Steins;Gate 0 is great, but, I think it doesn’t quite live up to the original. I’m looking forward to the anime too. 
I thought it was overall a pretty good game, but I was disappointed by the ending. 8/10 for me 
Alright I finished Steins;Gate 0!
I do agree with Pepe. It was a pretty good game, but that ending just wow. It left much desired.
I wanted to see Okabe rescue Mayuri and Suzuha
I’m ready for the anime! \o/
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Haven’t posted in a while, but I’m currently reading Umineko. I’m using the Witch Hunt version since I like having voices and backgrounds that don’t look like watercolors.
It’s fun, but slow. I’ll be kept busy for a while. After that, I’ll make a dartboard with the names of the other English VNs I want to read to decide on my next one.
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07th Mod has a PS3 voice and graphic patch for the Mangagamer release, so do that considering how they revised the translation to be more accurate. 07th mod is also in widescreen.
I finished the Umineko Question and Answer Arcs, not too sure what to make of it really. I did get bored quite a bit and “raced” through if such a thing can be said of 130+ hours. As I used skip a lot through what felt like many very protracted scenes I no doubt missed stuff that might have helped understanding and appreciating (and attempting to solve) the layers of mystery. I didn’t mind the gruesome nature of it but the fantastical elements left me cold, I did enjoy the last episode though ( especially when it at last got interactive ) and even got a bit emotional by the end.
One annoyance for me was that the text is just piled down the screen regardless of who is speaking and sometimes it’s hard to know who is saying what (clearly I was playing the non voiced basic Steam version). I felt that different coloured text would have helped a lot. Also I saw no option to turn down BGM and some of the tunes/sound FX were frankly irritating ( yes I know, atmosphere. dude …) though some tunes are great too so I didn’t just want to turn off the speaker.
So, with “overwhelmingly positive” reviews it’s just another VN that just didn’t appeal on a personal level for not being quite what I hoped for. All that being said the quality and VFM is unquestionably high, so I would rate around 8/10. I already bought Higurashi 1-5 anyway so I shall still try that when it’s eventually all released.
So, now I have moved onto Chaos; Child which dropped to a much more sensible price for the PS4 and am really loving it. I haven’t played any other Chaos; VNs. For now I’ll just say after a few hours anyone who loved Steins; Gate will probably appreciate the “feel” of it despite a very different type of story but I’ll wait to say more until I’ve finished it. It seems that finding the critical choice for the routes to the various paths are just as cussedly complex though…
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I did findthat lots of the lines repeated and I think that if this were edited it would be a lot easier to digest. To too felt it dragged in a few places. I have heard the manga is more straight forward and does reveal the ending upfront (Have only read a bit not much of it and). I also like seeing the deaths and details that you never see in the game.
But I really really enjoy them overall. The characters were amazing. After playing the game I have true understanding of the mystery genre and felt like this was the ultimate mystery to solve.
I think you would have enjoyed the PS3 port more since it has the standard text box. To me it also has the most attractive art too and the backgrounds are set apart from the text. I loved that there are actual backgrounds that aren’t pictures with a photoshop filter. Not to mention the voices really enhanced the game for me.
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I just finished 'A sky full of stars (Miagete goran, yozoro no hoshi o) a few days ago. The Common route is solid with good pacing and character development/interaction and dare i say in itself is worth reading. Out of four Heroine routes-
Orihime is absolute garbage filled with only slice of life , it has nil in the name of conflict, there are some moments but i think you’ll only like them if you’re a fan of her character, which i’m not.
Saya is average. It has a decent enough conflict but nothing to special.
Hikari’s Romance feels dull for me so i won’t give it points for that but the later conflict in the route is interesting enough and makes it a good route.
Korona is the one route i enjoyed most. The route pacing is almost too good. The romance was a very well done aspect of this route, the conflict occurring is not too chaotic but surprisingly it’s very enjoyable. This is probably my favorite route in the novel.
i also finished higurashi chapter 1- onikakushi. I did enjoy it a lot and i’m very much looking forward to the next chapter so i can get more information to craft my theories or simply to know what happens next. though i have to say long novels like higu and umi require a lot of patience as sometimes it feels like dragging the story more than necessary.
Also i started nekopara and well… it promised me catgirls and i got catgirls so…all is great
P:S: Korona is best girl, i love her.
Finished Chaos;Child after around 70 hours or so. Really enjoyed it despite some flaws and reservations.
More in depth opinion follows, no spoilers but hidden for neatness.
Spoiler free summary
It’s kind of like a Japanese X-Files - if Mulder and Scully were High School Students running a Newspaper Club. It’s certainly pretty macabre but also mixes in quite a bit of slice of life as well as good debating points about how we use/misuse technology and Social Media. I knew nothing about Chaos;Head but I thought this VN worked very well as a standalone with enough background info thrown in, and while this is a follow-up it’s not a sequel in the strictest sense. In order to completed the VN the necessary path is:
Common route —> All heroine routes —> True end.
and with a very complex set of “triggers” forming part of the route finding, following a walkthrough is necessary ( or meticulous note-taking and a LOT of patience in trial and error).
It starts out as murder mystery but increasing turns to paranormal / fantasy / personal trauma and that might be a bit of a turn off. One of the heroine routes in this way is just bizarre / silly although kind of fun. This isn’t a VN that tugs your heartstrings but another of the heroine routes I did find unexpectedly touching and the last I read gave a neat if not unguessable twist that actually had a surprisingly (pleasant) sweet end. The characters are good but not especially memorable (for a change a girl who is all tsun tsun and no dere dere).
Although it can be pretty grim and a little gross occasionally there is humour, although relying too much on Hormonally Challenged Teenage Boy Fantasies ®. The pacing can be hit and miss but in general everything that happens has some sort of payoff. The VA, sound and art are excellent, for example the area around the Shibuya Scramble looks pretty realistic compared to photos.
I saw complaints of lots of typos but maybe patch 1.01 cleared most of those as I saw few and the translation read well to me.
Easter Egg? A mention of a hacker in Akihabara who is never seen - could it be…?
TL;DR - 8.5/10. Not as good as Steins;Gate, not for everyone especially if 5pb games just don’t so it for you. Worth investigating especially for SG/SG;0 fans although only on PS4/PSV in English AFAIK? Hopefully an English language release for Windows on Steam at some point for a wider audience.
Oh and this capture seems to sum up Harem VNs nicely 
EDIT: Just read a bit more about the Steins;Gate Elite release planned for later this year:
The PlayStation 4 and PC versions will include a high-definition remake of Steins;Gate Phenogram, which is a collection of 10 additional stories written by renowned writers such as Kotaro Uchikoshi.
Read more at https://gematsu.com/2018/03/steinsgate-elite-coming-west-ps4-switch-pc-2018#wh5ebuOLP3usd20a.99
I’ll probably wait for reaction on release first but provided it isn’t ridiculously expensive I could be tempted to add to my library as I’d like a hard copy since I have it PS3 and Windows via download only, and the extra content hasn’t AFAIK had an English language release…
Adios gracias!
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So I was able to read A Kiss for the Petals a few weekends ago (How We Met) and while it was all right I was really expecting a bit more or just for the game to not feel like it ended so abruptly. It felt like a chapter was missing at the end.
It’s going to get balanced between Tales of Xillia 1, two Dynasty Warriors style games, and a new light novel series so progress is going to be really slow. 
As for Key VNs, I still haven’t gotten around to buying a copy of Kanon that I can play on a computer or portable gaming device (whether they are small hoops to jump through or not) with the translation patch. The voices won’t matter since the English dub is stuck in my head forever and that’s what my mind will be inserting into the game for voices anyway. Granted I haven’t thought about it much but it is something I would really like to do.
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I’ve been debating whether to respond to this post since you first posted… It’s honestly got nothing to do with what you said, it’s just that you talked about Korona, and she’s a character I have a few comments on. The reason I was conflicted on whether to reply or not is because I can’t talk about Korona without getting kind of personal about myself… but I guess it’s nothing outside of what I already mentioned in my life story post, so there’s no real point in not doing it.
A Sky Full of Stars Spoilers:
The internal conflict in this route is basically the story of my life. The story of Korona not having a dream of her own and the way it’s portrayed is eerily similar to my own life. If I may quote an excerpt from my life story post:
You can see the similarities. Because of this, Korona and her route had an overall larger emotional impact on my than they should, by any rights, have had. I consider this me relating to her in all the worst ways. I know first hand how… I don’t even know what the word is. Painful? Uncomfortable? - her troubles really are.
But there are some key differences between the two of us that really matter. You see, she did it to herself. She dug her own grave. I, on the other hand, didn’t have a choice. Of course she’s going to end up like that if she studies all day every day without any particular passion. In my case, I didn’t study, didn’t do my homework, and I even skipped assessment tasks all the time, but I still ended up in a situation, as I said before, where “I’ve always been able to accomplish anything I set my mind to, so there was never any meaning in me accomplishing anything.” I of course still sympathise with her and relate to her, but I also can’t help but think that she dug her own grave.
And secondly, the resolution. It kind of felt like a big “fuck you” to me. The way I’ve ended up dealing with my issues is, as I said in my life story post:
It’s a “dream” I’m perfectly happy with, but one I must admit I kind of had to resort to since I had no other options - no dream of my own. So the way Korona - the lucky bitch - finds a dream of her own to pursue rather than having to come to terms with herself and settle on the whole “dream” thing like I did, felt like a real slap across the face to me.
Again, I sympathise with her character and I like her character and her route. In a certain way, it speaks to me like nothing else ever has. And I actually ended up liking her character more after she found her own dream because, as I said “I’ve always thought that people with dreams – life goals - are amazing. They have what I lack. They seem radiant to me.” Two people without any life goals, at least one of which has a “dream” of helping someone else with their dream, won’t go together. It’s why I generally don’t like people who are too much like myself. Opposites attract and all that. But the conclusion of the route especially, gave me a bit of unwelcome emotional turmoil.
These things might come as dickish but know i didn’t mean them to.
I think dreams are not something you can just find by looking around easily. There can be thousand things in life that you dislike,100 things that you kinda like but that one thing for which you want to dedicate your time and fall in love with is something very rare, i call that thing dream.
Finding your dreams… dare i say depends more on luck. So as you quoted Korona was a lucky bitch. So fucking lucky to find the thing she can love all her life, so i also envy her. It’s human nature.
Now some a sky full of stars spoilers.
Korona did dig her own grave but i Kinda can’t blame her for that, she felt the responsibility to not disappoint her mother as i do for my father so i somewhat understand that.
That’s something displayed by both Korona and Akito. Korona at the start didn’t had her dream so she wanted to help Akito in his dreams. To help him look at the starts again, it was her source of happiness.
Akito also when korona discovered her dream of Radio astronomy helped her in achieving that, you can say that akito’s dream was also astronomy so it can be counted as his dream too but I think he was doing this more for Korona rather than himself.
I think we all end up helping someone in achieving their dream is a source of joy for us. seeing other people happy also makes us happy and it feels we accomplished something
Damm now i want to discuss my dreams(or the lack of them). Look away children this next section is full of depressing and uninspiring thoughts. Don’t let me ruin your beautiful life 
So i have no dreams. i do a lot of things but i have almost no passion for them. i only study so one day i can relive my father from his responsibility so it’s more like an obligation. When i was young i didn’t think about anything, i was content with messing around with people around me.Then in last two-three years of my life i became conscious about this dream thing. I became depressed every time i just thought about it. i don’t have any dream,what should i spend my life for that kinda depressing shit.
But then…One day i realized ‘does one need dreams to enjoy life?’. Up until now i have been enjoying my life without any worries. Why was that? It was because there were small enjoyable things in life. Talking with my friends and family is fun, studying and learning something amusing is fun, Reading VN’s is fun, talking to you guys and debating about shit is fun.
So then i reached the conclusion that even dreams are something which brings you joy in your life and i had these many little things, sure i wasn’t anywhere near about them as i would be for a dream but still as long as i can have these small jars of joy (sorry couldn’t help myself ) do i really need a dream?.
I guess if you had a dream you can feel like you accomplished in life before dying but i even without a dream can say that i enjoyed my life, i did the things i liked, i felt happy doing them and i had no regrets.
So i don’t need a dream.
i think i got a little sidetracked but anyway.
Lucid9
And another VN completed in my “rush to get through as many as I can before I expire” mode…
Firstly, this is a free to play VN from Steam or the writers own site and it took me about 16 hours to finish with the exception of one hard to get achievement. Seems that it was written by a team of VN enthusiasts based outside Japan but set in Japan, dialogue is English only without VA (there is a plan to add VA but they are having some problems).
It’s a bit hard to judge this one on its own as there is a sequel in production which will take up the story from a “cliffhanger” ending, it did leave the story in an intriguing place. It is roughly 50/50 split between slice of life High School (of course!) and murder mystery. There are some not too hard puzzles based on logic/deduction and choices leading to bad and good ends but no heroine routes. Achievements are on offer for getting certain puzzles correct without mistakes.
Story is reasonably paced although it seems to jump rather quickly to the final act, characters are good - a little tropey, but I think they’ve tried to have a bit of fun with the tropes ( protagonist + comedy sidekick, aloof girl, strange girl, daft girl, muscle idiot etc etc). The dialogue was all conceived obviously in English so no translation issues. If you can get past a slow first 90 mins or so where we get introduced to the characters and setting then it’s worth persevering with. Art/design is quite good and the music is rather atmospheric and varied with 37 different tracks (not sure if composed especially or not).
So nothing very innovative if you try to put aside the fact that it is gratis but definitely worth a look as what have you got to lose? I give it 7/10, and wait in hope for the sequel to appear this year.
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I was actually planning on rereading Hoshizora no Memoria (Hoshimemo), but then Symphonic Rain went on sale and I really really wanted to play the music minigame again - which is even more fun to me than OSU.
Symphonic Rain is in my top 10 of favorite VNs. If anyone feels like talking about it, chat me up.
Back then, I’ve played the minigame on normal difficulty and mastered every melody except for Fal’s theme, “Rain Musique” (now translated as Musique of Rain). On this playthrough, I’ll start with Lise’s route and play it on hard mode. It’s kinda tricky with a QWERTZ keyboard 
A bit of a curious comparison, since their release dates are whole 14 years apart. I do plan on playing Dal segno eventually, but I’m not in a hurry to do so since I’ve been told it’s more generic and less focused on story than the Da Capo series.
Speaking of Da Capo, I would normally have recommended skipping D.C. and getting straight to D.C. II and D.C. III. I promise they’re way more engaging than the first part. Now that you’ve entered the universe, you just HAVE to play through those two, @machelmore. The opinions which one’s better, II or III are divided. I’m in the D.C. III camp, but to be fair, both have great moments that outshine the other. I bet we’re gonna have a lot to talk about.
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There’s a bit of a story behind that I suppose… I actually read Dal Segno first, and when I eventually read Da Capo, expecting a lot since I kept seeing people (not on Kaza, elsewhere) say that Dal Segno didn’t live up to Da Capo, I was sorely disappointed. I was almost a little indignant, it was hard for me to believe that anyone could put Da Capo over Dal Segno. Looking at what you and Takafumi have said, I realise that they might have been talking about Da Capo the series, not specifically the original game, but there’s no doubt in my mind Dal Segno was better than the original Da Capo, so that’s why I made that comparison.
I’m just about to finish Princess Evangile, and under the recommendation of you and Takafumi, I guess I’ll read Da Capo 2 next. I’m looking forward to it.
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I just finished Da Capo 2… what to say about it…
I think I’ll frame it in comparison with Dal Segno, as I did with the original, because it’s a good way for me to exemplify my points. This does contain spoilers, but they’re marked and it can be read without them.
Now then… this one is a much closer battle than the last one. Both are in a rare class of VN where I’ve been so engaged in them that I’ve been able to just sit down and read them all the way through without any extended breaks of weeks or months. But, to start from the conclusion… I’m gonna have to give it to Da Capo 2 over Dal Segno after all. In fact, I’d have to say that D.C.2 is the best non-Key, non-07th VN I’ve ever read. Previously, the number of fictional stories that have made me cry had been three: Rewrite, Clannad and Little Busters… but I have to raise that number by one.
But to compare individual aspects:
Soundtrack, I’m still gonna just barely give to D.S.
Art is even. I can’t decide.
D.S. kicks D.C.2’s ass in engine, though that can’t really be helped. It’s still annoying though.
And as for story…
D.C.2 has higher highs and lower lows than D.S. Overall, the story was considerably better, but D.C.2 also fucked up in some crucial ways that prevent it from being as good as it could have been. Koko’s entire existence for one. Her character design is cheap, boring and plain. And to be frank, she’s drawn terribly as well. She has no personality, and her route is pretty much just some high school drama shit with little to no substance. Anzu’s route was amazing all the way through right until the end where it just went problemsolvedtheend without any method to the madness, and it killed my engagement. I’m referring to the fact that just as Yoshiyuki is about to leave, he gives Anzu her present and she remembers him all of a sudden for absolutely no reason. Nothing about him giving her a present should have such an effect. That one was a big issue for me. The way Wataru behaves in Nanaka’s route kind of ruined his character a little for me. The way he acts in Koko’s route is understandable, but he’s just being an unreasonable asshole for quite a bit of Nanaka’s route. We don’t get any real explanation of why Yoshiyuki is able to stay around in every route other than Yume’s and Otome’s. That final scene at the end of Sakura’s route also got under my skin. As far as I can tell, it’s just there to confuse you so that you want to read D.C.3 to find out what the fuck is going on, and it prevents D.C.2 from standing on it’s own as a story, which it could have done spectacularly without this one scene. Oh, and the way it handles routes and branches can be really messy at times. Things like characters having to explain the same thing to each other upwards of three times because of it. It’s not like Dal Segno never fucks up in somewhat similar ways, but it’s never so drastic, and the parts where it does are fewer and further between.
Another problem. I’d have to disagree with your suggestion @Naoki_Saten of skipping the first one. Even though the original was mediocre at best, I really doubt that D.C.2 would have had as much of an impact on me if I hadn’t read the original. Especially considering that Sakura was pretty much the only character I liked from the original. The problem with this is, you actually have to sit through the entire original to get the best out of the second one, which kind of sucks.
Still, I’m just a negative nancy tsundere, so feel free to ignore my criticisms of D.C.2, and just take away that it’s still amazing. Despite what it does wrong, it just does so many things right that it more than compensates for whatever weaknesses it has tenfold. 9/10.
Oh, but saying that D.S. doesn’t live up to Da Capo still isn’t really fair either. Sure, it’s at least not as good as D.C.2, and I don’t know about D.C.3, but it’s still solid, especially considering how terrible the original was by comparison.
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This is how I describe it. There are some amazing moments and there are some terrible moments. Sometimes the slice of life stuff will be the most boring scene you’ve ever read, and sometimes it’ll be a lot of fun. I really like some of the characters, and I really hate some of the other characters. It’s such a sporadic VN.
I still have fond memories of the ski trip arc though, as well as some of the big route moments. It’s easy to forget the boring stuff.
Well, I’m the kinda guy who wants all the background info and details to make sure I enjoy every part of a story to the max. But when it comes to recommending stuff, I have to weigh that info against the risk of people dropping the series before getting to the good part. It’s tricky
As I probably mentioned somewhere, part of what makes D.C. II so great to me is the fact that almost every route is great, even if its heroine isn’t. Koko is overall pretty boring, sooo~ they made the route not just about her, but the trials of friendship. Minatsu is one of the most annoying characters ever, but I would never have expected so much character development! The only route - and character - who did let me down was Otome. She didn’t do much beyond what was expected from her trope, and despite being the main heroine, thus sharing her route with the main story, well, I just didn’t feel it. The tools were there, but the execution just wasn’t on the same level as the other routes. I also agree on the account that Wataru’s shift from best buddy ever in Koko’s route to grand douchelord in Nanaka’s was very sudden and didn’t feel consistent.
About best girl Anzu, there’s a kind of a tricky part to the conclusion of her route. In a rare turn of events, the H-scene that happens after Anzu receives her birthday present actually carried a lot of significance to the story. When it started, the first thing I thought was “dammit, they ruined the mood with porn again”. But after getting through it, I had some lingering doubts. The scene did feel like it had a meaning. So I asked around and sure enough, good guy @Takafumi explained it: H-scenes in Visual Novels: Opinions and discussion . Basically, Anzu had received the last push she needed to remember the protag when their relationship became “complete”. It’s an interesting logic and I do think it was well-executed in this case. By the way, I went into the game fully expecting Nanaka to be my favorite heroine (She is a Shirakawa and all…) But Anzu’s personality, some of her scenes and especially the ski trip were sooooo sweet that I had to admit I was being too hasty.
Ohh, this is something I gotta ask not only @machelmore, but everyone who’s played D.C. II: What do you think about the saddest CG of the game, after standing Yume up at her birthday party? Just remembering it hits me like a truck
Yeah, I’m like that too. I at least was able to be pushed into reading D.C.2 after not liking the first one by you and Taka, though I can’t be sure that wasn’t because I already knew Circus could do good work, since I had already read Dal Segno. I can’t speak for whether I would’ve ever read D.C.2 if it hadn’t been for that, or the recommendations of you and Taka. It’s definitely tricky.
About Anzu’s route… From the moment the H-scene started I knew it would be relevant to getting her memories back, because I did remember their talk about the physical part of a relationship being important, but the scene where she actually does get her memories back is framed completely outside that of the H-scene. There was a bit of a time skip to show the two of them outside, and it was only as Yoshiyuki gave Anzu her present that her memories came back. The way it’s framed makes the two scenes seem like separate issues, and the timing is simply too convenient for my taste even if that is the entirety of the explanation.
In fact, simply by process of elimination, I’d have to give best route of the original four to Minatsu’s route. I thought Anzu’s was the best until, as I still maintain, they fucked up the ending. Nanaka’s ruined Wataru for me somewhat, who I really liked beforehand. Koko’s route I didn’t really like at all, mainly due to Koko herself. That just leaves Minatsu’s route, which, though it never reached the kind of peak Anzu’s route did, maintained a solid standard from beginning to end with a satisfying conclusion. And to be fair, I never particularly disliked Manatsu from the beginning or thought of her as annoying.
The ski trip in general was just unfair to Koko and Nanaka in how much better it was than the trial of courage.
They might have played her route a bit safe, sure, but it was solid all the way through with the best character theme (maybe behind Anzu’s), a bunch of good CGs, and without fucking up in any major way like they did in a number of the other routes.
It’s also cool to think about how the true route is framed as a retelling of Otome’s route, but if you just substitute a few minor scenes that have no impact on the greater narrative, it’s just as applicable to Yume’s route.
Overall Otome’s route might actually be my favourite barring the true route though. The
decision to kill the Everlasting Sakura Tree is such a harder thing to do than in Yume’s route, and it gets the original scene with Sakura and Yoshiyuki in the dream, which gave it a lot of points for me.
Speaking of Yume though, she might be my favourite heroine, and her route’s probably second only to Otome’s and the true route. She pulls of the light tsundere character almost perfectly, she actually manages to keep common sense in mind even when she gets emotional, and her character design might be my favourite too. She goes through some rough stuff and handles it so much better than Otome, I have to really give props to her character. If her route had the Sakura-Yoshiyuki scene/had been framed as the true route (and received the perks that go with it), it would undoubtedly be my favourite route behind Sakura’s version of the true route.
I wasn’t ready. I knew it would be bad, but wow that was more than I was expecting. Easily one of my favourite CGs in the game. When looked at out of context, it’s by far the most impactful CG in the game. Personally though, the CG that hit me hardest when you take context and meaning into account is the one of Sakura crying. I forgot to mention this in my original post, but the scene where I cried was in Sakura’s route’s retelling of the scene where she tanks Yoshiyuki for living with her. I thought it was so sad that she had to feel so grateful for such a mundane happiness. Why should she have to thank her own son just for living with her? When I thought about that, it really got to me. I really like it when VNs explore relationships other than just boyfriend-girlfriend, so the true route of D.C.2 really got to me. Getting back to the CG, I also think it really holds a candle to the Yume one in that it’s able to portray just as much emotion - and it’s also really impressive that they’re able to make it so obviously Sakura despite the fact that she’s missing her major defining features - her clothing, her hair tie, and most importantly by far, her long blonde hair. So yeah, I personally think that CG was the saddest, but both CGs are amazing in both emotional impact and artistic quality. Very impressive.
Maybe we should make a Da Capo series or Circus discussion topic… There’s already been quite a bit of conversation about it here recently, and I don’t think I’m even burned out of D.C.2 discussion, let alone D.C.3 which I just started.
