Narcosis

Bullshit. Choices in The Walking Dead do not change anything, the whole storyline is created in a way that only tricks players into thinking they have any sort of "influence" over it's course; in reality everything is streamlined to a handlful of different choices and none of them actually change the outcome of the story in the end - those who are "supposed to die" kick the bucket, those that can't be saved won't be saved, no matter the choices you take. It's just a static story elevated to the level of an interactive fiction without much of it's interactivity. You'll have a hard time searching for such a visual novel. Most of vn's work in a similiar manner - they only trick you into thinking you have a lot of impact on the course of the story, while in reality most of the choices (even if many) do not change it in any way, acting as fluff or side routes that bring different flavours to the exact same outcome. We're talking mostly about static routes. The only one I could think of would be Akai Ito, but that one hasn't really been translated. Aoishiro isn't as good - it has many different endings, but most of them are very similiar, with only minor changes.

Someone's being smartlazy

It was removed. Switch to Discord for the awesome.

It's about time to move on to Discord. Not that it's any more live than the old chat, but at least people write there. From time to time.

Hatsumira is propably the only single Frontwing game that somehow manages to avoid the bullshit apparent in all their previous titles. It may not be the best amongst the best, but a really decent game with great worldbuilding, cool characters and a lot of effort put into it, which happens rarely in vn's nowadays. I was fond to see the annoucement, but I'm not expecting it to happen anytime soon.

Selekhs remain a mysterious race of aquatic beings, dwelling in most of the southern and south-eastern oceans. Not much is known about them, albeit their appearances were noted throughout the pages of history. Since the times of dawn, Selekh were often called spirits of water and each race gave them different names - Sylphaeans, Nixe, Selks… while humans called them Melusines. The so called stories of mermaids, bewitching the fearless sailors of the southern seas were their tales of unrequited love, sang by the bards and glorified by decadent poets of the new age. Selekhs seem to age differently, retaining their youthful looks for almost entire lives, which they spend mostly underwater. They appear on the surface world rarely. When they do, one can only be mesmerised by their unearthly beauty - slender limbs, smooth and delicate skin, softly shaped faces with those iridescent red eyes, that seem to swallow your soul. Their heads are adorned with various growths, that seem to resemble underwater plants, while bodies have different pigmentation - from shades of grey, through blues, yellows and greens - often covered in different patterns. It is said every single one of them is as unique as lines on the palm of every human. They seem to be attracted to the civilization above. Sometimes, they appear within port cities around the world, bearing no ill intentions. Since they're somehow able to communicate in the surface languages, they often remained between humans for a while longer. Some of them did it for far longer, forming peculiar relationships with surface dwellers. Yet, as human-like they might look, one also can not unsee their inhuman side - swimming membranes between their toes, sharp claws, finned backs, tails and lack of hair; Chests adorned with gills, which help them breathe underwater. Their mouths hide two rows of sharp teeth and there's no denying they are, without a doubt, predatory creatures. They are best described as exotic flowers of the seas; Their graceful swimming - colours glittering through the warm waters, their ravishing look as they leap through the waves and extend their arms - as if to welcome, beckoning you. As you step to throw yourself off into the cold embrace of the sea, you realize it is only as poisonous, as the beauty of flowers growing within the tropical forests of the west, revealing their ugly, carnivorous nature. Selekhs have longed to be with humans for a very long time, but those two races share two entirely different worlds, not meant to ever become one. Whether it's mere curiosity, escapism or something more, remains completely unknown. Their numbers are short between few and as trustful they remain towards humanity, they tend to avoid talking about themselves or their origins, retaining a safe distance, merely observing. Curious, but not lacking common sense. Their homelands seem to be as far away as the most distant outposts of the known world, hidden between the mists, down below the crushing waves, somewhere within the impenetrable darkness. Legends speak of a once glorious kingdom - a gem shining within the seas, now sunken and devoid of it's past glory; traces of olden times and secrets of the past, buried to never resurface again. An ancient civilization, so advanced it finally lead itself to it's own downfall. Are the Selekhs remnants of a bygone age, sole survivors, or perhaps the last children of that shimmering ghost of the past? It might not be of importance to them any more. We see those nimble beings, now living their lives in perfect harmony with the sea, unconcerned with the fancies of human civilization, clothing nor glitter and sparkle of temporal goods. The sea embraces them - like a mother's womb and within that womb, they nourish, rest and love. It is only deep within their eyes, you'll sometimes see that strange grief of what seems to be aeons of sadness in solicitude. Then you'll understand the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The point is, you can't really have "emotioneless heroines", because such beings simply don't exist. In real life, certain character traits are typically either masked by or reinforced by different factors - typically personalities people are born with and life experience. People who are silent and taciturn are generally introverted loners, who aren't negatively affected by lack of constant contact with other humans; they live in their own worlds and rarely care for others more than required... unless it's someone they really do care about much. Likewise, it does not necesarilly mean they avoid human contact; most often, they're just indifferent and don't require it as much as extroverts, who basically depend on others. You propably won't find a heroine like that, because most writers create heroines, who simply hide their emotions out of various reasons. A person you described simply wouldn't be human and that's propably the closest hint you can get.

50$ won't buy you a waifu, at least not the good ones

This whole blog post is overrated In fact, mindless praise hurts a lot more than mindless bashing. Latter can be ignored, former is a road fraught with lies, that leads to nowhere.

My life is complete now

That's not an exception, that's a rule that applies to whole market

I really appreciate the snarkiness, but Clannad had mostly nothing to do with modern moege. It did refined the classic nakige formula to unbelievable heights, tho. We should blame everything that came afterwards, including dozens of other companies trying to mimic their success, typically with mixed results. I'd also say that vn's are rarely without flavor; it's the fans, who became tasteless and willing to swallow anything modern industry shoves down their throats, while growing competition considerably reduced the quality of produced games.

120 loveca isn't a lot for 2 guaranteed SR's and a guaranteed SSR on third scouting. I was also considering whether It was worth it, but since I already had that SSR Maki, there wasn't much to ponder about anymore.

Anyone else doing the Maki Step-Up scouting? Unless you really don't care about her, it's actually a really good opportunity to nab good cards at a very low cost; full scouting for 120 loveca will give you at least 2 SR's and a guaranteed initial Maki SSR. No UR's, as usual ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ At least I got the initial SSR idolized along with one of the older SR's. I might actually use another spare SSR to raise her skill level, since it's a pretty good card.

Sounds like a place I'd like to work at. Almost.

I nearly forgot to mention - @Decay, you're slowly starting to sound like Nier. Great minds think alike?

We're slowly nearing towards the very best release of 2017, guys. Maybe in the next five years, who knows!

It's overrated and aged rather poorly. People are better off watching the anime adaptations, which are also far more enjoyable. Doesn't change the fact it remains one of the best down to earth slice of life drama ever created. Seriously though - save your time and watch the anime instead.

I have a heart too, you know.

That depends. No story would really suffer from short outbursts of good humor, which quite suprisingly - works especially well during moments, you'd least expect it. As in reality, it tends to lessen the "seriousness" of certain situations, by giving them a more lighter wibe, often portraying them in an entirely different light. The Martian is a very good example. The man ends stranded lone on an ice-cold planet far away from Earth, with little to no means to survive for the next few years and what he does? Jokes about it, often in a witty, deadpan kind of fashion. I'd say, despite it's hard sci-fi undertones, what truly makes the book is it's brilliant writing and endless humor that comes with various events Mark has to cope with. The most common issue though, is it requires a certain mastery to pull off and most writers tend to fail, by either stretching the humor way too far as it allows, or simply introducing situations, that are - by all means - not funny at all. Sadly, it happens incredibly often in vn's, where most of it is based on hilariously cliched scenarios.

It's an all-ages otome game from D3, which is a parent brand of Namco Bandai, focused mostly on developing otome games. Their titles tend to vary in quality. Hard to say much about Nightshade, but quite suprisingly this one's almost brand new.

Don't be afraid, nor ashamed to advertise your own works.

I like mine appropriately serious with an ounce of stupidity and slight traces of recklessness. As a writer, the most important thing is to know WHEN and HOW.

This topic made me cringe.