Clephas

Ouzoku is great... the only downside is that it's on the upper end of the difficulty slope for SofthouseChara's titles. Considering that SofthouseChara games' difficulty levels are high in the first place, that's saying a lot. Kamidori, storywise, is the second weakest of the games based in the Ikusa Megami universe (Himegari being worse). Battle system-wise... you have to understand, I've never been impressed by a VN battle system in the true sense of the word, because my standard for turn-based systems is the Grandia series, and for strategy it's Dragon Force. It's hard not to face the average gameplay-VN with resignation rather than expectation, when you have two high level titles like that sitting in the back of your head.

Debonosu has a number of problems... but their inability to write a decent story is the biggest. I played a few of their games, but none of them even managed to be as interesting as a decent charage. That only makes the decent character designs go to waste, which pissed me off. Edit: Also, at some point I plan to play Shinen no Hitomi wa Koi no Iro, because I'm a youkai fetishist. However, since the various descriptions don't say what kind of game it is, I dunno whether I'll finish it or post about it.

Baseson is the ones that made Koihime Musou... and the original is the least interesting of their 'gaishi' VNs.

It's unlikely they'd be able to do anything serious to these sites without spending a ton of money on enforcement. The whole reason anti-piracy efforts don't work is because of the sheer cost of enforcing the law.

No problem... growing loli-mes only takes a few microseconds, so she is easily replaceable.

*Clephas opens his mouth and spits out a Clephas-loli in miko-fuku, who promptly begins sweeping the steps of the shrine and eating visitors that displease Kaguya (and some that don't)* There you go.

*Clephas comforts Kaguya by turning into a gigantic demon cat and purring loudly*

Whirlpool always makes pretty much the same type... but they also manage to make a high-waterline game, for the most part. This is especially true since they made Suzukaze no Melt, which seemed to signal that they were going to put more emphasis on the plot of their games. If I have a complaint, it is that their protags are mostly 'regular guy' protags, like most VNs of this type. EX-ONE's Manatsu no Yoru games and Tsukiakari Lunch were both good, though the former is a nakige and its fandisc and the latter is a story-focused that surprised me with its quality. Yuzusoft's moege are pretty good, with good stories (though by now, I imagine everyone knows Yuzusoft). Ensemble does ojousama-ge (games where the heroines are mostly from wealthy families), the most famous of which is Otome ga Tsumugu, Koi no Canvas (this game is awesome). The second Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteiru is really, really good. Purple Soft is really, really unreliable... but they occasionally produce true masterpieces. Chuuning Lover is a bit over the top at times, but it is rofl worthy and has a decent story hidden under the weirdness. Lovesick Puppies by Cosmic Cute (a sub-brand of AB2) comes to mind. The second game by that company is chuuni, but Lovesick Puppies is classic high-quality charage material. Alcot and its subsidiaries (ignoring their occasional blunders and nukige) manages to make some good moege with story. (I loved Naka no Hito nado Inai) Whale comes to mind... but the brand is dead, with only one work to their name. Ore no Tsure wa Hitodenashi (surprisingly serious and interesting stories hidden under the surface of the somewhat goofy monsters trying to escape their racial stereotypes). I could go on... but to be honest, most VN companies that make really, really good moege also make other types of games. It is rare for a company that specializes only in moege variants to be any good or dependable.

Yeah, there are makers that can produce excellent games that balance moege qualities with a good story/stories. Palette is a bit hit and miss, though... they have a few excellent games and the rest are mediocre. When they do well, they really do well, but they don't usually do a good job.

I hate zombies because I like my enemies to actually be people or monsters, not masses of rotting flesh that somehow move.

From what I'm hearing about Shinsei Mokushiroku, I might just not play it this month. I dislike roguelikes and meaningless grinding attached to VNs... and I hate zombies.

I skip greetings, pleasant nothings, and small talk. I do listen to the rest though.

I didn't like the PVP, but then, I rarely enjoy PVP in the first place. I managed to get lots of rare gear by doing the exploration mission and finding the chests hidden in the caves...

I have about seventy-three imported jrpgs lying around the house, in addition to about two hundred VNs...

More likely, they'll just create dozens of add-ons, charging five dollars a piece, for about five years, whereupon they'll put out a slightly upgraded version of the same game up as Destiny 2.

Debo no Su Seisakusho makes third-rate gameplay-VNs that sometimes have an interesting story, mostly not.

lol, something is actually fighting with AstralAir... I'm pleasantly surprised. I myself am not voting, unless it is as a tiebreaker at the end. Have fun, yall.

He's using Kagari for his avatar. People who like Rewrite generally have trouble with normal chuuni VNs, if only because there is generally no such thing as traditional VN romance in the average chuuni VN (lots of falling in love with enemies, violent heroine death, sleeping around, etc). Also, he's saying this after reading Benio's path... and she is the least impressive of the main heroines. I prefer Hisoka or Mayuki, if I had to pick one after Kagome. For one thing, Benio's obsession with justice drives me up the wall even more than it does Izawa, and for another, she is pretty much deredere within three scenes of their first meeting. People who don't like Akihito don't like him because he doesn't bother with trying to be your average non-nukige VN protagonist (straightforward, sincere, monogamous), nor does he fall into the other extremes. His women-only philanthropism also annoys a lot of people. If you think about it a bit, it is easy to understand why he ended up the way he did, but most people can't get past the parts of him they don't like.

Mmm... not that I know of. Tattoos are a general taboo over there, so people generally just don't get them unless they are already yakuza or planning to join. Even if a young person gets a tattoo, they generally get it removed later, because companies won't hire them if they have one and the company finds out. It really is that much of a cultural no-no there. I was a bit surprised when I found out that most young people share that attitude, to a lesser extent. While they make allowances for foreigners (ie. allowing them to break bath protocol by wearing a bandage or a band-aid over them), it doesn't change the fact that you'll probably be asked to leave if you try to go into the bath without it covered up.

I don't skip the voices most of the time... but when the game's lines are low-quality, I tend to just read, ignoring the voices. I doubt anything by Favorite will be like that, though.

I'm going to be playing various VNs for my VN of the Month for July. However, right now I'm trying to finish Izayoi Fortuna, so it'll probably be Tuesday or Wednesday before I actually get started. Thus, I decided to leave the choice of which game I play first to the readers, for once... since there isn't anything I'm terribly excited about from July's releases. Poll closes Wednesday when I get up at the latest.

I got stuck for about forty minutes on the Devil Walker. You have to hit the plates over its legs until they blow off, then hit the next one. That is the fastest way to take it down other than hitting it at a critical point (like the exhaust vent on top between the neck plates). Ammo was a problem, but it was doable if you killed off the enemies that periodically spawned and collected whatever they dropped (it was usually primary ammo, but that's more than enough for whittling).

Most onsen and public baths (except for yakuza-owned ones) don't allow tattoos into the bath. The reason for this is because regular people don't want anything to do with yakuza, and in Japan having a tattoo means you are associated with them. It is polite for foreigners to cover up tattoos with a bandage or band-aid, but if you have a huge one, you are screwed, lol.

Akihito, being a guy, is perfectly willing to sleep with pretty girls that make him an offer, lol.

There is romance in this game... it's just not all traditional or sweet romance.