Mr Poltroon

@poltroon Yeah, that's totally my impression I got from just watching ep1 of CLANNAD- that it was able to condense the best parts. Cuz the VN really drags at times. Err, a lot of times, actually.
Really looking forward to banding together the cast. The isolated thing really irked me and was probably what made me gave the VN an 8 lol
@Bredan np, glad you enjoy reading them. They do take some time to create but overall I enjoy making them. It's one of the best ways for me to get closure on a VN before I go into post read depression 😂
 
 
 

@Eclipsed And there you have CLANNAD. I've never actually read the After Story to completion. I don't think I have it in me.
I'd love to hear your impressions on the anime as well, because I think it takes all that is best in CLANNAD: i.e., they do the Kotomi route thing and join all the school characters together rather than keep them constantly isolated from one another.
It neglects CLANNAD's side characters and stories, but as you put it, they're there more for thematic reasons the anime would be unable to replicate regardless.

@Eclipsed Thanks for your posts, a pleasure to read for someone like me that had gone through Clannad so many years ago. Just wanted to say it, cause those detailed posts + screenshots seem to be a lot of work.

+1 for Akio and Sanae being one of the ultimate best VN parents
I think I'll finally give Clannad anime a go - rereading whole VN would take up too much time, but it might be nice way to re-live the story in a different way.

I also tried my hardest... not to cry ;-;

~~
Missed opportunity btw not having Town, Flow of Time, People as the VN's title theme btw. I would've always looked forward to booting up CLANNAD if I had this boppin' theme to listen to:
 
First thing's first: my original statement of being a seasoned veteran and not knowing how CLANNAD garnered 9+/10s ultimately held true for me. I give it an 8. LOL PLEASE DON'T SHOOT ME, DON'T WORRY, 8 ON VNDB = VERY GOOD! AND CLANNAD IS VERY GOOD!!! SoL is just not my thing anymore. Totally for the record though, if I read this say, 5 years ago, I definitely would've given it an instant 9.5+/10 and slap it in my hall of fame in a heartbeat. I'm just old nowadays.
CLANNAD is a story about a high school male protagonist, Tomoya, who was raised by a single failure of a father. He attends one of the most prestigious schools in the town, Hikarizaka, due to his exemplary basketball skills. Unfortunately, due to a scuffle with his father one day, Tomoya ends up injured and loses his ability to lift his right shoulder, forcing him to quit basketball. Losing his way in life, time stagnates for Tomoya as he goes about his days meandering without purpose, becoming labelled a delinquent by his peers in the process. Until one fateful day where he meets a girl underneath the sakura blossom trees...
*Checks VNDB* jeezus christmas my synopsis sucks LOL
But yeah, this VN is essentially 100% pure SoL about a high school delinquent boy going about his days, trying to find his way in life. If you come here expecting late game Little Busters Key Magic Tragics or Rewrite uber narrative shifts I'm sorry to say you'll be disappointed; late game for CLANNAD is simply high school delinquent transitioning to post high school life and dealing with the trials that await. Coming of age slice of life is the name of the game here, and CLANNAD is probably one of the best in the business for this type of narrative. So make sure you're in the mood for this before you spend an extended amount of time on this like me (cough 1 month; my first save file is literally May 18 and today is June 17 ggez) 
That being said, finally time to talk about Absolute Spoilers:


~~
I'm totally gonna watch the anime next, and I'll update this post on my thoughts on whether newcomers who are thinking of getting into CLANNAD should read the VN or just watch the anime.
I did watch the first episode though, and as someone who spent a month reading CLANNAD, I can already tell it's gonna be INSANELY good. All of the character introductions are ON POINT, everything from Tomoya x Nagisa's fated encounter; Ryou's clumsy shuffling fortune cards; Kyou's uber powerful dictionary throwing prowess; Tomoyo's ass kicking badassery; Tomoya x Sunohara's ridiculous bromance; even Sanae's "my bread is only good for... x" QQ.. Everything is EXACTLY as I would've imagined it to be animated. The animated world bustling with people feels alive compared to the limited 200X VN sprites. They even use the VN BGMs, same VN title OP song for the anime OP, and Nagisa's theme from the VN gets lyrics and becomes a flippin' Dango song for the anime ED. The heart and soul of VN CLANNAD is there in the anime.
Oh, and Tomoya sounds hawt voiced. It totally makes sense why all the heroines fell for him now 
 

Just dropping by to say that Kinkoi is absolutely based. Literally every single moege scenario that makes me go "why didn't they just do X / say Y" is actually subverted here.
Also, big applause to Nekonyan, for keeping the bad Sprite layering and other bugs from the original JP version.
Keeping honorifics to preserve the original experience? - I sleep
Keep the wrong face layer for the wrong sprite pose? - Yes please

Hey, gang!
In this month's update, Nozomi's Zombie route rewrite is well underway. It's changed quite a bit from the original version and is a lot more ambitious as I try some new things with it to set it apart from Nozomi's Trance route.
Elsewhere we have another load of new art added to the game, with the added CGs on the Trance and Sleeper Agent routes particularly memorable. There are now 90 unlockable CGs in this game, which for a visual novel that can still be had for free is rather incredible~
All that plus a couple fixes to longstanding issues, is your lot for this month's release, which you can find in PC, Linux, Mac and Android versions on my Patreon or itch.io pages. I've also linked the most recent flowchart guide on the latest public news post on Patreon.
In July I'm intending to continue with the Zombie route rewrite while the new artwork continues to come in. Until then, enjoy the update and I'll be back next month as always ^^
What's New

WRITING: Second rewrite of several scenes for Nozomi Zombie script. Rough dialogue has been laid out through to day 6 CG: New CG assets for the following storylines: Villainous Sleeper Agent, Hiroko Ticklish Hands (x2), Nozomi Zombie, Nozomi Trance (x2) and Sayori Doll CG: A few more assets added to the classroom CG. The character's facial expressions in some of the classroom scenes should match up better with what's happening now CG: A couple more assets added to Sayori's first Doll CG in her room. The assets are used in a scene towards the end of the storyline FIX: Changing languages on a line of dialogue that includes a screen animation (i.e. shaking effects) should no longer produce an error FIX: For Redemption storyline, fixed a display bug which prevented a background from being displayed during an early scene FIX: For Doll storyline, fixed a display bug that occurred during the doll pose scene Spanish localisation: Various edits and corrections to the existing script Word count is now around 279,000 Minor typo corrections

Kotomi Ichinose

I'll be honest. Of all heroines in the history of heroines for me, I think Kotomi gave me the worst first impression ever. 
But she grew on me fast, and her route's GOOD!
Here we have this enigmatic girl who you'll only happen to meet if you decide to skip class and wander into the library. Btw, someone at Key must've had a foot fetish, because the writing absolutely had to point out all the damn time whenever Kotomi would take off her socks and go barefoot whenever she sets up camp in the library l0l.

For some reason this gal reads through books at lightning speed, occasionally taking out some scissors to snip out some pages. Just wtf is she doing...?
 
~~
Tomoyo Sakagami

Aha, it's first impression best girl time. Former delinquent student turned model student Tomoyo meets former model student turned delinquent Tomoya. Confused? It's k, just swap your (A)pples with your (O)ranges and you're good. 
I don't know what Tomoyo or Tomoya mean in Japanese but I'm surprised noone really comments on their names being so close. Well, other than Bro Sunohara who calls the two the Tomo duo.
Tomoyo's a great heroine. You know how Tomoya with all these blind choices kinda gets to choose which heroine he gets to harass until he finally enters her route in which he'll then go out of his way to meddle with said heroine's affairs? With Tomoyo it's the opposite- once you enter her route, SHE'LL go out of her way to meddle with HIS affairs. Which involves Step1: Waking him up so he can go to school on time.
 
Nagisa, Tomoyo, Kyou, Ryou, Kotomine, Fuko, Mei. I'm lowkey running out of gas, but will keep chugging along.

Ah, CLANNAD being a "hunting VN" Tiago mentioned makes sense, along with his recommendation to just watch the anime. There's a lot of fluff to the VN in general, and the gamey route trial and error yo-if-you-got-nothing-else-better-to-do,-especially-back-in-200X,-then-you-might-as-well-just-grind-this-VN doesn't really hold up by today's standards.
Ryou+Kyou's routes actually highlight the hunting-ness of this VN quite well.  I spent the longest time ever trying to get Kyou's end. Ryou's was easy enough, because Kyou literally spoonfeeds you everything and if turns out you gots the hots for Ryou you can climax so quick it feels anticlimactic. 

WAIT, REMOVE THE R, I WANT TO PAIR UP WITH YOU, NOT RYOU!!
 
...But should you listen to your heart and lust for Kyou during the Pairing You Up with Ryou Plan...
 

~~
Yukine Miyazawa. Who the heck is this nice girl, just chilling around the Reference Room like a side character but actually having a dedicated route if you harass her enough?? She totally is a symptom of VNs trying to bump up their route/heroine count back in the day!

Yes. The other day I tried to get together with this girl- Kyou, but it turns out she was trying to get me together with her twin sister, Ryou, and then there was this rodent whose problems completely overshadowed my relationship with Nagisa...
But she's nice enough. Apparently she's so nice, she has amassed a sort of following- a bunch of well-meaning delinquents who would come visit her in the Reference Room every now and then to just vent about their problems while she would just stand there and listen.
Tomoya also gets enthralled by her pleasant charms, and finds himself coming to visit her more and more...
 
~~
Mei Sunohara. Huh? Sunohara?! 

-SHUTS THE DOOR- NOPE. I'M TURNING OFF THE VN NOW. ANYTHING SUNOHARA-RELATED BY DEFAULT MUST BE TOXIC- Huh? You're telling me you have the same VA as Rinne from Island? NICE TO MEET YOU!!

This is the writers' "Hey let us finally make you appreciate the bro side character" route where they bring out the big guns and throw in his kawaii little sister where you're like, there's no way these two are related!

The lengths Mei goes to to bring Youhei back to his glory days was touching. 
 
~~
Idk all the available routes, but uhhh Nagisa, Tomoyo, Kyou, Ryou, Kotomine, Fuko, Mei. Probably gonna try to do Kotomine->Tomoyo->Nagisa. Overall VN's looking really subpar-average, I still can't fathom just wtf can happen come lategame to 9+/10 tier this.

@Eclipsed I did the anime first.
Clannad is, more than most other Key VNs, a "hunting" VN. That is, a VN in which you're supposed to explore and discover the endings yourself, with the bad endings generally giving you a clue as to what you missed. A product of another time when people afforded the game and would have no money for anything else for months so they'd spend all their time playing around with it.

@Eclipsed I did the anime first.
Clannad is, more than most other Key VNs, a "hunting" VN. That is, a VN in which you're supposed to explore and discover the endings yourself, with the bad endings generally giving you a clue as to what you missed. A product of another time when people afforded the game and would have no money for anything else for months so they'd spend all their time playing around with it.

@Eclipsed In a rare turn of events, I'd actually argue the anime adaptation of Clannad is better, with the Visual Novel as an appendix if you want to spend more time in the world.
In either case, don't shy away from just doing the heroines you feel like (and then maybe watching the anime, because it does differ).

@Eclipsed In a rare turn of events, I'd actually argue the anime adaptation of Clannad is better, with the Visual Novel as an appendix if you want to spend more time in the world.
In either case, don't shy away from just doing the heroines you feel like (and then maybe watching the anime, because it does differ).

@Eclipsed In a rare turn of events, I'd actually argue the anime adaptation of Clannad is better, with the Visual Novel as an appendix if you want to spend more time in the world.
In either case, don't shy away from just doing the heroines you feel like (and then maybe watching the anime, because it does differ).

Ok. So, I started reading VNs in 2014. That's like what, 7 years? And my VNDB lists 76 finished, which makes 10-12 per year average. You could say I'm a seasoned veteran now (not really, still a flippin' casual tbh).
My first five VNs were If My Heart Had Wings, Little Busters!, Rewrite, Steins;Gate, Grisaia no Kajitsu. Y'know, all the common classic starter packs, so I rated all of them 9+/10
And what am I reading now? 
CLANNAD.
This monster has so many 9+/10 ratings I have to wonder if it was all because it was one of the starter packs that everyone starts their VN career reading and then they get nuked by the late game Key Magickz and hail it as one of the greatest of all time
I'll have the luxury of going into this with seasoned veteran status, so I am totally going to be critical and see what all the hype was about.
~~

Yes. Sometimes I wish I was back in my naive VN early days where I didn't realize how utterly butchered Moenovels' translation was for IMHHW and I still regarded it as a wonderful VN. Btw that's the obvious poster heroine above: (first) Nagisa Furukawa. 

The male protag Tomoya surprised me. Idk why, but I totally thought he would be another LB! bland nice guy Riki, but he's got some Rewrite's Kotarou delinquent sass to him so at least he'll keep me entertained I hope. The main heroine Nagisa also caught me off guard; when you're into idol rhythm games like Love Live / Bandori, and all the Honokas and Kasumis AKA orange/brown haired girls are the genki type, Nagisa totally throws a curve ball by being the innocent naive mellow type:
LOL FURUKAWA WTH!!!!
And then there's Sunohara:
F*** me, I forgot Key loves them some male bro side characters. I got spoiled by ISLAND having no bros to deal with. I personally feel these guys only serve to deduct heroine screentimes. Their banter is usually always whatevers. 

~~
Scariest thing so far:

7 heroines, jeebus! I felt overwhelmed with ISLAND having just THREE heroines and was glad they focused on ONE. I know, forgive me, I'm old. Idk if I gots the patience to go through 'em all, but I'll try. Right now I really like Tomoyo for being a former-delinquent-turned-model-student-badass (yay, so that leaves Tomoyo After something to look forward to). Nagisa is a bit too mellow. Ryou's aight, Kyou's where it's at though. Fuko just Fukos. And I don't even think I saw Kotomi or Yukine yet; damn these numerous blind choice mechanics.
 

^Best girl

~~
I'm so curious what will happen. So far this totally looks like just standard high school SoL, and then come lategame Key'll pull some uber QQ tragics that will me bawls like no tomorrow and 10/10 this VN. But wtf can they do...?

Darbury presents Darbury’s Old Visual Novels for Old People Named Darbury
Will anybody care about this TL other than me? Probably not. So let’s just agree to call it a micro-niche release, okay?
Anyway, there’s this doujin VN called Hitokata. It’s old. Came out 20 years ago, in fact. A one-person labor of love released at the turn of the century. It’s also well-regarded in the Japanese freeware VN community. Start poking around people’s top 10 lists of free VNs and you’ll be surprised how often it turns up. I mean, not Narcissu often… but enough.
Why? Nostalgia maybe. Back in the day, a 100% free VN that clocked in at 10+ hours was something of a rarity. And one that was sorta good? Doubly so. The game was also surprisingly influential, picking up the time-loop ball from YU-NO and running with it before that trope became a total cliche. Even now, you’ll often see Hitokata referenced in reviews and discussions of doujin VNs with timey-wimey narratives.
Great. So what the hell is it about, Darbury?
Glad you asked. Here’s a little write-up:
Ancient demons, teenage angst, fresh fish… What more could you want, right?
Hitokata never made it to the West for a variety of reasons: a graphically bare-bones first release; an over-reliance on repetition; and an odd mix of cornball humor and existential dread. (Plus, if I’m being honest, the narrative can be slightly clunky at times.) It was popular enough in Japan, however, to merit a commercial remake for mobile — first for feature phones, then Android/iOS. And with that came a whole new generation of fans.

A very stupid localization
Everyone had a COVID hobby to keep them sane over the past year, and working on Hitokata was one of mine. It started as a simple translation of the NScripter original, but when I was done, I was visited by a series of increasingly stupid thoughts:
Stupid Thought #1: Hey, this VN isn’t very pretty. Maybe I can just add the backgrounds from the mobile release. Stupid Thought #2: Heyy, now that I’ve added the backgrounds, it probably won’t be much more work to add the sprites. Stupid Thought #3: Heyyy, now that I’ve added the sprites, it probably won’t be much more work to add the sounds and music. Stupid Thought #4: Heyyyy, now that I’ve added the sounds and music, it probably won’t be much more work to add the UI. Stupid Thought #5: Heyyyyy, now that I’ve added the UI, why don’t I just port this whole thing to Ponscripter. By the time the stupidity stopped, I’d more or less done a ground-up rebuild of the game. Whoops! On the bright side, it means there are now two distinct versions of the TL patch: Hitokata Classic, a straight TL of the original game; and Hitokata Enhanced, with all the added bells and whistles. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of an early screen to show how those two versions stack up.
Screenshots:
CLASSIC | ENHANCED
So, if your name is Darbury and you like old doujin VNs, you can find more info on the patch here. (You're also incredibly handsome. Good on ya.) If you’re anyone else, just go play Musicus! already.

So, I've just finished the new Kyonyuu Fantasy 3 if with all routes. Considering that it was just released about 3 weeks ago and it's a rather long VN, that's very fast for my standards. For obvious reasons that also means that I've enjoyed it quite a bit. I was looking forward to this VN in particular for several reasons. First, KF1 - Gaiden 2 had some impressive world building with its recreation of medieval europe and its major powers. Second, I'm a bit of a history and mythology nerd and KF3's setting of the Roman Empire and the greco-roman pantheon of deities is of particular interest to me. Third, it has some significant improvements in the art department compared to its predecessors, with some rather striking character designs for a change like the ones from Athena or Zoe. Fortunately, those weren't the only improvements. Overall, pretty much every aspect was improved ranging from writing, music, art and characters.
World-Building:
The world building in this VN is particular impressive, because it didn't just cover the mortal world of the Roman Empire, but also its pantheon of gods, including the underworld and the empyrean olympus. There was quite some care about historical accuracy with roman titles and customs and they also covered the beginning of Christianity with the followers of the new church of the Holy Rood making their first appearance. There were also real rules of how the gods could interact with the mortal world. They were not free to do so and usually just had a limited time to do so, otherwise they would be tracked down by Faron (aka Charon) and brought back by force. They could also manifest themselves in ethereal or material state. It was even mentioned that Astrae was the last goddess to descend to the mortal world in the greek golden age, which even I wasn't aware of. As it was common in mythology, the gods also had some specific powers over their divine domain, like a war god being good at fighting, Apollo being capable of prophecies or love gods like Venus or Julinas being good at... well you know. 
Protagonist:
The protagonist was actually one of my biggest worries in this VN since I never really got warm with Lute or Ruin from KF1 or KF2 even if they certainly had their moments. But despite being a somewhat similar boob-obsessed character, I found Julinas surprisingly likable. And there are several reasons for that. First, while Lute was technically just a big pervert, Julinas is an actual love god, so being somewhat more horny than usual is just part of his divine domain. Second, Julinas is rooted in normality, as crazy that may sound for an underworld god. But in his life in the underworld Faron and Medusa are close and important friends and Hades and Persephone have strong parental roles in Julinas life. Neither of those characters are involved in a sexual manner with Julinas and there was also little to nothing naughty going on in the underworld anyway. And since there are long episodes in the underworld you can  see a rather normal and caring side of Julinas. And oh yeah, he has his own personal pet hell hound. 
Furthermore, while Lute or Ruin solved a lot of problems just with dumb luck, ridiculous events or by help of others, Julinas actually does a lot of stuff himself. He might be just a lowly god of the underworld, but he still IS a deity with some powers and most of his actions were somewhat comprehensible for a world of mythical powers. And last but not least, Julinas had a good chemistry with most of the heroines. As a lively trickster god, most of the heroines found him likable or at least funny from the beginning. In the case of the human heroines, it was even understandable that they looked up to him. In KF1 or KF2 the heroines often went from pure digust to worship, which was simply not believable anymore.
Story:
The story had pretty much two main arcs. The first one covers Julinas first interaction with the mortal world after being stuck in the underworld for 500 years. As the lowest god of the underworld he therefore gets his chance to get his own followers and a temple dedicated to him by helping the people of Doronium to get rid of a terrible curse. He also helps out the roman legion fending off the attacks of a minotaur army, further widening his influence in the mortal world.
The second story arc covers the conflict between the gods of the underworld and the empyrean. There's a strong rivalry between them and it's one of Julinas greatest wishes to lift Medusa's curse which was put on her by Athena as punishment. This is probably the strongest arc since most of the gods got some rather strong character development. Their personalities did reflect their mythological counter parts pretty well, with Hermes being as fast trickster god, Athena being a strict but just maiden goddess, Venus rathere easy going, Apollo being quite the looker, Mars being not a nice guy at all (Ares in particular was considered a rather dark god of bloodshed and massacre), Jupiter being the patriachic leader and brother of Hades. It was quite fascinating to see the greek pantheon come to live in a surprisingly authentic manner. That arc also had some rather heavy and touching moments regarding Medusa's curse with Julinas showing some impressive mental strength.

Sound:
It was quite refreshing to not having to endure the same music of 5+ years of rehashed KF music again. To fit the vibes of the antique rome, they fortunately used some new soundtracks. Most of them at least decent and some of them even great like the olympian theme or the theme from Venus. I might even listen to those independently. Oh and did I mention that almost every major character and not just the heroines have their own theme music? It really gave the characters more personality and added more vocal diversity to the game.
I was also surprised that several of the male main characters got better voice actors. Like Jupiter having a voice actor from Silverio Vendetta and his patriarchic voice was pretty impressive. Some recurring ones also seem to have improved their performance like Hades and some particular bad ones were just left out. Minor characters might still sound a bit cheap but the main character case was definitely solid or better.
Graphics:
The good news is that most of the heroines and the major character were rather wel drawn. H-scenes in particular were a massive improvement compared to the older KF titles, even if Gaiden 1 & 2 already had some improvements for the newer heroines. And we're talking about like 150 H-CG's here. It's also impressive how much character sprites they have in this VN. With all the major characters and the support cast put together, we get over 50 sprites. That's just massive and blows most other titles out of the water.
However, the bad news is that some of the minor character sprites look almost worse than in the former titles. I've no idea why Japanese VN developers have a problem with the eyes of minor characters, but they somehow love to hide or leave them out completely. While that's a bit odd I can usually live with that. But the latest fashion seems to be to make them black,... which makes them look like they got infected with the T-virus and are about to turn into zombies and attack you. So that makes them stand out even more than if they'd just have drawn their eyes like normal. Fortunately it's just the minor characters.
Flaws:
Besides the aforementioned T-virus sprites, this is still a KF title. So even if the writing is improved, it's still simple and can occasionally get rather cheesy. And although they managed to embed this type of protagonist extremely well into the world, he's still a horndog on many occasions, which can be certainly annoying. And while the B-movie feeling isn't as strong as in previous titles, it's still there. The H-scenes also have a tendency to come in avalanches which can get a bit overwhelming. Hours of pure story are often followed by multiple H-scenes for several heroines, especially in the first human arc. I don't really understand why they can't just use an optional character event selection like Koihime Musou and other VN's are doing it rather successfully. 
The human heroines were also a bit left out in the rain after their arc and didn't get much more development. Medusa or Persephone which were technically just side heroines had way more screen time than most of the main heroines which felt a bit odd. Paia was also rather annoying, especially at the beginning. Nevertheless, this is still mostly nitpicking.
Conclusion:
Overall this was a quite impressive VN, especially considering that this tackles both story and ero rather sucessfully and also offers lots of content for both. Ironically, it's probably also one of the most sophisticated VN's I've read so far, since the writer did not only put a lot of effort into the research of the historic and mythologic backgrounds of the world and characters, but also managed to combine them into a very entertaining story.
Heroine ranking: Athena = Ajura > Venus > Zoe > Destra & Eskelda > Farnelia > Constancia >> Paia
I left out Medusa and Persephone from the ranking, even if they were some of the best characters. But they were more like family, so it felt weird to mix them into a dating ranking.
Overall rating: 8/10

So I've been doing some reading over the last couple of weeks.
I finished Musicus!. In my opinion it deserves most of the praise it's receiving. It feels to me like the kind of novel you'd read in literature class that everyone found extremely boring except for the literature geeks, so being this highly rated on vndb despite reaching a more mainstream audience thanks to the hype surrounding it is a pleasant surprise to me. I usually dislike it when people defend a boring story by saying it has ~themes~ (cough, Himawari, cough cough), but in the case of Musicus! I'd say it actually is themes-driven rather than plot- or character-driven. Characters often represent certain ideas or outlooks on life and once those are developed to a certain degree the game has no issue dropping those characters completely, and its approach to scene selection is somewhat similar, rushing through scenes that seem central to the plot and instead showing some slice-of-life surrounding them. Occasionaly there is an edgy philosophical monologue, but a lot of the time Musicus! communicates its ideas through small details, like most of the protagonist's classmates only getting sprites once you enter the school route or the bad route completely lacking BGM.
I also read Meeting in the Flesh, a free otome EVN about romancing monsters in a gory fantasy world. What seems like the premise for a (bad) parody game turns out to be one of the most powerful love stories I've encountered in a VN so far. It reminded me of Saya no Uta to a certain degree, but inverts its core theme of how your perception of the world shapes your outlook on things, instead showing how an open and loving mind lets you find even the most deeply hidden beauty. This game is also one of the rare cases where I'd really recommend reading the R-rated version, despite, you know, the vore and tentacles. The CGs aren't that explicit anyway.

Finished some VN's so I guess it's time to write a few words about them.

9-nine-:Episode 4 was the grand finale of the 9-nine- series. This part felt significantly darker than the previous entries. It's impressive how some characters that might appear all nice and friendly on the outside, can reveal a pitch black darkness inside of them. Even the protagonist himself could get pretty scary when driven into a corner. The writer could without any doubt also write a pure horror VN.
That said, the romance part with Noa was probably the weakest of the four and also felt a bit forced, considering Kakeru kept his memories that time. I think it would have been better, to move the final clash into a fifth episode. There also wasn't that much mystery this time, since the fronts where mostly clear and there was a bit too much branch hopping for my taste. Nevertheless, the physical and psychological duel was pretty intense. Overall, it was a pretty cool finale, but I wouldn't rate it quite as high as others.
Overall rating: 7.5/10

I also finished Kami no Rhapsody. This was one is a bit hard to rate. Plot-wise it was certainly the weakest Eushully title I've played so far. Technically the whole story consists of doing trials to prove that you're the most worthy candidate to become the successor of the 'Divine Enforcer'. Naturally, there are also competitors who also want to claim that position and whom you have fight on certain occasions. Overall, not a bad story setup, if it would be just for the prologue until the real story starts. However, the 'prologue' is about... 9 from 10 chapters and then the game is over after some final boss fights. A whole crowd of characters join your party pretty soon, which didn't really make sense. So this felt more like a game with light VN elements comparable to Huniepop, but with much higher production values. It did have a lot of character events though, even if most of them were just slice of life and H-scenes. Characters and mood were also rather fluffy and nice with a clear emphasis on moe.
So, while the story certainly was nothing to write home about, the gameplay was actually pretty decent. I REALLY appreciate that they pretty much got rid of grinding in this game. Each map had just a limited amount of skill medals and ability runes you could get from it. That means that it usually didn't make sense to play a map several times. In addition to that, the maps were usually not too big and could be finished in a reasonable time of ~10 - 20 minutes. There were still a lot of maps, so gameplay still took up a considerable amount of time. but there was a better feeling of 'progress'. The gameplay itself was fairly addictive. Your characters fight on a small hex map against enemy units with 2 - 5 tiles of movement speed depending on the character. Units also have a zone of control and flank and rear attacks do more damage. Mana can be used for spells or to deploy more allied characters. This made spell casters usually a bit weaker in comparison, since mana was often too valuable for spells.
Overall, the title felt a bit like they ran out of development time and had to release it while the writers just got finished with the character events and didn't have much time for the main story yet. Its saving grace is the decent gameplay, high production values and some likable characters. I could recommend it for the gameplay, but not for the story.
Heroine ranking: Mistoria > Forzasleyn > Elgamisera > Lavirie = Nekol = Noelia = Patra > Others
Overall rating: 6.5/10

The last one is Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk - an otome VN. The predecessor Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly had an interesting story premise, nice visuals and music, but unfortunately the writing was pretty poor. However, since I bought them in a bundle, I wanted to at least give the successor a try. A gothic romance in a medieval setting - what could go wrong?
Well, it could be written by that writer again, to name one. Granted, it was 'slightly' improved and there weren't that much filler episodes to finish this time around in order to progress the story. However, the writer still has a 'special talent' to take an interesting story premise and write it in the most boring way possible. Music and visuals also felt like a step down. The protagonist 'girl' was also cross-dressing and looked like a guy which make the whole thing feel a bit like Shonen-Ai. It wasn't particular romantic anyway, but still felt a bit awkward.
I actually wanted to get on the route of Hugh since he was kind of mysterious, but somehow ended up in a route of two others mass murdering half of the town. No clue how I got there and it was probably a bad end, but after hours of dreadful boredom, it felt like the perfect ending to me.
Overall rating: 5/10

Well, from what I'm hearing I guess Island should be on my list.
I guess I skipped over it in my "I bet the romance sucks, not going to play it" phase.

Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai

Summary

Kawakami City is famous for its strong dedication to its samurai ancestors. A strong fighting spirit is always valued and it's even an important factor in succeeding in school there.

Yamato, a second year student from Kawakami Highchool is always with his close friends (4 boys and 3 girls). They have known each other since they were young and have done loads of things together. They have many other friends, but this seven people is a close-knit group, they even have a secret base where they meet...

With the new semester, they welcome two girls into their group and shortly after things start to change...
 
Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order
 
There are 5 main routes, 6 sub-routes and 1 hidden route, as well as a couple of other endings.
Initially you'll be forced to choose one of the 5 main routes. As you finish them more and more sub-routes will open up, and after finishing all of the main routes the hidden route will be unlocked. 
You may play all of these in any order you wish.
 
To get into a route, finish the prologue and you'll get into a choice screen. You get into a route by exhausting all red spheres with any given character. Each time you select a character she will lose a sphere.
Walkthrough
Choices crucial for certain CG's will be detailed below. Choices recommended will be written below, but only choices which will otherwise lead to a bad end will be in bold. Timed choices are included in the choice number. After Stories and Sub-Routes have no story relevant choices.  
 
Prologue

Momoyo Route

Chris Route

Wanko Route

Miyako Route

Mayucchi Route
 
Sub-Routes
Hidden Routes
Attribution

This walkthrough is based on info attained here, all info tested by yours truly.
Summary stolen from VNDB.
 
Changelog:
(23/08/18)
- Fixed broken main image.
- Fixed broken spoilers as a result of forum updates.

Well, from what I'm hearing I guess Island should be on my list.
I guess I skipped over it in my "I bet the romance sucks, not going to play it" phase.

Well, from what I'm hearing I guess Island should be on my list.
I guess I skipped over it in my "I bet the romance sucks, not going to play it" phase.