Mr Poltroon

To answer your questions: 1) The 'core' story of Majikoi S assumes you did not get together with any of the heroines from Majikoi. Majikoi S starts with a short common route that introduces new characters and plotpoints. From there, it branches out into a bunch of different routes. 2) Majikoi A routes take place during or after Majikoi S. They are, essentially, extra routes for Majikoi S (though they're better routes, from what I've seen thus far). 3) By extension, no. A-2 does not follow from A-1. The routes in any given fandisk have no connection to each other. Each route assumes nothing in another route took place. It only assumes Majikoi's S common route to have taken place. Sometimes, it continues off of some path in Majikoi S. Said routes will generally contain a brief introduction contextualising us. Here's my earlier explanations on this topic, if you still have questions:

I have no idea what this is but I believe it is entirely too rude to summon random people. You may yet be a bother to poor @Tiagfvarela. He might think you're calling him.

There is.

In order to enjoy the baseball match you'd need a cursory understanding of baseball. I do have such an understanding, though not of the exact terms. Therefore, I was able to follow the game a bit. Halfway through it quickly became clear that I'd lost, however. The RNG gods cursed Kyousuke for that match, and Riki messed up everything he ever tried. Somehow, Komari and Kurugaya were my best players. (Komari -- Queen of bunting it and legging it).

It has a hold over you. Do not think it was your will.

I do watch modern English dubs, but not much. Let's see... If you consider Jormungand, then there's one I prefer in English. The Royal Tutor is a show I watched in both languages, and I enjoyed it in English more. This had to do with the delivery of the lines, mostly. The jokes are more instantaneous and well-time when I can hear them than when I read them (in most cases, they're also adapted if especially foreign). Since you're all talking about Danganronpa, the Danganronpa 3 anime got a really funny dub. Do mind that this video may contain spoilers, if you plan on watching the series. As for the games, I like them as well, but that just me (apparently). I also liked the Psycho-Pass dub. I love anything with Michel J. Tatum or Crispin Freeman in them, and will watch shows they partake in just for them. A lot of dubs, including this one, can and do change the character and personality of the characters when localising the title. In many cases, this lets me enjoy both versions as different experiences, as happened with Steins;Gate. I prefer Steins;Gate in English, I should note. The only reason I don't watch more dubs is because I tend to default to Japanese. It was a complete coincidence I tried Jormungand, for instance. But I'm the sort of scrub who'd like any dub. Actually, I've bee replaying Valkyria Chronicles in Japanese lately, but I had to give up. Alicia was localised in such a way that when I changed to the Japanese version, I found myself much preferring the English one.

On the other hand, I absolutely loved everything about it.

Sanctum 2, freeeee. If anyone's interested.

Uh, yes... One element of Michiru's route is that Yuuji gets dragged into her level. Now they're both morons. Oh, well.

They haven't stopped censoring. How far that censorship goes has changed, however. That's what we're referring to. Their policies have changed to the extent that in IMHHW any mentions of sex or lewd behaviour was written out, kissing scenes were toned down, and a whole route's plot was changed. The same did not occur with LoveKami. Lewd behaviour was prominent all around. Whether the plot was changed I can't really say, but some change in their mentality has definitely come to pass since IMHHW. Whether the above makes any difference at all to you is up to you. It does to me.

Hmm... Oh, yes. Absolutely. They're getting all my monies.

Okay. My only claim was that they weren't marketing the game toward 12 year old French girls necessarily. Please don't take anything else from my posts because the above is all I meant. I didn't mean to make any other judgements.

My argument was that the policy doesn't hold, because they tried, with the LoveKami games, to tap into the lewd market that the Sakura games are primarily associated with. This is most definitely incompatible with the idea of 12 year old French girls. Sure, the censorship is still in place, but that doesn't mean they tried to sell LoveKami to little girls. They very much didn't. They couldn't release H-Scenes because someone up top or they themselves don't want to, so they marketed it towards the people looking for ecchi (since it is, primarily, a game about girls in skimpy outfits taking questionably risqué poses). Not 12 year old French girls. If My Heart Had Wings was primarily a romance/story game. They wanted it to be fine for kids so they removed any material that might not be good for them, including kissing scenes. If My Heart Had Wings is not, like LoveKami, a game primarily about making girls take revealing poses. It was not primarily an ecchi game. This is why LoveKami was not targeted at little girls. Which I happened to find obvious, and why my currently foul mood has helped make my posts have a somewhat harsher tone than I fully intend. So, yes. Their policy has changed at least once. No H-Scenes does not necessarily equal a target audience that includes 12 year old French girls. I reserve all judgements on this new game until I learn of what they do with it. Removing H-Scenes from it could make it marketable to younger audiences, but if they're keeping consistency, they'll also remove or alter any references to sex or explicit kissing -- and that's when I'll claim that they're using the same policy they used for IMHHW. If they don't, then anything short of actually showing a nipple or a genital is fair game, according to the position they took with the LoveKami games*. *I played Divinity Stage. They literally have scenes of Kagura trying to take off all her clothes or exposing her lower half. This would be unthinkable in If My Heart Had Wings (which got all sorts of things altered or censored).

And so goes the full circle back into "no H-Scenes = 12 year old French girls". Fine, whatever. Go show naked women in the bath to 12 year old French girls or whatever. It's got soap covering the nipple so it's fine. All Ages content.

They said that about If My Heart Had Wings. And it was accurate then. Clearly, their mentality has changed since then, or so would the Steam Page images imply.

A game for 12 year old french girls is a game where kisses were written out, such as If My Heart Had Wings. People right now are satirising and exaggerating. All Moenovel's doing right now is keeping H-Scenes from the West, most likely because Pulltop doesn't want H-Scenes in the West. Which is still a legitimate reason to be mad. But it doesn't mean they're trying to market it towards 12 year old french girls. In other news, looking at the pages for the game, it looks quite interesting. I'm probably going to get it, if I don't learn that something was badly screwed up.

Hmm... Putting aside my suggestions, which obviously come as a direct consequence of my interpretation, you can see that we derived different meanings and different tones from the same set of lines. And we both speak English. I don't think that's a good sign. At least not when one of us thought there was a disconnect in the conversation, To bring up that it was a long introduction to a topic at that point does not follow to me. The only way I can connect it to what comes previously is to turn it into some sort of jab. I certainly don't interrupt people to tell them that their intro was long. And how does she mean that? Does she mean that the first two sentences were long? Why? Because she wants her to hurry? In that case, she should comment on her silence, not on the sentences she already said. This is why I assumed the comment was aimed at the silence/hesitation, because it makes no sense to go "Let me interrupt you to tell you that I'm in a hurry and the previous two sentences were very long and you should make them shorter as if that were possible". You don't tell someone AFTER they talk that their sentences were too long and you want them to hurry up. It's too late for that! You interrupt them and tell them you don't need context or that you want the short version. Alternatively, if they're pausing too long you tell them that. I still see no logical reason for anyone to go "Remember those sentences you said 10 seconds ago? Those were too long." See? There are far too many rabbit holes that I can slip into for me to consider that a good, logical exchange. I mean, I can see how you arrived at your conclusion, but my mind simply does not take the same path as yours. My apologies to the thread. My post is most definitely lacking in Newtons and apples.

"That was a pretty long intro, you know." makes very little sense as a reply to "Argh". Because it isn't. It basically ignores it. A better choice of wording would be "All that set/lead up for that?" or some such. Alternatively, turn the "Argh" into "..." (meaning that she's commenting that the other introduced a topic and then clammed up), though I'm not sure of what the voiced lines are like. Anyway, "That was a pretty long intro, you know" is a sucky line because I don't know what tone she's taking or what exactly she means by that. It could be that she want the other to hurry it up, or that she thinks that intro was too long for just an "Argh", or it could be completely disconnected; which is what it seemed like to me. Then again, I am not a native, though I'd argue this is a case where having a better grasp of English actively harms you interpretation of the sequence.

I value my ownership over my things. Mostly my material things. I'd need you to better define what the hell "ownership of yourself" means before I could answer that particular question. What I can do is elaborate on my views on privacy. The only reasons I would want to keep my privacy are because I don't want to get arrested because of the more or less not entirely completely legal depending on how you're looking at it activities I may or may not engage in online; because I don't want someone to come to my home and rob me or kill me; depending on how you interpret 'privacy', it'd be nice if people couldn't enter my accounts and usurp my identity or empty my bank accounts, thanks. However, I find these to be too statistically improbable to even care. I'm more likely to get run over by a car on the street. And by then I don't really care about my privacy. Even if I were being surveilled, the ones with the means to do so are not petty criminals who'd wander in through the door and kill me. For these reasons, whatever on my privacy or whatever. Incidentally, have you ever played Don't take it personally, babe, it's just not your story? 9 false detections out of 1 235 229 samples. "terrible" Well, I really don't know much about antiviruses, so I can't comment more than how exaggerated the claims seem to the layman.

Incidentally, can someone explain what that actually means? Because I have no idea. Afterwards, I'm all with you on laughing at Decay for any silly old reason I find. Hohoho. I'll have to agree with the sentiment. Especially the sarcasm. We can afford to "reject unconditionally" anything that is not of a "high standard" because we already have established companies. However, these, too, had to start somewhere, and fail along the way. If a new company has no room for mistakes, they won't have any room to grow, or even continue existing. And I don't know about you, but I want more titles to be localised. More choice for me. Putting aside your stance on all-ages titles, it is because of Moenovel's... unique translation of If My Heart Had Wings that they were able to localise further titles at all, and actually hire people who knew how to speak English while at it. Even if Sakura Sakura ends up being subpar, if they can't localise anything else, they certainly won't be able to improve either. Looking at it from a fan's point of view, I don't think one should assume the people behind these localisations want them to be bad. They obviously want to learn how to hire/manage/plan things out better, improve at what they do. And if they don't. If you want to assume they only want the $$$, you mustn't forget that mangling releases is a good way to kill a fanbase and reputation. They're obviously not looking for that either.* If it's still commercially successful despite a, from your perspective, lacklustre quality, then you can generally assume it satisfies the majority of the target audience, in which you're not include. If the target audience just so happens to be illiterate... that's unfortunate for you. *Admittedly, Kickstarter would be the go-to platform for this sort of one-shot con. In short, producing a bad first product can kill a company, but producing a good first product is hard. Especially when the company is not full of experienced people, as is the case in an industry as niche and limited as this one. I mean, how many people can say they have experience in localising Visual Novels (whose amounts of text and anachronistic engines can present a real challenge to even the experienced)? But... if that's how it is, however will you garner that necessary experience? Will you forever be labelled as 'not cut out for this' and have your dreams of being part of the localisation industry squashed because the deadlines were badly planned or the monies were mismanaged? Probably, yeah. Though I don't like the idea. But I think the consumer can't be blamed for this. Short-term, and so far as it directly concerns them, it makes more sense to not buy bad products as an "investment" for your "hopes in the future".

The logic is faulty. If a person who tends to dislike moege likes one, then it may very well mean it's not all that good at being a moege.

I use Windows Defender and complement it with Malwarebytes. If things do go to hell beyond what those two can defend me from, I'll consider it karmatic justice for visiting some really shady locations. I don't really care about much more than my computer being able to run and my files being safe from getting deleted at random. Though I do appreciate speed. Privacy be damned. There's too many people out there for me to be in any way notable, and even if I my privacy is being "violated", I've got little to hide.

I actually knew about this one because the title caught my eye when Clephas played it. It would be awesome to see such a title come out in the West.

One should keep in mind that just because a certain contribution to the story could be made without the use of H-Scenes does not mean the H-Scenes are unnecessary, for by that logic, most things are unnecessary. Just because I am the author of "Gadsby" (which I am not) that does not mean the letter 'e' is unneeded. Take into account games like Grisaia no Kajitsu and G-Senjou no Maou (which is actually a bad example because no official 18+ version exists), where the act is meant to display the emotions and scars of the characters. How you evaluate the H-Scene will then depend on the execution. If it devolves into a fairly normal H-Scene with the occasional mention of the character's emotions, then it may be failing to create a scene that meaningfully contributes to the story, instead creating some fan service (which can also be done badly, as Fate/stay night and Key VN's tend to demonstrate). If it devolves into Gahkthun and every line is a metaphor or euphemism used to describe the character's emotions, then it probably is making a greater contribution to the story than the former situation. By my evaluation, Grisaia and G-Senjou are both more interested in providing good H material to the reader than developing its characters, because they certainly wouldn't need scenes that extensive for the latter. But as a wise someone once said somewhere: "Why not both?" H-Scenes can also be used to characterise characters in ways specific to sex. In Majikoi and its sequels a lot of characters have specific traits that they only display during the deed, and, in that sense, contribute to the character. These would not manifest themselves if all we had was an "and then sex happened" line*, or if there was no sex at all. Of course, these don't quite contribute to the overall story/plot in most cases (though it depends). Margit's route in S (which, to be fair, isn't very good by most accounts) is entirely dominated by sex, and could not be done any other way -- more fitting for a nukige, really. *Even if mentioned in conversation afterwards, the "show, don't tell" adage would dictate that explicitly writing the H-Scenes would be the best approach in these cases. In Moege and certain Charage, where characters and their interactions ARE the plot, H-Scenes can obviously have a greater impact and contribute to the "story" in different ways. This is not always the case -- certain Yuzosoft VN's and the already mentioned Chrono Clock have a plot that supports the story by itself, and is not simply characters doing random stuff every day. Of course, if you've played a Yuzosoft VN you would know that in these cases the H-Scenes are very much fan service, and represent both a culmination of a relationship (sometimes -- exaggeration and blatant pandering in most routes creates and obviously unauthentic and fan service-y scenario) and a means to reward the reader after the considerable hours of investment already put in. In fact, representing a relationship between two characters of ages around 18 without H-Scenes could seem out of place. Keeping in mind that everyone is different, most romantic relationships include sex at some point, and people around this age have, allegedly, more interest in the act. It also provides Of course, none of these require explicitly written out H-Scenes, and mere mentions could and should be sufficient. By generalising my personal experience, it's in this latest sense that I appreciate H-Scenes. That is also why I skip the meat of them, as, from my point of view, their presence is necessary but depictions of them not quite. I remember how Brighter than Dawning Blue lacked H-Scenes, and that severely hampered my enjoyment. The characters had very little apparent displays of affection, and too late into the routes. Despite their age, displays of affection consisted, at most, of holding hands or being shy. The route might culminate on a kiss! Obviously, that by itself isn't a problem, some routes in Clannad or Little Busters! are similar. I imagine the problem arouse from the fact that the story had little more to offer than the character's relationships, and that the route I read, in particular, was about a more standoffish character. My interests don't align, so I'm not well-versed on this topic, but the exploration of certain fetishes, such as sado-masochism, could in themselves be the topic the VN explores. Assuming most fetishes create emotions other than simple sexual excitement, these are topics that could be contemplated in VNs, and would necessitate semi-explicit scenes. Cute Demon Crashers! has a scene lightly exploring one, and due to how the VN is executed, all sexual acts in this VN, although explicit, are extremely tactful, and the culmination of the story (which would technically be a nukige, maybe?). Yume Miru Kusuri is, I think, perhaps my best counter-argument to allegations that explicit H-Scenes add little value to Visual Novels that aren't focused on sex. The visual novel is about indulgence, youthful indiscretions, vice, drugs, pregnancy, and bullying. So yes, not your run-of-the-mill affair, but it should be credible that even more explicit H-Scenes could meaningfully contribute to these themes. School Days is another good example, if you can be convinced that it isn't a nukige. I don't believe endings where where the protagonist essentially prostitutes himself, or endings where multiple relationships are tolerated because of his bed skills could be quite as effective without depictions of the act. I'll also take a moment to mention Rance and its particular brand of disagreeable comedy, one that results from having a protagonist so dastardly and outside the norm. A form of black comedy that necessitates at least some explicit scenes to drive the point home and is unafraid of tackling many sexual matters in both comedic and serious manner. All this said... I will concede most H-Scenes exist to provide fan service and check a checkbox. That checkbox that lets them put X-Rated on their game boxes.

Depending on how you look at things, you may perceive them as different things. I, for one, thought Fal's route was really romantic in its own way. Fal herself is simply a very unique kind of person, that isn't predisposed for normal love.