Harlequin

Haha, I'll let you know then when that time comes! It's intriguing, and the feeling of being intrigued is a good one, so I'm happy. Why is it so intriguing? Because just playing through Extra as I am now, one does not have any idea what's in store later that could possibly be so amazing. You say "war" and "courage", plus dialogue and conversations. But what does that mean ultimately? There has to be some sort of spark that would make one go "Oh my god, this is a 10, best VN ever". Because for most players, clearly, that's what happened. And I'm itching to find it. I found it in Ever17, aswell as G-senjou no Maou. Admittedly, those are the only VNs I've played that are in the top 15 on VNDB. I'd have to say that the ratings on VNDB are very "accurate", from my personal experience atleast. Even more reason to be excited for Muv-Luv.

School Days HQ and also Muv-Luv. Yea, started Muv-Luv a day before School Days was released. It's quite exciting to be "on the road" of the highest rated visual novel on VNDB, I don't know what to expect. Although I'm only on Extra, not Alternative, but still. I'm extremely curious what this series has that actually warrants it to be number one. It has a higher rating than games like Ever17, G-senjou, Clannad and aaaall the other great titles. Ever17 has the best mystery story that I've ever experienced in my life so far. Yet Muv-Luv (Alternative) still has a higher rating. I can't wait to see if this game will actually end up blowing the rest out of the water in my eyes, it's just impossible to imagine right now. Well I sure love the characters, visuals and the music already, having only played for about 2-3 hours in Extra. I guess that's a good start.

Here's my report aswell on the sound/config problem, as an addition to strom's: * Custom install location, japanese locale installation, playing in japanese locale, PROBLEM STILL EXISTS. * Custom install location, swedish (home) locale installation, playing in swedish locale, PROBLEM STILL EXISTS. * Custom install location, english (usa) locale installation, playing in english (usa) locale, PROBLEM STILL EXISTS * Default install location, japanese locale installation, playing in japanese locale, using strom's english locale config file and using it the way he describes in his post -> PROBLEM STILL EXISTS. In other words, nothing I've done so far has gotten rid of the problem. I still need to either delete the config file or make it blank and read-only in order to make the sound work again after restarting. Nothing else has made any change so far for me. If the problem actually had to do with the game being installed in a certain locale or being played in one, then that solution should also work for me just fine, but it doesn't, so it can't be that. And yes changing locales works just fine for me.

Shuffle!, that psychological drama stuff on the last 5 or so episodes makes me wanna vomit, absolutely HATE it. I bet I'm the only one around here with that opinion though since it seems to be quite a popular anime overall. Well the journey was good overall, it's just those last episodes that really disgusts me. But hey, it's also the *first* anime with that sort of drama that I've ever watched, so I wasn't sure what exactly to expect anyway. Now I know. So I'm thankful for that.

Oh yes, and it has easy choices too IIRC. Fantastic story, good characters, emotional rollercoaster. @OP, it's a long game too, so if that's what you mean by "lots of content" then it's good for you. Another game would be "Osananajimi wa Daitouryou ~My girlfriend is the President.~". A lighthearted comedy VN with only like 4-5 choices. Fairly long, has good art and characters. Then there's "Kamidori Alchemy Meister" and also "Koihime Musou - Doki Otome Darake no Sangokushi Engi". Both of these are long, meaty games with many characters. However, they also have that strategy gameplay element, so they aren't just like normal VNs. But if you don't mind that stuff OP, then they're excellent for you. Because ultimately they're very easy on the choices. Kamidori has like 3 or something, Koihime... Well that game even gives you an interface with the characters you can choose at certain times. The strategy gameplay of Kamidori is actually good too, I highly recommend it.