Now would be a good time to start learning some Japanese...

Wow, just what gaming needed, MORE "cinematic" garbage. Why even bother learning Jap to not-play that when i could just go dumpster diving on steam or any old piece of trash and it'd be the same shit.

I like the idea of VNs as a medium for storytelling, they just need to be more like manga/graphic novels. Basically a manga but with more text, audio, etc.

You mentioned credits and porn (but why not non-H?). That's what I meant by ulterior interests.

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VNs and dating sims don't have anything to do with the cinematic meme of Western devs.

but i can't learn japanese

I enjoy non-H Japanese games too. Also various anime and manga, but these days so much is already translated for you. If credits counts as something ulterior, okay, but either way you can learn Japanese to the 半人前 level easily, reaching 一人前 if you stick with it past the first year.

sage because blogpost

Unless its Ace Attorney or Ghost Trick its all shit.

i want more vns to be like zero escape. the mystery of the story integrates really well with the puzzles in the game.

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I wish there were something in the style of Namasensei's shit to guide me the whole fucking way through, even if it's not that time efficient. I have all the time in the world, but zero motivation to spend 2+ fucking years grinding this shit out every day just to have a basic enough understanding to play games. I'm such an undisciplined piece of shit, but that guy really got me motivated for the first few weeks.