Community The Visual Novel Council | All Choices Lead To Here

Myradeer

Rayon de Soleil
Apr 17, 2019
320
498
63
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.
 
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AHA-Lambda

MetaMember
Oct 9, 2018
2,811
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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

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
878
1,313
93
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:

 
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Myradeer

Rayon de Soleil
Apr 17, 2019
320
498
63
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).
 
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Ascheroth

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,119
11,978
113
Cho Dengeki Stryker is pretty fun so far, just finished Chapter 3.
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?
 
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Exzyleph

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
878
1,313
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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.

 
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ExistentialThought

Coffee Lover ♥☕
Feb 29, 2020
1,560
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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.

 
Reason: Missed info
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skLaFarebear

MetaMember
Dec 4, 2019
653
1,230
93
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

Dark Eroge Lord
Oct 9, 2018
878
1,313
93
NekoNyan did another status update (change since last time in parentheses):
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):
 
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Snakethesniper

Time Traveler
Jan 11, 2019
923
1,669
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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

MetaMember
Dec 4, 2019
653
1,230
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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.
 

ExistentialThought

Coffee Lover ♥☕
Feb 29, 2020
1,560
4,834
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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.
 
Shift-JIS Unzip Tools

EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
7,276
12,381
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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.
 
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Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
4,149
10,267
113
Downunder.
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.
 
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ExistentialThought

Coffee Lover ♥☕
Feb 29, 2020
1,560
4,834
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Wow just finished YOU and ME and HER. Wow. Amazing stuff.

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.
 

skLaFarebear

MetaMember
Dec 4, 2019
653
1,230
93
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.
 

skLaFarebear

MetaMember
Dec 4, 2019
653
1,230
93
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.
 
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Ascheroth

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,119
11,978
113
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

Coffee Lover ♥☕
Feb 29, 2020
1,560
4,834
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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.
 
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ExistentialThought

Coffee Lover ♥☕
Feb 29, 2020
1,560
4,834
113

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

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
7,276
12,381
113
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.
 
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skLaFarebear

MetaMember
Dec 4, 2019
653
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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.
 

Snakethesniper

Time Traveler
Jan 11, 2019
923
1,669
93
What does Baldr Sky on steam exactly contains?
I see on VNDBs there are several and none is the version on steam?
 

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
4,149
10,267
113
Downunder.
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.


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

 

EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
7,276
12,381
113
I ended up buying Sekimeiya on itch as i've been digging about in there more frequently than i used to.


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

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
7,276
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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

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.
 

sprinkles

Junior Member
Dec 8, 2018
613
1,173
93
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

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
7,276
12,381
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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

MetaMember
Dec 4, 2019
653
1,230
93
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.
 
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