What are you playing?

[fuyopon]

On 6/16/2024 at 7:35 AM, fujoneko said:

Man, I haven't said anything in a while huh... Well, I haven't been reading as much as I used to, but I'm currently going through Blood Domination and Umineko (episode 6)

I'm still finishing Uzuki x Izayoi's route but I've been enjoying it a lot!

Actually finishing Blood Domination right now, literally! It was way better than I was expecting.

I wanna read more, like I used to, mmmm...

[alexfang452]

On 6/15/2024 at 6:27 PM, alexfang452 said:

I'm currently reading Mashiro-iro Symphony. Once I finish Airi's route, I will start Sana Edition. 

I started Mashiro-iro Symphony -Sana Edition- a little over a week ago. Currently, I am 11 hours into it.

Mashiro-iro Symphony is a great VN. Every character was used well in the story, all of the routes are good, and the visuals look nice.

I think some people would have an issue with the pacing for some of the routes. Personally, I was too invested in the plot for it to bother me.
Overall Rating: 8/10

[adamstan]

I forgot to report, that I finished Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai (console version - including spinoff and FD) around a week ago

Overally it was very enjoyable read. With 40 endings and 90k lines it took some time, but I almost never felt bored - this VN created nice environment, where it was just enjoyable to spend time with the characters.

On 6/16/2024 at 6:53 PM, adamstan said:

Lots of humor and feel-good moments, nice dynamics between characters - and all spiced with just the right amount of drama.

Yeah, after finishing whole game I stand by that opinion

I also still find the amount of event CGs not enough - but that's a minor gripe.

As for "True routes", I think the naming might be a bit misleading. There is just one true route, and main heroine of that route is Nagi - but it also has optional branches for other girls. However, I'd treat that as an extra, since those endings aren't as fleshed out as the "normal" routes for the girls.

I'd also like to mention the console-exclusive route for new character - Kingyo. It was great, among the best routes in the whole game That's the second (or even third) time I encountered that phenomenon - the other one being Wakaba's route from Tenshin Ranman, (and perhaps also Chihiro from Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o).

FanDisc provides very nice supplement for each heroine. And spinoff Houkago Shippo Days is just a nice short mini-VN in the same setting. Nothing great, but I liked it nevertheless.

**********************************************************

And currently I'm reading perhaps the most random VN so far - You & I. It's the last title by JAST/Tiare (best known for Sakura no Kisetsu, Meisou Toshi etc). It's also their first VN that ditched the command-based adventure game system, and went with Ikura GDL engine (Crescendo, Kazoku Keikaku, Yukizakura etc).

This title got released in June 1999, so it's as old as Kanon. But the writing is more in-line with Sakura no Kisetsu So far it seems to be very generic old-school charage, but for some weird reason I'm enjoying it

Edited July 10 by adamstan

[LostPomegranate]

Currently reading Hapymaher - it's a lot better than I expected from its premise / summary on VNDB.

 

Since my last post I've read: Crescendo (technically a reread since I read it 20+ years ago, posted a review of it here), Canvas 2, Yandere, Aikagi and Aikagi After days (Fandisc), Tenshi no Inai 12-gatsu, Kanojo no Seiiki, and Cerulean Days. I'd recommend Crescendo to nakige / moege fans, Canvas 2 and the Aikagi's to moege fans although Aikagi is pure SoL fluff. Cerulean Days is a pretty good EVN that could've done a lot more with its premise but is still a serviceable mystery-sort of. Yandere - if you don't mind some pretty dark stuff - is so bad that it's funny at times, but it is pretty terrible don't get me wrong. And Tenshi no Inai is both interesting and has the most insufferable MC in a VN I've read recently. Leaf really has the craziest range in their development portfolio.

[alexfang452]

On 6/30/2024 at 7:07 PM, alexfang452 said:

I started Mashiro-iro Symphony -Sana Edition- a little over a week ago. Currently, I am 11 hours into it.

Mashiro-iro Symphony is a great VN. Every character was used well in the story, all of the routes are good, and the visuals look nice.

I think some people would have an issue with the pacing for some of the routes. Personally, I was too invested in the plot for it to bother me.
Overall Rating: 8/10

Today, I am going to start reading Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim. 

Since my post from nearly 2 weeks ago, I finished both Mashiro-iro Symphony -Sana Edition- and NEKO-NIN exHeart. Sana Edition is a great addition to the original Mashiro-iro Symphony. It may take a long time before Sana and Shingo become a couple, but it makes the moments after the confession worth it. This is a really good romance VN.

As for NEKO-NIN exHeart, I would just say that it is decent. The characters are unmemorable but likeable, the art is good, and the music is acceptable. The story is just ninja catgirl antics and Haruki slowly warming up to them. Even though I am just following Haruki's daily life, the story never makes me forget that it is building up to something. And most of the plot being slice of life makes everything that happens near the end of the story stand out more. Also, I was a little moved by some of the scenes Haruki has with Yura and/or Tama. Someday, I will read the other VNs in this series. 

[Heizei_koukousei]

Just finished Island, and while i was not convinced at the beginning, the initial “routes” are truly just fodder, the ending was however quite acceptable. 7.5/10 would provide more review but I’m posting to the graveyard right now

[adamstan]

Yesterday I finished You & I. It was much better than I expected.

Even though it was very generic school-slice-of-life charage, somehow it turned out to be quite enjoyable. Also, I guess back then in 1999 all those cliches weren't as clichey as today - 25 years later

The premise is simple - the protagonist missed few weeks of school because of traffic accident (he got hit by a car). He returns to school at the beginning of June, and there he meets (and possibly falls in love) with heroines - the game takes place over one month (and few days). There's no bigger overarching plot or story* - like elections in Princess Evangile or gliders in Konosora - just school slice of life. Sometimes MC complains that everything feels a bit unreal to him, like he was seeing a dream, but is there more to it?

You can definitely sense strong dating sim roots here - but it is IMO handled much better than, for example, first White Album which bored me to the point of dropping it. Here there are no "generic" repeatable scenes, and there's no map movement (yay!). However the common route is very long - basically the whole June is common route, and then there are relatively short endings. And there's insane amount of choices - well over 100 . I noticed is that many scenes in common route play out differently depending on your relatonship level with given heroine - there might be additional text, CG or different set of choices. Nice attention to detail.

*except in Sayaka's route.

Heroines are quite likeable, there's also usual funny MC's male friend - here he's named Fujita, and is class' president. Your usual Sunohara type - although he predates Sunohara . He reminded me of Makoto from Sakura no Kisetsu (which was also done by Tiare).

I started with Misaki's route.

Class' vice-president, very friendly, gentle, caring and hard working girl. She seems to have crush on the MC right from the beginning. Her route is nice (if a bit naive) "first love" story. I also think that her H-scene was quite nicely and tactfuly written (for an old eroge).

Haruka is Misaki's best friend, and has very different personality. She's very energetic, with some tsundere vibes. Keeps "fighting" with Fujita. Her route was a bit weird..

Spoiler

She falls in love with MC, but she also knows about Misaki's feelings, so she's conflicted. To make matters worse, she also has/had crush on Fujita. So one day she comes to MC's house under the pretext of studying, and kind of forces herself upon him - and then says something like "It's OK if you don't love me, I'll just go away now". Now, depending on your choices in the common route, the route splits into two versions. In the main one MC confesses to Haruka and they get together.

But there's also weird second ending, where they can't make a decision, and continue an unresolved love rectangle - Misaki likes MC, MC likes both Misaki and Haruka, Haruka likes MC, but cannot decide between him and Fujita - and Fujita stays completely indifferent towards her. It all ends with graduation CG (quite nice BTW), and Haruka running towards MC - I guess after trying to confess and being rejected by Fujita.

Haruka also appears as a final boss in Misaki's route - she confesses in tears to MC on the school roof, saying that she's OK to be just his secret fuckbuddy. Of course if you agree, you get kicked to the bad end

Asaki - quiet, mysterious girl. Her story has some nice twists and plays a bit with the reader and setting (let's just say that to enter the route you need a specific item - a book titled "The Existence of Parallel Dimensions").

Spoiler

At some point Asaki claims that she's an alien/person from another world, and perhaps MC is also the one, and that's why he feels "unreal"/out of place. I immediately thought about Ruu \^^/ from ToHeart2. But then they drop it - after all she's just an ordinary girl who felt lonely - especially since she's an orphan.

And I really loved her ending.

Spoiler

Marriage/family ending - sweet

Here I also encountered first weirdness of this game's system. In addition to making right choices in the common route, you have to select right prologue when starting new game (there are two) and make right choices there as well. Otherwise the route ends prematurely right after the H-scene - that's really cruel

Megumi - shy, introverted girl, member of library committee. Her route has the most drama.

Spoiler

She gets bullied because of her hair color. The bullying intensifies when she gets closer to the MC. Because of that, and because she already decided to change schools from the next term, she starts to avoid MC. You get the picture

Miyu senpai - an idol with pretty zealous fan-club of self-proclaimed bodyguards in school. I quite liked her scenes in common route, but her ending was rather disappointing

And finally there's Sayaka - MC's little sister

I spent over 10 hours of constant replays trying to get this route! And let me tell you - it's almost impossible without walkthrough. There's even a review over on EGS where someone complains that they couldn't get that route. And there's no walkthrough available on any of the usual sites, like seiya-saiga or sagaoz. I finally found one on some archived page from 2001. And yeah - many choices were rather counterintuitive. Basically it seems like instead of focusing only on Sayaka, you have to keep balanced "relationship score" between all heroines, and cannot neglect anyone, at least in the first half of comon route.

However the route was interesting, and quite meta. (Heavy spoilers below)

Spoiler

It start as your typical imouto route - characters falling in forbidden love. However just when they're already naked in MCs bed and are about to have sex, he's unable to cross that boundary. "Incest, huh... If only you weren't my sister..." - and after thinking that he blacks out, and wakes up in hospital, with the same CG we saw right at the beginning of game with Sayaka, Misaki and Fujita next to his bed.

But Sayaka calls him "Ryou-kun" instead of "Onii-chan". WTF? He's utterly confused.

And then it turns out he was right, when he was feeling like in a dream during common route - basically the whole game up to this point was MC's dream he was seeing while being in coma after the accident. And Sayaka was not his sister but actually his girlfriend (also, right before the accident they were on the verge of breakup). Then MC leaves hospital, we get final H-scene, and they rebuild their relationship. Whew...

I briefly mentioned that when talking about Misaki's route, but generally I liked H-scenes in this VN. There's only one relatively short scene for each heroine, and I think they are quite tactfuly written, especially for old eroge. Of course there are some usual cliches, but nevertheless it doesn't feel like characters got entirely replaced by their porn stunt doubles. They're having sex, not acting out an JAV scenario - which was my main complaint towards many H-scenes in VNs, and what steered me towards console/all-ages editions

Also, for each route we get very nice "pillow talk"/"morning after" scene Just have a look at this Misaki's morning CG:

Spoiler

Now for the downsides. This VN is pretty bad when it comes to engine/QoL side. With this insane amount of choices, and one very difficult to get route, you get

• no backlog
• only unconditional skip mode
• only 9(!) save slots, and loading a save always rewinds to the beginning of the scene
• no keyboard support at all

There were also some typo's / editing errors (like repeated words or characters) here and there.

Also, the game is only partially voiced. Basically, common route is unvoiced, except for one scene (for each heroine) during sports festival. And only main heroines are voiced. The voices themselves aren't great, but that's quite old title, so I guess it can be forgiven. The music was nice.

Considering all of the above - on one hand, quite enjoyable content, but on the other - tedious gameplay, I rated this VN at 7/10

And now, can someone tell me WTH am I writing this wall of text about an obscure 25 years old moege nobody will ever play?

Also, for posterity - Here's the walkthrough

Edited July 18 by adamstan

[adamstan]

I'm late to the party again, but I just started playing GINKA.

(I found pretty good deal on DLSite - weak JPY combined with some discount coupon that I had meant that it was 40% off compared to Steam price)

It looks great, and after two hours it seems to be ticking almost all the boxes for me It seems to be the VN that could be put on a shelf next to Natsuzora Kanata and Summer Pockets, both of which I loved. (I haven't read ISLAND yet...)

 

PS For my first playthrough I'm going to read in Japanese. Then perhaps I will check out the translation afterwards.

Edited July 22 by adamstan

[STARKX9]

White Album 2, currently at coda, has started playing the game since April but I am too scared to advance the story in Coda. Once I gather up my courage, I will continue reading...

[thepotatoyo]

Nukitashi
It is a million times better than what the premise suggested
 

Spoiler

Route Fumiko is the best one really
It shows that is the route the autors prefered
Rei best FS girl

 

[adamstan]

On 7/22/2024 at 3:15 PM, adamstan said:

I'm late to the party again, but I just started playing GINKA.

(I found pretty good deal on DLSite - weak JPY combined with some discount coupon that I had meant that it was 40% off compared to Steam price)

It looks great, and after two hours it seems to be ticking almost all the boxes for me It seems to be the VN that could be put on a shelf next to Natsuzora Kanata and Summer Pockets, both of which I loved. (I haven't read ISLAND yet...)

Aaand... finished

The story is nice, even though it seems a bit like "the best of" compilation album from different "summer & island" nakiges - I saw familiar tropes from things like Summer Pockets, Natsuzora Kanata or AIR, but nevertheless liked it. However I feel like the writing and pacing is a bit too messy, with constant flashbacks, visions and jumps - especially in later chapters, which somewhat weakens the emotional punch of some scenes/arcs. Still had decent amount of tearjerkers, so I won't complain too much But the script would definitely benefit from a few more clean-up iterations

Art is good, characters likeable, and the music is great.

All in all, I think it gets an 8 from me

 

[alexfang452]

On 7/12/2024 at 5:15 PM, alexfang452 said:

Today, I am going to start reading Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim. 

Since my post from nearly 2 weeks ago, I finished both Mashiro-iro Symphony -Sana Edition- and NEKO-NIN exHeart. Sana Edition is a great addition to the original Mashiro-iro Symphony. It may take a long time before Sana and Shingo become a couple, but it makes the moments after the confession worth it. This is a really good romance VN.

As for NEKO-NIN exHeart, I would just say that it is decent. The characters are unmemorable but likeable, the art is good, and the music is acceptable. The story is just ninja catgirl antics and Haruki slowly warming up to them. Even though I am just following Haruki's daily life, the story never makes me forget that it is building up to something. And most of the plot being slice of life makes everything that happens near the end of the story stand out more. Also, I was a little moved by some of the scenes Haruki has with Yura and/or Tama. Someday, I will read the other VNs in this series. 

I am now 12 hours into Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim. Just reached the "Dating Sim" part of the game. Before that, there were a bunch of flashbacks of the protagonist's life in this academy before a plague ruined the world. Even though I enjoyed it, I did feel like we were spending too much time with them. Thankfully, the protagonist finally reaches the ruined academy where he can find the souls of his former classmates. It wasn't easy as my choices either led to death or the protagonist getting closer to one of the girls. Speaking of the girls, the story did a good job of making them likable. Even Lyse, a girl who likes to gossip and mess around, did not bother me that much. Additionally, the protagonist Uzo is actually a character. 

Just be warned that this VN is not for everyone. There is some scary imagery in here. 

[Heizei_koukousei]

Just finished Seven Days (With You) and overall it was a 6/10 for me

The overarching story ending was a little lackluster. Feels like they just used the fact that its a fantasy world to do some deux ex machina type shit and resolve the plot. 

The romantic good ends for some of the individual girls was really the best part overall. Nene and Ichiru best girls

[fuyopon]

Started reading Grisaia this week and it's pretty fun, though Yuuji's behavior being seen as badass is a bit dated lol maybe I'm just older now

[alexfang452]

On 7/26/2024 at 4:53 PM, alexfang452 said:

I am now 12 hours into Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim. Just reached the "Dating Sim" part of the game. Before that, there were a bunch of flashbacks of the protagonist's life in this academy before a plague ruined the world. Even though I enjoyed it, I did feel like we were spending too much time with them. Thankfully, the protagonist finally reaches the ruined academy where he can find the souls of his former classmates. It wasn't easy as my choices either led to death or the protagonist getting closer to one of the girls. Speaking of the girls, the story did a good job of making them likable. Even Lyse, a girl who likes to gossip and mess around, did not bother me that much. Additionally, the protagonist Uzo is actually a character. 

Just be warned that this VN is not for everyone. There is some scary imagery in here. 

After I finished Black Heaven, I decided to start Sucker For Love. I kinda wish I didn't since this VN would have been perfect to read in October. That's what I get for not looking at the Steam tags again. Anyway, I just saw one of the endings in Chapter 1. This chapter did not forget to remind me that this VN is a horror game with one moment making me jump. 

As for Black Heaven, I enjoyed it. The story's dark elements were not distracting, the characters were more interesting than I thought they would be (especially Lyse and the protagonist), and none of the endings gave me a feeling of complete satisfaction. Then again, after remembering the current state of their world, what ending would make me happy without feeling like a copout?

I enjoyed seeing the protagonist's experience at Itzon Academy. Seeing the different ways immortality is being explored was interesting. 7/10

Edited August 3 by alexfang452
Added score

[LostPomegranate]

Currently I'm reading "Figures of Happiness". An oldge from JAST, only a little over an hour in and it's okay so far...bit different.

 

Since my last post though I finished Hapymaher, read Ero Voice!, NTR'd by Clumsiness, Aokana, Aokana EXTRA 1, Aokana EXTRA 2, Imouto no Seiiki, Gakkou no Seiiki, and Chihiro Himukai Always Walks Away. Reviews for all are up on VNDB - I posted my Hapymaher review here as well. Out of those I'd recommend Hapymaher and the Aokana's to anyone. Chihiro Himukai ro anyone who likes a sweet short story, and Ero Voice and the two Seiiki's to people who like the art and nukige. NTR'd by Clumsiness was....well..to quote the game itself "This game is stupid and is not meant to be taken seriously" - that is a literal warning that comes up when you launch it. It was so stupid it was funny at times, other times it was just plain stupid.

[adamstan]

20 hours ago, LostPomegranate said:

Currently I'm reading "Figures of Happiness". An oldge from JAST, only a little over an hour in and it's okay so far...bit different.

I'm looking forward to your opinion when you finish it. I remember stumbling upon this title while starting my VN journey, but I never actually read it. I only remember that some reviewers trashed it, and also I don't like the art style (character design) - those faces look worse than early KEY titles, and that's something

[LostPomegranate]

On 8/4/2024 at 8:36 AM, adamstan said:

I'm looking forward to your opinion when you finish it. I remember stumbling upon this title while starting my VN journey, but I never actually read it. I only remember that some reviewers trashed it, and also I don't like the art style (character design) - those faces look worse than early KEY titles, and that's something

Welp. I got to do 5 endings and the download version from Jast's website blocked the rest of them. There's a bug in that version right now - best I can tell - that there's a duplicate choice presented instead of a different choice, so the trigger for allowing a later choice isn't ever hit, so you can't choose one of the pathways at all, which locks Narumi's, Kokoro's, and Minamo's good and true ends as well as Mio's best ending. Other than THAT bit of mess, it was a subpar moege with a pretty thin story. I wouldn't have trashed it too much myself, but it was aiming for somewhere in the 3-4/10 range. Broken though = 1/10 for me.

 

Since that post I've already read Planetarian and Planetarian Snow Globe. I cried. Then I felt a little better with Snow Globe.

 

Now I'm onto Uchi no Kanojo.

[littleshogun]

Decided to tried previous Venus Blood VNs (Empire and Abyss), and let's just say there's a reason why Ninetail decided to localize their VN starting from Frontier because Frontier is where Dualtail put major overhaul on the unit creation which they still use in Savior with some improvements in each of post-Frontier entries.

[Hiashi]

I'm thinking of getting the localized Suzukuri Karin, but I would like to know if there's a way to apply the append content. Even if it's not translated.

[fuyopon]

On 8/16/2024 at 11:22 PM, Hiashi said:

I'm thinking of getting the localized Suzukuri Karin, but I would like to know if there's a way to apply the append content. Even if it's not translated.

Shiravune does make available the 18+ content patch for Steam releases, here you go

[fuyopon]

Been reading so much stuff but this week was a slump for sure. It's not that I didn't want to read anything, I just started a new job and it's been exhausting. Besides being a completely 180 from my usual sleeping schedule (making it impossible to do anything but be a zombie during the day before work), I was so stressed out that I wasn't able to properly focus on anything :((

That said, let's see...

I ended up dropping Grisaia after all lololol I guess it just wasn't for me, and it's a shame because I'm sure I'd have loved it when I was younger. I also read a bunch of Cherry Kiss Games releases, such as Bunny Girl Cumming for my Carrot, Hentai Homewrecker, Cosplay Cumdump: Doing it Doujin Style, Ara Ara Auntie Incest and Sexcalibur: Knights of the Pound Table. Oh, and I also got to play the early release of Orcsoft's I Wanna Fuck my Mom's Best Friend!
Some were fun, some were a bit awkward to read. At the end of the day, I've had my fill and I think I'll be fine without more nukige for the next few months...

The last VNs I read were two quick reads: Queen of Moths and un/FRAGMENT.. For such short tales, they were pretty alright. I enjoyed Queen of Moths more, but un/FRAGMENT. was certainly a good effort!

[alexfang452]

On 8/3/2024 at 12:33 AM, alexfang452 said:

After I finished Black Heaven, I decided to start Sucker For Love. I kinda wish I didn't since this VN would have been perfect to read in October. That's what I get for not looking at the Steam tags again. Anyway, I just saw one of the endings in Chapter 1. This chapter did not forget to remind me that this VN is a horror game with one moment making me jump. 

As for Black Heaven, I enjoyed it. The story's dark elements were not distracting, the characters were more interesting than I thought they would be (especially Lyse and the protagonist), and none of the endings gave me a feeling of complete satisfaction. Then again, after remembering the current state of their world, what ending would make me happy without feeling like a copout?

I enjoyed seeing the protagonist's experience at Itzon Academy. Seeing the different ways immortality is being explored was interesting. 7/10

Since this comment, I have finished Sucker For Love and Girls in Glasses.

Sucker For Love was a fun VN to read through from start to finish. The gameplay could have been better, but it did not bother me since the VN has other things to appreciate. Some of these things include the designs of the girls and their voice actors. Another commendable thing is how each chapter was different. Chapter 1 was simple to let the player get an idea as to how this game works. Then, Chapter 2 makes things a little tougher. Chapter 3 is where things get REALLY crazy. Also, the game is not that scary. There were a couple of frightening sounds and visuals, but they never made me feel like the game was trying too hard to scare me. Overall, it is an entertaining VN that can be a little scary at times. Lastly, the protagonist may not have a name, but he does have some funny lines. 7/10.

The story of Girls in Glasses goes like this. You follow Hidekazu as he starts a new spring semester at a private academy. By using the map system (it has been a while since I have read a VN with this), you can determine which heroine the protagonist will end up with. The story and characters are simple. Aside from being a bit of a marine nut and the one thing we learn about him in Kana's route, Hidekazu is just your normal protagonist. As for the heroines, you have an airheaded childhood friend, a quiet and shy bookworm, and an overworked student council president. The biggest problem that I have with this VN is the length of the routes. There is so much that could have been done with them. I was not tracking my time with these routes, but I am pretty sure it would take you at most 2-3 hours to finish one of them. Also, this VN does the thing where the other characters disappear from the story once you start a route. Despite my issues, I still enjoyed it because of the themes that were explored in the routes. Even with their short length, the themes were included in the story well. I may give it a 7/10, but I would not recommend picking it up anytime soon. There are A LOT of VNs out there. Sadly, Girls in Glasses does not do much to stand out from the others. 

Edited September 3 by alexfang452
incorrect word usage

[LostPomegranate]

Oof...so since my last post I have finished quite a few VN's - I did a "shortge rush" in August and I wrote a blog post here about it...but here's the playing update.

 

I have read...Uchi no Kanojo, Uchi no Imouto, Uchi no Koibito, Neko Para Extra, Vol 0-4, DraPri 1-3, FD, Invisible Cock, Stay. - Fragments of Memories - , Imolicious, My Ex Sister in Law, Invisible Man's Stealth NTR, Yandere Sister Loves me too much!, Breeding village, Yozora Rhapsode, Yandere Goddess, Games&Girls, Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai Houkago Shippo Days, LipTrip, Suteki na Kanojo no Tsukurikata, OshiRabu: Waifus over Husbandos & FD, Megasuki trilogy, Dreamlike Love with Seira, Kemonomichi 1, 2, FD, Amayakase, Do you believe in Santa? and Sonohana 1, 6, 2, 4, 3, 5, 7, 9, 8, 10 and Konomi no Naku Koro Ni. In that order.

 

Since that...I started Hanahira. I've committed myself to finishing all the Sonohana series (only 11 more to go!) before I start anything else major.

Edited September 3 by LostPomegranate

[alexfang452]

On 9/2/2024 at 11:50 PM, alexfang452 said:

Since this comment, I have finished Sucker For Love and Girls in Glasses.

Sucker For Love was a fun VN to read through from start to finish. The gameplay could have been better, but it did not bother me since the VN has other things to appreciate. Some of these things include the designs of the girls and their voice actors. Another commendable thing is how each chapter was different. Chapter 1 was simple to let the player get an idea as to how this game works. Then, Chapter 2 makes things a little tougher. Chapter 3 is where things get REALLY crazy. Also, the game is not that scary. There were a couple of frightening sounds and visuals, but they never made me feel like the game was trying too hard to scare me. Overall, it is an entertaining VN that can be a little scary at times. Lastly, the protagonist may not have a name, but he does have some funny lines. 7/10.

The story of Girls in Glasses goes like this. You follow Hidekazu as he starts a new spring semester at a private academy. By using the map system (it has been a while since I have read a VN with this), you can determine which heroine the protagonist will end up with. The story and characters are simple. Aside from being a bit of a marine nut and the one thing we learn about him in Kana's route, Hidekazu is just your normal protagonist. As for the heroines, you have an airheaded childhood friend, a quiet and shy bookworm, and an overworked student council president. The biggest problem that I have with this VN is the length of the routes. There is so much that could have been done with them. I was not tracking my time with these routes, but I am pretty sure it would take you at most 2-3 hours to finish one of them. Also, this VN does the thing where the other characters disappear from the story once you start a route. Despite my issues, I still enjoyed it because of the themes that were explored in the routes. Even with their short length, the themes were included in the story well. I may give it a 7/10, but I would not recommend picking it up anytime soon. There are A LOT of VNs out there. Sadly, Girls in Glasses does not do much to stand out from the others. 

Since this post, I have finished Wolf Tails and started Honey*Honey*Honey.

Wolf Tails surprised me with its characterization. It was not perfect as one character just told another character's entire past to the protagonist. The characterization allowed me to care more about these characters than I thought I would. Even the protagonist provided me with some intriguing information about his/her past. Also, I liked the lighting used for the character sprites and the backgrounds. Overall, I think you should read it if you are looking for something short.

So far, I am about 2 hours into Honey^3. The premise of a world where the genders have to keep their distance sounds interesting. Currently, the story is focusing on Tsukasa which makes sense because of her father and her relationship with the protagonist. One thing that I appreciate is how frequently it is showing me CGs. I cannot wait to see what happens next in the story.