Blackberry Honey Review (yuri visual novel)

 
This review was originally published on Fuwanovel Forums on April 13th 2018.

Ebi-hime is one of the very few OELVN developers who managed to establish themselves as reliable and respected creators even among the JP-centric visual novel fans. Having released over 20 titles since 2013, both freeware and commercial, she is probably best-known for her yuri titles, such as Asphyxia and The Sad Story of Emmeline Burns, and memorable horror stories, such as Sweetest Monster and The Way We All Go. Most of her work stands out through uncommon, Western settings, a deep connection to English culture and literature, and artwork that diverge in various ways from generic, anime-style illustrations you can find in most EVNs. Blackberry Honey, ebi-hime’s latest commercial VN, is both a very typical title for her – with its yuri themes, Victorian England setting and interesting stylization – and an unusual one, as it the first project of hers to include explicit sexual content, through an optional 18+ patch. So, how did this venture into the world of eroge turned out for the OELVN scene’s star creator?

The game has its share of interesting and surprising moments, but the overall pacing is a bit slow and predictable, even for a romance VN

 

Blackberry Honey follows the story of Lorina Waugh, a young, poor maid that starts working in a rural residence of Bly, after being sent off in disgrace from her previous job, in unclear circumstances. Being mistreated by some of the older maids in the estate and Lady Constance, the young daughter of the owners, she struggles desperately to hold on to her position, so she can financially support her mother and sisters. After being hurt while performing a pointless chore for Constance, she stumbles upon the Bly’s unusual, foreign-looking parlour maid, Taohua, sparking a relationship that will completely change her life.

           As Blackberry Honey is a kinetic novel, its story is completely linear and follows a fairly predictable romance formula, despite the slightly unusual setup. It’s definitely not lighthearted, being very thorough in portraying the social injustices of XIX-century England (and disturbing details of Lorina’s especially miserable circumstances), but being even more heart wrenching than I’ve expected is probably the main way in which it managed to surprise me. Pointless cruelty, represented the most by Constance (and to a lesser extent, by Pauline and Isobel, older maids that bully Lorina for their own amusement), is constantly present and creates some heavily uncomfortable developments, putting the protagonist in absolutely hopeless situations, only sometimes mitigated by Taohua’s interventions. The positive support characters, such as other maids sympathetic towards Lorina give the whole story a more ambiguous feeling, but are often completely ineffectual for the main storyline. Like in many other titles by ebi, the gruesome realism of the situations it portraus makes it a heavy read, even if the conclussion is definitely an optimistic one.

The fairly small support cast is well developed and fairly interesting, but most often adds little to the main story

 

All this is made even more problematic by the game’s pacing – the mundane, everyday hardships of Lorina’s life definitely dominate the story and while some of it was definitely necessary to establish her character and express her situation well enough, the actual plot progression is extremely slow – it feels like 4-5 hours of good story was diluted over 9-10 hours of reading, with really interesting moments few and far between. Ebi’s highly-polished writing is maybe the sole factor that makes the slower portions of the game bearable – as always, it offers enjoyable prose and usually even adds something to the games' world or develops the characters (for example, showing some reasons behind Constance’s cruel behavior), too often however without any real purpose or connection with the main intrigue. Also, when the game introduces some intriguing developments or gives some kind of spin to the secondary characters, more often than not it leads absolutely nowhere (the most egregious example of that I can’t mention to avoid spoilers). While it might be a very subjective complaint, the lack of closure for many of these minor subplots bothered me quite a lot and made the whole experience feel strangely incomplete. 

           The lead couple salvages the situation to some extent, mostly thanks to Taohua and the mystery behind her origins and her peculiar position within Bly. Her backstory, revealed very late in the game, was definitely my favourite portion of the whole VN and something I was waiting for since the moment she was introduced into the game. Lorina, while having some admirable features, can’t be really called a compelling protagonist because of her constant powerlessness and understandable, but still frustrating unwillingness to stand up against her abusers. Her forced passivity translates to some extent into romance scenario, in which Taohua, being both older and having a much higher social standing, is definitely the dominating figure. That power dynamic between the main heroines also, before the pretty sweet ending, added to the feeling of discomfort that rarely fully left me while reading Blackberry Honey.

While the protagonist’s hentai-like design feels out of place, the game’s peculiar artstyle is generally enjoyable

 

The game’s visuals are fairly unusual in style, especially when talking about sprites and CGs – it is however very consistent in quality and all elements of it, from backgrounds to UI design, compliment the general atmosphere of the story very well. The hentai-like design of the protagonist, with absurdly large breasts, is slightly unsettling at first, but definitely something you can get used to, while the relative lack of variety of poses and expression of the characters is noticeable, but not severe enough to ruin the overall effect. The erotic segments, which the game advertises itself with, were also among the more enjoyable straight-up yuri h-scenes I’ve seen, never taking unreasonable amounts of time or becoming overly explicit. Some porn tropes were, of course, present – I didn’t know that XIX-century maids, especially young virgins, shaved their pubic hair – but as I’m not the intended audience for such content, as someone who generally isn't fond of hentai, I’ve at least had fewer problems with it than usual. The scenes also seem pretty safe to skip, without breaking the flow of the game, which I always consider a plus – the 18+ patch really is optional. Music, as its often the case, didn’t manage to grab my attention most of the time, but when it did, it felt both pretty lovely and appropriate for the setting.

            I can’t hide the fact that, in hindsight, Blackberry Honey was a bit of a disappointment for me, even though it definitely never crossed the line to being a bad VN. The after-credits note by ebi gives some hints on the sources of my main complains – the game was first though out as short nukige, more or less devoid of any real plot and over time grew into a fully-fledged VN idea. It was also re-written a few times, with elements being added out of order and the story changing in major ways – it’s not surprising, in these circumstances, that the end product lacked focus and had some significant issues with pacing. Also because of this, many interesting and well-researched details in the game are simply hard to appreciate, as they detract from the already thin and slow main storyline. Still, while my review might feel overly negative in tone, I don’t think Blackberry Honey is not worth your time – it’s simply a very slow game, that is best approached with an abundance of free time and willingness to wait for the more intriguing parts to show up. Then it will prove an ultimately rewarding experience – and if you enjoy yuri erotic content, even more so.

 
Final score: 3,5/5
 
Pros:
+ Well-implemented, western setting
+ Interesting artstyle
+ High-quality prose

+ Great attention to detail
 
Cons:
- Extremely slow pacing
- Stories of side characters go nowhere


VNDB page
Buy Blackberry Honey on Steam

SoulSet Review (English Original Visual Novel)

Note: I was provided with a free review copy of this game by the developer. All opinions expressed here are solely my own.

The multi-route mystery VN is not a format easy to pull off properly and for that reason not many EVN developers even attempt to tackle it. It requires creating a number of paths and characters, all interesting on their own and complementary to each other, while also keeping the overall quality high enough to motivate the reader to go through all of it in order to piece together the overarching story. This is both a challenge from the writing perspective and requires a fairly substantial amount of content to communicate the mystery effectively – usually, more than an average Western visual novel can provide with the humble resources at its creators' disposal. 
            Still, all this makes exploring the few examples of such games done right by Western devs that more interesting. SoulSet, developed by NoBreadStudio and released on Steam in late 2016 is a particularly “orthodox” implementation of the formula, with every route and ending (including bad ones) adding to your understanding of the story and culminating in an unlockable “true route”, which resolves the crucial mysteries and tie all the previous paths together. It’s also, as I will try to argue, a damn fine game that positively stands out in the EVN market, in a few ways.

The cast is among the better ones you can find in EVNs – even if a particular character isn’t very interesting by themselves, their backstories and secrets are extremely fun to explore

 

One of the first things that will catch your attention after starting SoulSet is the presentation. It has a rather original, pleasant-looking artstyle with a slightly Western feel to it – one of those “hybrid” aesthetics that definitely stand out from generic anime-style VNs, but also not don’t completely hide its Japanese roots. It also imminently sets up the tone of the story, with a fairly dark opening – a flashback that shows our protagonist, Mariko, after her family estate was raided and her loved ones killed, with a dying servant, a black dragon named Isshin, by her side. Later, she wakes up in an unfamiliar basement, with no memory beyond that particular dream and looking at least a decade older. Along with five other people trapped in a mansion, she has to uncover the reason she’s there and find a way out, while dealing with the confusion and distrust within the group.

            The cast is varied and quite memorable, partially thanks to the distinct, mature designs which are pretty far detached from the usual “high-school student” aesthetic, often plaguing VNs regardless of the setting. All members of the main cast, including the protagonist, are quite well fleshed-out, with characteristic speech patterns and personalities, which in turn lead to some fairly unique scenarios and interactions in their respective routes. They also, of course, all hold various secrets, ones which both present various threats to the group and are necessary for you to uncover in order to solve the main intrigue – and necessary is not an overstatement, as you have to go through every route and most of the endings to reach the true conclusion of the story. Your progress is measured through “clues” you gather along the way – they persist between playthroughs and unlock new paths every time you gather a full set connected with a certain character (distinguished by colours). In specific cases, they might be needed to get a good ending, unlock extra path or even access a particular route altogether, forcing you to explore the game until you get all the necessary information and effectively experience all of the content it has to offer.

SoulSet’s intrigue is complex and satisfying to uncover, but leaves surprisingly many questioned unanswered and some subplots strangely underutilized

 

If you look from the outside, there’s one problem that comes up at this point – in a VN in which every character is romanceable and every route is pretty much obligatory, people could easily be forced into configuration they’re less comfortable with or romancing characters they don’t care about (in my case, for example, it would be Apris, definitely the blandest character in the group). The game deals with it in an elegant manner, with positive friendship ending being always available and actual romance fully optional – even though romantic endings for each character are considered the “true” ones, no clues are tied to them, so they’re not necessary to finish the game, unless you’re hell-bent on 100% completing it. There are also purely text-based erotic scenes in the romantic routes, but no visuals or descriptions explicit enough to make the reader uncomfortable – I find developer's approach to this whole side of the experience highly commendable, even though with the female protagonist the risk of romance scenarios being off-putting to some readers probably wasn’t that high.

            The routes and romance scenarios themselves are, in my opinion, highly enjoyable and as I've mentioned before, they differ significantly from each other. While I usually enjoy the yuri content the most, here Shira, the character with a “secret” connected to their gender, was possibly my favourite, being initially combative and foul-mouthed, but having a shy and extremely cute side that quickly comes to view in reaction to Mariko’s flirting. The tone of the routes also varies a lot, with Yvonne’s being simply cute and heart-warming, while Shirr’s or Apris’ scenarios having very dark undertones (they can even go into arguably villainous paths for the protagonist). While SoulSet's overall reading time is quite substantial for an EVN (circa 15 hours) and the game replayed the same basic scenario every time, I never really got bored of it, always enjoying the new interactions and new pieces of the puzzle that every new path rewarded me with. And that goes even for the bad endings, which I usually avoid, but which here were given special significance by the clue system and felt like means to an end, rather than a pointless source of angst I usually take them for.

Good visual design and expressive sprites do a lot to make the game immersive and memorable

 

Genuinely, there are very few negative things I can say about this VN. It’s a really enjoyable experience, crafted with a lot of care and attention to detail. Among the Western visual novels there are very few that pulled off the multi-route mystery to a similar success – and among those, only Everlasting Summer gave me a similar enjoyment (although it’s much more of a classic waifu game than SoulSet). It could probably benefit from the larger amount of CGs and there are some clear inconsistencies between some of those and the sprites when it goes to artstyle, as they were done by a different artist. Some parts of the intrigue and details of Mariko’s backstory are a bit confusing or never explained properly, leaving you with some questions that really would be worth answering even after 100% completing the game. In general, though, it was a great experience and I strongly recommend it to everyone that has a liking for mystery VNs, or good romance stories with mystery elements – depending on how you approach it, it might work as both, without really ever feeling lacking.

Final Score: 4/5

Pros:
+ Well-developed multi-route mystery
+ Memorable characters
+ Thoughtful approach to sex and romance
+ Good visual assets
 
Cons:
- Can be confusing without a guide
- Leaves too many details unexplained


VNDB Page
Buy SoulSet on Steam

Plk_Lesiak’s Shovelware Adventures: Dharker Studio’s yuri games

Wondering what is this series about? What's with the "crappy" rating system? Find out all about it here​​​​​​​!

Dharker Studio is one of the better-known development teams on the EVN scene, active since early 2015, but also one that quickly became rather infamous due to their low-quality, fanservice-filled titles. Games such as Sword of Asumi or Divine Slice of Life gathered a lot of attention, as they were released on then still quite barren EVN market and quickly found their way to Steam, but were also quite harshly rejected by reviewers and poorly received by many VN fans. Later down the line, the company focused on purely erotic titles, with much-telling titles such as Army Gals or Battle Girls – admittedly with slightly more artistic(?) success. While most of those games followed a very standard formula, with faceless self-insert protagonists and number of females to “date”, there are also two notable yuri eroge by Dharker: Negligee, released in late 2016 and Galaxy Girls, published a year later. Today, as the appreciator of yuri that I am, I’ll take a closer look at those two girls’ love-themed games, both of them quite curious examples of commercial success despite many, many problems they suffered from. As a "bonus", I'll include the Negligee's prequel, Love Stories, in the article – the game that earned the unexpected honour of being the first uncensored, fully explicit eroge accepted by Valve for Steam release. While this game's content is mostly straight hentai, it has one notable yuri subplot and features all the girls from Negligee, being worth a closer look from everyone that enjoyed the first title in the series. So, let's get this thing started!

Negligee

While writing the two dozens of shovelware reviews over the last 6 months I've noticed that ecchi EVNs seem to work better with casual, more or less realistic settings – there are few things more painful than mediocre-at-best writer trying to create a fantasy or sci-fi setting with the use of kitsch, exaggerated characters and all the most overdone cliches, just to give an excuse for persistent close-ups on anime boobs and a few hentai scenes. The game we're talking about now, thankfully, chose a rather simple and straightforward premise and made a pretty decent use of it. As the player, you control the actions of an assistant manager in a lingerie shop (titular Negligee), that is suddenly forced to take over for her boss (who runs away in mysterious circumstances) and find some new employees. Soon, three candidates show up and as they all seem reasonably fit for the job, we have to take our female protagonist (who is, by the way, a quite gorgeously-designed, busty redhead) through a week-long trial with the girls and decide which one of them she should hire. And, as I probably don’t have to explain, the store’s sexy merchandise will find many, many uses throughout the whole experience. And also quite often it will be falling on the floor...

            While, obviously, the premise might have relatively little significance here in comparison to fanservice and h-scenes (although, surprisingly enough, those are mostly bonus content, served to you after finishing the main plot),the game offering a serviceable story, with the possibility to properly present the characters and get the reader at least a tiny bit emotionally involved is something I always appreciate. While some of the mechanics Dharker used here, like the large number of bad endings, make relatively little sense within the formula (I don’t think many people bought this game for unexpected drama-filled, negative conclusions that don’t even feel that connected to the choices you made), the heroines are likable and get just enough character development to make the whole thing fun to read – and nice to look at, as art is admittedly of very nice quality, just as you would hope in a quasi-nukige. In the end, however, it's just a bit too short (it takes only around 4 hours to 100% it) and shallow to prove truly satisfying, especially for the base asking price of $13. Because of this, I don't think I can give it a rating higher than Rabbit Poo, although, if you find it on deep sale, it’s still a reasonably enjoyable piece of yuri smut, definitely worth it for the fans of the genre.

Final Rating: Rabbit Poo

Negligee: Love Stories

Negligee's prequel already claimed a place in PC gaming and VN history, regardless its quality, but in my opinion, it turned out to be a positive surprise not only by heralding the end of Steam's strict anti-porn policies. Love Stories, which contains four short, separate episodes, explores the backstories of the three main heroines from the first game and the paths that led them to working in the titular lingerie store, along with the story of Loren, the Negligee's old manager. It does a very solid job of expanding on the very basic characterisation the cast received before, placing all of them at the center of some decently-written drama. Every episode has a clear theme (like sex addiction for Sophie or failed marriage and cheating for Loren), with choices that can either lead you to the resolution of the conflict and a positive, canon ending (which also awards you a short epilogue) or a negative, "dead end" one. Interestingly enough, hentai scenes are quite often connected to the "bad" choices, with more narratively compelling resolutions being connected to characters rejecting sex or at least being reluctant about it. This makes an impression of a nukige that actually tries to tell a story and cares at least somewhat about the consistency of its narrative – a pretty rare occurrence, especially in the low-budget EVN scene.

            Interestingly enough, Love Stories' flaws spawned a substantial amount of criticism towards the game, making it barely stay above "mixed" ranking on Steam. And there are definitely some problems there: the choices often don't affect the story in meaningful ways, sometimes literally being followed by 2-3 unique lines and only making any difference when it goes to the ending you'll get. The episodes are also short, with the whole VN ultimately having a similar completion time as the first Negligee and most likely only feeling compelling to those familiar with the original story and interested in exploring its characters further. Out of context, it will only be a decently-drawn, short nukige, but if you're familiar with the original game and enjoyed it, both titles supplement each other really well and create a rather enjoyable experience. Not one deep beyond what you could reasonably expect from porn VNs, but pretty high up there in its own category – and I see no reason why we shouldn't appreciate that.

 

Final Rating: Golden Poo! 

Galaxy Girls

Galaxy Girls is a game with a somewhat complicated history, but one aiming at simple goals. It’s a remake of the Reine Works’ Blossoms Bloom Brightest, a free Yuri Game Jam title, which Dharker expanded on, and added h-scenes and fanservice, pretty much completely absent in the original. While keeping the general structure of the plot and even much of the dialogue, they added a fourth character (the story follows a small group of women stuck together on an involuntary, one-way space mission and having to cope with their situation), replaced all the artwork and, ultimately, shifted the tone of the whole experience from drama to porn (including some seriously out-of-place fanservice scenes, especially the solo ones in the common route, featuring the protagonist, who acts as the ship’s captain). Even the character designs, while clearly similar to the original ones, feel much less mature and are visibly more “sexy” (it’s hard to miss Kotoha’s sprite magically going from B cup to D+).

            While all these modifications are rather understandable, considering the Dharker’s history and the kind of content their fans might expect, things that weren’t changed are more puzzling. BBB’s story begged for major reworking, with its rather one-dimensional characters, messy plot progression and the main intrigue going nowhere, but all its biggest flaws are completely intact in the remake. Addition of the extra character, Emilia, is also done in a very poor way, as she’s inserted into a story definitely constructed around the original three girls and their interactions, so throughout the common route she barely has any role to play and literally nothing meaningful to say, to the point it’s rather hilarious, while the choices that lead to her route rarely make any sense. A DLC episode, added months after the game’s release, give us some insights into her character and her backstory, but it’s definitely too little, too late to salvage her as a meaningful addition as anything other than fanservice fodder.

            The game, obviously, has a decent amount of hentai – as someone who cares little for anime porn, as usual, I’m not the best person to assess it, but its variety and quality of the art are definitely on a very decent level. Still, the trainwreck that is Galaxy Girls’ story did little to get me excited about the sex and romance in it and that’s never a good sign, even if you want to treat this game as a nukige (and I think it’s less of a porn game than Negligee, considering its much longer story and the hentai once more being mostly at the end of every route). It’s definitely not the worst thing ever, probably not even close to some games covered in this series, but even considering it’s more reasonable when it goes to price/content ratio (especially including DLC episodes, there’s quite a lot of reading and quite a lot of porn in there), I see few reasons to recommend it. Only for those really starved for some hot yuri action (although I would still suggest saving your money and investing into something like a SonoHana game or the recently-released Sisterly Bliss).

 

Final Rating: Rabbit Poo 
 

And this, for the time being, concludes the topic of Dharker Studio’s yuri games and marks the beginning of a short hiatus of Shovelware Adventures. It, however, doesn’t mean that Dharker is already off the hook – when the series comes back, it will quite likely be their titles, especially the very early ones, published under the AJTilley.com label, being torn apart. These games are especially interesting to me, as they’re all quite important parts of the history of the whole EVN scene, even if rather unfortunate ones and I can’t way to see whether all my negative assumptions and knowledge about them will be proven right. For now, I hope you all enjoyed our little journey through the world of visual novel shovelware (and, maybe, even other parts of my humble blog). Until the next time!

Venus Blood Frontier – a normie's perspective

This is a Kickstarter campaign-related post. Check out my review of the game here!

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by Ninetail and I'm not in any way affiliated with the studio – this is simply an expression of my personal interest and support for the game

There are two days left until the end of Venus Blood Frontier translation Kickstarter campaign - a huge undertaking by Ninetail, who decided to bring to the West one of their most expansive and technically complex game, as pretty much their first step outside of Japan. One that apparently proved successful, even those the game's fate was uncertain just a week ago, before two individuals put an absurd amount of money on the table, to sponsor some custom story content - I applaud their dedication, as thanks to them, the English version has a good chance of being the best and most complete release of Frontier, something we rarely get as Western VN fans.

          But, why am I even talking about this, on my EVN blog? Why did I support this game and don't hide my excitement about it, even though it's not only a bit outside my main interest, but also, in the Japanese version, includes depictions of sexual violence that I have no interest in whatsoever? To put it as simply as possible, it's about the kind of story it tells, and the kind of choice it offers to the player. But first, a bit of a digression...

With all Star Wars: The Old Republic's failures, it was possibly the only game that caught the fantasy of playing as a Sith, with the freedom to embrace the Empire's brutality or try to reform it

A good few years ago, a now-dying MMO called Star Wars: The Old Republic was released by Bioware, promising to be the first title of this kind to offer a deep, personalised story for every player character. As I Bioware fan, I pre-ordered it and jumped right into the action as a Jedi Knight... And dropped the game before max level, deeply bored by the gameplay and storyline. The fantasy of being the saviour of the galaxy was just as over-the-top and bland as what I've seen in hundreds of RPGs before, the flashing lightsaber and Star Wars soundtrack not being able to make it that more engaging.

          However, two years later, I came back with the resolution to check out the other side of the coin - Sith storylines. It wasn't a natural choice for me, as I abhor most "evil" choices in RPGs, never being able to follow a truly dark path. I can accept my character being harsh, or even ruthless in following their goals, but not without the underlying cause being just. In other words, I'm a huge pussy that can't harm undeserving pixels without feeling sick. What I found in the Empire storylines, however, was mesmerizing to me. With my approach, they were stories of people that found themselves in hopeless circumstances, looking for ways to go through them with some kind of honour and looking for power to change their reality for the better. The game offered freedom to conform to the expectations, becoming a murderous maniac, or subvert them and find your own way through the horrors and challenges before you, creating a perfect fantasy of being a Sith - freedom through power, with the possibility to remain relatively pure, but without constraints put on you by the Jedi Code. For me it was, and is to this day, the best role playing experience I've ever had, in the quite literal sense of the term.

Loki is never really a "good guy", but if you can steer him to become a ruthless oppressor or a benevolent tyrant who uses force to change his ravaged world for the better

What all this has to do with Frontier though? A lot, actually, as the protagonist, Loki, is in a very similar position to the Sith of The Old Republic. He's a high-ranking demon, an ancient enemy of mankind sent on a mission to conquer the last bastion of humanity. He's a villain by default, having all the means and motivation to cruelly subjugate the human lands, along the goddesses that protect them and corrupt them into willing servants (through some very non-consensual meeting with tentacles) - servants who can help him to get his revenge on the Demon King, murderer of his parents and claim the supreme rulerships over his crumbled world. Considering how weak his forces are initially, the game pretty much compels you to use all the resources at your disposal, without looking at the moral value of it all.

          It, however, also offers a different path and many choices that lets you craft your personal story and your own interpretation on what Loki is really about. Will you be a just ruler, or wreak havoc across the land? Will you corrupt the goddesses to gain powerful servants, or leave them as they are and earn their loyalty through your actions? Will you romance one of them, form a harem, or skip that part of the experience altogether? The options are... Well, not limitless, but impressive, in a way that is pretty hard to find in Western media. A compelling anti-hero, in my opinion, is an extremely rare occurrence and one that should be celebrated.

I know keeping the goddesses pure and following the Law route strictly is not the "main" allure of the game for most, but the option to do so is in no way an afterthought or a lesser experience

And now let's address the elephant in the room. While you can imagine how I will play this game, it's not really what this series is known for in Japan or what some would consider an "intended" way to experience it. The corruption mechanic is pretty much the selling point of the Venus Blood series and the original cover of Frontier leaves no doubt that tentacle rape is its core element, part of its identity even. I'm also not sure how playable the Chaos route, normally full of such h-scenes, will be in the all-ages version of the game. However, the existence of Steam version and the way it was marketed in the West makes it possible to experience the game's storyline and impressively deep SRPG mechanics regardless whether you're ok with that kind of content or not.

         So why I'm writing all this? I do because I want you to consider supporting the Kickstarter - it's very close to the first stretch goal, with will include additional guarantees for the translation quality of the final product, including full retranslation of the trial portion of the game. This is something that will likely influence the future of this title and the possibility of other Venus Blood titles reaching the West. And above all, I want you to keep an eye for this game, which not only caters to my personal "storytelling fetish", but also seems like an great piece of entertainment that has something to offer for pretty much anyone - hardcore eroge fans, people looking for strategy RPG with a compelling narrative and even VN fans in general, considering how flexible the difficulty settings are, up to the ability skip much of the gameplay and focus on the story parts. It is something worth supporting and cheering for and I hope you'll consider giving it a chance, either now or when the English release is out.

Thank you for your time!

Interview with ebi-hime (EVN Developer Spotlight)

For the last month, we were going through the impressive catalogue of free VNs by ebi-hime, one of the most celebrated creators within the Western VN scene. As a conclusion to this series, it’s my great pleasure to bring you a short interview with none other than ebi herself. During our conversation, I’ve focused on the dominating themes in ebi’s works and topics directly connected to the freeware titles I was reviewing lately – if you want a more general overview of her inspirations and questions connected to her other work, consider reading the interviews done in the past by The Yuri Nation and Sekai Project. Also, if you’re not familiar with ebi’s free VNs, check out my previous posts about them (Part 1; Part 2) – they should give you the context necessary to understand what we’re talking about in the more context-specific questions. So, here it comes – hope you’ll all enjoy it!

Plk_Lesiak: Thank you for accepting my invitation! I don't think there are many Western VN fans who wouldn't be familiar with your work, but can you share something about the person behind the ebi-hime label?

 

ebi-hime: I’m ebi and I like cute things, maids, and magical girl anime... And that’s about it! Honestly, I’m not very interesting.

 

PL: As you talked about your inspirations and interests in other interviews, I would like to focus on the dominant themes in your games. You're one of the few EVN authors that frequently set their stories in the West. Do you have a favourite setting to write about?

 

ebi: I think England is probably my favourite setting to write about, because it’s the country I live in and I’m reasonably familiar with it (though I don’t know everything about England, of course). It’s easier to place my characters in a setting I know relatively well, as I don’t have to do as much research, and the end result feels more ‘authentic’.

 

I also like setting stories in Japan because I got into VNs through reading a lot of Japanese VNs which were (what a surprise!) set in Japan. I also watch a lot of anime, and I went through a period where I exclusively read Japanese crime fiction, so I’m fond of Japanese settings! If I don’t feel like setting my stories in England or Japan, I’ll usually pick a European country I’m somewhat familiar with, like France or Italy.

 

PL: Much of your work is yuri-themed, including some unusual setups for f/f romance. How did Samuel Taylor Coleridge become a woman?

 

ebi: I love Romantic poets (especially Coleridge) a lot, and I really, really, really wanted to write a VN featuring him as a character, but dropping a real, historical figure into a fictional story felt kind of weird. Changing him into a cute girl made him feel distant enough from the real person that I could write about him without feeling too awkward.

 

Turning male historical figures into cute girls is also pretty popular in VNs, so I thought I might as well! Girls are cute! Although I think the real Coleridge you can see in his personal letters/diary entries is cuter than Samantha…

 

PL: Girls are cute indeed, but especially in Asphyxia, you ended up creating a really “heavy” story with a very cute exterior. Was this contrast something deliberate?

 

ebi: I wanted a very soft, almost doll-like art style for Asphyxia because I thought it would complement the mannered, flowery writing style. The character designs themselves are quite cute, but I think they’re drawn in a style that’s enough of a departure from a more traditional ‘anime’ style that most people would realise Asphyxia is not a ‘moe’ VN based on the screenshots?

 

I wasn’t trying to use the art to trick anybody, or make the story seem cuter than it is. I chose the art because I thought it enhanced the story’s gloomy atmosphere. 

Asphyxia
 

PL: Still, Yuri romance is also pretty commonly associated with something light-hearted and a bit saccharine, like Kiss for the Petals series for example. Were you worried about the reception of your early yuri titles, considering how much they deviated from this formula?

 

ebi: The first yuri story I ever read was the manga Gunjo, which is very grim and dark and lots of horrible things happen to all the characters, so maybe that’s where I drew some of my initial inspiration from.

 

Initially, I wasn’t worried about the reception Asphyxia might have because I didn’t intend to release it. I wrote it solely for myself, and I made the prose as pretentious and the content as depressing as I wanted because I figured nobody else would have to suffer through it. Then, I stumbled across SillySelly’s art, and I thought it would be so perfect for Asphyxia I decided to commission her. I still thought about keeping the story solely to myself, but I thought her art was so gorgeous it would be a shame not to release it and share it with people. My reasoning was, even if people hated the writing and the story, they would probably still like the art!

 

PL: Even beyond Dejection and Asphyxia, many of your protagonists are writers or poets. Do they reflect your personal passion for writing, or is there something else that draws you towards this archetype? Have you done much writing beyond visual novels?

 

ebi: The characters in Dejection and Asphyxia write poetry because they’re all based on poets. I’m pretty terrible at writing poetry myself, and I don’t like doing it. Moreover, my interest in the Romantic poets mostly stems, not from their actual poetry, but from their lives and their personalities, since they were all very melodramatic (apart from maybe Wordsworth) and they did a lot of ridiculous things.

 

I’ve written a few original characters who are authors (Blake from Where the Sun Always Shines and Eiji from Six Days of Snow are the best examples) because I like writing, so it’s a hobby I can understand and talk about somewhat credibly. Still, I try not to make all my protagonists writers, or even interested in literature, because I’m afraid it might get boring.

I used to write my own ‘original stories’ in my notebooks when I was about six or seven, and I wrote a lot of fanfiction between the ages of 12-18, so I did a bunch of writing before I got into VNs. Unfortunately, most of my old writing is awful, so I’m not going to share it!

 

PL: Another prevalent theme in your work seems to be depression and mental illness, with a culmination of sorts in Lynne and its gruesome portrayal of teenager's anxiety. What makes this topic attractive to you as a writer?

 

ebi: They’re interesting themes to write about, and I imagine a lot of people have experience with these issues, but perhaps don’t always feel comfortable talking about them? I’d like it if some people could read my stories and relate to some of the characters, and maybe feel a little bit less alone with their worries.

The Sad Story of Emmeline Burns
 

PL: And one more notable trope – ghosts and afterlife, including lovers, doomed in life, being reunited after death. It seems that most of the romances you write can only ever work out "on the other side", if at all…

 

ebi: I don’t think I agree with this. I’ve written a lot of sad/depressing stories, but I’ve also written several cheerful stories, too! Strawberry Vinegar and Blackberry Honey have happy endings! I also don’t view my romance stories where people die and reunite as ghosts as particularly ‘tragic’. Emmeline Burns and Windswept Night were both intended to have uplifting, optimistic endings, even if the characters suffer a bit to get there.

 

I know people can’t really come back from the dead to reunite with their loved ones, but that’s why writing scenes like that in stories is so satisfying. It’s nice giving couples in stories closure even after they’re dead, especially because it’s not possible in reality.

 

PL: Visual Novels are often a medium of escapism and wish fulfilment, quite akin to the trashy romance novels you sometimes ridicule in your writing. Yours... Rarely so. Do you ever feel like you should spoil your reader's a bit more, giving them more control and a chance for happier endings?

 

ebi: Well, I don’t know if the first statement about VNs is entirely true. There are lots of really, really good VNs there that aren’t all about escapism and wish fulfilment. The first VN introduced me to the medium was Umineko, which is pretty… not like that. And there are VNs which have fanservice and sex scenes that still tell interesting stories, like the Kara no Shoujo series. I don’t really think the stories I write are all that different from many existing JVNs, with the exception that I set a higher percentage of mine in Europe.

 

Though some of my characters poke fun at ‘trashy romance stories’, I have no real problems with them myself. Generally, I think people should be free to like whatever fictional media they like. I know there’s a scene in Empty Horizons where Lyon makes fun of Mireille for reading Totally-Not-Twilight-But-It’s-Actually-Twilight, but the scene concludes by saying there’s nothing inherently wrong with wish fulfilment stories if they’re not harming anybody and they make people happy.

 

Anyway, with a lot of my kinetic stories, I have a very clear idea of what I want to happen in the story and how I want the characters to act. If giving the reader choices gets in the way of the story I want to tell or the message I want to explore then I won’t include any.
 

Conversely, if experiencing multiple possible outcomes is the ‘point’ of the story, then I’m fine writing that too (like The Way We All Go). Really, it depends on what I think is best for the story I’m writing. Sometimes I think a story benefits from having multiple routes and different endings, and sometimes I don’t. And sometimes I think a story benefits from happy endings, and sometimes I don’t.

 

PL: One of your VNs I've personally enjoyed greatly, and which surprised me a lot was Lucky Me, Lucky You. Are we going to see other queer stories in a modern setting from you, or was it more of a one-time experiment?

 

ebi: Oh, I’m glad you liked it! I really enjoyed writing Nanami’s character – she was a lot of fun. Her ‘voice’ is also really different than most of my other main characters, since she’s more abrasive and assertive (but still kind of a sweetheart deep down).

 

Lately, I’ve been pretty fond of writing historical stories because I feel like I can get away with being more exaggerated and melodramatic with my vocabulary, but I want to write more modern stuff too! It’s fun to experiment with different styles.

Sweetest Monster
 

PL: In other interviews, you mentioned that you have many ideas for light-hearted, cute stories. Still, very few of them turned into actual games. Will there be more of those in the future?

 

ebi: Well, hopefully! I’m sitting on a bunch of scripts in various states of being finished right now, and some of these are very light-hearted and goofy. I’d love to make them all into VNs at some point (especially my very cute magical dog girl story, which is a full 26 episodes long!), but I don’t have enough time or money to develop too many things at once...

 

PL: A few months ago you wrote on Twitter that you'll most likely stop making freeware games, as they drain too much of your time and resources. If that really happens, should we hope for more frequent commercial releases from you?

 

ebi: I hope so, but I doubt it. Like I said, I’m sitting on a lot of scripts for unreleased projects in various states of completion. I’d like to release these more quickly, since I’m very fond of some of these stories and want to share them with people, but it’s not always possible. I’m not the only person involved in making my stories, and the production can sometimes get slowed down by various factors beyond my control.

 

It also doesn’t help that some of the scripts I’ve finished are quite long, have a lot of characters, and I haven’t started looking for artists or composers for these stories yet. I’d really like to release 3 commercial stories a year, but I doubt it will be possible this year. I’ll do my best, though! >_<

 

PL: Is there anything you would like to share about your current plans and the projects you're working on? Will we learn more about the yuri with bunnies in near future? ;)

ebi: Well, my latest VN, A Winter’s Daydream, will be releasing soon! It’s quite a light-hearted slice of life/comedy story set in Japan, that features an elderly grandmother being magically transformed into a cute girl. 

 

I was inspired to write this story after stumbling across the ‘grandmother x grandson incest’ tag on VNDB. I was surprised this tag existed, and I thought it was funny such a niche fetish featured in enough VNs to warrant a content tag in the first place. After looking through some of these VNs, I saw that the grandmother love interests looked rather young and good-looking for grandmothers, and I thought, ‘what if I wrote a story where a more traditional-looking grandmother transforms into one of these impossibly cute “anime” grandmothers overnight? How would her grandson react to that?!’ Some of my ideas are kind of weird, I guess. :I

 

In the end, A Winter’s Daydream ended up being a little more serious in tone than I originally intended, though it still has some goofy moments. I’m quite fond of it, and I hope other people enjoy it, too! (Sadly, while the grandmother character is the main heroine of the story, in the sense that she’s the female lead, she’s not a love interest. I hope this doesn’t disappoint anybody haha…)

 

As for the ‘yuri story with bunnies’ I mentioned on twitter a while back… I actually finished writing the first draft, but I’m not sure when/if I’ll release it. It’s quite a cute, fluffy story (I suppose it’s similar to Strawberry Vinegar in tone), but I have other scripts I’d rather work on before I get around to polishing this.

 

PL: Thank you for your time!

 

And this concludes my series on ebi-hime, for the time being. I want to give my utmost thanks to ebi herself, for putting up with the somewhat-prolonged process of preparing this interview and some of my purposefully-annoying questions. It was a pleasure and a privilege to work with her on this and I'm extremely happy that I can share her insights with all of you through this article. Obviously, this is not the last time her VNs are present on my blog - in two weeks, you'll see the first part of my Yuri Game Jam retrospective, which couldn't possibly be complete without mentioning Ebi's work. Also, I'll definitely work on covering more of her commercial titles in the future, both the old and the newly released ones. 
 

So, I hope you've enjoyed this content and will join me again in my adventures through the world of EVNs. Until the next Friday! :)

Love Ribbon Review (yuri visual novel)

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.