Visual Novel Cafe

[Mahou]

So I had due to a bit of unique circumstances the chance to replay a few older titles like Clochette's Kokorone Pendulum, Sakigake Generation and Haruruminamomi. What I really enjoyed in them was the common route, especially the former and latter titel. Solid MCs and totally adorable main heroines in particular if you are just in the mood for a heavy dose of sugary-sweet moments lol.

Another VN I quite enjoyed was 海と雪のシアンブルー. I quite loved Ira and Kotoha's route and it's quite unfortunate that there's no solid after story or different life episodes like in Hoshiori.
I also played the localized version of Marmelade's Marshmallow All the Way Home / お家に帰るまでがましまろです, Kanon's route. The translation is pretty solid I think. A few weird decisions to translate name-senpai with Mr. Name. From what I've experienced IRL, there's no special way of addressing your junior/senior in school/university. But eh... that's the ususal deal with cultural differences.

 

[Murakumo]

Finally got a JP copy of Navel's Tick! Tack! installed, but it's the limited edition and somehow the sagaoz save file doesn't work with it, is anyone else having this problem?

 

[Veshurik]

Uuuh... Hello, guys. How are you? I miss those times where here goes ton of discussions about latest eroge, but now here is total silence, ahaha... *crickets' sound*

About latest releases... I don't have a time at all, but sometimes I purchase something what I like. For example, I purchased Gamekoi Deluxe Edition (with OST and DL contents), because I really love theme of eroge development. I didn't play it yet, and it's nukige, but I wonder how interesting the plot in this game.

Spoiler: Gamekoi Photos

 

[Tu0714]

I bought that too!
Though Hadashi Syoujo's story usually bothering, this game was interesting.
We can learn about Eroge, like Sonora's games.

 

[Veshurik]

Guys, hello, how are you? Anybody here? *sob*
There was Lose Last Concert a few days ago. Visited it online, and it was truly wonderful...

Nexton Live will be held next month, so I can't wait for it (will try to buy an online ticket!)

 

[Chelly]

Howdyy guyss! I used to be a lil bit active here in the past but forgot about it lol...
I know nowadays Discord is the main chat tool and there are plenty nice VN discord servers out there but I'm not good with a big group of many people. Feels like everyone just talks past each other and you get easily ignored, like twitter and it's hard to make a connection imo. Or maybe I'm just too much of a obasan...

Sadly either gacha games, ryza 1 or overwork have been sucking away my time a lot recently orz.. but def want to get back again. Been readng on & off yuri VNs on switch (which is totally perfectly for long train commute) but I'm missing to read a proper eroge.
What have you guys been reading recently? Or anything you look forward to?

No new eroge catched my attention so far except Aokana extra 2 which I still need to read. I just want a new Toneworks game...どこだぁぁぁ！？
The new Yuzusoft VN also looks interesting but I don't really like their light heartened comedy/jokes, which they overuse a lot....hmmm. But giving the trial a try wouldn't hurt I guess.

Guys, hello, how are you? Anybody here? *sob*
There was Lose Last Concert a few days ago. Visited it online, and it was truly wonderful...

Nexton Live will be held next month, so I can't wait for it (will try to buy an online ticket!)

I'm hereeee, lets try to revive it, buddy! ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

 

[pingtoryan]

I'm too fatigued to read these days, and it seems to apply specifically for reading.

I did finished Houkago Cinderella 2 months ago. An improvement from the first one - you might find my gripe about it in this thread if you look for it. The common route stuff got better, enough for me to not just straight-up skip it (there's actually a reason to hold off until the very last chance) and the girls kept my attention for long enough. But per usual, nothing special. Gotta get start on Hooksoft's latest stuff sometime...
Of note is...I found something I like about the first Houkago Cinderella...the track "Crystal Oasis".

I retrieved an excerpt video of Otoboku 2 I had for over a decade and I only found out now that in the midst of a certain comedic segment there was a very emotional moment within...a small internal meditation on existence followed by a hug. Got back to the game itself a bit for the fun stuff a bit and discovered an interesting fact about the blonde heroine previously overlooked...

I had been following the story parts of Code Geass: Lost Stories on Youtube for the past several months. It's almost effectively VN when you watch it that way. For some reason I can take things in VN format better than most other media formats. Fun stuff if you're somewhat familiar with its lore, as the MC pratically reads Lelouch almost like an open book.
I did "read" Code Geass: Lost Colors the same way. One of the cases of truly overpowered MC done right. But I still think you need to be somewhat familiar with the source lore to truly enjoy it. It fixes one of the worst tragedy to befall an anime and allows you to NTR a certain widely hated individual.

While I doubt it counts as VN, I finally got to play the PS2 Negima (1st hour) after all these years, with the proper knowledge to make sense of stuff and it turned out to be really fun game. The entire series move the story in the same way, VN segment and gameplay segment...I like Dream Tactics too, funny fairy tales.

Sadly, I doubt anyone is here to peruse the forums anymore. There is certain things that forums do better than Discord for sure. You kinda need to have some clout on the server or do something really high impact to be heard among the many. Also not a good place for a massive writeups; forums let me think on what I write. Discord is more like conversation than discussion...

 

[Veshurik]

Oooh my goooosh, this thread is ALIIIIIVE!!!! Hooray!!!

 

[pingtoryan]

I wouldn't get my hopes up...

Forgot to say, PriministAr is getting a HD remaster. The two Motomiya Mitsuki-art games (the other being StrawberryNauts, which got a HD Renewal to 1280x720 and PS4/Switch re-release with added heroine to boot) are both great, cutting right through Hooksoft's best years before it all became bland.

Also, Hooksoft launched another sister brand, Tilly, with debut title dROSEra (pronunced Drosera). Not interested because it seems to be single-heroine romance game. Never liked this style for romantic VN. While I digest things better in VN format for sure, why wouldn't one go for a light novel or somesuch for a one-path relationship-focused story? Exploring many if not all additional characters in some depth is kinda the point of VN format, no?

 

[Veshurik]

single-heroine romance game

Hm, looks like it will be 3-part game, like usual nowadays in eroge industry (looks like full eroge divided into separate heroines). It's more convenient for developers now, as I can see - make only 1 route, get money to make 2nd, etc, and then boom - COMPLETE EDITION~ I remember Windmill Cosmos, Argonauts (Moonstone sub-brand), and other brands doing this, and now Hooksoft.

 

[pingtoryan]

Hm, looks like it will be 3-part game, like usual nowadays in eroge industry (looks like full eroge divided into separate heroines). It's more convenient for developers now, as I can see - make only 1 route, get money to make 2nd, etc, and then boom - COMPLETE EDITION~ I remember Windmill Cosmos, Argonauts (Moonstone sub-brand), and other brands doing this, and now Hooksoft.

Moonstone's been quiet for half a year now, and their latest stuff all came from Argonauts. Seems to me like twilight is descending on much, if not the entire sector.

 

[pingtoryan]

PriministAr HD Remaster is a port to Buriko (BGI) engine unlike StrawberryNauts HD RENEWAL that stayed on the old engine. They didnt even bother remaking the Recollection interface and just reuse the Gallery UI. Fandisc scenarios are integrated. Basically the Definitive Edition for the title. I guess it's not called that because it'll be too hard to comprehend for the locals...

 

[Kri]

Man I cant believe even the kzel has stopped reading visual novels, I suppose the eroge industry is seriously about at its last breath.

Well its not a big suprise tho, I miss the old days where we got at least more than 10 not-nukiges titles and could choose the ones which fit to our tastes, while almost all of old companies have gone bankrupt now.

 

[pingtoryan]

Man I cant believe even the kzel has stopped reading visual novels, I suppose the eroge industry is seriously about at its last breath.

Well its not a big suprise tho, I miss the old days where we got at least more than 10 not-nukiges titles and could choose the ones which fit to our tastes, while almost all of old companies have gone bankrupt now.

Time is not kind to anything...me, others, industry... I kinda lost the will to read things for a pretty long while now. Things had been stale for several years now, I believe. A few Doujin games are actually outperforming bigger names lately in terms of quality...

 

[Kri]

Time is not kind to anything...me, others, industry... I kinda lost the will to read things for a pretty long while now. Things had been stale for several years now, I believe. A few Doujin games are actually outperforming bigger names lately in terms of quality...

I'm still reading stuff time to time, specially since my favorite series are still ongoing but yeah you are right.

For almost 10-15 years moeges were carrying the industry, but now since gachas have kind of replaced / stole those customers Eroge industry is doomed.

Well it was always meant to be end at some day, since the cost of making a full priced game is way too high + getting higher with each year but you cant sell it any higher price because its already expensive. Now when you add the loss of customers to this, there was no way to survive.

 

[Veshurik]

This year I read only Sankaku Renai by ASa Project... and planned to read Otome Domain by Palette Qualia, but something went wrong... (my real life, to be honest, personal issues etc). Yeah... I don't read VNs at all, only 1 or 2 per year, that's all. *sob*

I don't even follow news about upcoming eroge releases as much as it was last years. I barely even contributing now (because purchasing content became quite difficult), but I am glad I still can help searching/buying various eroge OSTs, singles etc!

 

[kactaplb]

Been out of the loop for a long while but whatever happened to august? All I see on their site are ports and some DMM f2p game.

 

[Checkmate]

Glad to still see old face here.
I am still reading Hulotte last work

 

[kactaplb]

Haha nice to see you and asf still around and alive. I suddenly got the urge to get back into the hobby but lost my backups, so I'll be starting from scratch...

 

[Checkmate]

I have eternal love for vanilla game. Plain vanilla.

 

[pingtoryan]

Been out of the loop for a long while but whatever happened to august? All I see on their site are ports and some DMM f2p game.

It appears they decided to go all-in with that Iris (Airis?) Mysteria thing, to the point that their own past games get cameos there...and it shows that Keyorina is their Magnum Opus by porting it to modern OS this late.

 

[Kri]

Been out of the loop for a long while but whatever happened to august? All I see on their site are ports and some DMM f2p game.

August and some other companies started going full gacha games now (18+ DMM gachas), dropping visual novels.

Which is really a shame but I suppose it brings more money than our old good visual novels.

Unfortunately I think Alcot / Harukaze are also dead. Alcot's director has made a stream 9 months ago, saying they'll bring news about a new title around the spring which made me happy but there is absolutely no move since then, not even at their twitters so I assume something has gone wrong.

For Harukaze, I actually gone and tried to contract them from twitter first (japanese ofc), got no reply at all.

Then tried mailing, asking Noraneko 3, they just answered with "We are still active" and it has been more than a year since then, no move at all from them as well.

Clochette may be dead as well but since they are still participating at comiket with their old posters and stuff, I have some slim hopes towards them.

AXL is dead for sure. Seems like Baseson actually tried to buy it or something but failed.


To be honest, at this point I think only Nexton (Baseson, Azarashi soft), Robo Planning (Asa project, Smee, Hooksoft), Yuzusoft, Hulotte and a bunch of smaller companies active. I always thought Akabesoft would make it until the end but apparently even they couldnt, its just a nukige company now.

Well if we look from a positive side, imo those are pretty enough as a vanilla moege lover. I just hope that we dont lose anymore companies.

 

[Checkmate]

if we are talking about vanilla HEALING game, I'm still waiting for the next CATION game but my god, hibiki works is MIA for 3 years already.

I'm genuinely sad that GIGA also closed shop.

So what's left from my favorite line up are:
Hulotte/Cuffs brand, Azarashi Soft, Whirlpool (thank god), Yuzusoft, WillPlus/ensemble, Lump of Sugar / subrand, CandySoft and their marriage titles (I'm a marriagecon), Madosoft, Smile

And I hope CIRCUS won't be a traitor and will release D.C.5 the ero version soon enough.

Upcoming Willplus

 

[Kri]

if we are talking about vanilla HEALING game, I'm still waiting for the next CATION game but my god, hibiki works is MIA for 3 years already.

I'm genuinely sad that GIGA also closed shop.

So what's left from my favorite line up are:
Hulotte/Cuffs brand, Azarashi Soft, Whirlpool (thank god), Yuzusoft, ensemble (hit/miss), Lump of Sugar (also hit/miss) / subrand.

And I hope CIRCUS won't be a traitor and will release D.C.5 the ero version soon enough.

Oh lol I was just about to edit my post and add Whirlpool to it, instead saw your reply. Yeah I'm also very glad to see that its still alive and kicking.

Thinking about it, Cube and Saga Planet duo are also still active.

For hibiki works, I kind of lost all my hopes towards that. Well at least they are still posting some stuff at the twitter and selling the merch so they are not completely gone, but I doubt they'll make another cation games to be honest.

Other than that I believe when Toneworks has left the Visual Arts, the director has said that they are still active and will protect the same quality / will do same type of the games in the future so they should be ok? I believe. Gotta mail them or something in a near future tho.

 

[Checkmate]

Saga planets titles are a bit... too crappy for my taste but let's just say they are passable. I'm also playing some indie game, and some are very high quality.