Zalor

I can't speak for the higher quality of untranslated VNs since I can't read Japanese (yet), but I have noticed that translated VNs get way better ratings then I think they deserve. I played VNs that are rated 7/10 and 8/10 and they honestly were not that good. I've adjusted my trust of the ratings for VNs where anything that is lower then 8.5/10 I tend to avoid. I don't like inflating my standards, but I'm more of a quality over quantity guy.

^This. In fact I watched Hanako's bad ending on YouTube because I could not bear to put up with it in my own game. Also when I did Shiratori's bad ending in G-Senjou no Maou, I just couldn't bare it. Her good ending was sweet, but even that didn't compensate for Kyousuke's immense cruelty in the bad ending.

Alright since I'm already curious about Lise I guess I'll do her's first. I'm interested in her since

Okay, so at least I'll be able to find out through another route. That's good since I'm really curious. Can you tell me which route I should do next in order to find out?

I just finished Fal's route in Symphonic Rain, (thanks Flutterz for your walkthrough ). However, there is one question I have regarding the route:

God, you just touched upon my least favorite subjects, (I've had a terrible history with learning languages). One of the reasons I hate talking about foreign languages is because I wish I had the ability to learn them. Anyway here is my regrettable tale with languages: From infancy until the age of 3 in a half I was learning German from my father, Ukrainian from my mother, and English from my environment. While I was raised in America, my mother is Ukrainian, and my father is a German professor. In any case at the age of three I wasn't speaking anything, and would only occasionally mix words from the three languages to attempt communication. And even then, I often completely mispronounced the few words I did use. So my parents ultimately decided when I was around 3 in a half to only speak English around me so I could start communicating with kids in my nursery school. I didn't take serious language courses until High School. I was enrolled in a Chinese class. At first I was eager to learn Chinese, it seemed like it would be a really important language to know. However, any eagerness and interest I had was quickly killed by my teacher. She demanded that within a month of classes that we would enter a 100% immersion program in the class. That's right, after a month of Chinese she would only allow us to speak in Chinese, and she would only communicate in Chinese. Good luck trying to communicate what you're confused about when she expects you to tell her what you're confused about in Chinese! What's more is that even if she granted you permission to ask in English (which was only rarely), she would only respond to your questions and confusion with Chinese. I think I established that the classes were brutal, but there is still more. She assigned essays for daily homework pretty frequently. Oh, and the essays had to be in traditional Chinese characters. She was not only a tough teacher, but she was a merciless one. She could tell that not only me, but around a quarter of the class was barely hanging on, but she still insisted on not reviewing complicated material she already covered. She just moved on at her brutal pace and only payed attention to the few brilliant students who managed to keep up with her. Sorry for my rambling, but it was really this one Chinese class that has completely disenchanted me from ever learning another language ever again. Two years of that Hell is all the language learning I can take for an entire life time. I think I have post traumatic stress disorder from that class... TLDR: The Horror, the horror. EDIT: OP, I truly envy you for having a pleasant experience learning languages while mine have been nothing but miserable.

Yes, if this were to happen law suits could possibly result. My point however, was that we have a legal case, and just because they could sue, doesn't mean they would win. I mean you guys seem frightened to death of a law suit, (with good reason), but in this scenario we would have a valid legal point to make. The reason we even have defendants is because accuses are not always correct. Although I think it's a great idea, I don't think this would actually happen under Fuwa either. However, I find debates, no less legal debates when I can participate in them, to be very fun. Perhaps that's just me... Last point. I think someone mentioned this before. But even if Fuwa doesn't support this, if we can find enough individuals who support this, we could make our own non-profit that is not necessarily affiliated with Fuwa. Of course even then it is unlikely that we would be able to generate enough money, but who knows. I do think this is a neat idea and definitely one that should be seriously considered.

I wouldn't so easily dismiss this as illegal, in fact I think this is an issue that is open to legal debate. If professional translators are hired (through the donations), they would not own their labor. Meaning that the people paying them own their labor, (Fuwa). So long as the owners of the labor are not profiting, it does not seem illegal. Infact, not only would the owners of the labor not be profiting, but we would actually be losing money because we are distributing the translation patch for free. Those of you arguing that the translator's are profiting are thinking in a very socialist way. You are essentially arguing that the workers (translators) own their labor, and are thus profiting off of it. Laborers who are payed are not profiting, as they are selling their labor to us. Theoretically we can have them translate anything, what legally matters is what we (the owners of the translations and their labor) do with the translation. Since we would own their translated work, (as we would be paying them to translate for us), the only people legally responsible for making money are those who own the translation. So long as the translation is distributed for free, no profit is made, and thus nothing illegal is occurring. Investopedia's definition of profit is, "A financial benefit that is realized when the amount of revenue gained from a business activity exceeds the expenses, costs and taxes needed to sustain the activity. Any profit that is gained goes to the business's owners, who may or may not decide to spend it on the business. Calculated as: " Through this definition, if you do the math you can can see that no profit would be made at all. We would have expenses, but no revenue would be generated. In other words if we plug in. (Profit = 0 - x). x being our expenses.

In Period's defense, the overall setting is very European in style. Unless if they strictly mentioned that Period's setting was in Japan, you would never be able to tell it wasn't. Not only do the characters display Aryan features, but the architecture and visual setting heavily resembled a European setting. On Topic: Currently playing Symphonic Rain. I'm not too far in yet, but I love the music and like the unique setting. I love European settings, and the art style is quite nice. The writing is also very fluid. I'm just waiting for the story to start picking up a bit.

So glad I'm not the only one. Eccentric characters are always my favorite, (this applies to people in real life too). Although, I think Rin gets second place for most interesting character to be around.

In side the spoiler you said, "the chuuni phenomenon (as in 'chuunibyou') is simply an outgrowth of human insecurity, which is pretty much universal to most human beings". You also previously said that Star Wars is a kind of chuuni story. Josheph Campbell (who was a fairly influential scholar on mythology), compared Star Wars, and the Hero's journey to having the same structure as most other Epics in global literature. Epic stories, seem to satisfy the same human insecurity you refer to. Epics such as Gilgamesh, The Iliad, The Aeneid, etc, all have extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. And usually the main heroes are the most extraordinary, (Gilgamesh, Achilles, Aeneas). Epics have a similar sort of absurdity and appeal that chuuni stories do. So I'm wondering, what distinctions do see between an Epic, and a chuuni story?

Resurrecting this brilliant topic. Yesterday I commented on Clephas's more recent topic on Chuuni, but I feel that what I have to say is more appropriate in this topic. In any case, what I find most interesting is how much our fiction, (not just VNs and anime, but also films and books) have a lot of chuuni elements in them. What is really important about this is that fiction reflects us, and recognition of Chuunibyou characteristics in our fiction really says a lot about us as a culture. Catcher in the Rye is one of the most commercially successful books in history, selling over 60 million copies. The main protagonist of Catcher in the Rye, Holden, doesn't seem to suffer from chuunibyou in the traditional sense that he elevates himself above everyone else, but what he does do is essentially the same; he downgrades everyone below himself. He constantly alienates other people, and labels them as "phonies". By doing this Holden is separating himself from everyone else, which provides him a unique self identification. Which in essence is the same thing as Chuunibyou, (thinking your special when your not). I think the huge success of Catcher in the Rye, and that so many teens did and continue to identify with Holden, hints at a similar cultural problem that Chuunibyou hints at. What really causes chunnibyou (and I think Clephas said something similar somewhere else) is that there is a huge cultural emphasis that "everyone is special". What really creates the whole developmental phase of Chuunibyou is that by ages 13-16 we start to realize that is bullshit. We realize that only some people are truly special, and then we start to convince ourselves that we are one of those few. I think mid life crises is also a result of the same problem of being raised to believe that everyone is great. Being raised with this dilution can very easily result in many people being disappointed with their lives and achievements when they finally are adults. Here is a very funny, but also quite insightful piece by George Carlin that deals with this issue: People aren't stupid (in a relative sense), and even if kids are raised to believe that "everyone is special", when they inevitably realize that is bullshit they will have all sorts of ways of reacting, and chuunibyou is one of the more popular reactions. What I find really funny though is that I went through all three categories of chunnibyou, which feels really sad to admit. One last thing: I realize that my use of Catcher in the Rye in analyses on these forums is staring to get a bit hackneyed, but its kind of difficult to avoid it considering a lot of VNs focus on the same age demographic.

What in particular do you find special and appealing about Japan? I guess what I'm trying to ask is what got you to decide to move and live there?

I've been hearing a lot about Murakami recently. Apparently he is one of the great contemporary writers. However, I haven't read anything by him yet, although I'm starting to feel that I should. I've especially been hearing a lot about his IQ84. Of the books you've read of his, which would recommend the most? I love this book for how accurately it portrays the wealthy American elite, particularity during an economic boom. Hell I would argue this book almost predicted The Great Depression.

You've got my bet.

Your raise some fair points my friend, but seeing half naked attractive women is a curse as well. I'm not much of a flirt, so as beautiful as some of the women can be in little clothing, I rarely speak to them or ever see them again. In other words I get really aroused with no outlet. Never been to any, maybe I should check them out. ;P. Exactly what I'm talking about!

New York City is f*cking freezing recently. What's funny about where I live at least though, is that it could be freezing outside one week, and the next week it could be moderately cool. I actually like all the layers of clothes. Perhaps I'm a bit of a dandy, but I think winter, (as well as spring and autumn) allow for people to dress really nicely. You know overcoats, sport coats, sweaters, etc. In addition, if you dress properly you can feel really nice and warm provided it's not freezing and if there isn't much wind. Whereas with summer, even with shorts and a short sleeve shirt I feel absolutely wretched in the humidity and heat.

I would totally play that! Hisao could help Kenji built his bomb shelter and talk about absurd feminist conspiracies all day long.

Don't feel bad about what you said, you were correct. But reading through this article really pissed me off, (I can't stand people who deny global warming). I kind of wish it wasn't unearthed as I feel I just wasted my time and emotional well being for no good reason.

Sweets and fluffy animals.

I usually can only play VN's when I'm on break. I have never been able to stick through a VN when I have classes. My work load is kind of volatile, and I might not have much work for a couple of days, and than all of a sudden I need to dedicate all my time and focus on assignments. Not only can't I play VNs when I have lots of work to do, but even when I don't, I know I can't start one because in a couple of days I won't have time to continue it. I also like to read VNs all at once. So if a VN is long I could easily spend my entire week just reading that one and not really doing anything else. So this leaves school breaks to be the only time I can enjoy and read VNs. Thankfully I'm starting a one week break now! Not sure what to play yet, currently thinking about Symphonic Rain.

I like this genre a lot, but I also have slightly mixed feelings towards it as well. On the one hand it's very interesting and a lot of Chunni stories are very fun to experience and do tackle deep themes, but on the other hand I feel in their over the top nature they are also lacking something. For example, Code Geass and Death Note were great fun for me, and I would rate Code Geass an 8, and Death Note a 8.5 - 9. However, stories that feel eerily realistic, and that can address dark themes through metaphor and allegory I value a bit more. Naoki Urasawa's Monster, Kaiji, and Berserk I would rate in the 9.5 - 10. I am using anime examples as I'm not as well read in VNs since I don't know Japanese. Also me rating Code Geass an 8 is not bad, I'm a hard grader when it comes to fiction. An 8 for a lot of other people can easily rank a 5 for me. What I'm trying to say is that Chunni stories are good and I like them, but I think they also have their limits.

I agree with this. Unfortunatly, most VN's go for the choose which story you want to read style. Honestly this often comes across as bad writing to me. It feels like the author didn't work out fully what he wants to say through the story, and than just pawns it off on the reader (that's not to say that this style is always bad, as I've also read some great VNs that use this format as well). The good thing about School Days is that there are very obvious consequences for your actions (which actually makes it feel very fluid and realistic). Where as with stories that go for a more epic feel, their choices can lead to sometimes unpredictable results and are often blown out of proportion. As for my favorite style of route format (story structure). I usually prefer no choices. I'm more of a kinetic visual novel guy. I like VNs for their stories in the same way that I like books for their stories, and books don't have choices.

I can't wait for Dysfunctional Systems Episode 2 to be released. Unfortunately, due to low sales and some other reasons Dischan are behind schedule on development.