Natsu no Majo no Parade is a classic-style 'dotabata love-comedy', meaning that it is partially about romance and partially about what amounts to a situational comedy. The VN was made by a newborn company called Wonder Fool. It is based in a world where (mostly female) magic-users called Witches go around helping people (the setting is never really properly explained, probably because the writers were lazy when it came to world-building).
The protagonist, Yukito, is a normal guy whose mother just happens to be a retired Witch... who is the most skilled/powerful Witch in history. At the beginning, three Witches come to do a journeyman stay with her (sort of like a post-graduation internship) in order to gain full recognition as Witches. To Yukito's dismay, all three girls are his fiances... apparently due to promises made by his mother while she was drunk and the girls were still children. While Topia, the youngest of the three, is disinterested in marriage (she likes him as a friend), the other two are quite intent on marrying him, so it ends up being a contest between those two, the protagonist's younger (somewhat yandere-ish) sister, and an upperclassman girl that has confessed her love to him 99 times in the past.
Now, for those of you who are familiar with the love-comedy anime made near the turn of the century, this kind of weird and outlandish scenario will be quite familiar. It is standard fare for the love-comedy anime and VNs at the first part of the century (generally, the weird 'girls who quickly fall in love with the protagonist and end up living with him' harem-types). This made it feel somewhat nostalgic for me, even from the beginning.
As a statement of general quality, this VN can definitely be considered to be above the average. The heroines, the protagonist, and even the side-characters are well-developed, the paths detailed, and the visuals are generally first-class. If I have a complaint, it is that the issues with Sasha are only touched around the edges in the other paths (seriously, while I figured it out relatively early on, it was still what could be called a shocking revelation). There is also the fact that Yukito is the only 'normal person' besides Azuki (the least-interesting heroine) in the entire group... which tends to result in him being less relevant outside of the comedy stages than he might otherwise be.
The setting of this VN is swiss cheese... in the sense that it is full of holes. Don't expect consistency in any way, shape, or form. Sadly, the world-setting is just lacking in details over all, and there is no background as to how the Witches ended up as 'heroes' (that's essentially what the are). In addition, for all that magic is so casually used by most of the main characters, there are almost no related CGs, which is always a downer in a good fantasy VN of any kind. Arisa's manner of speech is also extremely... frustrating. Her lines are long and drawn out (some of them lasting forty seconds for a single sentence) due to her hesitant manner.
On the positive end... Sasha is one of the single best imoutos I've ever run across. Her casual assertion on first meeting with the other girls that if her niisan would just throw away his useless sense of morality, they could get married and on with life, her icy cold attitude toward their mother, and her countless perversions in the name of love for her big brother... she was worthy of my laughter from beginning to end.
In the end, this VN was an amusing side-trip... not one with a lot of depth but one that was enjoyable in general. I did feel that it could have used some serious 'renovation and expansion' when it came to the setting and a bit more emphasis on the protagonist himself (as opposed to the situation), but that kind of nit-picking is really only for jaded people like me.
Edit:
For those who are waiting for my Sen no Hatou comments, I don't plan on bothering with it until after Kanojo Step...
First, I should apologize to those who voted for Sen no Hatou. To be honest, I had every intention of finishing it first... but I kept running into the walls I described in the previous post, so I switched over to this game.
****** Before reading further, please realize that it is impossible to talk about this VN without spoiling the original to some extent. If you haven't played the original Tayutama, you shouldn't be considering playing this game anyway (as it doesn't make sense without having played it) so please refer all spoiler complaints to your nearest garbage can*****
Tayutama 2 is the direct sequel to the original Tayutama game, based off of the Mashiro ending. It is based fifty years after the events in the original game, and society has changed dramatically. Mashiro's and Yuuri's adopted (pure-blooded Tayutai) daughter, Kohaku serves as the main heroine, and the game itself is based in another city, which has aggressively adopted the coexistence ideals put forth by Mashiro. The two other heroines are the half-breed ojousama Hifumi and a young girl who lives for the sake of Tayutai, whose name is Nano.
For better or worse, the world has changed in this game. Instead of normal electricity, it has become possible to use 'shinki' (divine energy) to provide power, and people are living longer lives as a result of close contact with the Tayutai (Yumina, Ameri, and Mafuyu haven't aged a day due to their connections to the Great Ones). Yuuri spends most of his time bustling all over the country, solving incidents with Tayutai, while Mashiro takes care of the town where they found Kohaku.
Sora, the protagonist of the story, is a level-headed, kind-hearted (but not dense in any way, shape, form, or fashion), and insightful young man who Kohaku falls in love with pretty much at first sight. In every way possible, save for his passion for those he cares about, he is Yuuri's opposite. Where Yuuri is dense, he is perceptive; where Yuuri tends to lack in sensitivity, he is as sensitive to others' feelings as they come; and where Yuuri is confrontational, he is a negotiator.
In addition to the three heroine paths, there is also a Yuuri/Mashiro path where all the secrets hidden in the other paths are brought into the open and the central conflict of the story is resolved to its fullest extent. To be honest, I thought that path was the biggest mistake in this VN (though the redoing of the old epilogue from the original with more detail than even in the FD was a nice touch). Why? It is because it provided an excuse for failing to properly build up the paths in the main game. While any of those paths are fine for your standard charage (in fact, a bit above the average level of quality), the fact is that there are a lot of aspects to Sora himself, as well as the heroines and their future, that are left entirely unexplored.
Sora has inevitable issues... he is an orphan after all. However, those issues are ignored almost entirely (save as an excuse to let him get away with staying at the shrine), and even the heroine paths lack the depth of exploration you would normally expect, considering the level of detail in the original. This shows off how far LoS has degraded in the years since the original was released, and it was immensely saddening for me. In particular, I thought that Sora, for all that he is a wonderful character personality-wise, lacks development in terms of his past and its relation to who he is now. To be blunt, LoS should have milked that part of the setting to make Kohaku's route in particular more emotional. Considering how 'dramatic' they tried to make the last part of her path, it was hard to really get into hers or Sora's head during it.
Overall, this game is a nice treat for people who wanted more after the original game. However, don't expect the same level of impact. By itself, it isn't even really complete without a full knowledge of the original. Even worse, there was a definite sense of laziness when it came to character development that is unforgivable in my eyes (in particular, antagonist character development).
Akatsuki Works and Applique, two subsidiaries of Akabeisoft2 (of Sharin no Kuni and G-Senjou no Maou fame) have each released a mini-VN for free on their websites (which are a pain to access from outside of Japan, but anyone used to bypassing DMM's controls on their MMO releases should be able to manage it). Akatsuki Works released Hi no Nai Tokoro ni Kemuri wa Tatanai ( https://vndb.org/v19369 ), which seems to be a chuunige-type by Hino Wataru, as is typical of the Akatsuki Works brand. Applique released Tsukikage no Simulacre ( https://vndb.org/v19964 ), which seems to be an occult story based in a mansion with a living doll. Both VNs are kinetic novels with no h-content (one of the comments I saw on the Akatsuki Works company blog mentioned that they wanted h-content next time, laughingly).
For reference, Akatsuki Works releases chuunige and games with a heavy emphasis on narration over dialogue (story-focused VNS). Applique tends to prefer fantasy and sci-fi transhumanistic stories, nakige, and hard sci-fi. Both are excellent companies that have produced multiple kamige in the past, lol.
PS: This is Entry 300 in my blog... surprise surprise.
Edit: Oh, IOS and Android versions are being released as well, for those interested.
For those who have no idea whatsoever what I am talking about, I'm referring to a type of heroine that tends to exist in a relatively high proportion with a strong central plot... the type of heroine that remains by the protagonist's side, usually no matter which heroine he chooses and is usually the true heroine. This heroine has a bond with the protagonist that surpasses that of a simple friendship or lover and can't really be cut without destroying them both. This heroine's existence is usually so vital to the protagonist that without her, he isn't entirely sane. Often, this will be the true heroine, though that isn't always the case. This type of heroine will not always be pleasant to be around... in fact, many of them are outright prickly or poisonous. However, the bond they have with the protagonist is sufficient to make parting nearly impossible, if not entirely unthinkable.
Examples of this heroine include:
Suzu from Ayakashibito
Kagome from Comyu
Shizuku from Evolimit
Selma from Bullet Butlers
Mana from Amatsutsumi
Belche from Draculius
Saki from Hapymaher
Nonosaki Akiho of Moshimo Ashita ga Harenaraba
Kamio Ami of Semiramis no Tenbin (in a weird way)
Chikae from Ore no Tsure wa Hito de nashi
Mitoko from Damekoi
Understand, I absolutely adore this type of heroine role... mostly because the intimacy (not always positive) makes for some really interesting and warped relationships. Also, the love when they do get together is... extreme, lol.
I'm delaying playing through anymore VNs until at least Saturday, mostly because I realized my fatigue was reaching its peak. The reason why I realized this was fairly simple... I wasn't enjoying the bloody scenes in Sen no Hatou, which is highly unnatural for me. Normally, I would have been on a blood high after that first scene, but after replaying Evolimit, I was a bit glutted on battle scenes. As such, I came to the conclusion that I can't fairly assess Sen no Hatou at the moment. Also, I was finding Akari unreasonably irritating (political naivete and naivete about basic human nature, taken to extremes, can be unbelievably annoying when there isn't enough character virtue to balance it out, lol).
Anyway, just as a preliminary word... August is following its usual pattern (creating an unbelievably annoying/weak true heroine for a game with such a dark setting) that I recognized from Eustia and Fortune Arterial. Many of August's characters in general tend to not fit the settings in which they are placed (the idol thing with Hotori is particularly worthy of complaint, since it was obviously put in solely to reduce the level of seriousness in the story), and it is hard to ignore this at times. I mean, when you have a nicely screwed up girl like Eris as a sub-heroine and a weak-willed, weakly characterized true heroine like Eustia in the same game... it says a lot about the writers (Fortune Arterial made similar mistakes, with one of the secondary heroines being far more interesting than the main one).
Anyway, enough complaints about the usual foibles of August's writing staff and down to a few specifics...
The setting of Sen no Hatou is actually pretty interesting. I especially find it interesting that the writers were naive enough to think a nation can subsist entirely through conquest during an era of modern technology (for better or worst, the costs of military conquest in modern times are crippling due to the logistics of modern weapons). The Empire (ironically the conquered nation in this case) is a bit more 'realistic' in that it resembles a 'what if' world where Japan's Imperial line never submitted to the control of the nobility or the Shoguns that came after them and kept control to modern times (no Buddhist takeover of religious roles, either...). Instead, the Imperial line maintained its role as the spiritual center of the nation, along with the actual power to go along with it, and they were supported by the warrior caste, who could wield the sorcerous weapons that let them protect themselves from outside threats (along with the barrier maintained by the sorcerer-miko and priests and the Three Sacred Treasures).
The characters... are sadly less so. The protagonist is good so far (think the 'ideal samurai' - the type that only existed in legend - and you get an idea of what he is like), but the heroines range from the simply out of place to the irritating (seriously, the least out of place is Nanami... and maybe Elza). Akari talks a good fight, but she showed her astounding degree of naivete over a dozen times in my first five hours of play. Hotori is... just out of the question. If they hadn't added the idol thing, she would have been a great character, but the first scene where I saw that I facepalmed.
A simple question, with the poll closing at the stroke of midnight Monday morning US Central time. Which VN do you want me to play first? Honestly, there is no chance whatsoever of me playing anything else before at least one of these two, so feel free to make your decision based on which you are most interested in.
For those who aren't aware of the games:
Tayutama 2 is the direct sequel to the original game, based off of Mashiro's ending as canon. The main heroine is one of Mashiro's Tayutai followers and it is based fifty years after the original. Those who have read the original will have certain knowledge about the future past this point, but I don't think it is directly relevant in this case.
Sen no Hatou is August's latest game. I don't know if anybody here ever pays attention to my comments on this company... but in my mind this company represents both some of the best and worst aspects of high-budget VN makers... their VNs tend to start well, be interesting in the middle, and flop flat on their faces at the end. This applies to all of the VNs I've played by this company, and it is the reason why I don't list any of their VNs amongst my top fifty, despite their visual and narrative quality. To be blunt, the ending portions of their VNs are almost inevitably... weak even if you include the climax. So, left to my own devices I probably would have put this VN off until I could read a few reviews and see whether I should go in with high expectations or not. However, this VN is the most hyped one for the last third of the year, so I can't really justify not playing it right away. So, it goes in as one of the two first candidates for the month.
First, let me say that this was the very first non-violent VN I played after jumping into Japanese-language (untranslated) VNs. I should also say that it was the one that taught me that even a VN of this type (what I later came to call a charage) could have a truly solid story. This VN is the reason I'm frequently willing to give charage the benefit of the doubt, and it is also the reason why I became somewhat obsessed with ojousama heroines. Mifuyu is still one of the better ojousama heroines I've seen, both setting-wise and as a character.
My second playthrough of this game gave me an even greater appreciation for what makes it stand out... and made me once again dust off my hopes that one day LoS will stop making kusoge (three kusoge in five years is a bit much).
There are points of this VN that I found irritating both now and the first time I played it. Those points haven't really changed, though. The biggest one is that the story is set up so that the bulk of the events don't change, until after the prologue>3 common story arcs are over. While this can be called a common route... the fact is that the order in which they occur is altered by which heroine you chose, but you still have to go through the same events (with a mixture of unread and read text) three times after your first, with only minor changes. This is a mild irritation but still an irritation.
The upside is that the common route itself is actually fairly well-written, so that you can get a good idea of what each of the heroines is like in the common story arcs, so you don't feel left behind when things move on to the heroine arc (which is relatively short compared to the main story arcs). A lot of the reason for the way this game is done is that the canon/true heroine of the game is Masshiro... and her path is emphasized more strongly (and is longer) compared to the others (I really recommend that you play Masshiro's last or Masshiro's only... one or the other).
The protagonist, Yuuri, is the only child of the priest of the Yachimata Shrine and a direct descendant of Masshiro's 'progenitor's' former master/ally (the full extent of the relationship isn't revealed, save for on Kikurami no Hime's side). He is a fairly normal young man (yes, that was already the staple of what I came to call charage by then) with a passion for fixing bikes and a fondness for the shrine he grew up in. Despite his problems with Ameri, he is actually fairly perceptive, with an intuitive grasp of concepts that some people have to seriously think to get at. Nonetheless, he is ultimately just a 'normal' guy who happened to get involved with this mess.
One thing I think a lot of people who read this will be... amused by is the h-scenes. To be blunt, all the things that can go wrong with a person's first experience with sex can and do go wrong in this VN. The 'girl has an orgasm the first time' trope that has defined most h-scenes since the beginning of the current decade isn't present in this VN, and that actually has an effect on the heroines' stories at times. I say it is laugh-worthy because I spent most of my first ten VNs laughing rather than fapping to h-scenes... I literally spewed soda on my monitor during one of the h-scenes in Jingai Makyou, lol.
On the other side of things from Masshiro is Ameri... which is in a lot of ways the opposite of Masshiro. To be honest, having Ameri as a heroine kind of pushes things. Tsundere osananajimi have never been one of my drugs of choice, and Ameri is one of the worst of those. She makes a great side-character and semi-antagonist, but as a heroine...? Her path is also the most... pessimistic of the paths, at least in part because Ameri was also the heroine that had the most difficulty with the Tayutai as a species of being in the first place.
Yumina's path is... pleasant. I like Yumina as a character, as she grows throughout the story when you pick her. In the later part of the game when you choose her, she has matured immensely, and her ending is one of those ones that just makes you want to smile in pleasure at the characters' happiness and that of those around them. If you like heroine paths that end up warm and normally happy, this is a good path for you.
Mafuyu is in a lot of ways the ideal modern woman (if you ignore her setting). She is intelligent, capable, wise within the limits of the society she was born into and lives in, and is capable of accepting other people's advice (to some extent) without automatically assuming she is always right... once she trusts them. Other than Masshiro, her path is the strongest in this VN, and I honestly think her personality is the most interesting. She has become something of an archetype for a lot of similar characters over the years, but her view on Japanese society was the cause of one of my first post-VN epiphanies that broke part of my weaboo armor. That said, she isn't perfect... while she is willing to give those she trusts the benefit of the doubt, she can have a tendency to dismiss the opinions of those she doesn't yet trust outright, at times. Her best quality at times like those is her ability to admit when she was wrong.
Mashiro is... Mashiro. She is the enfleshed reincarnation of Kikurami, who sealed herself away along with the other Tayutai some five hundred years before the beginning of the story. She has a lot of old-fashioned thought patterns, and a somewhat one-track mind when it comes to the things she believes are necessary. She desires the coexistence of humans and Tayutai above all other things, and her affection for Yuuri is an odd mix of her own personal love, memories of Yachimata Kageharu inherited from Kikurami, and her need for him as an ally to deal with the other escaped Tayutai leaders (in other words, she is complicated). Some people have trouble with her as a heroine because she is more than a little pushy and is sometimes inconsiderate of others' circumstances... not to mention that her idea of basic training resembles that of a drill sergeant from hell at first, lol. For all her courteous nature, she is kind of scary when she snaps, though.
Mashiro's heroine path is my favorite non-tragic immortal heroine path in a charage. I say this because a lot of immortal heroine paths tend to have... weak endings. Moege immortal heroines in particular tend to 'lose their immortality' somewhere along the way, which is irritating since I don't see a reason why they should give it up, lol. A lot of that comes from the Japanese unspoken taboo against exceeding by too much or falling too far below society's norms. Exceptional individuals tend to end up isolated and the less-capable looked down on as human trash, when societal impulses are left to their own devices over there, lol. Anyway, I am immensely fond of how they wrap up this path, and I wish all other immortal heroine paths would at least take it as an example of the ideal.
Overall, this is a VN that exemplifies what is best in the fantasy charage sub-genre, breathing life into a set of characters that have remained in my heart strongly, even to this day. I can honestly say that I enjoyed replaying this VN almost as much as I enjoyed playing it the first time, which is rare in my case with a charage. If there is a downside to having used this VN as my starting point for charage, it is that so few manage to reach the same level, lol.
PS: The joke story that opens from the main screen when you finish the entire game is hilarious. The second story that pops up on the bottom is Kikurami's past, and it is a fairly sad story, with a linguistic level that will probably stump most newbies.
Edit: Adding It's happy Days fandisc
Tayutama It's happy Days
It's Happy Days is the fandisc to Tayutama, providing a side-story and extended after story for Mashiro.
The side-stories
The side-stories cover time spent at an onsen ryokan (hot springs inn) where various events occur and you watch a few h-scenes. For those who wanted to know what it was like for Yuuri immediately after the ending (as opposed to five hundred years later) with Mashiro or Mafuyu, it is a nice treat.
The extended After-story
The extended after-story is just that... an extension of Mashiro's ending that fills in gaps in the conversation and gives you an idea of what happened between the end and the epilogue of the original game through conversation.
Now, in the past I've often tried to clearly define my favorite VN genre, the chuunige. While there are many elements that go into making a chuunige, the primary requirements are conflict (violent or otherwise), philosophy (hedge philosophy usually), deliberately exaggerated character personalities and backgrounds, and extremely detailed settings.
Now, for reasons known only to me, I felt like talking about the chuunige protagonist. Understand, chuunige protagonists are inevitably... unique personalities (sometimes to the point of being unreal). One of the greatest ironies of the chuunige is that the genre's very nature makes it impossible for its protagonists to fall entirely within the narrow archetypes that come standard with most VNs (the kind-hearted but dense protagonist of love-comedy VNs, for instance).
However, they can be put into three more general archetypes based on aspects of their personalities and personal morality: the hero, the anti-hero, and the monster.
Heroes are very simple and straightforward. These individuals represent virtue in general or a single human virtue and overcome obstacles through that particular virtue (at least in part). A love of justice, a desire for love, a desire to save the people they care about or people in general, a desire for self-improvement, etc. Most protagonists of this type are inspiring as individuals when placed into situations of extreme stress and conflict. As a result, chuunige with this type of protagonist tend to be very inspiring in the end. Also almost universal to them is a deep (Greek drama style) flaw that might destroy them in the end or at least trip them up.
Examples of chuunige with this type of protagonist include: The Tiny Dungeon series, Evolimit, Bullet Butlers, Ayakashibito, FSN (in the Fate path), Sorcery Jokers (the younger protagonist), etc.
The anti-hero protagonist is a bit more complex. Individuals in this type of chuunige will generally obtain the same results... but they might do so through amoral or reprehensible methods. Anti-heroes tend to fall into two types... the type that will willingly abandon everything for the person they care about most without a second thought and the type that will mercilessly cut off the one for the sake of the many. This type often will have a moral compass that differs radically from the average human being.
Chuunige with this type of protagonist include: Vermilion, Dies Irae, Kajiri Kamui Kagura, Shinigami no Testament, Gensou no Idea (both), Sorcery Jokers (the older protagonist), Comyu, Jingai Makyou, Hello Lady, Zero Infinity, Electro Arms, Izuna Zanshinken etc.
The third and final protagonist type is the monster. This type is the rarest of the three... mostly because few Japanese writers have the courage to create a protagonist of this type in the first place. This type of protagonist has a tendency to be brutal, selfish, amoral, or outright villainous. These protagonists have a tendency to be immensely intelligent and/or capable... but that intelligence/capability is usually directed to a goal that is less than wholesome in most cases. Berserkers, killers, etc.
Chuunige with this type of protagonist: Devils Devel Concept, Silverio Vendetta, Muramasa, Yurikago yori Tenshi Made, Maggot Baits (yes it counts, though I hate to admit it) etc.
In almost every way it matters, chuunige are defined by their protagonists. Their perspectives are deliberately warped, corrupted, and/or out of sync with most human beings, and that is the primary reason I keep coming back to them, lol.
Edit: Note that most of the monster type protagonists come from chuunige-specialist companies that pretty much produce nothing but this type of VN, lol.
Edit2: A lot of the reason for the excessively exaggerated nature of character designs (both visual and written) in chuunige comes from a philosophy in the genre that is very similar to that seen on the stage when classic plays are acted out for a live audience. Making things over the top is seen as both a virtue and an absolute necessity for creating understanding in the watcher/reader in both cases.
Gleam Garden is a semi-chuuni VN by the makers of Lovesick Puppies, Cosmic Cute. While it isn't amongst the VNs I love the most, it was nonetheless a pleasant memory, so I chose to dig it out of the pile and play it again this week. Edit: I should mention that while this VN does have action scenes, a lot of the VN is about the changes in the characters, especially the heroines, as they learn to accept their sins, their past, and the restrictions placed on their future by their situation.
First, the setting... in the world this is based in, some time before the story begins (there are no specifics as to when precisely things started) people began awakening to abilities called 'Gleam'. These abilities ignore physical laws and common sense to manifest in response to the stress and pain of their hosts (think of Gleams as something like a parasite born of the human psyche). These abilities are immensely powerful and often deadly. Unfortunately, those who awake to these abilities are universally incapable of controlling them immediately, and as a result, they inevitably cause tragedies. As a result, the 'Witches', as they are called, are social pariahs that are legitimately imprisoned and legally persecuted in order to keep them from harming the rest of society.
To be specific, immediately after they awaken to their abilities, Witches are sent to facilities where they either learn to control their abilities before the hypnotic suggestions and drugs that keep their abilities from running wild stop having an effect... or are lobotomized and turned into research subjects. Even when they complete mastering their abilities, Witches live their lives under constant supervision (ranging from the equivalent of a probation officer to forced cohabitation with a non-Witch guardian). To be blunt, it sucks to be a Witch in this setting, and all of the heroines in this VN are Witches, the protagonist being a former Witch-hunter whose job is now to teach them to control their abilities.
I'm inordinately fond of this game's protagonist... if only because the world through his eyes is so cool. He is definitely the stoic type (ie. breaks his own fingers one by one and doesn't even change his expression) and capable of an amazing degree of ruthlessness when seeking a goal. It isn't that he is cold-blooded precisely... he is actually a very compassionate human being. However, his compassion doesn't impinge on his objectivity at all, as he is quite willing to be brutal with others if he thinks that is what is necessary to fulfill his duty. When he sees the best way to fulfill those duties, even if it is morally reprehensible or personally distasteful, he won't hesitate to take action.
He is also a pervert... in the classic sense. He loves nothing more than surfing ero-sites in his free time, and he doesn't have a drop of shame to his nature. That makes him rather funny.
The VN is split into a common route and five heroine routes. The first three routes available to you are Sakurako, Chitose, and Yuma. When you finish those routes, you can play Shirayuki's route, which reveals the background of not only her but one of the major antagonists of the story overall, then Luna's route, which reveals everything, including the issues with the protagonist's own past.
Sakurako is a martial artist from a long line of such people, and her ability allows her to manifest shadows, make them solid, and manipulate them at will (an obviously dangerous ability, lol). She is straightforward in personality, thinking in straight lines and more than a little narrow-visioned.
Chitose is... an odd contradiction. She is a sports-loving, cheerful girl... who is as lazy as hell when people let her be. However, she is also capable of an extreme degree of devotion to those she cares about, to the point of ignoring her own well-being in the process. Her Gleam is 'good luck', which it drains from other people to feed the luck of the user.
Yuma... is a kind-hearted otaku girl. She is inordinately fond of BL literature and is constantly indulging in erotic fantasies inside her head. However, she is also surprisingly unwilling to trust others, despite her seemingly kind and gentle nature. Her Gleam is a type of empathy combined with psychometric aspects.
Shirayuki is... inscrutable. It's hard to get a good grasp of her personality, outside of an obsessive love of cute things (fuwafuwa na mono, as she puts it). She tends to have even worse tunnel vision than Sakurako. Her Gleam allows her to make objects invisible.
Luna is... a spoiler, lol. Sorry, telling you anything about Luna whatsoever will spoil the game, so I'll leave her at that. I can't even tell you her Gleam without spoiling things.
This game's paths are all solid in their own way, but it should be noted that the first three paths tend to be 'normal' in the sense that once the heroines' major personal issues are resolved, they just get on with their lives with the protagonist. Shirayuki's and Luna's paths are... different, if only because they reveal a good deal of evil that lies behind the scenes in the other paths that is impossible to ignore and leaves nothing unchanged.
Overall, this is a good and solid VN, with a truly fascinating setting and set of characters.
When Corona Blossom came out recently, I once again came face to face with a niche trend in gaming that has roots back in the nineties era console games... video games that, rather than presenting a full story in and of themselves (even if they are intended to have sequels), instead are released in parts.
Now, I thought about why this kind of game production method has never really caught on... and it took me all of ten seconds to remember why.
Let's take the Shenmue series. Really and truly, the Shenmue series of games is one story that is nowhere near complete. Shenmue was released for the Sega Dreamcast in 1999 and it was a seriously eye-popping experience for me at the time. I'd never played a game that included so many varying elements to let you throw yourself into the main character's story, and all the side-quests and other stuff there was to mess around with only made it that more interesting.
Unfortunately, it is seventeen years later and the series still isn't complete. Heck, since Shenmue 2 was released on the original xbox in 2002, there hadn't been a peep about the third game... until last year.
And that is the real danger with this kind of game series... the danger of never getting the complete story or having to wait decades for the next entry in a story that is obviously and blatantly left incomplete.
Another problem with this type of game is illustrated with the Xenosaga series... Xenosaga was the spiritual successor to Xenogears on the psx, and it had a psychedelic meta-fiction story that would have made Mr Kojima proud... but in exchange, the makers ended up treating each part of what was supposed to be the same game in pieces as an individual game... which resulted in huge variance between each entry in both gameplay quality and story. To be blunt, Xenosaga's original game does an excellent, close to perfect job of dragging you into the science-fantasy world in question. Unfortunately, Xenosaga 2 botched everything... literally. In terms of scale, it was far more limited than Xenosaga 2 and the actual gameplay was... unpleasant and counter-intuitive for the average jrpg-gamer of the time. Naturally, this made it something of a flop with the fanbase. As a result they hurried to put out Xenosaga 3, which aborted or cut short almost all of the story that was meant to have been put in for two or even three more parts. In this case, the series was completed... but none of the ambitions that caused the immensely complex and interesting setting involved survived the holocaust of the game's second entry.
Generally speaking, games made in parts tend to be immensely frustrating for the consumer. A friend of mine recently replayed the Xenosaga series and immediately said "Good god! I didn't realize how much they fucked up with 2 at the time, but it is blatantly obvious now." It is far harder to maintain a standard of quality across all parts, and cohesion is usually the first thing to be sacrificed.
Thus, don't expect me to ever praise a decision to release a game in parts.
Now... as I said in the nostalgia post, I've been replaying a lot of games lately. The reason is fairly simple... my backlog of VNs is almost nonexistent now. I've played roughly 85% of the ones I purchased during the first days, including all but a few of those that I've purchased in the last few years. That isn't to say that there are no VNs of interest that I haven't played yet... but many of them just aren't available to purchase by download and are too expensive to obtain a physical copy of (one in particular is two hundred for an open package). What is left are some 'rainy day' VNs and a bunch of third-rate moege/charage. Well, that and a few horrible-looking gameplay VNs.
So... the games I'll be playing after this month's releases are naturally going to be replays as well. However, I'm not willing to replay any more charage, so these are my random VN plans for next month.
1. Evolimit - I've been asked to make a full assessment of this VN and blog on it by several dozen people over the last year.
2. Muramasa- Muramasa is a VN it takes a lot of energy to play, simply because it is so gloomy. As a result, I keep putting it off, even though I like it.
3. Ruitomo FD- This is a fairly low priority, simply because I found that after playing the main game, I needed a rest from that cast of characters, lol.
4. Gleam Garden no Shoujo - I really, really need to replay this. I loved it at the time, but the memory is starting to fade.
5. Sinclient- similar to the above.
6. Itsuka, Todoku, Ano Sora ni - In this case, I've long considered this to be the game I judged the most wrongly, based on my inexperience with Japanese VNs at the time. So, I feel that I need to go back and reassess this one.
7. Akatsuki no Goei series and Reminiscence series - I just love this stuff and it is great for stress relief
8. Imouto Spiral - you ask me why? it is because, while the story is... pathetic, the VN is hilarious.
9. Bradyon Veda- It is about time that my memories of the details faded enough that I'll probably be able to enjoy a full second playthrough.
10. Akeiro Kaikitan- 'Already?!' you say? I'm currently replaying Nanairo Reincarnation, so I feel a need to replay this one too.
11. Gensou no Avatar- It is wasteful that this particular doujin game has been forgotten, lol.
12. Futagoza no Paradox and Owaru Sekai to birthday- Because they don't make them like this anymore.
13. Natsu no Owari no Nirvana
14. Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide
15. Boku ga Tenshi natta Wake
Below is the original mini-review I wrote of Nanairo Reincarnation in 2014, which I mostly pulled out because it is much harder to access than this blog because of how buried that thread is. Also, I was feeling too lazy to completely rehash everything I said back then.
Nanairo Reincarnation
Kamige kita!!! lol
I've been waiting all this year for a kamige to appear, and thankfully, I wasn't disappointed. Every once in a while I come across a game that gets every last aspect of what it included right. These games are rare... usually just one or two in a given year. Last year had two, for example... and so far, this year has one.
The Game: Most of this VN is the common route, with a few scene changes on the way based on which of the two (inhuman or human) sides of things you chose to go by. Kotori (the main heroine) and Iyo (the zashiki warashi) are on the inhuman side of things, whereas the human side is Azusa (the policewoman) and Yumi (the protagonist's ex). There are a lot of common text and scenes to all the routes, which is why I say the common route is about ninety percent of the VN... this is because the basic flow of events in the main story doesn't change. What changes is who the protagonist ends up with and how they deal with certain issues (such as the protagonist's three oni servants), as well as the ending. By 'ending', I really mean about an hour and a half of story followed by a relatively short prologue that is nonetheless quite satisfying. The story itself is initially focused on the antics of the protagonist, his oni, Iyo, and Kotori as the protagonist accustoms himself to his duty of seeing the restless dead off.
However, about one third of the way through, things take on a much more serious tone, for reasons I won't give now, and the central mystery of the story comes into play. To be honest, I want to avoid any hints here, because this is a game that definitely goes over best if you play it from the beginning.
This VN is a combination of a lot of genres... it verges on an utsuge at times, a nakige at others, and at yet others it feels like a comedy or an occult mystery.
The Heroines: First, let me state that you should not play the inhuman side first. To be frank, there is this one scene that is just downright cool near the end of the inhuman side of the common route that just makes certain events pale in human side of things. Play Yumi>Azusa>Iyo>Kotori (do Kotori's two endings in the order suggested by the walkthrough) to get the best experience. Yumi is a sweet, devoted young woman who parted from the protagonist sort of by default as they grew apart during college. Unlike the other heroines, she can't 'see' ghosts or oni, which causes problems. Azusa is a policewoman assigned by Unit 13 of the local police to be the liaison with the protagonist, who takes on requests to 'deal with' ghosts from them. She is light-hearted, serious about her job, somewhat easily frightened (the first scene with her is total rofl), and gets drunk easily. She is really hot-blooded about her work as a policewoman, which causes problems because she thinks she was dumped on Unit 13 as some kind of punishment. Iyo is the zashiki warashi that has protected and guided the protagonist's family for eight generations, teaching each new one how to manage the oni... while at the same time doing her level best to bankrupt them with her spending habits. She is foul-mouthed, mischievous, and gluttonous... and also surprisingly wise, though she has trouble being serious for more than a few moments at a time. Kotori is a young woman the protagonist meets who is looking for her dog. She becomes attached to him as a result of the incident's conclusion and begins hanging around his house, working as his 'assistant'. She can see ghosts and the oni, and she gets along with the protagonist's oni famously. She's somewhat shy with strangers but otherwise cheerful and easygoing.
The Oni: The four oni seen in the story are Kikyou, Aoi, Fuyou, and Iris. Kikyou has the appearance of a beautiful and mature woman and she was inherited from his grandfather for the purpose of teaching the protagonist about oni. She is soft in manner, though she 'changes' when she gets angry. Aoi is the first of the oni born at the protagonist's command. She has the form of a cat-girl and she acts just like it. Her personality is very similar to Iyo's, though her personal devotion to her master is different from Iyo's role as protector and mentor. She wants what she wants at any given moment, and she won't hesitate to go after it. Her special ability is psychometry, the ability to read objects and people for memories. Fuyou is the second oni born at the protagonist's order. She is very similar to Kikyou in appearance and manner, and her special ability is that she can be seen by normal people (something none of the other oni can do), though in exchange she doesn't possess a more mystical ability. Iris is the third of the oni made at the protagonist's orders. She is, to be frank, a cute goth-loli who prefers to talk using her puppet or through her telepathic abilities (she can read minds, communicate mentally, and link other people's minds like a wi-fi hotspot, lol). She is the quietest of the three, though she is just as devoted to the protagonist as his other servant oni. She is a little shy and a bit of a crybaby... though it is understandable considering what her first duty upon creation ends up being.
Overall: This VN is a first-rate story-focused, suited for people who want a good cry, a good mystery, and a few laughs along the way. If you can't stand some mild guro and some really tragic scenes... you should still play this, because it is an excellent VN, lol.
Now that you've read what I thought then, here are some new thoughts I've had since, having put two years and Akeiro Kaikitan behind me.
Nanairo Reincarnation is one of those rare VNs that does not pale even a little bit on a second playthrough. I thought being spoiled to the mysteries and the small-scale mindfuck would ruin this for me, but it didn't, in the end. In fact, I found myself enjoying certain aspects of the small-scale mindfuck that exists in this VN with real appreciation for the skill and subtlety of the writer... I don't think I've ever seen a writer so perfectly walk the line between spoiling the surprise and concealing it too deeply. There are hints... but not really strong ones. In fact, most of them only feel like hints in retrospect, which is really how it should be in this kind of story.
Another issue, which I didn't mention above, is the effects of the music and artwork. To be blunt, Silky's artist, Sumeragi Kohaku, is a straight-out muchi-type nukige artist. This lends a somewhat stronger emphasis on erotic atmosphere to the oni that really fits well with the setting, and she is also surprisingly good at non-H CGs... Most nukige artists are horrible at clothing details, non-H positioning, and other such issues that fall outside of their preferred emphasis, but this artist does an excellent job of using her nukige-influenced art style to help define the characters.
Music-wise... while there are some BGMs that feel generic, the more intense ones are both unique and well-used to emphasize the atmosphere of the story. While the impression of this VN is primarily formed from the subtle narrative and the artwork, the music more than does its job at enhancing the work of the other two legs of the tripod.
I cried in this VN... a lot. I wept for each ghost in their own time (well, except for one in particular who was just a joke), and I honestly felt for the characters throughout this VN, to an extent which is rare even for someone like me, who tends to like getting emotionally wrapped up in his stories. A lot of this comes from the situation... but as much comes from the fact that Makoto is one of those rare protagonists who is honestly empathetic without any of the density or merely surface-level kindness that you see in love-comedy types. For those who like to live behind the eyes of a VN's protagonist, this VN really is a treat.
If some of you failed to notice, I've been going back over my list of ancient favorites amongst the moege/charage/slice-of-life genres. Why am I doing this? I actually have some good reasons, other than whims.
First, I keep recommending these things to people, but when you start talking about a VN you last played five years ago, people tend to let it in one ear and out the other. I mean, my long-term memory for games and books is pretty good, but my brain is fairly compartmentalized, so I don't remember them actively unless I go through the effort to refresh that memory. Can I continue to say that I honestly recommend something without playing it in the recent enough past that I can compare it to other, more recent VN experiences, through more jaded eyes?
Second, I want to know just how much nostalgia is coloring my viewpoint. To be blunt, the longer you are away from your favorite games or VNs, the more the memory gets beautified by distance in time. When I recently did a speed replay of G-senjou, I reaffirmed why I disliked the story structure while at the same time realizing that I didn't always do it justice due to my biases (no, I didn't blog on it, but I was mostly doing it for my own edification, anyway).
Third, I like to think that I try to be as objective as possible, so I wanted to reexplore my VN roots when it came to my attitude toward charage/moege. One thing I've noticed as I replayed certain charage from the past is that the best of the older generation wasted the least time on 'everyday' slice-of-life, ironically. The gradual shift to put an excessive emphasis on the everyday life aspects of charage and moege is a relatively recent phenomenon, from what I've re-experienced. A part of this is that, as the audience in Japan has aged, so has their nostalgia for an 'ideal youth' become much stronger. The fact is, a lot of the 'devoted' moe-gamers in Japan aren't young people (at least not the ones who are also erogamers). They are older people who want to experience an idealized version of youth through a non-person protagonist's viewpoint. Ironically, this seems to be the reason why the market is shrinking, since younger generations don't find that kind of stuff as accessible as the older generation does, so you can tell to some extent what generation a company is appealing to by how weak the protagonist is and/or archetypical the characters are, lol.
September's VN of the Month is probably going to be a contest between Baldr Heart, Inochi no Spare, and Gin'iro, Haruka. Why? Everything else I dropped shortly after exiting the prologue, wanting to puke from the kusoge-smell. It might not be fair to them, but Ichibun, Yuuwaku, and Triangle Love just aren't VNs that have any chance, with Gin'iro defining the field for slice-of-life and romance. I can't bring myself to play anymore Gin'iro, but that isn't because it sucks... it is because I'm going to have to wait a few weeks to a few months so my memories of Yuzuki and Bethly fade enough for me to be able to bring myself to continue (just doing Yuzuki's path was kind of pushing it).
Now, it is almost time for my ritual yearly poll on whether to continue VN of the Month or not... and one thing I've noticed is that people are missing the point when I ask people whether I should continue or not. I'm asking people if they value me writing down my opinions on various VNs every month, not if they think it would be worth it from my point of view (which seems to be the assumption). Lots of comments telling me to take a rest... but none telling me what they actually think about the blog. This time around, I don't intend to do the poll, simply because it feels like a waste of time. However, I do want to ask the people who actually read this blog... do you get anything of value to you from reading the hundreds of posts on individual VNs I've put up here...?
Understand, I'm not a huge fan of the moege and charage umbrella genres. This is something I'm sure anyone who reads this blog is already well-aware of (to the point of exasperation in some cases) and at this point, it isn't something I need to reemphasize. However, I've noticed that I've never really mentioned what I do like about moege/charage and their positive elements... and I thought I'd go ahead and put that down here.
1. Charage do make decent breaks from my workday, as they don't require much in the way of brain activity to enjoy.
2. Generally, their visuals are maintained at a level where they are pleasant to look at (some other genres use really odd art-styles... in the case of 07th Expansion, outright ugly ones, lol).
3. Junai (pure love) is a romantic genre that puts you at ease, in general. After all, you know that a happy ending is coming and there is no reason whatsoever to fear for the characters' future.
4. Comedy- Most charage at least attempt to be comedic. That they don't always succeed (increasingly, they don't succeed in recent years) doesn't detract from the fact that it is a quality of the genre.
5. Slice-of-life- Though you need to take it with a grain of salt, charage are actually much better as tools for learning about modern Japanese culture (outside of subculture) than anime and manga are, simply by the nature of a story with narration. That said, it is ultimately an exaggerated, compartmentalized, and idealized version of 'everyday life', lol.
In this month's releases comes a sequel I've been looking forward to for two years (since it was quietly first leaked), Tayutama 2.
Tayutama 2 is based fifty years after the end of Tayutama (the original). To be specific, it is based on the Mashiro ending from that one (straight out the best immortal heroine ending I've seen in any charage). However, because it is based off of that ending, it spoils the main story completely, making it a necessity for you to have at least played Mashiro's path to understand how things ended up the way they have in the new game... and because the old heroines return as side or main characters (though not as heroines). This is just based off of me gathering information from the Lump of Sugar website, the official Tayutama website, and Getchu...
Tayutama was my first in-Japanese non-chuunige... and it is the reason I keep going back to LoS, despite the fact that I've been tempted to get a friend to use spambots on their support page for putting out almost all kusoge in the last four years. The magic of Tayutama is that, despite its moe-moe appearance, it showed me that even what I later came to call charage could still have a solid story, a well-designed setting, and a cast of characters that you actually wanted to experience as people, rather than just vicariously experience sex with. In other words, the mercy and lenience I'm willing to grant charage (though it might seem slight) was born from playing this game, so I do recommend it.
For those interested in playing the new game after the old one, an omnibus of the original and its fandisc was recently released, so feel free to get ahold of that one, since it is already Windows 7/8/10 ready, unlike the original version, which requires update patches to work on the later Windows systems, lol.
Now, for those interested in what I intend to play from September's end of the month releases... I'll list them here.
Natsu no Majo no Parade (maybe, maybe not... I don't have enough on this VN to make the decision now)
Kanojo ＊ Step (by the parent company of Hook Soft, which specializes in soft, pure-hearted charage)
Tayutama 2 (as I mentioned above)
Sen no Hatou, Tsukisome no Kouki (I'm a little exasperated that they are using a half-gakuen half-fantasy setting, but there is enough interesting stuff in the description for me to want to try it, despite having my hands repeatedly burned playing August games)
Furerute Love Connect: Ore to Kanojo no Aijou Hyougen (about a 50/50 chance I'll play this... since I dropped Nephrite's first game out of boredom three years ago)
Kyonyuu Fantasy Gaiden 2 After -Osutashia no Yabou (another gaiden story for Kyonyuu Fantasy/Funbag Fantasy. Since I actually like the setting of the game series, I'm curious if this new one will add anything interesting to the series)
Interesting stuff
Nitroplus is releasing an all-ages version of Tokyo Necro at the end of the month, for those who don't want to deal with the rape, choukyou, and other half-offensive sexual scenes in the game. Since h-scenes are actually the least offensive element of this VN, I have to wonder why they bothered, lol. However, I'm sure at least some of you will want to try it.
Liarsoft is re-releasing two more games, one from its Rail-soft lineup and one from its own, at the end of the month: Zettai Chikyuu Boueiki Mega Laughter and Kagerou Touryuuki. While I haven't played either, those who want to see what Liarsoft and Liarsoft's primary subsidiary used to produce will probably find this to be enlightening, lol.
At the moment, that's about it.
Ugh... can you say kusoge out loud twenty times fast? I'm sorry, but it has been a while since I played a VN that was this awful outright. It had all the elements, setting-wise, that a good story VN should have... a protagonist who gave up high school to work to support his sisters, twin sister heroines (yay for incest), a generally capable protagonist, a hikikomori neighbor heroine, and a lot of hints of potential story points that could have been used to enhance the paths.
Unfortunately, this VN never strays out of the range of the mediocre, from beginning to end. Seeing as this is a new company, it is ok that they used public domain and generic BGMs, but the way they used it made me fall asleep... repeatedly. Koyuki also crosses the line from shy to just being annoying, making what I thought would be a character that would grow on me just bothersome.
Generic, generic, generic. I experienced this kind of low-level moege dozens of times when I was poring through the stuff released at the opening of the century and the middle of the last decade. However, I just wasn't anticipating that someone would resurrect all the most pathetic aspects of a moege without the visual quality that is generally the only benefit of such games.
In other words, it is a kusoge, a kusoge, and once again, a kusoge.
PS: If you haven't guessed, this game drove me up the wall with how... boring it was, in every way.
Now, for VN of the Month, August 2016... this is a straight-out contest between Gin'iro, Haruka and Inochi no Spare. Gin'iro, Haruka has the high production values and best character development I've grown to expect from Tone Works, so for most months, it would have been a shoe-in, despite its extreme length. Inochi no Spare, however, is a kamige in the utsuge genre, which had me in tears for over six hours after I finished it.
My end conclusion was that while Gin'iro appeals to the mainstream a lot more and feels like it completely explores all aspects of its characters, Inochi no Spare is probably the one I'll still remember twenty years from now... and cry my eyes out. Gin'iro deserves an honorable mention for its high-quality slice-of-life, seishun drama, character development, and romantic aspects. However, if I were to ask which was the better story, it is definitely Inochi no Spare.
So which is VN of the Month? I'm going to pull a rare one out of the hat and name Inochi no Spare and Gin'iro, Haruka for VN of the Month August 2016. *laughs hysterically at those of you who thought he was going to name Inochi no Spare as the sole winner*
Why did I do it this way? Because, when it comes down to it, the only thing that was putting Inochi no Spare so far above Gin'iro was my personal tastes. When I removed my bias as much from the equation as possible, they really were close to being completely even (though Inochi no Spare still had a lead... which I eliminated with points taken away for subconscious bias). One of my ongoing policies in this blog is not to name a VN of the Month solely based on personal bias (though some bias is inevitable). As such, I never name chuunige VN of the Month unless their quality level is so far above the rest of the entries that there is no contest (though they often get honorable mentions). Last month almost ended up the same way, which is weird... since I generally only experience one such month every year, lol.
First, I should state that I couldn't stand Yumina from Yumina the Ethereal, so I dropped the game about halfway through. I hate it when a ditz is the main heroine, and Yumina is one of the most air-headed heroines I've ever run across... and I've played a lot of moege. As such, I went in without a lot of the knowledge you are supposed to gain in Yumina's late-game, so my experience will be slightly different from those who played Yumina.
First, Touka, the protagonist, is a former chuunibyou patient and perpetual loner... until he gets involved with the 'deep night' phenomenon which is the focus of much of the story. He evolves from there into a caring young man who loves his friends and new 'family' (Corona) deeply and will do anything for them, which makes him about par for the course with a lot of gameplay-VNs with a similar concept, lol.
One thing that drove me up the wall about Yumina and has continued in Corona, is the fact that tachie (the sprites) do not change expression or posture, and instead they just appear on the screen, the characters' emotions expressed by a portrait in the lower left corner. This is a huge minus for presentation and a large reason why I think Eternal's games are hard to get into, despite some unique and interesting characters. It is like placing a TV on a doll's head that creates a copy of their face to express emotions for them, and it is kind of disturbing, for someone accustomed to VNs in general.
The three main heroines are Corona (the dragon-girl), Tokino (the warrior-leader of the group), and Muriel (a perpetually lazy blonde who states from the beginning she has no intention of working or doing anything useful, tossing all responsibility for Corona onto Touka and Tokino). Corona is a really straightforward deredere imouto/musume character who adores the protagonist and has a very childish aspect throughout the VN. Tokino is a very serious character who is devoted utterly to her cause... but has her own hidden weaknesses. Muriel is... a lazy, hopelessly degenerate pervert who lives only to eat and sleep, throughout most of the story.
I'll be straight and say this story doesn't utilize several of its cliches very well... Touka and the others are strong characters with a good dynamic, but in exchange, the pacing of the story is badly messed up by the battles, which will frequently last hours at a time before allowing you to go back to reading the story. I've probably said this before, but creating an in-depth story in a VN requires that actual storytelling not be too broken up by the gameplay. Unfortunately, in this case, Corona fails badly.
Another downside to the story is the side-skits... there is almost no sense of continuity between them, and the side-characters' stories basically end in 'alternate world' h-scenes and events that are never referred to in the main story. There is a definite sense of laziness to the way they put this together, and I hate the essentially false nature of these stories, as I prefer to avoid this kind of impossible 'what-if' story whenever possible in a VN like this.
The actual central story is fairly strong... and I imagine it is much better if you just load a clear save and skip all the battles from the beginning. While, at first, fighting some of the bosses gives you a sense of accomplishment, by the time you are halfway through the game, there is a sense of 'Oh god, save me from these battles!' to the entire experience. Part of it is the clunkiness of map-movement on the battlefields, and another part of it is that you have to constantly manage your units' elemental affinities in order to keep yourself alive, which leads to battles seeming even longer than they should be.
You are saved near the end, somewhat, when Touka gets his skill that lets him eliminate all MP use by other characters for the rest of the turn, thus letting you use Tokino's 'control' skill to stop all enemy attacks and Corona's barrier-stripping attacks (one strips a single barrier layer from all enemies, the other strips all barriers from a single enemy... considering what HP looks like toward the end, you almost have to use them if you want a chance at beating the bosses without lots of unit rotation). However, this leads to a huge gap in the experience of battles, as you see Touka and his group wiping the floor with the more powerful enemies and the other units struggling with the others...
To be frank, I found some of the earliest battles harder than the final battle, which probably says a lot about the game's design in general. You can basically kill the true last boss just by using Eri's skill that seals Order skills and Touka's attack that hits LP directly over and over on all difficulties. Really, you could do that for ALL the bosses after you get those two skills on those characters, if you had the patience, lol.
Despite my criticisms, there are things I can recommend about this game. As I said above, the basic story is quite solid, for all that it misuses one of the most overused fantasy tropes in existence, and the character dynamic is quite strong. However, it falls into the trap of many VN-gameplay hybrids of the type, in that the gameplay becomes a slogfest, ruining a lot of the experience.
I'm going to be blunt... I can only take Tone Works games in small doses (one path at a time), so I'll be setting Gin'iro Haruka aside now, though I am interested in two of the remaining three heroines (despite Hinata's horrible VA).
Yuzuki's path actually starts out fairly similar to how you would imagine the classic 'imouto' path would if it was done by Tone Works... the slow growth into full sibling-hood, the slipping into habits that go a bit too far for teenaged siblings, then the realization of love... and that's the first part. I'll be honest when I say that I fell asleep on three occasions during this path. It wasn't so much a problem with the path itself as the simple fact that I went into slice-of-life overload after a while. Bethly's path alone had enough slice-of-life and heart-warming 'lovers being lovers' scenes to fill out an entire charage. When I added Yuzuki's on top of that, I just shut down after a while and couldn't go any farther.
As such, Yuzuki's path was an experience in suffering for me, despite its quality.
From this, I have to recommend that Tone Works games are done in pieces, paced out over the course of several months to retain your sanity. As it is, I know I won't be able to go back to this any time in the next thirty days.
Edit: It is a lot like the feeling I get after finishing an entire medium-sized bag of M&Ms (which I don't do anymore, for obvious reasons)... that sense of utter exhaustion combined with blood rushing to my head and my eyelids growing heavy, lol.
Edit2: To further clarify my thoughts about this path, all Tone Works paths follow a similar pattern, in my experience... the 'youthful years' making up the first arc, with semi-adult and adult years making up the second half. In most charage, you cut out when they are just starting to get into their dreams, but in a Tone Works game, you get to see them fulfill their dreams, step by step, with at least some of their travails portrayed as a spice to the sweetness. In Bethly's path, the best part would probably be the college years or possibly the time after, which makes it kind of a striking contrast to the average young romance you see in most VNs, where you stop while they are still in their teens, save for maybe a small cameo of them as an adult. Yuzuki's path follows a similar pattern, where the semi-child to late teen romance is trumped by the time they are together as an adult.
Edit3: I decided to play something violent and gory, as devoid of slice-of-life as possible, for a day until I have the wherewithal to continue. I don't intend to bother with Momiji's path, regardless, though. Her character might grow on me in time, but it didn't during the common route. As a side-note, one of the things I've noticed is that they go out of the way to portray how the girls' lives change by getting into a relationship with Yukito, giving his participation in their lives a relevance that isn't always present in other VNS.
First, I'm going to say right out that this VN feels very familiar to me, as someone who dropped Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai. I dropped that game for a number of reasons... but the biggest one was that I was extremely tired of slice-of-life and romance at the time. Since Hoshi Ori (and indeed all games by Tone Works) is a pure slice-of-life/romance VN (not charage) it just was a bad time for me to hit on it. As I studied my feelings about my experiences with the path I'd played, I went ahead and rated it based on that, and I'm going to tell yall some of my impressions of Tone Works' games.
Tone Works, unlike most slice-of-life companies, doesn't utilize any sort of heavy-handed moe. As a result, it definitely isn't a moege company, as most slice-of-life companies are. This is only the first - and least important- distinction. The most important distinction is the detail in which this company portrays the blooming, growth, and maturity of the relationship between the lovers. The creation of the relationship, its growth into deep love, and its mellowing and deepening into maturity in adulthood are all portrayed in this company's VNs in incredible detail... That is why their heroine paths are generally ten hour affairs (seriously) and actually much longer than the common route.
This VN is no exception that way. The common route covers the first half of the central cast's middle school experience together... and that in itself covers about six hours of reading. However, from there it extends through the end of middle school, throughout high school, college, and into the characters' mid-twenties, touching upon various experiences in each era, as the characters grow and mature.
To be honest, this kind of VN will probably overwhelm most people who read it with the sheer overload of information you get. By the time I'd finished Bethly's path, I'd been playing for eleven hours, just covering the growth of their relationship and path to marriage. As such, I can't really make a good comparison to give you reference points for how to understand the experience of a VN like this. In my experience, neither novels nor VNs actually cover this kind of gentle, almost real-feeling relationship growth. That is probably the reason why I had trouble with Hoshi Ori. For better or worse, the story goes so deep into the characters that it really feels like a betrayal when you pick another heroine, to the point where I actually feel like I'm cheating on Bethly for starting a new path. I didn't even realize I was becoming this emotionally invested in her, lol. It isn't quite the same as the epiphany I had when I first watched a love-comedy anime (Ai Yori Aoshi), but it is the first major epiphany I've had in some time, when it comes to fiction.
While I always complain about the incomplete nature of Vn endings, I am definitely getting the feeling that I should have been careful what I wished for, lol.
PS: Incidentally, I rofled hard at the scene from the pic below.
http://s21.photobucket.com/user/Rihochan/media/Bethly zombie.png.html
July was unique so far, when it comes to the quality of what was released. Three VNs, Amatsutsumi, Senren Banka, and Floral Flowlove were all at a high level of quality that qualifies them as a potential VN of the Month. As those who keep up with this blog know, I really won't name a VN of the Month if I don't feel there were any releases worthy of it.
First, Senren Banka:
Looking back on it, it was an enjoyable experience, but I came to the conclusion that it was the weakest of the three, when I compared them.
Amatsutsumi:
Floral Flowlove:
More problematic was that, as I looked back on it, I honestly couldn't measure an appreciable difference in overall quality between Amatsutsumi and Floral Flowlove. Normally, I have a clear conclusion on the matter of the VN of the Month shortly after I finish my last release from that month, but in this case, I continued to consider it right up until the last of the next month. My conclusion was that both games were of roughly equal quality, subtracting their flaws and considering their unique aspects. However, it was the use of the G-senjou story structure in Amatsutsumi that eventually made me pick Floral Flowlove as VN of the Month July 2016. Sadly, the systematic aspects of the ladder-type multi-path story crippled the VN in some unavoidable ways, though Amatsutsumi is far more emotionally stimulating. Floral Flowlove is just more complete in a general and technical sense than Amatsutsumi was. This is the single hardest decision I've made in a contest since I had to decide between Hapymaher and Komorebi no Nostalgica for VN of the Year 2013.
Agobarrier, who was the writer of Shuffle (the work most familiar to people here) was one of my favorite non-chuuni VN writers. Ironically, his best works were all written after leaving Navel and its massive stream of liquid cash to form Rosebleu, my favorite comedy company. I started going back through his entire library of works (or at least the ones I've played and own) since I heard of his death in mid-April, and as I replay his final work, Valkyrie Runabout, I feel a need to look back on what he did for me, personally (though he obviously had no idea I exist).
First, for those who don't know what works I'm talking about, the Tiny Dungeon series, which is on the second level of my Beginner recommendations list, is a harem/fantasy/action/comedy based in a multiverse where four worlds, inhabited by four distinct races that just recently ended a horrible inter-world war. One of the nastier revelations at the end of the war was that it was a human and mostly human interests who had instigated the war's beginning and kept it going through some seriously Machiavellian manipulations. As a result, the human protagonist, Shirasagi Hime, is a target for prejudice, contempt, and outright hatred regardless of his personal character at Trinity, the school built to encourage peaceful interactions between the three non-human races (humans weren't forbidden from entering the school, but remaining there was kind of... difficult, to say the least). The series stretches across four games, three of them exploring the possibility of Hime choosing one of the three main heroines (the demon lord Veil, the divine princess Note, or the Queen of the Dragons, Ururu) and the resulting victories and tragedies that result. The fourth game, Brave or Slave, ties up the series and brings it to a true ending, and Endless Dungeon (the fifth game that serves as a sort of fandisc/extra story) completes the saga.
The Tiny Dungeon series relies on a mix of the various common types of humor found in Japanese VNs in general (manzai, personality-humor, running jokes) and it shows the various eras Agobarrier worked through (from the turn of the century to last year). In addition, it did what he probably wanted to do with Shuffle... ended things with a harem, lol.
His other works as Rosebleu's jack-of-all-trades (he apparently worked at least a little in every position... and I wouldn't surprised if the COD was overwork, considering this) all shared that sense of humor and maintained a level of quality that reflected his experience in the industry. The fact is that, setting aside the fact that Rosebleu's games are mid to low-budget affairs, they were all written well and used what they had to its fullest to entertain the reader.
And so I, as one of those who has read every one of his works since he helped found Rosebleu, will soon finish my own period of mourning. To be honest, his loss hit me almost as hard as the death of David Eddings (one of my favorite authors), and I often find myself purging myself of my grief through the cathartic scenes in his VNs. I am still young enough to have rarely lost one of the authors I truly fell in love with, so each of them hits me hard... harder than I really expected, really.
Edit: My posts on the Tiny Dungeon series
First, I should say that this is a low-price VN in the same setting as Hatsugamai (one of the better VNs released this year), written by the same guy who wrote that estimable VN, as well as Senren Banka, Love Rec, Satsukoi, Clover Days, Karumaruka Circle (Saga Planets), and Aete Mushisuru Kimi to no Mirai. In other words, this guy is one of those rare, extremely high-skilled writers who regularly pumps out the highest quality moe-bait charage that so many Fuwans love but can also be loved by people with a working brain (nyahaha).
Second, this VN shares echoes of the serious sister-complex that I saw in Hatsugamai (well, not as extreme). Ai is... a rather openly dependent imouto character. About forty-percent of the humor in this game (and there is a lot of humor in it) is her insane statements about the rights of imoutos to marry/love/sleep in the same bed with their oniichans.
The rest is mostly the group interactions in the quartet the characters are forming to let the protagonist keep his scholarship. To be honest, this VN is incredibly short... which makes it rather startling how much they packed into such a small space. This VN openly states that it is a relatively low-budget affair, but the only areas in which it feels that way are the length (about seven and a half hours for me to finish all three paths) and the knife-sharp focus on moving the story forward.
This VN has not a single wasted scene or line... and it never side-tracks. Every single line is measured to create a specific result to better move things forward or amuse the reader, and as a result, this VN is one of a very small group of short non-kinetic VNs that I honestly was able to just enjoy for what they were. In fact, this VN is pretty much ideal for beginners at playing untranslated VNs, as the language is easy and the tempo of the story is quick without feeling excessively hurried.
Now, this is going to be a somewhat short post, despite the fact that Damekoi has turned into one of the better VNs I've played in recent years (well, for the first time, anyway). That is because Asami and Mitoko's routes split at the same point and share at least some of the same events and text, and Asami's route is mostly done by that split.
I'm going to be blunt... once you get past Himeo's route, it turns into a muddy and messy ren'ai drama. The protagonist, Osamu, is torn between his lingering feelings for his ex-wife Asami, and his blooming (non-parental) emotions toward Mitoko (who happens to be over twelve years younger than him, lol). It is complicated by a number of events, as well as the intermingling views and emotions of all the characters...
Asami's route is basically the 'I chose Asami over Mitoko' route, and it is fairly painful to see how Osamu's choice hurts Mitoko, as by this time, if you don't have semi-parental feelings about Mitoko, you are probably heartless. I know I felt bad about choosing Asami, even though it made her happy. The ending itself was fairly light compared to the events up until then, mostly because things settle down more or less peacefully.
Mitoko's route, however, is only just starting when you pick her (which you can only do if you've seen all the endings previous). The events that occur from then on are a mix of forbidden love, clashes with loved ones, and doses of reality (on all sides) that is eventually resolved in a fairly emotional scene (where Mitoko's idiot mother gets shoved to the side where she belongs, lol). That said, I felt that the ending was a nice cut-off for the rough ride of this VN.
A few conclusions... Osamu's sincerity is both his great strength and his great weakness. He has an immense capacity for kindness, as well as being surprisingly wise at times. Unfortunately, it is usually the worst of times when that wisdom tends to fail him (he really can be an idiot when it comes to other people's feelings).
Mitoko, for lack of a better word, is a girl that was forced to become an adult far too early, because of her mother's abandonment. Her adult side is tempered by a childlike emotional side, where she is not really able to control her emotions when it comes to Osamu (with whom she falls in love early on).
I honestly enjoyed this VN as a love story... but I have to advise honestly against any localization company picking it up. The polite fiction of 'all heroines are over 18' really won't hold water in this case, haha. This story's slice-of-life is much grittier than you generally see in modern-day romance VNs, and that serves it well, at least for me.
First, I should say that this VN has major problems, despite the fact that I ended up enjoying it quite a bit as a whole. This is true of most VNs (obviously), but in this case, the problems are a bit more obvious.
The main problem is the number of choices... to be honest, the sheer number of choices in this VN completely breaks engrossment with it at most points. Generally, the best parts of this VN are found when the choices are over and all that is left is the momentum until the end of the path... which says everything about how bad a screwup it was on the producer's part that they did it this way.
The second major problem is that this VN has a ton of sexual content, despite not being a nukige. I'm going to be blunt... while the first full h-scene is quite touching, as are one or two others in each path, there is a definite excess of h-scenes as a whole (to be specific, there are over fifteen for Ichou, who is the main heroine, ten for Urara, and four each for Sakuya and Mizuha, for a total of thirty-three that I remember). Moreover, most of them are in situations that feel forced or random, so it is hard to take them seriously even if you are inclined to in the first place.
The third and final problem with this VN... is that the time it takes for them to get to the point is interminable. For better or worse, the relationships are pretty much already in their proto-forms near the beginning of the VN, so it feels natural when you choose Ichou or Urara on the first arc, as well as Mizuha and Sakuya on the second. Normally, this would be an excuse for a lot of slice of life, but most of this game's content is ichaicha, even before a lovers' relationship is formed.
That comes back to the positive elements... one thing I seriously liked about this VN was its take on the ideas behind Shinto as a religion. Shinto is a fairly unique religion, in that it is an animist faith that adapted to the rise of an imperalist system and even the reduction of the Imperial line to a symbol. Its inclusiveness is such that it is possible for it to embrace the Christian God, the Buddha, and any other deity you can conceive of without creating any sort of internal paradox. Since the basic concepts of Shinto are for individuals to hold respect and reverence for creation from the lowest to the highest, it can pretty much coexist with any religion, as long as the other religion isn't dominant, lol.
Another positive element was that the heroines in general were fairly unique (once you got past the somewhat... overly cliched beginnings and the way the number of choices makes the whole thing feel unnatural). I found myself laughing hysterically sometimes at the way Ichou casually refers to herself as ugly, related to values of physical beauty from over two thousand years ago (I'm pretty sure this was the writer's jab at the ephemeral nature of standards of female and male beauty). Urara being an open erogamer, an atheist, and a pragmatist. Sakuya being a genius at concealing how much she looks down on everyone but Haruto... and finally, Mizuha's half self-aware chuunibyou.
This VN has three arcs... the 'first season' which contains Ichou's and Urara's paths, the 'third season' which contains Sakuya's and Mizuha's paths, and the 'second season' which is an extension of Ichou's path that connects the other two arcs as a true ending. In the end, my main conclusion was that this game was interesting... but in the end immensely flawed. I dropped this VN the first time around for good reason, that reason being the way the constant choices disrupted the experience and made it hard to get into the story (giving it a forced and unnatural feeling). However, if you can get past that, this VN is really good for lovers of ichaicha and romance in general. I was honestly touched by the way both Harutos slowly eased the hearts of the heroines, slowly healing the deep wounds lying beneath the surface.
