Clephas

Truth be told, if the ending fits, I'm mostly fine with it. I was even fine with the endings for Maggot Baits, which aren't exactly easy on the heart. An ending has to satisfy to be good, and very few endings manage that... whether in VNs or books. Heck, even if we get a satisfying ending, it is almost guaranteed that someone will come around latter and create a lame sequel to try to capitalize on the original, thus pissing off the people he is trying to leech off of. tbh, you have to take nakige endings for what they are. Unlike utsuge, where bittersweetness is part of the package, or a plotge, where any kind of ending might fit, by definition nakige have to have happy endings. Your comments on true endings don't fit precisely... but when I look at what has been localized so far, I have to shrug. Except for a few utsuge like Swan Song, true endings in the localized scene are almost universally of the type you complained about. It almost makes me wonder if there is some kind of conspiracy... I guess it is because I've read so many VNs over the years, but my opinion is that, while true endings are more likely to satisfy than 'regular' endings, that ratio isn't 100%. There have been any number of games I've played over the years where a side ending or the 'normal' ending felt more satisfying or interesting than the true ending. I guess it is because, too often, true endings often ruin what was most fun or interesting about the setting. I'm not particularly fond of getting rid of all the mystique of a setting solely to produce a true ending.

Akatsuki no Goei is something of an oddball if you ignore the existence of Grisaia, but they share some major traits. Both have a relatively 'peaceful' (if dramatic) first game that involves romantic paths that are mostly irrelevant to the third game. Both have a psychologically-scarred, killer protagonist with a criminal past. Both have a quirky sense of humor that is mostly generated by the protagonist's abnormal actions... I could go on, but I'll move on to my point. The most blatantly obvious similarity is that both series have three games, the first, the fandisc, then the third as a conclusion. In both cases, the conclusion is more serious, but that is where the similarities end. Whereas Grisaia's third game went down the kinetic novel path, giving you only one ending to see, Akagoei's third game, Tsumibukaki Shuumatsuron actually has three main routes with over fifteen endings, each with a different heroine. Now, I'm going to hit the titular reason why I wrote this post. Akagoei can be seen one of two ways, based on knowledge gained from playing Reminiscence. You can either see the fandisc as irrelevant save for the long experience of Kaito's past seen in Anzu's route, giving you the background knowledge to give flavor to the third game.... or you can see the FD's endings as an alternative to the ones in Tsumibukaki Shuumatsuron, a conclusion that a lot of the fans of the SOL and comedy elements of the series picked. This is actually very typical of Kinugasa Shougo. Kinugasa, from all accounts, hates canon endings. He doesn't like to produce firm conclusions, and he always wants to leave the reader guessing on one level or another. I'm about 90% sure Kinugasa created Tigre and made Reminiscence solely to make people confused, because it draws elements from all three games into the background, while not telling you what actually happened at all. A few of those elements include: Akemi's path events in 3, Tae after-story from the FD, Reika path events from 1 and 3, and any number of other things. It is also pretty clear, probably intentionally so, that a lot of the characters from Akagoei left descendants to appear in Reminiscence, though you can only guess who is who by appearance and their roles in the underground society. In other words, feel free to draw your own conclusions when it comes to this series... that's about half the fun.

It is worth waiting for the official Dracu-riot release. Even the revised patch that briefly entered circulation was a pale imitation of what was done later. The sheer number of idiot errors (simply mistaking which character was doing what and why) was ridiculous and took nearly six months to fix them all after that patch was released (in error).

This kind of thread pops up every two years or so... but the basic rule of thumb is the existence of extensive narration and the use of a text box in the ADV or NVL style (though there are exceptions). VNs must always try to tell a story, even if it is nothing more than excuse for sex scenes. While I mention narration above, someone is eventually going to point out Lamunation, which has almost no narration and the story is told almost entirely through dialogue. There are hardline parts of the community that don't even want to accept Eushully-type games as VNs because of the existence of gameplay. there are also more liberal parts of the community that want to consider most jrpgs that even hint at VN elements as VNs. However, the fact is, you have to draw the line somewhere. A few comments. Persona generally gets excluded because the VN elements are actually far closer to dating sim elements than visual novel ones. Dating sims, while they retain some similarities to a VN on the surface, rarely tell a story and are focused on simulation of a romance, often using social stats such as are seen in the Persona games. Personally, I find the inclusion of Ar Tonelico to be almost equally questionable, because the Cosmosphere is not so much telling a story as exploring the psyches of the heroines... though it does effect the story greatly at times. Understand, if you play any Eushully game, then play a normal jrpg afterward, you will immediately see the differences... even if that other jrpg is Persona. Simply put, Persona games' story is dependent on its gameplay, whereas a true VN hybrid's gameplay is an appendage to the story. The differences are obvious when taken subjectively, but objectively, they are hard to describe.

It's amazing that the only definitions in there that were remotely correct were utsuge, lolige, ichaicha and kamige...

While I won't be playing everything anymore, I thought I'd list here the non-nukige up for release and my impressions based on the Getchu and official pages. Definitely will play Fuukan no Grasesta: https://vndb.org/v23199 This is the latest Eushully game... and it also shares a writer with the last few entries, which were a somewhat mediocre set of games. As such, my hopes aren't high... but I can't resist playing it. I mean, the protagonist is a sociopathic mercenary in a city full of slaves and gladiators... how could you go wrong with that? lol Typical of the Eushully games released since IMZ, this game looks beautiful at a glance, and if it were released as a non-ero title on console, it would probably sell fairly well. Of course, equally typical of Eushully is the possibility of the game as a whole being a miss. Haruka Drive:https://vndb.org/v23284 Now, I know some of you will ask why I'm including an all-ages title here... but the writer caught my interest. The writer of Hapymaher, Morisaki Ryouto, who has been on board with a ridiculous number of great titles over the last twenty years, is someone I always pay attention to. In addition, the game itself visually resembles a Key title from ten years ago, which was interesting in and of itself. Last of all, I'm a sucker for isekaimono of all types, including alternate realities. The Rest Kokoro ga Tsunagu Renbyou: https://vndb.org/v24073 It looks like a typical 'non-human girl attaches herself to the protagonist for reasons unknown' charage by what I read. The protagonist is a total non-entity based on the description (actually says he is average, which made me blech), and while I might have been willing to at least try this before, it couldn't catch my interest this time around. Amazing Grace: https://vndb.org/v23448 Looks like a typical time loop 'save everyone' story. Based on what I read, it seems like a nakige, but it was sparse on clues. The protagonist being an amnesiac in the situation I see makes me wince, but I'll probably play this eventually, even if I don't this month. The size of the cast of characters says they probably put a lot into making the game, but it was written by LoS's 'kusoge team', so I'm wary of it, since those writers' record of failures is so long it makes the eyes spin. Love Coordination: https://vndb.org/v23480 Just reading up on this one made me want to wince. For some reason, the makers of this game decided to combine summer themes and a 'run the cafe!!!' type charage/moege. Considering that either tends to be heavy on the sappy romance, I'm sure a certain type of person will squeal for joy at the idea. However, after checking up on this one, I knew I would never play it. Otome ga Musubu Tsukiyo no Kirameki: https://vndb.org/v23338 Yet another overly long title for yet another Ensemble trap protagonist game. Judging by the available content, it looks like Ensemble is trying to deceive the reader into thinking this will be another Koi no Canvas (incidentally, one of only two truly great games by this company). The presence of Kouji on this project is something of a positive, considering that Sunao ni Narenai was not unbearable, but the presence of two mediocre to pure crap writers along with him makes me want to ignore this one, despite my fondness for trap protagonists. To be straight about it, I'm tired of Ensemble luring me with surface-level capable protagonists who immediately become average once the actual heroine paths start. For some reason, they kill the protagonists' individuality (or at least their interesting points) the second they hit the heroine routes, lol.

As you can imagine, I got a lot of requests for a similar list over the years, but the thing is, I don't play VNs in English that didn't start out in English. As such, my recommendations are based entirely on my experience of the Japanese versions of these VNs, rather than the localization. As such, don't hold me responsible for your personal experiences, lol. I'm going to split these by genre so I don't have to answer questions along those lines. For the purposes of fairness, I won't include anything with a machine translation (which means no Chuushingura). Chuunige I/O (yes, I did indeed play this, and it was good despite being dated horribly) FSN (you saw that coming, right?) Tsukihime (again, you saw that coming, right?) Comyu (fantasy) Ayakashibito (fantasy) Tokyo Babel (fantasy) Dies Irae (fantasy) Demonbane (fantasy) Sorcery Jokers (fantasy) Hello, Lady (upcoming fantasy) Hatsuru Koto naki Mirai Yori (upcoming eventually, fantasy) Baldr Sky (whenever it comes out (*crosses fingers for your sake* sci-fi) Phantom of Inferno (despite all the problems with the localized version it is a great read) Muv-Luv Alternative (this one is borderline, because it makes you read two mediocre games prior just to understand it) Charage/Moege Noble Works Majikoi (classified this way as long as you don't include the true/last route) Da Capo (the original only, and only because it is wrong not to have the archetypical moege experience at least one time in your VN lifespan) Shuffle (truth be told, I'm basing this assessment off of the expanded version, not the version originally released over here) Sanoba Witch (Yuzu-soft and thus predictably overdone with the ichaicha since this is one of their less plotge-style ones) Dracu-riot (Wait until an official release comes out. The patch currently floating around is a nonentity in comparison) Senren Banka (Sadly not out yet, but something to look forward to) Chrono Clock (I listed it in this one rather than plotge because the 'plot' was a bit too thin) Akatsuki no Goei (the original falls, barely, into this category, despite some seriously disturbing shit involving Kaito's origin story that was dropped here and there and the dystopian nature of the setting. Fan patch will probably be released next year) Tsujidou-san no Jun'ai Road (yes, I put this here) Note: For those who wonder why my list is sparse on a lot of names beloved by those who play localized games obsessively... you do realize that a lot of the charage that get released over here are from the bottom of the pile, right? Nakige Hapymaher (probably my biggest recommendation for this genre) Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no (for the distant future, something to look forward to) AstralAir no Shiroki Towa (whenever it releases) Hoshizora no Memoria (yes, I recommend it, lol) Irotoridori no Sekai (Eventually. And again, more Favorite... despite the fact that its staff idolize mysterious lolis) Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura doki (I was insanely surprised that this got localized at the time, considering the normal sluggishness of localization at the time) Plotge Koisuru Otome to Shugo no Tate (partial with two routes done. Definitely worth reading, if only to get an idea of what AXL is like) Cross Channel (weirdly, I've always had a fondness for this game and its clinically insane protagonist) Yume Miru Kusuri (yes, I played it. Yes, I liked it) Boku ga Tenshi ni Natta Wake (no idea when this will come out... but definitely a recommendation, for all the screwy shit that happens in it) Nanairo Reincarnation (upcoming soon hopefully for you, since that would mean two kamige releases in two years, lol) Hello,Goodbye (this was a possible for chuunige, but I put it here. This will supposedly release before the end of the year, but I'm guessing March) Gameplay Hybrid Eien no Aselia Seinarukana Ar Tonelico Ar Tonelico 2 (this and the one above can only be considered to be borderline VNs in an odd way, because they are mostly jrpgs with a few VN elements) Note: I don't include anything Eushully, because none of the good ones have a translation that isn't a machine one.

VNDB Seriously, if you just pay attention at the beginning of each month to what is scheduled and make a list of the ones you have an interest in, you won't miss anything. That applies for English ones too, though perhaps not as reliable as localizations of Japanese ones.

You can also have it set up slanted so that it is best seen from being propped up on the bed by pillows. That way it isn't directly over your head, and you can still play it lying down. Just to be straight with you, I don't recommend playing VNs on a tablet or portable system. Reading is painful on small screens if you can't adjust font sizes and tablets have the disadvantage of you having to actually hold them up. When lying down, this can be hard on the arms and messes up your concentration. One reason I never understood the attraction of playing most jrpgs on a handheld was because I would get headaches from reading the small print on a glowing screen. In the end, I always resorted to displaying the game on a TV, because it was less painful that way. Speaking from experience, you should avoid reading small print on a glowing screen. Don't be ashamed to increase font size to prevent instinctive squinting and other bad behaviors. Even the act of focusing your eyes on the small print damages them over time, which is one reason why eye problems are becoming endemic for those who grew up using their phones for everything. Even before that, it was recommended to avoid using portables for more than two or three hours at a time, and that was with frequent breaks. My eyes are f***ed because of my abuse of them over the years, and now I don't hesitate to increase font sizes or put my portable games up on the TV. I'm a story addict, not a portable one.

I have a friend who installed a tv in his ceiling and watches everything lying down on his back... that was the height of laziness *looks nostalgic*. Good thing he had a king-sized.

You could do what I did when I was sick... I had my wireless keyboard and a VR headset on while lying back on my bed. Those headsets may be designed for VR, but they work just fine as an extra screen.

get a pstv... it is cheap and lets you connect what amounts to a combo vita/psp/psone classic player to your television. Stick your ps3 controller in, and you are good. As soon as it came out, I got it... as long as you aren't doing it on a super big screen it doesn't look too bad, lol.

One more thing... cycle up and invisible. Have them on the main and the character you are using besides him. Cycle up and buff before going in (attack up and cycle up are really all you need) and invisible upon entry. Whenever cycle up runs out, immediately recast (keep your backup character charging cycle up) then immediately recast invisible, since it lasts only a little longer than cycle up. Since none of the enemies in the 2 vs 2 contest use area attacks on you, they won't be able to target you, and you will be able to one-sidedly slaughter them. Unfortunately, I do suggest you be at least level forty before challenging this contest, and make sure the protag has attack power boosting stones on, or he won't be able to shave a few of the nastier enemies down.

Blessing bells in the arena are your friend. Win through the 2 vs 2 matches until you reach the championship, then repeat it until you have eight of them. Then you can use them to take two characters into the single digit levels with all their stats intact. Attach dex, int, and str up stones to their ring, then go to the highest level enemy area with the densest population of enemies possible and start a fight. Rack up the kills and watch them hit level 20 in one battle (late game) with an extra hundred or so of each stat. By the time you get them back into the forties (I used the Well Lady's dungeon before the last battle to make the final touches) they'll have maxed their attack and almost no one will be able to hit them. I recommend this strategy for someone who doesn't want to struggle with the final battle (fatigue in games like this is a serious danger). Maxing out the Arena nets you spellstones that let you learn all knacks, all skills, and all magic but blast from a single stone each... which means NG+ gets immensely less stressful.

The Growlanser series is one of those weird, hardly known jrpg series that died out after the ps2 era (mostly because its gameplay was too traditional, but also because the transition to 2.5D sprites failed so miserably in V and VI, along with the derivative, predictable story). However, before its death, it produced four first-class games, three of them linked in a single chronology. IV, also known as Wayfarer of Time, is the exception in the series as a whole, being the only entirely standalone game. Growlanser IV's Western release was on the PSP (also playable on the Vita and PSTV) with a modified main route and an 'evil' route that you could access on NG+. The first four Growlanser games can be said to be very attractive to those who like player agency. This is because, depending on how you fight, how you play, and what conversation choices you make (three of the four protagonists are silent ones whose) you could not only alter your own perceptions of the main character, but you could also alter the ending and even the game flow as a whole dramatically. Growlanser IV isn't an exception to this, but in a way it is easier. One reason is that you aren't required to get the highest rating on all story missions to get access to the 'true' ending. Rather, it uses a 'fate alteration' system which allows you to take on sidequests, take various actions in combat, and make choices in conversations that alter how the game ends, who lives, and who dies. The 'Modified Route', which is pretty much the 'good' route, pretty much requires you to alter every possible character's fate in order to create the result of ten major characters still being alive past the turning point of the story and the end. With some of these characters, it is as simple as saving them in a certain story battle, with others it requires making the right choices in conversations with them in order to change how they act, thus preventing their deaths. In this way, I came out of Growlanser IV feeling that, for the first time in a long time, that player agency actually mattered. Hell, I never thought scolding a girl about throwing things then showing her kindness would give me an opportunity to save her soul later. The main story itself is heavy on war politics, much like all the other games in the series. In this case, it is a war story spread across about four years (my estimate) that ends up involving the whole of the known world. The protagonist, raised in a mercenary outfit, ends up getting involved with saving the world and the nations in it... but you rarely see him being treated like a 'chosen one' outside of a few of his own companions. Rather, most reactions are based in that person's standpoint and affiliation, which made both the enemies and allies feel real to me in a way few jrpgs ever manage. This game manages to avoid the traditional pitfalls of the average jrpg. What do I mean? I mean that tendency toward hot-blooded idealism and dew-eyed innocence about human nature that ruin 90% of JRPGs storywise. I mean, a king isn't interested in saving the world... he is interested in enriching his country. Good people in the wrong position will do bad things, and bad people who can benefit from it will do good things. The characters feel like people, and I don't feel like I'm talking to carbon copies of characters from a thousand other jrpgs like I do with most mainline jrpgs. The battle system in this game is a combination of turn-based and real-time strategy. Generally speaking, you start out at a certain point of the map, and your characters move in real time when you aren't making choices about their next action. It is possible to alter their course, and you can block enemies' routes with your warriors' bodies. Knacks (non-magic activation skills) can be used to strike hard, slow enemies' turns,or slow their chanting of magic. Magic takes a while to chant, but in exchange you can take normal actions immediately afterward, and spells can be canceled at any time just by pressing the triangle button and going to the character in question. Perhaps the game's biggest overt weak point gameplay-wise is the way you learn skills (passives), Knacks (instant-use attack/support/debuff/buffs), and magic. They are learned by attaching spellstones to the characters' ring weapons (three to a weapon, with the level of the stone you can attach limited by the ring's slots) and killing enemies in battle. The reason why this is a problem is simple... only the character who deals the fatal blow to an enemy gains ability points for their... abilities. A warrior who can take out five enemies at once with the use of the circle strike knack is going to find it easier to learn abilities than a mage or archer that can only strike one enemy at a time (synchronize spells later on to cast area spells utilizing multiple characters... but it still can't beat the quickness of AOE knacks). The greatest help to the player is the fact that you can buff before going into battle using spells, thus eliminating the need to tie up magic users in buffing for the first part of a battle. Considering that most story battles have time limits, this is an issue. This game rewards clever use of the systems like the arena and buff spells and will seriously sodomize you if you go through the game without thinking or preparing. Overall, Growlanser IV was the series' peak, and it saddens me greatly that the series was killed in the PS2 era. This game is about sixty hours long for the first playthrough (successive playthroughs are easier), and it is one of the better rpg stories I've ever played, being somewhat reminiscent of Suikoden, which is funny, considering they rose to cult popularity around the same time.

Yeah... the way they fudged it trying to set things up for a sequel annoyed me somewhat. The process is still immensely enjoyable though.

For the sake of those who haven't played the game and don't want to be spoiled, I will endeavor to keep the worst spoilers in a spoiler box, but since I can't speak of what I want to speak of without spoiling things, I'm going to say right here that if you read any further, I will spoil things for you to some degree. First, it needs to be said that I usually present Izuna Zanshinken in a way geared to take the interest of someone without extensive experience of VNs. To be specific, I usually just call the game a 'vigilante assassin story', and it is that... However, there is more to it. Izuna Zanshinken follows five main characters on a story heavy with moral and sociological implications and the clash of philosophies. These characters in many ways define how the story is presented and the meaning of what is going on, and, fittingly for a game that isn't romantically focused (though it has decent romance in the usual chuunige sense) the story deals with issues that are hard-hitting for any society. The Characters While other characters are involved peripherally, the five characters most closely involved in the story are the protagonist Kotarou (Hitokiri Izuna); the head of the Nine-headed Dragons, Suzuka; her personal servant and best friend Shinobu; Kotarou's classmate and the daughter of a detective, Hikaru; and the Nine-Headed Dragons' 'Wakagashira', Hayatsuki. Kotarou- Kotarou is Hitokiri Izuna, the protagonist of the story, the latest generation of many to serve Suzuka's family as a weapon against the excessive evils that pop up from time to time in human society. Kotarou's clan, the Izuna, were descended from a mass murdering criminal swordsman who was captured and brought to heel by a magistrate in the early Edo era (think early to mid 1600s). For whatever reason, the perpetrator was allowed to live, and the end result was a clan of incredibly skilled and physically capable assassins who are 'kept' (in the same sense one keeps hunting dogs) by individuals or groups who have a strong sense of ethics/honor in the underworld of Japan. The Izuna are used to to remove the worst cancers from society by force, when the law and society's rules fail it. Kotarou comes from that clan to Suzuka's side as a replacement for his deceased father, and he quickly shows off his clan's incredible skill and utter mercilessness. That said, when he isn't 'working', he is very much the kind-hearted, soft-mannered type, with a tendency toward waffling when matters don't involve his duty. Kotarou has a mature and ethical approach to his own duties, understanding that he is a sinner under the law and by most human moral systems, he nonetheless accepts his duty to cut down those he law can't reach, to take on he grudges of the bereaved and kill those who brought it about. Suzuka- Forced to take control of an extremely old-fashioned (three hundred years of tradition will do that) yakuza clan at a very young age, she was emotionally dependent to a degree on Kotarou's father, and her manner toward him is often harsh (as it is toward Hikaru, for obvious reasons). However, at heart, she is a warm-spirited, honorable person who cares deeply for others. She has very old-fashioned views on just about everything, and she only really trusts Hayatsuki and Shinobu. Her old fashioned ideas of yakuza chivalry are out of step with modern yakuza, but the presence of Izuna in her employ allows her to keep a degree of peace and freedom in the local underworld that is unseen elsewhere in Japan. She is something of an embodiment of honor and ethics, when used as a literary device, and her views are often extreme. Shinobu- Suzuka's personal servant, best friend, and confidante. She is also the survivor of an incident where her parents were murdered by burglars and she herself was (briefly) sold into slavery later on before Tesshin, Kotarou's father rescued her. She was driven by a desire for revenge to seek Tesshin's teachings and become an Izuna, but because she lacks the bloodline, she is forced to resort to mechanical aids like an advanced powered suit, a wire gun, and a stealth cloak to make up the difference (Kotarou being something of a cross between a pure swordsman, a martial artist, and a ninja with centuries of deliberate and careful breeding). Shinobu, perhaps better than anyone in the story, is a representation of the fury, the grudges born in the spirit of the bereaved and the victimized. As such, she is the most overtly emotional of the heroines. Hikaru- Hikaru is the daughter of a homicide detective, a clear-headed, intelligent young shota *coughs* ahem, young woman who has a bad habit of seeing through matters. She also has a very strong sense of conventional morality and is the single heroine who sees the elimination of the death penalty as a qualified positive (she thinks it was done too fast, but she doesn't believe that anyone deserves capital punishment). Her sunny disposition, kind nature, and general normality make her a distinct contrast to the other heroines at first. However, her role as a literary device in relation to the game's themes is as the 'outsider', an irony that doesn't escape me, since she is the one most in sync with society's mores and norms. She gives perspective in a game where it is very tempting to fall entirely into the viewpoint of Kotarou and the others exclusively. Without her, I honestly think that this game wouldn't have been nearly as good as it is. Hayatsuki- Hayatsuki is the 'Wakagashira' of the Nine-headed Dragons, the yakuza organization Suzuka inherited. He was formerly a programmer and systems engineer, but became a yakuza for reasons I won't spoil here. He often takes he role of a go-between dealing both with clients seeking revenge through Izuna, mediating disputes between the other three yakuza-related characters, and generally smoothing the way for everyone. While he is easygoing on the surface, he is also someone who has seen the best and worst humanity has to offer and has nonetheless retained a degree of his humanity despite that. The Main Themes The main themes in his game are the clash between the rights of the accused and the convicted vs those of the victims, the ethics of vigilante-ism, a thought experiment on what would happen if you suddenly outlawed capital punishment without giving society a chance to adjust to the idea, and many other ideas, most of them relating to crime and punishment. For now, I'll focus on the ones I think have the most impact on the story: The Victim and the Bereaved- Modern law assumes innocence. This is generally a good thing, as it, in theory, makes false convictions less frequent and puts more hurdles in the way of a prosecutor trying to prove a case, theoretically making it more difficult to railroad someone into a conviction. However, this VN primarily focuses on the failures of the system. A minor who commits a sadistic rape-murder and is getting away with it because of his youth, a serial killer enjoying the fame brought on by his actions in prison with glee, a woman who framed her husband for arson-murder so that she could divorce him and marry her rich boyfriend... the list goes on and on. Vigilante-ism- This theme is touched on most intimately in Hikaru's path, where Hikaru's morality and Kotarou's way of life inevitably clash. Kotarou kills the worst type of criminals, often in a horrifying manner, and while he has a strong sense of ethics and honor, that doesn't whitewash the fact that he is killing people outside of the law. Capital Punishment- Izuna's setting is a Japan where the Prime Minister suddenly and unilaterally made capital punishment illegal. As a result, many criminals are taking advantage of legal and societal loopholes and getting away with a horrifying array of crimes, often becoming more vicious in the spirit of 'well, if life in prison is the limit, that means I might as well do everything I feel like doing'. Kotarou often ends up facing the results of this policy in his work, and he once comments that 'I will kill more than even my predecessor.' Considering his predecessor was called 'Senningiri', essentially meaning that he cut down over one thousand men, that is a very heavy statement. Conclusions Like a lot of chuunige, Izuna Zanshinken tends to make a broad attempt at being philosophical in addition to being over he top, and, surprisingly, actually succeeds to a degree. While I think the theoretical Japan showed in this game is extreme, it is not nearly as extreme and out of this world as some of the dystopian theories I've read about in the past. Moreover, it feels possible in the visceral and logical sense, an important element in suspending disbelief, which is an absolute necessity when trying to enjoy fiction.

Generally a funny game is how I remembered it. It did have some really interesting stuff involved, but it wasn't anything you wouldn't run into in Harumade or Akiyume. Protagonist is generally hilarious, and the contrast between the hilarity that comes out of him and the deadly seriousness of the situation is... an excellent choice at times and not so at others.

This is an opinion that has been a long time in forming, but I am coming around to an opinion that the more simplistic viewpoints I've possessed on the differences between American approaches to storytelling and Japanese ones are somewhat off the mark. Note: This is a rant, it should be treated as a rant, and if it doesn't make sense to you, that is because it is my brain leaking into text on this blog. First, my original opinion: To put it simply, it was my belief that the Japanese had a tendency to go for emotional surrealism (in other words, emotional bombardment) and visual excess (exaggeration) to tell their stories. In opposition, Americans tend to go for the 'gritty and realistic', with straight out bullet to the head realism. This was a generalization that, while based on my experiences with Japanese video games that told a story (both VNs and jrpgs) and Western games that more or less tried to do the same (Isometric RPGs, Bethesda-style games, etc), was never meant to be an absolute statement but just a general opinion of the tendencies I'd encountered. Second, my new opinion: First, I've come to the conclusion that American gaming companies don't know how to tell a story anymore (since Bioware has gone crappy, Obsidian is about to get absorbed/has been absorbed by a company that has no idea of what it is doing, and the Witcher was made by Polish people). Second, the Japanese seem to suffer from a similar malaise... and the source is, quite ironically, fairly similar in the cases of mainstream games. It is the disease I call the 'MMO virus'. Yes, you who actually read my blog know my opinion on online multiplayer games and what they have done to erode storytelling games in general, but my recent conclusion is that this erosion has actually reached a critical point in the last five years. Rebellions against the progression of this disease have occurred (Tales of Berseria, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Nier: Automata come to mind for the Japanese, and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire for America), but these have been relatively minor upthrusts against the toxins released by the cloud of mission-based 'stories' you see in games nowadays. Bethesda has also contributed to this plague (fetch quests and hunt the monster quests being a common plague for them as well), and it seems like every time I turn around, I see another game trying to tell its story through an obvious mission or quest system is sitting right there. Sure, the systems had their roots in D&D games, but the way they've developed is the result of the plague that infected the world using games like WoW as its vector. I first began to see signs of this disease back in the PS2 era, though it was mostly limited to 'high end' games at the time, like Final Fantasy (XII having essentially repurposed and altered XI's MMO battle system for a single-player model), I was honestly horrified to see how easy it was to let myself get led around by the nose from objective to objective in hopes that I'd find the story in there somewhere. The problem was, once the objectives became my reason for playing (as was inevitable, because that is the tactic they use to draw you in), I increasingly realized that I couldn't enjoy what story was being told, because I was impatient to get to the next objective, even though I didn't find any of that searching for objectives to be fun in the least. VNs suffer from a different set of problems. While jrpgs and western games suffer from the simple fact that the current generation of makers grew up obsessing over pathetic attempts to graft stories onto multiplayer games, VNs suffer from the fact that the best and brightest of their creators are... getting old. Hell, some of them even died in between projects. Worse, no one of equal capability has replaced them, leading to an unfortunate confluence of near-universal incompetence and corporate inability to grasp the reasons for failure and fix it. No, I'm not saying that all new VNs suck. Hell, if they all sucked, I wouldn't still be trying to go back and play them, like the burnt-out junkie I am. No, my issue is that there is a sudden dearth of developed talent within the world of VNs that has gotten horrible in the last five years. Most of the major names are retired, have moved on to 'greater' things, or are dead. Shumon Yuu is silent, Hino Wataru seems to have gone underground, Masada is probably off in his own little world, Fujisaki Ryuuta is circling in place, Kurashiki Tatsuya is off indulging his inner sadist with half-assed games, Kazuki Fumi can't seem to stick with one thing long enough to make it great since Akeiro Kaikitan, and Agobarrier is three years dead. That isn't even mentioning all the formerly major names that have just decided to retire without telling anyone or got hired away by mainstream video game companies. What is replacing them are primarily LN writers... who, unfortunately, tend to write like middle school street kids on crack (and not in a good way). They often have great ideas, but they are fuzzy about execution and lacking in technique. As a result, you get a bunch of third-rate one-off VNs that no one really likes. Artists aren't a problem. There will always be plenty of skilled otaku artists who can draw h-scenes. The issue is and always will be writers... because it is the writer that decides whether a VN will become remembered for years to come or be dropped back into the dung at the bottom of the latrine.

Don't worry, you aren't missing much. If you want a similar type of game that is better written, do Dies Irae or Tokyo Babel.

Killer Queen maybe? For translated, anyway.

The first thing most of you are going to ask is why I didn't play Deep One first, given my tastes... but the answer is fairly simple. An a-hole spoiled the entire story on the release day to me in a PM on another site, and I read it before I realized what he was doing. As such, my enthusiasm was dampened to almost nothing, and I'm left feeling listless about everything in general. The commentary about it all over the untranslated VN community only accelerated its trip to being sealed in my archives, lol. I picked up this game mostly because Hulotte games are generally good for cheap laughs and funny characters in slightly mystical settings. This game is unusual for them, in the fact that there is a true path and heroine. Sadly, my tolerance for happy SOL games has gone down greatly in recent years, and so don't be surprised if I'm a bit harsh at times while writing this commentary. First, the protagonist, Yuuma (how many Yuuma protagonists have I encountered now? lol), obtains a watch that can stop time for five minutes from a clearly suspicious fortune teller named Hakua who promptly worms her way into his life, constantly encouraging him to use it for sexual reasons. Sadly for her, he gets bored of the watch inside the prologue, and the watch itself only serves as a catalyst to move the heroine relationships forward outside of the climax of some of the paths, lol. I'll be straight with you... I love Sakura, so when her path was over, I felt like I'd been cheated greatly. Oh, there was some decent drama and incest love is always good for me, especially when her actions are so hilarious. However, this path is the one that decided my impression of all the non-true paths. I felt that there could have been some more detailed drama included in this path, and the drama that was there was mostly her being an idiot. The path took only about two hours for me to read, and I came out of it feeling cheated, somehow. *sighs* Unfortunately, this greatly effected my feelings toward the other paths as I played them, and I became so bored by the end of Noa's path that I dropped the game outright for a week while I did other things (like work and playing random video games) before picking it up again yesterday. I forced myself through Kanon's route, enjoying some of the moments but still fuming about Sakura... and in the end, I couldn't even fully enjoy Hakua's path. Part of that is Hakua's path is nothing I haven't seen a few dozen times in games like this, but that was made worse by my lingering sourness on the game in general. Objectively, Hakua's path is obviously better structured and written than the others... but it follows the pattern of self-sacrificing true heroines everywhere. Moreover, the exact happenings in the story were rather predictable due events in the other paths which established just what state she was in before I even headed into it. In the end, I came out of this game feeling cheated and wishing they'd just stuck with the harem formula from their previous games.

... I sort of liked the first one, but I couldn't muster interest in another. Same for GTA after IV.

No, I like the fandisc... I just don't feel I should spoil you on it. Like the original game, it is best to go in unprepared for what happens. Do you honestly think you could have stood the Christmas chapter if you'd known about it in advance? (honestly, when I replay the game, I always skip the Christmas chapter)

I'm staying off the issue of the FD, because I don't see anything good coming if me making any kind of revelation related to it. A. His first love is Alice. However, he does care about Yuuko, though his feelings toward her are mixed, since her subconscious basically put him through literal hell. Don't expect uncomplicated issues with this. Alice is a representation of Yuuko's ideal vision of herself, so there is no way there wouldn't be complications related to his feelings. Moreover, it also needs to be said that only Tohru retains the memories of the dreams in full (along with several lifetimes of emotions), so there are parts of the issue that Yuuko literally isn't consciously aware of. Do you want me to continue? I could go on, but you can twist yourself up in knots thinking about issues like this. Just be thankful this didn't turn into a harem ending, lol. B. The only thing I'll say on this is that the fandisc heads out straight from the true end while also branching off to deal with stuff relating to the other endings (on the theory that his dreams are connected to all the parallel worlds where they happened) C. I loved the true path. I'm not going to go on and on about why, since I've already said my piece on this a hundred times over.