• New game from Sanctuary called Miyako set in the Heian era – platform, timing, and rating all TBD! (nice art tho)
• New PC game from experienced amateurs Landkarte which sounds very intriguing – the heroine can have one of five different personalities, and her face is hidden!
• New R18 game from UtM artist! Another loli heroine!
• Fandisk for Wand of Fortune! And I haven’t even finished one route in WoF…
• Fandisk for Garnet Cradle!
• Scoop on Waga Ichizoku – all the six brothers (who as someone commented are all very different) have different mothers!!

That’s from a quick skim of B’s Log and Girl’s Style, if I notice more news like release dates etc. I’ll stick them up! Scans to come for the new games, as well as a couple that have new characters/final art (like the werefrog game!)

But when fandisks cost almost as much as completely fresh games, are they really worth the money? I’d say a cautious yes. As long as the games have some new idea, and provide enough content to satisfy fans of the original, I’d say they’re worth the money.

Let’s look at some fandisks vs. their regular games:

Hiiro no Kakera vs. Hiiro no Kakera Ano Sora no Shita de

Hiiro no Kakera was widely liked for its deep and complex storyline. It was full of drama and angst, and was quite long for a straight visual novel. It also had very different storylines for each guy.

Ano Sora no Shita de took a lighter tone, having no real conflict and just being set on a festival night (and an extra small Valentine’s minigame). You got to see the characters have fun and just be normal. There was lots of interaction between the characters, and personally I really liked it. I was lucky enough to get it in a double pack with Hiiro no Kakera though – I don’t know if I would pay $50 or so for it alone.

Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3 vs. Izayoiki vs. Unmei no Meikyuu

Harutoki 3 might just be the queen of fandisks – it has Izayoiki, where the only true addition is that you can get Shirogane and Tomomori, Unmei no Meikyuu, basically an excuse to put the hachiyou in modern clothes, and now Ukihashi as well. However, each of these also adds a fair bit of gameplay and events – though of course, as with most Neoromance games, they’re not fully voiced.

Angelique and Corda d’Oro also have a couple fandisks. In fact, the only Corda d’Oro game I’ve played so far is 2 Encore, which is technically a fandisk, but it had enough gameplay that I think it stands on its own. Though the story itself was bare bones, I found the game to be a lot of fun, and it made me want the original game.

Now Will o’ Wisp is getting its own fandisk, Easter no Kiseki, coming out on October 10. I’m kind of skeptical on this one, because the original game felt very short to me. I liked it, but didn’t really feel it was a full-length game, especially as most routes followed a very similar path. The only new thing I see in this one so far is that Emily is brought back as Emilio, a boy. I really liked her subplot in the game, so I might get this on sale, but I still don’t think I’ll get it when it first comes out.

When you really like a game, do you buy its fandisks? Do you think they’re worth it?