Clephas' VN of the month

[Clephas]

Try reading every day since you were four years old... in middle and high school, I generally spent four to five hours a day reading as a matter of course.  Which language only matters in how much you can grasp in a given unit of time.

 

S = CT when C=comprehension and T=units of time.

[Clephas]

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/blog/blog-46/cat-81-april-2015-releases

 

This is a list of my blog posts for April 2015's releases.  The final verdict?  The winner of VN of the Month April 2015 is Chrono Clock by Purple Soft!!!  *snickers*

 

Anyway, my main reason for choosing it was the other VNs this month absorbed a great deal of time but had significantly less emotional impact.  Evenicle, Kami no Rhapsody, and Bansenjin were all games that were interesting to play... but they had major flaws.  Evenicle failed to balance its story with the endless - almost compulsive - Alice Soft humor; Kami no Rhapsody was badly paced and had some serious design flaws; and Bansenjin was one of those 'sequels you wish never existed'. 

[XReaper]

yeah have also been very dissappointed by bansenjin as well & i truly dont understand why its getting top rated by nearly everyone. felt very generic to me whilst playing & i didnt like the fact, it somehow ruins a concluded story only for additional hype´s sake.

edit: let alone the fact i never couldnt warm up to the cast, wether in the fd, nor in the main game. dont know why they spend their money + effords in giving this bunch of brats some xtra time.

[Clephas]

These are the three VNs I've played so far from May's releases.  So far, there isn't really anything to become overly excited about, unfortunately.  I'll keep hoping not to be disappointed, but after Vampire Flowers, that hope is pretty faint.

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/blog/46/entry-556-koitama/

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/blog/46/entry-549-hyakugojuunenme-no-mahoutsukai/

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/blog/blog-46/cat-103-love-vampire-flowers

[Satsuki]

Koitama: Dropped.

Mahoutsukai: Haven't tried, no time.

Love Vampire Flower: The only thing good about it is the OP song (no full version, damnnnn).

[Clephas]

lol... the endings in Vampire Flowers are good, but the method of getting there is mostly boring.

[Clephas]

All VN of the Month posts for VNs for the May 2015 releases. 

 

/index.php?/blog/blog-46/cat-102-may-2015-releases">http://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/blog/blog-46/cat-102-may-2015-releases

 

VN of the Month May 2015 is Ayakashi Contract

[Clephas]

Well, this is the full list of posts for VNs I played from June's releases, along with the announcement of the winner, which was Love Rec by Alcot.  For those who are interested, click the link below and feel free to comment.  For those who were hoping for a repeat of Silky's miracle (otherwise known as Nanairo Reincarnation), unfortunately you are doomed to disappointment.  However, the game in question is amusing enough, if you can get past its flaws, lol

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/blog-46/cat-117-june-2015-releases

[Clephas]

July 2015 so far.

 

Sorcery Jokers

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-690-sorcery-jokers-it-surprised-clephas-will-it-surprise-you/

 

 

Maboroshi no Dystopia

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-686-maboroshi-no-dystopia-part-1-first-impressions-and-rurikos-path/

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-687-maboroshi-no-dystopia-part-2-kaedes-path-and-one-pissed-off-clephas/

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/46/entry-688-maboroshi-no-dystopia-final-akari-and-youko-why-the-difference/

[Clephas]

The full list of VN posts for the August 2015 releases is below.  Have fun, all.

 

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blog/blog-46/cat-121-august-2015

 

VN of the Month 2015: Tou no Shita no Exercitus

[Clephas]

For those who didn't see it already, here are my posts on Kenseiki Alpha Ride.  Unfortunately, it doesn't meet my conditions to be VN of the Month, even if nothing better comes out, but I'm sure someone out there will like it.

Unfortunately, because the update of the forums and blogs eliminated the tags system, I can't make convenient links to cover entire sections of my blog like I could before, so I have to link it post by post, lol.

[Clephas]

This is the latest VN I've played for the VN of the Month... and it is going to be a little while before I can get back to VNs, because of the release of Fallout 4 and my need to balance my gaming addiction with work and school.  The VN below is a standard charage with very little in the way of twists to its design, but it is a good example of a charage done right.  I honestly think people who like that moege sub-genre will enjoy Unlucky, though I think anyone translating it would probably want to puke sand about halfway through each of the heroine paths due to the endless ichaicha.

 

[Clephas]

This is a full set of links for my blog posts for VN of the Month October 2015.  The winner, was, in the end Sakura no Uta, but it wasn't a choice I came to lightly or easily... October was a good month, despite some disappointing releases.  Libra and Primal Hearts both made a strong impact, and it would be wasteful if yall, the readers, were to ignore them, lol.

Sakura no Uta

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/949-sakura-no-uta-final-the-true-path-ai-the-normal-ending-and-the-true-ending/

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/946-sakura-no-uta-part-3-shizuku-episode-iv/

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/945-sakura-no-uta-part-2-rin-and-some-linguistic-comments-edit-added-rina-and-yuri-ending/

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/942-sakura-no-uta-part-1-makoto-and-thoughts-on-sca-ji/

Primal X Hearts 2

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/936-primal-hearts-2-yes-i-did-manage-to-play-this/

Unlucky Re:Birth/Reverse

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/924-unlucky-rebirthreverse/

Kyuuketsu Hime no Libra

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/922-kyuuketsu-hime-no-libra/

Kenseiki Alpha Ride

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/909-kenseiki-alpha-ride-part-1-progress-report/

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/911-kenseiki-alpha-ride-part-2-the-protagonists/

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/914-kenseiki-alpha-ride-part-3-updated/

http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/917-kenseiki-alpha-ride-final/

 

[Clephas]

Ok, I'm guessing that most of you who read the blog are wondering what November's VN of the Month is... there was a lot from November, and there was actually a lot I liked.  Here are the posts for November's releases, organized by the VN in question.  Unfortunately, I ran out of time this month because of work and the usual Christmas mess.

Maggot Baits

 

Yome Sagashi ga Hakadori sugite Yabai!

Koko Kara Natsu no Innocence

Magical Dears

Kodomo no Asobi

 

Hatsuru Koto Naki Mirai Yori

I''m going to add a few comments onto this for those who wondered at how polarizing this VN is... because the people who liked this VN tended to love it, and those who disliked it hated it with unreasoning strength.  Here are some reasons/excuses I've come across for hating it..

1.  Ria's path- The reason?  There are two major reasons why people didn't like Ria or her path... one, lolicons hate her path because she has the absolute weakest path and character development in the VN and her path is basically an excuse to explain what was happening in one particular corner of the larger endgame battlefield.  The others hate it because they hate zombies (in fact, I don't like zombies either) or hate zombies that are goofy in appearance/nature/actions.  To be honest, it felt like they got the worst of both worlds with her, though her origin story was good (moe and zombie mixes are just weird).

2.  To people who didn't really read the VN (only read the summary and maybe the trial and decided to rate it for that - and there were some of those) the protagonist is a stumbling block.  He seems like the epitome of Japanese nationalism after all... until you get farther in and realize it is pretty much the reverse (he's the opposite of nationalist, lol).

3.  The poor mixing of moe elements into an otherwise serious VN.  I have to say, this VN would have been much better if the more insipid (as a certain commenter chose to put it, though referring to something else) moe elements - such as Ria - were altered to something a bit less... silly.  Making Yukikaze have Michiru's mouth was one of the poorer decisions I saw from the artist community, even though she is a bit - ok, more than a bit - tsundere.  It enhances that aspect and reminds people of why they hated Michiru from Grisaia.

4.  It is by the team from Grisaia, and anti-hypers (people who automatically jump on and try to tear into anything that is hyped) will use that as an automatic excuse to hate on it, no matter how well-written it is.  You know the type... the ones who automatically comment negatively on anything popular or anything by a group/band/writer/artist that is popular? 

Despite what the last commenter said, I don't consider that an A+ review... more like an A- or a B+.  I rated it pretty highly on vndb because I found it enjoyable, but from a technical design (especially visual character design) point of view, there were some seriously questionable choices in there.  However, from the relativistic point of view - you know, having played a ridiculous number of VNs - it does tend to float near the top layers of the waters of the VN fishbowl. 

VN of the Month 2015 announcement

This is pretty much a straight run between Kodomo no Asobi, Koko kara Natsu no Innocence, and Hatsuru.  Hatsuru I almost disqualified because it verged on matching my tastes... except it didn't (don't make me explain).  In the end, from an objective perspective (inasmuch as it is possible to have such) I almost couldn't figure out a solid difference in quality between the three... but I eventually came to the conclusion that Koko kara Natsu no Innocence  was the best candidate.  Look forward to December's releases, sans Miagete.

Edit: One last comment on Hatsuru's protagonist... when I say  he is the opposite of a nationalist, I mean just that.  He is a man who became a soldier because it was a path to getting in a pilot's seat and remained one for the sake of his comrades (both living and dead).  He is also a man who is all too bitterly aware of the price of his country's excesses - and he doesn't know about nukes yet, lol - and has an immense sense of personal responsibility, which is one of the reasons I enjoyed being inside his head.

Edited December 26, 2015 by Clephas

[Clephas]

Just to refresh yall's memory, this thread was originally created to be an information source for those interested in playing the most recent untranslated VN releases.  Since the information provided on vndb is essentially limited to crappy translations of the getchu summaries and tags, I thought to provide at least some limited information in the form of off-hand comments and (in a few cases) mini-reviews.  In the blog, the mini-reviews have become dominant, mostly because I've gotten better at expressing my opinions.  However, the thing you need to keep in mind with the whole Random VNs and VN of the Month thing is that it is essentially just supposed to be informative in a subjective manner (since bias is unavoidable).  This is why I will frequently start out stating my personal tastes or warning of a personal reason for bias for or against particular aspects of a VN.

I could talk for weeks on the subject of bias... but I'm just going to say one more thing on it for now: Bias is unavoidable.  When I write my mini-reviews, I generally try to recommend titles to groups of people with certain tastes that align with the VN's generalized genre and specific aspects.  This is also meant to warn people who prefer other genres what they are getting into, as I'm not interested in responding to natural-born trolls who don't understand that every VN genre, however outside our tastes it might be, nonetheless appeals to someone, even if we can't stand it.  Defending moege/charage in particular can be tiring, as I don't really have any fondness for that particular umbrella.  However, since I took it upon myself to start this whole thing, I have a duty to dig up decent gems out of the muck for those who do prefer that type of VN, which is one of the driving reasons I tend to play a ridiculous number of charage/moege all the way through despite how tiring the genre can be when it is at its worst.

Now, to December's VN of the Month (for those who are interested in it, I didn't get around the Campus's new game).

I dropped this, but it does have some info: Quintuple Splash

 

Tsuyokiss Festival

 

 

Izumo 4 and Miagete Goran

 

 

Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier

 

 

 

Well, to be straight about it, there was only ever one real candidate for December 2015... Kikan Bakumats Ibun Last Cavalier.  For better or worse, it is also a candidate for VN of the Year 2015, and I will probably be announcing that sometime in late February or March, after careful consideration (unlike VN of the Month, VN of the Year requires a lot more consideration and critical thinking).