Touhou Gensokyo Visitor
If you’re a Touhou fan, the circular writing and explanations of the setting you’re already familiar with will probably bore you, if the characterizations and canon divergences don’t outright annoy or infuriate you. If you aren’t, I don’t know if this would be a compelling introduction to the series.
The art assets and occasional sparks of animation are quite good, but the VN as a whole is bland and long-winded. The focus is on a relationship that doesn’t have any depth or interest, between a cardboard cutout and an out-of-character Reimu. The game is riddled with typoes to boot, and this is after a typo-squashing patch.
– Real player with 6.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dating Sim Romance Games.
Not really sure what I just played, but I’m not regretting at giving it the time.
What I’ll commend the most is the visuals; the dynamic animations and art that are used with the character sprites and CGs were something that I wasn’t expecting from the get-go. They all look well-made, polished and up-to-date.
The new designs for the characters were mostly solid and pretty faithful to the original designs, save for a few; Not really a fan of Sakuya’s redesign and Cirno just looks … off, for some reason. Lastly, aren’t Yukari’s eyes violet instead of amber? I’m not sure.
– Real player with 5.9 hrs in game
Ninki Seiyuu: How to Make a Pop Voice Actress
This game exceeded my expectations by a mile, featuring some solid character writing with its development of the three main heroines. This, coupled with great supporting characters and pairings where both the MC and the girls work equally hard to succeed made for a very satisfying experience. Only minor complaint would be that one of its lovable supporting characters(Kaname) does not have a route of her own.
– Real player with 50.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dating Sim Multiple Endings Games.
This is a pretty good visual novel with a lot of passion. There are too many H-scenes in my opinion, and some of the expressions don’t change as much as they could in my opinion. The ambiance is well done in this story and the side characters are cast well. The manner in which the text displays the thoughts of characters aside from the protagonist can be confusing at first.
[Light spoilers about plot theme]
I will talk about how I believe the voice actresses were well chosen for their roles.
Kurusu probably has the most generically lovely voice out of voice actresses. In a way, her voice is the polished type that the anime industry wishes to utilize for female leads. She gets a lot of jobs because of this.
– Real player with 50.2 hrs in game
Spring Flower
Spring Flower is a “template flip”, that is to say, it’s a “game” that has been produced by copying a game template or using a game construction kit, and changing a few things. In this case it was a game construction kit/template for doing a simple jigsaw puzzle with less than a handful of low res images of Manga art girls. The developer here has done this over a dozen times now:
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Sweet Halloween
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My Sweet Ants
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Mystical Lights
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Cute Girls Love Books
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Otaku Club
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dating Sim Anime Games.
Cyberpunk Bar Sim
This Cyberpunk-styled game is inspired by the gameplay of Game Dev Tycoon and the aesthetic of VA-11 HALL-A, sci-fi, and lofi city beats!
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Explore a Sci-Fi city in a dystopian, cyberpunk future
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Manage your expenses, make drinks, and use social media to further your popularity and profits.
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Expand your reach to other industries by building or purchasing new businesses and companies.
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Meet and befriend your regulars as your popularity grows to learn about the personal lives of androids, noir detectives, augmented humans, and more in visual novel-style dialogues.
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Enjoy a selection of chill, jazzhop, and lofi beats!
Hotel Paris
The artwork and music is descent but I wouldn’t give it exceptionally high marks. The English translation isn’t great and feels a bit sloppy, at times it seems ok, but at other times it’s just blatantly distracting from the story. As for the story itself, it comes off feeling bland, with poorly developed characters and while there are some hints to a deeper story under the surface it simply fails to deliver. The story paths are too short and I feel that they could have had a much better story had they stuck to a more linear narrative and had focused more on story and character development. It comes off feeling rushed, like I read through an unedited rough draft. Even on sale I feel it’s a bit pricey for what it is. This game would need a huge amount of polish and added content and a significant improvement to the story to make me want to recommend buying it.
– Real player with 7.6 hrs in game
I was a little hesitant to buy this game but I enjoyed it. Most issues I had with this game come down to personal preferences. Id say the price is a bit high but I’ve paid more for worse, It’s basically a short, slice of life VN. It didnt blow my socks off or anything, but I also didn’t rage quit. For whatever that’s worth.
Ok… After another playthrough I noticed a few things that were a bit sloppy. Like the MC and RO sometimes shows the wrong person.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Pandemic Love
Just finished each path for each route, and I’ve loved this VN. Obviously the pandemic has been pretty shitty overall, but there’s a silver lining to everything, and I think that it’s so cool what’s changed as a result of it. With VNs, it’s fascinating to see new ones made about the pandemic, and it’s so interesting to see new approaches to VNs that wouldn’t have been possible before. I think Pandemic Love is a great example of that unique quality. I laughed, cried, grinned like an idiot at parts, and everything in between. Thank you, so much, to Red Skald for giving rise to this game! As somebody who wasn’t too hard-hit by the pandemic, it’s also a great wake-up call to, not just read in a news article, but actually play something that gives life to what happened in Bergamo, and other places like it. Overall, I’m glad as hell for this game.
– Real player with 19.3 hrs in game
Red Skald does it again.
It’s hard to believe that three years have already passed since first discovering the hidden gem “Find someone else” in the Steam visual novel library, but here we are. That is a game that moved me in unexpected ways, as someone who deals with chronic illness and death anxiety. So much has changed since then, but Pandemic Love feels like returning home in many ways. For one thing, the artwork, tone, and general vibe of both games is noticeably similar - though certainly not identical. It stands to reason that if you enjoyed the former, this is not one to miss.
– Real player with 6.3 hrs in game
Women of Xal
This game has so many layers to it… the plot twists… the stakes riding on your decisions! I am in awe. I went through so many ““bad”” endings to get to the ‘true’ good ending but having to work for that ending made it so much more satisfying. Not to mention that the ““bad”” endings still had brilliant content, and I enjoyed playing each time as there are so many different decisions to make. And so many people to woo…. heart eyes
– Real player with 31.4 hrs in game
Feminist brain: This is an excellent use of the visual novel format with amazingly complex worldbuilding, distinctive characters who are easy to love (or hate, as the case may be), and while the dream-dropping doesn’t seem to be integrated into the game so far it’s an interesting concept I’d like to see. All in all, I’m very much looking forward to the finished product.
Queer brain: hehe purdy ladies
– Real player with 24.6 hrs in game
After Meeting
It’s basically a matching game. I enjoyed going through it, but knowing what kind of game it was would have been helpful. You’re just trying to find which objects are similar or themed similarly.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
IxSHE Tell
Ixshetell….was a bit confused by the title at first but then I realized it meant to say aishiteru (I love you in Japanese) lmao, nice play on word. To be honest I don’t know what I was expecting when I bought this VN (other than that it will probably a slice of life story) from a glance it looks interesting so I decided to give this a shot.
Now about the game
The theme of this VN is high school slice of life, so you should know what sort of VN you’re jumping into. You play as a student council president who wishes to lift the ban on romance at your school and you successfully lifted it hurray for you! And just after you lifted it you got confessed by 5 gurls (wtf I know, this is not how it works lmao) confused, you decided to get to know each of them first before deciding which girls to go out with. That’s pretty much the prologue of the VN in a nutshell haha.
– Real player with 63.7 hrs in game
First thing’s first, there are lots of things I like about the game. The whole atmosphere is really something that just takes me in right from the getgo, starting with the beautiful art with the drop dead gorgeous backgrounds, the music and the overall lighthearted tone of the game. While neither of the characters really shine during the common route (but because neither of them get any special treatment it’s also a good thing), they’re all well established and all likeable pretty much right from the getgo. The jokes aren’t always the funniest, they usually make you smile rather than straight up laugh out loud, though it did happen occasionally. The “story”, which is basically just about lifting up the 100 year old ban on romance in a school as the student council president and 5 girl confessing their love to him immediately is something very simple, but because the writers obviously knew the target audiance, it works really well and it’s enjoyable.
– Real player with 45.8 hrs in game
U-ena -Far fireworks-
U-ena is free visual novel game made in Japan. You can read the story that unfolds around the mysterious phenomenon of distant fireworks.
Story
―Far fireworks―
That flash orange and white in the sky, and bloom blue flower at the end.
This celestial event has recently begun to appear and people call that “Far fireworks.”
The story is set in nondescript rural junior high scool.
Tomoki belong to a club that mix literatureclub and tea ceremony club.
That called “Kotonoha Circle.”
It was the night he saw Far fireworks. He meets soaked girl in the center of lake.
He spend usual days with Yuena and club president of Kotonoha Circle,
Utano Shinonome,but suddenly accelerated unreality approaches the peaceful reality.
An unreal secret that approaches when you meet someone you thought you couldn’t meet.
― ■■ in the world.
Even if taking her hand will eventually change the world, I am ー.
A summer seem to prolong the moment cross between two people for all eternity.
I’m still praying in the sky that time should continue forever.
Character
Yuena
“Not Yuena-san, Yuena."
A girl met a boy when have been getting soaked in the fountain.
Afterward she was transferred to Tomoki’s school.
She likes to eat and always looking forward
to tha sweets Utano Shinonome brings.
She is frank to everyone and can’t feel out the situation.
According to her, she has some work to do.
Utano Shinonome
“Of course. I’m grateful for you."
She is club president of Kotonoha Circle and Tomoki’s senior at school.She comes club room faster than anybody, and likes looking of Tomoki coming club room.
She is beautiful girl that everyone admits, and respected in school,
but is not at all concerned it.
She is always a guiding principle for Tomoki.
She likes universe, is curious about unidentifiable riddle of Far fireworks.