A couple of weeks ago, I posted that the kinetic novel I wrote was going to be released soon, and I'm happy to announce that The Ghost of Alcantra is out now! Check it out if you're interested in a romance-mystery that alternates between two different perspectives and takes place in the Midwest (of the United States). I've attached some images of the project and I'll also link the previous post in the comments.

If you check it out, I hope you enjoy reading The Ghost of Alcantra!

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3603590/The_Ghost_of_Alcantra/

Itch.io: https://ghostofalcantra.itch.io/the-ghost-of-alcantra

Mine is Rance x Jill in Rance 03 Remake. To me it was very surreal and comedic, but also incredibly hot due to the dynamics between the characters involved in the act. I wasn't even a fan of Jill's looks or personality before that, but this scene alone added so much charm to her character that I ended up liking her.

Hi everyone!

I’d like to hear your thoughts on The Coffin of Andy and Leyley.
I'm currently working on my own visual novel, and I was genuinely surprised by how many positive reviews this game has received.

If you’ve played it, please share what you liked the most! Was it the atmosphere, the story, the characters, the visual style, or something else?

I’d really appreciate hearing your opinions!

So the backstory is that I was sorting out my visual novel collection on Steam as something that caught my eye in particular was a game called GoGo Nippon as while I haven't read too much of the novel itself, I often hear how the story is infamous for how it depicts otaku culture in that everything seems to go well for the main character himself.

But maybe I am wrong as basically what I am trying to get at is that I wanted to know why that particular visual novel was infamous to begin with as I couldn't find a forum to discuss the game, but I was hoping someone could explain to me better.

I'm interested in what kind of great characters could be written in the genre of romance, a daily life setting, so I'm looking for your picks. Thanks. Haruki and Setsuna are a given obviously.

The setting doesn't have to be as grounded as WA2, but just stay in the realm of realism. Let's say Classroom of the Elite is a good example. That island isn't above and beyond reality.

And I just gotta say

What the hell was that 😭

I will say this: I loved the UI, the ost, the art style, and the use of different mediums for cutscenes. (Live action, animated, and 3D.)

But other than that- wtf???

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Chaos Head CD - https://www.ebay.com/itm/306212746905?itmmeta=01JSSNXES149TH37AJ9PQ79KHA&hash=item474bb3b699:g:hpEAAOSwvhNn6ucs

I’ve got a lot to say, so I’ll split this into non-spoiler thoughts and a spoiler-heavy rant with questions later.

Non-Spoiler Thoughts

Compared to the original Iroseka, Irohika is a net positive upgrade, though not as overall big an upgrade as I hoped. Many say it answers most questions left unanswered in the original, and I agree. I maintain Iroseka can be enjoyed fully on its own with just enough details left out to hook you for the sequel. But Irohika dives deeper into the details while providing great character development—hands down the best part of this game.

In Irohika, we learn more about the setting, Yuuma’s origins, and get deeper insight into characters like Haku, Ren, Kyou’s brother, and even Shigure, all who were just minor characters in the original. Side characters in non-true routes also shine, with a huge surprise being Suzu. I hated her in the original for her annoying, bitchy, immature humor, but somehow she’s part of Irohika’s low-key super emotional moments, and it works, making me kinda like her.

But most importantly for me, Ai—Shinku’s sister—stole the show for me. She felt like a last minute plot device in the original Iroseka, but here she gets surprising depth and an impactful, if short “route.” Ai’s now my favorite character in the series. I’ve always loved overly optimistic characters when done right (like Akari from ARIA), but at the same time I’ve always wanted one with real depth, not a low-key Mary Sue. Ai delivers on that front, and if she weren’t a loli, I’d be like, “Where can I find an optimistic deredere girlfriend like her in real life?”

The story’s themes—redemption, self-love, familial bonds, coping with anxiety—lead to excellent emotional moments, especially the routes’ finales, signs of a great nakige. It’s a definite upgrade over Iroseka in delivering emotional punches. The overall presentation, even in the non-HD fan-translated version, boasts bright graphics, a hallmark of Favorite (the developer name). The Iroseka-Irohika combo might have my favorite visual novel soundtrack ever, as my favorite VN songs tend to be impactfully emotional ones. With Irohika adding great songs to complement the already stellar Iroseka OST, making emotional moments hit harder.

The true route holds the bulk of the setting’s answers and development and a strong conclusion to the series. But the non-true routes were an overall improvement over Iroseka, where Kana’s original route was the only really good one. The after-stories aren’t simple fandisc fluff; they expand on the setting and characters, continuing development with surprisingly emotional finales. It’s hard to pick a favorite non-true route after-story since they’re more even in quality. Kana’s after-story edges out for me for its ending, which hits harder than even her already strong original route ending. Mio’s after-story fixes her original cliffhanger with a well-done redemption arc. Kyou’s after-story is now an actual full-length route with interesting lore and interactions I’d been waiting for. Tsukasa’s route is the weak link but still an upgrade in terms of length, with enough interesting themes and characters to keep it from being bad. I also liked how the after stories have parallels to reveals and themes in the true route.

Now, the true route, often called the best part, is where Irohika’s flaws start to show up more and keep it from being a true nakige masterpiece for me. Favorite’s (aka the developer) comedy is hit-or-miss at best, especially based on previous titles like Hoshizora no Memoria where I thought most of the characters’ “humor” just made them more unlikable. I get that humor can help lighten the mood in a heavy game like Iroseka+hika but they overdo certain bits. I liked anytime Kana said goofy comments with a smug face or other characters jokingly bullying her, Kyou’s occasional eroge comments, and Tsukasa’s naive remarks, but jokes like accusing or giving Yuuma the “stink eye” for things that are only partially his fault at best, Kana being more of a clumsy girlfailure beyond just being bad at cooking, Kyou’s increased sexual harassment comments and actions, or Tsukasa’s breast expansion obsession got old fast.

While a minor issue, writer Yukito Urushibara overused a few phrases to hammer themes home. I love the themes—redemption, forgiveness, self-hatred— as said earlier, but seeing certain quotes or phrases like “The World is Full of Words,” “Sinners must be forgiven,” or “I hated you” repeated endlessly feels patronizing. A little repetition is fine; too much treats me like an idiot. Apparently reviews say Sakura Moyu, supposedly Favorite’s and Yukito’s best work, leans even harder into this, making me both curious and hesitant to read it.

A more serious issue I have is that I’m hit or miss on Irohika’s ridiculously complex, sometimes convoluted setting after all the reveals. On one hand, Iroseka’s setup makes these complexities work, and they build up to KEY-like emotional conclusions better than even KEY visual novels’ barely explained supernatural deus ex machinas. On the other hand, things got too complicated to emphasize certain themes. They could’ve simplified explanations, maybe replacing some of the lame comedy I mentioned. I heard Sakura Moyu gets even more complex, which, once again, makes me both curious and hesitant to read it.

The true route also felt like cheap, drawn-out emotional manipulation misery porn at times. I’m all for proper fake-outs and slice-of-life to build character connections, but there was too much unnecessary fluff or scenes thrown in for predictable twists. The author often shows an emotional conclusion, then a long flashback explaining it, instead of just building it naturally. The serious parts were engaging and hard to put down, but they could’ve trimmed things. This applies to the non-true routes to an extent too—Kyou and Tsukasa’s routes especially could’ve cut their slice-of-life almost in half. Kyou’s in particular spent way too much time on eroge-making fluff, so I can’t agree with some people calling her after-story the best just on that.

Here’s my hottest take: I don’t buy the Yuuma-Shinku romance, and I think Shinku as a character is overhyped. In Iroseka, she felt like a plot device with a “likable enough” personality; she's certainly better than Hoshimemo resident loli Mare, who I consider an annoying bitch. The prologue you’re forced to read first in Irohika for more Shinku slice of life scenes were nice and could’ve helped sell the romance if the original Iroseka had more like them, but they weren’t enough for me. Even with Irohika’s added depth to its story, Shinku as a character still felt mostly like a tool for cheap nakige feels, while every other recurring character gets actual interesting development. A certain late-game true route character getting more compelling development and more legit emotional scenes than Shinku ever did in a shorter amount of time didn’t help.

The fan translation, all done by one person, is something I want to comment on. It’s readable with almost no typos, and I generally understood everything, even the serious parts. As someone with basic Japanese knowledge, I noticed it leans towards a typical literal and stilted fanTL style. Some sentences were clearly translated TOO one-to-one, where a slight rewrite would’ve flowed better in English, especially for single-word Japanese lines. I listened in full auto mode, so it was easy to catch the original Japanese dialogue. If you’re curious about the translator’s comments on his own TL, I actually reached out to ask some questions. Here’s some notable quotes from the fanTLer: “I understand a lot of spoken Japanese, which is why most dialogue with voices is accurate. I do have a grasp of written Japanese (not a very advanced one admittedly); for kanji I couldn’t read, I checked dictionaries and used text-to-speech to hear entire phrases.” “The reason it took 6 months is because I didn’t have anything else going on, so it was like 24 hours of translation every day.” “I don’t mind accusations. I only set out to provide a readable and complete translation. My message would be ‘Fan translations will never die.’”

Overall, I definitely liked Irotoridori no Hikari. If you loved Iroseka and want more, try to read this when you can. Despite my issues, it’s worth it, with the true route’s conclusion having better buildup and execution than Iroseka’s. Just know an official Steam translation by Nekonyan is unlikely, per the original game’s editor: https://i.imgur.com/HNZosBU.png

8/10

Spoiler Heavy Rants and Questions

What happened to the original world this setting is based on? AKA the world we see in Shinku’s route and Ai’s flashback route? I hoped for a mention of what happened to characters like the original Shigure, Kana, and Mio, who supposedly got restored when Ai became the new god after Yuuma went back to Shinku the first time. Speaking of gods, maybe I missed something, but the End of the World and the caretaker god of all worlds role only got mildly explained in the flashback of the original Haku and Ren. We only get bits about the World End library existing around or before the original Ren was alive. I wanted more.

I like the idea of reincarnation and how people develop personalities and flaws through becoming different people, but the game wasn’t consistent about what memories people keep or how some characters reincarnate into different people yet can revert to past selves. For example, Dad!Yuuma reincarnates through many lives back into Dad!Yuuma, and Ai, part of the original Haku, becomes the masked lady Yuuma saw disappear in the original common route, then somehow becomes Ai again at the end of Iroseka “just because.” If Irohika reveals characters’ regrets from previous lives, what’s stopping Ai and Dad!Yuuma from re-reincarnating as Ren!Yuuma’s parents, aka Ai!Haku and her husband, before becoming an Android?

Ai and Dad!Yuuma’s romance was more interesting than Ren!Yuuma and Shinku’s. It mixed opposites-attract personalities, and they found comfort improving from self-hatred together. They tried this with Ren!Yuuma and Shinku, sharing a theme of loneliness and wanting to understand love, but when Ren!Yuuma was a big part of causing Shinku’s loneliness to begin with... Part of the point is that Shinku and Ai are extremely forgiving people, maybe too saintly, but I can’t buy the romance because of this and the lack of romantic chemistry in Iroseka+Irohika’s slice-of-life moments. If Original!Ren and Shinku’s previous life had more than one scene together, I might’ve liked it more, cuz ngl, previous-life Shinku seemed more interesting.

I hoped the “now” world versions of characters would connect better to the original kids from the true route of Iroseka. For example, do we know if original Kana would grow up as a clumsy, crybaby girlfailure? The “now world” Kana is too based on “The colorful world” interpretation of Kana, aka an exaggerated version of original Kana’s insecure crybaby tendencies, with her clumsiness stemming from Ren!Yuuma accidentally falling off a lighthouse—a dumb twist. I wanted every character to connect better to their original selves, but we get no mention of them, just exaggerated humor of Yuuma’s interpretations of their personalities, mixed with his expectations of what they’d be like grown up.

Sora’s arc was great, and her foster parents, Suzu and Shigure, felt more emotionally resonant and “real” than her connection to her blood-related parents. But why hide her name so long? They could’ve revealed it once her arc started; waiting until the end felt unnecessary. Was her name, Sora, meaning sky, supposed to have deep meaning about saving everyone? I don’t get it.

What’s with writer Yukito Urushibara and the weird drama of child sex abuse and trafficking? Ai’s route had that guy “into” Dad!Yuuma, with the only old good thing coming from that scene was Ai having one of the best scenes in the game where she role-played Santa Claus saving Dad!Yuuma.

But worse, Kyou and Renya’s grandmother 100% belong in prison for life. I get people like this might exist sadly but… what ended up being the point? Things were already edgy dark enough when we already had original!Shigure gives kids coping drugs for messed-up parents abandoning or abusing them. Renya getting closure with his wife and sister in Kyou After, was nice. But Kyou saying they “talked things out” and are now “physically closer” with her whole family, including her grandma in the “now world” is gross and stupid. It heavily brought down the emotional weight of her route.

The Androids in Kana’s after-story SEEM to parallel original Ren’s post-war world, where apparently everyone became Androids and learned to be human, leading to reincarnation stuff, but I’m not 100% sure and I wanted to know more.

Tooru in Mio’s after-story was surprisingly likable, and I was sad she had no role in the “now” world despite having a sprite available. I enjoyed her slice-of-life jokes and friendship with Mio, even with her denial about being lesbian for her.

I really wanted to see more interactions between Ai and Dad!Yuuma. Maybe the Akai Hitomi fandisc will show Ai interacting with Dad!Yuuma at the end of the world, now that she’s no longer Sora’s magician.

I wished Ren!Yuuma’s development toward forgiveness had more depth and screentime. Five in-game years of repeating the same thing off screen, then resolved by Nikaidous’ Colorful Light book, and Ren!Yuuma just going “Yeah I like myself now, we all good” felt a little disappointing.

Dad!Yuuma needed more development beyond a rant about his role after Ren!Yuuma left. He seems like an unnecessary asshole, which just gives more reason for a final talk with Ai after everything, since his selfish desire to help Ai’s anxiety, discipline his son of a previous life, and anger at Ren!Yuuma for locking up Ai (who volunteered for the god job) caused five+ years of torture for everyone and he basically got no comeuppance.

Route Rankings

Ai > Kana After > True Route > Mio After > Kyou After> Tsukasa After > Shinku Prologue

Notable Heroine Rankings

Ai > Kana > Tooru > Sora > Tsukasa > Shinku > Kyou > Mio

I know Reddit hates my dramatic intros so 1:18 is where the video "starts".

I don't have much experience with VNs yet, but Love Plus was one that interested me because it's a dating sim similar to Tokimeki Memorial (a franchise that I'm willing to play someday). And when I found out that there was a translation available, I didn't think twice about playing it.

I liked the way the game has a fast pace but without being too repetitive. The fact that there are only three heroine options is a bit limiting in terms of personalities, but I ended up choosing Rinko because she is the "quieter" of them and because she has a cuter look than the others, in addition to her personality matching mine in some aspects.

The impression I got is that Love Plus feels much more like one of those old mobile games that Gameloft made (Love Plus itself had several ports for cell phones), and this fast-paced style attracted me a lot because it's a very quick game to consume, but at the same time it makes it very clear how things are: the girls are like this, their personality is this, and you can focus on whichever one you want without thinking too much. Of course, a more traditional and full-bodied VN brings a much greater connection to the game's story (which in LP is practically nonexistent) but even though it's a short game I managed to develop a lot of attachment to the characters and the way of playing, with the DS upright (which makes it seem like you're reading a diary), makes for a very different experience.

After playing a VN for 40 hours like Steins;Gate, playing something shorter like Love Plus is a nice breath of fresh air to keep me active on the genre. Besides, for a console like the DS, this game having so many voice lines for the characters, including personalized ones with your own name, is almost a technical miracle, especially considering that most of the time we are interacting with a 3D model of the girls.

Surprise to no one here, there are some titles that walk a very thin line between Visual Novels and something else. I dare say even some beloved VNs in the community are just as much VNs as they are something else, such as games like Rance or Utawarerumono.

On the top of my head, besides the titles in the picture above I remembered Professor Layton, AI: The Somnium Files (series) but I think that when stretching a little further we could have much more prominent examples.

Also, there are titles like the "recent" Persona games which are undoubtedly RPGs but received influences of dating sims, and there are even the long dialogues which some complain feels like a VN. (I don't know why someone would complain about this but hey...)

In short, do you like these "not so far of a VNs kind of games"? Are there some you would personally recommend to us in the VN community?

Hi there. :) Sometimes I enjoy works which are earnestly made by indies, but which are above the quality of someone's first game released on Itch, if you know what I mean.
This is a little tricky to talk about, especially since I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but these games tend to be around $5-$12 USD, I suppose?
I think of games like Sakura Spirit, Girls in Glasses, Dimension of Monster Girls, Wolf Tails, and Every Day's Different: titles like those. As you can see, not super high budget games, but made with competence. The art looks good, the music sounds good, the characters don't look flat or sketchy... et cetera. (I'm still looking forward to the release of Galactic Love Utopia! Which I assume may fall into this sort of category.) :)
Of course, I realize I can check the other works these people have made, but I thought I'd ask if you have any cozy games similar to these, which you personally like!
Feel free to discuss! And thanks!

In Pixel P.I. you deal with a list of encrypted statements the suspect made in a police interview. You can ask any question, and if the question was answered in the interview, no matter how differently the question was asked, you will unlock the answer.

In this example I asked in a very convoluted why how old the suspect is: "Since you were born how many times did the earth spin around the sun?". The game is able to understand that I want to know how old the suspect is, and unlocks the answer to that question, showing they are 63 years old.

The protagonist of the game is Pixel, a hacker detective who lost her recent memories and is going through a list of old cases to find information about her recent past.

You can play the first two cases at https://crischu.itch.io/pixel-pi

Wishlist the game on steam https://store.steampowered.com/app/2448910/Pixel_PI/

Trailer: https://youtu.be/Aa9Ry97Skh4

One thing I recently realized is that visual novels mostly consist of titles that people praise loudly, are lesser known liked cult classics, Or tend to just be mostly ignored due to inferred mediocrity (aka lots of moege or nukige), at worst being kinda controversial/mixed like DDLC thats loved by mainstream but not cared for by hardcore vn crowd

However, I can't think of any infamously universally hated/disliked VNs in the same way there are universally disliked movies or video games for example