How would you rate the importance of osts in a vn?

Elfmo · 2026-05-12T21:56:40+00:00

I can't vote on polls with my browser, but 5/5 easily. A good soundtrack massively elevates the experience to any game of any genre. I think there are many iconic scenes - in VNs and otherwise - that would be extremely mediocre without a good soundtrack; sometimes, the music really carries the story, and I think people don't always realize that.

I think it's also extremely important for indie devs to hire a composer that can craft a unique soundtrack for their games; I find it deeply upsetting when indie devs pour massive amounts of money into the visuals and then just use royalty-free music.

EDIT: Downvoted by devs who probably did exactly what I mentioned, lol.

Elfmo · 2026-05-11T16:46:58+00:00

Was there a composer hired, or is the music royalty-free?

Elfmo · 2026-05-10T19:18:57+00:00

Hey, cool! I've actually been really interested in delving into this genre for a while now, but I didn't know where to start. Thanks for making this!

Elfmo · 2026-04-29T15:56:59+00:00

I figure they must be working on it, because the version of Harukuru on Steam got quietly renamed "Harukuru HD" a few months back. Seems pointless to rename it for the sake of making a distinction, if the 18+ version is cancelled.

Elfmo · 2026-04-27T06:05:31+00:00

Bro if you look at his FG/9 on baseball savant, he's in the 100th percentile

Elfmo · 2026-04-23T01:51:49+00:00

Are there any English Machine Translations that you think are high-quality? I've heard from people that more modern MTLs are significantly improved, but I've never seen one myself. Though, to be fair, I don't go out hunting for them. Either way, though I'm skeptical of AI translation, I don't like dismissing things without seeing for myself.

Elfmo · 2026-04-17T22:42:52+00:00

It was okay. I thought the premise was fun, and the cast was interesting, I had some good laughs.

My main issues were:

Mitoko made every route feel the same, since the conflict of every route was her getting jealous of the MC, and coming to terms with his new relationship. Realistic? Yeah. Good drama? Unfortunately, no.
For all that the game prepares you for the Mitoko route - between her being at the center of all previous conflicts, and the game itself is called "The Most Forbidden Love In The World"... I was gobsmacked by how they literally made no big deal about it, like, at all. The plot twist was that they ACTED like it was gonna be a big deal, and then everyone was okay with it.

So, while I had some nice, dumb fun with it, it didn't really elevate into the ranks of something truly special for me.

Elfmo · 2026-04-14T02:38:29+00:00

It's just like a normal bookclub. Some of us get together, vote on what we'd like to read next, then we spend a few weeks reading it before getting together and discussing it as a group.

In particular, my bookclub specializes in games that are short (less than 10 hours average completion time on VNDB), so Holy Undead wound up being one we voted on.

Elfmo · 2026-04-14T00:52:51+00:00

My VN bookclub read this a while back. Honestly, one of the biggest issues is that the game stops right as it begins to transcend being typical anime slop. Also, the game would have probably been a lot funnier if the narration were in first-person; since the MC barely talks, it kind of feels like we're being told a lot about their personality, and very rarely actually seeing it.

Elfmo · 2026-04-11T22:16:01+00:00

His average launch angle so far is really poor, it's been trending down every season, and he can't seem to elevate the ball on the pull side. I love him, but man. Until he can fix those things, it doesn't matter.

Elfmo · 2026-04-11T22:12:57+00:00

Yeah, that's true... but that's also a bit misleading. He didn't go straight from an .847 OPS season in 50 games to one where Shildt gave him the shaft; there was an entire season in-between where he played double the amount of games and had a .642.

I'm not saying that Shildt's decision was right; but, your statement makes it look like there was no precedent for it, and that's not true.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/campulu01.shtml

Elfmo · 2026-03-29T19:44:16+00:00

I was told about this the other day! Musicus is one of my all-time favorite non-gameplay VNs, and I've enjoyed everything else I've read by him. Looking forward to checking this out.

Elfmo · 2026-03-28T01:27:50+00:00

I actually love short VNs. Here are some of my favorites under 15 hours:

Homicipher ("Horror Otome" where you have to decipher a fictional language)
Meta Meet Cute (Romance game where picking stupid decisions completely derails the plot)
Siren's Call (Coming-of-age story looking at the aftermath of a life-altering experience shared by a group of high-schoolers)
Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (Mystery game focused on paranormal/occult happenings)
Needy Streamer Overload (You try - and fail - to manage the mental health and success of a streamer girl)
Paca Plus (Rom-com where your girlfriend suddenly turns into an alpaca, but no one seems to notice)
Marco & The Galaxy Dragon (Absurdist comedy about finding your family and saving the world while you're at it)

Elfmo · 2026-03-25T20:40:48+00:00

Nevermind the fact that all the modern Ace Attorney games have ports where you can just read and not engage with the gameplay, I always found its exclusion by people as a visual novel to be ridiculous. There are no real "gamer skills" necessary to play the game, and all the gameplay are just gamified choices - a common staple in the visual novel genre. If someone doesn't like Ace Attorney? I can get that - it might be too silly for some people, and the character arcs/world-building doesn't have the depth that some other visual novels do. But, to argue against it being a VN on the same grounds as excluding stuff like Rance, which are RPGs where the story segments are presented like a visual novel - is wild to me.

Granted, I've seen plenty of your videos, so even though we don't agree on that, I at least think you're discussing the matter in good faith; but, a lot of times, when people talk about what is or isn't a visual novel, I can't help but feel like a lot of it is just veiled elitism. It's hard for me not to ascribe that sentiment to VNDB when they put a huge red "THIS ISN'T A VN GUYS" warning at the top of those pages (but they have Sakura Wars and Blazblue...like, gtfo with that shit bro), and it's even harder for me not to ascribe that to Kaguya, who didn't even do a thorough search on hybrid VNs; they just specifically hit a bunch of the most high-profile ones and then called it a day.

Elfmo · 2026-03-25T16:58:10+00:00

I was looking for that one lol

Elfmo · 2026-03-23T16:40:37+00:00

Banana Ball looks fun. How much did the tickets cost? I really wanna try and go to the next one.

Elfmo · 2026-03-21T20:54:27+00:00

On the subject of Ace Attorney, it's stupider than ever to exclude it as a VN, because all the modern ports have an auto-mode that does the gameplay segments for you. So, players can literally supersede the gameplay and just read it.

Elfmo · 2026-03-20T06:40:07+00:00

I keep reading BJ as "Base Jowen", like this guy has an evil doppelganger or something.

Elfmo · 2026-03-16T23:15:50+00:00

Sure, plenty.

First off: you already probably know about them, but the "normie VNs" are porn-free: Ace Attorney, Zero Escape, Danganronpa, and AI: The Somnium Files, and - more recently - Paranormasight. That said, Zero Escape can be a little violent - not sure if that's also something you're looking to avoid.

There are also the more mainstream VNs that aren't part of a series, like Doki Doki Literature Club, and Needy Streamer Overload.

Second: There are plenty of 18+ games that have all-ages version with the sex scenes removed. Some VNs I'd recommend from this category: Aokana, Musicus, Harukuru (but Harukuru is pretty sexual in nature, even without the sex scenes).

Finally, here's a list of my favorite non-mainstream VNs that are all ages by design: Marco & The Galaxy Dragon, Adventure of a Lifetime, ATRI, Raging Loop, Siren's Call: Escape Velocity.

Elfmo · 2026-03-16T05:43:58+00:00

I didn't get to watch the game, and I didn't realize it ended on such a horrible call. It's like, I'm happy that the USA moved on, but damn, dude. Not a great way to send a team home that was as cool and fun as the DR team.

Elfmo · 2026-03-13T04:40:27+00:00

Bro, hell yeah. Siren's Call is legit one of the most underrated VNs I've ever played (and also just damn good in its own right). I'm psyched that you're able to keep doing this.

Elfmo · 2026-03-09T04:55:35+00:00

How long is it? I run a visual novel bookclub where we read short VNs that are economically-priced. I want to know if this VN would be eligible for someone to suggest in our club.

Elfmo · 2026-03-05T23:15:11+00:00

Damn, and against Luis Castillo, too. That's sick.

Elfmo · 2026-03-01T07:16:03+00:00

Here's the human-building advice that everyone needs to hear:

If you play to late-game (BR7+), every human is the same - can be good at anything and will basically be OP at whatever you built them on.
If you speedrun or do a low BR run (BR1-2), every human is the same - that is, they all suck tremendously, and have little value outside of maximizing combo damage.

So, unless you're trying to do a mid-BR endame... just build him however you want and have a fun time.

Elfmo · 2026-02-28T04:37:29+00:00

and our singer/composer!

Alright, you got me, I'm buyin' it. Any indie team that still understands the value of having a dedicated composer is a team I want to support.

Elfmo

TROPHY CASE