Visual Novel Reading Club | Now Reading メモリーズオフ

[Legato]

@暁のルナ

This can be really productive… It’s not really different than having a fully voiced game. Plus you’re getting the additional comprehension practice from whatever comments they’re making

Yeah! Utawarerumono is already fully voiced, but the “making it fully voiced” thing is e.g. why Korone playing Meg’s Monster in Japanese is on my list. (Not a VN, but plenty of text.)

And maybe Roberu playing 風雨来記4 at some point.

@shitsurei

but I’m still lazy with the text hooker

Haha. Me too, a bit. Having to start three things (Textractor, text hooker and the game) instead of one and having to readjust things always felt like a chore.

But! Not using text hooker and having to look up things manually feels like a much, much bigger chore to me, so…

@Marifly

Let’s get some nominations for VNs with vtuber videos.

Oh god, what have I done

I feel like a problem with this approach might be that you don’t just need to like the VN, but also vtubers in general and the playing vtuber specifically. Otherwise it could get annoying to have running, unwanted commentary.

But I guess, like you said, there’s always the option of participants just choosing to play for themselves instead.

[暁のルナ]

previous conversation

@Legato

But I guess, like you said, there’s always the option of participants just choosing to play for themselves instead.

As long as people can do that, and you have someone to delineate where the scheduled section breaks are for ppl not watching the videos, I think it’s fine. But also I don’t think it should be a requirement.

@Marifly

Let’s get some nominations for VNs with vtuber videos.

Could we actually get a dedicated Nominations List comment as well

I have a few I’ll nominate today as well. Btw a lot of these are probably on sale on Steam rn, cuz it’s summer sale there I think

I’ve made this into an informal Nominations list, and making it a wiki (so anyone can edit)

Nominations template: Visual Novel Reading Club | Voting until July 27 - #35 by Natsuha

Current Nominations:

• ナツノカナタ
• FLOWERS -Le volume sur printemps-
• Chaos:Child
• Island
• 嘘から始まる恋の夏
• Fuyukara, Kururu
• A Tithe in Blood 〜血の契り〜
• カタハネ- An’ call Belle -
• Memories Off
• STEINS;GATE

Has club:

• Seabed

Already read:

• Marco & Galaxy Dragon
• Higurashi no naku koro ni
• Christmas Tina ‐泡沫冬景‐ / Christmas Tina: Ephemeral Views of Winter

Mentioned but not nominated:

• Ace Attorney
• Utawarerumono
• Digimon survive

Has club on Wanikani:

• Island
• Flowers

[shitsurei]

@暁のルナ

@Legato

there’s always the option of participants just choosing to play for themselves instead.

As long as people can do that, and you have someone to delineate where the scheduled section breaks are for ppl not watching the videos, I think it’s fine. But also I don’t think it should be a requirement.

I think it’d probably be easier to just vote on the VN as if we were playing it and then for people to suggest streamers that they find/know of. I’m kinda thinking like when someone listens to the audiobook for a book club that most people are reading how they can post time stamps… then we don’t have to complicate things more by needing to like a game and the streamer… I’m almost certainly going to find a stream for if people here start a new VN soon because one of my learning goals is to watch more let’s plays anyway…

[暁のルナ]

Title: 嘘から始まる恋の夏 (UsoNatsu ~The Summer Romance Bloomed From A Lie)
Platform: PC

Uso kara Hajimaru Koi no Natsu

Story Summary

“Love can so easily turn people into liars.”

On a hill overlooking the sea is Minatocho’s Aoba Dai-ichi High School.

One night, 2nd year student, Tachibana Kaoru is completely heartbroken by her middle school homeroom teacher, Shimotsuki Mirei.

That scene is also seen by Minagi Shiori, a model student who is also in Kaoru’s class.

In state of despondence, Kaoru opens up to Shiori about her past with Mirei.

After listening intently to Kaoru’s story, Shiori, with a mysterious air about her, poses a question.

“Instead of forgetting someone you cared about… do you think it’s possible to simply overwrite those memories with different ones?”

“I’m not sure if it’s truly possible or not, but I might have to try something like that if I’m going to get over her.”

With that, Shiori suddenly makes a surprising request to Kaoru:

“I need you to help me forget about my older brother.”

It is a request to overwrite the memories of her older brother by going through a tour of her past memories.

Shiori has always wanted to live up to the standard of excellence that her older brother embodied,

but as she held a career counseling sheet in her hand, she realizes that she no longer made decisions for herself.

“Sure, okay. But how?”

Kaoru is enthusiastic about this “tour of memories” that she will go on with Shiori.

She too wants to forget about her teacher, who was her first crush.

Their relationship is then discovered by Inohara Riku, a fellow classmate who also harbors feelings for Shiori.

And so the curtain rises on this sometimes slapstick fun as well as poignant love story.

Note: the story takes place in high school (not middle school), in case that was unclear from the description

Language difficulty: Intermediate(?)
Average Game Length: 16h52m
Hookable: No idea
Voiced Audio: spoken lines are voiced
Spoken Lines Replayable: Yes
Playthrough: VTuber
Trigger Warnings: child abuse, domestic violence, heroine with psychological problems (probably depression, not sure)

[Marifly]

How long do you usually leave nominations open before voting? A couple of weeks or more?

[Marifly]

Thanks for putting up this list!

@暁のルナ

Island Visual Novel Reading Club | Open for nominations - #59 by Natsuha

We read this as a club at Wanikani. I don’t know if that should disqualify it here or not?

[暁のルナ]

I don’t think it should disqualify - entirely different community with only partial member overlap. Even if one has already read something, reading with a different group of people might be of interest. Of course if someone doesn’t want to vote for something bc they already read it, that’s fair.

Like Flowers also already had a club there as well, but I’d be thrilled to read it with ppl here as well

[shitsurei]

I feel like it’s usually a week or two, but it depends on the club and how active it is. I don’t know if this club had any official rules, and it’d probably be fine to adjust them if you wanted to.

[Marifly]

OK, then let’s leave Flowers and Island where they are.

@暁のルナ

entirely different community with only partial member overlap

True. Thanks for the reminder!

@shitsurei

I feel like it’s usually a week or two, but it depends on the club and how active it is.

Let’s keep nomination open until Sunday July 20th. On Monday July 21st we can start voting.

[earwen]

Can we nominate VNs with sexual content, and no all ages version available in some platforms? The next vn I wanted to read is nsfw and while it’s more plot focused for sure there is no all ages version available on pc. The console versions are all ages.
Actually I’ll just post the nomination and it can be disqualified if not allowed.

Fuyukara, Kururu.

vndb
length: 20 hrs
genre: mystery, sci-fi, yuri, linear (no routes), school
voice: voiced, including protag. only narration is not voiced.
spoken lines: replayable
language difficulty: I played the prologue, and I’d say its intermediate. Though it might get harder later on.
playthrough: I found a couple incomplete ones but this one seems to be complete
synopsis: I heard people call the synopsis on vndb spoilery, so I will put it under a tag. My non-spoilery version from what little I read: sci-fi future with only women, all-girls school murder mystery. There seem to be trans and yuri elements.

Summary

“Eh?
What do you mean that Shihon-chan might die?
Eeh? Shihon-chan’s head has gone missing?”

It seems Shihon-chan’s headless body was found in the meditation room.

A murder isn’t unusual, after all, there’s at least one bloodthirsty killer at school.
Murdering people is fine and all but it’s considered a taboo that must be never violated to decapitate and hide their head because one can never be revived if so.
If her head isn’t found within two days, she’ll really kick the bucket!

A boarding system school isolated from the outside world, and there do the immortal girls live.
The time it takes for them to become an adult is the same time it takes for them to deage and become a baby, they grow up until they become an adult once more and then do they deage again⁠—a cycle that’s being repeated.

There’s only one condition in order to graduate from school: one needed to be deemed a prodigy by someone observing from the outside. The moment that verdict be handed down, the girl’s graduation would be recognized and she would disappear from school.

The immortal girls’ peaceful school life would be greatly disturbed by a certain murder case.

why I’m recommending it: I read the prologue recently and was immediately intrigued by the setting and really want to get back to it - the only reason I haven’t is being busy with life. I’ve also heard a lot of praise for harukuru which had an english release, and this is the same series (not same world, or direct sequel though). Although I have to note the game was immediately extremely horny , I’m not sure how the console version deals with that.

[暁のルナ]

@earwen

Can we nominate VNs with sexual content, and no all ages version available in some platforms?

Imo that should be allowed (and personally there’s other types of content I’m more likely to be bothered by). I think most games have a fast forward or skip function anyway, so worst case, someone could just FF through the scene(s)

Notes I saw about the particular one you nominated:

• H-scenes are very long and redundant
• Sometimes, this game requires an absolutely insane amount of GPU computing power. If your graphic card is not the top ones, you may get a very low FPS for about 1-2% of the playing time.

(Personally I’m somewhere btwn “it sounds fascinating” and “I might not really wanna play that”… I’ll probably give the playthrough vid a try, if it wins)

[暁のルナ]

A Tithe in Blood 〜血の契り〜

A Tithe in Blood

Platform: PC (Steam or download. Physical version is estimated to ship mid-July) - Win, Mac, and Linux

Summary (short)

As a reserved and unassuming university student in snow-bitten Hokkaido, the personal tragedy which visited Honoka Asakawa would lead to her experimentation in a magical art thought long-lost — blood magic. Unexpectedly able to visit the sealed world of Meiji-era Sapporo, Honoka’s quickly taken under the wing of the cheerful and bright Lady Yasue, a powerful mage who’s remained in this gilded cage for a century.

As their feelings for each other develop, the true repercussions of Honoka’s first steps into the secret world of magic and mages are only just starting to play out, eventually leading to catastrophic consequences.

Note: this is from a small yuri studio that usually makes game in English, but they produced a full Japanese version for this

Language difficulty: Advanced(?)
Average Game Length: 7h25m
Hookable: No idea
Voiced Audio: spoken lines are voiced
Spoken Lines Replayable: Yes
Playthrough: VTuber
Trigger Warnings: gore (filterable), attempted suicide, possession, bloody scenes

Notes: JP version may not be the most accurate translation. It’s easy to switch btwn EN & JP in-game

[暁のルナ]

@暁のルナ

Could we actually get a dedicated Nominations List comment as well

I’ve made my comment with the list before into the nominations list, and left as a wiki for now: Visual Novel Reading Club | Open for nominations until July 20th - #223 by 暁のルナ

If someone wants to make a prettier version & use that instead, feel free.

[earwen]

another one where only 18+ version is available for pc, but all ages for other platforms.
This is the fate of most vns that don’t get a steam release

カタハネ- An’ call Belle -

vndb link
(note: vndb lists no script differences between the new edition - An’ call Belle - and regular, but I don’t fully trust it, If it gets picked I will be reading the an call belle edition for better compability personally at least)
length:25h
difficulty: I read some of it last year and I’d call it easier side of intermediate. However as with most vns, I suspect it will get harder as we get deeper into the fantasy setting
genre: fantasy, slice of life, drama, yuri, theater
voice: voiced including protag
spoken lines replayable: not sure, but I expect at least the new edition should have this I assume
youtube playlist: - An’ call Belle - and old version
synopsis: The story takes place in a world with 3 kingdoms, the Red, White, and Blue Kingdom. In this world, they have highly-advanced dolls with some closely resembling humans. These dolls occasionally need maintenance which is done by a “tuner”.

A young playwright named Wakaba writes a controversial play about a traitor named Ein who killed a ruler of the White Kingdom, Christina. In Wakaba’s play, she presumes that Ein did not betray Christina, but was actually her loyal supporter.

When Wakaba’s friend Cero needs to make a trip to get Coco, a doll that lives with him, maintenance, Wakaba and her brother Light travel with him. Wakaba travels in the hopes of finding some actors for her play. Along the way, they meet a beautiful doll with one wing named Belle and an aspiring actress named Angelina.

The story takes place in 2 parts:

1. Shirohane - the main story with Wakaba and gang

2. Kurohane - the historical events talking about the end of the reign of Christina

why I’m recommending: I read the old fan translation a while ago, though I couldn’t get very far, life got in the way. I don’t remember much besides enough to be intrigued and always wanted to get back to it.

[暁のルナ]

Btw, you forgot the vndb link: https://vndb.org/v22

@earwen

note: vndb lists no script differences between the new edition - An’ call Belle - and regular, but I don’t fully trust it,

I wasn’t able to find anything about differences when I googled fwiw

@earwen

If it gets picked I will be reading the an call belle edition for better compability personally at least

I seek’d through the first few vids of each, on my phone, and the only real difference I noticed is that the old version is more boxed off, and the new one the graphic takes up the whole screen.

Is there anything else I’m missing? (eg art style, voice acting). Or did you mean like software compatibility

---

A note on the yuri content: apparently yuri is something that happens (I assume prominently?) in this game, but as the plot synopsis suggests, it’s not the main focus, and there are het couples as well.

(I prefer romance as a subplot/sub-element in general with fantasy, so that’s fine by me)

[earwen]

@暁のルナ

Btw, you forgot the vndb link: https://vndb.org/v22

thanks, ill edit it

@暁のルナ

Is there anything else I’m missing? (eg art style, voice acting). Or did you mean like software compatibility

I meant software

@暁のルナ

A note on the yuri content: apparently yuri is something that happens (I assume prominently?) in this game, but as the plot synopsis suggests, it’s not the main focus, and there are het couples as well.

I’m aware but I didn’t really want to write “yuri(but theres straight people too)” in the genres because it looked silly

[暁のルナ]

@earwen

I’m aware but I didn’t really want to write “yuri(but theres straight people too)” in the genres because it looked silly

That’s fair, I just wanted to point it out for others who also read with yuri goggles on, like me might get the wrong impression from just the cover photos, and be more/less interested at a story with multiple types of relationships

[earwen]

@暁のルナ

Note: this is from a small yuri studio that usually makes game in English, but they produced a full Japanese version for this

I stumbled upon a discussion about a title in bloods japanese translation, and allegedly the tl isn’t very good. Specifically there are unnatural sentences because of copied sentence structures from english which make meaning unclear, as well as unnatural word choices.

This is 2nd hand info from other learners though. Make of that what you will.

[暁のルナ]

Without seeing the discussion or supporting examples, it’s hard to make anything of it, and I’m inclined to dismiss it (have seen too many unfounded complaints about translations before). The one JP review I found (on Steam) didn’t say anything about the language - so it can’t be that bad (even if it may not be as good as the English). I couldn’t find any others though. Edit: having seen an example, I can see the potential cause for concern

百歩譲って, analyzing sentences that sound weird could be an interesting learning experience

[earwen]

@暁のルナ

Without seeing the discussion or supporting examples

I shared the details with you privately. I didn’t want to share here because it was a discord convo.