Clephas

lol, I was talking about writing quality, not scenario quality. To me, all the paths' (other than moon and Terra) scenario quality was iffy. Every writer has a specialty, and some people are just better at writing stuff like that. Edit: About to start a playthrough of the HD PS3 reverse port (with H-scenes added back in) of the Akatsuki no Goei games.

Otome games tend to have terrible cases of DIDS (Damsel-in-Distress Syndrome), but if you can get past that, some of them are good. Edit: There are exceptions, like Sanzen Sekai and Asaki, Yumemishi, but those are few and far in between.

*looks up from his pikachu/squirtle/Mewtew steaks in puzzlement* abuse?

For those who are interested, I'm sad to say that Sakura Mau, Otome no Rondo doesn't maintain the quality displayed in Gokigen Naname (a previous game by the same company). It lacks for a strong protag - despite the fact that he is a trap and has full-voicing - and the heroine paths are what I like to call 'weak moege' fare. There is no really significant drama, a lot of H, and no real depth. Honestly, the times when they find out he is a guy aren't even that stunning... and the girls forgive him too easily or have weak reactions to it. Honestly, it stunned me that Ensemble chose to go in this direction after Gokigen Naname, which gave a huge boost to their reputation as a company after their first release half-flopped. The only thing that is the same is the constant presence of ojousama heroines (there are always at least two in each game by this company). Edit: Edit2: Incidentally, this game is by the same company that did Otome ga Tsumugu, Koi no Canvas, which is being translated at the moment. That is one of the reasons why I have difficulty forgiving this low level of quality from this company...

Mmm... I like them when they are properly used. An example of proper use would be Yurikago yori Tenshi Made, where the story splits off early into the four heroine routes and the true route is activated once you are finished with those... late splits suck. Long common routes are fine... as long as the heroine routes are equally long or longer, but if you have a long common route with relatively short heroine routes, it makes me feel gypped. An example of horrible use of route splits would be Aiyoku no Eustia or G-senjou, where the story splits off into meaningless and senseless side-heroine routes along the way. A kinetic novel can also be great... a story told for the story's sake forces the author to use a single 'road' rather than numerous 'possibilities' to tell the whole story. Some of the best vns out there, such as Eden*, are of this type.

Incidentally, I finally did get around to replaying Rewrite. The first time I played it was right when it came out, and I played Shizuru and Kotori's paths first... and that naturally led to me dropping the game. To me, it felt like the combination of Ryuukishi's writing and Key's style had fallen somewhat flat, and the jarring difference in writing quality between certain scenes continually dropped me out of sync with the characters. This isn't something someone playing in English will notice, I believe (since the style is determined by the translator and editor to an extent). However, for me, it was noticeable and a sign that the writer was having trouble transitioning from the more humorous common route to the more serious scenes. This tendency is quite naturally fixed in Moon and Terra, of course (since they are mostly serious, and it looks like the writer got over some of his difficulties with the transitions from scene type to scene type). Also, for some reason, Chihaya's path has a slightly higher quality of writing than the other character paths... My final impression of the game was that taking it path by path, it was far below some of my favorites in quality, but taken as a whole, the Moon and Terra paths tied things together more completely, smoothing out most of the bad impressions I had of the game originally. I still say the writing quality for the character paths is jarringly inconsistent, but I decided to ignore it for the sake of my impression of the overall game. Understand, I played it in Japanese, so my impression of the game is inevitably going to be different from those who read the translated version, and most of my complaints are technical ones that come from an overabundance of experience with what this VN was trying to do.

Sorry... people named most of the translated ones. Thrillers aren't exactly rare (though they aren't so common as to be easily found), and they are proportionately represented amongst translated vns (oddly, moege are disproportionately untranslated, probably because it is hard to get up the motivation to go through with a full translation of a regular moege). Cross Channel comes to mind, though it isn't exactly a thriller (has some horror-ish moments, protag is completely insane, etc). I'm afraid you'll find yourself short of vns to play in English for the genre, though.

If you don't mind untranslated... the Secret Game series, Futagoza no Paradox, Owaru Sekai to Birthday...

Occasionally, I play random VNs from previous months, years, and even decades. I sometimes (about one third of the time) leave a comment on vndb about them, but I figured since I already spend so much time here, I might as well make my comments about them here, whether it is warning people against them, recommending them in general, or recommending them to a particular type of person. I'm doing something similar with my VN of the Month thread (https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/2086-clephas-vn-of-the-month/) , but I started to think it was wasteful that I wasn't telling anybody about the various hidden gems I've run across over the years. When I'm done with my current game: Sakura Mau, Otome no Rondo, I'll either edit this first post with my comments on it or make a second post if someone posts before then.

Never experienced this... if I find a hidden gem, I always finish it, even if it means tossing aside everything else I need to do at the moment.

I do agree about Mahou Sensou to an extent... the setting wasn't constructed very well. It is like they tried to make something interesting but they didn't quite manage to create a world where it would be believable. If it were me, I would have just touched every last human child with magic, turning them into magic users. Put everyone on even footing...

俺はエヴォリミットの方が好きです。　とくに、しらぬいとしずくの漫才は傑作だった。　ココロはヘロインではないことが唯一の難点だった。　あのゲームは感動場面が多かったが、戦闘シーンはとてもよかった。　あやかしびとのファンはその戦闘シーンをちょっといい加減なものとしてなじったが、俺はそんなよけいな中傷が嫌いです。

People think I'm angry all the time... and I only realized why when someone told me that I'm completely expressionless better than 80% of the time, regardless of my emotions. I was a bit startled when I discovered that, lol.

... it amazes me how they go out of their way to find games like this sometimes... I'm a translator, and even I think translators are weird, lol

This is for those who already have a certain degree of Japanese knowledge (basic grammar, can understand most of it when watching anime without subtitles, etc) and thus can figure it out with a combination of a text hooker and jparser.

DDC has a darker protag and a more abstract philosphical tilt (along with no 'good guys' amongst the protagonist, heroines, or antagonists) and Izuna Zanshinken is a combination of super-violence and serious consideration of the effects of making the death penalty illegal without a solid social foundation to support that change, vigilantism, and the flaws inherent to juvenile justice systems.

This month's game of the month is Koisuru Doll to Omoi no Kiseki ~Poupee de Souhaits~. Special mention: Hachimyoujin for being chuuni and giving me a decent high... and Bakamoe for being one of the rarest types, a pure comedy.

Yes. Vigilante assassins.

Why do they keep trying to bring this back? It isn't like it will bring more prosperity to anyone...

Check out my 'beginners' list. https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/3493-for-love-of-vns-for-beginners/?hl=list

The image Fate creates of the characters is significantly different from the image in UBW, and that is probably what bothers him. In particular, UBW focuses less on Saber and more on Shirou's abnormal mentality and on the nature of sorcerers' culture in the Nasuverse.

I mostly rate Majikoi higher because of how well they managed to balance all the elements in the main heroine and true story paths. The humor, the exaggerated beat-downs, and with just enough drama in the individual main heroine routes that I didn't get bored without depressing me. The true route... had some problems but was good overall. Tsujidou is...'青春臭い’ to the extreme, and for me that is always a bit irritating... The romance portions of the game lasted too long (I started to get bored long before the path went back to drama) which is something you expect from a normal moege, but Tsujidou is long in the first place, so that makes it more painful. Edit: Not to give you the impression that I disliked the game... if anything, it is obvious that Minato-soft learned from the mistakes of Candy soft, its parent company in how they did Tsuyokiss (too obviously derivative from older manga/anime in the gakuen love/comedy genre, such as Love Hina). Minato-soft took the few good elements of that series, transformed it into something that actually could amuse experienced otakus, and then gave it a semi-serious story with battles and overpowered martial artists in Majikoi. It then used the 'ノリ’ from Majikoi to make something significantly different in Tsujidou, focused around juvenile delinquents in an exaggerated manner, with a huge dose of love-comedy. This had a good all-around effect, and the Tsujidou-sequel gives it a nice conclusion as well. Edit2: Incidentally, for those who are just beginning to play VNs in Japanese, I can't recommend Tsujidou, because you need at least some knowledge of Japanese delinquent-speech and culture to fully appreciate it and understand some of what is being said.

A few points for you... go ahead and write the names as the Japanese write them - last name first, first name second. It just confuses experienced otaku to read Japanese names in English order. Also, you included some spoilers that would ruin the story for a first-time reader, though giving people an idea of what to expect (your comments on how this was not Majikoi) is not a bad idea. The mark of a good reviewer is how he/she can avoid spoiling the story while still giving the reader a good idea of whether they'll like the story or not, as well as its base quality. Being a Minato-Soft fan, I'd say that Tsujidou is below Majikoi (first and second game) in quality and above Noble Masters. It shows all the classic signs of when a company has caught their pace and decided what their unique flavor will be (such as Propeller's tendency toward dark and hot-blooded plots with manzai humor and character humor or Akatsuki Works tendency toward groups of friends with a cynical edge). Generally speaking, most companies will choose certain aspects of a hit work and make that the key point of their future works. The incredibly exaggerated fighting, combined with mild melodrama (understand, my standard for melodrama is Dies Irae), as well as character-based humor and poking fun at society in general are Minato-soft's flavor, and it can be seen in this game.

I think his problem was that events differ so drastically, and he saw other aspects of the same characters, as well as their different relations. I think Heavens Feel would make him feel worse that way, so it is only logical to take a break and come back. I remember how uncomfortable I felt at first while playing Heavens Feel because of how different it was...

I guess I'd be fine with using Teamspeak, if it doesn't require the registration of (true) personal data... but Facebook and Skype are out for me.