oh subarashiki hibi.. this game took me forever to play, but it was so worth it!! i'd have rated it higher if the last few chapters werent soooo boring.. like after which dreamed it i lost all interest.
anyway, this game is flipping amazing! my introduction to denpa and such a good one. before playing subahibi i was rly wanting to play saya no uta but tbh in comparison saya no uta is shit LMFAO it really raised the bar for vns in my opinion. it shocked me just how perfect this game was for me.. moege.. denpa.. yuri.. mindfuck.. like those r all my fav elements and it makes me so happy that subahibi just fit them all into such a perfect game. i finished it almost a month ago maybe more and i still so often think abt it and miss it. unfortunately i dont think id be able to replay it because the surprise was half of the enjoyment for me!! subahibi is so good at shocking and confusing its players at the right times- the desk scene in takuji's chapter for example, it was insane but also a really good way to ease the viewers into the perspective of such an insane character.
and all the characters are just incredibly well written. they all fall into categories and stereotypes and -dere types but i don't mind it because i feel like it adds to the game- having such stereotypical anime characters be placed in such an insane situation and grow into real people is really cool. takuji ofc is not very stereotypical but kagami, hasaki, yuuki, etc all are. and ayana.. oh my god i can't even begin with ayana. not that she's stereotypical she's just an entity i can't at all wrap my head around. i think about her existence in the game the most and what she even is.
regardless, subahibi is easily my favorite game ever!! i love it so much. i love everything about it besides the last few chapters and the insanely unneccesary yuki x tomosane h-scene LMFAO

OH MY GOD. togainu no chi is one visual novel i do NOT see talked about enough despite how fucking insane it is. to be fair though i'm not at all in yaoi circles so maybe i'm wrong abt that lol.. moving on, im definitely biased bc im a huge nitro chiral fan- all of their games are beautiful and well written and have insanely sexy men, and are honestly the only yaoi games i really care for because the use of h-scenes is rarely just for the sake of being sexy.
tnc is no exception! there is an insane unavoidable h-scene in it so be warned before playing that there is rape! but besides that, it's just such an interesting premise and it's insanely atmospheric. the entire vibe of tnc was something i found incredibly hard to capture in just one cg when choosing the bg image for this section; its main downfalls are that it's not a game i'd bother to replay and the men in this game.. aren't that sexy.. akira, shiki and nicole are hot as flip but the rest are just meh. i also got the common good end so i could be biased but i didn't find keisuke or motomi attractive and rin.. i'm so conflicted on my feelings on rin because of how young he looks despite being in an eroge. that's another issue i have with tnc but i could just be chronically online, nonetheless his addition in the game was really uncomfortable but outside of sexual settings i liked his character, so there's that!
i think togainu no chi excels the most with its length and its character relations. rin and keisuke and akira all feel like friends, and when you're around them it feels comfortable despite such a gruesome setting. it's also a pretty short vn but it manages to have a good story and write good characters despite that.
and once again, the atmosphere. of course i'd probably say saya no uta's bl equivalent is sweet pool, but atmospherically its bl equivalent is easily tnc. i love dark urban settings! the only thing i found kind of insane was that EVERYONE in that place was gay which i support but also felt a bit unrealistic or too convenient for the setting of a bl. nonetheless its backgrounds and OMFG ITS SOUNDTRACK.. it's all so good, as i'd expect from nitrochiral/nitroplus!
in conclusion, tnc is amazing; it was my introduction to yaoi vns and is just atmospherically gorgeous and not that long of a read. that being said it has a lot of flaws and they're hard to ignore.. i didn't even mention the art style but i feel like it's definitely the sort of game meant to be played on a psp/portable platform as opposed to on a pc. nonetheless its ending is really nice and the rest of the game is really nice! it's just not light reading. it's insanely hardcore and hard to stomach at times like subahibi, but unlike subahibi, all issues get resolved which i like. that turns it from a horror to a bl imo! yay!

man. bad apple wars was such a ride from start to finish. i cried way too many times while playing this game. i already wrote a whole blog post about it but i'll summarize it for this page.
bad apple wars is a story about self acceptance, love, and our reasons for existence, packaged as an otoge. i played shikishimas route which was fwigging amazing. as a forewarning, this game is sad as fuck and not at all a traditional otoge, seeing as how no matter who you choose, you'll never end up together in the real world. but it's also relatable as fuck as someone who's never quite felt special, accepted, or like i belonged anywhere. both shikishima and rinka (protag/player) are people who have never felt as though they belonged; shikishima is an artist who no one ever understood, who feared his art would reach no one but accepted it nonetheless, and rinka is an average girl with no talent or skills and who loathes herself for it, feeling useless in nevaeh academy.
the story is set in a school in the afterlife, separated into two groups; the prefects/good apples, and the bad apples. the good apples follow every rule and lose all their self identity, and the bad apples hope to break each rule in hopes of "expulsion", or returning back to life. shikishima's route is under the bad apple's route.
the story has an amazing cast of characters and an even better setting. because each character is dead, they're all from different eras. nevaeh exists in a grey area/limbo of time, where, if a character is expelled, they'll return back to their life in the era they came from. it's kinda hard to explain... it makes a lot of sense in the game, though. of course the afterlife doesn't follow our traditional ideas of time. each character is a highschooler, and some are born decades apart from eachother, though they're all the same age. i found this gimmick really cool!
i urge you to read my blog post if you're interested in this game because i don't want to reiterate the same things i said there and i don't want to spoil anything. just know this is a tearjerker.

work in progress!

this is. straight up. my favorite otoge of all time. for a while i was so against playing it bc i didnt find any of the li's attractive but then i saw aiji and knew i had to play it! i love me a man who smokes.
that being said i played mineo's route.. all the li's were really attractive so i decided to play it by ear as opposed to picking a route before playing like i usually do, and mineo.. oh my god.. mineo.. mineo..
MINEO ENOMOTO. oh my god. she is the reason this game is ranked so high. i don't know a single other character who is like her much less a character whos so fucking perfect!!!! i'm sorry but this whole part will probably just be about mineo.. the fact that a character can exist whos just so eccentric yet insecure, she's like a better version of kazuichi LMFAO and her whole ninja hyperfixation was just adorable. cxm really did their big one with her; i find that a lot of otoge love interests are pretty one dimensional, but i feel like mineo was made to be a character you fall in love with. she's so layered and she's a bit of a stereotype but she also has so many different interests and quirks that are just really rare to see in li's.
moving onto the story. i don't usually care for murder mysteries or mysteries in general but collar x malice was really good at making the mystery actually captivating; i was so insanely hooked to know who was behind mineo's case. on top of that it is pretty dark for an otoge which i really enjoyed; otoge are rarely dark (AND ZOOO NOT MENTION AMNESIA MEMORIES TO ME BECAUSE THAT GAME IS SO FUCKING SHITTY AND NOT DARK IN THE SLIGHTEST..) but to have such a dramatic plot and a dark atmosphere is really cool.
and the art, both the cgs, sprites, and ost.. they're just so lovely. the bgm is quiet while still being dramatic which i love; i hate when games have really in-your-face osts. the art style is very typical for otomate but it's still gorgeous and atmospheric. on top of that. JEEEEZ LOUISE. shizuka no umi is insane. like that's the best song i ever heard and its insane that it's just from an otome game.
what i did hate was... sasazuka... and that twink ass forensic psychologist.. and the length. #sowwy. i also hated how fast mineo moved, like i found that the pacing post-getting together was really bad. girl why are we talking about getting married when it's only been three months? i get that that's her personality but it still pissed me off. the length was also like a bit unneccesary; it kind of dragged on around the end.
nonetheless it was a really amazing game, and well paced with some exceptions. the romance at least was well paced in terms of becoming friends, pining, etc, though the time period was pretty unrealistic. i'd reccomend this as an intro to otoge because it's easy to enjoy and understand!! #yay

!!! meowss meow meowm oeww meowmewo how do u do? u like me and i like uuu come n take me by the hand cause i wanna be your friend!!

!!! meowss meow meowm oeww meowmewo how do u do? u like me and i like uuu come n take me by the hand cause i wanna be your friend!!

lord i did not expect that i'd finish this game so quickly but it was probably for the better. there's not much to spoil in the first place so i'm not gonna hold back with this one; brother's conflict passion pink is the worst otome game i have ever played, ever. it's not funny, it's not a good setup, it's not a unique cast, hell, none of the characters are unique to begin with. i tend to gravitate to the characters who don't fall into specific, common otoge tropes and have personalities unique to the game (mineo from cxm, itsuki from norn9, etc) but i can still get by with normal characters, too, if they're well written. the characters in this game are neither. i understand brocon is based off an anime and light novel series, but i feel that still doesn't excuse it. i could put aside how bad the LI's are if the gameplay or story was good, but neither are.
first of all, it's filled to the brim with psuedo incest, predatory LI's, insanely monotonous gameplay, and more incest. i mean, the mc is literally the stepsister of every fucking LI. and the LI's, which range from age 11 to age 28 or so, which is diabolical in itself, all have crushes on her and want to date her. mind you, she's 16-17?
and lord. as i mentioned, you can not only date men 10 years older than you, but also two kids, 11 and 14, which is insane. the only normal LI in the game would have to be yusuke, because he had a crush on the mc since before they became siblings, and they're the same age and in the same class. poor guy. his luck is fucking awful.
despite this, i chose kaname's route because yusuke was shorter than me. #shallow. kaname's route was boring. i really wonder who the target audience of the game is, if any; i have to imagine the devs were trying to appeal to every possible demographic of women, considering just how wildly the content varies in the game. kaname's route was full of fanservice (of him, not the mc) and insanely suggestive scenes, which is whatever, but then to think that the other routes are with, as i mentioned, kids, is confusing. it's like the game can't just pick a side. either make it a cute high school otoge with only the younger characters (like fuuto, yusuke, and iori, who are all high school aged), or make it an adult otoge with the older guys. the lack of any real setting/plot just makes the game feel spineless, like it's just hinging on the hope that the player will find interest in the LI's and putting any plot or cohesivity aside.
all i can say that's positive about the game is that the art style is distinctly early 2010s otoge. it felt like a game tomoko kuroki would play (take that as you will). also, i liked that there was a gender-ambiguous LI, hikaru. they were a crossdresser but from the little interactions i had with them, i found them to be at least moderately trans-coded. i enjoyed the art and i found the mc and her friend to be really cute, i like that there's a kogal mc, but besides that, it was just awful. playing the game felt like a chore, and i skipped through most of it because it was constantly repeating the same scenes for each date/sleepover. don't play this. i only played this game out of obligation for my otogefest.