Recently I`m reading Himegari Dungeon Meister, someone else here read it before?.
Now I am addicted to the opening 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzVaZ2VlGTk&t=4s
I’ve been reading “If My Heart Had Wings”, and finished the common and Kotori routes so far. I’ve found it a pleasant read although as is my way some of the “blossoming romance” sections too long and sugary (just my personal tastes here). I like the use of the Soaring Club and glider as a symbol of independence, growth and freedom - though I might be overthinking it a bit!
The common route is very long and I didn’t get the first choice until some 9 hours of (slowish) reading, I was surprised when the intro movie cut in as it was so far into the VN I’d forgotten we hadn’t had one yet! I quite like Kotori although she doesn’t stand out much to me as a character compared to others in other games, the route is a little heavy on melodrama.
Bear in mind, I’m playing the unpatched Steam version; initially I didn’t see many translation issues but as the VN went on there were more and more silly errors which look like sloppiness and a lack of quality checking rather than weak translation (not that I’d know). E.G. a female character being referred to as ‘she’ in one sentence then ‘he’ in the next! A bit minor but annoying. I really did not want to mess about with the Restoration patch though (don’t need H-Scenes), so my bad.
Will say more when I’ve completed all the routes, but for now I’d put this below CLANNAD and Steins;Gate but well above Grisaia in my ratings. I don’t think this will have a lasting resonance.
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Mfw that localozation was first released, everyone was salty over the removal of h-scenes but nobody cared about the blatant translation errors 
I’m going through Ageha’s route now, and it’s quite bizarre. I googled it to see if it was just me but it looks like it was largely rewritten for context because of the removal of the h-scenes. The translation and presentation of the story is (to me) odd. I guess this one really does benefit from the Restoration patch. It’s a bit unfortunate if that route is chosen first ahead of Kotori.
EDIT: I ended up skipping most of Ageha’s route in the end as it got too painful, nonetheless I think I did get the gist of what was going on but 10+ hours of it was too much for me. Trouble for me is that the glider story seems to be pushed back far too much - but saying that it does add a little to Ageha and Aoi’s back story if you chose or landed on Kotori’s route first.
EDIT #2
Asa & Yoru - could be considered a minor spoiler so identical twins and I found it a bit hard not to draw some parallels with the Ryou/Kyou love triangle this is quite a fun route though it doesn’t really add much to the overall story. There is a combination of the routes up to a point, we do go through some of the usual tropes, e.g. Polar Opposite Twins, Different as Night and Day, and I don’t know if the h-scenes go full on Twin Threesome Fantasy but it seems from hints on the Steam version it might end up that way!
I was playing If My Heart Had Wings too but I sort of chickened out in hopes of that other TL coming out but it seems to be talking awhile. I think I was towards the end of common. Unfortunately my memory isn’t that great so if I stall on it too much I might forget too much. It sounds like it is pretty damn close now though. I probably should of just played it, but now that I’ve been waiting for 2 years it would feel a little silly to just pick it up again. But idk maybe I will just pick it up again, then I can just do Ageha’s when the other patch comes out. I don’t think I am too picky when it comes to TL and QC so it might be okay…
@Mow - I know when you stop or have to stop playing a game it’s hard to get the motivation to pick it up again but I hope that you can someday.
Completed Amane’s route so now finished the VN, and this one was was my favourite, it does a very nice job of completing the circle in terms of the story and we also get an insight into the VNs antagonist who was rather one dimensional villain until this route.
There is no “True ending” as such but for my part, Kotori (which has to be completed to open certain other routes) and Amane are the essential routes with the others more optional and Amane is best saved to last as it comes the closest IMO to a true ending.
Being still new to VNs I’m still feeling my way and as a n00b to this forum I have to point out I still find the teen romance elements for the most part a little dull - it takes I think some special story writing to engage my interest in the way that Tomoya/Nagisa and Steins;Gate spoiler Okabe and Kurisu, which helps to add such a cruel dilemma to the story and I did as usual find some parts of the routes went on too long.
I spent a fair time on MS Flight simulator in my past so I appreciated the inclusion of aerodynamics as I felt this helps the reader believe that High School students could achieve what they manage here. I understand that slight spoiler Gliders riding the Morning Glory really is a thing in Australia where the phenomenon is predictable.
It’s a pity that Ageha’s route seems to have been messed up in the Steam version ( bearing in mind I know nothing of the Japanese or Restoration versions) and that is the only downer objectively but it’s up to each prospective reader to decide if they want the full on eroge I guess.
It actually took me over 50 hours to complete all the routes, and as this is a lowish/mid price game on Steam, it’s good value. I’d definitely recommend it.
Now I was hoping we’d have news of LB! on Steam by now, but looks like I need to find another game or VN in the interim!
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Is it worth the extra money ( twice the cost on Steam ) to get the voiced as opposed to unvoiced version? Unvoiced is £15 but the one with VA is £30!
I don’t remember voices being remarkable in the VN (though audio is a big thing in the game) but I get very bored when dialogue has no sound to it. It is a very long VN after all. You will lose a bit of the comedy and sadness from big scenes, but that’s expected.
Hmm, a tricky choice then. I do find that good VA really adds to a VN even though I can’t understand the language beyond the occasional word or phrase. Perhaps I’ll wait and see if it goes on a sale.
Other than Maou’s voice acting… it’s not really worth it imo. (some of the characters sound annoying tbh).
Comedy requires some knowledge in Japanese, but as Takafumi said not having the voices might make the VN less enjoyable since the dialogs are a big part of the story.
But seriously, why do you have to pay double the price for the voiced version 
Licensing is rough. To be honest, the voiced price is what I’d expect to pay for such a VN. Having the ability to get a super cheap version of it is pretty great, and more VNs should do it.
Voices are a part of a VN. I wanted to start reading Higurashi, but couldn’t get motivated to continue once I had realized it’s unvoiced.
In G-Senjou’s case, there are at least three characters whose voices add more to the game: Maou, Gonzou and Haru. On the other hand, there was that one kid (Hiroaki, Tsubaki’s kid brother) whose voice seemed unbearable, and I actually consider myself to have a pretty high tolerance in terms of voices…
I’d say it’s worth paying double, and maybe there’ll be a good offer on the summer sale.
This. Sekai Project usually puts almost all their stuff on sale during any Steam sales. G-Senjou is usually around 30% off I think. I’m not sure if the voice patch goes on sale but at least the base game should.
Thanks for all the responses, deffo seems like a good idea to wait for the next Steam Sale and then make a choice! I am keen to play it anyway 
Also on my wish list from the VNs above is the Zero Escape trilogy and Symphonic Rain ( June 15th release on Steam) and of course the long awaited LB! so I do want to save some cash if I can to get all of these…
While I haven’t played the game yet and can’t vouch for anyone who has, I originally bought this game without voices (and please keep in mind that they also sell a voice patch if you wish to change your mind later on but I don’t know if that goes on sale at the same percentage off as the game FYI) and would do so again if the opportunity presented itself.
I had asked Sekai Project during one of their QA sessions when they still had their forum if they would consider or were going to be releasing other games without voices as an option. It’s likely that they didn’t want to commit to an answer there or that I wasn’t clear enough, but their response was essentially “We like to release our games with voices”. The feedback from Senjou No Maou may have been negative enough at the time, but looking back I should have asked again or for more clarification.
I don’t understand why people want less options for everyone, but it is apparently what happened.
I think people see it as “you’re paying double for the voices” instead of “you can get it half off without voices” so it looks like a cash grab instead of helping people out who don’t have as much money.
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If some people did, then that’s sad and really frustrating because it doesn’t take much exploration or reasonable discussion to find out that it wasn’t the case.
It should make sense that more people being able to read it is better whether it’s about money or not. It would be nice if honest customers stopped losing though.
@Doublethree1 - That’s a fair point, I think that having voices really does add a lot to the enjoyment regardless of whether you understand the language - even more so in the rare instances where the protagonist is also voiced. Personally though I dislike English dubbing (no matter how good) so I wouldn’t pay more just for that as long as there are subtitles. The option for voiced/unvoiced is good for the buyers but I could also understand it the the creators regarded the voicing as essential for artistic reasons and only offer the full price VN even if it means losing possible sales.
I can think of at least one example where a character pronounces something different than how you would expect the text to read, which ends up being an important clue to the story. I guess that kind of thing is completely lost in translation, but voicing definitely adds another dimension to the medium in ways you sometimes wouldn’t expect.
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Dlc in general is seen almost always negatively. I think that alone is a big part of it, they see dlc with something they think they should get anyways and it makes them mad. It is caused by some games giving free content updates, so they compare it to that for the most part. Also I don’t think it even helps them much, because if the game doesn’t sell worth crap they can just put it on sale and people will buy it.
