List of VNs and Ratings
If you're unfamiliar with my review style, please read this post first. If you want to stay informed about what my translation group, Amaterasu Translations, is doing, simply keep an eye on the Amaterasu post category.
This post is updated on a regular basis. You may safely assume all of this information is accurate to within a few days.
This is a list of all the visual novel review scores I have ever given (30 in total), along with links to the reviews themselves.
10/10 (-4): CROSS†CHANNEL**
10/10 (-2): Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO^
10/10 (-3): Forest
9.5/10 (+/-1): MuvLuv Alternative
9.5/10 (+/-1): Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo*
9.5/10 (+/-1.5): Swan Song*
9/10 (+1/-2): G-Senjou no Maou^
9/10 (+1/-2): Ever17 -the out of infinity-*
9/10 (-2): Sekien no Inganock**
9/10 (-2): Chaos;Head*
9/10 (-3): Fate/Stay Night*
8.5/10 (+1/-1.5): Parfait ~Chocolat Second Brew~
8.5/10 (+0.5/-1): BALDR SKY Dive1 "LostMemory"^
8.5/10 (+0.5/-1.5): Kimi ga Nozomu Eien
8/10 (+1/-2): Saya no Uta*
8/10 (+/-1): Narcissu Trilogy^
8/10 (+1/-2): Rui wa Tomo wo Yobu
8/10 (-4): MOON。**
7.5/10 (+1.5/-0.5): Shirotsume Souwa ~Episode of the Clovers~
7.5/10 (+/-1): 11eyes ~Sin, Damnation and the Atonement Girl~
7.5/10 (+1/-2.5): Kazoku Keikaku*
7.5/10 (+0.5/-1): Extravaganza ~Mushi Mederu Shoujo~
7/10 (+/-2): Shuffle!*
7/10 (+/-1): Tapestry -you will meet yourself-
7/10 (+1/-2): Souten no Celenaria ~What a beautiful world~
7/10 (+1/-2): Never 7 -the end of infinity-^
7/10 (+/-1): Muv-Luv**
7/10 (+0.5/-1): Konata Yori Kanata Made
6.5/10 (+2/-1.5): Really? Really!
6.5/10 (+/-1): Gore Screaming Show
*has an English translation **has been translated into English by us
^has a partial translation or active translation project ^^is our active translation project
This is a list of VNs I am reading or plan to read soon. The groups are in order, and the games in the top group are in order, but the other groups may not have any particular order yet.
Liarsoft marathon:
--Shikkoku no Sharnoth
--Hikari no Valusia
--Kusarihime
random short games
--Ludesia Spidering With Scraping
--Planetarian
--atled
--a profile
--Dra+Koi
Romeo marathon
--Saihate no Ima
--Kana ~imouto~
--Yume Miru Kusuri
And this is a list of VNs I know with absolute certainty I will read at some point. Aside from the three priority tiers, there is no order unless specified in the plan above. Feel free to suggest more to add, but given how long this is already you may be ignored.
High Priority (likely going to want to translate after reading them, unlikely to get picked up by others):
Saihate no IMA, Himawari, Shikkoku no Sharnoth, Hikari no Valcia, MYTH
Medium Priority (personal interest or curiosity, but unlikely to want to translate soon or already translated):
Oretachi no Tsubasa ni wa Nai, Ludesia Spidering With Scraping, Atled, Planetarian, Soshite Ashita no Sekai Yori, Kana ~imouto~, Yume Miru Kusuri, BALDR SKY Dive 2 “Recordare”, Muramasa, Rewrite, Remember11, 12Riven, Comyu, Shinju no Yakata, Akatsuki no Goei, Kagerou Touryuuki, Bengarachou Hakubutsushi, Albatross Koukairoku
Low Priority (already translated or being translated, or more often I'm just less interested in them):
Tsukihime, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Kira Kira, Suiheisen Made Nan Mairu, Kara no Shoujo, Giniro, Ayakashibito, Itsuka Todoku Ano Sora ni, EVE ~burst error~, Mugen Kairou, Flyable Heart, Nanatsuiro Drops, Kitto Sumiwataru Asairo Yori mo, Haruka ni Aogi Uruwashi no, Moshi mo Ashita ga Hare Naraba, Symphonic Rain, AIR, Kanon, Clannad, Little Busters!, Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo
November 19th, 2009 - 22:05
You should bump Kana ~imouto~ and Yume Miru Kusuri up on your to-play list. Both are wonderful and would be something you would like if you are a Romio fan.
November 19th, 2009 - 22:07
“no particular order”
Their order in that list is just the order I thought of them in. It means nothing.
However, I’m not reading Kana and YMK soon because anything with a tl is automatically a lower priority, for obvious reasons.
November 29th, 2009 - 16:15
I just finished playing Yume Miru Kusuri and it is a GREAT GAME. Never have I felt such profound emotions from playing a visual novel such as this. The plot in this game actually has some deep meaning and is so much better than those cheesy “Nursery-Rhyme” visual novels which are 100% moe-moe and nothing else (no offense!).
Play it. NAO! (it’s pretty short)
I can’t touch games with shallow plots like Shuffle! after playing a game like this.
January 8th, 2010 - 09:45
Judging from your tastes, I feel like taking a shot at guessing future scores you’re going to give.
Extravaganza:8/10
Tick! Tack!:6.5-7/10
Muramasa:9.5/10
Flyable Heart:7-7.5/10
Baldr Sky 2: 9/10
EVE:8-8.5/10
Yume Miru:7/10
Kana:7-7.5/10
Natsuiro:7/10
Giniro:8/10
Kira Kira:7/10
Kara no Shoujo:9/10
Mugen though…that entirely depends on whether you’re a Masochist or not. Despite what I said in the prelim thread, later on I forced myself through 1&2. Still don’t like that game, just not for me.
January 8th, 2010 - 15:03
Most of those scores are very close to what I expect to give when I play them myself. Very interesting.
Though I would hope at least one of those Romeo games (Kana and Yumemi) manages an 8 or higher.
March 5th, 2010 - 15:48
I was going to ask if you were going to play Muramasa sometime, and I see you do. Awesome. Looking forward to the review for it.
March 8th, 2010 - 21:12
You should put Ayakashibito somewhere in that to-do list.
March 8th, 2010 - 21:17
You’re right, I should.
Okay done, list is way longer now.
March 9th, 2010 - 22:37
Yeah I’m with uraH, Muramasa is the only one on that list I’m waiting for him to play(well I’m somewhat interested in Forest), but judging from his list+college+life+translating+nitroplus. That’s probably years away.
It’s truly amazing and it deserves the 10′s it gets. But I gave it a 9 because of the ridiculous wall of text accompanied with almost everything. While I enjoyed it most the time, sometimes it was just so…..ugh.
In Alternative you suggested the extreme detail/lengthy monologues was a reason for the drop in points, but while it may be hard to believe… Alternatives wall of text is rather small compared to Muramasa’s. So this may drop your rating. If I add up the timestamps on my final saves after routes, it roughly took me 120 hours to finish it.
March 10th, 2010 - 02:06
Worth noting that in Alternative the protag monologues were the only walls of text that did not justify themselves by having genuine content *in my opinion.* It’s entirely possible Muramasa’s walls simply have far more content to justify being far larger and thus I’d like it just as much, although it probably would get a higher polarization subscore.
Of course, you are exactly right when you list all the reasons I’m not getting to it anytime soon.
May 3rd, 2010 - 15:36
“After that will be a Liarsoft marathon consisting of the WAB series… ”
…I went and bought Sharnoth since I was highly impressed with the Inganock translation~ although since I can’t read Sharnoth; I realize it was a foolish move… If you do end up enjoying it and translating it however!
btw, the art, music and VAs are excellent from what I’ve briefly sampled…and a game with a female protagonist… Not many of those… (plus it made the highly recommended list for accany (plus I agree on enough of his recommendations)) plus.. plus… plus…!
*grabs Ixrec* Translate, Translate, Translate @_@;
May 8th, 2010 - 02:23
Considering you gave the original Muv-Luv a 7, I expect you to give KiraKira a 6 or lower. (especially since the only thing that saves the game is the depressing ending; others are worse than ML/cliche) Then again, a lot of people like that game, so who knows… >_>
After seeing your review for KimiNozo, I expect you to give Kana somewhere around 9 (possibly a 10 since you are a Tanaka fan) and YMK an 8. While different in themes, YMK appeals to the same audience as KimiNozo fans. (KGNE is just darker…) Unless you hate Kana as a character, you will most likely consider it a masterpiece like virtually everyone that has played it.
Oh, and avoid the shitty remake, “Kana ~Okaeri”. Original version is so much better in that all the remake adds is terrible voice acting (Kana is one of those games which is actually better without voice), butchurization of the beautiful CG and character designs in the original, two extra insert songs that don’t fit, and animated H-scenes. The animated H-scenes in Okaeri totally ruin the moment considering they are (almost laughably) animated and ruin the beauty of the original scenes.
May 17th, 2010 - 13:03
If you’re playing Kira Kira and expecting an unexpected ending then you’re already missing what makes it a good game, at least IMO. Kira Kira’s much more about the ride than the destination. While the game didn’t really give surprising plot twists or anything it did the whole “story of a band” quite well and it had some pretty good comedy. At the very least it’s as good if not better than Shuffle so I’m gonna bet closer to a 7.5 to 8 with a high +1/-2 polarization. But that’s only my opinion.
I think Yume Miru definitely at least an 8, I’d rank it closer to a 9. It got a solid flow and all three of the routes were very heart warming.
Also I see Kazokei on that list which is quite good. Well as long as you can handle how long the common route it. The individual character routes are awesome.
May 21st, 2010 - 23:30
Lol it’s kind of impossible to play an eroge expecting an unexpected ending. It wouldn’t be unexpected then.
What I did expect was a good story. KiraKira didn’t have it. Kirari’s normal route was great, but it was a total change compared to what the rest of the game was like. (which in itself is a flaw; it’s not consistent) Shuffle had moe characters and great art. KiraKira’s art is ugly and the characters are boring. So it fails as a moege/slice-of-life. If you skip the LOOOOONG common route and just play Kirari’s route, you have a good game. A dragged out story, but still great. The common route and other paths are just to long to justify the play through imo.
I myself would give YMK a 9.5. But I am basing the score off of what he gave drama games like KGNE. They are the same types of games. KGNE is just generally considered to be better. Plus, the characters are all completely realistic in that. YMK does have extremely realistic characters, but Aeka’s path was just so unrealistic.
Oh, and the Mizuki path. That is a love-it-or-hate-it path. It has an unbelievable amount of H-scenes. Mizuki is an amazing character, but a lot of people hate her.
—
Anyway, I see you have Tsukihime on your list of VNs, Ixrec. Wait for the remake that is coming out soon. The addition of voice acting and non-crappy art would make it so much better.
September 6th, 2010 - 07:16
Saihate no IMA is on the list..gosh this made my day man.
September 7th, 2010 - 08:28
I’m also highly interested in Saihate no IMA and can’t wait for Ixrec to play it. I just love that mysterious nature surrounding this game, I haven’t found any synopsis nor review which explains what plot is really about and I’m not planning to spoil it until the inevitable translation comes out. I spoiled myself about true nature of Cross+Channel and that took some enjoyment away.