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alle 🪼 · 2mo

do you have any vn recs. I'm asking in general and not for me specifically, but if there is something you think I'd like, please tell me

oooo sure!!! I'll preface this with a vn that I think may be in your interest (the rest will be personal faves), which is Hashihime of the Old Book Town! It's a Taisho-era mystery blvn that I and many of my friends love, one in particular also happens to be a big mamiya fan! My attempt at a basic run down (forgive me it's been a few years) is that Tamamori, our protag, moves into Tokyo and after failing his entrance exams, ends up working at a strange bookstore that only opens doors during the rainy days... strange happenings occur, causing Tamamori to get stuck repeating the same few rainy days as he tries to prevent the deaths of the friends around him... It is r18 in nature, if you'd like specifics I can def write something up for you, I know h scenes are censored/removed in the swtich version, though there are some significantly important dialogue during these scenes that gets removed as well, if that fits your preference more! (I can also share my steam library if it's of interest to you ^^). A lot of japanese literature references and symbolism/metaphors that are present throughout! The first route in particular was really emotionally touching to me that it took me months to finally get back and continue the game haha, it's also pretty kinetic and you only get the opportunity of making decisions after the first route, though the total amount of choices that can be made in the entire hand can be counted all in one hand. Sorry if my explanation is all over the place... it was a wonderful experience...

Aside from that!! Some other personal favorite vns (mainly otome, I don't have much experience with stuff outside of otome/blvns) include:

  • Taisho x Alice: Otome, has some suggestive and potentially triggering content depending on the route you play, but very intriguing storyline. You follow Yurika, who wakes up in darkness one day and ends up running into Alice, the two of you lost and unfamiliar with your surroundings and each other. The two end up finding crystal mirrors that show a fairy tale world... and as you step in, you end up following along the tales these worlds contain! I don't want to say too much because I think this game is best played knowing as little as possible! It's got a lot of fairy tale inspiration (which you will see through the cast's names and plotlines) and the game Takes You Places...

  • Jack Jeanne: Otome, I think it may have some content warnings? I haven't actually finished the game because it's Incredibly Long (to me) so I'm taking it slowly... I found it to be a really valuable game for me and where I currently am in life... You follow Kisa, a girl with a love for acting, who one day gets invited to join this prestigious all-boys acting school, Univeil, though in order to stay, she mustn't be found out to be a girl and must also be cast as a main role in the final performance of the school year... I Love Love Love the relationships she forms with her peers and the characters outside of her class... There's a lot of stage performances that occur within the school year, each unique and important to Kisa's (and others') development... A beautiful game with moving lines... Some of these characters hit a little close to home from the... 90ish hours i've played so far... give me about a year or two and i'll be finished with the entire game... I will also mention that it's a stat raising game and there's also a rhythm game portion that comes with each of the plays, but there's varying difficulty levels that you're free to choose!

  • Uuultra C: BLVN, R18 (same creator as hashihime), whole lot of content warnings, more so than hashihime maybe..? This is a showa-era tokusatsu blvn that's separated into three chapters, each following a specific pair within the story! A story with kaiju and heroes, there are incidents that happen throughout japan and each chapter gets you new insights on the overarching story... It's not at all straightforward and TBH one playthrough of the game isn't enough... I've played it in full twice and even then there's still new things that I catch when I revist this game. Each of the pairings are distinct from each other, each having their own problems and desires... lots of identity talk... gets very crazy in chapter 3... It's personally my favorite vn... I think if you ever get around playing hashihime and enjoy it, you might like this game too..? Another game filled with references to japanese media of the time, metaphors and symbolism as per Adelta's usual storytelling. This one in particular is completely kinetic, no choices so you just click and read through!

I hope this was legible since it's hard to look back at the text on here hahaha but thank you for the question! I love these games and if others out there can enjoy them (me sharing this on an acc with like 10 people), then I'd be incredibly happy! I love visual novels and there are many more that I want to play...

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