Karifean's Blog of Visual Novels

Wow, hard to believe it's already been a year. Across the entirety of 2015 I've made 90 whole blog posts. That's a post every four days! Let me take a look at how far I've come since starting this thing...

I've read 23 new visual novels, 18 of which I've reviewed.

Adding up all the approximate lengths I'm left presuming I spent about 650 hours on it. Not counting rereads of visual novels I had already read prior to this year.

By far my most active reading period was January through March. Almost half of everything I read this year was read during that first quarter.

My favorite of all the newcomers is still G-senjou no Maou, the very first novel I read and reviewed for this blog. And ever since then my Top 5 have been a constant (I've started counting CLANNAD and Tomoyo After separately); but the Top 6-10 did certainly change since I did my Top 10 way back in early April.

So overall I extended my visual novel repertoire by quite a bit! Two thirds of all the visual novels I have read so far were read this year. Looks like my plan to foray further into the medium was quite a success.

But does that mean I'll stop? Hell no. I still have a sizeable To-Read-List to go through!

High Priority

• Tokyo School Life
• The "What a Beautiful X" series
• Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two

Low Priority

• Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni
• Danganronpa
• Hoshizora no Memoria
• Tsukihime
• Da Capo II
• World End Economica

Plus there are ten more visual novels where I'm just waiting for it to get released/translated and if it did it'd instantly go on high priority! Put all that together with the ever-expanding nature of a To-Read-List and I have more than enough to last me not just this year but more beyond that. And I've grown to really, really like reading VNs. It's one of my favorite pastimes and I have every intention to keep going.

To another good year! Cheers!

...and now for some random statistics and awards!

10 of the 23 VNs contained erotic content. Across all of them the ratio of sex scenes I consider worth reading through to sex scenes I recommend skipping (unless you're looking for masturbation material) is 4 to an estimated 90. Hey, it could be worse.

7 of the VNs were below 10 hours long, 13 were between 30 and 45 hours long and 3 were 50+ hours long.

Most unexpectedly superb visual novel goes to Symphonic Rain.

Most annoying to read visual novel goes to Hate Plus.

Most mindblowing visual novel goes to Ever17 -The Out of Infinity-. (HM: G-senjou no Maou)

Most disturbing visual novel goes to CROSS†CHANNEL. (HM: Saya no Uta, Kara no Shoujo)

Most interestingly structured visual novel goes to Virtue's Last Reward. (HM: Ever17)

Most hideously placed adult content goes to Kara no Shoujo. (HM: AIR)

Best cast of characters goes to Rose Guns Days. (HM: G-senjou no Maou)

Most unique protagonist goes to CROSS†CHANNEL. (By far)

Most funny goes to Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai. (HM: Grisaia no Kajitsu)

Highest entry barrier goes to Muv-Luv Alternative. (By far)

Most emotionally wrecking goes to G-senjou no Maou. (HM: Symphonic Rain, AIR)

Most frustrating ending goes to Virtue's Last Reward. (HM: Rose Guns Days, Muv-Luv Alternative)

Best ending goes to G-senjou no Maou. (By far)

If there's anything else that interests you, just ask~

And after all this time, Umineko is still my uncontested #1 and sole 11/10 because giving it a 10/10 is not giving it full credit for how much it affected me and how much I love it. I've pretty much given up on finding anything that could honestly become its equal. But that's okay. It's my favorite and that's that. No need to let that hold me back from enjoying other visual novels to their fullest! As of right now I'm still very much enjoying a reread of CLANNAD with the folks over at Kazamatsuri.org and it's going pretty swell.