Oh I forgot they even did an autumn sale! Good to know. I’m also used to when this stuff was more secretive years ago, heh. If we stick to the arbitrary date I just made up that’s 9 days after voting so we can have a good idea where that’s headed and I’m sure we’ll have people checking nominations for sales then.
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Just out of curiosity have any of you read Planetarian ~the reverie of a little planet~ (planetarian ~ちいさなほしのゆめ～)? It’s another old Key title that got my interest for no other reason than being short (only 64k characters). Figured it might make a good side game for when I get some more free time.
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If we pick a game I’m joining for, it would help all my reading plans so much to start in the new year. 
I don’t expect everyone to conform to that though, and a game I’m not joining for can obviously be picked too.
But it is also nice to have some time between vote and starting, because some VNs for Switch come in physical and that can be nice to buy (resell ability is nice for sure). But until one is picked, I’m just shooting the breeze. ^^
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Yep, absolutely! For some of us it might just be going on a digital store any time and buying right away, but I know there are various ways this works and people’s finances aren’t always great at all times too so I definitely want a gap to allow for acquiring the stuff. Goal for next time is to definitely plan to streamline this transfer to the following VN a little more ahead of time though.
I have, and I remember thinking it was a pretty nice little read, but that was both in English and like half my life ago so… I’m mostly left with vague impressions and that’s about all you’re going to get out of me unfortunately, haha.
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I loved Planetarian, but, like @Daisoujou I also read it in English and some time ago (three years I think).
Also, I’m all for trying Tsui no Stella (I already bought it) 
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@MrGeneric @Daisoujou Oh that’s handy, I think 3 votes per person sounds perfect.
I didn’t think of that but that makes sense 
. It’s indeed nice that you can plan ahead with the character counts already posted. I guess that makes it more of a pro than a con then .
Same . But it could actually be a great opportunity. If we can have it already voted by the 22nd then we have Steam sales for the potential winner.
I was writing a(n unnecessarily long) tentative, potential organisation of the nomination, voting, purchasing periods but now reading @MissDagger 's post I thought that since we have people that would wait for physical copies, perhaps it’s best that we shorten the nomination period? It’s true that we have nominations still coming in (I wanted to do mine days ago but was uncertain) but we had the nomination advertised in the title for a while already, and we’ve also had the thread active so it’s been seen in the front page many times for many days. I would love for more and more people to join in, of course, but I’m wondering if it’s not just going to be the ones we’re already around anyways. We could try updating the title to something like “Last X days of nominations” as a last attempt 
.
Then when we have the winner beforehand, we still have the potential Steam sales and people who buy physical copies have more time for it to be delivered. And we still have Loopers going until the 17th. Steam sales go from 22nd to 29th, after the 29th then we can plan the start date accordingly.
Nope but I’m also interested, saw it very cheap on Steam recently and it’s apparently amazingly rated so it went straight to my wishlist.
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Damn, the time really flies. I just checked my vndb account, and it seems that I finished Planetarian in August 2018, so that would make four years already 
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Yeah all that makes a lot of sense, particularly since some of these VNs probably only have Japanese copies one would have to go to a bit of effort and probably wait a bit to get (haven’t looked into physical editions much at all to be honest, but I think it’s likely). Maybe just a couple more days if that gives @MissDagger time to get a nomination prepared and any potential last minute people?
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Yeah, I should be able to carve out time tomorrow. I’ve gotten myself into a bit of state today, and I keep mini procrastinating (which for me is like an hour procrastination, don’t ask me what I would consider a normal length procrastination, it gives me nightmares. 
), even though I had and have so much to do. >_<
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The sneaky recruitment has started . It’s probably a good time to update the OP with the new nominations @Daisoujou whenever you have a minute :
Hopefully I haven’t missed any. What do we do with the other 3 that were nominated last time, btw? Maybe we should notify @/natarin to see if they want to continue with their nomination for this round?
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Pretty much catching me running out the door, but I see no reason we can’t make the top post a wiki like someone suggested in case anyone else wants to toss them up there. I don’t mind updating the list later today, but the community seems to handle collaborative stuff totally fine so no reason not to open up the option.
I think we were intending to just leave all of the nominations as options for now and deal with how to start cleaning up later, but if people have other opinions on that, feel free to share.
@Mods Could you make the top post a wiki please? 
you all
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Ah sure, even better . I thought about that too but I feel like I’ve offered help way too many times in the recent past I didn’t want to come off as pushy or trying to appropriate anything ;-; . Which still stands, happy to help whenever needed.
Ah great, I say keep them, they will make a better pool to choose from, especially if we decide on going for 3 votes finally.
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Still running around doing things so I admittedly didn’t double check yet for missing posts, but I did add those to the list. And you’re likely correct anyway. Thanks so much for getting the links ready for me already! I’m still happy to have it made into a wiki for whatever comes up.
Appreciate it! You’re totally fine and I do appreciate all the support from you all. Don’t worry about that at all; for whatever it’s worth I don’t really want a true “leader” role and mostly conceive of this as a collective shared thing in the first place, doing my best to let it move on its own down whatever path pleases the majority and avoids exclusion anywhere possible.
I’m doing some work to facilitate it now just because I’m willing and initially posted it, but if I’m in charge in any sense it’s only so there’s someone to tell people to knock it off if needed. Which of course hasn’t been needed even a single time.
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Hey Daisoujou! It is now…a wiki! 
-Nick at WK
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百花百狼 戦国忍法帖 (English title: Nightshade)
Developer: Red Entertainment Corporation & Lantern Rooms
VNDB Play Time: 30h
VNDB Link: 百花百狼 戦国忍法帖
Character count: 492k (from someone who finished it)
Number of weeks to finish: 20-22 weeks
Summary
From VNDB:
Thanks to an age of constant war, the Iga and Kouga had independently achieved an expansion of their respective forces.
Both shinobi forces, owing to that long history of warring, shared an antagonistic relationship of mutual hatred towards one another. However, during the ninth year of the Tenshou era, the Iga forces fell into ruin due to the Tenshou Iga War started by Oda Nobunaga. The few Iga members that had survived were taken in by the Kouga forces.
Seventeen years later, the Sengoku period had ended and lasting peace came to the world.
Dreaming of performing shinobi duties, Ueno Enju (the protagonist), daughter of the Kouga forces’ leader, Ueno Kandou, had been training everyday.
After finally being selected to go on her first mission, a major incident occurs. It not only derails Enju’s fate, but the fate of the village as well…
[Translation of the official website’s story summary.]
Availability
Steam
Switch: JP US EU
PS vita (JP release) (not sure if it is possible to get new still, can’t figure it out)
Personal Opinion
Who can resist ninjas? This is an otome, aka protagonist is a woman and she’s dating men. So it is historical Japan. According to Steam’s description, the story is fiction, but there are real historical figures and events sprinkled in it. Nightshade is set a few years after the sengoku war ended.
I’m hoping there is a lot of ninja goodness with romance. It just sounds like a lot of fun to me.
It is a bit long for the club, but all the otome I’m interested in that had more story rather than just pure dating seems to be this length. 
It seems to have 5 routes with two endings each. Not sure if there is a true path/ending.
And according to @Belerith (link to post):
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Ninja
- Historical Japan
- Seems to have chapters (according to a screenshot at VNDB)
- Fully voiced except protagonist
- Romance
- Many endings
Cons
- Time and subject specific vocabulary
- It might be a little too long to be read within this club’s parameters (max 25k character per week, max time allowed 5 months), meaning speed might need to be higher from the beginning or increase after a couple of months
- According to reviewers: Not all routes are as enjoyable and the romance is better than the plot
- Has bad ending(s)
- Many endings
Pictures
Screenshots
Not sure these show the range of language, but I can’t seem to find any other good ones.
Difficulty Poll
How much effort would you need to read this VN?
- No effort at all
- Minimal effort
- Moderate effort
- Significant effort
- So much effort my head might explode
- I don’t know
0
voters
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BU$TAFELLOWS
Developer: Extend
VNDB Play Time: 35h
VNDB Link: BU$TAFELLOWS
Summary
From VNDB:
Arrive in New Sieg, a beautiful fictional town. Step into the shoes of a strong, smart and gifted journalist in this romantic adventure. You play the part of a young woman with the ability to leap in the past for a very short period in the bodies of others, which you use for data collection and helping people. After witnessing the murder of a crooked lawyer – she goes back in time in an attempt to save him. Thus, the journey begins as our protagonist goes back in time in the body of another person and tries to warn Limbo. It’s up to you to figure out how to save him!
Availability
Android
iOS
Switch JP (The ones in EU and US eshop is English only), physical also exists
Personal Opinion
A fictional New York City, crime, romance, and some kind of weird magical ability? What more can you ask for? Honestly, this one seems like it is gonna be a lot of fun. More kinda 1920s style NYC story with lawyers, crooks, and such; although obviously modern with helicopters and such.
And there is a mystery to solve, in a way.
I believe someone mentioned that it starts with a common route that is the main story, then followed by the romance routes.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- Fun setting
- Romance
- Voiced to some degree (even protagonist)
- Many endings
Cons
- Only available on Switch and mobile
- Very long at 35 hours…
- Has bad ending(s)
- No idea if there are good dividers
- Many endings
Pictures
Difficulty Poll
How much effort would you need to read this VN?
- No effort at all
- Minimal effort
- Moderate effort
- Significant effort
- So much effort my head might explode
- I don’t know
0 voters
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First nomination post took like an hour to put together, at least the second one only took 15 mins. xD And yeah, I wasn’t sure which one would be better to nominate so I went for both…
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Uuuh, I’ve heard really good things about Nightshade and Bustafellows sounds really interesting! Both are definitely in my to-play wishlist. I personally don’t mind that they are so long but I can see that scaring off voters…I wonder if we could reach a compromise like… play a couple routes with the club and then decide if we want to continue with the whole thing or as a spin-off (kinda like I imagine the situation with 9-nine-ここのつここのかここのいろ would be?)…Idk just throwing some ideas around since I really like those proposals and this feels like an issue we’ll constantly be facing in this club. But maybe it feels too unsatisfying leaving it like that? And yet it’s not that different from clubs just reading the first volume of a manga or a light novel series… But our user base isn’t that big to begin with so spin-offs might be dangerous…ok I’m just rambling now
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The good thing about Nightshade is that each route kind of exists in its own little world. Plus, they are a little shorter than the routes in Bustafellows.
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I was definitely wondering the same thing. Unless there is a like a true ending type of thing, getting the good romance ending with a route should be satisfactory for that route. So it would totally be possible to only do a few, say 3 or something. And we can vote which ones to do towards the end of the common route.
But yeah, there is a certain satisfaction from finishing it all. I saw that Bustafellows seemed to have some extra something from completion since it had that tag on VNDB, but it could just be some pictures for all I know (which is nothing).
And yeah, splitting off in too many offshoots. On the other hand, even off shoots finish, and we all sometimes have to make decisions on where to put our focus. Hard all around.
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