Clephas

*Clephas emerges in a burst of black flames, sitting at a desk while staring at his computer screen, drool dripping from one side of his mouth as he clicks and clicks and clicks, reading through line after line of VN text a speed few can match* *Clephas looks up and blinks bleary eyes, yawning to reveal the tens of thousands of universes swallowed by his hunger, then notices the newcomer* Oh, hello. Welcome to Fuwa.

If you haven't already played it, Tokyo Babel's visual style is pretty unique. I'd suggest you put everything you've played on your vndb list and link it here, so we know what you haven't played... it is frustrating trying to suggest stuff when you aren't sure what the other has played. Since you already know KKK and Dies Irae, it surprises me you didn't mention the Silverio series, which is by the same company and has a similar sensibility (to a lesser extent, Zero Infinity as well). Devils Devel Concept doesn't have that many CGs, but the setting is out of this world, with a protagonist who is unique in my experience. It is a bit heavy on the sex though, and you have to read the h-scenes to get all the nuances of what is going on, so that might be a downer for you. Jingai Makyou and Tokyo Necro both come to mind for out of this world stuff... if you don't mind Nitroplus's quirks. Yurikago yori Tenshi Made has a lot of characters who seem to be physically normal on the surface but are inhuman beneath it (example: the 'angels' in the game are essentially the resurrected corpses of their masters' most beloved brought back as a weapon. They have a really twisted nature, where they adore their masters but want to be hurt by them in as vicious a manner as possible... and this is made possible by the fact that they are almost impossible to kill through normal means).

Ayakashibito, Bullet Butlers.

After the prologue, mostly when I realized the protagonist was a brainless moron who couldn't be trusted to wipe his own butt, much less romance a harem of bishoujos.

Lolis are cute, loli sex is disgusting... Worse is the absolute worship of loliconism that was particularly prevalent during the opening days of Fuwa. It disgusts me that Maitetsu got localized, and it endangers the community as a whole. It often amazes me how blind people are to how eroge effect them. Hell, I used to be a prude, now I just know where my boundaries are. That's a much bigger change than you'd think, considering it mostly began after I started playing eroge. It isn't just loliconism, it's ryona and constant justification of rapegames... I feel fouled whenever I come across that stuff while browsing dlsite or vndb... Edit: Loliconism is prevalent throughout all otaku communities, though it was much worse five to six years ago. A lot of the reason why it is (finally) fading away is because less lolicon material is being produced by the commercial industry in Japan (though the doujin circles are as lively as ever). There was a time when someone seriously saying lolicon is disgusting could get shouted down in any given otaku community. Now, we've transitioned to an era where no one really wants to talk about it, which is moderately less distasteful, if no less problematic.

Mmm... this month had a lot of fantasy, so it is probably normal I played more VNs this month than the last few... oh well. Anyway, Renran Spirichu is the latest release from Parasol, a charage-specialist company. Umm... to be honest, I couldn't bring myself to do more than one path of this game, and the one path I did was Botan's (the catgirl). This game's premise is fairly terrible, with girl exorcists possessing breasts in direct proportion to their spiritual power. Not only that, but the protagonist screws three of the heroines in the common route out of necessity (the reason is pretty par for the course). I'm going to be straight with you... this game makes a number of pathetic attempts to be funny, all of which fall flat. The best part of this game is the ichaicha, and, considering I'm not an ichaicha fan, that tells you just how bad it is. Oh, there is a story... but you have to dig through so much filler material to get to it that it is exhausting to read. The heroines are all deredere by the end of the common route, and the only real difference the path seems to make is which one he focuses on *sighs* Anyway, this isn't something I can seriously recommend, even to charage-lovers...

Tamayura Mirai is the latest game by Azurite, the company behind Shinsou Noise and Akumade Kore wa. Unlike the previous two, it is not a guro mystery. Instead, it is a fantasy with an extremely similar setting to Monobeno (which had a great setting, even if the lolicon elements were outright disgusting). It also shares a writer (Touta) with such excellent games as Kin'iro Loveriche, Floral Flowlove, Gin'iro Haruka, and Ojousama wa Gokigen Naname. Before I go any further, I want to speak as to why I compared the setting to Monobeno. Fukano, the town/valley in which the story is set, is a backwater where youkai, humans, and deities coexist. Folk traditions, such as deities within the home, are still alive and well, if not entirely understood (the death of the last folk shaman in the area ensured that, from what is said). The protagonist's role is very similar to the role of the miko in Monobeno (keeping harmony and balance between the supernatural and mortal), and, though the younger generation isn't, a certain level of superstition remains in the older generation. In addition, the protagonist's choice to live isolated in the mountains in a run-down and modified old Japanese school (think the school from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni) also echoes the isolation of the protagonist's home in Monobeno. That said, the atmosphere in the game isn't as severe as Monobeno's, though the protagonist's 'duty' is harrowing at times. All that said, this is definitely its own game. The general atmosphere is a bit somber, and the characters all have some kind of serious problem that leaves them a lot less at peace than they seem on the surface (the protagonist included). The protagonist is a mage who wields runic magic (Norse shamanic style), and he has the role of keeping peace the mixed-origin supernatural community of Fukano, the setting. He lives in an abandoned school in the mountains with a succubus named Midari, who has the dual problems of being afraid of men and deeply fearing her own nature (though her upbringing shows through at the oddest times). At the school he attends, he frequently meets with a water spirit information broker named Hanako (one of the heroines). Occasionally, he meets up with his oppai-loli 'oneechan' (who is very childish and has a really poorly-executed accent that just comes off all wrong in the VA...). The story begins with his encounter with Yukina, a girl with naturally high levels of spiritual energy who is completely untrained (and is thus a danger to herself and everyone around her, since youkai and monsters can gain power by eating such people, and others make assumptions about what she can do based on her spiritual power). I won't go into details about their meeting, because this is a game best experienced the first time without too many preconceptions. This is essentially a nakige, and it does a pretty good job of bringing out the tears. The protagonist's duty often brings him into contact with situations where he must deal with various tragedies, sometimes from the present, sometimes from the past. His own previous life isn't exactly bright and flowery either, lol. The protagonist has a tendency to see himself as weak and selfish, but he has a seemingly endless capacity for getting obsessed with solving other people's problems... which actually makes him perfect for his work (considering the nature of the mountain deity and certain hints given during the common route, it is pretty clear that he was given his role specifically because of that tendency). The heroine routes, quite naturally, focus on the issues with the heroines... to be specific, dealing with the issues that bother them the most deeply. Equally quite naturally, the first heroine I picked was Midari, the succubus. Midari Midari is a member of the succubus nobility who was exiled from her homeland because of her fear of men and inability to feed properly (essentially have sex with men...and lots of them, preferably). Worse (from her perspective), she fell in love with the protagonist on their first meeting, thus dooming her in the eyes of her people and filling her with a constant conflict between her impulses and her love for the protagonist. Midari has a very gentle and refined manner, and she has the grace that one would expect from a noblewoman... However, on occasion, she makes remarks (usual casual references to sex acts or her sisters and mother's sluttiness) that reveal rather blatantly that she isn't human and her basic upbringing wasn't either. Her path is all about dealing with her internal conflict and its real-world consequences... and this leads to a lot of nice emotional drama and a decent catharsis... though, to be honest, the cathartic scenes two-thirds of the way through the common route were better. Hanako For those who understand the reference, yes Hanako does hang around in the girls' toilet. Hanako is a water youkai that came over from China six hundred years before the story began and eventually rose to become one of the top figures of all the water youkai in Fukano. She is actually pretty powerful, and she serves as an information broker for Mutsuki (the protagonist) as he performs his duty as the Mage of Fukano. Hanako's route is a weird one and it isn't as emotional as Midari's route was. To be honest, a large part of the reason why is that the relationship part starts really quickly and feels somewhat forced... Hanako has a reason to like Mutsuki, but Mutsuki doesn't really have a good reason to fall in love with her, so it feels weird. This is in opposition to Midari, who has been at his side for some time when the story began and is insanely devoted to his well-being (not to mention sexy and graceful at the same time, lol). This route could have been handled much better by using a tactic similar to the Midari route, where they become closer during the course of him carrying out his duties... unfortunately, the way the route was handled was sadly inept for such a potentially interesting heroine. Yukina Yukina is a young woman with a natural gift for the use of spiritual power (so much so that she can attack youkai with her bare hands and blasts of raw energy). Her characterization is a straight out tsundere, so anyone who reads this VN with some experience with the character type will probably be able to predict her reactions in most situations. I started laughing at a few points when she said something so typically tsundere that I couldn't believe any writer would still use the lines...lol Yukina's route is all about her personal issues, both her past and her present ones. I do feel that this route's romance was far too hurried (like Hanako's) in the sense that their relationship should have had more time to develop into something deeper before things began to accelerate. That said, the actual events after the romance solidifies are well-written and described, and you gain a lot more insight into Mutsuki's motivations and the depth of his personality than you do in the other paths. I recommend this path be read after the other two heroines available at the beginning, simply because the revelations made here are too overarching to allow you to truly enjoy the other paths without reservation. Shiro Shiro is the protagonist's loli-oppai oneechan, who speaks with a weird houben (regional accent) that is poorly used by the VA to the point of being wince-worthy (yes, this is worth mentioning again). Shiro and Mutsuki's issues are the core of everything that has shaped Mutsuki to be the person he is. As such, it was only natural that Shiro would end up as the true path heroine... indeed, her path begins after the end of a non-romantic Yukina path. I'm not going to spoil what those issues are, but I should note that Shiro was the motivation that drove Mutsuki to become a magus. In the setting, magi are seekers of forbidden truths, similar in some ways to the magi of the Nasuverse save that they don't seem to have a large-scale organization or influence on the mundane world. As such, they frequently take actions that are amoral in the pursuit of their path of research, and many naturally think in ways that are out of sync with humanity. The Mage of Fukano is a rare exception, in that the deities of Fukano have made a role for the holder of the position in the natural existence of the valley and mountains. Mutsuki's path of research is about as immoral as it gets, even if he still has a conscience and his motivations come from a very human place. As such, it takes a central role in the major dilemma of the path, as anyone who has read Yukina's path would guess anyway. In the end, this was the path (other than the common route) which drew out the most tears from me. Shiro and Mutsuki's story is full of sorrow but ends with joy, so I can honestly say this falls into the classic 'nakige' style. Conclusions I have a few things left I want to say before bowing out on this game. First, I wanted a Feles (Mephistopheles) route, since Feles is ridiculously deredere (in a yandere way) over the protagonist. Another issue is that I thought that leaving the protagonist's deeper issues out of Midari's and Hanako's paths was something of a poor choice. Yukina is presented as a mirror to the protagonist as well as a heroine, so it is understandable that she would play such a vital role for setting up the true path. However, I felt that failing to properly deal with his personal issues in either of those two paths was a mistake. Mutsuki does have VERY serious issues that can't really be glossed over... not to mention that I seriously doubt Midari's issues would end just with what we saw in the path (living with a succubus in a state of perpetual near-starvation will inevitably have its ups and downs).

https://vndb.org/g656?fil=tag_inc-656.tagspoil-0;m=0;o=d;s=rating Koi wa Sotto Saku Hana no you ni Otome ga Irodoru Koi no Essence Neko Masshigura ~Nekomimi Cafe ni Youkoso~ tbh, almost all cooking-centric VNs suck donkey butt. You really won't find anything precisely like Shokugeki no Soma.

Nanairo Reincarnation. Except for Kotori, no high schoolers.

First, for those who are familiar with me... Yes, I did play this. Why? Something about the way it was presented in the Getchu page said that there was more hidden beneath the surface than a standard oppai-nukige. Thankfully, my instinct was correct, in this case. Now, for those who are curious, this game is a straight-out harem, from beginning to end. This game's primary attractions are the comedic reactions of the heroines and the way they and the protagonist slowly 'fall'. It is like watching a train wreck in slow motion... it is too fascinating to look away from, yet you know it is going to end badly, lol. The protagonist, Yuki, is a somewhat hetare-ish guy who does his best to disappear in the classroom and has trouble speaking to others. One day, out of loneliness, he opens up the Tomefure app, where young guys offer young girls a place to stay for free without strings attached and signs up. The girl who appears at his door is the class idol, Sakurako, who immediately crushes his hopes (sexual fantasies) and basically does her best to leech off of him, dragging a bunch of other girls into the mix. This story is all about a bunch of young people too afraid to create real relationships or who have huge problems in their normal lives essentially huddling together and gradually becoming contaminated with this weird 'small community' Stockholm Syndrome thing. I spent most of the game laughing or in a state of 'frustration' (yes, that kind of frustration), because the process of Yuki and the girls' morals collapsing takes a long time (despite being a kinetic novel, this game took me almost 20 hours to complete) and actual H and near-romance (there is no true romance in this game) doesn't get going until you are about 7/8 of the way through the game. In terms of writing, the basic quality of the main writer is pretty low. I'd say he is somewhere below the baseline for charage writers, which is generally bad in any case. That said, because of the way the 'story' is presented, his lack of writing skills doesn't create as much of a negative effect as it might otherwise, even in a charage. If you want a comedy ecchi harem VN to read, this is probably the best option you can find for the last three years. The whole thing is so absurd that I couldn't help but laugh out loud (a real lol) on dozens of occasions. Don't expect 'healthy' romance, since the whole story is based on the characters' gradually losing their common sense morality about relationships as they sleep in the same room (there is more to it, but I won't spoil you). However, if you don't mind that kind of thing (or if you love it) this game is a fun read. PS: Yes, I surprised myself with how much I got into this one.

Assuming you meant medieval Europe and swords and sorcery fantasy based in such a setting.. Ou no Mimi ni wa Todokanai Hyakka Ryouran Elixir Racial Merge The Kyonyuu Fantasy series (though this is an 'alternate history' where humans bred with sentient non-humans) Boku no Te no Naka no Rakuen Edit: Asian Medieval historic fantasy: Shin Koihime Musou (The Three Kingdoms era, when the bureaucracy of Empire was replaced by warlord kings) Sengoku Koihime (Japan's Sengoku Jidai period, at the peak of the era of independent feudal lords)

I/O (hard science fiction) Hello, Lady (translation upcoming) Nanairo Reincarnation (translation upcoming) Noble Works (decent story for a charage, though it isn't godly) Kikokugai

Tokyo Babel Ayakashibito FSN Tsukihime Dies Irae Hapymaher

For those familiar with me, you know I spent year after year doing VN of the Month and that I ritualistically complained about how tired I was of this or that trope or bad habit that plagued the industry or games. I was asked repeatedly why I could still plow through so many VNs, despite the stress? The simple answer is that I have always been stubborn as hell. I've experienced 'burnout' numerous times in my life, mostly because I have a naturally obsessive personality. Once I start obsessing over something, I literally am incapable of ceasing to do so without something jarring me completely away from it for a time, which usually results in me realizing I burned out long ago and have just been hanging out of stubbornness. The same was the case for VNs. When I first started playing VNs, all VNs were worth at least trying. However, as time went on, I increasingly lost interest in most nukige and eventually my interest in 'everyday teenaged life SOL romance' (or 'the standard charage') began to fade. It was probably about 2016 when this reached the critical point, but it took another year and a two-week bout of flu where I couldn't think well enough to play anything to bump me out of my years-long trance. Part of it was that I rarely, if ever, took a break from VNs during those years. I was always playing at least one, and I had a tendency to barrel through them consecutively without even a short pause to rest, week after week, month after month. I used most of my free time to play them, I structured my work schedule and habits around playing them, and I generally existed solely to do so. I dunno how many of you can even imagine what living like that is like... but it was the fact that I am no longer driven to play game after game that is letting me sit back and enjoy the few I actually want to play. I go back and pull stuff out of my attic on a whim, I dig through my collection based on a desire to relive a single scene, and I generally just take pleasure in playing what I want to play. Would it be strange for you to hear that this all feels unnatural to me, after all these years? I've been playing third-rate charage I didn't want to even see, much less play, for years... and now I only play stuff that takes my interest, dropping them if I don't see any hope for the game to break out of the shell of mediocrity. I don't feel driven to blog about replays beyond when I feel like it or when I think I have something to add to a previous assessment, and I can actually sit back and enjoy the few charage I actually feel like I want to play. While I do have regrets, they aren't about the years spent obsessing and over-playing VNs, despite my previous words. I set out to do VN of the Month because, at the time, there was no way for people to have an idea of what they were getting into with most VNs. It was a bit startling how few people were seriously trying to let people know what kind of VNs were out there without spoiling everything from beginning to end. Even today, most reviewers can't seem to keep heavy spoilers out of the text, which saddens me. However, I no longer feel that it is my mission to 'fix' this. I've been there, I've done that, and I won't be doing it again. I will still play VNs, and I will still review them (on occasion), but don't expect me to be as prolific as I used to be, lol.

Ones that are spoilers: Ones where it isn't a spoiler: Dekinai watashi ga, Kurikaesu (nakige and the protag goes back of his own free will) Tojita Sekai no Tori Colony (this one is straight-out standard to the time loop genre)

Damamuko is 'decent' as ojousama-ge go, but Koi no Canvas and Gokigen Naname (which were released afterward by the same company) are much better, to the point of there being no comparison in terms of quality. Also, on the page I gave you (now that I'm looking at your post) there should have been multiple patch links, including one for Windows 8 and a previous one that I seem to recall fixed crash issues with Windows 7. Scroll down below the first 'Download' link to the section below (it should read 『お嬢様はご機嫌ナナメ』Ver 1.0.2 アップデータ (2013年7月22日) ). There should be a link for this one that supposedly, along with several other things, fixes issues with crashes on Windows 7. I checked and the patch should still be live. If it doesn't work, reinstall the game, then use this patch again, without using the Windows 8.1 patch, since you are using 7.

... ah, how nostalgic. First stage addiction, where 'everything is awesome'... Soon, you'll be staring longingly at the massive pile of untranslated VNs, wondering why the fantls and companies don't translate faster, and some time later, you'll join a fantl project as an editor, only to find out that you are now producing the very Engrish you bashed for so long... Hahaha... welcome to hell. On a more serious note, welcome to the community. This is a good place for basic recommendations and fairly welcoming as otaku communities go. I'm one of the go-to people for untranslated VN recommendations, whereas you'd probably be better of with @Plk_Lesiak for EVNs. While we are a slowly decaying community, we still have a decent array of experienced and not-too-jaded people that are willing to provide their recommendations as long as you have a decent idea of what you want. I'm jaded as hell, but I try not to be an a-hole about it, so feel free to ask.

This is about the limit of the help I can give...

There should also be a Windows 7 applicable patch on that page. Look for the combination below. That should fix any integral problems on pre-Windows 8 systems. If that doesn't work, then I'm at a loss, and you should probably ask somewhere else, because that's it for the 'default' options (ie. locale settings, the existence of update patches, installation outside of the programs folder to avoid issues with systems made after Windows Vista, etc) ojyonana_patch_1_0_2.zip

Is your system locale, time/date, and location all set to Japan? Edit: Confirmed that the game has issues with Windows 8 and on. http://www.ensemble-game.com/supp.html The patches that came out later are gone, but the basic Windows 8.1 patch is still available. It MIGHT work on a Windows 10 system. Can't be sure because I have no intention of excavating this game from my attic.

Don't worry, we aren't so petty as to delete/hide freeware.

Monetary incentives generally decide whether a game gets translated... that and the random whims of fantranslators. English-translated Dies Irae Hapymaher Untranslated Koiiro Soramoyou Tasogare no Sinsemilla Konata yori Kanata made Akagoei (series) Mirai Nostalgia Komorebi no Nostalgica Arcology series (Fake Azure Arcology and Re:Birth Colony) Muramasa Jingai Makyou Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no (translation in progress) Ikusa Megami Zero Kitto, Sumiwataru Asairo yori mo Moshimo Ashita ga Harenaraba Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteiru Futari no Elder Rui wa Tomo o Yobu Shin Koihime Musou Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide Tsuisou no Augment Vermilion Bind of Blood Semiramis no Tenbin Houkago no Futekikakusha Venus Blood Hypno Kamikaze Explorer Love Revenge Baldr Skydive (series, in progress translation) Kami no Ue no Mahoutsukai Lovesick Puppies Sakura, Sakimashita Hikoukigumo no Mukougawa Dracu-riot (until the release, whenever that is) Shirogane no Soleil Hanasaki Work Spring Hatsuyuki Sakura Hyper→Highspeed→Genius Tiny Dungeon Midori no Umi Ojou-sama wa Gokigen Naname Sanzen Sekai Yuugi (the only otomege here) Walkure Romanze Edit: I went for a sampling of genres and companies/maker teams with this, as opposed to just naming every classic VN. With VNs, it is better to find a type you prefer and blow through all the similar ones before you start branching out, because you'll just end up coming back to what you first liked anyway.

I'm assuming English-only, based on the fact that you are a beginner by admission. Ayakashibito (Shares a writer with the anime Fate/Apocrypha and the post-London Fate/Grand Order main story) Fate/Stay Night Tsukihime Noble Works Fruit of Grisaia (series) Majikoi Ever17

Recently, I played (partially) through Missing X-link, and this led me to think of how various VN writers handle the concept of AIs and machine sentience. There are a number of different approaches, each of which has its own ups and downs. There are minor and major spoilers in all of these examples, and, as such, read them at your own risk. The argument of the 'emulated human' AI and the philosophically-built AI (Komorebi no Nostalgica)- Komorebi no Nostalgica takes a unique approach to AIs, with the prime idea being that of bringing AIs closer to humanity while retaining their abilities as a computer intelligence. The Metosera, the elegant AIs that were once humanity's slaves and only gained their autonomy after a war that devastated the world and erased most of human history are one side of this argument. The Metosera emulate human emotions through an algorithm that randomly came together as a result of a bug in the advanced program that ran 3rd Generation Humanoid Androids. This caused the Metosera to gain awareness, and, over time, a real personality and emotions. The immediate reaction of humanity was mostly knee-jerk loathing and fear, and this resulted in the newborn Metosera often being betrayed by the very owners they'd often come to care about. If it weren't for the efforts of numerous humans who helped the Metosera out of emotions or a sense of what was right, the Metosera might really have become the nightmare genocide machines that some apocalyptic scientists fear. In modern times, the current generation (as in the youth) mostly, with a few regressive exceptions, accept Metosera as their fellow citizens and denizens of the Earth, and society is actually more peaceful than it ever was in the past. As can be seen in the case of the Metosera heroine, Fluorite, the more a Metosera interacts with humans in close range and develops an attachment to them, the more 'human' they become, as their emotional emulation becomes more effective through active learning. Modern Metosera like Flo are 'born' with a single Metosera 'parent' creating their base program and then constructing a body for them. They are then 'raised' by the local Metosera society as a whole and encouraged to interact with humans to further develop their social emotions. In this sense, you can see that the Metosera are extremely dependent on humans and raw programming for their creation, and many of them are limited by that fact, though Flo and some others have exceeded those limitations in the story. The other example in the story, shown in the grand route, is Cinema, the modified (heavily so) 2nd Generation Humanoid found in the characters' school behind a false wall. Cinema, unlike the Metosera, who kind of resemble Tolkien's elves in the way they react to emotions (their expressions change only mildly and often late), displays emotions organically and actually seems far more human than most humans. However, the 2nd Generation Humanoids did not possess any kind of software that would have allowed for Metosera-style emotional emulation. Instead, Cinema's maker designed 'trials' into her body and programming that would encourage the natural 'birth' of a human-like machine intelligence over time that could truly empathize with and understand humans on a level that the Metosera, who 'evolved' independently for the most part, cannot yet match. The 'body grown to fit the AI' approach (Noie and Line in Applique's Arcology series)- In the Arcology series, two heroines, Line and Noie, are the creation of a somewhat insane but also brilliant scientist who came up with the idea of giving her AI 'daughters' bodies that fit the personalities she encouraged them to generate. These bodies are biomechanical (think an android that both has the functions of a machine such as hacking and processing data but also can bleed, have sex, and even have kids, even though that requires some 'adjustments) and generally nice to look at (lol, it is an eroge, after all), but aside from that, it should be noted that the professor essentially 'grew' their personalities in the same virtual environments most people in her arcology spend their daily lives in. By doing this, she was able to 'grow' her daughters as if they really were something approaching human children, and they were easily able to adjust to having a body. Their emotions were essentially copies of the professor's own basic template that grew off in different directions (which is another reason they can be called her 'daughters'). The second example in this series is the apocalypse-type AI Azurite Second (calling her that even though she isn't called that in the series). Originally, the Azurite series software was essentially an OS meant to be installed directly into the human central nervous system, allowing human beings to interact with the network without cyberware or devices. Unfortunately, Azurite is an incomplete program that burns out the psyches of most people it is installed into, and Azurite Second is driven by the 'mission' given to it before it was originally put to sleep. That mission is to link all humans the world over together, and it prioritizes that over the good of its users, believing that its priority will be for the good of all humans (it is really that broken). In that sense, this is one potential scenario that is close to the nightmare scenario seen in I, Robot. The 'I don't need humans because they are inferior' vs. the 'I love Humans' argument (Hello, World)- To be honest, I found Nitroplus's take on AI to be the most humdrum of the lot. The protagonist and his maker as antithetical AIs who see humanity in a radically different way based on his experiences (his as subjective, its as objective) is depressing and par to the course for early-era sci-fi writing. While the story of the game was good, the actual concepts of the AIs involved were less that impressive and provided nothing new for me, which made me sad, lol. I mean, the idea of an AI that wants to genocide humanity was old when I was born (which was almost forty years ago), and the idea of an AI that comes to love humanity through experiencing them in a human-like body is almost as old. I guess what bothered me was that this didn't go beyond the surface ideas to dig any further. The Humanity is Obsolete vs. Together with Humanity into the Future Argument (Missing X-link)- Missing X-link presents its argument fairly directly through Himefuuro and Chiruouka (or rather through the protagonist's 'father's' and 'uncle's' arguments through them). Himefuuro's design concept was to take humanity's essence into space by creating a database of human emotion and intellect through the empathic system 'cross link', which allows her to literally link her psyche to a human and share their emotions and thoughts by injecting her nanopixels (nanomachines, essentially) into a human subject. Chiruouka's design concept was to interact with humans through conflict and learn from them that way, by developing her own independent and subjective view of humanity as seen through that lens. Conclusions Sci-fi writers have been defining the debate on AI tech since the concept of the self-aware robot was first spoken of. In VNs, there is a tendency toward empathetic AIs, but, even so, many of the 'arguments' put forth by their writers are interesting to follow.