Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo Review

Title: Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo
Original title: 車輪の国、向日葵の少女
Alias: Sharin no Kuni: The Girl Among the Sunflowers
Release date: 2005-10-21
English release date: 2009-11-04
Developer: Akabei Soft2
English publisher: TLWiki (as a fan-patch)

Err... so, "Sharin no Kuni" - a work that is considered a "Citizen Kane" of visual novel world. If VNDB is to be believed, Sharin is one of the most critically well received adult games together with FSN, MLA and FDA (well, probably not this one). Translated as "Wheel Country, Sunflower Girl", it's a dystopian sci-fi political and social commentary cross-dressing as a romantic adventure game.

Yukkuri Panic: Escalation Review

Title: Yukkuri Panic: Escalation (エスカレーション～狂愛のフーガ～ & ゆーくりパニック エスカレーション)
Release date: 2007-08-31 & 2008-06-07 (2011-06-30 in English)
Developer: Rolling Star
English publisher: Peach Princess

If years of watching porn movies have taught me anything it's that a visit to the hospital will include a mandatory blowjob from a big breasted blond nurse, police precincts are actually pleasure dens for the sadomasochistic clientele and all-girl Catholic schools are obviously places for the purest lesbian love to blossom.

Deus Machina Demonbane review

Title: Zanmataisei Demonbane
Original title: 斬魔大聖デモンベイン
Alias: Daus Machina Demonbane
Release date: 2003-04-25
English release date: 2011-05-13
Developer: Nitroplus
English publisher: JAST USA

At long last! The time has come to review "Duke Nukem Forever"! I will fire up this game that has been so damn long in the making and proceed to kick alien ass, while basking in the masculine glory of Duke himself. Even the fact that I don't even have the fucking game won't stop me, as I have the next best thing - "Deus Machina Demonbane" - a visual novel that has been stuck so long in the publishing hell, that some people even lost hope to ever see it in English. Contrary to the detractors, the game was released (well, about three years late, but that's not the point; is it?).

When the great master H. P. Lovecraft penned his imaginings about horrors from beyond time, space and human understanding, he created vivid and frightening pieces of literature, but he made a huge oversight that diminished the appeal of those works quite a bit. Two of those oversights to be precise: his works lacked giant ass robots and scantly clad lolitas. Japanese being the most advanced nation in the ethereal realm, took it upon themselves to fix it.

Nitro Powah!

So, today JAST USA provided us an announcement of their future releases, which predictably involves lots of Nitroplus power. After the successful sales of Demonbane (damn, I'm only 1/3rd through it - the thing is looong) we are getting "Saya no Uta", "Kikokugai", "Hanachirasu", "Sumaga" and "Django". Despite the fact I've already played the first two, I'm definitely getting them all.

Also predictably we are getting the sequel to "Aselia the Eternal" called "Seinarukana". The last announcement in the lineup was somewhat unexpected. I happily reaffirmed myself to be a massive perv, as upon the announcement of "Starless" I cheered. I has lots of crazy shit and that is exactly what I expect from my nukiges.

With the coming of "Kara no Shoujo", "Aselia the Eternal", "EF", "School Days", "Yumina" and more I foresee those few years to be very interesting :-D

Remember11: The Age of Infinity Review

Title: Remember11 -the age of infinity-
Release date: 2004-03-18 (2010-10-11 in English)
Developer: KID
English publisher: TLWiki (as a fan-patch)

Of trolls and trollops...

If I was Ben Croshaw, I would already be preparing a hate filled rant about Remember11. Thus I consider it the game's luck I'm not him as the game itself is a huge troll - the sort you find under the Golden Gates Bridge or visiting 4chan. It appears, the main message the writer of Remember11 wanted to convey us was: "LOL pwned U". And despite it I consider it quite a good game. But let's talk about everything from the very beginning.

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Review

Title: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
Release date: 2007-10-24 (2008-09-16 for Enhanced Edition)
Developer: CD Project RED
Publisher: CD Project & Atari

Disclaimer

"The Witcher" is not a visual novel by any stretch of imagination, but considering I feel that this is one of the best games in the last decade, I decided to publicly review it. And with the release of its sequel (which I will probably review some time later) its even more relevant.

Historia

Power, sex. Sex, Power. They both come down to one thing - fucking others.

Geralt of Rivia, witcher

The first time I heard about Witcher has been a long ass fuckin' time ago. I saw a concept art in a magazine and dismissed it as another generic "special one" saving the world full of generic shit like elves and dwarves. Fast forward to 2007 and I somehow decided to try the game, despite my misgivings. All in all, that cost me quite a lot of money. Not the game itself, mind you, as at that time I pirated it. However, after finishing it I went to the bookstore and bought all the Witcher books. I think that says a lot about the game inducing you to go and buy a lengthy book series.

Sinkha series review

Titles: Sinkha
           Sinkha: Hyleyn
           Sinkha: Atmosphere/Planet of the Clouds
Release dates: 1995 (Sinkha) / 2008 (the remake)
                        2002 (Hyleyn)
                        2007 (Atmosphere/Planet of the Clouds)
Developer: Marco Patrito
Publisher: Virtual Views

Intro

And here's the god succumbing to the madness of the eyes and the mind.

The journey of Sinkha was a long one. Marco Patrito - an Italian writer and illustrator created the concept for the game in 1991. The creation of the game itself stalled again and again as due to the advances of technology Marco had to scrap the project and restart it with different tools in order to keep up. Also the project was way too ambitious both due to the funds available to Patrito & Co and the insuficient technology. Finally in 1995 "Sinkha" saw the light of the day in Italian, English, Spanish, French, German and Japanese. It was labeled a multimedia novel. Practically it was a visual novel as the genre is known today, with a few differences: it was done entirely in computer graphics with character models rendered in 3D software and it had much more animations than any Japanese VN until ten years later.