Harlequin

Goddamnit, almost forgot about this VN. But it was soooooooooooo great, so emotional, so exhausting. It was so hard to sleep for several days after finishing it, though I only did Hanako's route. Oh and it was the first VN for me, someone who loves reading and who gets emotional real easy... can you imagine what it was like to read Katawa Shoujo with that setup? It was crazy. A turning point for me. I had now experienced some real art that I could appreciate. It just went on from there. These songs I tell you... Memories. Some sweet memories. Thank you.

Saya no Uta (VNDB) Opening (promotion) movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bITbXs1wHVs (Spoilers are all inside the spoiler box down at the bottom.) "TYK#^t3m4T34,Rg4534j&lg45uje@@@" Magnificent and... Wrong - in all the right ways. I think that's a very fair thing to say about this rather short VN. This is one of the most unique *good* experiences I've ever had. It doesn't feel right though to compare it to titles such as Muv-Luv Alternative and Sharin no Kuni, because this VN is just way too different from them and also much shorter. It's in a different league altogether. To start off with, I just want to say that each reading session I had with Saya no Uta was in the complete dark, at night, alone, with headphones on and pretty high volume. Also fullscreen of course. Well... This made a huge difference. Oh yes it did. It felt like being in a different world altogether. I was completely soaked up by the story and everything else the VN presented. If you have not read Saya no Uta before, then I highly recommend reading it with this setup. Believe me, it makes a difference, although the difference will be bigger or smaller depending on the person reading of course. Some are more easily creeped out than others. So! What exactly was so magnificent about this VN then? A lot of things. Visuals/Art - The visuals in this VN are... uh... relentless, disturbing... and correct. Mm, I think that's the right way to put it. What shows up on the screen affects you the way it's supposed to affect you. It disturbed, shocked and sometimes frightened me, which is exactly what it's supposed to do. More than anything, it had almost a claustrophobic effect, although that's not only because of the visuals. The CG art in Saya no Uta is some of the most effective I've seen so far in any VN, so that's quite impressive to say the least. Also, the sprite art feels a bit more realistic than the usual, which of course is appropriate for a VN with a darker tone to it. To sum it up, the visuals and art found in Saya no Uta are pretty damn great. This VN uses the "big transparent grey box in the middle" to show text - also known as NVL. For this title, I'd say it works very well. It makes descriptions of events more effective. But hey, that's just what I think anyway. Sound/VA/Music - Oppressive, creepy and memorable, that's the music in a nutshell. It's almost perfect I gotta say. I often felt cornered by it as it worked hand in hand with the visuals and all the descriptions the VN presents. It made me more wary of my own surroundings. There are some hauntingly beautiful songs aswell in there though that gives you some peace of mind every now and again, which is very much needed. That said, even those songs have something disturbing in them. Here's an example of a "hauntingly beautiful" song: Song of Saya. Now, the voice acting... it was good, although no particular voice stood out more than the rest, other than perhaps Saya. All of the voice actors still did a fine job either way, being able to show some pretty heavy emotions. Also the screaming - well done on that! Characters - Now we're getting somewhere! Insanity, that's one word to describe this part of the VN. These characters? They can be depressingly evil, purely insane, charmingly adorable and some other things. Sounds strange? Good. I've never read anything like this before and the characters are a big reason for that. You will learn to both love and hate humanity with the characters presented in this VN. Very interesting indeed. Saya deserves special mentioning. She is a radiant beauty surrounded by grotesqueness, and that fact alone makes her so... Unique. Yes, unique. I doubt I'll ever see a character like this ever again. My mind has a hard time accepting her very existence. She is really cute - but that's the problem right there. She is one of the main reasons why this whole VN is so different. Everytime you see her, you will immediately pay more attention and generally be more interested in the VN aswell. However, that said... There is one particular individual in Saya no Uta that takes the cake for being one of the most unsettling characters I've ever seen in a VN so far. If you've read it before, then you know exactly who I'm talking about. You will appreciate this character for many different reasons. No, I won't say who it is, not here anyway - it'll go to the spoiler box. Plot/Story - The main dish, as usual. A short and very unique story that captivated me, but not in the way that Fate/stay night did for example, oh no. This is not some exciting fantasy story. No, this story cages you and shows you dark things that you probably thought you'd never see in a VN. It reminds me a little bit of Lovecraftian horror. It's a realistic story in a lot of ways, but it also has that unusual something that will get into your head. Yes, it was an addictive read for me. I wanted to see more and more of it after each reading session. Then again, taking a break was also necessary, for me atleast. Because this story is so evil, dark, suffocating and Wrong (there's that word again). It's wrong, it feels wrong, but it's perfect that way. It's what makes it such a great read. You forget about everything else while reading it, atleast if you do it with the setup I mentioned before - complete darkness, headphones, alone. And the endings? There are three endings altogether, with one of them being the "true" ending. My mouth was open for the most part of that ending. It is absolutely unbelievable - yet somehow, still acceptable. As a result, at the very end of it all, I left the VN with a weird smile on my face. There's a good chance the same thing will happen to you. Screenshots (click the thumbnails) - Final words - So that's that. Is this a highly recommended VN? Why yes it is! Saya no Uta is really good at what it does. It shows the evil insanity of the human mind, but also the love it can hold. It's a very interesting combination to say the least. It ends up being an experience that just doesn't compare to anything else. The whole package (art, music, characters, story) comes together as a highly disturbing and intriguing read that you won't soon forget. But of course, this is assuming that you don't find the contents of this VN too disturbing. You might, or you might not. For me, it was only a good thing - a breath of fresh air. This is far different from the standard VNs that you can find, and it should receive praise for that. A unique and disturbing story - Saya no Uta - Read it. I sincerely hope you don't mind seeing something very dark! Pros: Different, memorable, great atmosphere, entertaining from start to finish, effective CG art, appropriate soundtrack, intriguing characters, well-written and unique overall plot, interesting endings. Cons: Length = short (I would've liked it better if it was longer), might be too disturbing and dark for some. Harlequin gives Saya no Uta a rating of... 9.0/10 (Follows the rating scale on VNDB) Remember, this is only my opinion and experience with this visual novel. Here's the spoiler box with some spoilerish thoughts and impressions I got from reading this VN. Do not touch it if you have not fully read this VN already:

Fate/stay night (VNDB) Opening movie (1): (Spoilers are all inside the spoiler box down at the bottom.) "Rejoice, Emiya Shirou. Your wish will finally come true." Good lord... This was an epic journey. But that's obvious right? It should be. I knew it would take a long time to finish before starting. But really, it was longer than expected. It was atleast as long as the entire Muv-Luv series. Yes, it was quite exhausting to say the least. Exhausting but oh so good. Let's just get this out of the way right now: This is an incredibly entertaining VN. One of the best you can find, no doubt. I was very addicted to reading it. Plain and simple, it had a thrilling and intense story that I just wanted to see more and more of. So, the specifics for the brilliant Fate/stay night then. Visuals/Art - Before starting to read it, I thought that the sprite art would put me off somewhat. It doesn't really look like what I'm used to. But of course, even if it's different from what one is used to, it doesn't mean it can't be good. It definately was good in the end. The CG art on the other hand is more than just good - it's great. Also, one different thing worth mentioning is the way the text presents itself. It appears in the middle in a transparent grey box which more or less covers the entirety of the screen. This is certainly different from most VNs... But it works. I liked it, but I'm not sure for what reason. Does it make it feel more like reading a normal novel? And if so, would that be a good thing? Does it make the text appear more "powerful"? I'm not sure, I just know it works really well. One more thing - the menu system. It looks great, it works well, and there are some parts of it that shows you fun information about certain characters and weapons. Really nice and impressive. Sound/VA/Music - Fantastic all-around. Voice actors did a good job here, to say the least. Very memorable. If I had to comment on some voice in particular then it would have to be the voice of Kotomine Kirei. It's seriously great. Really dark, intelligent and powerful sounding. There's a good chance you'll appreciate it a lot aswell. I guess one more voice worth mentioning would be Rider's. Very appropriate for the character. It's dark, gorgeous and sultry, and you just want to hear more of it. When it comes to music, there's plenty of great songs in there of course. The kind of songs you want to listen to on Youtube even after you're done reading the VN. One song in particular stuck with me for being absolutely perfect in a certain moment of the VN. I won't link it here because it's spoilerish, so it'll go to the spoiler box down at the bottom. Characters - Easily the best part of Fate/stay night for me. I love these characters. There are many of them and they all differ from each other a lot. "Cool" is the right word. They are cool. The weapons, the skills, the personalities, the looks, the voices, I love it all. You'll remember these characters long after you're done with the VN. And yes I do have some favourites, though I'll talk about those in the spoiler box. Yes, it's very easy indeed to have several favourite characters in this VN, because there are just so many good ones in it. The protagonist, Emiya Shirou, is not the best but still good enough. He's got nothing on the likes of Kenichi from Sharin no Kuni. Unfortunate but also expected. Still, that's just a personal opinion really. Some will like him, some will not. His personality and way of doings things are key however to the story itself, so even though he's not the best protagonist you can find, he works well with the story presented in Fate/stay night. And again, I must mention Kotomine Kirei. He's an amazing character overall. You'll think so too after you've read Fate/stay night. Plot/Story - Something epic. Dark, thrilling, mystical, intense, intriguing. There's a ton of entertainment to be had with this plot. I always wanted to see what happens next in it. It was an addictive story that I'm going to miss a lot. There are many twists and turns going on that will make you think and wonder about what will happen next. There are three routes in total. Fate, Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel. Fate serves somewhat as an introduction to what Fate/stay night is about. It does a fine job with it too, but ultimately it could still have been better in general. After Fate you then have Unlimited Blade Works aswell as Heaven's Feel where the story gets to a whole new level of awesome. There's plenty of special moments in all the routes, even Fate, that sticks with you. All three routes together will take you a long time to finish, but you should see that as a good thing really, because this VN is so damn fun to read The tiger dojos deserves an honorable mention also. It was fun to get the large amount of bad endings because of them. They break up the seriousness of the bad endings with something lighthearted so it's easy to keep going afterwards. You will like them, there's no doubt about that. Screenshots (click the thumbnails) - Final words - I had a lot of fun with this, to say the least. It's one of those titles that made me realise just how happy I am to have found and taken a liking to reading visual novels. To a certain extent, Fate/stay night aswell as Muv-Luv Alternative made me also realise how much better and more fun a VN can be than your typical game. The storytelling in this is just so great and entertaining, not to mention all the other "small details", like the brilliant soundtrack and the very memorable characters. So yes, this is one of those must read VNs for someone who can enjoy them in general. However, I will say this again: This is a really long read. So that's something to keep in mind. Still, I'd say that's just a positive in the end. It's a long and entertaining story, well worth all that time. It's easy to understand and as such it shouldn't be missed by anyone at all. Of course, if you happen to like what this VN is about specifically, it might just end up being your #1 favourite VN of all time. That's how good it is. An epic mystical fantasy story - Fate/stay night - Read it. No exceptions whatsoever. If you're into VNs, you WILL read this! Pros: Very long, incredibly entertaining, memorable, a large amount of great characters, fantastic antagonists, nice voice acting, superb soundtrack, great CG art, great overall story with plenty of good twists, enjoyable and well-made action scenes, sweet menu system. Cons: Fate route could've been better (still very good though), there could've been less of those uninteresting "cooking/dinner moments". Harlequin gives Fate/stay night a rating of... 9.5/10 (Follows the rating scale on VNDB) Remember, this is only my opinion and experience with this visual novel. Here's the spoiler box with some spoilerish thoughts and impressions I got from reading this VN. Do not touch it if you have not fully read this VN already:

Indubitably, my good sir. I do declare this to be true! *corrects the monocle*

http://i.imgur.com/ucF5R.gif

Aaaaah, that smooth progress from Ixrec... It's really uplifting to see!

Unfortunately, according to VNDB, no other VNs from Doujin3aries has been translated. As for other VNs that might be similar in style, I can't personally think of any. Atleast not any translated ones.

Hmmmm... It's really hard to pick just one. 1. Tsugumi, from Ever17 2. Irina, from My Girlfriend is the President There's probably better ones out there, but those are the best I've seen myself so far.

Haha no, that's good. Good to hear that from you since you seem to like this sort of stuff. Might play it next.

Dustmania Grotesque ~Kaitai Sounyuu Shinsho~. http://i.imgur.com/V9rlt.gif ... ... ... ... ... ... What just happened? I think I just lost my mind there for a moment. That has to be it. But really, what the heck just happened? My mind is all dizzy and weird, and my stomach aches. This has never happened before, honestly. Disgusting things just doesn't affect me like that, ever. Usually I just end up laughing about it, because it's ridiculous. But I didn't do that with this VN. No, I sat and read in disbelief with a half open mouth and furrowed brows. I gotta give it props for that. This is some weird, disgusting stuff alright. Complete insanity. There is no room for reason here, no sir. Throw that reasoning of yours outside the window and delight in the utter madness. There's no need to adress specifics here. The VN is just too short in general to write much about. However, the characters are worth mentioning something about I guess: Ako deserves some credit for being funny in all this insanity, aswell as Kanae to a certain degree. The two of them are actually pretty cool. Oh and let's not forget that peculiarity that "connects" them, yes... No comment. The mad doctor is, well, crazy and disgusting - that's pretty much all there is to him. He has some sort of backstory, but it's not something you'd care about even though it's relevant. I forgot the name of his new toy, so there's no need to even mention her, though she's supposedly the protagonist. And that's it. Is is worth reading? It is if you want to see something disgusting and weird for 1-2 hours. Maybe you do, maybe you don't. Thought it was impossible to write about this? Hah, no way, but there's really not that much to say about it though. It's a guro-filled little VN. http://i.imgur.com/Wx8Wv.png

^7/10, it's nice, though I personally don't know the character. Also thinking the previous one was better, hehe.

Yes, totally agree with you there. It's a really interesting situation overall. You get so many mixed emotions while reading it, especially near the end of course.

Saya no Uta. Holy moley... Spoilers are all in the spoiler box down below, because no one wants spoilers. Long text because Saya no Uta was so damn different. Magnificent and... Wrong - in all the right ways. I think that's a very fair thing to say about this rather short VN. This is one of the most unique *good* experiences I've ever had. It doesn't feel right though to compare it to titles such as Muv-Luv Alternative and Sharin no Kuni, because this VN is just too different from them and also much shorter. It's in a different league altogether. To start of with, I just want to say that each reading session I had with Saya no Uta was in the complete dark, at night, alone, with headphones on and pretty high volume. Also fullscreen of course. Well... This made a huge difference. Oh yes it did. It felt like being in a different world altogether. I was completely soaked up by the story and everything else the VN presented. If you have not read Saya before, then I highly recommend reading it with this setup. Believe me, it makes a difference, altough the difference will be bigger or smaller depending on the person reading. So! What exactly was so magnificent about this VN then? Alot of things. Visuals/Art - The visuals in this VN are... uh... relentless, disturbing... and correct. Mm, I think that's the right way to put it. Now, I can't talk too much about it without spoiling things that just shouldn't be spoiled. But I can say atleast that what shows up on the screen affects you the way it's supposed to affect you. It disturbed, shocked and sometimes frightened me, which is exactly what it's supposed to do. More than anything, it had almost a claustrophobic effect on me, although that's not only because of the visuals. Oh and the big transparent grey box is back! The one found in "NVL's" apparently. Well I think it fits perfectly with a VN like this. Sound/VA/Music - Oppressive, creepy and memorable, that's the music in a nutshell. It's almost perfect I gotta say. I often felt cornered by it - oppressed - as it worked hand in hand with the visuals and all the descriptions the VN presents. It toyed with my mind. There were some hauntingly beautiful songs aswell though that gave way for some peace of mind every now and then. The voice acting was alright. They did a job showing some heavy emotions every now and then. Also the screaming, let's not forget about that. But no individual voice were particularly memorable in this. Characters - Now we're getting somewhere! Insanity, that's one word to describe this part of the VN. These characters? They can be depressingly evil, purely insane, charmingly adorable and some other things. Sounds strange? Good. I've never read anything like this before and the characters are a big reason for that. Saya (the character) deserves special mentioning. She is a radiant beauty surrounded by grotesqueness, and that fact alone makes her so... Unique. Yes, unique. I doubt I'll ever see a character like this ever again. My mind has a hard time accepting her very existence. She is really cute - but that's the problem right there. She is one of the main reasons why this whole VN is unique aswell as disturbing. However, that said... There is one particular individual in Saya no Uta that takes the cake for being one of the most disturbing characters I've ever seen in a VN so far. If you've read this VN before, then you know exactly who I'm talking about. No, I won't say who it is, not here anyway. Plot/Story - The main dish, as usual. It captivated me, but not in the way that Fate/stay night did for example, oh no. This is not some exciting fantasy story. No, this story cages you and shows you dark things that you probably thought you'd never see in a VN. It reminds me alittle bit of Lovecraftian horror. It's a realistic story in a lot of ways, but it also has that unusual something that will get into your head. Yes, it was addictive. Very much so. I wanted to keep reading more on each session. Then again, taking a break was also necessary for me atleast. Because this story is so evil, suffocating and Wrong (there's that word again). It's wrong, it feels wrong, but it's perfect that way. It's what makes it such a great read. And the endings? There are three endings altogether, with one of them being the "true" ending. My mouth was open for the most part of that true ending. It is absolutely unbelievable... yet somehow, still acceptable. As a result, at the very end of it all, I left the VN with a weird smile on my face. So that's that. Is this yet ANOTHER must-read VN? Why yes it is! Saya no Uta is so goddamn good at what it does. It shows the evil insanity of the human mind, but also the love it can hold. It's a disturbing combination. It ends up being an experience that just doesn't compare to anything else. Wow, what a great friggin' VN this is.

... I don't get it. At all. Because that's what I just played myself. The same exact game uploaded here, with that Hybridweiss.

So you downloaded the game from Eroge Download recently, correct? If you downloaded the game a long time ago, that version you've got might be something too old. So get it again from here just in case. When you know you've got the Edelweiss that is uploaded on this site right now, then get this Hybridweiss - Hybridweiss_rel_A.7z It's the one I used before. And I just tried "installing" and playing the game again with the above combination. It works and yes, it's the updated MangaGamer version. If the above doesn't work for you then I guess there must be something wrong with your settings/drivers/hardware.

Beautiful.

The moment I heard her voice in Muv Luv for the first time, I knew, this was gonna be a good day... week... month... year... lifetime and beyond. I said to her; Please, Goddess, Save me from these terrible childhood friend characters, Give me one that is good. To which she replied; Your wish has been granted. Doriru Miruki Panchu. And I flew, with my heart filled with newfound hope and joy.

http://i.imgur.com/Nf67h.png

Good choice for revival, battler. (this thread) Here's mine: A plain and boring story with nothing special to it. If it makes you sleepy, then you know something is up. The pacing could be wrong, or it's just uninteresting in general. It needs to have something good to it. But hey, we all read VNs/eroges for different reasons. I read it for the storytelling primarily, so this is obviously the biggest problem for me.

So here's a viewpoint coming from me, a VN noob (and pirate), meaning it's probably silly in the end since I don't really have much experience or knowledge about these things in general. ... I'm not too fussed about all of this since good titles are still being translated by people such as Aroduc (just one example). He does fantastic things with some of these VNs with gameplay in them, right? In other words, it just doesn't matter to me if these two companies release nukiges for the most part or not. Now, I'm guessing the two of them can give out higher quality releases sometimes. Like Ef from MG. It has uncensored CGs for example, right? Still, for me, that's no big deal. It's a plus, sure, but it's not going to make me want to wait for their release before reading the already translated version, if there is one. As long as the actual text translation is complete and good enough, that's all I care about. But yes that's going to differ from person to person. Some might prefer waiting if a more polished version is incoming. And yes, of course it would still be nice if they did handle more bigger titles instead of these "easy cash" nukiges. Yes. But that has never truly entered my mind as something important since I see translations coming from elsewhere anyway. Could be I'm just stupid and missing the point. But also, I pirate these things, so there's even less reason for me to care about what MG/Jast decides to do because of that. Yea sorry, I know, this might be alittle bit offtopic. I was really just wondering why I didn't have anything good to add to this, or why I haven't given it much thought before myself. Well that's the reason.

Oooo you oughta get on with that Ever17 right away I'd say. It can be emotional, but it's certainly not utsuge atleast. A grand mystery story, yes, that it is. You'd love it if you're into mystery. Well... as long as you try it at some point anyway.

Honestly, Sumika's voice actress is something else. Before I knew she voiced Natsumi in Sharin, I thought Natsumi had a great voice... One of the reasons why the character was my favourite while reading main Sharin. Well, turns out that wasn't so strange after all, huh. Seeing her in more VNs being translated is a wonderful thing, so... Blessed be the Goddess!

F-f-freeeeeak!? Why!... Well... yes...