Visual Novel Cafe

[Mahou]

I've finally started World Election by whirlpool after I read the not so good impressions here first *lol* (no harm intended). It seems like (another) VN where most of the environment treats the MC like shiz which is not really something I approve of but hopefully it will be nothing like the pathetic attempt to use it as comedy as in ゆめいろアルエット！. To make matter worse, in those settings the MC has the bad habit to be generically "useless" which certainly can't help the case.

So~ for the first few minutes:
- Imouto-san: I can actually understand her reason for not helping her brother, seeing that he rushed the proposal, but it's obviously not in the MC's interest (hello troublesome relation with father trope, didn't really miss you...) and doubtly the best solution to simply "isolate" him from all bad treatment forever. Her attitude however is not helping her case either. Bad tongue + the whispering "Stupid brother doesn't understand anything" is stupid. Sorry, I wouldn't understand it it either.

Now to the other heroines sans Kukuru. The premisse for entering the election is childish. Maybe Kei was too impatient in waiting for a definite reply but c'mon they basically joined as election candidates simply out of annoyance. -1. On the other hand, if Kei had talked about his (albeit selfish) true reason they would definitely have supported him. MC @home = Pafil without her "rival"/friend, Faura without her (hidden) crush and Sophia would probably end up bored and destroy the school *lol*. Given their uhm... *cough* unique eccentrics, it was also proven that normal conversation is not always possibl, except with Faura possibly.

 

[kzel]

Now to the other heroines sans Kukuru. The premisse for entering the election is childish. Maybe Kei was too impatient in waiting for a definite reply but c'mon they basically joined as election candidates simply out of annoyance. -1. On the other hand, if Kei had talked about his (albeit selfish) true reason they would definitely have supported him. MC @home = Pafil without her "rival"/friend, Faura without her (hidden) crush and Sophia would probably end up bored and destroy the school *lol*. Given their uhm... *cough* unique eccentrics, it was also proven that normal conversation is not always possibl, except with Faura possibly.

I think the MC told Faura the real reason he wanted to win the election and she refused anyway, can't remember the exact reason why. Anyway I'm glad my mostly negative impression on the game did not discourage you from trying out the game for yourself. I tend to focus on points that I disliked more than on points I liked when I do these little write-ups, a habit I should probably work on fixing. I'm sure the game isn't that awful, it just didn't work for me.

---

I gave a quick try to 間宮くんちの五つ子事情, as I said earlier mostly out of curiosity for the 'enemy's' route. I'm kinda glad the harem of sisters isn't too forced on the MC, though the group bath, group kissing and one scene with one sister are mandatory. As for the previously mentioned enemy, Ririka, she's a pretty stereotypical tsundere ojousama, but I didn't find her that annoying, and she can be pretty cute sometimes (when she loses things). For being the enemy she didn't do too much against the Mamiya family, but that may have been because I was choosing her at every point anyway, maybe on other routes she gets more aggressive. When starting Ririka's route I was mostly looking forward to the reaction of the four bro-con sisters when the MC and Ririka announce their relationship, and I was a little disappointed at how tame and understanding they all end up being. The one with the biggest reaction actually turned out to be the cousin Kyouka. Once entering Ririka's route, it a fairly generic ojousama scenario with little originality that follows, spaced with quite a number of ecchi scenes. Not that great but entertaining enough for an evening at least. I'm pretty sure I won't play any other route, neither of the sisters nor the cousin managed to catch my interest and I don't like the whole harem atmosphere the family has anyway.

---

Continuing with quick tries, I also briefly played through a couple routes of ハプニングLOVE!!. For their first game, Tsumiki Soft decided to go with a very textbook approach to the school-life eroge. The common route can be safely summed up as a collection of déjà-vu lucky sukebes scenes with each heroine in turn. The heroines themselves stick very closely to their stereotypes. They were supposed to be bukiyou, but it turns out to be the standard quartet of heroines with the osananajimi, the bitchy sempai, the tsundere ojousama and the brocon dokuzetsu imouto. I played through Miku the imouto and Sanae the ojousama and both routes were very cliche and probably won't surprise anyone who has played any game in the past year. I would have appreciated at least a hint of originality. Well, one thing stands out : the very amateurish voice acting for the whole cast Miku excepted.

---

Finally, I'm currently playing through 星織ユメミライ. I found the game while looking for titles illustrated by Iizuki Tasuku, and this one had pretty good scores on both EGS and VNDB. Plus, Mahou's avatar is Narusawa Rikka from this game I'm pretty sure. So I decided to give it a try.

I just finished Sora's route and it was really nice, quiet and peaceful. It kinda reminded me of 見上げてごらん、夜空の星を but without the drama, which is both good and bad. Good because some of the drama in that game was drawn out too long, but bad also because it leads to a certain lack of moving scenes. I like the very drawn out "after" story, very nice to see the couple's adult life depicted at length for once, even though things do go the MC's way a little too much to be entirely believable. I like the art, the music is calm which fits the atmosphere of the game perfectly, the only real criticism I have so far is that the text tends to have a *lot* of typos. If the other five heroines have as much content as Sora I'm probably going to play this one for a long time.

 

[Kri]

I just finished the Asahura route from the ノラと皇女と野良猫ハート and man, this is definitely too short; its 3-4 hours length at max, maybe not even that much. Other than this it was pretty good though, Ida and nobuchina really shined in entire route which is awesome, Mc's personality was definitely better than most of average games (like how he tried to believe that random girl or how he decided to act immediately at the end of route), Asuhara was cute as fuck and Kiritani Hana made everything even better etc etc. Yeah those are all good, But "being short" takes all those sweet parts. Seriously adding some random date scenes, helping the cafe or some more ichaicha etc. would make everything so much better. Also the drama at the end was pretty bad; I guess they wanted to solve that bully problem before the ending, which is right because if they ignored that the entire route would lose the meaning, but you cant jam every problem in just one scene and solve it in 2-3 minutes.

The pacing was kind of good until the last h-scene though, All they had to do was Adding some more random ichaicha scenes + Some building towards the drama at the ending = an almost perfect route instead of this half assed one. Its really a shame, but since I really liked the heroine I'm giving slightly better score than average in my mind. I guess Sachi and Asuhara are kind of sub characters while other two are main so writer didnt focused that hard about those two.

 

[ogopogo]

I just finished the Asahura route from the ノラと皇女と野良猫ハート and man, this is definitely too short; its 3-4 hours length at max, maybe not even that much. Other than this it was pretty good though, Ida and nobuchina really shined in entire route which is awesome, Mc's personality was definitely better than most of average games (like how he tried to believe that random girl or how he decided to act immediately at the end of route), Asuhara was cute as fuck and Kiritani Hana made everything even better etc etc. Yeah those are all good, But "being short" takes all those sweet parts. Seriously adding some random date scenes, helping the cafe or some more ichaicha etc. would make everything so much better. Also the drama at the end was pretty bad; I guess they wanted to solve that bully problem before the ending, which is right because if they ignored that the entire route would lose the meaning, but you cant jam every problem in just one scene and solve it in 2-3 minutes.

The pacing was kind of good until the last h-scene though, All they had to do was Adding some more random ichaicha scenes + Some building towards the drama at the ending = an almost perfect route instead of this half assed one. Its really a shame, but since I really liked the heroine I'm giving slightly better score than average in my mind. I guess Sachi and Asuhara are kind of sub characters while other two are main so writer didnt focused that hard about those two.

definitely feels like the writer spent less time on Sachi and Yuuki's route, but the rushed ending issue is a problem for all the routes imho. And I totally agree about the lack of ichaicha, could have used way more of it, hope they do a fan disc with just ichaicha and SoL/jokes.

 

[Mahou]

I think the MC told Faura the real reason he wanted to win the election and she refused anyway, can't remember the exact reason why. Anyway I'm glad my mostly negative impression on the game did not discourage you from trying out the game for yourself. I tend to focus on points that I disliked more than on points I liked when I do these little write-ups, a habit I should probably work on fixing. I'm sure the game isn't that awful, it just didn't work for me.

---

Continuing with quick tries, I also briefly played through a couple routes of ハプニングLOVE!!. For their first game, Tsumiki Soft decided to go with a very textbook approach to the school-life eroge. The common route can be safely summed up as a collection of déjà-vu lucky sukebes scenes with each heroine in turn. The heroines themselves stick very closely to their stereotypes. They were supposed to be bukiyou, but it turns out to be the standard quartet of heroines with the osananajimi, the bitchy sempai, the tsundere ojousama and the brocon dokuzetsu imouto. I played through Miku the imouto and Sanae the ojousama and both routes were very cliche and probably won't surprise anyone who has played any game in the past year. I would have appreciated at least a hint of originality. Well, one thing stands out : the very amateurish voice acting for the whole cast Miku excepted.

---

Finally, I'm currently playing through 星織ユメミライ. I found the game while looking for titles illustrated by Iizuki Tasuku, and this one had pretty good scores on both EGS and VNDB. Plus, Mahou's avatar is Narusawa Rikka from this game I'm pretty sure. So I decided to give it a try.

I just finished Sora's route and it was really nice, quiet and peaceful. It kinda reminded me of 見上げてごらん、夜空の星を but without the drama, which is both good and bad. Good because some of the drama in that game was drawn out too long, but bad also because it leads to a certain lack of moving scenes. I like the very drawn out "after" story, very nice to see the couple's adult life depicted at length for once, even though things do go the MC's way a little too much to be entirely believable. I like the art, the music is calm which fits the atmosphere of the game perfectly, the only real criticism I have so far is that the text tends to have a *lot* of typos. If the other five heroines have as much content as Sora I'm probably going to play this one for a long time.

The negative points in your write-up were quite correct, though. The character interaction is definitely not something I'd be proud of in World Election, outside of the Kei + heroine-of-moment's resolving her drama-of-the-day scene. The whole MC as the utte underdog of the election is getting pretty quickly boring. KoiChoco had this as well but that title had heavier drama issues which easily overshadowed it. The character interaction feels quite random to me. Sophia's obliviousness of how to normal interact doesn't help and everyone ignores the MC in their own way mostly anyway. It doesn't feel coherently written but I can't put it in words >_<.
Kururu's a bit too extreme for a my pace character. And Kei's Dummymaker ability doesn't seem *that* much op. I mean he can only copy one ability at a time and needs to "release" it first before touching someone for another. And yet all random mob character fear/misunderstand him

As for 星織ユメミライ: Bingo, she's indeed Rikka. My favorite route of the VN. It has never lost its charm during all my occational replays of her route. One of the most reasonable parents for the more down-to-earth VNs I've encountered, compared to the common but annoying "U not gitting mah daughter!!!!!" fathers.

 

[Kri]

definitely feels like the writer spent less time on Sachi and Yuuki's route, but the rushed ending issue is a problem for all the routes imho. And I totally agree about the lack of ichaicha, could have used way more of it, hope they do a fan disc with just ichaicha and SoL/jokes.

Their first game also had this problem though, Specially at Suu's route. The setting was pretty interesting and original, maybe first in the eroge industry but it ended so fast & so half assed (it was one hour long) that it become easily one of the worst routes I have ever played.

They might not have enough budget or something like that, because you can see that writer actually has some good ideas for the heroines / routes but just cant write as much as he wants. Still I think they did a better job than first game's 2+1+2 system though so I'm looking forward for their next title as well.

 

[kzel]

And Kei's Dummymaker ability doesn't seem *that* much op. I mean he can only copy one ability at a time and needs to "release" it first before touching someone for another. And yet all random mob character fear/misunderstand him

I was also having the same impression, the copycat ability seems nice but as demonstrated in the prologue with his little fight with Sophia, just copying the power doesn't mean he knows what it ends up being or how to control and properly handle it. That may also explain why everyone's afraid of him, by copying and misusing the wrong power he could really make things worse for everyone. I guess his power is just the best *among humans*. I haven't read past the common route so maybe he gets more time to show off his talents later on.

As for 星織ユメミライ: Bingo, she's indeed Rikka. My favorite route of the VN. It has never lost its charm during all my occational replays of her route. One of the most reasonable parents for the more down-to-earth VNs I've encountered, compared to the common but annoying "U not gitting mah daughter!!!!!" fathers.

Ah, I knew it. I haven't started her route yet so interactions with her haven't been that common, but it looks like her route may have a little more drama than the others. I'm currently playing through Natsuki's route and it's even more peaceful that Sora's, really relaxing. It does feel shorter and less eventful though, and I wouldn't blame anyone for finding the game boring but it suits my tastes perfectly. As before, the extended "after" story is really nice, especially as it depicts a part that was missing from Sora's route, the married life.

Their first game also had this problem though, Specially at Suu's route. The setting was pretty interesting and original, maybe first in the eroge industry but it ended so fast & so half assed (it was one hour long) that it become easily one of the worst routes I have ever played.

They might not have enough budget or something like that, because you can see that writer actually has some good ideas for the heroines / routes but just cant write as much as he wants. Still I think they did a better job than first game's 2+1+2 system though so I'm looking forward for their next title as well.

I don't know, if this is a recurring problem it may just be that Hato, the writer, has trouble giving his stories a coherent conclusion or follow up on the ideas he throws around randomly. While I am disappointed at the endings of all the character, I don't think it made the game much worse : the jokes are still funny and the characters all have their own interesting/charming points. At the very least there's some improvement to look forward to for Harukaze's next title, if they can keep all that and build a proper story structure on top of it.

 

[Cubky]

Finally found time to finish my first read through World Election.
The common route wasnt really special - every heroine got her own part of the route while taking part in the "presentations". Those heroine scenes were alright but the election filler between them felt really boring. By the end of the common route I still had the feeling that the student council election setting was really unnecessary. If they had gone with a school tournament or something, it would make much more sense to be honest.
Regarding the heroines, I actually warmed up to most of them. Sofia transformed from an arrogant princess into a cute less arrogant one, Faura went from full-on tsun into a bit more dere mode, Iori was unsurprisingly a brocon who for some reason didn't want her brother knowing about it, Kururu was still Kururu and Parfil was probably the most sane of the bunch and because of that she felt to me a bit boring, which is kind of unfortunate.
After the common route the game went straight into Kururu's route which I actually looked forward to, since she seemed like the central heroine. Unfortunately, her route wasn't really that good either. Basically right after confessing to each other, Kururu and the MC went straight to bed... Without any real buildup. Fortunately her route wasn't all sex scenes as I had by that point feared it to be and I managed to enjoy some of the more romantic scenes of the game until the route came to a rather sudden end without any real explanation of what just happened.
After that I went directly for her true route, which to be honest should have been the original route to begin with. The split between those two routes seemed to be there only to provide for a way to add an aditional (wedding dress) H scene into the normal one. Oh well, at least in this route the self proclaimed god of destruction does some actual destructing. The route starts a bit before the end of the normal one so it's rather short but without any boring filler and provides the background story for Kururu and the robot faction in general. I won't probably be spoiling much more than saying that the route was full of cliches, but by this point I kind of expected that.
All in all, can't say it's a good game, but not really a bad one either. It's somewhere in the middle. I found it enjoyable as I liked the characters but I wouldn't play it for anything else. Probably will play a few more routes, Iori's and Sofia's for a start. The true end also unlocked some side character mini-routes, so I'm looking forward to them too. I'm rather interested in seeing how they manage Melou's. :)

I was also having the same impression, the copycat ability seems nice but as demonstrated in the prologue with his little fight with Sophia, just copying the power doesn't mean he knows what it ends up being or how to control and properly handle it. That may also explain why everyone's afraid of him, by copying and misusing the wrong power he could really make things worse for everyone. I guess his power is just the best *among humans*. I haven't read past the common route so maybe he gets more time to show off his talents later on.

I would think most of the people fear they wouldn't be able to take him one on one, since the powers he steals are the same as the user's so ti would be a nice status quo. Sofia is probably a special case as a bit later down the line when he steals her ability again he mentions that she is by far the strongest around.

Spoiler: Kururu True Route

He actually gets into a bit more badass mode in this route since it's revealed that the limitations about his power he keeps mentioning aren't real at all.

 

[Veshurik]

Wow, so interesting discussions.
Anyway, I just want to ask about eroge companies. What companies do you prefer the most and why?
I know that every year many eroge companies create and present debut projects. Number is growing. What will be in the future? Or at least after few years...
How do eroge companies create in Japan? I mean, the productions of VNs is quite expensive (because the quality - art, music, programming etc.), and... Where do they take the money and... And how the games pay off? I don't ask about big companies (for example, "Key/Visual Art", "Circus", "Moonstone" etc.)

Because creation of VN on the West or in another countries is... Hm... Difficulty, and developers usually use Kickstarter (crowdfunding).

Thank you for explanation.

 

[FlowerTradeWinds]

Wow, so interesting discussions.
Anyway, I just want to ask about eroge companies. What companies do you prefer the most and why?
I know that every year many eroge companies create and present debut projects. Number is growing. What will be in the future? Or at least after few years...
How do eroge companies create in Japan? I mean, the productions of VNs is quite expensive (because the quality - art, music, programming etc.), and... Where do they take the money and... And how the games pay off? I don't ask about big companies (for example, "Key/Visual Art", "Circus", "Moonstone" etc.)

Because creation of VN on the West or in another countries is... Hm... Difficulty, and developers usually use Kickstarter (crowdfunding).

Thank you for explanation.

Many of those companies started off by doing doujin content, then move onto commercial games.
Some are spin-off by existing companies venturing into new genre.

As long as you stick to the standard engines, you may not even need a lot of programming skill to put a game together.
Stories get shorter and shorter nowadays so the Voice acting and scenario writing cost reduces.
Can't really say about CG because the extras like dakimakura is earning more money per unit than selling games.
Smaller studio (aka home) also don't have much admin cost.

The market shrinks at a rate of 20% per year and some companies disappear into the background creating a game every 2-3 years if ever.
Count on getchu yourself and see the number of games per month.

 

[pingtoryan]

I knew that they are making doughs with those dakimakuras (among many other merchandises...cup, shirts, you name 'em)...you'll never see a shortage of them if you sift through eroge makers' sites...

 

[Kri]

Wow, so interesting discussions.
Anyway, I just want to ask about eroge companies. What companies do you prefer the most and why?

Of course Baseson
Seriously I have no idea how the hell are they making profit with hiring more than 50 great VAs while other games cant even hire 5-6 different ones. And when you check them its not like they are hiring newbies or something, For example we have; Kazane, Mizuhashi Kaori, Kiritani Hana, Fukada Ai, Kobayashi Maki, Shimizu Ai, Ono Ryouko, Sendai Eri, Koyama Sahomi etc etc in sengoku koihime. They must have some dirty videos of them or something.

And of course its not just because of that, I really like the atmosphere of their games. The relationships are not just between heroines and main character unlike all other harem games, as you play you are realising that they are becoming kind of a family with each other as well while overcoming the difficulties together. Thanks to it all conservations become so natural that even the meanless little scenes like having dinner becomes very enjoyable, at least it was for me. Its really hard to explain so I'm not sure if I actually managed tho.



Btw seems like 1分の2恋ゴコロ (https://vndb.org/v16220) got delayed again, I'm pretty sure that no one will actually bother with buying this now, while all pre-orders are canceling their own. The worst part is they are not even giving some information about this 50000. delay, just saying "we are really sorry", which is more annoying than delay itself.

 

[kzel]

Wow, so interesting discussions.
Anyway, I just want to ask about eroge companies. What companies do you prefer the most and why?

If I had to name just a few out of the top of my mind, I'd say Hibiki-Works and Azarashi-Soft, both because they tend to make the kind of games I enjoy the most. Their games tend to very heavy on the sweet atmosphere with a small touch of drama, perfect for a relaxing read during the evening. Of course I also like some big names like Nitroplus or Key, but that's not what you asked for.

I knew that they are making doughs with those dakimakuras (among many other merchandises...cup, shirts, you name 'em)...you'll never see a shortage of them if you sift through eroge makers' sites...

At 10.000+ yen for one square meter of imprinted cloth, you can bet they make quite a bit of profit out of them. Especially since all it costs to design are two drawings, then it's only material costs to cover.

Seriously I have no idea how the hell are they making profit with hiring more than 50 great VAs while other games cant even hire 5-6 different ones. And when you check them its not like they are hiring newbies or something, For example we have; Kazane, Mizuhashi Kaori, Kiritani Hana, Fukada Ai, Kobayashi Maki, Shimizu Ai, Ono Ryouko, Sendai Eri, Koyama Sahomi etc etc in sengoku koihime. They must have some dirty videos of them or something.

I have absolutely no idea how CV contracts work, but I imagine it must depend of the length of the voice track and/or the number of lines. If so, many famous CVs with not so many lines each shouldn't be astronomically expensive. I haven't played the game so no idea how much each character has in terms of screen time, but given the number of them, I'd guess less than during an average VN.

Btw seems like 1分の2恋ゴコロ (https://vndb.org/v16220) got delayed again, I'm pretty sure that no one will actually bother with buying this now, while all pre-orders are canceling their own. The worst part is they are not even giving some information about this 50000. delay, just saying "we are really sorry", which is more annoying than delay itself.

Hasn't this reached one year of delay already ? I wouldn't blame anyone cancelling their pre-order after such treatment, especially if they give no information of the reasons.

---

Unfortunately last week was pretty busy and I didn't have much time to play. I just continued 星織ユメミライ, by first finishing Natsuki after-story. It was very peaceful and more down to earth in terms of accomplishments compared to Sora's route which was a good thing for me. I then played through the school part of both Touko and Marika. Touko's part was surprisingly filled with drama which wasn't really great, I especially didn't like how the MC decided his little project was worth making her feel lonely for a whole week. Marika's route was alright, more centered on the festival preparations but the end project didn't look that amazing, compared to what the MC did with Sora previously. I have yet to play either after stories, and still have two full heroines routes after that, guess the game will last me till the new releases come out at this rate.

 

[Kri]

I have absolutely no idea how CV contracts work, but I imagine it must depend of the length of the voice track and/or the number of lines. If so, many famous CVs with not so many lines each shouldn't be astronomically expensive. I haven't played the game so no idea how much each character has in terms of screen time, but given the number of them, I'd guess less than during an average VN.

Yeah each VA gets less screen time than being an average main heroine, but since baseson's game are pretty longer than average games (maybe twice as much? SK had 23-24 main chapters with many heroine events, and hell they are even saying that they'll double the scenario at X so that must take 50-60 hours to finish at least. With h-scenes probably even more) it still should cost way more than an average game. Plus the number of h-scenes are pretty high as well, Each heroine will get at least one for sure, there'll be many who will get 2,3 and there are threesomes etc too so I'm expecting at least 80-100 of them. Those also should cost pretty high.

But they are making way more goods of heroines than other companies so I guess they are getting money from there, For example Koihime Musou series has 40-50 different dakimakuras at least, and they are making t-shirts, bags, posters, cups, calendars, stickers even things like umbrellas, notebooks etc etc etc. Also they always make 2-3 different games like one remake + one FD on one setting so that should cut the scenario fees as well.

All of those are just my guess though, they might getting money from something completely different.

 

[Mahou]

Spoiler: Kururu True Route

He actually gets into a bit more badass mode in this route since it's revealed that the limitations about his power he keeps mentioning aren't real at all.

I agree. I read the true route by using a complete save game and the MC was actually quite cool there during that special scene :D. But yeah, it's not really one of whirlpool's better true routes. Sophia being probably the overall most haxx character without any real drawback attached to it was pretty clear, alone based on the offical character bio at the game's homepage.
I really liked Parfil's confession scene, but I guess it's in itself really corny.

 

[Veshurik]

Btw seems like 1分の2恋ゴコロ (https://vndb.org/v16220) got delayed again, I'm pretty sure that no one will actually bother with buying this now, while all pre-orders are canceling their own. The worst part is they are not even giving some information about this 50000. delay, just saying "we are really sorry", which is more annoying than delay itself.

Oh... I don't know what the... Khh. They can't release it for a year! What happens? They reallly don't even say why. "Sorry, sorry, sorry". They don't want to explain what happens. What can they do whole year? I'm not interested in this game, but "Amanoha" will become the legend, I think. "The Longest Delay in Eroge Games".

 

[kzel]

I'm not interested in this game, but "Amanoha" will become the legend, I think. "The Longest Delay in Eroge Games".

I'm somewhat interested in it, at least based on the premise : hard working big brother doing his best to support his two little sisters. Since two of the heroines are not sisters or related in any way, I'm vaguely hopeful this won't turn into a harem family.

As far as "The Longest Delay in Eroge Games", there's quite a bit of competition and 1分の2恋ゴコロ with (so far) about one year of delay is still small fry. The longest one that comes to mind is サクラノ詩－櫻の森の上を舞う－, with more than 10 years of development and a least 3 to 4 years of delays before it finally came out. I tried it and dropped it partway through Makoto's route, it was needlessly lengthy and pretty boring. Family drama is also not my favorite topic. Supposedly the game gets better on the other routes but since the play order is enforced and I don't like using save games other than mine, that was it for me.

Any other candidates for the longest delay competition? Not counting cancelled projects that are technically delayed forever.

 

[Kri]

I'm somewhat interested in it, at least based on the premise : hard working big brother doing his best to support his two little sisters. Since two of the heroines are not sisters or related in any way, I'm vaguely hopeful this won't turn into a harem family.

As far as "The Longest Delay in Eroge Games", there's quite a bit of competition and 1分の2恋ゴコロ with (so far) about one year of delay is still small fry. The longest one that comes to mind is サクラノ詩－櫻の森の上を舞う－, with more than 10 years of development and a least 3 to 4 years of delays before it finally came out. I tried it and dropped it partway through Makoto's route, it was needlessly lengthy and pretty boring. Family drama is also not my favorite topic. Supposedly the game gets better on the other routes but since the play order is enforced and I don't like using save games other than mine, that was it for me.

Any other candidates for the longest delay competition? Not counting cancelled projects that are technically delayed forever.

Tsukihime Remake without a doubt. They mentioned it first at 2003's Tsuki-Bako > announced it officially at 2007-2008, not exactly sure about the date > opened a kind of website at 2010, then closed it and said that they want to remake some character's design so they'll delay it > Then some stuff got in the way like Fsn animes or Mahoyo which made it even more delayed, Lastly they released this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR4ff-PtT6Y pv 3 years ago.

We know its not canceled because they are still releasing some pictures of new characters, buildings etc at eroge magazines but as a someone who is waiting more than 6-7 years for this, I dont feel like I'll be able to play this at all.

Nasu mentioned that he is planning to release Tsukihime Remake before the Mahoyo 2 though, so if they can ever stop milking fate series we might actually see it in next 2-3 years.

 

[Veshurik]

Oh, I completely forgot about "Sakura no Uta". Was it worth? I mean, 10-year delay. I really don't read the reviews, but I know that that game won many awards aka "Best Eroge Game 2015" or something else... Some people say that a huge delay does not always go to the benefit of the games.

 

[kzel]

Oh, I completely forgot about "Sakura no Uta". Was it worth? I mean, 10-year delay. I really don't read the reviews, but I know that that game won many awards aka "Best Eroge Game 2015" or something else... Some people say that a huge delay does not always go to the benefit of the games.

As I've said before, I tried it but wasn't overwhelmed with what I read. I admit I'm not the best person to judge the game, as a) I was not waiting for it and just picked it up randomly and b) I have little interest and very limited culture about 'art' (as in painting, architecture, pottery, etc...). There's a lot of art talk in the game and that was just boring to me. It was not helped by the often verbose and sometimes lyric text. I wasn't fond of the characters either, especially the super genius but still silly protagonist just got on my nerves. Last but not least, the play order of the routes is more or less enforced (you can choose between two at the start and it expands later on I suppose? I haven't finished a single route) and neither of the two options at the start really appealed to me. Definitely not my 'Best of 2015'.

---

I haven't had time to play at all the last few days, and new releases are coming up already. I took a quick look on Getchu and noticed a few titles but I don't know if I'll even have time to play more than one in the coming month.

まいてつ : looks cute, hopefully the whole 'ownership' will not include sexual contracts of any kind and I'll be sold.

リプキス : Giga again, and the *Kiss series... I disliked Haru Kiss, and I'm really not sure if I'm willing to let Giga have yet another chance. The premise doesn't look so bad though, if a little generic.

時を紡ぐ約束 : seems interesting, a high-schooler MC with a daughter? light magic? hot springs? why not...

少女たちは荒野を目指す : a game about bishoujo game creation, seems intriguing enough. Minato Soft's finally doing something other than Majikoi, I'm interested in seeing how that ends up, especially if there's no fighting involved. The Majikoi series wasn't perfect but I'm still waiting for A-5 with light expectations.

And that's it after a quick glance. Anything I missed? I'll probably play まいてつ and then maybe something else after that if time allows. For now I still have half of 星織ユメミライ to finish.

 

[Cubky]

Been playing some more World Election, specifically Sofia's and Iori's routes.
After Kururu's routes I wasn't expecting much from them but I was pleasantly surprised, altough neither of them changed the first sex scene happening right after confession moment.
Iori's route was her coming to terms with her feeling towards her brother and dealing with her background as a Neos. The buildup to the confession scene was by far the best out of the three routes and it really felt like the two of them got closer to each other with each scene. Her drama part of the route wasn't that interesting. Mainly because she doesn't have any real powers like the other heroines so there wasn't much room to be had. All in all the route was enjoyable, with some cute ichaicha. Also, Iori in a maid costume!
Sofia's route went pretty much as I expected. She tried to take the MC by force in the beginning, which was resolved with a cliche "not backing down in face of certain death" moment and the confession scene came a bit after that. This could be called a buildup of sorts, just not really my cup of tea. However after the confession Sofia changed so much it actually surprised me even though I expected such change ocurring. This CG pretty much sums it all up.

Spoiler: Sofia Route CG

Full on lovey dovey with some cliche "no common sense" scenes like stepping on the MCs face out of gratitude. The most enjoyable part of this route for me was Melou trying to come to terms with her new master, going as far as trying to take care of him by dressing him up etc. Sofia's drama involved an assasination attempt in which the MC played a big role. This route was a bit more action packed but the game doesn't really do those action scenes justice.
Can't really say which route was the one I liked the most but both of them were, at least to me, more interesting and enjoyable than Kururu's.
Also tried out the side character mini routes starting out with Melou's as I was really interested in how this one would be handled. It was of course pretty short (about half an hour?) and contained a brief buildup to a sex scene, which in Melou's case felt more like a reverse rape situation. Also Melou became an over the top tsundere, which was kind of cute, especially in the end though. Was just surprised Sofia didn't mind their relationship, even saying she expected as much since her father also has a harem.
I won't be playing the other main heroine routes but I might try out some more of those short side character's. Well at least Chico's and Ponko's. There's also some extra H scenes which get unlocked after beating respective heroine's routes if you're into that kind of thing.

Afther that I got back to 好き好き and finished Chiho's route.
Her route was a bit different from Ayame's, focusing more on mystery than anything else and in the end of the route the plot got really chaotic and weird. Fortunately there was an "explain everything" moment but it still felt like the writer went over the top with amensia and such but he did a good job in that I had NO idea what was real and what wasn't. Her being so hyper and, from time to time, behaving really child-like didn't really work for me either. Also not enough QP in this route.
Now I'm a few hours into Yuuki's route. I wasn't sure if would survive her shimoneta during the common route scenes. Fortunately most of her scenes were also connected to Maya as they were job related which made it a bit more easier. By the end of the common route I felt really sad for Maya, since she was so obviously interested in the MC (and I as the MC in her!). Well here's hoping for a fandisk. Not really far into Yuuki's route, so I can't really talk about it. I just have to say that their first sex scene was... well different, can't really imagine a girl going through anal as her first experience, not even Yuuki.

Regarding the March releases, I'm looking forward to a few titles but I probably be able to play only one or two of them due to being pretty busy.
あけいろ怪奇譚 I really liked the previous title in this series and I'll be definitely wanting to pick this up as soon as possible. Hoping for some cameo appereances by Aoi.
オモカゲ Obviously a nukige setting but I do like the characters and art so I might give this a try as my second game of the month. I'm sure it can't be that bad.
Rep Kiss Haven't played anything from the company and saw that most people over here don't really like the Kiss series but as it seems one of the writers this time around also worked on 恋×シンアイ彼女 I'll probably keep watching on how it fares.
Lastly 時を紡ぐ約束 There is a lot of potential with the story and setting but I'll probably wait till the reviews are out.

 

[Mahou]

Finally finished Magic route of Gears of Dragoon 2. You notice that you've become too lazy, if you can't be bothered to equip status protection runes when enemies love to throw around counfusion, petrification and instant-death attacks *lol*. The final boss was by some strange miracle extremly easy. My encounter was really fortunate because he used all but one turn to buff himself. Well, that one attack was quite strong, but nothing that two stacking level 10 HP regeneration buffs couldn't fix .
Overall, I was quite satisfied. Vanessa was extremly annoying and she should have be offed quite sooner imho. The missing screentime could have been shifted to Cleo, where I thought she'd be more involved given her Magius hatred and detest against Vanessa herself.

 

[kzel]

Afther that I got back to 好き好き and finished Chiho's route. [...] I just have to say that their first sex scene was... well different, can't really imagine a girl going through anal as her first experience, not even Yuuki.

I don't remember Ayame's first 'first time' but Yuuki and Mahiru get a rather special treatment during theirs. Yuuki with anal as a first time and Mahiru with... other issues. I don't know if they were going for humor but I didn't really like this turn of events. Thankfully during subsequent playthroughs, if you make the MC confess early enough (I think one or two weeks before the school trip to Amanoshima?) there a different set of scenes and the first times are more normal.

あけいろ怪奇譚 I really liked the previous title in this series and I'll be definitely wanting to pick this up as soon as possible. Hoping for some cameo appereances by Aoi.

Right, I forgot about this one, thanks for reminding me. The whole gang of Oni and Makoto are listed as characters so I'm pretty sure they'll at least make an appearance. However I don't see Kotori in the cast, I wonder which ending of なないろリンカネーション ended up canon, maybe Kotori's 'letting her go' ending since none of the other heroines seem to make a comeback either.

---

I've been playing a little further in 星織ユメミライ. I gave Misa's route a try but I'll put it on hold for the time being, maybe I'm too tired lately but I almost fell asleep playing it. Instead I went for Rikka's route which, as far as the school part goes, is pretty sweet. Strangely enough I liked Natsuki and Meguru the most in this route, more than Rikka who went a little too deredere once past a certain point. Since the ecchi scenes went the "ijiwaru" way, I ended up skipping most of them, hopefully there's more lovey-dovey scenes later on. Here's hoping the "after story" is closer to Natsuki's than Sora's. I preferred Natsuki's more "grounded to reality" feeling that Sora's "all your dreams come true". So far it doesn't look that way but who knows?

 

[Kri]

Oh god life is pretty much fucking me right now, All I could play was Sachi route from Noraneko at last 5-10 days which is pretty short anyway. It was nice though, better than Asuhara's route imo. It definitely could be better + Sachi's past etc. had more potential, also the length was a huge problem in this route as well so its certainly not perfect, but those flashbacks saved the entire route for me. They were really enjoyable, sometimes pretty comic while sometimes having necessary character developments (Sachi's kid version voice was awesome too, I listened every sentence twice at least) so I can say that I enjoyed every second of those flashbacks.

Other parts weren't as good as them, specially the "I wanna be your mother" was really annoying, but since they solved those little problems in just 3-5 minutes I'm not going to complain about them.

Overall it was short, not perfect but an enjoyable ride for me. Since I'm going to be very busy for two more weeks I dont think I'll be able to try many march games, but man I want to finish noraneko and try Maitetsu before the april games / or more like before Sengoku Koihime X / at least.

 

[kzel]

I took advantage of the Easter week-end to catch up on some reading. Rather than continue 星織ユメミライ of which I was growing a little tired of, six heroines is too many to play back to back for me, I instead decided to give the new releases a try and went with the first title that went available and on my to-watch list : 時を紡ぐ約束. This was my first Applique title, and I think I'm done with it after playing all but Honoka's route. To sum things up for people who don't feel like reading my long-winded rant, the game is cute but the premise and setting could have been used much better.

The game looked pretty interesting for a few reasons, one of which was the fact the MC actually has a young daughter : he's ~18, she's ~6. It's revealed pretty early on that Miria's not his real daughter, which makes the most sense but the reverse wouldn't have been impossible and would have been pretty interesting. Anyway, she turns to be a young kid he took under his wing, he fled the orphanage he was into with her and eventually they ended up in the Hot-Springs town of Yunohara. Still, he's been taking care of her for quite some time, about three years, so their bond feels kinda strong. Since the MC is so quick to explain this to everyone around him (though he really shouldn't since he took her without consent...), the expected surprises and reactions from the rest of the cast, both the inn personnel and the classmates, are pretty tame and they (too?) quickly both blend in. There are a few father-daughter scenes but since Miria is an usually good kid for her age it's mostly to praise her. Once the MC enters school she is for the most part taken care of by Misato the inn owner, and her presence kinda fades in the background, which is a shame. She only plays a central part in Misaki's route, and then again, she's barely present during any of it, during the others she's there as a comic relief or dispensing child wisdom but I feel this element of the setting is underused. Also, the MC keeps having sex while she's sleeping in the same room, she may be a heavy sleeper but that just feels soooo wrong...

Second thing that looked interesting, the MC actually has some sort of magic powers. First of all, let me just say that his power is really peculiar and kinda hard to get a grasp on. Here's what I made of it, but even after finishing all but one route I'm not 100% certain of it. What he can do is concentrate and picture what he does for the next X seconds in his mind. Once X seconds have past and he opens his eyes, things happened as he pictured them but in an instant. However, he can't picture himself doing things he otherwise couldn't do doing the best of his best, which leads to his often repeated rant about how he knows exactly how much value his time has, which is not much. If that's a bit confusing, rest assured, it's barely used anyway. The MC reveals his power to everyone around him pretty quick (again, he really shouldn't...) and although it's used a few times to get out of tricky situations, it doesn't prevent him from getting his ass kicked a few other times. In the three routes I've played, it hasn't played any major role and I have no idea why it's there other than get a few lines about worth of time and such, it really felt like misused potential.

So if the daughter element and the magic element are barely used anyway, what is left? Well, for Yui and Koharu, a pretty lite school-life chara-ge. Yui has a stalker and some family problems, and Koharu wants to be school council president. Their stories are pretty nice, lighthearted even though some of the 'evil' character overstay their welcome a little too much, and it's rather cute all the way to the end. Still, they both felt a little short, especially since for a chara-ge the ecchi scenes are exceptionally hasty. As I said earlier Misaki's route is the only one in which the MC's particular situation really matters and then again, most of it is spent preparing a town festival while there was a mountain of other more interesting things to write about, especially what happens between after said festival and the ending (there's a few years gap), quite a shame.

The support cast in the game is pretty good, from the inn co-workers to the classmates. I especially liked Satonaka the inn's cook and Sakura the rumor-loving classmate, too bad neither of them are available even though they seem interested in the MC and have a few moments of their own. Maybe in a future fandisk if the game does well?

All in all, I didn't find the game boring or anything but I can't help but feel they could have made much more with what they had. Still, it's easy to read, the heroines are cute for the most part and the game itself isn't too long. As long as no expectations are given towards the magic or daughter elements, it's an alright game.

Next up is probably going to あけいろ怪奇譚 which I should start over the coming week-end.