BU$TAFELLOWS 💰 (Visual Novel Book Club) // Completed

It fixed itself, was probably my internet or something! I voted that I could go faster but I’m in the same boat as @natarin - I’m happy not too go faster as well.

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I’m not yet up to choice 4 in chapter 2, but this is more because I just haven’t been picking up the VN than because it’s difficult. Not entirely sure why…

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Uhhh I need to catch up. In my case it’s just been a matter of not prioritizing well as I let my free time be absorbed by ユージニア and other non Japanese things I had going on, so not really a problem with the pace, I’ll probably be back on track this weekend if all goes well.

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I’m like 4 choices into chapter one. :nerd_face: But super busy period is over, now I just need to settle back in and such. My hope is I’ll catch up before we start chapter 4 in preliminary 2 weeks, but I also don’t know how much time I need to spend to make that happen. :thinking:

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I finished chapter 2 today, so I was only a couple of days behind the pace…

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Chapter 4 is here. Observe that while there are no choices in this chapter, I did leave info on how to tell which route you are on where choices usually go in the post.


Once again, I want to know people’s thoughts on how much time was needed to read chapter 3. Since the poll came up only today, I’ll keep it active over the weekend and maybe a couple of days more.

How did reading chapter two over two weeks feel?
  • I can handle a faster pace
  • Just right, or close enough
  • I had to work really hard to finish reading in time
  • I didn’t finish in time
  • I’m still behind since earlier
0 voters

I added an option for those who were already behind before we started this chapter.

Also, in about a week, I will poll you guys for how the pace is going for you. If we should have an extra week/break before getting into Limbo’s path. I understand chapter 3 felt a bit longer. Who knows, maybe chapter 4 is too.

Actually, for those who tend to read more quickly, do let me know if chapter 4 feels longer or not. I feel like most people thought the pace for chapter 1 and 2 worked well, so if chapter 4 also is longer than those, then adding another week here should help people.

Let me know what you guys think, if nothing else I will be back with a poll about it before chapter 4 ends in two weeks.

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Chapter 4 is a bit shorter I think!

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Thanks Bu$tafellows, totally using シュウ in my head for making mnemonics for every new kanji pronounced しゅう that I learn :grimacing:

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Ah, I just realized I forgot to post the thread for the new chapter today. It is late here now and I’m afraid if I tried to do it now, I’d make a mistake. Because information around choices will be a bit more than usual, since there will be good reasons to save at certain points to go back and get bad endings (or do the bad endings first, whatever you choose).

So I’ll get it up tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience!

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That’s OK, I still haven’t finished chapter four yet :sweat_smile:

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New chapter is here. Or more specifically, the first actual part of リンボ’s route! :partying_face:

Do note there are some extra things for this. For example, I do include info on bad endings, but they are not an official part of the book club as decided by a poll. So please if you play the bad endings, do spoiler any discussions of those separately, so those who don’t want to play them right now, don’t get spoilers for them.

Also, if someone looks at the English guide for example, it will suggest three different saves, two for bad endings and one for a CG variation unlock, but the Japanese guide I picked, smoothly includes the CG variation through one of the bad endings instead. So as far as I know, all unlocks possible for リンボ A will be achieved if one wants them.

Lastly, since we’re kinda hitting new territory here. Please let me know if you notice early that this seems a lot shorter than the regular chapters have been. Because I feel like maybe we’re finally entering territory of having to adjust our speed on the fly. :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:


Once again, I want to know people’s thoughts on how much time was needed to read chapter 4. Since the poll came up only today, I’ll keep it active until mid next week.

How did reading chapter two over two weeks feel?
  • I can handle a faster pace
  • Just right, or close enough
  • I had to work really hard to finish reading in time
  • I didn’t finish in time
  • I’m still behind since earlier
0 voters

Also, maybe during the read through of this part or as the next part starts we have some decisions to make, so I want you guys to think about them, and those would be:

  • Do we want to continue reading more routes together as a club? (We don’t have to commit to reading the whole thing together already.)
  • If you want to continue as a club, what route do you want to read next? (Do realize that the club might not pick the one you want to read most, so if we read as a club flexibility will be needed.)
  • If we don’t continue as a club, would you still like threads to post about the different routes in?

No need to reply with your answers. I will put up polls in a little while, but I thought it worthwhile to post these already in case there are some in depth discussion about this that people want to have. Or maybe just some thinking time.

Also, do note that we will probably take a break between finishing リンボ’s route and starting another, just to give people who has fallen behind a chance to catch up and start the next route with the group if we decide to keep reading the same route together on a schedule. :slight_smile:

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Well, I’ve decided now is the time I’m gonna give you guys some polls about the future of BU$TAFELLOWS club. Feel free to elaborate in comments below.

One reason we want to do this already, with (probably) 3 weeks left, is that this is a part of the main VN club, and we’ll need some answers for the main club, so the organization of that one can be figured out. Thank you all for your cooperation! :saluting_face: (Sorry, just felt so very organizational, haha.)

Are you interested in continuing to read BU$TAFELLOWS as a scheduled club*?
  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

*scheduled club meaning both we keep reading on a schedule and the same route together. For example, if you want to freely pick your second route yourself and would only read with the club if it happened to pick the one you want to read next, the answer is no.

I would put the next two polls under detail tags, but detail tags break polls and I don’t know how to fix that so…


If YES:

What route do you want us to read next?
  • シュウ
  • モズ
  • ヘルベチカ
  • スケアクロウ

0 voters

For info on what some reviews of the game thought the best order of routes were, you can check @Sylph’s post here.


If NO:

Are you still interested in having club threads for all routes and such?
  • Yes, please add all threads, I want read this VN at my own pace/pick my next route myself
  • No. Thanks for the club though!

0 voters


And now to more overall VN club things. The whole reason we’re reading two VNs at the same time is because the vote was even and only a couple of people were interested in both. While all the others were only interested in one or the other.

So for organizational reasons, the main VN club wonders (if any of the other regular VN club members realize I missed something, let me know!!!):

What is your position on VN club(s) going forward? Are you likely to vote and participate, etc.
  • I’m generally interested in the VN club and will read any VN that is picked that fits my interests
  • I’m only interested in otomes, and will only join the VN club if an otome is picked / would be interested in a otome only VN club
  • I’m not particularly interested in any VN club, I just happened to want to read/try BU$TAFELLOWS

0 voters

I think that covers it, but let me know if I missed something or presumed too much. :pray:

Voting in these polls if you’ve been reading BU$TAFELLOWS with us would be super helpful (I don’t care if you’ve fallen behind, it happens to all of us)! I appreciate you. :blush:

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It was nice to be part of a book club and to discover BU$TAFELLOWS, but I think I’d rather finish it at my own pace. Also I think I would have liked better to do my first run blind and see who I end up with (and on which bad ending :sweat_smile:) rather than a Limbo route, so I think I’ll do that for my next route.
Thanks for making this club, I had fun!

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Wasn’t sure what to vote on that last one because I’m interested in VNs in general but I’d definitely be interested in an otome club so idk.
As we are bound to keep choosing longer and longer VNs, joining the club becomes a big time commitment (and possibly money commitment) so I’d only join choices I would want to read even if there was no club. In that sense it’s a bit different than with bookclubs where I’m okay reading books I might not have typically been interested in.

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Mmm, this is about where I am too I think, especially since I don’t have a good setup for playing Windows only games right now. So I picked “any that fits my interests” but am likely to be a lot pickier than that wording implies…

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Thanks for elaborating, guys. :smiley:

So, the point of the last poll was to figure out something for the main club basically. Because BU$TAFELLOWS seemed to pull in so many new readers to the VN club. We who were part of the first read became interested in understanding why, so as to carter to those readers and hopefully keep them. Maybe it was just that more people became aware of the club, and that’s great, maybe it was suddenly having otome nominations, maybe it was something else, maybe it was a little bit of all of those.

Basically we just want to understand better, and also to help guide when we have the next read poll. Like should 9-nine- continue with the next game in the series (basically that several versions of that one comes with each route in a separate game), as BUSTAFELLOWS continues, or should a new pick be made, and anyone who wants to continue either VN does it in their own time or as an off-shoot club.

Lots of considerations. And one of those is very much the time commitment part of reading VNs together.

So the way I was thinking was this (hopefully this makes it clearer what you should pick):

If you are likely to read a future pick with the VN club as a whole, if it is a pick you’re interested in, then picking that option is right for this poll in particular. Preferably you’d be a bit more involved, like actually voting for the picks you’d like to read, but as always, nothing is mandated.

Basically this is to figure out how many have a more general interest in VNs and who would join if it was a VN they wanted to read. Time and money commitment allowing.

If you’d only read the pick if it was an otome, then pick the otome option. Considering how many of the new voted only for otomes in the next read pull, some of us wondered if it was just the popularity of otome that had them join the VN club. Which is absolutely fine, nothing wrong with that at all. But it would be good to know.

If one is also interested in an otome only VN club, while also being interested in the general VN club, we can have that discussion for sure. But right now, I guess in a way, I’m more interested in learning those who are planing to join the VN club in general (which does NOT mean reading every pick).

The possibility of an otome only club if there is enough interest would be a discussion for another day. Especially if we continue reading BU$TAFELLOWS, since then I feel like starting an otome club would be something to consider when we’re ready to stop reading B$ as a club (or we finish it, whichever happens first).

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I hear you on wanting to do a blind run first. I think that would be my preferred option for my next VN too. If nothing else, because I haven’t done that yet. ^^

I’m glad you enjoyed it. :smiley:

I hope you keep enjoying the VN.

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In my case it was largely that the game had an Android version with a free demo chapter, so it was easy for me to say “yeah, why not” because it fitted in with my general “want to do this sitting in an armchair” Japanese habits in a way in which a PC-only game doesn’t.

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I’m a Switch only reader (for VNs) right now for the same reason, so I get ya.

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Whew we’re getting down to it huh! I voted in the polls but I wanna clarify a couple things:

I voted no for continuing the club and voted for having general discussion threads for the routes, but I probably would continue reading with the club if it ends up still being a scheduled thing. I’d just prefer to go at my own pace at this point and discuss as I go, but unless I go completely off the rails I’ll probably go along with whatever :joy:

And as far as the whole VN vs. otome thing goes, like I think I’ve said before I didn’t really pick BU$TAFELLOWS because of it being an otome so much as the general concept and vibe of it appealed to me. I feel like the likelihood of me being interested in a VN is about the same whether it’s an otome or not, so basically I’m on board with the general VN club and will join in or not depending on what’s picked, and the same would be true of a theoretical otome club. That felt like a lot of words to say not that much actually but hopefully it gives some insight :joy:

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