Wanderer

Amen, brother. And the true route as well, since it features Erika a lot, too (I used a temporary switch to a 100% save to cast a skip glance to untranslated routes).

White Album 2 does seem quite an interesting game (more music world goodness after Kira Kira and Deardrops is much welcome), but a 6% translation is not yet something to go madly enthusiastic about. Likely still a llllooonnnggg time before it's completed.

Good to know. I already have a few story-driven Japanese eroges with stalled or very slow translations getting dust on my hard drive (11 eyes, Honey Coming, Real Imouto, Yosuga no Sora...)

Good to know. Then it's getting it and putting it away in hope translation is fairly quick and does not stall (unlike Honey Coming and 11eyes).

Well, I've already played my way through more translated eroges than my signature can fit. 1/3 of the common route usually isn't much play at all, not much more than the prologue. So I'm uncertain whether it already justifies a play. But with the limited progress on most games I'm interested in, I might as well download and store it already, hoping translation is fairly quick. Anyway, thanks for the info. Holy crap, 6 gb, this is another huge game; DL shall take a good while.

Hmm, a pity they have not released any partial patch beyond the prologue one. I assume 48% should cover at least the whole common route and maybe one heroine. It's heartwarming to see such steady progress, even if they still have a llllooottt to do (it seems they are still midway the first translated route). OTOH, this game's routes are indeed rather long. Still no progress, sigh, not even about finishing the nearly done Shiro route. I want my Erika fix. Are they ever going to do a partial patch ? This might be interesting. I suppose this is stalled, and even the prologue patch got lost in the Megaupload debacle, sigh. Unfortunately, a long time to go. But it seems interesting (lots of imouto love + comedy). Fingers crossed. It's a bit annoying when translators only release a prologue route, and then nothing till completion. Best hopes any problems gets fixed on these ones. First glances on the game warmed me up on Miyako's cute stalking of the protagonist, I want her route ASAP too. Hmm, this seems to have stalled close to completion with no partial patch, a real pity. Still no progress. What a pity for imouto lovers. This seems kinda similar in concept to a mini version of Hoshizura no Memoria, and nearly done. I hope they don't stumble in the last mile. Great game, I hope they get to finish it someday, especially the routes that interweave with the translated ones. Progress breeds hope.

Done playing the common and translated routes of Fortune Arterial, Dracu-Riot, and Hinomaru. As it concerns FA, Kanada's route felt fairly heartwarming, even if her problem feels a little forced (a common problem in eroge plots) and Kiriha's was really not so bad to my tastes as I expected (her character gets some decent depth, and she's really gorgeous). No doubt this may rank as one of the best eroges I've played, and I got even more impatient to get the translation of the other routes (especially Erika and true; she's my preferred heroine, and I wish to get the full vampire plot). Oh well. The common route of Dracu-riot was a a very appealing mix of comedy with fanservice and action, and I'm impatient to get into the romance stuff (all heroines have good selling points with me, except maybe the human loli sharpshooter). Definitely another very good eroge. Hinomaru, well, I like comedy, but this one packs almost a bit too much silliness to be thoroughly enjoyable. Not bad, but I can see why it is nowhere as popular as the other two. Hmm, I suppose it means something when one's list of played games has grown too big to fit in one's signature.

Seconded, although I'm waiting eagerly for the Erika route first and foremost. By the way, the patch vndb entry says: Now, I'm broadly aware that the true route is about the vampiric metaplot and the past relationship of the protagonist with Erika and the Yuuki sisters, but what is the omake and hidden stuff about ? Just curious.

And now I have cleared the common route in Fortune Arterial. As good as, if not better than, I expected. A top-notch VN, quite recommended. My congrats to the translation/editing team, it reads quite well. Now I feel rather sad that I won't be able to complete it for the Universe knows how many months, but it was inevitable and expected. I might go on and play Kanade's route, but I dunno if doing it would be worthwhile, since I can't touch the Erika or Haruna ones yet Kiriha is the least interesting route to me, no matter how gorgeous the character looks (but I still prefer Erika), since I can't stand the silent/emotionless heroine type and I loathe the Who Wants to Live Forever theme (I looked at a few spoilers on tvtropes.org, and I'm most definitely a Living Forever is Awesome guy).

Theoretically speaking, yes it does not need to be EXPLICIT sex scenes, in that regard it's a matter of taste more than anything else, but it still feels much more fitting and natural if the story definitely shows that all-the-way physical intimacy and erotic passion is the natural, default outcome to a successful romantic relationship between grown-ups. Leave kissing and holding hands as fulfillment to childhood crushes, I say. Yes sex sells just like violence, and for this reason both of them are often added to stories with flimsy reasons. All the same, decently-done erotica and violence do add something stories where they are somewhat fitting. Sex does fit in a story with romance and violence does fit in a story with action and conflict. I've completed Guilty the Sin. Not top of the scale but fairly good. At least Ok in my scale.

Done well in comparison to the rest of the story or not, h-scenes in a VN with a significant romance element bring fulfillment to that component of the plot. It's like lethal combat in an action-adventure story. Done well or not, the killing is an integral and necessary part of the story for aesthetic and narrative reasons. Moreover, they add realism to the story: in real life, successful romance after early adolescence most definitely does not typically remain chaste for long without compelling and rare reasons. If anything, in my opinion h-scenes in eroges are often a higher-quality depiction of mainstream sex than Western "porn with a story" (of course, here I refer to slice of life romance and not tentacle hentai and stuff). Third, one of the elements I find most attractive in Japanese culture is its much more relaxed attitude towards sexuality and its depiction. Having said that, I'm the first to feverishly speed-click my way through really poorly-done h-scenes; nonetheless, I much prefer to know they exist and I have a choice whether to see them or not. If anything, I'm much more annoyed by the fact that non-h key scenes (such as endings) in many eroges are often not readily available in the scenes list alongside h-scenes, and I'm forced to create ad-hoc saves to have them readily available for a second viewing, than by the lower qualiy of h-scenes in comparison to other parts of the story.

Indeed. But too bad the English patch shall be for the all-ages version, even if I very well understand the reasons for the choice (expanded version). At first glance, Yoakemae Yori Ruriiro Na - Brighter Than Dawning Blue does not seem a romance-lite game, and chaste romance definitely annoys me. I would deem myself more than happy enough with a complete patch of Fortune Arterial in reasonable times.

Well, I've kept a cursory glance on the thread, but admittedly the latest discussion held little interest for me (if anything, it encouraged me to make ever 17 even more of a low priority). In the meanwhile, I nibbled at the common route of Fortune Arterial and achieved the first two endings in Guilty the Sin. To my considerable relief and pleasure, the latter game's supernatural elements all in all seemed more urban (dark) fantasy (which I fancy) than horror (which I loathe). The heroines' voluptous character design seems definitely appealing, too. Of course, nothing like the overall visual pleasure of Fortune Arterial.

Just done getting Shield 9, G-string, Downhill Night 1&2, and We Love Master. For technical reasons, I've split my most recent playing time between Fortune Arterial (gorgeous !) and Guilty (despite horror elements, not bad, so far).

I assumed that the backlog can be opened up by clicking on the "fast rewind" button right of the dialogue window, but no matter how much I click, nothing happens. It does not even highlight when I hover over it with the cursor, so apparently it's unactive.

Then it falls under my general dislike of chaste romance. Doesn't mean I' never going to play it (I'm planning to play Symphonic Rain sooner or later, after all), just that it loses priority to just as good adult eroges. Btw, since you have experience with Fortune Arterial, any idea about why I'm unable to use its backlog ?

From memory: all untranslated parts of Mother-Daughter Lesson, some bits of To Heart 2 and of the Flyable Heart fandisc, Yumekoi Tensei, Kuru Kuru Coeur, Three Methods to Conquer the World plus fandisc, Saikyou no Furyou ga Nyotaika!, Mahou Shoujo Fairy Knights, Seitenshi Yumiel Shadow Crusade, Mahou Shoujo Sae Deluxe, Monsters Survive (till I ragequit), other Black Lilith games and "mahou shoujo" nukiges.

That's sadly true. Although the degree to which protagonists suffer from this malady does vary from eroge to eroge. You may have a few where the guy is at least partially aware of what's happening, and does not yet act on it for one reason or another (lack of social skills, does not want to ruin a friendship, incest issues, etc.). By the way, I completed Sexy Demon Transformation, and I've started Fortune Arterial. Indeed it seems quite good, and it's visually gorgeous. Now I really understand the term "scenery porn" in an eroge !! Too bad I can't apparently open the backlog, so I have to be pay attention and don't click too quickly, lest I miss important dialogue. But I can live with it.

I am not much enthused about chaste romance, so all-ages VNs typically end up low in the playing priority scale, unless quality is truly exceptional. I mean, I can perfectly enjoy fiction with little or no romance, but when it is a strong story element, I much prefer to see it reach its sweaty and messy natural fulfillment, too.

Unless you have issues with the Littlewitch aesthetics (i.e. all women are more flat than the Russian steppes or the American Great Plains), definitely yes. Good, pleasant story. The right amount of comedy and non-oppressive drama, pleasant endings. Just be mindful to check and apply a manual correction when you install the English patch, since in my system, it did use a wrong default installation path (it apparently created a duplicate of the correct destination folder within it; not so easy to notice with the Japanese name of the folder) and so aborted the installation. Well, I have some experience using AGTH (I still have to try ITH). It's inevitable since nukiges that focus on my preferred fetishes are largely or almost entirely not translated. In my experience, they may be useful to understand the general meaning of what is happening, but not much better. So bearable to play a nukige, but not good enough to play untranslated story-driven VNs from the start. Too many character-defining dialogue nuances may get lost. At a stretch, one might use them to finish untranslated routes in partially-translated eroges, however. Once character has been established in the English common route, loss of precision may be more bearable. At least, this is my experience with AGTH. I dunno yet if ITH is more efficient.

Ok, given the feedback in this thread so far, I've decided to go and get Shield 9, G-senjo no Maou, Koihime Mousu, We Love Master, and Downhill Night 1 and 2. Gotta take me a while to download all of that (in addition to the other scheduled non-eroge stuff). In the meanwhile, I've been playing Sexy Demon Transformation. Quite a nice little nukige, even if the protagonist is horribly oblivious about love, and the demon possession idea is interesting. After that, Fortune Arterial and Majikoi (gotta toss a coin to tell which I play first).

Honestly, this doesn't seem any appealing to me, even if I get it may have very good routes. I shall have to give more thought on the issue. I might get it for completist reasons anyway, but probably I won't play it any soon.

I'm an avid reader/watcher of many types of geek fiction, including VN since I discovered the wonderful world of translated eroge a year ago or so. Sharin's subject was quite original, which helped me tolerate the fact it was not any really lighthearted, and the sister route (which I deem the true one for this reason) provides a good opportunity to overthrow the oppressive political system of the Wheel Country, and so yields a true optimistic ending. An upbeat ending may help me tolerate otherwise overbearing amounts of drama. Having said that, at the moment I feel no potential urge to replay Sharin in the foreseeable future, the way I could with say Canvas 2 or Snow Sakura. How is G-senjou in this regard ? Well, recently I was forced to ragequit a Japanese fantasy rape nukige I otherwise fancied a lot (Monsters Survive) one-third of the way b/c it had a lot of unavoidable RPG combat and I was wholly unable to defeat the second boss monster (and having the only available hints in mangled Google/Systran translation didn't help. Such may be good enough for identifying and understanding the choices in Japanese walkthroughs, not for complex strategy hints). This has soured me even more against mixing pure choice-based VNs with gameplay. Got it, I'm gonna play it sooner or later. Just not sure if it's my preferred genre or not. By the way, I dearly wish someone would translate the Deardrops/Kira Kira crossover fandisc, I loved both games a lot. Well, if they are just choices, this is most reassuring. I had ignored those games precisely for the gameplay issue. Well, it's an harem nukige but for what I can tell of the kind I find more than a bit boring. The "master" role doesn't really appeal to me and the girls are already available on a plate, no courting necessary and no management complication of the kind you face in Harem Party or Shuffle. I got the impression it was kinda similar to Pick Me Honey, which I started and never got far out of sheer boredom. So I wasn't thrilled for We Love Master. If you tell me the comedy element is really good, then I may reconsider my opinion about it. Otherwise, I might download it sooner or later for completist reasons. I have it. Never bothered to play it so far, perhaps b/c I learnt it includes the additional heroines of Plus Communication, but your are locked in the Kotori storyline and cannot play the routes of the new heroines. From what I know, DCPC won't be translated in the foreseeable future, which makes it much more frustrating than your usual partially translated eroge. With a bit of luck, the uncomplete state of say Fortune Arterial or Maijkoi is a matter of time and patience, as it happened with Period. Nonetheless, I might play it sooner or later for completist reasons. Amusingly, I seem to remember I liked Kotori, but I can't remember who was my preferred Da Capo heroine, unlike other eroges I played. But it has been a good while since I played that series. Anyway, I liked the game, but there are other eroges I loved more.

Shield 9 seems kinda interesting, but it isn't available on this site, right ? So I'd have to seek for a torrent with good health and the english patch.

G-senjou no Maou I might well get, if it isn't any darker than Sharin no Kuni, even if subject is not my preferred cup of tea. Tsukihime I had considered, but then I read it has a downer ending in one of its main routes, which is a big no-no for me. Fate Stay Night I got, but for one reason or another I can't remember well I deemed it low in my playing priority scale.