sanahtlig

I heavily lean towards VNs with gameplay, and in fact most of the titles I play in Japanese have gameplay. I usually play games with RPG systems, but simple interactivity options can be nice too. I think interactivity is what really sets VNs apart from other forms of story-based media such as manga, anime, and novels. If you're not taking advantage of that as a developer, you're not leveraging the full potential of the medium. Unfortunately, the availability of gameplay VNs in English is pretty limited. Eushully and Softhouse Chara are among the best and most prolific gameplay VN developers, yet only 1 game from Eushully (with good gameplay but subpar story) has been translated, and no games from Softhouse Chara have been translated.

Let's be honest about why Rapelay drew attention: an English title with "rape" in the name (the biggest factor), availability on English Amazon, relatively good 3D animation, and a loli heroine. The simulation aspect played a role, but the other factors trump this. Nothing else about it is all that special among hardcore eroge. Remember, people can't react to what doesn't catch their attention in the first place. Radical feminists don't spend their days playing hardcore eroge to find ones to complain about. They're responding to nothing more than visual cues from materials they come across by chance. If the title had been in Japanese, it probably would've never drawn any attention.

Mangagamer's already released several rape games. Other than this title actually being good, I don't really see the difference (as far as drawing negative attention).

The people that praise this VN frequently mention the urge to vomit. So no, it's not just a psychological thriller. It's meant to induce revulsion.

My opinion is pretty similar. I like dark themes, but I find the themes in this game so repulsive that it would take quite a lot just to get me to give it a try. Mangagamer is seeking both positive and negative input, so let them know what you think.

http://forums.mangagamer.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=64 Mangagamer has set up a poll to see if VN players are interested in a localization of Euphoria, a brutal yet well-regarded horror VN which features extreme fetish elements such as torture, scat, and guro. They're also requesting general feedback as to what players think of this potential license. Sound off and let Mangagamer know what you think! The poll is for all VN fans, not just customers, and includes options for those who don't purchase VNs.

Shirou was quite blatantly sexist. How else do you interpret "I have to protect Saber because she's a girl". That said, it's clearly illustrated that his beliefs are arbitrary and stupid. The game itself isn't particularly sexist.

JAST USA and friends released some pretty bad games pre-2000. Among them being X-change and Love Potion. X-change: http://vndb.org/v43 Love Potion: http://vndb.org/v740 Not surprisingly, the most awful game I've ever played is a Softhouse-Seal title. It's so bad even Mangagamer has avoided it (so far!) Yokujou Tomarunners: http://vndb.org/v11981 For a complete list of awful games I've played, see everything I rated 4 and under here: http://vndb.org/u20137/votes?c=all;o=a;s=vote

Curiously, you didn't even mention the most obvious place of all to talk about VNs: the official forums of VN localization companies (JAST and Mangagamer). The JAST board is pretty dead now due to mismanagement (registration was closed for months and some posting features like spoilers are now broken), but the Mangagamer board is pretty active. After the Mangagamer forum had to be replaced due to data loss recently, about 100 users registered within a week's time. As an official board it's well managed, although obviously discussion of piracy is frowned upon. And this is why I stick around: because these forums host thoughtful discussions where people with opposing viewpoints can disagree respectfully without holding back for fear of offending someone. Homogeneity of perspectives is boring.

I like lolis but dislike the "genki" and airheaded types. My favorites are the ancient and gothic types, especially those with villainous or antihero characteristics. Lolis as depictions of children tend not to hold my interest save for a few notable exceptions (e.g., Matsuri from Family Project, who is absolutely adorable).

I'll be playing this game with high probability--especially since as a FF14 1.0 player I get the game +1 month playtime for free. The paid service is a feature, not a caveat. Paid service means no advertisements, no dumb cash shop that encourages character advancement through real money trading, and fewer socially inept kids running around. When it comes to MMOs, if it's worth playing (for any significant amount of time), it's worth paying for.

VNDB is about as good of a resource for this as there is.

JAST is currently looking into licensing Shiny Days. Summer Days and Cross Days were less well received in Japan, so those might get skipped over.

I think this is worth quoting: http://www.sekaiproject.net/

Sengoku Rance. But brace yourself for comedy rape.

Tor probably won't work: it was blocked in 2008. The Great Firewall of China is the most sophisticated, most sweeping Internet censorship regime in the world. Good luck getting past it. http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2405036

People say that Orion Heart is basically a continuous series of H-scenes. Even nukige tend to at least have a semblance of a plot.

Right but, uh, not only did Aroduc not get permission from the original developer, he started the Kickstarter campaign after they told him to stop his free fan translation, AND he sent them an e-mail notifying them of the campaign. "Special circumstances", as it were. Aroduc is working on a project with JAST now, so it's quite possible he stopped distributing his unlicensed translations to avoid conflict with them. You know, "professionalism".

Basically this. Get a Windows 8 tablet, but wait until the next generation of Intel x86 architecture (Silvermont) comes out that's super optimized for energy efficiency. Then you'll be able to play most VNs that don't have gameplay without strange workarounds. These tablets should be available starting the end of 2013. http://www.anandtech.com/show/6936/intels-silvermont-architecture-revealed-getting-serious-about-mobile/8

The first translation of Edelweiss was awful, but they actually did re-translate that one. Apparently the re-translated version is passable. I haven't played the game.

I'm not aware of any changes to Da capo since its release. Then again, I'd never heard of changes to Shuffle either. The translation of Shuffle seemed fine at the time.

I had a friend whose interest in visual novels I piqued last week. I let her borrow Hourglass of Summer. She picked that over School Days, Song of Saya, and Demonbane.

Kira Kira had a good translation? Even Mangagamer admits the translation was subpar: http://forums.mangagamer.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33&hilit=kira+kira#p767

If you can't get "If my Heart had Wings" to run, then JAST's upcoming Yumina the Ethereal is probably out of the question. For Yumina, you even need a video card with 64MB of VRAM!

Indications that it might be time for a PC upgrade: 1. Despite having a good ISP, web pages take forever to load and/or display with horizontal scroll bars. 2. You can't use instant messaging or e-mail services without major slowdown. 3. You can't even run VNs anymore.