sanahtlig

Like balancing the budget, this was something that needed to be done. Nayleen has taken the kind of courageous stance that the US Congress could not.

Good old Debonosu. This is why I haven't actually finished any of their games yet.

The vast majority of the scenes are defeat rape--punishment (or consolation prize, depending on perspective) for being defeated. The rape is part of the setting, and one of the reasons to send in female warriors is that they can be rescued if they fall in battle, whereas males would be killed on the spot. I found the game's dialogue quite boring overall, but the H-scenes were actually interesting. It's pretty easy to say "well I'd rather have only the content I want, and the content I don't want removed". But if you're a fan of anime culture (if not, why are you here?), that's a really slippery slope. Eroge and even anime contain all sorts of content that some people like and others don't. Rape and loli sex are objectionable content in eroge, but if you widen the scope there's other content that people find objectionable even in mainstream anime: moe (tends to promote unsavory sexual stereotypes), fanservice (objectification of women), and lolis (sexualization of children, as well as middle schoolers). Imagine if anime were forcibly "reimagined" to take out all of these elements before it reached your screen. How happy would you be about that? Would you be satisfied with all your anime being filtered by 4Kids before reaching you? Just because there was popular demand for such censorship? Do you champion the famous "reimaginations" that occurred with One Piece, Pokemon, and Sailor Moon? Many in the West find the mere concept of pornography centered on high schoolers repugnant. Are you willing to give up all erotic content that involves characters who appear to be high schoolers?

An interesting review buried in an odd place.

Mahou Sensou seemed to have so much promise. It had a very interesting setting, but the execution was just so poor. I wonder if the light novel is much better and it's just the anime was a poor adaptation.

Shin Sekai Yori is conspicuously absent from this topic. This heresy can't be allowed to persist. Necro powers activated! Shinsekai Yori: Eclipsed's Episode Commentary&Thoughts Compilation My own thoughts: I found Shin Sekai Yori very interesting because it presents a compelling security dilemma: In a world where a single person can kill hundreds of thousands of innocents with a single thought, how does society respond? Psycho Pass's solution (Psycho Pass aired the same season) is a police state, where crimes are prosecuted essentially before they are even conceived by measuring a person's temperament (their potential to commit a crime). Shin Sekai Yori's solution is genetic manipulation and rigorous childhood brainwashing to suppress violent tendencies, with systematic elimination of deviants that these measures fail to control. I find this theme fascinating because it won't be long before we as a species face a similar dilemma. Imagine a world where nuclear devices become concealable in a suitcase and fissionable material is as easy to come by as traditional explosives. A single deranged individual could wipe out an entire city and make it uninhabitable for years more. As a society, how will we deal with that threat? My bets are on the police state solution. Expect agencies like the US National Security Agency (NSA) to grow increasingly powerful as weaponry becomes increasingly advanced, to the point that even letting a single psychopath slip through could result in unacceptable economic damage and loss of human life. And at that point--who will watch the Watchers? This was something I was thinking about after watching this anime--only a few months before Edward Snowden exposed the NSA's massive domestic spy network. If that doesn't show that anime and VNs have literary merit, I'm not sure what can.

Weird. I looked at the CG gallery on Getchu and it seemed like there was a lot of ero, much of it focused on Sasaki and her avatar.

Not so much that I used Google Translate, but that my Japanese composition ability is extremely limited. It's also possible that the idea I wanted to convey doesn't exist in Japanese as a social concept (the idea that cutting content for Western release might be morally reprehensible). But I'll happily use an appeal that would make more sense to them. Thanks!

I'll give you a hint: take a look at the quote from Satsuki's article in context. The scary thing is: there's no smoke and mirrors with the first quote. They actually said that. And probably even meant it. Their main gripe with the game seemed to be length, otherwise they likely would've given it a good score.

I think people are forgetting that the free upgrade is a limited-time offer, and also that new copies of Windows for new PCs won't be free. Microsoft is just trying to increase early adoption. People never went off to buy a new version of Windows for an already existing PC in the first place; any sales loss will be minimal.

That's why I created a forum topic about it: the review got such positive attention from external visitors that I thought I'd highlight it for forum browsers!

I've noticed that my blog posts get surprisingly high rankings in Google search results. I posted an article on Lewdgamer yesterday simultaneously with a brief post on my personal blog linking to it, and guess which ended up higher in the search results (Kagura Douchuuki Lewdgamer)? https://www.google.com/search?btnG=1&pws=0&q=kagura+douchuuki+lewdgamer&gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&pws=0&q=kagura+douchuuki+lewdgamer So if it's a topic of general interest, like a just-released game for which Steam denizens are excitedly searching for reviews, then it's entirely within the realm of possibility that web searches are driving all the traffic.

I agree completely, and this was a shortcoming I've also felt keenly.

Hardcore Gamer: Sakura Fantasy Chapter 1 Review Also check out Satsuki's glowing review: (NSFW) Tales of the perverted swordwoman - Random Review - Sakura Fantasy Chapter 1

Just to add some oil to the fire: Hardcore Gamer: Sakura Fantasy Chapter 1 Review

How long is the game? Can't really make any judgment about the price without knowing the length.

Copy-paste of my latest blog entry: I wrote this in response to a thoughtful commenter on Reddit. I would not support a non-adult only English release of Kagura Douchuuki, with a purchase or otherwise. I would also encourage other eroge fans not to support whitewashing of titles where sexual content was an integral part of the original concept (i.e., this title and MoeNovel's If My Heart Had Wings). Just because a story can be told without sex doesn't mean it should. Just because it's easier to promote a game without sexual content doesn't mean that sexual content should be removed for the sake of convenience. This isn't merely a matter of supply and demand. It's about faithfulness to the original concept of the work. As a developer, it's lazy and disingenuous to cut content just to maximize sales in a given territory, while leaving fans with no option to restore the content and enjoy the original experience. It's callous to turn one's back on fans who have been supporting the market all along so companies like Debonosu could have the opportunity to release games like Kagura Douchuuki on Steam. I wrote this article to notify fans of the path Debonosu has embarked on, and hopefully to persuade Debonosu to change their minds. According to dovac (CEO of Sekai Project) our earnest pleas will fall on deaf ears (in his words, "They don't care"). But at least we'll have tried. Should we support developers that "don't care"? I would say that, no, we shouldn't. And if Debonosu truly "doesn't care", then I would argue they don't deserve the support of you, me, or anyone else. And when a company truly doesn't care, that'll likely manifest in more than just needless content cuts; you'll see it in the slipshod way the localization is handled. Notice how the Greenlight campaign was started without any English description (which Sekai Project rushed to donate because they didn't want the black eye of the campaign for a prominent VN failing). Notice how Debonosu's single English comment was in broken English. Does that indicate to you that Debonosu is invested in making this release a success? Does that give you confidence that the final product will be professional quality? I think if Debonosu doesn't start caring more pretty quick, this release will likely be a trainwreck that will cause gameplay VN fans to cringe for years to come (not unlike what's happened with MoeNovel's release of If My Heart Had Wings).

I wrote this response to a thoughtful commenter on Reddit. I would not support a non-adult only English release of Kagura Douchuuki, with a purchase or otherwise. I would also encourage other eroge fans not to support whitewashing of titles where sexual content was an integral part of the original concept (i.e., this title and MoeNovel's If My Heart Had Wings). Just because a story can be told without sex doesn't mean it should. Just because it's easier to promote a game without sexual content doesn't mean that sexual content should be removed for the sake of convenience. This isn't merely a matter of supply and demand. It's about faithfulness to the original concept of the work. As a developer, it's lazy and disingenuous to cut content just to maximize sales in a given territory, while leaving fans with no option to restore the content and enjoy the original experience. It's callous to turn one's back on fans who have been supporting the market all along so companies like Debonosu could have the opportunity to release games like Kagura Douchuuki on Steam. I wrote my Kaguara Douchuuki article to notify fans of the path Debonosu has embarked on, and hopefully to persuade Debonosu to change their minds. According to dovac (CEO of Sekai Project) our earnest pleas will fall on deaf ears (in his words, "They don't care"). But at least we'll have tried. Should we support developers that "don't care"? I would say that, no, we shouldn't. And if Debonosu truly "doesn't care", then I would argue they don't deserve the support of you, me, or anyone else. And when a company truly doesn't care, that'll likely manifest in more than just needless content cuts; you'll see it in the slipshod way the localization is handled. Notice how the Greenlight campaign was started without any English description (which Sekai Project rushed to donate because they didn't want the black eye of a campaign for a prominent VN failing). Notice how Debonosu's single English comment was in broken English. Does that indicate to you that Debonosu is invested in making this release a success? Does that give you confidence that the final product will be professional quality? I think if Debonosu doesn't start caring more pretty quick, this release will likely be a trainwreck that will cause gameplay VN fans to cringe for years to come (not unlike what's happened with MoeNovel's release of If My Heart Had Wings). [Feature image: Thomas the trainwreck]

I found Shin Sekai Yori very interesting because it presents a compelling security dilemma: In a world where a single person can kill hundreds of thousands of innocents with a single thought, how does society respond? Psycho Pass's solution (Psycho Pass aired the same season) is a police state, where crimes are prosecuted essentially before they are even conceived by measuring a person's temperament (their potential to commit a crime). Shin Sekai Yori's solution is genetic manipulation and rigorous childhood brainwashing to suppress violent tendencies, with systematic elimination of deviants that these measures fail to control. I find this theme fascinating because it won't be long before we as a species face a similar dilemma. Imagine a world where nuclear devices become concealable in a suitcase and fissionable material is as easy to come by as traditional explosives. A single deranged individual could wipe out an entire city and make it uninhabitable for years more. As a society, how will we deal with that threat? My bets are on the police state solution. Expect agencies like the US National Security Agency (NSA) to grow increasingly powerful as weaponry becomes increasingly advanced, to the point that even letting a single psychopath slip through could result in unacceptable economic damage and loss of human life. And at that point--who will watch the Watchers?

"I". Standard ATLAS mistranslation. If you know what to look for, easy to fix. Well, the grammar here is so badly messed up in this case that you kind of have to reconstruct the thought from context--but you do know that the sentence involves a hole and the concept of faintheartedness!

This is basically why I could never get into Bethesda games. I've never finished a single one. I play for a while and get bored. It happened with Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Skyrim. I'm not a big fan of open-world games in general, but I enjoyed the Witcher series and the Baldur's Gate series was my all-time favorite. Dragon Age was somewhat less good, but the games still engage me in a way that Elder Scrolls games never did.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fans of my previous safe-for-work blog post, Rogue-like H-RPG Kagura Douchuuki hits Steam Greenlight + First Impression, will be interested to know that I've just released a new and improved NSFW version on ero-gaming news and reviews site LewdGamer.com. H-RPG Kagura Douchuuki gets Greenlight for Censorship (Op-Ed) [NSFW] The new version includes a completely new section "Steam: An opportunity and a threat to lewd gaming" that demonstrates how Steam is changing the face of professional eroge localization. HCG from the original Japanese title are also displayed (purely to decry the lamentful squandering of art assets, of course). It was a pleasure to work with the staff of LewdGamer to bring my article to a wider audience than I could achieve here on my personal blog, and hopefully we'll have opportunity to work together more in the future. Unique among eroge news and reviews sites, LewdGamer caters explicitly to an adult audience. The staff are very passionate about promoting eroge in the West, and I hope I was able to provide useful feedback on their operations, as well as ideas for future coverage. LewdGamer as a site has exploded in popularity recently despite launching mere months ago, so they're definitely a group to keep an eye on. Do you prefer safe-for-work or NSFW preview and review articles? Let me know!

Fuwanovel can only host affiliate links for stores that have an affiliates program (e.g., J-List and Mangagamer). Mangagamer hosts a few OELVNs on their store, so you could use the Mangagamer affiliate links to buy those and Fuwanovel would get a cut. Steam doesn't appear to have an affiliates program. Sekai Project also doesn't currently have an affiliates program. That means your options for supporting Fuwanovel when buying OELVNs are pretty limited, but there's nothing Fuwanovel can do from its end about that.

This song reminded me that if I can't even make out song lyrics in English, learning to understand spoken Japanese is basically hopeless. RIP my hopes and dreams.