/bl/ - General BL

bl media is pretty popular but i still don't get why there aren't that many bl games as opposed to all the otomeshit that's being pumped out

>>4810
I'm like 99% sure most otomate games are made for tax write offs which is why they release like 3+ a year.

>>4810
>>4774
Taking the plunge.

Oh didn't mean to reply to you >>4810 but I guess I'll say Otome games seem very cookie-cutter in that you don't actually need to create a protagonist most of the time. Like the last one I played "A Date With Death" had an in-depth character creator that was basically a dress up game included but since the protag was (you) none of that amounted to anything and it was just a chatting sim.

With a BL game the player isn't totally a self-insert, while there are elements of that you also need to establish the MC as his own person and give him a personality.

>>4810
I'm probably projecting but I think fujo tastes are more specific and therefore it's riskier to make a BL game when you could make yet another otome game. Original BL works also have to compete with a fujo's interest in fanworks, whereas otomes don't often feed themselves (and are sometimes intolerant of feeding each other).

>>4811
Isn't Otomate owned by Idea Factory? IF is known for pumping out low effort, low budget RPGs with very little variation between them, so it's not at all surprising Otomate makes the visual novel equivalent to that.
>>4810
I think it's also because we don't have a BL equivalent to Otomate. How many otome games get released per year that AREN'T made by them? I suspect the numbers might be more comparable to BL game releases.

>>4815
>Isn't Otomate owned by Idea Factory?
Yep.
>so it's not at all surprising Otomate makes the visual novel equivalent to that.
To be fair not all of their VNs are bad, but a lot of them you can tell are pretty low effort.

Ironically idea factory made a fairly new game branch https://vndb.org/p13332, that focuses on "male friendship" games, with fujo writers lmao. Judging by the reviews tho, people ain't happy and didn't like them much. They are 75% off most times kek.

BL games always used to be niche, but it's gotten worse by years. Also nitro chiral said that they'll make a gacha game, which isn't good, moving to gacha. I do like and play bl gacha like nu:c and noctilucent, velvet react…more like ntr react is ass tho, but still has it's fanbase. I can't call whb bl since it's really written from fem pov and changing pussy to dick doesn't make it bl, but still everyone gay for each other and have canon fucked mcs great grandpa..should count right lol. Anyways blvn will soon to gacha slop, and platforms like erolabs, bc switch cucks the r18 and your average fujo wants to see dick. Which really ain't good,an already niche genre moving to gachaslop.

>>4817
>Ironically idea factory made a fairly new game branch
I had no idea about this. I am losing my fucking mind over the art in Souka Tenki. Am I just imagining it, or do the characters look like they're all from different games?? Some of them look like they're in totally different art styles.
>nitro chiral said that they'll make a gacha game
Unfortunately, that seems to be the direction all VN companies are going. Nitroplus itself was purchased by the parent company of Cygames, which isn't promising. It feels like a lot of the visual novel fanbase has been transplanted over to gacha games. It's sad, but I doubt it'll be the end of the medium altogether.

>>4817
>Also nitro chiral said that they'll make a gacha game, which isn't good, moving to gacha
That's sad but I'm not surprised cause clearly gachaslop is profitable so what VN company wouldn't want to take the Type moon approach? I guess I'll just work on learning japanese and play older untranslated stuff.

>>4817
>blvn will soon to gacha slop
Well I guess at least we still have the indie scene in Japan, but those games never get officially translated. At least most blvn use tyrano builder which I'm fairly certain is easy to machine translate. Although a lot of the indie ones are much smaller and shorter than ones made by bigger teams. And I don't even know what's going on in China, but I know they're the ones that made Prince Maker so there must be some underground scene going on over there.

>>4824
Why don't fan translators ever work on BL games anymore? I remember Sweetpool getting a fan translation before its official English release and DMMD had a full translation out within the year of its release. I didn't realize how spoiled I was back then. I'm learning Japanese myself so I read in the original language, but I feel bad for those who can't.

>>4826
I don't know, but my guess is that maybe it's because the internet is more centralized and therefore it's much easier to find and see fan translations which aren't official and are considered in bad taste by developers and anti-piracy fans these fuckers are the worst istg.. Although I have heard about discords where fans will translate bl works but not post them outside of the discord and basically gatekeep the translation. And I get it, but it's annoying that you need to be in the know to get those fan translations. AFAIK it's usually manga, but who knows if there's a community of fans on discord that already translated Shingakkou because there's so many discord communities out there.

>>4826
This prompted me to check out Aarinfantasy since that's the first place that comes to mind for BL game patches and it's looking pretty inactive aside from one person trying to start a group for kichiku megane.

This one is so trash wth

>>4827
Surely a fan translation patch could be released without including the actual game along with it? I've seen Japanese fans make translation patches for games before (notably Undertale and Fear and Hunger) so it can't be that taboo. I can understand if its just a big undertaking for people to take on without getting paid.

>>4826
I think there are just too few games to translate. Nobody wants to pour effort into something that is likely to get licensed sooner or later (like N+C, Adelta games) and whatever is left is often very visibly indie or with 0 following.

>>4817
> Also nitro chiral said that they'll make a gacha game, which isn't good, moving to gacha
I hope they just want to rake in gachafag money to fund more VNs.

>>4811
Source on that???

>>4830
I mean yeah, but there are people that gatekeep to the point of requiring people to confirm that you bought a copy of the media before letting you download the patch. Which is fine, but the fact is that a decade down the line, the people to confirm you bought a copy won't be there anymore. I'm pretty sure this happened with an otome game fan translation. Also at some point English fan translators have gotten weird about distributing their translation. Like they tend to want clout but also fear the DMCA so they're shady about it.
>too few games to translate
But there are some blvns that probably won't ever get translated through official means due to numerous reasons. At least Chinese fujos do their part. I'm not sure how they're so prolific at making fan translations, but they continue to impress me.

>>4817
>Anyways blvn will soon to gacha slop
Isn't this just inevitable? VNs aren't as big as they used to be in the early 2000s. N+C had already tried the mobile approach before, with a game nobody remembers and it has no recorded history whatsoever. If it's a BL original, that seems both scary and good (positive for more bl gachas that aren't nu:c, negative because if it does good then n+c will never do a standard bl ever again) but if it's gacha for "get special illustrations of pre-existing chiral characters" then ehh

>>4826
Isn't there also a fan TL for Kintouka in the works? In addition to what other anons have said, I would also guess the fan translations are less common because there are also fewer major games left. Obviously there are exceptions like Shingakkou, but many of the big-name titles already have translations by now. It's probably harder to drum up support or excitement for something without a big company's name attached to it. There's also probably an element of what will get the most attention online. Sadly, translating VNs gives you less attention for more effort than something like manga.

Nah if there was a bl patch, even if private, people would leak it. Diabolik lovers patch leaked 2 days after it's release by a moid who didn't even know what otome are. They were asking for proof to send you the patch. Thing is ofc no piracyfags, but most just mtl now, since the translation quality has improved significantly. Many companies use mtl too, but that sucks.

>>4843
*translation companies i mean use mtl
See nie no machi.
Chinese, Korean and russians do release fan mtl patches in general.

I don't know how you guys can say all of the big BL games have been translated already when 4/5 of the top rated games in Japan remain untranslated. Companies have just been fucking retarded with their selections up until now.

>>4846
I'm one of the anons who said that, and while I agree, I more meant that there wouldn't be the level of hype on the Western side that something by a big company would generate. I agree they could become popular, but I'm thinking more from the fan translator's perspective. While I'm not a fan of Nitro+Chiral as a whole, I have to admit their games come with a preexisting fanbase just by virtue of brand recognition.
>>4843
>Diabolik lovers patch
Was this the one where the translators were demanding people email them pictures of the physical copies of games to prove people weren't pirating it kek?

>>4846
I need a Lucky Dog patched translation, why the fuck has nobody patched it it's translated and everything!

>>4848
And MangaGamer has been sitting on their fully translated and edited version of it for an entire year now. The west has failed this game.

>>4849
Wait, I just checked their Twitter and this came up. Looks like there's a glimmer of hope after all.

>>4846
Is Taisho Mebiusline actually translated or not? I've heard many things along the years, there's a demo, there's an actual full russian translation, some chapters are translated but overall it never seems to be a full thing.
Looking at the release dates of all of them makes me feel so old, damn. I still remember TM like it was yesterday, and I still don't know enough japanese to understand it 13 years later

Ooe is so good nonas, it needs to get translated fast.

>>4863
I cannot WAIT for this one. It looks like everything I love in a story. Do you have a favorite character or route so far?
>>4812
How was it??

>>4873
>How was it??
Not good, but it's also high effort so I can't call it bad. Ignoring the art for a second there are unique transitions between scenes and small animated segments so the character designs seem intentionally "bad" according to the game notes they're inspired by Sensitive Pornograph a series I've heard of but never read. Another presentation thing is there are misspellings on purpose notably "u" is used by a lot of characters, but so is "you" sometimes in the same scene so it's a bit weird. It made the story much less fun to read. The sound is great though, I'd listen to the OST on its own.

The story however, is weird and disjointed, it's not sexy and there isn't a lot of build up or or character development it's primary about how the MC alone feels. There are two acts the first one is you meeting Astra and Dei while on vacation with your mom. The second is you in the hospital after the climax of that act and is largely based around the MC coping with trauma and meeting a new boy named Belmo. The second act was way too slow and not nearly as interesting so I was skimming by the end.

I think if you enjoy character studies and vibe with the weird tone you might like it, but I am more interested in relationships and the development of them so the MC focus didn't scratch an itch for me. Another thing is that there are 4 sex scenes and only two choices. 2 of those scenes are in the main story (which is largely kinetic) and are threesome scenes between the MC and Astra and Dei. There is one choice where you choose who to hang out with and get a scene between just MC and the boy, and in the third act there is a choice to either engage in a sex scene or just cuddle with Belmo.

You never feel like you are "romancing" characters and personally I like it when MC is just with one boy for a route because otherwise he feels like a slut and I like "true love" in my stories. So again not a very romantic VN which I'm sure is fine for some people but not me.

I'd give it a 1.5/5

>>4876
Thank you for the summary, nona; you went above and beyond. It sounds interesting, but probably not my cup of tea. I like some focus on the protagonist, but his relationship with the LIs is also a priority for me. I'd probably end up with a similar opinion to you.
> Another presentation thing is there are misspellings on purpose notably "u" is used by a lot of characters, but so is "you" sometimes in the same scene so it's a bit weird
This is such a bizarre choice. It must be intentional, although I would love to know the author's reasoning.

>>4850
I'll believe it when the game is actually in my hands. They blocked an old fantranslation with their announcement and then did jack shit.

I finished Luchino's route in LuckyDog1, the first route I did, so I'd like to write my impressions of it.
In the initial prison arc, Gian touches on a touchy subject with Luchino and Luchino gets aggressive with Gian, so I thought this might be a theme throughout the arc (dialogue suggests Gian did too) but this wasn't the case. After Gian's numerous miraculous feats, Luchino grows a strong sense of admiration and respect towards Gian, and Gian grows the same towards Luchino in turn, and the two develop a close friendship.
Their dynamic was quite nice. I liked how they'd banter like high school boys and they'd always steal cigarettes from each other and light them for one another. Moments of unspoken feelings and physical intimacy like that were a big theme in this route. There was several moments that suggested Luchino wanted to tell Gian how he felt directly but couldn't bring himself to, potentially because of his past.
Luchino's past is the big caveat in this route. Since as previously stated feelings go largely unspoken in this route as is, giving Luchino a dead wife he's still attached to had the effect of making his and Gian's relationship seem almost platonic at times. The arc itself also kind of fizzles out and ends in a nothingburger, and while I see what they were going for with it (Luchino needing to forgive himself and stop seeking a scapegoat) it was somewhat disappointing narratively.
In the end, because there was no grand love confession or anything, the feeling that lingered with me was that these two were more "close friends that fuck" rather than "lovers", despite the intent definitely being the latter.
**I was able to understand why Luchino is last in the popularity poll despite me liking his character.
However, despite everything, the core story of LuckyDog1 is so strong that I still ended up enjoying the route. The H scenes were also quite enjoyable (I liked when Gian would make intentionally girly moans as a joke).**
I've gotten minor spoilers that suggest other routes have a more traditional love story, so whenever I finish them I'd like to report back.

>>4921
Ah, fuck it. I can't into spoilers.
I censored everything important anyway.

>>4921
Interesting I've been wanting to play this for so long but knew nothing about any of the characters so did he feel guilty after the H scnes because of the dead wife or did the scenes come off as detached? It sounds interesting I like it when there is an element of moving on in a relationship but it's disappointing to hear there is no love confession.

>>4923
Interestingly, neither. Luchino is portrayed as a womanizer so we can infer that sex doesn't mean much to him, but there's moments that suggest Gian is a special case (Gian makes a remark about how kissing after sex made it feel like they were lovers) and they have a back and forth during about how Gian is different than a woman because he's more of a pain that comes across as quite affectionate. The H scenes in this route feel important to grasp those mostly unspoken feelings between the two, so I can't imagine how it comes across when you play the censored Vita version.
Next up I'm going to play Ivan's route because I have a thing for tsunderes and even in Luchino's route he had a few standout moments. I think the writers of this game must like him.

When will 大穢 be available in English?

Anyone heard of this? About to start it.

>>4932
I've heard of it, but I haven't given it a try! There's a side story where they're all cats. It looks cute.
>>4925
We are suffering out here…

>>4925
I'm going to keep my hopes up since we got hashihime and ultra c. I need more of that Adelta goodness.

>>4932
Unfortunately I'm reporting back that it's not good, it's so not good I'm giving up on it after doing obly one route. It's a Spainish language original and I bet it's better in the OG language since the translation seemed amateurish and clunky with improper tenses and weird word choices. Ignoring that though it's just kind of bland.

>>4925
In 2027 I guess

I accidentally downloaded Sweet Pool instead of Slow Damage because I was sleep deprived and they both had the letter 's' in the title kek.
So far I'm really enjoying the dark atmosphere and the lovecraftian horror aspect of it, especially as a gurofag. The sound design is also driving me insane, it's so fucking good! I start twerking every time I hear that goofy ass tune that plays whenever Zenya shows up kek!
I have to say the omegaverse thing and the meat shitting is a bit silly and the characters look weirdly oblong, though I understand this is because it's an older N+C game. Tetsuo also has no charisma as a character so I can't bring myself to give a fuck about him. I have yet to play any of his route's though, so maybe that will change.
Makoto's ending on the other hand was everything I could have ever hoped for. I predicted it the moment they went to that burger joint and he ate like 20 burgers. I've never felt so vindicated by cannibalism kek! He was such a cute character too, I really enjoyed his route.

>>4948
>Tetsuo also has no charisma as a character so I can't bring myself to give a fuck about him.
He sucks super hard right? God you’re gonna hate him even more when you get to the endings

>>4948
>I accidentally downloaded Sweet Pool instead of Slow Damage because I was sleep deprived and they both had the letter 's' in the title kek
I love Sweet Pool, so I'm glad it was a happy accident! It's easily Nitro+Chiral's most overlooked title.
>the omegaverse thing and the meat shitting
I've always wondered if the omegaverse parallels were intentional or just a coincidence. Sweet Pool was made in 2013, and I think that one Supernatural omegaverse fic was written in 2012.
>Tetsuo also has no charisma as a character so I can't bring myself to give a fuck about him. I have yet to play any of his route's though, so maybe that will change.
Yeah, no, he's going to stay that way kek. Makoto is the best boy, in my opinion, and I'm glad you liked his route. He is very cute, and I wish there were more merch of him.

>>4952
>or just a coincidence
Pretty sure it was just a coincidence, nitro chiral already had some tropes that overlap with omegaverse in lamento (males going into heat) and mpreg was a pre existing trope before omegaverse. I’ve seen the theory a few times that Sweet pool takes place after Saya no Uta (and Youji is like, one of Saya’s children presumably) but I don’t know if that was intended either.

>>4953
>Pretty sure it was just a coincidence, nitro chiral already had some tropes that overlap with omegaverse in lamento (males going into heat) and mpreg was a pre existing trope before omegaverse
That is true, and you're right about Lamento. I'd kind of forgotten that whole part of the game. I once described the plot of Sweet Pool to a friend, and she was like, "that's just omegaverse. Are you SURE it's not ABO?" That thought has haunted me ever since she suggested it kek.
>I’ve seen the theory a few times that Sweet pool takes place after Saya no Uta (and Youji is like, one of Saya’s children presumably) but I don’t know if that was intended either.
I've seen this theory, and personally, I don't like it very much. I know it's possible, but that would render one of SnU's endings (the one where she blooms and turns the whole world into meat non-canon due to the timeline involved). I kind of like how open SnU's two endings are, so I don't personally subscribe to that theory. I like thinking of them as dealing with similar themes and concepts, but with different target audiences. Kind of like World End Syndrome and 7'Scarlet, except with meat monsters.

>>4954
>that's just omegaverse. Are you SURE it's not ABO?
I should mention that sweet pool originally came out in 2009, so it’s very unlikely but there’s an extremely slim chance that the supernatural fan who created omegaverse was inspired by sweet pool kek (it wasn’t translated into English till 2013 though)
>I don't like it very much.
I think it’s interesting food for thought but I don’t really buy it, it does make me wish nitro plus would do some sort of carnival phantasm thing and have Youji and Saya interact though since that could be funny.
>I kind of like how open SnU's two endings are
For me the [spoiler] route where they kill Fuminori and Saya is the canon one since Ryouko was my favorite character, even though she also dies [/spoiler]

Truly the only canon relation is that Mayu from Slow damage is either Aoi or Miyuki’s (from totono) boyfriend, but he cucked them both for Yukimi chan.

>>4955
>I should mention that sweet pool originally came out in 2009, so it’s very unlikely but there’s an extremely slim chance that the supernatural fan who created omegaverse was inspired by sweet pool kek (it wasn’t translated into English till 2013 though)
Agh, I feel foolish. I should've known that, but thank you for correcting me kek. I don't know how I screwed that up so badly and never double-checked dates when she suggested it. I guess I just started questioning everything I knew about Sweet Pool when she pointed it out, and I never thought more deeply about it.
>it does make me wish nitro plus would do some sort of carnival phantasm thing
I wish, but even if they did, they'd probably leave out the Chiral games, sadly.
>For me the route where they kill Fuminori and Saya is the canon one since Ryouko was my favorite character, even though she also dies
Ryouko was my favorite, too! That's also the ending I personally prefer, but I like having both options be possible and equally likely, if that makes sense? I'm a sucker for open endings, and it feels tonally appropriate to leave some ambiguity.