Clephas

Incidentally, is Tomoe Gozen a decent ST Archer? I figured since I decided on Saberlot for the free SR, I might roll for her when Shimosa gets released...

Hair- Brown, gray, balding Eyes- Brown body- overweight, Adult Clothes- Shoes, shorts, t-shirt, glasses Personality- Aggressive, Food Lover, Otaku, Kind, Cruel, Loyal, Funny, smart, misanthrope, pragmatic, stubborn Role- Gamer, Older Brother, American, multilingual, writer Engages in- Online Chatting, Teasing, Reading, blogger, Archery, Sarcasm Subject of- Teasing, being drugged (family tradition since I turned 21... trying to spike my drinks at social gatherings) Engages in (Sexual)- Masturbation, Consumption of Porn, Sexual fetishism (I can only be satisfied by 2D partners now, lol), Doggy (waaaay in the past... when I still had a constant flow of uncontrollable hormones) Subject of (Sexual)- cowgirl (again, a looong time ago)

You'd need a predatory yuri protagonist to make a large number of yuri routes work. A common quality of a lot of the yuri VNs I encountered in my brief surge into the genre when I first began playing untranslated was that there was a tendency to value the 'friendship to love' development or 'dependence to love' development, save in cases where the protagonist is a predator with a habit of seducing numerous other girls. The 'kind-hearted and benevolent onee-sama' routine generally doesn't work very well with a large number of heroines. Neither does the 'feeling your way into sexuality' routine. I suppose reversing it and creating a situation with a large number of predatory-aggressive heroines might work... but I wonder if that would be enjoyable to vicariously experience. Harem protags in hetero VNs tend to be that type of 'receptive' protagonist, but I have to wonder how a yuri writer would handle it...

I'd go back to AGTH before trying that... either that or Textractor. There is a reason why most of us by default become text-hooker collectors.

I have a plethora of AOE Servants in all classes... I'm looking at the free four-star Servant in September and wondering which one I should get... I'm currently wavering between Saberlot, Emiya Alter, and Tristan... I find that I already have all the other four-stars that serve a useful function that isn't already filled by someone else more powerful. Any advice on which I should go for? (I have Nerobride and FranSaber for ST Sabers, which is why I didn't automatically pick Saberlot, and I have no SR or SSR ST Archers, which is the primary reason why I'm considering the other two). On another note... grailing. I find I never consider using grails for practical reasons. Instead, I inevitably use grails on Servants I love but have mediocre utility... anyone else experience this kind of behavior from yourself?

What a loss... It makes me feel old to hear that the younger members of the community go like that... *sighs*

Walkure Romanze (the original) had a number of semi-H scenes with the platinum blonde (don't remember her name, it's been so long) that had stages of kissing. Generally speaking, though, CG kisses are primarily during h-scenes (where they aren't really shown, just the aftermath) or restricted to all-ages titles where it is the closest they get to H content, lol. Occasionally, you'll see kisses during a confession scene CG, but that has gotten pretty rare as CGs in general have fallen in number per game.

I'd love to provide you with a ton of options (mostly AXL games), but that particular genre has been left untranslated for the most part. If you understand Japanese well enough to get manga, you could probably play untranslated VNs using a furigana parser and text hooker with some effort. However, if you feel it detracts too much from the experience, that's fine. I second Eien no Aselia and Seinarukana, despite their focus on more action-y parts. The romance between Aselia and Yuuto in Seinarukana is touching... or at least I thought so. Technically, I guess Koihime Musou would fit, but, to be honest, it doesn't get anywhere near Shin Koihime Musou (the alternative version which has since been remade and rewritten massively) in terms of quality. It is also somewhat heavy on the H content, especially later in the game... or at least, that's what I recall. Also, it is harem romance, so it might not fit what you want.

This game had decent action scenes, a good story, and horrible sex scenes (except from the perspective of Clock-up fans). I played it relatively early on in my untranslated 'career', and I remember being a little disgusted at how hard it was to figure out how to get to the various endings, even WITH a walkthrough. The twins are obviously the best heroines and endings relating to them are generally the most interesting... with the infected vampire hunter girl's endings coming a close second. However, as a whole, the game tended to lack cohesion due to the way progression is handled.

I don't know what to say... except that the Japanese tendency toward feminizing historical figures has probably gone too far this time.

... do any of you ever get the feeling of 'Ugh, not another gold *insert class you have an excess of already leveled and having set niches in your parties*'? I dropped a single summon ticket on the Altria Rider banner and I see the multi-colored lights and go 'whoo-hoo, yay! It's a good one...!' and the next thing I know I'm treated to an unrelated Servant... to be specific, Drake. Now, I know Drake is an awesome farming Rider... but I already have multiple farming Riders... *looks sad*. I don't need any more farming Servants in general... Edit: I wanted my hot Altria Alter... evil Altria is so hot in all her forms... something about something brilliant and beautiful being corrupted but still somehow pure in its own way... *drools*

This rolls back into my issues with character development... there weren't enough moments that showed building trust to make me 'feel' the relationship between the protagonist and the students, and that is also why I thought they should have dumped the silent protagonist bit, at least for this entry. There is just this absolute assumption that the protagonist is this godly super-teacher that put me off more than a little... I mean, give me a few Onizuka moments to make me feel like I understand how my protagonist is connecting with someone like Edelgard (and the bond conversations don't count, since they are just an episode 'after' the relationship has been formed). I don't mean go into insane detail... I mean bring life to what happens during the month for each chapter. Just doing activities, fighting battles, and tutoring... that just isn't enough. Edit: To be clear, I didn't want anything on the scale of Persona's progression, but I would have liked to see the protagonist interacting with the students without me constantly being the voice for her.

I honestly am enjoying the Black Eagles route... I mean, I do find it entirely predictable. However, that is the case with most game stories out there... I do think that this game would have been an ideal time to ditch the 'traditional' silent protagonist, as the concept is generally handled poorly in 90% of games, regardless of nationality. Having passed the time skip, I feel that I should drop a few thoughts... 1. Professor points should be at least a little less annoying to gain... the same for renown. Ii hate mini-games, and fishing is one of my least favorite of the type. 2. Nintendo did the game a disservice by making most of the game's story and character development either through interludes or at the beginning/end of the months. This applies to all characters. 3. Strolling around the Monastery DOES get old really fast... even with the clunky fast travel system. Going everywhere to find lost items and people to talk to got old, fast. 4. What this game does do well are a few good scenes... that show off how weak many of the others are. To be straight, there is a huge bump in quality after the time skip in terms of story scenes. This contrasts the rather excessively long 'buildup period' that is the time before the skip, where it seemed they were dropping mysteries (predictable ones) and revelations on you for the heck of it at times. Not to mention that most of the characters losing their adolescent 'charm' generally made it easier to take them seriously, lol.

A few comments on what is changed with the official version: The action scenes, which were almost universally incorrectly translated, were fixed. A number of major story scenes where the original translator seemed to mistake the subject (who did what to whom or who an individual was talking about or to) of entire series of lines were fixed. Complete grammatical overhaul of large portions of the text. A few parts were already done when it was leaked (mostly the early-stage grammatical fixes), but most of that work was undone at the time. Edit: To be clear, I am not opening the field to the usual translation-bashing. Raw translation is always imperfect. Editors can fix grammar but they can't fix tl mistakes most of the time. There is a good reason the official localization is recommended, despite how much time has passed since it was handed over.

Ayakashibito Comyu FSN Tsukihime Sorcery Jokers

While these are symptoms that occurred less as time (and hundreds of VNs) passed me by, I can give you an assessment of my best pattern when attachment to an individual game, the experience, or even a particular heroine became so strong I literally couldn't put them/her/it aside in my heart and mind. The simplest way to do it was to do something else for a while (usually a day or two). In my case, I usually picked up a strategy game or a shooter and allowed the exhilaration of slaughter and war fill me long enough to enjoy the next VN. I've found that the heroines that are still worth reminiscing about afterwards are usually the ones who stuck with me no matter how many VNs I played, and you won't be able to prevent yourself from comparing. However, the worthless and/or common heroines will fade over time, their place in your heart overwhelmed by the sheer number of similar heroines you will inevitably run into.

Newton was a poor choice overall. From what I've seen of their releases, their choices for localization are almost exclusively mid to low quality charage, with the only significant announcements (from the games I've played, anyway) being HHG, Irotoridori, and Witch's Garden. All three of these are also listed as TBA, so who knows when they will come out... and they are also ridiculously long and thus expensive to translate. The Western market is currently on a SOL craze, but the market is already saturated. While there isn't a variety, there is enough SOL localized to get thoroughly sick of the genre if you don't have a natural aptitude for reading that stuff constantly. Sol Press's poor sales are occurring because they've made poor choices of games to localize (the ones that have already been completely localized). To be blunt, none of the games they have completed localization of so far were pushed by the community before they were announced, and none of them were anywhere near the top of anyone's list to try. While picking titles by little-known and low-budget companies, as well as old titles that are immensely forgettable probably let them keep the money they shelled out to the Japanese side to a minimum, the titles they chose weren't titles that could compete with the higher-end SOL titles already available here in the West. As such, Sol Press doesn't really have my sympathy. Their own poor business practices are what are killing their profits, not piracy, though piracy does harm the industry as a whole (though not nearly as bad as companies say it does).

I'm currently digging into Fire Emblem: Three Houses... Judging by my experience with the old ones and the last few entries, this one feels grindier (on normal mode, anyway), and it feels like they made the class system way too complex... However, that is also its attraction, since you can technically put anyone in any class, if you are willing to force them into the mold by upping their skills. Story-wise, it is hard to judge... basing things in a school, even a half-religious military academy, reminded me a lot of the tons of SOL VNs I've played over the years. So far, I think the non-core characters are weaker than in previous entries, personality wise, even with bond scenes. Generally, each House has the leader and his immediate assistant, who generally have a strong focus in the story for that House (just my observations so far). These, the protag's father, and the heads of the Church leave a much stronger impression than most of the members of the House, which annoyed me deeply, since that feels like Nintendo is getting a bit lazy. Gameplay-wise... it is Fire Emblem. If you've played Fire Emblem before, you will understand what I mean. Oh, there are some twists and they removed some elements from more recent entries (no doubling characters into a single space, for instance), while including others from other entries (such as Valentia's exploration). Overall, my experience so far is positive, but I'm recalling why Fire Emblem games generally leave me frazzled afterward.

For those of you who play on the Japanese servers... is Dead Heat Summer Race as annoyingly grindy as the rumors say? Edit: Ugh, just looking at the event rewards... and other than my desire to collect Ishtar Rider, it doesn't look like there is anything that is worth hunting for, considering my current amount of ascension materials. If there were more evil bones or void dust (which always seem to get used at ridiculous rates), I'd be willing to grind them, but there isn't... I'll just get enough for the Divine wine and Black Beast grease, then ignore the event after... too much energy use, otherwise.

Kikokugai The Baldr series Tokyo Necro I/O That's about it for good ones... the rest are crap. Edit: As a clarification, I haven't played the EVNs, so my dismissal refers to the Japanese ones, most of which I at least tried if I could get my hands on them. Cyberpunk has never been as big in Japan as it was over here, and even over here, it is somewhat niche. I suggest you read the Baldr series or Kikokugai for cyber-identity and stuff like that, Tokyo Necro for action in a cyberpunk setting, and I/O for something that is philosophically complex to an insane degree. If you simply want a futuristic tech-heavy setting with some dystopian elements, I actually suggest you try Re:Birth Colony Lost Azurite. The setting there is definitively dystopian, with the characters living in a post-apocalyptic arcology that got split into an aristocratic upper class, commoners, and a 'non-people' caste that are in a constant and somewhat fluid state of conflict and symbiosis (they all know if they go too far they'll wipe themselves out). Cybernetics are pretty advanced in the setting, with full-body replacement available, though it is uncommon. Wetware is also available if you have the money, but few do. There are two major characters that can be characterized as full-cyber and two with heavily-modified genetic structures that enable them to interact with electronics and the web in odd ways (these characters are separate). This game IS a sequel, but it doesn't require knowledge of the original to enjoy... I read it before the prequel and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Assuming you want translated only: Shuffle (Kaede is a great imouto... just a bit yandere) Hapymaher (Saki and Maia... though Maia's route is a sad/bad ending) Chrono Clock (blind imouto, great imouto) Tsukihime (old and no moe aspects to Akiha, really... and both her endings can be interpreted as bad endings) Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki Hikoukigumo no Mukougawa (eventually it gets a tl, apparently... and the little sister route is the weakest of the routes) Mirai Radio to Jinkou-bato (whenever it comes out over here) Suki to Suki to de Sankaku Ren'ai I'm almost tempted to recommend Soukoku no Arterial for the great imouto, but the actual patch is a machine translated, only poorly edited. This stuff is all stuff that made it at least into my pile of 'acceptable' VNs or better...

I like my grailed Medusa for ST... though I'll probably level up Tamamo later for use in a Buster team. I know people say Medusa Lancer sucks, but I feel that she is a pretty solid ST Lancer with good survivability from the high HP and invinciibility on that guts skill of hers to let her survive an NP turn. The stun on her NP might not have the highest probability of hitting (though using maxed Devilish Bhodi craft essence helps with that for the first use of her NP) and her charm might suck, but, if you overlook how selfish her build is, it is a pretty solid one. Well, I'm biased, since Babylonia made me fall in love with her as a character. lol

I have Proto Arthur from the very first ten-roll I did... but tbh, I haven't leveled or maxed him, because Altria Alter was just better in terms of NP damage, even if he did better regular damage. Also, evil Altria is hot. Anyway... does anyone else have a glut of SR and SSR Lancers? Or is it just me? I mean, it seems like if there is an option for a gold lancer to drop in a pickup summon, I get them. Enkidu, Karna, Tamamo Lancer, Medusa Lancer, Elisabeth Bathory, Vlad III... I'm a bit tired of Lancers. I mean, sure, some of the best characters in both the anime and the game are Lancer class or have a Lancer class version, but still... *sighs* I just wanted a craft essence, and instead I got Tamamo, and it makes me feel weird to feel exasperation that I got a GSSR Servant. Edit: That said, I want to mofumofu that tail of hers... she'd make a great dakimakura.

Later on, it gets harder. I do recommend you at least play it through once before you embark on translating it, deliberately picking out and listing terms you didn't quite understand so that you can look them up beforehand. If you are going to try to translate something with as many mythological connections as Tasogare, you need to know what you don't quite get before you actually dive into it and get stuck.