Buying some VNs, need some help.

[nhat]

Hi everyone, I have decided to buy crescendo and kana little sister. I don't like ero games because of the ero but I heard good things about them. Does anyone have any recommendations on what to get besides those two?

Just have to be good quality wise, officially translated, and not from Hirameki Int'l since I got most of their games.

I was thinking of getting snow sakura but I'm not sure if the quality of the story is as good as crescendo and kana. thanks in advance.

To nhat:

May I assume you're not currently able to read untranslated ren'ai games?

Snow Sakura wasn't bad. The story was cute, but for me, it wasn't what I really wanted. Like you, I'm currently rather "meh" on H games. I'm leaning more and more toward simulations, all ages games, and otome games...

Kana and Crescendo both left good impressions on me. They have been in print for several years, so I'm sure you can find them on discount on several retail sites -- the former is currently on discount at animenation.com, so if you're able to order from that site, go ahead. A year after the translation ended, Snow Sakura is already discounted there.

If you're using a native English version of Windows, I'm sure you can install Japanese games without "??" characters showing up. Be sure to research this! Once you've done so, if you can afford Fate Stay Night ($99 at erogeshop.com) or One -Kagayaku Kisetsu e- ($80 there), then consider purchasing them.

[Asceai]

Out of the rest of JAST/GC/PP's collection, since you've already got Kana and Crescendo, I'd recommend Yume Miru Kusuri. It's a lot more ero-oriented than the previous two games, but has a great story and is written by Romeo Tanaka (the fellow that wrote Kana).

Now, there's the two upcoming titles, Princess Waltz and Kazoku Keikaku. Out of those I'm only really able to endorse the latter, since it's the only one I've played, but it is FANTASTIC. Princess Waltz looks pretty good, is by a reputable company and has some decent people working on it. It's also not very heavy in the ero.

Finally, as far as older titles go, you can still buy Desire for like ten dollars, in English, from Erogeshop (formerly Himeyashop). Desire's a little dated now, but still considered to be a quality title, and the price isn't exactly bad.

[nhat]

Originally Posted by dorkatlarge

To nhat:

May I assume you're not currently able to read untranslated ren'ai games?

Snow Sakura wasn't bad. The story was cute, but for me, it wasn't what I really wanted. Like you, I'm currently rather "meh" on H games. I'm leaning more and more toward simulations, all ages games, and otome games...

Kana and Crescendo both left good impressions on me. They have been in print for several years, so I'm sure you can find them on discount on several retail sites -- the former is currently on discount at animenation.com, so if you're able to order from that site, go ahead. A year after the translation ended, Snow Sakura is already discounted there.

If you're using a native English version of Windows, I'm sure you can install Japanese games without "??" characters showing up. Be sure to research this! Once you've done so, if you can afford Fate Stay Night ($99 at erogeshop.com) or One -Kagayaku Kisetsu e- ($80 there), then consider purchasing them.

Yeah only translated games at the moment. Just want to get the best that is already licensed already. I feel the same as you about ero stuff so that's why I bought the Hirameki games first.

These first 2 posts are great. I didn't know animenation sold VNs. I'll look at animenation. I'll probably buy Yume Miru Kusuri and Desire too.

Fate and Tsukihime are good. Fate is more shonenesque than the other visual novels Ive read, also both are more of the suspense genre I think. though the Ero in both games is for the most part extremely dumb, skipping through those scenes isn't a problem Ero is maybe 3% of the games max.

Tsukihime is the reason why I got interested in visual novels, but it costs alot if you have basic morals. Hopefully the remake will fix that.

[Apples]

I'd like to second the Yume Miru Kusuri suggestion! I'm about halfway through it right now and I can definitely say it's the best eroge I've ever read.
Yes, better than Crescendo.
No, I haven't read Kana.

[nhat]

Originally Posted by EmptyShiki

Fate and Tsukihime are good. Fate is more shonenesque than the other visual novels Ive read, also both are more of the suspense genre I think. though the Ero in both games is for the most part extremely dumb, skipping through those scenes isn't a problem Ero is maybe 3% of the games max.

Tsukihime is the reason why I got interested in visual novels, but it costs alot if you have basic morals. Hopefully the remake will fix that.

Yeah tsukihime is what started my interest for me too. I'm just hoping that VNs will get more popular here. Even anime/manga fans don't even know what is a VNs, lol

I just bought kana, crescendo, and Yume Miru Kusuri. I looked at Desire at eroshop but the only pics they have are just h-scenes =/ lol. Other than the h-scenes, it doesn't look too attractive...

Can you tell me more about it Asceai? If you have to compare desire's h-scenes to to kana or crescendo h-scenes, how much does it have? More, less, etc?

[Asceai]

More ero than Kana. A bit more than Crescendo (but not a ridiculous amount, and the amount of time spent in eroscenes is but a fraction of the whole game).

Importantly, the ero is very much a part of the plot in Desire - that doesn't mean you can't skip it, but it's more of a 'throughout' thing than getting to have sex with the winning girl at the end of the game.

Erogeshop typically concentrates more on the H scenes of the games - and Desire does not have particularly impressive art - like I said, it's quite dated. Other elements of the game that reveal how dated it is include some of the gameplay systems; Desire heralds from an age when eroge companies thought people actually liked clicking around through lots of annoying choices fun, and in my view this hurts the game.

Anyway, I'm not really sure how else to convince you that it's not a sexromp - there's some reviews on GameFAQs, including this one.

Now, I picked Desire as an example of a decent English-translated title that is relatively easy to buy and wasn't already mentioned. It's decent, but it's not _that_ good, and there's plenty in Desire that will probably annoy you quite a bit before you get to the ending. But I don't think playing it would be a waste of time. Whether you go for it or not is ultimately up to you.

Not very helpful, but for reference, on my magical Grand List of All Eroges I've Played, Desire ranks somewhere around the same place as Flutter of Birds. =P

[nhat]

Thanks Aceai, that helped a lot. I'm sure desire is better than most of the other ero games out there from what it sounds like.

Haven't played Desire, but one scenario (Makoto) seems controversial with players. It's apparently rape heavy, so keep that in mind.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Haven't played Desire, but one scenario (Makoto) seems controversial with players. It's apparently rape heavy, so keep that in mind.

LOL..........

[DaFool]

I'm going to Osaka next week, and am thinking of stopping by Mandarake and other shops in Nipponbashi.

Which is the better Mandarake store -- Umeda or Grand Chaos? Are there any items here which are awesome deals or ripoffs when compared to other stores? I only have a budget of 200 dollars, so which are must-buys to take home and play in English? Searching the online store is Nakano store-centric and shows the doujinshi more often than not.

I am already targeting F/SN and Planetarian since the translations are complete and there should be no patching issues by now (I should be able to grab the first retail copy that catches my eye and take it home and it should work). That should cost no more than 50+10=60 dollars total, but the prices should be lower by now. I'm not too keen on One/Shuffle/Wind/Clannad and other school-centric stories.

This is also my first time to Japan. Did you know if you're American or British you can go visa-free to Japan for 3 or 6 months? Whereas coming from a developing country you need to submit an itinerary and bank account statements to get a 15-day visa? If you're American or British and haven't been to Japan yet, shame on you. The doors are wide open for you.

I can't believe I'm about to blow off thousands of dollars on this trip which will last less than a week, which could be wisely spent in, say, a month in Vietnam instead. The recession's not going to help either, but f- it I saved up for this and it's now or never. So I treat this as if I may not be able to afford to go back to Japan in my lifetime. Therefore I must buy the stuff that I can, especially if the other alternative -- customs inspections -- can get costly (I was charged 30 bucks on a 90 dollar Amazon textbook purchase once).

Just a little note, the Planetarian you buy may or may not work with the Insani patch.

You can still patch it, with some work (RLDev) and the relevant thread in the forum as reference.

[nhat]

Originally Posted by DaFool

I'm going to Osaka next week, and am thinking of stopping by Mandarake and other shops in Nipponbashi.

Which is the better Mandarake store -- Umeda or Grand Chaos? Are there any items here which are awesome deals or ripoffs when compared to other stores? I only have a budget of 200 dollars, so which are must-buys to take home and play in English? Searching the online store is Nakano store-centric and shows the doujinshi more often than not.

I am already targeting F/SN and Planetarian since the translations are complete and there should be no patching issues by now (I should be able to grab the first retail copy that catches my eye and take it home and it should work). That should cost no more than 50+10=60 dollars total, but the prices should be lower by now. I'm not too keen on One/Shuffle/Wind/Clannad and other school-centric stories.

This is also my first time to Japan. Did you know if you're American or British you can go visa-free to Japan for 3 or 6 months? Whereas coming from a developing country you need to submit an itinerary and bank account statements to get a 15-day visa? If you're American or British and haven't been to Japan yet, shame on you. The doors are wide open for you.

I can't believe I'm about to blow off thousands of dollars on this trip which will last less than a week, which could be wisely spent in, say, a month in Vietnam instead. The recession's not going to help either, but f- it I saved up for this and it's now or never. So I treat this as if I may not be able to afford to go back to Japan in my lifetime. Therefore I must buy the stuff that I can, especially if the other alternative -- customs inspections -- can get costly (I was charged 30 bucks on a 90 dollar Amazon textbook purchase once).

Chaos;head is translated and doesn't look too school centric.

As for vietnam, I dunno if you will have fun there if you go there. I found it pretty boring the 3 weeks I was there, lol.

[DaFool]

Sorry for hijacking your thread, but it's the same topic, so...

Originally Posted by nhat

Chaos;head is translated and doesn't look too school centric.

As for vietnam, I dunno if you will have fun there if you go there. I found it pretty boring the 3 weeks I was there, lol.

I'm using this for reference since I don't visit mirrormoon or other translation sites regularly:

http://www.shii.org/translate/

That said, Utawarerumono and Men at Work 2 might be appealing since they may contain gameplay elements. I remember there was this Final Fantasy Tactics look-alike that was fully translated awhile ago by some people here but forgot its name already.

I've been to Vietnam already so I think it's worth it. A trip to Vietnam should include Dalat and of course, Hanoi. It doesn't make sense to stick to Saigon or the south, gotta see the Paris influence, hehehe. In my opinion, Dalat alone is enough.

*er, I also mentioned Nainital which is similar but in India, get places confused lol... also a good destination.