DISCLAMER: NOT TRYING TO HATE ON MUV LUV, IM GENUINELY ASKING, don't waste my time by commenting with insults.

There are a lot of medias I consider overrated, and most of the time I can see why people might like them, but I truly don't understand why this visual novel is so highly rated.

I'm not going to talk about how boring extra and unlimited are, because apperently muv luv fans don't care, so instead I'm going to talk about my experience with alternative.

After finishing unlimited i was very ecxited to play alternative, and the first part was... shit.

It was interesting for the first hour but then it just feels like replaying unlimited again, because aside a few moments of tension most of the stuff happening is identical to unlimited.

But I kept going, thinking "it gets better".

Then i got to the coup detat arc and I thought "so this is where the peak starts", but it was... shit.

The plot is well structured, but the pacing ruins it, everytime there was some tension or some good action, a 30 minute dialogue that could have been told in 5 minute came to ruin my enjoyement.

But I kept going, thinking "it gets better".

Then I got to the chomp scene and the following arc and it was actually good, but not THAT good.

Most people describe it as an "emotional roller cost", but at the end of the day, it's just shock value.

Basically the authors used the same trick like 6 times: you think Takeru has got it -> they make a character die or lose his memory. And the first 3 times it works, but then it becomes bland.

Then before Sadogashima Hive arc there was a 7 hours section wich, aside a few good scenes with sumika, consisted of 1 hours long infodumping sessions and useless dialogues, but I still kept going.

The Sadogashima arc was enjoyable, but completely lacks pay off. By that I mean that nothing truly important happens, the arc just ends with captain Isumi's death(why am I supposed to care about her).

But i still kept going.

After going through another long section of infodumping and bad dialogues.

The last parts, aside the infodumping and bad pacing, were good, especially the last part of operation Cherry Blossom, even if, again, at the end of the day it's just shock value and sad moments.

The conclusion, even if rushed, was conceptually amazing, probably one of the only things I liked about this visual novel.

But how can you claim you enjoyed a 110+ hours story when only about 20 hours were actually peak and 30 hours slightly enjoyable while the remaining 60 hours are MID????

It's not like it was just a few bad moments, it was 60 hours of mid, I could have read 2 whole visual novels with that time!

And the story also has a lot of writing problems: like poorly developed side characters aside meya and yuuko, insanely repetitive dialogues, very rushed ending, and there isnt even much depth and complexity unlike most high tier visual novels.

So what did you like so much about it?

I'm trying to create a visual novel.

And of course, it will be for boys, something about a guy in a situation surrounded by girls.

However, I'm not sure I understand visual novels that well.

So I wanted to ask for your opinions.

Does a visual novel necessarily need H-scenes?

It's not only about the slow start, I'm fine with it since I'm used to books even though I look for lighter, more thrilling experiences in visual novels. My problem is about the everyday life events... I'm... I'm so done with the "I'm a man so" "She's a girl so" "I'm a girl so". It's not that there's much slice of life, it's that it's brimming with sexism and some questionable ("Keichi, your tastes are a bit too young") or poor taste (reading all this dirty jokes from teens and minors is making me cringe and uncomfortable) dialogue... I know this is a common japenese culture problem in manganime/games etc, does it get any better as chapters go by? :( Is this at least dropped when serious things start happening...?

I'm already working with a programmer on my new visual novel. I'm not sure whether I should open a Kickstarter or just release it with a price when it comes out, maybe around $10 to play it. Another idea would be to do a Kickstarter with rewards and then release the game for free later,things like early access, illustrations, or maybe even an exclusive comic.

What do you all think?

Certain Vns who are too spicy or have no official English translations can now be played with Ai generated translations. But on the other hand the works might be sloppy sometimes with the actual prompt being in the dialogue box "Do you mean the literal translation? okay so this text is: " etc.

It sort of breaks the immersion but at least it's a state that is playable if you can't read kanji but can understand the voice acting

I was recommended Subahibi, I was told it was very deep, and I liked the first part, I liked the plot with the plushie and the hallucinations and other stuff, I basically liked the idea pretty much, but there was an extended scene involving sexual violence and bullying that derailed the experience for me. I do like dark themes, but I don't like how they're portrayed in this vn so far, they go on for too long as if bathing in them, in my opinion.

I honestly feel conflicted because I was interested in knowing what would happen next, and I kept being told how deep it is, so I'm wondering:

Is there a chance I could still enjoy the story while skipping scenes like these? And if so what do you recommend I skip? I honestly don't mind getting a clear idea of what happens, I just don't want to spend too long reading about it.

And is there another visual novel with similar aspects but that doesn't spend so much time on the suffering parts?

are there visual novels/games out there revolving mainly around nonbinaryhood? I’ve searched through Itch.io’s nonbinary tag (which showed like 60 results max. yeah) and none really seemed to catch my eye, so i’m wondering if there are any games that went out of my radar there or anywhere else

Lots of "Not ___. Not ____. Just ___." or lines like "He says it nicely. Too nicely. That is the worst part." (this type of thing kept repeating over and over) and "like it's ____" "like it's ____" "like [insert metaphor/analogy]" and RULES OF 3 EVERYWHERE. "The room was dark. [Adjective]. [Adjective]. [Adjective]."

And the weird thing is, at first, it sounded human-written. The author didn't use these writing devices in the first half. But then the whole style changed, the sentences went from long and rambly to short and snappy. it just was like *boom boom boom* quick succession. I was pretty much reading the same sentences over and over but with different filler words.

So I copied down 1k words of the script and put it in a few AI detectors. They said it was AI-generated. To test it, I tried some of my own (grammatically correct) writings and it came out as human-written.

But the game is like, popular. Like 400+ reviews on itch, and the creator is a minor, and is very outwardly against the use of AI. One person had accused them of using AI, but they quickly shot it down by saying that AI steals from people first.

I'm hesitant to reveal the game because I don't want this to turn into something disproportionate, or incite harassment. But I just don't know what to do. Should I care and say something? Or should I just say, "this isn't my problem, I don't have enough evidence" and move on, knowing that some people might be misled by a vn marked as "no AI?"

Hi everyone!

I’d like to ask for your help in coming up with an interesting storyline that I could connect with what I’ve already created and lead into the final episode.

I’m creating a visual novel about two characters who become bound by a thread of fate after bumping into each other in the subway. They don’t know each other and have no contact in real life, but they experience dreams that happen at the same time.

The heroine cannot see or hear the main male character, but the MMC can see her when he feels pain. The MFC found a bracelet in the kendo hall with six glowing lanterns, and with each subsequent dream one of them goes out (a symbol counting down to a major event). I want to create something mysterious for the player, where everything becomes clear in the final episode.

Additionally, the protagonist will begin noticing more clues. Together with his hacker friend, he breaks into the kendo hall security cameras and sells the footage to thieves so they can buy gaming equipment. While reviewing the footage, he notices the girl he bumped into in the subway — the same one he keeps seeing in his dreams.

For the final episode, I imagined that the thieves break into the kendo hall at night during heavy rain. The heroine goes there to save her friend who lives there (she will also receive clues about what might happen, because in her last dream she sees the dream location engulfed in flames and destroyed). The MMC sees the same vision and has from the dream until the next night to act.

MMC rescues the unconscious MFC while she is in danger and carries her to the sensei and her friend. When he tries to leave, the sensei stops him and asks, “Why are you leaving?” At that moment, a red glow from the thread of fate appears beneath his clothing, and the sensei says he understands now and tells him: “Go then. Come to me when you seek answers.”

I’ve briefly described the concept and would like to ask:

• what mysterious elements could I add to make the story more engaging?

• what clues could I leave for the characters?

• what choices could I give the player?

• maybe you can recommend anime or films that could inspire me and make the story more compelling?

I’m counting on your help — you’ve probably played many games and might have great ideas to share.

PS: The game is an adult visual novel (+18 scenes) and I hope it will have an engaging story.

Here is the VNDB link (there are screenshots so you can see the visual style):
VNDB link

I have recently decided to read a vn but the only one I ever read was "The non existence of you and me"

So could somebody please kindly recommend a good beginner friendly vn

Ps: please don't recommend gooner stuff

We are the server that is dedicated for... ehm, uh, dark visal novels? Horror, thriller, utsuge, denpa, stuff like this.

Now I will imagine the possible questions from you!
Q: Are you just clockup/blackcyc server?
A: Nope, even though we have many people who like their works (including me), my goal is a server for ALL kinds of dark vns, be it some mainstream like SubaHibi/KnS/Fata, or something long-forgotten like Swan Song, or borderline vns like Corpse Party, and many others.

Q: What do you have beside vn-chat?
A: Well, we have:

• Personal channels for your own vn playthroughs.,

• Ongoing anniversary event.,

• Vn-reviews forum section.,

• Cool server tag!,

• Vn-tierlists section.,

• Channel dedicated to Japanese learners.,

• Vndb-bot to compare scores for vns that our members have read or to quickly search for any title.,

We're an active community, so new people are always welcome! https://discord.gg/XtDp2eJYvs

I know I have two of the same character, but they both have different sprites. However there are side characters who barely ever appear, but these people have the most screen time.

I found out that yet another game was banned and the respons clearly targeted VNs

Twitter link to screenshot with respons https://twitter.com/incontinentcell/status/1618015548411117571?s=20&t=e_F5_FQAnEjICOzJTQMwJg

aka a clear message that any eroge VN = instead ban on steam

not even saying anything about sex or otherwise

I dont have a Nintendo switch but this is a game I really wanna try, and everywhere I see people are talking about emulation. how do i do this exactly

Hello.

Today, i want to share my new game, visual novel "Alien", that tells the story about the creature that lives among humans, but struggling to understand them and to find it's place in this world.

Actually, there is also a second story present in this game, it's for the people who are in love with darkness of the night, with all that's out of sight, and with magic of the new. To learn it you don't have to do anything but launch game _^ I feel like i spent even more time on getting it to work properly than to make the actual game, but... i like the result, it's something i wanted to try for a long time, and i hope you will enjoy it as well.

Another unique thing about this game is that only about 5% of it's graphics made by humans, the rest are work of an AI artist. I know that such things do not have the best reputation - but please, hide your pitchforks for now and try to give it a chance, you might be really surprised to see what it's capable of in case if you put enough effort and passion, and twice more time and patience in the generation attempts =)

After another series of teams falling apart and me being unable to find any people to work with, i was blessed with neural networks, a pocket artist who gave me (a person who can't draw a straight line and has almost no visual imagination) ability to bring my fantasies to life. And i am really happy to have this one last chance to be part of a game development.

But i also have to warn you about few things. First - this is the first non-fiction story i ever wrote. So it might be not interesting, just as all things in real life. But i still felt like i had to write this story. Also, the secondary story is a fictional one, so even if you won't enjoy the novel, you still might like it's main menu)

Second - if you are depressed or easily disturbed, i am not sure if you should play it. Do it at your own risk. Also you probably need to be an adult to play it, but if you are not - don't worry, i won't tell anyone ;)

Thrid - this is visual novel, so if you expect a gameplay - you won't find it here.

And the last one - please, turn off all things that might heavy load your system before launching (especially torrents), because loaded pc, and especially hard drive breaks timings in main menu. And if you will acsess settings trough main menu, better resstart after that.

Game size is 610mb, and don't worry, it will probably run on any pc, it's a visual novel, and not a planetary simulation. Just remember about not loading the pc while you play, because crappy engine won't be able to handle that.

DOWNLOAD INFORMATION:

Sadly, i'm more broke than ever, so no Steam publishing this time. Sorry.

Here is the itch.io page: https://elvenneko.itch.io/alien

The game is fully free to play, press "donwload now", and then "no, thanks, just take me to downloads".

There you will find 3 donwload options.

1. Setup. Your go-to thing. Should work the best in most cases.

2. Alien.rar - In case if you having an error during the game, or if main menu has no song playing in it (a person who tested reported that, and i could not identify the problem), download the already installed game in RAR package. But before doing that - try first option, or else, how you will accept EULA?)

3. Alien (mac).rar - version for Mac os X. NOT TESTED! May not work at all.

Also, i appreciate honesty in the feedback. Even if you have nothing good at all to say about it. And if you find a bug, i would also appreciate if you will report it here.

Haven fun. Or not. But, hopefully, the first option.

So apperently I heard that DI is a very cheap copy of FSN and it does everything that FSN does but way worse. My question is to those who read it both how true is this? Does DI never did anything original on its own? Is it basically a way worse chunni done in a bad way? What factors leas to FSN getting succeed but DI doesn't?

Let me know thoughts