Spooky Visual Novels to play this Halloween

Hi!!
Are you ready for the creepiest night of the year? And how better way to celebrate it than playing some really scary Visual Novels?
So... My personal top 3 for this year!

NUMBER 3

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni

A classic. Old but still terribly disturbing.
A terrible curse seems to haunt the old and peaceful village Keiichi has just moved in - but is it really a curse or maybe a terrible killer is at work instead? And his new friends are really telling him all the truth about them and the place they live in?



NUMBER 2

Saya no Uta (Song of Saya)

A very mature game for players who don't fear strong images and themes. If you love Lovecratian atmosphere, this game is a must have.
Fuminori's life is completely destroyed by a terrible accident that cause him a permanent damage to his brain. But when he was about to resign to a life trapped in hell, an angel came to save him. But maybe this "angel" is not what she seems to be...

where to buy it



NUMBER 1

Miniature Garden

A classic spooky tale about a school and its mysteries: the theme is such a classic for a Halloween Night that I just have to mention it
Your school is not like any other school: Miniature Garden has a long series of mysteries and urban legends, all tied up to the festival taking place every 3 years. And now you have to solve these mysteries - or be killed by them.

Where to buy it

G-senjou no Maou - REVIEW

PLOT (spoiler free)

In G-senjou you play the role of Kyosuke, the adoptive son of a ferocious yakuza boss (he's scary as hell, I assure you @@) whose only interest in life is making money. His life has a dramatical change when a strange and mysterious man whose name is only "Maou" (Devil) starts to  challenge Kyosuke's "father" rule over the city, dragging into his machinations also Kyosuke himself and his classmates. To make things even more complicated, in Kyosuke's class transfers a strange girl who seems to hold a personal grudge against Maou...

G-SENJOU IN A NUTSHELL
A perfect balance between your everyday school romance harem and a dark detective story.



WHAT AKIYAMI CHAN THINKS

First of all, is G-Senjou worth of your money and your time? The answer is yes.
The plot starts slow - as it's the case with many other VNs - but by the end of the first chapter you'll be completely taken by the story and curious to know who is Maou and what he's plotting.
And I can already tell you that the true ending will not disappoint you.
Maybe the thing I enjoy the most of this Visual Novel was his cynical portrayal of human nature: every character, once you know her, is totally realistic - not some romantic anime version of a person. Many of the dialogues will have you stop thinking about what is just being said - and that was a great pro, in my opinion.

At first, probably you're not going to be very impressed by none of the romantic options, but give them a try nonetheless: many characters have a a deep story and interesting development that is shown only during their route. So don't skip them. The weaker of them all is probably Mizuha's route, but she has some interesting moments too.
Keep in mind though that you'll understand the whole story only if you play throught the main route (Usami's one): if you don't read her route, you miss almost half of the story.
So this Visual Novel is perfect? Almost, but not quite. The main problem is Maou himself: the more you know of him the less realistic becomes the entire story - and this is a problem in a VN which makes of realism one oh its strongest points. He ends up to become annoying to the point you'll start losing interest in the main plot - or at least it was this way for me. I cannot go into details without making spoilers: you'll understand in Usami's route.

G-Senjou no Maou maybe will not be perfect, especially in its last chapters, but is a must have if you're looking for a mature Visual Novel, with characters not always easy to love but hard to forget!



WHERE YOU CAN FIND IT:
steam

G-senjou no Maou - about Mizuha route: indipendence

WARNING: it will contain spoilers on the VN's plot, so if you hasn't played it yet, continue reading at your own risk! :P

I already talked about this Visual Novel in an old post (Tsubaki route), but I'll tell what this game is about once again for anyone new here.

In G-senjou you play the role of Kyosuke, the adoptive son of a ferocious yakuza boss (he's scary as hell, I assure you @@) whose only interest in life is making money: his life has a dramatical change when a strange and mysterious man whose name is only "Maou" (Devil) starts to  challenge Kyosuke's "father" rule over the city, dragging into his machinations also Kyosuke himself and his classmates. To make things even more complicated, in Kyosuke's class transfers a strange girl who seems to hold a personal grudge against Maou...


I was very curious about this route, because for most of the game Mizuha seems to hate the protagonist for some unknown reason and keeps her distance from him: as a consequence, we know near nothing about her other than being school principal's daughter and little sister of another character you encounter during the story. 
As for the other girls in this game, the actual romance was really a surprise...

Just like Kanon turns out to be much more strong and stubborn than she initially appears, Mizuha is almost the opposite of what you player thinks: shy, immature and meek, her cold attitude is simply a mask to hide the fact she's hopeless when it comes to interact with people. Also her hate for Kyosuke is fake: she'd actually been in love with him for the past two years. 

The beginning of this romance was actually the less interesting out of the three I already played. Mizuha keeps following Kyosuke around to have a date, while he simply tries to avoid the girl. He is obviously not interested in her, and in the end reluctanctly agrees to start dating Mizuha only when she agrees it would be casual and she will be ok with the fact his only interest in her is sex. 

Things start to get interesting only when she finally makes up her courage and tells him she's not going to accept suche a hollow relationship and wants to break up with him. 

The ending in the second part alternates between the present and scenes from the future in which Kyosuke and Mizuha are adult and planning a life togheter. Future-Mizuha is a far better character than Teenager-Mizuha and it's interesting seeing how much their relationship have grown during the years. This is the route in which Kyosuke changes the least of all three: being with Mizuha makes him less cruel towards people, but other than that he remains the same. He keeps working for Gonzou and the yakuza, keeps living in his old apartment and seems to have forgotten entirely both Maou and Usami. 

With my great surprise, of the three I must say the route with Tsubaki is maybe the best. Kyosuke actually LIKES Tsubaki when they start dating, they both change and they keep contacts with all their friends. 

Azur Lane new Italian guild

It's finally open!
The first little project of Japanese Nerd Culture: an Italian guild for the Android game Azur Lane!
We're sooooooooooo excited!
It's in Avrora server, the name is KawaiiCorp, and anyone is welcome there.

We're doing our best to create even more great things: we hope to have your support.

Please follow us on Japanese Nerd Culture FB group

Bakemono to Kedamono - the monster and the beast

This will be hardly a proper review, since this manga is still going in Japan, but I just wanted to show you this little treasure I recently found.

BAKEMONO TO KEDAMONO

PLOT (spoiler free)

In a generic fantasy setting, a demon lives in a deep forest, avoided by both humans and other demons because of his scary appearence. One day, he saves a man travelling his forest from a group of thugs who were supposedly tryng to rape him.
Things take an unexpected turn when we learn that maybe the demon is not as evil as he looks - and the man is not as innocent as he seems.


BAKEMONO TO KEDAMONO IN A NUTSHELL

A fantasy shonen ai with a touch of The Ancient Magus Bride


WHAT AKIYAMI CHAN THINKS

Maybe it's too soon to judge, but for what I read so far this manga has the potential to become a great story. I just LOVE both the main characters and their odd way to care for each other.
Embarassed demon is the cutest thing ever!! (๑♡⌓♡๑)
The thing lacking for now is an actual plot: they're just sort of travelling in the woods for now. I hope it will not end up - like many yaoi manga - just focusing on the romantic side and forgetting story and setting. It will be a real shame.




Twitter

Kadokawa shop

Umineko no naku koro ni month - ready for the witches??

My Japanese friends on twitter reminded me recently of a very important fact: we're in October now, and this is the month of witches - Umineko month!!

Do you ever play Umineko no naku koro ni? I hope so, and if you don't... well, this is the right time to do that - and repent!!
From the same author of Higurashi - one of the best horror Visual Novels I ever read - Umineko is a Visual Novel of mistery, horror and mostly the evil men can do (to cite a Iron Maiden song XD).
It's not easy and you're about to be shocked to the core in some parts of the story, but it's worth your time like few other horror games out there. I don't want to go in details about the plot: it's something you have to read and elaborate on your own, because everyone in this game is both innocent and lier, victim and monster. Nothing of what you see it's really as it seems - and still it's all true.
Higurashi players understand what I'm trying to say.

If you have a twitter account, go see fans around the world posting fanarts, cosplay pics and so on to celebrate the Golden Witch Beatrice and her sisters! It's really amazing to see so much passion and love! ＼（○＾ω＾○）／

Here is my little contribution!
Feel free to use them if you want: all sisters we are, we witches ୧༼ ヘ ᗜ ヘ ༽୨

Shadowverse - a Japanese alternative to Hearthstone

And here I am, talking about games once again...
I love videogames, as you already probably guessed, and I also love cards games - you know, the whole "collecting cards" idea... I could go on try to win new cards all day! XD I tried some games of this kind, but I have to admit this one is the best I played so far.
So, here is my new favourite.
SHADOWVERSE

About gameplay, Shadowverse is very similar to Hearthstone, but with an original setting and an actual plot. Don't get me wrong: I love Warcraft setting, but here we have a solo mode, with missions and a real plot going on. Your "champions" are interesting and with a story full of secrets - secrets that often link several of the characters, succeeding in making you curious about the whole story and what will happen in the next mission.
And the art is INCREDIBLE.

I'm still not confident enough to challenge other players, but I'll try to prove my worth on the arena soon!
Are anyone playing this game?
In my opinion, Shadowverse is a very interesting alternative to Hearthstone. Even if you're not so much into Japanese style fantasy, the plot is quite good from the very beginning and every single character will surprise you.
Hope to find a lot of players out there! o(*>ω<*)o



WHERE YOU CAN FIND IT: https://shadowverse.com/