Visual Novel Cafe

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What the fuck is that?!
It's not even full version of song! It's just ending video credits from game! And they banned me from that?! Qruppo, are you okay people?!
 
I have no idea what I'm looking at... did Qruppo claim monetizing rights on a video of the credits you uploaded? If so then that's within their right...
Or did they straight up take the video down? Most Japanese companies are notoriously reticent to Youtube/Twitch so that's nothing new either, especially eroges (with lolis) that probably want the least attention they can from the West.
 
Hey, thanks for the review.
I'm not a nukige person though. Well, not that I dislike a game with lots of ecchi scenes, but I don't like it when they jump straight to the point with no romance build up at all. =\

---

After getting distracted by many other things, I'm finally going back to finish Hatsukoi Sankaime. Most routes are decent at best, but Misaki's route, though not perfect, is wow. I don't remember the last time a VN made me cry like this. Gonna write about it some time soon.

misaki.png

Apart from that, I think there are a few titles I'm interested in this September and October.
 
Well as I said はるとゆき is kind of hybrid, you have story chapters that are pretty decent but since all chapters must have their ecchi scene (avoidable in the early ones) things have to get moving quickly.

Quick comments on recently played games :

誰も知らない天体への涙 : I wish I knew when I started it that it was going to be an episodic release, I guess the "chapter 1" subtitle should have given it away. Nevertheless, it's a pretty decent setup for a dark mystery/fantasy story that ends with quick the clash. It's extremely short (1, maybe 2 hours tops?) so they really should have released it for free as a demo. I hope the next chapters will come out relatively quickly if they are all going to be so short, I can see myself reading this occasionally. So far only an extra chapter outside the main story involving H with one (or more?) of the girls is planned, if they can keep the ero out of the main game and separated into out-of-plot chapters then it's all the better, so many mystery games are ruined by their forceful ero integration.

Pure Marriage ~赤い糸物語 : it... is pretty much what it says on the box, a very simple charage about "married" life, even though this is schoolkids we are talking about here. The prologue was a bit long with the usual donkan protagonist unable to notice the feelings of people around him, but once the choice is made it's pretty standard fare so far (not done with a single route yet). Friendly childhood friend, tsundere little sister, sheltered princess, catgirl, take your pick.

Triptych : trip to the past with this game from 2006! Originally started because it features cute heroines in gothic outfits (I'd welcome suggestions for more of these if anyone has some), it has a pretty good mysterious, lightly sinister atmosphere. However, it forces a fixed playing order that has the MC fall in love with multiple heroines in succession (while still remembering the other ones...) which makes his feelings feel very cheap. Not only that, but he fucks absolutely everything from maids to children which was more than a little repulsive. I don't know, I'm currently halfway through the last heroine's route before hopefully getting back to the first one, praying that it won't end up in a harem kind of bullshit, although considering the game's title my hopes are slim.

ルリのかさね ~いもうと物語り~ : I'm still very early in the game but I liked the quiet atmosphere it has in the early chapters. Also lots of apparently meaningless choice is something I always appreciate to keep me invested, especially since you can choose some silly options. Tragedy does strike eventually and I was rather put off by the way the game handled the transition : it just happened, Ruri "became" the protagonist's sister without any problem from social services and the like, despite making multiple mentions of how much of a struggle this would be. I'm sure it will resurface eventually (I hope...) but I was not at all convinced and currently putting the game on hold.

That's it!
 
Finished Hatsukoi Sankaime.

This is my first Windmill game after a pile of disappointment that is Iro ni Ide ni keri Waga Koi wa. I didn't want to play another game that was full of random mindless tried-too-hard comedy without meaningful story again, but this one interested me because it sounded like a pure love story and not as gimmicky as other VNs out there.

The game begins with the protagonist Taichi arriving at Kirigamine island ready to start his new life. There he met Himeka, the movie research club president, Yurino, a member of the same club, and Emiliya, a transfer student from Russia, and there's also Sui, the imouto. He joined the movie research club, spent time doing club activities (he even resolved his own unrequited love as the base for their next movie), and eventually developed feelings for Yurino. A flashback revealed that, during middle school, Taichi's confession to his first love Misaki went horribly wrong and he was left heartbroken. Then just when he was ready to move forward, he met a child ghost, Rin, who looked exactly like and reminded him of his first love.

The common route is mainly about Taichi and Yurino's progressing relationship and Rin's attachment to Taichi and other club members, with some slice of life here and there. Apart from Rin's appearance the rest is quite uneventful and can be a little boring. But I'm glad the story is more character driven than relying on gimmicky plot device for a change. Even though there are supernatural elements like Rin, the focus is still on character interaction and change.

But peaceful day didn't last forever. At the night when Taichi decided to confess to Yurino, Rin also confessed to him as if to say goodbye to him. Then in the next morning, she suddenly disappeared and everyone was shocked, and this is where the common route ends and branches off into individual routes.

For me the common route is a bit long but quite okay. If I were to find fault, it'd be how it focused too much on Yurino. It becomes pretty awkward when the subject of romance shifts from her to someone else.

Route order suggestion: Yurino > Emiliya > Sui > Himeka > Misaki

1. Yurino:
Loving, kind and friendly senpai who is a year older than Taichi. She was Taichi's main love interest throughout the common route. She felt that Rin's sudden disapperance was all her fault because she was the last person who talked to her. Taichi also blamed himself for this. But together they overcame the sadness and Taichi found the courage to confess to Yurino again and they became a couple. Everything seemed to be good until Misaki suddenly moved to Kirigamine. When Yurino learned about Taichi and Misaki's relation, she started to feel insecure and her hidden side started to surface (no she's not going yan or anything). Yurino's route is the closest route to the theme "first love vs new love" and "moving forward" I can get in this game and I like it. The change in her behavior was a bit surprising but by no means a bad move. There's little icha scene though, and I feel the writer could have made more and better use of the movie since it directly reflected Taichi and Yurino's relationship. Still, not a bad route overall.

2. Emiliya:
Transfer student from Russia. Gullible, a little airhead, and afraid of ghosts. Gotta admit it's fun to see her scream hysterically when Rin floats around. She came to Kirigamina in search of a certain ghost she'd met in her childhood. I feel some inconsistency here because at first she said she came to find a ghost in Kirigamine, but then she said she met that ghost in her hometown. Anyway, her route doesn't have any big drama and is a bit boring. It does reveal her past but doesn't have much to do with the main plot. If you're not a perfectionist, this is one of the route you can skip, unfortunately.

3. Sui:
The ultimate imouto who would sacrifice anything for her onii-chan's sake. If you're an imocon and want nothing but ichaicha with your imouto, this route is for you. However there's no drama at all. Just ichaicha from start to finish. Whether to skip this route or not is up to your preferences.

The problem with Emiliya and Sui is that, judging from the cover art I think there was originally going to be only three main heroines: Misaki, Yurino and Himeka. I feel they decided to add these two routes later and thus they feel irrelevant or incomplete. The difference in quality is clearly visible. Perhaps they should have given them more role in the common route or other heroine's role. But I guess having more ero scenes is always a good thing, right?

4. Himeka:
Himeka is a third year who's also the movie club president. She's two years older than Taichi. While looking around for a clue of Rin's whereabout, Taichi accidentally stumbled across Himeka's secret. This is perhaps the longest route in the game, spanning a length of time from school days to some years after. It reveal a lot of information behind the story, the truth about ghosts, the island's history, and Misaki's past. If you only want to understand everything that happened, just reading this route and Misaki's is enough. This is a great route though there is so much important information for the reader to swallow that the amount of icha became minimal. And romance transition is also somewhat awkward. Anyway, Taichi's self-sacrifice is really touching and the conclusion is satisfying.

5: Misaki
Taichi's first love who rejected his confession and moved away shortly after. Taichi was greatly traumatized because he thought he had hurt her. Misaki makes no appearance in the common route, and her route needs to be unlocked first by finishing any one of the other routes. In this route, we learn more about Misaki's past and her connection with Rin. I'm not that much content with how some supernatural elements were left unexplained, the romance transition from Yurino to Misaki (I wish they implemented the first love vs new love in her route more), and the relatively weak drama. Nevertheless, this route is easily the most emotional, most heartwarming in the game. Rin's true nature, Misaki's feelings, Rin's reunion with all the club members, everything is such a tearjerkers. Misaki came off as cool and unamiable at first, but how wrong was I. She's in fact so damn cute and that alone is enough to make me forget all the flaws in this route.

And there's also Mikoi, a subheroine whose ero scene is available in the after story mode. She has a small but important role in Misaki's route. I can't help but think that she was to have a bigger and more significant role, but due to the game being rushed, she was just reduced to an irrelevant character who existed only for one ero scene.

Overall, this game feels incomplete (evident in Emiliya and Sui's absence in cover art, Mikoi's minimal role, many unanswered questions, etc.). The number of CG apart from ero scenes is also quite small, only 5-6 per heroine. There's also the problem with balance. For example, the main question of getting over first love is only prominent in Yurino's route, Himeka's route is very long and keeps all the crucial information to itself, and Sui's route is really only about imouto and story-wise very insubstantial. But I love how this game is very character driven compared to others. I love the emotions, the feelings and love the characters have toward one another portrayed in this game. Also, I love Rin as a character. I'm usually skeptical about supernatural loli mascot characters like this, but I'm pretty content with how the writer used her. Of course there are flaws, but if you don't fuss over details that much, this is a pretty good pick. The conclusion of the story will move you. Especially Misaki's route. Just reading her route alone is worth the money (yes I'm being biased).
 
Well... I think, Ensemble has problems with budget? Or... It is just my thoughts?

Well, their latest game Koihana has only 1 opening (usually their non-trap-protagonist games always had 2 openings since Golden Marriage).

And their new game Ototsuki about trap... There is no any info about ED song in soundtrack or something, so... no ED song anyway? Only opening? That is really strange, they never did that...

Also, their videos "stage", where characters always talk about place in game... Now without any voice acting. That surprised me a lot. Are they really... Seriously? Hm, to be honest, I don't want Ensemble to go bankrupt, if so...
 
SMEE's announced 10th project, site open in two weeks' time.

Looks like Cuffs (Cube et al.) is opening yet another new brand: Sonora, and with it the next game.
 
After coming by this もっと!孕ませ!炎のおっぱい異世界エロ魔法学園! game by chance. I need to say that I really praised by this eroge so much! The CG are so well-made and everything is just perfect! Sadly this is the first title by this company (Milk Factory) and with its predecessor company already dead I guess I need to look for another title before they release the second work.

Can anyone here give me some recommendation to the Eroge with similar genre to this one ? With lots of girl, Harem scene and impregnation stuff ? I don't care much about story-line by the way.
 
Have you taken a look at SQUEEZ games, Milk Factory's previous name? Same scenarist, same artist, same title style, should fit right down your alley. I haven't played any of them because this is not at all down mine but you should have enough in their back catalogue to last you quite a long time while waiting for a new release probably next year, if they keep their previous schedule.
 
Some info on SMEE's upcoming game thanks to some magazine scans :


It's going to be titled Sugar*Style and to my greatest dismay and despite the company's previous game Making Lovers switch to more adult characters, it's... back to boring old generic high school setting. To boot, it's the oh so bland 'only boy in the girls dorm' twist. At least it's not cross-dressing (it seems, could still be...) but man is that a letdown. No childhood friend and little sister, all strangers at the start.

It'll feature such grand features such as being able to decide what you want the protagonist to time on (each heroine having her own pastime, it's basically a heroine choice), and being able to search the room of the protagonist's girlfriend to look for "treasures", as well as receiving nightly visits of your loved one in your room at night (apparently every man's dream..?).

Same artist/scenarist as Making Lovers so the gags should be alright at least. CV cast isn't spectacular with まのめるか, 南波みみ, 花澤さくら and 叶芽椋. Hanazawa Sakura is alright, no idea about the others. Expectations : average, it's SMEE but it sounds so generic. Planned for January of next year.
 
Seems like they are bouncing back and forth...with PurexConnect (university protag and slightly aged cast), KanojoxStep (back to school), then MakingxLovers (essentially working age)...the ones that are more adult still have two high schooler options...

...if that's the case...brace for shimoneta barrage...
 
Seems like they are bouncing back and forth...with PurexConnect (university protag and slightly aged cast), KanojoxStep (back to school), then MakingxLovers (essentially working age)...the ones that are more adult still have two high schooler options...

...if that's the case...brace for shimoneta barrage...
Oh you better be prepared, since one of the heroine's trait (Kaname) is being able to keep up with the protagonist's shimoneta jokes. Shimoneta humor seems to be trendy right now in the eroge world so I don't see SMEE backing away from their bad habits.

Here's hoping the next game will feature character even older than Making Lovers, although it was already a little bit clumsy having all heroines without any dating (let alone sexual) experience at that age (Saki...), so I don't know. Anything but high school would be fine.
 
So Circus announced D.C.4. I love D.C.2 but I'm pretty indifferent cuz of all the milking. I wish they exercise some moderation. =\

Has anyone played D.C.3? And how was it?
 
The magazine scans were found on a Chinese forum, not sure what their actual origin is.

Quick comments on ラズベリーキューブ : Almost no common route, I like it. Almost no other heroine interaction either (some small appearances here and there), I like it as well. Both of these combined means that less text is spent on the same motemote situations we've all seen before and more is dedicated to the actual romance, and especially the early parts, very good. I played Minato and about half of Yuu so far, Minato's route hinted at potential drama (the grandma) but it wasn't developed at all and it was as advertised a very 'stress free' experience. Will continue.

Edit: Yuu route. Pretty fun for the first half or so, especially with lots of interactions with the dad. Not so much when the game introduces mass media and groups of delinquents to the mix. It remains pretty light but it's not the most welcome development. I also didn't like the protagonist's attitude at the end of the route and during the omake scenario either. Still alright but definitely not as good as Minato's route was, and a pretty sour note to end on.

Edit2 : Ruri route. She changes so much in the transition from the first half (up to the "confession") to the second half that she's an entirely different character. That change was very abrupt, and I can understand not wanting to stick to her earlier personality, but this felt odd. She was pretty annoying during the first half, but I was starting to warm up to her. She's still cute in her 'deredere' form, and quite the pervert at that so H scenes are pretty good. Second half story was alright at first, pure ichacha, but quickly turned bad, especially the later parts with the gang, I would have gladly done without it altogether as it was all very obvious and didn't serve much purpose.

Edit3 : Mikoto route. I didn't like it much, for multiple reasons. First is the omnipresence of the apartment residents, all of them being annoying to various degrees and certainly neither funny or interesting. Second is the omnipresence of money in the route, the confession felt more like buying her out, the insistence of the protagonist to sell her image at every turn doesn't match with his supposed desire to keep her to himself, and the final resolution is so far fetched that I bet anyone who ever considered opening a home business will cringe. This is intruding even in the icha-icha moments, not good at all. Third, lots of plot points are left unanswered, the biggest one being the past relationship between the two : not once did the protagonist remember her. Last, Kitami Rikka doesn't really fit a oneesan character at all, especially with this visual.

Final words : average game, pretty good icha-icha in all the route but that's pretty much all the good there is to the game. The plots are shallow and similar for most, and the comedy isn't great. For a stress free experience introducing delinquents, gangs, yakuza and money matters isn't the best approach. Art is the typical madosoft with balloons for chests, H scenes are pretty good and I could definitely feel the influence of Marmalade works here and there. Music is fine, but unskippable credits were pretty annoying. CV cast was okay but the most talented one (Kitami Rikka) I felt was miscast and could have been better used with another style of heroine.
 
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Just made a quick work of 2 Making * Lovers FD. The content is as you would expect from the original game, but it’s so short that you can finish all 5 routes in a few hours. I can’t believe they dare charge ¥6000 each. This much content some other games offer as DLC for free. Strongly suggest against buying them.

Now starting Karigurashi Renai and waiting for Atropos to come out this month.
 
SMEE has a bad track record with their fandisks (in fact they even sometimes call them "mini" fandisks), I remember being surprised at how short the one for Fureraba was. The only one that was really worth it was Dousei Lover Able, but it's more a sequel than a fandisk.

Quick question about Atropos and Hulotte games in general : is the protagonist generally a good guy? Because the premise and the title have me very worried this will turn out like the oh-so-many hypnosis/time-stop games in which the protagonist abuses his power to do various naughty "pranks" to the girls. 5 minutes time-stop doesn't seem that long but you know, teenagers can be fast and what's stopping him from using the watch again before time runs out anyway...
 
Being a charage maker after all, I don’t think they’ll have the protag do some nasty stuff. Their protags are always good-natured. Haven’t played the demo myself but I expect there will be some comedy about how he tries to pull something out of curiosity / tries to fix some situation but can’t put everything back where they were before time limit runs out, and such. There will probably be a good amount of vanilla which I’m all for, but I’m also curious how they’ll make the story interesting with this plot device.
 
SMEE has a bad track record with their fandisks (in fact they even sometimes call them "mini" fandisks), I remember being surprised at how short the one for Fureraba was. The only one that was really worth it was Dousei Lover Able, but it's more a sequel than a fandisk.

Quick question about Atropos and Hulotte games in general : is the protagonist generally a good guy? Because the premise and the title have me very worried this will turn out like the oh-so-many hypnosis/time-stop games in which the protagonist abuses his power to do various naughty "pranks" to the girls. 5 minutes time-stop doesn't seem that long but you know, teenagers can be fast and what's stopping him from using the watch again before time runs out anyway...

I have my slight worrires about Hulotte's latest setting as well, but having played all their prior VNs: Yes, their MCs were all good guys. Purplesoftware's Chrono Clock did something along very short time manipulation as well (I think rewinding time a few minutes [or seconds?] back once a day), and the MC was fine imho.
 
Thanks for the feedback, I might give it a try then because there's really not much else to look forward to in the upcoming October releases. I've always avoided Hulotte titles until now because their titles sound so nukige-ish (I have too many brides/I am too popular/etc...). Would you recommend any of them in particular? Not a fan of the "too-popular" thing these games tend to have in common though.

I remember Chrono Clock, or at least I remember I only played two routes of it and gave up during the transfer student one. It was indeed pretty tame in the ecchi department (only in extra mode if I remember right?), a long shot from what Purple Software does these days. Another good time rewind gimmick is in Dekinai Watashi ga, Kurikaesu, with his protagonist that tries to use his watch to alter the past (and ultimately always fails). Then again, time-rewind and time-stop are too relatively different things and the latter is more seen in nukige to my knowledge.
 
As a premisse: All of Hulotte's VNS have supernatural elements. If you want some kind of "impact" the MC feels, you may look into 妹のおかげでモテすぎてヤバい if you don't mind the check list feeling of route order à la rejecting girl A moves you to girl B etc. On the other hand the MC does feel terrible for rejecting them. Kanae's route has also backlash on the supernatural aspect, which I personally found alright in how it played out. Some of the individual route drama felt rather over the top, based on my preference.

嫁探しが捗りすぎてヤバい has an actual harem route as the last unlockable one, which is more or less tied to its supernatural aspect or background parts of it, but during the main route(s), the MC stays loyal to his girlfriend. The first route is fixed + the imouto route is locked until you played through the four main heroines'.

With Ribbon has no route restrictions. The time-travel element and how it's used to get the heroine's heart doesn't feel always optimal iirc due to how you have to repeat some of the common route sections + Kasumi's route had quite a tacked-on feeling. It's a shame that Airi didn't get a route or fandisc treatment, given her OBVIOUS crush on the MC, though :D.

神頼みしすぎて俺の未来がヤバい makes the MC for a very short time also feel bad about using his circumstances to approach the girls, but it gets handwaved away pretty quickly afterwards. I didn't mind it, to be honest, but I can see how it could give a bad taste while playing it. I'm quite fond of the heroines. Urara's route drama is kinda predictable as it's used in other VNs with similar "goddess heroines" more or less.
 
As a premisse: All of Hulotte's VNS have supernatural elements. If you want some kind of "impact" the MC feels, you may look into 妹のおかげでモテすぎてヤバい if you don't mind the check list feeling of route order à la rejecting girl A moves you to girl B etc. On the other hand the MC does feel terrible for rejecting them. Kanae's route has also backlash on the supernatural aspect, which I personally found alright in how it played out. Some of the individual route drama felt rather over the top, based on my preference.

Actually, if you have been carefully reading, every main heroine routes (plus Meguri) has a varying degree of that backlash, only in that route is the most direct while others are indirect and can be interpreted simple as changes in circumstances.
 
-There are quite a number of ero scenes but I wouldn't consider them nukige because they still focus heavily on romance.

-Some of these games' supernatural settings have the heroines' affection toward the protag start off higher than normal, so romance impetus might be a little weak. (not IxShe Tell skip-all-relationship-formation high, so it's still not that bad).

-All these games follow roughly the same formula. The protag has some kind of superpower and is put in a situation where he must choose one of the girls to be his girlfriend. Because they feel the same, I can't really recommend one over another. The plots and dramas aren't particularly deep or strong, but the vanilla and heartwarming factors are high. Just what you'd expect from a charage. These games have their weak points but if you don't think too much and just want a calm read then they're still pretty enjoyable.

-Kanae is so cute.
 

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