Clephas

One of the primary reasons for locking a route or enforcing a route order is to prevent premature information releases/spoilers. If you know what happens in Vendetta's route in Silverio Vendetta, then it becomes harder to enjoy Millie's route, because everything they only hint at in Millie's route comes into the open in Vendetta's. This is the case about 90% of the time with chuunige, lol. Other times are when there is literally a chronological order In this case, whether because of a time loop or some other element, the routes literally occur in order and shouldn't be read out of order. Last of all, there are 'central heroine' routes, which are locked until you have completed one or more of the other heroines' routes... these can have some kind of meaning, but with charage, more often than not, they do it simply to make it clear that 'this is the main heroine'. I don't like this type, to be honest... When there is no logical reason for the central heroine's route to be locked, I don't want it to be locked, lol.

I hate Myst and Riven, and that is what you just described... at my very limit, I can accept Eternal Darkness (because Eternal Darkness was just so good it transcended its shitty puzzle-solving roots), but gameplay and storytelling being completely indistinguishable is rarely a good thing, in my experience. While using gameplay to tell part of the story in a VN is actually a good idea (though rarely applied skillfully)... and that is what role-playing games do, by definition (which is probably why rpg-variants are the most common hybridization gameplay type). When gameplay stops being an aid to telling the story and becomes the point of playing, the hybrid starts to suck. Needless to say, I hate dating-sims.

Baldr Sky and Baldr Sky Zero both succeeded in almost perfectly integrating the gameplay with the story, so that is pretty much the gameplay hybrid ideal. However, most hybrids fail by this standard, because the story gets told in a fragmentary manner and the gameplay is generally half-assed. Baldr Bringer, in opposition to its predecessors, is a precise illustration of what can go wrong when hybridization fails massively on all levels. It is boring, it misses the core audience, and the gameplay is actually slower paced and not as enjoyable as previous entries. SofthouseChara's Ryouchi Kizoku is another perfect example of a game where the gameplay renders story weak to nonexistent... because of the inherent time limit and the opaqueness of the conditions by which the game is considered 'complete', it is impossible to ever really feel like you are involved in the story, despite hints at what might have been an attempt to make the whole thing coherent. Ikusa Megami Zero succeeds in integrating the story and gameplay nicely, in the more classic sense (because it is essentially hybridized with a classic console-style jrpg format). The worst example of gameplay 'integration' I've seen has been 'keyword' systems in mystery VNs. Every single game that uses a system like this is a horrible read, because you are constantly being distracted from the story by the need to click on keywords to store in your protagonist's memory for later use. Since I don't believe player agency is an excuse for breaking my engrossment in the story, this kind of thing is shit.

It's always sad to see a great mind pass from the world...

Fuwa is my net home.

*Clephas watches the goings-on within his stomach with gentle bemusement, not quite understanding why people aren't eating the corpses*

No, the reason things ended up that way was because they chose to create a single story rather than have events change radically based on which heroine you pick, which is the standard for the genre. I can't really say it was a bad choice, but I would have liked to see a full Rielle path...

Akatsuki no Goei 3 Due to the sheer number of heroines, it was perhaps inevitable that the VN would be organized into arcs rather than individual stories, but I would have liked to see a new Tae path, a longer Kaede path, and a much, much more extensive Haku path. Tae's path in the original is good, and it is extended hilariously in 2, but all she got in 3 was an h-scene in the extras, much like all the other heroines from the original (except Reika, of course). Kamori in Sora no Baroque gets screwed over massively... she is an interesting character, but - like the other heroines in the game - is never given a chance to really shine. Tamao in Hello, Lady. I honestly felt that, while her path was interesting in and of itself, it didn't really do her character justice in comparison to the other heroine paths. Tokitani Shinobu from Hatsugamai. She makes what is easily the strongest impression of all the characters in the game, her past is wonderfully complex and emotionally packed, and her present with the protagonist is just as wonderfully filled with potential landmines... and yet the path itself doesn't match her potential. All the other paths in this game were suitable for their characters, but I felt that this one fizzled a little, in retrospect. Gensou no Idea: All heroines. To be honest, while the main story of this game is great, the way they handled the heroines was a bit... incompetent. The epilogues are good, but if you asked me whether they served as an adequate replacement for individual heroine paths...

A lot of chuunibyou-patients are self-aware on some level. It just depends on how far off the deep end they leap. It is like an otherwise intelligent young person who suddenly gets religion... it is all too easy for them to be become a dogmatist zealot.

One thing you have to understand about Silverio is that, despite the similarities, the selling points are different. Silverio has a much more developed setting, for instance (the nature of the Shinza series makes developing a single setting to that kind of level difficult). In addition, like most of Light's other team's works, the characters are more 俗っぽい. Zephyr is like a male version of Rusalka (without the honey trap stuff) in some ways...

It isn't a unique phenomenon to Japan... it is the same type of thing you see in Trekkies, obsessive Star Wars fans, and others who imitate their favorite fictional characters to the point where they lose themselves in them. Chuunibyou tends to start around that age, but it can last for years or decades, depending on whether the individual in question is 'functional' despite their 'weirdness'. In Japan, it is generally portrayed as something that is outgrown by the end of middle school (which is actually usually the case in Japan, from what my friends tell me), and that is primarily because of the extreme peer pressure and sekentei obsession over there. In the US, where kids are mostly allowed to form their own personalities to an extent at that age, it can last a lot longer and go in seriously weird directions. Chuuni as literature isn't so much about 'coolness' as it is about theatrics. Extreme/exaggerated personality types, overpowered characters, larger than life individuals, incredibly detailed settings... these are all elements common to chuuni fiction. Which is probably why bibliophiles and story-addicts tend to fall for chuuni literature in droves. The mundane rapidly gets boring for this type of person, since they are looking for 'stories', not the reality going on around them in daily life. Chuuni can vary greatly, ranging from pure white knight heroism to dark-hearted monstrousness in its characters and settings. The key point is that it somehow transcends the mundane... which means that what can be considered chuuni will inevitably vary based on what culture and environment you were brought up in (to be blunt, someone who was brought up in a slum full of daily gun battles probably won't see a gunfighter protagonist fighting criminals as transcending the mundane). Chuunibyou is a function of the adolescent desire to, quite simply, do the same thing... transcend the mundane. *shrugs* It can be a negative, but some of the most creative people out there are of the type that experiences this 'disease' routinely.

Most people refer to a VN as 'old' by art style, first and foremost. So, as a rule of thumb, the art bigots tend to want to avoid anything made more than seven years ago. 1. I consider anything made before Tsukihime to be ancient/prehistoric. 2. I'm sorry to say I just don't have an interest in VNs made before the year 2001 3. 0 that I know of. I'm not interested. Most of the best from the pre-2000 era that weren't nukige were psychedelic, mystery, or horror from what people tell me... genres I'm not really interested in. 4. Mmm... the 'aging issue' with VNs has never been as bad as it has been with video games, because, after 2006, visual styles have only had incremental improvements. However, the fact remains that stuff from the turn of the century mostly looks awful and/or unrefined by today's standards due to the limitations on available tools at the time.

Tenchu and Tenchu 2 for the PS1. Edit: I dunno if you have a Saturn, but Dragon Force and Rayearth both have female protagonists (two of the eight in Dragon Force, all three in Rayearth). I believe there was a Phantasy Star Collection for either the GBA or the DS containing the original Phantasy Star, which had a female protagonist. Final Fantasy 3 (or VI, in Japan) for SNES has Terra, who is female. There is a fantranslation (not a patch) lying around for the original Growlanser for PS1 and the remake for the psp... and while the protagonist isn't female, most of the cast of the party is. Valkyrie Profile for the PS1 is probably my biggest recommendation, though the Lenneth edition for the PSP is the definitive one.

It was utilized the best in Madou Koukaku, Meishoku no Reiki, Genrin 2, IMZ, and IMV... most of the others just used it to attract buyers for their gimmicky game experiments. I really hope that IMII's remake comes out this year or the next... the original has aged so badly as to be almost unplayable.

Dir Lifyna is the name of the world in which Eushully's Ikusa Megami games, Kamidori Alchemy Meister, and most of the rest of their games are based. I love Dir Lifyna. I don't think I'm alone in this, since it was the unexpected popularity of the setting in the original Ikusa Megami that resulted in the ridiculous number of follow up games that culminated in Ikusa Megami Zero (which most fanboys consider the best game Eushully has ever made). The setting is deep, based in a world built in the aftermath of a pure fantasy world (with no humans) being linked then melded accidentally with a future Earth that was apparently far beyond even our current technological level (think matter-of-course genetic modification and cybernetics, as well as artificial lifeforms of more than human complexity). At the end of the war that resulted from the initial contact, humanity's deities (artificial and otherwise) lost to the 'Living Gods', and humanity's history and most of its technology was systematically erased from the world. Most of humanity's original gods either died or went into hiding, and the remaining humans mostly worship the Living Gods. Other races that were 'hidden' before the initial contact (Nagas, for example) retained a faith and service to some of them, but that has just resulted in them being ever more marginalized in the world as it has become. Humanity, ironically, has become the most numerous intelligent race, providing most of the faith (which provides power to deities) to sustain the Living Gods, causing even those Living Gods' own creations to often be as marginalized as the servants of the Old Gods. Demihumans often find themselves forced to coexist with humans or pushed out of the better lands, leading to conflicts in which the churches of various deities often take sides, even if the deities themselves don't (most deities that aren't a devoted patron of a certain race tend to prioritize the power gained from worship over all things, it seems like). Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the various games set in this world is that they rarely provide a purely human-centric viewpoint on things. Serika, the protagonist of the IM series, can't be considered to be human in any wise (either in perspective or body), Meishoku no Reiki's protagonist is practically a demon lord, Madou Koukaku's protagonist is the ruler of a mixed-race country, Kami no Rhapsody is all about people competing for the right to rule over a multi-race federation, and the Genrin series focuses on a half-demon protagonist who tries to conquer a mostly-human region for the sake of survival (at least at first). 'Chosen Heroes' (usually half-immortal paladins called 'shinkakusha' granted a portion of a deity's essence) are often monsters wearing human skin, priests are mostly political animals or dogmatists, and the conflict between Darkness and Light rarely falls into a 'good vs evil' formula, regardless of perspective. That's when the games are trying to be serious from beginning to end, such as with Genrin, IM, or Madou Koukaku. However, some of the more 'frivolous' games (such as Sankai Ou no Yubiwa, Kamidori, or Kamiyui) are often lighter affairs, though the essential nature of the setting usually bleeds through at odd moments, usually near the end. Unfortunately, Eushully has a bad habit of switching writers frequently, and this results in huge dips and rises in quality between releases, story-wise. As a result, while the company manages to produce kamige like IMZ on occasion, it more often hits a more moderate note like with Verita or Kami no Rhapsody... or strays into outright kusoge territory like with Sankai Ou or Himegari. Gameplay wise, the company's works in this universe are a mixed bag... Ikusa Megami's battle system is essentially a variant on the ATB system, combined with a 'use it and it grows' approach to skill trees. On the other hand, Genrin was essentially a crappier version of Fire Emblem, Madou Koukaku was conquest strategy, and Kami no Rhapsody was a fairly horrible take on standard Japanese-style srpgs (seriously, obsessing over gimmicks like touch screen adaptation with an ero VN gameplay hybrid is just idiotic). It seems at times like Eushully wants to try every popular Japanese single player game genre at one point or another... Anyway, if you are still reading, thanks for paying attention to this random ramble.

If you loved the original cast of Dies Irae, KKK will piss you off. I recommend the Silverio series, because of the depth of the setting and because of this: Gekkou no Carnevale is a hidden gem amongst the Nitroplus releases, but, like most Nitroplus games, it is also depressing. From what my friends save, Interview with Kaziklu Bey is a treat for people who liked Wilhelm. I honestly probably won't touch this for a few more years, when I'm ready to replay Dies Irae again. Also... translated games always have the advantage in polls like this here, lol.

Himekawa Shinobu from Izuna Zanshinken.

My immortal waifu.

This one was a straight-out contest between Lost Echoes and Otoboku 3. On the one hand, Lost Echoes has an excellent story and some seriously good heroines. On the other hand, Otoboku has first-class writing, first-class slice-of-life, and excellent epilogues. In fact, it was that last element that decided the contest... the two were neck and neck, but the difference in epilogue quality, which is much more important than most people credit it for being, was huge. Lost Echoes, for better or worse, ends very soon after the final climax for each path, and (in the VN's chronology) a month or less after the climax. Otoboku 3, however, had detailed epilogues that dealt with the thereafter of the heroines and protagonist, which is a huge plus for remaining in my memory. So, in the end, Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru: Trinkle Stars was VN of the Month, February 2018. It should be mentioned that my utter inability to play sports VNs made Tsubasa no Shita a non-starter for me from the beginning (I like combat and blood sports, but other sports suck as game themes except for seishun BS).

After several thousand heroines, visuals don't matter nearly as much as they used to to me... personality is everything.

Lost Echoes is the first VN by the new company Petitlinge and is written by one of the writers of Hatsugamai (https://vndb.org/v18790) . In this VN the protagonist, Yuuki Riku, is asked by the low-ranking kami, Ryuusen Umi (her name as a kami has been forgotten by both her and the descendants of her worshipers), to go to the past to save the soul of his childhood friend by preventing her previous life (Tachibana Ginchiyo, a rare female warrior leader in the Sengoku era who was the daughter of Tachibana Dousetsu, a famous retainer of the Ootomo Clan before its fall), from killing her friend Chihaya in battle. This game incorporates the choice system into the actual story, with Riku making decisions on what actions he will take or what he will say to affect the course of events in the past era. The first three paths that are available from the start are Akio, Hinao, and Kohaku. Yuika (the osananajimi who is Ginchiyo's reincarnation) opens up when you complete those three paths (it makes sense, because the variation from the other paths is massive, though the basic length and strength of the path is unchanged), and Umi's path opens up after Yuika's as the true path (the one where everyone finds happiness... it also ends pretty hilariously). Kohaku I pursued Kohaku first on a whim and didn't regret it, though this path made my head hurt a bit (chicken and egg issues). Kohaku is rather blatantly in love with Riku from the very start (she makes him wake her up every morning and deliberately ensures he sees her half-naked), and she is the head of the Archaeology Club, the daughter of a large toilet-making corporation, and a generally cheerful person. She lives in the same building as their club meeting room, which she has rented in her own name using her own money. Kohaku's path, once you get past the common route, (the end of the common route is almost identical for the first three heroines), starts out the most normally of the three paths initially available to you... but that normalcy doesn't last that long. Since I had thought they would settle for a standard charage cop-out with the first three heroine paths, I didn't expect the high-quality drama that occurred. It was a pleasant surprise, though. Hinao ... I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Hinao becomes either the most hated or most beloved of this game's heroines in the minds of anyone who reads this VN. She is a miko at the rather large temple that enshrines Umi as a 'hidden deity' (forgotten by the time the story begins), and she serves as the means by which Umi is able to materialize in the mortal realm, despite her relative weakness. She has a natural talent as a miko... but she is about as airheaded and thoughtless as it is possible to be (not to mention she pees herself every time she meets a powerful deity and acts like Umi's dog half the time). Her path starts out oddly. Let's just say that you will be immediately confused by the Hinao you meet after the common route ends and leave it at that. As a whole, this route is interesting to read, and I liked the way they brought the story to an end. Akio Akio is Riku's little sister, who runs the cafe part of their home-business (he runs the photography part). She is very capable and pragmatic, forgiving of her big brother's faults, and she is perhaps the 'wisest' heroine in the game, except when it comes to her own path, lol. Her path is about what you'd expect for a path involving two siblings with no parents who have been working hard to survive... when you further add on the romantic feelings she inherited from Kaya-hime (her previous life) to Akio's own pre-existing ones. There are lots of complications, and this is the only path with a bad ending. Yuika The stubborn, delusion-prone kendo girl osananajimi who is the center of the game's main conflict. Due to the actions of her ancestor and previous life, Ginchiyo, she carries a stain on her soul that will eventually turn her into a tatarigami, a type of deity that causes disaster regardless of its own will or desires (in Yuika's case, they said she would wipe out Kyushu and all that lives there if left to her own devices). She is kind-hearted by nature, always putting others before herself. Her path differs from the previous three massively... and it ends on a melancholic note. Umi Umi's path is accessed from the title screen after the previous four paths are complete. Umi herself is a loving, motherly (despite being a loli), and friendly kami who deeply desires to protect those souls that are closest to her. Due to the fact that she is a hidden kami (at some shrines, it was common to enshrine a secondary, guardian deity besides the primary deity), she had few followers and was eventually forgotten over time. She has lost most of her power and memories, but she has been given permission to narrowly alter the past through Riku to save Yuika's soul. Umi's path is highly emotional, building off one of the melancholic notes from the end of Yuika's path (though it is a completely separate path). The striving of the characters to give back to a deity who gives her all to her 'precious children' is the high point of this path and makes it the most emotional by far. Overall This is an excellent game by a new company, and I hope to see more like this one. It frequently made me smile and laugh, and I cried with the characters on a number of occasions. I don't regret playing this one in any way, which is unusual with new companies.

Epiphanies from readers/watchers/players are a normal result of indulging in experiencing a great work of fiction. If you haven't experienced that yet, then that is your loss. In a more gradual sense, I'm living proof of the fact that playing VNs changes people. The 'me' that I was in 2008 would never have imagined me gleefully fantasizing about various... things. *Clephas whistles innocently*

Fumika has one of the best lines I've seen in that type of heroine in her path... I can cry just remembering it *hints that you should play the game*

She's the manipulative and vengeful Kamio Ami from Semiramis no Tenbin. The other girl is Fumika, a quiet, determined girl from an abusive family.