Harlequin

Awesome, great, gonna do the same and upvote all the VNs. People should experience these stories. Although yes *most* of the best games have adult content and won't find their way to Steam. Now that's just unfortunate, but there's still some VNs that don't have that kind of stuff. I haven't played Higurashi When They Cry, but it's supposed to be really good, right? So it's a great step in the right direction. Assuming it actually gets accepted, that is. Now, imagine MangaGamer taking on the Muv-Luv games, specifically the all-age versions... and eventually those games being available on Steam... Of course, one has to enjoy reading alot of text in order to enjoy VNs, for the most part anyway. I'm gonna guess that the majority of gamers couldn't even imagine themselves trying to read a VN. Which is a shame, because if they actually tried it, they might just end up loving it. From what I've seen, Katawa Shoujo has managed to "convert" plenty of gamers. Yes, really, that game is a pretty big deal for that reason I'd say. Then there's also plenty of gamers who have played and love stuff like Phoenix Wright and 999. They might not even realize that those games are actually VNs and that there are other such games out there for them to play/read. Well... all this is just me guessing for the most part. I'm not an expert on this stuff or whatever. But I do KNOW that Katawa Shoujo converted plenty of gamers. If you frequented the forums early on when the game was released, then you know that. So, having good VNs come out on Steam could end up being something sweet. I for one would love to see more and more people enjoy this. Some of this writing is so good you know, it deserves more attention.

I sat with it for two days, completely glued to the story. IT HAD A MYSTERY Y'SEE, GOTTA SOLVE THE MYSTERY. Well actually, that night between those two days, I had trouble sleeping. But not just because of the mystery and my mind wandering around it, oooooh no. It was also the feeling of horror. The game actually scared me that night, making me abit paranoid. It likes to tease you with hints of what's actually happening, aswell as going into extreme detail with the blood and gore. Oh and let's not forget the haunting music. These kinds of stories are great. They're a joy for the mind.

Agreed that Yuuichi was more or less the only good part about Wanko to Kurasou. Hated that game overall. Another remarkable protagonist would be RANCE of course! He's one of a kind. Huge bastard, but in a funny and good way. I didn't think I would end up liking him or the games he's in, but there's just something awesome about him.

It's good isn't it? Sharin, that is. I'm playing it right now myself, on chapter 4. It feels similar to G-senjou in a lot of ways. Evil characters with superhuman intellect, dark moments full of despair and sadness, an intelligent main character with a messed up childhood, the fragility of the human mind and body being exposed. It's great writing, truly. There's a lot of great moments in it, and I care the absolute most about those memorable moments.

Is that how it works? Oh well that's just fine too, actually I'm curious then if there are any references to E17 in these other games. If they are in the same universe atleast, you'd think so. I mean, that universe is quite mysterious. You don't learn too much about it in E17, so the prospect of learning more is always nice.

Oooooooo that's so sweet, looks like a great title. "Same setting: Ever17 -the out of infinity-" HUH!? HUH!?

Well we can hope that it will have a tasty mystery in it atleast, can't we! Something mindblowing that makes you go "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT", preferably.

You're right, but it could be felt as a continuation of the characters atleast. Well you know what I mean anyway. You just want to see the characters more. And it's a shame some of the Alternative characters aren't present in Extra, 'cause otherwise that would probably good enough for me atleast... Ooooooh weeell... DAMNIT. Why did it have to end. It's both a curse and a blessing to get attached to a fictional story and its fictional characters. Horrible. I'm sad.

Muv-Luv Alternative, 15 minutes ago. Beware of potential spoilers. What a journey. Incredible. So sad that it had to end eventually. Atleast it ended in an extremely happy and satisfying way. As a sidenote, it's a real shame that MLA Fable hasn't been translated, 'cause I'd love to read that. Who wouldn't after reading Alternative, right? An epic tale of camaraderie, romance and warfare. And science! And extreme sadness! Who the hell would realize all of this would happen while reading Extra? I sure had no idea back then, and it wasn't even that long ago. It feels like it's been ages though. That's probably because of the vast amount of things that happen between Extra and the end of Alternative. You know, it seems pointless to go into detail about the art, sound, etc. All of it was perfect, that's pretty much the only thing that needs to be said. The ending was so fucking good. Or rather, the entire last operation was good. Wow... I don't know what else to say. What else is there? ... Actually there is something. After experiencing all the pain and despair that was present in Alternative, it somehow makes me wanna play Extra again. Why? Because it could be seen as a sort of "reward" for completing Alternative, since everything in Extra is so happy and peaceful. It's very relaxing, while Alternative is anything but relaxing. Of course, reading MLA Fable would be even better, buuut unfortunately that hasn't been translated. Ugh, time to face the sadness of finishing a good VN yet again.

The scene where she ends up stripping infront of the MC (can't remember his name)? Mm, that was a powerful one. Ah, such nice writing in that game. And I agree with you OP. On a more general note, you can get some beautiful moments when a character eventually opens up and lets their emotions out. It can be anger or pure happiness aswell, not just sadness. But it does depend much on the voice actor in these cases, yes. A character breaking down completely in sadness though... is probably the most powerful. A feeling of hopelessness, or the urge to comfort and "protect" the character, as you say, might happen. Mm, moments like these are memorable because they really reach you.

Then unfortunately I must be living under a rock, hehe. I have not played Fate Stay/Night. Not because of no interest mind you, but you know how it is... Time, that's the only issue, if you want to call it an issue. I'll believe you if you say that it's fantastic, definately. Perhaps after Muv-Luv Alternative then, if it's actually more important to play that game instead of any others. That's a good list by the way, very handy to know all of those games have complex stories, so thank you for that. I've played the following of them already: - Hoshizora no Memoria -Wish upon a Shooting Star- - Ever 17: The Out of Infinity - G-Senjou no Maou I started reading visual novels about 6 months ago and it's all thanks to Katawa Shoujo. If it wasn't for that game, I'd never end up here, even though anime and japanese culture in general has always interested me. I've just never delved into it before for some inexplicable reason, but thanks to KS, it happened. Really grateful for that.

You're very welcome. Well, what to say really... If you play this series and if you can appreciate a complex, emotional and intelligent story, then I'm confident that you will think that it's the best VN series you've ever read in your whole life so far. How about that. And that's not an exaggeration, no one on this site could possibly say that that is an exaggeration. I fully understand even now why this game (Alternative) has almost only 10/10 ratings. It's not a surprise at all. It's so obvious at this very moment, having just reached the end of the particular episode I'm on right now.

Sure, it's first "Muv-Luv", then "Muv-Luv Alternative". "Muv-Luv" is two games in one, if you want to put it that way... Extra and Unlimited. You can only play Extra at the start. After doing the two main routes of Extra, you unlock Unlimited. After Unlimited, you go to Muv-Luv Alternative. So it's Extra -> Unlimited -> Alternative. But both Extra and Unlimited are part of the same game and installation, which is the first Muv-Luv.

And it most definately is art, by the way. Especially this game. Even though I'm not done with it, that's still easy to say. This is a masterpiece. Edit: Sorry, but I wanna write some more... due to the power of this episode.

^ Thanks, definately don't want any spoilers. That said...

Hmmm... I'm extremely curious about how good Never7 would be in comparison to Ever17. Well it's nice to see that it's getting done. Personally I haven't played Remember11 either even though it's already been translated. Pretty curious about that one too. As far as I know, both Never7 and Remember11 has a focus on mystery in them, just like E17.

Ugh, school days... Well that one is good if you enjoy heavy drama and stupid characters. The animation in it is a nice touch aswell of course. It's a big game, definately, but you need to enjoy that sort of love triangle drama BS in order to get the most out of it. I haven't played the Da Capo games or Ef yet, but I'm pretty sure those are along the lines of what you're looking for. Ef seems to be highly praised around here.

Muv-Luv Extra + Unlimited. Watch out for potential spoilers. First of all, I really don't know why this game isn't rated higher than it is currently on VNDB. Sure, 7-8 is a good number... But I'd give it a 9 or a 10 for sure. There was nothing majorly bad about the game in my eyes. Just a whole bunch of positives. Well... I suppose the side routes weren't that amazing. Maybe it doesn't deserve a 9 or a 10 because of that alone. Still, I have to say that the game reeks of quality overall. The art is unique and perfect. It has its own style and it works very well. Also, the game has these nice effects, such as character shaking. They're a nice bonus. The music is fantastic, especially the "main theme tune" that appears in some of the songs. It's memorable. All the sound settings that you can change are a nice feature aswell, haven't seen that kind of stuff in any other VN. The characters are also memorable. They look good, their personalities are distinct and personally I didn't find any of them annoying. All the voice acting for them was perfect aswell, really nicely done. As a side note, Yuuko is my favourite character so far. She's a very good character, really. Dialogue... I think this might be the best part about the game, or the second best atleast. The conversations between the characters are meaningful when they want to be, funny when they want to be, sad when they want to be. They're really, REALLY good. The dialogue grabs you in this game and doesn't let go. Now, the most important part one needs to adress with this game. The plot, the story... At first, in Extra, it didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary. Sure the characters, art, music and all of that was good from the very beginning, yes. But the plot? There was none, more or less. Day to day business. School life, the usual. Which was still good, I might add. Oh yes, it was good, I enjoyed myself from the start. It was mostly comedy though... with some drama and backstory mixed in here and there. That was pretty much what Extra was in a nutshell. I make it sound simple, which it was, but I was still very impressed and happy about the game at this point. It was great. So... Then you move on to Unlimited. Now, I knew beforehand that there would be something more than just school life comedy to Muv-Luv. I knew that, but I didn't know exactly what, which obviously made it more exciting. It is at this point, the beginning of Unlimited, that my mind and interest was ignited. Because it is at this point that one realizes, there's something more to this. Something is wrong. A mystery, something you can't explain... atleast not yet. Personally, I absolutely adore this kind of stuff, it's just fantastic. It makes me so much more invested and interested in the story in general. Suffice it to say, the tone of the game has changed completely in Unlimited. It's something else, something even better for sure. War, the end of the world, aliens, robots, the human spirit, SCIENCE. Oh yes, science. Alot of science. I love it. The dialogue is now even better, because there are alot of things to discuss in a world like this. The characters are just as good, or better, than in Extra. Yuuko really is an impressive character at this point, really nice job on her design. Seriously, I can't be the only one here who's impressed by her. And I'll stop there. Amazing game, I give it a 9. 10 if the side routes were abit better. I'm gonna start Alternative today, right now. Because to be honest with you, there are aloooot of questions that needs answering. We'll see where this story goes.

Clichés. Predictability... is that a word? Maybe there's a better one, but basically when you can see exactly what's going to happen because it's just too obvious. It's just as bad in anime really. Can't stay even one bit interested if there's nothing *special* to the story or the characters. It needs to have that something something that piques the interest. And the earlier it happens the better. Which is one reason why playing the top rated VNs is a good idea, because you KNOW there's something in them that makes them *more* than the rest.

Hey, I just tried it with my own gamepad, it works with both gameplay and reading. To be honest though, using it for the gameplay part feels... Slow and clunky, compared to using the mouse. I can definately see the appeal of using it for reading though. By the way, I think one reason why you can use a gamepad in Sharin no Kuni is because that game saw a release on both Xbox 360 and PSP. I was gonna recommend G-senjou no Maou, since that was also made by Akabei Soft2, however G-senjou has not been released on anything but PC, sooo... Then again, Kamidori hasn't been released on anything but PC either...

Kamidori Alchemy Meister, if you've heard of that one. Well you can use a controller when doing the strategy gameplay of it atleast, not sure about the reading.

Alright good, that's fine, exactly what I wanted to know, thank you very much. So it's not important to end Unlimited in a certain manner. Hohoho, this is gonna be good, I can feel it. And yes, about VNDB descriptions... I didn't want to read that, because it MIGHT give away too much too early. A trailer for a movie can have the same effect sometimes, which isn't good at all for sure.

Hello there, to be honest I wasn't sure if this was the right place to post this, but whatever, it's general talk atleast. So, um, I've basically finished Muv-Luv (Extras & Unlimited). Been very occupied with that lately (for very good reason). I won't write my thoughts on it here though since there seems to be a thread for that kind of stuff. Naturally I'm moving on to Muv-Luv Alternative, but before I do that, I'd like to ask you this: What's the canon ending of Unlimited? Yes, that is my question. Because you see, I want to be in the right mindset as I start Alternative. I want to end Unlimited with the canon ending, if there is such a thing. So, is there? If there is NOT a canon ending, then just... say there isn't one, I suppose. I don't really want spoilers, I just want to end Unlimited with the canon ending IF there is one. If Alternative starts with something completely different than that, then that's fine, but... Well you get my point. If there is no canon ending to Unlimited, then perhaps you could recommend one for me to end it with atleast. The one you deem most appropiate. Thanks alot... and yes, I'm very excited to start Alternative.

There's also "Men at Work 2". Translated SRPG with h-scenes. As for how good it is, well... it's something atleast. Worth looking into if you run out of other options. You can download it on this site. Aaaaand "Gadget Trial". No h-scenes, strategy gameplay similar to the Advance Wars games. Downloadable from here aswell. Gonna try Tears to Tiara myself soon enough, since I'm done with School Days.

Yup, looked into this myself before. It's a shame only the second one has been translated, considering how good it is despite being such an old game. You could play it today and have a good time.