAIK currently none of the translated versions is available because licensing agreements have ran out.

Yesterday I got an actual PSP and tried it - the game runs perfectly fine on real hardware, so it's purely an emulation issue. Unfortunately for now I have to rely on PPSSPP since I need text hooking - retyping words manually into dictionary from PSP screen would be too much of a hassle As for the Damekoi itself - I'm around third chapter and all heroines have been introduced. Protagonist is slowly improving himself. Somehow I start to like Kaya, and I'm really curious how in hell that cunning Himeo could become a heroine - so far she seems rather villainous I'd also perhaps prefer if Asami was main heroine - although some say that actually her and Mitoko are two "main" heroines, while Kaya and Himeo are side ones. But still main emphasis seems to be put on Mitoko judging by the title. Those things bother me as well - the game doesn't flow, it feels chopped.

And so, as planned, today I started PSP edition of DameKoi I just finished first chapter of prologue/common route. I see some comedy and drama potential, but I'm already a bit annoyed and tired by the protagonist. It seems that in the meantime my tolerance for the hetare protagonists has dropped significantly Well, it's too early to judge, so let's see how it unfolds. Mitoko is nice, and the three guys living at the house are funny Also, MC's traits seem to be so exaggerated, that perhaps it's best taken tongue-in-cheek? I have to say that language-wise this is much harder to read than 9 -Nine- was - at least for me. Also, I guess this is caused by some compatibility issues, but when playing in PPSSPP it's quite glitchy when it come to screen changes - each time a character sprite changes pose or position, it disappears for a second, and sometimes there's a moment of a previous screen peeking out - weird. Or perhaps PSP port itself is buggy? I guess I'll never know...

Okay, I found the solution, using 'expressions' field of the DCODE. Since original function pointed to rax+rbx, I just changed it to rax+rbx-1, to shift captured area one byte 'left'. Now it works as it should So here's working D-CODE for PSP version of DameKoi: $shift_jis,1|50|00,|rax+rbx-1|440FB64C03??E919????????????????72073D0040010072E78D00 (It has to be attached after starting the game)

Hello, @0xDC00 Could you perhaps help me with another PSP title? This time I'm trying to work out the D-CODE for PSP version of DameKoi I found the signature that almost works: 44 0FB6 4C 03 00 - movzx r9d,byte ptr [rbx+rax+00] 44 0FB6 4C 03 00 E9 19000000 3D 00000100 72 07 3D 00400100 72 E7 8D 00 $shift_jis,00,440FB64C0300E9190000003D0000010072073D0040010072E78D00 But it has one little problem - it keeps truncating the first byte of the captured string, which leads to garbled up first character of the text: How can I fix that?

Not much news from me, but the project is not dead - @Plk_Lesiak is gradually proceeding with proofreading and editing But today I stumbled upon interesting thing on vndb - which further confirms my theory about common pool of assets shared between various TIARE/JAST games. Just look at this screenshot from Muchimuchi Sexy Parfait Onee-sama You which was released on Windows only (no PC98 version). And compare with this:

Today I finished 9 -Nine- Haruka's route (Ep.3) was sweet, one of the better executed romance parts in this VN. Also, in this episode the plot thickens, and we finally meet the actual villains. Overally great episode, and I gave it 8.5 score - but it was totally overshadowed by the grand final that the Episode 4 is. That was truly an epic ride. In this part we also finally get closer to Noa and see her sweeter and cuter parts, as well as the hardships she faces. I got really attached to her, and the bad ending hit me right in the gut. Actually, my experience of this part was similar to Clannad - Of course it made the final showdown leading to the true ending even more intense and satisfying. Cute romance, epic fight, great character development, emotional rollercoaster - that's definitely a 9 New Episode is just extended epilogue, that ties some loose ends and gives epilogue for each heroine. Very nice, I especially liked Haruka's part. All in all it was definitely one of the better VNs that I played. While there were stronger and weaker parts, as a whole it did very well, and so for me Nine is 9 And I really saw some parallells with Amber Quartz - school SoL mixed with fantasy fight, superpowers, and character routes forming together the full story. Main difference was that Nine didn't have childhood friends, troubled memories, and Air-like medieval history episode *************************************************************************** I played Complete Edition, which is Japanese All-ages version. Perhaps almost everybody will go for H-version anyway, but it's worth noting, that Steam/Sekai Project's all-ages versions seem to be more censored compared to the Complete Edition. First two episodes seem to be almost the same, but there are some major differences in Haruka's route. I'll list what I spotted below under spoiler tags: Episode 3 (Haruka's route) So that means 2 CGs, one scene and one sprite version missing. Episode 4 (Noa's route) Also, Complete Edition adds Sprite Viewer feature in the gallery menu, that Sekai/Denpasoft versions don't have. ******************************************************************** Now I think I'll take a short break, and then perhaps I'll try DameKoi (PSP version)

That's good to know, thanks From what I remember, there were some routes that were focused more on the mystery, and the others where focus was more on the characters. But when taking the game as a whole, I think it was more or less balanced. If memory serves, main story reveals were in Miu's route, and then in true, and I think that's why guides recommend playing Miu's route as the last one. While I gave WES "only" 7.5, I also loved it - it lost some points mostly because of the map system and its associated woes.

Ah, actually I'm not a big fan of puzzles, and YU-NO is the only "multi route mystery" of that scale I played so far (with the walkthrough on hand all the time ). There was also World End Syndrome, but it was pretty light. What I meant, that it has been well integrated into the story - as in having consistent and somewhat amusing in-story justification. Other VNs when routes were justified in-story that I played were two of the Key classics - Clannad and LittleBusters - but those were of slightly different kind. Amber Quartz seems to have a bit similar structure to 9 -nine-, but there it wasn't spelled out clearly.

Yesterday I finished Ep. 3 and immediately started Ep. 4 of 9 -Nine-. Ep. 3 was great, and Ep. 4 is very promising. I think I'll write more when I finish all parts. For now let me just say that Sora is probably the best character in this VN And the way route structure is incorporated into the story itself is IMO on par with YU-NO.

BTW Yesterday I finished second episode of 9 -Nine-. It was so engaging that I almost binged it - started on the late Sunday morning, and kept going at it until 2AM. 2 hours of sleep, go to work, and after I got back home I finished it, with ~16 hours on the counter. In this episode there was more focus on the mystery plot than a romance. Also the overall tone got a bit more serious. Relationship with Sora was kept rather on the wholesome side in the all-ages version, and I can't really complain about it - it was good route, and had good flow. Ep2 also seems to serve as a more detailed introduction for Haruka, who's the next heroine. So, this episode gets an 8, and today I'm going to start Ep3 I also took a sneak-peek into the adult versions of the first two episodes, but, as my forum title might suggest, I prefer the more wholesome variant presented in all-ages version. Those H-scenes were a bit too much. Thankfuly vanilla, but just too much of them crammed into very short time frame, which feels off. Also, I don't really like this style of animation - it makes the game look like those flash-based sex-sims The only animated H-scenes I liked so far in a VN were those in PC98 Love Escalator and its Windows remake Lovers - but those were hand-drawn, not vector animation, and it made great difference. Also, I'd have to check it more thoroughly, but at first glance it seems that all-ages version from Sekai/Steam and Complete Edition that I'm playing are slightly different.

I had Angel Beats on my radar, but what discourages me is that it's the first episode of the series that got discontinued I really liked the story, characters and the atmoshpere of WES. The biggest downside for me was map movement system, which got quite tiresome, and the fact that "less important" scenes during map movement segments were unvoiced.

Yeah, it sounds very competent. But at the same time, if this really reflects the original writing, then I'd say it's horribly pretentious I probably couldn't stand whole game written like that

@Seraphim Thanks for your review. I guess I'll skip Muramasa then - most of the things you mentioned would probably bother me as well, no matter how smoothly written it is.

I just finished first episode of 9 -Nine-. I found it really engaging and enjoyable. If that was indeed the weakest part, then I see that I'm in for a treat And while some people say that Miyako makes for a rather bland heroine, I found her absoutely cute, and could definitely fall in love with her . Besides, the confession scene was amazing - very awkward and at the same time feeling very natural. I'd probably act very similar in such situation The way how the relationship between siblings Kakeru and Sora is portrayed was also brilliant - I loved their constant banter. Another nice thing was acknowledging of the other "branches" directly in the story, making routes and different endings part of the setting. I'm playing All-ages Japanese release, so cannot say much about H-stuff, but as for this episode I don't think anything was lacking, and I don't feel like this would be better as an eroge Kissing scene did very good job to convey the intimacy. And I dread at the mere thought of H-scenes between Kakeru and Sora in the next episode - that's one of the reasons I chose All-ages version There were some points that could see some improvement, but overally it was very good start. So it's 7.5 for the first episode, and I'm looking forward to the rest

Yesterday I started 9 -Nine- and reached the end of the prologue of the first episode. (BTW, in Complete Edition you select the episode at the "New Game" screen, but each episode needs to be unlocked by finishing previous one) It seems very promising - I like this kind of "School-slice-of-life suddenly turned upside down by supernatural danger" settings. Other VNs where I enjoyed that were Folklore Jam, World End Syndrome or Amber Quartz - although, at least for now, 9 -Nine- seems to be more lighthearted than those - if not for other reasons, then because of the Sophitia And Yoichi is one of the weirder Sunohara variants I saw so far - a pervert with a cute face of a "good boy" Character designs are cute - as expected from Tsubasu-sensei Voiced protagonist is also nice addition. The only thing I'm missing are some background characters - like people walking on the street, other students in the classroom etc. This level of details is a trademark of Sprite (Koichoco, Aokana), but also some Yuzusoft titles feature this in their backgrounds - like the Parquet I read just before, or Natsuzora Kanata. But that's just a minor issue, and I'm aware, that what I'm expecting is kind of luxury and not a norm. I'm looking forward to see how the story unfolds BTW while Complete Edition is 1080p, I'm playing it in 900p window to leave some space at the bottom for Chiitrans window for looking up words

Meanwhile, the 9 -Nine- Complete Edition has just arrived in glorious All-Ages 1080p HD Let's see what all the hype is about

I think he meant using MTL features of the Textractor...

Yesterday I finished Parquet. (It took me 19 hours) It was better than I expected. It had some flaws, like some pacing issues and a bit anticlimactic/underdeveloped "showdown" with the antagonist. And I think those two are connected - the shift from SoL and investigation to the action was a little too sudden - it wouldn't hurt to stretch it over a few more scenes. But then it turned out that it wasn't meant to be the finale of the story , and the equally important part, focused directly on relationship between two heroines (Rino and Tsubasa) starts from there, so I can forgive that. Rino and Tsubasa are both cute and charming in their own way, even though they are different like night and day I especially liked shy and somewhat cold Rino, and how she gradually warmed up. The ending, at least for me, was very emotional, and as heartwarming as only the best moeges get - even though Parquet isn't focused on romance at all. The short afterstories with brief branch for each girl showing a hint of a budding love were also cute and fun, but they were just an addition - more like a teaser for a fandisc, or as if the whole VN was just a common route of something bigger Reading some other reviews I often saw that people complain about protagonist being too "wooden" and lacking personality. I didn't have that impression, but I was reading Japanese version. I briefly checked the translation for a few scenes - and to me it seems like some of the MC's personality might have been lost in translation. Somehow in English version he feels much more hollow than in Japanese. But then it's also possible that my Japanese simply sucks, and I read the things that weren't there or misread some nuances So, to sum it up - gorgeous art and music, engaging story and cast of characters, heartwarming ending - that's an 8/10 in my book. ***************************************** EDIT: This review posted on r/vn describes nicely the problems I had with the "showdown" part: https://old.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/pg0nzh/what_are_you_reading_sep_1/hc0l5o4/ Although I disagree about the protagonist **************************************** Today my physical copy of 9 -nine- Complete Edition should finally arrive, so perhaps this is going to be my next read.