Starry Sky ~In Spring~ Review

Starry Sky is the story of the only girl at Seigatsu Gakuen, a school that specializes in celestial topics such as astronomy, horoscopes, and other topics related to these fields. Since the schools inception, Seigatsu Gakuen was an all boys school, but recently they've opened the school to girls as well...Thus, our heroine joins the school's astronomy section with her two childhood friends, Kanata and Suzuya. This is how she becomes the first, and only, girl of the school. 

As she enjoys peaceful, fun days with her two childhood friends at school, her class gets a transfer student, and little does the trio know at the time, but his appearance ushers in a change for the group. The half French-Japanese transfer student is none other than Yoh, a boy the protagonist knew from childhood. While his transferring to her class was pure coincidence, he instantly favors protag-chan and makes it no secret he is utterly infatuated with her. At first, Yoh is cold towards Kanata and Suzuya, but slowly he begins to become part of the group, and in the process inadvertently begins to change the relationship between protag-chan, Suzuya, and Kanata. Yes, sadly, their days of peaceful friendship are changing with Yoh's appearance and feelings long felt begin to bubble to the surface.

The Starry Sky series features main characters based off of the astrological signs.  In Spring features Pisces (Kanata), Capricorn (Yoh), and Cancer (Suzuya).

Visual Novels on Steam

Recently, Visual Novels have begun to gain traction on one of the biggest game portals around these days; Steam. With the release of Steam's Greenlight, Visual Novels have finally been given a chance to get on the platform and gain more exposure for this niche game genre. Me and a  friend of mine have discussed a possible Co-Op piece on a particular great, and surprisingly well unknown, recent feature of Steam that I feel that combined with the recent VN releases, and future ones, on Steam will really help spread and expand this genre further. In preparation for the piece, I have done some research and compiled a list, with links, of Visual Novels that are currently on Steam, Greenlit, and currently up for vote on Greenlight. This list is sorted by developer name alphabetically. Please note that a vast majority of VN titles on/trying to get on Steam are Indie titles at the moment, and so quality varies. This list will be updated monthly unless no new VNs show up on Steam during that time.

1/16/14 - Added 3 new VNs recently submitted to Greenlight.

1/18/14 - Loren The Amazon Princess now on sale!

1/21/14 - World End Economica Ep. 1 has been greenlit!

1/25/14 - Cinders added to Greenlight.

1/27/14 - Dandelion added to Greenlight and Princess Battles removed from Greenlight.

2/5/14 - Sunrider greenlit and Fading Hearts now on sale.

2/19/14 Cinders greenlit and Koenchu added to greenlight

3/15/14: Backstage Pass & HuniePop Greenlit, Roommates & Swords of Edo added to Greenlight.

Sweet Fuse ~At Your Side~ Review

18 year old Saki Inafune is excited to be attending the opening of her uncle's, legendary game developer Keiji Inafune, new theme park, the Gameatorium, where everything is video game themed. As she settles down at the opening ceremony listening to her uncle's opening speech, he is suddenly interrupted by a strange voice and the image of a pig taking over all the screens over the park. 

Calling himself Count Hogstein, the pig begins a speech of his own, claiming that he will be taking over control of the park with the plans to destroy it. During Count Hogsteins speech, several people in "piglet" costumes ascend to the podium, tying up all of the park management. Inafune, along with several others in the crowd, believe that it is some sort of ruse or show until Hogstein blows up the ferris wheel, demonstrating that Hogstein's plans are very, very real. 

The Count then explains to the panicking crowd that he will select seven people out of the crowd to venture in the park to play a "Game" where the contestants will go through trials in each of the attractions in the park, one attraction a day for seven days, with their lives and the lives of his hostages, the parks management, on the line. Inafune, worried for her uncle, proceeds to volunteer to be one of the seven contestants in hopes of saving her uncle. Thus, Inafune is inexplicably thrown into a game of life or death with six strangers.

Note: Screenshots were taken in 2x resolution in an emulator, so the "actual" images are somewhat blurry, but its not that bad.  Thumbnails are just slightly smaller than native resolution. I just have an odd peeve with small resolutions and I couldn't bring myself to snapshot such...small images.

My issue with "Free-To-Play"

Today I would like to rant about the Free-To-Play model which is becoming more and more prevalent in gaming and visual novel mobile market. For those less...informed, Free-To-Play is a gaming model where the game is essentially free (Meaning you CAN play the whole game without spending a dime). Free-To-Play (Which shall from this point on be simply acronymed "FTP") was rarely seen a few years back, but since the popularity and success of FTP games on platforms such as Facebook (Where the first major "outbreak" of FTP games spawned; I'm talking about games like the well known Farmville), they have become more and more common on both the PC and mobile market, with the PC market mainly seeing online FTP MMOs and online games.

Now, I'm not talking about actual FREE games, like the ones you used to come across on Newgrounds or any other run of the mill flash game websites; There is a major difference between actual free games and FTP games.  Sadly, many casual players, who dominate the mobile market, do not know the one giant difference that separates the two and is cause for these kinds of games to be coined FTP instead of just free (Even though they often get marketed as "free"). These games work off of micro-transactions for "optional" items, but in the past few years, these "optional" micro-transactions have become less and less "optional". This, ladies and gentlemen, is the heart of my rant.

What's happening with Yumina Walkthrough + More

I'm sure some of you are wondering what's going on with my Yumina walkthrough, as I haven't updated it in over a month and haven't responded to comments lately. I still plan on working on and expanding the walkthrough, but I have not progressed past chapter 4 or gone back to try alternate routes since my last update. Real life has been a major part of it for me due to personal issues and having to take over some extra duties at work due to one of the other supervisors quitting and the fact we're gearing up for the holiday season. More than likely this is going to continue to persist through the holidays since we're going to start having to have more supervisors on one shift due to the increase in sales and front-end associates. Coupled with schoolwork and household obligations, my free time is pretty limited, and as of right now I don't have the time or mood to dungeon grind to finish up Yumina. I'm still playing story VNs for reviews right now though since it's a lot easier to spend 15 minutes on a story/light gameplay VN than it is a more hardcore gameplay VN like Yumina.

Because of this, for now my walkthrough is just going to cover events to get the chapter end h-scenes and not necessarily for character routes. One frequent comment I've noticed on the walkthrough is not getting on a specific characters route. I had mentioned before the walkthrough that this was primarily for the h-scenes, but I will say it again for clarification; this walkthrough is not for character routes, just for the chapter scenes. Following my main walkthrough will get you onto Ai's route, not any of the other girls. For those, you'll have to sacrifice the end of chapter scenes for the route you want, as I have yet to find a way to do Kirara and Yumina's events while getting Ayumu's skills.  The alternate routes listed for each chapter are your better chance for their character routes. I will eventually expand the walkthrough for exact route specifics and CGs, but for now, this is how it's going to stay until I have the time and mindset to finish up Yumina. 

I want to say thank you to everyone who has helped out people with questions in the walkthrough comments about the game. I sincerely appreciate it since I can tell this game is a bit frustrating and I haven't had the time to get through the game or help commenters. 

I have also been working on another VN related project that I feel like pouring my time into. I can actually take the materials with me to work or when I'm out of the house on errands, so I've had a bit of time to put to it while in waiting rooms and on breaks and lunch. As of right now, this project is going to stay a secret except from one other person I've contacted to help me with it as of right now.  Once I make more leeway on progress on it, I'll publicly announce the project, but for now my lips are sealed on the matter. I've poured enough time into it so far already though that I do plan on finishing it. With my tight schedule, I'm hoping to maybe have enough put into it to announce the project by years end or early next year. 

Yumina, tissues, and prices.

So my Yumina The Ethereal physical copy finally came in the mail. Along with it, JAST sent some goodies; A catalog (The Saya No Uta image), a If My Heart Had Wings booklet, some funky anime glasses or some crap thats freakily 4 shades lighter than me (And I'm white as hell), annnnd....A packet of tissues. (The JLIST thing) The tissues look soft as a mofo too.  This is my first physical copy purchase from Jast (I usually buy digital) and like, do they send tissues with every copy? Lol "Thanks for buying from JAST USA!  To say thanks, heres some complimentary tissues for those...sticky situations!"

I pulled out the tissue packet from the mail packaging and I think I laughed for like 5 minutes straight. I don't know.  Maybe it's because of the assumption (and usually right on the money) that if you're buying an eroge, you're probably a guy with intentions to spend some quality time with it and your hand mixed with the fact that uh...my "equipment" doesn't require tissues, but I found this funny as hell.  At least I'll have something to blow my nose with during tear jerking scenes! (Why did I not have you packet when I played Saya No Uta D=)

The catalog included pricing for JAST games planned and in the pipeline along with the tentative cover art, but don't have webpages yet, as well as a STEINS;GATE poster.  See full post for a pic of the poster (It's pretty awesome!) and the pricing with the cover art if you're curious. (I scanned in the catalog page to get the cover art)

Yumina The Ethereal Walkthrough (Work in Progress)

I'll be putting together this walkthrough as I go along the game.  I'm making this public before I finish the game since I've heard that quite a few people (myself included) have been having some issues with getting the optional h-scenes at the end of each chapter. A member on the MG forums stated that to get the optional h-scenes, you need to do a chain of events in each chapter to get a special skill for Ayumu, which unlocks the optional scenes after the chapters debate battle. Another member ended up linking to a Japanese walkthrough for me, and it's pretty understandable. (Thanks Dark_Shiki and RusAnon!) I'm going to be translating the walkthrough as I go along so I can verify I understood the sequences right.

Japanese Walkthrough: http://omoteura2.com/yumina/

Even if you're not interested in the optional h-scenes (Even if you unlock them, you are not forced to watch them), Ayumu's chapter skills tend to be very powerful against the chapter's bosses, so they're very handy to unlock. Theres a bunch of additional supplemental information, but for now I'm just going to translate and post the event sequences to get Ayumu's special chapter skills for the optional scenes.

9/05/13: Added chapter 3 walkthrough, along with an alternate route.

9/06/13: Added chapter 4 walkthrough, along with an alternate route. Notes and testing skill carry over soon.

10/14/13: Added some information given by a commenter on how to use this walkthrough to get a specific girls route. Theres also info on my latest blog post about the future of this walkthrough.

WTF

So I decided to give the new Debonosu game trial a go and joy....ITH is apparently not working annnd I'm having this issue with the game, even with everything closed. Never had this problem before. -_-

I feel like I've walked into a visual novel where they speak a strange, alien language that I have not ascertained. And yes, my locale is set to Japanese and it IS installed on my pc.

Dysfunctional Systems Episode 1 Review

14 year old Winter Harrison is a student mediator from an advanced utopian world that has achieved the ability to travel to different worlds. Mediators are sent to these distant, chaotic worlds to help resolve conflicts, while keeping their true identities a secret, that threaten to unhinge the balance between chaos and order.

Winter is sent to the country of Brighton on the planet Sule to shadow a full fledged mediator named Cyrus for her second mediation. In Brighton low wages, hunger, death, suffering, and poverty are common place as people struggle just to survive. As Winter struggles to grasp and understand these concepts, her and her mentor Cyrus stumble upon a conflict greater than they ever anticipated that threatens to change the world of Sule.

Juniper's Knot Review

One autumn morning a young boy lost in a silent, abandoned town stumbles across a female demon, or fiend, sitting alone by a fire. Through this accidental encounter, both the boy and demon's life are drastically changed forever.  This is a story of dual perspectives; Of the boy and the demon.

Juniper's Knot is a free, short kinetic novel by Dischan. Due to having only one ending and no choices, I will refer to it as a novel in my review. 

Castle Fantasia 2 ~Sacred War~ Renewal

On the continent of Synapus, a 200 year long war has been waged between two factions, those in power, the Injellans, and those trying to break from the system, the Rushierans. Our story follows Hewie, a newcomer fighting for the Injella empire and church. After a training battle with his friend and mentor Ducis, Hewie is called to the High Priests chambers along with several of his fellow comrades and friends. The High Priest tells them that it is time for the war and suffering to end, and for them to end the rebellion and destroy the "evil" Rushierans. His intention is to create a new army composed of seven "Holy Knight Corps" that will be the core of their force and handpicked by him personally.  Hewie is given the title of Seventh Holy Knight and two subordinates and Hewie, rather un-enthusiastically, accepts. Shortly after, the Holy Knights Corps are instructed to take back the Rusherian fortress of Borborade, which is key to breaking into Rushieran territory and ending the war. 

Castle Fantasia 2 Renewal is a remake/upgraded version of Castle Fantasia 2. In Renewal, most game CG's were redone/redrawn in a higher resolution, 800x600 (The rest scrapped), voice acting for all characters and text was put in, one omake ending was removed, and additional endings were added along with an extended common route for these endings.  The original had only voiced h-scenes, 640x480 256 color resolution, and a yaoi omake ending, but it did have more CGs than Renewal.

Yumina The Ethereal Debate Fight Video

I recorded the first debate fight in Yumina The Ethereal for those curious how debate fights are in the game.



I gotta say it was pretty fun, and I'm curious if this is how dungeon fights are going to work as well. Sadly, the demo is said to not have any dungeon crawling portions in it.

 There is also a video of the event before the fight that explains how debates work in Yumina's world with the combat tutorial at the end uploaded onto my youtube channel for those curious.

Too many depressing VNs

So I think my next VN is going to be something with fuzzy good feels and happy endings. My last 4 VNs have all had terribly bittersweet endings and/or death and mayhem all over. I like those kind of stories, but I don't think my heart can take that for a 5th time in a row. D=

Any recommendations on a good diabetes-inducing sweet VN? Can even be something from my backlog since I'm not too sure on which ones are like that...I WANT TO BE CHEERING AT MY SCREEN AT THE END! Not weeping in a corner.

Dengeki Stryker Review

Young Yuuki Yamato dreams of becoming a hero someday to protect the ones he loves. Modeling himself after his favorite superhero, Stryker Zero from the manga Dengeki Stryker, Yamato tries his hardest to protect his best friend Hongou Haruna from constant bullying. After yet another failed attempt at saving Haruna from bullies, she tells Yamato that she is moving away. Shortly after, an old man by the name "Memory Collector" appears before Yamato and offers to grant one wish for Yamato in exchange for a memory. Yamato tells the Memory Collector that he wishes to become his favorite superhero from Dengeki Stryker; Stryker Zero. The Memory Collector grants Yamato's wish, taking away a portion of his memories as payment. Years later, Yamato moves to the city to attend school, where he meets Haruna once again.  At the same time, cyborgs from a place called the Balbora Empire appear and attack the city.

Dandelion ~Wishes Brought To You~ Review

Heejung Kim seems like an ordinary 21 year old college student; She attends classes, is part of a school club and cram school, and works on the side, but Heejung's ordinary seeming life is merely a mask hiding a sad past, an empty present, and an unknown future. While going through the daily grind of her senior year in college, Heejung wakes up one morning to find five animals, two cats and three rabbits, in a basket next to her bed. Unaware of how these animals came to appear in her apartment, these animals are more than they appear to be and change Heejung's life drastically and threaten to make Heejung confront the demons from her past and the sadness she hides from the rest of the world. Unbeknown to Heejung, she has caught the eye and attention of a certain powerful Wizard...

Let the Game begin.

Dandelion -Jiyeon Route Review-

Ok, so I had to do a route review for Jiyeon, simply because this route makes me want to rant to high heaven. Jiyeon is one of the two cats in the group, the orange cat, and is the "goofy, happy go lucky" character out of the bunch. His route was honestly one of the routes I thought I'd enjoy the most, since I tend to like the goofball guys, but by the middle of his route I found myself cursing at him and the MC and wanting to smash my head against my desk with how much I started to hate his character. This review may contain spoilers, so read on at your own caution (Review contains spoilers, possibly major on his personality, about his storyline. Major spoilers, like his character ending and "tragic past" will be at the end, marked as major spoilers, for those who want to know)

Saya No Uta (Song of Saya) Review

Saya No Uta (Song of Saya) follows a medical student by the name of Fuminori.  Shortly before the start/events of the game, Fuminori is in a tragic car accident where his family is killed and puts him into critical condition. He undergoes a experimental procedure that saves his life, but causes his perceptions of the world to change drastically. Fuminori wakes up to a world that is covered in gore-ridden, rotting flesh and where people are giant rancid smelling flesh monsters whose speech is alien and sounds like nails on a chalkboard; The world that he knew is gone, and his friends have warped into creatures whose very sight disgusts Fuminori to no end.

VN List

Here is a list of VN's I've completed, am working on, and want to get.

Last updated 02/07/15

Completed:
Always Remember Me - 69%

Castle Fantasia 2 ~Sacred War~ Renewal - 74%

Dandelion ~Wishes Brought To You~ - 80%
Deardrops - 85%

Dengeki Stryker - 82%

Dysfunctional Systems Episode 1 - 90%
Eden* PLUS + MOSIAC  - 83%
Fault ~Milestone One~ - 76%

Hakuoki ~Demon of the Fleeting Blossom~ - 93%
Jisei - 66%

Juniper's Knot -97%
Kansai - 70%

Kara No Shoujo - 90%

Love & Order - 55%

Re: Alistair - 74%

Saya No Uta - 95%
Shall We Date? ~Hero In Love~ - 70%

Starry Sky ~ In Spring ~ - 40%

Sweet Fuse: At Your Side - 94%

Togainu no Chi - 80%

Currently Working On:

Brave Soul - 0 routes completed, currently on Alicias route. Stalled.
Dragons Raid 2: At the first dungeon. Stalled

DRAMAtical Murder - Still in prologue (I believe). Stalled

Forbidden Love: 0/3 routes completed.  Currently on chapter 25 of "First" story. Dropped.

Girlish Love Revolution!: 0/9 routes finished.  So far I've only managed to get the good "solo" end, trying for Ryutaro's route. Stalled

Hitogata Ruins: On first playthrough, going for Seika first. Stalled

Kamidori Alchemy Meister: 0/3 routes finished, currently on Yuela's route. Stalled.

Katawa Shoujo: Still on common/main route. Dropped

Koihime Musou: 0/4 routes completed.  Still pretty early in the common route, going for Kan'u route first. Stalled

Long Live The Queen: Got Coronation (good) ending, working on completing checklist and getting all the "bad" ends. Might review before I get every bad end, but I currently have 3 reviews to finish. Stalled
Men at Work 2- Lucy's route finished. Game is stalled/dropped due to losing my game data from motherboard replacement on my tablet; No game data was backed up onto my PC. Stalled/dropped

Mononoke Kiss - 1/3 routes. Finished Hajimes. Stalled

My Forged Wedding: 1/6 routes completed.  I've only done Ren's route, unsure if I will purchase other character routes since they're pretty pricey for the length. Dropped
Nameless ~ The One Thing You Must Recall~ - 3/6 routes finished. Done with Lance, Yeonho, and Yuris route, currently working on Tei's. 
Nekopara: About 1-2 hours in.

Shall we Date? Destiny Ninja: 3/9 finished, currently working on Hyuga, Kazemasa and Miyuzi simultaneously. Dropped

Shall we Date? Ninja Love:  2/3 starter routes finished, Sasuke to go.  May or may not buy the 2 additional character/route packs. (Packs add 5 more routes, for a total of 8 routes). Stalled/dropped.
Shan Gui: Hourish in.

Shira Oka ~ Second Chances~ : 1/10 routes completed.  I've only finished Alices and I've put this VN on indefinite backburner since I have more interesting VNs to finish atm.  Dropped.
Steins;Gate : 5/6 routes completed. True ending/route left. Stalled

Yumina The Ethereal - Chapter 4 of first playthrough, going for Ai first. Stalled.