Narcosis

Why is this even happening

Beats me

By the way, if you're looking for a lolifest of your life, fucking Monobeno Full Set (NSFW, ofc) for 6400jpy, that's a 50% cut.

Lmao. Maybe you should put a daily/monthly limit on your account or something

Do you remember, how lunar virus was said to hold an almost infinite capacity to store memories? No one knows, where it came from and how it happened to appear on the moon's surface, but imagine if that particular specimen is actually holding a vast array of information within itself; thousands of years worth of memories of a dying race, for an example. Now, the one who gets infected with it, will inherit all of those memories - or at least - will be given access to them. The only question is, whether the human brain is actually capable to access and read such information without any sort of strain. That aside, Kagerou doesn't truly explain, what are the orbs, where they came from and what's the reason of their existence. We only know they store some sort of a "primordial soup" - traces of life, that might in fact be so old, it doesn't even have a shape or form anymore. That aside, Aqua After deals exactly with all of this.

Just so you know, DMM went through restructuring a while ago; they opened their shop to the western market; most of the translation on their website is pure engrish at most, but people shouldn't have that much of a problem using their store.

DMM doesn't force DRM, it depends on the developer. A lot of games, including doujinsoft does not have any protection at all. No idea about western users, but european users in general have no issues. All you need is an account and active credit card. When you register a new card DMM only charges a miniscule fee to confirm your bank account's valid. I bought Himawari's Aqua After, it's also discounted.

I took a break

I have a particular fondness for AI heroines; depending on the setting, it can be a gynoid, but might as well be any artificially created being, regardless if organic or not; automatons, humunculi, etc. That aside, monster girls. Man, I could talk about them for ages. Unfortunately, I also have a weakness for cat girls and kitsune. I adore actual anthropomorfic heroines in general, but it's rare to see anything good nowadays, since anime tends to scale more towards kemonomimis and mecha musume.

Preety much. I still consider KS a really decent recommendation to get people into VN's. It works especially well in case of those, who already had some contact with japanese popculture in general, because KS is written in a way, that makes it the more interesting, the more you know about the things it tries to deconstruct. It's not a literary masterpiece, but nontheless, an enjoyable and seemingly polished experience.

lol scrub, get rekd.

You won't change it that way. It's hardcoded. Use the tools and assorted assets to rebuild the game from scratch.

I don't remember the native resolution of art in the doujin version (either 640x480 or 800x600), but reneval works with 960x544 art assets. You'd basically have to rework and repack the whole game from scratch using CatSystem's engine tool; tinkering with variables and settings from the reneval config files alone won't change anything. The simplest way would be to change the native resolution at which the game is running to either 4:3 or 5:4 (better) compatible standards (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 etc) and then rework the GUI (should be fairly easy, if you have at least basic PS knowledge as it's very simplistic) to match the changes within the game. To put it short - you'd be appropriately swapping the reneval character sprites and backgrounds with the ones from doujin and adjust the rest of assets to fit the new resolution. Shouldn't take that much time; I presume you're going to spend a lot of it on learning how to use CatSystem's engine tool.

Himawari uses CatSystem2 as it's engine. I doubt it's possible to actually make such a patch in a feasible way. The original and reneval versions differ too much, it's not a matter of simply replacing and/or swapping assets. The original had art in 5:4 aspect ratio, while the reneval version uses completely redrawn 16:9 graphics; there are major differences within the UI and more over, the script files are almost completely different. To make things short - you shouldn't use the doujin version as a base, it's outdated.

Tinkering with Himawari, I presume?

Well, I finally finished Himawari. I only have one thing to say - if this isn't a kamige, then I don't know what is. A truly captivating tale, like no other. I'll be reading Aqua After preety soon, I just need some time to recover, haha. There's a lot to talk about, too. edit: I updated the Doujin Soundtrack RIP, I've been working on. You can get it HERE. Consider this a final release, albeit I might still do a few more touch-ups in the near future.

Remember how I said he'll be back?

For those, interested in the soundtrack - I compiled a personal build, based on the original doujin version of the game. MP3, VBR 150-215kbps files. The original game never had a fully available original soundtrack, aside from the portable version. The portable one consists of two CD's, albeit only with selected tracks; while the first CD consists of OP/ED and remixes, it's basically the same music used in the remake. That aside, the files within the original also had a variety of issues, mostly godawful sound engineering like clipping and lack of actual loops within loopable songs (lol). I fixed everything and reworked some of the files to constitute for the lack of available looping. Consider this release a WIP, as it's missing a couple of songs from the Komorebi and Kagerou side stories; I'm planning to finalize everything in a couple days at most. It does contain all of the music from the main story, though. There are two covers included (one with logo and a clean version) and should work well with anything, from mp3/mp4 players to smartphones and audio software. Some of the song names might be different than the original, as they are based on the naming directly from the sound files and doujin version, not the remake. You can also loop the tracks indefinitely and it's mostly what this release was meant for - to provide music for your listening pleasure, exactly as it plays ingame. [DOWNLOAD] Enjoy All rights go to their respective owners.

I only read a bit of the trial. It does give off a nice vibe and art is fantastic, but it seems to not have been able to live up to Himawari; a lot of people mentions it's not even near as good as Himawari was; quite a disappointment, in other words. I have a peculiar feeling Frontwing actually forced a lot of control over the script, giving Goo less freedom of expression as the result. It's more than annoying, considering the characters and some faint resemblance to his past work. I was tempted to pick it up regardless, but with TL in the works, I'll just wait for the english release instead.

Don't worry, I actually got all of these and I'm sure many others did as well. Maybe it's because I'm at the learning stage - I tend to stick more to english, than japanese, although I have little issue understanding majority of spoken lines by now; I typically don't worry when translations get more liberal, as long as it syncs with the english image of the narrative, as well as flow of the text. To be honest, I prefer creativity over verbativity; if something sounds more fun in english than japanese, you should stick with that instead trying to forcefully bring in the context from the original. That said, there were a couple of bits I cought from listening that didn't really fit with the text displayed, but that's propably what you meant with Himawari's TL based on the original doujin version, so no biggie. I presume it would still be worth to give the game a skim in the free time and try to polish the text a little bit. Playing the remake for yourself would propably be the best bet, if you haven't done it yet. That makes sense and I don't mind it at all. by the way, if I may ask one more thing - any plans to call FW along with MG, and ask them, whether they'd be interested to remake Aqua After? As I see it, it'd fit well as a paid DLC, especially in terms with Steam version. I'm only worried the poor sales so far might actually prevent that from ever hapenning. Would you and Gare consider translating it, though, if given a chance?

@Conjueror If I may ask, I see you're using the word "censorship" quite a bit. Mind elaborating on that part? I thought you're preety much fine with the way Himawari looks now. From my perspective, it's hard to call something "censored", if it didn't had anything to remove in the first place... unless MG forced you to rewrite and tone down the script more?

Seeing Youichi shout "the hell is this" and "the hell is that" every couple of paragraphs was actually preety hilarious TRACE ON!

I know, right? Himawari is quite unusual in a couple ways, including it's overall scenario and route design, as well as choices. The game has indeed an enforced playthrough order, but this isn't a drawback of any sort. The truth is, it makes the story a lot more solid, because it reads like an actual sci-fi book, rather than a typical vn, where each route has a completely separate ending. In overall, it actually goes like this - first playthrough is locked to common route and revolves mostly around Aries. The second episode is actually a prologue to the whole story, happening two years before the accident and mostly focuses on Aqua, but also reveals the past of Himawari. When it ends (), you're basically back to the present time and off to replay common route, with one exception - heroine routes are now unlocked. The actual order goes like this: Every single bad ending happens for a reason. In other words - they are a part of the story. It's not the sort of "bad choice man, game over". Some of them are short, others get quite lenghty at times. You shouldn't skip them, as they often reveal a lot of informaton about characters. It's hard to discuss Himawari without completely spoiling anything, but I'd say the 2048 Arc along with Aqua's route are propably the most memorable parts of the game. The ending you get on your first playthrough is a tearjerker as well. There's a lot of great drama and fantastic character development going on in overall and the sci-fi parts along with main theme are well executed. Playing the common route for the first time is barely scratching the surface of the whole story. Nothing is really what you see and characters break from classic stereotypes, you will often gawk, either amazed or bewildered. Once you finish the 2048 Arc (Second Chapter), you will literally see everyone in a new light. You will root for them - even the bad guys - as they interact with eachother, have fun, fight and overcome their difficulties. It makes the whole cast truly memorable. Romance in Himawari is incredibly tender and sweet; it does not skip on the "spicy" bits, but presents them from a more mature standpoint. Goo did the right choice, removing the actual h-scenes, as they were simply downgrading the emotional impact carried with each of the gals. It's a near masterpiece for a doujin work. This of course wouldn't be possible without @garejei and @Conjueror, who did an awesome job with the translation. You have everything, you'd ever want - great pacing and flow, lots of good/silly humor with a fun hint of dirtytalking and sexual innuendos, ton of suprisingly well executed drama (mostly psychological), good science fiction (again, great and well executed idea in overall) and excellent romance (like, really - read Aqua's route and you'll see for yourself). It's worth to note, that unlike many other games, Himawari is a story, where every single route compliments further parts of the game. It partially reveals information in small bits scattered here and there, along with the troubled pasts of characters and at the same time, manages to remain tense and mysterious. You don't get separate endings. You follow Youichi, as he struggles against odds and inner issues - his past and those of others - to bring happiness to everyone around him, even though he clearly knows it's near impossible to achieve; this is clearly visible, as you progress through the game and a really good choice in terms of storytelling, because it makes the story feel complete. Again, be sure to use the original doujin soundtrack. There's a huge difference between it and music from the remake, making everything a lot more immersive and atmospheric; this especially includes the entirety of the Second Chapter and a lot of important scenes lose their impact due to inferior music from the remake. Can't wait to discuss who's best girl

Nice wallpaper