Visual Novel Cafe

[namkhoaTH]

I had the same reaction to Renai

 

[Veshurik]

Oh, thank you. By the way, I noticed...

Ai Kiss is the sequel for Kiss Ato?

Because... It's the same art setting and totally the same school.

Their post in Twitter ...
"Five years later that place". Giga, please... Maybe, you mean "on the same place"?

If you see the page of world introduction for "Ai Kiss". then you notice absolutely same background which were used for "Kiss Ato" (you can check PSVita opening).

Eeh... I don't know what that means, Giga try to make more sales with that (or just trying to make an eroge with less budget reusing old backgrounds)?

 

[pingtoryan]

Five years later that place...it actually makes sense if you translate it back to Japanese...that's Engrish at its finest. Five years later, at the same place...heck, Five years later, at that place.

What's suspicious about reusing stuff though? Maybe that's just a whimsical decision, who knows...

 

[V1zi3r]

just finished なついろレシピ. it took me longer than i expected but was very worth it. for those looking for a simple, steady, almost conflict free inaka romance to soothes your heart after playing serious or disturbing story than this i recommend. For some reason this is the only game that Pulltop Air made (Im a big fan of Pulltop, Pulltop Lattee to be precise) but nevertheless it have very good quality with nice art, nice OST, nice story, the H is kinda vanilla so dont expect much unless your heart is still pure. right now im pondering for what should i play next but i probably gonna go for the just released 流星ワールドアクター, its unorthodox story and MC is the main reason so cheers and enjoy your weekend

 

[amaimono]

So, is Ryuusei World Actor any good? I have reservations about it because of the modern fantasy theme and the amount of scenes. Nothing that strong writing won't fix.

 

[V1zi3r]

So, is Ryuusei World Actor any good? I have reservations about it because of the modern fantasy theme and the amount of scenes. Nothing that strong writing won't fix.

well i havent gotten so far yet but its a mystery/detective theme mixed with fantasy with an unusual slacky low rank seemingly pathetic detective as MC. it doesnt seem to be a true mystery setting though and there's quite a lot of law and police terms though in the general the japanese isnt that hard and i'd say that the art is good at least and thats what i can say right now

 

[Frankincense]

Finished E School Life.

Spoiler

This is the story of Ryoutarou who came back from overseas and is now looking forward to enjoy the school life in Japan. That's all there is to it. If you think this sounds uninteresting already, you might not be wrong.

So what kind of system does Hooksoft have to present this time? You can choose when to sleep and get different go-to-school events with different heroines. You don't know who you meet at which time and that's basically trial and error. I have a feeling they copied this from Da Capo but that might be just me.

And there's the stand talk system. You get to learn more about the heroines by overhearing rumors, and use that information to strike a conversations with them. Think of it as an extra step you need to take before actually making a choice. I kinda both like and dislike this system. At the very least it gives the illusion that you're in a school environment and that you have to actually spend some effort to learn about the girl you like. However, this feels increasingly tedious over time. On second playthrough and after, these rumor locations are revealed and you don't have to roam around school to find the right one, but you still need to move your cursor over the rumors to see which girls they're referring to every time. It'd be a lot better if they just added some kind of text or picture which you could see right away, instead of using mouse-over messages.

The stand talk system also has some kind of affection point. If you go for only one heroine, you can expect her to go all deredere during the later half of the common route, but if you avoid choosing her during early game, from chapter 3 onward you'll get different kinds of responses, and different rumors and events also. However, to progress past the common route, you need to stick to only one girl and can't miss a single choice to the very end, so trying to see these events automatically results in bad ending.

Now about the story, for a game that has school life in its title, I don't feel that much school life in it. When I hear school life I'd think the highlight would be something like culture festival or field trip. I was impressed with how they managed to make the field trip event in the common route utterly uninteresting; there was no activity at all apart from some conversation. Needless to say, on normal days at school it's even more boring. The school life setting almost entirely goes to waste as there is not enough character interaction between school folks to drive it. Well, at least there are you and the heroines. But the girls seem mutually exclusive and unable to exist at the same time. This is like low-priced single heroine games stitched together in a Frankenstein's monster's fashion. I know this seems to be a problem with many games lately but I at least want the heroines to have more screen time outside their own routes.

One more thing to blame is the short length of the game. I understand they were trying to put in as many school life thingies as possible by having the game span a period of one year, but they simply didn't have enough room for adding the good parts and thus those school special events ended up merely presented instead of adequately emphasized. This is especially true during individual routes where school life isn't relevant anymore, because in the end it's a romance VN before anything else; heroines had to be prioritized and those date and romance progression events ended up occupying most of the routes already. I'm actually for the idea of the game covering all the seasons in a year, if it's well executed. It simply won't work though when the game is so short.

I know it's not fair but at this point there are a few similarities already so I can't resist referring to D.C. again. D.C.2 is one of my all-time favorite titles. Even boring periods during class, they managed to make it fun with character interaction, a group of friend spending fun time together, working together and trolling one another. It's especially good with event like Christmas party or test of courage. They sliced a few high-quality chunk off life, while E School Life tried to get every part of life and sliced too thinly.

There are 4 main heroines and 3 subheroines. Emi, the childhood friend. Mia, the kind classmate. Rikako, the introvert athlete with a complex about her height. Misato, the mischievous senpai. Yuka, the overprotected ojousama. Rin, the beauty who hides her face. Erina, the teacher. They're all stereotypes of characters with respective traits. I'm not going to review each individual route. There's no plot or drama. It's more like a series of happenings than a real story. The readability is only up to whether you like the characters or not.

My verdict is, this game is quite boring. I didn't expect a grand overarching plot from Hooksoft, just some sweet vanilla story as usual, but the boring writing is just too much. There are a few positives though. I see they tried to add stuff; different sprites for different seasons, alternative ero CGs, random stand talk conversations, effects of affection points, etc. But are all these really worth it when the game is this short? And heroines are still cute as always, but sadly they're the only things that carry this game. Apart from them there's nothing memorable. Maybe just play for the ones you like, and skip through or drop the rest.

 

[pingtoryan]

Finished E School Life.

Spoiler

This is the story of Ryoutarou who came back from overseas and is now looking forward to enjoy the school life in Japan. That's all there is to it. If you think this sounds uninteresting already, you might not be wrong.

So what kind of system does Hooksoft have to present this time? You can choose when to sleep and get different go-to-school events with different heroines. You don't know who you meet at which time and that's basically trial and error. I have a feeling they copied this from Da Capo but that might be just me.

And there's the stand talk system. You get to learn more about the heroines by overhearing rumors, and use that information to strike a conversations with them. Think of it as an extra step you need to take before actually making a choice. I kinda both like and dislike this system. At the very least it gives the illusion that you're in a school environment and that you have to actually spend some effort to learn about the girl you like. However, this feels increasingly tedious over time. On second playthrough and after, these rumor locations are revealed and you don't have to roam around school to find the right one, but you still need to move your cursor over the rumors to see which girls they're referring to every time. It'd be a lot better if they just added some kind of text or picture which you could see right away, instead of using mouse-over messages.

The stand talk system also has some kind of affection point. If you go for only one heroine, you can expect her to go all deredere during the later half of the common route, but if you avoid choosing her during early game, from chapter 3 onward you'll get different kinds of responses, and different rumors and events also. However, to progress past the common route, you need to stick to only one girl and can't miss a single choice to the very end, so trying to see these events automatically results in bad ending.

Now about the story, for a game that has school life in its title, I don't feel that much school life in it. When I hear school life I'd think the highlight would be something like culture festival or field trip. I was impressed with how they managed to make the field trip event in the common route utterly uninteresting; there was no activity at all apart from some conversation. Needless to say, on normal days at school it's even more boring. The school life setting almost entirely goes to waste as there is not enough character interaction between school folks to drive it. Well, at least there are you and the heroines. But the girls seem mutually exclusive and unable to exist at the same time. This is like low-priced single heroine games stitched together in a Frankenstein's monster's fashion. I know this seems to be a problem with many games lately but I at least want the heroines to have more screen time outside their own routes.

One more thing to blame is the short length of the game. I understand they were trying to put in as many school life thingies as possible by having the game span a period of one year, but they simply didn't have enough room for adding the good parts and thus those school special events ended up merely presented instead of adequately emphasized. This is especially true during individual routes where school life isn't relevant anymore, because in the end it's a romance VN before anything else; heroines had to be prioritized and those date and romance progression events ended up occupying most of the routes already. I'm actually for the idea of the game covering all the seasons in a year, if it's well executed. It simply won't work though when the game is so short.

I know it's not fair but at this point there are a few similarities already so I can't resist referring to D.C. again. D.C.2 is one of my all-time favorite titles. Even boring periods during class, they managed to make it fun with character interaction, a group of friend spending fun time together, working together and trolling one another. It's especially good with event like Christmas party or test of courage. They sliced a few high-quality chunk off life, while E School Life tried to get every part of life and sliced too thinly.

There are 4 main heroines and 3 subheroines. Emi, the childhood friend. Mia, the kind classmate. Rikako, the introvert athlete with a complex about her height. Misato, the mischievous senpai. Yuka, the overprotected ojousama. Rin, the beauty who hides her face. Erina, the teacher. They're all stereotypes of characters with respective traits. I'm not going to review each individual route. There's no plot or drama. It's more like a series of happenings than a real story. The readability is only up to whether you like the characters or not.

My verdict is, this game is quite boring. I didn't expect a grand overarching plot from Hooksoft, just some sweet vanilla story as usual, but the boring writing is just too much. There are a few positives though. I see they tried to add stuff; different sprites for different seasons, alternative ero CGs, random stand talk conversations, effects of affection points, etc. But are all these really worth it when the game is this short? And heroines are still cute as always, but sadly they're the only things that carry this game. Apart from them there's nothing memorable. Maybe just play for the ones you like, and skip through or drop the rest.

Spoiler

As I said before, it's, IMO, uncharacteristic of Hooksoft because pretty much every games up to this point don't waste characters like this and thus keep a good slice of life up at most times (Most of the times the protag and heriones are close-knit group of friends and occasionally on a first-name basis to begin with). It's as if you've phased into an alternate world after entering heroine route...and who thought one day of a month as an entire chapter is a good idea??

 

[kzel]

Are interactions between heroines, especially in heroine routes, that important to everyone? I understand if it's featured heavily during the common route of a visual novel, as a way to introduce and break the ice between everyone. On the contrary, and especially in the romance-only genre, having other heroines show up constantly during the later parts of a character's route feels more annoying and distracting than anything, the more so after playing other heroines' routes and remembering parts of it. I much prefer my romance stories to focus on the protagonist and the heroine whose route it is. I'm not saying other characters shouldn't appear at all, but I can't say I mind that much if it remains very limited. It's actually a very strong complaint I have about Arisa's route in Kiss Ato that I played recently, in which the protagonist isn't even present during the finale and epilogue. It's nice she made a friend, but as a finishing line for a romance story it's not what I'm looking for. Maybe it's just me.

I'm currently well underway Clochette's latest ココロネ＝ペンデュラム！, and so far it's okay but very uneven. I have played in order Tsumuri, Sumika, Nazuna and am currently halfway though Riru's route, and Tsumuri's route was so far the only one that really felt like a typical Clochette route. Unfortunately the ecchi scenes veer very quickly into the SM/Hentai side in this route (far too much for me), but otherwise the story has its fair share of happenings and mysteries. Which is not really something that can be said about all the other routes I've played so far, in which honestly nothing much if at all happens. At least the H scenes are back into more vanilla territory, but the romance progression is quick and without much obstacles (even for the real sister), and the climaxes felt rather lackluster and full of unresolved problems. I know I'm the first to complain about Clochette spending way too much effort on area outside the ichaicha/romance, but why bother setting up all the powers and background to use it so little? Seriously, superpowers sometimes seem to exist only as a way to spice things up during ecchi scenes (especially the protagonist's mind reading). Still, as a sweet carefree game it's enjoyable, just not very engaging. I'm hoping the remaining two will raise the bar somewhat.

 

[amaimono]

That stand talk mechanic sounds brilliant. Lovely x Cation series should have had that mechanic in addition to the existing ones. In pure love eroges, only the feels stick with you in the end, though.

Characters' interaction between heroines in pure love eroges, is frankly not necessary. It's difficult to get right, tends to be filler, and may even kill off the interest in one or more heroines. For it to work, you need at least one of the following: great humor, great writing, or really interesting set up. Quite rare in eroges.

@kzel Can't believe I'm saying this, but I've grown tired of Clochette's samey character designs.

 

[|♚|KK|♚|]

Hey friends :) Tt's been a while, I wanted to ask some recommendations. I don't mind any genre/theme, just something you really enjoyed. Thanks!

 

[kzel]

@kzel Can't believe I'm saying this, but I've grown tired of Clochette's samey character designs.

Samey? It's the return of 御敷 仁 after a two games absence though, and while I agree this style isn't my favorite (my favorite Clochette remains ここから夏のイノセンス！) it's still quite different from the previous games. Although the studio was always a fan of balloons since Kamikaze, I have to admit the breasts are getting into the ridiculous range of sizes in this one, and it makes some CG unintentionally (or not?) more humorous than exciting. Tsumuri is actually adorable, too bad her H scenes turned out this way.

Hey friends :) Tt's been a while, I wanted to ask some recommendations. I don't mind any genre/theme, just something you really enjoyed. Thanks!

We actually discussed favorites/recommendations a while back, if you care to skip a few posts in between you may find some good stuff. Otherwise, it would actually help if you provided a genre or a general idea of what you're looking for (or want to avoid).

 

[amaimono]

Hey friends :) Tt's been a while, I wanted to ask some recommendations. I don't mind any genre/theme, just something you really enjoyed. Thanks!

A tough ask given the seemingly widespread decline in eroge writing.

Out of recent titles, I recommend Tsuki no Kanata de Aimashou (https://vndb.org/v24803). It's a compilation of tone work's previous themes (the struggle of love of Hatsukoi 1/1, the joy of togetherness of Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai, and whatever Gin'iro Haruka was about) plus a mixture of sci-fi and harsh reality. The variation in focus makes each route feels refreshingly different.

tone work's has one of the biggest budget in the industry and it's reflected in their end product. For an eroge, it has a high standard of writing, though there are weak parts which could have been addressed had the story been a bit longer (yeah, the estimated >50 hours reading time isn't long enough). The art is great. The music is tone work's best yet. I feel a bit empty for a few days after finishing it, though I'd still rank Hatsukoi 1/1 above it.

Also, probably Haha Ranman (https://vndb.org/v25144). Storywise it's a bit short and has untidied loose ends, but it gets most of the important parts right. It has a playing mechanic which is rather complicated and doesn't reward you for failing (with NTR). Still, it's a beautiful eroge, at least in art and music.

Oh, also, to my embarrassment, Shiina Maho no Himitsu (https://vndb.org/v25805). It's about sex sex sex and starts out really poorly, but it gets better. Probably best to read it per scene, when you need a break from your other reading materials.
======================================
What's your otoge recommendation?

Samey? It's the return of 御敷 仁 after a two games absence though, and while I agree this style isn't my favorite (my favorite Clochette remains ここから夏のイノセンス！) it's still quite different from the previous games.

Huh. Didn't realize that ここから夏のイノセンス！ is a Clochette's title. Oshiki Hitoshi's art got really good since Kamikaze Explorer, but they changed little over the years. By now, it looks passe, to me at least.

By the way, are you reading SiStart by Piromizu in Comic Exe? It's pretty fun. Wouldn't mind one bit if it's made into an eroge.

 

[Frankincense]

You have a point about distraction. In fact it actually makes sense because not everyone is supposed to be from the same circle of friends. I just personally think that those characters might have their use instead of letting them all go to waste, because the final product is pretty boring anyway. Or I just miss comedy like that of D.C.2 or Koiiro Soramoyou. Games these days never quite reach that level again.
[MENTION=93850]|♚|KK|♚|[/MENTION]; I don't know any good titles to recommend, but I'll try giving a short review to games I've play this past 2 years.

Haruoto * Alice Gram (nanawind) - An above average game about solving school mysteries, both man-made and supernatural. (Set in the same universe as their earlier game Alia's Carnival, which is terrible and should be avoided).

Hatsukoi Sankaime - A game with story driven by romance itself. It's about a dilemma of lost first love and whether to find a new love again. There are good and bad routes. If you can survive through the bad ones this is certainly worth your time.

Riddle Joker - Yuzusoft. Not perfect but always a safe pick. The main heroine's route got more love than other routes, which rate from so-so to good.

Newton to Ringo no Ki - A decent one, but only the route that leads to the true ending.

Making * Lovers - A good charage for pure loving moments. No difficult drama stuff.

Others I forgot either because my memory fails me or they were too bad to mention.

 

[V1zi3r]

Hey friends :) Tt's been a while, I wanted to ask some recommendations. I don't mind any genre/theme, just something you really enjoyed. Thanks!

unorthodox recommendation: 仄暗き時の果てより

 

[kzel]

By the way, are you reading SiStart by Piromizu in Comic Exe? It's pretty fun. Wouldn't mind one bit if it's made into an eroge.

I can't say I've read it, I'm not really following manga much, is it any good? By the way, good news for the Amakano fans :

Back to 3 heroines for the next game, good choice since I remember growing tired at the end of my Amakano 2nd season playthrough. Release planned for March 2020, still a long way off, but maybe that means the season will be switched from winter to spring? Art by Piromizu and scenario by Ryuu Gakuru, sounds good so far!

 

[amaimono]

Actually I wanted to read some infos about Azarashi's new project in Comic Exe 20, though it hasn't been posted yet :P

Sistart is a monthly set of an illustration + 4-panels comic + some extra bits about the characters and the author.

Spoiler: SiStart

@Amakano 2:It indeed seems to be set during a new school term in spring.

I love how Piromizu is going with more mature character design nowadays, though I'm a little bit concerned that all three have known the protag to some extent. Would have preferred if they're total strangers like in the first Amakano. Taking Rei's word at face value, though, the protag's parents seem to be absent. That would be a great plus.

 

[V1zi3r]

Just finished 流星ワールドアクター

Spoiler

The story took place in (supposedly) a fantasy world where human and various other sentient species such as elf, dwarves, pixies, etc. each lives in their own country or kingdom. one of those country is called the 7th republic where human the most dominant in the country opened up their door to various other species and try to live together in harmony and peace with the police force as the main enforcer of law and order of the nation. our MC, a lazy, low level, scum-like loser is a detective in the police force as part of the 13th division, an unusual "special" division where the rest 12 division discard their rejects either because their troublemaker or incompetent regardless of their abilities. the story started out very interesting, the MC though showed as a total loser is actually only playing the fool and actually very powerful with a grim past. together he and the rest of the 13th division worked on various case which is the main point of the story. the story itself not a true mystery even though it revolves around detectives as you're not given a choice to alter the story as its already set and the only option you'll get is to chose the heroine. the world is a mess. its a fantasy world but supposedly took place in earth and in japan as they mention things like yen, kanji, japanese proverbs, etc. but doesn't delve deep into various things like its history, diversity, species, basically its just there to serve a purpose. the story starts out good but slow. as it progress with each case you might expect that there'll be a grand happening later on but eventually nothing really happened. each case is more or less separated from the other and although they put various trivia and mention about the MC's great past they dont describe it fully, at least not on the heroine route that i take. there's also quite a lot of comedy but it fell short of being "funny" just amusing (it wont make you laugh but maybe a chuckle once in a while)
the art is very good, its well drawn and all the girls looks cute and attractive. their voice actress and the bgm are also good and their personality is also nice, each individual feels unique and not generic and the way they interacts with the MC and various other character is interesting. however the pace of the story doesn't really gave much time for romance development. there is character development but by the time you pick a heroine you'll notice that the romance took the fast lane as the pace is unusually fast and feels rushed, its like the story content is 90% while the remaining 10% is the romance which makes it kinda ruins those character development as they just skipped a pace in romance like 1,2,4,8,9 and 10, at least on Shiffon's case. the H in overall is great, the scene is drawn in various erotic angle and poses that doesn't feel off and the heroine's expression and lewd words is also very charming and alluring. the voice is also erotic with a balanced ratio of voiced dialog and text description though the only thing that feels off is how the MC and the heroine personality greatly changed especially in the MC case where he turns 180 and become like another person turning into a kind gentlemen with a virgin teen thinking which ruins the depth of the overall romance. in the end though its not a terrible game its also not terrific. it have many potentials and could've been better, a masterpiece even but then it stumbles, i dont know weather they run out of time, money, both or its written like that from the start but its a shame to see how at first it started great, it draws you in and you expect much from it but only to realize you're expectation is wrong and you kinda feel betrayed by it. in Getchu there's 2 review that gave it a 1 score out of five complaining things like this and they probably feels betrayed as it started out nicely. in overall its an ok game and once you start from that it'll be like watching a B grade movie. you know its not a masterpiece from the start despite the quality of its art and story but can still enjoy as you dont really expect much from it..... like eating a hotdog, its still delicious but you wouldn't expect it to be as delicious as, say... a lasagna. To score it i'll rate it 3.5 out of 5.

p.s: after this i plan to play 果つることなき未来ヨリ, anything i should know?

 

[amaimono]

Just finished 流星ワールドアクター *snip*

I see. I read that most of the complain about this game is actually the cliffhanger ending. I could cope with that, but after reading your review, it seems the overall story lacks polish. Gonna skip this after all.

 

[V1zi3r]

I see. I read that most of the complain about this game is actually the cliffhanger ending. I could cope with that, but after reading your review, it seems the overall story lacks polish. Gonna skip this after all.

don't get me wrong, it can still be entertaining and amusing just dont expect it to be a masterpiece, like playing a nukige you wouldnt expect much out of the story right? but its still in overall enjoyable... kinda

 

[Veshurik]

I'm happy for Amakano 2... But I'm already got lost in 4 previous games (Amakano, Second Season and their fan-discs version).
I really don't like when you milking franchise with ton of titles, and I mean, omg, my brain...

So, it means it's already 5th project in Amakano series?

And I think that ~Second Season~ can be mistaken with Amakano 2, because I initially thought it's 2nd part, but no? Ooh...

By the way, about new Hooksoft game.
Guys, please, explain me, what the point of that game, because I can't understand 2 versions of girl routes.
What the differences?
Thank you!

 

[amaimono]

I'm happy for Amakano 2... But I'm already got lost in 4 previous games (Amakano, Second Season and their fan-discs version).
I really don't like when you milking franchise with ton of titles, and I mean, omg, my brain...

So, it means it's already 5th project in Amakano series?

And I think that ~Second Season~ can be mistaken with Amakano 2, because I initially thought it's 2nd part, but no? Ooh...

By the way, about new Hooksoft game.
Guys, please, explain me, what the point of that game, because I can't understand 2 versions of girl routes.
What the differences?
Thank you!

@Amakano series: You missed the perfect edition, and complete edition :P

@Hooksoft new game: There are two full routes per heroine: the normal one where you take the initiative in your relationship, and the other where the heroines does that and you take the passive role. Kinda like choosing between S and M, except this is much more milder than that.

 

[Veshurik]

There are two full routes per heroine: the normal one where you take the initiative in your relationship, and the other where the heroines does that and you take the passive role. Kinda like choosing between S and M, except this is much more milder than that.

Omg, well, it's not for everyone, but I think I choose 1st variant... If I'd even choose anything, ahaha, don't know how they will hadnle with it.

 

[amaimono]

Omg, well, it's not for everyone, but I think I choose 1st variant... If I'd even choose anything, ahaha, don't know how they will hadnle with it.

SM is a bad comparison, sorry.

Per Hooksoft's example:

• in the normal route, the MC does stuff to make the girl happy (confessing to the girl, offering his shoulder for the girl to rest on, etc.), while...
• in the alternative route, it's the girl who does the romantic stuff (confessing to the MC, offering her lap as a pillow, etc.)

 

[Veshurik]

Oh, thanks, by the way, guys, congrats with 4000th reply in that thread! And with 400 pages. In 2019, finally...

Oooh! That makes sense in Hooksoft game, I just misunderstand... Then nice, I want to see it!

The name of the game says "Which of 1 you want to love?" or what?

どっちのiが好きですか？
どっちの1が好きですか？

I don't know what means "i" as variation of name.