Clephas

*smiles wryly* it is more that I subconsciously distrust all humans that aren't family and am paranoid even about family if something triggers one of the 'traps' in my brain. Being paranoid is emotionally exhausting, so it eventually comes out as open irritation that can easily blow up into raw hatred and anger. I have to be alone for several hours for every hour I spend in company, lol. Also, that was just me blowing off some steam... I had my neighbor say - sarcastically - that he envies all the free time I had, and it was all I could do not to take his head off this morning... literally.

I haven't updated any of those in the last year or so... I should, but it takes a clear mind and a few hours for each list to fully update them. Something to keep in mind is that while the time I've sunk into playing VNs is impressive even to me, looking back... there are more downsides to playing this many than upsides. I've played far more second-rate VNs than first-rate ones, and there have been times when I've gone for long stretches without playing anything decent. Also, keep in mind that reading techniques don't differ that much between English books and most Japanese VNs, because Japanese VNs also use the left to right horizontal system for visual novels, whereas their books, news, and other media mostly use the vertical right to left method. This means I can usually read a Japanese VN or blog post much faster than a book in Japanese, simply because I don't have to adjust my technique... and not much slower than I read in English. As such, my reading speed, which was already high, remains high when playing VNs, whereas it goes down to half or less when reading a Japanese book or newspaper. The only real barrier remaining is kanji... and, as long as they use the more common style, I barely have to refer to my parser to keep the speed up. It is only in the more... literary VNs that my speed goes down somewhat, due to differing use of kanji and the use of more obscure ones. I can't afford to spend fifty hours a week on VNs like I did when I first took on my current style of work from home, since I actually work around two or three times as much as I did back then. Now, I have less than twenty hours to spend on VNs in a good week, if I want to get enough physical activity to keep my muscles and joints from withering and rest my eyes. That is enough to finish two and a half to three standard length charage or one chuunige, most of the time (though I tend to make time when chuunige come out). It is all about what you are willing to sacrifice... my sacrifice is anything resembling a rl social life, a family, and my health. While the having a family part never really mattered to me, the social life (in the sense of talking in person) aspect tends to have odd effects on the psyche over time, even if you are a born misanthrope (as I am) and health tends to follow the other two. Oh, and that free time I just mentioned above...? I deliberately create my schedule so it all concentrates in the first two weeks of the month, then endure the hard schedules that makes for me later in the month.

It has turned out to be a big month, hasn't it? Three good quality games in a row... one of which I was sure was going to be a kusoge (guess which one). This month had a surprising number of non-nukige releases that I was interested in, and I didn't really want to leave any of them to anyone else (I was actually interested in most of them). Here is a list of what I've played and what I might play before picking VN of the Month. Played Aoi Tori Kizuna Kirameku Koi Iroha Yoru Meguru, Bokura no Maigo Kyoushitsu On the playlist Bokura no Sekai no Shukufuku wo (looks like a mimikko charage, might be a nukige... either way, it stimulates my fetish) Maho x Roba (to be honest, I don't trust charage from Akabei subsidiaries. However, I was asked to play this one anyway...) Azayaka na Irodori no Naka de, Kimi Rashiku (might be a kinetic novel, looks mildly interesting... might use it for psychological rest, lol) Yurameku Kokoro ni Michita Sekai de, Kimi no Yume to Yokubou wa Kanau ka (this one looks interesting... but I don't like the protagonist description, so I'm not sure)

This game is the second project made by Samoyed Smile, a subsidiary of the same corporation that owns Softhouse-seal. This is, incidentally, why the game has the really crappy lip-sync and sex animations so familiar from that company's works. That said, this company is not a nukige company, despite the lateral relationship. The game starts with a young teacher, Haruki, teaching a class of dropouts at a night school. Haruki, having had horrible experiences at his first teaching job, has a poor attitude at first, primarily because he was lured by his estranged father with the promise of the equivalent of $4M in inheritance if he succeeded in graduating the last three students at the night school. Haruki is unusual amongst VN protagonists for being an adult with at least some experience in life, and as a character, he is extremely well-written, his humanity laid bare for the reader to see. The situation is also unusual, since VNs with the kind of atmosphere you start with in this game tend to end up as rape/despair spirals in most cases. The heroines are all a bit loopy and the protagonist isn't much better, when it comes down to it (situation-wise). Common Route However, the game's common route is actually fairly uplifting, once you get past the initial bumps in the road involved in the characters getting used to one another. Haruki and the heroines slowly get to know one another and even form the beginnings of something like a bond of trust, which comes to a nice high point before the heroine routes split off. I honestly felt that it was nicely orchestrated, though I did feel that they included an unnecessary number of choices, considering that the events in the common route don't change as a result. Koshimizu Hayate Hayate is a spiky tsundere who never fails to fulfill the best - as opposed to the worst - standards of the archetype. She actually has justification for her attitude, for one thing... she came across her flaws honestly. She is also, despite appearances, probably the most 'normal' of the heroines under the surface. Hayate is a Japanese male name, which should give you at least some idea of why she hates having her name spoken or written. Hayate's problem, like the problems of many runaways, is with her parents. I won't spoil it for you, but it is a pretty deep problem... it reminds me of Fumika from Semiramis no Tenbin, except Hayate is a lot more aggressive and less gentle, lol. Her path is deeply touching, especially as she and the protagonist manage to get over or around their traumas and make peace with who they are. The student-teacher relationship thing doesn't take its usual turns (probably because the night school itself is too intimate for that kind of social drama to occur), so you shouldn't expect the 'oh they got found out, so he might lose his job!' crap you see with similar protagonist-heroine relationships in other VNs. Kadokura Riko and Kadokura Ayako I'm going to be clear about something... I hate real lolicon content in every way, shape, and form. If this path had discarded the H content, I honestly would have loved it, but the h-scenes in this path ruin it. This is one of the few cases where I honestly think that sexual content is an active barrier to enjoyment rather than a mere annoyance. That said, this path is well written... Riko and Ayako are mother and daughter. Ayako is a weak-mannered, weak-willed young woman who had Riko as a young teenager and is now serving as a single mother to her. Riko, for her part, is a 'good girl' (think Sachi from Grisaia, though not quite that extreme). However, there are lots of problems with those two... and the two biggest ones are Riko's 'illness' and Ayako's inability to see anything in a positive light. This path is all about the nature of human weakness and it deals more with the protagonist's issues with his mother, as opposed to the ones with his father (which were dealt with in the previous path). That said, he is far more pathetic in his 'down time' than he was in Hayate's path, so that was another reason why I honestly left this path with a bad taste in my mouth. The main ending (Riko only) is happy, but the other one is obviously a bad ending, albeit one that is probably pleasant in the sensual sense of things. Niijima Kina Kina is a sweet-natured airhead. I don't mean this as an insult... it is an accurate description. She has a definite learning disability, and she is a natural airhead on top of that. That said, she is also determined to learn and the first of the heroines to take a shine to the protagonist, partially because he actually takes the time to create a personalized curriculum for her and partially because he doesn't look down on her after a few initial bumps in their student-teacher relationsip (say what you like about him, but he has to force himself to act like an asshole in most of the cases where he does). Kina's path is about even with Hayate's for quality, overall... but when you find out the full reason why she's attending night school, I guarantee you will either wince or cry. They go into specifics, and it is pretty nasty at times. Kina's path also shows off her best qualities as a character... such as her capacity for love and her empathy. However, it also shows off some of her negative points... such as being consumed by hatred and being just a tad psychopathic at times, lol. Unfortunately, despite rumors to the contrary, she isn't a yandere (I thought she would be, but meh), but she comes close to it sometimes. Probably, if they had a bad ending for this path, she would have gone down that path, since she definitely has potential. Overall Overall, this game was a bumpy ride. Is it good? Yes. Is it perfect? About as far from it as possible while still being a good game. Reading this game is a high-stress experience, and I actually found myself growing wistful for charage by the end. Nonetheless, this game is of a type that is rarely seen these days, lining up with Yume Miru Kusuri for the heart-wounded heroines and screwy psychological twists.

For obvious reasons, VN vets rarely get up their hopes for games by new VN companies. Generally speaking, most of them are charage or nukige, and those that aren't usually flop on their faces. So, it should come as no surprise that the people I chatted with about this game generally didn't have any hopes for it. However, that is probably because they didn't take a look at the team of scenario writers. The first one, Gihara, was the writer for Tenka Gomen, Shin Koihime Eiyuutan, Shin Koihime Musou Kakumei (responsible for the rewrite), Harvest Overray, and Girls Be Ambitious (something of a cult classic for Japanese fanboys of a certain stripe). Nissy was involved with Hanasaki Work Spring and Gin'iro Haruka. Finally, Toishi Hiroki was involved with Sakura, Sakimashita and Floral Flowlove. By most standards, that is about as solid a team as you can find for any single VN, even if it is essentially a combat sports charage in the same vein as Unionism Quartet and Shirogane Spirits. So, after having done a bit of research on the game and its story, I picked it for my second game this month. Happily, I wasn't disappointed by the results. Oh, by any standard, this game doesn't even approach Aoi Tori for raw quality of storytelling or music. It also has as much lost potential as any other fantasy charage that put effort into creating a complex setting (inevitably, they never go far enough). The protagonist is a little too similar to some others I've encountered, such as the one from Walkure Romanze or Aokana, in that he starts out as a self-pitying loser and spends the entire game in a supporting role. That said, for what it is (a combat sports charage), it is nice and fun. The protagonist, Touki, is a swordsmith who makes spiritual blades combined with mechanical parts called 'Origami' who has lost his ability to make them, leaving him with a bunch of wasted talent and people wondering why he is wasting it (sound familiar?). The combat sport in the game - called Jindou - is basically one-on-one ritualistic duels between wielders of these mechanized spirit blades (the blades grant the user increased physical abilities based on their ability to draw their power out), and three of the four heroines are competitors (two of them newbies, one the highest-rank veteran, a setup that is traditional to the sub-genre). The last one is a fellow maker of Origami, an American arms dealer's daughter named Freesia. The protagonist does manage to get past the big personal issue in the common route, so there is no 'diversion' onto another path in life as is common in many VNs with a similar protagonist (in other words, ignoring the protagonist's scars and leaving him as a loser). This is a huge plus, as this type of character goes... but it is shortly after that event that the paths split. Shion Shion is the protagonist's kouhai, a girl who was going to give up the sword because, due to her high ability to draw out spiritual energy, keeps breaking Origami... and on top of that, she is excessively kind, making it difficult for her to consider hurting others, despite her choice of a future profession. Despite her kind-heartedness, she is a power-fighter, breaking opponents with smashing blows and enduring attacks to lash out at the right moment rather than using technique or speed to overwhelm them. Her path is... interesting. It has the protagonist going farther into confronting his personal issues and past than in the common route, and as a result a rather nasty chain of events occurs that leads into the story's drama after the competition. On a whole, that made this an interesting path... but I was left feeling a bit bored with the rather predictable ending bits. This path could have done with a more bittersweet note in the ending, despite this being essentially a charage (thus requiring good endings). Tsubaki Tsubaki is the school champion and a member of the Suzakuin Family... a family that symbolizes the ultimate swordsman in their sport, because they do everything themselves, from training and fighting to management and the making of the Origami. Tsubaki considers herself to be like an older sister to Touki, whom she lived with for three months as a child when she was learning how to make Origami. Her style is efficient, defined by refined technique, foresight, research, and a cold drive to win. As a result, she tends to let enemies come to her then destroy them with counter-attacks. Her path forces her to confront her own limitations and break the boundaries set by her family, and most of the drama comes from Touki helping her stand on her own feet and realize there is something beyond her training and family's expectations for her to live for. It was a good path, overall... but it completely ignores the issues lurking in the background that erupted in Shion's path, so it left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. Freesia Freesia is the daughter of the CEO of a major arms-maker in America. Upon meeting Miyako (Tsubaki's older sister) she became obsessed with Jindou and eventually discovered a talent for making Origami. She is at the school as a special student, exempted from class because of her high scores and her father's connections. Early in the story, she becomes obsessed with becoming Touki's student. She is very aggressive and straightforward, never bothering to conceal her feelings about anything. She is a perfect example of the fine line between a genius and an idiot (or a madwoman), as some of her Origami are... strange (when she made a light saber, I had to rofl). Anyway, her path is about the way of the craftsman, and it is kind of interesting... However, I feel that they approached it all wrong. First, during the climactic face-off in her path, the results are sort of disappointing. The fight itself is nice, but it feels too much like 'oh, she is the heroine, so lets let her have her way!' Moreover, I am honestly confused that they chose that as the climax, since there is relatively little emotional buildup immediately before. As such, I had to rate this path the lowest of the three I've written about so far, by several levels. Saya Saya is Touki's childhood friend (though he doesn't remember her at first), a brilliant swordswoman who, at first, has no idea of how to use an Origami. Her attitude toward Touki is very much that of a close friend, rather than a deredere heroine, which is unusual for this kind of setup. In addition, she is the 'true' heroine, though if you want to unlock her without playing the other paths, you can do so through the extras menu. As a fighter, she is a speed type, quite simply the fastest of all the heroines by several levels. In addition, she is also highly skilled, though perhaps a few levels below Tsubaki due to her inexperience with Jindou. Saya's path is the 'true path' of this game, and the game treats it as such. The storytelling has even more depth than Shion's path, and it delves far deeper into the past - both Touki's and that of his bloodline. The fights in this path are several levels better than in the previous paths, at least partly because some of them are 'real' (you'll see what I mean if you read this). In addition, several characters whose true desires and intentions never came into the open in the other paths come into play in this path, thus making it... your standard true path, lol. Overall Like a lot of 'true path' games, this game neglects the non-true heroines to an extent and places far too much emphasis on the true path. However, as a whole, the game is a fun read. The three non-true heroine paths read like charage paths, whereas the true one is almost a chuunige there at the end. As a whole, the game is a bit higher in quality than Shirogane Spirits or Unionism Quartet, because it manages to feel 'real' at times (something neither of those games manages, because they never escape the 'combat sport' aspect of their stories). In the end, it was a decent VN, and in another month would have been a decent candidate for the VN of the Month.

Do you really think a curse from a witch who used to rape shotas for laughs would be so easily suppressed? The original version has the curse placed inside her womb.

One of the problems is that Ixrec really wasn't the best translator for the game, even aside from complaints about the translation quality. A lot of the internal narration feels off in the English version, from what I recall from when I tried to play it. In particular, Ixrec seriously screwed up on the protagonist's internal monologues at key moments. Since those internal monologues are the points at which he is the most likable as a character, it is not surprising he scratches a lot of people the wrong way. The basic idea of Akihito is that he was, up to a certain point in his life, a fairly normal kid, aside from his odd relationship with Kagome. However, he hit a series of traumatic experiences one after the other (it is better to just read the VN to find this part out), and as a result, he tends to pretend at nihilism and apathy, while compulsively helping women (men being worthless to him, which is basically an exaggeration of the typical otaku media male protagonist's tendencies). I'll admit to the male promiscuity... but the fact is, if you offer a male teen sex, he will have sex. I find it amusing so many people have trouble grasping that, lol. The virgin male protagonists of so many other games seem unnatural to me, since my fellow males are basically penises with legs from the age twelve to twenty-five. Edit: I suppose that last bit might be considered 'making excuses', but the fact is, I have always been a bit bewildered by the reactions people have to that aspect of his character.

Like a lot of Hino Wataru's works, this game is crack for chuunige fans. However, it also bears a lot of the flaws of his other works... the most obvious of which is his unbalanced approach to the heroine paths. The two heroines who get the biggest emphasis in this game are Hisoka and Kagome. In addition, the route order is locked, forcing you to play all the heroines before Kagome (except Ayaya)... worse, you have no choice but to play Benio's route, which is the single most annoying route in the game. The protagonist of the story tends to gain mixed reactions from those who read the English version... Some people like him, some people hate him. His excessive favoritism toward women and his somewhat indiscriminate sexual habits piss off a lot of the more 'purist' readers. Others don't like his false nihilism and self-pity... the fact is, he is a pretty unbalanced character. However, I honestly enjoyed reading this game in Japanese, and he didn't bother me. I find the normal/average/less than average protagonists that plague most VNs to be far more annoying.

Aoi Tori is Purple Soft's latest project, a VN based in a girls' school in the mountains, where the protagonist, a priest (I'm assuming Episcopalian/Anglican for various reasons), goes to school as an exception, as he cannot live outside of the school without being taken by demons. Ritsu, the protagonist, possesses the power to take others' negative emotions, thus enhancing their feelings of happiness and joy, and this power works best when he has sex with them. Now, given that he is a young man, you'd think from this description that he was going around finding girls that were in trouble and 'saving' them that way... given eroge culture. However, if anything, it is the reverse... girls that are desperate to escape their personal reality come to him, seeking the happiness he can give, and he has reduced himself to something like an automatic mechanism for giving them what they want. To be blunt, his point of view seems very close to that of a lifelong prostitute, save for the miraculous ability he possesses... moreover, a prostitute who didn't choose the work (his first experiences were all oneshota, apparently). One day, his monotonous days of sex and quiet prayer (it sounds odd, but outside of school, that is pretty much what it was like), a century-old vampire named Mary Harker appears before him, having intruded into his home behind the chapel, and he lets her stay out of kindness. At the same time, a voice (referred to as the 'demon on the phone') tells him over the phone that he has a rather dark fate awaiting him and his power isn't what he thinks it is. This night is closely followed by a number of meetings and reunions... a devout girl with a self-destructive streak a mile wide (Akari), the young teacher who stole his virginity (Risa), and the twin sister he never knew he had (Sayo). In addition, you have Mikako, who is Risa's sister and Ritsu's only friend... and who is a genius as well as a pragmatist. Overall, it is an interesting cast of characters, even for a Purple Soft game. I'm going to be blunt, the part that will put off at least some of you is the sheer amount of sex in the first part of the VN. The game begins with two h-scenes, neither of which involves affection or love, and, while this is a good intro into Ritsu's situation, it also will probably drive the romantics amongst you a bit crazy, judging by my previous experiences. So... if you can't stand a protagonist who doesn't bother refusing sex from women and is used to having sex with girls he doesn't know, you probably won't like this game. That said, there are relatively few similar h-scenes after this, probably in order to keep you from getting too swallowed up by his attitude toward sexual activity. Ritsu is a rather strange young man, even setting aside his destined role as the Prince of Darkness (Mary's term for it). As the demon on the phone puts it, 'You are a madman who can only be satisfied by saving others.' That fits him perfectly, and that part of his personality never really goes away. He is fundamentally a giver, above all other things. Even if he can be convinced by the heroines to be selfish in the now, when things come to a climax, he always falls back on that nature. He is also a natural S and a hedonist (though he is not conscious of this most of the time), and he doesn't have it in him to become paranoid or maintain his anger for long. That said, once he decides on the result he wants, he will literally do anything to achieve it. Mary Harker Mary Harker, in any other game, would be the true heroine. I don't mean to be mean about Akari... she is creepy has hell sometimes, despite her apparent normality (you'll see what I mean if you actually read the first two h-scenes), but if I began this game without a walkthrough or seeing the cover of the game package, I probably would have assumed she was the true heroine. The reason is very simple... she is the catalyst that sparks the game's engine at the beginning, and, given eroge custom, that heroine usually is the true one. Now, her personality... Mary is probably the most cheerful and normal vampire I've seen outside of a 'nerfed' vampire setting (this one isn't, since just a bite is enough to turn someone and she takes injuries from her own prayers and the sun). Nonetheless, she has lived a century, and that has had various effects on her psyche, though the biggest one is a growing awareness that maintaining her humanity and human persona is becoming harder and harder. It is only because of Ritsu that she is able to have some kind of a hope for the future, and she is pretty dependent on him during the story. Despite that, she is also sort-of an oneesan character outside of her own path. She does have a lot of experience under her belt, and her attitude toward him at some times skirts the motherly. Her own path is... a clash of two people destined to live in darkness, her and Ritsu. They are both people who don't understand romantic love at the beginning, so seeing them change is somewhat amusing, but the bigger issue is that their natures press down on them, making a happy romance difficult. Overall, it was a highly emotional experience that I enjoyed thoroughly. I do wish - as I almost always do - that she had a nice long epilogue after story, but I have resigned myself to not receiving what I wish for most of the time, when it comes to that. Akasabi Risa and Akasabi Mikako Akasabi Risa was the protagonist's first sexual partner. Like all the girls who had sex with him in the past, she was seeking escape from reality by having him give her happiness, but she, unlike the others, was actually in love with him from the beginning. Risa is a consummate actress, hiding her true intentions behind her feelings, a technique she apparently developed in the years she was away from Risa. She is also essentially a 'giver' type, willingly giving everything for those she cares about. Mikako is a pretty unusual character. If it weren't for her fondness for Ritsu and her love for Risa, I would be tempted to call her an emotionless sociopath, based on her surface actions. I called her a pragmatist above, but this isn't despite her emotional reactions... it is her natural state of being. Pragmatism is usually a product of socialization and rationality being prioritized over emotion. However, in Mikako's case, she is able to (and does so automatically) completely analyze and render meaningless her emotions before they reach the surface. Her love for Risa is pretty much the only exception, and it is that emotion that renders her as almost human (her fondness for Ritsu exists because she loves Risa and Risa loves him). Now, the demon on the phone takes on a rather more direct role in this story than in Mary's, where he/she is merely speaking to the characters. In fact, the demon's interference is what brings this path's conflict to the surface, and overall, it made this path more interesting than it otherwise would have been. To be blunt, without the demon's 'help', it is highly unlikely that Risa, Mikako, and Ritsu would get together, based on the revelations in this path. There are a number of reasons, but the biggest one lies with the fact that Ritsu quite simply doesn't have strong emotions toward his sexual partners normally (once he actually loves them, it is different)... not even remnant lust. Kurosaki Sayo Kurosaki Sayo is Ritsu's twin, separated from him at birth. She is a cynical, emotionally twisted young girl whose only love is Ritsu (though she does have affection for others based on whether they make Ritsu happy or not) and whose hobby is toying with him and Mary. She appears on the scene shortly after Mary's arrival, guided by the demon on the phone. She is also a part of the demons' plans for him, and that plan is the center of her path. This path is an utsuge-style path... don't expect a happy ending. There is a good reason why Sayo was given to a different orphanage by their mother, and that reason becomes apparent fairly early after Ritsu chooses her. I enjoyed this path and it has some really good cathartic moments... but I honestly thought they were a bit excessively obvious in foreshadowing this one. Afterwards (read this if you don't mind a bit of spoilers) Remember, this is a spoiler. As techniques go, it is interesting, and I felt the need to mention it before Akari's path because of how it leads into it. Umino Akari Akari is... the girl whose outer personality and inner desires are most in conflict. Akari is a devout Christian (Ritsu's assessment), kind-hearted, gentle, and takes pleasure in giving of herself to others. However, she is also strongly driven to seek out danger, corruption, and self-destruction in every way, shape, and form. As one of the milder examples... she is afraid of heights but she willingly participates in the school swim club's high dive competition. A more extreme version is the one you run into at the beginning, in the first scene, where, after watching her friend have sex with Ritsu, she is drawn to him and has sex with him as well. Akari's path is... interesting. Actually, the beginning of the path is slow, because the story refrains from going to the extremes you saw in the common route and the other paths. However, that slow build up is a near-perfect lead into the solid drama leading up to the ending. There is actually very little I can say about this path without spoiling it, but I can say that I liked the ending. I cried numerous times throughout the path, and the ending itself satisfied me completely, a rare event in and of itself. One thing I should note is that there is a distinct Chrono Clock reference in this path, which startled me a bit. It was actually a stronger link than the mention of the kotodama-users early in the common route. For those who are interested, I'll respond in a PM, but I'm unwilling to spoil this. I did laugh though. I'm unsure if this is an affectation or not, but it is interesting. Overall I'm seriously tempted to scream 'kamige!!!' to the sky... but in retrospect, they game does have some distinct flaws. The main one of these is the somewhat haphazard approach to the beginning of Risa's path (it felt kind of like they were shoving things along a little too forcefully in that one). However, even so this is one of the better games that have come out this year, and, in its own way, keeps the Purple Soft fantasy nakige tradition started with Mirai Nostalgia alive and kicking. Where Chrono Clock fizzled and Amatsutsumi committed the sin of using the ladder-style progression system, this game manages to both satisfy and feel like it treats the non-true heroines well.

Inflation due to the fact that Yosuga no Sora is made by the same company. Yosuga no Sora gets excessively good ratings due to to the twincest factor. In addition, you should probably adjust the average score of any charage down 1.5-3 points, simply because there are more likely to be troll voters, bot voters, and high voters (voters who vote everything they play that is moe high) on a charage than on another genre.

Ah... I can't really recall this game clearly, but I recall that I found it trite, even for a charage. This one came out shortly before I started VN of the Month, so I don't actually have a post on it to remind me of what it is like, but if you want a good reference for how I felt about it... the fact that I didn't bother to post a commentary on vndb says it all, lol. Edit: Just to clarify... if you just want an imouto fetish story, there are numerous better ones out there. If you want a charage, the same.

Male: Maeda Takeshi Female: Inokuchi Yuka Understand, I'm as much a fan of the characters they play as a fan of them personally. Maeda Takeshi is actually really, really typecast (he is almost always an outlaw type of some sort, even if it is only relative). However, that seems to be common for male VAs...

Look on the bright side... the game makes a lot less sense if you haven't played the original, so no matter how good the translation is, you will be disappointed.

If it is interesting, I like it, if it is boring, I don't. I hated it in Hoshimemo, because the imouto-character was annoying and their relationship wasn't interesting. However, in Reminiscence or Hatsugamai... the incestuous part is the best part. For that matter, Unmei Yohou's imouto incest route is nice and screwy and thus interesting. The fact is, the more twisted a situation, the more a good writer can make it interesting. Incest is perfect for that, and as a result, a disproportionate number of incest relationships make for great stories. That said, if you asked me how I feel about rl incest...? Blech. Simply, blech. Not because it is gross, but because it is stupid. Fiction is fiction, rl is rl. If you can't make the distinction once you are done reading/playing/watching, then you shouldn't have anything to do with fiction.

Incidentally, the main reason for the incest taboo isn't really religious. It is because if multiple generations inbreed, you get sickly kids, stupid kids, and psychotic kids. Most cultures that aren't isolated picked up this taboo relatively early on, and significant attempts were made to prevent too close of marriages in smaller communities, even going so far as to offer girls up to travelers with the intention of having them get pregnant. Since those were generally a time when kids were raised by a village, there was generally either no taboo or only a small one on sex outside of marriage. If you read the Old Testament, you'll pick up on a lot of oddities that are glossed over in modern culture, such as marriages between half-siblings and first cousins, whereas Catholicism tended to ban close marriages outside of royalty whenever possible. This wasn't a religious taboo but rather a practical one born out of experience that became a custom that spread to all European cultures, to one extent or another. The demonstrated results in royal families only reinforced this.

Incidentally, incest paths make up about half of the best heroine paths in VNs in general, for some reason.

I should also mention that there was no strong virginity taboo in pre-Meiji Japan. That kind of thing started to pop up in the nineteenth century, when western Christian values began influencing male views of females. Female relatives were regularly bargained away solely to form connections between families within a craft or caste, to bring a competent/capable successor into the family to take over the business/farm/province, and to become an informal pipe for information and communications between powerful families. This treatment of women as currency was common on all levels of Japanese society, and it was more or less expected that any male of power and influence would have multiple consorts, concubines, etc. The concept of the 'wife' as we know it didn't exist in Japanese culture until the late nineteenth century.

Hataraku Otona no Ren'ai Jijou (if you close your eyes to the fact that he develops a spine early in the story). Semiramis no Tenbin Hataraku Otaku no Ren'ai Jijou

A lot of it is that incest was insanely common on pre-Meiji Japan and made a sort-of comeback in the years after WWII (though no one advertises that and you have to actually go looking for the proof). The fact that no one really thinks anything of first-cousin marriages over there is one leftover of that time, for instance. Occasionally you see references to it in otaku literature, but it wasn't uncommon in powerful families for 'extra' females to end up as practical sex slaves/concubines to their close relatives. At the same time, it was also common for those same women to end up married off for political reasons afterward... but because of that, you have leftover attitudes that don't make much sense to westerners. It was only after Western influences became strong during and after the Meiji Restoration that you saw that kind of thing becoming taboo. The reason for that crap right after WWII is because of the lack of living males, to be blunt about it. Isolated cultures often end up with incest being common. Its inevitable when all your neighbors are close cousins. Now that remnant culture has combined with fetishism in a weird synergy that has made incest immensely popular with otakus in Japan.

One reason I'm able to tolerate some of the darker crap in VNs is because I read this series. Unfortunately, so far I've yet to encounter a VN that handles inhumanity within humanity quite this well... the closest I've seen is Devils Devel Concept, and even that doesn't quite get there.

I only plan to post on books I would have given higher than a 9 out of 10... This one is at 10. It is one of about nine fantasy and sci-fi series I think anyone interested in the genres should at least try to read. The downside of this series is that people unused to the darker side of fantasy might have some trouble with the Blood, because, by nature, they are a lot closer to the 'predator' side of humanity. This is a story about a world where Darkness is the central force, after all, lol. Edit: Oh, and if you think that Saetan and Daemon sound scary after encountering them in the story, Jaenalle makes them seem merciful when she 'goes cold', as they put it.

This is a test post, based on the results of the poll I posted a few weeks back. The win was borderline, so if I don't get a reasonably large response, I won't continue to post about my conventional reading. The Black Jewels Trilogy, by Anne Bishop is one of my favorite book series of all time. It is a dark, sensual fantasy based in a unique universe, where a race of magic aristocrats called the Blood rule three worlds, Tereille, Kaeleer, and Hell. The main characters of the story are a triangle surrounding one young girl whose very existence is their every hope and dream... for she is 'Dreams Made Flesh', Witch, the Queen of the Darkness. Those main characters are: Daemon Sadi, a male pleasure slave that has been twisted by over seventeen hundred years of abuse at the hands of the women of Terreille, protecting himself from madness only by the prophecy given to him seven hundred years before, that Witch was coming; Lucivar Yaslana, a slave and member of the winged Eyrien race, who has lived his entire life being called a half-breed bastard; Saetan SaDiablo, the High Lord of Hell, the High Priest of the Hourglass, who became a half-undead Guardian fifty thousand years before so that he would one day be given the opportunity to serve and protect the 'daughter of his soul'... and the father of Lucivar and Daemon; and last of all, the point around which the three revolve, Jaenalle, dreams made flesh, Witch, a kind-hearted young girl who wanders the Realms and is destined to one day rule from Ebon Askavi. First, I should note that the Blood are matriarchal, forming circles of obligation centered around natural-born Queens (a cast based on a genetic quirk that isn't tied to magical power but rather the nature of the female), who in turn form circles of males who serve to form a court. The highest rank of male are the Warlord Princes, primal individuals who possess sharp, murderous tempers and an intense need to protect. Ideally, the Queens hold their leashes lightly, and the first rule of Blood Protocol is to 'protect', then 'serve', and third to 'obey'. Unfortunately, due to the influence of two ambitious Priestesses from the long-lived Hayllian race, the Blood in Terreille have become twisted and corrupt, the good Queens vanishing over the course of generations, leaving only twisted monstrosities of the human spirit in their place, women who know only how to use and enslave men... resulting in the men in their districts becoming ever more twisted themselves, as their experiences warp their reactions to their instincts, breaking them a little more with each generation. It is into this Terreille that Jaenalle is born and Daemon and Lucivar have lived. Saetan, bound by his personal honor, has not been able to protect his sons, and when the daughter of his soul, already wounded by the corruption in Terreille first appears before him, it is only his long experience and iron will that keep him from crossing the final line he has held to for over fifty thousand years. This series is a story of the trials and travails of the circle of relations that orbit the four points of the triangle, as the outer points try to protect the center, Jaenalle, so that the dream might one day become a salvation to them all. Honestly, Anne Bishop's brilliance lies in her ability to intimately portray the emotional travails of the characters, the subtle and not so subtle dance of Protocol and power, and the unique nature of the Blood make this one of the single richest experiences out there for dark fantasy. In a culture where murder is legal but rape is punishable by death, but where the rules are breaking down, the central characters are a bastion of sanity in a world rapidly heading toward horror and despair beyond imagining. As Anne Bishop says in the forward in the omnibus edition, 'I started this world with Daemon, Jaenalle, and Lucivar, but it was Saetan who brought it to life.' She started out imagining a world where Darkness was, from the beginning to end, the dominant force, and in that darkness were both a vicious edge of violence, a terrible gentleness, and a primal, deep sort of love. The characters in this series are passionate, with deep wells of potential violence and compassion both. Saetan, Lucivar, Daemon, and Jaenalle are all individuals possessing a near-infinite capacity for both love and violence... and above all, they strive to protect.

I've been saving a replay of this VN for years. My original opinion on this VN was excessively influenced by the fact that this VN is filled to the brim with Masada and Dies Irae worship. However, it is also the VN that, separate from that, defined the second Light team's style. The base character archetypes, roles, and numerous aspects of their settings were almost universally drawn from Dies Irae, if you strip away the specifics. This is the biggest reason I had so much trouble properly rating this VN the first time around. First, I should mention what is perhaps the most defining element of this team's VNs... there is at least one Mercurius/Reinhardt type in every one of their VNs. I don't mean in the specifics... but in the sense that those two were 'spontaneously generated absolutes'. Both Mercurius and Reinhardt were characters who, at the core, were already 'complete' from the beginning. In each of this team's games, there is at least one character of that type. The reasoning for including such characters is probably because 'absolutes' tend to create powerful emotional reactions in people and naturally become catalysts for conflict. As a tool for progressing chuunige stories, they are an ideal element. Since these characters are transcendent from the beginning, they tend to change very little during the progression of the story, further pinpointing their role as catalysts. I could name each such character for you, but I'll limit it to this game... Akizuki Ryouga. Akizuki Ryouga is the protagonist of Zero Infinity, a young man who has a rather... unusual philosophy and a mentality that is like that of a person born already close to achieving enlightenment. Quite naturally for a chuunige, he gets dragged into an underground war between powerful cyborgs called Imaginators, rebels and hunters from Holologium, the organization that rules the world. The setting is 1967 Japan. The Japan of that era had achieved a 'miraculous' economic recovery after WWII and was approaching its peak, its population recovering rapidly from the loss of the previous generation. The structure of this story is identical to Dies Irae's, at least in how it handles the route order. It gives you a choice of two 'initial routes', and if you finish one you can access the route of the first main heroine, whose path reveals the truths ignored or left untouched in the first paths, and after you finish the first main heroine's path, you can complete the second main heroine's path, where all the loose ends are tied off and you get an untainted good ending. Now... one thing I love about this game is the way it humanizes the antagonists. Setting aside the antagonist who is a heroine (Elizavetta), Ivan Strigoi, Alexandre Raskolinikov, and even Apollon leave a powerful impression. Ivan is the only one I can talk about without spoiling things to a ridiculous degree, so I'll focus on him. Ivan Strigoi is something of a tribute to the Einherjar of Dies Irae (all the characters are tributes to Dies Irae ones... lol). He is a man wrapped in bandages who has lived his entire life on the battlefield. He is a believer in the value of heroism and loves those who strive (both in war and in everyday life) above all other things... including those who he kills or try to kill him. Like Elizavetta, he is also a former Soviet soldier, turned into an Imaginator after death and recruited into Gears to hunt rogues. I'll be straight... this kind of smiling warrior who loves with a passion all those who stand on the battlefield with resolve never once brought out negative emotions in me, despite all the crap he put the protagonist's side through. It is just so hard to hate him, lol. As for the story itself... well, it is a Light chuunige. Stripped of the irritation over the excessive tributes to Dies Irae, it is actually right up there near the top. After all, this is the team that made Vermilion Bind of Blood and the Silverio series. I will say that this game is significantly better balanced (lol to anyone who has read this VN) than the Silverio series, as that one put so much emphasis on the main/true paths that the neglect became painful in retrospect. That said, its flaws are actually glaringly similar to a lot of the greatest of chuunige... the antagonists remain in your memory more strongly than the protagonist and heroines, lol. Years after playing this the first time, I still remembered Alexandre and Ivan clearly, even though my memories of the heroines were getting blurred... and that is fairly typical of my experiences with a lot of the better chuunige out there. There is something about the genre that demands a strong set of antagonists to bring the story to life, which is why chuunige with pathetic antagonists tend not to remain in memory. Anyway, this VN's theme is more than a little painful for anyone born into modern society. The characters are rather blunt about their feelings about where society is going as a result of scientific progress, and it plays pseudo-prophet when it comes to the effects of the internet on people's psyches. As such, the first reaction of some people when it comes to the philosophical ramblings of the characters (an inevitable side-effect of this being a chuunige) will probably be more negative than is the norm. I could spend several days analyzing this VN... but I'm going to stop here. For people who want a heavy chuunige, this is a good choice, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone else, since it is so blatantly a chuunige in every particular.

All people who ask this or similar questions (from the other side) are trolls. While I only watch raws or subs, that is simply because I don't see the point in wasting my time with the double conversion of translation to dubs, which usually results in massive differences from the original script in terms of generalized content.

1) Silverio Vendetta - Zephyr's first battle (vs Libra and foot soldiers). It is probably the single coolest one-sided massacre that I've ever seen in a VN... and it serves as a perfect introduction to Zephyr as a character. 2) Devils Devel Concept - Sora vs Kanata. A great fight all-around, but it is made even cooler by the sheer scale of what they are doing, lol. 3) Vermilion Bind of Blood - Fake Tri-finger vs Toshirou. Vermilion has about nine battle scenes that I would consider to be up there at the top, but when he faces off against the fake Tri-finger for a final time in one of the paths (I'm not spoiling it), they are both so awesome... I was tempted to put Hakushaku vs Toshirou or White Pile (retired) vs Army of Testaments (seriously, one of the top five best scenes in this vein) 4) Tiny Dungeon Brave or Slave - Hime vs Gen - Hime is an inspiring warrior overall, but this fight is great. 5) Dies Irae (take either of the final battles from Maries or Rea's paths, lol). I know some will be surprised I didn't pick these as number one... but I'm not trying to be objective here. As much as I love this game... 6) Evolimit - Shizuku and Shiranui vs Tempest/Company Man - This fight is the climax of the story, and in terms of the scale of what is going on, it can be said that it is bigger than the last battles of Dies Irae... lol 7) Bullet Butlers - Rick vs Alfred. In terms of gun and blade fights (both) there just aren't any that get close to this one, though the father-son battle in Bloody Rondo makes a good try at it. 8 ) Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier - The Serizawa Assassination - While it is over quickly, this is an awesome and emotional bloody scene, which serves as a huge turning point for the main story of this game. 9) Bradyon Veda - Naoto vs Claudia - This fight is great for its complexity... and the sheer desperation on Naoto's side. Like Dies Irae's fights, this one has the protagonist approaching from a position where he is horribly disadvantaged, so it is interesting that way too. 10) Ayakashibito - Kuki-sensei vs Souichi - Take any of the fights between these two, and you won't find one that is boring. However, I am specifically referring to the true 'youkai version' ending of Suzu's path's battle.