/bl/ - General BL

>>3025
Oh fuck! Politics is my BL kryptonite lately, this looks so good. Time to learn Japanese.

>>3167
Eh you never know. Paradise and Nie No Machi both got TL and were two of the big ones. What else is left? That one, Kintouka, Shingakkou and…?

Shingakkou will never be TL because of voice rights, but I don't know what's the obstacle with the others.

>>3169
>Kinouka
Isn't THAT big (also just an absurdly overrated, mid-at-best game with unpleasant CSP asset art) and there's very little demand for it to get translated compared to many games, like Omega Vampire, Kichiku Megane, Luckydog games, Pigeon Blood, Omerta, Dystopia no Ou, Mebiusline… etc., probably even Si nis kanto and Galtia.

I'm still a beginner at Japanese but VNs are less painful now. It' s impossible to find BL recs for learners though. Are they any games to look out for that are particularly easy or difficult? I was thinking Gakuen Heaven but it can't be hooked (except maybe the voiceless PC version). Otherwise, I have Mahoutsukai to Tenshi to Akuma, Tsumi naru Rasen no Ori -Whispers of Iscariot-, Nessa no Rakuen, Kintouka, and Galtia on my VNDB list. It would suck to play something really good with lower comprehension and bad grammar but I keep getting bored of the otomes I've tried.

>>3141
That's too bad it didn't live up to its potential. The side couple mechanic sounds especially good.

>>2745
Same! I tried Clear's route but just couldn't get into it.

>>3171
nie no machi is very, very easy to read, I think am2:00 too

>>3169
>Kintouka
Isn't that getting a fan TL, unless something has changed?

>>3172
I thought Nie no Machi was harder for some reason. I'll look into both. Thank you!

>>3176
IIRC it is but the bad endings aren't going to be translated.

>>3178
I checked again. The only thing that will remain untranslated are the rape scenes. The bad endings will be translated unless they feature rape.

>>3176
>>3178
>>3183
Only the common route it's getting tl.

>>3183
>The bad endings will be translated unless they feature rape
The absolute state of translators. Still hope it dont get picked for a real translation over literally anything else ( ͈—́ ̫ —̀ ͈ *)zzz

>>3186
Why?

>>3150
I'd say it's more mystery than horror but there were parts where it felt like playing a horror VN. I didn't know Tokyo Onmyoji had a rural setting, I assumed it's set in Tokyo.

>>3171
Shinkon-san Sweet Sweet Honeymoon is slice of life that's beginner friendly. Nessa no Rakuen isn't too difficult either because honestly it's only worth playing for the h-scenes which you don't need much japanese knowledge for.

>>3190
Has the dated feeling of borinh mid 2000s bl about relationship and family drama, but it desperately tries to yank on your heart strings with added heavy themes of death. The story itself is ok but it doesn't feel like a bl. I rarely agree with comparisons of bl games to otome but this one really feels like an otome except the mc got sex changed. It has an obnoxious monologuing mc who is not intended to be as unlikable as he is, only one good route and two shit ones, one route has cheap melodrama about being gay, a lot of screentime given to lame het couple yet the romance between the boys felt forced and unnecessary. The person who is translating everything but the rapey bad ends falls in line with the type of person who I always imagined it appeals to. But honestly this game would've been better without the sexual content altogether, it added nothing to the experience. The h scenes were a disaster but there were also a lot of lewd jokes and an uncomfortably horny female character that turned me off. And I'm sorry but those cgs are atrocious lmao in a fundamentally bad, bland, 20 likes on pixiv way. Otome and shojo fans who make a couple exceptions for bl will like it more than fujoshi.

>>3193
>I didn't know Tokyo Onmyoji had a rural setting, I assumed it's set in Tokyo.
It is for the most part kek. However, in one particular character's route, they travel to a rural setting for the majority of it. It has a lot of rural horror elements and family drama, which is what I was referencing. Sorry for any confusion!
>>3194
>Otome and shojo fans who make a couple exceptions for bl will like it more than fujoshi.
NTA but bad art isn't a dealbreaker for me, personally. I've seen people online hate on this VN before, so I assume it must really be that bad and I have minimal interest in it. I am curious what you meant by this, though.

>>3200
I've known some fans of b list otome and shojo who are reluctant about picking up bl works and when they do settle on something its more of the same except y/n has a dick, sanitized bl within their comfort zone.
>bad art isn't a dealbreaker for me
I'm not a picky eater either and I love many ugly eroge, but cgs that look like they were illustrated by a wikihow artist who didn't give a fuck about what they were drawing aren't doing it any favors.

>>3203
>more of the same except y/n has a dick
I totally get what you're describing, and I hate when this happens. The whole appeal (for me, at least) is to watch two characters with their own dynamic interact. Self-insert and bland protagonists absolutely ruin it for me.
>cgs that look like they were illustrated by a wikihow artist who didn't give a fuck about what they were drawing aren't doing it any favors.
This made me laugh. I'm going to look up a CG gallery now because that sounds hilarious. One of my favorite BL games has some goofy art, but I don't mind because of the excellent characters and story. If Kintouka doesn't have that, though, then the bad art is just insulting instead of charming.

>>3146
NTA, but can you please tell me if lasting snow and Hanakage Ochita Mitsuka were any good? An anon recommended these to me a few years ago but never elaborated.
Which one was your favorite anon?

>>3206
Yeahhhh if the game was better I could overlook it but its this rigid poorly composed and lifeless work that makes you say "this is really a full price game made by a company?"
>The whole appeal (for me, at least) is to watch two characters with their own dynamic interact
Me too, I avoid most otome because I don't like the way they handle that so it's the last thing I want to see in bl. So you could say Kintouka goes against my tastes, but my tastes arent unreasonable, so thats why I think it appeals more to otome players than visual novel fujos kek. It doesn't have near enough redeeming qualities to overcome the otome feeling. Give omega vampire a tl first xD

>>3194
>, a lot of screentime given to lame het couple yet the romance between the boys felt forced and unnecessary.
I hate your type, the type that reads BL VN and keeps writing how the BL feels unnecessary and could be removed. I kept reading the same shit about Hashihime and it's so dumb.

>>3194
>Has the dated feeling of borinh mid 2000s bl about relationship and family drama, but it desperately tries to yank on your heart strings with added heavy themes of death. The story itself is ok but it doesn't feel like a bl. I rarely agree with comparisons of bl games to otome but this one really feels like an otome except the mc got sex changed. It has an obnoxious monologuing mc who is not intended to be as unlikable as he is, only one good route and two shit ones, one route has cheap melodrama about being gay, a lot of screentime given to lame het couple yet the romance between the boys felt forced and unnecessary. The person who is translating everything but the rapey bad ends falls in line with the type of person who I always imagined it appeals to. But honestly this game would've been better without the sexual content altogether, it added nothing to the experience. The h scenes were a disaster but there were also a lot of lewd jokes and an uncomfortably horny female character that turned me off. And I'm sorry but those cgs are atrocious lmao in a fundamentally bad, bland, 20 likes on pixiv way. Otome and shojo fans who make a couple exceptions for bl will like it more than fujoshi.

Looking at ex gallery the CG seem average?

>>3218
Here are some of the ones that have the problems I'm talking about. It might be more noticable while playing the game.

>>3215
What do you mean? I don't avoid otome and galge because of hetero couples. The flat characters everyone casts away their established character traits to fall in love with and uninteresting scenarios are grating, bl is better because it has less of this and gay sex is hotter. The hetero couple the writers seemed to care more for than their bl couples I mentioned in that quote was insult to injury. Hashihime is the furthest thing from this game.

>>3219
>Here are some of the ones that have the problems I'm talking about. It might be more noticable while playing the game.

yeah those ones seem bad but looking at the gallery I mean the art doesn't seem that bad? It's def better than a lot of old BL art. Someone in this thread mentioned old stuff like Kichiku Megane Luckydog and I find the art there very bad for example, peak 2000 yaoi art.

>>3219
>What do you mean? I don't avoid otome and galge because of hetero couples. The flat characters everyone casts away their established character traits to fall in love with and uninteresting scenarios are grating, bl is better because it has less of this and gay sex is hotter. The hetero couple the writers seemed to care more for than their bl couples I mentioned in that quote was insult to injury. Hashihime is the furthest thing from this game.

A game written as BL will always be significantly different than one written as a non BL, you can't just "remove it". It's opinion I see about a lot of BL that focus on the plot which i find annoying. I saw identical posts about Hashihime about it "not having enough BL" and "you coud have removed it and it would have been the same".

>>3220
I give those a pass because they're so old. They're ugly-cute, Yura has achieved icon status. This game is from 2017 and the weirdest thing is Galtia, the game the company made before this, looked fine.

>>3221
>A game written as BL will always be significantly different than one written as a non BL
Not always. Most bl games are plot or at least character driven. Its plot is mediocre by bl standards, it too would be more at home in an otome kek.

>I saw identical posts about Hashihime
Apples and oranges. The games are nothing alike, including where their weak points lie. I don't agree with stupid people who say Tamamori could've been a girl and nothing would change or the bl was unnecessary even if some of the routes were, well,, you know :v

>>3219
Kek the one with the torch does look like a Wikihow article.
>>3215
>I kept reading the same shit about Hashihime and it's so dumb.
How would Hashihime work without the BL? It's literally a plot point that drives most of the events in at least one route.

>kintouka art fugly
Haha you should have seen the art before.

>>3231
what even is kintouka about?

>>3232
It's about a guy going back to the island he used to spend his summers as a child and reconnected with his group of friends. It's very long and deals with themes like death and generation trauma. Personally I liked it and most JP users I've spoken with rate very highly. No idea what that anon is even about, especially because there is no "horny female character" (the only female character I can think of maybes makes a couple of jokes about how attractive the MC is in like… 60 hours and she has a boyfriend?). A lot of that criticism is odd to me, most of the routes are "romance focused" so cutting the ero and the BL would be like…??? It plays also nothing like a 2000 BL which are often short and more edgy focused (Shiki and TnC being the poster-child for the 2000 to me). If anything it feels more modern BL where you can't tell who is the seme and who is the uke on first glance. The main character is also derederee and enjoys sex with his love interest which makes it more "modern" imo.

A lot of CGs are bad yeah though, but there are also some good ones. Overall the characters are attractive to me.

>>3222
Galtia still had unfinished/weird CG, it's also much more "old BL" feeling, due to it being mostly rape iirc.

>>3141
I miss when old bl used to make you chose between seme and uke. Though I guess it's also how BL games moved from "generic male character" to more established characters with certain dynamics. Speaking of Riba I wish Ore No Shita de Agake got a TL, JAST recently picked a VN by the same artist.

>>3177
Definitely go with Nie no Machi for your first BL VN. The beginning will be painful but it will get better. It will also get TL in english soon though, but without the ero.

>>3134
I tried it a bit, but I'm not sure I'll stick with it. I was surprised how short and lame the ero was though, after people the MC's moans.

recently played bokuten and it was pretty uninteresting other than the occasional change of narrators but it did have this cute homo in it, smh I need to stop playing het vns just for the one cute gay boy in them

>>3241
He's cute! Please more screens!

>>3228
>How would Hashihime work without the BL? It's literally a plot point that drives most of the events in at least one route.
The thing about Hashihime is that the romance is not "very on screen" for most of it, a lot of people who play in the beginning wonder when the "BL is even going to start" which imo why it's so popular because it feels written like a story where two characters fall in love inside of it rather than going by x set of BL tropes, at least as far Minakami's route goes. It basically requires you to look at the whole route's again and re-examine the characters' motivations. It's very plot heavy with focus on genuine story twists and themes.

>>3242
he's genuinely so cute, sadly we don't get to see much of him after the chapter he debuts in but I like him a lot

>>3219
That hand in the second one, damn. I already set it up and I'll still play it eventually, especially if >>3233 likes it. The boys seem cute and the music at the beginning was lovely. Hopefully Galtia is good. A lot of VNs seem to have stiff, mediocre art though. On the other hand, I've seen a few otome fans complaining about games with beautiful art and an all-star cast failing in other areas. I've played very few VNs so I can't say much, myself.

>>3200
Thank you for the rec too! I added Nessa because I love Middle Eastern historical/fantasy aesthetic and also dark-skinned, light-haired anime boys so that's fine.

>>3206
>The whole appeal (for me, at least) is to watch two characters with their own dynamic interact. Self-insert and bland protagonists absolutely ruin it for me.
You've got that right. I probably try to hard to see the personality in otome protags and become attached. Someone casually said something like "Who care's about the protagonist's backstory?" in a group I was in and just…why?

>>3233
I downloaded it but I already started 2 AM since it was short and looked easier. It sounds like it's a good game though.

Anyway, how's that ryona in Paradise?

>>3244
Nona, I read the VNDB page for this VN and both protag and homo boy seem keeno. I want this cute council president to top the depressed boy and make him feel loved (or vice versa). Maybe drift into sex friends and then develop feelings?

>>3250
ehe, in homo's chapter he actually has a crush on the slutty male nurse and he's jealous towards protag-kun for receiving a kiss from him to resuscitate him after he tried to unalive himself
i think they have a really cute dynamic together and protag can even convince him to confess his love to slutty nurse

kinda sad no one seems to like Rei as a love interest, like I understand his route doesn't have as much overall plot relevance as the other love interests, but it still offers a good look at the world and setting and Rei himself is a really cute character, the way he takes care of Towa and tries to always be his ally is really cute
I think the game makes it very clear that Rei was never a tranny and simply was confused due to homophobia, also it does make sense that he'd cover for his dad considering the prior occupation his dad had in the yakuza which he would have gone back to participating in if Rei didn't step in
also the lewd scenes are kinda my fave since due to the slut/pure boy dynamic

>>3200
I think Tokyo Onmyoji is too much for my japanese skills but I'd like to play it eventually. Having a different setting for a specific route sounds nice.

>>3207
I can't tell you my favorite because I actually haven't played both… Hanakage is the one Vivid Color game I have yet to play but I liked the prequel Hanamachi Monogatari. Lasting Snow is a cute game but nothing special. It has three separate stories about boys who all go to the same school and you play through their daily life. I liked the boy who got bullied and cut his wrist the best, he was cute. The school life parts were a little boring at times. I don't like high school settings very much which is why the game wasn't that good to me personally but overall not a bad game. Objectively better than Hanamachi.

It's been 84 years…

>>3254
Thanks for your reply anon! I'll definitely give it a try! My friend's favorite character and story also involved the boy who committed suicide, if I remember correctly. Actually, I've tried playing Hanakage a little these days, only did the prologue tho, and it seems like a really good game. Pretty depressing though, but what to expect from a game about a fallen aristocrate who was forced into prostitution? I heard that there's [spoiler]incest[/spoiler] in it too, I think it's in the true route? It's a sequel to Hanamachi. The Japanese level is pretty high and quite difficult tbh, but I enjoy the keigo and poetic writing. The art is very pretty too. I'm familiar with most of the voice actors from otome and previous BL games. It also seems to be quite short in length.

>>3255
fucking FINALLY

>>3255
Finally, I was so interested in this game, especially after watching the opening, and the music sounds great.

>>3258
When I was more active with learning japanese I played through a bit of the game with a text hooker. I gave up pretty early into my first route cause it wouldn't hook properly and it was difficult for my skill level in general but from what I played the MC seems really likeable. I do recall that he's won a lot of popularity polls in JP BL fandom and I can see it. I also enjoyed that he didn't seem too bothered about gay stuff. Early in the common route he engages in playful flirty banter with one of the love interests and there's a scene I got where MC fucks a gay prison guard in the ass as part of his escape plan.

Can you recommend me a bl game that has a yandere/obsessive protagonist?

>>3267
Naked Butlers, but I might be the only person on Earth who likes it.

>>3268
Kichiku Megane maybe

https://vndb.org/v42652
Trial is out fujosisters. Was going to wait for this because was more interested and pre-ordered arcadia,but this goes on cart too. Surviving on water only for a while but totally worth it!

>>3267
ego to koukai no dilemma

>>3271
Boys in suits ♥

Looks great. Here's hoping it's good!

>>3274
Finished reading the trial and the protagonist is a c u t e. ❤
It is very promising, if you have a soft spot for holic/LD games it hits you right in the nostalgia :vv
The animations and osts kino. I like the art a lot cute designs. Sold it to me hehe.