What were the worst vn's of 2018?

[mitchhamilton]

as the title says. id contribute something but ive read only a handful of vns this year.

[1P1A]

27 minutes ago, mitchhamilton said:

as the title says. id contribute something but ive read only a handful of vns this year.

You're flexin' too hard on us here, bro.

[ChaosRaven]

For me it was I Walk Among Zombies if it comes to releases from last year - man, what a piece of crap.

Himawari was also pretty bad, but that wasn't a release from last year.

[Silvz]

28 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

For me it was I Walk Among Zombies if it comes to releases from last year - man, what a piece of crap.

Himawari was also pretty bad, but that wasn't a release from last year.

I didn't like Himawari either, and I think you're the first person I see that didn't love it.

[Incynerate]

I dunno, but Winged Cloud released 3 VNs last year (god they really do churn those out) . Take your pic.

Edited January 7, 2019 by Incynerate

[Canicheslayer]

The worst of 2018 ? Maybe Tropical Liquor. The puzzle part sucks, the date part sucks, the VN part sucks, the Girls s...err...are not very interesting (even Sayori's art is disappointing)  Not much to save...except one or two H-scenes, maybe 

https://vndb.org/v20527

Edited January 7, 2019 by Canicheslayer

[bakauchuujin]

6 hours ago, Canicheslayer said:

The worst of 2018 ? Maybe Tropical Liquor. The puzzle part sucks, the date part suck, the VN part sucks, the Girls s...err...are not very interesting (even Sayori's art is disappointing)  Not much to save...except one or two H-scenes, maybe 

https://vndb.org/v20527

Monmusu is in my opinion an even worse Sayori VN released in 2018, but ye Tropical Liquor is really bad.

Edited January 7, 2019 by bakauchuujin

[Clephas]

Chuuni Hime no Teikoku

[Nandemonai]

Of games I actually played, I think I have to go with Magical Marriage Lunatics.  The badness is really driven home by another 2018 release - Ponkotsu Akuma.  A god damned pizza delivery simulator has better worldbuilding, more interesting characters (MML has one who might compete, Mona, if s/he weren't the comic relief), and better comedy.

I admit to being a sucker for monster girls, but MML just made me feel like a sucker.

[Plk_Lesiak]

5 hours ago, bakauchuujin said:

Monmusu is in my opinion an even worse Sayori VN released in 2018, but ye Tropical Liquor really bad.

I'd vote for Monmusu without a second thought. Both of those Sayori cash-in games are more cynical than even most of the Winged Cloud's crap.

[Dreamysyu]

8 hours ago, Silvz said:

I didn't like Himawari either, and I think you're the first person I see that didn't love it.

You just weren't paying attention. There are plenty of people on this forum who didn't like it.

As for the topic of this thread, I don't really think any of this year's releases I played were really bad. Well, Hapymaher and Grisaia no Rakuen (which technically came out last year) were pretty disappointing, but they weren't really bad.

On the other hand, I also played Phenomeno... And, to be honest, this time I simply cannot understand why this is so popular.

[Okarin]

1 hour ago, Nandemonai said:

Of games I actually played, I think I have to go with Magical Marriage Lunatics.  The badness is really driven home by another 2018 release - Ponkotsu Akuma.  A god damned pizza delivery simulator has better worldbuilding, more interesting characters (MML has one who might compete, Mona, if s/he weren't the comic relief), and better comedy.

I admit to being a sucker for monster girls, but MML just made me feel like a sucker.

That's the same slander Shuffle! suffered. Old habits die hard.

MML is just fast food as far as VN go, but what it does it does reasonably well within its boundaries. I dunno about Ponkotsu Akuma, but maybe nukige aren't really your thing, pal, if you go asking deep stories and charismatic characters out of them. Why not expect a cheerful, playful, horny atmosphere?

You can always play Subahibi, I guess...

By the way, who the fuck is "Mona"??

[iamnoob]

9 hours ago, Canicheslayer said:

The worst of 2018 ? Maybe Tropical Liquor. The puzzle part sucks, the date part sucks, the VN part sucks, the Girls s...err...are not very interesting (even Sayori's art is disappointing)  Not much to save...except one or two H-scenes, maybe 

https://vndb.org/v20527

 

9 hours ago, bakauchuujin said:

Monmusu is in my opinion an even worse Sayori VN released in 2018, but ye Tropical Liquor is really bad.

The thing is.... It isn't really Sayori's fault since they were banging on the hope her art would sell copies and so did fk all about the story and characters.... Can honestly say I'm not surprised and feel quite vindicated when I told people to stay away from those 2 VNs.

Still though, I hope she gets pulled into better VNs. Her artwork is really up there.

[Fred the Barber]

+1 for Tropical Liquor in the "worst of 2018" bucket (I didn't play the other Sayori one being mentioned, Monmusu). Even Frontwing's blatant Huniepop clone from back in 2016 had less awful gameplay than Tropical Liquor.

And next up would definitely be Magical Marriage Lunatics. Literally everything about it was bad. First off, the art is bad—have you seen those sprite poses? Second off, the story is bad—because there isn't one. Third, the characters are neither likeable nor memorable. Like, I probably spent 10 hours playing this game and it's a major struggle to even dredge up their faces, let alone names.

2 hours ago, Okarin said:

MML is just fast food as far as VN go, but what it does it does reasonably well within its boundaries. I dunno about Ponkotsu Akuma, but maybe nukige aren't really your thing, pal, if you go asking deep stories and charismatic characters out of them. Why not expect a cheerful, playful, horny atmosphere?

Sorry dude, but I couldn't disagree more. MML is genuinely bad. If you want a game with the same general flavor but which does literally everything right, while MML does literally everything wrong, Ponkotsu Akuma is where it's at.

[Ranzo]

I'd say probably Crystalline was one of the worst vns I played this year, or at the very least was one of the most disappointing.

The worst out of every year was definitely the horrifying creature romances, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants there day ruined.

[Okarin]

5 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Sorry dude, but I couldn't disagree more. MML is genuinely bad. If you want a game with the same general flavor but which does literally everything right, while MML does literally everything wrong, Ponkotsu Akuma is where it's at.

Ponkotsu Akuma and MML aren't the same genre. MML is more typical romance eroge, not downright nukige, and it reminded me a lot of Shuffle. Also the same slandering phenomenon happens with the game. "Hey, the games I play are superior to the games you play, your waifu lives under my waifu BLAH BLAH BLAH..."

I haven't started Ponkotsu Akuma yet, I skimmed through it, but it seems much more oriented to sex, with an overabundance of scenes, and even sillier atmosphere than MML (if you were thinking that was impossible).

Both games sport a high number of heroines, so at any rate each one gets a reduced amount of content.

MML had a bit of drama with each heroine, some better, some worse (can't really be helped), but I guess that will be absent in Ponkotsu. Of course I don't rate MML as a nakige, but the presence of drama lands it comfortably in the land of regular moege.

Still, I guess both games are far from shit. I'm sure there are much worse offenders than Ponkotsu Akuma in the field of nukige. And what to say of the last frontier, NTR.

[ChaosRaven]

19 hours ago, Silvz said:

I didn't like Himawari either, and I think you're the first person I see that didn't love it.

Similar to what Dreamysyu said, I also remember the overall reception being more on the lukewarm side. Especially Decay giving it a rather average review.

Some people really seem to like it though. Not sure, maybe there's more to it if you manage to overcome the first two story arcs - I couldn't. I was also thinking about giving Island a try since it seems to be more fleshed out, but I'm not sure if it's only for die-hard Himawari fans.

[Stormwolf]

Yes, sometimes he's dense as hell. Regarding Yukino though, i kind of understand the issue. I do have a childhood friend myself, but i could never view her in any romantic way whatsoever. Whatsoever. Many complain about him here in Yukino's route, but it just seems real to me as it's something i could relate to. 

[Happiness+]

16 hours ago, Dreamysyu said:

Phenomeno... And, to be honest, this time I simply cannot understand why this is so popular.

Shit. That was one my top 5 VNs for 2018. 

*Prepares line of defense for tasteless opinion*

I don’t know another JVN like it that was so much fun to read in a single setting. I think it’s popular because it’s a quick, fun, “accessible” visual novel. Also, there’s a strange lack of horror VNs. Like seriously, when was the last good horror JVN? Anyone? Because all of the other ones or just gore fests. Trust me, watching cute anime girls getting mauled, decapitated, disembowled, dismembered, etc. can get boring real fast. 

 

Accessible meaning, no stupid nudity, nothing too vulgar either. Like I have puritanical Christian friends and I can comfortably recommend this VN to them because it’s just a ghost horror. Like the exorcist is more disturbing than this VN and religious wingnuts each that crap up like the Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. 

 

And, to be honest, this time I simply cannot understand why it isn’t popular enough. 

[adamstan]

5 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

Yes, sometimes he's dense as hell. Regarding Yukino though, i kind of understand the issue. I do have a childhood friend myself, but i could never view her in any romantic way whatsoever. Whatsoever. Many complain about him here in Yukino's route, but it just seems real to me as it's something i could relate to. 

Yeah, the first part was indeed relatable, although from what I remember he was somewhat attracted to her (but of course it was complicated). I thought that complaints were more about later parts of the route

Spoiler

When his overly clingy behaviour and him neglecting everything else around causes Yukino to break up with him.

At least that's what I'd complain about

As for denseness (is there such a word? Maybe I should say density?), he was worst in Ruuna's route I think.

But wait - hasn't the post about Hatsukoi 1/1 been moved to other topic? I can't see the post you're responding to?

[Swim Swim]

3 hours ago, Happiness+ said:

Shit. That was one my top 5 VNs for 2018. 

*Prepares line of defense for tasteless opinion*

I don’t know another JVN like it that was so much fun to read in a single setting. I think it’s popular because it’s a quick, fun, “accessible” visual novel. Also, there’s a strange lack of horror VNs. Like seriously, when was the last good horror JVN? Anyone? Because all of the other ones or just gore fests. Trust me, watching cute anime girls getting mauled, decapitated, disembowled, dismembered, etc. can get boring real fast. 

 

Accessible meaning, no stupid nudity, nothing too vulgar either. Like I have puritanical Christian friends and I can comfortably recommend this VN to them because it’s just a ghost horror. Like the exorcist is more disturbing than this VN and religious wingnuts each that crap up like the Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. 

 

And, to be honest, this time I simply cannot understand why it isn’t popular enough. 

The sad reality is that so called "gorefest" horror extremely rare at least for english only peasants(like me), you are really lucky to get access for these titles so much that you are getting bored. 

Btw you answered your own question, "why isn't popular enough" the keyword is "accessible", I really dont get what supposed to be horror in that game, in horror one want to see "horror" , but there is no gore no nudity etc nothing going on etc then whats supposed to be the horror if appeals to everyone?

[Happiness+]

37 minutes ago, Swim Swim said:

horror in that game, in horror one want to see "horror" , but there is no gore no nudity etc nothing going on etc then whats supposed to be the horror if appeals to everyone?

It’s a ghost story. Who hasn’t heard of a ghost story. That’s why it’s more accessible. Think Goosebumps. It’s like that kind of horror. I agree we are in a horror VN drought right now. Personally, I wasn’t scared by it but my friend was when we read it together because she’s scared of ghosts lolz. 

[Freestyle80]

Anything released by Sekai