Visual Novel Cafe

[kzel]

I haven't had much motivation to play lately, so I'll probably keep things short.

I finished Tomoe and Yurika's routes in 働くオトナの恋愛事情, and I'm still looking for the 恋愛 that is promised in the title, unless adult relationships can be summed up as alcohol and sex. As far as sex goes there certainly is a lot of it, height scenes per heroine plus fifteen one-night-stands. Speaking of one-night-stands, it seems the formula is five mandatory scenes during the common route, plus two opportunities per heroine to cheat on your current (official or not) partner. I was allowed to refuse one such encounter in Tomoe's route, and both in Yurika's. I can't speak for the other routes but they may or may not be avoidable, if cheating is for you even remotely as much a turn-off as it is for me I can't recommend this game, even as a nukige. Not that's it's much of anything else since the scenario of both routes combined could easily fit on a postcard, but I found the banter with Tomoe amusing, I like the CV and the art is top class so I guess that's something. Ecchi-wise there's lot of scenes so it's not hard to find something that strikes any particular fancy, but I didn't like Yurika's constant "teasing", she's cute otherwise but those H-scenes I ended up skipping, which made her route feel particularly short. Not sure I'll got back for the other three, I tend to take a long time to finish nukiges as it heavily depends on my current mood.

I briefly gave ネコぱら Vol.1 a try, but ended up giving up right after the MC and Chocolat start kissing and presumably have sex. I was playing the all-age version (I think? just deleted the two adultonly.xp3 files) and it still came up to that, what a shame. The game had a good start with cute characters and the MC's stance as a fatherly role was perfectly fine with me, but since I was not given any choice the whole time I played I assume it's not possible to stay that way and need to get romantically involved with... your pets. The game takes great efforts in making this point so it's pretty impossible to view Chocolat and Vanille as anything else. I've had pet cats for more than 20 years now and that is just... no, too awkward for me to keep going. As a side note, I don't know why but I kept feeling the eyes of the emote-enhanced character sprites looked empty or unfocused, quite disturbing.

I'll quietly wait for the upcoming releases and just replay Mahiru's route (early confession) in 私が好きなら「好き」って言って！ for my daily dose of heartwarming icha-icha.

 

[Kri]

Sengoku Koihime X's promotion movie is out. If anyone is actually interested in it; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coI94MoYNCo

Oh man as I expected seems like Sakuya and Oboro will be something like temporary oni or getting controlled by them, or something like those. Since they are still in human form I guess mc will be able to save them somehow, but lets hope that baseson wont do something stupid like killing them without noticing because they were wearing "masks" or something. Thats really worst way of killing characters, moreover if they are important to the story. Also oboro's armor in that scene seems pretty interesting, shaped like wings or something.

 

[Animaksiat]

currently playing koitate 2... while waiting for my copies to arrive

 

[kzel]

I've been playing 甘えかたは彼女なりに。 for two evenings now and I must say, this title did not rekindle any faith I may have had in Giga. For one, it feels really short, I already completed both Nohana's and Miyuki's routes, and am partway through Tomomi's. Things develop way too fast and I could hardly feel any feeling develop between the MC and the heroines, they go from "friends" (wouldn't even go that far) to lovers all of a sudden after minimum interactions, not great. Once in a relationship, a little icha-icha, a little drama, and end : hmm okay? I'll probably play at least through Tomomi's route without great expectations, and write more detailed thoughts after that.

 

[Kri]

I've been playing 甘えかたは彼女なりに。 for two evenings now and I must say, this title did not rekindle any faith I may have had in Giga. For one, it feels really short, I already completed both Nohana's and Miyuki's routes, and am partway through Tomomi's. Things develop way too fast and I could hardly feel any feeling develop between the MC and the heroines, they go from "friends" (wouldn't even go that far) to lovers all of a sudden after minimum interactions, not great. Once in a relationship, a little icha-icha, a little drama, and end : hmm okay? I'll probably play at least through Tomomi's route without great expectations, and write more detailed thoughts after that.

I think giga is looking into this eroge industry with a little different perspective than other companies, or at least about the "moege" part. They are making 3-4 games per a year (gotta note that most of companies dont even do one per a year) and in all of those they are hiring newbie seiyuus, newbie artists, newbie scenarist etc. So it feels like instead of making something "great" with a good cast, they are trying to make many cheap games which will sell less but still leave them some profit since it cost less, then repeat it a couple times in a year.

They are making some costy games too though, like baldr series, so I guess they see those moeges just as some extra cash or something.

 

[Animaksiat]

I think giga is looking into this eroge industry with a little different perspective than other companies, or at least about the "moege" part. They are making 3-4 games per a year (gotta note that most of companies dont even do one per a year) and in all of those they are hiring newbie seiyuus, newbie artists, newbie scenarist etc. So it feels like instead of making something "great" with a good cast, they are trying to make many cheap games which will sell less but still leave them some profit since it cost less, then repeat it a couple times in a year.

They are making some costy games too though, like baldr series, so I guess they see those moeges just as some extra cash or something.

after the fight between kikuchi seiji and giga which result kikuchi-san left the company, many guys follows him. so they had to recruit new artists and new script writer. im not pretty sure what was the fight was about, kikuchi-san himself don't want to speak about it.

 

[Terumi]

after the fight between kikuchi seiji and giga which result kikuchi-san left the company, many guys follows him. so they had to recruit new artists and new script writer. im not pretty sure what was the fight was about, kikuchi-san himself don't want to speak about it.

there was a fight? hmm... i am always interested in drama in this scene.
but sadly i didnt play baldr, only material brave i guess

 

[Animaksiat]

there was a fight? hmm... i am always interested in drama in this scene.
but sadly i didnt play baldr, only material brave i guess

apparently there was an arguing between those two, not quite sure what was it about. kikuchi-san accidentally rant about it in twitter, for around 2 minutes before he realized that he wasn't in DM and deleted it. i asked it further but he seems to avoid the conversation.
this was happen around summer 2014.

 

[Terumi]

apparently there was an arguing between those two, not quite sure what was it about. kikuchi-san accidentally rant about it in twitter, for around 2 minutes before he realized that he wasn't in DM and deleted it. i asked it further but he seems to avoid the conversation.
this was happen around summer 2014.

Wow, you actually know him close enough to ask personally? :3
I still like the kiss series art, though plot is really too meh i guess

 

[Animaksiat]

Wow, you actually know him close enough to ask personally? :3
I still like the kiss series art, though plot is really too meh i guess

not that close, a few times drink coffee together when he was in the edge of deadline. often to met him at comiket years back.
just an acquintaces. just like any ordinary fans

 

[kzel]

they are trying to make many cheap games which will sell less but still leave them some profit since it cost less, then repeat it a couple times in a year.

I'd understand if these game were cheap in the first place, but they ask full price for it which honestly seems like a rip-off to me considering what other companies offer for the same price. Not that I paid for it but I can't picture any fanbase sticking around for long at this pace. I haven't played any of the Baldr series though, maybe it's good enough to forgive them...

I still like the kiss series art, though plot is really too meh i guess

I only played ハルキス and it's probably one of the worst games I've played, just a nasty atmosphere all around...

---

Anyway, back to 甘えかたは彼女なりに, in which I cleared Tomomi's route as well. It was a little better than the other two I previously played but still suffers from the same problem : it's too short. This time around the relationship did take a little time to get started (very light drama included) but once it gets going, well the route is basically over. I still like listening to Kusuhara Yui talk but I can't help but think it's a little of a miscast, she makes a too cutesy voice for a cool, introverted character to me. Scenario-wise, I will not go into too many details as there's so little that anything I would say could spoil a large portion of it, but I'll just note that each 'issue' was certainly not as big as I initially thought they would be. The big "Drama" and "Nakige" tags in VNDB are 100% undeserved. The music is fairly generic and the art is not bad, but isn't really sticking out either. Also, there's a certain disconnect between the text and some of the event (H)CG that feels kinda odd. I'll still peek at Kanae's story before giving final judgement but it's not looking good.

---

In other news, アマカノ ～Second Season～ appends one and two are now available.

 

[ogopogo]

Been playing ノラと皇女と野良猫ハート and just finished Yuuki's route. While it definitely felt rushed and is way to short for comfort, Kiritani Hana's acting is so damn good it alone pretty much held the route together. Honestly, she's able to put so much emotion into her lines that she made what I'd considered underdeveloped back story and the ending that came out of nowhere believable. I'll probably do Michi and Shachi's route next and saved Patricia's route for the last, anyway, to wrap it up, my first impression is that it's the type of game that is just fun to read as long as you don't think to hard to try to make sense of it.

UPDATE: Ehhhhhhh Shachi's route's even shorter than Yuuki's...it barely begun before it ended. Kind of strange consider how Shachi came in first in the first popularity poll so you'd think はと would put more effort into her route...

UPDATE 2: Just finished Michi's route, I feel like it's the best written one so far until that abrupt ending, but then again, when the game started with a princess from hell, I guess I should have seen that ending coming. Anyway, I actually like Michi way more than I expected but some people might dislike the fact that she's such a 重い (Emotionally dependent) heroine.

UPDATE 3: Made it half way through Patricia's route, while it's decent, it doesn't feel as dramatic as Michi's route nor as fun as Yuuki's. Maybe it'll get more interesting near the end, we'll see.

 

[Mahou]

I agree on the sentiment about giga's VNs, even though my main complaint has been mostly with their stupid MC in most games. Kiss Bell's was bad with the pathetic "bad at school" characteristic. Haru Kiss' MC was even worse and the moments you'd like to slap him were increasing *lol*. Yet, I still can't really stop at playing giga's VNs. Not every route but the few charming moments appear to be simply enough. But jeeze, I'm starting to develop the bad habit to start multiple VNs at the same time yet not really progressing anywhere significantly >_<.

@kzel: I can see your main disdain with Neko Para. In that regard, Vol. 2 won't be much better. You still have the threesome and it seems that with each volume two of the remaining 4 cat girls join as catpanions for the possible hinted harem. I'm personally not sooo fond of true harem scenarios either but I love the interaction between the characters.

 

[kzel]

I agree on the sentiment about giga's VNs, even though my main complaint has been mostly with their stupid MC in most games. Kiss Bell's was bad with the pathetic "bad at school" characteristic. Haru Kiss' MC was even worse and the moments you'd like to slap him were increasing *lol*. Yet, I still can't really stop at playing giga's VNs. Not every route but the few charming moments appear to be simply enough. But jeeze, I'm starting to develop the bad habit to start multiple VNs at the same time yet not really progressing anywhere significantly >_<.

The MC in 甘えかたは彼女なりに is not too bad as far as MCs go. For a loner he's surprisingly friendly and could give lessons to most donkan protagonist about reading people's feelings. He's just pretty introverted at the start and reluctant to let his thoughts out of his head, but that tends to go away as the game progresses.

@kzel: I can see your main disdain with Neko Para. In that regard, Vol. 2 won't be much better. You still have the threesome and it seems that with each volume two of the remaining 4 cat girls join as catpanions for the possible hinted harem. I'm personally not sooo fond of true harem scenarios either but I love the interaction between the characters.

I don't know if disdain is what I felt with Neko Para. I played a version without ecchi scenes so I didn't witness any 3P directly. Looking at EGS it seems that's the case for most if not all the scenes, but that's not really what bothered me about the game. I mean, the characters are really nice and the situations pretty humorous, but I had this little voice in my head that couldn't help but keep asking the wrong questions. Like "Who the hell turned cats into catgirls and how is the world OK with that?", "Who in their right mind would abandon (cat)girls on the streets?", "How can 9 month old (cat)girls speak, read and write Kanji?", and so on. The biggest hit was when Chocolat started showing signs of being in heat and the MC just confessed to her. He did rescue Chocolat and Vanille from the street when there were very little and nurse them back to health. He watched them grow up even though his little sister did most of education. That's a pretty clear father-daughter relationship to me, something I can't say I haven't felt toward my own pets. Suddenly switching that to romance and sex is a line I just don't want to cross, however good the game may otherwise be.

---

Finishing up with Kanae in 甘えかたは彼女なりに。 was probably not the best idea as it's certainly the worst route of the game. I know it's pretty common to have different writers in charge of different routes, but the writer of this particular one should have looked at the base material a little closer before making what he did. Kanae's route is very different from the rest of the game, and it's pretty common to have characters start acting contrary to their personalities. The biggest one is probably Tomomi suddenly teasing and cracking jokes left and right, I was just dumbfounded every time that happened. If there's one thing it has in common with the other routes, it's the length : very short. Which is good in this case otherwise I wouldn't have finished it in the first place.

 

[Terumi]

not that close, a few times drink coffee together when he was in the edge of deadline. often to met him at comiket years back.
just an acquintaces. just like any ordinary fans

Sounds amazing enough. >.<
Never even seen anyone in real life before.

 

[Animaksiat]

Sounds amazing enough. >.<
Never even seen anyone in real life before.

i was quite sure i met with hiro suzuhira in singapore a few years ago... 2010 / 2011

 

[Terumi]

i was quite sure i met with hiro suzuhira in singapore a few years ago... 2010 / 2011

I mean like up close and personal level.
I did like greet a few during afa i guess, but nothing of your level. Especially not when i aint part of backstage etc etc nor have connections willing to bring me around.

 

[kzel]

I've been giving ワールド・エレクション a try lately and... I'm not liking it at all. Of the cast, Kururu and to some extent Pafu are the only one I don't find extra-annoying. From the haughty little sister Iori who wants to boss her brother around, to the arrogant demon princess Sophia and her even more arrogant servant Merou, the tsundere beastgirl Faura, and pretty much the rest of the cast, all out for me : not an ounce of interest, please go away. It seems Oumiya Yuu, who also wrote Primal X Hearts 2, has a gift for making characters I just can't stand. The MC is your usual motemote donkan yuujuufudan protagonist, standard fare but it doesn't help. I'm not far in the game but I already struggle with the urge to push control and skip to get the story going (I actually already succumbed and skipped Sophia's naked bath scene). So far it's been almost nothing but a boring stream of jokes that don't make me laugh one bit, and what started as repeated sighs is quickly turning into irritation. Thankfully Kururu saves the game so far by her sheer cuteness, but my patience is reaching its limits already.

EDIT : Couple more hours in, and my patience ran out. I started skipping more and more, until I hit the end of the common route. With no desire to see any route in particular, I'll just leave it at that and move on.

 

[Kri]

And I'm playing the 間宮くんちの五つ子事情 since everyone started to other games but unfortunately cant recommend it to anyone, maybe if you really like the sister heroines you might enjoy this by some chance. Its basically like this; Mc helps a girl and find her phone > girl suddenly transfer into his school and says she'll marry with him > Since all of his sisters are already in love with him they are just getting agressive from there, and starts with kissing mc one by one.

from that point basically you are just selecting the h-scene you want to see, sometimes they are masturbating in front of you, some times give blowjobs as trios etc etc as the story continues. I guess they are saving the actual sex for the routes. In short its a nukige, but since h-scenes are not that hot it doesnt feel right even in that category. Its not unplayable level or something, but its definitely not good as well.

I think I'll just play Nekoto and Teacher routes, then delete it for good. Nekoto's voice is pretty cute though, I'm really surprised how she get only 3-5 roles so far.

 

[pingtoryan]

And I'm playing the 間宮くんちの五つ子事情 since everyone started to other games but unfortunately cant recommend it to anyone, maybe if you really like the sister heroines you might enjoy this by some chance. Its basically like this; Mc helps a girl and find her phone > girl suddenly transfer into his school and says she'll marry with him > Since all of his sisters are already in love with him they are just getting agressive from there, and starts with kissing mc one by one.

from that point basically you are just selecting the h-scene you want to see, sometimes they are masturbating in front of you, some times give blowjobs as trios etc etc as the story continues. I guess they are saving the actual sex for the routes. In short its a nukige, but since h-scenes are not that hot it doesnt feel right even in that category. Its not unplayable level or something, but its definitely not good as well.

I think I'll just play Nekoto and Teacher routes, then delete it for good. Nekoto's voice is pretty cute though, I'm really surprised how she get only 3-5 roles so far.

Sounds like cranking up from 3 pairs of twins to one big quintuplets leave little room for story...I remember that twins game actually having a semblance of story even with MC getting molested all the way through the common route...

I'm a little preoccupied right now so I dunno how long before I can go check it out...

 

[Kri]

Sounds like cranking up from 3 pairs of twins to one big quintuplets leave little room for story...I remember that twins game actually having a semblance of story even with MC getting molested all the way through the common route...

I'm a little preoccupied right now so I dunno how long before I can go check it out...

Yeah 倉野くんちのふたご事情 had definitely more story than this, and I think its most likely because of the "rivality" . In 倉野くんちのふたご事情 most of sisters were fighting against each other for mc's heart, which made it fun and enjoyable while in this one they almost dont care who get MC at all, as long as its one of them so mc can stay in the family. Hell they even line up as naked and kiss him one by one, hoping like "maybe he'll fall in love with one of us if we do things like that!".

 

[Cubky]

Tried a few hours of できない私が、くり返す and found myself not liking any of the characters, nor the spin on time travel so I dropped it rather quickly.

Next up I went and started on 私が好きなら「好き」って言って as I wanted to try and finish one route at least before new releases. As I went in blind in regards to the design of the game I was a bit surprised at the quantity of scenario choices offered right since the start. I found the design both good and bad, with some of those single day scenarios feeling a bit too random but on the other hand the playthough of the common route (can this even be called common?) felt like you were really spending a lot of time with your chosen heroine. Also wouldn't really want to read this without a walkthrough as I feel that would take a LOT of time to get right. The premise of the game was pretty standart - the MC trying to change his destiny with the help of a fairy of an apple tree, QP, by way of getting a girlfriend. The common route was lighthearted and funny for the most time with QP trying to help the MC out and often failing miserably to do so. Liked most of the characters (haven't met two heroines at all yet) altough by the end of the common route I resisted the urge to skip Yuuki's scenes because of all the shimoneta she was spouting all the time. Ayame's route was in contrast filled with drama mostly concerning her illness which I didn't quite expect but found the shift quite pleasant and well done. Of course my most liked character of the game, Maya, doesn't get her own route... The world is really cruel sometimes. Also one thing that I found quite funny was that for the entirety of the first playthrough I didn't hit the opening sequence as it seems it only plays after confessing to a girl and not after being confessed to. All in all a great game and I'll be looking forward to play more of it.

From the new releases went for ワールド・エレクション. Kzel already wrote most of what I wanted to so I'll just keep this short. The common route so far is quite boring with heroines competing together with the MC over the seat of student council president in an election that wouldn't really pass as an election anywhere else. Also felt the heroines were quite uninteresting in the beginning but found myself warming up to them somewhat, mostly to Sofia who seems to be shifting from an arogant princess to a bit of a cutish one (but I still hate Merou standing in the way) so I'll probably continue reading it. I can only hope it gets better in heroine's routes.

 

[kzel]

In 倉野くんちのふたご事情 [...] they even line up as naked and kiss him one by one, hoping like "maybe he'll fall in love with one of us if we do things like that!".

Well, that's one less title for me this month, thanks for the comment. Out of curiosity, is it possible for the MC to refuse any of it? I was kinda interested in going for the rich girl who wants to marry him just because I like to go against the flow of the story.

Tried a few hours of できない私が、くり返す and found myself not liking any of the characters, nor the spin on time travel so I dropped it rather quickly.

I kinda liked it at the time I played it, but that was quite a while ago, and also after a very long (10+ years) break from visual novels so I had very little to compare it to. Miki's route was pretty nice for the family aspect of it, and I remember Airi being pretty cute. Yume's route was ... something else, I remember it being a little out there and not liking it that much but it's a mandatory step to really get to the core of the game : Shino's path. Her route broke my heart, and for once the true route(s) felt really meaningful. I'd recommend playing at least Shino's route, there should be a save to download somewhere, or just skip through the other three heroine's routes, but only if you're prepared for some serious drama.

私が好きなら「好き」って言って [...] I found the design both good and bad, with some of those single day scenarios feeling a bit too random but on the other hand the playthough of the common route (can this even be called common?) felt like you were really spending a lot of time with your chosen heroine. Also wouldn't really want to read this without a walkthrough as I feel that would take a LOT of time to get right.

That is what I really liked about the game, the fact that you don't have to make all three (or five) heroines fall for the MC at the same time and can pretty much focus on one heroine. I don't think you really need a walkthrough, unless you really want the heroine to confess to the MC your first time through. However, you'd then miss out on the MC's confession scenes which are in my opinion some of the best I've had the chance to read. Even then, it's not too hard to get the heroine to confess (quite easy in Mahiru's case), a general rule of thumb is to read all the (!) events, not limited to your heroine of choice. The game has great replayability as in addition to two different endings for each girl, once you complete a route you get special flowers to quickly alter affection levels during subsequent playthroughs. That means you can witness some otherwise impossible to see week-end dates with your heroine of choice, or better yet confess at the first opportunity and enjoy three month's worth of icha-icha. If you've finished the game once you'll also get to meet Chiho whose route is a little different from the rest, adding a slight touch of mystery. You'll also get to meet Rinka, but be warned that her route probably has the most drama in it, especially if you really choose to ignore QP's advice.

I resisted the urge to skip Yuuki's scenes because of all the shimoneta she was spouting all the time. Ayame's route was in contrast filled with drama mostly concerning her illness which I didn't quite expect but found the shift quite pleasant and well done. Of course my most liked character of the game, Maya, doesn't get her own route... The world is really cruel sometimes.

Yuuki's shimoneta is a little overboard sometimes, but during her route she actually kinda tones it down. Overall her route is the most common of the three, not especially bad but predictable and my least favorite. Maya crushed all the other characters in the popularity contest so if ever there is fandisk, there can still be hope.

ワールド・エレクション : Sofia who seems to be shifting from an arogant princess to a bit of a cutish one (but I still hate Merou standing in the way) so I'll probably continue reading it. I can only hope it gets better in heroine's routes.

I don't know about Sophia, it seemed she was only playing cutish while happily letting Merou do all the dirty work without saying a word to stop her. Thinking back, the author may have deliberately made his heroines uninteresting and uncute just so you can as you say "warm up" to them, but that didn't work at all with me. Iori's early betrayal is unforgivable, she does rat the MC out to their parents because he doesn't live his life as she thinks he should (thanks sis)... Same goes for the other heroines, when the MC asks for help they all refuse and then on top of blaming him, they start actually competing against him (thanks guys, much appreciated). If you end up playing further do keep commenting about it, maybe it gets better further on and I'm actually missing out.

 

[Kri]

Well, that's one less title for me this month, thanks for the comment. Out of curiosity, is it possible for the MC to refuse any of it? I was kinda interested in going for the rich girl who wants to marry him just because I like to go against the flow of the story.

There is no "refuse" button in any of them, but if you keep selecting the rich girl the common route will kind of change, and you'll only see the kisses & one little masturbation scene with the family member you choose. Then again the rich girl is really annoying and idiotic for my tastes so I wont play her route for sure, just skipped it through for your question.

 

[kzel]

There is no "refuse" button in any of them, but if you keep selecting the rich girl the common route will kind of change, and you'll only see the kisses & one little masturbation scene with the family member you choose. Then again the rich girl is really annoying and idiotic for my tastes so I wont play her route for sure, just skipped it through for your question.

Hmm, I might give it a try just for fun at some point then, she may be idiotic and annoying but that can be charming sometimes, if only for a little while. Thanks for looking this up for me.

I've been playing the Purely X Cation trial, I'll write more detailed thoughts in the dedicated thread but I'll just say here that it's shaping up to be a faithful continuation to the Pretty X Cation series.