Visual Novel Cafe

E-School Life's format of pick-up scenarios after prologue and before common route seems ripped straight out of KanojoxStep...and it reeks of the things that entail there. Can't find scenario writer info on the latter but this one shares a director...
 
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...
I've thought about opening a blog rather than dumping my ramblings in this thread but... I'm too lazy to set up a site for it and deal with the problems that go with it.

About Tomefure, I had the game on my radar as the writer also worked on some Asa Project games. I have a love/hate relationship with Asa Project, especially two of the games he worked on (Ren'Ai 0 and Puremai Wars) but still enough to pique my interest. However, as I always do before starting a game, a quick glance at a walkthrough beforehand revealed no heroine route, or even any choice really, and that's a straight pass for me. As for the art, well..., it's not my cup of tea but I probably have played worse.

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.
Eスクールライフ's protagonist is one of the most transparent protagonists I've played in a long time. Apart from his homecoming setting that really doesn't play into much, he's really just your generic high school kid with no special talent, no vision of his future, no particular quirk or anything of the sort. In short, a perfect blank canvas to be filled by the needs of the heroine of the day.

I don't know about their other game, but Azurite did Shinzou Noise and that had some dark stuff. Deaths, bullying, unavoidable rape, etc... Didn't play it past chapter 1 because ecchi in the common route but still, better get ready for some of that stuff as well I guess. I may try Tamayura Mirai at some point later this month, if you're okay to wait for some impressions.

E-School Life's format of pick-up scenarios after prologue and before common route seems ripped straight out of KanojoxStep...and it reeks of the things that entail there. Can't find scenario writer info on the latter but this one shares a director...
Guess what, there's even a little something during Yuka's route that may confirm this theory:
At some point Yuka plays the piano and it's... Kanojo Step's main theme! (with string instruments as well, how..?)
 
About Tomefure, I had the game on my radar as the writer also worked on some Asa Project games. I have a love/hate relationship with Asa Project, especially two of the games he worked on (Ren'Ai 0 and Puremai Wars) but still enough to pique my interest. However, as I always do before starting a game, a quick glance at a walkthrough beforehand revealed no heroine route, or even any choice really, and that's a straight pass for me. As for the art, well..., it's not my cup of tea but I probably have played worse.

Hey man, nice to see you around. After a while I finally got some free time and actually just skimmed it through, well the first half part of the game seems okayish and enjoyable, a normal funny asaproject game if you can ignore the idiotic "tomefure" setting to make five girls live with you, but you probably wont like the second part:


Well in short, at the second half after all girls became meromero for you they just decide to become your "sperm slaves" one by one, so they wouldnt be ignored even if you choose another heroine and still would be able to recieve your love (in the end all of them became sperm slaves so you wont choose anyone though)

and ending is even more ridiculous, after a couple months worth of timeskip all of them gets pregnant and still decide to continue school with those bellies, when school principal calls them your tsundere slave shouts something like "what the hell yeah all of us are his sperm slaves do you have any problem with it!!" or something and it gets solved with it. Yeah, seriously.

Also one of them is a huge idol or something and she says "I will give all of money I gained so dont worry about getting us pregnant at the high school and make more children with us!", with that the economy problem gets solved as well and boom, you have a happy harem ending.

The first part wasnt this ridiculous tho, it was a actually enjoyable harem setting, for me at least. I guess the writer couldnt find a decent way to make a proper harem and decided to go with non-serious way in the end.
 
Guess what, there's even a little something during Yuka's route that may confirm this theory:
At some point Yuka plays the piano and it's... Kanojo Step's main theme! (with string instruments as well, how..?)

Can't remember BGM reusing in Hooksoft games up to this point but it's common practice for SMEE, at least later on...

The pickup scenarios aren't THAT long so far...lost much reading passion over the years but I think I can stomach this one.
 
Hey man, nice to see you around. After a while I finally got some free time and actually just skimmed it through, well the first half part of the game seems okayish and enjoyable, a normal funny asaproject game if you can ignore the idiotic "tomefure" setting to make five girls live with you, but you probably wont like the second part:


Well in short, at the second half after all girls became meromero for you they just decide to become your "sperm slaves" one by one, so they wouldnt be ignored even if you choose another heroine and still would be able to recieve your love (in the end all of them became sperm slaves so you wont choose anyone though)

and ending is even more ridiculous, after a couple months worth of timeskip all of them gets pregnant and still decide to continue school with those bellies, when school principal calls them your tsundere slave shouts something like "what the hell yeah all of us are his sperm slaves do you have any problem with it!!" or something and it gets solved with it. Yeah, seriously.

Also one of them is a huge idol or something and she says "I will give all of money I gained so dont worry about getting us pregnant at the high school and make more children with us!", with that the economy problem gets solved as well and boom, you have a happy harem ending.

The first part wasnt this ridiculous tho, it was a actually enjoyable harem setting, for me at least. I guess the writer couldnt find a decent way to make a proper harem and decided to go with non-serious way in the end.

I expected, or rather "feared" as much, as what you said in your spoilers when I skimmed through the h-scenes in the trial version. It got even more WTF-ish when his little sister had her turn and I just went "Nope! Not with me" *lol*.
 
Hey man, nice to see you around. After a while I finally got some free time and actually just skimmed it through, well the first half part of the game seems okayish and enjoyable, a normal funny asaproject game if you can ignore the idiotic "tomefure" setting to make five girls live with you, but you probably wont like the second part
Hey, Kri, it's been a while! Thanks for the heads-up, you know me well. Just the harem theme alone is already not for me, but that slave thing is just the cherry on top. I'm willing to bet there's nothing in the protagonist's character to justify such devotion either.

EDIT: And yet I downloaded and skimmed through it anyway... Anyway, for a harem game there was a surprising amount of time spent to set thing up and "enjoy" life with the heroines while keeping things platonic. Even though two of the heroines are very obviously inviting the protagonist from very early on. To be honest, this felt overly long of a setup, especially so given how easily the rivers of sperm start flowing once things start. Scenes start to get shorter and shorter, there's no more hesitation towards breaking the relationship or getting the girls pregnant, and it just completely loses its flavor by the end. As far as heroines go, I can somewhat understand Aimi's circumstances, but it's a lot harder for the others, especially Sayaka who has nothing to do in this harem in the first place.


Can't remember BGM reusing in Hooksoft games up to this point but it's common practice for SMEE, at least later on...

The pickup scenarios aren't THAT long so far...lost much reading passion over the years but I think I can stomach this one.
Cameos from previous games is very common with SMEE indeed, not only BGM but often characters and locations make some kind of appearance and it's something I appreciate. What's more surprising is Hooksoft making a SMEE cameo in their game, I know the companies are very close (same owner?) but still, is this a sign of the SMEE-ification of Hooksoft? I wouldn't mind that.
 
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Hey, Kri, it's been a while! Thanks for the heads-up, you know me well. Just the harem theme alone is already not for me, but that slave thing is just the cherry on top. I'm willing to bet there's nothing in the protagonist's character to justify such devotion either.

EDIT: And yet I downloaded and skimmed through it anyway... Anyway, for a harem game there was a surprising amount of time spent to set thing up and "enjoy" life with the heroines while keeping things platonic. Even though two of the heroines are very obviously inviting the protagonist from very early on. To be honest, this felt overly long of a setup, especially so given how easily the rivers of sperm start flowing once things start. Scenes start to get shorter and shorter, there's no more hesitation towards breaking the relationship or getting the girls pregnant, and it just completely loses its flavor by the end. As far as heroines go, I can somewhat understand Aimi's circumstances, but it's a lot harder for the others, especially Sayaka who has nothing to do in this harem in the first place.

I'm actually reading it as well, though I'm not really sure why. While I definitely enjoy the long setups, specially in a harem setting, The entire "tomefure" relationship is just too annoying and boring for my tastes. Particularly the "Love is forbidden between tomefures because tomefure girls are too unstable and might be too attached!" thing is killing me even though all of heroines are in love with mc.

For heroines, well I can accept / or at least pretend to do so / sister one (since most of time imoutos fall in love with their brothers without any reason) , Rin (since MC saves her, even though couldnt do it in a cool way) and Aimi maybe, but other two feels forced for sure.
 
Well, at least the game was consistent in that the rules had meaning and that indeed once the protagonist fucked one of the girls, it's an escalation spiral that quickly ends in complete and constant debauchery. Shiina warned about this at multiple points in the game, so that's probably how the writer intended to make his ending in the first place. I can get behind that. What I have the most trouble with the "tomefure" setting, is that the five girls don't seem especially that close to each other in the first place. They don't really know each other, aren't really friends, when they're not outright enemies (in Shiina's case). And yet, they're stubbornly unwilling to break this awkward situation and engage in an actual romantic relationship with the protagonist.

The protagonist is certainly at fault for not being able to choose one girl over the others, but to be fair he would have fallen for any of them easily if she had confessed properly rather than try to maintain the status quo by all means possible ("don't answer", "don't take responsibilty", "I love that you love all of us equally", etc...). It's hard to believe the protagonist won't ever sway his eyes to another girl in need, especially after being reinforced in this kind of behavior multiple times, although the five slaves are making sure to keep him busy.

Aimi's case is a little different, since her abysmally low self-esteem prevents her from even entertaining the thought of being something other than his slave, and is actually consciously manipulating the protagonist's harem desires to make sure she would never have to compete for first place in his heart. But the others? Rin is too strange (stupid? rushing to obvious danger, pledging her life, etc...) to make sense of, but Sayaka and Shiina would definitely have him all to themselves if they could. As for Sakurako, despite being the main heroine I liked her the least for sticking so stubbornly to the tomefure guidelines in public while easily breaking them in secret.
 
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Well, at least the game was consistent in that the rules had meaning and that indeed once the protagonist fucked one of the girls, it's an escalation spiral that quickly ends in complete and constant debauchery. Shiina warned about this at multiple points in the game, so that's probably how the writer intended to make his ending in the first place. I can get behind that. What I have the most trouble with the "tomefure" setting, is that the five girls don't seem especially that close to each other in the first place. They don't really know each other, aren't really friends, when they're not outright enemies (in Shiina's case). And yet, they're stubbornly unwilling to break this awkward situation and engage in an actual romantic relationship with the protagonist.

The protagonist is certainly at fault for not being able to choose one girl over the others, but to be fair he would have fallen for any of them easily if she had confessed properly rather than try to maintain the status quo by all means possible ("don't answer", "don't take responsibilty", "I love that you love all of us equally", etc...). It's hard to believe the protagonist won't ever sway his eyes to another girl in need, especially after being reinforced in this kind of behavior multiple times, although the five slaves are making sure to keep him busy.

Aimi's case is a little different, since her abysmally low self-esteem prevents her from even entertaining the thought of being something other than his slave, and is actually consciously manipulating the protagonist's harem desires to make sure she would never have to compete for first place in his heart. But the others? Rin is too strange (stupid? rushing to obvious danger, pledging her life, etc...) to make sense of, but Sayaka and Shiina would definitely have him all to themselves if they could. As for Sakurako, despite being the main heroine I liked her the least for sticking so stubbornly to the tomefure guidelines in public while easily breaking them in secret.

After reading a little bit more, I started to find this game getting more annoying than before and will probably drop this some time soon. As I said before the entire "tomefure" setting etc wasnt really my thing but as a sensitive guy to "bitchy" things getting naked with protag, riding his dick, going to bath together etc and still saying the "hey we are just friends okay!" slowly becoming too annoying to handle for me. There are just too many little landmines in it to enjoy this. Maybe its just me but at least half of heroines feels like they'd fuck anyone as long as they have a home or something.

For example so far (I'm at the bath scene where they goes one by one with mc) almost all of Rin's actions are a little too sluty for my tastes. I thought that they'd go with "hey I fall in love with you when you saved me" cliche but for some reason (probably they wanted to have some space to make her fall in love more with mc) it doesn't feel like that at all, instead it seems like she just wants to have sex with mc so she can stay with him until she gets healed. Saying stuff like "this will be a good practice for our futures when we get a boyfriend" even though she sucked mc's dick a couple scene ago is, I dont know man just doesnt feel safe and just too loose for my tastes. It might be just me though.

Sakurako's kiss was also a nono for me, kissing mc to show that "he is her type" but not as a boyfriend material or something, just showing him that he is her type and she'd prefer to stay in a her type guy's house was definitely something I didnt enjoy.


It definitely feels like this game is not my cup of tea at all, but I'm trying to force my way through it, at least until I get the first h-scene.
 
If you're at the bath scene you still have a ways to go before the first ecchi. The heroines are certainly all going to become more or less sluts, that's the whole sex slave thing for you, but I didn't feel like they'd go have sex with just anyone that offers room and board. There's definitely "some" feelings for the protagonist, but I wouldn't call it love for either of them apart from Sakurako.

Aimi is mostly looking for a safe harbor, a place she knows she will never be asked to leave. She likes the protagonist, but not to the point where she would risk her position. Sakurako is probably the most in love with the protagonist with their past and all, but she's stubbornly attached to the "tomefure" thing for reasons beyond my comprehension. And yet as soon as she learns the protagonist did it with Aimi, she begs for him to do her too. Rin has some strange sense of duty for being saved (multiple times) and is all too willing to offer her body up. As for Shiina and Sayaka, the reason they enter the whole sex parade seemed mostly because "the others do it so why not me!" more than anything.

As strange as that may sound, I would have been more convinced if the girls actually became full bitches addicted to sex not only with the protagonist, although his magical infinite stamina means there's never a need to wait for a fix. But this game goes further and add a very strong "impregnation" element in almost each of the ecchi scene, which makes things a little more complicated, as it's more of a commitment that just seeking physical pleasure or escapism. Again, I understand that for Aimi as yet another of her manipulative schemes to not get thrown out, but would the others really give up on their life and future just because the others do it too?
 
Omg, it's so funny to read your comments about Tomefure.
Lol, I don't like the games full of sluts, bitches etc.
Thanks that's not real life, just a game.

Wonderful, just wonderful. Candysoft sub-brand decided to create something "incredible" - oversized boobs and only harem game.
Well, for me, eroge is not only for jerking off... But... sometimes I see the devs create that product only for that feature, and that's all (because they need money to survive on eroge market).

Ohhhh... -_-
Not my cup of tea also... Better I'd pick up "Renran Spirichu" with all those strange supernatural masturbation things than THIS.
 
I feel I have given the wrong impression about the game then, since the sex starts only very late. It's not too usual for nukige to have a long setup, but in Tomefure all the ecchi scenes are concentrated in the last 15~20% of the game. I certainly wouldn't reduce it to "jerk-off material". There are some CGs that show those oversized boobs overflowing from their clothes to feast the eyes on during the first phase, but the main component is the platonic interactions between the six, and the many jokes and comments about the situation. As Kri wrote earlier, it is somewhat reminiscent of an average Asa Project common route, which isn't the worst thing you can say about a game by far.

As for the sluts/bitches comment, I'm actually okay with sex for physical pleasure only, that is something that very much exists in real life and not necessarily compensated. It's just the whole child making aspect of this game that ticked me off, but I suppose it's not the first game to have this angle in ecchi scenes (Clochette uses it often too) and it does make scenes more spicy by virtue of being "dangerous". It's not like the girls actually get pregnant anyway (or do they? I may have missed it since I mostly skipped the later parts).

If I had to choose between Tomefure and Renran Spirichu, I'd go with the former in a heartbeat. Do consider that in the latest Parasol there is also mandatory sex with multiple heroines in the common route, tons and tons of lucky sukebe, and the humor isn't great either. Then again, if lolis with variable sized breasts are your thing then there's really no hesitation to be had.
 
I feel I have given the wrong impression about the game then, since the sex starts only very late. It's not too usual for nukige to have a long setup, but in Tomefure all the ecchi scenes are concentrated in the last 15~20% of the game. I certainly wouldn't reduce it to "jerk-off material". There are some CGs that show those oversized boobs overflowing from their clothes to feast the eyes on during the first phase, but the main component is the platonic interactions between the six, and the many jokes and comments about the situation. As Kri wrote earlier, it is somewhat reminiscent of an average Asa Project common route, which isn't the worst thing you can say about a game by far.

As for the sluts/bitches comment, I'm actually okay with sex for physical pleasure only, that is something that very much exists in real life and not necessarily compensated. It's just the whole child making aspect of this game that ticked me off, but I suppose it's not the first game to have this angle in ecchi scenes (Clochette uses it often too) and it does make scenes more spicy by virtue of being "dangerous". It's not like the girls actually get pregnant anyway (or do they? I may have missed it since I mostly skipped the later parts).

If I had to choose between Tomefure and Renran Spirichu, I'd go with the former in a heartbeat. Do consider that in the latest Parasol there is also mandatory sex with multiple heroines in the common route, tons and tons of lucky sukebe, and the humor isn't great either. Then again, if lolis with variable sized breasts are your thing then there's really no hesitation to be had.

Actually all of them gets pregnant in a couple of months, and in the end continue to school with pregnant bellies because it a proof that they are mc's sex slaves or something. Apparently Sayaka even shouted to principal with some "Yeah we are his sex slaves you you have a problem with it!!" logic and got okay to continue school, hell she even says that she has enough money from model stuff and will give her every money to mc so he can make more children with them. Personally there isn't "a big" no no thing in tomefure for me, but there are just many little details I dont like which makes it very hard to read.

I really dont like any aspect of Sakurako for example, her wish to stay in a random dude's home and get every little shit for free because "tomefures supposed to do like that", her entire shiina-sama talk, her "tomefure" attachment makes it very hard to like her.

As I said before the entire "tomefure" setting isn't my thing as well, but with the "Renai forbidden!", "Ero is forbidden but taking naked bath is okay between friends!" stubbornness in entire common route it becomes even worse. Hell they are literally saying that 80% of tomefures fuck at their first night and still trying to force this stuff as a some "pure, not ero" thing.

Rin is too loose, really her "not being one of tomefures" was a good point and would be a nice change to game's atmosphere but she became literally a lunatic deviant after that

MC's "YARERU!" gag even though he can actually do girls whenever he wants, like man they are giving you blowjob while you are sleeping and going naked bath with you, just ask them to fuck if you want to do it, whats the point of this

"Tomefures cant be lovers because female tomefures are too unstable as feeling wise and too dependent so they can become sex slaves at best" talk,

Sakurako's first kiss scene where she kiss mc to show that she sees him as her type but not as a romantic interest because tomafures cant be lovers, but still might give some undermotive to him so he would continue to let her stay in his home (even though she wont respond to it, just gives some hope to mc and even says it herself) (this was some high level intelligence)

etc are all minor ticking me off points. I can tolarate one of two of them but when you mix all of those its hard, really. As you have said they could just make girls sluts etc and I could get behind of that setting but this is something else. As a someone who is reading untranslated vns for at least 10 years I've played many ridiculous / bad games but this might be the first one which I will not be able to finish even though I'm forcing myself to.

Aimi was a well written character for this situation though and Sayaka feels like a proper heroine from some other games when you compare her to others, then again this creates a "what the hell is she doing in this harem, why the hell is she becoming a sex slave" question.
 
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Wow, E-SchoolLife goes real fast. Started with Emi and the date-to-confession flow somehow feels tad shoehorned...Two chapters in now, taking it slow, but common route is REALLY short this time around...intel gathering took up most of the common route's space perhaps?

BTW, mandatory Hscenes in common route of Parasol games seems to be something that happen with some frequency...take KoiImo, the MC's big sister (subheroine by side story) *bangs* him only slightly into the prologue with their twin younger sisters (both main heroines) peeking, while Yumekoi has mandatory masturbation scenes for every main heroines.

Being able to read VN untranslated (hell, if you can read VN untranslated you won't have much problem playing most any Japanese games untranslated) sure takes you places ah?
 
Tomefure : If you can bear until after the sex begins, the whole Tomefure guidelines fall apart and it becomes a pure "love" harem with heroines confessing and begging for sex (and child) one after the other, even though why the heroines fell in love in the first place is questionable. I reread the epilogue and they indeed all get pregnant and are proud of it, though it's surprising that none of the parents, teachers or employers of the various girls caused any issue, especially as they don't seem to go home at all anymore. Oh well, the game does define this as a bad end and I would agree, even though the character are happy with it (for now... wait until all five children are born at the same time for the true hell to begin). I wouldn't have minded actual heroines route in which their respective problem is solved though (the harem solves nothing and just worsens their situation), just to see how far the characters have fallen in the harem end in comparison. Reading of bit of the ecchi scenes, it's a bit ridiculous that the game subverts the "safe days" trope so much, it's like they're constantly ovulating.

E-SchoolLife : I've read through Emi, Misato, Yuka and Rin so far, and it does feel very short especially for the sub heroines. Not only the common route, but the heroines routes as well. Looking at Rin's CG page I had hopes for a hidden main heroines but it's just that the CGs/scenes are doubled for a certain reason. I mean, each main heroine barely has as much content as a short low-price single heroine game, if not less. Even if the content of the three sub heroines was taken away and that volume was added to the other four their routes would still probably feel short. At least there's no time to get bored...

Parasol: maybe it's the norm to have sex in the common route for this brand, there was a blowjob scene in Lovely Day that made me instantly quit the game. I don't remember any in Quintuple Splash but it's been a while, and I vaguely remember reading that this was some sort of departure from Parasol's usual style.

アイカノ : What happens when you take Prekano's already very short low-price style of game, and share the spotlight between two heroines in two very distinct routes? Half the content for each, meaning barely a few hours worth of reading and just a couple of quick ecchi scenes. The game promises a love triangle but it's barely there, since the protagonist very clearly can only fall in love (via a single choice) with one of them. I like Prekano's short style but this is just cutting in too much, they really should stick to single heroine games.
 
Thank you for your comments always! Laughing on Tomefure again, oh my gosh, that's brilliant game, really.

Hooksoft decided to cut the salary for writers or what, that E School Life feels so short?
Yeah, I saw the doubled CG with slight changing of heroine, but I didn't play the game, so, I don't know what's the plot. If you can tell me under spoiler, it would be great, thanks.

I already said earlier that Parasol makes moe eroge, but under nukige... So, it looks like a usual eroge, but... Eeeh... Yeah.
Even their talk at the end of OP video blows my mind... ("My oppai will also appear there, so, please, make an preorder, I will be happy"; "Oppai wa ippai... oppai wa ippai..."; "Oppai! Hazukashii!!! >_<")

So, I will wait your comment about new eroge next!
 
Yeah, I saw the doubled CG with slight changing of heroine, but I didn't play the game, so, I don't know what's the plot. If you can tell me under spoiler, it would be great, thanks.
It's not that big a deal. Rin participated in a miss contest a year back and won, but couldn't bear the accompanying attention it generated, so she decided to hide her face by letter her hair cover it. Over the course of her route, you can convince her to either slightly raise it up, or completely show her face. That's it. It could have easily fallen into CG variation, I don't know why they decided to separate the CGs/scenes like that.
So, I will wait your comment about new eroge next!
I'm currently replaying some Mashiro Iro Symphony (Sana again because I ... just can't choose anyone else! I tried!), and I just bought a bunch of games from the big PS4 sale. I don't when I'll be starting new eroges/vn, maybe some D.C 4 over the week end?
 
E-SchoolLife: I'm not so sure about the pattern of 1-month time skip every chapter during [main] heroine routes I'm seeing up to this point...it make things feel "diluted", and covering one day a month one snippet at a time makes the time passage feels like it hardly matter. At least to me it's pretty profound with Emi's route where it pretty much turned into world of three.

Idyllic school life wrench your guts so much if you had yourself a crappy one......
 
I'm currently playing ガールズ・ブック・メイカー -幸せのリブレット- and it's alright, I guess. It has a weird mix of a slight overarching "plot", and yet consists mainly of one major episode + sub-episodes per fairytale which also include one h-scene per relevant girl (so far). It's actually quite light-hearted and the general danger of the "bugs" eating away the tale and "stealing" pages from it for the early-introduced "Big (hawt) Bad" hasn't in fact been an urgent issue; other than that it must be stopped. The girls are kinda instant attracted to the MC, but as he's alright-ish so far, I can look past it. Th h-scene per heroine in each side-chapter doesn't seem to play a role in the main story, for better or worse, in terms of character interaction or awkwardness. As I'm quite fond of such fairtytale settings from time to time, it should be well enough for "casual" fun *lol*.
 
Done a couple more of E-School Rifle (heh, can't help it) and the barebones feel of heroine routes is really showing (done with Rikako and Erina, and halfway into Mia)...prior Hooksoft games don't normally put other characters to waste like this, it's like everyone else got phased outta existence for the most part...heck, even during the common route. Even with a one-track mind for prior games everyone had screentime during common route, but nope, not with this one. It's one in the morning, one after school, that's it.

After MeltyMoment it feels like a downward spiral for them with slight move on the opposite direction with Amenity's Life...I love the map select and Hscene BGM's of this one though...
 
By the way, about E meaning in E School Life...
I also wondered what it means, until one guy said me "please see 0:05 sec in opening movie".

And I understand how stupid I was...

pBgyb9f1dSY.jpg
 
Okay, I'm done with E-School Life, so here comes one last rambling on it...

I really don't feel invested into the heroines this time around, like, you get to know them during common route but those tidbits never (or is it ever, in ways too subtle to notice?) come into play during the heroines' arc, nor any of the heroine-specific events during common route, matter. It's pretty much the heroines' appearance and personality doing the heavy lifting, but even that has its limits. The shy, athletic Rikako left a good impression but nothing much more than that.

I know I don't have much flair for drama (had my fill from RL so I don't need more), but it's just way too bland in general to be memorable or to make me feel invested. I just can't remember anything from the story coherently...except...

Emi's masturbation habit, which she describes in detail...at which point it was already into Hscene.

There are a lot of time-skip inbetween, maybe because it is very noticeable due to dates being shown it makes the story feel greatly diluted and hardly any development have been done at all after all those time...Doing so little in such a long timespan leave much empty, unfillable, gap.

The option to either clothed or nude during H occasionally create some inconsistency in the lines if you look carefully...while doubling CG load. Coupled with the exceptionally bland story makes the thing feels more like a nukige to me.


This guy just managed to come back to homeland and study there, but despite his ability to make friends the interactions are hardly ever shown outside of that classmate boi. Seriously, I think that turning the MC into a guy in the verge of becoming clinically depressed it wouldn't change things too drastically in that department. It gets worse when the common route ends as almost everyone that is not relevant literally disappeared from the world. Almost a true "futari no sekai". Voice actor budget got cut short perhaps?


In conclusion: Only good for one pass and the rest's fapping material. The story's blandness is way too excessive to be worth re-reading (and I was thinking about writing something bland on purpose, even - this one takes the cake) and is only carried by the girls themselves. "Enjoy" School Life, one of gaps in memory and empty moments in time passed blatantly shown...Maybe not so enjoyable, hmm? Hooksoft did great with stories concentrated in short time periods...maybe another flopped venture (well, IMO anyway) like how they did TravelingStars and Fantasy genre...

There's something punny about a couple lines that follows at that time...that game's MC happens to be named Aki...as you describe the autumn's afterschool you can sense from the music classroom...

There's the full range of heroine theme piano mix from MeltyMoment to use, but nope. It has to be that one...
 
Some recommendations on various visual novel I've played:

1. ヨスガノソラ (☆☆☆☆☆) : Although its a rather old (2009) it have a very good story, so good that I began to study Japanese just so that I can play the various untranslated routes of the 5 heroines (not counting the ones from its fan disk Haruka no Sora). Basically its a high-school romance story that focused on the main character and his twin sister that went to live in the countryside after their parents died from an accident. The character buildup and romance are well written though for me it feels rather short and the H scene (about 3 each character) is decent. Anyone who've played Visual Novel from that era would probably already played this gem and although its popular enough to get an anime adaptation I recommend that you played the visual novel first as the anime though for me is rather ok, might gave you a bad impression on the quality of the visual novel which is way different from the anime. Japanese difficulty level (1-5) : 1

2. 彼女と俺と恋人と (☆☆☆☆☆) : If you want to see what I consider to be the perfect heroine it would be the main heroine in this game Ayano. Beautifully designed paired with a good voice actor and an angelic personality close to that of a goddess, there's no doubt that Ayano is one of the best heroine ever in Japanese eroge. The story is light and simple centered on the main character who saved this main heroine from being hit by a car which then lead to her nursing or taking care of him till he's fully recovered and they both fell in love with each other. At the first playthrough you'll only be given her route and after that you can pick the other heroine route, but here's the best part.... YOU WILL STILL GET AYANO so you know what that mean? Yes a 3P! Cause why settle with one if you can have more right ;D The H scene, though vanilla are very good and enjoyable and with the addition of its fan disk 彼女と俺と、恋するリゾート ‐彼女と俺と恋人と。&恋する夏のラストリゾート Wファンディスク you can get aditional H scenes for each characters. Japanese difficulty level (1-5) : 2

3. 少女と年の差、ふたまわり (☆☆☆☆☆) : for those who'd prefer a dedicated romance with a single girl with a unique setting of significant age difference between them (one is an middle-age man presumably on his late 30s and the girl is supposedly still in late middle school or first year high-school? kinda forget) The story, romance plot and development are really deep and romantic and the H scenes and art in overall for a vanilla are very good. Overall if you're looking for an adult (not another one of those seishun MC) romance that focused on a single girl (JK) that are light and steady than this is game is totally one you should play. Japanese difficulty level (1-5) : 2

4. 竜騎士Bloody†Saga (☆☆☆☆) : Dragon Knights, you're probably thinking of girls in skimpy armor being in a mixed gender knight order riding dragons when you hear the title right? well you're not wrong, not except in one thing... they're not riding dragons, they're trying to kill one. The main character Roy (which for some reason is fully voiced and sounds like the voice actor comes straight out of a high budget anime) is a travelling herbalist planning to go to a mountain to search for herbs when he saw a smoke coming from a distant town. he then proceeds to enter the town to help where he met the 4 heroines of this game. The story have a serious and dark vibe in it and while there's gore in it, its rather light compared to today's standard. The romance is harem style without single heroine option but each of the 4 heroines character is very different and have very nice interactions with the MC and each other. The story itself is so-so, not bad, not amazing with a rather fast-tune development at the end. The art is well-drawn and the BGM is amazing to hear. In overall I very enjoyed this game and would recommend it to those who like medieval settings and harem romance with a charming adult MC. Japanese difficulty level (1-5) : 3

5. 仄暗き時の果てより (☆☆☆☆☆) : there's rarely any good horror eroge, one with good supernatural story, scary horror, unsettling mystery, and still have nice romance and H scenes so that make this game a gem worth playing. it all started when the MC, a college student who worked part-time as an assistant in a private detective company run by his senpai who's also on the same university, both went back to their home island to investigate the case of a missing female worker by the request of an old couple who have no connections whatsoever to the missing person. The story then progresses with the occurrence of a mysterious, grotesque monster and a serial-killer on the loose. Be warned that the gore in this game is thick and the story might make you feel uncomfortable. regardless the artwork is good and the romance and H are also well-developed and the story is one worthy of an award so you should definitely give it a try. Japanese difficulty level (1-5) : 3
 
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Eスクールライフ : Pretty much what I got of it, a decent charage but nothing else of note. I stopped about halfway through, not really feeling the remaining heroines, and I think that's the way to go with this game : just play the routes of the characters you fancy, and leave it at that. I think overall that was a rather "E"njoyable school life, not that dramatic or eventful but still better than mine was. I don't mind the "futari no sekai" thing, in fact when the romance starts I prefer when the distractions are kept to a minimum, but there was definitely room for more exploration of the character's personalities and tons of events to enjoy together. Budget constraints or voluntary small scale (although still full price) project? Who knows, we'll see with the next SMEE title I guess.

ヨスガノソラ : I might need to go back to this one, I only played Sora's route. I remember much of the drama being due to the protagonist's hetare, lack of commitment and indecisiveness though, I'm not sure I'm up for that kind of protagonist right now.

少女と年の差、ふたまわり : A single middle-aged man's dream : have your niece fall in love with you and do in kind. I can respect that dream, and the game did take some time to make it somewhat understandable... from the protagonist's perspective. The biggest issue I had was that there's little pushing Mizuka into his arms at all, he's a nice uncle and she's somewhat lonely at home but she's not cut from the outside world, she has friends, classmates, etc...


タマユラミライ : I was a bit wary of this one, given it's Azurite of past シンソウノイズ fame, and with Mahou's warning about some of Shiro's CGs. Overall, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, there's a tiny bit of violence in some of the routes but all the characters, even the "villains" are pretty good guys that just have misguided ways to show it. It's fine, they're youkais and they have different perspectives than humans on what is acceptable or not, but this lack of true antagonists also made the youkai episodes in the common route less interesting to follow, because once past the prologue it's clear that there will be a peaceful resolution satisfying everyone in the end.

Heroine-wise, it's a little complicated. They're all adorable in their own way but for once I understand Shiro's route lock, not because of spoiler reasons but simply because her route makes the most sense and gives the best conclusion possible for both her... and the protagonist. It's actually not tragic at all, somewhat beautiful even, and going back after seeing that ending scene would be hard indeed. The protagonist's condition is something that is kept relatively hidden in both Hanako and Midari's route, something that did feel dishonest on his part but it also explains why the different life spans for both members of the couple is not that much of an issue. I guess Midari knows and Hanako too but it's never clearly explained in their routes, and while it is revealed in Yukina's, playing the former two first meant that this "life span" issue kept crawling on the back of my mind without proper resolution, all the way to their route ends. Yukina's route is a bit of a mixed bag, probably the route most crammed with reveals, rather complicated situations and relationships, all mixed up in both past and present. I had to slow down and go to the backlog multiple time or I would have been completely lost. Ultimately, it doesn't really answer the game's "big question" (I suppose that's for the reader to do on his own), but the last CG seems to imply Yukina made the deal, something that I would have liked being elaborated on.

Art is good, music is okay, ecchi scenes are pretty nice (special mentions for both Midari and Shiro), all in all a pretty good game from Azurite.


D.C.4 ~ダ・カーポ4~ (Shiina) : My history with Circus is limited to D.S. -Dal Segno-, which was enjoyable from what I remember of it, but this is the first time I touch upon the legendary Da Capo series. I'm not too much of fan of it to be honest, and it's not because it's all-ages. Some of my favorite VNs are all-ages actually, but contrary to my recent replay of Mashiro Iro Symphony, this game tries its hardest to stretch the "more than friends, not yet lovers" period by a variety of methods, which is not really my cup of tea. This is in contrast to the main theme of the common route, which is to stick your nose into other people's romantic issues. It's something that I already dislike when it's inflicted on the protagonist and the heroines (I favor letting the characters figure it out themselves), but when it's them doing it it's even worse. These are not issues to be treated lightly, especially at that passionate age, and it's bound to go back and blow up in their faces at some point, expect it never does. Maybe in other (Hiyori's?) routes. Anyway, once past the common route I went for Shiina because, well, she was the most mysterious characters and not much of the remaining cast really grabbed me. I had some interest for Nino but this was shaping up to be the usual donkan brother (willingly or not) ignoring his sister's feeling type of plot and I've already read my share of that.

Shiina then, was an okay route but unfortunately, two major plots points kept distracting me from the actual budding relationship because the game just left them hanging in the air without properly explaining until much, much later on. First one what the protagonist's trauma related to Piano, hinting at some rather heavy past, and yet the protagonist gets over it relatively easily, but without revealing what was the issue until pretty much the end of the route. Second one what the whole parallel world with time delay/father-daughter thing. That really came out of nowhere, and all of a sudden "magic!" becomes a central element, freezing the romance development for a very long time. I liked the ending, but is Shiina really okay with it? Seems like it'll be harder and harder to succeed the longer she stays, but oh well.
So... maybe I'll continue? I'm not too invested in the other characters, and the magical elements don't really interest me too much either. We'll see.
 
If you're playing ヨスガノソラ I suggest to go for Nao's route as for me she's best heroine. I know that the MC is a bit indecisive and somewhat too good at heart (especially on the tsun ojo route, the akira's sister) but arguably there are worser protagonist like e.g the one on はにデビ!God I hate that saint and how he just swallow all the heroine's mistreatment of him

As for 少女と年の差、ふたまわり to me how she fell for him might've been due to her family situation and the environment she's in. She feels like she's a burden to her mother (implied she kinda sells her body to raise her) and so try to be mature (or at least act mature) to relief her mother's burden which might make her alienated from her friends. The MC on the other hand saw her as what she really is; a girl on her teens trying to mature faster and so he pampers her and say things like she should behave according to her age and all and she in turn slowly open up to him, behaving like her real self and began to see him as a reliable, father-like image which then proceeds to her developing real romantic feelings on him. There's this one guy that commented like that in getchu (though he still give it 4 stars rating) apparently he also thinks she's too mature for her age so... hope this kinda explain
 
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linglw wrote on zhonyk's profile.
Hello .zhonky coul you upload this one ? https://www.dmm.co.jp/dc/doujin/-/d...m_campaign=affiliate_toolbar&utm_content=text , ゴブリンからはじめる世界征服 2.5
Jelly-filled Donut wrote on Nihonjaki90's profile.
Dear Nihonjaki90, would you reupload this, please?
どろり甘エロご奉仕性活

I edited it, just this one is fine.
d'observer wrote on Otokonoko's profile.
Hello, can you upload akira_Brave777's new release ハイスクールDxD01_リアス・グレモリーと姫島朱乃 26min?