LostPomegranate

It's been a pretty good month so far for visual novel releases and reading.
 
Currently I'm reading A Tithe in Blood https://vndb.org/v51138 and am planning on picking up Dear Mirror Flower when it releases tomorrow (PST) https://vndb.org/v55725 as well as finishing my NekoPara reread finishing with After.
 
Since my last update I've read: Perennial Dusk - Kinsenka, Happiness (2): Sakura Celebration, Clover Reset, Pillagers of Raillore, KANADE, and Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete. I also reread NekoPara Extra, Vol 0, Vol 1, and Vol 2.
 
Out of those I'd actually recommend all of them. Kinsenka is probably the highlight though if you like dark-ish plotge. Happiness is a fairly standard moege which was a fine read, but nothing to write home about. Clover Reset was just a straightforward slice of life yuri story that was super all-ages (no kissing even), but was cute. Pillagers of Raillore is just a discount Sorcery Jokers, so it's decent to good, but has all of the same issues Sorcery Jokers had - massive power creep, anticlimactic ending cause it was built up too much, and kind of annoying protagonists (SJ only had one annoying protagonist though). KANADE was incredibly cute, but straightforward, but Kanade herself was incredibly cute and I wish it was twice as long so it had more time to develop characters. Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete is a pretty good visual novel, but has the same issues a lot of games in that specific genre have with repeated events, etc., but the characters are pretty great, so it makes it still a good read. Reviews for all of them are up on VNDB if you're interested in reading in more detail.
 
See you again in another month with another 5-10 done I'm sure.

It's the nickname of the game from the Japanese audience and may have come from the development team, I can't remember. But it's sourced pretty obviously from Boku ga Tenshi ni Natta Wake. MangaGamer likely left it on so when people searched for it by its most popular nickname - Bokuten - the English version would still show up, while it wouldn't show up under just "Why I Became an Angel". This one DOES actually share its nickname with another VN though - Boku wa Tenshi Janai yo - but that is not a popular VN, so I doubt anyone is talking about that bokuten when it gets mentioned. A lot of the development teams even announce an "official" shortened name for the fanbase to use when talking about a visual novel.
 
Tons of VN's have shortened names like this that you don't often see in their English titles though. Like Love, Elections, & Chocolate's shortened name is Koichoco from "Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate", Nukitashi is shortened from "Nukige Mitai na Shima ni Sunderu Watashi wa Dou Surya Ii Desu ka?" cause no one in their right mind would constantly refer to it that way, and they used that for the English title. Uso kara Hajimaru Koi no Natsu got shortened to its nickname "UsoNatsu" for the English title as well, and with ones that aren't in English they still get shortened, Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete got shortened to "Waremete", all the Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o titles got shortened to Sonohana but kept their full translated titles in English of "A Kiss for the Petals". The short names are useful to talk about stuff quickly, but it can definitely be confusing if people use different nicknames to talk about the same visual novel, or if nicknames get too close to one another.

It's the nickname of the game from the Japanese audience and may have come from the development team, I can't remember. But it's sourced pretty obviously from Boku ga Tenshi ni Natta Wake. MangaGamer likely left it on so when people searched for it by its most popular nickname - Bokuten - the English version would still show up, while it wouldn't show up under just "Why I Became an Angel". This one DOES actually share its nickname with another VN though - Boku wa Tenshi Janai yo - but that is not a popular VN, so I doubt anyone is talking about that bokuten when it gets mentioned. A lot of the development teams even announce an "official" shortened name for the fanbase to use when talking about a visual novel.
 
Tons of VN's have shortened names like this that you don't often see in their English titles though. Like Love, Elections, & Chocolate's shortened name is Koichoco from "Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate", Nukitashi is shortened from "Nukige Mitai na Shima ni Sunderu Watashi wa Dou Surya Ii Desu ka?" cause no one in their right mind would constantly refer to it that way, and they used that for the English title. Uso kara Hajimaru Koi no Natsu got shortened to its nickname "UsoNatsu" for the English title as well, and with ones that aren't in English they still get shortened, Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete got shortened to "Waremete", all the Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o titles got shortened to Sonohana but kept their full translated titles in English of "A Kiss for the Petals". The short names are useful to talk about stuff quickly, but it can definitely be confusing if people use different nicknames to talk about the same visual novel, or if nicknames get too close to one another.

https://vndb.org/v?q=&ch=&f=0272_0bSiAa2Nv&s=24w
 
There's been quite a few highly rated games released in the last ten years. Qruppo's games (Nukitashi 1 & 2, Hentai Prison), tone work's had two releases and a fandisc (Ginharu and Tsukikana / Tsukikana SSR), the 9-nine- series, at least the last episode of Clockwork Leyline, Summer Pockets, Cyanotype Daydream, and Jeweha & Jewena all released. Largely just depends on what you're looking for. A lot of the "old school" developers have been driven out due to various reasons though - COVID probably killed the most companies and we're still dealing with the effects of that due to the slowed development cycle.

I won't lie to you it depends on your motivation and how much time you can dedicate to learning the writing in general, as well as how quickly you pick things up. At the very least you should know hiragana and katakana before you start, and ideally be aware of the basics of Japanese written grammar. With some of the software now the kanji readings can be done "for you" (but you may have to select the "right one" based on context between the various readings that could be possible) and you'll just pick them up as you see them more often while reading visual novels.
 
Safe estimate, to read visual novels in Japanese without any problems, meaning at the speed you read your native language: 5-10 years is a safe estimation. This time will largely be impacted by how much time you can dedicate to it. For example: for most people to be considered "fluent" in written Japanese you need to know somewhere between 1000-2000 kanji. To read a newspaper you need to know about 1200, and your average Japanese adult probably knows around 2000 with those who have university educations know somewhere around 3000.
 
If your goal is just to read at a decent speed, so 50-75% your native language speed, you can probably hit that in 1-2 years with some dedication and work. It's definitely a lot easier to learn nowadays than it was 15+ years ago though, so my estimates may be a bit long.

Almost all new laptops will run VN's and movies without an issue - but I'd recommend Windows / Microsoft as you'll run into compatibility issues with VN's and Mac's / Apple's. Usually the only issues with movies is having the right program / codecs, but that's solved by software. Regarding VN's, the best way to be completely sure would be to print off recommended specs of a few and take it to the store with you and ask the employee, or you could ask on reddit or discord with some more details like your budget, what screen size you'd prefer, etc. If it helps I think the general type of laptop you're looking for is known as a "Multimedia laptop". You could even get away with a true budget laptop if you don't plan on using it for more than 2-3 years and don't mind it being a bit slower / less multitasking ability.

I've spent quite a lot on VN's, somewhere in the range of 10k USD in the past two years, almost entirely on the games themselves, some of which I have bought physical versions of, but nearly no merchandise. The good news for you being in Brazil at least is that Steam and JAST at least - I'm unsure about Denpasoft and MangaGamer - have regional pricing, so the pricing will be more appropriate for you. The bad news is that anything you want that is only available in Japan is going to feel a lot more expensive to you, so stuff like fan translations and reading in Japanese is going to be rough.
 
Also, not everyone is going to vibe with everything that is out for visual novels, and that's fine. I'd recommend going on vndb.org, creating an account, and looking up some stuff by tags to see what else you may like. You can even sort down by only those available in English for instance. There's 10 mainline Rance games for instance (10 is still being worked on), so there's quite a lot just in that series. We also have a recommendations forum if you wanted to ask for recommendations once you get a better feel for it, cause right now the recommendations based off just Rance and Katawa Shoujo would be immense.
 
Anyway, thanks for joining the community, and don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions or anything, I hope you enjoy your stay.

Since my last post I finished out the 9-nine series, read Yosuga no Sora and Haruka na Sora, Future Radio, Maid for Loving You, I Wanna Fuck My Mom's Best Friend, Kakenuke Seishun Sparkinig, GINKA, Chrono Clock, Destiny Star Girlfriend 1-3, LAMUNATION! and Marshmallow All the Way Home. Honestly I'd recommend every title here to the right audience. Chrono Clock is probably the weakest title for its intended audience though.
 
Currently reading the Clockwork Leyline trilogy.

Thought about this a bit more and came up with a few more than I think would fit.
 
Roughly in descending order of how I'd recommend them based on how well they fit:
UsoNatsu - I personally loved this, it's all SoL drama in interpersonal relationships, but not necessarily the romantic relationships - but it is yuri and the only H is off-screen.
Love, Elections, and Chocolate / Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate - can't believe I forgot this one in my previous post I think it fits well.
Crescendo
Princess Evangile
Canvas 2
Kimihime / My Fair Princess - be forewarned people either like this or hate it it seems, and its true route comes out of nowhere.

When I refused to call it anything else and managed to get a few discord servers to admit it's a great alias. Honestly surprised it hadn't happened yet. Especially since 
One of the few moege I've read where a lot of the H-scenes have true plot significance. I don't think it was much worse in your complaints than most moege are though to be honest, but I also got surprisingly emotional during its true route and didn't mind the romance - especially in the true route - playing second fiddle to the rockets.
 
Also it does sound like a nightmare to run that PC version, so I'd go with the console version too, if only to not have to resize everything often when running it.

Currently I'm inbetween reads, but about to start Rewrite later today. The decision wheel has decided that I shall read all Key products as soon as they get added to the wheel apparently...
 
But since last update I've read Heart of the Woods, Taranormal, Tenshi Souzou Re-boot, Sex Rockets (Byakko / Farther than the Blue Sky), and Little Busters! I'd recommend all of them. Heart of the Woods is a good yuri mystery-ish EVN, Taranormal is a weird offshoot almost fandisc of that, Tenshi Souzou is more Yuzusoft moege, although I don't think it is as good as most of their other releases it is still good. Sex Rockets was by far my surprise moege of the recent past, managing to tie in a scientific story, some drama, and cute moments without getting too boring or anything - although I will say if you are not interested in space or rockets / aerospace in general you may find it boring. Little Busters was good to very good, but suffered a bit from some uneven routes, but ultimately I think almost everyone should give it a read.
 
See you again in roughly a month with probably another 4-6 read.

You go here: https://www.dlsite.com/pro/work/=/product_id/VJ007882.html/?unique_op=af&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=vndb.org%2F and you buy it, it is the download edition. It's linked right off the VNDB page. For DLSite if you're outside of Japan you have to buy points for your account (1 pt = 1 yen), but I've had no issues buying points using their "purchase points with a credit card" option on the left in your account page. It's also available on Digiket or DMM, but I've never personally tried Digiket and DMM almost universally uses the worst DRM of the bunch, although in this case DLSite uses the same kind.
When you're looking for any VN to purchase, always just the VNDB page, if there's a download edition (or any edition really) listed on there, chances are in the details there will be links to where to purchase it.

Another month down, some more VNs down as well...
 
Comyu, UsoNatsu, My Klutzy Cupid, everlasting flowers, Fatal Twelve, Parquet, and Family Project all completed, now I'm onto Ego's Spark before Tenshi Souzou releases this Friday...
 
Out of all those...I'd actually recommend pretty much all of them to someone. Comyu is a great chunige by the same makers as Hello Lady! and feels very similar but with a dragon. UsoNatsu was actually my favorite read of 2024 (ignoring rereads), a well written yuri slice of life drama / coming of age tale. Fatal Twelve was a pretty good mystery / death game with some light yuri. everlasting flowers was another coming of age / drama tale with extremely light yuri undertones (nothing outright). My Klutzy Cupid is your general moege with nothing outstanding about it but also very little that was bad either. Parquet is Yuzusoft's take on an all-ages story with just romantic undertones rather than an outright romance story, which was refreshing, although I wish the afters didn't effectively end on cliffhangers. Family Project is the one I'd only recommend if you like slapstick / silly comedy because otherwise it's a one-note slog through the dramatic which is how it was for me.
 
See you next month with probably another 5-6 completed.

Since this post, I have finished "Go! Go! Nippon!". Additionally, I am still reading Slay the Princess and trying to focus on Livestream 2. In the end, I would say that "Go! Go! Nippon!" is a decent VN. It was fun going through the different areas of Japan. One of my issues with it is that the romance could have been better. It is hard to believe that Makoto or Akira would fall for this guy in a week. Maybe being a VN protagonist with no eyes makes you more charming. 
Meanwhile, I am making good progress in Slay the Princess as I only have 35 achievements left to find. As for Livestream 2, I am having a hard time getting back to it since I am playing too many games at once. 

Has been a "slow" month for me.
 
Since finishing the Leyline trilogy, I read Shinigami no Kiss, Summer Pockets, Seven Days, Kon's Lessons, reread Noble Works, and read Hatsuyuki Sakura.
 
Out of those I'd really only blindly recommend the Leyline Trilogy to pretty much anyone. Summer Pockets was the best read though, but nakige aren't everyone's thing. Seven Days was surprisingly good for what it is but was very uneven, which was frustrating. Noble Works is standard Yuzu, but not supernatural which is nice. Hatsuyuki Sakura was good, but I feel like it's overrated. It has some pacing issues as well as I felt some overuse of macguffins and in general plot threads / questions that go unanswered. Its music is pretty amazing though, so it still got a 7/10 (good).
 
Now I've moved onto Comyu.

Has been a "slow" month for me.
 
Since finishing the Leyline trilogy, I read Shinigami no Kiss, Summer Pockets, Seven Days, Kon's Lessons, reread Noble Works, and read Hatsuyuki Sakura.
 
Out of those I'd really only blindly recommend the Leyline Trilogy to pretty much anyone. Summer Pockets was the best read though, but nakige aren't everyone's thing. Seven Days was surprisingly good for what it is but was very uneven, which was frustrating. Noble Works is standard Yuzu, but not supernatural which is nice. Hatsuyuki Sakura was good, but I feel like it's overrated. It has some pacing issues as well as I felt some overuse of macguffins and in general plot threads / questions that go unanswered. Its music is pretty amazing though, so it still got a 7/10 (good).
 
Now I've moved onto Comyu.

Taking a few liberties from what you've said only three VN's came up on VNDB https://vndb.org/v?q=&ch=&f=052gen3gja4owin0280N-80X2f75_0brrQ&s=26w and from those the only one that makes sense is https://vndb.org/v739 . Haven't played it but all the tags are there to fit what you are looking for. Hopefully that helps.

Some more than others, but off the top of my head all of these deal with life and death, and I think they all have that tag on VNDB.
 
Hello Lady!
G-Senjou no Maou
Fate / Stay Night
Muv-Luv Alternative
Comyu
Hello, good-bye
 

I know this thread is really old, but in case anyone with similar issues is still reading it:
 
Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai https://vndb.org/v14265 and Gin'iro, Haruka https://vndb.org/v18778 are both pretty darn solid pure love slice of life stories. Some drama occurs in both, but nothing crazy, and they're a pretty good distraction and uplifting read really. Fair warning, they are long, even taking me around 55 hours each.

Since my last post I have completed quite a few...
 
Hanahira, Sonohana 11-15, Sonohana New Gen, Sonohana Angels 1-3, Sonohana Yuricycle, Senren Banka, Biniku no Kaori, Marco & The Galaxy Dragon, and 9-nine- Episode 1 so far. I'd recommend Senren Banka to any moege fan and Marco to nearly anyone. The Sonohana's to any yuri fan, although some aren't worth reading without having read some of the previous ones since for the most part they (New Gen and Angels being exceptions) are continuations of the same story. Biniku no Kaori was an interesting mystery / nukige hybrid thing that if you're into mysteries you'd probably like, but I'd recommend going straight for the true route with a guide, as the bad ends spoil quite a bit.
 
And now I'm reading 9-nine- Episode 2. At the rate I'm going, I'll probably finish this series out within a week.

Hi! 
It's still alive but there are hardly any progress at the moment. Experienced some hard crashes when we were doing the beta testing that we weren't able to resolve. But I am looking into it, probably a problem with the repacker. 
I appreciate people are still waiting for this. Tbh, I lost any remaining motivation doing this, so yeah it may take more time. Sorry to disappoint mates.

A lot of people use Manictime from the VNDB time reportings, but my personal experience with that one is that it undermeasures by quite a bit of time compared to my manual timing (up to about -5-10% for me) with PC timers, and I could never figure out exactly why. Best guess was if you play on Auto it thinks you're not paying attention to the game, but someone else who never uses the auto function has had it be off by as much as 10 hours (30 vs 20) vs Steam's playtime without much idle time in a playthrough.
 
Lots of people report good usage with it though...I wish I had a great recommendation personally, but every one I've tried has been off by enough time to bug me and I obsessively record my times with visual novels.

Title: Shuffle! Essence+
Release date: 2004-01-30
Game/Creator: Navel
Description:
Ten years ago, the gateway to the Realm of the Gods and the Realm of the Demons was opened. Soon afterwards, the gods and the demons began migrating to our world. Now there are places where gods, demons and humans all study together, such as the school, Verbena Academy. Rin, a normal high school guy who is the envy of guys because he lives with and be pampered by the sweet, beautiful Kaede. It’s just a day like any other when two new transfer students show up in class: Sia, Princess of the Gods and Nerine, Princess of the Demons. Now Rin’s luck is about to change, for he has been chosen to take one of their hands in marriage. Whether down the hall, next door or from another realm, girls seem to be everywhere.
Progress:
At the time of writing this I just finished making a new engine to run this new translation running on Unity rather than me try to hack my way into a proprietary engine that seems only a few games used, the time wasted on hack my way through it could be spend in actually getting the project done faster. Mangagamer already translated the original Shuffle release and Yumehaven translated the PS2 release of it called "On The Stage" that added the Kareha and Mayumi's route into the game and which they released on Steam as a SFW version of it, their license ran out this 2021 and the game has been delisted ever since. Using those 2 release as basis for what is already translated what is left would be the new girls/routes included in the Essence release (Tsubomi , Sakura, Matsuri, Nadeshiko, Daisy)
Who's working on this at the moment?
Everything is being done by me at the moment, at the moment I am writing I'm migrating the already translated version into this new version
I don't know what else to write at the moment here so I will just drop my discord link in case you want to help out in like anything or just follow the updates of this project:
https://discord.unclebane.xyz/

Oof...so since my last post I have finished quite a few VN's - I did a "shortge rush" in August and I wrote a blog post here about it...but here's the playing update.
 
I have read...Uchi no Kanojo, Uchi no Imouto, Uchi no Koibito, Neko Para Extra, Vol 0-4, DraPri 1-3, FD, Invisible Cock, Stay. - Fragments of Memories - , Imolicious, My Ex Sister in Law, Invisible Man's Stealth NTR, Yandere Sister Loves me too much!, Breeding village, Yozora Rhapsode, Yandere Goddess, Games&Girls, Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai Houkago Shippo Days, LipTrip, Suteki na Kanojo no Tsukurikata, OshiRabu: Waifus over Husbandos & FD, Megasuki trilogy, Dreamlike Love with Seira, Kemonomichi 1, 2, FD, Amayakase, Do you believe in Santa? and Sonohana 1, 6, 2, 4, 3, 5, 7, 9, 8, 10 and Konomi no Naku Koro Ni. In that order.
 
Since that...I started Hanahira. I've committed myself to finishing all the Sonohana series (only 11 more to go!) before I start anything else major.

Welp. I got to do 5 endings and the download version from Jast's website blocked the rest of them. There's a bug in that version right now - best I can tell - that there's a duplicate choice presented instead of a different choice, so the trigger for allowing a later choice isn't ever hit, so you can't choose one of the pathways at all, which locks Narumi's, Kokoro's, and Minamo's good and true ends as well as Mio's best ending. Other than THAT bit of mess, it was a subpar moege with a pretty thin story. I wouldn't have trashed it too much myself, but it was aiming for somewhere in the 3-4/10 range. Broken though = 1/10 for me.
 
Since that post I've already read Planetarian and Planetarian Snow Globe. I cried. Then I felt a little better with Snow Globe.
 
Now I'm onto Uchi no Kanojo.