Yes.

Thats pretty common it seems. Atleast from what I saw in the threads.
Kenji was right about them stealing mens power.

Indeed. It hit me particularly hard, when I installed KS I didn't expect to feel real feelings.

I didnt expect to even like KS.
"What the [censored] is wrong with these people ?"
"Hmm not just IVchan praising it... Maybe I will try it."
"this isnt so bad, I will keep playing"
*become depressed after Hanako's route*

I will pick it up again, eventually... That classroom scene though, and the ending.

So have you checked out any othe VNs since KS ? Or were you into them before KS ?

I didn't even know what a VN was, I haven't played any since KS, hell I can't even play a second route after Lilly's...

Agreed on the last point. AVG is notorious for not obeying the PUP whitelist, so even after you tell it a file isn't a virus, it'll still occasionally say "IT'S A VIRUS". That was one of the main reasons why I dumped that crappy software (the other being the ad campaign). I can't recommend uninstalling AVG enough.

@Ratslayer: your firewall may also be blocking the network request, causing it to say it failed to issue the authentication code, so along with disabling AVG, disable your firewall temporarily as well as any other security software.

Give narcissu a try, you may like it. Its free, but it has no choices to make. I would love to see other peoples reactions too it.
Click the link in my sig, to go to the DL page if interested.
I temporarily disabled AVG, firewall was still uo I belive. Game was fine. Then when AVG reactivated it had the errors again.

What would you reccomend instead of AVG ?

Sounds too slow to be a game.
And the story from what I've heard is mundane.

I play games because I've had enough of the mundane, nothing helps you unwind from a stressful day of monotony like punching a dragon to death or blowing up a bunch Latin speaking, skirt wearing, slavers that call themselves Legion.

Try playing it before you form an opinion.

Ancient evil, chosen one, characters with the depth of a tea spoon. Seriously, you talk about the story being dull and then skyrim, SKYRIM!

Is your favorite director Michael Bay by any chance ?

A lot of it can depend on what you define mundane as. For me glorified spreadsheets, dungeon crawls, doing the exact same thing over and over again in a characterless world void of anything approaching an interesting narrative is mundane. Cliched fantasy included. It's not as if combat is an endangered species in games. Sometimes I wonder how much more diverse they'd be if it were.

That's me though. Because the settings and gameplay mechanics have become stale for me I find them mundane.

Take something like Ever 17, I've never found myself trapped in an underwater themepark with veins of Japanese folklore running through it. Never found myself in a school for disabled students, or 1950's Tokyo handling a murder case.

I've only recently started playing VN's so the mechanics be they a case of reading along in Narcissu without narrative branches or something more interactive and allowing for interaction as in Kara no Shōjo or anologue, they're fresh for me to play. The settings are interesting and different to the norm so for me they aren't mundane.

If it's hectic pacing and interactivity and things to kill that you want then chances are you won't enjoy them. It's still worth trying to see if you are but I wouldn't be surprised if you find them frustrating.

But dude, what about the dragons ?

How is ever 17 ? I heared it relies on stupid twists that come out of nowhere. It was either that or the 999 game.
Still need to play through Kara (need to remove AVG), but the trial was really interesting. As far as I got in it anyway. How long was it BTW ?

On a loosely related note.

Saya no uta seems like it has great music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsbzP1AVS4k

Definate pre order for when the translation is done.

I'm only at an early stage in both Ever 17 and Kara no Shōjo. Estimates put their length at 30 - 50 hours for Ever 17 and 10 - 30 hours for Kara no Shōjo.

I'm enjoying Ever 17, it can be pretty goofy at times but overall it's strong.

Dragons... urgh... Never seen the fascination with them, at least the Western archytypes of them, then again most fantasy cliches leave me cold.

Dragons are powerful, the obsession is some "hell yes I beat a dragon" thing I assume.

Thats another thing I like about these VNs, they seem less cliche and more original.
Ancient evil wanting to destroy the world, just seems dull, and I dont care. A story about people just trying to be happy before they die, or someone trying to adapt to living with a disability. Much more interesting, and the fact its more real than fighting dragons or some crap. Makes it even better.

Allthough if I feel like it, there are plenty of VNs handling weird situations, like say no uta, ever 17, planetarian, etc.

That's most likely the point that I get stuck at. I don't get anything out of pretending to be the big shot hero going off to whack a big beastie over the head. It just feels kind of ridiculous.

Oddly enough though when you take a character who was raised to fight monsters as in the case of Geralt in The Witcher, add into it that you can in some cases come to a peaceful conclusion with the beastie and it becomes for me a lot more interesting. Sometimes they’re way out of your league and can wipe the floor with you. You’re not meant to be able to fight them. When it’s extended beyond [Go here, whack that over the head] it becomes more meaningful.

Either that I or just find hero fantasies particularly boring. Most likely why I like that without her crew Shepard in Mass Effect won’t be getting very far. It becomes more believable, the’re connections with characters and situations. You're less of a bland cutout and instead a personality with strengths as well as dependencies.

Perhaps this comes down to the obsession that most US made media has with the idea of “Rugged Individualism” the notion has been in stories for as long as stories have been told – it just feels that it’s shoved down our throats even harder now though.

And yet it's the cliche VNs that seem to be the most popular over here, at least going by the fact that most of the unique ones haven't been deemed profitable enough for translation. At least that's how it seemed back when I played them often, I haven't played many of the new ones yet.

With time and a little luck we'll get more available to us

At least I hope so

I guess to some extent what would on reflection be cliche we're just not oversaturated with here yet.

What do you mean the cliche ones ?
When looking for VNs I did see lots of dating ones set in high school. I hope they arent the popular ones you mentioned.

The ones I have seen, seem pretty varied so far though.

Yeah, they seem much more varied now. I've been playing VNs for a long time, and it looks like they are translating a lot more of the good ones than they used to, which is good.

heard about the game... from a forum member at my main forums who also frequents /v/

don't understand the draw to it whatsoever *shrug*

Actually gave him all kinds of hell for posting it lol we gave him all kinds of grief for playing it... all in fun (whole forum is nothing but people taking jabs at each other) but none of us understood why anyone would play it.

I think a lot of people probably felt that way, until they actually played it.

I've actualy never played Skyrim to be honest, too expensive for me ATM.

I'd just rather punch dragons or blow up the unrighteous than play, or rather read and occasionally click on, a thing like a visual novel.

I'm also not into that whole Japanese thing.

Also, no I don't like Micheal Bay, but I do like Clint Eastwood's movies (Both the ones he stares in and the ones he directed)

Neither was I, but then KS...

You realise thats may make you loose out on lots of great things right ? Unless you can expand on what it is that bothers you.
Also the game isnt Japanese.

Try it, its around 5 hours a run, you may enjoy it. Its free too.
Nothing to loose, and you may find you enjoy it... Then become addicted to VNs, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

It's the same as reading a book, why are you comparing it to video games?