#notr07

[yurikishi07]

VNs I read in 2026: Mahou Shoujo no Majo Saiaban (Magical Girl Witch Trials)

Reviewed also on backloggd

Importing my older reviews from the year

Manosaba is a death game featuring magical girls, clearly heavily inspired by danganronpa especially in its trial parts. It has enough of it's own unique identity that it doesn't become distracting at all. In fact this is by far my favorite game in this style I have played to date.

The basic premise is a group of young girls waking up in a prison where they are contained for being magical girls. It is inevitable, they are informed by the mascot character, they will transform into witches, and kill each other, as many have before them.

Magical girl here is not used in the sense of a magical warrior who fights evil, but simply possessing magic at all. Each character has one single skill, which is informed and informs their personality and role in the story.

Starting with the characters while I am at it: I really loved them. At first characters seem like caricatures with a few quirks, and some of them quite annoying. But a lot of characters I initially disliked grew to favorites, which is to me one of the best indicators of good character writing.

The mc ema seems quite generic at first but I was surprised how quickly I grew attached to her. Despite her giving the generic reactive protag impression initially, I found her to be surprisingly proactive and smart. When she inevitably took a leader role in the group at times, it felt natural rather than contrived for the mc.

There are still some characters I felt that didn't grow much past their initial core personality quirk, even when by all rights they should have. It might just be a difference in taste, but at least those were the minority for me.

One of the issues in death games is that characters you find interesting inevitable will die early but the game uses some tricks to keep characters who initially die in the game relevant, which I appreciated as some of them ended up my big faves.

The trials were just the right amount of hard - i almost never felt frustrated that I understood something the characters had yet to catch up on as is with common with the genre. And when I did, it only lasted a few minutes until some character brought up my thoughts. It also never felt so hard or obtuse to be annoying. (granted my jp not being fully fluent might have made trials a bit harder than intended, though I felt this game generally was very approachable).

Everyone has something useful to say in the trials: It's not just 1-2 big players, everyone contributes in their own way fitting of their personality and perspective. There is no token idiot that only talks to derail the conversation about something useless. The use of magic makes cases more interesting, it might seem counterintuitive but because each character is limited to 1 magic ability, it does so without muddying the waters. It's also possible that characters use magic within the trial, which is something I wish was implemented a bit more (though hard to say how, it feels like a lost opportunity).

The trial is also very straightforward and based on debate. I don't like solving random minigames that feel disconnected from the narrative. The difficulty comes simply from the (very forgiving) time limit, and the amount of wrong choices. This never bothered me as wrong choices generally have unique dialogue associated which is interesting or amusing. The time limit as stated is very forgiving, and if you do manage to fail it anyway you will see an unique ending for the trial, so honestly it's worth it to do so.

Speaking of, the game has a lot of bad ends. This is one of the things I heard criticized. But I loved them enough to go back and get all the ones I missed. I would argue they are definitely worth seeing, some have unique sprites or very rarely, cgs. Some are more detailed than others, and they all add to the constant feeling of danger of the setting, as well as making it feel more magical. There is one in particular in the 2nd half that I really loved, and wish got a bit more elaboration.

The game features a bad end choice indicator which is on by default, which you can use to avoid them, or my suggestion, use to get them before moving on as it's a bit annoying to get them later on. Unfortunately there is no section in the game you can see a list of bad ends to see if you are missing something, and the cg gallery also lacks the cgs shown in the credit scene, which is annoying as I wanted to see them again.

One small issue I have with the trials is that the motives were often very weak, and not focused on in the trials. This is definitely done intentionally as the motives has more to do with the witch transformation, but I think even with that framework there could be better motives.

The presentation once again, is great. The art has a very slightly sketchy look with colors often overfilling the lines and slight asymmetries. the carefully constructed careless look is something I appreciate a lot, especially as someone who struggles to make my art look "clean". It's kind of inspiring. However I felt like there are not enough cgs, some scenes that could really use one do not have it. The switch release will have more cgs, which I hope make it back to the pc version eventually.

The voice cast is great, some of them seem to be newcomers and they did a great job. Admittedly some of the cast has the squeaky anime girl voice that I can't stand, but there are some characters that speak in a lower register that felt really unique. The music is amazing (listening to it as writing it), the vocal songs with a made up language especially so. It reminds me a bit of music in madoka. It adds to the gothic otherworldly atmosphere.

The game starts on a high note and keeps it going for the first half (id argue with a slight dip towards teh end of the first half) but then the second half is amazing. It does not keep up that for the full game to me, and I have some issues on the pacing of the very end, as well as some of the specifics of the final villain, however even so it was still good. I really enjoyed the epilogue and left the game satisfied.

Acacia has 2 upcoming games this year, and this one cemented them as day 1 buys for me. I really loved this game (if you can't tell), and I feel like the setting and characters have still high potential. It's kind of rare to see a vn with an all female cast (sans mascot), and story focus, so I feel like they are filling a real niche in the market. It is very popular in jp and cn so I don't have doubts this will be huge when it gets released in english. I can't wait for more to be able to play it and meet my fave (REDACTED) :)

[yurikishi07]

Evns read so far in 2026

I keep thinking I want to post more here about other vns I read and then not doing that. I'm gonna just mention some stuff here in roughly chronological order. I'm going to skip things that are super short or otherwise unremarkable because I read a lot of shorter vns. I decided to focus only on evns so I can get this post done during my lunch break.

toxic yuri jam 2025 entries: I read a lot of them at the start of the this year. Not all of them are mentioned on my post but most are.

some of the longer entries that didn't make it to the top 10

Mechacyte: this one almost made it to the top 10. personally not a fan of the handler/hound thing generally but I liked both characters and their fucked up little relationship here. Very bleak.

Anomalous: surprisingly good robot x moster romance. the robots design put me off but everything else was good enough to pull me back around.

Part of Me Loves You: I did not like this but it kind of festered in my memory so it is remarkable I guess. I woudln't call this toxic yuri. It's definitely toxic but not so much yuri. Mostly about a trans woman with DID having the worst several days you can imagine. Like it's pretty bad to start with and then she gets kidnapped. The depiction of DID as well as the sheer upsetting factor I think is what made it stay with me regardless.

Some vns that fit the theme but are not, in fact, from the toxic yuri jam

Broken Core: loved this one, I had determined that Nadia Nova was not for me as I was lukewarm at best on her stories but this one turned me around. Spring Gothic. Really good until the end which I hated. I have a review here but the more I think about it the more I dislike it, so honestly it might be too positive right now for me. Yes, And So Our Hollow Hearts Called For Love: I really liked this when I read it, but I can't say it staid with me all that much. Review here.

These are all by my friend Ebi-hime (hi if you are reading this) Sweetest Monster & Refrain: This is a dark and upsetting story about how much being a teenage girl sucks. It's good! and will probably make you angry!

Out of the Ocean: cute and sweet yuri romance with a mermaid. There is a poly route. The Demon Queens Dire Dilemma: "evil" demon queen tries to seduce her captive princess/maid. It's cute. I really love the art for this. Cage of Roses: Vampire romance. Not as dark as I was expecting actually quite sweet. I really liked one of the side characters. There are a lot of connections to other vns of ebis you can spot!

Z.A.T.O. I really loved ZATO, I actually read it twice. I think it's a vn where rereading adds a lot. I'll probably read it again at some poipnt. This was recd to me by a friend and I also rereread it again as a gorup read. It was nice discussing it with others. Despite the larger plot I think my favorite parts of this vn are still teh character interactions.

senescence: oh man I really love this dev other work (operation eventide) but this one just did not work for me at all. It's mostly fetish material with the plot being in the last few scenes. The style of this dev which can get often hard to follow combined with light plot just made me dgaf. It had some interesting elements but not enough for me to feel it was worth reading. Pretty art though.

[yurikishi07]

VNs read in 2026: Tsui Yuri ~Okaa-san ni wa Naisho da yo~ (Sisterly Bliss)

review originally posted on backloggd

note: this review contains spoilers on the general plot and structure

also note, this game has a focus on (obviously) siscon and (somewhat less obviously, nonetheless advertised as such) yandere content

[this review is based on the japanese language and uncensored version of the game]

I tried and bounced off this game before, but because the keywords in it are inherently appealing to me I decided to try again. To be honest I expcted some yandere shlock content, and while there is certainly some of that I think the game isn't quite that shallow.

Story follows two identical twin sisters (though they don't actually look that identical) with very different personalities. Ichika is responsible and book smart, Futaba is childish and good at sports. The vns inciting incident is their mother putting her foot down and deciding Futaba needs to be more independent for both of their sakes. She is absolutely right. Futaba reads significantly younger than Ichika and is heavily dependent on her. Ichika handles her schoolwork, daily routine, and even basic care. Ichika also realizes this is for the best, and takes some distance from her after that point, in fact she might do it even too much despite it hurting her. She overcorrects and avoids her completely, without even having so much as a discussion with her. Futaba meanwhile whines and complains and stubbornly keeps asking "but why though" despite being told. It is these traits that get explored further in their bad ends.

The vn has a few hours of common route, which culminates in a sex scene initiated by Futaba after which it splits into Ichika and Futaba routes (based on whose pov you will see the rest on it) with each having a bad and good end. Ichika routes split off with the two giving up on the distance, and start dating. Futaba route ends with Ichika instead reaffirming the distance between them.

The good ends aren't too different in the end, but Futaba's is a bit more interesting. The game is most interesting to me when it actually examines their dysfunctional relationship and Futaba's dependency, and Futaba route has Ichika at her most distant. In the end, the way Futaba wins is by starving herself until she passes out for attention from Ichika. I like this aspect of the bad traits of characters being present in all routes. The good routes don't pretend everything is rosy for the two. The good ending from Ichika's pov ends with Futaba crying in bed over how they will never be able to be open about their relationship and Ichika giving her a "maybe one day we can".

Besides that stuff though the good ends are largely slice of life scenes of the two girls hanging out and finding various places to have sex in. I find those parts the weakest part of the game. I like the characters, but not quite enough to see them endlessly flirt and be cute and so on. Their personality dysfunctions aren't quite absent from these scenes, but it is not the focus, and not quite enough to make the scenes less dull.

The bad ends are where it really shines though, the characters obsessions and problems come to a head. Ichika thinking she knows better turns into her being increasingly controlling and possessive over Futaba. Her doting over Futaba turns (like her mother initially feared at the very beginning at the story) into her own grades suffering, and them eventually being separated. The ending of this route is a bit abrupt and over the top, but I don't think it's hard to see how it goes there from the way Ichika is initially characterized. Futaba listening to anything Ichika says also feels completely in line with her established dependency on Ichika.

Meanwhile on Futaba's bad end, her being a brat who can't take no for an answer turns into her repeatedly forcing herself onto Ichika, and in the end killing her. This is probably the best route in the game, as Futaba, even more than Ichika has shades of this from the beginning. Their initial sex scene is initiated by Futaba completely one sidedly. When I first encountered it I remember thinking it is abrupt - but knowing more about the character as I got all endings, of course that's what she did.

That's a lot of words and basically a whole game summary! My point is, the game really builds upon itself as you keep playing. It's not a psychological masterpiece, but it is more complex than the shlocky siscon yandere I expected. The good endings exist in context of the bad endings and vice versa. I think it does a decent job at tackling parentification and codependency for what it is. You essentially see 4 ways this frankly unhealthy relationship at the best of times can go. I think that's an interesting structure for a visual novel in itself, and the game really shines when you play it all. The game walks an uneasy line between fetish material and genuine exploration. Ultimately though the focus feels like it's more on fluff and sex. I do feel like there was a world where the balance was the other way around and the game was better for it, but nonetheless it pleasantly surprised me.

[yurikishi07]

vns I read in 2026: Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- 

Review first posted on Backloggd.

note: this review is on the negative side, so skip if you don't wish to read negativity.

Oh and not that this matters to anyone but myself, but I read this in english unlike the other jvns I posted reviews for so far.

My expectations of this game were pretty high due to being a big fan of the infinity series. It was clear early on it wouldn't reach those heights, but even with adjusted expectations this has been a disappointment.

First of, I think everyone can agree the choice system fucking sucks. It never is clear what setting a characters setting to high really means in this context, and often does the opposite of what I would assume. Even as someone who likes weird choice systems in vns, this one was awful to engage with. Especially if you want to replay it to get alternate paths, of which there are many. The game also has a lot of branching in the last route, which is something I like, I liked the alternate endings I got. However what character epilogues you get is also flag dependent and despite getting the true ending in my first playthrough I only got one character epilogue and it wasn't of one of the characters I cared about. It is unclear what would have caused this and you basically would need to replay the game to figure it out.

The game is split into 3 main parts (technically 4 but 2 of them have no reason to be split). Before and After are two routes accessible from the start, that follow different protags. Contrary to what people online will tell you, reading either first is a perfectly valid option. However reading After first almost gurantees you will not be able to avoid a specific bad end in After if you don't use a guide (so I'm baffled why people insist you have to play it this way). Once you clear both of those routes, you unlock the rest of the game which regularly switches between both protags. Before and After I found both somewhat underwhelming, however due to the nature of this genre of game, it is expected that the end route makes it all worth it, so I didn't think much of it.

The main issue of the rest of the game....is that it loves to overexplain everything I'd say. Even the most obvious things, nothing is left unsaid. Things I thought were revealed already are repeated several times, scenes repeat, we have to see everything from everyone's perspective ad neusam. This wouldn't be necessarily awful except there ismply is minimal or no new info presented. It's like the writer doesn't trust me that I can incorporate the new information I learned backwards on what it must have been for that character at the time and has to show me even if it's completely uninteresting and irrelevant. Hell often the only change is the pov character and there is no new narration or insight at all. You just see a character xs image because youre in ys perspective or vice versa.

Let me give a made up example. Alice, Bob and Charlie are in a room, and a mouse scurries along. Alice goes "was that a rat!" and Bob goes, "I think that was a mouse, actually" . Charlie says "I wonder where it is going". End scene. Then 10 hours later you learn the piece of information "alice is afraid of rats". Then you see the scene again. This time from Alice's point of view. There is added narration going "Alice was scared, on account of her fear of rats. It reminded her of the time a rat bit her." End scene. Another 5 hours later you learn the piece of information "Bob used to have a pet mouse". Then you see the scene again from Bob's perspective. The added narration says "Bob knew it was not a rat, on account of his love for mice. The mouse kind of reminded him of his old pet." End scene 3 hours later you learn Charlie is an orphan. You see the scene again from Charlie's perspective. There is no change to the text whatsoever. End scene.

The world, twists, or characters are simply not interesting enough to warrant this much stuff. The last route could be half its length.

Oh and when you finish everything you unlock xtend episodes which seem to be. yet again the same events from more povs. I did not read these.

A lot of elements just thrown in there with no consideration on what it adds to the game. It feels like the game was designed backwards from the idea of "what if we had a game like ever17 with a bunch of people being stuck in a facility and also there was a bunch of sci fi bullshit". It even has something akin to ever17s famous final twist, but ... it doesn't really commit to it nor does it really matter in the grand scheme of things. Everything just feels shallow.

Another example: each route starts with a bible verse. There is only one character who is religious in the game and it's an extremely minor character in the backstory of one of the characters, who mentions it in passing. The story has no religious themes. Why is this here. ???

It doesn't really commit to anything interesting. It raises several ethical and political questions and doesn't engage with them at all. Characters do really questionable things, or learn that really questionable things are done to them, and they are not particularly upset about it, or think about it twice. True, they are in severe circumstances but everything else gets hours of content dedicated to it, so I think it's a fair complaint to want characters to react to learning severe violations of privacy by loved ones. It brings up ethical concerns of telepathy again and again, only to not engage with it most of the time (and when it does it is in circumstances when you can easily argue well it was this or death, so it is barely a dilemma). Every named character is fundamentally good, it's not a game about anything nor does it say anything. Character feel pretty bland. The poster child of the game Yuuri exemplifies how toothless everything about this game feels. A character confined and experimented on for 10 years but she is still nice and kind and self sacrificing and her main concerns are whether her childhood friend likes her more or another friend. Puke.

Maybe this is uncharitable. The game isn't awful, I don't particularly regret playing it, and thinking about it doesn't fill me with rage. There are aspects I were interesting. I don't think the characters are particularly deep but with one or two exceptions I liked them fine. The co-protag Watase was a pretty well realized character, and while my favorite character Salyu is not breaking any new grounds, I liked how her condition was analogous to real life. I liked a twist towards the end that reframes the Before route completely a lot. The amount of alternate paths in the final route is impressive! It was always just good enough that I didn't drop it. It is fine. People I read it with seem to have enjoyed it a lot more than me even though we shared some criticisms. So I think having experienced similar games (that share staff!) has made me more critical of this one.

However with this game being as long as it is, I just don't see a reason to recommend it over others.

[yurikishi07]

VNs I read in 2026: Little Witch Parfait (1999)

This review is already posted on backloggd but I wanted to have it on my blog here too, where I can attach images.

Little Witch Parfait is a cute retro (mostly) yuri magical girl shopsim.

The main draw for me were the graphics, and they are indeed very cute. Anytime I unlocked a new cg or sprite I clapped like a seal. The characters are cute and charming, though not especially deep.

The game lasts a year and there is some story inbetween. I avoided the prince's events because I was afraid I'd accidentally get on his route but I am under the impression his route has some stuff about Parfait's parents. The story did feel a bit bare bones, more like random events but I didn't mind too much. Mainly it is about Parfait needing to pay off her ridiculous debt left by her mom, so she quits school to run the family shop. Characters do think that's a shame, but it's not really that serious in parfait-land. Besides, parfait is a genji dojikko and will not let a small debt of 10 billion dollars get her down. After that brief introduction you are set loose in the town and you are free to explore and pay off your debt in a year. You may stumble upon various characters during your daily tasks, and there are a few scripted events across the year.

Reinette (Possessed) : What a joke. Let me tell you something interesting. It seems this girl, Reinette, has been in love with you for a very long time. Reinette : Not as a friend, either. She harbors romantic feelings for you. For another girl.

Reinette felt like the main heroine and I liked her a lot. Her story is mostly about her angsting over being gay for Parfait's dojikko ass while still also being pissed at her besting her in all events (I think you have to best her at both events or you can't get in her route). It does get a bit more dramatic later on, but parfait is overall a lighthearted game and things aren't really dealt with that much gravity. Also something to note about her is that she is Nana Mizuki's first major role, and her voice acting definitely stands out among the others (she is also just given more dramatic roles tbf not everyone gets possessed by a demon who outs her to her crush and then tries to destroy the world). She is definitely the best character in the game, which is probably why she got her own game.

Flore's story is about her getting really sick and Parfait needing to cure her. I did cure her illness but I couldn't manage to cure her blindness. I suspect you need to see more of the Prince's events to get the necessary item but this was not a price I was willing to pay. I found it hard to care for this character. She isn't a character trope I like to start with (the kind hearted frail girl) and when she acted out towards Parfait for leaving her blind I didn't have much sympathy for her left. Sorry, Flore, you should have been more interesting while you had sight.

The last love interest Cocotte I couldn't trigger many events for. In a guide I read that you have to finish Reinette's route first but that was for the psp version, not sure if it still applies here. She also has a blatant crush on Parfait and is way less angsty about it. She is cute and if I played again I'd probably go for her route.

The Prince also exists. I'm sure the guy is nice but I do not Care. Why isn't he paying off Parfait's debt? Bum ass prince..

Since the story is pretty light most of your time will be spent trying to earn money. The shop is actually simple once you understand how it works and the game is generous with it's time (I had nothing to do for the last month).

The gameplay systems feel a bit lopsided. There are a lot of options but most don't matter. For example you have two sale slots, and customers pretty much exclusively buy items from those slots. The other items at full price MIGHT get sold but only if they're currently popular items (you can check what's popular on the board but it basically cycles through 5-6 items). Most of your money is not going to be made by selling from the shop directly but custom orders. And the items that are requested also do not wary much. There is one specific npc that ordered 10 magical girl sticks almost everyday. I don't know what she is doing with them. Other than that it is almost all 願いの石 (wish stone) orders or other stones that are crafted with 願いの石. As long as you keep a healthy flow of them crafted you will have no trouble getting enough money.

This ended up with me only crafting maybe half of the available items at all, and maybe 10 percent of them with any regularity even as Parfait learned new recipes.

This ends up a really routine feeling of what you do daily since you are naturally inclined to minmax to get maximum 願いの石 which requires a rare ingredient.

Triggering the right event flags can be more tricky, I had to look up a guide (the guide was for the psp version which did NOT handle events the same way) combined with a chinese lets play which I did not understand. The game isn't clear when you have to actually do something and when you have to just wait it out. For example when Flore is sick Parfait is determined to cure her, but you can't actually take any steps towards it. But it isn't clear that you just have to wait it out, in fact it's pretty counter intuitive since you are on a time limit. You can easily waste a month on this when all you have to do is just focus on your shop grindset and wait for the relevant event to automatically trigger. Which feels pretty cold of Parfait.

The psp versions seems to have more events, which is probably and improvement, but I don't like the art in it as much so I will not try it out. I would probably check other games in the series, Particularly Little Witch Reinette.

tl;dr: by no means amazing but this game is cute and gay and endlessly charming. I got what I wanted out of it. It will probably never be translated, and that is only a moderate loss. It probably is not that interesting unless you are into a very specific niche. I'm giving it half a star bonus bc I like the detachable ui.

Japanese wise: the dialogue is really simple and there isn't a lot of it, but gameplay includes tiny kanji characters so you have to be decent at reading those. It is also only partially voiced (only important story events).

wet cat left in a cardboard box, all alone