Clephas

The bugs are mostly concentrated in little things, like the one that makes the game crash if you go into the menu during certain parts of gigs (which is annoying as hell). That's the PS4 version though. I'm doing a Tech/intelligence run with a side of reflexes and enjoying it immensely... but my completionist tendencies have me going off on wild tangents every five seconds. I've spent a ridiculous amount of time just running around 'solving' crimes and hack-killing random gangers with synapse burn.

These days, you don't see many VNs where the extra tokuten discs have anything but meaningless crap or soundtracks on them. World Election was no exception. It is a great VN though.

Momoyo is chaotic neutral Kagome is chaotic evil (c'mon, you already knew this if you got her ending)

GOOD VNs with chaotic good heroines are rare. I say this because most heroines in VNs don't have enough force of personality outside of their moe points to really have an alignment, lol. Also, very few VN heroines are anything resembling selfless. If anything, since romance is so vital to most VN stories (romance being an inherently selfish concept) most VNs prove a poor medium for a 'good' heroine. Katsuragi Youko- Akeiro Kaikitan- Technically, her ending is the 'bad' ending of Akeiro, but it doesn't change that this ancient being is a force for good... on an individual level. She is whimsical, distant, and kind. She is more than a little hedonistic and tends to encourage the same in those around her. Her tendency to scheme to achieve multiple ends from a single plan sometimes backfires, but she always has a backup. She doesn't give a flip for the rules of those around her but rather on the well-being of those she has taken a shine to. That said, once she has done her best for them, she expects them to stand or fall on their own. Aiba Kazumi- Kanojo wa Tenshi de Imouto de- Kazumi is an individual who was originally thought to be the most likely candidate to replace god as the world's overseer, but instead she chose the path of the reaper when she reached the peak of power available to an angel. There were a number of reasons for this, but at least part came from the fact that she was disinterested in being further bound to a position as restrictive and horrifying as that one. She is good, helpful and loyal... but she is disinterested in obeying what is expected of her. Like Youko, while she will help as she can, she refuses to be a crutch for others to stand on. Yuuzutsu Hanene- Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide- The individualistic but good-hearted apparent main heroine of the game, an ojousama who's only real love is the protagonist but who will save others on the way out of habit. Her father's teachings have left her with a strong core of self-reliance only surpassed by that of the protagonist. (honestly, if you like individualistic philosophy that doesn't necessarily deny communalist ideas, this is a good VN to pick) Himegami Alice- Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary- Raised in the extreme elite capitalist Himegami family, she is perhaps the only member of her family who isn't a sociopath. In fact, she has a tendency to take life as she finds it and see the best in people around her without blinding herself to their flaws. Her only crutch is the protagonist, Souji, and even that is more of a precaution than anything else. Like most of the heroines on this list, she'll help someone along the way, but she quite naturally expects them to take care of themselves without her intervention after. Fujina Kanori- Minamijuujisei Renka- To her followers, a leader to a better future; to her friends a mischievous but kind-hearted princess; and to her enemies, a ruthless foe who will take extreme action when the situation calls for it. While she can think of the greater good, her actions are mostly done for the good of her followers, herself, and those she is fond of rather than out of any sense of communalistic duty. Law and custom are only tools to fulfill her goals to her, and her position is an obstacle she has also turned into a tool. Izuna Zanshinken- All three heroines - This is an unusual game, in that all three heroines can be considered to be chaotic good. Whether it is Suzuka's devotion to her role as the head of the Kuzuryuu Family, Hikaru's devotion to her sense of justice, or Shinobu's need to act for the sake of the victims of the most depraved crimes, all of them show the signature features of a heroine of this type, acting not out of rote belief but out of a deeply personal moral code. To be honest, I ended up cutting about fifty heroines from this list after considering them, simply because most 'good' heroines are much closer to the lawful or neutral good descriptors.

Soukou Akki Muramasa is a game I couldn't get into the first time I tried to play it, primarily because I had trouble getting past the prologue, which annoyed me. However, the second time I played it, I enjoyed it greatly. If you can get past Nitroplus's quirks (anyone who has played a Nitroplus game knows what I'm talking about), it is an excellent utsu-type chuunige. That said, it is not a game that lends itself well to replays, as it loses almost all its impact after the full revelation of everything that is going on.

Semiramis no Tenbin - Kamio Ami Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier - Most of the heroines Bradyon Veda- Shion Devils Devel Concept- All heroines Draculius- Belche Akagoei 3- The Route C (Kinshi Kuiki) heroines except Anzu Izuna Zanshinken- Two out of three Yurikago yori Tenshi made- Ume and Tae

That's the major barrier. Licenses in Japan are usually considered to be separate between consoles and between consoles and PC. As such, there is a high probability that the Japanese companies would require separate licenses for both versions or an actual full port. Traditionalism is the poison of choice in all Japanese industries, and the VN industry is one of the industries most plagued by it in recent years. Simple practical solutions tend to fall by the wayside when short-sighted traditionalists get in the way.

I meant because its system is almost identical to that of a PC OS, so conversion would be significantly easier all-around. It wouldn't surprise me if it eventually got to the point where the system could play PC VNs that have been localized without a need for a port.

I watched it... but I'll be honest in saying that Johan was too opaque for me to put him on this list, even if I recalled him. I will agree that Reinhardt is like those two historical figures, and I mostly call him an antagonist because a large part of the story has him standing on the other side from Yang, their contrasting situations and natures serving to form the more human side of the story.

Worse than Akagoei, in terms of being incomplete. Akagoei at least pretended to have actual endings, as short and unsatisfying as they were until the FD came out. If they had released a sequel within six months, I might have been willing to forgive them, but even then, I still would have had major complaints. This game's potential was wasted entirely because the producers didn't rein in Kinugasa's love of never finishing anything. The non-true heroine paths are pathetically short and the true heroine's path essentially shuts down in the middle of things, where the action would have begun to get going in any decent game. Worse, there is no guarantee of a sequel, despite them having set up to easily graft one on, because Kinugasa's tendency to never finish anything extends to everything he does.

Until a sequel comes out, this game can only be categorized as a half-assed mess of a kusoge with enormous potential.

This is the latest game by ASa Project, a company that rose up during the Golden Age of VNs, making a name for themselves as solid comedy charage makers. To this day, their style hasn't changed significantly, but in some ways that gives them an advantage over modern charage, which tend to be less comedy-focused (actually, most newer charage makers don't seem to know how to make the readers laugh anymore). This game is focused on the harem of a young man named Hirotaka. The situation is, structure-wise, a classic 'all the girls already love the protagonist' setting, a style that you don't see as often anymore. Instead of the girls getting along and being friendly (the more common modern iteration of this setup), is almost 90% the girls fighting over Hiro. Moreover, the girls are so over the top I couldn't stop laughing throughout the common route, to the point where my voice got hoarse by the end of the day. There are four main heroines and two sub-heroines with one bad ending extra heroine and two male-oriented 'normal endings'. The main heroines are: The returning idiot osananajimi who throws everything into chaos with her return to town, Mari; the narcissistic and more than a little perverted (too self-absorbed to realize she is a pervert) Shione; the yandere-ish little sister, Nonoka; and the idol who constantly goes back and forth between being a straightforward deredere heroine and deliberately acting cute, Renna. The sub-heroines include the popular idol Yuuna and the class president Ikuyo. Something important to note about this VN is that the constant byplay with the side-characters contributes a great deal to the comedy and bringing the heroines to life, another technique that requires skill that most modern charage writers lack. The fact that Hiro is something of a forgetful airhead (who happens to be handsome and subconsciously seduces heroines without even realizes he's doing it) as well as being a bit crazy also helps, since it generally means that things never really ease up or calm down. Yuuna Yes, I did a sub-heroine first... but most people who get through the common route will understand why. There are just too many reasons to pick Yuuna for a first heroine, even aside from her being an interesting character. Though I call Yuuna a sub-heroine, she is actually a strong enough heroine with a long enough path to be called a main heroine. Her path is mostly straight-up ichaicha and dealing with the main heroines insane levels of jealousy (seriously), as well as planning for the future. It is generally heart-warming while also keeping the comedic atmosphere of the common route. I liked that the path had a 'years later' epilogue. Renna I had to play Renna's path after Yuuna's, because I wanted a good comparison between a sub-heroine path and a related main heroine path. Renna is Yuuna's understudy and younger partner in the idol group Gloria Snow. Renna is a pretty straightforward character who uses a 'cute' persona to seduce the protagonist. In all honesty, since Yuuna was my favorite from the beginning, I kind of wanted this to be a 3P path, but ASa seems to be ignoring the trend toward such paths, lol. Like Yuuna's path, this one felt like an extension of the common route, with perhaps a bit more in the way of drama (short drama that doesn't really add anything to the experience) and about the same amount of ichaicha. So, for those who just want the ichaicha comedy, it is roughly equivalent to Yuuna's path in those terms. Shione I'm going to be blunt... this is the path that kind of made me stop playing the game. It wasn't that it wasn't funny... but as a heroine, Shione's clumsy attempts to take control of the relationship made me nearly go crazy. This path spent way too much time dancing around instead of getting to the point, and as a result, I felt like it took a lot of fun out of the more humorous moments. Conclusion For fans of old-style comedy harems where the girls are constantly at each other's throats, this is actually a great VN. If you want romance, it isn't. I say this because, except for Yuuna's path, the romance is the weakest part of the game. The heroines are mostly psycho (makes for great humor and catfights, but not so much for romance), so, while I spent a great deal of time laughing, I didn't get much out of the romance. I did like that the girls never did stop trying to reclaim Hiro, even after he chose one of them... the way girls always seem to give up entirely in other VNs always struck me as odd.

Trouble@Vampire - I enjoyed this game, even if it has aged horribly. Soukou Akki Muramasa- Umm... if you haven't played this and you can play untranslated, there is probably something wrong with you. Comyu- Kagome is still one of my top ten heroines of all time, and I have no problem with man-whore protags. Shuffle Essence+ is the definitive edition of Shuffle, not just the tokuten disc. It was a partial rewrite with several new paths, not just side-stories.

Functionally, the new Microsoft console probably has the best hardware for VNs. Sadly, the lack of a foothold in Japan will hinder them - just like it has with each iteration of the xbox - in actually getting any games out of Japan on their system. Consoles have pretty much become a stand-in for people who can't afford gaming PCs over here. A gaming PC generally bottoms out at $1000 and there is no limit to how much one can cost, if you go all-out. Even the current generation of consoles is half that, which means the trade-off in flexibility is attractive for people who just want to game. VNs have minimal requirements - relatively speaking - but high-end VNs sometimes have ridiculous ones for the content (I mean, why should any VN have a 3GB RAM requirement? It isn't like there is all that much in the way of gameplay). The fact that most VNs are based off the PC produces the need for ports, which cost a surprising amount of money to produce sometimes (depending on the original engine and the system they are porting it to). Like any port, the benefit vs cost analysis is everything to most companies. If people buy the VNs that get ported enough to justify the cost, then we'll see more get ported and sent over here. Personally, if I was going to play a console VN, I'd want it on the Switch. The Switch is more convenient than either of the other two systems, with the ability to easily connect it to a TV, its light weight, and its portability. I really wish the PSP version of Ayakashibito would get ported to Switch, lol. As for popularity? That's more questionable. It's going to be years before we see any real results from the console market for VNs. There just aren't a lot of JVNs that aren't otomege on consoles just yet, even over there. Without the content, there is nothing to lust after, after all. Note: Understand that when I say there is a 'limited' number of JVNs on console, I mean this in a relative sense. One reason that VNs have managed to create a niche over here is the sheer number localization companies have to select from with JVNs. The number of 'classics' and high-quality VNs in general makes it possible to cherry-pick, whereas consoles don't, as of yet, have the numbers to allow for that.

In action stories, often the story's quality is determined by the quality of the antagonist as much as the quality of the main characters. The antagonist acts and the main characters react, creating the drama that pulls at our heart strings and excites us. The more complex the story, the more likely the need for a strong antagonist will exist, at least in modern fiction. I decided to put down my top ten and my reasons for making them my top ten here. These are my top ten, but there isn't a particular order to them, save for the top five being the absolute best. 1- Shannon Wordsworth- 2- Mercurius- 3- Kefka- Final Fantasy VI's main antagonist. He is frequently listed as one of the craziest bad guys in all of gaming history, with good reason. He is the nihilistic result of experiments with granting humans magic, and as a result he gets the bright idea to destroy the world... and actually succeeds. His psychotic laughter (in 16 bit sound) is familiar to anyone who played the game, and his psycho clown character traumatized an entire generation of gamers into thinking clowns are inherently evil. 4- Christopher Valzeride- The heroic antagonist of Silverio Vendetta. 5- Reinhardt Lohengrin- Legend of the Galactic Heroes- While he can also be considered the protagonist of the massive space opera, he is also an ongoing antagonist. Reinhardt is an ambitious young man whose meteoric rise in the militaristic and expansionistic Galactic Empire are driven by his twin desires to wrench his sister away from her position as the incompetent emperor's mistress and conquer the galaxy. A fierce man with a warrior's demeanor that usually only serves to fuel his strategic and tactical victories, he honors both enemies and allies who show ability and contempt for those who rise above their level of competency. As a ruler, he is ruthlessly fair with those of ability who are capable of loyalty and brutally ruthless with those who are incapable of it. As an enemy, he is one of the most frightening (non-magical) men in any anime, game, or VN I've ever seen. 6- 7- Mikado Ruri- 9- 10-

Be warned, this is full of spoilers for one of my favorite VNs, Evolimit. Shiranui Yoshikazu is one of my favorite protagonists of all time, and I thought it would be good to just lay out why I loved the guy from beginning to end. Shiranui's past The Disaster (MAJOR Spoilers. Don't read this part unless you have finished at least Kazuna's ending) Even entirely ignoring the events of the main story, Shiranui's story is one of quiet heroism, of sacrifice, and of love-born duty. A flawed hero who often acts the fool, while always stepping up when he is needed, without hesitation or regret. A pioneer in the best sense of the word (as opposed to the Manifest Destiny version) who acted out of duty and compassion to a girl who dreamed of Mars even as she never rose from her hospital bed. A man who, in the end, always acted for others as much as or moreso than for himself. Note: If you can't tell, I love this protagonist.

Abyss Homicide Club is a great game... but it looks like Tsukihime, albeit with a better soundtrack and a lot more blood.

Shumon Yuu's talent is in adding depth to every aspect of the games he serves as scenario writer for. Whether it is setting, plot, characterization, or atmosphere, he literally is the best out there. Perhaps that is why he is also one of the least prolific VN writers out there. Each of his works is a rather obvious product of love and passion, of art. I hope I see at least one more work by Shumon Yuu before I die.

Bloody Rondo.

Technically, the protagonist of Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou applies if you choose Luna's path with the submissive option.

Angel Magister- This one tried too hard to mix SOL with plotge, and as a result it didn't really fulfill on either side. It wasn't horrifically bad, but it isn't great either. Kitto Sumiwataru Asairo Yori mo- Shumon Yuu. I don't need to say anything else. All games by Shumon Yuu are automatically awesome. Natsuyume Nagisa- One of the games Saga Planets became known for, a solid nakige with a mild mindfuck. Mecha-mimi- A decent android love story plotge pretending to be a charage on the surface. Sevens- Straight-out moege/charage from the era in which that was 90% of what Whirlpool did. Kurenai no Tsuki- A great inaka fantasy mystery based in fall (easily the best setting for that kind of thing). I found this one enjoyable both times I played it. Best heroine is the hidden one though, lol.

It depends... in some cases, the SOL is handled in such a way that it makes you long for the lost daily life the characters enjoyed (this is the most common reason for SOL inserts). However, in some games - like G-senjou, they are just inserted as 'breaks' from the crushing realities the characters are enduring. In all honesty, in most serious games, these interludes are short and relevant. However, they aren't always.

I'm having a similar problem with the Japanese version of Kaziklu Bey. Honestly, I dunno where this issue is coming from, but I can't get it to start. There are also reports that Zero Infinity is having similar problems. The only idea I have is that a recent Windows update must have partially disabled the older (pre-2016) malie engine games to some extent.

Just by what I saw? Almost definitely. Unfortunately, I can't say whether I'll bother with a second entry... I liked the humor, but even the best humor can get old if it is repeated often enough. It's not that Whirlpool can't make games like that anymore... it is more like it isn't cost-effective at present. To be blunt, coronavirus has screwed up the VN world pretty badly, with otakus less likely to splurge on random charage or figurines than they were a year ago... and things were already on the decline then. This looks to have accelerated a trend that was already rising, toward decreasing VN production and a more specific decline in the charage-lover demographic due to financial issues.

The Emirillia Chronicles by Michael Chatfield (incidentally my favorite litrpg author), the writer of the Ten Realms series, is one of the more fascinating ones I've come across. Unlike the Ten Realms, which is fairly unfocused due to Erik and Rugrat's generalized motivations based on their personal ethics, desires, and whims, Emirillia has a somewhat clearer goal for the characters. In the series, humanity was defeated by an alien empire called the Jukal, but the Jukal almost lost everything in the process. Humanity's innovative and competitive nature made them devastating opponents, despite their lower tech base, so the Jukal decided to destroy them utterly... until one of them, a scientist named Lok'al, came up with the idea of tricking special-grown humans into killing more aggressive species for them. What they came up with is the Trapped Mind Project, where 'cycles' of people grown in a simulation of Earth, believing they are 'logging in' to a VRMMO, are physically manifested on the planet and sent against aggressive species. Natives of Emirillia are also human variants, made by tweaking DNA to make them seem like the legendary races (dwarves, gnomes, elves, demons, angels, dragons, etc). By the time the protagonist, Austin Zane, 'logs in', over eight hundred years have passed and Emirillia has become something of a reality TV show for the Empire, used as the 'opiate of the masses'. Aggressive races that would have been exterminated previously are instead used as opponents for Players, and the POE (People of Emirillia) get caught in the crossfire, more often than not. The protagonist is a brilliant engineer and scientist, a man who managed to exceed the parameters of the Earth simulation by creating a company that mined space and dumped the resources on Earth (something that normally didn't happen), and his desire to enter the 'game' was to build a cabin and get away from everything. Unfortunately for him, Bob (Lok'Al) has other plans, and Dave (as Austin comes to call himself) is too good-hearted and active by far to sit idly once he knows what is going on. Generally speaking, much like the Ten Realms, this is a series for people who like to see the characters growing in power and helping others growing in power. It is also a series for those who like innovative and brilliant main characters (as the main ones are) and nasty characters getting their comeuppance. It is a rather large series (12 books), but I honestly hardly noticed the passing of time while I read it. This game has a significantly stronger western influence compared to the Ten Realms, which was more influenced by xianxia cultivation stories than anything else.