Blog Comments

This is a bizarre thing to happen.

Fuko sneaking in does sound like a very Fuko thing to do

I do plan to play it at some point. $20 isn't outrageous so it'll have to wait until after the sale for me

She's not.

Edit: Although there *is* this achievement which I have no clue about...

Is Fuko in it tho?

The CLANNAD Side Stories is a collection of 16 short stories, each centering around a particular character from CLANNAD. They're actually more like anime episodes than visual novel routes since they move at their own pace instead of letting you click to advance text. They're a completely separate thing from Tomoyo After.

What are the Clannad side stories? I just picked them up not realising there was even more to buy.

I like the fact that you do a blog dedicated to visual novels. I will keep having a read of your stuff, visual novels could be an interesting way for me to get more current in the gaming world.

I agree with Fynn mostly. I have consumed some media, very rarely, that I felt benefited from a sex scene. It actually did help development and added to the narration and it could be a very powerful tool for making an impact. Sadly I don't think that most of the time, that's what happened. And when you get sex everywhere for silly reasons like "hot girl is your slave huhu" all the time... I mean, it doesn't often contribute to the story and makes me less receptive to consuming media with sex in it that might do it in a really powerful way.

Like Fynn said, people are allowed to enjoy sexual content and have it in their media. For me personally, I don't enjoy it. I have nothing against sex or porn but there's a time and a place for me. Just like I wouldn't want to see it on the back of my cereal box while eating breakfast. It's not the time. If I felt it was more well integrated and done properly as I mentioned above, it wouldn't be so bad, but just like "We interrupt your VN for a random sex scene" is really off putting to me, personally.

Another issue I have is that a lot of these VN's are about high school characters. It's cute with their little young romances, and I fully understand that teenagers have sex. I also understand that these are fictional characters. But because of the story, my brain comes to understand them... well, as teenagers, and I don't want to see teenagers having sex. I just don't. I'm past that age, that's too young for me to be seeing erotically. It makes me uncomfortable.

So yeah those are my thoughts :P It is a bit bummer that I miss out on some probably good VN's because of the content, BUT it is what it is, I suppose. I'm glad they have all-ages versions available

I can kinda see where you're coming from, but this is pretty much a matter of Values Dissonance, and is pretty unavoidable. As you yourself noticed, had VNs been released here with the 18+ content, they would not have caught on. They're still a niche audience, but they're here, which would have been much more difficult to establish otherwise.

As for my personal thoughts on the subject - and this is strictly my opinion, of course, everyone is entitled to their own - I'm not wild about eroge or explicit sex scenes in VNs. I read that little article you sent me about this a while back and forgot to mention it, but I honestly do not buy the whole "it's there to add to the narrative" argument. First of all, like you said, there are plenty of gratuitous sex scenes that have nothing to do with the plot. Second, I think there are better ways of making content erotic or mature without adding explicit sex scenes, making them effectively pornographic. Third, the people in the article keep talking how they reinforce character development - and yet, do they develop male characters the same way? To me, it all just seems like an excuse to add a scene to which you can, bluntly speaking, jerk off to. Because otherwise, why wouldn't they make male characters the "subject" of a sex scene in a non-gay eroge?

Still, I'm not here to say it's all bad. I'm not a fan of it myself, but porn exists and people are allowed to view what they like. It's awesome that we get to experience a new form of media without all the porn, while those who do like it get to play the porn part as well. I'm just kind of miffed by people "protecting the artistic integrity" (which you clearly aren't, judging from your post, which I really respect) instead of just admitting that they're here for the porn too.

Oh.

I never even turned the damn thing on, I just got it installed because of the hassle and left it.

You did? Oh well, it'll still help you if you want to continue to Chiru before it's out =P

#neat

After all that effort I went to getting the unofficially translated one working. xD

Neato! I will make sure to pick this up!

I completed this game last night. At first I thought that the game was a bit too similar to its predecessor, but I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did. It seemed a bit slow at times, but when you get to Chapters 5 & 6 it's worth it. It all comes together nicely.

Oh wow, that art style is stunning. Which is awesome, because a lot of the VNs I heard of kinda neglect this aspect, whereas to me that is always an integral part of the complete package.

Damnit, I didn't notice this until now. Been so busy! D:

Thanks! I got 2 games from the sale for super cheap

Let me know if it's something you think I'd like once you've played more of it

Mmh, that's very hard for me to accept and wrap my head around.