Hourglass of Summer Walkthrough

I have written this walkthrough using a Japanese one as a basis.

A guide how to play Hourglass of Summer on a PC

"Hourglass of Summer" is one of the visual novels released by now defunct "Hirameki International" on a widely reviled DVD-PG format. Theoretically it means that the game should be playable on any device that has a DVD drive - practically it means that you cannot play it at all.

Cinders Walkthrough

In my review of "Cinders" I also included a partial walkthrough to that game, however now I think that it needlessly bloats the post. Thus I decided to separate it into a new post.

Baldur's Gate II modding

Last year I have written a personal guide how I modified my installation of "Baldur's Gate" and published it here. This year it would be prudent to repeat the same with its successor.

As I haven't used "Baldur's Gate Trilogy" or "Big World Project", I had to modify BG by myself and so I did the same with BGII. There are a shitload of similar guides on the net, so it's your choice if you pay even the slightest bit of attention to mine.

Cinders Review

Title: Cinders
Release date: 2012-06-20
Developer: Moa Cube
Publisher: Moa Cube

Many VN fans are exaggeratedly critical of OELVNs, but that is not without a basis. Sturgeon’s Law applies to this niche more than to any else. On the other hand, if you search really hard, you might find real nuggets of gold amidst the piles of steaming… fecal matter. In a subversive situation, there was no need to search hard for “Cinders” – a retelling of “Cinderella” fairy tale – as it was a really visible visual novel since even before its release.

The Royal Trap Review

Title: The Royal Trap
Release date: 2013-02-23
Developer: Hanako Games
Publisher: Hanako Games

"Hanako Games" is one of the three best known commercial original English language visual novel makers currently in business; the other two, of course, being "Winter Wolves" and "Sake Visual". It's a real shame that Hanako prefers to create stat based simulations and very rarely gives us pure visual novels. "The Royal Trap" is one of such exceptions.

Suika A.S+ Review

Title: Suika A.S+
Original title: 水夏A.S＋~SUIKA~
Alias: Wet Summer Days
Release date: 2001-07-27 (2004-09-24 A.S+ Edition)
English release date: 2009-04-25
Developer: Circus (Northern division) & Moonstone
English publisher: MangaGamer

"Suika" was one of the first games released by then fledgling MangaGamer back in the hoary 2009, and somehow didn't garner much attention from Western fans, which is a real shame. While I have first played this game back in the year of its release, recently I got an urge to replay it. Posting a review is just a side effect of that. So, come closer children and listen to my tale.