Visual Novel Cafe

[kzel]

Time to begin comments on this month's games with アイベヤ. Will this mark the return of Azarashi Soft to Amakano greatness? Unfortunately, no, apart from the art everything about it is terrible. Even from low-price standards.

Spoiler: Aibeya, spoilers, complaints

Before even starting the game, just the appearance of the Artemis logo came at quite a shock. Usually the trademark of cheap nukiges, seeing Azarashi Soft use this instead of their own engine was really disappointing. And to boot, it still retains the most glaring flaw of Azarashi titles : no widescreen support.

Going a bit further, the first feeling that came to mind was "low effort". This is something that to some extent can't be helped in low-price games, but there are limits not to cross. It's fine to not give sprites to sub-characters, even though they have a very strong presence in the story. But at least give them a voice! Or if you can't, at the very least don't make them the center of every major plot development!

Speaking about the plot, this time's writer, who mostly does nukiges and it shows, failed to entice anything but contempt and boredom. The story is about what you'd expect from the synopsis : childhood friends are attracted to each other but since both sides are donkan about it, they need the help of everyone around them to realize their feelings. And I mean everyone. Their parents basically push them together right from the very beginning, their friends do the same at every opportunity, to the extent that it feels both of them are more forced in the relationship by their surroundings than actually desiring it themselves, which is very very bad.

This is not helped by the characters, starting with the protagonist. In addition to the donkan trait mentioned above, he is extremely passive, unless it's about sex... For most of the game he doesn't initiate any action and just waits, waits, waits, all the while Aki, the heroine, tries multiple approaches. If it wasn't for the constant brain-washing "encouragement" from this surroundings it's doubtful he would have confessed at all. Aki herself also needs the same amount of encouragement, but at least she's proactive about the "trial" period. Unfortunately I didn't feel anything for her. She is not helped by the fact that she is voiced by Momoyama Ion, who voiced Kanade in another game (the comparison hurts), and while she is a good CV her performance here was rather lackluster. I can't fault her given the script, not all CVs have the power to turn a game good by their presence alone.

The art is about the only thing that saves this game, I seriously think I would have enjoyed it more as a CG collection than an actual VN. Some shots are pretty cute but when I think about the characters in it, they are ruined. Music is entirely forgettable.

Next month's Azarashi is written by the same person, so I wouldn't expect it to be any better. I will give the company one more chance with Aikagi 2 (Momiage Lupin-R can write moe romance as proven in Koinosu even though Aikage sucked), but if it doesn't improve then this will also be the last.

 

[Veshurik]

Thank you for your Aibeya opinion! I think, it's feature of Azarashi Soft - 4:3 screen support? It's strange, yeah, some companies still releases their VNs at 4:3 in 2019... Aries also, and some nukige companies like bootUP! etc.
But I remember how Azarashi Soft released PV for Amakano series in 16:9... Hah...

Am I right, Aibeya doesn't have even opening movie? It is terrible. Opening song sung by Rin'ca, and text by Duca, why no opening movie, I wanted to see that! What actually the f..., Azarashi Soft...

Oh, as I can see, that low-price game is 10 hours playthrough? I counted, it has 11182 lines of text. But H scenes takes 3531 lines of text. So, well... ~33% of game is sex scenes. So, it is not nukige, but for CG collection it can be seems so...
Because 10 HCG and only 7 usual CG, total 17...

I'm so stupid analytic person, I don't know why... Ahaha. Who even besides me would count scenario size, number of CG, etc...

 

[pingtoryan]

I'm beginning to wonder whether 1 hour long (on default auto speed) Hscenes are a good idea...

 

[kzel]

I don't remember Aibeya having an opening movie, but then again I'm really the wrong person to ask because whatever the game I never watch them and whenever possible just skip them. The reason for that is because the games usually have a limited amount of CG material and so opening movies tend to be extremely spoilery in nature. 10 hours playthrough? I don't know about that, it took me 4 hours but I did skim a lot at the end, and skip all but the first ecchi scene that I only skimmed through : I just couldn't care enough about the characters. These scenes didn't feel particularly long either, usually a single CG affair, although the later ones seemed to repeat the Azarashi style of minimum two ejaculations per CG that can really stretch things up. As for the normal text, there are a lot of dialog with friends (not voiced), and some lengthy description of food. Not much in terms of plot though.

Currently playing SWEET&TEA's ネコ神さまと、ななつぼし -妹の姉- and I like it a lot more already.

 

[Veshurik]

Anyway, thank you for your opinions as always.

About Nekotsubo by Sweet & Tea... When I read the plot, I am like "what?"..
Is it really eroge, not transsexual VN or something else? Because when your sister sees you as a girl, that's... eww... am I understand it right?..

 

[kzel]

No, no transsexual or anything like that, there's a reason Erika (the little sister) sees the protagonist as her sister rather than her brother but it is rather secondary, only happens in their home, and the protagonist is 100% male. I finished it yesterday and I'll write a little more about it later when I have more time, but it was pretty good, rather surprising, even though the ending was a little too far out and rushed.

EDIT : ネコ神さまと、ななつぼし -妹の姉- comments:

Spoiler: ネコ神さまと、ななつぼし -妹の姉-, light spoilers, not too negative this time

A rather interesting short story, and definitely not what I expected at first glance from a low-price title. The plot, while deeply involving the protagonist's little sister Erika, is more centered around Fuuko, while she and the protagonist search for ways to recover her mysterious fragments of power. We also learn more about our two main characters along the way, especially about their very tragic past and how they learned to deal with what happened to them. Don't be fooled by the cutesy graphics and the lighthearted beginnings, there are some dark themes in there including trauma, bullying and neglect, all the way to death. Very surprising in a low-price format. The end is especially sudden, and I didn't really like the reveal as to the motives of the characters, but it all kinda sorta makes sense and I guess ends on a happy note? I'm not sure why Fuuko would agree to the deal but oh well.

I really liked Fuuko's character, despite a negative first impression since she's voiced by Fujisaki Usa, and I'm glad that she remained true to herself all the way to the end and didn't succumb to the eroge tendencies to make everything revolve around sex. She has no scene, no other character does : this is a single-heroine game, and that heroine is Erika. Erika is very cute and I was really happy for her when she finally got her wish. Once the ecchi begins it doesn't really stop until the final reveals, and some of these scenes are a little questionable (too rough for my tastes) but it was all around pretty good. I wouldn't have minded a bit more ichaicha before it all went to hell though.

In a perfect contrast to Aibeya, this game has a good amount of sub-characters that are all voiced AND most having a sprite, but they don't really have much if any impact in the story. This is especially true for Yuki who serves no apparent purpose and only appears in two very short encounters at the supermarket. Adding that to the game's delay and the rushed ending, I wager that Sweet & Tea originally planned to make something more of this but ran out of either time or money to do so. I took me 7 hours to read through without any skipping, and I wouldn't have minded a few more hours of content.

BONUS : 年上彼女のあまやか同棲, very simple low-price game that unfortunately doesn't really deliver

Spoiler: 年上彼女のあまやか同棲 comments

A short romance between a young boy studying for his entrance exam and his neighbor/personal teacher/girlfriend. Hinaki is a pretty good character, she's calm and dedicated and she's a good fit for the rather reserved protagonist. There's really not much to write about the story, except that the text sometime doesn't match the CGs especially in the ending scene. Things move pretty fast and there's really no hurdle or obstacle to surmount, making for a very peaceful read. I liked Hinaki's CV, the art is pretty good, the music is okay, there's not really anything bad about the game but nothing that stands out either. Despite the title, there's not much spoiling from either sides apart from some short H scenes, and there's practically nothing about living together (because they don't, they remain neighbors to the end!).

 

[Mahou]

Two impressions so far:

Evenicle 2: I dunno, but I think I like Evenicle 1 more. My whole earlier disdain with illness healing by power of sex didn't really become more bearable for me. Obviously, MC having sex (to cure illnesses) = becoming the MCs bride due to the Evenicle's rules. However, as so far while the sub-heroines (if you can call them so) appear within the plot, there seems to be no optional events with them past the sex scenes. On the other hand it's good that they still decide to pursue their current job/activity. I'm not digging the MC that much due his open sukebe mindset.
There's a "funny" display glitch that shows the vendor price in the graphic of the sellable-only items with one 0-digit too much.
The villains are as for Chapter 3 so-so. Intended (or not), Charlotte's little sister has turned out QUITE unlikable, which will probably slightly improve I think if she falls "victim" to the MCs untamed sex hunger *lol*.
Battle system: They changed the healing management by giving it a different resource to manage. They also removed the (only) healing item from Evenicle 1 (E1). Otherwise, the BP managent seems to be the same as in E1. I think the quirk of giving each heroine a set of mini-illnesses each chapter that affects their batte performance (and can be cured for good once you have the ingredient) is not bad itself.

But yeah, plot convenice of the MC's medica skill makes him having sex an incredible low-effort job .

Guild Master: Bugs and patches to fix and discover new ones. The battle system is quite average. Having the option to have a huge party roster, but only being able to use four during dungeon exploration is in my eyes quite hit-or-miss. No healing or mana recovery options while exploring is also rather questionable but not that terrible. In this regard, I prefer the simple battle system of Regalias, even though you can cheese after a while most random encounters with the mage's attack-all magic...
Again, there's quite a low-effort job put into "reasons" for the sex scenes, but it's Astronauts so that's not too surprising (for better or worse). Furthermore, it's hilarious that despite the MC's life energy/stamina issues, there just happens to be a magical drug that lets him have sex without draining his stamina . Like, I'm totally amazed by this... not.

 

[kzel]

This month's ero-RPGs seem like such a mess, too bad as I was looking forward to playing one as Grasesta didn't really satisfy me.

One more series of comment for the road, this time for feng's 夢と色でできている and Prekano's アママネ. The former had a pretty good start but crumbled nearing the true route, and the latter was okay but just too damn short.

Spoiler: 夢と色でできている comments, light spoilers

To me, feng has been nothing but low-price single-heroine games, with rather variable quality, so I was curious to see what they would end up doing in a full price format. I'll admit I was pleasantly surprised, as the game easily surpasses anything they have made prior that I have played.

The story is relatively simple and hangs around events that happened in the character's past. It's not too difficult to predict, but the game's insistence of leaving some questions unanswered to the very end managed to keep me going and maintained my interest. Each heroine also has their own story in their routes, and some of these turned out to be better than the central plot explained in the last two locked routes. While none of them explore their subjects too deeply and basically all share the shame theme, they do depict some character growth and some nice actions by the protagonist (especially in Kamome's) that make for a fun and pleasant read. If I had one major complaint, it's that the routes end when the characters finally start facing their issues, and the rest is left to the reader's imagination. Unfortunately, the last two routes that should be the pinnacle of the game are rather disappointing, as they introduce more and more fantastical elements out of nowhere and don't make very good use of them.

Spoiler: last two routes major spoiler

The two last routes, Kumo and Ren, share some rather hard-to-swallow views on self-sacrifice that didn't make ANY sense to me. Generally speaking the protagonist can be a little chuuni (he hasn't graduated from his younger self), but when it starts to infect other characters around him and spreads the idea that somehow one's death (suicide even) can make another happy, I'm just completely lost. I'm sure none of the characters would have been happy about any of them dying, especially if it was to solve some mysterious ancient curse or something in secret.

Characters are pretty cute, Kamome won points with me immediately for her clothing choices and personality, Hiiro is a little too dumb sometimes to call it cute, Shiori can have her moments and Kumo is just strange. Ren the little sister is your standard moege little sister, brocon to the bone. The protagonist can be rather dense but isn't afraid to act when it matters, although he is pretty hard to accept in Ren's route. All the heroines more or less start the game in love with him, some of them (Hiiro, Kamome) more justified than others (Shiori, Kumo). I liked the school's principal, gotta love the extreme gap in her character.

Something to mention was the game's peculiar method of route selection. Basically, to enter character A's route you have to play dumb and willingly chose the wrong answer in one of the game's little tests to see if you paid attention to the any of the other character's dialogue. This can be a little obscure at times, and I suggest consulting a walkthrough to save up some time, as this game doesn't feature a Jump to next Choice option.

Spoiler: アママネ comments

Prekano games are never too long, but this one felt especially short, maybe because I only glanced over all of the baseball related stuff. Satsuki is a wonderful heroine, very aggressive in her approaches to the protagonist and yet, via some small scenes in her point-of-view, is shown to try really hard to get her love fulfilled. It feels natural to support her and be happy for her when she achieves it, but from then on it's like there's nothing left to tell and the game basically just ends, after showing how her support managed to give the protagonist some confidence. Although to be fair, if she needs to do what she does before every match this will just create more problems, not to mention what will occur when one team member (not even an ace) gets to have his girlfriend as a dedicated manager for himself while training with the team. There was certainly room for more.

 

[Mahou]

Two routes down and one midway in Happiness 2: Overall a lovely VN so far. Fixed first route and the "true" route after everyone's done based on the walkthrough.

Kazuki's not too bad as an MC, but jeeze his denseness was annoying sometimes. The heroines are all lovely, and the the serious part of the plot in during the later half in the character routes so far (which share a common non-heroine related element) rather abstract IMHO.

Karen's route was fine overall. Kazuki's terrible memory had actually a reason, but the whole girls of his memory part was REALLY obvious before her route started: both in who it was and what way it would be used. And If I say this, that's more than obvious *lol*. On the other hand, I'm quite glad that the mismatch between Karen's and his memory didn't cause too much drama. Kazuki was quite passive in their relationship at first, but it got better after a while. The climax point was fine.

Spoiler: Climax

For some reason, Mashiro with Ibuki's voice and old-fashioned speech pattern from Hapiness suited her quite well when she was possessed by "Haru".

Fuuko's route was, I dunno, not too bad but felt somewhat weaker, even though their relationship felt less one-sided for lack of better words. Kazuki seemed to be more proactive later-on which is definitely a plus. Surpringly imho, Shizuki was quite involved in her route. The gasp between teasing-Fuuka and her "real"/flushed self was quite *hnnngghhhhh* :D. The final confrontation and how the circumstances led to only the two of them being able to clear it was kinda predictable, but I liked Kazuki's decoy role in it.

Rino's route's been so far the most baka couple one in how it started as soon as the confession had occured O_o. Maybe it felt a bit OOC for Kazuki seeing how he needed to time to "adjust" in the other routes. However, I quite enjoyed the interaction between Rino and him. Same with Karen but the opposite way, I thought it was a bit stupid how the girl-of-memory was completely discared in Karen's case, but on the other hand it didn't lead to any stupid love triangle situations... Here, Kazuki's terrible memory were not much plot-related and became more eyerolling as with similar situations in other VNs. The common main threat of Fuuko and Karen's route hasn't been brought up so far, and the interaction with Suzuko was also unrelated to it.

 

[kzel]

Thanks for the review [MENTION=50434]Mahou[/MENTION], I was considering playing Hapiness 2 but I haven't done the previous game so passed up on it. Did you end up finishing either Evenicle 2 or Guild Master? I'm kinda starving for a RPG but from the reviews I read they both seem to have large problems. Evenicle apparently becomes a chore mid-game, and is generally worse than the first one, while Guild Master is too buggy to play? I know not to expect anything from the story, but do either of them end up having a good gameplay?

Currently I'm on a trip through Memory Lane with titles such as ましろ色シンフォニー (PSP version because Sana! So good but now I don't want to play Miu's route and betray her), 銀色、遥か (almost replayed through Yuzuki but decided to finally play Momiji's route instead) and サキガケ⇒ジェネレーション！. Expect comments soonish (or not, I'm rather dispersed lately).

 

[Mahou]

I still love Mashiro-iro Symphonie to this day and absolutely dig Airi's route. Despite my days in the open sea "Arr", I also own the PSP version.

As for the two vn-rpgs: I only played Evenicle 2 a bit further so far. Unless something completely unexpected happens, I don't think my opinon of Alex will change much in regards to his near-perma horndog state. He's, and that's not hard to accomplish, smarter than Aster and manages to take his doctor profession serious enough I guess, though. Gameplay-wise, well.. it's the same with changes to the healing spells using a separte resource and the in Evenicle only buyable healing item ebing removed. Skills and such are roughly the same I think.

 

[pingtoryan]

Study-Steady got pushed back four months...from 3/29 to 7/26...though I've already lost it with Marmalade anyway...

 

[Veshurik]

As expected. We don't see any info from Marmalade about that game, but preorders opened, and so...
Not even demo version...
They said they have a problem with animation inserting in game and working properly on that?
Well, I can wait, because this month there are already too many eroge for me - Maukoro, pieces and Aonatsu Line...

 

[Mahou]

Finished Happiness 2 yesterday:

Follow-up on Rino's route: It's the most harmless route in the VN because it doesn't follow up on the main plot element at all. There are reoccuring element's like Kazuki's ring, but that's all. It's honestly a weird decision and something Rino commented herself in the Grand Route *lol*. It had however imho a few nice ideas which I enjoyed and - for better or worse - the most lovey-dovey elements. Whether the reader believes how Kazuki's "true" personality turns out or not is up to one's own as there really weren't many hints about it.

Shizuki's route was not too bad. I really loved her reactions when she's completely fluttered and caught off-guard, haha. It covered more of the background regarding "Project Happiness", which I guess complemented the overall "world building". As with the previous Happiness, nobody cared about brother and sister dating, so I guess that's something to keep in mind. The final mini-drama was kinda thrown in: Yes, Kazuki's ring is explained in the Grand Route, but not how it'd be able to affect other people than the wearer.

Grand Route: It's honestly a rather mixed bag. It has its good share of touching and good moments, but the aforementioned detachment of Rino's involvment and also how Mashiro's handled was not really optimal. You could also count Mizuki's h-scene towards it, I guess, because adding background story linked by her h-scene was a bit head-scratching. So yeah, it solved the main problem somewhat, but it felt random at times. Mashiro's h-scene is in retrospec REALLY weird (if not off-putting) if you consider who she really is, ignoring magic hijinx...
Coincidentally, Ibuki's and Saya's route in Happiness 1 felt also a bit sloppy.

Spoiler: Happiness 1

Seeing that Ibuki's pretty much the main antagonist in most routes

Overall: I still had fun and find the gibberish(?) magic incantations quite adorable, but yes, there are rough and weird parts even with the usual amount of suspension of disbelief!

 

[kzel]

Sometimes I don't know why I can be so stubborn. And yet, here am I, despite all I said about Aibeya last month, rushing straight to see what Azarashi Soft has made of their newest entry メイドさんのいる暮らし. Is is better than Aibeya? Probably. And yet I still didn't like it. The art was also a little of a letdown. Maybe I should just stop hoping for a Azarashi comeback once and for all (saying that but I'll still probably play Aikagi 2...). At least it's not a huge time investment, a couple hours skimming through.

Spoiler: Maid-san to iru Kurashi big mid-game spoilers

While the story is more centered on the two main characters, right from the beginning Eve's odd behavior made me worried and as expected, halfway through it turned out to be exactly what I feared it would be. Eve is in fact an android. Japanese writers love their human-like androids, complete with perfectly workable reproductive organs, but in this case it's pushing the human-likeness too far. So this child prodigy sub-character just essentially created a human replica from scratch, that has all the characteristics of a human (including an actual human identity and being able to conceive a child), the body of a glamorous young adult lady, and yet has the mental age of a child ripe for the discoveries and pleasures of love and sex. Sounds good to you? Not to me. I guess some people do want a perfectly devoted person robot for a companion, and I'm fine with that, but you can't have it both ways. Android companion come with their own quirks and just writing it off as "she's made like a human" is nowhere near convincing enough. Either she's human or she's an android, either she's an adult or a child, but especially in a short low-priced format trying to fit in both just resulted in a mess that fails to achieve anything.

 

[kzel]

New page, new post, new impressions. I've been going back and forth between games playing one route of each trying to decide on one to settle with, but so far (for different reasons) I can't seem to find one that I want to play to completion. Anyway, here goes :

さくらいろ、舞うころに (give up after a few hours) : This was not what I was expecting from a Pulltop game, in every single department. Everything, from the art to the writing, the story, the camera work, the music, characters and more reminded me of a low quality ensemble game. I knew the main writer was from ensemble but still... I haven't played any Pulltop games but 見上げてごらん、夜空の星を, which was really good (apart from the awkward love triangle), but maybe that one was just the exception and looking at their other games, it does seem to be the case. Anyway, usually I don't hate ensemble games (not playing the cross-dressing ones for taste reasons), but this one is just unbearably boring AND manages to also be irritating. Most of this irritation centered on the little sister Yuki, who is featured a lot in the early days and just needs to shut up. The setting of a sister spending 5 years in school in the US and... not being able to speak english at all apart from throwing oddly constructed insults is already bad enough, but she also gets extremely aggressive at the slightest little thing, in a bad way. It's hard to believe she's just one year apart from the protagonist. Anyway, after meeting each of the template main heroines I had no interest in any of them, and the art is really not to my liking, so that's that. Next!

アオナツライン (played Miki route) : I really liked this one, up to the confession in Miki route. After that, it kinda loses speed while focusing on other matters, but it remains a enjoyable read. It really feels the game was constructed to tell her story and it was a very good childhood friend romance, probably one of the best I've read in a long time. There's tears, doubts, anger and regrets but nothing too unbearable, lots of character growth, and Kotorii Yuuka is such a good CV that she can easily cover the little flaws and make some scenes really impactful. That angry scene in the past left me stunned, and the confession was really good too, to the point that I wouldn't have minded the ending right here and there. In contrast, there were some concerning parts with the other heroines, forcefully making them fall in love with the protagonist by questionable means (especially in Kotone's case, that was just dumb, extremely risky and out of place), that make me hesitate to go for the other two, and also because I don't want to see Miki betrayed after all that happened between her and the protagonist in the past. If anyone's playing this, I recommend playing the other two first before Miki if you have any interest in them, because I find it hard to go back.

らぶこみゅ (played Shouko & Naru route) : I wasn't expecting much from this, and I was not surprised. The art is okay, the CVs are okay, the setting is stupid but that's par for the course, and the humor isn't funny at all but what can you do. I was looking for a light stupid game and I got it, except the later parts of Shouko's route were a little too serious compared to the rest of the game. I would have preferred the game to maintain its lighthearted approach rather than try to tackle the overused ojousama drama angle. Not really interested in any of the other heroines, maybe Rin for Yahiro Mami.

リアライブ (played Kaya route) : I'm not usually a fan of Purple due to their recent ventures in the mind control territory, and when the protagonist's special ability popped up I was really worried, but for what I've read so far it wasn't a concern. There was a lot of time spent growing up to friends and little transitioning to lovers, but that's okay given Kaya's personality. I liked the protagonist's patience and thought-out approach, loved the way he teased her (that actually make me chuckle a few times) and his donkan phase ended easily enough. The game aspect was really secondary to the plot and didn't actually feature as much of an impact as I would have thought, apart from pushing the characters to action by handing out its missions. There are a few battles but they're really quick and most of the problems are solved through dialogue. There's a large amount of drama by the end, with familiar themes but a slightly different approach to keep things fresh, and I just liked Kaya's character enough to really want to push to the end. I can't say the same for any of the other characters, and the 'truth' is already relatively obvious enough given the hints and reveals in Kaya's route (especially epilogue), so curiosity isn't really driving me to play through the other heroines either. I'm not a big fan of the CG art but it was okay, the ecchi scenes are few (only 3 per heroine plus one 'IF' unlocked after finishing the whole game) but tend to take a long time. Overall pretty good, and I'm likely to continue at some point.

pieces／渡り鳥のソムニウム : (played Alice route) : Last but not least, I was hesitant to try this one out due to the whole dream privacy invasion thing but it turned out to be alright, thanks in large part to a relatively serious protagonist who isn't rushing to exploit his advantage to further his position. The common route felt a little long and stretched out, especially in the investigation phase when obvious hints keep raining down on the characters and they just chose to ignore them. I'm also not a fan of obviously fake choices. Once in Alice route, there's a rather fun and light part but it quickly shows a lot of hesitation despite seeing something was wrong, and a lot of the drama could have been lightened by a more early talk. Still, the subject matter was sensible enough that I can understand the reservations of both characters. The standard nakige formulae is at work here, but it didn't really work due to a questionable choice of where to use CGs (one scene really needed one and another didn't really...), and because the early "fun" part drops too many hints at the forthcoming drama to really enjoy the status-quo. Seeing the protagonist not doing anything while the heroine in pain makes it hard to appreciate the icha-icha moments that come afterwards. Still, a pretty good story overall, good CGs, good voice acting, so I'll probably continue this one as well but I'm not really feeling a huge drive either.

That's it! I may or may not continue any of them, or play something entirely different, so many games in parallel lately...

 

[Mahou]

A slightly different question: Can anyone access the mirror site holyseal.net? I haven't been able to access the site for quite a few weeks and am not sure if it's down/closed, or if they now also require a JP proxy to visit (like some other eroge maker sites).

 

[kzel]

I read on omochikaeri a while back that the site was down with no plans to go back up. Proxy or not I can't access it anymore, but I can't say since when as I've never been a frequent visiter anyway.

 

[pingtoryan]

Funny how even official sites of more than a few companies host their patches on Holyseal...other mirrors be like pray that it works......

 

[Mahou]

So... I've played through a few true routes with savegames: リアライブ and whirlpool's new one. I'm of course not spoiling anything, but *phew* was Realive's heavy with its topics, even though the players will likely know most stuff from the end of the individual routes. Kinda reminds of a certain Key VN. Otherwise, I also played Nemuru's route normally and thought it was quite nice. My main head-scratching point with the VN is its usage of the VR-ish/skill setup. I know it's true purpose, but still the way it is handled feels lacking.
As for whirlpool's. I see where they went with it, but honestly overall not my cup of tea.

Furthermore, after a long time I finally played into Sengoku x Koihime X: Ignoring that I really don't understand this kind of historic Japanese, I think the overall setting is fine. My main complains are first - which may be a bit strange given the setting of the orignal Koihime - the harem antics. Mainly as in hearing each chapter over and over and over how much of a "ladykiller" our dear MC is and how utterly oblivious he's at picking up the hints. Otherwise the character interaction is quite good imho. I faintly remember that Koihime's Kazuto wasn't much better in this aspect, though. And secondly the quite exaggerated power difference between Kensuke and the girls like the gap between him being quite skilled (thanks to being trained by Kazuto's wife army) and the "monster-level" strenght of the others (aka Mitsuki, Ayana and co). I don't mind them being stronger itself as they live afterall in such a war-plunged world and have thus more experience and whatnot whereas Kensuku - despite the training - comes from the peaceful Japan.

 

[kzel]

More sluggish progress in a variety of games :

らぶこみゅ (Rin) : It was alright, but I don't get why eroge like to "fix" the flaws of characters and try so damn hard to turn them into normal persons. In this case, Rin's behavior is part of her charming points and having her lose that was quite the disappointment. In fact as her route progresses she loses more and more of her identity to eventually become your-generic-loli-housewife. Also, that spanking scene was just no.

リアライブ (Minato) : I was wary of this route given Minato's character displayed in the common route, and oh boy is it rough. She pushes the tsun in tsundere to some rather high levels, but that's far from the worst of it. The most disturbing thing about her is that she feels no qualms hurting others to progress her own purposes, and that is just a little hard to accept. The only time she hesitates into action is when it will actual hurt her in return. The writer insists on defending her often by having characters describe her behavior as "stimulating" or say she tells "gentle lies", but many times I felt she was just selfish and mean, and at no point did she show any regrets towards her actions. I guess in that sense that makes her more human than many a eroge character... The length she goes to try and hurt the main character is off the charts (especially that "first time" bullshit), and that makes the protagonist's unwavering love for her seem that much stranger in contrast. "Love is blind" is a line repeated ad nauseam in this route, and I guess it has to be to stick up with her antics. The drama by the end felt a little underwhelming to explain all of this, and the protagonist's sudden burst of anger was totally out of place, adding to the oddness of the situation. In a completely different area, I was not a fan of the CG art especially in H-scenes, I understand the intent to display motion but having a half-transparent double fuse with the heroine was not super great. I'm not sure about Nemuru and even less so for Satsuki, so I'm undecided on whether I will continue or not. Maybe I'll just do like Mahou, download a save and skip straight to the sister(s).

pieces／渡り鳥のソムニウム (Tsumugi & Miori) : I haven't quite enjoyed these routes as much as I have Alice's, and the more they seem tied to the main plot the more disconnect I felt. I'm not even sure what exactly happened at the end of Miori's route. Again, this whole idea of fixing characters resurfaced here, even though Miori's unusual sleeping habits was what was so attractive to the protagonist in the first place! What I mentioned earlier about the characters seeing something was wrong and not acting up on it reached new heights there, with an entire sex scene during which the protagonist is like "she seems odd, completely not like her usual self" and still does the deed to the end... Tsumugi also has a scene in which the situation is a little questionable. I've come this far now so I'll probably play Yua and True as well but I'm not holding up too many expectations.

スズノネセブン！(Sumire) : So much drama in last month's games, sometimes all I want is a nice chara/moege and this ancient (11 years!) Clochette release fit the bill perfectly. It's not too serious, the writing isn't losing my interest by going into too many details about its setting, it's focused on the characters with a rather short common route and not too long actual routes, and said characters are all very appealing, including a nice protagonist (a little too S in ecchi scenes though). I also played Sumire's route extension in －Sweet Lovers’Concerto－ and it was all pretty good. Perfect to relax after a long day.

 

[kzel]

Here are a few comments on the VN I spent time with recently, if anyone's interested :

Spoiler: pieces／渡り鳥のソムニウム :

Finished it a while ago. As expected Yua's route ends abruptly and continue in the true route so she's best played last. Said route doesn't do much apart from setting up the finale anyway. The true route was okay, after playing all four other routes it's all fairly obvious but it was pretty nice and allowed some time for the sub characters to shine too. What I didn't like, was the (in my opinion unneeded) last bit of drama surrounding the protagonist and the forced reset that comes with it. It's already pretty sad that all that happens basically didn't, but it's even more so when nobody even remembers any of it. In the end, the route I enjoyed the most was Alice that I played first, and it all went downhill from there. I'm starting to resent True Routes.

Spoiler: スズノネセブン！: (Nino)

Played partially through Nino's route, and I didn't continue. I didn't like how superior the protagonist kept acting about everything they do, so I stopped. Also, unlike Sumire's route, the characters are involved in some major development that really don't fit high school students (more fitted to master-level university and then again...), and honestly I don't care that much about all that magic engine stuff anyway and I am tired of the child-genius trope that anime loves so much, to the point of hating it.

Spoiler: アイカギ2:

A rather decent surprise from Azarashi Soft, this low-price title wasn't too bad! The heroine is cute, Haruka Sora does a great job even though her acting isn't really pushed too much (she shines most in drama/screaming scenes in my opinion), the art is decent. There are a LOT of references to games, and not only the usual Japanese fighting/social games, but quite a few references to some western productions as well (puBG, Civilization, etc...). As sort of a gamer myself - or at least I used to, no so much anymore - I enjoyed understanding the references. That said, the story remains pretty shallow, and not much happens along the course of the game. The usual "fixing" of the heroine bad habits is here as expected, but it's a bit more nuanced that usual, that's something I can appreciate.

Spoiler: 恋音セ・ピアーチェ

One more Campus low price game that I liked quite a bit. As with the one before, it's clearly separated into two parts, the first one (available for free) being the meat of the game and describing the events that lead to the couple forming, while the latter after story is mostly some icha-icha and sex scenes without much further development. The story is a pretty typical romance involving music, but while it's very cliche it's also nicely constructed, with some (moderate) high and lows. The heroine Hana is cute enough to not make it feel boring, and her CV Nekota Kana does a pretty good job for a first role (unless it's an alias, but I didn't recognize the voice).

Spoiler: 援女交際～亜梨紗の情事～

Don't be fooled by the title, the prostitution aspects only last for two to three scenes and then it's just a romance story with a large age gap. The game starts with a seemingly realistic posture but that fades rather quickly as the heroine Arisa becomes more and more addicted to sex. One thing that bothered me was that the game "true" end, the only one with credits, felt to me like a bad end for Arisa, while the other at least leaves the door open.

Spoiler: カケオチ

Lass Pixy's previous Pure Marriage wasn't very good, and this one didn't betray my expectations. Hanasawa Sakura's presence saves the game but that's pretty much the only good thing about it. It's short, shallow (the confession happens 2 minutes into the game, in a flashback!), and it doesn't even end with a proper resolution.

Spoiler: Missing-X-Link ～天のゆりかご、伽の花～(Played up to Hina's route, skipped Akira's, probably won't go any further)

I'm not a fan of android stories, so it probably was a mistake to start this one. The first part of the common route, showing our young protagonist getting saved by his relationship with his android (she is more a mother than anything), was not super great. Seeing him kissing her all the time to share feelings felt gross, all the more so when he does so in public, in front of other potential (as in not yet discarded) heroines... Once he is saved, it's time to broaden his horizons and that involves... helping a teacher/mercenary bust a drug dealing problem in the school? By doing chess battle in virtual reality? Oookay. Once that's done it's time for some crazy god worshiping hospital androids. Mmmkay. At each end of chapter it's possible to drop the main scenario and go into a rather shortish heroine route, and I did so for Hina. It was... not very good. The drama is superficial and not very well introduced, there are not enough "happy" moments to set up any kind of emotional impact, and there's a large amount of time spent in something that is obviously not what it seems. I'm tired of dream sequences after last month's games, even more so when the protagonists don't realize it when it is so painfully obvious. The E-mote is not very good either, sprites don't move that much and the ecchi animations are a little awkward.

缶詰少女ノ終末世界 : I actually haven't played this one but glancing at a walkthrough, it seems that's it's a one way road, forcing the protagonist into one heroine after the other, with no proper character end but for the main heroine. If anyone played this, could you confirm is there is any good romance in there anyway?

 

[kzel]

Partial comments on the latest games!

恋嵐スピリッチュ : It's Parasol and I have a bad history with their games, especially the latest one, but it features Kotorii Yuuka so I at least had to give a shot. It's some sort of spiritual battle story complete with protagonist chuuni powers, but I don't hate the over-the-top jokingly approach to the whole thing. What I do hate, is mandatory sex (all the way) with multiple heroines in the common routes before even the first choice pops up. That just kills it as a moege for me, and the jokes and battles are not interesting enough to keep me going, so give up it is!

Ｅスクールライフ (Misato) : I had been looking forward to this one, so many obvious moege try to up the ante with overcomplicated settings that they just end up tripping over (looking at you Clochette!). For once a normal school life with no magic, no super powers, no over the top drama is something I have been craving, even though many will probably just find it boring. I'm not sure what the E in the title stands for, but it's not SF or anything. The result is... okay. This game is very close to what I'd call a short, light, joke-stripped version of what SMEE did with Fureraba and Kanojo Step. This can be a good thing, especially as SMEE jokes can get increasingly tiring, or a bad thing as there are very few really memorable moments and touching scenes. It's fun and relaxing, but that's about it.

Same as SMEE and other Hooksoft games, this one has a number of gimmicks that honestly still feel like little more than just that : gimmicks. I haven't played around too much with the rumor system but so far I see no reason not to listen to everything, especially as it adds information to the heroine's profile page. Choosing at which time to go to school is basically a hidden heroine selection, with little to no ability to tell which leads to who (apart from trying and reloading). Skipping classes even once leads to quick game over scenes. The game spans a whole year which is good in that eroge tend to make things progress too fast, but also bad because there are huge blanks between scenes, skipping some major events. It's not helped by some discrepancies between them, like being all nervous for holding hands when the couple did so a few scenes back already. At the very least there's no drama or unresolved problem left hanging around for a long time, since it's for the most part very smooth and uneventful. You can also choose between clothed ecchi scenes or not, a nice touch at least, even though I wouldn't have minded a bit longer scenes instead.

All in all, a very standard charage that focuses on just that, the characters, sacrificing everything else. In that sense, the game is made or unmade by how much one can get to like the heroines it features, and there's quite a lot to choose from. Apart from the mob girl Yoshimura, they're all fairly stereotypical but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You have the childhood friend, honor student, teasing senpai, young teacher, lonely ojou-sama, awkward athelete, and said mob girl. I liked the senpai Misato's lively and positive attitude, and it was good to follow along for the couple of hours her route lasted. Unless there's a route drastically different for one of other six, it's not a game that will live on in my memory for too long but it's still a pleasant way to pass the time.

 

[Veshurik]

It become a kzel's blog, but I don't mind, I like it. Thanks for your opinions!

Lol, I just want to hear your opinion about Tomefure with their oversized boobs... That game doesn't even have heroine routes, what the...

 

[Mahou]

I will probably only bother with Ｅスクールライフ: While hooksoft had "problems" with rather generic or boring MCs, I've still enjoyed their characters and routes to get my "worth" out of it. From what I've read so far, the common route segments seem quite a bit shorter than their former titles.

I've skimmed through the CGs of タマユラミライ. Shiro's CGs, who is also the only unlockable route after you are done with the other heroines, imply a rather somber ending for the MC and her. Being still the happy-go-lucky lover this makes me rather hesistant, but maybe I give the other routes a a try. I don't know about, however, abouz Azurite's "track record" in this regard, so maybe that's to be expected.