Noooo, not a sudden guy that shows up out of nowhere! It'd at least be a bit better if Tsukasa actually knew who he was, but... nope....

You know, stupid theory, but perhaps Tsukasa was that takoyaki shirt wearing "boy" that Washio fell in love with? Kotooka did mention that she looked a lot like a boy in the past... I don't think they even went to the same grade school, but, yeah, that's why this is a stupid theory.

I thought the whole point of a jam was to finish something or else release a demo for it within the time constraints, but, whatever, hopefully they're released soon.

Uh, no. A game jam is a challenge to make a prototype in a very short time (usually 48h). So basically, it's putting together a "proof of concept", something that roughly works to show the outline of what the game would aim to be. Sometimes, a prototype there get enough attention to have a chance to become an actual game, but it's not all that frequent and it means it'll be worked on more to get through the usual remaining phases (alpha, beta then release). That's a place to show off your skill or build up experience.

It's a good way for people hoping to get into the video game industry to make themselves know, get experience and making contact with professionals which are the main point of those.

I'll preface this by saying that I admit that I know basically nothing about game jams. Also, I worded that badly, but my point was that there are a ton of games up on the jam page which I presume the devs didn't finish enough of in time since there's nothing to download on their game pages, not even a demo or a prototype. Eight Sweets, Blossoms Bloom Brightest, Plain, and Fight or Flirt are the ones I spotted. A pity since those were some of the ones that I was the most interested in... I just feel like there's no point to participating in a jam if they don't even release anything during it. In my (probably dumb) opinion, they should have at least displayed everything that they had already finished and then released the full version later when it's ready.

It is a pity that none of the amazing authors who participate in this jam are going to receive any recognition from it... Ebi-hime's works in particular are glorious, yet it seems like there are few who care at all about them. I think her stuff on Steam sold pretty well for EVNs, so that's something, at least.

I haven't played many of the games yet, but I'll give my opinion on the ones that I have played. As a side note, it seems that a few of the projects are still in development, such as Blossoms Bloom Brightest and Plain. I thought the whole point of a jam was to finish something or else release a demo for it within the time constraints, but, whatever, hopefully they're released soon.

Densha Girl: trashy, rushed, bad CGs, bad grammar and writing.
Frog Love at Frog School: only has one unique quality amidst a bad, cliche story. This unique quality really hurts the quality of the work in my opinion...
One Small Favor: I like the GameBoy aesthetics and all, but where's the yuri?? It's just a story of a girl running errands for her girlfriend, which is kinda yuri, I guess, but still...
First Kiss at a Spooky Soiree: I liked it less than Nami's other great works, but this was still quite cute. It had quality art and music as one would expect from a Nami game.
Once on a Windswept Night: ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. I don't want to spoil anything, but this is awesome and is definitely the best thing that came out of the jam.

last edited at Nov 5, 2016 5:05PM

I was like, "Aw, at least she has that girl even if that other girl left her..."

She pulled out her phone, and I was like, "NOOO, WHYYYY."

I was kinda laughing at the end though. Man, Kyouko's life sucks so much, and it's hilarious.

Ebi-hime delivers again with another brilliant VN! I don't want to spoil anything, but I love this kind of story with gameplay mechanics reminiscent of one of my favorite RPGs, a game that has still stuck with me to this day even though I haven't touched it in months... anyhow, if I have one fault with it, it's that the choices are a bit arbitrary. I suppose that's the problem with choices in VNs: make them too obvious and they're too game-y, make them too obscure and they're too annoying. It's probably more just that I suck at making choices in VNs though. Most of them weren't all that important, but there was toward the end that really tugged at the heartstrings if you screw up... (like I did...) If you need help getting to the end, I'll post how I think you get to it in the following spoiler tags.

So, the first order of business is talking to both of the girls and getting their life stories. Madeleine is probably gonna be the only choice you have at first, so talk to her and either ask her about the tree or ask her to tell you a bedtime story. Restart from the beginning, say "You should be more careful" when Daffodil and Madeleine ask you that question and say Daffodil's food is good. You should get the option to stay with Daffodil. Don't lie to her and don't say she looks cute, and then she'll tell you her life story. Restart, choose to investigate the tree (very important step that I missed so many times...), choose the "Both" option when given the option to stay with Daffodil or Madeleine, and then you should be set from there... I believe. There's one particular choice toward the end that either makes or breaks your run, but... I don't want to spoil that for you since it's actually a significant choice...

last edited at Nov 2, 2016 1:02AM

I'm probably just stupid, but... what exactly is happening here?

Man, I was scared to read this because it's SOFTCHARM but... yeah, I regret reading this. That Bestiality on Page 16 tag kinda spoiled the twist though. Though, I suppose the whole thing's Bestiality and not just the thing on that page...

Shimanami Tasogare

It develops really nicely.

I requested for it to be uploaded here.

It got me there :

You tell them...

This pic got me curious about the manga, and I want to read it now, but... whatever happened to Chapters 1 and 5?

Wasn't there... Something something ToLieAngle (?) that was basically a shonen yuri manga? It was like a generic ecchi harem thing, except the clumsy protag was also a girl. I only saw a handful of chapters translated, though.

Oh damn I just realized: She waited 7 years meaning for her, the last Fallout game was 2008. She missed out on New Vegas! Wow. Unbelievable :(

This is the real heartbreak of the chapter - she waited so long for a sequel to Fallout 3, but New Vegas, her true soulmate, was there the whole time, just waiting for her to notice. And now she's going to be too focused on her pretty but ultimately shallow fling with Fallout 4 (and her real girlfriend, I guess, whatever) to ever realise it. Brings a tear to your eye.

Tachiban To Lie Angle or something equally stupid. I always hate weird manga titles that make no sense. Anyhow, even though it was generic and trashy, I did like it for some reason. Maybe it's because it was something new since I never read any harem things before... Always wondered what happened to that series since it hasn't been translated in months.

Another yuri-related visual novel with three female routes recently came out: 'Catch Canvas'.
It's not entirely yuri since the protagonist can be either male or female, but after finishing it I can say that it's not a pronoun swap like Huniepop was; there was definitely situations exclusive to the female protagonist. Be warned though that it's not exactly independent routes, but more like you go through the game and at the very end choose one out of three endings dedicated to each girl.

I certainly appreciate the fact that there are some female-exclusive lines and situations, the latter being something that HuniePop did not have. Does it assume like you're male in other situations though? HuniePop was pretty good at keeping it gender-neutral, but there were a few lines here and there that slipped through the cracks (ex: the fairy girl's "junk in the trunk" line... I'm pretty sure that's only said in relation to that thing). It always amused me that Audrey would say "Gaaaaaay" in that annoying insulty way when, you know, she's gay herself... Though it is Audrey, so it kind of fits.

And, it's yet another instance of false advertising with this hybrid yuri game. I mean, maybe it's just me being stupid, but I think that most people would expect three full-fledged routes when the description talks about romancing three girls. I don't really have a problem with there pretty much being only one route (I adore KNs too), but it seems a tad bit misleading to me. I've been noticing a disturbing trend with every single hybrid yuri thing released this week, and I hope it doesn't continue...

last edited at Oct 16, 2016 3:39AM

Maybe Americans hug random strangers, or their friends, all the time, but it's not the case in every culture. For some people, including me, it's an invasion of personal space and it's uncomfortable to be touched.

I don't hug my friends, even if I trust them. I may lightly kiss them on the cheek though.

Don't go on assuming everyone needs hugs for a "better world". Your world is not my world.

My male American friends hug each other occasionally... I have a problem with the way they hug each other though since it seems like they're making a joke out of being gay when they're not (well, it's possible they are, but they say they're straight in any case), especially taking the kind of things they say while hugging each other into consideration... My female friends hug each other from time to time as well and it seems like it's more serious in that case... I mean, to them, I think it's a way to show (platonic) affection. I like to see same-sex hugging and all, but my joy at seeing anything remotely gay in real life is kind of stifled by the fact that they're obviously not being serious about it... Of course, we're all Asian, so, I don't know, maybe white Americans act differently... we certainly don't kiss each other like all the manga say we do (that always annoys me a bit since I've never seen anyone outright kiss a friend) or hug/kiss random strangers though.

I don't want to be like that Frenda person who apparently got banned, but I kind of am wondering why this is on the site too (please don't ban me). I know it's not ONLY a yuri reader, but it's primarily a yuri reader, so why is this on the site? I understand in the case of stuff like... that thing the author of a yuri anthology made (14-san no Koi, was it?) Is there yuri subtext or something like that thing that the author of Kodomo no Jikan made (and KnJ itself, for that matter, from what I've heard) or is it because Mitsuru also wrote yuri... Concerto sure was a great story. Of course, it's pretty much up to the uploaders (or mods? whoever uploads everything) to decide what goes up on the site and I don't want to be an asshole or anything, but I'm kind of a bit curious what the thought process is when it comes to uploading stuff on this site.

Edit: Oh yeah, it is 14-san no Koi. I have such a great memory when it comes to completely trivial things. Well, anyhow, the author also wrote Lonely Wolf, Lonely Sheep! One of my first yuri stories and definitely one of my favorites! I hope Fuuka comes back to writing yuri at some point... (seems like that's said a lot around these parts).

last edited at Oct 14, 2016 12:11AM

As someone who only watched the first episode of Valkyrie Drive, I thought that the title was using "drive" as in, you know, driving a car... so I was thinking, "Duh, of course you can't drive while you're having sex (unless you want to get into a car crash...)!" Then, I actually read it and I remembered what driving was.

last edited at Oct 13, 2016 10:21PM

@LumberingCrane

Nice to know that there's actual romance involved. I figured that there would be based on the creator, but this whole fiasco worried me a tad bit. It's also nice to know that you can be a manipulative asshole without getting a bad ending... I mean, it seems like that's pretty much the whole point of the VN from the trailers (though they appear to be pretty damn misleading...), and, quite frankly, it sounds fun to engage in that sort of stuff.

@Gralwer

I agree with your points completely. While I don't really have as much of a problem with the het routes anymore since I've since found out that they're avoidable and, more importantly, not freaking rape, I still kind of do have a problem with the fact that they weren't advertised at all. I know Love never EXPLICITLY stated that this was a full yuri VN, but, to me, at least, the marketing sure made it seem like it was, especially that "girls tying up other girls" line. Where's the "assholes dudes tying up girls" line, huh? I just find the inclusion of het content more than a bit odd considering the fact that they weren't advertised at all... Maybe they could've attracted some het lovers or something with the promise of 5 minutes of het BDSM, but I don't know. I mean, really, who the hell is going to buy a game like this if they don't like yuri? I don't know about you all, but I know for sure that I despise any form of het in my yuri games. I don't know if Sweet Volley High is any good, but at least the marketing explicitly states that there's a het route (my problem with the het route, though, is that it's marketed so prominently when there are FOUR YURI ROUTES, but that's a different discussion entirely...). I mean, even if they did advertise it, I doubt that they would attract many people who like het BDSM stuff anyway taking Lumbering's info that the het "routes" are pretty much inconsequential... people who like that kind of stuff would probably be more into things that are primarily het, so I don't really see the purpose of this...

Then again, yeah, I haven't read the VN, so it's possible that they serve some kind of purpose. It seems unlikely to me considering how unimportant they apparently are, but, yeah, it's certainly wrong to judge something I haven't even read...

While themusicman's explanation makes sense, I'm still a bit bewildered by how dense Yagi is... I mean, she's acting like her and Mado aren't dating when she says in the first chapter that they're "together both online and in real life." They also kissed in the prequel, but, well, it seems like some parts of the prequel aren't canon to the main story, so that might be a bit different. I guess it's possible that she meant "together" as in "TOGETHER AS FRIENDS," but it still seems more than a bit odd to me.

I feel like I'm missing something here... what is this thing a parody of?

You know, the last time I asked this was kind of an expression of displeasure, but IS there anyone on the ship you can't have sex with?

The maid I think, which sucks to be honest considering I think of her as the best character in the game. She might as well be fanservice with all the references she makes but it was still effective for me.

Weird, did I have the most celibate playthrough possible in the game without realizing it? I did not have any sexual relations with any man or woman in the ship besides The Beauty.

I'm not sure how this VN works, but I guess you weren't being a manipulative asshole and all? You know, is there actually any romance in this or is it just sex? It seems like the only two characters who the MC can have an actual relationship with are The Beauty and the... Stalker?, but I'm kind of unsure now if there's actual love involved... If there is and the het routes are easily avoidable, then I might consider buying this... Actually, yeah, no... I try to dabble in every game genre out there, but I swore to myself that I would NEVER buy an ecchi/porn game. I hope I don't break this vow to myself like I did with my vow to never watch moe anime (AND LOOK WHERE I AM NOW!)

http://imgur.com/a/HytYF
So this is the cause of the drama?

Man, it seems even more screwed up now with more images. Granted, maybe it's less screwed up in context since I have no idea what's going on, but still... I kinda doubt that.

Also, is that feminine boy she's talking about referring to that crossdresser guy (forgot his name, sorry, whoever you are) ? GAH, IS THERE ANYONE ON THIS FREAKING SHIP THE HERO CAN'T HAVE SEX WITH?? I never played Fire Emblem, but this scene in particular kinda reminds me of the whole Soleil fiasco. And, man, if it really is him, the website pretty much blatantly lied (it did about the pres and cousin tol though, I guess). I suppose that thing it said about "you're a lesbian but even you have to admit he's cute" should have raised some red flags. At this rate, the Hero is going to be able to have sex with her fucking brother (I really hope this isn't the case... He's not on the ship though (unless he is) so I'm gonna hold out hope...)

You know, the last time I asked this was kind of an expression of displeasure, but IS there anyone on the ship you can't have sex with?

Edit: Alright, let's see the blatant lies the site told us (I'm not being serious here by the way). So, the Boy and the Pres both have "He wishes" next to the romanceable thing. I guess that's not really a denial, so you got me there, Love! I've heard that there's a scene wirh the Athlete and the Nerd too, and "No" and "Too flustered at even the thought" sure seem like clear denials to me. Granted, I didn't see any visual confirmation of these scenes, so this might not actually be true. Also, I knew I wasn't going crazy, MC's name is The Beast! I wonder why it's changed to The Hero in those images.

last edited at Oct 12, 2016 2:50AM

Minutoh
Forgot to ask, but what is your Steam username? Cause I'm kind of curious about your rant... and just you know, no I won't for some reason try to add you as friend or contact you on Steam, because I can't since I never put 5$ there, damn you Steam! (>_>)

LumberingCrane
Thanks for clarifying, I already expected it was not as bad as people are making it to be, it's pretty obvious people are reacting like this just because they thought it was going to be 100% yuri even though I don't remember anywhere saying it was, though I can be mistaken about that, and I didn't know the BDSM was avoidable, I got the impression it was one of the focus of the VN.

Mega Mini Knight! Crappy name, I know, but at least it's creative. Looking back at it, it's kind of a dumb rant (as all rants are), but, hey, I feel no shame about me being an idiot.

As for the 100% yuri thing, while I suppose it wasn't directly stated that it was 100% yuri, the marketing for it sure seemed like it was. "Girls tying up other girls," the trailers just showing the yuri scenes, the site stating that none of the dudes were romanceable, etc., etc. It seems just a bit dishonest to me to not mention the het parts at all in the trailers or whatnot, but, really, it's Love's VN and she can do whatever she wants.

, though I guess that's easier said than done as yuri fans seem to be known as irrational drama queens... : x

Case in point: me. I know I shouldn't rant if I haven't even bought the VN, but I already started ranting on the Hella Yuri page... Apparently, that cousin thing does lead somewhere (bad), though I guess Lumbering's info seems to show that it's at least not rape and avoidable... This is still what I'd call fucking irreproachable, but, yeah, I should really wait for more information before I start ranting my head off (so damn fun to rant though).

last edited at Oct 11, 2016 5:22PM

Yuri game jam? I assume a flurry of short visual novels (visual short stories?), Twine games and the occasional GameMaker joint

If I remember correctly, most of the games last year were pretty much like this. Most of them were mediocre, which is understandable given the time constraints, but Ebi-hime's glorious The Sad Story of Emmeline Burns and Nomnomnami's Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet were at least two quality finished VNs that came out of that thing. There were a ton of demos for VNs that were never finished, which saddens me... maybe some actually did get finished, I'll have to check up on their progress. Anyhow, both Nami and Ebi-hime are working on stuff for the YGJ this year, so, if nothing else, we can rest assured that there will be at least two good VNs that come out of this.

last edited at Oct 9, 2016 8:47PM

The first game in this jam thing came out a day ago, Frog Love at Frog School. https://juicy-luscious-jams.itch.io/frog-love-at-frog-school

It's... not really all that good, but it's certainly something. That song in the credits is pretty great too.

It's pretty much a generic yuri thing with all the dialogue replaced with Ribbits. As you can imagine, it's pretty hard to follow, but I got the general gist of it from Maria's thoughts. And, really, the True Ending is not them hooking up but Rowan getting another GF and Maria feeling super jealous about it? Based on the credits, it seems that Maria's supposed to be a jerk, so I guess it's the best ending for Rowan? I don't really know...

Holy fuck. I knew this would be super fucked up, but that was somehow even more fucked up than I thought it'd be... Interesting read though, I suppose...

Plot twist: The friend is a hardcore lolicon, and Mimika has to protect Yuzumori from her.

I guess that would explain why Shiori seems so unfazed by Mimika being a lolicon... since she's a lolicon herself, she can relate to her! Now, that would be a great twist (maybe).

I wonder if Shiori's going to be like that doctor guy from that Beloved manhwa that showed up here recently, dropping some "vague" hints here and there that Mimika is in love with Yuzumori. It seems like it would fit her personality based on the little we know about her.

Aw man, it's the classic staring sadly with the three dots dialogue box thing. I hope that this doesn't mean anything bad is gonna happen (okay, it probably is).