Decay

The rest of Harukoi Otome is not any better, take my word for it. In fact, that's one of the better routes. The Riru route... *shudder*

You really don't need to be considerate for people using machine translations. This sounds harsh, but their projects don't actually mean anything and if AstralAir is the game you want to translate most, it's probably best to ignore the machine translations and create something actually proper and good. Nobody else in the scene really takes those projects into consideration when choosing their own. But if you're already set on Koikano, then I guess I shouldn't complain, since that one is more to my tastes. I look forward to whatever partials you put out.

Who's translating AstralAir? Please tell me you aren't referring to the guy using machine translation on Hongfire.

Yeah, it's absolutely readable. That's called the NVL (novel) format and a lot of games used to use it, although it's less popular now. Other notable games that use it are everything from Type-Moon (Fate/Stay Night) and 07th Expansion (Higurashi), as well as Saya no Uta and a bunch of other popular games. Sometimes games just use it for segments, like Grisaia no Kajitsu during the flashbacks and Rewrite during the entire final route. The standard text box format you're familiar with is referred to as the ADV (adventure) format. The benefit is that you're able to give long strings of unbroken narrative, which for the games and game segments I just mentioned is pretty important. It improves the reading experience during those long narrative segments. The downside is that the art is less visible, although you can always get rid of the text to get an unobstructed view of the art. For Kira Kira, I'd say that it probably didn't need to be NVL, and I'm not entirely sure why they went that way, but it's not any less readable because of it. I would also recommend Kira Kira, it's pretty good.

Clannad is pretty much the closest thing to a romance epic in the world of visual novels, though. It has an insanely large script (I think Key's biggest) and a story that spans many years. Anyways, according to Dovac, Sekai Project is still bleeding money, due to the way the projects are ran, they don't seem to be able to just say "okay, anything above x amount of dollars raised on kickstarter goes into our slush fund." They basically don't use those dollars on anything but the games they were raised for, and only when the product is released are they allowed to use the leftover money. And since they've yet to actually release any of their kickstarter games... you get the picture.

The chances of a localization is near zero. There almost certainly won't be one at all. This release is in Alchemist's hands, and they aren't interested in licensing it out.

All of the routes had a horrific translation, Ageha's was just the worst.

Never doubt the power of fetishists. There are quite a few vore scenes in the series and vore fetishists are infamously fanatical. And monster girl fetishists aren't slouches either. It's surprising that this crowd would create well over a thousand votes on VNDB but they probably all came from deviantart to do it and there are a LOT of them there.

There's a complete translation available on PC now, but it's not very good. There's a fan-made edit patch for the first four chapters but I found that it still misses a lot of the problems (that, or I didn't install it correctly). The translation got better in each successive chapter, it seemed. MangaGamer is currently retranslating it, and that's taking ages. No update on progress in two months, and when they were updating weekly, it was like 1% a week... on chapter 2 of 8. Enjoy the finished product in 2020 I guess. edit: While I'm in a bitchy mood, is this also a good time to complain about how stupid I think the title's localization is? I kind of wish it was "When the Higurashi Cry" or maybe "When the Cicadas Cry" instead but I guess 07th's Engrish is the definitive translation.

It's possible but nobody seems interested right now. Basically, there's no good way to automate the process currently unless they port the engine. I believe this is actually what they did with Umineko but apparently Higurashi's fanbase isn't as dedicated. There was a voice patch for the first chapter, I guess they did it manually? Nobody seems to be working on the rest. It might get easier once MangaGamer releases their new version, but it will take a long time for them to release the entire thing due to how long retranslation is taking (I doubt they'll have chapter 8 done before 2016).

... 19 chapters? I didn't realize how many extra chapters were made for the various versions and for the fandiscs. Looking around the higurashi wiki, they all sound kinda lame. Also would probably completely ruin the pacing if they tried to insert them between the original 8. I would not be able to finish the story if Matsuribayashi-hen was actually chapter 19. Realize that there are already PS2, DS, and PSP ports, and they use entirely new art. This PS3 port will also use that new art. The art is kinda average. It's better than the original's but it's still not particularly good.

You actually can indeed blame the devs for that . That usually happens due to poor project management. Do you know if any of the cliffhangers are resolved in 12riven?

Please don't be an ass to the people who are trying to help you. I've read your OP and am trying in earnest to help you find something you'd like. I said it was a quick and dirty filter and I meant it. That filter immediately rules out some of the things you don't want, but VNDB filters can't rule out everything you don't want, specifically "dark and edgy". I'm not saying every single game there will be to your tastes. You will have to go to the pages and see if they apply to what you want or not. I suggested Deardrops from that list because it does fit all of your requirements except the h-scenes, which I've explained about in my post. I can't do all of your legwork for you, will you have to help us out as well if you want assistance on this. edit: For completeness sake, here's a similar list with "no sexual content" tag applied: https://vndb.org/v/all?q=;fil=lang-en.tag_inc-235.tag_exc-596~693.tagspoil-0;o=d;s=rating Again, there will be stuff there that isn't to your tastes, such as probably Umineko and Higurashi, the Zero Escape series, corpse party, I/O, Chaos;Head, and perhaps others. Actually, that list is way more polluted with dark stuff because people just don't make light and fluffy all-ages VNs, really. I can't really think of any good tag filters to get rid of that stuff since they come with a wide variety of content that also can sometimes appear in lighter stuff. Ironically, if you can learn to ignore h-content, then I think the previous list you discarded has more stuff suited to your tastes. If all of this is still inadequate, then I'm sorry and I'm not sure there's much else we can do for you.

Then read and don't fap. Fapping is optional in a lot of eroge. Many VNs with h-scenes have only a small handful of them that only make up less than 5% of the experience. It takes only a few seconds to skip past any h-scene and unless you are in a space where you don't want it displayed on the screen, it's hardly any different from selecting an option that disables them from a menu (like is present in Amaterasu's translations). Anyways, unfortunately for you, there aren't many no-h, drama-light VNs that meet your requirements. Besides what you've mentioned, I can think of Dangan Ronpa. it's dark, but it's a dark comedy, both happy-go-lucky and dark at the same time. You can get official translations of both games for the Vita, or there's a fan translation of the first one on PSP (and it can be emulated). Outside of that... yeah, I've got nothing.

If you're already a native reader of the language it's written in, no, I don't think so. Most VN translations actually exhibit a rather poor level of english and I don't think they do much to improve literacy to people who are already fluent in the language. Real novels are much more challenging and a far better way to improve literacy. Interactivity has nothing to do with it. "Engaging" is a highly subjective term and a lot of people find the superior writing of proper literature to be more engaging than anime romance. And visual literacy... if the facial expressions and social interactions present within anime and VNs were truly educational in any meaningful way, otaku would have entirely different stereotypes attached to them. Basically, I disagree with your notion 100%. Edit: If we're talking about a hypothetical situation where a VN is written on the same level as a proper well-written novel, then sure, but no such thing actually exists right now, and if it did I'm not sure it would be strictly better, since almost always the text will take shortcuts afforded by the use of artwork, whereas novels have to describe each scene in more detail.

Homura and Rinchuu according to VNDB.

Mai is the best character. She is the ultimate troll. If this thread can get just one more person to watch Nichijou, then I will consider my life a success.

Oh my god, you guys need to be patient. He'll give updates when there are updates to give.

I really mean it. On kissanime Nichijou is an adaptation of a 4-panel gag manga, yet a two-cour series with half hour episodes. Somehow, this isn't a total disaster but one of the funniest anime series of all time, perhaps the best comedy of the last five years. It's one of the most absurd, irreverent shows out there, but this isn't your standard lolrandom bullshit. It is excellently written with expert comedic timing. The show consists primarily of high school girls doing funny things but this isn't some girly stuff nor is it cutesy moe crap. This is humor for everyone. All ages and genders are welcome here. Each episode consists of numerous shorts ranging from 30 seconds to several minutes each (3-5 minutes is standard), but there are often themes or running gags in each episode, along with a really loose over-arching story running throughout the series. It is beautifully animated by Kyoani, with a budget that is way higher than a show of its type has any right to having. Watch Nichijou. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5TfUkRr7Qs

lol, well, she's never described as tall. She's listed as 161cm in official sources. There are very few VN heroines who are as tall as the protagonist. Only one that immediately comes to mind is Kurugaya in Little Busters, who is actually taller than Riki. But Riki is unusually short. Well, that's also discounting straight shotacon nukige weirdness.