What are you playing?

[Seraphim]

@Dreamysyu Thanks for the headsup! I'm following a walkthrough with a suggested playing order and save slots though, so I will probably not have to worry about that.

@Ruberick Sounds like a worthwhile experience then! I'll probably give it a go once I'm done with Hapymaher!

Edited January 1, 2020 by Seraphim88

[Seraphim]

A question for someone (@Dreamysyu perhaps?) who has finished Hapymaher:

I'm done with Saki's, Yayoi's and Keiko's routes and got started on Alice's a couple of hours ago, but I noticed in the guide I'm following that she has two endings; one of which is labeled "True Ending".
Is this the actual true ending of the VN or is it just referring to the true ending of Alice's route? Maia's route is listed after Alice's in the walkthrough, which makes me a bit uncertain, since true routes tend to come last.

[ArgentstR]

55 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

I'm done with Saki's, Yayoi's and Keiko's routes and got started on Alice's a couple of hours ago, but I noticed in the guide I'm following that she has two endings; one of which is labeled "True Ending".
Is this the actual true ending of the VN or is it just referring to the true ending of Alice's route? Maia's route is listed after Alice's in the walkthrough, which makes me a bit uncertain, since true routes tend to come last.

Save Alice's true ending for last I'd say. Maia's isn't a full route so maybe that's why the guide put her last. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Dreamysyu]

13 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

A question for someone (@Dreamysyu perhaps?) who has finished Hapymaher:

I'm done with Saki's, Yayoi's and Keiko's routes and got started on Alice's a couple of hours ago, but I noticed in the guide I'm following that she has two endings; one of which is labeled "True Ending".
Is this the actual true ending of the VN or is it just referring to the true ending of Alice's route? Maia's route is listed after Alice's in the walkthrough, which makes me a bit uncertain, since true routes tend to come last.

Sorry for the late reply. I wasn't online.

Well, it's been a while, but do you, perhaps, need to play the true route first to understand what happens in Maia's ending? Still, like @ArgentstR said, I'd recommend to play Alice's true ending last simply because it's a lot better place to finish the whole VN.

Here's my old post about route order in this VN from the walkthrough thread that never got accepted.

On 8/2/2018 at 10:37 PM, Dreamysyu said:

So, yeah. Finished this today, and I confirm two things I said before:

1. The choice leading to the true ending unlocks after finishing one arbitrary route, but don't choose "For some reason, I saw a blue sky" before you are actually ready to read the true route, or you will be spoiled almost instantly! I believe, it should be added to the walkthrough, it's pretty important.
2. Also, if you don't read Alice's normal ending, the true ending won't make any sense. Don't worry, you won't have to replay the whole route to reach it, the normal ending appears almost instantly after you finish the common route, and only the true end has an actual character route leading to it.

Overall, I suggest the following route order: Saki->Yayoi->Keiko->Maia->Alice normal-> Alice true. The bad and the normal endings are not very important and can be skipped, though both of them contain unique CGs. On the other hand, the bad ending is very short and easy to get to. The normal end, if someone is interested, is basically this (chapter 7 spoilers):

  Reveal hidden contents

the protagonist doesn't have sex with anybody at the end of the common route, and remains a girl.

 

[Seraphim]

I just finished the true route, because I wasn't able to put it off once I went through Alice's normal route. I did the first three routes in the same order mentioned above (Saki->Yayoi->Keiko), but now I'm kinda questioning if that was really the best way to do it.

Spoiler

In Saki's route, there's a flashback scene where you see Tohru briefly interact with a girl in a hospital room. I don't think there was any name mentioned at this point, but the fact that she looked like Alice and had the same text color as her in the dialogue was more or less a dead giveaway. I suspected from early on in the story that the reason Alice couldn't remember being awake was because she actually never was (due to either being in a coma, very ill or maybe even stuck in some sort of limbo on her deathbed), and that she might be the one controlling the dream, either consciously or unconsciously. That one scene pretty much confirmed all my suspicions, in a route where there really was no reason for me to learn it. I honestly don't see the purpose of putting that scene in that route, but since it's there, I'm thinking it might have been better to read it just before Alice's route rather than first of all.

 

Edited January 4, 2020 by Seraphim88

[Dreamysyu]

1 hour ago, Seraphim88 said:

I just finished the true route, because I wasn't able to put it off once I went through Alice's normal route. I did the first three routes in the same order mentioned above (Saki->Yayoi->Keiko), but now I'm kinda questioning if that was really the best way to do it.

  Hide contents

In Saki's route, there's a flashback scene where you see Tohru briefly interact with a girl in a hospital room. I don't think there was any name mentioned at this point, but the fact that she looked like Alice and had the same text color as her in the dialogue was more or less a dead giveaway. I suspected from early on in the story that the reason Alice couldn't remember being awake was because she actually never was (due to either being in a coma, very ill or maybe even stuck in some sort of limbo on her deathbed), and that she might be the one controlling the dream, either consciously or unconsciously. That one scene pretty much confirmed all my suspicions, in a route where there really was no reason for me to learn it. I honestly don't see the purpose of putting that scene in that route, but since it's there, I'm thinking it might have been better to read it just before Alice's route rather than first of all.

 

Well, I don't really remember anymore why exactly I recommended this route order, but, overall, I think, Saki's route may just set the overall tone of the VN better, and, I also find her route the best in the whole VN, even if I didn't really like her character that much. I personally started with Yayoi, and I personally found her route very underwhelming compared to the other two routes.

Also,

Spoiler

did this particular spoiler affect your enjoyment of the VN that much? I mean, I realized that the whole VN takes place in one giant dream after I accidentally chose the option leading to the true route, and that definitely lowered the impact of the other endings. On the other hand, even if you know some of Alice's backstory right away, what does it change, really? Even if you play this route right before you get to Alice's, you will still know that when you actually start her route, so this doesn't really change anything in the end. Also, it's a pretty common cliche in these kinds of stories, so it's probably possible to make a good guess even without that scene. You may even consider it as some sort of foreshadowing, and I personally believe that main plot points should be foreshadowed early on, since they may feel completely random and out of place later. Though, I guess, they probably should've made this particular foreshadowing a bit less obvious.

By the way, it didn't really matter to me, since I've already seen screenshots of Arisu even before I started, so I already had some idea of who she was.

Also, I'd say, in the end the only thing that really matters that much is that you play Maia's and Alice's routes in the end.

[Seraphim]

26 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

I personally started with Yayoi, and I personally found her route very underwhelming compared to the other two routes.

Yeah, Yayoi's route was my least favorite one, mostly due to

Spoiler

the fact that she was a selfish jerk in the later parts. Not only did she try to trap people in her dream; when Tohru finally pulled her out of it, she started ignoring him and was going to catch that plane to the UK without even saying goodbye. That didn't sit well with me, to say the least.

 

27 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

Spoiler

did this particular spoiler affect your enjoyment of the VN that much?

 

Well, it was nagging at the back of my mind and I would have preferred to have it revealed later on because of that, but it's not like it ruined my impression of the VN or anything. I tend to overanalyze a lot whenever I'm reading mystery stories, which quite often leads to me figuring out plot twists far in advance, although I've also been completely off the mark in some cases. One example of the latter is that I briefly suspected that

Spoiler

Maia might actually have been the one to make it out of the forest, while Tohru was the one who died. The dream where Tohru suddenly turned into a girl was one of the things that seemed to me like potential foreshadowing.

In any case, I liked Hapymaher more than expected, and now I really wish I could move on to read Fragmentation Dream, since it apparently continues where the true ending of the original left off. I've been studying Japanese for a while, but I'm nowhere near good enough to actually read anything, unfortunately. Maybe I should consider making it my first text hooking experience?

[Dreamysyu]

10 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

One example of the latter is that I briefly suspected that

  Hide contents

Maia might actually have been the one to make it out of the forest, while Tohru was the one who died. The dream where Tohru suddenly turned into a girl was one of the things that seemed to me like potential foreshadowing.

Spoiler

Oh, wow, I actually had exactly the same hypothesis. Actually, I felt like some evidence was very clear, so I was actually pretty surprised that it wasn't the case in the end. Well, who knows, maybe that was actually intended, and the true ending is a lie.

 

22 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

In any case, I liked Hapymaher more than expected,

Well, unfortunately, it was the opposite for me. I was very hyped about this VN before it was released and bought it on the same day as it was released, but, overall, I felt a bit underwhelmed about the experience. I still liked it in the end, and, I think, the first half of the common route was really cool with how it introduced the girls and their internal worlds through their dreams. After that the plot started feeling kind of random, and there a lot of little things that really annoyed me and made my experience worse, and while it got a bit better in some of the character routes, it never really got back to the quality of the first few chapters.

Actually, for some reason this VN has some very polarizing opinions about it.

21 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

since it apparently continues where the true ending of the original left off.

Spoiler

Actually, I think somebody (perhaps, @Kiriririri?) mentioned that it does not directly continue from the true ending. Apparently, it basically makes the ending non-canon and continues from the point a bit earlier in the story.

 

[Seraphim]

Just now, Dreamysyu said:

Spoiler

Apparently, it basically makes the ending non-canon and continues from the point a bit earlier in the story.

 

Oh, really? I just figured it was a continuation, since the VNDb description mentions the story takes place after

Spoiler

Yuuko's recovered to the point where she can attend school again; something we never got to see in the original.

If Fragmentation Dream isn't actually canon, I'm much less interested in it.

[Stormwolf]

6 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

  Hide contents

Oh, wow, I actually had exactly the same hypothesis. Actually, I felt like some evidence was very clear, so I was actually pretty surprised that it wasn't the case in the end. Well, who knows, maybe that was actually intended, and the true ending is a lie.

 

Well, unfortunately, it was the opposite for me. I was very hyped about this VN before it was released and bought it on the same day as it was released, but, overall, I felt a bit underwhelmed about the experience. I still liked it in the end, and, I think, the first half of the common route was really cool with how it introduced the girls and their internal worlds through their dreams. After that the plot started feeling kind of random, and there a lot of little things that really annoyed me and made my experience worse, and while it got a bit better in some of the character routes, it never really got back to the quality of the first few chapters.

Actually, for some reason this VN has some very polarizing opinions about it.

  Hide contents

Actually, I think somebody (perhaps, @Kiriririri?) mentioned that it does not directly continue from the true ending. Apparently, it basically makes the ending non-canon and continues from the point a bit earlier in the story.

 

You find that flaw in sadly all too much japanese entertainment. Just think about it when you start something new. They're kings of setting up an interesting premise with a good plot and characters, but... it fizzles out as it goes as it seems many are not able to keep that initial good premise going and it starts becoming increasingly tropy and generic (assuming authors struggle with ideas or publisher sabotage). 

[ChaosRaven]

I've recently finished Kyonyuu Fantasy and its Gaiden fan disc (aka Funbag and Sideboob). Those were some real oddballs. Originally I tried the first one in Japanese years ago, but didn't like it and dropped it. When it got translated I gave it a new chance and read a bit occasionally. Still wasn't really convinced by the routes and was close to drop it again. Then I progressed a bit further and noticed that the real meat of the story is actually hidden in the harem route. That was rather unexpected since in most eroges (and not only nukiges) the harem routes are crap. I then continued right afterwards with Gaiden and finished that almost in one go. Having played both now I think I have a better picture of the series to accurately comment about it.

The Kyonyuu Fantasy series is pretty much a fantasy parody around a very 'potent' looser protagonist who goes from zero to hero. While this isn't an unusual setting, there's an unusual heavy focus on story and character development. The fantasy world is surprisingly rich even for non-nukige standards and represents a medieval Europe setting with fantasy elements. There are several factions, with each having their own representative key characters and soldiers, and all of them drawn and voiced. This also includes an unusual high amount of male characters, with several of them even playing key roles in the story. And not just as villains, the world is surprisingly grey here. Many characters have their own beliefs, strengths and weaknesses and some might even start out as enemies and then turn into friends later on.
There are frequently multiple interwoven intrigues going on. The similarities to medieval Europe are also striking, there's 'Fronce' which is clearly France, Spain is also mentioned as Iberia (?!) I think and even the Vatican plays an important role. Edellant itself seems to be a splinter state of the Holy Roman Empire, although the HRE probably doesn't exist as such in the game.

That said, while the series definitely has some commendable merits, it also has its fair share of weaknesses. First and foremost, the titles have a strong B-movie feeling that can be a real turn-off. All the characters are voiced, but certainly not by the best voice actors the scene has to offer. All characters have sprites, but they've usually just one pose and some look akward or even painfullly bad. The music isn't bad but some tracks are heavily overused and get very repetitive and annoying after a while.
The whole parody theme is also a bit of a double-edged sword. While it might make it easier to overlook some weaknesses, some characters and plot resolutions are also too silly and cheap and do more harm than good to the overall experience. Some characters also change too drastically during the story. The heroines in particular can go from literal hate and scorn towards the protagonist to almost worshipping him, appearing as if they would have been brainwashed.

This being tagged as a nukige is also a bit ironic, because it's arguably its weakest point. The whole boob-fetish of the VN is more often than not just akward or even gross instead of arousing. The art isn't the best and certainly one of the main reasons I've never seen those titles amongst the top sellers on Getchu. The backgrounds are decent, but the character art is very hit and miss. Luceria is probably one of the most ugly heroines I've ever seen in a VN while Gladys looks almost two art generations more refined. While the later titles do show some slight improvements in the art department, I think Kyonyuu Fantasy 3 (Athena) and Gaiden 2 After (Irina) are the first ones where they appear more significant. H-scenes also often appear randomly thrown in instead of being developped, especially harem scenes.

Heroine ranking: Gladys > Aphrodia = Emeralia > Isis >= Shamsiel > Nellis >> Roxanne >>> Luceria

Overall rating: 6.5/10 (KF) and 7/10 (Gaiden)

In general, I'm a bit irritated why Waffle insists to recreate pretty much the same title over and over again. They've good plot ideas and a very efficient usage of art - why aren't they striving for more? I'm sure that if they'd go for something more serious, they could reach a bigger audience.

Edited January 5, 2020 by ChaosRaven

[Hanate]

I finished Funbag fantasy. It is hilarious as heck. This is the first VN that I read without any break. I downloaded it for the b00bs but the story was hella awesome. But I agree, I didn't how they started respecting him suddenly.  I like how the mc is actually kind to everyone and not just girls. I am reading Euphoria right now, though I had few spoilers.

Edited January 5, 2020 by Hanate

[Ruberick]

I guess it's a form of risk management. I'd draw parallels to the Imouto Paradise series or any longer running Lillith series. Nuki can get away with making the same game with minimal risk, using the same engine, layouts and staff. It's efficient and if the first game was a commercial success, the likelyhood of more games bringing in a stable income is better than risking your assets on something new/daring. Especially when you are expected to go in a specific, fetishy direction you don't want to lose your audience.

The Iberian peninsula is pretty much Spain and Portugal these days. Since Edel means regal in german I always took Edellant to be an euphemistic portrayal of germany or a germanic group of nations, with lant as a missspelling of Land. (Country in german)

 

As for my last games, I played Demonic Nation Florehades, it's more of a dungeon-crawling puzzle RPG-maker game, but so enjoyable that I have to mention it anyway. It's the sequel to Demon Cave Lulu Farea, where the protagonist is Klurs, a misguided human who tries to get into intimate relationships with monsters, after he failed to do so with human girls. He taught himself fighting moves that will only incapacitate others, without leaving lasting effects otherwise and he tries to make the girls he encounters into his girlfriends/wives. After he defeats a girl he will "rape" her, the quotation marks mean that he isn't violent about it, or strikes somewhat shady deals with the girls before the battle, making it either borderline consensual or comedic in nature. I would poke fun at this, but the game is very self aware and does that enough on its own.

The games system let's you freely traverse deeper and deeper into the dungeon with much freedom on how you tackle the puzzle element. You basically have attack and defense stats and every enemy has those as well and you deal excess attack to the enemy HP and they deal excess attack to your HP, making the whole process very predictable. You have to traverse the dungeons tackling enemys you are able to, getting stronger and engage the new enemies that you become able to defeat. I found that to be a very addicting, rewarding gameplay loop and super enjoyable if you like puzzle games, that's why I'm highlighting this game to this extent. The monster girls are very likeable, but the game is even enjoyable if you skip the H-scenes. I'd recommend starting with the first game, since it left you on a cliffhanger that is now finally resolved. Had a great time with this one 8/10

 

I took a break from Yumina the Ethereal, it's an enjoyable game so far, (I'm in chapter 4) but the dungeon-crawling segments are extremely tedious and my game completion OCD stops me from skimming them... I really like the battle system on the whole, but I don't think it's meant for longer grinds, since having skills that are largely dependent on each other and a steady fluctuation of skills you can and can't use, means every turn has to be thought through. Even when you grind through low-level enemies you can't just spam an attack, as you would in most other turn-based games and that really wears you down over hundreds of battles in the training segments.

 

So I went back to VN's. I read the first two episodes of 9 - Nine and it was a good experience overall. The dialogue has a pretty good flow and the characters have unique likeable traits. The first episode ends a bit weakly, not having much of a climax and just ending arbitrarily. The heroine is a pretty typical genuine good girl, they try to spice it up by off-setting her rich girl archetype with being frugal, good combination overall.

The second one has a better arc structure, in terms of impact, but some of it just feels like going through the motions of getting back up to speed. The sibling relationship is surprisingly well done in terms of build-up, chemistry and reluctance/reasoning for and against it.

The episodes are short, making them easily digestable, but it does feel like I only got a part of a complete visual novel, where everything is part of a multiple route mystery, so I left this story unfulfilled. That could be argued to be a good thing, since it means I wanted more of it, but it's a bit cheap nonetheless. I don't feel like rating it is appropriate yet, I want the complete picture before I do so.

 

With that done I felt up to read another Palette VN, hopefully getting a complete experience this time and started Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki. This one felt like they really didn't know what to do with some of the characters, or even the general direction of the plot. I liked the protagonist, he was sensible and had an altruistic nature. Sadly that also leads to less potential for meaningful conflict.

Spoiler

"A boy who has no interest in love" is one of the major points this starts out on. Seems like there would be some deeper issues with that, leading to a clear-cut attitude from the protagonist. Well... it pretty much boils down to Boy: "I'm not really interested in love" Girl: "Why don't you try it anyway?" Boy: "OK"

He does have his issues with dead parents and a near death experience, but they mostly define his personality and his attitude towards love was an afterthought at best.

So on that front we have a pretty lazy attitude towards story progression and theming. Then what about the "Girl who can not fall in love" (Forgive me if I'm using this translation wrong, but the other translation "Girl who has not done love" is in and of itself stupid, since it applies to every charage heroine ever and is thus no theme at all)

So we have pretty typical heroines, the childhood friend, the sister, the classmate, the senpai and the bonus route is the soul reaper that is definitely as old as the protagonist. All of them have a balanced amount of positive traits and endearing quirks, but not all of those are really utilized to bring them and their respective routes to life.

The childhood friend has androphobia, but a special kind where only touching males offsets her and otherwise she is completely fine in their presence. It has its canon reasons, but they really stretch my suspension of disbelief pretty far and the climax in this story is very weak for a number of reasons, including the lead-up to it. The theme isn't completely off, but it's consistency is also undermined for obligatory h-scenes, where the heroines condition weakens during excitement.

The sister is handled well. A love that should not be allowed is within the theme and characters, for the most part, act within the scope of their personalities, as they have been portrayed. So I thought this one was okay to good.

The classmate... oh boy, they really didn't know what to do with this one, so they were randomly put in different situations until the end, a end in which they broke up and got back together for pretty much no reason, as far as they were concerned. All in all this one was just boring.

The senpai is half soul reaper, but the VN doesn't give much background on that or soul reapers as a whole. Pretty much everything supernatural in this VN are just plot devices to string along events. Nevertheless it was a good route were the theming fits, with an immortal being falling in love. She also shares her body, (The human half, with the soul reaper half) which adds some extra complexity to the situation and those issues were handled well in my opinion. Both personalities have their points and issues and it reaches a satisfying conclusion.

The soul reaper girl doesn't touch upon immortality again, it was allready one of the major points in the senpai route and tackling a different angle was a good choice. Instead it's about love in general and soul reapers. Are soul reapers allowed to love? Can they reach a satisfying form of existence, being dependent on the deaths of others? It tries to get a bit philosophical but doesn't stick the landing. The theme and build-up were pretty good and by this point I felt attached enough to understand the characters perspectives, but the random happy ending pretty much undermines what it was about in the first place. If you don't want a bittersweet ending in your charage you shouldn't structure the route to make it the best conclusion.... 

This VN was a lot longer than necessary, they ran out of meaningful things to say, which resulted in too many boring stretches during the read. 6/10

 

Guess I'm gonna read Kyonyuu Fantasy 2 now, for some unapologetic dumb fun. Also have Newton and the Apple Tree installed, incase the Nuki overwhelms me. 

[ChaosRaven]

1 hour ago, Ruberick said:

Since Edel means regal in german I always took Edellant to be an euphemistic portrayal of germany or a germanic group of nations, with lant as a missspelling of Land. (Country in german)

Ah yes, the HRE was pretty much Germany in medieval Europe - the full name was Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. But Gaiden has a map and Edellant is just a small part of it.

[Seraphim]

1 hour ago, Ruberick said:

Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki

I actually just got started on this one. Haven't made much of an impression on me yet, other than that one of the heroines has a personality trait I'm not a big fan of; namely an irrational fear of physical contact with the opposite sex. I assume there's some reason behind it that I will learn about later on, but for now, it's mostly annoying how she instantly breaks down in tears at the slightest touch.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the fact that the protagonist's sister (full, not half) is apparently a heroine. Incest isn't really my cup of tea, so I dunno how much enjoyment I'll get out of that route. If the developer really felt the need to go down the road of love within the family, I would have preferred if the stepmom had a route rather than the sister.

Edited January 5, 2020 by Seraphim88

[Ruberick]

1 hour ago, Seraphim88 said:

I actually just got started on this one. Haven't made much of an impression on me yet, other than that one of the heroines has a personality trait I'm not a big fan of; namely an irrational fear of physical contact with the opposite sex. I assume there's some reason behind it that I will learn about later on, but for now, it's mostly annoying how she instantly breaks down in tears at the slightest touch.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the fact that the protagonist's sister (full, not half) is apparently a heroine. Incest isn't really my cup of tea, so I dunno how much enjoyment I'll get out of that route. If the developer really felt the need to go down the road of love within the family, I would have preferred if the stepmom had a route rather than the sister.

Yeah, my spoiler gets into some details about the gripes I had with the androphobia, but you don't want to read that yet. 

I've stopped minding incest stuff in japanese media a long time ago. Many charage also do a poor job of it, but I can't stop myself from going through every route anyway. I'd hesitate to call the sister route in this game a good portrayal of this relationship trope, but I'll at least call it one of the better portrayals within VNs. At this point I prefer it if they go balls to the wall not giving a damn about it, as in Imouto Paradise, so you can enjoy some cute girls without thinking too deeply into it. 

I think the stepmom would have been better as well, with the teacher/student angle on top it would have also had a lot of angles for conflict. Oh, well.

Edited January 5, 2020 by Ruberick

[adamstan]

Slightly bored by Lamunation, in the meantime I read something totally different - one of the (too) many 3D EVN eroges  - Depraved Awakening by Philly Games.

It was not bad. It somehow reminds me of those 90's VN-adventure hybrids like Three Sisters' Story, Runaway City, DESIRE or even YU-NO - there is some plot there, some mystery etc (in this case, it begins as murder mystery), but everything is very ero-heavy at the same time.

This game originally has been an episodic release on Patreon, and it shows - the art quality evolves throughout the game, as the creator gradually honed his skills. Just compare those two shots of one of the heroines - the first one is from the prologue, while the second one from one of the final chapters:

It's the same with (animated) h-scenes. The first ones are just a few frames, while the later ones are much smoother.

It wasn't great, but quite enjoyable, and the art in the final chapters looks really good - but, on the other hand, the beginnings are rather bad. It's good that he improved though I think it deserves score of 7/10.

There's also the second game from this creator - City of Broken Dreamers and while it's still unfinished (it's currently at version 0.5, meaning five chapters), it looks really promising, with it's sci-fi-noir setting (reminds me of the Tex Murphy adventure games - it's like eroge version of Under A Killing Moon), great art and animations, much better story so far, and really good synthwave soundtrack. I'm looking forward to the full version - it has the potential for being an 8.

Edited January 6, 2020 by adamstan

[Seraphim]

Have you read Acting Lessons? If you're not averse to VNs in 3D, I highly recommend it. I stumbled over it by chance during my Christmas vacation and it turned out to be one of my best VN experiences of the year, just out of the blue like that. It's really well written, with great humor and one of the most awesome best friend characters I've ever seen. It can get quite dark and emotional at times though, so you might want to make sure you're in the right state of mind before you start reading.

[adamstan]

46 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

Have you read Acting Lessons? If you're not averse to VNs in 3D, I highly recommend it.

I'm reading it right now, and really liking it so far. (I'm at 3rd chapter)

It's quite refreshing when an EVN doesn't try to pretend to be JVN, but does its own thing.

Edited January 6, 2020 by adamstan

[ChaosRaven]

2 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

Have you read Acting Lessons? If you're not averse to VNs in 3D, I highly recommend it. I stumbled over it by chance during my Christmas vacation and it turned out to be one of my best VN experiences of the year, just out of the blue like that. It's really well written, with great humor and one of the most awesome best friend characters I've ever seen. It can get quite dark and emotional at times though, so you might want to make sure you're in the right state of mind before you start reading.

Coincidentally, I stumbled over this title yesterday when browsing Steam titles. I was quite surprised by the raving reviews, but wasn't entirely sure what to make out of it. Those types of 3D titles didn't really go beyond strip-club simulator so far, but judging by the comments in the reviews, there seems to be more than meets the eye. It did sound like a slice-of-life drama between young adults. I must admit that it made me a bit curious. Is there anything comparable among the more popular J-VNs?

Edited January 6, 2020 by ChaosRaven

[Seraphim]

Just now, ChaosRaven said:

I was quite surprised by the raving reviews, but wasn't entirely sure what to make out of it. Those types of 3D titles didn't really go beyond strip-club simulator so far, but judging by the comments in the reviews, there seems to be more than meets the eye.

That was pretty much my exact reaction when I found it. At first, I thought the high rating might be because of the joke/meme reviews that commonly plague Steam, but I decided to give it a go anyways since it was pretty cheap. Long story short, I think it deserves the praise it has received. At its core, it's basically just a slice of life drama (like you said), but it's presented in such a brilliant and impactful way that I played through the entire VN, all routes included, in a single sitting (totaling maybe 10 hours), simply because I couldn't manage to put it down.
I honestly can't think of any Japanese VNs to compare it to off the top of my head, because this felt much more real to me than those usually do; probably in part due to the fact that some of stuff is based on the developer's personal experiences, and coincides with my own on several occasions.

[GXOALMD]

3 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

Have you read Acting Lessons? If you're not averse to VNs in 3D, I highly recommend it.

Looking at the screenshots on vndb I have to ask, is there a way to turn on a box for the text?  The lack of that option has been slowly eating away at my sanity as I go through the Muv Luv trilogy and there's no way I can tackle another VN that does that in the near future.

[adamstan]

There's no option for it right in the game, but since it's written in Ren'Py, it probably would be possible to somehow edit it to have visible textbox.

Edited January 6, 2020 by adamstan

[ChaosRaven]

2 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

That was pretty much my exact reaction when I found it. At first, I thought the high rating might be because of the joke/meme reviews that commonly plague Steam, but I decided to give it a go anyways since it was pretty cheap. Long story short, I think it deserves the praise it has received. At its core, it's basically just a slice of life drama (like you said), but it's presented in such a brilliant and impactful way that I played through the entire VN, all routes included, in a single sitting (totaling maybe 10 hours), simply because I couldn't manage to put it down.
I honestly can't think of any Japanese VNs to compare it to off the top of my head, because this felt much more real to me than those usually do; probably in part due to the fact that some of stuff is based on the developer's personal experiences, and coincides with my own on several occasions.

I see. I think I'll give it a try - it's pretty cheap anyway and apparently not too long either. It'll be interesting to see how much the 3D-EVN scene has evolved in the meantime. 

[adamstan]

As for Acting Lessons, I just finished my first playthrough. Wow... the last two chapters hit like a ton of bricks. And some twists were really twisty.

Also, THE WALKTHROUGH LIED TO ME!

Seriously though, this VN does unusually good job when it comes to the consequences of the protagonists decisions. And I have to go back and get me some good endings now.

But I'm already impressed.

Also, (warning, HEAVY SPOILER!)

Spoiler

You know that running joke in VN communities, that in charage the heroines you don't choose die a horrible death? Well... they played it straight here

 

Someone asked for a similar JVN. I think the one that comes closest from the ones I played (but still very different) would be Yume Miru Kusuri. Themes are different, but the thing about consequences (and having some of the h-scenes already in the common route) bears some similarity.

Edited January 6, 2020 by adamstan