??_?
From your list in the first post, I’ve played only the following games:
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Snow Sakura: standard school comedy, funny, nice characters. I’d give it a 7/10.
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Yume Miru Kusuri: quite dark in theme and atmosphere, talks about three girls with serious problems and how you help them reach a better life. I’d give it a 8/10.
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Tsukihime: it’s just me (really, just me), but I didn’t like the game. Fact is, it’s the last Type-Moon title I came in contact with, so I found it too similar no FSN and Kara no Kyoukai. If you play this first, it will probably be the other way around. I’d give it a 6/10.
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FSN: really, really good, but also really really long (40+ hours, maybe 50+). The story it’s all about combat and magic, so if you don’t like the genre you should probably search for something else. Still, one of the best VN currently available in English. I’d give it a 9/10.
You should also check out Demonbane (JAST), and Kira Kira and Kara no Shoujo (Mangagamer). There are many good games coming in the next months, too - Yumina and Saya no Uta are definitely two games you should check out, and School Days, My Girlfriend is the President and Eien no Aselia should be good too.
Check out Yume Miru Kusuri for starters…
Also, Family Project/Kazoku Keikaku, haven’t played it yet; but it is probably what you’re looking for.
If you’re loving them, and want to try some action get G-senjou no Maou/Devil on the G-string next… (available currently at j-list at a high price) The setting is real world with a great story… (an excellent fan-translation is available)
And, from MangaGamer, you might see if KiraKira or Edelweiss interests you.
If you like dark detective stuff, check Kara no Shoujo.
EDIT: just browse this thread and choose the best sounding novels… you probably can’t go wrong 
Arcticpulse, it seems we have the exact same tastes when it comes to visual novels. I’ll weigh in on the titles brought up in this thread that I’ve fully completed and offer a few links to authentic copies of the titles that are still on the market.
- My personal favorite Visual Novel, outranking Fate / Stay Night, Phantom of Inferno, Family Project, and countless others (seriously, I’ve lost count of how many I’ve finished). Although a single playthough is on the short side (you can earn almost any ending in about 4 hours), the characters are down-to-earth and realistic, and their plights are easy to empathize with. Odds are quite high that you’ll be choking up by the end. Completing Kana ~Little Sister~ is a prerequisite to fully enjoying Cresendo - there is an extended homage in Kaori’s route that will very likely make you cry. This title isn’t for everyone; if you have a low tolerance for drama, you might want to look elsewhere (since you enjoyed Narcissu, I’m sure this one is right up your alley).
- A rite-of-passage title among the visual novel fans that easily earns its place on many Top Ten lists. Countless titles shamelessly attempt to rip it off, but none have succeeded - and their failures have led newcomers to label the original as trite and cliche without even knowing what it’s actually about. Kengo Yonekura’s art style doesn’t sit well with me at all, but the story and characters more that make up for it. The spiritual predecessor to Crescendo (created by the same developers, though not the same authors or artists), Kana is renowned for bringing the most manly of men to tears. Romeo Tanaka later went on to write Yume Miru Kusuri, Cross Channel, and Family Project.
- Another of my favorites that examines what it means to love someone as well as what we really mean by the word “soulmate”. A few people have complained about the odd art style (I’m not one of them). The main characters are incredibly well-fleshed-out; unfortunately, some of the characters are clearly tacked-on. Although the game is sold out, it has been re-released as a digital download. If you’re lucky enough to find a physical copy somewhere like Amazon or eBay, pick it up!
Piece of Wonder
- An amateur visual novel / strategy RPG hybrid with low productions values that somehow managed to recruit high-profile voice actors. I was severely underwhelmed by this title; the characters were relatively cliche and only one of the routes actually felt worthwhile. The art is passible, but the battle graphics are downright atrocious (comparable to Team 17’s original Worms). Not recommended.
Hourglass of Summer (Alternate link)
- I wouldn’t say it’s “liquid gold”, but the game is quite good nonetheless. Since Hirameki no longer exists, you’ll have to rely on Amazon or eBay to grab a copy. You’re in luck - while scalpers were charging $60-$100 for the game before, a handful of people are offering new copies for around $10-$20 (see the above links).
Heart de Roommate
- A visual novel styling itself like a harem anime sitcom (think Tenchi Muyo or Love Hina). Personally, I think it’s quite overrated - the characters are one-dimensional and the “twist” ending is rather formulaic (not to mention an untranslated line leads quite a few people to think the epilogue is a lot more depressing that it really is). The “next-episode trailers” aren’t translated, either. I wouldn’t say it’s not worth checking out, but there are many better titles out there.
- Calling this title just “good” is a disservice; it’s a truly remarkable piece of fiction well-grounded in reality. Easy-to-relate to characters, a story that grabs you by the heart, and appropriately farm-and-fuzzy or heart-rending endings. Some of the sex scenes feel a little excessive, but, even then, they’re justified in the story since they flesh out the characters’ thoughts at that point in time. From the author of Kana, Cross Channel, and Family Project. You can check out the official English demo here.
Tsukihime
- The premise may sound odd, but trust me when I say this is an incredible visual novel. Think about it for a moment: a group of amateurs wrote a novel which spawned a series of spinoffs, two anime series, a manga adaptation, and allowed the group to become a successful commercial VN developer. Although I prefer Fate / Stay Night, Tsukihime is very well-written and easily recommendable. Good luck finding a copy, though - the game has been out-of-print for a long time.
- Think Tsukihime with high production values and success that even Capcom and Aksys Games can’t deny. My #3 favorite visual novel to date, outranked only by Crescendo and Phantom of Inferno. Incidentally, the author, Kinoko Nasu, is clearly a Gen Urobuchi fanboy - the similarities in writing style are obvious (and awesome - Urobuchi is amazing when it comes to writing action scenes). At times thought-provoking, tear-jerking, and jaw-dropping, it’s easy to recommend to pretty much anyone.
Phantom of Inferno (Alternate link)
- An well-written story about crime and redemption. It has spawned two anime adaptations, Phantom: The Animation and Requiem for the Phantom. Phantom: The Animation is a terrible OAV that misses the point of the story; Requiem for the Phantom, on the other hand, stays quite faithful to the source material and is all the better for it. My #2 favorite visual novel for the pen of Gen Urobuchi (who also wrote Song of Saya and Hanachirasu). You can buy the game together with The Animation at RightStuf, and you can watch the entirety of Requiem on Funimation’s YouTube channel (watch the first three episodes - if you like 'em, you’ll love the game).
Family Project ~Kazoku Keikaku~
- A good but admittedly quite overrated sitcom (“The greatest visual novel of all time”? You’ve got to be kidding me…) that examines what it really means to be a family. Quite clearly the inspiration for Clannad. I’m anti-censorship, so if you would like to check this one out, make sure you Google the decensor patch (JAST’s censorship undermines a character’s feelings of desperation and hopelessness in a particular scene, which I feel is inexcusable). While Family Project is pretty good, Romeo Tanaka has written objectively better works like Kana, Cross Channel, and Yume Miru Kusuri; Family Project may be the most accessible of the bunch, but it’s by no means the best (it’s just the most popular…).
- Another good visual novel sitcom; this one is, in my opinion, much better than Family Project. Likeable characters (for the most part), but the story is a tad too melodramatic at times. It’s worth picking up nonetheless.
- Great characters, great music, great plot twists. The fan-translators went the extra mile to turn one of the driest parts of the original story and turn it into one of the most memorable. Jun Fukuyama makes a great villain. The ending will definitely leave you thinking. Incidentally, winner of the Best Bishoujo Game award for 2008 (and deserves it).
Cogwheel Country, Sunflower Girl (Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo)
- Spiritual predecessor to The Devil on G-String with Norio Wakamoto in a truly memorable role. If you can find it, it’s worth picking up.
Cross Channel
- A thoughtful look at mental illness from the eyes of those afflicted by it. From the pen of Romeo Tanaka (…do I need to repeat what else he’s written by now? ^_^;). If you can find it, you know what to do.
- Song of Saya = Gen Urobuchi’s take on H. P. Lovecraft (translation: superb psychological horror). Hanachirasu = modern-day revisionist-history samurai drama with great action scenes and sophisticated characters. I think Saya is the better of the two, but both are worth picking up at that price.
- Great modern-day sci-fi story with likeable characters and an unforgettable plot twist. Too bad scalpers charge an arm and a leg for it (seriously, $180!?).
That should me more than enough for a start. I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth by commenting on a title I’ve never finished, but there are dozens upon dozens of titles I’ve completed I haven’t mentioned here. Feel free to ask me or anyone else here if you’d like details on a particular title if what you find on VNDB or Google doesn’t satisfy your curiosity.
Here ($200 though, hahaha, consider using amazon+intermediary. From my point of view Sharin is worth $200 but you can definitely find it at a lower price)
I won’t give any recommendations because other people are probably more up to speed on what’s translated, but I totally second Sharin, G-Senjou and Cross Channel.
That link is to… the fan disc right? You can get the main game for ($105) : Here also from Paletweb.
I actually made a request on Paletweb for the fan disc when it was out of stock… and they got it in! … For 200$… Needless to say it’s still up there and the price hasn’t changed ><
Oh fff, so it is, wasn’t paying attention >_>
Lex beat me to it. Yeah, that’s Eternal Children (Yuukyuu no Shounenshoujo) - the fandisc - and not Sunflower Girl (Himawari no Shoujo). It’s supposedly required reading if you enjoy the main story, but most feel it’s not worth $200 (I’ve only read Masaomi’s story so far, so I have to reserve my judgement on the accuracy of that statement).
You can also grab a second-hand copy of Sunflower Girl (Himawari no Shoujo) at PaletWeb for $89.99 (versus $104.99 new). Importing games is pretty expensive, so these prices are unfortunately par for the course (plus shipping - on the positive side, I’ve never had to pay Customs with PaletWeb).
More often than not, official English releases are preferable; they’re cheaper and (usually) uncensored. As I recall, MangaGamer approached AkabeiSoft2 to work out a licensing deal, but they weren’t interested. Shame…
I wouldn’t call the translation of G-string or Sharin translation EXCELLENT. Just look at all those 4chan memes.
Ah right…
-Clannad
-Kanon
-Little busters
You can probably find these on J-list.
Yeah- I’ve only seen snippets of both translations, but when I think excellent I think stuff like AstCd2’s translation of ONE, not… anyway, they’re still excellent games, mediocre translation or otherwise.
there are alot of good one i would say 1/3 of jast’s collective titles are good as well as at least 1/2 of mangagamers stuff
My takes, based on titles that I have as of right now …
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Crescendo: A decent title for a beginner. Its storylines are not that long, so they will not tire you out. Depending on with whom the protagonist becomes closer, it has varied flavors, ranging from high-school (Kaho, Kyoko) to adult (Kaori) relationship.
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Kana Imouto: A classic. If you are new to visual novels, definitely grab this one. Does an excellent job in making the reader feeling like a big brother who is smothered by emotions of hope, sadness, and eventually desperation while taking care of frail little sister. Kana suffers from chronic renal deficiency which eventually becomes fatal and she eventually realizes her hopeless condition.
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Yume Miru Kusuri: Another classic. Three different themes in one package: School bullying (Aeka), letting life drift aimlessly (Mizuki), and drug use (Nekoko).
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Private Nurse: The game package is misleading. This one is not at all about getting kinky with a naughty nurse! One of the story branches (Maria’s storyline) kind of feels like going through a fairy tale in which the protagonist eventually realizes that life becomes better as he throws off his shell. However, life is also bittersweet – he cannot hold onto happiness all to himself (As Hiroki realizes about the nature of Maria, he becomes fearful of losing her, but end up accepting the fact that he has to let her go.).
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Kazoku Keikaku (Family Project): Takes a while to finish. Has some interesting characters with unique histories – Hiroshi tops the list (!!!), followed by Aoba. This one is about a group of strangers trying to survive together, despite their differences, by pretending to belong to a family but this fiction becomes rather serious towards the end.
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Heart de Roommate: Its episodic arrangement makes it slow down to a crawl, although the overall storylines are not that long. Relatively light-hearted, but does contain a bit of sadness – Asumi has a terminal illness which only she and her family knows about and is not revealed to the protagonist until at the end, Tomoe has been heart-broken from the betrayal from her first love, and Marumu suffered from a serious accident which resulted in her lack of emotions.
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Little My Maid: This one can be a bit tough or tricky to finish. Key choices are not as intuitive as above titles. Somewhat squeaky if you are not into disturbing stuffs – you have to get involved in kinky and bondage scenes to get a girl, but you will end up empty-handed if you maintain decency! There are something like 12 different endings, some are good and others are not so good, but pain in the rear-end to get all of them without a walkthrough guide.
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Hitomi My Stepsister: Another title that does not take long to finish. (Although I have only completed two endings so far – Yoko’s … watch out for the kitchen knife!!! Aaaaaaaargh!) Although the protagonist does not start out as someone with issues, the story becomes disturbing soon after his stepmom and stepsister move in. For those who like having disturbing characters, this title may fit the bill – Yoko is outwardly friendly and attractive but looks can be quite deceiving, while the protagonist is outwardly a typical high school loner but shows kinky and even abusive sides with Hitomi.
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Come See Me Tonight: This is one of the titles that contain harem options. Other than the potential harem part, the rest of the story seem rather ordinary. The protagonist starts out as a high school kid who has just been abandoned by his parents and must start a new life while working for his aunt’s restaurant. His aunt wants to groom him into a future master chef to continue the business and wants him to marry one of her three daughters. I suppose he has some hard decisions to make … (I have just started this one.)
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Cosplay Fetish Academy: I have yet to install this one. We shall see …
Based on the collection that I have accumulated so far, I would recommend the first four to a beginner.
I agree that Private Nurse is a great game; I didn’t mention it in my list of recommendations because I didn’t feel it was the best introduction to the genre. Maria’s mystical narration, in my opinion, is pretty corny; many important lines are left untranslated (including the entirety of Maria’s epilogue); the routes themselves are unbalanced (Maria’s is too long, Mio’s is too short, Ayano’s is just right), the game is physically out-of-print, and the random scene generator makes finding 100% of the event CGs a royal pain. On the positive site, the music is great, the atmosphere is perfect, and Ayano’s route is extremely well-done (I’ve praised the title quite a bit in a few other topics). A great title to pick up (it’s one of my personal favorites), but I don’t think it’s as accessible or appealing as the others I mentioned.
In unrelated news, I’ve finished the Sharin fandisc, and, while I agree that it’s not worth $200, I was able to special-order it from J-List for a more reasonable $110. Now, if I could only find new physical copies of A Profile, Yu-No, Muv-Luv / Alternative, Sharnoth, Katahane, Quartett, Canvas 2, Swan Song, Farland Symphony, Symphonic Rain, Aoishiro, Wanko to Kurasou, and Gadget Trial… PaletWeb has a used copy of Canvas 2, but I’m iffy about paying full price for a used game…
I’m a consumer whore, aren’t I? 
A full-voice version of Sharnoth is being released soon. Canvas 2, Katahane and Wanko to Kurasou are available for dlsales. Canvas 2 is still available in package form for around that price, but Katahane and Wanko to Kurasou have been out of print for several years and factoring shipping and other expenses in, would probably cost you a minimum of 300% more than the dl price more for a used copy, and 500% more for a new copy.
Much appreciated.
Will Amaterasu be tweaking Sharnoth to be compatible with the full-voice reissue? If so, that’s certainly something to look forward to, especially seeing as I recently picked up a physical copy of Inganock.
I have a few concerns about the DLsite links, though, and I need to be sure of the answers before I can commit to a purchase or three. Otherwise, I’ll just be throwing money away (even so, I’ll admit that those are very attractive price points):
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Do the games contain DRM? If so, what kind? My gaming laptop is strictly offline, and if I can’t play a particular game on it, I just don’t buy it, plain and simple. This is a non-negotiable point for me, I’m afraid.
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Are the respective English translation patches compatible with these versions of the games? There’s no point in picking them up if I won’t be able to read them - I’m better off redoubling my efforts and asking my Japanese-literate friends to help me find physical copies with which I know I’ll be able to enjoy the games in English.
If anyone has purchased any of the above titles from DLsite, I’d love to hear from them. I’d much prefer owning official pressings of the game (note that I said “new physical copies” in my earlier post), but I’m fine with a do-it-yourself solution - some publishers include a high-resolution copy of a game’s boxart with the digital release specifically for this reason.
On a tangentially-related note, I own all six Humble Indie Bundles (one gifted, five purchased), so I’m not opposed to digital releases per se; I just won’t bother with digital releases I can’t actually run.
Canvas and Wanko do, Canvas doesn’t.
No idea. They probably are- it typically depends on how the DRM is implemented, but most of the time companies are lazy when it comes to per-game DRM and don’t bother encrypting the files with the same DRM scheme in which case:
- if the translation doesn’t require executable modification it will probably work
- if the translation provides a new game exe it will probably work
- if the translation attempts to patch the exe with a diff it won’t work
There’s also the chance of getting in contact with the translators and persuading them to release a translation patch for the DL sales version. They would be more likely to do this if you are able to provide the information about the differences between versions necessary for such a project. This will hopefully encourage more people to get the game in question.
I have never seen an eroge dl sales site do this, although I’m happy to be presented with counterexamples. They do sometimes pack in scans of omake packaged with the original release though, but emphasis on ‘sometimes’.
“Good Bishoujo games”? http://www.moe-gameaward.com has the answer:
http://www.moe-gameaward.com/2011/index.html
Truly a pity I’m NOT buying even one of these “Good Bishoujo games” :lol: …
These awards are sponsored by Sofrin, and are hence limited to titles that have been rated by them, thus ruling out many major companies like Nitro+, Alice Soft etc. etc. as well as doujin works. It seems to be mainly a self-promotional exercise for them (why else would there be categories for PG??) as opposed to something that offers a reasonable evaluation of the year’s best titles.
I have no idea why Aiyoku no Eustia was totally snubbed though (it is Sofurin right?- no CSA logo at the start*)- while Grisaia of course had better story etc., Aiyoku really seemed like a shoe-in for best art. I can’t agree with Kamikaze Explorer winning that prize at all, not while that artist still keeps drawing lifeless eyes. (then again, even Hareten was snubbed for best art =P)
For reference, my favourite 3 games of 2011 so far are (although there’s still titles I have to play / finish, like Mugen Renkan and Midori no Umi):
- Grisaia no Kajitsu
- Rewrite
- Koi de wa Naku
EDIT: Plus, of course, WHITE ALBUM 2 CLOSING CHAPTER isn’t out yet so of course I can’t make a ‘best games of 2011’ list >_>
*EDIT 2: Okay, AUGUST is sofurin, according to Wikipedia. Now I have no idea what’s going on.
Hareten’s not in this list because it was released in November and the cut-off for 2011 seems to be the August releases. Although incidentally, I don’t see Steal My Heart in the list of eligible 2010 titles, so maybe Palette’s not part of this. It’s very odd that AUGUST are missing too… perhaps the only explanation is that there’s some sort of fee involved to participate, as the voting cards that come in the package are unlikely to be provided for free by Sofrin.