What VN are you playing? What do you think about it?

Actually I'm in university, and downloading Gigabytes of stuff means extra money for broadband limit and very unstable line, so I try to minimize my downloads as much as possible here and download all of them at once in my home. Also, my final exam is very near haha.

Thank god I don't study anymore so I don't have any exams =P coughbutimworkinganditsuckscough. Alright. Did you read other Tanaka Romeo works like Cross† Channel and Saihate no Ima? I only read Cross† Channel and I gotta say, the atmosphere is different. It kind of gives a dark atmosphere. But some scenes were just spectacular, specially the ending.

Meanwhile, I finished Over the Rainbow and Moero Downhill Night.

Over the Rainbow was honestly pretty short. The soundtrack is nice to the kind of theme presented and the interactions between the characters don't seem forceful given that it's a pretty short work. Things just happen kind of too fast before you can get a real feel for the VN
There's just one thing that may REALLY bother others being


Overall, I think the Over the Rainbow is pretty decent. 6.5/10 most.

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About Moero Downhill Night just one word: Weak.
The game is weak in all aspects imo. The only redeeming feature that Moero Downhill Night has is the art. The story is very superficial and this directly makes us to not feel very absorbed into it. For example, when it came to choose the girl I wanted I couldn't help but fecepalm several times trying to not believe what I was reading because it completely lacked sense lol If you ever get to read Moero Downhill Night I'm sure you'll understand.
Again, I think that Moero Downhill Night is weak and could've been better. 4/10.

I'm currently on a roll for the Moero VNs that Jast released so far so I'm now reading Moero Downhill Night 2 and after it I'll read Moero Downhill Night Blaze since Jast released it recently.

I've read through Cross Channel quite a long time ago, though not Saihate no Ima. It's pretty decent and really absorbing when I first started out VNs, though I must say that it does not have replay value due to the way it's written.

I started Saya no Uta. Unlike my expectations, it doesn't seem to be a cosmic horror story that masquerades as love story, but a cosmic horror and a love story. If that's true, then it's certainly the most fucked up love story I've ever seen.

It's very interesting though and even a bit creepy. Aside from Saya and Fuminori, the characters aren't fleshed out much and only serve as plot devices, but then, it doesn't seem to be a very long VN anyway. I also like the main theme quite much. It's serene and sinister at the same time, which fits Saya well.

At the moment, I only received the first ending (which you can get at the first choice). Oddly enough, it feels like a bad end, even though it's probably the closest thing to a good one.

Finished 百機夜行. It was an overall pretty interesting game, except for that one absolutely retarded bug where the final boss' second form doesn't show up and hence you can't kill her and win the game. Pissed. It features some pretty cool CGs and the atmosphere and music was almost perfect. My only complains would be that the story pretty much used every worn out plot line you can possibly imagine (memory loss, hinting the 'death' of your first love extremely obviously, another memory loss, a shadow organization who manipulated everything blah blah blah...) despite it's enormous potential to be unique. It was a pretty good game too, the simple change of camera perspective where you either go 1st PoV and control a single machine directly or the usual 3rd person RTS perspective and control and battle with many machines at once. A shame.

Now GunKnightGirl. The intro can be, how to say...? You enter the title screen almost immediately after the usual introduction stuff almost TOO quickly, and it's the same when you click start game. It doesn't bother to create an atmosphere, well, play and you'll know what I mean. The story is definitely worth the read though. Despite a romance game at its core, the dark and seditious atmosphere was handled very well. Mashiro was probably one of those happy, cheerful heroines that I DON'T hate because she's not one dimensional.

As for Renka's route, I'm going through it right now, and I'm pretty pissed that no one has figured out who was behind the incidents that's happen so far in her route. It was SO obvious - granted that it has been throwing the hints at my face since the PROLOGUE - that it gets irritating.

EDIT: Wow, I can't believe how idiotic the situation has become, like, even if you SUSPECT a person has personality disorder, would that person PURPOSELY make his/her standpoint 100 times worse than before? It was such obvious MALIGNANCY towards Renka and yet nearly EVERYONE but the protagonist suspected that Renka's the one playacting the entire incident? There such a fundamental lack of common sense here for the sake of the plot that it's damaging, ugh...

EDIT 2: Final Verdict on Gun Knight Girl.

Excellent storytelling. There's honestly not much I can pick about here, except for maybe that the True Route's epilogue could be handled a little bit better. Every other heroine's epilogue was VERY well thought out as the writer went into extra lengths to ensure that each story ended properly. For example, Nanami's and er, Fubuki?'s epilogue continue for about fifteen to thirty minutes of length discussing about their resolution and feelings. The True Route actually lacked that and opted for a more generic ending as if they don't have time to make proper closure... which is a little disappointing in my opinion. Still, overall excellent storytelling, because I seldom find myself completing every girl's routes unless necessary (almost never did it on pure romance VN unless they're super epic).

Characterization is awesome. The thought process of the protagonist was very well written, as well as his behavior. I especially like the fact that his speech pattern is pretty unique and does not fall into the generic type of joker. The most annoying character would be the girl childhood friend, but well, she is realistic that I DO know a few people whose behavior could be even more immature than her... whereas Ken has the potential to be an interesting character even though they never really develop him much, which is unfortunate. He is the guy who looks coolly onto everything with little emotional attachment and cares only for his girl. His one single statement he said to his girlfriend (though they don't really admit it), "Everyone else here can die but you." makes me really want to see more character development with Ken, but too bad.

The sub characters (including one heroine), that is the two superiors, are REALLY entertaining to watch near the end of True route. They were extremely interesting characters to begin with, but I cannot help but laugh when dear Mrs Eagle Eye went into serious 'murder' mode; the only thing lacking was a whip and unfortunately no battle scene. I would've enjoyed watching them both absolutely MURDER the opposition much more than the protagonist and his friends playing hero lol.

The heroine themselves are all pretty good themselves. Some people might find the tsundere a little too timid for their taste, but I for one felt her story was told really well. I'm also glad that for once, there's a moral message that tells its reader, "it's okay to be weak." once. As for the true heroine... I can't say I like that kind of type much, and well, I suppose that if you play through the other heroine routes you'll realize what I'm trying to say. >_> I just can't really like her.

The bads. As I've said before, the abrupt opening title and jump into game can be a hit or miss. The sprite animations doesn't do the storyline justice to be honest, as they're a little too normal with no real 'customized' effects. The fight scenes can even be seen as bland if not for the excellent voice acting and text that covers up that problem. Fate/Stay Night has much better sprite animation and usage than this VN, though then again anything from Type Moon is pretty much out of league for most people to create. >_>

All in all, a really good read. The title can be deceptively shitty (Gun Knight Girl IS a shitty name, in my opinion) but the contents are most definitely not. Give it a try, folks!

Trying to get all character clears on Daibanchou BBA. Oh god this really took my time.

Anyway got any recomendation for VNs that below 2 GBs?
*gonna try Rance 3 soon. tho I'm sure I'll beat it in 2-3 days

That's a really tough limit you set there; there ain't much VNs that are 2GBs below these days. 百機夜行 can be fun if you like military setting and RTS gameplay. As for older games, I can't remember so can't help you there.

Random ramblings: Alicesoft games seemed to be going downhill these days since Sengoku Rance - perhaps Daiteikoku was good for some people, but the protagonist was one the blandest hero I've ever seen yet, and the CG progression was to be honest, a lot less engaging than let's say BBA; there's no sense of real progress and excitement...

Finished in an instant: Justy Nasty. Bland, bland, and bland everything else. The moment I completed a single route and clarified that it's just a generic pure romance VN with a completely bland plot - the only selling point was the art (and perhaps music, though it was just okay for me), and it wasn't even that good (the wallpaper was better >_>) - I just downloaded the savedata. No true end, no hidden story, nothing. I had some expectations because of how entertaining (even though it's a rather cheesy plot) 竜翼のメロディア -Diva with the blessed dragonol- was, but this VN is just a cash milker. Not worth buying.

EDIT: Oh. My. God. Once upon a time I reviewed a 時計仕掛けのレイライン complaining that it was incomplete and ended in the most abrupt way possible.

Behold the sequel, not so far off in the future: 時計仕掛けのレイライン －残影の夜が明ける時. Actually, it continues right off where things ended.

I suspect they're going to make a VN for each 'chapter' of 時計仕掛けのレイライン. Money milking at its' best.

Currently playing Rewrite and so far its pretty good waiting for Terra, Moon, and Oppai to finish it off!~

No matter how many times I play Utawarerumono, I always find myself tearing up hard at the ending. It's just so tragic and sad, but it's so simply justified and amazing. Seriously, is there any human that can resist Aruruw's adorable voice? Hearing her giggle, and hearing her cry always have such an impact on me. I never get sick of this VN.

Lol... Well, if only they'll get that Utawarerumono 2 out eh?

Currently playing What a shining braves. This time they use a pretty simple but creative way of displaying sprites, and as usual the music and art just makes your brain float in the air. The story feels a little like Power Ranger (solo!), but this is an adult's version and VERY entertaining.

EDIT: So, a review on what-a-shining-braves.

So first, the goodies. Absolutely worth the read with an excellent story about a most arrogant superhero. I did not mean sarcasm, and every word is a praise. I have never read a more beautiful - pretty much the only way to describe most Liar-soft's Visual Novels, honestly - adult's version Power Ranger (Ultraman or whatever!) story in my life.

The plot talks about a normal girl named Neon Stellar who has a pair of Golden Eyes, meets with a man named Nicholas Tesla. Unlike previous series such as Shikokku no Sharnoth - despite showcasing 6 people at once, excluding Neon, all having a single Golden Eye - Neon had never awakened or come to realize her powerful abilities beyond some rare moments where she caught a glimpse of 'the Truth of all things' (Normally this could be considered a spoiler, but heck, it's so hard to keep track of the lore that I really think we SHOULDN'T spoiler facts like these).

The story follows a slow but steady pace as Neon, having saved by Tesla, slowly saves one by one the students of the Academy she's studying in. Among them included 4 of the 6 rulers of the Academy (yep, the Golden Eyes!), and it is a most fascinating experience to see all sorts of emotions and powers play about. I won't spoiler anything about the story, but it has one heck of an amazing ending (it caught me completely by surprise alright, and I LOVE IT!) alright. I like the fact that the battle scenes against the students and Rulers were well written and detailed, but when Tesla battles the final enemy, they made it shorter as if to say that, 'the students are the focus here. NOT you, the bastard who's been toying with people's heart!'. The VN's length is just right, and the episodes well organized that it wouldn't feel awkward or overly long. Just excellent, excellent insight and writing skills.

The characters are vivid and life-like. Granted, there will always be a few shunted characters who could not shine beyond a few lines, but that's just life. Feelings were well portrayed, dialogues were handled expertly, and the voice acting was amazing (I'm extremely impressed with Izumi's and Neon's, and Tesla's character is just... DAMN). If there's one thing Liar-soft is good at, it would be that perfect combination of art, writing, and style which makes the entire fantastic world come ALIVE.

And oh, the sex scenes. Usually you DON'T see sex scenes in the series, but this time they actually put them in, and they're... Think I could nosebleed at Neon's one. Oh, Emily's was amazing too. Ahh, let's just say that I usually CTRL-skip sex scenes because they involve a lot of repetitive, unnecessary moanings, but these ones are something that I clicked slooooowly to the end. Oh yeah.

There's really no point discussing about the art and music. Spectacular. Absolutely spectacular. The only advice I can give is to play it.

Now, to the bads. The music can get a little buggy sometimes where 2 different BGMs played together (they're not meant to), and you'll have to restart the game sometimes to fix the problem. Another one would be that the final few scenes could feel a little rushed, though I personally believe it's because the writer wanted to gun for feelings rather than hotblooded scenes. Finally, there was Neon Stellar in the end who was acting a little too childish for her age (I'm not going to comment on how she was veeery jealous of Tesla going out on a date with another girl, but) and it was frustrating to see how she'd tried to run away from the core issue instead of confronting the truth. But this is just a personal nitpick and could definitely be a good point for the others.

In short? Play it already! Liar-soft BANZAI!

Jst about to start G-Senjou No Maou and Heart de Roommate.

Currently playing Flyable Heart. The BGMs are really good. But I kinda feel that one of the routes ended before I could start to enjoy the relationship.

I hav played half way thru all the girl's routes (Heart De Roommate) and I hav to say I'm enjoying the game. Though at first the main character's wimpy nature and the main heroine's (Asumi) bitching rily gt on my nerves, bt later on as u play the game the plot improves n the game bcoms fun.

G-Senjou No Maou is simply stunning!!!

Playing Ef-the first tale. Great music, the art is fantastic, and I've been liking most of the characters so far. After watching the anime, it's kind of nice to get the in depth look at the story.

Played 恋剣乙女, and finished two routes: Yasui (I think? red haired) and Touko's. Mixed reviews this time, with more criticism than praise unfortunately.

As usual, the goods first. Stunning visuals and amazing graphics. I personally think that the Save/Load interface and the Album/Memory interface is extremely space wasting (You can see only 3 slots on one page of the Save/Load file, for example), but it manages to convey its beauty as meant. The opening towards title screen was some of the best I've ever seen - short, simple, effective, and beautiful. The characters, while kind of stereotypical as usual, were absolute eye candies to watch and sometimes I just paused to admire the art. There is really nothing to complain here, as art wise it is the best of its style as of now.

Its music is just a tad bit weaker compared the art, but then again you have to remember that the latter had set a really high bar there. It is by no means weak at all, and most of its soundtrack and theme song are memorable on its own. The guitar solo was my favorite because it reminded me keenly about a similar soundtrack from Kira Kira, which also featured a guitar solo, and coupled with a clear sounding headphone I could almost dance on top of my bed. Which is unwise, but let's leave that aside.

Solid background study. The first half of its story, right up to the point the battles have ended, were very well done. They're not special, and I believe that they could definitely spice up their battle scene animations a lot more (since they went through so much effort to make the VN visually appealing), but the pacing, narration and storyline up to that point was acceptable and rather interesting. At that point you'll find yourself intensely intrigued by the mystery behind Yasui's shitty low power, Touko's secret, the gadgets lab girl might create if you go through her route and tsundere Eve. The CGs were absolutely top notch - then again, why does a sub male character get to show off his powers in all glory in a CG (practically never appears after his part in the first half), and the protagonist never get a battle CG for his own? Weird decision making - and even if the narration of the battle kind of fall off sometimes they CG more than make up for the excitement the VN wants us to feel.

System. As far as I'm concerned, everything's working. Not much to say, but a bugless VN always deserve a mention, and this seems to be one of it.

Character wise, everyone felt alive. Sub characters remain as they are, but they perform their function well and er, I really liked Yasui's route. Her story just felt natural and unforced, and right up till the end her growth, while expected, left me with a sense of good fulfillment and recharged me for the next route.

... Which is about as far as the good goes, as far as I'm concerned. We're going to start with the bads now.

So first, a waste of background. Time and time again I see Visual Novels with delicately crafted backgrounds that showed so much potential only to be wasted completely on a bland storyline. We have a world here where most people wields magic (it's called differently but basically the same thing) with actual detail about the origins of the magic, which I liked a lot. The 'Kotona' (Dragons apparently) that once haunted the land were exterminated by these magic wielders after a long and harsh war, and now is the time of peace where everyone lives in happiness. That was fine - as I've said, they've put a solid effort into the background story, and it is awesome. I could easily see this VN go Muv Luv and turned everything to hell on earth. I could easily see this VN dive deep into the human psych and talked about the differences between magic users and normal people. There are a tonne more scenarios that pop into my mind even as I type here now, and that's just how much potential we glean from the well constructed background.

... which they did not bother to use at all as we go into the individual girl's route. I suppose that I understand that this IS a pure romance VN and I'm not to expect blood and gore and sadness and misery out of it, but seriously, the background work is just WASTED. Your hotblooded battle scenes practically ends after the first half, and some girl's route - take Touko's for example - there are no fights at all. To put it bluntly, the magic element REALLY WASN'T MADE GOOD USE OF. For example, there are many types of magics such as Fire, Ice, Movement, Life, etc. One of the sub characters have an extremely plot potent magic that is to 'Lifesteal', but the character was forever crippled with a shittily weak body who can't take beyond a loud shout and terrible tsukomis. Even in Yasui's route where the magic battles actually occur rather frequently, I was forced to see again and again she using the same fire magic with zero - ZERO - variations at all. You would think that they could at least get smart and say, coat her sword with goddamn fire and make up some explanation why that would be awesome, but nooo, we must stick to swordfight (everything explained as uber sword skillz) fireballs and the ULTIMATE FIREBLAST ONLY. I thought magic was suppose to be at least innovative. The latter half of this VN just made me think that they could've just thrown away the entire background completely, since they don't even try to utilize like 10% of its true potential.

Putting magic aside, you would think that they would at least talk about the hardships between magic wielders and non-magic wielders, but there's nothing. It's surprising really, when at the beginning there was a scene where the protagonist was thought to be a non-magic wielder and the bullies had looked down on him mercilessly like he's an ant. It's a classic plot device, sure, but it NEVER gets old, not to mention human conflict is practically our everyday life, but nah, we need to stick with the generic and mediocre because that's what the Japanese populace (I seriously doubt it, but a company believes in whatever they like) wants.

There are a plenty sub characters in this VN, but NONE of them was ever fully presented beyond some gag lines and cool phrases. Take the twins for example... actually I feel sad for using them as an example. The sister does nothing beyond lusting for women and the brother was too busy failing his own health. Take the protagonist's roommate as an example. They gave him a girl's sprite and a girl's voice but insist that he's a male (I don't even understand why go through the trouble), and beyond being a nice advisor he was nothing. We were clearly shown that the teachers are extremely capable and powerful at the first half of the story, but beyond the stereotypical sports-looking teacher -> aggressive, gentle teacher -> ara ara~, we learn nothing. Even the rivals that hated (friendly style) the protagonist so much lost all of their aggressiveness and went full friend mode at the latter half of the story. And oh, the female one fell for our protagonist. OBVIOUSLY I SHOULD'VE KNOWN. RIGHT.

But all these, all of these faults I could turn a blind eye on, if not for the singular, hilarious piteous disaster that is Touko's route. Oh, my, fucking, god. I'll try to refrain from writing in capital too much. WHY, on BLOODY EARTH, did you turn such a strong-looking, supposedly hiding some dark secret COOL girl, INTO a PUPPY who does absolutely... NOTHING? WHY? To put things spoiler-free, basically her dark secret turned out to be SUPER cheap, she loves cute things to death, she is cute, she is so cute the protagonist is willing to act like a dog because she miss her puppy, BY THE FUCKING GOD. WHY. Cuteness is a great positive factor, IF DONE CORRECTLY. Her route wasn't just mediocre, it was just downright HORRENDOUS with NO plot at all, and the fact that they made a FOOL out of my favorite character in the first half of story made me quit the VN completely. Didn't finish Eve or lab girl's route, sorry, though I pray to the heavens that they're better than ANYTHING that's in Touko's route. I got a save file and took a peek, and I'd recommend going with lab girl's route since there's a CG involving her in great danger. That means plot, and plot means something, no matter how terrible it might turn out to be. I repeat, even if you love cute and sweet stuff to death do NOT play Touko's route, or you will suffer. Even now my mind is being raped by how they handled the climax, and to put it mildly, it wasn't pleasant. The other way was to fill this post with such terrible expletives that I have to be banned from the forum.

I had initially wanted to praise how this VN singlehandedly defeat my prejudice for poor or generic plots with just astounding visuals alone. I am now left with a wretched heart cursing whoever wrote Touko's route in such distasteful fashion that it nearly wiped out any good feelings I have for the VN.

Forgive me, but w@ does 恋剣乙女 mean in english?
Just finished Kanon's chapter in G-Senjou no Maou and all I hav to say is th@ it was tear jerking. Damn those Sannou bastards!!!

Koiken Otome.

Jst finished Mizuha's chapter, she developed into a fine woman at the end.

Starting あなたの事を好きと言わせて out of boredom. Just can't find a good vn for me. hhaha

After playing Wanko to Kurasou, I'm having mixed feelings about it. I really liked how Yuuichi acted in Risa's route, but then I got a shock when he was a total asshole in Nadeshiko's route. I just felt really depressed after playing... similar to the feeling some of you might get when reading NTRs.