First, the plots are usually very predictable, sometimes even contrived, to the point where there's almost no tension at all even near the climaxes of the routes. Fortunately, this isn't what the VN is trying to focus on, so a lot of it can be ignored.

The big selling point here is the presentation. Even to me, the artwork is consistently gorgeous, and it gets all the poses and facial expressions just right. This matters because it makes the characters more cute/attractive and certain scenes more romantic. The music is also unique and atmospheric. Partly because of all that, the dialogue with the characters is always entertaining or soothing or whatever other positive emotion the VN's aiming for, so the overall experience is satisfying.

However, the problem that keeps Suiheisen from being extraordinary is that most of those characters simply don't have enough depth. Long before you finish a heroine's route, you've already seen everything there is to them, so the appeal tends to shift from genuine interest in the character to a shallow curiosity about how the route will end. Not that that's bad, but it's far from amazing.

Score: 7.5/10

Polarization: (+1/-0.5)

Obviously, depends how you value plot vs character vs presentation.

Routes/Endings Played: All 5 routes.

P.S.: Since Sheeta and I were curious, I also read the yaoi route in the fandisc. The first half of it was hilarious, though the second half was kind of a cop-out.

Now that doesn't mean I was planning to make an announcement this early. But a certain other translator expressed some interest in picking it up as a backup in case he couldn't get his hands on tools for his primary translation candidate. Upon speaking with him however, it was discovered that he was fine with not working on it as long as he was given sufficient reassurances that Parfait would be done - this announcement, basically. So yeah, I will be translating Parfait after I'm done with my current project, and in the unlikely event that I don't manage to complete it, Ixrec will because he's interested in working on the game as well.

tl;dr - Futsuu will do Parfait next, and if he doesn't complete it because he gets run over by a bus, Ixrec will pick it up. Either way, Parfait will get translated.

This is very much a moege, in that most of the time is spent hanging out with your chosen heroine. Sadly, the characters are not exceptionally moe, so what you end up with is a lot of mildly amusing slice-of-life punctuated with the occasional bit of something vaguely resembling a plot. The slice-of-life isn't bad, since there's no glut of unnecessary text and none of the scenes/gags ever get recycled, but it's also painfully ordinary (even when they're doing their daily idol work).

Each of the routes has a plot of some kind, but unfortunately they never establish very much tension or immersion. To generalize all the little problems: almost every single event feels completely arbitrary or enforced by plot, rather than something that would naturally happen (a rare but notable exception is the clever twist about ChuChu's mom). This feeling is nigh omnipresent because so much of what does happen is predictable or cliche. Also, because of magic, certain characters can do basically whatever the writers feel like. On the other hand, there are no gaping plot holes or character breaks or unresolved conflicts, so it wouldn't be fair to call the story "bad". It's just mediocre.

Score: 6/10

Polarization: (+1.5/-1)

Maybe you'll find the heroines more moe than I did, or maybe all the lazy writing will infuriate you.

Routes/Endings Played: All 4 routes

The only big problem I had was that when you get to the point in a route where the more serious plot kicks in, you're already almost at the ending. The non-slice of life parts of the routes simply don't last long enough to really draw you in before the credits roll. On the other hand, all the endings are meaningfully different and even unpredictable despite drawing from the same backstory and resolving the same conflicts. The slightly odd result is that the most interesting aspect of the plot is comparing and contrasting all the different endings you can find, and there are quite a few. It also helps that the plot itself is perfectly coherent and everyone's actions make perfect sense, so there really isn't anything wrong with these parts other than brevity. I also like how it seems to retain its sense of mystery even after you know what's going on.

So in the end nothing about Tsukikagerou amazed me, but despite that it always made me want to see what happened differently in the next route or ending.

Score: 7.5/10

Polarization: (+0.5/-1)

Not a lot to say here. The only specific thing worth mentioning is that Futaba's route is kinda half-assed and retcon-y, so be warned if little side routes like that matter to you (personally I didn't care).

Routes/Endings Played: All 12 endings across all 5 routes.

And don't worry, we've done this to all of the sprites as well as the GCs, so normal Rewrite gameplay will now look something like this:

Look forward to the patch!

As you may or may not be aware, this is a pigeon otome dating sim. In other words, you are a human girl attending St. PigeoNation's Academy and you must make friends with the male pigeons there (and for some reason you have stats).

At first glance it's an ordinary school life comedy with the gimmick that almost every character is inexplicably a pigeon (or some other kind of bird). However, in addition to the extremely goofy parts you'd expect, there's also a surprising amount of serious plot ranging from depressing to bizarre to grimdark (and occasionally it's both silly and serious at the same time). The result is that even after the gimmick's initial appeal wears off, it's still impossible to read this VN with a straight face, which is a good thing.

The problem is that most of the routes have such ridiculously fast pacing (many scenes were less than twenty lines long!) that they simply don't get the chance to have much of an impact. At its worst it feels like just a string of arbitrary choices with bits of text in between. Some routes also have annoying non-endings, and there's often no basis or justification whatsoever for the protagonist's romantic feelings, so these parts of the VN end up feeling more unfinished than anything else. These routes are about a 6 overall.

Fortunately, the murder mystery route (for lack of a better name) has none of these flaws. It also has a ridiculous number of soap opera and b-movie cliches tied together in a surprisingly coherent, multi-layered and well-paced (if utterly absurd) story. And it takes itself one hundred percent seriously the entire time. This is, of course, absolutely hilarious. Easily a 7.5.

Score: 6.5/10

Polarization: (+1.5/-1.5)

For some the entire thing will feel gimmicky (in a bad way) from start to finish. For others the sheer silliness of the experience will render all complaints about "pacing" and such utterly moot.

Routes/Endings Played: All 13 endings.

P.S.: In case anyone wants an opinion on the translation quality: it could definitely use some editing/QCing but it's perfectly servicable.

You can purchase the complete version of Hatoful Boyfriend translated in English from DLsite for only 420 yen (about 5 USD). You can also download the free version along with a free translation patch. Links for both options can be found on this site. Please leave a comment if you choose to buy it.

from Liarsoft's NetRide page:
　・Sekien no Inganock -What a Beautiful People- for 2,800 yen (about 35 USD)
　　Amaterasu's translation patch works on this version
　・Forest for 2,800 yen (about 35 USD)
　　Amaterasu's translation patch works on this version
　・Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~ for 2,800 yen (about 35 USD)
　・Souten No Celenaria ~What a Beautiful World~ for 2,800 yen (about 35 USD)
from age's NetRide page:
　・Kimi ga Nozomu Eien ~Latest Edition~ for 4,980 yen (about 60 USD)
from Xuse's NetRide page:
　・Saihate no Ima - Full Voice Edition [with Soft Denchi] for 2,680 yen (about 33 USD)
from Nitro+'s NetRide page:
　・Steins;Gate Nitro The Best! Vol. 5 - Download Edition [with Soft Denchi] for 3,150 yen (about 38 USD)
　・Chaos;Head Nitro The Best! Vol.4 [with Soft Denchi] for 3,150 yen (about 38 USD)
　・Zanmataisei Demonbane Nitro The Best! Vol.3 [with Soft Denchi] for 3,150 yen (about 38 USD)
　・Saya no Uta Nitro The Best! Vol.2 [with Soft Denchi] for 3,150 yen (about 38 USD)
　・Phantom Integration Nitro The Best! Vol.1 [with Soft Denchi] for 3,150 yen (about 38 USD)

If you see an affordable and worthwhile VN on NetRide that I have not listed, please tell me so I can add it.
For those VNs listed above which have translation patches, please tell me whether or not the patches work on NetRide's download versions so I can add that information as well.

You will need a debit or credit card from Visa or Mastercard to make any of these purchases using the method detailed in this guide. Note that NetRide works best with Internet Explorer, though at the moment it seems to work fine for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox as well.

If you choose to buy a VN from this site, please leave a comment telling us what you bought. Knowing how many of you are willing to pay real money for VNs is crucial if we ever want the official translation business to improve.

Buying a Visual Novel from NetRide

First, open the appropriate company's NetRide page (links are in the list at the top) in your favorite browser. I'll be using Google Chrome. You should see a page like this, possibly with a different company logo at the top:

Click the button I circled in red to start making a new user account. You should see this page:

Scroll down until you see this:

Click on the radio button I circled in red to agree to the various terms and conditions. Scroll further down until you see this:

The fields I boxed in red are:
In the top left: Username (6-12 alphanumeric characters)
In the top right: Password and Confirm Password (6-12 alphanumeric characters)
On the bottom: E-mail Address (enter it in both boxes)
Also make sure you click the right-hand radio button at the bottom to stop them from sending you a newsletter.

The radio buttons I boxed in green are, from top to bottom: NetRideCash, Credit Card (VISA or Mastercard) and Bitcash EX. I am going to assume that, like me, you want to use a (Visa or Mastercard) credit card for this, so be sure to click that radio button.

Click the button I've circled in red to tell NetRide you want a guest account. In this case "guest account" does not mean temporary account--you'll always be able to log back in with it and get at the download links for what you bought. It just means an account with less personal information that can't use as many different payment methods. You will be sent to this confirmation screen:

Scroll down:

Click the button I've circled in red to confirm you want to create this guest account.

Now it's time to actually buy the VN. I will be purchasing Sekien no Inganock. First, reopen the company's NetRide page. Obviously, you should see something like this again:

If you want to buy Sekien no Inganock, click the button I've circled in red. If you want to buy a different VN, scroll down until you see the one you do want and click on a similar button next to it. You should see a screen like this:

Click the button I've circled in red to proceed to payment. It will send you to this login screen:

Enter your username in the top textbox and your password in the bottom textbox, then click the button I circled in red. It might send you to the page from the previous screenshot, in which case click the circled button in the previous screenshot again. You should see this page:

Scroll down:

Click the button I circled in red. Your current window will go back to NetRide's main page (where it asks if you're over 18 or not) while a new window appears on the side. When I tried doing this a few years ago, the new window never appeared, but somehow it works now! If it doesn't appear, retry using Internet Explorer instead. The new window should look like this:

Now, finally, we're at the part where you enter credit card information.

The fields I boxed in red are:
Card Number (put four digits in each of the four boxes)
Expiration Date (month then year)
Family Name in English Letters (WARNING: you must enter this in all caps)
Given Name in English Letters (WARNING: you must enter this in all caps)
CVC Code (this is the three digit security code on the back of the card)

Once you've filled this all in, click the button I circled in red to make the actual payment. If it doesn't work, the page you end up on will have the same gray background color but far less text. You'll have to go back (do this by scrolling down and clicking on the left-hand button) and try to guess what went wrong. If it does work, you'll see a page like this:

If your payment was successful, all that's left now is to actually download the VN to your computer. As mentioned earlier, your main browser window goes back to NetRide's main page during the payment process (for some reason), so it should look something like this:

Click the button I circled in red to go to your download page. Only one more step!

Click the pink "download" button I circled in red to finally start the actual download.

If the VN does not use Soft Denchi (see next section if it does), your browser should begin downloading a file called "downloadfile.lzh". For me it takes forever to download VNs from this site, so prepare to have this download going on in the background for a while. Once it's done, use WinRAR or some other archive software to extract the VN from the .lzh archive. You should now be able to run it by simply double clicking on the extracted .exe. You can redownload the .lzh whenever you want, and there should be no DRM.

Downloading and Running a VN with Soft Denchi DRM

If you buy a VN with Soft Denchi, the download page will look more like this:

Again, click the pink "download" button I circled in red to start the actual download. In this case, your browser should begin downloading a file called "downloadfile.exe". This download should also take forever to finish. Obviously, run the .exe when it finishes downloading. It will start the installer, which like most Japanese installers you should be able to guess your way through without much trouble.

In order to actually run this VN, you need to use what I will call the authorization code (which I circled in green above) on Soft Denchi. First, go to this page, click the giant blue Download button to get "sdrt4285j.exe" and run it to install the Soft Denchi client. Locate a new program in your Programs menu called ソフト電池メーター and run it. It should look like this:

In this screenshot you can see I've already authorized my copy of Saihate no Ima. To do this yourself, choose "File", then "Charge by the number", then type in the authorization code on your NetRide download page (I circled in it green earlier) and click "charge". You should now be able to run the VN you bought.

Please post a comment telling us what you bought. Also tell us if some part of this guide doesn't work, or is needlessly confusing, or if the site appears to behave differently for your favorite browser.

We're hoping to have a lot of the images, especially for the settings menu, done in time for the common route partial patch. But the text in the Friends/Monster/Quest lists turned out to be all in images, so don't expect that to get translated for some time (it's not that useful until you're going for 100% completion anyway). And yes, at some point I will translate and/or write a thorough walkthrough.

The reason is, I applied to study abroad in Japan my senior year, my university accepted it, so a few days ago I got e-mailed a huge amount of information regarding what I have to do next. For the most part, the tasks revolve around me having to apply to Osaka U directly, and I have to have that application done by March 1st.

So up until March 1st I'll basically be focusing on everything I have to/want to do other than translation, like schoolwork, registering for spring classes, the Osaka U application, reading more VNs, and some coding/gaming on the side. Most of that should be done by then so hopefully I'll be able to spend a ridiculous number of hours on Rewrite once March 2nd rolls around.

The VN's biggest problems are pretty typical ones: First, almost every scene would benefit from some trimming. Second, there's quite a bit of predictability throughout. Fortunately, there are enough clever details in the story and legitimately badass moves in the fights that Ayakashibito is still very easy to enjoy from start to end. Even the slice-of-life content is often funny even when you can see the jokes coming. Sometimes nailing the execution is more important than being original.

Oddly enough, almost all of the action is concentrated in the first half of the common route and the second halves of the character routes (not that it's a bad thing; protag's goals justify it). The good news is that the school life/comedy stuff in the middle is actually the same quality as the fight scenes, and for most of the same reasons. The real quality gap is that, for some reason, all the flaws get significantly milder around the time you exit the common route. Finally, it is well-worth getting all the routes and endings, since most of them have very little overlap and they're all equally interesting.

Score: 8/10

Polarization: (+0.5/-1)

Nothing in particular to explain here.

Routes/Endings Played: All