Community The Visual Novel Council | All Choices Lead To Here

[Myradeer]

Someone is working on Loopers.

Honestly my fate on Ryuukishi07 is pretty shaken after new Higurashi anime that I personally found to be.... very dubious in quality, but his strength was always in internal monologues so I guess I'll maintain moderate optimism. There's ongoing drought of story-focused visual novels anyways.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

My faith was much more shaken by Ciconia, I really hope that it picks up in later chapters cos that first one was just bad

 

[Exzyleph]

There's a pretty interesting looking Korean sci-fi VN releasing in 10 days:

My faith was much more shaken by Ciconia, I really hope that it picks up in later chapters cos that first one was just bad

Ryukishi's writings have always been a mixed bag, but I love his stuff nonetheless.
I also really enjoyed Ciconia, and look forward to Phase 2, despite it being yet another example of him bludgeoning his audience with his central themes:

 

[Exzyleph]

Also, The Blind Of The New World got released earlier than the initial release date:

 

[Myradeer]

Ah English as well? Happy to see increased trend of indie Korean VN scene noticing Steam, Lady in Mystery was pretty decent as well (though that one's definitely overpriced).

 

[Ascheroth]

Cho Dengeki Stryker is pretty fun so far, just finished Chapter 3.

Spoiler

The villains are an amusing bunch as long as they aren't doing villainy. I find the fact they ended up neighbors to Yamato with neither of them realising who the other is very amusing. Feels very old-school in a good way.
I have to say, I feel bad about the actual Yamato Yuuki though. Be careful what you wish for and all... "I want to become my favorite superhero" didn't give him superpowers, no. It just outright replaced him with that superhero. Which seems to also have "created" his enemies in reality.
The entire game is pretty light-hearted mostly, but that premise is always in the back of my mind and makes it pretty heavy underneath. I wonder if the original Yamato ever comes back or if he's effectively dead.

Also out of curiosity, anyone know how many chapters in total it has?

 

[Kvik]

This is not the ancient Greece as I've remembered it.

 

[Mutant Strawberry]

Free pyschological horror VN on itch. Absolutely know nothing about it whatsoever. Honey Sweet Lies by fyshku productions

 

[Exzyleph]

Corpse Factory is back on Kickstarter, with a somewhat smaller goal.
Hopefully they'll make it this time around, cause the demo was quite interesting.

 

[Cacher]

Just announced at indie live stream. Out in Sep.

 

[sprinkles]

Finally, but I wonder what happened to the prequel.

 

[ExistentialThought]

Menheraflesia a remake of a visual novel from Charon is due to release this month. It will feature voice work from Nene from Hololive.



I missed that Kana Sukoya from Nijisanji is also voicing a character.

 

[skLaFarebear]

Finished Muv-Luv TDA last night and I've been thinking about it a lot. I made a spoiler-free Twitter thread summing up how I felt, but in short I absolutely adored it. I cannot wait till Resonative is out and hope it's quality matches/exceeds the best of what we've gotten so far.

 

[Exzyleph]

NekoNyan did another status update (change since last time in parentheses):

• Kinkoi: Golden Loveriche: Out on the 11th
• Koikari: Love for Hire: 100% Translation, 98% Editing (+8%), 10% QA
• Melty Moment: 70% Translation (+5%)
• Cafe Stella and the Reapers’ Butterflies: 60% Translation (+5%), 60% Editing (+5%)
• The Future Radio and the Artificial Pigeons: 100% Translation, 10% Editing (+10%)
• Aoi Tori: 45% Translation (+5%)
• Making Lovers Fan Disc: 5% Translation (NEW)
• Secret Project #1: 80% Translation (NEW)
• Secret Project #2: 40% Translation (NEW)

I'm hoping that the two secret projects are either more plot heavy stuff or anything Asa Project (yes, I'm being greedy. I want more Asa Project, lol).


JAST also recently announced that Meteor Pendulum Heart will be released on the 11th:



Additionally, Jeanne at the Clock Tower is releasing on the 11th as announced a while ago:



I hope that y'all didn't make any weekend plans.


And Loopers in English now has a proper announcement (first announced during a JP-only stream):

 

[Snakethesniper]

Finished chapter 3 of Higurashi, already installing the 4th!
I have one question, in the extra they talk about how the next episode is divided in 2 parts (last question and start with answer), so I guess that chapter 4 and 5 have the lenght of one chapter combined?
Also they mention that one chapter was not intended and was given due to the success of the VN, which is it? Chapter 4 or 5?

 

[skLaFarebear]

Finished chapter 3 of Higurashi, already installing the 4th!
I have one question, in the extra they talk about how the next episode is divided in 2 parts (last question and start with answer), so I guess that chapter 4 and 5 have the lenght of one chapter combined?
Also they mention that one chapter was not intended and was given due to the success of the VN, which is it? Chapter 4 or 5?

Chapter 4 is definitely the shortest of the whole VN. Chapter 5 is about the length of the others however. Also not sure for your second question, I don't remember seeing that personally.

 

[Exzyleph]

Distant Memoraĵo, the sequel to The Expression Amrilato, is coming to Steam:


I gotta admit that I half expected it to get rejected.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Also on itch

Doomed Love by davidbcooper

Romance a bunch of demons!

davidbcooper.itch.io

 

[ExistentialThought]

Finally got around to playing Return to Shironagasu Island. Really enjoyed this title. It punches way above its price point. Will follow the dev for any future projects. Need to check out the extras still.


Started You and Me and Her. Received my first ending, which was fairly normal, and sweet?

What genre is he new Mangagamer published, Jeanne at the Clock Tower? Was wondering if the story is serious/good.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I think this might come in handy for some people in here but it's possibly more applicable to Japanese Indie RPGs than Visual Novels but anyway. I have some JPN games that have been translated to english but some assets retain their original JPN filename encoding and while looking for the 7zip command line option and getting sidetracked into Locale Emulators i found this utility.

Download the zip from releases. Extract to a folder and drop the .zip with the JIS encoded filenames onto sjisunzip.exe and it's done.
I can confirm it worked and is easier than me remembering the 7zip command line options for locale encodings.

SJIS (Shift JIS) Unzip by kjerk on github
SJIS (Shift JIS) Unzip fork by HunterVacui with extra options

HunterVacui's version is newer, from 2020, and has options to try to find best encoding options and other useful things. It's the one i'd try first.

 

[Kvik]

while looking for the 7zip command line option and getting sidetracked into Locale Emulators i found this utility.

I will have some use for this utility, although not strictly for VN translations. Great find.

If you recall, some Hololive fans has made custom Windows cursor of Hololive members in pixel art. Flare, Marine, Polka etc. I downloaded a few of them but the file names in the zip file being encoded in Shift-JIS is a pain in the arse.

 

[Knurek]

Shift-JIS is

 

[Kvik]

Jast USA has started their summer sale.

Games on Sale

jastusa.com

 

[ExistentialThought]

Wow just finished YOU and ME and HER. Wow. Amazing stuff.

Reaction spoiler

I really want to see the other choice, but I feel like it would be a betrayal haha. I did pick Miyuki given the circumstances.

____

How is Curse of Kudan? I see it is on sale in the Jast sale.

 

[sprinkles]

[UWSL]How is Curse of Kudan? I see it is on sale in the Jast sale.[/UWSL]

It's good, nothing groundbreaking, but a fun short read. A couple mystery cases, a likable female MC, nice art. Around 10 hours iirc.

 

[ExistentialThought]

It's good, nothing groundbreaking, but a fun short read. A couple mystery cases, a likable female MC, nice art. Around 10 hours iirc.

That sounds kinda refreshing. After Shironagasu, I was looking for another little mystery.

 

[skLaFarebear]

Laplacian rebranding themselves to be an all-ages company while simultaneously confirming an all-ages release of Hakuchuumu no Aojashin for the west. Doesn't mean they're gonna stop making 18+ content however, as this announcement just came a few days after the company established a new 18+ brand called PRINCIPIA.



Also new teaser from the Muv-Luv account



Hmmm that image totaly looks like an eclipse but I can't even imagine what the announcement could possibly be.

 

[Cacher]

 

[GhostTrick]

Yeeees TE

 

[skLaFarebear]

Muv-Luv bros we are FEASTIN

Unfortunately though this isn't coming with the prequel story Teito Moyu that leads up to the events of TE which is a shame. Hopefully Ages/Anchor reconsiders and adds it if not by launch then afterwards as dlc.

 

[Kvik]

Muv-Luv bros we are FEASTIN

You mean... we are CHOMPIN~!

Hopefully, the PC features won't be scuffed like the first release of TDE though.

 

[Ascheroth]

Finally got around to playing Return to Shironagasu Island. Really enjoyed this title. It punches way above its price point. Will follow the dev for any future projects. Need to check out the extras still.

Just read through it too (except Extra). Also really enjoyed it.
As you say it definitely puches way above it's price point. There's a lot of CGs, animated character sprites, some other small animations, good BGM, and interactive sections.

Story-wise I enjoyed it. Sen and Neneko sure are an enjoyable oddball duo. The story is interesting, moves fast and goes places but it's all still very straightforward in the end - maybe a bit too much at times, like the villain motivations for example. Had some genuinely creepy moments too, and it's pretty dark.
It could have done without those 2 shower scenes though, they're tonally totally awkward and add odds with the rest,

Took me 4 and a half hours, the Extra section will add a bit to that. At 0,79€ it's a steal if you're looking for something short and interesting to read.

 

[ExistentialThought]

Just read through it too (except Extra). Also really enjoyed it.
As you say it definitely puches way above it's price point. There's a lot of CGs, animated character sprites, some other small animations, good BGM, and interactive sections.

Story-wise I enjoyed it. Sen and Neneko sure are an enjoyable oddball duo. The story is interesting, moves fast and goes places but it's all still very straightforward in the end - maybe a bit too much at times, like the villain motivations for example. Had some genuinely creepy moments too, and it's pretty dark.
It could have done without those 2 shower scenes though, they're tonally totally awkward and add odds with the rest,

Took me 4 and a half hours, the Extra section will add a bit to that. At 0,79€ it's a steal if you're looking for something short and interesting to read.

Really glad you liked it! Completely agreed on the villian and shower scenes. Really interested im what the dev does next.

 

[Myradeer]

Took advantage of Steam sale to finally buy Sekimeiya and 100%'d it over few days. Personally this is criminally underlooked hidden gem, I'd definitely recommend this to those who've enjoyed Infinity series and Zero Escape series.

Here's my steam review for those who are interested.

 

[ExistentialThought]

Took advantage of Steam sale to finally buy Sekimeiya and 100%'d it over few days. Personally this is criminally underlooked hidden gem, I'd definitely recommend this to those who've enjoyed Infinity series and Zero Escape series.

Here's my steam review for those who are interested.

This one flew completely under my radar, thank you for the recommendation.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Oh, dammit! I have a literal ton of VNs on Steam and i bought a bunch on other sites that have sales on at the moment and now you go and show me another one i need want. At least i've spread my cash about a bit this Sale time rather than just sticking with Steam.

 

[skLaFarebear]

Took advantage of Steam sale to finally buy Sekimeiya and 100%'d it over few days. Personally this is criminally underlooked hidden gem, I'd definitely recommend this to those who've enjoyed Infinity series and Zero Escape series.

Here's my steam review for those who are interested.

Thanks for reminding me to pick this up. I remember seeing it on KS some time back and followed it's development but then completely forgot about it. Glad to see it's got some pretty glowing reviews though.

 

[Kvik]

DDLC+ is releasing tonight. The 10% discount will expire upon release, so the time is ripe to pick it up if you're interested in the new content (or haven't played DDLC before -- you should!)

 

[Snakethesniper]

What does Baldr Sky on steam exactly contains?
I see on VNDBs there are several and none is the version on steam?

 

[Kvik]

What does Baldr Sky on steam exactly contains?

The Steam version contains Dive1 + Dive2 as one whole game. Originally they are released in two different games. The localised version is based on Dive1+2 Limited Edition, iirc.

Baldr Sky Dive1+2 - Limited Edition

Windows 10 support edition. Available for a limited time: 2016-09-23 ~ 2017-01-05.

vndb.org

I see on VNDBs there are several and none is the version on steam?

BALDR SKY Dive1 "Lost Memory"

While Kou is asleep in his bed, the scream of a girl wakes him up. He rises to see in front of him a battle full of gunshots and flashing bombs exploding. He realizes that he is wearing an iron armor. "What's this?" He doesn't know what's going on. He leaves the virtual world with Rain, who...

vndb.org

BALDR SKY Dive2 "RECORDARE"

One day, Kadokura Kou awakes in a virtual battlefield. He, who is a skilled Simulacrum user, soon remembers that he was pursuing someone with Rain, his partner. Kou and Rain investigate the incident that ruined his peaceful school life known as "Gray Christmas", but various mysteries stand in...

vndb.org

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I ended up buying Sekimeiya on itch as i've been digging about in there more frequently than i used to.

The Sekimeiya: Spun Glass by Trinitite Team

A mystery thriller visual novel featuring line search and jump functions.

trinitite-team.itch.io

I'm glad that the sales on and off Steam have finished or are finishing soon as i have no need to buy more VNs... seriously, I think i'm set for life now.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Another post in my "Simple but useful tools" series, lol.

I've been playing a couple of old VN & RPGMaker games that are in tiny windows and although Magic Borderless is great it didn't work with some of the games and i don't want to have to fire up steam just to use it. So after a couple of failed attempts over the months i finally found this which i figure some of you may find handy too.

SRWE - Simple Runtime Window Editor

GitHub - dtgDTGdtg/SRWE: Simple Runtime Window Editor

Simple Runtime Window Editor. Contribute to dtgDTGdtg/SRWE development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

I use it to scale the RPGM Window by 1.5 so it sits neatly in a corner of my monitor and i can have browser videos open and visible in the other corner. I doubt it'll be any good for fast-paced games but for simples RPGM games where you don't really mind some scaling artifacts then it'll probably be fine.

 

[skLaFarebear]

Imouto route unlocked, see yall on the other side

Excited for my Sora folder to grow even larger

 

[Myradeer]

VNDB search reveals 93 Sora in existence, honestly expected there to be more

 

[sprinkles]

Imouto route unlocked, see yall on the other side

Excited for my Sora folder to grow even larger

I liked the first episode so I bought the rest during the sale. I quit 30 minutes into that one because the sister character is just insufferable. I could barely tolerate her in the first chapter as a side character...

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I had heard good things about 9-nine and almost bought all episodes in a sale too but held back as i had already spent more than i had planned to across 4 stores. lol. Good thing is that the next sales should be a cakewalk as i already have nearly everything that had decent reviews and a decent discount.

 

[skLaFarebear]

I had heard good things about 9-nine and almost bought all episodes in a sale too but held back as i had already spent more than i had planned to across 4 stores. lol. Good thing is that the next sales should be a cakewalk as i already have nearly everything that had decent reviews and a decent discount.

The first episode is pretty solid. It does a good job of introducing most of the characters and the gimmick of the story and as someone who ain't a fan of romance novels, it never dives too deep into that realm for too long without ignoring the fact that there's a mystery going on that needs solving. There's also some pretty fun twists that happen in episode 1 where one of them even got me pretty good.

I'm already enjoying episode 2 quite a bit more, but I also like Sora a lot more than Miyako, who's just fine but not really entertaining enough to carry a conversation on her own with the protag.

Outside of that, the art is very pretty and the music is nice for supplementing moment.

 

[ZKenir]

aaaAAAAAAAhhaaaaHHAaaaaahuhdhxbxhejxndkajdfcggdh

 

[AHA-Lambda]

what is it?

 

[skLaFarebear]

Mecha fans we eatin good. Guess it's time for me to finally start my nitroplus marathon.

what is it?

The forbidden and untranslatable visual novel to end all forbidden untranslatable visual novels

Spoiler

FullMetal Daemon Muramasa

wtf august 24th 2021 jesus that's so soon.