Clephas

Michiru is Michiru. She is what is called 'boke-tantou', or a character whose sole role in the game is to serve as a source of cheap laughs. That is why she has no redeeming value as a character... but no one doubts that she is a good person at heart, either. Quite frankly, she is too simple-minded to do anything evil, so everyone can sit back, relax, and use her as occasional relief from the rather... extreme atmosphere of the second and third game.

Also, those interface patches are basically someone punching the letters through a machine translator, approximating what comes out, then sticking it on screen. They aren't that good in the first place, in other words. The groups that made them have neither the capabilities nor the wherewithal to do a decent translation of the main game (heck, they'd probably stumble over an anime meant for small children), and asking 'can you translate the rest of the game?' is like asking a pygmy to get the cereal down from above the fridge.

Research into the way our food crops are responding to changing climate conditions has caused scientists to conclude that staple crops will be less nutritious, the warmer our climate gets. That means every ear of corn, loaf of bread, and sack of rice will feed fewer people. If anything, it is going to be all science can do to keep food production matching the current population, without some kind of dramatic advances.

Eushully's games have more text than the average VN, so it takes a lot of... courage to even consider translating one.

Actually, INCREASING the population is wrong, from a simple long-term point of view. Our current infrastructure (including natural resources such as water) are currently strained to the breaking point by our unnecessarily large populations, especially in cities. Japan suffered from that problem early, and it was one of the factors that has effected that 'I don't really want to have kids' mentality amongst the youth over there. China is having the same problem, especially in its northern provinces. Europe suffers from it as well (it's actually much worse there than it is here), and so does Australia (because so little of their land is arable in the first place). To be blunt, we need some kind of bio-engineered plague or lots of nukes to rapidly reduce our population to something manageable so that the illumi- I mean, conscientious human beings can run the world properly. (Edit: The last part was a joke, but I really am serious about population being a problem. Part of it is that Christianity and Islam, two of the largest faiths, promote population expansion, but it is also because kids just don't die in infancy like they used to... so too many people survive to adulthood)

Umm... if anything, it is the fact that women are expected to end their careers if they marry over there. It is pretty much a universal belief amongst anyone born prior to 1990 who works at a 'normal' job, so it is going to be at least another decade before society manages to dispose of that idea.

PC gaming is mostly MMO's and social games over there, other than VNs. Here, most of the high-quality games end up on PC and PC-exclusive games far outnumber those on consoles.

http://vndb.org/v10642 The protag in this one is what you want. It might be a little too serious for you, though. http://vndb.org/v776 This is a famous one, though, again, it is not a romantic comedy (though it is frequently amusing). http://vndb.org/v4942 This is fairly close to what you want, in both areas. It isn't Majkoi-like (because, frankly, only Minato-soft can do Minato-soft games), but it is romantic comedy. http://vndb.org/v7773 Protag is great, but again it might be too serious for you. http://vndb.org/v7636 Similar to but more comedic than Ruitomo. Edit: One thing you should remember... only Minato-soft does that type of character dynamic (so far) so don't expect to be able to find anything like Majikoi's cast of characters elsewhere.

I mostly said it was the 'golden age of jrpgs' because it was on the balance point, when money had seriously begun to build up in the Japanese age of the industry, but before things hit the 'assembly line' level of production. People with skills were able to wield them to their hearts' content, within the extreme limits of the hardware, mostly because there were no industry outsiders who 'already know what the public likes'. Basically, because no one had any real idea of what the public wanted from video games as the capabilities of new systems gave them more options, the developers were allowed to figure it out themselves, with relatively minimal outside input (exceptions like Xenogears, where well over half the game was shortened or cut out entirely only serve to outline how different things were back then). To be blunt, no large studio could get away with that kind of relative freedom nowadays, which is precisely why the indies are flourishing. Preconceptions of what the gaming public wants (sometimes right, sometimes horribly wrong) are the greatest weakness of the large studios... in particular when those expectations are coming from people who don't game in the first place. Perhaps the biggest reason for the way the PS2 age glutted us on medium quality games in general is because of that previous age of innovation and the way they shifted from that innovation to expanding on existing concepts in that era. While the PS2 definitely signaled an improvement in system capabilities, the main concepts behind the games coming out for the new systems had already been tested on the Saturn and PS1 in the previous era. If anything, the PS3 era has been even worse that way for the Japanese market, because they've ended up with a glut of dungeon crawlers, hunting games, and crappy online games, as their market has switched to the portable systems almost entirely. It does make the truly great games that come out over there stand out more, though...lol As for here... our end of the industry has been going through its own growing pangs. tbh, I've been more disappointed in general over the last generation for games over here than in any other part of gaming (including the hundreds of VNs I've plowed through). That isn't to say that I don't find something great on occasion... but that's the point, it really is occasionally. Proportionately speaking, games really worthy of being enshrined in a 'gaming hall of fame' have become much rarer. Too many series are resting on their laurels, new games show a startling lack of innovative concepts (despite lots of hype) and terrible execution (in most cases), and certain series (*coughs* Call of Duty *coughs*) have been milked to death by their producers. Exceptions, (like The Last of Us) only serve to prove my point... they really are exceptions. Edit: I am aware that COD is a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it', but is it really necessary to put out a new iteration of the series with practically the same gameplay every single year?

One of the things I've noticed over the years I've spent as a gamer (almost twenty-two years now, to one degree or another) is that a technically superior game (such as Final Fantasy XIII) is not necessarily a 'good' game. I've frequently asked myself why this is... and I've yet to come to a full conclusion. So, I decided to use an example of a truly great game that wasn't necessarily technically superior to everything around it. Dragon Force- It was the release that interested me enough to pick up the Sega Saturn, a Working Designs localization of a conquest-strategy/rpg. There were eight different nations you could start out leading, each with their own storyline (leading to the same endgame, but meh) with a different protagonist for each. There were a lot of different units you could use, ranging from generic footsoldiers and cavalry to gorgon-like dragons and zombies. You could recruit generals by capturing them after defeating them in battle, and the object of the game was to crush the other large nations, capture their leaders, and recruit them into your army. Now why was this game great? First, it was downright addictive. The gameplay was never the same two playthroughs in a row (though the methodology was) and considering the limited capabilities of the Saturn, it startles me what they did with the limited resources they had available to them, looking back at it now. Second, it had ridiculously catchy songs. I found myself humming along for hours while I fought battle after battle, never really getting bored with it. Third was the story... while - like all conquest-strategy games with story - it was mostly activated by your conquest of certain castles/areas, it nonetheless managed to draw you in nicely. The desperation of the shattered Kingdom of Izumo, the ambition of Junon, the mix of isolationism and a sense of duty driving the elf queen Teiris... All of these things served as a nice beginning, and the endgame was surprisingly poignant (despite being extremely predictable story-wise from a veteran rpg-gamer's point of view). Also, I rofled constantly at the beastmen and the really weird music they stuck on their story sequences. Now, those are ELEMENTS of what made the game great... but by themselves, all of them could be matched to one degree or another in a number of other games. Generations of Chaos (the first one released in the US) was a direct spiritual tribute to Dragon Force, and it seemingly had a similar level in each individual area... but it failed to be as addictive or interesting. Why? Because a truly great game is like a puzzle, its elements fitting so well together that it creates a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Games like Dragon Force and Chrono Trigger are unusual more for this quality than for any individual aspect of their gameplay or story. They are almost works of art, rather than simple merchandise. Needless to say, I was fortunate to grow up in the early era of video games, because it gave me an appreciation for this kind of masterful game artistry that I doubt I could have obtained if I had begun in the PS2 era or later, where technology began allowing the creation of games with an unbalanced emphasis on a one or a few aspects of a game while still managing to gather in mainstream and casual gamers. I'm not saying such artistry is dead, because that would be patently ridiculous. It is just a lot rarer, proportionately, because of the simple fact that it IS so much easier to produce relatively high quality games under current technological conditions. To be blunt, gaming has suffered from the same thing that happened to every cottage industry after it hit assembly-line mentalities... predictability. Of course, some indie companies are reviving what was best about the old era, but they are also indulging in nostalgia far too often. Yes, I do like the FFVI style... but is it really necessary to copy it or Dragon Quest for EVERY SINGLE new jrpg-imitation that comes out? *Clephas rolls his eyes in exasperation* I'm not saying that the 'golden age of the jrpg' (the SNES and PS1 eras) was absolutely unequivocally better than the modern era of games... it was just oh so much easier to recognize a truly great game when you saw it, lol.

Depending on how you look at it, the over-focus on the characters' mental states and emotions can be a good thing or a bad thing. I do think that, regardless of focus, the utter lack of a serious explanation for the motivations of the background antagonists of the story (not the ones shown) and the more... unusual aspects of the setting was incredibly irritating. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the game (I did, as you can see in my posts on it in my VN of the Month Thread) I'm simply saying that from a literary perspective, it was harmed by that lack of detail, since it was definitely a serious story (which always requires more detail).

Looking at things from the Japanese side... I'd probably say that Bloody Rondo, by 3rdEye, didn't get a fair break. While the game isn't really chuuni crack, it definitely manages to be chuuni marijuana. Also, the werewolf servant's path is just... cute (mostly because of the unconventional way it ends).

tbh, Alt Fable is basically a sop to people who hated the ending for MLA. It was the only thing that kept me sane after I played MLA, because I seriously wanted to break something.

Planetarian isn't underrated... it just gets forgotten a lot. To be blunt, it's atmosphere and theme is so different from most of Key's works that saying 'Key's fans should play it' is a bit ridiculous. It's an utsuge, for god's sake. The difference between an utsuge and a nakige is so huge that it isn't even funny. Edit: Also, Muv-Luv Alternative definitely had flaws enough that a 9 or a 9.29 is appropriate. It was a great game, but that doesn't make it flawless.

Translated VNs generally get better ratings than they deserve, because of the principle that hunger is the best spice.

1. Dragon Force- Sega Saturn 2. Xenogears - PS1 3. Chrono Trigger (multiple systems) 4. Suikoden II- PS1 5. Suikoden V- PS2 6. Ar Tonelico I and II (PS2) 7. Grandia II (PS2 and Dreamcast) 8. Skies of Arcadia (Gamecube and Dreamcast) 9. SMT: Digital Devil Saga (PS2) 10. Growlanser III (PS2) What can I say? The PS3 generation mostly sucked for my favorite genres and it shows. I turned to PC gaming and VNs precisely because of the lack of truly obsession-worthy games on consoles, at least for me.

Just finished my second playthrough (Roka's ending). There are two points I'll touch on here. 1. The difference made by the path choice. 2. The difficulty of the EX Dungeon First, the only real difference made by the path choice is in the epilogue, after the credits (the epilogue is very short). Apparently, there are also a few extra lines for Catchua's ending before the prologue, but that isn't much to add onto it. Considering the sheer amount of mental energy it takes to keep track of the factors necessary to get the different endings, it was something of a letdown to realize how little I was getting for that effort. The difficulty of the EX Dungeons is... fairly high, I would say. If you want to be able to survive, you need a minimum level of 160 for all your characters you use in battle, decent equipment (especially a fully upgraded Full Mars accessory for each character you plan to use) and Valefor as part of your battle party for her ability evade (stripped of her armor for the karuwazashi skill's evasion boost and with Full Mars accessory and anti-death accessory). Once these conditions are set... you are ok for playing through the EX dungeons on normal difficulty. If you want to do it on hard or insane... well, that's your business. I'm not even going to try, because getting attacked every five steps is just way too annoying when there are so many really long levels to get through before you get to the last boss. You can get the Full Mars accessory 100% as a drop from the treasure slime (rare encounter) on the third basement of the abandoned mine (main dungeon) early in the game when the goddess gauge is above the halfway point using Valefor's highest treasure-hunting skill. I would farm them until you have a minimum of 5, preferably 10 (for insurance). You get Valefor shortly after you can get Liliem, and I really suggest you max her bandit skills as soon as possible, because that is going to be your gold mine for the entirety of the game (selling off the non-usable treasure you get from using it at the beginning of battle).

'wazuka na kiseki motome' was the latter part of the line. One reason I despise translating lyrics is because they cut out particles and the like in order to make it fit into the actual tunes. This is an extended version of the OP song, set to a looping version of the original video. It also has the Japanese lyrics in subtitles. The sequel ost is basically the Hapymaher ost with one or two extra tracks. There is no 'better' or 'worse' in cases like that. Edit: I do think the original was better at synching the music with the scenes, but FD's almost never match the quality of the original, in any case.

The Second Reproduction is the sequel to Queen of Darkness, which was reasonably high quality doujin rpg-VN/otomege by Heterodoxy, which was infamous for escaping the usual otomege tropes (DID Syndrome). He's right in that the language isn't terribly complicated, though it is still mostly ranked around a 7 at the hardest parts (on a scale of one to ten).

The radicals all have their own meanings that they add to the main part of the kanji, such as the liquid radical, which is part of the kanji for seas, alcohol, hot water, etc. If you just do a search on 'kanji radicals' you'll get a nice listup of them and in most cases, with a little thought you can figure out what many kanji mean just by what radicals they are using and the context the kanji is placed in.

First, knowing kanji isn't really necessary to play VNs with the translation aggregator/ITH combo (using jparser only) or the VNR's furigana function. These are solely for getting used to the language, separately from the kanji. To be frank, learning kanji takes a lot longer than learning how to read Japanese this way, and unless you want to wait two or three years before you start, I don't suggest using kanji-knowledge as a marker for when to start playing VNs in Japanese. These levels assume a basic background in Japanese grammar, syntax, and common vocab (particles, tenses, sentence structure, negative form, te-form, ta-form, etc. as well as words in common use in everyday conversation). Understand, if you can't understand a raw anime episode (at least to a reasonable degree) you shouldn't even make the attempt. While the written language has the advantage of a lack of the ambiguity lent to language by the intervention of a voice, it also has the disadvantage of being more complex than what is normally spoken in most cases. Furigana converters like jparser and VNR's furigana converter basically allow you to circumvent the need for kanji-knowledge by putting romaji or kana atop the kanji to make them comprehensible to the kanji-illiterate. If you haven't mastered ALL of the radicals (with an understanding of WHY they effect the kanji they are attached to the way they do), as well as all of the kanji seen in everyday use, you shouldn't even make the attempt to play without these tools. Sorry, I ranted. However, too much importance is placed on learning kanji, when it isn't really necessary to learn it before jumping into VNs. Rather, you should understand their function. Kanji function similar to the way parts of our words such as -ology (biology, astrology, etc using it as an obvious example) function, in that they lend specific meaning to widely-used syllables, which can lend the reader a richer understanding of certain words... if they already know those words, can recognize them in the context of the sentence, situation, and/or conversation. Symbolic writing's advantage over and disadvantage against phonetic writing is summed up right there. More meaning can be more easily conveyed in the written language, and thus understanding of the spoken language is weakened (thus too much kanji too early can lead to poor or flawed understanding of Japanese as a whole). Really, it is best to balance them out, but if you want to read VNs... learning the spoken language then using those tools is the fastest, most effective way to do so. I advocate a spoken-language-leaning approach because it results in better understanding at the endpoint, but others prefer to enter from kanji because it provides a seemingly easier (if you are really good at memorization) route to simply stealing the gist of what is being written by just extracting the kanji and staring at them until you THINK they make sense. This is also why Japanese>Chinese>English translations are just... terrible in most cases (speaking from experience as a fansubber/fantl). The illusion of understanding without any grasp of the subtleties is usually all that kanji without a greater understanding of the language gives you. Edit: Sorry, I've had several people I know jump into VNs with kanji knowledge but a weak understanding of grammar... and the results to their understanding of what went on were hideous. I couldn't believe some of the results (see the English reviews on the web of Devils Devel Concept, for instance... they don't even resemble the actual game). Seeing the light bulb go on above their heads when I explained the meaning of a key line was gratifying for me... but also disturbing. It wasn't so much about the generalized (very generalized) meaning... it was that they missed most of the key details of what was going on, details that frequently defined everything that happened after that, even though they didn't seem important at the time.

Basic translation of the lyrics (obviously, it doesn't confirm to the rhythms of the lyrics, but this is the meaning).

Mmm... once they are ready to move to the untranslated (testing the waters, check my beginners list, from the link in the stickied topic above. As for VNs that would be good teaching tools, even in English... it is easier to tell you which ones might give you trouble, than those that might be useful (since all of them are a little useful). Hoshizora no Memoria uses a lot of obscure/archaic/ritual Japanese in its more serious points, and this could intimidate a reader trying to learn from the voices. Rewrite suffers from chuunibyou in the worst kind of way at its most serious points on the heroine routes, and the results can be unfortunate for a beginner, because it mixes odd katakana word usage (which can sound deceptively Engrish) with rare-kanji/language usage, which, while it might be useful if you already had a working knowledge of Japanese grammar and common vocabulary, would actually cause you trouble if you hadn't already gotten to that stage. Cross Channel is probably ideal from a beginner's point of view, save that in the H version there is a lot of borderline rape, and the protagonist is certifiable, literally. Grisaia... might actually be the best option of all, as it mixes military language, espionage language, and everyday language fairly well. I really suggest you introduce them to Full Metal Panic (the anime) then tell them about how the protag in Grisaia resembles the one in that anime. Using common elements in things they already like is a good tactic for corru- I mean, converting new VN-readers. For those looking to recommend FSN or Tsukihime to draw in new readers (the most classic method) that mostly works on people that already like 'modern-day setting fantasy' and it also requires a familiarity with chuuni-influenced settings... or at least an ability to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy them. Also, since Tsukihime has aged horribly (musically and - to an extent - visually) and has no voices, it is not a good choice, overall, for trying to use the 'it's a good way to try learning Japanese' tactic. Edit: One thing you should consider... since yall's first language isn't English, you might want to consider bypassing the translated games entirely once you think you can. You'll only slow your acquisition of the language if you get reliant on filtering it through your already limited understanding of a second language. Edit2: Also, if you do decide to bypass the Engrish translations entirely, I'd suggest avoiding Grisaia, Hoshizora, and Rewrite. At points, all three are way too high level for beginners. To be blunt, when you are trying to addict a new reader, you need to provide three things: attractive subject matter, good writing, and writing that doesn't use hard to interpret language. The first is dependent on the tastes of the potential reader, the second is hard for the inexperienced to pick out (in other words, ask a more experienced reader), and with the third... no chuuni, no hard sci-fi, and no mysteries.

I just download the raws, in most cases... but yeah, fansubbing is a ton of work. In addition, a lot of people think it isn't worth the effort anymore, because of CR and other streaming sites rendering them mostly irrelevant. Only very minor series don't get official subs nowadays, and very few fansub groups are willing to do those in the first place (everybody wants to do the major stuff).

I use jparser, but I don't need it for moege, lol. I just like to be able to read quickly, because it takes time without it.