VN - Others - Completed - Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai [Final] [August]

This is a high tier (not top) VN, but the romance, and the 18+ content are not the focus. If you have heard the term "Charage" (VN focusing heavily on characters), then this is a very good example, because they receive hours of attention, and trivia, generating high likability, and habituation.

Positive:
- Really great characters. They have many interests, lots of traits, skills, hobbies, insecurities... You name it, they probably have it. A very good cast, is the selling point of the VN. There are better group of friends in the medium though.
- Visuals are excellent when you think this is a 10+ years old VN. Budget well spent, this equals AA in videogame terms, with all kinds of extras, and detail.
- Voice acting is good, and another reason to like the characters.
- Humor and slice of life "in spades". There's also a bit of story, but if you like "fluff" you came to the right place, and the writing has the quality to back this up.

Negative:
- The actual story (that gives the name to the VN), and supernatural are forgotten for many hours (dozens), and a number of routes don't even bring it up. What was the point?

Score: Daitoshokan is a 8/10, but it's shaky (not 100% convinced). If you like the idea of watching a group of friends engaging in club activities, delivering some nice comedy, working together, and creating some bonds, this is pretty good. If you want more, you will have to look elsewhere.

(Don't read this for the H-scenes, that would be a waste of time.)

I've been searching for a working version for years, thanks. This thread covers all the possible issues and it's multiple mirrors provided a time-proof lasting availability, even in 2023 the torrent worked perfectly. thanks again!

I really like this VN. The characters are a lot of fun to read about and I was laughing a lot during the entire playthrough. If I have any complaints it's that the h-scenes are hard to read because the text box shrinks down. I'm not sure why they chose to do this other than to make the CG more visible but it makes the text really hard to read. After the first couple of routes I ended up just skipping the h-scenes because of the eye strain. However the story is still great and the heroines are all lovable. I'm not sure if I could pick a favorite from the 8 that are in the game. There are 5 main heroines, 4 available at the start and 1 unlocked after completing one route and another 3 secondary heroines. If you like school based or comedy VN's then I highly suggest this one. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

[This review might contain spoilerm but if you already watched the anime then you're already spoilered lol]
Finally the magnum opus of august's school life VN is available in english (Eustia is still has the best story/feels). Good visual, music and comfy story. The shepherd main plot is kinda a wasted potential so don't expect much. The main strong point of this game is in the fun and comfy dialogue when all the main cast is assembled together, if you like Da Capo 2 level of comfyness then this is the game for you. Unfortunately the Normal characters route might be boring to some people because it heavily focusing only on one of the girl. There's one exception to this, Suzuki Kana's route feel almost as fun as the common route because she's the moodmaker in most of the dialogue. Misono Senri route also has some good 'feels' moment at the start, remember Sana from Mashiro-iro symphony? There's something similar to that lol.
The game itself is mainly divided into 2 route, Normal and True Route. Normal Route will later split into 7 character route (4 Main Heroine and 3 Sub Heroine) and you need to clear at least 1 Charater route to unlock True route. True route itself will split into 5 Character route (All Main Heroine but one of them only available on True route). The branching in true route happen very late in the game and most of the scene is shared so it still retain the same amount of comfyness throughout the route. It's advised to clear the normal route first for the girl that you like before doing the true route because most of their "plot" happen only in Normal route and resolved off screen in True route.

tl;dr don't expect much from the main plot and you're golden. If you like the anime or even on 'okay' level then you probably can enjoy this.