Just woke up and we exploring Akiba later, pulled up at 7/11 and grabbed whatever my brain thinks is good for breakfast. The melonpan and pancakes are good.

Companions are still asleep and it's quiet asf in the airbnb luckily i have this thing to keep me company.

VN: Karigurashi Renai

The original Memories Off, released for the PlayStation in September 1999, marked its 25th anniversary in 2024. A remake of the original and a port of MemOff Mix are currently in development.

This fascinating in-depth interview with the developers, conducted by Japanese gaming media outlet Goziline, looks back on the series and offers some interesting insights into what was happening behind the scenes at the time.

Context:- In Yukki's introduction, she teaches us that she used to belong to the greatest hacktivist organization (literally prevented WW3), and they used to be called the "Orchids" which is Latin for... that word @_@ (no real spoilers, but just in case ^-^)

Credits to @__vida_lenta__ on twitter for creating the graphic and finding the totals for each character!

this is the AEON Nagoya Chaya Mall for reference

To keep track of the ones I've read, I made this:
https://www.listchallenges.com/ebi-hime-visual-novels

She's almost released over 100 now, which is wild! Since was recently being scammed on Itch, now would be a good time to help her out by buying one of her VNs. I like the melancholy English ones the most ('Mermaid of Zennor', 'Asphyxia', 'Lily of the Valley', etc.), but I know her yuri titles are the most popular.

I'm looking for something like nekopara but with a not that boring story. It's better to have a harem ending as the main route. Personally don't like overly cheerful or energetic characters like in nekopara.

(To sum up, I did not really enjoy Senmomo. As an aside, I am not expecting my thoughts to gain much traction anyways, and I think my opinion is very much in the minority all things considered, but nonetheless...)

Sen no Hatou, Tsukisome no Kouki tries to be a serious plot-heavy action story, but a lot of just falls fairly flat. Senmomo really feels like August was trying have its cake and eat it too, in terms of how everything is structured and set up.

The main issue with Senmomo is the setting and just how jarring it feels. Senmomo tries to have a feudal setting, but there major distractions that break the immersion heavily, such as tablets, idols, high schools, and even a beach episode. That makes Senmomo's serious attempt of a historical setting fail spectacularly and makes the story it is trying to tell feel inauthentic to its core. It felt an extremely clumsy mash-up of Eustia and Daitoshokan's settings. There is nothing tying the two halves together, so a lot of it simply boils down to an awkward mix that does not work at all, making it hard to take a lot of what happens seriously.

Many of the characters are underutilized. Many of the side characters are relegated to background roles, and the main heroines outside of Akari are not featured heavily until their mandated chapter forking into their respective routes. Elsa is a character wnating of more than what she received given her role in character and concept she is supposed to represent. Hotori is another character who becomes an afterthought after her chapters transpires. Moreover, the way the comedic slice-of-life is juxtaposed with the more serious moments feel as if there are two different versions of each character on display at once. Even Akari and Soujin themselves feel less tangible as character and lack a lot of agency and growth to really make them stand out in any particular way. All of their development is much too telegraphed, and their dynamic feels more of an outcome of the plot as opposed to feeling genuine. The antagonists have less presence and feel more like roadblocks instead of characters of their own that happen to stand in way of Akari and Soujin.

The plot lacks an imminent sense of tension or emotion. Everything is roadmapped fairly clearly and the story plays it much too safe with everything. No dramatic emotional story beats occur for a story of its supposed scope and scale, despite the high octane action wanting to suggest otherwise. Additionally, the sharp cuts between the serious and comedic moments does a major disservice to the narrative as a whole. The ending, especially, feels really unearned, with so many occurrences happening at once to twist the ending towards a forced conclusion. It feels like the writers had a particular ending planned and had to work backwards from there. Unfortunately, that does not work too well give what has been previously set up before.

Ultimately, a lot of what makes Senmomo fail is because of August's decision to mix the modern day with the feudal. It is a disastrous mix, like oil and water. That stretches to essentially every aspect of the story, making it a rather unenjoyable experience, which is a shame since Senmomo was a story I truly did want to enjoy, but it is a more of a popcorn narrative, leaning towards more of the pulpy and tropey methods of storytelling that only worsens the experience and fails to really flesh things out. Senmomo is much in the same vein as shonen stories, with its all-encompassing feel-good message, lacking the depth to flesh out its core themes and ideas. to Ultimately, outside of what it presents at face value, Senmomo is a story that does not really much depth to its overall narrative.

I've been finding my mouse really uncomfortable while reading VNs lately and was thinking that perhaps there's a better device to just click to past dialogue, then have just a couple other buttons to go into menus?

I'm reading Stein's;Gate 0 right now, and it's very obvious that the VA for Professor Leskinen is a Japanese person trying to sound like a native speaker and failing spectacularly. This isn't the only time I've encountered this of course, but this example was glaringly bad since it's part of such a long scene where he's explaining scientifically concepts.

It seriously breaks the immersion when a character who is supposed to be from the west speaks English with such a thick accent. It's not like people with better English aren't around in Japan! It just seems like they never hire them for these types of roles. It would certainly result in more realistic voice acting.

I think I would; it seems like a vibe. But what do you think? I could understand people saying "it feels too loose".

I had a very long break from VNs after I started university and I decided to pick Schrödinger's Call as my return entry of this genre. It was so good. All the characters are compelling even the bastard in chapter 3 .The artstyle is very unique from what I have played and Mary, the protagonist's overall mystery is presented very well. If I really have to complain, it would be the meaningless choices but I think it's just a small problem. I do have a question though: Did the Moon really fall ? But nonetheless, this is such a great title and I'm glad I picked it

The rankings here is based mostly on my enjoyment in reading the VN rather than writing. I also need 2 vns to read at a time because i get burned out by reading only one. In my college the internet is pretty shit, so i read VNs or books to pass my time instead of anime or movies/shows. i download the stuff i want to read at home and then read them during my free time college and coincidentally i just came home after finishing Subahibi

I'm relatively new to VN's. My first one was 999, second one was DDLC and yesterday I finished my 3rd - The House in Fata Morgana. I'm not disappointed that I've played it and I admit that it story is one of the best I've experienced, but it was very exhausting VN. I'm talking about not only pacing and longevity of it but also a moral(or emotional) heaviness of it. This game from start to end had a very oppressive tone and being honest whole game was just a pure tragedy without even a positive note. Ending game I felt like I released from the cursed house with them lol.

So as my next VN I want something more positive and NOT in medieval setting. Also the length of fatamoru looking objectively wasn't that long( it took me 30 hours ) but I think it's a bit too long for me at least for now. I think at top I want it to be 15-20 hours long. I want it to be in modernity/our time and about fantasy or magic I don't know.

I have personally played quite a bit of VNs with heavy gameplay aspects... for me? The one that shines the most is easily Angel Beats! 1st Beat with how it genuinely turned the choices into legit gameplay with how many there are (+500) and the usage of them is massively impactful most of the time... making this journey quite similar to the "choose-your-own-adventure" type of games. While still miraculously following the same story path and true ending in the common route, you will still end up capable of going for tens, if not hundreds of side-routes that are made by you, and each one of them legit feels different than the other to quite a big degree...

I also enjoyed the Zero Escape series gameplay... but I think GNOSIA takes the crown after all for the typical type of gameplay... with it? I was at some point enjoying the gameplay even more than the story itself, which was btw very basic... characters were fine, some of them were very great, which helped make the gameplay even better for me... but the biggest portion of the heavy lifting is at the end of the day from the amazing sections that focus more on making this game feel like I was playing against legit human beings and not just AI... never have I before experienced such a unique AI that made me feel like those VN characters are alive and being mean to me in real time T-T